RTHK: N Korea fires ballistic missiles: Seoul

North Korea fired a pair of ballistic missiles off its east coast, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said on Wednesday, days after testing a long-range cruise missile.

Pyongyang has been steadily developing its weapons programme amid a standoff over talks aimed at dismantling its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes in return for US sanctions relief. The negotiations have stalled since 2019.

Japan's Coast Guard also said an object that could be a ballistic missile was fired from North Korea that landed outside it exclusive economic zone.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga condemned the apparent test launch and called it "outrageous".

Both Suga and South Korean President Moon Jae-in convened sessions of their national security councils to discuss the launches, according to their offices.

The foreign ministers of China and South Korea, Wang Yi and Chung Eui-yong, were holding talks in Seoul on Wednesday amid concerns over North Korea's recent missile test and stalled denuclearisation negotiations between Pyongyang and Washington.

If confirmed as a ballistic missile, the test would be North Korea's first since March this year and a further breach of UN sanctions.

The launch came after North Korea said it successfully tested a new long-range cruise missile last weekend, calling it "a strategic weapon of great significance."

Analysts say the missile could be the country's first such weapon with a nuclear capability. (Reuters)

This story has been published on: 2021-09-15. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
South Africa: Reviving SAA to its former glory

A new internal ethos of delivering first class customer service will ensure that South African Airways (SAA) is revived to its former glory.

This is according to the airlines interim CEO Thomas Kgokolo.

SAA is set to take to the skies next week following a turbulent 16 months wherein the airline was grounded, put under business rescue and then exited that business rescue.

While its impossible to ignore the recent difficult history of SAA, this is also a proud brand that celebrates its eighty seventh anniversary this year and one that is respected the world over. Our jobs as custodians of this brand is to build on the goodwill gathered over so many years and to reshape and recast a business that all South Africans can be proud of, Kgokolo said.

In a statement, SAA explained that a new business and operating philosophy of placing customers first is being imbued into the airline.

Managers and staffhave been working collegially on a new philosophy of customer excellence. Some of the attributes that airline staff will be striving to build are, creating real connections with each other and customers; adopting an internal culture of collaboration; living by the principles of total accountability; being aspirational in terms of future growth and development; and containing costs, the statement said.

Adding to that, Kgokolo said regaining the trust that was lost in the airline is a work in progress.

We know its going to take time. Trust and respect are not won overnight, but with the confidence and the enthusiasm our staff is showing ahead of our take offIm confident we will achieve those goals quickly. We know these are lofty goals but its only through striving for them, that we are going to put SAA back in a place where it belongs, he said.

The airline has announced the following schedule ahead of its take off:

Three daily flights between Johannesburg and Cape Town.

From 27 September, daily return flights to Harare in Zimbabwe, Lusaka in Zambia and Maputo in Mozambique.

Also from September 27, three weekly flights to Accra in Ghana and Kinshasa in Congo.  SAnews.gov.za

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South Africa: KZN to host 2nd Intra-African Trade Fair

KwaZulu-Natal province is set to host the 2nd Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF2021) at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli ICC from 15 - 21 November 2021.

A high-powered delegation, led by the former President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo, will on Thursday descend on the province for a signing ceremony. The ceremony will be preceded by roadshows in Johannesburg and Cape Town.

These will be held as follows:

 14 September 2021 - Johannesburg Roadshow at the Four Seasons Hotel in Westcliffe from 09h00.

 15 September 2021 Cape Town Roadshow  at The Radisson, Waterfront from 09h00.

 16 September 2021 Signing Ceremony at Durban ICC from 14h00 followed by the Roadshow at 16h00.

Obasanjo is the chairperson of the Advisory Council of the IATF2021.

He will be joined by KwaZulu-Natal Premier Sihle Zikalala; the President of Afreximbank Prof. Benedict Oramah; African Union Commissioner for Economic Development, Trade, Industry and Mining, Albert Muchanga; Secretary General of the AfCFTA, Wamkele Mene; KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs Ravi Pillay and Mayor of the eThekwini Municipality Councillor Mxolisi Kaunda in the signing ceremony.

The Advisory Council will discuss preparatory arrangements and review progress made thus far.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been identified as one of the major factors that will determine how the event is held this year.

The IATF2021 is positioned as a unique and valuable platform for businesses to explore an integrated African market of over 1.2 billion people, with a combined GDP of over US$2.5 trillion created under the African Continental Free Trade Agreement.

As such, the theme for this years event is Building bridges for a successful AfCFTA: A clear focus on a single market for goods and services across 55 countries which is aimed at boosting trade and investment.

The KwaZulu-Natal IAFT2021 event is expected to generate over $40 billion in trade and investment deals, attended by over 5 000 conference participants, 10 000 visitors and buyers and over 1 100 exhibitors.

The event is organised by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) in collaboration with the African Union (AU) and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat and hosted by Durban, KwaZulu-Natal.  SAnews.gov.za

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South Africa: Matric exam timetable amended to accommodate elections

The start date for the National Senior Certificate examination has been moved to 27 October 2021 from the initial starting date of 1 November 2021, to accommodate the upcoming local government elections.

In a statement on Wednesday, the Department of Basic Education said that the English Paper 1, Business Studies Paper 1 and the non-official languages Paper 1, which were originally scheduled for 1 and 2 November, will now be written on 27 and 28 October respectively.

The decision comes after the Council of Education Ministers held a special meeting following a series of consultations with key stakeholders in the basic education sector.

The changes were necessitated by the local government elections which will take place on 1 November 2021. Learners eligible to vote will now be able to cast their ballots, the department said.

The Council of Education Ministers had approved the 2021 NSC examination timetable in May, however, last week the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, announced that the local government elections would take place on 1 November 2021.

On Friday, 10th September 2021, consultations took place with key stakeholders that included teacher unions, school governing body associations and professional bodies.

The purpose of the consultation sessions was to deliberate on what would be the most appropriate option regarding a change to the timetable, given that there are five weeks from the commencement of the examination, the department said.

The department added that there are 207 question papers to be written over 25 days (5 weeks) and there no vacant sessions in the current timetable. Therefore, the re-scheduling needed to be confined to either prior the commencement date or post the conclusion date.

The best interest of the learner was a key consideration in addition to ensuring that a minimum change to the current timetable was made to avoid confusion, the department said.

The department has urged candidates preparing for the examination to keep working hard.

In a bid to offer support and assistance to learners, the department has made available a wide range of resources with support materials on different platforms through the remote and digital learning programme Woza Matrics.

The learning materials will be delivered across these channels DBETV channel 122 on Openview, SABC1, DSTV CatchUp & Showmax, on Mondays and Thursdays from 23h00 to 00h00, Saturdays from 06h00 to 10h00 and Sundays from 07h00 to 08h00.

The Woza Matrics programme also offers learners with some psycho-social support, tutor support and exciting competitions.

To access more information on the Woza Matrics programme go to www.wozamatrics.co.za or https://www.facebook.com/wozamatrics/ or https://twitter.com/wozamatrics or https://www.instagram.com/wozamatrics/ or https://www.youtube.com/wozamatrics or on WhatsApp on 061 505 3023. - SAnews.gov.za

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South Africa: SA nominates Professor Mdwaba as the next ILO DG

South Africa has formally nominated and lodged papers for Professor Mthunzi Perry-Mason Mdwaba to run as the next Director-General of the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

Ambassador Mxolisi Nkosi lodged the papers nominating the Adjunct Associate Professor of Law at the University of Western Cape as the next ILO supremo, endorsed by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Tripartite and also by the African Union (AU).

The election of the new DG will be held in March 2022, in Geneva, Switzerland.

Professor Mdwaba has expressed his commitment to the ILO ideals of decent work and dignity, and to strengthening tripartism.

It is my expressed desire to contribute to building an ILO that systematically demonstrates it cares for all its staff and constituents, and works to effectively deliver on commitments to ensure the dignity of everyone engaged in the world of work.

Over my years of service at the ILO, I have become fiercely committed to addressing issues of social injustice at a global level. I firmly believe that the ILO and multilateralism, in general, have a profound role to play in ending injustices and ensuring the dignity of all people.

My campaign for the ILO DG position will focus on my commitment to renew the organisation and re-position it by consolidating and enhancing all that it has achieved over the years to serve all constituencies in a balanced way, based on three pillars: Change, Social Justice and Impact, Professor Mdwaba said.

The election of the new DG comes just over two years after the ILO celebrated its centenary in 2019. Recognising the drastically different context of modern life, the ILOs 187 Member States, together with their global social partners, adopted the Centenary Declaration for the Future of Work.

This historic declaration seeks to promote a human-centred approach to the Future of Work.

Professor Mdwaba is fully aligned with the ambitions and objectives of the declaration, and all Member States subsequently confirmed its relevance as part of a comprehensive COVID-19 response in the most recent International Labour Conference in June 2021.

He believes he is the right person to lead the ILO at a time when the future is becoming more uncertain, especially as it relates to increasing gender inclusivity, youth unemployment, inequalities, rising informality, a more complex health and safety environment at work, decent work deficits and weakened multilateralism.

The COVID-19 pandemic has further exacerbated these worrisome trends, with increasing mental health issues also now a major concern.

As a candidate who is passionate about social dialogue and tripartism, and with the requisite set of skills, experience, knowledge and competence, Professor Mdwaba has the understanding and tripartite multi-constituency sensitivity to lead the ILO to become a global reference on future of work issues and provide international thought leadership to reshape the world of work.

Professor Mdwaba is an accomplished businessman, organised business activist, academic and thought leader who is well-grounded in the ILO and its tripartite culture after representing the International Organisation of Employers (IOE) at the highest governance levels with distinction.

Over the years, he has been a generous contributor to global social dialogue and global governance as an ex-officio member of the Global Commission on the Future of Work, employer spokesman for the programme, finance and administration, past chairman of the employers at the ILO Turin International Training Centre, member of the B20 task force on employment and education (and co-chair at the G20 Germany as well as the G20 Italy) and chairman of the Business Human Rights and Responsible Business Conduct Policy Working Group of the IOE.

In addition, he participated in various collaborative tripartite initiatives within the ILO and beyond.

To ensure a truly humane, inclusive, consultative, fair and equitable globalisation that provides equal access to opportunities, Professor Mdwaba promises to:

Strive to strengthen the governance of the ILO, an updated, robust and realistic body of the International Labour Standards that promotes the sustainability of enterprises. These must be aligned to existing realities as well as anticipating new employment realities that open up to previously unrecognised diverse forms of work and ensuring that these are reclassified to ensure inclusivity, impact and social justice.

Enabling dignity for all is a critical part of this. Some are referring to this as a third way. Professor Mdwaba will align with this in looking for a new way of restructuring the world of work via social dialogue.

Acknowledging the fact that the ILOs focus is the world of work, he argues that it must nevertheless, be seen to be in touch with, and influence issues of trade, gender, race, development and business human rights and responsible business conduct, etc.

At international level, the ILO is the only United Nations specialised agency that is tripartite in nature, i.e. consisting of the representatives from government, business and labour.

The organisation works together with the social partners in promoting social justice and internationally recognised human and labour rights as it pursues its founding mission that social justice is essential to universal and lasting peace.

South Africa is a member of the ILO and actively participates in all structures, meetings and activities.

The country has ratified twenty-seven labour conventions, including the eight fundamental conventions.  SAnews.gov.za

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South Africa: South Africans urged to register to vote

Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) Minister, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, has urged South African aged 18 and above to visit the countrys 23 146 voting stations at the weekend to register to vote at the 1 November municipal elections.

The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) will at the weekend hold voter registration between 8am and 5pm. Prospective voters can also use the opportunity to verify their voter registration details, she said.

Speaking in her capacity as chairperson of the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) on Local Government Elections, the Minister made the call in a statement on Tuesday.

On 3 September, the Constitutional Court dismissed an IEC application for the postponement of the elections, ruling that the polls should take place as per the legal timeframes.

The IEC in May appointed former Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke to lead the process of evaluating the impact of COVID-19 on conditions conducive for free and fair Local Government Elections on 27 October 2021.

In his report, Moseneke found that holding the elections within the Constitutionally mandated 90 day period was not reasonably possible as they were unlikely to be held in a free and fair manner. He recommended that the elections be held no later than February next year.

Subsequently, after consultation with the IEC, Dlamini-Zuma, last week determined that elections will take place on 01 November 2021.

The IEC has thus determined that a physical registration weekend is required ahead of the election, the Ministry said in a statement.

It said: Following the voter registration weekend, on September 20, 2021, the Minister will proclaim November 1st as the date of the 2021 Local Government Elections, as required by the law which stipulates that elections must be held within 90 days of the end of a five-year term of local government.

The Minister encourages all eligible South Africans, particularly youth and first-time voters, to participate as active citizens and supporters of democracy by registering to vote in the upcoming 2021 Local Elections.

The Ministry said this was a constitutionally guaranteed opportunity for citizens to elect members of municipal councils in their respective wards to represent their voices in local governance for the next five years.

We all have a civic duty of registering to vote for the local government elections. Our vote in local elections is significant because it renews the mandate of local government and keeps the flame of democracy burning brightly as we continue to strive for a better tomorrow and a brighter future for all citizens of our democratic country, the Ministry said.

Dlamini-Zuma said: As we prepare to go out to various voting stations, let us remember that COVID-19 is still a part of us, despite the sustained decline in infections across the country over the last few weeks.

We should still adhere to all protocols so that we can protect ourselves, loved ones and communities. Let us remember to wear a mask at all times, social distance, wash hands with soap and water or an alcohol based hand sanitizer.

In conjunction with health and disaster management agencies, the IEC performed a detailed review to ensure that mitigating measures are in place to ensure that elections can be held safely. The IEC also drew heavily on the experiences of over a hundred countries and territories around the world that have successfully held elections under COVID-19.

She said it was important to acknowledge the unparalleled circumstances this years elections will be held under due to COVID-19 with the only solution being vaccination.

We welcome the fact that over a quarter of all adult South Africans have received at least one vaccine dose and more than 7 million people are fully vaccinated, however we need to do more.

We urge people to vaccinate in an effort to defeat COVID-19 in order for us to go back to our normal lives, as the chance of new and more dangerous variants emerging is far greater if more people are still not vaccinated, said the Minister.  SAnews.gov.za

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South Africa: Two life sentences to Sbusiso Nkosi welcomed

Provincial Commissioner of the South African Police Service in Mpumalanga, Lieutenant-General Semakaleng Manamela, has welcomed the hefty sentence handed down to Sbusiso Nkosi.

The 36-year-old Nkosi was sentenced to two life imprisonment terms for the murder and rape of 23-year-old Nomcebo Simelane.

The Mpumalanga High Court sitting at Breyten on Monday sentenced Nkosi after his guilty plea following overwhelming evidence brought forward by the state against him.

The court heard that on 05 September 2020, a friend of Nkosi requested him to give a lift to Simelane from a liquor outlet in Breyten as it was late for her to travel alone at night.

Instead of taking her home, he took a different route to a secluded area near the R36 Road. He then raped her and strangled her to death inside his vehicle. Nkosi then dumped her lifeless body in an open field and fled the scene.

"The following day, he realised that her cell phone was inside his car and threw it into a sewage pipe in an attempt to ensure that no one would ever find out the truth, Police spokesperson, Colonel Donald Mdhluli said.

Simelane was then reported missing after her family could not locate her and her lifeless body was then discovered next to the R36 Road on 06 September 2020.

Lieutenant General Manamela has also praised the investigation team, the Prosecution as well as the Judiciary for the sterling work done in this case which culminated into a well-deserved sentence.

The sentence will hopefully serve as a deterrence to those who think that women do not deserve to live and be treated as human beings but rather suffer at their hands, Manamela said. - SAnews.gov.za

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South Africa: Call for 2021 SAMRC Scientific Merit Awards nominations

The South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) has issued a call for nominations for the annual 2021 SAMRC Scientific Merit Awards, which seek to honour the best scientific minds and contributions within health research.

Qualified candidates are individual researchers who, through their published work, made ground-breaking contributions to impactful world-class science and health research aimed at advancing the lives of South Africans.

The awards, which are among the most prestigious in the country, are a set of medals including platinum, gold, silver, bronze and the special Presidents awards.

The past platinum medal recipients for Lifetime Achievement include the late Professor Bongani Mayosi, Professors Valerie Mizrahi, Salim Abdool Karim, Dan Stein, Gregory Hussey, Robin Wood, Shabir Madhi, Eric Bateman, Maureen Coetzee, Charles Feldman and Keertan Dheda.

In the last instalment, Professors Heather Zar and Linda-Gail Bekker scooped this award.

Zar is the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health at Red Cross Childrens Hospital Chair and Director of the SAMRCs Unit on Child and Adolescent Lung Health.

Her work focused on childhood pneumonia, tuberculosis, asthma and HIV-associated disease has had a global impact on strategies for diagnosis, prevention and treatment, said SAMRC.

Bekker is a Professor of Medicine at the University of Cape Town and holds the positions at the Desmond Tutu Health Foundation and the Director of the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre.

Her doctoral work focused on the host response to tuberculosis both with and in the absence of HIV co-infection.

Last years Presidents award was conferred to Professors James Jimmy Volmink and Mike Sathekge.

Volmink is the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences and Professor in the Department of Global Health at Stellenbosch University.

His areas of expertise are clinical epidemiology and evidence-based medicine, with special contributions during a career extending over more than three decades.

Sathekge is Professor and Head of the Nuclear Medicine Department at the University of Pretoria and Steve Biko Academic Hospital.

According to the SAMRC President and CEO, Professor Glenda Gray, the awards recognise research that reflects innovative methods and employs a novel approach to public health concerns to potentially impact on policy and subsequently for the betterment of the lives of South Africans.

In public health, the value of scholarly research and innovation cannot be overstated, said Gray, adding that since the advent of the COVID-19, science has been at the forefront of the countrys response  once again proving the importance of science and public health research in tackling infectious disease threats, both current and emerging.

Eligible candidates for all categories of the SAMRC Scientific Merit Awards will be chosen through an open, public nomination process, as well as an SAMRC Awards Nominations Committee.

Nominations will open from 15 September and will close on 31 October 2021.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2021-09-15. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
South Africa: Suspect arrested for massive 2020 data breach

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The drive-by shooting that claimed the lives of three women in Inanda, Durban, at the weekend was part of intimidation tactics devised to weaken and undermine the countrys Constitution ahead of the 1 November municipal elections. This is the firm position of the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security (JCPS) cluster, said Police Ministe... See more
South Africa: UIF calls on employers to resolve errors on COVID-19 TERS portal

The Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) has appealed to employers to resolve errors on the COVID-19 TERS portal to enable it to finalise outstanding claims.

The UIF said it has done all it needed to and the onus is now on the claimants if they qualify.

In a statement on Wednesday, the UIF said the claims cannot be finalised until certain corrections are effected, which can only be done by the applicants as they currently appear as outstanding COVID-19 TERS payments.

Since the inception of the relief scheme in March 2020, the UIF has successfully made multiple payments totalling R63 billion in 14 292 888 payments to employees from 786 972 applications received from employers.

Acting UIF Commissioner, Advocate Mzie Yawa, said the fund aims to rapidly decrease the number of outstanding claims and ultimately close them by the end of December 2021, as they cannot remain open indefinitely.

Yawa said the COVID-19 TERS portal provides self-explanatory error messages, where a claim has been unsuccessful. It further gives advice to the applicant on action they need to take to resolve an error.

We have observed that most COVID-19 TERS payments are unsuccessful due to employers or their representatives failing to follow the application procedures correctly. The application platform provides error messages and guides employers on what they need to do to correct mistakes, Yawa said.

The acting commissioner said partners at NEDLAC, labour and business have been requested to encourage their constituencies to attend to and correct these errors on the COVID-19 TERS portal.

We appreciate efforts by among others SACTWU and NUMSA, who heeded our plea to talk to their employers, which has helped to have most of their issues resolved. We urge all unions and employers, whose members/workers have not been paid, to correct the errors or causes of non-payment, as they appear on our portal, and resubmit corrected applications so payments can be finalised. Failure to do this within a month from now, may result in the application considered closed, Yawa said.

The UIF said the quantum of outstanding payments is a major concern for both NEDLAC partners and UIF.

As a result, a project team has been formed to find solutions for the most common errors relating to specific UIF process of compliance or audit/risk issue.

The most common errors that the team will be focusing on fall within the following broad categories: Declarations, Incorrect banking details, Incorrect income, invalid Identity and Passport numbers.

The project will involve reaching out to employers through various communication mechanisms, improved customer interface on COVID-19 TERS portal, and vigorous compliance drive.

With regards to Workers Affected By Unrest (WABU) relief scheme, the UIF said, like other bodies in same space, they are still verifying the applications.

To date, 255 applications have been received since the opening for applications towards the end of August 2021. Payments are set to be made as soon as these pass the verification process.

We believe everyone should appreciate that efforts must be taken to curb the TERS fraud we encountered. It is, therefore, necessary for us to take extra precaution when we process claims for WABU to prevent fraudulent such from recurring, Yawa said.  SAnews.gov.za

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Hong Kong: Voucher scheme monitored

The Government will continue to monitor the implementation of the Consumption Voucher Scheme to ensure that it operates smoothly, Secretary for Financial Services & the Treasury Christopher Hui said today.

He made the remarks when answering questions from lawmakers at a Legislative Council meeting.

The scheme received about 6.9 million registrations, with the first voucher of $2,000 disbursed on August 1 and September 1 to a total of about 6.3 million eligible people.

Mr Hui noted that the consumption vouchers disbursed have effectively produced a stimulating effect on the market and significantly boosted the business of merchants, adding that the community's overall response is very positive.

For the remaining 600,000 or so registrations, half of them were from ineligible people or duplicated, while the other half were not further processed due to incomplete or incorrect information provided.

More than 280,000 registrants had either provided supplementary information or corrected the information, and about 19,000 registrations could not be processed when the registration period ended.

To allow sufficient time for relevant registrants to provide supplementary information, the Government made special arrangements for them to resubmit their registrations in paper form.

Mr Hui said some registrants realised that their registrations were not successful when they failed to receive the vouchers on September 1. As some of them wanted to resubmit their registrations as soon as possible, there was a sudden influx of visitors to the scheme's secretariat in Mong Kok, resulting in a longer waiting time.

He noted the Government regretted that some senior citizens had to travel a long way to the secretariat to make their resubmissions, which reflected that there is room for improvement in the resubmission implementation, preparation and arrangements.

The treasury chief also emphasised that the Government had responded immediately to the matter by extending the special arrangement for two weeks, increasing manpower substantially and adding three service centres in Central, Tai Po and Tuen Mun to facilitate people's re-registrations.

So far, the secretariat and the three additional service centres have been running smoothly and a long waiting period is no longer necessary.

Mr Hui added that about 18,200 registrations have been resubmitted under the special arrangement as at September 14, of which about 13,000 have been processed. Relevant registrants will receive the first voucher of $2,000 on October 1 upon eligibility confirmation.

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South Africa: Make your voice heard and vote

The Gauteng Provincial Legislature (GPL) Portfolio Committee on Co-operative Governance and Human Settlements says the upcoming local government elections is a chance for communities to rebuild themselves following the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on livelihoods and the lives of all South Africans.

The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) is expected to hold the local government elections on 1 November this year where citizens will be able to vote for who they think will serve them better as members of municipal councils across the country.

The country as a whole has recently suffered several setbacks, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic [and] the upcoming elections present an opportunity to change direction and rebuild communities.

It is the right as well as responsibility of each South African citizen to vote; and as future leaders, young people are particularly encouraged to register and vote to shape government, the legislatures portfolio committee said in a statement.

The committee said elections present an opportunity to hold public office bearers in municipalities to account.

The Portfolio Committee... believes there is a need for accelerated and effective delivery of municipal services to communities. Poor performance, poor service delivery, maladministration, alleged corrupt and unethical conduct by officials are amongst some of the challenges widely reported on within the various municipalities.

Participating in the upcoming local government elections empowers communities to elect their own local government representatives and contribute towards improved service delivery, the statement said.

All of those eligible to vote are encouraged to register during the voter registration weekend to be held on Saturday 18 September and Sunday 19 September.

Alternatively, registration can be done via the IECs voter registration website at https://registertovote.elections.org.za/Welcome  SAnews.gov.za

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Hong Kong: Govt strives for fair elections

The Constitutional & Mainland Affairs Bureau is working closely with the Electoral Affairs Commission to ensure the three upcoming important elections are conducted in a fair, open and honest manner.

Secretary for Constitutional & Mainland Affairs Erick Tsang made the statement in response to questions from legislator Starry Lee in the Legislative Council today, noting that two new offences have been introduced under the law.

One of the offences is the corrupt conduct to wilfully obstruct or prevent another person from voting at an election. The other offence is the illegal conduct to incite another person not to vote, to cast a blank or invalid vote by way of public activity during an election period.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption will pay close attention to conduct that may constitute manipulation of or sabotaging the elections, and take resolute law enforcement action to combat such illegal activities, Mr Tsang warned.

Since March, the bureau has allocated more than $16 million on activities to publicise the advantages, the necessity and urgency of improving Hong Kongs electoral system as well as how the improved electoral system fully implements "patriots administering Hong Kong" and enhances the effectiveness of governance.

Meanwhile, bureau secretaries and department heads have explained the improved electoral system to various sectors in the community through their political platforms, blogs and media interviews.

The Chief Executive hosted a Radio Television Hong Kong TV discussion programme with guests from the 40 Election Committee subsectors to provide an in-depth explanation to the public on improving the electoral system.

Mr Tsang also noted that various government departments will work closely to formulate an appropriate security plan to deal with possible risks that may occur during one of the key upcoming polls, the 2021 Legislative Council General Election to be held on December 19.

Based on the risk assessments, Police will implement appropriate measures and make manpower arrangements in each polling station and its vicinity to enable the poll to be conducted safely, he added.

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RTHK: China, Russia-led blocs to meet on Afghanistan

Countries allied with China and Russia were preparing for a series of meetings on Afghanistan on Wednesday held in the crisis-hit country's neighbour, Tajikistan.

Beijing and Moscow have moved to assert themselves as key players in the region, after the United States' hasty retreat from Afghanistan and the Taliban's takeover of the country.

Two regional security blocs led by Beijing and Moscow are holding summits in the capital of ex-Soviet Tajikistan, Dushanbe, this week along with other countries attending as observers and guests.

Afghanistan, already heavily dependent on aid, is facing a new economic crisis in the aftermath of the Taliban's takeover, with the new authorities unable to pay salaries as food prices soar.

Its neighbours are wary of the threat of a sustained refugee crisis, as well as of spillover violence if the Taliban fail to control extremist groups with whom they were allied in the past.

At a pre-summit meeting on Wednesday, the general secretary of the Moscow-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation(CSTO), Stanislav Zas, called for more humanitarian aid to Afghanistan.

The eight-member Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), headed by China, is also due to meet in Dushanbe this week, with some countries belonging to both blocs.

Founded in 2001, the SCO consisted of China, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan before India and Pakistan joined the group in 2017.

Iran, whose president Ebrahim Raisi is expected in Dushanbe Friday, is also keen to join.

President Xi Jinping, Russia's Vladimir Putin, and India's Narendra Modi are all attending the SCO summit virtually. (AFP)

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South Africa: Limpopo urged to use water sparingly

The Department of Water and Sanitation has called on the people of Limpopo to use water sparingly.

Lack of rains and scorching temperatures are affecting water levels in some parts of the country, particularly Limpopo province, the department said in a statement.

The provincial water storage levels continually drop week-on-week, and this calls for all water users in the province to be efficient and conservative in how they utilise water.

A weekly state of reservoirs report issued by the department has shown that water stored in the provinces reservoirs slightly decreased to 80.7% this week from last weeks 81.3%.

However, these levels are better when compared to 62.3% during the same period last year.

The decline means that the available water in the province, as of this week, is at 1 194.2 cubic metres out of a full capacity of 1 480.10 cubic metres.

The Polokwane Water Supply System, with dams supplying water to Polokwane and surrounding areas, is currently at 84.2%, a decline from last weeks 85.1%.

Ebenezer Dam in Groot Letaba, which supplies most communities around Polokwane, has dropped from last weeks 97.8% to 96.6% this week. This is, however, a huge improvement from last year when the dam was at a paltry 12.6% during this period.

In the Vhembe District, Nandoni Dam - supplied by Levuvu River - is at its full capacity at 100.4% this week, from 100.8% last week.

The dam recorded 99.6% last year at this time. Vondo Dam has declined to 95.3% this week, compared to last weeks 95.7%. The dam recorded 90.8% last year during this period.

De Hoop Dam in Steelpoort, which supplies the community of Sekhukhune and the local mining industries, has also declined to 95.3% this week, compared to last weeks 95.6%. This is an improvement from last years 92.4% at this time.

Flag Boshielo Dam is normally at its full capacity but is now on a continuous downward spiral, recording 79.5% this week from 80.3% last week. The dam recorded 92.2%, last year at this time.

Mokolo Dam in Mokolo River has also decreased and is now at 97.9% this week from last weeks 98.5%. This is a great level compared to 45.1% last year at this time.

The Tzaneen Dam which supplies water to farmers for irrigation in the area has also dropped significantly this week. It is now sitting at 87.6% from last weeks 88.9%. This dam was at a critical low of 15.8% at this time last year.

Middle Letaba Dam is critically low at 7.4% this week, down from the equally low 7.6% last week. Doorndraai Dam in Sterk River, which is also at its low level, has declined to 38.1% this week, compared to last weeks 39.1%, an improvement compared 9.5% it recorded last year at this time.

The Department of Water and Sanitation still reiterates its call on water consumers in the province to continue using water sparingly, as the dams continue to decrease week-on-week.  SAnews.gov.za

This story has been published on: 2021-09-15. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
RTHK: US gymnasts 'betrayed' over botched sex abuse probe

Olympic gymnast McKayla Maroney on Wednesday told US lawmakers she feels betrayed by FBI agents, after they failed to investigate former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar, despite her telling them he had sexually abused her.

FBI Director Chris Wray told the Senate panel that the actions of the agents who botched the investigation are inexcusable, and he announced that one of the agents "no longer works for the bureau in any capacity".

"I'm deeply and profoundly sorry," Wray said.

Maroney is one of four athletes, along with Simone Biles, Aly Raisman and Maggie Nichols, who testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee as it probes the FBI's mishandling of the investigation.

Maroney recalled how in 2015 she spent three hours on the phone telling the FBI the details of her story that her own mother had not even heard, including accounts of sexual abuse she endured during the Olympic games in London by Nassar, whom she described as "more of a pedophile" than he was a doctor.

It was not until July of this year, however, that she said the Justice Department inspector general revealed in a scathing report what the FBI actually did with the information she provided: Failing to document it for a year and a half, and misrepresenting what she told them about her experiences.

"Not only did the FBI not report my abuse, but when they eventually documented my report 17 months later, they made entirely false claims about what I said," Maroney said, with anger in her voice.

Wednesday's hearing comes after the Justice Department's Inspector General Michael Horowitz in July issued a scathing report in a series of errors that allowed the abuse to continue for months.

Several of the gymnasts said they were furious that the FBI failed to immediately interview them about the abuse after they had reported it. Once the FBI finally did contact them, they said the agents tried to downplay the severity of the abuse.

"I remember sitting with the FBI agent and him trying to convince me that it wasn't that bad," Raisman said. "It's taken me years of therapy to realise that my abuse was bad, that it does matter." (Reuters)

This story has been published on: 2021-09-15. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
Hong Kong: 3rd vaccine jab mooted

The two scientific committees under the Centre for Health Protection met today and discussed the need for fully vaccinated people to be given a third vaccine dose in the future, particularly those in certain groups.

Speaking at a media session after the meeting, Scientific Committee on Emerging & Zoonotic Diseases Chairman Prof David Hui said those in high risk groups would likely require a third jab.

In the future, there will be a need for an additional dose, especially for the high risk groups like the immunocompromised and the elderly population, and also with the emergence of variants of concern.

But when we need to provide the additional dose depends on several factors.

First, what is the safest time interval between the second and third dose.

Also, there are some developments in the second-generation vaccines.

Also, we do need to have more information and data on the effectiveness of the additional dose in different specific sub-groups.

The fourth factor that we need to consider is the local infection prevention control strategy. Currently we are doing fine, there are no cases.

Perhaps two months before opening the boundary, we can start vaccinating the high risk groups.

The committees also deliberated the use of COVID-19 vaccines in children and adolescents, and noted that myopericarditis is a known side effect of the BioNTech vaccine reported both overseas and locally, with the majority having occurred after the second dose in adolescents.

To balance the risk and benefit in the local setting, the committees recommended teenagers aged 12 to 17 to receive just one dose of the BioNTech vaccine instead of two.

The committees also recommended that the Government seek further confirmatory data from the pharmaceutical company with a view to extending the use of the Sinovac vaccine to those aged 12 to 17.

This story has been published on: 2021-09-15. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
RTHK: Embassy hits out at UK, US, Australia pact

Chinas Washington embassy reacted to a new security pact announced by the United States, Britain and Australia on Wednesday by saying that countries should "shake off their Cold-War mentality and ideological prejudice".

The United States, Britain and Australia said on Wednesday they would establish a security partnership for the Indo-Pacific that will involve helping Australia acquire nuclear-powered submarines.

Asked to comment, Chinese embassy spokesman Liu Pengyu said countries "should not build exclusionary blocs targeting or harming the interests of third parties. In particular, they should shake off their Cold-War mentality and ideological prejudice."

Under the partnership, announced by US President Joe Biden, British Prime Minster Boris Johnson and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, the United States will provide Australia with the technology and capability to deploy nuclear-powered submarines, senior US administration officials told reporters.

The three leaders outlined the deal in a three-way virtual announcement from each of their capitals.

"We all recognise the imperative of ensuring peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific for the long term," said Biden.

Morrison said the submarines would be built in Adelaide in close cooperation with the United States and United Kingdom. Australia will not be fielding nuclear weapons, he said.

"We will continue to meet all our nuclear non-proliferation obligations," he said.

Johnson called it a momentous decision for Australia to acquire the technology. He said it would make the world safer. "This will be one of the most complex and technically demanding projects in the world," he said.

The US officials stressed that the move, which comes as Washington and its allies are looking for ways to push back against China, would not involve provision of nuclear weapons to Australia.

The officials said the partnership, which will also involve cooperation in areas including artificial intelligence, quantum technology and cyber, was "not aimed at any one country."

"This is a historic announcement. It reflects the Biden administration's determination to build stronger partnerships to sustain peace and stability across the entire Indo-Pacific region," one of the officials said. (Reuters)

______________________________

Last updated: 2021-09-16 HKT 06:45

This story has been published on: 2021-09-16. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article.
9/11Jericho CantigagueEirene Hope Liu





Eirene Hope Liu2911 We Never Forget 911911

Eirene Hope LiuEric Adams911Adams  Eirene Hope Liu2911 We Never Forget 911911Eirene Hope LiuEric Adams911Adams 





The Chinese American Hotel Association hold a photo exhibition to commemorate the 20th anniversary of 9/11 in Chinatown on Saturday, 11 September, calling on the government to reopen Pak Road and revive Chinatown's small businesses.

The Chinese American Hotel Association hold a photo exhibition to commemorate the 20th anniversary of 9/11 in Chinatown on Saturday, 11 September, calling on the government to reopen Pak Road and revive Chinatown's small businesses.
Court Grants NY Health Care Heroes Relief Against Shot Mandate

NEWS PROVIDED BY

Liberty Counsel

Sept. 14, 2021



UTICA, N.Y., Sept. 14, 2021 /Christian Newswire/ -- Today, Judge David Hurd in the Northern District Court of New York granted a temporary restraining order (TRO) for all health care workers against the state's unconstitutional attempt to ignore federal law and remove religious exemptions and accommodations from unlawful COVID shot mandates for health care workers.

Thomas More Society filed a lawsuit on behalf of several doctors, nurses, therapists and technologists against Governor Kathy Hochul, Department of Health Commissioner Dr. Howard A. Zucker and Attorney General Letitia James. The case was filed in the Northern District.

Yesterday, a different judge heard the Liberty Counsel case also seeking a temporary restraining order and stated an order will issue soon. Today, Liberty Counsel is now filing a supplemental authority regarding the Northern District TRO in the Eastern District of New York in its case against Governor Hochul, Dr. Zucker, Trinity Health, Inc., New York Presbyterian Healthcare System, Inc., and Westchester Medical Center Advanced Physician Services, P.C.

The Northern District Court ruled today that: "The vaccine mandate is suspended in operation to the extent that the DOH is barred from enforcing any requirement that employers deny religious exemptions from COVID-19 vaccination or that they revoke any exemptions employers already granted before the vaccine mandate issued; and the DOH is barred from interfering in any way with the granting of religious exemptions from COVID-19 vaccination going forward, or with the operation of exemptions already granted; the DOH is barred from taking any action, disciplinary or otherwise, against the licensure, certification, residency, admitting privileges or other professional status or qualification of any of the plaintiffs on account of their seeking or having obtained a religious exemption from mandatory COVID-19 vaccination."

The "Mandatory COVID-19 Vaccination Policy" applies to healthcare workers in all "hospitals, nursing homes, diagnostic and treatment centers, adult care facilities, certified home health agencies, hospices, long-term home health care programs, AIDS home care programs, licensed home care service agencies and limited licensed home care service agencies." On August 16, 2021, Governor Hochul announced that the state will now require health care workers to accept or receive one of the three currently available COVID-19 injections to remain employed in the healthcare profession. The deadline for them to become fully vaccinated is Monday, September 27, 2021 for hospital employees and October 7, 2021 for other facilities.

If these health care workers do not comply with the mandate, they will be terminated, removed from the jobs they love and deprived of their ability to earn a living.

Though Governor Hochul's announcement initially indicated that there would be "limited exceptions for workers with religious or medical reasons," the State's Public Health and Health Planning Council eliminated an exemption and accommodation for religious reasons on August 26. In fact, under the state's rule change, the only exemptions permitted in New York will be for medical reasons documented by a physician or certified nurse practitioner.

However, state officials cannot override federal law or the federal Constitution. New York's purported guidance and attempts to remove federal protections and even religious exemptions available under federal law are causing direct and irreparable harm. All health care workers are protected by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act which does provide for religious exemptions and accommodations and mandates that employers provide them. Against a government mandate, all health care workers are also protected by the First Amendment.

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, "This is a great victory for all health care workers in New York who have sincerely held religious objections to the COVID shots. New York is required to abide by federal law and the U.S. Constitution to provide protections to employees who have sincerely held religious objections to the COVID shots. Governor Hochul and New York health care facilities cannot override federal law and force health care workers to violate their sincerely held religious beliefs by forcing them to inject an experimental substance. All New York health care workers have the legal right to request reasonable accommodation for their sincerely held religious beliefs and forcing COVID shots without exemptions is unlawful."

Liberty Counsel provides broadcast quality TV interviews via Hi-Def Skype and LTN at no cost.



SOURCE Liberty Counsel



CONTACT: Mat Staver, 407-875-1776, Liberty@LC.org



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'No one is left behind': Vietnam provides support for foreigners amid pandemic

Despite limited resources, the Vietnamese Government and local authorities are sparing no efforts to support and ensure safety for the expat community in Vietnam amid the COVID-19 outbreak.













A foreigner gets vaccinated against COVID-19 in HCM City



As the vaccination drive is being accelerated across the country, the Vietnamese Government is determined to provide vaccinations for all foreigners living and working here, ensure them equal access to vaccines like local people.



With the motto of leaving no one behind, on September 6, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh issued a document asking all localities and sectors to organise registrations and free vaccinations for foreigners in each locality regardless of nationality, form of residence and employment.



In Ho Chi Minh City, the countrys current largest COVID-19 hotspot, the city's authorities have mobilised all resources within its capacity to inoculate foreigners.



Duong Anh Duc, Vice Chairman of the HCM City Peoples Committee, said the citys authority tasked the Department of Health to allocate vaccines and organise vaccination campaigns for foreigners.



A representative of HCM City's Department of Foreign Affairs told Vietnam News that the department had closely worked with the Department of Health in this cause.



On September 10, the Department of Foreign Affairs announced a registration portal on the internet for foreigners to sign up for vaccination, including for the first or second dose. All registration must be completed before September 15.



Earlier, some districts in the city carried out their own vaccination drive for foreigners.



District 7, which has the biggest community of expats in the city, has already inoculated 18,000 foreigners of 106 nationalities, which is more than half of the foreigners living in the locality.



Meanwhile in Hanoi, the Central Lung Hospital is assigned by the Ministry of Health to deploy vaccination for embassies, United Nations organisations and diplomatic missions, as well as foreigners in the capital city.



Up to now, the hospital has vaccinated more than 4,000 officials and employees of embassies, 4,251 foreigners, nearly 2,000 United Nations officials and employees and nearly 340 staff of NGOs in the capital city.



As Hanoi is setting a target of inoculating 100% of adult residents before September 15, many more foreigners, together with local people, are also receiving the jabs provided by authorities at district level.



Last week, Cau Giay district where about 4,000 foreigners are working and studying, started a large-scale vaccination campaign for foreigners.



Trinh Thi Dung, Vice Chairwoman of the districts Peoples Committee, said the committee had assigned relevant units to submit the list of foreigners who need to be vaccinated against COVID-19 in the locality. They would be given the jabs in the shortest time possible.



Besides vaccination, local authorities have also supported foreigners in need in other ways.



In early September, the Hanoi Union of Friendship Organisations coordinated with Hanois Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee to hand over hundreds of gift packages, including food, necessities, medical supplies and VND500,000 (US$22) in cash to 270 foreigners living in the city who face difficulties due to the pandemic.



Tran Thi Phuong, Vice President of the Hanoi Union of Friendship Organisations, said: It is just a small gesture but we hope this has shown international friends the spirit of hospitality and care of the capitals authorities and people.



In the central city of Da Nang, eight hotlines in English, Japanese, Korean and Chinese were set up in late August to help foreigners solve difficulties amid strict COVID-19 restrictions.



Nguyen Thuy Anh, Deputy Director of the citys Department of Foreign Affairs, told Vietnam News: From August 27 to September 9, the hotlines received about 560 calls, messages and emails from foreigners and overseas Vietnamese living in the city related to issues like support to buy food, essential goods and medicines, visa extensions, procedures to go to the airport or register for a vaccination, among others.



The department has coordinated with the Peoples Committees of districts to buy and present free food to nearly 120 cases in difficult situations.



Thuy Anh added that in addition to this activity, the department regularly updated the guidelines and regulations of the central and local governments, mainly in English and Vietnamese to the expat community in the city by sending the information to various channels like foreign NGOs, foreign consular offices or posting information on the Connecting Da Nang Worldwide Facebook page.



Depending on the nature of the issues, some documents and decisions of the city Peoples Committee are also translated to Japanese, Korean and Chinese, she said.



Although not having a hotline available to the general public like in Da Nang, HCM Citys Department of Foreign Affairs has hotlines to directly work with foreign representative offices in the city to help settle foreigners issues.



For example, we have worked with them to help arrange transportation for foreigners to go to the airport or work with other localities to help stranded foreigners come back to the city to catch a flight home, the department's representative said.



He said supporting disadvantaged foreigners was a policy set out by the city authority early on, which was carried out with the coordination of different agencies including the citys High Command, the citys police, the Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs and the Department of Foreign Affairs.



In the past few months, as HCM City tightened its social distancing orders and required people to shelter in place, many foreigners struggled to get food due to the language barrier, shortage of delivery workers and financial difficulties.



In the coming days, the city will open a centre run by the High Command to provide accommodation and food to homeless foreigners and other foreigners in need, he said.
First Vietnamese student among 50 finalists of Global Student Prize 2021

Dong Ngoc Ha, a biological science student at the Hanoi University of Science (Vietnam National University), has been named among the Top 50 Finalists for the Global Student Prize 2021.













Dong Ngoc Ha, a biological science student at the Hanoi University of Science (Vietnam National University) (Photo: VNA)

The finalists shortlisted for this years prize have been selected from over 3,500 nominations and applications from 94 countries and territories around the world.



Candidates who apply for the Global Student Prize are assessed on a range of criteria, including their academic achievements, influence on their peers, and how they made a difference within their local communities.



The winner is due to be announced at an awards ceremony to be held in Paris, France, in November and will receive a cash prize of 100,000 USD.



Ha has received a number of awards, including a third-class Labour Order in recognition of his outstanding achievements in labour, creativity, and national construction, a silver medal at the International Biology Olympiad 2020, and the first prize at the Vietnam Biology Olympiad 2020.



In 2019, he founded the Biology For All Vietnam project which was the first pro-bono scheme of its kind for gifted students in Vietnam. The project brought together a team of seven lecturers to teach National Biology Olympiad teams in 10 localities across the country./
Northern region to have first cold spell in September

The northern region is forecasted to see its first cold spell at the end of September.



First cold spell predicted for northern region





Nguyen Van Huong, head of the Climate Forecasting Department at the National Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting, said cold spells will arrive in late September and early October, earlier than previous years. The coldest period would occur in mid-December to February.



Vietnam will see the effect of the La Nina phenomenon from October. However, it will remain weak throughout 2021. There will be six to eight storms on the East Sea from now until the end of 2021. Three to four of them may affect Vietnam. It is likely that the southern region would still be affected by storms in the East Sea in January 2022.



"The authorities must be prepared for constant and heavy rains in October and November in the central and southern region," he said.



Provinces from Thanh Hoa to Thua Thien-Hue and the southern region have continued to have heavy rains on September 14-15. The rainfall in Hon Dat, Kien Giang Province, from 7 pm on September 14 to 3 am on September 15 was 184mm. It was 150.2mm in Minh Hoa, Quang Binh Province and 138.6mm in Ben Tre City.



Flashflood and landslides were warned for mountainous areas while flooding was warned for low-lying terrains.
State funeral held for former Defence Minister Phung Quang Thanh

A state-level funeral was held in Hanoi on September 15 for General Phung Quang Thanh, former Politburo member, former Vice Secretary of the Central Military Commission and former Minister of National Defence.













A state-level funeral was held in Hanoi on September 15 for General Phung Quang Thanh. (Photo: NDO/Duy Linh)



Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong sent a wreath to commemorate General Phung Quang Thanh, while many incumbent and former national leaders attended the funeral.



Lao Ambassador Sengphet Houngboungnuang led a delegation from the Lao Embassy in Vietnam to pay tribute to the late General. The Central Committee of the Lao Peoples Revolutionary Party and the Ministry of Defence of Laos also sent flowers to mourn General Phung Quang Thanh.



The memorial services for General Thanh was held from 1:30pm the same day.



In his eulogy at the funeral, Politburo member and Standing Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh, head of the organising board of the funeral, underlined that General Thanh was a brave communist, a talented leader and commander with high prestige of the Party, State and military of Vietnam. His death is a great loss of the Party, State, military and people of Vietnam, leaving deep sorrow to Vietnamese people, his family as well as foreign friends, Minh stressed.



General Phung Quang Thanh passed away after a period of illness at 3:45 am on September 11 at his private home in Hanoi.



He was born on February 2, 1949 in Thach Da commune, Me Linh district, Hanoi (formerly in Vinh Phuc province).



He was a member of the 9th, 10th and 11th Party Central Committee, member of the Politburo of the 10th and 11th Party Central Committee, and deputy of the National Assembly in the 11th, 12th, and 13th tenures. He was awarded the rank of General in July 2007.



His military career was a shining example of heroic fighting spirit, resilience, will and efforts to rise up. General Phung Quang Thanh was honoured with the Ho Chi Minh Order, the title Hero of the Peoples Armed Forces and many other noble titles.
Vietnam's GDP growth may reach 3.5-4 percent in 2021 if pandemic well controlled in September

If the COVID-19 pandemic is put under good control in September, the countrys gross domestic product (GDP) growth may reach 3.5-4 percent in the whole year, said Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung.









A view of Ho Chi Minh City (Photo: VNA)



The minister held that although the predicted result is lower than the set target, it requires greater efforts of the whole political system and localities.

If this scenario becomes true, 2021 will be the second year that Vietnam fails to complete its growth target, which will affect the implementation of the overall development plan for the 2021-2025 period. Last year, Vietnams GDP growth only expanded 2.92 percent due to impacts from the pandemic.

Dung held that social distancing measures have greatly affected production and business activities as well as employment. Meanwhile, the cost for pandemic prevention and control is high, which affects the State budget collection and spending, he said, adding that the pandemic have also impacted on the establishment of new firms and the attraction of foreign direct investment.

Particularly, weak domestic consumption of agricultural products and high prices of input materials have also caused difficulties for businesses production expansion, he said.

The minister reminded localities to grasp all opportunities to catch up with the recovery trend of world major economies which have great impacts on the Vietnamese economy. He suggested that some localities should not depend on only one or two foreign-invested firms to secure economic growth.

In order to boost economic growth in the rest of the year and 2022, Dung pointed out a number of solutions, including the good control of COVID-19 and the avoidance of another outbreak that may crack down production and supply chains.

Besides, localities should increase meetings and dialogues with local businesses to create a more favourable investment environment for them, while ensuring social security, supporting pandemic-hit people, and actively building their own economic recovery plans./
HCM City residents despair at high food delivery fees

Many people in Ho Chi Minh City have decided to continue cooking after seeing high food delivery fees.















A delivery driver in HCM City

Nguyen Thi Tinh in Binh Thanh District said that she was very happy when hearing that the city had allowed restaurants to provide take-away services since September 8.



"I live alone and I rarely cook," Tinh said. "I faced lots of difficulties after the city closed restaurants. I had to search for recipes for many dishes online. Now I'm happy that I can eat food from my favourite restaurants again."



But Tinh said that she was shocked when seeing the delivery fees which are higher than even the prices of some dishes.



Yesterday I intended to order pho but I didn't after seeing the delivery fee," Tinh said. "The noodles only cost VND45,000 but the delivery fee was VND 27,000. A mango smoothie cost only VND 25,000 but the delivery fee was even higher, at VND 30,000. The shipping fees were too expensive as the restaurants are only a kilometre from my home."



Pham Tat Giang in Thu Duc City also said that he would still cook to save money during social distancing.



"I ordered two roast ducks on September 9 from a restaurant near my home and saw that both the duck prices and the delivery fees had sharply increased," he said. "The restaurant used to offer free delivery before the pandemic but now I had to book shipping online on my own and it cost VND200,000 (USD8.60)."



The man said that his family of six members would only order food for special occasions.



"Our income has been badly affected by the pandemic so cooking at home is helping us save some money," he said. "Now were also staying home all day during the social distancing period so cooking isnt a problem."



On some apps specialising in delivery services, many companies have also explained the high fees during this social distancing time in Ho Chi Minh City.



A representative of Loship said that the main reason for the increase was the lack of staff.



"At present, demand is huge in the city while the number of delivery drivers with permits is limited," he said. "Besides the rising fees, weve also had to refuse many orders due to personnel shortages."
Xi stresses green, low-carbon path for energy industry development

Xinhua) 08:16, September 15, 2021

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, visits Gaoxigou Village in Mizhi County during his inspection tour of Yulin City in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Sept. 13, 2021, learning about the progress in controlling soil erosion and advancing ecological conservation. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi)

XI'AN, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, has stressed efforts to develop the country's energy industry, noting that such development should follow a green and low-carbon path.

Xi made the remarks on Monday while visiting a chemical enterprise under the China Energy Investment Corporation in Yulin City, northwest China's Shaanxi Province.

Xi inspected the company's central control room, visited its project site, and learned about the comprehensive use of coal.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, learns about the progress in making comprehensive use of coal amid circular economy at a chemical company during his inspection tour of Yulin City, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Sept. 13, 2021. (Xinhua/Li Xueren)

Continued efforts should be made to boost the energy industry so as to underpin the modernization of the country. Meanwhile, the development of the coal industry should be transformed and upgraded, following a green and low-carbon path, he noted.

Such efforts would be conducive to peaking carbon dioxide emissions and achieving carbon neutrality without straining resources, energy and environmental capacity, Xi said.

"This will help us meet the requirements of building a community with a shared future for humanity and protect our planet Earth well," he added.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
China-ASEAN trade expands by 85-fold in 30 years

By Kong Dechen (People's Daily Overseas Edition) 08:59, September 15, 2021

The 18th China-ASEAN Expo and China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit kicks off on Sept. 10 in Nanning, capital of south China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. (People's Daily Online/Peng Huan)

China and ASEAN have achieved remarkable progress in bilateral trade since the two sides commenced their dialogue relations in 1991.

Over the past 30 years, their trade volume expanded 85 times, with cumulative mutual investment exceeding $310 billion. Besides, the two sides have jointly built over 20 economic and trade cooperation zones.

The blooming China-ASEAN relations have grown into the most successful and vibrant model for cooperation in the Asia-Pacific and an important engine driving the successful development of East Asia.

According to Chinese customs, the bilateral trade between China and ASEAN grew to $685.28 billion last year from $8.36 billion 30 years ago, expanding 16.5 percent annually on average, 3.4 percentage points higher than China's trade growth in the same period.

In breakdown, exports rose from $4.45 billion to $383.68 billion, with an average yearly growth of 16.4 percent, while imports rose from $3.91billion to $301.6 billion, growing 16.5 percent on average each year.

Last year, ASEAN became China's top trading partner. China also maintained ASEAN's largest trading partner for the 12th year in a row.

During the past three decades, the trade structure between the two sides has been constantly optimized. In 2020, China exported $204.48 billion worth of mechanical and electronic products to ASEAN. The exports of textiles, steel, mobile phones, ships, furniture, fruits, automobiles, and medical products were also on the rise. ASEAN's exports of primary and resource products to China, including agricultural products, rubber, petro, natural gas, and coal, maintained robust growth.

The 2020 China-ASEAN Trade Index, released by China's General Administration of Customs (GAC) on Sept. 11, stood at 241.09, increasing 19.64 percent and 141.09 percent from 2019 and 2010, respectively.

Since the establishment of the ChinaASEAN Free Trade Area, China's customs has taken the lead in completing negotiations with ASEAN to upgrade the rules of origin and has smoothly implemented them, as well as helping foreign-trade enterprises thoroughly enjoy the policy of tariff reduction. According to the GAC, over 90 percent of the commodities between the two sides are traded tariff-free, with a total tax reduction of 314.9 billion yuan ($48.85 billion).

With the concrete steps of the Belt and Road construction, a batch of major infrastructure projects have been implemented, which effectively raised the level of connectivity between China and ASEAN countries and made bilateral cross-border logistics more unimpeded.

The GAC said the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, on which freight trains started carrying commodities between southwest China's Chongqing municipality and Singapore via Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region in 2017, is now expanded to a six-route transport network that makes over 10 trips every day, from only one each week in the early days. It has become a significant channel of exportation in western China and the fastest and most convenient passage linking China and ASEAN under the the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership framework.

At present, the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor is connected with the China-Europe freight train service and the two have carried 1,504 twenty-foot equivalent units this year, fully releasing the trade potential of China and ASEAN.

Statistics released by Chinese customs indicated that the total trade volume with ASEAN of the 14 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities along the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor reached $81.22 billion in the first eight months this year, up 28.7 percent and lifting China-ASEAN trade growth by 4.4 percentage points.

Vice Minister of Commerce Ren Hongbin noted that China is willing to further strengthen the alignment between Chinese and ASEAN development strategies, promote high-quality development of the Belt and Road, and enhance all-round connectivity to jointly bring bilateral economic and trade partnership onto a newer and higher level.

Chinese and ASEAN enterprises are generally optimistic about future economic and trade cooperation between the two countries and are confident about benefiting from it, said a report issued by PwC at the China-ASEAN Expo on Sept. 11.

The two sides are expected to keep deepening cooperation in multiple areas, said Gabriel Wong, PwC's China Corporate Finance Leader.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun)
Wang Yi's talk with Singapore PM 'productive, candid,' hedges US' negative influence: expert

Global Times) 09:03, September 15, 2021

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Tuesday and had a "productive and candid discussion on international and regional developments," according to Lee's Facebook message.

Analysts said that Wang's visits to neighboring countries, although still with one stop in South Korea, have had a better than expected effect. They not only hedged the negative influence of US senior officials' previous visits but also show that China's proposals and practices on multilateralism are more welcome in the region than the US' small clique aimed at containing other countries.

On his second day in Singapore, Wang met with Lee at the Istana on Tuesday morning. After their meeting, Lee posted on his Facebook, saying that they "had a productive and candid discussion on international and regional developments Despite challenging global circumstances in the pandemic, we have continued working closely, sharing resources and expertise to better manage the outbreak."

"Singapore welcomes China's continued contributions in our part of the world, and will continue working with China to build a more harmonious and peaceful world," Lee wrote, adding emojis of the two countries' flags on this post.

"The Singapore leader has given high praise to China's success in fighting the OCVID-19 pandemic, its anti-virus assistance to ASEAN countries and to the cooperation between China and Singapore," Chen Xiangmiao, an assistant research fellow at National Institute for South China Sea Studies, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

Questions linger on whether ASEAN countries would sway to the US in the major power competition.

In August, US Vice President Kamala Harris visited Singapore and Vietnam. In July, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin visited Singapore, Vietnam, and the Philippines. Their trips had been interpreted by observers as the Biden administration's efforts to woo anti-China cliques in Asia.

Lee's remarks showed that Singapore will remain neutral amid strained China-US ties and maintain its practical and balanced policies in relation to China and the US, Chen said.

The US is working hard to pull Singapore to its side to either influence other ASEAN countries or to contain China. But Singapore's leaders have kept a clear mind and knows that its country has shared more common ground with China on keeping regional peace and stability, said Zhuang Guotu, president of Chinese Association of Southeast Asian Nations and distinguished professor of Xiamen University.

In an article published in Foreign Affairs in April 2020, Lee wrote that the rivalry between the US and China has intensified, sparking concerns that Asian countries could be compelled to pick one side over the other if ties continue to deteriorate. However, they did not want to be forced to do so.

By having candid talks with Wang, Lee wanted to reassure China that its stance remains unchanged. Singapore, as one of the core member states of ASEAN, also hopes China can help with ASEAN countries' anti-virus fight and economic recovery in the post-COVID-19 era, Zhuang said.

On Tuesday, Wang and Singapore Foreign Affairs Minister Vivian Balakrishnan held a joint press conference in which they said the two countries would focus on coordination in five fields: fighting COVID-19, cooperation under the Belt and Road initiative, on sustainable development and climate change, regional cooperation with ASEAN country and multilateralism.

Wang said this was his fifth face-to-face meeting with Balakrishnan after the COVID-19 pandemic, which fully displayed the close strategic communication and friendship between China and Singapore.

Wang noted that during his stay in Singapore, he discussed wide-ranging topics with Prime Minister Lee and Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat and met Foreign Affairs Minister Vivian Balakrishnan, and they agreed that in facing COVID-19, China and Singapore have deepened cooperation centering on fighting the virus and on development, and the ties have shown strong tenacity and energy.

The China-Singapore cooperation has exceeded the bilateral scope and set an example to the region and the world. China and Singapore will work with ASEAN countries in upgrading China-ASEAN ties, promote the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and promote the negotiation on the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea.

China is willing to work with Singapore to firmly safeguard the international system centered on the UN, practice multilateralism and contribute to a new era for development, said Wang.

Singapore is the third stop of Wang's visit to neighboring countries after Vietnam and Cambodia. And his last stop is South Korea. Analysts said that Wang's trip is timely in appeasing these countries when they have been under great pressure from the US in picking sides and reassuring them that China's stance in promoting multilateralism, not unilateralism or hegemony, remains unchanged.

Compared with Harris' visit which touted US strategic interests, Wang's visit aims to strengthen cooperation and deepen mutual trust. "Cooperation based on common interests may fade away but friendships on trust would last longer with close people-to-people exchanges," Zhuang said.

Zhuang noted that Wang focuses on different aspects with each one of the four neighboring countries: in Vietnam, Wang exchanged views with Vietnamese leaders on South China Sea issues and reached consensus that disputes should not affect cooperation in Vietnam; Wang met with old friends in Cambodia and deepened ties; and Wang is likely to strengthen communication with South Korea, one of the US' allies in its Asia-Pacific strategy.

According to feedback from these countries, Chen believes that Wang's visits are even better than expected as they hedge the negative influence brought by the US to the region, appease neighboring countries pressured by the US' hegemony on picking sides. "Facts show that China's proposal of multilateralism is more popular and welcome than the US' push of a small clique targeting others," said Chen.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
Barrier-free renovations make life easier for disabled

Xinhua) 09:55, September 15, 2021

CHANGSHA, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- Xu Jingzhuo, 61, has been confined to a wheelchair since he lost his legs in an accident 34 years ago.

A physically challenged life brought immense difficulty for Xu to do regular chores such as cooking, taking a shower and hanging out the laundry, among others. But, thanks to a barrier-free renovation plan, the problems that once plagued him have been solved to a great extent.

"The Changsha Disabled Persons' Federation (CDPF) helped reconstruct my cooking bench to adjust its height so that I can cook while sitting in a wheelchair. A ceiling-mounted cloth hanger equipped with a hand crank has also been installed on the balcony. I can string my clothes by conveniently adjusting its height," said Xu, a resident of Changsha, capital of central China's Hunan Province.

"Other places in my apartment have also been renovated. The electric curtain allows me to operate it with remote control. The CDPF also helped install two removable handrails in my bathroom and adjusted the washbasin to a lower height allowing me to wash my hands and brush my teeth in a wheelchair," he said.

Xu is now capable of taking good care of himself. He has also signed up as a community volunteer. "Many public places such as parks, public toilets and subways are equipped with barrier-free facilities, which makes it very convenient for us to travel alone," he said.

China accounts for 15 percent of the world's disabled people, with the population of this special group reaching 85 million. A barrier-free environment allows them to live a normal life and integrate into society better.

In recent years, authorities across the country have reached out to disabled households with tailored solutions, making public infrastructure and their apartments more accessible.

As of last year, more than 81 percent of the entrances and exits, nearly 57 percent of the service counters and about 39 percent of the public toilets in the comprehensive service facilities of villages (communities) in China had undergone barrier-free constructions and renovations, according to a white paper titled "Moderate Prosperity in All Respects: Another Milestone Achieved in China's Human Rights."

From 2016 to 2020, a total of 650,000 impoverished families with severe disabilities in China had benefitted from barrier-free renovations.

Hu Minghui and Fan Chuanxiang, who live in Changsha's Tianxin District, had trouble obtaining timely information and reading stuff online owing to their visual impairment. But, life has become convenient after the CDPF installed a screen reader, a software program that allows blind and low-vision individuals to read the content on a computer screen with a voice synthesizer or braille display.

The couple can now access all kinds of information on the internet by using the keyboard. Fan, who loves singing, records her own songs and shares them in messaging groups.

"Screen reader is like 'eyes' for the visually impaired, with the help of which we can communicate and chat online just like normal people, and shop online without leaving home," Hu said.

From 2010 to 2020, the CDPF spent more than 43 million yuan (about 6.7 million U.S. dollars) in barrier-free reconstruction works for more than 7,200 impoverished families with disabilities, fully covering all those in need. A total of 15.6 million yuan was spent on improving accessibility in 78 residential communities.

Changsha has also set up a service center called the "Changsha House of Hope" for disabled people to provide them entrepreneurship and employment, rehabilitation, and incubation training.

Since its establishment in 2016, the center has served more than 30,000 people with spinal cord injuries. It has introduced intelligent assistive devices and physiotherapy equipment and held more than 500 activities, greatly enriching the spiritual and cultural life of disabled people.

The construction of barrier-free access in tourist attractions has been greatly promoted. In the Wuzhifeng Scenic Area in Hunan's Yizhang County, people with limited mobility can reach the mountaintop in wheelchairs while savoring the beautiful scenery along the way.

"To meet the needs of tourists, especially the disabled and the elderly, the scenic spot has installed inclined platform lifts, cableway, barrier-free elevators, vertical platform lifts and other facilities to ensure barrier-free movement," said Xu Weijun, an official with the scenic spot, adding that the barrier-free facilities have been welcomed by the elderly and disabled visitors.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
U.S.-led military intervention root cause of humanitarian disaster in Afghanistan: Chinese diplomat

Xinhua) 10:00, September 15, 2021

GENEVA, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese diplomat said here on Tuesday that the U.S.-led military intervention in Afghanistan is the root cause of the humanitarian disaster in the Asian country.

In a joint statement delivered on behalf of a group of countries at the ongoing 48th session of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council, Jiang Duan, minister of the Chinese Mission to the UN in Geneva, expressed deep concern over the situation in Afghanistan.

"The United States and its allies have conducted a military intervention in Afghanistan for 20 years, which severely undermined the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity, compromised its economic and social development, and violated the human rights of the Afghan people," Jiang said.

The statement pointed out that by April 2020, at least 47,000 Afghan civilians had been killed in the war waged by the U.S. and more than ten million Afghan people had been displaced. Afghanistan's neighbors have also been severely affected by the U.S.-led military intervention.

"The countries in question must be held accountable for what they have done in the past 20 years. They have the obligation to fulfill their commitment to Afghanistan's peaceful reconstruction rather than simply walking away and shifting the burden to the international community," the statement said.

The statement called on the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to continue to attend to the severe negative impact of the military intervention by the countries in question on the human rights of the Afghan people, and to hold these countries accountable for the crimes of killing Afghan civilians by their military personnel.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
China, Singapore to focus on cooperation in anti-epidemic, B&R, regional integration

Xinhua) 10:04, September 15, 2021

SINGAPORE, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- Visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said here Tuesday that China and Singapore have agreed to focus on coordination and cooperation in five fields, including anti-epidemic efforts, the Belt and Road construction and regional economic integration.

At a joint press conference with Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan, Wang said that China and Singapore have jointly combated COVID-19 while promoting economic development, and have further boosted and expanded bilateral cooperation amid the pandemic.

He pointed out that the two sides agreed to deepen dialogue and exchanges, and focus on coordination and cooperation in five fields.

First, both side will focus on anti-epidemic cooperation. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, China and Singapore have closely cooperated in epidemic control, information-sharing and purchase of vaccines and medical supplies.

Both countries will further enhance cooperation in the study of coronavirus, as well as in the research and development of vaccines and medicines, Wang said.

Second, both sides will focus on the joint construction of the Belt and Road, especially of the New Land-Sea Corridor.

The corridor has guaranteed the regional supply chains amid the pandemic. The two sides will further consolidate the trade corridor to let it play a bigger role in promoting regional connectivity, he said.

Third, both sides will focus on cooperation on sustainable development. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought major opportunities for the development of digital economy, while tackling climate change has become a pressing challenge for mankind.

Since the cooperation of China and Singapore has technological and funding advantages, it will lead the development of related industries in these two fields so as to provide new impetus for the global economic recovery, Wang said.

Fourth, the two countries will focus on regional cooperation in East Asia. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the China-ASEAN dialogue relations.

China and Singapore will work together with other ASEAN nations to hold a series of celebratory events including the leaders' summits to elevate China-ASEAN relations, and facilitate the early entry into force of the Regional Comprehensive Cooperation Partnership (RCEP), Wang said.

Both sides will also fully implement the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, speed up the consultations on the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea, and jointly safeguard the peace and stability of the South China Sea, Wang added.

Fifth, the two countries will focus on multilateral cooperation. China and Singapore agree that the world needs unity and cooperation, not splits and confrontations.

Both sides should give full play to the "in-the-same-boat" spirit and discard the zero-sum mentality. China is willing to join hands with Singapore to firmly uphold the UN-centered international system and promote multilateralism of win-win cooperation so as to usher in a new era of common development, he said.

Also at the joint press conference, while answering a question about what China has done to help regional countries and the world to combat COVID-19, Wang said that China, which deems the virus as the common enemy of mankind, has developed across-the-board cooperation with the international community in fighting the pandemic.

Specifically, Wang said China took the lead in sharing virus-related information and anti-epidemic experience, in providing anti-epidemic supplies to countries in large amount, in offering massive vaccine support to developing countries, in dispatching medical expert teams abroad, and in proposing the building of a community of common health for mankind.

China has sought international anti-epidemic cooperation with no intentions of geographical strategy, no attempts at economic gains, and no attachment of political conditions, Wang noted.

The worldwide pandemic is far from over, and China will continue to make contribution within its ability to the global efforts to combat COVID-19 and to achieve a sustainable economic recovery, he added.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
Chinese envoy calls for efforts to promote political process in Sudan

Xinhua) 10:20, September 15, 2021

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese envoy on Tuesday called for efforts to promote the political process in Sudan as well as economic development and national reconstruction.

Positive progress has been made in Sudan's political process, thanks to the joint efforts of the Sudanese authorities and other stakeholders. There is a need to build on this momentum and keep injecting impetus to Sudan's peace process and development, said Dai Bing, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations.

There is a need to take a multi-pronged approach to advance the political process, he told the Security Council.

The Sudanese government has made great efforts in the implementation of the Juba Peace Agreement. China commends the framework of comprehensive political settlement proposed by the Sudanese authorities, which is conducive to easing the tensions between the parties and promoting the implementation of the Juba Peace Agreement, he said.

"We hope Sudan will make fresh headway in, inter alia, forming the transitional legislative council and preparing for general elections. China supports the government in carrying on peace talks with the non-signatories and urges the latter to join the peace process as soon as possible."

Efforts must be ramped up to keep the Darfur region stable, said Dai.

The situation in Darfur has markedly improved over previous years. Following the exit of the United Nations-African Union Hybrid Operation in Darfur, Sudan's Sovereignty Council and transitional government have launched a raft of initiatives to implement faster the security arrangements under the peace agreement, he noted.

However, due to COVID-19 and natural disasters, security incidents and inter-communal clashes have occurred in Darfur from time to time. The international community should lend strong support to help Sudan enhance its security capacity building to better protect civilians in Darfur, he said.

It is imperative to identify the right priorities for economic development and national reconstruction, he said.

The Sudanese government has been working hard to address the challenges, maintain macro-economic stability, and reform its economy. However, the country's economic woes remain dire with acute shortages of water and electricity and scarcity of daily necessities.

The international community, especially developed countries, should effectively fulfill their debt relief commitments, support Sudan's development in infrastructure, agriculture, and other key sectors, and help the country achieve universal education and poverty eradication, so as to eliminate the root causes of conflict and lay a solid foundation for lasting peace in Sudan, said Dai.

Security Council Resolution 2562 calls for clear and well identified key benchmarks for adjusting the sanctions measures. The current situation in Sudan, especially in Darfur, has improved significantly and lifting the sanctions as soon as possible is consistent with the prevailing dynamics on the ground, he said.

The benchmarks set by the Security Council should be clear, realistic, feasible and in line with the realities of Sudan. China is ready to play a constructive role to this end, he said.

Sudan is at a critical stage in its transition from peacekeeping to peacebuilding. The Sudanese authorities should continue to play a leading role, and all stakeholders should remain united. China is ready to work with the rest of the international community to scale up collective assistance and support to Sudan in the interests of lasting peace and development in the country, he said.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
Farmers harvest rice in SW Chinas Yunnan

People's Daily Online) 10:22, September 15, 2021

Photo shows a farmer harvesting rice in Babao township, Guangnan county, southwest Chinas Yunnan province. (Peoples Daily Online/Xiong Pingxiang)

Babao township in Guangnan county, southwest Chinas Yunnan province, which has 30,000 mu (2,000 hectares) of high-quality rice fields, has entered its harvest season.

The rice planted in Babao township is a well-known brand in Yunnan. In recent years, Guangnan county has boosted grain production, protected the ecological environment and developed leisure tourism in its drive to accelerate rural rejuvenation.

With green mountains, rich water resources, high-quality farmland, well preserved forests, and improved roads, Babao township has boosted both the quality and productivity of rice while embarking on a road towards prosperity featuring a combination of agricultural sightseeing and leisure tourism.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun)
China, Singapore committed to further cooperation, China-ASEAN ties

Xinhua) 10:34, September 15, 2021

Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong meets with visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Singapore, Sept. 14, 2021. (Photo by Then Chih Wey/Xinhua)

SINGAPORE, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong met with visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi here on Tuesday, with both sides expressing willingness to further promote cooperation in all areas and boost China-ASEAN ties.

During the talks, Wang said that the development of China-Singapore relations has maintained momentum over the past 30 years thanks to the strategic leadership of both sides, the concerted efforts of all walks of life in the two countries, and Singapore's rational and objective perspective towards China's growth and its ability to find cooperative opportunities from the growth to achieve mutual success.

Lee Hsien Loong agreed that Singapore and China have witnessed fruitful exchanges and cooperation in various fields since the establishment of the diplomatic relations between the two countries, which Singapore cherishes dearly.

He also expressed hope for a greater achievement in this regard in the future.

Wang said that China is willing to join hands with Singapore to strengthen mutual trust and deepen exchanges in the post-pandemic era, so as to further enhance mutually beneficial cooperation in various fields, and contribute to regional and global peace, stability and development.

Lee said that China has achieved great success over the past four decades, and consequently its international responsibilities have risen as well.

Singapore hopes that all parties will have positive interactions with China, and work with China to jointly build a global village in the era of globalization, so as to promote the world's long-term and sustainable development.

Touching upon China-ASEAN relationship, Wang noted that China would continue to consolidate ties with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries, speed up the consultations on the Code of Conduct (COC) in the South China Sea, uphold the regional framework with ASEAN at its core and facilitate regional development and prosperity.

Lee, for his part, said that the ASEAN-China relations have improved comprehensively during the past 30 years, which conforms to the fundamental interests of both sides and contributes to regional stability, openness and cooperation.

Singapore supports ASEAN countries and China to celebrate the 30th anniversary of ASEAN-China dialogue relations, to consolidate the regional cooperation mechanism, and to provide new development opportunities for both sides, the prime minister said.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
HKSAR gov't welcomes Hong Kong ranked as world's freest economy

Xinhua) 10:36, September 15, 2021

HONG KONG, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government on Tuesday welcomed that Canada's Fraser Institute once again ranked Hong Kong as the world's freest economy in the Economic Freedom of the World 2021 Annual Report.

"This is an unequivocal affirmation of Hong Kong's long-standing and steadfast commitment to building a free economy with a level playing field," a government spokesman said.

Hong Kong has gained the top rank since the inception of the report. In this year's report, among the five areas of assessment, Hong Kong continued to rank top in "Freedom to Trade Internationally" and "Regulation."

As an inalienable part of China, Hong Kong enjoys a high degree of autonomy under "one country, two systems" and comes directly under the central government, the spokesman said.

Since its return to the motherland, Hong Kong has been implementing the "one country, two systems" principle, "Hong Kong people administering Hong Kong" and a high degree of autonomy in strict accordance with the HKSAR Basic Law, the spokesman said.

The central government has time and again made it clear that it will unswervingly implement the policy of "one country, two systems," the spokesman said.

To uphold and implement the principle of "one country, two systems" meets the interests of the Hong Kong people, is conducive for maintaining Hong Kong's prosperity and stability and serves the fundamental interests of the nation, the spokesman said.

The HKSAR government will continue to uphold Hong Kong's institutional strengths, including the rule of law and judicial independence, a free trade and investment regime, a simple and low tax system, a favorable business environment and an efficient and clean government, the spokesman said.

These strengths will continue to provide a conducive environment for businesses to thrive and to strengthen their competitiveness, thereby enabling the economy to prosper, the spokesman said.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
Chinese FM urges U.S. to view China's development objectively

Xinhua) 10:41, September 15, 2021

Visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (L) meets with Singapore's Minister for Foreign Affairs Vivian Balakrishnan in Singapore, on Sept. 13, 2021. (Xinhua/Then Chih Wey)

The United States should be aware that not only the United States but also other countries have the rights to seek development; not only the people in the United States but also the people of other countries have the rights to lead a happy life, Wang said.

SINGAPORE, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- Visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Tuesday urged the United States to view China's development in an objective and rational way.

Speaking at a joint press conference with Singaporean Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan, Wang said he hoped the United States would view, like Singapore and many other countries, China's development objectively and seek to expand mutually beneficial cooperation with China.

Wang said that during his meeting with Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, he expressed appreciation to Singapore for viewing China's development in a rational, fair and objective way, and for its efforts to find cooperation opportunities from China's development so as to achieve mutual success and joint development.

"This has brought tangible benefits to the peoples of the two countries," Wang said.

However, Wang pointed out that there are countries and forces that take a suspicious approach to or even make serious misjudgement about China's development. This goes against efforts to boost cooperation and disrupt the development of normal relations, Wang said, adding this might be the way the United States is behaving.

The United States should be aware that not only the United States but also other countries have the rights to seek development; not only the people in the United States but also the people of other countries have the rights to lead a happy life, Wang said.

It's neither fair nor suitable for humanity's basic conscience to let one or just a few countries to develop, while other countries are left in poverty, he added.

He hopes that the United States can view today's China with an objective and rational way like many other countries including Singapore, seeking and expanding mutually beneficial cooperation with China.

As the two largest economies in the world, the China-U.S. cooperation benefits the world, Wang said. He urged the United States to abandon zero-sum mentality and learn to seek peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation with other nations and civilizations, so as to jointly build a peaceful, harmonious, stable and prosperous world, Wang said.

For his part, Balakrishnan said the United States is the most developed country that has a major influence in the world, but China's emergence has been the most successful story in this region over the past 40 years.

He hoped China and the United States can compete with each other in a constructive manner, take steps to manage tension and cooperate in addressing global challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change, so as to work with countries in this region to achieve mutual benefit and win-win results.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
Over 327,000 customers without power in U.S. state of Texas after landfall of Hurricane Nicholas

Xinhua) 10:48, September 15, 2021

HOUSTON, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- More than 327,000 customers in the south central U.S. state of Texas have been out of power after category 1 Hurricane Nicholas made landfall in the state early Tuesday morning, according to the latest data from U.S. power tracking website PowerOutage.US.

The hurricane, with maximum winds of 75 mph, touched down on the eastern part of the Matagorda Peninsula in the state around 1:30 a.m. ET (0530 GMT) on Tuesday, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC).

Hours after landfall, it was downgraded to a tropical storm with winds of 70 mph, said the NHC.

"Life-threatening flash and urban flooding impacts are possible, especially across portions of the upper Texas Gulf Coast," the NHC warned.

Nicholas is expected to move over southeastern Texas on Tuesday and early Wednesday, and will move over southwestern Louisiana later Wednesday, it said.

Meteorologists at the NHC said Nicholas will be a rainmaker. Across the rest of coastal Texas into southwestern Louisiana, 5-10 inches (around 12.7-25.4 centimeters) of rain are expected.

Parts of the middle and upper Texas coastline will suffer from 8-16 inches (20.3-40.6 centimeters) of rain, and an isolated maximum amount of 20 inches (50.8 centimeters) is possible through the middle of the week, according to a report by media outlet USA Today.

Nicholas is the 14th named storm of the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season.

A hurricane watch has been in effect for parts of Texas since the weekend. Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed an emergency declaration on Monday, warning Texans to be prepared for "extreme high-water events, including flooding and potential damage caused by the rainfall."

In flood-prone Houston, the largest city of Texas, authorities deployed high-water rescue vehicles throughout the city, and erected barricades at more than 40 locations. Heavy rain with high winds were feared to inundate streets and flood homes in parts of the city.

More than 330 flights into or out of Houston's William P. Hobby Airport and George Bush Intercontinental Airport have already been cancelled for Tuesday, according to a CNN report. All terminals of the Port of Houston were also closed on Tuesday morning.

The Houston Independent School District and Galveston Independent School District both announced Monday that schools in the areas would be closed Tuesday.

In 2017, Houston was battered by category 4 Hurricane Harvey, which flooded more than 150,000 homes and claimed at least 68 lives, the highest hurricane death toll in Texas since 1919.

Louisiana, where more than 100,000 homes and businesses remain without power two weeks after the landfall of category 4 Hurricane Ida in late August, declared a state of emergency on Sunday.

"The most severe threat to Louisiana is in the southwest portion of the state, where recovery from Hurricane Laura and the May flooding is ongoing," Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards said. "In this area, heavy rain and flash flooding are possible."

"However, it is also likely that all of south Louisiana will see heavy rain this week, including areas recently affected by Hurricane Ida," said the governor.

The Ida-related death toll in Louisiana has risen to 28, as two more deaths were confirmed on Monday, according to the Louisiana Department of Health.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
Hangzhou makes huge strides in boosting manufacturing sectors intelligent transformation

People's Daily Online) 11:00, September 15, 2021

Hangzhou in east Chinas Zhejiang province has made remarkable achievements in boosting the digital and intelligent transformation of its manufacturing industry since 2013, thanks to the efforts of local government and enterprises that have provided smart transformation solutions.

File photo shows a worker at a manufacturing company operating an intelligent system for production management.

Statistics show that as of the end of 2020, Hangzhou had implemented 5,003 projects to replace manual workers with machines at manufacturers and 1,744 programs to equip factories with capabilities focusing on the Internet of Things, which have helped 110,000 manufacturers to employ the use of cloud services. As a result, over 90 percent of manufacturing enterprises above the designated size in the city have realized digital transformation.

The Hangzhou government has encouraged enterprises to play a leading role in advancing smart transformation. There were nearly 600 digital solutions providers in the city as of the end of last year. One of them is Zhejiang Litai Industrial Internet Co., Ltd., which provides digital solutions for a local factory.

In the past, the factory had to record and adjust its production process manually, which led to low efficiency and mistakes, said an engineer from the company, adding that the companys system can automatically give production instructions.

File photo shows an intelligent plant, operated by Wanxiang Qianchao Co., Ltd., located in east Chinas Zhejiang province.

In addition to the digitalization of production equipment, digital solution providers in Hangzhou offer a wider selection of services to manufacturers.

For example, automated visual inspection solutions enable manufacturers to save on manpower by replacing human labor with machines as well as reducing missing detection rates. Moreover, an intelligent logistics system helps manufacturers to significantly improve the efficiency of their storage management.

This digital and intelligent transformation has yielded remarkable benefits. In 2020, the industrial value added per mu (667 square meters) of manufacturers above the designated size in Hangzhou surpassed 1.97 million yuan (about $305,544), up 8.71 percent from a year earlier. Meanwhile, their per capita labor productivity reached 362,000 yuan, which was 10,000 yuan higher than the previous year.

The Hangzhou government has also provided significant support for manufacturers smart transformation. A smart manufacturing service center has been established in the citys Qiantang district to offer quality services to manufacturers, such as talent cultivation.

Furthermore, technical support from Internet giants, funding from financial institutions and talent cultivation initiated through cooperative programs between schools and enterprises have promoted the manufacturing industrys smart transformation in Hangzhou.

Under the guidance of the government, providers of intelligent transformation solutions have delivered real benefits to manufacturing companies, which lays a foundation for deepening smart transformation in the future, said You Rongfu, deputy head of the Hangzhou Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology.

We will continue to facilitate transformation and upgrading in manufacturing through digital technologies and expand the digital economy, You added.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun)
Former east China court president handed 15 years for bribery

Xinhua) 11:00, September 15, 2021

XIAMEN, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- Zhang Jian, former president of the Higher People's Court of eastern China's Anhui Province, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for bribery.

The sentence was handed down by the Intermediate People's Court of Xiamen, in eastern China's Fujian Province, on Tuesday.

Zhang was also fined 5 million yuan (775,190 U.S. dollars). All of the wealth he obtained through bribery will be confiscated, according to the court sentence. He accepted the sentence and said he would not appeal.

The court found that between 1995 and 2019, Zhang took advantage of his various former positions in Anhui and neighboring Hubei Province to assist others in project contracting, personnel recruitment and promotion, and the handling of certain legal cases.

In return, Zhang accepted money and goods worth more than 71.79 million yuan, of which 24.03 million yuan was not actually obtained and is therefore regarded as an attempted crime, according to the court sentence.

The court ruled that Zhang's actions constitute the crime of accepting bribes, involving very large amounts, and he should be punished in accordance with law. The court decided to grant a lenient sentence as he had been cooperative during the investigation, confessed his crimes and showed repentance, while most of the illegal gains have been recovered.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
Commentary: China-ASEAN relations present model for regional cooperation

Xinhua) 11:29, September 15, 2021

NANNING, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- Since the establishment of dialogue relations 30 years ago, China and ASEAN have moved forward hand in hand with fruitful outcomes in various fields, becoming the most dynamic model of cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region.

There has been notable progress in cooperation in fields such as economy and trade and people-to-people exchanges.

Since China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) established dialogue relations in 1991, the two sides have seen bilateral trade skyrocket from 8.36 billion U.S. dollars to 685.28 billion U.S. dollars in 2020, with an average annual growth of 16.5 percent, according to Chinese customs data. Both sides are each other's largest trading partners, consolidating the cornerstone of regional economic prosperity.

Thirty years on, China-ASEAN relations have kept moving forward, with strategic mutual trust strengthened, all-round cooperation deepened and concrete action in building a community with a shared future. The joint fight against COVID-19 is just another example of the ever-closer relationship and the spirit of a community with a shared future.

Both sides are important forces in boosting free trade and supporting multilateralism. Booming cooperation in digital economy between China and ASEAN provides new potential for bilateral cooperation.

Since the comprehensive implementation of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement in 2010, trade in goods and services between the two sides has grown rapidly through the integration of industrial and value chains.

The signing of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership -- a landmark achievement for regional economic integration, multilateralism and free trade -- will inject new, sustained momentum into the bilateral cooperation and the global economy when the world's largest free-trade deal comes into effect.

China sees ASEAN as a priority in its neighborhood diplomacy and a key region in joint high-quality construction of the Belt and Road.

At the 18th China-ASEAN Expo and China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit that closed on Monday in the southern Chinese city of Nanning, record-high value of contracted investment deals, which stood at 300 billion yuan (about 46.59 billion U.S. dollars), also highlighted a new starting point for a better and more prosperous future for bilateral relations.

It also sends a strong message that China is committed to working with ASEAN to deepen all-round cooperation to benefit people on both sides and the world, amid continuing joint efforts to build the Belt and Road and forge a higher-level strategic partnership.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
SW Chinas Yunnan going all out to protect endangered green peafowl

People's Daily Online) 13:22, September 15, 2021

In recent years, southwest Chinas Yunnan province has made concerted efforts to protect the green peafowl, an endangered wild species and the only peafowl native to China, increasing its population and expanding its habitats.

Photo shows a wild green peafowl captured by an infrared camera. (Photo courtesy of the Yunnan Provincial Forestry and Grassland Bureau)

The species population, which is under first-class state protection in the country, has risen from between 485 and 547 in 2018 to between 555 and 600 today, according to Xiang Ruwu, an official with the Yunnan Provincial Forestry and Grassland Bureau.

Besides, the species are now scattered in more places throughout the province. Footage captured by infrared cameras in 2019 indicated that the species was living in more habitats in the Konglonghe Nature Reserve in the Shuangbai county of Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture, compared to only two in 2015. And the species also appeared along the upper stream of the Lishe River for the first time.

This progress could not be made without Yunnans long-term protection efforts. As of 2020, the province has invested more than 23 million yuan (about $3.57 million) in the protection of the green peafowl.

Xiang Ruwu explained that the province has effectively improved the habitats of the species by protecting the ecological environment and natural resources of the nature reserves where green peafowls are found, including the Konglonghe Nature Reserve, the Daxueshan National Nature Reserve in Yongde county, and the Yubaiding Nature Reserve is Eshan county.

Yunnan, along with institutes such as the Kunming Institute of Zoology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, established an artificial breeding base for the green peafowl to increase the population of the species. So far, the 21 green peafowls raised by the base have laid over 100 eggs, with 27 newly hatched peachicks.

The province also established a joint protection mechanism in 2017, mobilizing forces of the government, wildlife protection and public welfare organizations, as well as local villagers.

Yaocun village in Xinping Yi and Dai Autonomous County, for example, started the joint protection program in 2018. Villagers formed a patrol team to protect the green peafowl and provide water and food sources to the species.

Experts often come to the village to give training sessions on the bird. We explain why protection is necessary to the villagers, impart knowledge on how to go about protecting, and instruct them on using infrared cameras and analyzing the footage. As a result, the villagers have gained a stronger sense of protection, and their efforts have proved effective, explained Han Lianxian, one of the experts visiting the village and the general-secretary of the Yunnan wildlife conservation association.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun)
Xi chats with villagers in the fields in Shaanxi Province

(People's Daily App) 13:45, September 15, 2021

What did Chinese President Xi Jinping chat about with villagers in the fields during his visit to Northwest China's Shaanxi Province? Click on the video and find out.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
Xi stresses all-round development of middle school students

Xinhua) 14:01, September 15, 2021

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, talks to teachers and students while visiting a middle school in Suide, a county under the city of Yulin in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Sept. 14, 2021. Xi on Tuesday inspected Suide County. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi)

XI'AN, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, emphasized better education to ensure all-round development of Chinese youths, calling on the young people to become the backbone of the nation.

Xi made the remarks on Tuesday while visiting a middle school in Suide, a county in Yulin City, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, during his inspection tour in the province.

At the school, Xi watched the students practicing calligraphy and doing physical exercises, and chatted with them.

He called for efforts to better develop education and improve its structure to meet the needs of realizing the second centenary goal.

He also called for promoting the students' moral, intellectual, physical and aesthetic grounding in addition to good work skills in an all-round way, highlighting the importance of each aspect. "It is the experience we have drawn from years of exploration," Xi said.

The young people should be well-prepared to join the socialist cause and grow into individuals of value to the society, he added.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
China, Laos ties reap rewards of booming bilateral trade

Xinhua) 14:03, September 15, 2021

Aerial photo taken on May 29, 2020, shows a view of the under-construction China-Laos Railway running through the outskirts of the Lao capital Vientiane. (Xinhua/Pan Longzhu)

NANNING, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- Seated in front of bright lights, four Lao students in ethnic wear promote tea products in a livestream studio in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region to hundreds of thousands of viewers in Laos.

Among them is Boudsada Lathsakoumman, who was admitted to a vocational college in Guangxi's Liuzhou city two years ago. "I had never expected to develop a bond with China's tea culture," says the 21-year-old.

In 2019, the college joined hands with a Lao company to set up a training base to nurture talent in the tea industry. "I have attended plenty of 'tea art performance' contests in recent years and got to make many Chinese friends," says Lathsakoumman, one of the trainees.

A major in logistics management, the young trainee experienced fast and efficient logistics that bolsters the booming e-commerce economy in China.

"Studying in Guangxi which lies close to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region gives me the opportunity to have a closer look into regional connectivity, and the greater mutual cooperation between China and ASEAN countries," she says.

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Laos. In recent years, more and more Chinese enterprises have invested in Laos, covering fields such as mining, electric power, agriculture, and the service industry.

Nowadays, China has become the second-largest trading partner and the country with the largest foreign direct investment in Laos.

Meanwhile, products from Laos are gaining popularity in China. Listed as one of the world's 10 best beers, Beerlao has been in the Chinese market since 2011, and the Lao Brewery Co., Ltd. that produces the drink became the first ASEAN company to sponsor the China-ASEAN Expo in 2012.

Within years, China has become the largest overseas market for the fast-selling beer brand, accounting for about 70 percent of its total sales worldwide.

During this year's 18th China-ASEAN Expo that concluded on Monday, Laos was the Country of Honor, for the third time. Liang Yiguang, deputy secretary-general of the expo secretariat said a number of specialty goods from Laos such as beer and coffee saw in the expo an opportunity to enter the Chinese market.

Lathsakoumman participated in an activity organized by the China-ASEAN Youth Campus during the summer vacation and took the high-speed train for the first time. "The high-speed rail service in China is so convenient and efficient," she says.

The construction of the China-Laos railway is taking place under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative.

In the future, the railway will become an important driving force for the two sides to conduct mutual cooperation in economy, trade, investment, tourism, employment, cultural exchanges, and people-to-people exchanges, said Lao Prime Minister Phankham Viphavanh.

Data shows that bilateral trade volume between China and Laos continues to grow. In the first half of this year, the bilateral trade volume between the two countries reached 14.89 billion yuan (about 2.3 billion U.S. dollars), up 36.8 percent year on year. China's foreign direct investment in Laos reached 1.24 billion U.S. dollars, up 8.9 percent year on year in 2020.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
U.S. professors urge federal gov't to end prejudiced "China Initiative"

Xinhua) 14:09, September 15, 2021

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- A group of professors at Stanford University, a renowned U.S. university based in California, have urged the federal government to end the prejudiced "China Initiative," which they said has created racial profiling and harmed America's ability to attract talents and innovate.

In an open letter signed by more than 170 Stanford faculty members and made public on Monday, they wrote to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to express their concerns about the controversial program, launched in late 2018 by the previous administration as part of its efforts to smear China.

"It is harming the United States' research and technology competitiveness and it is fueling biases that, in turn, raise concerns about racial profiling," read the letter, while asking that the "China Initiative" be terminated.

"The China Initiative disproportionally targets researchers of Chinese origin," the Stanford professors pointed out. "Publicly available information indicates that investigations are often triggered not by any evidence of wrongdoing, but just because of a researcher's connections with China."

They noted that since World War II, the United States has benefited from an influx of talented scientists from around the world, including a large number from China.

The "China Initiative" and some other actions of the federal government over the past few years have created "an increasingly hostile atmosphere" for Chinese Americans, visitors, and immigrants of Chinese origin, the faculty members stressed. "This seriously hampers our efforts to recruit the best Chinese students and postdoctoral scholars."

"Such actions are based on a significant misunderstanding of how scientific research works. They are detrimental to international collaboration. Instead of protecting the national security of the U.S., we believe such actions harm the U.S.'s ability to innovate," they added.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
Endangered deer spotted in SW China nature reserve

Xinhua) 14:23, September 15, 2021

Photo provided by the local multimedia center in Changning County, southwest China's Yunnan Province shows the two endangered forest musk deer captured by an infrared camera in the Lancang River nature reserve on Aug. 5, 2021. (Changning Multimedia Center of Yunan/Handout via Xinhua)

KUNMING, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- Two endangered deer have been spotted in a nature reserve in southwest China's Yunnan Province.

The pair with a white stripe on each side of their necks has been confirmed to be female deer and her young one belonging to the forest musk deer species, which is endangered and was listed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species in 2015, the reserve said on Tuesday.

Images of the rare deer were caught by an infrared camera in the Lancang River nature reserve in Changning County, Yunnan. The pair was coming out of the woods, with the calf capering all the way.

The wildlife primarily inhabits areas between altitudes of 2,000 to over 2,800 meters and is under first-class national protection in China.

It is the first time that a calf belonging to the species has been spotted in the reserve, suggesting conditions are favorable for the deer to multiply, said Dai Xiaoming, a wildlife protection expert with the county's forestry and grassland bureau.

The reserve plans to step up monitoring the deer's activity areas.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
Chinese ambassador calls on U.S. to create necessary conditions for implementing phase-one trade deal

Xinhua) 14:31, September 15, 2021

A truck transports containers at a container terminal in Lianyungang, east China's Jiangsu Province, July 13, 2021. (Photo by Wang Chun/Xinhua)

"It is hoped that necessary conditions and atmosphere can be created for the implementation of the phase-one agreement and bilateral economic and trade exchanges, rather than making things worse," Chinese Ambassador to the United States Qin Gang said.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Ambassador to the United States Qin Gang on Monday called on Washington to create necessary conditions for implementing the China-U.S. phase-one trade agreement.

"As a show of sincerity, China has been faithfully implementing the agreement despite the pandemic," Qin said during a virtual meeting with board members of the U.S.-China Business Council.

China "has made positive progress" in enhancing IPR (intellectual property rights) protection and expanding market access of agricultural products and the financial sector, he said.

However, since the agreement came into force, the United States "has continued to impose sanctions and restrictions" on China, including putting more than 900 Chinese entities on various lists of restrictions, Qin noted.

"This has directly affected Chinese companies' ability and willingness to purchase from the U.S. and has had a negative impact on the implementation of the agreement," he said.

Qin's remarks came after U.S. media recently reported that the U.S. government is considering launching the so-called Section 301 investigation into Chinese subsidies in an attempt to pressure China on trade issues.

"It is hoped that necessary conditions and atmosphere can be created for the implementation of the phase-one agreement and bilateral economic and trade exchanges, rather than making things worse," he added.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
Int'l peacekeeping drill concludes in central China

Xinhua) 14:38, September 15, 2021

Chinese military, concluded at a training base in Queshan County of central China's Henan Province on Wednesday.

Li Zuocheng, a member of the Central Military Commission (CMC) and chief of staff of the CMC Joint Staff Department, observed a comprehensive exercise, attended the closing ceremony and declared the conclusion of the drill.

The comprehensive exercise, which started around 9 a.m., was attended by over 1,000 officers and soldiers from countries including China, Mongolia, Pakistan and Thailand.

Under joint command, they completed tasks such as building temporary operating bases, guard patrol, armed escort, protection of civilians, and response to violence and terrorist attacks.

The exercise, which kicked off on Sept. 6, is an important supporting event to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the restoration of the lawful seat of the People's Republic of China in the United Nations.

During the exercise, participating troops of various countries conducted joint military training, cooperated closely, and learned from each other.

The drill helped assess and advance the capability of peacekeeping standby forces to carry out missions. It also promoted exchanges, mutual trust and pragmatic cooperation between participating troops.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
Economic policy-making one of main reasons for China's appeal to foreign direct investment: U.S. economist

Xinhua) 14:51, September 15, 2021

An exhibitor (1st L) explains to visitors at a cosmetics booth during the 21st China International Fair for Investment and Trade (CIFIT) in Xiamen, southeast China's Fujian Province, Sept. 8, 2021. (Xinhua/Wei Peiquan)

Chinese officials "make decisions based on the long-term benefits of the overall economy," while officials in countries like the United States "target key factions of the electorate when making decisions with the short-term goal of winning reelection," said a U.S. risk manager and political economist.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- China has shown greater appeal to new foreign direct investment projects than the United States amid COVID-19, and the success mainly lies in the country's economic policy-making, a U.S. risk manager and political economist has said.

In this vein, Robert Ginsburg, who currently manages the boutique law and consulting firm RBG Global that focuses on foreign investment and trade projects, pointed out two major advantages of Chinese decision-makers in an article published Saturday by Forbes magazine.

Firstly, Chinese officials "make decisions based on the long-term benefits of the overall economy," while officials in countries like the United States "target key factions of the electorate when making decisions with the short-term goal of winning reelection," he wrote.

Workers operate at the construction site for a comprehensive traffic hub in Qianhai, Shenzhen City, south China's Guangdong Province, on Sept. 8, 2021. (Xinhua/Mao Siqian)

The expert also mentioned special economic zones, saying that Chinese policy makers place these zones along the coasts to stimulate export-led growth that bolsters the nation's economy.

"Foreign direct investors are often compelled to invest in countries with strong coastal economies to better facilitate trade with businesses in nearby countries," Ginsburg said.

"This contributed to China's advancement beyond the U.S. in terms of new foreign direct investments," he added.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
Investment opportunities in China can't be ignored: Fortune magazine

Xinhua) 14:58, September 15, 2021

WASHINGTON, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- China and Singapore can't be neglected in terms of investment, reported Fortune magazine, citing Ray Dalio, founder of hedge fund Bridgewater Associates.

"It's a part of the world that one can't neglect and not only because of the opportunities it provides but you lose the excitement if you're not there," Dalio was quoted as saying during a Bloomberg Radar event earlier this month.

"And so our objective is to be there both economically and investment-wise," he noted.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
Ghanaian man works as Chinese community volunteer during coronavirus fight

People's Daily Online) 15:03, September 15, 2021

"This is my second home, and I should do something when it is at a difficult time, said a 26-year-old Ghanaian who has been living in Yiyang city, central China's Hunan Province for five years, when he was asked about the reasons for working as a volunteer in the fight against COVID-19.

Wang Dawei checks a woman's health QR code. (Photo courtesy of the interviewee)

The young Ghanaian with the Chinese name of Wang Dawei started to learn Chinese at Hunan City University five years ago. Two years later, Wang decided to switch to the major of computer science, in the hopes of landing an ideal job in Yiyang city after graduation.

"Just like my Chinese friends, I also received coronavirus vaccines and underwent nucleic acid tests free of charge," said Wang, citing his participation in volunteer activities as a way of "returning a favor with a favor."

"Since I used my Chinese name when signing up for the volunteer work, the event organizers did not realize that I was a foreigner until they saw me in person. They were initially afraid of my unacquaintance with the working procedures and asked me to think it through," Wang recalled.

Wang Dawei works as a volunteer at a community in Yiyang. (Photo courtesy of the interviewee)

As a rookie volunteer, Wang was passionate about his work and went to great lengths to explain relevant policies and regulations concerning epidemic prevention and control to the local residents.

"He always worked carefully. When he sees senior residents coming to undergo nucleic acid tests, he will not hesitate to give a helping hand. Despite the hot weather, he insists on running errands without a break. It is fair to say that he is an excellent foreign volunteer," noted Wang Wen, head of the Ren'ai volunteer association in Yiyang.

Wang Dawei tries to make a rice dumpling at his Chinese friend's home. (Photo courtesy of the interviewee)

"I love China, and I love Yiyang. The city makes me feel at home," disclosed the young Ghanaian, adding that he was filled with admiration for the epidemic prevention personnel who stepped to the fore in the coronavirus fight, which made him more determined to live in the Chinese city following his graduation from college.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun)
Xi stresses high-quality development of Shaanxi Province

Xinhua) 15:06, September 15, 2021

YULIN, Shaanxi, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for freeing the mind, carrying out reform and innovation, and making persistent efforts to usher in a new chapter of high-quality development in northwest China's Shaanxi Province.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks during a two-day inspection tour of Yulin City in Shaanxi starting Monday.

Xi urged fulfilling various tasks in COVID-19 prevention and control and economic and social development, coordinating development and security in a better way.

He also emphasized the need to better serve and integrate into the new development paradigm.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
New highway freight service links China, Vietnam

Xinhua) 15:13, September 15, 2021

Aerial photo taken on Nov. 17, 2020 shows a cross-border highway regular lorry for Kazakhstan leaving the Nanpeng Highway Bonded Logistics Center in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality. (Xinhua/Huang Wei)

CHONGQING, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality has launched a new highway-based cross-border freight line with Vietnam, local authorities said.

Traveling about 1,400 km, trucks from Chongqing can pass through the Longbang Port in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region before arriving at their destinations in Vietnam in around two days.

The new line will provide safe and timely delivery of goods, thus further promoting trade between west China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Chongqing launched the cross-border highway freight service in 2016. So far, more than 7,400 trucks have transported goods to countries including Cambodia, Singapore, Thailand and Uzbekistan.

Chongqing, an inland city on the fast track of China's new round of opening up, saw its foreign trade increase by 31.6 percent year on year to 442.45 billion yuan (about 68.67 billion US dollars) in the first seven months of this year, customs data showed.

(Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun)
China-Europe freight train cargo value exceeds 14 billion yuan in Guangzhou over past five years

People's Daily Online) 15:16, September 15, 2021

The cargo value of China-Europe freight trains riding the rails after setting off from Dalang railway station in Guangzhou, capital of south Chinas Guangdong province, surpassed 14 billion yuan (about $2.17 billion) since the city launched its first cargo train to Vorsino in Russia in 2016.

A China-Europe freight train leaves Guangzhou, Guangdong province. (Photo/gz.gov.cn)

The freight trains departing from the city, which has traditionally depended more on maritime freight services, have made 387 trips altogether while transporting 35,932 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) containers of goods over the past five years.

The citys China-Europe freight trains have delivered a variety of cargo, including communications equipment, home appliances, lamps and lanterns, and furniture from the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, one of the most important manufacturing bases in the world.

China-Europe freight trains offer us a new option to export our products to Europe, and rail freight is faster than sea freight and more cost-effective than air freight, said Chen Huanru, manager of the logistics department of Guangdong Midea Kitchen Electrical Appliance Manufacture Co., Ltd.

As of Aug. 27, 85 freight trains loaded with 8,498 TEUs and with a cargo value of more than 2.62 billion yuan, had left the Dalang railway station for Europe this year, up 54.55 percent, 67.15 percent, and 43.39 percent year-on-year, respectively.

In addition to the advantages of the freight trains, streamlined customs clearance has also facilitated two-way trade between China and Europe. Guangzhou Customs has set up special service windows to offer one-stop services for the freight trains and has streamlined declaration procedures. As a result, it only takes 15 days on average for the freight trains to arrive at their destinations in Europe, over 15 days shorter than sea shipping routes.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun)
Rural construction workers play a vital role in building beautiful countryside

People's Daily Online) 16:30, September 15, 2021

Construction workers are an important force in the countrys drive to build a beautiful countryside. To improve the skills of the craftsmen, various localities have held training sessions on systematic construction engineering.

 A construction worker named Zou Wenhao makes cement mortar at a construction site. (Peoples Daily/Wang Ruqiang)  A construction worker named Wu Jiacai cuts a wooden board with a saw at a construction site. (Peoples Daily/Kang Denglin)  A construction worker named Lu Chuanyou measures the vertical surface of a wall at a construction site. (Peoples Daily/Hu Xue)

Zou Wenhao in Longyan city of southwest Chinas Fujian province has been a construction worker for more than 30 years. Experienced as he is, Zou said the training sessions he received on theoretical construction knowledge were really beneficial.

Just days ago, the city invited construction engineers and rural planning experts to offer lessons on systematic construction engineering to construction workers like Zou, teaching them to read construction drawings, use construction instruments, and selecting sites for rural buildings. For the first time in my 30-odd-year career, I gradually realized that building a house is a subject worth learning during the lessons, said Zou.

Zou has become an expert on construction. Nowadays, he will draw a blueprint of a building before kicking off the project and use a gauge to reduce measurement errors from as much as 1 centimeter to within 1 millimeter, significantly raising the efficiency and quality of construction.

Wu Yingxiong, a professor on civil engineering with Fuzhou University, said it is necessary to organize training for rural construction workers because despite their high level of skill in this field, they still require systematic training.

Earlier this year, the country released a guideline on the acceleration of talent training for rural revitalization, which said that efforts should be made to cultivate rural talents, and enhance training for and the management of rural construction workers.

Since 2014, south Chinas Hainan province has organized 146 training sessions for rural construction workers. Linyi city in east Chinas Shandong province has offered free training sessions for nearly 90,000 construction workers.

By the end of 2020, Linyi had renovated 82,000 dilapidated rural houses. The house of Qi Jianlan, a villager from Feixian county, was one of the projects. Two years ago, Qi lived in an old adobe house with flimsy walls and a deteriorating roof that leaked when it rained. Seeing this, Lu Chuanyou, a local construction worker, offered to help Qi upgrade her house, but he was rejected at first. When Lu and his co-workers explained to Qi how dangerous it would be to continue living in such a dilapidated house like hers and showed her a blueprint of the renovation project they had drawn for her, Qi finally said yes. Today, the woman lives in a much more livable house.

In the past, uneven roads were a major problem for residents in the Liujiazhai village of Feixian county. After the local government invited construction workers to help improve the living environment, the village took on a new look as the road conditions improved and the houses were fully renovated to look brand new. We creatively made use of what the village had to decorate it with, giving it an artistic touch, introduced Lu. Currently, as one of Shandongs beautified demonstration villages, Liujiazhai has also become a popular site for tourists.

The rural construction workers did an excellent job in making plans, building or renovating the houses, and maintaining and managing the houses. Their participation in rural planning and construction is becoming stronger, said Gu Jianhui, an associated professor of architecture with Shandong University, who added that the rural construction workers play an important role in rural rejuvenation.

(Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun)
16 publishers from east Chinas Anhui province are taking part in the 28th Beijing International Book Fair.



The Anhui pavilion showcases more than 3,000 publications and cultural products as part of the provinces latest achievements in the publishing industry.

Huang Kunming, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, visited the Anhui pavilion on Tuesday when the fair opened.

As the first large-scale international book fair with online and offline events amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the five-day event has attracted 2,200 exhibitors from 105 countries and regions.

The Anhui pavilion highlights books that celebrate the centenary of the founding of the CPC and that aim for going global.

The Anhui-based publishing houses are staging a series of cultural activities at the fair, including business talks, contract-signing ceremonies and new book releases. In addition, online activities are being held by using new technologies like VR and livestreaming.




President Xi Jinping has called for efforts to transform and upgrade the country's energy industry, especially the coal-fired power sector, by choosing a path of green and low-carbon development.

Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remark on Monday as he visited a chemical plant in Yulin, Shaanxi province, where coal mining is the city's main industry.

During his visit to the plant, which is under the China Energy Investment Corp, he inspected its central control room and learned about its use of coal.

He stressed the importance of continuing to develop the energy sector. Otherwise, the country's modernization drive will lack enough support, he said.

Through transformation and upgrading, the industry's development will not have a serious impact on the nation's resources and its environment, and it will also contribute to fulfilling the country's commitment to peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060, Xi said.

This will help meet the requirements of building a community with a shared future for mankind and protect the planet, he added.

Xi has underlined the importance of green development and a circular economy on several occasions.

In April, when addressing a group study session of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, Xi said that China's modernization promotes the harmonious coexistence of people and nature.

In a video summit with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in the same month, the Chinese president reiterated China's pledges on carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, saying that the task is extremely challenging but China will deliver on its promise.

On Monday, Xi also visited Gaoxigou, a village in Mizhi county, where he learned about work in controlling soil erosion and advancing ecological conservation.

When visiting Yangjiagou revolutionary site, he was briefed about progress in strengthening the protection of revolutionary sites, as well as sustaining the revolutionary legacy.




By Ding Xiaoxing

Russian media reported that the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit will be held on September 16-17 in Dushanbe. Since the SCO was founded 20 years ago, its members, upholding the Shanghai Spirit of mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, consultation, respect for cultural diversity and pursuit of common development, has promoted security and development through cooperation and played an important role in boosting security and stability and economic development in the region.

Founded to address traditional security issues, the SCO has always taken security cooperation as its top priority. It adopted the Shanghai Convention on Combating Terrorism, Separatism and Extremism at its first summit when the organization was officially formed in June 2001. Even before the 9/11 attacks, SCO had begun to pay attention to non-traditional security issues in the region, especially terrorism and extremism.

In the past 20 years, security cooperation has remained the centerline of SCO and yielded remarkable achievements. The organization has done a lot of work in this area.

It has released several basic legal documents and established a sound legal system, laying a solid foundation for the members effective security cooperation;

Upholding the new concept of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security, it believes that regional security must be maintained through cooperation and one countrys security shall not be at the expense of other countries security;

It has established a sound cooperative mechanism to facilitate information exchange and coordinate law enforcement actions among member states, thus deepening their security cooperation;

It has formed a dedicated anti-terror agency to coordinate and promote information exchange and anti-terror actions among member states, largely contributing to their security cooperation;

It has held regular anti-terror exercises, which have effectively deterred terrorists and fortified the organizations counter-terrorist capabilities;

It has intensified border defense cooperation and pushed member states to carry out joint border defense actions and share intelligence.

SCO has achieved tangible results in security cooperation in the past 20 years. According to data from its regional anti-terror center, from 2013 to 2017, relevant agencies of SCO members stopped more than 600 terrorist criminal activities, destroyed more than 500 militant training bases, and seized more than 2,000 international terrorist organization members.

Thanks to SCOs effective security cooperation, a Middle Eastern trend, as some western academics predicted, has not emerged in Central Asia, where the situation is generally under control despite some potential security risks. This is the greatest feat in security that SCO has accomplished in the past two decades.

As the COVID-19 pandemic is still rampaging all over the world, major-country competition is escalating, and international situation enters an undulating period of changes, the regional security situation is faced with new challenges and problems.

First, the situation in Afghanistan remains highly uncertain after Taliban takes power, and it may impact regional security. Surrounding countries are all paying close attention and those in Central Asia worry about the overflow of terrorism.

Second, the pandemic has incurred a spate of consequences for SCO members, such as economic slowdown, prominent social problems, and the spread of extremist thoughts. There is a mounting risk of social turmoil in certain countries.

Third, for geopolitical competition, some countries may take steps that are bad for regional stability and will rock the regional situation. These new problems have posed new requirements for SCO.

With all its members being Afghanistans neighbors or nearby countries, SCO serves as an ideal platform for dialogue to resolve the Afghan issue. It can coordinate the member states stance, have them jointly promote peace and stability in Afghanistan, and organize them to provide anti-pandemic supplies and humanitarian aid to the country and participate in its economic reconstruction.

(The author is head of the Institute of Eurasian Studies, China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations)

Editor's note: This article is originally published on huanqiu.com, and is translated from Chinese into English and edited by the China Military Online. The information, ideas or opinions appearing in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of eng.chinamil.com.cn.
By Wang Jingyu and Si Lei

ORENBURG, RUSSIA, Sept. 15 -- The "Peace Mission-2021" joint anti-terrorism military exercise of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) kicked off on September 14, local time. The Chinese participating troops and their counterparts jointly implemented the first in-situ joint training on the same day.

Although no live ammunition was used in the in-situ joint training, all parties involved closely coordinated to continuously implement multiple subjects including reconnaissance and guidance, firepower strike, defensive combat, and offensive combat.

During the joint training, the Chinese participating troops entered the operational area of the exercise for the first time, along with their main battle equipment such as infantry fighting vehicles, wheeled assault cannons, and self-propelled howitzers.

After the in-situ joint training, the director of the joint director department of the exercise, also deputy commander of Russias Central Military District commented on the training. He said that the first joint training achieved relatively good coordination, and believed that the final exercise would be a complete success with the careful preparation of all parties.

According to the general action plan, next, the participating troops from various countries still need to conduct another three live-fire joint drills before the start of the formal exercise.

Compared with the previous joint military exercises within the framework of the SCO, this time the participating countries jointly set up a joint director and command organization to achieve joint command, which is a brand new highlight of this exercise.
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) fired two unidentified ballistic missiles into eastern waters, Yonhap news agency reported on Wednesday, citing the Republic of Korea (ROK)'s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).

The two unidentified missiles were launched earlier in the day from the DPRK's central inland region toward the East Sea, a JCS statement said.

"South Korean and U.S. intelligence agencies are conducting detailed analysis," JCS added, without immediately giving details of the missiles' range.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said at Wednesday's press briefing that China hopes that relevant parties stick to the direction of political settlement, exercise restraint and engage in dialogue and contact.

"China has always been committed to maintaining peace and stability on the peninsula, realizing the denuclearization of the peninsula and resolving issues through dialogue and consultation," he said.

The ROK presidency said a national security council over the issue will be convened.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga called the launch "outrageous" and strongly condemned the action as a threat to peace and security of the region.

The fresh launch came only two days after the DPRK on Monday said it successfully tested a new long-range cruise missile over the weekend.
Troops participating in the "Peace Mission 2021," a counter-terrorism military exercise for Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states, held their first coordinated training session for live-fire operations in Orenburg, Russia on Tuesday.

The session began at around 11:00 a.m. local time at the Donguz range.

The drill is being held in Orenburg from Sept. 11 to 25. The participants are from eight SCO member states, including China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, India, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan.

The participating troops consist of around 4,000 military personnel, among which 558 are from China.

As introduced by the director of the joint exercise, the first phase of the joint exercise runs from Sept. 11 to 17, concentrating on the assembly and deployment of participating troops, and the establishment of a joint director department and a counter-terrorism group command post to study the joint counter-terrorism operations on site, as well as the implementation of coordinated training for live-fire operations.
The Taliban applauded the global community Tuesday for pledging hundreds of millions of dollars in emergency assistance to Afghanistan but dismissed criticism of their week-old interim government by the United States and others.

Speaking to reporters in Kabul, the Taliban government's acting foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, promised the group will ensure aid reaches those who need it in a "completely transparent manner."

Decades of conflict, severe drought and the coronavirus pandemic have pushed the already impoverished country to the brink. Conditions have worsened since the Taliban swept back to power last month as the American and Western allied troops withdrew and foreign aid dried up. Last week, the Islamist group announced an interim government in Kabul.

An international conference in Geneva on Monday saw donors pledge more than $1 billion in aid to help ease the worsening humanitarian crises facing the country. The United Nations has warned the Afghan economy is on the verge of collapse and millions of peoples could soon run out of food.

"The Afghan people are in desperate need of help but this humanitarian aid should not be linked to any political reasons," Muttaqi insisted. He also urged the world to unfreeze Afghanistan's assets to enable Kabul use its own money to avert a worsening humanitarian crisis.

Since the Taliban takeover, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund have halted the country's access to funding, while the United States has frozen billions of dollars held in its reserve for Kabul. Washington and the global community at large are reluctant to recognize the male-only and exclusively Taliban-led government, in which several top position holders are blacklisted by the U.S. and the UN.
Korea's exports surged 34.9 percent on-year in August to a monthly record high of US$53.23 billion.

At the same time, however, imports increased even more, by 44 percent, to $51.56 billion, resulting in the trade surplus halving to $1.67 billion from $3.65 billion a year earlier.

In a more worrying sign, the trade balance turned into a deficit of some $1.5 billion during the first 10 days of this month.

The worsening trade balance has been largely attributed to soaring raw materials prices.


The global atomic watchdog has detected signs that North Korea could be resuming uranium enrichment after removing the cooling units from its centrifuge facility in Yongbyon.

The development was mentioned by Rafael Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, at a meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors in Vienna on Monday.

Grossi's remark came on the heels of the IAEAs recent report last month saying the North restarted a nuclear reactor that has produced plutonium for nuclear weapons.

"Since early July 2021, there have been indications including the discharge of cooling water, consistent with the operation of the [5-megawatt] reactor," which was shut down in December 2018, the report said.

The additional resumption of uranium enrichment would mean the regime is running the Yongbyon nuclear complex again in full swing.

Grossi called the North's activities a "cause for serious concern." "The continuation of the nuclear program is a clear violation of relevant UN Security Council resolutions and is deeply regrettable," he added.
The government on Tuesday announced a package of steps to boost inter-Korean cooperation and aid projects even though the North Korean regime has not expressed the slightest interest.

It urged all provincial governments to think up cross-border projects that will qualify for subsidies from the W1.24-trillion inter-Korean cooperation fund.

In a session of the National Assembly Tuesday, Unification Minister Lee In-young also stressed the need to ease sanctions against the North and be "flexible."

The announcement comes just days after the North tested two long-range cruise missiles that evaded South Korean detection.

With their range of 1,500 km, they could strike any target in South Korea and Japan while avoiding anti-missile defense systems.

Asked if there will be any change to the cooperation drive after the launch, a Unification Ministry spokesperson said, "The government has always maintained the position that humanitarian cooperation to help North Korean people should be pursued regardless of the political and military situation. And there's no change to that position."


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The Second Amendment Foundation invites gun rights activists across the country to participate in the 36th annual Gun Rights Policy Conference, which, due to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, will once again be a virtual event held online Sept. 25 and 26, hosted by the Second Amendment Foundation and Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.

The theme of this years conference is Saving Freedom! The event will appear on multiple platforms, including YouTube and Facebook.

Last years virtual conference had more than 6,500 pre-registered attendees, and SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb anticipates equally big participation. This years presentations will include a discussion about how COVID impacted Second Amendment supporters, plus a look at the situation in Illinois with FOID licenses. And, of course, there will an in-depth discussion of the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association case that will be argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in November. This years speakers include:

 Over a dozen attorneys who have filed some of the most important Second Amendment cases in the past year, across the country.

 John Lott, economist, author and researcher

 Cam Edwards, host of Cam & Company and BearingArms.com

 Stephen Gutowski, staff writer for The Reload

 AWR Hawkins, author and contributor at Breitbart News

 Mark Walters, host of Armed American Radio

 Alan Gottlieb, Founder Second Amendment Foundation

 Massad Ayoob, renowned trainer and author

 Dave Kopel, Second Amendment author and scholar

 David T. Hardy, Esq., litigator, video producer, historian

To register for this years conference, go to www.saf.org/grpc/. You will receive information to join the event, which will be presented on the various platforms.

The conference agenda includes panel discussions covering such subjects as federal and state legislative affairs, grassroots activism, legal actions in defense of the Second Amendment, media and corporate attacks on the right to keep and bear arms, womens issues, advancing the gun rights message, and much more.

Despite the continuing attacks on the Second Amendment by the Biden administration, Gottlieb observed, the gun rights movement has seen many successful advancements of gun rights this year. We now have a record number of Second Amendment Sanctuary cities and counties pushing back on federal gun control mandates as well as a record number of constitutional carry states where you no longer need a permit to exercise your constitutional rights for personal protection and self-defense.

Since the first GRPC was held in Seattle in 1986, Gottlieb noted, the event has evolved from 20 speakers and 70 attendees more than 100 speakers several thousand people pre-registered for last years virtual event. The GRPC has become a must attend event for gun rights advocates and grassroots activists across the country, and more importantly so with Joe Biden in the White House.

And because the event is entirely online, gun rights activists can attend from the comfort of their own home.

This will be an awesome event, Gottlieb predicted, and gun owners from coast to coast can virtually attend.
On 14 September, Chiles Presidentattacked the countrys constituent convention (CC) for failing to include a defence of freedom of education in its recently approved internal regulations.

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Press Release

September 14, 2021 Gordon hails Dimaampao's appointment to SC Senator Richard J. Gordon today welcomed the appointment of Court of Appeals Associate Justice Japar B. Dimaampao to become the second Muslim justice to sit in the Supreme Court (SC). Gordon, an ex-officio member of the Judicial and Bar Council, said he welcomes Dimaampao's appointment which was overwhelmingly endorsed by the Muslim communities in the country. "I'm elated with the appointment of another Muslim to the Supreme Court. It has been more than three decades since the High Tribunal had a justice from Muslim Mindanao," he said. "I have no doubt that Dimaampao will surely give an equal and fair representation of the Muslim community in the judiciary and strengthen the institution of our sharia justice system in the country," he added. Dimaampao is a known expert in taxation, commercial and civil law, and has been pushing for the organization of a sharia appellate court across the country and the enrichment of jurisprudence on sharia law. As a law professor and bar reviewer in law universities and review centers in Manila, he is also very knowledgeable with the Philippine Islamic law and the intricacies of the Moro's legal ways as well as its related customs and traditions. Dimaampao was the youngest associate justice ever appointed to the CA which he later on served for 15 years. He is considered as the second Muslim ever appointed in the High Tribunal, the first one was Associate Justice Abdulwahid Bidin in 1987. "His appointment reflects the inclusivity and diversity of our society on the judiciary, notably on the Supreme Court. He's very experienced on very complicated legal issues that impact on the everyday lives of Filipino Muslims," Gordon said. With his latest appointment, he replaced former justice Mariano del Castillo who recently retired last July 29.
Press Release

September 15, 2021 Duterte's attacks vs Senate could lead to constitutional crisis - De Lima Opposition Senator Leila M. de Lima filed a Senate Resolution urging the President to refrain from making statements intended to diminish the respect due to the Senate or any of its members. De Lima filed Proposed Senate Resolution (PSR) No. 898 expressing the sense of the Senate that the President should show courtesy to a co-equal institution following Mr. Duterte's recent verbal attacks against Senators and the institution. "It behooves each of the branches of our government to treat each other with courtesy in the performance of their respective constitutional mandates," she said. "Petty, inflammatory, and personal statements by the President against the Senate or any of its members only lead to the erosion of public trust and confidence in our democratic institutions," she added. Last Aug. 18, the Senate Committee on Accountability of Public Officers and Investigation (Blue Ribbon Committee) chaired by Sen. Richard Gordon commenced an investigation on the possible misuse of COVID-19 funds. In response to the investigation, Duterte, in a public address, ranted about Gordon for supposedly "show[ing] off" and went on to mock his looks, as well as that of Sen. Ping Lacson. He also recently vent his ire against Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon, by resurrecting old issues which the latter dismissed as "false intrigues". Duterte went as far as saying that the Senate should not investigate ongoing programs of government agencies as it purportedly causes delays in their progress, and further called on the public not to believe its investigations claiming that they only result to "nothing" - a claim debunked by Senators themselves. De Lima stressed that as the leader of the nation, the President must set a good example in allowing democratic processes to run their course without undue interference, much less cheap political attacks that do not aid in uncovering the truth behind anomalous government transactions. "Transparency and accountability are cornerstones of our democracy and our institutions must work together, rather than hindering each other, in making sure that our people's money are well spent and that the public officials are being held accountable for the funds entrusted to them," she said. "Any public attempt at discrediting the Senate and preventing the same and any of its committees from performing its mandate could result in a constitutional crisis which serves to weaken our republic to the detriment of our people," she added.
Press Release

September 15, 2021 De Lima slams Duterte's gag order on Cabinet members Opposition Senator Leila M. de Lima is not surprised with Duterte's effort to prevent the unraveling of the truth about any irregularities in his administration by requiring his clearance before his Cabinet members attend Senate hearings, which is effectively a gag order. De Lima said Duterte's gag order relative to Cabinet members' attendance at the ongoing Senate Blue-Ribbon Committee probe on the alleged corruption in his administration's pandemic response is not even based on executive privilege, "but presidential hubris." "Duterte's gag order on Sec. Duque and other Cabinet members, preventing them from attending the Blue-Ribbon Committee hearing is expected. It was only a matter of time before Duterte resorted to an illegal action to prevent the unraveling of the truth in the Senate hearing," she said in her Dispatch from Crame No. 1148. "Duterte will continue to push the government to a constitutional crisis, if only to save the Davao boys in their 8.7 billion plunder, the details of which are slowly uncovered in the Senate hearing," she added. Duterte on Tuesday reportedly said he will require Cabinet members to secure his clearance first before they could attend Senate inquiries. His statement came as the Senate continues to investigate the purchase of allegedly overpriced medical supplies in the height of the COVID-19 pandemic last year and the link of his former economic adviser Michael Yang to anomalous contracts. The President further said that he will "limit" what the Senate can do over the Executive Department since he has the hand over it. De Lima stressed that nobody listens to Duterte anymore, except his fanatics, while the whole nation is glued to the Senate hearings as anomaly after anomaly is revealed by resource persons. "Buking na si Michael Yang, ang Chinese BFF ni Duterte at ng Davao Mafia. It is just a matter of time before he brings down everybody with him, including his patron and benefactor Duterte," she said. "Andami pa kasing satsat, mandarambong lang rin pala, at sa panahon pa ng pandemya. Super kawalanghiyaan!" she added.
Press Release

September 15, 2021 Senate asks Comelec to extend voter registration deadline to Oct. 31 The Senate on Tuesday night asked the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to extend the voter registration period for one month to prevent disenfranchisement of voters, especially the new voters. During the hybrid plenary session, the Senate adopted Resolution No. 851 urging the Comelec to extend the deadline for voter registration from September 30, 2021 to October 31, 2021 "to prevent voter disenfranchisement brought about by the COVID-19." In a privilege speech, Sen. Francis "Kiko" Pangilinan, who is also sponsor of the resolution, said the September deadline was set before the pandemic. "It is a pre-pandemic deadline. Nobody could have anticipated how this public health emergency would severely impact our daily lives, let alone voter registration," he said. Pangilinan presented video footage taken by news channels showing the plight of Filipinos who queued in long lines when voter registration resumed in Metro Manila last September 6 after the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) was lifted in the National Capital Region+ and other cities which were placed under ECQ. While the Comelec announced that volunteer registration hours would be from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays, and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays and holidays, registrations were cut-off on an earlier hour. Pangilinan cited the case of a youth volunteer who was told that the cut-off was 2:30 p.m. after he arrived at the Comelec office in Quezon City at 3 p.m. He was also told that only 300 registrants were accommodated. Aside from the fear of being infected with COVID-19, Pangilinan said there are other stumbling blocks why people could not register, such as filled-up slots, lack of time and money to go to the Comelec offices, and worse, some policemen manning the long lines discouraged them to line up. "While it is important for Comelec to be given enough time to prepare a final list of voters that is a prerequisite for the preparation and completion of its Project of Precincts or POP, we believe that a one-month extension will not delay Comelec's preparation," he stressed. The senator pointed out that in previous elections since 2001, voter registration deadlines were set on or beyond October 31. "The Supreme Court itself recognized the Comelec's power to set the deadline of voter registration, so long as no registration may be done during the period starting 120 days before a regular election," Pangilinan said. "Based on this alone, Comelec has the prerogative to set the deadline of voter registration before January 9, 2022. But we are not asking that, we are only asking for a one-month extension. Only one month," he said. Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel "Migz" F. Zubiri, Senators Risa Hontiveros and Imee Marcos supported Pangilinan's call to extend the deadline for voter registration. Aside from Pangilinan, those who signed SRN 851 were Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph Recto, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon, Senators Nancy Binay, Leila De Lima, Hontiveros and Joel Villanueva. "This measure, it's the sense of the Senate anyway, it really is just the sense of the Senate, maybe they can come up with a shorter period but the most important thing is we continue registering our new voters as long as we can. As long as we possibly can," Zubiri said.
OCALA, Fla.The Department of Health in Marion County continues to offer the third shot of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to Marion Countys immunocompromised residents.

We want to ensure that our vulnerable residents have the best possible protection from the virus that causes COVID-19, said Department of Health in Marion County Administrator Mark Lander. We are making the third shot as available as possible to give our community access to this critical prevention tool.

The department is providing third Pfizer and Moderna shots to Marion Countys immunocompromised residents at multiple locations.

Liberty Middle School. Appointments will be scheduled for this Saturday, Sept. 18, at Liberty Middle School, 4773 SW 95th St., Ocala. Appointments will be held from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. You can sign up for an appointment online at https://tinyurl.com/marioncovidvax.

Health Department Ocala Facility. Appointments are available from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 21, at the departments Ocala facility, 1801 SE 32nd Avenue. You can sign up for an appointment online at this link: https://tinyurl.com/MakeMarionFLVaxAppt.

The department will give Pfizer and Moderna third shots; there is currently no additional shot available for immunocompromised people who have received the Johnson and Johnson vaccine.

Immunocompromised individuals may discuss with their health care provider whether getting an additional dose is appropriate for them. Individuals can self-attest that they are immunocompromised and receive the additional dose wherever vaccines are offered. Find out more about the COVID-19 vaccine booster shot at cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/booster-shot.html.

Call the Department of Health in Marion County at 352-644-2590 for information.

More vaccination opportunities

The department provides walk-in COVID-19 vaccinations Monday through Friday from 8 to 11 a.m. and 1 to 3 p.m. at its main office (1801 SE 32nd Ave., Ocala). Appointments are also available at the main office Monday through Friday. To make a vaccination appointment or obtain more information, call 352-644-2590.

The department has partnered with Marion County Public Schools to provide COVID-19 vaccinations at schools throughout the county. No appointment is needed to receive vaccinations at these school locations:

Tuesday, Sept. 21, from 4 to 6 p.m. at Vanguard High School (7 NW 28th St., Ocala)

Tuesday, Sept. 21, from 4 to 6 p.m. at Greenway Elementary School (207 Midway Road, Ocala)

Tuesday, Sept. 21, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. at Belleview Middle School (10500 SE 36th Ave., Belleview)

Tuesday, Sept. 28, from 3 to 6 p.m. at Fort McCoy School (16160 NE Highway 315, Fort McCoy)

Tuesday, Sept. 28, from 4 to 6 p.m. at East Marion Elementary School (14550 NE 14th St. Road, Silver Springs)

Tuesday, Oct. 5, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. at Dunnellon Middle School (21005 Chestnut St., Dunnellon)

Tuesday, Oct. 5, from 4 to 6 p.m. at Horizon Academy at Marion Oaks (365 Marion Oaks Drive, Ocala)

Drive-through testing available Monday through Thursday

Southeastern Livestock Pavilion. Free, county-sponsored drive-through COVID-19 testing is available at the Southeastern Livestock Pavilion (2232 NE Jacksonville Road, Ocala) from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on these dates during the month of September:

Sept. 15

Sept. 22

Sept. 27

Florida Agriculture Center and Horse Park. Statlab Mobile, a COVID-19 mobile clinical testing service, is offering free drive-through testing from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. every Monday through Thursday at the Florida Agriculture Center and Horse Park, 11008 South Hwy 475, Ocala. People who would like to be tested must enter through the County Road 475 public entrance.

For all drive-through testing sites, individuals should bring a valid photo ID. Minors under age 18 will only be tested if they are accompanied by a parent or legal guardian. People should be prepared to stay in their vehicles while awaiting testing; restroom facilities will not be available. Only people who are being tested should be in the vehicle, with the exception of parents, guardians or caregivers. No pets are permitted in the vehicle during tests. School students should refrain from eating or drinking anything 15 to 30 minutes prior to their tests.

For more information, call the Department of Health in Marion County at 352-644-2590.

Cases begin to decrease

According to the most recent state report, Marion County is reporting 52,411 cumulative cases of COVID-19 as of September 10. This is an increase of 2,105 cases from the previous week. Of Marion COVID-19 cases from Sept. 39, 22.5% tested positive. The daily positivity rate for all new COVID-19 cases in Florida was 13.5%.

Marions cases and positivity rates appear to be decreasing. From COVID-19 cases reported over the past seven days (cases reported Sept. 39), Marion saw:

An average of 300.7 new cases per day

22.5% positivity rate.

A total of 1,970 people vaccinated

From COVID-19 cases reported Aug 26Sept. 2, Marion saw:

An average of 436 new cases per day

23.7% positivity rate.

A total of 2,769 people vaccinated

From COVID-19 cases reported Aug 2026, Marion saw:

An average of 461.1 new cases per day

25.1% positivity rate.

A total of 3,197 people vaccinated

From cases reported Aug 1319, Marion saw:

An average of 405.7 new cases per day

30.0% positivity rate.

A total of 3,756 people vaccinated

From cases reported Aug. 612, Marion saw:

An average of 379.3 new cases per day

27.4% positivity rate.

A total of 4,740 people vaccinated

From cases reported July 30Aug. 5, Marion saw:

An average of 343.1 new cases per day

27.0% positivity rate.

A total of 4,507 people vaccinated

Find out more

Visit http://marion.floridahealth.gov, https://www.marionflcovid.org and https://twitter.com/flhealthmarion for the latest information on COVID-19 and vaccinations. Visit https://floridahealthcovid19.gov and use the Vaccine Locator and Testing Sites tools to find vaccination and testing sites near you.
De Misturas appointment, as personal envoy to Western Sahara, is set to be announced in the coming hours, following the approval of the Security Councils members.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres initiated negotiations with Security Council members for the appointment of Italian-Swedish UN official, Staffan de Mistura, as his personal envoy to Western Sahara.

Moroccos Permanent Representative to the UN, Omar Hilale expressed Moroccos commitment to collaborate in the negotiations over Western Sahara.

Once appointed, the Moroccan diplomat stated that de Mistura can rely on Moroccos unfailing cooperation and support in the implementation of his mediation for the settlement of this regional dispute. According to Hilale, the resolutions are in accordance with several post-2007 Security Council resolutions, in particular resolutions 2440, 2468, 2494, and 2548, which established the Round Table process with its four participants and its modalities.

The likely appointment of de Mistura breaks a two-year deadlock in the Western Sahara peace process. The vital diplomatic position had been left vacant following the resignation of the previous envoy, Horst Kohler. Algeria and Morocco failed to agree on several candidates put forth by the UN in the following years.
The Egyptian Ministry of Petroleum signed a memorandum of understanding with Japans Toyota Tsusho to assess the opportunities for producing blue ammonia in Egypt, Arab News reports citing Asharq.

The ministry in the statement said economic facilities studies and the best available opportunities in the petroleum sector will be carried out to implement projects for extracting and storing carbon dioxide to produce blue ammonia, using the latest Japanese technologies.

The Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS), the Egyptian Petrochemical Holding Company (ECHEM), and Toyota Tsusho Company will cooperate on the exploration of opportunities in the production of ammonia.

According to Argus Media; a privately held UK-registered company which produces price assessments and analysis of international energy and other commodity markets, Japans foreign minister Toshimitsu Motegi was recently in Egypt as part of a regional tour of countries that Tokyo sees as vital to its energy security.

Securing blue ammonia and hydrogen among other cleaner fuels are a key part of the Asian countrys efforts to decarbonize its society by 2050.

Blue ammonia is made of hydrogen, a gas that is seen as key to a global energy transition, given that only water vapor is emitted from it upon combustion. Converting hydrogen to ammonia makes it possible to charge it more easily.
During Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) which takes place 14-17 September at London, the Royal Navy displays HMS Argyll after two years of new operations. ARGYLL was deployed to the Arabian Gulf in 2020 and recently conducted duties as the UKs Fleet Ready Escort where she remained at very high readiness.

Type 23 frigate HMS Argyll at DSEI (Picture source: Navy Recognition)

The third and current HMS Argyll is a Type 23 'Duke' class frigate. She is currently the oldest serving Type 23 frigate in the Royal Navy. Like all of her class, she is named after a British dukedom, in this case that of Argyll. HMS Argyll was laid down in March 1987 by Yarrow Shipbuilders at Glasgow and launched in 1989 by Lady Wendy Levene, sponsored by the Worshipful Company of Paviors. She was commissioned in May 1991. Argyll is currently based at Devonport Dockyard.

The Type 23 frigate or Duke-class is a class of frigates built for the United Kingdom's Royal Navy. Originally designed for anti-submarine warfare in the North Atlantic, the Royal Navy's Type 23 frigates have proven their versatility in warfighting, peacekeeping and maritime security operations around the globe. Thirteen Type 23 frigates remain in service with the Royal Navy, with three vessels having been sold to the Chilean Navy.

The HMS Argyll is armed with 32-cell Sea Wolf GWS.26 VLS canisters for 32 Sea Wolf (range 110 km) or Sea Ceptor missiles, two quad Harpoon launchers anti-ship missiles, two twins 12.75 in (324 mm) Sting Ray torpedo tubes, one BAE 4.5 inch Mk 8 naval gun, two 30 mm DS30M Mk2 automatic cannons, two miniguns and four General-purpose machine guns.
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Dr. Roxana Chicas

Dr. Roxana Chicas is an Assistant Professor, Research Track. She specializes in clinical research in occupational and environmental health, particularly agricultural workers. Her research program focuses on reducing the severe kidney and brain damage that farm and construction workers can experience from being subject to extreme heat. Her nurse-scientist work will bring innovative cooling methods right to the fields. Dr. Chicas received her BSN and Ph.D. in Nursing from Emory and completed a postdoctoral traineeship in the Renal Department of Emory School of Medicine. In 2020, she received The Silver Bowl award from Emory University. The Silver Bowl was initiated to honor outstanding graduate students.

Dr. Chicas has been featured in numerous publications throughout her career. The latest being Wiley Online Library. The featured article is titled Nursing is never neutral: Political determinants of health and systemic marginalization.

Dr. Abebe Gobezayehu

Dr. Abebe Gobezayehu, MD is an Assistant Professor, Research Track, and expert in maternal-child health. He leads the Emory-Ethiopia projects which are implemented through the Emory University Ethiopia Country Office. Dr. Abebe previously served as country director of the Emory Ethiopia Office, and in his current faculty role, he supports the Emory Ethiopia research efforts and the School of Nursing alongside fellow NHWSN faculty member Dr. John Cranmer and colleagues across the university, and the Ph.D. program partnership with the Addis Ababa University.

Dr. Kalisha Bonds Johnson

Dr. Kalisha Bonds Johnson is an Assistant Professor, Tenure Track, specializing in caregiver well-being, gerontology and elder health, health disparities, mental health, and vulnerable populations. She graduated from The University of Tennessee at Martin with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing in 2007, followed by a Master of Science in Nursing in 2012 from Vanderbilt University, specializing as a Family Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner. Most recently, Dr. Bonds Johnson graduated with a Ph.D. from Oregon Health & Science University in 2019 where she focused on African American persons living with dementia and their caregivers. She has been a T32 postdoctoral trainee in the School of Nursing for the past two years. Dr. Johnson has received funding from SAMHSA at American Nurses Association Minority Fellowship Program and the Jonas Foundation as a Veterans Healthcare Scholar. Dr. Bonds Johnson hopes to improve health outcomes for African American persons living with dementia and their families through the development of culturally tailored clinical interventions. She was recently awarded the Hattie Bessent Research Award for her innovation in nursing research in mental health.

Lalita Kaligotla, MA, MBA

Lalita Kaligotla is a Professor of the Practice and Senior Director for Leadership and Engagement. She focuses on community-based research and the importance of connection to the community. Before bringing her talents to Emory, Kaligotla was a professor of practice and the Associate Director and Adjunct Professor in the Hart Leadership Program at Duke University, a 10-month immersive leadership development experience for new graduates of Duke University. Dr. Kaligotla significantly increased diversity in the program. She was also responsible for administering and managing the highly competitive fellowship program including advertising, selection, recruitment, and post-selection orientation and advising throughout the fellowship experience. Dr. Kaligotla was also involved in Teaching for Equity Fellowship (TFEF) Program from 2020-2021. TFEF is a yearlong fellowship and workshop series for Duke faculty to enable them to create equitable and inclusive learning spaces. Workshops in the program are specifically designed to address teaching and mentoring topics around race and identity.

Dr. Laurie Ray

Dr. Laurie Ray is an Assistant Professor, Clinical Track. Dr. Ray specializes in Womens health with expertise in sexual and reproductive health and nearly ten years experience delivering improved health outcomes for individuals and populations. She most recently through evidence-based and patient-centered clinical care and research. She most recently worked as a nurse practitioner and colposcopy program director at Planned Parenthood Southeast. Dr. Ray completed her DNP from Emory School of Nursing in 2018 and also holds a Masters of Science as a Women Health Nurse Practitioner from Columbia University. Dr. Ray has studied contraceptive adherence and STI screening protocols to improve the quality of care.

Dr. Telisa Spikes

Dr. Telisa Spikes is an Assistant Professor, Tenure Track. She received her BSN in nursing from Georgia Baptist College of Nursing at Mercer University in 2003, MSN in advanced care management and health policy from Kennesaw State University in 2009, and Ph.D. from Emory University Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing in 2019. For the past two years, Dr. Spikes has been engaged in postdoctoral training in cardiovascular health equity through the Emory Rollins School of Public Health. Dr. Spikes overall research interests focus on the relationships among adverse social stressors, inflammation, and cardiovascular disease risk, specifically subclinical disease and hypertension, in young adult African American women, a group that has seen a dramatic increase in cardiovascular disease morbidity and mortality. Additionally, she is interested in the stress-buffering of the role of resilience effect on mitigating cardiovascular risk.

Dr. Missi Stec

Dr. Missi Stec was a visiting scholar at SON before joining the faculty as a Professor, Clinical Track in the spring of 2021. She earned her MSN in midwifery in 2005 from Vanderbilt as well as a DNP in 2010. In 2015, she was inducted as a fellow in the American College of Nurse-Midwives and as a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing in 2017 for her work on technology integration in nursing education. Dr. Stec has a long history in nursing education teaching at all levels in her 16-year career. She is the previous midwifery and DNP program director at the University of Cincinnati, where she spent the first 12 years of her career. She moved into administration as the Associate Dean of Evaluation and Educational Innovation at SUNY in Brooklyn.

Dr. Athena Sherman

Dr. Athena Sherman is an Assistant Professor, Tenure Track and was a Post-doctoral to Faculty Fellow Dr. Sherman is a certified nurse educator and expert in public and mental health. Shermans program of research focuses on improving our understanding of how complex systems of racism, cisgenderism and heterosexism influence health and health equity for racially/ethnically diverse LGBTQ+ communities, with a focused lens on the impacts of trauma/violence and substance use on mental health and social functioning among transgender and gender diverse people. Dr. Shermans work has been funded by the Southern Nurses Research Society, Danger Assessment Technical Training and Support Center, and the Association of Community Health Nurse Educators to mention a few.

Dr. Shannon Stevenson

Dr. Shannon Stevenson is an Assistant Professor, Clinical Track, and joined the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing in the fall of 2021. Before joining Emory, Dr. Stevenson was an assistant professor of nursing at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas. Her clinical background includes labor and delivery, antepartum, and mother/baby nursing. She earned a Doctorate of Education in nursing education from Teachers College, Columbia University (2021) where she was a Jonas Nurse Leader Scholar from 2016-2018. Dr. Stevenson earned a Bachelor of Arts in Medicine, Health and Society (2011) and a Masters in Nursing in nurse-midwifery (2013) from Vanderbilt University. Her research interests include the transition to parenthood, the use of simulation in nursing education, and how to foster a culture of academic integrity in nursing programs.

Dr. Weihua Zhang

Dr. Weihua (Vivian) Zhang is an Assistant Professor, Research track. Dr. Zhang completed her Ph.D. in Nursing and Masters in Statistics at the University of Texas Austin and completed a postdoctoral traineeship in the Center for Data Science in the Emory University School of Nursing. Her BSN is from Central South University in Changsha, China. Dr. Zhangs research program centers around improving outcomes for persons aging with arthritis and multimorbidities with a focus on concepts of self-regulation, symptoms, and self-management. An expert in data analytics, she is also interested in the application of innovative data science, Health Informatics, & Telehealth to clinical problems for multiple populations.
[September 14, 2021] EY Accelerate for RISE with SAP will help organizations prepare for what's next LONDON, Sept. 14, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- EY today announces EY Accelerate, a suite of accelerators, tools and services that will support clients on their journey to the cloud with RISE with SAP, a comprehensive, intelligent and customer-specific SAP offering. EY Accelerate includes EY Phase 0, a detailed digital transformation and business case development offering, EY solutions from tax, cyber, risk and other lines of business, as well as accelerators, such as the EY Intelligent Transformation Platform and EY Intelligent Industry solutions, and technical migration tools and services that help organizations build intelligent enterprises and innovate for the future. EY Accelerate combines services, assets and solutions to support clients in driving their cloud strategies and vision. Leveraging the EY Intelligent Delivery Platform, EY Accelerate helps clients align their strategy and move their intelligent enterprise into the cloud. RISE with SAP provides clients with a simplified approach to creating an intelligent enterprise. Aligning EY Accelerate with SAP's offering combines EY industry knowledge and business transformation experience to help clients establish and implement cloud strategies via RISE with SAP to accelerate digital transformation. Hanne Jesca Bax, EY EMEIA Markets & Accounts Leader and EY Global SAP Executive Sponsor, says: "The transformation imperative is urgent, challenging and opportunity rich. Leaders are reframing their businesses to adapt to a new landscape by innovating their business model, elevating their customer experience, and finding new ways to leverage data and technology. Transformative change creates exponential value that lasts. EY believes successful transformations place humans at the center of their organization, leverage technology at speed and innovate at scale. EY Accelerate for RISE wit SAP supports our clients' vision and accelerates positive change, from fast tracking the adoption of intelligent technology and new ways of working, to pivoting quickly to evolve with changing consumer expectations, while creating more engaging experiences." By positioning EY capabilities to RISE with SAP, EY teams are building flexible value chains, innovating with industry best practices, and providing clients the ability to understand and act on the sentiments of their customers, employees and ecosystem. These processes help organizations manage their environmental impact, grow more resilient, profitable and sustainable. Brian Duffy, President of Cloud, SAP, says: "There is no RISE with SAP without the support of our vast ecosystem. We have been so impressed with the way in which EY is embracing the offering through the launch of EY Accelerate, designing a way for our customers to both embark on, and advance, their business transformation journeys. The focus and resources that EY has invested in this move shows the value of RISE with SAP and the impact it can have on organizations, regardless of industry or cloud readiness. With the right expertise and experience from collaborators such as the EY organization and with the momentum continuing to build as RISE with SAP evolves and matures, together we will power an acceleration of cloud adoption and business growth, globally, like never before." EY also recently announced a collaboration with SAP on the innovation of industry cloud solutions, including insurance, banking, life sciences and energy, to help drive clients' digital transformation. Notes to editors About EY EY exists to build a better working world, helping to create long-term value for clients, people and society and build trust in the capital markets. Enabled by data and technology, diverse EY teams in over 150 countries provide trust through assurance and help clients grow, transform and operate. Working across assurance, consulting, law, strategy, tax and transactions, EY teams ask better questions to find new answers for the complex issues facing our world today. EY refers to the global organization, and may refer to one or more, of the member firms of Ernst & Young Global Limited, each of which is a separate legal entity. Ernst & Young Global Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee, does not provide services to clients. Information about how EY collects and uses personal data and a description of the rights individuals have under data protection legislation are available via ey.com/privacy. EY member firms do not practice law where prohibited by local laws. For more information about our organization, please visit ey.com. This news release has been issued by EYGM Limited, a member of the global EY organization that also does not provide any services to clients. Any statements in this release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties described in SAP's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including its most recent annual report on Form 20-F, that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. SAP cautions readers not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements which SAP has no obligation to update and which speak only as of their dates.  2021 SAP SE. All rights reserved. SAP and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP SE in Germany and other countries. Please see https://www.sap.com/copyright for additional trademark information and notices. All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ey-accelerate-for-rise-with-sap-will-help-organizations-prepare-for-whats-next-301376958.html SOURCE Ernst & Young LLP

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Russian Supreme Court urges to rely on ECHR position as to application procedures for convicts

 RAPSI, Vladimir Burnov

17:56 15/09/2021

MOSCOW, September 15 (RAPSI)  The Russian Supreme Court has considered a complaint of a convict, who was denied meetings with his representatives to prepare a petition to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) by the administration of the respective penitentiary facility.

The prison authorities insisted that for allowing such meetings it was necessary to confirm that the representative had relevant legal education, the right to provide legal assistance, or was appointed as a public defender by a court order, and that these requirements were not met in the case in question.

The first instance court dismissed the complaint of the convict having found that the provisions of the national law on legal profession and the bar, as well as that on free legal aid, guaranteed the convicted person the right to receive legal assistance from a lawyer or a person entitled to provide it, and the purpose of such a meeting could only be achieved if a person with a higher legal education came to it.

This decision was overturned by a higher court on appeal citing the ECHR Rules of the Court of 1998, which do not provide that the representative of an applicant must be a legal professional or a lawyer; nevertheless, later in cassation proceedings this ruling of the lower court was canceled on the grounds that the ECHR Rules of the Court were erroneously used in the case.

At the same time, the court indicated that the claimant had the right to use qualified legal assistance, including for the preparation of a complaint to the ECHR, which, by virtue of the current national legislation, taking into account the legal position of the Russian Constitutional Court, might be provided by lawyers or authorized persons.

The Supreme Court in turn said that to correctly resolve the issue of whether the decision of the correctional facility to in fact deny meetings between the convicted person and his representative at the ECHR solely due to the failure to submit documents confirming legal education and the right to provide legal assistance, it was necessary to proceed not only from the provisions of the Penal Code of the Russian Federation, but also from other norms, including international law.

The inalienability of fundamental human rights and freedoms and their belonging to everyone from birth is ensured, including in relation to persons serving sentences in places of deprivation of liberty, by the Constitutionally guaranteed right of everyone to judicial protection, the Supreme Court stressed.

The Russian Federation respects and protects the rights, freedoms and legitimate interests of convicts, ensures, among other things, their legal protection in the execution of sentences, grants the right to apply in accordance with international treaties to interstate bodies for the protection of human rights and freedoms.

In this connection, the Court noted that the ECHR Rules of the Court do not require a representative of an applicant to have a legal education; it prescribes the submission of relevant documents, but that list does not include information on the legal education of an applicant's representative.

These considerations based on the European Convention on Human Rights and the ECHR Rules, in their systemic unity with the practice of the ECHR, cast doubt on the correctness of the conclusion of the first instance court on the lawfulness of the contested decisions of the penal facility, which did not challenge the status of the convicts representative at the ECHR, but only indicated that this representative needed to provide documents on legal education or confirming the right to provide legal assistance as a condition for granting a meeting, the Supreme Court concluded.

Meanwhile, the concept of legal assistance remains undefined in the national Penal Code; the Code only secures basic rights of convicts establishing that in order to receive legal assistance they can use the services of lawyers, as well as other persons entitled to provide such assistance; at the same time, the concept of other persons entitled to legal assistance is not clarified, the Supreme Court observed.

Since the procedure for granting visits for the preparation of materials for filing complaints to the ECHR by a convicted person with a representative, who may be a person who has no legal education, is not regulated by the federal legislation, the appellate judicial board was right in establishing that the refusal to grant the meetings with such a representative, whose assistance in representing the interests of the convicted person is necessary and sufficient, was unlawful, and rightfully applied the relevant provisions of the Penal Code in legal unity with the provisions of international law, the Supreme Court decided.

In this connection, the Supreme Court decided to cancel the decision of the cassation instance overturning the ruling on appeal, so that remained in force.
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London at night, seen from the International Space Station. Different colours are visible, showing different lighting technologies. CREDIT A. Sanchez de Miguel, ESA, NASA

Global light pollution has increased by at least 49% over 25 years, new research shows.

This figure only includes light visible via satellites, and scientists estimate the true increase may be significantly higher - up to 270% globally, and 400% in some regions.

The study, led by the University of Exeter, examined light emissions from 1992 to 2017.

The findings show differing regional trends, but emissions have increased almost everywhere and there is "limited evidence" that improved technology has cut light pollution.

"The global spread of artificial light is eroding the natural night-time environment," said first author Dr Alejandro Sanchez de Miguel, of the Environment and Sustainability Institute on Exeter's Penryn Campus in Cornwall.

"This study provides clear evidence not only of how bad light pollution has become as a global problem, but also that it is continuing to get worse, and probably at a faster and faster rate."

The study highlights the "hidden impact" of the transition to solid-state light emitting diode (LED) technology.

LEDs emit more blue light than previous lamp technologies, but satellite sensors are blind to this blue light and so underestimate the level of emissions.

Correcting for this, the authors say the actual increase in the power emitted by outdoor lighting, and thus of light pollution, may be as high as 270%.

The study finds persistently increasing light pollution in Asia, South America, Oceania and Africa.

In Europe, detected light increased until around 2010 and the levelled off, and in North America it appears to be in decline.

However, the researchers say the shift towards blue-rich LEDs masks the fact that light pollution has increased in most locations.

"To take the UK as an example, if you ignore the effect of the switch to LEDs - which has been extensive - you get the false impression that light pollution has recently declined," said Dr Sanchez de Miguel.

"However, correcting for this effect shows it has really increased, and potentially very markedly.

"Contrary to popular belief, the installation of 'broad white' LED streetlights, whilst potentially providing some energy savings, has increased light pollution and also the impacts on organisms such as moths."

Ruskin Hartley, Executive Director of the International Dark-Sky Association, said: "Over the past 25 years, the transition to solid-state LED lighting has been accompanied by rapid increases in light pollution globally.

"Without concerted action to reverse this trend, the impact on the natural environment will accelerate, further exacerbating the biodiversity crisis, wasting energy, and meaning a whole generation will grow up in perpetual twilight."

Many studies have now shown that light pollution, from streetlights and other sources, can have major impacts on the natural environment.

Such pollution is likely to have played a role in the massive declines of insect populations.

The paper, published in the journal Remote Sensing, is entitled: "First estimation of global trends in nocturnal power emissions reveals acceleration of light pollution."

The University of Exeter has launched a Green Futures campaign and website to drive action on the environment and climate emergency. To find out more please visit https://greenfutures.exeter.ac.uk



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Two International Space Station crew members have had their stay onboard the orbiting lab extended to nearly a year.

Meanwhile, space biology and life support maintenance kept the Expedition 65 crew busy on Tuesday.

With the plans for Russian spaceflight participants to visit the space station as part of the Soyuz MS-19 crew in October 2021, NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei and Roscosmos cosmonaut Pyotr Dubrov will remain aboard the station until March 2022. Upon return to Earth, Vande Hei will hold the record for longest single spaceflight for an American.

A potential benefit to this extension is NASA gaining deeper insight into how the human body adapts to life in microgravity for longer periods of time. This research helps prepare for Artemis missions to the Moon and eventually long-duration missions to Mars, as well as provides critical opportunities for additional research to be conducted aboard the station that can benefit life on Earth.

Rodents living on the station will soon be studied to understand how microgravity affects a variety of biological systems and processes. NASA Flight Engineers Megan McArthur and Shane Kimbrough began their day Tuesday training for the Rodent Research-1 Demonstration (RR-D1) experiment that will take place inside the Kibo laboratory module.

Afterward, Commander Akihiko Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency joined Flight Engineer Thomas Pesquet of ESA (European Space Agency) and took their turn studying for the upcoming RR-D1 study. The rodents will live in JAXA's Mouse Habitat Unit and the experiment will be housed inside Kibo's Life Science Glovebox. The biology study specifically aims to understand how weightlessness impacts normal skin function and wound healing.

Vande Hei, with assistance from Kimbrough, removed support components today that kept a new carbon dioxide (CO2) scrubber attached to the SpaceX Cargo Dragon spaceship during its flight to the station last month. The device that cleans the station's atmosphere of CO2 will soon be installed in the U.S. Destiny laboratory module.

Dubrov and fellow cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy are still reconfiguring the station's Russian segment following their two spacewalks on Sept. 3 and Sept. 9. The duo also took turns wearing heart monitoring gear. Dubrov then began setting up a laptop computer and a European robotic arm controller inside the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module.

On-Orbit Status Report

Payloads

Biofilms: Following the end of the experiment session, the crew removed the 24 Experiment Containers (ECs) from the Kubik 5 and Kubik 6 facilities. The goal of the Biofilm Inhibition On Flight Equipment and On Board the ISS Using Microbiologically Lethal Metal Surfaces (ESA-Biofilms) investigation is to compare how biofilms are formed in low gravity, in a liquid environment on inhibiting and non-inhibiting metal surfaces, for the purposes of spacecraft sanitation and crew health. Various species of bacteria are tested not only on different metallic surfaces (copper, stainless steel, and brass), but also on an array of different laser-etched surface treatments to ascertain whether topological differences influence biofilm formation in space. Through this investigation, learning about what surface types hold the highest antimicrobial properties can contribute to knowledge when designing future spacecraft surfaces to safeguard crew health.

Biomole: The crew continued the series of activities started last week in preparation of amplified DNA for sequencing using the MinION. The Environmental Health System (EHS) Biomole Facility non-culture-based samples can provide microbial identification on-orbit within days of sampling. The goal of this Tech Demo is to conduct comparative analysis for possible replacement of current microbial monitoring systems.

Four Bed CO2 Scrubber: In preparation for the actual installation later this week, the crew removed the FSE (Flight Support equipment), and then temp-stowed the Four Bed CO2 scrubber. Four Bed CO2 Scrubber demonstrates a technology for removing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere on a spacecraft. The technology is based on the current system in use on the International Space Station (ISS) with mechanical upgrades in absorption beds, heater elements, and valves and use of an improved zeolite absorbent to reduce erosion and dust formation. A goal for next-generation systems is continuous operation for 20,000 hours without a failure, and this technology is a step toward that goal.

Genes in Space-8 (GIS-8): The crew performed the final (5th) run in the GIS-08 series, which began earlier this month. Some pharmaceuticals used to maintain astronaut health do not work as well in space, which may be linked to changes in levels of the liver enzymes that metabolize most drugs. Genes in Space-8 tests the Genes in Space Fluorescence Viewer, a new technology for monitoring the expression of genes that control these critical enzymes. This test could lead to a better understanding of spaceflight-induced changes in liver gene expression and may support development of new therapies that can account for the body's adaptations to spaceflight.

Kibo Robot Programming Challenge-2: The crew participated in a briefing for the Robo-Pro challenge-2 event which occurs tomorrow. Of note, nine student teams will be participating in the challenge and watching the event on-line. The Kibo Robot Programming Challenge (Robo-Pro Challenge), also known as Kibo-RPC, allows students to create programs to control Astrobee, a free-flying robot aboard the International Space Station (ISS). This opportunity provides hands-on experience with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in space and inspires the next generation of explorers. This activity is based on Japan-U.S. cooperation through the Japan-US Open platform Partnership Program (JP-US OP3).

Manufacturing Device (ManD): Following the removal of the Redwire Regolith components from the ManD, the nominal ManD extruder, print tray, and feedstock canister were installed. The Manufacturing Device enables the production of components on the ISS for both NASA and commercial objectives. Parts, entire experiments, and tools can be created on demand utilizing the ManD printer that is installed into an Express Rack locker location. ManD can produce parts out of a wide variety of thermopolymer including engineered plastics.

Redwire Regolith Print (RRP): The crew removed and stowed the print tray and final printed item from the ManD print chamber. Although some extrusion did occur for the printed item, it was not fully completed. The printed item and its tray will be returned to the ground for further analysis. RRP demonstrates 3D printing with regolith feedstock material in microgravity using the Made in Space Manufacturing Device currently aboard the ISS. This demonstration could help determine the feasibility of using resources available on planetary bodies as the raw materials for on-demand construction of housing and other structures. This capability reduces the amount of materials needed on future exploration missions, thus reducing launch mass.

Ring Sheared Drop: The crew installed the next sample syringe to be processed. The Ring Sheared Drop investigation examines the formation and flow of amyloids without the complications associated with the solid walls of a container, because in microgravity, surface tension provides containment of the liquid. Fibrous, extracellular protein deposits found in organs and tissues; amyloids are associated with neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's. Results could contribute to better understanding of these diseases as well as to development of advanced materials.

Standard Measures: The crew performed saliva sample collections and a Presleep questionnaire. The aim of the investigation is to ensure consistent capture of an optimized, minimal set of measures from crewmembers until the end of the ISS Program to characterize the adaptive responses and risks of living in space. Among other things, the ground teams perform analyses for metabolic and chemistry panels, immune function, microbiome, etc. These measures populate a data repository to enable high-level monitoring of countermeasure effectiveness and meaningful interpretation of health and performance outcomes, and support future research on planetary missions.

Systems

Post-Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Activities: The crew completed multiple post-EVA activities after Sunday's successful 4A IROSA Prep EVA. Their activities included: a recharge of the Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) feedwater tanks, tool stowage, and battery charging.

Dragon Cargo Ops: Today, the crew performed cargo transfer operations for Cargo Dragon SpaceX-23 (SpX-23). SpX-23 undock is scheduled for September 30th and will return cargo and payloads to the ground.

In Flight Maintenance (IFM) Node 3 Smoke Detector Cleaning: The crew inspected and successfully cleaned the Node 3 smoke detector. The smoke detectors sample the atmosphere within racks and in the open cabin for particles that might correspond to smoke from a fire. The SDs use a light sensing sampling chamber or probe and rely on forced airflow to propagate any smoke particles that may be present in the atmosphere.

Completed Task List Activities:

Photo/TV Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Camera Disassembly

SSC14 Network Cable Fix

Adlink recovery

Today's Ground Activities:

All activities are complete unless otherwise noted.

Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) Water Recharge

Atmosphere Revitalization System (ARS) Node 3 Carbon Dioxide Removal Assembly (CDRA) 4 Half Cycles

Mobile Transporter (MT) Translation

Mobile Servicing System (MSS) JEM Airlock ORU Install

FGB Survey

Look Ahead Plan

Wednesday, September 15 (GMT 258)

Payloads:

BCM Robot Test

BIOMOLE BMS stow

Eklosion Water fill, t/s, and message photo

ESA EPO Touching Surfaces

ESA EPO BLOB data transfer

Food Acceptability

Four Bed CO2 install

JEM Water Recovery Gas Trap Install

KUBIK MPCC deinstall

Kibo Robot Programming Challenge-2 final round

Rodent Research Demo-1 Experiment 1A and Hab restock

Standard Measures Saliva collect and Fecal Setup

Turbine CMM Module swap

Systems:

HMS VTE Scan

EVA Tool Stow

Cryo Glove Wanted Poster

Thursday, September 16 (GMT 259)

Payloads:

CBEF-L LTL Box setup and VRU2 cable reconnect

Food Acceptability

Four Bed CO2 install

Fridge-2 label

ISS Experience EVA Z-Cam removal

LIDAL Relocate 3

NanoRacks Module 9 Ops 3

POLAR desiccant swap

PLT5 and ELT5 reconnect config

Rodent Access unit clean

SAIBO CO2 QD Demate

Standard Measures Saliva, body, fecal collect

Turbine CMM Module removal and Ice berg-2 Insert

Systems:

Post EVA activities

Adlink setup

Regenerative ECLSS OGS H2 Sensor Replacement

HMS OCT2

HMS Ultrasound

Dragon Cargo Ops

CQ Battery R&R

Friday, September 17 (GMT 260)

Payloads:

Astrobee perching arm remove

BCM Robot Test

ESA EPO BLOB Deinstall

FSL VMU2 Board Exchange

ISS Experience EVA Z-Cam relocate and data transfer

JEM Microbe Sample Collect

Lumina Deinstall and reinstall

SOUNDSEE T/S ops and stow

Standard Measures Saliva Collect and stow

Systems:

EVA Loop Scrub

BEAM ingress

Dragon Cargo Ops

IFM WHC urine receptacle and insert filter R&R

Dust filter transfer

HMS OCT2

Today's Planned Activities:

All activities are complete unless otherwise noted.

Four Bed CO2 Temp Stow Assist [Aborted]

Four Bed CO2 Scrubber Flight Support Equipment Removal

Four Bed CO2 Scrubber Flight Support Equipment Removal Assist

Four Bed CO2 Scrubber Temporary Stow

APEX-08 Hardware Deactivation

Astrobee Prep

Biofilms Experiment Container deinstallation

Merlin hardware transfer

BioMole MELFI Retrieve

Environmental Health System (EHS) BioMole Maintenance Work Area Prep 2

BioMole Part 3: DNA Prep and Sequencing

Environmental Health System (EHS) - Surface Sample Kit (SSK) Analysis (T+5)

EPO BLOB FILE TRANSFER

EVA Battery Operations Terminal Autocycle Init

Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) Water Recharge

High Definition EMU Camera Assembly Terminate

Metal Oxide (METOX) Regeneration Initiation

US Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Tools Stow

Food Acceptability Survey

Genes in Space 8 Freeze and Fly Run 5

Genes in Space-8 MELFI Insert 5

Genes in Space-8 MELFI Sample Retrieve 5

Genes in Space-8 Mini-PCR Stop and Stow 2

Genes in Space-8 MWA Preparation

HRF Generic MELFI Sample Insertion Operations

HRF Generic Saliva Collection 10 Minutes

In Flight Maintenance (IFM) Node 3 Smoke Detector (SD) Cleaning

LSG Primary Crew Restraint Fold

LSG Secondary Crew Restraint Fold

LSG Work Volume Stow

Manufacturing Device Feedstock, Extruder and Print Tray Installation

Robot Programming Challenge Briefing for Final Round

R PAO event report preparation

Warming Controller Stow

Redwire Regolith Extruder Removal

Ring-Sheared Drop Sample Install

Standard Measures Post-Sleep Questionnaire

SPECTRUM MTL Hose Remove

Cargo Transfer to Dragon

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Engineers pummeled potential spacesuit materials with mock moon rocks made of basalt like these to see how the fabrics would hold up on the lunar surface.

The surface of the Moon is a harsh environment with no air, low gravity, dust, and micrometeorites--tiny rocks or metal particles--flying faster than 22,000 mph.

These conditions can pose a hazard to astronauts, their dwellings, and spacecraft.

Engineers at NASA Glenn Research Center's Ballistic Impact Lab are working to help the agency select materials for future Artemis missions and predict how they will perform while on the lunar surface.

The innovative lab, which features a 40-foot-long air gun capable of firing at velocities of 3,000 feet per second, has become a go-to destination for NASA as it examines situations ranging from the effects of bird collisions with aircraft to ballistic impacts on spacecraft.

Now, the team has been called to test several different textiles that will protect humans during Artemis missions to the Moon and beyond.

"If the object is pressurized, a leak can be catastrophic depending on how big and fast the leak is," said Mike Pereira, the Ballistic Impact Lab's technical lead. "Running this type of ballistic impact test is essential to a variety of NASA aeronautics and space exploration missions to ensure equipment and materials reliability."

In the first series of tests, the team evaluated materials NASA is considering for habitats, which are designed to be relatively soft and flexible, but very stiff if struck.

To assess the potential fabrics and gauge how many layers would be needed to stop micrometeorite penetration, engineers used the facility's air gun to fire steel ball bearings at various fabrics. The team connected the air gun to a vacuum chamber to remove air resistance, allowing it to shoot faster, while a suite of sensors and high-speed cameras measured how each material absorbed or deflected energy.

The resulting impacts take each fabric to the brink of failure to better understand the upper limits of durability and to ensure each can handle the harsh, punishing environment of space exploration.

Other materials tested included spacesuits that could be used for extravehicular activities on the lunar surface and in orbit. Understanding how materials respond to impacts is important for astronaut safety, according to Pereira.

The composite materials were a combination of substances that include fibers for strength and bonding resins to allow transfer of stress and energy. To evaluate these potential materials, engineers used the lab's vertical-impact-drop tester to hurl mock simulated Moon rocks made of basalt onto potential spacesuit materials.

Engineers at NASA's Johnson Space Center are analyzing the ballistics testing data to determine which materials will be best for a variety of lunar exploration items.

The next challenge for the Glenn team is testing materials that could capture space debris. New types of aerogels that are lighter and stronger might be the key to developing and deploying in-space devices given ease of use and reduced mass for launch.



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Bettors Wish has arrived safely in Auckland to start his shuttle duty fully booked to some of the best mares in New Zealand and Australia.

His book includes Bagdarin, dam of Shartin N, 2019 U.S. Horse of the Year.

Graeme Henley, General Manager of Alabar NZ Ltd., reported he is delighted to be standing Bettors Wish, a superstar in the U.S. with strong connections to New Zealand having been trained by Chris Ryder and driven by Dexter Dunn.

Henley said Bettors Wish is a lovely horse settling in well and looking great.

(Alabar NZ Ltd.)
Baylor University Research Provides Evidence: Prison Fellowship International Program Transforms Prisoners, Prisons

PFI In-Prison Course in Vanguard of Emerging Field of 'Positive Criminology'







NEWS PROVIDED BY

Prison Fellowship International

Sept. 15, 2021



WASHINGTON, Sept. 15, 2021 /Standard Newswire/ -- A groundbreaking Baylor University study of a Prison Fellowship International (PFI) in-prison program provides evidence that the faith-based course transforms prisoners  and leads to culture change in prisons.

Byron Johnson

"PFI is providing innovative prison programs that are quickly becoming one of the centerpieces of the emerging field of positive criminology," said Dr. Byron Johnson, founding director of the Institute for Studies of Religion (ISR) at Baylor University.



Johnson leads the Baylor ISR research team conducting a longitudinal evaluation of PFI's "The Prisoner's Journey" (TPJ) course  which has already graduated more than 460,000 inmates worldwide. The research team conducted the first phase of the study in prisons in South Africa and Colombia during a 40-month period from January, 2018 to April, 2021. (They plan to continue the study and expand to more countries.)



Researchers are finding ample evidence to say empirically that participation in the TPJ course measurably increases prisoners' motivation for identity transformation (new meaning and purpose in life despite criminal past and incarceration) and growth of virtues. The program also reduces negative feelings and the risk of aggressive behaviors among participants. These changes in attitudes and beliefs are key indicators of a prisoner's successful rehabilitation.



"Our study of TPJ provides empirical evidence that prisoner rehabilitation needs more than risk management  specifically, a positive criminology approach to help prisoners achieve life goals of human flourishing, such as meaning and purpose; character and virtue; and emotional well-being," said Dr. Sung Joon Jang, research professor of criminology, co-director of the Program on Prosocial Behavior at ISR and co-author with Johnson of "The Restorative Prison," released this month.



"The Prisoner's Journey" (TPJ)

TPJ is an in-prison, structured course designed to "transform the lives of prisoners, from the inside out, by introducing them to restorative principles taught by Jesus, who was also a prisoner." It is centered on the book of Mark in the Bible, facilitated by trained inmates or volunteers.



Since its inception in 2014, more than 460,000 inmates worldwide have graduated from the eight-week TPJ course. More than 70% of these graduates have continued in a follow-on discipleship program. Currently, TPJ runs in 39 countries spanning the globe, including Africa, Asia Pacific, Caribbean, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.



Global Prison Ministry

Fifteen million people around the world are imprisoned annually. Problem-ridden correctional systems and high recidivism demonstrate that prisons alone are ill-equipped to rehabilitate inmates. The steadily growing rate of imprisonment and the massive impact imprisonment has on society form a vicious cycle that is difficult to break.



PFI's Bible-based prison course and unparalleled access to prisons worldwide  through indigenous ministry affiliates and partners  make it uniquely prepared for the challenge. Now, with the Baylor research that proves this program works, PFI is gearing up to continue expanding ministry activities that have carried on during the pandemic lockdowns and limitations on visitations by the empowering of Christian prisoners to run PFI courses.



"The Baylor research findings couldn't come at a better time," said David Van Patten, chief operating officer of PFI. "We are at the front end of a major push to engage 20% of the world's prison population with transformative programs like TPJ. We believe that at 20% we will trigger cultural change in prisons. This Baylor research is evidence that we are on the right track."

Andrew Corley

"We could not be more excited about the work (and the results) that this study represents," said Andrew Corley, president and chief executive officer of PFI. "Breaking cycles of crime and the restoring of lives for those who have been in prison is a complex issue. Ignoring the 'body, spirit, soul' tripartite nature of what is necessary for successful reintegration and rehabilitation will result in continued disappointing outcomes. But this study provides proof positive that better outcomes are possible."



"Programs like TPJ yield empirical validation of the reality that much of the truly innovative work being done in the name of prison reform is coming from faith-based programs operated by organizations like Prison Fellowship International," said Johnson. "These remarkable programs  led by faith-motivated volunteers -- are doing a lot to transform individuals and prisons across the world. I hate to think where we would be without these ministries that are dedicated to serving the least of these."



About Prison Fellowship International

Since 1979, PFI has helped prisoners experience transformation from the inside out through the healing power of the Gospel. Its mission is to transform the lives of prisoners, their families and victims through a global network of ministry partners. Learn more at pfi.org.



SOURCE Prison Fellowship International



CONTACT: Christine Moore, 469-688-5683, cmoore@PFI.org;

Gregg Wooding, 972-567-7660, gwooding@iampronline.com



Related Links



pfi.org


San Antonio Men's Rehab Center Serves Men with Addiction and Life-Controlling Issues

NEWS PROVIDED BYSept. 15, 2021SAN ANTONIO, Texas, Sept. 15, 2021 / Standard Newswire / -- Adult and Teen Challenge of Texas, San Antonio Men's Rehab Center announced their fall fundraising event Greater Things Gala, to be held on Friday, October 15 with virtual and in-person options.The San Antonio Men's Center serves men suffering from drug and alcohol addiction with a 12-month residential discipleship and life skills vocational training program. On campus, men receive group and individual biblical counseling, parenting classes, spiritual support, relapse prevention, anger management, and social/recreational activities as well as rehabilitation and a sober living for program graduates.The 'Greater Things Gala' is Adult & Teen Challenge of Texas's signature fall fundraising event draws over 500 of San Antonio's most devoted supporters who are passionate about addiction recovery in our city, this year both virtually and in person. The fundraiser will be held at Gateway Fellowship Church on Friday, October 15 at 7 p.m.Austin Baughman, Men's Rehab Center Director, says, "Addiction is skyrocketing in Texas - the number of deaths due to alcohol and drugs is the 5th leading cause of death in the United States. Recognized nationally as a public health crisis, addiction has taken a significant toll on lives in Texas. Most Texans needing help for addiction do not receive it."Baughman further explained, "Here in Bexar County, residents are overdosing from opioids at a rate nearly twice the national average. One-third of all babies born in Texas suffering from opioid withdrawal are born in Bexar County. The pandemic, isolation, sickness, grief, job loss, food instability, and loss of routines have devastated many Bexar County residents and increased the need for addiction recovery programs."The San Antonio Men's Rehab Center typically admits 180 men each year who are needing help for a life controlling issue. Offering yearlong, residential, Christian faith-based recovery programs for men, women, and teens who are struggling with a life-controlling issue, typically substance abuse, the program has served San Antonio for 52 years with the opening of the first center. Today the program has grown to operate programs in 10 Texas cities with 400 total beds. The yearlong length of the program, the minimal cost to participants, and the emphasis on transformation distinguish Adult and Teen Challenge of Texas from other programs.For more information on Adult and Teen Challenge of Texas San Antonio Men's Rehab Center, go to https://sanantoniomensrehab.com , or contact Christian Acuna at 210.319.1320 or christian.acuna@tctexas.org SOURCE Adult and Teen Challenge of Texas San Antonio Men's Rehab CenterCONTACT: Christian Acuna, 210-319-1320, christian.acuna@tctexas.org Related Links
DP World today (September 15) announced that it will begin work next month on a new fourth berth being built at an investment of 300 million ($415 million) at its London Gateway logistics hub to increase supply chain resilience and create more capacity for the world's largest vessels.

The 300 million sum - which builds on the 2bn investment DP World has made in Britain over the last decade  represents the next step by the leading global provider of smart logistics in delivering integrated supply chain solutions for customers, saifd the statement from DP World.

In the first six months of 2021 London Gateway saw record throughput of 888,000 TEU, a more than 23 per cent increase on the previous best performance for the first half of a year.

The new fourth berth will raise capacity by a third and completion will coincide with the delivery of a new wave of 24,000 TEU vessels in 2023/2024, which will all be operated between Asia and Europe, it added.

Group Chairman and CEO Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem said: "I am delighted to announce that we will go ahead with our latest major investment in the UK, which will give London Gateway more capacity to handle the world's largest vessels than any other port in the country."

"As a central pillar of Thames Freeport, London Gateway's new fourth berth will allow even more customers to benefit from world class ports and logistics, with unrivalled global connectivity, on the doorstep of Europe's largest consumer market," he noted.

"DP World plans to be at the heart of Britain's trading future and this investment shows that we have the ambition and the resources to boost growth, support businesses, create jobs and improve living standards," stated Bin Sulayem.

Rishi Sunak MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer, will be guest of honour at today's commercial launch of Thames Freeport at the Savoy Hotel in London.

"Our new freeports will create national hubs of trade, innovation and commerce, and attract more investment to regenerate communities and level up the UK," stated Sunak.

"Bringing ports and business together to invest in their regions is crucial to the Freeports success story  that's why I'm thrilled that DP World is investing 300 million to support Thames Freeport  creating new opportunities, boosting growth and supporting local jobs," he added.

The Dubai group said along with the Port of Tilbury and Ford's Dagenham plant DP World London Gateway will form Thames Freeport after being awarded freeport status by the Government earlier this year, with the partners currently progressing the business case with a view to receiving formal accreditation.

DP World Southampton has also been awarded freeport status as part of Solent Freeport, further cementing the critical role of both logistics hubs in the UK's international trade.-TradeArabia News Service
WorldGBC has announced an update to the Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment, expanding its scope to recognise enhanced leadership action in tackling embodied carbon emissions from the building and construction sector.

To accompany the Commitment update and its reduction-first approach to decarbonisation, WorldGBC has also published Advancing Net Zero Whole Life Carbon: Offsetting Residual Emissions from the Building and Construction Sector, providing guidance for how the sector should compensate for its total carbon impacts.

The built environment is responsible for almost 40% of global carbon emissions, with 10% from embodied carbon from materials and construction processes.

To limit warming to no more than 1.5C as set out in the Paris Agreement, the #BuildingToCOP26 Coalition has called for emissions from buildings globally to be halved by 2030, and to reach net zero life-cycle emissions for all buildings by no later than 2050.

As part of the efforts to accelerate these goals, WorldGBC announces an update to its Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment to promote and inspire leadership action towards addressing embodied carbon as well as emissions from building operations.

In addition to the Commitment requiring all building assets within direct control to account for all operational carbon emissions (released from the energy used to heat, light, cool and power them) by 2030, from January 1, 2023 businesses and organisations will also be required to:

Account for whole lifecycle impact of all new buildings and major renovations by mandating they are built to be highly efficient, powered by renewables, with maximum reductions in embodied carbon and compensation of all residual upfront emissions.

Track and report business activities that influence the indirect reduction of whole life carbon emissions.

This ambitious step is expected to drive similar levels of action from the sector as reported in the recently released Advancing Net Zero Status Report 2021, which highlights how signatories are embedding the Commitment requirements into their business operations, and help the sector advance its decarbonisation goals.

WorldGBCs Whole Life Carbon Vision for the sector includes a roadmap for the decarbonisation of the built environment, with critical 2030 interim goals and total decarbonisation by 2050.

It is outcomes based and action focused, requiring signatories to develop a bespoke roadmap to decarbonise their portfolios by following best practice principles prioritising reduction of energy consumption and embodied carbon, and the use of renewable energy.

This leadership action of Commitment signatories, reinforced with the additional focus on maximum reductions of embodied carbon, means that all new developments and renovations will also prioritise the efficient use of low carbon materials and construction processes, reduce reliance on fossil fuels in construction, and support the transition to a fully decarbonised built environment.

The Commitment promotes aggressive reduction-first strategies, with residual emissions being compensated for via best practice offsets. Until reductions in fossil fuel consumption and emissions become business as usual as part of energy systems and supply chain production processes, there will be some reliance on offsets in order to achieve the balance of net zero emissions. However, through the leadership of Commitment signatories driving demand for low carbon materials and practices, this is expected to reduce over time.

To encourage a best practice approach to decarbonisation, and facilitate net positive impact in pursuit of net zero emissions, WorldGBC has published a guidance document for the sector  Advancing Net Zero Whole Life Carbon: Offsetting Residual Emissions from the Building and Construction Sector.

As part of the transition towards total sector decarbonisation that also enables tangible environment and social co-benefits in support of the Sustainable Development Goals, the guidance document promotes a best practice-approach to offsetting detailed in three principles:

Prioritise emissions reduction: Minimise the need for offsets in the first place via best practice sustainable construction and operation. This means reducing energy demand, shifting away from fossil fuels, and using 100% renewable energy as soon as possible.

Compensate for residual emissions: For any residual emissions - those which cannot be abated - invest in carbon reduction or storage projects that are credible, unique, additional and permanent, as determined via independent third party verification.

Advance tangible benefits: Direct investment into offsets that store carbon and provide additional tangible environmental and/or social improvements, particularly those that have additional nature-based co-benefits or co-benefits in line with the Sustainable Development Goals.

In this approach, WorldGBC encourages the building and construction sector to explore short-term opportunities to support the overall decarbonisation agenda via investment in efforts that enable others to advance their journey to net zero, such as through energy efficiency improvements or establishing access to renewable energy sources.

Whilst these sector-based offset projects and non credit based actions are currently under developed, WorldGBC calls on the sector to recognise how this approach is critical to achieving sector decarbonisation goals.

Globally, 10% of carbon emissions comes from the materials and construction processes required to build and renovate buildings, also known as embodied carbon. However, it is estimated that between 2020 and 2050, more than half of total carbon emissions from all new global construction will be due to embodied carbon.

As carbon emissions from the energy used to heat, cool, light and power buildings are reduced through improved energy efficiency and renewable energy, the impact of embodied carbon becomes more significant than ever. This bold approach to accelerate total sector decarbonisation, introduced by the update to the Commitment, is required from the sector to account for these impacts.

With COP26 and the #BuildingToCOP26 Coalition spotlighting the built environment as a critical solution through the UNs Race to Zero campaign and the Cities, Regions and Built Environment Day, this sector initiative is crucial in the wider advocacy efforts, calling on bolder and more ambitious building regulation to bring these solutions to scale.

The UN backed Race to Zero campaign is mobilising the shift towards a net zero carbon economy to halve emissions by 2030 and achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050 at the latest.

Recognising the crucial role of the built environment in achieving this goal, our industry must ensure that by 2030 all new buildings, infrastructure and renovations will have at least 40% less embodied carbon with significant upfront carbon reduction, and all new buildings must be net zero operational carbon.

The 2030 goal is an important milestone leading to 2050, where all new and existing buildings must be totally decarbonised. This requires an unprecedented shift in the way buildings are designed, built, renovated and re-used, in order to stay within remaining carbon budgets for a below 1.5oC Paris Agreement aligned future.

Aligned with the Race to Zero emissions breakthroughs, the Commitment enables signatories to take action further faster, towards their 2030 decarbonisation goals, whilst also stimulating the mainstreaming of critical and innovative approaches, solutions and business models necessary for the sector to reach climate goals by 2050.

Cristina Gamboa, CEO of the World Green Building Council said: The update to the WorldGBCs Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment elevates the ambition for the building and construction sector to go further and faster to decarbonise. It sets a target for compensating for emissions associated with buildings and construction, and the tangible social and environmental co-benefits of this approach creates a powerful catalyst towards achieving the Paris Agreement goals and the Sustainable Development Goals. Achieving our vision of sustainable buildings for everyone, everywhere means acting now to tackle upfront carbon, whilst planning with whole life carbon in mind.

Nigel Topping, COP26 High Level Climate Action Champion, said: "With the buildings sector accounting for 40% of global emissions and 50% of resource consumption, the need for urgent action is critical. WorldGBC's Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment provides a bold approach for businesses looking to be a front runner in decarbonising emissions from buildings by 2030."

Ed Mazria, Founder & CEO, Architecture2030, said: "The science and global carbon budget for limiting warming to 1.5C are clear. The time to act is now. With the WorldGBC's Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment including both embodied and operational carbon, the organisations, firms and subnational governments responsible for planning, designing, constructing and developing the global built environment can demonstrate their specific actions that meet the Paris Agreements 1.5C budget. By showing what is possible, our community will embolden others to do the same."

Alberto Carrillo Pineda, Managing Director and Co-Founder of the Science Based Targets initiative, said: Bold action is vital to limit the worst effects of climate breakdown  and thats why the Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment from the WorldGBC is so important. This leadership sets the direction for the building and construction industry. Considering the state of the climate emergency, we are calling on all world leaders, businesses and individuals to take urgent action to decarbonise the built environment at the pace and scale required by science.

The Commitment now has a total of 143 signatories, with 109 businesses and organisations; 28 cities; and 6 states and regions. The businesses and organisations signed up to the Commitment account for over 5.3 million (tCO2e) of portfolio emissions, and are already taking significant steps to decarbonise their portfolio operations. -- TradeArabia News Service
The Informatics and Smart Health Department at the Dubai Health Authority has launched the first Artificial Intelligence Policy for healthcare in Dubai.

The policy is in line with the vision of the UAE Strategy for Artificial Intelligence that intends to achieve the UAE Centennial 2071 objectives, boost government performance, and invest in AI adoption.

The AI policy for the health sector in Dubai aims to determine regulatory requirements for the provision of artificial intelligence solutions in field of healthcare; it determines the ethical requirements for artificial intelligence solutions as well as defines the main roles and responsibilities of stakeholders involved in the development and use of artificial intelligence in healthcare.

The policy has an in-depth legislative and regulatory framework for the use of artificial intelligence solutions in the field of health and research and aims to enhance the level of interaction, communication and cooperation between government health agencies, the private sector and the scientific community on the applications of artificial intelligence to contribute to accelerating the development of health services.

The scope of this policy extends to include all artificial intelligence solutions related to healthcare services used by medical facilities, specialists, drug manufacturers, health insurance companies, public health centres and researchers within the jurisdiction of the Dubai Health Authority.

Dr Mohammad Al Redha, Director of Health Informatics and Smart Health Department at the Dubai Health Authority said that the term artificial intelligence refers to systems or devices that simulate human intelligence to perform tasks with the use of data that is collated through AI.

Dr Al Redha said that artificial intelligence in healthcare includes the use of artificial intelligence robots to perform surgery faster and assist the surgeon more efficiently; it also includes the use of artificial intelligence to analyse important health information from a large set of data.

Dr Al Redha explained that artificial intelligence is more about the ability to think and analyse data more than it is related to a specific form or function.

He added that AI aims to enhance human capabilities and contributions, making it a valuable business asset.

Dr Al Redha said: "Artificial intelligence is a cornerstone in the growth plans of the health sector in the UAE, especially as it offers broad prospects for the development of current sectors, in addition to paving the way for a large and new set of business models and innovative technologies.

He stressed that the policy will benefit all healthcare stakeholders, the overall health sector as well as patients.

Dr Al Redha added that the policy is in line with the authority's commitment to advance the growth of the health sector and employ artificial intelligence for the benefit of patients and society."

Dr Mahira Abdel Rahman, Information and Smart Health Policy Officer at the DHA said: Through this policy, we seek to benefit from the capabilities of artificial intelligence to ensure smart management, work with high efficiency and enhance productivity in the health field.

She added: "The policy has been formulated according to best clinical practices and emerging research. The policy mandates that all AI solutions for healthcare comply with the international and federal information laws, regulations and guidelines of the UAE and Dubai, especially with regard to human values, patient privacy, people's rights and professional ethics, in the long and short term.

She highlighted that the policy also focusses on the need for AI healthcare solutions to be safe, secure and subject to supervision and monitoring by professional users to ensure technology is used to empower the health sector and patients.-- TradeArabia News Service
The opening session of the sixth annual The Maritime Standard Tanker Conference will assess tanker shipping trends over the short and longer terms, and how companies are adjusting priorities, plans and strategies to reflect these trends.

The conference takes place on November 23 in person at the Dubai World Trade Centre, and one of the highlights of the programme is sure to be the opening Session 1, which has the theme Tanker trades - assessing the short and long-term picture.

Clive Woodbridge, Conference Editor, says: The opening part of the conference sets the tone for what is going to be a really informative and stimulating day. There is a lot of uncertainty about the immediate and longer-term outlook for tankers and the top-quality speakers we have lined up for this session will get proceedings off to a high tempo start.

Kicking off the initial session, conference attendees will hear a keynote speech by Dr Ibrahim Al Nadhairi, CEO of Asyad Shipping and Drydock Services. This presentation will provide a unique perspective on tanker markets, as the company is both a leading tanker operator and a provider of drydocking services.

Woodbridge said: We are delighted and very fortunate to have someone of Dr Ibrahims calibre and experience to be our keynote speaker this year. I am sure his observations on overarching market trends will be of great interest.

Moving onto the main part of Session 1, panellists will reflect on recent changes to regional oil and petrochemical trade flows, future market prospects as well as tanker fleet growth projections.

Speakers will look at markets both from a global perspective and also at the specific characteristics of the Middle East and Subcontinent trades.

Shipowner executives confirmed to speak in Session 1 include Captain Abdulkareem Al Masabi, CEO of Adnoc Logistics & Services, and H K Joshi, Chairperson and Managing Director of the Shipping Corporation of India.

The ports and terminals perspective will be provided by DP Worlds Captain Nasser Sabt, Director of Marine at Jebel Ali Port, and Captain Maktoum Al Houqani, Chief Corporate Authority Officer, Abu Dhabi Ports. They will reflect on the liquid bulk trade patterns that the two leading UAE ports are seeing and their plans to facilitate tanker trade growth over the coming years.

Leading the biggest tanker repair yard in the region, Captain Rado Antolovic, Chief Executive of Drydocks World, will describe demand scenarios for repair and upgrade services from the sector, and will highlight the master plan the yard is preparing to ensure it can continue to provide high levels of service to tanker owners and operators as their requirements evolve.

Session 1 will also include a presentation by Andy McKeran, Business Director, Maritime Performance Services, Lloyds Register, who will describe some of the ways that the leading classification society is helping tanker shipping companies improve their operational efficiency.

In addition, Navin Kumar, Director, Maritime Research at Drewry Shipping Consultants, will draw on his deep interest in cost modelling for shipping and what is described as a natural affinity for number crunching to present an overarching review of prospects for all tanker shipping sectors.

Woodbridge, who will chair Session 1, adds: Many market analysts believe that short term pain will give way to significant longer-term gains as the market fundamentals rebalance. Ultimately it seems there is no reason why the rest of the 2020s should not be years of growth for those active in tanker shipping and I expect that speakers in this first session will underscore the opportunities that exist in the short, medium and long term, while not downplaying the very real challenges.-- TradeArabia News Service
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This was reported by the South Korean military. Two days ago the launch of a long-range cruise missile with probable nuclear capability. Chinese foreign visits Seoul.

Seoul (AsiaNew/Agencies) - North Korea launched two ballistic missiles in the Sea of Japan this morning. This was reported by the South Korean Joint Forces Command, adding that Seoul and U.S. intelligence are cooperating to obtain further information. Japan also confirmed the launch, which Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga called "offensive" and a threat to regional security.

Today's is the second missile test in a few days for the North Koreans, who on Sept. 13 launched a long-range cruise missile with probable nuclear capability.

The ballistic tests contravene U.N. resolutions designed to curb North Korea's nuclear activity. Compared to cruise missiles, ballistic missiles can carry larger loads, reach more distant targets and travel faster.

Kim Jong-un's regime is grappling with a severe economic crisis marked by food shortages. In the last year, the country has been in isolation and trade with China - its only true partner - has also dropped dramatically. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is in Seoul for two days of talks.

Last month, Pyongyang spoke of a "serious security crisis" referring to the annual military exercise between South Korea and the United States. The communist regime also gave signs of restarting a nuclear reactor producing plutonium in Yongbyon.
by Nirmala Carvalho

After four years of legal wrangles, the High Court acquitted Fr George Mangalapilly. Hindu extremists had accused him of forcing residents of a village to convert via Christmas carols sung by a group of seminarians. Certain of his innocence, the priest is relieved of the verdict.

Bhopal (AsiaNews)  Madhya Pradesh High Court recently acquitted Fr George Mangalapilly. Bajrang Dal, a Hindu nationalist organisation, had filed charges against him and a group of Catholics alleging they had been involved in forced religious conversion.

The case dates back to 14 December 2017 when Hindu radicals attacked 32 students from St Ephrem's Theological College in Satna (Madhya Pradesh) accompanied by nine religious and a local driver claiming that they had been singing Christmas carols in the streets of the village of Jawahar Nagar Bhumkahar.

According to the Bajrang Dal, the group of Catholics was trying to convert people through Christmas carols. According to Raghunath Dohar, one of the complainants, the carollers also tried to bribe people with offers of money, 5,000 rupees (US$ 70), plus a rosary.

During their incident, the Hindu extremists set fire to the seminarians van, and later stormed the police station where the Catholics were held.

We are very glad that the case has been dismissed, said Fr Maria Stephen, head of public relations of the Diocese of Madhya Pradesh. The case brought us agony for several years although we had no doubts that accusations had no merit.

Fr George Mangalapilly, one of the accused priests, said he was relieved after hearing the verdict.

Although he was detained less than 24 hours and was certain of his innocent, the last four years have been a great strain, especially after the High Court decided not to quash criminal proceedings in August 2020.

Fr George noted that all 32 seminarians involved in the case except one were ordained priests.

Religious conversion is a highly controversial issue in many areas of India, particularly in Madhya Pradesh.

Local priests and missionaries are often targeted by traditional Hindu groups, who accuse them of luring and bribing people to convert to Christianity.

Recently the state government, which is ruled by Hindu nationalists, has increased the penalties for forced conversion, which is used to intimidate the small local Christian community.
by Steve Suwannarat

Malaysias new Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob and his government plan to appeal last weeks High Court ruling overturning a discriminatory law that grants citizenship to children of mixed couples only if the father is Malaysian. For civil society groups, the governments appeal is a betrayal of rights.

Kuala Lumpur (AsiaNews)  Malaysias new government under Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob has refused to accept a ruling by the High Court in Kuala Lumpur last week, granting children of Malaysian women and foreign fathers automatic recognition as citizens.

The government has filed papers to appeal against the High Court asking for a review of the ruling, noting that it would be discriminatory since Malaysian men married to foreign women have the right to decide the citizenship of their children.

In view of the governments decision, civil society groups immediately launched protest actions.

Family Frontiers, an organisation committed to family-related human rights, launched a petition against what it has called a betrayal of rights.

At least 5,000 people signed the petition in 24 hours asking the government to drop its appeal against the court decision.

Hannah Yeoh, an opposition MP and a former Minister for Women, Family and Community Development, slammed the government as nonsensical and cruel for its willingness to perpetuate "this gross injustice.

Several factors have influenced the government's decision, carried out by the State Attorney's Office.

The dispute is affected by government policies that have traditionally favoured Malaysias Malay majority, just over half of the population, to which the various ruling parties have guaranteed status and benefits out of political opportunism and shared (Islamic) religion.

An alleged "common feeling" has led to arbitrary situations at the expense of ethnic and religious minorities (Christians are less than 12 per cent of the population).

This is also affected by the persistent tensions between civil law and Islamic religious law (Sharia), especially in the context of family law, which is often used by courts in disputes among Muslims and, at times, also imposed on non-Muslims.
by Vladimir Rozanskij

The 800th anniversary of the birth of the "protector" prince of Orthodox Russia was celebrated. Speaker of the Senate: "A figure that unifies the epochs of Russian and Soviet history". 80 years since the beginning of the Nazi siege of St. Petersburg also commemorated. History exploited to preserve the Putin power system.

Moscow (AsiaNews) - Patriarch Kirill (Gundjaev) of Moscow presided over a solemn liturgy in his hometown of St. Petersburg in honor of the holy prince Aleksandr Nevsky (1221-1263), the "protector of Russia" under the Tatars, whose 800th feast day falls on the day of his birth.

The rite, celebrated on September 12, was reduced to the essentials to maintain precautions against the pandemic, which is still claiming lives in Russia. The patriarch recited the Moleben (litanic prayer) together with many bishops and priests, and then led a symbolic procession, attended by about 1,000 people.

The prayer began at the Lavra of St. Aleksandr Nevsky, the monastery that stands at the end of Nevsky Prospect, the great central street of St. Petersburg. The celebrants carried the splendid ark with the saint's relics, comissioned in 1700 by Tsar Peter the Great.

The precious reliquary leaves the monastic seat only once a year on the occasion of this feast, established in 1724 precisely for the occasion of the translation of the relics. The ceremony was attended by the speaker of the Senate, Valentina Matvienko, a loyalist of President Putin who has long ruled the region of St. Petersburg, the current governor Aleksandr Drozdenko, the mayor Aleksandr Beglov and the representative of the presidency Aleksandr Gutsan. Also present was a delegation from Serbia, an Orthodox country where Aleksandr Nevsky is highly venerated, led by the mayor of Belgrade, Zoran Radojcic.

The feast crowns the year dedicated to the prince of the north, who had assumed the titles of Kiev, Novgorod and Vladimir, the capitals of the ancient Rus', when Moscow was still a simple posting station. The saint is also celebrated by Belarusians, and various monuments, churches, books and publications, even artistic competitions and other events have been dedicated to him. His canonization took place in 1547, during the heyday of the political theory of "Moscow-Third Rome" under Tsar Ivan the Terrible.

As Matvienko recalled, the saint is a figure who unifies the eras of Russian and Soviet history, "a great leader, diplomat, politician and great patriot, whom they rightly call the forefather of the revival of the ancient Rus'." Russians jealously preserved his relics even during the years of Soviet atheism. In 1989 Gorbacev returned them to the Russian Orthodox Church, following the celebrations for the millennium of the Baptism of Kiev in 1988, which marked the beginning of the religious revival in Russia.

Along with the glory of the victorious saint, St. Petersburg also marked the 80th anniversary of the Nazi siege of the city that began on Sept. 8, 1941. The Germans held the city in check for over 900 days, with the local population setting an example of supreme heroism and sacrifice. Matvienko urged those present "not to falsify our historical memory of the various eras, as many try to do today. We must transmit authentic memory to future generations." The preservation of historical truth is the content of a special law passed this year by the Russian Parliament, following special constitutional amendments.

The day before the feast, Patriarch Kirill joined Putin for the opening of a memorial complex, with a large bronze composition dedicated to "Saint Aleksandr Nevsky and his company" on the banks of the Cudskoe (Peipus for Prussians). This is the lake where in 1242 the much celebrated "battle of the ice" took place, in which the prince defeated the Livonian armies of the Teutonic Knights, intent on conquering Russia for the benefit of the Latin West.
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Christians are weavers of dialogue where hostility is growing; models of fraternal life where society is experiencing tension and hostility; bringers of the sweet fragrance of hospitality and solidarity where personal and collective selfishness too often prevails, protectors and guardians of life where the culture of death reigns.

Bratislava (AsiaNews)  Pope Francis delivered his last message today before leaving Slovakia, warning Christians that faith cannot be reduced to a sweetener to make life more palatable.

In his address, the pontiff urged Christians not to be hostile to the world noting that as Jesus is a sign of contradiction, they too should be a sign of contradiction, open to dialogue, friendship and solidarity, defenders of life.

The National Marian Shrine in Sastin, where Francis celebrated the last Mass of his journey, has been dedicated to Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows (pictured), the countrys patron saint, since the 1700s.

Today, on her feast day, more than 60,000 people gathered in front of the shrine, which houses a 16th century wooden Pieta, declared miraculous in 1732, after the examination of 726 cases.

Pope Francis, who donated a golden rose to the shrine, made his way among the crowd on his popemobile; among the pilgrims, Slovak President Zuzana Caputova (pictured).

In his homily, the Holy Father spoke of Mary as a "model of faith and about how Christians can be prophetic.

This has nothing to do with hostility toward the world, but with being signs of contradiction within the world. Christians who can demonstrate the beauty of the Gospel by the way they live. Christians who are weavers of dialogue where hostility is growing; models of fraternal life where society is experiencing tension and hostility; bringers of the sweet fragrance of hospitality and solidarity where personal and collective selfishness too often prevails, protectors and guardians of life where the culture of death reigns.

The celebration at the shrine began shortly after 9 am (local time) with a moment of prayer by the Pope and the bishops who recited together the prayer of entrustment to the Virgin of the Seven Sorrows. Francis also dedicated his reflection to Mary.

As the Immaculate Virgin, Mary is the icon of our own vocation, for, like her, we are called to be holy and blameless in love (cf. Eph 1:4), images of Christ. What is more, in Mary we can discern three dimensions of faith: [. . .] journey, prophecy and compassion.

First, Marys is a faith that sets her on a journey to see her cousin. [. . .] She did not consider it a privilege to be chosen as the Mother of the Saviour; she did not lose the simple joy of her humility after the visit of the angel; she did not keep thinking about herself within the four walls of her house.

Instead, she experienced the gift she had received as a mission to be carried out; she felt urged to open the door and go out; she became completely caught up in Gods own haste to reach all people with his saving love. That is why Mary set out on her journey. She chose the unknowns of the journey over the comfort of her daily routines, the weariness of travel over the peace and quiet of home; the risk of a faith that makes our lives a loving gift to others over a placid piety.

Marys faith is also prophetic, for she shows that Where Jesus is concerned, we cannot remain lukewarm, with a foot in both camps; we cannot. When I accept him, he reveals my contradictions, my idols, my temptations. He becomes my resurrection, the one who always lifts me up when I fall, the one who takes me by the hand and lets me start anew.

Mary, Mother of Sorrows, remains at the foot the cross. She simply stands there. She does not run away, or try to save herself, or find ways to alleviate her grief. Here is the proof of true compassion: to remain standing beneath the cross. To stand there weeping, yet with the faith that knows that, in her Son, God transfigures pain and suffering and triumphs over death.

In contemplating the Sorrowful Mother, may we too open our hearts to a faith that becomes compassion, a faith that identifies with those who are hurting, suffering and forced to bear heavy crosses. A faith that does not remain abstract, but becomes incarnate in fellowship with those in need. A faith that imitates Gods way of doing things, quietly relieves the suffering of our world and waters the soil of history with salvation.

As he bid his final farewell, Francis said: "I carry you in my heart. Afterwards, he went straight to the airport. A short farewell ceremony followed before his departure for Rome, where he is expected to land at 3.30 pm (local time). (FP)
by Fady Noun

The 64-yer-old from Chanay is married with four children. He will succeed Sheikh Naim Hassan when the latters mandate expires on 5 November. For many he is a man of openness, peace and dialogue, in the spirit of fraternity espoused by Pope Francis. Sources close to Druze leader Walid Jumblatt denounce attempts to "impose" someone close to Syria.

Beirut (AsiaNews)  Sami Abil-Muna has been elected as the new Sheikh Akl of the Druze community. The 64-year-old, who hails from Chanay (Aley), will replace Sheikh Naim Hassan at the end of the latter's mandate on 5 November.

A man of openness, peace and dialogue, he represents an opportunity for his community and for Lebanon. The office he will occupy is an official institution representing the interests of the Druze community vis-a-vis the Lebanese state.

Yesterday President Michel Aoun was among the first to congratulate the new spiritual leader of the Druze community.

Sami Abil-Muna was the only name proposed to the Druze Community Council when the deadline for submitting candidates for the office of Sheikh Akl expired on 10 September, the day of the election. He will take office at the end of the term of his predecessor, elected in 2005.

Proposed by Walid Jumblatt, Sheikh Abil-Munas election caused a stir within the Druze community. Various sources note that the names of other candidates had been mentioned among circles close to lawmaker Arslane and former minister Wahhab.

At the head of a delegation of Druze religious figures, the two men were received on Sunday, 4 September, by Syrian President Bashir al-Assad in Damascus in order to tip the balance in favour of a pro-Syrian candidate.

Politically and religiously, they wanted to impose on us someone close to Syria," said a source close to Walid Jumblatt who requested anonymity. We decided to stop being blackmailed, and Sheikh Sami Abil-Munas candidacy found its way to the secretariat of the Community Council, while the other proposed candidates were not really up to the job, and could not get the number of votes required to be chosen.

Candidates

Nizar Baradhi, secretary general of the Community Council, noted that Sheikh Sami Abil-Muna did not run for this position, but that his name was put forward by a 10-member committee of the Community Council, which included four ulema or sheikhs.

It is known that at the time of Sheikh Naim Hassans election, the faction close to Mr. Arslane and Mr. Wahhab had decided to name a rival, Nasreddine Gharib. The latter is still in office as the second Sheikh Akl, so to speak, but he does not enjoy any of the official prerogatives that come with the office: signatures, residence at Druze House, precedence at official ceremonies, etc.

Notwithstanding concerns about a repeat of the 2005 election, an authorised source close to the Community Council noted that the existence of two Akl sheikhs is contrary to the new law regulating the activities of the council itself and renders obsolete an ancient tradition under which the office of Sheikh Akl alternates between the Yazbaki and Jumblatti clans.

A man of peace and dialogue

Married, father of four, including a boy who died prematurely of cancer, Sheikh Sami Abil-Muna is the secretary general of the al-Ourfan Foundation, which has the largest network of Druze schools and social services.

He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from the Lebanese University (1980), and a PhD from the Faculty of Religious Sciences at Saint Joseph University with a thesis on "The Druze Vision of Islamic-Christian Dialogue in Lebanon" (2015).

He is present on all education-related platforms, and is regularly invited to international conferences centred on interfaith dialogue.

A poet, he is appreciated as a speaker and regularly invited to speak at conferences organised by the Druze community abroad.

"He is the international face of the community," said Fr Fadi Daou, founder of Adyan, an NGO working on the concepts of "inclusive citizenship and diversity" and "spiritual solidarity".

"He is a brother to me," added the clergyman, "in the spirit of the fraternity which Pope Francis espouses in his encyclical, whereby we are all responsible for one other.

He is also a man of peace, who does and will do everything to boost reconciliation on the Mountain, truly and genuinely committed to living together, while at the same time proud of belonging to his community. His election is an opportunity for his community and for Lebanon.

Under the statutes of the Community Council, the office of Sheikh Akl entails either a 15-year term (renewable, health permitting) or one with an age limit of 75.
by Shafique Khokhar

A Muslim man tried to kidnap Arushma Ejaz in order to convert her and force her into marriage. After a number of intimidatory and violent incidents, her mother turned to the Human Rights Focus Pakistan organisation. The police accepted the First Information Report only after 47 days. The second hearing of the case is set for tomorrow.

Faisalabad (AsiaNews)  After months of threats and attempted kidnappings, Arushma Ejaz, a young woman from Rabbani Colony, turned to Human Rights Focus Pakistan (HRFP) late last month for help after her complaints to the police proved useless.

A man named Ghulam Jelani has been stalking her for a while, going so far as to try to kidnap her back in mid-July in order to convert her to Islam and force her to marry him.

To this end, Jelani broke into Arushmas home, armed, forced to leave only after neighbours intervened. In this incident, the police arrived too late.

In the following days, Jelani continued to follow the young woman in an attempt to kidnap her.

He threatened to kill the young woman's brothers if she refused to marry him, and then attempted to intimidate her family by saying that he would accuse them of violating the blasphemy law.

At this point, Arushma's mother contacted HRFP, which immediately brought the case to the Faisalabad District Court. However, the human rights organisation was able to file a First Information Report with police only on 2 September.

Under maximum security, Arushma and her mother testified before the court 10 days later. The next hearing is scheduled for tomorrow.

For HRFP President Naveed Walter, kidnappings, forced conversions and forced marriages are not yet considered a serious matter by the state. The government sometimes talks about high-profile single issues, but never addresses the underlying causes, much less tries to eliminate them.

A big problem continues to be police reluctance to get involved in such cases. In Jelanis, he was held in custody for a while, then released without trial.

From the first call to the police to actual action, 47 days passed, Walter pointed out.

The HRFP told AsiaNews that it was concerned by how free and fair trials involving girls from religious minorities are, given the fact that often political and religious figures publicly support the culprits.

Muslims who convert [to other religions] would be called murtads (apostates), so that only non-Muslims can convert, the organisation added.

For the HRFP, the authorities must stop protecting kidnappers and rapists who hide behind forced conversions and marriages to save themselves from punishment.
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Permanent Representative of India to the UN, Ambassador TS Tirumurti on Tuesday welcomed the financial aid extended by international partners to Sudan for peacebuilding activities.

Speaking at the UNSC briefing/consultations on UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS), Tirumurti said all these positive steps ensure the emergence of real opportunities in Sudan in developmental areas.

Indian ambassador also recognised that Sudan has made important strides in its macro-economic agenda and continued to implement economic reforms.

"These steps have helped Sudan reach the decision point for the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative and to unlock debt relief and funds for socio-economic programmes. We welcome the financial assistance extended by Sudan's international partners as well as the establishment of the Sudan Peace Fund to support peacebuilding activities," he said.

On the security front, Tirumurti emphasised the transitional government has continued to make efforts to provide protection to civilians in Darfur through the deployment of joint Government forces to de-escalate violence.

"These are positive developments which reflect the broadening of governance structures and the sustained commitment of the authorities to implement the National Plan for Civilian Protection. The transitional government has also taken steps to improve child protection legislation."

While raising concerns about the intercommunal clashes, India's Permanent Representative noted that there have been reports of incidents of criminality targeting the UN and its personnel during the reporting period. "We encourage the transitional Government to take measures to ensure the safety and security of UN personnel and its premises in line with the new SOMA (Status of Mission Agreement) signed on 4 July."

He said that India also encourages the implementation of assurances and guarantees given with regard to the protection of civilians and to urgently address humanitarian concerns.

In conclusion, ambassador Tirumurti added," as Sudan makes confident strides towards a brighter future, India remains committed to supporting Sudan and its people in this political transition."

(ANI)

Also Read: UN calls for quick release of USD 1.2 billion aid to Afghanistan
Until we acknowledge that the insurrection in Washington resulted, at least in part, from the riots and disorder which occurred the previous summer we will not come together as a country, he wrote. Unification comes from the middle and spreads outward. There are too many in the middle who see the willingness to blame one side and not the other as hypocrisy at its worst.
Im pleased about that, but until they start to come down the other side of this, we cant lighten up on our mitigations because, once again, were trying to defeat this so that people can go about their daily lives, Pritzker said Tuesday at an unrelated event in Aurora.
We go to a theater for catharsis. Literally thats what we go for: to be in communion with each other, hear a story told in the dark and experience catharsis, said Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda. For a while, it wasnt safe to do that. And its safe to come back now with the protocols we have in place.
The midsection of Cry Macho, a lyric small-town interlude, lets the plot nap for a while, as Mike teaches Rafo how to break wild mustangs, and Mike and Rafo come into the saintly good graces of the widow Marta (Traven) and her grandchildren. Its far-fetched  a fairy tale, straight up  but its the best part of the movie. The whole of it would work better with a stronger young actor as Rafo (and better dialogue for him). The gods of plausibility were napping on this project; out of nowhere, after establishing their linguistic barriers, Mikes fluent in Spanish and Rafos a whiz in English. The narrative deviations toward the end from Nashs novel make less and less sense. Yet they, too, go into the whatever column, if Cry Macho exerts any kind of hold on your sense of nostalgia.
"I know I'm going to sacrifice a lot of money, but I'm not going to be enslaved by this system or by money and nor should anyone that wants to laugh or be entertained," said Breuer on his Facebook live stream Friday morning. "I don't care if you're vaccinated ... that's great. It's a choice, and if you have anything else to say I honestly don't care.
Acero has an agreement in place with our union that holds charter management accountable  an agreement that came via collaboration and a focus on the safety of all stakeholders, CTU President Jesse Sharkey said in a statement. The lack of leadership at the top of CPS, however, in addition to the mayors failure to plan and protect, has many schools in near-crisis mode.
I know that our children can reach their full potential, Martinez said. All of us united, we can achieve that. We can make Chicago the best district in the country. We can not only build on its success, but we can make sure that every child has that access and that opportunity that we know is possible in this amazing city.
Chicago police previously issued a community alert about the attack, which happened around 1:20 p.m. Aug. 15 at the Argyle station, 1118 W. Argyle St., in Uptown. Siobhan Johnson, a spokeswoman for the FBIs Chicago field office, said the victim, a 30-year-old Asian man, entered the station and was followed by a man he didnt know. According to police, the stranger came up behind the victim and without provocation hit him in the back of his head, causing him to fall.
People be saying some of the most horrible things, she said, noting that Kadens half-siblings, who are in their 20s, havent been able to unplug and ignore the comments the way she has. I dont know why were their intended target. All these shots youre taking (are) hitting the grieving family. Youre hitting us and were already hurting.
James Vaughn, 44, was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of shooting and wounding a 55-year-old man. He allegedly shot the man in an alley in the 7100 block of South Parnell Avenue in Englewood, at 5:48 p.m. Sept. 5, police said.
I had only experienced yizkor books as footnotes, which assured me that a historian had done his or her homework, until I recently happened to open one, and realized: Here was the tragedy of 6 million murders told shtetl by shtetl  the kinds of stories that Id heard in bits and pieces from an aunt and two uncles sent to America by a great-grandmother before she was murdered in the Treblinka concentration camp. They in turn had heard the final chapter from a brother who stayed behind. He survived as member of the underground resistance movement and went to Israel after the war.
In a statement, Uberoi and Ruecker said they are excited to take over as stewards from the sellers, who took care of the Bagley House for several decades. Working on the Wright-designed Tonkens House in Cincinnati taught us that a successful restoration is a community effort, and we anticipate working closely with the Village of Hinsdale and the Conservancy over the next few years to do the same here.
We have had patients from Texas every day since then and we expect these numbers to significantly increase as these dangerous laws continue, Welch said, adding that most women do not even know they are pregnant by the six-week mark.
Some say that the biggest concern is the greenhouse gas emissions that will be created by the vehicles picking up packages at the delivery hub and delivering them to customers around the Chicago area. According to Amazon, that could be as many as 3,700 deliveries a day from the new Skokie hub during peak season, which is between Labor Day and Christmas.
China's job market remained generally stable in August, official data showed Wednesday.



The surveyed urban unemployment rate stood at 5.1 percent in August, unchanged from that in July, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed.

During the first eight months of this year, the country created 9.38 million new jobs in its urban areas, achieving 85.3 percent of the annual target.

The surveyed unemployment rate among those aged between 16 and 24 dropped 0.9 percentage points from that in July to 15.3 percent last month, while the rate among those aged between 25 and 59, the majority of the labor market, stood at 4.3 percent.

The surveyed unemployment rate in 31 major cities was 5.3 percent last month, up 0.1 percentage points from that in July.

The surveyed urban unemployment rate is calculated based on the number of unemployed people who have participated in the employment survey in urban areas, including migrant workers in cities.
Workers assemble engines on an assembly line at a workshop of the Weichai Power Co., Ltd. in Weifang City, east China's Shandong Province, April 22, 2021. [Photo/Xinhua]

China's industrial output increase has remained stable in August this year, with the growth in the high-tech manufacturing sector gaining steam, official data showed on Wednesday.

The value-added industrial output, a key indicator reflecting industrial activities and economic prosperity, went up 5.3 percent year on year in August, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The figure was up 11.2 percent from the level in August 2019, bringing the average growth for the past two years to 5.4 percent, NBS data showed.

In the first eight months, industrial output gained 13.1 percent year on year, resulting in an average two-year growth of 6.6 percent.

The industrial output is used to measure the activity of designated large enterprises with an annual business turnover of at least 20 million yuan (about 3.1 million U.S. dollars).

In a breakdown by ownership, the private sector's output increased 5.2 percent year on year last month, while the output of state-owned enterprises rose 4.6 percent.

The manufacturing sector's output rose 5.5 percent year on year in August, and the mining sector saw its output increase 2.5 percent, NBS data showed.

Despite the COVID-19 epidemic, the country still saw apparent industrial and technological upgrading in July and August, NBS spokesperson Fu Linghui told a press conference. He pointed out that the high-tech manufacturing sector has continued to expand rapidly.

Last month, the output of China's high-tech manufacturing sector jumped 18.3 percent year on year, accelerating by 2.7 percentage points compared with July. The average growth rate in the last two years stood at 12.8 percent, the data showed.

By products, the output of new energy vehicles soared 151.9 percent year on year, while the industrial robots sector climbed 57.4 percent. The integrated circuit industry also saw a strong performance, with the output expanding 39.4 percent year on year last month.

In August, the purchasing managers' index for China's manufacturing sector came in at 50.1, remaining in the expansion zone for 18 consecutive months, previous NBS data showed.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has stressed efforts to safeguard people's health as a significant step to boost public well-being, elevate medical expertise, and continue raising the quality of medical and healthcare services.



Li, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks during his inspection to Peking Union Medical College Hospital (PUMCH) on Monday.

Li visited elderly experts at the hospital and expressed his appreciation for their lasting dedication and remarkable achievements to the cause of healthcare. He also attended an exhibition on PUMCH's history of treating patients over the past 100 years.

Li convened a seminar with medical experts and listened to their advice on the development and innovation of the healthcare sector.

During the seminar, Li noted that as people's living standards improve and healthcare demands increase, medical personnel should put patients first, respect and safeguard people's lives, and perform their professional skills with a benevolent and humanitarian spirit.

Li urged medical staff to make meticulous, pragmatic, and dedicated efforts to hone their medical skills and seek the best treatments for challenging diseases. They should also enhance international exchanges and cooperation to innovate new medical techniques, medicines, and methodologies.

Efforts should also be invested to conduct and apply world-class clinical research, boost the quality of medical and healthcare services, and raise the efficacy of COVID-19 therapies, Li said. He added that high-quality healthcare services should become more accessible for people at the primary level and in remote areas.

Li called on relevant authorities across the country to boost the development of the healthcare sector, advance the Health China initiative, and better safeguard the health and safety of the people.
Government funding in the medical and health sector reached nearly 157.8 billion yuan (about 24.5 billion U.S. dollars) in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region during the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020), said local health authorities.

The part of health expenditure borne by the government increased from 24.4 billion yuan in 2015 to 46.6 billion yuan in 2020 in the region, reducing the proportion of residents' personal expenditure in the sector to below 30 percent, said Cui Yan, deputy head of the regional health commission. Cui made the announcement at a press conference Tuesday.

Xinjiang invested 438 million yuan building 147 hospitals in its townships and 546 clinics in villages during the period, generally ensuring that medical services are available in every township and village, said Cui.

Tuberculosis has long plagued rural residents in southern Xinjiang. From 2016 to 2020, the reported incidence of tuberculosis in the area dropped by 64 percent through measures such as free health check-ups and free hospitalization and isolation.

Xinjiang will further improve the capacity and quality of medical services to bring benefits to more residents, added Cui.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, conducts field research on local efforts in promoting all-round development and healthy growth of students while visiting a middle school in Suide, a county under the city of Yulin in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Sept. 14, 2021. Xi on Tuesday inspected Suide County. [Photo/Xinhua]

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, emphasized better education to ensure all-round development of Chinese youths, calling on the young people to become the backbone of the nation.

Xi made the remarks on Tuesday while visiting a middle school in Suide, a county in Yulin City, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, during his inspection tour in the province.

At the school, Xi watched the students practicing calligraphy and doing physical exercises, and chatted with them.

He called for efforts to better develop education and improve its structure to meet the needs of realizing the second centenary goal.

He also called for promoting the students' moral, intellectual, physical and aesthetic grounding in addition to good work skills in an all-round way, highlighting the importance of each aspect. "It is the experience we have drawn from years of exploration," Xi said.

The young people should be well-prepared to join the socialist cause and grow into individuals of value to the society, he added.
 Flash

The European Union (EU) has no other option but to engage with the Taliban regime in Afghanistan if it wants to influence events in the country, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Tuesday.

However, Borrell underlined at a European Parliament plenary session debate in the French city of Strasbourg that engagement does not mean recognition.

Describing the summer's events in Afghanistan as "a tragedy," he insisted that engagement is a priority for the EU to continue protecting as many people as possible.

"To have any chance of influencing events, we have no other option but to engage with the Taliban. Engagement does not mean recognition. No, engaging means talking, discussing, and agreeing -- when possible," he said.

Regarding the situation on the ground in Afghanistan, Borrell said it was "dramatic", adding the European Commission has quadrupled its aid from 50 to 200 million euros.

The EU wants to help all those who wish to leave the country, he said, both EU nationals and Afghans at risk.

"Our initial focus was on the evacuations. The EU's efforts to provide protection for the Afghans most in need were important, but insufficient and have to continue. The Afghan crisis is not over," he said.
 Flash

At least seven people were killed and 10 others injured in a suicide car bombing in the Somali capital, Mogadishu's Wadajir district on Tuesday evening, the police and witnesses said.

The police officer said a suicide bomber wrapped in an explosive vest blew himself up at a tea restaurant in Mogadishu, killing both civilians and Somali National Army (SNA) soldiers.

"A suicide bomber walked into a teashop and detonated his explosive vest, killing seven people and leaving 16 others injured," said a police officer who declined to be identified.

Witnesses said plumes of black smoke could be seen billowing from an area between Halane military camp and General Dhegabadan military academy in the southern Wadajir district.

"The death toll could rise at any time since the blast was huge. We can give you full details later," another police officer, who did not want to be named, told Xinhua.

There was no official comment from the government officials but witnesses said the death toll could rise.

"We heard a huge blast near the Halane compound. We don't know the number of people who died in the attack," Shukri Nur, a witness, said.

The militant group, al-Shabab which has been fighting to topple the internationally-backed government claimed responsibility for the latest attack.

The group claimed its fighters who were targeting government soldiers in the teas restaurant killed 11 soldiers and injured 16 others.

The al-Qaida allied terror group normally inflates casualty figures during their battle with the government's security forces.

The latest attack comes despite intensified security operations in the recent past against al-Shabab extremists in Mogadishu and in the southern regions in an attempt to liberate al-Shabab held-towns.

The group was routed from Mogadishu in 2011 by the allied forces and has had to abandon most of its strongholds, but it still controls vast rural areas and remains the key threat to peace in Somalia.
 Flash

Visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Tuesday urged the United States to view China's development in an objective and rational way.

Speaking at a joint press conference with Singaporean Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan, Wang said he hoped the United States would view, like Singapore and many other countries, China's development objectively and seek to expand mutually beneficial cooperation with China.

Wang said that during his meeting with Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, he expressed appreciation to Singapore for viewing China's development in a rational, fair and objective way, and for its efforts to find cooperation opportunities from China's development so as to achieve mutual success and joint development.

"This has brought tangible benefits to the peoples of the two countries," Wang said.

However, Wang pointed out that there are countries and forces that take a suspicious approach to or even make serious misjudgement about China's development. This goes against efforts to boost cooperation and disrupt the development of normal relations, Wang said, adding this might be the way the United States is behaving.

The United States should be aware that not only the United States but also other countries have the rights to seek development; not only the people in the United States but also the people of other countries have the rights to lead a happy life, Wang said.

It's neither fair nor suitable for humanity's basic conscience to let one or just a few countries to develop, while other countries are left in poverty, he added.

He hopes that the United States can view today's China with an objective and rational way like many other countries including Singapore, seeking and expanding mutually beneficial cooperation with China.

As the two largest economies in the world, the China-U.S. cooperation benefits the world, Wang said. He urged the United States to abandon zero-sum mentality and learn to seek peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation with other nations and civilizations, so as to jointly build a peaceful, harmonious, stable and prosperous world, Wang said.

For his part, Balakrishnan said the United States is the most developed country that has a major influence in the world, but China's emergence has been the most successful story in this region over the past 40 years.

He hoped China and the United States can compete with each other in a constructive manner, take steps to manage tension and cooperate in addressing global challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change, so as to work with countries in this region to achieve mutual benefit and win-win results.
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Orthopedic Navigation Systems Market Growth & Trends

The global orthopedic navigation systems market size is expected to reach USD 6.05 billion by 2028, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. The market is expected to expand at a CAGR of 14.4% from 2021 to 2028. The increasing geriatric population prone to orthopedic diseases is a key contributing factor propelling the demand for orthopedic navigation systems. Osteoarthritis and osteoporosis are the most common disorders in the population aged 70 years and above. The growing prevalence of these disorders results in an increased economic burden on many countries.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, non-emergency procedures were canceled or postponed, which adversely affected the global market as restrictions resulted in delays to a number of procedures. In the U.K., the number of individuals waiting for surgical procedures has increased to approximately 10 million from 4 million before the pandemic. While the U.S. is expected to have a backlog of more than 1 million joint and spinal surgeries by mid-2022. Currently, most nations have elevated restrictions on elective surgery. As a result of the recommencement of surgical procedures at full force, the market is anticipated to catch up the pace over the forecast years.

Rising awareness about the benefits of minimally invasive surgery is expected to further boost the product demand in the coming years. Some of the benefits include less blood loss, reduced risk of damage, condensed risk of infection and postoperative pain, and quicker recovery from surgery. In addition, the introduction of technologically advanced products is boosting market growth. For instance, in July 2021, SeaSpine Holdings Corp. broadcasted the FDA 510(k) authorization for its 7D Percutaneous Spine Module. This module is for minimally invasive surgery. This signifies a novel application and improved functionality for its 7D Flash Navigation System.

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Orthopedic Navigation Systems Market Report Highlights

The knee segment accounted for the largest revenue share in 2020 owing to the rising prevalence of osteoarthritis, which is the most common form of arthritis and the leading cause of chronic pain and physical disability in elder persons

The spine segment is anticipated to witness the fastest CAGR from 2021 to 2028 due to the rising incidence of spinal deformities

According to a CDC report, in 2019, around 34.0% of the adult population and 62.0% of the elderly population were affected by spinal deformities

The optical navigation system segment held the largest revenue share in 2020 owing to the affordability of the technology as compared to other navigation systems

The hospitals segment held the largest revenue share in 2020. Hospitals use technologically advanced medical devices to improve the Point-of-Care (PoC), which drives segment growth

North America dominated the global market in 2020 due to the availability of better-quality healthcare infrastructure and favorable government initiatives

The market is highly competitive as major players are focusing more on the product innovation strategies due to changing needs of healthcare establishments, surgeons, and patients

The market is moving toward consolidation as large companies are focused on strategic acquisitions of smaller companies to gain a competitive advantage

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Orthopedic Navigation Systems Market Segmentation

Grand View Research has segmented the global orthopedic navigation systems market on the basis of application, technology, end-use, and region:

Orthopedic Navigation Systems Application Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2028)

Knee

Hip

Spine

Orthopedic Navigation Systems Technology Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2028)

Electromagnetic

Optical

Others

Orthopedic Navigation Systems End-use Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2028)

Hospitals

Ambulatory Surgical Centers (ASCs)

Orthopedic Navigation Systems Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2016 - 2028)

North America US. Canada

Europe UK. Germany France Switzerland Italy Spain Belgium Austria The Netherlands

Asia Pacific Japan China India Australia South Korea

Latin America Brazil Mexico

Middle East and Africa South Africa



List of Key Players of Orthopedic Navigation Systems Market

Braun Melsungen AG

Stryker

Medtronic

Smith+Nephew

Johnson & Johnson Services, Inc. (DePuy Synthes)

Zimmer Biomet

Amplitude Surgical

Kinamed, Inc.

Globus Medical

OrthAlign

About Grand View Research

Grand View Research, Inc. is a U.S. based market research and consulting company, registered in the State of California and headquartered in San Francisco. The company provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. To help clients make informed business decisions, we offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a range of industries, from technology to chemicals, materials and healthcare.
L-carnitine Market Growth & Trends

The global L-carnitine market size is expected to reach USD 276.0 million by 2028, expanding at a CAGR of 5.1%, as per a new report by Grand View Research Inc. Growing consumer awareness regarding product benefits, along with increasing demand from end-use industries such as pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, and animal feed, is projected to drive the market over the forecast period.

L-carnitine and its derivatives are used for numerous applications including male infertility, kidney treatment, cardiovascular diseases, weight reduction, and bone mass. It is also used in various products including animal feed, health supplements, functional drinks, medicines, and other nutraceutical products.

Manufacturers are focused on R&D activities to reduce the complexity in manufacturing techniques as well as product differentiation. Major manufacturers like Lonza, Ajinomoto, Sigma Tau Group, and Seikatsu have patented their manufacturing processes. Production of L-carnitine by chemical synthesis is executed on an industrial scale. However, manufacturers prefer bioprocess for the production, as the process generates higher yield and lesser waste as compared to chemical synthesis.

Companies engaged in the production and export of L-carnitine follow stringent standards such as current goods manufacturing procedure (CGMP), sanitary standard operation procedure (SSOP), and ISO standards. Companies offering food-grade products are required to obtain kosher and halal certifications.

In 2018, North America emerged as the largest regional market. The growth in this region can be attributed to increasing research and development activities in pharmaceutical and nutraceutical industries. Furthermore, increasing demand for pet supplements and animal feed formulations is expected to drive industry growth over the forecast period.

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L-carnitine Market Report Highlights

Increasing preventive healthcare in major economies across the globe, including U.S., China, and India, has led to rising consumption of functional drinks, which in turn, is expected to propel product demand

The market exhibits production of L-carnitine through biotechnological techniques using micro-organisms or enzymes. These processes use achiral precursors or racemic mixtures as raw materials for extraction of L-carnitine and offer the highest yield as compared to other means

Increasing demand for animal feed from emerging economies such as China, India, and Vietnam are expected to drive the feed grade product segment over the forecast period

Key L-Carnitine Market players include Lonza Group Ltd., Northeast Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd. (NEPG), Biosint S.p.A., Cayman Chemical, Merck KGaA, Tokyo Chemical Industry Co., Ltd., Ceva Sante Animale S.A., Kaiyuan Hengtai Chemical Co., Ltd., Chengda Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd., Huanggang Huayang Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., and Hubei Yuancheng Technology Co. Ltd.

Manufacturers in the market enter into contracts with suppliers and buyers, thereby gaining a competitive edge in the market. They have also been investing heavily in R&D and capacity expansions to increase their market share.

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L-carnitine Market Segmentation

Grand View Research has segmented the global L-Carnitine market on the basis of process, product, application, and region:

L-carnitine Process Outlook (Volume, Tons; Revenue, USD Thousand, 2017 - 2028)

Chemical Synthesis

Bioprocess

L-carnitine Product Outlook (Volume, Tons; Revenue, USD Thousand, 2017 - 2028)

Food & Pharma Grade

Feed Grade

L-carnitine Application Outlook (Volume, Tons; Revenue, USD Thousand, 2017 - 2028)

Animal Feed

Healthcare Products

Functional Food & Beverages

Medicines

L-carnitine Regional Outlook (Volume, Tons; Revenue, USD Thousand, 2017 - 2028)

North America US. Canada Mexico

Europe Germany UK. France Italy

Asia Pacific China India Japan South Korea

Central & South America Brazil Argentina

MEA South Africa Saudi Arabia



List of Key Players of L-carnitine Market

Lonza

Northeast Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd. (NEPG)

Biosint S.p.A.

Cayman Chemical

Merck KGaA

Tokyo Chemical Industry Co., Ltd.

Ceva

Kaiyuan Hengtai Nutrition Co., Ltd.

ChengDa PharmaCeuticals Co., Ltd.

Huanggang Huayang Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.

HuBeiYuancheng SaichuangTechnology Co, .Ltd.

About Grand View Research

Grand View Research, Inc. is a U.S. based market research and consulting company, registered in the State of California and headquartered in San Francisco. The company provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. To help clients make informed business decisions, we offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a range of industries, from technology to chemicals, materials and healthcare.
The global market size of Meropenem is $XX million in 2018 with XX CAGR from 2014 to 2018, and it is expected to reach $XX million by the end of 2024 with a CAGR of XX% from 2019 to 2024.

Global Meropenem Market Report 2019  Market Size, Share, Price, Trend and Forecast is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the global Meropenem industry. The key insights of the report:

1.The report provides key statistics on the market status of the Meropenem manufacturers and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the industry.

2.The report provides a basic overview of the industry including its definition, applications and manufacturing technology.

3.The report presents the company profile, product specifications, capacity, production value, and 2013-2018 market shares for key vendors.

4.The total market is further divided by company, by country, and by application/type for the competitive landscape analysis.

5.The report estimates 2019-2024 market development trends of Meropenem industry.

6.Analysis of upstream raw materials, downstream demand, and current market dynamics is also carried out

7.The report makes some important proposals for a new project of Meropenem Industry before evaluating its feasibility.

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There are 4 key segments covered in this report: competitor segment, product type segment, end use/application segment and geography segment.

For competitor segment, the report includes global key players of Meropenem as well as some small players.

The information for each competitor includes:

* Company Profile

* Main Business Information

* SWOT Analysis

* Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin

* Market Share

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For product type segment, this report listed main product type of Meropenem market

* Product Type I

* Product Type II

* Product Type III

For end use/application segment, this report focuses on the status and outlook for key applications. End users sre also listed.

* Application I

* Application II

* Application III

For geography segment, regional supply, application-wise and type-wise demand, major players, price is presented from 2013 to 2023. This report covers following regions:

* North America

* South America

* Asia & Pacific

* Europe

* MEA (Middle East and Africa)

The key countries in each region are taken into consideration as well, such as United States, China, Japan, India, Korea, ASEAN, Germany, France, UK, Italy, Spain, CIS, and Brazil etc.

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Medical Sensors Market Research Report: By Type (Temperature Sensors, Blood Glucose Sensors, Blood Oxygen Sensors, Electrocardiogram (ECG) Sensors, Image Sensors, Motion Sensors, Inertial Sensors, Pressure Sensors), Sensor Placement (Strip Sensors, Wearable Sensors, Implantable Sensors, Invasive/Non-Invasive Sensors, Ingestible Sensors), Application (Diagnostics, Therapeutics, Monitoring, Imaging Devices, Fitness and Wellness), End User (Hospital and Clinic, Home Care Setting, Others) and Region (Americas, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Middle East and Africa) -Forecast till 2027

Medical Sensors Market Scenario

Medical Sensors Market is expected to grow significantly over the forecast period. The market accounted for USD 12,000 million in 2018 and is projected to reach USD 18,600 million by 2025 at a CAGR of 9.0% over the forecast period.

Medical Sensors Market Segmental Analysis

The global Medical Sensors Market is segmented on the basis of types, application, and sensor placement. The various types of medical sensors available in the market are blood glucose sensors, blood oxygen sensors, ECG sensors, image sensors, inertial sensors, motion sensors, pressure sensors, and temperature sensors. The applications of medical sensors across the healthcare industry are diagnostics, fitness, imaging, medical therapeutics, monitoring, others. Based on sensor placement, the global market for medical sensors is segmented into implantable sensors, ingestible sensors, invasive/non-invasive sensors, strip sensors, wearable sensors.

Medical Sensors Market Regional Analysis

Based on the region, the global medical sensors market is segmented into the Asia Pacific, the Americas (North America & Latin America), Europe, and the Middle East and Africa.

The American region is the largest in the global market for medical sensors, owing to the early adoption of advanced healthcare devices in North America, especially the US. The established healthcare sector in the region, along with the technologically advanced medical devices and medical sensors are influential factors for market growth over the review period. Additionally, the increasing prevalence of lifestyle and chronic diseases in the region has risen the demand for advanced diagnostics and detection facilities.

During the review period, the Asia Pacific market is expected to emerge as the fastest-growing region in the global market for medical sensors. The primary reasons for this substantial growth are influential factors such as growing urbanization, increasing technological advancement, and the presence of emerging economies like China and India, wherein the governments are investing majorly towards the growth of the healthcare sector and adoption of advanced medical devices, including medical sensors. The other countries that are also expected to contribute significantly to the regional market share are Japan and South Korea, followed by the rest of the Asia Pacific region.

The Middle East and Africa region are expected to record the smallest market share and witness static growth. The factors contributing to the stagnant market growth in this region include lack of awareness among consumers towards the availability of advanced medical devices, low product penetration, lack of education and skilled workforce, lack of technological development, political instability in some areas, and the poor healthcare sector. The growth in the region over the review period is due to the government initiatives towards the improvement of the healthcare sector and the provision of basic medical facilities. Additionally, the middle eastern developing countries such s Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates, are expected to contribute to the majority of the market sare acquired from this region over the review period.

Medical Sensors Market Operated By Top Key Players

The key players identified in the global medical sensors market are First Sensor AG, GE Healthcare, Given Imaging, Inc, Honeywell International, Inc, Measurement Specialties Inc., Medtronic Plc., NXP Semiconductors N.V., Philips Healthcare, Smiths Medical, STMicroelectronics, and STMicroelectronics N.V.

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New Delhi: The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a Rs 26,058 crore production linked incentive (PLI) scheme for auto, auto-components and drone industry to enhance India's manufacturing capabilities, Union Minister Anurag Thakur said on Wednesday.

The PLI scheme will incentivize the emergence of advanced automotive technologies' global supply chain in India.

It would help create additional employment of over 7.6 lakh people.

Incentives worth Rs 26,058 crore will be provided to industry over five years, the minister told reporters after the Cabinet meeting.

The PLI scheme will bring fresh investments of over Rs 42,500 crore in five years and incremental production of over Rs 2.3 lakh crore, he said.
Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao said on Tuesday that the government would explore the possibilities of helping Hyderabad Metro which was running in heavy losses due to a sharp fall in traffic on account of the Covid-19 pandemic.

A statement issued by the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) said the CM assured L&Ts top brass that the government would support the project and help it to be back on track.

The CM announced the constitution of a high-level committee comprising ministers K.T. Rama Rao, Vemula Prashanth and senior officials. It would submit a report to the CM shortly on how to help Hyderabad Metro.

L&T officials had made repeated requests to the government to support the project in view of the adverse conditions. They held a meeting with the CM on Tuesday at Pragathi Bhavan and discussed financial losses, bank loan repayment and the mounting interest.

The CM said, according to the statement, In accordance with the public needs, the government has to take out-of-the-box decisions during difficult times like the Coronavirus pandemic period.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lead the Indian delegation virtually at the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) to be held in Tajik capital city of Dushanbe on September 17, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Wednesday.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will travel to Dushanbe for the SCO meetings that are expected to extensively deliberate on the Afghan crisis and its internal as well as external implications, people familiar with the matter said.

"The 21st meeting of the SCO Council of Heads of State will be held on September 17 in Dushanbe in a hybrid format. The meeting will be chaired by the President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lead the Indian delegation and address the plenary session of the summit via video-link," the MEA said.

"At Dushanbe, India will be represented by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar," it said in a statement.

The MEA said the summit will be attended by the leaders of the SCO member states, observer states, secretary general of the SCO, executive director of the SCO regional anti-terrorist structure, the president of Turkmenistan and other invited guests.

In Dushanbe, Jaishankar will attend a meeting on Afghanistan of the heads of state of the SCO and the Collective Security Treaty Organisation, the people cited above said.

It will be the first SCO summit being held in a hybrid format and the fourth summit that India will participate in as a full-fledged member of the bloc.

"This summit assumes significance as the organisation is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. At the summit, the leaders are expected to review the organisation's activities over the past two decades and discuss the state and prospects of future cooperation," the MEA said.

It said topical issues of regional and international importance are also expected to be discussed.

Jaishankar is also likely to hold a series of bilateral meetings at the Tajik capital city with his counterparts from Iran and Tajikistan among others.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian and Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi are expected to be in Dushanbe for the SCO meetings.

Earlier this month, Jaishankar spoke to his newly appointed Iranian counterpart and discussed the situation in Afghanistan as well as bilateral issues.

The SCO, seen as a counterweight to NATO, is an eight-member economic and security bloc and has emerged as one of the largest transregional international organisations. India and Pakistan became its permanent members in 2017.

The SCO was founded at a summit in Shanghai in 2001 by the presidents of Russia, China, the Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

India has shown keen interest in deepening its security-related cooperation with the SCO and its regional anti-terrorism structure (RATS), which specifically deals with issues relating to security and defence.

India was made an observer at the SCO in 2005 and has generally participated in the ministerial-level meetings of the grouping, which focus mainly on security and economic cooperation in the Eurasian region.
The price of crude oil is down to USD 69 per barrel from USD 120. (PTI Photo)

Bengaluru: Former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday demanded a reduction in the cess and sales tax on petrol and diesel in Karnataka and suggested that the price be brought down more than it was done in Tamil Nadu, to bring relief to the public. "The rise of petrol price from Rs 70 to Rs 130 in a short duration is abnormal. I can still understand if it was Rs 10 or Rs 20. I demand reduction in sales tax from 35 per cent to 15 per cent," Siddaramaiah, who is the Leader of the Opposition, said during a debate on price rise in the Karnataka Assembly.

He added that the taxes on diesel should be reduced from 74 per cent to 50 per cent.

Siddaramaiah cited the example of Tamil Nadu government, which had reduced the fuel prices by Rs three. "Our reduction in fuel prices should be more than it," he said.

The assembly witnessed heated exchanges between the ruling and opposition sides during the debate on price rise, initiated by the LoP Siddaramaiah, who accused the BJP governments in the state and Centre of indulging in "criminal loot".

Siddaramaiah also charged the government with 'neglecting' holding the assembly sessions, pointing out that the legislature session was being held after a gap of six months.

"The prices of all commodities have reached the sky, whether it is rice, pulses, cement, iron, gas, petrol, diesel...Prices have been rising for the last two years continuously. The situation is such that the common man and middle class people are unable to lead their lives," Siddaramaiah said.

The Congress Legislature Party Leader said the price rise was because the Government of India "exponentially" increased additional excise duty on petrol, diesel and gas.

"They (BJP) blame international crude oil prices for the fuel price rise. The price of crude oil is down to USD 69 per barrel from USD 120. Still, a litre of petrol is Rs 106 and diesel will soon touch Rs 100," he said, as he compared the prices when UPA was in power and now.

The Centre did not transfer the benefit of the decline in crude oil prices at the international market to the consumers here, he alleged.

Countering the argument on debt position and oil bonds, he said, "They (BJP) say the previous government had borrowed huge loans/oil bonds. The loans amounted to just about Rs 1.30 lakh crore... From Karnataka alone in seven years, Rs 1.21 lakh crore excise duty has gone to the Centre."

Objecting to Siddaramaiah's line of argument, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister J C Madhuswamy questioned the need to discuss the issue in the assembly as the decisions on this are taken by the Centre.

"Is this a Parliament speech or assembly speech? I feel you have forgotten and gone to Parliament. Can we discuss or debate on matters or decisions related to the central government or parliament here? How can the state government answer it?" he asked, leading to another round of verbal sparring between the opposition and treasury benches.

In reply, Siddaramaiah said he was not levelling charges against the Prime Minister or the Centre and was aware they cannot answer in the assembly, but was only placing facts.

"Are over 6.5 crore people of Karnataka not affected by price rise? What should we tell them as public representatives? Is it not our responsibility? Can we keep quiet?" he asked, and said if everyone agreed, he favoured sending a resolution to the Centre on the price rise issue.

Siddaramaiah, during his speech, pointed out that there had been no legislature session for the last six months and accused the government of "neglect" in calling the session to discuss issues faced by the people.

As Madhuswamy cited COVID-19 as the reason for not calling the session, Siddaramaiah asked "how did Parliament function then? You are using Corona as the shield. It is because of your (ruling BJP) internal issues that the session was not called."
HYDERABAD: The Telangana High Court on Wednesday expressed its dissatisfaction over the state government for not providing an action plan to tackle the third wave of Covid-19 and its failure in furnishing the details sought by the court in this regard, particularly the paediatric infrastructure being provided at the district level.

A division bench comprising acting Chief Justice M.S. Ramchandra Rao and Justice T. Vinod Kumar cautioned the government to be alert and attentive to provide the facilities on a war footing basis.

We all have experienced very tough situations when the second wave hit the state. Dont sit back and fiddle the thumbs. If another wave happens, then we wont have the time to blink even an eye. Your preparedness must be reflected in actions, not in your minds or statements. In an earlier round of adjudications, we asked for the details. But, so far nothing was submitted, the bench observed.

The court passed a series of directions to Dr G. Srinivas Rao, director, public health and family welfare to submit the latest status reports along with the colour coded graded response action plan by September 22. Till now the Telangana government has not submitted its plan of action. The Ganesha festival has commenced and schools are now partially opened which may lead to some infections among children. Already there are news reports that some teachers were infected in Khammam. Winter season is fast approaching during which there will be a spurt in dengue cases due to mosquito menace. The Niloufer Hospital is the only hospital in the state designated to treat children for Covid-19. Beds available in Niloufer Hospital may not suffice as most of the districts do not have hospitals to treat children. Hence, strengthening the paediatric health care system in the districts to be taken up on war footing, the court said.

L. Ravichander, senior counsel, brought to the notice of the court about the lacunae and lack of hygiene in the public schools in the district level and submitted that it may spur infections. Further, he said that the government was not disclosing the actual level of measures taken to prevent the infections.

Assistant solicitor general N. Rajeshwar Rao, representing the Union government was directed to file an affidavit in relation to the inclusion of the life-saving drugs used for treating Covid-19 patients in the list of essential medicines.

The court also directed the director for public health and family welfare to increase the number of RT PCR tests, rather than rapid antigen tests (RAT) to get a clear picture on the prevailing positivity rate of Covid-19 in the state. Srinivas Rao informed the bench that 1.79 percent was the positivity rate in the state. The court said the rate was very high.
This will be the first meeting in one and a half months. (Photo: Twitter @TelanganaCMO)

Hyderabad: Chief Minister K.Chandrashekar Rao has convened State Cabinet meeting on September 16 at Pragathi Bhavan, its first meeting in one and a half months.

Issues pertaining to regulatory farming to restrict paddy cultivation in the wake of FCI's policy not to purchase boiled rice, convening the monsoon session of the Legislature next week, job notifications to fill 50,000 vacancies, Dalit Bandhu scheme are on agenda, according to official sources.

The government is concerned about how to deal with rice stocks of nearly 40 lakh tonnes from the recent rabi season lying in rice mills and godowns, and the expected arrival of 1.4 lakh tonnes of paddy that will start coming in at the end of the month.

The long-pending job notifications is expected to be cleared by the cabinet. In fact, the CM announced filling of 50,000 job vacancies in December

2020.

This issue came up in the cabinet meetings held in July and August this year but approval was not given as there was no clarity on exact number of vacancies. Finance minister T.Harish Rao-led committee has submitted a report to CM on existing vacancies in August second week.

The report will be discussed and likely to be approved in the meeting.

The government needs to convene Assembly session before September 26

as the six-month gap between two sessions ends.

The Budget session ended on March 26 and as per Constitutional norms, there should not be a gap of more than six months between two sessions.

The cabinet will decide the date for commencement of Assembly session expected from September 22.

This apart, the government has recently decided to extend Dalit Bandhu scheme to four more mandals in five more Assembly constituencies. The cabinet will accord approval to extension and sanction of additional funds for Dalit Bandhu.
"We are closely watching the situation and also taking inputs from all the government and private hospitals," Sudhakar said.

Bengaluru: Amid increasing cases of viral fever in Karnataka, the state health minister K Sudhakar on Wednesday said that officials have been instructed to take all the necessary steps to contain the outbreak.

Addressing the media, Sudhakar said that ILI (influenza-like illness) is an infection that is witnessed every year during monsoon. "This year also, we are witnessing the same. We are closely watching the situation and also taking inputs from all the government and private hospitals," he stated.

"There has been a marginal increase in ILI and viral fever cases. But when these patients are tested for Covid-19 according to the protocol, it is a relief that 99.5 per cent of them are reported negative. So, in Covid-19 perspective, we are relieved. But we are watchful and taking all necessary precautions," he added.

The minister also said that the state is planning an aggressive blood donation and vaccination drive on September 17 in view of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's birthday.

"We have also come up with a vision document on complete healthcare that will be handed over to the prime minister on his birthday. This will be a special gesture from Karnataka as no previous prime minister has given such a thrust to the health sector," he added.
The victim's father told the media that his daughter had ended her life following the mental harassment by the teacher. (Representational Image)

Kasaragod: A case has been registered against a 29-year-old private school teacher in connection with the death of a minor girl student by suicide in this northernmost district of Kerala, police said on Thursday.

The case was registered against Usman, a native of Adhur here, under the Section 12 of POCSO Act and Section 75 of the Juvenile Justice Act, days after the 12-year-old girl died by suicide.

He is absconding now and a man hunt is on to trace him.

According to police, the accused had sent inappropriate messages to the girl, a class eight student studying in the same school, via social media.

A senior police officer told PTI that the victim's parents had come across the chat messages exchanged by the duo and warned the girl against it.

Her father also brought the issue to the notice of the school management who in turn took up the matter with Usman, he said.

"The messages were improper for a teacher to send to a 12-year-old student. The girl was suspected to have ended the life out of mental tension as her parents read the chat messages.," the officer said adding that these all were assumptions and they could arrive at a conclusion only after a detailed probe.

Meanwhile, the victim's father told the media that his daughter had ended her life following the mental harassment by the teacher.
Revanth Reddy posted a notice issued by the Hyderabad city police on Tuesday declaring a reward of Rs.10 lakh to any person who gives information or clue that could lead to arrest of Pallakonda Raju, absconding accused in the rape. (Twitter)

Hyderabad: IT minister K.T. Rama Rao on Tuesday was forced to 'correct' his Tweet within minutes of Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) chief A. Revanth Reddy calling him 'irresponsible minister' on Twitter.

Revanth Reddy posted a notice issued by the Hyderabad city police on Tuesday declaring a reward of Rs.10 lakh to any person who gives information or clue that could lead to arrest of Pallakonda Raju, absconding accused in the rape and murder of a six-year old girl under Saidabad police station limits on September 9.

Revanth Reddy tweeted, "Days after the irresponsible minister KTR tweets the culprit is caught within hours in the case of 6 year old sexually molested & murdered,@hydcitypolice announces Rs10 lakh to whoever gives a clue on absconding accused. I wish CM took this case as seriously as Huzurabad election (sic)."

His Tweet was in response to Rama Rao's tweet on September 12 claiming that the accused was arrested. Rama Rao had then Tweeted, "Deeply anguished with the news of a 6 year old childs sexual molestation & murder in Singareni colony While the perpetrator has been arrested within hours, I request Home Minister @mahmoodalitrs Garu & @TelanganaDGP Garu to ensure that justice is delivered expeditiously (sic)."

Within minutes of Revanth Reddy's post on Tuesday, Rama Rao corrected himself by Tweeting, "Would like to correct my tweet below. I was misinformed that he was arrested. Regret the erroneous statement The perpetrator is absconding &@hydcitypolice has launched a massive manhunt for him Lets all make our best efforts to ensure hes nabbed & brought to justice quickly (sic)."
They asked Pola Balakoteswara Rao, a farmer, about cashew and mango crops he is growing on his five acres of land at Viswambarapuram village under MGNREGA works.  Representational image/DC

VISAKHAPATNAM: A three-member central team from ministry of rural development visited interior villages of Vizianagaram district on Tuesday to verify claims that the district has created a national record in implementation of MGNREGS by providing maximum number of work days to rural poor.

The team comprised rural development ministry joint director Amarendra Pratap Singh, joint secretary Rohit Kumar and programme officer Hansil Kumar. State panchayat raj and rural development commissioner S. Girija Shankar and Vizianagaram collector A. Surya Kumari accompanied the central team.

Officials first visited Karadavalasa village in Parvathipuram mandal and verified job cards of village workers. They spoke to villagers about NREGS works and payment of wages. Later the team visited Dibbaguddivalassa and Gadabavalasa of Bondapalli panchayat in the district. There too, the team verified works and payment of wages. Central officials also interacted with cluster coordinators of Velugu self-help groups about NREGA works. They asked Pola Balakoteswara Rao, a farmer, about cashew and mango crops he is growing on his five acres of land at Viswambarapuram village under MGNREGA works.

Collector A. Surya Kumari told reporters after the teams visit that central officials visited several villages to inspect NREGA works implemented both last year and this year. The team will submit its findings to the union ministry.

Answering a question, Surya Kumari said the team did not find any irregularities in implementation of works and payment of wages. She maintained that the team got impressed by the concept of village secretariat and volunteer system, apart from delivery of ration at homes of beneficiaries. The central team made it a point to visit a secretariat and interact with its employees.

Gurla mandal in Vizianagaram district created 13.39 lakh working days and paid Rs 32.68 crore in wages to workers under MGNREGA scheme. The district administration claimed this is a record in the country. However, the central team did not visit Gurla mandal.
After TRS came to power in 2014, the district is witnessing reverse migration due to CM's initiatives on irrigation projects and agriculture. He has turned a drought-prone district into an agriculture hub.  Twitter

Hyderabad: State minister K.T. Rama Rao came down heavily on the BJP-led government at the Centre, accusing it of diverting tax-payers money from Telangana to BJP-ruled states like Uttar Pradesh.

He slammed BJP state president Bandi Sanjay for his claim that the Centre was bearing a major chunk of the expenditure incurred on the welfare schemes being implemented by the TRS government in Telangana. Rama Rao offered to quit the Cabinet if Sanjay proved his claim on Central funds to the state.

Rama Rao was addressing a public meeting in Gadwal district on Tuesday after launching a series of developmental works in the district being taken up at a cost of Rs 104 crore. Ministers Sabitha Indra Reddy, Niranjan Reddy, Srinivas Goud and senior officials accompanied Rama Rao to Gadwal.

"Sanjay is spreading lies on central funds to Telangana. But the fact is that the Centre is diverting Telangana's contributions to the nation's tax pool to the BJP-ruled states like Uttar Pradesh. I am ready to resign from the Cabinet if Sanjay proves his claims. If Sanjay has guts, he should produce proof on what he said or quit his post," Rama Rao remarked.

He asked Sanjay to show at least one BJP-ruled state which is extending welfare schemes like Rythu Bandhu, Rythu Bima, Kalyana Lakshmi, KCR Kits, 2BHK houses for the poor like the TRS government.

Rama Rao also took a dig at TPCC chief A. Revanth Reddy for his "meaningless criticism" of Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao and the TRS government every day. "Mahbubnagar district was famous for migrations when Congress and TD ruled the state.

After TRS came to power in 2014, the district is witnessing reverse migration due to CM's initiatives on irrigation projects and agriculture. He has turned a drought-prone district into an agriculture hub. Now, someone who was caught red-handed with money bags in the cash-for-vote case is pointing fingers at the CM. Such leaders are under the impression that they will become big leaders if they criticise the CM every day," Rama Rao stated.

Rama Rao urged farmers to protest against the Centre over its refusal to procure boiled rice from Telangana. Rao advised farmers to switch over to alternate crops over paddy.

Rama Rao laid the foundation stones for a 100-bed hospital in Alampur, a park at Sangala reservoir, a library building at the government degree college, the government girls junior college building on the government degree college premises in Gadwal town, an indoor auditorium at Nallakunta Veedhi and an integrated market at Gadwal town market, besides for the TSRTC bus stand in the town.

He inaugurated the womens PG Hostel and laid foundation for a new building at Nadi Agraharam and inaugurated ROB at the District Hospital in the town.
The interim government announced by the Taliban last week, over three weeks after they captured Kabul on August 15, constitutes the best or the worst of world news in 2021 (depending which side you are looking from, of course). Its surely more sensational than the suffering of the worlds seven billion souls since 2019, due to the Wuhan-origin Chinese virus. Simultaneously, it shows where the status of the United Nations edicts, resolutions and declarations stand before 194 member states. Has diplomacy and the worlds collective wisdom touched its nadir since the birth of the League of Nations following the First World War? Do the deeds of Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Osama bin Laden, et al pale before the Afghanistan of 2021? Has the world seen such bizarre, brazen, gory acts by a band of desperadoes masquerading as the saviours of Afghanistan? A sovereign state on the Westphalia model, recognised the world over, has fallen to terrorist leaders -- lock, stock and barrel. But as the world gasps in disbelief at scenes of violence and massacre, two nations -- Pakistan and China -- stand out, in support of the terrorists. They are simply following Mao Zedongs dictum: power comes from the barrel of the gun. This is akin to making monsters behind mass murder part of the global comity of nations.

Put simply, the Taliban members of the new Afghan state have blood on their hands. No matter that the UN hasnt still been able to define terror or terrorism. Why? Major countries invariably differ owing to self-interest, thus the cliche: One nations terrorist is another states freedom fighter. When India goes to the UN Security Council to galvanise the world to act against the terrorists backed by the Pakistan Army and its ISI, Communist Chinas foreign minister rushes to their defence, invariably shielding the terrorists. To the Islamabad-Beijing gang, foreign-sponsored terrorists in India are God-sent freedom fighters of the Orient who can effectively keep India under check.

Afghanistans present scenario is nothing but a replay of a process going on for the past three decades, and theres no reason to think the unholy terror alliance of these two will allow India any respite from macabre mayhem soon. Neither Pakistan nor China will leash these terrorists as long as they dont harm their own nations -- particularly China.

A few facts about the Talibans background could be worth revisiting. Born predominantly as a Pashtun group in the mid-1990s with support from Islamic religious schools (madrasas), its primary aim was to impose order and regimentation (like the CPC) with a gun in the hand of each Talib. Created and supported by the Pakistani State and its ISI, it was meant to make full use of Pashtuns as puppet killers in the two fronts of Afghanistan and Hindustan. With a cocktail of various terror groups, and the subsequent entry of Chinese money and the CPCs backroom brigade, close ties developed between the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, the latter giving ideological, financial and military support.

An intriguing aspect of this terror saga is that the United States, at least initially, didnt oppose the Taliban (even when India bled, and its airliner was hijacked to Kandahar in 1999). In Washingtons eyes, the Taliban was a healthy counterweight to the Tehran-Moscow influence in Kabul. India didnt matter and in any case the West held India in contempt. They felt that Indias terror problem is a failure of state law and order.

American companies wanted to build pipelines through Afghanistan to transport oil and gas from Central Asia and the Caspian to the open sea, girdling Tehran. The Taliban, being an ally of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, both Americas friends, were thought to be capable of imposing order in Afghanistan.

Things started going awry from around 1998 when Osama bin Ladens Al-Qaeda began running ops from the Afghan-Pakistan bad lands hurting US interests.

The UN Security Council soon demanded that the Taliban hand over Bin Laden to US custody, which they promptly refused. Understandably, UN retribution, at the US behest, followed, with a ban on flights to and from Afghanistan, economic sanctions and a ban on the sale/transfer of military equipment to the Taliban. This once again proved that until a sovereign state is directly hit by terror, it will never accept the pleas of others hit by terrorism.

It may be politically incorrect to say so, but the United Nations will never be able to fight terror or terrorism till it is defined legally, or the 194 member nations reach a consensus. Otherwise, economics, trade, commerce and business will continue for all those not hit. India should therefore be prepared to go it alone.

Afghanistan shows the fallacy of the cliche friend in need. The unbelievable cowardly escape through one door by friend and dramatic drum-beating entry from another door by an unscrupulous and opportunistic hungry stranger searching for land, money, minerals, contract and creating debt trap for all; thereby ending with a monopolist which the world would rarely experience.

Which way does the terrorist-turned-Taliban traverse? The Taliban have undoubtedly usurped power illegally, but there is no law to counter their illegal act, with the so-called big powers still wailing from the rooftops. So let us at least look at a legal dictionary-defined terror/terrorism with the hope that the UNSCs luminaries will now try to be more serious about this issue than they are now.

To the legal fraternity: Terror is extreme fear; one or more violent acts that cause extreme fear. Also: Terrorism is use or threat of violence to intimidate or cause panic, especially as a means of achieving a political end. There are, however, several other definitions. Agri-terrorism, focusing on disrupting/destroying a countrys food supply by attacking agricultural industries with plant or animal pathogens. Bioterrorism, involving intentional release of harmful biological agents, such as bacteria or viruses, into air, food, or water supply of humans (China)?

Cyberterrorism, committed by computer (China)? Ecoterrorism -- (the developed countries of the West)? Lone-wolf terrorism (India as the victim)? Narco-terrorism, associated with/financed by profits from illegal drug trafficking (Pakistani Army-ISI bosses; and some greedy Americans during the Fifth Afghan War 2001-2021)? State-sponsored terrorism to pursue strategic and political goal objectives (China-Pakistan in landlocked Central Asia)? State terrorism, practised by sovereign governments (Dictators around the world)?

Who is a terrorist? Try this: Someone using violence -- bombing, shooting, kidnapping, intimidating to cause panic to achieve political ends (Pakistan, Taliban)?

Will the UN Security Council act now, even at this late hour? Or will it go the League of Nations way?
Space technology has come very handy in the area of disaster management, the minister said, adding that space medicine is also deeply connected in the endeavour to send three Indians to space. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: India's Gaganyaan' mission is likely to be launched by the end of 2022 or early 2023, Union minister Jitendra Singh said on Wednesday.

The mission, originally scheduled for a launch by 2022, was delayed due to coronavirus pandemic. It aims to launch a manned mission in the Lower Earth Orbit.

We could have actually done this (launched Gaganyaan by 2022). We had planned to time it along the 75th anniversary of India's Independence, but it could not happen that way because of the inevitable delay caused due to COVID-19.

But I am sure, maybe by the end of next year or may be (by) the beginning of 2023, we would be able to do that as well, he said.

Singh, the Minister of State in the Department of Space, was addressing a webinar on Future of India-Oceania Space Technology Partnerships' organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) here.

He further said a brainstorming exercise by space scientists and government officials in 2015-16 helped them understand where space technology could be used.

Space technology has a role to play, virtually, in every sector, he asserted.

Space technology has come very handy in the area of disaster management, the minister said, adding that space medicine is also deeply connected in the endeavour to send three Indians to space.

According to the government, four biological and two physical science related microgravity experiments from academic institutions are shortlisted for unmanned mission of the Gaganyaan programme.

Singh also emphasised on the importance of reaching out to start-ups and industry players working in the arena of space.

Speaking on India's collaboration with oceanic countries in the area of space, he noted that India has a comfort level with these countries which makes it easy to collaborate with them.

The Oceania countries such as New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific Island countries can also collaborate (with India) and work on joint space technology solutions and innovative products, the MoS added.

Earlier this week, Anthony Murfett, Deputy Head, Australia Space Agency had said Australia would be supporting India's Gaganyaan mission by tracking it through Cocos (Keeling) Islands.

'Mangalyaan', India's Mars Orbiter Mission, was tracked from Fiji.

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This blog covers software patent news and issues with a particular focus on wireless, mobile devices (smartphones, tablet computers, connected cars) as well as select antitrust matters surrounding those devices.
Yolande Makolo, a spokesperson for the government of Rwanda, said: "Johnston Busingye, Rwanda's high commissioner-designate to the United Kingdom, has served with distinction as justice minister and

By James Landale

Diplomatic correspondent

14 September 2021



Paul Rusesabagina, portrayed as a hero in a Hollywood movie about Rwanda"s 1994 genocide, is escorted in handcuffs into a courtroom, in Kigali

Dominic Raab has been urged to block the appointment of a Rwandan diplomat in London for his alleged role in detaining a government critic.

Paul Rusesabagina, who was portrayed in the Hollywood film Hotel Rwanda, used his Kigali hotel to save hundreds of ethnic Tutsis during the 1994 genocide.

Last year he was tricked into flying to Rwanda to face terrorism offences.

Rwanda's proposed new high commissioner has insisted his role in getting Mr Rusesabagina to the country was legal.

Johnston Busingye was, until recently, Rwanda's justice minister.

A spokesman for the Rwandan government said Mr Busingye had "served with distinction" in his former roles" and added that Mr Rusesabagina's arrest for terrorism offences "complied with all domestic and international law".

In August 2020, Mr Rusesabagina - who had been living in exile in the United States - got on a private jet in Dubai thinking it was heading for Burundi.

Instead the flight actually landed in Rwanda - something his supporters have described as a kidnapping.

In an interview with Al Jazeera in February 2021, Mr Busingye said "the government paid" for the flight taking Mr Rusesabagina to Kigali and paid for the individual who tricked him onto the plane:

"The payment was to facilitate the transportation of that man to facilitate the plan of this man to transport Rusesabagina to Rwanda," he said.

Asked if this was legal, Mr Busingye replied: "Yes."

After spending eight years at the Justice ministry, Mr Busingye was abruptly removed from his post earlier this month by Rwandan President Paul Kagame, only weeks before a court in Rwanda is expected to rule on the charges against Mr Rusesabagina.

US President George Bush awarded Mr Rusesabagina for his role in sheltering people during the Rwandan genocide

Mr Rusesabagina, a Belgian citizen now but with US residency, has been a vocal critic of Rwanda's authoritarian president.

The 66-year-old former hotel manager, who is reportedly in ill health, faces various charges of terrorism and founding an armed group responsible for terror attacks in Rwanda.

Prosecutors have asked for a life sentence, but Mr Rusesabagina supporters dismiss the proceedings as a "sham trial".

The Lantos Foundation, a prominent human rights organisation in the US, has already urged the US authorities to impose so-called Magnitsky sanctions against Mr Busingye for the "significant role" they claim he played in "grave human rights violations".

But now the foundation - set up by the late Tom Lantos, the only Holocaust survivor to become a US Congressman - has also written to Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab urging him to reject the credentials presented by Mr Busingye and impose UK sanctions on the former minister.

'Shameful'

Dr Katrina Lantos Swett, president of the foundation, said: "President Paul Kagame may believe that by sending Johnston Busingye to London, he can divert the focus from the former justice minister's shameful actions and the way he brazenly violated the basic human rights of a humanitarian hero.

"But nations who respect human rights cannot allow Kagame to try and sweep these violations under the rug by simply assigning Mr Busingye elsewhere."

She said the foundation called on Mr Raab to refuse to accept Mr Busingye as Rwandan ambassador.

"Furthermore, the British government should seriously and thoroughly investigate the circumstances of Mr. Rusesabagina's kidnapping and Mr Busingye's involvement in these events," she added.

Under the Vienna Convention, ambassadors and high commissioners can take up their posts at the Court of St James only if the Foreign Office formally gives what is called its "agrement".

Only then can the appointment be approved by the Queen.

All applications are considered on a case-by-case basis and a number of factors are taken into account before a decision is made.

The Foreign Office refused to comment but it is understood that it has yet to grant its agrement to Mr Busingye.

Yolande Makolo, a spokesperson for the government of Rwanda, said: "Johnston Busingye, Rwanda's high commissioner-designate to the United Kingdom, has served with distinction as justice minister and attorney-general since 2013, and previously as a president/judge of the high court and principal judge of the East African Court of Justice.

"Paul Rusesabagina's arrest on an outstanding warrant for terrorism and related offences complied with all domestic and international laws, and he has since received a fair and transparent trial along with 20 co-accused of the FLN armed group which he led."
Afghanistan is getting worse as Taliban terrorists murdered a woman with her child as an example to anyone daring to question their domination. The woman's death comes as the terrible extremists begin a bloody crackdown to sow fear and cow Afghans to submissiveness.

The mullahs did not like women protesting for their rights, and the Talibs have often broken their word to respect rights. Anyone willing to oppose the mullahs might be a target to be silenced in due time, with no respect for human rights.

Protesting Afghan women are targets of this regime

Farwa, age 30 with three children, died as she joined fellow Afghan women on the streets for protest. Many of them know, the terrorist militant will not hesitate to go after anyone and kill them. She was shot dead two days later in cold blood, reported Au News Chant.

This execution is another example of their extreme reaction to Afghans reacting to their lawless regime. Not satisfied, they would go house to house and look for dissident and end their lives on the spot. The country's population is living in fear knowing the Taliban may come to their doorstep to commit atrocities against them, noted the Daily Star.

Farwa's brother, Rohullah Hossaini, mentioned that his sister was at her home when she heard a cry for help outside in the street. Her spouse begged her to stay inside at all costs but went outside with her infant, who is just six months old, with her three-year-old son running behind. Taliban terrorists murdered a woman with her children who survived.

#Afghanistan.



Another epic #Kabul protest with Afghan women refusing to stop marching when facing off with #Taliban. pic.twitter.com/0U3nIxYCzt  Fazila Baloch (@IFazilaBaloch) September 9, 2021

Read Also: Taliban Betrays Promise Not to Murder Civilians As Photos Reveal Traitors Disposing of Dead Bodies of Victims in Mass Graves.

Running straight to a Taliban-style execution, they killed her on the spot, and the toddler saw his mother murdered by the Jihadis brutally.

The spouse covered his slain wife's corpse with his own body, told the traumatized boy that his mother was asleep. Their eldest child, a six-year-old boy, knows his mother was killed, while his brother was confused.

Brutal awakening for her children

Mr. Hossaini said that his younger son kept asking when his mother would be awake, the infant was sent to hospital in the morning. Hossaini remarked the baby is crying all the time and not eating too much. The baby shook all the time after the bang when Farwa was shot dead. Farwa's brother provided no pictures of his wife. His brother-in-law is stupefied at the cold killing of his sister. He added the brother was banging his head on the wall.

Who shot the victim is unknown, and the brothers are going around to find out who killed their sister. But, Farwa's spouse says revenge is not correct now, another time. Hossaini stated whether his wife was shot because of him, adding he advocates for refugees. Another is whether she was targeted after joining the march, cited the NZ Herald.

The family took Farwa's body to jihadis for explanations, asked if she was part of the march, answering yes to the question and something about not going to the rally ever again. They still do not know who had shot Farwa, wanting to find out who exactly did. It is no surprise the Taliban terrorists murdered a woman with her child. For them, dissenters are fair game and subject to the threat of death.

Related Article: Cruel Taliban Burns a Woman Alive Due to Bad Cooking as Extreme Violence Spreads in Afghanistan.

@ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
NASA will embark on a mission to test its Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) system to change the orbit of potential planet killers or lesser asteroids from impacting Earth. The mission aims to hit any space rock with enough kinetic impact from a space vehicle that should alter its course from hitting the planet.

The dangers of near-earth asteroids have never been alarming as the foreign bodies are too numerous to count. It only takes one to wipe out life like the Chicxulub that hit 66 million years ago. Agencies like NASA are scrambling for ways to stop world-ending impacts from asteroids.

DART as planetary defense system

Utilizing current space-faring technology, the US space agency will attempt an actual mission if it will work using semi-autonomous space vehicles as the platform. The DART mission will start its countdown to November soon, reported India Today.

DART will be the basis of a defense system potentially important in knocking deadly asteroids and similar near-Earth objects threatening the planet. Its target will be the Didymos asteroid, which will be used for the first test in history, proving the value of the system effectivity. NASA touted the DART system as the first-ever made for keeping the world safe from cataclysmic impacts. NASA tweeted on November 24 world will be watching for its success when the mission goes hot.

Read Also: Human Civilization May Have Been Influenced by a Comet Strike, Shifting From Nomads to Permanent Settlers

Kinetic impact magnified by DART

It was developed under the management of the Solar System Exploration Program by the space agency, projected for the target to be knocked off-course. NASA will crash the space vehicle at the Didymos moonlet, speeding at 6.6 kilometers per second to hit as the calculated impact speed affected it.

The spacecraft will have cameras and hi-tech AI-based navigation to track its progress unassisted from mission control. Critical to the changing speed of the moonlet, opposed to the main body by just one percent. It will change orbit time by several minutes, assumed to be seen recorded to the Earth when the impact occurs.

Launching the asteroid altering kinetic system is the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at California's Vandenberg Air Force Base. The distance will be significant, and the machine will fly through space for a year, reaching its destination by 2022, cites Space News.

Powering its 12-month journey is the Roll-Out Solar Arrays (ROSA), which picks up solar rays to move them in spaceways via electric power. The departure date is on November 2021. It will be ready for its kamikaze rendezvous with the Didymos asteroid about 11 million kilometers from Earth. The system will be seen by ground and orbit-based radars, tracking its flight path.

The #DARTmission is @NASAs first #PlanetaryDefense test mission and will impact an asteroid to demonstrate a technique that could be used in the future to protect Earth from a potential impact. #CountdownToLaunch on November 24! Learn more: https://t.co/nPcmHQsAoy pic.twitter.com/jugmhm3UFS  NASA Asteroid Watch (@AsteroidWatch) September 10, 2021

Andrea Riley, DART program executive, said that all nations are concerned about potentially deadly impacts, being co-partners of the project are Italian and European scientists waiting to gather the impact data when it happens. The target of NASA and the DART system is the Dimorphos, the moon of the Didymos asteroid, which was first discovered by astronomer Petr Pravec, at the Ondejov Observatory in Czechia, in 2003.

Related Article: China Plans to Divert an Asteroid in 2031 by Firing 900 Ton Rockets Into It

@ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Joe Biden is dead set on making it clear, and the US calls the shots, but Xi Jinping will not be easily controlled. This is the dilemma of the US leader, whose credibility has sunk to an all-time low due to the Afghan pullout and the impending economic debacle by not putting America first.

Observers of the Biden White House think the US leader is trying to impress that everything is under control but reigning in Beijing, to show it he's still the commander in chief.

The US must assert they are entirely in command

Annelise Nielsen, Sky News correspondent, advised that the US president must demonstrate to Beijing that the US is in control. However, it will be difficult for the whole image of America, reported the Express UK.

A week ago, the two leaders met for the second time to converse with each other. Former President Donald Trump has accused China of unfair trade practices and the military standoff in the South China Sea.

Nielsen stated that the Indo-Pacific is crucial to the security of everyone concerned. According to a Facebook post, losing the line in the South China Sea will mean trouble for the Quad and NATO allies and the US. She added that the world is in a global reset, despite whether Xi Jinping calls for it or not. With the rise of populism all over the globe, this is the time that China can move in and proclaim it as the supreme power over other nations that Joe Biden has to deal with.

Related Article: Ex-White House Adviser Calls On the Military Leaders Who Caused the Afghanistan Debacle Discrediting America's Reputation

China wants to become dominant power

Nielsen added trying to look better in that arena with Beijing is not worth it. Trying to overstep will be a waste of time. The US president must establish who is in control, not let Xi dominate everything, which would mean an undesirable outcome. It might be able to play out in a way not dictated by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in South China Sea affairs.

Instead of trying to convince Xi with strong words, it would be better to be using tariffs and trade setbacks to drive in the point if Biden can do that. The Chinese leader is prepared when contrasted to the US leader.

One Sky News correspondent, Sharri Markson, discussed how effective the current US administration is to the hard-hitting former President Donald Trump in an interview with Cameron Stewart. Just this week, Washington and Beijing have their second call since the start of Biden's administration on January 20. Markson asked Mr. Stewart what he thought Biden and China were getting dealt with, comparing which president did better and how the new White House has handled the CCP.

Stewart remarked that the winner of the 2020 elections said he would be tough as Trump. Biden has not delivered on the promise but still put sanctions in place. Joe Biden has kept the status quo as Trump left it with Xi Jinping. He added that the US and China are at a stalemate.

Related Article: Joe Biden has Dropped it in Afghanistan; Allies Fear the US Fail Against China in the Future

@ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
The incident of two Great White sharks attacking a surfer is unusual for these solitary alpha predators. An attack by one large White is terrifying enough, but two coming after one human is nightmare fuel. It is a miracle the victim survived the assault.

When the attack occurred, the victim only lost one hand to the two predators. He survived through sheer determination to withstand the two monsters. He doggedly swam back to land afterward as he feared being chased by the oceanic predators.

Surfer ambushed by two sharks

Shannon Ainslie was 15 when he was the survivor of the incredible dual shark attack in 2000. During that time, he was with his brother and pals, who felt ill at ease that day and got out of the sea, reported the Sun UK.

The victim was surfing in South Africa at the Nahoon Reef when two great whites appeared to work together in an ambush on the surfer.

What should have been a day of hanging out and surfing for him turned out to be a fatal encounter with not just one but two sharks. It was odd that day when the air was thick with the scent of sardines. It tends to draw sharks to the general area and should be noted by swimmers that an attack might occur.

After paddling to get a big wave to ride on that fateful day, riding on the surfboard, one of the ten-footers sharks rammed his board, that sent him flying into the air, one of the sharks bit his hand, and the other bit his board simultaneously. The two Great White Sharks attacked the surfer with the intent to be their prey, noted the Daily Star.

Read Also: Immense Great White Called Queen of the Ocean is Over 50 Years Old, Covered in Scars.

Trapped by the sharp jaws on the board, they started to go under the water. The other shark tried to bite Ainslie's head and shoulders but missed its mark. Ainslie thought both monsters wanted to eat him, so they competed, which caused the captor to release its death grip on the surfer and lose his hand grip.

Terrifyingly, the surfer was facing the giant predator, seeing the sharp cleavers in its mouth with its eye looking at him. It swam away after that, and he was left all alone and injured in the water. He went out of the water for the damaged board and saw his right hand hanging off as his skin only connected it.

The only double shark attack on record

Shannon Ainslie is the only person to be attacked by two great whites and live to tell of the ordeal. It was a bloody mess as a hole was made on his hand, with the wrist bones exposed after getting bitten through.

No one was in the sea when he escaped the sharks. He had to get out of the water with one hand, in his injured state. If he stays any longer than needed, then one of the Whites might come back to finish him off, cited Granthshala.

Paddling for 20 minutes in the water and fearing one the beasts will show up, it will be his last. Reaching shore, his brother immediately stopped the bleeding from the hand. They waited five hours for Ainslie to be treated with 30 stitches on the right hand, with surgery to close the gaping wrist hole. Even when two Great White sharks attack a surfer and are the only known survivor, Ainslie returns to surf.

Related Article: 100-Kilogram Giant Bull Shark Bites Man's Leg Causing Massive Blood Flow in the Water

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Adopting electronics as a hobby can feel a little overwhelming for beginners. All the different tools, equipment, gadgets, and symbols can seem like an alien language that's impossible to understand. However, once you get past the initial stage, you might begin to realize that electronics isn't as difficult as you first thought.

The following consists of some helpful information and tips on how to adopt electronics as your new hobby.

Stock up on tools and supplies

An electrician is nothing without their tools, so you'll need to stock up before your journey truly begins.

Truth be told, you can never have too much equipment. Depending on the projects you undertake, the types of equipment you might need are endless. However, as a good base, you should have the essentials, from a soldering iron and wire cutters to transistors. Interestingly, transistors are insanely important, as they function as amazing electronic switches (capable of turning currents on and off millions of times each second). The market is awash with different types of transistors, so it's important to stock up on the different ones.

Learn the theory

Here's an undisputable fact: you can't start electronics as a hobby without learning the theory. But don't worry, learning the theory is easy, although it will take weeks and months before you truly start to grasp everything.

You can learn the theory in various ways, such as through electronics books for beginners and online courses.

Purchase a kit online

A whole host of electronics kits can be purchased online (or in-store). Prices and sizes of kits vary depending on which you buy. You can breathe a sigh of relief, though, as there are thousands of beginner's kits available that come with tools that won't overwhelm you during the early stages of your new hobby. The key is to start slow and gradually build your skillset and range as time progresses.

Start with projects

Once you have begun to understand the theory and have assembled your tools and kit, you can begin undertaking projects - yay!

The most exciting part about doing electronics as a hobby is the number of projects you can undertake are endless. You can test yourself with week-long projects (or even year-long projects), or you can simply undertake projects that only take a couple of hours. The choice is truly yours.

Here are some beginner projects for you to try.

Consider selling your projects

If you begin to realize that your projects are turning out pretty impressive, you should consider selling the products you've made. The best way to do this is online. You can sell through third-party retailers, such as eBay and Amazon, or sell through your own website. You can even sell products through social media, these days, which is worth considering.

Watch YouTube tutorials

There are lots of YouTube channels dedicated to helping beginners to electronics. Examples of these channels include:

Simple Electronics

Nevon Projects

SR electric

Make sure to check them out and subscribe to get access to experienced voices!

Join online communities

The electronics community is hugely popular online (check out: https://www.electronicspoint.com/forums/), as it's filled with many professionals and hobbyists eager to help others.

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President Joe Biden's forthcoming mandate that most US workers get vaccinated or tested weekly for COVID-19 will almost definitely encounter legal challenges. However, those who challenge the norm may have a difficult time winning their claims, according to labor and employment attorneys.

President Biden said on September 9 that the Department of Labor is working on an emergency regulation that will compel all companies with 100 or more employees, totaling over 80 million people, to guarantee that their workforces are completely vaccinated or show a negative test at least once a week.

New vaccine mandate may face a legal battle

Biden thinks the federal government has the authority to require COVID-19 vaccines through the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). He previously felt that the federal government lacked the jurisdiction to require COVID-19 vaccines. He also stated unequivocally that he would not impose a national vaccination requirement, as per The Washington Times.

While business leaders have mostly supported the new order and have already implemented their vaccine mandates, several Republican states and the Republican National Committee have warned the Biden administration that it should expect a battle. Brian Kemp, the Republican governor of Georgia, and Kristi Noem, the Republican governor of South Dakota, promised to fight the new regulation. Yahoo Finance via MSN reported.

According to Condon McGlothlen, a partner in Seyfarth's labor and employment practice area, the lawsuits from state governors and attorneys general might claim that Biden's order breaches the separation of powers between the executive, judicial, and legislative branches. Challengers may also argue that the regulation infringes on a state's freedom to determine its healthcare policy.

The separation of powers argument may say that by instructing OSHA to act, Biden attempts to use his executive authority to do something he couldn't or wouldn't try to obtain via Congress without even issuing an official executive order. A state's rights argument might claim that public health decisions are generally made by state and local governments, according to McGlothlen.

Read Also: Capitol Police Warns Potential Violence on September 18 Rally Supporting January 6 Suspects; Security Fencing Reinstalled

Top immunologist attacks Biden's COVID-19 vaccine mandate

Meanwhile, an immunologist has expressed remorse over his vote for Joe Biden, citing the president's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. Dr. Hooman Noorchashm, a former assistant professor of surgery at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, has suggested that immunizing Americans who already have antibodies from an illness is unnecessary.

Any effort to force Americans who had recovered from the illness to get vaccinated was unscientific, unethical, and unlawful, according to Noorchashm. In announcing plans to compel all private firms with 100 or more employees to have a COVID-19 vaccination or be tested regularly, he accused Biden of delivering one of the most contentious and damaging speeches ever delivered by a president.

Per Newsweek, Noorchashm attacked Biden and his administration in a series of tweets, claiming that he voted for him as a "McCain republican." A Michigan State University employee is suing her employer over its vaccination obligation, and Noorchashm was just mentioned in the case. Those with COVID-19 antibodies should be excluded from the vaccination obligation, said an administrative associate Jeanna Norris.

Several studies have shown that persons who have had a natural infection would generate antibodies that will protect them from COVID-19, however, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advise that obtaining the vaccination is the best approach to protect yourself and others.

The president also expressed his dissatisfaction with the distinct minority of elected authorities who are "preventing us from turning the corner" in the pandemic, as well as the 80 million eligible individuals who have yet to receive the vaccine.

Related Article: COVID-19 Booster Shots Not Needed For General Public, Claims Top FDA and WHO Scientists

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Two journalists, Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, explored the early months of United States President Joe Biden's administration in their new book titled "Peril", which analyzes the Democratic leader's decision to withdraw American troops from Afghanistan.

Biden's resolve in pulling back all American soldiers from Afghanistan amid resistance from top advisers was detailed in the book. The writing showed how determined the politician was in his decision, seemingly neglecting the fact that the U.S. troops have been struggling in the war-torn country for nearly two decades.

Criticism of Biden's Determined Decision

The book also detailed how Biden watched the issue as a former vice president when the military and national leaders were cornering then-President Barack Obama during his first year. Despite the first Black American president wishing to end the long-running war in Afghanistan, Biden believed Obama was manipulated by the military.

In 2009, Biden said that the military was not trying to get their hands dirty with him, implying that they moved forward with their agenda regarding Obama, the book says. The document also showed that Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin supported a slower withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, CNN reported.

Blinken changed his perspective after a meeting of NATO ministers in March and after being in opposition to Biden's decision, the book says. "His new recommendation was to extend the mission with US troops for a while to see if it could yield a political settlement. Buy time for negotiations," the authors wrote.

Read Also: Biden Decides To Hold Back Some of the $300 Million Military Aid to Egypt Over Human Rights Concerns

During a phone call from Brussels, Blinken told Biden that other NATO ministers discussed how the United States should have used the withdrawal to inch toward a political settlement. Austin also proposed a new plan where he expressed the idea of a "gated" withdrawal that would remove American troops from Afghanistan in three or four stages, providing leverage for diplomatic negotiations.

Despite the recommendations, Biden was determined to continue with his plan of withdrawing all United States military personnel from Afghanistan. It was a decision that led to a top Senate Democrat criticizing the president on Tuesday regarding his "fatally flawed" decision. Sen. Robert Menendez, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, demanded an explanation from Biden's administration to justify its decision, USA Today reported.

Objective of Troop Withdrawal

Biden defended his administration by arguing that the U.S. government's objective was to stop Afghanistan from being used by Al-Qaeda or other terrorist groups as a base of operations for attacking the homeland and allies. The Democrat expressed his views during one of 25 National Security Council meetings.

The situation comes as Menendez threatened to subpoena Austin after the latter failed to appear at a hearing that discussed Biden's withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan. The chairman said that he had the authority to oppose Pentagon nominees based on Austin's no-show for Tuesday's hearing, where Blinken testified.

Menendez said he expected Austin to make himself available to the committee in the near future. He added he had the power to use the committee's subpoena authority to compel him and have other officials testify, Politico reported.

Related Article: Donald Trump Criticizes George Bush's Comparison of Capitol Hill Rioters to International Terrorists

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While sanctions on a number of MPs and peers remain in place, China's ambassador to the UK has been told he will not be allowed to visit Parliament. On Wednesday, Zheng Zeguang was scheduled to attend a Commons event given by the all-party group on China.

Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle and Lord Speaker Lord McFall ruled this out following protests. It was a "despicable and cowardly" choice, according to the Chinese embassy, that would undermine both nations' interests.

The embargo comes at a time when the two countries relations are strained. China placed travel bans and asset freezes on five members of parliament and two peers in March, accusing them of disseminating false information about the nation.

China sanctions five UK MPs

This was in response to the United Kingdom's decision to penalize Chinese officials for human rights violations in Xinjiang. Despite this, Zheng was invited to the China parliamentary group's summer celebration on the Commons terrace pavilion overlooking the Thames, as per BBC.

Sir Iain Duncan-Smith, Nusrat Ghani, Tom Tugendhat, Neil O'Brien, and Tim Loughton, the five Conservative MPs sanctioned, wrote to the Speaker last week to express their displeasure. Lord Alton, a crossbencher, and Labor's Baroness Kennedy, both sanctioned peers, wrote to the Lord Speaker.

China sanctioned ten UK groups and people in March for disseminating "lies and disinformation" about human rights violations in the Xinjiang area. Tom Tugendhat, Sir Iain, Neil O'Brien, Nus Ghani, and Tim Loughton, the British MPs sanctioned, have been in the vanguard of a campaign calling for penalties on China for the alleged widespread rounding-up of Uyghur Muslims.

Sanctions were also imposed on Lord Alton of Liverpool, a crossbencher, and Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws, a Labor Party member. Per The Telegraph via MSN, Boris Johnson immediately showed his solidarity, saying: "Freedom to speak out in opposition to abuse is fundamental and I stand firmly with them."

Read Also: Vladimir Putin Oversees Vast War Games as Russia, Belarus Agree to Deepen Economic Ties; Huge Military Exercises Spark Concern in West

Western nations agree to impose sanctions against Chinese officials

Western nations agreed to penalize Chinese officials in Xinjiang for their alleged participation in the region's human rights violations, escalating tit-for-tat sanctions between Britain and China this year. Britain, Canada, the United States, and the European Union placed travel restrictions and asset freezes on Chinese officials, including the former chairman of the Communist Party's political affairs committee in Xinjiang, as part of the penalties.

Beijing responded a week later with sanctions against European politicians and scholars, as well as commercial companies like London legal firm Essex Court Chambers. The high-profile business has worked with anti-China activist groups including the World Uyghur Congress, an international organization that represents Uyghurs, a mainly Muslim minority in Xinjiang who have been accused of being mistreated by the Chinese government. The broad crackdown has been labeled "genocide" by the US State Department.

The Chinese Embassy in London said in a statement on Tuesday that the sanctions against British lawmakers were unquestionable because they were justified responses to unilateral sanctions imposed by the British side on relevant Chinese individuals and entities based on false information and under the pretext of alleged human rights violations in Xinjiang.

Some of the sanctioned British MPs urged for action to prevent the Chinese ambassador from appearing at an iconic house of British democracy in a draft letter to the speaker of the House of Commons, Lindsay Hoyle, seen by The Washington Post.

Related Article: China Investigates Development Bank Vice President For Suspected Corruption, Law Violations



@YouTube

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Massachusetts authorities reported on Tuesday that, in the last week, the region recorded 3,919 new breakthrough cases of the coronavirus and 32 new deaths, bringing the total death toll to over 18,000, marking the worsening of the health crisis in the area.

Officials reported that 61 vaccinated individuals were hospitalized after being infected with the coronavirus. The Massachusetts Department of Public health has recorded a total of 27,777 COVID-19 cases in the region with 194 deaths, all among vaccinated residents.

Surge of Breakthrough COVID-19 Cases

Despite the surge of breakthrough cases, the recent infections account for only a small portion of the total number of vaccinated individuals. Among inoculated residents, only 0.02% have been hospitalized among the 0.61% who have been infected by the virus. Officials reported that even fewer vaccinated people have died, which is recorded as 0.004%.

The report also did not detail whether or not the vaccinated individuals who acquired the virus had underlying medical conditions. It also noted that the statistics may be inaccurate due to "discrepancies" in records, NBC Boston reported.

Read Also: COVID-19 Booster Shots Not Needed For General Public, Claims Top FDA and WHO Scientists

Despite many vaccinated residents still getting infected with the coronavirus, the affected individuals develop mild symptoms compared to unvaccinated people who are more at risk of developing severe symptoms. Inoculated residents are also less likely to get hospitalized or die from the virus. This has been the argument that health officials worldwide have been using to urge people to take the vaccines as soon as possible to curb the spread of the pandemic.

Hospitals in the region have recorded a massive surge of new patients being admitted since the Fourth of July holiday. The number of coronavirus patients skyrocketed from only 80 on July 4 to more than 675 as of Monday. Officials also revealed that the hospitalizations in the region have increased from 85 on July 9 to 624 in recent days, WCVB reported.

Boosters Shots for the Coronavirus Vaccines

The situation comes as Massachusetts residents eagerly await the booster shots for the coronavirus vaccines. Gov. Charlie Baker is optimistic in getting guidelines regarding the process during a Tuesday call with federal officials. The official said that queries regarding the COVID-19 vaccine booster shots served as a "good example of an issue that's been all over the place in the media, through no fault of the media."

In August, federal officials announced plans to give residents the capability to receive booster shots. American adults who have been vaccinated with either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines are the focused target of the process. The booster shots were planned to be administered starting on Sept. 20. However, with the date approaching, it remains unclear whether or not the booster shots will be authorized and who they will be allowed to be given to as a Food and Drug Administration panel is set to meet on Friday to discuss vaccine data from Pfizer.

"Most of us had heard from the feds several months ago that it would be 2022 before there was any real traction on this. There's been some talk recently that it might happen a lot sooner than that," Baker said. The governor plans to utilize his administration to smoothen out the distribution of the vaccine to residents, in the region that is one of several states that has fully vaccinated more than two-thirds of its residents, WHDH reported.

Related Article: COVID-19: Pediatric Cases Spike to Nearly 240%; Children Less Likely To Die From Virus

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In 1969, there was a secret moon race between the US and Soviets, where Luna 15 failed, while Apollo 11 made history. Had it not been for the technical failure of the Russian space vehicle, which could have made Russia the first country on the moon.

This would be the minor known failure of the Soviets to send their spacecraft to the far side of the moon, not where the Apollo mission set down. The US won the race to the moon in 1969, despite the Kremlin's lead.

Russia reached the moon first before the US

About 62 years ago, Russia's Luna 2 space vehicle got the lead over the US in the space race then. In the early days of space exploration, the Luna 1 was able to reach the moon. It was the first manufactured machine to visit the moon, and Russia made it, reported the Express UK.

Despite the primitive technology then, it was the first-ever manufactured object to visit beyond the Earth. About a decade later, America's Apollo 11 and its famous astronauts, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walk on another world on Earth's moon. The Soviets did not want the Apollo 11 to hog the limelight and sent their Luna 15 mission to the moon even as Americans prepped the historic moon mission, not knowing they were embroiled in the first race to the moon.

Read Also: Mars Rover Perseverance Preps for Maiden Launch to Mars on July 17

US, Russia was in a secret race to reach the moon first

One reason for the move that led to the same timing of the Apollo mission is to get samples and more knowledge about the moon. The Soviets achieved landmark achievements in Space Race during the Cold War. It was Yuri Gagarin, the first person in space, and Alexei Leonov did the historic spacewalk, and another is the Luna 3 mission that made the first flyby on the far side of the moon.

In 1961, US President John F. Kennedy said the US would put their first man on the moon in ten years, which pushed the soviets to play for keeps, cited History.

According to NASA, the Soviets sent their probe to space about three days earlier than the Apollo lunar mission. But it was to get moon soil back to the Earth, noted Sandboxx.

The objectives of the two space programs to reach the moon and go back to Earth are crucial in the direction their space programs took. In the 1960s, these differences determined who would be successful in getting to the moon sooner.

The Soviet spacecraft touched lunar orbit on July 17, 1969, a whole 48-hours ahead when the American craft was still on the way. The Luna space vehicle nearly got destroyed when one of its fuel tanks boiled when exposed to the sun. However, course corrections allowed it to reach the moon.

Upon landing, the lunar surface was not easy to set down on. NASA recorded that Apollo 11 landed on the moon on July 20, 1969. Luna 15 was supposed to land on the moon about two hours after the Americans. However, it was delayed by 18-hours instead. Later, Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin E. 'Buzz' Aldrin made the first human walk on the moon.

Related Article: Artemis Accord: The Outer Space Treaty for Peace on the Moon

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Todd Rundgren, the legendary rocker and producer, has spoken out against his involvement in Kanye West's latest album, 'Donda,' which he described as an "overwhelmingly unpleasant experience."

Rundgren claims that 'Donda' was eventually rushed out, and he offers his explanation as to why. Drake was in charge of the entire process, according to Rundgren. The producer for Cheap Trick said Kanye West was concerned that Drake would one-up him so he rushed up and released the album the weekend before Drake could.

Rundgren realized during the process that West is "simply a dilettante at this point and is a shoe designer." Per ET Online, the producer is best known for songs like "Hello It's Me" and for producing albums by Cheap Trick, XTC, Patti Smith, and Meatloaf's iconic Bat Out of Hell.

Rock legend slams Kanye West

Rundgren claims he met West through a common friend in the music industry, and despite not being a fan of the gospel or "raw" music, he felt working with West on Donda would be a fascinating challenge. He became upset by what he felt was West's eagerness to finish the record fast to gain more clout after several months of back-and-forth discussions.

The legendary rocker blames West's illogical creative approach for the fact that none of the material made the final edit. In the mid-September rankings, Drake substantially outsold West, with 'Certified Lover Boy' beating 'Donda' by hundreds of thousands of sales on the Billboard 200, as per Vulture.

Rundgren would subsequently make light of the album's seemingly unending collaborations by pointing out that he is one of the few musicians who aren't on it. He has three albums' worth of Kanye stems on his computer since he was constantly contacted by the rapper to contribute vocals to the record throughout production.

Read Also: Kris Wu Allegedly Tries to Sell Properties Amid Video Spreading With Striking Resemblance to The Idol Visiting Hospital

Kanye West's 'Donda' album

Todd Rundgren informed the publication that he was first approached by producer 88-Keys, who has worked closely with Kanye for over two decades, for his year-long Donda participation. Despite his laid-back demeanor, the legend emphasized that he is still a producer who does not want to become driftwood in the process.

Despite leaving the project less than a month before its release, the legendary multi-instrumentalist confessed that he has no idea if any of his contributions were used or buried in the final mixes. Donda is West's tenth studio album, and it contains 27 songs as a tribute to his late mother Donda West, who died unexpectedly in 2007.

It includes infamous musician Marilyn Manson, controversial rapper DaBaby, and a plethora of other Hip Hop industry heavyweights, including West's longtime partner and friend Jay-Z. West debuted the album and its variations in three extravagant listening events, two of which took place in Atlanta and the third in Chicago.

Kanye's estranged wife Kim Kardashian, his four children, and Kim's younger sister Khloe were all present at the events. Donda became the hitmaker's eleventh No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 list after its release on August 29, Daily Mail reported.

Related Article: Kanye West Hints at Cheating on Kim Kardashian in New Song; KUWTK Star Considers Reconciliation With The Rapper

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The enhanced child tax credit will begin sending out its third monthly payment later this week, distributing millions of dollars to eligible families based on the number of dependents in every household as the federal government supports Americans amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The recurring payments come after many other relief packages have ended, including stimulus checks and the eviction moratorium. There are roughly 60 million children in the United States whose parents will receive direct deposit payments on Sept. 15.

Child Tax Credit's Next Payment

Families can expect to receive their money through the mail anywhere from a few days to a week after the sending out. Parents of eligible children can receive $300 per child every month for kids younger than six years. Those who have children six years and older can receive $250 per dependent on Wednesday.

The payments made on Sept.15 mark the halfway point of the child tax credit payments scheduled to end in December. There are only three recurring relief payments under the plan that United States President Joe Biden signed into law, called the American Rescue Plan, CBS News reported.

However, some Democratic lawmakers are discussing the child tax credit extension to let it run through 2025, but it is far from being a guaranteed move. But many anti-poverty advocates have applauded the CTC for supporting families through the coronavirus pandemic to be able to pay for daily necessities and other costs.

Read Also: Fourth Stimulus Check: Is Another Payment Included in The New $3.5 Trillion Reconciliation Bill?

On top of the CTC extension, lawmakers also discussed the extension of the American Rescue Plan's Earned Income Tax Credit and the child and dependent care tax credit. The programs distributed much-needed financial support to Americans that many believe prevented economic contraction.

The proposed bill would also expand tax credit programs that are useful in encouraging investment in affordable housing. The United States has experienced a surging price in the housing market in recent years, forcing more and more people away. The programs would support the construction of more affordable housing units at a much greater frequency to force a decrease in the market price, AS English reported.

Lack of Support for the CTC

Despite the massive funds that the child tax credit sent out to American families, polls showed that child benefits have dropped in popularity. A recent YouGov/American Compass survey discovered that only 28% of voters expressed their preference for the expanded child tax credit to be made permanent.

Some believe that this situation is caused by the slow distribution of recurring payments and other issues. It is also seen as a means that disconnects lawmakers from working-class parents regarding family policies.

However, many experts believe the largest contributor to the lack of support is the effect of the child tax credit on the importance of work. The Institute for Family Studies released a report that showed many households thought of the child tax credit as a way of using work as a means to get into the system. The study focused on white parents in southeastern Ohio, Black parents around Atlanta, and Hispanic parents in the San Antonio area, the New York Times reported.

Related Article: Fourth Stimulus Check: Is Another Payment Included in The New $3.5 Trillion Reconciliation Bill?

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The political situation in Haiti has gotten worse when Prime Minister Ariel Henry fired the top public prosecutor on Tuesday, accusing him of involvement in the killing of President Jovenel Moise on July 7.

Prosecutor Bed-Ford of Port-au-Prince submitted the request. The prosecutor had summoned the prime minister to appear at a meeting and explain why he spoke twice with a major suspect in the assassination of President Jovenel Mose just hours after the killing. Claude, who had been fired by Henry, arrived on the same day.

It wasn't clear if Claude had been legally removed before he approached the judge with his request, as per ABC News. The Associated Press acquired a letter from Henry on Monday in which he informed Claude that he was being fired for an unspecified "severe unfortunate mistake," and that the decision was effective immediately after he received the document.

Haiti presidency remains vacant

The legitimacy of Claude's dismissal is debatable, given Haiti's constitution stipulates that the country's chief prosecutor can only be appointed and dismissed by the president. Per RT, following Moise's assassination by gunmen at his house in Port-au-Prince on July 7, the presidency remains vacant.

The termination letter stated that his dismissal was effective as soon as he received the file. It's also unclear when Claude received the letter. Claude claims that between 4:03 and 4:20 a.m. on July 7, Henry had two phone calls with Badio and that Badio was at a hotel near Moise's home at the time.

In addition to his plea to prosecute Henry, Claude wrote to Haiti's immigration office, requesting that the PM be barred from leaving the country because of severe suspicion relevant to the president's killing. Only a few hours after those requests, he was fired.

Some legal experts were alarmed by Claude's requests that Henry is interrogated and charged, seeing the prosecutor's request as a threat to the judiciary's independence. In recent days, some in Haiti government circles have called for the prime minister to resign over the allegations.

Haiti's development has been hampered by decades of political instability and natural disasters. Its aid-dependent economy is the poorest in the Americas, more than a third of Haitians are vulnerable to food insecurity, and gangs have turned large sections of the capital into no-go zones.

Read Also: Vladimir Putin Oversees Vast War Games as Russia, Belarus Agree to Deepen Economic Ties; Huge Military Exercises Spark Concern in West

Political forces agree to form a transitional government

So far, 44 people have been arrested in connection with the assassination investigation, including 18 Colombians and two Americans of Haitian descent. In the attack, none of the president's security guards were hurt, as per Al Jazeera English via MSN.

On the same day, Haiti's main political forces announced that they had reached an agreement to form a transitional government until presidential elections and a referendum on whether to adopt a new constitution are held next year. Under Henry's leadership, the agreement establishes a Council of Ministers.

Justice Minister Rockfeller Vincent has ordered Haiti's National Police chief to enhance security for Claude as he had received threats in the past five days. An adviser for the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, Brian Concannon, said he is not expecting to change despite the prosecutor having been newly appointed.

Concannon added that Judge Garry Orelien is in charge of the assassination case and the decision whether to pursue an investigation is in the hands even if the new prosecutor said so.

Haitian politics expert Robert Fatton said there is a clear dispute in power within the government and those who support Moise. Despite court clerks hiding after receiving death threats if they won't change statements and names in their reports, the investigation continues.

Related Article: Haiti Assassination Suspects Named, Allegedly Involved Americans and Retired Members of Colombian Military

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Russian President Vladimir Putin was forced into self-isolation after several members of his inner circle tested positive for the coronavirus, the Kremlin reported, adding that the president himself was later tested for the infection, which was found to be negative.

The Eastern European politician is fully vaccinated with Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine. He held many public engagements indoors on Monday, where he announced that he would soon be undergoing quarantine. At the time, one of his aides said that Putin was speaking generally and reassured on Tuesday that none of the officials' health was in danger.

Russian President Exposed to COVID-19

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said during a daily conference call with reporters that the 68-year-old Putin's health was in good condition. However, he said that the president came into close contact with people who were infected with the virus. When the spokesman was asked if Putin tested negative for the infection, Peskov said, "Definitely, yes."

Despite his statements, Peskov did not detail when the president began his self-isolation, when he was tested negative, how long he planned to be quarantined, or who among his inner circle were the infected individuals. During a video conference with government officials, the Russian president said that several individuals in his "immediate circle" were found to be infected with the coronavirus, the Associated Press reported.

Putin said that one of the infected individuals was vaccinated previously and recently "revaccinated", which is used to denote a third shot of the vaccine. "Three days after revaccination he fell ill. We will see how Sputnik V really works," the Russian president said.

Read Also: 3,919 New Breakthrough COVID-19 Cases Signals Worsening Health Crisis in Massachusetts After Death Toll Surpasses 18,000

The Eastern European president called the situation an experiment to determine the efficacy of the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine. Putin claimed that his antibodies against the infection were high and said he hoped everything worked out as he expected it to be due to the studies done to manufacture the vaccine.

Before the announcement, Putin met face-to-face with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to meet with several Russian Paralympians. The two leaders also inspected troops that took part in Russian military exercises in Nizhny Novgorod, CNN reported.

Coronavirus Crisis in Russia

Peskov said that the government was not yet aware of Putin's exposure to the infected individual prior to his meeting with President Assad. When questioned about the fact that Putin told Paralympians he was in close contact with infected people, Peskov reiterated that there was nothing unusual about the Russian president's schedule.

The spokesman said that Putin met with Assad at the beginning of the day and not at the end. Peskov added that a decision was made after doctors concluded their tests and necessary procedures.

The situation comes as the country grapples to contain the coronavirus infection after reporting 17,837 new COVID-19 cases and 781 fatalities. This is in spite of the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine having a recorded 78.6% efficacy against the infection, 87.6% efficacy in preventing hospitalizations, and 84.8% in preventing coronavirus-related deaths. The rates were the result of a study that reviewed Argentine vaccinations published in The Lancelot on Monday, The Moscow Times reported.



Related Article: COVID-19 Booster Shots Not Needed For General Public, Claims Top FDA and WHO Scientists

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Although many people all over the world want to come to the United States, there is a growing number of Americans looking to get out. Attracted by a better work-life balance found in many other countries, they are beginning to sour on the American Dream

Some have gone on vacation to a foreign country and fallen in love with the cuisine, lifestyle, and culture and dream of living there. Life as a local and as a tourist are two very different things, however.

It can be a lot of work getting ready for the move and things don't always go according to plan. Life abroad is full of challenges and the legwork put in before the move can make a huge difference. Being prepared can mitigate many of the challenges.

In this article, we will go over how you can prepare ahead of time to make your move abroad go more smoothly.

1 - Get insurance

Many expats are lured to other countries to enjoy their public health care system. Unfortunately, most don't realize that they will be excluded from joining it since they haven't paid into the system before.

It's necessary to have private insurance lined up before the move to make sure that you will be granted a visa. Many countries won't grant one unless you can prove that you aren't a burden on the public system. Others will allow you to join, but only after permanent residency is acquired.

This is how it works when moving to Australia, for instance. Australians pay a 1.5% levy on all taxable income to be able to use the public health system. Once you have also been paying into the system for a while then you will be able to enjoy it as an Australian would.

There are many countries that have similar requirements so it pays to research what the situation is for your destination. Even buying your own private insurance to tide you over needs to align with the requirements some countries have as far as coverage goes.

2 - Research the visa process

Unless you are being transferred by work, then you will be on your own when securing a visa. Many countries don't require Americans to get a tourist visa. A visa to stay long-term is a different story, however. Most tourist visas allow you to stay for 90 days and then you have to leave.

In the European Union and Schengen countries, the 90 days applies to all of the countries. At the 90 day mark, you will have to leave the EU entirely.

Every country has its own requirements for people looking to immigrate. Some are easier than others. The rule of thumb is that the richer the country the more rigorous the process and requirements are for a visa.

3 - Learn the language

Assuming that you have the right to live there and are insured, the next step is to learn the language. Assimilating into another culture is very difficult to do even when you speak the local language. Without it, assimilating is not likely to ever occur.

Get a head start by learning the basics of a language before you go. The best way to learn is through immersion, but giving yourself a head start before you get there will cut the process down immensely.

Look for language clubs sponsored by the country or consulate that you can join to get the best information needed to be able to find the right program for you. Otherwise, use an app or software to learn at your own pace on your phone or computer.

4 - Live like a local

It is natural to gravitate to other expats on arrival. Try to avoid this as it is another factor with how well assimilation can happen. Living like a local is the best way to integrate.

Look for clubs or associations for a hobby that you enjoy or would like to try. This is where there will be local people with whom you can create a bond over a common passion.

Go to where the locals go by shopping at local markets where you will see the same people every week. Supermarkets are generally anonymous affairs but a market is vibrant and far more personal. A bonus is that in addition to meeting locals, you will also get the best fruit and veggies when you are a regular customer.

Conclusion

Moving abroad is only as big a challenge as you allow it to be. By going in prepared you will make it an exciting and exhilarating experience that adds to your quality of life. Enjoy daydreaming about your future life in a new country, but balance it out by being practical with the planning stage so you can get the most out of the experience.

@ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
India cotton production in 2021-22 is expected to fall 1% yoy to 28.34 million bales (up 2% previously) due to insufficient rainfall during the main planting period in July and August.

As of mid-September, rainfall in Gujarat was nearly 30 percent below the long-term average, reducing the area available for planting and affecting yields. Gujarat is the most productive state in India (accounting for about a third of the country annual output).

India cotton production in 2021-22 is expected to fall 1% yoy to 28.34 million bales (up 2% previously) due to insufficient rainfall during the main planting period in July and August, Fitch Solutions said on Tuesday.

In addition, Fitch said recent outbreaks of pink bollworm in Bhatinda and Mansa could also weigh on yields. However, if the weather returns to normal and pink bollworm outbreaks are adequately controlled, production should rebound in 2022-23.

"With the spread of COVID-19, domestic production and consumption of textile raw materials are slowing down."

However, the output of the domestic textile manufacturing industry is likely to increase in the coming years as the government recently announced a five-year Production-linked Incentive (PLI) program to provide additional financial support to domestic textile manufacturers.

At the global level, Fitch raised its 2021 average cotton price forecast to $90.0 / lb (previously $87.0 / lb). The report said the short-term supply outlook had deteriorated,

At the same time, Fitch said global demand would grow strongly in 2021, and subsequently raised its demand forecasts for Bangladesh and Turkey. The recovery in both countries has been better than initially expected.

In the long term, Bangladesh and Vietnam will gain significant market share in cotton consumption as their textile industries expand significantly, According to Goodwill.

"India, Indonesia and Pakistan are likely to benefit from the shift of low-value manufacturing from China, which will increase their share of global apparel exports."

However, the lack of preferential trade access to US and EU markets and rising Labour costs will slow expansion. Fitch said demand in China would continue its downward trend as the Chinese government looks to reduce its garment manufacturing business and move up the value chain.

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The market size of the lightweight cotton fabric in the global cotton fabrics industry

With the continuous development of the production technology and process of the lightweight cotton fabric in the industrial cotton fabrics industry, the application scope of the lightweight cotton fabric is becoming more and more extensive and the market potential is huge. Its development level has become one of the important indicators to measure the comprehensive competitiveness of a country cotton fabrics industry.

Industrial cotton fabrics are defined as "products used in many non-cotton fabrics industries" internationally. Compared with the traditional cotton fabrics industry with labor-intensive and low technology content, the lightweight cotton fabric industry has the characteristics and advantages of capital intensive, high technology content and huge market demand space.

In terms of the global market, the global industrial cotton fabrics market including lightweight cotton fabric will reach usd 258.33 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach USD 321.65 billion in 2028. In the next few years, the global industrial cotton fabrics industry will still maintain a growing trend.

The market price of the lightweight cotton fabric in the global cotton fabrics industry

Developed countries and regions such as the United States and the European Union occupy the leading position in lightweight cotton fabric global industrial cotton fabrics market while emerging markets such as China and India show a high growth momentum.

Since the 1990s, due to the consideration of labor, raw materials and other cost factors, manufacturers in Europe and the United States and other developed countries have shifted their focus to product research and development, brand building, channel expansion and other aspects in China, so that the production and manufacturing capacity of lightweight cotton fabric has gradually shifted to East Asian countries, especially the middle and low-end products.

The global industrial cotton fabrics lightweight cotton fabric production bases are mainly concentrated in the United States, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, and the European industrial cotton fabrics industry is shifting to Asia and the United States. The Asia-Pacific region accounted for the highest proportion of 40%; North America is next at 25 percent, followed by the Middle East & Africa, Europe and South America.

The market trend of the lightweight cotton fabric in the global cotton fabrics industry

Data in 2020 show that China cotton fabrics industry accounts for more than 50% of the world total, chemical fiber output accounts for 70% of the world, and trade accounts for one-third of the world. China has the most complete industrial chain, and most of its lightweight cotton fabric process manufacturing and equipment level has reached the international advanced level. China is also the world largest cotton fabrics and apparel market. In 2020, the total retail sales of cotton fabrics and apparel in China exceeded 1,236.7 billion yuan.

COVID-19 has had a huge impact on the overall development of trade and the cotton fabrics industry. Enterprises in various segments have realized that they are heavily dependent on Chinese suppliers. When China was unable to supply lightweight cotton fabric in the early stage of the epidemic, for example, the automobile and cotton fabrics industries could not produce normally. About 90 percent of materials imported by the EU, US and Japan come from China, underscoring the country importance in many products and raw material supply chains.

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iPhone 13 pre-orders start on Friday, 5 AM PDT. Apple offers $110 to $790 for trade-ins with older iPhone models. However, pre-orders will only remain open while supplies last.

Apple officially announced the highly anticipated iPhone 13 during the California Streaming event. Full specs and details for the smartphone have also been revealed. The company also previewed other devices like new Apple Watches and iPads.

The Verge posted a 15-minute video about the highlights of the event. Time markers are available for each specific product mentioned. The video is embedded below:



iPhone 13 Release Date, Price, Official Specs and Other Details

According to The Verge, the iPhone 13 series is very similar to the iPhone 12 series. Their only notable difference externally is the smaller front notch and diagonal camera array. Internally, iPhone 13 is equipped with the new A15 Bionic chip, teased to improve performance and increase battery life better than iPhone 12.

The best features are found in iPhone 13's high-end lineup: iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max.

On top of the upgraded chip, the smartphone has an improved display with ProMotion technology that loads up to 120Hz refresh rates and 1,000 nits brightness. Both models support Super Retina XDR displays.

All iPhone 13 versions have upgraded camera systems. The camera should offer better low-light photography with its bigger sensor and better ultrawide photography with its wider aperture. All three cameras now have night mode. The iPhone telephoto camera is also capable of 6x optical zoom, with new macro mode photography for 2cm in size subjects. Sensor-shift optical image stabilization features are limited to the Pro and Pro Max models.

Extra improvements in camera performance include Photographic Styles, which work like camera filters paired with AI computational photography. iPhone 13 also has a cinematic focus feature that intuitively adapts and focuses on video subjects, even on selfie mode. Pro and Pro Max models have an extra feature to film videos at 4K /30fps in ProRes, a higher quality video format that professionals use during the edit.

Read Also: Android 12 Release Date, iPhone Like Features: 12 Upgrades You Should Watch Out For

The iPhone 13 series has a base storage of 128GB. The Pro and Pro Max are expandable to 1TB. All support 5G connectivity. Their starting price is listed below:

iPhone 13 Mini: $729

iPhone 13: $829

iPhone 13 Pro: $999

iPhone 13 Pro Max: $1099

iPhone 13 Pre-Order: Where to Buy Before Stocks Run Out

Although Apple advertised their products to be available "today" in the California Streaming event, the Apple website said pre-orders will start on Friday, September 17th. Note, however, that at the time of writing, pre-orders are already ongoing.

To pre-order Apple's iPhone 13, head to this website.

Pre-orders are currently open for iPhone 13 mini and iPhone 13. Users can pick colors between pink, blue, red, midnight, and starlight. Storage capacity options are 128 GB, 256 GB, and 512 GB.

Users need to select their carrier between AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, or Verizon. Lastly, customers will be asked if they want to trade in an old iPhone device and payment option.

Complete all these steps to pre-order the iPhone 13. The product should be available by September 24.

Related Article: Apple iOS 15 Release Date, Features: 4 Special Upgrades You Should Watch Out For
Baby Doge has been hyped to succeed Dogecoin with its meme-related popularity in cryptocurrency. Aside from its ongoing gains on the market, Baby Doge has also announced plans for expansion with its use cases.

With that, many investors are growing curious if Baby Dogecoin can live up to its financial expectations.

Earlier this year, Dogecoin showed an insane price growth of 10,000 percent when compared to last year's trading performance. Events leading up to Dogecoin's growth helped traders earn millions of dollars from crypto markets. The success inspired developers and investors to search for the next big meme coin.

Now, experts believe that Baby Doge might follow Dogecoin's footsteps.

Baby Dogecoin Details: The Next Meme Crypto Coin

Baby Doge is a new crypto coin developed under heavy influence from Dogecoin's performance. Its assets and gains mimic Dogecoin's system, where values are determined by user popularity and craze.

Surprisingly, Economy Watch said that Baby Doge shared many characteristics with other popular meme coins. These include features like sudden big gains in the market or retreat strategies to stabilize its systems.

Baby Doge was first made available to the public some time in August. Its launch price was at $0.00000000208. In the days that followed, the crypto coin experienced drops from $0.000000001665 to $0.00000000105. However, early this week, Baby Doge markets shifted direction. Its price jumped to 44.78 percent in one day and 68.2 percent compared to last week.

At the time of writing, Baby Doge is trading at $0.00000000879, with a 10.55 percent negative downward trend in the last 24 hours. Regardless, the price is notably higher compared to its beginnings.

Read Also: Wifedoge Price, Prediction, and Potential: Should You Invest in Dogecoin's Wife?

Baby Dogecoin Updates: Unique Features and Services

Baby Doge also advertised itself to have features unique to its markets. Developers said Baby Doge would have better transaction speeds and hyper-deflationary functions in its system. For reference, Baby Doge started with 420 quadrillion tokens. Currently, it has burned over 125 quadrillion coins

Another unique feature of Baby Doge is its 10 percent transaction fee. Traders have to pay a portion of their crypto to redistribution and its liquidity pool. The system greatly rewards traders for holding on to their coins.

Lastly, Baby Doge is also expanding its services. Specifically, Baby Doge has revealed its own wallet, exchange, app and debit card.

A Baby Doge blog post explained that its new app would allow traders to:

Loading of fiat balances through bank transfers

Purchasing of crypto assets

Spending tokens at will

Exchanging crypto for fiat money

Based on its performance, Baby Doge shows a lot of potential. This crypto coin might just be Dogecoin's successor due to its dynamic market nature and sudden gains from fan popularity. It also expanded services to cater to future needs and services for interested investors.

Note, however, that just like any other cryptocurrency, Baby Doge has a highly volatile nature. Gains and losses could happen quickly and suddenly. Investors are recommended to be careful trading on this particular market.



Related Article: Axie Infinity Ban: 10 Prohibited Activities That Could Get Your Account Banned or Suspended
09/14/2021



Hometown legend Rick Bragg is releasing his 12th book at a JSU event on Sept. 21.

by Buffy Lockette

New York Times bestselling author Rick Bragg has written 12 books over the past 24 years, telling the stories of humble Alabamians and writing the biographies of music legend Jerry Lee Lewis and soldier Jessica Lynch. Now, hes turning the spotlight on the family dog.

In The Speckled Beauty: A Dog and His People, Bragg chronicles the relationship between two damaged creatures who need each other to heal  himself, while recovering from cancer, and Speck, a stray pup who arrived on his doorstep as a starved and half-dead creature, 76 pounds of wet hair and poor decisions.

Bragg will read from the new book at JSU on the date of its release, Sept. 21, from 6-7:30 p.m., in the Ken and Jenny Howell Auditorium in the new Merrill Hall. Doors to the free public event will open at 5 p.m. Autographed books will be available for purchase before and after the reading.

Native to Jacksonville  specifically, the Possum Trot community  Bragg briefly attended JSU before pursuing a career in journalism. He wrote for the Anniston Star, Jacksonville News, Talladega Daily Home, Birmingham News, St. Petersburg Times and the New York Times over his two-decade newspaper career. In 1996, he won the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing for his coverage of the Oklahoma City bombing.

Bragg released his first book, All Over But the Shoutin, to great acclaim in 1997. A love note to his mother, it was the first memoir in a trilogy about his modest upbringing in the rural farmland between Jacksonville and Piedmont. He followed Avas Man and The Prince of Frogtown with I Am a Soldier, Too: The Jessica Lynch Story, The Most They Ever Had, Jerry Lee Lewis: His Own Story, My Southern Journey, The Best Cook in the World: Tales From My Mommas Table, Where I Come From: Stories From the Deep South, Somebody Told Me: The Newspaper Stories of Rick Bragg, and Redbirds: Memories From the South.

Currently, in addition to his literary career, Bragg is a professor in the Department of Journalism and Creative Media at the University of Alabama. He writes a monthly column for Southern Living and is a regular contributor to Garden & Gun.

The event is hosted by the JSU Department of English in the College of Arts and Humanities. For more information, please call 256-782-5411.
Hana Bank CEO Park Sung-ho, left, poses with CO:ACTUS CEO Song Min-pyo after donating two vehicles for the startup that operates a mobility service, at the former's headquarters in Seoul, Wednesday. Courtesy of Hana Bank



By Lee Min-hyung



Hana Bank donated Wednesday two liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) vehicles to a mobility startup operating a service for deaf taxi drivers to better communicate with customers.



This is part of the lender's environmental, social and governance (ESG) corporate responsibility project under which Hana's car financing brand, One the Car, raised funds for the donation. If a customer applies for an auto finance loan through the platform, the lender saves 2,000 won ($1.71) per contract and the money goes towards donating vehicles for socially vulnerable groups.



"One the Car has been supported by our customers due to a series of its socially responsible programs," Hana Bank CEO Park Sung-ho said. "We are going to continue making efforts to help supply eco-friendly vehicles and provide sincere support for society."



The donation is meaningful because it offers not just the vehicles, but job opportunities for deaf drivers. Customers can also take part in the ESG campaign by using the service.



CO:ACTUS, which runs the taxi platform, also expressed gratitude for the support.



"We have been able to receive a mentoring service from Hana in the early stage of our business," CO:ACTUS CEO Song Min-pyo said. "We would like to thank all the customers who used One the Car."



The two vehicles that Hana donated will be used by the startup to operate the taxi service. A tablet PC will be set up at the back seat of the vehicles so customers can communicate with drivers. The startup developed a communication software for that purpose.



Hana Bank has fulfilled a variety of ESG programs through the auto financing platform. Last year, the lender also donated a small truck for people with disabilities at a nursing home in Gangwon Province.




Financial Services Commission Chairman Koh Seung-beom, right, speaks during a government-ruling party meeting at the National Assembly in Seoul, Wednesday. Yonhap



By Lee Min-hyung



The Financial Services Commission (FSC) has virtually rejected a request from commercial banks and pushed ahead with the extension of a special COVID-19 financial program that waives principal and interest obligations for small business owners and the self-employed who took out loans.



Under the program, small business owners and the self-employed who have been directly affected by the prolonged pandemic shock have been able to receive financial benefits by receiving loans from banks without paying any principal and interest until the end of September.



Banks have so far argued that beneficiaries of the program should at least pay interest after the deadline to help lenders identify those at risk of insolvency. The financial industry underscored the need to do so in a preemptive manner, as this is an effective step for them to manage possible post-pandemic risks caused by so-called "zombie firms"  firms that cannot generate enough revenue to pay off a debt beyond the minimum service of a loan.



But the financial authority decided Wednesday to extend the program for another six months to the end of March 2022 without accepting the request from the bank industry.



The FSC introduced the program for the first time in April 2020 amid fears of mass closures of small businesses nationwide due to toughened social distancing.



This is the third time for the authority to extend the loan benefit. Small business owners and the self-employed here will have to start paying back a total of 12 trillion won ($10.22 billion) in principal after the end of the program. They also should pay 200 billion won in interest as of the end of July, according to data from the FSC.



Bank industry sources have voiced concerns over the recent decision by the watchdog.



"Given the economy remains vulnerable to the fourth wave of the pandemic, the decision appeared to be inevitable," an official from a major lender here said. "But it would have been better for the authority to have accepted our request to make them pay interest, as this helps both banks and the loan beneficiaries reduce post-pandemic risks."



Another official from the industry also underscored the need for authorities to introduce additional measures to reduce benefits for zombie firms at high risk of collapse after the pandemic.



"If a certain firm cannot pay for interest, it will be exposed to a bigger financial risk after the financial support program ends," the official said. "It is proper for banks to monitor such inherent risks before providing or extending loans to them, rather than providing support unconditionally."



FSC Chairman Koh Seung-beom also pledged to take additional measures while announcing its decision to extend the program.



"We have sympathized with the financial industry over the need to extend the program, and both sides also agreed to take complementary steps for a soft landing of the policy," Koh said.








Image capture of the main page of SDGs data platform operated by Statistics Korea. Courtesy of Statistics Korea
An installation view of the exhibition "MMCA Hyundai Motor Series 2021: Moon Kyungwon & Jeon Joonho  News from Nowhere, Freedom Village" at the MMCA Seoul / Courtesy of the MMCA



By Park Han-sol



The 250-km-long and 4-km-wide strip that has divided the two warring Koreas since the signing of the 1953 Armistice Agreement  better known as the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ)  is material and visual proof of the seemingly unending political tensions on the Korean Peninsula.



But in recent years, contemporary Korean artists have begun to look at this landscape beyond the ideological conflict that it represents, creatively reinterpreting it as a new stage for ecological and cultural dialogue.



In 2021 alone, a series of art projects were made rediscovering the DMZ. Jun So-jung's short film, "Green Screen," which showed how the war-ravaged strip of land ironically became a utopian wildlife sanctuary, was screened daily on gigantic digital billboards in central Seoul, Tokyo and London throughout August, as part of a global art project called CIRCA.



The artist duo, Jung Yeon-doo and Surya, turned their eyes to relatively unknown micro-narratives  either inspired by modern folktales, myths or historical events  associated with the border region, and reimagined them through staged photography and a live performance called "DMZ Theater."





Artists Jeon Joon-ho, front, and Moon Kyung-won / Courtesy of the MMCA

This month, another project continuing this spirit of reexamining the DMZ beyond its geopolitical implications has opened at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA), Seoul: "News from Nowhere, Freedom Village" by Moon Kyung-won and Jeon Joon-ho, which peers into the only civilian settlement tucked in the middle of the southern part of the DMZ.



Daesung-dong, also referred to in Korean as "Freedom Village," has remained the most secluded community across the entire peninsula for nearly seven decades since the armistice agreement, fortified with heavily-armed soldiers and barbed-wire fences, due to its proximity to its northern neighbors.?



Despite the name of the village, the lives of some 200 people near the borderline are far from being free. Midnight curfews and roll calls are in place. Every trip residents make outside of their homes, even en route to their rice fields, must be accompanied by a military escort. Their choice of jobs is limited  mostly farming or livestock rearing  as no commercial facilities exist within the settlement.



In return, the villagers are exempt from South Korea's compulsory military service and the national income tax. When they reach the age of 32, they are faced with the decision of whether to stay or leave Daesung-dong.





A scene from the two-channel video installation "News from Nowhere, Freedom Village" (2021) / Courtesy of the artists



Upon witnessing this peculiar way of existence, Moon and Jeon, who have continued their signature global project "News from Nowhere"  inspired by the utopian novel of the same title by British writer William Morris (1834-1896)  since 2012, decided to make Freedom Village into the centerpiece of this exhibition, so as to explore the larger themes of confrontation and isolation.



While the two never had a chance to personally visit Daesung-dong due to the strained relationship between North and South Korea, the artists focused on presenting the settlement as a work of art that sits somewhere between fiction and reality, instead of as a simple testament to Korea's modern history.



"We're not trying to view the village as the sensational result of the unique political situation of the Korean Peninsula, but rather use the settlement as a window to reflect on the ironic, institutionalized conflicts and tensions that beset human history in general," Jeon said during a recent press preview held at the gallery.



At the same time, by looking at this village, which is defined by an extreme sense of isolation, the pair comments on the reality that the world faces today, as we grapple with the global COVID-19 pandemic, marked by social distancing measures and quarantine procedures. In other words, the isolated way in which Freedom Village exists is not necessarily limited to a particular period in Korea's past, but is being repeated to this day across the globe in many forms, the two explained.



The artist duo portrays this situation through combining different media, including video works, installations, archival photography and large-scale painting. Among them, the videos, played via two screens that stand back to back, are the most noteworthy.



The two 15-minute-long videos show the lives of two characters, respectively, who have remained secluded from the rest of the world for years: a 32-year-old man, A, in Freedom Village, who has made the decision to stay in the community, and another man, B, who is stuck alone in a futuristic, high-tech facility.



Although they seem to exist along disparate timelines, they become spiritually connected through a balloon A releases into the sky  which contains a collection of plant specimens that he has gathered and researched in his free time, as well as notes recording his daily life in order to prove his existence. The collection, after reaching the hands of B, ultimately becomes the catalyst to help him take a step outside of the facility that has confined him all his life for the first time.



The atmosphere of the gallery space is organically connected to the video works, as the exhibition's lighting and sound from the installed speakers, as well as the ventilation system, are synched up to the video narrative  thus enabling the audiences to feel as if they are part of the cinematic journey to discover the meaning of isolation and human connection.

?

The exhibition, "News from Nowhere, Freedom Village," runs through Feb. 20, 2022 at the MMCA, and will continue from April 29 at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan.








North Korea fired two ballistic missiles into the East Sea on Wednesday, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.



The unidentified type of missiles were fired from central inland areas of the North on Wednesday afternoon, and the South Korean and the U.S. intelligence authorities are analyzing details for additional information, the JCS said in a release.



"Our military maintains a full readiness posture in close cooperation with the U.S.," the JCS said.



Further details were not immediately available, such as exactly where the missiles were fired and their flight range.



The latest test is the second ballistic missile launch by the North so far this year, and the fifth known major weapons test if those involving cruise missiles are taken into account. It also came just three days after the North test-fired a new type of long-range cruise missile.



On Monday, the North's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported that the country had made a successful test with "a strategic weapon of great significance" over the weekend, indicating that the new weapon has a nuclear capability.













Pyongyang has heightened military tensions in recent weeks. Last month, it warned of a "major security crisis" in protest against the combined summertime military exercise between South Korea and the United States.



The North has also shown signs of restarting a plutonium-producing nuclear reactor at its mainstay Yongbyon complex.

Under the U.N. Security Council resolutions, North Korea is banned from all ballistic missile activity. (Yonhap)
President Moon Jae-in / Yonhap



President Moon Jae-in received an immediate briefing on North Korea's firing of ballistic missiles Wednesday, according to Cheong Wa Dae.



Moon received the briefing from Suh Hoon, director of national security, immediately after North Korea launched "unidentified projectiles today," presidential spokesperson Park Kyung-mee said in a press statement.






A new type of tactical guided missile is launched from the North Korean town of Hamju, South Hamgyong Province, March 25. Korea Times file



South Korea successfully test-launches SLBM



By Kang Seung-woo



North Korea launched two short-range ballistic missiles into the East Sea, Wednesday, according to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).



Pyongyang watchers said given that the test-firings  seen as a protest against a recent combined military drill between South Korea and the United States among others  were carried out during Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi's visit to Seoul, they were a highly calculated move designed to get Beijing to urge the United States and South Korea to stop what the North calls "hostile" annual military exercises.



The totalitarian state is banned from testing any ballistic missile technology under a set of U.N. resolutions.



The missile launches, the first of their kind since March 25 when Pyongyang tested a new type of tactical guided missile, also came two days after the reclusive state announced that it had successfully tested a new long-range cruise missile over the weekend.



"The missiles were fired from central inland areas of the North on Wednesday afternoon, and the South Korean and the U.S. intelligence authorities are analyzing details for additional information," the JCS said in a statement.



"Our military maintains a full readiness posture in close cooperation with the U.S."



The JCS announced later that the missiles traveled 800 kilometers at an altitude of 60 kilometers. .



In response, President Moon Jae-in convened a National Security Council meeting where he was briefed on the launches; while Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga denounced them as outrageous, strongly condemning the tests for threatening peace and security in the region.



Diplomatic observers believe the missile launches were mainly intended to fulfill the North's warning against the joint military exercises held by Seoul and Washington, in August, given that the country had ratcheted up tensions.






Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong, right, and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi pose ahead of their talks at the ministry office in Seoul, Sept. 15. Yonhap



Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Wednesday called on South Korea to work together to strengthen a shared "sense of community" in the face of a "major shift" in the international landscape, calling the two countries "partners that can't part ways."



Wang made the remarks during his talks with his South Korean counterpart, Chung Eui-yong, as the United States seeks to reinforce its regional alliances to counter China's growing assertiveness following its exit from Afghanistan.



"China and South Korea are close neighbors that cannot relocate themselves and partners that can't part ways with each other," he said in his opening remarks.



Wang added the two countries have to realize "better, swift, stable, full-fledged and steady" development of bilateral relations by further strengthening the sense of community, expanding common interests and finding the potential for cooperation.



Noting progress in bilateral relations in trade, tourism and people-to-people exchanges since the establishment of bilateral ties in 1992, Wang said the two countries have played a role as a "guardian of peace and stability and facilitator for development and prosperity."



The meeting also followed renewed military tensions caused by the North's weekend test-firings of a new type of long-range cruise missile and signs of the country resuming the operation of a plutonium-producing nuclear reactor at its mainstay Yongbyon complex.



Calling China a core partner for the shared goal of lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula, Chung voiced expectation that Beijing will continue to support Seoul's peace initiative.



Chung also expressed hope that China can successfully host next year's Beijing Winter Olympics.



During Wednesday's talks, Chung and Wang were expected to exchange views on the North's recent provocative moves and discuss efforts to advance the South's drive for lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula.



Wang could use the meeting to seek South Korea's support on a range of sensitive geopolitical issues, as the U.S. seeks to rally its allies behind its opposition to China's policies on Hong Kong, the western Xinjiang region, and the East and South China seas.



Later in the day, Wang plans to pay a courtesy call on President Moon Jae-in.



After a luncheon with Chung, Wang is set to leave Korea later in the day.



Chung and Wang last held their face-to-face talks in the Chinese city of Xiamen in April. Wang last visited Seoul in November last year. (Yonhap)






South Korea has become the world's seventh country with an indigenous submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM), as it succeeded in an underwater test-launch from a submarine, Cheong Wa Dae announced Wednesday.







President Moon Jae-in inspected the firing at a local test center of the Agency for Defense Development (ADD), hours after North Korea lobbed two ballistic missiles into the East Sea.







The SLBM was fired from the 3,000-ton-class Dosan Ahn Chang-ho submarine at the ADD Anheung Test Center in South Chungcheong Province.







It flew a planned distance and precisely hit a target, Moon's office said.







"Possessing SLBM is very meaningful in terms of securing deterrence against omnidirectional threats and it is expected to play a big role in self-reliant national defense and establishment of peace on the Korean Peninsula, going forward," it said in a statement.







The ADD earlier carried out several ground- and water tank-based SLBM tests, including ejection ones.







Currently, only six countries have SLBMs with actual field operation capabilities that have high strategic values and are difficult to develop, according to Cheong Wa Dae. They are the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and India.







Meanwhile, the ADD also succeeded in a long-range air-to-ground missile separation test for use by the KF-21 next-generation fighter jet, which South Korea is developing with its own technology, Cheong Wa Dae said.







It means South Korea has secured an aerial missile launch technology, an essential element for fighter jet armament, the office added. (Yonhap)






Online drug trafficking spiked last year, data showed Wednesday, probably due to the continued spread of the internet and COVID-19.







The data from the National Police Agency said 2,608 people were detained last year for trading drugs online. The corresponding figures stood at 1,120 in 2016, 1,100 in 2017, 1,516 in 2018 and 2,109 in 2019. In all, the number of drug offenders detained by police soared 133 percent for four years between 2016 and 2019.







The total number of drug offenders also increased by about 38 percent from 8,853 in 2016 to 12,209 last year.







Notably, the proportion of online drug offenses in the total increased from 12.7 percent in 2016 to 21.4 percent last year. In a similar trend, the number of drug offenders among young people in their 10s and 20s, who are deemed more active online, has also increased steeply.







The number of drug offenders in their 10s rose from 81 in 2016 to 164 in 2019 and 241 last year. The number of drug offenders in their 20s also surged from 1,327 in 2016 to 2,422 in 2019 and 3,211 last year.







Rep. Park Wan-joo of the ruling Democratic Party, who released the police data to the media, said comprehensive countermeasures should be devised to crack down on online drug transactions, which are more difficult to detect than offline ones. (Yonhap)






Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon unveiled a master plan for the capital in the coming decade Wednesday, promising to tackle growing inequality and push regulatory reforms.







The Seoul city government will work to close gaps in housing, education, jobs and social welfare, enhance the city's global competitiveness and create a safe living and working environment, the mayor said during a briefing for what is dubbed as "Seoul Vision 2030."







"Administrative offices, experts and citizens have worked hard together to devise this master plan," Oh said, "I will run again to make a city where everyone can dream and fairness and mutual growth are guaranteed."







As part of efforts to narrow widening social inequality amid soaring housing prices, he suggested the city build new homes, as many as 80,000 units per year, by scrapping construction regulations, including building height limits. He also promised to offer a variety of housing types to meet different demands from people of all walks of life and ages.







To bridge a widening learning gap amid the coronavirus pandemic, he said the city will continue to expand the city-run free online education program, "Seoul Learn," to more students.







The city will also plan to set up an investment board next year, similar to Singapore's Economic Development Board (EDB) responsible for strategies that help consolidate Singapore as a hub for global business and innovation.







A center dedicated to foreign investment will be also established by 2025, and more funds will be created to help incubate startups.







On the pressing issue of climate change, Oh said the city aims at reducing its carbon emissions footprint to 40 percent of the current level by 2030, and targets zero emissions by 2050. More trees will be planted and trails will be built in the city's mountains in order to create a greener city, he said. (Yonhap)


Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon speaks during a press conference at City Hall, Wednesday, to announce the city government's Seoul Vision 2030 plan. Yonhap



Mayor Oh unveils Vision 2030 to make Seoul into digital financial hub



By Bahk Eun-ji



Seoul City will set up an organization in charge of attracting foreign investment into the city, similar to the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation, as a part of its bid to increase the city's competitiveness and establish the city as Asia's digital financial hub, Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon said, Wednesday.



This is a core part of the mayor's Seoul Vision 2030, a master plan for the city government's policy direction through 2030.



This vision is the result of discussions of a committee of 44 experts in various sectors and 78 Seoul citizens, which Oh set up in May, the month after he was elected mayor.



One of the main goals is to restore Seoul's global urban competitiveness.



"I will make all-out efforts to turn the capital into a top-tier and globally competitive city," Oh said during a press conference at City Hall, Wednesday.



The city government aims to raise Seoul's urban competitiveness to within the top five cities, up from 17th in 2020 according to a survey released by the U.S. consulting firm A.T. Kearney.



"We will restore the competitiveness of Seoul, and create an attractive city, to where people, businesses and investment flock again," Oh said.



For this goal, Seoul City plans to establish the tentatively named "Seoul investment agency" next year in charge of attracting overseas investment and supporting businesses, along the lines of Singapore's GIC and Hong Kong's InvestHK.



It will also designate Yeouido, where financial institutions are clustered, as a special zone for digital finance, with an aim to develop the district into Asia's leading digital finance hub. It will establish a support center there by 2025 to provide one-stop support for all processes of attracting overseas financial institutions to Yeouido.



The Dongdaemun area, which is mostly associated with the fashion industry, will be developed into a "global beauty industry hub" by gathering cosmetics companies and research labs, academies teaching cosmetics-related techniques, as well as facilities for culture and tourism linked to hallyu.



Seoul City also plans to hold Seoul Festa, an annual festival, starting next year, where visitors can experience the city's cultural and tourism resources including K-pop concerts, food and shopping, hoping to attract 20 million visitors from overseas annually by 2030.



The city government plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent compared to the current level by 2030 and targets zero emissions by 2050.



It estimates a budget of 48.7 trillion won ($4.16 billion) will be needed to realize these goals for Seoul Vision 2030. Oh said the city government can prepare for the amount without much difficulty because tax revenue has increased due to rising property taxes stemming from the increase in housing prices.


Lee Nak-yon, a presidential contender of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, delivers a speech during a regional primary event of Gangwon Province, held at Oak Valley Resort Convention Center in Wonju, Sunday. He ranked second after Gyeonggi Provincial Governor Lee Jae-myung. Yonhap



This article is the second in a series on the major presidential contenders' leadership styles, campaign promises, strengths and weaknesses, as well as career histories  ED.



By Jung Da-min



Former ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) Chairman Lee Nak-yon has been called a "man of prudence, seriousness and balance."



His supporters point to his rationality and ability to make balanced decisions after listening to conflicting parties, as having enabled him to succeed in managing various administrative and political positions stably, but the same attributes have also given him the image of being unable to make swift decisions in urgent situations.



Reflecting this, the support rate for Lee as a potential presidential hopeful that had been highest for nearly a year in 2020, has fallen significantly, and he is now the second-most popular contender after Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jae-myung. The gap between the front-runner and Lee is quite wide: in the DPK's regional primaries for Daejeon, Sejong, North and South Chungcheong provinces, Daegu, north Gyeongsang Province and Gangwon Province, the Gyeonggi Province governor gained an accumulated 51.41 percent of support from party members and the general public to and former DPK head Lee's 31.08 percent.



Against this backdrop, Lee had to redefine his election strategy to find a breakthrough in the upcoming rounds of the primary. He began by announcing, Sept. 8, that he would give up his National Assembly seat to concentrate fully on his presidential campaign. His resignation was passed at an Assembly plenary vote, Wednesday.



Whether this brinkmanship will come to fruition will be shown in the upcoming primaries to take place through Oct. 10. If nobody takes more than half of the total votes, a final round will be held four to five days later.





Lee Nak-yon, a presidential contender of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, announces that he will give up his National Assembly seat to concentrate fully on his presidential campaign, during a press conference at Gwangju Metropolitan Council, Sept. 8. Yonhap



Prudent leadership becomes double-edged sword









Although now in second, Lee, a five-term lawmaker and former DPK chairman, is a strong presidential contender who could appeal to wide range of voters regardless of their political inclinations, due to his image as a veteran politician who has held many important positions including that of prime minister post and governor of South Jeolla Province, political watchers said. Before serving as the DPK chairman, Lee was prime minister to President Moon Jae-in and set a record of holding the position for the longest period since Korea adopted the direct presidential election system in 1987.



The journalist-turned-politician is well recognized for his stable and skillful speech and writing abilities. His image as a prudent but keen politician who issues impactful messages led him to enjoy high popularity while serving as the prime minister. At the time, he left a good impression on the public with his displays of taking memos at disaster scenes or during trips to various regions while listening to the difficulties of local staff and the hardships of members of the public.





President Moon Jae-in enters the presidential press room in Cheong Wa Dae to announce his nomination of then-South Jeolla Province Governor Lee Nak-yon, at the rear, as his first prime minister, in this May 10, 2017 photo. Korea Times file

Lee had long topped polls of prospective presidential candidates, for almost a year, but his popularity began to decline after he became the DPK chairman in August last year. Political watchers attributed his failure to win public support as the ruling party chief to his "too prudent" leadership style as he failed to impress party supporters as well as the public while "procrastinating" in making decisions on pending issues.



For example, some said Lee needed to show his leadership by mediating the sharp conflicts between former Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae and former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl over the Moon government's prosecutorial reform policies.



Some political watchers also said Lee failed to present his own political vision or a clear political message.



"Lee's strong point is that he could appeal to the general public outside the DPK with his image as a reasonable politician, as he has often taken a neutral attitude rather than siding with enthusiastic supporters of the party on contentious political issues. But this has ironically become his weak point in the DPK's primary to select its presidential candidate as he failed to win support from the party members," said Cha Jae-won, a professor of special affairs at the Catholic University of Pusan.



"Lee is a veteran politician and his leadership is moderate and elegant, but the problem is that he failed to present a clear political vision of his own or policy promises which show his own ideas."



Less polished pledges



For policy promises, he vowed to alleviate economic polarization by increasing the proportion of the middle class to 70 percent from the current 57 percent, while fostering high-tech sectors such as artificial intelligence, bio-technology, electric vehicles and hydrogen powered cars.



As to housing, which has been one of the Moon government's policy failures, Lee has pledged to transfer the function of Seoul Airport in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, which is a military airport, to Gimpo International Airport and instead use the site to build 30,000 apartment homes  a promise which many experts say lacks feasibility.



To deal with the ever decreasing birthrate, Lee promised to provide 1 million won monthly to parents until a child turns five years old.



For diplomacy and security, he said he would inherit the peace diplomacy of former President Kim Dae-jung, former President Roh Moo-hyun and President Moon, to continue the liberal governments' engagement policy toward North Korea.




By Heo Mane





The Doha Peace Agreement struck between the U.S. and the Taliban once was hailed as "historic" in Washington at the time of its signing. But now President Joe Biden has been forced to withdraw American soldiers in a chaotic manner. The chaotic military withdrawal has helped the Taliban to take a tight grip on power.







First, as for diplomatic failure, the Doha Peace Agreement was made not based on trust or a fair deal between the Trump administration and the Taliban. The Trump administration one-sidedly was intent on ending an "endless war" with the Taliban. The Taliban vowed in its agreement not to threaten U.S. national security, nor that of its allies.



In return, the U.S. pledged to reduce its number of troops in Afghanistan from 12,000 to 8,600 within 135 days, the swap of 1,000 Afghan security force prisoners and 5,000 Taliban prisoners. Among them was Taliban co-founder and political chief Mulla Abdul Ghani Baradar.







However, having seized the country, the Taliban continues to carry out suicide bombings and massacres against Afghan security forces and civilians. On the other hand, the Taliban refrained from attacking U.S. soldiers. The terrorist group did not carry out its obligations to uphold the importance of women's rights to work and to receive an education.



Such practices continue to be applied since its seizure of Kabul. Terrorists began to kill women who do not wear burkas, and even a girl listening to K-pop in her house was executed. The Taliban still maintain their brutal and oppressive behavior.







Such things happening in Afghanistan now tell us that from the beginning, the U.S. failed to enforce real and trustful diplomacy with the its counterpart, while it gained only partial diplomatic success in the course of the nine months-long negotiations. This success is now a springboard to hold a strong grip on this country.







Second, anti-terrorist warfare was launched by the former President G.W. Bush on Sept. 20, 2001. The free world was attacked by al-Qaida on Sept.11, 2001. Bush declared, "Our war on terror begins with al-Qaida, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped, and defeated." This means that all acts to harbor terrorists will be severely punished.



The free people around the world wanted to deliver to Afghanistan freedom and hope. From this perspective, free people from the Western world began to ensure freedom and hope for the Afghan people. At the time of the first stage of the war on terror, the U.S. forces as well as allied forces drove the Taliban from the stage of power to the corner of bondage in a matter of weeks.







The allied forces helped the Afghan opposition group avert the winter humanitarian disaster through the provision of 2.4 million humanitarian daily rations. Under the Taliban, girls could not go to schools and women could not work. So, the new government had been laying the groundwork for peace and prosperity for the Afghan people over the past 20 years.







Third, corruption was huge at the government level. The U.S. and its allies failed to monitor financial aid provided by them to build a free nation. Afghan security forces lost their will to fight the Taliban terrorists' long, resilient attacks, mainly because of the long-delayed payments to soldiers. The financial aid was poorly managed and divided only among highest ranking officials, including former President Ashraf Ghani.







Fourth and finally, the initial diplomatic deal with the Taliban had a mortal weak point in acknowledging gradually the Taliban as an emirate Afghan state. Another mortal weak point is to have left all important weapons for the Taliban.











The writer ( mane398@naver.com ) is professor emeritus and also an adviser of the Korea-EU Forum.
Big tech fined for abusing market dominance



Korea's antitrust watchdog fined Google 207.4 billion won ($177 million) Tuesday for abusing its dominant market position to hamper fair competition. The Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) implemented the punitive steps against the U.S. tech giant for compelling smartphone manufacturers such as Samsung Electronics to install only its Android operating system (OS).



Google forced an anti-fragmentation agreement (AFA) regarding app store licenses on the device makers to prevent them from using any OS other than Android. It has not even allowed them to use modified versions of Android, in an apparent abuse of its market dominance, according to the KFTC.



KFTC Chairperson Joh Sung-wook said, "Google has engaged in an unprecedented practice that undercuts efforts toward innovation. After securing market dominance, it coerced device producers to abide by the AFA contract. The decision is meaningful as it will help restore competitive pressure in the OS and mobile app markets."



The action against Google came as a result of the KFTC's investigation into the global IT firm that began in 2016 amid complaints that the tech giant was forcing smartphone manufacturers to install only its own apps in return for free use of the Android OS. The KFTC's decision is meaningful in that it applied the brakes on high-handed business practices by Google and other giant online platform businesses.



When Google unveiled its Android OS in 2008, it vowed to allow anyone to freely use and modify it. However, it shifted its business tactics in 2011 when it managed to secure market dominance, employing a non-competitive and monopolizing approache. Given this, according to the KFTC, Google's share of the mobile OS global market continued to surge, reaching 97.7 percent in 2019 from 38 percent in 2010.



It has been a global trend to impose punitive measures on major platform businesses. The EU, for instance, fined Google $5.1 billion in 2018 for abusing its market dominance. Google said it will appeal the KFTC ruling, saying it ignored the benefits provided by Android's compatibility with other programs.



Google said its Android system has contributed to the growth of both software and hardware innovation. It said the KFTC's decision will undermine the development of apps for Android and violate consumers' rights to enjoy diverse advantages. But market watchers say consumers will likely have more benefits and choices, helped by the ruling.



Google's reaction contrasts with Kakao Corp.'s plan to withdraw from businesses earmarked for small enterprises and offer 300 billion won to help its business partners. Kakao founder Kim Beom-su pledged to fundamentally change his company's business approach to promote social responsibility. Kakao's move deserves acclaim.



It is proper for the authorities to take punitive steps against big tech companies, riding on the global trend toward preventing them from expanding their market dominance and abusing it. The legislation of relevant laws is necessary toward that end, and so therefore the National Assembly should speed up its deliberation of pending bills to further regulate online platform enterprises for fair competition.


By Park Yoon-bae





The chaotic U.S. exit from Afghanistan and the Taliban's return to power speak volumes about America's foreign policy and its future courses of alliance with other countries.



The Biden administration completed the withdrawal of U.S. troops and the evacuation of American citizens and Afghan refugees from the war-torn country at the end of last month. Yet Washington has suffered a setback, because it failed to carry out an orderly exit.



It is perplexing to discern that the U.S. learned a lesson from the failure the hard way. The Afghan case has hurt the pride of America, one of the so-called "G2" powers, along with China. It has also left an indelible mark on the U.S.'s global leadership.



This failure in Afghanistan, however, does not mean that the U.S. has totally failed in its war on terrorism. The U.S. had produced some successful results over the past 20 years since it invaded Afghanistan. It toppled the Taliban regime, which offered sanctuary to al-Qaida, which is accused of plotting and carrying out the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the U.S. It also killed al-Qaida founder and leader, Osama bin Laden, in 2011.



But with the Taliban's comeback, the Afghan situation has now returned to square one. This reality is what is considered most humiliating for the U.S., which has so far spent more than $2 trillion to wage its longest war there.



The Afghan war seemed to be unwinnable, as was the case with the Vietnam War. The George W. Bush administration, which started the war in Afghanistan, apparently ignored the lessons from the failure of the Soviet Union there. The USSR invaded Afghanistan in 1979 to support a Moscow-backed Afghan coalition to remain in power. But the Soviets eventually had to leave the country after losing a nine-year war with the Mujahideen.



Afghanistan is of vital strategic importance geopolitically, located in South Asia and bordering Iran, Pakistan and China as well as three Central Asian countries: Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. At that time, the Soviet Union wanted to use Afghanistan as a foothold to advance into South Asia, while the U.S. was interested in curbing Moscow's influence in the region.



However, both the Soviets and Americans paid little attention to the complexities of Afghanistan's unique politics, religion, history, culture, ethnic patchwork and many other factors. They mistakenly believed that they could do anything they wanted: to push for regime change, prop up governments that lacked popular backing, or in various direct and indirect ways impose their own values and systems on Afghans.



In fact, the U.S. had tried to implant an American-style democracy in the Muslim-majority country, which has long resisted foreign intervention. Its efforts for nation building there completely fell apart after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country and the government armed forces surrendered to the Taliban without any resistance.



So we cannot but ask a question: What has the U.S. accomplished in Afghanistan over the past two decades? The U.S. poured an astronomical sum of its tax dollars into a bottomless pit, wasting Americans' blood and tears, and also costing the lives of many Afghans.



Of course, such a failure cannot be attributed simply to the Biden administration's miscalculated carrying out of the withdrawal. Rather, it apparently stems from fundamental and structural problems within Washington's foreign policy establishment. It makes people call into question the current state of Pax Americana, which has contributed to world peace since World War II.



The U.S. should learn from its failure so that it can avoid repeating the same mistakes and create a better future for the world. No superpower can maintain peace only through force. The U.S. saw its soft power significantly weakened under the rule of former President Donald Trump. His "America first" policy left America alone in terms of its foreign relations.



Now, President Joe Biden must double down on keeping his promise to restore the U.S.'s global leadership and rebuild a rules-based international order. He declared that "America is back." But, the Afghanistan case has underscored the message that "America has left."



As such, Biden has given the impression that he might have abandoned his efforts to reverse many of the isolationist foreign policy decisions made by Trump, and returned to carry out the withdrawal, which was in fact initiated and set up by his predecessor. This impression is evident in the remarks he made right after the Taliban's recapture of Kabul.



Reflecting fatigued public sentiment inside the U.S. over the expense and length of the war in Afghanistan, Biden said much to the effect that America would neither engage in any war that does not serve the U.S.'s interest nor remake a country through the deployment of U.S. forces. And he implied that he would shift the focus of U.S. foreign policy to the Indo-Pacific region to check the rise of China.



So the Biden administration is expected to strengthen the U.S.-led international coalition against China, possibly by expanding the scope and role of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, also known as the Quad, and comprised of the U.S., Japan, Australia and India.



Consequently, South Korea may face growing U.S. pressure to join the Quad. The intensifying competition between Washington and China could force Seoul to choose sides. Then, the dilemma will be that the Moon Jae-in administration could find it ever more difficult to keep the balance between the two global powers.



South Korea has so far maintained a policy of relying on its traditional ally, the U.S., for defense and security, while depending on China, its largest trading partner, for economic growth. However, such a policy may need to see change in the not-too-distant future. If that happens, we will need a paradigm shift that can help us go beyond the great power rivalry. We should realize how dangerous it is for us to put our fate unconditionally at the mercy of either America or China.





The author (byb@koreatimes.co.kr) is the chief editorial writer of The Korea Times.


By Sandip Kumar Mishra





In 1924, a British court gave a very famous axiom of jurisprudence. It said, "Not only must justice be done, but it also must be seen to be done." While keeping the essence of the axiom intact, let's paraphrase it: "Justice must not only be seen to be done, but it must be done."







However, if one narrowly focuses on "justice must be seen to be done" and does not give much consideration for the actual realization of justice, the approach does not serve its purpose.







South Korean courts, both local as well as the Supreme Court, must introspect on whether their judgments on the issue of wartime forced labor by Japanese companies do not fall into the last category. From 2018, there have been several cases and several verdicts in South Korean courts on the issue. In October 2018, the Supreme Court of Korea upheld lower courts' orders in which Japanese companies were asked to pay 100 million won ($85,000) to each of the plaintiffs as reparation.







However, in June, August and September 2021, the Seoul District Court dismissed compensation appeals of the descendants of the wartime forced labor victims. In the most recent verdict on Sept. 8, the court rejected a lawsuit filed by four children of the late victim, surnamed Jeong, against Nippon Steel Corp.







Without being overly emotional about the issue, it must be evaluated whether these judgments have contributed to serving justice to the victims. There is no denial of the fact that the several Koreans suffered immensely because of the wartime forced labor. However, there are many vexing questions which should be considered before taking up and adjudicating this issue.







First and foremost, it must be ascertained whether these Japanese companies acted as per their own free will, or did the Japanese state direct them to do so? If the Japanese state dictated or influenced the decisions of these companies, the state must be made liable for it.







Second, is it not reasonable that the economic reparation provided by Japan to Korea through the Normalization Treaty of 1965 was basically indirect compensation by Japan to these Korean victims and many more? Someone may ask that if individual Korean victims are entitled to sue Japanese companies separately, then what were the specific reasons for the Japanese compensation to Korea?







Third, most of the Korean litigants are second or third generation descendants of the Korean victims who suffered because of the forced-labor. Is it possible to redeem those atrocities by paying compensation to these descendants? Would there not be a time limitation of demanding compensation for the wrong doings of the past? This is important, because history is full of many such atrocities and trying to seek compensation for all of them may, rather than provide justice, bring more animosity.







Fourth, is it easy to get compensation from the Japanese companies given that they are foreign companies in Korea? Also it must be realized that there are various international bodies related to global trade who would definitely come into the picture and make the actualization of the compensation at least complex, if not impossible.







Fifth, if Japanese companies are forced to pay compensation, how is it going to be read by other Japanese companies in Korea? If other Japanese companies decide to curtail their business in Korea because of the lessons they learned from the compensation issue, it would have a negative impact on the Korean economy. It would also mean that many more Korean people are going to suffer in the process.







Sixth, can we be sure that these court verdicts are not going to have impacts on t bilateral relations between Korea and Japan? When China's assertions in the region have grown, North Korean nuclear and missile programs pose existential threats to both Korea and Japan, the US commitment to Korea and Japan is doubtful and several historical and territorial issues between Korea and Japan are already posing serious questions to both Korea and Japan, is it appropriate to raise such a vexatious issue which may further strain bilateral relations?







Actually, without comprehending and answering these questions, it would not be constructive for the courts in Korea to give their verdicts on the forced-labor issue. The point is not that the atrocities were not committed. But it only means that in the process of the delivery of justice, these points must be taken into account.







If it does not happen, justice may appear to be done, but the realization of justice may remain elusive. Apparently, the South Korean state is aware of these complexities and has been trying to tread constructively without hurting Korean popular sentiment or the judiciary. It is high time for Korean courts to also keep in mind the bigger picture.



) is associate professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India.



The author ( sandipmishra10@gmail.com
Kim Kyoung-hoon, country director of Google Korea, speaks during the Google for Korea online press event, Wednesday. Captured from conference



US tech giant underlines business benefit, job creation in Korea



By Baek Byung-yeul



Google will ramp up efforts to boost its digital cooperation in Korea by continuing to create more jobs and business opportunities, the U.S.-based tech giant said Wednesday, in what is believed to be a move to restore its corporate image here. The tech company has been hit by a series of sanctions lately over abuse of its market dominance.



"Google will continue to do its best to help more Korean startups, partners and creators grow and advance into the global market, and to contribute positively to the Korean economy and local community," Kim Kyoung-hoon, country director of Google Korea, said during a special online conference to celebrate Google's 18th anniversary of starting its business in Korea.



"Through the startup campus, new Korean businesses are actively interacting with communities around the world and paving the way for innovation. The Google Startup Campus Team and the Google Developer Ecosystem Team plan to launch a startup support program called the Google for Startup Accelerator program soon," Kim said.



During the event, the consulting firm AlphaBeta Advisors said Google has had a positive impact on Korean society as a whole by providing platforms such as AI technology and apps, mobile and cloud computing services, and support measures to foster startups.



Park Sang-gon, a director of the Korea Productivity Center, also emphasized that YouTube, Google's video streaming service, has greatly helped local content creators reach overseas audiences.



"YouTube presents a new paradigm of single-person media, bringing economic, cultural and social benefits," Park said. "Seven out of 10 content creators have become accessible through YouTube and are exporting content to overseas viewers who had no other approach in the past."



The Korean branch of Google stressed that it has contributed to the development of Korea's economy, creating more than 54,000 jobs and bringing business benefits worth 10.5 trillion won ($8.9 billion) annually since it began operating here.



The press event came after recent punitive measures taken by the National Assembly and the Fair Trade Commission over Google's abuse of its market dominance, which seems to have stirred up negative consumer sentiment.



On Sept. 14, the FTC fined Google 207.4 billion won for abusing its market dominance to prevent the entry of other developers of smart device operating systems (OS).



The FTC ordered Google to allow electronics device makers to use OS made by other companies, saying it had effectively prevented device makers from developing products loaded with modified operating systems. The antitrust regulator added Google had also forced manufacturers to sign a contract under which the devices would have to incorporate Google's own app market.



With the measures, initiated in 2011, Google has effectively increased its share in the global OS business. Excluding Apple's system, Google's market share grew to 97.7 percent in 2019 from 38 percent in 2010.



The antitrust regulator's fine and corrective measure on Google followed the passage of a bill last month in the National Assembly banning the internet giant from imposing its own billing system on in-app purchases.



These two measures have had a huge impact on countries and the international community preparing their own cases against internet platform companies' abuse of their monopoly status. Based on the new bill and corrective measures here, the U.S., Europe, Japan and other countries are looking to increase the level of antitrust regulations to be applied to platform operators.


POSCO's Seoul headquarters / Korea Times file



By Yi Whan-woo



POSCO has received the highest grade in an annual evaluation of large businesses based on their efforts to seek joint prosperity with smaller firms.



POSCO said Wednesday it was rated "Excellent" in the Win-Win Growth Index released earlier the same day by the National Commission for Corporate Partnership (NCCP), a government-affiliated organization.



A total of 198 companies were subject to evaluation during the NCCP's 67th meeting. POSCO was among 36 firms that had the highest score.



"We believe our efforts for corporate culture based on objectivity and transparency have been highly appreciated, along with innovative ways of support for our business partners and a wide range of activities aimed at tackling social and environmental issues," POSCO said in a press release.



The nation's largest steelmaker's shared growth activities have targeted primary suppliers, partner companies and clients, as well as secondary suppliers and companies that have no direct business with POSCO.



In particular, POSCO noted it raised 100 billion won ($85.6 million) jointly with Hyundai Steel in 2020 to help finance small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).



The fund offers a loan rate that is 1.05 percent points lower than the market, providing practical support to companies that are struggling with liquidity.



POSCO also spent 20 billion won over the past five years for a program designed to boost the production capacity of SMEs.



More than 460 SMEs benefited from consulting services and the establishment of manufacturing facilities using Internet of Things, big data and other cutting-edge technologies that were made available through POSCO's program.



Through its corporate social responsibility program, POSCO donated hygiene equipment to small business owners in the vicinity of its operation areas to better cope with the pandemic while purchasing large amounts of goods from pandemic-stricken traditional markets.



To help the SMEs enhance management based on environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) standards  a buzzword for global businesses  POSCO launched a committee consisting of ESG-related consultants this year.



Seven SMEs benefited from consulting services in the first half, and up to 12 others are expected to receive support.



NCCP has been announcing the Win-Win Growth Index since 2011.



The index is based on the NCCP's comprehensive evaluation of shared growth as well as the Fair Trade Commission's evaluation of fair trade implementation.



The companies subject to the index evaluation include those that are among the top companies in domestic sales and are receiving a high level of social interest from the public.


Various groups of pro-democracy activists, including Lee Cheuk-Yan, center, arrive at a court in this Feb. 5 photo after being charged of joining an unauthorized assembly on a vigil in June 4, 2020 to commemorate the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown in Hong Kong. Nine Hong Kong activists and ex-lawmakers were handed jail sentences of up to 10 months on Sept. 15. AP-Yonhap



Nine veteran democracy activists in Hong Kong were sentenced to between six and 10 months in jail on Wednesday for joining a Tiananmen vigil banned by police last year.



Three others were handed suspended sentences on the same charges of joining an unlawful assembly or inciting others to join.



The sentencing came one week after leaders of the group behind the annual vigil were separately accused of inciting subversion following a police raid at a museum in the city dedicated to Beijing's Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989.



The Hong Kong Alliance had organized three decades of vigils commemorating the victims of the operation.



Once one of the most visible symbols of Hong Kong's political freedoms, the June 4 event has been banned over the past two years, with authorities citing the coronavirus pandemic and security fears.



But China is also in the process of remolding the financial hub in its own authoritarian image following huge and often violent democracy protests that had convulsed Hong Kong in 2019.



Prominent democracy figures have been arrested and anyone deemed "unpatriotic" purged.



On Wednesday, Albert Ho, former vice chairman of the Hong Kong Alliance, was handed terms of 10 months for incitement and six months for attending the vigil.



His terms will be served concurrently with 18 months he is already serving related to other cases.

The case over the 2020 vigil involved a total of 26 activists across Hong Kong's political spectrum.



Two, Nathan Law and Sunny Cheung, had left the city for exile before the group were first summoned to court in September last year.



Joshua Wong, Lester Shum, Tiffany Yuen and Janelle Leung were handed jail terms earlier this year for attending the vigil.



The last eight defendants, who pleaded not guilty, will face trial in November.



Tens of thousands of people had defied the police's ban on the 2020 vigil and massed peacefully at the city's Victoria Park.



In recent years, crowds at the annual event had swelled as anger intensified over how Beijing was running Hong Kong.



Tolerance for such political defiance has since ended.



Just a few weeks after last year's rally, Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law that has transformed Hong Kong's once freewheeling political landscape.



More than 100 pro-democracy figures have been arrested under the law, mostly for expressing political views.



Most are denied bail and face up to life in prison if convicted.



The Hong Kong Alliance, officially named the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, is the security law's latest target.



Last week, the organisation and its three leaders were charged with "incitement to subversion" after police were seen carting away documents and exhibits from the group's now-shuttered June 4 museum. (AFP)




In this July 20 file photo, Haiti's designated Prime Minister Ariel Henry, center, and interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph, right, pose with other authorities in front of a portrait of slain Haitian President Jovenel Moise at the National Pantheon Museum during a memorial service for Moise in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. AP-Yonhap



Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry on Tuesday replaced the chief public prosecutor who had been seeking charges against him as a suspect in the assassination of President Jovenel Moise, plunging the country into a fresh political crisis.



Moise was shot dead on July 7 when assassins stormed his private residence in the hills above Port-au-Prince. The 53-year old had been governing by decree for more than a year after Haiti failed to hold legislative and municipal elections amid a political gridlock and had faced many calls to step down.



His death has left Haiti in an even deeper constitutional and political crisis as it has only a handful of elected officials nationwide.



Henry, a political moderate and neurosurgeon whom Moise named prime minister just days before his death in an attempt to reduce political tensions, has sought to forge a new consensus between different political factions.



But allegations over his possible involvement in Moise's killing are now overshadowing that.



Prosecutor Bed-Ford Claude said last week that phone records showed Henry had twice communicated with a man believed to be the mastermind behind Moise's killing on the night of the crime.



That suspect, a former justice ministry official whom Henry has publicly defended, is now on the run.



Henry dismissed his request to discuss the matter as politicking and did not respond to the allegations.



That prompted Claude to write on Tuesday to the judge overseeing the investigation into Moise's slaying and ask him to charge Henry as a suspect.



He also wrote to Haitian migration services ordering them not to let the prime minister leave the country "due to serious presumption relative to the assassination of the president".



Later on Tuesday, a letter from Henry to Claude dated Sept. 13 emerged in which he said he was firing him for "grave administrative error", without going into detail. In a separate letter dated Sept. 14, he named Frantz Louis Juste to the post.



It remains unclear whether the order actually is valid as Haiti's 1987 constitution mandates that the prosecutor can only be appointed or fired by the president, a position that remains vacant.





People gather outside the Petit Pas Hotel, destroyed by the earthquake in Les Cayes, Haiti, Aug. 14. AP-Yonhap
On 13 September, Norway held its parliamentary elections. These elections came at a very significant period in Norwegian politics: They are the first elections since the outbreak of the pandemic in March last year. The pandemic revealed the contradictions hidden under the surface.

Despite the image that Norway has among the international left as a bastion of socialism, the last decade in Norwegian politics has been marked by increasing cuts, austerity, and privatizations. There are more billionaires than at any point in Norwegian history, and this group has continued to grow, even under the pandemic. Hospitals, kindergartens, welfare services, and so on have all faced fairly significant cuts and privatizations. The pandemic turned these cuts into open gashes and showed the extent to which the right-wing government has crippled the welfare state.

Fed up with eight years of austerity, and a mismanaged pandemic, in which hundreds of billions of Norwegian kroner were given to the richest while deepening cuts were inflicted against workers and welfare, the right-wing coalition was decisively defeated at the polls. The final result was a 100 to 68 clear majority for the left. Although no government has yet been formed, the most likely formation is a Red-Green coalition consisting of the Socialist Left Party, the Labour Party, and the agrarian Centre Party.

After eight years on the defensive, the Norwegian labour movement has put the Red-Green coalition back in power, and it expects results. The vote was a clear no to bourgeois austerity politics. But will the Red-Green coalition be able to deliver the results?

The economic situation in Norway

The election results did not come as a surprise for anyone. For a long time, the opinion polls had given indications of the coming of a new government. The bourgeois parties had been struggling in the polls even before the COVID-19 pandemic hit Norway. In the spring of 2020, when the first lockdown was imposed on Norwegians, it could seem that the pandemic was going to save the government. Then the government parties, especially the conservatives, were soaring in the polls. But when it finally became clear for everyone that the rescue packages were mainly directed towards the big capitalists and that the working masses only got crumbs, support for the blue-blue government plummeted.

Just like in the rest of the world the state had to supply the capitalists with cash to hold up the capitalist system  like a patient on oxygen. A common illusion among Norwegians is to compare Norway as a safe harbour in a stormy sea, insulated from the economic crises that have caused so much suffering in the rest of the world. And it is not totally wrong: in their famous oil fund, the Norwegian bourgeoisie has piled up a big reserve, which gives them a greater degree of freedom during economic crises. Unlike other countries, the Norwegian state did not have to borrow to fund its rescue packages.

Being a capitalist state, Norway is as entangled in the world market as any other capitalist country, being dependent on other countries for its exports and imports. Every disturbance in the world market has its impacts on the Norwegian economy. That is the reason why the Norwegian workers have seen their welfare system whittled down, ironically this is done in the name of rescuing it. Nonetheless, the austerity measures being implemented are not comparable to other countries, and the majority of the people have not really felt its affects. As always, the austerity measures have largely affected the most vulnerable  the unemployed and the incapacitated rather than working people in general.

This is one of the contradictions about Norwegian society. The media bombards us with the message that the economy is still doing well, yet the international situation makes it necessary for the bourgeoisie to implement cuts  and deeper cuts are yet to come. Even before the pandemic, both the OECD and IMF requested cuts. They recommended cutting the sick leave for workers and decreasing the real wage to make Norway more competitive. Thus, for several years now, Norwegian workers havent seen an increase in their real wages.

Taking as a whole, it is no wonder that the right-wing government witnessed a tremendous loss, and that the workers have high expectations for a new left government.

Election results: collapse of the traditional parties, historic gains for the left

One of the most significant outcomes of this election is the collapse of support for the traditional parties. In all preceding elections, the Conservatives and Labour had always obtained a majority between them. This time it didnt happen. The Christian Democrats, which had been so crucial to the formation of a stable conservative coalition in 2017, have now had their worst election since World War II, falling beneath the electoral threshold for the first time and losing nearly all their candidates. The Left party, which in reality is a liberal-capitalist party, barely crossed the electoral threshold. The far-right Progress Party (FrP), which left the government at the beginning of 2020 in a calculated attempt to boost its image and distance itself from an increasingly unpopular government, has had its worst election since 2005.

The coalition, which formed after the 2017 election, was built on a foundation of quicksand. For the right wing, it had been necessary to form a stable and united conservative coalition to maintain order while implementing austerity and fighting against the rising class struggle. However, a stable coalition in the context of a global capitalist crisis was never a possibility. The crisis of capitalism means a polarisation of society along class lines, and a collapse in all these establishment parties. The pandemic merely accelerated the coalitions slow but certain death.

These elections saw the parties to the left of Labour take almost the same percentage of the vote as Labour itself. This included a breakthrough for Rdt, a party that describes itself as Marxist. With this breakthrough for the left, Labour now knows that workers can see there is an alternative to themselves / Image: Oslonatt

Although the Labour party (AP) is the winner of this election, it is certainly not a victory to brag about. Despite how deeply unpopular the government was, Labour was only able to muster up 26.4% of the votes, their worst result since 2001 (and 2001 was their worst result in 100 years!). Although Labour is the winner of the election, it is not so much because people see the Labour party as an alternative as much as they see it as a lesser evil against the conservatives.

The Labour Party is the traditional mass organisation of the working class, and is in many ways the parliamentary wing of the Trade Union Confederation (LO). It therefore retains a very high level of support from traditional working-class areas and groups. But since the 1980s and 1990s, the party has moved more and more in a rightward trajectory, comparable to New Labour under Tony Blair in Britain, adopting politics that prioritise capital over labour. The leader of the Labour Party is himself a former conservative and multi-millionaire, and their former leader, Jens Stoltenberg, is the current general secretary of NATO. The Labour Party is seen by many as just another establishment party, and has reaped what it has sown this election.

Ironically, the processes which caused the collapse of the Labour Partys base of support were the very same that allowed them to come to power: The rise of the Centre Party and the historic growth of the socialist parties to the left of Labour.

The Centre Party (SP) occupies a very peculiar place in Norwegian politics. Despite being a conservative agrarian party that favours hard protectionism and decentralisation, in previous elections it was regarded as being on the left, often holding the balance of power as to whether or not a left-wing government could form. Although its programme was not so distinct from that of Labour or the Right, they were able to steal a sizable amount of votes from both due to the fact that they are seen as being outsiders who represent the common people in the forgotten rural areas of Norway. They encouraged the impression that the fault lines are between the cities and the rural districts, together with the austerity budgets which have straightjacketed the spending capacity of municipal budgets, causing job losses and cuts into welfare, healthcare and public services that hurt the rural areas the most.

On the other hand we have the two leftist parties, The Socialist Left Party (SV) and Rdt (the Red Party), both to the left of Labour, both seeing an increase in their support, with Rdt exceeding the electoral threshold for the first time with 4.7 % of the votes. Together with SV which got 7.6 % of the vote, the two left parties obtained a total of 12.3 %. Among the parties to the left of Labour we must also include a third party; the Greens (MDG) who achieved 3.6 % of the votes, falling just 0.4 percentage points below the threshold. The Greens fell short in what was predicted to be a great election for them as they were not able to reach out to the broader layers of society. The Greens are an extremely contradictory party with a class base mainly amongst the middle class, and combine apolitical activism with fairly pro-capitalist politics. Their support for measures unpopular amongst workers such as road tolls to reduce driving and carbon taxes, policies which Rdt correctly call greenwashing of capitalism. They banked on the election being a climate election, but they ignored that on top of the climate, workers must eat and live as well, and they cannot do this when their services and wages are under attack.

For Marxists, the growth of Rdt is a fact of the highest significance. Going from one to now nine parliamentary seats, this is the first time since 1945 that self-proclaimed Marxists have had such a sizable parliamentary group. Rdt emerged in 2007 from the Red Election Alliance, the electoral front of the Maoist Workers Communist Party (Arbeidernes kommunistparti(Marxist-Leninistene), AKP-ml), which was at that time the largest self-proclaimed Maoist organization in Europe. As is almost a historical law, the Maoist group swung from virulent sectarianism towards reformism, laying the basis for Rdt: a radical electoral alliance of self-described Marxists and socialists, and later extended to include left social democrats. Although the party has distanced itself from its more revolutionary side, and its leaders routinely publicly denounce communism and revolution, it is an incredible development that, for the first time since the 1990s, a self-proclaimed Marxist organization has gained national recognition as one of the most militant fighters for the interests of the working class. Most importantly, it has an increasing base of workers and youth, who are using Rdt as a channel to fight for socialism. On the back of its success, 1,000 new members joined the party in just 24 hours after the election.

In what we might call normal times, the parties to the left of the Labour party could expect to get a total of 16% of the votes. But if we look at the numbers at this election in the main cities like the capital, Oslo, the three parties SV, Rdt and MDG obtained 30.1% of the vote, exceeding the Labour Party which got 23%. In the second biggest city, Bergen, they took almost the same vote as the Labour Party, and in Trondheim, they took 23%, compared to Labours 30.3%. We see the same trend in almost every city: the three parties regarded as to the left of the Labour Party took an almost equivalent number of votes as the Labour Party itself. This shows that even in Norway there is a simmering dissatisfaction with increasing inequality, the seemingly never ending increases in housing prices and prices in general.

Unsurprisingly, the bourgeois parties initiated a small campaign against the spectre of communism, hoping it would deter people from voting for Rdt. In the end, however, it didn't prevent Rdt from becoming the first new party to rise above the electoral threshold since its establishment. But to the relief of the bourgeois parties, Labour and the Centre Party, the AP, SP, and SV are capable of forming a redgreen government, much as they did eight years ago, without having to depend on the support of Rdt and MDG. Political commentators have noted, with poorly concealed glee, that Rdt will have a hard time getting any of its proposals through, which they imagine will mean that the party will be pushed back below the parliamentary threshold at the next elections. That may turn out to be a false hope. The reason that the parties to the left of AP (Labour) have risen in the first place is the general discontent with the capitalist alignment of that same party. Thus, the results are also a warning to the AP that if they don't change course, there exist other options for the working class.

Which way forward for the Red-Green coalition?

Many workers and youth are relieved that the right-wing government has been defeated and have high expectations for the coming government. However, it must be underlined that all of the left parties are reformists of different hues. They all, to one degree or another, imagine that austerity is a political choice  because of neoliberal ideology  and that they can solve the contradictions in society by putting responsible reformists at the helm and introducing tinkering with reforms.

The most likely outcome will now be a majority government of the left consisting of AP, SP and SV. Contrary to what many may believe, it will not be plain sailing from here. The situation the Red-Green coalition is inheriting from the Conservatives is a precarious one. Labour has pledged to undo some of the most dramatic cuts of the Conservatives, such as the cuts in unemployment benefits, vacation pay, and to the welfare system. However, economic pressure sets hard limits on what is possible without upsetting the economical equilibrium itself. But by not upsetting the economical equilibrium, they risk upsetting the political equilibrium. That is what weve seen on a small scale on Monday. The economic situation makes it difficult to introduce reforms, and any improvement for one section will mean a deterioration for another. They will have to choose which layer of the working class to please and which to neglect.

One problem theyll encounter is that after the pandemic all workers expect to see their situation improve. Further, the new government will have to face an unresolved dispute with nurses and teachers, which saw a strike before the summer for better wages, which was ended by government intervention. This dispute will blow up again next year. Expectations are high among nurses and teachers. But accepting the demands of one layer of the working class will raise the expectations of other layers. When they read in the media that the economy is back on track, all layers of workers expect to see wage increases. But higher wages are unacceptable for the Norwegian capitalists now. Rather, increasing competition on an international scale requires higher productivity, or greater exploitation of the workers.

From experience, we know that reformists always give in to capitalist forces at the end of the day. We dont need to cross the border to find proof of this fact. The last time the three parties were in government they forced through the pension reforms, in which pensions were eroded. We also know that the reformists never learn from their failures. SV was badly punished for joining the red-green coalition and giving in to the AP in every major decision. Now the same leaders cannot wait to join a new Labour-led government. To avoid risking a split in the party, they will put the voting agreement before the rank-and-file before joining. Regardless of the outcome, the leadership will try to find a way into the government, creating conditions for the further growth of Rdt.

The tendencies we have seen in the rest of the world  with polarization and increasing class struggle  are now coming home to Norway, albeit on a smaller scale for now as events lag behind.

There is a common misconception in Norway that our bourgeois parties are further to the left of others. Some claim that the Conservatives in Norway are closer to the Labour Party in Britain than to the Tories, and that the Republican Party in the United States are further to the right than the far-right party FrP. This might be true, but that is not because the Norwegian bourgeoisie is further to the left than the ruling class in the rest of the world. Rather, it is because their parties are forced by necessity to adapt themselves to the social-democratic status quo if they do not wish to disappear from the political scene. Monday 13 of September turned out to be a small political earthquake, causing consternation among the bourgeoisie and the right reformists. They note with concern that even before deeper cuts have been implemented, which they expect they will have to make at a certain stage, there has been a sharp shift to the left.

What we are witnessing are wider and wider layers of people drawing radical conclusions as they seek a way out of the crisis. A growing portion of the trade union movement and the youth are looking towards parties like Rdt and the Socialist Left rather than Labour. As we wrote, the class struggle in Norway is still lagging behind the rest of the world. But the elections on Monday indicate that workers in Norway can catch up with a bang.
For the second consecutive year, The Jack Ma Foundation has invited APO Group Founder and Chairman Nicolas Pompigne-Mognard to be a semi-final judge for the prestigious Africas Business Heroes 2021 competition.

Nicolas will join six other judges in the task of whittling 20 semi-finalists down to just ten  who will then go forward to take part in a televised pitch finale to win a share of a prize pool worth $1.5m.

The Jack Ma Foundation launched Africas Business Heroes in 2019. Now in its third year, the competitions mission is to inspire a new movement of African entrepreneurship by showcasing local men and women who are creating positive impact in their communities and beyond. The long-term vision of the Jack Ma Foundation is to provide grant funding, training programs, and broader support for more than 100 African entrepreneurs over the course of a decade.

More than 12,000 candidates from all over Africa applied for this years competition, and the semi-final promises to be the most diverse ever, with 11 countries represented across a wide spectrum of key business sectors. 45% of the Top 20 are women, and the average age of the group is just 34.

The semi-final judges will test each entrepreneurs vision, business plan, and ability to clearly articulate how their businesses can generate positive impact for their local communities.

Nicolas and APO Group share the Jack Ma Foundations commitment to championing Africas next generation of entrepreneurs. In 2019, Nicolas embarked upon a series of conferences in some of Africas most prominent universities. He spoke about entrepreneurship, business and journalism to students in Uganda, Zambia, Senegal, Ethiopia, and South Africa.

Nicolas is also a member of several Advisory Boards, including: the Canada-Africa Chamber of Business (www.CanadaAfrica.ca), an independent, not-for-profit organization with strong working links with both Canadian and African governments; the African Energy Chamber (www.EnergyChamber.org), an organization that fosters greater collaboration between African governments and the private sector in all areas of the energy industry; the Africa Hotel Investment Forum (AHIF) (www.AHIF.com), the premier hotel investment conference in Africa; and the EurAfrican Forum (www.EURAFRICANFORUM.org), an action-oriented platform that aims to foster stronger collaboration between Europe and Africa.

APO Group was founded by Nicolas in 2007, and he has seen it grow from a tiny organization based in his living room, into the leading pan-African communications consultancy and press release distribution service, providing strategic advice to hundreds of multinational organizations in diverse industries.

I have experienced first-hand how challenging it can be to thrive as an entrepreneur in Africa, but it is also exciting and extremely rewarding, Nicolas said. The Jack Ma Foundation is giving an unprecedented opportunity to talented entrepreneurs from all over our continent. Through this fantastic initiative, the finalists will get the chance to pitch their ideas to some of the best business brains on the planet. It is a privilege to be asked to be a part of the wonderful Africas Business Hero competition once again.

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The Indian Ocean country of Mauritius continues with its proactive and transparent response to the

global COVID crisis, as it prepares to complete the reopening of its borders to fully vaccinated visitors,

but in a safe and secure manner, on the 1st of October 2021.

The nation has one of the highest fully vaccinated rates in Africa, currently standing at over 60 percent of the overall population (82 percent of the local adult population). The vaccination campaign is ongoing, and the rollout will also include those below 18 years old as from the end of September 2021.

The nations modern health service has coped well throughout the pandemic, implementing strong protocols. The countrys successful vaccination programme and overall health management resulted in very low hospitalisation numbers  an average of just over 3% hospitalized patients over the last 28 days, most of whom being in health facilities because of associated comorbidities rather than COVID-19 suggestive symptoms. It is to be noted that the infection rate is being closely managed and that the recent spike has been decreasing steadily over the last 2 weeks.

We adopted a health-first approach with strict protocols to protect the population, from the beginning of the pandemic. Our public health services continue to operate to their normal capacity, with protocols being updated when relevant. Dedicated ICU facilities for COVID-19 patients have been set-up at the onset of the pandemic, and have been strengthened according to the Ministrys preparedness plan worked out in collaboration with the World Health Organisation, explained Dr K. Jagutpal, Minister of Health and Wellness. We instituted airport screening and the quarantining of travelers since 2020. Our vaccination rollout has been systematic, and we have already exceeded our target of fully vaccinated adults well ahead of the complete reopening of our borders to vaccinated travelers on the 1st of October, added Minister Jagutpal.

Since the onset of the pandemic in Mauritius in March 2020, the country sadly recorded 45 fatalities

directly inputted to COVID-19, out of a population of about 1.3 million.

We now all have to learn to live with COVID-19. The vaccination rollout in Mauritius was good and the vaccination rate high enough to make it safe to now ask the population to resume their normal lives, while respecting barrier measures, said Dr Laurent Musango, the local representative of the World Health Organisation. Of course, in the context of a pandemic, there are always more avenues to be considered to optimize safety, but Mauritius is doing well, adds Dr Musango.

Unvaccinated travelers can also travel to Mauritius, subject to a 14 days in-room quarantine in a state designated hotel/facility. In line with its health-first approach, this same protocol for unvaccinated travelers will remain when the country reopens on the 1st of October.

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What were the coolest places you visited on your program?

Here is a list of everywhere that I visited: Pisa, Lucca, the Amalfi Coast (Positano), Venice, Salerno, Pompeii, Naples, Livorno, Siena, Bologna, Rome, Vatican City, Cinque Terre (Manarola and Monterosso), and of course, Florence!

My favorite place was probably Venice because of how unique our experience was. We could see the history of the city without the normal crowds, and took a tour of one of the glass making factories in Murano. On this tour, our guide told us about the brutality of ancient Venice: the level of the canals would often rise, seeping into the lower stories of buildings. Traders who brought illegal imports were locked in basements and drowned to death alongside the rats and filth. The first banking check was also invented a minute walk away from our residence!

We took a beautiful gondola tour and saw Doge's Castle before relaxing on the beautiful Lido beach. Transportation in Venice is entirely by gondola, water taxi, water bus, or on foot. We bought a 24 hour ticket for the water bus and just hung out in there for about an hour and a half. The food was excellent, but I am ashamed to admit that my first stop was the KFC in the train station.

We relaxed by the canals, and at night, the city was a ghost town. Because of COVID, the curfew was 10PM, but even at 8PM, it seemed that my friends and I were the only people left in the city. Our voices echoed against the close together buildings, and the only sounds came from the crashing of the water on the sides of the canals.

One downside of Venice was that since it wasn't drawing its normal crowds, the mosquitoes, whose population never dwindled, targeted us. After our first night, I counted 34 mosquito bites on my right arm and back!

What was your favorite part of your program?

My favorite part of the program was probably our ability to travel within Italy (only when allowed!) Before arriving in Italy, I had never left the country and had only been to the beach once. I had never been on a train or a boat. All of these new experiences culminated in an absolutely life-changing journey. I was so thrilled to learn the culture and history of such an important place.

Some of the cultural differences were very surprising at firstmen are very direct, and staring isn't rude. People often spend an average of three hours in a restaurant, and you have to pay for small amenities like public bathrooms and water.

How has the study abroad experience changed you?

I believe that this experience has made me a more well-rounded person. I was able to learn new communication skills, and got in touch with my creative side. I was thrown into an entirely different culture where I couldn't speak a word of the language, but managed to adapt and learn more quickly than I ever thought I could.

Where in the World is Miami Wednesday is a news article series that features Miami students studying abroad/away and international students. Catch us next week as we continue to travel around the world to feature the amazing opportunities that Miami students are taking and the experiences our alumni have had since graduating!

Would you or someone you know want to be featured in a future Where in the World is Miami Wednesday story?

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Cincinnati State, Gateway, Miami, and NKU announce partnership

Cincinnati State Technical and Community College, Gateway Community and Technical College, Miami University, and Northern Kentucky University announced today that they have joined Moon Shot for Equity, a national initiative that aims to close equity gaps within regional cohorts of two- and four-year colleges and universities by 2030. Following a program designed and run by education firm EAB, the schools will take significant and measurable steps to work together to help more students from historically underserved populations graduate from college.

Through this innovative partnership, each school has committed to implementing more than a dozen research-based best practices proven to remove systemic barriers to student success. These commitments range from updating academic policies, to working together to establish common academic pathways, to providing equity-mindedness training to university leaders.

Eliminating equity gaps in education is one of the most important things we can accomplish in our region, state, and country, said Miami University President Gregory Crawford. Miami University is honored to partner with other higher education institutions to make a commitment to providing equity-minded educational experiences, advancing student success, and serving as a model for other colleges and universities around the globe.

Data show that barely half of all Black and Latinx students who enter college earn their undergraduate degree within six years compared with nearly 70 percent of White students. First-generation students and those from families with lower incomes also graduate college at significantly lower rates than students from more privileged backgrounds, regardless of race.

The Moon Shot Initiative will enable our colleges to build a strong collaborative system so that "we can accomplish far more together than we ever could working alone," Gateway President Fernando Figueroa said.

Higher Education Institutions that welcome and graduate large numbers of first-generation, low-income students are engines of economic and social mobility, NKU President Ashish Vaidya said. Our institutions are working together to keep the American dream of opportunity alive. We have to continue focusing on all these subpopulations so that their graduation rates continue to rise in preparation for a lifetime of achievement.

EAB provides participating schools with research, technology, and advisory services. In addition, all schools receive guidance from well-known student success leaders at Georgia State University and Houston GPS.

Our schools have been working independently to improve completion rates and reduce equity gap issues for some time, said Fernando Figueroa, Gateway president. The Moon Shot Initiative enhances these efforts and provides powerful tools and a proven set of strategies that enable our colleges to build a strong collaborative system so that we can accomplish far more together than we ever could working alone.

The Moon Shot for Equity announcement Sept. 15 was held at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center (image courtesy EAB).

Finally, participating institutions are encouraged to partner with local high schools and community-based organizations to help more underserved students attend college by providing them with resources and information on how to identify best-fit universities, search for scholarships, and connect with counselors. These resources are offered through EABs College Greenlight.

"Cincinnati State looks forward to leveraging our long-held mission of equity with our partners in this project," said Monica Posey, president of Cincinnati State. "Expanding opportunities for all students is crucial to the future of our region, state and workforce."

The Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky region is the second consortium selected by EAB to join the Moon Shot initiative. EAB launched the Moon Shot for Equity last October in cooperation with an inaugural consortium of colleges and universities in Southeastern Wisconsin.

For too long, higher education has made the educational journey more arduous than it has to be for underserved student populations, said EAB Vice President of Partnerships Tom Sugar. All of the schools that have joined the Moon Shot for Equity have made good strides already in removing unnecessary obstacles and are committed to making additional institutional changes that will further streamline that journey.

During the first 100 days of the effort, the schools will build the necessary support system and infrastructure to start the work successfully. That work spans three phases:
Foreclosure Rate Lowest in Over Two Decades

Today there are 400,000 homeowners in their final month of forbearance and another 1.2 million still in the program as it winds down, thus, it is probably way too early to conclude that the nation has a ducked a pandemic foreclosure bullet, However, the CoreLogic report on June's loan performance suggests we might just pull it off.

The company says the U.S. foreclosure rate in June was the lowest in over two decades. Not a surprise as the national moratorium on bank repossessions was in force until the end of July. However, other metrics in the report indicate that homeowners may emerge from the pandemic financially damaged but with homeownership largely intact.

In June, 4.4 percent of all mortgages in the U.S. were in some stage of delinquency (30 days or more past due, including those in foreclosure). This was down 2.7-percentage points from the 7.1 percent rate in June 2020. Still, overall delinquencies remain above the February 2020, pre-pandemic rate of 3.6 percent.

"The downward trend in delinquencies, especially serious cases, is very encouraging - and a testimony to the impact of the significant economic rebound over the past six months, as well as government stimuli, record-low mortgage rates and loan modification options," said Frank Martell, president and CEO of CoreLogic. "Providing resources to homeowners experiencing distress to help educate them on available government and private-sector support will aide in shrinking delinquency and foreclosure rates even more over the remainder of this year."

Breaking down the national rate into buckets, CoreLogic says early-state delinquencies were down from 1.8 percent a year earlier to 1.1 percent. Using the February 2020 figures from earlier CoreLogic releases puts the current rate is 0.7 point lower than the pre-pandemic number.

Adverse delinquencies, loans 60 to 89 days past due, affected 0.3 percent of active mortgages, down from 1.8 percent in June 2020 and 0.6 percent that February.

Serious delinquencies, those 90 days or more past due, including loans in foreclosure, remain elevated from the February 2020 1.2 percent rate, but the 3.0 percent rate in June 2021 was down from 3.4 percent a year earlier. It was the 10th consecutive month of improvement for this measure.

The foreclosure inventory, the share of mortgages in some stage of foreclosure, is the lowest in CoreLogic records dating back to 1999. This is understandable as the moratorium discouraged lenders from even putting loans into foreclosure. The rate, 0.2 percent, is down from 0.3 percent in June 2020 and 0.4 percent the previous February.

CoreLogic also looks at the rate in which homeowners transition from current to 30 days past due. That rate in June was 0.6 percent, down from 1.0 percent and 0.9 percent during the year earlier and pre-pandemic periods, respectively.

The report notes that in June, the federal foreclosure moratorium was extended again through the end of July to provide homeowners additional time to get financially back on track. The moratorium has helped move the foreclosure rate to a new generational low, the company says, but nearly half (43 percent) of respondents to a survey said they do not understand government mortgage relief programs. This could be contributing to higher overall delinquency rates.

Dr. Frank Nothaft, chief economist at CoreLogic says the nation may not yet be out of the woods. While job and income growth has helped to push delinquency rates down, there are many families that remain in financial distress, he said. More than one million borrowers had missed six or more payments as of June, triple the number of borrowers pre-pandemic. CoreLogic analysis found that as of June 2021, borrowers in forbearance and behind on mortgage payments had missed an average of 10 monthly payments.

All U.S. states logged a decrease in annual overall delinquencies in June, with New Jersey (down 4.8 percentage points), New York (4.4 points) and Florida (4.1 points) leading with the largest declines. Every U.S. metro also posted an annual decrease, led by Miami, Laredo, Texas, and Kingston, New York. Rates for all fell by at least 5.6 percentage points.
National

India hits out at Pakistan, OIC for raising Kashmir issue at UN Human Rights Council

NEW DELHI, SEP 15 (PTI) | Publish Date: 9/15/2021 2:10:25 PM IST

India on Wednesday hit out at Pakistan as well as the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) for raising the Kashmir issue at the UN Human Rights Commission and said the grouping has helplessly allowed itself to be held hostage by Islamabad.

At the 48th session of the human rights council, India said Pakistan has been globally recognised as a country openly supporting, training, financing and arming terrorists including UN proscribed terrorists as a matter of state policy.

Indias response was delivered by Pawan Badhe, first secretary in Indias permanent mission in Geneva.

Exercising Indias rights to respond to comments made by Pakistan and the OIC on Kashmir, Badhe said it does not need lessons from a failed state like Pakistan which is the epicentre of terrorism and worst abuser of human rights.

He said it has become a habit for Pakistan to misuse the platforms provided by the council to propagate its false and malicious propaganda against India.

The council is aware of Pakistans attempts to divert the councils attention from serious human rights violations being perpetrated by its government, including in the territories occupied by it, Badhe said.

India, as not only the worlds largest democracy but a robustly functional and vibrant one, does not need lessons from a failed state like Pakistan which is the epicentre of terrorism and worst abuser of human rights, he said.

The Indian diplomat said Pakistan has failed to protect the rights of its minorities, including Sikhs, Hindus, Christians and Ahmadiyas. Thousands of women and girls from minority communities have been subjected to abductions, forced marriages and conversions in Pakistan and its occupied territories, Badhe said in his statement.

Pakistan has been engaged in systematic persecution, forced conversions, targeted killings, sectarian violence and faith-based discrimination against its ethnic and religious minorities, he said.

Badhe said incidents of violence against minority communities, including attacks on their places of worship, their cultural heritage, as well as their private property have taken place with impunity in Pakistan.

Pakistan is a country which has been globally recognised as a country openly supporting, training, financing and arming terrorists including UN proscribed terrorists, as a matter of state policy, he said.

The relevant multilateral institutions have been raising serious concerns on its failure to stop terror financing and lack of effective actions against terror entities, Badhe said.

He said dissenting voices from civil societies, human rights defenders, journalists are muzzled daily in Pakistan, with the support of the government.

Enforced disappearances, Extra judicial killings, murders and abductions have been used as a tool for subjugation and to muzzle any form of dissent or criticism. The impunity with which such abuses have been carried out exposes the hollowness of Pakistans commitment to human rights, Badhe added.

He also slammed the OIC for raising the Kashmir issue at the council, asserting that the group has no locus standi to comment on internal affairs of the country.

We once again regret and reject the reference made by the OIC to the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir which is an integral part of India, Badhe said.

The OIC has helplessly allowed itself to be held hostage by Pakistan, which holds the chairmanship of their Geneva Chapter, to subserve its own agenda. Its for the members of the OIC to decide if it is in their interest to allow Pakistan to do so, he said.
National

LJP MP Prince Raj booked in rape case

Prince Raj

NEW DELHI, SEP 14 (PTI) | Publish Date: 9/14/2021 2:24:38 PM IST

SEEKS PROTECTION FROM ARREST; PARTY CALLS IT POLITICAL CONSPIRACY

Lok Janshakti Party MP Prince Raj has been booked on rape charges by the Delhi Police while the lawmaker moved a court here on Tuesday for anticipatory bail alleging that he had been blackmailed by the complainant.

The police said a complaint was filed three months ago by the alleged victim, who is a party worker, and the case was registered on the directions of a court under sections related to rape, criminal conspiracy and destruction of evidence.

LJP spokesperson Shravan Kumar defended Prince Raj, claiming that the allegations against him are a political conspiracy to malign him, and suggested it could be a case of honey trapping.

He said the Member of Parliament from Samastipur in Bihar had lodged a complaint of extortion and blackmailing with Delhi Police on February 10 against the woman who has accused him of rape.

Prince had in June tweeted denying all the allegations levelled by her.

The alleged rape took place in 2020, according to the woman complainant.

The courts direction came on September 9 and a case has been registered (against Prince Raj) under relevant sections at the Connaught Place Police Station, a police officer said.

Police said that an investigation is underway and nobody has been questioned in this regard yet.

On Tuesday, Prince filed an anticipatory bail application which is likely to come up for hearing before Special Judge M K Nagpal on Thursday.

The application, moved by advocate Nitesh Rana, claims that the alleged victim and her male friend were extorting money and blackmailing Prince and a case had already been filed in that regard earlier, in which the woman and her associate were granted anticipatory bail. Prince Raj is the cousin of LJP leader Chirag Paswan who, according to police, was also mentioned named in the FIR. The victim alleged that Chirag pressured her not to file the complaint against Prince, the police said.

Chirag Paswan had earlier said that he had spoken to his cousin and the complainant when the matter was brought before him. He had asked both of them to pursue the matter with police, he had said.

Chirag Paswan and Prince Raj are estranged now with the latter joining the party faction headed by their uncle and Union Minister Pashupati Kumar Paras. Advocate Sudesh Kumari Jethwa, who is representing the woman, said, A complaint was filed at Connaught Place Police Station by the victim in May this year. When no action was taken, we moved an application before Rouse Avenue court in July.

The court then directed the police to lodge an FIR and carry out the investigation in a fair and unbiased manner.

In her complaint, the victim claimed that she met Prince first at the party office. They later met on many occasions and at one such meeting, the accused allegedly gave her something to drink. When she became unconscious, he made physical relations with her, the police said.

When she confronted him later, he showed her a video recorded by him in which he was seen making physical relations with her. She also alleged that he proposed to marry her and threatened her that he would put the video on the internet, they said.

She also alleged that Prince then started visiting her at odd hours.

Without naming anyone, LJPs Shravan Kumar alleged that it was a political conspiracy and said the police should swiftly probe the case lodged by Prince. We have absolute faith in the judiciary, he added.

In his police complaint filed in February, Prince had alleged that the woman developed a physical relationship with him after taking him into confidence. The act was also videographed by her with the help of a man with whom she was in live-in-relationship, according to police officials.

Prince further alleged the woman and the man also demanded Rs 1 crore from him but he gave them Rs two lakh. Later on the advice of his legal team, he approached the police, the officer said.

On June 17, Prince had tweeted, It has come to my knowledge that a certain woman has been making defamatory statements against me before various media houses claiming harassment and abuse.
State

Nagaland reiterates settling border dispute outside court

Correspondent KOHIMA, SEP 14 (NPN) | Publish Date: 9/14/2021 2:15:34 PM IST

Advisor for Border affairs Mhathung Yanthan informed that the border affairs department has been entrusted to work out the modalities to settle the border issue by having proper discussion with the Assam government outside the court.

He said this was in pursuance of the resolutions adopted at the recently concluded Assembly session- to amicably settle the Nagaland-Assam border issue outside the court. Yanthan said the local communities of both states will also be involved in the joint effort.

Yanthan said this while talking to media persons after attending the first meeting of the Nagaland Legislative Assembly (NLA) select committee on Nagaland-Assam border.

Yanthan said that the committee held discussions on the background and genesis of the problem to understand the entire issue. He said that various suggestions and opinions were given by the members, who also stressed the need to have regular discussions before meeting the Assam government for an amicable settlement of the issue.

Nagaland chief minister Neiphiu Rio, the convenor of the committee, informed members at the meeting that it was decided to increase committee members and also include officials from the geology and mining department since there were a lot of oil operations going on along the border area, which would enable the committee to understand more on that part.

After Lok Sabha MP, Tokheho Yepthomi raised a question on the matter in the Parliament, Rio said the state government received good information and were deliberating on it.

Proposal to bring in neutral person

NPF legislature party leader and committee co-convener, T R Zeliang said that the meeting proposed to bring in a neutral person, either Union Home minister Amit Shah or Prime Minister Narendra Modi- to review the past interim agreements signed between Nagaland and Assam.

He said a neutral party had to step in first to cross check all the agreements, insisting that one-sided agreements should be revised in presence of both the chief ministers or the committees and hoped that some concrete decision would be taken by Assam and Nagaland.

Zeliang alleged that Assam government never come forward for amicable settlement, adding that the case was still pending as Supreme Court could not demarcate the boundary line due to which problems persist. Stating that the court had directed the Union home ministry to resolve the matter amicably, he recalled his meetings with Union ministers Kiren Rijiju in 2014-15 and again with Rajnath Singh on the issue.

He alleged that the former chief minister of Assam was not friendly to the Nagas, though the current incumbent was friendly, and hoped that with the intervention of the Union home ministry, both the States would come together and discuss the border issue across the table and settle it amicably.

Zeliang mentioned that the Tuesday meeting also discussed whether local bodies could be constituted. Assam indigenous people should constitute a committee and Nagas too should constitute one, so that these local bodies can sit together and advise their respective State governments to sort out the boundary dispute, he suggested.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-14 22:05:18|Editor: huaxia

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People walk out of the venue of the 18th China-ASEAN Expo in Nanning, capital of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Sept. 13, 2021. (Xinhua/Lu Boan)

NANNING, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- Since the establishment of dialogue relations 30 years ago, China and ASEAN have moved forward hand in hand with fruitful outcomes in various fields, becoming the most dynamic model of cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region.

There has been notable progress in cooperation in fields such as economy and trade and people-to-people exchanges.

Since China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) established dialogue relations in 1991, the two sides have seen bilateral trade skyrocket from 8.36 billion U.S. dollars to 685.28 billion U.S. dollars in 2020, with an average annual growth of 16.5 percent, according to Chinese customs data. Both sides are each other's largest trading partners, consolidating the cornerstone of regional economic prosperity.

Thirty years on, China-ASEAN relations have kept moving forward, with strategic mutual trust strengthened, all-round cooperation deepened and concrete action in building a community with a shared future. The joint fight against COVID-19 is just another example of the ever-closer relationship and the spirit of a community with a shared future.

Both sides are important forces in boosting free trade and supporting multilateralism. Booming cooperation in digital economy between China and ASEAN provides new potential for bilateral cooperation.

Since the comprehensive implementation of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement in 2010, trade in goods and services between the two sides has grown rapidly through the integration of industrial and value chains.

The signing of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership -- a landmark achievement for regional economic integration, multilateralism and free trade -- will inject new, sustained momentum into the bilateral cooperation and the global economy when the world's largest free-trade deal comes into effect.

China sees ASEAN as a priority in its neighborhood diplomacy and a key region in joint high-quality construction of the Belt and Road.

At the 18th China-ASEAN Expo and China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit that closed on Monday in the southern Chinese city of Nanning, record-high value of contracted investment deals, which stood at 300 billion yuan (about 46.59 billion U.S. dollars), also highlighted a new starting point for a better and more prosperous future for bilateral relations.

It also sends a strong message that China is committed to working with ASEAN to deepen all-round cooperation to benefit people on both sides and the world, amid continuing joint efforts to build the Belt and Road and forge a higher-level strategic partnership. 
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-14 22:23:37|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- After going virtual on three occasions due to the impact of COVID-19, China's renowned Canton Fair is returning to the physical world with a resumption of offline activities.

Scheduled for next month in south China's Guangdong Province, the 130th session of the China Import and Export Fair will be held both online and offline, Vice Minister of Commerce Ren Hongbin told a press conference Tuesday.

The upcoming session will be a milestone, as it marks the return of offline exhibitions at all major expos across the country, signaling new progress in China's efforts to coordinate epidemic control with economic and social development, said Chu Shijia, head of the China Foreign Trade Center, one of the fair's organizers.

Amid routine measures to block the spread of the virus, China has been actively promoting large-scale international trade fairs as platforms to propel trade growth and support businesses around the world.

The 2021 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS), which just concluded in Beijing, attracted representatives from 153 countries and regions, with more than 1,000 deals secured.

The event also saw the announcement of the country's new opening-up measures in the services sector, including implementing a negative list for cross-border services trade and exploring the development of national demonstration zones for the innovative development of trade in services.

The CIFTIS is China's solution for connecting with the international market and engaging in international cooperation, which is of great significance to the rebounding of trade in services and the recovery of the world economy, said Li Jun, director with the Institute of International Trade in Services under the Ministry of Commerce.

The country is also making solid preparations for the import-themed expo in Shanghai, which has been held successfully on three previous occasions and became a channel for global brands to tap the gigantic consumer market in China.

The Canton Fair, with a history dating back to 1957, has long been seen as a barometer of China's foreign trade. Last year, when the pandemic disrupted global trade activities, the fair played an especially important role in shoring up trade growth and supporting the worst-hit small businesses around the world.

The online form was proven efficient, with a record number of products on display during the last session of the fair in April.

The upcoming session will continue to give full play to the low-cost and high-efficiency nature of online exhibitions, while resuming the offline displays to help global buyers and vendors to better connect with each other, Ren said.

The event will last five days and feature only one phase, as opposed to the three phases of previous sessions, in view of the current epidemic control situation. The offline exhibition will cover an area of 400,000 square meters, while 60,000 online booths will be set up for the virtual event, he added.

The latest data from the General Administration of Customs shows that China's foreign trade sustained growth momentum in the first eight months of the year, with exports surging 23.2 percent and imports jumping 24.4 percent year on year.

The country is confident of achieving the target of maintaining stable trade growth while enhancing trade quality for the year 2021, Ren said, cautioning that small and medium-sized trade firms in the country still face challenges from rising costs, an issue that will be addressed with targeted policies. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-14 23:18:06|Editor: huaxia

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A sea taxi sails on waters off Istanbul, Turkey, on Sept. 13, 2021. Sinem Dedetas, head of the Istanbul City Lines, is hopeful that the newly produced sea taxis will help ease traffic chaos in the city. (Photo by Osman Orsal/Xinhua)

by Zeynep Cermen

ISTANBUL, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- Sinem Dedetas, head of the Istanbul City Lines, is hopeful that the newly produced sea taxis will help ease traffic chaos in the city.

"One best way to alleviate the traffic in this city is to improve the efficiency of the sea commute with convenient alternatives," Dedetas said.

Surrounded by the Black Sea, the Marmara Sea, and the Bosphorus Strait flowing in between, Turkey's most crowded city Istanbul, with over 16 million people and nearly 5 million registered vehicles, has long been grappling with chronic traffic jams.

The problem grew even more serious during the last year as people avoid commuting on public transport due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last year, Dedetas came up with the idea of producing the tiniest sea taxis possible that can access any small inlets or piers of Istanbul's seas. The boats were designed to be 11.95 meters in length and 4.4 meters in width.

Dedetas and her teams aimed to keep the prices low to encourage a large part of the population, including students, to use it. Therefore, they haven't used any intermediary institution and produced the entire pieces domestically in Halic Shipyard, founded in 1455 on the shores of the Golden Horn during the Ottoman era.

Within a short period of time since January, the teams have produced 45 sea taxis, each able to carry ten people at a time.

Commuters will be able to access the taxis individually via an app After six months, the city lines will evolve the practice into a sharing system.

Dedetas noted that more sea taxis can be produced to be used as new school buses for university students in the upcoming period and the two universities have already sent their orders to the city lines.

"But since the boats are newly designed, we have to observe their performances in the water for a while. We may need to make some improvements before proceeding with the requests of the universities," she remarked.

Su Meric, an 18-year-old student of the Kadir Has University on the shores of the Golden Horn, lives in the Maltepe district along the Marmara Sea on the Asian side.

"Imagine the school bus is a sea taxi. I can go to school in a short time by inhaling the fresh sea air without being stuck in the traffic jams," Meric told Xinhua with great enthusiasm.

The city lines make 650 daily trips to connect Istanbul's neighborhoods along the sea, with prices ranging between 4.03 and 6.33 Turkish liras (0.51- 0.75 U.S. dollars), while the use of sea taxis, which are currently very few in number, has long become obsolete. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-14 23:41:05|Editor: huaxia

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Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, conducts field research on local efforts in advancing rural vitalization on all fronts while visiting a village in Suide, a county under the city of Yulin in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Sept. 14, 2021. Xi on Tuesday inspected Suide County. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi)

XI'AN, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, on Tuesday inspected Suide, a county under the city of Yulin in northwest China's Shaanxi Province.

Xi visited a revolutionary site -- the premises of the former prefectural Party committee of Suide, a middle school, an exhibition hall for local intangible cultural heritage and a village.

He conducted field research on local efforts in carrying forward the Party's glorious traditions and fine style of work, promoting all-round development and healthy growth of students, enhancing the protection and inheritance of traditional culture, and advancing rural vitalization on all fronts. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-15 00:11:58|Editor: huaxia

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Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, visits elderly experts and expresses his appreciation for their lasting dedication and remarkable achievements to the cause of healthcare during his inspection to Peking Union Medical College Hospital (PUMCH) in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 13, 2021. Li convened a seminar with medical experts and listened to their advice on the development and innovation of the healthcare sector. (Xinhua/Wang Ye)

BEIJING, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has stressed efforts to safeguard people's health as a significant step to boost public well-being, elevate medical expertise, and continue raising the quality of medical and healthcare services.

Li, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks during his inspection to Peking Union Medical College Hospital (PUMCH) on Monday.

Li visited elderly experts at the hospital and expressed his appreciation for their lasting dedication and remarkable achievements to the cause of healthcare. He also attended an exhibition on PUMCH's history of treating patients over the past 100 years.

Li convened a seminar with medical experts and listened to their advice on the development and innovation of the healthcare sector.

During the seminar, Li noted that as people's living standards improve and healthcare demands increase, medical personnel should put patients first, respect and safeguard people's lives, and perform their professional skills with a benevolent and humanitarian spirit.

Li urged medical staff to make meticulous, pragmatic, and dedicated efforts to hone their medical skills and seek the best treatments for challenging diseases. They should also enhance international exchanges and cooperation to innovate new medical techniques, medicines, and methodologies.

Efforts should also be invested to conduct and apply world-class clinical research, boost the quality of medical and healthcare services, and raise the efficacy of COVID-19 therapies, Li said. He added that high-quality healthcare services should become more accessible for people at the primary level and in remote areas.

Li called on relevant authorities across the country to boost the development of the healthcare sector, advance the Health China initiative, and better safeguard the health and safety of the people. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-15 00:31:27|Editor: huaxia

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Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong meets with visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Singapore, Sept. 14, 2021. (Photo by Then Chih Wey/Xinhua)

SINGAPORE, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong met with visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi here on Tuesday, with both sides expressing willingness to further promote cooperation in all areas and boost China-ASEAN ties.

During the talks, Wang said that the development of China-Singapore relations has maintained momentum over the past 30 years thanks to the strategic leadership of both sides, the concerted efforts of all walks of life in the two countries, and Singapore's rational and objective perspective towards China's growth and its ability to find cooperative opportunities from the growth to achieve mutual success.

Lee Hsien Loong agreed that Singapore and China have witnessed fruitful exchanges and cooperation in various fields since the establishment of the diplomatic relations between the two countries, which Singapore cherishes dearly.

He also expressed hope for a greater achievement in this regard in the future.

Wang said that China is willing to join hands with Singapore to strengthen mutual trust and deepen exchanges in the post-pandemic era, so as to further enhance mutually beneficial cooperation in various fields, and contribute to regional and global peace, stability and development.

Lee said that China has achieved great success over the past four decades, and consequently its international responsibilities have risen as well.

Singapore hopes that all parties will have positive interactions with China, and work with China to jointly build a global village in the era of globalization, so as to promote the world's long-term and sustainable development.

Touching upon China-ASEAN relationship, Wang noted that China would continue to consolidate ties with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries, speed up the consultations on the Code of Conduct (COC) in the South China Sea, uphold the regional framework with ASEAN at its core and facilitate regional development and prosperity.

Lee, for his part, said that the ASEAN-China relations have improved comprehensively during the past 30 years, which conforms to the fundamental interests of both sides and contributes to regional stability, openness and cooperation.

Singapore supports ASEAN countries and China to celebrate the 30th anniversary of ASEAN-China dialogue relations, to consolidate the regional cooperation mechanism, and to provide new development opportunities for both sides, the prime minister said. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-15 05:00:28|Editor: huaxia

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People wander near the White House in Washington, D.C., the United States, June 22, 2021. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

A poll found that 58 percent of respondents support the U.S. federal requirement that employers mandate the COVID-19 vaccine or weekly testing.

NEW YORK, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. federal government's latest COVID-19 vaccination mandates have won support in a recent poll and the country's top pediatrician has called for medical agencies to accelerate approval of vaccines for children, as the pandemic's Delta variant keeps on victimizing unvaccinated Americans.

SUPPORT FOR VACCINE PLAN

A Politico/Morning Consult poll of 1,997 registered voters conducted from Sept. 10 to 13 found that 58 percent of respondents support the federal requirement that employers mandate the COVID-19 vaccine or weekly testing, with 41 percent who "strongly support" it and 17 percent who "somewhat support" it. Nine percent of respondents "somewhat oppose" it and 27 percent "strongly oppose" it.

Support was more divided along partisan lines. Among Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters polled, 83 percent said they either strongly or somewhat support the plan, while 32 percent of Republican or Republican-leaning voters polled said they strongly or somewhat support it.

The poll also found similar overall support for other vaccine requirements included in the six-part plan. Fifty-seven percent of respondents said they strongly or somewhat support the requirement for federal employees and contractors to get a COVID-19 vaccine "without an option to opt out through regular testing."

People wait outside a mobile vaccine clinic in New York, the United States, on Aug. 31, 2021. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)

The White House announced last week that the Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, is creating a rule that will require all companies with at least 100 workers to mandate COVID-19 vaccination or weekly testing for their employees before they can come to work.

The plan is part of U.S. President Joe Biden's sweeping strategy to combat the virus in the United States. His strategy also includes a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for all federal employees and "millions of contractors that do business with the federal government" and for millions of health care workers.

CALL FOR CHILDREN'S VACCINE

In a letter recently written to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Lee Beers, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), has called on the agency to pick up the pace in approving COVID-19 vaccines for children.

"If after two months of data, it looks like it's a viable vaccine for kids, let's approve it, vs. the six months that they seem to want," the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) on Monday quoted Beers as saying.

"And so, in our mind, actually, we have always thought that the vaccine is a really important tool in the toolbox to keep our youngest kids healthy. But now it's really getting particularly acute and particularly urgent," she added.

Students are dismissed from the first day of school at PS 133 in the Brooklyn borough of New York, the United States, on Sept. 13, 2021. (Photo by Michael Nagle/Xinhua)

The U.S. administration rolled out new mandates last week to expand vaccination for over 100 million more Americans, but questions remain about when one major population ineligible for the shot, the 48 million U.S. children under the age of 12, will be able to get it.

With the Delta variant raging, almost five times as many U.S. children are being hospitalized for COVID-19, according to the AAP.

CYCLES FOR EVERY EPIDEMIC

The seven-day average of daily COVID-19 cases was about 144,300 as of Sept. 12, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. That figure was down 12 percent over the past week and 14 percent from the most-recent peak in case counts on Sept. 1, when the country was reporting an average of roughly 167,600 cases per day.

"This is good news," Arturo Casadevall, chair of molecular microbiology and immunology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, was quoted on Monday by CNBC as saying. "It could represent that we have reached a peak and we are now on the way down."

People are seen near the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., the United States, on Sept. 6, 2021. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

The United States has seen several swings in daily COVID-19 cases since the pandemic started. Average daily cases topped out at about 32,000 in April 2020 before subsiding. They then surged and peaked at 67,000 by July 2020. The pace of new cases fell after Labor Day 2020 before surging to a record high of 251,000 cases per day in January. There was also a steep drop-off after the holidays, followed with another jump to about 71,000 cases per day this past April.

"Every epidemic goes through cycles and eventually wanes, and that happens when you have enough people who are resistant," said Casadevall, adding that the combination of vaccinations and high number of infections this summer could be helping the country turn a corner.

Meanwhile, according to The New York Times, the 7-day average of confirmed cases of the pandemic stood at 172,404 nationwide on Monday, with its 14-day change striking an 8-percent rise. COVID-19-related deaths were 1,827 on Monday, with the 14-day change realizing a 36-percent rise. 
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-15 11:27:18|Editor: huaxia

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Abdulla Shahid, President of the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), addresses the 1st plenary and opening meeting of the 76th UNGA session at the UN headquarters in New York, Sept. 14, 2021. (Evan Schneider/UN Photo/Handout via Xinhua)

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on Tuesday opened its 76th session, with the UNGA president and the UN chief imploring member states to embrace hope and strengthen unity after a challenging year of climate disasters, conflict, and COVID-19.

"It has been a tragic and challenging year, but this is a new session," said President of the 76th UNGA session Abdulla Shahid. "We can fall back on the comfort and predictability of systems and procedures, of the United Nations machinery that fills our days, or we can choose to push forward and turn the page. We can choose to write a new chapter."

"Let us choose the latter; let us dare to dream and let us dare to hope, to embrace the presidency of hope," said Shahid.

Highlighting the challenges ahead, he said that hundreds of millions have fallen ill, millions died, and billions suffered from the pandemic, with news arriving daily to ignite the world's collective anxiety about climate change, disasters, conflict and instability.

"The narrative must change, and we must be initiator for that change; the General Assembly must play a part of this," he said, emphasizing that the United Nations is as relevant today as it was 76 years ago.

Declaring that he embraced hope as the theme of his presidency, he said, "While the pandemic unleashed an unprecedented crisis, we have witnessed incredible acts of kindness and compassion, acts that reaffirmed our common humanity and collective strength as 'nations united.' This is the narrative we must tell."

Listing five rays of hope that will shape the 76th session's agenda, he said vaccinating the world is the top priority.

"By any measure, this has been the most challenging period facing the world since the Second World War," said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in his remarks delivered at the closing of the 75th UNGA, which was followed immediately by the opening of the 76th session.

However, the international community can overcome all these challenges "by working as one," the secretary-general noted.

On COVID-19, the top UN official said that the pandemic has deepened inequalities, decimated economies at the global, national and household levels, plunged millions into extreme poverty, shattered support systems and unraveled decades of hard-won development progress.

"This devastation has played out against the backdrop of ferocious conflicts and natural disasters that are putting millions of lives in jeopardy every day," said Guterres, adding that a climate emergency is "literally setting our planet on fire."

Addressing the opening of the 76th UNGA session, the UN chief said that "it's time to focus on fighting humanity's common enemy: the pandemic."

"We need to speed up our response to COVID-19, with vaccines, treatment and equipment for all -- not only those with the most," the secretary-general added.

"We need countries to commit and live up to bold climate targets at COP26 in Glasgow," the top UN official added. "The war on our planet must end."

Noting that "we meet at a moment of great challenge and division," the secretary-general said that these challenges facing the world "are worsened by the divisions scarring our world," divisions "between the rich and (the) poor, between those who take basic services for granted -- nutrition, running water, accessible health care -- and those for whom these essentials remain a distant dream"; divisions between those with a seat in a classroom and skills to build a better future and those who lost such opportunities because of poverty or their gender, and "divisions between those able to access life-saving COVID-19 vaccines and those who cannot."

"These challenges and divisions are not a force of nature," he said, "They are man-made."

The divisions "are made by economic systems stacked against the poorest and most vulnerable; by unchecked greed that is destroying our planet; by the lingering scars of colonialism that have never fully healed and by thirst for political and ideological dominance that fuels social unrest, mistrust, terrorism and armed conflicts," the UN chief continued.

These challenges and divisions can be corrected "if we unite behind our work here in this chamber and gather around the spirit of multilateralism," added the secretary-general.

President of the 75th UNGA session Volkan Bozkir called for redoubling efforts to implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), while expressing concern that the 2030 deadline might be missed.

Noting that the SDGs represent a blueprint for peace and prosperity, for people and the planet, for now and into the future, and implementing these goals will help protect the international community against future catastrophes, he warned that "with the trajectory we are on, we are going to miss the 2030 deadline."

"This Assembly and you -- the member states who make up the United Nations -- must redouble efforts to implement the SDGs," Bozkir said at the closing of the 75th UNGA session.

On multilateralism, the veteran Turkish diplomat said, "We must strengthen and unite behind the multilateral system."

"Our world is increasingly globalized, interconnected and interdependent. As such, nationalistic solutions will not resolve our challenges," he stressed. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-15 12:48:47|Editor: huaxia

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Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, talks to teachers and students while visiting a middle school in Suide, a county under the city of Yulin in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Sept. 14, 2021. Xi on Tuesday inspected Suide County. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi)

XI'AN, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, emphasized better education to ensure all-round development of Chinese youths, calling on the young people to become the backbone of the nation.

Xi made the remarks on Tuesday while visiting a middle school in Suide, a county in Yulin City, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, during his inspection tour in the province.

At the school, Xi watched the students practicing calligraphy and doing physical exercises, and chatted with them.

He called for efforts to better develop education and improve its structure to meet the needs of realizing the second centenary goal.

He also called for promoting the students' moral, intellectual, physical and aesthetic grounding in addition to good work skills in an all-round way, highlighting the importance of each aspect. "It is the experience we have drawn from years of exploration," Xi said.

The young people should be well-prepared to join the socialist cause and grow into individuals of value to the society, he added. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-15 19:46:42|Editor: huaxia

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YULIN, Shaanxi, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for freeing the mind, carrying out reform and innovation, and making persistent efforts to usher in a new chapter of high-quality development in northwest China's Shaanxi Province.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks during a two-day inspection tour of Yulin City in Shaanxi starting Monday.

Xi urged fulfilling various tasks in COVID-19 prevention and control and economic and social development, coordinating development and security in a better way.

He also emphasized the need to better serve and integrate into the new development paradigm.

On Monday, Xi visited a chemical company under the China Energy Investment Corporation. He said the coal industry should follow a green and low-carbon path of development, and coal consumption needs to be transformed and upgraded.

The coal chemical industry, as a sector with huge potential and good prospects, must be transformed into a high-end, diversified and low-carbon industry, Xi said, adding that sci-tech innovation is the most pressing task and efforts must be accelerated to achieve breakthroughs in key and core technologies.

During his trip to the village of Gaoxigou, Xi chatted with villagers in the field, asking about their work, income, medical care, children's education and employment.

Hailing the village as a model of ecological conservation on the Loess Plateau, Xi highlighted the need to integrate ecological governance with the development of distinctive local businesses. He emphasized exploring a way to attain coordinated development between ecology and economy, and harmony between humans and nature.

Xi later visited the revolutionary site of Yangjiagou, where Mao Zedong and the Party's central authorities stayed for over four months between 1947 and 1948, commanding the War of Liberation and leading the land reform movement.

Xi stressed always upholding and improving the Party's leadership, upholding the basic tenets of Marxism and the principle of seeking truth from facts, and adapting Marxism to China's conditions.

On Tuesday morning, Xi visited another revolutionary site -- the premises of the former prefectural Party committee of Suide.

The CPC has the support of the people, Xi said, explaining the success of the revolution. "We must carry forward revolutionary traditions and fine conduct and always keep the people's interests uppermost in mind," he said.

Visiting a middle school in Suide, Xi watched the students practise calligraphy and do physical exercises, and chatted with them.

Education is fundamental to the pursuit of national rejuvenation, said Xi.

Xi called for efforts to cultivate young people, who are equipped with moral grounding, intellectual and physical ability, aesthetic sensibility and work skills, and are well-prepared to join the socialist cause.

The primary role of schools in education should be strengthened, Xi noted. He added that the quality of education should be improved in an all-round way while easing students' burden of excessive homework and off-campus tutoring.

While touring an exhibition hall for local intangible cultural heritage in Suide, Xi expressed appreciation for the local efforts to protect and inherit traditional culture.

As an invaluable asset of the Chinese nation, folk arts are vital to sustaining historical legacy and building a socialist country with great cultural strength, said Xi.

On Tuesday afternoon, Xi traveled to the village of Haojiaqiao and visited the home of a villager whose family was lifted out of poverty.

Xi stressed that making villagers live a better life is the unswerving mission and aspiration of the Party. He urged the whole Party and the nation to carry forward the spirit forged in the fight against poverty to secure new and greater victories in fully building a modern socialist China.

When leaving the village, Xi expressed his hope for the villagers to continue upholding the fine traditions and make further efforts in building their village into a model of rural vitalization. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-16 00:01:02|Editor: huaxia

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Dominic Raab arrives at 10 Downing Street for the COVID-19 committee meeting in London, Britain, on May 6, 2020. (Xinhua/Tim Ireland)

Dominic Raab will become justice secretary and also take up the role of deputy prime minister. International Trade Secretary Liz Truss has been appointed as the new foreign secretary.

LONDON, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- Dominic Raab has been removed as British foreign secretary as Prime Minister Boris Johnson carried out a reshuffle of his cabinet ministers, Downing Street confirmed on Wednesday.

Raab will become justice secretary and also take up the role of deputy prime minister. International Trade Secretary Liz Truss has been appointed as the new foreign secretary.

Raab has been under fire for his handling of Britain's withdrawal from Afghanistan and his decision to stay on holiday until hours after Kabul's fall to the Taliban, according to local media.

Raab replaced Robert Buckland who had been removed from the justice secretary post. Buckland tweeted: "It has been an honour to serve in government for the last seven years, and as the Lord Chancellor for the last two. I am deeply proud of everything I have achieved. On to the next adventure."

Liz Truss leaves 10 Downing Street after attending a cabinet meeting in London, Britain, on July 25, 2019. ( Xinhua/Alberto Pezzali)

Johnson's reshuffle also brought about the exit of Gavin Williamson as education secretary and Robert Jenrick as housing secretary.

The removal of Williamson from his post came as he was criticized for his handling of disruption to schools and exams during the pandemic, according to local media. Jenrick has faced calls for resignation after he admitted last year his decision to unlawfully approve a controversial property development bid by a Tory donor.

Britain's last major cabinet reshuffle was in February 2020, just before the COVID-19 pandemic started and the country went into its first COVID-19 lockdown.

Government sources told local media earlier in the day that Johnson's cabinet reshuffle aimed to put in place "a strong and united team to build back better from the pandemic."

The reshuffled would have a focus on "uniting and levelling up the whole country," the sources added.

Photo taken on Aug. 18, 2021 shows the Houses of Parliament in London, Britain. (Xinhua/Han Yan)
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-16 00:27:59|Editor: huaxia

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BEIJING, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter to The Belt And Road - The Great Wall International Folk Culture and Arts Festival, which opened Wednesday in Langfang City of north China's Hebei Province.

Civilizations become richer and more colorful through exchanges, Xi said in the letter.

Noting that joint efforts from all parties have resulted in positive progress in building the Belt and Road, Xi said improvements have been made in people's well-being of participating countries as well as interaction and dialogue among their civilizations.

The festival will help promote the value of the Silk Road and the Great Wall as world cultural heritages, Xi said, adding that it also serves as a stage for participating countries' folk culture and arts, a bridge for people-to-people exchanges and dialogue among them, and a link for communication and mutual learning among different civilizations.

Adhering to equality, mutual learning, dialogue and mutual accommodation among civilizations, China is willing to work with other countries to jointly build the Belt and Road, and to make greater contribution to the progress of human civilization, Xi said. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-15 10:22:29|Editor: huaxia

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NAIROBI, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- The international probe into the origins of COVID-19 should be based on science instead of political bias or xenophobic attitudes, a Kenyan official has said recently.

Raphael Tuju, secretary-general of Kenya's ruling Jubilee Party, said any attempt to investigate the origins of the virus should be informed by scientific analysis and data as opposed to partisan geopolitics.

Commenting on a COVID-19 origins tracing report by the U.S. intelligence, Tuju faulted the move, saying it could jeopardize global efforts to contain the pandemic.

"I think that does not help in the fight against COVID-19 or any other pandemic that may surface," Tuju said during a recent interview with Xinhua in Nairobi.

He said the international community should focus on containing the pandemic through vaccine deployment.

The blame game laced with xenophobia and racism will be counterproductive to the efforts of tracing, said Tuju, adding that only a global consensus combined with sound science will achieve positive outcomes.

He highlighted the fact that China was quick to inform the international community of the emergence of the novel coronavirus, thus helping contain the virus, and that China has been consistent in its transparency regarding the virus besides sharing updated data and information with the World Health Organization (WHO).

He noted that containment measures rolled out by Beijing at the onset of the pandemic including quarantines and lockdowns had averted a widespread strain on global health systems.

Tuju stressed that the success of China's timely interventions -- that included sharing the genetic sequence of the virus -- was instrumental in the development of therapeutics and vaccines.

"So the whole response of China has been quite scientific, quite responsible and devoid of politics," said Tuju, praising Beijing for donating medical supplies to developing countries to help them fight the pandemic.

He said that besides donating vaccines and personal protective equipment, China has been forthcoming in sharing research, experience and expertise in fighting the pandemic with other developing nations.

"Instead of wasting time looking for ways to apportion blame, we should be spending our time trying to deal with this virus, getting the vaccines to work more effectively, getting more people vaccinated," said Tuju. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-15 10:51:41|Editor: huaxia

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KAMPALA, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- Uganda, France and the United Nations (UN) on Tuesday signed an agreement to support the UN Academy for Peace Operations, a senior official has said.

Adonia Ayebare, Uganda's permanent representative at the UN tweeted that the academy, based at Entebbe, 40 km south of the Ugandan capital Kampala, would be used to train UN peacekeepers to use unmanned aerial systems for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance in UN peace keeping operations missions.

The training will be supported by the Ugandan military and the Uganda Civil Aviation Authority, the country's air transport regulator.

"We look to further cooperation with the UN Under-Secretary-General for Operational Support and French government on the use of digital technology in peace keeping operations," Ayebare said. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-15 18:05:36|Editor: huaxia

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LAGOS, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- A cholera outbreak in central Nigeria's Niger state has killed at least 100 people since April, a state government official said Wednesday.

Muhammad Makusidi, the state commissioner for health, told reporters at a media workshop Wednesday in the state capital of Minna the fatalities were recorded from April to date in the 25 local government areas of the state.

He attributed the outbreak of cholera to open defecation and indiscriminate waste disposal by rural dwellers.

Makusidi said the situation had been brought under control through the state government's intervention, adding drugs were available to treat affected people and a campaign has been launched in rural communities to reduce open defecation.

Cholera is a highly virulent disease characterized in its most severe form by a sudden onset of acute watery diarrhea that can lead to death by severe dehydration.

The outbreak of cholera in Nigeria has remained persistent, occurring annually mostly during the rainy season and more often in areas with poor sanitation, overcrowding, lack of clean food and water, and areas where open defecation is a common practice. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-15 19:32:39|Editor: huaxia

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KAMPALA, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- Uganda has reinstated mandatory COVID-19 testing for inbound travelers, a top official said on Wednesday.

The mandatory testing was previously supposed to start on Sept. 3 but was suspended.

Chris Baryomunsi, minister of information, communication, technology and national guidance, said in a statement that incoming air passengers would be required to pay 30 U.S. dollars each at a bank at the country's Entebbe International Airport before proceeding for the test.

Uganda has only one international airport, at Entebbe, about 40 kilometers south of the capital, Kampala.

Baryomunsi said the test facility at Entebbe airport will be manned by government medical workers, unlike before when the facility was outside the airport and was private.

"Passengers with tourist visas will have their samples taken but will be permitted to proceed to their respective hotels as they await the processing of their results," he said.

Baryomunsi said similar arrangements are also being organized at land border entry points.

On Aug. 20, the health ministry announced that starting Sept. 3, all inbound travelers would be subjected to mandatory COVID-19 tests regardless of their vaccination status and that all travelers, including children, are required to arrive with a negative PCR test result done within 72 hours prior to travel. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-15 23:02:03|Editor: huaxia

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By Marwa Yahya

CAIRO, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- Egypt has been expanding the scope of exporting energy, especially natural gas and electricity, to accelerate the implementation of its vision for turning into a regional and international energy hub, according to Egyptian experts.

Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon have agreed on Sept. 8 to pipe the Egyptian natural gas to Lebanon via Jordan and Syria to solve the energy crisis in Lebanon.

"Delivering natural gas to Lebanon was an expectation that has been planned for a long time," said Osamah Kamal, a former Egyptian petroleum minister.

He stressed that delivering Egyptian natural gas to Lebanon is very beneficial for achieving integration among the regional countries.

Egypt has increased its gas exports following re-operating Damietta port station for liquidating and exporting gas in February after an eight-year hiatus, from which Egypt has exported nearly 17 vessels of liquidated gas to the Asian and European markets since July.

Egypt's production capacity of natural gas per day reaches seven billion cubic feet, according to official statistics.

"Egypt is ambitious to increase the natural gas exports. It signed deals with several countries such as Israel and Cyprus to import gas from Egypt, or liquidate gas in our stations ahead of re-exporting it to Europe," Kamal added.

He explained that Cyprus owns rich gas reserves but it couldn't benefit from it, and the only solution is to connect the Cypriot gas with the Egyptian network of liquidation for either re-exporting it to Europe or for local consumption in Egypt.

The Egyptian-Cypriot deal is beneficial for both sides as Cyprus wouldn't have to build infrastructure for exploring and liquidating gas, while Egypt will make more gains by operating its liquidation stations.

The former minister highlighted that the integration among the regional countries will add political calm, and the countries with common economic interests will work on preventing many disputes.

"Egypt has taken major steps for turning into a regional energy hub, such as establishing the East Mediterranean Gas Forum that includes ten important countries," Kamal said, adding that exporting gas and electricity gives greater weight to Egypt, enhances its global position and attracts investments.

Meanwhile, Medhat Youssef, former chairman of Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation, noted that delivering gas to Lebanon is a very positive step, given the economic and social sufferings of the Lebanese people.

He agreed that liquidating the Cypriot gas in Egypt will bring economic revenues for both countries and pave the way for more European investments in Egypt.

"Egypt is the only country in the eastern Mediterranean that is able to circulate gas among the regional countries," Youssef said.

On Sept. 4, the energy ministers of Cyprus and Egypt signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the electricity interconnection between the two countries.

"Egypt is keen on extending electricity grid to Cyprus, Greece and eventually to other European countries," said Ayman Hamzah, spokesperson for the Egyptian Ministry of Electricity.

Hamzah told Xinhua that "Egypt has been already exporting electricity to Jordan, Sudan and Libya."

He added Egypt-Jordan-Iraq tripartite committee has been recently formed to meet Iraq's needs of electricity, adding that Egypt's reserve of electricity exceeds 25 percent of the production.

The Ministry of Electricity has made great efforts on advancing the electricity networks with other countries, Hamzah said, adding that "exporting Egyptian electricity to the neighboring countries is very significant for enhancing the relations between Egypt and those countries." Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-16 00:53:24|Editor: huaxia

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YAOUNDE, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- At least four people were killed on Wednesday morning in an accident involving a truck and a private car on a highway in Cameroon's West region, according to the police.

The private car on high speed collided head-on with the truck in a small village near Bangante, chief town of Nde division of the region.

Police said the accident resulted in a fireball that incinerated all four occupants of the private car.

Road accidents are common in Cameroon, often caused by reckless driving, poor state of vehicles and roads as well as overloading. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-15 20:21:16|Editor: huaxia

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ANKARA, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- Turkey extends construction of a wall on its eastern Van province border with Iran, Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said on Wednesday.

"We will add another 242 kilometers to the 221 kilometers we have built so far along our border with Iran," Soylu said at a meeting on the issue of migration.

"Our negotiations with Iran has resulted successfully. We are planning to finish the 20 kilometers on our (southeastern province) Hakkari border by winter," he added.

Turkey has taken measures on its eastern border before the Taliban took over Afghanistan, the minister said, adding that 1,500 Afghan refugees were pushing the borders every day and now it has decreased to 200.

Turkey faces an influx of refugees from Afghanistan through its Iranian border following the withdrawal of American forces.

Nearly 300,000 Afghan refugees are already living in Turkey, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in August. They are believed to be the second-largest community of refugees in the country after Syrians.

Turkey started to build the walls in the eastern Igdir province in 2017, and has built a total of 159 kilometers of border wall in the eastern Agri province, according to Soylu. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-15 23:20:35|Editor: huaxia

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MOSCOW, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- The joint Russian-Belarusian Zapad-2021 military drills ended Wednesday with a closing ceremony at the Mulino training ground in Russia's Nizhny Novgorod region, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

"The Zapad-2021 exercise has demonstrated that we can quickly form effective interspecific groupings of forces, plan military action in all directions, suppress any kind of aggression, and can strike a decisive blow to counter any enemy," the ministry said, citing Russia's Deputy Defense Minister Lieutenant General Yunus-Bek Yevkurov.

The minister added that military personnel that took part in the drills demonstrated the skills they acquired during scheduled combat training sessions in the course of the year.

Russian forces from the Western Military District took part in the training, alongside military contingents of the Armenian, Belarusian, Indian, Kazakh, Kyrgyz and Mongolian armed forces, as well as a representative from the Sri-Lankan military delegation.

The joint drills were held at nine training grounds in Russia, as well as the Baltic Sea, and at five training grounds in Belarus. In total, 200,000 personnel, about 80 aircraft and helicopters, 760 units of military equipment, and 15 ships took part in the training. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-15 12:48:57|Editor: huaxia

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by Matthew Rusling

WASHINGTON, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was roasted by Congress Tuesday, as lawmakers from both parties grilled him over his role in the botched evacuation of Americans from Afghanistan.

The Biden administration is roundly criticized by both sides of the aisle, as well as U.S. media and analysts, as Americans and Afghan allies remain stranded in Afghanistan after the chaotic U.S. withdrawal.

Bob Menendez, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a member of Biden's own Democratic Party, castigated Blinken on Tuesday, the secretary's second day of intense questioning by outraged lawmakers.

The execution of the U.S. withdrawal was "clearly and fatally flawed," Menendez said in his opening remarks at the hearing. "There has to be accountability."

Republican Senator James Risch, the ranking member of the committee, argued "the Biden administration alone is responsible for this debacle and its consequences."

Blinken firmly pushed back against the criticisms and blamed the Trump administration for leaving the current government in a bad situation.

The United States and Afghan Taliban signed an agreement in February 2020, which called for a full withdrawal of the U.S. troops from Afghanistan by May 2021 if the Taliban meets the conditions of the deal.

"We inherited a deadline. We did not inherit a plan," Blinken told the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Monday.

He also noted that no one in the government foresaw how quickly Afghan security forces would collapse, which led to the militants overtaking the nation in a matter of days.

"Even the most pessimistic assessments did not predict that government forces in Kabul would collapse while U.S. forces remained," Blinken added.

Senator Rand Paul, a Republican who spent a decade pushing for U.S. forces to leave Afghanistan, said, "never in my worst nightmares did anyone conceive such a colossal incompetence."

The senator also inquired about reports that a U.S. drone strike in Kabul killed an aid worker and several children in late August. Blinken declined to comment, saying the issue is being reviewed.

"You'd think that you'd kind of know before you off somebody with a predator drone, whether he's an aid worker or he's an ISIS-K," Paul said, referring to an Afghanistan-based offshoot of the Islamic State.

Blinken said the Pentagon and the State Department put together an "extraordinary effort" to evacuate Americans and Afghan allies before the remaining U.S. forces pulled out last month.

Republican Senator Ron Johnson chastised the administration for what he said was behaving as if the withdrawal was a resounding success.

"If I were just to read your testimony not having watched any news I would literally think this was a smashing success," Johnson said.

"But I do read the news, as most Americans do, and we realize that this was a complete debacle," Johnson said. "I think what concerns me the most, among many things, is that detachment from reality."

Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen acknowledged that the situation in Afghanistan resulted from the failure of both Democratic and Republican administrations.

"I do think we need an accounting, that's important for history and for us going forward, but let's stop with the hypocrisy about who's to blame. There are a lot of people to blame, and we all share in it," she said.

Blinken is the first senior administration official to testify on Afghanistan in the wake of the chaotic withdrawal. Several Republican lawmakers had called on Blinken to resign.

A poll conducted last month by the Pew Research Center showed only 26 percent of Americans believe the Biden administration handled the Afghanistan situation well, while 42 percent said the administration did a poor job, and 29 percent said the administration had done only a fair job. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-15 16:09:06|Editor: huaxia

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LOS ANGELES, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- Governor Gavin Newsom of the U.S. state of California, a Democrat, has defeated the effort to remove him from office in the gubernatorial recall election that garnered national attention, U.S. media reported Tuesday night.

Major U.S. national news outlets, including the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) and the Associated Press, reported after the polls closed that Californians have rejected the recall ballot measure by a substantial margin.

With more than 60 percent of the votes tallied, the "No" side of the recall was leading by roughly a 2-1 margin, according to ABC.

Newsom, elected California governor in November 2018 with over 61 percent of the vote, is the second governor in the state's history to face a recall election. He is the state's former lieutenant governor and has served as mayor of San Francisco.

In the other recall election in the state's history, Californians voted overwhelmingly to recall Democratic Governor Gray Davis and replace him with Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2003.

The Republican-led effort to oust Newsom gained steam after criticism of the Democratic governor's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 46 challengers were potential candidates to replace the governor if he loses the recall election.

The recall ballot requires a yes or no answer: Shall Gavin Newsom be recalled from the office of governor? If a majority of the votes on the recall question are "Yes," Newsom shall be removed from office and the replacement candidate receiving the highest number of votes shall be declared elected for the remainder of the governor's term of office, ending Jan. 2, 2023.

"Tonight, California voted NO on the recall and YES to ... Science. Women's rights. Immigrant rights. The minimum wage. The environment. Our future," tweeted Newsom Tuesday night.

"We rejected cynicism and bigotry and chose hope and progress. Thank you, California," the governor added.

U.S. President Joe Biden and some other high-profile Democrats joined Newsom's campaign before the recall election.

During an address at Long Beach City College in Los Angeles County on Monday night, Biden said Newsom "has had the courage to lead, stand up for science" and "for the very thing he's been one of the leading governors in the nation, protecting his people and vaccinating his state."

"The eyes of the nation are on California. Because the decision you're about to make isn't just going to have a huge impact on California. It's going to reverberate around the nation," he added.

"The results of the race in which Newsom needs a majority vote to hold his job are likely to influence the 2022 midterms, when control of Congress again will be in play and the party that controls the White House historically loses seats," said a report published on The Sacramento Bee, a major newspaper published in Sacramento, capital of the state of California.

"They could determine how prominently Democrats campaign on COVID-19 restrictions that many Republicans have decried as unnecessary and overly burdensome," said the report.

"National Democrats hope the race can be a model for next year's midterm elections, since Democrats have typically had a hard time motivating their voters in non-presidential races," NBC noted in a report. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-15 18:07:39|Editor: huaxia

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LOS ANGELES, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- California remained the state with the highest poverty level in the United States, according to an annual report released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau.

The report, titled The Supplemental Poverty Measure: 2020, found that 15.4 percent of California residents lived in poverty from 2018 to 2020, eclipsing states such as Mississippi, Florida and Louisiana.

No other state had a higher rate than the Golden State, though the District of Columbia came in at 16.5 percent, the report said.

The census measures poverty in a few different ways and the Supplemental Poverty Measure is one of the them. This calculation method was developed by Social Security economist Mollie Orshansky in the 1960s, taking into account regional cost of living, work and medical expenses, tax credits, as well as the effects of government aid.

It was designed to assist low-income families and individuals.

Even though California kept the embarrassing title this year, the most populous states in the nation, by comparison, has considerably lowered its three-year poverty level average from 17.2 percent in 2019, and 18.1 percent in 2018.

Pundits said unaffordable housing costs were primarily to blame for California's having the nation's highest poverty rate in Tuesday's report.

"California is a state that has relatively high wages. It has relatively well-supported safety net programs," Caroline Danielson, senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California, told local Laist.com news website, "but we are not keeping up in terms of making housing affordable for all families."

According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, a minimum wage worker would need to make 23.96 U.S. dollars per hour to comfortably afford a two-bedroom rental in California. On Jan. 1, 2021, the state's minimum wage increased to 14.00 dollars per hour, 41.6 percent less than the rate needed to afford a two-bedroom unit.

The U.S. federal Department of Housing and Urban Development set guidelines that renters should spend no more than 30 percent on average of their annual income on rent to allow them sufficient money to pay for other non-discretionary costs, such as food, utilities, insurance, automotive repairs, clothing and medical.

But, to afford an average rental in Los Angeles, the minimum household annual income would need to be 70,000 dollars or more, while Angelinos' median income is only 28,000 dollars per year. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-15 18:47:50|Editor: huaxia

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LOS ANGELES, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- "Modern-day slavery" was not only found overseas, but also exists in the United States, including in the state of California, local media reported Tuesday, calling for approval of the Garment Worker Protection Act.

The Act is still being mulled over by the state's politicians under pressure from both labor rights activities and employers.

Today many workers in Los Angeles are struggling in sweatshops, known for producing clothing items in unsafe working conditions with very poor payment, according to a CBS investigation story that aired on Tuesday.

These workers, at the bottom of the supply chain of the fashion industry, which comprises brand, contractors and subcontractors, garment shops and factories, were usually paid only five or six cents per piece on a system called a "piece rate." They're paid for each seam they sew, each sleeve they make, each piece they complete.

"There is some kind of a modern slavery going on in the sweatshops," Francisco Tzul told CBS News. Tzul, who spent nearly three decades sewing in garment factories in Guatemala, Mexico and the United States, documented many problems in Los Angeles' garment industry, for example, cockroaches running rampant through one facility.

A 2016 investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor found pay violations in 85 percent of the Los Angeles garment shops it looked into, the CBS report said, adding the minimum wage was 15 U.S. dollars an hour in the second largest city of the nation, but those workers' average hourly wage last year ranged from 5.85 to as low as 2.68 U.S. dollars.

A worker paid five cents per piece would have to sew 300 pieces in an hour to meet the minimum wage level, which was almost unattainable, the report said.

Meanwhile, contractors or middlemen in the industry also complained that they did not have enough money to pay their workers.

The investigation found that contractors in the fashion garment manufacturing industry supply chain were paid only 73 percent of what they would need in order to pay their workers' minimum wage, the report noted.

California's 46,000 garment makers are "routinely underpaid," receiving 5.85 dollars an hour on average (and some as low as 2.68 dollars an hour) while working in "cramped, dirty factories" to make clothes for big global brands, Susie Buell, co-founder of the brand Esprit said in a commentary published Monday for CalMatters, a leading non-profit and non-partisan news website on local politics and policy.

"It's an arcane system that's been in place since my earliest days in the fashion industry, and it needs to go," Buell said, who established the brand with partners in 1960s and sold the company later.

The problem must be resolved at its root, as the low prices that brands paid to factories was what's driving the sweatshop conditions, she said.

Last month, Tzul and other garment workers rallied in the California State Capitol to push legislation to make brand-name clothing companies which control pricing -- not just the subcontractors -- subject to increased liability if workers aren't duly paid.

The information from the state authority showed Senate Bill 62, introduced in December, was still under amendment in both the Assembly and Senate.

"The garment industry in California is rife with violations of the minimum wage law, overtime laws, and health and safety standards. California has the highest concentration of garment industry workers in the country," the draft bill read, noting garment workers were being paid an average of 5.15 dollars per hour, "well below the minimum wage."

Calling the problem "systemic abuse," the bill will prohibit any employee engaged in garment manufacturing to be paid by the piece or unit except as specified.

Among other measures, the bill will also impose statutory damages of 200 dollars per employee against a garment manufacturer or contractor, payable to the employee, for each pay period in which each employee was paid by the piece rate.

But many brands fought against the bill, saying they do follow the law by paying at least the minimum wage and shouldn't be liable for illegal operators who don't.

"Let me ask you a question that should be asked of these factories: If they cannot do it legally and legitimately, why do they even take the order?" Ilse Metchek from the California Fashion Association asked CBS's reporters.

The California Chamber of Commerce opposed this legislation, calling it a "job killer." It said some employers may choose to move out of state to avoid those liability provisions.

California Governor Gavin Newsom's office would not say whether he would sign the bill. Enditem
ZIMBABWEAN companies and domestic consumers are feeling the pinch of high costs of back-up power supply after the national power utility, Zesa, announced a 12-hour load-shedding schedule.

Zesa Holdings power distribution subsidiary, Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) announced that it will embark on a load-shedding regime while addressing power generation challenges.

ZETDC attributed the fall in power generation to challenges at the Hwange Power Station, limited imports and a dam wall rehabilitation at the Kariba hydroelectric power plant.

The Kariba dam rehabilitation exercise requires two generators to be taken out daily for 12 hours, a process that affects an economy.

The facility was recently upgraded at a cost of US$550 million.

According to statistics from Zesas investment vehicle, the country is generating 1 186 megawatts (MW) of electricity. This generation is against the demand of about 2 000MW.

The power cuts are obviously disruptive to business and they came at an unexpected time because we were of the view that the power supply had stabilised. I think for the past two to three years we have seen some stability, Employers Confederation of Zimbabwe president Israel Murefu told Weekly Digest our sister publication in a phone interview.

It reduces capacity to produce because power is what drives industry and if there is no power you cannot produce and if you resort to generators, they are very expensive and I think there are very few companies which have got adequate solar backup to compensate for the loss of electricity. You also need electricity if you are producing at night so its very disruptive, he said.

He urged Zesa to resolve the power shortfalls quickly and to keep industry informed on the load-shedding schedule.

Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries chief executive Sekai Kuvarika said her organisation was currently carrying out a survey to ascertain the extent of the power outages.

However, the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC) said companies were feeling the pinch of power outages which are affecting production.

As a result, some companies were relying on back-up power supply such as generators and solar, forcing them to cut costs to afford mitigatory measures.

We (businesses) are feeling it by companies slowing down recruitment, slowing down in terms of business confidence, slowing down in terms of the capacity to continue producing because, it is grinding when you are not having reliable power 24/7, ZNCC chief executive Chris Mugaga said.

Power comes eight hours but the other 16 hours you have no power, so how do you produce? So, members are obviously bemoaning it.

He added: The impact is quite palpable for most companies. If this is to continue unabatedthat is when they will start thinking who can we scratch?

Who are we supposed to recruit? And, who are we supposed to push out of the company? How can we cut costs so that at least we run on solar? Which means company costs are increasing for our members.

Our members are not having any appetite to continue recruiting because already with a skeleton staff we have, and some losing jobs, we cannot afford to go all out to recruit.

We still have other unintended challenges like the power you are talking about, or water.

Consumers are also feeling the pinch of power blackouts forcing them to over-stretch their budgets.

In fact, USAid food security arm, Fewsnet says household food stocks are beginning to run low across the country confirming shrinking household incomes.

Across the suburbs, residents are complaining of prolonged power cuts.

At household level, most people have been forced to resort to liquefied petroleum gas, they have been forced to buy candles that they had already abandoned, some, who had not purchased the solar systems, are now being forced to prioritise that, Harare Resident Trust director Precious Shumba said.

But we are also hearing that refrigerated foods are getting bad and they are counting their losses. And in industry, a lot of the companies have had to kick out workers who are not being productive because of power shortages.

The situation is really sad as people are narrating their ordeals whereby from 5am they have not had electricity after four or five hours. The cost of living has gone up about five times in the last four months and this (power outages) continues to drain the little resources.

He said consumers wanted Energy and Power Development minister Zhemu Soda to quickly address the matter. The power shortages come despite the country having capacity to generate 1 872MW in renewable energy with an active national renewable energy policy launched last year in March to govern the harnessing of this energy. Newsday
ORGANISERS of the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) have put in place strict COVID-19 measures for this years trade exhibition, with children under the age of 18 not allowed to attend.

Running under the theme: Showcasing the New Normal for Business and Industry: Realities and Opportunities, the show seeks to bring normalcy and stability to business, industry and the national economy following the disruption by the COVID-19 pandemic.

It will run from September 21 to 24, 2021 at the ZITF Grounds in Bulawayo.

Addressing a Press conference in Bulawayo yesterday, ZITF Company chairman Busisa Moyo said as part of measures to curb the spread of COVID-19, children would not be allowed to attend this years show.

Robust health and safety protocols have been established under the advice of public health authorities, particularly the Health and Child Care ministry and the Bulawayo City Council. We have also enlisted the help of the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority and key players in the business of tourism (hotels, airlines) in communicating and enforcing health and safety protocols outside the exhibition centre, Moyo said.

In addition to vaccination, Moyo said over the past few weeks, his teams had been undergoing training and working to ensure that they have the human and system capabilities to deliver not only a successful, but a COVID-19 safe show.

Some of the initiatives include online registration for both exhibitors and visitors so as to minimise paper-exchange and in-person interface time, crowd management in exhibition halls to ensure each venue complies with the recommended attendee threshold, sanitisation station at each gate and hall entrance as well as clear signage indicating safety protocols and direction of hygiene facilities.

Moyo said there would be a COVID-19 police team to encourage and enforce compliance with all health and safety protocols.

(There would be) an on-site medical service facility for the provision of medical support and case management in the event that a participant exhibits any of the COVID-19 symptoms. Public days (have been) reduced to one. Additionally, no children under 18 will be allowed, he said.

All exhibitors, vendors, service providers and conference delegates will be required to produce a negative COVID-19 test result (PCR or antigen) taken within 48 hours of the beginning of the show. One-day visitors do not need to take a test as they will spend limited time at the show and will be under close monitoring by COVID-19 police, he said.

We encourage participants to take advantage of the governments intensified COVID-19 vaccination drive and ensure that they would have received at least one dose by the time of the show, Moyo said.

To date, Moyo said 357 direct exhibitors had booked and confirmed participation on 40 109-square metre exhibition space. Of these, 11% are first-time exhibitors.

In terms of geographical mix, Moyo said 62% of confirmed local exhibitors were from Harare, 25% from Bulawayo, 10% from other cities and 3% foreigners.

Ten countries are participating, namely Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Indonesia, Kenya, Malawi, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa and Tanzania.

In 2019, there were 456 direct exhibitors and 17 countries.

The exhibition, usually held in April every year, was postponed several times due to COVID-19 restrictions. Newsday
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Company challenges ruling over use of Vkontakte users data

 pixabay.com

11:11 15/09/2021

MOSCOW, September 15 (RAPSI)  Double Data company has lodged a cassation appeal in a dispute with Vkontakte over the use of the social network users data, according to the records of Russias Intellectual Property Court (IP Court).

The Ninth Commercial Court of Appeals in July granted an application filed by Vkontakte against Double Data seeking to cancel the latter companys use of open data provided by users on the social network to sell its own services.

The appeals instance has therefore overturned the Moscow Commercial Courts ruling of March 22 dismissing the social medias lawsuit.

In February 2019, the court ordered to carry out a technical expert examination of the arguments put forward in the dispute, and stayed the action. An expert of a private expert agency was asked to answer 59 questions, in particular, if the programs used by Double Data permitted to extract, copy, and store information received from Vkontakte database, and where the server, on which the information was stored, was located.

The lawsuit was reopened in April.

In October, the defendant asked the court to order another expert examination citing the alleged deficiencies of the first one.

Vkontakte claims that Double Data extracts information from the social networks database (names, surnames, places of work and study) despite the fact that neither Vkontakte, nor it users gave permissions to retrieve such information and to use it for commercial purposes.

On January 31, 2017, the social network filed a lawsuit against two defendants. According to the plaintiff, the National Bureau of Credit Histories, which used to be the second defendant, offered credit organizations services allowing to evaluate creditworthiness of loaners based on Vkontakte data. These services were based on technologies developed by Double Data, Vkontakte believed.

On August 15, 2017, the court cancelled proceedings between the social network and the Bureau after they reached settlement. The settlement read that the Bureau worked with Double Data in the framework of guarantees provided by the latter company assuring that use of Vkontakte data was legal. According to the settlement, the Bureau had to severe its relations to Double Down and to stop using products and technologies based on extraction of information from Vkontaktes database without its permission.

In October 2017, the Moscow Commercial Court dismissed the lawsuit against Double Data.

In July 2018, the Intellectual Property Court (IP Court) nullified all earlier court rulings in the dispute remanding the case for a new trial.
Seizure of $1.5-billion assets of ex-Promsvyazbank owner upheld

 RAPSI, Maria Petrova

10:27 15/09/2021

MOSCOW, September 15 (RAPSI)  The Moscow District Commercial Court has upheld the seizure of monetary assets and other property in the amount of more than 113 billion rubles ($1.5 billion) belonging to the former owner of Promsvyazbank Dmitry Ananyev, according to court records.

In April, the Moscow Commercial Court, at the request of Bank Trust, seized funds and other property of the Ananyev brothers, as well as those of ex-top managers of Avtovazbank.

Taking into account that the failure to take interim measures might complicate the execution of this judicial act, as well as in order to prevent damage to the claimant, the court found it necessary to seize the property of the defendants.

The decision to take interim measures was made in the framework of a lawsuit the Trust Bank filed to recover more than 113 billion rubles ($1.5 billion at the current exchange rate) from the Ananyevs, Oleg Vdovin and Nikolai Taran.

In October 2020, the Russian Supreme Court dismissed Dmitry Ananyev's complaint against the ruling on declaring him bankrupt. The objections set out in the complaint do not indicate the presence of any significant violations of substantive law and (or) procedural law and cannot serve as sufficient grounds for canceling the contested judicial acts, the Supreme Court noted then.

The Ninth Commercial Court of Appeals declared Ananyev bankrupt on June 15, 2020 at the request of Nastyusha Grain Company, and a debt restructuring procedure was introduced with respect of that person The board of appeals canceled the determination of a first instance court of November 25, 2019, by which the proceedings on the banker's insolvency sought by the company were terminated.

In a complaint submitted by Ananyev to the Supreme Court, he asked to cancel the decision of the Court of Appeals and refer the case for a new trial.

In also worth noting that in September 2019, the Russian Supreme Court dismissed Ananyevs move to cancel the decision on the initiation of the respective bankruptcy case.

Earlier, in June 2019, the Moscow Commercial Court dismissed a request to seize Ananyevs property worth 2.8 billion rubles ($36 million) when examining his bankruptcy case.

At that time the court established that the applicant had not presented evidence proving that the failure to take interim measures could complicate or make impossible the execution of the respective judicial act.

However, on May 29, 2019, the Moscow Commercial Court satisfied an application of Promsvyazbank seeking to seize the property of the former owners of the bank, Alexey and Dmitry Ananyevs, in the amount of 282.2 billion rubles ($3.6 billion) in the framework of a claim to recover losses in the amount of 282.2 billion rubles from twelve former top managers of the bank.

On December 15, 2017, the Central Bank of Russia introduced a temporary administration for the management of Promsvyazbank. The functions of the provisional administration were entrusted to the Management Company of the Banking Sector Consolidation Fund.

As a measure aimed at improving the financial stability of the bank and ensuring the continuity of its activities in the banking services market, it is planned that the Central Bank will participate as an investor using the funds of the Banking Sector Consolidation Fund.

In October 2019 the Moscow City Court upheld the arrest of Alexey and Dmitry Ananyevs in absentia in a criminal case over embezzlement on an especially large scale, as the press service of the court informed RAPSI.




Moscows notorious confectionary loses appeal against bankruptcy

 RAPSI, Vladimir Burnov

12:53 15/09/2021

MOSCOW, September 15 (RAPSI)  The Ninth Commercial Court of Appeals rejected an appeal filed by Moscows confectionary Menshevik, whose ex-owner Ilya Averyanov had been acquitted of the 2017 murder of a security guard, against a ruling on its bankruptcy, according to court records.

Menshevik was declared bankrupt by the Moscow Commercial Court in July.

The court based its ruling on a report on the financial standing of the debtor submitted by the bankruptcy commissioner, according to which the properties and assets of Menshevik were insufficient to pay off its debts, and restoration of the confectionarys financial and economic operations was impossible.

The Moscow Commercial Court introduced a supervisory procedure against Menshevik in 2020 after recognizing its debt worth nearly 900,000 rubles (about $12,000 at the current exchange rate) to the applicant, DHA company.

On October 20, 2020, the Supreme Court of Russia upheld acquittal of ex-owner of Menshevik Ilya Averyanov of murder.

On January 29, 2020, jurors acquitted the man of killing a guard during the shooting on the factorys premises in 2017 and beating a passerby, who burnt up poplar wool near the factory in 2016.

Thus, Averyanov was found not guilty of intended infliction of severe bodily harm and murder.

Investigators claimed that on December 27, 2017, a conflict arose between former and current owners of the factory. Ex-owner Averyanov allegedly took out the gun and shot several times, fatally wounding a guard.

The defendant insisted that he used the gun for the purposes of self-defense, and a shot was fired recklessly.




Forensic doctor accused of forgery during culture official's autopsy to stay in detention

 flickr.com/ quirischa

14:38 15/09/2021

MOSCOW, September 15 (RAPSI)  The Moscow City Court on Wednesday upheld detention of forensic physician Alexander Pentsakov charged with negligence and forgery in office as part of a case over the death of deputy head of Moscows Culture Department Leonid Osharin, the courts press service told RAPSI.

Earlier, Pentsakov was put in detention until September 21.

According to investigators, the accused performed an autopsy on Osharin of 47 years. He concluded that the official had died from suicide despite multiple stab and slash wounds on his body.
Actor Efremov fails to change sentence in fatal car crash case

 RAPSI, Vladimir Burnov

13:49 15/09/2021

MOSCOW, September 15 (RAPSI)  The Second Cassation Court of General Jurisdiction on Wednesday upheld sentence passed on actor Mikhail Efremov guilty of committing fatal road traffic accident under the influence of alcohol, RAPSI reported from the courtroom.

Efremov sought to mitigate his sentence of 7 years behind bars to reasonable limits as he is sure not to outlive these 7.5 years in custody. The convict also insists that driver Sergey Zakharov, who had died in the crash involving the actor, was not buckled up.

In October 2020, the Moscow City Court reduced jail sentence of Efremov by 6 months, from 8 to 7.5 years. The actor was found guilty of driving under influence (DUI) resulting in vehicular homicide.

As established by the court, on the evening of June 8, Efremov driving his car crossed into the oncoming lane in central Moscow and collided with a delivery service vehicle. He was arrested on the scene. Alcohol and drugs were reportedly found in his blood. Victim Sergey Zakharov was taken to hospital where he died early in the morning of June 9.

Efremov admitted his guilt.
Animal abuser in Russias Kurgan Region sentenced to 180 hours of community service

 flickr.com/greg westfall

16:04 15/09/2021

MOSCOW, September 15 (RAPSI)  A resident of the Kurgan Region has been sentenced to compulsory labor for cruel treatment of a dog, the press service of the regional prosecutor's office reports.

The court hearing the case established that the man beat a dog, which was tied to a chain, with a log. After the animal stopped showing signs of life, he put it in a plastic bag and took it to the nearest dumpster, the body said in its statement.

The dog was discovered the next day by local residents. Specialists of the interdistrict veterinary center found that the animal had extensive injuries.

The abuser told the court that he decided to kill the dog because it howled at night and prevented him from sleeping. He agreed with the charges brought against him and pleaded guilty. The magistrate found the man guilty of a cruelty to animals crime.

The defendant was sentenced to 180 hours of compulsory labor.
The Statesman, September 11, 2021

By Nandita Chatterjee

The recent developments in Afghanistan, particularly since August 2021 have brought forth many tumultuous issues with respect to life, liberty, and rights of resident Afghans in their country. Of particular concern is the position of women and the challenges they face in the wake of the resurgence of Taliban after 20 years as the groups earlier regime from 1996 to 2000 had almost decimated womens rights to freedom, health, education, life, and liberty. The world is watching with concerned anticipation as to how events will unfold in near future, and, what such developments would mean for the average Afghan women and girls.

Statistically speaking, the last 20 years in Afghanistan have witnessed certain developments in the movement of development indicators in the country. In 2020, women comprised 48.68 per cent of the population of Afghanistan. Female literacy rose from 5 per cent in 2002 to 29.8 per cent. Labour force participation improved from 15.2 per cent to 21.8 per cent, maternal mortality ratio lessened from 1300 per one lakh live births to 638 per one lakh live births. Total fertility rate reduced to 4.3 from 7.3, infant mortality rate reduced from 85 per thousand live births to 47 per thousand live births. Overall life expectancy at birth moved from 57 years to 67 years. Finally, GDP per capita in Afghanistan rose to $509 from $179 per capita which is almost a three-fold increase in the average earnings of the Afghans.

In Afghanistan, the legal age of marriage for girls is 16 years. They are not allowed to marry outside their religion and the reported acceptance rate of contraception is 21.2 per cent.The much acclaimed author, Syed Muztaba Ali had once remarked that without knowing the history of Afghanistan, one would not be able to comprehend the complete history of India. Akin to such line of thought, the fate of women in Afghanistan had also evolved in intricate association with the history of the country.

Originally a part of the Persian Empire, Afghanistan is a combination of various tribal communities. The early 18th century witnessed an attempt at unification of such tribal communities, first by Mirbai Hotak and later by Ahmad Shah Durrani. Unfortunately, their descendants failed to sustain the process of unification. What followed was the rule of the Barkazai dynasty and two Anglo Afghan wars ~ in 1839-1842 and 1878-1880 respectively. From 1901, Habibulla Khan ruled and from 1919-1929 onwards, his son Amanulla Khan compelled the British to relinquish in the 3rd Anglo-Afghan war. Even today, 19th August is celebrated as Independence Day by the Afghans in recall of the relinquishment of the British invasion. Amanulla Khans regime was oriented towards ensuring freedom to women. Womens education, rejection of purdah and introduction of Dereshi (modern attire) were some of the highlights of his regime. In 1921, laws were passed to prevent forced marriage, minor marriages and bride price. Restrictions were also imposed on the much prevalent polygamy system in the country.

Amanulla Khans spouse, Queen Suraya, was an enlightened lady and a suitable partner to her husband. She introduced a womens magazine for the first time and set up the first womens organization called Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Nissan. More importantly, pioneer educational institutions for Afghan women, namely the Mustarat as well as Ismat (Malalai) were set up in 1920/ 1921. The Mustarat hospital was also established during this era. Queen Suraya stopped using Purdah in public.These reforms, however, were resisted by the orthodox society in the country. When we read Deshe Bideshe by Syed Mustapha Ali, an interesting travelogue on the experience of the author as a professor in one of the educational institutions in Kabul, we find a graphic description of how the orthodox society resisted the social reforms leading to the subsequent downfall and deposition of King Amanulla.

Post the deposition of Amanulla, Afghanistan was involved in a civil revolt during which womens rights were curtailed and the purdah was re-imposed with severity. Subsequent to the conclusion of the Second World War, most countries strengthened their system of social reforms, including Afghanistan. The agitation for women rights got stronger, and, in 1946, the Womens Welfare Association was formed with government support. Women were inducted in vocational training. Data collected in 1950 reveals that 51 girl students were enrolled in Kabul University for higher studies. The long tenure of Zaheer Khan followed, and his very capable Prime Minister, Md. Daud Khan emerged as a broad-minded social reformist. Many attempts were made to encourage womens participation in the public sphere.

In 1957, for the first time, women announcers were engaged in Radio Kabul. Women were employed in the pottery factory set up by the Government. The queen and the princesses rejected use of purdah in public, and, following them, wives of the urban elite as well as the families of government servants also decided to shun purdah in public.1964 was a milestone in the history of Afghanistan as for the first time the Afghan Constitution was adopted granting thereby equal rights to women, right to franchise as well as right to participation in political/public life. Womens education was encouraged, and, in 1977 under the leadership of Meena Kamal, the Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) was established. The 1980s and 1990s witnessed the induction of the Communist regime courtesy the Soviet Union. Upholding gender equality, the Afghans Women Council (AWC) was founded to defend and implead equal rights to women.The orthodox and conservative rural community, however, resisted all attempts to grant equal rights to women. Their rejection and opposition to socialistic reforms was one of the reasons for the downfall of the Soviet regime and the subsequent association of their protegee Md. Nazibullah. History tells us that during 1991, 7,000 women students were enrolled in higher education and that there were 190 lady professors, 23,000 school going girl students and 2200 lady teachers in the country.1992 evidenced the rise of the Islamic State of Afghanistan followed by widespread civil war which led to rampant abduction and large-scale torture of women. In 1996, the Taliban (religious students) occupied Kabul. Thereafter there was a complete diktat (fatwa) issued to prevent women from working or from studying in educational institutions.Women were mandated to cover themselves from head to toe in chadris or burkhas. They were not allowed to go outside their homes without a male relative (Mehram). In fact, even glass windows of houses were painted black to prevent any outsider from observing the activities of the purdah-clad women inside their homes.
A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind.


Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be addressing the plenary session of 21st meeting of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)Council of Heads of State on September 17, 2021 at Dushanbe in Tajikisatan via video link.




The former commander of US troops in Afghanistan told senators on Tuesday that he opposed a full withdrawal from the country and advised Pentagon leadership of his position, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee told reporters after a closed-door briefing with the general.

Gen. Scott Miller, who commanded US and NATO troops in Afghanistan until July, told committee members he had informed Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley and US Central Command chief Gen. Frank McKenzie he was "opposed to the total withdrawal," Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) said, The Hill reported.

"We heard enough to know that there are inconsistencies between what the administration has said and the truth," Inhofe added at a news conference with committee Republicans. "Clearly, President Biden didn't listen to all the military advice given."

Tuesday's classified briefing marked the Armed Services Committee's first meeting on Afghanistan since the Taliban swept back to power in a matter of days in August, sending the the Biden administration scrambling to evacuate as many US citizens and Afghan allies as possible before the president's deadline for a full military withdrawal by August 31.

Reports have previously indicated military leadership privately advised Biden against a full withdrawal from Afghanistan. But Tuesday's briefing marked Miller's first appearance before the committee since 2019, a session that also took place behind closed doors, The Hill reported.
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Edison, NJ -- (SBWIRE) -- 09/15/2021 -- The latest study released on the Global Resume Parsing Software Market by AMA Research evaluates market size, trend, and forecast to 2026. The Resume Parsing Software market study covers significant research data and proofs to be a handy resource document for managers, analysts, industry experts and other key people to have ready-to-access and self-analyzed study to help understand market trends, growth drivers, opportunities and upcoming challenges and about the competitors.



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DaXtra Technologies (United Kingdom),HireAbility (United Kingdom),Sovren (United States),Talentrackr (India),Textkernel (Netherlands),Rchilli (United States),Top Echelon (Patriot Software) (United States),JoinVision (Austria),Zoho (India),Hiretual (United States)



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Resume parsing is a process that converts an unstructured form of resume data into a structured format. Resume parser, also termed as CV parser, is a program that analyses a resume/CV data and extracts it into a machine-readable output such as XML, JSON. With the help of resume parsing software, it becomes easy to store and analyze resume data automatically.



Market Trends:

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- The Middle East and Africa (South Africa, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Israel, Egypt, etc.)

- North America (United States, Mexico & Canada)

- South America (Brazil, Venezuela, Argentina, Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, etc.)

- Europe (Turkey, Spain, Turkey, Netherlands Denmark, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Russia UK, Italy, France, etc.)

- Asia-Pacific (Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam, China, Malaysia, Japan, Philippines, Korea, Thailand, India, Indonesia, and Australia).



Objectives of the Report

- -To carefully analyze and forecast the size of the Resume Parsing Software market by value and volume.

- -To estimate the market shares of major segments of the Resume Parsing Software market.

- -To showcase the development of the Resume Parsing Software market in different parts of the world.

- -To analyze and study micro-markets in terms of their contributions to the Resume Parsing Software market, their prospects, and individual growth trends.

- -To offer precise and useful details about factors affecting the growth of the Resume Parsing Software market.

- -To provide a meticulous assessment of crucial business strategies used by leading companies operating in the Resume Parsing Software market, which include research and development, collaborations, agreements, partnerships, acquisitions, mergers, new developments, and product launches.



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Major highlights from Table of Contents:

Resume Parsing SoftwareMarket Study Coverage:

- It includes major manufacturers, emerging player's growth story, and major business segments of Resume Parsing Software market, years considered, and research objectives. Additionally, segmentation on the basis of the type of product, application, and technology.

- Resume Parsing Software Market Executive Summary: It gives a summary of overall studies, growth rate, available market, competitive landscape, market drivers, trends, and issues, and macroscopic indicators.

- Resume Parsing Software Market Production by Region Resume Parsing Software Market Profile of Manufacturers-players are studied on the basis of SWOT, their products, production, value, financials, and other vital factors.

- Key Points Covered in Resume Parsing Software Market Report:

- Resume Parsing Software Overview, Definition and Classification Market drivers and barriers

- Resume Parsing Software Market Competition by Manufacturers

- Impact Analysis of COVID-19 on Resume Parsing Software Market

- Resume Parsing Software Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2021-2026)

- Resume Parsing Software Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Region (2021-2026)

- Resume Parsing Software Manufacturers Profiles/Analysis Resume Parsing Software Manufacturing Cost Analysis, Industrial/Supply Chain Analysis, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers, Marketing

- Strategy by Key Manufacturers/Players, Connected Distributors/Traders Standardization, Regulatory and collaborative initiatives, Industry road map and value chain Market Effect Factors Analysis.



Browse Complete Summary and Table of Content @ https://www.advancemarketanalytics.com/reports/112043-global-resume-parsing-software-market



Key questions answered

- How feasible is Resume Parsing Software market for long-term investment?

- What are influencing factors driving the demand for Resume Parsing Software near future?

- What is the impact analysis of various factors in the Global Resume Parsing Software market growth?

- What are the recent trends in the regional market and how successful they are?



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Northbrook, IL -- (SBWIRE) -- 09/15/2021 -- According to a new market research report "Secure Web Gateway Market by Component (Solutions (Threat Protection, Access Control, and Data Protection) and Services), Deployment Mode, Organization Size, Vertical (Healthcare, BFSI, IT & Telecom, and Education), and Region - Global Forecast to 2024" published by MarketsandMarkets, the Secure Web Gateway Market size projected to grow from USD 4.6 billion in 2019 to USD 10.9 billion by 2024, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 19.1% from 2019 to 2024. The major growth drivers for the market include the rising need for protection from web-based cyberattacks.



Browse in-depth TOC on "Secure Web Gateway Market"

128- Tables

34- Figures

159- Pages



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Based on organization size, the large enterprise segment to lead the market in 2019



Large enterprises have more than 1,000 employees. They are strongly investing in advanced technologies to increase their overall productivity and efficiency. They are expected to invest significantly in implementing SWG solutions because of their capability to offer end-to-end protection in web security and to enforce the same level of security to applications. With a rise in trends such as Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and cloud-based applications, the number of touchpoints has increased in an organization; thus, raising the risk of cyber threats. To protect business networks, terminals, and information from cyber threats, data thefts, and unauthorized access, enterprises are considering the adoption of SWG solutions.



SWG players such as Symantec, Zscaler, and Cisco provide solutions that cater to the needs of large enterprises. Large enterprises are expected to continue to adopt solutions and services from these companies through cloud as well as on-premises SWG solutions.



Based on verticals, the IT and telecom vertical to grow at the fastest growth rate during the forecasted period



IT and telecom companies are being attacked by cyber attackers more and more. The growing involvement of IT services into daily operations of companies across all verticals, coupled with the increasing sophistication of attacks, is compelling the companies to adopt web-based security solutions. The rising use of cloud computing, IoT, and BYOD has raised concerns over security solutions to be adopted in the telecom vertical. Operators controlling and operating critical infrastructure communicate and store sensitive data that are prone to sophisticated and complex attacks, such as Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks and ransomware attacks. With the evolving landscape of cyber threats, IT organizations, telecom operators, and service providers across the US, UK, Germany, France, China, Japan, India, Singapore, and other countries are deploying SWG solutions to combat the emerging threats on their infrastructure.



North America to hold the highest market share during the forecast period



The North American region has sustainable and well-established economies, which empower it to invest significantly in R&D activities, thereby contributing to the development of new technologies in SWG. The presence of the majority of key players is expected to be a major factor driving the growth of the market in this region. Key players such as NortonLifeLock, Zscaler, Cisco Systems, Check Point Software Technologies, Sophos Group plc, Forcepoint, Trendmicro, Comodo Group, and Mcafee, LLC, along with several startups in the region, are offering SWG solutions and services to cater to the needs of customers.



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Market Players



The major vendors covered in the Secure Web Gateway Market include NortonLifeLock Inc. (Symantec Corporation) (US), Zscaler, Inc. (US), Cisco Systems Inc. (US), Check Point Software Technologies (Israel), Sophos Group PLC (UK), Forcepoint (US), TrendMicro Incorporated (Japan), Comodo Group (UK), McAfee, LLC (US), Thoma Bravo (Barracuda Networks, Inc.) (US), NetSkope (US), A10 Networks, Inc. (US), Cyren (Israel), Sangfor Technologies (China), CATO Networks (Israel), Content Keeper (Australia), iboss (US), Menlo Security (US), F5 Networks Inc. (US), and Citrix Systems Inc. (US).



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Content Source: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/PressReleases/secure-web-gateways.asp
Page Content

The Minister of Public Health, Social Development and Labor, Omar Ottley hereby extends his heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of Sint Maartens 58th COVID-19 victim, who has passed away. Minister Ottley wishes the family strength and healing during their time of grief.





As of September 14th , there were twenty two (22) persons who tested positive for COVID-19; however sixteen (16) persons have recovered; bringing the total active cases to one hundred ninety five (195). The total number of confirmed cases is now four thousand twenty one (4021).





The Collective Prevention Services (CPS) are monitoring one hundred eighty six (186) people in home isolation. Nine (9) patients are hospitalized at the St. Maarten Medical Center. The total number of deaths due to COVID-19 has increased to fifty eight (58).





The number of people recovered since the first case surfaced on St. Maarten has increased to three thousand seven hundred sixty eight (3768). One hundred seventy one (171) people are in quarantine based on contact tracing investigations carried out by CPS.





The Ministry of Public Health, Social Development and Labour (VSA) Airport Health Team in collaboration with Health Care Laboratory Sint Maarten (HCLS) have tested 3, 657 travelers arriving at the Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIA), while CPS tested 41, 509 people throughout the community. As the numbers continue to fluctuate, CPS will continue to actively execute its contact tracing measures.





For your safety, Minister Ottley urges everyone to wear your mask, reduce social contacts, and sanitize or wash your hands frequently.
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The Bishop of Malaga, Jesus Catala, has signed a decree this Wednesday, 15 September, lifting the veto he issued in January for the celebration of acts of worship on public thoroughfares, including processions.

One day after Seville and the dioceses of its ecclesiastical province gave the green light to the resumption of the processions, Malaga has done the same - but with conditions.

In the new decree, the Malaga diocese says prior reliable communication from the parish priests or organising brotherhoods will be required. Said communication must be made at least one month in advance of the celebration, so that it can, if it deems it appropriate, decide on the matter."

In other words, the Bishopric reserves the right to authorise processions on a case-by-case basis.

Diocese sources have clarified to SUR that this will allow them some control in relation to the health situation "because the circumstances are constantly changing" and maintains this control only to "guarantee that the health regulations at the time are met."

The Bishopric has reminded that "acts of external worship and celebrations in which use of the public thoroughfare is made must at all times respect the health measures and have the authorisation of the competent authorities and the relevant municipal licenses, adding "the person in charge, parish priest or brotherhood, will have to strictly comply with the corresponding state, regional or local regulations.
The Inditex family is to lose one of its members. The fashion giant, based in Arteixo (A Coruna), announced after presenting its balance sheet this Wednesday (15 September), that over the next year its Uterque brand will be integrated into Massimo Dutti.

All the Uterque stores will close and its range of products will become available only through Massimo Dutti, on its website and in selected stores.

In Malaga province, this decision would directly affect three stores: two located in Marbella and the one that the firm opened in Malaga city, on Calle Larios, in February 2020.

The objective, according to Inditex, is "to take full advantage of the market penetration and awareness that Massimo Dutti has in international markets such as the United States, Canada, Mexico and Turkey." Massimo Dutti is present in 74 markets, while Uterque only sells in 16.

As of 31 July, Uterque had 82 stores, seven less than a year ago. Of them, about thirty are located in Spain. In the first six months of 2021 fiscal year, the brand had a turnover of 48 million euros, 55 per cent more than a year ago, although it was still below the levels of 2019. In fact, it has been one of the brands most hit during the pandemic, by focusing its offer more on party clothes and special occasions, that were severely limited by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Uterque premiered in July 2008 with three simultaneous openings in A Coruna, Madrid and Barcelona. Initially it specialised in accessories but over time, it diversified its offer including women's clothing and even launched a men's line, which it ended up withdrawing.

In Malaga, Uterque opened with a store in the Larios centre that it ended up closing. It currently has two stores in Marbella, in the La Canada shopping centre and on Calle Ramon Arecer. In February 2020 it returned to Malaga city with a 112-square-metre-store on Calle Larios.
The Bishopric of Malaga maintains its order of 16 January in which it suspended "all acts of external worship and all celebrations in which use of the public thoroughfare is made."

Official sources of the diocese have confirmed this to SUR after Seville, Jerez de la Frontera, Huelva, Cadiz-Ceuta and Cordoba provinces in Andalucia, agreed this Tuesday (14 September) to allow religious processions again.

Last Saturday there was a procession in the Cadiz town of Arcos de la Frontera, and there have been several occasions in recent weeks in which images have appeared on the streets of Jerez, Jaen and Cordoba, among others.

The ecclesiastical province of Seville justifies their decision with "the favourable course of the health situation with a decrease in infections and the progress of vaccination." However, the dioceses call on the faithful to continue to comply with the recommendations of the health authorities.

However, the situation does not apply, for now, to the diocese of Malaga, which belongs to the ecclesiastical province of Granada. The Bishopric maintains the order that the bishop, Jesus Catala, signed last January. "The decree still stands," a spokesman for the diocese told SUR.

The transfer of the Virgen de la Victoria from Malagas cathedral to her sanctuary at half past six in the morning last Saturday and the 13 scheduled for 6am this Sunday, are carried out with special dispensations granted by the Bishopric, and with strict conditions regarding the format of the processions.
The Vox spokesman in the Andalusian Parliament, Manuel Gavira, ruled out that climate change was one of the determining factors in the virulence of the fire that ravaged the Sierra Bermeja for six days.

He was challenged if his background allowed him to make such a judgement about global warming, after a sixth-generation fire had blazed for the first time in Spain, Gavira acknowledged, "I simply understood that the fire had been started deliberately."

The parliamentarian attacked the management of the fire by the Junta de Andalucia and said that from the start it was known that the fire was particularly serious. Despite that, he claimed that not all the necessary means were put in place to tackle it and the regional government waited until Sunday.

Manuel Gavira, spokesperson for Vox. / SUR

Gavira said that after the Donana fire of 2017, when faced with a similar situation, the current president of the Junta, Juanma Moreno, and the now agriculture minister Carmen Crespo, launched similar criticisms against the management of the Andalusian government at that time. "They choose to forget that," he said.
A photograph of a charred mountain goat next to a crash barrier at the scene of the Sierra Bermeja forest fire, went viral and travelled around the world on social media.

And now it has been revealed that it was taken by Francisco, a Malaga firefighter who works for Infoca, who snapped the image when he was heading to the Penas Blancas area to tackle the blaze.

The injured ibex passed in front of him and he quickly pulled out his mobile phone to take two pictures. He passed them on to his work colleagues and his wife and, in a matter of hours, they went viral on all social media networks.

Focused on his work and oblivious to the virtual hustle and bustle, Francisco did not realise until he returned home at night. "When I opened Facebook and saw my photo everywhere I was amazed," he explained.

Since then he has been one of the most sought-after people on social media, although the the photo has been attributed to different people since last Sunday.

Blind and burned

Francisco said that the scene was captured on 11 September at 3.58pm, when he was in a Land Rover with six companions. The animal crossed in front of the vehicle and lay down next to the crash barrier. "It was blind and its whole face was burned from having gone through the burning bushes," he explained.

Unfortunately, the 33-year-old could not help it, since they were heading to tackle flames. "If we had stopped to help it, we would have lost valuable time putting out the fire and the damage could have been greater," he said regretfully.

Francisco admits that he is constantly taking photos with his phone for his personal album and to share them on social media. In the case of the injured animal, he took two photographs from different angles and a small video as the ibex crossed to the other side of the mountain.

Although it wasnt intentional, his photograph has become one of the most significant pictures of the destruction of the mountains and the fauna of Malaga.
 NCL         Norwegian Prima
Sir,



Government remains in denial about what ought to be done in order to normalise the affairs of this country. Yes, this county is relatively abnormal in many ways, hence it is at the point of dysfunctionality. Of course, everyone benefitting from this abnormality is in denial of this fact. Supposedly, emaSwati are in enjoyment of all their inalienable human rights, we have been made to believe. Yet they have no say in how they want to be governed.

Choices

This country is not where it is because of some natural disasters but rather because of wrong policies and choices. These choices and policies are, unfortunately, not of the making of emaSwati. Consequently, emaSwati are victims in this whole scheme of things in which they have very little say apropos influencing or having inputs to national policies and choices towards the achievement of national imperatives. The very denial that emaSwati are oppressed and do not enjoy or even exercise their human rights becomes the number one enemy of this nation. This country is at the crucial crossroads that demands that fundamental change of mindsets in order to inform a renewal and positive trajectory of this nation. There are two choices to be made; either we remain as we are  pretending all is well  and pray for doomsday to come sooner before all of us are ravaged by the scourge of poverty and disease or take that giant leap and change our circumstances.

Aware

By now people should be aware that the obtaining political hegemony is leading this country to the abyss as manifested by the tacit enthronement of institutional corruption and fatally flawed policy decisions. If there ever was an opportune time for the nation to rid itself of the infancy that has been holding it back, then that time is now. This country, given its peculiar attributes, can easily become the Dubai, if not better, of Africa.

Achieved

Yes, that can be easily achieved by disengaging from the notion that this country is either preparing for war as articulated by the budgeting trends or the need to defend the political status quo at whatever cost, instead of channeling resources towards uplifting the living standards of emaSwati. This begins with channeling the budget towards education  free education from cradle to the grave  and a well architectured health delivery system that would turn this kingdom into the most favoured health-driven tourism mecca. It is either we go for radical political reforms to allow a multiplicity of voices to determine the destiny of this nation or keep the obtaining political hegemony that will inevitably lead us to doomsday. We have a choice to make and this begins with you!
MBABANE  A picture of EBIS broadcaster Lindelwa Mafa in studio with a police officer has got social media abuzz.

EBIS is the Eswatini Broadcasting and Information Services, a state-owned radio station. The picture was uploaded on Facebook purportedly as a status update on Mafas wall and has since been deleted. The image shows the radio broadcaster seemingly going about her duties while the police officer, who is in full uniform, is standing by a corner inside the studio. It is unknown who took the picture. After it was uploaded on Facebook, the picture was shared several times and started trending on Twitter as well.

Questioned

Most social media users questioned why police officers had been deployed to guard the state-owned media, in particular inside the studio. They expressed their disappointment in government on how resources were used for trivial matters. A number of users stated that the police had a duty to protect the country and solve complex crimes instead of standing in radio stations guarding people who did not need any protection. It could not be easily ascertained if the police officer was guarding Mafa or he was simply in studio for other business. It is worth noting that since the unrest, police have been a common feature at EBIS. When reached for comment, Mafa refused to comment on the issue.

Hacked

This publication wanted to get information from her if she was the one who uploaded the picture as a status update on her wall, or could it be that her account was hacked. This publication also wanted to know if the police officer was guarding her or was simply in studio for other business. Government Spokesperson Sabelo Dlamini, when reached for comment, stated that this was a matter which could be addressed by the police. Chief Police Information and Communications Officer Superintendent Phindile Vilakati said there was no police officer assigned to guard broadcasters. She said the reason why police were at times found at EBIS was not for public consumption.
MBABANE  The High Court has stopped the Senate elections for now.

The elections will proceed after the court has heard and determined the application that has been filed by Bhutana Dlamini, who wants to be furnished with reasons for his disqualification from the Senate race. Judge Nkosinathi Maseko also ordered the Clerk to Parliament, Benedict Xaba, Speaker Petros Mavimbela and the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC), to furnish Dlamini with the reasons for disqualifying him from the elections within seven days of the order. The court further ordered that the decision to disqualify him be reviewed and set aside and declared that he qualifies to stand for the elections. Judge Maseko ordered that the orders are to operate with immediate and interim effect. The matter will be heard on November 10, 2021.

In the States preliminary points of opposing Dlaminis application, Assistant Attorney General Mndeni Vilakati argued that the matter was not urgent because there was no date which had been set for the elections to be conducted and therefore the applicants (Dlamini) basis for approaching the court on urgency is entirely speculative.

Exclusion

Vilakati also argued that since Dlamini alleged that his exclusion from the elections was unconstitutional, he assumed the status of an aggrieved person, who was empowered by the Parliament (Petitions) Act of 2013 to challenge the validity of an election.

He further submitted that Dlamini had prematurely set the process of law in motion because he had to wait until the election was conducted and then challenged its validity on the basis of Section 3(2)(c) and (d) of the Parliament (Petitions) Act, 2018.

Judge Maseko said Section 3(2)(c) and (d) did not stop an aggrieved person in Dlaminis position from approaching the court to compel the clerk to Parliament to provide him with the reasons where same were requested and without any reason not provided.

Derrick Jele, who represents Dlamini in the matter, submitted that his client desired to participate in the elections for the vacant Senate seat for which he was nominated and he accepted the nomination. Jele told the court that the urgency of the matter was created by the fact that the elections may be conducted at anytime in future and if the applicant is not supplied with the reasons for his disqualification, so that he could challenge such reasons through review proceedings, then he will suffer irreparable harm because he would not have participated in the elections which he so much desires to participate in. According to Jele, the situation did not only render the matter urgent, but also, Dlamini discharged the requirement for the grant of an interdict on the perceived irreparable harm likely to be suffered by him in the event the proceedings were to take the normal course.

Judge Maseko said in his view, Jeles argument that Dlamini desired to participate in the elections clearly established the urgency because nobody knows when the elections will be conducted. I am in agreement with Mr Jele because Section 28(2) clearly vests such powers and authority on the second respondent (Speaker) to fix a date, time and place at which a sitting of the electorate would be held for the purpose of conducting the elections to fill the vacant Senate seat in compliance with Section 5 of the Act i.e. Act No.7/2013. The suspension of elections on September 2, 2021 by the electorate was in reaction to the exclusion of the applicant by the first and second respondents (clerk to Parliament and Speaker) and not because they (electorate) have powers to initiate the election process.

Judge Maseko said Dlamini was not seeking a relief from the court which interfered with the duties of Parliament to the extent that the doctrine of separation of powers be invoked. This court is not being asked to deliberate on a Bill or any of functions of Parliament, but all what the applicant seeks to be provided with are reasons why he was disqualified to participate in the elections of September 2, 2021, and most importantly because the allegation is that he won by majority vote of the electorate, said the judge.

Majority

Judge Maseko said he was alive to the fact that the respondents were still to file their answering papers and might deny that Dlamini won by majority vote. The judge said he was convinced that the matter was urgent and it was within Dlaminis right to institute the current proceedings to be able to deal with the adverse finding of disqualification from participating in the elections as communicated to the electorate on September 2, 2021. It must be borne in mind that he was in fact disqualified and excluded from the ballot papers without having been informed of such and also not given an opportunity to present his side of the story. The urgency is not therefore self-created because even though there is no date and time and place fixed by the Speaker for such by-elections to be conducted, it can easily be inferred that when Parliament resumes its business in the near future, surely this is one matter that the clerk and Speaker must deal with, owing to the fact that the Speaker is the one vested with the powers to fix the date, time and place for the Senate by-elections to be conducted in terms of Section 28(2) of Act 7/2013, added the judge. Judge Maseko stated that Dlamini was not in control of the Senate by-elections process but it was the clerk to Parliament and Speaker who had such powers. Dlamini, according to the court, clearly set out his reasons for urgency and acted promptly to pass the urgency test.

Interim

The court also considered the submission by Vilakati that an applicant seeking an interim interdict must demonstrate to a court that in the event he seeks to interdict proceeds, the results of the event are not reversible. Jele submitted that it would be cumbersome and an inconvenience for Dlamini to let the elections be conducted in his absence and then come at the 11th hour and try and unscramble a scrambled egg. Judge Maseko said: I am in agreement with Mr Jeles counter-argument because the applicant will lose to participate in the elections in terms of Section 5 of Act 7/2013. It is this adverse finding against him by the clerk to Parliament, Speaker and EBC that he must deal with which has resulted in his disqualification and exclusion from the ballot papers. I am, therefore, not persuaded by Mr Vilakatis arguments as regard all the points in limine which were raised by the clerk to Parliament, Speaker and EBC. The court also dismissed the point on separation of powers and ordered the respondents to pay costs of the proceedings up to the ruling. Dlamini told the court that he had a clear right to the reasons for his disqualification. He said he deserved to know the reasons for his disqualification. The clerk of Parliament, according to Dlamini, as adjudicating authority, was obliged in law to furnish him with the reason for his decision. Vilakati appears in the matter together with, Principal Crown Counsel Ndabenhle Dlamini and Crown Counsel Nokwanda Makhanya.
MBABANE  The remedy, if any, of MPs Mduduzi Bacede Mabuza and Mthandeni Dube does not lie with the High Court but elsewhere.

This was said by Judge Mumcy Dlamini yesterday when she dismissed the two incarcerated Members of Parliaments (MPs) second bail application. Last week, Judge Dlamini asked the parties to address her on the point of functus officio (of no further authority) which she had raised mero motu (of her own volition). Judge Dlamini had postponed the matter to yesterday to issue a ruling on whether the court was functus officio after the parties had made their submissions. She found that the High Court was functus officio and proceeded to dismiss the MPs bail application. Judge Dlamini issued no order as to costs. She pointed out that the MPs remedy lay elsewhere but not at the High Court. In about five seconds, Judge Dlamini was done reading the order and subsequently left the courtroom.

It was not expected that she would make a ruling on the bail application as she had stated last week that she would rule on whether the court was functus officio or not. In her judgment, Judge Dlamini stated that she was not the one who was functus officio but it was the High Court. In their initial application, the judge found that the MPs made a bare denial of the allegations raised by the Crown and the denial translated into no evidence to be put on the scales of justice against the evidence of the respondent that was put on the same scales. According to the court, from the second bail application, Mabuza and Dube were not saying that they were filing the fresh bail application on grounds of such procedural aspects or that there were no findings by the court in the first bail application.

Contending

They are contending that there are new facts. In other words, applicants (MPs) appreciated that the court accepted that the interest of justice did not favour their release based on the tilting of the said scales, said the judge. Judge Dlamini asked: Is it open for this court to determine if there are new facts on the applicants fresh bail application, therefore? The judge said she asked this question because that was the impression created by the MPs representative, Advocate Jacobus Lodewicus Coetzee Jansen Van Vuuren, from South Africa. Judge Dlamini cited a case of former Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs Sibusiso Shongwe, who was arrested for alleged corruption-related offences. His bail application was dismissed by Judge Qinisile Mabuza and he filed another application. The second application was dismissed by Judge Nkululeko Hlophe. He was, however, released by the Supreme Court.

In Shongwes matter, the Supreme Court said; Where a court hearing a bail application has made specific finding refusing bail, an accused person is precluded from lodging a subsequent bail application before the same court on the pretext that new facts exist. The court is functus officio and has no jurisdiction to entertain the matter. Judge Dlamini said Section 96 (18) and (19) allowed an accused person, if he or she had been granted bail, to lodge a subsequent application before a court of the same jurisdiction with a view to amend the amount of bail or supplement any of the bail conditions. The judge said in the MPs matter, there was no need for her to make a determination whether there were new grounds for the present bail application. I find that this court is functus officio. Applicants remedy, if any, lies not with this court but elsewhere in this regard, said the judge.
MBABANE  The two incarcerated MPs were yesterday involved in a tell-off with an officer from His Majestys Correctional Service before leaving the courtroom.

The duo of Hosea Member of Parliament (MP) Mduduzi Bacede Mabuza and Ngwempisi MP Mthandeni Dube stand accused of contravening the Suppression of Terrorism Act along with Siphofaneni MP Mduduzi Gawuzela Simelane who has been declared a fugitive from the law since his whereabouts remain unknown. Trouble began when the senior officer ordered his subordinates to leave with the MPs while the legislators were engaged in talks with their defense team. The senior officer told the warders that the MPs time was up.

Rights

Do not take it that we do not know the law and our rights as we stand here. We have a right to discuss with our lawyers and further get the ruling. What you are doing is an infringement of our right and breach of the law and we cannot allow that to happen. The law is clear that you should keep a distance when we speak to our lawyers and you cannot rush us while we await the ruling, MP Mabuza told the senior officer. Those who were in court to give the MPs moral support shouted amandla as Mabuza responded to the senior officer. Mabuza further told the officer that what he was doing was exactly what they were fighting against in the country. If we speak democracy, we mean we do not want what you are doing right now, Mabuza said. MP Dube was heard saying; If you want to kill us, do it now. We are tired of people who behave like you.

The MP alleged that it was not the first time the senior officer ill-treated them. As the MPs spoke, some of the security personnel murmured saying uyayibona ke lentfo lena, meaning you see this thing. However, none of the security personnel responded to the MPs who then continued with their discussion with their lawyers. Also, the MPs raised their fists as they passed through their supporters who were gathered around the accused dock. Some of the supporters shouted at the warders whom they said obstructed their view. Suka wena sifuna kubona bahololi betfu, shouted one of the MPs supporters.
MBABANE  About E300 million more may be needed for the Reconstruction Fund if current government estimates and assessments that the damage is about E800 million remain unchanged.

The Reconstruction Fund, which was launched by His Majesty King Mswati III over a week ago, initially had a figure of E500 million which was reallocated from various government ministries and a grant of E330 million from the Republic of China (Taiwan). During the launch, a total of E13.5 million was pledged towards the fund by local businesses, parastatals and private families.

Encouraged

During his remarks, the King had encouraged that every year about E1 billion should be raised, which was based on the initial estimates that the damages caused had been about E3 billion. The King initially announced the E500 million Reconstruction Fund during Sibaya where the nation had assembled following the civil unrest and where he announced that Cleopas Sipho Dlamini was the new Prime Minister (PM). During the launch, the King further encouraged other friends of the country to donate towards the rebuilding of the country where he encouraged that those undergoing the process of reconstruction should go bigger and better than the previous state which their businesses were in. It should be noted that the damages were not only limited to businesses, but schools, hospitals and other government structures such as tinkhundla centres were damaged during the unrest and continued being so even after there was some calm restored in the country.
MBABANE  Initial government estimates on the damage caused during the recent civil unrest were almost triple what the current assessment reflects.

On July 3, 2021, the then Acting Prime Minister, Themba Masuku, and the Minister of Commerce, Industry and Trade, Manqoba Khumalo, went to various parts of the country where they assessed the damage and Masuku reported that the country had suffered an estimated loss of about E3 billion and 5 000 job losses. This was a figure which was even communicated to the SADC Organ on Politics and Defence (Troika), which had come to the country on a fact-finding mission following the unrest which culminated in vandalism, looting and burning some property by protesters. According to government, 34 people were also killed.

Report

However, a report presented by the Ministry of Finance Portfolio Committee chaired by Lobamba Lomdzala MP Marwick Khumalo, reflects that the damage was estimated to be around E800 million. This, according to the report, is inclusive of loss of employment, stock looting, vandalism of structures and burning down. It could not be ascertained how government, through Masuku, had initially reached the E3 billion figure, but Finance Minister Neal Rijkenberg, in an interview yesterday, stated that those were initial estimates. He, however, added that as time went on, the E800 million could hike. According to the report of the portfolio committee on the Reconstruction Fund Regulations, 2021, Minister Rijkenberg was asked to state the cost of losses suffered by businesses during the unrest.

In response, the minister said the figures on the losses were not conclusive as they were a result of a rapid assessment exercise done by the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Trade in collaboration with the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) at the 59 tinkhundla centres. The minister reported that of note was that infrastructure damage was the highest due to the looting, vandalism and burning down of businesses. According to the report, the costs incurred due to damaged infrastructure were estimated at E635 547 561.

Damages

The report further states that the second highest incurred costs were damages related to fields, forests and farms, which was estimated to have set the country back at a sum of E26.7 million. The report has further reflected that the third highest cost was to loss of goods and commodities, at E12 595 836. It was further reported that the least cost was incurred on temporarly closure of businesses to the tune of E1.8 million. The report, which has been tabled and passed in the House of Assembly, reflects that the loss of income and job losses reflected an amount of about E6 656 469 while damages to vehicles was estimated to be around E2 300 700. The minister highlighted that the breakdown was still a work in progress.

Initially, the ministry, in the regulations, had proposed that the funding under the Reconstruction Fund Regulations shall be in respect of financing formal and informal sector businesses damaged during the civil unrest, which commenced on June 25, 2021, until July 16, 2021. However, the House agreed that the funding shall commence from June 25, 2021, ending on the date of publication of the regulations in the gazette. Minister Rijkenberg yesterday stated that they had received the regulations from Parliament and had sent them to the attorney general (AG) for gazetting, which it was hoped would be out by yesterday. Meanwhile, the MPs had further highlighted that a number of businesses had begun reconstructing, without the fund being in place.

Compensated

They asked if the businesses would be compensated and whether there was a plan in place on how they would be met financially. In response, the minister said the fund would assist businesses where damage to property was a result of the recent riots. He further stated that there were guidelines which would be developed outlining the necessary requirements to be met should businesses require reimbursement for the works done before the establishment of the fund. The minister was further asked to provide statistics of affected businesses and those entrepreneurs who lost stock of goods inside rented business premises. He was further informed that there were other concerns which had been overlooked. People have also been affected emotionally through loss of jobs, while public transport operators lost income as buses were parked, submitted one of the legislators. In response, the minister stated that quantifying and verifying stock losses was a challenge during the period of unrest. He said, however, the management committee would look into this issue during the development of operational guidelines. It was reported that the disbursing of funds would commence once the ministry had the funds transferred to EswatiniBank soon after the launch of the fund.

Guidelines

The Finance minister said the management committee had the task to develop guidelines speedily and meticulously to execute their duties, and to equitably service affected recipients. Asked why the funds were to be hosted by EswatiniBank when there were other financial institutions, seeing that EswatiniBank was becoming over loaded with other funds, he said the bank, unlike foreign-owned financial institutions, could accommodate a grant facility yet the other commercial banks were foreign and they dealt with strictly credit facilities. He further stated that EswatiniBank had the necessary expertise, including managing grant money from foreign and local jurisdictions, received by government. He said consultations with the bank had been concluded and Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) had been drafted for managing the fund. Efforts to get a comment from the then Acting Prime Minister Masuku, proved futile as his phone rang unanswered. A text message was sent to him, but he had not responded at the time of compiling this report. Sources claimed that he was currently out of the country.
Sico, a leading regional asset manager, broker, market maker, and investment bank, has adopted Bloombergs Asset & Investment Manager (AIM) to increase efficiency and transparency across its order management workflow. Headquartered in Bahrain, Sico is a leading regional player with more than $3.9 billion in Assets under Management (AUM).

Bloomberg has helped Sico increase efficiencies and controls by minimising operational complexity, implementing pre-trade compliance and integrating with back-office accounting to eliminate manual processes.

By using Bloomberg, Sico was also able to adopt a solution to operate from anywhere, and seamlessly implement a work from home policy.

With Bloombergs AIM solution, we are not only able to measure portfolio performance, but lower costs and enhance operational efficiency and workflow, allowing us to focus our efforts and resources more on our clients, said Anantha Narayanan Chief Operating Officer, Sico.

We were also impressed by Bloombergs ability to implement this remotely, within a short timeframe, despite the ongoing pandemic.

Benjamin Grolimund, Regional Manager, Financial Products  Middle East & Africa, Bloomberg LP, said: We are delighted to support Sico on its journey to transform their technology. During this time, Bloomberg is committed to delivering high-quality implementation projects on time, while working remotely. Bloomberg Buy-Side Solutions continues focus on providing clients like Sico efficient and scalable solutions that reduce the need for on-going maintenance and establish transparency across all funds, in line with global best practices.

Bloombergs Buy-Side solutions, which include AIM and Port Enterprise, are used by some of the largest asset managers, hedge funds, insurance companies, pension funds and government agencies.

Bloomberg AIM is a leading order management system (OMS), used by nearly 15,000 professionals at over 900 client firms in over 90 countries to manage more than $17 trillion in assets, and Port is a multi-asset portfolio and risk analytics solution that provides investors with the tools to implement optimal investment portfolio strategies.

Port Enterprise is a premier solution that also delivers enhanced reporting capabilities that are powered by advanced risk models. Port and Port Enterprise are used by 93 of the top 100 asset managers and has 47,000 active users globally.-- TradeArabia News Service
Saudi Arabias Ministry of Education has signed 41 cooperation agreements, in addition to signing 7 executive programmes in the field of higher education and scientific research with Tunisia, Egypt, Japan, Qatar, Jordan, Pakistan and Indonesia.



The ministry is keen to strengthen the relations with the various international and regional organisations related to education through Saudi National Commission for Education, Culture and Science, as well as the relations with non-profit organizations and international education groups, Dr Saleh bin Ibrahim Al-Qasoumi, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Education was quoted as saying by Saudi Press Agency (SPA).



Dr Al-Qasoumi indicated that educational interests in the countries of the world are currently focused on recovery plans and readiness to return to schools after the Coronavirus pandemic, in addition to strengthening educational skills and knowledge.
Ebrahim K Kanoo, the diversified business conglomerate, has welcomed the winners of the 2020 Ebrahim K Kanoo Award for Engineering Excellence at its corporate office in Manama.

The students met with Ebrahim K Kanoo Managing Director, Talal Kanoo, who commended them for their innovative project which will contribute greatly to Bahrains future. Kanoo stated: The Ebrahim K Kanoo Award for Engineering Excellence was created to highlight the important role young Bahrainis play in the field of mechanical engineering. We take pride in the efforts and commitment shown by the students and the college to foster this talent. I look forward to seeing great things from the winners and wish them continued success.

Instituted in partnership with the University of Bahrains College of Engineering, the annual award is part of the companys commitment to bettering the lives of the youth of the country and helping them realise their full potential through academic and internship opportunities.

The 2020 winning team, comprising Mohammed Salah, Sayed Hashem Abdulla, Bassam Sadeq Yaqoob and Ali Hasan Ali, was chosen for their outstanding graduation project which is an eco-friendly alternative for cooling.

As opposed to the conventional vapour compression cycles the teams system is based on the principle of evaporative cooling that uses chilled water to cool the air, integrated with a liquid desiccant-based dehumidification stage to be suitable for Bahrain's humid weather.

As a result, the alternative cycle showed an enhanced cooling load and lower electrical consumption with zero toxic emissions to the environment.

Dr Abdulrahman Alsayad, Assistant Professor at Mechanical Engineering Department, praised Ebrahim K Kanoos role in nurturing local talent and their commitment to the university.

The private sector plays a vital role in supporting education through financial schemes and employment opportunities. Ebrahim K Kanoo addressed both of these, and we are proud to partner with such a well-established Bahraini company and are thankful for their support and their investment in the future of our students, he added.-- TradeArabia News Service
The role of agri-nutrients will be critical to the future of global food security, said speakers at the 11th virtual Agri-Nutrients Conference organized today by the Gulf Petrochemicals and Chemicals Association (GPCA).

However, the agri-food chain, including producers, technology providers and farmers, as well as policy makers, would need to come together to ensure that agri-nutrients are used responsibly and efficiently, and take steps to lower their carbon footprint.

This was one of the key takeaways from day one of the event which is being held under the theme Forging new avenues for a food secure future. Conference speakers reiterated the vital role of agri-nutrients to help deliver nutrition to billions of people across the world. At the same time, they highlighted a series of formidable challenges facing the industry currently and discussed ways in which they can be addressed.

Abdulrahman Al-Suwaidi, CEO, Qafco, and Chairman, GPCA Agri-nutrients Committee, delivered the welcome remarks, highlighting the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on global food security and urging governments to take comprehensive steps to develop and sustain food systems.

The global prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity has been increasing slowly since 2014 and the estimated increase in 2020 alone was equivalent to that of the previous five years combined. Nearly one in three people across the world  approximately 2.37 billion people  did not have access to adequate food in 2020, he told the audience.

[Adding to this], global food supply chains have been severely affected by the pandemic and measures to control or mitigate the virus have impacted the pace of harvests in some parts of the world, leaving millions of seasonal workers without income, he added.

Factors like these, coupled with the reduced income of families due to the pandemic, have resulted in an increase in the number of people suffering from a lack of access to sufficient nutrition.

Dr Nora Ourabah Haddad, FAO Representative to the Sultanate of Oman, echoed these remarks in a keynote address entitled Strengthening the foundation of the global food security agenda in the wake of the pandemic.

The importance of the agri-nutrients industry was further stressed upon during the Fireside Chat, the newest feature of the conference, which hosted visionary leaders, including, Dr Abdulrahman Jawahery, President, GPIC and Esin Mete, Founder, MT Agri-Consulting.

The current environment means that the world will not be able to meet its food production goals without the efficient and effective use of agri-nutrients, agreed speakers. However, this will come with its own set of challenges, as farmers face the decline of arable land and increasing water scarcity.

The agri-nutrients value chain is therefore faced with an important question How to achieve higher crops yields, while improving the sustainability impact of agri-nutrients today and ensuring fewer nutrient losses to the environment? This will be the focus of the second day of the conference on 16 September, which will see conference speakers discuss the role of collaboration, innovation, and advanced technology in lowering our environmental footprint.

Dr. Abdulwahab Al-Sadoun, Secretary General, GPCA, commented: The 11th GPCA Agri-nutrients Conference has got off to a great start, with a range of insights delivered by regional and global experts, who shared their perspectives on most probable future developments and how the agri-nutrients industry can help to improve agricultural productivity and in turn provide healthy and sufficient food for all.

He added: Dont forget to join us on Day 2 of this insightful and immersive virtual event, which promises a new dose of engaging conference sessions on topics ranging from how advanced farming techniques will help to strengthen the GCCs self-sufficiency agenda; the latest innovations to future-proof the ammonia and fertilizer industry; controlled release fertilizers; digital technologies, and many more.TradeArabia News Service
Damen Shipyards Mangalia, has handed over Debmarine, Namibias new diamond recovery vessel and it has departed on a four-week long maiden voyage to the Port of Cape Town, South Africa. There it will be fitted with mission equipment before beginning operations off the coast of Namibia early next year.

The successful delivery marks the end of the shipbuilding phase of a landmark project that began over three years ago. It is the first vessel to be delivered by Damen Shipyards Mangalia, the Romanian yard that joined the Damen group in 2018, to take on large and complex, engineered to order projects under the banner of the Mid-Sized Vessels division.

Debmarine Namibia is a subsidiary of the well-known diamond mining and jewellery company De Beers, owned in equal shares with the Government of the Republic of Namibia. The Additional Mining Vessel (AMV#3) as it is technically known, will use sub-sea crawling extraction techniques to retrieve diamonds from the seabed off the coast of Namibia.

These will then be processed on board. 177 metres in length, it is now the largest diamond recovery vessel in the world and the new flagship of the Debmarine Namibia fleet. The vessel is expected to operate for at least 30 years.

The build involved many challenges, ranging from the onset of Covid-19 early in the project to the management of many subcontractors, each contributing their specialist skills and products, a Damen release said.

Engineering challenges included the installation of a DP2 dynamic positioning system based on a seven-thruster propulsion system powered by six generators, to enable greater flexibility in the vessels operations. Project management was undertaken by De Beers Marine South Africa (Pty) Ltd.

With the constraints of Covid-19 Damen also undertook the complete commissioning process, implementing incremental ways of working to ensure that it was all completed on time.

De Beers celebrates the completion of the vessel which, after a long period of design, construction and testing has now proceeded to sea, said Michael Curtis, Head of the AMV3 Project. The vessel build has been a truly multinational effort which has converged successfully at Damen Shipyards Mangalia. The build of this magnificent ship has enjoyed a high profile in Namibia as the largest ever single investment in the history of marine diamond recovery.

Today marks a significant milestone in the project and for our company as the vessel starts its journey to Cape Town where it will be outfitted with the mission equipment. Damens dedication to building this high-quality and complex vessel, under very difficult circumstances and to do so with an excellent safety record is acknowledged and the quality of the ship is a testament to the skills of all who have been involved.-- TradeArabia News Service
Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD) has signed an MoU with the Government of Mauritania to finance a major refurbishment and modernisation project valued at around AED24 million ($6.5 million).

The project is the Tanit Fishing Port, an artisanal fishing port that through this renovation and development of an ice factory will better enable local fishermen to benefit from the countrys fisheries economy, increase export capacity and contribute to the nations food security strategy.

The project also aims to increase operational efficiency and improve services for fishermen and providing cooled storage spaces and fish processing service, enabling them to better benefit from the fish-rich coasts of Mauritania.

The Memorandum of Understanding to finance the port renovation was signed by Mohamed Saif Al Suwaidi, Director General of ADFD and HE Ousmane Mamoudou Kane, Minister of Economic Affairs and Promotion of Productive Sectors in Mauritania. The signing took place at ADFD and drew the participation of several senior officials from both sides.

Mohamed Saif Al Suwaidi said: ADFD and Mauritania have partnered to support the financing of a wide range of high-impact economic and social development projects going back to 1977. The modernization of the Tanit Fishing Port represents an opportunity to directly impact the livelihoods of local fishing families while contributing to national economic growth and a number of national strategic priorities, including environmental preservation of the Tanit fishery as well as the Mauritania food security strategy.

Ousmane Mamoudou Kane said: Our partnership with ADFD has been pivotal for our goals to develop and improve strategic infrastructure in Mauritania. This funding will help improve the facilities and service at Tanit Fishing Port, which in turn will contribute to socio-economic development, increase and export capacity, and achieve sustainable development.

The ADFD-funded upgrade will provide local fishermen with access to refrigeration storage and rapid freezing units required to operate the Tanit fish processing plant, which improves access to the fish export market. The project will also enhance safety of maritime navigation into and out of the port, add a 150-square-metre boat repair and maintenance workshop as well as a range of equipment and facilities designed to improve port services and efficiencies.

Artisanal fishing is strategically important to Mauritania for its economic contribution and support of local fishing families. Fish represent as much as 58% of the exports of Mauritania and 10% of the nations GDP.

The country averages 900,000 tonnes of fish exported annually and is the largest Arab exporter of fish. Tanit Fishing Port is a traditional fishery that serves fishing-reliant households to earn their annual family income.

The port is able to dock approximately 400 small and medium sized boats and includes a 1,740-square-metre fish market.

In addition to the Tanit Fishing Port project, ADFD has helped finance a wide range of strategic development projects in Mauritania with a total value of AED363 million ($99 million). This includes projects in agricultural development, wind power, healthcare, industrial manufacturing and transportation.-- TradeArabia News Service
Bloovo, a leading recruitment technology company specialising in the provision of AI-powered talent acquisition solutions has expanded to Egypt and the US markets.



The company has a wide portfolio of solutions and products for its AI-powered applicant tracking system HYRDD and also its virtual hackathon platform BKATHON.



The move comes as part of Bloovos continued efforts to go global and achieve its vision of revolutionising the talent acquisition industry with the use of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning with unique value proposition.



Dr Ahmad Khamis, co-founder and CEO, Bloovo, said: Egypt and the US are new markets that are part of our growth strategy, as we enter a new growth phase in our journey. The talent acquisition market has matured significantly with many organisations across the world realising its true potential and how it is helping transform employer-employee experience.



We believe that Egypt is a steppingstone towards having a full-fledged presence in North Africa and we expect robust adoption of our solutions early on. Expanding into the US is also a great milestone for us, as we will be able to be at the forefront of revolutionising the talent industry with the power of artificial intelligence.



According to a recent survey by Reuters, Egypt's economy is expected to grow 5.0% in the fiscal year that ends in June 2022, while a survey by the National Association of Business Economists predicted strong growth for companies in the US for the rest of the year and into the spring of 2022.



Based on these forecasts, the need for businesses to hire talent to fuel their business growth seems imminent. Bloovo offers AI-powered hiring solutions at a time when technology is permeating every area of life and work and businesses are reconsidering how they find, hire, and retain the right talent.



Dr Khamis added: There is a big potential for Bloovo to help companies in the new markets we are entering to achieve transformative operations in their HR functions that will lead to more efficiencies. We are excited for the future and look forward to entering more markets that have potential for our integrated solutions.



Founded in 2015, Bloovo rapidly grew in the Mena region leveraging Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in its talent acquisition technology solutions. To date, Bloovos solutions have been utilised by more than 3,500 organisations from the GCC including official government authorities in KSA and the UAE.  TradeArabia News Service
Meeza, Qatars pioneering managed IT services centre, has achieved Gold partner status in the HPE Partner Ready for Service Providers programme.

Meeza is the only certified Service Provider partner for HPE in Qatar today, and one of only 140 partners who have reached the highest, Gold Service Provider partner status, globally.

As such, Meeza will be endorsed as an official HPE Gold Service Provider partner to HPE customers and partners. joining over 400 leading service providers around the world to deliver Hewlett Packard Enterprises innovative solutions for managed and cloud-based services.

The HPE Partner Ready Programme brings together leading service providers from around the world for hosting, managed, and cloud-based services that meet their customers most stringent business needs.

Partners are able to leverage HPE technologies and services to meet business SLAs, while delivering strategic business benefits like reduced operating costs.

Pursuant to this, Meeza will build a business and market plan to promote its joint offering with HPE to customers using digital and local presence. The new partner status with HPE will enable Meeza customers to benefit from improved asset protection, better business agility, and optimised operating efficiency.

Commenting on this achievement, Faisal Al-Kuwari, Meeza CTO said: Meeza is a proud Gold partner of Hewlett Packard Enterprises. This status bears testament to Meezas state-of-the-art technology and industry-leading services that are continuously evolved to match the changing needs of our customers and holding true to our mission of becoming the leading Managed IT Services & Solutions provider in the Middle East and North Africa.

Hani Salameh, Country Sales Lead, HPE Qatar said:

Meeza brings rich services offerings and has a credible team providing valuable advice and insight to resolve business challenges and drive outcomes. Together we aim to extend the best in class services to customers in Qatar and accelerate their digital transformation in this fast-changing market.

Anna Nieminen, Service Provider Sales lead for UK, Irland, Middle East and South Africa Region, said: As the latest Gold Service Provider partner, Meeza now benefits from HPE service provider-ready solutions, services, flexible business models, and a bespoke go-to-market partnership. HPE is committed to innovating new solutions and enabling mutual growth with our partners to solve our customers biggest business problems. Together Meeza and HPE can offer customers the latest edge-to-cloud solutions and services that unlock value from their data and deliver business outcomes.

A prominent Managed IT service provider in Qatar, Meeza leads the industry with its Tier III certified Data Centre Services, Cloud Services, and IT Security Services. The provider offers an extensive skill set to its clients in managing complex digital environments that is backed by government agreements and strategic partnerships, guaranteeing the highest standards for its clients.

Meeza, a Qatar Foundation venture, is committed to accelerating the digital growth of Qatar through the provision of world-class Managed IT Services and Solutions.

Through its recently awarded gold status as a Microsoft Partner and cost-effective IT solutions and services, Meeza continues to be instrumental in shaping digital transformations for businesses, start-ups and government organisations, taking the country closer to achieving the objectives outlined in the Qatar National Vision 2030.-- TradeArabia News Service
The Egypt - International Cooperation Forum (Egypt-ICF) has released a 9-section Cairo Communique that offers a blueprint for an inclusive, green post-Covid recovery for the global economy. It provides a raft of 38 recommendations for international policymakers under nine key themes.

Communique themes include multilateralism, South-South and triangular cooperation, advancing the UNs SDGs, private sector engagement, combatting climate change, digital trade, digital transformation towards an inclusive ecosystem, developing a roadmap to food security and investing in human capital.

The detailed blueprint guides the international community to rebuild societies in a green, inclusive, and more equitable way in the post-Covid-19 era, and to ensure global decision-makers deliver on the promises laid out in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

As the world continues to battle the Covid-19 pandemic, a climate crisis and an economic depression, the Cairo Communique, released at the conclusion of the inaugural EgyptICF, provides a set of recommendations for international policymakers to embed into their sustainable development efforts to ensure that societies build back better  and no one is left behind.

The communique outlines how the Covid-19 pandemic has created the urge to foster more effective and agile multilateral cooperation capable of addressing pressing and emerging global challenges and issued a call-to-action for global governments to commit to concerted efforts towards inclusive, effective, and harmonised cooperation towards sustainable development.

It also pointed out that the devastating effects of the pandemic can have a silver lining, and that the need to economically rebound from Covid-19 will also spark the international community into realising how post-pandemic recovery can be intertwined with sustainability, allowing two of the biggest crises of the modern era to be tackled in one.

Commenting on the communique, Egypts Minister of International Cooperation, Dr Rania A Al-Mashat, said: The growing inequalities caused by dual challenge of Covid-19 and climate change have moved us further away from our global promise of delivering the sustainable development goals. The situation can, and must, be turned around.

We know that challenges bring opportunities. These opportunities exist now, and we have the knowledge, the science and the technology to capitalise on them for the good of everyone in the world. We need the collective will of the international community and a unity of purpose that catalyses the urgent and ambitious action we must take to forge an inclusive, green economic recovery.

She added: The recommendations laid out in the Cairo Communique can play a pivotal role in making this action happen. Building on the momentum created by the Egypt-ICF, we will be working over the next 12 months, alongside our international partners, to ensure the recommendations outlined in this communique are implemented.

Among the recommendations, the communique called for strengthening existing South-South and triangular cooperation platforms and reinforcing the mechanisms for sharing knowledge and experience, to scale up successful practices through cooperative cross-border frameworks.

Collen Vixen Kelapile, newly elected President of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), attended the Egypt- ICFs Closing Ceremony, releasing the first development focused Cairo Communique. Kelapile commended the communiques recommendations, highlighting that the 9 key themes covered in the communique are the pressing issues the world is faced with in the wake of pandemic. He pinpointed, as the communique rightly highlights, investment in infrastructure is crucial calling for the implementation of the Cairo Communiques recommendations in order to achieve a green and inclusive recovery, making sure to Leave No One Behind as per the UNs global pledge.

The 38-point blueprint also encouraged each country to take innovative approaches in mapping their progress to align the results of international development cooperation projects with the UN SDGs' objectives. It further outlined how multilateralism, international cooperation and public-private sector collaborations can help generate the additional $3.7 trillion a year needed to bridge the SDGs financing gap and put the world on a path to a green recovery from the pandemic.

International collaboration to help Africa rebuild post-Covid and strengthen its resilience against future health and economic shocks was also a key theme in the communique, which outlined the role of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) in boosting growth and integration of the African economies and the importance of creating an enabling environment for cross-border e-commerce.

It emphasised the need for collective action to scale up scientific research and innovation in efforts to strengthen Africa's resilience to climate change and other shocks that threaten the food security of its people.

Digital transformation was another key theme, with the communique outlining the importance of harnessing the potential of digital technologies to both empower women and young entrepreneurs post-pandemic, and the need for policy reforms to improve regulations and create the enabling environment to facilitate the youth-led digital transformation in Africa.

The blueprint also urged global governments to push human development to the forefront of the post-pandemic agenda and commit to a collective responsibility to ensure no person is left vulnerable or marginalised as communities and economies recover and rebuild after Covid-19.

This includes investing in human capital as a key to long-term growth and sustainable development, ensuring equal access to vaccinations, and addressing investment gaps by mobilising private and public finance to support energy, transport, and social infrastructure.

The two-day Forum led to several key announcements, the exchange of ideas, and discussions on topics such as Egypts approach to tackling sustainability post-Covid-19.

This included the countrys pioneering ODA-SDG model, which is being used to measure the real-world impact of the countrys 377 ongoing SDG-related projects, worth more than $25 billion. The pioneering initiative is now ready to be replicated in other countries, the UNs Resident Coordinator for Egypt, Elena Panova, told the Forum. Egypt also announced plans to provide more than 60 million people in rural areas with high-speed internet as part of a nationwide effort to develop the digital economy and drive job creation.

The Egypt-ICF heard how Africas transition to digital trade and its reliance on technology to push towards food security are key for a green and inclusive recovery.

Furthermore, the forum focused on climate change, with international policymakers, development partners, and representatives of the private sector, civil society, and think tanks discussing the potential that a worldwide reset triggered by the coronavirus crisis could offer for 'greening' global economies, and how sustainable development cannot happen without proper international teamwork.

Policymakers also discussed how unlocking the private sectors potential for growth and job creation will require a more enabling environment for trade and investment by removing non-tariff barriers and creating a level playing field for investors.

Egypt - ICF, which took place between September 8 and 9, 2021, aimed to trigger a global conversation about how the Covid-19 pandemic can be a catalyst for renewed action to meet the UNs Sustainable Development Goals; a 17-point action plan that targets ending poverty, protecting the planet, and improving the lives and prospects of people around the world.-- TradeArabia News Service
Twenty entries from 10 different countries, spanning the Americas, Europe the Middle East, and Asia, have been shortlisted for the prestigious Gastech Awards, to be announced in Dubai on September 20.



They have been chosen from over 250 entries from 40 countries. The shortlisted entries represent countries from all over the world, including the US, Singapore, Belgium, the UK, Switzerland, Pakistan, Malaysia, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE.



Gastech, the worlds largest exhibition and conference supporting the gas, liquefied natural gas (LNG), hydrogen, and energy industry, will host the Gastech Awards live and in-person at The Ritz-Carlton, Dubai International Financial Centre.



Held under the Patronage of Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai, the Gastech Awards are a global benchmark of excellence, identifying the outstanding companies, individuals, initiatives, technology, projects and partnerships leading the transition to lower carbon energy.



They honour the companies and individuals who are responding in the most innovative and creative ways to address decarbonisation and the continuous growth in global energy demand.



The awards, to be announced at the VIP Gala Dinner, include six industry categories: Chief Executive of the Year; Organisation Championing Diversity and Inclusion; Gas, LNG, or Hydrogen Project of the Year; Emissions Reduction Champion  Organisation of the Year; Engineering Partnership of the Year; and Future Energy Leader under 30.



Entries for the Gastech Awards are reviewed by a judging panel of independent energy professionals, representing all aspects of the energy value chain.



Headline sponsor of the Gastech Awards is Uniper, other sponsors include Linde; BP; McDermott, Mitsui O.S.K Limited; and Yokogawa.



Gastech 2021 will be held from 21-23 September at the Dubai World Trade Centre. It will be attended by 15,000 energy industry professionals, and over250 exhibiting companies.  TradeArabia News Service
Fairmont Hotels & Resorts has debuted a new and unforgettable chapter in its storied 100-year plus history, Experience The Grandest of Feelings, a global brand campaign that pays tribute to the tangible echoes of the luxury brand's historic origins while also imparting a refreshed vision and stirring images of adventures yet to come.

A global chain of luxury hotels that operates 76 properties worldwide, with a strong presence in Canada, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts is a subsidiary of AccorHotels.

The visionaries who made history in creating Fairmont's first hotels and those who continue to preserve and protect the abundant natural landscapes wherever the hospitality group resides is a key theme throughout the creative of the campaign, said the statement from the company. The tradition of thoughtful hospitality amid spectacular scenery around the globe firmly roots the brand in nature and its preservation, it added. "Travel is truly one of the most unique unifiers and equalizers. The how, why, and where we travel is unimportant: the transcendent act of traveling - no matter how far - opens up the mind to diversity and inclusion that boldly drives society forward," remarked Mansi Vagt, the Vice President, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts. "Experience The Grandest of Feelings celebrates just that and captures the essence of all things Fairmont no matter the destination - city center, island retreat, and everything in between. The overriding sensation is being in a place that has meaning and feeling," she stated. Directed by world-renowned director Nathalie Canguilhem, the campaign showcases five iconic locations: Montreux, Switzerland / Fairmont Le Montreux Palace; New York City / The Plaza, A Fairmont Managed Hotel; Alberta, Canada / Fairmont Banff Springs; British Columbia, Canada / Fairmont Hotel Vancouver; and the breathtaking landscapes of South Africa.

A transformative voyage takes hold through pristine nature and grand elements - connecting places of historic beauty with modern sensibilities and the dreams of a new generation of travelers. Academy Award winning actress and Unicef Goodwill Ambassador Susan Sarandon stars in the role of global brand ambassador. With a remarkable film career and reputation of being authentic, caring and promoting positive change, she was a natural choice for Fairmont, having a shared spirit of adventure, timeless sophistication, empowering purpose, and a passion for thinking globally and acting locally. Fairmont also shares Sarandon's commitment to environmental concerns, and her passion for exploration. Symbolically, she opens and closes the campaign, serving as a guide through the entire transformative journey.

Accor Chief Creative Officer Jean-Guilhem Lamberti said: "Brands are never as strong as when they are true to their original vision. With this campaign, I wanted to go back to the brand's origins and to express the awe and enchantment that one feels when entering a Fairmont hotel."

"The grandest of feelings call for the grandest of expressions: the mighty architecture of the hotels meets the most pristine awe-inspiring nature in an effortlessly artistic parallel. Nature invades the spaces of the hotels and vice-versa in a symbiotic and visually arresting style. It all seems very relevant in today's environment as everyone is longing to set free on majestic journeys and rediscover the beauty and grandeur of our world," he added.

Fairmont's pioneering approach to hospitality extends to its mission for preserving and protecting the landscapes it calls home.

A remarkable 30 years ago, Fairmont became the first luxury hotel brand with a comprehensive and global sustainability program, that now forms part of Accor's Planet 21 program.

Safeguarding the planet's star-studded skies, snow-capped mountains, treasured forests, and beyond blue waters so they remain spectacular is of the utmost importance to the entire Experience The Grandest of Feelings platform, said the statement from the luxury brand.

The campaign will debut in markets worldwide aimed at inspiring that collective curiosity that drives guests to journey in search of new surroundings: a new restaurant that transports them across the globe in one bite, a scenic view shared amongst strangers, an unexpected cultural experience that still proves how much we all have in common. Travel brings us all together and only Fairmont truly evokes those feelings of grandeur set amongst a determined purpose to preserving nature, it stated.

In the coming months, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts locations across the globe will also debut "The Grandest of Escapes Exclusively by Fairmont" offers that will bring to life the imagery and ethos of the creative through a series of exciting once-in-a-lifetime experiences, the statement added.-TradeArabia News Service
New Delhi, Sep 15 (UNI) Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday launched an attack on the BJP and RSS, saying he can never 'compromise' with their ideology.

Speaking at a function to celebrate the foundation day of Mahila Congress, he blamed the "ideology" of RSS for the murder of Mahatma Gandhi, and questioned the idea of Hinduism propagated by them.

"We have a different ideology from BJP, either of the two ideologies can rule this country. Being a Congress worker I know I can compromise with all other ideologies but not with the ideology of BJP and RSS," Mr Gandhi said.

"What is the difference in the ideology of Congress, of Gandhi, and the ideology of RSS, Godse and Savarkar. This is an important question for all of us," he said.

"People of BJP say they are a Hindu party, if there is one person in the last 100-200 years who has understood Hinduism, it is Mahatma Gandhi. We agree with it and so do the RSS and BJP. If Mahatma Gandhi understood Hindu religion and spent all his life for it, why did the RSS ideology shoot three bullets in his chest?" Mr Gandhi said, slamming the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and its ideological mentor Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

"Mahatma Gandhi talked about non-violence. It is the foundation of Hinduism. Then where do the ideologies of Savarkar and RSS come from? Why did Godse shoot three bullets in his body? It's a big question and a contradiction," he said.

He also talked about Hindu goddesses Lakshmi and Durga, and said that with steps like demonetisation and new farm laws, the government has reduced the powers of the goddesses.

"They call themselves Hindu, and attack Durga and Lakshmi all over the country. They are fake Hindus," he said, accusing the BJP of using religion.



He also talked about the symbol of hand, the electoral symbol of Congress, and said it meant being 'fearless'.

"The fear that the BJP had in their heart, they have spread it across the country," he said.

"You go to farmers, they are scared, go to a woman, she is not safe on roads, they are scared," he said.

He also mentioned India-China border tension and alleged that Indian land was taken by China.

"But the Prime Minister says no one has taken our land," he added.

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Glenmark concludes PMS study on Favipiravir in 1000+ COVID-19 patients

Mumbai, Sep 15 (UNI) Pharma major, Glenmark Pharma on Wednesday announced the successful completion of its Post Marketing Surveillance (PMS) study on Favipiravir (FabiFlu) in India.

The PMS study commenced in July 2020 to evaluate the safety and efficacy of Favipiravir in patients with mild to moderate form of COVID-19, a company release said.

A total of 1083 patients were enrolled in the prospective, open label, multicentre, single arm study. Results showed no new safety signals or concerns with the use of Favipiravir, and already-known side effects such as weakness, gastritis, diarrhoea, vomiting etc., were found to be mild in nature. The time for fever resolution was 4 days, while time for clinical cure was 7 days.



Glenmark's PMS study is the first and largest post marketing study conducted in India on Favipiravir in patients with mild to moderate form of COVID-19. Thirteen sites - both Government and private institutions - across Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Nashik, Nagpur, and Trivandrum participated. The study was conducted in patients in line with the approved indication of the drug.

Commenting on these findings, Mr Alok Malik, Group Vice President & Head, India Formulations, said, "This study was crucial as it examined the safety and efficacy of FabiFlu in real-world settings, where multiple variables can impact the results. Despite these factors, the PMS study demonstrated FabiFlus consistent ability to provide symptomatic relief and improve clinical outcomes in patients with mild to moderate COVID-19. It is a step forward both for Glenmark and the medical community, as it reinforces the oral antiviral's multiple benefits in tackling the pandemic."

On June 19, 2020, Glenmark became the first company in India to receive restricted emergency use approval from India's drug regulator for Favipiravir (FabiFlu), making it the first oral Favipiravir-approved medication in India for the treatment of mild to moderate COVID-19. The approval was granted as part of accelerated approval process, considering the emergency situation of the COVID-19 outbreak in India.

This PMS study continued to evaluate the safety and efficacy of Favipiravir (FabiFlu) post its launch in the market. The average age of patients in the study was 40 years, with women comprising 40 per cent, while men 60 per cent of the study population. Hypertension (11 per cent) and diabetes (8 per cent) were the two most common comorbidities noted in these patients. All the patients had baseline fever, followed by cough (81 per cent), fatigue (46.2 per cent), and new loss of taste (41 per cent).

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New Delhi, Sep 15 (UNI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi has extended his greeting to all hard working engineers on Engineers' Day on Wednesday.

In a tweet, the Prime Minister said, "Greetings on #Engineers Day to all hard working engineers.

No words are enough to thank them for their pivotal role in making our planet better and technologically advanced, he added.

The Prime Minister also paid homage to M. Visvesvaraya on his birth anniversary and recalled his accomplishments.

I pay homage to the remarkable Shri M. Visvesvaraya on his birth anniversary and recall his accomplishments. PM said in a tweet.

M Visvesvaraya was one of Indias most illustrious engineers. Engineers Day is observed in India to pay homage to the greatest Indian engineer and Bharat Ratna awardee.

Popularly known as Sir MV, Visvesvaraya was born in a Telugu family on September 15, 1861, in Chikkaballapur, Karnataka.

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Republican lawmakers call on State Dept to designate Afghan Taliban a terrorist group

Washington, Sep 15 (UNI) Two resolutions were introduced in the House and Senate on Tuesday by Republicans Senators calling on the US State Department to designate the Afghan Taliban as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO.)



The resolutions were introduced by Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Rep. Mike Waltz of Florida, who has been very vocal in his support for the resistance in Panjshir in northeastern Afghanistan.


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Promotions at the GHAs Ambulance Service

The GHAs Ambulance Service has recently seen a number of Promotions.

Ms Jordanna Santos and Mr Stuart Ryan have been promoted to the rank of Station Officer.

Ms Jordanna Santos joined the service on 7th December 1998 and was an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) prior to her promotion.

Mr Ryan who was also an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT), joined the service on 14th July 2003 and had been acting in to the Station Officer post. Ms Santos is the first woman to hold the post of Station Officer.

They will both be responsible for the effective management of the Emergency Ambulance and Patient Transport Service.

Additionally, Mr Leslie Bruzon who joined the service on 2nd October 2017 as an Ambulance Care Assistant, has been promoted to Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) and will be responsible for responding to medical emergencies and delivering patient care, support and evaluation in a pre-hospital setting. Generally, this includes assessing the patient, determining the proper emergency care required and the administering of treatment.

The Minister for Health, the Hon Samantha Sacramento, said: I would like to congratulate, Jordanna, Stuart and Leslie on their recent promotions - they should be extremely proud. They have a sound track record in the GHA and I am sure that, alongside their colleagues, they will be role models and will inspire others to follow in their footsteps and to consider a career in the Ambulance service.

The Director of Nursing and Gibraltar Ambulance service, Ms Sandra Gracia, said: I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to all the dedicated staff of the GHAs Ambulance Service and specially congratulate Jordanna, Stuart and Leslie on their promotions. The interactions that our Ambulance staff have with patients and the public enriches pre hospital care in Gibraltar, to improve health and wellbeing to people when at their most vulnerable within our society.
The SECO-WCO Global Trade Facilitation Programme (GTFP), in collaboration with the Vice-Presidency for the WCO Americas and Caribbean Region, organised a Regional Virtual Forum on Gender Equality and Diversity from 7 to 9 September 2021.

This Forum gathered over 80 participants from 24 countries from the Americas and Caribbean region, and provided an opportunity to reflect on the importance of promoting and implementing gender responsive and inclusive measures in Customs Administrations. Through exchanging experiences, the participants identified common challenges both in their professional and the personal life, to develop concrete recommendations to further promote gender equality and diversity.

The special participation of SECO high-level officials, Customs Administrations Directors, WCO members actively working on Gender Equality and Diversity, as well as international organizations, allowed for a unique opportunity for participants to benefit from their experience and insights. In addition, the practical group sessions during the second day provided an opportunity to exchange ideas in an open and constructive manner on crucial issues covering Work-Life Balance, Gender-Based Violence, Prevention of Harassment, Governance and Leadership, to engagements with stakeholders on these topics.

This Forum was an ideal platform for the SECO-WCO-GTFP Team to officially launch and announce the publication of the WCO Gender Equality Organizational Assessment Tool (GEOAT) in Spanish, translated by the GTFP with the financial support of the Switzerlands State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO).

On the grounds of this insightful and promising Forum, speakers and participants all agreed to make Gender Equality and Diversity a priority topic, to include it in the Customs agenda in the region and keep deploying efforts in this direction.

For more information on the GTFP, please, contact capacity.building@wcoomd.org
From 6 to 10 September 2021, Members of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the West African Monetary and Economic Union (UEMOA) held a regional meeting to examine a draft regulation on advance rulings and to discuss the seventh edition of the Harmonized System (HS) entering into force on 1 January 2022. It was organized jointly by the ECOWAS Commission and the WCO, in the context of the EU-WCO Programme for the HS in Africa (HS-Africa Programme), funded by the European Union.

The meeting brought together delegates from all the 15 Member States - Benin, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Cote d'Ivoire, the Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo, as well as the ECOWAS Commission, the UEMOA Commission and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat. Mauritania attended the meeting as an observer.

During the first two days of the meeting, delegates reviewed and validated the draft ECOWAS regulation establishing a legal framework for advance rulings. The document will be submitted to policy bodies for formal approval and adoption prior to its adoption at the national level by Member States. The Regulation will set up a common standard for Members to issue advance rulings, in line with the relevant international standards, thereby streamlining the introduction of advance ruling systems in Member States.

The second part of the meeting was held in the form of a seminar on the HS 2022 and was delivered by HS-Africa Programme experts. During the seminar, a comprehensive and detailed presentation on the HS 2022 amendments was provided, which was followed by discussions of various aspects of the implementation of the HS 2022. Participants received the HS 2022 Nomenclature, the HS 2022 Amendments brochure as part of the working materials distributed by the HS-Africa Programme.

The ECOWAS Commission informed Members that the final HS 2022-based version of the Common External Tariff would be available before the end of September, well in advance of its entry into force, leaving Members sufficient time to migrate their national classification system to the new version in time. The HS-Africa Programme pledged further support to the two Regional Economic Communities and their Members in their efforts to implement the HS 2022 and to establish advance ruling systems.

For more details, please contact capacity.building@wcoomd.org.
Under the auspices of the WCO/JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) Joint Project, the WCO organized a high-level official launching ceremony of the Pacific Islands Master trainer Programme on HS Classification and Customs Valuation. The High-level official ceremony took place virtually on 6 September 2021 with the participation of six Customs administrations in the Pacific, namely Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste, Samoa, Tonga, and Vanuatu, as well as the Oceania Customs Organization (OCO) Secretariat. With a view to stepping up its support to Small Island Economies (SIEs), the WCO agreed with JICA, internationally active donors, to seek a possibility to support Customs modernization in the Pacific Islands (PIs) through the Master Trainer Program (MTP), the flagship program of the WCO/JICA Joint Project that recently started its phase 2 of the project for a 4-year project.

The MTP aims at developing sustainable training capacity in the Pacific by 1) developing a pool of well-experienced trainers and (2) developing regionally featured training materials and programs to be used by these trainers. Upon completion of the MTP, successful alumni are expected to become a regional asset and contribute to the sustainable economic development of the Pacific Islands through Customs modernization.

The launching ceremony was attended by the WCO Secretary General Dr. Kunio Mikuriya, WCO Deputy Secretary-General Mr. Ricardo Trevino, Senior Vice-President of JICA Mr. Toshiyuki Nakamura, Director General of Japan Customs Mr. Wataru Sakata and Heads of the 6 Customs Administrations and the OCO secretariat.

In his opening remarks, WCO Secretary General Dr. Kunio Mikuriya welcomed the participants and empathized on the importance of the MTP for the PIs that came to respond to the WCO Small Island Economies or SIEs initiative to support SIEs efforts for human resource development. Dr. Mikuriya pointed as well that the creation of a pool of Customs experts through the MTP in the Pacific region will enhance the human network in the region which will facilitate regional cooperation in sharing information and best practices. He also stated that the MTP achieved remarkable success in Africa, the MTP-credited experts already trained more than 20,000 Customs officers and business people in Africa over the recent three years. Dr. Mikuriya highlighted also that the MTP encompasses the 4 Ts, namely Tool, Training, Technology, and Trust that are fundamental to WCO activities.

Mr. Toshiyuki Nakamura Senior Vice-President of JICA welcomed the new cooperation between WCO and JICA as a sign of continuous mutual collaboration. He mentioned that WCO and JICA have deepened their partnership to provide expertise and experiences to developing countries in the field of trade facilitation and Customs development. Based on this partnership and since 2016, the WCO- JICA capacity-building project continued to strengthen trade facilitation in Africa, as well as the MTP for 16 African WCO Members. With the continuous dedication of WCO, JICA, and Japan Customs, this program is now widely recognized in Africa, and around the world, as a great collaborative model for how Africa can build a pool of high-quality experts in African Customs administrations. He explained that now with this program will not only benefit the 6 target countries but all of the Pacific Island nations, by providing an expert pool in Customs administration in the region. He then asked the support from the 6 WCO Members to ensure the smooth implementation of the MTP particularly with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Japan Customs Director-General Mr. Wataru Sakata in his opening remarks confirmed Japan Customs support to the MTP in the PIs to contribute to the human resource development for Customs administrations and revenue collection as it is considered an important source of income in most of the region, and thus, Customs focuses on revenue collection. This point was mentioned in Pacific Islands Leaders Meeting, or PALM (declaration of 9th summit). He pointed that this programme meets the needs of the region, as one of the objectives of the programme is to train instructors as Master Trainers of Customs Valuation and Harmonized System or HS Classification. He also stressed that this programme contributes to the further facilitation of the trade, through streamlining of Customs procedures by enhancing the capacity of Customs officers in charge of Customs Valuation and HS Classification.

The opening remarks were followed by words of senior representatives of the 6 beneficiary Pacific Islands well as the Oceania Customs Organization (OCO) Secretariat. They all confirmed that the MTP is very timely for the region and totally meets the needs and challenges. In addition, they all confirmed their participation and commitment to the MTP activities.

At the closing remarks, Mr. Ricardo Trevino stressed once again on the keys to the success of the Master Trainer Programme are 1) strong and continued commitments of participating Customs administrations to the Master Trainer Programme and 2) tailor-made deliverables such as training course and materials which meet the needs of PIs and thanked all efforts. He also reiterated WCOs deep appreciation to the JICA and the Japan Customs for their active collaboration.

At the end, both the WCO and JICA welcomed the active sharing of views and ideas during the launching ceremony and agreed to continue their collaborative work through the MTP to ensure more sustainable capacity development.

For more information, please, contact capacity.building@wcoomd.org
Fort Polk, LA (71446)

Today

Sun and clouds mixed. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 91F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms early, then partly cloudy after midnight. Low 63F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%.
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-14 23:17:35|Editor: huaxia

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TASHKENT, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- Uzbekistan has sent humanitarian aid to neighboring Afghanistan to help the Afghan people overcome the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as prevent a possible humanitarian and food crisis, the Uzbek Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.

The aid, including foodstuffs, other essential goods, medicines, clothing and footwear, was handed over in a ceremony held in the Afghan border town of Hairaton, it said.

The official representative of the interim government of Afghanistan announced by the Taliban, Zabihullah Mujahid, "on behalf of the entire Afghan people, expressed deep gratitude to President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev for the great attention, support and solidarity shown in these difficult times for the country," said the press service of the Uzbek Foreign Ministry.

Mirziyoyev said earlier this month that his country was ready for a dialogue with the Taliban movement in Afghanistan, and that they have been in daily contact. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-15 01:01:16|Editor: huaxia

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SINGAPORE, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- Visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said here Tuesday that China and Singapore have agreed to focus on coordination and cooperation in five fields, including anti-epidemic efforts, the Belt and Road construction and regional economic integration.

At a joint press conference with Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan, Wang said that China and Singapore have jointly combated COVID-19 while promoting economic development, and have further boosted and expanded bilateral cooperation amid the pandemic.

He pointed out that the two sides agreed to deepen dialogue and exchanges, and focus on coordination and cooperation in five fields.

First, both side will focus on anti-epidemic cooperation. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, China and Singapore have closely cooperated in epidemic control, information-sharing and purchase of vaccines and medical supplies.

Both countries will further enhance cooperation in the study of coronavirus, as well as in the research and development of vaccines and medicines, Wang said.

Second, both sides will focus on the joint construction of the Belt and Road, especially of the New Land-Sea Corridor.

The corridor has guaranteed the regional supply chains amid the pandemic. The two sides will further consolidate the trade corridor to let it play a bigger role in promoting regional connectivity, he said.

Third, both sides will focus on cooperation on sustainable development. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought major opportunities for the development of digital economy, while tackling climate change has become a pressing challenge for mankind.

Since the cooperation of China and Singapore has technological and funding advantages, it will lead the development of related industries in these two fields so as to provide new impetus for the global economic recovery, Wang said.

Fourth, the two countries will focus on regional cooperation in East Asia. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the China-ASEAN dialogue relations.

China and Singapore will work together with other ASEAN nations to hold a series of celebratory events including the leaders' summits to elevate China-ASEAN relations, and facilitate the early entry into force of the Regional Comprehensive Cooperation Partnership (RCEP), Wang said.

Both sides will also fully implement the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, speed up the consultations on the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea, and jointly safeguard the peace and stability of the South China Sea, Wang added.

Fifth, the two countries will focus on multilateral cooperation. China and Singapore agree that the world needs unity and cooperation, not splits and confrontations.

Both sides should give full play to the "in-the-same-boat" spirit and discard the zero-sum mentality. China is willing to join hands with Singapore to firmly uphold the UN-centered international system and promote multilateralism of win-win cooperation so as to usher in a new era of common development, he said.

Also at the joint press conference, while answering a question about what China has done to help regional countries and the world to combat COVID-19, Wang said that China, which deems the virus as the common enemy of mankind, has developed across-the-board cooperation with the international community in fighting the pandemic.

Specifically, Wang said China took the lead in sharing virus-related information and anti-epidemic experience, in providing anti-epidemic supplies to countries in large amount, in offering massive vaccine support to developing countries, in dispatching medical expert teams abroad, and in proposing the building of a community of common health for mankind.

China has sought international anti-epidemic cooperation with no intentions of geographical strategy, no attempts at economic gains, and no attachment of political conditions, Wang noted.

The worldwide pandemic is far from over, and China will continue to make contribution within its ability to the global efforts to combat COVID-19 and to achieve a sustainable economic recovery, he added. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-15 10:23:31|Editor: huaxia

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WELLINGTON, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand reported 14 new community cases of Delta variant of COVID-19 on Wednesday, all in the largest city Auckland, which brought the total number of cases in the country's community outbreak to 983.

Of the current community cases, 20 cases are in hospital, including four cases in intensive care units (ICUs) or high dependency units (HDUs), Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield told a press conference.

Auckland has 966 community cases and the capital Wellington has 17 cases, Bloomfield said.

There are 947 cases that have been clearly epidemiologically-linked to another case or sub-cluster, and a further eight cases for which links are yet to be fully established, he said.

According to the Ministry of Health, New Zealand also reported three historical cases in recent returnees. These cases have remained in managed isolation and quarantine facilities in Christchurch.

The total number of confirmed cases in New Zealand since the start of the pandemic is 3,981, Bloomfield said.

Areas outside Auckland moved to Alert Level 2 from 11:59 p.m. local time on Sept. 7, which means businesses and schools are back to normal, with masks mandatory in certain settings and gatherings limited to 50 people in size.

Auckland currently remains at Level 4, the top-level COVID-19 lockdown, for another week. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-15 12:19:57|Editor: huaxia

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SYDNEY, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- One man was killed and two others were taken to hospital in a coal mine collapse in Australian state of Queensland.

The incident at the Gregory Crinum Mine in Central Queensland happened on late Tuesday night, in which a 60-year-old man suffered significant injuries and was pronounced deceased at the scene, and two others were hospitalized with one of them in serious condition, according to report by the national broadcaster ABC.

Operation at the mine has been suspended.

Queensland Minister for Resources Scott Stewart said in a statement on Wednesday that any loss of life on mine sites is unacceptable, and the incident will be investigated thoroughly and with diligence.

The statement said three people from Queensland Mines Inspectorate are on site and have begun investigation into the nature and cause of the incident. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-15 12:55:06|Editor: huaxia

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JAKARTA, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- A small plane with three people on board went down in Indonesias eastern province of Papua on Wednesday, and rescuers are heading to the scene, Spokesman for the National Search and Rescue Office Yusuf Latief told Xinhua.

The wreckage of the plane, Rimbun Air, was found at Wabu Mountain of Intan Jaya district and a team of rescuer now is heading to the location for evacuation, the spokesman said. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-15 13:17:17|Editor: huaxia

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ULAN BATOR, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- Lab test results have showed that COVID-19 caused the deaths of two beavers in Mongolia, the country's General Authority for Veterinary Services (GAVS) said Wednesday.

"Two beavers died in mysterious circumstances in our country last month, and laboratory test results have showed that the COVID-19 caused the deaths," Adiyasuren Tuvshinbayar, an expert of the authority, told Xinhua over the phone.

This is the first confirmed cases of animal deaths in the country due to COVID-19.

The dead beavers were from the Beaver Breeding Center at the Environmental Department of the capital Ulan Bator, and another seven beavers of the center have tested positive for the virus, according to the country's National Center for Zoonotic Diseases (NCZD).

Beaver ranchers of the center tested positive for COVID-19 in August and the beavers may have contracted the virus from their ranchers, Nyamdorj Tsogbadrakh, director of the NCZD, told Xinhua.

The seven beavers infected with the Delta variant of COVID-19 showed several symptoms, including cough, runny nose and sticky eyes, Tsogbadrakh said, adding that the beavers have fully recovered from the disease thanks to proper treatments.

In addition to the beavers, the country has confirmed that two pet cats have tested positive for COVID-19. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-15 14:21:30|Editor: huaxia

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WELLINGTON, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- The New Zealand government will begin consulting on the Emissions Reduction Plan in early October and require that the final plan be released by the end of May next year in line with the 2022 Budget, a minister said Wednesday.

"Cabinet's decision allows organizations and communities key to the Emissions Reduction Plan's success to focus on getting through the worst of the COVID outbreak before engaging with the plan," Minister for Climate Change James Shaw said in a statement.

The plan will be developed with input from Maori and Pacific communities, business, NGOs, local government, and communities all over the country, Shaw said, adding aligning the final plan with Budget 2022 will show how its delivery will be supported through government investment.

The final Emissions Reduction Plan will set out the policies and strategies New Zealand will take to meet the country's first ever emissions budget. It will also set the direction for how future emissions budgets will be met, he said. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-15 16:59:20|Editor: huaxia

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ULAN BATOR, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia has recorded 2,737 new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, bringing the national tally to 263,446, the country's health ministry reported on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, 10 more patients aged over 20 have died, bringing the total number of deaths in the country to 1,066.

The resurgence of COVID-19 has continued due to the Delta wave, and more than 2,000 infections and 10 or more deaths have been reported daily in the country, which has a population of around 3.4 million population.

Nearly 65,000 COVID-19 patients are now being treated across the country, and more than 300 of them are in serious condition, according to the ministry.

The Asian country launched a national vaccination campaign in late February, with the aim of covering at least 60 percent of its population. So far, 65.1 percent of the population have been fully vaccinated. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-15 17:03:46|Editor: huaxia

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MANILA, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines' Department of Health (DOH) reported 16,989 new COVID-19 infections on Wednesday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the Southeast Asian country to 2,283,011.

The DOH also reported 214 new deaths from the pandemic, raising the country's coronavirus death toll to 35,742.

The DOH said four laboratories failed to submit data which led to the relatively low caseload. On Saturday, the DOH reported its highest ever daily tally, with 26,303 cases.

The Philippines, which has around 110 million population, has tested over 18 million people since the outbreak in January 2020.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said that 80 percent of new cases in Metro Manila and its adjacent areas were detected in communities in recent two weeks.

Based on a set of assumptions, Vergeire said the total number of active cases in Metro Manila could range from 152,000 to 330,000 by the end of September.

Vergeire added that a lower projection is achievable if people will strictly adhere to the minimum public health standards.

Starting Thursday, the Philippines will shift to "a more targeted and recalibrated actions towards high-risk areas, imposing localized or granular lockdowns at the household and community level."

The quarantine strategy from Sept. 16 to 30 veers away from the "wide-scale lockdowns, which heavily impact the economy and affect people's livelihood."

The Philippines has been in varying lockdown levels since mid-March last year.

The government has put Metro Manila, the epicenter, into a hard lockdown three times, curtailing mobility and business activity. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-15 18:02:10|Editor: huaxia

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NEW DELHI, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- India's External Affairs Ministry Wednesday said Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar will be representing the country in the upcoming 21st meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Council of Heads of State.

The meeting is scheduled to be held on Friday in the Tajik capital of Dushanbe.

"The 21st meeting of SCO Council of Heads of State will be held on 17th September 2021 in Dushanbe in a hybrid format. The meeting will be chaired by the President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon," a statement issued by the ministry said. "Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lead the Indian delegation and address the plenary session of the summit via video-link. At Dushanbe, India will be represented by External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar."

This is the fourth summit that India will participate in as a full-fledged member of SCO, the statement said. "This summit assumes significance as the organization is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year."

The External Affairs Ministry said during the summit, the leaders are expected to review the organization's activities over the past two decades and discuss the state and prospects of future cooperation. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-15 21:07:27|Editor: huaxia

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COLOMBO, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lankan authorities have completed vaccinating over 50 percent of the country's total population with both doses of COVID-19 vaccines, Cabinet Co-Spokesperson Dullas Alahapperuma was quoted by local media as saying Wednesday.

Alahapperuma said Sri Lanka was one of the few countries that had vaccinated over 50 percent of its total population.

According to the Epidemiology Unit, 89.3 percent of the population over the age of 30 had received both doses while in many districts, the percentage had exceeded 90 percent.

Authorities said the vaccination in the 20 to 30 age group was also ongoing in the Western Province and in the Galle district in the south.

Official statistics showed that the Sinopharm vaccine was the leading vaccine used across the country with 10,778,875 vaccines administered as the first dose till Tuesday and 8,809,628 administered as the second dose.

Other vaccines being administered are AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Moderna and Sputnik V.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa last week instructed authorities to complete vaccinating those above the age of 30 by this month.

Sri Lanka has to date detected 494,109 positive COVID-19 patients since March last year and reported 11,567 deaths. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-15 21:50:35|Editor: huaxia

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Guo Shengkun, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and head of the Commission for Political and Legal Affairs of the CPC Central Committee, meets with Vietnam's minister of public security To Lam via video link in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 15, 2021. (Xinhua/Liu Bin)

BEIJING, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- Guo Shengkun, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, met with Vietnam's minister of public security To Lam via video link Wednesday.

Both sides highlighted law enforcement and security cooperation between the two countries during their meeting.

Guo, also head of the Commission for Political and Legal Affairs of the CPC Central Committee, said that law enforcement and security cooperation between the two countries has become the focus and highlight of the bilateral ties.

He said that under the backdrop of the pandemic, it is necessary for both sides to further strengthen strategic communication and cooperation, crack down on cross-border online gambling crime, deepen cooperation in combating border crimes, strengthen communication and coordination in multilateral areas, and continuously bring the China-Vietnam comprehensive strategic partnership of cooperation to a new level.

To Lam said that Vietnam is willing to deepen pragmatic cooperation and take bilateral law enforcement and security cooperation to a higher level. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-15 22:01:43|Editor: huaxia

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GUIYANG, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- The 2021 China-ASEAN Education Cooperation Week will be held in Gui'an New Area, southwest China's Guizhou Province, between September 23 and 29, the provincial government announced Wednesday.

Hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Education and the provincial government, the event will focus on sustainable development cooperation in education.

A series of activities covering higher education, vocational education, education cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative, school-enterprise cooperation, integration of industry and education, and youth exchanges are scheduled to be held through the year.

About 2,400 guests from China, ASEAN countries and specially invited partner nations such as Belarus, Germany, Mexico, Kazakhstan, Russia, Switzerland, Ukraine, Mongolia and Uzbekistan are expected to take part in online and offline activities during the week.

The education cooperation week, which started in 2008, has developed into a high-end platform and a solid bridge that makes positive contributions to China-ASEAN relations. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2021-09-15 22:18:30|Editor: huaxia

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ISLAMABAD, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Bank of China Limited-Pakistan Operations based in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi will provide Pakistani students with internship opportunities after signing an agreement with the Confucius Institute at the University of Karachi on Wednesday.

Addressing the signing ceremony held in Karachi, the provincial capital of Sindh province, via video link, Consul General of China to Karachi Li Bijian said that both the Bank of China Limited-Pakistan Operations and the Confucius Institute at the University of Karachi have served as a bridge to promote exchanges and cooperation between China and Pakistan.

The internship program is innovative win-win cooperation and beneficial exploration to help Pakistani students better understand the culture of Chinese enterprises and learn from China's development experience, Li said.

Thanking the company for offering the internship opportunities, Muhammad Nasiruddin Khan, Pakistani director of the Confucius Institute at the University of Karachi, said the program is important for enriching the teaching mechanism of the institute and will further deepen the bilateral relations between the two countries.

On the occasion, Wang Jie, chief executive officer of the Bank of China Limited-Pakistan Operations said the internship program will serve as a window for Pakistani students to learn about Chinese enterprises and pave the way for their future career. Enditem
press release

Addis Ababa and The Hague  The African Union (AU) through the African Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), and the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) aimed at establishing a framework to serve as a firm basis for cooperation in their shared goals to promote a new paradigm in health.

Through the MoU, the Africa CDC and EDCTP express their commitment towards joining efforts and maintaining a close and continuous relationship for the achievement of their common objectives. The scope of the MoU is defined through the following themes: Emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, epidemic intelligence and capacity building for preparedness and outbreak response. The MoU also covers implementation and public health research, the one health approach, and data management. AU and EDCTP will cooperate to implement a programme of work for the execution of activities within these themes.

"The COVID19 pandemic represents an unprecedented challenge to health systems, the economy and society across Africa. The partnership between Africa CDC and EDCTP will allow African Union Member States to build back better and stronger from the pandemic. It will take Member States a step closer to a strong and resilient health systems that can prevent, detect, and efficiently respond to infectious disease threats, wherever and whenever they may occur on the continent." Dr John Nkengasong, Director of Africa CDC.

"The Africa CDC and EDCTP have already been working as a team to fight diseases and epidemics on the African continent for close to 5 years. We have closely collaborated on a strategic level as well as in organizing concrete activities to accelerate clinical development and strengthen health research infrastructure. The MoU provides a firm basis to further strengthen this relationship and push the boundaries of improving global health. I look forward to this renewed collaboration and to putting the right policies and infrastructures in place." Dr Michael Makanga, EDCTP Executive Director.

"The challenge of improving the health conditions of every African requires the joining of efforts, knowledge and resolve from different partners, acting in synergy and complementarity. That is precisely what this MoU intends to consolidate taking stock of the fruitful work the Africa CDC and the EDCTP have been doing together over the recent past. I'm confident new and higher successes will be jointly attained for the benefit of Africa", Dr Leonardo Simao, EDCTP High Representative for Africa.

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About Africa CDC

Africa CDC is a specialized technical institution of the African Union that strengthens the capacity and capability of Africa's public health institutions as well as partnerships to detect and respond quickly and effectively to disease threats and outbreaks, based on data-driven interventions and programmes. Learn more at: www.africacdc.org

About EDCTP

The European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) is a public-public partnership between 14 European and 16 African countries, supported by the European Union. EDCTP's vision is to reduce the individual, social and economic burden of poverty-related infectious diseases affecting sub-Saharan Africa. EDCTP's mission is to accelerate the development of new or improved medicinal products for the identification, treatment, and prevention of infectious diseases, including emerging and re-emerging diseases, through pre- and post-registration clinical studies, with emphasis on phase II and III clinical trials. This approach integrates conduct of research with development of African clinical research capacity and networking. Learn more at www.edctp.org

About the African Union

The African Union is a continental body that leads Africa's development and integration in close collaboration with the 55 Member States, the Regional Economic Communities and African citizens. The vision of African Union is to accelerate progress towards an integrated, prosperous, and inclusive Africa, at peace with itself, playing a dynamic role in the continental and global arena, effectively driven by an accountable, efficient, and responsive Commission. Learn more at: http://www.au.int/en
Governor Matawalle had disbanded the CJTF and the volunteer group shortly after assuming office in 2019, blaming them for the violent conflict between the Fulani and Hausa in Zamfara.

The Zamfara Government will reinstate the disbanded Civilian Joint Taskforce (CJTF) and a volunteer security group known as "Yansakai" to support security forces in the onslaught against criminals in the state.

The Chairman of the Committee on Security and Prosecution of Armed Bandits in Zamfara, Abdullahi Shinkafi, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Gusau.

"The state government took the decision to sustain the gains being recorded in the ongoing offensive against banditry and kidnappings in the state.

"The government's decision is coming with a new condition. Applicants are expected to present three sureties before being reinstated," Mr Shinkafi, who is also the special adviser to Governor Bello Matawalle on Intergovernmental Affairs, said.

"The reinstatement of the CJTF is with a view to help security operatives in the frontline to sustain the effort to flush out all bandits and their collaborators," he told NAN.

Mr Shinkafi appealed to the people to sustain their support for the fight against crimes in the state.

"We must commend residents who had been patient, prayerful and supportive of the new security measures put in place by the state government to curtail banditry and kidnapping in the state.

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"Security forces have so far recorded tremendous success in ongoing airstrike and land bombardment of the bandits' camps and their collaborators in the state," he said.

The adviser noted that the federal government's suspension of telecom activities in Zamfara and other security measures by the state government had impacted positively in the ongoing counter- banditry effort in Zamfara.

"The closure of cattle markets has shut out cattle rustlers as they do not have access to markets anymore," he added.

Mr Shinkafi praised Governor Matawalle for the new security initiative of taking the fight to the bandits' camps.

He said that several bandits had been neutralised by the security forces as law and order is gradually returning to the state.

"The state government is being challenged by paucity of funds. We appeal for more support from public-spirited individuals and groups," he said.

NAN reports that Governor Matawalle disbanded the CJTF and the volunteer group shortly after he assumed office in 2019.

Mr Matawalle alleged that some of them were responsible for the violent conflict between the Fulani and Hausa in Zamfara.

On September 2, the Nigerian Communications Commission, (NCC) in a letter titled "Re: Shutdown of All Telecom Sites in Zamfara State" said the pervading security situation in Zamfara necessitated an immediate shut down of all telecom services in the state from September 3.

The NCC said this was to enable relevant security agencies to carry out required activities towards addressing the security challenges in the state.
Phishing attacks across the continent have baited unsuspecting victims into handing over bank information, ID numbers, and more.

There was a reduction in the number of phishing attacks recorded and blocked by Kaspersky in South Africa (17 per cent decline), Kenya (48 per cent decline), and Nigeria (13 per cent decline) for the first half of this year when compared to the same period in 2020. While the decline does suggest and support research trends - that cybercriminals have become more targeted, focusing their efforts on advanced persistent threat (APT) campaigns in Africa - the phishing threat is still very prevalent, says Kaspersky.

"This decrease is in line with global trends and supports the decline that Kaspersky research identified happening through the course of last year already. Of course, this does not mean that organisations and consumers can ignore the risk of traditional cybercrime attacks or that phishing, as well as spam, are still not of significant concern across Africa. Instead, people need to become even more aware of cybersecurity best practice and remain vigilant to protect their personal and business systems from the risk of compromise," says Bethwel Opil, Enterprise Sales Manager at Kaspersky in Africa.

For instance, spam constituted almost 30 per cent of email traffic in South Africa and close to 35 per cent in Kenya in H1 2021. The number of phishing attacks recorded in South Africa for the first half of 2021 exceeded one million at 1,031,006. In Kenya phishing attacks were recorded at 601,557, and in Nigeria 393,569. Reaching over two million attacks combined highlights that phishing is still a significant threat in Africa and illustrates the importance of ensuring cybersecurity solutions are installed on all connected devices.

"Phishing and spam remain some of the most effective ways of targeting unsuspecting users and gaining access into corporate systems or compromising personal financial and other information that can be used to perpetrate identity theft," says Opil.

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Phishing attacks across the continent have baited unsuspecting victims into handing over bank information, ID numbers, and more. Cybercriminals have become even savvier with their tactics, embracing more sophisticated technology to lure people into clicking on things they should not. For instance, the COVID-19 vaccine rollout throughout Africa has given rise to ample opportunity for cybercriminals to carry out several attacks that are hidden in what, at first glance, may appear to be relevant information.

In addition to installing relevant cybersecurity solutions, individuals and businesses must consider the following tips to protect themselves against spam email and phishing:

Use multiple email addresses. One can be for personal correspondence while another can be used for online shopping or social media.

Never respond to any spam. Malicious users verify receipt and log responses of active email addresses.

Always check the link, before you click - make sure the links start with https:// and not http://.

Do not rush or panic react - scammers use such tactics to pressure you into clicking links or opening attachments.

Keep your browser and operating system software up to date with the latest patches.

Use anti-spam filters in addition to antivirus and Internet security solutions.
With the current $1 to N550 exchange rate, the new loan of $4 billion will amount to about N2.2 trillion.

President Muhammadu Buhari is seeking the approval of the National Assembly to borrow another $4 billion ($4,054,476,863) and 710 million loan from bilateral and multilateral organisations to fund the deficit in the 2021 budget.

The president, in a letter to the Senate, said the loan request is an addendum to the 2018-2020 borrowing plan.

He also asked the lawmakers to approve grant components of $125 million.

His request was contained in a letter read out by Senate President Ahmad Lawan, at the start of plenary on Tuesday.

Mr Buhari also explained that the need to borrow more funds is to meet "emerging needs" of some "critical projects."

"I write on the above subject and submit the attached addendum to the proposed 2018-2020 external rolling borrowing plan for the consideration and concurrent approval of the senate for the same to become effective.

"The distinguished senate president may recall that u submitted a request on 2018-2020 borrowing plan for the approval of the senate in May 2021.

"However, in view of other emerging needs and to ensure that all critical projects approved by FEC as of June 2021 are incorporated, I hereby forward an addendum to the proposed borrowing plan.

"The projects listed in the external borrowing plan are to be financed through sovereign loans from the World Bank, French Development Agency, EXIM Bank and IFAD in the total sum of $4,054,476,863 and 710 million and grant components of $125 million," part of the letter read.

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The president said the loans, when obtained, will stimulate the economy and create job employment.

His recent loan request comes barely two months after the National Assembly approved his earlier request to borrow $8.3 billion and 490 million loans contained in the initial 2018-2020 borrowing plan.

The lawmakers had said the needed funds were meant for projects geared towards the realisation of the Nigerian Economic Sustainability Plan that cut across key sectors such as infrastructure, health, agriculture and food security, energy, COVID-19, among others.

With the current $1 to N550 exchange rate, the new loan of $4 billion will amount to about N2.2 trillion.

Already, the 2021 budget has a deficit of N5.6 trillion.
HEDA claims the report was used to distract public attention from another police investigation on the Malabu matter.

An anti-corruption group, Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA), has said a police report accusing it and its chairman, Olanrewaju Suraju, of peddling falsehood against a former Attorney-General of the Federation, Mohammed Adoke, is fake.

"An immediate reach-out to the IGP Monitoring unit dismissed the existence of any such report," HEDA Executive Secretary, Suleiman Arigbabu, said in a statement.

When contacted last Friday for comments on Mr Suraju's allegations, Tunji Wusu, a member of the IGP Intelligence Response Team (IGP-IRT), asked our reporter to forward him a copy of the indicting police report against the HEDA boss.

But he had yet to respond to the report after calls placed to him as of Tuesday evening.

Mr Adoke, one of those accused of fraud in the OPL 245 scam, loosely referred to as Malabu scandal, had petitioned the police, accusing Mr Suraj and his organisation of circulating fabricated evidence against him to unduly incriminate him.

In a two-page report earlier reported by PREMIUM TIMES, the Inspector General of Police Monitoring Unit alleged that Mr Suraju circulated false information about Mr Adoke via his organisation's social media accounts without verifying its authenticity.

The police also alleged Mr Suraju's organisation was unregistered, a claim this newspaper found to be false after carrying out checks on the website of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).

HEDA, reacting in a statement, said the circulated report did not emanate from the police.

The copy of the report seen by our reporter was signed for the IGP Monitoring Unit by Ibrahim Musa, an assistant commissioner of police.

Although dated 2 September , the report carried the date of certification of 3 September .

But HEDA insisted the report was fake, adding that it was sponsored by those who intended to distract public attention from the subject matter of an investigation that is already receiving "professional attention from the IGP Monitoring Unit, the Interpol and Cybercrimes Unit of the Police Force."

According to the group, the IGP Monitoring Unit had invited Mr Suraju on 27 March , 2021, after receiving Mr Adoke's petition titled, 'Forgery of Document for Unlawful Purposes of Interference with the Course of Justice'.

It said though, the name of HEDA Resource Centre or Mr Suraj was not mentioned in the petition, the invitation was received by the organisation in good faith and as it saw as an opportunity to assist the police in its investigation.

Contrary to the claims of non-appearance before the police, the group said Mr Suraju had honoured the IGP Monitoring Unit's invitation at his own personal flight and hotel accommodation expenses, and made statements six times between 1 April and Friday, 27 August , 2021.

"On each of these occasions, he has had to bear the cost of flights, taxis and hotels for his trip. The first visit, wherein Mr Suraju was detained and eventually released on bail, is in the public domain" the group stated.

"It is important, as a reminder to the public, that the subject of the petition was a forgery of an email in which Nigeria, as a sovereign State was shortchanged to the tune of $1.1billion and HEDA and its international partners, have been involved in the advocacy for recovery of this money and prosecution of principal actors behind the heist," the group added.

It also stated that to the delight of HEDA and its partners, Nigeria had recovered $75m of this money and the processes for the recovery of the balance are subjects of judicial processes in both the United Kingdom and Italy.

"Every other fabrication of 'cyberstalking, giving false information to "misled" public officer, injurious falsehood and criminal defamation with intent to incite' can only exist in the imagination of the purveyor of the fake report and their collaborators in and out of government," Mr Arigbabu said.

It added that the legal status and background of the organisation was not the subject of investigation as contained in the petition.

It argued that since its registration on February 24, 2004, HEDA in its legal capacity as an incorporated body of trustees had instituted several legal actions at local and international levels, reserved for only organisations with a legal status conferred.

Malabu controversy

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The Malabu case, in which the email evidence complained about by Mr Adoke had featured, involved the transfer of about $1.1 billion by Shell and ENI through the Nigerian government to accounts controlled by a former Nigerian petroleum minister, Dan Etete.

Investigators and activists suspect Mr Etete fronted for top officials of the Goodluck Jonathan administration, in the Eni and Shell's controversial acquisition of OPL 245, one of Nigeria's richest oil blocks, which Mr Etete had awarded to his Malabu Oil and Gas Limited while serving as the petroleum minister in the late Sani Abacha regime.

Being the AGF who advised then Goodluck Jonathan administration on the OPL 245 transactions at the time, Mr Adoke has allegedly been linked to bribery of officials and individuals connected with the deal.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has also indicted Mr Adoke accusing him of accepting N300 million from Abubakar Aliyu, a controversial businessman and one of Mr Etete's cronies, as a bribe in connection with the transaction in September 2013.

While Shell and Eni, alongside their managers, were the main defendants in the case in Italy and have been acquitted, Messrs Adoke, Etete and Aliyu have pending cases filed against them by the EFCC in Nigeria.
A group of social enterprises yesterday announced that the continued suspension of the micro blogging site, Twitter, in Nigeria has cost the country about $360 million in economic revenue in 100 days of its suspension.

The coalition, which made the announcement, includes groups like Enough is Enough Nigeria (EiE), Paradigm Initiative (PIN), Media Rights Agenda (MRA), Socio-Economic Rights And Accountability Project (SERAP) among others.

It also claimed that the government, while claiming to promote innovation and at the same time clamping down on tech companies was contradictory to its economic drive promoting national development.

Speaking to journalists in Lagos to mark the 100 days since the government announced the suspension of Twitter, the Executive Director of Paradigm Initiative, Gbenga Sesan, noted that as far as they are concerned, the ban remains illegal as rule of law must prevail in a democratic dispensation.

Citing NetBlocks cost of shutdown tool, Sesan said the blockade costs Nigeria's economy $250,600 every hour in the last 2,400 hours the federal government banned the platform in the country.

He said: "Suspending twitter in Nigeria is illegal, and we are saying it categorically, as we expect the court to support what we have said because the order to suspend the telecommunications companies was not done with a court warrant.

"Maybe they can now come up with a backdated court warrant, well at that time, the court was on strike, so there was no way they would have obtained it."

The group, which is advocating for digital rights and freedom of speech, however, alleged that the government has been making up reasons for the continued suspension.

Sesan added: "Please do not forget that at the beginning they said the reason for the ban was to free the space from the activities of terrorists, and then they claimed it is now safe. My question is if it is now safe why is the suspension still on?"

The coalition, having also alleged that the measure taken by the federal government in declaring the platform suspended undermines Nigeria's corporate existence, disclosed that it has taken some measures to call on the government to rescind the suspension of Twitter.

On his part, the Programme Director, Media Right Agenda (MDA), Ayode Longe, said Enough is Enough(EIE) Nigeria has filed a N5 billion claim at the federal High court in Lagos against four mobile telecommunications operators in Nigeria over the blocking of access to twitter, in a class action on behalf of the companies' subscribers, including PIN and MRA.

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"This action is founded on the belief that the telecommunications operators have no legal authority to block our access to Twitter. MRA filed a separate suit against the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) challenging its powers to licence social media platforms, following its announcement calling on all social media platforms operating or seeking to operate in Nigeria to register with the commission and obtain a licence," Longe said.

They also maintained that since June 4, 2021, Nigeria has not been the same as the effect of the Twitter ban touches all aspects of social and economic growth.

"Nigeria has lost at least $360 million in the past 100 days since the twitter ban," they revealed.

Similarly, the Executive Director, Enough is Enough (EIE), Yemi Adamolekun, said NCDC was one of the government agencies that made excellent use of the platform to disseminate information during the COVID-19 lockdown for quick updates to the public.

"In shutting down twitter, you have shut down that effective channel of communication, and we can see the difference because post-Delta variant, as Nigerians have not been engaged as they were at the peak of the pandemic.

"This is also not about the platform itself, but about some fundamental structure of governance in Nigeria. The government is afraid of the platform because it is found to supporting young people to give their voice and advocating additional channels to raise money," he stated.
analysis

Thousands of people have died and tens of thousands have fled their homes in Niger's Tillaberi region, which is being ravaged by terrorist attacks. Now, the attackers are increasingly targeting children.

"They have kill our husbands, the other men have fled, our storehouses have been burned down," said Hajiya Sibti Mouhamadou, who lives in the small village of Sara Koira in Niger's volatile Tillaberi region.

"Today, it's the females who have to take on the role of both the men and the mothers ... and take care of the children and the old people," Mouhamadou says in the DW interview. "How should we manage to do all of this?"

Tillaberi is a vast arid area of 100,000 square kilometers (39,000 square miles) in Niger's southwest, where people primarily live from livestock herding and subsistence farming.

The situation in Tillaberi, which forms part of the tri-border region shared by Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso, has sharply deteriorated in the past few years.

"It's not easy to live in such a situation because as soon as you hear the sound of a motorcycle, panic breaks out in the village," Mouhamadou said, referring to the habit of terrorists and armed bandits to use motorbikes to raid villages like hers.

Destruction of essential infrastructure

In neighboring Anzourou, the mayor listed the effects of the attacks on his rural commune.

"Up to 22 schools with a total of 1,800 students are closed," Halidou Djibo told DW. Eight reception centers for the sick and three health centers in the Anzourou municipality have also been attacked several times by armed groups, he said.

"They looted and stole the supplies for treatments."

The Tillaberi region has become one of the most dangerous in Niger, causing some 13,000 people a week to flee their homes.

The last massacre of civilians in Anzourou was on August 21 in the village of Theim, according to AFP news agency, where gunmen arrived on foot and killed 19 worshipers in a mosque.

The assailants issued an ultimatum for residents to leave, and nearly 2,000 fled several villages to take refuge in Sara Koira, authorities said.

Children increasingly targeted

Compounding the misery, an increasing number of children are being killed or recruited by armed groups in Tillaberi, Amnesty International said in a report published earlier this week.

In its report, Amnesty blamed the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) and the al-Qaeda-affiliated Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), for causing the "devastating impact on children".

During their research, Amnesty spoke to more than a dozen boys who had narrowly survived ISGS attacks on their villages.

One boy, who witnessed the murder of his 12-year-old friend Wahab, told the researchers: "I think of Wahab and how he was killed. Sometimes I have nightmares of being chased by people on motorbikes or seeing Wahab pleading with the [attackers] again."

Sidikou Moussa, the National Coordinator of Epad, a Nigerien child's rights NGO, called the situation in Tillaberi "more than alarming" for children.

"We know very well that the incessant attacks have deep repercussions on children's mental health and also on their well-being," Moussa told DW.

Terrorists paying for child combatants

Witnesses also told Amnesty that the armed groups were recruiting young boys aged 15 to 17 as recruits.

Terrorist groups visit villages, paying bribes of cash and also "in kind" payments, explained Nigerien sociologist Sani Yahaya Janjouna.

"The terrorists are taking advantage of children's weakness to hire and recruit them. This presents a real danger for the children. A child's place is in school, ... in a family and not on a battlefield or in combat," he emphasized to DW.

Niger is the world's poorest country, according to the UN's 2020 Human Development Index. Tillaberi's extreme poverty makes youths and children vulnerable to recruitment by Islamic groups.

Weak security forces

In March, the authorities returned around 12,000 Tillaberi residents to their homes, deploying heavily armed soldiers to protect them.

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"As far as the supply of food and other goods is concerned, the state and its partners have not abandoned us, thank God," Mamoudou Sabo, one of those who has returned to the Anzourou commune, told DW.

"But after we returned to our villages, we stopped working in the fields for security reasons because the security forces deployed in the region can't be in every field."

During a weekend visit to Tillaberi, Niger's President Mohamed Bazoum promised to increase the number of security forces in the region and "get to the root of the problem" by closing the door through which terrorists enter the region.

However, in a recent briefing paper, International Crisis Group, conflict prevention organization, called Niger's security forces "overstretched" and "under-resourced".

"The government's best option will be to pursue a strategy that seeks to calm communal tensions, better protect villagers from surging banditry and once again test prospects for dialogue with militants," the Crisis Group said.

Gazali Abdou Tasawa und Frejus Quenum contributed to this article.
The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) has reported that at least 480 civilians were killed in jihadist attacks in Burkina Faso between May and August this year. There is also concern for thousands of other people displaced due to the conflict.

The NGO also expressed alarm at the increase in the number of displaced people in recent months, with more than 275,000 people "forced to flee a new outbreak of violence" since April.

According to the NRC, an average of 55,000 people have been forced to flee their homes each month since April, almost three times the average monthly figure between October 2020 and March 2021.

In total, more than 1.4 million people have been forced to leave their homes in Burkina Faso due to the attacks.

"The slowness and inadequacy of the humanitarian response are forcing people to choose between insecurity and hunger," the NRC also warned in a statement.

The NGO pointed to the "impossible choice" of some families: "To stay in a besieged area where food shortages have become so critical that there are only leaves to eat or to walk for days in search of food and risk being attacked."

It appealed to the government to allow it to provide support in the worst-affected areas.

The north of the country has been particularly vulnerable, a "three-border" zone where Burkina Faso meets Mali and Niger, a hub of jihadist activities in recent years.

"Relief organisations have the capacity to help people in the most inaccessible areas where help is urgently needed," said Manenji Mangundu, NRC's director in Burkina.

However, violence is spreading to other pockets of the country. According to an official, nearly 2,000 people have arrived in Mangodara in the past week, in the south west, near the border with Cote d'Ivoire, after violence forced them to flee their villages. Some even took to crossing the Comoe river to avoid using roads.

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Child trafficking

In a separate development, Burkina Faso authorities said they rescued 374 children between January and March from being trafficked to neighbouring countries to work in agriculture or small-scale mines.

"For some time now, this phenomenon affecting children has grown to worrying proportions in our country," Helene Marie Laurence Ilboudo, minister for humanitarian action, told reporters after the government released figures on Monday.

Last year, 2,318 children were intercepted through checks on buses or through denunciation, according to the ministry.

Most were under 16 and destined to work in plantations, artisanal mines or for domestic work in countries neighbouring Burkina Faso.

Cote d'Ivoire, the world's largest cocoa producer, is a major destination for child trafficking and has also intercepted and repatriated minors used for work in the fields, the ministry said.

In addition, 58 children found by security forces during various operations were handed over to social services, Ilboudo said, also highlighting the scale of the problem of homeless children living on the streets.
Industry giant British American Tobacco (BAT) has doled out payments to dozens of individuals and conducted 'potentially unlawful surveillance' to tighten its market grip on the African continent, according to two reports published today, Tuesday, 14th of September, by tobacco industry watchdogs.

Described by researchers as the "powerful" and "explosive", the two reports, released by STOP - a global tobacco industry watchdog in partnership with The Tobacco Control Research Group at the University of Bath - follows the analysis of whistleblower documents and court records.

The researchers found that in order to maintain BAT's tobacco monopoly in South Africa, BAT and a private contractor may have repeatedly crossed the line of legality to undermine competitors and disrupt operations.

It included the use of a BAT surveillance and informant network in South Africa.

The reports claim that BAT appeared to be operating "as if it were above the law," according to the report on South Africa.

The documents gathered for the report suggest that in South Africa, BAT hired private contractors, under the pretense of anti-smuggling efforts, to carry out military-style surveillance and operations to disrupt its competitors.

"Evidence appears to connect BAT to hand-delivered cash, cars, per diems and campaign donations to dozens of politicians, civil servants, journalists as well as people working at competitor companies," said the report.

Pay to push cigarettes on Africans

These payments "may have helped" to influence health policies in key African countries, too.

"We spent years of analysis of the payments, the documents and we came to conclusion that 226 payments totaling US$66,000 were made by the company between 2008-2013," says Andy Rowell, Senior Research Fellow at the University of Bath's Tobacco Control Research Group during a press conference. He has called on the payments to be further examined.

All of this culminates in a push to sell cigarettes to Africans--products known to cause tobacco-related illness, death and economic harm--across the region.

The second report is based on six years of work and outlines how the company made hundreds of payment that took multiple forms. Both reports came out after looking at tens of thousands of leaked documents.

Did #BritishAmericanTobacco try to buy influence in Africa? #DirtyMoney #ExposeTobacco New reports suggest the tobacco company made 200+ questionable payments that undermined competitors and health policies in at least 11 #African countries. Learn more: https://t.co/nsO5HzLDYS - Corporate Accountability (@StopCorpAbuse) September 14, 2021

The whistleblower documents connected to BAT's work in East and Central Africa revealed evidence of questionable payments made in Burundi, Comoros, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.

Researchers identified 236 payments made between 2008 and 2013 totaling US $601,502 that were allegedly used to try to influence policy and sabotage competitors.

"And in nearly 25 years of working in tobacco industry--I must have read in excess of millions of documents--and to me these are the most powerful. They are the most explosive and they are the ones to demand answers from BAT and regulators," says Rowell, during the press conference.

Contributing to deaths across the continent

Tobacco dependency is growing in Africa despite efforts to stamp it out, as the industry sees the continent as the future for its market, considering its large youth population, says Professor Lekan Ayo-Yusuf, deputy vice-chancellor at the Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University in Pretoria.

"We all know with the potential for the industry to make profits is that Africa will pay the price," says Ayo-Yusuf during the press conference, adding that the industry is trying to break through the stigma of smoking in Africa.

"Companies like BAT with their major shareholders in Britain and USA will take proceeds of the profits while the debts and the funerals and the tears and aftermaths of deaths and disabilities will remain on the African continent," he adds.

Cross-border corruption

While the allegations of corruption are not new, what is most explosive about these new ones is the scale of their deeds, says Rachel Kitonyo Devotsu, Regional Coordinator for Africa at the McCabe Centre for Law and Cancer in Melbourne, Australia.

"It just shows that BAT is willing to work across borders and across different areas of tobacco control policy to achieve its agenda," Devotsu told RFI after the briefing, saying that this also added up to interference with states revenue and collection.

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"When they try to control illicit trade in tobacco products and security concerns over smuggling and related transnational crimes, regulators must take action," she adds.

She says that in light of the revelations, tobacco control advocates and the media need to keep showcasing the allegations so that potentially illegal activities of BAT are not swept under the carpet.

"The UK government needs to ensure it has evaluated all the available evidence including speaking to government officials, whistleblowers and enforcement agencies in the African countries mentioned in the reports before it concludes definitively that there is insufficient evidence to hold BAT accountable," says Devotsu.

"Local law enforcement agencies in the countries mentioned in the reports should seek assistance from the UK government to investigate and prosecute locally," she adds.

The reports comes on the heels of an ongoing court case in the high court in London against BAT and Imperial Brands on the allegations of the exploitation of Malawian farmers and their children as a result of their drive for profits.
press release

WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and a group of global health leaders today issued an urgent call for vaccine equity globally and in Africa in particular. The leaders stressed that the worst pandemic in the last hundred years will not end unless and until, there is genuine global cooperation on vaccine supply and access. They also reiterated the WHO's global vaccination target for 70% of the population of all countries to be vaccinated by mid- 2022.

Dr Tedros was joined by Dr Seth Berkley, CEO Gavi, Strive Masiyima, AU Special Envoy for COVID- 19, Dr John Nkengasong, Africa CDC Director, Professor Benedict Oramah, President and Chairman of the Board of Directors, Afreximbank, Dr Vera Songwe, UN Under- Secretary- General and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission For Africa and Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa.

The press conference followed two days of meetings among the leaders, with Richard Hatchett, Chief Executive Officer of CEPI joining the meetings as well.

Selected quotes:

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus: Director-General, WHO

"More than 5.7 billion doses have been administered globally, but only 2% of those have been administered in Africa."

"This doesn't only hurt the people of Africa, it hurts all of us. The longer vaccine inequity persists, the more the virus will keep circulating and changing, the longer the social and economic disruption will continue, and the higher the chances that more variants will emerge that render vaccines less effective."

Strive Masiyima, AU Special Envoy for COVID- 19

"Vaccine sharing is good but we shouldn't have to be relying on vaccine sharing. Particularly when we can come to the table, put structures in place and say, we also want to buy."

"American taxpayers, European taxpayers, they financed some of this intellectual property and it should be for the common good. So, it is not wrong that we say there should be waivers, it was for the common good. So, we ask for this IP to be made available."

"It was a great miracle to have these vaccines, now let this miracle be available to all mankind."

Dr John Nkengasong, Africa CDC Director

"We will not be able to achieve 60% of our population fully immunised if we do not fully explore and deploy the power of partnership, the power of cooperation, and the power of solidarity" ... "We all have acknowledged now that vaccines are the only solution for us to get out of this pandemic collectively. That has to be done quickly."

Dr Vera Songwe, UN Under- Secretary- General and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission For Africa

"For every one month of lockdowns in the continent cost us $29 billion of production that was lost. For [the African continent], when we say that COVID-19 is an economic issue and we need to respond to it, to be able to recover and reset our economies, it is real. And for that we need financing and we need to see how we can bring together global financial structures to ensure that we can actually respond to this crisis".

"We know that scarcity means increased cost, and we cannot afford today as a continent that kind of scarcity."

Professor Benedict Oramah, President and Chairman of the Board of Directors, Afreximbank

"Africa did not want to once again be at the bottom of queue in regard to vaccines because it was well known to everybody that economy recovery meant bringing the virus under control."

"It is important that we do this for the simple reason that countries want us to make sure that we do not fail, and make it difficult for us to recover quickly."

Dr Seth Berkley, CEO Gavi

"Today's meeting is important, as it symbolizes the spirit of partnership between COVAX, the African Union and AVATT: Africa needs more doses and together we will get them."

"We're poised to embark on the busiest period of what is the largest and most complex vaccine rollout in history. We've demonstrated that COVAX can work at scale, but it's really time for the world to get behind it."

Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director For Africa.

"The question is sometimes asked do African countries have the capacity to absorb the vaccines? The simple answer is yes. The continuous challenge is that global supplies are not being shared in ways that will get the world out of this pandemic."

"Hundreds of WHO staff are on the ground, ready to support countries to expand vaccination sites and to manage the complexities of small deliveries of a variety of vaccines".

"What's more, African countries have done this before - successfully implementing massive vaccination campaigns against polio, yellow fever and cholera."

Notes for Editors

WHO's targets are to vaccinate at least 10% of the population of every country by September, at least 40% by the end of the year, and 70% globally by the middle of next year. These are the critical milestones we must reach together to end the pandemic.

Almost 90% of high-income countries have now reached the 10% target, and more than 70% have reached the 40% target. Not a single low-income country has reached either target.

Globally, 5.5 billion vaccine doses have been administered, but 80% have been administered in high- and upper-middle income countries.

High-income countries have now administered almost 100 doses for every 100 people. Meanwhile, low-income countries have only been able to administer 1.5 doses for every 100 people, due to lack of supply.

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The world should spare no effort to increase vaccine supply for lower-income countries: this can be done by removing all the barriers to scaling up manufacturing including waiving IP, freeing up supply chains and technology transfer. As part of these efforts, in June, WHO and COVAX partners announced the first COVID mRNA vaccine technology transfer hub, to be set up in South Africa.

High-income countries have promised to donate more than 1 billion doses, but less than 15% of those doses have materialised and manufacturers have promised to prioritize COVAX and low-income countries.

The supply through COVAX and other sources will increase substantially in the coming months of this year. Countries need to prepare for this ramp up of available doses, for example with microplanning, expanded cold chain equipment, logistics, funding, and trained staff in place.

COVAX has shipped more than 236.6 million doses to 139 participants as of 6th September 2021. Some 41 participants started their first campaigns thanks to COVAX.

Safe and effective vaccines alone cannot solve the pandemic: Robust surveillance supported by rapid diagnostics, early clinical care and life- saving therapeutics, provided by well-trained health workers who are able to work in safe conditions. Public health and social measures are also vital to end the pandemic and accelerate global recovery.








It should be noted that this process has been underway in the rest of the country since April 19 this year, with the participation of more than 6,000 public and private schools, as well as more than 240,000 students at different levels of basic education.





Starting 8:00 a.m. (local time), the students entered the premises of the abovementioned school, which was equipped with portable hand-washing stations and an area for temperature checks.





According to Elisa Venegas, medium level coordinator at Cambridge College, the school has determined upon agreement with parents that minors will attend blended learning classes twice a week for four hours at a time during this first stage.





She went on to say that, in accordance with the agreement with the Ministry of Education, the new learning model will include two weeks of adaptation, which has been accepted by 97% of parents. The remaining 3% will keep their children in virtual classes on a full-time basis.





The second school that is ready to gradually reopen is Elizabeth Espejo de Marroquin, a public preschool institution located in Lima's Miraflores district. Its reopening is scheduled for Thursday, September 16, also under the blended learning format.





Hugo Reynaga, head of Alternative Intercultural Bilingual Basic Education and Educational Services in Rural Areas, told Andina news agency that 558 students will attend blended learning classes at said school.





Other 10 educational institutions, four public and six private, are expected to resume classes under the same conditions in the following weeks, once the observations on their implementation plans are lifted and they are granted the corresponding authorization issued by the Local Education Management Unit (UGEL)





(END) KGR/RMB/MVB

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The Ministry of Education (Minedu) on Wednesday began the pilot project for the return to school under a blended learning model, in Lima Metropolitan Area, with the participation of one private educational institution out of the 16 that have been so far declared fit to reopen in the Peruvian capital.The first educational institution to reopen is Cambridge College, a private school located in Lima's Chorrillos district.Publicado: 15/9/2021
?? Desde el 13 al 16 de setiembre se distribuiran 3 567 470 dosis contra la #COVID19 en todas las regiones del pais para inmunizar a mas peruanos. ???? pic.twitter.com/MyOrSTmuV6
Fiscal de la Nacion, Zoraida Avalos, presento hoy proyecto de ley que modifica la Ley General de Salud para que jueces o fiscales dispongan destino final de los cadaveres en casos de posible afectacion del orden publico.

Lea aqui el proyecto de ley.?? https://t.co/aQATPzinRY
Hoy conmemoramos el #DiaInternacionalDeLaDemocracia, y reafirmamos los principios y practicas que deben aplicarse para sostener y fortalecer los sistemas democraticos en el pais. ???? pic.twitter.com/6vaGkuxBoZ
One of the trip's main objectives will be boosting economic recovery to overcome social exclusion and fight the pandemic within a framework of macroeconomic stability, as well as reducing social gaps, protecting the environment, and fighting corruption.

It must be noted that the Head of State's first trip overseas emphasizes Peru's commitment to multilateralism and the need to strengthen it as a sphere to face transnational challenges concertedly, as is the case of the fight against COVID-19, while placing international attention on social issues, such as universal access to education, health, and food in line with the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

This event will be followed by his visit to Washington D.C. (U.S.) to appear on September 20 before the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) , where he will hold a meeting with the Secretary-General of the aforementioned hemispheric organization, Luis Almagro
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 15, ARMENPRESS. A Lt. Colonel of the Armenian Armed Forces who was serving as battalion chief of staff at a military base in Khtsaberd (Artsakh) where 62 Armenian servicemen were taken captive by the Azerbaijani military on December 13, 2020 has been placed into custody on charges of desertion, failure to obey the superiors order, negligence, absence without official leave and bribery, the Investigative Committee said.

The Lt. Colonel was listed in the reserve at the time of the indictment being announced.

On September 14 a court approved pre-trial detention for the Lt. Colonel.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 15, ARMENPRESS. Ombudsman of Armenia Arman Tatoyan taksed a working group to depart for Syunik province.

In a statement the Ombudsmans Office said that the working group will carry out several fact-finding works about the human rights violations by the Azerbaijani servicemen, including about the police checkpoint deployed by Azerbaijan in the area of Vorotan settlement of Goris town.

The representatives of the Ombudsman will visit also several military units to hold talks with servicemen.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 15, ARMENPRESS. The United States doesnt see the status of Nagorno Karabakh as having been resolved, US Ambassador to Armenia Lynne Tracy told reporters.

We dont see the status of Nagorno Karabakh as having been resolved. We see the need for a comprehensive settlement that requires negotiations, and that is one very important way to try to address the various tensions that we have been seeing particularly in the border areas, the US Ambassador said.

Editing by Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 15, ARMENPRESS. Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia Armen Grigoryan participated in the joint session of the CSTO foreign, defense ministers and secretaries of Security Council in Tajikistans capital Dushanbe, touching upon Armenias upcoming chairmanship at the CSTO and the countrys priorities.

In his speech Armen Grigoryan presented the ongoing developments in the Caucasian region, drawing the attention of the session participants on the latest developments in the Artsakh issue. He stated that Azerbaijan continues demonstrating an unconstructive approach and still refuses to return the Armenian prisoners of war and other persons held.

Commenting on the policy run by Azerbaijan, Armen Grigoryan said that policy is of an obvious provocative nature, in particular reminding the recent illegal incursion of the Azerbaijani armed forces into Armenias sovereign territories. He expressed hope that the condemnation of any encroachment against the sovereign territory of a country and the united position of the CSTO member states would have a sobering effect over the matter.

According to Armen Grigoryan, despite those challenges the Artsakh issue is waiting for its political solution, and in this context he highlighted the importance of resuming the peace process in the format of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship. Mr. Grigoryan hoped that the CSTO states will also support the efforts of the Co-Chairs.

As for Armenias upcoming chairmanship priorities in the CSTO, the Secretary of the Security Council said Armenia attaches importance to the continuation of works aimed at forming common approaches by the CSTO states over the agenda of regional and international importance, which, he added, would take into account the interests of the member states.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 15, ARMENPRESS. The USAID Armenia Integrity Project was officially launched today.

The purpose of the USAID-funded 5-year Armenia Integrity Project (AIP) is to reduce opportunities for corruption and reinforce public demand for improved governance and accountability in Armenia.

Corruption Prevention Commission president Haykuhi Harutyunyan said at the event that shaping a governance system free of corruption where everyone is equal before the law is of key importance for them.

Harutyunyan said that Armenia is moving to a new phase, a more practical arena in fighting corruption.

The US Ambassador to Armenia Lynne Tracy and other officials were also in attendance.

We are encouraged by the governments efforts to root out corruption using what is commonly referred to as the three Ps of anti-corruption Prevention, Promotion, and Prosecution. The Armenia Integrity Project, USAIDs signature anti-corruption initiative, will support the Corruption Prevention Commission and the Ministry of Justice, among other stakeholders, in implementing measures to strengthen integrity in the public sector, US Ambassador to Armenia Tracy said.

AIPs main objective is to support Armenias efforts to create a culture that rejects corruption as a social norm. We are assisting key national level institutions such as the Corruption Prevention Commission and Ministry of Justice, as well as municipal administrations at the marz level, to develop and implement corruption prevention measures. Additionally, we are supporting civil society organizations, media and youth groups in their efforts to advocate for and promote integrity issues in Armenia, Lawrence Held, Director of AIP, stated.

Over the next five years, AIP will focus on three key objectives: strengthening corruption prevention institutions and integrity systems; supporting the implementation of specific legal-regulatory measures for corruption prevention; and facilitation of the collective citizen action approach to hold national and local level government entities engaged in corruption prevention mutually accountable.
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 15, ARMENPRESS. Speaker of Parliament Alen Simonyan received today Ambassador of India to Armenia Kishan Dan Dewal, the Parliament told Armenpress.

During the meeting Alen Simonyan said Armenia highly appreciates the deepening and development of friendly relations with India.

Commenting on the deepening of the cooperation between the two countries, the Speaker of Parliament informed that the Armenian-Indian friendship group will soon be restructured, which will play a significant role in the expansion of the inter-parliamentary cooperation.

The Speaker hoped that the formation of the Indian-Armenian friendship group in the Parliament of India will enable to further deepen the ties with joint efforts.

The officials discussed regional security-related issues. In this context the Armenian side appreciated the stance of the Indian side that the Karabakh conflict must be solved peacefully within the frames of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 15, ARMENPRESS. Minister of Finance Tigran Khachatryan received today Ambassador of Japan to Armenia Fukushima Masanori, the finance ministry told Armenpress.

The minister introduced the governments five-year action plan to the Ambassador and thanked the Japanese government for the support provided to Armenia in different areas, in particular the healthcare sector.

The officials emphasized the need for developing the commercial and cultural cooperation and discussed all preconditions existing for that. They highlighted the importance of boosting the economic and cultural ties between the Armenian and Japanese peoples.

The Japanese Ambassador assured that he is ready to take respective actions to expand the bilateral relations in different directions and to contribute to their further development and strengthening.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 15, ARMENPRESS. Armenia hopes that this year it will be possible to preserve the gas tariff on the border. No surprises are expected for the near future, ARMENPRESS reports Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia Mher Grigoryan said during Cabinet-Parliament question & answer session.

MP Armen Gevorgyan noted that international gas prices have increased, unprecedented high prices are observed in Europe. He asked if there are any details for the gas tariff to be delivered to Armenia in 2022.

In fact, negotiations with Gazprom Group are of permanent nature. We return to that issue each year, trying to speak for at least preserving the tariff, despite the claims by the Gazprom Group that they are not satisfied with the income provided by the agreement of 2013 But thats a working process, Grigoryan said, adding that at the moment negotiations are in process.

He hoped that nothing unexpected will take place over gas tariff in the near future. The Deputy PM reminded about the changes in the world, noting that its impossible to speak about 2-3 years. We hope that this year we will be able to preserve the tariff on the border, he said.
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 15, ARMENPRESS. Chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Suren Papikyan, a meeting with the representatives of major grape purveying companies took place on September 15 for discussing the problems that emerged during the purveyance period. The meeting was attended by the representatives of Representatives of "Proshyan Brandy Factory", "Vedi Alco", "Vostan Wine Factory", "Hayasy Group", " "Artashat Vincon" , "Ijevan Wine Factory", "MAP" companies. Deputy Minister of Economy Arman Khojoyan also took part in the meeting.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the Office of Deputy PM Suren Papikyan, the issue of grape procurement price was discussed during the meeting. The result of the meeting was that the companies participating in the meeting agreed to raise the minimum price from the existing 115 AMD to 130 AMD for technical varieties of grapes. Deputy Prime Minister Suren Papikyan also informed that weighing scales and sugar meters were checked at the purveyance stations, noting that this issue will be in the center of the Government's attention.

The Deputy Prime Minister reaffirmed the strategic importance of the grape value chain, and offered the grape purveying companies to hold similar discussions regularly after completing the procurement season in order to provide systemic solutions to the existing problems in the sphere.
The 76th session of the UN General Assembly opened in New York Tuesday. Abdulla Shahid, Foreign Minister of the Maldives, has become the President of the General Assembly. In September, the UN Security Council is chaired by Ireland, Tass informs.

September 15, 2021, 09:22 76th United Nations General Assembly session starts in New York

STEPANAKERT, SEPTEMBER 15, ARTSAKHPRESS: UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and the new General Assembly President will address the participants at the beginning of the session. The initial meetings this week will be formal: the participants will approve the agenda and the new membership of the working bodies. On September 21, the High Level Week will begin, after leaders, heads of governments and ministers of a number of countries arrive in New York.
A Lt. Colonel of the Armenian Armed Forces who was serving as battalion chief of staff at a military base in Khtsaberd (Artsakh) where 62 Armenian servicemen were taken captive by the Azerbaijani military on December 13, 2020 has been placed into custody on charges of desertion, failure to obey the superiors order, negligence, absence without official leave and bribery, the Investigative Committee said.

September 15, 2021, 09:56 Battalion commander jailed in investigation into 2020 December mass capture of Armenian troops

STEPANAKERT, SEPTEMBER 15, ARTSAKHPRESS-ARMENPRESS: The Lt. Colonel was listed in the reserve at the time of the indictment being announced.

On September 14 a court approved pre-trial detention for the Lt. Colonel.
Armenian President Armen Sarkissian received Mikhail Shvydkoy, Special Representative of Russian President on International Cultural Cooperation, the Armenian President's press office stated.

September 15, 2021, 12:13 Armenian President, Putins special envoy discuss intensification of cooperation in science, education fields

STEPANAKERT, SEPTEMBER 15, ARTSAKHPRESS: During the meeting, they discussed the avenues for closer Armenian-Russian relations in the cultural, scientific, scholar, and education spheres, as well as the implementation of new respective programs and initiatives.

In the context of deepening the humanitarian ties, they highlighted the cooperation between young creators, academicians, artists and public figures and the organization of joint events.

President Sarkissian informed his guest that this year Armenia will host the 6th STARMUS international festival on science and art, as well as the Armenian Summit of Minds which will focus on global and regional geopolitics, new technologies, including artificial intelligence and biotechnologies.

Armen Sarkissian said that they are expecting the active engagement of Russian partners to all those events and discussions.
Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia, Armen Grigoryan, on Wednesday addressed the joint meeting of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Foreign Ministers, Defense Ministers, and Security Council Secretariesin Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, news.am informs.

September 15, 2021, 13:01 Armenia Security Council chief: Azerbaijan policy is obviously provocative

STEPANAKERT, SEPTEMBER 15, ARTSAKHPRESS: Grigoryan drew special attention to the latest developments on the Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) issue. The secretary of Armenias Security Council noted that Azerbaijan continues to show a destructive approach and, among other things, still refuses to return the Armenian prisoners of war, captives and other detaineesignoring its own obligations.

Also, the head of Armenia's Security Council stressed that the policy pursued by Azerbaijan is obviously provocative; especially pointing out that since May 12, the Azerbaijani armed forces have invaded the border areas of Armenia, which is a CSTO member state.

Grigoryan noted that despite these difficulties, however, the Artsakh issue is waiting for its political solution and, in this context, highlighted the resumption of the Karabakh peace process in the format of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, and expressing hope that the CSTO member states will also assist the respective efforts of these co-chairs.

And touching upon Armenia's priorities during its forthcoming chairmanship in the CSTO, Armen Grigoryan said that Armenia underscores the continuation of work to form approaches agreed upon by the CSTO member states on agendas of international and regional importanceand which will take into account the interests of these member states.
Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia Armen Grigoryan met with Secretary of the Security Council of Russia Nikolai Patrushev in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, on the sidelines of the joint session of the CSTO foreign, defense ministers and secretaries of the Security Council, Mr. Grigoryans Office said.

September 15, 2021, 17:13 Secretary of Security Council of Armenia discusses return of POWs from Azerbaijan with Russian counterpart

STEPANAKERT, SEPTEMBER 15, ARTSAKHPRESS-ARMENPRESS: Armen Grigoryan told his Russian counterpart that such frequency of bilateral meetings shows both countries interest in deepening the partnership between the two Security Councils, as well as developing the ties between Armenia and Russia in the security sector.

Thereafter, the officials discussed the current situation in the South Caucasus. In this context Armen Grigoryan introduced his Russian counterpart on the current situation caused by the recent illegal incursion of the Azerbaijani armed forces into Armenias sovereign territory, stating that any encroachment against the territory of Armenia is unacceptable. He added that Armenia is ready to start the border demarcation and delimitation process as soon as possible.

Talking about the possibility of establishing long-term peace in the region, Armen Grigoryan said the government of Armenia has announced the era of peace which would bring peace and development opportunity to the South Caucasian region, highlighting on this path the opportunity of unblocking all infrastructure.

Nikolai Patrushev also emphasized the importance of continuing the works on unblocking process, stating that it will enable to ensure stable peace in the region.

The talk specifically focused on the issue relating to the Armenian prisoners of war, hostages and other persons held in Azerbaijan. Armen Grigoryan once again stated that according to the November 9, 2020 statement, all prisoners of war, hostages and other persons held must be returned to the homeland. Meanwhile, he said, the Azerbaijani side does not fulfill its commitment. Mr. Grigoryan expressed hope that the quick return of all Armenian POWs would become possible thanks to the efforts of the Russian side.

Touching upon the efforts on solving the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, the Russian Secretary of the Security Council highlighted activating the process within the Minsk Group Co-Chairs.
A U.S. Air Force B-2 stealth bomber was forced to make an emergency landing at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri Tuesday, Fox News reported.

September 15, 2021, 17:35 B-2 stealth bomber damaged during emergency landing in Missouri

STEPANAKERT, SEPTEMBER 15, ARTSAKHPRESS: An Air Force Global Strike Public Affairs unit said the aircraft had to land around 12:30 a.m. after an "in-flight malfunction" during a routine training mission.

The bomber sustained minor damage on the runway after landing, Air Force Global Strike Public Affairs Jennifer Greene said in a statement.

There were no personal injuries and no fire associated with the landing, she said.

The exact circumstances surrounding the bombers landing and the extent of the damage remain unclear. No further details were released.

The incident is under investigation and more information will be provided as it becomes available, Greene said.
The 21st meeting of the SCO Council of Heads of State will be held on September 17 in Dushanbe in a hybrid format

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lead the Indian delegation virtually at the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) to be held in Tajik capital city of Dushanbe on September 17, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Wednesday.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will travel to Dushanbe for the SCO meetings that are expected to extensively deliberate on the Afghan crisis and its internal as well as external implications, people familiar with the matter said.

"The 21st meeting of the SCO Council of Heads of State will be held on September 17 in Dushanbe in a hybrid format. The meeting will be chaired by the President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lead the Indian delegation and address the plenary session of the summit via video-link," the MEA said.

"At Dushanbe, India will be represented by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar," it said in a statement.

The MEA said the summit will be attended by the leaders of the SCO member states, observer states, secretary general of the SCO, executive director of the SCO regional anti-terrorist structure, the president of Turkmenistan and other invited guests.

In Dushanbe, Jaishankar will attend a meeting on Afghanistan of the heads of state of the SCO and the Collective Security Treaty Organisation, the people cited above said.

It will be the first SCO summit being held in a hybrid format and the fourth summit that India will participate in as a full-fledged member of the bloc.

"This summit assumes significance as the organisation is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. At the summit, the leaders are expected to review the organisation's activities over the past two decades and discuss the state and prospects of future cooperation," the MEA said.

It said topical issues of regional and international importance are also expected to be discussed.

Jaishankar is also likely to hold a series of bilateral meetings at the Tajik capital city with his counterparts from Iran and Tajikistan among others.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian and Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi are expected to be in Dushanbe for the SCO meetings.

Earlier this month, Jaishankar spoke to his newly appointed Iranian counterpart and discussed the situation in Afghanistan as well as bilateral issues.

The SCO, seen as a counterweight to NATO, is an eight-member economic and security bloc and has emerged as one of the largest transregional international organisations. India and Pakistan became its permanent members in 2017.

The SCO was founded at a summit in Shanghai in 2001 by the presidents of Russia, China, the Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

India has shown keen interest in deepening its security-related cooperation with the SCO and its regional anti-terrorism structure (RATS), which specifically deals with issues relating to security and defence.

India was made an observer at the SCO in 2005 and has generally participated in the ministerial-level meetings of the grouping, which focus mainly on security and economic cooperation in the Eurasian region.
Qantas has confirmed to Yahoo Finance the planned travel dates and destinations. (Source: Getty)

Qantas has confirmed with Yahoo Finance the exact dates when it expects Australians will be able to travel to popular destinations in the US, UK, Asia and more.

The airline has scheduled flights to London, Los Angeles, Vancouver, and Singapore that will commence from 18 December, a spokesperson revealed to Yahoo Finance.

Also read:

Meanwhile, Aussies will be able to travel to Tokyo and Fiji on the Flying Kangaroo from 19 December.

To date, this is Qantas most concrete confirmation of overseas travel dates after Qantas chief Alan Joyce revealed late last month he expects flights to certain cities would resume from mid-December.

Yahoo Finance can reveal Qantas has scheduled flights for the following travel routes:

18 December 2021

Sydney-London

Melbourne-London

Sydney-Los Angeles

Sydney-Vancouver

Sydney-Singapore

Melbourne-Singapore

19 December 2021

Melbourne-Los Angeles

Brisbane-Los Angeles

Sydney-Honolulu

Brisbane-Singapore

Sydney-Tokyo

Sydney-Fiji

WATCH BELOW: Qantas aims for international travel in December

The confirmation comes hot on the heels of Air Canadas announcement yesterday that it will resume the Sydney-Vancouver route from 17 December as the aviation and travel industries grows increasingly more confident about the possibility of the travel ban being lifted.

Meanwhile, Flight Centre boss Graham Turner has been even more optimistic, with expectations that Australians will be able to travel to the UK from as early as November.

Borders to reopen at 80 per cent vaccination rate

The UK is currently clocking more than 20,000 daily COVID-19 cases as the Delta variant throws several countries who were on a path to recovery back into chaos.

According to the National Cabinets four-phase plan, Australians will be able to travel when 80 per cent of the population is fully vaccinated.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison. (Photo by James D. Morgan/Getty Images)

The nation is about halfway to reaching that target; only 43.2 per cent of Australians have had their second dose, according to NSW Health data.

Story continues

The Federal Government is developing a digital border pass for international travel called the Digital Passenger Declaration (DPD) which will apply to all travellers entering and leaving the country.

IT services firm Accenture has been awarded a $75 million contract to develop the technology which will replace physical incoming passenger cards.

Read next:

Follow Yahoo Finance on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter, and subscribe to the free Fully Briefed daily newsletter.
A planned goodwill visit by a German naval frigate to China has been called off following objections from officials in Beijing.

"After a certain period of consideration, China has decided that it does not want a port visit by the German frigate Bayern and we have taken note of that," a Foreign Office spokeswoman said in Berlin on Wednesday.

The frigate sailed from Wilhelmshaven to the region on August 2.

The German government said in April that it wanted to strengthen security co-operation in Asia and coordinate more closely with Japan in particular.

The declared aim was "a rules-based order, free sea lanes and multilateralism," and this was to be linked with a friendly gesture towards China - the port visit that has now been rebuffed.

There is a territorial dispute between China and other countries in the South China Sea.

China claims 80 per cent of the resource-rich sea, through which several important international shipping lanes pass.

Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Brunei and Malaysia all have territorial claims in the region.

The International Court of Arbitration in The Hague rejected China's claims in 2016 but officials in Beijing continue to ignore the ruling.
Singapore Airlines has blamed a lack of Australian government clarity about international travel on a decision to scrap dozens of pre-Christmas flights.

Cancellations between October and December are the latest blow to Australians stranded overseas desperately hoping to return before the end of the year.

Singapore Airlines spokesman Karl Schubert said the company had not been told when international arrival caps would be lifted.

"We've had to make the very difficult decision that we simply can't operate the two additional flights that we were hoping to do into Sydney and to other ports across Australia," he told ABC radio on Wednesday.

The major airline has been unable to secure talks with the government.

"That has been frustrating at times, understanding that governments have had quite a lot of work to do and had their focus directed elsewhere," Mr Schubert said.

"What we need to do is get airlines, airports, governments at state and federal level around the same table to talk about how Australia is going to reopen."

A national reopening plan has raised hopes international travel can resume when 80 per cent of Australians aged 18 and above are fully vaccinated.

Under that phase, caps on returning Australians would be abolished and capacity for students, economic migrants and refugees increased.

Restrictions on Australians leaving the country would be lifted and new travel bubbles including with Singapore considered.

But Mr Schubert said the rules around what travel would look like were unclear.

"We just don't have the clarity we need to have the confidence to operate," he said.

Singapore Airlines is operating two flights a day across four Australian airports, with passenger services carrying between 12 and 25 people.

Mr Schubert said more information from government would allow flights to be reinstated.

"We have the capacity to move very quickly to reinstate operations where demands warrants."
Under the current law enacted in March, municipalities that opt out by Dec. 31 can later decide to allow pot shops. But if they take no action by year's end, they won't be able to ban pot stores. County governments have no say over those local decisions. The key choices are in the hands of villages, towns and cities.

Borrello reasoned that the state government is already running six months behind the initial timetable for implementing a marijuana licensing system, with local governments having "zero information" from the state.

Although four appointments were made this month to the nascent state Cannabis Control Board, two vacancies remain to be filled.

Plattsburgh Mayor Christopher Rosenquest said there is no justification for slowing down the implementation of retail marijuana licenses.

"There has been so much discussion already on opting in or opting out that communities by now know the direction they want to go in," Rosenquest said.

He noted four companies interested in opening marijuana production facilities have been eyeing Plattsburgh as a potential site, with the low cost of electric power being a drawing card. An equal number of business people have signaled interest in opening cannabis stores in the city, he said.
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"We're doing the best we can to meet the challenge, which is not easy in the current environment," Sheps said. "There is a national shortage of health care workers, specifically nurses and aides. We are constantly looking for staff, even before the pandemic, due to this national shortage. But this is certainly only aggravating that need."

Northwoods isn't alone. The Commons on St. Anthony in Auburn has 350 employees. Julie Sheedy, chief marketing and engagement officer for Loretto, which operates the nursing home, wrote in an email to The Citizen that 86.5% of employees are either fully vaccinated or received their first dose. (The state's data, as of Monday, shows the facility's employee vaccination rate is 80.6%.)

Based on Loretto's figures, nearly 50 employees aren't vaccinated. The Commons, according to Sheedy, is encouraging the remaining staff to get vaccinated. There are daily meetings to answer questions about the vaccines and employees have access to medical directors.

But there is a strong possibility that some employees will leave rather than get the shots. Sheedy said Loretto has developed contingency staffing plans.
Cayuga County District Attorney Jon Budelmann commented on Ashley's plea and conviction in the news release.

This defendant refused to even discuss resolving the charges until today, the second day of trial," he said. "This resulted in considerable police, prosecution and court resources being consumed unnecessarily preparing for the trial, which was expected to last four weeks. These resources included not only prepping over a hundred prosecution witnesses, but included the summoning over 200 potential jurors. Nevertheless, Gage Ashleys acceptance of responsibility is certainly better later than never. We hope the conviction of the two shooters who murdered Joshua Poole provides some level of closure for his family.

Budelmann also praised the various people and agencies involved in the investigation and trial, including the Auburn Police Department, the New York State Police and the Cayuga County Sheriffs Office. He also commended the work of Cayuga County Chief Assistant District Attorney Chris Valdina and Deputy Chief Assistant District Attorney Brittany Grome Antonacci, who were representing the prosecution at the trial, along with DA's office Investigator Joseph DiVietro and Victim/Witness Coordinator Kristine France.
Republicans countered with a proposal that would maintain much of the existing 24th Congressional District, which includes all of Cayuga, Onondaga and Wayne counties, and adding all or parts of Chenango, Cortland, Madison, Oneida and Tompkins counties. While it's a geographically compact district, it would also help Republicans erase the Democrats' current enrollment advantage.

The redistricting commission will hold public hearings across the state beginning in October before attempting to finalize a proposal that will be submitted to the state Legislature for consideration. But after the meeting on Wednesday, it appears unlikely that an agreement will be reached.

When David Imamura, a Democratic appointee and chair of the commission, announced that the commission would release two drafts, he acknowledged that the plans are "imperfect."

"Based on public input, they can, should and will change," he said.

But the Republicans on the panel and an independent commissioner, Ross Brady, panned the process and criticized the Democratic appointees. They noted that the commission was created by a constitutional amendment approved by voters in 2014 and that the purpose of the commission is to work independently on developing a consensus map.
As COVID-19 hospitalizations tick up in Cayuga County, a majority of residents receiving treatment in area hospitals are under age 60.

The Cayuga County Health Department on Wednesday reported 25 residents are hospitalized with COVID-19, up from 22 one day ago. Fourteen of the 25 patients are under age 60. Seven are in their 50s, four are in their 30s, two are in their 40s and one is in their 20s.

The older residents who are hospitalized include three patients in their 90s, three in their 80s, three in their 70s and two in their 60s.

Health officials said 15 of the 25 patients are unvaccinated.

The rise in hospitalizations coincides with the uptick in COVID-19 cases in Cayuga County. The health department reported 55 new cases (28 unvaccinated, 27 vaccinated) on Tuesday and 296 active cases. In seven days, the county has 293 new cases. Two-thirds of the new cases are unvaccinated.

With more people seeking COVID-19 tests, the health department and Auburn Community Hospital issued a joint statement on Tuesday reminding residents of testing options in the region.
New York Army National Guard Lt. Col. Frank Quintana, a veteran of the War in Afghanistan, took command of Auburn's 102nd Military Police Battalion during a ceremony at Fort Drum on Saturday, Sept. 11.

According to a news release from the state Division of Military & Naval Affairs, Quintana, who enlisted in the Army as an armor crewman in 1997, replaces Lt. Col. Monique Foster who had led the battalion since 2019.

Foster is retiring after a military career which began when she graduated from the United States Coast Guard Academy in 1984.

Colonel Jamie Barcomb, the commander of the 153rd Troop Command oversaw the traditional change of command ceremony between Quintana and Foster.

The battalion's flag, or colors, was transferred from Foster to Quintana, signifying the change of command.

The 102nd Military Police Battalion was created in 2009 and has participated in a variety of state and federal missions, to include responding to Hurricanes Irene and Lee, the COVID-19 Pandemic and providing security for the 2021 Presidential Inauguration.

Quintana, who lives in Alexandria, Virginia, joined the New York Army National Guard as an enlisted Soldier in 2001.
WASHINGTON (AP)  President Joe Biden announced Wednesday that the United States is forming a new Indo-Pacific security alliance with Britain and Australia that will allow for greater sharing of defense capabilities  including helping equip Australia with nuclear-powered submarines. It's a move that could deepen a growing chasm in U.S.-China relations.

Biden made the announcement alongside British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who joined him by video to unveil the new alliance, which will be called AUKUS (pronounced AWK-us). The three announced they would quickly turn their attention to developing nuclear-powered submarines for Australia.

"We all recognize the imperative of ensuring peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific over the long term," said Biden, who said the new alliance reflects a broader trend of key European partners playing a role in the Indo-Pacific. We need to be able to address both the current strategic environment in the region and how it may evolve.

None of the leaders mentioned China in their remarks. But the new security alliance is likely to be seen as a provocative move by Beijing, which has repeatedly lashed out at Biden as hes sought to refocus U.S. foreign policy on the Pacific in the early going of his presidency.
In the 10 days after the law took effect, Linton said, Planned Parenthood clinics in Houston had 63 patients scheduled for an abortion, far fewer than the roughly 25 they would normally perform in a single day alone. Eleven of those patients wound up being unable to have abortions because cardiac activity was detected during their appointment.

One patient who was around five weeks pregnant had no cardiac activity but learned during her visit she had COVID-19, meaning that after a mandatory quarantine she would be too far along in her pregnancy to have an abortion in Texas, according to Linton.

In Dallas, Dr. Allison Gilbert said 13 of her colleagues were temporarily sent to a sister clinic in New Mexico to help serve an influx of Texas patients, and that her own clinic will inevitably" close if the law is not struck down soon.
RENO, Nev.  The Nevada Hospital Association is urging people to avoid going to emergency rooms except in true emergencies, especially in northern Nevada where a resurgence in coronavirus infections is running double the rate in the Las Vegas area.

Health officials say the 30-day average for daily new coronavirus cases per 100,000 residents has increased fivefold in the Reno-Sparks area over the past six weeks  from 354 at the beginning of August to 1,621 now. The statewide rate is 951, and its 720 in Clark County, which includes Las Vegas.

The head of the hospital association says that as a result, many hospital emergency departments in northern Nevada are at capacity with patients.

State officials said Wednesday that 1,090 people were hospitalized at the beginning of the week for confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19, the disease that can be caused by the coronavirus.



HOUSTON  Some of the 15 Texas school districts that have been sued in the past week for defying Gov. Greg Abbotts ban on mask mandates are pushing back against the lawsuits.
There are also landlords who have tenants who do not let them know when repairs are needed. These minor repairs blossom into urgent, large repairs in time. Then when the landlord tries to send maintenance to address the issue the tenant refuses entry or is unavailable, even when at home. Like everyone else, landlords are struggling to find workers to do repairs, as many contractors are no longer willing to take small jobs. They are focusing on larger projects so they can provide for their own families, meet payroll and keep their businesses afloat. The public hears a lot about properties in disrepair and tenants who have appliances that are broken. Landlords are struggling to make repairs while trying to buy materials that are in short supply and struggling to provide appliances that are either backordered or have long wait times for delivery.

Some small landlords who own owner occupied duplexes are going broke because their only tenant is not paying rent resulting in the landlord paying the utilities and other related expenses for both units. When landlords are being told by tenants that they dont have to pay the rent and because of the moratorium cant be evicted why would a landlord take a chance on renting to a tenant when there is no recourse to removing that person if necessary? As a result, some of these landlords feel forced to keep their rentals empty for fear of the moratorium on evictions.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul recently delayed implementation of a requirement that state employees get vaccinated against the coronavirus. The idea is to give the many varied workplaces some flexibility in preparing to fully reopen to staff as safely as possible. As the deadline nears on a similar mandate for health care workers, a similar pause may be required.

We agree in principle with having all health care workers vaccinated, because the goal is to make facilities as safe as they can be for patients and for the people who work there, but a big difference between the mandates for state workers and people in health care is that state workers will be given the option to undergo weekly testing to make sure they aren't bringing the virus with them into their workplaces.

A similar option may be needed for health care workers, especially considering that already strained staffing levels pose an immediate threat to public health.
Leapmotor partners with China Construction Bank, securing RMB10 billion in capital

Beijing (Gasgoo)- Chinas EV startup, Leapmotor, has signed a strategic agreement with China Construction Bank, Zhejiang provincial Branch.

The agreement brings reciprocity and mutual benefit to both parties. Both parties will cooperate in offering various services, such as assets management, supply chain finance, auto finance, and settlement. Besides, the bank will provide nearly RMB10 billion in strategic funding support for the technology company in five years.

the C11; photo credit: Leapmotor



Founder, chairman,and CEO of Leapmotor, Zhu Jiangming stated, that Chinas new energy vehicle industry is seeing exploding growth in a few years. Leapmotor is accelerating its business layout in aspects like production capacity, technology, and vehicle stock. The partnership with China Construction Bank is a win-win strategy to achieve a high-efficiency capital utilization rate.

Leapmotor possesses comprehensive developing and producing capacity as a technology-focused NEV manufacturer, with an extreme capital utilization rate. The company has three models on the market, the S01, the T03, and the C11.

The automakers new car deliveries skyrocketed 720% year on year to 4,488 vehicles in August, up 1.9% compared to July, indicating a consecutive monthly growth for half a year.

The companys new car orders saw a 16% rise month on month to 7,607 vehicles in August, accumulating to 35,662 vehicles for the first eight months. Its mainstay model T03 has an order number of 7,228 vehicles, increased by 18% versus the previous month, making up 95% of the total orders in August.

Leapmotor set an annual target of selling 800,000 vehicles in 2025, and bring forward eight new models pricing under RMB350,000. The company intends to continue developing its computing center in five years, hoping to lead the intelligent vehicle field. Leapmotor plans to enter the overseas market in 2022.
BYD intends to replace oil-fueled cars with DM-i models

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- BYD is gradually decreasing the proportion of oil-fueled vehicles in production and attempts to replace ICEV (internal combustion engine vehicle) with DM-i models in the future, the company recently disclosed at a meeting held for investors.

The automaker also revealed it plans to terminate the production of the F3, a compact oil-fueled sedan model launched in 2005, in October this year. Other ICEV models, which are sharing assembly lines with hybrid models, will bow out of production as appropriate in the future.

BYD Song PLUS DM-i; photo credit: BYD



According to BYD's announcement, the company's sales of DM models (referring to plug-in hybrid electric passenger vehicle models) reached 30,126 units in August, rocketing 555.63% from a year earlier and accounting for 44.5% of BYD's total passenger vehicle sales. The sales of the Song DM and the Tang DM series amounted to 8,726 units and 5,433 units last month, soaring 1,594.4% and 256.3% year over year respectively.

Notably, the year-on-year increase in the monthly sales of BYD's DM models was standing above 170% for 10 consecutive months as of August.

On Jan. 11, BYD launched its DM-i super hybrid technology that focuses on ultra-low fuel consumption. At the same time, the company kicked off the presale of three new models armed with the DM-i system, namely the Qin PLUS DM-i, the Song PLUS DM-I, and the Tang DM-i, which all hit the market before May.



BYD Qin PLUS DM-i; photo credit: BYD

The advent of the DM-i-powered models significantly drove BYD's sales. For instance, the sales of the BYD Qin PLUS DM-i reached up to 13,043 units in August, growing 16.1% month on month and making up 43% of BYD's DM models sales.
Former FAW VW executive joins Chery Jaguar Land Rover

Beijing (Gasgoo)- On September 14th, Chery Jaguar Land Rover (CJLR), the joint venture between Chinese automaker Chery Automobile and UK auto manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover, announced that Ma Zhenshan would immediately take on the executive vice president position of CJLR and the Integrated Marketing Sales and Service Organisation between CJLR and Jaguar Land Rover China.

Ma Zhenshan; photo credit: Chery Jaguar Land Rover



Ma Zhenshan joined FAW-Volkswagen twenty-one years ago as a market researcher and worked his way up to the companys central China market business division manager in 2013. Three years later, Ma Zhenshan was promoted to vice manager of FAW-VW Sales Company (FAW-VWs subsidiary), responsible for marketing of the VW brand. From 2020, Ma came up as executive vice manager of FAW-VW Sales Company, executive director of the VW brand, fully responsible for FAW-VWs VW brands marketing and promoting works.

Earlier this year, rumors of Ma Zhenshans transfer from FAW-VW to Jaguar Land Rover were leaked. Soon afterward, Ma posted on his social platform that he would be coming back to the FAW Group without revealing specifics. However, with today's announcement, the executive vice president position in CJLR finally welcomed its successor after being empty for more than a half year.

The chairman of Chery Jaguar Land Rover, Liu Yang said, Ma Zhenshan has ample experience in the joint ventured auto company and regional marketing, branding, and operation management. Mas addition to the team will push forward the premium Jaguar brand and Land Rover brands development in the Chinese market, bringing the authentic, brilliant British experience to more consumers.
Gasgoo Daily: Evergrande Auto road tests continue

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.

Evergrande Auto road tests continue

The Evergrande Group denied the rumors about its bankruptcy but admitted to facing unprecedented challenges. 5 leaked road test photos of the Hengchi 5 were exposed online, indicating the groups automaking plan is still going as planned.

Foton Motor deepens cooperation with CATL on NEV management, battery asset operation

Foton IBLUE Auto and Foton AUV, two subsidiaries of Chinese automaker Foton Motor, forged partnerships on Sept. 13 with CATLGLP, a subsidiary of CATL, to conduct the strategic cooperation on new energy commercial vehicle-used battery finance and innovative business models.

Former FAW VW executive joins Chery Jaguar Land Rover

On September 14th, Chery Jaguar Land Rover (CJLR), the joint venture between Chinese automaker Chery Automobile and UK auto manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover, announced that Ma Zhenshan would immediately take on the executive vice president position of CJLR and the Integrated Marketing Sales and Service Organisation between CJLR and Jaguar Land Rover China.

CATL plans to plow 13.5 billion yuan in lithium-ion battery manufacturing base in Yichun

On Sept. 13, Chinese power battery giant CATL signed a cooperation agreement with Yichun Municipal Government to build a lithium-ion battery manufacturing base in the city of China's Jiangxi province, the company announced via its WeChat account.

XPeng deploys 400 supercharging stations by end of Aug. 2021

As of August 2021, XPeng Inc. (XPeng) had deployed a total of 400 own-brand supercharging stations, spanning 101 cities in China, the company announced on Tuesday. Of those, 102 stations were newly launched last month.

photo credit: XPeng



DeepRoute.ai scores $300 million in B-round led by Alibaba

On September 14th, Chinas autonomous driving startup, DeepRoute.ai announced it has raised $300 million via its B-round of financing, which was led by Alibaba Group, with participation from Jeneration Capital, FOSUN RZ Capital, Yunqi Partners, and Glory Ventures.

Car and City: Beijing's insurance registrations of new vehicles in July, 2021

Insurance registrations of locally-made new vehicles in Beijing, capital of China, amounted to 49,619 vehicles in July, and its monthly registration volume of new energy vehicles (NEVs) reached 13,434 vehicles, accounting for 27.07% of the total volume, according to data from China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC).

Horizon Robotics partners with Neolix for driverless delivery vehicle

On September 13th, Chinas edge-AI chip company, Horizon Robotics, partnered with Neolix, Chinas unmanned vehicle startup to work closely on creating integrated perceptual solutions for driverless delivery vehicles mass production.
Dongfeng Honda sees 11th-generation Civic leave production line

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- The China-built 11th-generation Civic, the all-new version of the classic Honda-branded sedan model, rolled off the assembly line on September 14, according to Dongfeng Honda. The new model will formally hit the market ten days later.



The 11th-generation Civic; photo credit: Dongfeng Honda



The all-new Civic adopts a fire new exterior design compared to the existing version. At the front end, the aggressive triple air intakes are located below the slim LED headlights, accentuating the car's width and low center of gravity. Aside from the headlights, LED lighting is also used in daytime running lights, parking lights, and fog lights.

The 11th-generation Civic; photo credit: Dongfeng Honda

As for the side profile, a low beltline with horizontal windowsills and door-mounted side mirrors improve visibility while maintaining the clean lines of the exterior. The lower character line carries up from the bottom of the front door, rising across the rear doors, and through the rear fenders for an enhanced sense of motion.



The 11th-generation Civic; photo credit: Dongfeng Honda

At the rear, the spoiler has been moved to the base of the rear window and thus provides a ducktail look. The taillight strip running across the tailgate also stresses the vehicle's width.



The 11th-generation Civic; photo credit: Dongfeng Honda

In the cockpit, a 9-inch HondaConnect infotainment touchscreen is two inches larger than that of the outgoing model. The all-new Civic offers three color schemes for interior, namely, the Black, the Black/Red, and the Sport Black.

Regarding safety facilities, the 11th-generation Civic comes with the Honda Sensing safety suite, which encompasses such functional systems as ACC (adaptive cruise control), LKAS (lane keeping assist system), TJA (traffic jam assist), LDW (lane departure warning), FCW (forward collision warning), and TSR (traffic sign recognition).

The all-new made-in-China Civic will carry a 1.5-liter turbocharged engine that is good for 95kW/134kW. Mated to the engine is a 6-speed manual transmission or a CVT.
Former manager of Microsoft Research Asia said to lead Baidu auto team

Beijing (Gasgoo)- Sources disclosed that the senior principal research manager of Microsoft Research Asia (MSRA) and scholar in the computer vision and deep learning field, Wang Jingdong, has left MSRA and joined Baidu, according to a local media outlet. With Wang Jingdongs ability and credentials, he shall be a valuable asset to Baidus computer vision research.

photo credit: Github

Upon finishing his doctorate at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in 2007, Wang Jingdong joined Microsoft Research Asia. Wang climbed his way up to the senior principal research manager position, working on multiple territories significant to the perceptual function in autonomous driving, such as neural architecture design, human pose estimation, semanteme division, image classification, target detection, and large-scale index and salient target detection.

Moreover, Wang Jingdong is a brilliant member of ACM and an IAPR Fellow. He was once the subeditor of IEEE TPAMIIEEE TMMIEEE TCSVT, and regional chairman of numerous AI congress including CVPRICCVECCVACM MMIJCAI, and AAAI.

Based on Wangs exceptional resume in the field, strong speculations have been made that he will lead Baidus autonomous driving lab. According to early information, former chief of Baidus robotics and autonomous driving lab, senior 3D vision scientist Yang Ruigang has left the company and joined Incecptio.ai as CTO, leaving the position empty since then.
CATL plans to plow 13.5 billion yuan in lithium-ion battery manufacturing base in Yichun

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- On Sept. 13, Chinese power battery giant CATL signed a cooperation agreement with Yichun Municipal Government to build a lithium-ion battery manufacturing base in the city of China's Jiangxi province, the company announced via its WeChat account.

CATL, Yichun Minicipal Government signing agreement; photo credit: CATL



Under the agreement, the production base will cover an area of 1,300 mu (about 867,000 square meters) and involve a total investment of around 13.5 billion yuan ($2.094 billion). The construction is expected to be completed within 30 months.

CATL said the investment is made to further improve its development of production capacity and meet the demands of future business development and market expansion. It is of important significance to the company's long-run and stable development and is in line with the interests of all shareholders despite the increase in capital expenditure and cash outlay.

The pact was signed after CATL inked a framework cooperation agreement with Jiangxi Provincial Government and Yichun Municipal Government at the end of July. According to the earlier agreement, the battery giant planned to build a lithium-ion battery manufacturing base and a production base for relevant upstream materials like lithium carbonate at Yichun Economic & Technological Development Zone and related counties, cities, and districts.

Notably, Gotion High-Tech, another main automotive lithium-ion power battery supplier in China, celebrated in late May the foundation stone-laying ceremony for its lithium-ion battery project in Yichun, which is scheduled to go into operation at the end of 2022.
XPeng deploys 400 supercharging stations by end of Aug. 2021

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- As of August 2021, XPeng Inc. (XPeng) had deployed a total of 400 own-brand supercharging stations, spanning 101 cities in China, the company announced on Tuesday. Of those, 102 stations were newly launched last month.

XPeng P7 at supercharging station; photo credit: XPeng



The EV manufacturer built 16 supercharging stations on highways in August, making the cumulative number of XPeng-branded highway supercharging stations increase to 27. The company is China's first automaker to operate supercharging service at rest stops on highways.

According to XPeng's update, the company's charging network has also included 81 destination charging stations, 36 of which were deployed last month, as well as 1,596 free charging stations that cover 209 cities across China.

XPeng is the first EV startup in China to offer free lifetime charging services for its customers, aiming to popularize its smart EVs by providing easy access to free charging facilities and improving customer experience. It focuses on facilitating urban mobility, as well as long-distance inter-city driving for XPeng's users.

Over the next three weeks, the EV startup plans to expand its supercharging network into more than 60 cities or regions, including Shijiazhuang, Harbin, Shenyang, Changchun, Chizhou, Yangzhou, Luoyang, Huanggang, Urumchi, and Yinchuan.
SAN FRANCISCONakedSword has partnered with Flirt4Free to broadcast four live cam shows starring gay porn luminary Johnny Rapid.

The series of shows, titled "Dear Johnny Live," takes its name from the new NakedSword Originals miniseries Dear Johnny, in which Rapid takes his best fan mail letter fantasies and turns them into reality. The first "Dear Johnny Live" show takes place this Friday, September 17 at 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET on NakedSwordlive.com, Falconlive.com and Flirt4Free.com.



For the first time ever, fans can chat with Rapid, ask questions, and watch him perform. He will discuss how some of his new scenes in Dear Johnny came about from fan mail, while sharing some of the most outrageous letters he's received from over the years. He will also take questions from the live audience and ask viewers to share some of their fantasies with him.



Commented Rapid, "I'm really looking forward to this. I've never done a big live cam show, so I'm excited to get to interact with fans and read them some of the craziest letters I've received over the years. I've gotten so many, and this hot new series I did with NakedSword, Dear Johnny, was inspired by them. Hope all my fans catch me live this Friday and see how crazy it gets!"

Following Friday's presentation, the remaining threee "Dear Johnny Live" events will take place as follows:



- Saturday, September 25, 2021 - 7 p.m.  8 p.m. ET/4 p.m.  5 p.m. PT

- Friday, October 1, 2021 - 8 p.m.  9 p.m. ET/5 p.m.  6 p.m. PT - Saturday, October 9, 2021 - 7 p.m.  8 p.m. ET/4 p.m.  5 p.m. PT
LOS ANGELES  A judge on Tuesday declared a mistrial in the case against Michael Lacey and James Larkin, the founders of Backpage.com, who have been facing multiple charges of money laundering and facilitating prostitution, deciding prosecutors made too many references to child sex trafficking in a case where no one faced such a charge.

Backpage, a classified advertising site widely used as an online safe space for sex workers to promote their services and screen clients, was shut down and seized by the federal government in April of 2018. Lacey and Larkin were arrested and hit with a 93-count indictment.

Lacey, Larkin and four other Backpage employees were accused of knowingly selling ads for sex on the site. Even though prosecutors say the site published many ads that depicted children who were victims of sex trafficking, no one in the case has beeen charged with sex trafficking or child sex trafficking in the Arizona case. U.S. District Judge Susan Brnovich said that the cumulative effect of the child sex trafficking references made by prosecutors in opening statements and by witnesses for the prosecution is something that I cant overlook and will not overlook," according to a report by the Associated Press.

Brnovich had said before the start of the trial that while she would permit evidence indicating that individuals were trafficked on the website, prosecutors could not focus on specific details of alleged abuse, AP reported.

It seemed the government abused that leeway, she said.

Prosecutors have argued that Backpage generated roughly $500 million from the alleged prostitution scheme between the time it was first launched in 2004 and when it was shut down, according to the AP.

Lacey and Larkin said the site never allowed ads for sex and used people and automated tools to try to delete such ads. They also said the site's content was protected by the First Amendment and that the site helped authorities in investigating sex trafficking cases, AP reported.

The judge has scheduled an Oct. 5 status hearing.

In a separate case in state court in California, Lacey and Larkin had previously pleaded not guilty to money laundering charges. Prosecutors allege Backpages operators funneled nearly $45 million through multiple companies and created websites to get around banks that refused to process their transactions, according to AP.

A judge threw out pimping conspiracy and other state charges against Backpages operators earlier in the case, ruling the charges were barred by a federal law protecting free speech that grants immunity to websites posting content from others.
Youve been dealt a trumping card: a short-term assignment to Egypt. Ecstatic, you travel to Egypt unbeknownst of the dos and donts of this complicated yet enchanting society despite having read the Lonely Planet on Egypt and other trip advisory sources. You hit the ground running and end being in somewhat of a lurch. Here is a capsule of what would make your stay a memorable one. It doesnt encompass everything you will face, but its a good starting point.

Egypt has had its share of influences. From Turks, Brits, Arabs, Romans, and many more who conquered Egypt to Armenians, Greeks, Italians, Syrians, Palestinians and others who immigrated to Egypt at one point or another. That in addition to millions of tourists and expatriates like yourself. This makes Egypt quite accepting of and adjusting to foreign ways.

Notwithstanding this welcoming environment, Egypt is complicated. Cities in Egypt tend to shock newcomers, for they are amongst the most congested in the world. Vehicles, donkey-pulled carts, bicycles, scooters, and pedestrians all mingle together to form one chaotic entity. This leaves Cairenes and other cities dwellers, you included, no other choice but to plan goings and comings with traffic in mindheading out an hour early, or utilizing Fridays for getting stuff done; Saturdays are good, too. Early evening, surprisingly is the worst.

Traffic is almost always horrendous; and many Egyptians dont really follow the set traffic rules. By the same token, ride hailing companies are available, which would be preferable to driving. Cabs are inexpensive and available everywhere.

Beyond traffic, Cairo is a hustling and bustling city with street vendors everywherean informal economy working furiously along the formal one. This ensues a lively, mesmerizing, and vibrant atmosphere.

Under the layers of formidable challenges, Cairo has a charm like no other; it throbs with activity and pulses with commotion every hour of the day. As you walk along the ubiquitous street souks, you will buy ful medamis, a fava bean stew, and falafel sandwiches; ripe, flavorful vegetables and delicious fruits; countless mouth-watering juicesall dirt cheap, that in addition to ground coffee at the coffee grinding store and nuts at the store next door. You can fix your watch, get the darn in your blouse fixed, and have a new set of keys cut. You can scrutinize the fish displayed at the fishmonger and have it delivered later, prepared.

And because of the commotion on the streets, two anomalies have emergedtardiness and deliveries. It is quite usual for Egyptians not to arrive on time or not at all; please dont be offendedpunctuality is something that cant be fulfilled easily.

Just about anything can be delivered to your doorstep: all food concoctions, prescription drugs, groceries, wine and beer, and cleaned laundry. Then again spa beauticians, barbers and hair stylists, lab technicians, physiotherapists and masseurs do home visits, too. Need to get your cholesterol tested or an essential Covid PCR for travel? Call the lab and a technician will show up at your doorstep bright and early, and then deliver the results, too, on Whatsapp if necessary.

Egypt is usually very hot but dry, if not as dry as it used to be. Winters are beautiful though: the forecast20 degrees and sunny. The heat arrives in April making late afternoons the least productive hours of the day.

As for Egyptians themselves, they are hospitable, friendly, distinctly loud, and very humorous. After a business transaction is completed, expect to be invited to your hosts home where a splendid array of scrumptious foods will be displayed. You may find the spread too grand, but thats all right. Its the Egyptian way.

You will enjoy being with Egyptians because of their friendliness. You will find them easy going and down to earth. Lots of hugging and kissing happen amongst men, and the same goes amongst women. Loud, vociferous laughs will dominate all meetings even while negotiating million-dollar deals.

The volume in Cairo seems to have been set on a louder-than-usual setting. It is clearly an innate Egyptian trait. Accept it! Believe me they are not shouting at you; thats their way.

Then the concept of noise pollution is uncommon, and people are totally oblivious of the raucous. They shout to one another from across halls and offices. They maintain conversations across streets or from balconies. Street peddlers call out their products as they roam neighbourhoods. And since intersections dont have stop signs, drivers honk to warn the crossing cars. If you are susceptible to noise, you may resort to earplugs when you need to do some deep thinking. Otherwise, go along; soon youll consider it white noise.

Its only with humour that Egyptians have managed to overcome their hurdles and challenges. Egyptians laugh through their sorrows and pains. They make jokes about themselves and laugh their crises off. It is part and parcel of how Egyptians live. Enjoy the easygoingness and laugh along; still their sense of pride is beyond dispute, so ridicule, and downright faultfinding is often met with disdain.

Egypt is a conservative society. People dress modestly though brightly and lavishly. Though Egyptians are very friendly, Id take the cue from my business partners for how I should react. Especially in todays Egypt, the range between what is acceptable and what isnt is wide. In Egypt, while one woman may opt not to shake an acquaintances hand, another, though unusual, may hug him.

And in spite of all this, or because of all this, Egypt is an enjoyable place and a truly great place to visit. Turn a blind eye to what some may consider chaos, noise, and pollution, and you will have a blast. Enjoy the ethnic foods: ful Medamis, Koshari, Mouloukhia, and my favourite, Baladi bread. Take in the warmth of the people and weather, and enjoy the splendor of the Nile, the sand dunes, and the pristine seacoast along both the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. And leave time to visit the historical sites, too.
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United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. 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General John E. Hyten, vice chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Monday, "Our goal should be to never go to war with China, to never go to war with Russia. Because that day is a horrible day for the planet, and a horrible day for our countries." Retired US admiral and former head of US Pacific Command Harry Harris also said that "it's very important that we do everything that we can to prevent an escalation and open warfare" with China.

Recently, there have been more voices in the US emphasizing that the US should not have military conflicts with China. This is obviously because the tensions in the relations between the two countries have been escalating. The frontline troops are getting closer and closer, and the US has had real worries of accidental and serious confrontation between the two militaries and even accidental discharge of fires.

The risk of a China-US military confrontation has increased. The reason is that the two countries' strategic hostility has continued to increase, and their mutual trust has dropped to almost zero. Metaphorically, if the wind blows the door shut now, both countries would believe that the other side is slamming the door. If an incident like the 2001 in-flight collision in the South China Sea happens again today, it is difficult for the two sides to cool the incident down and resolve it peacefully.

Who is to blame for such an awkward situation?

China has absolutely no way to retreat. The one-China principle is the fundamental principle that we must insist on. When the Democratic Progressive Party authority wants to promote "Taiwan independence," how can we not stop it? If the US really doesn't want conflicts with the Chinese mainland in the Taiwan Straits, there are two ways. First, it should put pressure on the DPP authority, not allowing it to make trouble. If both the mainland and the US are against "Taiwan independence," the DPP authority will chicken out. Second, the US should stop interfering. It should not intervene if the Chinese mainland launches attacks against Taiwan secessionists. In that case, no conflicts will erupt between China and the US in the Taiwan Straits.

But the problem is: The US is instigating the DPP authority to provoke, continuously sending signals that Washington will offer support even if the island touches the bottom line, while at the same time, it asks the mainland to prevent the so-called competition between the mainland and the US falling into conflicts. We have to ask: Is what Washington has done in the Taiwan Straits "competition"? We advise Washington to straighten out its logic. Political hooligan tactics cannot work with the Chinese mainland.

To prevent military conflicts between China and the US and ensure 100 percent security, the US must retreat from provoking China's core interests. As the "freedom of navigation" in the South China Sea has never been a problem, why do US warships always sail so close to China's islands and reefs? The South China Sea is so wide that lanes are everywhere. Why must they come to China's islands and reefs to find trouble? This is not navigation at all, but undisguised provocations and threats.

The Chinese people have already seen it through. There is no way that we can talk to the US with reason, we can only talk to the US with strength and actions. I noticed that when Hyten said the US should never go to war with China and Russia, he particularly mentioned that "a war with a nuclear power is a bad thing." See? What the US is really afraid of are the nuclear weapons of China and Russia.

So, my conclusion is strong military strength, especially strategic nuclear power, has made the US in deep awe of confronting China. Under the condition that China doesn't proactively attack it, the US knows that it should stick to the bottom line and not push China into a life and death fight with it. Therefore, as long as what China is doing is defending its core interests, China has the morality and has nothing to fear.

The author is editor-in-chief of the Global Times.






(Global Times) Have you ever tried to sing the traditional Chinese opera Kunqu, or Kunqu Opera, in another language while still keeping its original flavor and spirit? Well, that's exactly what 26-year-old French woman Alice Roche has been doing.

With a passion for learning Chinese and singing, Roche, who lives in Shanghai, has shared many videos of her singing Chinese songs that she has translated into French as well as directly in Chinese. She has become a very popular internet influencer in China, with 190,000 followers and over billions of views on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.

In early July, Roche co-published a book with her friends, the title of which can be translated as "I'm good in China: The fate of 22 foreigners and China." In the book, she narrates her experiences in the country she loves.

Different cultures

Born in Paris, France, Roche's attachment to Chinese culture began when she first saw square-shaped Chinese characters in some books.

She started to learn Chinese in high school and joined a tour to China, during which she visited Beijing, Shanghai, Luoyang in Central China's Henan Province and Xi'an, capital city of Northwest China's Shaanxi Province.

"I remembered the trip was very expensive, but I was so desperate to go to this mysterious country," Roche told the Global Times, adding that she became hooked on China when visiting the Terracotta Warriors in Xi'an.

"It's so gorgeous and impressive, and I could tell that Chinese culture and art are very different from French culture."

In order to explore the Eastern nation further, Roche went to National Cheng Kung University on the island of Taiwan and Yancheng Normal University in East China's Jiangsu Province for some exchange programs, and finished her master's degree in Chinese language and media in Paris.

In 2019, she settled down in Shanghai as a brand ambassador for a French wine company, and later jumped jobs to media operations for a French luxury company.

"French luxury bands are very popular in China, but I want to let more Chinese customers know about the culture and history behind the products when they purchase these luxury goods," said Roche.

An unforgettable experience

2020 was a special year for Roche. After spending her Christmas holiday in France in 2019, Roche returned to China in March 2020, just when the COVID-19 outbreak was very serious in China.

"My mom worried about me a lot, and I was a bit of afraid, too. But when I arrived at the airport in Shanghai and saw everything was so well-organized, I felt relieved," she said,

"The staff asked me a lot of questions including where I was going and if I felt uncomfortable, and they gave us passenger stickers with different colors - green, yellow and red - according to our response. After a long registration process, two doctors wearing protective suits drove me home. They told me how to disinfect my dustbin and that I could only put out my trash bag at 2 to 3 pm. A nurse came to take my temperature twice a day and I think they were very polite," Roche said, recalling the unforgettable memory.

Roche quarantined for two weeks at home, which she found was a relaxing time for her.

"I cooked for myself and exercised at home to keep me fit."

Due to the pandemic, the global sales of the company where Roche worked have suffered a sharp decline, except in the Chinese market where Roche and her team sell the products online.

"We planned and held many livestreaming activities during the pandemic, making the sales in our Chinese market rank at the top in our global market," Roche said with a sense of pride.

She explained that in France, stores don't do livestreaming, and mainly sell their goods in bricks and mortar stores, but in China, "the e-commerce business is so prosperous and is very mature."

Becoming a bridge

"Many French like [Alibaba founder] Jack Ma. They think he is a very smart guy. But in fact, French people know little about China and think China is not attractive because most French media often report negative news about China," said Roche, suggesting that "old-fashioned" French media needs to change the way they report, such as showing how people live in China and introducing Chinese culture.

She also pointed out that French people have a lot of stereotypes about Chinese.

"For example, they think all Chinese are good at math and shy, which is not true."

Roche said she is very interested in the differences between China and France and wants to become a "bridge" for cultural exchanges.

"Chinese think all French are 'romantic,' but I think Chinese have their own style of romance, too, " Roche said, revealing that she is planning to open a YouTube account to share her life in China.
Elon Musk: Software will shape future of the car industry
Les Religions Sauvages [NSFW] is a two-hour film featuring a series of animations which depict a trip to hell. This film, directed by Pakito Bolino in 2004, includes work from 30 artists, from 11 different countries.

The scenes in this film were inspired by religious imagery of the La Major cathedral in Marseille. I watched this entire film from start to finish in one sitting, and I'm positive that tonight, my dreams are going to reflect the surreal horror I just witnessed. All of these artists' minds combined is a riveting concoction of madness.

From YouTube:
Gotta catch 'em all! On September 10th, a group of thieves crashed a white van into a Dutch toy store and made off with an unknown quantity of goods. Pokemon and Lego, which have cult followings among kids and collectors alike, have become increasingly valuable. Some Pokemon cards can sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

"According to a press release from Dutch police, the ram raid occurred at 9:30 PM local time Friday and targeted a branch of the Dutch toy store chain Intertoys in Voorburg, a town of 40,000 in the southwest of the Netherlands.

Police, including a helicopter, chased after a white van only to later find out it was the wrong vehicle. Later in the night, they found the actual suspected van abandoned on a street in The Hague, a nearby city.

The manager of the store told Dutch media that the thieves were out for the store's Pokemon and Lego collection."
The Washington Post reports that Michael Langeman, an FBI agent who failed to investigate U.S.A Gymnastics child abuser Larry Nassar, has finally been fired. The news comes barely hours before a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee in which several of Nasser's victimsgymnastics stars McKayla Maroney, Simone Biles, Maggie Nichols and Aly Raismanare scheduled to testify.

According to the Post, Langeman is among the unnamed FBI officials described in a scathing report this summer from the Justice Department's inspector general. The report found the agents investigating allegations of sexual abuse by Nassar had violated the FBI's policies by making false statements and failing to properly document complaints by the accusers, resulting in a delay in the probe into the claims.  An attorney for representing multiple Nassar victims, John Manly, told the Post that Langeman's firing was "long overdue" but said, "I can't help but wonder if this is because of the Senate hearing, and the timing seems cynical."

Nassar abused children and young women for 18 years in his position as team doctor of the U.S. national women's gymnastics team, and was jailed for life in 2017 after his conviction in trials for sexual abuse and possession of child pornography.

Though several other U.S.A. Gymnastics officials were ultimately charged with protecting Nasser and facilitating his crimes, the authorities' disinterest in him despite years (if not decades) of complaints remains a largely unexplained aspect of the case. Even with the "scathing" DOJ report, which concluded Langeman had lied to later investigators, it still isn't clear where the FBI's contempt for the victims ends and something even more malignant begins. From The New York Times:

The president of U.S.A. Gymnastics discussed the possibility of a top security job at the United States Olympic Committee with an F.B.I. agent investigating the national team doctor on allegations of sexual abuse. Steve Penny, the federation president, who stepped down in March 2017, had also worried about the organization's image and sought to cultivate a close relationship with federal investigators, going so far as to ask for their recommendations on the wording of public statements about the investigation, according to emails reviewed by The New York Times. In one email to an F.B.I. employee, he wrote, "We need some cover."

UPDATE: Maroney's dropping the axe in Congress today.
With all the concerns about sending students back to school this fall while the Delta variant of COVID-19 continues to rage, it seems that Massachusetts lawmakers overlooked one particular important bit of infrastructure: the people needed to drive the school buses that bring students in. In Boston, for example, only about half of the students arrived on time for the first day of school. The city of Worcester outright shuttered its after-school programs due to lack of transportation. Smaller cities like Chelsea are also suffering, with twenty percent of their fleet running late because of drivers being forced to pull double-duty.

So Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker decided to do something about it: call the National Guard.

From the Boston Globe:

Governor Charlie Baker activated the Massachusetts National Guard Monday to assist with school transportation, starting in four cities. Up to 250 personnel will be available, with 90 Guard members slated to begin training on Tuesday to help with transportation in the Chelsea, Lawrence, Lowell, and Lynn school systems, according to a statement from the state's Executive Office of Public Safety and Security. The members will drive school transport vans known as 7D vehicles, which have a maximum of 11 seats, including the driver. The vans are primarily used for driving students with special needs, according to the Massachusetts National Guard. Bus monitors will be required to be aboard each vehicle.

Not quite the typical function I'd expect for the state militia, but it's certainly a solution. And I suppose I'm glad to see our uniformed soldiers fighting for the youth of America in a much more direct way than usual.

Baker activates National Guard to address school transportation staffing shortages [Felicia Gans and Jenna Russell / The Boston Globe]

Image: Public Domain via PxHere
Founding members of the MANRS Initiative will tackle the systemic vulnerabilities of global routing security through groundbreaking collaborative action

GENEVA, Switzerland, September 15, 2021--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Mutually Agreed Norms for Routing Security (MANRS) initiative, supported by the Internet Society, today announced a groundbreaking Equipment Vendor Program to help reduce the most common threats to the Internets routing system.

Founding participants in this new MANRS Program include global leaders in network equipment Arista, Cisco, Huawei, Juniper, and Nokia, with others expected to join soon.

The security of the Internet depends on routing security. Systemic issues that arise from how traffic is routed make the Internet vulnerable to abuse, attacks, and errors. Through technical and collaborative action, MANRS helps networks take crucial steps to decrease route hijacking, route leaks, and IP address spoofing.

Network equipment vendors provide business-grade products and services to communication service providers such as fixed or mobile operators, Internet exchange points (IXPs), and enterprise customers. Improving security controls for their products, such as routers and switches, and making them easy to configure enables their customers worldwide to route Internet traffic securely by default.

The MANRS Equipment Vendor Program provides best practices for all network equipment vendors. Participants agree to specific actions to improve the resilience and security of the routing infrastructure. By joining, they agree to the baseline of routing security defined by a set of two actions and a commitment:

Equipment vendors agree to provide security features network operators can use to implement MANRS recommendations such as preventing incorrect routing information and IP address spoofing.

Participants agree to promote MANRS through training and technical content.

They also agree to actively participate in the MANRS community to advise members, develop solutions, and contribute to routing security resources.

"Having five of the leading network equipment vendors in the world working together with the MANRS community to launch the new Equipment Vendor Program demonstrates the importance of routing security in making the Internet safe for business and consumers alike," said Andrei Robachevsky, Senior Director, Technology Programs for the Internet Society. "These founding participants are leading by example to improve routing security and hopefully will motivate the entire Internet infrastructure community to make the Internet more secure for everyone."

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Collaboration and shared responsibility are key to the success of MANRS. The new Equipment Vendor Program is the latest in a series of programs established by MANRS including, the MANRS IXP Program in 2018 and the CDN & Cloud Program in 2020. To date, over 600 network operators, IXPs, and content delivery network (CDN) and cloud providers have signed on. By joining, these companies are showing their commitment to securing the fabric of the Internet.

Founding Participants Quotes

Arista: "For Arista, security is a key attribute of our overall solution, starting at the routing perimeter for worldwide Internet resiliency. As a global industry leader in cloud networking, we want to take part in the efforts to secure the Internet as well," said Ashwin Kohli, Senior Vice President, Customer Engineering for Arista Networks. "MANRS is providing great guidelines to achieve that goal and Arista Networks is proud to be a founding participant of the MANRS vendor program."

Cisco: "At Cisco, security is ingrained in everything we do. We believe earning customer trust is about being transparent and accountable as we strive to connect more people and businesses to the Internet securely," said Kevin Wollenweber, Vice President of Networking, Mass-Scale Infrastructure Group, Cisco. "With the state of hybrid work and so many applications running on service provider router platforms, we continuously update our network OS across platforms to help our customers mitigate advanced and persistent threats. As a founding member of the equipment vendor program, we look forward to collaborating with the broader community to drive network security innovation."

Huawei: Hank Chen, President of Metro Router domain of Data Communication Product Line, Huawei says: "Routing security is crucial to Internet security, and that includes network devices (e.g., routers and IXP switches), the foundation of the Internet. Over the years, Huawei has dedicated itself to building secure and reliable network devices and has extensive capabilities and experience in the field. Huawei is honored to join MANRS as an active contributor to Internet security."

Juniper Networks: "With a greater reliance on the Internet now more than ever, its crucial that the Internet is stable and offers secure and trusted methods to connect users. It is the responsibility of the global community to work together to ensure that the ecosystem forming the Internet works well and is protected against threat actors. Juniper Networks is a proud supporter of the MANRS program and will continue to strive for a better internet in todays connected world," says Melchior Aelmans, Consulting Engineer, Juniper Networks.

About the Internet Society

Founded by Internet pioneers, the Internet Society (ISOC) is a non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring the open development, evolution and use of the Internet. Working through a global community of chapters and members, the Internet Society collaborates with a broad range of groups to promote the technologies that keep the Internet safe and secure, and advocates for policies that enable universal access. The Internet Society is also the organizational home of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915006128/en/

Contacts

Media:

Allesandra de Santillana

Internet Society

desantillana@isoc.org
Tai Ji Men Qigong Academy: Nearly a quarter of a century of human rights violations by the Taiwanese government cannot quench Tai Ji Men's love and concern for the world

Tai Ji Men Members Speak Out in Front of the UN Headquarters

Members of the Tai Ji Men Qigong Academy and Action Alliance to Redress 1219 protest against the Taiwanese government's violations of Tai Ji Men's human rights in front of the United Nations Headquarters.

Members of the Tai Ji Men Qigong Academy and Action Alliance to Redress 1219 protest against the Taiwanese government's violations of Tai Ji Men's human rights in front of the United Nations Headquarters.

NEW YORK, Sept. 15, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- September 11, 2021 marks the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks . On this historic day, over 30 volunteers from Tai Ji Men Qigong Academy and Action Alliance to Redress 1219 (ACT 1219) gathered in front of the United Nations building and other locations in New York to pray for the city, the U.S. and the world, wishing that everyone's conscience will be awakened, disasters will be prevented, and a world of love and peace will be realized.



Three of the volunteers witnessed the 9/11 attacks 20 years ago. Pamela Chen, a Tai Ji Men member from Los Angeles, arrived in New York on the morning of September 11, 2021. Shortly after landing in the Big Apple, she and other Tai Ji Men members gathered in front of the United Nations Headquarters to spread love, peace, and conscience to New York, the U.S. and the world through their dancing and singing. They also visited Times Square, the Manhattan Neighborhood Network TV Station, Ground Zero, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York and other locations to spread the idea of conscience, love, and peace.

Pamela said that 20 years ago, she witnessed the two planes crashing into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. The city was instantly engulfed in terror and confusion, and everyone was desperate to flee. Dr. Hong, Tao-Tze, the leader of Tai Ji Men , and Tai Ji Men members did not leave New York. On September 12, 2001, at the invitation of the Manhattan MNN Television, he led Tai Ji Men to host a ceremony of ringing the Bell of World Peace and Love to pray for the victims, New York, and the U.S. He prayed for the souls of the departed to rest in peace, as well as for the living to be comforted. Traffic in Manhattan was halted at the time, and people were panicking as if it were a world war. The suffering inflicted by the terrorist acts has made people all across the world yearn for peace more than ever. Even though getting around was difficult and some UN ambassadors had to walk for hours to reach the MNN TV station, many arrived at the bell ringing ceremony venue to ring the Bell and make wishes for peace, safeguarding love and peace with concrete action.

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Lung Ogle, another Tai Ji Men member, was also present during the 9/11 attacks. Despite being over 80 years old, she managed to travel from Florida to New York on this significant day 20 years later to express her best wishes to the victims, the city, the United States, and the world. She visited the MNN TV Station with a group of Tai Ji Men members. In addition to sharing her vivid memory of the ceremony of ringing the Bell of World Peace and Love 20 years ago right after the 9/11 attacks, she expressed her gratitude to the TV station for broadcasting the program produced by Dr. Hong, Tao-Tze, titled Commemorating the 20th Anniversary of the September 11 Attacks with Love, Peace and Conscience, which reminds global citizens to awaken their conscience and respect one another with love and tolerance, as well as urges those in power to administer policies with conscience and avoid violating their peoples human rights. The 90-minute program broadcast on the TV station's various channels on September 11 and 12 will be repeated on September 15.

In addition to promoting the message of love, peace, and conscience, the volunteers also held signs protesting against the Taiwanese government's disregard for the rule of law, violation of their human rights , and allowing a few rogue bureaucrats to persecute Tai Ji Mens master and disciples for nearly 25 years. They chanted slogans in Times Square, such as, The Taiwanese government has persecuted Tai Ji Men and violated their human rights. The Taiwanese government robbed the leader of Tai Ji Men of his property and failed to return his money. Rectify the false Tai Ji Men case . Return to Tai Ji Men its sacred land. Taiwans democracy, Go! Go! Go! Many onlookers were intrigued and inquired about the case with the volunteers. They expressed surprise that such an unjust case occurred in Taiwan.

Their protest drew the attention of nearby police officers. The volunteers described the objective of their demonstration and stated that for the past 20 years, they have been fighting for justice while spreading love and peace . They utilize their own experiences of victimization to convey the value and significance of freedom and human rights to the rest of the world, in the hopes that there would be no more unjust cases and the world would be at peace. The police officers were moved by the volunteers' efforts and inquired if they required any assistance.

This group of volunteers stayed in New York for only 10 hours. They took real action to support New Yorkers and pray for the world when they returned to New York 20 years later. They hope that global citizens will rise above history's scars, care for one another, transcend differences and animosity, and work together to address the world's current issues. They also believe that the combined efforts from world citizens will prevent future calamities and that love should be practiced to create an era of conscience where everyone enjoys freedom, equality, love, and peace.

Tai Ji Men Qigong Academy : Tai Ji Men is an ancient menpai (similar to school) of qigong, martial arts, and self-cultivation. It has carried forward the wisdom of Daoist philosophy, one of the highest philosophies of humankind. It is an international nonprofit cultural organization. Its contemporary zhang-men-ren (grandmaster), Dr. Hong, Tao-Tze established the Tai Ji Men Qigong Academy in 1966, and since then it has grown to 15 academies worldwide.

Dr. Hong teaches his dizi (similar to disciples) methods to achieve physical, mental, and spiritual balance, and tens of thousands of families have benefited from his teaching. At Tai Ji Men, martial arts and wisdom have been passed down from the shifu (master) to his dizi. Through this time-honored tradition, the shifu and dizi promote the Tai Ji Men culture and martial arts around the world while embodying what is true, good, and beautiful as well as spreading the ideas of conscience, love, and peace. Over the past half-century, the shifu and dizi have self-funded trips to over 300 cities in 101 nations to conduct more than 3,000 cultural performances and exchanges and have been recognized as International Ambassadors of Peace and Goodwill .

Media Contact:

Lily Chen

Representative

info@taijimenla.org

626-202-5268

www.taijimen.org/TJM2016G_ENG

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/4609b85f-95fc-48b5-8343-5650ec39fc67




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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 15)  Overseas Filipinos sent more money home in July, data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) showed.

The BSP on Tuesday reported total remittances of $3.16 billion during the month - up 2.6% from the same month last year. This is the highest number tallied since December last year, when Filipinos abroad remitted $3.2 billion.

The central bank attributed the increase in July to higher remittances from land-based laborers with contracts of at least a year  growing by 1.6%. Remittances from short-term seafarers and land-based workers also expanded by 6.9%.

The recent figure brought overall remittances for 2021 to $19.78 billion so far - a 6% climb from the $18.65 billion registered from January to July last year.

The biggest bulk of money sent back to loved ones in the Philippines came from the United States, Malaysia, and South Korea for the seven-month period, the BSP added.

With the latest figures, economists expect remittances to continue growing in the months ahead.

The observed growth is "somewhat defying the pandemic," said RCBC chief economist Michael Ricafort, who cited host countries' efforts to further reopen their economies in light of wider vaccination rollouts.

"With job losses back home elevated and the economy in recession, we expect OF remittances to accelerate to pick up the slack and boost local spending," ING Bank senior economist Nicholas Mapa said.

Remittances are among Filipino families' sources of income  with money sent back home used to pay for basic commodities and utilities, along with luxuries. This boosts household expenditure and buoys economic activity, which quarantine restrictions and pandemic fears have weighed on.

The sustained entry of remittances  along with the recovery in business process outsourcing receipts  will help offset the country's ballooning trade deficit, Mapa added.
The final book of comic book illustration legend Alex Nino is a historical epic that starts with a bang.

Its the year 1762. A conquistador is fleeing the chaos of a naval battle in Jolo. The Spanish military commander Sevellano Rodriguez is running, trying to reach his escape galleon as cannonballs explode around him and the collective wrath of the Kingdom of Sulu, Moro soldiers and the sultans agents give chase. Who is the child he carries with him?

Written by J. Philip Ignacio, with lettering by Lorraine Mare Garcia Barte, and illustrated by Alex Nino, under the imprint of Komiket Inc., this landscape-format graphic novel is all about the adventures of the young Sabina, her coming of age into her identity and an eventual date with destiny, as she trains under her father, the former conquistador whos been exiled by the Spanish colonial forces.

Alandal, the first of a two-part graphic novel, debuted last Sept. 4 as part of the online Philippine International Comics Festival (PICOF) and has been hailed as a landmark return of the iconic drawing pen of Alex Nino.

J. Philip Ignacio and comics legend Alex Nino with their graphic novel Alandal. Photo courtesy of JAY IGNACIO

A Filipino comics artist best known for his work with publishers like DC Comics, Marvel Comics, and his covers for Heavy Metal magazine, Nino was part of the Pinoy-wave of illustrating talents who broke into the comics business in the 1970s. Along with Alfredo Alcala, Nestor Redondo, and Gerry Talaoc, he paved the way for future local illustrators like Whilce Portacio (Wetworks) and Leinil Francis Yu (X-Men) to make it to the big leagues. Before he retired, Nino also worked on Disney movies like Mulan and The Emperor's New Groove.

Writer Jay Ignacio, also known for his stand-up comedy and a member of the band Da Pulis, is still pretty bowled over about it. The fact that he has debuted a graphic novel at the ripe old age of 48, and that the legendary Alex Nino has come out of retirement to be his collaborator on said comic makes him sanguine. This is his second collaboration with Nino, the first was the traditional comics Merchant of Oltrarno (2018).

Now that its over, its only now that its sinking in, says Ignacio, on a Zoom call with CNN Philippines Life, his ecstatic relief palpable after more than three years of hard work. I realized hey Oh, my God Alex Nino is my illustrator!

Ninos art is that classic rich and textured style that made him famous during an era where illustrating was a competition for detail and atmosphere. The darling of Heavy Metal, Creepy, and classic DC has mastered the techniques of overwhelming the eye through sheer beauty of overlapping lines, shades, and tones. His style is no different on Alandal as he depicts ships on rocking, mountainous waves, swarthy pirates, clashes between swordsmen and women and the courtside politics of Sulu and Spain-occupied Philippine islands. All are ripe and gorgeous on a landscape format like a mural, the black and white and grey flowing together to give life to Ignacios script. Sometimes, theres a distinct vibe that the printing on the page is just playing catch-up with the original art, that something has been lost in this format from Ninos original intent.

A preview of the first page of Alandal. Photo from JAY IGNACIO/FACEBOOK

The filmmaker behind the Filipino Martial Arts (FMA) documentary The Bladed Hand (2012) and himself a practitioner of escrima system Kali Ilustrisimo Repeticion Orihinal, Ignacio was always fascinated with the roots of our national martial sport. Alandal was born out of the seed of his fevered dreams, imagining how cool it would be if he could bring to life the world and imagery of the 1700s, a time when it was almost perpetual conflict. According to Ignacios research for his film, arnis as swordplay was being taught to Filipinos by the Spanish colonial military. This was partly towards forming a militia that would aid their expansion in Mindanao against the Sultans and also to protect the galleons plying the shipping routes of the Sulu and Celebes waters, seas plagued by fierce Iranun marauders.

The first time Ignacio thought of pitching the story to Nino was at the 2013 Comic-Con in the U.S. Nino has been based in Los Angeles since the 1980s and Ignacio asked him to draw something for a documentary he was working on back then as B-footage. The illustrator drew this Moro warrior, it was kind of a fantasy-looking figure in his typical style, he did it in just 18 minutes.

When Ignacio took his moonshot, telling Nino as best he could about the opening scene, how conquistador Sevellano Rodriguez was running with a child in his arms, dodging bullets and trying to reach a galleon. But that was just an image, there was no story yet, said Ignacio. Really, it was a patapon pitch. I expected na babalewalain, so I didnt care what he would say afterwards and at least, I told myself, I took my shot. But when he said Yes it was a holy sh*t moment!

Well, we better get started on your comic, Nino told Ignacio. While I am still alive.

[Mang Alexs] condition was: just give me a synopsis and 100% I will take care of the rest, recalled Ignacio. So he had zero input during the process, but it all paid off when, after sending the illustrator the first three chapters, he received photos of the covers a month later, drawn on sprawling 18" x 24" art paper. Photo courtesy of JAY IGNACIO

Ignacio got to cracking on a full script, mindful of the time pressure that the ageing Ninonow 81 years oldcautioned him about. Ignacio threw himself into the research and execution. He consulted historical experts like Dr. Felipe Jocano Jr., learned some Indonesian silat (what would have been the combat system of the Mindanao warriors), dutifully shot reference photos and videos, and took trips to Zamboanga and Basilan.

I went as far south as I could, said Ignacio. I also wanted to go to Jolo and Tawi-Tawi as well but they said I needed a police escort because, that time, the Marawi siege had just finished.

Writing Alandal came with its own valleys and hiccups. Primary among them was the illustrating conditions of Nino. [Mang Alexs] condition was: just give me a synopsis and 100% I will take care of the rest, recalled Ignacio. So he had zero input during the process, but it all paid off when, after sending the illustrator the first three chapters, he received photos of the covers a month later, drawn on sprawling 18" x 24" art paper. I was shocked and surprised at the details! I was enthralled by the imagery, said Ignacio.

The greatest difficulty for Ignacio, in the three-year process of birthing Alandal, came in late-2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and his friend passed away. That was when it got to me, Ignacio said. Because Danry Ocampo was one of the most eager to see the release. His death affected me so much that I lost motivation for several months. I just couldnt work. Everything was delayed and I must say Alandal should have been released last year. Every day I was thinking: Whos going to buy this comic now? Whos even going to care about this? After several months I snapped out of it and said to myself: Wait, teka muna, Mang Alex is waiting for this and it is his last comics! I have a duty to finish this. I remember him saying gawin na natin yan habang buhay pa ako. That rang in my head: while I am still alive.

Ignacio promises that the next part of Princess Sabinas saga, part two of Alandal, will have much more explicit fight scenes, and the swordplay that eventually became our FMA systems, featured in the drawings. Taking inspiration from Arya Stark of Game of Thrones and a real life-ancestor of Ignacios, Sabina is based on the Westerosi princess turned assassin and Princess Sabina Sabane of the Davao Kaagan Tribe  a person that Ignacio can trace his lineage back to the Spanish occupation.

Alandal was born out of the seed of his fevered dreams, imagining how cool it would be if he could bring to life the world and imagery of the 1700s, a time when it was almost perpetual conflict. According to Ignacios research for his film, arnis as swordplay was being taught to Filipinos by the Spanish colonial military. Photo from JAY IGNACIO/FACEBOOK

I also hope readers get curious about the truth behind the fiction, said Ignacio, referring to how the style of Indonesian silat versus Filipino arnis battles are contextualized in true historic incidents, like the Spanish teaching the Visayans militia tactics.

The title itself, Alandal, is a clue that brings clarity and drama to the story, both from an FMA and historical perspective. Though, discussing the intricacies of the story here would be too much of a spoiler, so youll just need to read the graphic novel to find out what or who that is.

I hope that readers learn more after reading about the tribes of the Sulu archipelago. Theres a flash forward there, my statement about colonization and the atrocities that were done against the people of Jolo. A lot of Bangsamoro issues are rooted in the forced annexation of their territory and Alandal tackles those, too.

***

.Alandal is available at Komiket
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 15)  San Miguel Corporation is looking to double its extraction of solid waste from the Tullahan River.

In a statement on Wednesday, SMC president Ramon S. Ang said their target date to start this new goal is Dec. 1, 2021.

"By December 1, we're aiming to double our extraction capacity from the current 2,300 to 2,500 MT (metric tons) per day, to 5,000 MT per day. We are acquiring six sets of new equipment to do this," Ang said.

The 1-billion project is fully funded by the conglomerate.

As of Sept. 11, 414,000 metric tons of solid waste have been extracted, mostly from the project's Sectors 4 and 5 in Malabon and Valenzuela, which is part of the project's initial 11.5-kilometer coverage from the mouth of the Manila Bay in Navotas to Valenzuela.

"Our target output for these sectors is over 1 million metric tons and we expect to reach 600,000 metric tons before the year ends. From this project, we also continue to gather data and gain experience which can be used for our other major river projects, including the clean-up and rehabilitation of the Pasig River and major Bulacan rivers and tributaries," said Ang.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 15)  A number of local government units opened pre-registration for COVID-19 vaccination of adolescents aged 12 to 17 years old after regulatory approvals of some vaccine brands for minors.

Parents and children of the following LGUs can now sign up for vaccination:

- Makati City

- Muntinlupa City

- Caloocan City

- Mandaluyong City

- Manila

- Taguig City

- Pateros

Meanwhile, the Quezon City government said it is coordinating with public and private schools to determine the number of currently enrolled adolescents..

It added that its vaccination task force is also coordinating with barangays to identify out-of-school youth, homeschool students, and students enrolled in schools outside the city.

The Food and Drug Administration approved the use of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines for children age 12 years old and above. The government has yet to give the go-signal on when they can be vaccinated.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 15)  It's all systems go for the implementation of the new lockdown rules that will ease some restrictions in the National Capital Region.

Speaking to CNN Philippines' The Source on Wednesday, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority chair Benhur Abalos said the mayors of the capital region, in coordination with the national government, are ready for the pilot run of the COVID-19 alert level system from Sept. 16 to 30.

Despite the World Health Organizations warning that Metro Manila's growing vaccine coverage is still inadequate to consider easing some restrictions, Abalos maintained that there are lesser establishments and businesses that would be allowed to operate at limited capacity under the new lockdown system.

"If I may just tell the viewers, yung sinasabi ni Dr. Rabi (WHO country representative Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe), kung titignan mo yung binabawal sa personal care mas mahaba. Kung babasahin ko pa yun, napakahaba, kamukha ng indoor tourist attractions, libraries, etc.," Abalos said.

[Translation: Regarding the comment of Dr. Rabi, if you will read the list of prohibited personal care services, it's a long one, similar to indoor tourist attractions, libraries, etc.]

"Kung tutuusin mo, marami pa ring bawal, kaunti lang po ang binigay," he added.

[Translation: In fact, a lot of businesses are still prohibited, only a few are allowed to open.]

RELATED: WHO: Vaccination coverage in NCR not enough to ease restrictions

When asked about the level of preparation of Metro Manila mayors, Abalos said they would ensure the proper implementation of the new system since they are all coordinating with each other.

San Juan City Mayor Francis Zamora told CNN Philippines' New Day on Wednesday that he would personally go around commercial establishments to ensure that they are complying with proper health protocols.

"Tomorrow, I am going around these malls to install stickers indicating 100% fully vaccinated employees in establishments that will be allowed to open under GCQ with alert levels," he said.

Zamora also expressed confidence about conducting granular lockdown in his city. He said San Juan has 12 areas under lockdown but are all guarded and supplied with food.

Metro Manila will be placed under Alert Level 4 from Sept. 16 to 30.

Under Alert Level 4, persons below 18 years old and over 65 years old, those with comorbidities, and pregnant women are not allowed to go out of their houses. However, they are permitted to go outside if they are buying essential goods or services or working in permitted industries.

Outdoor dine-in services, barbershops, hair spas, nail spas, beauty salons, and physical religious gatherings are allowed to operate for up to 30% of their outdoor seating capacity. They may operate indoors at a 10% capacity provided that customers and workers are fully vaccinated.

READ: Metro Manila to be placed under Alert Level 4 starting Sept. 16
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 15)  The provincial government of Batanes has declared a state of calamity following the "massive destruction" brought by Typhoon Kiko (international name: Chanthu).

The Sanggungiang Panlalawigan (Provincial Board) approved Resolution No. 129, declaring a state of calamity on Sept. 13.

Kiko "severely affected" 100% of the province's population and left initial damage worth P258 million, the local government said in the resolution.

The declaration will authorize the local government to use calamity funds for faster relief and rehabilitation efforts.

Kiko made landfall on Ivana, Batanes on Sept. 11 and left the Philippine area of responsibility the next day.

Three people were reported injured in the aftermath of the typhoon, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) reported on Wednesday. It said it will still validate the reports.

The NDRRMC said Kiko affected 37,660 individuals in Ilocos Region, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, and Cordillera Administrative Region.

Floods were reported and 323 houses were damaged  38 of them totally destroyed.
(CNN)  Queen Elizabeth sent a message of congratulations to the people of North Korea on their national day, a Buckingham Palace spokesperson told CNN.

The message was sent on behalf of the Queen by the UK's Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) "as has been done before," the spokesperson said.

This is standard practice on other national days across the world, the Palace added. "Her Majesty in all dealings with other Heads of State acts on the advice of the FCDO," the spokesperson said.

"As in previous years, HM The Queen has sent a message to the people of the DPRK on the occasion of their National Day," a UK FCDO spokesperson added.

North Korea celebrated its national day  to mark the 73rd anniversary of its founding  on September 9. It marked the day with a midnight military parade in Pyongyang. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un appeared on a platform in Kim Il Sung square and waved at the crowd, but there was no mention of him giving a speech, according to state media outlet Rodong Sinmun.

North Korean state media KCNA published the message on Monday, reporting that "Kim Jong Un, president of the State Affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), received a message of greeting from Elizabeth II, queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, on September 7."

According to KCNA, the message read: "As the people of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea celebrate their National Day, I send my good wishes for the future."

The notoriously reclusive country severed almost all of its ties with the outside world in 2020 to prevent an influx of coronavirus cases. North Korea has not reported a major outbreak of Covid-19, and there have been no indications one has taken place, though experts doubt Pyongyang's claim the country has not seen a single case of the virus.

Most if not all foreign diplomats and aid workers have left the country, citing shortages of goods and extreme restrictions on daily life.

In June, Kim fired several senior officials who failed to enforce North Korea's stringent Covid-19 prevention, state news agency KCNA reported. It appears some members of the upper echelons of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea were replaced, KCNA said.

This story was first published on CNN.com "Palace confirms Queen Elizabeth sent message of congratulations to North Korea"
(CNN)  Liliana Silva didnt see it coming. When her brother traveled from Germany, where he lives, to visit his family in Chile, none of them felt vulnerable. He had completed the 10-day mandatory quarantine in Santiago and shown no symptoms of COVID-19.

Yet, less than a week later, her parents, her three daughters and an aunt were infected with the Delta variant. She and her husband werent spared. Soon, they also felt unwell. Nearly everyone had mild symptoms, lasting from 2 to 4 days  except for her father and children.

"My father suffers from chronic leukemia; he had pneumonia, got dehydrated and was hospitalized. If he hadn't gotten his shots, he would have died," she said, referring to the COVID-19 vaccine.

Her children, however, were too young to have been vaccinated, and suffered badly from the infection. "My daughters went through high fever, coughing, vomiting and bad headaches. I wish they had been vaccinated; I was in constant fear for them," she said.

Since Chile started immunizing its population against COVID-19, last February, it has been internationally praised for its smooth and successful vaccination campaign. According to the health ministry's latest reports, almost 87% of eligible Chileans are fully vaccinated.

That's a figure that positions this South American country among the nations with the highest share of people immunized. Chile also stands out compared to the rest of Latin America and the Caribbean, where 75% of the regional total population had yet to be fully vaccinated as of Sept 1, according to the Pan American Health Organization.

The high immunization coverage has led to decreasing infection rates, but Chile doesn't plan to cut back precautions, or ease its vaccination drive. Last week, the government announced that Chile would become one of the few countries in the world to approve vaccination with CoronaVac for children between the ages of 6 and 11. Inoculations started on Monday.

"It is known that in countries where most of the adult population has been immunized, the coronavirus starts targeting those who remain more vulnerable and kids get more infected, as is happening in the United States," says Dr. Lorena Tapia, a pediatrician and infectologist from the Universidad de Chile and a member of the advising committee on vaccines for the Science Ministry.

"We must move forward with immunization among the youngest."

An early strategy

Different elements explain Chiles successful vaccination rate. Authorities started planning a response to the pandemic very early on. In May 2020, two months after the country reported its first COVID-19 cases, the Ministry of Science began negotiating contracts with different labs  Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Sinovac (which makes the Coronavac), and CanSino  to secure the purchase of shots for all Chileans.

Simultaneously, the institution worked on having the local scientific community take part in Phase 3 clinical trials, which would give the country priority in the supply of vaccines. Ultimately, commercial deals were closed promptly.

"From the beginning, our campaign was based on the advantages of having a diversified portfolio of vaccines," says Minister of Science Andres Couve.

"That allowed us not to depend on the availability of one provider only, considering the high demand there is for anti-Covid doses globally," he adds.

That strategy, combined with an overall historically well-organized vaccination system, the setting up of 1400 new inoculation sites and an easy-to-access scheduling system by eligible groups, has allowed the country's vaccination process to move forward with few interruptions.

It helps that Chile has a small population. And its relatively low debt and long-time responsible fiscal policy also mean enough funds to buy sufficient vaccines. The country's political and economic stability has even attracted Chinese investments: Sinovac recently announced it will open a vaccine factory near Santiago next year.

So far Chile has received 36 million doses for a population of 19 million, enough to have already started distributing booster shots. Every week, a new group of people become eligible for the boosters  this week, the country is giving booster shots to people ages 55 and up.

"It's very easy to get vaccinated in Chile and people have been very responsible. The anti-vaccine movement is marginal," says Eduardo Undurraga, a former researcher at the US CDC and current professor at Universidad Catolica de Chile.

Chileans have historically relied on immunization campaigns, and vaccine skepticism has not taken deep root in the country. In fact, Chile eradicated smallpox 27 years earlier than the rest of the world and was the third country to control polio. Citizens' trust in vaccines has also allowed to significantly reduce childhood diseases such as measles, mumps, and rubella.

Undurraga was part of the team leading an evaluation of the effectiveness of the CoronaVac inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, using a massive prospective cohort of approximately 10 million individuals in Chile. The study was commissioned by the country's health ministry after the international community raised doubts about the efficacy of maker Sinovac's formula, which has been the backbone of Chile's immunization campaign.

The results, released in early July, were reassuring: the study found that its effectiveness was about 66% for prevention of Covid and around 90% for the prevention of hospitalization, ICU admission and death. However, this investigation was done before the first cases of Chileans infected with the Delta variant were reported in late June.

Staying vigilant

While COVID-19 figures are surging again in Central America and the Caribbean, in the past week Chile reached its lowest infection rate and number of active cases since March 2020.

The percentage of nasal and throat swabs with positive results has stabilized at less than 1%, which led the government to progressively loosen confinement restrictions ... somewhat. A 10 pm curfew that has been in place since last year, for example, has shifted to 12am  enough to allow some Chileans to feel they are finally getting some freedom again.

Immunologists and epidemiologists, however, insist on the need to stay vigilant. They are particularly concerned about the Delta variant, which has been circulating for a few months now.

Between the end of February and late July, Chile went through a dramatic wave of COVID-19, with daily new infections reaching up to 9,000. At that time, vaccination had just started, and the coverage was too low to have an impact. Chileans, however, felt safer and stopped following some self-protection measures. Experts also attributed the spike of COVID-19 cases to holidaymakers' travel.

Since then, broad vaccination has played a key role in preventing a new outbreak, experts say, but it isn't enough.

That's why the government has never fully lifted prevention measures, in contrast to other countries which eased social distancing rules after experiencing a decrease of confirmed cases, then saw infections surge. Face mask wearing is still enforced, as is social distancing in public places and schools. Borders are not fully open again and travelers still face significant restrictions.

Those actions have allowed Chileans to keep the Delta strain in line until now. But with COVID-19, uncertainty always prevails.

"We can't say it is under control," says Dr. Alexis Kalergis, director of the Millennium Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy in Santiago. "The pandemic isnt over and if were not careful we can have a new outbreak at any time."

Despite being cautious about attributing decreasing infection rates merely to the immunization process, Kalergis said that expanding vaccination even further is the best way to avoid the appearane and spread of new strains.

A vaccine for children

In this context, vaccinating the youngest seems like the natural next step for Chile to preserve its success. As pediatric hospitalizations spike in some countries, including the US, Chile is racing to escape from that path.

Dr. Catterina Ferreccio, an epidemiologist who serves on the Health Ministrys Covid-19 Advisory Committee, explains the urgency: At this stage of the pandemic, she says, kids are likely to become a reservoir for COVID-19, which is risky for them and the rest of the community. There could be at some point, a new variant that beats their natural defenses.

Dr. Lorena Tapia, the pediatrician, shares that concern. She also points out that in this country 52% of children in school age are overweight or obese, which increases their risk of severe illness and even death from COVID-19. There is also a significant number of children with respiratory diseases.

"It may be true that most kids will do well if theyre infected, but several of them won't. And today, with the safety data we manage, it is something we can prevent."

Last Monday, Ferreccio took part in COVID-19 advisory committee's meeting to assess approving the CoronaVac vaccine for children between 6 and 11. She says that the decision was taken on the basis of reliable data provided by China, where more than 40 million kids in that age range have been inoculated with CoronaVac, and on Chile's own long experience with this kind of vaccine.

"This is a well-known vaccine platform; we are not experimenting. It is very safe, and we have seen that when the children are protected, we are all protected against new strains," she says.

Plus, getting kids back to school is an important public health measure in itself, she says.

"As a grandmother of 5, Ive seen how hard its been for [children] to stay at home, and it gets worse in lower income families," says Ferreccio, the epidemiologist.

"We have seen domestic violence rates swell and it's damaging children tremendously. For many kids school is a protection. Vaccinating them will calm the fears of parents, teachers, and epidemiologists. We can't wait any longer."

This story was first published on CNN.com "Chile overcame the Delta variant. Now it's racing to vaccinate kids"
(CNN)  Britain's strict COVID-19 testing requirements for overseas visitors and Brits wishing to holiday abroad had a "devastating impact" on the UK travel industry this summer, causing it to fall behind European rivals and putting thousands of jobs at risk.

London's Heathrow Airport, meanwhile, revealed Monday that it is now Europe's tenth busiest airport, slipping from the top spot in 2019.That's according to Britain's Travel Association, which said Tuesday that more than two thirds of its members are planning further layoffs once government support for wages comes to an end later this month. London's Heathrow Airport, meanwhile, revealed Monday that it is now Europe's tenth busiest airport, slipping from the top spot in 2019.

"The government needs to wake up to the damage its policies are doing to the UK travel industry and the impact they will have on the wider economic recovery," Travel Association CEO Mark Tanzer said in a statement. "A diminished holiday industry is a diminished aviation industry with fewer routes and fewer flights. That's not how you achieve a global Britain," he added.

Despite one of the most successful vaccine rollouts in the world, the UK government has kept in place a range of travel requirements for visitors and Brits wishing to leave the country.

Travelers are required to take costly coronavirus tests before departure and upon return to England, even if they are fully vaccinated and traveling from countries deemed as low risk for coronavirus by the government. Anyone arriving from a high risk country is required to quarantine for 10 days in a hotel at their own expense.

By comparison, EU citizens who are double vaccinated have been able to travel within Europe without the need to test for months, according to the Travel Association. "The government's overly cautious travel requirements have led to the UK trailing behind its European competitors," it added.

Before the coronavirus pandemic struck, Heathrow was Europe's busiest airport, welcoming a record 80.9 million passengers in 2019.

It now ranks behind major rivals including Amsterdam's Schiphol, Charles de Gaulle in Paris and Frankfurt International, as well as smaller airports in Turkey and Russia.

Passenger numbers were down 71% in August versus the same month in 2019, and cargo volumes were 14% weaker. Some EU competitors reached pre-pandemic cargo volumes at the end of 2020, according to Heathrow Airport.

Data from Airports Council International Europe shows that Heathrow welcomed fewer than 3.9 million passengers in the first half of this year, a 90% reduction on 2019.

These numbers do not bode well for Britain's ability to recover its status as the tenth most popular destination worldwide for international tourist arrivals in 2019. It was also the world's fourth largest spender on tourism that year, trailing only Germany, the United States and China, and indicating a high number of outbound travelers, according to the United Nations World Tourism Organization.

Heathrow and the Travel Association have called on the UK government to scrap coronavirus testing for fully vaccinated travelers when it reviews international travel requirements on October 1.

They also want the current "traffic light" system reviewed and simplified. The system classes countries as either red, amber or green for coronavirus with differing rules in place for each category.

"The current traffic light system is an outlier and is delaying the government's global Britain ambitions, handing rivals a competitive advantage while the UK loses market share," Heathrow Airport said in a statement.

Budget carrier EasyJet said in July it has shifted some planes from Britain to Europe, where demand was stronger.

A spokesperson for the Department of Transport said the government's "top priority" is to protect public health and that it regularly reviews the traffic light system.

"We recognize the challenging times facing the travel sector, which is why we have committed around 7 billion ($9.7 billion) of support by September 2021 and continue to work with industry to help them navigate this difficult period," the spokesperson added.

The World Travel and Tourism Council estimated in July that the the lack of inbound international visitors to the United Kingdom was costing the economy 639 million ($889 million) a day.

"2021 is in danger of being no better than the last [year] for the travel and tourism sector [in the United Kingdom], despite the incredibly successful vaccine rollout," WTTC president Julia Simpson said in a statement earlier this month.

This story was first published on CNN.com Britain was a world leader in travel. Not anymore
(CNN)  Instagram says it's looking at new ways to discourage users from focusing on their physical appearance after The Wall Street Journal revealed that Facebook researchers have repeatedly found that the photo-sharing platform is toxic for teen girls.

The newspaper reported on Tuesday that researchers at Facebook, which purchased Instagram in 2012, have been conducting studies for the past three years into how the app affects its millions of young users. The research shows the platform can damage mental health and body image, especially among teen girls. Facebook executives have often played down mental health concerns in public.

"We make body image issues worse for one in three teen girls," said one internal presentation slide obtained by The Journal, summarizing research about teen girls who experience the issues. Among teens who reported suicidal thoughts, 13% of British users and 6% of American users traced the desire to kill themselves to Instagram, one presentation showed, according to The Journal.

Karina Newton, head of public policy at Instagram, wrote in a statement posted on Tuesday that referenced the newspaper article that while Instagram can be a place where people have "negative experiences," the app also gives a voice to marginalized people and helps friends and family stay connected.

Newton said that Facebook's internal research demonstrated the company's commitment to "understanding complex and difficult issues young people may struggle with, and informs all the work we do to help those experiencing these issues."

According to the Wall Street Journal, Facebook researchers concluded that some problems with teen mental health were specific to Instagram, and not social media more broadly, especially when it comes to "social comparison." That's when users focus on how their wealth, appearance or success stacks up against other people on the platform.

The research has been reviewed by top Facebook executives, according to The Journal, and was cited in a 2020 presentation given to CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Newton said in her blog post on Tuesday that Instagram is "increasingly focused on addressing negative social comparison and negative body image." One idea is to prompt users to look at different topics when they repeatedly view content of that kind.

"We're cautiously optimistic that these nudges will help point people towards content that inspires and uplifts them, and to a larger extent, will shift the part of Instagram's culture that focuses on how people look," she said.

That might not be enough to appease critics. Facebook reaffirmed in July in that it was moving forward with plans to build an Instagram for kids under the age of 13 despite significant opposition from parents and lawmakers in Washington.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut, said Tuesday that The Journal's report demonstrates that Facebook has known for years of Instagram's "damaging effect on young people," and that its own employees' warnings were "shoved aside in favor of growth."

"I'm appalled and alarmed by Facebook's targeting of teens with dangerous products while hiding the science of its toxic impact," he said on Twitter. "Through hearings and legislation my Commerce subcommittee will act to protect children and support parents."

If you or someone you know might be at risk of suicide, a worldwide directory of resources and international hotlines is provided by the International Association for Suicide Prevention. You can also turn to Befrienders Worldwide.

This story was first published on CNN.com, "Instagram says it's working on body image issue after report details 'toxic' effect on teen girls"
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 15)  With less than eight months before the 2022 elections, the United States government is warning that the "tsunami of disinformation" and the pandemic "dampening voter enthusiasm," could threaten both the conduct of the polls, and Philippine democracy in general.

"Democracy is called into question - (with) informed voting undermined by disinformation (and) voters potentially opting out because they are afraid for their own health," said John Groch, incoming public affairs chief of the US Embassy in Manila. "This is where the media comes in - because journalists play a crucial role in ensuring the conduct of safe and credible elections."

"All over the world, including in both of our countries - both the Philippines and the US' long-standing commitment to democracy are being challenged by appeals to authoritarianism," Groch, speaking from Washington DC, told an online media forum on Wednesday. He is due in Manila later this month.

"So it's not just candidates who are running in the elections, but it's actually democracy itself that sometimes seems to be on the ballot these days," he added.

Groch cited the challenges faced by the US presidential elections last year, where voters were given the option to mail in their ballots. As a result, counting of the votes took longer than usual.

And while American news organizations "made the deliberate point of explaining to voters" the extended electoral process while managing poll outcome expectations, Groch said the "message did not get through to everybody" since the public was also heavily bombarded with disinformation.

But through "correct and transparent" reporting, media outlets "helped stabilize our democratic system," he pointed out.

"Those challenges to democracy are actually being abetted by deliberate attempts to undermine not just the truth, but in fact, deliberate attempts to undermine our very ability to ascertain what is true," Groch said.

He cautioned that the Philippines may go through the same challenges next year.

The US Embassy gathered select representatives from print, digital, and broadcast news organizations nationwide in a pre-2022 elections webinar, in a bid to boost Filipino journalists' role in filling the gap on voters' access to proper education and information, while the polls are being mounted amid the unprecedented restrictions brought about by a raging pandemic.

"From the point of view of a fellow democracy, it's important to us to empower the media to accurately and freely report on election-related issues because elections are a hallmark of a democratic process," Groch said.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 15)  The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) on Wednesday said it is strictly monitoring borders to thwart any possible terror attacks in the country.

This came after the Japanese government advised its citizens to avoid religious facilities and crowds in the Philippines and five other Southeast Asian countries due to possible terror attacks.

Vice Admiral Leopoldo Laroya, commandant of the PCG, said they would continue carrying out intensified border protection measures and round-the-clock seaborne patrol operations across the country.

"The Philippine Coast Guard, in coordination with the military and law enforcement units, sees no reason to be alarmed by the said issuance," he said in a statement.

"Rest assured that our men and women will not put their guards down and will continue to be vigilant in conducting precautionary measures for public safety, he added.

Philippine security officials on Tuesday said they did not receive reports on possible terror attacks in the country. The military said the current threat level in the country is "moderate."

Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr., meanwhile, said authorities should take the warning seriously.

"Japanese intelligence is focused on real threats and its information-gathering capabilities are legendary. It doesnt hurt to listen and take precautions," he said in a tweet on Wednesday.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 15)  After initially keeping distance, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte on Wednesday urged her supporters to back her father, President Rodrigo Duterte, in his bid for the vice presidency in the 2022 elections.

"Mayroong kaming maayos na kasunduan ni Pangulong Duterte sa aming kani-kaniyang karera sa pulitika. Ibigay po natin sa kanya ang pinakamalakas natin na suporta sa kanyang desisyon na tumakbong vice president," she said in a video message.

[Translation: President Duterte and I have an agreement on our political careers. Let us give our strongest support for his decision to run for vice president.]

The presidential daughter also thanked her supporters who have been pushing her to run for president next year.

READ: Supporters 'unfazed' despite Sara Duterte's declaration she's not running in 2022

Last week, the Davao City mayor ruled out running for the top post after her father accepted PDP-Laban's nomination to be the ruling party's vice presidential bet. She said they both agreed that only one of them will run for a national position.

Mayor Duterte also previously told the President and Senator Bong Go to "own up" publicly their decision to run as a tandem after her father "personally confirmed" to her his plan for the upcoming polls.

Go has already declined PDP-Laban's nomination to be its standard bearer.
The merger of Papua New Guineas state providers Telikom PNG and bmobile is reportedly on track to close by the end of this month.

Local news outlet The National quoted Telikom PNGs acting CEO Amos Tepi as saying that the merger was around 85% completed. He went on to say: We are just looking at the regulatory and legal aspects and once that is over, we are going over the line so we should meet the deadline.

TeleGeography reports that plans to merge three of PNGs state-owned entities were first revealed in February 2017. In addition to Telikom PNG and bmobile, the merger also aims to fold in wholesale operator PNG DataCo in order to boost efficiencies and create a vertically-integrated company.
As expected, the Ethiopian government has formally announced its proposal for the partial privatisation of state-owned operator Ethio Telecom.

The Ethiopian News Agency has reported that the government has released a request for proposal (RFP) for the partial privatization, with the aim of inviting proposals from interested parties who can, as the announcement puts it, add value to the company by bringing in best practices in terms of operations, infrastructure management and next generation technological capabilities.

This isnt the only privatisation under way or planned in Ethiopia. The Government of Ethiopia has laid out the framework for the privatisation of a number of public enterprises under the Public Enterprises Privatisation Proclamation No. 1206/2020.

The objective of this strategy is to broaden the role of the private sector in the Ethiopian economy, improve the efficiency of public enterprises, enhance their competitiveness, increase their access to capital, and enhance the quality and accessibility of their services.

As for the telecommunications business, the announcement makes it clear that a fast-growing economy and a young population, along with low teledensity, are among the reasons that the country hopes to attract private investment to make the most of what is described as the huge untapped potential in Ethiopias telecommunications sector.

The announcement suggest that Ethio Telecoms robust infrastructure coupled with its strong financial performance will offer significant competitive advantage to any investor. If this is indeed the case, the response to the RFP will be interesting.
The Indian cabinet has approved a relief package that may help to counter the effect of the massive debt burden faced by a number of players in the telecommunications market  most notably by operator Vodafone Idea.

Among a number of measures on offer, the package gives operators the option of converting a part of their dues into government equity now. They may be able to covert another part of their dues into equity after four years if the payment of those dues is still adversely affecting performance.

According to Indias Economic Times news service, the package is also likely to include a four-year moratorium on AGR and spectrum payments, a reduction in bank guarantees, redefining AGR to exclude non-telecom items (although this will not be retrospective) and allowing operators to give up unused spectrum.

Will this package be enough to rescue Vodafone Idea? In its April-June earnings report, the operator said its total gross debt as of 30 June was 1.92 lakh crore rupees. That equates to over $26 billion.

While the news saw a modest rally in Vodafone Idea shares, more concessions may be needed from government  notably on price floors  to ensure the beleaguered companys continued involvement in the market as it seems potential investors are simply not interested.

The UKs Financial Times points out that both Vodafone and the Birla group have refused to invest any more funds into their lossmaking joint venture.

However, the FT also points out that the government is worried about the sort of signal a Vodafone Idea collapse would send to foreign investors. This long-running saga may still be far from over.
Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) and Nokia Group signed an agreement on cooperation in research to upgrade and develop VNPT's digital infrastructure.

The signing ceremony took place last week in Finland and was witnessed by Vietnams National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue and Speaker of the Finnish Parliament Anu Vehvilainen, said a report by VNS.

Under the terms of the deal, VNPT and Nokia will jointly upgrade the capacity of backbone and core networks, develop 4G, 5G, and IoT platforms. VNPT and Nokia also plan to continue commercial testing of 5G services and cooperate in the development and application of new networking technologies.

According to VNS, the deal is expected to open up many potential opportunities related to technological solutions for corporate customers. The two sides will also consider the possibility of cooperation in other fields in the time to come.

Nokias leaders affirmed that the corporation would effectively carry out the freshly signed agreement and wanted to maintain long-term operations in VietNam.
By Dat Nguyen September 15, 2021 | 07:39 am GMT+7

A staff arranges goods at a VinMart outlet operated by Masan Group. Photo courtesy of Masan Group

The Government of Singapore has reduced its ownership in conglomerate Masan Group by a 1.65 percent stake, its second major sale this year.

The Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) sold 19.5 million MSN shares owned by it and subsidiary Ardolis Investment on Sept. 9, according to a statement by Masan.

The sale lowered GICs ownership in the company from 10.34 percent to 8.69 percent.

The deal was estimated at VND2.5 trillion ($110.35 million) based on market price.

GIC is now the second biggest foreign shareholder in Masan behind South Koreas SK Group with a 9.31 percent stake.

GIC started purchasing MSN shares in 2018. In January, it sold 19.8 million shares.

Masan JSC (MIC), a company of Masans chairman Nguyen Dang Quang, had recently registered to purchase 2 million MSN shares to increase its ownership by 0.17 percent to 31.55 percent.

Masan Groups profit in the first half surged eight times year-on-year to VND979 billion.
Managing both their childrens online schooling and their own livelihoods, and anxiety about their children's health and mental well-being are taking a huge toll on Vietnamese.

Hoang Phuong Dung starts her Monday fatigued and stressed, when her seven-year-old son does not want to attend his online class, and her four-year-old daughter keeps crying for breakfast.

"Sometimes they are fighting and screaming while I am working, and I wish I could vanish or leave this house right away," the 35-year-old says.

She cannot sleep at night worrying about how to keep her children safe from Covid-19 and sustaining her income.

Her husband stays at his workplace, a bank in Ho Chi Minh Citys Phu Nhuan District, while Dung works from home while also taking care of her children amid the lockdown.

Similar scenes play out in many parts of Vietnam where lockdowns keep children and adults homebound, and taking care of schooling while also earning a livelihood has been tough for many adults.

A kid leaves a Covid-19 centralized quarantine facility in HCMC's Thu Duc City along with a family member, June 2021. Photo by VnExpress/Huu Khoa

"I am exhausted because I must work and also keep a watchful eye on my sons," Nguyen Thi Anh Dao of Hanois Ba Dinh District says.

The couple, who have worked from home for months, have had a tough time helping their older son, 11, focus on his online lessons while also cooking, cleaning and keeping their three-year-old son engaged at the same time.

She says: "I let my older son sit in the kitchen and I work in the living room to watch over my three-year-old. Sometimes if I have a meeting, I lock myself in my room."

Their helper had left Hanoi for her hometown in May due to coronavirus fears.

"My husband is supportive, but whenever the kids need something, they always interrupt me."

It has been particularly vexing for people whose spouses have to stay at the workplace as mandated by authorities to mitigate the spread of Covid.

For Le Thi Tra My of HCMCs District 12, home has become a veritable madhouse.

Her husband stays at his workplace two weeks a month, and she has to cope with two rowdy primary school-aged children.

"Sometimes they throw the TV remote or food at each other and burst into tears while I am typing madly on my laptop," My, an accountant at an energy firm in District 2, says.

To cap off things, her income has been reduced by half since June.

Many parents are also worried about the risk of their children contracting Covid, especially those too young to be eligible for vaccination. They know adults could easily bring the virus home.

"I go to the supermarket once a week, and I hold my breath until returning home because I am frightened I would be accidentally infected by a stranger and my children would get the virus," Truong Minh Hieu of HCMCs District 3 says.

Like many other parents, Hieu and his wife avoid coming into close contact with strangers and prevent their children from going out no matter how much they complain about being cooped up.

"The first thing we want now is vaccination for our kids," he says, adding he has spoken numerous times with his 10-year-old son about the pandemic, which has prevented people from venturing out in the last few months.

More than 11,800 children had contracted the novel coronavirus as of early September, including more than 10,000 in HCMC.

Health authorities have said people aged under 18 will not get vaccinated yet due to the shortage of vaccines. The nation of 96 million has vaccinated more than 24.72 million against the new coronavirus, with more than 5.62 million having two doses.

A girl has her nose swab taken by a healthcare worker in Hanoi, early September 2021. Photo by VnExpress/Giang Huy

Many parents are also concerned about their children's mental well-being.

Some people are worried their young children are not getting the opportunity to learn how to get along with others of their age or greet adults. Parents of teenagers fear that the prolonged lockdown can cause social anxiety, emotional and behavioral problems, especially since kids have remained homebound the whole of summer.

"My seven-year-old son sometimes has a meltdown, saying he hates online classes and misses his friends, while my teenage daughter is addicted to TikTok and uses her phone all the time," Nguyen Van Dat of HCMCs District 7 says.

Last month his family could not celebrate his sons birthday because they could not buy cakes and candles or invite any of his friends to a party due to the stringent lockdown regulations.

"I could see the disappointment on his face; he had kept asking me many times if he could have a birthday cake, but we could not manage it."

Dr Cao Tien Duc, head of the department of psychiatry and medical psychology at Hospital 103 in Hanoi, says the pandemic has had a great impact on children's psychology, increasing their feelings of fear and isolation and causing behavioral changes like bringing on tantrums and outbursts.

Their minds can be easily scarred by seeing the loss of a loved one to the pandemic, he says.

More than 1,500 children in HCMC have lost their parents, according to the city Department of Education and Training. Across the country, 15,901 people have died in the ongoing wave, which has infected more than 630,000 people since late April.

"That grief is really difficult for children to overcome," Duc says.

In Hanoi, Dung has spoken to her children about the pandemic and how to protect themselves from the virus, but it has made them worried.

"They told me that they are afraid for themselves and for their parents. I want my children to know what's going on out there, but I do not want to worry or scare them."

Last week when she was preparing to go out to buy groceries, her daughter burst into tears and begged her not to go, fearful her mother "would get that virus and die."
Authorities round up the area where the My An 1 ship is sunken off the coast of Vung Tau on September 14, 2021 in case an oil spill occurs. Photo courtesy of the Marine Administration of Vung Tau

A Vietnamese ship carrying nearly 10,000 tons of clinker sank Tuesday after a giant Liberian-flagged vessel collided with it off the coast of Vung Tau.

My An 1, which was carrying the clinker from the northern Quang Ninh Province to Ho Chi Minh City, was anchored near a buoy 12 km from Vung Tau, which borders HCMC, to clear a Covid-19 checkpoint at around 2:30 a.m. when the Lisa Auerbach rammed it.

The 138-meter ship was en route to Lotus port in Ho Chi Minh City, the Marine Administration of Vung Tau said.

All 17 people from the ship were rescued and taken on board by the Liberian ship.

The 15 people on the Lisa Auerbach were unharmed.

Authorities have marked the location of the sinking and issue maritime safety warnings. No oil spill had been detected as of Tuesday afternoon, and rescue forces are on standby in case a spill does occur.

The administration said the collision was an accident.

All people involved in the incident have been taken to Vung Tau for Covid-19 quarantine as a precaution.

An investigation has begun.
A major general has proposed films that promote "law-breaking" behavior or themes of selfishness and unpunished crimes should be banned in Vietnam.

Major General Le Tan Toi, head of the National Defense and Security Committee of the legislative National Assembly, on Tuesday suggested the idea at a meeting regarding a draft of the Law on Cinematography, saying a particular term of the law should include such prohibitions.

Films with themes that promote unpunished crimes, people living selfishly and make it look too realistic, may influence movie watchers, derail their thinking and encourage them to replicate such behavior, he claimed.

He cited a popular drama series called "The Arbitrator" depicting the gangster world, saying after the series was broadcast and became a hit, "crime situations grew."

"The show is broadcast during peak hours, who would be responsible for this?" he said, adding the government may govern society with the law, yet in the fictional show, judgement is handled by a titular gangster character, which could even judge the police itself.

Toi said people and businesses should also be held responsible over the popularization of films on the Internet. They should be responsible for categorizing such films and be accountable for their decisions, especially on issues like national security or religion.

Nguyen Dac Vinh, head of the Culture and Education Committee, said the Standing Committee has requested lawmakers to specify exactly what should be banned regarding the cinematography law's term in question, adding a clause should be adjusted to reflect prohibitions towards the production, distribution and popularization of films that violate the law.

Vinh also proposed the inclusion of prohibiting illegal film recording and copying without approval from their owners, as well as banning theaters from leaking movies as they're being shown.

Nguyen Thi Thanh, head of the Department of Delegate Affairs, said the composition of a film approval committee also needs to be adjusted. The current draft of the cinematography law states two-thirds of a film approval committee should be experts and the rest, film evaluators.

Thanh said such a composition is not ideal and there should be more experts on films, politics, religion and national security and defense to filter out films that may affect "politics and security."

"The responsibility of film evaluators must be ascertained," she said.

Vuong Dinh Hue, chairman of the National Assembly, said the government should follow the examples of countries with developed film industries when it comes to policymaking, encouraging investment on film sets.

Cinema should be both a cultural and service industry that satisfies people's mentality and contribute to economic and social development. The Law on Cinematography should showcase films as a multi-discipline cultural field, and there needs to be filmmaking ecosystems and financial incentives to develop them, he added.

Thanh echoed Hue's statement, adding film sets should be developed when it comes to building a film industry. She said ministries and localities should cooperate to allow the construction of film studios and other facilities, and lawmakers for the cinematography law should also look into film festivals as a way to showcase Vietnamese culture, image, and people.
The United States condemns the politically motivated conviction and sentencing of Belarusian opposition members Maria Kalesnikava and Maksim Znak. Ms. Kalesnikava, a recipient of this years International Women of Courage Award, was given 11 years in prison for her courageous public support for candidates who challenged the 26-year rule of Alyaksandr Lukashenka. Mr. Znak, who participated peacefully in the political campaign process, was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Both had already endured nearly a year in pre-trial detention.

Regrettably, these sentencings are further evidence of the regimes total disregard for the human rights and fundamental freedoms of the people of Belarus, declared Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Ms. Kalesnikava and Mr. Znak deserved a transparent judicial determination of the bogus charges levied against them, which they did not receive.

As a participating State of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Belarus has committed to respect the right to a fair trial by an independent and impartial tribunal, as well as the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. Like every citizen of Belarus, Ms. Kalesnikava and Mr. Znak are entitled to a fair and independent tribunal established by the law, in accordance with Belarus constitution and international human rights obligations.

The United States supports the Belarusian peoples aspirations for a democratic, prosperous future in a free and independent country. On August 9, the U.S. issued an Executive Order that holds the Lukashenka regime to account for its attacks on democracy and human rights, transnational repression, and corruption.

Secretary Blinken reiterated his call for an end to the campaign of repression against the people of Belarus for exercising their human rights inside and outside Belarus and for the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners  including Ms. Kalesnikava and Mr. Znak. It is time for Belarusian authorities to begin a genuine dialogue with the democratic opposition and members of civil society leading to free and fair elections with international observers.
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During a recent visit to Tokyo, John Kerry, U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, discussed the two countries efforts to fight climate change.
ZHENGZHOU -- "Shared Destiny-2021," a multinational peacekeeping live exercise organized by the Chinese military, concluded at a training base in Queshan county of Central China's Henan province on Wednesday.

Li Zuocheng, a member of the Central Military Commission and chief of staff of the CMC Joint Staff Department, observed a comprehensive exercise, attended the closing ceremony and declared the conclusion of the drill.

The comprehensive exercise, which started around 9 am, was attended by over 1,000 officers and soldiers from countries including China, Mongolia, Pakistan and Thailand.

Under joint command, they completed tasks such as building temporary operating bases, guard patrol, armed escort, protection of civilians, and response to violence and terrorist attacks.

The exercise, which kicked off on Sept 6, is an important supporting event to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the restoration of the lawful seat of the People's Republic of China in the United Nations.

During the exercise, participating troops of various countries conducted joint military training, cooperated closely, and learned from each other.

The drill helped assess and advance the capability of peacekeeping standby forces to carry out missions. It also promoted exchanges, mutual trust and pragmatic cooperation between participating troops.
The Peoples Committee of Dong Nai was requested to promptly implement compensation, support and resettlement for local residents in the project site as scheduled.

The design of the Long Thanh International Airport. (Photo: VNA)

According to the provincial Peoples Committee, Dong Nai has to conduct ground clearance on total area of 5,000 hectares for the project, including 2,532 hectares for its first phase.

So far, Dong Nai has handed over 1,284 hectares of cleared land to the Southern Airports Authority, or 51 percent of total area for the first phase of the project. However, the Ministry of Transport held that the ground clearance activities for the project remained slow.

The Peoples Committee of Long Thanh district attributed the situation to problems in compensation for a number of difficult cases, including those having the land transferred and presented with handwriting agreements, along with COVID-19 impacts. It has received guidance from the provincial Peoples Committee to deal with the issues.

According to the Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV), the Long Thanh International Airport will be built in three phases over three decades. In the first phase, one runway with a length of 4,000m, taxiways, an apron, and a passenger terminal with other auxiliary works sprawling 373,000 sq.m will be built to serve 25 million passengers and 1.2 million tonnes of cargo each year.

The airport, which was expected to cost 336.63 trillion VND (14.5 billion USD), is designed to have four runways, four passenger terminals, and other auxiliary facilities to ensure a capacity of 100 million passengers and 5 million tonnes of cargo a year by 2040.

Located 40km to the east of Ho Chi Minh City, the Long Thanh International Airport is expected to relieve overloading at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in the southern hub, now the countrys largest airport./.




At the event (Photo: SCOV)

The congress was attended by young Vietnamese from 11 nations, including Belgium, France, the Czech Republic, Austria and Poland.

Deputy Foreign Minister and Head of the SCOV Pham Quang Hieu sent a congratulatory letter to the event, stating that the establishment is important. He said he believes the association will sustainably link young Vietnamese and those of Vietnamese origin in Europe, and hoped it would organize practical activities.

The congress elected a 24-member provisional executive committee, headed by Nguyen Thi Dieu Linh, who is Head of the Vietnamese Students Association in the Czech Republic.

Nguyen Dieu Linh, deputy director of the State Commissions department of economic relations and science and technology, lauded the contributions of Vietnamese students associations across European nations in the past.

She hoped the new association would create a common environment for Vietnamese youth in Europe to develop and mobilise their intellectual resources in contribution to Vietnams growth and improved relations with European countries./.
The event at the two bridge points. (Photo: CPV)

In his speech at the event, Mr. Tran Doan Tien, Editor-in-Chief of the CPV Online Newspaper, said that over the past time, the newspaper ran hundreds of news, articles and pictures reflecting and reporting activities of the Ha Giang Party Committee, Peoples Council and Peoples Committee, as well as activities of party executive committees at all levels, socio-economic achievements, defense, security and Party building work; attracting the attention of domestic and foreign readers.

Mr. Tran Doan Tien, Editor-in-Chief of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Online Newspaper, spoke at the event. (Photo: CPV)

He stressed that in the coming time, the newspaper will focus on popularizing policies and resolutions of the Party, the provinces firm leadership and direction in the implementation of breakthroughs, action programs of the Ha Giang Party Committee in the new development stage; contributing to bringing the Resolution of the provincial Party Congress into life.

Hailing the organization and implementation of the coordination program of the two units, Mr. Phan Xuan Thuy, Deputy Head of the Party Central Committees Commission of Popularization and Education, said that the communication coordination will promote and improve the effectiveness of the popularization work; contributing to creating consensus among the people, helping domestic readers and international friends gain a deeper understanding of the role, position, internal strength, history and cultural tradition of Ha Giang on the CPV Online Newspaper.

Mr. Phan Xuan Thuy, Deputy Head of the Party Central Committees Commission of Popularization and Education, delivered a speech at the event. (Photo: CPV)

He added that the signing would contribute to the realization of Decision 221 in 2009 and recently Regulation 238-QD/TW dated September 30, 2020 of the PCC on promulgating the Regulation on coordination between the Commission of Popularization and Education at all levels and state agencies at the same level in law enforcement, implementation of socio-economic development plans, and settlement of pressing issues.

Mr. Dang Quoc Khanh, PCC member, Secretary of the Ha Giang Party Committee, and Head of the Delegation of the 15th National Assembly of Ha Giang, said that the provincial Party Committee is focusing on implementing the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress and the Resolution of 17th Ha Giang Party Congress.

Mr. Dang Quoc Khanh, PCC member, Secretary of the Ha Giang Party Committee, and Head of the Delegation of the 15th National Assembly of Ha Giang spoke at the event. (Photo: CPV)

He hoped that the CPV Online Newspaper would strengthen popularization on the leadership, direction and administration of the Party Committee and government of Ha Giang; promote the achievements of socio-economic development, Party building, culture, national defense - security; innovation, self-reliance, self-reliance and strength of the great unity bloc of the provincial Party Committee, people and ethnic people in the province./.
The ambulances donated by the Ho Chi Minh City Buddhist Sangha (Photo: vietnamnet.vn)

These ambulances were donated by the Tuong Nguyen Pagoda Charity Association and philanthropists.



At the ceremony, Venerable Thich Thien Quy, Deputy Head and Chief Secretary of the Executive Council of the HCM City Buddhist Sangha, announced the instruction of Most Venerable Thich Tri Quang, Deputy Patriarch of the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha and Chairman of the Executive Council of the HCM City Buddhist Sanga in encouraging Buddhist sanghas at all levels, monks, nuns, and Buddhist followers to contribute to the fight against COVID-19 through donating to the vaccine fund; making millions of meals for workers on the frontline and helping those in need.

Ms. To Thi Bich Chau, Chairwoman of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee of Ho Chi Minh City, on behalf of the city's leaders, offered thanks to the city's Buddhist Sangha for its timely and meaningful support for the COVID-19 prevention and control work.

On August 25, the Tuong Nguyen Pagoda Charity Association also presented eight ambulances to hospitals in the city.

In addition, the association has provided 1.5 million meals, over 40,000 gifts of rice and essential goods, along with many medical equipment and supplies with total costs of over 132 billion VND./.
Zelensky and Shmyhal welcome EU decision to provide Ukraine with EUR 600 mln second MFA tranche

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has welcomed the decision of the European Commission to provide Ukraine with a second tranche of macro-financial assistance (MFA) in the amount of EUR 600 million.

"I welcome the decision of the European Commission to provide Ukraine with EUR 600 million second MFA tranche. I am grateful to the EU, Ursula von der Leyen, Valdis Dombrovskis for the upbeat assessment of reforms implemented by Ukraine. This is a testament to the Ukraine and EU solidarity in overcoming challenges, fighting COVID19," Zelensky wrote on his Twitter page.

Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal also welcomes the European Commission's decision to allocate the second tranche of macro-financial assistance to Ukraine in the amount of EUR 600 million.

"Grateful to EU Commission & V. Dombrovskis for providing EUR 600 mln of the 2nd tranche of macro-financial assistance to Ukraine. It'll accelerate our economic recovery from the COVID-19. We're deepening our relations with EU, continuing reforms that will strengthen the resilience of Europe," Shmyhal wrote on Twitter.
G7 ambassadors, at meeting with Infrastructure Minister, express support for reforms ensuring implementation of corporate governance in accordance with intl standards

The ambassadors of the G7 countries met with Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine Oleksandr Kubrakov and expressed support for reforms that will ensure the introduction of corporate governance in accordance with international standards.

"G7 Ambassadors heard from Infrastucture Minister Kubrakov on plans to reform & develop infrastructure in Ukraine. Ambassadors outlined support for reforms, which will improve transparency & efficiency in the sector, particularly ensuring corporate governance to international standards," the UK Presidency of the G7 Ambassadors' Support Group in Kyiv reported on Twitter.

It is noted that the G7 countries are the main investors in the sector and will continue to provide significant practical support for such reforms.

"Further work to align with international best practice, including on anti-corruption, will help attract more international investment to Ukraine," the message posted following the meeting outcomes says.
A car explosion in Dnipro killed Daria Hrechyshcheva, head of the media relations and public relations department of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Dnipropetrovsk region.

"Terrible news for our entire family of rescuers. Today, at about 09:00 in the morning, head of the media relations and public relations department of the State Emergency Service in Dnipropetrovsk region Daria Hrechyshcheva tragically died. Daria was one of the best employees of the State Emergency Service, and the department headed by her was one of the most advanced, the most professional, powerful among all regional press services of the State Emergency Service," the press service of the State Emergency Service reported on its Facebook page.

The department also added that Hrechyshcheva was a Red Cross volunteer.

A law enforcement source told Interfax-Ukraine that ATO veteran Oleksiy Kavlak was also killed in the blast.

Earlier, law enforcement officers established that a man and a woman were in the car that exploded in Dnipro on Wednesday morning. On this fact, criminal proceedings were initiated with preliminary legal qualifications under Article 258 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (act of terrorism).

As reported, at 09:00 on Wednesday, on Bohdan Khmelnytsky Avenue in the city of Dnipro, a car explosion occurred, as a result of which two people died.
The Cabinet of Ministers has approved the Information Security Strategy of Ukraine

The corresponding draft presidential decree was approved at a government meeting on September 15.

"This document includes the main measures to counter disinformation, manipulation and outright lies on the part of the aggressor state. In addition, the strategy provides for the fight against the low level of media literacy of Ukrainians, protection of the state sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, support by mass media and measures of social and political stability," Minister of Culture and Information Policy Oleksandr Tkachenko said on Telegram.

It is noted that the strategy is designed for the period until 2025, taking into account the challenges associated with the rapid spread of digital technologies.

"During this time, the information space, effective counteraction to the spread of illegal content, information reintegration of Ukrainian citizens living in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine should be formed and protected," the minister added.

The Information Security Strategy must be approved by the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, and put into effect by a presidential decree.
On Friday, September 17, at 12.00, the press center of the Interfax-Ukraine news agency will host a roundtable talk entitled "Replacing systemic govt control with carnival show. Who needs it and why." Participants include Director of the Institute for Global Strategies Vadym Karasiov; political expert Kostiantyn Matviyenko; Director of the Ukrainian Barometer sociological service Viktor Nebozhenko; political analyst Leonid Shvets (8/5a Reitarska Street). The broadcast will be available on the YouTube channel of Interfax-Ukraine. Admission of journalists requires registration on the spot.
On Thursday, September 16, at 13.30, the press center of the Interfax-Ukraine news agency will host press conference entitled "How to make govt system open, intolerant of corruption: city level" on modern technologies for overcoming corruption in large cities of Ukraine, on digitalization, simplification of bureaucratic procedures, as well as on how to make the city government more open and intolerant of corruption in the city of Kharkiv." Participants Director of the Institute of Global Strategies Vadym Karasiov; political expert and analyst Oleksandr Kochetkov (8/5a Reitarska Street). The broadcast will be available on the YouTube channel of Interfax-Ukraine. Due to quarantine restrictions, the number of seats in the press center is limited. Admission of journalists requires registration on the spot.
Judgment in favor of NFP in case of shutting down TIU Canada SPP to create dangerous precedent in Ukraine  attorneys

KYIV. Sept 15 (Interfax-Ukraine)  The negative court decision in favor of Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant (NFP) in the case of disconnecting the enterprise from the TIU Canada solar power plant (SPP) in Nikopol will create an extremely dangerous precedent in Ukraine and will actually allow unjustified disconnection of consumers and electricity producers from the grid, says Kateryna Tsvetkova, attorney at law of GOLAV, representing interests of Ekotechnik Nikopol LLC (TIU Canada).

"Therefore, the attention of the entire world community is now riveted to this case, and it is extremely critical for investments in the Ukrainian energy sector," Tsvetkova said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Wednesday.

The TIU Canada power plant shutdown case will be heard at the Northern Economic Court of Appeal on October 4.

As reported, on March 2, 2020, NFP completely disconnected a 10.5 MW solar power plant from Ekotechnik Nikopol LLC (TIU Canada) from the power grid. TIU Canada noted that NFP took advantage of the fact that the SPP was connected to a substation located on its territory, and explained the need for shutdown by repair work.

As a result, Ekotekhnik Nikopol LLC (TIU Canada) filed a lawsuit against NFP, Ukrenergo and DTEK Dnipro Grids with Kyiv Economic Court, which, in turn, in January 2021 rejected the company's claims to the three listed defendants. In response to the court's decision, Ekotechnik Nikopol filed a complaint with the Northern Commercial Court of Appeal, which opened the relevant appellate proceedings in March 2021.

A court session to consider the case took place on July 26, however, a break was announced in the session due to the absence of NFP representatives. At the same time, the retrial on the "Nikopol case" on September 8 was also postponed to October 4 due to the filing by NFP of an appeal to the Northern Commercial Court of Appeal against the January decision of Kyiv Economic Court, which NFP had previously supported.

In its appeal, NFP believes that the claim of Ekotechnik Nikopol against Ukrenergo as part of the consideration of the case in Kyiv Economic Court was piecemeal and did not contain specific claims against the company, and for this reason the case should have been considered by the Economic Court of Dnipropetrovsk region.

In turn, as noted by attorney at law of GOLAV Kateryna Manoilenko, disconnecting a subject from access to the power grid requires a certain procedure and in the case of the shutdown of the TIU Canada solar power plant in Nikopol, Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant, according to the law, had to obtain preliminary appropriate permits from Ukrenergo and DTEK Dnipro Grids.

"In this case, Ukrenergo is the operator of the transmission system. Namely, Ukrenergo should have granted or not granted permission to disconnect the Canadian investor from the grid," Manoilenko said, calling the actions of Ekotekhnik Nikopol to determine the three defendants in the person of NFP, Ukrenergo and DTEK Dnipro Grids quite reasonable and eligible.

"The case should have been considered, and it was considered by Kyiv Economic Court. The Canadian investor believes that there are three participants  this is the main defendant  the one that carried out the illegal disconnection  NFP  as well as two others that did not take any action to protect the rights of the Canadian investor," the attorney said.

In addition, according to Tsvetkova, NFP, when filing an appeal to the Northern Economic Court of Appeal on September 7, exceeded the 20-day deadline for filing an appeal by a participant in the case established by procedural legislation from the moment the text of the court decision was received.

"In this case, the terms of the appeal, according to the Procedural Code, ended on February 28, 2021," Tsvetkova said.

At the same time, NFP argued for the delay in filing an appeal with the allegedly limited budget for the payment of the court fee, as well as difficulties with legal support of court cases.

At the same time, according to the annual report of PrJSC Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant for 2020, the company received UAH 456 million in net profit.

"We believe that filing such an appeal is nothing more than a delay in the consideration of the case and an abuse of one's procedural rights," the attorney says.

However, the Northern Economic Court of Appeal announced on September 8 that it was accepting the NFP's complaint to the appeal proceedings.

"In connection with such a rather controversial decision of the court, we challenged this panel of judges," Tsvetkova said.

TIU Canada has been operating in Ukraine since 2016. The company put into operation a 10.5 MW SPP in Nikopol in January 2018, an 11 MW SPP in Mykolaiv region in April 2019. In addition, TIU Canada launched a 33 MW SPP in Odesa region. The company's investments in solar energy, which became the first investor in Ukraine under the Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Area Agreement (CUFTA), amounted to over $65 million.

Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant is controlled by EastOne Group, established in autumn 2007 as a result of restructuring of Interpipe Group, and Privat Group, both based in Dnipro.
Egypts President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi affirmed his keenness to providing DR Congo with all forms of support, as he made a phone call on Saturday with his Congolese counterpart, Felix Tshisekedi.

El-Sisi expressed appreciation for the special relations linking the two countries, a statement by the Egyptian presidency read.

He stressed his countrys support to DR Congo, with the aim of consolidating the foundations of security and stability in the sisterly country.

Tshisekedi, during the phone call, expressed his countrys aspiration to developing relations with Egypt.

He hailed Egypt's sincere and tireless efforts in supporting DR Congo at all levels and in all international and regional forums, with the aim of maintaining security, stability and development within the country, said the statement.

The two leaders discussed regional and continental issues of mutual concern, especially as DR Congo is set to chair the African Union (AU) in 2021, succeeding South Africa, which headed the union in 2020.

They also discussed cooperation and coordination fields between the two countries.

Egypt and DR Congo have shared warm relations with the presidents of the two countries contacting each other frequently to discuss cooperation.

Tshisekedi sent a letter to El-Sisi in November affirming DR Congos support to Egypts stance over the disputed Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).

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President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi said Egypt is keen on boosting relations with the Democratic Republic of the Congo at all levels and continuing to transfer expertise and build the Congolese capacities.

In a phone call with Congolese President Felix Antoine Tshisekedi on Thursday, Sisi stressed Egypts interest in close coordination with the DRC on the regional issues of common concern, especially in light of its chair of the African Union.

The two leaders discussed the bilateral ties and the latest developments in the Ethiopian dam dispute, Presidential Spokesman Bassam Rady said.

The Congolese president lauded Egypts sincere efforts to reach a balanced solution to the dam crisis, which takes into account the interests of all sides.

Sisi asserted Egypts firm stance on the necessity of reaching a legally binding agreement on the filling and operating of the dam before the upcoming rain season, in order to preserve the rights of the downstream countries and maintain the regional stability.

Egypt backs a Sudanese proposal to create an international quartet under the chair of the African Union to mediate in the crisis, Sisi said.

Tshisekedi affirmed Congos keenness on upgrading cooperation with Egypt in various fields, especially amid Egypts key role to maintain security and stability and achieve development in Africa.

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Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry headed to the Congolese capital, Kinshasa, on Friday to take part in a new round of the resumed African Union-sponsored talks on the Ethiopian dam (GERD).

The talks on the GERD, which has been suspended for months, will be resumed through a three-day meeting starting Saturday.

The meeting held at invitation by DR Congo, the head of the AU this year, will bring together the foreign and irrigation ministers of Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia.

The AU-sponsored talks had stopped since January, with Sudan arguing that the approach of talks had become ineffective and with Egypt blaming stalemates in the talks over Ethiopias intransigence.

The talks also come weeks after Sudan requested a quartet mediation in the GERD talks, which includes the AU, the European Union, the United States and the United Nations.

Egypt supports the Sudanese proposal and Ethiopia says it would only abide by the AU talks.

Egypts keenness in accepting this invitation from the Democratic Republic of the Congo stems from [the latters] stance calling for launching a serious and effective negotiation process, a statement by the Egyptian foreign ministry read on Friday,

The statement also said the current AU meetings seek to reach a binding legal agreement on the filling and operating of the Renaissance Dam, in a way that takes into consideration the interests of the two countries.

The meeting comes a few days after Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi took a hard line on the GERD dispute, warning that a compromise in Egypts water share was a red line.

He pledged action if the countrys share of water from the Nile is jeopardised.

No one can take a drop of water from Egypt, El-Sisi said, warning of inconceivable instability in the region that no one could imagine if that is to happen.

His remarks followed a condemnation statement by the Egyptian foreign ministry, objecting to Ethiopias sovereignty language when speaking about the transboundary River Nile.

The statement also reiterated rejection of Ethiopias plans to complete the dam filling in July with or without an agreement.

Ethiopian officials have continued to affirm these plans although Egypt and Sudan have affirmed that implementing the second filling in July before reaching an agreement would have disastrous impact.

On Friday, Ethiopias President Sahle-Work Zewde also affirmed her country is preparing for the second phase of the massive dam filling.

We have fulfilled the first phase of the Renaissance Dam filling after overcoming challenges and pressures, Zewde said in a video that was published in Amharic and translated by Al-Ain.

She added that Ethiopia is determined to complete the construction of the dam that is aspired by all Ethiopians and represents the pillars of the states developmental endeavours.

Zewde said her country failed in the past to take advantage of its water resources for years due to the limited capabilities as well as due to regional and international circumstances.

She said that GERD is the cornerstone of Ethiopians in overcoming poverty and turning the life of Ethiopians to the better.
EgyptAir will operate four weekly direct flights from Cairo to Tel Aviv as of October for the first time since 1979, according to the Egyptian flagship carriers flight schedule.

Direct flights have been scheduled to take off from Cairo International Airport and arrive at Tel Avivs Ben Gurion International Airport on 3, 4, 5, and 7 October.

The ticket prices range from EGP 4,500 (around $285.7) to EGP 4,900 ($311) for one-way flights, which take around 1 hour and 20 minutes.

Although EgyptAir's schedule confirms earlier Israeli news reports about the flights between the Egyptian and the Israeli capitals, no official confirmation has been announced by the Egyptian Civil Aviation Ministry.

The Jerusalem-based online newspaper The Times Of Israel reported on Sunday that once flights are re-launched by EgyptAir, they will be operated by the airlines fully marked aircraft.

Since the 1980s, the only flights between Israel and Cairo had been operated by Air Sinai, a subsidiary of EgyptAir, which operated flights in unmarked planes without the official flag.

The listing of direct flights between Cairo and Tel Aviv comes a few hours after Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisis meeting on Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh.

The visit is the first by Bennett to Egypt as prime minister, as well as the first visit by an Israeli prime minister in general to Egypt, since 2011.

The two leaders discussed the latest developments concerning the peace process in the Middle East.

President El-Sisi asserted Egypts support for all efforts to achieve peace in the Middle East based on the two-state solution and international resolutions in a way that contributes to ensuring security and prosperity in the region.

According to the Israeli PM offices statement on the meeting, Bennett stated that the Egyptian role is important in the region and that after four decades, the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty has been the cornerstone of security and stability in the region.

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The Egyptian government, which invests in social safety, is working on a long-term strategy and an integrated vision to ensure the inclusion of every citizen so that all parents and children may lead a decent life free of poverty, UNICEF Representative in Egypt Jeremy Hopkins said Tuesday.

Hopkins made the remarks during the launch ceremony of the UN report on human development in Egypt for 2021, held in the New Administrative Capital in the presence of President Abdel Fattah El Sisi.

He noted that social protection is not merely limited to reducing poverty, but it also pertains to creating a better future.

Hopkins further said that social protection is an essential element for building all-inclusive education and healthcare systems and strengthening social cohesion and stability on the long run.

Hopkins applauded the high level of efficiency and effectiveness that distinguish Egypt's Takaful and Karama Cash Transfer Program, describing it as the largest national cash transfer program across the region.

Egypt has been providing cash to poor households through its first conditional cash transfer program, Takaful and Karama, a social protection program run by the Ministry of Social Solidarity (MoSS), since March 2015. Takaful (Solidarity) supports poor families with children under 18, while Karama (Dignity) supports the elderly poor and people living with disabilities.

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Egypts Grand Mufti Shawki Allam praised on Tuesday the launch of the National Strategy for Human Rights, saying it will contribute to fighting terrorism and extremism.

The strategy does not only address the political right and expression of opinion, but also extends to all the economic and social aspects, and this is important in addressing the imbalance in human rights, Allam told a conference held by the Egyptian National Press Authority (NPA) on Tuesday.

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi launched the strategy during a ceremony in the New Administrative Capital on Saturday.

Allam said Egypt's Dar Al-Ifta, the body responsible for issuing religious edicts, established in 2014 an Observatory for Monitoring Takfiri Fatwas and Extremist Ideologies.

Up to 600 reports were issued about fatwas that were issued without correct scientific basis, Allam added.

Abdel-Sadek El-Shorbagy, the chairman of the NPA, said Egypt and the Arab region are facing a "great" challenge represented in the forces that aim to spread their destructive ideas, cast doubt on the achievements that extended to all the country's sectors, and distort the country's institutions.

Since President El-Sisi, El-Shorbagy said, assumed the responsibility, the Egyptian state drew up a comprehensive development plan for sectors and institutions in the country.

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Egypt and Qatar held a third round of meetings and consultations to develop their recently resumed ties and resolve all outstanding issues between the two countries on Tuesday in Doha, the Egyptian foreign ministry announced.

According to the statement, the two sides have reached an agreement on multiple issues of mutual concern and signed several memoranda of understanding (MoUs) to boost cooperation between the two countries, including cooperation protocols between Egypt Post and Qatar Post as well as an MoU between Egypts Civil Aviation Authority and its Qatari counterpart.

The Egyptian delegation was presided over by Assistant Foreign Minister for Arab Affairs Yasser Othman, while the Qatari side was headed by Special Envoy of the Qatari Minister of Foreign Affairs for Regional Affairs Ali bin Fahad Al-Hajri, the statement read.

In January, Egypt, along with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain signed the Al-Ula Declaration with Qatar, restoring diplomatic, economic, and travel ties with Doha after a boycott imposed by the Arab quartet since mid-2017.

In the wake of the Al-Ula declaration, Egypt and Qatar agreed to move beyond their disputes and work towards settling all outstanding issues.

Following the signing of the declaration, Qatar Airways and EgyptAir resumed flights between the two countries' capitals.

Both countries exchanged ambassadors in July and August.

Egypts President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and Qatars Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani met for the first time in Baghdad on 28 August on the sidelines of the Baghdad Conference on Cooperation and Partnership.

The first round of meetings of the follow up committee was held in Doha in June, while the second was held in Cairo in late August.

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Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry stressed on Tuesday Egypt's support for the new leadership of the Anna Lindh Foundation (ALF) that took office on 1 September.

Shoukrys confirmation was made in a meeting in Cairo with Princess Rym Ali, ALFs new president, and Josep Ferre, the foundations new executive director, a statement by the foreign ministry read.

The meeting came within the framework of Egypts continuous support to the foundation and its important work in extending cultural and civilisational communication bridges across the Mediterranean, the statement stated.

The top Egyptian diplomat said Egypt spares no effort to facilitate the work of the foundation.

Shoukry shed light on Egypts vision of the foundations role within the framework of partnership among Mediterranean countries.

This partnership is based on the concept of joint ownership between northern and southern Mediterranean countries and the realisation of the joint challenges these countries face, Shoukry said.

The Egyptian foreign minister said cooperation in facing these challenges is critical to achieve the interests of the regions peoples and communities.

Shoukry underlined Egypts priorities within the framework of the ALFs work, the most important of which is intellectual confrontation of the negative phenomena, including terrorism, extremism, hate speech, and illegal migration.

The foreign minister also highlighted the need to boost communication programmes among youth and support knowledge and building capacities.

ALF President Ali expressed appreciation of Egypt's support for the foundation, affirming the aspiration to achieve the foundations goals as a bridge for cultural and civilisational dialogue in the Mediterranean region.

Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Alexandria since 2005, the ALF is the first common institution for dialogue co-inaugurated by the European Union and the 42 countries of the Union for the Mediterranean, including Egypt.

The ALF is an inter-governmental institution seeking to build trust and improve mutual understanding across the Mediterranean through bringing together civil society and citizens.

Among the goals of the foundation is combating extremist discourses, radicalisations, lack of trust, intolerance, and building a culture that is based on dialogue.

The National Network of Egypt operating as part of the ALF seeks to promote cultural dialogue between Egypt and other countries in the foundation.

According to the ALF, the Egyptian national network now comprises 72 civil society member organisations.

The ALF was named after Swedish politician and former foreign minister Anna Maria Lindh who was assassinated in Stockholm in 2003.

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About 13 million citizens have been vaccinated against Covid-19 in Egypt, Minister of Health Hala Zayed said on Wednesday during a presentation about the latest coronavirus developments in the weekly cabinet meeting in Cairo.

According to Zayed, 617,000 QR-coded certificates were issued for people wishing to travel and document their coronavirus inoculation.

Some 584,000 vaccine doses were allocated for travellers, she added.

Concerning the local production of the Sinovac vaccine, Zayed stated that five million doses were manufactured by Holding Company for Biological Products and Vaccines (VACSERA), of which 2.5 million doses will be released this week.

A new production line will be added in VACSERAs factory in Giza governorate, she added. The line will start operating in early November with a production capacity of 300,000 doses per day.

The minister also spoke about the supply and distribution of vaccines in September, stating that from 11 to 30 September Egypt will be receiving 17 million doses of AstraZeneca, Sinovac, Sinopharm, Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, Sputnik, and Pfizer, in addition to five million doses of the locally produced Sinovac. Between 100,000 and 250,000 doses of AstraZeneca are to be donated to Egypt. The exact date of their arrival is yet unspecified.

Concerning the preparations to receive Pfizer BioNTech vaccines in a number of governorates, Zayed revealed that 12 large-capicty and eight medium-capacity special refrigerators to store the vaccine were distributed and installed.

Six refrigerators will be installed at the National Complex of Serums and Vaccines in Helwan, she added.

Egypt is going to receive the first shipment of the Pfizer vaccine on Thursday evening.

In late July, UNICEF granted Egypt 63 special refrigerators to store Pfizer BioNTech doses.

The minister also spoke about the strategic stock of oxygen in her presentation, stating that there is currently 3,380,000 litres of oxygen available, in addition to new 112 x-ray devices supplied to hospitals.

Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Khaled Abdel-Ghaffar shared in the meeting the latest developments concerning the vaccination of university staff and students.

According to Abdel-Ghaffar, there are currently 290 vaccination centres in 60 public, private, and national universities.

Until Tuesday, 304,432 Covid-19 vaccine doses were administrated, including 269,118 first doses and 35,314 second doses, the minister said.

University professors and assistants received 108,245 doses, whereas the administrators received 196,187 doses.

Egypts health ministry has previously stated that it was planned to vaccinate nearly three million people from academic and school staff as well as administrators and students.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly launched a campaign to encourage citizens to register and be vaccinated by presenting simple gifts for each person to register.

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The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is expected to issue a draft presidential statement soon urging Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan to resume negotiations in order to reach a satisfactory resolution to the long-running Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) dispute, diplomatic sources were cited as saying in various reports on Wednesday.

The draft statement is expected to be issued later on Wednesday or Thursday, a source in New York told Ahram Online.

A UNSC presidential statement is not legally-binding, although it is equal in tone to the councils resolutions, which are only issued in the event of consensus among the UNSCs 15 members and are considered binding.

Ireland chairs the UNSC for the month of September.

The anticipated presidential statement comes two months after the 15-member UNSC issued a draft resolution which called on Ethiopia to cease its second-year filling of the GERDs reservoir.

Ethiopia slammed the July resolution as "inappropriate" and moved forward with the completion of the second filling of the reservoir two weeks later.

The two downstream countries had requested that the July session be held as part of their efforts to bolster the African Union-sponsored talks on the GERD  which have repeatedly collapsed  and convince Ethiopia to sign a legally-binding agreement on the filling and operation of the mega dam.

The anticipated UNSC draft presidential statement will not be a substitute for the July draft resolution, but will rather serve as a ceiling that the council members can now agree on, according to the source.

Sudanese diplomatic sources told Asharq News that the expected presidential statement will back trilateral negotiations under the auspices of the AU, a matter that the three countries have welcomed on many occasions, including in deliberations during the July session.

Egypt and Sudan, however, have proposed the formation of a quartet mediation committee led by the AU and including the European Union, the United States and the United Nations to help advance the talks, following the failure of the AU-sponsored talks in Kinshasa in April.

The Sudanese sources said negotiations are underway in the council to issue a statement on the GERD soon, the Riyadh-based news website reported.

The statement will call on the three countries to resume direct negotiations urgently to reach a legally-binding agreement on the GERD, the sources added.

Addis Ababa has repeatedly refused to sign such a deal, saying it seeks mere guidelines that can be modified at any time at its discretion.

The members of the UNSC, through the statement, will call on the three countries to reach an agreement on the filling and operation of the dam in an appropriate timeframe, Anadolu Agency cited diplomatic sources at the UN as saying.

A deal should also be reached in a way that protects the interests of the [three] parties in a fair way," the sources added to the Turkish state-run news website.

According to the sources cited by Anadolu, the UNSC members have already made a draft statement on the GERD that will be issued later today.

The statement will call on the three countries to proceed with the AU-sponsored negotiations in a constructive and collaborative manner to facilitate the efforts to resolve outstanding technical and legal issues, Qatars Al-Jazeera cited diplomatic sources at the UNSC as saying.

In remarks to the media in June before the UNSC session, Egypts Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said the country hopes that the UNSCs reaction would contribute to Egypt and Sudans goal to reach a legally-binding agreement on the GERD.

This should be carried out through an African framework that is enhanced by observers and that allows the African Union and the UN secretary-general to use observers and available mechanisms to find solutions to the GERD crisis.

The resolution is always the most powerful mechanism for the Security Council; the matter then wanes to a presidential statement then to a press statement. All of these propositions have the same effect, Shoukry added.

Shoukry added that Egypt will have exhausted all peaceful means if Ethiopia does not abide by the UNSC position on the GERD issue.

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Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly received on Wednesday Prime Minister of Libya's Government of National Unity Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh at Cairo International Airport.

An official reception ceremony was held for the Libyan premier, who arrived in Cairo on top of a high-level delegation, including several ministers and experts to take part in the 11th session of the Egyptian-Libyan Higher Committee, Cacibnet's spokesman Nader Saad said.

According to the spokesman, the Egyptian and Libyan premiers will hold a meeting Thursday, followed by an expanded round of talks between the Egyptian and Libyan sides.

It is scheduled that a number of agreements and MoUs would be signed at the end of talks between the two sides.



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Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi affirmed on Wednesday Egypt's keenness to bolster relations with Iraq in all fields.

During a meeting with speaker of the Iraqi House of Representatives Mohamed Al-Halbousi in Cairo, the president affirmed Egypt's full readiness to exchange expertise with Iraq and support the Iraqi government in all its efforts to restore the country's stability, presidential spokesman Bassam Rady said.

El-Sisi said the upcoming parliamentary elections will play an effective role in shaping the future of Iraq and strengthening its national institutions.

He also affirmed Egypt's rejection of any foreign interference in Iraq's domestic affairs.

Halbousi, for his part, said the recurrent visits by President El-Sisi to Iraq have contributed to consolidating relations between the two countries, and expressed appreciation for Egypts role in restoring Iraq's stability.

He also expressed Iraq's keenness on developing relations with Egypt in various fields, especially at the parliamentary level.

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The 2021 edition of the Riyadh International Book Fair will be kicking off on 1 October at the Riyadh Front, with local and international exhibitors along with publishers confirming their participation.

The fair  which will run until 10 October  will be hosting a conference featuring major publishers between 4 and 5 October and workshops on copyrights and translation.

The Saudi Ministry of Culture also announced that Iraq will be the guest of honour for this edition.

Last year, the fair could not be held in its scheduled time slot  2 to 11 April 2020 due to the coronavirus restrictive measures enforced by the Saudi state at the time.

The organiser of the fair  The Saudi Commission for Literature, Publishing, and Translation  is offering many incentives to publishers and exhibitors to participate in the fair, including offering them a 50 percent discount on their booth fees and bearing the cost of shipping their books on their behalf.

The fair will also offer a digital store where publishers can sell their books to readers who will not be able to physically attend the event.

The publishing sector in the Arab world, like many others, was negatively affected by the coronavirus, with many book fairs getting cancelled or postponed. The lockdowns and restrictive measures also took a massive toll on the industry, which was not prepared to go online.

The industry quickly recovered, however, by ramping up its online presence.

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Sudan and the UK have agreed to launch high-level strategic dialogue sessions at the nearest possible time.

During a meeting late Tuesday, Ambassador Mohamed Sharif Abdullah, Undersecretary of the Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Director of the Central and East Africa Affairs at the British Foreign Office Simon Mustard discussed ways of boosting Sudanese-British ties.

Talks also pored over promptly pressing ahead with a strategic dialogue agenda, with the aim of serving Sudan's interests and further promoting bilateral ties.

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Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails have called off a planned hunger strike later this week involving some 1,400 inmates after their demands were met, a Palestinian group said Wednesday.

Tensions have been running high since six militants staged a dramatic escape from a high-security jail in northern Israel on September 6, via a tunnel dug under a sink. Four of them have since been recaptured.

Hundreds of their fellow inmates were transferred to other jails, and personal items were confiscated, according to the Palestinian Prisoners' Club.

The Palestinian Authority's commission for prisoners had announced plans for a hunger strike from Friday.

Some 1,380 prisoners -- out of more than 4,000 Palestinians held in Israeli jails -- were to start fasting on Friday, to be joined by other inmates next week.

On Wednesday, however, the Prisoners' Club said it had been decided to "suspend the collective hunger strike after the demands were met" including a "cessation of the collective punishments".

An Israel Prison Service spokesman said that as of Wednesday there was no indication that a hunger strike was set to begin, but refused to comment on the claim that prisoners' demands had been met.

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Counselor of the US Department of State Derek Chollet had talks on Tuesday in Tunisia with Tunisian Foreign Minister Othman Jerandi on a host of issues of mutual interest and concern.

Counselor Chollet and Foreign Minister Jerandi emphasized the productive US-Tunisian bilateral relationship, particularly on security cooperation and in the United Nations Security Council.

They reaffirmed the centrality of democratic values to the relationship and discussed regional and international support for Libyas national elections in December and implementation of the October 2020 Libyan nationwide ceasefire.

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Air strikes from unidentified drones killed three pro-Iran fighters in Syria's eastern province of Deir Ezzor near the Iraqi border, a Britain-based war monitor said on Wednesday.

The drones late Tuesday targeted trucks of the Iraqi paramilitary network Hashed al-Shaabi after they had crossed the border into the Syrian border district of Albu Kamal, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Three were killed and several severely wounded, the monitoring group said.

A source within the Hashed al-Shaabi in Iraq however said that "the strikes destroyed four vehicles, but no one was killed".

"The site targeted was near a border post of the factions on the Iraqi-Syrian border," the source told AFP.

The Fatah alliance, the political wing of the Hashed al-Shaabi, condemned an "abject attack" on its forces on the frontier.

It called on Iraq's government and parliament to "determine the countries responsible" and confront them.

Iran-backed groups, including the Hashed al-Shaabi, are present near the Iraqi border is Syria's far east.

The strikes on Albu Kamal come after a drone attack late Saturday against the Arbil international airport, which includes an air base of the US-led coalition that has been fighting the Islamic State group.

There were no casualties in the attack on the base in Iraqi Kurdistan.

The United States has twice conducted deadly strikes against the Hashed al-Shaabi in eastern Syria since President Joe Biden took office, in February and June this year.

Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes on Syrian territory, targeting regime positions as well as allied pro-Iran forces since the start of the decade-old Syrian war.

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US Special Envoy for Yemen Tim Lenderking is in Saudi Arabia today where he will meet with senior officials from the Governments of the Republic of Yemen and Saudi Arabia.

A statement issued by the Department of State said he will then travel to Oman to meet with senior Omani officials.

The Special Envoy will also meet with UN Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen David Gressly, and UN Security Council permanent member state ambassadors to Yemen.

Special Envoy Lenderkings efforts are focused on advancing an inclusive, UN-led peace process and bringing immediate relief to the people of Yemen. He will also continue to press the parties on the need for the regular, free flow of essential commodities and humanitarian aid into and throughout Yemen.

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Lebanon's former prime minister left the country for the United States on Tuesday, his advisor said, despite a subpoena from the judge investigating last year's devastating explosion at Beirut port.

Hassan Diab was the country's prime minister when the explosion happened on Aug. 4, 2020. He resigned after the blast that killed over 200 people and injured over 6,000, leaving the large parts of the city devastated.

Diab was caretaker prime minister until last week, when Najib Mikati successfully formed a new government, ending months of political haggling.

As caretaker prime minister, Diab was summoned by investigative judge Tarek Bitar on accusations of intentional killing and negligence. Diab declined to be interrogated as a defendant, saying he had given his testimony in the case. Diab holds that the judges investigating the case have violated Lebanese laws that require that as a senior government official he can only be summoned after the parliament approves.

When Diab failed to show up last month for investigation, Bitar issued a subpoena and the new date for questioning was set for next Monday.

On Tuesday, Bitar issued a new subpoena to include his home address after he stepped down from the premiership.

``He has nothing new to say,'' said Laila Hatoum, Diab's advisor. ``He considers that he has nothing to do with all that until the parliament decides the course of action.''

Hatoum said Diab left for a pre-planned trip to visit his children who are studying in the United States. He has not seen them since he took office, she said.

Hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate, a highly explosive material used in fertilizers that had been improperly stored in the port for years, exploded on Aug. 4, 2020. The probe shows that most government officials knew of the dangerous material stored at the port.

Diab told The Associated Press in an interview last year that he was being singled out and charged while others knew more.

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Iran acknowledged on Wednesday that it had removed several surveillance cameras installed by U.N. nuclear inspectors at a centrifuge assembly site that came under a mysterious attack earlier this year.

The chief of the country's nuclear program, Mohammad Eslami, sought to portray the removal of cameras as Tehran's response to world powers reneging on their commitments under the tattered 2015 nuclear deal.

``The parties did not implement their commitments so there were no necessity for the cameras' existence,'' Eslami said after a meeting with lawmakers _ remarks apparently aimed at his own domestic audience under the country's new hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi.

Eslami's comments come days after a confidential International Atomic Energy Agency report that revealed the nuclear watchdog found four surveillance cameras to be destroyed and damaged after their removal from the centrifuge manufacturing site in Karaj, a city about 40 kilometers (25 miles) northwest of Tehran.

In June, Iran accused Israel of mounting a sabotage attack on the site, which makes components for machines used to enrich uranium. Without disclosing details of the assault, Iranian authorities acknowledged the strike had damaged the building.

Addressing swirling questions about the agency's broken surveillance cameras, Eslami said Wednesday they were damaged during recent ``terrorist operations,`` without elaborating.

The attack on Karaj was just the latest in a series of suspected assaults targeting Iran's nuclear program that have heightened regional hostilities in recent months, as world powers attempt to salvage the now-collapsed nuclear deal. Israel is widely believed to have carried out the sabotage, though it has not claimed responsibility.

Tensions eased slightly in the contest over IAEA surveillance cameras at Iran's sensitive nuclear sites earlier this week, when Iran agreed to allow international inspectors to install new memory cards into surveillance cameras at its atomic facilities to continue filming.

Tehran holds all recordings at its sites as negotiations over the U.S. and Iran returning to the landmark nuclear deal remain stalled in Vienna. As Tehran tries to ramp up pressure on the West to grant sanctions relief, the country is now enriching small amounts of uranium to its closest-ever levels to weapons-grade purity as its stockpile continues to grow.

Tehran maintains its nuclear program is peaceful, and Eslami on Wednesday hit back against those who accuse Iran of covertly pursuing a nuclear bomb.

``What Iran has gained in the nuclear field is based on domestic research and development, and nobody can stop this'' Eslami said, adding that he will travel to Vienna next week for a meeting with the IAEA. ``We should not allow ourselves to be accused of secrecy by the world.''

In a similar statement pitched to the Iranian domestic audience, the country's envoy to the IAEA, Kazem Gharibabadi, also struck a harsh tone against the nuclear watchdog.

The IAEA is not fulfilling ``its duties and responsibilities with regard to the terrorist sabotage of peaceful facilities of its members,'' Gharibabadi said, warning that ``as long as the agency does not address the controversies, problems will continue.``

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Police in Northern Ireland on Wednesday said they had arrested four men under the Terrorism Act in connection with the killing of journalist Lyra McKee.

The men, aged 19, 20, 21 and 33, were detained early Wednesday in Londonderry, in the northwest of the British province, where McKee was killed in April 2019.

They were taken to a police station in Belfast, where they will be questioned later, the Police Service of Northern Ireland said.

"These arrests are the culmination of a detailed two-year investigation into Lyra's murder and the events which preceded it," said Detective Superintendent Jason Murphy.

McKee, 29, was shot in the head while standing near a police vehicle as dissident pro-Ireland republicans clashed with officers in the Creggan area of Londonderry.

Londonderry is known as Derry to republicans, who want an end to British sovereignty in the province in favour of union with the Irish Republic.

Dissident republican group the New IRA took responsibility for the killing and offered its "full and sincere apologies" to her loved ones, saying she was "tragically killed while standing beside enemy forces".

Her death provoked a widespread outcry across Northern Ireland and led to calls for politicians to agree to restore the province's then-suspended power-sharing institutions.

Wednesday's development comes after several previous arrests in the case.

Investigators in February charged Paul McIntyre, 52, with murder.

Police have also confirmed that a gun recovered during searches in Londonderry was the weapon that had been used to kill McKee.

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libyan Minister of Industry Ahmed Abu Hisa Wednesday discussed with Italian Ambassador to Libya Giuseppe Buccino means to promote and activate industrial cooperation between the two sides.

According to the Libyan news agency, the two sides also discussed means to resume the operation of truck and buses factory in Tajoraa.

The Libyan minister said his country has been witnessing stability allowing foreign companies to resume their activities, calling on the Italian side to train Libyan youth in the field of industry.

For his part, the Italian diplomat said his country pays attention to industrial cooperation with Libya pointing out that a delegation of Italian companies will visit Libya in the coming period.

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Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Wednesday resumed dialogue with Catalonia's separatist leadership in a bid to resolve a political crisis triggered by the region's failed independence bid in 2017.

After an 18-month hiatus, Sanchez travelled to Barcelona where he met recently elected Catalan leader Pere Aragones for two hours, saying afterwards that the two sides were still "very far apart".

In October 2017, the Catalan regional government staged a referendum banned by Madrid then issued a shortlived declaration of independence, triggering Spain's worst political crisis in decades.

Since then, Catalonia has remained a major issue in Spanish politics and one that Sanchez's government has vowed to tackle through negotiations.

"The ideas we have on how to resolve the crisis in Catalonia are very different, radically different from those of the Catalan government," Sanchez told reporters after the meeting.

The separatists came to the talks bent on securing an amnesty for everyone involved in the failed independence bid, as well as a new referendum on self-determination.

But Spain is implacably opposed to both ideas.

"For us, neither a referendum nor amnesty is possible," Sanchez said, while insisting on the Spanish government's desire "to resolve this crisis".

"The most important thing is to move forward without setting dates for the resolution of this conflict," he said, pledging to work "without haste, without breaks and without setting deadlines".

"We are going to need time, a lot of time."

- Quid pro quo -

"If we go with a list of maximalist demands, the conversation won't last very long," Sanchez had said earlier this week, while admitting he was open to a possible vote on Catalonia's place within Spain, but within limits.

The Spanish leader had promised to resume talks in January 2020 after ERC -- Catalonia's oldest and largest separatist party -- offered crucial parliamentary support to his minority government.

Initial talks began a month later but were soon suspended as the coronavirus pandemic took hold.

Many things have changed since the October 2017 referendum and the ensuing crisis.

Those responsible were tried and jailed while others fled abroad to avoid prosecution, leaving the separatist movement decapitated and deeply at odds over how to move forward.

The issue of dialogue with Madrid has been a huge point of friction in the region of 7.8 million people, who remain divided over the question of independence.

Despite the differences, negotiations are thought to have a better chance this time thanks to shake-up within Catalonia's separatist-dominated leadership, with moderate leftist ERC taking the reins several months ago.

Last time, its hardline counterpart JxC was in charge.

The shift had an immediate effect: within weeks, the Spanish government had pardoned the jailed separatist leaders and agreed to resume top-level talks on the Catalan crisis.

ERC favours a negotiated strategy to achieve independence via dialogue with Madrid, while JxC, now the junior coalition partner, which wants to maintain a confrontational approach.

The split within the separatist ranks has also affected morale among their supporters, Ernesto Pascual, a political scientist at Catalonia's Open University said.

"People are beginning to turn their attention to more tangible issues than Catalan independence, which is why we're seeking this lack of motivation," said Pascual.

"People get tired of just focusing on the national issue.. especially during this health crisis and the economic crisis that will follow."

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Pakistan's national security adviser said Wednesday that his country cannot host any more Afghan refugee for several reasons, including financial constraints.

``Pakistan is in no condition right now to accept any more refugees,'' Moeed Yusuf told a news conference in the capital, Islamabad. He said Pakistan is already hosting more than 3 million Afghan refugees who had fled the war and violence in their country over the past decades.

Yusuf said Pakistan will try to do whatever is possible to help Afghans, but that international efforts should step up to prevent a humanitarian crisis. He asked the world community not to repeat the past mistake of abandoning Afghanistan.

Yusuf also warned that the Islamic State group and other militants _ including the Pakistani Taliban who have sought refuge across the border _ could exploit such a situation.

``You don't need to think too much to know what will happen. There will be a security vacuum. You already know ISIS is present there, Pakistani Taliban are present there, al-Qaida is there,'' he said, adding that these groups are sworn enemies both of Pakistan and the West.

``If Afghanistan destabilizes the spillover effect comes to Pakistan,'' he said. Yusuf also asked the international community to constructively engage with the Taliban for the sake of peace and stability in the region.

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Impoverished Afghans living in a long-abandoned military compound in the southern city of Kandahar say they're devastated by the Taliban order to expel them from their homes.

Several hundred staged a rally against the order on Monday, saying they have nowhere else to go and that they had years ago paid former Afghan soldiers under the table for the land.

The Taliban came to the compound after the rally and forced several of the protesters to leave. Their current whereabouts are not known.

Rabia, an Afghan widow who goes by one name, says she lives in a two-room mud house in the compound with her five children. She told The Associated Press she will stay put until the Taliban provide her with another place to live.

``The Taliban want me to leave everything I built and bought behind, where would I go with my children?'' she said.

The Taliban have ordered over 2,500 families in the compound to leave their houses and all their belongings so that Taliban fighters can move in.

``The families have received a deadline to leave with just the clothes on our back as soon as possible'' said Imran, another resident of the compound.

Fazil Mohammad, one of the first Afghans who settled in the compound said has no money to go somewhere else. ``I cannot even afford a tent now to move into that.'' He said he was happy when the Taliban took over, citing corruption of the previous government, but that he is now disappointed.

The compound was abandoned in 2001, after the U.S.-led invasion to oust the Taliban, when Afghan soldiers who lived there moved into facilities at the Kandahar airport. Over the years, the compound grew as displaced Afghans settled there, bought pieces of land and built houses.

The Taliban media chief for Kandahar, Rahmatullah Naraiwal, said Wednesday that the Afghan families may continue living in the compound, pending a review of the matter by the Taliban leadership.

However, he said they are not allowed to hold rallies and that their protest was illegal. The Taliban are prepared to pay them but cannot provide them with an alternative place to stay, he added.

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Egypts recent increase in Egyptian expat remittances has had a positive effect on recipient households, on the broader economy, and for Egyptian banks because it supports their deposit-based funding profile and enhances their lending capacity, according to Moodys.

On 15 March, the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) reported that monthly workers remittances for the six months leading up to December 2020 went up by 13.5 percent, totalling $15.5 billion, up from $13.7 billion a year earlier.

In its credit outlook report, issued on Monday, Moodys said that the increased remittances, alongside the banks access to long-term funding from foreign financial institutions, back Egypts foreign-currency liquidity at a time when traditional sources of foreign currency have slumped as a result of the COVID-19 crisis.

The report pointed out that Egyptian banks are primarily funded by customer deposits, and increased remittances are credit positive for the banks because they contribute to higher deposit inflows, provide a stable and low-cost funding base as well as diversify the depositor base.

Moreover, technological advances, greater use of electronic channels  which reduce transaction costs  and pandemic-related limitations on travel by overseas Egyptian workers, which have increased their ability to save, have facilitated growth in remittances, according to the report.

Moodys expected remittance inflows to Egypt maintain their positive momentum thanks to the wider use of electronic transfers.

In addition, the positive effect on household incomes creates new lending opportunities for banks and supports households debt repayment capacity, according to the report.

Increased remittances also support Egyptian banks foreign-currency liquidity, while the pandemic severely depresses other foreign-currency sources, such as tourism revenues.

Furthermore, banks' ongoing access to long-term funding from international banks and financial institutions also bolsters their foreign-currency liquidity.

According to the report, over the past 12 months, several Egyptian banks have obtained foreign currency funding from international funders.

Banque du Caire SAE obtained $100 million from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in order to provide trade finance to private firms as well as financing to local small and midsize enterprises (SMEs), following $100 million of funding received from the European Investment Bank (EIB) in 2020.

QNB Alahli, the Egyptian subsidiary of Qatar National Bank also obtained a $100 million senior loan from EBRD.

The Commercial International Bank (CIB), the largest private-sector bank in Egypt, obtained a $100 million subordinate loan from CDC Group and $200 million in loans from the EBRD and the International Finance Corporation to strengthen its SME lending portfolio.

Banque Misr obtained a 425 million line of credit from the EIB to support Egyptian private-sector SMEs, the report said.

Such credit facilities and remittances encourage banks to lend to the real economy, support business generation and generate additional revenue through interest income, loan fees and commissions, according to the report.

On the other hand, lending to new customers with limited credit history carries additional credit risks and requires higher provisions, according to the report.

The private-sector banks we rate maintain strong foreign-currency liquidity, with US dollar loan-to-deposit ratios of 52 percent for CIB and 69 percent for Bank of Alexandria as of December 2020. Meanwhile, state-owned National Bank of Egypt (NBE), as reported in the latest financial statements available, had a much higher ratio of 122 percent as of December 2019, the report explained.

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The leader of Fatahs Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade Zakaria Al-Zubeidi  one of those who were rearrested after the jailbreak  was taken to an Israeli hospitals intensive care unit after being tortured, his brother revealed through social media. According to The Jerusalem Post, mosques in Jenin told Palestinians that Zubeidi was in a critical condition.

Palestinian protesters moved towards the Jalameh checkpoints to express their anger, followed by clashes with Israeli forces. The aftermath of the jail break continues, especially since it greatly embarrassed Israel and impacted the security situation with Palestinians.

Palestinian detainees Mahmoud Al-Arda, Mohamed Al-Arda, Yacoub Al-Qadri, Ayham Kamamji, Monadel Anfiaat  all members of Islamic Jihad  and Al-Zubeidi, escaped from Gilboa prison on 6 September, and most of them were captured a few days later. Israel said the detainees escaped by digging a tunnel from the bathroom in their cell using a spoon they hid inside the jail cell.

Israel is continuing extensive investigations to find the flaws that led to the authorities failure to discover the tunnel digging and notice the prisoners fleeing. A judicial official close to the investigations told the Hebrew website Walla!: The prison guard sitting in the monitoring room should have been watching the security cameras, but instead was watching television and did not notice the six detainees escaping as seen on the security cameras. The source added that when the six detainees came out of the tunnel, the guard dogs in the courtyard began to bark. Israeli prisons have a new system that turns on when dogs bark, the source revealed. It came on and an alarm went off in the monitoring room, but, again, the guard did not notice it because he was watching television.

Walla! reported that security cameras recorded the escape and the six detainees fleeing the tunnel. Al-Zubeidi was one of the first to emerge. Cameras also showed one detainee who had trouble coming out of the narrow tunnel, and the other detainees had to pull him out.

The six men fled the prison and reached a mosque in Al-Naoora district in occupied north Palestine, changed clothes and separated into three groups.

When, four hours later, the authorities realised they were missing and deployed Israeli security forces, army and police, the escapees decided against heading to their hometown of Jenin in the West Bank. Instead, they decided to hide in the town of Al-Nasra close to Hebron in occupied north Palestine.

Israel captured four detainees while Kamamji and Anfiaat remain at large, and Israel is on high alert in their pursuit with predictions that at least one of them has reached Jenin. This worries Israel because it expects a bloodbath if it attempts to invade the Jenin Refugee Camp to arrest them, since the camp is teeming with armed men from many Palestinian factions. Although it recaptured most of the men who escaped, the incident has embarrassed Tel Aviv, giving rise to extensive domestic criticism of Israeli officials.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett broke his silence and asserted these flaws happened due to deficiencies in the state and its agencies. He blamed his predecessor Benjamin Netanyahu for such failures and promised to undertake radical reforms. Over the past six decades, there have been many escapes by Palestinians from Israeli prisons using a variety of means, including digging tunnels.

In July 1958, 66 detainees attempted to flee Shatta prison which led to the death of 11 Palestinian detainees and two Israeli soldiers; the rest were re-arrested. In 1969, Mahmoud Abdullah Hammad, alias Mahmoud Al-Sayfi, from the town of Silwad in the West Bank, managed to escape from a prison in Ramallah after hitting a prison guard in the courtyard. Al-Sayfi was on the run for nine years in the Silwad hills and surrounding area. In August 1970, he crossed the Jordan River and from there went to Kuwait.

The Great Escape was in May 1987, when six detainees escaped from Al-Saraya prison in the centre of Gaza City. They sawed through the prison bars in their cell on the second floor of the prison. It took them seven continuous days and no one noticed what they were doing. They began sawing the back of the metal bars late during night prayers and sometimes during the call for dawn prayers.

Another attempt to escape was in 1988 when 24 detainees from several Palestinian factions tried to flee Shatta prison. Detainees who had short sentences or were hesitant left the cell, and the rest chose the most experienced of them to begin digging a tunnel inside the cell. Another escape was attempted at Shatta prison in 2014, but authorities discovered the tunnel by the time it reached four metres.

Although Israel succeeded in recapturing most of the recent escapees from Gilboa prison, Palestinians see the incident as a great victory because it gave Israel a security shock and shone a light on Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons who suffer harsh conditions, which have worsened after the escape. Israel punished all detainees by shuffling and moving them around, and several detainees were beaten at many Israeli prisons. The incident also overshadowed Egypt-sponsored negotiations for a prisoner exchange deal between Hamas and Israel. The Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas military wing, asserted that no prisoner exchange will take place until the release of the detainees who escaped Gilboa. A spokesman for Al-Qassam said: The heroes of the freedom tunnel will come out with their heads raised high.

The leadership of Al-Qassam decided no exchange deal will be made without the release of these heroes. He further promised that the Palestinian detainees will soon be freed above ground. Hamas and Islamic Jihad openly threatened they would begin military escalation against Israel if detainees were abused in Israeli prisons or if the Israeli army invades Jenin Refugee Camp in the West Bank, where Israel suspects the fugitives have sought refuge.

With these threats returned a policy of dripping rockets whereby for three days rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip against near by Israeli settlements. Israel responded by bombing Palestinian faction locations, which could lead to full-fledged military confrontations between the two sides. This is even more likely in light of detainee problems and Palestinians accusing Israel of reneging on its commitments in the truce that was reached after Israels war on Gaza in May.

Whatever the repercussions of the Gilboa escape, it is certain this incident triggered a new round of confrontations between Palestinians and Israel in general, and Palestinian detainees and Israeli prison authorities in particular. The latter are trying to take advantage of the recent escape to withdraw privileges or rights that detainees gained following long hunger strikes and protesting Israeli abuses against them.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 16 September, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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In a conference held at the New Administrative Capital on 11 September, Egypt launched a new National Strategy for Human Rights. President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi announced that 2022 would be the year of civil society, urging the sector to cooperate with state institutions to spread awareness of the culture of human rights and contribute to achieving the aspirations of the Egyptian people.

The announcement of Egypts National Strategy for Human Rights came four days after New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report claiming to detail extrajudicial executions in Egypt. Political analysts and civil society activists in Egypt condemned the report as politicised and inaccurate.

Yasser Abdel-Aziz, a media and human rights expert, said in a TV interview on 11 September that Egypts conference on a new Strategy for Human Rights was not a response to HRWs report.

The strategy was drafted a long time ago that it was made public four days after HRWs report is a coincidence, said Abdel-Aziz.

It is not the first time HRW has made allegations about extrajudicial killings in Egypt, Abdel-Aziz continued. Every state has the right to defend itself against terrorists and it is the Interior Ministry which has the largest responsibility in thwarting terrorist attacks. Since the Muslim Brotherhood was removed from power, the Interior Ministry has faced waves of terrorist attacks in which hundreds of ordinary citizens, police and soldiers have been killed, with different organisations such as the North Sinai-based Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis, Hasm, and Agnad Masr claiming responsibility.

According to Abdel-Aziz, the new HRW report describes members of these organisations as alleged terrorists, and the Interior Ministrys pre-emptive actions against these organisations as extrajudicial executions.

The problem with HRW is that it is a politicised organisation that forms part of the American left which includes media outlets such as the CNN, the Washington Post and the New York Times, all of which have been in vocal support of political Islam against what they call Arab dictatorships, said Abdel-Aziz.

The Guardians of the Nation Party issued a statement characterising the report as an open defence of terrorist organisations which have caused havoc in Egypt since the Muslim Brotherhood was forced out of office in 2013.

Yasser Al-Hodeibi, a senator and professor of constitutional law and human rights, agrees that the HRW is a politicised organisation aggressive to the Egyptian state. Since the Muslim Brotherhood regime was ousted from office, HRW has turned itself a mouthpiece for this group, defending its crimes in the form of politicised reports and statements, argues Al-Hodeibi. Not only do HRWs reports use politically hostile language against the Egyptian state and President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi in person, but they incite Western governments to impose sanctions on Egypt.

HRW is a radical leftist American organisation that supports chaos and disintegration, takes the side of terrorist movements, and aims to intimidate and castigate national security forces entrusted with imposing order and discipline.

HRW devotes much of the report to attacking the post-Muslim Brotherhood regime in Egypt and like the leftist Washington Post and the New York Times the report repeats claims that Egypt has been in crisis since what they call the military overthrow of the Brotherhood regime in 2013. The report concludes by asking the international community to enforce an arms embargo on Egypt.

According to MP Ayman Mehasib, not only does the HRW report attack the Interior Ministry for using the term shootouts, ignoring the fact that hundreds of police and soldiers have been killed in these confrontations, but it also describes the criminals attacking security forces in these shootouts as alleged terrorists.

The Egyptian Alliance for Human Rights and Development (EAHRD) condemned the report for its lack of neutrality and inaccuracy. That an organisation claiming to defend human rights releases a report lacking accurate information and independent analysis, is deplorable, said EAHRD.

The absence of neutrality that we see in this latest HRW report serves only to encourage terrorist groups and movements to carry out violent attacks on the Egyptian people.

HRW has clearly adopted the viewpoint of the Muslim Brotherhood, taking information provided by members of this organisation as undisputed fact.

In failing to check or verify this information, HRW has produced a report lacking coherence, based on points that are adequately documented, and which only serves the political goals of its writers.

Civil society, including human rights organisations, should always seek independence and impartiality, keep away from politicised agendas, document violations and abuses by citing different sources, verifying facts, and using clear language that should not reflect any political affiliations, advised EAHRD.

The alliance urged Western civil society organisations not to use human rights to settle political accounts or for political extortion. Releasing politicised reports will not serve the human rights, though it could give terrorist organisations a cover to commit crimes, it warned.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 16 September, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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Egypt launched its new National Strategy for Human Rights earlier this week from the New Administrative Capital. The strategy will run until 2026 and address civilian and political rights; economic, social and cultural rights; the rights of marginalised groups (women, children, disabled people, youth and the elderly), and education and capacity building in the human rights field.

Ayman Okeil, head of the NGO Maat Foundation for Peace, Development and Human Rights, said the decision to launch the strategy in the presence of representatives from human rights groups as well as government officials and political parties reflected the level of partnership and social dialogue that had gone into producing the document. It is proof that dialogue between the state and civil society can produce positive results. Now it is important to build on the dialogue to achieve sustainable development, he said.

The strategy is an attempt to codify rights and liberties in a single document, and allows for changes as and when they are needed to meet the demands of society.

During the launching ceremony, President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi stressed that in the absence of respect for the rule of law the strategy cannot be effectively implemented. He also highlighted the importance of taking measures to ensure its principles are applied on the ground.

Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri hailed the National Strategy as a roadmap for human rights. Developing human rights, he said, is a continuous and cumulative process that begins with the states commitment to uphold the dignity and safeguard the rights of its citizens.

Shoukri said the document struck a balance between human rights in Egypts specific cultural and religious context, and the demands of national security and protection from terrorism.

Ahmed Ihab Gamaleddin, Egypts permanent representative to the UN and the secretary-general of the committee that drafted the strategy, said the document highlighted the right of citizens to participate in political life and form political parties while simultaneously developing public awareness of the importance of peaceful assembly.

The first test of the strategy will be the new draft labour law, expected to be discussed in parliament next month, said Gamaleddin. He added that the labour law will open a new chapter of strong partnership between the state and civil society, and affirm the latters role in protecting human rights.

Nazhat Shameem Khan, head of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHCR), said the strategy was a significant step towards guaranteeing human rights.

It targets translating the commitments into concrete steps on the ground, with the aim of strengthening the civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights as well as protecting the human rights of vulnerable segments, atop of which are women, children, challenged people and seniors, she said in a recorded video message screened during the launching ceremony.

Khan praised Egypt for taking into account UNHRCs recommendations on Egypts human rights file.

Arab Organisation for Human Rights head Alaa Shalabi echoed Shoukri in stressing that improving human rights is an accumulative process and that the five-year span of the strategy will not be the end. He also told the media that Egypt this week joined a list of less than 50 countries worldwide that have a human rights strategy.

Others were more sceptical. Political science professor Mustafa Kamel Al-Sayed told Al-Ahram Weekly that judgement on the document will have to wait until it becomes clear how its provisions are being implemented. He also questioned why a human rights document should be given a shelf-life: While economic and social documents can be linked to a timetable human rights principles are clear and should be applied immediately rather than in phases, he said.

The strategy was prepared by the Supreme Permanent Committee for Human Rights which is chaired by the Foreign Ministry. The committee, established in 2018 by prime ministerial decree, comprises an advisory board of 25 representatives of government agencies, councils, and other organisations with a mandate to prepare a human rights strategy.

Charged with developing a clear structure for human rights in Egypt, the committee engaged in consultations and negotiations with a wide range of groups, including the National Council for Human Rights, parliaments Human Rights Committee, the academic and business communities, and civil society. It also studied the human rights strategies of more than 30 countries.

A government official close to the drafting process conceded that while it had proved impossible to reach a consensus on all issues more work will be done to address continuing concerns by some stakeholders over extended pre-trial detention and political prisoners.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 16 September, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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Egyptian commentators say there has been no significant breakthrough in the resumption of Egyptian-Turkish relations. Two exploratory rounds of negotiations have been held in the last four months, one in Cairo in May, the second in Ankara in the first week of September. The meetings convened at deputy foreign minister level, with Hamdi Loza heading the Egyptian delegation and Sedat Onal the Turkish delegation. The protocols and agenda were much the same in the two rounds.

In interviews with Bloomberg, Egyptian Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouli and Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri underlined three important elements in assessing the progress of the talks and their future prospects.

Most important is Turkeys involvement in Libya. It is clear that Turkey is not taking serious action on two core requirements of the Berlin Process: the removal of the mercenaries and foreign fighters Turkey introduced into the country, and the reduction of Turkeys own military presence in western Libya. A plan to implement these points was discussed in the second Berlin Conference and provided for phased, proportionally reciprocal withdrawals by both Russia and Turkey. It was never put into effect.

Cairo supports the position of the Libyan 5+5 Joint Military Committee (JMC) on this issue. The JMC, an output of the first Berlin Conference, maintains that the continued presence of mercenaries and foreign forces threatens the Libyan political process. Turkey continues to cite the agreement it struck with the former Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) as grounds to maintain its military presence until a new, elected government comes to power and determines the fate of the agreement. Ankaras refusal to implement its obligations under the Berlin process naturally affects prospects for the resumption of relations with Cairo which has been working to help restore stability to Libya.

The second element is the timeframe Madbouli mentioned. Madbouli has said Egyptian-Turkish relations could be restored by the end of the year if outstanding issues are resolved. As upbeat as the statement sounds, it implies a process of confidence building. And Libya, where elections are scheduled for mid-December, will be the main testing ground. Will Turkey alter its policies so as to smooth the pathway to that crucial juncture?

Madboulis belief that exploratory talks cannot go on indefinitely appears to be shared by the Turks might be thinking along the same lines. In remarks to Turkish media, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu indicated that progress needs to be made in the talks before the two sides are in a position to exchange ambassadors.

The third element is political will. How strong is Cairos and Ankaras resolve to normalise relations? According to the closing statement of the last meeting, the two sides agreed to continue consultations and affirmed their desire to achieve progress to facilitate the normalisation of bilateral relations. Foreign Minister Shoukri also told Bloomberg that Cairo was keen to find a solution and reach a formula for restoring normal relations.

It is clear that Cairos foreign policy outlook differs from Turkeys. Cairos vision for regional stability is one in which all countries of the region attain their interests through peaceful political practices. It is the antithesis of the militarised foreign policy adopted by non-Arab regional powers in the past decade. The latest application of the Egyptian foreign policy outlook is to be found in the Egyptian-Iraqi-Jordanian cooperation mechanism that emerged from the Baghdad Conference for Cooperation and Partnership in August. This tripartite mechanism was established as a fulcrum for regional development and the realisation of the participants mutual interests. One of the lessons it offers is that diplomacy is a more effective way for countries to attain their interests than militarisation, whether through conventional means such as building military bases abroad or unconventional means such as transporting mercenaries and other irregular foreign fighters to assist proxies in other countries.

Egypts official statement also mentioned Iraq, Syria and Palestine, all of which fall within the scope of Egypts immediate national security. It is no coincidence the three countries were singled out by name. Egypts relations with all three have grown significantly closer, and Egyptian gas will soon pass through Jordan to Syria and from there to Lebanon. The increasing realm of shared interests between Egypt and its neighbours in the Levant can only bear fruit in a stable climate, and that requires Turkey to change its foreign policies and attitudes towards the region.

A major outstanding concern is Turkeys continuing harbouring of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. Will Turkey agree to extradite suspects wanted on security-related charges? The isuue was raised before the last meeting, but so far no information is available. The Turkish authorities are likely to hand over a few individuals implicated in criminal cases but for the most part will refuse Egypts demand, arguing that the charges are political. A related issue is the Muslim Brotherhood affiliated media in Turkey which Egyptian authorities say Ankara promotes. An anti-Egyptian message also persists in Turkish state media, even though some of the more vocal pundits have softened their tone or had their volume temporarily muted.

What is motivating Turkey to restore its relations with Egypt to normal? Turkish investments in Egypt have not been significantly affected by the intergovernmental friction. Most observers believe that Ankaras shift in its relations with Egypt is driven by domestic discontent arising from President Recap Tayyip Erdogans crisis-generating policies which have isolated Turkey as never before, both in the West and the Arab region.

Others point to Ankaras desire to cooperate with Egypt over arrangements in the Eastern Mediterranean. Turkey claims that the maritime boundary it drew in the Eastern Mediterranean does not harm Egypt. Whether or not this is the case, Egypts allies, Cyprus and Greece, have objected to the unilaterally imposed boundary that Ankara based on an MoU with an interim government in Tripoli. Ankara needs to understand that any normalisation in Egyptian-Turkish relations will not come at the expense of the Egyptian-Greek-Cypriot alliance.

Egypt made this clear when the Cypriot president came to Cairo to participate in a meeting of the bilateral intergovernmental committee in the week preceding the second round of Egyptian-Turkish exploratory talks. During the visit Egypt reiterated its position on the dispute Turkey precipitated with Cyprus and Greece. Egypt opposes Ankaras unilateral imposition of a maritime border and its provocative drilling activities in areas Greece and Cyprus claim fall within their territorial waters. International law and legitimacy, the respect for other nations sovereignty and non-intervention in others domestic affairs must remain the governing principles of international relations.

It appears that, despite some cautious optimism, contacts between Egypt and Turkey have not moved beyond the exploratory and testing phase. It is also too soon to assess the results of this phase. Still, it is an important step in the much-needed efforts to reduce regional tensions and end the cycle of conflict.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 16 September, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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Economist Nihal El-Megharbel was one of the 100 Senate membersappointed by President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi. For El-Megharbel, becoming a Senate member was a major move.



She had been in government for 10 years,including in the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Local Development, and the Ministry of Planning. She held the post of viceminister of planning, monitoring and administrative reform, one of only a handful of viceministers at the time. During her tenure at the Ministry of Planning, El-Megharbels work included coordinating the preparation of the Sustainable Development Strategy: Egypt Vision 2030. El-Megharbel was responsible for managing a comprehensive agenda for reforming the planning and monitoring system, including developing a new planning law, improving public investment management, and introducing programme-based budgeting.



While working in the government shedealt with membersof parliament, presented the national developmentplan, interacted with the various committees about it and presented new legislation, but the Senate was a chance to be on the other side, benefiting from her long experience with the executive authority, she said.



El-Megharbel was part of the committee of 30 who were in charge of drawing up the bylaws of the Senate. For two months,she said, they worked on writing the bylaws, taking as reference the bylaws of the former Shura Council, and of the House of Representatives. Weaimed at confirming the important role of the Senate, as the second chamber of the parliament,as stated in the constitution.



El-Megharbel was among 20 women appointed to the Senate. They were originally supposed to be only 10, but the president issued a decree doubling the number which she described asa greatact towards political female empowerment. The female senators are present in almost all committees of the Senate, some of them are the heads of the committees or the deputies, she said.



The advantage of the appointments, she stressed, was that it allowed for a wider representation of sectors that may have otherwise not been represented. For example, among the appointeeswas the head of the Egyptian Nursing Syndicate.That sector, according to El-Megharbel, was vital during the pandemic and in addition was a promising sector for job creation. Representing this sector in the Senates would definitely help in addressing its needs for further development.That diversity in representation has served during the discussions in giving depth to debates on laws, she added.



El-Megharbel believes the Senate has an important role to play given that the members of parliament are overseeing dozens of laws.The Senatewould study, review, and discuss these laws to make sure they are constitutional, and to confirm that these laws do not contradict with each other, or overlap,and to ensure they are aligned with best practices.The Senate is here to do that, she said, noting that lawsare now written differently;they are much slimmer and more flexible, leaving the details to the bylaws.



Another distinguishing element of the Senate, according to El-Megharbel, is the specialized committees: the Senate has 14 committees, compared to 30 committees in parliament. The Senates committees combine related specialisations together. For El-Megharbel it worked well; she chosehousing, transportation, and local administration, three areas that complement each other. If they had been separated, she said she would have been confusedas to which to join.For the past 10 years she had worked on issues of urban development whether during her tenure in the Ministry of Local Development and The Ministry of Planning or afterwards when she joined UN Habitat focusing on urban policies, legislation, and governance.



For El-Megharbel, it was a relatively short year. Although they began in October, by the time they wrote the bylaws, the parliamentary session was over and elections for new members of parliament were being held. By the time the newly elected MPs began work and approved the Senate bylaws, it was already March. Nonetheless, she said, they discussed several important laws. Among those was the education law which they rejected.The Senate supported the idea of equity, she explained,refusing that only those financially capable could have improved their Thanaweya Amma, or 12th high school grades, and to overload less financially capable families to provide an opportunity for their children. We know that there are victims for every reform but not selective victims. We cannot choose a certain group to take the fall,she pointed out, adding thatas a result of discussions of this draft law, the idea of equity was confirmed in other laws.



Another important aspect of the law-making process, she noted, especially with a new republic in the making, is the need to make sure that all the laws are updated, in essence, to reflect the new developments that the country is witnessing, including the expanded urbanisation, the technological development, the applications of the fourth industrial revolution, the changes in the working conditions, the skills needed, the developments in the economy, to ensure sustainability and inclusiveness, and to be able to meet peoples expectations for a better futures.They should also take into consideration the rapid developmentstaking place domestically, regionally, and worldwide. Anotherlaw, that the Senate discussed, was that governing the Egyptian Engineers Syndicate;it was antiquated, dating back to the 1960s, and it was time to updated, taking into consideration new technological development, and modernising the different engineering services. Among its flaws was that it charged trivial fees for the syndicates services. If we want a strong syndicate, it must have adequate resources to finance the services that it provides to its members. This is something to guarantee the efficiency of the syndicate,El-Megharbel told Al-Ahram Weekly.



Another draft law overseen by the Senate was the General Unified Finance Law which aims among other things at applying a programme and performance-based budgeting, which helps rationalise public expenditure, contributes to raising the efficiency of public spending, and to confirming public sector transparency, and accountability.



The performance-based budgeting, provided for in the new law, is very important and has long been called for. It is vital for the efficiency of public spending, El-Megharbel noted. Transforming the way dozens of ministers and economic units perform their budgeting will take time, effort, and training, she said. We have done lots of studies about it and consulted with international and local entities, to develop manuals, and to raise the institutional capacity of the ministries to move gradually towards program and performance-based budgeting.We would not be starting from scratch and will benefit from other countries experiences and best practices.



It also needs political will, she said, from stakeholders, including governmentemployees to believe in this important state budget reform and how it will benefit them as well. A more efficient public spending should mean better services for citizens, she said.In a large bureaucratic system like ours you want the buy-in of those who will implement the system.



Egypt will benefit from the public finance reforms introduced by the law, and from allowing a greater role for local administrationin public services provision, going beyond the municipal services, to health, and education services, she stressed.



She expects a change in budget allocation to different sectors going forward because of the implementation of the Decent Life project. Already a lot of infrastructure development which is annually part of the investment budget, will be already allocated, she said. For example, the covering of canals is a huge part of the work done by the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation. This will be completed within the framework of Decent Life in a short span of time. How are we going to utilise the funds that used to be allocated to these projects?she asked. Budgets might be allocated to maintenance of these projects, and for promoting innovative local economic activities, that would generate income and create more jobs.



Decent Life is an initiative endorsed bythe president with the objective of improving the quality of life in 4,500 villages, housing 58 per cent of the population, in three years time. The project, which is expected to cost some LE700 billion, comes within the framework of the Sustainable Development Strategy: Egypt Vision 2030.



Decent Life is a dream come true, she stressed, explaining that while evidence shows that growth comes with urbanisation, if rural areas do not have adequate services and more jobs, rural-urban migration will continue, ruralising the urban areas.We want to increase urbanisation while improving life in rural areas.



The fact that this is happening at this large scale is amazing.We are not selecting villages, but it is happening across the board, she said, stressing there is an incredible level of coordination and cooperation between the various concerned ministries and the authorities on the ground.



What is also important, she said,was maintenance and sustainability of these newinfrastructure projects and public services. There has to be sense of ownership from the people to look after it and improve it, she said, adding that civil society has a major role in raising awareness over how to maintain these new infrastructure projects, and public services.



We have to take the good practices in this project and scale them up and implement themin other projects, especially in terms of government coordination, and promoting the concept of the whole of government El-Megharbel stressed.



Going forward, El-Megharbel hopes to see three interconnected laws coming through. First isthe planning law, prepared by the government, to update the current planning law, that was issued in 1973, and which is not reflecting all the new developments that the planning process witnessed over the years, including moving from a centralised system of planning to indicative planning, and promoting local planning, she noted.The unified building law is also in the works, she said, one that tackles various housing related issues, including construction violations. And the third law is that oflocal administration.It is important to reform the local administration, local planning, and increase local resources, to improve public services delivery, especially municipal services she said.



El-Megharbel also emphasised the importance of theNational Urban Policy developed by the Egyptian government in cooperation with UN Habitat. This includesthe policies that the government is implementing to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goal 11 (SDG 11): to make cities inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable, and to integrate the New Urban Agenda in the national urban policy mainstream.



There will be consultations with other ministrieson what the role of each ministryis to make it happen, she explained. It has the status of each city using the latest data. The urbanisation, economy, environment, mobility, and governance of each city is examined. Accordingly,cities are divided into groups according to their economic potential. El-Megharbel said the Ministry of Housing, Utilities, and Urban Communities will profile each governorateindicating what type of cities they have and recommendations on how to maximise the benefits from urbanisation, adding that the boom in urban development in Egypt is unprecedented. Egypt is committed to realising SDG 11, stressed El-Megharbel. We aim at maximising the benefit from urbanisation to provide a better life, boost the economy, increase jobopportunities,and to safeguard the environment.



The Ministry of Housing, Utilities, and Urban Communities represented by the General Organisation for Physical Planning created a task force to conducta reporting and monitoring mechanism for the New Urban Agenda, adopted in 2016. Egypt was one of only 16 countriesthat submitted their report, including all the developments that urbanisation witnessed in Egypt during the period 2016-20, said El-Megharbel: We are keen on keeping our international commitments, and on showing case and setting a good example to be followed by other countries in the region.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 16 September, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi received Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in Sharm El-Sheikh on Monday. The meeting, arranged last month during head of Egyptian General Intelligence Service Abbas Kamels visit to Jerusalem, is part of Egypts ongoing efforts to revive the Palestinian-Israeli peace process.



President Al-Sisi used the meeting to reaffirm Cairos support for peace within the framework of a two-state solution and relevant international resolutions, and underscored the importance of international support for Egypts reconstruction drive in Palestinian areas devastated during the last Israeli war against Gaza.The Israeli prime minister described the meeting as important and very good, adding we have created a foundation for a deep connection for the future.Cairos efforts have brought the Palestinian file to the forefront after a decade during which it was relegated to the back seat, a source who preferred to remain anonymous told Al-Ahram Weekly.Recent weeks have witnessed multilateral action to reinvigorate the Palestinian-Israeli peace process. During Bennetts visit to Washington in the last week of August, US President Joe Biden stressed that a two-state solution was the only viable path to a lasting resolution of the conflict. In the first week of September, Sharm El-Sheikh was the venue for a trilateral summit between President Al-Sisi, King Abdullah II of Jordan, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas: their aim, to work together to develop a vision for reactivating efforts to resume negotiations, and to work with brothers and partners to revive the peace process on the basis of the two-state solution.The arrangements for the meeting between Al-Sisi and Bennett were finalised a week before the visit by an Israeli national security delegation to Egypt. According to Israeli reports and official statements, the Israeli delegation discussed a range of issues with Egyptian authorities, including the resumption of air traffic and the revival of Israeli tourism to Taba, the Palestinian question and the possibility of reviving the peace process, the East Mediterranean Gas Forum, and Egyptian-Israeli economic relations.Egyptian sources stress that Cairos priorities are focused on peace-making, and have been lent impetus by Bidens support. Egypt, they say, is keen to grasp new opportunities now that any prospects of implementing the deal of the century, proposed by the previous administration in Washington, have faded.But is there any real chance of kick-starting peace talks?Sources in Cairo say that while the deal of the century had little, if any chance, of injecting new life into a process that ground to a halt 14 years ago, prospects now hinge on the US and Israeli positions.Since being elected Biden has repeatedly reiterated his commitment to a two-state solution and pledged to pursue all possible avenues to achieve it. There are, however, complicating factors. One was evidenced during Bennetts visit to Washington when he forced Israels perspective on Iran onto the agenda. To Israel, this question outweighs reviving peace talks.A second factor centres on Israels attempts to advance its plan for what it terms economic peace in exchange for security. Biden has indicated that his administration could work with Bennett on such a scheme until a clear initiative emerges to revive the peace process.Israel Foreign Minister Yair Lapid has outlined Israels vision for changing the economic realities of Gaza. Speaking at Reichman University in Israel, Lapid said that a blend of international investment, Israeli-Palestinian cooperation and a quiescent Hamas could change the lives of ordinary inhabitants of Gaza for the better. Political conditions  in Israel and in the Palestinian Authority  dont allow for diplomatic progress at the moment, but in Gaza we can, and we should, act now, he said.Cairo sees the Israeli position as an attempt to stabilise the truce with Hamas while deferring matters relating to Israels relationship with the Palestinian Authority, something it rejects in both form and substance.Israeli talk of economic peace is hardly new. It was promoted by Benjamin Netanyahu in 1996, and suggested again during the 2007-2013 tenure of former Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad. This proposal was unacceptable to both the Egyptians and Palestinians, though it was dusted down and put on the table once again as part of the deal of the century proposed by Trump, said the source.Kick-starting the peace process, then, appears to be stuck in square one, with the central question whether or not Israel can commit to taking a courageous step towards the two-state solution. Observers in Cairo believe Bennetts fragile coalition government will collapse if it makes so much as a gesture in this direction. They also believe that Bennett is loath to pursue a foreign policy course that would give his coalition partner and current foreign minister  Lapid will assume the premiership in two years in accordance with the coalitions rotation deal  a chance to shine.Current efforts are an attempt to pave the way for the peace process given the current absence of any common ground, says the anonymous Egyptian source.Though chances of resuming the long-stalled Palestinian-Israeli peace process are slim, sources in Cairo believe that the meeting between Al-Sisi and Bennett did produce some positive results. They see encouraging signs of the possibility of transforming the Egyptian-mediated Gaza ceasefire into a durable truce, thereby averting a return to military escalation. They also believe some progress has been made on the prisoner exchange question and on clearing the way for the Gaza reconstruction drive that Egypt is overseeing in collaboration with the UN.Mustafa Al-Barghouti, secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative, told the Weekly from Ramallah that the recent flurry of activity, including the meeting in Sharm El-Sheikh, may contribute to solving some issues, including on the ceasefire and better treatment for Palestinian prisoners, but will have little impact on the peace process itself. The Israelis, says Al-Barghouti  and he includes not only Bennett and Lapid but the whole spectrum of elite Israeli society  are all right-leaning, and strong believers in what the deal of the century had to offer. Current efforts may improve the situation regarding some issues, he concludes, but as far as the Palestinian cause goes, it is too early to talk about any breakthrough.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 16 September, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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Moroccos Islamist party suffered the latest in a series of Islamist defeats since the Muslim Brotherhood was ousted from power in Egypt following popular demonstrations in 2013. More recently, this July, the same fate befell the Ennahda Party government in Tunisia. Now Moroccos Justice and Development Party (PJD), in power since 2011, lost the parliamentary elections, held last week, securing only 12 (in contrast to 125) out of 395 seats.

National Rally of Independents (RNI) 97-seat win means it will now lead the government. Headed by Aziz Akhannouch, an oil tycoon who has close ties with the monarch, the RNI is now in charge. Akhannouchs party has succeeded in appealing to Moroccan voters through presenting a promising electoral platform aimed at strengthening the middle class, especially in the health and education sectors, which were most affected by the coronavirus pandemic, as well as generalising social protection and encouraging investment and free initiative, said Moulay Boubkir Hamdani, head of Centre for Strategic Thinking and Defence of Democracy (CSTDD) in Morocco.

But even parties who lost were far ahead of the Islamists, with the liberal Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM) and the centre-right Istiqlal Party winning 82 and 78 seats, respectively. All three parties aligned with the palace agenda to remove the Islamists from power. The PJD had failed fight corruption and unemployment, as it had promised and Moroccans have been by and large disappointed since the Islamists latched onto power in 2011.

There are also other rational factors in this defeat related to the states legalisation of charitable work, which constituted the most important mechanism for this partys support by poor classes, in addition to the retreat of the thesis that political Islam was the alternative capable of solving all societal problems in Morocco. Moreover, there was a massive participation of voters in this election, and the Islamist party used to previously benefit from election boycotts, Hamdani added. Taking the reins, the RNI now faces the challenge of achieving economic and social reform in a country swept up by the pandemic, where the royal palace has traditionally monopolised social aid initiatives and power remains concentrated in the kings hands.

Akhannouch, who is appointed by the king, must now start forming a coalition government out of the parties who have the highest numbers of seats, bringing divergent ideologies together. Failing in the elections, former Moroccan prime minister Saadeddine Al-Othmani and PJD head and top leaders announced their mass resignation within an hour of the results, claiming that the new electoral laws applied in March, which have made it more difficult for any party to have a large lead in terms of seats, were introduced to obstruct their party. But the PJD has felt a sense of failure since 2017 when internal divisions resulted in the removal of Abdelilah Benkirane, undermining the partys unity. Nor could the party prevent normalisation with Israel (in return for US recognition of Moroccos sovereignty over the contested Western Sahara) and the legalisation of medical cannabis  both decisions made by the king.

According to Intissar Fakir, director of MEIs North Africa and Sahel programme, the defeat is due to the new electoral law, the inability to campaign because of the pandemic, and a weak achievement record, as all major initiatives over the past five years were driven by the monarchy.

Fakir says, over the past 10 years, the PJD benefited from more popularity and enthusiasm under former prime minister Abdelilah Benkirane. More crucially, under his leadership, the party managed to balance the need to appease the monarchy while maintaining some independence. This balance succeeded in shielding the party from attempts to scapegoat and increased their popular appeal. It helped the PJD to score a majority of seats in the 2016 elections. But since then, under the leadership of Prime Minister Saadedine Othmani, the party shifted away from the balance and focused more on becoming a loyalist party that implements the monarchys vision, without too much concern over its grassroots appeal. But Fakir does not believe this loss will be the end of the party, which retains support among segments of Moroccan society.

The party will be in the opposition, which is a more comfortable place for them, paradoxically even though they have been leading a governing coalition for the past 10 years. Away from the running of government, the PJD will have a chance to regroup and rebuild its reputation with the voters, so long as they do not give into internal fighting and the blame game and focus on formulating a strong message they can use to regain appeal in the next few years.

The extent of their loss must be a shock for the party, but it also gives them a chance to decide what the next decade is going to look like. The Islamists in Morocco never did have a full grip, and that is what ultimately caught up to them. The PJD defeat seems logical to some extent, being a part of a series of rejections in the MENA region of Islamist politics, which have proved incapable of addressing political and social reforms aspired to during the Arab Spring in 2011. But Moroccans and Tunisians are not primarily disaffected with Ennahda and the PJD because they are Islamist parties, rather it is because they have not provided responsive and successful policies  this is the view among many who voted against them or supported their removal from power, noted Fakir.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 16 September, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry held separate talks on Wednesday with Namibia's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah as well as with South Sudan's Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Beatrice Wani-Noah.

Shoukry's meeting with Nandi-Ndaitwah, who is currently visiting Cairo, tackled means of promoting bilateral cooperation at all levels as well as a host of issues of mutual concern, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Ahmed Hafez said.

The meeting falls within the framework of promoting cooperation with all African countries.

During the meeting with Wani-Noah, Sameh Shoukry asserted Egypts support of the implementation of the peace agreement in South Sudan.

Shoukry also pointed out that Egypt will continue to support South Sudan against obstacles facing the country including the COVID-19 pandemic and the floods, noting that Egypt is committed to rehabilitating South Sudanese cadres in all domains.

Meanwhile, Wani-Noah hailed Egypts role in supporting South Sudan in all fields.

Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Ahmed Hafez also said the meeting tackled boosting bilateral relations and regional and international issues of mutual concern.

The two sides underlined the importance of maintaining current efforts to achieve strategic partnership between the two brotherly countries to serve mutual interests.

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The launch of the first, homegrown National Strategy for Human Rights earlier this week marks a milestone in Egypts history. It is a key step for upgrading human rights in the country for the first time in many decades. The fact that President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi personally attended the launch, and his declaration that 2022 will be the Year of Civil Society, leaves no doubt that the Egyptian government and its institutions mean business.

After more than a year of meetings and consultations led by the Foreign Ministry, which brought together all concerned parties such as government ministries and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), the strategy provides a practical, comprehensive roadmap for safeguarding all kinds of political, economic and social rights.

This roadmap includes concrete proposals to deal with issues raised by local and international human rights groups in recent years, such as pre-trial detention and freedom of expression, but also stresses the need to work on vital basic rights such as the right to education, healthcare and housing. The strategy also notes the need to resume ongoing efforts to protect and expand womens rights, those with disabilities, and the young.

Dealing with political rights alone in terms of laws and legislations is indeed a vital aspect, assured by the 2014 Constitution. But improving living conditions and providing basic needs for millions of Egyptians is what will strengthen and safeguard those political rights.

Political Islamic groups, especially terrorist organisations such as the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamic Group, Jihad, Al-Qaeda and more recently the so-called Islamic State or Daesh, all feed on hardships and inequalities that exist in poor and developing nations. They offer the false promise that adhering to their extremist ideologies will yield a better life, if not on earth then in heaven.

By offering basic social services funded by foreign countries and individuals, such as schools and medical clinics, political Islamic groups expanded their popularity and ideology, allowing them to reach their goal of seize power in several Arab countries in order to impose their extremist vision that only serves the interests of the groups leaders and their transnational organisations.

While doing this, they disregard all basic human rights highlighted in the 2014 Constitution, including womens rights, freedom of religion and freedom of belief.

Since taking office in June 2014, President Al-Sisi has been aware that hard work is required on several fronts: political, economic, social and religious, where moderation and awareness need to be boosted, in order to protect the country and prevent a takeover by political Islamic groups that once threatened the integrity and existence of the state.

Egypt was among the first countries that contributed to wording the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. Since then, Egypt has continued to contribute to promoting and protecting human rights and fundamental freedoms.

The first National Strategy for Human Rights hopes to meet the aspirations of the Egyptian people, providing a domestic agenda that stems from the countrys needs, and not the agenda of external parties or transnational organisations aiming to weaken the Egyptian state.

Egypts vision for human rights is based on a number of key principles, topped by integration and interconnection among all rights and freedoms. There is a strong link between democracy and human rights, but this can only be seen when the balance between rights and duties, the individual and society is realised.

In his speech marking the launch of the Strategy, the president vowed that the Egyptian state would remain committed to respecting and protecting the rights to physical safety, personal freedom, participation in political life, freedom of expression and formation of non-governmental organisations. He added that Egypt has always welcomed different opinions as long as they do not harm the freedom of others and are aimed at constructive criticism. He also pledged that the state would continue to exert painstaking efforts to promote the values of citizenship, tolerance and dialogue, while combating violence and discrimination.

The commitment to protecting rights and freedoms can be achieved through effective and efficient legislation and sound general policies as well as the efforts of national institutions. Egypt has a rich national institutional infrastructure that works on promoting respect and protection of human rights which witness continued development, and the human rights strategy further strengthens this by noting the establishment of the permanent higher committee for human rights, a key step in enhancing coordinated national work in this domain. The national councils for women, childhood, motherhood and the disabled also play a pioneering role in promoting rights in these categories.

As the independent national institution having powers under the constitution, the National Council for Human Rights also plays a pivotal role in promoting relevant principles, spreading awareness in this regard and presenting an annual report to the state.

The strategy also recognises that civil society is a key partner in promoting human rights at all levels: political, economic and social. Civil societys contributions are clear and its partnership with the state is indispensable. Therefore, it was President Al-Sisi who asked the government to amend the old law regulating the activities of NGOs and civil society organisations. This resulted in issuing a new law regulating civil participation and the activities of civil society institutions. The executive statute of this law will mark a new stage of partnership between the government and civil society.

As for religious freedoms, Egypt has achieved great progress to ensure equality among all citizens in rights and duties. A law was issued to build and restore churches, thus contributing to legalising the conditions of about 1,800 churches and affiliated buildings.

Egypt still has a long way to go to perfect the human rights situation, but the National Human Rights Strategy is definitely a heartening start.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 16 September, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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Like energy, speed, time and other quantifiers of human ability, power has its limits. Perhaps its main problem is that, at its rise, it boasts absolute qualities, which eventually ends in disaster. Currently, nothing epitomises this more than the US departure from Afghanistan after a couple of decades of steadily mounting military costs.

On first going into that country the US forces had not had time to identify what to target before they were immersed in a war with no end in sight. The era had opened with the US recipe for activating military power, which starts with an intensive escalation later mixed with economic and psychological power. The recipe was applied to Iraq and Afghanistan. It was General Patterson who laid the foundations for the new state that was meant to please the people and isolate the enemy. That plan failed in both Iraq and Afghanistan, just as it had in Vietnam and Korea before that.

After World War II, when communist activity in East Asia intensified, the US looked to General McArthur, who had led the US to victory in Japan, in order to lead US forces to another victory. It would be a war he could quickly settle since the US had everything to its advantage from conventional might to nuclear weapons. Then China entered the war, shifting the balance of power. By the end, the US met with a form of defeat that forced it to accept the partition of the Korean peninsula. Vietnam would follow. In the US, which was feeling the thrill of its burgeoning industrial, military and technological boom in the 1950s and 1960s, no one could imagine there were limits to its might. The war in Vietnam proved the opposite, handing the US another dismal failure.

But the limits of American might were not always informed by defeat and withdrawal. There were moments of success when American might would grow with the addition of new allies. After World War II, US power had a different quality to it, compared to World War I, when the US not only wanted to exit Europe but also to withdraw from the rest of the world. It did not even want anything to do with the League of Nations, which it helped found. After World War II, the US remained in Europe, in the world and in the UN. This was one of the main reasons NATO could emerge and why former European belligerents, such as the UK, France, Germany and Italy, would join the alliance. To the west, across the Pacific, the US entered into similar defence alliances with Australia, Japan and South Korea.

Nor were these alliances purely military. They occasioned major economic projects, such as the Marshall Plan and the industrial projects that would eventually give rise to the EU. This European integration project, in turn, became the carrot that led the wars and power struggles in Bosnia, Herzegovina and other parts of former Yugoslavia to ultimately conclude with accession into the union, economic progress, and the end of the eternal Balkan cycle where no sooner did one war end than another inevitably began. We can say, then, that participation in Western Civilisation and its European legacy has been a key to success which led to a power building phase and averted renewed plunges into tunnels with no light at their end. In this case, the limits of power emerged when other countries decided to take on the responsibility to achieve the same worthy goals.

But this was not the process that occurred when the US ventured into this region. To some extent this may have been because the cultures and civilisations were so far apart or because the arrival of US forces conjured up memories of the Crusader, the Mongolian and, more recently, the Zionist invasions, in which Jerusalem was always a central issue. But it was also due to the fact that Washingtons dedication to promoting development and progress seemed lacking, especially when the edifice of the state entered the crosshairs.

When the US invaded Iraq in 2003, there was an institutionalised state capable of maintaining law and order. It had a professional military establishment even if, as Bob Woodward relates, US intelligence agencies had managed to infiltrate whole divisions from the foot soldiers to the top. But the US plan for wielding its might in Iraq was not to turn a hostile state into a friendly one which would need law and order to sustain it. It was to dismantle the state entirely, dissolve the army and take over its arsenals, and install a system of government that was incapable of taking a decision, whether on war and peace or on development. The country was to sink into backwardness, terrorism and a long period of anarchy.

Afghanistan did not have a centralised state when the Americans arrived and they had no plan to build one. They were thinking in terms of power structures, but of course not with real power. The president and government did not really govern and the army was not really an army. Afghanistan, itself, had no intention of emerging from the world of backwater states. The Afghan collapse was inevitable due to the US withdrawal and to pressure from the Taliban, the first local force with its own capacities and history in power.

In the aforementioned instances of success, the limits of US power were shaped by shared destinies and histories, as in the case of Europe, or by a shared fate in a large industrial and economic market, as with Japan, South Korea and Australia. Indeed, note how Japan  whose culture is as remote from Western culture as heaven is from earth  has coexisted in a long sustainable alliance with the US and continues to cling to Washingtons skirts. Japan learned the limits to its powers after Hiroshima, since which time it has demonstrated its willingness to sustain the costs of three-quarters of a century of occupation without complaint.

It therefore seems that we need to classify the limits of power and their ability to change not only in terms of success and failure in the exercise of power but also in terms of the proximity to power and the aims of its use. In this context, the US exit from the Middle East is perfectly natural. In fact, perhaps time will prove that President Bidens decision to withdraw from Afghanistan was wise; that he was implementing a realisation, however late, of the limits of American might, after Washington had been deluded by its great technological progress into believing it was capable of everything.

Curiously, despite the fact that hard realities have burst the bubble of the delusion this has not prevented the survival of the myth, if not inside the US then in parts of the rest of the world. In the Middle East, it appears that the time has come to realise that the limits to American power is not our problem. What should concern us in this region are the limits of the power of those in this region when it comes to handling existential issues and creating effective alliances based on common goals in a framework of dynamic reform.

*The writer is chairman of the board, CEO and director of the Regional Centre for Strategic Studies.

*A version of this article appears in print in the 16 September, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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DR Congos president affirms to Sisi keenness to enhance economic ties with Egypt



Amr Kandil, , Wednesday 15 Sep 2021



Egypt has deeply contributed to Congolese developmental efforts recently and boosted the level of political and diplomatic consultations with the African state, which currently chairs the African Union



President Felix Tshisekedi affirmed the DR Congos keenness to enhance trade exchange and economic relations with Egypt in a phone call with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi on Tuesday.



Tshisekedi also hailed the cooperative bilateral relations between the two countries, praising Egypts support for the DR Congos development efforts, Presidential Spokesman Bassam Rady said in a statement.



In response, El-Sisi hailed the qualitative progress witnessed in the relations between the two countries in terms of political consultation and coordination as well as economic cooperation, Rady said.



The Egyptian president affirmed that this progress has been reflected in the developmental cooperation and investments between the two sides.



These developments are especially apparent in the fields of infrastructure, digital transformation, building and construction, energy, water, and others, El-Sisi affirmed.



According to Rady, El-Sisi and Tshisekedi discussed a number of issues regarding bilateral cooperation between the two countries and developments related to the most prominent African issues of mutual concern.



Intensive cooperation



Egypt has extensively contributed to Congolese developmental efforts recently and boosted the level of political and diplomatic consultations with the African state, which currently chairs the African Union (AU).



This includes Egypts inauguration of aRain and Climate Changes Forecast Centre in the Congolese capital of Kinshasa and the training of Congolese staffers by Egyptian experts.



The centre aims to protect Congolese citizens from any sudden climate disasters and floods.



Egypt is also carrying out construction projects in the DR Congo, including a 150km-long-road linking two key cities in the country. The project, which is worth 110 million, is being constructed by Egypts state-owned company Arab Contractors.



CEO of Arab Contractors Sayed Farouk said the project includes the establishment of three bridges of different lengths serving as intersections on the road as well as 33 industrial designs for rain drainage and road protection.



Arab Contractors has also recently started a project to build and furnish a five-storey building for the defence ministry in Kinshasa, Farouk said.



Additionally, The Egyptian construction company is currently finishing the implementation of a number of roads in Kinshasa and the development of a water plant in Uvira city in the South Kivu Province, Farouk added.



In July, Egypts Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly held a meeting in Egypt with a Congolese delegation headed by his counterpart, Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde.



During the meeting, Madbouly hailed the large number of Congolese investors interested in carrying out major development projects in Egypt in the fields of construction, infrastructure, digitisation, energy, water management, and other fields.



In February, Egypt and the DR Congo signed an agreement to establish a solar power plant in the DR Congos Kasai Province at a cost of $19.7 million, according to African reports.



The African state also signed agreements with Egyptian companies to construct a drinking water plant on the Lubi river in the province of Sankuru, according to the reports.



The DR Congo, as the AUs chair, is also leading the trilateral talks between Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia regarding the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam dispute.



Although the AU-sponsored talks  the latest of which was in Kinshasa last April  have failed to produce any results or agreements, the three parties have affirmed on several occasions their preference to let the institution mediate their negotiations.



https://english.ahram.org.eg/News/423131.aspx
Egypts PM attends signing of ministerial agreement to implement WB-funded project to reduce air pollution in Greater Cairo



Ahram Online, , Wednesday 15 Sep 2021



The agreement comes a year after the World Bank's Board of Executives directors approved the 200 million project



Egypts Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly attended on Wednesday the signing of a ministerial agreement to implement a project funded by the World Bank to support Egypts efforts to reduce air pollution in the Greater Cairo area.



Also in attendance at the ceremony were representatives from the ministries of environment, local development, transportation, health; as well as the local governments of Cairo, Giza, and Qalioubiya governorates; and the Cairo Transportation Authority.



The agreement comes a year after the World Banks Board of Executives directors approved the $200 million project.



The WB-funded project mainly seeks to reduce vehicle emissions, improve decision-making regarding air and climate issues, as well as improve the management of solid waste.



The signed agreement aims to achieve coordination among the parties involved and determine the mechanisms and general framework for the implementation of the project.



Environment Minister Yasmine Fouad said the project will be implemented by the environment ministry with the help of other ministries and institutions.



The anticipated project will have four main focuses: strengthening the decision-making support system on local air quality, supporting the implementation of plans to manage solid waste in the area, working on reducing the emissions of the public transportation system, and amending public behaviour and awareness concerning the issue.



The annual economic cost borne by citizens whose health is affected by air pollution in the Greater Cairo area  one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world  is estimated at around 1.4 percent of Egypts gross domestic product, the World Bank said last year, citing recent studies.



Around 22.5 million people live in the Greater Cairo area, according to Egypts statistical agency CAPMAS in 2016. It comprises the governorates of Cairo, Giza, as well as parts of the Qalioubiya governorate.



https://english.ahram.org.eg/News/423164.aspx
Four former Minneapolis police officers charged with violating George Floyd's civil rights pleaded not guilty Tuesday in a federal hearing that included arguments on several pretrial motions, including requests to hold separate trials.

This combination of photos provided by the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office in Minnesota on June 3, 2020, shows from left, former Minneapolis police officers Derek Chauvin, J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao. [File Photo: Hennepin County Sheriff's Office via AP]

A federal grand jury indicted Derek Chauvin, Thomas Lane, J. Kueng and Tou Thao in May for allegedly depriving Floyd of his rights while acting under government authority on May 25, 2020, as Floyd, 46, was held face-down, handcuffed and not resisting in a restraint that was captured on bystander video. His death led to worldwide protests and calls for change in policing.

All four of the men appeared at the hearing remotely via videoconference. Chauvin, wearing a plain T-shirt, appeared from a small room in the state's maximum security prison, where he is serving a 22 1/2-year sentence for murder in Floyd's death. The other three men appeared remotely alongside their attorneys.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Tony Leung asked each man separately how he would plea, and each clearly responded: Not guilty."

The hearing also addressed roughly 40 pretrial motions, though many were similar. Most of the motions were routine, such as agreeing when names of witnesses would be disclosed. But Leung heard oral arguments on two issues, and ordered attorneys to file additional written arguments on those motions.

Attorneys for Lane and Kueng asked the judge to remove language from the indictment that says their clients had been police officers since December 2019. Earl Gray, Lane's attorney, said his client was still in training and remained under supervision for months. Gray said Lane was working his fourth shift without supervision when he encountered Floyd. Tom Plunkett, Kueng's attorney, said his client was on his third shift without supervision. Both attorneys said language in the indictment that indicates otherwise would be unfair.

Common sense dictates that a law officer with four days on the job would be less apt to intervene, Gray argued.

Prosecutor Manda Sertich said the men were officers as of December 2019  they graduated from the police academy and were sworn in.

Kueng, Thao and Lane are also asking that their federal trials be separated from Chauvins, saying they would be unfairly prejudiced if they went to trial alongside him.

Plunkett wrote in court documents that evidence against Chauvin would confuse the jury and deprive Kueng of his right to a fair trial. Gray argued in court that everybody knows Derek Chauvin was convicted of murder so a jury would have a hard time presuming the other former officers' innocence.

Attorney Robert Paule argued that much of the evidence against Chauvin would not come into play against his client, Thao. Paule also argued that since it appears Lane and Kueng intend to use their lack of experience as a defense, Thao, who had been an officer for more than eight years, should be tried alone.

Leung gave no indication of how he would rule. He said this case has video evidence, which shows what each defendant did or did not do. He also said separating trials in federal court is not common, but it does happen. He asked prosecutors why the men should be tried together.

Sertich said the state's case against the men was separated due to space restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, but federal court has more space. She also said jurors will know about Chauvin's murder conviction whether he is sitting in the courtroom with the other three former officers or not.

As Floyd was being arrested, he repeatedly said he couldnt breathe as Chauvin pinned him to the ground. Kueng and Lane helped restrain Floyd; Kueng knelt on Floyds back, and Lane held Floyds legs, according to evidence in state court. Thao held back bystanders and kept them from intervening during the 9 1/2-minute restraint.

While all four officers are charged broadly with depriving Floyd of his rights while acting under government authority, the indictment breaks down the counts. A count against Chauvin alleges he violated Floyds right to be free from unreasonable seizure and unreasonable force by a police officer.

Thao and Kueng are charged with violating Floyds right to be free from unreasonable seizure by not intervening to stop Chauvin as he knelt on Floyds neck. All four officers are charged with depriving Floyd of his rights when they failed to provide medical care.

The four former officers were also charged in state court, where Chauvin was convicted in April of murder and manslaughter. The other three former officers face state trial next March on aiding and abetting counts.

Chauvin is also charged in a separate federal indictment alleging he violated the civil rights of a 14-year-old boy in 2017.

Meanwhile, the federal government is investigating policing practices in Minneapolis. The investigation known as a pattern or practice  examining whether there is a pattern or practice of unconstitutional or unlawful policing  includes a sweeping review of the entire police department. It may result in major changes to policing in the Minnesota city.
For many Chinese people, mooncakes are the must-have dessert for any Mid-Autumn Festival celebration, which falls on September 21 this year. But there are plenty more delicacies where that came from! In fact, around Mid-Autumn time is when freshwater crabs are said to be at their best, making the tasty crustaceans a popular dish for family reunion dinners. Now, the crab harvest is in full swing in east China, with fresh crabs ready to hit the market and tables of festive foodies throughout the country. This photo taken September 14, 2021, shows farmers harvesting crabs in Funan County, Fuyang, east China's Anhui Province. [Photo: VCG]

For many Chinese people, mooncakes are the must-have dessert for any Mid-Autumn Festival celebration, which falls on September 21 this year. But there are plenty more delicacies where that came from! In fact, around Mid-Autumn time is when freshwater crabs are said to be at their best, making the tasty crustaceans a popular dish for family reunion dinners. Now, the crab harvest is in full swing in east China, with fresh crabs ready to hit the market and tables of festive foodies throughout the country. This photo taken September 14, 2021, shows farmers harvesting crabs in Funan County, Fuyang, east China's Anhui Province. [Photo: VCG]

This photo taken September 14, 2021, shows workers packing crabs for delivery in Huai'an, east China's Jiangsu province. [Photo: VCG]

This photo taken September 14, 2021, shows workers packing crabs for delivery in Huai'an, east China's Jiangsu province. [Photo: VCG]
KYODO NEWS - Sep 16, 2021 - 06:53 | All, World

U.S. President Joe Biden will convene a virtual meeting of world leaders from major economies and greenhouse gas emitters on Friday to galvanize efforts to tackle the climate crisis, the White House said Wednesday.

The meeting will follow an online climate summit Biden hosted in April as part of a bid to demonstrate U.S. leadership on the issue in a shift from his predecessor Donald Trump, who withdrew the country from the Paris climate accord.

The White House did not disclose who will be attending the meeting of the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate, saying it is currently receiving responses. The forum consists of 17 members, including the world's largest greenhouse gas emitter China as well as Japan.

The planned meeting, unlike the April summit, will not be livestreamed and will focus on having a "candid conversation" among world leaders about what needs to be done before and following a key U.N. climate change conference, also known as COP26, slated to start in late October in Britain, according to a Biden administration official.

Biden has committed to reducing U.S. emissions to 50 to 52 percent below 2005 levels by 2030, while other countries including Japan have also set enhanced emissions-reduction targets by 2030.

But Biden is expected to press again for stronger action to tackle climate change, the official said, given the latest scientific findings that underscored the need for the world to act with urgency.

A U.N. climate report released last month warned that unless there are "immediate, rapid and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, limiting warming to close to 1.5 C or even 2 C will be beyond reach."

The 2015 Paris Agreement aims to keep rising global temperatures to "well below" 2 C -- and ideally closer to 1.5 C -- compared to preindustrial levels so as to limit the occurrence of droughts, floods, melting glaciers, rising sea levels and other results of global warming.
KYODO NEWS - Sep 15, 2021 - 22:52 | All, World, Japan

Japan and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations agreed Wednesday to step up their efforts toward economic recovery following the coronavirus pandemic that has weighed on industrial output.

The two sides will expand an action plan adopted last year covering goals on strengthening the resilience of supply chains, guaranteeing smooth trade procedures and promoting digital technology, their economy ministers said in a joint statement released after a videoconference.

Factory shutdowns in Southeast Asian countries to prevent coronavirus infections have forced Japanese carmakers to curb output due to difficulties in securing parts from suppliers in the region.

"Each country faces the difficult task of simultaneously resuming socio-economic activity and curbing infections," Japan's Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Hiroshi Kajiyama said at the meeting, according to his ministry.

Trade between Japan and the 10-member ASEAN totaled $204 billion in 2020, down 9.7 percent from the previous year, while Japanese direct investment in the bloc declined 64.4 percent to $8.5 billion, according to the statement.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

During the meeting, the ministers also agreed to ensure the entry into force of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership free trade agreement by early January. The megadeal, also involving China, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, was signed last year.
By Eri Orihara, KYODO NEWS - Sep 15, 2021 - 12:12 | Feature, All, Japan

The growing popularity of "matcha"-infused sweets and beverages sold at cafes and pastry shops in Japan is triggering fierce competition amongst green tea producers in their own backyard.

Growers of "tencha," the green tea leaves grown in particular conditions and processed into the finely ground tea powder used to flavor matcha lattes and an assortment of Japanese confectionery, have intensified production to try to keep up with demand.

Prefectures such as Kagoshima and Shizuoka, which traditionally have mass-produced varieties of tea leaves for Japan's most popular green tea called "sencha," have expanded their production, while growers in Kyoto, famous for its matcha "Uji tea" brand, are distributing new matcha varieties more widely.

"Matcha can compete with milk and cream because of its deep and bitter taste and so is in strong demand at pastry and confectionery shops," said Hideki Kuwabara, 71, a wholesaler who was visiting the Japan Agriculture Cooperatives' tea market auction site in Joyo, Kyoto Prefecture, in July to select quality tencha leaves.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and other sources, in recent years, annual production of green tea leaves in Japan has hovered around 70,000 to 80,000 tons, down from more than 100,000 tons in 2004, due to a drop in households using traditional Japanese ceramic teapots for brewing tea leaves.

In contrast, the production of tencha more than doubled from a decade earlier to 3,500 tons at its peak in 2019 because of an increase in the consumption of matcha both at home and abroad. Demand for tencha remains strong as major food and beverage manufacturers release new products such as bottled matcha latte.

Uji, a leading tea producing area in Kyoto, and Nishio, Aichi Prefecture, had long been the predominant tencha production areas until about a decade ago. Kyoto and Aichi accounted for nearly 80 percent of production in 2012 but saw the ratio plunge to around 40 percent in 2020 due to increases in output in other green tea production areas.

For example, Kagoshima and Shizuoka prefectures, the leading producers of the pot-brewed sencha green tea, have been encouraging local growers to shift to tencha production over the past five years.

According to the Kyoto prefectural government, the increase in supply has resulted in the price of tencha reducing by half.

Although the "made-in-Uji" label has been highly valued by makers of matcha-infused sweets and beverages, the "domestic matcha" label is now also acceptable due to the increased availability of inexpensive tea leaves, said Riichi Yoshida, 74, head of the Japanese Association of Tea Production.

Roughly 70 percent of the tencha used across the country comes from mid-grade yabukita cultivar leaves and, as such, is suited for sencha. But changes in the method of cultivation, such as covering the sprouting buds to block sunlight, make them also applicable to matcha. This process strengthens the umami and sweetness of the tea leaves.

The Kyoto prefectural government is trying to encourage local growers to shift to the production of around 10 unique varieties of tencha suitable for matcha, with respective prices more than 1-1/2 times higher than yabukita leaves. It is also providing financial support to growers of the seedlings for such tencha.

But growers from a tea association in Nishio point out that their market has narrowed due to a production strategy that has focused on high-priced tencha.

The association thus asked the agricultural ministry in February last year to deregister "matcha made in Nishio" from the geographical indication label aimed at protecting high-end regional brand farm and food products.

Such products obtained their status as a result of unique production methods and geographic characteristics, such as climate and soil conditions, in their cultivation areas, which often led to higher costs to maintain the distinction.

Nishio's matcha brand, for example, used as the centerpiece in traditional Japanese tea ceremonies, is priced as high as 30,000 yen to 40,000 yen per kilogram.

But as the GI system only allows matcha made by the traditional method to carry the Nishio brand, the association filed to remove the label and introduced cutting-edge production technology to reduce costs and enhance competitiveness instead -- the opposite strategy of Uji.

Meanwhile, mass production of matcha has recently begun in China, the output in cases including "inexpensive, inferior-quality" products made merely by pulverizing green tea leaves, said wholesaler Kuwabara, whose long-standing shop operates in Uji.

"It's important that a clear international definition of matcha be decided upon," Kuwabara said.

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KYODO NEWS - Sep 15, 2021 - 10:23 | World, All

Iran's Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who had been leading the country's negotiation team in its indirect talks with the United States on reviving a 2015 nuclear deal, is stepping down.

Named as his successor as deputy foreign minister is Ali Bagheri Kani, a hard-line diplomat who has been critical of the deal under which Iran had agreed to curb its nuclear activities in exchange for the lifting of sanctions.

Araghchi, also known for his friendly ties with Japan as a former ambassador to the country, was named an adviser to new Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian, according to the ministry.

Indirect talks between the United States and Iran were suspended in June. While the new administration of ultra-conservative President Ebrahim Raisi has indicated plans to continue the talks, it remains unclear what could come of them even if they were resumed.

Bagheri was a senior official of Iran's Supreme National Security Council handling nuclear talks under the government of anti-U.S. hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who served from 2005 to 2013. The talks made little progress then, deepening rifts between Iran, and the United States and Europe.

A landmark nuclear pact with six major powers -- Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States -- was eventually struck in 2015.

But U.S. President Joe Biden's predecessor Donald Trump criticized the deal as flawed and pulled the United States out of it in May 2018. Iran countered the U.S. move by increasing its nuclear activities beyond the limits set in the deal.

Araghchi, ambassador to Japan from 2008 to 2011, played a major role when Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited Iran's capital Tehran and Raisi's predecessor Hassan Rouhani visited Japan, both in 2019.

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KYODO NEWS - Sep 15, 2021 - 21:00 | World, All, Japan

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and Vietnamese President Nguyen Xuan Phuc affirmed close cooperation between their countries in phone talks Wednesday after North Korea fired two ballistic missiles into waters off its eastern coast, Japan's Foreign Ministry said.

Suga condemned the launches as violating U.N. Security Council resolutions banning North Korea from testing ballistic missile and nuclear technology, while Phuc replied that the resolutions should be obeyed, the ministry said.

Suga also held a video call with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison in which they affirmed cooperation between their countries in dealing with North Korea. The two leaders are slated to participate in a summit with U.S. President Joe Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi next week in Washington.

Suga and Phuc agreed that Japan and Vietnam will continue to work closely on security issues after signing a deal earlier this month enabling exports of Japanese-made defense equipment and technology to the Southeast Asian country.

Phuc also congratulated Suga on successfully hosting the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics and expressed gratitude for Japan's donation of nearly 3.6 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine to Vietnam, the ministry said.

The 20-minute phone call was held at the request of Vietnam following Suga's announcement of his intention to resign at the end of this month.

Suga, who visited Vietnam and Indonesia last October on his first overseas trip after taking office, thanked Phuc, then prime minister, for his hospitality.
KYODO NEWS - Sep 15, 2021 - 22:44 | All, Japan

A Japanese-Peruvian man seeking state compensation for mistreatment at the Osaka immigration bureau in 2017 was shown being held face down by a number of officers in security camera footage submitted Wednesday at trial, a lawyer in charge of his case said.

In the case filed with the Osaka District Court, Burgos Fujii, 48, is seeking 2 million yen ($18,000) in damages from the state after he was left handcuffed for over half a day at the Osaka Regional Immigration Services Bureau.

The video includes footage of Fujii being hauled off to a solitary cell by many officers, as well as him being held down during tussles with five officers in the middle of the night and lying on the floor handcuffed with his arms behind his back.

Another scene showed an immigration officer intimidating Fujii by asking him whether he was prepared to follow their orders.

At a press conference in Osaka, Maya Kawasaki, one of his lawyers, criticized the treatment as being punitive, adding that it could be considered "torture."

In previous hearings, the government has maintained that no excessive force was used to restrain Fujii. The Osaka immigration bureau declined to comment on the video due to the pending trial.

According to the complaint, Fujii was left with his arms handcuffed behind his back for more than 14 hours on Dec. 20, 2017, after he expressed dissatisfaction with his lunch and became violent. He was later found to have fractured his arm, with the injury taking a month to heal.

Fujii, who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer after he was allowed provisional release in May last year, was granted special permission Monday to stay in Japan for medical treatment.

The video submitted as evidence in the lawsuit was not shown in court, but his lawyers disclosed some of its content after the court had adjourned.

In a separate case, the Nagoya Regional Immigration Services Bureau last month disclosed edited security camera footage to the family of a Sri Lankan woman who died in March following mistreatment while in detention.
KYODO NEWS - Sep 15, 2021 - 19:31 | All, Japan, Coronavirus

The estimated number of foreign visitors to Japan in August was down 99.0 percent from the same month in the pre-pandemic year of 2019 on continued strict travel restrictions amid the coronavirus pandemic, government data showed Wednesday.

But the figure nearly tripled to 25,900 from 8,658 in August 2020 due to the Tokyo Paralympics, which opened on Aug. 24 and ran for about two weeks, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization.

In July, the number of foreign visitors rose to 51,100 from 3,782 a year earlier as the Tokyo Olympics brought tens of thousands of athletes and staff from overseas to the country.

But the figure is expected to fall from September as Japan continues to ban the entry of foreign travelers in principle.

With the medical system still under strain amid the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus, 19 of Japan's 47 prefectures currently remain under a state of emergency over the pandemic.

By country, visitors from the United States accounted for the highest number at 3,000 in August, followed by 2,400 from China and 1,800 from France.

According to the data, a total of 66,100 Japanese nationals left the country last month, down 78.0 percent from a year earlier and down 96.9 percent from August 2019.
KYODO NEWS - Sep 15, 2021 - 13:45 | All, Japan, Coronavirus

Japan's top COVID-19 adviser Shigeru Omi on Wednesday warned against hastily easing anti-pandemic restrictions on people's lives and called for relaxing measures only after the state of emergency is lifted.

His remarks came as the government seeks to ease restrictions around November, when it aims to complete vaccinating all people who wish to be inoculated. The plan includes letting eateries provide alcohol and allowing people to travel across prefectural borders and hold big events with more attendees even if the state of emergency is still in force.

"Even though the vaccination rate has risen, there will certainly be a rebound if we suddenly ease restrictions," Omi told the House of Representatives' health committee.

"I believe the path we should take is to gradually lift them after the state of emergency expires and the number of infections comes down to a certain level," Omi added.

With the medical system still under strain from an influx of COVID-19 patients, much of Japan will remain under a state of emergency through Sept. 30. Government data shows slightly over half of Japan's population has been fully vaccinated so far against COVID-19.

Looking ahead, Omi warned that the fight against the new virus is expected to last for a long time. "It may take about two to three years until the public no longer has to worry about COVID-19, like the influenza in which we have vaccines and medications," he said.

In the same committee meeting, health minister Norihisa Tamura said the government remains on guard with an eye out for a potential "sixth wave" of infections.

"It is a fact that the number of new coronavirus cases is rapidly decreasing on a national level," Tamura said, but added that he worries about more people interacting with others in line with children going back to school this month, a drop in ventilation during winter, and an increase in socializing toward the yearend.

Over 60 percent of the population is expected to be fully vaccinated by the end of September, bringing Japan on a par with major European countries such as Britain and France, according to the government.

Japan initially lagged far behind other major economies in inoculating its population. Facing criticism, the government has made relatively fast progress since, setting up mass inoculation sites and offering workplace vaccinations.

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New Delhi:

Parts of Kerala, particularly Kannur district, witnessed a massive violence on Saturday with several houses and shops of BJP-RSS and ruling CPI(M) leaders and workers being attacked over the Sabarimala issue. Apart from Kannur, Perambra in neighbouring Kozhikode, Malappuram and Adoor in Pathanamthitta, where the Ayyappa shrine is located, also witnessed a series of similar attacks and vandalism on Friday night and in the early hours of Saturday.

According to the police, bombs were hurled at several places, including at the houses of CPI(M) MLA AN Shamseer in Madapeedikayil, BJP leader and Rajya Sabha member V Muraleedharan at Vadiyil Peedikia and former Kannur district secretary of CPI(M) P Sasi at Thalassery in Kannur district past midnight. However, no one was injured in the attacks.

Blaming the RSS for the violence, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan lashed out at the ideological mentor of the Bharatiya Janata Party, saying the Sangh Parivar was trying to create fear in people's minds.

Meanwhile, a peace meeting called by the Revenue Divisional Officer at Adoor in Pathanamthitta district was boycotted by the BJP, slamming the police for failing to arrest the accused in connection with the death of Chandran Unnithan, a 'Sabarimala Karma Samiti' member who, the party alleged, was killed in stone-pelting on January 3.

Vijayan said "the state will deal with the RSS violence sternly. They are trying to destroy the peace and tranquility of the state. We will take stong action against it. It's the RSS agenda to create fear in the minds of the people," Vijayan told reporters, adding that it will not be allowed.

He said people of the state have shown restraint. "The RSS workers were attacking houses of MLAs, and other leaders. Their only aim and route is violence. The law and order system of the state will take care of it," he said.

The Opposition Congress also hit out Vijayan, asking why the left government failed to stop the RSS from creating trouble.

Senior congress leader Ramesh Chennithala alleged the state police had failed to maintain law and order.

"The DGP himself has accepted this. Why has the government failed to stop the BJP from creating violence?" Chennithala asked.

Sabarimala temple's Tantri a Brahmin monster

State minister and CPI(M) leader G Sudhakaran sparked a controversy calling Sabarimala temple's Tantri (chief priest), a "Brahmin monster" for conducting a 'purification' ceremony after two women in the menstrual age group entered the shrine.

"The tantri is a symbol of caste devil. He is not a Brahmin. He is a Brahmin monster. If a Brahmin becomes a monster, he will be a terror," he told reporters."He is not a 'shuddha (pure) Brahmin'. He does not have any love, respect and allegiance towards Lord Ayyappa," the minister alleged.

On Wednesday, two women, Kanakadurga, 44, and Bindu, 42, had entered the shrine and offered prayers, breaking a centuries-old tradition.

Following this, the tantri, Kandaru Rajeevaru, closed the sanctum sanctorum to perform the 'purification' ceremony.

Since then Kerala has been rocked by violent protests by BJP-RSS and right wing outfits.

As violence continued to disrupt life in Kannur and other places, state police chief Loknath Behera sounded a state-wide alert and gave direction to take stern action against those responsible for attacks on houses of party leaders.

According to Behara, 1,286 cases have been registered till Saturday night and 3,282 people have been arrested in connection with the violent incidents since the January 3. Of the arrested, 487 have been remanded and 2,795 granted bail.

(With PTI inputs)

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New Delhi:

It was the meeting the followers of RJD leaders Tej Pratap Yadav and Tejashwi Yadav have been waiting for a long time. It finally happened when the two sons of Lalu Prasad met in Patna on Saturday. After the meeting, younger brother Tejashwi reiterated that he saw Tej Pratap as "Arjuna", whom he would assist like Lord Krishna, in winning the electoral battle in Bihar.

Donning a 'Kurta-pyjama' and a waistcoat with a muffler wrapped around his neck, Tej Pratap Yadav drove to Tejashwi's bungalow at 5, Desh Ratna Marg. Tejashwi Yadav greeted his elder brother by touching his feet and Tej Pratap responded by placing a hand on his younger brother's head.

Saturday's meeting took place four days after Tej Pratap met their mother Rabri Devi. Tejashwi was in Delhi at that time.

The elder brother had remained estranged from his family members for a long time since they refused to back him in his decision to seek divorce from his wife, just six months after their marriage.

Emerging after the nearly 45-minute long meeting, Tej Pratap Yadav told reporters, "We held only political discussions. Things like how to make our party stronger and take Lalu's dream forward. Tejashwi is my Arjuna and I will see to it that he occupies the throne."

Speculations have been rife that the elder brother has been uneasy over the growing clout of the younger one within the party, who was named as the RJD's chief ministerial candidate, more than a year ago.

On Thursday, Tej Pratap Yadav had also announced, out of turn, the candidature of his sister Misa Bharti from Pataliputra Lok Sabha constituency.

However, on Friday Tejashwi made it clear that any party candidate would be finalized by the party's parliamentary board after due approval from Lalu Prasad the national president, who is at present in Ranchi serving sentences in a number of fodder scam cases.

The point made by the younger brother was, later, grudgingly acknowledged by Tej Pratap Yadav.

(With PTI inputs)

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New Delhi:

Over 14 lakh "fake children" have been found registered across 1.88 lakh anganwadis in Uttar Pradesh, the Women and Child Development Ministry has said. In a meeting of the National Nutrition Council on January 3, the ministry was informed that about 14.57 lakh fake beneficiaries were registered with 1.88 lakh anganwadis in the state, a senior WCD official said. Anganwadis, a type of rural child care centres, were set up by the government to combat under nutrition and stunting among children below the age of six years.

"The ghost children were identified after registration of beneficiaries with Aadhaar," the official said. There are total of 1.08 crore children enrolled in anganwadis of Uttar Pradesh and Rs 2,126 crore has been sanctioned for these centres till February 2018 in this fiscal, according to government data. The ministry gives Rs 4.8 and the state contributes Rs 3.2 for food per day for every child, the official said.

"With the identification of the fake children, it has been found that about Rs 25 crore can be saved every month in Uttar Pradesh," he said. Another Women and Child Development (WCD) official said about 39 per cent of the total child population in India resides in Uttar Pradesh and so the number of children in the state is high.

The identification and elimination of fake beneficiaries registered in various anganwadis across the country is an "ongoing process". The process was started in July after the Assam government during a physical identification of children found 14 lakh fake beneficiaries.

Stating that many lapses have been found in the food distribution system, WCD Minister Maneka Gandhi had directed all state governments to verify the number of children who "really need to be fed." There are around 14 lakh anganwadis across the country and 10 crore beneficiaries, who include children under the age of six and pregnant women and lactating mothers.

Gandhi in September said about one crore fake beneficiaries registered in various anganwadis have been identified and eliminated. The identification of fake beneficiaries is also being done through smartphones having Integrated Child Development Services-Common Application Software (ICDS-CAS) app.

It has been distributed to about 1.2 lakh anganwadi centres and the ministry aims to increase its coverage to 14 lakh centres by the end of the year, officials said. The nutrition monitoring app has been developed under the Poshan Abhiyan also called the National Nutrition Mission, which aims to bring down stunting of children in the age group of 0-6 years from 38.4 per cent to 25 per cent by 2022.

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New Delhi:

A Boeing 737 Max, a SpiceJet flight, flying from Hong Kong to Delhi made an emergency landing due to a snag developed in the left engine at the Varanasi airport at 10 am on Sunday. All 140 plus passengers are safe. The incident came just a few days after another a Pratt &Whitney engine of an IndiGo A320 neo plane stopped working mid-air when the aircraft was on its way to Kolkata from Chennai.

A senior official of the Director General of Civil Aviation said the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft faced an engine issue and made an emergency landing. When contacted, a SpiceJet spokesperson said the plane landed safely in Varanasi and passengers were deplaned normally.

Flight SG-32 was diverted to Varanasi after the pilots noticed low fuel supply in no. 1 engine, he said. "On inspection, a fuel control valve (a minor component) was found to have malfunctioned and is being replaced," the spokesperson added.

There have been issues with Boeing 737 MAX planes, which are currently flown by SpiceJet and Jet Airways.

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Shillong:

The operations to rescue 15 miners trapped in a flooded coal mine in Meghalayas East Jaintia Hills district for the past 24 days got a shot in the arm Saturday when two high powered pumps started dewatering the main shaft. The pumps were operational 10 days after the Kirloskar Brothers Ltd offered to help and assist the state government in the rescue operations, officials said. But, since the pumps functioned only for one hour, the Navy divers did not go down to gauge the water level inside the shaft so that they could resume the search for the diggers.

At about 3:30 pm on Saturday, a team from Kirloskar Brothers Ltd was able to start their pumps in the main shaft (where the miners are trapped)," operation spokesperson R Susngi said. He, however, said that since the pumps were operational for only one hour, the Navy divers did not go down to determine the water level inside the main shaft.

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The rescuers stop work at 5 pm daily with descend of the night darkness. The pump has to run at least 10 to 12 hours of continuous pumping before the water level will be determined, Susngi said.

He said that on Sunday, the unmanned remotely operated vehicle will be sent down to check at the bottom of the shaft again. Meanwhile, a high-power submersible pump from Coal India and two other pumps from Odisha are engaged in dewatering the nearby abandoned mines, which might be interlinked and as much help in lowering of water in the main shaft, he said.

Also Read | Meghalaya Mine Collapse: Why survivor thinks all trapped miners are dead

Rescue divers from the Indian Navy and the NDRF are yet to be able to make any significant impact in their search and rescue operations as the water level is still beyond 100 feet, the safe diving capacity for the divers, the official said. The water level at the main shaft where the miners are trapped is about 160 feet, he said, adding that total depth of the main shaft is about 370 feet.

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New Delhi:

Kevin Hart who got entangled in a controversial cesspool following his homophobic tweets has once again issued an apology to the LGBTQ community. After announcing last December that the actor-comedian was stepping down as the Oscars 2019 host, Hart was reported to have reconsidered his decision on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, where Ellen herself showed full support to host the Oscars. Harts contemporary, Chris Rock meanwhile has said his name can be crossed off this year's potential Oscars hosts list.

On his SiriusXM radio show, Straight From the Hart, the comic on Monday said that his words have been 'chopped up' following previous apologies.

'Once again, Kevin Hart apologises for his remarks that hurt members of the LGBTQ community. I apologise,' he said.

He later explained the original homophobic joke that landed him in trouble. Hart quoted the joke, "I want to say that I have no problem with gay people. I don't have a homophobic bone in my body. I want you to be happy, be gay, be happy.'

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"And then I say as a heterosexual male, if I can do something to stop my son... That's where the joke starts!" he argued.

"The only clip that I have seen all over the media is the one where I go, 'Stop! That's gay'. I really had to dive into the whole thing, even the tweets," Hart said.

The comedian said the words were "not I said to gay individuals".

"I didn't say these words to people, at the time, this was our dumb a**es on Twitter going back and forth with each other. We thought it was okay to talk like that, because that's how we talked to one another. In that, you go, f**k! This is wrong now," he said.

Read | This Billionaire is donating $ 1 Billion to save the planet

Chris Rock, however, has declared that he had no interest in hosting the Oscars ceremony. The actor-comic, who has hosted the Academy Awards twice, made his intentions clear during his emceeing gig at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards dinner in Manhattan.

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Jammu:

Jammu and Kashmir recorded 2,936 instances of ceasefire violations by Pakistan in 2018 -- the highest in the past 15 years with an average of eight cases dailyin which 61 people were killed and over 250 injured, officials said on Monday. Shelling and firing by Pakistani troops was very heavy in 2018, virtually making the 2003 India-Pakistan border truce redundant, they said.

Pakistani troops repeatedly targeted forwards posts and villages along the Line of Control (LoC) and the International Border (IB) to create a fear psychosis among the people, a senior police officer said.

Pakistani forces have violated the ceasefire 2,936 times in 2018, in which 61 people were killed and 250 injured, a senior Army official told PTI. The violations continued despite Pakistani troops vowing to maintain peace on the border during more than 20 brigade commander-level and flag meetings with the Indian forces. Pakistan vows to maintain peace and strengthen border relations, but they do not keep their promises, the Army official said.

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The number of ceasefire violations by Pakistani troops in 2018 were over three times that of 2017, when 971 cases were reported. In 2017, 31 people -- 12 civilians and 19 security forces personnelwere killed and 151 suffered injures.

People living near the border in Jammu, Kathua, Samba, Rajouri and Poonch districts were severely hit by firing and shelling by Pakistani troops. Fear gripped the border populace due to frequent shelling, which prompted thousands of people to migrate to safer places.

The officials said that due to shelling and firing incidents, people had to migrate to safer places three times last year, which affected education and farm activities.

To protect border residents in view of increasing ceasefire violations in Jammu and Kashmir, the central government sanctioned Rs 415 crore for the construction of over 14,400 underground bunkers along the LoC and the IB and made efforts to speed up the work last year.

Over 300 bunkers have been constructed under the programme in Rajouri, Poonch, Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts and tenders have been floated for more such bunkers, the officials said, adding that over 4,000 bunkers would be constructed this year.

Giving details of cases of ceasefire violations in the past decade, the officials said that in 2015, 405 cases of ceasefire violations were reported and 583 such instances were recorded in 2014.

Also read | HAL given contracts of Rs 1 lakh crore but most in pipeline: Nirmala Sitharaman tells Parliament

There had been a gradual increase in ceasefire violations by Pakistan between 2009 and 2013. The corresponding figures for 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010 and 2009 were 347, 114, 62, 44, and 28. In the previous three years, the numbers of such violations were?77 in 2008, 21 in 2007 and three in 2006, according to official data.

For three years - 2004, 2005 and 2006 - there was not a single such violation on the border. The Indian government led by the late Atal Bihari Vajpayee entered into a border ceasefire agreement with Pakistan along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir on November 26, 2003.

India shares a 3,323-km-long border with Pakistan, of which 221 km of the IB and 740 km of the LoC fall in Jammu and Kashmir.

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New Delhi:

World Bank President Jim Yong Kim on Monday announced that he will step down from his position on February 1 much before the end of his term in 2022. Kim, 58, has been in this position for over six years now. Kristalina Georgieva, World Bank CEO, will assume the role of interim President effective February 1. "It has been a great honour to serve as President of this remarkable institution, full of passionate individuals dedicated to the mission of ending extreme poverty in our lifetime," Kim said. The president of the Washington-based World Bank has always been an American citizen nominated by the United States, which is the largest shareholder of this multilateral financial institution.



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"The work of the World Bank Group is more important now than ever as the aspirations of the poor rise all over the world, and problems like climate change, pandemics, famine and refugees continue to grow in both their scale and complexity, Kim was quoted as saying in a World Bank press release.

"Serving as President and helping position the institution squarely in the middle of all these challenges has been a great privilege," Kim said.

During his term as World Bank President beginning July 2012, Kim emphasised that one of the greatest needs in the developing world is infrastructure finance and he pushed the Bank Group to maximize finance for development by working with a new cadre of private sector partners committed to building sustainable, climate-smart infrastructure in developing nations, the release said.

To that end, Kim announced that, immediately after his departure, he will join a firm and focus on increasing infrastructure investments in developing countries, it said, adding that the details of this new position will be announced shortly.

Under his leadership, the World Bank established two goals: to end extreme poverty by 2030; and to boost shared prosperity, focusing on the bottom 40 percent of the population in developing countries. These goals now guide and inform the institution in its daily work around the globe, it said.



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In addition, shareholders strongly supported measures to ensure that the Bank Group be even better positioned to respond to the development needs of clients:

The Bank Group's Fund for the Poorest, IDA, achieved two successive, record replenishments, which enabled the institution to increase its work in areas suffering from fragility, conflict, and violence.

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New Delhi:

Former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)A minister Javed Mustafa Mir resigned from the party onA on Saturday. Mir said he will decide the future course after consulting his followers. "I have decided to quit from the basic membership of the PDP and will forward my resignation to the party on Sunday morning," Mir told a local news house.A

Jammu & Kashmir: Former PDP minister Javed Mustafa Mir has resigned from the party. (file pic) pic.twitter.com/l7X8tq51DK a ANI (@ANI) January 5, 2019

Mir resignation came after Maulana Imran Ansari, Abid Ansari, Haseeb Drabu and Basharat Bukhari decided to quit the party.

Mir contested from the Chadura assembly constituency in 2002 as a PDP candidate and won the election, in the 2008 and 2014 assembly elections too, Mir retained the seat.

Miras father was Mustafa Mir, a veteran political leader who was shot dead by terrorists in 1990s.

Besides five MLAs, several senior leaders, including Raja Aijaz, Mehboob Iqbal, Runiyal and Peer Mohammad Hussain, resigned from the party recently.

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New Delhi:

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday warned people against voting for the Congress even as speculations are rife that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is in talks with the grand old party for a tie-up for the upcoming Lok Sabha Elections 2019. Addressing a function in Kakrola, Kejriwal also asked people not to vote for the BJP, alleging that all the seven sitting MPs of the party did nothing for Delhi's development.

"Don't vote for the Congress at all, if you vote for the Congress it will strengthen Narendra Modi. Let not your vote split and give all seven MPs to the AAP," the Aam Aadmi Party chief said.

Kejriwal's remarks assume significance as speculations are making rounds that a pre-poll alliance is possible in Delhi between the AAP and the Congress to stop the BJP in 2019 parliamentary elections. Both the parties have so far avoided denying such speculations.

Read | Seat-sharing deal with Mayawati in Uttar Pradesh may be announced in a week: Akhilesh Yadav

Senior AAP leader Gopal Rai said recently said that political affairs committee of the party will take a call on alliance considering views of leaders and workers from Delhi, Punjab and Haryana, after January 15.

Ajay Maken, who was critical of his party's alliance in Delhi with the AAP has resigned as the Delhi Congress president, while senior party leader and former Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit maintained that national leadership will take decision about a tie up for 2019 and she will abide by it.

Taken on face value, Kejriwal's appeal to voters not to vote for the Congress means that the AAP is ultimately ready to take an independent plunge in the coming parliamentary polls.

Read | News Nation Opinion Poll: BJP to get maximum votes in 2019 Lok Sabha Elections in Jammu and Kashmir

The national executive of the AAP in its recent meeting decided to contest all the seats in Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Goa and Chandigarh, totalling 33, in the Lok Sabha elections.
New Delhi:

The worlds biggest race, the Dakar Rally, will kick off on Sunday, with two teams from India participating in the 41st edition of the brutal terrain but challenging event. This years Dakar Rally will be hosted in Peru, South America, and is being held in only one country for the first time. The 2019 Dakar Rally will take the convoy of participants on a 5,000 km coil around Peru, starting and finishing in Lima over 10 days between January 6-17, through some of the most difficult regions, weather conditions and navigational challenges.

CS Santosh, Joaquim Rodrigues and Oriol Mena are participating in the three-member Hero MotoSports Team, while Aravind KP will represent TVS. There will be a total of 3,000 kilometers of racing divided between 10 special stages, where 70 per cent of the terrain will be covered in sand.

This will be Hero MotoSports' third consecutive Dakar Rally. The team has consistently improved its performance finishing in the Top-15 in 2017 bettering it to Top-10 in 2018.

All three riders will ride on the Hero 450RR rally bike.

"We are enthusiastic and absolutely ready for Dakar 2019. Looking at this high-octane event, which is expected to be even tougher than last year, our focus remains on finishing the Rally," Markus Braunsperger, Chief Technology Officer, Hero MotoCorp and Head of Hero MotoSports, had earlier said.

Star biker Santosh said: "This will be my third Dakar with Hero MotoSports and fifth overall. It has been a very exciting three years and I'm geared up for yet another rendezvous with this unique event. I am satisfied with the preparations and look forward to delivering a solid performance.

"It feels great to ride again, after my accident at Dakar 2018. The recovery has been tough. I have been training particularly hard with a focus on arriving at the finish line safely. This will be my third Dakar and I'm very excited to be riding with my team again and hopeful of delivering a good performance," Rodrigues said.

Leading up to the Dakar 2019, THE Hero MotoSports team participated in many rallies across the globe on its 'Road to Dakar' initiative.

The Team kicked off its campaign in April at the Merzouga Rally in Morocco, where it achieved a Top-15 finish.

In August, the Team headed to the Atacama Rally in Chile, immediately following it up with a podium finish at the BAJA India Rally. It ended 2018 with a Top-15 finish at the Peru Desafio Inca Rally in September.

(With PTI inputs)
New Delhi:

With barely a few months to go for 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday said that details of seat sharing deal with Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in Uttar Pradesh may be announced in a week or so. Yadav, however, has chosen to remain tight-lipped on the possibility of having any ties with the Congress. Earlier, statements made by Mayawati and Akhilesh have hinted that both the parties are not too keen to cede space to the Congress in the seat sharing deal in Uttar Pradesh. Yadav's latest statement came two days after he met BSP chief Mayawati in New Delhi to finalise the contours of the seat sharing agreement ahead of the general elections due by May.

Speaking to news agency PTI, the Samajwadi Party chief said, "You will come to know about it (alliance) in a week or so", adding that the two leaders in the 'gathbandhan' will decide whether Congress will be there or not". Yadav refused to elaborate further, leaving the opposition parties guessing on whether the Rahul Gandhi-led party will be a part of this 'gathbandhan' in Uttar Pradesh. However, Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), which has a stronghold in western UP, has also been accommodated in the alliance.

Read | Ready to go solo, says Congress amid reports of SP-BSP alliance for 2019 Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh

Though an official announcement is still awaited, speculations have been rife that both the SP and BSP have decided on an equal seat-sharing formula in the crucial poll state. Sources said the two parties would field candidates from 37 seats each, leaving just six seats for the other players of the Grand Alliance, including the Congress.

There has been a tussle between the SP and the Congress ever since the grand old party has refused to include one of SP MLAs in the new Madhya Pradesh ministry headed by Kamal Nath. BSP leader Mayawati too has threatened to withdraw its support to the Congress if the cases against lower caste people lodged during a protest in 2018 are not taken back.

In the recently concluded 2018 Assembly polls, the Congress managed to cross the majority mark in Madhya Pradesh with the support of SP, BSP, and Independents. While Congress, in a nerve-wracking see-saw battle with the BJP, bagged 114 seats, the SP, BSP and Independents got one, two and four seats respectively in the 230-member Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly.

Read | HD Deve Gowda asks Congress to treat regional parties well to forge alliance before 2019 elections

However, the SP and the BSP have decided not to field candidates in Amethi and Raebareli, the Lok Sabha constituencies of Congress president Rahul Gandhi and UPA chief Sonia Gandhi. In 2014 Lok Sabha Elections, the Congress had won only these two seats from Uttar Pradesh.

By joining hands, the opposition parties had defeated the BJP in three Lok Sabha bypolls last year in Uttar Pradesh. In the last parliamentary elections in 2014, the BJP won 71 seats in the state, securing 42.63 per cent of the votes. BJP ally Apna Dal bagged two more.

The Samajwadi Party had won five seats with a vote share of 22.35 per cent. The BSP did not win any seat while securing 19.77 per cent votes. The Congress had registered wins in two seats, bagging 7.53 per cent of the votes.
New Delhi:

White House officials and aides emerged from talks aimed at ending a partial government shutdown over President Donald Trump's demands for border wall funding without a breakthrough on Saturday, though they planned to return to the table the following day. Trump tweeted: "Not much headway made today." Democrats agreed there had been little movement, saying the White House did not budge on the demand for $5.6 billion and would not consider re-opening the government. The White House said funding was not discussed in-depth, but the administration was clear they needed funding for a wall and that they wanted to resolve the shutdown all at once.



ALSO READ | US has ridiculous immigration policy, says Trump! Click to know why

Accusations flew after the more than two-hour session led by Vice President Mike Pence. Acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, in an interview aired on CNN, accused Democrats of being there to "stall." Democrats familiar with the meeting said the White House position was "untenable."

Earlier, Donald Trump had threatened to "entirely close" the Southern border with Mexico and change the immigration laws if the opposition Democrats did not agree to his demand of funding for a border wall. The Trump administration is seeking more than US dollar 5 billion for the construction of the border wall. Trump also threatened to end all US aid to three Latin American countries--Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras-- arguing that these nations have done nothing to stop the flow of illegal immigrants into the US. Donald Trump made a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border to combat illegal immigration and drug trafficking a key campaign promise in the 2016 election when he said it would be paid for by Mexico.



"We will be forced to close the Southern Border entirely if the Obstructionist Democrats do not give us the money to finish the Wall & also change the ridiculous immigration laws that our Country is saddled with. Hard to believe there was a Congress & President who would approve," Trump had said in a series of four tweets.



ALSO READ | Ready for very long federal shutdown for years: US President Trump

"The United States looses soooo much money on Trade with Mexico under NAFTA, over 75 Billion Dollars a year (not including Drug Money which would be many times that amount), that I would consider closing the Southern Border a 'profit making operation'," the US President had tweeted.



"We build a wall or close the Southern Border. Bring our car industry back into the United States where it belongs. Go back to pre-NAFTA, before so many of our companies and jobs were so foolishly sent to Mexico. Either we build (finish) the Wall or we close the Border..," Trump had said.

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

Banking services are likely to be affected on January 8 and 9 as a section of PSU bank employees would go on a two-day strike in support of the nationwide strike call given by 10 central trade unions against the government's alleged anti-worker policy. The All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) and Bank Employees Federation of India has informed the Indian Banks' Association (IBA) of the two-day nationwide strike on January 8 and 9, 2019, IDBI Bank said in a filing to the BSE.

In a stock exchange filing, the Allahabad Bank said the issues and demands are of industry level and strike call is also given at industry level.

"Therefore, if the strike takes place, the functioning of branches of the bank may be affected. The bank is taking all the necessary steps in terms of the existing guidelines for smooth functioning of bank's branches/offices on the day of strike(s), in the event the strike materialises," it said.

Public-sector Bank of Baroda said "in the event of AlBEA and BEFI proceeding on strike on January 8 and 9, 2019, the functioning of bank's branches/offices in some of the zones may be affected".

Private sector Karur Vysya Bank said if the strike call materialises, "the workmen of our bank may take part in the proposed strike on the said date, in which occasion the normal working of the branches/offices of the Bank may get affected during the day".

Ten central trade unions -- INTUC, AITUC, HMS, CITU, AIUTUC, AICCTU, UTUC, TUCC, LPF and SEWA -- have also called for a nationwide general strike on January 8 and 9 against what they call "anti-people" policies of the Centre and have placed a charter of 12 demands before the central government.

Earlier on December 26, 2018, nine bank unions or close to 1 million employees of various banks, including private lenders, had observed a one-day strike to protest against the proposed amalgamation of Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank with Bank of Baroda.

For all the Latest Business News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi :

The Narendra Modi government on Tuesday tabled a Constitutional amendment bill in Lok Sabha in order to implement the 10 per cent reservation in government jobs and educational institutions for the poor in upper castes. Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment, Thawar Chand Gehlot, tabled the bill. Now, the bill will be taken up for discussion in the House.

In a major decision that may have a huge bearing on the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, the Modi cabinet had Monday approved 10 per cent reservation in jobs and educational institutions for the economically weak in upper castes (general category). However, the reservation to the economically weaker sections of the general castes can be given only after a constitutional amendment as the proposed bill will exceed the Supreme Courts 50 per cent quota cap for Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and the Other Backward Castes (OBCs).

Also Read | Modi government approves 10 per cent reservation for economically backward in general category

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday issued a whip, asking its parliamentarians to be present in the Lower House where the bill will be tabled. The government has also extended the Winter Session by a day in order to bring the proposed legislation in the Rajya Sabha. The Winter Session of Parliament began on December 11 and was to end on January 8. According to reports, Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu has given his nod to extend the proceedings of the House till January 9.

However, the Modi government has decided to increase the reservation quota from the existing 50 per cent to 60 per cent. The reservation for economically backward in general category will be over and above the existing 50 pc reservation. The decision to provide reservation in jobs to economically weaker sections was taken during a Cabinet meeting headed by the prime minister.

The decision, which comes less than three months before the Lok Sabha elections, is considered to be a game changer and may have a huge bearing on polls. A section of people has long been demanding reservation based on the economic condition in place of the current caste-based system.

Also Read | 10% reservation for 'economically weaker' in upper castes: What is the eligibility criteria?

The move will also help the government to deal with the growing demands by several communities that they be shifted to other backward classes (OBCs) in order to get reservations in jobs and education. Currently, the OBCs have 27 per cent reservation in government jobs and education.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

The Lok Sabha on Tuesday passed the contentious Lok Sabha Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2019 that will provide Indian citizenship to non-Muslims from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. The Bill was presented by the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and was passed amid huge uproar and dissent by several opposition parties.

Introducing the Bill, Rajnath Singh said the Bill will pave the way for Indian citizenship to the persecuted religious minorities - the Hindus, Jains, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Parsis -from the three countries. "They have no place to go to, except India," he added.

Singh told the Opposition that the Bill was not against the provisions of the Constitution and would give succour to persecuted minorities in the three neighbouring countries.

"Such migrants can apply for citizenship now. The Centre can decide on their citizenship after getting necessary information," Singh said. He said the Bill not only applies to Assam but to the entire country and such migrants were in several other states.

"The responsibility is of the entire country. The burden of Assam is that of the entire country," he said.

READ MORE: Can BJP win Assam without AGP in 2019 Lok Sabha Elections? Click here to know

"They have no place to go to, except India," he said, adding several leaders including first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru were in favour of giving shelter to persecuted minorities in the neighboring countries.

The political parties, including those from the northeast, are of the view that the Bill would give nationality to illegal Hindus who came to Assam after March 1971 in violation of the agreement of the Assam Accord, 1985.

READ MORE: AGP, BJP's Assam ally, snaps ties with NDA over Citizenship Bill, says 'made a last ditch attempt but...'

The Bill seeks to amend the Citizenship Act 1955 to grant Indian nationality to people from minority communities - Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians - from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan after six years of residence in India instead of 12 even if they don't possess any proper document.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

Days after HS Phoolkas resignation, rebel Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and former Leader of Opposition in the Punjab Legislative Assembly Sukhpal Singh Khaira on Sunday quit the party, citing its national convenor Arvind Kejriwals dictatorial attitude as the reason. Khaira gave up AAPs primary membership. He, however, will not resign as an MLA from Bholath. Khaira, who was suspended from the AAP for being involved in anti-party activities in November last year, alleged that the party had totally deviated from the ideology and principals it was formed. The rebel AAP leader has been a critic of the partys top leadership at the Centre and the state, including Kejriwal.

The current political culture of traditional parties of the country stands badly decayed, due to which immense hope was generated by the formation of AAP. Unfortunately, after joining the party, I realised that the hierarchy of AAP was no different from the traditional centralised political parties, he wrote in his resignation letter.

Also Read | Advocate HS Phoolka resigns from AAP, says wants to dedicate time to social work

In December last year, Khaira had announced to form his own political outfit the Punjab Democratic Alliance with suspended AAP MP Dharamvir Gandhi, the Lok Insaaf Party and other like-minded parties in the state. He had said his Punjab Democratic Alliance would work towards liberating the state from the clutches of corrupt politicians and feudal families.

Reacting to the resignation of Khaira, top AAP leader and Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said that he should only stay in the party if wanted to work for the country.

If he wants to work for the nation, he should stay with us. But if he wants to work for his own interests, then he can go anywhere, how does it concern us? ANI quoted Sisodia as saying.

Also Read | Ajay Maken resigns as Delhi Congress chief, thanks Rahul Gandhi, party workers for support

The resignation of Khaira came days after senior Lawyer and AAP leader from Punjab HS Phoolka gave up the partys primary membership. Phoolka, who has been fighting for the victims of 1984 anti-Sikh riots, said the biggest reason he quit the politics was that he wanted to dedicate his time to social work.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
The greatest glory is in rising again after falling and never giving up. This is how one can describe ParulKakad, a fitness influencer, and an entrepreneur. Born and raised in Zambia, she is truly an inspiration for many women out there. Even after struggling a lot in her life, Parul, founder of Mumbai Mummy, is someone who never gave up and made the best of every situation that she faced while growing up.

She grew up with the thought of studying Pharmacy just like her father did and wanted to help him with his business in Zambia. She moved to India and pursued her studies in the country. But life had other plans for her. After having an accident, her life took a turn and she went to Wigan and Leigh College to complete her Masters in Design and Art from Huddersfield University. This proved to be the turning point of ParulKakads life. After pursuing this course, she took up modeling and also started her advertising agency through which she gained a lot of good reputation in the fashion world and made her contacts. She also got the opportunity to work with the best names like Manish Malhotra and JJ Valley and even walk for Lakme Fashion Week, Bridal Asia, and many more.

Being a woman of many talents, Entrepreneur ParulKakad had to do something special in her life. She used her income from modeling to enter the world of entrepreneurship and started her clubs and restaurants. Her businesses are now amongst the best out there and this success led her to open up five Indian restaurants in Australia. These restaurants are a hit among the people there and are now being handled by her brother.

From modeling, fashion designing, fitness sprees to setting up new businesses of restaurants, clubs as well as trading of diamonds, there is nothing ParulKakad hasnt done. She has tried her hands on everything and has been successful in every venture. A well-learned woman, who has traveled many parts of the world and has gained much experience to walk on the path of success with all her endeavors. She is someone who, through her journey, has been trying to teach other women to stay strong and stay positive about everything in their lives.

After having 4 children and suffering 5 miscarriages, Fitness influencer ParulKakad understood the struggle of being a mother and knew the importance of having support and motivation throughout this difficult phase of a womans life. This is why she has now started a community Mumbai Mummy on Instagram for mothers from all walks of life. Through this community, she tries to motivate and strengthen other women to stay strong during this tough phase and remain positive at all times.

Apart from this, ParulKakad has also started a new clothing line- Punk House of Couture, that offers the smartest of choices and has been worn by many Bollywood celebrities as well.

You can connect with her on Instagram - @parulkakad .

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Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin has gone into self-isolation after new coronavirus infection cases were detected in his entourage. President Putin will not visit Tajikistan this week for regional security meetings for the same reason, the Presidential Office Kremlin reported on Tuesday. "Vladimir Putin said he should remain in self-isolation for a certain time-frame due to coronavirus cases found in his team," the Kremlin statement said.

#BREAKING Putin to self-isolate over coronavirus cases in inner circle: Kremlin pic.twitter.com/RVzl8GoeB6  AFP News Agency (@AFP) September 14, 2021

It may be recalled that the Kremlin made the statement while giving details of a call between President Putin and Tajikistan's President Emomali Rahmon. Tell you that Putin has taken both doses of corona vaccine Sputnik-V. He took the second dose in April. The spokesperson said the President is perfectly healthy, but he will remain in isolation as he is exposed to infected people. However, the spokesperson did not say how long Putin would remain in isolation, but he said he would continue his work. Peskov did not comment on with whom Putin came in contact.

Earlier, the Kremlin reported that Putin and Tajikistan President Emomali Rahmon had a phone conversation. Putin had earlier attended several events on Monday. He met Russian Paralympic players, participated in a coordinated military operation with Belarus, and met Syrian President Bashar Assad. During his meeting with Paralympic players, Putin said he may soon have to "go into isolation."

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Home  Nature  Conservation  Nepal vulture population: New count records 2,312 individuals, 506 more than last year

Kathmandu, September 15

Giving new data about Nepal vulture population, a new nationwide count of seven species of vultures has recorded 2,312 individuals across the country.

Bird Conservation Nepal, an NGO, says the count was conducted on the occasion of International Vulture Awareness Day that is celebrated on the first Saturday of September.

Kriti Nepal, the organisations policy advocacy officer, says the number recorded this year is a significant increase from the past years as there were 1,905 and 1,816 individuals recorded in 2019 and 2020 respectively.

Here is the detail of the data recorded during the count this year:

Name of species Total observation Occurrence status White-rumped vulture (WRV) 1293 Resident Red-headed vulture (RHV) 60 Resident Slender-billed vulture (SBV) 33 Resident Egyptian vulture (EV) 392 Resident Himalayan griffon (HG) 484 Resident Bearded vulture (BV) 43 Resident Cinereous vulture (CV) 7 Winter visitor

The organisation clarifies migrant griffon vulture (GV) and vagrant Indian vulture (IV) were not assessed during the survey and only seven species out of nine vulture species known in Nepal were sighted during the count.
Kathmandu, September 15

The Pathibhara temple, a revered pilgrimage site in the Taplejung district of northeastern Nepal, is open to visitors after a gap of five months owing to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Pathibhara Area Development Committee says the temple will reopen this Friday considering a gradual fall in the coronavirus infection rate in the country and the arrival of the festival season during which more pilgrims are likely to plan the trip.

The committee, however, clarifies the visitors are required to follow all health protocols as the risk of the virus spread cannot be ruled out.

Meanwhile, the Taplejung District Administration Office has also lifted the prohibitory order imposed to control the virus spread.

Pathibhara, besides being a pilgrimage site, is also a popular trekking destination for domestic travellers.
FCW Insider: September 15, 2021

The IRS had come under criticism for an online tool targeting the neediest recipients of advance child tax credit payments that was not mobile-friendly and lacked non-English language resources.

The Government Accountability Office examines some of the Defense Department's tactics to lessen the effects of inconsistent funding during continuing resolutions.

Dr. Christine Michienzi, the chief technology officer for the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial Policy, said while results were coming soon, defense contractors should "continue on" with updates to cybersecurity practices as DOD finalizes its review of its Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program.

In a report to Congress, the Office of Personnel Management said it largely agreed with a set of recommendations from the National Academy of Public Administration about the future of the HR agency.

Quick Hits

*** Three former U.S. government intelligence officers agreed to pay more than $1.6 million in fines as part of a plea agreement with the Department of Justice to settle charges of violating export controls for supplying the United Arab Emirates with sophisticated hacking tools that allowed the government to compromise targeted phones and devices.

"Hackers-for-hire and those who otherwise support such activities in violation of U.S. law should fully expect to be prosecuted for their criminal conduct," acting Assistant Attorney General Mark J. Lesko for the Justice Departments National Security Division said in a statement.

*** The General Services Administration named Waldo Jaquith as senior advisor to agency administrator Robin Carnahan. Jaquith will coordinate GSA's push to help state, local, tribal and other U.S. government entities with technology procurement, according to an agency press release. Jaquith previously worked at GSA in the 18F innovation shop and in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

*** Sage Communications co-founder and CEO Larry Rosenfeld is retiring after 17 years at the firm. Washington Technology has more on this story.
By Phil Stewart

WASHINGTON, Sept 15 (Reuters) - A group of Afghan diplomats from the deposed government in Kabul has issued a first-of-its-kind joint statement calling on world leaders to deny the Taliban formal recognition and chiding them for "leaving our people at the mercy of a terrorist group."

The statement https://graphics.reuters.com/AFGHANISTAN-CRISIS/lbvgngorxpq/Afghan%20diplomats%20statement%20on%20the%20situation%20in%20Afghanistan.pdf, which was provided to Reuters ahead of its public release, was signed by two dozen officials operating in a kind of diplomatic twilight, with no government to represent but still working from missions in the United States, Britain, France, Turkey and elsewhere.

The diplomats who signed the strongly worded letter were all below the rank of ambassador.

"We are disheartened that after twenty years of engagement, our allies are abandoning Afghanistan and leaving our people at the mercy of a terrorist group," the diplomats wrote.

The letter also asked world leaders to use all available means to halt Taliban violence against women, civil society activists and journalists.

It included warnings about the global implications of the Taliban's overthrow of the Afghan government.

"Taliban's success in capturing power through illegal and violent means ... emboldens terrorist and violent extremist groups around the world," they wrote, adding the violent takeover "normalizes violence."

GHANI'S PICTURE REMOVED

Jawad Raha, first secretary at the embassy in Washington, told Reuters his outpost was still operating, with diplomats there focusing on providing services for Afghans who are living in the United States and drawing attention to the situation in Afghanistan.

Raha said the embassy had taken down Ashraf Ghani's photo after he abruptly abandoned the presidency and left the country on Aug. 15, leaving Kabul to the Taliban.

"We were all upset, as the other embassies, (over) the way he left the country," Raha said.

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Ghani said last week he left because he wanted to avoid bloodshed and denied allegations he stole millions of dollars on his way out.

The statement by the diplomats called for the creation of an independent, international fact-finding mission on Afghanistan "to ensure justice and accountability."

It also called for world leaders to consolidate efforts to create a negotiated, all-inclusive government in Afghanistan "that is acceptable to all people of Afghanistan, including women and minorities."

(Reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by Nick Macfie)
OTTAWA, ON, Sept. 15, 2021 /CNW/ - The Canadian Association for Long Term Care (CALTC), CanAge, Canadian Nurses Association and HealthCareCAN are calling on all federal parties to champion a new dedicated federal transfer to improve long-term care and home care supports, including elder abuse prevention: the Canadian Seniors Care Transfer (CSCT).

CALTC logo with member logos (CNW Group/Canadian Association for Long-Term Care)

Historically, federal investments across the continuum of seniors' care have been limited or not prioritized in overall health budgets. This has resulted in under-resourcing of long-term care (LTC) and home care supports for ageing in place. CALTC, CanAge, Canadian Nurses Association and HealthCareCAN recognize that seniors' care looks different in every province and territory, as each jurisdictional government regulates seniors care in different ways.

CALTC, CanAge, Canadian Nurses Association and HealthCareCAN propose that the CSCT would grow on a predictable escalator over the next 10 years. We recommend supplementing the increased health-related costs faced by provinces and territories struggling to support an ageing population through a dedicated "seniors transfer". This would increase federal funding committed to seniors' care to $23B across the care continuum care.

A Canadian Seniors Care Transfer would allow federal policymakers to strike the right balance, respecting these differences while also ensuring that provinces and territories have dedicated funding that must be used to enhance seniors' care in their jurisdiction. To learn more about the CSCT, visit caltc.ca/elections.

About CALTC

The Canadian Association for Long Term Care (CALTC) is committed to ensuring quality long-term care for all. As the leading voice for quality long-term care in Canada, CALTC advocates on behalf of seniors at the federal level and shares knowledge, insights, and best practices to ensure seniors can live and age with dignity.

About CanAGE

CanAge is Canada's national seniors' advocacy organization , working to improve the lives of older adults through advocacy, policy, and community engagement. We are a non-partisan, non-profit organization and backed by a broad pan-Canadian membership base. Find out more.

Story continues

About Canadian Nurses Association

The Canadian Nurses Association (CNA) is the national and global professional voice of Canadian nursing. We represent registered nurses, nurse practitioners, licensed and registered practical nurses, registered psychiatric nurses and retired nurses across all 13 provinces and territories.

About HealthCareCAN

HealthCareCAN is the national voice of healthcare organizations and hospitals across Canada. We foster informed and continuous, results-oriented discovery and innovation across the continuum of healthcare. For more information visit www.healthcarecan.ca.

SOURCE Canadian Association for Long-Term Care

Cision

View original content to download multimedia: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/September2021/15/c9398.html
Cryptocurrencies are digital currencies, as they are assets with a cryptographic encryption that guarantees their ownership and integrity of transactions and prevents them from being replicated.

How is the operation of these intangible currencies possible?

Their operation has the particularity of differentiating themselves from traditional systems, as they are not controlled or regulated by any institution, as well as not being necessary intermediaries for transactions.

It is used for the control of transactions, a decentralized database, blockchain or a shared ledger . The blockchain is a technology for the transfer of data and capital in a secure way, due to the sophisticated coding and encryption that it has. They are "blockchains" that create networks of devices without a central server.

When making a purchase or sale of the digital cryptocurrency asset, the operation cannot be canceled, since this blockchain system does not allow the erasure of data. To reestablish the transaction, a counter must be executed, since, as they are not physical currencies, the digital wallet service must be used.

Digital purses or wallets are software or applications where cryptocurrencies can be stored, sent and received; in reality, the keys that grant the rights and ownership of the same are stored allowing to operate with them.

There are two types of purses, the so-called hot and the so-called cold ones.

The so-called hot ones have the particularity of being connected to the internet, while the latter are not.

Among the former are web, mobile and desktop wallets.

Inside the cold ones, the hardware and paper purses.

It is important to note that the value of the cryptocurrency varies depending on the supply and demand and also the commitment of the users.

Image:

Mexico, one of the most stimulating markets for the use of cryptocurrencies

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In Latin America, there is a favorable context for the acceptance of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies since it is a great leap in digital growth in regards to financial matters. The countries with the highest adoption of this market are Venezuela, Argentina, Colombia and Mexico.

It is in Mexico that there is a regulatory framework with the so-called Fintech Law , which covers the cryptocurrency market, added to a fact of great importance that revolutionized this form of investment. The Bank of Mexico and the National Banking and Securities Commission (CNBV) accepted blockchain technology for transactions from some institutions and remittances.

The Spanish firm Criptan aims to potentiate the use of cryptocurrencies in Mexico, it tries to become a solution for people to integrate this mechanism into their daily lives, using it to save, pay, spend, send and share. It seeks to focus on the use and not on the investment of cryptocurrencies, that is, its purpose is the massification of them with more daily uses for Mexicans. It is the first country in Latin America where this firm will land, envisioning expansion on the continent to continue its exponential growth. It is expected that its arrival will take place in a short period of time, starting with the platforms Bitcoin, Etherum, Litecoin and a stable cryptocurrency.

In the month of May, investments of this type suffered a drop that collapsed the values and the amount of investments. The Tesla company announced that it will no longer receive Bitcoin as a payment method for its cars, as it considers it a cryptocurrency that pollutes too much because it increases the use of fossil fuels for mining and transactions.

They are on the lookout for cryptocurrencies that consume less than 1% energy per transaction.

After this announcement, the Bitcoin collapsed, went from 43,000 dollars to the barrier of 30,000 in less than 10 hours, in addition the announcement of China that prohibits transactions with cryptocurrencies added to this decrease.

In Mexico there are more than 100 establishments that already accept cryptocurrencies a few years ago, a specialized map was even created to locate them. This tool is not up-to-date, which means that there are no certainty that businesses continue to accept this means of payment.

What does it mean to invest in cryptocurrencies?

Investing in cryptocurrencies implies the willingness to think that they can have a future and at the same time the acceptance of the volatility they suffer.

In addition, this type of investment is like a lottery since it cannot be guaranteed that they will give a great return or the opposite. But it is within the options of the current market and it is to be taken into account.

Pros and Cons of Investing in Cryptocurrency

On the other hand, the disadvantages are the volatility that this sector had in recent years, in addition, that in some countries they are prohibited due to possible evasions and that they are not accepted as means of payment due to mistrust.

But in relation to the advantages of the same, there is the fact that it does not need intermediaries or commissions, there are no taxes on them because they are not regulated by the government, it can generate great profits despite the great risks and also the privacy of the market of cryptocurrencies that is very high.

Investing in cryptocurrencies, yes or no? Recommendations if you decide to bet on digital currencies

Image: Depositphotos.com

When it comes to investment security, this market is somewhat volatile . You can take a traditional investor view, in which you can count on very little security of earnings, expectations, etc. But today it is an option that is beginning to be on the rise in Mexico for risky investors with great speculation power.

One of the tools to take into consideration is to start investing in cryptocurrencies with the most famous on the market, since it is an important aspect that marks their acceptance.

Also operating by resorting to trading operations , learning to operate with brokers, graphical and statistical indicators.

Being attentive to the signals to invest, along with a technical analysis, the study of market behavior and the behavior pattern of each currency.

It is preferable to start with a simulation account to consolidate practice on buying and selling and on the market.

Always be alert, distrusting, since there are scams and frauds in this market.

And as a last recommendation, the objective of the investments. If you have the purpose of saving your finances or becoming a millionaire, this type of investment will not be a good option, since it is money that you can lose.

Top 5 cryptocurrencies

To take into account, a ranking was made with the best cryptocurrencies to invest, such as:

Bitcoin Ethereum Litecoin Ripple Neo

Each of them has its advantages and disadvantages, but they are the best positioned.

In summary, it is an attractive decision to risk investing in cryptocurrencies, taking into account the recommendations for those who are interested in delving into this new market and its pros and cons.

This market needs users to have patience to wait for the rearrangement, standardization of the processes and uses of cryptocurrencies.
DETROIT, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Current Dealers' CEO William McCoy released a video on the company's YouTube channel highlighting his test drive this month of the U.S. electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure. Piloting the company's newest fleet vehicle, a 2022 Chevrolet Bolt EUV, McCoy made the 560+ mile trip from Detroit, Michigan to Washington, D.C. to learn firsthand how EV range, charging station locations, and vehicle charging times affect consumers.

Current Dealers is a Detroit-based business delivering turnkey electric-vehicle charging solutions on behalf of businesses, governments, and consumers. The company is currently contracted with municipalities across the country to bring current the EV infrastructure needed for an all-electric mobility future.

"We learned a lot from this experience  driving our newest EV fleet vehicle from Detroit to Washington, D.C.," said William McCoy, CEO, Current Dealers. "It was important for me to make the trip because when we're explaining to our customers the important new applications of different EV charging solutions serving the U.S. market, that we have real world knowledge to help them choose the best one to meet their needs."

On the company's 12-hour test drive, McCoy's team monitored EV charging opportunities in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. For example, at an Electrify America charger located in an Ohio highway rest stop, 150kW-350kW EV charging was available for the company's 2022 Chevrolet Bolt EUV.

Lessons learned on the Current Dealers EV charging Infrastructure test drive include:

EV range matters. Drivers can expect to see a 15% reduction in their vehicle's range with interstate highway driving at an average 70 MPH.

Planning EV charging routes is important. There are still infrastructure holes along America's roads and highways, so using a free app from providers like EVgo, Electrify America, ChargePoint, or Tesla can help plan the best route.

EV charging times can impact long-distance travel times. EV vehicles have common charging ranges from 50kW to 150kW. With an average 250-mile driving range, drivers can expect to charge 80% in about an hour  something that can reduced in vehicles with faster charging rates.

The availability of public charging outlets in the U.S. has more than doubled since 2018, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Current Dealers works with cities, auto retailers, and green conscious companies to supply, install, and service EV charging stations. In the company's first two years of business, Current Dealers has helped 100s clients prepare for the upcoming all-electric future in the U.S.

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Current Dealers offers companies a simple three step process, including a site assessment, EV charger installation, and ongoing service. The assessment includes a comprehensive site plan, identification of permits needed, visual mockups of installed chargers, and a total cost breakdown. Installations are completed by licensed electricians who are certified in EV chargers and knowledgeable about EV charging capabilities. The company also provides all of the warranties, maintenance, and upgrades needed to support EV products in the long-term.

YouTube: https://youtu.be/GfKYfdyEkNY

www.currentdealers.com

Contact:

William McCoy

3139983033

319001@email4pr.com

2022 Chevrolet Bolt EUV

Cision

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SOURCE Current Dealers
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Hello and welcome to Daily Crunch for September 14, 2021. It was an Apple day on the internets, so weve all spent the afternoon trying to figure out if we need a new smartphone. Answer? Probably not, but that wont stop a good portion of the TechCrunch crew from deploying fresh Yahoo lucre into Cupertinos market cap. We love this stuff.

On the TechCrunch front, Disrupt is in a weeks time. Your humble servant is going shopping later this afternoon so that he can look slightly less disheveled. Jordan, of course, will look brilliant on the Disrupt Desk. See you there! -- Alex

The TechCrunch Top 3

Read more about Apple's Fall 2021 Event on TechCrunch

Startups/VC

Before we dive into our usual rundown of startup news, TechCrunch did a dig into the value of the myriad BNPL startups around the world through the lens of some recent acquisitions. I wrote it. Read it if thats your jam.

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In light of the days Apple Fitness news, it matters that Tonal just announced live classes are coming to its service . Tonal competes in the hardware-and-software market against Peloton and other players. Notably its the startups of the world that are fusing hardware and software more than Apple in this case, which is mostly bundling services into its existing products. Regardless, good news for you Tonal users out there.

1047 Games closes $100M: If you are hot, Brian Heater writes, you are hot. And 1047 games with its hit title Splitgate is more than warm. So sweltering that it just closed a third round since May. Whats Splitgate? An FPS that includes portals. (Which frankly sounds awesome.)

Grammarly opens up for developers: Grammarly is well known as a product that folks use to help tighten up their writing. But what if you wanted to bake Grammarly tech into your own product? Well, now you can. The company just announced a developer product. The finance nerd in me wonders how lucrative the new business line will prove, and if it will help the company file its damn S-1 already.

EverAfter raises $13M, underscores that HRtech is still hot: Per our own reporting, EverAfter has built a no-code customer-facing tool that streamlines onboarding and retention. Thats a bit like Sora, a startup that TechCrunch has also written about. A few rounds focused on the same space is signal!

Todays Tiger round is Indonesian fintech Xendit: Xendit is now a unicorn thanks to a $150 million check led by Tiger. At this point, we reckon that every time Tigers managing partners go to dinner they tip $150 million. Its the only number that they know! Regardless, the Jakarta-based fintech with a payments focus has big expansion plans that are now well financed.

Is it so bad to take money from Chinese venture funds?

Are founders in fundraising mode short-sighted when it comes to working with Chinese investors?

Asia Business development manager for Runa Capital Denis Kalinin studied data from iTjuzi, a database of Chinese venture capitalists and found:

 Chinese funds invested around $250 billion in 2020 (three times higher than the figure reported in Crunchbase). This figure puts Chinese VC investments only 30% lower than investments by U.S. funds, but three times that of U.K. funds and 12.5 times more than German funds.

The pandemic, geopolitical tensions and other factors led many Chinese venture funds to reduce their international investments, but that's largely "because during COVID, Chinas economy recovered much faster than other countries," writes Kalinin.

His analysis covers multiple angles: Chinese investments in Europe are catching up with those in Asia and the United States, half of China's top cross-border investors are CVCs, and investors are particularly interested in fintech, deep tech and digital health at the moment.

"Chinese investors can bring value to foreign startups, but you need to study their expertise and how it can be useful for you."

(Extra Crunch is our membership program, which helps founders and startup teams get ahead. You can sign up here.)

Big Tech Inc.

Before we get into the nitty-gritty of Big Tech news, an update from the U.S. government: "Bidens new FTC nominee is a digital privacy advocate critical of Big Tech," it turns out. That matters.

LinkedIn pledges $25M to creators: In case your LinkedIn feed was lacking in pizazz, the Microsoft subsidiary has plans to bolster your content influx. A $25 million Creator Accelerator Program has been established to encourage more, well, creation. Also LinkedIn is getting into live audio.

51 more Starlink satellites take flight: Were including this news item in Daily Crunch today in case you are also considering a move to rural Montana but need to stay employed.

Spaceflight looks to fly to the moon: Elons space company is not the only player looking to get humans off the plant. Spaceflight will shuttle customers on a lunar flyby mission next year, which is more than neat. How much for a ticket?

TechCrunch Experts: Growth Marketing

Illustration montage based on education and knowledge in blue

Image Credits: SEAN GLADWELL (opens in a new window) / Getty Images

Were reaching out to startup founders to tell us who they turn to when they want the most up-to-date growth marketing practices. Fill out the survey here.

Read one of the testimonials weve received below!

Marketer: Andrew Race, Juice

Recommended by: Orin Singh, Merchant Industry

Testimonial: We were referred to Juice by a family friend of my company's owner, and as a personal courtesy, they said they were giving us their best guy. Naturally, we thought that is what everyone says, but they were not kidding. Andrew was singularly leagues above our previous marketing company. Having someone so knowledgeable and willing to learn a new industry proved to be the turning point for us.

Community

Image Credits: Basic Books

From planned Twitter Spaces to impromptu chats with the Equity crew, the TechCrunch team is constantly on Twitter. Tomorrow, Wednesday, September 15 at 2 p.m. PDT/5 p.m. EDT, the Disrupt Battlefield judges will be talking on Twitter Spaces. On Thursday, September 16, at 3 p.m. PDT/6 p.m. EDT, Danny Crichton will be joined by Martin Ford, author of Rule of the Robots: How Artificial Intelligence Will Transform Everything. Make sure youre following the TechCrunch Twitter account to stay up to date with our news and events.
* August 75-bps hike was unanimous decision -Chile cenbank minutes * Brazil's Bradespar soars 7.3% * Colombian government signs tax reform bill into law * Argentine inflation rise by the least in a year By Susan Mathew Sept 15 (Reuters) - Hawkish central bank minutes helped push Chile's peso into the black on Wednesday, while Bradespar , one of the biggest shareholders of Brazilian miner Vale, surged on a plan to distribute almost $1 billion in Vale shares. The Chilean currency rose 0.2%, extending gains to a fourth straight session. Lifting the currency were rising copper prices as well as central bank minutes that showed a 75-basis-point hike in the key interest rate last month was a unanimous decision as the economy recovered strongly from the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. "The (central bank's) Board reiterated the message to bring the rate to neutral by the first half of 2022, which translates into 50 to 75bp hikes over several meetings," strategists at Citi said in a note to clients. "Markets are already pricing 275bp in hikes over the next 12 months," they said. Most other Latin American currencies made lackluster moves, although some erased session losses as the dollar weakened, with all eyes on next week's U.S. Federal Reserve policy decision. Colombia's currency trended lower. The government on Tuesday signed a heavily revised tax reform bill into law. Citi strategists said the law will help stabilize debt levels but not reduce it considerably. "For debt convergence, a new tax reform is necessary in the next administration. Meanwhile, the current bill limits the next administration's fiscal space ... as part of the new fiscal rule ..." Brazil's real was flat. A central bank survey showed Brazil's economic activity rose in July more than expected. The real is down about 2% so far this month, underperforming regional peers as well as a broad index of emerging market currencies, as political tensions rise. Meanwhile, losses on Sao Paulo's main equity index were capped by a 7.3% jump in holding company Bradespar SA after it announced its plan for distributing shares of Vale SA. Bradespar, owns a 5.73% stake in Vale, worth 27.6 billion reais based on Tuesday's closing price, and after the distribution its stake will be 3.23%. Airline Gol shares rose 4.6% after announcing an exclusive code-share agreement with American Airlines, under which it will receive a $200 million equity investment. In Argentina, data on Tuesday showed inflation rose 2.5% in August, the least in over a year, but the annual rate still stands at 51.4%. Analysts at Credit Suisse expect inflation to end the year at 50%. Argentina's draft budget, expected to be unveiled this week, would include plans for economic growth of between 3% and 4% in 2022, a government source told Reuters on Tuesday, slightly lower than targets the government had previously flagged. Key Latin American stock indexes and currencies at 1420 GMT: Stock indexes Latest Daily % change MSCI Emerging Markets 1288.58 -0.58 MSCI LatAm 2406.35 -0.4 Brazil Bovespa 115685.68 -0.43 Mexico IPC 51967.93 0.29 Chile IPSA 4433.61 0.55 Argentina MerVal - - Colombia COLCAP 1318.83 0.66 Currencies Latest Daily % change Brazil real 5.2552 0.06 Mexico peso 19.8968 0.03 Chile peso 781.7 0.22 Colombia peso 3829.53 -0.04 Peru sol 4.099 -0.11 Argentina peso 98.2400 -0.02 (interbank) (Reporting by Susan Mathew in Bengaluru; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
SINGAPORE, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- iGene Laboratory Pte. Ltd donates 25,000 SARS-CoV-2 PCR Kits to Indonesia to assist the government of the Republic of Indonesia in managing the COVID-19 disease outbreak. The occasion was marked with a symbolic hand-over ceremony at the Republic of Indonesia Embassy in Singapore on 13 September 2021 hosted by the Indonesian Ambassador, H.E. Suryo Pratomo.

iGene Laboratory CEO Kane Black with Indonesian Ambassador H.e Suryo Pratomo

iGene Logo

The donated RT-PCR kits will be handed over for immediate deployment in the Gatot Soebroto Army Hospital and Dr. Esnawan Hospital Indonesia.

Mr. Kane Black, CEO of iGene Laboratory and parent company INEX Innovate, said - "In what are unprecedented challenging times in our lifetime, it is crucial that we come together and assist one another. We are pleased and grateful to be able to step up and play a small role in supporting Indonesia's continuing fight against the COVID-19 pandemic in times of need."

The Indonesian Embassy in Singapore has been actively helping to facilitate the donations. H.E. Suryo Pratomo highlighted the show of solidarity and sense of community in the times of COVID-19 and added, "The silver lining of the pandemic is proving the strength of the relationship between Indonesia and Singapore at various levels."

The aid has been transported by the Indonesian Air Force's C-130 Hercules aircraft on September 13, 2021 from Paya Lebar Air Base Singapore to Halim Air Base with the assistance of Singapore The Ministry of Defence.

About iGene Laboratory

iGene Laboratory is a College of American Pathologist (CAP) accredited Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) laboratory that provides diagnostic testing, contract research (CRO) and COVID-19 testing services.

iGene Laboratory is a wholly owned subsidiary of INEX Innovate Pte Ltd.

For more information visit: www.igenelab.com

About INEX Innovate

Spun out from the National University of Singapore (NUS), INEX INNOVATE is Asia's first Women's Life Science Health Innovations group. Founded by maternal-fetal medicine specialists, INEX focuses on developing and commercialising molecular diagnostic technologies in the areas of fetal health and women's oncology.

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Headquartered in Singapore with subsidiaries in Hong Kong, Indonesia and the United Kingdom, INEX Innovate is backed by institutional and government shareholders including Enterprise Singapore, Genting Berhad, Zicom MedTacc and PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

INEX has a broad commercial portfolio of validated tests in prenatal health, ovarian and breast cancers along with more than 48 key patents.

In 2020, the company was a finalist in the Business Transformation of the Year award category at the British Chamber of Commerce Singapore Annual Business Awards in recognition of its efforts in launching new technologies and pivoting towards COVID-19 testing to support Singapore's battle against the corona virus pandemic. In 2021, INEX was recipient of the Frost & Sullivan 'Singapore Clinical Laboratories in Women's Health Entrepreneurial Company of the Year Award' and was also recognized by World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) with the IP for Innovation Champion Award.

For more information visit: www.inex.sg

SOURCE iGene Laboratory Pte. Ltd
Building credit history can be difficult if you are a consumer that is having trouble getting access to credit in the first place.

Enter TomoCredit, which has developed a credit card focused on building credit history for first-time borrowers. The San Francisco-based startup is announcing today that it has raised $10 million in a Series A funding round co-led by Kapor Capital and KB Investment Inc. (KBIC), a subsidiary of South Koreas leading consumer bank. Lewis & Clark Ventures, AME Cloud Ventures, Knollwood Investment Advisory, WTI, Bronze and Square co-founder Sam Wen also participated in the Series A financing.

The new capital comes just over seven months after TomoCredit raised $7 million in seed funding, and brings its total raised this year to $17 million. The company also announced today it has appointed Ash Gupta, former CRO at American Express, to its board.

TomoCredit co-founder and CEO Kristy Kim came up with the concept for the company after being rejected multiple times for an auto loan while in her early 20s.

Kim, who immigrated to the U.S. from South Korea with her family as a child, was disappointed that her lack of credit history proved to be such an obstacle despite the fact she had a job and positive cash flow.

So she teamed up with Dmitry Kashlev, a Russian immigrant, in January of 2019 to create a solution for other foreign-born individuals and young adults facing similar credit challenges. That fall, the startup (short for Tomorrows Credit) was accepted into the Barclays Accelerator, powered by Techstars.

The fintech offers a credit card aimed at helping first-time borrowers build credit history, based on their cash flow, rather than on their FICO or credit report ratings. Its biggest differentiator, believes Kim, is that it has no fees, no APR and no credit pull. Traditional credit products rely heavily on fees and APR, she said, while TomoCredit makes money through merchant fees.

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Image Credits: TomoCredit

TomoCredit is powered by Finicity (which was acquired by Mastercard last year), and leverages that companys data network and open banking technology so that it can securely access applicants bank accounts to obtain financial data for underwriting purposes.

Once approved, applicants receive the TomoCredit Mastercard. The goal is to bring millions of individuals that lack a credit score into the financial system, allowing a diverse group of consumers the opportunity to better position themselves as qualified candidates for mortgages, auto loans, or other major life purchases, the company said.

TomoCredit has already pre-approved more than 300,000 customers and expects to issue a total of 500,000 cards by years end, according to Kim.

Weve grown 10x this year from the beginning of 2021, Kim said. Still, this round came together earlier than expected.

Something that has been surprising to Kim is the interest from a variety of types of consumers.

In the beginning, we thought international students and immigrants would be most interested in our product, she told TechCrunch. But after launching, weve realized that so many people can benefit -- from gig economy workers to YouTubers to any young person who hasnt had a chance to build credit yet. The market is way bigger than we even realized.

In early 2022, the company plans to roll out the Tomo Black card, a product for some of its existing customers that are showing good performance. Its currently testing it with some of its existing user base.

This is a premium product that can grow with our customers, who we want to retain over the next 10 to 20 years, Kim said. We dont want our product to be a stop-gap solution.

Image Credits: TomoCredit

The startup plans to use its new capital to do more hiring and enhance features such as weekly autopay and high credit limits in an effort to boost credit scores faster, she added. Currently, TomoCredit has about 30 employees, up from 10 at the time of its last raise in February.

My main focus is recruiting top talent, Kim said, noting that the company had already hired some senior people from Wells Fargo.

When we recruit and hire, we care about diversity, she added. Were building products for people who have been traditionally underserved by major banks. I think to align with our mission, we should embody that in building our team. More than 50% of our execs are female. The entire risk team is female. We are diverse in terms of gender, age and ethnicity because we want to truly understand our customers and build a product that is inclusive.

Brian Dixon, partner at Kapor Capital, points out that there are about 45 million people in the U.S. who should have credit scores, but cannot take out a loan, get a credit card, or apply for a mortgage. And that number is only increasing.

"When we learned that Kristy experienced these issues firsthand when she moved to the United States and thoughtfully figured out a way to circumvent the predatory and broken credit card system, it deepened our conviction in her and the product itself," he wrote via email.

Dixon believes that TomoCredit's model of not charging the user makes it a "safe and affordable alternative" to what is in the market.

"Their mission aligns with our thesis of closing gaps of access and opportunity in the credit space at large as well," he added.
Sept 15 (Reuters) - Berkshire Hathaway Energy's Cove Point liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plant in Maryland will shut for about three weeks of maintenance starting around Sept. 20, according to pipeline data and analysts.

Officials at Berkshire Hathaway Energy on Wednesday confirmed the pipeline and compressor station maintenance will start on Sept. 20 but would not confirm the shutdown of the liquefaction plant until about the day before an outage.

Traders noted the reduction in gas flows to LNG export plants should weigh on U.S. natural gas prices, which hit a seven-year high on Wednesday for a third day in a row.

But, any reduction in U.S. LNG exports could cause European gas prices, which have already jumped over 30% so far in September to record levels, to soar even higher.

Analysts at Energy Aspects said Cove Point is set to undergo its annual three-week shutdown from Sept. 20, which will lower feedgas demand by 0.75 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) until around Oct. 10.

One billion cubic feet is enough to supply about five million U.S. homes for a day.

If Cove Point shuts as expected, the timing of this outage would be in line with its 2018, 2019 and 2020 annual maintenance shutdowns.

Berkshire Hathaway Inc's Berkshire Hathaway Energy operates Cove Point and owns 25% of the facility. The rest is owned by units of Dominion Energy Inc (50%) and Brookfield Asset Management Inc (25%).

Cove Point is designed to liquefy about 0.75 bcfd of gas.

When Dominion operated the plant it sold the project's capacity for 20 years to a subsidiary of GAIL (India) Ltd and to ST Cove Point, which is a joint venture between units of Japanese trading company Sumitomo Corp and Tokyo Gas Co Ltd.

(Reporting by Scott DiSavino Editing by Marguerita Choy)
NEW YORK, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Bernstein Liebhard, a nationally acclaimed investor rights law firm, announces that a securities class action lawsuit has been filed on behalf of investors who purchased or acquired the securities of The Boston Beer Company, Inc. ("Boston Beer" or the "Company") (NYSE: SAM) from April 22, 2021 through September 8, 2021 (the "Class Period"). The lawsuit filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York alleges violations of the Securities Act of 1934.

Bernstein Liebhard LLP. (PRNewsFoto/Bernstein Liebhard LLP) (PRNewsfoto/Bernstein Liebhard LLP)

If you purchased Boston Beer securities, and/or would like to discuss your legal rights and options please visit The Boston Beer Company NYSE: SAM Shareholder Class Action Lawsuit The Boston Beer Company Inc Shareholder Class Action Lawsuit or contact Rujul Patel toll free at (877) 779-1414 or rpatel@bernlieb.com

According to the complaint, Boston Beer issued materially false and/or misleading statements and failed to disclose adverse facts pertaining to the Company's business, operations, and prospects. Boston Beer specifically failed to disclose to investors: (1) that Boston Beer's hard seltzer sales were decelerating; (2) that, as a result, Boston Beer was reasonably likely to incur inventory write-offs; (3) that the Company was reasonably likely to incur shortfall fees payable to third party brewers; (4) that, as a result of the foregoing, Boston Beer's financial results would be adversely impacted; and (5) that, 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.

On July 22, 2021 after the market closed, the Company reduced its full year 2021 guidance, expecting earnings per share between $18 and $22, down from a prior range of $22 and $26. Boston Beer cited softer-than-expected sales in the hard seltzer category and overall beer industry and also stated that it had "overestimated the growth of the hard seltzer category in the second quarter."

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On this news, the price of Boston Beer shares fell $246.54, or 26%, to close at $701.00 per share on July 23, 2021, on unusually heavy trading volume.

On September 8, 2021, after the market closed, the Company withdrew its 2021 financial guidance, citing decelerating sales of hard seltzer products. The Company also stated that it "expects to incur hard seltzer-related inventory write-offs, shortfall fees payable to 3rd party brewers, and other costs" for the remainder of fiscal 2021.

On this news, Boston Beer's share price fell $21.09, or 3.7%, to close at $538.31 per share on September 9, 2021, on unusually heavy trading volume.

If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than November 15, 2021 . A lead plaintiff is a representative party acting on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation. Your ability to share in any recovery doesn't require that you serve as lead plaintiff. If you choose to take no action, you may remain an absent class member.

If you purchased Boston Beer securities, and/or would like to discuss your legal rights and options please visit https://www.bernlieb.com/cases/thebostonbeercompanyinc-sam-shareholder-class-action-lawsuit-fraud-stock-438/apply/ or contact Rujul Patel toll free at (877) 779-1414 or rpatel@bernlieb.com

Since 1993, Bernstein Liebhard LLP has recovered over $3.5 billion for its clients. In addition to representing individual investors, the Firm has been retained by some of the largest public and private pension funds in the country to monitor their assets and pursue litigation on their behalf. As a result of its success litigating hundreds of lawsuits and class actions, the Firm has been named to The National Law Journal's "Plaintiffs' Hot List" thirteen times and listed in The Legal 500 for ten consecutive years.

ATTORNEY ADVERTISING.  2021 Bernstein Liebhard LLP. The law firm responsible for this advertisement is Bernstein Liebhard LLP, 10 East 40th Street, New York, New York 10016, (212) 779-1414. The lawyer responsible for this advertisement in the State of Connecticut is Michael S. Bigin. Prior results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome with respect to any future matter.

Contact Information:

Rujul Patel

Bernstein Liebhard LLP

https://www.bernlieb.com

(877) 779-1414

rpatel@bernlieb.com

Cision

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SOURCE Bernstein Liebhard LLP
NASA has awarded a combined $146 million in contracts to five companies, including SpaceX, Blue Origin and Dynetics, to develop lander concepts as part of the agencys Artemis program.

The awards include $26.5 million to Blue Origin; $40.8 million to Dynetics; $35.2 million to Lockheed Martin; $34.8 million to Northrop Grumman; and $9.4 million to SpaceX. Only two companies that submitted proposals, Blue Ridge Nebula Starlines and Cook & Chevalier Enterprises, did not receive contracts.

The contracts were awarded under NextSTEP-2 (Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships) Appendix N: Sustainable Human Landing System Studies and Risk Reduction. The solicitation, released at the beginning of July, says the objective of the contract is to engage with potential commercial partners for concept studies, sustaining HLS concept of operations (ground and flight) development, and risk reduction activities.

What that means in practice is that the selected companies will develop lander design concepts, including conducting component tests, and evaluate them for things like performance and safety.

These awards are separate from the Human Landing System contract that was given to SpaceX earlier this year -- the one that both Blue Origin and Dynetics disputed to a government watchdog, and that Blue Origin later opposed in a lawsuit against NASA thats still ongoing.

However, the outcome of this batch of awards will likely inform future lander development contracts through the rest of the decade. The work from these companies will ultimately help shape the strategy and requirements for a future NASAs solicitation to provide regular astronaut transportation from lunar orbit to the surface of the Moon, the agency said in a statement.

Blue Origin's proposal comes from what it calls it's National Team, which includes Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Draper (Lockheed and Northrop were also awarded individual, separate contracts under Appendix N).

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"Under this contract, the National Team will conduct critical studies and risk reduction activities that will contribute to future sustainable lander concepts," a Blue Origin spokesperson explained to TechCrunch. "We will also work closely with multiple other companies and NASA field centers across the nation on this effort."

The Artemis program was established in 2020 with a number of objectives, not only to return humans to the moon for the first time since the days of Apollo but to make such travel routine by the late 2020s. NASA isnt just stopping at the moon; the agency also wants to expand into inter-planetary exploration, including human missions to Mars.

"As a key partner to NASA and a positive example of how commercial partnerships can work effectively, Northrop Grumman brings a proven record of accomplishment in human space exploration," Steve Krein, VP of civil and commercial satellites at Northrop Grumman, said in a statement. "We continue to work in partnership with Blue Origin and the National Team to meet NASAs ambitious goals to return to the Moon and Mars."

The story has been updated to include comments from Northrop Grumman and Blue Origin.
One-third of working Canadians surveyed say work-life balance plays a more important role than prior to the pandemic

TORONTO, Sept. 15, 2021 /CNW/ - While salary and benefits historically top the list of incentives for current and prospective employees, a new study by ADP Canada and Maru Public Opinion indicates work-life balance now outweighs pay. The study found respondents prioritizing work-life balance as a top factor for remaining in their current workplace and when exploring new opportunities.

ADP Logo (CNW Group/ADP Canada Co.)

Eyeing New Industries and Opportunities

While there is no doubt the pandemic hasn't left any sector untouched, it's also affected how working Canadians feel about their industry or current position. According to the survey, 15 per cent of employed Canadians voluntarily transitioned to a new position, a new industry or left the workforce altogether during the pandemic. When looking at just remote workers, that number grew to 22 per cent.

When asked why they decided to change their career path, working Canadians cited changes in their personal lives (33%), the need to limit workload and stress (29%) and the desire for more flexible hours (28%) as their top three reasons - underscoring that work-life balance played a key role in their decision for change.

As for who's been making the jump to a new industry, young Canadians, aged 18-34, were the most likely to report transitioning to a new industry during the pandemic at 13 per cent, compared to only three per cent of those aged 35-54.

The Rise of Remote Work

Throughout the pandemic, many industries transitioned to remote work. What started as a short-term solution is now a new way of life for many Canadian employees, and an expectation for new candidates.

According to the survey, nine-out-of-ten remote workers hope to continue working remotely some or all days during the week, citing, work-life balance as the most important factor. When asked to compare their current priorities to those before the pandemic, 31 per cent of working Canadians say that a job that respects their work-life balance is more important to them now, compared to only 20 per cent who felt salary had become more important.

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This focus on work-life balance was even more apparent when it came to remote workers, with 39 per cent saying work-life balance is more important to them now than pre-pandemic. Canadians aged 35-54 also felt this way, with 42 per cent putting work-life balance at the top of the list, compared to 37 per cent of respondents aged 18-34 and 38 per cent of respondents aged 55+.

"The data shows there has been a significant shift in what working Canadians value within their current workplace, and what they're looking for from future employers," said Heather Haslam, Vice President Marketing, ADP Canada. "For what appears to be the first time ever, more and more Canadians - especially those who work remotely - are prioritizing work-life balance, over salary."

Impact on Recruiting

This prioritization of work-life balance also appears to be influencing how companies recruit new talent.

According to the survey, one-in-five (19%) of employed Canadians have been approached by a competing employer in the past six months offering better work conditions  and this strategy appears to be working. When asked about their next work-life move, 63 per cent of Canadians have started to think about it.

As to what they're looking for in a new role, work-life balance topped the list once again, with one-third (32%) of working Canadians stating that an organization that respects their work-life balance is most important to them when they're looking for a new job. This was followed by salary at 25 per cent.

"This data draws a clear picture of what working Canadians are looking for, and what workplaces should be prioritizing as we move forward," adds Haslam. "Work and life are not independent entities fighting for a 50/50 balance. To attract and retain employees, companies need to acknowledge work and life are intertwined with one affecting the other."

Survey Methodology

From September 1st to September 3rd 2021, an online survey of 3,032 randomly selected Canadian adults who are Maru Voice Canada panelists (of whom 1,775 were employed) was executed by Maru/Blue. For comparison purposes, a probability sample of this size has an estimated margin of error (which measures sampling variability) of +/- 2.2%, 19 times out of 20. The results have been weighted by education, age, gender and region (and in Quebec, language) to match the population, according to Census data. Discrepancies in or between totals are due to rounding.

About ADP Canada

Designing better ways to work through cutting-edge products, premium services and exceptional experiences that enable people to reach their full potential. HR, Talent, Time Management, Benefits and Payroll. Informed by data and designed for people. For more information about ADP Canada visit www.adp.ca or follow us on Twitter @ADP_CDA.

SOURCE ADP Canada Co.

Cision

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SAN FRANCISCO & Remote-First-Company / ST. LOUIS, September 15, 2021--(BUSINESS WIRE)--TPG Pace Tech Opportunities (NYSE:PACE), a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company, today announced that TPG Pace Tech Opportunities stockholders voted to approve its proposed business combination with Nerdy (the "Business Combination"), a leading platform for delivering live online learning, with the Business Combination supported by approximately 95% of the shares of TPG Pace Tech Opportunities voted at the general extraordinary meeting of TPG Pace Tech Opportunities stockholders (the "Special Meeting").

The Business Combination is scheduled to close on September 20, 2021 and the common stock and warrants of the combined company are set to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange on September 21, 2021 under the ticker symbol "NRDY" and "NRDY WS", respectively.

Thirteen proposals were approved by TPG Pace Tech Opportunities stockholders at the Special Meeting. The formal results of the vote will be included in a Current Report on Form 8-K to be filed by TPG Pace Tech Opportunities with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Important Information

Neither the SEC or any state securities commission has approved or disapproved of the securities to be issued in connection with the Business Combination, or determined if the Registration Statement is accurate or adequate.

About TPG

TPG is a leading global alternative asset firm founded in 1992 with approximately $96 billion of assets under management and offices in Beijing, Fort Worth, Hong Kong, London, Luxembourg, Melbourne, Mumbai, New York, San Francisco, Seoul, Singapore, and Washington, DC. TPG's investment platforms are across a wide range of asset classes, including private equity, growth equity, real estate, secondaries, and public equity. TPG aims to build dynamic products and options for its investors while also instituting discipline and operational excellence across the investment strategy and performance of its portfolio. For more information, visit www.tpg.com or Twitter @TPG.

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About TPG Pace Group and TPG Pace Tech Opportunities

TPG Pace Group is TPGs dedicated permanent capital platform. TPG Pace Group has a long-term, patient and highly flexible investor base, allowing it to seek compelling opportunities that will thrive in the public markets. TPG Pace Group has sponsored seven special purpose acquisition companies ("SPACs") and raised more than $4.4 billion since 2015.

TPG Pace Tech Opportunities is a publicly listed (NYSE:PACE) special purpose acquisition company, and the expected completion of the business combination with Nerdy will represent TPG Pace Groups fourth successfully completed business combination since 2017. PACE raised $450 million in its October 2020 IPO along with $150 million of forward purchase agreements in order to seek a business combination with a leading technology company that complements the experience and expertise of our management team and TPG and is a business that TPGs transformative operating skills and strategic advice can help improve. For more information, visit https://www.tpg.com/pace-tech-opportunities.

About Nerdy

Nerdy is a leading curated direct-to-consumer platform for live online learning. Nerdys mission is to transform the way people learn through technology. The Companys purpose-built proprietary platform leverages technology, including AI, to connect learners of all ages to experts, delivering superior value on both sides of the network. Nerdys comprehensive learning destination provides learning experiences across 3,000+ subjects and multiple formatsincluding one-on-one instruction, small group classes, large format group classes, and adaptive self-study. Nerdys flagship business, Varsity Tutors, is one of the nations largest platforms for live online tutoring and classes. Learn more about Nerdy at https://www.nerdy.com/.

No Offer or Solicitation

This communication is for informational purposes only and is neither an offer to purchase, nor a solicitation of an offer to sell, subscribe for or buy any securities or the solicitation of any vote in any jurisdiction pursuant to the proposed Business Combination between Nerdy and TPG Pace Tech Opportunities or otherwise, nor shall there be any sale, issuance or transfer or securities in any jurisdiction in contravention of applicable law. No offer of securities shall be made except in a transaction exempt from registration under the Securities Act or by means of a prospectus meeting the requirements of Section 10 of the Securities Act, and applicable regulations in the Cayman Islands.

Forward-Looking Statements

The information included herein and in any oral statements made in connection herewith include "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. All statements, other than statements of present or historical fact included herein, regarding the proposed business combination, TPG Pace Tech Opportunities ability to consummate the transaction, the benefits of the transaction and TPG Pace Tech Opportunities future financial performance following the transaction, as well as TPG Pace Tech Opportunities strategy, future operations, financial position, estimated revenues and losses, projected costs, prospects, plans and objectives of management are forward-looking statements. When used herein, including any oral statements made in connection herewith, the words "outlook," "believes," "expects," "potential," "continues," "may," "will," "should," "could," "seeks," "approximately," "predicts," "intends," "plans," "estimates," "anticipates," the negative of such terms and other similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain such identifying words. These forward-looking statements are based on managements current expectations and assumptions about future events and are based on currently available information as to the outcome and timing of future events. Except as otherwise required by applicable law, TPG Pace Tech Opportunities disclaims any duty to update any forward-looking statements, all of which are expressly qualified by the statements in this section, to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or any new information. TPG Pace Tech Opportunities cautions you that these forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, most of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond the control of TPG Pace Tech Opportunities. These risks include, but are not limited to, (1) the inability to complete the transactions contemplated by the proposed business combination; (2) the inability to recognize the anticipated benefits of the proposed business combination, which may be affected by, among other things, competition, and the ability of the combined business to grow and manage growth profitably; (3) any inability of Nerdy to adequately protect its intellectual property; (4) any security breaches, loss of data or other disruptions; (5) any loss of key employees, including Nerdys Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; (6) effects on TPG Pace Tech Opportunities public securities liquidity and trading; (7) the markets reaction to the proposed business combination; (8) the lack of a market for TPG Pace Tech Opportunities securities; (9) TPG Pace Tech Opportunities financial performance following the proposed business combination; (10) costs related to the proposed business combination; (11) changes in applicable laws or regulations; (12) the possibility that the novel coronavirus ("COVID-19") may hinder TPG Pace Tech Opportunities ability to consummate the business combination; (13) the possibility that COVID-19 may adversely affect the results of operations, financial position and cash flows of TPG Pace Tech Opportunities or Nerdy; (14) the possibility that TPG Pace Tech Opportunities or Nerdy may be adversely affected by other economic, business and/or competitive factors; and (15) other risks and uncertainties indicated from time to time in documents filed or to be filed with the SEC by TPG Pace Tech Opportunities. Should one or more of the risks or uncertainties described herein and in any oral statements made in connection therewith occur, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results and plans could differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statements. Additional information concerning these and other factors that may impact TPG Pace Tech Opportunities expectations and projections can be found in TPG Pace Tech Opportunities initial public offering prospectus, which was filed with the SEC on October 8, 2020, and the Registration Statement. In addition, TPG Pace Tech Opportunities periodic reports and other SEC filings are available publicly on the SECs website at www.sec.gov.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210914006230/en/

Contacts

Media:

Nerdy Inc.

press@nerdy.com

Investor Relations:

TPG/TPG Pace

Luke Barrett

media@tpg.com

Nerdy Inc.

investors@nerdy.com

nerdy@icrinc.com
U.K. competition regulators are spooking tech investors in the country with an implied threat to clamp down on startup M&A, according to a new survey of the industry.

As the U.K.s Chancellor of the Exchequer engaged with the tech industry at a "Chatham House" style event today, the Coalition for a Digital Economy (Coadec) think-tank released a survey of over 50 key investors, which found startup investors are prepared to pull capital over the prospect of the Competition and Markets Authoritys (CMA) new Digital Markets Unit (DMU) becoming a whole-economy regulator by accident. Investors are concerned after the CMA recommended the DMU be given 'expanded powers' regarding its investigations of M&A deals.

Controversy has been stirring up around the DMU, as the prospect of it blocking tech startup acquisitions -- especially by U.S. firms, sometimes on the grounds of national security -- has gradually risen.

In the Coadec survey, half of investors said they would significantly reduce the amount they invested in U.K. startups if the ability to exit was restricted, and a further 22.5% said they would stop investing in U.K. startups completely under a stricter regulatory environment.

Furthermore, 60% of investors surveyed said they felt U.K. regulators only had a basic understanding of the startup market, and 22.2% felt regulators didnt understand the tech startup market at all.

Coadec said its conservative estimates showed that the U.K. governments DMU proposals could create a 2.2 billion drop in venture capital going into the U.K., potentially reducing U.K. economic growth by 770 million.

Commenting on the report, Dom Hallas, executive director of Coadec, said: Startups thrive in competitive markets. But nurturing an ecosystem means knowing where to intervene and when not to. The data shows that not only is there a risk that the current proposals could miss some bad behavior in some areas like B2B markets whilst creating unnecessary barriers in others like M&A. Just as crucially, theres frankly not a lot of faith in the regulators proposing them either.

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The survey results emerged just as Chancellor Rishi Sunak convened the Treasury Connect conference in London today, which brought together some of the CEOs of the U.K.s biggest tech firms and VCs in a "listening process" designed to reach out to the industry.

However, at a press conference after the event, Sunak pushed back on the survey results, citing research by Professor Jason Furman, chair of the Digital Competition Expert Panel, which has found that not a single acquisition had been blocked by the DMU, and there are no false positives in decision making to date. Sunak said the system looks at this in order to get the balance right.

In addition, a statement from the Treasury, out today, said more than one-fifth of people in the U.K.s biggest cities are now employed in the tech sector, which also saw 11.2 billion invested last year, setting a new investment record, it claimed.

Sunak also said the Future Fund, which backed U.K.-based tech firms with convertible loans during the pandemic, handed U.K. taxpayers with stakes in more than 150 high-growth firms.

These include Vaccitech PLC, which co-invented the COVID-19 vaccine with the University of Oxford and is better known as the AstraZeneca vaccine which went to 170 countries worldwide. The Future fund also invested in Century Tech, an edtech startup that uses AI to personalize learning for children.

The U.K. governments 375 million Future Fund: Breakthrough initiative continued from July this year, aiming at high-growth, R&D-intensive companies.

Coadecs survey also found 70% of investors felt U.K. regulators only thought about large incumbent firms when designing competition rules, rather than startups or future innovation.

However, the survey found London was still rated as highly as California as an attractive destination for startups and investors.
VANCOUVER, BC, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - Village Farms International, Inc. ("Village Farms" or the "Company") (NASDAQ: VFF) (TSX: VFF) today unveiled new corporate branding and launched its new corporate website at www.villagefarms.com.

Village Farms International, Inc. Logo (CNW Group/Village Farms International, Inc.)

Village Farms' new corporate branding embodies the Company's evolution over the last four years to a vertically integrated plant-based consumer products company, targeting high-growth, large-market opportunities in North America and around the world, with a specific focus on cannabinoids and related health products.

Village Farms is building a family of brands that improve life's journey for the wellbeing of humankind, and the earth on which we live. While each has its own products and approach, they are united by shared core values: integrity, fairness, quality, inclusion, sustainability and hard work  all of which are underpinned by an unwavering desire to do what's right.

The Company's new corporate branding is anchored by the mantra "Good, for All", which is an expression of Village Farm's unrelenting commitment to its customers, consumers, partners, employees, shareholders and other stakeholders to act with responsibility and resourcefulness, with a respect for people and the planet. It also represents Village Farms' commitment to continued leadership and innovation in sustainable agriculture practices and use of alternative renewable sources of energy.

"We are thrilled to share our new corporate branding, logo and website with the world," said, Michael DeGiglio, CEO, Village Farms. "Our new branding reflects the transformation of our Company over the last four years to a family of brands as we have leveraged our deep institutional knowledge and extensive capabilities gained over three decades, in combination with unmatched Controlled Environment Agriculture assets, to build on our proud heritage in the produce business through significant new opportunities in cannabis, CBD and related products."

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Mr. DeGiglio added, "As much as our new branding reflects who we are today, it also encapsulates our plans for the future. We are executing on an aggressive growth strategy to deliver durable shareholder value throughout the near-, medium- and long-terms  one that has already seen our sales1 nearly double since 2017. But as proud as I am about all that we have accomplished in the last four years, as a shareholder I have never been more optimistic about, or confident in, our ability to continue to positively contribute to people and our planet, while at the same time creating a dynamic and workplace for employees to grow and thrive, and creating durable value for our shareholders. Our new corporate brand and website reflect this optimism and confidence."

As part of the new website launch, Village Farms also unveiled an updated investor presentation, which is available in the Investor Relations section of the website.

Notes

1. Annualized run rate Q3 2021 sales.

About Village Farms International, Inc.

Village Farms leverages decades of experience as a large-scale, Controlled Environment Agriculture-based, vertically integrated supplier for high-value, high-growth plant-based Consumer Packaged Goods. Village Farms has a strong foundation as a leading fresh produce supplier to grocery and large-format retailers throughout the US and Canada, along with new high-growth opportunities in the cannabis and CBD categories in North America and selected markets internationally.

In Canada, the Company's wholly-owned Canadian subsidiary, Pure Sunfarms, is one of the single largest cannabis operations in the world, the lowest-cost greenhouse producer and one of the best-selling brands.

In the US, wholly owned Balanced Health Botanicals is one of the leading CBD brands and e-commerce platforms in the country.

Subject to compliance with all applicable US federal and state laws and stock exchange rules, Village Farms plans to enter the US high-THC cannabis market via multiple strategies, leveraging one of the largest greenhouse operations in the country (more than 5.5 million square feet in West Texas), as well as the operational and product expertise gained through Pure Sunfarms' cannabis success in Canada.

Internationally, Village Farms is targeting selected, nascent, legal cannabis and CBD opportunities with significant medium- and long-term potential, with an initial focus on the Asia-Pacific region and Europe.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, (the "Securities Act") and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the "Exchange Act"), and is subject to the safe harbor created by those sections. This press release also contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities law. Forward-looking information can be identified by such terms as "outlook", "may", "might", "will", "could", "should", "would", "occur", "expect", "plan", "anticipate", "believe", "intend", "try", "estimate", "predict", "potential", "continue", "likely", "schedule", "objectives", or the negative or grammatical variation thereof or other similar expressions concerning matters that are not historical facts, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. The forward-looking statements in this press release are subject to risks that may include, but are not limited to Company's expansion plans, expectations regarding cannabis and CBD categories and opportunities in North America and selected markets internationally, including the Asia-Pacific region and Europe, the retail CBD and high-THC cannabis markets, the legal and regulatory status of the cannabis and the CBD business; risks relating to obtaining additional financing, dependence upon credit facilities, profitability, product pricing, cannabis, hemp and agricultural businesses, risks relating to the leveraging our greenhouses to cannabis and the ongoing and developing COVID-19 pandemic and tax risks. The Company has based these forward-looking statements on factors and assumptions about future events and financial trends that it believes may affect its financial condition, results of operations, business strategy and financial needs. Although the forward-looking statements contained in this press release are based upon assumptions that management believes are reasonable based on information currently available to management, there can be no assurance that actual results will be consistent with these forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements necessarily involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company's control, that may cause the Company's or the industry's actual results, performance, achievements, prospects and opportunities in future periods to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, among other things, the factors contained in the Company's filings with securities regulators available on SEDAR and EDGAR. When relying on forward-looking statements to make decisions, the Company cautions readers not to place undue reliance on these statements, as forward-looking statements involve significant risks and uncertainties and should not be read as guarantees of future results, performance, achievements, prospects and opportunities. The forward-looking statements made in this press release relate only to events or information as of the date on which the statements are made in this press release. Except as required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, after the date on which the statements are made or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

Cision

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SOURCE Village Farms International, Inc.
Figure 1.

Fenelon Gold, Plan View

Fenelon Gold, Plan View

Figure 2.

Fenelon Gold, Tabasco-Cayenne-Gabbro Zones Long Section

Fenelon Gold, Tabasco-Cayenne-Gabbro Zones Long Section

Figure 3.

Figure 3. Fenelon Gold, Cross Section 9500_E

Figure 3. Fenelon Gold, Cross Section 9500_E

TORONTO, Sept. 15, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Wallbridge Mining Company Limited (TSX:WM) (Wallbridge or the Company) is pleased to announce that exploration drilling on the Fenelon Gold Property (Fenelon or the Property) continues to successfully expand gold mineralization with high-grade intersections at both the eastern and northwestern edges of the area tested by resource drilling to date.



In the northwest, exploration drilling has successfully expanded the footprint of Area 51, with near surface intersections including 11.60 g/t Au over 14.05 metres in FA-21-297.

In the east, exploration drilling to follow-up the discovery hole of the Gabbro Zones, East Extension (17.79 g/t Au over 16.60 metres in drill hole FA-21-219, see Wallbridge news release dated April 29, 2021), has confirmed the presence of strong gold mineralization, with the first follow-up hole (FA-21-305) returning 9.00 g/t Au over 10.00 metres. Assays for the remaining three holes drilled to the east are pending.

We continue to be impressed by the expansion potential at Fenelon and are now, with all drilling required for our maiden mineral resource estimate (MMRE) completed, excited to ramp-up our exploration drilling efforts to confirm extensions of known gold zones and to discover new zones. The drilling results in this news release represent high-grade gold mineralization on the edges of our known mineralized footprint and highlight the excellent potential for future resource growth at Fenelon, stated Marz Kord, President & CEO of Wallbridge.

The MMRE for Fenelon, along with the updated resource estimate for Martiniere, are well underway and nearing completion. The prolonged assay turn-around times due to high volumes experienced industry-wide has delayed the receipt of critical assay results in support of the MMRE. The Company now expects to announce the mineral resource statements by the end of October.

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With the resource drilling in support of the MMRE completed, Wallbridge has ramped up its exploration program at Fenelon to continue expanding the footprint of the known gold system and discover additional gold zones in the vicinity of the Fenelon deposit. Regional drilling on the Companys extensive, underexplored land package is also underway with two drill rigs currently focusing on resource expansion drilling at Martiniere and testing grassroots exploration targets on the adjacent Casault Property (see Wallbridge news release dated July 22, 2021).

Area 51, Exploration Drill Results

Exploration drilling continues to expand the footprint of Area 51, especially toward the west-northwest, where much of the major host rock, the Jeremie Diorite, remains untested. The following two recent highlight intersections from this area occur near surface, at vertical depths of 35-45 metres (FA-21-297) and 110-115 metres (FA-21-272):

FA-21-297 11.60 g/t Au over 14.05 metres, including 201.00 g/t Au over 0.50 metres, and 117.00 g/t Au over 0.50 metres (see Figs. 1 and 3); FA-21-272 3.16 g/t Au over 9.00 metres, including 13.20 g/t Au over 1.50 metres (see Figs. 1 and 3);

Gabbro Zones, East Extension, Exploration Drill Results



Four drill holes were drilled this summer to follow-up on the Gabbro Zones, East Extension discovery in drill hole FA-21-219, which yielded 17.79 g/t Au over 16.60 metres (see Wallbridge news release dated April 29, 2021). All of the holes intersected alteration and mineralization characteristic of the gold-bearing system.

Assay results of an intersection in the first follow-up drill hole (FA-21-305), representing an approximately 120-metre overcut to the original FA-21-219 discovery, confirm the presence of a high-grade mineralized zone in this area:

FA-21-305 9.00 g/t Au over 10.00 metres, including 18.56 g/t Au over 3.35 metres (see Figs. 1 and 2);

Assay results for the other three holes are still pending.



2021 Drilling Program Update

In 2021, the Company is planning to complete between 150,000 to 170,000 metres of drilling, including 20,000 to 25,000 metres devoted to regional exploration on the Companys district-scale, underexplored land package on the Detour-Fenelon Gold Trend.

Assay results of eight drill holes of the 2021 exploration drill program are reported in the Table and Figures below. All figures and a table with drill hole information of recently completed holes are posted on the Companys website under Current Program at https://www.wallbridgemining.com/s/fenelon.asp.

Graphics accompanying this announcement are available at

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/928932c6-f3d2-48ca-ae85-803bdb12dbc7

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/044f1c8c-a403-4997-8dc9-a4d416678a47

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/b71056ed-ed0d-421b-a859-373ebd9817a8





Table 1. Wallbridge Fenelon Gold Property, Recent Drill Assay Highlights (1) Drill Hole From To Length Au Au Cut(2) VG(3) Zone/Corridor Section (m) (m) (m) (g/t) (g/t) FA-21-262 122.40 122.90 0.50 20.60 20.60 VG Area 51 9500 FA-21-262 204.10 208.00 3.90 1.44 1.44 Area 51 9500 FA-21-262 221.80 242.50 20.70 0.72 0.72 Area 51 9500 FA-21-267 245.40 261.10 15.70 0.73 0.73 Area 51 9500 Including 245.40 246.40 1.00 5.23 5.23 Area 51 9500 FA-21-267 284.00 289.00 5.00 1.03 1.03 Area 51 9500 FA-21-270 286.20 286.70 0.50 43.10 43.10 VG Area 51 9500 FA-21-272 125.50 134.50 9.00 3.16 3.16 Area 51 9500 Including 133.00 134.50 1.50 13.20 13.20 Area 51 9500 FA-21-276 No Significant Mineralization (4) 9600 & 9500 FA-21-286 No Significant Mineralization (4) 9375 FA-21-297 38.65 52.70 14.05 11.60 3.84 VG Area 51 9500 Including 38.65 39.15 0.50 201.00 50.00 VG Area 51 9500 And 47.70 48.20 0.50 117.00 50.00 VG Area 51 9500 FA-21-297 89.15 90.35 1.20 9.55 9.55 VG Area 51 9500 FA-21-305 232.00 242.00 10.00 9.00 9.00 VG Gabbro Zones- East Extension 10800 Including 236.50 239.85 3.35 18.56 18.56 VG Gabbro Zones- East Extension 10800

(1) Table includes only assay results received since the latest press release dated August 5, 2021.

(2) Au cut at: 100 g/t Au for the Tabasco/Contact zones; 60 g/t Au for the Cayenne zones; 50 g/t Au for the Area 51 zones.

(3) Intervals containing visible gold ("VG").

(4) Metal factor of at least 5 g/t*m and minimum weighted average composite grade of 1 g/t Au.

Note: True widths are estimated to be 5080% of the reported core length intervals.

Assay QA/QC and Qualified Persons

Drill core samples from the ongoing 2021 drill program at Fenelon are cut and bagged either on site or by contractors and transported to SGS Canada Inc., AGAT Laboratories Ltd. or Bureau Veritas Commodities Canada Ltd. for analysis. In 2020 samples were submitted to either SGS Canada Inc. or ALS Canada Ltd. for analysis. Samples, along with standards and blanks that are included for quality assurance and quality control, were prepared and analyzed at the laboratories. Samples are crushed to 90% less than 2mm. A 1kg riffle split is pulverized to 85% passing 75 microns. 50g samples are analyzed by fire assay and AAS. At SGS, AGAT and Bureau Veritas samples >10g/t Au are automatically analyzed by fire assay with gravimetric finish or screen metallic analysis. To test for coarse free gold and for additional quality assurance and quality control, Wallbridge requests screen metallic analysis for samples containing visible gold. These and future assay results may vary from time to time due to reanalysis for quality assurance and quality control.

The Qualified Person responsible for the technical content of this press release is Peter Lauder, P.Geo, Exploration Manager of Wallbridge.

About Wallbridge Mining

Wallbridge is currently advancing the exploration and development of its 100%owned Fenelon Gold property which is located along the DetourFenelon Gold Trend, an emerging gold belt in northwestern Quebec. The Company completed approximately 102,000 metres of drilling in 2020 and currently conducting a fullyfunded 2021 program of approximately 150,000 to 170,000 metres of drilling and 2,500 metres of underground exploration development (Phase 1 of a 10,000metre program). The Company intends to complete a maiden mineral resource estimate on the Fenelon Gold System in October, 2021.

Wallbridge now holds several kilometres surrounding its rapidly expanding Fenelon discovery providing room for growth, as well as future mine development flexibility. Wallbridge's land holdings in Quebec along the DetourFenelon Gold Trend are over 900.0 km2, improving Wallbridge's potential for further discoveries for over 90kilometre strike length in this underexplored belt.

Wallbridge is also the operator of, and a 17.8% shareholder in, Lonmin Canada Inc., a privatelyheld company with a portfolio of nickel, copper, and platinumgroup metals (PGM) projects in Ontario's Sudbury Basin.

This news release has been authorized by the undersigned on behalf of Wallbridge Mining Company Limited.

For further information please visit the Company's website at www.wallbridgemining.com or contact:

Wallbridge Mining Company Limited

Marz Kord, P. Eng., M. Sc., MBA

President & CEO

Tel: (705) 6829297 ext. 251

Email: mkord@wallbridgemining.com

Victoria Vargas, B.Sc. (Hon.) Economics, MBA

Investor Relations Advisor

Email: vvargas@wallbridgemining.com

This press release may contain certain forwardlooking statements within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation relating to, among other things, the operations of Wallbridge Mining Company Limited (Wallbridge or Company) and the environment within which it operates. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein, including, without limitation, statements regarding future plans and objectives of Wallbridge, future opportunities and anticipated goals, the Companys portfolio, treasury, management team, timetable to mineral resource estimation, permitting and the prospective mineralization of the properties, are forwardlooking statements that involve various risks, assumptions, estimates and uncertainties. Generally, forwardlooking information can be identified by the use of forwardlooking terminology such as seeks, believes, anticipates, plans, continues, budget, scheduled, estimates, expects, forecasts, intends, projects, predicts, proposes, potential, targets and variations of such words and phrases, or by statements that certain actions, events or results may, will, could, would, should or might, be taken, occur or be achieved. 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.

By their nature, forwardlooking statements involve numerous assumptions, inherent risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, that contribute to the possibility that the predicted outcomes could differ materially from those contained in such statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, delays in obtaining or failures to obtain required governmental, regulatory, environmental or other required approval, the actual results of current exploration activities, fluctuations in prices of commodities, fluctuations in currency markets, actual results of additional exploration and development activities at the Companys projects, capital expenditures, the availability of any additional capital required to advance projects, accidents, or pandemic interruptions.

Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forwardlooking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. These statements reflect the current internal projections, expectations or beliefs of the Company and are based on information currently available to the Company.

The Company does not undertake to update any forwardlooking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. The Company believes that the expectations reflected in those forwardlooking statements are reasonable but no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct and such forwardlooking statements included in this press release should not be unduly relied upon by investors as actual results may vary.

Risks and uncertainties about Wallbridges business are more fully discussed in the disclosure material filed with the securities regulatory authorities in Canada and available on SEDAR under the Companys profile at www.sedar.com. Readers are urged to read these materials and should not place undue reliance on the forwardlooking statements contained in this press release.

Covid19  Given the rapidly evolving nature of the Coronavirus (COVID19) pandemic, Wallbridge is actively monitoring the situation in order to continue to maintain as best as possible the activities while striving to protect the health of its personnel. Wallbridge' activities will continue to align with the guidance provided by local, provincial and federal authorities in Canada. The Company has established measures to continue normal activities while protecting the health of its employees and stakeholders. Depending on the evolution of the virus, measures may affect the regular operations of Wallbridge and the participation of staff members in events inside or outside Canada.




SpaceX is making history by launching the first ever all-civilian mission to orbit, and you can watch it happen live. The aerospace corporation is opening a five-hour launch window for the mission called Inspiration4 today, September 15th, at 8:02PM Eastern time. Inspiration4 was paid for a billionaire who was relatively unknown before this: Shift4 Payments CEO Jared Isaacman. He's bringing three more people with him, and none of them are trained astronauts or have been to space before.

Isaacman, who's an experienced pilot, will be the mission's commander, while Hayley Arceneaux will be its medical officer. Arceneaux is a physician assistant at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital who had cancer herself as a child. According to The Atlantic, one of the goals for this mission is to raise $200 million for the hospital, and Isaacman wanted to bring one of its employees.

Geoscience professor and former NASA astronaut program finalist Sian Proctor will serve as the mission pilot. Finally, data engineer and Iraq War veteran Chris Sembroski will serve as mission specialist. Proctor won an online competition organized by Isaacman, while Sembroski got his slot from a friend who won a raffle for a seat on the mission.

The team trained together for six months and completed a full rehearsal of launch day activities on September 13th. They'll spend three days orbiting our planet aboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule that will blast off on top of a Falcon 9 rocket. While they're hurtling across space, the team will conduct scientific research meant to provide more data on the effects of long-duration spaceflights on the human body.

SpaceX has started streaming the event on its website and its YouTube page. Netflix will also stream the launch on YouTube.

Update 9/15/21 9:45PM ET: The Inspiration4 mission successfully blasted off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida shortly after 8PM today.
VANCOUVER, BC, Sept. 15, 2021 /CNW/ - Wildpack Beverage Inc. (TSXV: CANS) ("Wildpack" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has appointed Sara Coyle, MBA, BSc. to its board of directors effective as of September 15, 2021.

Sara Coyle join Wildpack Beverage Inc Board of Directors (CNW Group/Wildpack Beverage Inc.)

Mrs. Coyle is a Managing Director in Rothschild & Co's Chicago office and has over 15 years of investment banking experience with a significant concentration in the packaging space. Mrs. Coyle joined Rothschild & Co from UBS, where she was a Managing Director in the Global Industrials Group, focusing on Packaging and Industrial Distribution. Her transaction experience includes M&A, equity and debt financings for a broad variety of Paper & Packaging, Distribution, Chemical, Building Products and Aerospace & Defense companies. Prior to UBS, Mrs. Coyle was at Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Citibank. Sara began her career consulting for four years at Accenture and earned her MBA from the Yale School of Management and a Bachelor of Science (BSc.) in Mechanical Engineering (summa cum laude) from Cornell University.

Jeffrey Mason, Chair of the Board, stated: "Our board continues to grow its richness in experience and skill set diversity, mirroring our accelerating enterprise growth across multiple geographies. Sara is an important part of that mix, along with her passion for both the banking and packaging business side. Wildpack and the board welcomes Sara who has hit the ground running, by now chairing our M&A/Finance committee."

Mitch Barnard, Chief Executive Officer, added "Wildpack is continuing to attract top level talent at all levels of its business. Sara provides depth to our Board in Mergers and Acquisitions as well as crucial experience in managing a growth firm in the packaging sector. We are fortunate to have her, and I look forward to her ongoing support as we continue to execute on our strategic plan."

Per: "Mitch Barnard"

Story continues

Mitch Barnard

Chief Executive Officer and Director

Advisors

Stifel GMP is acting as financial advisor to Wildpack Beverage, Inc., Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP is acting as its legal advisor, Oakhill Financial Inc and RB Milestone Group LLC (RBMG) are acting as its investor relations advisors.

Visit our investor website at:

www.investor.wildpackbev.com

About Wildpack

Wildpack Beverage Inc. is an innovative manufacturer operating in the co-packing space providing aluminum can filling, decoration and brokering for middle-market beverage brands. Wildpack operates five facilities in Baltimore MD, Marietta GA, Longmont CO, Las Vegas NV, and Sacramento CA, and is advancing our strategic plan to build, in the near term, a network of 10 or more facilities across the USA to best serve the middle-market beverage segment. Wildpack commenced trading on May 19, 2021 on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "CANS.V".

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.

Cision

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/wildpack-appoints-sara-coyle-to-the-board-of-directors-301377938.html

SOURCE Wildpack Beverage Inc.

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View original content to download multimedia: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/September2021/15/c7543.html
A group of Afghans arrived at Skopje International Airport on September 15, the second group to arrive in North Macedonia since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan last month. The 44 Afghans included members of a humanitarian organization called Turquoise Mountain, along with their family members. The government said the people would be temporarily housed in Skopje until a transfer to their final destination was secured.
Iran has resumed regular commercial flights to neighboring Afghanistan following a monthlong hiatus.

An Iranian Mahan Air aircraft landed in Kabul on September 15 with 19 passengers onboard after departing from the northeastern Iranian city of Mashhad, the state-run al-Alam TV channel reported.

"At present, this airliner is returning to Mashhad with passengers," the semiofficial Fars news agency later reported.

Regular passenger services between the two countries had stopped after the Taliban toppled the Western-backed government in Kabul a month ago, with the Iranian civil aviation agency citing security reasons for the interruption.

Previously, Mahan Air -- the second-largest Iranian airline -- had operated two flights per week between Mashhad and the Afghan capital.

Iran shares a 945-kilometer border with Afghanistan.

According to the United Nations and affiliated agencies, Iran hosts some 800,000 registered Afghan refugees and more than 2 million undocumented Afghans.

With reporting by AFP and Reuters
The European Union says it will step up its jointly financed humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan by a further 100 million euros ($120 million) as part of a new support package to be unveiled in the coming weeks.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen made the announcement in her annual state of the union address on September 15, telling the European Parliament in Strasbourg the 27-nation bloc "must do everything to avert the real risk that is out there of a major famine and humanitarian disaster."

The new promise comes as Afghanistan faces a looming major humanitarian crisis after the Taliban toppled the Western-backed government in Kabul a month ago.

The EU's executive has already quadrupled its humanitarian aid to the war-torn and drought-stricken country for this year to 200 million euros ($236 million) while freezing payments from its much larger budget for development.

Individual member states are also making donations to Afghanistan.

Earlier this week, an international donors conference ended with pledges of $1.2 billion in aid for Afghanistan as United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres pleaded that the Afghan people "need a lifeline."

In her address, von der Leyen said Europe will seek to boost its own military capacity and cooperation following the rapid collapse of Afghanistan's government at the end of a 20-year U.S.-led military mission in Afghanistan and the chaotic evacuation of tens of thousands of foreigners and at-risk Afghans from Kabul airport.

The former German defense minister said the EU should be able to intervene militarily without the help of the United States but has lacked the political will to do so.

"You can have the most advanced forces in the world, but if you are never prepared to use them, what use are they?" von der Leyen asked lawmakers.

"What has held us back until now is not just shortfalls of capacity, it is a lack of political will."

She announced that French President Emmanuel Macron will convene the "summit on European defense" during France's six-month presidency of the bloc, starting in 2022, saying, "It is time for Europe to step up to the next level."

Paris has been leading the push for the EU to develop more autonomous military capacities alongside NATO.

But some of the bloc's nations that are also members of the alliance, particularly in Eastern European states more exposed to Russias threats, fear such a move could undermine ties with the United States.

With reporting by AFP and dpa
Seven soldiers have been killed in an attack claimed by the Pakistani Taliban in the countrys North Waziristan tribal region, military sources told RFE/RL.

The sources said on September 15 that the attack was carried out in the Asman Manza area overnight.

The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claimed responsibility for the attack as well as a suicide attack in neighboring South Waziristan on September 13 that claimed the life of a soldier.

Pakistans northwestern tribal regions have long served as sanctuaries for extremist groups.

For years the military carried out massive operations to clear the area of militants and many fighters crossed into Afghanistan or hid in the mountainous terrain.

The latest attacks in North and South Waziristan come a month after the Afghan Taliban toppled the Western-backed government in Kabul.

Pakistani officials have met with Afghan Taliban leaders in recent weeks, reportedly demanding that the hard-line Islamist group rein in TTP militants, who are said to enjoy sanctuaries across the border in Afghanistan.
FILE - In this Monday, June 29, 2020, file photo, a woman looks at her phone in a park as the sun sets in Kansas City, Mo. On Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021, a divided federal appeals court upheld the dismissal of an ACLU lawsuit challenging a portion of the National Security Agency's warrantless surveillance of Americans' international email and phone communications.
Former Detroit Police Chief James Craig has formally announced his campaign for governor but not before protesters derailed his kickoff event at a state park and forced him to move
Briefly

Frontier to resume Colorado Springs to Orlando flight

Frontier Airlines will resume nonstop flights Nov. 5 between Colorado Springs and Orlando, Fla., with four flights a week, the Colorado Springs Airport announced Wednesday.

The Denver-based carrier suspended the Orlando route and others in March 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic nearly shut down travel.

The resumed flights will operate on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday and are currently displayed on Frontiers schedule through Jan. 3.

Wayne Heilman, The Gazette
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City Editor

Tom Roeder is the Gazette's City Editor. In Colorado Springs since 2003, Tom has covered the military at home and overseas and has covered statehouses in Denver and Olympia, Wash. His main job, though, is being dad to two great kids.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley was following his duties and responsibilities when he promised his Chinese counterpart he would warn them of an impending attack during the final days of the Trump administration.
Nearly two out of three people believe American forces will have to return to Afghanistan to fight against terrorism, according to a new poll.
Al Qaeda could develop capacity to attack US homeland in 'one to two years,' intel officials say
Colorado Springs, CO (80903)

Today

Sun and clouds mixed. High 63F. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

A clear sky. Low around 40F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph.
Bob Enyart, who proclaimed himself a "right-wing, religious fanatic, homophobic, anti-choice talk-show host," has died from COVID-19, according to a Facebook post Monday by his co-host on the talk show Real Science Radio.

Enyart, pastor of the Denver Bible Church, was a controversial figure known for mocking AIDS victims by name on his cable television show, leading marches outside Planned Parenthood doctor's homes and boycotting the COVID-19 vaccine. He died at age 62.

But to his radio co-host, Fred Williams, "Bob Enyart was one of the smartest, and without question the wisest person Ive known," Williams wrote on Facebook.

Enyart's and Williams' radio show focused on "science to debunk evolution and to show the evidence for the creator God."

"Bobs enduring legacy will live on with the treasure trove he leaves behind, including an amazing website which many have recognized as the best online resource of science confirming the Genesis record, his captivating Bible study MP3s, science DVDs, YouTube videos, etc.," Williams said in his post.

The post drew dozens of comments from Facebook users offering condolences and an outpouring of support, including a comment from Enyart's son, Dominic Enyart.

Dominic told The Gazette that it was typical of his father to "drop everything and run to help somebody."

Dominic, who works as the Bob Enyart Live business officer manager, received an email from a listener of his father's show who said she was in an abusive relationship and called Bob Enyart. He fundraised for her and got her out of the relationship and she said later married another man, Dominic said.

"It's crazy that's not even something a lot of us know about," Enyart said. "He helped so many people, it's impossible to keep track."

But Enyart was not without critics. After he read obituaries of AIDS victims and mocked them on a television show in 1995, a libel case was filed against him. Enyart's speech was found protected under the First Amendment.

In 1994, Enyart was found guilty of child abuse and sentenced to 60 days in jail after he spanked his soon-to- be third wife's 7-year-old son with a belt for refusing to take a shower; he maintained that "spanked kids are happy kids, unspanked kids are miserable."

Enyart was found guilty in 2009 of trespassing at Focus on the Family's campus during a protest over founder James Dobson's endorsement of GOP presidential nominee John McCain. Enyart, a one-time director of Colorado Right to Life, did not believe McCain held a strong enough anti-abortion stance, The Gazette previously reported.

During Enyart's early life, he developed software for the Armys Apache AH-64 attack helicopter and worked at Microsoft as a computer analyst, according to his biography on the Bob Enyart Live website.

Enyart and his wife refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine because of concerns that the products were tested on cells of aborted babies, his show's website said.

"We urge everyone to boycott Pfizer, Moderna and the Johnson [vaccines] to further increase social tension and put pressure on the child killers," the website said.

Cheryl was hospitalized with COVID-19 for more than a week, Gazette news partner 9NEWS reported. Dominic Enyart said his mother has since been released from the hospital.
FILE PHOTO: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte gestures during his fourth State of the Nation address at the Philippine Congress in Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines, July 22, 2019. REUTERS/Eloisa Lopez/File Photo
California Governor Gavin Newsom makes an appearance after the polls close on the recall election, at the California Democratic Party headquarters in Sacramento, California, U.S., September 14, 2021. REUTERS/Fred Greaves
Most Coloradans agree with government leaders who impose vaccine and mask mandates to curb the spread of COVID-19 and its Delta variant, according to a survey commissioned by Colorado Politics, the Denver Gazette and 9News.

The SurveyUSA assessment indicated 55% support the public health orders such as those imposed by Gov. Jared Polis, Denver Mayor Michael Hancock and other local governments across the state.

Forty percent disagreed, including 78% of those who said they were unvaccinated.

The most commonly cited reason (24%) for being unvaccinated was concern over the safety of the vaccine, while 16% thought the virus was a hoax.

Fifteen percent saw it as a government intrusion into their life, and 11% doubted the scientists.

Those who identified as Democrats overwhelmingly supported mask requirements at 81%, compared to 48% of unaffiliated voters and 26% of Republicans.

The poll suggested 72% of vaccinated Coloradans are concerned their health will be affected by those who are unvaccinated, including 35% who said they were "very concerned."

Those polled this month also shared broad approval of vaccine requirements for health care workers and teachers.

Seventy percent of survey participants said doctors, nurses and other hospital employees should be vaccinated, the same margin who said mandates should apply to those working in nursing homes, while just 22% said vaccinations should not be required in health care settings.

As for private businesses, 50% of those surveyed said employees should be required to be vaccinated, compared to 39% who disagreed.

As for masks in schools, 57% said K-12 teachers should be required to wear masks, while 33% disagreed. Similarly, Coloradans supported a requirement for K-12 students to wear masks, 55% to 37%.

Respondents were split on whether businesses should have the legal right to deny service to those who are unvaccinated  45% said they should and 44% said they should not.

On Aug. 2, Hancock set a Sept. 30 deadline for all city employees and private-sector workers in high-risk settings to be fully vaccinated.

The mandate applies to more than 10,000 municipal employees, including police officers, firefighters, and sheriffs deputies. The order also extends to public and private schools, higher education campuses, nursing homes, homeless shelters, hospitals and correctional facilities.

The same week, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis announced state employees who cannot show proof of vaccination will have to get tested twice a week and wear masks at work.

This month, Polis went farther, backing President Joe Bidens vaccine-or-testing mandate for large businesses, similar to what he imposed on state workers.

Some hospitals are reaching very close to their capacity limits and that wouldn't be happening if people were vaccinated, Polis said. You have 25% of the population that is 80% of the hospitalizations, and they have worse outcomes, higher death rates, longer hospitals stays.

I'm strongly encouraging you, if you haven't yet, get vaccinated.

Boulder County reinstated its indoor mask mandate on Sept. 3, and this month the town of Erie joined an increasing list of municipalities.

Only second to vaccination, adoption of a universal mask order is an extremely effective tool to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and minimize disruptive cycles of reactionary orders, and is particularly important for seeing a rapid shift, Camille Rodriguez, executive director of Boulder County Pubic Health, said in a statement.

Businesses and public venues such as Red Rocks Amphitheater and the Colorado Convention Center require proof of vaccination to enter, following guidance from the state and city health departments.

Republicans see vaccine mandates as an energizing issue for the GOP base heading into next year's mid-terms, when Polis is on the ballot for reelection.

The Colorado survey is in step with the national mood.

A poll last month for the Associated Press and NORC at the University of Chicago.indicated 55% of adults support requiring face masks around other people outside their homes, while just 26% opposed it.

Survey USA contacted a representative sample of 500 Coloradans between Sept. 9 and Sept 13. The margin of error is plus or minus 5.4%.

Read the full survey by clicking here.
An investigation into whether a secretly funded nonprofit organization has been illegally lobbying the states redistricting commissioners will move forward, after the secretary of state reviewed a complaint filed against the group and found enough evidence to warrant a full probe.

The decision to further investigate Colorado Neighborhood Coalition, the 501c4 nonprofit organization run by longtime Republican operatives at the center of the complaint, could have broad implications for the transparency now required around the redistricting process, and comes after several efforts to influence the redistricting commissions without full transparency have emerged.

The state's inaugural independent citizen redistricting commissions are in the middle of redrawing the states legislative and congressional maps, after the overwhelmingly voter-approved passage of the new system in 2018, which was designed to remove the process from the hands of politicians and the political class.

The lobbying rules that came with the new independent citizen commission system are also new, and designed to shed light on the once-per-decade political remapping process, which in most states is kept behind closed doors and outside public scrutiny.

The complaint, filed in August by former Democratic lawmaker Stanley Matsunaka, accuses two Colorado Neighborhood Coalition employees  former House Speaker Frank McNulty and former state lawmaker Greg Brophy  of lobbying the commissioners without registering their activity or their clients. Matsunaka also accused a third Colorado Neighborhood Coalition employee, former Colorado Republican Party executive director and now political consultant Alan Philp, of failing to file proper disclosures of his lobbying activity, even though he is registered as the groups lobbyist.

The complaint cited examples of Philp addressing the commissioners, but without filing disclosures describing his interactions with them, as well as a private meeting with a congressional redistricting commissioner in May. The complaint details each interaction Philp had with the commissioners at public hearing, in addition to providing as exhibits emails that reference a lunch meeting with Alan Philp, Frank McNulty, Republican congressional redistricting commission member Jason Kelly and Alamosa County's Republican county administrator, Gigi Dennis, on May 19.

Philp characterized the investigation as politically motivated.

Partisan Democrat secretary of state decides to move forward with a baseless complaint by partisan Democrat operatives. Im disappointed, but not surprised," Philp wrote in an email in response to the announced investigation.

Philp added that he believes he was told in an email by the Secretary of State's Office, after the complaint was filed, that his disclosures were sufficient. A spokesperson for the secretary of state late Tuesday said that the secretary and deputy secretary "were not involved in the investigative phase of this complaint and have had no input at this stage."

Colorado Neighborhood Coalition is one of a handful of 501c4 nonprofit organizations that has registered to lobby the redistricting commissions. It's not required to disclose where the group's money comes from because of its special 501c4 IRS status. When 501c4 nonprofit groups spend in elections, they're called "dark money" groups.

The newly launched investigation comes after several examples surfaced this summer of efforts aimed at influencing the commission's work without full transparency or disclosure.

Democratic Secretary of State Jena Griswolds election division found that the complaint identified one or more potential violations of Colorado lobbying laws and alleged sufficient facts to support a basis for the alleged violations, a letter detailing the initial findings explained. The division will investigate to determine whether these alleged violations occurred.

McNulty, the registered agent for the group, has previously defended the groups lobbying disclosures, as well as his and Brophy's obligation to register as lobbyists, saying he believes having Philp registered as the formal lobbyist for the organization is sufficient, even if others being paid by the group are organizing people to advocate for specific mapping approaches. Philp, McNulty said, is who directly communicates with the commissioners, even though others paid by the group are doing community outreach, education and awareness.

The complaint focuses on McNulty's earlier characterization of Colorado Neighborhood Coalition's activities, by citing the same emails referencing a lunch meeting where McNulty, Philp, Kelly and Dennis were invited, saying it's evidence of direct communication between a commissioner and McNulty. The complaint also cites McNulty's Aug. 18 testimony at a redistricting commission public hearing, saying that because he's paid by Colorado Neighborhood Coalition, his activity needs to be registered as lobbying.

Philp addressed the redistricting commissioners earlier this month, after the complaint was filed, presenting maps that Colorado Neighborhood Coalition.

Brophy also met with commissioners, during a public meeting in May, mostly to discuss his experience as a lawmaker working on redistricting 10 years ago. But during the discussion, he also discussed current mapping ideas for the congressional map. The complaint claims that, along with Brophy's encouragement to others to advocate for specific mapping ideas, qualifies as lobbying that is required to be reported.

The complaint was drafted by Mark Grueskin, a Democratic operative who himself is a registered redistricting lobbyist. He also works for a 501c4 nonprofit organization, called Fair Lines Colorado, which also does not disclose its donors.

The list of efforts to influence the state's redistricting commissioners under the guise of the public input envisioned in the state's new redistricting system has grown over the past several months.

In early July a longtime Democratic operative registered his consulting company as an official redistricting lobbying client after The Gazette asked about one of the agency's employees providing talking points to someone giving public testimony they claimed was their own.

Later that month, an incumbent Republican state lawmaker told supporters how to make mapping suggestions that would protect himself and other Republican incumbents, but without telling the commissioners that was the goal.

In August, the Colorado Farm Bureau proposed a legislative map to the commissioners, telling them that only their staff had worked on the maps, before later acknowledging to The Gazette that they had been helped with the maps by Colorado Neighborhood Coalition.
FILE - In this Dec. 15, 2020, file photo, a droplet falls from a syringe after a health care worker was injected with the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine at a hospital in Providence, R.I. An untold number of Americans have managed to get COVID-19 booster shots even though the U.S. government hasn't approved them. They're doing so by taking advantage of the nations vaccine surplus and loose tracking of those who have been fully vaccinated.
How the pandemic taught agencies to accept and adapt

The pandemic put unprecedented demands on government agencies that had to quickly retool citizen-facing operations to address a new suite of digital services and scale up back-office processes to support a remote and hybrid workforce.

Participants Keith Alderson

Deputy Assistant Commissioner, Debt Management Services, Bureau of Fiscal Service, Department of the Treasury Richard Burnham

Acting Director DCSD-DMS, Bureau of Fiscal Services, Department of the Treasury Sheila Rose Campbell

Special Advisor for Digital Services, Office of Policy, Planning and Resources, Department of State Judith Conklin

Deputy CIO, Library of Congress Evan Davis

Senior Vice President, Federal Civilian Agencies, MAXIMUS Nora Dempsey

Senior Advisor for Innovation, Department of State Sanjay Gupta

CTO, Small Business Administration Larry Reagan

Vice President, Finance, MAXIMUS Harrison Smith

Chief Procurement Officer, Internal Revenue Service Note: FCW Editor-in-Chief Troy K. Schneider led the roundtable discussion. The May 26 gathering was underwritten by MAXIMUS, but both the substance of the discussion and the recap on these pages are strictly editorial products. Neither the sponsors nor any of the roundtable participants had input beyond their May 26 comments.

In May, a group of IT leaders got together to discuss how agencies responded to the changes, what challenges they faced and how they broke through old barriers to deliver better citizens services.

The discussion was on the record but not for individual attribution (see sidebar for full list of participants), and the quotes have been edited for length and clarity. Here's what the group had to say.

Internal customers first

For most agencies, citizen service volume surged at the same time senior officials were scrambling to move their teams to telework. Roundtable participants noted that this was often more difficult than adjusting the citizen experience -- yet absolutely essential to allowing the workforce to focus on end customers.

Several officials said it took months just to provision employees with laptops and other essential remote-work equipment. "The supply chain hit us," one noted.

At other agencies, the challenge was inconsistency. "A lot of our IT is fairly decentralized," another official said. "Where I sit, we had a culture where people come on board and you give them a laptop, but that is not necessarily the case in other parts of the department. And so we just found that there were really big disparities and that complicated the response."

Creating a constructive remote work culture took longer still. "I think we really need to think about this hybrid work environment where we have this distributed workforce, people in multiple time zones," one official said. "Ultimately, if they feel comfortable with the technology, they'll deliver better services. They'll think more innovatively about how to apply the technology solutions to better serve the customers. I'll plus one to all the things about citizen metrics and all of that, but I think our focus is going to be, how do we help the workforce really adapt in this future workspace?"

The pandemic also forced agencies to shift their expectations for everything from signature requirements -- what, exactly, qualifies as a valid electronic signature? -- to managers' acceptance of telework.

"Even 10 years ago, I remember the conversation around, 'Hey, if you can't give me a work plan for the day, you need to come in and come to work,'" one executive said. "And my joke at the time was, 'Yes, because if you don't have any work to do, you darn well better not do work in the office.'"

"I think what's really pushed us unexpectedly is just this mindset of, 'We can do all this stuff online,'" another participant observed. "I know that seems so basic, but even rethinking our physical footprint, like these processes that we used to say you can only do them in person. Well, actually we figured out a way to do it online. Maybe we've had to re-look at our risk posture in doing that, but it forced us to actually do that. I think just that realization that we really need to deliver these services online to citizens is huge."

Another official suggested that "the breakdown of some societal norms and the status quo due to COVID has also broken down a lot of those barriers. We're loosening security restrictions. We're loosening workplace restrictions. We're loosening the norms around how we communicate with each other. So I'm optimistic that there's an opportunity here for people trying to do what you're doing to use that breakdown to open up some communications around how to link those things together."

A longer version of this article was first posted to FCW, a sibling site to GCN.
The Syrian Observatory said that factions affiliated with the "Men of Dignity Movement" surrounded the Military Intelligence branch in the city of As-Suwayda, after the latter attacked today one of its leaders".

According to the observatory, As-Suwayda has been witnessing great tension that has been going on for hours and at an escalating pace, and the tension began this morning, Sunday, after a group affiliated with the Military Intelligence Division kidnapped people from the town of Al-Qurayya and another person from As-Suwayda. Al-Qarya belongs to the State Security, on alert, and threatened the kidnapper to target the house of its leader with RBG missiles if the kidnapped were not released without a response from the latter, which led to the aggravation of the situation and the spread of the Giyari al-Qurayya group near the Al-Malab roundabout north of the city of As-Suwayda. They were shot dead by the military intelligence group, which led to the death of a person who was a relative of one of the kidnapped.

In this context, the members of that group closed the Damascus-Suwayda road near the Al-Shaer roundabout in the town of Attil, and started shooting randomly at cars, including the judge's car (MF), and tried to assassinate him.

A

ANHA
As the end-of-year exam season approaches, Australian universities are continuing to use spyware-like remote invigilation software despite official government guidance that it only be used as a last resort.

Proctored online exams  which fight cheating by requiring students to install specialised apps on their computers and mobile devices  should be used only after other options have been considered and deemed unsuitable, advises recently published guidance from the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA), which accredits tertiary courses and oversees standards for learning delivery at all Australian learning institutions.

Online proctored exams should not be seen as a default assessment task type, applicable to all learning outcomes in all circumstances, the guidance notes.

If the recall of factual knowledge is not essential for verification of program level outcomes, the assessment moment could instead be adapted into a higher-level task which may not need the sort of information restriction that online invigilation affords.

Invigilation should be used only after other options have been considered and deemed unsuitable.

Nonetheless, some 24 Australian institutions last year used remote proctoring software such as Mercer Mettl, Janison Remote, Examsoft, ProctorU, ProctorExam, RPNow, IRIS Invigilation and others, despite the tools being repeatedly flagged by privacy and security advocates.

The softwares design has raised widespread concerns that it is little different than the malicious spyware used by domestic abusers and foreign intelligence services to track, manipulate and steal information and message content from victims without their knowing.

As well as requiring students to photograph their entire room, on and underneath their desks and even inside their ears, the apps require full access to the systems camera, microphone, and the ability to monitor and control the contents of the students screen.

Many use artificial intelligence technology that raises alerts if background movement is detected, students look away from the screen for too long, if typing patterns suggest answers were pre-prepared, or other movements associated with cheating.

Data is typically transmitted to unknown third parties overseas, and there is little or no visibility into where and how it is stored, or what happens to it next  unless, as happened to more than 444,000 ProctorU users last year, their data is hacked.

Recognising security concerns, Curtin University built its own platform, called IRIS@Curtin, that stores data inside university systems in which student data is protected and kept securely in the same manner as all other assessment data at Curtin.

That platform, the university claims, has been audited with a full Privacy Impact Assessment and regular external penetration testing to ensure that your data is protected.

A better way to examine

Mandatory installation of invigilation spyware created a worldwide furore last year, with students unhappy, educators warning that the systems inadequate AI was perpetuating inequality, and privacy advocates like the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) imploring authorities not to use the technology for ill-fated US state bar examinations.

The technology was used anyway, with recriminations flying after widespread technical issues with ExamSoft-based online bar exams in October, and again in July this year.

Faced with significant software problems during the administration of stressful exams, many panicked students called technical support to resolve the issue  only to find, as over 3,000 State Bar of California candidates were, that the calls had generated non-compliance notices that could imperil their professional careers.

Its always a worry with surveillance when things are put in place in a hurry, Justin Warren, managing director Melbourne-based boutique consulting firm PivotNine and treasurer of privacy-rights group Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA), told Information Age.

Very rarely do we go back and look at them to find out how we should do it properly, he added. This is surveillance being installed on private devices that are not university property, that surveil people in their own home  and everyone else who is in that house is also subject to this kind of surveillance.

Some clever rethinking of things might actually make it better.

A recent UWA study found that one in 10 uni students are cheating on assignments and most are getting away with it  yet for privacy and security advocates the forcible installation of spyware tools is a bridge too far.

The softwares imperfect design has also raised questions about its equity, with one anonymous university librarian arguing that algorithmic proctoring is a modern surveillance technology that reinforces white supremacy, sexism, ableism, and transphobia.

Her universitys use of AI-based Proctorio software  currently used by Australian National University and the University of Canberra, among others  raised practical issues for students of colour, who were told to shine more light on their skin because the AI couldnt make out their features.

Products that violate peoples privacy and discriminate against them go against my professional ethos, the librarian wrote, and its deeply concerning to see such products eagerly adopted by institutions of higher education.
Killeen, TX (76540)

Today

Partly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High around 90F. Winds N at 15 to 25 mph..

Tonight

A few clouds. Low 61F. Winds NNE at 15 to 25 mph.
1. Yes. Several other districts factor them in. It would provide a more complete picture.

2. Yes. Theyre not as accurate, but they can be useful in spotting a trend in infections.

3. No. The district is keeping tabs on those numbers, so the public doesnt need to.

4. No. As long as the public health district is aware of those stats, thats all that matters.

5. Unsure. The district isnt obligated to include them, but it might be helpful.

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Bill to Ban Police Gangs Headed to Governors Desk

Last week, the Legislature overwhelmingly approved Assembly Bill 958, authored by Chair of the Select Committee on Police Reform, Assemblymember Mike A. Gipson (D-Carson). AB 958 seeks to ban police gangs in every law enforcement agency in California and will make an officers participation in a police gang grounds for termination.

These are groups who celebrate excessive force, resist reforms, and discriminate and retaliate against other officers, said Assemblymember Gipson. How can we expect an officer to uphold the public safety of our communities when that officer is pressured within their own department to join a police gang? It doesnt matter whether you are a Crip, Blood, Executioner, or Bandito  we must ensure that any individuals participating in criminal activities are held accountable to the full extent of the law.

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AB 958 aims to get to the root of an issue that has existed for nearly five decades. In 2018, a grieving mother lost her son to an attack that was initiated by a member of The Banditos police gang based in East Los Angeles as a requirement to join such groups. Last year, a deputy with the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department endured five years of bullying and intimidation by members of a gang of deputies from the Compton Sheriffs station known as The Executioners.

This bill is about proactively rooting out bad apples and takes the necessary steps to reform police culture within a department, said Assemblymember Gipson. AB 958 will put forth reform that has been needed, to get rid of a pervasive culture of those who abuse their power when they should be finding better ways to protect our communities.

After receiving unanimous bipartisan support in the Legislature, AB 958 now heads to the Governors desk for consideration.
Haiti prosecutor seeks to charge PM in killing, is replaced

A new chief prosecutor was sworn in Tuesday just hours after his predecessor asked a judge to charge Prime Minister Ariel Henry in the slaying of the president and to bar him from leaving Haiti, a move that could further destabilize a country roiled by turmoil following the assassination and a recent major earthquake.

The request filed by Port-au-Prince prosecutor Bed-Ford Claude, who was fired by Henry, came on the same day that the prosecutor had asked that the prime minister come to a meeting and explain why he spoke twice with a key suspect in the assassination of President Jovenel Moise just hours after the killing.

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There are enough compromising elements  to prosecute Henry and ask for his outright indictment, Claude wrote before he was replaced by Frantz Louis Juste, a prosecutor who oversaw the case involving the deaths of more than a dozen children in a fire at an orphanage near Port-au-Prince last year.

A spokesman for Henry could not be reached for comment.

Related: Haiti and the Heavy Hand of History

It wasnt clear if Claudes removal would have any impact on the case, but an analyst noted that the investigation is in the hands of a judge.

It wasnt clear if Claude was officially removed before he made the request to the judge. The Associated Press obtained a letter dated Monday in which Henry told Claude that he was being fired for an undefined serious administrative fault and that the decision was effective as soon as he received the document.

Claude did not respond to a request for comment on his firing or when he got the letter.

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Claude said the phone calls in question were made at 4:03 a.m. and 4:20 a.m. on July 7, adding that evidence shows the suspect, Joseph Badio, was in the vicinity of Moises home at that time. Badio once worked for Haitis Ministry of Justice and at the governments anti-corruption unit until he was fired in May amid accusations of violating unspecified ethical rules.

Related: Core Group signals support for Haitis designated PM

In the two-page document, Claude said that the calls lasted a total of seven minutes and that Henry was at the Hotel Montana in Port-au-Prince at the time. The prosecutor also noted a government official tweeted last month that Henry told him he never spoke with Badio.

On Monday, Justice Minister Rockfeller Vincent ordered the chief of Haitis National Police to boost security for Claude because Claude had received important and disturbing threats in the past five days.

Brian Concannon, an adviser for the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, said he did not expect much to change despite the appointment of a new prosecutor.

A lot of this is theater, he said.

Concannon noted that the assassination case is in the hands of Judge Garry Orelien and that he can decide whether to pursue an investigation of Henry even if the new prosecutor advises otherwise. He said the judge has three months to determine whether to take action.

Robert Fatton, a Haitian politics expert at the University of Virginia, said there was clearly a power struggle within the government between Henry and those who supported Moise.

Related: Osaka says shell donate Cincinnati prize money to Haiti

We have a very confusing situation, a power struggle at the moment, and we will see who will win it, he said. Its not clear where we are going, and its not clear what the international community thinks about everything.

In recent days, Haitis ombudsman-like Office of Citizen Protection announced it was demanding that Henry step down and asked that the international community stop supporting him.

Henry has not specifically addressed the issue in public, although during a meeting with politicians and civil society leaders on Saturday, he said he is committed to helping stabilize Haiti.

Rest assured that no distraction, no summons or invitation, no maneuver, no threat, no rear-guard combat, no aggression will distract me from my mission, Henry said. The real culprits, the intellectual authors and coauthor and sponsor of the assassination of President Jovenel Moise will be found and brought to justice and punished for their crimes.

Moise had appointed Henry as prime minister shortly before he was killed at his home in an attack that also seriously wounded his wife, Martine Moise.

More than 40 suspects have been arrested in the case, including 18 former Colombian soldiers. Authorities are still looking for additional suspects, including Badio and a former Haitian senator.

The investigation is ongoing despite court clerks going into hiding after receiving death threats if they didnt change certain names and statements in their reports.

In addition, a Haitian judge assigned to oversee the investigation stepped down last month citing personal reasons. He left after one of his assistants died in unclear circumstances. A new judge has been assigned.
LAPD to Stop Detonating Explosives In Residential Areas After South LA Blast

Los Angeles police Chief Michel Moore today confirmed changes in department policy following a federal report that found LAPD bomb squad technicians vastly underestimated the amount of explosive material placed into a containment truck, causing a destructive fireworks explosion in a South Los Angeles neighborhood.

The June 30 detonation on East 27th Street, near San Pedro Street,

sent 17 residents and first responders to hospitals, destroyed the containment truck and damaged 22 residences, 13 businesses and 37 vehicles.

According to Michael Hoffman, special agent in charge of the U.S.

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Los Angeles office, the LAPDs containment vessel was designed to handle repeated detonations of 19 pounds of TNT equivalent at a time or a single detonation of 33 pounds of explosives before being returned to its manufacturer for analysis.

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Related:Councilman Curren Price Establishes $1 Million Emergency Relief Fund for Victims of the South LA Fireworks Blast

But the LAPD bomb squad miscalculated the amount of fireworks placed into a containment vessel, resulting in a massive explosion that damaged several residences in South Los Angeles. Officers had loaded the truck with 39.85 pounds of explosives, Hoffman said. LAPD personnel visually estimated the

weight of the explosives to be about 16 pounds.

Moore said he directed the LAPD to no longer use a total containment

vessel to detonate fireworks in residential locations. The LAPD will pursue acquiring a designated site in or near the city to take explosives for safe detonation.

Moore initially announced the change at a town hall meeting with residents Monday night, and reiterated the move during a virtual town hall Tuesday. The department will also require that all explosives the bomb squad attempts to detonate be weighed first, and checks and balances will be put in place to ensure those calculations are correct, Moore said. Personnel responsible for the explosion are no longer working on the bomb squad, Moore added, saying he would make a determination regarding discipline. The names of

the officers have not been released.

Related: Councilmember Curren Price Addresses Needs of Neighbors Affected by Botched Fireworks Detonation

ATF conducted more than 40 interviews with residents, bomb squad

members, LAPD personnel and witnesses on scene during the explosion. It also reviewed surveillance video for the report.

The report found that the explosion that occurred was accidental and was caused by overloading the (total containment vessel) with more explosives than it was designed for during a single detonation, Hoffman said.

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After careful analysis of all the facts, we are absolutely certain

of the conclusion, Hoffman said. City Councilman Curren D. Price Jr. who represents the area where the explosion took place, said Monday evening the report confirms what we already knew  the negligence at the hands of the LAPD showed zero regard for our community.

As trained professionals in one of the largest police departments in America, I still cannot fathom how the LAPD thought it was acceptable to merely eyeball unstable explosives in the middle of a densely populated neighborhood, Price said.

Since Day One, I have called for an independent investigation and accountability of all those involved. Now, its up to the LAPD to face the consequences of this colossal failure and do right by our neighbors once and for all.

On Sept. 1, Price introduced a motion seeking $5 million  some of which would come from the Los Angeles Police Departments $1.76 billion budget  to help South Los Angeles residents recover from the explosion.

The city has received 191 claims for damages from community members.

Forty-two claims have been settled.

The explosion occurred after the department seized the fireworks from

Arturo Ceja III, 27, a resident of East 27th Street. He was arrested and

charged with illegally transporting tons of explosives. Ceja planned to sell the fireworks throughout the neighborhood in celebration of the Fourth of July, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office.

Ceja pleaded not guilty to the federal charges on Aug 17.
Newsom Emerges Victorious in Recall Election

Gov. Gavin Newsom trampled his Republican competitors to emerge victorious in the gubernatorial recall election, which means that hell serve the remainder of his term.

Newsoms victory was so swift and crushing, that political observers and pundits were calling the race in his favor less than an hour after polls closed on Tuesday, Sept. 14.

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In response to the ballot question, Should Gavin Newsom be recalled from the office of governor? a resounding 67% of voters checked the No box based on results from 59% of the states 18,185 precincts.

That percentage equated to 5,428,113 people who decided to retain Newsom in his position and only 33% or 2,698,829 people voting to replace the governor.

Although acknowledging his successful campaign, Newsom didnt gloat, instead stressed, No, was not the only thing we said tonight. I want to focus on what we said yes to as a state. We said yes to science. We said yes to vaccines. We said yes to ending this pandemic. We said yes to peoples right to vote without fear of fake, fraud or voter suppression. We said yes to womens fundamental, constitutional right to decide for herself what she does with her body, her faith and future.

We said yes to diversity. We said yes to inclusion. We said yes to pluralism. We said yes to all those things we hold dear as Californians. And I would argue as Americans  economic justice, social justice environmental justice  our values where California made so much progress. All of those things were on the ballot this evening, insisted the governor.

Newsom went on to encourage Californians to eliminate division, negativity and cynicism as well as strive to provide examples of positive behavior to children. Also, Newsom cautioned people to stay aware because Trumpism is not dead in this country.

Alluding to statements promoted by former U.S. President Donald Trump, the governor said that the big lie, the January 6 insurrection and multiple voting suppression efforts occurring around the country were indications that many people continue to propagate discontent in America.

In light of these challenges, Newsom said, The world is too small, our time is too short and our wisdom is too limited to win fleeting victories at other peoples expense. We must all triumph together.

His closing words were, Im humbled, grateful, but resolved in the spirit of my political hero, Robert Kennedy, to make more gentle the life of this world. Thank you to 40 million Californians  for rejecting this recall.

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The states Republican contingent, anticipating a Newsom defeat, faced rejection as well with the top contenders tallying too few votes against the incumbent. The leading candidate, conservative broadcaster, Larry A. Elder, totaled 1.9 million votes, followed by former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, who received 412,797 votes, and businessman, John Cox, who garnered 208,121 votes. Reality star Caitlyn Jenner lagged further behind with only 52,041 votes. All of the numbers were based on reports from 53% of the Californias precincts.

While Newsom is projected as the winner, the numbers reported thus far are still considered unofficial. According to the website of California Secretary of State Shirley Weber, Election results will change throughout the canvass period as vote-by-mail ballots, provisional ballots (including conditional voter registration provisional ballots), and other ballots are tallied.

But for now, Gavin Newsom remains the governor of the State of California and that fact is perfectly fine with L.A.-area African American Democrats, who rallied the Black community to keep Newsom in office.

We shut it down! declared L.A. Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson at a gathering at the Post & Beam restaurant in Baldwin Hills on September 14. Harris-Dawson was among the guests at an event organized by the African American Voter Registration, Education, & Participation Project (AAVREPP) to celebrate Newsoms victory over the Republican recall.

L.A. County Supervisor Holly Mitchell, who also attended, credited the efforts of the AAVREPP in persuading Black voters to cast ballots against the recall. We were diligent. We made sure to empower and educate the people of the community with the necessary resources to influence the polls. I am certain that we made an impact with voters; we worked tirelessly to help register people throughout the city and state, and guided them throughout the voting process, she said.

The Republican Party wasted millions of taxpayers dollars with this senseless recall, but I believe, collectively, tonight, we have made a powerful statement for justice and equality by keeping our governor in office, noted Mitchell.

Similarly elated, Assemblymember Mike Gipson said, We knew this recall was a ploy to hijack the governors office and Im so happy that the voters of the State of California resoundingly rejected this diabolical plan to overturn democracy.

Democracy showed up tonight and we won and Im very excited about it. We galvanized the Black vote. When they thought, we werent going to show up at the polls, we proved them wrong, he said.

Also, President Joe Biden visited Southern California on September 13, to urge voters to reject the recall, citing Newsoms record on the coronavirus pandemic, womens rights, climate change and minimum wage.

We need science, we need courage, we need leadership. We need Gavin Newsom, Biden said during an approximately 15-minute address at Long Beach City College. A governor who follows science, whos got the courage to do whats right.

Biden sought to tie supporters of the recall to former President Trump, who is tremendously unpopular in California.

You either keep Gavin Newsom as your governor or you get Donald Trump, Biden told the crowd of approximately 1,100, including Sen. Alex Padilla, D-California, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and Los Angeles County Supervisors Janice Hahn and Hilda Solis.

The choice should be absolutely clear  Gavin Newsom. You have a governor who has the courage to lead.

Elder had dismissed the presidential support for the governor. If Gavin Newsom thinks that flying in Joe Biden and Kamala Harris  not exactly the most admired government officials at the present time  will make him look better, thats all you need to know about how oblivious and detached Newsom is from a large majority of Californians, Elder tweeted last week.

During an appearance in Monterey Park, Elder repeated many of the recalls themes  criticism of Newsoms handling of issues such as homelessness, crime and the COVID-19 pandemic, accusing him of ignoring science in the imposition of business and school closures.

Elder also shot back at recall critics who have labeled it a Republican movement. There are 2 million people that signed that petition, Elder said.

A good quarter of them to a third of them were the people who voted for him just two years earlier. Im talking about independents and Democrats. Sixty-three percent of Hispanics voted for him two years ago. Now the majority of Hispanics want him out.

Elder is an outspoken opponent of government mandates  such as those requiring mask-wearing or receiving COVID vaccines  and had vowed to eliminate them immediately if elected.

Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison issued a statement Tuesday night calling the vote an overwhelming victory for the partys agenda.

Once again, voters rejected the Republican Partys denial of the pandemic sweeping our country and their subsequent refusal to address it, rejected Republicans disproved theories about our elections and rejected Republicans unwavering loyalty to the man who caused it all  Donald Trump, Harrison said.

From afar, Trump had repeated his refrain of questioning the integrity of recall election, suggesting without any evidence that the race was rigged  just as he did before and after he lost his presidential re-election bid to Biden.

In recent days, Elder picked up on that theme, with his campaign posting a link to an online election-fraud reporting website and the candidate himself refusing to say whether he would accept the results of the election.

With the victory, Newsom avoided the fate of former California Gov. Gray Davis, who was removed from office by recall in 2003. He was replaced by actor, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Sentinel Staff Writer E. Mesiyah McGinnis and City News Service contributed to this article.
Nigeria faces one of its worst cholera outbreaks in years

Nigeria is seeing one of its worst cholera outbreaks in years, with more than 2,300 people dying from suspected cases as Africas most populous country struggles to deal with multiple disease outbreaks.

This years cholera outbreak, with a higher case fatality rate than the previous four years, is worsened by what many consider to be a bigger priority for state governments: the COVID-19 pandemic. Nigeria faces a resurgence of cases driven by the Delta variant, and less than 1% of the population has been fully vaccinated.

At least 69,925 suspected cholera cases were recorded as of Sept. 5 in 25 of Nigerias 36 states and in the capital, Abuja, according to the Nigeria Center for Disease Control. Children between 5 and 14 are the most affected age group and the overall case fatality rate is 3.3%, more than double that of COVID-19s 1.3% case fatality rate in Nigeria.

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At least 2,323 people have died from suspected cholera this year, but there are concerns that might be an undercount given that many affected communities are in hard to reach areas.

States in Nigerias north where flooding and poor sanitation increase the risk of transmission are the hardest hit. The 19 states in the north account for 98% of the suspected cases.

Cholera is endemic and seasonal in Nigeria, where only 14% of the population of more than 200 million have access to safely managed drinking water supply services, according to government data from 2020, which also shows that open defecation is still practiced by at least 30% of residents in 14 states

Nigeria also continues to see regular outbreaks of yellow fever, Lassa fever, measles and other infectious diseases.

We must remain conscious that these multiple outbreaks can further strain our health system, outgoing Nigeria CDC director-general Chikwe Ihekweazu told The Associated Press.

But he and other officials say the experience from those health crises has helped Nigeria prepare for the worst. Prior investment in diagnostic capacity, case management, electronic surveillance systems, event-based surveillance, risk communication, logistic management systems and national/subnational workforce development have paid off significantly during COVID-19 pandemic, he said.

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That has not contained cholera, however, and in some states, authorities have said COVID-19 has taken center stage.

In Kogi State, which has Nigerias second-highest cholera case fatality rate at 24.5%, top health official Saka Haruna told the AP the rate is high because of the difficulty in accessing care in hard-to-reach areas.

Even in the capital, finding care has been challenging. Ese Umukoro said she had a very difficult experience when her brother, Samson, had cholera and was rejected at three hospitals before being admitted at the fourth. She asked the government to try their best to at least give us good water to avoid that kind of sickness.

Sokoto State has Nigerias fourth-highest count of suspected cholera cases, and its health commissioner told the AP that 22 of the 23 Local Government Areas have been hit by the outbreak.

What is driving the infections is lack of good sanitary conditions in our villages and open defecation, aggravated by heavy rainfall, said Ali Inname.

Its a common problem. Government data from a study supported by UNICEF found access to safely managed sanitation services at just 21% nationwide.

Engineer Michael Oludare, an Oyo-based water scientist, said it is very important for authorities to provide basic water and sanitation. He said the poor, women, children and internally displaced people are among those that will have problems when it comes to cholera.

Moreover, Nigeria still grapples with the challenge of inadequate vaccines and trained manpower to cover all Local Government Areas where the cholera outbreak has been recorded.
Son of man killed by Georgia trooper seeks federal inquiry

The son of a Black man killed last year by a Georgia state trooper attempting a traffic stop over a broken tail light said Monday he will march across a stretch of southeast Georgia in hopes of getting federal authorities to take up the case.

Brook Bacon is trying to get renewed attention to the slaying of his father, 60-year-old Julian Lewis, nearly three months after a grand jury in rural Screven County declined to indict the trooper who shot him in the head.

That cant be left unchallenged, Bacon told reporters during an online news conference with his attorneys. He added: In split-second moments, these tragedies happen and too often they get swept aside.

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Trooper Jacob G. Thompson was fired by the Georgia State Patrol and jailed on charges of felony murder and aggravated assault soon after Lewis was killed on Aug. 7, 2020, in Screven County. Thompson said Lewis tried to flee a traffic stop for a broken tail light. After a short chase, the trooper forced Lewis car into a ditch.
Suspects Arrested in Shooting Outside School Near Downtown LA

Police today announced the arrest of a juvenile suspect and an unknown number of co-conspirators wanted in connection with a shooting outside Santee High School just south of downtown Los Angeles that left one student injured.

School police reported the shooting at about 2 p.m. on Sept. 2 near

the school, located at 1921 Maple Ave., just south of the Santa Monica (10)

Freeway and east of the Harbor (110) Freeway.

CBS2 reported that two students were fighting when one pulled out a gun and shot the other. The victim was shot in a leg and taken to a hospital with non-life- threatening injures, according to a Los Angeles School Police Management Association statement.

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The high school was placed on lockdown while officers conducted a

perimeter search for the shooter, though they did not find him and believed he

may have fled the scene in a black sedan.

Los Angeles Police Department detectives investigated the shooting, which included video evidence from several surveillance cameras in the area and social media postings at the time of the altercation, according to a police statement. The investigation led detectives to identity the shooter and co-conspirators, who were taken into custody at about 10:40 p.m. Friday.

It was not immediately known how many suspects in addition to the

shooter were arrested at that time, said Officer Tony Im of the LAPD Media

Relations Division.

The suspects were detained at Eastlake Juvenile Hall pending review by the Los Angeles County District Attorneys Office, according to the LAPD.

Their names and ages were not released.
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Selman accuses court of making decisions behind the scenes

SELMAN Lymbery Lymbery JOEL ANDREWS/The Lufkin Daily News Paulette Pitts KENNEDY

SMITH

Pct. 1 Constable Tom Selman accused members of the Angelina County Commissioners Court of making decisions behind the scenes regarding constables salaries.

I dont know if Im addressing Angelina Countys Commissioners Court or a tribunal of a junta of a banana republic today, Selman said at Tuesdays commissioners court meeting.

Selman, addressing the court, said he believes Angelina County Judge Don Lymbery and two commissioners appointed by Lymbery violated the Open Meetings Act by making decisions outside the court.

As evidenced by the salary schedule, which was already included in their packets, this was a foregone conclusion, Selman said. How can you come to those foregone conclusions unless the people who are making those decisions have already made those decisions behind the scenes?

He said he believes the court should have left the constables salaries blank in the salary schedule published by The Lufkin Daily News until a decision was made official by the court in an open meeting. Because the court did not leave it blank, he said he believes the decision was made beforehand.

Lymbery said he did not have time to comment.

In the past, schedules have been published before the final schedule was approved. In 2019, the county published a salary schedule including proposed countywide raises for the fiscal year 2020 budget before the schedule was approved. Those raises ultimately were dropped by the court.

I believe the procedure utilized this morning was normal and was not necessarily indicative of a pre-made decision, County Attorney Cary Kirby said. If the commissioners court had voted to adopt the recommendation of the grievance committee, the proposed salary schedule would have been amended or corrected before being finalized.

Commissioners voted 3-2 Tuesday against a recommendation by the countys Salary Grievance Committee to give the constables raises; the two commissioners who voted in favor of the constables raises were Pct. 2 Commissioner Kermit Kennedy and Pct. 3 Commissioner Terry Pitts.

Selmans allegations

The constables will not push for an investigation into Selmans allegations against members of the court because theyre not a retaliatory group, Selman said.

Our issue is fairness, and the process being fair, he said. Whether we got the money or not  that is not the issue. The money is such an insignificant amount. It was the principle of fairness because there is a faction against us and that has manifested itself in them taking action against us in denying to give us a pay raise.

He defined the faction by how the court is shaped. He said the court has a majority held by people who were not voted into office but were appointed to office by Lymbery. The two appointed by Lymbery are Rodney Paulette and Steve Smith.

Consequently, we have people who have been installed on this court, and the installation appears to put forward an agenda that the installer and the people who he is working with have in mind, Selman said.

Lymbery, Smith and Paulette were recorded on video holding an unofficial meeting in Lymberys office in the Denman Building on Aug. 9. This meeting represented a quorum, violating the Open Meetings Act.

Since then, the court has been split on budget discussions in its last few meetings. This split continued in initial conversations about constable raises during Smiths first meeting on Aug. 10 and again in the Aug. 19 meeting when the court decided to send the issue to the Salary Grievance Committee. Neither issue was sent to a vote.

The split was prevalent Tuesday when, in a last-minute addition, Lymbery proposed two new issues for a vote that were not part of the original agenda: a raise for emergency management coordinator Ricky Conner and an increase in the offer the county made to Chuck Walker to become the countys unit-road system engineer.

The court, in a public meeting Aug. 10 voted to pay Walker $95,000. It was 3-2 vote with Pitts and Kennedy against.

Lymbery cited a new agreement Tuesday to pay the $95,000 through the rest of 2021 and increase that by $15,000 in 2022 to $110,000.

Lymbery checked with Paulette during the meeting to make sure the amount was correct.

Commissioners voted 3-2, to raise the salary offer made to Walker for the engineering position with Pitts and Kennedy voting against it.

The court voted unanimously to adopt the budget and to give Conner a raise.

The court voted 3-2 for the salary schedule as posted, with Pitts and Kennedy against. The salary schedule will reflect the changes made to Walker and Conners salaries.

Constable pay

The constables pay has been a battle for two years. Three constables in 2020 requested parity pay with Selman, who made thousands more than the others at the time. This issue went to a Salary Grievance Committee and the court gave Precincts 2, 3 and 4 raises in salary and fuel.

While Selman himself did not receive a raise in 2020, he did receive additional funding to hire a deputy constable.

The court Tuesday decided the constables should not each receive the $2,080 raises that nearly every other member of the countys payroll did because of the 2020 decisions. All four constables then requested the issue be taken back to the Salary Grievance Committee to make a decision.

A standard Salary Grievance Committee is a nine-member group consisting of six elected officials and three residents, Kirby said. The committee ended up consisting of four elected officials and five residents. The four elected officials were: Treasurer Jill Brewer, District Clerk Reba Squyres, Kirby and Sheriff Greg Sanches.

Eight of the nine committee members voted on Aug. 27 to give each constable a raise; this would cost the county $8,320. Sanches voted against the raise.

Smith, Paulette and Lymbery took the time to explain why they were voting against the committees decision to give the constables raises.

Smith, who spoke against the raises at the committee meeting in August, said three of the constables met with him after the committee meeting and said he was speaking with the wrong people: Paulette and Lymbery.

In response to that meeting, Smith said he took the time to conduct an unofficial survey of his constituents about Constable Ray Anthony, he said. He said he specifically chose people who he knew werent just weekenders, and of the 60-75 people he spoke with, most didnt know who the constable was, he said.

Smith said the constables pay is in line, if not higher than others in the county and that they had attempted to bully him. So, his vote would be no.

Lymbery continued the argument about bullying and said he has been beaten up on Facebook as having an agenda against the constables, to which he said he had not responded until Tuesday.

Prior to my administration as county judge two and a half years ago, the constables were ignored, and that is true. They were basically ignored, and when I first came in, the constables came to me, Lymbery said.

In his time as judge, he said he acquiesced to every budget request as far as fuel adjustments, salary adjustments for insurance and all the departments needs. The only need he didnt honor was the request for parity pay made in 2020 for the fiscal year 2021 budget.

This refusal led to the salary grievance committee meeting in 2020 that ultimately resulted in three of the four constables receiving several thousand dollars in raises.

Lymbery said the county has been eaten up with requests for mental health transports that have overwhelmed the sheriffs office and that he went to the constables to ask for help in the crisis. The constables refused, he said.

Selman said he had never been approached to handle mental health calls.

What he was talking about there, he called us up there one time a year or two back when we had asked for a salary raise and he said, Ill compromise with you all on salary if you will do this, Pct. 3 Constable Chad Wilson said. And we just explained thats not our constitutional duty.

Lymbery Tuesday said his opinion in the courts first denial of a raise for constables was correct.

Pitts asked Lymbery whether he was really going with his own opinion against that determined by citizens and other elected officials. Lymbery said he was shocked the committee went the way it did and did not agree with the committee.

Paulette agreed with Lymbery, citing an argument made to the committee that the constables are paid really well compared to other areas. He said he has thought forcefully about this decision and it was no at the first vote and would be no, again.

Kennedy said he would vote in line with the grievance committee.
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Viruses accumulate mutations as they replicate in infected cells. Repeated replication can lead to viral strains that show attenuated virulence. Such strains may act as vaccines if the attenuated virus can produce immunity without serious disease.

This approach is not new. Albert Sabin developed an attenuated poliovirus vaccine in the mid-20th century that helped eradicate naturally occurring polio in the Western Hemisphere. Attenuated viral vaccines for rubella, measles, yellow fever and other diseases are widely used.

Can a similar vaccine be developed for COVID-19?

Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham have published a foundational study for that possibility in the Journal of Virology. They asked a simple question: Which mutations predominate when the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 is grown in successive generationscalled passages by virologistsin tissue culture?

The UAB researchers found that SARS-CoV-2 isolates rapidly adapted as they grew in repeated passages in Vero E6 cells, a strain of kidney cells that is commonly used for virus propagation. The evolved viruses gained higher infectivity, demonstrated more rapid infection spread and made dramatically larger plaques on Vero cells. A plaque is a visible fragment of the cell layer where cells are destroyed by viral multiplication and release.

For one of the SARS-CoV-2 strains tested by UAB researchersa strain from Washington state that was the first COVID-19 virus detected in the United States at the start of 2020the average number of infectious virus particles released from the cells was 100-fold less than the number of infectious particles released after four passages.

The researchers, led by Ilya Frolov, Ph.D., professor in the UAB Department of Microbiology, found that viral evolution developed by two major mechanisms. The first was an insertion of seven amino acids, including two positively charged amino acids, into the spike protein of the Washington SARS-CoV-2 isolate. The virus uses its spike proteins to attach to ACE2 receptors on cells, triggering its entry into the cell. Thus, the spike protein is a major determinant of pathogenesis.

The second mechanism was a change of one amino acid from serine to glycine, a mutation called S686G, in the spike protein near its cleavage site. Both mechanisms increased the ability of the mutant to bind to heparan sulfate, which is abundantly present on the surface of cells. The two changes also increased plaque size and rate of infection spread. That binding to heparan sulfate on the cellular membrane appears to be the mechanism of primary attachment of the virus before the high affinity interaction of the spike with the cellular ACE2 receptor. As a test of biological significance, solutions of heparina related polysaccharideinhibited the infectivity of the mutant viruses that showed increased binding to heparan sulfate, while heparin did not reduce the infectivity of non-mutant viruses.

To test the independent effects of the two major mechanisms, the UAB researchers cloned each change into DNA that was a copy of the genome of the first Wuhan, China, SARS-CoV-2 isolate sequenced in January 2020. RNA copies produced from these DNA constructs were delivered into cells, and the cells then produced the virus. Researchers found that each single mechanism increased the binding of the constructs to heparan sulfate, and a double-mutant construct with both changes had significantly higher infection rates than either single mutant.

"An important characteristic of the double mutant is that its further evolution in cultured cells appears to be unlikely," Frolov said. He says the recombinant single mutants continued to accumulate various second-site mutations in further passages, while the double mutant that contained both the amino acid insertion and S686G was stable and did not acquire additional changes.

Intriguingly, SARS-CoV-2 is a positive-strand RNA coronavirus. Alphaviruses are also positive-strand RNA viruses. Others have shown that the alphaviruses chikungunya, Venezuelan equine encephalitis, Ross River and Sindbis showed similar rapid evolution during growth in cell culture, including increased plaque size, a stronger interaction with heparan sulfate and a stimulated spread of infection.

Importantly, these evolved alphaviruses were usually dramatically less pathogenic in mice and humans.

"As with the heparan sulfate-binding mutants of other RNA+ viruses, the evolved SARS-CoV-2 may also be attenuated in vivo, particularly the double mutant that demonstrates the most adapted phenotype," Frolov said. "Thus, they may also be used as a basis for development of stable live attenuated vaccines for COVID-19."

Besides Frolov, the research was co-led by Todd Green, Ph.D., associate professor, and Elena Frolova, Ph.D., professor, both in the UAB Department of Microbiology.

More information: Nikita Shiliaev et al, Natural isolate and recombinant SARS-CoV-2 rapidly evolve in vitro to higher infectivity through more efficient binding to heparan sulfate and reduced S1/S2 cleavage, Journal of Virology (2021). Journal information: Journal of Virology Nikita Shiliaev et al, Natural isolate and recombinant SARS-CoV-2 rapidly evolve in vitro to higher infectivity through more efficient binding to heparan sulfate and reduced S1/S2 cleavage,(2021). DOI: 10.1128/JVI.01357-21
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Cuba said Wednesday it would seek World Health Organization approval for two home-grown coronavirus vaccines it hopes to commercialize widely.

A vetting process will start Thursday with WHO experts examining the nation's Abdala and Soberana 02 jabs, said Rolando Perez of state pharma group BioCubaFarma.

Perez said the experts would examine the vaccines' "safety, immunogenicity (the ability of a vaccine to provoke an immune response) and efficacy."

The WHO's representative in Cuba, Jose Moya, told AFP there would be "a first virtual meeting" Thursday between experts in Havana, Geneva and Washington.

Cuba has been using domestically-produced vaccines in its COVID-19 inoculation campaign, including for children.

The vaccines, the first developed in Latin America, have yet to undergo international, scientific peer review.

They are based on recombinant protein technologythe same used by the United States' Novavax and France's Sanofi jabs.

Unlike many other shots in use, recombinant vaccines do not require extreme refrigeration.

Perez said Cuba's ability to sell its vaccines to other countries does not depend on WHO approval, as this is a decision for national health authorities.

But it would "facilitate (the vaccines') entry into the market in other nations, once the island's needs are covered."

Several countries including Argentina and Mexico have shown interest in acquiring the Cuban jabs, Venezuela has already signed a purchase contract, and Iran is producing Soberana 02 on home soil.

Under American sanctions since 1962, communist Cuba has a long tradition of making its own vaccines, dating back to the 1980s.

Nearly 80 percent of its inoculations are produced locally.

Cuban scientists say the Abdala and Soberana 02 jabs have been shown to be more than 90 percent effective at preventing symptomatic COVID-19 cases.

The island of 11.2 million people has fully vaccinated about 38.5 percent of its population, also using China's Sinopharm inoculation.

The country has registered 768,497 COVID cases and 6,523 deaths.

Explore further In world first, Cuba starts COVID jabs for toddlers

 2021 AFP
Chart to explain why scientists looking at the 2021 ebola flare-up in Guinnea believe that a latent virus in a symptom-free survivor of an earlier outbreak may have become reactivated to trigger a new deadly outbreak.

Ebola, which could reappear years later in survivors according to a study published by the journal Nature on Wednesday, has killed more than 15,000 people since 1976.

Here is a factfile on the widely feared disease:

Origins

Ebola is a viral haemorrhagic fever that was first identified in central Africa in 1976. The disease was named after a river in the Democratic Republic of Congo, then known as Zaire.

Five of the virus species are known to cause disease in humansZaire, Sudan, Bundibugyo, Reston and Tai Forest.

The first three have resulted in serious outbreaks in Africa.

Transmission

The virus' natural reservoir animal is suspected to be a species of fruit bat, which does not itself fall ill but can pass the disease on to primates, including humans. Humans become exposed to the virus if they kill or butcher infected bats for food.

Among humans, the virus is passed on by contact with the blood, body fluids, secretions or organs of an infected or recently deceased person. This can include touching a sick or dead person, and likely also sexual intercourse.

Those infected do not become contagious until symptoms appear. They become more and more contagious until just after their death, which poses great risks during funerals.

Death rates are high, at around 50 percent on average of those infected, and up to 90 percent for some epidemics, World Health Organization (WHO) data show.

According to the study published Wednesday, it is possible that Ebola remains dormant in survivors before reappearing several years later and potentially causing a new outbreak.

Symptoms

Following an incubation period of between two and 21 days, Ebola develops into a high fever, weakness, intense muscle and joint pain, headaches and a sore throat.

The initial symptoms are often followed by vomiting and diarrhoea, skin eruptions, kidney and liver failure, and sometimes internal and external bleeding.

Treatment

A vaccine developed by the US group Merck Sharp and Dohme was found to be very effective in a major study carried out in Guinea in 2015.

It was pre-qualified by the WHO and more than 300,000 doses have been used during a vaccination programme in the DR Congo.

A second experimental vaccine developed by the US group Johnson & Johnson was introduced preventively in October 2019 in areas that had not been affected by the virus, and more than 20,000 people were inoculated.

Worst epidemic (2013-2016)

The worst-ever Ebola outbreak began in December 2013 in southern Guinea before spreading to two neighbouring West African countries, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

That outbreak killed more than 11,300 people out of nearly 29,000 registered cases, according to WHO estimates.

10th and 11th DR Congo epidemics

The 10th epidemic began in August 2018 in the North Kivu province of DR Congo. The WHO declared it a global health threat in July 2019.

DR Congo authorities declared it over in June the following year after around 2,280 people had died, making it Africa's second-worst Ebola outbreak.

That month in the Equateur province, an 11th Ebola epidemic began and it was declared over in November, with 55 deaths.

DR Congo, Guinea

The DR Congo said in February 2021 that a resurgence of the virus had been identified in an eastern part of the country.

Vaccines were rolled out and the 12th epidemic was declared over in May, at a cost of six lives.

Guinea also reported an "epidemic situation" in its southeast in February. After the rapid use of vaccines, the official end of the second epidemic was declared in June after 12 deaths.

Ivory Coast: False alarm

On August 14, Ivory Coast announced its first known case of the disease since 1994, in an 18-year-old Guinean woman recently arrived in Abidjan.

But after new studies by the Institut Pasteur in France, the WHO announced at the end of August that the patient had not had the disease and there was "no evidence" of Ebola in the country.

Explore further DR Congo starts countdown to end of Ebola outbreak in east

 2021 AFP
A scatter plot of Mendelian Randomisation analyses of 134 vitamin D SNPs on COVID-19 risk. Credit: DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-97679-5

New research from Trinity College and University of Edinburgh has examined the association between vitamin D and COVID-19, and found that ambient ultraviolet B (UVB) radiation (which is key for vitamin D production in the skin) at an individual's place of residence in the weeks before COVID-19 infection, was strongly protective against severe disease and death.

The paper has been published in the journal Scientific Reports.

Previous studies have linked vitamin D deficiency with an increased susceptibility to viral and bacterial respiratory infections. Similarly, several observational studies found a strong correlation between vitamin D deficiency and COVID-19, but it could be that these effects are confounded and in fact a result of other factors, such as obesity, older age or chronic illness which are also linked with low vitamin D.

To overcome this, researchers were able to calculate "genetically-predicted" vitamin D level, that is not confounded by other demographic, health and lifestyle factors, by using the information from over one hundred genes that determine vitamin D status.

The Mendelian Randomisation is a particular analytical approach that enabled researchers to investigate whether vitamin D and COVID-19 might be causally linked using genetic data. Few earlier studies attempted this but failed to show a causal link. This could be because UVB radiation sunshine which is the most important source of vitamin D for majority of people was ignored.

What is unique about this research?

Researchers, for the first time, looked at both genetically-predicted and UVB-predicted vitamin D level. Almost half a million individuals in the UK took part in the study, and ambient UVB radiation before COVID-19 infection was individually assessed for each participant. When comparing the two variables, researchers found that correlation with measured vitamin D concentration in the circulation was three-fold stronger for UVB-predicted vitamin D level, compared to genetically-predicted.

What were the findings?

Researchers found that ambient UVB radiation at an individual's place of residence preceding COVID-19 infection was strongly and inversely associated with hospitalization and death. This suggests that vitamin D may protect against severe COVID-19 disease and death. Additionally, while the results from the Mendelian Randomisation analysis weren't conclusive, some indication of a potential causal effect was noted. Because of the relatively weak link between genetically-predicted vitamin D level that is used for Mendelian Randomisation analysis, it is possible that the number of cases in the current study was too small to convincingly determine causal effect, but future larger studies might provide the answer.

Professor Lina Zgaga, associate professor in epidemiology, School of Medicine, Trinity College and senior researcher on the study said:

"Our study adds further evidence that vitamin D might protect against severe COVID-19 infection. Conducting a properly designed COVID-19 randomized controlled trial of vitamin D supplementation is critical. Until then, given that vitamin D supplements are safe and cheap, it is definitely advisable to take supplements and protect against vitamin D deficiency, particularly with winter on the horizon."

Professor Evropi Theodoratou, professor of cancer epidemiology and global health, University of Edinburgh and senior researcher on the study said:

"Given the lack of highly effective therapies against COVID-19, we think it is important to remain open-minded to emerging results from rigorously conducted studies of vitamin D."

Dr. Xue Li, a researcher on the study from Zhejiang University said:

"Our study supports the recommendation of vitamin D supplementation for not only the maintenance of bone and muscle health during the lock down, but also the potential benefits in relation to protection from COVID-19."

Explore further Vitamin D may not provide protection from COVID-19 susceptibility or disease severity

More information: Xue Li et al, An observational and Mendelian randomisation study on vitamin D and COVID-19 risk in UK Biobank, Scientific Reports (2021). Journal information: Scientific Reports Xue Li et al, An observational and Mendelian randomisation study on vitamin D and COVID-19 risk in UK Biobank,(2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-97679-5
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

A growing number of drugs are being approved on the basis of indirect ('surrogate') measures that do not always reliably predict outcomes that matter most to patients, such as living longer or feeling better.

In The BMJ today, experts argue that surrogate endpoints provide no guarantee of clinical benefit and should be used only as a last resort in drug trials. In a linked feature, journalists Jeanne Lenzer and Shannon Brownlee say the routine use of surrogate endpoints for drug approvals is not benefiting patients or the public purse.

Using surrogate endpoints to measure whether a new drug works can reduce the duration, cost, and complexity of clinical trials before regulatory assessment and facilitate faster patient access to new therapies, especially for chronic diseases, explain Dalia Dawoud at the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), and colleagues.

However, the use of such endpoints can also have negative implications, such as making decisions more challenging for health technology assessment bodies, and complicating treatment decisions for patients and clinicians.

Yet they point out that over the past three decades, the proportion of clinical studies measuring the efficacy of new drugs using surrogate endpoints alone has increased from fewer than 50% in the mid-90s to roughly 60% in 2015-17. In some therapeutic areas such as cancer, surrogate endpoints account for almost 80% of all clinical studies supporting regulatory approvals.

They call for more selective use of surrogate endpoints when evaluating new drugs, restricting their use to chronic diseases, especially when collecting data on patient relevant clinical outcomes requires trials with unattainably long follow up.

And they say greater involvement of patients (and organisations representing patients) in regulatory and health technology assessment processes is also essential to ensure that the conditions for accepting surrogate endpoints for decision making are adequately met.

So should regulatory authorities approve drugs based on surrogate endpoints?

Jeanne Lenzer and Shannon Brownlee examine the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) expedited approval process that allows drugs onto the market before their effectiveness has been proven.

Many such approvals are based on surrogate endpoints and in 2018, 73% of FDA licensed drugs (43/59) received expedited approval.

As part of the accelerated approval process, the manufacturer must conduct post-approval trials to confirm clinical benefit. If these trials show no benefit, the drug's approval can be withdrawn. But Lenzer and Brownlee say post-approval trials can be delayed for many years and the FDA has not held companies accountable when they fail to prove such benefit.

They point out that many patients are willing, if not eager, to take unproven drugs out of the belief that the FDA's approval process ensures efficacy and safety of the drugs. Doctors are also willing to prescribe based on similar beliefs.

But they argue that by allowing drugs onto the market based on surrogates only, "the pharmaceutical industry and FDA have effectively offloaded the burden of proof onto the shoulders of the public, along with the physical harms and financial costs of clinical testing (if done at all)."

Steps can be taken to reduce the risks from using surrogate endpoints, they add, but some experts are now arguing that the use of surrogate endpoints should be restricted almost entirely to phase II studies (designed to develop hypotheses for testing and determine whether the balance of benefit to harm is sufficient to justify phase III studies).

Others disagree, saying that it would be unethical not to use surrogate endpoints and leave patients to die while waiting for new treatments.

Meanwhile, industry supports the use of surrogate endpoints, claiming it is too expensive to go back to approvals based on clinically important endpoints. But Jerome Hoffman, professor emeritus at the UCLA Medical Center says: "The final economic cost of approving and using harmful drugs is actually far greater than the cost of demanding better studies at the outset."

Surrogate endpoints focus on drug effect rather than patient benefit, and are seldom debated in patient circles, writes Roger Wilson in a linked opinion. As a sarcoma patient, he has experienced "misplaced enthusiasm" for a treatment trialled with a surrogate endpoint and approved based on a secondary endpoint. It was then withdrawn when the result was not confirmed in a later study.

"We need to reliably balance two differing viewpoints, a medical story and a parallel patient story," he says. As such, he argues that surrogate endpoints need complementary patient reported outcomes (PROs)measures that help to build a picture of a condition from a patient perspective.

Surrogate endpoints are here to stay, he writes, but patients want to see PROs complementing them as co-primary or even sole primary endpoints. "The benefit will be that patients will understand trial results better, while the doctors guiding us to treatment decisions will have less uncertainty and stronger evidence to use."

Explore further Medicinal products receiving expedited approval in Europe may not provide intended clinical benefit

More information: Analysis: Raising the bar for using surrogate endpoints in drug regulation and health technology assessment, BMJ (2021). Journal information: British Medical Journal (BMJ) Analysis: Raising the bar for using surrogate endpoints in drug regulation and health technology assessment,(2021). DOI: 10.1136/bmj.n2191
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Thousands of unvaccinated French health workers face suspension without pay from Wednesday under a new COVID-19 law that punishes people in care professions who refuse to get immunised against the virus.

President Emmanuel Macron gave workers including staff at hospitals, retirement home workers and the fire servicesome 2.7 million people in totalan ultimatum on July 12 to get at least one shot by September 15 or resign.

Two months later, thousands of healthcare workers are still baulking at getting jabbed, raising the spectre of disruptions to services in facilities forced to suspend staff without pay.

A hospital in the southern city of Montelimar confirmed that it had already begun cancelling non-urgent operations because of a shortage of vaccinated anaesthetists.

The hospital's deputy-director Philippe Charre said three allergy specialists would also be absent over their refusal to comply with the vaccine mandate.

Public sector union the CGT has warned of a "health catastrophe" if the government suspends large numbers of hospital workers and bars vaccine-shy GPs.

"We have to keep these people on the job until they have been replaced," said Christophe Prudhomme, an emergency services doctor and MP with the left-wing France Unbowed party.

But the government has vowed to see the policy through.

"We will not back down," Prime Minister Jean Castex said last month.

- 'Health pass' rowFrance's national public health agency estimated a week ago that roughly 12 percent of hospital staff and around six percent of doctors in private practices have yet to be vaccinated.

The head of the Paris public hospital network, Martin Hirsch, said he expected the fallout to be limited, however, estimating that only between 1 and 2 percent of his staff were vaccine holdouts.

The head of the Synerpa federation of private care homes, Florence Arnaiz-Maume, also estimated that only between 1 and 2 percent of staff in its member facilitiesaround 3,000 peoplewould have to be dismissed.

At the start of the global vaccination drive France had one of the lowest levels of vaccine acceptance in the world, with only four in 10 people saying they planned to get immunised.

It now boasts one of the world's highest vaccination rates, with nearly 50 million peoplenearly 90 percent of all adultshave received at least one vaccine dose by September 13.

The introduction of a COVID "health pass" in July, requiring people to prove that they have been either vaccinated or recently tested negative for COVID-19 to be able to access restaurants, bars, gyms or museums acted as a game-changer for millions of vaccine sceptics.

'Risks outweigh benefits'

But tens of thousands of people continue to demonstrate each week over the restrictions.

Amel Benothman, a 41-year-old nurse working at a psychiatric hospital in the northern city of Lille told AFP he was "too worried" about the side-effects of the vaccine to get immunised even if it meant losing his job.

"I've already had a mild case of COVID and consider that the risks outweigh the benefits," Benothman, who took part in an anti-health pass demonstration in Lille last weekend, said.

France is not the first country to take steps to force people working with the vulnerable to get vaccinated.

US President Joe Biden last week made vaccines mandatory for millions of federal employees and contractors as well as businesses with over 100 employees.

In Europe, Italy made the vaccine compulsory for health workers in late May and plans to expand the measure to retirement home staff in October, whereas Greece has already introduced it to both categories of carers.

 2021 AFP
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Nearly half of New York City mothers who had been trying to become pregnant again before the coronavirus pandemic began stopped in the first few months of the outbreak, a new study shows.

Led by researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, the survey of 1,179 mothers in New York City also found that one-third of women who had been thinking about becoming pregnant before the pandemic but had not yet begun trying, said they were no longer considering it.

"Our findings show that the initial COVID-19 outbreak appears to have made women think twice about expanding their families and, in some cases, reduce the number of children they ultimately intend to have," says study lead author and epidemiologist Linda Kahn, Ph.D., MPH. "This is yet another example of the potential long-lasting consequences of the pandemic beyond the more obvious health and economic effects."

Pregnancy becomes riskier and more difficult to achieve as women age, so the delays prompted by the pandemic may lead to increased health risks for both mother and child, as well as the need for costly fertility treatments, she adds.

Kahn, an assistant professor in the Departments of Pediatrics and Population Health at NYU Langone Health, notes that all of the women in the study already had at least one child age 3 or younger. As a result, it is possible that the challenges of caring for a young child during the peak of New York City's outbreak and subsequent lockdown may have played a role in their hesitancy to have another baby.

Early evidence has already identified a birthrate decline in the United States during the coronavirus pandemic. Recent data showed that the country saw roughly 300,000 fewer births in 2020 than experts had expected based on annual fertility trends, with a particular drop in the last two months of the year, which corresponds with fewer conceptions at the beginning of the outbreak in March. However, until now, few investigations have explored the root causes behind individual parents' decisions to delay pregnancy.

The new study, publishing online Sept. 15 in the JAMA Network Open, is the first to examine pregnancy plans among mothers during the first wave of COVID-19 in New York City.

For the investigation, the researchers analyzed data from an ongoing pregnancy and child health study. In the survey, which collected data beginning in mid-April 2020, the mothers were asked to recall their pregnancy plans before the pandemic as well as whether they were still going forward with their plans at the time of the survey.

Among the findings, the study revealed that fewer than half of mothers who had stopped trying to become pregnant were certain they would resume trying to become pregnant once the pandemic ended, suggesting that they may abandon rather than just delay their plans to expand their families, Kahn says.

In addition, those with higher stress levels and greater financial insecurity were especially likely to postpone or end their plans for an additional child. According to the study authors, this finding highlights the importance of financial health in parents' decisions around pregnancy and suggests that additional financial support for families may be needed to address the nation's ongoing fertility decline, which began in 2008.

"These results emphasize the toll the coronavirus has taken not only on individual parents, but perhaps on fertility rates overall," says study senior author epidemiologist Melanie Jacobson, Ph.D., MPH.

Jacobson, a research scientist in the Division of Environmental Pediatrics at NYU Langone, cautions that the investigation only included women who were planning to have children and did not account for unplanned pregnancies.

She says the study authors next plan to repeat the survey with the same group of mothers and explore the potential impact of vaccination, an option not available at the time of the survey.

Funding for the study was provided by National Institutes of Health grants UH3 0D023305 and K99 ES030403.

In addition to Kahn and Jacobson, other NYU Langone researchers included Leonardo Trasande, MD, MPP; Mengling Liu, Ph.D.; Shilpi Mehta-Lee, MD; and Sara Brubakerf, MD.

More information: Factors associated with changes in pregnancy intention among New York City mothers following the COVID-19 outbreak, JAMA Network Open (2021). Journal information: JAMA Network Open Factors associated with changes in pregnancy intention among New York City mothers following the COVID-19 outbreak,(2021). DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.24273
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

As more countries consider legalizing non-medical cannabis, new research shows that prominent health warnings and less attractive packaging should be mandated to reduce its appeal to children.

In a recent study, researchers from the University of Waterloo found that the amount of advertising and promotion provided on packages changes how people see the productwhether they think it's fun to use, are interested in trying it, or believe it's harmful.

"For a child who's entering the market and trying to figure out if cannabis is a product their friends would think is cool, and that they can project an image with it, that's exactly what brand imagery and promotion does, especially on packages," said David Hammond, a professor in Waterloo's School of Public Health Sciences. "So, if states or countries are interested in protecting youth, our data suggest that packaging restrictions and comprehensive health warnings are effective ways of doing that.

"The more imagery legislators allow, the more appealing these cannabis products will be to the public, especially children. It's up to governments to figure out where to draw the line."

To determine the effectiveness of restricted brand imagery and information from governments in the form of health warnings on how cannabis products are perceived, the team of researchers gathered input from 45,378 randomized participants in Canada and the United States. The participants were presented with four branding conditions, ranging from no brand imagery and uniform colors to full brand imagery. They were also asked to assess how the products' appeal differed based on perceived harm and how easy it is to remember warning messages, which addressed pregnancy, adolescent risk and impaired driving.

The researchers found that reducing the amount of brand imagery modestly decreased product appeal. Additionally, products were rated significantly less harmful when they had a white background with no or limited branding than a colored background, and message recall was substantially higher for Canadian versus US health warnings.

"Canada's warning messages on cannabis products are more salient and easier to understand than in US," Hammond said. "And our findings suggest that Canada's comprehensive regulations appear to be achieving their goal, which is to inform consumers about risks and reducing appeal, including among young people."

The study, Influence of package color, branding and health warnings on appeal and perceived harm of cannabis products among respondents in Canada and the US, authored by Hammond, Samantha Goodman, Vicki Rynard and Maryan Iraniparast, will appear in the journal Preventive Medicine.

Explore further Few consumers understand THC levels in cannabis edibles

More information: Samantha Goodman et al, Influence of package colour, branding and health warnings on appeal and perceived harm of cannabis products among respondents in Canada and the US, Preventive Medicine (2021). Journal information: Preventive Medicine Samantha Goodman et al, Influence of package colour, branding and health warnings on appeal and perceived harm of cannabis products among respondents in Canada and the US,(2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2021.106788
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Looking to understand why some brain tumors with a specific mutation can start to reject drugs commonly used to treat them, CU Cancer Center member Jean Mulcahy Levy, MD, led researchers from institutions around the countryincluding several from the University of Colorado School of Medicineto study samples of brain tumors before and after treatment with the drug.

The study looked specifically at brain tumors called gliomas that had the BRAF mutation, and occur in children and young adults. The same mutation happens in adult melanoma, and several years ago researchers developed a medication to treat the mutation in melanoma that also can be used to treat BRAF-mutated gliomas.

"It's a rare mutation, but it's one of the first mutations that had a targeted medicine we could use," Levy says. "They had a large population and developed the targeted therapies, and that allowed us to use those therapies in our brain tumor patients."

Rise of the resistance

The targeted therapy eliminates the need for chemotherapy in many patients with BRAF-mutated gliomasnot to mention it can help eliminate seizures that can occur in patients with the mutation. However, the new challenge is that some patients develop a resistance to the medicine, eventually causing their tumors to come back. Levy and her team set out to find out what was causing the resistance, and how they could stop it from occurring.

"We collected samples of patient brain tumors before treatment with the targeted medicine and after treatment with the targeted medicine, which is much more difficult in brain tumors," Levy says of the research that was published in August in Clinical Cancer Research. "If you think about melanoma, they can do serial biopsies because the lesions are on the skin and easy to get to. But getting the samples from the brain [is] much harder. So, we developed a collaboration that started here at CU School of Medicine, in my lab, and then we incorporated researchers from the University of California San Francisco, New York University and Johns Hopkins, and that allowed us to create a collaboration and collect 14 patient samples of pre-treatment and post-treatment. We were able to reach out to other institutions, like Valley Children's and Oregon Health Science University, to get their samples as well."

Through deep genetic analysis of the tumors, including RNA sequencing and whole genome sequencing, the researchers found additional mutations that can create resistance to the targeted therapies. Some have been described in other diseases, such as melanoma, but other mutations had never been discovered in either type of tumor before.

"It just goes to show that brain tumors may develop different resistance mechanisms from other kinds of cancers that are treated with these drugs," Levy says. "We can't just rely on, 'Well, melanoma does this, so brain tumors probably do too.' We need to be sure that we're specifically studying brain tumors, because they're a very different kind of disease."

Winning combination

Levy and her fellow researchers are now in the process of following up on their findings, investigating new potential treatments or combination therapies that could help combat drug resistance in BRAF-mutated gliomas. Levy already is conducting a pediatric clinical trial, looking for ways to reverse the resistance.

"The work we're doing now to follow up on our genetic findings will hopefully find other additional medicines or combinations that can be used," she says. "Cancer, at its baseline, is very smart. And it's very rare to have any kind of tumor that you can treat with a single medication. The ultimate goal is to find the right combination of medicines that can treat this cancer and then either prevent resistance or reverse resistance, with the least amount of complications."

Once that combination is found, Levy says, researchers will run more clinical trialsadult and pediatricto test its effectiveness. Her hope is that eventually, patients with this specific type of glioma won't have to worry about recurrence or resistance.

"If we're not focused on developing the next step in therapy, these patients will develop resistance, and then they'll come back to us and we won't have anything to offer them," she says. "We need to be forward-thinking and be ready for the next therapy that has to happen for these patients."

Explore further Sequential-combinatorial regimens can make treatment more effective for people with aggressive cancers

More information: Karisa C. Schreck et al, Deconvoluting mechanisms of acquired resistance to RAF inhibitors in BRAF V600E mutant human glioma, Clinical Cancer Research (2021). Journal information: Clinical Cancer Research Karisa C. Schreck et al, Deconvoluting mechanisms of acquired resistance to RAF inhibitors in BRAF V600E mutant human glioma,(2021). DOI: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-21-2660
A saliva test taken by parents to screen for the leading infectious cause of hearing loss in babies was feasible and well-received, according to a new study. Credit: Filip Mroz

A saliva test taken by parents to screen for the leading infectious cause of hearing loss in babies was feasible and well-received, according to a new study.

The research led by the Murdoch Children's Research Institute (MCRI) and published in the Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health, could pave the way for testing of congenital cytomegalovirus (cCMV) to be added to infant hearing screening programs across Australia.

cCMV can be harmless, but in some babies it leads to hearing loss and neurodevelopmental disorders such as cerebral palsy or vision loss. About 1 in every 200 babies is born with cCMV.

MCRI researcher Emma Webb said this was the first study to show that saliva swabs taken by parents to check for cCMV in their babies was achievable and acceptable to Australian families, even when the swabs were taken at home after discharge from hospital.

The study involved 96 families across four maternity hospitals in Melbourne whose babies did not pass their second Victorian Infant Hearing Screening Program (VIHSP) tests. Accurate diagnosis of cCMV requires a saliva test from an infant in the first 21 days after birth, with antiviral treatment recommended, if clinically indicated, within the first month of life.

During the study, 26 per cent of parents did the saliva test at home, 60 per cent at the hospital and 10 per cent as outpatients. The research found a high uptake by parents with 76 per cent agreeing to do the screen and 100 per cent of infant saliva swabs taken within the required timeframe. One baby was found to have cCMV and was immediately treated.

The findings also showed more than 90 per cent of parents thought the screening was easy to do, was a good idea, and were glad their baby had the test.

Ms Webb said CMV was present in 80 per cent of Australian adults and while it's mostly harmless, it could affect a developing fetus.

"Once a person becomes infected, the virus remains present but usually dormant for life," she said. "Infection or reactivation can occur during pregnancy, with the small risk that the unborn baby may contract the virus."

International guidelines recommend targeted cCMV screening of newborns who do not pass their hearing checks.

MCRI Associate Professor Valerie Sung said because cCMV was not routinely screened for in Australia, detecting affected infants in time to offer potential antiviral treatment was less likely.

"Given this test allows for an early and accurate cCMV diagnosis, could reduce unnecessary parental guilt, and help prevent lifelong disabilities it should be rolled out nation-wide through newborn hearing screening programs," she said.

Associate Professor Sung said timely screening for cCMV became more difficult after women and babies were discharged.

"Early discharge, as we're seeing more now of during COVID-19, can be a big problem because it means we might miss cases of cCMV," she said. "But our study has shown parents can do the swab themselves even at home after leaving the hospital."

Associate Professor Sung said training of hearing screeners, midwives and nurses to complete swabs in hospital would likely reduce false positive rates and further improve the uptake and turnaround time for results.

Victoria Cottrell, whose son Teddy was the only one to test positive for cCMV in the trial, said the test was quick and simple and taking part was the best decision she had ever made.

"I had never heard of cCMV before and thought the cause of the hearing loss most likely was genetic," she said. "During my pregnancy check-ups many infant conditions and foods to steer clear from were mentioned but cCMV was never talked about. The diagnosis came as a shock and was a lot for our family to process."

Profoundly deaf, Teddy, now aged 2 and wears cochlear implants, underwent six months of antiviral treatments and currently has physiotherapy to help with walking.

"If his cCMV diagnosis wasn't picked up so soon he would be further behind in his gross motor skills," Victoria said. "Having the awareness early we have received support quickly and our specialists have been on top everything."

Victoria said she would like to see a test for cCMV added to infant hearing screening programs across Australia.

"If the trial hadn't happened, we would never have known Teddy had cCMV," she said. "I'm just so thankful and relieved that this trial existed to get the best outcomes for Teddy."

Explore further Is newborn screening for congenital cytomegalovirus infection cost effective?

More information: Emma Webb et al, Feasibility and acceptability of targeted salivary cytomegalovirus screening through universal newborn hearing screening, Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health (2021). Emma Webb et al, Feasibility and acceptability of targeted salivary cytomegalovirus screening through universal newborn hearing screening,(2021). DOI: 10.1111/jpc.15705
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

As more people return to indoor settings for work and school, new research shows stricter policy restrictions on business operations and indoor mask-wearing reduced COVID-19 cases in Ontario during the first and second waves.

A new study led by researchers from the University of Waterloo found that stricter non-pharmaceutical interventions, such as policy restrictions on business operations and social gatherings, and indoor mask mandates, are associated with COVID-19 case reductions. Further, estimates based on publicly available Google mobility data suggest that increases in workplace attendance are correlated with higher case counts.

"Public health measures such as mandatory mask use have become increasingly unpopular and divisive in society," said Anindya Sen, a professor in the University of Waterloo's Department of Economics. "However, our study offers evidence that these measures do work in reducing the incidence of disease. The results of the forecasting exercises should also be useful to policymakers from a planning perspective."

In undertaking the study, the researchers used the Google data to assess the effects of public mobility to destinations commonly frequented, such as grocery and retail stores and workplaces. The researchers found that relatively simple forecasting modelsknown as "time-series models"can predict one week ahead trends in daily COVID-19 cases in Ontario with some accuracy and are more precise than Ontario government forecasts.

"Our models also offer more accurate daily forecasts than the susceptible-infected-removed model that epidemiologists typically employ," Sen said. "Matching these mobility measures to corresponding trends in COVID-19 cases should be useful to policymakers in deciding specific types of economic and social lockdowns, as there are still gaps in knowledge on which types of population mobility are the most responsible for the spread of COVID-19 cases."

The study, Estimating the Effects of Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions (NPIs) and Population Mobility on Daily COVID-19 Cases: Evidence from Ontario, authored by Sen and Waterloo Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science colleagues Nathaniel Stevens, Francis Kiwon, Stefan Steiner, Plinio Morita from the School of Public Health Sciences, and University of Pennsylvania's Qihuang Zhang, has been accepted for publication in the journal Canadian Public Policy.

Explore further Mask mandates shown to significantly reduce spread of COVID-19
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

A new study, published today in the New England Journal of Medicine, finds a single dose of typhoid conjugate vaccine (TCV)  the only typhoid vaccine licensed for children as young as 6 monthsis safe and 84 percent effective in protecting against typhoid in Blantyre, Malawi.

These are the first efficacy results from Africa and part of a five-year, multi-country project to accelerate introduction of TCV. The findings are critical as typhoid is an increasing public health threat across sub-Saharan Africa due to the emergence and spread of multi-drug resistant strains, which are now common in Malawi. An estimated 1.2 million typhoid cases and 19,000 deaths occur each year in sub-Saharan Africa, which includes Malawi. Most of these infections occur in school-age and pre-school children.

The clinical trial in Malawi was led by Professor Melita Gordon of the University of Liverpool and the Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome Trust (MLW) Clinical Research Programme, in partnership with the Blantyre Malaria Project (BMP) and the University of Maryland School of Medicine's (UMSOM) Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health (CVD).

Professor Gordon said: "Our only real option to controlling these new resistant strains of typhoid in a timely way is through the vaccine.

"The TCV efficacy data are the first from Africa and offer great promise for the control of this deadly disease across the continent. It is particularly significant that this vaccine is a great tool not only to control typhoid disease itself, but also to combat the international spread of antimicrobial resistance.

"The burden of disease in younger, pre-school children has previously been rather overlooked, so it is especially important and encouraging that we have shown in this trial that TCV works well in pre-school as well as school-age children."

In 2017, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended TCV for children six months of age and older in typhoid endemic settings. The new study found that the vaccine prevented typhoid in Malawiwhere the incidence of typhoid is high. This helps to pave the way for additional countries to introduce TCV, making it available to all children.

The analysis included more than 28,000 children aged 9 months to 12 years in Blantyre, Malawihalf received TCV and half received the control, group-A meningococcal (MenA) vaccine. Blood tests performed on children with febrile illness occurring at least two weeks after receiving a study vaccine confirmed typhoid in 10 children in the TCV group and 61 who received MenA over a period of 18-24 months. TCV was effective in all age groups, including children under five years of age.

Typhoid is a bacterial infection caused by Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi and is a serious threat in many low- and middle-income countries. While typhoid is treatable, the effects can go beyond illness and death. Typhoid can impair physical and cognitive development in children, affect school attendance and performance, limit productivity, and reduce earning potential.

Dr. Queen Dube, Chief of Health Services from the Malawi Ministry of Health, said: "Typhoid is one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality. It places a large health, financial and social burden on families and especially on children in Malawi.

"Malawi's Ministry of Health is excited about the results of the typhoid conjugate vaccine trialit will bring great relief, will save lives, prevent morbidity, and help make the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals a reality across the continent."

Malawi will now roll out the TCV vaccine nationally, starting with a mass campaign for all children aged 9 months through to 15 years, followed by introduction into the national Expanded Programme of Immunisation, from 2022 onwards.

Professor Henry Mwandumba, Acting Director of the Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Programme added: "The outcome of the typhoid vaccine trial bears testament to what can be achieved through global research collaboration. I would like to thank all partners and trial participants for this truly excellent work, which will have lasting health benefits around the world."

The study is part of the Typhoid Vaccine Acceleration Consortium (TyVAC)  a larger effort led by CVD, the Oxford Vaccine Group at the University of Oxford, and PATH. TyVAC aims to accelerate the introduction of TCV as part of an integrated approach to reduce the burden of typhoid in countries eligible for support from Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.

"TCVs have the potential to protect millions of children disproportionately impacted by typhoid. We hope these much-needed data catalyze additional countries to introduce this lifesaving vaccine," said Kathleen Neuzil, MD, MPH, the Myron M. Levine, MD, DTPH, Professor in Vaccinology at UMSOM. Dr. Neuzil is also the Director of CVD and Chief Investigator for the TyVAC consortium.

Explore further First child vaccinated with typhoid conjugate vaccine in Africa

More information: Priyanka D. Patel et al, Safety and Efficacy of a Typhoid Conjugate Vaccine in Malawian Children, New England Journal of Medicine (2021). Journal information: New England Journal of Medicine Priyanka D. Patel et al, Safety and Efficacy of a Typhoid Conjugate Vaccine in Malawian Children,(2021). DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa2035916
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge and 20 other hospitals from across the world and healthcare technology leader NVIDIA have used artificial intelligence (AI) to predict COVID patients' oxygen needs on a global scale.

The research was sparked by the pandemic and set out to build an AI tool to predict how much extra oxygen a COVID-19 patient might need in the first days of hospital care, using data from across four continents.

The technique, known as federated learning, used an algorithm to analyze chest X-rays and electronic health data from hospital patients with COVID symptoms.

To maintain strict patient confidentiality, the patient data was fully anonymized and an algorithm was sent to each hospital so no data was shared or left its location.

Once the algorithm had "learned" from the data, the analysis was brought together to build an AI tool which could predict the oxygen needs of hospital COVID patients anywhere in the world.

Published today in Nature Medicine, the study dubbed EXAM (for EMR CXR AI Model), is one of the largest, most diverse clinical federated learning studies to date.

To check the accuracy of EXAM, it was tested out in a number of hospitals across five continents, including Addenbrooke's Hospital. The results showed it predicted the oxygen needed within 24 hours of a patient's arrival in the emergency department, with a sensitivity of 95 percent and a specificity of over 88 percent.

"Federated learning has transformative power to bring AI innovation to the clinical workflow," said Professor Fiona Gilbert, who led the study in Cambridge and is honorary consultant radiologist at Addenbrooke's Hospital and chair of radiology at the University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine.

"Our continued work with EXAM demonstrates that these kinds of global collaborations are repeatable and more efficient, so that we can meet clinicians' needs to tackle complex health challenges and future epidemics."

First author on the study Dr. Ittai Dayan, from Mass General Bingham in the U.S., where the EXAM algorithm was developed, said, "Usually in AI development, when you create an algorithm on one hospital's data, it doesn't work well at any other hospital. By developing the EXAM model using federated learning and objective, multimodal data from different continents, we were able to build a generalizable model that can help frontline physicians worldwide."

Bringing together collaborators across North and South America, Europe and Asia, the EXAM study took just two weeks of AI "learning" to achieve high-quality predictions.

"Federated Learning allowed researchers to collaborate and set a new standard for what we can do globally, using the power of AI,"' said Dr. Mona G. Flores, Global Head for Medical AI at NVIDIA. "This will advance AI not just for healthcare but across all industries looking to build robust models without sacrificing privacy."

The outcomes of around 10,000 COVID patients from across the world were analyzed in the study, including 250 who came to Addenbrooke's Hospital in the first wave of the pandemic in March/April 2020.

The research was supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre (BRC).

Work on the EXAM model has continued. Mass General Brigham and the NIHR Cambridge BRC are working with NVIDIA Inception startup Rhino Health, cofounded by Dr. Dayan, to run prospective studies using EXAM.

Professor Gilbert added, "Creating software to match the performance of our best radiologists is complex, but a truly transformative aspiration. The more we can securely integrate data from different sources using federated learning and collaboration, and have the space needed to innovate, the faster academics can make those transformative goals a reality."

Explore further Researchers build models using machine learning technique to enhance predictions of COVID-19 outcomes

More information: Ittai Dayan et al, Federated learning for predicting clinical outcomes in patients with COVID-19, Nature Medicine (2021). Journal information: Nature Medicine Ittai Dayan et al, Federated learning for predicting clinical outcomes in patients with COVID-19,(2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41591-021-01506-3
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Dozens of people wait their turn to get the Covid-19 vaccine Monday at the University of Guam Calvo Field House in Mangilao.
A new internal ethos of delivering first-class customer service will ensure that South African Airways (SAA) is revived to its former glory.

This is according to the airlines interim CEO Thomas Kgokolo.

SAA is set to take to the skies next week following a turbulent 16 months wherein the airline was grounded, put under business rescue, and then exited that business rescue.

While its impossible to ignore the recent difficult history of SAA, this is also a proud brand that celebrates its eighty seventh anniversary this year and one that is respected the world over, Kgokolo said.

Our jobs as custodians of this brand is to build on the goodwill gathered over so many years and to reshape and recast a business that all South Africans can be proud of.

In a statement, SAA explained that a new business and operating philosophy of placing customers first is being imbued into the airline.

Managers and staffhave been working collegially on a new philosophy of customer excellence, the statement said.

Some of the attributes that airline staff will be striving to build are, creating real connections with each other and customers; adopting an internal culture of collaboration; living by the principles of total accountability; being aspirational in terms of future growth and development; and containing costs.

Adding to that, Kgokolo said regaining the trust that was lost in the airline is a work in progress.

We know its going to take time, Kgokolo said.

Trust and respect are not won overnight, but with the confidence and the enthusiasm our staff is showing ahead of our take offIm confident we will achieve those goals quickly

We know these are lofty goals but its only through striving for them, that we are going to put SAA back in a place where it belongs.

The airline has announced the following schedule ahead of its take off:
The Hawks Serious Commercial Crime unit arrested a 36 years old suspect this morning in Gauteng following an investigation into the data breach at credit bureau Experian in August 2020, the South African Police Service said in a statement.

According to the Hawks, the suspect pretended to be Tebogo Mogashoa, a director of Talis Holdings, and entered into a contract with Experian for access to the personal information that the credit bureau holds on millions of people.

The suspect then proceeded to download approximately 23 million personal data records and 727,000 business records. The suspect then attempted to sell these records at about R4.2 million, the Hawks stated.

Consequent to his arrest, the suspect is expected to appear in the Palm Ridge Magistrates court today, 15 September 2021 on charges of fraud and the contravention of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act.

On 19 August 2020, the South African Banking Risk Centre (Sabric) announced a data breach at consumer, business, and credit information services agency Experian.

Experians major clients include several South African banks. The company hold highly sensitive financial and personal information of local citizens and businesses.

Following the Sabric announcement, Experian issued a statement saying it was not hacked.

Experian South Africa CEO Ferdie Pieterse said the data breach exposed the personal details of 23.4 million South Africans and 607,000 businesses.

He said the security breach occurred when an individual in South Africa, purporting to represent a legitimate client, fraudulently requested services from Experian.

The perpetrator used social engineering techniques to put himself forward as a known customer and convinced Experian, in the normal course of business, to provide him with the records of 23.4 million individuals.

According to Pieterse, the fraudster already had the names, surnames, and ID numbers of people and Experian only provided contact information to the fraudster  telephone numbers and addresses.

While Pieterse downplayed the severity of the breach, security experts highlighted that it poses a big security risk to individuals and businesses.

J2 Software managing director John Mc Loughlin said this is a serious data breach which should concern people.

He highlighted that the information breach already happened in May and the data has been out there for months.

We live in a digital world. That data can be absolutely anywhere, and that is the information which hackers need to target people for identity theft, SIM swaps, and other fraud, he said.

This highly valuable and rich data set provides fraudsters with the means to launch attacks against people.

Data available online

It was not long before this data found its way to the Internet.

The Information Regulator of South Africa raised concerns in September last year that data from the Experian data leak was found on the dark web.

It said the data includes the cellphone numbers, home numbers, work phone numbers, employment details, and identity numbers of individuals.

Company data available reportedly includes the names of companies, as well as their contact details, VAT numbers, and banking details.

MyBroadband received information from an anonymous source that the Experian data breach file was widely available online.

The Experian data breach file is all over the web. I have managed to locate the file at a number of locations, he said.

With the help of security experts, MyBroadband verified that the data is indeed available through a simple download link online and not only on the dark web.

This means anyone with a browser and Internet connection can download the data, which is contained in multiple CSV files.

MyBroadband also verified the accuracy of the data by contacting businesses whose details are contained in the leak.

The data which is available online

Orange Cyberdefense analysed the data and provided an overview of the data which is now freely available online.

There are 25,055,050 total records contained in numerous CSV files.

There are 21,263,393 unique records. 2,736,752 records are listed two or more times.

The latest record date is 2 May 2020.

There are 1,263,435 unique email addresses contained in the leaked data.

It is currently not clear if the financial and personal data which is now available has been enriched from other sources since the first leak.

What is clear is that the data contains in-depth personal and financial data about millions of South African citizens and businesses  a treasure trove for criminals.
In Ohio, where children's hospitals are overwhelmed with Covid-19 and respiratory cases, Gov. Mike DeWine is encouraging schools to issue mask mandates since the state legislature has told him it would overturn any mandate he issued.

"Reasonable people may disagree about a lot, but we can all agree that we must keep our children in the classroom so they don't fall behind and so their parents can go to work and not take time off to watch their kids at home," DeWine said.

The combination of masks and vaccinations is the way to keep children in school, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN Tuesday.

"If you surround the kids with vaccinated people and you have everybody wear a mask, you can get a situation where the children will be relatively safe in school," Fauci told CNN's Jake Tapper.

Fight brewing over vaccine mandates

In the effort to manage the spread of the virus, many officials and experts have promoted vaccine mandates -- but others are opposing such measures.
St. Charles Borromeo will be able to fit more people than the Christ Cathedral  formerly the Crystal Cathedral, Robert H. Schullers megachurch taken over by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange in 2012  which can seat 2,248 congregants. And while St. Matthew Catholic Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, may have more than 11,000 registered families, it seats about 2,100 people. The National Shrine in Washington, D.C., seats 3,500 but is not considered a parish church.

To the Rev. Alex Chavez, pastor of Good Shepherd Catholic Parish in Visalia, the new church is a sign of divine providence, especially amid the pandemic when everything is dull and depressing, here in this little part of California were building this behemoth.

Its the best-kept secret in the nation  little Visalia building the largest parish church in modern U.S. history, Chavez said.

Visalia, a city with just over 140,000 people, is wedged between Fresno and Bakersfield in the San Joaquin Valley  a region where, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures, Latinos are the majority in six of its eight counties. The city has experienced population growth over the last decade, with the number of residents increasing from 124,442 in 2010 to 141,384 in 2020, census figures show.
When radio talk show host Larry Elder leaped into the California gubernatorial recall race, it couldn't have worked out better  for Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Elder carried with him three decades of provocative right-wing rhetoric that Newsom turned into a scary wake-up alarm for snoozing Democrats. It jarred them into voting against Newsom's ouster out of fear that Elder would replace him as governor.

Not just voting but doing it early by mailing in or dropping off their ballots. That was a big help for Newsom.

Quality journalism doesn't happen without your help. Subscribe today! Support local news coverage and the people who report it by subscribing to the Napa Valley Register. Special offer: $1 for your first 6 months!

What difference does it make whether a vote is cast early or on election day? Plenty. An early vote is worth more for a candidate.

That's because if you've already voted, the candidate can save money and time by not bothering to solicit your vote. The campaign can hold back on mailers, phone calls and door-knocks and redirect those dollars and volunteers to people who haven't voted.

"We can cross the voters off our list and use the resources in a more targeted way," says Juan Rodriguez, Newsom's anti-recall campaign manager. "It allows us to double down on target areas."

Updated information about who has voted is readily available from county voter registrars.
John Tracys letter about the evacuation of Kabul (Failure of American Promises, Sept. 7) shows how easy it is to second guess complex evacuations, and how easy it is to be simplistic and wrong.

He criticizes Washington for not knowing how fast the Taliban would take over Kabul, without mentioning that the Taliban itself has said they had not realized how swift their triumph would be. If the Taliban didnt know, who should have? John Tracy criticizes everyone except the Taliban for misjudging the last days.

I think that all four presidents knew that leaving Afghanistan would be chaotic and politically damaging. That might well be why Presidents Bush, Obama, and Trump failed to evacuate even after they knew the war could not be won. As Ann Coulter said, Biden had the courage to do it.

My own hunch is that Washington knew that the fall would be quick. But if President Biden had said that openly, he would likely have created panic and chaos among our allies. Knowing that the war was lost and their paychecks ended, some of our former allies might have turned their weapons against us.
Azerbaijan FM meets with Turkish counterpart in New York

Karabakh President meets with President of Tashir Group Samvel Karapetyan in Yerevan

New Armenian flag placed in Armenia's Tegh village, higher than Azerbaijani flag

UN Secretary General urges to ban weapons that kill without human participation

Russia Federation Council chairwoman congratulates Armenia Parliament Speaker on Independence Day

US may approve Pfizer child vaccine drug soon

Biden calls on UN to protect rights of sex minorities from Chechnya to Cameroon

"Vivid" Independence Day event kicks off at Republic Square in Yerevan (LIVE)

Iranian Deputy FM to arrive in Azerbaijan on a three-day visit

Armenia marks Independence Day: Digest on congratulations from int. leaders

Largest flag of Armenia raised in Yeraskh village of Ararat Province (PHOTOS)

China PM to Armenia counterpart: Cooperation in sidelines of One Belt One Road joint construction steadily develops

Lukashenko to Pashinyan: Belarus, Armenia will be able to fully realize bilateral cooperations potential

Kazakhstan President: Armenia achieved great success, enjoys well-deserved reputation in international arena

Putin to Pashinyan: Trilateral agreements implementation will ensure your countrys peaceful, prosperous development

Mishustin to Pashinyan: Russia-Armenia relations progressively developing in all directions

Guy Parmelin: Switzerland remains reliable partner of reforms in Armenia

France MP: Armenia fighting for survival of itself, its people, against Azerbaijan, Turkey

Wendy Morton: UK will continue to be proud supporter of Armenias democratic, economic development

Russia envoy to Armenia: Any challenge in modern world can be overcome only through joint efforts

Top Iran officials congratulate Armenia, Armenian people

Pope Francis: May divine blessing be with people of Armenia

Wreath laid on behalf of Armenia ex-President Sargsyan at Yerevan military pantheon (PHOTOS)

Sweden ambassador: My best wishes to all Armenians (VIDEO)

Netherlands envoy to Armenia: This beautiful country, wonderful people have bright future (VIDEO)

Xi Jinping to Armen Sarkissian: Dynamics of development of China-Armenia relations is maintained

Armenia First President: Independence is non-negotiable for me

Putin: Development of Russia-Armenia relations corresponds to fundamental interests of our fraternal peoples

Blinken: US remains committed to helping negotiate long-term political settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

Armenia Security Council chief refuses to speak about possible Pashinyan-Erdogan meeting

Biden: US will continue to advocate for release of all Armenian detainees held in Azerbaijan

Armenia FM to head for New York

Macron to Armenias Sarkissian: We will spare no effort to find lasting solution to conflict

Armenia 2nd President Kocharyan: Defeat, authorities that symbolize it cannot be source of inspiration, creation

494 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia

Armenia 3rd President Sargsyan: Challenging but honorific struggle awaits us ahead

Karekin II: Main meaning of 30th anniversary of independence is to rebuild progressive, prosperous country

Karabakh President: Strong, developing Armenia has no alternative

Shombi Sharp: UN will continue to stand with Armenia in addressing impact of recent crises, pandemic, conflict

Armenia President: Today it turns out that we did not appreciate what we had

Georgia capital Tbilisi TV tower illuminated in colors of Armenia flag (PHOTOS)

US ambassador: We continue to look with confidence at future for Armenia as sovereign, prosperous state

Police not allowing reporters to cover PM's visit to Yerevan military pantheon

Newspaper: Azerbaijanis get more active after dismissal of commander of Russia peacekeepers in Artsakh

Armenia marks Independence Day 30th anniversary

Senior officials visiting Yerevan military pantheon on Armenia Independence Day 30th anniversary (PHOTOS)

US launches strike at one of al-Qaida leaders in Syria

Biden to declare end of "20-year war" in Afghanistan in speech at UN General Assembly

US Ambassador to Armenia: Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has yet to be settled, Artsakh status will be clarified

Nikol Pashinyan: Russian-Armenians and their businesses stand strong with the Armenian State

Armenian businessman Samvel Karapetyan pledges investments worth $780,000,000

US says it is willing to consider return to nuclear deal with Iran

Azerbaijani-Turkish military exercises are being held in Nakhchivan

Businessman Samvel Karapetyan: I don't agree that systems have changed in Armenia, only people have changed

Two residents of Armenia's Kasakh who disappeared in Vorotan section and were returned, are at home

Kyrgyz MP proposes to appoint one Ambassador to Armenia and Azerbaijan

Armenia Central Bank head: Buffer of Armenian financial organizations is sufficient to resist challenges

OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Special Representative for South Caucasus to visit Armenia

Armenia PM sends telegram of condolence to Russia President

Armenia Deputy PM: Government shouldn't be involved in business

Nearly 700 projects considered during "Armenia 2020-Armenia 2041" meeting

Putin, Aliyev hold phone talks

Armenian filmmaker calls on Armenia citizens to join march to Yerablur Military Pantheon on Independence Day

Digest: Armenian women die in the Netherlands shooting, Azerbaijan returns 2 Armenians

Relatives of deceased servicemen protesting in front of Armenia government building

Russian Expert Center: Russia is ready to offer Yerevan buses and new metro wagons

"High-Level Observer Day" held as part of "Three Brothers-2021" Azerbaijan-Turkey-Pakistan military drills

Flights to and from Gyumri and Moscow launched

Russia deputy PM: Development of new strategic document has started with Armenia

Armenian businessman: I would like for Armenia to have three official languages

Karabakh emergency situations service: Remains or relics of soldiers not found in Hadrut today

COAF and AMAA partner to revamp dairy production in Lori Province of Armenia

Gunshots heard in Armenia's Kut village again

Alexey Overchuk: Russia is ready to help Armenia overcome economic crisis and pandemic

Armenia economy minister: Unblocking of communication will help increase country's GDP by 30%

Armenia army's units to march on country's Independence Day

Armenia PM congratulates Vladimir Putin on United Russia Party's victory

Malta Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Sergey Smbatyan, performs at InClassica festival (PHOTOS)

Russian official: Bandwidth of Upper Lars checkpoint to grow by 6.5 times in 2022

Armenian Deputy PM: Armenia-Russia trade turnover made up $1.9 billion in first semester of 2021

Nursultan Nazarbayev congratulates Armenia President on 30th anniversary of Independence

Iran Ambassador to Armenia: We hope alternative road to Goris is built as soon as possible

Egypt President congratulates Armenia President on 30th anniversary of Independence

Erdogan to visit Russia on a working visit

Young Dutch man with mental disorder shoots at passers-by, kills 2 female members of AGBU Holland

Russia ambassador to Armenia: Innovative approaches needed to deepen bilateral relations

Greek MFA slams Turkey for illegal fishing in its territorial waters

PM: Armenia greatly interested in opening communications

Armenia-Russia cooperation agreement signed

Deputy PM: Armenia-Russia-Azerbaijan trilateral platform discusses issues I have spoken about many times

Armenia PM spokesperson: No contacts taken place so far with Turkey

North Korean MFA slams new defense alliance created by Australia, UK and US

20 Turkey citizens seek asylum in Armenia in past 3 years

Armenia economy minister on Goris-Kapan motorway situation: We are very actively rebuilding bypass road

Russia deputy PM: Issue of corridors not being discussed

Armenia deputy PM: Unblocking of roads will have positive effect

Deputy PM: Cooperation within EEU is main guarantee of Armenia's economic recovery

Azerbaijan FM heads for US

Iran sending sizeable military forces to Azerbaijan border

2 Armenian General Benevolent Union women die from stabbing (PHOTOS)
YEREVAN.  Zhoghovurd newspaper of Armenia writes: According to the information of Zhoghovurd daily, the authorities want to "dissolve" the NA [(National Assembly)] [opposition] "Armenia" Faction in every way. The objective is for the faction MPs who are currently under arrest to resign from their parliamentary mandates and leave politics.

Our sources convey that the authorities are now engaged in "neutralizing" Dr. Armen Charchyan [an MP from the Armenia Faction] and removing him from politics. It should be noted that although his health condition is extremely bad, he is being held in custody. Our sources at the authorities convey that they even sent an envoy to hospital these days to Charchyan to persuade him to leave politics.

Our sources convey that it is strange that the envoy was the secretary of the Artsakh [(Nagorno-Karabakh)] Security Council, Vitaly Balasanyan. The latter urged Charchyan to resign from the parliamentary mandate and practice medicine, in exchange for which the authorities will forget the criminal case filed against him. Charchyan, however, categorically refused.

We have been trying to talk to Vitaly Balasanyan about this matter for three days, but the latter does not answer our phone calls.

We tried to talk also to Armen Charchyan's lawyer, Erik Aleksanyan, about this matter to find out whether Balasanyan visited Charchyan. "I do not have such information, I meet with Mr. Charchyan every day, but he did not pass such information to me. Moreover, knowing Mr. Charchyan, he would not go for any dealings in exchange for something; but I have no other information," the lawyer concluded.
US President Joe Biden invited Chinese President Xi Jinping to hold a personal meeting, but this proposal was not accepted, Financial Times reported, citing sources familiar with the course of the phone talks between the two politicians on September 9.

The conversation, organized on the American initiative, lasted an hour and a half. This was only the second conversation between the leaders of the United States and China during Biden's tenure. The first took place seven months ago, on February 10.

As stated in the article, Biden proposed a similar summit with the aim of breaking the deadlock in relations between Washington and Beijing. However, sources for the publication said that instead, Xi Jinping insisted that the United States adhere to less aggressive rhetoric towards the PRC.

Another source of the newspaper said that the summit was mentioned by Biden as one of the possibilities for further interaction with the Chinese president and that the White House did not initially expect an immediate response.

The sources of the Financial Times do not come to any single conclusion about what may be dictated by Beijing's unwillingness to organize such a summit. At the same time, the health risks associated with the coronavirus are mentioned.

Thus, it is indicated that Xi Jinping has not left China since January 2020. Then, even before the start of the pandemic, he visited Myanmar.
YEREVAN.  Speaker of the National Assembly (NA) of Armenia, Alen Simonyan, on Wednesday received Indian Ambassador Kishan Dan Deval.

The NA informed Armenian News-NEWS.am that the parliament speaker noted that Armenia lauds the deepening and development of friendly relations with India.

Touching upon the deepening of cooperation between the two countries, Simonyan informed that the Armenia-India parliamentary friendship group will be set up again in the NA soon. Also, the Armenian legislature speaker expressed hope that the setting up of the India-Armenia friendship group in the Indian parliament would also create an opportunity to further deepen the ties between the lawmakers of the two countries.

Highlighting the positive cooperation between Armenia and India on international platforms, the head of the Armenian legislature highly assessed the Indian governments balanced approach at international organizations toward the vital issues of Armenia.

The parties touched upon regional security issues. In this context, the Armenian NA speaker appreciated India's approach that the Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) conflict should be resolved peacefullyand within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs.

The India ambassador, for his part, lauded Armenia's constant supportin the international arenafor the peaceful settlement of the Kashmir issue.

Also, reciprocal visits were seen as a priority in the Armenia-India joint agendaand in favor of new promising domains of bilateral cooperation.
Armenian News - NEWS.am presents a daily digest of Armenia-related top news as of 15.09.21:

Due to aircraft engine malfunction, Armenian FM Ararat Mirzoyan was unable to leave for Dushanbe to attend the joint session of the FMs, Ministers of Defense, and Secretaries of the Security Councils of CSTO member states.

The Russian MFA showed a photo taken during the session, and in the photo, it is clear to see that the foreign minister and defense minister of Armenia arent among the attendees.

Hunanyan said the aircraft was a civil aircraft and didnt provide further details.

The United States does not consider the issue of the status of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) resolved. US Ambassador to Armenia Lynne Tracy stated about this in a conversation with reporters, according to Armenpress.

The US envoy added that her country finds that there is a need for a comprehensive settlement to resolve these matters between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

The Parliamentary Assembly regrets the tragic humanitarian consequences of the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the PACE said in a new report.

"It is a conflict which has seen two major outbreaks of war, the first from the end of 1991 to 1994, and the second a 6-week war in 2020," the report added.

The main issues covered in the report include, the dead, missing, and wounded; prisoners of war/alleged captives; allegations of crimes, war crimes, and other wrongful acts; landmines and unexploded ordnance; displaced persons; border tensions; cultural heritage; hate speech.

Recommendations are directed to Armenia and Azerbaijan on steps to help solve the humanitarian consequences in the short and long term and move towards a process of peace and reconciliation. The international community, including the Council of Europe, is encouraged to help both countries."

A meeting of the opposition "Armenia" Bloc was held Tuesday, chaired by it leader, second President Robert Kocharyan, the bloc informed on Facebook.

At the meeting, the events taking place, the challenges facing Armenia, the ways of their solution, and organizational issues of work in various circles of the bloc were discussed.

Also, Robert Kocharyan instructed to increase the Armenia Blocs public activity in this crucial period for the country, to draw public attention to the problems, to further intensify the work between the bloc and the public, and to create even more effective organizational divisions to give a new quality to the bloc's work.

As of Wednesday morning, 756 new cases of the coronavirus were confirmed in Armenia, and the total number of these cases has reached 250,559 in the country.

Also, 22 more deaths from COVID-19 were registered, making the respective total 5,056 cases.
Since the early 2000s, Azerbaijan has always declared that it plans to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict militarily. This is what Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan said during todays question-and-answer session with government officials in parliament, responding to a question from deputy of the opposition Armenia faction of the National Assembly Gegham Manukyan, who pinpointed the inconsistency of Pashinyans statements and even set aside one of the statements by referring to a voice recording saved in a mobile phone.

According to the head of government, everything will become clear after the formation of a parliamentary committee that will lead a probe into the circumstances behind the 44-day war [in Nagorno-Karabakh].

Its no secret that there has always been a great threat of resumption of military operations. The only thing we didnt know was the site and time of the potential attack, Pashinyan added and rushed to indicate the contradicting statements of the opposition.

Pashinyan also stated that after more than a decade of negotiations, Armenia only reached the point where the regions located around Karabakh had to be transferred to Azerbaijan. According to Pashinyan, the authorities havent even tried t conceal this in any way.
Story Highlights A third in U.S. view internet, publishing, TV/radio industries positively

Half rate computers positively, down significantly from prior years

Ratings among Republicans fell most sharply over past year

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Four pillars of the U.S. economy's information sector -- the internet, publishing, television and radio, and computers -- now receive record-low ratings from Americans after several years of decline.

In the past year, two of these industries experienced significant declines that punctuated the downward trend. The internet's positive image tumbled 14 percentage points to 35%, while radio and television fell eight points to 33%. Meanwhile, the computer and publishing industries saw minor dips, but enough to push them to record lows of 51% and 32%, respectively, in Gallup's two-decade trend.

Line graph. 2001-2021 trends in positive ratings of the computer, Internet, publishing and television/radio industries. Positive ratings of the computer industry were 56% or higher from 2001-2020, but fell to 51% this year. Ratings of the internet were above 40% until this year, when they fell to 35%. Ratings of publishing and television/radio have consistently been below 50%, but dropped to new lows of 32% and 33%, respectively, this year.

Gallup has measured Americans' views of a variety of U.S. business and industry sectors each year since 2001, asking respondents whether their overall view of each of 24 industries plus the federal government is very positive, somewhat positive, neutral, somewhat negative or very negative. The latest results are based on an Aug. 2-17 national survey.

Nine of the business sectors suffered significant image declines between 2020 and 2021. In some cases, such as with healthcare and farming, this reflected a return to 2019 levels after they rose in 2020 due to pandemic-related boosts in public support. However, that is not the case with these four information-based industries, which have been losing public support since hitting their peak levels in 2017.

The four information sectors are the only industries that reached new lows this year in the Gallup trends.

What Goes Up Must Come Down -- but Not This Much

2017 was a banner year for business image ratings more generally; the average 50% positive rating across all 24 sectors (excluding the federal government rating and looking only at businesses) is the highest in Gallup's trend. This was driven by surges in positive views about many industries among Republicans, likely a halo effect of President Donald Trump's taking office, while Democrats' ratings were flat or down slightly.

Both Republicans and Democrats are less likely to view all four information industries positively today than they were in 2017, but the decline has been steeper among Republicans.

While Republicans' reduced regard for information companies may partly reflect the transition back to a Democratic president, erasing the Trump effect, the 2020-2021 drops are larger than past declines spanning a presidential transition. They do, however, correspond with other Gallup polling that shows Republicans souring on Big Tech and big business more generally after Trump was banned from social media, publicity about major publishers eschewing or canceling conservative-oriented books, and recent GOP calls for more regulation of companies like Amazon and Google.

Republicans' distrust of the news media more generally stretches back much further, with a sizable partisan gap in trust emerging in 2001 and expanding ever since.

Positive Ratings Have Plunged Among Republicans

Positive views of the internet industry declined this past year among both major U.S. partisan groups but fell a much larger 18 points among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents to 28%, compared with an eight-point decline among Democrats and Democratic leaners to 42%.

Line graph. 2001-2021 trends in positive ratings of the internet industry among Democrats/Democratic leaners and Republicans/Republican leaners. Partisan views were similar in most years, but a sizable gap opened up this year, with Republicans' positive rating dropping to 28% from 46% in 2020, while Democrats' rating dropped only eight points, from 50% to 42%.

The percentage of Republicans viewing the computer industry positively fell 16 points to 38%, so 2021 is the first year that less than half of Republicans have viewed it positively. Meanwhile, Democrats' view of the computer industry rebounded nine points to 65% after falling five points in 2020.

Line graph. 2001-2021 trends in positive ratings of the computer industry among Democrats/Democratic leaners and Republicans/Republican leaners. Partisan views were similar in most years, but a sizable gap opened up this year, with Republicans' positive rating dropping to 38% from 54% in 2020, while Democrats' rating increased to 65% from 56%.

Television and radio suffered a 15-point decline in positive ratings from Republicans this year, to 21%, while its image was statistically flat among Democrats, at 45%, similar to the 41% in 2020.

Line graph. 2001-2021 trends in positive ratings of the television and radio industry among Democrats/Democratic leaners and Republicans/Republican leaners. Democrats have had no more than a moderately more positive view than Republicans of the TV/radio industry in most years since 2001, but the partisan gap expanded sharply this year as Republicans' positive rating plunged to 21% from 36% in 2020. Meanwhile, Democrats' rating is stable at 45%, similar to the 41% in 2020.

Although positive views of the publishing industry are now at a record-low 32%, the decline among party groups over the past year is not statistically significant -- dipping eight points among Republicans to 20% and four points among Democrats to 43%. But the long-term trend among Republicans has been downward, particularly since 2019, while Democrats' views of publishing have been fairly stable over the past two decades.

Line graph. 2001-2021 trends in positive ratings of the publishing industry among Democrats/Democratic leaners and Republicans/Republican leaners. Democrats have had a more positive view than Republicans of the publishing industry in most years since 2001, but the partisan gap has gradually widened, and it expanded further this year with Republicans' positive rating falling to 20% from 28% in 2020. Meanwhile, Democrats' rating is stable at 43%, similar to the 47% in 2020.

Republicans Most Negative Toward TV and Radio Industry

When the totality of their ratings of each industry are taken into account, Republicans have a significantly more negative than positive view of the television and radio industry, with nearly three times as many viewing it negatively (59%) rather than positively (20%). Their views of the internet and publishing industries also skew negative, although less strongly than for television and radio. Meanwhile, Republicans maintain a somewhat more positive than negative view of the computer industry, with many viewing it neutrally.

By contrast, Democrats are more likely to view all four information industries positively than negatively; however, the positive skew is far stronger for the computer than for the internet industry.

2021 Ratings of Information Industries, by Leaned Party Foreach of the following business sectors in the United States, please say whether your overall view of it is very positive, somewhat positive, neutral, somewhat negative or very negative. Positive Neutral Negative Net positive % % % pct. pts. Republicans/Lean Republican Computer industry 38 39 24 +14 Internet industry 28 23 49 -21 Publishing industry 20 41 39 -18 Television and radio industry 20 20 59 -39 Democrats/Lean Democratic Computer industry 65 24 10 +55 Internet industry 41 26 32 +9 Publishing industry 43 36 20 +23 Television and radio industry 45 32 22 +23 Gallup, Aug. 2-17, 2021

Bottom Line

The past four years have seen an unprecedented change in how Americans view the economic sectors that create and dispense much of the information they consume. After 17 years of stability or improvement in how Americans saw the computer, internet, publishing, and television and radio industries, these industries' positive scores have diminished.

Politics accounts mainly for this trend, with Democrats greatly souring on these industries in 2018 and Republicans doing likewise this year. The major difference is that Democrats' views of these industries have not moved as much, or at all, in a positive direction after the Trump-Joe Biden transition as Republicans' did after the Barack Obama-Trump transition four years ago.

The real-world effects are still evolving but could span both how Americans use these industries' services in their daily lives -- something already seen in Republicans' heavy reliance on conservative sources, like Fox News, to the exclusion of the broadcast networks -- and the policies Republican and Democratic officeholders pursue to influence and regulate these industries.

To stay up to date with the latest Gallup News insights and updates, follow us on Twitter.

Learn more about how the Gallup Poll Social Series works.
NOAA and the Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies (CIMAS) at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science will conduct their most comprehensive ocean acidification sampling of the Gulf of Mexico yet. 25 scientists and graduate students conducting research departed September 13th, for the 4th Gulf of Mexico Ecosystems and Carbon Cruise (GOMECC-4) on the NOAA ship Ronald H. Brown. During their 39 days at sea they will be measuring the ocean carbonate chemistry throughout the Gulfs water column to assess the extent of ocean acidification due to the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that is, in part, absorbed by our ocean. They will be using innovative tools to study the base of the marine food web, and exploring the impact of ocean acidification on recreation and fisheries in this region, as well as a possible link to harmful algal blooms. They will also be looking back in time to understand the course of ocean acidification in this area by studying sediments of the ocean floor.

Ocean acidification is occurring because our ocean is absorbing carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels that power our homes and cars. This leads to a fundamental change in ocean chemistry and increase in acidity which can impact marine life, and ultimately human communities connected to a healthy ocean. Harmful algal blooms (HABs) can negatively impact the health of the Gulf and create red tides in Florida which release a toxin that causes respiratory illness in humans. These blooms can also produce toxins that cause closures to both commercial and recreational harvesting of shellfish and fish. While these events are most common in southwest Florida, they do occur throughout the Gulf.

This cruise will allow us to see how ocean acidification has evolved over the last decade in the Gulf of Mexico, which regions are acidifying faster than others, and how those are tied to impacts on marine life and coastal resources says Leticia Barbero, PhD, Chief Scientist and CIMAS Chemical Oceanographer at NOAA.

Coastal acidification describes how these longer term changes in our ocean interact with changes in coastal waters like water quality. GCAN plays an important role in communicating potential impacts to community members and helping them understand how they can adapt and mitigate.

Barbero is collaborating with colleagues from CIMAS, NOAAs Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML), the National Park Service (NPS), and many universities in the US and Mexico to answer these important questions. Researchers on board will be working around the clock to advance our understanding of ocean acidification, its effects on marine life and how those could ripple into human communities along the Gulf Coast.

Ocean acidification isnt limited to US waters, but is a global change . What is learned on board the R/V Ronald H. Brownin the Gulf of Mexico will contribute to efforts to understand this ocean change around the world. Barbero and her colleagues are part of the Global Ocean Acidification Observing Network (GOA-ON), which is working to expand our understanding of ocean acidification around the globe, how marine life and ecosystems are responding to this change and ultimately, use this data and information collected to predict changes and allow human communities to adapt and respond.

You can join the team aboard via the cruise blog. Stay tuned!

The research team includes scientists from:

Centro de Investigacion Cientifica y de Educacion Superior de Ensenada (CICESE)

Florida A&M University (FAMU)

La Universidad Autonoma de Baja California (UABC)

North Carolina State University Marine Earth and Atmospheric Sciences (NCSU)

Northern Gulf Institute (NGI)

Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies (CIMAS)

University of Louisiana at Lafayette (ULL)

University of South Florida (USF)

University of Southern Missisippi (USM)

Texas A & M University Corpus Christi (TAMUCC)
Man Utd shocked by Young Boys, Lukaku lifts Chelsea

Young Boys' Jordan Siebatcheu celebrates after scoring against Manchester United in their Champions League match at the Wankdorf Stadium in Bern. Young Boys won 2-1. Photo: AP

Manchester United slumped to a shock 2-1 loss at Young Boys despite a goal from Cristiano Ronaldo in their Champions League opener on Tuesday, while Chelsea kicked off their title defence by beating Zenit.



Robert Lewandowski struck twice for Bayern Munich as the German heavyweights inflicted a 3-0 defeat on Barcelona at Camp Nou in their first European game since the departure of Lionel Messi.



Ronaldo, the leading scorer in Champions League history, bagged his 135th goal in the competition after 13 minutes in Bern, but Swiss champions Young Boys hit back after the sending-off of Aaron Wan-Bissaka.



The United defender saw red for a dangerous tackle on Christopher Martins before half-time. Nicolas Moumi Ngamaleu equalised in the second half before Jordan Siebatcheu snatched the winner with the final kick.



"It's the first game in the group. We've got many games to bounce back and we must do," said United captain Harry Maguire. "We'll try and pick up three points in our next game and build momentum from there."



United host Villarreal in two weeks. The Spaniards, who beat Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's men in last season's Europa League final, drew 2-2 at home to Atalanta in the other Group F match.



Remo Freuler gave Atalanta the lead but Villarreal responded with goals from Manu Trigueros and Arnaut Danjuma. Robin Gosens popped up with a late equaliser.



Romelu Lukaku broke the deadlock for Chelsea after 69 minutes at Stamford Bridge to earn the holders a 1-0 victory over Zenit, whose Krestovsky Stadium in Saint Petersburg is the venue for next May's final.



Lukaku headed in Cesar Azpilicueta's cross to give Thomas Tuchel's team a winning start in Group H.



"The guys who are there to score regularly for their teams are so important because one goal changes the whole momentum of the match," Tuchel said of Lukaku.



Juventus top the section after the opening round following their 3-0 win away to Malmo of Sweden.



Alex Sandro headed Juve ahead and Paulo Dybala converted a penalty before Alvaro Morata notched a third for a side that has picked up just one point from three games in Serie A.



Bayern stretched their record unbeaten away run in the Champions League to 19 games by sweeping aside Barca in the first meeting between the clubs since the Germans triumphed 8-2 in a one-off quarter-final last year.



Thomas Mueller put Bayern on top on 34 minutes and Lewandowski netted twice in the second half to send Julian Nagelsmann's side top of Group E.



"We came to win this game and we knew that we had to show respect to Barcelona," said Lewandowski. "When you play at the Camp Nou against them they are always dangerous. But we had this game under control and we showed we were here for the three points."



Dynamo Kiev had to settle for a 0-0 draw at home to Benfica after Ukraine international Mykola Shaparenko's injury-time effort was ruled out for offside.



Sevilla rode their luck in an eventful 1-1 draw against Salzburg.



The Austrians missed two of three first-half penalties, with Karim Adeyemi firing wide from the spot and Luka Sucic hitting the post having earlier converted Salzburg's second penalty.



Ivan Rakitic levelled for Sevilla with another spot-kick before the interval. Youssef En-Nesyri was sent off early in the second period for the home side.



"It was a very strange game. When you have three penalties against you, a red card, I think you have to be happy with a draw," said Rakitic. "I think it's a record, three penalties (conceded) in 36 minutes, I don't think it's ever happened to me."



French champions Lille and Bundesliga leaders Wolfsburg drew 0-0 to leave all Group G teams level on one point. (AFP)
China, Russia-led blocs to meet on Afghanistan

Foreign and defence ministers gather for a meeting of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation in Tajikistan. Photo: Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service via AP

Countries allied with China and Russia were preparing for a series of meetings on Afghanistan on Wednesday held in the crisis-hit country's neighbour, Tajikistan.



Beijing and Moscow have moved to assert themselves as key players in the region, after the United States' hasty retreat from Afghanistan and the Taliban's takeover of the country.



Two regional security blocs led by Beijing and Moscow are holding summits in the capital of ex-Soviet Tajikistan, Dushanbe, this week along with other countries attending as observers and guests.



Afghanistan, already heavily dependent on aid, is facing a new economic crisis in the aftermath of the Taliban's takeover, with the new authorities unable to pay salaries as food prices soar.



Its neighbours are wary of the threat of a sustained refugee crisis, as well as of spillover violence if the Taliban fail to control extremist groups with whom they were allied in the past.



At a pre-summit meeting on Wednesday, the general secretary of the Moscow-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation(CSTO), Stanislav Zas, called for more humanitarian aid to Afghanistan.



The eight-member Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), headed by China, is also due to meet in Dushanbe this week, with some countries belonging to both blocs.



Founded in 2001, the SCO consisted of China, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan before India and Pakistan joined the group in 2017.



Iran, whose president Ebrahim Raisi is expected in Dushanbe Friday, is also keen to join.



President Xi Jinping, Russia's Vladimir Putin, and India's Narendra Modi are all attending the SCO summit virtually. (AFP)
UC Santa Cruz leaders discussed multi-dimensional, campuswide strategies to strengthen the undergraduate and graduate experience to support the success of students and help prepare them for successful careers and meaningful lives after graduation.

At the first in-person leadership team gathering since the COVID-pandemic began, deans, vice provosts, vice chancellors, department chairs and managers, Academic Senate leaders and administrators from across campus today gathered to discuss opportunities for the year ahead as the campus prepares for the new academic year.

UC Santa Cruz is the future of higher education, Chancellor Cynthia Larive said. This university is leading at the intersection of creativity, innovation, and justice.

Larive reaffirmed the campus goals to advance student success by improving retention and graduation rates and closing equity gaps; increase its research profile and impact; foster an inclusive campus climate that embraces and values diversity and equity; and improve efficiency, effectiveness, and resilience.

Campus Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Lori Kletzer, along with Associate Vice Chancellor for Budget Analysis and Planning provided a budget overview that included significant good news about the fiscal year 2022 campus budget outlook. The $20 million permanent fiscal year 2021 budget cut has been restored for fiscal year 2022 and the campus will receive a $9.1 million (4.5 percent) permanent increase for mandatory costs; $318,000 based on enrollment growth and $1.2 million to support student mental health.

The fiscal year 2022 budget also provides an additional $4.8 million for our campus as part of a multi-year plan that aims to bring the unweighted per-student funding level for UCR, UCSB and UCSC to 95 percent of the average systemwide allocation. This budget adjustment honors a pre-COVID agreement by the Council of Chancellors to help counter the heavier weighting of Health Sciences graduate students and residents in the systems funding allocation formula.

In addition to these permanent funding increases, the budget includes important one-time allocations. The $6.6 million in deferred maintenance funding that was cut in spring 2020 has been restored and is being augmented with an additional $22.7 million, of which 60 percent must target energy efficiency projects. The budget presentation also touched on the challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic and the financial relief provided by the federal government through Higher Education Emergency Relief Funds, which provided many students with additional financial aid and helped fund instructional support for our campus.

After the challenges of the past year, this positive budget news is so welcome, Larive said. The increases to our permanent budget, especially the additional $4.8 million to better align the state funding our campus receives with the systemwide per-student average will go a long way in helping us achieve our student success goals. A UC Santa Cruz education can change the trajectory of a students lifebut they need to earn a diploma for it to have the strongest impact. Im proud to see the whole campus refocusing on supporting our students, from the moment they enroll to well after they graduate.

Advancing student success

Kletzer discussed the campuss need to boost retention and graduation rates, while also eliminating equity gaps that exist among students. The need to strengthen graduation rates is affirmed by the latest rankings by US News and World Report (USNWR). While UC Santa Cruz continues to be among the top 15 universities for social mobility and top 50 public universities, the rankings also show that graduation rates are behind peer institutions. The six-year graduation rate at UC Santa Cruz in the most recent USNWR rankings is 76 percent.

Interim Vice Chancellor Jennifer Baszile shared an overview of a multidimensional strategy to support students, focusing on holistic student support centered on equity and well-being. This strategy will be developed over the course of this year through a strategic plan, with implementation, by the Division of Student Affairs and Success.

The Center for Innovations in Teaching and Learning is helping to share and support inclusive teaching practices and leading the redesign of key courses.

By creating a culture of continuous evaluation and assessment we will be able to sustain a holistic approach to student engagement and belonging, two pillars of our approach to institutional transformation, Baszile said. We are laying a strong foundation to make a national impact as one of the few R1, Minority Serving Institutions that is also a member of the AAU.

To better serve graduate students, the campus announced a number of new programs focused on housing, cost reduction, student success, and family support.

Increasing the research profile and impact

Despite the challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic, UC Santa Cruz increased research grants and contracts by 7 percent during fiscal year 2021 to more than $159 million. The campus will continue to support single investigator grants while also offering enhanced support for faculty efforts to submit larger high impact interdisciplinary proposals including those that target funding for centers and institutes. To spur these efforts, a seed fund competition will be launched this fall.

UC Santa Cruz is well positioned to capitalize on increases in federal funding in areas of strength, such as climate change, energy, human health and behavioral science, said interim Vice Chancellor for Research John MacMillan. We look to bring together interdisciplinary teams to tackle the biggest problems facing society.

MacMillan said the campus is also developing a unified business engagement strategy centered on the Innovation and Business Engagement Hub to advance our research impact by supporting entrepreneurship, commercialization of UCSC discoveries and increased funding from corporate partners.

Fostering inclusivity

Maintaining a campus community in which everyone feels welcome and included is critical, Larive said. Over the past year, the campus has made several structural changes to strengthen diversity, equity and inclusion.

The new Office of Equity and Equal Protection, headed by AVC Isabel Dees, manages all complaints of discrimination on the basis of protected characteristics, which will enable the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion to prioritize its work to proactively serve and support the campus community. Additionally, the transition to Division of Student Affairs and Success structure has elevated student affairs expertise and transformed the way the campus supports students.

Larive also shared that the campus is exploring the establishment of an ombuds office that could incorporate and augment UCSCs conflict resolution model.

As announced earlier in September, UC Santa Cruz has already begun reimagining campus safety by establishing a tiered safety model and shifting resources to other campus units and developing alternative safety support mechanisms, including a critical response team for mental health calls and a sobering station.

Efficient, effective, and resilient

UC Santa Cruz has made strides toward greater efficiency and effectiveness, with the adoption of a campuswide task management system and better communication, Larive said, while noting that there are more gains to be made.

The campus is systematically updating legacy programs and tools that are outdated and make data sharing difficult, while also addressing processes that are cumbersome and manual. The campus will be asking units to ensure they have up-to-date business continuity plans so operations can continue even amid disruptions.

A recent survey of UC employees showed campus improvements in communication, leadership and organizational change and innovation. The areas of concern among staff continue to be salary and retention.

Staff retention and engagement are critical to creating a more resilient campus, and Larive previewed a new staff compensation equity plan that was announced to non-represented staff today.

Over the next three years, UC Santa Cruz will be investing $5.5 million to address historic salary issues. The program will target employees who have met expectations, whose salaries are furthest behind market, and will predominantly impact employees in lower salary grades. Larive also said the campus must hire staff at an appropriate level of pay and that any recruitments with salaries below the 25th percentile will require review by the compensation team in Staff Human Resources.

Larive recognized that more work needs to be doneparticularly as it relates to housing. The campus is adding more housing for students through the Kresge College renewal, and once it clears the courts, Student Housing West will significantly increase the number of housing units for undergraduate and graduate students.

The campus is also making plans to initiate the development of new employee housing. This work has evolved from the efforts of the Employee Housing Workgroup, using data that emerged from the 2020 employee housing survey. The initial focus is on Ranch View Terrace 2, and work has been done over summer to examine various density considerations. The new Long Range Development Plan, set for review by the Board of Regents in September, has also identified additional employee housing locations which are being reviewed for projects. In addition, the campus is exploring potential opportunities to address other barriers of entry into the housing market for employees, such as down payment assistance or other similar programs.

The campus is continuing on its unprecedented trajectory, and the year ahead will be a time to celebrate as the campus resumes in-person activities.

UCSC has an extraordinary opportunity to change the world through our students, our research and our public service. To deliver on that promise, we must work together intentionally and in alignment, and we must thoughtfully assess our progress, Larive said. Our vision and goals are the foundation for telling the story of our amazing university.
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry in 2018. Chris Jackson/Getty Images

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle got married on May 19, 2018.

Among their romantic gestures, Markle's veil used fabric from a dress she wore on their first date.

Markle also wrote a children's book inspired by Prince Harry and Archie's relationship.

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Prince Harry and Meghan Markle held hands during their first public appearance together in September 2017.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in 2017. Karwai Tang/WireImage/Getty Images

Markle accompanied Harry to the 2017 Invictus Games in Toronto, where they were seen holding hands, whispering to each other, and smiling.

They grinned at each other when they announced their engagement in November 2017.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in November 2017. Chris Jackson/Getty Images

Their actual engagement had happened privately a few weeks before at their cottage while they were roasting a chicken.

"She didn't even let me finish, she said 'Can I say yes, can I say yes?' and then were was hugs and I had the ring in my finger and I was like 'Can I  can I give you the ring?' She goes  'Oh yes, the ring!'" Harry told the BBC.

On their first royal outing as an engaged couple in December 2017, Prince Harry put his arm around Markle as they greeted well-wishers.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle visit Nottingham Contemporary. Adrian Dennis - WPA Pool/Getty Images

The couple visited a World Aids Day charity fair at Nottingham Contemporary.

Later that day, Markle put her hand over Prince Harry's.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at Nottingham Academy. ANDY STENNING/AFP via Getty Images

They stopped inside Nottingham Academy to visit with students and teachers involved in the Full Effect charity program combatting youth violence.

They posed for intimate engagement photos in December 2017.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in December 2017. Alexi Lubomirski via Getty

Fashion photographer Alexi Lubomirski took their engagement photos at Frogmore House in Windsor.

"It was an incredible honour to be asked to document this wonderful event, but also a great privilege to be invited to share and be a witness to this young couple's love for one another," he told The Telegraph. "I cannot help but smile when I look at the photos that we took of them, such was their happiness together."

Fiancees aren't usually invited to spend Christmas with the royal family, but Prince Harry asked Queen Elizabeth to make an exception.

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Prince Harry and Meghan Markle with the royal family on Christmas in 2017. Chris Jackson/Getty Images

The royal family spends every Christmas at the Queen's private estate, Sandringham House, in Norfolk. Fiancees don't usually join the festivities  in 2010, the newly engaged Kate Middleton wasn't allowed to attend. But Prince Harry reportedly asked the Queen to make an exception for Markle, and they walked arm in arm with the rest of the royal family on Christmas Day.

They showed more public displays of affection on a visit to Scotland in February 2018.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry in Scotland. ANDY BUCHANAN/AFP via Getty Images

The engaged couple put their arms around each other as they walked through Edinburgh Castle.

Markle's wedding veil contained her something blue - a piece of fabric from the dress she wore on their first date.

Meghan Markle's wedding veil. Ben Stansall - WPA Pool/Getty Images

In a clip from "Queen of the World," a documentary about Queen Elizabeth, Markle revealed that the piece of blue fabric had been her "something blue" on her wedding day in May 2018.

Her 16-foot, silk tulle veil also featured a trim of hand-embroidered flowers each representing one of the 53 counties in Britain's Commonwealth, as well as a California Poppy, which is the official flower of her home state California.

When Markle reached the altar, Prince Harry told her she looked amazing and bit his lip, making everyone weak in the knees.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at their wedding. Jonathan Brady/WPA Pool/Getty Images

People couldn't get over the way Harry said "You look amazing" and bit his lip while gazing lovingly into Markle's eyes during their wedding ceremony.

Their first kiss as a married couple made the world swoon.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle share a kiss at the royal wedding. WPA Pool/Getty

Lip-reader Tina Lannin, director and founder of 121 Captions, told the BBC that Markle asked Prince Harry, "Do we kiss?" as they left St. George's Chapel after their ceremony. He replied "Yeah," then leaned in.

A few months later, they locked lips again at a charity polo match.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle kiss at a polo match in July 2018. Chris Jackson/Getty Images

The couple kissed at the trophy presentation of a charity polo match at the Royal County of Berkshire Polo Club. The public display of affection was something Kate Middleton and Prince William rarely do because of his position as heir to the throne.

Prince Harry appeared to help Markle with some royal protocol at Trooping the Colour in June 2018.

The royal family at Trooping the Colour in June 2018. Anwar Hussein/ WireImage/ Getty Images

Instagram user harry_meghan_updates posted a video that appeared to show Markle asking "Do it?" as the Queen arrived, and Prince Harry appearing to respond "Yes" to let her know it was time to curtsy.

Royal protocol requires all members of the royal family to curtsy to the Queen upon seeing her as well as any other members of the royal family that rank above them  for the first time that day as a sign of respect..

Markle used a pet name for Harry while meeting the cast of Hamilton in August 2018, and they couldn't get over how adorable it was.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle with the cast of "Hamilton" in August 2018. Dan Charity - WPA Pool/Getty Images

Markle and Harry attended a "Hamilton" charity performance in London and posed for photos with the cast. Markle turned to Harry and appeared to say, "Can you see, my love?"

The pair traveled to Australia in October 2018, where they shared an umbrella in a rainstorm.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in Australia in October 2018. PETER PARKS/AFP via Getty Images

Prince Harry and Markle visited Dubbo, a drought-stricken region of Australia, but brought a rare rainstorm with them.

Prince Harry lent Markle his coat on a stroll through Rotorua, New Zealand.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in Rotorua, New Zealand, in October 2018. Pool/Samir Hussein/WireImage/Getty Images

Markle wore a black puffer Norrona coat while walking through Whakarewarewa Forest in Rotorua, New Zealand. It looked identical to the one her husband wore when the couple walked through Abel Tasman National Park in Wellington, New Zealand, two days before.

Markle and Prince Harry greeted fans with their arms around each other on a walkabout in Birkenhead in January 2019.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in January 2019. Neil Mockford/GC Images

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were in Hamilton Square to unveil a plaque for a new sculpture honoring poet and soldier Wilfred Owen as well as pay a visit to several local charities.

Markle leaned into Prince Harry while visiting Morocco in February 2019.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in Morocco. Samir Hussein/WireImage/Getty Images

Markle and Prince Harry visited a secondary school in Asni to meet with students and teachers.

After Markle gave birth to Archie in May 2019, Prince Harry gushed to reporters about how much he loved his wife in his first interview as a father.

Prince Harry in his first interview after the birth of his son. Steve Parsons / POOL / AFP/ Getty Images

"I haven't been at many births," he joked. "This is definitely my first birth. It was amazing, absolutely incredible, and, as I said, I'm so incredibly proud of my wife. As every father and parent will ever say, you know, your baby is absolutely amazing, but this little thing is absolutely to-die-for, so I'm just over the moon."

He added: "It's been the most amazing experience I could ever have possibly imagined. How any woman does what they do is beyond comprehension."

Two days later, Markle joined Prince Harry for an official photo-call with their newborn son.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle hold their newborn son. Reuters

The beaming parents introduced their son Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor to the world at St. George's Hall at Windsor Castle.

They were all smiles when they brought Archie on a trip to Cape Town, South Africa, in September 2019.

Prince Harry, Meghan Markle, and Archie in September 2019. Pool/Samir Hussein/WireImage/Getty Images

Prince Harry and Meghan brought Archie to meet Archbishop Desmond Tutu and his daughter Thandeka Tutu-Gxashe at the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation.

On that same trip, Prince Harry fixed Markle's hair when it got stuck in her collar.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry in Cape Town, South Africa, in 2019. Chris Jackson/Getty Images

It wasn't the first time Prince Harry was filmed covertly fixing Markle's hair on a royal engagement  he smoothed down her hair from the wind during her charity cookbook launch in 2018.

Photographer Samir Hussein captured this "one in a million" shot of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry smiling at each other under a shared umbrella in March 2020.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in March 2020. Samir Hussein/WireImage/Getty Images

The couple attended the Endeavour Fund Awards in March  their first joint public appearance after announcing that they would be stepping back from royal duties and giving up their official royal titles. Hussein's photo of the couple smiling together in a dramatically lit rainstorm quickly became an iconic symbol of their new chapter.

"It was pouring down with rain, which can be very tricky when shooting flash photography and also meant Harry and Meghan would be under an umbrella, which usually means it's hard to get clean photos of the couple," Hussein shared a statement with British GQ magazine. "Little did I know these elements would come together so spectacularly to produce a timeless image of the couple."

At one of their last royal appearances before stepping back from their official duties, Prince Harry's suit lining matched Markle's green dress perfectly.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in March 2020. Karwai Tang/WireImage/Getty Images

Prince Harry's green suit jacket lining was customized to match Markle's Emilia Wickstead dress for the Commonwealth Day Service at Westminster Abbey in March 2020  one of their last royal appearances.

In their bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey in March, the couple held hands as they shared their reasons for stepping back from the royal family.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle sit down with Oprah Winfrey in March 2021. Joe Pugliese/Harpo Productions

Harry said that Markle saved him in helping him leave the royal family, "without question," but Markle felt that Harry saved all of them.

"I mean, I think that's lovely. I would disagree," she said. "I think he saved all of us, right? He ultimately called it and was like, 'We've got to find a way for us, for Archie. And you made a decision that ... certainly saved my life and saved all of us. But, you know, you need to want to be saved."

Markle wrote a children's book inspired by Prince Harry and Archie's relationship.

A page from "The Bench." Penguin Random House

"The Bench" is about the connection between father and son as seen through a mother's eyes, inspired by Prince Harry's relationship with Archie. It was released earlier this year.

"'The Bench' started as a poem I wrote for my husband on Father's Day, the month after Archie was born," Markle was quoted as saying in the press release. "That poem became this story," she added.

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Activision Blizzard has been accused of intimidating workers attempting to unionize, organizers said, just months after the US video game maker faced a state lawsuit over toxic workplace claims.

In August the company behind "Call of Duty" and "World of Warcraft" promised change with a management shakeup following long-running allegations of sexism and discrimination.

The Communications Workers of America (CWA) said Tuesday they had "formally filed ULP (unfair labor practice) charges against the company for worker intimidation and union busting."

In a statement, the union said employees had launched a "Better ABK" campaign following a July complaint, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, accusing the firm of having fostered a toxic culture of harassment and sexism.

It was part of workers' "strategic organizing effort to unite developers behind a shared set of concerns."

The CWA said Activision Blizzard was "using coercive tactics to attempt to prevent its employees from exercising their rights."

"Management could have responded with humility and a willingness to take necessary steps to address the horrid conditions some ABK workers have faced," said Tom Smith, CWA's national organizing director.

"Instead Activision Blizzard's response to righteous worker activity was surveillance, intimidation, and hiring notorious union busters."

The allegations follow a walk-out earlier this year to protest sexism and harassment.

In August, the firm unveiled a management shakeup and launched what it promised would be a far-reaching review of its workplace practices after the California state lawsuit.

jul/mav/rbu/axn
A vial of CoronaVac COVID-19 vaccine developed by the Chinese company Sinovac Biotech. (PHOTO: Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

SINGAPORE  An additional 101,000 doses of CoronaVac - the inactivated COVID-19 vaccine developed by Sinovac Biotech - will be arriving in Singapore next Monday (20 September), and will be available through healthcare group Livingstone Health.

Sinovac said in a media release on Wednesday (15 September) that the vaccines will be available from 24 September at clinics under Livingstone Health's primary healthcare arm Phoenix Medical; at Ardennes Health Screening and Radiology Centre; and at 13 other primary-care clinics islandwide.

Advance booking is required and can be made from Friday.

According to the Sinovac media release, Singapore's Ministry of Health had announced in August that its stock of CoronaVac would be depleted after ring-fencing sufficient supplies for those receiving their second doses, and that it would facilitate the ordering of more doses by private healthcare institutions.

The ministry had earlier procured 200,000 doses of the vaccine, of which 170,000 were made available to the public at primary-care clinics under the Special Access Route framework.

Sinovac added that the latest data on CoronaVac, released in September, showed that a booster dose of the vaccine can elicit fast and long-lasting immune response against the COVID-19 Delta variant.

A study conducted by Chile's health ministry, published in July, found that CoronVac was 65.9 per cent effective at preventing COVID-19, 87.5 per cent effective at preventing hospitalisation, 90.3 per cent at preventing intensive care unit admission, and 86.3 per cent effective at preventing COVID-related death.

Clinics offering additional CoronaVac: Anteh Dispensary (Grandvew Suites Singapore), Ardennes Health Screening and Radiology Centre (Paya Lebar Square), Phoenix Medical Group Novena (Novena Regency), Phoenix Medical Group Hillview (HillV2), Phoenix Medical Group Paya Lebar (Paya Lebar Square), Central Medical Group (11 Jalan Bukit Merah), Chua Medical Clinic and Surgery (642 Bukit Batok Central), Dedicare Medical Practice & Surgery (419 Hougang Avenue 8), Fullerton Health, Integrated Wellness Clinic (Novena Specialist Center), Sengkang Family Clinic (274D Compassvale Bow), Sembawang Mart Medical Centre (511 Canberra Road), Mediview Clinic & Surgery (150 Toa Payoh Lorong 1), Pinnacle Family Clinic (518 Serangoon North Avenue 4), Precious Medical Centre (Paragon Medical), SATA CommHealth Ang Mo Kio Medical Centre (716 Ang Mo Kio Avenu 6), SATA CommHealth Jurong Medical Centre (135 Jurong Gateway Road).

Stay in the know on-the-go: Join Yahoo Singapore's Telegram channel at http://t.me/YahooSingapore
Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar signed the Doha agreement on the withdrawal of US troops on behalf of the Taliban

Afghanistan's acting deputy prime minister Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar has appeared in a video to deny reports that he was injured in a clash with a rival faction of the Taliban.

The Taliban co-founder had disappeared from view for several days.

There have been reports of a row between Taliban leaders, involving Mr Baradar and a rival faction loyal to the powerful Haqqani network.

But in the new interview, Mr Baradar denied reports of internal strife.

"No, this is not true; I am OK and healthy," Baradar said, when asked about whether he had been hurt.

"I was out of Kabul and I did not have access to the internet to reject the fake news," he added.

The short clip - posted on Twitter by the Taliban's political office in Doha - showed him seated on a sofa next to a state television interviewer, apparently reading from a sheet of paper.

"Thank God we have good relations with each other and we respect each other. Our relations are even better than a family," he said.

Mr Baradar was the first Taliban leader to communicate directly with a US president, in a telephone conversation with Donald Trump in 2020. Before that, he signed the Doha agreement on the withdrawal of US troops on behalf of the Taliban.

The new video comes after senior Taliban officials told the BBC that supporters of Mr Baradar brawled with a faction loyal to Khalil ur-Rahman Haqqani - the minister for refugees and a prominent figure within the militant Haqqani network.

The sources said the argument had broken out because Mr Baradar was unhappy about the structure of their interim government.

The row also reportedly stemmed from divisions over who in the Taliban should take credit for their victory in Afghanistan.

Mr Baradar reportedly believes that the emphasis should be placed on diplomacy carried out by people like him, while members of the Haqqani group - which is run by one of the most senior Taliban figures - and their backers say it was achieved through fighting.

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The Haqqani network is associated with some of the most violent attacks that have occurred in Afghanistan against Afghan forces and their Western allies in recent years. The group is designated by the US as a terrorist organisation.

Its leader, Sirajuddin Haqqani, is the interior minister in the new government.

Rumours about a falling-out have been spreading since late last week, when Mr Baradar - one of the best-known faces of the Taliban - disappeared from public view. There was speculation on social media that he might have died.

The Taliban sources told the BBC that Mr Baradar had left Kabul and travelled to the city of Kandahar following the row.

Before the new interview was released, an official from the Taliban's cultural commission said on Twitter that the interview would be aired on state RTA TV to disprove "enemy propaganda".

The Taliban seized control of Afghanistan last month, and have since declared the country an "Islamic Emirate". Their new interim cabinet is entirely male and made up of senior Taliban figures, some of whom are notorious for attacks on US forces over the past two decades.

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During Hispanic Heritage Month, TODAY is sharing the communitys history, pain, joy, and pride. We are highlighting Hispanic and Latino trailblazers and rising voices. TODAY will be publishing personal essays, stories, videos, and specials throughout the month of September and October. For more, head here.

Are you looking to check a box, or are you looking to tell a story? Angel Bismark Curiel says, reflecting on the persistent lack of roles for and stories about Latino people. Everyone has a story to tell, and its unfair to put everyone in a narrow and stereotypical box.

Even with a sustained spotlight and laser-focused microscope on the issues of diversity in film and television, statistics on Latino representation and on-screen visibility show little improvement, despite Hispanics being one of the fastest-growing communities in the United States.

Related: In honor of our Pride Month series, TODAY sat down with Burnside to find out what is next for the rising star after this final season of "Pose."

In 2020, a Nielsen study on diversity and inclusion on TV found that though Latinos make up nearly 19% of the nations population, their overall representation on television was 5.5% in 2019. Stacie de Armas, senior vice president of diverse consumer insights and initiatives for Nielson, told NBC News last year that Latinos were significantly underrepresented on every platform, every genre, and in total.

Curiel rose to fame virtually overnight by starring as Lil Papi Evangelista on the groundbreaking FX series Pose, which was celebrated for boasting the largest transgender cast for a scripted series made up of Latino and Black actors in recurring roles.

Created by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Steven Canals, the critically acclaimed series about New York City's Latino and Black LGBTQ ball scene in the 1980s and 1990s ran from 2018 to 2021.

Indya Moore, Angel Bismark Curiel (Everett Collection)

Besides breaking ground with its on-screen representation, its stars made history.

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Afro-Puerto Rican actor Mj Rodriguez became the first transgender performer to land an Emmy nomination in one of the lead actor categories this year for her role on the show. And in 2019, Billy Porter became the first openly gay Black man to take home an Emmy in the lead actor category for his role.

Curiel, who is Afro-Dominican, says Rodriguezs nomination and Porters win are significant because it shows Hollywood executives, as well as Hispanic and Latino viewers at home, whats possible.

So much of the Latinx diaspora doesnt get the representation or visibility because the people making the decisions, making the shows, doing the writing and doing the casting, they arent of the culture and they dont see us, he says. They dont see us in their day-to-day lives and havent seen us in celebrated, successful shows and beloved characters before. Pose changed that.

He continued, And people watching at home  either the show, or the awards, or reading about the characters or actors  didnt really see us before either, which means they didnt see themselves working, living, loving, thriving. Especially in places where we havent thrived before. Pose changed that, too.

The 25-year-old actor from Miami says one of the keys to changing Hollywoods never-ending diversity problem is to pay attention to whos behind the screen in addition to whos visible on screen.

The people in the boardrooms and in the casting meetings, they play a big part in what makes it to your screen and how the show is marketed and even how enjoyable it is to watch, Curiel says.

But when it comes to the stories and characters, Curiel says its also important that the storytelling is fair and balanced.

We have to get away from the stereotypes, he says. Were not just Dominicans with accents, and a lot of people who make the decisions dont even know how our accents even sound half the time. Theres so much life in Hispanic and Latinx people in New York or Puerto Rico or Miami or anywhere on this planet. Were not all the same. We dont all sound the same. We dont all think the same. And we dont all have the same experiences, needs, hopes or dreams.

Curiel says his role on Pose led to an outpouring of love from viewers because of its diverse cast and storylines.

Anytime anyone comes to me to talk about the show, the character, the love story involving a transgender woman, it comes from a beautiful place, he says. Were all walking around trying to make sense of life and thats one of the most beautiful things about the show. It helped so many people make sense of life and how they see themselves in this world. I always receive that love and generosity because this show meant so much to so many people.

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By Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen

NUUK, Greenland (Reuters) - Greenland said on Wednesday it had agreed a new economic aid package with the United States which seeks to boost ties the world's biggest island and strengthen U.S. military presence in the Arctic.

Washington has a military base on Greenland but paid little attention to the Arctic for two decades until 2019, when it began turning to the island to try to counter a Russian and Chinese commercial and military buildup in the region.

The aid package from USAid worth $10 million announced on Wednesday is primarily aimed at development of Greenland's mining sector, tourism and education.

"This is not a big amount, but symbolically it's very important," the country's minister for industry and foreign affairs, Pele Broberg, told Reuters in an interview in the capital Nuuk.

The package comes on top of a $12.1 million package announced by Washington last year, which drew some criticism from Copenhagen for creating division between Greenland and Denmark.

Greenland, home to only 57,000 people but rich in natural resources, is a former colony and now an autonomous Danish territory.

It gained international attention in 2019 when former President Donald Trump tried to buy the island. Last year, the United States opened a consulate in Greenland, where it for decades has had a military base that is vital to its ballistic missile early warning system.

Greenland elected a new government in April that has pledged to halt a large Chinese-backed rare earth mining project because it contains radioactive uranium. The project was seen as a potential game-changer for the country's tiny economy.

"It has some ripple effects to say no to uranium mining, but we think there are other areas that can be developed, and that is what we will look into with the Americans," said Broberg of a small pro-independence party.

With an economy heavily dependant on fishing, the island relies on annual grants of around $600 million from Denmark. However, some see the relationship with Denmark as an obstacle to economic development.

"We don't get the support from Denmark we need to be able to thrive. So now we try to go our own ways, without Denmark, and we're starting small," Broberg said.

(Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
A lieutenant colonel in the Army said he has resigned and forfeited his pension in protest of the "Marxist" vaccine mandate placed on the military.

"First, and foremost, I am incapable of subjecting myself to the unlawful, unethical, immoral and tyrannical order to sit still and allow a serum to be injected into my flesh against my will and better judgment," Lt. Col. Paul Hague wrote in his resignation letter submitted on Aug. 30.

Hague's wife, Katie Hague, posted the letter to her Twitter on Sept. 9, and, since its posting, it has garnered attention.

TEACHERS MARCH THROUGH NEW YORK CITY TO PROTEST VACCINE MANDATES

As a part of his resignation from his almost two-decade-long military career, Hague is sacrificing his pension and "all he's worked for and believed in since he was an ROTC kid at UGA," his wife posted.

The Army officer listed numerous reasons for his leaving, such as a total lack of confidence in President Joe Biden's ability to lead and the "ideologically Marxist takeover of the United States government at their upper echelons," according to the letter.

Hague, stationed at North Carolina's Fort Bragg, also doubts the science behind the vaccines, the letter said.

"It is impossible for this so-called 'vaccine' to have been studied adequately to determine the long-term effects," he wrote.

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Still, Hague's wife told Fox News he is not leaving because of the science behind the vaccines but instead due to their political use.

"He didn't resign over a vaccine," she said. "He said he felt the vaccine was being used as a political tool to divide and segregate Americans. He then went on to list many other reasons for his resignation  none of which have anything to do with vaccines."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention maintains that the vaccines are trustworthy and effective.

The lieutenant colonel stated he wanted to finish his career and retire with his pension but could not, given the Pentagon's Aug. 23 mandate.

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CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

"I instead will join those who have served before me in pledging my Life, my Fortune, and my Sacred Honor to continue resisting the eternal and ever-mutable forms of oppression and tyranny  both from enemies outside our nation's borders, and those within," he wrote.

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Tags: News, Army, Protests, Vaccination, Coronavirus

Original Author: Luke Gentile

Original Location: Army lieutenant colonel resigns in protest of the 'Marxist' vaccine mandate
(EPA)

Boris Johnson has announced a new national security alliance with the leaders of the US and Australia in an attempt to counter Chinas ambitions in the Indo-Pacific.

The prime minister spoke alongside US president Joe Biden and Australian prime minister Scott Morrison to unveil the AUKUS partnership, which will see the three countries share expertise on issues such as cyber warfare and artificial intelligence.

China was not mentioned in the live briefing but there was frequent reference to the changing situation in the region and it follows tensions between Beijing and Australia in recent months.

The alliance will work hand-in-glove to preserve security and stability in the Indo-Pacific, Mr Johnson said.

The joint announcement has also confirmed that the US will provide a nuclear-powered submarine to Australia, with Scott Morrisons government abandoning a $90bn submarine deal with France.
Boris Johnson during a press conference in the Downing Street Briefing Room on Tuesday. (Getty)

A medical expert has criticised Boris Johnson for giving up on protecting public health during the COVID pandemic.

The government on Tuesday announced its Plan A to tackle coronavirus throughout the winter months, which includes booster jabs and mandatory vaccines for NHS and care staff.

But Martin McKee, professor of European public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said since COVID restrictions were scrapped in July, the UK is seeing several hundred deaths every week.

McKee, who is also a member of Independent Sage and the president elect of the British Medical Association (BMA), admitted that there had not been the predicted dramatic rise in infections, but wrote in the British Medical Journal (BMJ): In effect, it is as if a jumbo jet was crashing every few days.

This is a toll of suffering and misery that, we are told, we must simply live with.

COVID booster jabs are among the plans announced to tackle the pandemic this winter. (Getty)

McKee said that that the government can decide that it no longer wants to assume the responsibility for safeguarding us from threats to health, adding: But if it does, it should at least be honest about it.

Other measures for the governments initial plan to tackle the pandemic this winter also includes encouraging people to meet outdoors, while business are urged to consider using the COVID pass to check the vaccination or test status of customers.

But the British Medical Association (BMA) warned that vaccines alone will not be enough to curtail the escalating impact of COVID infections.

Watch: PM not ruling out possibility of vaccine passports

The unions council chairman Dr Chaand Nagpaul accused the government of doublespeak by offering advice rather than making certain measures mandatory.

He said: Weve had this kind of doublespeak before, which has resulted in action not being taken until it is too late.

He urged ministers to open their eyes and realise that now is the time to act.

If cases surge in winter, the government says its Plan B would include introducing mandatory vaccine passports and masks, while advising that people work from home.

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But Labours deputy leader Angela Rayner lashed out at the chaos and confusion of the governments announcement.

She tweeted: So in the space of a week COVID passports have gone from being the winter plan to being scrapped to being Plan B, but the government can't tell us when Plan B will kick on or how businesses will be supported to deliver vaccine passports.

Labours junior shadow minister for social care, Liz Kendall, added: Where is govts winter plan for social care?

Dr David Nabarro, World Health Organization (WHO) special envoy for the global COVID response, said that the government needed to be prepared to move very quickly from Plan A to Plan B in its winter plan.

He told Sky News: Speed is of the essence. Weve been through this before and we know, as a result of past experience, that acting quickly and acting quite robustly is the way you get on top of this virus, then life can go on.

Whereas if youre a bit slower, then it can build up and become very heavy and hospitals fill up, and then you have to take all sorts of emergency action.

So I really like what the UK is doing. I think this emphasis on people learning to live with the virus is also the right one.

Boris Johnson said that the government would impose more restrictions if COVID cases rise. (Getty)

He added: I just hope there wont be a need for lots more restrictions because as humanity, we need to be able to learn to live with this virus and to hold it away and stop it from wrecking our lives.

The governments plans to control the spread of coronavirus in the coming months have also been welcomed as sensible and proportionate by NHS Providers.

However, scientists advising the governments Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) warned the burden on the NHS could rise very quickly as people returned to their offices after working from home.

But speaking on Sky News, health secretary Sajid Javid said there were no risk-free options.

He added: It is the act of a responsible government to set out this is our plan, this is how we are going to protect the gains, but just in case things are not quite as we want them to be we have got to have another plan and get that ready too.

Watch: PM confirms teenage vaccinations and booster jabs
Britain's most expensive ever beach hut has gone on the market for a whopping 575,000. (SWNS)

A beach hut has been listed for sale for over half a million pounds, making it the most expensive in Britain.

But prospective buyers should be warned that unlike the houses you could purchase for that price, it doesn't come with a toilet.

Beach huts are hot property right now, thanks in part to the pandemic which has turned us all into a nation of staycationers.

The 20,000 candy-hued huts across the UK have seen their value skyrocket recently, with one recently going on sale for a whopping 575,000  more than twice the price of an average house in England, which stands at 268K.

The 16ft by 13ft wooden cabin is situated in the exclusive Mudeford Spit, Dorset, and if sold would set a new record.

The sleek hut has all the mod cons, but doesn't have a toilet. (SWNS)

Watch: Beloved beach huts washed out to sea by storm Ellen

Read more: Life's a beach (hut) for the owner who sold for nearly 50,000

Estate agents say it is slightly bigger than the neighbouring units, one of which sold a few months ago for the current high mark of 375,000.

Marketed by Denisons Estate Agents, the hut comes with solar panels for electricity and bottled gas for cooking.

The beach hut sleeps up to six and is on two levels with one plush bedrooms on the mezzanine level and two further sleeping areas on the ground floor.

Although, if you were thinking of buying it for weekend getaways, it's worth knowing that it is illegal to sleep in many beach huts overnight.

"The vast majority of traditional beach huts in the UK are leased through local councils and as a general rule, it is not permissible to sleep in them as only daytime use is allowed," a blog post from the little beach hut of dreams reveals.

The hut has a fully fitted kitchen. (SWNS)

However, there are certain places where you can sleep in a beach hut.

"Those that allow overnight stays tend to be bigger super huts, chalets, or lodges, and have freehold tenure," the site continues.

As most beach huts are leasehold and plots are rented through the respective council area, the site recommends finding out the terms and conditions from the local authority for exact details.

Story continues

Read more: The worlds best beach hut in Somerset is on sale for 160,000

This particular hut also comes with a fully fitted kitchen with an integrated fridge freezer and has two decking areas for entertaining.

But while it has most mod cons and a super sleek design, the hut doesn't come with a toilet.

The view from the cabin is pretty impressive. (SWNS)

According to Denisons, the hut is "above average size" and enjoys dual aspect of both the beach and harbour, which is why it comes with such a hefty price tag.

"One of a handful of the finest located huts on Mudeford Sand Spit," a spokesperson explains on the listing.

"The property enjoys an elevated position with glorious uninterrupted front and rear views of the beach and harbour.

"This truly high spec hut has recently undergone major improvements and now has a fully functional kitchen with water heater and stone work top together with an integrated fridge freezer and soft closure utility drawers.

"The home comfortably sleeps six with two doubles on the ground floor and a double on the mezzanine.

"Solar panels provide 12 volt electricity and there is also bottle gas for cooking."

The 575,000 beach hut in the exclusive Mudeford Spit, Dorset. (SWNS)

Asking prices for beach huts have risen more than 50% recently, according to Rightmove. The average beach hut now costs 39,392, up from 25,999 in 2020.

Huge waiting lists and fierce bidding wars are now normal.

In some areas, beach huts can cost more than a house. The Office for National Statistics puts the average UK house price at 268,000.

Additional reporting SWNS.

Watch: Splash of colour: UK beach huts brighten pandemic gloom.
An aerial view of San Francisco's first temporary sanctioned tent encampment for the homeless on May 18, 2020 in San Francisco, California. After public outrage mounted over a surge of homeless people and tents filling the streets of San Francisco during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the City opened its first temporary sanctioned tent encampment. Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

California has the highest poverty rate in the US, a Census Bureau report shows.

The District of Columbia was the only location with a higher rate of poverty than California.

Despite this, California's three-year poverty level average has decreased considerably since 2018.

See more stories on Insider's business page.

California remains the state with the highest poverty level in the US, according to a September 2021 report from the US Census Bureau.

In the report, three-year poverty level averages were calculated for each state and the District of Columbia using the supplemental poverty measure, which found that 15.4% of California residents lived in poverty from 2018 to 2020. Only the District of Columbia had a higher rate of poverty - 16.5%.

The supplemental poverty measure expands on the official poverty measure, which was developed by Social Security economist Mollie Orshansky in the 1960s, by accounting for cost of living, work and medical expenses, tax credits, and government programs designed to assist low-income families and individuals.

By comparison, California's three-year poverty level average has considerably decreased from 17.2 % in 2019, and 18.1% in 2018.

Social Security transfers and stimulus payments prevented a combined 38.2 million individuals across the US from falling into poverty, while medical expenses caused the largest increase of the number of individuals in poverty, according to the Census Bureau report.

Californians benefited the most from government programs like the Earned Income Tax Credit, CalFresh, and Child Tax Credit, each of which lowered poverty rates in California by more than 1% in 2019, research from the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) found.

Read the original article on Business Insider
A supporter of California Gov. Gavin Newsom. David McNew/Getty Images

Josh Newman, a Democratic state senator representing parts of Southern California, lived through what Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) hopes to survive: a recall election.

Newman was recalled in 2018 and replaced by a candidate he beat in 2016, who received fewer votes than he did in the recall. He ran again in 2020, and reclaimed the seat. Next year, Newman said, he intends to propose a constitutional amendment that would change California's recall process for governor.

The way recalls work now, Californians vote to either keep or remove the governor, and then select a replacement candidate. The governor must win a majority of the vote to stay in office, otherwise they are replaced by the candidate who receives the most votes. Newman wants to change the process so if the recall effort is successful, the governor is replaced by the lieutenant governor.

California's recall law dates back to the early 1900s, when Republican Gov. Hiram Johnson wanted to curtail the influence the Southern Pacific railroad had in the state. The company, The New York Times writes, "all but owned the state's government and economy, controlling politicians, judges, and regulators."

To trigger a recall election of any elected official in California, opponents need to get enough signatures to equal 12 percent of the turnout in the last election for that office. Critics say it's easy for companies and special interest groups with millions of dollars at their disposal to pay people to collect those signatures from registered voters, and former California Gov. Gray Davis  a Democrat who was recalled in 2003  told the Times he thinks the threshold should be increased from 12 percent to 25 percent.

Many Republicans have spoken in favor of the recall process, because they are in the minority in California and see it as one way they can have a voice. Kevin Kiley, a Republican state assemblyman and one of the candidates hoping to replace Newsom, told the Times he would "absolutely" oppose any changes to the recall process that would make it "harder or impossible to hold your public officials accountable."

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This recall election is costing taxpayers $276 million, at a time when the state is dealing with massive wildfires, the coronavirus pandemic, and severe drought. Voter Frankie Santos told the Times after casting her ballot in Hollywood on Tuesday that the recall is "so dumb. It's so not a good use of resources."

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Biden's new vaccine rules have a familiar problem
A California sheriff said he will not enforce any vaccine mandate on employees of his department, citing the government having "no authority to mandate your health choices."

"Over the past couple of weeks, the idea of forced vaccination has caused much concern across the entire country," Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said in a statement released Monday . "I will not enforce the vaccine mandate on Sheriff's Department employees."

"The government has no ability and no authority to mandate your health choices," he said. "As your sheriff, I have an obligation to guard your liberty and freedom."

CALIFORNIA PROFESSOR SUES OVER VACCINE MANDATE, SAYS HE HAS NATURAL IMMUNITY

Bianco and his family recovered from the coronavirus last winter, ABC7 reported, and he added in his statement: "I am certainly not anti-vaccine; I am anti-vaccine for me."

Bianco added that he was inspired to release the statement after he conducted a podcast on forced vaccinations, and said a local newspaper would use "cherry picked" comments from "supposed" health officials "in an attempt to paint me and the Sheriffs department in a negative light."

"This is nothing but sensationalism trying to gain readership and further divide us as Americans."

OREGON POLICE, FIREFIGHTERS SUE GOV. KATE BROWN OVER VACCINATION MANDATE

Bianco has been vocal during the pandemic on the governments involvement restricting people to their homes during lockdowns and refused to enforce Gov. Gavin Newsom's coronavirus stay-at-home order last year.

"These closures and stay-at-home orders are flat-out ridiculous," Bianco said at the time.

"The Riverside County Sheriff's Department will not be blackmailed, bullied or used as muscle against Riverside County residents in the enforcement of the governor's order," he added.

LOS ANGELES FIREFIGHTERS, COPS PUSHING BACK ON UNCONSTITUTIONAL COVID VACCINE MANDATE

He also slammed the states liberal governor as "hypocritical," citing the controversial photos of Newsom last fall dining in a swanky restaurant maskless and surrounded by people from outside of his own household.
Associated Press

The retired conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court justice leading a Republican-ordered investigation into the 2020 presidential election released a video Monday threatening to subpoena election officials who don't comply and saying the intent was not to overturn President Joe Biden's narrow victory in the battleground state. The unusual six-minute video from Michael Gableman comes after election clerks were confused by an email his office sent last week that was flagged in at multiple counties as junk, a possible security risk and not forwarded to municipal clerks as he wanted. Gableman said Monday that if the state's 1,900-plus municipal and county election officials did not cooperate with his investigation, he would compel them to comply.
There was a lot to like in Austin when Kevin Longley moved there a month and a half ago from Maryland's Montgomery County. His wife had gotten a promotion at her tech company, and their new city already had a solid reputation as a less expensive, more chill Silicon Valley. They bought a 3,000-square foot, five-bedroom house, far bigger than what they could afford outside of D.C. There were breakfast tacos, and amazing barbecue, and weekend day trips to nearby lakes with their 5-year-old daughter.

And then. In July, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order banning government entities, including public schools, from requiring masks or vaccination (the Texas Supreme Court denied his request last month), despite the state's rising death toll: more than 6,000 Texans have died of covid-19 in the past month. On Sept. 1, legislation allowing Texans to carry a handgun in public without a permit or the background check and training the state previously required went into effect. The same day, the Supreme Court declined to block a Texas law that banned abortions beginning at six weeks of pregnancy, one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country. (The Justice Department has sued Texas to challenge the law.) On Sept. 7, Abbott signed into law a bill that creates strict new voting rules in the state.

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For newly minted Texans who had emigrated from bluer pastures, even just one of these laws would be a lot to take. And now, all of them, within two months?

"It's hard to believe that some of these laws actually exist," says Longley. "And then you look around and you're like, 'Oh. Wait. That's our state. That's where we live.'"

From the depths of the pandemic Texas beckoned, with its spacious, affordable four-bedroom homes with yards and swimming pools, big-city amenities, quirky charm and excellent food scene. The 2021 Texas Relocation Report from Texas Realtors found that more than half a million people relocated to Texas from other states in 2019, the latest year for which data was available. Many Texans have noticed an influx from California in particular - some are even commuting between the two states - and William Fulton, the director of the Kinder Institute for Urban Research at Rice University, broke it down further in a blog post: In 2018 and 2019, a little over 80,000 Californians became Texans.

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Many of them followed their tech jobs. Apple, Facebook and Google have satellite offices in Austin. Oracle announced in December that it was moving to Austin, too (though founder Larry Ellison would not: He moved to Hawaii). Hewlett-Packard announced last year that it would move its headquarters from San Jose to Spring, Texas, a suburb of Houston. Tesla and its chief executive, Elon Musk, moved to Austin last year, and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott told CNBC that he talks "frequently" with the tech billionaire.

"Elon consistently tells me that he likes the social policies in the state of Texas," said Abbott.

"In general, I believe government should rarely impose its will upon the people, and, when doing so, should aspire to maximize their cumulative happiness. That said, I would prefer to stay out of politics," Musk tweeted in response. (A representative for SpaceX, one of Musk's companies, did not respond to an inquiry about which social policies in Texas Musk does or does not support.)

The celebrities have come too, in droves, mostly to Austin: "Westworld" star James Marsden, "Girl, Wash Your Face" author and motivational speaker Rachel Hollis, controversy-courting podcaster Joe Rogan, who recently fell ill with covid-19. "Dawson's Creek" star James Van Der Beek, his wife, and five children posed for a spread in Austin Life magazine on their new ranch ("I felt an energy to Austin," the star said). Actresses Haylie Duff, Becca Tobin and Jamie-Lynn Sigler, who had formed a pandemic pod together, moved their families to Austin as a unit. ("You don't pay for parking anywhere," Tobin marveled to the New York Times.) "Queer Eye" star Jonathan Van Ness was filming a season of his show in Austin, and liked it so much that he and his husband decided to stay. ("I had my four cats and was on this lake at an Airbnb, and I was like, Do I love Austin? Is this a liberal bastion in Texas? And it kind of is," he told Self Magazine.)

Really, the state solved problems for expats from both political poles. For conservatives, it was a place where they could put their kids back in schools without mask mandates, and own guns and not have to pay state income taxes. For liberals, it - well, Austin, specifically - was a city of abundant tech jobs, relief from the Bay Area housing market and brimming with like-minded voters. The blueberry in a cherry pie, as an apocryphal Texas adage goes.

"The pandemic lockdown put a lot into perspective for me," says Lexx Miller, 27, who moved from Brooklyn to Austin. "I was getting older and wanted a change in scenery, people and quality of life, but I still wanted to feel like I was in a major city."

For Brian Harden, 47, of Seattle, it was the taxes that made him consider moving to Texas. "They don't have a state income tax," he noted. Besides, "My wife and I are both gun owners, and we're big Second Amendment advocates."

But everything's bigger in Texas, including the regrets. They set in immediately for Tanny Martin, 66, a retired nurse who moved from Massachusetts to Austin last year to be closer to her son and enjoy a lower cost of living. A self-described "blue-state person," and "aging hippie," she had rationalized it by reminding herself that she would be moving to a liberal city.

It's "the part of the state where people have purple hair, and that's comforting," she says. "But there's also three-percenters here and, you know, secessionists, and I mean, it's still Texas."

The new gun law is the most terrifying part of her new home to her. Between that and the threat of covid, "I'm not going out very much because I don't really feel safe," she says.

That makes it hard for newcomers to make friends, too.

"It definitely feels very isolating when you just move here. You want to go see all the sights and meet new people and nobody's going anywhere," says Kyle Miller, 27, who moved to Austin from the Dayton, Ohio, area (and isn't related to Lexx Miller). Seeing all the maskless people out and about, he says, was "very weird."

And yet the state exerts a powerful lure, packed with its own outsize mythology, swaggering style and the promise that life will be a little different there.

That's what Bill Ross, 63, loves about it. When Ross moved from California, "I got nine-milimeters for each member of the family," he says. "I went out and bought an AR-15, and I think it's a very healthy thing."

Guns weren't the primary reason for his move. He took his family to Boerne, Texas - pronounced "Bernie," it's one of the Hill Country's towns with German heritage - after he became dissatisfied with his son's middle school in his Los Gatos, Calif., community, as well as the state's fiscal and political trajectory. His one regret in leaving California, he says, was that he would not be able to vote to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom. He says Abbott is doing a fine job. He supports the state's new voting laws.

"I don't think they're extreme. I think they make a lot of sense," he says. "I think that if you can't control voting, you can't control the protection of the Constitution."

The abortion law gives him pause, though: "I don't know if six weeks is the right thing," he says. "I'm pro-choice. I'm not happy with how abortion is used as a method of birth control."

But Ross is thrilled with his new life in Texas. He no longer has to worry about California wildfires. He sold his house for well over its asking price over the summer and was able to buy one outside of San Antonio nearly three times its size, at about a third of the cost. Plus, it has a pool. He loves his neighbors, who have been "very welcoming."

"Whenever people would ask, 'Well, where are you from?' we'd cower and say, 'California,'" he says, "And then immediately say, 'But you picked up conservative voters!' "

The liberal-leaning new Texans have felt welcomed by their new neighbors, too. It's the people they left behind that have been giving them guff.

"I chose just the worst possible time to move down here," says Kyle Miller. In the wake of the abortion law, his friends have been posting anti-Texas memes.

"My friend took it down already, it seems, but there was one (meme) which was like, an outline of Texas, and it was just labeled 'Dumba**istan," says Kyle Miller. Another, tweeted by @sundae_gurl2 and several others: "The single star on Texas' flag is actually a review."

The culture shocks haven't all been political, though. Miller, who delivers food for DoorDash, had to adjust to the city traffic and the abundance of scooter riders, who can be reckless around cars. Lexx Miller was taken aback the first time she saw employees in stores wearing buttons that said "mask-exempt." Ross was impressed by how much better the roads were than in California. And Longley was pleasantly surprised that people in Texas talk about things other than politics.

"When you're in that D.C. bubble, it seems like just everything's on high alert in terms of political news all the time," he says. "It weighs down my psyche." But maybe not talking about politics enough is part of what got the state to where it is now.

The left-leaning voters see a silver lining to the latest political turmoil: Now that they live here, they can work to correct its course.

"I definitely see myself going out and voting and trying to reverse a lot of these laws that just got passed," says Kyle Miller. "I don't know how long that fight is going to be or how successful it's going to be."

In Maryland, "Your vote is kind of like a drop in the bucket," says Longley. "Out here, you know that your vote really matters."

Still, as much as they might lament their timing, the new Texans are mostly glad they made their moves. Lexx Miller doesn't see herself as a lifelong Texas resident, but she doesn't have any regrets: "As a minority, there are few places where I can feel completely safe in America anyway," she says. "My quality of life here is better."

Not for everyone. Abbott's handling of covid gave Harden, the Seattle gun owner, a pause. But he finally abandoned his plans to move to Texas after the abortion law came out and his wife vetoed the move: "That was the nail in the coffin."

Now, he says, "We're toying with possibly Tennessee."

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Capitol Breach Rally (Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

A special agent in the US Capitol Polices Protective Services Bureau has been accused of leaking the secret location that lawmakers were taken to during the Capitol riot on 6 January.

The agent could face disciplinary action because of the supposed improper dissemination of information, according to McClatchy.

The reported allegation came after the agent spoke to a friend about a week after the insurrection, in which a pro-Trump mob stormed the US Capitol to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Bidens electoral college victory.

During the conversation, the special agent allegedly shared information about the lawmakers secret riot location to which he helped evacuate members of Congress on 6 January during the siege of the Capitol.

In the internal investigation documents obtained by McClatchy, the friend is referred to as Anonymous. The friend called the FBI tip line to report the conversation and shared their concerns that the agent believed in election conspiracy theories boosted by former President Donald Trump.

The documents show that in a follow-up interview with Capitol Police, the friend said: I dont want to report a friend of forty years but he says enough concerning statements that I feel like I need to do this ... hes just fallen into this cult and these beliefs.

More follows...
The Capitol Police have requested assistance from the Department of Defense regarding the upcoming rally set for this week where attendees will be supporting those who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6.

The rally, which is being put on by Look Ahead America and will be held on Saturday, has law enforcement agencies working to prevent a repeat of the riot that occurred the day Congress was set to certify President Joe Bidens electoral victory.

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We have received a request from Capitol Police for some assistance for this weekends scheduled protests, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters at Wednesdays briefing, declining to provide details, though he noted he doesnt believe the request requires substantial resources.

My understanding is it is not an exorbitant ask. Its not of a particularly large size or major capability. I think its really more in the form of some manpower support, he added.

A spokesperson for Capitol Police confirmed to the Washington Examiner that it has spoken with the military and has "multiple agencies assisting, though the agency cannot provide specifics as we do not want to give away security sensitive info." A National Guard representative directed the Washington Examiner to contact Capitol Police when reached for comment.

The Capitol Police board approved the department's request to bring back temporary fencing around the Capitol building ahead of the rally earlier this week.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Fencing was installed around the Capitol for months following the violent Jan. 6 riot when a mob of former President Donald Trump's supporters breached the building's doors as Congress was in the process of certifying the 2020 election for Biden. Portions of the fence were removed in March, but the full blockade was removed in early July.

Hundreds of people were arrested following the attack on the Capitol, and the rally is being put on to support those individuals.

Story continues

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Tags: News, Pentagon, U.S. Capitol Building, U.S. Capitol Police, Military

Original Author: Mike Brest

Original Location: Capitol Police and Pentagon in communication about upcoming rally supporting Jan. 6 rioters
Sep. 15Gov. Mike DeWine and leaders of Ohio's children's hospitals on Tuesday made a direct appeal to every K-12 school superintendent and school board in the state to mandate masks for all students.

Dayton Children's Hospital CEO Deborah Feldman echoed other hospital leaders, saying the surge of children with COVID-19 and other respiratory illnesses has left her hospital with little capacity left to treat children with any medical concern.

"For a long time this was really perceived as a disease that did not impact our kids in a significant way. That belief has really been shattered over the last couple months," Feldman said. "About 25% of the (COVID) cases in Ohio are kids. We're seeing demand in our emergency department and our access points at unprecedented levels."

Feldman said other than special beds for newborn intensive care and behavioral health cases, Dayton Children's only had two beds available in the hospital Tuesday. She said Dayton Children's has averaged 11-17 child COVID patients in the hospital each day for the past few weeks.

All of the 12 largest school districts in the Dayton region are now requiring masks  11 of them for all grades, and Springboro for grades K-6. Troy was the last district to make that decision, at a Monday night school board meeting where the vast majority of residents who spoke were against the mask mandate.

But several smaller school districts locally have not adopted mask mandates. And in the week of Aug. 30 to Sept. 5, more than 1,000 students in the Dayton area's K-12 schools tested positive for new cases of COVID-19, according to Ohio Department of Health data.

Paula Grieb, chief nursing officer at ProMedica Children's Hospital in Toledo, said that every emergency room in Lucas County was at capacity simultaneously Monday night, a situation she said was unprecedented and lasted for over eight hours.

"We know a path forward here to alleviate (this). We are asking for assistance from our schools and our communities," Grieb said. "If you have a child old enough to get vaccinated, please do so. As an adult, we should all be vaccinated too. And we know that masking works. ... It's vitally important that we do these things to protect our children."

Story continues

Patty Manning, chief of staff at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, cited an analysis of seven school districts in her region. She said the study determined that students in a partially masked district  requiring masks just in grades K-6  were almost twice as likely to test positive for COVID than students in a fully masked district.

DeWine said 54.4% of Ohio public school students are currently required to wear a mask, significantly up from the start of school year, and continuing to rise, as schools such as Troy and Northmont have expanded their mask policies in the past 48 hours.

DeWine repeated a common refrain  that it is important for K-12 students' education and health that they continue in-person classes. Under existing quarantine rules, unvaccinated students can stay in school even after close contact with COVID if they are masked at the time.

Asked why he didn't just issue a statewide school mask mandate if he believed it was the right thing to do, DeWine said legislative leaders have told him they would immediately overturn such an order. So he said he decided to appeal to the schools themselves through the medical experts around the state.

Over a two-week period that ended Sept. 4, DeWine said school-aged children averaged 909 COVID cases per 100,000 people, compared to 561 cases per 100,000 for all other Ohioans. And he said this past week, there was a 44% increase in cases among school-aged children and only a 17% increase for all others.

Feldman said the surge in COVID and other respiratory illnesses can cause such a backup at Dayton Children's, that some parents give up and leave rather than waiting.

She said in normal conditions, Dayton Children's doesn't see that happen. But one day last week they had 40 families check in, but then leave without their child being seen.

"Even if you don't think your child is going to get sick from COVID, we want to help people understand, when our emergency departments and other access points are this busy, it prevents our staff from addressing other needs that come into our emergency department  other respiratory diseases, or concussions from Friday night football, asthma attacks, injuries," Feldman said. "We owe it to our kids to make this happen. We urge all of our superintendents, all of our school boards, to hear this data and require masks in schools for a period of time. It doesn't have to be forever."
(Bloomberg) -- Chinas residential property slowdown deepened last month, signaling that regulatory tightening and an escalating crisis at the countrys most indebted developer are hurting buyer sentiment.

Home sales by value slumped 20% in August from a year earlier, the biggest drop since the onset of the coronavirus shut swathes of the economy at the start of last year, according to Bloomberg calculations based on National Bureau of Statistics data released Wednesday.

New-home prices in 70 cities, excluding state-subsidized housing, rose 0.16% last month from July, the slowest pace this year, the data showed. Prices in the secondary market dropped for the first time since February 2020, slipping 0.02% from a month earlier.

Softness in the housing market is becoming more evident as regulators efforts to curb the real estate sector coincide with a worsening cash crunch at China Evergrande Group. Higher mortgage rates, tighter rules for home purchases, and measures to curtail excess borrowing by developers have all weighed on the market.

The turmoil at Evergrande is catching regulator attention. The National Bureau of Statistics spokesman Fu Linghui said on Wednesday that some large-sized property companies are encountering some difficulties, and that the impact on the real estate industry needs to be monitored.

Numerous sectors could be exposed to credit risks if Evergrande was to default, Fitch Ratings wrote in a note Wednesday, adding smaller banks and weaker developers would be hurt the most. Still, such a scenario wouldnt put significant pressure on housing prices nationwide, given the developer only has a 4% share in a highly fragmented market, the ratings company said.

Authorities havent shown signs of easing up on the property industry, with Vice Premier Han Zheng saying in July that it shouldnt be used as a short-term boost for the economy.

Tightening over the real estate sector has been unprecedented recently, and its clearly had an impact, Song Hongwei, a research director at Tospur Real Estate Consulting Co., said before the figures were released. More developers are resorting to price cuts to recoup cash, as it becomes harder to get proceeds from mortgages and other fundraising methods.

Story continues

Shares of Chinese real estate developers fell on Wednesday, with the Shanghai Stock Exchange Property Index sliding as much as 2.5% after Morgan Stanley cut earnings forecasts for the sector by as much as 13% through 2023. Evergrandes potential default could impact suppliers, financial markets and other developers, analysts including Elly Chen wrote in a note.

Confidence toward developers may weaken further after a spate of protests broke out at Evergrande offices across China in recent days, raising the specter of social unrest. Evergrande said Tuesday that it expects a significant drop in property sales in the normally buoyant month of September because of waning confidence among home buyers.

With more than $300 billion in liabilities, Evergrande has been slashing prices on apartments to raise cash. The group had received down payments on yet-to-be-completed properties from more than 1.5 million home buyers as of December.

(Updates with government comments on monitoring developer impact)

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Protests against teetering developer Evergrande spread to more Chinese cities on Wednesday after a company offer of property and parking spaces instead of cash repayments of its debts was rejected by investors.

The troubled property titan has warned it may not be able to service its colossal debts of more than $300 billion, seeding panic among property buyers, bond holders and contractors while fanning fears of a default that could ripple through the world's second-biggest economy.

Several dozen protesters returned for a third straight day to the firm's headquarters in the southern city of Shenzhen, where the company began its ascent in 1996 into a sprawling conglomerate minting the dreams of home ownership among China's middle classes.

Chanting "Evergrande, give us our money back", they were met by a heavy police presence but refused to disperse.

The fresh demonstration came after an apparent effort overnight by Evergrande to repay debts with promises of property, parking spaces and commercial units soured the mood.

"They offered us (ownership of) shops, kindergartens and parking units... but we can't use them. None of us agree to this," said a woman who gave her surname only as Wang.

She said her financial company in the central city of Chongqing is "not really functioning" because of unpaid debts from the developer.

Experts say the Hong Kong-listed firm has more than a million units pre-paid by customers yet to be built, adding to the sense of dread among Chinese investors, many of them first-time buyers trying to get a foot on the runaway property market.

The company on Tuesday admitted it is under "tremendous pressure" and may not be able to meet its liabilities.

On Wednesday it declined a request for comment from AFP.

The privately-owned firm, whose rapid expansion into 280 Chinese cities had bolstered its reputation, now appears on the brink of buckling, but experts say Beijing will not allow it to collapse chaotically.

Story continues

In eastern Jiangsu province, anxious investors gathered on Wednesday morning outside company offices in Taizhou city, while similar protests have been reported in Anhui and unpaid workers have demanded their wages in Ezhou city, Hubei.

Concern is building among unpaid suppliers -- some of whom in Shenzhen say they are owed upwards of $1 million -- as well as investors relying on returns to pay off their own loans and staff salaries.

On Wednesday morning a woman sat on the floor in front of the Shenzhen offices crying, while several officers stood guard nearby and shooed away journalists.

"They are trying to deal with their bad properties," another investor told AFP, requesting anonymity. "These are products they are unable to sell."

The property giant's shares have plummeted around 80 percent since the start of the year and lost another five percent in Hong Kong trading on Wednesday.

- Rare protests -

It is rare for China's communist authorities to allow protests of any kind, especially across several cities. The country's tightly-controlled internet was abuzz with gripes about Evergrande on Tuesday while images of the protests rattled across social media.

Experts say the unusually permissive approach could signal Beijing's desire to show the public it is on their side while it assesses its next moves.

Hong Kong-based politics commentator Willy Lam said either way the ability of the censors to block information on the protests was "limited" given the scale of the Evergrande crisis.

"The victims of the default could come up to a few million Chinese citizens," Lam said.

The giant debt mountain helped drive Evergrande's voracious expansion, which started with a 1990s property boom and lasted until Beijing moved to trim leveraged growth in the sector by introducing curbs in 2020.

While there are dire warnings about what impact a default by Evergrande would have on the economy, experts say a disorderly implosion is not expected as Beijing would likely step in.

"An Evergrande default could damage consumer confidence if it were to affect households' deposits for homes that have not yet been completed, but we assume the government would act to protect households' interests, making this outcome unlikely," ratings agency Fitch said in a note on Wednesday.

Markets from Hong Kong to New York have so far taken Evergrande's troubles in their stride despite months of bad news about the company, including two ratings downgrades and gloomy company statements.

bys/apj/ssy
India's tea-to-steel conglomerate Tata Group confirmed Wednesday it has submitted a bid to buy debt-crippled national carrier Air India, which it owned decades ago before the airline was nationalised.

The Indian government has sought to sell its entire stake in the ailing company, setting a deadline for bids for Wednesday after failing previously to secure any interest for a majority share.

"We have put in a bid," a Tata Group spokesperson told AFP late Wednesday, without giving any further details.

Tata already has investments in airlines AirAsia India and Vistara.

The founder of Indian budget carrier SpiceJet, Ajay Singh, also submitted a bid in a personal capacity, The Times of India reported.

SpiceJet did not respond to an AFP request for comment.

The secretary of the government's investment and public asset management department, Tuhin Kanta Pandey, confirmed bids had been received.

"Process now moves to concluding stage," he tweeted Wednesday.

Tata Group in 1932 pioneered commercial air travel in India with Tata Airlines.

Once known affectionately as the "Maharaja of the skies", the airline was later taken over by the government and rebranded Air India.

But it has been haemorrhaging money for more than a decade, incurring billions of dollars in debt and losing market share to low-cost rivals in one of the world's fastest-growing, but highly competitive, airline markets.

Apart from Air India, the government also plans to raise billions of dollars through the privatisation of Bharat Petroleum and a share sale of a major insurer.

In August, New Delhi said it was seeking to lease state-owned assets to the private sector to raise six trillion rupees ($81 billion) to repair public finances battered by the pandemic and fund new infrastructure.

grk-ng/sw
Homeworker in a garden - aerial image

People in England could be told to work from home once again if the government adopts its "Plan B" to deal with Covid through the autumn and winter.

In the rest of the UK, staff are still advised to work at home where possible.

What's the advice in England and how might it change?

Since Covid restrictions lifted on 19 July, people are no longer asked to work from home.

PM Boris Johnson recommended a "gradual return" for staff who'd been at home since the start of the pandemic.

But although social distancing limits no longer apply, businesses still have a legal duty to manage risks to staff and customers.

Employers must follow official safety guidance and carry out Covid risk assessments. They may decide to keep some previous measures in place, such as minimising unnecessary visitors, frequent cleaning and one-way systems.

Regular lateral flow testing remains widespread and there is more detailed guidance for some industries - including construction, hospitality and manufacturing. Read the specific advice for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Plan A and Plan B

The government has now published its Covid-19 Autumn and Winter Plan - which includes a Plan A and Plan B.

Much of Plan A focuses on the vaccine rollout:

booster jabs for over 50s, the most vulnerable and health workers

single jabs for 12-15 year olds

encouraging others who have not yet been vaccinated to come forward

But if despite this, the NHS struggles and there is "concerning data", Plan B (or parts of it) may be introduced - including advice to work from home once again for "a limited period".

Plan B could also see face coverings become mandatory again in certain settings and the introduction of so-called Covid passports.

Does working from home help stop Covid spreading?

Working from home is one of the most effective ways to reduce social contacts, according to the government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage).

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It has a "strong impact" against virus transmission and the R number, which is a way of rating a disease's ability to spread.

Keeping people at home greatly limits face-to-face contact - both at work and when commuting on public transport.

Chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance says if Covid cases start rising fast, there could be a case to bring back some restrictions.

"If you look across the Channel, at countries where you have similar levels of immunity and some higher degrees of restriction, you can see cases are going down."

What are the work-from-home rules in the rest of the UK?

In Scotland, most Covid restrictions have been lifted, but people are still advised to work from home where possible. The government is encouraging employers to consider long-term hybrid models of home and office working.

In Wales, again, most Covid restrictions have been lifted, but employers are still encouraged to let people work from home where possible. Guidance says that staff should not be "required or placed under pressure to return" to a workplace unless there is a clear business need for them to do so.

Northern Ireland's guidance to work from home where possible also remains in place.

Office worker in mask

Can I ask to keep working from home?

You can ask, but employers don't have to agree.

However, the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development (CIPD) - which represents HR professionals - says there could be much greater freedom and flexibility in how, when and where people work in future.

"People generally want a mix of workplace and home working, and the possibility of more choice in their working routines, meaning hybrid working can provide an effective balance for many workers."

The CIPD adds that the lifting of Covid restrictions "shouldn't signal a mass return to workplaces," and "it should be down to individual organisations, consulting with their people, to agree working arrangements".

How safe is public transport?

Much of the risk depends on how crowded it is and your distance from other people.

Wearing a mask helps, as does keeping windows open, and avoiding peak journey times where possible.

Commuters on the Tube wearing a face covering

What are my rights if I am in a vulnerable group?

Previous advice that millions of "clinically extremely vulnerable" people should shield, has now ended.

Many continue to work from home, but if your job cannot be done remotely, your employer can ask you to return to the workplace.

However, they still have a responsibility to keep you safe, so you should raise any specific concerns you have about going back.

In addition, if you are disabled, your employer has an extra responsibility to make and pay for "reasonable adjustments".
REUTERS/Sergio Perez

The key defendant in the trail of the 2015 Paris attacks said the killings were "nothing personal."

Salah Abdeslam was arrested months after the attack, the Associated Press reported.

The coordinated attacks around Paris on November 13, 2015, left 130 people dead.

See more stories on Insider's business page.

The key defendant in the trial over the 2015 Paris attacks said that the killing of 130 people in the French capital was "nothing personal," the Associated Press reported on Wednesday.

Salah Abdeslam, who wore all black to the trial and acknowledged his role in the terror attacks for the first time, was arrested months after the attack and said the killings were in retaliation for French airstrikes in Syria and Iraq.

"We fought France, we attacked France, we targeted the civilian population. It was nothing personal against them," he said. "I know my statement may be shocking, but it is not to dig the knife deeper in the wound but to be sincere towards those who are suffering immeasurable grief."

A group of Islamic State gunmen and suicide bombers launched several coordinated attacks around Paris on November 13, 2015, targeting individuals at a soccer stadium, cafe and concert hall.

The attacks where the deadliest violence in France since World War II and one of the worst terror attacks to hit Europe.

Abdeslam is the only surviving member of his terror cell, the report said. His suicide vest malfunctioned on the night of the attack and he fled after to his hometown of Brussels.

Most of his fellow cell members were French or Belgian, the report said. The same terror network targeted the Brussels airport and a subway station in 2016, killing 32 people.

The report said that the trial, which began last week, is expected to last nine months.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Reproduced from Denver Public Health; Chart: Axios Visuals

COVID-19 vaccination rates among Hispanic people and Latinos continue to lag behind all other ethnicities in Denver  and the division appears to be widening.

Driving the news: Over the past few weeks, city health officials have ramped up vaccine outreach at K12 public schools to target students and their families.

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The city launched an in-school immunization program offering free vaccines to eligible students and their relatives.

The intention behind the strategy is to increase vaccination rates for Latino students ages 12 to 17 while encouraging those close to them to get the shots, officials tell Axios.

Why it matters: The Hancock administration is hopeful that bilingual students can encourage their unvaccinated parents, who often face technological and language barriers in addition to other challenges, including access to vaccination sites and fear of missing work.

Throughout the pandemic, officials from multiple states such as California and Massachusetts, have leaned on children, when possible, to help parents understand health risks and the benefits of vaccinations, Axios Russell Contreras writes.

By the numbers: An Axios analysis found the vaccination disparity among eligible Latinos compared with white populations widened considerably from April to June, dipped slightly through July and has been on the rise since the start of August.

As of Sept. 12, only 44.7% of eligible Hispanic and Latino people ages 12 and older were fully vaccinated, compared with 76.9% of eligible white Denver residents, Denver Public Health figures show.

Zoom out: Across Colorado, vaccine rates among Hispanic people continue to trail behind other populations, according to data from the states health department.

Only 57% of eligible Hispanic Coloradans are immunized compared with 98% of white residents in the state.

The big picture: Although the number of Latinos getting vaccinated in some of the most populated cities in the U.S. is slowly increasing, people of color "remain less likely than their white counterparts to have received a vaccine, leaving them at increased risk, particularly as the variant spreads," according to recently released research from the Kaiser Family Foundation.

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The Daily Beast

via YouTubeAs authorities double down on search efforts Tuesday for the fiance of 22-year-old YouTuber Gabby Petito, new details have emerged about what led the FBI to the body believed to be hers outside Grand Teton National Park.A graphic designer who was at the Bridger-Teton National Forest in late August may have been the key to authorities finding the body over the weekend. The grim discovery turned a high-profile missing-persons case into a potential murder mystery, with a nomadic van-li
CHICAGO  A group of Black men in Chicago are bending over backward to create community with one another after a year and a half of isolation, grief and trauma.

At least, thats the goal of The Healing, a new nonprofit where Black men can practice yoga together  and then open up the floor to conversations about their struggles with mental health.

Over the past 15 months, Black adults have experienced higher levels of depression and anxiety symptoms than white adults, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Last year in Chicago, Black people were 30% of the population and yet nearly 70% of the citys COVID-19 deaths. And in 2020, 97 Black Cook County residents died by suicide.

The effect of a pandemic that suddenly changed the world; the fallout from the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery that spurred worldwide protests; the unexpected death of basketball legend Kobe Bryant, all urged The Healing co-founders Andrew Smith and Tristan Lewis into action.

Lewis, 35, who works for a tech company and Smith, 32, who is a financial adviser, are relative newcomers to yoga. But both say they have long yearned for a space like The Healing to support them in the transitions in their lives.

From what began as just low-key weekly outdoor workouts last spring, Smith and Lewis realized they needed a way to process the sudden changes surrounding them. Through forming The Healing after meeting in a group chat for Black professionals in the city, they became partners and close friends.

When we first had our initial session, 20 guys showed up, and every guy was like, Yo, I didnt know I needed this, Lewis said.

The Healing has hosted sessions in open outdoor spaces like football fields, and Smith and Lewis secure yoga teachers who look like the men who attend. Sessions are free, with mats included. When practice is over, its typical for attendees to congregate for up to 90 minutes  letting it loose in a custom typically reserved for the barber shop. And once a month The Healing invites women to practice alongside the men. Smith called the practice transformative for the dozens of men who have attended since June 2020.

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I would also say I think all those factors really allow guys to open up and access the mental benefits and rewards that come through yoga, Lewis said. We were all carrying a lot; it was a heavy time. And I think that stillness and the quietness that yoga offered was the thing that I feel resonated with the guys the most.

The Healing is by far not the only organization offering mental health resources, or even yoga, to Black Chicagoans. Real Men Charities hosts yoga practices aimed at Black men at their mens wellness circle at The Quarry in South Shore. Coffee, Hip-Hop & Mental Health is a full-service coffee shop that raises money for people of color to attend therapy and seeks to normalize conversations on mental health in those communities.

These groups are part of a larger surge of initiatives to address mental health at a time where dual pandemics of racism and COVID-19 are contributing to a nationwide crisis. Only 4% of psychologists are Black, according to the latest data available from the American Psychological Association, while Black people consist of just over 13% of the U.S. population.

So far The Healing has hosted Easter Sunday, Juneteenth and Fathers Day programs in partnership with other Black businesses, artists and organizations. And it has already ventured into philanthropy. Last winter it hosted a holiday drive for a South Side charter school.

Now Lewis and Smith aim to expand The Healings wholistic vision beyond yoga. They want to provide mentorship to Chicago school kids and do some type of healing circle with these young men who have suffered a lot of trauma being from the South and West sides of the city, Smith said.

Jazmine Price is a marriage and family therapist who has lent her services to The Healings community. Until last year, Price says she was the only Black therapist at the Downers Grove practice where she works. To her, The Healing is filling a gap in resources available due to the ongoing mental health crisis and shortage of Black therapists.

I think its an opportunity for people to find themselves and find what works with them and for them, because Ill tell people, therapy is not the only way to get healing or to be our best selves, Price said.

Mike Fair, a member of The Healing who has attended sessions from the onset, said the group helped him navigate one of the most difficult periods of his life after his father died of COVID-19 last spring.

I was just searching for community, Fair said. I was searching for, truly, peace. I was experiencing a level of grief that I hadnt experienced up to that point in my life, but also with everything that was happening with the Black Lives Matter movement and civil rights, I was feeling a desperate need to rally around my people.

Fair says hes gone to therapy since 2018, but sessions with The Healing allowed him to double down on his emotional growth and make it a priority. With outside yoga sessions, Fair says men get together to celebrate their wins, give advice and support one another.

Price commends Lewis and Smith for stepping up to provide a space for Black men who are confronting their trauma.

The reality is that theyre dealing with peoples lives, real lives. And theyre not running from it; theyre running toward them, Price said.

Fostering a community that cares and rallying together to defeat the stigma of getting help is the purpose behind The Healing.

Had Tristan and I had this idea much earlier, I think we would have gone further, faster, Smith said.
Sen. Lindsey Graham has warned former President Donald Trump that attacking his rivals won't help secure future election victories. Getty Images

Sen. Lindsey Graham reportedly told Donald Trump he had messed up his presidency after his 2020 defeat.

The GOP Senator believed Trump was vital to Republican efforts to regain control and wanted him to focus on the future.

A forthcoming book by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa details the conversation and the final days of Trump's presidency.

See more stories on Insider's business page.

As the Republican party struggled to maintain control following former President Donald Trump's defeat in the 2020 election, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, who Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell had dubbed the "Trump Whisperer," believed the party needed Trump and his dedicated base to regain political power, according to an excerpt from a forthcoming book by journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa that was obtained by CNN.

But the longtime Trump ally reportedly hit a nerve with the wounded president after delivering a hard truth.

"You fucked your presidency up," Graham said to Trump in a phone call, according to Woodward and Costa.

Trump responded to the diss by abruptly hanging up the phone, CNN reported, citing the book.

According to the outlet's coverage of the book preview, the two men spoke again the next day, and Graham told Trump he didn't blame him for hanging up. But the South Carolina Republican did urge the then-president to focus on the future, not the past, in order to maximize the GOP's chance at reclaiming power.

During the follow-up conversation, Trump reportedly worried that he would "lose my base" if he changed his behavior. Graham responded by telling Trump to look toward 2024, saying it could be the "biggest comeback in American history," according to CNN.

Woodward and Costa, who are both reporters for The Washington Post, described Graham as "an addiction counselor struggling to keep his patient from taking one more drink," according to CNN.

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Graham had previously told the president "we can't do it without you, Mr. President," during a round of gold in May, the outlet reported.

"I think he's redeemable," Graham said about Trump, according to Woodward and Costa. "I think he's got magic and I think he's got darkness."

The insight into the Republican Party's post-election infighting is just one of several juicy details promised to be divulged in Woodward and Costa's "Peril," which focuses on the final weeks of Trump's presidency and is set to be released next week.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Siena David, 3, reaches toward a shelf of merchandise at a Toys R Us store in Los Angeles in 2015. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

State lawmakers have plenty of necessary and appropriate tasks ahead of them, such as preparing for a hotter, drier future, devoting adequate resources to fight and prevent devastating wildfires and supporting school districts as they help students overcome learning loss from the pandemic months.

Rearranging the toy shelves in major retail chains is not one of those tasks.

Nevertheless, a bill awaiting Gov. Gavin Newsoms signature or veto would require stores or chains with more than 500 employees statewide to create gender-neutral toy sections, in which playthings traditionally associated with girls and with boys are commingled on the shelves. The stores could maintain separate sections for toys targeted to each gender, but only if they added a gender-neutral section as well. The bill, AB 1084, would require the same of childcare products such as pacifiers.

To be clear, its a great idea for stores to create toy sections where boys dont feel odd for choosing a baby doll and girls feel welcome to take home a toy truck. A few big-box retailers, including Target, already have done away with signs and other visual markers that certain toys are for girls and others for boys. Toys R Us no longer labels toys as being for boys or girls.

But even when stores dont specifically label toys, the sea of pink and lavender on some toy aisles delivers an unspoken yet loud girl message while the blue tones of others signal boys. In catalogs of educational toys, girls are generally pictured with jewelry-making kits while boys are shown with construction sets and science kits, a disappointing throwback. And though of course a child can choose, it can be a powerful force of discouragement when a girl is trying to shop for a Superman costume for Halloween in an aisle where shes surrounded by boys, while a boy hunts the pink row for a cat costume.

Still, the movement is mostly away from rigidly gendered toys to a more universal approach. Toymaker Hasbro, which earlier this year removed the "Mr." from the brand name of its Potato Head line, is a pioneer in the movement. Neither families nor toymakers nor stores need the states intervention to make this happen; demand is already beginning to rearrange the landscape.

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Even if it werent, though, the bill represents nannyish overreach. Just because something might be a good idea doesnt mean it makes for good legislation. How private companies choose to arrange a display of toys or any other products is simply not government business.

As small as the reach of this bill would be, the concept it represents is of major concern: another inch in the Legislatures mission creep from public policymaker to private overseer. We saw it with the 2018 California law  now being challenged in court  that requires corporations to include women on their board of directors. In 2020, the Legislature compounded the overreach by requiring corporate boards to add people of color too. Again, the goal is noble. The boards of publicly held companies were overwhelmingly white and male, and some studies show that corporate diversity is good for business. But if the companies are going to be dodos about it, thats really their business.

When it comes to social engineering, public agencies should feel free to encourage more solar roof panels using tax benefits, surround kids with gender-neutral toys in public school kindergarten classes and provide public colleges with the financial resources to allow more low-income students to access higher education.

That public role extends to the private sector when it comes to preventing employee abuse by setting standards for safe working conditions and hour and wage regulations, and protecting consumers with product safety laws. The state also safeguards the civil rights of transgender people by ensuring their right to use the restroom of the sex with which they identify, including in private stores and restaurants.

But progressive lawmakers need to check this trend toward interfering in seemingly every aspect of private commerce. They already appear aware that they cannot restrict how toys are labeled because that might cross the line into federally protected speech. But it shouldnt take the U.S. Constitution to keep the Legislature  or Newsom  from regulatory overreach.

The governor should veto the bill and, in the future, legislators should ask themselves whether their personal values should trump those of private companies and consumers who are able to make their own decisions.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Photograph: Eva Hambach/AFP/Getty Images

A Canadian police officer who was shot nine times by a colleague is now on trial for assault over the confrontation that began over a bathroom break.

Constable Nathan Parker, 55, of the Niagara regional police, stands accused of assault with a weapon, intent to resist arrest and assaulting a police officer after allegedly attacking detective sergeant Shane Donovan.

On Tuesday, Donovan told an Ontario court that he barely knew Parker when the two worked on a collision reconstruction scene in rural Ontario in November 2018. Donovan was leading the operation when he assigned Parker to stop residents from using the road.

The court heard that Parker left the scene and became defensive when Donovan asked him to remain. Parker said he had to leave to use the bathroom.

Youre talking to a sergeant, Donovan told him, he said.

But the confrontation escalated when Parker got out of his vehicle and shoved Donovan, the court heard.

Youre under arrest for assault, Donovan told Parker.

Donovan told the court that Parker continued towards him, throwing a haymaker punch, and hitting him.

The sergeant said that he put up his hands in surrender and went back to his vehicle. But he was punched again by Parker, who then drew his police-issued baton.

Fearing that a strike to the head could be fatal, Donovan drew his gun.

Oh, you want to do this? said Parker who unholstered his own weapon.

I knew if he got the firearm up on me, then he would kill me  and it was either me or him, Donovan said. So I fired my gun until he dropped his gun.

Investigators recovered 10 shell casings at the scene.

My belief was that my life was in danger, said Donovan. Hes already attacked me, hit me three or four times.

Donovan told the court that his experience with Parker was the first time he had ever drawn his gun.

A medical examination found four gunshot wounds on Parkers left calf, his lower abdomen, his left hip, and the back of his right foot. He also had wounds through his nose and cheek, as well as his left shoulder and upper thigh.

Ontarios special investigations unit, which investigates shootings involving police officers, initially laid charges against Donovan, including attempted murder, but the charges were later dropped.

Donovan will continue his testimony on Wednesday in the judge-only trial.
BRUSSELS (AP)  When European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was at a loss for words Wednesday to capture the soul of the European Union and its future, Bebe Vio was there to help the EU's top official at the end of her State of the Union address.

Sitting anonymously among the European legislators for most of the hour-long speech, which is a highlight on the EU calendar, the Italian Paralympic fencer suddenly became the center of attention when von der Leyen called her the guest of honor of the proceedings.

Trying to find the right words to capture the essence, von der Leyen said, is not easy. But it is easier when you borrow them from someone who inspires you."

More than just winning gold and silver medals in the women's foil at the Paralympics, it was Vio's road to get to this year's games that inspired von der Leyen. The wheelchair fencer contracted meningitis as a child and to save her life, doctors amputated both her forearms and both her legs at the knees.

It was far from the end of her struggles before she reached the Tokyo Paralympics, where she again proved she could fence at the highest level without hands or feet. Because of it, von der Leyen said she turned into a gold medalist from Italy who captured my heart this summer.

"But what you might not know, is that only in April, she was told her life was in peril. She went through surgery, she fought back, she recovered. And only 119 days after she left the hospital, she won Paralympic gold," she said.

Fighting unlikely odds, von der Leyen said, is the spirit of Europes next generation. So lets be inspired by Bebe and by all the young people who change our perception of the possible.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP)  The Minnesota Supreme Court on Wednesday threw out the third-degree murder conviction of a former Minneapolis police officer who fatally shot a woman who had called 911 to report a possible rape behind her home.

In its ruling in the case of Mohamed Noor, the Supreme Court also clarified what would constitute third-degree murder, or depraved-mind murder, saying the statute doesn't apply if a defendant's actions are directed at a particular person.

Noor was convicted of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the 2017 death of Justine Ruszczyk Damond, a dual U.S.-Australian citizen who called 911 to report a possible sexual assault behind her home. He was sentenced to 12 1/2 years on the murder count but was not sentenced for manslaughter.

The ruling means his murder conviction is overturned and the case will now go back to the district court, where he will be sentenced on the manslaughter count. He has already served more than 28 months of his murder sentence. If sentenced to the presumptive four years for manslaughter, he could be eligible for supervised release around the end of this year.

Damond's fiance, Don Damond, said the ruling was a double blow against justice. In a statement to The Associated Press he said that since Justine's death, he has worked to try to prevent more fatalities at the hands of "stressed and inadequately trained police officers. He said the Minneapolis Police Department hasn't made any real progress toward change, and now Noor is not being held accountable for his fiancee's killing.

I have lived with the tragic loss of Justine and none of this can hurt my heart more than it has been, but now it truly feels like there has been no justice for Justine, he said.

Caitlinrose Fisher, an attorney who worked on Noor's appeal, said she's grateful the Supreme Court clarified the law, and hopes it will lead to greater equity and consistency in charging decisions.

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Weve said from the beginning that this was a tragedy but it wasnt a murder, and now the Supreme Court agrees and recognizes that, she said.

Noor's defense team also released a joint statement, saying fairness has been delivered and Noor is looking forward to hugging his son as soon as possible.

Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman, whose office prosecuted the case, said in a statement that he disagrees with the Supreme Court's analysis but must accept the decision. Freeman said the conviction on second-degree manslaughter still stands and was just.

The ruling could give former Minneapolis Officer Derek Chauvin grounds to contest his own third-degree murder conviction in George Floyd's May 2020 death. But that wouldn't have much impact on Chauvin since he was also convicted of the more serious count of second-degree murder and is serving 22 1/2 years on that count. Experts say it's unlikely Chauvin would be successful in appealing his second-degree murder conviction.

The ruling in Noor's case was also closely watched for its possible impact on three other former Minneapolis officers awaiting trial in Floyd's death. Prosecutors had wanted to add charges of aiding and abetting third-degree murder against them, but that's unlikely to happen now. The three men are due to go on trial in March on charges of aiding and abetting both second-degree murder and manslaughter.

The Attorney General's Office, which is prosecuting that case, said it is studying the decision.

The Supreme Court said that for a third-degree murder charge, the persons mental state must show a generalized indifference to human life, which cannot exist when the defendants conduct is directed with particularity at the person who is killed.

The justices said that Noor's conduct was directed with particularity at Damond, and the evidence is therefore insufficient to sustain his conviction ... for depraved-mind murder.

State law has defined third-degree murder as an act eminently dangerous to others and evincing a depraved mind, without regard for human life. A central dispute has been whether dangerous to others must be read as plural, or if the fatal act can be directed at a single, specific person.

In its ruling, the Supreme Court pointed to numerous other cases in which it has interpreted the depraved mind, regardless of human life phrase. In roughly 20 cases over more than 160 years, the Supreme Court has repeatedly held that depraved-mind murder shows an indifference to life in general, not to the life of a specific, targeted person.

We reaffirm our precedent today and confirm that the mental state required for depraved-mind murder cannot exist when the defendants actions are directed with particularity at the person who is killed, the justices wrote. The Supreme Court also made the point of overruling one of its own prior rulings that contradicted this precedent  saying that in that case, the justices had gotten it wrong.

While evidence shows Noors conduct was aimed at Damond, the state argued that depraved-mind murder applied because Noors partner and a bicyclist were nearby.

The Supreme Court said the mere proximity of others does not establish that Noor had an indifference to human life in general.

The justices also said that they may agree that Noor's decision to shoot his gun because he was startled was unreasonable, adding that his conduct was especially troubling given the trust that citizens should be able to place in our peace officers. But the tragic circumstances of this case do not change the fact that Noors conduct was directed with particularity toward Ruszczyk.

Prosecutors had argued that since nearly all killings by officers are directed at a specific person, no officers could be prosecuted for third-degree murder if the statute was interpreted as Noor's attorneys suggested. But the Supreme Court disagreed, saying anyone, including an officer, who kills someone while showing indifference to human life in general could be convicted of depraved-mind murder. The justices also noted that officers could be prosecuted on other murder counts if the facts of the case warrant it.

Noor testified in his 2019 trial that a loud bang on his squad car made him fear for his and his partners life, so he reached across his partner from the passenger seat and fired through the drivers window. Fisher told the Supreme Court justices that it would be very hard to imagine that an officers split-second reaction to a perceived threat would count as a depraved-mind murder but that other charges could be justified instead, such as manslaughter.

Fisher said Wednesday that Noor "really believed that he was saving his partner's life that night, and instead he tragically caused the loss of an innocent life ... I think just having reaffirmation that a mistake like that isnt murder will mean more than words can say.
California's Senate last week advanced a bill that would force Amazon (AMZN) to reveal details behind the productivity-tracking algorithm used in its warehouses; meanwhile, Facebook (FB) this week faced criticism over a Wall Street Journal report finding it knows its Instagram feed makes some teenage girls feel worse about themselves.

These developments make up a backlash not necessarily against big tech, so much as its algorithms, which use artificial intelligence (AI) to adapt performance for individual users or employees.

In a new interview, AI expert Kai-Fu Lee  who worked as an executive at Google (GOOG, GOOGL), Apple (AAPL), and Microsoft (MSFT)  explained the top four dangers of burgeoning AI technology: externalities, personal data risks, inability to explain consequential choices, and warfare.

"The single largest danger is autonomous weapons," he says.

"That's when AI can be trained to kill, and more specifically trained to assassinate," adds Lee, the co-author of a new book entitled "AI 2041: Ten Visions for Our Future." "Imagine a drone that can fly itself and seek specific people out either with facial recognition or cell signals or whatever."

'It changes the future of warfare'

A ban on autonomous weapons has drawn support from 30 countries, though an in-depth report commissioned by Congress advised the U.S. to oppose a ban, since it could prevent the country from using weapons already in its possession.

In 2015, prominent figures in tech like Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, as well as thousands of AI researchers, signed an open letter calling for a ban on such weapons.

Autonomous weapons will transform warfare since their affordability and precision will make it easier to wreak havoc and near-impossible to identify who committed the crime, Lee said.

"I think that changes the future of terrorism, because no longer are terrorists potentially losing their lives to do something bad," he says. "It also allows a terrorist group to use 10,000 of these drones to perform something as terrible as genocide," he says.

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"It changes the future of warfare," he adds. "We need to figure out how to ban or regulate it."

The second significant risk posed by artificial intelligence is the unintended negative consequences that result when AI fixates on a single goal but excludes other concerns, Lee said.

"Externalities happen when AI is told to do something, and it's so good at doing that thing that it forgets  or actually ignores  other externalities or negative impacts that may cause," he says.

"So when YouTube keeps sending us videos that we're most likely to click on, it's not only not thinking about serendipity, it's also potentially sending me very negative views or very one-sided views that might shape my thinking," he adds.

This risk may have befallen the user feed presented on Instagram, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal that shows Facebook internal research from 2019 found Instagram made body image issues worse for one in three teenage girls who were on the app and experiencing such issues.

Teens attributed increased rates of anxiety and depression to Instagram, the internal Facebook report found, according to the Journal. For its part, Facebook is testing a way to ask users if they need a way to take a break from Instagram, two of its researchers told the Journal. The researchers also noted that some of their studies involved a small number of users, and in some cases causality of their findings was unclear.

Activists from the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, a coalition of non-governmental organisations opposing lethal autonomous weapons or so-called 'killer robots', stage a protest at Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany, March, 21, 2019. REUTERS/Annegret Hilse

Kai-Fu Lee has been at the center of AI development for decades, ever since he helped develop speech recognition and automated speech technology as a doctoral student at Carnegie Mellon University.

Since 2009, he has served as the CEO of Sinovation Ventures, a tech-focused venture capital firm in China with over $2.5 billion in assets under management.

Speaking to Yahoo Finance, Lee cited a final set of AI dangers around vulnerable personal data and an inability to explain consequential decisions made by the technology.

Decisions made by AI are especially crucial in life or death situations, such as a thought experiment known as the trolley problem, in which a decision-maker must choose whether to divert a runaway train from killing many people in its path, at the risk of killing fewer people on an alternative one, Lee said.

"Can AI explain to us why it made decisions that it made?" he says. "In four key things like driving autonomous vehicles, the trolley problem, medical decision-making, surgeries."

"It gets serious," he adds.

Read more:

Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard, LinkedIn, YouTube, and reddit.
Since early this year, federal investigators have been building a case against a former University of Miami assistant professor suspected of doing business with Iran and violating U.S. sanctions against the Persian Gulf country.

Scientist Mohammad Faghihi almost slipped away at Miami International Airport, authorities say.

He was literally about to board a plane on Monday when he was arrested, federal prosecutor Michael Thakur said Wednesday at a court hearing, seeking Faghihis detention on the basis of being a flight risk to his home country, Iran.

Faghihi, 52, was arrested on conspiracy and related charges stemming from allegations that he shipped genetic sequencing equipment to the Iranian military without a required license from the U.S. Department of Treasury. Faghihi was in contact with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, which bought several genetic testing machines from his local business, Thakur said.

Faghihis defense attorney tried to downplay any illicit connection, saying the former UM medical school professor who lived in Pinecrest was a world-renowned scientist trying to help save humanity, not fuel a conflict with the United States.

These are not biological weapons  this is not biological warfare, lawyer Saam Zangeneh told a federal magistrate judge. I understand Iran is on the axis of evil ... but I think were looking at this in a vacuum.

The judge, Jonathan Goodman, ordered Faghihis detention before trial. The judge said he was surely aware of the need for a Treasury Department license to ship the genetic sequencing equipment to Iran, had multiple connections to people in that country, and was personally communicating with someone in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Both Mohammad Faghihi and his wife, Farzeneh Modarresi, who is a former UM researcher, were ordered detained Wednesday on conspiracy charges of receiving as much as $3.5 million to purchase genetic machines and ship them to Iran without a required license, according to court records. Faghihi, the wife, and his sister, Faezeh Faghihi, are accused of conspiring to buy some of the machines from U.S. manufacturers before shipping them to Iran between 2016 and 2020, according to a criminal complaint. Each machine cost $200,000.

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Faghihi and the other family members are accused in the complaint of using the money not only to send the genetic equipment illegally to Iran but also to purchase a property for Faghihis company, Express Gene, in Palmetto Bay. The money was transferred to his business from various foreign bank accounts in Malaysia, China, Turkey, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates.

Faghihi was charged with the unauthorized equipment exports to Iran along with a sanctions conspiracy, a money laundering conspiracy, smuggling goods and making a false statement to authorities. Under federal law, he was required to obtain a license from the Treasury Departments Office of Foreign Assets Control, which imposed the economic sanctions against Iran.

His wife, Farzeneh Modarresi, 53, was charged with conspiring to violate the same sanctions conspiracy and related offenses, including money laundering and smuggling goods. His sister, Faezeh Faghihi, 50, was also charged with the same conspiracy involving the unlawful export of genetic equipment to Iran and the related offenses.

On Wednesday, their defense attorneys, Hilton Napoleon II, representing the wife, and Bradford Cohen, the sister, argued that they should be granted a bond before trial because they have close ties to the Miami community. Thakur, the prosecutor, argued they could flee to Iran before trial.

Goodman, the judge, ordered the detention of Faghihis wife based on a flight risk, but not his sister, noting that the sibling is a naturalized U.S. citizen.

Goodman ordered the sister to be confined with an electronic monitor at home in Pinecrest and surrender her passports, but it remains to be seen whether the sister will be able to post her bond. The judge set the terms at a $3 million personal surety, with a deposit of $300,000, and a $1 million corporate surety, which requires another deposit of $150,000. But the latter deposit is non-refundable.

Thakur said he will appeal the magistrate judges decision on the sisters bond.

Mohammad Faghihi, 52, worked from 2013 to 2020 as an assistant professor in the UM medical schools department of psychiatry and behavioral science. During this period, he was the principal investigator on several National Institutes of Health grants. Authorities said that he and his company, Express Gene, received large deposits from international wires during this period and that he failed to disclose them to UM or the NIH.

The investigation of Faghihi and his genetic business started after he was confronted by federal investigators in February 2021, when he returned from a trip to Iran, according to the criminal complaint.

Faghihi gave a false statement to Customs and Border Protection officers at Miami International Airport when he was asked about whether he worked in Iran or conducted any research there, the complaint said. In fact, he was the director of a genetic laboratory at the Shiraz University of Medical Science, according to Thakur, the prosecutor, who works in the counter-terrorism section of the U.S. Attorneys Office.

In addition, Faghihis luggage contained 17 vials of biological substances covered with ice packs and hidden underneath bread and other food items, the complaint said. One of the vials contained 50 DNA samples, and the other 16 held substances for genetic testing. All of the vials were subject to regulations, authorities said.

The University of Miami, which was credited with helping prosecutors and FBI in the investigation, issued a statement Wednesday.

We understand that two former employees are the subject of a criminal complaint, a UM spokeswoman said. As soon as we were notified, the university fully cooperated with authorities in their investigation and will continue to do so as requested.
People vote in Union Station in downtown Los Angeles. Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images

Voters have been turning out to polling sites across California to vote in Tuesday's recall election, but millions mailed in their ballots ahead of time or visited early voting sites.

As of Monday, 8.7 million ballots were returned by mail and 324,000 were cast at early voting centers, CBS News reports. The election data firm L2 says that 52 percent of these early ballots were from registered Democrats and 25 percent from registered Republicans. This was expected, as there are more Democrats than Republicans in the state and Republicans tend to show up for in-person voting. Ballots were sent to voters in August.

California voters are deciding whether to keep or oust Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), and a Berkeley IGS poll released Friday showed that among likely voters, 60.1 percent would vote "no" on the recall compared to 38.5 percent who would vote "yes." There are 46 candidates hoping to replace Newsom, and if more than 50 percent of voters decide he should be removed from office, the candidate who received the most votes  even if it's only a small percentage  will take office.

CBS News reports that early exit poll data shows that for those voting no on the recall, their top concern is the coronavirus, while those who are voting yes on the recall are more concerned with homelessness and the economy. Among early voters, only a third had a favorable view of the leading Republican candidate, conservative radio talk show host Larry Elder.

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Biden's new vaccine rules have a familiar problem
By Jarrett Renshaw and David Lawder

(Reuters) - Democrats are crafting a massive spending package as big as $3.5 trillion that would transform the U.S. economy by investing in free community college, childcare and green energy, funded by tax hikes on the wealthy and larger companies.

The bill's authors must balance the Biden White House's campaign pledges and the party's progressives and moderates, all while catering to lawmakers empowered by Democrats' razor-thin majorities in Congress to demand pet concessions.

Facing unified Republican opposition, Democrats will need to pass the bill on strict party lines using a legislative tool called budget reconciliation. They cannot afford to lose even one vote in the Senate and more than three votes in the House of Representatives.

Here are the key flashpoints:

HOW BIG IS IT, ANYWAY? The Biden administration is pushing $3.5 trillion in spending over 10 years, but some moderate Democrats, including Representative Stephanie Murphy of Florida, are balking https://twitter.com/RepStephMurphy/status/1436010335073357825?s=20 at its price tag and how it would be financed.

U.S. Senator Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, have flatly refused to support a $3.5 trillion package, siding with Republicans who universally say it is too big https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-biden-infrastructure/u-s-senator-manchin-casts-doubt-on-democrats-deadline-for-budget-bill-idUKKBN2G80AM?edition-redirect=uk.

Manchin won't say what size spending package he can accept, making him one of the biggest kingmakers in the negotiations. He and Sinema will discuss the package with President Joe Biden on Wednesday.

HOW MUCH WILL RICH, COMPANIES PAY?

The House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday was poised to advance a tax plan https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-house-democrats-seek-corporate-tax-increase-265-percent-2021-09-13 on Wednesday that would raise the top tax rates to 39.6% for individuals and 26.5% for corporations and hike capital gains taxes, rolling back part of Republicans' 2017 tax cuts.

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The bipartisan Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) estimates https://www.jct.gov/publications/2021/jcx-42-21 that the tax changes would raise $2.07 trillion in direct revenues over 10 years, potentially leaving a more than $1 trillion funding gap unless the bill's investments are cut.

The House plan may turn off some progressives calling for more tax fairness because it backed off of Biden's proposals to raise the corporate tax rate by a third to 28% and to tax more of the transfer of wealth via rich-family inheritances. It also keeps alive a tax break favored by private equity managers.

Moderate Senate Democrats will also have their say in the tax proposals. Manchin has called for an even lower corporate rate of 25%.

CLIMATE GOALS AT RISK?

As Democrats consider shrinking the bill, Biden's historic investments to fight climate change could be at risk, including tax breaks for electric vehicles, solar and wind power and other measures aimed at meeting Biden's goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

These are estimated to cost $235 billion over 10 years -- including $7.4 billion in credits for electric bicycles and $27 billion for electric vehicles -- making them juicy targets for shrinking the package. In committee debate, Republicans hammered these credits as giveaways to wealthy Tesla car buyers and corporations like Amazon.com.

Eliminating some green energy provisions may erode support from progressives who had promised transformative investments to fight climate change.

SOCIAL PROGRAMS CUT?

Progressive votes https://progressives.house.gov/press-releases?ID=509D8F61-A0DF-449B-ADFF-FF1455B01B14 also could be at risk if social spending proposals at the heart of Biden's plans to bolster the middle class and reshape the economy are cut, including universal preschool and paid family leave.

Democrats' plans to extend a larger Child Tax Credit https://www.reuters.com/world/us/bidens-child-tax-credit-pays-big-republican-states-popular-with-voters-2021-09-15 through 2025, providing families monthly payments of up to $300 per child, would cost a hefty $556 billion, according to JCT. Tax credits for child care workers and expenses would cost $35 billion and an expanded Earned Income Tax Credit for low-income workers would cost $135 billion over a decade.

But these, too, could be pared back if Manchin and other moderate Democrats have their way.

Manchin has voiced concern https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/sotu/date/2021-09-12/segment/01 that the Child Tax Credit contains no work requirements for parents nor education requirements. A Reuters analysis https://www.reuters.com/world/us/bidens-child-tax-credit-pays-big-republican-states-popular-with-voters-2021-09-15 has found that the expanded credit has disproportionately benefited Republican states.

STATE, LOCAL TAXES

Republicans under former President Donald Trump's 2017 tax law capped state and local tax deductions (SALT), at $10,000, effectively raising many tax bills in higher-tax Democratic states such as New York and California.

Restoration of the previously unlimited SALT deduction -- which Representative Tom Suozzi of New York estimates would cost some $385 billion -- was excluded from the House tax plan. But Suozzi and other Democrats, including House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal of Massachusetts, said https://waysandmeans.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/neal-pascrell-suozzi-path-forward-salt they are "working daily" to pass to include meaningful SALT relief in the bill.

Suozzi opposes https://suozzi.house.gov/media/press-releases/suozzi-no-salt-no-deal-will-still-oppose-any-changes-tax-code-unless-cap-salt a bill without this, saying: "No SALT, no deal."

(Reporting By Jarrett Renshaw, David Lawder and Richard Cowan, Editing by Nick Zieminski)
A federal judge denied a request to stay a defamation lawsuit against former president Donald Trump by a woman who claims he raped her two decades ago.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan rejected the request made in December without any explanation. However, the decision on Wednesday was made "without prejudice," meaning Trump's legal team can try to get it delayed again.

The suit revolves around New York columnist E. Jean Carroll who alleges Trump raped her in the 1990s at a New York department store. Trump denied the story when asked by a reporter in 2019, claiming Carroll was not his type and that she fabricated the story to boost her book sales. Carroll then sued him for defamation.

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT ASKS FEDERAL COURT TO BLOCK 'UNPRECEDENTED' TEXAS ABORTION LAW

Last year, Kaplan rejected an effort to have the Justice Department replace Trump's personal lawyers in defending him in the case. The Justice Department under both Trump's and Joe Biden's administrations have said Trump acted within his role as a government employee when responding to the reporter's questions.

The DOJ wrote courts have sided with government officials in the past regarding press statements about matters of public interest or the official's private life.

In his ruling last year, Kaplan said, "While commenting on the operation of government is part of the regular business of the United States, commenting on sexual assault allegations unrelated to the operation of government is not."

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Trump and the DOJ appealed Kaplan's decision to an appeals court, which is expected to hear oral arguments later this year.

Were looking forward to oral argument in our case before the Second Circuit during the week of November 29, said Carrolls lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, in a statement. In the meantime, we are reviewing Judge Kaplans order.

Washington Examiner Videos

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Tags: News, DOJ, Donald Trump, Federal, Rape, libel

Original Author: Misty Severi

Original Location: Federal judge rules against Trump's effort to delay defamation suit
A Finnish man who spent two decades behind bars for murder is trying to repay his debt to society by founding a "rage room" -- letting clients vent their anger on household objects with a baseball bat.

Janne Raninen, a 44-year-old convicted of two gang-related murders, opened Helsinki's "Raivoomo" ("rage centre") two months ago using money borrowed from friends, and says he has been "fully booked" ever since.

"I was in prison until six months ago and I thought this kind of room could have also been good for me when I was younger," says Raninen, who became embroiled in gangs while growing up in a disadvantaged suburb in Sweden.

"I thought, when I come out I'm going to start this room and let people let out their anger here instead of doing the stupid things that I did in my youth," he tells AFP.

Raninen also gives regular talks to young people, trying to steer them away from gangs.

"It's one of my ways to try and pay back society," he says, adding that the rage room is another -- not only through the taxes he pays but also through the wellbeing it can bring people.

- Smash hit with women -

Rage rooms are fairly common, particularly in the US, and Raninen's new venture has proven a particular smash hit with women letting out post-pandemic frustration.

"I feel fantastic, you just get swept along with it," says Sanna Sulin, who has come to celebrate her 50th birthday, letting rip on old printers, a vacuum cleaner and crockery, to a soundtrack of her favourite music.

"My friend brought me here to try it and at first I refused, I'm more into repairing things," she tells AFP standing among fragments of metal, plastic and glass.

"We women are used to having to behave properly, having to control ourselves," she says.

Eighty percent of the customers are women aged 25 to 45, owner Raninen noted.

Despite Finland's reputation as a bastion of gender equality, Raninen agrees that "women's aggression is taboo, they're not allowed to let off steam".

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The pandemic is by far the main cause of anger but a divorce-themed smash-up room -- painted pink with a suit and wedding dress hanging on the wall -- also proves popular.

"In the long term it's always better to go and talk to a therapist and work with the issues inside you," he says.

But in the short run, "this is the best place for letting out steam and all the anxiety".

sgk/po/jxb
It didnt take long for the state to take action after Gov. Ron DeSantis affirmed Monday that under a new state law, Florida will fine local governments $5,000 for each employee required to be vaccinated, threatening some municipalities with punitive levies of millions and millions of dollars.

We are not going to let people get fired because of the vaccine mandate, DeSantis said in Alachua County where the city of Gainesville is requiring all its workers get vaccinated as a condition of employment.

You dont just cast aside people who have been serving faithfully over this issue, over whats basically a personal choice over their individual health, the governor said.

In addition to Gainesville, Orange and Leon counties have passed mandatory vaccine policies for employees with exemptions for religious or medical reasons. Other municipalities, such as Miami-Dade Country and the city of Tampa, have adopted policies that require vaccination or weekly tests for the unvaccinated.

More than 200 Gainesville employees, including police and firefighters, have sued the city, which is requiring they be vaccinated by the end of September or lose their jobs.

Many were on hand to hear DeSantis, state Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis and Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody say the state would join their legal action.

You now have the attorney general in the state of Florida in your corner, Moody said, announcing shed filed an amicus brief Monday supporting their suit, contending the requirement was unlawful under Senate Bill 2006, which bans businesses from requiring vaccine passports for customers or mandating vaccinations for employees with each violation drawing a $5,000 fine.

Under a newly adopted state Department of Health (DOH) rule, SB 2006s penalties can be levied beginning Thursday.

We have never given (local governments) that power to do something like this, Moody said. It is unlawful. It is unconscionable that we would trust these folks to throw themselves in front of a bullet for other people, but we dont trust them to make a decision for their own safety. It is unconscionable.

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Moody didnt address similar vaccine mandates in Orange and Leon counties but DeSantis did, noting with more than 8,000 employees, Orange Countys policy under SB 2006 could cost Central Florida taxpayers millions and millions of dollars potentially in fines.

Gainesvilles policy goes against the science, he said, because it doesnt include provisions for those whove had COVID and developed natural antibodies to the virus.

Many of them have already had COVID, OK? DeSantis said. Theyve had COVID, theyve recovered, and most of them  well, the ones who have recovered  have very strong immunity.

Gainesville spokeswoman Shelby Taylor told the Tampa Bay Times that the city is standing by its policy and will prevail in court.

The health, safety and welfare of our citys workforce and those we serve is our number one priority, Taylor said. The city has taken the steps necessary to achieve that priority and stand by that decision. It is our belief that as an employer, we retain the right and responsibility to require vaccinations as a condition of employment.

How SB 2006 applies to private businesses in the wake of a federal judges August ruling that it cannot be imposed on cruise ships remains uncertain.

U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams determined because cruise ships are federally regulated, Florida cannot enforce the state prohibition against mandatory vaccination mandates for customers and workers on them.

But Williams did not enjoin the state from enforcing SB 2006 on land-based businesses, such as Walt Disney World, which is requiring all union employees be vaccinated by Oct. 22.

Washington Examiner Videos

Tags: News, Florida, Ron DeSantis, Coronavirus, State

Original Author: John Haughey, The Center Square contributor

Original Location: Florida joins suit against vaccine mandate for Gainesville city employees
Justin Sullivan/Getty

California Gov. Gavin Newsom easily held on to his seat in the states recall election on Tuesday in a widely predicted outcome that may nevertheless unleash a fresh wave of Republican fraud conspiracy theories.

With 60 percent of the votes counted late Tuesday, the Associated Press reported that Newsom was up by a commanding 2-1 margin.

Conservative radio host Larry Elder, who emerged as the GOPs best chance to replace Newsom should he fall short of the 50 percent of the vote needed to hold his seat, began talking about unsubstantiated election fraud claims even before a result had been announced.

The race appeared close enough that President Joe Biden stumped for Newsom in Long Beach on Monday. Hes a clone of Donald Trumpcan you imagine him being governor of this state? Biden said of Elder. You cant let that happen. No prominent Democrat entered the race to replace Newsom, should voters have decided to recall him, and as Elder became a frontrunner Newsom was able to, in effect, run against Trumpism.

Fox Host Claims Only Thing That Will Save Newsom Is Voter Fraud

We said yes to science. We said yes to vaccines. We said yes to ending this pandemic. We said yes to peoples right to vote without fear of fake fraud or voter suppression, Newsom declared in a victory speech Tuesday night, in an election he'd also framed as a contest against Trump even without him on the ballot or in the White House. We said yes to womens fundamental constitutional right to decide for herself what she does with her body, for her fate and future. We said yes to diversity. We said yes to inclusion. We said yes to pluralism. We said yes to all those things that we hold dear as Californians and I would argue, as Americans.

After announcing his candidacy in July, Elder rocketed to the front of a crowded Republican field by painting himself as a Trump-like figure both in panning pandemic-related public-health mandates and in preemptively making claims of voter fraud.

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A website registered anonymously in August, previously reported on by NBC News, suggested that a counteroffensive was in the works long before Election Day.

Watch: Long Line at Polling Station as Newsom Defeats Recall Attempt

The website calls on supporters to report election irregularities and has a form called Fight California Election Fraud! that lets users sign a petition demanding for an election audit, The Sacramento Bee reported earlier this week.

We implore you to join us in this fight as you are able, primarily by signing our petition demanding a special session of the California legislature to investigate and ameliorate the twisted results of this 2021 Recall Election of Governor Gavin Newsom, the site said.

It wasnt until Monday afternoon that a disclaimer went up on the site about Elders campaign funneling money to the page.

The site came against the backdrop of weeks of early voting in the state. Newsom handily won over opponents in the 2018 gubernatorial race in the deep blue state, and most polling in the lead-up to Tuesday suggested he would prevail again.

Still the site claims that voters who cast improperly formed ballots have an advantage over voters who cast their ballots in person and that instances of undocumented ballots have been discovered prior to the election date of September 14.

After casting his own early ballot in Los Angeles County last week, Elder told reporters he believed there might very well be shenanigans in the election.

During an NBC News interview on Monday, he continued to cast doubt over the electioneven refusing to say whether he would accept the results if he lost.

Lets all work together to find out whether or not the election tomorrow is a fair election, he said at the time.

Late Tuesday night, Elder told his supporters to be gracious in defeat, adding, and by the way, we may have lost the battle, but we are going to win the war.

This was only the second time a governor in California had faced a recall vote, and Newsom became the first governor to survive one after Democrat Gray Davis was recalled and replaced by Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2003.

But Newsom had faced growing criticism over strict pandemic-related rules and mandatesall while being photographed mask-less at a fancy partyand conservatives rallied to get him booted from office.

On Tuesday night, he looked past Elder to scoff at the former president for saying this election was rigged, and declared that We may have defeated Trump but Trumpism is not dead in this country. The big lie. The Jan. 6 insurrection, all the voting suppression efforts.

Newsoms win puts him in a strong position to run for re-election next year, in a state where Republicans havent won a statewide contest since Schwarzenegger left office a decade ago.

Watch: Airline refunds: What are your rights as a consumer?'

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BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany joined France on Wednesday in expressing concern about an agreement between Mali's military rulers and a Russian security company that would bring Russian mercenaries into the African country.

Diplomatic and security sources have told Reuters that mercenaries hired by the Wagner Group would train the Malian military and provide protection for senior officials. The deal is close to being agreed on, they said,

"We find this extremely worrying," a German foreign ministry spokesperson said.

France's foreign minister on Tuesday criticised the plans, saying such a move was "incompatible" with the French military presence in its former colony.

France is worried the arrival of Russian mercenaries would undermine its decade-old counter-terrorism operation against al Qaeda and Islamic State-linked insurgents in the Sahel region of West Africa just as it begins to scale down its 5,000-strong mission there and reshape it with more European allies, the diplomatic sources said.

A spokesperson for the German defence ministry said the issue would be discussed with European and international partners and, if necessary, consequences would be discussed.

Asked about a possible halt to cooperation with the junta government in Mali, which seized power in a coup in May, the spokesperson said only that the German armed forces were active in Mali on the basis of two foreign deployment mandates.

(Reporting by Adnreas Rinke,; Writing by Emma Thomasson and Angus MacSwan)
A longtime Norfolk bagel shop is adding more seating, event space, alcohol and more.

Yorgos Bageldashery, a Hampton Roads fixture for almost three decades, plans to expand with an upstairs addition in October, co-owner Greg Peterman said. With it comes seating for around 60 more people, a bar area, and meeting and event space.

Peterman said he has been dreaming of the small expansion at the Ghent business for about a decade. He said community groups are already asking about renting the upstairs spot.

Having a space where people can meet has always been something that weve wanted to have, Peterman said.

Peterman plans to sell cocktails at a natural wood bar upstairs alongside a meeting area. The bar area and meeting space can also be reserved together for private events.

Yorgos is permitted to host live music upstairs but has no immediate plans to start hosting shows, Peterman said.

The upstairs will also be home to co-owner Kate Petermans yoga studio. For more than a decade, she operated The Space Above Yoga Center in Ghent but closed that studio shortly after the pandemic began.

The addition of about 60 seats would bring Yorgos seating capacity up to 149, including the parking lot seating constructed during the coronavirus pandemic, according to documents submitted to the Norfolk Planning Commission.

Peterman said he began working on the space with architects and the city around two years ago, but COVID delayed plans for construction. He plans to hire around two or three more full-time employees and four part-time workers as part of the expansion.

Yorgos first opened in 1993 in the Selden Arcade under original owners and brothers Hercules and George Kapos. At the time, a bagel cost just 35 cents, or 30 cents each by the dozen.

Under the Kapos brothers ownership, the store expanded to its current Colonial Avenue location, plus stores on Plume Street and in the Newtown and Kempsville neighborhoods by early 2002. The Selden location closed in 1999.

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The brothers sold the business in 2006 to Peterman. At the time, he was the general manager for No Frill Bar & Grill in Ghent and thought he could bring that same level of customer service to the bagel shop.

After the Colonial Avenue expansion is complete, Peterman said he has no immediate plans for more growth. Still, he said he wouldnt rule out opening a Chics Beach location if the right space ever became available.

Past Virginian-Pilot reports contributed to this story.

Trevor Metcalfe, 757-222-5345, trevor.metcalfe@pilotonline.com
Photograph: Thomas Peter/Reuters

Google employees and subcontracted workers are demanding that the company pay back wages to temporary workers, following a Guardian report that revealed Google had knowingly and illegally underpaid thousands of temps for years.

More than 140 workers have signed a petition addressed to Google executives calling on the company to immediately pay back all Temps, Vendors and Contractors (TVCs) who have been knowingly underpaid by Google and to create an immediate path to permanent employment for temporary workers and end its two-tiered perma-temp system.

Googles deliberate exploitation of TVCs is a massive moral failing, the letter reads. For much of Googles workforce, Dont be evil is a smokescreen. Its a way to reap the financial rewards of unquestioning public faith, by assuring investors, users and government entities that Google is trustworthy and friendly  while successfully underpaying and mistreating the majority of their workers.

Related: Revealed: Google illegally underpaid thousands of workers across dozens of countries

The letter, which began circulating inside Google on Wednesday, was organized by the Alphabet Workers Union (AWU), a minority union affiliated with the Communications Workers of America (CWA) that formed in January 2021 and counts more than 800 members in the US and Canada. The AWU intends to organize both among Googles direct employees, which number more than 140,000 worldwide, and its vast shadow workforce of more than 150,000 subcontracted workers, known internally as TVCs.

On Friday, the Guardian revealed that Google had been violating pay parity laws in the UK, continental Europe and Asia that require temporary workers be paid rates equal to those of full-time employees performing similar work. While most of Googles TVCs are considered vendors, thousands of temps in dozens of countries are protected by local laws requiring pay parity.

In May 2019, company executives realized that the comparator data that Google was providing to staffing agencies had not been updated for years, resulting in the company paying temps at rates between 12% and 50% lower than what was required by law.

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Rather than immediately address the issue, executives delayed taking action out of concern for the companys reputation and the increased costs to Google departments that rely heavily on temps, documents and emails reviewed by the Guardian show.

At one point, Google executives pursued a plan to adjust the rates only for new hires  at an increased annual cost of $17.3m  while leaving incumbent and previously employed temps in the dark about their lost wages, despite acknowledging that such a plan was not the correct outcome from a compliance perspective.

Google on Friday acknowledged the failures and said it was conducting a review of its compliance practices and was committed to identifying and addressing any pay discrepancies that the team has not already addressed.

Were going to figure out what went wrong here, why it happened, and were going to make it right, the companys chief compliance officer, Spyro Karetsos, said in a statement.

Shannon Wait, a member of AWU who worked as a temp at a Google data center from February 2019 to February 2021, said that the problems with Googles use of temp workers extended beyond the pay parity issue.

The job that I was doing and that so many people do for Google at data centers is not temporary work, she said. It is permanent work that Google staffs with contractors because its cheaper.

I was not surprised but I was disappointed that Google would go so far as to cheat workers out of their hard-earned pay in countries across the planet, she added. This wouldnt have happened if they just had a higher standard for employment practices to begin with, meaning that full-time employees were doing these roles.

The pay parity issue is just the latest labor dispute to roil Googles activist employee base. In recent years, employees at the company have organized and protested over its handling of sexual harassment cases, its plans for a censored search engine for China, its contract with the US department of defense to provide technology for drones, its treatment of TVCs, and allegations that it retaliated against worker activists.

The AWU is one result of that unrest. In its petition, the group called for an end to Googles two-tiered workforce.

The second tier of 130,000 Temps, Vendors and Contractors (TVCs) are underpaid, frequently only offered unaffordable healthcare by contracting companies, and barred from Google-sponsored events, the letter reads.

Unbeknownst to the public, TVCs can even be fired for publicly claiming that they work for Google  Google has the resources to treat all workers equally but it chooses not to do so in favor of further hoarding its already-astronomical financial resources  We demand that Google create an immediate path to permanent employment for temporary workers and end its two-tiered perma-temp system.

Google declined to comment directly on the petition, but provided a link to a blogpost it published about the pay parity issue on Friday.
Protesters gather outside the home of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Monday, Sept. 13, 2021, in Chevy Chase, Md. AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana

Senators condemned an abortion-rights protest held outside Justice Brett Kavanaugh's home.

Sen. Chuck Grassley called the demonstration a "blatant attempt to intimidate the judiciary."

"SHUT UP AND PASS SOME LAWS," the protest's organizers said in response.

See more stories on Insider's business page.

Both Republican and Democratic senators on Tuesday condemned an abortion-rights protest staged outside the home of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh the night before.

Around 50 demonstrators marched to Kavanaugh's residence in Chevy Chase, Maryland, to rally against the Supreme Court's recent move to maintain a Texas law that bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.

The nation's high court handed down its 5-4 decision on September 2, with Kavanaugh voting in the majority. Protestors on Monday evening called for Kavanaugh's resignation.

Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the highest-ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, addressed the rally during a hearing on Tuesday.

"This protest looks like another blatant attempt to intimidate the judiciary and anyone who disagrees with the radical agenda pushed by partisan advocates," Grassley said.

Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the chairman of the committee, also denounced the protest.

"Politics ain't beanbag. We all know that you have to have a tough mental hide to be in this business," Durbin said Tuesday. "But it's absolutely unacceptable, from my point of view, to involve any major public figure's family or their home or to involve yourself in criminal trespass in the name of political freedom of speech."

Durbin added that protestors should consider other methods, such as the ballot box, to have their voice heard.

"There are proper venues to express yourself," he said. "I don't believe a person's home or their family should be fair game in this business."

Story continues

Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont also weighed in on the matter, arguing that "trying to intimidate family, anything like that, is wrong."

ShutDownDC, which organized the event, blasted the Democratic senators over their criticism and urged them to pass legislation that would protect reproductive health rights.

"The truth is, if Durbin, Leahy, and the Democratic majority in the US Senate did their jobs, we wouldn't need to go to Brett Kavanaugh's house," the group said in a statement on Tuesday evening. "So today our message to Durbin, Leahy, and their buddies in the Senate Democratic Caucus is, SHUT UP AND PASS SOME LAWS."

The Supreme Court has received immense public criticism for not blocking the Texas abortion law. The court's majority argued in an unsigned opinion that its ruling was not based on the substance of the Texas law, which could still be legally challenged. The justices will consider a major case this upcoming term on the constitutionality of abortion, which could potentially upend Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide.

Read the original article on Business Insider
Senators put up a bipartisan front in condemning a pro-abortion protest that took place Monday outside Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh's house.

Roughly 50 protesters gathered at Kavanaugh's residence in Chevy Chase, Maryland, to call on him to resign, protesting the recent 5-4 Supreme Court decision not to block the Texas law banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.

BIDEN COULD BE SETTING DEMOCRATS UP FOR DISAPPOINTMENT ON ABORTION AMID TEXAS FUROR

The protest was another blatant attempt to intimidate the judiciary and anyone who disagrees with the radical agenda," said Sen. Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, during Tuesday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.

Democratic Sens. Richard Durbin of Illinois and Patrick Leahy of Vermont said those who disagree with the Supreme Court's decision should express their opinions at the ballot box or in court, the Washington Post reported.

Durbin said it was absolutely unacceptable to involve any major public figures family or their home in the name of freedom of speech. There are proper venues to express yourself, he added.

Leahy said the demonstrators were trying to "intimidate" Kavanaughs family.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Activists from the group ShutDownDC led the demonstration outside Kavanaugh's home on Monday. Police officers were present during the protest, according to the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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The law allows individuals to sue any party that assists a woman in receiving an abortion after the six-week point.

An unsigned order from the Supreme Court said Texas abortion providers raised serious questions about the Texas laws constitutionality but noted their application "presents complex and novel antecedent procedural questions" that were not resolved.

Washington Examiner Videos

Tags: News, Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh, Senate, Abortion, Congress

Original Author: Matthew Miller

Original Location: GOP and Democratic senators condemn protests at Kavanaugh residence over Texas abortion law
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) introduced resolutions Tuesday calling on Secretary of State Antony Blinken to designate the Taliban as a terrorist organization and freeze all Afghanistan government assets held in the U.S.

Why it matters: Then-President George W. Bush signed an executive order in 2002 listing the Taliban as a "Specially Designated Global Terrorist Entity." But the group doesn't appear on the State Department's list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO).

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Bush's order is "narrowly focused on financial transactions, lacking the teeth" of an FTO listing, per AFP.

Sirajuddin Haqqani, who is wanted by the FBI for terrorism offenses and is the leader of the Haqqani network  designated an FTO by the U.S.  is the all-male interim Afghan government's acting interior minister.

What they're saying: Graham said in a statement that designating the Taliban as an FTO would "make it harder for countries to provide them aid and recognition."

"We would be sending a strong signal that America does not do business with terrorist groups and their sympathizers," he said.

Waltz added in the joint statement that the Taliban "continue to engage in terrorist activity, harbor other terrorist groups, commit human rights atrocities, deny women their basic civil liberties, and overthrew a democratically elected government."

The other side: A State Department spokesperson said in an emailed statement it wouldn't comment on the pending legislation, but noted that the U.S. had since amended Bush's order "by adding the Taliban to the annex of certain designated individuals and entities."

Editor's note: The secretary of State's first name was corrected to Antony Blinken.

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Sep. 14If you or a loved one are in crisis, call the Northeast Human Service Center 24-hour crisis line at (701) 775-0525. For medical emergencies, always call 911.

Police are still unsure what caused four overdoses over the weekend, including one that was fatal, Grand Forks Police Lt. Derik Zimmel said.

A toxicology report on the substances that caused the overdoses has not been completed, and so the chemical compound of the drugs is still unknown, Zimmel told the Herald.

A release from the police department said those who overdosed believed they were using heroin. Police believe it contained a much more powerful and dangerous opiate compound.

Zimmel also noted that counterfeit pharmaceutical pills played a role in the overdoses.

The police department has reported an increase in counterfeit pills in recent months. It's unclear whether these are the same counterfeit pills that are responsible for the weekend overdoses, pending toxicology. But for now, that is the assumption police are making, Zimmel said.

Grand Forks County Public Health reports that due to the rise in these counterfeit pills, overdoses in Grand Forks County have more than tripled since last year.

The counterfeit pills circulating in the community closely resemble legitimate opioid pills, like those that would be obtained from a doctor, but are in fact laced with cheaper  and much more lethal  fentanyl and fentanyl compounds.

Zimmel urged people not to take any pill they didn't directly obtain through a doctor, and emphasized that these counterfeit pills are particularly dangerous.

"Just please don't take the pill," Zimmel said. "We ask and we'll continue to ask and beg and plead, but there's a lethality to them that is evidenced repeatedly."

If you witness an overdose, it's essential to call 911 and administer naloxone right away. Start breathing and chest compressions right away, and follow the instructions of the 911 dispatcher. Remain onsite until help arrives and cooperate with first responders. Good Samaritan laws will protect you so you can protect your friend. For more information about how to stop an overdose, visit https://prevention.nd.gov/stopoverdose.

To locate an opioid treatment program in North Dakota, use the opioid treatment program director provided by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration on their website at samhsa.gov. Local drug counseling services can also be found at the Northeast Human Service Center at 701-795-3000, Agassiz Associates at 701-746-6336, Drake Counseling at 701-757-3200, and Riverview Recovery Center at 218-230-0787.

To find a local Narcotics Anonymous meeting, visit https://na.org.
Thousands of people joined the vigil in Hong Kong in 2020, despite the ban

Nine Hong Kong pro-democracy activists have been sentenced to between six and 10 months in prison for taking part in a banned vigil last year commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.

They were among 12 people who pleaded guilty to participating in the event. Three were given suspended sentences.

Officials banned the 4 June vigil for the victims of China's deadly crackdown on protesters, citing Covid measures.

Critics believe the decision was part of a push to silence the opposition.

Despite the ban, thousands of people turned up to light candles and sing songs in 2020. Smaller crowds did the same this year, when authorities banned the event, again citing pandemic restrictions on public gatherings.

Albert Ho, a veteran vigil organiser and former vice chairman of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, the organiser of the vigils, was handed a 10-month sentence for incitement and attending the event.

Former lawmaker Eddie Chu and Figo Chan, a former leader of the Civil Human Rights Front, known for organising large-scale pro-democracy rallies, were also given jail terms.

"The defendants ignored and belittled a genuine public health crisis," District Court Judge Amanda Woodcock said.

"They wrongly and arrogantly believed their common purpose was more important than protecting the community or the public's right to protection from a serious health risk."

Supporters sitting in the public gallery stood up as some defendants entered the dock and shouted "hang in there", the Hong Kong Free Press website reported.

The sentencing came a week after several leaders of the Hong Kong Alliance were arrested under the national security law imposed by Beijing last year. They were accused of working as a "foreign agent", which they deny.

The legislation criminalises secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces. Critics say it is aimed at crushing dissent but China says it is meant to maintain stability.

Story continues

Reacting to the sentencing, Amnesty International's Asia-Pacific Director Yamini Mishra said this was "another outrageous attack on the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly".

"Depressingly, this unjust verdict was entirely expected amid the accelerating collapse of human rights in Hong Kong," she added.
IATSE International President Matthew Loeb in 2011. (Michael Loccisano / Getty Images)

Relations between the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, IATSE, and the major studios took a turn for the worse Wednesday, as the head of the union issued an unusually blunt warning to employers over their handling of contract negotiations.

Since a deadline lapsed Friday night, talks have reached a critical juncture, the union's international president, Matthew Loeb, said in a statement Wednesday. The IATSEs general executive board unanimously voted to resource and support any actions necessary to win an agreement in negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, AMPTP, he said.

"The importance of these negotiations cannot be understated," said Loeb, whose union represents 150,000 crew members in the U.S and Canada. About 60,000 of them are covered by the motion picture and TV contracts being renegotiated, 40% of the membership. He argued the results would have far-reaching consequences. "It is not a fight any of us can afford to sit out."

The producers and the union have already spent four months trying to come to terms on a new basic agreement that governs working conditions and pay, as well as benefit contributions. The contract was extended from July 31 to Sept. 10. Since then, the IATSE West Coast studio locals have been updating their members on what has been described as an unprecedented situation and asking them to prepare for a possible strike vote.

The union has been attempting to secure a new, three-year basic agreement that covers thousands of prop makers, costumers, camera operators and other technicians who work behind the scenes on film and TV sets. Crews have been increasingly vocal, sharing their anonymous accounts of brutal work conditions on social media and calling out CEO pay.

While media companies have seen viewers flock to their new streaming platforms, crews are under increased pressure from production workloads, some argue. Workers are demanding more rest time, a bigger cut from the growth in streaming, an increase to wages and improved funding for their health and pension plans.

"We are united in demanding more humane working conditions across the industry," Loeb said. "The AMPTP consists of some of the richest corporations on the planet, which have earned record profits on the back of our labor due to the unprecedented growth of video content streaming."

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
By Krishna N. Das

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India is considering resuming exports of COVID-19 vaccines soon, mainly to Africa, as it has partly immunised a majority of its adults and supplies have surged, a source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

India, the world's biggest maker of vaccines overall, stopped vaccine exports in April to focus on inoculating its own population as infections exploded.

The government wants to vaccinate all of its 944 million adults by December and has so far given at least one dose to 61% of them.

The resumption of exports deliberations come ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Washington https://www.reuters.com/world/biden-host-leaders-australia-japan-india-sept-24-white-house-2021-09-13 next week where vaccines are likely to be discussed at a summit of the leaders of the Quad countries - the United States, India, Japan and Australia.

"The export decision is a done deal," said the source, who declined to be named as he was not authorised to talk to the media on the matter. "India wants to help out Africa with both vaccines and its COVID operational model."

India's Ministry of External Affairs, one of whose senior officials met with the chief of the World Health Organization https://twitter.com/DrTedros/status/1437407259819130885 on Monday, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The ministry coordinates India's vaccine exports.

The WHO said on Tuesday it was in a constant dialogue with Indian officials to resume supplies to global vaccine-sharing platform COVAX.

"We have been assured that supply will restart this year," senior WHO official Bruce Aylward said https://www.who.int/multi-media/details/who-press-conference-on-coronavirus-disease-(covid-19)---14-september-2021# in a briefing.

"We are hoping we can get an assurance it can start even faster than later this year, and in the coming weeks."

Before India stopped exports, it donated or sold 66 million doses to nearly 100 countries.

Story continues

India's own inoculations have jumped since last month, especially as the world's biggest vaccine maker, the Serum Institute of India, has more than doubled its output https://www.reuters.com/world/india/indias-covid-vaccine-supply-jumps-raising-export-hopes-2021-08-30 of the AstraZeneca shot to 150 million doses a month from its April levels.

A government source told Reuters in June that the U.S. experience showed that vaccinations tend to slow down after a big majority of people get their shots. That might give India a chance to export excess output, said the source.

The African Union on Tuesday accused manufacturers of denying them a fair chance to buy vaccines, and urged manufacturing countries - in particular India - to lift export restrictions.

Out of 5.7 billion doses of coronavirus vaccines administered around the world, only 2% have been in Africa https://www.reuters.com/article/health-coronavirus-who/update-1-african-union-slams-vaccine-manufacturers-for-restricting-access-idINL8N2QG4CK.

(Reporting by Krishna N. Das; Editing by Michael Perry)
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) -Judges at the International Criminal Court on Wednesday approved a formal investigation into possible crimes against humanity allegedly committed under the leadership of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte in the context of his "war on drugs".

The ICC said in a statement that judges had approved a request by prosecutors to begin the investigation into potential murder as a crime against humanity.

Judges' assessment of material presented by prosecutors, was that "the so-called war on drugs campaign cannot be seen as a legitimate law enforcement operation", but rather amounted to a systematic attack on civilians.

Human rights groups accuse Duterte of inciting deadly violence and say police have murdered unarmed drug suspects on a massive scale as part of the campaign. Police deny this, and Duterte says the police are under orders to kill only in self-defence. The government in Manila could not immediately be reached for a reaction late on Wednesday.

Philippines rights group Karapatan said the court's comments "reaffirms the views of victims and their families."

"Duterte and his cohorts should be made accountable for these crimes," it said after the ICC decision.

In a July speech, Duterte lashed out at the court, saying he would continue his fight against drugs. "I have never denied (it), and the ICC can record it: Those who destroy my country - I will kill you," he said.

Although the Philippines has withdrawn from membership of the ICC, it was a member between July 2016 and March 2019, the period covered by the prospective investigation.

The judges said that relevant crimes appeared to have continued after that date, but that the court was limited to investigating those suspected to have occurred while the Philippines was a member.

(Reporting by Toby Sterling in Amsterdam and Karen Lema in Manila; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
Benzinga

Photo by camilo jimenez on Unsplash The legalization of recreational marijuana use has broadly increased the availability of cannabis and the number of cannabis users. In the latest information (2019) compiled by SAMHSA, an estimated 31.5m individuals over 12 in the US used cannabis in the last month. These rates are growing at approximately 10% per year, with the largest growth in use by adults over 26 (19% growth in 2018-2019). However, growth in the sales of edible cannabis products has outpa
LARGO  Luis Canola arrived in the United States seven months ago, and in August, he opened a business selling vinyl wraps and advertising services to food trucks and other businesses.

He soon recognized he would need to network so he could grow his new business. Just as he began looking around, the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Pinellas County formed.

Basically what motivated me to be part of the chamber was to make myself known and to bond, said Canola, 36, from Colombia, whose business TpaWraps Custom Vinyl is based in Largo. It is an operation of addition, not subtraction, because we are very focused on growing and being successful.

The new chamber has enlisted 15 companies as paying members so far, at $150 per year, and has drawn interest from some 253 others, said founder and president Eli Gonzalez, a writer and publisher.

The Hispanic chamber held its first networking event last month at the Countryside Country Club in Clearwater and quickly sold out the 75 available slots. Thrive DTSP, a co-working space at 136 4th St N Suite 201, offered free office space.

Because our focus is entrepreneurs and business support, we believe in diversity and prosperity, said Thrive manager Brooke Beeler. The Hispanic Chamber of Commerce is so in line with everything that Thrive is all about that its natural to support them as much as we can.

The new chamber is based on five pillars: mentoring aspiring entrepreneurs, education, networking, community service and accomplishment.

We are going to work to enhance business and community opportunities for Hispanics in Pinellas County, said Gonzalez, 53, who has served as ghostwriter of 85 books founded a local publishing company. Born in New York, the son of Puerto Rican parents, Gonzalez served five years as a board member with the regionwide Tampa Bay Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

Board members of the new chamber also include Joe Lugo, founder of communications firm J^3 Creations; Tellie Loida Gonzalez-Hall, manager at TGH Consulting; and Dr. Cesar Lara of the Center for Weight Management.

Story continues

The chamber is a great idea but one that will require a great deal of commitment to succeed, said Diane Cortes, president of the Tampa Bay Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

We are willing to guide and support them in whatever they need, Cortes said. But lets be clear: Chambers of commerce need time to grow and strengthen.

Creating the new chamber will benefit the larger Pinellas County business community, said Chris Steinocher, president and chief executive of the St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce.

We have been so longing for a partner in the Hispanic community, Steinocher said. We are seeing more diversity in Pinellas County and I think the faster we build relationships, the further well go.

Hispanics account for about 11 percent of the population in Pinellas County  about 103,000 people, according to figures from the University of Florida. The number is expected to grow to 15 percent by 2045.

The Hispanic chamber of Pinellas will provide education and training to local businesses in areas such as starting out, expanding and networking, Gonzalez said.

Business owners need not be Hispanic to join or attend events.

Our local Hispanic entrepreneurs were on an island because they had no networks or a place to meet, Gonzalez said. They were surviving with talent and passion. Now they will no longer be alone and can move forward together.
(Reuters) - Here's what you need to know about the coronavirus right now:

U.S. pushes leaders to embrace 70% global vaccination target

The United States is pushing global leaders to endorse what it calls ambitious targets for ending the COVID-19 pandemic, including ensuring 70% of the world's population is vaccinated against the virus by the 2022, according to a draft U.S. document viewed by Reuters on Tuesday.

The three-page outline is addressed to countries, international organizations, and private sector groups invited to a virtual COVID-19 summit planned by the United States on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly beginning this week. Other key targets include ensuring at least one in 1,000 people are tested weekly before the end of 2021, and building surge capacity to ensure that all healthcare workers have access to personal protective equipment such as masks in 2021.

Cyber crime and consumer sentiment rise in Australia

A measure of Australian consumer sentiment bounced in early September amid hopes harsh coronavirus restrictions would soon be eased as the pace of vaccinations stepped up markedly across the states. The Westpac-Melbourne Institute index of consumer sentiment released on Wednesday rose 2.0% in September, recouping some of August's 4.4% drop.

Unrelatedly, Australia reported on Wednesday a 13% jump in cyber crime in the past year, with about one incident in four targeting critical infrastructure and services as working from home during the pandemic made more people vulnerable to online attacks. Ransomware incidents increased nearly 15%, with the health sector reporting the second-highest number of attacks.

U.S. says federal employees must be vaccinated by Nov. 22

The Biden administration said most federal employees must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 no later than Nov. 22 as it drafts rules to require large employers to have their workers inoculated or tested weekly.

In New York, however, a judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked the state from enforcing a requirement that healthcare workers receive COVID-19 vaccines against the wishes of employees with religious objections.

Story continues

WHO-backed vaccine hub for Africa to copy Moderna shot

Efforts to develop an African base for COVID-19 vaccine production will focus on trying to replicate Moderna's shot, but a lack of progress in talks with the U.S. company mean the project will take time, a senior WHO official told Reuters. Moderna said last October it would not enforce patents related to its shot during the pandemic, raising hopes that other companies might be able to copy it and help boost COVID-19 vaccine production.

More than three-quarters of the 5.5 billion COVID-19 shots administered worldwide have gone to high and upper-middle income countries, which make up just over a third of the world's population. Only 3% of Africa is vaccinated, the African Union's top health official said last week, compared with more than half of the United States and three-quarters of Spain.

Indonesia aims to reopen to foreigners in November

Indonesia plans to start opening its borders to foreigners in November once 70% of its target population have received at least one vaccine shot, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said on Tuesday.

Southeast Asias largest economy, struck by one of the worst COVID-19 outbreaks in Asia, has vaccinated about 25% of its target population but Budi said vaccine rates would need to be almost doubled to 2 million shots per day by deploying the police and army to help dispense shots.

(Compiled by Karishma Singh; Editing by Kim Coghill)
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan  Impoverished Afghans living in a long-abandoned military compound in the southern city of Kandahar say theyre devastated by the Taliban order to expel them from their homes.

Several hundred staged a rally against the order on Monday, saying they have nowhere else to go and that they had years ago paid former Afghan soldiers under the table for the land.

The Taliban came to the compound after the rally and forced several of the protesters to leave. Their current whereabouts are not known.

Rabia, an Afghan widow who goes by one name, says she lives in a two-room mud house in the compound with her five children. She told The Associated Press she will stay put until the Taliban provide her with another place to live.

The Taliban want me to leave everything I built and bought behind, where would I go with my children? she said.

The Taliban have ordered over 2,500 families in the compound to leave their houses and all their belongings so that Taliban fighters can move in.

The families have received a deadline to leave with just the clothes on our back as soon as possible said Imran, another resident of the compound.

Fazil Mohammad, one of the first Afghans who settled in the compound said has no money to go somewhere else. I cannot even afford a tent now to move into that. He said he was happy when the Taliban took over, citing corruption of the previous government, but that he is now disappointed.

The compound was abandoned in 2001, after the U.S.-led invasion to oust the Taliban, when Afghan soldiers who lived there moved into facilities at the Kandahar airport. Over the years, the compound grew as displaced Afghans settled there, bought pieces of land and built houses.

The Taliban media chief for Kandahar, Rahmatullah Naraiwal, said Wednesday that the Afghan families may continue living in the compound, pending a review of the matter by the Taliban leadership.

However, he said they are not allowed to hold rallies and that their protest was illegal. The Taliban are prepared to pay them but cannot provide them with an alternative place to stay, he added.

Story continues

___

MORE ON AFGHANISTAN:

 Afghan killed by drone praised by co-workers in US aid group

 Friction among Taliban pragmatists, hard-liners intensifies

 Iran resumes commercial flights to Afghanistan

 Indiana Marine killed in Afghanistan remembered as hero

 AP Interview: UN refugee chief says Afghan stability needed

 Virginia and Wisconsin report measles cases among refugees

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HERES WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:

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ISLAMABAD  Pakistans national security adviser said Wednesday that his country cannot host any more Afghan refugee for several reasons, including financial constraints.

Pakistan is in no condition right now to accept any more refugees, Moeed Yusuf told a news conference in the capital, Islamabad. He said Pakistan is already hosting more than 3 million Afghan refugees who had fled the war and violence in their country over the past decades.

Yusuf said Pakistan will try to do whatever is possible to help Afghans, but that international efforts should step up to prevent a humanitarian crisis. He asked the world community not to repeat the past mistake of abandoning Afghanistan.

Yusuf also warned that the Islamic State group and other militants  including the Pakistani Taliban who have sought refuge across the border  could exploit such a situation.

You dont need to think too much to know what will happen. There will be a security vacuum. You already know ISIS is present there, Pakistani Taliban are present there, al-Qaida is there, he said, adding that these groups are sworn enemies both of Pakistan and the West.

If Afghanistan destabilizes the spillover effect comes to Pakistan, he said. Yusuf also asked the international community to constructively engage with the Taliban for the sake of peace and stability in the region.

___

BEIJING  China says it is maintaining contact between its embassy in Afghanistan and the Taliban and is calling for Afghan government funds held abroad to be unfrozen.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian on Wednesday said the Chinese Embassy in Kabul was operating normally.

We stand ready to maintain communication with the new Afghan authority, Zhao said.

China has yet to say whether it will recognize the Taliban government, but has been actively courting its top officials, hosting a delegation led by its political leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar in July, shortly before the group swept to power amid the withdrawal of U.S. forces and the mass exodus of Afghans fearing a return of the Talibans hard-line Islamic rule.

China has also been sharply critical of the nature of the pullout, and, while wary of the rise of radicalism on its western border, has been generally supportive of the group seen as defeating its strategic rival, the United States.

Afghanistan is now teetering on the edge of economic collapse and while China has offered support, its not clear when or how it will deliver.

Last week, the Taliban announced an all-male interim government but the exclusion of other political factions and women has made it unlikely that they will win broad international support or international recognition as the legitimate leaders of Afghanistan.

Without such recognition, the Taliban will be unable to tap billions of its funds frozen abroad, almost all of it contributed by the U.S. and other foreign donors.

Zhao said those funds should be unfrozen and handed over to the Taliban. Those assets belong to Afghanistan and the Afghan people, Zhao said.

The U.S. should face up to Afghanistans justified and reasonable appeals, abandon imposition of sanctions and pressure and not hinder Afghanistans economy, livelihood and peaceful reconstruction, Zhao said.

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ISLAMABAD  Members of Afghanistans women soccer team and their families arrived in Pakistan after fleeing their country in the wake of the Taliban takeover, local media said Wednesday.

It was unclear how many Afghan women players and their family members were allowed to enter Pakistan.

According to Pakistans information minister, Fawad Chaudhry, the Afghan women soccer players entered Pakistan though the northwestern Torkham border crossing holding valid travel documents.

We welcome Afghanistan women football team, Chaudhry tweeted, providing no further details.

However, Pakistans English-langue The DAWN newspaper reported that the Afghan female soccer players were issued emergency humanitarian visas following the Taliban takeover of Kabul amid fears that the Taliban would not want women to participate in sports.

The Taliban have not commented on the development, but an official confirmed that under their governments interpretation of Islam, women are not allowed to play any sports where they could potentially be exposed. The official was not authorized to speak with the media before any official announcements.

Last week, the Taliban announced an all-male interim government for Afghanistan stacked with veterans of their hard-line rule from the 1990s and the 20-year battle against the U.S.-led coalition. The move seems unlikely to win the international support the new leaders desperately need to avoid an economic meltdown.

- Munir Ahmed in Islamabad;

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THE HAGUE, Netherlands  The Dutch foreign ministry says it is evacuating nearly 150 people from Pakistan who fled from Afghanistan.

The Dutch government says Wednesdays flight will pickup nearly 50 people with Dutch nationality and their Afghan families as well as Afghans who worked closely with the Netherlands in Afghanistan  mainly translators.

The government in The Hague has faced criticism in recent weeks for not acting earlier to evacuate Afghans who worked with the government over the past 20 years.

Many such Afghans fear persecution following the Talibans swift march to power.

The charter flight also will pick up nearly 100 other people who will fly on from Amsterdam to other European nations.

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During Hispanic Heritage Month, TODAY is sharing the communitys history, pain, joy and pride. We are highlighting Hispanic trailblazers and rising voices. TODAY will be publishing personal essays, stories, videos and specials throughout the month of September and October. For more, head here.

When craving a home-cooked meal, the easiest solution might just be to go home. But when the pandemic hit, for many, that was no longer possible. Some people turned to FaceTime to learn their parent's signature recipes, while others turned to TikTok.

"Foodtok," as the culinary side of the platform is known, is a mouthwatering rabbit hole. It grants anyone  regardless of skill level  the ability to learn from real home cooks instead of celebrity chefs on TV.

For Latina food creators Ana Regalado, Alejandra Tapia and Omi Hopper, posting on TikTok was originally just a way to bond with their family and connect with their culture while in quarantine. But they all found out, over 6 million combined followers later, that so many others were craving the same thing. Now these creators are representing their cultures on a broad scale and passing down their Mexican and Puerto Rican recipes to the next generation of home cooks.

Ana Regalado aka @saltycocina

Ana Regalado, the creator behind @saltycocina, uses her online platform to share easier and quicker ways to prepare traditional Mexican dishes. Her account, which boasts 2.2 million followers, features a wide range of recipes including salsas, masa- and tortilla-based dishes, desserts and traditional, seasonal recipes.

Ana Regalado (Courtesy Ana Regalado)

Regalado, who lives in Arizona, once shared an online auction business with her husband before the pandemic, but began filming her recipe videos as COVID-19 spread and wasnt sure what was going to happen.

I just thought, 'I need to do something else. I dont want to be away from the house. I dont want to be out there. I dont want to get sick or catch something,' so I just started recording, she told TODAY Food. She said another motivating factor was that she wants her children, grandchildren and viewers to be able to create her recipes on their own  even when shes no longer around.

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Regalado started cooking around the age of eight when she immigrated to the U.S. with her family. She recalled how her mother would prepare a five-pound bag of masa for tortillas that Regalado would roll out and cook for her family of eight.

Buttery Flour Tortillas by Ana Regalado

I was always the nosy one in the kitchen seeing what she was making for dinner or what she would put in it, said Regalado. Now, one of her most viral videos posted earlier this year features her buttery tortillas and has accumulated over 17 million views and nearly 14,000 comments praising its simplicity, prompting viewers to try the recipe on their own.

In her videos, Regalado doesnt do a lot of chit-chat. She recognizes that people are busy and dont want too much extra fluff, so most of her content consists of 2- to 3-minute videos that skip unnecessary steps. She believes Mexican cuisine uses a lot of the same ingredients but in different variations  which is why she breaks down the kitchen must-haves, including seasonings, dried peppers and sauces.

"I just assumed it was just (going) to stay in the family," she said, after she recently ran into a follower while on a trip to California who expressed how happy she was to have come across Regalados account because her mom never showed her how to make traditional dishes. "Never in my life did I think it would get this big and this wide with so many viewers, this many followers, but Im glad I can help them bring dishes to their family and their table and that makes me happy."

Alejandra Tapia aka @nanajoe19

Alejandra Tapia, known as @nanajoe19 on TikTok, is from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, but currently resides in California. She went viral on TikTok for packing lunches for her cousin and husband, featuring anything from burgers and loaded burritos to hefty tortas and salsa-drenched camarones a la diabla (shrimp in a red chile sauce). She recently hit 3.5 million followers, all of whom are met with enthusiastic step-by-step recipe instructions.

Alejandra Tapia (Courtesy Alejandra Tapia)

Tapia originally posted her cooking videos to Snapchat for her family and friends. It wasnt until her children introduced her to TikTok that she decided to download the app and discovered all the food content people were sharing. When she told her husband she wanted to start filming her recipes, they started moving the lamps from their living room into the kitchen and would have her husband or teenager hold the phone over her shoulders to get the perfect shot.

My lunches started getting attention from other people. Tapia told TODAY. One time (in the beginning), I got 700 views on one of my videos and I was like, '700 views? Oh my god, 700 people are looking at my videos!'" Now she has millions of people watching her pack lunch.

A key feature of the lunches she packs are her many variations of agua fresca, a light fruit drink popular in Mexico. Her dad, who worked for a grocery store, would deliver fruit to customers and bring the leftovers back home, where the family would go through and clean the fruits, piece by piece, and blend them together to create the refreshing beverage.

As the oldest of four girls, Tapia, too, began cooking at an early age. She remembers how excited her grandmother would get taking her into the kitchen to make food while her parents were at work.

"Instead of it being a chore, it was like I was learning," Tapia said. Growing up, her family was low-income, so her grandma was always thinking of new ways to make dishes so they wouldnt be eating the same thing over and over. Which is why Tapia describes her cuisine as "remixed" Mexican-inspired dishes, with creations that include birria egg rolls, menudo ramen, chocolate tres leches cake, pumpkin spice horchata and churro cheesecake.

Churro Cheesecake by Alejandra Tapia

"I sometimes feel like Im obsessed with cooking and Im dreaming stuff. I wake up and know what Im going to do today," said Tapia. She joked that she isnt allowed to go to the grocery store more than three times a week. But as proud as she is to honor her roots and represent the Latino community on TikTok, she is still wary of the judgment from those in the older generation who can be very protective over traditional Mexican cooking.

"I want to stick to my tradition, but twist it," she explained. "I want to represent my community for the younger generation so they know their roots and traditions and know you can do that in different ways."

Her advice to aspiring cooks and food content creators is to not be afraid to try new things: "Go in the kitchen with an open mind," she said. "Go in there be crazy, be weird, create something new. You never know the new recipe you come up with can be the new thing, the new trend."

Omi Hopper aka @cookingconomi

Omi Hopper, known as @cookingconomi on TikTok, is very grateful for her platform of over 312,500 followers. Currently based in Rhode Island, she is a professional makeup artist by trade, but her studio was shut down at the start of the pandemic. Left without a job, she decided to record what she already does every day: cook the Puerto Rican meals she grew up eating.

She moved to the U.S. from Puerto Rico as a little girl, but she remembers the summers she spent at her grandparents farm in Puerto Rico.

Omi Hopper (Courtesy Omi Hopper)

I decided to do it the same way that my mom, my aunt, and my grandmother taught me, Hopper told TODAY. I started cooking at a very very early age with my grandmother and my aunts. They were a pack of women; the energy was through the roof. So, I grew up seeing them happy all the time in the kitchen, cooking, dancing, telling jokes, excited to try each others food.

"I was only allowed to use the pilon (a wooden mortar and pestle) to mash the garlic. I couldnt do anything else, and I would do that all the time; it was my favorite thing."

Cooking up classic Puerto Rican fare like succulent chuletas fritas (pork chops), arroz con habichuelas (rice and beans) and croquetas de mangu (plantain croquettes), Hopper wants to bring people back in time to those cherished moments with family. She remembers when a follower reached out to let her know that her content helped him recreate a special dish for his sons that helped them reconnect with their mother who had recently passed away from cancer.

"He said that his boys were on the table crying (because) they tasted their moms food. I was done," she said, tearing up. "I was like, 'I cant stop making these videos.'"

Since her account has grown into something substantial, she said she's conscious of the responsibility she has to not only remain authentic, but to display the beauty of her people and their island. Thats why she hopes her followers will be able to pass down her teachings to their families.

For Hopper specifically, that meant honoring her grandmother by creating her own sofrito brand, Mi Sofrito Fresqusito, which is a blend of vegetables, herbs, spices and other flavors to create a base for various Latin recipes.

"I always remember, my grandmother would say, 'Vamos hacer este sofrito, bien fresquito,' 'Were going to make very fresh sofrito," which is how the product got its name. "(It) always had a very unique consistency, the way she would cut (the vegetables). I fight for the texture to be exactly like she used to make hers."

"I hope that I am able to bring a smile and show the warmth of us as Latinos and us as Puerto Ricans, Hopper added. "We are sprinkled like confetti all over the world. We represent our flag, our culture and our accent. So, I want to make sure that when we do that, that we are loud and proud about it."
Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, known as The Viceroy, led the Juarez cartel until his arrest

A court in Mexico has sentenced the former leader of one of the country's biggest drug trafficking cartels to 28 years in jail.

Vicente Carrillo Fuentes took over control of the Juarez cartel after his brother died during botched plastic surgery in 1997.

Thousands of people were murdered in turf wars between rival cartels.

The Juarez cartel has lost much of its power since Vicente Carrillo Fuentes was arrested in 2014.

Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, who was known as The Viceroy, was found guilty of drug trafficking and organised crime.

The 58-year-old was one of the US Drug Enforcement Administration's (DEA) most wanted men for whose capture they offered a reward of $5m (3.6m).

For decades, the DEA and Mexican police tried to track down Vicente Carrillo Fuentes

He was detained at a police checkpoint in the northern Mexican state of Coahuila in October 2014 along with one of his bodyguards.

Police said he had been keeping a "low profile"

Vicente Carrillo Fuentes became the leader of Juarez cartel after the death of his older brother Amado, who was known as Lord of the Skies for his knack of smuggling large quantities of drugs in his private fleet of aeroplanes.

Amado Carrillo Fuentes had taken control of the Juarez cartel after killing its previous leader, Rafael Aguilar Guajardo.

Under The Lord of the Skies, the cartel became one of the main criminal organisations in Mexico as it gained control of the bulk of cocaine trafficking to the United States.

Like his younger brother, The Lord of the Skies rarely let himself be photographed.

In 1997, Amado Carrillo Fuentes checked into a Mexican hospital to have plastic surgery to alter his appearance and evade capture.

He died as a result of the botched operation. The doctors who performed it were killed some months later.

Vicente Carrillo Fuentes built up a complex financial structure to launder the proceeds from the cartel's drug trafficking.

But during his time at the helm, the Juarez cartel entered into a bloody rivalry with the Sinaloa cartel, led by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.

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The battle with its rivals from Sinaloa left the Juarez cartel seriously weakened but it is still thought to be behind a large number of murders in its stronghold in Ciudad Juarez.

Vicente Carrillo Fuentes's 28-year-sentence takes into account the years he has already spent in prison since his arrest.

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A Miami-area nurse pleaded guilty to threatening to kill Vice President Kamala Harris in videos sent to her imprisoned husband earlier this year, officials said.

Niviane Petit Phelps, 39, who pleaded guilty Friday to six counts, faces up to five years in prison, prosecutors said. Sentencing is set for Nov. 19.

In February, Phelps sent her incarcerated husband six 30-second videos in which she threatened to kill Harris and claimed that she had been paid $53,000 and was "the hit man," officials said. She also sent a photo of her with a handgun at a gun range and applied for a concealed firearm permit.

Her attorney, Scott Saul, said Tuesday that Phelps was going through a tumultuous time in her life and just venting and that she never had any intent to carry out any threats.

"Ms. Phelps has led an honorable life until this incident," Saul said, adding that it was important for her to accept responsibility. "Ms. Phelps has pled guilty, but she plans on demonstrating significant mitigating circumstances."

Niviane Petit Phelps, of Miami Gardens, was arrested following an investigation by the U.S. Secret Service after allegedly plotting to kill Vice-President Kamala Harris.

Phelps told a Secret Service investigator that she was upset that Harris was vice president, that she felt Harris was not really Black and that she believed Harris had not placed her hand on a Bible at her inauguration, the investigator wrote in an affidavit. Phelps is Black.

Harris, who did place her hand on the Bible when she was sworn in, is the first Black American, the first South Asian American and first woman elected vice president in U.S. history.

Phelps' mother has told NBC Miami that her daughter was depressed and desperate and "she listened to what people tell her."

The videos were sent through JPay, a computer application used to send media to those in prison. An inspector sent them to the Secret Service.

It's up to the judge to impose a sentence, but Saul said Phelps may fall under advisory guidelines that range from around 30 months to three years in prison. He said he will seek a sentence that does not involve prison.
(Reuters) -The Minnesota Supreme Court vacated the third-degree murder conviction of a former Minneapolis police officer on Wednesday and ordered his resentencing on a lesser conviction in the death of an Australian-American woman who called for emergency help.

The ruling, based on an issue specific to state law, may figure into the conviction earlier this year of former Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin who was found guilty of third-degree murder and other charges in the death of George Floyd.

The woman, Justine Ruszczyk, 40, called the police on the night of July 15, 2017, after hearing a woman screaming near her home. As she approached the police vehicle, the police officer, Mohamed Noor, fired his gun at her from the passenger seat, killing her.

In 2019, a jury acquitted Noor, 35, of second-degree murder but convicted him of third-degree "depraved-mind murder" and second-degree manslaughter, and he was sentenced to 12-1/2 years in prison. An appeals court upheld the convictions.

The issue before us on appeal is not whether Noor is criminally responsible for Ruszczyks death; he is, and his conviction of second-degree manslaughter stands, state Supreme Court Chief Justice Lorie Skjerven Gildea wrote.

But the high court overturned the third-degree murder conviction because it said the lower court erred in finding that Noor committed a "depraved-mind murder" while at the same time finding that he specifically intended to shoot Ruszczyk.

Rather, the court found in a 28-page ruling that a "generalized indifference to human life" necessary for a third-degree murder conviction in Minnesota "cannot exist when the defendants conduct is directed with particularity at the person who is killed."

The court remanded the case back to the district court that originally sentenced Noor so that he could be resentenced.

Under state sentencing guidelines for second-degree manslaughter, Noor, a Somali immigrant who has been in custody since his April 2019 conviction, could be released as early as next fall.

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Since 2005, only about a half of the 140 non-federal U.S. police officers charged with murder or manslaughter resulting from an on-duty shooting have been convicted, according to data compiled by a Bowling Green State University criminologist.

One of them was Chauvin. His killing of Floyd, a Black man, after pinning his neck to the ground with his knee on a Minneapolis street in 2020 sparked nationwide protests.

Chauvin was convicted in April of second-degree murder and manslaughter in addition to third-degree murder, a charge the trial judge initially dismissed but later reinstated at the direction of the state Court of Appeals.

Since the appeals court based its decision in the Chauvin case on its now-overturned ruling that upheld Noor's third-degree murder conviction, Chauvin's third-degree murder conviction could be in jeopardy as well.

But since state rules require judges to impose sentences only on the most serious convictions, it is unlikely to affect Chauvin's 22-1/2-year sentence, which was based on his second-degree murder guilty verdict.

Chauvin's lead attorney, Eric Nelson, did not respond to a request for comment.

(Reporting by Jonathan Allen and Peter Szekely in New York; Editing by Franklin Paul, Mark Porter and Sonya Hepinstall)
The Minnesota House DFL caucus voted Tuesday night to expel embattled state Rep. John Thompson from its ranks amid past domestic violence accusations and questions about his residency.

The move isolates Thompson and leaves him without access to DFL legislative staff and resources. House leaders also reiterated calls for Thompson to resign from the Legislature.

"Rep. Thompson's actions, credible reports of abuse and misconduct, and his failure to take responsibility remain unacceptable for a member of the Minnesota House," House Speaker Melissa Hortman and Majority Leader Ryan Winkler said in a joint statement.

Thompson, a St. Paul Democrat, was embroiled in a series of controversies over the summer.

He accused a St. Paul police sergeant who pulled him over for driving without a front license plate of racially profiling him. Thompson, who was cited for driving under suspension, presented a Wisconsin license at the time of the stop, raising questions about whether he lives in the legislative district he represents.

Soon after, details of past domestic abuse accusations against Thompson surfaced. The allegations detailed in public records related to police calls described multiple cases of alleged choking and punching by Thompson, at times in front of children, in three cities between 2003 and 2011.

Thompson has denied the allegations.

Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle and Gov. Tim Walz have called for Thompson's resignation but the first-term lawmaker has refused.

In a Facebook post Tuesday, he reiterated his desire to serve his district.

"I love representing my community. I am an Eastsider," Thompson wrote.

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Twitter: @ryanfaircloth
A debate about the need for additional COVID-19 vaccine doses is heating up ahead of Friday's U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) vaccine advisory meeting, which is slated to discuss the need for an additional Pfizer (PFE)/BioNTech (BNTX) shot.

Both the FDA and Pfizer released documents Wednesday detailing the data and information being weighed by the advisory panel. Pfizer has been keen on additional doses, or boosters, in light of data from Israel  with which the company has a close partnership  showing waning efficacy of the vaccine.

"The high neutralizing titers against the Beta and Delta variants after a third dose ... are encouraging. These data suggest that a third dose could re-establish the efficacy levels shown 1 month after two doses, prolong duration of protection, and further increase the breadth of protection," Pfizer said.

Meanwhile, the FDA, in its briefing document, said that it did see convincing protection from a third dose, but it has not "independently reviewed or verified the underlying data or their conclusions."

Even so, the data will be discussed at the September 17 meeting, as the U.S. lacks data relevant to its population.

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"It should be recognized that while observational studies can enable understanding of real-world effectiveness, there are known and unknown biases that can affect their reliability. Due to these biases some studies may be more reliable than others," the FDA said.

The cautious tone matches what two of the top vaccine officials at the FDA, both of whom are departing, wrote in collaboration with World Health Organization (WHO) officials and others in a recent Lancet article.

There, the authors wrote that there does not appear to be enough evidence to "show a need for boosting in the general population, in which efficacy against severe disease remains high."

Meanwhile, Moderna (MRNA) announced new data Wednesday that suggests a lower risk of breakthrough infection 8 months after the first dose compared to 13 months after the first dose. The data is not yet peer-reviewed, but has been submitted, the company said.

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The timeline matches the Biden administration's initial announcement of targeting 8 months after the initial course starting September 20.

By comparison, Pfizer's study supports 6-8 months after the initial course. The company remains the only one with a fully approved vaccine for ages 16 and up, as well as authorization for adolescents.

Moderna has yet to receive authorization for the latter, despite submitting in the summer, and it has completed its submission for full approval. It has also provided data supporting a half dose, 50 micrograms compared to the original 100 micrograms, for its booster shot.

President Stephen Hoge told Yahoo Finance Wednesday that the timeline for 5- to 11-year-olds will follow a similar timeline to that of Pfizer, which recently announced and end-of-month completion of the trial and filing for approval in October.

Whether or not a booster, or additional dose, will be needed continues to be a controversial topic in the health and science community. Some experts believe it is better to be safe than sorry, while others believe the proper memory function that the body holds to fight an infection after learning from the vaccines is sufficient.

"This is the key scientific question we're all wrestling with now," Hoge said.

"We don't really know" if annual boosters or a final third shot will provide the best protection, Hoge added.

There is also a split in the community over whether or not protection against severe disease should be the ultimate goal, rather than protection against any infection  which is currently the case with breakthroughs and could lead to further spread. There is also a split over whether an additional dose means the full protective course of a COVID-19 mRNA shot will have to be a three-dose course or if the additional shot is indeed a booster.

The bottom line remains, however, that despite the current Delta surge, and general concerns about variants, "these variants have not yet evolved to the point at which they are likely to escape the memory immune responses induced by those vaccines," according to the Lancet article authors.

And, they added, ensuring the entire global population completes its first round of shots is more important at this time.

Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance.

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Follow Anjalee on Twitter @AnjKhem
Kendall Jenner says she is giving back with her 818 tequila brand. Bellocqimages/Bauer-Griffin/Contributor/Getty Images and Matt Mawson/Getty Images

Kendall Jenner appeared on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" on Tuesday.

She told the host she is "saving the planet" and giving back to Jalisco, Mexico, with her brand.

Jenner has previously received backlash for her 818 tequila brand.

Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Kendall Jenner told "The Tonight Show" host Jimmy Fallon that her tequila brand, 818, is sustainable and gives back to the community in Jalisco, Mexico.

After first announcing her brand in February 2021, Jenner received both praise and backlash from social-media users. Critics accused her of cultural appropriation because the model is not Mexican and tequila is an inherently Mexican product. Some also accused her of exploiting jimadores and profiting off of their work.

But Jenner told Fallon that it's "important" to her brand "to be friendly to the community."

"At our distillery, which I was just at the other day, we found a way to take the agave waste - the agave fibers and the water waste - and build this sustainable brick that we are actually donating back to the community of Jalisco," she said.

"We're donating them and building homes for people that need homes," Jenner added, mentioning the bricks are also being used to aid in the construction of a "half-built hospital" in the area.

Jenner said that she's made her brand more "friendly to the planet" than other tequila brands she's seen by partnering with the sustainability initiative, 1% For the Planet. "We donate 1% of our profit to planet-saving initiatives," she said.

Sustainability and community aid are two of the cornerstones Jenner told Fallon that her brand is built on. She said that before 818, in her efforts to "find new tequilas" her friends may not have known about, she couldn't find one for her generation.

"Something that was like approachable and aesthetically pleasing and socially aware and gender-neutral," she said.

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Jenner also mentioned that one driving force behind her brand was that tequila is a male-dominated industry. Mexican tequilero Melly Barajas previously spoke with Insider about her own experience as one of few females in the space and about the role Jenner's gender may have played in the backlash she received.

"It happened to me in tequila," Barajas said. "I had to work and do things 100 times better than any man to get respect from the tequileros."

Representatives for 818 and Kendall Jenner did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Read the original article on Insider
Morocco has agreed to the nomination of former United Nations Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura as the Secretary-General's representative on the disputed Western Sahara, Rabat's UN ambassador said in comments published Wednesday.

"Morocco has been consulted beforehand about this appointment and has already notified (UN chief) Antonio Guterres of its approval," Omar Hilale said in an interview carried by state news agency MAP.

He said consultations were still underway but the Italian-Swedish diplomat's appointment would be made public "in the upcoming days, after the endorsement of Security Council members".

Several diplomatic sources at the UN said the Moroccan turnaround was due to "strong pressure" from the United States and France. It came after Morocco's arch-rival Algeria, the main backer of the separatist Polisario Front, had cut diplomatic ties with Morocco.

The Western Sahara dispute pits Morocco, which sees the former Spanish colony as an integral part of its territory, against the armed Polisario independence movement.

The sparsely-populated desert territory boasts significant phosphate resources and a long Atlantic coastline with access to rich fishing waters.

UN-led talks between the three parties plus Mauritania have been stalled since the 2019 resignation of the previous UN envoy, German diplomat Horst Kohler, for health reasons.

Guterres has put forward a dozen names for the role but been unable to reach a consensus with all sides.

But the Polisario previously said it would accept the nomination of de Mistura, who has decades of diplomatic experience including as a UN envoy in Syria.

It did however question Morocco's willingness to cooperate with the UN in the search for a lasting solution.

"No genuine, credible and viable peace process will ever be possible as long as the Moroccan occupation persists, with impunity, in its illegal actions and its attempts to impose by force a fait accompli in the occupied territories," it said in a statement Wednesday.

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Hilale said the diplomat would "be able to count on Morocco's unfailing cooperation and support, to implement his mediation for the settlement of this regional dispute".

Last year the administration of then-US president Donald Trump recognised Rabat's sovereignty over Western Sahara as a quid pro quo for Morocco normalising ties with Israel.

Since a ceasefire with the Polisario in 1991, Morocco has controlled around 80 percent of the Western Sahara, where it has poured investment into development projects.

The Polisario continues to call for a referendum on self-determination, according to the 1991 UN-backed ceasefire deal.

Tensions rose sharply in November when Morocco sent troops into a buffer zone to reopen the only road leading from Morocco to Mauritania and the rest of West Africa, after the separatists had blocked it the previous month.

The Polisario responded by declaring the 1991 UN-backed ceasefire null and void.

The two sides have since exchanged regular fire along the demarcation line, though claims are difficult to independently verify in the hard-to-access area.

ko-agr/ezz/par/it/har
By Josh Smith

SEOUL (Reuters) -The missiles fired by North Korea on Wednesday were a test of a new "railway-borne missile system" designed as a potential counter-strike to any forces that threaten the country, state news agency KCNA reported on Thursday.

The missiles flew 800 km (497 miles) before striking a target in the sea off North Korea's east coast, KCNA said.

On Wednesday, South Korean and Japanese authorities said they had detected the launch of two ballistic missiles from North Korea, just days after it tested a cruise missile that analysts said could have nuclear capabilities. https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/nkorea-test-fires-long-range-cruise-missile-kcna-2021-09-12

The North Korean launches came the same day that South Korea tested a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/skorea-blazes-new-path-with-most-potent-conventional-missile-submarine-2021-09-08, becoming the first country without nuclear weapons to develop such a system.

The two Koreas have been in an increasingly heated arms race, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-missiles-southkorea-analys-idUSKBN2BM0G8 with both sides unveiling more capable missiles and other weapons.

The tests by nuclear-armed North Korea drew international condemnation and concern, however, with the United States saying they violated U.N. Security Council resolutions and posed a threat to Pyongyang's neighbours.

North Korea has been steadily developing its weapons systems, raising the stakes for stalled talks aimed at dismantling its nuclear and ballistic missile arsenals in return for U.S. sanctions relief.

The North Korean test was conducted by a railway-borne missile regiment that had been organised earlier this year, the KCNA report said.

"The railway-borne missile system serves as an efficient counter-strike means capable of dealing a harsh multi-concurrent blow to the threat-posing forces," said Pak Jong Chon, a North Korean marshal and member of the Presidium of the Politburo of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea, who oversaw the test, according to KCNA.

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'CHEAP AND RELIABLE'

Photos released by state media showed an olive-green missile rising on a column of smoke and flame from the roof of a train parked on tracks in a mountainous area.

South Korea had reported the missiles were fired from the central inland area of Yangdok.

"Rail mobile missiles are a relatively cheap and reliable option for countries seeking to improve the survivability of their nuclear forces," Adam Mount, a senior fellow at the Federation of American Scientists, said on Twitter. "Russia did it. The US considered it. It makes a ton of sense for North Korea."

Mount and other analysts said the system is likely constrained by North Korea's relatively limited and sometimes unreliable rail network, but that it could add another layer of complexity for a foreign military seeking to track and destroy the missiles before they are fired.

According to KCNA, Pak said there are plans to expand the railway-borne missile regiment to a brigade-size force in the near future, and to conduct training to gain "operational experience for actual war."

The army should prepare tactical plans for deploying the system in different parts of the country, Pak said.

It is unusual to see the sheer variety in missile delivery systems and launch platforms that North Korea develops, said Ankit Panda, a senior fellow at the U.S.-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

"Its not very cost effective (especially for a sharply resource-constrained state) and far more operationally complex than a leaner, vertically integrated force," he said on Twitter.

The railway system displayed on Wednesday could possibly set the stage for developing one capable of launching a larger, nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), Panda added.

He also noted that some of the missile systems displayed by North Korea may be about technology demonstration, which may not be fully deployed.

(Reporting by Josh Smith; Editing by Alistair Bell and Peter Cooney)
As Democrats negotiate a multitrillion-dollar budget proposal that would fulfill President Bidens domestic agenda and remake the countrys social safety net, new data shows that COVID-19 relief programs helped cut the nations poverty rate even amid the pandemic-related economic downturn.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that the poverty rate fell nearly 3 percent from 2019 to 2020 after accounting for government aid, which came in the form of pandemic relief bills passed by Congress. Per the bureau, expanded unemployment payments prevented 5.5 million people from falling into poverty, while direct stimulus payments moved 11.7 million people out of poverty. That analysis followed a Department of Agriculture report last week stating that the payments helped keep Americans from slipping into food insecurity.

Tents and makeshift shelters line a street in Boston. (Craig F. Walker/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

The new data comes as Democrats in Congress debate how expansive a budget deal should be. Its especially noteworthy because Bidens initial proposal would constitute a complete overhaul of the countrys social safety net, funding an expansion in care work and pre-K education, while raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans and corporations.

Progressives in the party initially proposed a $6 trillion budget plan, but it was negotiated down to $3.5 trillion in the Senate Budget Committee, which is chaired by the nations leading progressive, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. Moderate Democrats balked at the $3.5 trillion price tag, with one of the criticisms being that child tax credit eligibility is too wide. Without all 50 Democratic senators in sync, the budget deal cannot pass because of united GOP opposition.

One tool the government has to help fight poverty is the child tax credit, which allows recipients to subtract thousands of dollars from the income taxes they owe the federal government. As part of the American Rescue Plan, which was passed in March, the taxes are fully refundable, meaning that parents will be paid fully even if their tax bill reaches zero, which will help the lowest-income families. Only about $1,400 was refundable under the old regulations.

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The American Rescue Plan also expanded the tax credit to parents, who will receive $3,600 for each child age 6 and under and $3,000 per child ages 6 to 17. (Previously, the tax credit was $2,000 for ages 16 and under and $500 for age 17.) The increases would begin to phase out for heads of households making $112,500 and married couples making $150,000. The plan also raises tax credits to cover the care of children and dependents.

President Biden speaking about the American Rescue Plan on Feb. 22. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

While this policy didnt go into effect until July and did not affect the new Census Bureau analysis, there are already reports that its implementation has cut into childhood poverty.

Last month, the Center on Poverty & Social Policy at Columbia University found that the addition of the child tax credit payments in July pulled 3 million children out of poverty, compared with June. Because not everyone who is eligible for the credit is receiving it  an issue the Internal Revenue Service and local groups are working to address  the analysis estimated the credit would reduce child poverty by 40 percent, adding that the greatest gains [would] be realized for Black and Latino children."

But if the credit is not extended in the Democrats budget deal, the size of payments, how they're delivered and eligibility will all revert. As Democrats hammer out the details with an eye on pushing the benefits through 2025, the moderate Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., has said he wants to add a work or education requirement to the credits.

I support child tax credits. I sure am trying to help the children, Manchin said in an interview with CNN on Sunday. Theres no work requirements whatsoever. Theres no education requirements whatsoever for better skill sets. Dont you think, if were going to help the children, that the people should make some effort?

Manchins comments, which he reiterated on Tuesday in an interview with Business Insider, echo those of Republicans who are against the program. Advocates for the expanded child tax credits argue that the process of raising children itself is work and that increasing the amount of paperwork required to access benefits results in cutting them off from many who need them the most.

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., leaves a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Tuesday. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

The Washington Post reported Wednesday morning that Biden was set to meet separately with both Manchin and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., another moderate who has said she would not vote for the full $3.5 trillion package. Biden needs both their votes, as well as the votes of progressives like Sanders, for the plan to have a chance at passing.

If the budget deal falls apart, it could also potentially endanger a bipartisan infrastructure plan passed by the Senate last month, as a number of progressive House Democrats have said they will not vote for the smaller bipartisan deal unless the budget deal has also passed.

While Manchin has called for a strategic pause on the multitrillion-dollar reconciliation bill, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the package was full speed ahead last week. The pressure is now on party leadership  including Biden, Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi  to keep as many of the original proposals in the law without losing the votes needed to pass it with the margin thin in the House and nonexistent in the Senate.

Where would you cut? Pelosi said at a press conference last week. Childcare? Family medical leave paid for? Universal pre-K? Home health care? So important.

____

Read more from Yahoo News:
Gov. Gavin Newsom, with Jennifer Siebel Newsom and their daughter Brooklynn, waits to speak to volunteers Tuesday in San Francisco. (Associated Press)

Some of the key players in the California recall election made final pitches Tuesday as voters went to the polls.

Voters will first decide whether to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom. Then they will vote on a replacement from a field of mostly GOP candidates. Polls have shown the recall effort struggling and talk-show host Larry Elder leading among Republicans by a large margin.

Newsom and GOP candidate Caitlyn Jenner both addressed conspiracy theories about election irregularities. Some right-wing activists  as well as Elder  began sowing unfounded doubts about the integrity of the vote. In some ways, the moves are an extension of the conspiracy theories and false claims that started when Donald Trump lost the presidency to Joe Biden.

Elder, who had made no public appearance Tuesday by early evening, has refused to answer whether he will accept the election results if the recall effort fails. He recently added a section to his campaign website called stop fraud where voters can report irregularities.

Here is what the candidates had to say.

Gov. Gavin Newsom

Newsom gave an 11th-hour stump speech to rally supporters Tuesday at a San Francisco union hall, encouraging them to reach out and get people to the polls to vote no on the effort to recall him.

We cant allow the economy, not just our public health, to be impacted by a wrong decision tonight at 8 oclock, he told the cheering crowd, with his wife and daughter standing by his side. So what are we going to do? We will turn out and vote no on this recall.

Newsom addressed questions from reporters about claims that the election results could be falsified.

This election fraud stuff is a crock; its shameful. And when I say that, I mean that, he said. Guys like me come and go. Were a dime a dozen, politicians. Quite literally a dime a dozen. It's about our institutions. Its about this nation. Its about trust and confidence.

He called out politicians and other figures he blames for peddling "the Big Lie."

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John Cox

Republican candidate John Cox made a campaign stop Tuesday morning in Long Beach to "make it clear that this race isnt just about the national political scene. ... This is about the quality of life for Californians.

The location choice was a nod to Monday evenings rally at Long Beach City College, where President Biden stumped for Newsom and painted the recall as an election with national ramifications. Cox touted his credentials as a businessman  and criticized politicians and media celebrities, who have run the state in recent years, he said  as evidence that he can fix California's problems.

As Cox spoke, a man driving by shouted, Youve got my vote! A person biking on the beach boardwalk later called out, Vote for Larry Elder!

Cox acknowledged that front-runner Elder had shaken up the race quite a bit. With a double-digit lead, Elder far outpaces Cox, who is backed by 4% of likely voters, according to the latest UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll, co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times.

The important thing is that we vote yes on the recall ... doesnt matter if people select Larry or myself, Cox said. Im hoping I have a chance, but yeah, the more important thing is to vote yes on the recall.

Caitlyn Jenner

As people lined up to vote Tuesday at Beverly Hills City Hall, a celebrity candidate arrived with a small entourage and a ballot in her hand.

After consulting with a poll worker, Jenner disposed of the ballot so she could vote in person.

Afterward, she threw her arms in the air, evoking the moment she won the 1976 Olympic decathlon.

As the reality television star and most prominent transgender political candidate in history weaved her way to the door, voters pulled her aside to ask for selfies and tell her they loved her.

Outside City Hall, the Republican candidate told the assembled media that if Newsom prevails, it will be the end of the state as she knows it.

Reporters repeatedly asked her about Elders claims of election fraud. Jenner sidestepped questions about whether that was appropriate and said anyone was better than Newsom.

Larry Elder is running his campaign the way Larry Elder is running his campaign, she said.

I believe in the system. I believe in the state of California. I believe in our electoral system. I think its important that citizens of this state get together and make sure theres integrity in our voting laws.

Kevin Kiley

Recall candidate and state Assemblyman Kevin Kiley (D-Rocklin) voted Tuesday, with a dozen supporters and campaign staff on hand as he brought his ballot into a mostly empty polling site at St. Mary Coptic Orthodox Church in Roseville.

The lawmaker said he is optimistic, despite recent polling suggesting Newsom has a sizable lead in halting the recall effort.

Gavin Newsom has trotted out Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Barack Obama and others, Kiley said, calling such moves a sign of desperation.

At the end of the day, despite every attempt by our corrupt political class to take power away from the people, the people are still sovereign in this state, and the idea of we the people still means something, Kiley said.

Asked what his next step would be should the recall effort fail, Kiley said he wasnt thinking that far ahead.

Im not making any decisions about even what Im having for breakfast tomorrow morning, he said. We have been focused like a laser on getting out every vote in favor of the recall.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Errol Webber of Costa Mesa carries a cutout picture of Larry Elder at an election party at the Orange County Hilton. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Although the effort to recall California Gov. Gavin Newsom failed, the lightning two-month campaign appears to have had at least one clear beneficiary  Larry Elder.

The conservative talk radio host jumped to the front of the pack of 46 recall challengers soon after he entered the race on July 12, enhancing his brand as a media provocateur and potentially paving the way for a future run for office.

His showing Tuesday, when he led the challengers by a wide margin, could establish him as the putative leader of the states Republican Party.

Some of his most ardent followers have said they hope Elder will run next year, to challenge Newsom for a second time.

Asked about a 2022 run, Elder told KMJ radio in Fresno on Tuesday: "I have now become a political force here in California in general and particularly within the Republican party. And I'm not going to leave the stage."

But his path to a victory would be even more difficult then, when he would have to receive a majority of the vote in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans nearly 2 to 1.

Tuesdays results represented a stark dichotomy for Elder: The Los Angeles native, making his first run for office at 69, rocketed past more experienced candidates to become the darling of conservatives. That put him tantalizingly close to becoming the first Black governor in the state's 171-year history.

But his unbending conservatism  against abortion rights, opposed to the minimum wage and prepared to reverse COVID-19 vaccine and mask requirements  likely repelled enough voters in liberal-leaning California to help drive a considerable segment of the electorate toward keeping Newsom in office.

He is now the leader of the resistance in California, or at least one of the biggest leaders, said Carl DeMaio, a San Diego talk radio host and chair of the Reform California political action committee. If he does want to run again, there is no doubt he is the [Republican] nominee. There is simply no doubt.

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But dominion over a small conservative resistance  dominated by a shrinking minority of older, white voters  is not a formula to return Republicans to power in California, said GOP consultant Mike Madrid.

You can say you remained pure in defeat, but that's just a martyr candidacy, Madrid said. It appeals to a core group that is the fastest-shrinking demographic in the state and in the country.

Elder insisted into the final days of his campaign that he would unseat Newsom, even as polls began to show the pro-recall vote being overwhelmed by votes to keep Newsom in office. When asked last week about a possible 2022 rematch with the governor, Elder did not respond directly.

A lot of people have invested their hopes and dreams in me, Elder said. A lot of people feel that I can make California better.

If Elder chooses to return to his work as a talk show host, he should find his stature markedly enhanced, industry analysts said.

He will be a huge winner in his media career because his profile has been raised exponentially since this began, said Michael Harrison, publisher of Talkers, a trade publication for the radio and TV talk industry. Its been a tremendous victory for him.

The self-proclaimed Sage from South-Central has been a fixture on Los Angeles radio for most of the last 30 years, first on KABC AM-790, briefly via his own streaming outlet and, since 2016, on AM-870.

Elder took a hiatus to run for governor, but he will be welcomed back by the Salem Radio Network, which delivers his program to 115 stations around the country and about 260 other cable and HD platforms.

Elders bosses made it clear they hope to capitalize on the wave of attention he received after entering the recall race.

For stations that have now seen this campaign and have seen how good Larry is, its time to go back to those stations, said Phil Boyce, the senior vice president for Salem who oversees the network. I expect that he will pick up stations in the future because of this.

Elder has long told friends that he coveted a national television presence, though he has not spoken publicly about whether he still holds those ambitions. He has been a guest on Fox News programs 220 times in the past five years, but representatives at the conservative network declined to say whether they would consider Elder for a regular paid position.

Elder came late to the recall campaign, but quickly outpaced his rivals. He jumped to the head of the polls and raised more campaign funds, particularly among small donors. By late August he had raised more than $2.3 million from those giving less than $100. That was more than three times the amount his four closest competitors combined collected.

Verbally nimble and outspoken about the power of personal responsibility, Elder hammered libertarian positions he has aired for years. He called for less government intrusion, the right of parents to choose their childrens schools and for increased management of forests, to reduce the risk of wildfires.

He declined to debate other challengers. Though they maligned him in his absence, the newcomer appeared only to grow in stature.

A threat to Elders candidacy arose in mid-August when his one-time fiancee and producer, Alexandra Datig, accused him of emotional abuse, pushing her and checking his pistol to see if it was loaded during an argument about their relationship.

Elder denied that he ever brandished a weapon at Datig, or anyone, and called the claims a distraction from the real issues in the recall campaign.

Rival candidates called on Elder to drop out of the race. So did the Sacramento Bee editorial board. But Elder ignored them and appeared to suffer no harm with his core supporters. (Los Angeles prosecutors declined to investigate, saying the statute of limitations had run out on the six-year-old accusations.)

To his most ardent backers, Elder was being targeted with slurs because of his truth telling.

Larry wont be bought by the unions and big tech. He will work for all people, not just the people in his party, one supporter, Susann, said via Facebook. I dont want mandated vaxs, mandated masks in our childrens schools. And, most importantly, I want school choice for my grandchildren.

Many Elder fans said they viewed him as the antidote to an overreaching government.

We need to fight for freedom, said Estrella Harrington, after watching Elder speak at a mall in Orange Countys Little Saigon. Harrington, an immigrant from Indonesia, said of Elders 15-minute presentation: Its perfect. Its beautiful.

Elder and some of his followers have signaled that they may not accept a loss as legitimate. The candidate said his campaign had created its own "voter integrity board," composed mostly of lawyers who were prepared to file lawsuits if they detect election fraud.

Before a vote had been counted, multiple figures on the right  from Fox News personality Tucker Carlson to former President Trump  suggested Newsom would benefit from an unfair count.

But veterans of the states Republican politics said the GOP in California would do better to follow a more moderate course. They pointed to heavily Democratic states like Maryland and Massachusetts, where Republican moderates won the governorship.

Any candidate that only appeals to the base, to 32% of the electorate, and at the same time energizes a lot of the other 68% of voters, that is not going to be helpful for a Republican candidate, said Rob Stutzman, who was a spokesman for Arnold Schwarzenegger, the states last Republican governor.

Radio host DeMaio scoffed at pundits who said Elder and other Republicans need to be more moderate. Its like saying Republicans should have backed a candidate more like a Democrat," DeMaio said. "No Republican voter is going to listen to that.

Dennis Prager, the talk radio host who has been one of Elders mentors, said he believed his campaign had made people realize how much damage the Democrats and left-wing policies have done to minorities. He said Elder had been particularly effective in exposing the egregious double standard that allowed privileged children, like Newsoms, to attend in-person classes during the pandemic, while most public school students languished at home.

Prager said Elder had given no hint whether he would return to the radio or pursue another run for governor. I would like Larry to do anything that enables him to be heard by ever larger numbers of people, Prager said.

Days before the election, Elder responded with a smile when asked what he would do if he lost. Dont be so negative, he said. Im going to win this one.

Regardless of the outcome, he said he planned to continue to talk about expanding educational opportunity, improving the states electric power system, checking the spiraling cost of living and reducing homelessness.

"I dont know for sure what my journey is going to be," Elder said, "but my life has now changed forever.

Times staff writers Stephen Battaglio in New York and Julia Wick in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
The mayor of an Ohio town is demanding that members of the local school board resign over a high school reading assignment which he said a judge classified as child pornography.

It has come to my attention that your educators are distributing essentially what is child pornography in the classroom, Hudson Mayor Craig Shubert told the Hudson Board of Education during a meeting Monday.

Ive spoken to a judge this evening. Shes already confirmed that. So Im going to give you a simple choice: You either choose to resign from this board of education or you will be charged, Shubert said before leaving the podium, receiving applause from the audience.

Shuberts statement followed the revelation that high school students enrolled in the advanced course Writing in the Liberal Arts II, were issued a book called 642 Things to Write About, which featured some overtly sexual writing prompts designed for adolescents.

Among the ideas in the book were suggestions to write a sex scene you wouldnt show your mom and to rewrite the sex scene from above into one that youd let your mom read. Another prompt encouraged underage drinking, asking students to consume a beer and describe its taste, according to the Akron Beacon Journal.

Upon hearing of the assignment, outraged parents slammed the school for allowing such material into the classroom and attended the meeting Monday to air their grievances. One speaker said he was appalled by the content and asked the school district to install cameras in the classroom to hold teachers accountable and ensure transparency for parents concerned with their childrens education, the Journal reported. Another speaker called the material disgusting and likened it to grooming, or creating a ripe environment for child exploitation.

In a statement obtained by the Journal, Superintendent Phil Herman admitted the prompts were inappropriate and offensive although he claimed the raunchy prompts were not actually assigned to students even though they were included in the assigned book.

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The district immediately determined this writing resource should not be in the hands of our students, and on Monday, collected the books from the students enrolled in the course, Herman said. It is important to note that at no time were any of these inappropriate writing prompts assigned as part of the class.

More from National Review
U.S. gymnasts Aly Raisman, Simone Biles, McKayla Maroney and NCAA and world champion gymnast Maggie Nichols leave after testifying during a Senate Judiciary hearing on Wednesday.

It's hard to believe that it's already been one month since the Taliban retook Afghanistan. Yet life for women remaining in the country has already rapidly changed.

After making early promises about a more inclusive government, the Taliban have returned in some ways to the brutal regime that ruled the country before the American invasion in 2001.

Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, four of the best U.S. gymnasts gave harrowing testimony Wednesday about the FBI's failure to stop sexual abuse.

It's Amy and Mabinty, with the news you need to know.

Elite gymnasts want justice after FBI fails to stop Nassar sex abuse

Gymnastics superstar Simone Biles through tears blamed the FBI, USA Gymnastics and the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee at a Senate panel Wednesday for allowing disgraced former USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar to abuse dozens of women and children.

We suffered and continue to suffer, because no one at the FBI, USAG or the USOPC did what was necessary to protect us," Biles said. "We have been failed."

Fellow elite gymnasts Aly Raisman, McKayla Maroney and Maggie Nichols also testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the FBI's failures to investigate 2015 sexual abuse allegations against Nassar.

The backstory: The Department of Justice inspector general released a stinging 119-page report in July that found Indianapolis FBI officials made false statements and failed to respond to tips for months, leading to more than 100 other gymnasts being sexually abused and exhibited "extremely poor judgment" in the handling of the allegations against Nassar.

How did the FBI respond? FBI Director Chris Wray apologized to the four athletes for the agency's failures and called the inactions of its employees "totally unacceptable.

"I'm deeply and profoundly sorry to each and every one of you. Im sorry for what you and your families have been through. I'm sorry that so many different people let you down over and over again," Wray said.

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Real quick: Stories you'll want to read

Claims of treason : Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is facing outrage from lawmakers after a report that he assured China that the United States would not launch a nuclear strike in the last days of the Trump administration.

Saying yes to this dress? Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez attended Monday's Met Gala wearing a Brother Vellies' white dress with "Tax the Rich" written in red on the backside. But who qualifies as rich?

DOJ vs. Texas: The Justice Department is seeking an emergency court order to block the enforcement of a new Texas law that bans abortions after six weeks.

Where was Trump on Jan. 6? Requests sent to telecom and social media companies, and to federal agencies, from a House committee reveal pieces of the puzzle that lawmakers hope to assemble for a minute-by-minute picture of what happened during the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.

Want this news roundup in your inbox every night? Sign up for OnPolitics newsletter here.

Donald Trump says no thanks to 'Presidents Club'

On the 20th anniversary of 9/11, President Joe Biden and former presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton paid tribute at the sites of the nation's deadliest terrorist attacks.

Missing from the gathering Saturday was former president Donald Trump.

A few days later, Obama, Bush, and Clinton, and their wives, announced they are "honorary co-chairs" of Welcome.US, an organization designed to assist refugees from Afghanistan who are re-settling in the United States.

Absent again: Trump.

It was yet another sign that the fraternal "Presidents Club" is not one that Trump wants to join  not that the other ex-presidents appear to be clamoring for him to join anyway.

Going against the status quo: From vaccine promotion to disaster relief, the businessman who often described himself as a "different kind of president" has shunned his engagement with others who have worked in the Oval Office, and the feeling seems to be mutual.

Gmar chatima tovah to all those observing Yom Kippur! - Amy and Mabinty

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: FBI director apologizes to elite gymnasts over Larry Nassar case
Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. Chris Polk/FilmMagic/Getty Images

Britney Spears was named one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2021.

In an essay for the list, Paris Hilton called Spears "a fighter."

Hilton wrote that Spears has lived through "trauma and abuse" and shifts "pain into purpose."

Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Time revealed its annual list of the 100 Most Influential People on Wednesday, and it's not surprising that pop star Britney Spears made the list. Her legal conservatorship battle has been in the spotlight this year, which has helped begin important conversations about disability rights and the rights of people with mental illness (though Spears has not confirmed that she personally has any disability or mental illness).

While Paris Hilton might seem like an unexpected choice to author an essay about Spears for Time's list, she has emerged as one of the singer's biggest celebrity advocates this year. In her moving new op-ed for the magazine, Hilton calls Spears "a fighter" who has "survived more than a decade of trauma and abuse from her conservatorship."

She also describes Spears as "a sweet soul" who "grew up in the tabloid culture of the 2000s, when the paparazzi machine was accepted, unforgiving, and cruel."

The heiress also mentions #FreeBritney, the fan-fueled movement to bring more attention to Spears' concerning reality. "In 2021, the battle cries of #FreeBritney roared louder than ever from her global network of devoted fans and a concerned public. Our hearts broke when Britney spoke about her pain," Hilton writes.

Hilton says that she believes Spears will come through this dark time with her "unwavering spirit stronger than ever." Spears "embodies joy" and "shares the light of her beautiful heart" with the public, according to Hilton.

Things have been looking up for Spears in recent weeks.

Spears and Sam Asghari. Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images

The pop star got engaged to her longtime boyfriend Sam Asghari on Sunday. She subsequently decided to take a break from social media, reportedly deleting all of her Instagram posts on Tuesday and explaining on Twitter that she wanted to take some offline time to celebrate her engagement.

Before that, Spears' father Jamie, the coconservator of her estate, filed to end Spears' 13-year conservatorship ahead of the next scheduled court hearing on September 29.

Read the original article on Insider
Pennsylvania Senate Republicans on Wednesday authorized a series of broad subpoenas for personal information on voters as part of a burgeoning effort to review the results of the 2020 election.

The information subpoenaed from Gov. Tom Wolf's administration includes records on all Pennsylvania voters, including partial Social Security numbers, driver's license information, whether they voted by mail or in person and any changes in voter registration.

The Republican-controlled state Senate Intergovernmental Affairs Committee also subpoenaed all election guidance issued by the Pennsylvania secretary of the commonwealth to counties and all communications between the Department of State and county elections officials.

The subpoenas were approved by a 7-to-4, party-line vote.

Pennsylvania Democrats, including those on the committee, have decried the review as a waste of time and resources, pointing to the fact that more than 10 months after the election, no evidence of fraud or irregularities has been produced. President Joe Biden beat former President Donald Trump by more than 80,000 votes to win the state.

It's unclear what the committee's taxpayer-funded review is looking for. An initial hearing held last week focused on elections guidance provided by the Department of State to counties in the run-up to Election Day in November.

State Sen. Cris Dush, the Republican chairing the committee, said in a statement it was necessary to subpoena information from the Department of State because it did not participate in last week's hearing. The Department of State said it did not participate because of ongoing litigation involving Fulton County. A top Fulton County official testified before the panel Thursday.

On the voter information, Dush said it was necessary to gather a full understanding of the state's election system. A release from his office said the subpoenaed records will not include information on party affiliation, any information that could determine who a person voted for or "anything else that threatens voter secrecy or security."

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In a statement, Wolf, a Democrat, called the investigation "a sham" and said state Republicans are continuing to perpetuate "the Big Lie" about last fall's results.

"Lets be very clear, this information request is merely another step to undermine democracy, confidence in our elections and to capitulate to Donald Trumps conspiracy theories about the 2020 election," he said. "It is a direct continuation of the same lies that resulted in the attack on the Capitol, and that have done so much to destabilize our political institutions over the ten months since last years election. As even members of the Pennsylvania Republican caucus have acknowledged, this charade has to stop."

"We continue to strongly oppose any effort which would compromise the security and integrity of election materials, infrastructure and the personal information of Pennsylvania voters, while undermining confidence in our elections by bringing an Arizona-style circus to Pennsylvania," he continued.

Pennsylvania conducted two post-election audits confirming the accuracy of last fall's count, and the results were certified. Republicans, who acknowledge they have not found evidence of fraud, say the ongoing review is necessary to shape election law and ease the concerns of their voters.

"Republican lawmakers may be the only people in the country who actually want to relive 2020," Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, a Democrat running for Senate, said in a statement. "The election happened 10 months ago. Biden won. Get over it. Stop pissing away taxpayer money."

At Thursday's initial hearing, the lone witness testifying was Stuart Ulsh, chair of the Fulton County Election Board. Ulsh had authorized a third-party "audit" of his county's election results, which showed a substantial Trump win, at the request of a pro-Trump state senator late last year. During Thursday's hearing, Ulsh testified that the review found nothing wrong with how the 2020 election was conducted.
Republican lawmakers in Pennsylvania are poised to subpoena state officials for identifying information about registered voters as part of a "full forensic investigation" into the 2020 election, according to new reports.

The state Senate's Intergovernmental Operations Committee will vote Wednesday on whether to issue a subpoena to the Department of State, which oversees elections, as part of an inquiry by the GOP-controlled legislature into how it administrated the 2020 election.

The subpoena seeks nonpublic personal information of every registered Pennsylvania voter, such as the last four digits of Social Security and drivers license numbers, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported Tuesday.

Republican Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman called for subpoenas last week after acting Secretary of State Veronica Degraffenreid declined to testify in a hearing.

PENNSYLVANIA GOVERNOR RECALLS NOMINEE DUE TO 'DONALD TRUMP'S FANTASY' ABOUT 2020 VOTING IRREGULARITIES

"The Department of State failed to appear yesterday to provide answers to the lingering questions about their role in creating doubts about the fairness of the 2020 General Election," Corman said in a statement Friday.

Corman blamed Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf's administration of a "dereliction of duty" for "refusing to take accountability for weaponizing an agency that is supposed to be non-partisan."

Senate Republicans in Pennsylvania have been pursuing an investigation into the 2020 election for several months, similar to those underway in Arizona and Wisconsin. All three states are "battleground" states that former President Donald Trump won in 2016 but lost last year.



Corman recently elevated Republican Sen. Cris Dush, who chairs Intergovernmental Operations, to be the leader of the state GOP's effort to investigate the election, replacing state Sen. Doug Mastrianop. Corman accused Mastriano of being "interested in politics and showmanship and not actually getting things done."

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Mastriano requested election materials from Tioga, Philadelphia, and York counties in July. The requests prompted pushback from each county, with Republican-heavy Tioga and York counties expressing concern election officials would deem expensive voting machines compromised and decertify them, which happened in Maricopa County, Arizona, and Fulton County, Pennsylvania.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Officials in the Democratic stronghold of Philadelphia also declined to comply. City commissioners told Mastriano they "cannot agree to the undertaking of your proposed review of the countys election equipment."

"There is no claim that Philadelphia Countys election systems or processes were compromised nor is there any basis to jeopardize the constitutionally mandated secrecy of the votes cast by City of Philadelphia residents, to expose the taxpayers of the city to tens of millions of dollars in additional and unanticipated expenses, or to risk the very ability of Philadelphians to cast ballots in future elections if Philadelphias system was decertified," they said.

The dispute over the election led Wolf to recall Degraffenreid's nomination to be secretary, which requires a Senate confirmation. Wolf blamed "bad faith" actions by Republicans concerning the election.

"It is clear that instead of providing advice and consent on my nominee for Secretary of the Commonwealth, they instead plan on using her confirmation as an opportunity to descend further into conspiracy theories and work to please the former president [Donald Trump] by spreading lies about last year's election, instead of working together to address real issues facing Pennsylvanians," Wolf said Monday.

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Tags: News, Pennsylvania, State Legislatures, Donald Trump, 2020 Elections, Subpoena

Original Author: Jeremy Beaman

Original Location: Pennsylvania Republicans look to subpoena personal information about voters in 2020 election inquiry
Peruvian authorities said Wednesday they will not turn over the body of the late guerilla leader Abimael Guzman to his widow until an investigation into his death in prison is concluded.

Guzman, the founder of the brutal Shining Path guerrilla group, which spread terror across Peru in the 1980s and 1990s, died on Saturday in a military prison at age 86.

His also-imprisoned widow, Elena Iparraguirre, the Shining Path's former second-in-command, has requested that Guzman's body be turned over to her for burial.

But officials are concerned that Guzman's gravesite could become a rallying point for his followers, and there is widespread support for Guzman's body to be cremated and the ashes spread in the Pacific Ocean.

Prosecutors said on Twitter that they have "rejected Elena Iparraguirre's request for the body of terrorist Abimael Guzman Reinoso to be handed over to her."

In his decision, prosecutor Vladimir Farfan Kehuarucho was guided by "public order and social interest," according to the prosecutor's office.

Guzman's body will remain in government custody until medical examiners finish their work. It was unclear what would happen after that.

An autopsy showed Guzman died of double pneumonia, an infection that inflames both lungs and has been associated with Covid-19. The body must still undergo more testing.

Guzman was serving a life sentence in the maximum security jail near Lima.

He and Iparraguirre were captured together in September 1992 and married in 2010, even though they were being held in different prisons.

A former philosophy professor, Guzman was the intellectual architect behind the Maoist guerilla group's brutal 20-year attempt to overthrow the Peruvian government from 1980 to 2000. The conflict claimed tens of thousands of lives.

Guzman embraced the brutal methods of Cambodian dictator Pol Pot, such as ordering the massacre of an Andean village in 1984 that left 117 people dead.

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By Michael Erman

(Reuters) -U.S. Food and Drug Administration scientists said on Wednesday that booster doses of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine may not be needed, even though the third shot generates a higher immune response in recipients.

The FDA staff members said in a document prepared for outside advisors that it is still unproven that the efficacy of Comirnaty - the COVID-19 vaccine Pfizer developed with Germany's BioNTech SE - is declining.

"Some observational studies have suggested declining efficacy of Comirnaty over time against symptomatic infection or against the Delta variant, while others have not," they said in the document.

"However, overall, data indicate that currently U.S.-licensed or authorized COVID-19 vaccines still afford protection against severe COVID-19 disease and death in the United States."

The FDA staff did say the booster dose met pre-specified conditions the regulator had set to show that the shot was generating an immune response.

However, they said in the document that licensure for the boosters should also consider ability to prevent hospitalization and death, as well as the dynamics of the pandemic in the United States.

The agency released the document on Wednesday for consideration by a committee of outside experts who will meet on Friday to decided whether to recommend if U.S regulators should approve the extra round of shots.

The FDA staff view reflects that of many scientists who have questioned whether the boosters are necessary broadly, even as President Joe Biden has pushed for the additional shots in the face of surging hospitalizations and deaths caused by the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus.

Biden set a Sept. 20 target to begin administering 100 million booster shots in the United States.

After the FDA meets, a panel of advisors to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is planning to meet next week to make its recommendation, according to White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki.

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PFIZER ARGUES BOOSTER APPROVAL

Pfizer, in a document it prepared for the meeting, argued that U.S. regulators should approve a booster shot of its vaccine for use six months after the second dose due to waning effectiveness over time.

Pfizer said data from its own clinical trials showed that the vaccine's efficacy diminished by around 6% every two months after the second dose. It also said the incidence of breakthrough COVID-19 cases in that trial was higher among people who received their shots earlier.

The company also pointed to real world data from Israel and the United States showing declining effectiveness of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.

The U.S drugmaker said in a roughly 300-participant clinical trial, the third dose generated a better immune response than the second. It also pointed to data from the booster program recently started in Israel to show that a third dose restores high levels of protection from the virus.

Earlier this week, two top FDA vaccine scientists were among the authors of an article https://www.reuters.com/world/us/covid-19-vaccine-boosters-not-widely-needed-top-fda-who-scientists-say-2021-09-13 saying they do not believe the current data supports giving the shots. One of those scientists - Marion Gruber, director of the FDA's Office of Vaccines Research and Review - will be speaking at Friday's meeting.

Some U.S. officials are hoping boosters https://www.usnews.com/news/top-news/articles/2021-09-15/analysis-us-looks-to-covid-19-boosters-to-curb-virus-spread might prevent mild cases and reduce transmission of the virus as well as reducing COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths, which could hasten America's recovery.

Some countries have already begun COVID-19 booster campaigns. The United States authorized extra shots for people with vulnerable immune systems last month.

(Reporting by Michael Erman, Additional reporting from Manojna Maddipatla in Bengaluru; Editing by Nick Zieminski, Chizu Nomiyama and Bill Berkrot)
Police in Northern Ireland on Wednesday said they had arrested four men under the Terrorism Act in connection with the killing of journalist Lyra McKee.

The men, aged 19, 20, 21 and 33, were detained early Wednesday in Londonderry, in the northwest of the British province, where McKee was killed in April 2019.

They were taken to a police station in Belfast, where they will be questioned later, the Police Service of Northern Ireland said.

"These arrests are the culmination of a detailed two-year investigation into Lyra's murder and the events which preceded it," said Detective Superintendent Jason Murphy.

McKee, 29, was shot in the head while standing near a police vehicle as dissident pro-Ireland republicans clashed with officers in the Creggan area of Londonderry.

Londonderry is known as Derry to republicans, who want an end to British sovereignty in the province in favour of union with the Irish Republic.

Dissident republican group the New IRA took responsibility for the killing and offered its "full and sincere apologies" to her loved ones, saying she was "tragically killed while standing beside enemy forces".

Her death provoked a widespread outcry across Northern Ireland and led to calls for politicians to agree to restore the province's then-suspended power-sharing institutions.

Wednesday's development comes after several previous arrests in the case.

Investigators in February charged Paul McIntyre, 52, with murder.

Police have also confirmed that a gun recovered during searches in Londonderry was the weapon that had been used to kill McKee.

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Associated Press

Four people whose bodies were found in an abandoned SUV in western Wisconsin were killed in St. Paul, Minnesota, where three of the victims lived, police said Monday. Investigators with the Saint Paul Police Departments homicide unit said in a statement that they would be assuming the lead role in the investigation into the deaths of Matthew Pettus, 26, and half-sister Jasmine Sturm, 30, and Sturms boyfriend, 35-year-old Loyace Foreman III, all of St. Paul; and 30-year-old Nitosha Flug-Presley, of Stillwater, Minnesota, a close friend of Sturm. The victims' bodies were found by a farmer in a cornfield on Sept. 12 just outside of the Town of Sheridan in Dunn County, roughly 60 miles (97 kilometers) east of St. Paul.
Polls have closed in the California recall election that will determine whether Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom is ousted from office.

To remain in office, Newsom will need to garner a majority vote. With more than 50 percent of the estimated vote in, the no vote  rejecting the governors removal  had an early lead. So far, tallies show more than 5.2 million votes in favor of Newsom remaining in office and 2.5 million in favor of recalling the Democrat.

If voters remove the governor, a recall competitor needs a plurality of the vote to win. Forty-six candidates are vying to replace Newsom, including dozens of Republican candidates. Olympian Caitlyn Jenner, former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer and Assemblyman Kevin Kiley have all stepped forward to challenge Newsom, though conservative radio host Larry Elder has emerged as a favorite among GOP voters.

There are also nine Democrats, ten independents, two Green Party members and one Libertarian on the ballot.

In California, a recall is triggered when a petition can gather a number of signatures that is equal to 12 percent of the total votes cast the last time the seat was open. For this recall effort, just under 1.5 million signatures were needed. The recall movement amassed more than 1.6 million verified signatures.

Californians have been voting early for weeks; it is unclear how soon results can be expected. Election experts say it will depend on the number of early ballots and the amount of in-person voting on Tuesday.

Results could come within hours of polls closing at 8 p.m. Pacific time. However, if the race is tighter than expected, the count could last weeks.

Nearly 40 percent of registered voters had already cast ballots before Tuesdays election, with Democratic ballots outnumbering Republican ballots two to one. Yet Republicans are expected to overwhelmingly vote in-person, rather than by mail.

Officials have 30 days to complete their official canvass and must give vote-by-mail ballots postmarked on election day one week to arrive, according to the New York Times. The certified count is not expected to come until October 22 as each of Californias 58 counties work to process ballots.

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If polls are to be believed, Newsom is likely to remain in office: recent polling shows that 57.3 percent of likely voters would vote to keep Newsom in office while 41.5 percent would vote to remove him, according to FiveThirtyEight.

Additionally, the state is dominated by Democrats, with the party in control of the state legislature and every statewide office.

Still, despite the fact that Newsom was elected in a landslide three years ago, Californians have grown frustrated with the governor over his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the states homelessness and drug epidemics and exorbitant cost of living.

Early exit polling conducted by Edison Research on behalf of the National Election Pool showed that one-third of voters believe COVID-19 remains the biggest issue for the state, while one-fifth of respondents said homelessness, one in six said the economy and wildfires, respectively, and just under one-tenth saying crime.

Additionally, the polling showed 45 percent of the electorate believes Newsoms COVID-19 policies have been reasonable, while roughly one-third said the policies were too strict and the remainder said they were not strict enough.

Californians were nearly evenly split on the state of Californias economy, with roughly half saying it is good or excellent and the remainder calling it not-so-good or poor. Six in ten voters said the costs of living in the state are at least somewhat unmanageable.

Newsoms team remained confident on Tuesday evening before polls closed, with advisers telling CNN they had not seen a surge in GOP turnout that would be able to overcome their early vote lead.

Still, one adviser told CNN even though the Election Day vote does not appear to be on fire, it is somewhat too early to say definitively. A senior aide to Elder told the outlet the Republicans team believes the Election Day turnout was strong and that modeling is off because the state has not had a recall election in 18 years.

The aide predicted Elder would receive strong support from independents.

If voters choose to recall Newsom, it would mark only the second time Californians have removed a governor in state history: Democrat Gray Davis was recalled in 2003 and replaced by Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Meanwhile, Elder would be the first black governor of California if elected.

More from National Review
Pope Francis on Wednesday spoke out against "denier" cardinals who refused the coronavirus vaccine, in an apparent swipe at his main opponent who recently contracted Covid-19.

"In the College of Cardinals, there are a few deniers. One of them, the poor man, contracted the virus," the pontiff told reporters as he flew home from a trip to Slovakia.

The 84-year-old did not name the man he was referring to, but conservative US Cardinal Raymond Burke, one of Francis' fiercest and most vocal critics in the Catholic Church, was recently admitted to hospital in the United States with Covid-19.

The pope said that in the heart of the Vatican, "everyone is vaccinated, with the exception of a small group".

"We are studying how to help them," he said during a press conference onboard the papal plane.

The pope is a strong advocate of coronavirus vaccines and has previously expressed his incomprehension with those who refuse to take it.

"It's a bit strange because humanity has a history of friendship with vaccines," Francis said, highlighting the jabs that have for decades protected children against measles or polio.

"We should clarify things and speak calmly," he advised, while also conceding that the debates over the different anti-coronavirus vaccines could create uncertainty or fear.

The pope made a brief stopover in Budapest on Sunday before visiting Slovakia, and held a private meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

He is at odds with the populist leader's hardline stance on migration, but said Wednesday they did not discuss the issue.

Hungarian President Janos Ader did most of the talking during the three-way meeting, the pope said, and they focused on ecology as well as Hungary's support for couples hoping to have children.

For his part, Orban -- who has claimed Europe is threatened by a Muslim "invasion" -- said on Facebook that he had asked the pope in their meeting "not to let Christian Hungary perish".

During his press conference, the pope repeated his call for Europe to return to the principles of solidarity on which it was founded, warning of "the danger that it has become just a managerial office. And that is not good."

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BERLIN (Reuters) - Pope Francis has rejected the resignation of the Archbishop of Hamburg who had offered to step down after a report named him among several senior officials in Germany's Catholic Church to have breached their duty in handling sexual abuse cases.

In a statement, the Vatican said it had thoroughly examined documents relating to the archbishop, Stefan Hesse, formerly head of personnel and administration at the Cologne archdiocese.

While it had identified deficiencies in the organisation of his office and personal procedural errors, it had not found any intention to cover up abuse, the Vatican said in a statement posted on the German Bishops' Conference website.

"The basic problem, in the larger context of the administration of the archdiocese, was the lack of attention and sensitivity towards victims of abuse," it said.

The archbishop offered to resign in March after the publication of an 800-page report into the handling of abuse cases in the archdiocese of Cologne which found more than 200 abusers and more than 300 victims between 1975 and 2018.

"In view of the fact that the Archbishop recognises mistakes he made in the past with humility and offered his resignation, the Holy Father has ... decided not to accept the resignation," said the Vatican.

Bishops have said that a row over the report into abuse in the Cologne archdiocese, which has the largest membership of any diocese in the German-speaking world, is damaging the Catholic Church across the country.

(Reporting by Madeline Chambers, Editing by William Maclean)
Private security pepper sprayed students who had gathered Monday night to protest outside Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house after one of the fraternitys members was accused of sexually assaulting another student there over the weekend, according to the Lawrence Police Department.

Police said they arrived to the scene of the protest and encountered several hundred students outside of the fraternity house.

Video of the protest on social media showed the waving signs and chanting We believe her.

Patrick Compton, a spokesman for the Lawrence Police Department in an email, that the department had been made aware of posts on social media saying individuals were pepper sprayed during the protest. The Lawrence Police, however, he said, did not use pepper spray on any of the students. That was done by private the security that was present.

No arrests were made, and no injuries were reported.

The Lawrence Police, Douglas County Sheriffs Office and KU Public Safety maintained a presence throughout the protest, Compton said.

Students on campus were planning for a second night of protests on Tuesday.

Still few details about the assault were clear Tuesday, but the assault was reported by fraternity officials over the weekend. Students believe the victim may have been drugged and raped during a house party there.

University officials said that fraternity leaders have been fully cooperating with the schools investigation.

The university takes seriously all reports of sexual assault and is unwaveringly committed to the health and safety of our students, KU Chancellor Douglas Girod said in a statement. In accordance with federal law, KU has robust processes to investigate reported instances of sexual assault and to hold accountable those individuals and organizations that are in violation of KU policies.

Compton said that Lawrence Police did receive a report of a possible sex crime occurring in Lawrence over the weekend and the incident was reported to be near campus. The department, however, said it does not talk publicly about specific sexual assault investigations.

A petition to ban the fraternity has been circulating throughout the day Tuesday and has recorded at least 13,000 signatures as of Tuesday afternoon. The creator of the petition on Change.org is listed as anonymous.

The Stars Anna Spoerre and Bill Lukitsch contributed to this report.
A state lawmaker wants to give New Jerseyans who lost a vehicle due to Tropical Storm Ida a break on their taxes.

Assembly Republican Leader Jon Bramnick, R-Union, proposed giving a sales tax break to anyone buying a vehicle to replace one totaled by Tropical Storm Idas flooding.

Many people lost their means of transportation due to flooding from Hurricane Ida, Bramnick said in a news release. Replacing their car is already expensive, the least the state could do is waive the sales tax for the replacement of their vehicle.

A spokesperson for Bramnick did not immediately respond to a request for how much the state might forego in tax revenue or how car buyers would verify they lost their vehicle in the storm. A spokesperson for the state Treasury department did not immediately return a call seeking clarification on revenue numbers.

Currently, there is a shortage of cars nationally due to a chip shortage that has resulted in slower production.

According to J.D. Power and LMC Automotive, the average price of a new car was $41,044 in July. That is 17% higher than it was in July 2020.

New Jerseyans pay a 6.625% state sales tax rate in motor vehicles in the state. Based on the J.D. Power numbers, that equates to roughly $2,719.17 in state sales tax per new vehicle, but that does not consider the many possible variables.

Additionally, it is not immediately clear how many vehicles were totaled in New Jersey because of Ida.

On Monday, state officials revised the tally to 30 the number of New Jerseyans killed during the storm.

I am deeply saddened to report one additional fatality, bringing our total to 30 New Jerseyans who have lost their lives to this storm, Gov. Phil Murphy said in a statement. Our thoughts and prayers are with every family and community mourning a loved one and of those who remain missing.

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Original Author: Todd DeFeo, The Center Square contributor

Original Location: Proposal would give tax break to New Jersey residents who lost vehicle to Tropical Storm Ida
The Daily Beast

Andrew Boyers via ReutersThe family of a British teenager who was killed when a U.S. spy hit him while driving on the wrong side of the road in 2019 has agreed to an out of court settlement. A spokesperson for the family of Harry Dunn, who was 19 when he died, confirmed to The Daily Beast that there was a resolution in the civil case brought in the U.S. Dunn was struck by Anne Sacoolas, 44, who was living and working at the Royal Air Force base in Croughton, which is a known base for American
General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images

Milley reportedly sought to assure China that the US would not start a war with them following Trump's defeat.

Joining former President Trump, some Republican members of Congress accused the top general of treason.

A spokesman for Milley confirmed the calls, arguing that they were in keeping with his duties to "maintain strategic stability."

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Following new reports that Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley called his Chinese counterpart twice to assure him that the US would not start a new war with their country, some congressional Republicans are joining former President Donald Trump in accusing Milley of treason, while others are calling for his firing, resignation, or even for the top general to be court-martialled.

According to "Peril," a forthcoming book by Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, Milley called his counterpart Gen. Li Zuocheng on both October 30 and January 8, reportedly telling him in one call: "If we're going to attack, I'm going to call you ahead of time. It's not going to be a surprise."

A spokesman for Milley confirmed the calls on Wednesday, arguing that they were in keeping with his duties to "maintain strategic stability."

But Republicans said these reports show Milley had overstepped his authority as the top military advisor, and possibly even offered a tip-off to a top US adversary.

"The Chairman of the JCOS working to subvert the military chain of command and collude with China is exactly what we do not accept from military leaders in our country," wrote Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky on Twitter. "He should be court martialed if true."

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A court-martial is a trial conducted in a military court of paneled by the accused's peers for violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, in contrast with a civil court, which all Americans are otherwise subject to. The accused can be convicted by only two-thirds of panel's members, which in a civil trial would prompt a hung jury.

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Paul was echoed by far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who simply tweeted, "Court-martial Mark Milley."

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Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida simply called for the top general to be fired, writing in a letter to the White House arguing that Milley had set a "dangerous precedent" through his actions and had "contemplated a treasonous leak of classified information to the Chinese Communist Party."

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While other GOP senators such as Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming and Roger Marshall of Kansas have also called for Milley's firing, most GOP senators appear not to have commented on the matter yet.

On the House side, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida called for Milley's ouster, suggesting on Newsmax that Milley had "broken some very good laws.

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Meanwhile, several other congressional Republicans called for Milley to be either fired or to resign, including Reps. Chris Stewart of Utah, Dan Bishop of North Carolina, and Doug Lamborn of Colorado.

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Other Republicans went even further, accusing Milley of treason. Rep. Jody Hice of Georgia falsely claimed Milley "conspired with a foreign power in a coup d'etat," while Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona said that the general "should go down in history as a traitor to the American people." And Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida released a statement saying Milley's actions were "next to treasonist," apparently misspelling "treasonous."

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Congressional Republicans aren't the only ones calling for Milley's removal. Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a key witness in Trump's first impeachment and a long-time critic of the former President, said that Milley "usurped civilian authority, broke Chain of Command, and violated the sacrosanct principle of civilian control over the military.

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This Feb. 23, 2014 file photo shows one of the properties that was interconnected by tunnels in the drainage system which the infamous drug kingpin Joaquin Guzman Loera known as "El Chapo" used to evade authorities through an escape hatch in Culiacan, Mexico. Adriana Gomez/AP Photo

Mexico is gifting El Chapo's former safe house as a lottery prize, the Associated Press reported.

Authorities tried to auction off the Culiacan home last year but there were no takers.

Mexican marines raided the home in 2014; El Chapo escaped through tunnels, but was caught in 2016.

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A safe house once used by Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman is now being given away in Mexico's national lottery, the Associated Press reported.

In February 2014, Guzman, then the head of the Sinaloa cartel was said to be hiding in a house in Culiacan, Mexico, but fled through back tunnels and canals as authorities hunted for him. He was caught a few days later in nearby Mazatlan.

That Culiacan house has since been renovated after Mexican marines rammed through its doors in their effort to catch the drug lord. The AP reported surveillance cameras that could see everything around the perimeter of the home were removed, and the hole under a bathtub that connected to underground tunnels was covered up.

Mexico's Institute to Return Stolen Goods to the People, known as INDEP, did not make any mention that the home was El Chapo's safe house. The house is only listed as "Casa en Culiacan," or Culiacan house on its website.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who revealed the prizes in June also did not give a lot of details on the house's history.

Speaking about the home's features, Obrador said it had a black fence and was seven minutes from a park but made no mention of the infamous drug lord.

Drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman escaped his captors by walking along this drainage canal and tunnel behind a house in Culiacan, Mexico, in February 2014. Tim Johnson/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

Last year, the INDEP tried to auction the house with bidding starting at around $130,000 but there were no takers, the AP reported.

The two-bedroom home had been abandoned for years and is estimated to be worth $183,000.

Guzman had a history of escaping authorities. He was imprisoned in Puente Grande, a maximum-security facility outside of the city of Guadalajara in 1995 for a 1993 shootout at the Guadalajara airport. In January 2001, he escaped in a laundry cart, after the Mexican Supreme Court ruled he could be extradited to the US.

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He remained at large for 13 years, until he was caught again in 2014. He then again escaped from a Mexican prison on July 11, 2015. This time, he slipped through a hole in his cell that was in a blind spot from the security camera. The hole led to an underground tunnel that cost him an estimated $50 million in construction and bribes.

El Chapo was caught in January 2016 in the city of Los Mochis. In January 2017, he was extradited to the US and by July 2019 he was tried and sentenced to life in prison.

Lottery tickets cost about $12.50 and the winner will be drawn on September 15, the day before Mexico's Independence Day.

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Associated Press

A pilot has been arrested in connection with brutal attacks on women in Southern California where he allegedly choked them into unconsciousness and assaulted them in bushes off of a running trail, prosecutors announced Monday. Prosecutors said he raped one victim and tried to sexually assault the other two women in Aliso Viejo, a city about 50 miles (81 kilometers) south of Los Angeles. Officials believe there may be other victims in the U.S. and abroad because of his job as an international commercial cargo pilot, Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes said Monday during a news briefing to announce the arrest.
This undated photo provided by Alan Cressler shows a Missouri cave featuring artwork from the Osage Nation more than 1,000 years old (AP)

A secret buyer paid $2.2m for a cave featuring ancient Native American artwork at an auction on Tuesday, outbidding the tribe that wanted to preserve the sacred site.

Osage Nation, the American Indian tribe whose ancestral domain included much of Oklahoma, said in a statement that the sale was truly heartbreaking.

Our ancestors lived in this area for 1,300 years, the statement read. This was our land. We have hundreds of thousands of our ancestors buried throughout Missouri and Illinois, including Picture Cave.

The bidder, who sought anonymity, bought the Picture Cave along with 43 acres of hilly property surrounding it near the town of Warrenton in Missouri, said Bryan Laughlin, the director of Selkirk Auctioneers & Appraisers.

Carol Diaz-Granados and her husband James Duncan, who spent 20 years researching the cave and wrote a book about it, also opposed the auction.

Auctioning off a sacred American Indian site truly sends the wrong message, Ms Diaz-Granados, a research associate at Washington University in St Louis said. Its like auctioning off the Sistine Chapel.

The cave features artwork dating back to more than 1,000 years (AP)

The caves were mainly used for hunting by a St Louis family that owned the land since 1953.

The caves have the largest collection of Indigenous peoples polychrome paintings in Missouri with more than 290 prehistoric glyphs, or hieroglyphic symbols used to represent sounds or meanings. The cave was the site of sacred rituals and burials, according to the auction website.

The cave also featured drawings of people, animals, birds and mythical creatures.

Ms Diaz-Granados said charred botanical material was used to create the drawings. You get stick figures in other rock art sites, or maybe one little feather on the top of the head, or a figure holding a weapon, she said. But in Picture Cave, you get actual clothing details, headdress details, feathers, weapons. Its truly amazing.

The pigment samples from the artwork were found to be at least 1,000 years old by analytical chemists from Texas A&M.

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But the caves history is even older, dating back to the 1700s, when European explorers visited the site, according to Mr Laughlin. The cave reportedly has the names of ships captains and crew members on the walls.

Though concerns were being raised over the protection and preservation of the site, Mr Laughlin said he believed that the cave would be respected as before because his firm had vetted the buyers.

He also referred to local laws. According to Missouri Revised Statute 194.410, any person or entity that knowingly disturbs, destroys, vandalises, or damages a marked or unmarked human burial site commits a class D felony. The statute also makes it a felony to profit from cultural items obtained from the site.

He added that it was difficult to reach the site, which will further help protect the cave. "You cant take a vehicle and just drive up to the cave, Mr Laughlin said. You have to actually trek through the woods to higher ground and go through a 3-foot-by-3-foot opening thats secured by the Missouri Historical Society with steel bars.

Ms Diaz-Granados, however, is still hoping that the new owner donates the cave to Osage Nation. Thats their cave, she said. Thats their sacred shrine, and it should go back to them.
Afghans left behind after the U.S. military withdrew wear their country's changes.

They show up in the bruises left from a beating or the garb required for women who had adopted more modern dress but now must cover their bodies to comply with the Taliban.

It has been only one month since the Taliban, on Aug. 15, retook Kabul without firing a single shot. Now the regime is back in power after a two-decade war that ended when the last U.S. flight left the airport in Kabul on Aug. 31.

You can see the changes, a woman who remains in Afghanistan told USA TODAY.

After making early promises about a more inclusive government, the Taliban have returned in some ways to the brutal regime that ruled the country before the American invasion in 2001.

Journalists have suffered beatings. The outgoing government's ambassador to the United Nations has raised concerns about human rights violations in the last province where the Taliban are trying to win control.

Afghan women walk past a closed beauty salon in Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, Sept. 11, 2021. Since the Taliban gained control of Kabul, several images depicting women outside beauty salons have been removed or covered up.

As the international community rallies aid for Afghanistan, Afghans find themselves living in a country that has already radically changed and probably will change even further.

What we are seeing is totally different from what they are saying," the woman said of the Taliban.

Her changing country shows up in the mirror before she leaves for a trip to the grocery store. After years of wearing suits with light jackets, a pop of color in a blouse and a headscarf draped over her shoulders and under her chin, she now dons a borrowed black garment that covers all but her face.

Even that, though, was too much, she said. A Taliban fighter flashed a gun, she said, when he told her that only her eyes could be visible.

If you dont follow what they are saying, they start beating, she said. USA TODAY is not identifying the woman and others who remain in Afghanistan because of concerns for their safety.

Girls walk upstairs as they enter a school before class in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Sept. 12, 2021.

A country in crisis

Life in communities that recently came under Taliban rule has been quickly and sharply upended as the extremist group reimposes strict conventions on the population. The immediate fallout of the Taliban's return to power has been a collapse of government and economic stability that threatens to plunge the country into free fall.

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Many of the social and economic gains cities like the capital, Kabul, saw over the past two decades have eroded in weeks. The country faces an economic crisis that threatens widespread famine and social collapse should it not be remedied.

Much of the landlocked country's economy depends on imports. Foreign aid accounts for about 40% of the economy.

A United Nations report found that Afghanistan, where already nearly two-thirds of people live in poverty, is on the verge of universal impoverishment and economic collapse in the coming year. The study predicts the country's economy will shrink 3.6% to 13.2% over the next fiscal year.

The U.N. said Monday that it has raised more than $1.2 billion to help 11 million Afghans as famine threatens to grip the country.

The new Taliban government is unable to access about $9 billion in frozen foreign currency reserves while international support from the U.S. and groups like the International Monetary Fund and World Bank has halted.

September 12, 2021: Afghans wait in front of a bank as they try to withdraw money in Kabul, Afghanistan.

In the meantime, many Afghans are forced to wait days in line at banks to access accounts and are limited in how much cash they can withdraw.

Prices have continued rising, even amid the scarcity of cash. Afghans who spoke to USA TODAY said grocery prices have doubled and medicine is difficult to find.

The combination of rising prices and the inability to obtain money has made it challenging to meet even the most basic needs.

The woman who remains in Afghanistan said the Taliban have prevented women from working. Afghans are selling their possessions  rugs, curtains and dishes  at deep discounts to scrape together money to buy food, she said.

This is like simply a jail, a jail with big square meters, but there is no one coming in and nobody coming out, an Afghan man who remains in the country told USA TODAY.

Familiar faces take control of Kabul

Since U.S. and allied forces withdrew from the country, the fundamentalist group has established an interim government headed by a Cabinet stacked with hard-line ministers. Many of the new leaders are veterans of the Taliban's last government in the 1990s and early 2000s.

All the ministers are men, the overwhelming majority are from the dominant Pashtun ethnic group, and at least one, interior minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, is on the FBI's Most Wanted list for a bounty of $5 million.

Taliban fighters escort veiled women marching during a pro-Taliban rally outside the Shaheed Rabbani Education University in Kabul on September 11, 2021.

Though Taliban spokesmen swear the appointments are temporary, the group's exclusion of women and ethnic and religious minorities, including the country's sizeable Shiite Muslim population, already has alarmed the international community.

The Taliban leadership also is poised to announce that its top religious leader, Haibatullah Akhundzada, will head the new government, a spokesman for the group wrote on Twitter.

Akhundzada, a cleric who has presided over the group's brutal tactics for years, further alarms foreign governments hoping the group would chart a different course as it came to power.

Human rights abuses under Taliban rule

Taliban fighters are now going door to door in cities across the country, hunting Afghans who aided American and coalition forces, multiple sources told USA TODAY.

They will be judging them on the spot, said Samim Rahman Rahmani, an interpreter who evacuated Afghanistan. Thats why I am worried about my friends that they left behind in Afghanistan with their families.

Veiled women hold banners and placards while marching during a pro-Taliban rally outside the Shaheed Rabbani Education University in Kabul on September 11, 2021.

Rahmani said he and his family are in Germany waiting for flights to the U.S. to resume after a measles outbreak, but he remains in contact with people in Afghanistan. They often change locations to evade the Taliban, he said.

Several Afghans told USA TODAY that even if they initially can conceal their identity, they fear being identified as having worked for American interests.

One Afghan man said he goes out only at night after being beaten with a stick by a Taliban fighter, and he moves his family to avoid staying in one place too long. They wear coverings to avoid detection.

I couldnt go to work and cant find a job because Im not in one place, he told USA TODAY.

The worsening situation has caused backlash to Taliban rule in cities across the country.

On Tuesday, thousands took to the streets in Kandahar, Afghanistan's second-largest city, after the Taliban began evictions in an area that is largely occupied by the families of retired army generals and other members of the Afghan security forces, according to Reuters.

September 12, 2021: Laborers wait in the street to be hired, in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Afghan media's bleak future

Independent media in the country have been targeted for reporting on the unrest, including major anti-Taliban protests across the country.

Tolo News, the countrys first 24/7 channel, known for its hard-hitting reporting, has come under harassment from the Taliban for its early coverage of the incoming government. A cameraman covering protests in Kabul for the station was detained for three hours before being released, according to The Associated Press, and reporters elsewhere have been harassed by Taliban fighters.

Though the Taliban's promises to preserve an open media environment already have proven false, some within the group see an opportunity in using Tolo and other coerced media as a way to manage their image domestically and abroad, according to a Financial Times report.

Afghan journalists Neamatullah Naqdi, 28, and Taqi Daryabi, 22, pose for a portrait at Etilaat Roz daily office in Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, Sept. 10, 2021. The Afghan reporters were detained and beaten by Taliban forces after covering a women's protest in Kabul. The U.N. human rights office said incidents of Taliban violence against protesters and journalists is increasing.

The effort to curb critical media is part of a larger strategy of brand management from the Taliban, who are determined to present a better face to the world than was evident during their past reign.

Taliban-supporting women waving banners reading the women who left dont represent us" accompanied by cheerful television newscasts announcing the group's edicts reflect a bid for domestic support and a play to reassure foreign audiences that the situation on the ground is not dire.

Independent journalists in the country were not convinced.

In a column for USA TODAY, Afghan journalist Fatema Hosseini recounted how the Taliban brutalized and tortured her colleagues for reporting on their activities.

Hosseini, who recently fled, recounted how Taliban fighters blamed journalists reporting on protests for inciting backlash. Others have received separate death threats and been tortured for their coverage.

"Journalists in Afghanistan know they can't hide what is happening, to them or their country. If they hide it, the Taliban will get more opportunities to abuse them. But spreading the news is also a huge risk of these people's lives. Next time, if the Taliban see any of my five colleagues, they might be killed," Hosseini wrote.

"The Taliban are already killing people and torturing them. It's so easy for them. It's just a matter of giving an order to them."

New restrictions for women

Life under the new Taliban rule has been especially changed for women. In Kabul, which was a dynamic and diverse metropolis only this summer, women are again required to have male escorts in public.

The Taliban have reimposed gender divisions elsewhere in public life, especially in education, where many women fear they will be barred from attending any form of education and relegated to a reclusive life once more.

Afghan women who spoke to USA TODAY expressed fear about the new reality.

Asila Wardak, a womens rights activist in Afghanistan who is involved with Every Woman Treaty, said fear and panic have spread.

At checkpoints outside Kabul, women generally pass without search or acknowledgement, she said, but men who appear out of the ordinary are stopped. The countrys land borders continue to draw crowds of people trying to leave, she said.

Like other women, Wardak said she has started wearing a larger scarf to comply with the Taliban.

For me personally, I cannot go to work. I dont go to public places. I dont visit any friends. I avoid crowded places, she said.

Sept. 4, 2021: Taliban fighters stand guard at a market in Kabul, Afghanistan.

She now leaves her home only to shop for food and wonders if she will ever return to her job as a professional diplomat. She survived for several days eating boiled chickpeas to avoid going out. While she has maintained a presence on social media, Wardak said activism has become more dangerous.

"We had the right to go to work. We had the right to speak up. We had the right to go alone on the streets. We had the right to wear whatever we want. We had the right to enjoy. We had enjoyment. We had good times," another woman who remains in Afghanistan told USA TODAY. "There is no hope anymore."

Follow Rick Rouan and Matthew Brown online.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Afghanistan: One month after fall of Kabul, Taliban harden their rule
SEOUL, South Korea (AP)  The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Wednesday criticized South Korea's president and threatened a complete destruction of bilateral relations after both countries tested ballistic missiles hours apart.

The launches of missiles underscored a return of tensions between the rivals at a time when talks aimed at stripping North Korea of its nuclear program are stalled.

Kim's sister, Kim Yo Jong, criticized South Korean President Moon Jae-in for comments he made while observing his country's missile tests, including its first of a submarine-launched ballistic missile. Moon said South Koreas growing missile capabilities will serve as a sure deterrence against North Korean provocations.

The tests came hours after the South Korean and Japanese militaries said North Korea had fired two ballistic missiles into the sea.

In a statement carried by state media, Kim berated Moon for describing North Korean weapons demonstrations as a provocation, and warned of a complete destruction of bilateral relations if he continues with what she described as slander of North Korea.

She said North Korea is developing its military capabilities for self-defense without targeting a specific country, and that South Korea is also increasing its military capabilities. North Korea has often accused the South of hypocrisy for introducing modern weapons while calling for talks on easing tensions between the divided countries.

If the president joins in the slander and detraction (against us), this will be followed by counter actions, and the North-South relations will be pushed toward a complete destruction," she said. "We do not want that.

The South Korean and Japanese militaries said the two short-range ballistic missiles fired by North Korea flew 800 kilometers (500 miles) before landing in the sea inside Japans exclusive economic zone  a worrying development even though they did not reach Japanese territorial waters. The last time a North Korean missile landed inside that zone was in October 2019.

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The launches came two days after North Korea said it fired a newly developed cruise missile, its first known missile test in six months.

Hours after the latest North Korean launches, South Korea reported its first test of a submarine-launched ballistic missile. As Moon and other top officials looked on, the missile flew from a submarine and hit a designated target, Moon's office said. It did not say how far the weapon flew.

The U.N. Security Council scheduled emergency consultations on the North Korean missile launches late Wednesday afternoon at the request of France and Estonia, diplomats said.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric expressed concern at the missile launches, reiterating that diplomatic engagement remains the only pathway to sustainable peace and complete, verifiable denuclearization of the Korean peninsula."

Experts say North Korea is building up its weapons systems to apply pressure on the United States in the hopes of winning relief from economic sanctions aimed at forcing the North to abandon its nuclear arsenal. U.S.-led talks on the issue have been stalled for more than two years.

North Korea is trying to communicate a message that things will not go as Washington wishes, if it doesnt accept the Norths demands, said Moon Seong Mook, an analyst with the Seoul-based Korea Research Institute for National Strategy. He said North Korea may think it has an opportunity now to win concessions from U.S. President Joe Biden's administration while it is embroiled in a domestic debate following the chaotic pullout from Afghanistan.

Observers say Moon's government, which has been actively pursuing reconciliation with North Korea, may have taken action to appear tougher in response to criticism that its too soft on the North.

The rival nations are still technically in a state of war since the 1950-53 Korean War, which pitted the North and ally China against the South and U.S.-led U.N. forces, ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said the launches threaten the peace and safety of Japan and the region and are absolutely outrageous.

The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said the North Korean test highlights the destabilizing impact of (North Koreas) illicit weapons program though it said it didnt pose an immediate threat to the U.S.

The North Korean launches represent a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions that bar North Korea from engaging in any ballistic missile activity. But the council typically doesnt impose new sanctions when the North launches short-range missiles, like Wednesdays.

Wednesdays tests came as Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was in Seoul for meetings with Moon and other senior officials to discuss North Korea and other issues.

Its unusual for North Korea to make provocative launches when China, its last major ally and biggest aid provider, is engaged in a major diplomatic event. But some experts say North Korea may have used the timing to draw extra attention.

Kim Dong-yub, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, said Wednesdays tests appeared to be of an improved version of a short-range missile it tested in March. He said the weapon is likely modeled on Russias Iskander missiles, which are designed to fly at relatively low altitudes, making them harder to be intercepted by missile defense systems.

The international community wants North Korea to abandon its nuclear program and has long used a combination of the threat of sanctions and the promise of economic help to try to influence the North. But negotiations have stalled since 2019, when then-U.S. President Donald Trumps administration rejected the Norths demand for major sanctions relief in exchange for dismantling an aging nuclear facility.

Kim Jong Uns government has so far rejected the Biden administrations overtures for dialogue, demanding that Washington abandon what it calls hostile policies first. But North Korea has maintained its self-imposed moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests, a sign that it may not want to completely scuttle the possibility of reopening the talks.

In 2017, North Korea claimed to have acquired the ability to strike the American mainland with nuclear weapons after conducting three intercontinental ballistic missile tests and its most powerful nuclear test. In recent years, it has also performed a series of underwater-launched missile tests in what experts say is a worrying development because such weapons are difficult to detect and would provide North Korea with retaliatory strike capability.

South Korea, which doesnt have nuclear weapons, is under the protection of the U.S. nuclear umbrella, which guarantees a devastating American response in the event of an attack on its ally. But South Korea has been accelerating efforts to build up its conventional arms, including developing more powerful missiles.

Experts say South Koreas military advancements are aimed at improving its capacity for preemptive strikes and destroying key North Korean facilities and bunkers.

Separate from the submarine-launched missile, South Korea also tested a missile from an aircraft.

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Associated Press writer Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.
Finance Minister Lawrence Wong speaking in Singapore's Parliament on 14 September 2021. (SCREENSHOT: Ministry of Communications and Information/YouTube)

SINGAPORE  Singapore has to be careful about the extent to which it is releasing labour data publicly, said Finance Minister Lawrence Wong on Tuesday night (15 September).

Speaking in Parliament, Wong referred to a call by the Workers Party (WP) chief Pritam Singh for the government to communicate much more about foreign employment than it is doing now, in order to repair the local and foreign divide in Singapore.

Wong and the Leader of the Opposition were speaking during the lengthy debate on the motion tabled by Wong on securing Singaporeans jobs and livelihood, and a separate motion by Progress Singapore Party's Non-Constituency Members of Parliament Leong Mun Wai and Hazel Poa on foreign talent policy.

The minister noted that people have asked for more labour data breakdown based on nationality and said that where possible, the government has released such data.

But is it such a good thing to let the whole world know our dependence on foreign workers and from which particular country? Really, do we want to let everyone know that? Wong asked.

He also referred to a comment by a WP member who said that hostile actors may exploit Singapores social faultlines to disrupt its society.

Indeed, we live in a dangerous world. So, should we not be careful about external parties that may hold us ransom by threatening to disrupt or terminate our labour flows, especially in certain key industries?" Wong added.

As such, there are broader considerations governing data release and information policy, according to Wong.

He acknowledged that while the government's communication is not perfect, it will always work to improve its communication strategy. There is already considerable data that is publicly available including information on labour markets, he said.

Data and transparency are a means to better governance but data is not always an unmitigated good, Wong said.

Referring to the Freedom of Information Act in the US as an example, Wong pointed out surveys have shown that the levels of trust in the superpower are low and nowhere near that in Singapore today.

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He added, "And this is America, but you can look at many other countries which have similar Freedom of Information provisions, and that has not helped to improve public trust, or public confidence in policies."

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Leong Mun Wai, PSP candidate for West Coast GRC, at a press conference on 14 July 2020. He was announced as one of the party's two picks to take up an NCMP post in in Parliament. (PHOTO: Dhany Osman / Yahoo News Singapore)

SINGAPORE  Progress Singapore Party's (PSP) Non-Constituency MPs Leong Mun Wai and Hazel Poa sparked a 13.5 hour debate on the Singapore-India Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA), free trade agreements (FTAs) and labour policies on Tuesday (14 September).

Their motion on foreign talent policy read: "That this Parliament calls upon the Government to take urgent and concrete action to address the widespread anxiety among Singaporeans on jobs and livelihoods caused by the foreign talent policy and the provisions on Movement of Natural Persons in some free trade agreements like the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement."

It was roundly voted down by both ruling People's Action Party and Workers' Party MPs.

Here's how and why CECA came to be the news this week.

The row over CECA

Signed in 2005, CECA is part of Singapores extensive network of 26 FTAs. It is the first comprehensive economic agreement between Singapore and a South Asian country. It is also Indias first comprehensive bilateral FTA with any country.

According to the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Singapore's FTAs account for over 90 per cent of the country's export of goods and over 85 per cent of services export. As for CECA, from 2005 to 2019, Singapore's trade in good and services with India rose by 80 per cent while the stock of Singapore's direct investment in India increased 50-fold. And in 2019, there were 97,000 locals employed by Singapore-based companies that invested in India.

In recent years, CECA has attracted criticisms that the FTA supposedly accords Indian nationals special immigration privileges and enables them to compete for jobs in Singapore.

However, the government has argued that CECA does not automatically grant employment passes (EPs) to Indian nationals, and that they must meet the employment pass criteria applicable to all foreigners in order to work here.

Leong has consistently spoken against CECA in Parliament. In an interview with Yahoo News Singapore in July, PSP founder Tan Cheng Bock said, "I think to a large extent he was also influenced by my opening remarks when I wanted to form the party (a few years ago) and said one of the areas that we should really look into is this review (of) CECA, on our employment of PMETs."

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Then in May, amid a number of racially motivated assault cases, which were condemned by both sides of the House, Minister for Home Affairs and Law K. Shanmugam issued a challenge to Leong to openly debate CECA.

"If anyone here believes that CECA is a problem, put it up for a motion debated openly, and let's hear whether Singaporeans benefit or lose from it," said Shanmugam.

"I'm looking at you, Mr Leong," he added. "I invite you to put up a motion to debate CECA. You know that most of what is said about CECA is false."

The next month, Leong accepted the challenge. In a Facebook post, the NCMP said his party believes Singapore is in need of rebalancing the interests of Singaporeans in relation to foreign PMETs in the job market. He noted the process could involve "the recouping of tens of thousands of jobs" from work pass holders through various measures.

While this would affect the number of PMETs in the Singapore workforce, it is a "necessary step" towards creating a "win-win situation for both Singaporeans and foreign nationals", Leong added.

"The first step in achieving this is obtaining prompt and complete information so as to promote transparency and to eliminate prejudices. All of which is in the spirit against xenophobia and racism," he said.

Ministerial statements

In July, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung and Manpower Minister Tan See Leng delivered separate Minister Statements on the issue.

Ong, a former trade negotiator, accused PSP of using FTAs and CECA as political scapegoats to discredit the government. He said the PSP has repeatedly alleged that CECA allows professionals from India a free hand to come and work in Singapore.

The minister said, "Nothing in the agreement implies Singapore must unconditionally let in professionals, managers and executives (PMEs) from India...Contrary to PSPs claim, our ability to impose requirements for immigration and work pass, has never been in question in CECA or any other FTA that we have signed."

Ong charged that, for months, the PSP has alleged that FTAs and CECA have led to the "unfettered inflow" of Indian professionals, displacing Singaporeans from their jobs, and bringing about all kinds of social ills.

"This is a seductively simplistic argument that workers facing challenges at their workplaces can identify with, and has stirred up a lot of emotions. CECA-themed websites have sprouted, filled with disturbing xenophobic views about Indian immigrants."

In the process, said Ong, "toxic views" turned into verbal and physical assaults on Indians, including Singapore citizens.

Meanwhile, Dr Tan revealed certain official manpower data for the first time, such as workers from India accounting for a quarter all EP holders in Singapore.

"The proportion of EP holders from India has increased from about one seventh in 2005 to about a quarter in 2020," said Dr Tan, who did not give specific numbers. According to the Ministry of Manpower website, there were some 177,100 EP holders in Singapore as of December 2020. This does not account for S-Pass or work permit holders, as well as holders of other work passes.

The minister noted that by comparison, the proportion of EP holders from China has remained relatively stable across the same time period. "Now, is this the result of more favourable treatment for Indian EP holders due to CECA? The answer is no," he said.

He stressed that there is no differentiation based on nationality: all work pass holders in Singapore have to meet the same criteria before they are allowed to enter the local labour market. "Rather, these numbers reflect trends in the global demand and supply of tech talent."

Dr Tan explained that for foreign policy reasons, Singapore does not publish detailed statistics on its foreign workforce, especially by nationality. However, the government had decided to reveal some figures in order to allay the damage from "misconceptions".

He added that the top nationalities that comprise around two thirds of EP holders, has been consistent since 2005: China, India, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, and the UK.

'Short-sighted' job proposals

On Tuesday, Leong gave proposals including increasing the qualifying salaries for EP and S-Pass holders to $10,000 and $4,500, respectively, in stages over the next three years, imposing a monthly levy of $1,200 on all EPs, and setting a 10 per cent single nationality cap in the workforce.

Dr Tan slammed Leong job proposals, saying that they would hurt the local workforce and Singapores attractiveness to investors. It becomes clear that Mr Leong's policy can only make the environment so hostile that very few foreign investors will consider Singapore to build any business, maybe no foreign investor will consider, he said.

Dr Tan, who is also Second Minister for Trade and Industry, criticised the PSP for continuing to equivocate about free trade agreements and workforce data, and claim that it does not have the relevant information.

He said that the Ministry of Manpower has been publishing workforce data regularly with a great degree of details. Among the official figures highlighted in the House, he added that over the past decade, while there was an increase of 110,000 EP and S-Pass holders, local PMETs increased by 300,000.

The number of PMET job vacancies across sectors has also been on an upward trend since 2010 and hovering around 30,000 over the past five years, Dr Tan said.

Many businesses and trade chambers have said that they are experiencing difficulties in finding enough local workers with the right skills, and this has hampered their expansion plans. Consequently, some business are giving up on Singapore and turning to hiring workers in their home country instead, said Dr Tan.

But he acknowledged that there is a minority of local PMETs who have lost jobs and the government has been focused on helping them to re-enter the workforce.

The PSPs attacks on FTAs and foreigners have an adverse effect on business sentiment here and overseas, Dr Tan said.

I worry that the PSP is calling for policies that are not only short-sighted but protectionist and this will do grave harm to Singaporeans.

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Related stories

Challenge accepted: PSP to pursue debate on CECA in Parliament

PSP has made FTAs, CECA 'political scapegoats' to discredit PAP: Ong Ye Kung

1/4 of Singapore's 177,100 employment pass holders from India: Tan See Leng

One year after GE2020: Key issues debated in Singapore's Parliament

Tan Cheng Bock: Sowing the seeds of PSP's future to challenge PAP

Tan See Leng slams PSP Leong Mun Wais 'short-sighted' job proposals
A South Carolina lawyer announced he is resigning from his law firm after being shot in the head. Jeffrey Collins/AP

The South Carolina State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) said this week that Alex Murdaugh hired a man to shoot him in the head earlier this month.

SLED said Murdaugh, who survived the botched shooting, hired the man so his living son could get a $10 million life insurance payout.

Murdaugh's wife and other son were shot and killed earlier this year and their murders are still unsolved.

Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Alex Murdaugh, the prominent South Carolina lawyer whose wife and son were shot to death in June, tried to arrange his own murder so his living son could get a $10 million life insurance payment, state police said in a report released on Tuesday.

The South Carolina State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) is now investigating Alex Murdaugh and has charged Curtis Edward Smith, the man accused of shooting Alex Murdaugh, with assisted suicide, insurance fraud, and other counts.

Alex Murdaugh, who resigned from his law firm and said he would check into rehab earlier this month, has not been charged.

Police say he was shot on September 4 in Hampton County, South Carolina, and taken to a nearby hospital with a superficial gunshot wound.

In a sworn statement seen by Insider, a SLED agent said Murdaugh gave Smith a gun to kill him, but the bullet only grazed his head.

State agents said Murdaugh admitted to police that he had tried to stage his own death and that he had hired Smith to kill him so his surviving son could collect a $10 million life insurance.

The deaths of Murdaugh's wife and son, 52-year-old Maggie Murdaugh and 22-year-old Paul Murdaugh, are still unsolved.

Alex Murdaugh discovered their bodies on the family's hunting property in June.

Their deaths were reported days before Paul Murdaugh was set to stand trial in the death of a 19-year-old woman, who was killed in 2019 in a boat crash during which Paul Murdaugh was driving and they were both intoxicated, police said.

Read the original article on Insider
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP)  A Sri Lankan minister in charge of prisons submitted his resignation on Wednesday following a public outcry after he allegedly threatened to kill two ethnic minority prisoners.

Lohan Ratwatte, state minister of Prison Management and Prisoners Rehabilitation, was accused of entering a prison in Anuradhapura north of Colombo on Sunday and threatening to kill two Tamil prisoners. He was also accused of forcibly entering another prison in Colombo with his friends.

Ratwatte tendered his resignation to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Wednesday and acknowledged his responsibility for both incidents, the presidents office said in a statement. Rajapaksa accepted his resignation, it said.

Tamil minority lawmaker Gajen Ponnambalam said Ratwatte summoned Tamil prisoners after going to the prison in Anuradhapura. He got two of them to kneel in front of him and pointed his personal firearm at them and threatened to kill them on the spot, Ponnambalam tweeted.

Ratwatte is a member of the Sinhalese ethnic majority.

Tamil lawmakers asked the government to sack the minster and arrest him.

Separately, local newspapers reported that a government minister forcibly entered the Welikada prison in Colombo to allow a group of friends to visit the gallows.

The newspapers did not identify the minister, but the presidents office said Ratwatte acknowledged responsibility for the incidents at both prisons.

It was not immediately possible to obtain a comment from Ratwatte.

Amnesty Internationals Asia-Pacific Director Yamini Mishra called for an inquiry on the incident, saying there must be a prompt, impartial and effective inquiry and the Minister must be held to account for his actions."

Sri Lankan prisons are highly congested, with more than 32,000 inmates crowded into facilities with a capacity of 11,000.

A dozen inmates were killed and 100 others injured last November during a riot by inmates at a prison on the outskirt of Colombo.

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Tamil rebels fought to create a separate state during a 26-year civil war but were defeated by government troops in 2009.

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This story has been corrected to show the minister is a state minister, not a Cabinet Minister.
Rose Ayling-Ellis is the first profoundly deaf contestant to take part in Strictly Come Dancing. (BBC)

EastEnders star Rose Ayling-Ellis has said that she hopes by competing in Strictly Come Dancing she can change perceptions of what deaf people can't do.

The 26-year-old actor - known for playing Frankie Lewis in the BBC soap - uses hearing aids and sign language to communicate and will be the first profoundly deaf contestant on the celebrity dancing show.

Ayling-Ellis told Yahoo UK: "I feel like I've got a purpose - because I am deaf and to be the first deaf person on Strictly, I feel like it will be a good chance to break the stereotypes of what deaf people can and can't do.

Read more: 'Strictly's Tom Fletcher says his kids cringe when he dances with wife Giovanna

"A lot of people think that [deaf] people can't hear the music, and enjoy the music and enjoy dancing. And I thought it would be a good platform for me to break that stereotype."

The actor explained to BBC News: "I have a hearing aid, so I pick up some of the music and I can hear the beat. I can hear someone singing, but I can't identify exact words. I also feel the vibrations."

The soap star said she enjoys listening to old music, including Stevie Wonder, Dolly Parton and Dusty Springfield.

She admitted she is hoping for a "caring" dance partner and explained she will be "counting inside my head" in order to keep time to the music.

Rose Ayling-Ellis plays Frankie Lewis in EastEnders. (BBC)

She said: "I'm looking for someone who can communicate well and is not scared to look at me in the face. And really push me to improve myself. And be really caring."

Ayling-Ellis said the deaf community had been hugely supportive of her since it had been announced she would be taking part in Strictly.

But she admitted she was really interested to learn the reaction from the hearing audience.

Ayling-Ellis explained: "The deaf community are very excited and very positive. But it will be interesting to see the reaction from a hearing audience.

"I just hope a lot of good will come out of it that will improve the deaf people's experience. And people's attitudes will change and the industry will become more inclusive."

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Rose Ayling-Ellis at the NTAs where she was nominated for best newcomer. (Getty Images)

Also taking part this year are McFly's Tom Fletcher BBC Breakfast star Dan Walker, Gordon Ramsay's daughter Tilly Ramsay, Olympic swimmer Adam Peaty, EastEnders star Nina Wadia and former Bake Off winner John Whaite.

Comedian Robert Webb, actor Greg Wise and Coronation Street star Katie McGlynn are also among the stars taking to the dancefloor in the hope of winning the coveted glitterball trophy.

Read more: Gordon Ramsay's daughter Tilly says he will be harshest critic of her 'Strictly' dancing

Judges Craig Revel Horwood, Motsi Mabuse and Shirley Ballas will be back, but Anton Du Beke will be filling in for Bruno Tonioli.

Strictly Come Dancing 2021 contestants Greg Wise, Katie McGlynn, Dan Walker, AJ Odudu, Rhys Stephenson, Tilly Ramsay, Tom Fletcher, Judi Love, Adam Peaty, Rose Ayling-Ellis, Robert Webb, John Waite, Nina Wadia, Ugo Monye, Sara Davies. (BBC)

Tonioli is unable to take part because of the complications of travelling between the UK and the US, where he judges Dancing With The Stars, amid the COVID pandemic.

Watch: Who is Rose Ayling-Ellis?
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - A Swedish court on Wednesday sentenced a 47-year-old man to three years in prison for spying for Russia, which involved selling secret information from truckmaker Scania.

The court said it had found the man guilty of acquiring and selling the secret information from the truckmaker to a Russian embassy official. The court acquitted the man of similar espionage charges at Geely-owned carmaker Volvo Cars.

"To be convicted of espionage, it is required that Sweden's security can be damaged if the information benefits foreign powers," the court said in a statement.

"The district court has ruled that this is the case with regard to the information that the man obtained from Scania, while it has not been proven that this is the case with regard to the information from Volvo."

The court statement said the man regularly received cash at his meetings with the Russian embassy official, which it considered was compensation for the information provided.

The man was apprehended whilst meeting the diplomat in a restaurant, having just received 27,800 Swedish crowns ($3,242).

The man, who has denied wrongdoing, worked as a consultant for Volvo Cars in 2016 and 2017 and for Scania in 2018 and 2019, until he was arrested.

The man's lawyer said he would appeal.

Scania is owned by truckmaker Traton.

($1 = 8.5748 Swedish crowns)

(Reporting by Anna Ringstrom, additional reporting by Helena Soderpalm. Editing by Jane Merriman)
BANGKOK (Reuters) - A court in Thailand granted bail on Wednesday to four leaders of an anti-government protest movement, their lawyer said, after more than a month in pre-trial detention over unrest at recent demonstrations against the prime minister.

The student-led rallies have gathered steam since late June, when the movement that sought army-backed premier Prayuth Chan-ocha's removal last year returned with broader support from other political groups and people angered by a worsening coronavirus crisis.

There are 767 people facing charges relating to protests since July, with 522 arrested so far, according to police, who have used tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets to break up https://reut.rs/3CaRlBm several of the recent demonstrations.

Panupong "Mike Rayong" Jadnok, Phromsorn "Fah" Weerathamjaree, Chartchai Kaedum and Nutchanon Pairoj were arrested after an Aug. 2 protest and the granting of their bail followed seven unsuccessful requests.

"The four will be release under the condition that they have to wear EM (electronic monitoring) ankle bracelets," Krisadang Nutcharat, one of their lawyers, told Reuters.

Another protest leader Parit "Penguin" Chiwarak was also given bail but was remanded in custody over charges related to protests last year, his lawyer said. Several other core leaders remain in detention awaiting trial.

(Reporting by Panu Wongcha-um and Panarat Thepgumpanat; Editing by Martin Petty)
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP)  Thousands of people gathered in El Salvador's capital Wednesday for the first mass march against President Nayib Bukele, who protesters say has concentrated too much power, weakened the independence of the courts and may seek re-election.

Some marchers are also protesting the controversial decision by Bukele's government to make the cryptocurrency Bitcoin legal tender in El Salvador, the first country to do so. Officials rolled out a digital wallet known as the Chivo one week ago, but the system has been down frequently for maintenance.

Some marchers wore T-shirts that read NO To Bitcoin. A few demonstrators vandalized the special ATM machines set up to handle Bitcoin transactions, but which have been inoperable anyway for much of the week. The cubicle housing one ATM machine was destroyed.

They say the vandalism was the work of infiltrators, but there has been vandalism in ALL their demonstrations," Bukele wrote in his Twitter account. And why weren't there any shouts of stop, or 'Don't do that?'

The populist president elected in 2019 has maintained high popularity with his vows to stamp out corruption that was rampant among the countrys traditional parties. But some Salvadorans say he is becoming a dictator and Wednesday's march was the first large protest against his government.

The time has come to defend democracy, said one of the protesters, former Supreme Court justice Sidney Blanco. This march is symbolic, it represents weariness with so many violations of the Constitution.

Bukele's New Ideas party won a congressional majority this year and immediately after taking its seats in the National Assembly in May, it replaced the five members of the Constitutional Chamber and the independent attorney general who had balked at several of Bukeles earlier actions.

Soon after, the Constitutional Chamber tossed aside what had long been interpreted as a constitutional ban on consecutive presidential reelection, setting the stage for Bukele to potentially seek a second term in 2024. Bukele has not so far announced plans to seek reelection, but critics assume he will.

Story continues

Milton Brizuela, leader of the country's medical association, said judicial independence is important to us.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken issued a statement congratulating Central American countries on their shared independence day Wednesday; the region won independence from Spain 200 years ago.

But Blinken warned that anti-democratic developments pose a growing threat to Central America's future, adding The United States stands with all those speaking truth to power.

The digital wallet appears to have been overloaded by the sheer number of Salvadorans looking to take advantage of the $30 bonus that the government put in each account to incentivize adoption.

Bukele, the main promotor of using the cryptocurrency, acknowledged the governments three-month rollout may have been too ambitious. He said technical glitches had prevented the app from working on some kinds of phones.

There has been skepticism about the governments enthusiastic adoption of bitcoin as a legal tender along with the U.S. dollar since Bukele announced it in a video recorded in English and played at a bitcoin conference in Miami in June. Bitcoin is subject to wild swings in value in a matter of minutes.

Any business with the technological capacity to do so is required to accept payment in bitcoin, but no private citizen is required to use it.

Recent public opinion surveys in El Salvador have said a majority of Salvadorans oppose making it an official currency. Still Bukele says there are now a half million users of the digital payment system in the Central American nation.
NICK OTTO/AFP via Getty Images

Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes and her ex-boyfriend and former business partner Ramesh Sunny Balwani exchanged lovey-doveyand sometimes paranoidtexts while trying to tackle problems with their startups blood-testing devices, newly released messages show.

Really want to be home so bad. Feel like I an [sic] living another life, Balwani, then president of the Silicon Valley startup, wrote in November 2013, while he was visiting his mother in the hospital.

I know, Holmes replied. So strange not coming home to you.

According to an exhibit filed Tuesday in Holmes wire fraud trial underway in San Jose, California, Balwani later added: We need to get business in control. Missing u.

Missing you more, Holmes replied.

Former Theranos Employees Get Ready to Relive the Sh*tshow

Holmes, 37, and Balwani, 56, are accused of defrauding patients and investors in a multimillion-dollar scheme related to their portable blood labs, which they claimed could screen for hundreds of diseases using only a finger-prick of blood. But prosecutors say they advertised their machines and installed them in Walgreens stores despite knowing the technology was flawed and provided inaccurate results.

The erstwhile couple has pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Balwani, who was Holmes deputy and whom former employees described as a tyrant, is expected to face trial early next year.

While prosecutors have surfaced batches of seemingly romantic texts in court since last week, Holmes has also accused Balwani of physical and emotional abuse. Balwanis lawyers, in recently unsealed filings, indicated Holmes has considered testifying as part of her defense that Balwani controlled her and decimated her capacity to make decisions.

According to the text messages filed in court, in October 2014, Balwani advised Holmes: Careful what u say. They will steal ideas. While its unclear whom Balwani was referring to, he added an hour later: Change your energy please.

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The cache also includes one message from Holmes mother, Noel, who thanked the couple and Elizabeths brother Chris for their hospitality during a trip to Palo Alto. It was wonderful to be together, Noel wrote, and thank you for taking us to our favorite restaurant twice!

Noel Holmes appears to suggest Elizabeth was becoming somewhat of a tech celebrity. Obviously word is getting out that you frequent it, which is why Sheryl and Mark are suddenly showing up, Noel wrote in the text chain.

Meant Marissa, not Sheryl, the mother added, perhaps referring to former Yahoo chief executive Marissa Mayer.

The following month, Balwani discussed problems with Theranos lab and customer service and one lab manager being burnt out. Balwani texted Holmes: Fundamentally we need to stop fighting fires by not creating them.

He later described the Theranos labcodenamed Normandy and where the startups proprietary devices were keptas a fucking disaster zone. Glad I came here, Balwani wrote. Will work on fixing this.

Throughout their exchanges, however, Holmes referred to Balwani as my tiger and my king in messages of her own.

She even waxed poetic about her love for Balwani in messages released last week.

You are breeze in desert for me, Holmes wrote in May 2015. My water. And ocean.  Meant to be only together tiger.

Madly in love with you and your strength, she added.

About 15 minutes later, Balwani replied, I am tired today. Spending so much time on bullshit and none on software or things that build our product.

The next day, the couple was busy identifying employees they believed had disclosed trade secrets and gabbed to the Wall Street Journal. They discussed suing Rochelle Gibbons, the widow of the startups chief scientist Ian Gibbons, for defamation and sending a legal letter to a suspected leaker named Tyler. The latter was presumably Tyler Shultz, a key whistleblower in the Theranos scandal and grandson of former Secretary of State and board member George Shultz, who was a tireless supporter of Holmes.

Out of al [sic] challenges are greatest opportunities, Holmes wrote to Balwani.

Absolutely. This one is fairly easy to get ahead of, Balwani replied.

In some exchanges, Balwani appeared to be all business despite Holmes starry-eyed overtures.

In June 2015, Balwani texted Holmes: Missing you.

Me more, she replied, adding: Was thinking about you this morning.

We need to stay focused and vigilant, Balwani answered. We are lazy and disorganized and not focused.

Tonight is Friday night, Holmes wrote. I have been thinking the same things as you know. I was sending that in the context of you and me.

Even in the context of u and me we need to stay focused dying the day, Balwani said, before correcting his typo: During.

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A toddler in Alabama has died after he was accidentally run over by his moms boyfriend (GoFundMe / Baby Ivans Funeral)

A toddler in Alabama has died after he was accidentally run over by his moms boyfriend.

Ivan Aguilar, just 19 months old, was found dead underneath a truck in Horton in northeastern Alabama on Saturday, AL.com reported.

Marshall County Assistant Chief Deputy Steve Guthrie said the child was found dead under the truck around 9pm after leaving the house without his mother being aware.

The mothers boyfriend moved the truck without knowing the child was underneath. When realising the boy was missing, the couple later found him under the vehicle.

There was no foul play, Deputy Guthrie said. It was just an unfortunate catastrophe.

A GoFundMe for the boy's funeral has gathered $4,600 as of Wednesday afternoon. The page said Ivans death was the most unexpected and devastating event for everyone involved.

Ivan was a very happy and loving baby born in February 2020," a statement on the page says. He always loved everyone and made every day just a bit brighter. Ivan was always snacking on something and laughing in between.

No charges will be filed after the death, according to WAAY. Ivan was pronounced dead at the scene by a coroner.

The child was going to turn two years old in February. His mother, Lexie Ramirez, told WAFF: All this was a tragic accident  he did not do it on purpose because we did not see him. It was very hard for us because my boyfriend has been a wonderful dad. Hes not the biological father, but he loved him so much.

My baby was happy, and he loved the outside, and he loved Cocomelon. Cocomelon was his favourite show. I will miss my baby very much. I will miss his laughs, spending time with him, waking up with him by my side, him running up to me from daycare and everything about him, Ms Ramirez added.

Read More

Alabama: Pastor can hold inmate's hand during execution

Alabama drops lawsuit challenging Census privacy method

Alabama aims to cut racist language from its constitution
(Reuters) - The United States has administered 381,453,265 doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the country as of Tuesday morning and distributed 458,771,465 doses, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

Those figures are up from the 380,831,725 vaccine doses the CDC said had gone into arms by Monday .

The agency said 209,982,936 people had received at least one dose while 179,289,983 people are fully vaccinated as of 6 a.m. ET on Tuesday.

The CDC tally includes two-dose vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech, as well as Johnson & Johnson's one-shot vaccine.

About 1.86 million people received an additional dose of either Pfizer or Moderna's vaccine since Aug. 13, when the U.S. authorized a third dose of the vaccines for people with compromised immune systems who are likely to have weaker protection from the two-dose regimens.

(Reporting by Aishwarya Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Chris Reese)
The U.S. Army announced on Tuesday that troops could face discipline if they are not fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

The big picture: The deadline for U.S. Army troops to be vaccinated is December 15. 40% of Army troops had been fully vaccinated as of late August. National Guard units have until June 30 next year to meet the vaccination deadline.

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What to expect: "While soldiers who refuse the vaccine will first be counseled by their chain of command and medical providers, continued failure to comply could result in administrative or non-judicial punishment  to include relief of duties or discharge," per an Army statement.

What they're saying: Lt. Gen. R. Scott Dingle, the U.S. Army Surgeon General, said in a statement that the Army introduce the measure as coronavirus case "counts and deaths continue to be concerning as the Delta variant spreads."

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States condemned North Korea's missile launch on Wednesday, saying it is in violation of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions and posed a threat to its neighbors and the international community, a State Department spokesperson said.

Both North Korea and South Korea test-fired ballistic missiles on Wednesday, the latest volley in an arms race https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-missiles-southkorea-analys-idUSKBN2BM0G8 that has seen both countries develop increasingly sophisticated weapons while efforts to get talks going on defusing tension prove fruitless.

North Korea fired a pair of ballistic missiles that landed in the sea off its east coast, according to officials in South Korea and Japan, just days after it tested a cruise missile https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/nkorea-test-fires-long-range-cruise-missile-kcna-2021-09-12 that is believed to have nuclear capabilities.

"We remain committed to a diplomatic approach to the DPRK (Democratic Republic of Korea) and call on them to engage in dialogue. Our commitment to the defense of the Republic of Korea and Japan remains ironclad, the spokesperson said.

North Korea has been steadily developing its weapons systems amid a standoff over talks aimed at dismantling its nuclear and ballistic missile arsenals in return for U.S. sanctions relief. The negotiations, initiated between former U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in 2018, have stalled since 2019.

President Joe Biden's administration has said it would explore diplomacy to achieve the goal of the complete denuclearisation of North Korea but would not seek a grand bargain with Kim.

South Korea tested a submarine-launched ballistic missile https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/skorea-blazes-new-path-with-most-potent-conventional-missile-submarine-2021-09-08(SLBM), becoming the first country without nuclear weapons to develop such a system.

The State Department press officer did not respond to a question about South Korea's missile test.

(Reporting by David Brunnstrom; Writing by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Chizu Nomiyama)
The Conversation

With a beam of light, an otoscope allows a clinician to examine the ear canal and eardrum. SolStock/E+ via Getty ImagesEar pain is one of the most common reasons that young children go to the doctor, and acute otitis media  which means middle ear infection  is the most frequent cause for the use of antibiotics in children under 5 years of age. Twenty-five percent of children will have an ear infection by their first birthday, and 60% by age 5. As a pediatrician, I see children in my clinic d
LONDON (AP)  Attorneys representing a U.S. woman who claims Prince Andrew sexually assaulted her have asked British courts to formally notify him about her lawsuit after a lawyer for the prince maintained this week that Andrew has not been properly notified of the baseless civil action.

Britains High Court accepted the request from lawyers for Virginia Giuffre to formally contact Andrew about the lawsuit launched in America.

According to the lawsuit filed last month in New York federal court, Giuffre repeated claims she has made publicly about the prince, saying Andrew abused her on multiple occasions in 2001 when she was under 18.

In late 2019, Andrew told the BBC Newsnight program that he never had sex with Giuffre, saying, It didnt happen.

At a hearing in New York on Monday, Giuffres lawyer had argued that the prince was already properly served when documents formally notifying him of the lawsuit were handed over to a Metropolitan Police officer at the main gates of Andrews home in Windsor Great Park on Aug. 27.

But Andrew Brettler, representing the prince at the first court proceeding to result from the lawsuit, told Judge Lewis A. Kaplan that Andrew had not properly been served. He also said Giuffre's claim was "baseless, non-viable and potentially unlawful.

And he also argued that Andrew cannot be sued because an earlier lawsuit in the United States that was settled absolves our client from any and all liability. That settlement document, however, remains sealed.

Kaplan gave Giuffres attorneys a week to address the bureaucratic hurdles regarding service of the lawsuit so it could be resolved and the case could proceed.

Under a treaty that governs requests between countries called the Hague Service Convention, Giuffres legal team can ask the High Court in London to formally notify Andrew about her civil action. The court had earlier rejected the application on a technicality, but changed tack.

The lawyers acting for Ms Giuffre have now provided further information to the High Court, and the High Court has accepted the request for service under the Hague Service Convention, the court said. The High Court will now take steps to serve under the convention, unless service is arranged by agreement between the parties.

___

Associated Press Writer Larry Neumeister in New York contributed.
WASHINGTON (AP)  The Biden administration is releasing nearly $200 million in military aid to Egypt but will hold back millions more over human rights concerns, the State Department said Tuesday in an announcement quickly criticized by rights groups and some lawmakers.

The department said Secretary of State Antony Blinken would withhold $130 million of $300 million in military financing for Egypt due to the concerns. It said he would allow the rest go through to preserve U.S.-Egypt security engagement that Washington believes is critical to Mideast stability.

The $170 million to be released will be sent using authority the administration has to waive human rights conditions placed on the assistance by Congress. Under federal law, the secretary of state must certify that Egypt is meeting those conditions or issue a waiver for the aid to be sent.

The department said Blinken was unable to certify compliance but added that continued engagement with Egypt is a critical U.S. national security interest. The decision was criticized by human rights groups and some lawmakers as an indication the Biden administration is reneging on pledges to put human rights at the center of its foreign policy.

Because we are continuing to discuss our serious concerns about human rights in Egypt, the secretary of state will not certify that the government of Egypt is taking sustained and effective steps related to the legislative human rights-related conditions" on the aid, the department said.

Nonetheless it said the administration would provide the majority of the assistance for border security, nonproliferation and counterterrorism programs while withholding the remaining $130 million. The withheld amount will be released if the government of Egypt affirmatively addresses specific human-rights related conditions, the department said.

Anticipating criticism of the announcement, which was previewed to some lawmakers on Monday, the State Department said the administration's human rights concerns about Egypt, which remains in the throes of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisis harsh crackdown on dissent, are significant.

Story continues

But, it said maintaining positive ties with Sisis government is important and noted that new Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett had visited Egypt just on Monday. Egypt is one of just two Arab nations to have gone to war with Israel to have signed a peace treaty with the Jewish state.

Our bilateral relationship with Egypt will be stronger, and Americas interests will be better served, through continued U.S. engagement to advance our national security interests, including addressing our human rights concerns, the State Department said.

Under Sissi, Egypt has seen the heaviest crackdown on dissent in its modern history. Officials have targeted not only Islamist political opponents but also pro-democracy activists, journalists and online critics. Lengthy pretrial detentions have become a common practice to keep the governments critics behind bars for as long as possible.

Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, a strong supporter of President Joe Biden who has repeatedly called for human rights conditions to be attached and enforced for foreign aid, lamented the decision. He called it a big missed opportunity to stand up strongly and unequivocally for human rights.

Continuing our security relationship with Egypt, with only minor changes, sends the wrong message, Murphy said in a statement. This was a chance to send a strong message about Americas commitment to human rights and democracy, with little cost to our security, and we fell short.

A group of 19 human rights groups, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Freedom House, also decried the decision, calling it a terrible blow to its stated commitment to human rights and to the rule of law.

This administration has repeatedly vowed to put human rights at the center of its foreign policy and specifically its relationship with Egypt, they said. This decision, however, is a betrayal of these commitments.
Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

West Virginia was once one of the leading US states in rolling out Covid-19 vaccinations. Now it is one of the least vaccinated, with the fastest-growing rate of infections in the country. Health systems are overwhelmed, with record numbers of patients in hospital, in intensive care units and on ventilators.

What happened?

West Virginia rushed to vaccinate those over the age of 65 and residents of long-term care facilities, reaching good levels of protection among those groups.

But reaching younger West Virginians has been much more of a challenge.

Governor Jim Justice, a Republican, has been a vocal supporter of vaccination, regularly urging constituents to get the jab. The state was among the first to offer vaccination incentives, including $100 savings bonds and a lottery, named for Justices English bulldog Babydog, to award scholarships, a car, a pontoon boat and more. He has spoken out sharply against conspiracy theories and criticized health workers who turn down the vaccine, calling the decision asinine.

Even so, only 39.9% of West Virginians are fully vaccinated, according to Our World in Data, tying with Wyoming for the lowest rate in the country. According to West Virginias health department, that rate is much higher, at 51.7%; the reason for the discrepancy is not clear.

And with the dominance of the Delta variant, West Virginia is experiencing its worst surge yet.

This has been more severe than weve seen at any other point in the pandemic, Dr Clay Marsh, head of the states Covid response, told the Guardian. And the Delta variant is making younger people significantly sicker than in previous waves, he said.

West Virginia has the fastest acceleration of new cases , given its population of about 1.8 million, with a 52% increase in new cases in the past week. The numbers of hospitalizations, ICU admissions and people on ventilators for Covid-19 have all broken previous records and continue rising.

On Saturday alone, the state reported more than 2,200 new cases, with one in 10 tests returning positive.

Story continues

I believe more people are getting very anxious over what theyre seeing in West Virginia, Marsh said, and the recent surge in cases has resulted in an uptick in vaccinations.

The vast majority of hospitalized patients are unvaccinated, Justice said at a news conference on Friday, and that is especially true of those in the ICU and on ventilators.

Governor Jim Justice presents Timothy Jackson, the latest million-dollar winner in West Virginias vaccination sweepstakes, with a check on 14 July. Photograph: AP

We can stop this, West Virginia, we can stop it, Justice said. The vaccines are safe. The vaccines are not an invasion on anyone. Yet he also criticized Bidens new vaccination mandates, which he says encroach on businesses.

Several major health systems have made vaccination mandatory, and so have certain emergency medical services. At West Virginia University, the faculty voted to mandate vaccines for all students and employees.

In a state with a large rural population, access could be an issue, but Marsh believes that hasnt been the primary driver of the lackluster vaccination rates. We have been very aggressive about having access not be an issue, he said. We will go to somebodys home to give them a vaccine.

Instead, residents tend to be suspicious of the government, the health system and the vaccines themselves. Simply having the vaccines is not enough, even with urging from the states top leader.

Justice lifted the states mask mandate on 20 June. Although he has said the requirement may return, he has preferred to leave decisions like these up to local jurisdictions. He also doesnt support a school mask mandate, but 51 of 55 counties have some kind of mask requirement in schools, Marsh said.

Nearly all of the state is in the highest risk category for virus transmission. Justice said there was no indication that West Virginia is close to the peak, saying it could be Halloween or Thanksgiving before the virus is under control.

Marsh said this surge had put a tremendous strain on health systems.

In Idaho, where we see some rationing starting, thats what our concern has been, Marsh said. But the state was not yet implementing crisis standards of care, he said. Elective procedures that require a hospital bed have been postponed.

Unlike other surges, the solution isnt as simple as pulling together ad-hoc field hospitals. This time, its different in that staffing is really the limitation, he said. Finding trained health workers has been the primary challenge, he said.

Fast action on precautions now would not only help stem this outbreak and keep health systems from collapsing, t would also keep other spikes from happening.

Vaccination would help a great deal, Marsh said, to slow things down here, not only with the Delta variant right now, but as we go forward in the wintertime with other variants that may emerge.




The governor of Wyoming announced on Wednesday that he would be fighting against President Joe Biden's vaccine mandate, calling it an "egregious example of federal government overreach."

Gov. Mark Gordon said that his plan to fight against the mandate would be made up of two parts. The first campaign would involve Wyoming Attorney General Bridget Hill preparing for legal action to stop the mandate for private employers. The second campaign would involve a limited session of the state's Legislature to cover bills aimed at addressing the vaccine mandate's overreach.

Gordon said that the Legislature meeting could happen as early as October.

ARMY LIEUTENANT COLONEL RESIGNS IN PROTEST OF THE 'MARXIST' VACCINE MANDATE

This is not a fire, ready, aim moment," Gordon said in his announcement. "We must be smart, thoughtful, and effective in the way we respond to these overreaching efforts by the Biden Administration. Responding prematurely is not in the best interests of Wyomings citizens or employers."

Gordon said that while he is vaccinated himself and believes that the vaccine is safe and effective, he understands why others feel differently. The mandate that Biden has enacted, as Gordon described, is "counterproductive and will not convince anyone otherwise."

Biden announced the vaccine mandate on Sept. 9, requiring companies with more than 100 workers to either require employees get vaccinated or get tested for COVID-19 weekly. The announcement was criticized by the GOP, including House Republicans and former Vice President Mike Pence.

Wyoming is not the first Republican state to object and threaten to take action against the mandate. At least a dozen Republican governors have condemned the mandate, with many vowing to file a lawsuit against it.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

The Wyoming Governor's Office did not immediately respond to the Washington Examiner's request for comment.

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Original Author: Asher Notheis

Original Location: Wyoming governor announces plan to combat Biden's vaccine mandate
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP)  Banana bread was served at a recent birthday party at Melfort Old Peoples home, where a group of residents mustered a raspy happy birthday tune.

Just a week after arriving at the facility, Rodrick Bhatare, in his 90s, said he felt a bittersweet moment at the celebration for a 103-year-old fellow resident.

I havent been this happy in a very long time, he said. I just wished I was doing it with my family. Hard-hit by the pandemic, his family could no longer provide for him, he said.

The economic ravages of COVID-19 are forcing some families in Zimbabwe to abandon the age-old tradition of taking care of older people.

Some roam the streets. The lucky ones end up at facilities for older people once widely viewed by many Zimbabweans as un-African and against the social bonds that have held extended families together for generations.

Rarely talked about, older people are silent victims of the pandemic, said Priscilla Gavi, executive director of HelpAge Zimbabwe.

Parents or elderly relatives have become an extra strain in this pandemic so although it goes against our culture, many people are finding old peoples homes as the only option, Gavi said.

Zimbabwe's care homes have experienced a 60% increase in admissions since the COVID-19 pandemic erupted in March 2020, and most of the country's more than 170 facilities for older people are full, she said.

COVID-19 has increased the risk of abuse and neglect of older people across Africa and around the world, according to a report by HelpAge International.

In addition to being one of the groups most at risk of severe illness and death from COVID-19, older people are chronically neglected in response and recovery efforts, especially in lower-income countries, according to the report, Bearing the Brunt.

For the older people in care institutions, the experience is both a saving grace and a source of anguish.

Bhatare said that after he retired from work as a quarry miner about two decades ago all was well as he alternately stayed with his two daughters and other relatives.

Story continues

He was living with a married niece and four of her children when COVID-19 hit and their income from selling goods on the street dropped. Food in the home became scarce, tensions rose, and to survive Bhatare began foraging for meals on the streets until concerned neighbors alerted HelpAge, which found him a place in the Melfort home, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) east of Harare, the capital.

My daughters are married but they are also struggling. I had become a strain to everybody, he said.

Zimbabwes economy was already battered before the pandemic and now more than 80% of urban households are struggling to buy basic food supplies, while large numbers of rural families are also sinking into hunger, according to the World Food Program.

People age 70 and above make up less than 3% of Zimbabwes population of about 15 million and often became casualties of belt-tightening.

They are not bringing in any income in an environment where even young children are working to contribute towards household incomes. The elderly are becoming the sacrificial lambs. COVID-19 has really knocked them down, said Phillip Pasirayi, a sociologist and director of the Center for Community Development in Zimbabwe.

Feeling abandoned by their families can be a shock for many older people at care facilities, he said.

It doesnt really resonate with what we are accustomed to as Africans. You want to spend your last days surrounded by family. That is the tradition, Pasirayi said.

When they are forced into old peoples homes, many go into depression, into dementia  they are confused that their children or relatives have abandoned them, said Daniel Francis, the administrator at Melfort Old Peoples home.

Some families resort to tricks to remove their older relatives, he said.

With the pandemic, some people take an elderly relative to a faraway place. They buy them a drink at the shops, tell them We are coming back, and they go for good. Elderly persons are being dumped and they are forgotten, Francis said. Police take such people to the social welfare department.

The social welfare department doesnt have a home so they come to us, said Francis, whose facility has a capacity for 40 resident. But in the pandemic it limits numbers to 22 to allow more physical distance between residents.

The care homes that don't charge their residents, and are funded by charities and churches, are under strain.

The Melfort home would find it difficult to return to full capacity, he said, as its donations have dropped by more than 60% in the pandemic, he said.

Times are even tougher at the Society for the Destitute Aged's care home in Harares Highfield township. Princess Diana opened an accommodation wing amid much fanfare in 1993. But today paint is peeling off the walls, ceilings are falling in and bees have taken over the out-of-service 200-liter (53-gallon) water heater.

The home has no vehicle so when a resident needs medical care, manager Emilia Mukaratirwa must risk crowded public taxis or, when money permits, hire a small car to rush a retiree to a hospital.

The whole place needs a makeover, but for now just getting bread is like Christmas. Thats how desperately we need help, Mukaratirwa said.

Despite the disappointment of not being with family, Bhatare at the Melfort Old Peoples home is adjusting to his new reality.

These strangers have become my family, they treat me well," he said. "I still love my real family but I dont want to be a burden to them.

___

Follow APs pandemic coverage at:

https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic

https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine

https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak
Genome-edited tomatoes are set to appear on dining tables in Japan. It is the first time that genome-edited food will be sold and shipped to consumers in Japan.

The new variety was modified to have a higher content of a nutrient known as GABA which is thought to help reduce blood pressure.

Genome-edited foods can be distributed in Japan after the health ministry has been notified.

Unlike genetically modified foods, genome-edited varieties are considered as safe as anything improved using conventional methods because no outside gene is introduced.

In December, the health ministry granted Tokyo-based nursery company Sanatech Seed permission to sell the genome-edited tomato.

Contract farmers in Kumamoto Prefecture, in southwestern Japan, have already been growing the variety.

Sanatech Seed officials say they started to accept online orders from consumers on Wednesday as the tomatoes are now ready to be picked.

The company plans to ship each package of tomatoes with a sticker that says "improved using genome editing technology".

Takeshita Tatsuo, Chairman of Sanatechseed, said "At first we got mixed reactions to genome-edited foods, and we thought it would be difficult to bring them to market as they're not fully understood by consumers. But the tomatoes earned a good reputation from those who took part in the cultivation trials. We'll take every possible precaution when they go on sale."

A 3-kilogram box of tomatoes will cost 7,500 yen or about 68 dollars.
Kyodok - Sep 16

A Japanese-Peruvian man seeking state compensation for mistreatment at the Osaka immigration bureau in 2017 was shown being held face down by a number of officers in security camera footage submitted Wednesday at trial, a lawyer in charge of his case said.
A Japanese-Peruvian man seeking state compensation for mistreatment at the Osaka immigration bureau in 2017 was shown being held face down by a number of officers in security camera footage submitted Wednesday at trial, a lawyer in charge of his case said.

In the case filed with the Osaka District Court, Burgos Fujii, 48, is seeking 2 million yen ($18,000) in damages from the state after he was left handcuffed for over half a day at the Osaka Regional Immigration Services Bureau.

The video includes footage of Fujii being hauled off to a solitary cell by many officers, as well as him being held down during tussles with five officers in the middle of the night and lying on the floor handcuffed with his arms behind his back.

Another scene showed an immigration officer intimidating Fujii by asking him whether he was prepared to follow their orders.

According to the complaint, Fujii was left with his arms handcuffed behind his back for more than 14 hours on Dec. 20, 2017, after he expressed dissatisfaction with his lunch and became violent. He was later found to have fractured his arm, with the injury taking a month to heal.
New Delhi: The 21st meeting of Shanghai Cooperation Organisations (SCO) Council of Heads of State will be held in Tajikistans Dushanbe on September 17.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will virtually address the plenary session of the summit, the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement on Wednesday.

The meeting will be chaired by Tajikistans President Emomali Rahmon. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will represent India in Dushanbe, the statement added.

The SCO is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. It will be the first SCO Summit being held in a hybrid format and the fourth Summit that India will participate as a full-fledged member of SCO.

At the Summit, the leaders are expected to review the organisations activities over the past two decades and discuss the state and prospects of future cooperation.

The summit will be attended by the leaders of the SCO member states, observer states, secretary-general of the SCO, executive director of the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS), and other invited guests.
New Delhi: A Delhi Court on Tuesday sent the four members of Pakistans ISI trained terror module, which was busted by the police, to 14-day police remand.

According to the Delhi Police, the terror module was closely managed by underworld don Dawood Ibrahims brother. The arrested operatives were later taken to the Safdarjung Hospital for their medical examination earlier.

The other two accused Zeeshan Qamar and Mohammad Amir Javed will be presented before the court today.

The police had arrested six operatives of Pakistans ISI trained terror module earlier on Tuesday.

The terror operatives include Jaan Mohammad Seikh (47) of Maharashtra, Osama (22) alias Sami of Jamianagar, Delhi, Moolchand alias Lala (47) of Raebareli, Uttar Pradesh, and Md Abu Bakar (23), Bahraich, Uttar Pradesh has been remanded for 14-day by the police.

Osama and Zeeshan told Delhi Police that there were around 14-15 Bengali speaking people with them when they were taken to Pakistan from Muscat. These people were divided into different groups. Delhi Police believes that these people were also taken for a similar kind of training.

Delhi Police said the latest imported weapons, Italian pistols, ammunition and explosives were recovered from the arrested persons. Police said the accused were likely to target the states like Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra.

Delhi Police Special Cell has busted a Pak-organised terror module, arrested 6 people including two terrorists who received training in Pakistan pic.twitter.com/ShadqybnKU  ANI (@ANI) September 14, 2021

Interrogation of the arrested persons and further investigation is underway.

Delhi Police Special Cell on Tuesday has busted a Pakistan organised terror module and arrested six operatives, including two Pakistani-trained terrorists.

The arrested suspects were planning to carry out targeted killings and blasts across the country, as per the police.
Karnataka CM asks District authorities not to rush Court orders to destroy religious structures

Karnataka, Wed, 15 Sep 2021 Supratik Mitra

Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai on September 14th asked to put a halt to the destruction of illegally constructed religious structures, on government land, following a court order.



Following a court order on unauthorised religious structures in the state, the authorities in Karnataka were considering demolishing such structures, which are built on public land. However, the Chief Minister, Bommai said that the order by the court has not been made to take hasty decisions of bringing down the places of worship and asked the authorities to wait.



A show-cause notice has been sent to the Mysuru District Commissioner and Tahsildar, who according to the CM have not considered the people of the district before preparing to vacate these temples and places of worship. He also added that the government shall issue clear guidelines of carrying out the court orders, after the Cabinet studies the Supreme court order more carefully. Which the district authorities must refer to while following the court orders.



There has also been a major political row in Karnataka over the order, with Hindu Jagaran Vedike, a powerful Hindu outfit, announcing a full-scale protest against the Mysuru District administration, which was planning to demolish 97 places of worship which have been illegally constructed, of which 93 are Hindu temples. The Hindu outfit has announced to hold the protest on Thursday, 16th of September, in trying to stop the demolition work, which is also when Jagadish Karanth, the outfit's in-charge for South India, will visit Mysuru.



The ruling BJP party has also faced criticism from the opposition in the state as available, with Opposition leader Siddaramaiah has posted a video of a temple being demolished near Nanjangud, saying that temples are not safe under the BJP rule in the state.



As district authorities prepare to follow the Supreme court orders, BJP is being hit from all directions, with court orders to carry out the demolition, and the Hindu outfits and oppositions, trying to create a stiff resistance, holding the BJP government of state accountable.



While BJP does try to deal with situations cautiously, the orders from the apex court and dealing with the religious sentiments of the people can prove to be a tough game to play.



State Chief Secretary P. Ravikumar, based on the Supreme and High Court orders, asked for a follow-up report in August, seeking the reasons which were causing a delay in the implementation of orders, after which the District Administration and Mysuru City Corporation, in a pre-dawn operation brought down many roadside temples, which sparked a major debate in the states over the orders, and ruling partys inability to do anything.


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A Uighur woman entering a bazaar in Hotan, in northwestern Chinas Xinjiang region, in May 2019. Photo: Greg Baker/AFP via Getty Images

The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan has hogged the international spotlight for the past few months. For China, the bad press the Biden administration got for effectively allowing the Taliban to retake power has been a welcome distraction from another grim situation in the remote northwestern Chinese region of Xinjiang.

In the past few weeks, however, allegations that China is committing massive human-rights abuses and even genocide against the Uighurs in Xinjiang have begun to reclaim international attention. On Monday, the U.N. human-rights chief announced that her office has been unable to obtain access to the region but is assembling a report on the allegations based on information obtained through other means. Last week, a coalition of human-rights groups issued a joint letter to major international broadcasters, including NBC, urging them not to cover the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing to protest Chinas abuses against the Uighurs and other minorities. And meanwhile, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has stepped up efforts to intercept imported goods made using forced labor, specifically targeting Chinese cotton that is widely suspected to be grown in Xinjiang by Uighurs in forced-labor camps.

Despite the growing attention to the alleged atrocities in Xinjiang, the situation there remains largely opaque to the American public. Thats partly because China has kept a tight grip on the flow of information and muddied the waters with its own propaganda but also because its a complex conflict with a lot of history in a little-known part of the world. Heres what you need to know.

Who are the Uighurs?

The Uighurs are the predominant ethnic group in the Xinjiang region of northwestern China. Over 12 million Uighurs live in China, mostly in Xinjiang, with smaller communities in Kazakhstan, Turkey, and other countries. Uighurs primarily practice Sunni Islam.

The history of the Uighurs in Xinjiang is contested between Uighur and Chinese scholars. The Uighurs have lived in the Tarim Basin on the edges of the Taklamakan Desert for over a millennium. Some Uighur historians and activists claim they have been present there for thousands of years and are descended from the ancient inhabitants of the region, whereas Chinese historians contend that the people now known as Uighurs migrated there only in the ninth century. The Uighur Khaganate ruled over a vast swath of modern-day Xinjiang, Mongolia, Manchuria, and the surrounding areas in the eighth and ninth centuries; the region was later conquered by the Mongol Empire, and the Uighurs were gradually converted to Islam over the centuries that followed.

China first gained control over the Tarim Basin during the Han dynasty in the second century B.C., and again during the Tang dynasty in the early Middle Ages. Modern China considers this to be evidence that the region has belonged to China since before the Uighurs were present there. China finally conquered the present-day Xinjiang region during the Qing dynasty in the mid-18th century. Since then, the Uighurs and other non-Chinese peoples of the countrys western frontier have continually pressed for independence and founded a series of short-lived breakaway republics in the late-19th and early-to-mid-20th centuries.

Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Graphic: Intelligencer

What is the Xinjiang conflict?

The Xinjiang conflict has its roots in Chinas efforts to consolidate control over the region throughout the 20th century. During the Mao era, China restricted the religious and cultural freedoms of the Uigurs while encouraging the mass migration of Han Chinese into what was known as the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region from the 1950s through the 1970s. According to Chinas 2020 census, Han Chinese make up 42 percent of Xinjiangs population and Uighurs nearly 45 percent. In the past decade, nearly 2 million Han Chinese have migrated into the region. Beijing claims it is no longer deliberately altering the demographic makeup of Xinjiang, but the recent migrations are still suspected to be part of a policy of Sinicization to dilute the ethnic and religious character of the region and stifle separatism.

During the Cold War, the Soviet Union supported Uighur separatists in Xinjiang as part of its hegemonic rivalry with China in Central Asia. In the postCold War era, Uighur separatism took on an increasingly Islamist tenor. The Turkistan Islamic Party is an Islamic extremist group formed in 1989 that seeks to overthrow Chinese rule in Xinjiang and replace it with the independent Islamic state of East Turkestan. The TIP came to prominence amid the Baren Township conflict in April 1990, in which militants clashed with Chinese police and soldiers. This event is often described as the spark that set off the ongoing Xinjiang conflict. Since the 1990s, Uighur separatists have continually carried out bus bombings, knife attacks, and other terrorist acts in Xinjiang and elsewhere in China.

After Xi Jinping became president of China in 2013, Beijing began cracking down more aggressively on separatism among Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in the country. Xis heavy-handed campaign against separatism, part of his broader totalitarian ambitions, has culminated in the actions China is taking today against the Uighurs.

A Uighur woman in Xinjiang arranges her stall in September 2016, while the billboard behind her shows the late Communist Party leader Mao Zedong. Photo: Kevin Frayer/Getty Images

What is China doing to the Uighurs in Xinjiang now?

In 2018, a U.N. human-rights panel reported that China had detained over 1 million Uighurs, along with other Muslim minorities, in hundreds of internment camps in Xinjiang since 2017. Satellite evidence has shown that the network of camps has grown continuously since then. In the camps, survivors have reported, detainees are indoctrinated with Communist political propaganda and forced to chant slogans praising Xi. They are subjected to torture, including via such methods as waterboarding, as well as sexual abuse. They are forced to renounce Islam, eat pork, and drink alcohol, and they are surveilled around the clock to ensure that they do not pray. The detainees often have not been charged with any crime and have no recourse to contest their detention. They are not allowed contact with their families, and many detainees simply disappear. China has also pressured other nations to deport Uighurs who have fled the country and sought refuge abroad; they often disappear immediately after returning to China.

Locations of suspected detention facilities. Graphic: Intelligencer; Data from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute

Meanwhile, cultural and religious sites throughout Xinjiang are being destroyed at a prolific rate. A report last year from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, a key source of data on Chinas persecution of the Uighurs, found that fewer than 15,000 mosques remained standing in the region, compared with the governments official count of 24,000, while more than half of those remaining have been damaged. In addition, about half of the regions cultural-heritage sites have been damaged or destroyed, including ancient pilgrimage sites.

China is also reportedly using forced labor in Xinjiang, compelling Uighurs inside and outside the camps to pick cotton and manufacture textiles and other products for little or no pay. Beijing has given subsidies to Chinese companies to move to Xinjiang or employ Muslim minority workers in other parts of the country: More than 80,000 Uighurs were transferred out of Xinjiang to work at factories throughout China between 2017 and 2019, many of them from internment camps. These workers toil under inhumane conditions and live in segregated dormitories where they are subjected to continued political indoctrination and forced to learn Mandarin. They are not allowed to leave. These forced-labor factories have fed into the supply chains of major multinational corporations, including Amazon, Apple, and a variety of apparel and automobile brands.

Meanwhile, China has expanded the reach of its technological surveillance state to a truly Orwellian extent in Xinjiang. Uighur citizens activities are monitored by a vast infrastructure of checkpoints and cameras, and police even use a mobile platform to keep track of everything from residents social interactions to their use of electricity and gasoline. Chinese tech companies have tested facial-recognition software that can detect peoples ethnicity and send Uighur alerts to authorities.

Another disturbing revelation to emerge last year was that China has been using forced birth control, abortion, and sterilization to cut birth rates among Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang. Women are subjected to regular pregnancy checks, forced to have intrauterine devices inserted, and threatened with huge fines or detention if they have too many children. As a result of these policies, birth rates in the Uighur regions of Hotan and Kashgar fell by more than 60 percent between 2015 and 2018.

Chinese flags are displayed on a road leading to a facility believed to be a reeducation camp for mostly Muslim ethnic minorities on the outskirts of Hotan in May 2019. Photo: GREG BAKER/AFP via Getty Images

How has China responded to the allegations?

Beijing denies violating Uighurs human rights and claims its policies in Xinjiang are reasonable and humane measures to combat Islamic extremism and separatist violence. Every report of abuses is dismissed as fabrication, slander, or fake news  the new favorite term of autocrats everywhere thanks to a certain former U.S. president. Initially, the Chinese government denied the existence of the internment camps, but when satellite evidence emerged of new and expanding detention centers, it changed its tune and claimed they were counter-extremist reeducation camps or vocational education centers. In the official narrative, Chinese authorities are merely trying to combat Islamic fundamentalism and improve the economic mobility of the impoverished Uighurs.

China defends itself against the allegations with false equivalencies and whataboutism. For instance, the government claims its population-control policy in Xinjiang is simply intended to equalize the rights of Han Chinese and ethnic minorities, who were subjected to less-stringent rules under the countrys now-defunct one child policy. Xi has rolled back many of the entitlements once enjoyed by Chinas recognized ethnic minorities while expanding certain rights for Han Chinese. On paper, the current policy may look equitable, but in practice, observers see it as a means of shrinking the Uighur population to make it easier to control. Similarly, Beijing defends its surveillance practices by arguing that they are not discriminatory and that China uses surveillance technology to uphold public safety in the same way the U.S. and European countries do.

China also justifies its actions against the Uighurs by framing them as part of the war on terrorism. Salafism, a fundamentalist strain of Islam that underpins many Islamic extremist groups, has made inroads in Chinas Muslim communities over the past decade, and, like western governments, China often conflates this extreme ideology with Islam in general. Islamist Uighur organizations such as the TIP set up camp in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan in the 1990s and formed ties to Al Qaeda and other jihadist groups; East Turkestan has become one of the fronts in the global jihadist movement. This jihadist connection has enabled China to depict any desire for autonomy on the part of the Uighurs as a terrorist threat akin to that posed by Al Qaeda and the Islamic State. One of the reasons China is stepping in to provide aid and investment in Afghanistan after the U.S. withdrawal is to enlist the Talibans cooperation in preventing the TIP and other Xinjiang-focused extremist groups from establishing new bases there.

For the most part, however, Chinas strategy has been to deny and obfuscate all the allegations while making it extremely difficult for independent journalists or investigators to report from inside Xinjiang. By controlling the flow of information, Beijing can muddy the waters enough for a measure of plausible deniability. Looking at all the evidence, a neutral observer would likely conclude that China is violating international human-rights law and committing serious crimes, possibly including genocide. But, of course, in the geopolitical realm, there are no neutral observers: China (and other countries with their own reasons to take its side) can always cast doubt on any evidence and claim the accusations are political  because, in some sense, they always are.

How has the international community responded?

Taken together, these allegations suggest that Chinas actions against the Uighurs and other Muslim minorities are violations of international human-rights law, potentially rising to the level of crimes against humanity and even genocide. The U.N. Human Rights Council, individual countries, and international organizations have been putting pressure on China over Xinjiang since 2019 and calling on Beijing to allow U.N. inspectors into the region to investigate.

In October 2020, Germany issued a joint statement on behalf of 39 U.N. member states condemning the increasing number of reports of gross human-rights violations in Xinjiang, including severe restrictions on freedom of religion or belief and the freedoms of movement, association, and expression as well as on Uighur culture. The U.S. signed on to this statement, along with the U.K., France, Japan, and other large democracies.

At the same time, Cuba issued an opposing statement on behalf of 45 countries supporting Chinas counterterrorism and deradicalization measures in Xinjiang. However, the balance of world opinion has appeared to be shifting against China, with 16 countries signing on to the statement of condemnation that had declined to sign a similar statement in 2019 and six fewer signing the statement of support.

So far, the world has been reluctant to go much further than condemning Chinas actions. A group of Uighur activists lodged a complaint against China at the International Criminal Court last year, but in December the court declined to prosecute; China (like the U.S.) is not a signatory to the ICCs establishing treaty, so the court has no jurisdiction over actions that occur within the countrys borders. The plaintiffs had hoped to build a case on alleged crimes against Uighurs living in the ICC member states of Tajikistan and Cambodia. The court said it would keep the file open and could pursue a case pending more evidence.

In April 2021, Human Rights Watch issued an extensive report on the situation in Xinjiang, making the case that China was committing crimes against humanity.

A young Uighur activist at a demonstration in September 2020 outside the Foreign Office in Berlin. Photo: TOBIAS SCHWARZ/AFP via Getty Images

What is the U.S. government doing?

The U.S. has been more willing than most other countries to put the genocide label on Chinas persecution of the Uighurs. The Trump administration imposed economic and visa sanctions on Chinese officials involved in the repression and considered labeling it a genocide last year in response to pressure from activists and members of Congress but held off. On his last day in office in January, former secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted that, in his determination, China was committing genocide and crimes against humanity. His successor, Antony Blinken, was quick to agree, confirming in his first remarks as secretary of State that he believed Chinas actions constitute genocide.

A number of other countries legislatures have passed resolutions calling the Uighur persecution a genocide, including those of the Netherlands, Canada, and the U.K., but governments have hesitated to adopt these motions: In May, for instance, New Zealands government blocked a parliamentary resolution applying the genocide label. New Zealand is especially vulnerable to the threat of trade retaliation from China, but other governments are being cautious too. A designation of genocide is difficult to justify or prove: The State Departments legal office actually concluded earlier this year that Chinas actions in Xinjiang amounted to crimes against humanity but not genocide.

Governments are also reluctant to use inflammatory language that might spur Chinese retaliation or commit them to a course of action they arent prepared to take. After all, if youre willing to call out something as heinous as genocide, why arent you doing anything to stop it? Labeling Chinas behavior as genocide is ultimately a political decision, and a risky one at that, though it may well be the right call.

As it happens, the U.S. and its allies are doing something, though it is not yet having much effect. The Biden administration issued additional sanctions on Chinese officials in March in a coordinated effort with the U.K., the E.U., and Canada. There are other things the administration could do, such as prioritizing Uighurs for asylum and resettlement in the U.S. But forcing China to change, if that is even possible, will require a massive, concerted campaign of diplomatic pressure and sanctions that includes Chinas largest trading partners.

Why are businesses facing calls to take action?

The State Department has warned that companies with even indirect investments or supply-chain connections in Xinjiang are at high risk for violating U.S. law. This legal risk, along with rising consumer awareness, is putting pressure on major apparel brands to eliminate Xinjiang cotton from their supply chains. This is no easy task, as China produces 20 percent of the global cotton supply, and 85 percent of that is grown in Xinjiang, including some of the highest-quality cotton in the world. The campaign by Customs and Border Protection to crack down on imports made with forced labor is beginning to have an impact, but its enforcement capabilities remain limited, and plenty of other countries are still buying Xinjiang cotton  though the E.U., Australia, and some other major importers are considering U.S.-style laws authorizing the seizure of goods produced using forced labor.

Multinational companies also dont want to talk too loudly about Chinese human-rights abuses since many depend on China as not only a supplier but a consumer. One or two companies, even big ones, wont make a big enough difference  and companies wont act alone if that means their competitors will have access to the Chinese market while they dont. Until a critical mass of the worlds largest businesses can credibly threaten to pull out of China, were unlikely to see the kind of economic pressure that would influence its behavior.
lmao

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Oh my god. I would have lost my shit sitting there.



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lol I just don't understand why celebs need to share this info with us.

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Lol Wendy is so weird

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cackling



i'm not a big sports person in general, but i love when the fans chant

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CACKLING

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It's what he deserves

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Come come users who act like us folks who take quick daily showers are single-handedly destroying the planet while kicking homeless people off the subway.

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daily showers wank is absolutely a thing here, whitney.

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Aren't most of the arguments about whether one should clean themselves thoroughly every day and not about water usage or quick showers? I feel like I only ever see people commenting whether it's good for the skin.

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Well...Viola looks beautiful in this gif!

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lol when their dry skin could benefit from cleanliness and some moisturizer but we're the weird ones

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omg what I'm team quick daily showers too

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Folks tried to hand me my (quite clean) ass because I said I like daily showers, twice a day. Because, you know, working out in the morning is usually a good time wash off the stench before going to work. But I guess that's still not good enough?

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lmfaooooo

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He should be greeted like this everywhere he goes.

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I think he is lol

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But did it bully him into taking a shower? Don't forget to wash your legs and ass crack.

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I almost feel bad but then again he should take a shower...

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LMFAOOO

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Crude oil prices went up today on bullish news from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, which reported a 6.4-million-barrel draw in crude oil inventories and another draw in fuel inventories.

A week earlier, the EIA had estimated a modest 1.3-million-barrel decline in crude oil inventories but a sizeable draw in gasoline pushed prices higher, signaling that strong demand has not wavered amid the latest surge in Covid-19 infections.

For the week to September 10, the EIA reported another draw in gasoline inventories, at 1.9 million. This compared to a draw of 7.2 million barrels a week earlier.

Production of gasoline last week averaged 9.3 million bpd, which compared with 10.1 million bpd a week earlier.

Middle distillate inventories shed 1.7 million barrels in the week to September 10, which compared with a draw of 3.1 million barrels for the previous week.

Production of middle distillates averaged 4.2 million bpd last week, compared with 4.2 million bpd during the previous week.

A day before the EIA reported inventory moves, the American Petroleum Institute had estimated crude oil stocks had shed close to 4 million barrels, pushing prices higher. Since the start of the year, according to API numbers, U.S. crude oil stocks have declined by 70 million barrels.

Meanwhile, production is set to rise as the inventory of drilled but uncompleted wells in the U.S. shale patch declines. This, however, should not be a problem for prices since demand is strengthening, too.

In its latest monthly oil report, the International Energy Agency forecast a 1.6-million-bpd rebound in global oil demand next month as the Delta variant of the coronavirus releases its grip on economies. It would then continue to grow through the rest of the year, the agency said, before beginning to slow down next year.

The market should shift closer to balance starting from October if OPEC+ continues to unwind production cuts. Even so, it is only by early 2022 that supply will be high enough to allow oil stocks to be replenished, the IEA said in its report.

This would provide stable support for prices over the next few months, and it is support that will be needed as U.S. shale drillers ramp up along with OPEC+ to offset depletion from legacy wells.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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The price of Russias flagship Urals grade slumped this week as Russian supply and exports are set to grow and as Iraq cuts the price of its crude for Europe.

On Tuesday, the Urals grade from the Baltic Sea was offered at a discount of $2.35 per barrel to Dated Brent, Bloomberg reports, citing the price-discovery window hosted by S&P Global Platts.

While the discount to Brent is typical for the Urals grade, this weeks discount is much deeper than the $1.05 a barrel discount at which the Russian flagship crude was offered last week.

One of the key reasons for weaker prices of Urals, according to Bloomberg, is the expectation of rising supply out of Russia, which is pumping more oil under its higher OPEC+ quota and which is preparing to export more barrels next month.

So far in September, Russias crude oil and condensate production has been higher by 2.4 percent compared to August, according to data from the Russian energy ministry seen by Bloomberg.

The other reason for the weakening price differentials of Russias Urals is somewhat unexpected competition from Iraq, which has cut its prices for the United States and Europe (except the Mediterranean), in a rare divergence from the pricing of the top exporter from the Middle East and the worlds largest crude exporter, Saudi Arabia.

Iraqs lower crude prices in Europe for October are competing with Russian Urals supply, among others.

Last week, tighter supply of U.S. medium sour crudes in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida pushed the price of Russias Urals up to a discount of just $1.05 per barrel to Dated Brentthe highest price for Urals in seven monthscompared to a Urals discount to Brent of $1.95 a barrel before Ida, Bloomberg estimates showed.

In the days following Hurricane Ida, there was increased interest from refiners for Russian crude, especially the medium sour Urals, which is similar to the U.S. Mars blend whose production was still offline, according to Bloombergs sources.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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Proposals in the U.S. Congress to tie green tax credits with local content materials risk holding back the American offshore wind sector even before it has started to flourish, a top executive at a major project offshore Massachusetts told the Financial Times.

Democrats in Congress have proposed a number of tax credits and incentives for clean energy and electric vehicles (EVs) in the $3.5 trillion spending bill, but the proposals include tying some of the tax credits with the condition that the steel and other materials are produced in the United States.

However, most of the wind power industry, including offshore wind, relies very much on turbines made in Europe.

Bill White, head of offshore wind at Avangrid, part of European renewables giant Iberdrola, told FT that the local content condition would hold back the development of offshore wind, on the one hand, and raise costs, on the other hand.

Avangrid Renewables is one of the project partners of the Vineyard Wind offshore wind project, which would be the first large-scale offshore wind energy project in the United States. Vineyard Wind LLC, an offshore wind development company, is 50 percent owned by funds of Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) and 50 percent owned by Avangrid Renewables.

If you put the hammer down today and basically say: You cant build an offshore wind project unless you use a US-manufactured wind turbine, were dead in the water, Avangrids White told FT.

We need to think carefully about potentially protectionist impulses that might inadvertently stop the progress on building offshore wind, White added.

Vineyard Wind 1 is an 800 megawatts (MW) project located 15 miles off the coast of Marthas Vineyard and is expected to become the first commercial-scale offshore wind project in the United States. The project is designed to generate electricity for more than 400,000 homes and businesses in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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Assertive Foreign Policy proves Costly It is clear that the post-Cold War order is shifting. The costly wars of Afghanistan and Iraq are calling into question the pre-eminence of the United States in international security affairs. Russia shows no fear to act outside its borders and China is in a good position to become the worlds largest economy. Turkeys president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, eyes an opportunity to cement his grip on power by transforming Turkey into a key regional player in the emerging multipolar system.

The instability following the Arab Spring in 2011 provided Erdogan with a regional environment where he could tap into Turkish nationalist sentiments and shore up his domestic political standing. Following his intervention in northeastern Syria, Erdogan successfully negotiated an agreement with Russia on removing Kurdish fighters along the southern Turkish border. Similarly, in Libya, Ankara became a key mediator by facilitating a long-term peace settlement with Moscow. Turning to the issue of Cypriot energy resources, the Turkish backing of the UN-sanctioned Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli placed Ankara in a strong position to determine maritime boundary demarcation.

However, while securing geopolitical gains, Turkeys assertive maneuvers have put it at risk of isolation. A regional group led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has also been competing for influence since the 2011 uprisings. With Turkey breaking off diplomatic relations with Egypt after Abdel Fattah el-Sisi removed Mohammed Morsi in 2013, Ankara and the Saudi-Emirati-led bloc have been locked in a rivalry. Tensions have since escalated following Turkeys backing of Qatar in the Gulf dispute and its intervention in Libya. As for the West, Turkish involvement in the conflict in Syria led to a deterioration in relations with the US while the issue over Cyprus resulted in EU sanctions.

Afghanistan Crisis offers a New Strategic Opportunity for Erdogan

Despite the risk of isolation causing problems for Erdogan, the crisis in Afghanistan adds a new regional dynamic where Ankara may acquire leverage.

The decision to maintain Turkeys diplomatic presence in Afghanistan enables Erdogan to address US security concerns. Following the NATO summit this year, the respective Turkish and US defense ministries held positive talks on securing Hamid Karzai International Airport following the US withdrawal. Erdogans initiative to discuss with the Taliban the future security of the airport represents a significant step towards mending Turkish-US relations. In holding such talks, Turkey is in a position to facilitate the objective of the Biden administration to ensure that the supply of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan remains. Related: Record-Breaking Energy Prices Could Soar Even Higher In Europe Turkeys continued commitment in Afghanistan also allows Ankara the chance to revive the important role it plays with the European Union. Ankara has been a key partner for Brussels in the management of irregular migration into Europe. Despite recent tensions, the risk of a refugee influx as a result of the Afghan crisis means that Brussels is under pressure to revisit its 2016 agreement on migration with Ankara. Taking full advantage of this, Erdogan warned the EU in a televised address that his country has no duty, responsibility, or obligation to be Europes refugee house.

In the Middle East, Irans influence puts Ankara in a good position to reduce tensions. Tehran made moves to step up its presence in Afghanistan prior to the NATO withdrawal in August. This comes amid the Gulf states efforts to alleviate tensions with the Islamic Republic. The Gulf Cooperation Council lifted the blockade on Qatar, which served to heal the rift in relations as a result of the UAE-Israel agreement. Since the Biden administration plans to restore the Iran nuclear deal, Saudi Arabia hopes that this soft stance will fuel positive relations with Washington. Meanwhile, Riyadh may have to look to Turkey to counter Iran in Afghanistan.

Can Turkey Maintain Regional Influence without Causing Tensions?

Turkey is facing the risk of isolation. Relations between Ankara and the regional bloc under Saudi Arabia and the UAE have struggled to advance positively since the Arab Spring. Although Erdogans assertive foreign policy in Libya and in Syria shored up his domestic political standing, it has alienated Riyadh and Abu Dhabi. Turkish unilateralism abroad has also led to a rift in its relationships with Washington and Brussels.

Related: China's Historic Decision To Stop Hoarding Oil

Nonetheless, the crisis in Afghanistan has forced a geopolitical recalculation that heightens Turkeys strategic regional importance. The continuation of a Turkish diplomatic presence in Afghanistan means that it would be in EU and US interests to work with Ankara to stabilize the region. Despite the purchase of an S-400 missile system from Russia remaining a source of tension in US-Turkey relations, Washington may welcome Turkeys stabilizing role in Afghanistan. Moreover, Turkish coordination of efforts on the crisis with Pakistan means that Ankara plays a key role in responding to Chinese influence in Central Asia. The EU, for its part, views the involvement of third countries, primarily Turkey, as key to regional security.

As for the Gulf states, the challenge Iran poses in Afghanistan means that Turkey is well-placed to improve its relationship with Saudi Arabia. Despite the risk of further isolation as a result of Turkish engagement with the Taliban, the current political environment in the region favors a reset. The end to the blockade on Qatar removes a key barrier to rebuilding Turkish-Saudi relations. Riyadhs ally, Egypt, has also expressed a willingness to reach a compromise with Turkey over gas quotas in the Eastern Mediterranean. Lastly, in the summer, the UAE made moves to re-engage with Turkey after its economy took a hit as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The question is whether Erdogan can build on these efforts to normalize relations with the West and the Gulf. With the situation in Afghanistan deteriorating, the Turkish president is in a strong position to do so.

By Global Risk Insights

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
The sooner Nord Stream 2 is commissioned and launched, the better chance the Russia-led gas pipeline to Germany will have to balance surging gas prices in Europe, including on the spot market, Kremlin spokesman

Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday.

Obviously, the commissioning of Nord Stream 2 as soon as possible will substantially balance natural gas price parameters in Europe, including on the spot market, Peskov told reporters in Moscow today, as carried by Russian news agency TASS.

Europes current natural gas demand is huge, and if the winter is colder than usual, even more gas will be needed, Peskov added.

Last Friday, Gazprom said it had completed the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, although gas flows on the controversial Russia-led pipeline cannot begin until Germany grants an operating license to the project.

Germanys federal networks regulator BNA said earlier this week that it would decide no later than January 8, 2022, whether it will certify Nord Stream 2 and issue an operating license for the natural gas pipeline.

Europe is grappling with soaring natural gas and electricity prices ahead of the winter heating season due to tight gas supplies, very low gas inventories across the continent, and low wind power generation amid still weather.

During the summer, even with the strong rebound in European natural gas demand and surging prices, Gazprom did not book additional entry capacity to Europe via Ukraine.

Analysts say that this could have been an opportunistic move from the Russian giant to drive up Europes gas prices further and take advantage of what are now the highest prices in 13 years. Other analysts think that Gazproms effective reduction in supplies would force Europe to recognize that gas customers on the continent need the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline to Germany bypassing Ukraine.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Vodafone Business, the enterprise arm of Vodafone Ghana, has announced various support packages for the growth of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in the month of September.



The initiative is aimed at underlining Vodafones holistic support to SMEs nationwide and empowering businesses to leverage technology to deliver innovative offerings to boost their businesses.



Commenting, Director of Vodafone Business, Tawa Bolarin, reiterated Vodafones commitment to cushioning indigenous enterprises with the needed digital support services tailored to drive sustainable business growth.



"Every year, we dedicate a full month to recognize, appreciate, reward, and engage with our esteemed business customers who are uniquely positioned to be the backbone of the Ghanaian economy. The theme for SME Month 2021 is Partnering for growth. Thus, in the spirit of partnering together, we have designed propositions that will enable growth for the businesses of our customers through a series of initiatives.



This month, fifty (50) indigenous businesses will receive free premium grade websites when they sign up to our 2 Moorch business Bundles, a value-laden mobile offering and best on the market today. This is expected to extend the reach of their businesses. In addition to this, enterprises will be provided with digital channels to make their services more accessible to a wider audience, ultimately accelerating customers and revenue,'' she said.



"Vodafone Business will offer sponsored training programmes for some selected business owners. Simply tell us the skills you want to develop, which will accelerate your growth and profitability, and we will arrange this for you. Also, we plan to embark on a paid advertising campaign for selected businesses to promote their products and services, which will further expand their reach and customer base.



For our customers, we have a full sponsorship of reward and loyalty packages for them. At Vodafone Business, we understand how critical loyalty and retention are to any business. So, we have sponsored rewards which businesses can give to their customers to reward them for their loyalty,'' she added.



According to the Director of Vodafone Business, Tawa Bolarin, her outfit will assist some local companies with free registration to enable smaller businesses to improve their professional image and qualify for even bigger opportunities. Furthermore, some businesses will enjoy 50% savings on their Vodafone bill, making them more profitable this month and there will be fantastic rewards for high transacting Vodafone Cash merchants.



All you have to do is be our customer to be eligible for selection, to the rewards we have in plan.



Our services include Mobile voice & data , fixed and dedicated broadband (One Business), website solution (Your Business On line), inventory manager (Red Trader), cloud services (Red Cloud) and a variety of solutions and bundles to cater for the comprehensive needs of your business.



Vodafones leadership in supporting SMEs to be productive, grow and succeed is unquestionable. Besides the bespoke products it offers, Vodafone Business has over the years introduced initiatives that build the capacity of SMEs, future-proof their businesses, and connect them to the eco-system for investment and partnership opportunities.



Innovation remains the Telcos hallmark and its 2 Moorch Business is currently the number one mobile package for businesses in Ghana today. Businesses on this offer also enjoy the opportunity to build their own plan. Customers can simply text START to 0507779000 to sign up.

Source: Peacefmonline.com/ghana









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The Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, has been appointed to serve on the Advisory Board of the Capacity Building Center (CBC) in the School of Education and Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).



With the appointment, which is a five-year term, Dr Adutwum joins other team members from academia, practitioners and policymakers who have demonstrated commitment to advancing local solutions to local problems.



This was contained in a letter of appointment dated September 9, 2021 and signed by the Director of Capacity Building Center, University of California, Los Angeles, Professor Walter R. Allen. PhD.



Dr Adutwum, who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bosomtwe, is to collaborate to develop organisational capacity to enhance the common good by enabling institutions and individuals to participate in their communities and societies fully.



"Given your leadership in education in the US and Ghana, your deep understanding of the needs of youth, students and institutions in both communities, your advice and insight will enhance our programme design and approach," the letter stated.



The board focuses on the participatory process as it targets investments to contribute to the development and sustainability of institutions, communities and nations.



Acceptance



In an acceptance letter to UCLA, Dr Adutwum was full of praise to the management and board of the university for the honour done him as he pledged to work diligently to justify his appointment.



He also pledged to collaborate with the team of advisors to do what they could to bring much change and improvement into their areas of operation for the good of the world.



Dr Adutwum is a career educationist in the areas of research, administration and policymaking for more than two and half decades.



His experience in the field of education over the past few years in the US and in Ghana has led to many world-class agencies admitting him to be part of their advisory boards.



In August this year, he was invited to be part of a high-level Advisory Board for Mission 4.7, a new global initiative to put in place the vision articulated by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG's) on Education.





Source: Graphiconline.com









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Deputy General Secretary of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Lawyer Obiri Boahen, has condemned Rev. Dr. Isaac Owusu Bempah for taking matters into in his own hands by storming the residential premises of fetish priest turned evangelist Patricia Oduro popularly known as Agradaa, to "teach her a lesson".



He says as a renowned man of God, the Leader and Founder of the Glorious Word and Power Ministries International should have known better.



Speaking on Okay FM's Ade Akye Abia programme, he explained because of his revered status, Rev Bempah should not entertain certain acts that will bring the name of Christ into disrepute.



"Like his colleague men of God who have sworn to be leaders of the Gospel, I don't think they should have to stoop so low to have an altercation with the likes of Agradaa, who you are far above them in the ministry.



"Moreover, with no prejudice, I think Rev. Owusu Bempah should have exercised a little restraint or patience. He acted wrongly and indecisively. Men of God in this country have some aura around them and any time I hear them preach or speak, I listen to them religiously and I don't expect them to behave the way and manner in which Rev. Owusu Bempah did," Obiri Boahen stated.



He noted that, for this act, the widely-acclaimed man of God got it wrong.



Rev. Owusu Bempah In Custody



The Founder and Leader of the Glorious Word Power Ministries is currently in police custody.



Rev. Bempah, who has been charged with threat of life - for threatening to kill Nana Agraada - as well as offensive conduct to the breach of peace, made his first appearance before the Accra Circuit Court on Monday, along with four other members of the church.



The other four were also refused bail.



Owusu Bempah and his co-accused church leaders were taken to court amidst a heavy police escort.



The court appearance of the accused saw a good number of members of the church thronged the court premises, ostensibly to witness proceedings.



Tamper Justice With Mercy



Meanwhile, Chairman for the National Prophetic And Apostolic Council (NPAAC), Archbishop Elisha Salifu Amoako, has on behalf of the Council pleaded with the IGP, the Court and especially President Akufo-Addo to assist in granting bail to Rev. Isaac Owusu Bempah.



According to the Founder and Leader of Alive Chapel International, the NPAAC is concerned with the remand of the co-chair of the Council in police custody by the Court.



Watch Video Below





Source: Isaac Kwame Owusu/Peacefmonline/[email protected]









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Francis Dodovi, a member of the Communication team of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has commended the Acting Inspector-General of Police, Dr George Akuffo Dampare for the arrest of Rev. Owusu Bempah



The Founder and Leader of Glorious Word Power Ministries International, Reverend Isaac Owusu Bempah, was arrested with three of his junior pastors for issuing threats, brandishing weapons and attacking Police officers on Sunday.



Meanwhile, he has been denied bail and remanded in police custody after appearing in court on Monday



Contributing to a panel discussion on Kumasi-based Hello FM, Francis Dodovi said: "arresting Owusu Bempah is a good step and he (Dr Akuffo Dampare) needs to be commended....some of these pastors need to know they can't take the law into their own hands...he's started on a good note".



Listen to him in the video below





Source: Peacefmonline.com









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FGRBPL, operators of the Bogoso Prestea Mines (BPM), emerged as joint winners of the Inter-Mines Zonal First Aid Competition with industry "rivals", Anglogold Iduapriem Mine.



The other competitors in a tough contest were Gold Fields  Tarkwa Mine, and Ghana Manganese Company. The quiz was in two parts, a practical demonstration of first aid emergency response, and an oral what do you know competition.



In a tight finish, BPM and AngloGold Iduapriem Mine led with 45.5 points each from both competitions, qualifying them to participate in the national competition, to be hosted by BPM on November 7, 2021.



The Inter-Mines First Aid and Safety Competition is an annual event that is held under the auspices of the Chamber of Mines, with support from the Inspectorate Division of the Minerals Commission and St John Ambulance, to highlight the importance of first aid and safety in the sector.



It is designed to test the practical and theoretical knowledge of the safety teams of the respective companies and has in recent years increasingly been an important industry-calendar event.



This year, it was held under the theme: "Protect others by protecting yourself; COVID-19 is real!"



Since the introduction of the competition 44 years ago, BPM has made it to the finals each year, except for 2011. Participants from BPM are usually drawn across the various departments of the mine, since occupational safety and emergency response protocols and practices are integrated across the entire operations.



BPM, this year, was represented by Primilla Osei (Mining Department), Kwame Kyei Addo (Health, Safety, Environment, and Community Department), Ebenezer Otabil (Health, Safety, Environment, and Community Department), Isaac Egyir (Surface Mining Department), and Raymond Cudjoe (Supply Chain Department).



In the past five years, basic schools in host communities have been made part of the safety competitions and participated in quiz and essay writing competitions at the zonal and national levels. Apart from 2019, when the representatives from BPMs host community schools placed second at the national level, they have maintained first place throughout.



Such representatives become first aid and safety ambassadors in the communities and are useful contacts for organizing health and safety outreaches.



One of them, after winning the inter-mines essay competition, was later judged as one of the best students in Ghana and awarded the Presidential Award for her outstanding performance in the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).

Source: Peacefmonline.com/ghana









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The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that Africa has been "left behind by the rest of the world" regarding coronavirus vaccines.



Speaking at a press conference Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said only two countries in Africa had reached the WHO target to vaccinate 40% of their population by the end of 2021.



He said that is the lowest of any region.



Dr. Tedros said more than 5.7 billion doses of coronavirus jabs had been administered globally but only 2% of those were given in Africa and warned that if vaccines are not shared fairly the virus will have more chance to mutate.

Source: BBC









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The Minister of Transport, Hon. Kwaku Ofori Asiamah has charged the Governing Board of Metro Mass Transit Limited (MMTL) to bring their expertise to bear by introducing innovative measures that will help turn around the transport company.



According to the Minister, the challenges confronting the transport company are enormous and will require wise counselling and decisions from the Board, teamwork and experience to address them.



Inaugurating a nine-member Governing Board of MMTL in Accra on Tuesday, September 14, 2021, on behalf of Mr. Asiamah, the deputy Minister of Transport, Frederick Obeng Adom, tasked the Board to take up the challenge and ensure that the operations of the transport company are boosted.



Over the years, the company has gone through several challenges, including the drastic reduction in operational fleet, frequent breakdowns and rising operational cost. It is our expectation that the new Board will take up this challenge to ensure that the company is revived to the level of winning back its share of the market and expand its services, he noted.



The Minister also entreated the Board to work in unison with Management of the company to address the increasing number of agitations among MMTLs workforce and ensure that industrial harmony prevails, stressing that these agitations if not addressed could potentially derail the ongoing efforts.



Among the Governing Board members of Metro Mass Transit Limited are, Hon. Kofi Ahenkorah Marfo, Chairman, Mr. Albert Adu-Boahene, Member, Mr. Francis Kofi-Nunoo, Member, Mr. Robert Karikari-Darko, Member, and Mrs. Bernadette Addo Dankwa, Member.



The rest are Dr. Joseph Okine Afrane, Member, Nana Yaw Mantey, Member, Mr. Marcus Deo Dake, Member and Mad. Angelina T. A. Mensah, Member.



Mr. Asiamah commenting further said the Ministry between 2018 and 2019 supported the MMTL with a total of 100 new intercity buses to revamp operations.



That notwithstanding, the Ministry is pursuing other arrangements to bring in more buses to augment operations.



However, there would be the need to improve infrastructures such as terminals and maintenance workshops, urging the Board to support Management to deliver on its mandate.



The Ministry, on its part, he added, will provide the needed support and guidelines to enable the Board deliver on its mandate but cautioned against unfortunate practices of the temptation by the Board to take over the role of management in any instance.



I will entreat the Board and Management to work as a team to realize the objectives of the company. As a matter of caution, I wish also to remind the Board that under the governance framework, they are under the supervision of the Ministry and for that matter, must report directly to the Ministry no matter the magnitude of the issues and we will do our best to resolve it. I operate an open-door policy, and members are free to knock on my door as and when you require my attention to discuss issues of importance to the development and improvement of MMTLs operations, he noted.



Chairman of the Board, Hon. Kofi Ahenkorah Marfo, speaking on the task bequeathed on the shoulders of the Board said they are poised to working together with Management of the company to achieve their objectives.



He expressed their appreciation to the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, for having reposed confidence in them by nominating them to serve on the Governing Board of MMTL.



As a Board, we are aware of the huge challenge thrown to us as a result of the matters we will be faced with to resolve and surmount. We, however, pledge that we are ready to face these challenges squarely and deal appropriately with them, he noted.



He urged Members of the Board to work hard as a team as they strive to make Metro Mass Transit Limited the most preferred transport company in the sub-region.



We promise to work in unison with all stakeholders of the company including the government as a whole, the Ministry of Transport, shareholders, employees, passengers among others to lift up the company to its rightful place, he pledged.



Touching on the challenges of the company, Hon. Marfo said the Board together with Management will explore all the avenues at their disposal to get spare parts to revamp all broken down buses and also ensure that those that have been declared not fit for purpose are scrapped off.



Welfare issues of workers of MMTL, he added, will duly be addressed.

Source: Peacefmonline.com/ghana









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Featured Video
Glorious Word Power Ministries International (GWPMI) has apologised to all affected Journalists, Media Houses and the Ghana Journalist Association (GJA) who were reportedly attacked by some people believed to be sympathizers of Apostle Dr Isaac Owusu Bempah at the premises of the Circuit Court, Accra on 13th September 2021.



According to the leadership of the church, the act was not sanctioned by the church and as such condemn it in no uncertain terms, reiterating that the church does not support any form of violence.



In a press release copied to Peacefmonline.com, the Glorious Word Power Ministries International (GWPMI) has rendered an unqualified apology to the media as they acknowledge the key role of the media in the society, pledging their full cooperation and support in ensuring that this incident does not repeat.



Below Is The Full Press Statement From GWPMI:



Glorious Word Power Ministries International has learnt with regret an attack on some journalists reportedly meted out by some people believed to be sympathizers of Apostle Dr Isaac Owusu Bempah at the premises of the Circuit Court, Accra on 13th September 2021.



We humbly wish to indicate that as a church, we do not support any form of violence. We reiterate that this act was not sanctioned by us and as such we condemn it in no uncertain terms.



The church would like to render an unqualified apology to all affected Journalists, Media Houses, and the Ghana Journalist Association. We acknowledge the key role the media plays in our society and as such we pledge our full cooperation and support in ensuring that this incident does not repeat.



We plead with the affected media organizations and journalists to kindly accept our apology. Thank you and God bless you all!



Signed



Glorious Word Power Ministries International (GWPMI)

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Source: Daniel Adu Darko/Peacefmonline.com









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Tereo Marghuy, the father of one of the rastafarian boys whose admission to Achimota School has become controversial, says he suspects the schools Old Students Association to be instigating the Attorney Generals appeal against the High Courts ruling that went in their favour earlier this year.



He said while he is not surprised about the appeal, he finds it curious that the Attorney Generals office would go ahead with an appeal despite conceding to the ruling in court.



Mr. Marghuy said the appeal is ill-motivated, especially as his son has already settled in the school environment, and has even been listed among the schools candidates for the annual National Science and Maths Quiz in two years time.



If they had filed the appeal shortly after the ruling, it would have made sense, but now he [Tyrone Marghuy] has been in the school and they have even added him to the squad for the National Maths and Science Quiz for the next two years It is not really okay. I think there are some people behind the scenes who are not working in favour of the school, he said.



In a notice of appeal sighted by Citi News, the Attorney General said the High court judge, Justice Gifty Agyei Addo, who had earlier ruled that the two Rastafarian boys, Tyrone Marhguy and Ohene Nkrabea be admitted to the school with their dreadlocks, erred.



According to the AG, the request by the school for the boys to cut their hair before being admitted was not a violation of their rights to education, as the judge averred.



The AGs office said the trial judge also failed to appreciate the effect of placing the needed weight on the rules and regulations of Achimota School, which borders on the accepted hairstyles of students.



But speaking on Eyewitness News, Mr. Marghuy said he believes that majority of Ghanaians are behind them.



I am not surprised because I realized along the line that they will appeal. That loss they had was something that they couldnt take How could a whole Attorney-General be in favour of the ruling and suddenly not be in favour of the ruling. I think it is something that is happening in the background, behind the scene, that makes them think they should go for the appeal. My suspicion is that, it is the old students behind the scenes [but]. I know most Ghanaians are in our favour, he said.





Meanwhile, Child Rights International has vowed to fight the Attorney Generals office and the Achimota School, as the two have filed an appeal to overturn a high court ruling that ordered the school to admit the rastafarian boy with dreadlocks.

Source: citinewsroom









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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.
The Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) is set to train taxi and Uber drivers at the Kotoka International Airport to serve as tourism brand ambassadors, Mr. Akwesi Agyeman, Chief Executive Officer of the Authority, has said.



He said, In some few weeks, we are going to engage taxi and Uber drivers at the airport because they are also in the frontline in the tourism value chain and we want them not just to be able to carry passengers and move them but be worthy brand ambassadors for the country.



Mr. Agyeman said this at the opening of a training programme for Tourism Inspectorate Officers across the country as part of efforts to build their capacity in driving the tourism industry.



He said the training of taxi and Uber drivers had become necessary because they were the first point of contact for tourists, both local and foreign.



Mr. Agyeman said the training of the inspectors was also crucial so they could monitor facilities and ensure they operated with the laid down regulations that had been passed under the Ghana Tourism Act, Act 817 of 2013.



He said the five-day training had all inspectors across the 16 regions, who would be taken through the basic rudiments of inspecting tourism establishments and other topics by officials from the National Security, COVID-19 Taskforce, and the Ghana Health Service.



He said, Some of the common defects experienced over the years in some tourism facilities are disability-friendly facilities, issues of customer service, standards of facilities, among others and we want to equip the inspectors to be able to understand what to look out for when they visit the facilities.



Mr. Agyeman said apart from the training, the Authority was focusing on four key areas of product knowledge for frontline operators, customer service training that cut across all sectors, digital skills training for middle-level operators, and sales training within the hospitality sector.



He said plans were also advanced to introduce basic French lessons for frontline hotel staff to equip them with basic conversational French, adding that signages would also be provided at the facilities to make francophone clients comfortable.

Source: Daily Guide









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The former president John Dramani Mahama has accused the Akufo-Addo-led government of abandoning major projects across the country started by his administration.



According to him, the act of discontinuing projects started by previous governments is just being introduced by the current government, describing it as unfortunate and disturbing.



It is sad and disheartening. What I can say is, it is this government that has started it.



I was in Rawlingss administration as a deputy minister and later a minister. When we handed over to President John Agyekum Kufuors administration, I never saw or heard that a contractor was stopped from continuing a project.



He completed all projects, I didnt see any abandoned project. It was the same in the late President Millss government and I also continued after Mills.



It is this government that has asked all contractors to stop their work for review. Its been five years and some works are still under review and have been left abandoned.



2024 promise

Mahama said the NDC if given the nod in the 2024 elections will see to the completion of all abandoned projects in the country.



I have said that when the NDC comes to power in 2024, for the first year or two, the NDC will focus on finishing all abandoned projects. It doesnt mean we will not do any new projects  of course urgent or emergent projects will be done, when need be  but resources will be geared towards completing all abandoned projects for the benefit of Ghana.



Lambasted

The 2020 defeated presidential candidate of the NDC is on a two-day visit to the Ashanti Region as part of his nationwide thank you tour.



He is expected to meet selected religious leaders and chiefs as well as the party faithful and other unidentified groups in the region.



Meanwhile, a group calling itself NDC Ashanti Youth released a statement before Mahamas visit to region lambasting the former president for neglecting the area during his time in office.



The group said the party needs a new flagbearer who will build a formidable party going into Election 2024.



However, the press statement has been condemned by the Ashanti Regional communications officer of the NDC, Abass Nurudeen. He has described it as faceless and an ill-conceived release from the stables of the New Patriotic Party.



Loretta Timah



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Ashanti Region Election 2024 John Dramani Mahama Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo National Democratic Congress (NDC) NDC Ashanti Youth President John Agyekum Kufuor.









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Both North and South Korea fired ballistic missiles on Wednesday, September 15, increasing tensions in an already hostile Korean peninsula.



North Korea fired the first missiles on Wednesday, sending two into waters off the east coast of the Korean Peninsula five minutes apart, at 12:38 p.m. and 12:43 p.m. local time (11:38 p.m. and 11:43 p.m. ET), according to Japan, who labeled the action as 'dangerous'



South Korea, the North's neighbor that houses tens of thousands of US troops, replied less than three hours later with their own submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBM)



The South Korean missiles were fired, from a new submerged 3,700-ton submarine ROKS Dosan Ahn Changho, South Korea's Defense Ministry said, also revealing that South Korean President Moon Jae-in was present for the test.



The missile hit its target accurately, the ministry said without giving more details.



South Korea's weapons development, and its missile capabilities has been on an upward trend as they become more wary of the growing missile program in North Korea.



Wednesday's missile tests from both Koreas came just a few hours after Moon met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Seoul.



China exerts some influence over North Korea, and during the meeting, Moon said Pyongyang has not been responding to efforts by Seoul and Washington to engage in dialogue concerning the situation on the peninsula



In May, South Korea's Moon and US President Joe Biden agreed to end a 40-year-old bilateral agreement that limited the range and payload of South Korean missiles



With the missile launch, South Korea becomes the seventh military in the world to successfully test an SLBM



The other SLBM nations have nuclear weapons, although South Korea does not have nuclear weapons.













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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Peacefmonline.com can confirm that Leader and Founder of the Glorious Word And Power Ministries International, Prophet Isaac Owusu Bempah, has been granted bail by an Accra High Court.



He was granted bail in the sum of Ghc200,000 with two sureties, on health grounds.



He is, however, expected to return to court on Monday for the continuation of the case. This was after the court upheld an appeal by his lawyer, Gary Nimako Marfo, against an earlier decision of an Accra Circuit Court not to grant him bail.



The controversial preacher was said to have been hospitalized at the Police Hospital in Accra, a few hours after he and four others were denied bail and remanded for a week by a Circuit Court in Accra.



The renowned preacher was charged with offensive conduct conducive to breach of peace, the threat of death, and assault of office public officers.



He and four others were remanded into police custody to reappear on Monday, September 20, 2021, after they spent a day in cells on Sunday.



The Judge, Afia Owusuaa Appiah, said this will allow the police more time to carry out further investigations.





More soon......

Source: Isaac Kwame Owusu/Peacefmonline/[email protected]









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Astute Ghanaian media personality, Nana Aba Anamoah, has expressed her heartfelt gratitude to the vice president, Dr. Bawumia for coming to the aid of distressed veteran actor, Psalm Adjeteyfio of Taxi Driver popularly known as TT.



Nana Aba Anamoah, who was offended by these remarks, expressed her thoughts on her Twitter page, stating she was delighted the Vice President could help because many people were aware of TTs condition but did nothing to help.



She went ahead and shared a screenshot of what she posted on Twitter on her Instagram page, saying that theres nothing like a small gesture and that every gesture has an unending ripple effect.



Sharing the screenshot she captioned;

Theres no such thing as a small act of kindness.

Every gesture has a ripple effect with no logical end.

Be kind.







Source: Eugene Osafo-Nkansah/Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Most citizens in rich nations support individual climate action. (PHOTO: Getty Creative)

By Laura Millan Lombrana

(Bloomberg)  A majority of citizens in North America, Europe and Asia arent too confident that the international community will succeed in fighting climate change, but theyre willing to make changes to their own lives to slow global warming.

As many as 80% of citizens in 17 developed economies including the U.S., U.K., Germany, Singapore and South Korea are willing to make some and a lot of alterations to how they live and work, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center released on Tuesday.

In contrast, 52% said theyre not too confident, or not at all confident, that countries will be able to tackle the effects of climate change. Those surveyed see the European Union's and the United Nations response to the crisis as good, while the U.S. and China got poor marks.

The report was published less than two months before global leaders gather in Glasgow for UN-sponsored talks known as COP26. Countries are expected to come up with more ambitious measures to significantly cut greenhouse gas emissions in order to arrest global warming from its current path of 3 degrees Celsius by the end of the century.

Citizens are more concerned that climate change will affect them personally than they were in 2015, when the global community signed the Paris Agreement to take steps to keep global warming below 2C and close to 1.5C.

Out of the countries surveyed, Germans showed the greatest increase in worry. The number of respondents who said they were very concerned that climate change will harm them personally at some point in their lifetime rose 19 percentage points from 2015. The survey was conducted between Feb. 1 and May 26, before devastating floods left over 240 people dead in the countrys west.

A majority of citizens said theyre either somewhat or very concerned about how global warming would affect their lives even in countries that havent led on climate action historically. Only in Sweden 56% of respondents said they were not at all or not too concerned about climate change. In Japan, the amount of people very worried fell 8 percentage points from 2015.

Story continues

Young people are more likely to be concerned about climate change than their older counterparts, with gaps as large as 40% in Sweden and 31% in New Zealand. Similarly, women are more concerned than men that global warming will harm them personally.

The survey, which was conducted through telephone interviews with 18,850 people, showed citizens have mixed views over the economic impact of actions taken to fight climate change. A median of 31% across all 17 countries surveyed said these actions will be good for the economy, 24% thought they would mostly harm it and 39% said they will have no economic impact.

 2021 Bloomberg L.P.
Telenor, which has had a commercial presence in Myanmar since 2014, said the demand to install surveillance equipment was one of the reasons behind its decision to leave the country (AFP/STR)

Telenor said Wednesday the Myanmar military junta had demanded it install equipment to intercept communications on the network the Norwegian firm operates in the country.

Telenor announced in July it plans to sell Telenor Myanmar, saying only that since the February coup that ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her government it had become increasingly difficult to operate in the country.

But on Wednesday it disclosed that the junta wanted it to install monitoring equipment on the network with some 18 million customers.

"Telenor has not installed such equipment and we will not do so voluntarily," a spokesman for the firm said in a statement, noting that complying would contravene Norwegian and international sanctions.

The firm added that "operating such equipment in this situation would constitute a breach of our values and standards as a company."

It was not immediately clear if the junta had made similar demands of other telecoms operators present in Myanmar, which include Qatar's Ooredoo as well as local groups Mytel and MPT.

Telenor, which has had a commercial presence in Myanmar since 2014, said the demand to install surveillance equipment was one of the reasons behind its decision to leave.

It reiterated that it believes that selling Telenor Myanmar is "the least detrimental solution" for the country.

But in July, 474 civil society groups in Myanmar called Telenor's decision to pull out irresponsible, saying it had not sufficiently considered the impact of the move on human rights.

Telenor said it "is deeply concerned and saddened by the deteriorating human rights and security situation caused by the military takeover, especially for the people of Myanmar."

Telenor plans to sell it Myanmar network to Lebanese conglomerate M1 Group.

The Norwegian firm said it submitted the paperwork for the transaction at the end of August to Myanmar authorities.

phy/cw/rl/lth
Figure 1. Photographs and drawings of a lagonomegopid spider (CNU-ARA-MA2016101) and egg sac in Burmese amber CNU009432. (a) Habitus, dorsal view; (b) three-dimensional CT reconstruction, dorsal view, gray represents CNU-ARA-MA2016101, yellow represents egg sac; (c) schematic drawing of dorsal habitus; (d) habitus, ventral view; (e) cross-section of egg sac, the details in boxes are enlarged and shown in other figures; (f) three-dimensional CT reconstruction of egg sac, dorsal view; (g) silk thread of the spider egg sac; (h) details of egg sac, showing prelarvae and egg membranes (arrow); (i) details of egg sac, showing prelarvae and egg membranes (arrows); (j) left tarsus I lateral view, showing trichobothria (asterisks). Scale bars represent 2 mm (a,c,d), 0.5 mm (e), 0.2 mm (h,i,j) and 0.01 mm (g); scale bars are absent in (b) and (f). Credit: DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2021.1279

A trio of researchers with Capital Normal University in China has found evidence of a mother spider protecting her young in an amber sample dated back to 99 million years ago. In their paper published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Xiangbo Guo, Paul Selden and Dong Rend describe where the sample was found and what they learned about the spider it contains.

Many modern spider species have been found to take measures to ensure the survival of their offspringfemales have been seen crouching to cover hatchlings, for example, and producing silk to tie and hold eggs closely together. In this new effort, the researchers have found evidence of a mother spider from the mid-Cretaceous exhibiting the same behavior.

The researchers found four chunks of amber that had been extracted from a mine in Myanmar that contained entombed spiders. In one of the chunks, they found an adult female with a bit of her egg sac still intact underneath her body. Study of the facial features showed that the spider was a member of the extinct Lagonomegopidae family. The researchers also noted that the female was in a stance very similar to that of modern female spiders who are engaged in protecting their eggs from predators. A closer look showed the female had also used her own silk to tie the eggs together. Notably, some scientists have suggested that silk production in spiders began with attempts to tie eggs together, and once it was established, they began using it for other purposes, such as building webs.

The three other chunks of amber contained baby spiders and spider thread. One also had what appeared to be an arthropod leg and a wasp. The researchers suggest it is likely that each chunk of amber holds related spiderlingsall of which have been identified as members of the Lagonomegopidae family. The researchers note that both the adult female and the groups of spiderlings all had large eyes, which suggests they were free-range hunters rather than web builders. They also note that one of the chunks contains bits of material suggesting the spiderlings had recently exited a nest.

Explore further Spiders use pre-tensioned silk to hoist prey off the ground

More information: Xiangbo Guo et al, Maternal care in Mid-Cretaceous lagonomegopid spiders, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (2021). Journal information: Proceedings of the Royal Society B Xiangbo Guo et al, Maternal care in Mid-Cretaceous lagonomegopid spiders,(2021). DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2021.1279

 2021 Science X Network
Credit: University of Manchester

A 900-year-old cosmic mystery surrounding the origins of a famous supernova first spotted over China in 1181 AD has finally been solved, according to an international team of astronomers.

New research published today (September 15, 2021) says that a faint, fast expanding cloud (or nebula), called Pa30, surrounding one of the hottest stars in the Milky Way, known as Parker's Star, fits the profile, location and age of the historic supernova.

There have only been five bright supernovae in the Milky Way in the last millennium (starting in 1006). Of these, the Chinese supernova, which is also known as the "Chinese Guest Star" of 1181 AD has remained a mystery. It was originally seen and documented by Chinese and Japanese astronomers in the 12th century who said it was as bright as the planet Saturn and remained visible for six months. They also recorded an approximate location in the sky of the sighting, but no confirmed remnant of the explosion has even been identified by modern astronomers. The other four supernovae are all now well known to modern day science and include the famous Crab nebula.

The source of this 12th century explosion remained a mystery until this latest discovery made by a team of international astronomers from Hong Kong, the UK, Spain, Hungary and France, including Professor Albert Zijlstra from The University of Manchester. In the new paper, the astronomers found that the Pa 30 nebula is expanding at an extreme velocity of more than 1,100 km per second (at this speed, traveling from the Earth to the moon would take only five minutes). They use this velocity to derive an age at around 1,000 years, which would coincide with the events of 1181 AD.

Prof Zijlstra (Professor in Astrophysics at the University of Manchester) explains: "The historical reports place the guest star between two Chinese constellations, Chuanshe and Huagai. Parker's Star fits the position well. That means both the age and location fit with the events of 1181."

Pa 30 and Parker's Star have previously been proposed as the result of a merger of two White Dwarfs. Such events are thought to lead to a rare and relatively faint type of supernova, called a Type Iax supernova.

Prof Zijlstra added: "Only around 10% of supernovae are of this type and they are not well understood. The fact that SN1181 was faint but faded very slowly fits this type. It is the only such event where we can study both the remnant nebula and the merged star, and also have a description of the explosion itself."

The merging of remnant stars, white dwarfs and neutron stars, give rise to extreme nuclear reactions and form heavy, highly neutron-rich elements such as gold and platinum. Prof. Zijlstra said: "Combining all this information such as the age, location, event brightness and historically recorded 185-day duration, indicates that Parker's star and Pa30 are the counterparts of SN 1181. This is the only Type Iax supernova where detailed studies of the remnant star and nebula are possible. It is nice to be able to solve both a historical and an astronomical mystery."

Explore further Why have so few Milky Way supernovae been observed over the last millennium?

More information: Andreas Ritter et al, The Remnant and Origin of the Historical Supernova 1181 AD, The Astrophysical Journal Letters (2021). Journal information: Astrophysical Journal Letters Andreas Ritter et al, The Remnant and Origin of the Historical Supernova 1181 AD,(2021). DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/ac2253
An artist's impression of the gas and dust in the protoplanetary disk surrounding the young star. The inset shows the molecular gas targeted by the MAPS observations, made up of a soup' of both simple and complex molecules in the vicinity of still-forming planets. Credit: M.Weiss/Center for Astrophysics/Harvard & Smithsonian

Analysis of unique fingerprints in light emitted from material surrounding young stars has revealed "significant reservoirs" of large organic molecules necessary to form the basis of life, say researchers.

Dr. John Ilee, Research Fellow at the University of Leeds who led the study, says the findings suggest that the basic chemical conditions that resulted in life on Earth could exist more widely across the Galaxy.

The large organic molecules were identified in protoplanetary disks circling newly formed stars. A similar disk would have once surrounded the young Sun, forming the planets that now make up our Solar System. The presence of the molecules is significant because they are "stepping-stones" between simpler carbon-based molecules such as carbon monoxide, found in abundance in space, and more complex molecules that are required to create and sustain life.

Details of the study are published today and will appear in the Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series. It is one of 20 papers reporting on a major international investigation into the chemistry of planet formation.

Dr. Catherine Walsh in the School of Physics and Astronomy was one of the five Co-PIs leading the investigation. Called the 'Molecules with ALMA at Planet-forming Scales' (or MAPS) program, it has used data collected by the Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array (or ALMA) radio telescope in Chile.

Dr. Ilee and his team, comprising astrophysicists from 16 universities across the world, focused on studying the existence, location and abundance of the precursor molecules needed for life to form.

He said: "These large complex organic molecules are found in various environments throughout space. Laboratory and theoretical studies have suggested that these molecules are the 'raw ingredients' for building molecules that are essential components in biological chemistry on Earth, creating sugars, amino acids and even the components of ribonucleic acid (RNA) under the right conditions.

"However, many of the environments where we find these complex organic molecules are pretty far removed from where and when we think planets form. We wanted to understand more about where exactly, and how much of, these molecules were present in the birthplaces of planetsprotoplanetary disks."

ALMAobserving chemistry deep in space

The investigation has been made possible by advances in the ability of the ALMA telescope to detect very faint signals from the molecules in the coldest regions of outer space.

At ALMA, a network of over 60 antennas is combined so that the observatory can detect the signal from these molecules. Each molecule emits light at distinctly different wavelengths producing a unique spectral 'fingerprint'. These fingerprints allow scientists to identify the presence of the molecules and investigate their properties.

Four of the protoplanetary discs  GM Aur, AS 209, HD 163296 & MWC 480  observed within the MAPS project. The top row shows emission from large (millimetre sized) dust in the disks. The bottom row shows a three-colour composite image of emission from the large organic molecules HC3N (red), CH3CN (green) and c-C3H2 (blue) in each disk. Dashed circles with a radius of 50 astronomical units indicate the scale of the comet-forming region in our own Solar System. Credit: Dr J.D.Ilee/University of Leeds

Dr. Walsh explained "The power of ALMA has allowed us to measure the distribution and composition of material that is actively building planets around nearby young stars for the first time. The telescope is powerful enough to do this even for large complex molecules that are precursors for life."

The research team was looking for three moleculescyanoacetylene (HC3N), acetonitrile (CH3CN), and cyclopropenylidene (c-C3H2)  in five protoplanetary disks, known as IM Lup, GM Aur, AS 209, HD 163296 and MWC 480. The protoplanetary disks range between 300 and 500 light years from earth. All of the disks show signatures of on-going planet formation occurring within them.

Protoplanetary disks 'feed' young planets

The protoplanetary disk that surrounds a young planet will "feed" it with material as it forms.

For example, it is thought that the young Earth was seeded with material via impacts of asteroids and comets that had formed in the protoplanetary disk around the Sun. But scientists were uncertain whether all protoplanetary disks contain reservoirs of complex organic molecules capable of creating biologically significant molecules.

This study is beginning to answer that question. It found the molecules in four out of the five disks observed. In addition, the abundance of the molecules was greater than the scientists had expected.

Dr. Ilee said: "ALMA has allowed us to look for these molecules in the innermost regions of these disks, on size scales similar to our Solar System, for the first time. Our analysis shows that the molecules are primarily located in these inner regions with abundances between 10 and 100 times higher than models had predicted."

Importantly, the disk regions in which the molecules were located are also where asteroids and comets form. Dr. Ilee says it is possible a process akin to that which may have helped to initiate life on Earth could also happen in these diskswhere bombardment by asteroids and comets transfers the large organic molecules to the newly formed planets.

Dr. Walsh added: "The key result of this work shows that the same ingredients needed for seeding life on our planet are also found around other stars. It is possible that the molecules that are needed to kick-start life on planets are readily available in all planet-forming environments."

One of the next questions the researchers want to investigate is whether even more complex molecules exist in the protoplanetary disks.

Dr. Ilee added: "If we are finding molecules like these in such large abundances, our current understanding of interstellar chemistry suggests that even more complex molecules should also be observable."

"We're hoping to use ALMA to search for the next stepping stones of chemical complexity in these disks. If we detect them, then we'll be even closer to understanding how the raw ingredients of life can be assembled around other stars."

Explore further Scientists discover organic acid in a protoplanetary disk

More information: A series of 20 papers detailing the project, named Molecules with ALMA at Planet-forming Scales, or MAPS, was published today in the open-access repository arXiv. The papers have been accepted to the Astrophysical Journal Supplement as a forthcoming special edition series to showcase the high-resolution images and their implications. Journal information: Astrophysical Journal Supplement A series of 20 papers detailing the project, named Molecules with ALMA at Planet-forming Scales, or MAPS, was published today in the open-access repository arXiv. The papers have been accepted to theas a forthcoming special edition series to showcase the high-resolution images and their implications.
The Eastern Barred Bandicoot that once roamed the Australian mainland has been brought back from the brink of extinction.

A small nocturnal marsupial that once roamed the Australian mainland has been brought back from the brink of extinction after a decades-long conservation effort, authorities said Wednesday.

The Eastern Barred Bandicoot populated the grassy plains of Victoria state's southwest until it was all but obliterated by non-native foxes, feral cats and habitat destruction.

By 1989, there were just 150 animals left in the region, mostly scrounging an existence in rusted-out cars at a rubbish dump.

Over the past three decades, multi-million dollar captive breeding and rewilding programmes have revived the mainland Australian population to an estimated 1,500bumping it off the state's "extinct in the wild" list.

"We are excited to announce the change in conservation status for the Eastern Barred Bandicoot from extinct in the wild to endangered - it is an incredible first for Australia," Victoria state Environment Minister Lily D'Ambrosio said.

A closely related sub-species can also be found on the southern island of Tasmania, where it is classified as vulnerable.

The announcement is a rare conservation win in Australia, which environmentalists say has the world's worst mammal extinction rate.

Amy Coetsee, threatened species biologist at Zoos Victoria, said it offered "hope that with persistence, determination and the support of government, volunteers and communities, we can win the fight against extinction".

The announcement is a rare conservation win in Australia, which environmentalists say has the world's worst mammal extinction rate.

Conservation teams created several predator-free sites for the bandicootssome fenced and others protected by trained dogsas well as moving animals to fox-free islands.

The areas were populated with bandicoots largely bred in captivity by Zoos Victoria, which is now ending that breeding programme on account of the success.

Coetsee said the organisation was "100 percent confident" that the Eastern Barred Bandicoot was now secure in the wild.

There are about 20 known species of bandicoots in Australia and New Guinea, several of which are classified as endangered or extinct.

Explore further Australian mammals at greatest risk from cats and foxes, new study

 2021 AFP
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

New climate migration modeling work projects increased numbers of people moving within their countries in the developing worldas many as 216 million internal migrants by 2050. The modeling completes work for the World Bank that was released in 2018 as volume 1 of Groundswell. The Climate School's Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) has once again partnered with the Bank, the CUNY Institute for Demographic Research, and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impacts Research to model the remaining World Bank Regions. The completed work, now released in Groundswell Part II, focuses on three new regionsNorth Africa, Central America, and the Lower Mekongand includes reviews of climate migration issues for small island developing states (SIDS) and the Middle East. The projected total of "climate migrants" by 2050 in the countries featured in Map 1 is between 48 million (at the low end of the climate friendly scenario) and 216 million (at the high end of the pessimistic scenario).

This work is based on a population gravity modeling approach that projects the future spatial distribution of population with and without climate impacts, focusing on sectoral impacts on water and crops. Looking at the difference between the two projections enabled us to infer population movements owing to climate impacts. An advantage of the Groundswell model is that it can project migration at far broader scales than is typically possible using alternative modeling approaches (e.g., agent-based modeling (ABM's) or system dynamics models), and it produces helpful maps for policy makers to identify potential future hotspots of in- or out-migration (see Map 2). In doing so, it puts a "human face" on climate impacts. While the likely geographic distribution and numbers of migrants are almost certain to be different by 2050 than what we project, the report and modeling work has effectively created space for dialog with policy makers about the steps needed to prepare for likely increases in migration and displacement owing to climate impacts. (I address elsewhere that the term "climate migrants" is imprecise, and that they are best conceived of as distressed or mixed migrants who move at least in part owing to climate impacts.)

At the time of the 2018 release, I published a blog post on the need to prepare for climate migration and the policy options for doing so. In the interim, I've begun exploring in greater depth the ways in which development agencies are addressing climate mobility, and ways to improve this practice. Some of this thinking is expressed in an open access article in Population & Environment that I recently published with colleagues in Europe and the US. In that article we review development agency project documentation and reports to assess what approaches are being taken to address climate mobility, and what we should do. Approaches that are currently being taken can be broken down into three categories:

Building the resilience of communities in climate-impacted areas so they can adapt locally rather than have to move. These include measures such as disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate-adaptive agriculture. But governance measures are also critical, since findings indicate that corruption and distrust in institutions is a motivator for international migration. Facilitating mobility by helping those who need or want to migrate, to both fund the migration and better insert themselves in destination areas. This may include cash transfers to cover travel costs or to help facilitate mobility between countries after disasters, or efforts to set up migration corridors for pastoralists. These programs are just getting started, and face some resistance given the traditional sedentary bias in most development programming. Planned relocation (or resettlement) is being used in a limited number of cases around the developing world with some success, though the costs are generally high, and the process is fraught. Short-distance moves away from the coast, for example, are more likely to be successful than longer distance relocation. In some instances home buyouts may be more efficient, leaving the decision as to where to relocate up to the households. Supporting destination areas, e.g., through concessional funding to countries that receive large numbers of refugee/ displaced people from natural disasters (an effort by the World Bank), or working with displaced communities directly to build their DRR planning and response capacity (an effort by IOM).

Additional policy guidance in response to the Biden administration's executive order on climate migration is available from this Refugees International Task Force report, on which I had the privilege to serve. The task force came up with two bundles of measuresone designed to minimize the need to migrate and another to provide protection for displaced persons and migrantsthat reflect many of the same approaches mentioned above.

In a more forward looking vein, my co-authors and I recommend three types of action. One is to move beyond the investigation of physical climate impacts to look at social feedbacks, or what is sometimes termed social tipping points, that may increase or decrease the propensity to move. This will require a better understanding of how development and adaptation interventions may be helping or hurting communities that want to stay in place. Another is to support urban centers as receiving areas of climate-induced migration and displacement, and to upgrade slums and squatter settlements that are often the first place of arrival. Lastly, it will be important to leverage transnational migrant ties for development, including promoting the role of remittances in supporting resilience and those who remain behind.

There are a number of other recommendations in the Groundswell Policy Summary. Groundswell has been criticized by some who believe that it raises the specter of "climate refugees" to try to raise the level of support for greenhouse gas emissions in developed countries. While the plea to reduce emissions is the first recommendationmostly because projected levels of migration are so much lower under lower emissions scenariosthe critique is misleading since the work solely focuses on internal migration within developing countries. The reality is that the transboundary climate-induced migration that will occur is more likely to be between countries in the global South, who already disproportionately bear the brunt of the climate impacts resulting from the North's fossil-fueled development since the dawn of the industrial revolution. We owe it to those countries and to the migrants to dedicate more development assistance to addressing the needs of those displaced by climate change.

Explore further Climate change could force 216 million from their homes: World Bank

More information: Robert Stojanov et al, Climate Mobility and Development Cooperation, Population and Environment (2021). Robert Stojanov et al, Climate Mobility and Development Cooperation,(2021). DOI: 10.1007/s11111-021-00387-5

This story is republished courtesy of Earth Institute, Columbia University http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu.
COVID-19 lockdown periods opened a unique window for observing teen sleep patterns. Credit: Shutterstock

The return to in-person classrooms this fall may have the unintended consequence of depriving many Canadian high school students of sleep.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, many teens were chronically sleep-deprived during the week, putting them at greater risk of poor health and more sleepiness in the classroom.

The pandemic caused an upheaval in schooling, but introduced some flexibilities in scheduling that paradoxically allowed some teens to catch up on their sleep.

Could we capitalize on this disruption to make evidence-based changes in education to improve teens' sleep? Research suggests that doing so would help high school students have healthier and more productive years.

Damaging effects of sleep deprivation

Concern about the damaging impacts of sleep deprivation on teens is substantial, especially because teens are still developing.

In pre-pandemic times, international studies suggested only about two-thirds of Canadian adolescents were getting the eight to 10 hours of sleep on school nights recommended for 12- to 18-year-olds, and there was a worse picture in many European countries and the United States.

Inadequate sleep is linked to a host of negative outcomes in youth, including greater risk of obesity, diabetes and hypertension as well as depression, suicidality and substance abuse. It's also linked to deficits in attention and memory skills.

Importantly, research points to a key role for sleep in academic performance: teens who have irregular or poor quality sleep may have worse grades and be absent or late more often. Chronic sleep deprivation may not only increase a young person's risk for health challenges down the road but also may potentially affect their career opportunities and future earning potential.

Ready to wake two hours after adults

Sleep deprivation, recognized by the Public Health Agency of Canada and the Centers for Disease Control as a significant concern for public health, is alarmingly common in teens.

Contributing to teens' vulnerability to sleep deprivation is a conflict between traditional school start times (as early as 8 a.m. in some parts of Canada) and normal developmental changes in the sleep cycle that lead the average teen feeling ready to sleep and wake about two hours later than younger children and adults.

Adding to this mix are other factors like teens' greater independence in choosing their bedtimes and use of light-emitting screens, which, when used in the evening, can disrupt nighttime sleep and delay the body's internal clock.

Sleep researcher Mary Carskadon has described this combination of biological, behavioral and social influences as a "perfect storm" that creates prime conditions for teens to accumulate a "sleep debt" during the school week. This makes many of them too sleepy to participate effectively in the classroom and leads to binge sleeping on the weekends.

As a way of calming this storm, some school districts have experimented with later school start times. Overall, these experiments have been largely successful, with students reporting more nightly sleep and less sleepiness in the classroom with later start times.

In view of this evidence, organizations such as the American Pediatric Society and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommend that high schools not start class before 8:30 a.m.

Other interventions like introducing sleep health education programs into the classroom have also shown benefits for children and somewhat for teens. For example, one study of Grade 12 students showed that short-term, classroom-based educational programming improved students' knowledge of the role of sleep in health. These students also spent more time in bed on weeknights compared to students not receiving the programming. However, these benefits of participating in the program did not translate into changes that reduced students' daytime sleepiness.

Pandemic: More sleep, disrupted sleep

The conditions during COVID-19 lockdown periods opened a unique window for observing teen sleep patterns when students no longer needed to commute to the classroom. Several studies showed that teens were sleeping more because they could sleep later into the mornings, and felt more rested and alert during online schooling, suggesting that additional sleep helped them to engage in their studies.

It's important to note that other studies reported more disrupted sleep in some teens, which may have been due in part to anxiety, depressed mood and fewer opportunities to get outside.

However, having the opportunity to rest a little later into the morning could allow teens to offset some effects of a disturbed night of sleep. Taken together, what we've learned both about teens sleeping more and teens' sleep being disrupted during the pandemic adds more evidence in favor of greater flexibility in school scheduling to improve teen sleep health.

Pandemic schooling shifts

While some schools have planned schedules to accommodate things like physical distancing and class bubbles, could this be an opportunity to test out delayed or flexible school start times?

Staggering school start times across the day, for example, could offer a double benefit of allowing later-rising students to begin their school day a little later and reducing the number of students in school at any one time, thereby promoting physical distancing and perhaps better distribution of resources across the day.

School districts in some other parts of the world are undertaking this plan, and it will be exciting to see how scheduling changes play out.

Policy change is slow, however, so what can be done now to improve teens' sleep health? Adopting sleep recommendations can help put healthier sleep routines in place.

Parents can't go wrong with guiding teens through basics like turning off screens at least an hour before bedtime, encouraging regular periods of activity outside in daylight, limiting daytime caffeine intake (including energy drinks)and trying to maintain a regular daily bedtime and wake-up time, even on weekends.

Explore further Sleep characteristics predict cannabis use, binge drinking in teens and young adults

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

An unusually warm winter in 2019/20 in central China and Japan was followed by a summer that saw record-breaking rainfall in the region, triggering severe flooding and landslides. A research team from the University of Tsukuba has now examined the conditions giving rise to these extreme weather events, identifying warm sea surface temperature conditions in the Indian Ocean as a common factor in both events. This finding will be useful in the future prediction of extreme weather patterns in East Asia.

The Meiyu-Baiu rainband is the key driver of the major rainy season in central China and Japan, which generally occurs between June and July. Understanding the factors causing variations in the extent, duration and positioning of this rainband are crucial for the accurate prediction of summer rainfall over East Asia. In early summer 2020, the stagnation of the Meiyu-Baiu rainband caused catastrophic floods in some parts of central China and Japan.

The University of Tsukuba research team observed that the subtropical western Pacific anticyclone was substantially enhanced during this period and continued to supply the rainband with moisture, fueling the continued flooding. "We were particularly interested in identifying the wider mechanisms that lead to these extreme flooding events and used a combination of observational and reanalysis data and state-of-the-art atmospheric modeling," says lead author of the rainfall study, Professor Hiroaki Ueda. "Focusing mainly on conditions in the tropics, we applied a linear baroclinic model to examine the atmospheric response caused by heating. We also used a global coupled atmosphere-ocean model to examine the sensitivity of the atmospheric system to changes in sea surface temperature."

In earlier research, Professor Ueda and colleagues examined the conditions leading to an anomalous warm winter from December 2019 to February 2020 over East Asia, again related to an anomalous anticyclone over Japan. They found clear connections between warming conditions in the tropical Indian Ocean and those in the central Pacific in winter. Likewise, a rise in sea surface temperature in the Indian Ocean was also a factor contributing to the stagnation of the Meiyu-Baiu rainband later in 2020.

"The early summer of 2020 was characterized by transition to La Nina conditions and the continued warming of the Indian Ocean," explains Professor Ueda. "The anomalous subtropical anticyclone extending over the northern Indian Ocean was important in driving moisture toward the Meiyu-Baiu rainband."

The research team found that the set of specific atmospheric and sea surface conditions observed during 2020 resembled those observed in the summer of 1988, which was also accompanied by an unusually wet climate over Japan.

Although the team focused its attention on tropical causes of the prolonged Meiyu-Baiu rainband, there may be other explanations, such as cold air intrusion from higher latitudes. Therefore, many challenges remain for the research community relating to understanding these phenomena in East Asia. Nonetheless, the observation of the influence of a warm Indian Ocean on warming and rainfall conditions in East Asia can contribute to the future forecasting and prediction of extreme weather events in this region.

Explore further Long-term satellite analysis shows rainy season wetter now than ever

More information: Hiroaki Ueda et al, Enhanced Subtropical Anticyclone over the IndoPacific Ocean Associated with Stagnation of the MeiyuBaiu Rainband during Summer, 2020, SOLA (2021). Hiroaki Ueda et al, Enhanced Subtropical Anticyclone over the IndoPacific Ocean Associated with Stagnation of the MeiyuBaiu Rainband during Summer, 2020,(2021). DOI: 10.2151/sola.17B-002 Masaya Kuramochi et al, Anomalous Warm Winter 2019/2020 over East Asia Associated with Trans-basin Indo-Pacific Connections, SOLA (2021). DOI: 10.2151/sola.17B-001
The rim of Cone Dinside the Okmok Volcano calderawith the blue lake in the background. Credit: Nick Frearson

I'm writing this note from the Steadfast; an old 108 ft long crabber boat equipped with a helipad, crane, five state rooms, kitchen, living room, two skiffs, and a science laboratory. The ship was acquired by the Alaska Volcano Observatory and renovated to serve as a research vessel for assisting in volcano monitoring and fieldwork. The Steadfast has a calm charm to it and is smoothly run by Captain John Whittier, deckhands Angus and Mark, Kait the engineer, and Robert the cook.

The reason I find myself on this boat, anchored along a blurry boundary between the Bering Sea and Pacific Ocean, is because I am a Ph.D. student at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory studying volcanology. I am working on the AVERT (Anticipating Volcanic Eruptions in Real Time) project lead by Dr. Terry Plank, Dr. Einat Lev and Nick Frearson. The mission of this project is to study two volcanoes in the Aleutian Islands off of Alaska by deploying an advance array of instrumentation that will transmit data via satellite in real time. This information will provide scientists the means to anticipate a volcanic eruption before one occurs.

The expedition has been an incredible mesh of new landscapes, modes of transport, people, and experiences. For starters, this is my first time in Alaska. It is also my first time living on a research vessel, flying in helicopters, riding an ATV, eating fresh halibut caught that very afternoon, and being chased by a herd of bulls. While all of these firsts are stories unto themselves, on July 15th, I entered my first caldera at Okmok Volcano on Umnak Island located approximately 4,200 miles away from New York in the Aleutian Island volcanic chain. A caldera is a large depression at the summit of a volcano formed when the ground collapses above a magma chamber.

Jasper walking towards the base of Cone D. Credit: Tarsilo Girona

Okmok's caldera is impressively large; a crater that spans over six miles in diameter from rim to rim. The eruption that created Okmok's caldera in 43 BCE was so massive that scientists argue it was a potential factor in the collapse of the Roman Republic, inducing a volcanic winter that contributed to crop failures, famine, and disease. Inside the caldera, there are six smaller volcanic cones, marking where magma and ash from the depths of the Earth breached the surface in the past. Although the last time Okmok erupted was in 2008, it is still considered an active volcano and is expected to erupt again in the near future. During the 2008 eruption, it produced a massive tuff (ash) cone named Ahmanilix, that sits in the northwest region of the caldera.

The objective of today's mission was to go inside of Okmok's caldera and take measurements of carbon dioxide along a walking transect. Sometimes, volcanoes let out excess gas in the surrounding area. This process is called diffuse degassing. Dr. Tarsilo Girona, one of the scientists on the trip, and a professor at University of Alaska Fairbanks, wanted to investigate whether these areas of excess gas correlate with an increase in volcanic activity. My job was to help record the measurements, take water samples of the blue lake located in the caldera, and assist Girona with soil temperature measurements.

After taking a helicopter flight from the Steadfast over the scenic island, passing over roaming cattle, rusted out WWII bunkers, and yellow wildflowers, we made it to the gates of the caldera. The 'gates' of Okmok are essentially the drainage system of the volcano, where a large stream called Crater Creek cuts through the 2500 ft rim, providing a cinematic and convenient pathway into the caldera. Once through the gates, a Martian landscape ensues with massive blocky lava flow deposits, blue and beige lakes, and colorful volcanic cones from historic eruptions. It's beautiful, but a difficult place to work, with its own weather system that teeters between low lying clouds, sandy gusts, fog, and the occasional bit of sunshine.

Expedition member Tarsilo Girona walks with the CO 2 accumulation chamber. Credit: Jasper Baur

Today we were lucky, and the caldera was only clouded on the south side, providing us the opportunity to complete our planned transect between the turquoise lake and the murkier sediment filled lake to the base of Cone D (the volcanic cone located right next to Ahmanilix).

Once the helicopter departed, we wasted no time, condensed our packs, and started hiking towards our target. The easiest route to the base of the cone was through a stream bed that weaved right between the two lakes. After about an hour of hiking we reached the intersection of the base of Cone D and Ahmanilix, where we started collecting data for our walking transect.

Possibly the most shocking feature I witnessed inside the caldera was the deeply incised gullies eroding the ash cones. Ahmanilix, which is a mere 13 years old, was so deeply incised with dendritic (vein-like) patterns that it appears as though the cone has been in existence for thousands of years. These erosional features illuminate the battle between volcanic forces with rain, wind, and snow in shaping the caldera morphology and how, over time, even volcanoes can be eroded away.

Ahmanilix cone viewed from the northwest. Credit: Nick Frearson

For the CO 2 data collection, we stopped every 50 m to take a new measurement. At each stop, we pressed a metal cylinder into the ground to make an air tight seal that minimizes atmospheric influences in order to capture the escaping gases of the caldera. We also took note of the coordinates and soil and air temperatures. This particular type of measurement has never been done at Okmok so we were not sure what to expect.

After the transect was complete, we analyzed the signatures in the ship's laboratory and didn't find anything out of the ordinary. Despite the non-groundbreaking findings, however, preliminary diffuse gas measurements are still important to provide a baseline for the future.

After the data was collected, we had to hurry back to the helicopter drop off spot, making sure to avoid the wetter, quicksand ridden areas near the edges of the lakes. We successfully completed the mission and boarded the helicopter, flying back out through the gates towards the Steadfast. I had a warm meal on my mind, and an incredible first caldera experience under my belt. Studying volcanoes this last year, particularly lava flows and volcanic plumes, made the trip into the caldera even more special, and brought to life the countless hours of reading and online classes trying to describe volcanic systems and their otherworldly features.

Explore further Caldera collapse increases the size and duration of volcanic eruptions

This story is republished courtesy of Earth Institute, Columbia University http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu.
The Inspiration4 crew (L-R) Chris Sembroski, Sian Proctor, Hayley Arceneaux and Jared Isaacman, posing with a technician (C) in Huntsville, Alabama.

SpaceX is set to launch four people into space Wednesday on a three-day mission that is the first to orbit the Earth with exclusively private citizens on board.

Here are the key facts about Inspiration4.

The spacecraft

At the top of the Falcon 9 rocket, which is 70 meters high, sits the Dragon capsule, where the crew will be.

This spacecraft has already taken 10 astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) on three separate missions.

The Dragon capsule, eight meters high and four meters wide, has been modified for this flight. A huge glass dome has been installed to offer passengers a 360-degree view of space.

The flight schedule

Take-off is scheduled on Wednesday beginning at 8:02 pm (0002 GMT Thursday) from the NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The launch window is five hours.

The first stage will separate from the spacecraft at an altitude of about 80 kilometers and will automatically return to Earth for future use.

During manned flights, the second stage usually separates about ten minutes after take-off.

The Dragon capsule will orbit Earth for three days at an altitude higher than the ISS.

After that, it will descend back to Earth, landing off the coast of Florida with the help of giant parachutes.

The crew

Heading and financing the mission is US billionaire Jared Isaacman, who invited three other people to join him through an original selection process.

Hayley Arceneaux, 29, is a nurse and a pediatric cancer survivor.

Chris Sembroski, 42, is a US Air Force veteran who now works in the aviation industry.

Geology professor Sian Proctor, 51, was a finalist to become a NASA astronaut more than a decade ago.

The training

The crew trained for just under six months, compared to years of preparation required for professional astronauts.

They learned to withstand the g-force by going on a spin in a centrifuge, and they experienced weightlessness.

Finally, although the flight should normally be fully automated, the team has been trained by SpaceX to take control in the event of an emergency.

The research

The crew members' sleep, heart rate, blood and cognitive functions will be analyzed during the mission in order to study how rookies react in space.

 2021 AFP
The Camel site, viewed from north-west, showing the position of all large reliefs (red stars), small reliefs (white stars) and large fragments (stars with red outline). Credit: G. Charloux & M. Guagnin, R. Schwerdtner.

The monumental reliefs at the Camel Site in northern Arabia are unique: three rock spurs are decorated with naturalistic, life-sized carvings of camels and equids. In total, 21 reliefs have been identified. Based on similarities with artworks found in Petra, Jordan, the rock site was initially dated from the Nabataean period, 2000 years ago. Following this preliminary proposal, a new research program lead by researchers from the Saudi Ministry of Culture, the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, the CNRS, and King Saud University uses a variety of cutting-edge dating methods to establish a much older age for the site, pushing its initial creation back to the Neolithic.

Rock art is extremely difficult to date, particularly at the Camel Site, where erosion has damaged the three-dimensional reliefs extensively. To establish an age for the site the team used a range of scientific methods including analysis of tool marks, assessment of weathering and erosion patterns, portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (pXRF) to measure rock varnish density, and luminescence dating of fallen fragments. In addition, test excavations identified a homogenous lithic assemblage as well as faunal remains, which could be radiocarbon dated.

Taken together, the data indicates that the sculptures were made with stone tools during the 6th millennium BCE. At this time, the regional landscape was a savannah-like grassland scattered with lakes and trees where pastoralist groups herded cattle, sheep and goats. Wild camels and equids also roamed the area and were hunted for millennia.

"We can now link the Camel Site to a period in prehistory when the pastoral populations of northern Arabia created rock art and built large stone structures called mustatil," the authors state. "The Camel Site is therefore part of a wider pattern of activity where groups frequently came together to establish and mark symbolic places."

Panel 1 showing the belly, thigh and upper tail of a camel. Tool marks can be seen on the lower abdomen and the upper thigh, as well as a series of deep grooves. Detail photographs are shown on the lower left and lower right. Credit: M. Guagnin & G. Charloux

The team's stone mason estimates that each relief would have taken 10 to 15 days of carving to complete, during which the stone tools used to chip out the 3D shape and to polish the surface would have had to be re-sharpened and replaced frequently. Considering that the raw chert used to make the tools was sourced from at least 15km away and that carving the reliefs would have first required the construction of a working platform or rigging, the researchers believe the site's impressive sculptures were likely a communal effort, perhaps part of an annual gathering of a Neolithic group.

The reliefs are part of a wider rock art tradition in the region that depicted life-sized, naturalistic animals, although the skill required for the creation of high reliefs is unique to the Camel Site. The weight gain and references to the mating season in the camel reliefs suggests that they maybe be symbolically connected to the yearly cycle of wet and dry seasons to which these biological changes are linked. Reconstructions of the carving and weathering processes at the site suggest that the site was in use for an extended period, during which panels were re-engraved and re-shaped. By the late 6th millennium BC most if not all of the reliefs had been carved, making the Camel Site reliefs the oldest surviving large-scale reliefs known in the world.

"Neolithic communities repeatedly returned to the Camel Site, meaning its symbolism and function was maintained over many generations," says lead author Dr. Maria Guagnin. "Preservation of this site is now key, as is future research in the region to identify if other such sites may have existed. Time is running out on the preservation of the Camel Site and on the potential identification of other relief sites as damage will increase and more reliefs will be lost to erosion with each passing year."

Panel 12, showing the body, legs and base of the neck of an adult camel with a possible young equid to the left. Credit: M. Guagnin & G. Charloux

Explore further Life-sized sculptures of dromedaries found in Saudi Arabia

More information: Maria Guagnin et al, Life-sized Neolithic camel sculptures in Arabia: A scientific assessment of the craftsmanship and age of the Camel Site reliefs, Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports (2021). Maria Guagnin et al, Life-sized Neolithic camel sculptures in Arabia: A scientific assessment of the craftsmanship and age of the Camel Site reliefs,(2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.jasrep.2021.103165
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Los Angeles County supervisors voted unanimously Wednesday to phase out oil and gas drilling and ban new drill sites in the unincorporated areas of the nation's most populous county.

Over 1,600 active and idle oil and gas wells in the county could be shuttered after the 5-0 vote by the board of supervisors. A timetable for the phaseout will be decided after the county determines the fastest way to legally shut down the wells.

Among the sites is the Inglewood Oil Field, one of the largest U.S. urban oil fields. The sprawling, 1,000-acre (405-hectare) site, owned and operated by Sentinel Peak Resources, contains over half the oil and gas wells in the county's unincorporated areas. The field produced 2.5 million to 3.1 million barrels of oil a year over the past decade, according to the company.

"The goal is to provide direction to county departments to begin addressing the variety of issues, environmental and climate impacts created by these active and inactive oil and gas wells," said Supervisor Holly J. Mitchell, who represents the district where most of the Inglewood Oil Field is located.

Mitchell, along with Supervisor Sheila Kuehl, made the motion to phase out drilling in the county's unincorporated areas.

The California Independent Petroleum Association, representing nearly 400 oil and gas industry entities, opposed the measure. In a letter to the board, CEO Rock Zierman said a phaseout of oil and gas production would threaten hundreds of jobs, raise gas prices and make California more dependent on oil from foreign countries.

Inglewood Oil Field is adjacent to several Black communities, including Baldwin Hills, Ladera Heights and View Park, where residents have worried about the field's impact on their health and the local environment for at least a decade. Residents have complained of foul odors from the wells and say they have seen oil bubbling through sidewalk cracks in their neighborhoods.

"There are tens of thousands of people who live in very close proximity to oil wells, 73% of whom are people of color," Mitchell said in an interview before the vote. "So, for me, it really is an equity issue."

Inglewood Oil Field was the site of a spill in April when a pipeline leaked more than 1,600 gallons (6,000 liters) of oil, according to the California Governor's Office Emergency Services. Supporters of the phaseout have said that shutting down drilling will move the region closer to environmental equity.

Companies have been drilling for oil in Los Angeles since the late-1890s, and the area quickly became a hub for oil production in California. Oil was found in Baldwin Hills in 1924, long before Black Americans gravitated there and to other communities with oil facilities because of housing discrimination and the affordable real estate.

Sonya Vasquez of the Los Angeles-based non profit Community Health Councils has been working with Baldwin Hills residents for years on issues related to the oil field.

"I ... think the writing is on the wall and hopefully there is this sense that something good has to be done with this land," she said. "And we're in this era where we shouldn't be relying so much on fossil fuel."

Residents, activists and politicians supporting the ban and phaseout want the Inglewood Field to be turned into an expansion of neighboring Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area.

The measure that passed also called for residents, the oil companies and other stakeholders in the community to explore what else can be done with the privately owned land. "My goal is complete, comprehensive (cleanup of the site), with the oil companies paying for it, not taxpayers," Supervisor Mitchell said.

The petroleum industry's Zierman said companies should be compensated if their operations are condemned without justification.

Explore further L.A.'s legacy of oil drilling impacts lung function in residents living near active and inactive wells

 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
The first prototype of a laser sits on a testbed at the Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology (CSEM), headquartered in Neuchatel, Switzerland. CSEM will test and characterize the laser, which will be used to conduct gravitational wave experiments in space for the LISA mission. Credit: European Space Agency/CSEM

Finding the biggest collisions in the universe takes time, patience, and super steady lasers.

In May, NASA specialists working with industry partners delivered the first prototype laser for the European Space Agency-led Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, or LISA, mission. This unique laser instrument is designed to detect the telltale ripples in gravitational fields caused by the mergers of neutron stars, black holes, and supermassive black holes in space.

Anthony Yu at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, leads the laser transmitter development for LISA.

"We're developing a highly stable and robust laser for the LISA observatory," Yu said. "We've leveraged lessons learned from previous missions and the latest technologies in photonics packaging and reliability engineering. Now, to meet the challenging LISA requirements, NASA has developed a system that produces a laser transmitter by using a low-power laser enhanced by a fiber-optic amplifier."

The team is building upon the laser technology used in NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, or GRACE, mission. "We developed a more compact version as a master oscillator," Yu said. "It has much smaller size, weight, and power consumption to allow for a fully redundant master oscillator for long-duration lifetime requirements."

The LISA laser prototype is a 2-watt laser operating in the near-infrared part of the spectrum. "Our laser is about 400 times more powerful than the typical laser pointer that puts out about 5 milliwatts or less," Yu said. "The laser module size, not including the electronics, is about half the volume of a typical shoe box."

The Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology (CSEM), headquartered in Neuchatel, Switzerland, confirmed receipt of the lasers and will begin testing them for stability.

LISA will consist of three spacecraft following Earth in its orbit around the Sun and flying in a precision formation, with 1.5 million miles (2.5 million kilometers) separating each one. Each spacecraft will continuously point two lasers at its counterparts. The laser receiver must be sensitive to a few hundreds of picowatts of signal strength, as the laser beam will spread to about 12 miles (20 kilometers) by the time it reaches its target spacecraft. A time-code signal embedded in the beams allows LISA to measure the slightest interference in these transmissions.

Ripples in the fabric of space-time as small as a picometer50 times smaller than a hydrogen atomwill produce a detectable change in the distances between the spacecraft. Measuring these changes will give scientists the general scale of what collided to produce these ripples and an idea of where in the sky to aim other observatories looking for secondary effects.

These gravitational wave fluctuations are so small they would be obscured by external forces such as dust impacts and the radiation pressure of sunlight on the spacecraft. To mitigate this, the drag-free control conceptdemonstrated on the LISA Pathfinder mission in 2015uses free-floating test masses sheltered inside each spacecraft as reference points for the measurement.

LISA expands on work by the National Science Foundation's Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), which captured its first recording of gravitational waves in 2015. Since then, the pair of ground-based observatories in Hanford, Washington, and Livingston, Louisiana, have captured four dozen mergers.

Thomas Hams, program scientist for LISA at NASA Headquarters in Washington, said the precision laser measurements will allow us to zoom in on the gravitational wave signatures of these mergers and enable other observatories to focus on the right part of the sky to capture these events in the electromagnetic spectrum.

NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope picked up the first such multimessenger observation just seconds after LIGO detected a merger of two neutron stars through gravitational waves.

"With LISA, the hope is you will be able to see these things develop before the merger actually happens," Hams said. "There will be an indicator that something is coming."

Industry Partnership

To achieve the required stability, the team brought Fibertek Inc. in Herndon, Virginia, and Avo Photonics Inc. in Horsham, Pennsylvania, to develop the laser, oscillator, and power amplifier, and an independent optical engineer in San Jose, California.

Avo Photonics built the laser for the observatory.

"Here you have the challenges of spaceborne ruggedness needs, on top of submicron-level optical alignment tolerance requirements. These really push your optical, thermal, and mechanical design chops," Avo Photonics President Joseph L. Dallas said. "In addition, the narrow linewidth, low noise, and overall stability needed for this mission is unprecedented."

Photonics pioneer Tom Kane invented the monolithic laser oscillator technology that Goddard used to stabilize the frequency of the laser light. "Your average laser can be very messy," Kane said. "They can wander all around their target frequency. You need a 'quiet' laser that's exactly one wavelength and a perfect beam out to 15 decimal places of accuracy."

His oscillator technology uses feedback loops to keep the laser burning at such precision. "The wavelength ends up becoming the ruler for these incredible distances," Kane said.

The high-power, low-noise amplifier came from Fibertek.

Fibertek also contributed to NASA's Ice Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) 2 and the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO), which has been operating a laser pointed at Earth for 15 years.

Including time for testing on the ground and potential mission extensions, LISA's lasers must operate without skipping a hertz for up to 16 years, Goddard's Yu said.

"Once launched, they will need to be in 24/7 operation for five years for the initial mission, with a possible six to seven years of extended mission after that," Yu explained. "We need them to be stable and quiet."

Explore further Laser prototype for space-based gravitational wave detector
This image shows several craters in Arabia Terra that are filled with layered rock, often exposed in rounded mounds. The image was taken by a camera, the High Resolution Imaging Experiment, on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

Some volcanoes can produce eruptions so powerful they release oceans of dust and toxic gases into the air, blocking out sunlight and changing a planet's climate for decades. By studying the topography and mineral composition of a portion of the Arabia Terra region in northern Mars, scientists recently found evidence for thousands of such eruptions, or "super eruptions," which are the most violent volcanic explosions known.

Spewing water vapor, carbon dioxide, and sulfur dioxide into the air, these explosions tore through the Martian surface over a 500-million-year period about 4 billion years ago. Scientists reported this estimate in a paper published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters in July 2021.

"Each one of these eruptions would have had a significant climate impactmaybe the released gas made the atmosphere thicker or blocked the Sun and made the atmosphere colder," said Patrick Whelley, a geologist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, who led the Arabia Terra analysis. "Modelers of the Martian climate will have some work to do to try to understand the impact of the volcanoes."After blasting the equivalent of 400 million Olympic-size swimming pools of molten rock and gas through the surface and spreading a thick blanket of ash up to thousands of miles from the eruption site, a volcano of this magnitude collapses into a giant hole called a caldera. Calderas, which also exist on Earth, can be dozens of miles wide. Seven calderas in Arabia Terra were the first giveaways that the region may once have hosted volcanoes capable of super eruptions.

Once thought to be depressions left by asteroid impacts to the Martian surface billions of years ago, scientists first proposed in a 2013 study that these basins were volcanic calderas. They noticed that they weren't perfectly round like craters, and they had some signs of collapse, such as very deep floors and benches of rock near the walls.

"We read that paper and were interested in following up, but instead of looking for volcanoes themselves, we looked for the ash, because you can't hide that evidence," Whelley said.

Whelley and his colleagues got the idea to look for evidence of ash after meeting Alexandra Matiella Novak, a volcanologist at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. Matiella Novak already had been using data from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to find ash elsewhere on Mars, so she partnered with Whelley and his team to look specifically in Arabia Terra.

The team's analysis followed up on the work of other scientists who earlier suggested that the minerals on the surface of Arabia Terra were volcanic in origin. Another research group, upon learning that the Arabia Terra basins could be calderas, had calculated where ash from possible super eruptions in that region would have settled: traveling downwind, to the east, it would thin out away from the center of the volcanoes, or in this case, what's left of themthe calderas.

"So we picked it up at that point and said, "OK, well, these are minerals that are associated with altered volcanic ash, which has already been documented, so now we're going to look at how the minerals are distributed to see if they follow the pattern we would expect to see from super eruptions," Matiella Novak said.

The team used images from MRO's Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars to identify the minerals in the surface. Looking in the walls of canyons and craters from hundreds to thousands of miles from the calderas, where the ash would have been carried by wind, they identified volcanic minerals turned to clay by water, including montmorillonite, imogolite, and allophane. Then, using images from MRO cameras, the team made three-dimensional topographic maps of Arabia Terra. By laying the mineral data over the topographic maps of the canyons and craters analyzed, the researchers could see in the mineral-rich deposits that the layers of ash were very well preservedinstead of getting jumbled by winds and water, the ash was layered in the same way it would have been when it was fresh.

"That's when I realized this isn't a fluke, this is a real signal," said Jacob Richardson, a geologist at NASA Goddard who worked with Whelley and Novak. "We're actually seeing what was predicted and that was the most exciting moment for me."

The same scientists who originally identified the calderas in 2013 also calculated how much material would have exploded from the volcanoes, based on the volume of each caldera. This information allowed Whelley and his colleagues to calculate the number of eruptions needed to produce the thickness of ash they found. It turned out there were thousands of eruptions, Whelley said.

One remaining question is how a planet can have only one type of volcano littering a region. On Earth, volcanoes capable of super eruptionsthe most recent erupted 76,000 years ago in Sumatra, Indonesiaare dispersed around the globe and exist in the same areas as other volcano types. Mars, too, has many other types of volcanoes, including the biggest volcano in the solar system, called Olympus Mons. Olympus Mons is 100 times larger by volume than Earth's largest volcano of Mauna Loa in Hawaii, and is known as a "shield volcano," which drains lava down a gently sloping mountain. Arabia Terra so far has the only evidence of explosive volcanoes on Mars.

It's possible that super-eruptive volcanoes were concentrated in regions on Earth but have been eroded physically and chemically or moved around the globe as continents shifted due to plate tectonics. These types of explosive volcanoes also could exist in regions of Jupiter's moon Io or could have been clustered on Venus. Whatever the case may be, Richardson hopes Arabia Terra will teach scientists something new about geological processes that help shape planets and moons.

"People are going to read our paper and go, "How? How could Mars do that? How can such a tiny planet melt enough rock to power thousands of super eruptions in one location?'" he said. "I hope these questions bring about a lot of other research.

Explore further Impact crater or supervolcano caldera?

More information: Patrick Whelley et al, Stratigraphic Evidence for Early Martian Explosive Volcanism in Arabia Terra, Geophysical Research Letters (2021). Journal information: Geophysical Research Letters Patrick Whelley et al, Stratigraphic Evidence for Early Martian Explosive Volcanism in Arabia Terra,(2021). DOI: 10.1029/2021GL094109
Dramatic clouds and Alaskas southern coastline frame the Gulf of Alaska during a scientific cruise in summer 2017. Credit: Andrew McDonnell.

New research at the University of Alaska Fairbanks shows that the fluctuations of major wind and ocean circulation systems can temporarily accelerate or reverse the rate of ocean acidification in the Gulf of Alaska.

"We typically think of ocean acidification as this slow press onto the environment that gradually changes the carbon chemistry in the ocean," explained Claudine Hauri, a researcher at the UAF International Arctic Research Center.

Instead, Hauri said, the research shows that the chemical conditions experienced by marine organisms can change on a daily and seasonal basis. This fluctuation occurs despite a long-term trend of ocean acidification connected to the steady rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations. The new research also documents massive cycles that happen every five to 10 years.

"Chemical conditions will deteriorate for several years in a row in offshore areas, before stabilizing or even slightly improving again," said co-author Andrew McDonnell from the UAF College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences. "We don't know exactly how organisms respond to that, but in general some organisms are sensitive to these types of changes in environmental conditions."

Hauri and her team examined ocean acidification through a model that combines physical, biogeochemical and hydrological ocean models to reproduce past Gulf of Alaska conditions from 1980-2013.

The study identified natural decadal fluctuations in chemical conditions that are driven by the strength of the North Pacific subpolar gyre.

This graphic of the North Pacific subpolar gyre in the Gulf of Alaska shows how the strength of the gyre can speed or slow ocean acidification based on the amount of carbon dioxide brought to the surface of the ocean. Credit: UAF International Arctic Research Center.

This gyre is a large wind-driven system of circulating ocean currents affecting the Gulf of Alaska. When the gyre is strong, it brings more deep water rich in carbon dioxide to the ocean's surface. This can accelerate ocean acidification, creating extreme events that cause stress to sensitive organisms. When the gyre is weak, less carbon is delivered to the surface, which can dampen the ocean acidification effect or even reverse it.

From 2011 to 2013, the model showed a strong phase of the gyre resulted in an extreme ocean acidification event in the center of the Gulf of Alaska. This event preceded the 20142016 "blob" of exceptionally warm water in the same region.

"The blob followed right after this very strong ocean acidification event," Hauri explained. "First, some organisms were probably stressed because of ocean acidification, and then they were hit right after with heat."

Hauri emphasized that more research is needed to understand the consequences of multiple simultaneous stressors on marine ecosystems, and to identify how ocean acidification and climate change interact.

Another implication of this work is that multiple decades of observational data are necessary to separate out the long-term trend of ocean acidification from the natural variability driven by the strength of the subpolar gyre. This type of dataset does not currently exist for the Gulf of Alaska.

Hauri and her team hope that this work and the efforts it prompts will provide needed information for people engaged in subsistence and commercial fisheries as they plan and adapt for the future.

The study is published in Communications Earth & Environment.

Co-authors include Remi Pages, Malte Stuecker, Seth Danielson, Katherine Hedstrom, Brita Irving, Cristina Schultz and Scott Doney.

Explore further Arctic Ocean acidification worse than expected

More information: Modulation of ocean acidification by decadal climate variability in the Gulf of Alaska, Communications Earth & Environment, DOI: 10.1038/s43247-021-00254-z Journal information: Communications Earth & Environment Modulation of ocean acidification by decadal climate variability in the Gulf of Alaska,
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

A new report has found that men within couples have substantially more private pension wealth than women, which poses particular challenges when they divorce.

Dr. Jennifer Buckley and Professor Debora Price from MICRAthe Manchester Institute for Collaborative Research on Ageing, based at The University of Manchesterteamed up with the Pensions Policy Institute to try to understand the statistical and data landscape, to produce descriptive statistics, and to gain understanding of what statistical modeling might be possible in future research, to inform important social and policy questions about pension outcomes for divorcees.

The researchers analyzed the pension wealth of almost 30,000 people over the age of 30. They found that married men have the most, with those aged 4554 having a median pension wealth of about 86,000 (compared with 40,000 for women) and those aged 5564 having 185,000 (compared with 55,800 for women). For those aged 6569, the gap is even widermedian pension wealth for men of that age is just over 212,000, compared to just 35,000 for women.

The data showed that while around 90% of couples have some pension wealth between them, in about half of couples with pensions, one partner has more than 90% of the pension wealth. Fewer than 15% of couples have pensions that are approximately equal.

The researchers concluded that there is considerable potential for pension sharing when it comes to divorce, which could have a considerable positive impact on women's finances in later life. They have created a video which they hope will be shared widely, and will help divorcing couples to understand the legal context for pension sharing.

"There is a lack of data about pension outcomes after divorce and the potential for pension sharing," said Debora Price, Professor of Social Gerontology at The University of Manchester. "We are very pleased to have produced this analysis, which shows that pensions must be taken into consideration in every case."

Credit: University of Manchester

"It is clear that considering pensions on divorce could have considerable impact on people's finances in later lifeespecially women" said Dr. Jennifer Buckley from the Cathie Marsh Institute for Social Research at The University of Manchester. "Information for divorcing couples is vital. We also need to address important questions about the long-term financial implications of divorce on pensions, and why we see such an imbalance of pension wealth within couples."

"If anyone needed convincing that more needs to be done to improve pension outcomes on divorce, the evidence is here in this reportand the animation is one crucially important step towards this goal," said Hilary Woodward, CEO of the Pension Advisory Group.

"Many divorcing couples leave their pensions out when they decide how to divide their money and property, particularly if they can't afford a solicitorbut this can be a huge mistake," said Beth Kirkland of Law for Life/Advice Now. "We wanted to help, which is why we produced a survival guide which spells out what to do about your pensions, how to find out what they are worth, when it is essential to get expert advice and what to do if you can't come to an agreement with your ex-partner."

Tim Pike, Head of Modeling at the Pensions Policy Institute said: "This research illustrates the pension inequality that persists after divorce. In most marriages 90% of the pension wealth is in the name of just one partner, almost always the husband. Of the 107,000 divorces in 2019, we know that a third of couples will reach a formal financial settlement through the courts and many others will reach an agreement about how to divide their assets with the help of lawyers or on their own.

"All of these people could in theory distribute their pension assets in a fair way on divorce, yet the research found no evidence to suggest that this was happeningdivorced women have very little pension and significantly less than married women.

"This raises questions that need to be answered concerning the access to, and approach of financial remedies, whether the right people are getting the financial settlements they need and how the situation may be improved."

For households in the top 40 percent by household income, median pension wealth exceeds median property wealth. This is especially likely to be the case for those living outside London and the South-East of England. Any trade-offs between house and pension in divorce may not always be balanced as pension wealth can exceed property wealth for more pension-wealthy couples, especially outside London.

Explore further Does early access to pension funds improve health?

More information: Pensions and Divorce: Exploratory Analysis of Quantitative Data. Pensions and Divorce: Exploratory Analysis of Quantitative Data. www.research.manchester.ac.uk/  oratory_Analysis.pdf
Scenopinus jerei, a window fly new to science. Credit: University of Eastern Finland

Researchers from the University of Eastern Finland and the Zoological Museum of the University of Turku have published in the journal ZooKeys an official description for Scenopinus jerei, a new fly species from Finland. This 4-5 mm sized, slender blackish fly belongs to the fairly primitive and species-poor family of window flies (Scenopinidae). The best-known representative of the family is the cosmopolitan window fly (Scenopinus fenestralis), commonly found indoors in man-made dwellings. Besides the common window fly, another species, Scenopinus niger, was also previously known from Finland.

Only about 420 species of window flies are known, most of them from the arid regions of the world. Similarly, the Nordic species are associated with dry habitats, such as animal nests, where their larvae prey on other insects. The common window fly can be considered beneficial as their larvae predate on indoor pests. The newly described species lives in the nests of cavity nesting birds in boreal forest habitats and is widespread but rare in Finland. The species is so far only known from Finland, but it is expected to be found in suitable habitats also from the adjacent countries.

The existence of a third Scenopinus species in Finland has been known for a couple of decades, although initially under a mistaken identity. The first person to suspect that the species was new to science was Mr. Jere Kahanpaa, a diptera expert and digitization manager at the Finnish Museum of Natural History. Because window flies are a poorly known group, with few experts even globally, the identity of the species remained unsettled for years. However, thanks to a project to enhance knowledge of Finnish biodiversity (PUTTE2), supported by the Finnish Ministry of the Environment, the work has now been completed and the new species named, as well as formally approved by the scientific community. The authors of the work, Jaakko Pohjoismaki and Antti Haarto, have named the species Scenopinus jerei to acknowledge the central role of Mr. Jere Kahanpaa in its discovery. Besides the species description, the published article also contains identification keys for determining all European window fly species.

The fact that a species previously unknown to science can be discovered from a relatively species-poor and well-studied Nordic country underscores the fact how poorly the local biodiversity remains to be known.

Explore further New horsefly species found in the fauna of Finland

More information: Jaakko Pohjoismaki et al, Scenopinus jerei, a new species of window fly (Diptera, Scenopinidae) from Finland, ZooKeys (2021). Journal information: ZooKeys Jaakko Pohjoismaki et al, Scenopinus jerei, a new species of window fly (Diptera, Scenopinidae) from Finland,(2021). DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.1059.70085
A US startup is growing nutritional pet food in a lab.

Cloudy liquid bubbling in glass tubes is key to a US startup's hopes of remaking the pet food industry by growing nutritional meals in a lab.

Most pet food includes animal protein, which requires the slaughter of animals and is ultimately a source of planet-warming gases.

Rich Kelleman's Colorado-based Bond Pet Foods, however, is aiming to sidestep both pitfalls by making those same proteins in a biotech process.

His inspiration comes in part from his own disgust over the treatment of livestock on its way to the food supply.

He was also shocked when he read a study showing that pets in the US consume as many calories sourced from animals as France's population, which numbers more than 65 million.

Livestock's impact on climate change added to his resolve, as raising animals for food is responsible for a whopping 14.5 percent of human-linked greenhouse gas emissions, according to UN data.

But vegetables alone aren't necessarily enough nutrition for cats and dogs.

Kelleman was convinced by research that if a company could "crack the code" for lab-grown pet food there would be a market for it.

"For dogs and cats, it has to be palatable, but it doesn't have to look like a fully formed steak or breast," Kelleman told AFP during a visit to the startup.

"It's not about the mouth feel; the sizzle; the taste, and the texture that have to be so precise for people to embrace it."

Rich Kelleman, co-founder and chief executive officer of Bond Pet Foods, feeds a sample of chicken protein to dogs.

In development, Kelleman's startup drew blood from a pedigree chicken, extracted DNA from the sample and inserted it into a microbe.

The resulting microbe was added to a fermenter to produce lab-grown animal proteins.

"It sounds like a weird, strange process, but it is something that has been around for quite a while," Kelleman said.

Nutty, with a hint of cheese

His dog, Rumples, seems to enjoy it. And an AFP reporter given a sample noticed its nutty flavor that includes notes of parmesan cheese.

But the company has many hurdles to cross in its quest to become the new normal in pet food.

First is the price, because even environment-loving "dog moms" watch their budgets when it comes to the cost of kibble.

Using fermentation tanks has enabled Bond to cut the cost of protein to $5 per kilogram (2.2 pounds) from $100 per kilogram.

Chief technology officer Tony Day says the price can be driven even lower.

It is expected to take at least two years, though, of tests and evaluation to assure regulators that the kill-free pet food is a safe and viable.

Startup Bond Pet Foods, based in Colorado, drew blood from a pedigree chicken, extracted DNA from the sample and inserted it into a microbe that was then added to a fermenter to produce lab-grown animal proteins.

Bond is aiming to sell their proteins to pet food makers by the second half of 2023.

A crucial question is whether the lab-grown pet food passes the smell test with humans concerned about the well-being of their animal friends.

In a park not far from the startup in the Colorado city Boulder, dog owners were interested but wary.

"I'd like to think I could give my dogs real meat protein without harming the planet," Rochelle Loughry said while watching her two Australian Shepherds.

"In theory it looks good, but we should know if, in the long term, the benefits are the same as with real meat," said another dog owner Jason Ackermann.

Meat in pet food often arouses fierce debate.

Greg Okin received raging criticism from both conservatives and animal rights activists for his academic study of pet protein consumption, which helped inspire Kelleman's startup.

"I think the fear was that I was telling people kill their cats and dogs, or not feed them, which is not what I was saying at all," said Okin, a professor at the environment institute at the University of California, Los Angeles.

"I got a lot of hate."

 2021 AFP
A car is seen flooded in Bernis, southern France, Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021. Emergency workers rescued or evacuated hundreds of people in southern France as flash flooding abruptly turned roads and fields into rivers and lakes. As new heavy rainfall threatened the area Wednesday, the emergency service for the Gard region said rescuers were searching for at least one person reported missing after the Tuesday evening flood. Credit: AP Photo/Daniel Cole

Emergency workers rescued or evacuated hundreds of people in southern France as flash flooding abruptly turned roads and fields into rivers and lakes.

No casualties have been reported, but new heavy rainfall threatened the area Wednesday. Local authorities said the rains caused significant damage to homes and infrastructure across towns and villages between Nimes and Montpellier.

A man who had been believed swept down the Rhony River was found safe after he had taken refuge nearby, the local administration for the Gard region tweeted Wednesday.

One person was hit by lightning but survived, and a supermarket roof collapsed under the pounding water, according to the regional emergency service.

People evacuated from a campground described on BFM television that they watched waters surge toward their campers. About 800 firefighters were mobilized to rescue people via helicopter and other means.

Schools across the region and a major highway and other roads were closed Wednesday as cleanup work started in some towns.

The flooding comes after a season of extreme weather that saw devastating wildfires near the French Riviera and around the Mediterranean, record-breaking flooding in Germany and Belgium and droughts or heat waves in other areas around the world. Scientists say such events are expected but happen more frequently now as the planet is warming because of human-caused climate change.

Laundry dries at a window in Bernis, southern France, Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021. Emergency workers rescued or evacuated hundreds of people in southern France as flash flooding abruptly turned roads and fields into rivers and lakes. As new heavy rainfall threatened the area Wednesday, the emergency service for the Gard region said rescuers were searching for at least one person reported missing after the Tuesday evening flood. Credit: AP Photo/Daniel Cole

The government will declare the floods a natural catastrophe to free up aid and insurance payments, government spokesman Gabriel Attal said Wednesday. He promised help for residents and others who suffered damages "to heal the wounds of this flood."

Explore further 21 dead as torrential rainfall batters central China

 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
PNNL biologist Scott Edmundson studies algae at PNNLs Marine and Coastal Research Laboratory in Sequim, Washington. Credit: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

When the coronavirus pandemic thrust the world into turmoil last year, a group of bioenergy researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) saw an unconventional way to fight the pandemic: algae.

Ranging anywhere from the size of single cells forming a green film on a pond to seaweed the length of a redwood, algae are a diverse group of photosynthetic organisms. Over the millennia, they have evolved an arsenal of compounds to protect them against a vast array of environmental stressors. And many of them live in the ocean, where just a few drops of water can contain up to 10 million viruses.

"The unrealized advantage of algae is their sheer biological diversity," said Michael Huesemann, a senior bioenergy researcher and principal investigator for the DISCOVR project, a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory consortium to advance algal biofuels development. "When people started searching in earnest for therapeutics to combat the pandemic, we realized there was an opportunity to understand more about algae's overall antiviral properties."

What followed was a deep dive into the literature linking algae and antivirals as far back as 1956. To make sense of the data, PNNL Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internships intern Daman Reynolds sorted the studies along the timeline a virus follows when it causes an infection. As he did, it became apparent that compounds in algae demonstrate exceptionaland as yet fully untappedpotential to combat viral diseases.

"The vast majority of algae compounds are in the early stages of research," said Reynolds. "A few compounds are in various degrees of clinical trials, and there are some marketed in Europe as nasal sprays to protect the respiratory system from the common cold. There were a few that were only cited once, so the exciting thing is there could be thousands more compounds that could fight viruses we don't even know about yet."

Prevention along the pathway

Coronavirus enters via the mouth or nose into the respiratory system, but other viruses spread through skin-to-skin or intravenous contact. Reynolds's literature review found a host of algae-derived compounds that can serve as guardians at the gates of potential viral infection routes. Certain compounds have been shown to provide a sort of protective coating to keep the virus from entering the body.

But if, by chance, a virus does enter a host, algae-derived compounds have been shown in the laboratory to inactivate or degrade viruses.

Several preliminary laboratory studies have also shown algal products prevent viruses from adhering to cell receptors to make it harder for a virus to enter or infect a host cell.

Some laboratory research also showed that compounds from algae made it more difficult for the virus to hack the cell's internal machinery and begin replicating. In addition, compounds in algae have also been shown to act as barriers that trap replicated viruses, so they aren't released into the body to spread further. And algae-derived compounds can augment the body's natural immune response to viral infectionboth before and after exposure.

Possible contributions to affordable biofuels

Biologist Scott Edmundson, who has studied photosynthetic algal cultivation for bioproduct generation for more than 15 years, suggests that if algae-derived antivirals show promise in clinical trials, their extraction could help make biofuels more economically feasible.

"We've proved it is technically feasible to make advanced fuels from algae grown on sunshine and CO 2 from the atmosphere," he said. "Making the process work economically is the next step."

A therapeutic compound that could be extracted before the algae is processed for biofuel would be a step in that direction.

Funding for the research came in part from the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Workforce Development for Teachers and Scientists under the Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internships program and is just one part of the science PNNL is developing to fight the coronavirus pandemic. The paper was made available in the July 2021 issue of Algal Research.

Explore further Toxic algae reported in Yosemite Valley creek

More information: Daman Reynolds et al, Viral inhibitors derived from macroalgae, microalgae, and cyanobacteria: A review of antiviral potential throughout pathogenesis, Algal Research (2021). Journal information: Algal Research Daman Reynolds et al, Viral inhibitors derived from macroalgae, microalgae, and cyanobacteria: A review of antiviral potential throughout pathogenesis,(2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.algal.2021.102331
Credit: Map from the website geographyedu.org

The 2020 U.S. Census Bureau data shows that the United States population has grown more diverse and is increasingly urbanizing. Yet K-12 schools remain largely segregated. A new website developed by a University of Kansas researcher uses census and demographic data to build maps for all 50 states and the District of Columbia to explore where schools are most and least segregated to help inform discussions of how populations have shifted.

Bryan Mann, assistant professor of educational policy & leadership studies, developed Geographies of Education as an interactive site that provides maps of the United States showing racial demographics of neighborhoods and schools across the country. The site houses maps for every state with data starting from the 2000 Census. Users can select a state and see data from that year on the left side of the map. To the right of a slidable rule is data from the 2015-2019 American Community Survey, an in-between census snapshot of data similar to those collected in the 10-year counts. 2020 Census data is being added as it becomes available. Colored dots for thousands of individual schools represent the racial isolation status of each school, and sliding the rule allows users to see how those makeups have changed.

Mann said there are also metropolitan maps under development that span more than one state.

"We want to help people explore places they live, places they want to research," he said. "I see this as a starting point for exploring these population changes and as a way to view those changes in depth."

Geographies of Education also houses a project featuring stand-alone maps of the U.S. that shows how racial demographics have shifted in schools across the country, as well as a map of the U.S. that shows school types. For example, users can see how many charter schools exist different locations.

The idea of the site is not simply to point out that racial segregation persists, but to help those who are curious about why it exists learn more. With that information, they can help inform policymakers who set laws and policy that guide schools to ensure that every student has the opportunity to receive an equitable education.

"My goal and my hope is people and researchers start to see these patterns and ask why these changes are happening," Mann said. "For example, why are there so many charter schools here? Or, why have so many schools remained racially isolated? I hope people engage with these maps. Different states are experiencing diversity differently. We're now looking at what these changes mean for schools."

Mann has already conducted such research in his career, and the site also houses academic publications that have come from such work and will be a repository for future research as well. One example is a publication Mann co-wrote that analyzed why a section of Alabama commonly known as the Black Belt saw schools start to desegregate after the civil rights era, only to see school segregation return. Data showed economic changes, such as industry leaving the area and related factors, and population trends were among the primary reasons.

The research illustrates the unique nature of geography in education. Mann said out that every state's map and school changes will look different. California and Mississippi will look quite different from each other, for example, and while one could make assumptions about the reasons, census data and research will hold the key to truly understanding why changes happened in a given location. Mann is working on similar research for Washington, D.C., schools.

Because schools cannot legally segregate by policy or law, future researchers can examine if causes are due to economics, an influx of immigration, urbanization or other factors.

Mann partnered with KU doctoral candidates Kenneth Ekpetere and Chen Liang and master's student Titus Maxwell, all with the Department of Geography & Atmospheric Science, to build the site and its mapping and data-tracking capabilities. The site also features a tutorial video with Mann demonstrating how users can search maps, track changes in populations and use the tool's maps and illustrations.

While Geographies of Education is a site dedicated to helping researchers understand American schools to inform better policy, Mann also hopes teachers and anyone interested in the schools of their communities will find the site useful.

"We want this to be a publicly available tool for anyone interested in using it," Mann said. "If teachers are wanting to understand the populations of their schools, they can. Or if they want to help their students understand their communities, they can. I hope it helps people see these patterns in an easily accessible, easy-to-understand way."

Explore further Reinforced by policies, charters segregate schools

More information: Geographies of Education website: Geographies of Education website: geographyedu.org/
September 15, 2021 in Productivity (E)

[prMac.com] Atlantic Beach, Florida - Tropical Software today announced release of TopXNotes Pro 1.6. TopXNotes Pro contains 4-way sorting to the NoteOrganizer (note list.) TopXNotes will keep your notes synchronized between TopXNotes Mac and iOS.



TopXNotes Pro for iOS includes the major improvements to its WiFi based NoteSync process for improved efficiency, stability and performance including improved handling of large files, files with many notes and improved handling of other conditions. In addition to all the past features of TopXNotes, TopXNotes Pro features note sharing and encryption. TopXNotes Pro now checks for compatible NoteSync services between Mac and iOS device and will not attempt sync between incompatible versions. If you suspect a problem be sure you have the latest versions on iOS and Mac. Finally, TopXNotes Pro for iOS has been converted to a Storyboard-based app and optimized for iPad.



TopXNotes Pro features note creation and editing in landscape and portrait modes, emailing a note, backup/restore to the device, clickable hot links, and note synchronization (NoteSync) with TopXNotes Mac 2.0. You also have full access to all fonts and font sizes Apple offers in iOS. Now you can also have your notes "on the go," create new notes, edit notes, delete some and keep them in sync with your Mac's notes.



Previous changes to NoteOrganizer (note list) allows it to be sorted by note title or date, ascending or descending for either. Other changes include changing the user interface default fonts to a more popular font. The NoteOrganizer list titles, list dates, search, email, and the default note font are now the preferred iOS family font (Helvetica.) In TopXNotes Pro for iOS we made even more changes to accommodate retina display and new screen sizes in iPhone and iPad. TopXNotes Pro's Note list and Note views are now integrated into a Split View on iPads (and Plus-sized iPhones.)



This release of TopXNotes Pro for iOS, with retina graphics, compliments the release of TopXNotes 1.8, the latest update to its award-winning personal Mac note manager. When combined with TopXNotes Mac 2.0. customers can synchronize notes between one Mac and multiple devices running TopXNotes touch including iPhone, iPod touch and/or iPad.



TopXNotes Pro for iOS also works perfectly with Apple's latest iOS. TopXNotes Pro for iOS even supports the latest iOS spell checking. With NoteZoom you can adjust the font size on the go as you hurry to the next destination. Included in NoteZoom is the ability to choose from all of the fonts supported in the iOS. This release is the latest advance in a series of companion products we plan to release for Apple touch devices.



Release Specific Notes:

* Activities Issue on some iPhone Models Fixed

* Fixed an issue with note numbering/note IDs and sync



Requirements:

* iPadOS- TopXNotes iOS- Requires iOS 11.2 or later

* iOS- TopXNotes iOS- Requires iOS 11.2 or later

* Devices: iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

* Solid State Storage: 2.3 MB

* Requires macOS 11.0 or later to sync with TopXNotes Mac 2.0.



Pricing and Availability:

TopXNotes Pro 1.6 is only $4.99 USD (or equivalent amount in other currencies) and available worldwide exclusively through the App Store in the Productivity category. This release is the latest advance in a series of companion products we plan to release for Apple touch devices. Be sure to also try our note organizing solution for Mac notes, TopXNotes Mac 2.0, today.

Tropical Software makes the award-winning TopXNotes, a modern personal note manager with state of the art proprietary encryption technology for the ultimate in securing personal information. Located in Atlantic Beach, Florida, Tropical Software is owned and operated by former Apple employee James Lee, and is dedicated to improving the lives of its customers by offering easy to use productivity software Mac 2.0.s and Apple touch devices including iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. Copyright (C) 2021 Tropical Software, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone, iPod, iPad and Macintosh are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.

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Des partis annoncent le boycott des assises nationales

Le Premier ministre malien a passe le cap des 100 premiers jours a la tete du gouvernement. Sil a eu le temps deffectuer des visites de terrain et dannoncer louverture de grands chantiers, le chronogramme pour lorganisation des elections nest toujours pas connu. Il a desormais contre lui une bonne partie de la classe politique malienne qui a decide de boycotter les Assises nationales de la refondation quil projette dorganiser.





Vent debout, plusieurs partis et associations politiques nentendent pas participer aux Assises nationales de la refondation envisagee par le Premier ministre malien Choguel Maiga. Pour eux, il sagit dune manuvre pour obtenir la prolongation de la duree de la transition qui sacheve en principe a la fin du mois de fevrier 2022.





Tieman Hubert Coulibaly, ancien ministre malien des Affaires etrangeres et president dAction republicaine pour le progres, un regroupement de partis, est signataire comme dautre dun communique officiel :  Nous ne participerons pas aux Assises nationales, parce que nous avons percu la une manuvre, dont lobjectif etait dobtenir une prolongation de la transition par une voie non consensuelle. 





Lancien ministre et les autres signataires estiment egalement ne pas etre  dans un processus inclusif. Et il est aujourdhui grand temps que nous puissions trouver le moyen daller dans ce sens-la. Cela nous eviterait de perdre davantage de temps, mais surtout cela nous permettrait davoir une unite -une union - autour de cette transition qui doit reussir, qui doit absolument reussir. 





Certains signataires du communique demandent lintervention du president de la transition pour rectifier le tir.




Representative Image

New Delhi [India], September 15 (ANI): Amit Narang, presently Joint Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs, has been appointed as the next Ambassador of India to Oman.

Narang is a 2001-batch Indian Foreign Services officer.

"Amit Narang (IFS: 2001), presently Joint Secretary in the Ministry, has been appointed as the next Ambassador of India to the Sultanate of Oman," MEA said in a release.

"He is expected to take up the assignment shortly," MEA added. (ANI)
More than 200 emergency workers have launched a third day of rescue operations involving an air-land-sea search for the former chairman of Bank of Communications (Hong Kong), who went missing while on a country park hike on Sunday.

Wednesdays search for Shou Fugang, 59, covered Shek Uk Shan in Sai Kung Country Park, where his telephone signal was last detected with the help of a telecoms company, according to a law enforcement source.

It is possible his mobile phone had run out of battery so no signal from his phone has since been detected, he said.

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The source said emergency personnel had searched Shek Uk Shan and nearby areas on Monday and Tuesday but found no trace of Shou.

Shek Uk Shan is about 5km from Wong Shek pier, one of the destinations of a ferry that Shou took on Sunday.

The source said security camera footage showed he had boarded the ferry at Ma Liu Shui ferry pier in Sha Tin at about 8am that day.

He said investigations revealed that Shou left his home at Braemar Hill Mansions in North Point shortly before 6.45am and took a minibus to Fortress Hill MTR Station, where he caught a train to University MTR station. He then walked to the Ma Liu Shui ferry pier.

The search and rescue operation involved more than 200 emergency rescuers from the police force, fire department and Civil Aid Service. He added that a Government Flying Service helicopter and marine police launches were also deployed in the operation.

The Fire Services Department said three tracking dogs were also called in with the support of a drone for Wednesdays operation, which covered areas such as Lo Tsai Shek, and Pak Sha O in the country park.

Story continues

As of 1pm on Wednesday, the search was ongoing, according to its spokesman.

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Shou is a non-executive director of the Bank of Communications (BOCOM) as well as the executive director and CEO of China BOCOM Insurance Company Limited. He was chairman of Bank of Communications (Hong Kong) from 2017 to 2019.

BOCOM International on Wednesday confirmed Shou had not been contacted since he went hiking on Sunday, saying China BOCOM Insurance Company had helped his family file a report with police.

Shou failed to show up for a Sunday night dinner appointment with his niece in Causeway Bay.

The woman contacted one of his colleagues on Monday and a police report was made after they entered Shous flat with a spare key but found he was not there.

A map of Sai Kung was on a table in his flat. His wife, who is in Shanghai, told police that Shou texted her to say he would go hiking on Sunday.

According to the banks website, Shou joined the bank in 1987 and was appointed as director in August 2007 before being redesignated as a non-executive director in 2016.

In the first six months of this year, firefighters were deployed in 566 mountain rescue operations. The number of mountain rescue incidents rose to 602 in 2020 from 215 in the previous year.

There were five hiking-related fatalities in the first six months of 2021, the Fire Services Department said. The number of hiking deaths fell to 11 in 2020 from 13 in 2019.

The number of injuries in hiking-related cases reached 351 between January and June of this year, higher than the 323 recorded in the whole of 2020. Some 121 people were injured in 2019.

This article More than 200 emergency workers search for Hong Kong banks missing former chairman on third day of rescue operations first appeared on South China Morning Post

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North Korea firing ballistic missiles. (Photo Credit - Reuters)

New York [US], September 16 (ANI): The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) will hold an emergency meeting on North Korea in the wake of the latest ballistic missile launches, diplomats said on Wednesday.

North and South Korea conducted ballistic missile tests within hours of each other, displays of military power that raise tensions on the Korean Peninsula amid stalled talks over Pyongyang's nuclear program, reported Daily Sabah.

UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said that they are concerned by the latest ballistic missile launches by North Korea.

"Diplomatic engagement remains the only pathway to sustainable peace and complete, verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," said Dujarric, reported Daily Sabah.

The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said at least two ballistic missiles were launched from the central part of North Korea and fired into the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan.

According to the South Korean military, the North Korean missiles flew 800 kilometres (500 miles) toward the Sea of Japan after being launched inland.

UN resolutions ban North Korea, a self-declared nuclear power, from any tests of ballistic missiles, which can carry nuclear warheads depending on their design.

Hours later, South Korea said one of its submarines had for the first time successfully fired a domestically-built ballistic missile underwater, reported Daily Sabah.

Wednesday's military tests began with the North's test-firing of two ballistic missiles. The launch came two days after Pyongyang announced a successful test-fire of what it said was a new type of long-range cruise missile. It was the North's first missile test in six months, reported Daily Sabah.

North Korea called the missile a "strategic weapon of great significance," a term used to indicate that the new guided missiles have the potential to carry nuclear warheads, according to experts.

According to South Korean President Moon Jae In's office, the SLBM was fired from a 3,000-ton-class submarine. The missile covered the intended distance and reached its target, it said.

Story continues

Moon monitored the submarine missile test as it happened. He said afterwards through a spokesperson that it had been planned long in advance but that nevertheless, his country's "improved missile performance can be a sure deterrent to North Korea's provocation."

North Korea has warned of a complete collapse in bilateral relations following Moon's criticism.

Kim Yo Jong, the influential sister of North Korean ruler Kim Jong Un, accused Moon of carelessly using the word "provocation" in connection with the test, reported Daily Sabah.

Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga condemned the test, saying it threatened "the peace and security of Japan and the region."

Since leader Kim Jong Un's failed summit with former US President Donald Trump in Vietnam in February 2019, talks on halting the country's missile program have stalled.

At a party congress earlier this year, Kim announced his country would continue to pursue a path of nuclear deterrence with new weapons, including new intercontinental ballistic missiles. (ANI)
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With Senate Bill 8 now in effect in Texas, and as we await the results of the lawsuit the Justice Department has brought against the state, it seems like an opportune moment for the publication of Joshua Pragers book, The Family Roe: An American Story. A former senior writer with the Wall Street Journal, Prager has made a specialty of uncovering historical secrets, including the sign stealing that enabled the Giants World Series win in 1951 and the identity of the only anonymous Pulitzer Prize recipient, Iranian photographer Jahangir Razmi. The origin story of The Family Roe began in a similar vein in 2010, when Prager realized that the plaintiff in Roe, Norma McCorvey, had never succeeded in securing an abortion, despite winning her case. Instead, in Dallas in 1970, McCorvey delivered and put up for adoption a baby girl who successfully evaded the public eye, save for an article in the National Enquirer in 1989. At the time Prager learned of her existence, this child was nearly 40 years old.

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The Family Roe is not just an American story; it is also a story about Texas, where I live. Roe was filed in Dallas, McCorvey spent most of her life in this state, and all the central figures in the book hail from it. The book, which is deeply reported and beautifully written, wants readers with all kinds of beliefs about abortion to step back and think about one another as people. The problem is that this is a mission that seems naive, in light of the terrifying, rights-denying law that we now have in Texas. And the narratives focus on the state, which has been so much on our minds in the last few weeks, makes Pragers inability to speak to our present crisis all the more aggravating.

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Pragers search for McCorveys daughter, her third, led him to track down her two half sisters and Norma herself. The Family Roe recounts the lives of Norma McCorvey and the three daughters she birthed but did not raise. Melissa, born in 1965, was cared for by her grandmother and aunt in Louisiana and Texas. Jennifer, whom McCorvey put up for adoption in 1967, grew up outside of Dallas. Shelley, or baby Roe, was raised by her adoptive mother in Dallas and then Seattle. All struggled with their birth mothers rejection. Prager also traces McCorveys prehistory, uncovering how three generations of her family were shaped by unwanted pregnancy. Her grandmother, mother, and half sister all became pregnant outside of marriage at age 17. They led hard lives, marked by poverty, domestic violence, and addiction.

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The Family Roe uncovers McCorveys family in another sense too, telling the stories of three Texans whose lives were similarly shaped by abortion: Mildred Jefferson, Curtis Boyd, and Linda Coffee. Jefferson, who died in 2010, was the first Black woman to earn a medical degree from Harvard. Pushed out of practice by racist and misogynistic discrimination, she became a star in the anti-abortion movement in the 1970s and 1980s, headlining rallies, speaking on TV, and testifying as an expert witness in key legal cases. Boyd, Jeffersons junior by a decade, began a career practicing abortion in Texas before it was legalized. Fiercely committed to womens reproductive autonomy, he eventually became one of few doctors in the country willing to perform third-trimester abortions. And Coffee is the little-known young lawyer who filed suit in Roe, alongside Sarah Weddington who has often received full credit for the case.

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Pragers book presents us with a painstakingly detailed account of McCorveys life, her exploitation by the pro-choice and anti-abortion movements, as well as her inability and refusal to fulfill the expectations and desires of those on either side of the debate. After the U.S. Supreme Court decided Roe, McCorvey failed to become the spokesperson mainstream feminist organizations and activists wanted. She was poorly educated and politically inexperienced. She lied about her pasteven claiming, falsely, that her pregnancy in Roe was the result of rapeand expressed doubts about the ethics of abortion after the first trimester.

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By 1995, as Prager tells it, McCorvey had grown frustrated with the pro-choice movement and (by her own admission) sought excitement. In a matter of days, she moved from providing counseling at an abortion clinic in Dallas to working next door at the local chapter office of Operation Rescue, the anti-abortion organization that notoriously encouraged the use of violence against abortion providers. She became a born-again Christian and later a Catholic. But her religious conversions were at odds with her persistent desire for women, her drinking and drug use, her reluctance to wear a bra or comport herself in the way religious anti-abortion leaders expected. By 2015, when Prager was in the process of interviewing her for the book, McCorvey had been abandoned by both causes. Although her presence had helped to draw untold amounts of money to both sides, she was living below the poverty line, struggling with depression and poor health.

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The queerness of Roes history is one of the more unexpected themes of this book. McCorvey recognized her feelings for other girls as a teenager, and her family did too. I beat the fuck out of her, McCorveys mother later told Prager. McCorvey had one failed marriage and continued to have relationships with men, but she preferred women. In 1971 she found a lifelong partner in Connie Gonzalez, who remained devoted to McCorvey for 40 years. The relationship was not a happy one. McCorvey raged at Gonzalez, cheated continually, and left periodically. After her first religious conversion McCorvey publicly renounced homosexuality, but continued to live with Gonzalez and sleep with other women. Eventually, McCorvey abandoned Gonzalez after she became incapacitated by a stroke in her 80s.

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McCorvey is not the only queer figure in this story, and Prager shows how the struggles for gay rights and abortion access have been intertwined. Coffee, the lawyer who brought the Roe case with Weddington, is a lesbian, and the Dallas-based adoption lawyer, Henry McCluskey, who connected McCorvey and Coffee in the first place, was gay too. In 1969, Coffee helped McCluskey file suit in a federal court case, Buchanan v. Batchelor, challenging the constitutionality of Texas sodomy statute. Coffee and McCluskey argued, as Coffee would in Roe too, that the states law infringed on individuals right to privacy.

Yet even as The Family Roe sheds new light on Roes history, Prager makes some serious omissions. In a work of nearly 700 pages, there is no mention of the organizing of women of color who have, since the 1970s, pushed white, middle-class feminists to move beyond the paradigm of choice, to recognize that true reproductive justice requires not just the right to prevent an unwanted birth, but the right to raise children in health and safety.

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But most of all, the book suffers from the delusion that this rift in American society over abortion can be healed by combatants willingness to recognize the humanity of those on the other side. The book opens with an epigraph taken from Herman Melvilles Moby-Dick: Be it said  see how elastic our stiff prejudices grow when once love comes to bend them. At multiple points, Prager bemoans the way the issue of abortion has consumed people across the political continuum from Boyd to Jefferson. He argues, regretfully, that like these two figures, Americans on either side of this issue have become more polarized and extreme in their views since the 1970s. The fault for our current divide, he seems to suggest, lies with both.

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By showing McCorvey in all her unruly and unappealing complexity, Prager powerfully refutes the idea that women should have to win a morality contest in order to deserve access to abortion. The pro-choice movement doesnt need a figurehead. But Prager holds McCorvey up as a different kind of symbol, an emblem of what he presents as the majoritarian middle view on abortion. If Norma was uncomfortable with the increasing surety and absolutism of both movements, she was hardly alone, Prager writes, arguing that she embodied the national ambivalence, the desire for legal yet limited abortion, as no [Phyllis] Schlafly or [Gloria] Steinem could.

Living in Texas in the midst of the unfolding disaster of S.B. 8, I feel frustrated with what seems to be a plea for unity. Perhaps its possible from where Prager writes to call for a detente, but from where I stand in Austin, its not. I have no desire to meet in what McCorvey called the mushy middle with those who would sue me for helping someone secure an abortion. In some ways the middle is precisely where we are, and its not good: Roe v. Wade still stands, but it has been growing less and less accessible for years, hollowed out by state and federal restrictions and limitations. As of 2017, long before this most recent wave of heartbeat abortion bans, 89 percent of counties did not have an abortion clinic.

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Perhaps its unfair to judge Prager for falling short of the moment. Hes a journalist, as he says, not an advocate. But he chose this story, and the stakes are high. The lives of millions of Texans hang in the balance. The Family Roe may help us better understand those who were intimately involved with Roe v. Wade in the past, but it has little to offer in our present.

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When the trailer for Kate, a new Netflix film starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Woody Harrelson, was first released last month, some viewers expressed concern. At a glance, the movie, which sends Winsteads titular assassin rampaging through Tokyo, seems like yet another film wherein a white American protagonist mows down nameless character after nameless character in a foreign country. In fairness, if the premise seems depressingly familiar (not to mention ill-timed after an eruption of anti-Asian violence), the filmmakersdirector Cedric Nicolas-Troyan and writer Umair Aleemappear to be aware of this: They supply Kate with a biracial sidekick, and a major twist late in the movie attempts to turn the formula on its head. Still, the apparent self-awareness is too little, too late, and doesnt redeem what is fundamentally a xenophobic trope. While the revenge thriller seems to want to be seen as a female John Wick, making it only the latest in a recent spate of neon-hued movies about female contract killers (the trailer touts that its from a producer of Atomic Blonde, and it arrives less than a couple of months after Gunpowder Milkshake), this bloody tourist trip through Japan is ultimately more like one of Kates fellow Netflix originals, the controversial and culturally insensitive Jared Leto yakuza flick The Outsider.

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To explain the movies problems, its important first to explain the movies setup. This, too, is familiar: Our hired gun decides its time to retire, but not, of course, before one last job. Unfortunately, before Kate can get out, shes poisoned with Polonium-204, leaving her with just 24 hours left to live. Intent on finding out who wants her dead, she sets off on a killing spree, slicing, shooting, and punching through dozens of nameless yakuza characters on her way to Kijima (Jun Kunimura), the boss behind the crime family she believes to be the culprit.

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The twist is as follows: Kijima isnt, in fact, the bad guy. Her manager and mentor Varrick (Woody Harrelson) has been the puppetmaster the whole time, working with Kijimas advisor Renji (Tadanobu Asano) behind his back to overthrow him and merge forces. In other words, all of this violence has been due all along to the intervention of a white guy. But the switcherooand Kijimas turn into Kates allydoesnt change the fact that most of the films Asian cast serve as nothing more than cannon fodder for our hero.

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The character of Ani (Miku Martineau), Kijimas niece, appears to be similarly calculated to serve as a remedy. Though we first meet Ani as the daughter of the man we see Kate assassinating at the beginning of the movie, she ends up becoming Kates sidekick. As it turns out, Renjis plan for ascension includes wiping out all of Kijimas family, and Kate is too soft-hearted to let Ani just die. Martineau is charming, but theres not that much of Ani outside of her relationship with Kate. When left to her own devices, Martineau makes it workthe scenes in which Ani finds new clothes for Kate, and later, when she takes selfies with the two of them, are novel in a movie that otherwise takes itself pretty seriouslybut the progression of the plot, which involves Varrick attempting to turn Ani against Kate with the knowledge that Kate is responsible for the violence brought down upon her family, makes it clear that Ani exists largely as just another plot device in Kates story. Kate has to feel remorse, but not for slaughtering a bunch of yakuza. She just has to care about Anipay no attention to the mountains of corpses piled up behind her.

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The switcheroo doesnt change the fact that most of the films Asian cast serve as nothing more than cannon fodder for our hero.

The films exploration of Japan is equally superficial. Early cityscapes feature anime sequences being projected onto buildings as Kate runs by them; the Japanese band Band-Maid appear in a concert scene; theres a brief kabuki performance; and there is, naturally, a fight between two katana-wielding yakuza. All of these moments add up to a vision of a nation of 126 million as seen through the eyes of a tourist, as theres nothing that goes beyond the usual stereotypes. While it may be fair to say that Kate, as a film, doesnt have the time to go deeper, that argument also means that it didnt have to be set in Japan, either, if this was going to be the end result.

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Kate gestures at being different, something fresh and subversive, but at the end of the day, its just reheating old cliches. The action scenes, taken at face value, stand out for how violent they are (and Winstead has repeatedly proven herself a more than capable action hero), but within the context of the film, the added brutality is only more dispiriting, leaving a sour taste in the viewers mouth. If the movie tries to hide behind self-consciousnessthe Japanese characters repeatedly call Kate a stupid foreignerit never proves its own perspective to be any deeper than that of its protagonist.
When Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, alongside powerhouse designer Aurora James, walked up the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Monday night, a noticeable, yet succinct political message blared across the back of her soft, cream-colored gown: TAX THE RICH.

This is not exactly a new cause for Ocasio-Cortez. In January 2019, for instance, she suggested that a marginal 70 percent tax rate could be imposed on the wealthiest Americans. But now she was bringing the message through the front door of one of the glitziest events of the year: the Met Gala.

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When Aurora and I were first kind of partnered, we really started having a conversation about what it means to be working-class women of color at the Met, and we said, We cant just play along, but we need to break the fourth wall and challenge some of the institutions,  AOC said on the red carpet. While the Met is known for its spectacle, we should have a conversation about it.

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In other words, the dress was intended to push the conversation about taxing the rich into a wealthy space, to confront the wealthy people where they live (or gala).

I dont think it worked.

From questioning notions of masculinity to positioning Blackness as divine in a society that demonizes it, fashion has always been an avenue for political expression and, often, a meaningful one. When Billy Porter wore a beautifully tailored tuxedo jacket over a ballgown to the 2019 Academy Awards, it worked because it was an exploration of his masculinity and femininity. When Solange donned a black do-rag adorned with a golden halo, it worked because she was invoking several Black American spiritual practices and turning a fashion item Black folks are demonized for wearing into something God-like. The power in these moments is evident in the fact that the wearers arent trying to force an institution they exist within to change. Theyre navigating and embracing their identity instead.

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But Ocasio-Cortez is an elected official. She has tangible tools to work with, so a dress with a phrase on it (designed by a woman reportedly dating the son of billionaire Edgar Bronfman Jr., btw) is a bizarre choice. As culture writer Shamira Ibrahim put it:

The problem with AOC is that shes a national figure who is actually supposed to be beholden to a local community. Her community is fighting for federal funds to recover from a hurricane RN - right across the bridge - and shes at a wealthy tax write off talking about her dress.  Comorienne  (@_ShamGod) September 14, 2021

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If anything, Ocasio-Cortezs dress featuring what has, at this point, become a regurgitated Twitter talking point, felt more naive, or even passe, than iconoclastic. Its one thing to demand higher taxes on the wealthy; its another to believe that moving among the upper class will convince them to welcome a substantive tax burden. Its also woefully inconsistent with the world outside of the Met, the one that has given Ocasio-Cortez her power. Last night, Black protesters were arrested outside of the event, for instance, while demanding Mayor Bill de Blasio defund the NYPD.

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But, alas, much of the political gestures that occur on a publicly, well-funded stage are empty. Like most other outfits with writing at the gala (yes, there were more), Ocasio-Cortezs dress is a superficial demonstration meant to capture attention. In that way, its a win. But when it comes to manifesting tangible outcomes for constituents, I find it difficult to believe that a slew of wealthy celebs will do more than fawn over the congresswomans slogan-dress and, just by being near her, think thats enough to signal that they are on board. Giving them that opportunity is nothing even remotely the same as actually doing something about income inequality, which is, after all, her job.
How to Do It is Slates sex advice column. Have a question? Send it to Stoya and Rich here. Its anonymous!

Dear How to Do It,

My husband and I have been married for more than 25 years and have had what I consider a great marriage overall. Couple of kids, couple of cats, house, etc. Nothing out of the ordinary. And that (nothing out of the ordinary) largely describes our sex life too. Its been kind and loving, but not particularly kinky, or even outside of oral and vaginal sex.

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My husband also is not particularly well-endowed. Hes not unusually small either, but of the few sex partners Ive had over my life, hes on the smaller end. Theres really only a few positions that work for us. And just so its clear, that doesnt bother me at all. But it certainly bothers himto the point where he bought a large strap-on dildo thats hollow on one end so that he could wear it. It was a little surprising to me when he told me about it and then showed it to me. And it was BIG, so I was also not sure that was going to be something I would like either. But I agreed to try it. And the first time in particular, I did not like it. Even with lube (which made it pretty cold, too), it was pretty painful to the point of having to ask him to stop. That pretty much stopped that whole session too.

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A little while later, he asked to try again, and said hed read up on how to use it better. So we tried again, and it still hurt, but he went really slowly, and I have to admit it wasnt as bad. Fast forward a few more times, each of which was better, and one of the times most recently, it was really good to the point where I actually had a pretty big orgasm from just penetration. That was the first time that had ever happened to me. Now he always asks me if I want to use it. Hes gotten much better and loves having a big cock, and it feels really good. He genuinely seems to like that I enjoy it. It has allowed us to try some different positions.

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So heres my concern. Im a little worried that Im actually enjoying it TOO much. I havent been the one yet to ask for it, and I truly dont always want it. But whenever he brings it up now, I have been saying no less and less frequently, and I secretly get more excited about it coming out. And when Im done coming and he gets his turn, Im finding that Im a little desensitized to his penis. It definitely seems temporary, because its always back to normal the subsequent times we have sex, but right after hes used it, I get less of a sensation of him in me. Im not normally an addictive personality, but Im a little worried about wanting this more and more. Should I try and stop using it? It doesnt seem to bother my husband. Is it OK if I want to have it be a regular thing?

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Accidental Size Queen

Dear ASQ,

You are OK. It is OK to use your husbands large strap-on regularly. Its wonderful that the two of you have found a new way of experiencing each others bodies, and something that gives you such pleasure.

You absolutely can become accustomed to a certain kind of sensation, and we humans are prone to diminishing returns when it comes to novelty. Your husbands factory-installed and add-on phalluses provide a chance for size variety. I think its wise to keep his actual penis in the rotation, along with digital penetration, oral sex, or whatever else pleases the two of you.

As for the sensitivity of your vaginal canal, depending on how much energy your husband has after ejaculation, you might focus on his pleasure first and yours second. And you should continue to have sexual encounters without the dildo entirely, to mix things up. You also might do Kegel exercises. These generally help with pelvic floor tone, along with other physical benefits. They also tend to help people get a more nuanced awareness of their genitals, which might help you feel your husbands penis more acutely.

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Dear How to Do It,

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Im a 24-year-old female whos still a virgin, but not by choice. I had years of religious ideals, then anxiety that kept me hidden, and just when I was ready to find a relationship, a pandemic. I would really like to lose it so I can get it over with and focus on having fun sex and relationships, but I dont know how (obvs I know HOW, haha, but not how to go about initiating this). It just seems like men either fetishize virginity or it freaks them out. I dont want to end up with a hookup who doesnt treat me carefully, someone who takes advantage of my inexperience, or a significant other who breaks things off when I say Im not experienced. I want to have the best first experience I can, and it just seems like dating apps arent going to cut it and its hard to meet organically in the current times. What can I do to be safe and comfortable without waiting years and years?

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Ready but Perplexed

Dear Ready,

I empathize with your desire to get through the first, culturally weighted instance of sex and then date without all the baggage. I picked a stranger and saw him several times after our first encounter. That may or may not work for you.

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Safe is difficult. Its a comforting and soothing concept, but not often reality. Safer, however, with an emphasis on understanding and mitigating risks, is completely achievable. Ask your potential partners how recently theyve been tested, meet them in a public place to get to know them, listen to yourself if you get a wary feeling, and protect your ability to leave at any timetake your own car or stay in areas where you can get a ride share or taxi, and know where your wallet, phone, and shoes are.

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Remember, youve just started looking and theres been a pandemic the whole time. It might take another couple of years to find someone interested and interesting. Go to social occasions as youre ablethe park, anyone?and think about which apps youre using. If theyre mostly for hookups, you might want to give Bumble or Hinge a try. And yes, many men do fetishize virginity, and many others are unsure how to navigate it or dont want what they perceive as the responsibility. You cant fully control that, but you can tell them relatively early on that youre inexperienced but excited about sex and watch their reactions closely.

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In the meantime, masturbate. Get to know your body well. Experiment and fantasize. Give yourself pleasure. Think about using insertable toys on yourself, too. You can get more comfortable in your own skin while you sort out the partner search.

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Dear How to Do It,

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Ive been married to my husband for 10 years. There have been two flashpoints in our relationship where I discovered porn use on his part that amounted to compulsive behavior. These incidents also aligned with him not initiating sex with me, or declining intimacy with me (and then going to use porn immediately after). This led me to feel like I was being replaced by what porn performers had to offer. We had therapy at the time, built a trusting relationship, and had a family.

Last year, I made a similar discovery to these past times on a secret phone that I accidentally found. I found there were other thingspersonal and work relatedthat he was also hiding from me, which made trust hard. The fact that Id come out of having children made me feel like he no longer viewed my body as attractive, and this second phone discovery at the same time as another waning in his attention in the bedroom toward me.

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Weve both had more therapy for this, but Im left feeling insecure, inadequate, and unattractive. Weve both got high sex drives, but his was channelled elsewhere. Our sex life has improved immeasurably since he has cut out porn this time, not just in frequency but also in intimacy. We have tried watching some films together with mixed success. A few things are at the back of my mind. Many of the performers from his solo viewing fell into the 18+ but very young-looking category, and many of the women were very thin, theyre often tall, blond, and Eastern European. Its very stereotypical porny porn from free sites. Im a short, shapely lady (not overweight), dark-haired, in my mid 30s. I cant get how he gets so much gratification from people who are not like me at all. I dont expect a series of clones, but in the selection, there never seems to be anyone who has any features that I do. It makes me wonder how he finds me attractive at all.

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He insists that Im his No. 1, and that while he can find these performers sexually attractive, he doesnt compare them with methat his sex life with me eclipses any thrills from his extracurricular activities. I have trouble understanding the mechanics of all this, but I would like to feel less bothered by all of it and more confident in my own right. What is behind my misgivings? Any advice appreciated.

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Not Enough

Dear Not Enough,

Twice, your husband was using porn in an unhealthy way at a time that correlates with a decrease in intimacy with you, including declining to have sex with you to watch pornography. On another occasion, you found a phone that contained personal and professional details that you didnt know but feel that you should have been informed of. I think thats where the bulk of your misgivings are coming from.

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Im wondering if watching porn together is too much pressure for now. Or, if youd like to continue using it, if its possible to incorporate some variety.

People consume pornography, even the most mainstream stuff, for a variety of reasons and in several different ways. Your husband is the only person who can say how he interacts with porn, why he chooses what to watch, and what his desire for the performers he sees is. Your ability to believe your husband when he says his sex life with you eclipses his porn-watching is strained by your history together. The way you talk about therapy seems past tense, but youre having issues in the present. Did your time with a therapist give you communication skills you can put to use here?

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The big questions here are whether you think your relationship can recover to the point where you can believe your husband when he tells you he desires and eroticizes you, and what youll need to get there. Once you have an idea of that, get on the same page with your husband. Communicate clearly that youre still struggling with trust. Give him the opportunity to respond, and welcome his suggestions as you share yours. If he doesnt engage, you should reconsider how much effort youre willing to put in.

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Dear How to Do It,

Im a 67-year-old man married to the same woman for 45 years. Ive always had a much stronger sex drive, which has really not decreased over the years. My wife, like the wives of all of my friends, has pretty much lost interest in sex. Five years ago, we stopped having intercourse because she said it hurt. Although she said she would see a doctor, she never did, which made it clear she was no longer interested in this activity. She refuses to tell me what feels good and what I can do differently to give her physical pleasure. She is quite prudish about talking about sex, and she claims she has never masturbated, although I have encouraged her to explore this. When we were younger, she enjoyed sex and always had at least one orgasm and often more. Meanwhile, she still gives me earth-shattering blow jobs and has no shyness at all about this and says she loves doing it. My friends tell me Im lucky she does this, and while I agree to an extent, I miss the feel of her body and giving her pleasure. Sadly, it seems I will live out my life with this frustration. Do you think theres another option for us?

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Old and Frustrated

Dear Old F,

Your wife saying shell see a doctor about the pain she experiences during penetrative sex is a fact, as is her not following through with seeing a professional. Your belief this means she is clearly no longer interested in intercourse is, meanwhile, just a presumption. She could also be so tired of getting the run-around from doctors when it comes to her genitalia and hormones that she cant muster the motivation to interact with the medical system for something that isnt a survival concern.

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You also call your wife quite prudish. Prude isnt a slur, but its still pretty judgmental. Shyness, which you use later when youre describing her confidence and enjoyment of giving those earth-shattering blow jobs, is a more neutral way to describe it. Meanwhile, when youre conveying her statement that she hasnt masturbated, you also use the word claims. Do you believe your wife? Why not?

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What Im getting at is I think your attitude toward your wife and her changing body is worrisome. I suspect what you miss is the feeling you get out of touching your wifes body in ways that feel good for her. Thats not about her. Thats about you and your ego.

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That said, you do have a problem. When you say you miss the feel of your wifes body, is that a general missing or a specific, her-vaginal-canal-wrapped-around-your-penis kind of missing? If its general, there are so very many ways you can connect physically without vaginal penetration. Snuggling, for one. If it is specific, talk to your wife again, and try to listen to her this time. If intercourse is really off the table for good, its time for you to think through what that loss means to you and what the alternatives might be.

More How to Do It

A few years ago, I had a few hookups with a guy who had a monster dong. Like, a very girthy porno penis. It was awesome for PIV sex. But there was one thing I could never, ever do with him.
In May, controversy over the ultimate American Bible briefly rocked the Christian publishing world. Big-name Christian authors penned a letter blasting it as dangerous, and more than 900 people signed a petition decrying the decision to print the book. The Bibles advertised publisher, a part of HarperCollins Christian Publishing, disavowed the book and denied it ever had plans to print it in the first place.

The $60 Bible, which was originally set to ship early this month to commemorate the 20th anniversary of 9/11, was inspired by the country musician Lee Greenwoods 1980s patriotic anthem God Bless the USA and packages Scripture with the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, the Pledge of Allegiance, and the handwritten chorus to Greenwoods song. The ensuing uproar shows the challenges facing publishers in the lucrative Bible-printing business and the growing discomfort with Christian nationalism, the ideology that asserts the United States should be an explicitly Christian country.

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The maker of the God Bless the USA Bible said it was not designed as a Christian nationalist book. Hugh Kirkpatrick, the president of the marketing company behind the Bibles development, said he wanted to make a one-stop shop Bible to encourage Americansand not just Christiansto learn about the Judeo-Christian values that he sees as underpinning the countrys founding. We built this to be a bridge, not to divide, he said. We tried to say, OK, we love freedom, and we all want to be free, and this process was to let people understand why the Founding Fathers used the Bible as a guide. He added that he was not trying to convert anyone to his religion or his worldview. Theres no racism involved, no nationalism involved, he said.

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Kirkpatrick originally claimed he reached an agreement with the evangelical publishing company Zondervan, the division of HarperCollins that owns the rights to the New International Version translation of the Bible, to print 1,000 copies. But many critics, alerted to its existence by reporting from Religion Unplugged, said that no matter Kirkpatricks claims, the message was clear. The implication is the American founding documents were divinely inspired, said Catherine Brekus, a professor of the history of religion in America at Harvard Divinity School.

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A week and a half later, in the face of a public outcry, Zondervan denied its support for the Bible, leaving Kirkpatrick to scramble to find another way to manufacture his text. (Kirkpatrick claimed Zondervan bailed after the petition; Zondervan has said Kirkpatrick had been premature in marketing the Bible as an NIV Bible and that the company decided before the outcry began that the Bible was not a fit.)

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Before the election of President Donald Trump, Kirkpatricks Bible may have been received with indifference. Christian nationalism, the fusion of American national identity with white, conservative, Protestant Christianity, had been considered a fairly standard Christian position throughout American history. The ideology began to take on its current culture war connotations in the 1960s, according to Brekus, as large numbers of immigrants arrived and the civil rights and counterculture movements disrupted the status quo. White evangelicals began to see their conceptualization of the U.S. as a Christian nation as under attack. According to John Fea, a historian and the author of Believe Me: The Evangelical Road to Donald Trump, the modern form of Christian nationalism took root in the 1970s, with the rise of Jerry Fallwells Moral Majority. Since the late 1970s, this God and country thing has been something you fight for, not something thats a given, Fea said. The idea of fusing the Bible with patriotism really took on a culture war sensibility.

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It was around this time that evangelicals began to bring American history into the Bible. After President Dwight Eisenhower died in 1969, the American Bible Society, which first published the Good News Bible, put out an Eisenhower version, which simply had his name on the cover, a single page explaining his love for the Bible, and his photo in the back. Even then, they were deeply divided about whether they should do this, Fea said. They agonized over it. But there was no turning back. In the 1970s, Brekus said, an evangelical market emerged that made it clear there was demand for religious products. Bibles, as a consumer good, grew increasingly diverse.

Falwell himself kicked off the trend of broadly patriotic Bibles with his I Love America Bible in 1983. His Bible, which on its cover featured a portrayal of Revolutionary war soldiers, included biographies of the presidents, an essay on the American revolution, and the text of the U.S. Constitution. Twenty-six years later, the Southern Baptist pastor Richard G. Lee put out The American Patriots Bible, which made explicit arguments for the divine inspiration of the countrys founding. The Bible wove illustrations of notable presidents and commentary about Second Amendment rights and individual liberty and the glory of military service in inserts between pages of Scripture. Compared to the explicit messaging and militarism of the American Patriots Bible, the Lee Greenwood Bible is remarkably subtle.

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The even more conservative Founders Bible, the Young American Patriots Bible, The American Womans Bible, the 1599 Geneva Bible: Patriots Edition, and several military Bibles were published in the following years. The purpose of these Bibles, experts say, was to promote the idea of the United States as both a Christian nation and a nation specially favored by God as part of his divine plan, or at least a nation with a divine mandate to spread American and Christian values around the world.

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Trumps election changed how many more progressive evangelicals saw the idea, particularly after the researchers Samuel Perry and Andrew Whitehead published research highlighting the influence of Christian nationalism and connecting it to support for Trump. According to Whitehead, around half of all American adults are broadly in favor of thinking of America as a Christian nation, and a smaller segment of those Christiansabout 20 percent of Americans overallstrongly advocate for the idea. Many faith leaders who noticed the ideology in their churches really began to worry after the Jan. 6 insurrection, when the rioters waved crosses and Christian protest signs. We cant unsee the Jesus signs next to Trump signs, the Confederate flag paraded, the broken windows, injured bodies and officers assaulted, the Zondervan authors wrote in their public letter protesting the God Bless the USA Bible

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The population of enthusiastic Christian nationalists has shrunk slightly in recent years, Whitehead said. But the rhetoric has grown more prevalent, and the idea of fighting for religious freedom has gained salience in the era of mask and vaccine mandates. People think about defending Christianity more than they used to, he said.

So it is not surprising that a publishing company may have considered the Lee Greenwood Bible a potentially fruitful product. Printing the Bible is a very profitable business, and there is a constant demand for it. Christian publishers, then, have to make the case for consumers to choose their particular Bible. To do so, theyll produce Bibles with additional prayer material, or Bible study questions, or notes about particular translations. At any given moment, shoppers looking for a new Bible can find the standard King James, New International Version, New Revised Standard Version, and English Standard Version translations, to count a few. They can also find Bibles geared toward women and children and scholars and even athletes and businesspeople. You want to get different bells and whistles that will appeal to certain consumer markets, Perry said. I cannot exaggerate the extreme diversity of Bibles out there.

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But Bibles arent just utilitarian items; theyre also statements, and Christians will cough up $60 for a Bible with public domain material just to send a message about who they are. The God Bless the USA Bibles website notes that it would make a great gift for Faith and Values advocates and anyone that loves America. Its a self-identifying symbol, a status symbol, Perry said. It could be they were banking on this kind of God Bless America Bible being purchased as an expression of loyalty to this God and country conservative identity. I think publishers were thinking there may be a big enough market of people who would say, this is the kind of declaration I would make with my Bible.

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But publishers also likely knew from the start that the Lee Greenwood Bible had the potential for backlash. Bibles have always been contentious as symbolic statements. When Zondervan was set to release an updated version of the NIV in the mid 90s that included more gender inclusive language (an apostle addresses brothers and sisters, rather than just brothers, for example), evangelicals cried out against the infiltration of feminism and political correctness into Bible publishing, causing Zondervan to be worked over in blogs and in magazines, according to Perry. Prominent evangelicals told Americans to stop reading the NIV, and Crossway publishing, alongside the National Council of Churches, put out the now-popular English Standard Version in response. (Evangelicals are the primary audience targeted in Bible publishing.) The NIV is still known as a liberal Bible in certain circles, Perry said. That experience may have made Zondervan more hesitant to take risks that might damage their reputation, in either conservative or progressive circles.

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Zondervans rejection of the Lee Greenwood Bible shows that Christian nationalism isnt as safe a financial bet as it might have been, now that the public is more alert to its potential dangers. According to Brekus, earlier patriotic Bibles were met with opposition in their day: Christianity Today, the flagship evangelical publication, blasted the American Patriots Bible as idolatrous when it was published in 2009. Back then, the magazine described such a concept as elevating the U.S. to the point of being worshipped. But still, the Bible was published by Thomas Nelson, HarperCollins other major Christian imprint.

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But its not just a matter of public backlash. Melani McAlister, a professor of American Studies at George Washington University, emphasized that many evangelicals consider Christianity a global faith and are uneasy with the idea of tying it too closely to nationalist ideologies. Putting the Bible or placing American history within the Bible, or suggesting the U.S. is a source of revelation, is seen by many evangelicals as a kind of heresy, Brekus said. For some segments of the potential customer base, the issue is not Christian nationalism but the idea of soiling a sacred object by printing Scripture with anything else.

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Its hard to know whether Zondervans rejection of the Lee Greenwood Bible will actually damage its sales. While Kirkpatrick will no longer be able to print with the NIV translationthe best-selling Bible out therehe said he has found other printers and companies that will use the historic, public domain version of the King James Bible. The first 3,000 will now ship in mid-October because of labor shortages and supply-chain issues, he said. Thats a small number, but Kirkpatrick said that the custom, unique nature of the product has limited what he can produce, and that he is currently just testing out the market, anyway. He has sold 5,000 Bibles in pre-sale and expects to sell many more once he begins a marketing campaign. Kirkpatrick said he was pleased with the demand for the Bible and that the public backlash didnt worry him. I think for the people that wanted this product, that helped us, he said. For the people that werent going to buy the product anyway, it didnt do any damage.

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Ultimately, Perry believes that most Christians are likely aware of what this Bible is trying to do. People arent dumb and can recognize that this is a kitschy and goofy God and country money grab, he said. Or a naked appeal to partisan culture wars. The earlier and more overtly nationalist American Patriots Bible sold well, but only with a particular market thats itching for culture war content. The issue with the Lee Greenwood Bible, he said, is that it was aiming for a niche market that, at least for a company concerned with public opinion, wasnt big enough to be worth the reputational damage.

Is there an interesting story happening in your religious community? Email tips to molly.olmstead@slate.com.
The important thing to know about Steve Bannons podcast is that it is one of the most popular shows on Apples platform. It has tens of millions of downloads. So reports Isaac Arnsdorf, who covers national politics for ProPublica. It has really become a watering hole for far-right figures. The podcast, titled Bannons War Room, has a lot of guests who are loyal to Donald Trump. Many of them believe the 2020 election was stolen. And with these guests, Bannon has started promoting a novel idea, encouraging his listeners to flood the very lowest levels of the Republican party. Says Arnsdorf: The idea behind this strategy is to take over the party from the bottom up by taking all these precinct positions, which are often not contested and just there for the taking. These precinct positions Bannon has been encouraging his listeners to fill go by a lot of names: election inspector, precinct committeeman. Arnsdorf simply calls them precinct officers. They are party functionariesfor both Republicans and Democratsand their responsibilities vary state by state. These precinct workers make up the base: They knock on doors, get out the vote, support the people leading the party in D.C. But they also have these powers: Sometimes they can choose who will run for statewide office, and other times, they nominate the people who oversee elections. On Wednesdays episode of What Next, I spoke with Arnsdorf about Steve Bannons influential podcast, the strategists newest flood-the-zone initiative, and how some die-hard Republicans want to make sure they dont lose the presidency again. Our conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

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Isaac Arnsdorf: The key thing to understand is that the county party, the local party officials, have direct influence on the election administration through these formal mechanisms. Every states a little different, but thats the basic idea. To give you some examples: In Wisconsin, the election is run by the county clerk, but the poll workers who are technically called election inspectors are nominated by the county party. The law says that the county clerk has to hire the partys poll workers if theyre provided. In the past, this really hasnt been an issue because the parties like basically didnt bother. But now its different. Now county chairs are going, Wait a minute, we need to stack these positions, we need to send the county clerk really long lists of hardcore Republicans so that we can make sure weve got people in the precincts running the polls who are looking out for fraud.

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Mary Harris: I know that ProPublica contacted GOP leaders in 65 key counties. Can you lay out the basics of exactly what you found when you called those people?

So we contacted local party officials in the most electorally significant states: Florida, Georgia, Arizona, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin. We asked them how many new precinct workersor whatever they call ittheyve had since February, which is when Bannon started promoting this. The total, in aggregate, was more than 8,500. I was looking at the Democrats as a control group so we could compare past increases in Republican and Democratic precinct officers. In Maricopa County, Arizona, which is more than half the states population, there was official data for both parties. And you could actually see how the Republican line on the chart just shoots up and the Democratic line is flat.

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When did you realize that this conservative media ecosystem was involved? Like, when did you start hearing people say, I heard about this on Bannons podcast?

We called around to the county party chairs in important counties in these competitive states. And we just asked them, Are you getting a ton of people calling you asking to be precinct chairs? Because thats a little weird, right? The average voter has never heard of a precinct chair, much less is interested in being one. And for the most part, the answer was yes: Weve never seen anything like this before. Sometimes this was as confusing to the county chair as it was to anyone else.

My favorite story you told was a guy from Fort Worth who said people kept calling, asking about precinct committeemen. And he was like, What are you talking about? We dont have those here. And then he realized where they were coming from.

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Right. That was sort of a shibboleth because precinct committeeman is what they called it on Bannons podcast. But in Texas, the term they actually use is precinct chair. So that was a tell that they were coming from Bannons show.

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"Theyre there because they believe the last election was stolen, and they believe their participation in this role is going to prevent that from happening again."  Isaac Arnsdorf

Its interesting because this idea didnt seem to come from Bannon himself, but from Daniel Schultz, whos from Arizona and had been beating this drum of low level positions for a little while. Do we know how this guy bends Bannons ear?

Yeah, Bannon didnt come up with this himself. He kind of plucked it out of obscurity and called up this guy whos been saying the same thing for more than a decade. No one ever listened until Bannon gave him the platform. Hes an insurance lawyer and a precinct committeemanhe got involved in the party at the local level in 2007, and he clearly became fascinated with this possibility that if lots of people like him did what he did  he signed up his kids to do this, eventually. But if lots of people

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His kids?

Yeah, when they are of age. And if lots more people like him would go out and become precinct committeemen, then they could take over the Republican Party. Schultz calls it the most powerful position in politics.

I think its important that Daniel Schultz started as a Tea Party person. I remember a decade there was so much focus on these town halls, when people from Washington would go home and be confronted by Tea Party activists. Ive heard some people talk about how after Jan. 6, after this past election, people werent seeing that. But what youre laying out here makes it seem to me that, actually, were just seeing something different: a focus not on the elected officials, but on the process itself.

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The elected officials are directly accountable to the party. When a member of Congress or senator or presidential candidate is planning a trip or event in some place, theyre going to reach out to the county chair in that county for help organizing that. Or, if they want to take the electorates temperature on something, the county chair is going to be one of their first calls. Dan Schultzs case is that if you want these politicians to actually pay attention, you introduce yourself as a precinct committeeman and then they have to listen, because you literally are the party.

The Tea Party, at least at the beginning, was about forming groups and going to meetings. Eventually those people knocked down the wall and came into the Republican Party. But it was initially about a parallel structure attacking the establishment. This is different. It is the party organization itself.

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What do we know about the intentions of folks who are taking these positions?

Well, what we know is what they what they say, which is that theyre there because they believe the last election was stolen, and they believe their activism and participation in this role is going to prevent that from happening again. What do they mean by that? Theyre talking about new voting restrictions like weve seen in Georgia and Texas. Theyre talking about audits like the one in Arizona. Theyre talking about becoming poll workers themselves so they can be in the polling place on the lookout for fraud. Theyre talking about appointing people like themselves to the board that supervises the local election, and theyre talking about getting rid of the RINOS.

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The lesson that they took away from 2020 is that the Democrats committed widespread fraudbut really, that the reason Trump isnt president anymore is because the Republican Party let him down. They sold him out because they knew that the election was stolen and they didnt stop it. Theyre talking about people like Brad Raffensperger, the secretary of state in Georgia; the county and state officials in Arizona who certified results; the state legislators who didnt appoint Electoral College votes for Trump; the members of Congress who didnt object on Jan. 6. The purpose of taking over the party is to get rid of everyone like that so that next time there wont be anyone in the way. There wont be any Brad Raffensperger.

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How did the people whod been doing these county election jobs for a long time feel about this sudden surge in interest in what they do?

So some of these county chairs we talked to were themselves new in their positionthey had been elected on this wave of newcomers who are dedicated to this movement. So they are obviously thrilled. Some of them were incumbents, had had been there before and were happy to see this this surge of enthusiasm. If theyre going to work for the party, the workers are happy to have them. Some others more were more ambivalent about it: They wanted to figure out a way to harness the grassroots enthusiasm to win in 2022 and 2024. At the other end of the spectrum, there were people who really did not like what they were seeing, who did not think that this was a good way forward for the party or, frankly, for American democracy. But the reality is that those people were mostly on their way out.

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And there are plenty of newly activated conservatives looking to take over for this old guard, remaking the Republican Party in the process.

I would point to the recent meeting of a local GOP faction in North Carolina, in one of these counties thats had a flood of newcomers. There was an appearance by Rep. Madison Cawthorn. As part of the event, he autographed a shotgun that they were raffling off. Just a few minutes after this, he said, If our election systems continue to be rigged and continue to be stolen, then its going to lead to one placeand its bloodshed. The people in the audience cheered. And someone shouted out, When are you going to call us to Washington again? People laughed and clapped, and he said, We are actively working on that one.

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Many of the people who are embracing this strategy of invading the party, theyre pretty clear when they use language like that. It seems like a lot of the people who are talking about this are also toying with these ideas of violence in a pretty alarming way.

Bannon is making comparisons to the opening battles of the Revolutionary War. Hes talking about taking over the party village by village, which has this guerrilla warfare sound to it. But were already seeing it go beyond implied violence to, if not actual violence, the threat of violence.

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That threat of violence almost became a reality in Clark County, Nevada, because a group of Proud Boys decided to get involved with their local precinct.

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This started happening when the Proud Boys were getting more involved and holding rallies and protests outside counting sites. What changed this year is that a few members of the Proud Boys started going to local Republican Party meetings and recruiting other people who were not themselves Proud Boys but were looking to become new members of the local party, with the goal of replacing that partys moderate leadership with someone who worked on the Trump campaign and was a leader of the effort to overturn the election results in Nevada. What ended up happening is the existing party leadership could not hold a vote twice because they felt it was too dangerousthat if they didnt admit the members the Proud Boys had signed up or if things didnt go the Proud Boys way, they couldnt guarantee everyones security. Now its in because the slate the Proud Boys were supporting ended up holding their own election.

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You quoted the county chair, who was at this meeting where people were pushing to get in and police were there, and he said, Im done covering for you awful people, and left and then resigned.

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Yeah, and hes one of these guys who doesnt think the election was stolen, much less that theres any point in fighting about it, and he doesnt like seeing his party filled with Proud Boys.

Im wondering, for the party leaders you spoke to who were worried about the ideologies of the new workers, how are they thinking about their response? Are they thinking about counterorganizing or adding screening procedures?

I did talk with a district chair in Arizona who screens. But she can get overruled by higher-up officials in the county party. So theres a limit to what she can do on her own to keep out people she views as unhelpful. What shes really hoping is that cooler minds prevail and that this is not what moderates and independents want, so Republicans who actually want to win are going to be more focused on trying to appeal to them.

It seems to me the solution has to come from Republicans themselves sorting out who they are, what they stand for, what theyll tolerate. If you look to Washington, for instance, you dont see a lot of people calling out the big lie, and when they do, theyre bumped out of the party, like Liz Cheney. It seems to me that this issue youre talking about with the grassroots, whatever happens next will need to be sorted out with Republican voters.

I think this is another way of understanding why Liz Cheney got pushed out of House leadership for voting to impeach Trump, and why so many Republican members of Congress voted to object to the results on Jan. 6: Their constituency is the party organization, and the party organization at the local level in their districts is increasingly filled with people who believe the election was stolen.

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The first of a new wave of anti-protest laws to reach federal court has already hit a major roadblock. Last week, U.S. District Judge Mark Walker issued a preliminary injunction temporarily barring Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and three Florida sheriffs (plus their officers) from enforcing part of the states anti-riot law, HB 1.

HB 1 is just one of dozens of anti-protest laws enacted or proposed by Republican lawmakers following last summers massive Black Lives Matter protests. But if Judge Walkers order is any indication, many of these laws arent built to last.

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Eight states enacted such statutes, and many more legislatures passed (pending approval by the governor) or proposed similar laws. This year alone, Republican lawmakers in 34 states have introduced more than 80 anti-protest bills. This onslaught of restrictive legislation accelerated a trend that began when Donald Trump took office. Since January 2017, states have enacted 36 bills curbing the right of assembly.

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The Florida law generated substantial controversy upon its passage and enactment in April. At a ceremonial press conference and bill signing, DeSantis boasted that if you look at the breadth of this particular piece of legislation, it is the strongest anti-rioting, pro-law enforcement piece of legislation in the country. Theres just nothing even close.

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That breadth likely renders HB 1 partially unconstitutional. The laws challengers, a group of Black-led advocacy organizations, sought temporary relief enjoining enforcement of the law while the case proceeds. Walker obliged, finding that the groups were likely to succeed on the merits of their constitutional claims. Specifically, he ruled that HB 1s broad, vague language probably violates the First Amendmentby criminalizing too much protected protest activityand the 14th Amendmentby failing to give protesters fair notice of what exactly it criminalizes.

The offending language is found in the laws new definition of riot, which provides that [a] person commits a riot if he or she willfully participates in a violent public disturbance involving an assembly of three or more persons, acting with a common intent to assist each other in violent and disorderly conduct, which results in injury, property damage, or imminent danger of either.

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Walker deemed this language constitutionally insufficient because it leaves unclear what it means to participate and whether a participant must share an intent to be violent or disorderly. In other words, protesters could plausibly be arrested under the definition for continuing to peacefully protest (or even for simply failing to leave) when others in the crowd became destructive. Because that looming threat prevented the plaintiff organizations from attending and organizing protests, Walker granted them immediate relief.

DeSantis implication that HB 1 goes drastically further than its counterparts in other states is questionable. Several states have proposed expanded definitions of terms like riot or unlawful assembly. In Wisconsin, for example, the state Legislature has proposed a law that would criminalize mere attendance at a riot, defined as a public disturbance involving an unlawful assembly and an act or threat of violence. At a committee debate over the bill last month, even some Republicans raised concerns that the bill would cover peaceful protest activity.

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Similar legislation in other states is on ice, at least for now. A Georgia bill that would have expanded the definition of unlawful assembly failed to pass, though legislators could revive it in future sessions (as a state Senate committee did earlier this year). And in Alabama, a bill broadly redefining riot passed the state House of Representatives but also ultimately failed. An early version of the bill would have criminalized anything that substantially obstructs a law enforcement or other government function.

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Walkers decision is not binding on other courts considering other states laws. But his reasoning might be persuasive to courts facing vagueness and overbreadth challenges to analogous definitions of riot and unlawful assembly. If so, proposals like Wisconsins, Georgias, and Alabamas could be dead on arrival should they ever become law.

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Walkers reasoning might also provide guidance to courts considering other types of anti-protest provisions. One basic concern underlying his analysis is the threat that protestors could be held criminally liable for others violent acts. That concern should extend to restrictions beyond those redefining statutory terms.

Consider an Oklahoma law set to take effect in November. HB 1674, a wide-ranging anti-protest measure signed by Gov. Kevin Stitt, confers organizational liability to any group found to be a conspirator of anyone convicted of various riot-related crimes as defined in the law. In its federal court complaint challenging that provision, the Oklahoma NAACP alleges that the bill subjects groups to crippling liability for conspiring to commit minor crimes that are staples of typical proteststhings like violating noise ordinances, jaywalking, or displaying unsanctioned flags on government propertyif any of the groups protester-conspirators also engage in riotous behavior unapproved by the group. If the court agrees, HB 1674 will likely meet the same fate as HB 1.

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Two higher court cases from last year shed light on the larger tension between protected First Amendment protest activity and the criminal behavior of other protesters. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals became the first federal appellate court to hold that portions of the federal Anti-Riot Act violate the First Amendment. The court upheld the convictions under the act of two participants in the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. But it held that certain provisions of the actthose outlawing speech that would encourage or promote a riot, and speech urging others to riot or involving mere advocacy of violencewere unconstitutionally overbroad because they encompassed too much protected speech.

The act went too far because it proscribed speech that would not directly facilitate crimes committed by others. Several months later, the Supreme Court punted on the related issue of whether a protest organizer who directs protesters to occupy a highway can be held civilly liable for unsanctioned violence subsequently committed by protesters. But the court did vacate the 5th Circuits controversial opinion that had left Black Lives Matter activist DeRay McKesson personally on the hook for violence committed by an unknown assailant at the protest that McKesson led on a Baton Rouge highway. And the court has expressly rejected comparable claims for civil liability in the past.

Together, these decisions along with Walkers offer reason for optimism that Republican officials concerted assault on protest rights will not be sustained. Such optimism could be fleeting. DeSantis has already indicated his intent to appeal Walkers order and expressed confidence that the conservative-leaning 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will rule in his favor. And the Supreme Courts long history of hostility toward protesters looms large.

But for now, Walkers decision is a refreshing reminder that the First Amendment protects protests with particular force.
On Tuesday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom held onto his job after California voters resoundingly rejected a recall effort that the Democrat successfully billed as a Republican plot in one of the bluest states in the country. With about 60 percent of the vote counted, no to the recall was leading 67 percent to 32 percent with 5.5 million votes to 2.6 million, which was enough for the Associated Press and CNN to call the effort as having failed.

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Newsom received heavy support from Latino voters, who made up 25 percent of the electorate, according to early exit polling from CNN. The no response was also backed heavily by white voters with college degrees, according to the same exit polls.

The race attracted national attention despite Democrats heavy advantage in the state after midsummer polls showed the recall question polling about even with the anti-recall question, with President Joe Biden campaigning for Newsom on Monday in Long Beach. Republicans had a critical advantage if the recall were to succeed due to the states bizarre rules and the Democratic strategy of not running a mainstream potential replacement candidate.

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Indeed, Republican front-runner and conservative talk radio host Larry Elder led the second ballot questionon who, in the event of a recall, should replace Newsom as governorwith more than 40 percent of the vote. It didnt matter. Since voters definitively rejected the question of whether to initiate the recall in the first place, Newsom remains in office.

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The governor appeared to easily carry the state that has voted for Democrats by at least 20 points in the last four presidential elections. In his campaigns final days, Newsom focused his campaign heavily on his response to the COVID-19 pandemic and Elders opposition to mask and vaccine mandates. Deep in the midst of the delta wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, California, the largest state in the country, is currently the sixth-lowest state for COVID cases per capita. Newsom has credited his approach of targeted lockdowns and mask mandates, while the state has also been aggressive with vaccine mandates for state employees and public health workers .

Newsom used his speech responding to the recall as a declaration of victory for his pandemic strategy and a repudiation of Trumpism. We said yes to science, we said yes to vaccines, we said yes to ending this pandemic, we said yes to peoples right to vote without fear of fake fraud or voter suppression, we said yes to womens fundamental constitutional right to decide for herself what she does with her body for her fate and future, we said yes to diversity, we said yes to inclusion, we said yes to pluralism, Newsom declared.

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All of that may have sounded great in blue California, but it was clear which issue ultimately won the day. According to CNN exit polling, COVID-19 was the top issue for one-third of California, making it the biggest concern for California voters. According to the same polls, about 45 percent of California voters found Newsoms pandemic policies to be about right while 6 in 10 voters described vaccines as more of a public health responsibility than it is a personal choice. In other words: California is not a state looking to ditch its strategy for fighting COVID-19 in favor of a candidate who doesnt appear to even understand it.
On Wednesday, a Republican-led committee in the Pennsylvania Senate voted 7 to 4 along party lines to advance a subpoena of private information of millions of the states voters as part of a partisan Arizona-style inquiry into the 2020 election.

There will almost certainly be court battles over the subpoena in the weeks ahead. The Democratic governor has promised to fight elements of the subpoena, noting that other portions of the request are already publicly available. The subpoena seeks drivers license numbers, addresses, and the last four digits of the Social Security numbers of Pennsylvania registered voters, as well as whether or not they voted by mail in 2020. According to the Associated Press, it is illegal to publicly release a voters drivers license number and Social Security number in the state.

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If the subpoena succeeds, Republican officials have acknowledged the data could end up in the hands of private vendors affiliated with Donald Trumps campaign to delegitimize the 2020 election.

The Pennsylvania inquiry comes in the wake of a similar effort in Arizona and efforts in Wisconsin and Georgia by Republican-led legislatures to revisit the 2020 election, pursuing claims of fraud by the former president that have been widely debunked. In Arizona, a group called Cyber Ninjasrun by a 2020 election conspiracy theoristhas for months conducted a so-called audit of the Maricopa County election results that has not followed typical audit procedure. Theres reason to believe the Pennsylvania inquiry will be similarly unorthodox. The Philadelphia Inquirer has stated in its coverage of the local inquiry that the paper is not currently referring to attempts by Pennsylvania Republicans to investigate the 2020 presidential election as an audit because theres no indication it would follow the best practices or the common understanding of an audit among nonpartisan experts.

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Unlike Arizonas audit, Republicans in Pennsylvania have said that the inquiry will be funded by taxpayers, rather than conservative dark money groups affiliated with Donald Trump. However, the Senate Intergovernmental Operations Committee that is overseeing the audit is chaired by Sen. Cris Dush, who visited the Arizona audit and vowed to bring it to Pennsylvania, the Associated Press reported.

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During a hearing on the inquiry on Wednesday, Dush said he was undertaking it because there have been questions regarding the validity of people who have . voted, whether or not they exist. Multiple official audits and court proceedings have uncovered no proof of widespread fraud in Pennsylvania, a state Joe Biden won by more than 80,000 votes. Trump has continued to push for audits of state election systems nationwide in an effort to discredit his loss in 2020.

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Pennsylvania Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman denied that the inquiry he authorized will be like the previous audit in Arizona, which turned into a national joke after revelations about the audits bizarre procedures and hunt for bamboo-laced ballots. Corman has, however, turned it over to Dush, who explicitly said the Arizona audit is his model after visiting the Phoenix audit site.

Corman has been vague about who will actually be running the inquiry if his bodys subpoenas overcome the likely legal challenges, telling the Inquirer that experience wasnt a prerequisite. I dont know how much experience is out there for auditing elections, right? he said. I dont know theres a lot that has been done over time.

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A Democrat on the Senate Intergovernmental Operations Committee asked Dush if any of the vendors under consideration had ties to Trump attorney and discredited election lawyer Sidney Powell, the New York Times reported. It is absolutely possible, Dush said.

Meanwhile, State Senate Democrats were asking the Department of Justice to step in to investigate a previous county audit that was conducted by one of the same firms that took part in the Arizona audit, the Philadelphia Inquirers Andrew Seidman reported on Wednesday. Seidman reported that Democrats are calling on U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate the activities that unfolded in Fulton County in December of 2020, which apparently involved granting partisan consultant access to sensitive voter information without a public vote.

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In May, the Department of Justice sent a letter to the Arizona Senate over its audit, warning it that an effort to track down individual voters via a canvass using the same sort of information sought in the Pennsylvania inquiry could violate civil rights law. The Arizona Senate officially put that portion of the audit on hold, but a local Republican activist last week released the highly misleading results of a supposed canvass, drawing pushback from local Republican officials. (Its unclear whether or not the canvass actually tracked down individual voters, which could violate civil rights laws against voter intimidation, or merely looked at voting data.)

And in July, the department doubled down on its earlier message to Arizona, issuing a memo to all 50 states warning that audits with outside vendors run the risk of violating civil rights law against voter intimidation and reminding officials to protect the chain of custody of election materials.
Every week, the USDAs National Agricultural Statistics Service publishes a dense report of statistics and trends that evaluate the nations agricultural sector. The figuresspanning from weekly dairy yields in Texas to cotton production costs in Oklahomacue the factors that drive price, supply, and demand for crops and livestock.

The scholarly and (at times) soporific economic reports tend to fly under the radar of academic scrutiny. But the anomalous heat waves and so-called megadroughts of this years growing season have rankled the Sun Belt and beckoned for attention toward the records. The numbers now suggest that even the most adapted of livestock are being slaughtered at alarming rates due to extreme exhaustion. As local economies bleed because of it, farmers are jockeying to find solutions.

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One of the most important statistics nested in the reports is that of the red meat production in select states and regions, a figure typically recorded in pounds. The relative amount of red meatwhich encompasses cattle, sheep, hogs, and lambsproduced by a given region is indicative of the slaughter rate and market interest for the respective sector of livestock. A low cull rate (the frequency at which livestock are exiting a herd due to disease, exhaustion, or an enterprise desire for stronger steers) typically implies that a farms operations are stable, with a minimal turnover rate for its livestock population, while a higher rate often suggests that a farm faces internal or external forces that are driving its need to vacate a larger portion of the herd.

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Between June 2020 and June 2021, Texas reported that it had slaughtered (or, by association, culled) an additional 38.2 million pounds of red meat livestock, an annual growth of around 30 percent for the figure. The United States as a whole reeled its net production back by 3 percent over that same time period.

What was worse, 36.4 million of those 38.2 million pounds of red meat were produced between May and Junea single summer month accounting for more than 95 percent of its increase in a year. And while official reports for the subsequent months of July and August remain scattered and in assembly, local ranchers I spoke with suggest that the trend has not ebbed to any noticeable degree.

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Analysts believe that the problem doesnt stem from the farms or the livestock, but rather the onerous ripples of the heat. In an email to me, Leann Hunting, the animal industry director at the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food, wrote: The heat and lack of moisture/rainfall leads to a lack of feed and water, which can make it hard to keep the cattle healthy.  Cattle ranchers have been hauling water to areas where natural water sources have been dried up and have been feeding hay to make up for a lack of forage.  Without that water, heat exposure and exhaustion would cause a lot of harm to the cattle.

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The average feeder cattle will find ideal living conditions at around 25 to 65 degrees Fahrenheit. At temperatures between 80 and 100 degrees, they begin to undergo rapid exhaustion, and at temperatures above 100, they will die. The average daily high in Phoenix this summer sits at about 105, and the year-over-year rainfall has plummeted from an average 812 inches to 4.41 inches, the lowest on record in over 10 years.

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In the past, namely during the climax of the California droughts between 2014 and 2016, ranchers adapted to the heat by selling their cattle to neighboring states like Colorado and Texas, where the heat had begun to ebb. This allowed the national market for cattle to remain afloat, albeit with a regional supply void in the concentrated markets of the Golden State. But now, it is not just the West that is feeling the heatthe entire nation is, and ranchers are fearing it will be difficult to meet expected long-term demand hikes with commensurate supply.

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Many are facing drought in the North and Northwest as well, which is where most cattle go from here, says Emmett Sturgill, a co-owner of the Rafter S Cattle Company in Kingman, Arizona. He and his wife raise Black and Red Angus cattle across their roughly 300,000 acres of land.

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The long-term effect of this will be less cows producing less calves, and demand is increasing steadily around the world, so prices will begin to rise, he says. When the dust all settles, we expect 2022 to have much higher prices. It will take years to get the cow herds back to where they were in 2021 when the culling began.

According to USDA reports, Texas population of cattle on feed dropped by 60,000 headsor roughly 15 percent of its entire supplyover the past year. Nationally, its been reduced by around 7 percent. Other states like Colorado have slashed supply by as much as 25.7 percent, portending that the drought-stoked tumult is now plaguing some of the most historically stable producers of livestock in the U.S.

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This population shock is not present in all Southwestern states, however; California and Arizona, for instance, have managed to nearly match their figures for cattle on feed from last year despite mounting cull rates (though the vast majority of the survivors are skinny, sickly, and in critical condition). The rift has pressured meat distributors to battle for suppliers, and for suppliers to slaughter otherwise healthy animals.

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One path through which many ranchers have sought to manage the demand for beef is by turning to lamb and sheep. During quarantine, the demand for these more exotic meats waxed. Correspondingly, ranchers in Texas slaughtered an additional 1.1 million pounds of sheep and lamb, a flooring annual growth rate of 68.3 percent.

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Sheep and lamb are generally considered to be more resistant to heat, and as the drought has continued to plow across the West, ranchers have begun to tap into these supply channels to compensate for the heat waves exhausting their cattle. The haphazard market patch has sufficed demand for red meat thus far, but critics contend that such a rate of slaughter is far too unsustainable to maintain, with entire regional populations calculated to exhaust within as little as one to two years.

Other interim solutions to the decimation have included the employment of new technologies capable of measuring and alerting ranchers of suboptimal farm conditions before they cripple livestock, with some platforms even providing tailored suggestions to the ranchers. In other cases, farms have sought to ebb overgrazing by rotating grazing plots or by placing cattle in the same terrains as sheep and lamb, so as to limit the bulk of grass and volume of water needed to maintain the grounds.

But the solutions have proven to be neither effective nor sustainable. Sheep and lamb populations are finite, newer technologies cannot yet outperform their corporal counterparts, and livestock still require towering bales of hay and grass to be raised responsibly.

Such shortfalls are aiding the ongoing push to modernize the traditionalist climate policies of the South. This time, though, the ripples of extreme heat are not only routing the regions fauna; they are miring its most foundational economies, exhausting its mammoth farmlands, and flirting with an agricultural crisis. For policymakers, they will prove difficult to ignore.

Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society.
In May 2020, a Yale undergraduate named Eileen Huang wrote an open letter following the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. Writing on a blog called Chinese American, Huang warned of the rampant anti-Blackness in the Asian American community that, if unchecked, can bring violence to us all. Her appeal quickly went viral among Asian Americans on Twitter and on the Chinese platform WeChat, and sparked a conversation in the media about ways that Asian Americans have helped perpetuate racism. For lots of readers, the discussion was eye-opening. Others had a less positive response. Among the detractors was a subculture commonly known as Mens Rights Asians or MRAsians, which has gained notoriety for harassing anyoneoften Asian womenwhom they see as a race traitor or threat to Asian men. And they took direct aim at Huang.

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First there were threads mocking Huang on r/aznidentity, a subreddit with more than 44,000 members that is the unofficial hub of Mens Rights Asians. But it wasnt until January, when Huang began posting on TikTok about anti-Black racism, that the real harassment began.

After Huang posted a video about Asian celebrities appropriating Black culture, she began receiving hundreds of sexist and violent messages through email and social media. The focus started to be on me and my personal life, she told me recently. I had to limit my comments on Instagram because people would comment, Kill yourself, or Im going to rape you.  Members of r/aznidentity began looking into her previous romantic relationshipsincluding ones shed had in high schooland denigrated her on the subreddit for having dated a white person. Shes just another white worshipping Lu; we always have to take them down; She wants white men to try to kick our asses, but slap her ass, one user wrote. (Lu is an epithet often used on the subreddit to insult Asian women.) They schemed about how to cancel her, encouraging one another to contact Yale in an attempt to get her expelled. Others tried to get her fired from her internship, and she was kicked off Twitter after they mass-reported her. Im not a celebrity with a PR team that can handle this. I was navigating it by myself and blocking people by myself, which meant I was forced to read a lot of the verbal abuse, Huang said. One member of r/aznidentity even made an entire website and separate subreddit dedicated to keeping track of her activities. He posted about me every day to ensure that r/aznidentity would not forget about me, she said, adding that some scary people discovered her through the site. Human brains are not programmed to receive that much violence over the internet.

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The harassment persisted for months, escalating when her attackers found an old sarcastic joke shed made on Twitter in late 2020, before the spike in anti-Asian violence, when her following was small and mostly consisted of friends. It was an attempt, she says, to jab at Asian Facebook users who were spreading anti-Black messages: Maybe its good to normalize racism against Asians, shed written. It was obviously tongue-in-cheek, she says now. Shed figured people would read the tweet, realize a young Asian woman had written it, and understand she wasnt serious. When members of r/aznidentity discovered the tweet, the harassment against her escalated dramatically. Many began blaming her for the attacks, citing the joke out of context to suggest that she was earnestly promoting anti-Asian hate. She seriously thinks some old lady deserves to get stomped in the face by some thug because once an old asian lady somewhere looked at a black person the wrong way, one user wrote. Eileen Huang has blood on her hands, wrote another.

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I became a scapegoat for everything that subreddit despises the most, Huang said. Ill always be a symbol of their worst fears and insecurities.

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Spend a little time on r/aznidentity, and you will quickly become immersed in the lingo of Mens Rights Asians. The posts are dotted with contemptuous mentions of WMAF: white maleAsian female relationships. Bananarang refers derisively to an Asian woman whos previously dated white men but is currently seeking a relationship with an Asian man. PAA, or progressive Asian activist, is a pejorative term similar to social justice warrior for Asians who ascribe to liberal, feminist values. The most common colloquialisms are Lu, referring to Asian women who use their white/non-Asian partners to gain influence and put them in positions of power above other Asians, and Chan, referring to Asian men who are mentally colonized. An anonymous r/aznidentity user whom Ill call David, and who until recently was a moderator for the subreddit, explained the concept to me: There are Asian Americans who can fit into white circles that other Asian Americans cant. Because that Asian American can go into those circles, they believe they are superior. All of these terms are defined in the subreddits official glossary.

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Members of r/aznidentity reject the Mens Rights Asians and MRAsian labels that are commonly associated with the group; they liken those terms to racial epithets. The members I spoke to claimed to be advocating for both Asian men and women. Granted, some of what they discuss on the forum isnt really about gender at all, just general news about Asians in pop culture and current events. On a given day, the board might include posts dissecting Asian characters in Marvel films or praising Andrew Yang. The comments are often heterogeneous and laced with disagreement.

But the predominant preoccupation of the subreddit and its founders is with what they see as Western societies emasculating Asian men and unfairly elevating Asian women. American culture does indeed have a long track record of portraying Asian men as timid and asexual, but MRAsians see women as active accomplices in maintaining the stereotype, contending that, by dating white men, Asian women are upholding white supremacy.

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Last year, a popular post addressed to Asian women shortly after the killing of Floyd read, Maybe you should have had this conversation about White Supremacy and anti-blackness when you were dating a new white guy every other week.  Were you too busy doing something else with your mouths? If a particular Asian woman has had any sort of history dating white men, r/aznidentity members will denounce her as a turncoat who hates herself and her race. And that denouncement, historically, has been paired with harassment.

In this thinking, racial justice is a zero-sum game, and the increased focus on the Black experience has relegated Asian suffering to the bottom rung.

MRAsians were notorious Reddit marauders long before Eileen Huang became a target, tormenting other Asian Americans on the site and elsewhere on the internet. Theyve gone after Asian American actors and writers, and made life even worse for noncelebrities like Huang whove attracted their ire. Though their activity as internet trolls has waxed and waned over the years, its always played a role in the MRAsian movements larger mission: to tilt the broader culture more in favor of a supposed silent majority of Asian men. Because of their attempts to conceal their identities, its difficult to determine definitively whether r/aznidentitys members are involved in particular instances of harassment. But theres no doubt that moderators have encouraged harassment in the past, and Asian women have repeatedly become the targets of viciously sexist trolls shortly after being called out on r/aznidentity. The subreddit was designed not just as a place to vent, but as a community that could be activated for change. And its members contend that the conversation about race thats played out during the pandemic has validated their worldview. That, in other words, now is their time.

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Despite all the racist accusations about us being racists, incels, hate sub, wumao, toxic asian men, this sub is the ONLY place that has consistently called out discrimination against Asians, reads a post about the Atlanta spa shootings in March, which has more than 1,000 upvotes. Everybody here was saying how discriminated we are, in popular culture, in institutions, at our workplace, in literally every facet of our life.

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To much of this community, two of the biggest stories about race in America in recent memorythe protest movement following Floyds murder and the attacks on Asians during the pandemicunderscore the subreddits thesis that Americas racial discourse has excluded Asians. (To them, the attacks are a prime exhibit for how little attention anti-Asian racism gets.) In this thinking, racial justice is a zero-sum game, and the increased focus on the Black experience has relegated Asian suffering to the bottom rung.

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This resentment at being overlooked is then compounded by what members of r/aznidentity see as a biased refusal by the media, the public, and law enforcement to acknowledge that Black people are preying on Asians and escaping accountability. Another moderator, who goes by Asianmovement, told me that political correctness is whats preventing the American mainstream from recognizing the role of Black people in the wave of anti-Asian attacks. I believe that it is being underscrutinized by the mainstream, and I believe our users also believe it is being underscrutinized by the mainstream, he said.

The moderators have pinned a massive Crime mega thread to the top of the subreddit, and members post stories and mug shots of assailants who happen to be Black and cite dubious Black-on-Asian crime statistics. (Studies indicate that three-quarters of the people perpetrating anti-Asian hate crimes and offenses in the U.S. have actually been white, with the caveat that hate crime data is notoriously piecemeal.) One of the most popular r/aznidentity posts from this year reads: Black teens gang rape and murder mentally ill asian woman. No coverage from national media. Just another day in the United States of America.

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The men in this forum truly see themselves as the ultimate victim, and so they see the erasure of Asian people in the United States as Black peoples fault, said Julia DeCook, a professor at Loyola University Chicago who wrote her 2019 dissertation partly on the groups development. They think the only people who get attention for their oppression and the issues that they face are Black.

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Its a cherry-picked analysis that elides contrary evidence, downplays solidarity between Asian and Black community leaders, and dismisses complicating questions of class and mental health. Its also a stance that feeds into well-trodden model minority narratives.

Asians, if anything, have proven that in an imperfect system that favors elites, it is possible to be able to build your own prosperity. You can, within 1 generation, pull yourself up by your bootstraps, one r/aznidentity user wrote in a post about anti-Asian hate crimes. This puts us in direct conflict with the racial narrative of the oppressed BIPOC and why the AA community is so damn split. (Some members, however, are wary of how the attacks might be used to advance a partisan agenda. Liberals try to justify violence against Asians when the attacker is black. Conservatives will downplay white on Asian violence, a popular post from this year reads. In the end, Asians still suffer.)

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Vexed discussions of Black privilege are not new to the subreddit. But in the past year, the resentment has given organizing energy to a group that has long found ways to cause ripples beyond its niche forums and target the groups favored enemy: progressive Asians (boba liberals). Boba libs literally value black feelings over Asian lives, a post from May reads. This anger is especially pronounced against left-leaning Asian women who, by voicing a desire to combat anti-Blackness, are supposedly making their already-significant betrayal that much worse. These men claim that Asian women basically just want to be white supremacists, said DeCook. Theyre using this not only to solidify their victim status, but to also solidify and justify their misogyny.

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Aside from moderators like Asianmovement and others, the most prominent member of r/aznidentitys ruling junta is its chief founder, a mod with the handle Archelogy, and formerly known as Arcterex117. He first reached out to me in 2019 when he found out I was interested in writing about r/aznidentity, offering to provide a perspective as someone who conceived the subreddit.

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Resentment has given organizing energy to a group that has long found ways to cause ripples beyond its niche forums and target the groups favored enemy: progressive Asians.

Before he started r/aznidentity, Archelogy was a member of an anti-feminist subreddit called r/asianmasculinity, which itself was an offshoot of the infamous mens rights subreddit r/theredpill. (Members of r/theredpill created r/asianmasculinity to discuss issues facing Asian men from a strong redpill perspective.) Archelogy, who identified himself to me as South Asian, became interested in establishing his own subreddit while reading Alex Tizons book Big Little Man during a vacation in Cabo San Lucas. He said that the memoir, which examines how Asian American men navigate gender and race, spoke to the subtle bias he himself had faced in his professional and personal life. Archelogy and two like-minded Redditors, including Asianmovement, subsequently started r/aznidentity in 2015 as an activist subreddit after the mods of r/asianmasculinity banned them for being too political.

Archelogy told me that the criticisms r/aznidentity has faced boil down to an attempt by white media to discredit a fast-growing, bold Asian community that wont be passive like past generations.

We are an anti-racist subreddit which fights Anti-Asianism like hasnt been done before, he said. We think deeply about race but we dont polish our words or use stale academic language. Case in point: He recently wrote, in a post criticizing progressive Asian Redditors, Its almost like the women and men there have ingested so much white semen that theres been some genetic transfer.

The official r/aznidentity guidebook, written by Archelogy and other moderators, advises members to create sock puppet accounts on Twitter as a way to guard their anonymity while making it seem like their accounts belong to users with nothing to hide. The guide instructs members to use profile pictures of decent looking Asian men from Google image searches for these fake accounts.

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Archelogy said this subterfuge is smart and necessary. Activism, according to him, is more practical to do online and do so anonymously, until these viewpoints become part of the mainstream Overton Window of acceptable discourse. The goal of this army of fake Twitter accounts is to flood the mentions of their enemies and make it seem like their ideology is more widespread than it is. As the guidebook contends, Over time, this can wear someone down.

Huang, the besieged Yale student, eventually had enough of the harassment and decided to strike back. She dug around and uncovered the identities of several of her worst tormenters, and was surprised to discover that many of them were professionals with successful careers. These men were not just some incels in their parents basement. Usually they were well-educated, high-income Asian men who had jobs in tech and masters degrees in CS and engineering, successful and established people with a lot of power, Huang told me. She proceeded to contact them directly, demanding that they cease their attacks. When confronted with the reality and the harm that they were causing, they were always just so frightened. The anonymity emboldened them, she said.

This was a rare example of accountability for the Mens Rights Asians. While society has become more alert to the dangers of mens rights movements and social media platforms have cracked down on hate speech, r/aznidentity has proved exceptionally nimble at escaping consequences.

After the deadly 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, Reddit began banning communities that fostered hate speech, like r/incels. To avoid a similar fate, r/aznidentity moderators erased potentially offending posts and advised members to stop using incel language. Mens rights terms like cuck and red pill, once common in the sub, were discouraged, even though the more niche terms like Lu and Chan remain. The mods also denounced harassment, seeking plausible deniability when it came to the troll campaigns.

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Not much is known about the members of r/aznidentity, who guard their privacy carefully; none would tell me their real names.

These were mostly superficial changes, but they allowed the forum to escape sanctions from Reddit. A couple of months after Charlottesville, a moderator for r/asianamericana more progressive Asian American subredditwrote about the experience of being harassed by MRAsians for her interracial relationship. One comment posted about her read, this subreddit has to have standards and to allow self-hating Asians to moderate it is unacceptable. According to her telling, members of r/aznidentity flooded r/asianamerican with demeaning postsand when moderators tried to crack down, some MRAsians circumvented the referees by buying sponsored r/aznidentity ads that showed up alongside regular posts on r/asianamerican.

In 2018, the author Celeste Ng similarly documented how MRAsians had hounded her and other Asian American women in a piece for the Cut. She interviewed 13 women whod been harassed by MRAsians for having non-Asian partners and multiracial families. One of Ngs harassers told her that her mixed-race child would become the next Elliot Rodger, the half-Chinese college student who sought revenge on women for not sleeping with him by killing six people in 2014. (When I asked Archelogy about this, he called Ng a self-hating Asian and suggested that the harasser who went after her child could well have been a white troll.) MRAsians, who rail against miscegenation, often cite Rodger as proof that relationships between Asian women and white men are doomed to produce violently dysfunctional children. The actor Constance Wu referred to these trolls as Asian incels after they attacked her because one of her previous boyfriends was white. And members of r/aznidentity, as Archelogy put it, have proudly humiliated and whacked around actor Ken Jeong, deeming him an Uncle Tom for the way he portrays Asian men on screen.

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David (whom I interviewed before he disappeared from Reddit) told me that r/aznidentity does not condone coordinated attacks online, though he also argued that the community has been unfairly accused of harassment when what they are actually doing is highlighting real issues of discrimination against Asian men. No one has a call to action to harass somebody. If theres a thread out there, I will delete it, he said. Outside that, I dont control people.

Not much is known about the members of r/aznidentity, who guard their privacy carefully; none would tell me their real names. Asianmovement conducted a census in 2018 to get a picture of the membership, which at the time was about 16,100 users (its grown by nearly 28,000 since). According to figures that Asianmovement shared with me, most members ranged from 18 to 24, though there was a significant slice in their late 20s to mid-30s. About 70 percent of them resided in the U.S., and more than 50 percent of them had college degrees. Roughly 37 percent of the members were students, and about 9 percent worked in software.

David, currently in his mid-30s, told me he initially began looking for subreddits focused on Asian men after struggling with online dating. I always assumed that if I was to find my place in societyI think this is something Asian guys always talk aboutI had to make six figures, have muscles, be really whitewashed, he said.

By his late 20s, David had found his six-figure job and was living in the nice part of his East Coast city. Yet hed also spent two years paying for Match.com, sending messages to women a couple times a month with no luck. Id really never recognized how Asian men arent really idealized in the dating scene, David said. I only received maybe one or two messages back from girls. Thats what led me down the rabbit hole. From there, David began consulting pickup artist groups, which eventually led him to r/aznidentity.

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Asianmovement similarly told me that romantic troubles precipitated his path to the subreddit, blaming internalized racism among Asian women. In my own personal life, Ive been told by Asian women that they wouldnt date me because I was Asian, he said. Thats what inspired me to look online.  You cant really talk about this with your Asian female friends at the end of the day.

Archelogy succeeded in cultivating a community of like-minded Asian men, but he has always aspired to extend r/aznidentitys influence beyond the bounds of Reddit. Over the years, however, each time the subreddit tried to take its mission to the real world, its misogyny has hampered its reach.

One of those efforts was a site that Archelogy aggressively touted called Kulture, which launched in 2015, about a month before he founded r/aznidentity. Kulture described itself as a watchdog organization that tallied cases of media oppression of Asian-Americans. At first, Asian celebrities like chef Eddie Huang and director Jon Chu even followed Kultures Twitter account. But it soon became clear that the site was obsessed with how Asians were depicted in sexual terms, frequently calling out shows and movies that depicted relationships between Asian women and white men. Kulture also objected to media that contained gay Asian men, arguing that these portrayals were emasculating. Critics took note of how Kulture demonized female sexual agency, and after a brief flurry of publicity, the site never really caught its stride and hasnt published anything since 2019.

As a larger initiative, Kulture had the whiff of vaporware. Its purported founder and editor, Tim Gupta, initially gave a couple of written interviews but then vanished from the internetperhaps because he didnt exist. The profile picture on Guptas Twitter and LinkedIn accounts actually belongs to another person, a Mumbai-based product manager at Google who told me he had no idea why someone would steal an image of his face for their accounts. Meanwhile, a set of $1,000 grants for projects aimed at promoting Asian masculinity as part of a Kulture nonprofit never materialized; the nonprofit did manage to raise tens of thousands of dollars because of Archelogys appeals on r/aznidentity, according to the organization that handles its bookkeeping. When I asked Archelogy about Tim Gupta, he simply said that Gupta had edited Kulture, but declined to comment further.

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Users on the subreddit have also tried expanding their reach with YouTube channels, podcasts, and even a GQ-inspired Medium publication for the modern wealthy and educated Asian American man called Emperor Magazine that ran articles about Japanese whiskies and self-hating Asian women.

Theres one project that did come to fruition, however. In 2018, a user called the0clean0slate posted in r/aznidentity, Believe or not, hot women want us in porn. He went on to explain that he was crowdfunding and staffing a porn shoot with the goal of promoting a more virile image of Asian men by increasing their numbers in adult films. He even got an Asian American porn website called AsianSchlong to help with distribution and enlisted Masayoshi Mukai, a Japanese American porn star better known by his stage name Jeremy Long, to advise participants. Mukai chimed in on the Reddit thread: Cant wait to see a new generation of Asian Schlongs in the industry.

For the mods of r/aznidentity, this moment is an opportunity to rally an increasingly engaged membership around the forums peculiar ideology.

The0clean0slate raised $3,197.96 from the subreddit and ultimately released a nine-minute porn video on sites like Pornhub. Featuring a professional porn actress and an Asian male co-star making his debut, the video was shot in Los Angeles by a crew that included five Redditors whod donated to the effort. The plot follows a white female Twitch streamer in a relationship with an Asian man. After reading derogatory comments about her partner online, the woman exclaims, No, his dick aint small. Fuck you!and streams herself having sex with him to stick it to the racists.

But there was a hitch: The female character was a thinly veiled reference to a real person, a white Twitch streamer who had faced actual online vitriol for marrying an Asian man. She wasnt happy with the pornographic portrayal of her harassment; according to the0clean0slate, her manager filed a copyright notice with Reddit and insisted that the videos creators never mention the streamers name. They complied. But the porn itself is still easy to find on tube sites. The r/aznidentity members behind the shoot were bent on promoting a more virile image of Asian American men. The woman they dragged into their crusade was collateral damage.

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According to the International Adult Film Database, the Asian male actor never appeared in an adult film again. Then, about six months after the shoot, Masayoshi Mukaithe legendary Jeremy Longabruptly left the game too.

In September 2018, Mukai wrote a lengthy public statement announcing his retirement. Hed entered the adult industry in order to combat stereotypes that desexualize Asian men, yet he described an emotional toll from the work that had driven him to abuse drugs and eventually crash his car a year earlier, killing a close friend. After the accident, he chopped off a section of his left pinky in accordance with the Japanese atonement ritual of Yubitsume. Mukai wanted to normalize Asian male sexuality, in part by guiding r/aznidentitys porn shoot, but explained that hed ultimately been consumed by his demons.

Mukai said he voluntarily elected to serve a 10-year sentence on charges related to the incident and reported to a California jail in January 2019. (Mukai did not respond to a letter sent to the wildfire cleanup camp where, according to Californias Inmate Locator database, he is currently incarcerated.) In his retirement statement, he offered a piece of advice to his sexually frustrated supporters. Theres a ceiling to the amount of sex that will fulfill your life, and its quite low, and a place once reached, pretty disheartening, he wrote. And those who have an unsuccessful sex-life at the heart of their unhappiness will quickly realize their unhappiness is grounded in something else.

In June 2020, after nationwide protests in the wake of George Floyds murder, Reddit once again revamped its policies on hate speech, harassment, and coordinated trolling. As a result, the site removed roughly 2,000 subreddits. R/aznidentity was not one of them. Some r/aznidentity members fretted over the purge, but others were confident theyd sidestep enforcement. One member said it would be bad optics for the site to ban a subreddit for people of color amid the flare-up of racial unrest. I think this sub will be spared only because the current mods made efforts in cleaning it up well, another member wrote.

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David said he wanted to redirect the anger that pervades the subreddit, telling me when he was still a moderator that the best I can do is to make sure that theres not another Elliot Rodger out there. But in the guide outlining their Core Views, moderators continue to blame self hating and brainwashed Asian women for upholding white supremacy with their romantic choices. David told me he believes he has a right to analyze Asian womens relationships. Its really delusional to think that Asian women being fetishized and sexually violated and surviving centuries of abuse by white men is liberation for us, Huang said. The goal of that subreddit is for Asian men to be seen as desirable by the white gaze.

The surge of violent attacks against Asian Americans over the course of the pandemic has, unexpectedly, knitted together two different threads of what MRAsians hate about progressivism: empowerment of Asian women and an emphasis on the experience of Black people. Braided together, its a kind of warped, photo-negative intersectionality.

For the mods of r/aznidentity, this moment is an opportunity to rally an increasingly engaged membership around the forums peculiar ideology. Our subreddit has received a great deal of attention from other Asians and we have received a huge upshot of activity, Asianmovement told me. Many on r/aznidentity have known the true face of white America for what it really isa veneer of racism hidden in politically correct speech. Archelogy told me that coordination for an activism campaign known as Phase 2 now happens in a private Slack, outside the public Reddit community.

Assaults on Asians continue to be a trending topic on the forum. As with any complex issue, its easy to sell an ideology if you offer simple answers and obvious villains. In a March essay on the surge of anti-Asian violence and resulting resentment of Black people, writer Jay Caspian Kang described an ascendant Asian-American conservative movement whose main appeal came from upending the carefully constructed, nuanced narrative about the place of Asians in the American racial hierarchy. While members of r/aznidentity would hardly describe themselves as conservativethey are largely anti-Trump, for one thingthe subreddits blunt and regressive polemics have certainly amassed a following. As Kang writes, Who will sound like the truth-teller, and who will sound like the out-of-touch liberal who talks vaguely about the need for unity?

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While r/aznidentity has ambitions to intensify its crusade, Huang said she has hope some members will eventually free themselves from the myopic worldview of the subreddit. People on the subreddit do experience real racial trauma, she said. I just think that the subreddit is not the place where they should be looking for solidarity and compassion and community. She described a thread about former MRAsians that she came across in an Asian American Facebook group. It contains several accounts from young men who once believed in the MRAsian philosophy, often as teenagers, but then realized their anger toward Asian women was misguided. In that group, she read a nuanced discussion about Asian men needing healthier spaces to express their frustrations and the ways in which gender norms fueled their anger. It was really encouraging, she said.

Huang, for her own part, is taking a hiatus from posting on social media. Being doxxed to that extent made creating content that much more painful and traumatizing for me, she said. The harassment largely died down over the summer, and shes used this respite to assist on-the-ground community organizers who are combatting anti-Asian violence. Huang does plan to eventually resume her online activism, defying those who sought to drive her off the web. I can assure them, Im not going away, she said. Even if Im taking a break, I will be back.
First cannabis-based medicine arrives in Spain



The pioneering drug will be used in treatment-resistant epilepsy patients in Spain

In a ground-breaking move in Spain, the first drug exclusively based on cannabidiol (CBD), a chemical substance extracted from cannabis, has been legally approved and is now available for sale. The medication, which will only be dispensed through hospital pharmacies, will be used in the treatment of epileptic seizures associated with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (LGS) and Dravet syndrome (DS) in patients from two years of age.

Epidyolex (the cannabis-based drugs commercial name) is an oral solution that contains highly purified cannabidiol, or CBD. In September 2019, it received approval from the European Commission, making it the first cannabis-based prescription medicine derived from plants to receive this authorisation. The approval of cannabidiol oral solution was based on the results of four randomised controlled trials with data from more than 714 patients with both epileptic conditions. More than ten hospitals in Spain participated in the clinical development of the medication.

Antonio Gil-Nagel Rein, neurologist and director of the Epilepsy Program at the Ruber International Hospital in Madrid, has welcomed the news, adding that until now, the treatment options for both forms of epilepsy were very limited. The new drugs, he said, will contribute greatly to the quality of life of patients.

Lennox-Gastaut (LGS) and Dravet (SD) syndromes are two rare forms of epilepsy with high rates of mortality. Many patients with LGS or DS have multiple seizures each day, placing them at constant risk of falls and injuries. Despite current treatment with antiepileptic drugs, these two severe forms of epilepsy are highly resistant to traditional treatments.

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View Website View Google Map Facebook Loading The Iberoptima company uses modern scientific technology to provide the best CBD oil to clients across the Murcia region Iberoptima is a Mazarron-based CBD oil, supplements and vitamin company which uses state-of-the-art Micelle enhanced technology to provide the best product to their customers. This technology increases the absorption rates of CBD oil (cannabidiol) from between five and ten per cent to nearly 100%, up to 15 times more than other companies who dont use Micelle enhanced products. Micelle Enhanced CBD oil means that, instead of the products being dissolved in oil, which is not generally well-absorbed by the human body, the CBD compounds are coated with a layer of microscopic ball-shaped molecules, which are carried faster and more efficiently through the human body, allowing clients to get more for their money, as fewer drops are needed to get the desired effect. Iberoptima products are sold in 10ml or 30ml bottles with built in droppers and cover a wide range of substances including fish oil, vitamin B12, vitamin C, ginger as well as CBD and CBN oils. The CBD oils are bottled in Switzerland using organic materials and are designed to be dissolved in water and taken as required, keeping in mind that fewer drops than usual will be needed thanks to the Micelle enhancement. Prices start at between 20 and 40 euros for a 10ml bottle and increase for larger bottles or trio packs. Iberoptima also offer special deals for larger quantity wholesales. The company are based in Bolnuevo, Mazarron (in the South West area of Murcia) and are open from 8am until 8pm.
Spain Covid update September 14: 155 deaths reported in last 24 hours



The coronavirus death toll in Spain is the highest its been in almost two weeks

While the cumulative incidence rate, daily infections and hospital admissions have all been in steady decline over the past few weeks, the Covid-related death toll is sadly not following suit and fatalities remain high, particularly among the older age group. While more than 35 million people in Spain are now fully vaccinated, including 100 per cent of those over 80 years, just 60.3 per cent of those aged between 12 and 19  the group responsible for the majority of the fifth wave infections  have been double jabbed.

Cumulative incidence rate

Arguably the best indicator of the evolution of the coronavirus pandemic , the 14-day cumulative incidence rate has fallen by more than 50 points in just one week. The figure now stands at 109.38 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, according to the data released by the Ministry of Health on Tuesday September 14. Spain needs to reach 50 cases for the WHO to consider the pandemic under control, but the indicators are positive as only the north African enclave of Melilla remains at extreme risk with 291.70 cases.

The cumulative incidence rate is steadily declining throughout all age groups eligible for vaccinations, with the 12 to 19 population still registering the highest figure at 140 cases. The data on Tuesday show that those under the age of 11 are reporting a cumulative incidence of 143.11, but of course, these youngsters are currently not being inoculated against Covid.

Covid infections

The Ministry reported 3,261 new coronavirus infections on Tuesday, of which 1,715 were diagnosed in the last 24 hours, down from 2,311 on the same day last week. This brings the total number of people infected with Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic to 4,918,526.

Hospitalisations and fatalities

There are currently 4,459 patients admitted for Covid-19 throughout Spain, and 1,136 are registered in the ICU, while 631 people have been discharged in the last 24 hours.

With these figures, it is clear that hospital pressure has been gradually easing over the last seven days, with coronavirus patients now occupying just 3.7 per cent of hospital beds and 12.41 per cent of ICU beds. This is a decrease of more than 2 per cent in the case of intensive care in a week.

The number of Covid deaths has reached a number not seen since September 3, with a further 155 fatalities reported on Tuesday. This brings the total death toll in Spain to 85,548 people.

Vaccinations

A total of 35,413,078 people or 74.6 per cent of the population have now been fully vaccinated in Spain against coronavirus, while 78.5 per cent, or 37,243,220 people, have received at least one dose.

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What happens when UK and expat children in Spain are not registered



Rules for registering children in Spain who have one or two parents that arent Spanish citizens

The children of British residents and expats living in Spain also need to be registered as residents, but too many of them are still unregistered. Minors in Spain do not need an ID number (DNI or NIE) until they are 14 years old, but a failure to register them is illegal and may make them ineligible for a health card (SIP) from Social Security.

Children in Spain with 2 non-Spanish parents

Children with British nationality or who are nationals of another country are not automatically Spanish citizens, even if they were born and raised in Spain. Instead, children born in Spain normally take the nationality of their parents. If neither parent is Spanish or has Spanish citizenship, the child will not be Spanish and needs to be registered as a resident with the local town hall (padron municipal) and the central register of foreign nationals (registro central de extranjeros), just like the parents.

Children in Spain with 1 Spanish parent

If the child has one Spanish parent and the other is a foreigner, the child will automatically be given Spanish citizenship. However, the birth and existence of the child still needs to be registered with the local town hall, whether they were born in Spain or abroad.

By registering the child in this way, they can get two passports  a Spanish one and a British one or a passport from the other parents country. Spanish passports are acquired from the local police station where the child is registered. Spain does not allow dual nationality with most non-Spanish-speaking countries, but a binational child can get double nationality.

If you havent registered your child in Spain yet, be sure to start today so you are up to date with all the latest legal requirements.

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Foreign media report on the political dimension of Pope Francis' visit to Slovakia.

Foreign media see Pope Francis' visit to the Roma community in eastern Slovakia as adding to his message of inclusion. (Source: TASR)

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Pope Francis' visit to the Roma neighbourhood in Kosice was the highlight of his trip, according to several of the world's media. Some have placed the statements he made in Slovakia within the context of his brief trip to Hungary before arriving to Bratislava.

The Reuters newswire noticed the Pope's statement during the liturgy in Presov on Tuesday, that "the cross is not a flag to wave, but the pure source of a new way of living." A true believer "views no one as an enemy, but everyone as a brother or sister," Reuters quoted the Pope as saying. The agency noted that a number of political parties in Europe, including several far-right parties in the east such as the People's Party - Our Slovakia (LSNS), use crosses on their party flags or symbols.

The New York Times stressed that the remarks came two days after the Pope's meeting with Hungarian PM Viktor Orban, who "has made Hungarys Christian roots and identity a hallmark of his political messaging and policies, including anti-immigrant and nationalist measures."

"The popes remarks in Slovakia on Tuesday were more blunt. He appeared to extend his criticism to politicians and activists who use Christian references and symbols to gain ground in so-called culture wars," wrote the New York Times.

Sign of inclusion for excluded Roma

The NYT added that the Pope's meeting with the Roma people in Kosice added to his message of inclusion.

The Reuters agency also highlighted the meeting with the Roma, to whom the Pope said that "people cannot be pigeonholed."

"Addressing residents from an open stage covered by white cloth with flower designs painted by Roma children, the pope said that God saw people as equal. Some residents watched from balconies with peeling paint," Reuters wrote.

Deutsche Welle wrote that the Pope met with the Roma at an "eyesore" housing project.

The AP newswire dubbed the Pope's visit to Lunik IX a "sign of inclusion for Slovakia's excluded Roma." The AP described it as the highlight of the papal visit to Slovakia, despite the "problematic optics," or the visit bringing home just how excluded the Roma are: "Slovak police and soldiers lined tall fencing along the main route into the neighborhood, preventing residents who hadnt registered in advance from accessing the small seating area for the event," the AP wrote.

Shame over the Holocaust

The agency also reported on the Pope's honouring Holocaust victims in Slovakia, when he said "your suffering is our suffering."

The Times of Israel reported that the Pope "voiced 'shame' over the massacre of tens of thousands of Slovak Jews in the Holocaust, condemning World War IIs 'frenzy of hatred' and lingering antisemitism."

15. Sep 2021 at 11:54 | Compiled by Spectator staff
We must not reduce faith to mere sugar to sweeten our lives, Pope Francis says during national pilgrimage on his last day in Slovakia.

Pope Francis is wrapping up his four-day tour of Slovakia with the message that the Church needs to make progress.

Speaking to the cardinals, bishops, priests, as well as tens of thousands of adherents gathered for the national pilgrimage in the western-Slovak town of Sastin, the Pope thanked all the pilgrims who arrived to Sastin from all around Slovakia and beyond, for leacing their comfort zone and not getting stuck in ancient rites, encouraging people to keep moving.

"When the Church stops moving, it becomes ill," the Pope said. Don't stop, the he continued.

People started gathering in Sastin since early morning Read more

Our Lady of Sorrows, the patron saint of Slovakia, is an example for the Slovak nation of a faith in constant motion, that is not static, said Pope Francis during the homily at the mass in Sastin. He asked Slovaks to stay on the path.

With walking, you are resisting the temptation of a static faith that will satisfy you with a ceremony or old tradition, Pope Francis said.

Recalled archbishop present on stage

Organisers said that more than 50,000 participants had registered for the mass in Sastin. 437 were handicapped, 5,981 were children and 2,629 were foreigners. Also 757 priests had registered for the event.

Recalled Archbishop Robert Bezak during the mass with Pope Francis in Sastin (Source: Sme - Jozef Jakubco)

Among the religious figures who joined him on stage was the recalled Trnava Archbishop Robert Bezak. Pope Benedict XVI removed Bezak from office on July 2, 2012. The Vatican still has not revealed the reasons for this decision. Francis had been showing sympathy to Bezak in recent years, meeting with him and his family in Bratislava on Monday.

Related article

Related article Recalled archbishop and family meet Pope Francis in Bratislava Read more

Faith is not just life's sugar

The Pope stressed that we must not reduce faith to sugar, which merely sweetens life.

"Jesus is a sign that they will oppose. He came to bring light where there was darkness, whereby darkness came to light and had to give way. Therefore, darkness is still fighting against him," he said.

Todays Slovakia, according to the Pope, needs its prophets who will bear witness to the beauty of the Gospel with their lives and who will engage in a dialogue.

The Pope also called for a compassionate faith, solidarity with the poor.

The sermon of Pope Francis was followed by applause. He remained faithful to his own recommendation that he gave the priests at the Cathedral of St. Martin, being that sermons should not exceed 10-15 minutes.

"I carry you all in my heart," the Pope said at the end of the event. He laid a golden rose at the feet of the statue of Our Lady of Sorrows, as his gift to the national shrine in Sastin.

15. Sep 2021 at 11:50 | Compiled by Spectator staff
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https://sputniknews.com/20210914/three-former-us-intelligence-officers-admit-to-spying-for-emirati-cyber-group-darkmatter-1089080357.html

Three Former US Intelligence Officers Admit to Spying for Emirati Cyber Group Darkmatter

Three Former US Intelligence Officers Admit to Spying for Emirati Cyber Group Darkmatter

Three former US intelligence operatives have admitted to charges they gave the United Arab Emirates advanced spy tools and helped them break into computers... 14.09.2021, Sputnik International

2021-09-14T23:55+0000

2021-09-14T23:55+0000

2021-09-14T23:54+0000

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According to court documents filed in a Washington, DC, federal court on Tuesday, Marc Baier, Ryan Adams and Daniel Gericke left their intelligence jobs in the US to work for Project Raven, an advanced cyber ops program run by Emirati intelligence company DarkMatter.The men are charged with violating the Arms Export Control Act and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations; and conspiracy to commit access device fraud and computer hacking offenses. However, because they have admitted to their crimes, they have been offered a deferred prosecution agreement: if they cooperate with an FBI investigation, give up their security clearances, agree to never work for Emirati law enforcement or other government companies, and agree to pay fines equal to their UAE salaries, the US Department of Justice will drop their prosecution.Project Raven was revealed in a Reuters report in 2019 that was based on the testimony of former NSA intelligence analyst Lori Stroud, a former DarkMatter employee who became a whistleblower after discovering the company was conducting cyber ops against American targets. Baier, one of the three charged in the Tuesday documents, was also mentioned in the Reuters report as one of Strouds colleagues.Undeterred, the UAE started up Project Raven and lured much of the Cyberpoint staff with high salaries and the promise of engaging in some of the most difficult and exciting hacking work of their lives. Project Raven later became part of the purview of DarkMatter.However, as US citizens the employees were still subject to US law, and the FBI began pressing them for information about DarkMatters targets. Stroud told Reuters that the identity of their American targets was kept secret, and she only found them by looking for them.The firm also targeted critics of the Emirati government, including journalists and civil society figures. However, they also claimed to have broken up a Daesh operation in the country and interrupted planned operations by other groups, as well.

TruePatriot One heck of a sweetheart plea deal. Why? And where are the charges of treason against the US because that is what they admitted to in District Court?? Contrast that to what has been, and is being, done to Julian Assange who only wrote and spoke the truth. 1

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https://sputniknews.com/20210915/blinken-questioned-about-cooperation-with-india-on-over-the-horizon-forces-1089084476.html

Blinken Questioned About Cooperation With India on 'Over-the-Horizon Forces'

Blinken Questioned About Cooperation With India on 'Over-the-Horizon Forces'

While India and the US have a mutual logistics sharing pact, in place since 2017, New Delhi has been wary of basing American troops and aircraft on its... 15.09.2021, Sputnik International

2021-09-15T08:47+0000

2021-09-15T08:47+0000

2021-09-15T08:47+0000

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antony blinken

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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that Washington was "deeply engaged with India across the board". The moment came during a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing about whether the Biden administration was in talks with New Delhi to stage "over the horizon" operations.While Blinken did admit being in touch with his Indian counterparts "across the board", he refused to spell out the specific details."With regard, though, to any specifics about over the rise in capabilities and the plans that we put in place and will continue to put in place, I'd rather take that up in a different setting", the top US diplomat said.Blinken's remarks come ahead of a two-day visit (24-25 September) by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the US, where he will be attending the first-ever "Quad" Leaders' Summit and hold a bilateral meeting with US President Joe Biden, among other official engagements.US Lawmakers Slam PakistanThe congressional hearing also witnessed lawmakers questioning Blinken about Pakistan's "duplicitous role" in the "War on Terror".Democrat Bill Keating claimed that Islamabad has simultaneously helped the Taliban in fighting US forces, while also assisting Washington in counter-terror operations."I would say that we should no longer pay Pakistan and we should pay India", proposed Scott Perry, a lawmaker from Pennsylvania.Blinken responded to these questions by assuring the House Committee members that, going forward, Pakistan will have to "make good" on the expectations that the international community has from the Taliban-led regime.Blinken reiterated his list of demands for the Taliban regime in Afghanistan  ensuring freedom of travel and safe passage for Afghans and foreigners wanting to leave the nation, not allowing Afghanistan to be used as a safe haven for "outward directed terrorism", forming a more inclusive government, to allow humanitarian aid into the country, and upholding the rights of women, girls, and minorities  as preconditions before the US and its partners would move towards recognising the recently unveiled cabinet in Kabul."Pakistan needs to line up with the rest of the  with the broad majority of the international community in working towards those ends and in upholding those expectations", the top US diplomat remarked.Pakistan has called upon the international community to engage with the Taliban as well as "discard old lenses" in judging the new Taliban government.Pakistan has consistently fended off allegations of supporting the Taliban in America's War on Terror, instead portraying itself as a victim for the past two decades. Prime Minister Imran Khan said in an interview in July: "70,000 Pakistanis died in a war we had nothing to do with. We had more than [a] $150 billion loss to our economy".*The Taliban is a terrorist organisation banned in Russia and many other nations.

https://sputniknews.com/20210914/think-you-are-right-blinken-agrees-pakistan-played-duplicitous-role-in-us-war-on-terror-1089056312.html

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https://sputniknews.com/20210915/could-nicki-minajs-bizarre-hip-hop-feud-with-uk-pm-bojo-get-steamy-1089094895.html

Could Nicki Minajs Bizarre Hip-Hop Feud With UK PM BoJo Get Steamy?

Could Nicki Minajs Bizarre Hip-Hop Feud With UK PM BoJo Get Steamy?

Despite Boris Johnsons diss towards Nicki Minaj during his Downing Street press conference on Tuesday  following a question about her odd tweet claiming... 15.09.2021, Sputnik International

2021-09-15T15:11+0000

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2021-09-17T21:03+0000

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An unlikely "love affair" could be blossoming between hip-hop star Nicki Minaj and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson  thanks to her cousin's friend's testicles.Trinidadian-born Minaj sailed into the perfect tweetstorm on Monday when she informed her 22.6 million followers that a friend of her cousin on the Caribbean island had been left impotent and jilted at the alter by a horrific  while also hilarious  side-effect of the COVID-19 vaccine.Minaj's vaccine scepticism was the subject of a journalist's question at Wednesday evening's Downing Street press conference on planned measures to control the spread of the virus over the autumn and winter flu season.But despite Johnsons diss towards her conference, Minaj tweeted that she loved the PM and his accent.The Harajuku Barbie later claimed she'd been "lied on" over the row and that she forgave Johnson and only him. The message was complete with a bizarre audio recording of Minaj impersonating a British accent and claiming to have gone to Oxford University and been at school with late PM Margaret Thatcher. Deez Nut-NutsBoJo can claim to be living proof that the COVID jab doesn't steal your Mojo. He and his wife Carrie  dubbed "Princess Nut Nuts" in an epic burn by former adviser Dominic Cummings  announced at the end of July that their second child was on the way. That was four months after Johnson had his first dose of the AstraZeneca Oxford vaccine in late March and the second in early June.Meanwhile the saga of Nicki's cousin's friend's testizzles has already been immortalised in a rap track.While a Minaj-BoJo hook-up looks unlikely, there are signs the lady rapper may still be on the prowl for a new man.Just last Friday, Minajs husband Kenneth Petty pled guilty to failing to register as a sex offender in the US state of California after moving there in July 2019 from New York, where he was convicted of raping a woman in 1995 at the age of 16.Twitter was alive with rumours that Minaj or one of her friends and relations might get a Cabinet seat to park her badonkadonk on in Johnson's Wednesday reshuffle.

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boris johnson, britain, twitter, nicki minaj, viral, uk, coronavirus, covid-19
https://sputniknews.com/20210915/ex-acting-cia-director-says-jihadists-absolutely-inspired-by-taliban-victory-hectic-us-withdrawal-1089100775.html

Ex-Acting CIA Director Says Jihadists 'Absolutely Inspired' by Taliban Victory, Hectic US Withdrawal

Ex-Acting CIA Director Says Jihadists 'Absolutely Inspired' by Taliban Victory, Hectic US Withdrawal

Ex-Acting CIA Director Says Jihadists 'Absolutely Inspired' by Taliban Victory, Hectic US Withdrawal

2021-09-15T15:34+0000

2021-09-15T15:34+0000

2021-09-15T15:34+0000

afghanistan

asia

us

afghanistan

taliban

jihadist supporters

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Michael Morell, former acting CIA director under Barack Obama, has criticised the trouble-ridden US withdrawal from Afghanistan, claiming that it ended up inspiring jihadists around the world.Morell added that now, with American and NATO troops no longer stationed in the country, Afghanistan is going to draw jihadists from all parts of the world, becoming a "jihadist central" and thus a more dangerous place than in 2001. This "without a doubt" puts the US at more risk, the ex-CIA acting director said.The US started to withdraw from Afghanistan in May 2021 on the orders of President Joe Biden, who argued that there was never a good moment to end the war that had lasted for almost 20 years. The withdrawal was complete on 30 August, but by that time, the Taliban* had seized the entire country and the US administration landed in hot water for failing to extract all Americans and Afghans who used to help NATO, before leaving the country.Biden still stood firm behind his decision to withdraw troops, arguing it was the right decision. Prior to the Taliban's takeover of Kabul on 15 August, the president also claimed that the Afghan government had enough military forces and equipment to withstand the Taliban assault. Members of his administration now claim the rapid advance of the Taliban during the offensive came as a surprise to them.White House officials also face grilling in the US Congress on the "fatally flawed" withdrawal, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken already having suffered a round of criticism and tough questions on 14 September, coming from members of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. Lawmakers are trying to figure out why the evacuation of civilians from Afghanistan was not properly prepared and why it was carried out so chaotically, with thousands of Afghans pouring into Kabul Airport and its premises following the fall of the capital to the Taliban.*The Taliban is a terrorist organisation banned in Russia and many other countries.

https://sputniknews.com/20210912/every-place-where-al-qaeda-is-were-going-to-invade-biden-defends-afghanistan-withdrawal-1089002873.html

Thomas Turk Najjar.. Heck, they even arrested an Israeli military officer embedded with DAESH in Syria. CNN and BBC very rarely tell the trooph. Martian is SPOT on! 2

Xtr3me_1 And this is the jack-boot that wanted to make Russia pay. 1

11

asia

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Tim Korso https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e4/0a/02/1080648312_311:168:1773:1631_100x100_80_0_0_5eb98a42f89fd860368dcd2ae2d9e403.jpg

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asia, us, afghanistan, taliban, jihadist supporters
https://sputniknews.com/20210915/facebook-maintains-a-secret-elite-class-pentagon-acquisition-officials-move-to-defense-contractors-1089081002.html

Facebook Maintains a Secret Elite Class; Pentagon Acquisition Officials Move to Defense Contractors

Facebook Maintains a Secret Elite Class; Pentagon Acquisition Officials Move to Defense Contractors

Facebook claims its rules are applied equally, but new documents reveal that a small group of celebrities is given special privileges. 15.09.2021, Sputnik International

2021-09-15T00:11+0000

2021-09-15T00:11+0000

2021-09-15T09:38+0000

michelle bachelet

pentagon

california

john hyten

voting rights

gavin newsom

us military

the critical hour

radio

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Facebook Maintains a Secret Elite Class; Pentagon Acquisition Officials Move to Defense Contractors Facebook claims its rules are applied equally, but new documents reveal that a small group of celebrities is given special privileges.

Greg Palast, investigative reporter, joins us to discuss the California recall election. California Governor Gavin Newsom is in big trouble as his GOP challenger Larry Elder is holding fairly close in the polls. Will this reliably blue state turn red?K. J. Noh, peace activist, writer, and teacher, joins us to discuss China. Washington is hosting a meeting of their anti-China group known as "The Quad." Also, President Biden seems to be trying to stem the tide of war drums between the two superpowers as neocons in his administration appear to be pushing back.Niko House, political activist, independent journalist and podcaster, joins us to discuss social media manipulations. Facebook claims its rules are applied equally, but new documents reveal that a small group of celebrities is given special privileges. Also, Twitter has dodged an election meddling complaint regarding the suppression of the Hunter Biden corruption scandal.Ted Rall, political cartoonist and syndicated columnist, joins us to discuss the possibility of war between nuclear powers. Vice-Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff General John E. Hyten is warning that the war of words and deeds between Washington and Beijing may be spiraling out of control, and that the results could destroy the world and the global economy.Laith Marouf, broadcaster and journalist based in Beirut, Lebanon, joins us to discuss Israel. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet has accused Israel of violating international rules by using unwarranted and excessive force against Palestinian civilians. Also, some Palestinians escaped from a high-security prison.Caleb Maupin, journalist and political analyst, joins us to discuss Pentagon spending. A recent study demonstrates that 1,700 government officials responsible for acquisition have moved on to defense contractors in what appears to be a conflict of interest.Darryl Jones, attorney, joins us to discuss voting rights. A group of Democrats in the Senate have introduced a new voting rights bill that includes making Election Day a federal holiday. The bill faces the likelihood of a GOP filibuster, as it will need 60 votes to pass.Robert Fantina, journalist and Palestine activist, joins us to discuss the neocon plan for world domination. An article in Responsible Statecraft reviews the origins of the post 9/11 neocon militaristic policies. A stunning document unapologetically argued for US military and economic world domination.We'd love to get your feedback at radio@sputniknews.com

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michelle bachelet, pentagon, california, john hyten, voting rights, gavin newsom, us military, the critical hour, , radio
https://sputniknews.com/20210915/gazprom-head-says-gas-deliveries-via-nord-stream-2-will-not-start-on-1-october-1089100181.html

Gazprom Head Says Gas Deliveries Via Nord Stream 2 Will Not Start on 1 October

Gazprom Head Says Gas Deliveries Via Nord Stream 2 Will Not Start on 1 October

The construction of the pipeline was officially finalised last week; however, the project still has to go through legal procedures before the gas starts... 15.09.2021, Sputnik International

2021-09-15T14:43+0000

2021-09-15T14:43+0000

2021-09-15T15:07+0000

alexei miller

russia

gazprom

nord stream 2

/html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content

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Deliveries of gas via the Nord Stream 2 pipeline will not start at the beginning of next month, Gazprom Head Alexei Miller said on Wednesday, addressing Bloomberg reports on the issue.Previously, the German Federal Network Agency (BNA) stated that the certification of Nord Stream 2 AG as an independent operator must be completed before the launch of the pipeline.On 10 September the Russian gas giant announced that the construction of the pipeline was fully completed, noting that the first gas supplies to the European market could be expected during this heating season.Nord Stream 2 is a joint venture of Gazprom, Royal Dutch Shell, OMV, Engie, Uniper, and Wintershall. The 745-mile twin pipeline is designed to deliver natural gas from Russia to Germany across the Baltic Sea.From the very beginning, it faced stern opposition from the US and its allies in Eastern Europe. Washington claimed that the pipeline jeopardised European security and slapped two rounds of sanctions on the project, despite protests from Moscow and Berlin.

Jesus Costa Santos It's complicated when it happens, because they always say one thing and another. And the truth is that it stays in that one pushing to the other which is not actually completed... <href="[link deleted] > health and well-being</a> 7

Rokenbok The average Joe who relies on Natural gas should sue these politicians, Americans and anyone interfering in their right to heat their home, cook and create electricity without being gouged now that Nordstream is finished. Europeans and Germans should bond together and go after the people that are standing in their way of affordable energy or and recover their losses due to the delays of this stupid pipe. That will make their lives better and more affordable.. 1

2

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alexei miller, russia, gazprom, nord stream 2
https://sputniknews.com/20210915/general-mark-milley-facing-increased-scrutiny-from-lawmakers-over-secret-calls-to-china-1089109251.html

General Mark Milley Facing Increased Scrutiny From Lawmakers Over Secret Calls to China

General Mark Milley Facing Increased Scrutiny From Lawmakers Over Secret Calls to China

General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the highest-ranking military official in the United States, reportedly usurped the chain of command... 15.09.2021, Sputnik International

2021-09-15T20:04+0000

2021-09-15T20:04+0000

2021-09-16T00:17+0000

rand paul

joint chiefs of staff

mark milley

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The fallout from Bob Woodward and Bob Costas upcoming book, Peril, chronicling the end of the Trump presidency, has already sparked controversy. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) called for General Mark Milley to resign or be court-martialed if reports of his secret calls with China are true."Peril" documents two instances in which Milley made secret calls to his Chinese counterpart to ease concerns over a US attack and the stability of then-President Donald Trump. The first call allegedly occurred on October 30, 2020, and was prompted by Milley receiving intelligence that China believed a US attack was on the horizon.The book claims Milley told General Li Zuocheng of the Peoples Liberation Army, "I want to assure you that the American government is stable and everything is going to be OK."Milleys next phone call with General Li took place in the wake of the January 6 Capitol riots as the general likely either sensed or had intelligence that Chinese officials were worried about the political stability of the US and its president.Milley's spokesman, Colonel Dave Butler, in a written statement, claims the general was well within his authority and "were in keeping with these duties and responisbilities...to maintain strategic stability" in regard to the phone calls with his Chinese counterpart.However, the two phone calls may not be his most egregious break in command. The January 6 riots appeared to have a profound effect on Milley. In its wake, he mobilized Americas national security state, without the American peoples knowledge, to effectively monitor the president. The book portrays Milleys rationale as a good faith precaution to ensure there was no historic rupture in the international order, no accidental war with China or others, and no use of nuclear weapons."Peril" is set to be released on September 21st, and the calls for Milley to explain himself will surely mount. Regardless if Milley resigns, is fired, or court-martialed for his behavior, he likely believes he did the right thing for the American people. However, the law may say otherwise.

TruePatriot If true, he deserves to be court-martialled, then jailed on charges of treason. At minimum, he should be relieved of command while the investigation is ongoing. 13

GrinOlsson The perpetrators of these Trump delusions can precisely be identified by revealing the political-religionist affiliations of CEO's from mainstream media, Congressional leaders, and others in that they will find the majority of these people are Jewish-Bolsheviks. And, if anyone would choose to disagree with me they might want to start their independent research on: Anthony Blinken, Secretary of State; David Cohen, CIA Deputy Director; Merrick Garland, Attorney General; Avril Haines, Director of National Intelligence; Ronald Klain, Chief of Staff; Eric Lander, Office of Science and Technology Policy director; Rachel Levine, deputy health secretary; Alejandro Mayorkas, Secretary of Homeland Security; Anne Neuberger, National Security Agency cybersecurity director; Wendy Sherman, deputy secretary of state; JanetYellen, Treasury secretary; Read their Talmud to learn Christians are sub-human so you can feel your Constitutional rights are secure in their hands. Arrest Gen. Milley! 11

8

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Nevin Brown

Nevin Brown

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Nevin Brown

rand paul, joint chiefs of staff, mark milley
https://sputniknews.com/20210915/hawley-pans-biden-a-disgrace-over-afghan-withdrawal-vows-hold-on-defense--state-dept-nominees-1089080521.html

Hawley Pans Biden a 'Disgrace' Over Afghan Withdrawal, Vows Hold on Defense & State Dept. Nominees

Hawley Pans Biden a 'Disgrace' Over Afghan Withdrawal, Vows Hold on Defense & State Dept. Nominees

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken acknowledged in Monday testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee that, as of the end of last week, the US "had... 15.09.2021, Sputnik International

2021-09-15T00:39+0000

2021-09-15T00:39+0000

2021-09-15T00:38+0000

afghanistan

joe biden

us department of defense (dod)

afghanistan

pentagon

us troops

josh hawley

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https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/05/02/1082786775_0:128:3070:1855_1920x0_80_0_0_a15f7ce833699457554e2302a9a0bbf0.jpg

US Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) took to the Senate floor on Tuesday to blast US President Joe Biden and the nation's top foreign policy officials for a botched US-led pullout and evacuation of both troops and civilians from Afghanistan."As American planes finally departed, hundreds of American civilians left behind to the enemy," he said, before repeating himself.Hawley pushed back against a Biden assertion that the recent US-led evacuation mission from Kabul, Afghanistan, was an "extraordinary success," as the US president termed it in his August 31 address to the nation. The Missouri Republican argued the abandonment of American civilians and the recent death of 13 US service members in Kabul was not indicative of a successful mission. "And it is time for him to resign," the senator added. Hawley focused on Biden's cabinet, vowing to work against fast-tracking any Pentagon or State Department nominee until he saw the resignation of three top foreign policy officials: US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan. Hawley is not the only US lawmaker to take issue with the US president's handling of the Afghan evacuations. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told Blinken on Tuesday that the operation from Kabul was "clearly and fatally flawed," according to Bloomberg. Menendez also claimed that "Congress has been misled" because assessments on the situation in Afghanistan "were definitely overly rosy to say the best." "And if were not to repeat the past we need to learn from it," the New Jersey Democrat said. While Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on September 3 falsely claimed that all US civilians who "have wanted to come out have come out," it has since been revealed that an estimated 100 Americans reportedly wishing to leave Afghanistan remain in the country.

afghanistan

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2021

Evan Craighead

Evan Craighead

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Evan Craighead

joe biden, us department of defense (dod), afghanistan, pentagon, us troops, josh hawley
https://sputniknews.com/20210915/huawei-hires-more-scientists-boosts-basic-research-to-deal-with-us-semiconductor-ban-1089092214.html

Huawei Hires More Scientists, Boosts Basic Research to Deal With US Semiconductor Ban

Huawei Hires More Scientists, Boosts Basic Research to Deal With US Semiconductor Ban

Huawei Hires More Scientists, Boosts Basic Research to Deal With US Semiconductors Ban

2021-09-15T11:33+0000

2021-09-15T11:33+0000

2021-09-15T11:33+0000

us

asia & pacific

huawei

science

/html/head/meta[@name='og:title']/@content /html/head/meta[@name='og:description']/@content

https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/07e5/09/0f/1089092097_0:0:3115:1753_1920x0_80_0_0_b66fe09784df1ef0cf36f01d51f7286c.jpg

China's Huawei did not descend into "chaos" following the introduction of US limitations on technology sales to the tech giant, but instead has become "more united than ever, and has even attracted more talent", CEO Ren Zhengfei stated. He made the comment during an internal meeting in early August, whose contents became available to the public on 15 September.Zhengfei noted that, even with revenues declining due to a drop in smartphone sales, the company did not stop hiring, especially new scientists. He explained that the only way to overcome the restrictive US measures, which had cost the company its earlier advance on the smartphone market, was to invest in basic science.Huawei hired some 3,000 new employees between the end of 2019 and the end of 2020, with over half of all workers being scientists, the publication said. Yet, the company and China in general are still lagging behind in some technological areas, such as machine tools, equipment and process techniques, instruments, and research into new materials and catalysts, Zhengfei admitted.The company's CEO also noted that Huawei no longer seeks "to use the best components to make the best products". Instead, it is focusing on using "scientific and reasonable methods" to produce "balanced traffic across the system" and build components for high-quality products. Zhengfei claimed that this approach had "significantly improved" Huawei's profitability.The company's revenue in the first half of 2021 dropped by $20.5 billion compared to a year earlier, and was lower than in the same periods in 2019 and 2018, according to a Huawei report. The drop follows the US decision to ban the export of American technologies to several Chinese companies, including Huawei, cutting them off from supplies of semiconductors for their smartphones and even Google's Android OS. Washington claims the new policy, introduced under the Trump administration and kept in place by his successor, was prompted by US national security concerns. Huawei and Beijing, however, accused the White House of using an illegal ban to combat competitors of American companies on the technological market.

https://sputniknews.com/20210806/us-offers-brazil-5g-technologies-to-replace-huawei-1083540071.html

Thomas Turk And kill the Taiwanese companies Mad Murika is using. 5

Ladyshadow Beating the US at its own game is a sure winner, China has the ability to out produce in technology developement. 5

3

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us, asia & pacific, huawei, science
https://sputniknews.com/20210915/i-thought-i-was-doing-right-thing-as-muslim-ex-daesh-bride-begum-issues-yet-another-apology-1089092531.html

'I Thought I Was Doing Right Thing as Muslim': Ex-Daesh Bride Begum Issues Yet Another Apology

'I Thought I Was Doing Right Thing as Muslim': Ex-Daesh Bride Begum Issues Yet Another Apology

At the age of 15, together with two other girls, Begum fled Britain and travelled to Syria in order to join one of the most brutal terrorist groups in modern... 15.09.2021, Sputnik International

2021-09-15T11:46+0000

2021-09-15T11:46+0000

2021-09-15T11:46+0000

human rights

radicalization

terrorism

islamic extremism

isis

syria

daesh

shamima begum

uk

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https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/img/107311/93/1073119384_0:771:4373:3231_1920x0_80_0_0_293b458461398cef85ac5ee30e6e7789.jpg

Ex-Daesh* Bride Shamima Begum has asked the British public to allow her to stand trial in the UK, begging the nation for forgiveness yet again. Her case and that of other European citizens, who joined Daesh has polarised Britain, with one side saying she is too dangerous to allow her to return to the UK. However, the young woman insists that not only is she harmless, she can help the British authorities in tackling radicalisation. Addressing Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who voiced opposition to Begum's return, the young woman said the following:What did she expect when she joined Daesh? The young woman stresses that she thought she would get married, have children, and "live a pure Islamic life".Apologies for Remark on Manchester Arena BombingIn 2019, The Times found Begum in a camp set up for Daesh relatives in Syira. During an interview she made several controversial statements that caused anger in the United Kingdom. Then teenager said she had a good time while in Syria and wasn't fazed when she saw her "first severed head". She also failed to voice regret about the victims of the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing that injured more than a thousand people and left 22 people dead, including children.Back then, she said that it was wrong to kill people, but noted that Daesh considered the attack "justified" as retaliation against the West-backed bombings of the areas held by the terrorist group.It is unclear who Begum is referring to when she said she lost loved ones because of Daesh. In Syria she had three children with Dutch-born Islamist Yago Riedijk, but all of them died, reportedly due to illnesses.Battle Over Citizenship ContinuesAs mentioned earlier, the Home Office revoked Begum's citizenship in 2019 on the grounds of national security after she expressed a desire to return to the United Kingdom, while failing to show regret over her decision to join Daesh. The young woman then claimed she made the statements because she feared that if she criticised the terrorist group other Daesh members living in the camp would attack her.Her parents, who came to Britain from Bangladesh, later challenged the Home Office decision, saying it violated international law prohibiting nations from depriving individuals of citizenship only if they have citizenship of another country. The Court of Appeals sided with the family. The government appealed the verdict in the UK Supreme Court and won.However, Begum's lawyers, are not ready to surrender. Her legal team previously claimed that there is evidence she was the victim of trafficking and was kept in Syria against her will "for the purposes of sexual exploitation and forced marriage".*Daesh (ISIL/ISIS/Islamic State), a terrorist group banned in Russia and a number of other countries.

Proof Reader Critic  She's trying to get back to organise terror - don't fall for the stupid tarts antics. 12

pussymuncher She killed her Own innocent little children.....she wouldn't have a problem causing other's to die. 9

7

daesh

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Max Gorbachev

Max Gorbachev

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Max Gorbachev

human rights, radicalization, terrorism, islamic extremism, isis, syria, daesh, shamima begum, uk
https://sputniknews.com/20210915/law-enforcement-reportedly-use-commercial-data-for-warrantless-surveillance-on-possible-criminals-1089108786.html

Law Enforcement Reportedly Use Commercial Data for 'Warrantless' Surveillance on Possible Criminals

Law Enforcement Reportedly Use Commercial Data for 'Warrantless' Surveillance on Possible Criminals

Law Enforcement Reportedly Use Commercial Data for 'Warrantless' Surveillance on Possible Criminals

2021-09-15T20:15+0000

2021-09-15T20:15+0000

2021-09-15T20:15+0000

us

private data

digital surveilance

fbi

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Several US federal agencies and state police departments have for years been using data collected by private companies and sold via brokers in the pursuit of criminals, illegal migrants and evidence  and unlike with regular surveillance, they did not need warrants or any justification to tap into the private lives of American residents, The Wall Street Journal has reported.According to the newspaper, the Department of Homeland Security has been instructing its officers to use open-source phone-tracking tools to find illegal migrants. The FBI used to rely on obtained cell phone data in certain high-profile cases, but the process was made more difficult after the Supreme Court qualified the extraction of such data as a "search" requiring a warrant.However, this decision did not mention third-party data brokers, which hoard private data such as movement, social media activity, home addresses and payment information collected by smartphones and other devices. As a result, the FBI was able to obtain and use information from 10 such brokers to identify people participating in the 6 January Capitol riot, although the Wall Street Journal said that the agency did not buy the information, but subpoenaed for it.US Lawmakers Against 'Warrantless Surveillance'The fact that government agencies and law enforcement can get US citizens' private data without needing a warrant has sparked debate on whether this could be classified as "warrantless surveillance" and whether the practice should be terminated. This debate has already led to the first legislative proposals to legally regulate the practice.Democrat Senator Ron Wyden and Republican Senator Rand Paul have proposed a bill dubbed "The Fourth Amendment Is Not for Sale Act", which requires law enforcement and government agencies to secure a court order even if they do not issue subpoenas but simply buy private citizens' data from third-party sources. If passed, it would render the current practice of buying data brokers' databases practically useless to these government entities  it would be cheaper to just subpoena for it.The proposed bill does have a loophole though, the WSJ pointed out  it can't stop private citizens or non-government entities from buying these databases and then providing information from them to government agencies to aid in their activities and investigations. Such use of databases is not novel either  the newspaper recalled the case of a 14-year-old girl who disappeared from her home in Missouri, but was later found in Kansas thanks to the efforts of local prosecutor Kevin Metcalf.The prosecutor looked up unusual cell phone activity near the girl's house on the eve of her disappearance through a commercial service that helps to locate people's phones. Metcalf found one such anomalous cell phone user and handed over the data he obtained to the FBI, which passed it on to the police. If Wyden and Paul's bill gets adopted, people like Metcalf will still be able to give police and law enforcement warrantless access to private citizens' data in relevant cases.

https://sputniknews.com/20210807/how-new-alliance-of-us-spooks--big-tech-using-russia-bugaboo-to-amplify-surveillance-powers-1083549293.html

https://sputniknews.com/20210831/congressional-committee-may-seek-trumps-phone-records-amid-probe-into-capitol-riots-1083760296.html

pussymuncher Why is this news? It's old news... 1

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us, private data, digital surveilance, fbi
https://sputniknews.com/20210915/more-equal-users-decisions-to-shield-celebrities-came-from-the-top-facebook-whistleblower-recalls-1089107818.html

More Equal Users: Decisions to Shield Celebrities Came From the Top, Facebook Whistleblower Recalls

More Equal Users: Decisions to Shield Celebrities Came From the Top, Facebook Whistleblower Recalls

The Wall Street Journal has kicked off a series of exposures concerning Facebook's covert programmes and policies. One of these is XCheck, which allows a... 15.09.2021, Sputnik International

2021-09-15T19:13+0000

2021-09-15T19:13+0000

2021-09-15T19:13+0000

mark zuckerberg

celebrities

news

world

us

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facebook

wall street journal

politicians

social media

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Facebook shields the rich, famous, and powerful from its own community standards and rules, documents obtained by The Wall Street Journal show. The programme, which was internally referred to early on as "Shielding", but then rebranded as "Crosscheck" or "XCheck", reportedly protected 5.8 million people in 2020, according to the WSJ. This programme makes some high-profile accounts, including celebrities, politicians, and journalists immune to enforcement actions and allows them to post rule-violating materials. The documents show that the programme gave selected VIPs free rein to harass other netizens or incite violence, violations which would typically lead to Facebook purges of ordinary users.Whitelisting Rich & Powerful"Facebook does have an AI censorship, Facebook does have algorithms where they can tweak and they can use their AI to feed certain types of content into our queues for review", explains Ryan Hartwig, Facebook whistleblower, co-author of Behind the Mask of Facebook: A Whistleblowers Shocking Story of Big Tech Bias and Censorship, and founder of The Hartwig Foundation for Free Speech.Hartwig was a human content moderator and part of his job was to train the artificial intelligence to recognise certain things from photos. The Silicon Valley giant's artificial intelligence did inject certain jobs into their queues, according to the whistleblower.He explains that if Facebook wants to protect Greta Thunberg, then it can "inject those certain keywords and then they'll force us to review jobs related to Greta Thunberg". "That is what I witnessed and documented", Hartwig notes.Facebook's 2019 confidential internal review warned that the company is not actually doing what it says it does publicly, qualifying these actions as nothing short of "a breach of trust". Nevertheless, according to the WSJ, Facebook opted to conceal the truth and mislead both its users and its own Oversight Board about the programme's features.In June 2021, the Silicon Valley giant told the Oversight Board that its system for high-profile users was used in "a small number of decisions". Responding to the WSJ report, Facebook spokesman Andy Stone said that the company is working to phase out the practice of whitelisting, adding that a lot of this internal material is outdated information".The documents describing the XCheck programme is just part of a bulky collection of materials concerning the tech giant obtained by the WSJ. The media outlet pointed out that in addition to internal Facebook documents, it had also conducted interviews with dozens of current and former employees of the company. The WSJ made it clear that it will proceed with further exposures.There is more to the tech giant's flawed policies than meets the eye, WSJ investigators say, claiming that despite knowing the platform's ill effects in areas including teen mental health, political discourse, and human trafficking, the company did not fix them.The WSJ further revealed that at least part of the documents in question have already been handed over to the Securities and Exchange Commission and to Congress by an individual seeking whistleblower protection.However, Hartwig does not believe that the US Congress will exert considerable pressure on the tech giant. Indeed, previously, then-President Donald Trump called upon US members of Congress to strip Facebook of its Section 230 protections for censorship and apparent political bias, but to no avail.

astrodetective Zio owned Facebook want to protect their own like Greta Thunberg and the zio predominant $$$ billionaires and $$ Big Pharma with their poisonous vaccines so no surprises 0

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Ekaterina Blinova

Ekaterina Blinova

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Ekaterina Blinova

mark zuckerberg, celebrities, news, world, us, opinion, facebook, wall street journal, politicians, social media, algorithm change, programme
https://sputniknews.com/20210915/mysterious-illness-engulfs-indias-haryana-state-as-it-claims-nine-childrens-lives-1089087916.html

Mysterious Illness Engulfs India's Haryana State as It Claims Nine Children's Lives

Mysterious Illness Engulfs India's Haryana State as It Claims Nine Children's Lives

Amid an impending third wave of the coronavirus pandemic, a mysterious fever outbreak has gripped several parts of India. The sudden rising of deaths... 15.09.2021, Sputnik International

2021-09-15T14:24+0000

2021-09-15T14:24+0000

2021-09-15T14:24+0000

new delhi

public health

india

healthcare

haryana

covid-19

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India is still not out of the clutches of the coronavirus pandemic, and now another public health concern looms large. Over the past 12 days, a mysterious illness in Haryana's Palwal district has claimed the lives of seven children, as per district officials. However, the head of the village Naresh Kumar told Sputnik that nine children have died so far. The public health officials are struggling to diagnose the cause of these deaths. So far, some of the suspected diseases vary from dengue to pneumonia, gastroenteritis, to vector-borne diseases owing to lack of sanitation. Although some media reports suggest low platelet count, a crucial symptom of dengue, has been witnessed in most of the cases, the health officials haven't found a link yet. Dr Brahmdeep informed that, as per the reports from the Medical Superintendent of the Medical College, out of the five one died from anemia and heart failure, two deaths were related to diarrhoea with fever, another death was related to fever with pneumonia, and the fifth death was related to fever and brain stiffness. On Tuesday, a month-old girl died without any suspected symptoms. As per reports, her father found her lying motionless without any fever. Later that day, two more toddlers with high fever were taken to the hospital. Meanwhile, the public health officials are camping in the village and conducting a survey among the people in the village and testing for malaria, dengue, COVID-19, and other vector-borne diseases. The first case was reported on 30 August when a six-year-old boy complained of fever and body ache and later developed swollen eyes and arms. Two days later he died. The village, Chilli, is home to around 3,000 people and according to the health officials, the entire village has extremely poor sanitation and hygiene. The village head also informed that there is no healthcare centre there and patients are being taken to the Palwal city or the nearby Mewat district, which is more than 20 kilometres away. "Around 15-20 children are affected and admitted in hospitals so far. Some officials have said the contaminated water can be a cause", he said. On sanitation, Kumar said: "There is only one government-assigned safaikaramchari [cleaner] what can he do? I don't have the charge to do anything about this. It's the administration's lookout, what can I do?"Is It Linked To The Mystery Fever of Uttar Pradesh? Some reports claim that this swift outbreak is similar to the mystery fever that caused havoc in Uttar Pradesh's Firozabad district. Dr Sandhu dismissed this and stressed that unhygienic conditions can cause such public health emergencies in any place.Although some of the cases in Uttar Pradesh have been diagnosed as dengue, scrub typhus, and seasonal influenza, in Haryana the officials are still clueless about what is happening to these people. According to the latest figures from Firozabad, over 12,000 people are affected by illness, and 114 have died, out of which 88 were children. In May this year, when the devastating second wave of the coronavirus pandemic was at its peak, 28 people lost their lives in Haryana's Rohtak district due to a "mystery fever". Later, the district health officials claim that the deaths were due to COVID-19 and other ailments. Other Parts of India Also Affected On Wednesday, Karnataka Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar told reporters that there has been a marginal increase in influenza-like illness (ILI) and viral fever cases in the state. "ILI [influenza-like illnes] kind of infection is witnessed during monsoon year on year. This year also, we're witnessing. We're closely watching, taking inputs from private and government hospitals. There has been a marginal increase in ILI cases and viral fever", said Karnataka Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar on Monday. Other than the northern parts of India, the capital of the state Karnataka, Bengaluru, is reporting similar viral fever cases among children. As per doctors, over 50 such patients are coming in daily, and a few children are being admitted for treatment too. India's capital Delhi and its adjoining areas of NOIDA have also reported cases of viral fever. Delhi's Sir Ganga Ram Hospital has reported the majority of cases of dengue, followed by viral influenza and respiratory syncytial virus, some variants of swine flu, and scrub typhus, as per media reports.

https://sputniknews.com/20210906/indian-govt-reveals-possible-reasons-of-mystery-fever-in-uttar-pradesh-as-cases-rise-1083809028.html

https://sputniknews.com/20210904/mystery-fever-that-killed-dozens-in-indias-uttar-pradesh-state-identified-as-dengue-says-report-1083794582.html

Nonyank India, the cesspool of the world. 1

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new delhi, public health, india, healthcare, haryana, covid-19
https://sputniknews.com/20210915/north-korea-fires-unidentified-projectile-toward-sea-of-japan---yonhap-1089082430.html

North Korea Reportedly Launches Two Ballistic Missiles Towards Sea of Japan

North Korea Reportedly Launches Two Ballistic Missiles Towards Sea of Japan

North Korean authorities earlier claimed they had successfully tested new long-range cruise missiles. The US and its allies condemned the action. 15.09.2021, Sputnik International

2021-09-15T03:48+0000

2021-09-15T03:48+0000

2021-09-15T05:43+0000

sea of japan

north korea

projectiles

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South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in a statement on 15 September that North Korea had fired what is believed to be two ballistic missiles towards the exclusive economic zone of Japan. South Korea's JCS noted that it is carefully analysing the information with US intelligence agencies. Seoul is also expected to convene its National Security Council over the incident.Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga condemned North Korea's launch of ballistic missiles, dubbing the action a threat to peace and security in the region. Suga also ordered to urgently convene the country's National Security Council.Prior to the official statement by the South Korean and Japanese authorities, the nations' media reported about two unidentified projectiles launched within the space of several minutes.The state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on 13 September that Pyongyang had carried out a successful test of a cruise missile. North Korean experts reportedly held thrust tests for missile engines on the ground, flight tests, control and guidance tests, and a number of others. The said missiles are reportedly capable of hitting targets at a distance of 1,500 kilometres.Following the reported launch, Japan's Defence Minister Nobuo Kishi noted that if the information on the success of North Korea's cruise missile tests is confirmed, it could become a potential threat to the peace and security of the region.On 14 September, diplomats from Japan, South Korea, and the United States held a trilateral meeting on North Korea in Tokyo. The meeting was attended by US special envoy for North Korea Sung Kim, head of the Japanese Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau Takehiro Funakoshi, and the South Korean Foreign Ministry's special envoy for peace and security on the Korean Peninsula Noh Kyu-duk. One of the key topics of discussion was a possible response to the statement by Pyongyang about successful missile tests. The parties agreed to continue cooperation on the denuclearisation of North Korea by combining dialogue with North Korean authorities and sanctions pressure.North Korea last test-fired ballistic missiles in March. Two cruise missiles were reportedly launched towards the Yellow Sea at low altitude at a short range, and two ballistic missiles were launched toward the Sea of Japan.

https://sputniknews.com/20210909/us-remains-prepared-to-engage-north-korea-in-diplomatic-negotiations-1088929610.html

Rus Hammer Head North Korea must never De-Nuclearise, otherwise it will only end up in exactly the same circumstances as Libya and Gaddafi, screwed, looted and murdered!!! 15

Andrew J Congratulations to North Korea. 8

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sea of japan, north korea, projectiles
https://sputniknews.com/20210915/palace-wishes-prince-harry-happy-birthday-as-expert-warns-him-against-issuing-political-message-1089097377.html

Palace Wishes Prince Harry Happy Birthday as Expert Warns Him Against Issuing Political Message

Palace Wishes Prince Harry Happy Birthday as Expert Warns Him Against Issuing Political Message

Ties between the Duke of Sussex along with his wife Meghan Markle and the rest of the family have reportedly been strained since the couple quit royal duties... 15.09.2021, Sputnik International

2021-09-15T13:56+0000

2021-09-15T13:56+0000

2021-09-15T13:56+0000

prince harry

afghanistan

birthday

uk royal family

uk

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Members of the royal family have wished Prince Harry a happy birthday in a series of posts on social media. His father Prince Charles posted images showing himself with his younger son during different stages of his life, while his brother Prince William and sister-in-law Kate Middleton tweeted a picture of the smiling prince.Queen Elizabeths congratulatory message featured photos showing Harry during his royal duties.The development comes several days after royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams warned the Duke of Sussex against making a political statement on his birthday, telling him to be careful so as not to say anything critical of US President Joe Biden, whose administration has faced harsh condemnation for what some describe as a botched withdrawal of US troops from war-stricken Afghanistan.Fitzwilliams forecast that just like his wife Meghan Markle, Prince Harry will likely post a statement calling on members of the public to support his favourite charities.During his 10-year career in the British Army, Harry served as a helicopter pilot and gunner in Afghanistan between 2007 and 2013. He became the first member of the royal family to serve in a war zone since his uncle Prince Andrew flew a helicopter during the brief Falklands War in 1982. The Duke of Sussex has recently released two statements on Afghanistan, expressing support for military veterans who served in the Central Asian nation, as well as describing his sadness over the Taliban* takeover.Royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams noted that Prince Harry "will have to watch what he says about issues related to US domestic matters, especially in light of reports that his wife Meghan Markle is eyeing to join the 2024 presidential race in the US.*The Taliban is a terrorist organisation banned in Russia and many other nations.

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Max Gorbachev

prince harry, afghanistan, birthday, uk royal family, uk
https://sputniknews.com/20210915/third-shot--attempts-to-revive-the-peace-process-havent-lifted-israeli-pms-ratings-heres-why-1089084217.html

Third Shot & Attempts to Revive the Peace Process Haven't Lifted Israeli PM's Ratings, Here's Why

Third Shot & Attempts to Revive the Peace Process Haven't Lifted Israeli PM's Ratings, Here's Why

A recent poll has revealed that if elections were held today, Naftali Bennett would only receive 6 seats in the 120-seat Israeli Parliament, the Knesset. This... 15.09.2021, Sputnik International

2021-09-15T06:29+0000

2021-09-15T06:29+0000

2021-09-15T06:32+0000

naftali bennett

news

world

middle east

israel

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It's been three months since Israel's Prime Minister Naftali Bennett took office in Jerusalem, establishing a coalition government that included parties from the left, right, and centre.Major Achievements?Much has happened since then. His government has led a mass vaccination campaign, enabling the public to get a third shot of the Pfizer vaccine. It has also initiated a number of reforms aimed at improving the lives of ordinary Israelis and reducing their expenses.On the diplomatic front, Bennett has also participated in a number of initiatives. He recently met with Jordan's King Abdullah II, with whom he discussed bilateral relations and the Palestinian issue.Bennett visited the US, where he obtained guarantees from the Biden administration that Iran, Israel's main rival, will not obtain a nuclear bomb. And earlier this week, he met with the President of Egypt Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and discussed the revival of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.In terms of security, Bennett has been trying to reach a long-lasting truce with Hamas, an Islamic group that controls the Gaza Strip, holding a series of indirect talks via Egyptian mediators.Sinking RatingsBut despite these achievements, his party Yamina and Bennett himself have failed to gain ground in polls.A recent poll conducted by Channel 12 has revealed that if elections were held now, Bennett would only receive 6 out of the 120 seats available in the Israeli Parliament, the Knesset.In comparison, the party of former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is now leading the opposition, would obtain 32 seats, despite it not being part of the government and not being involved in any great achievements.Reasons Behind the DeclineIsraeli experts have been scratching their heads as to what's behind such low ratings.One reason is that the Israeli public - who mainly leans to the right - still remembers how Bennett obtained his post, forging a coalition with the liberal party Yesh Atid and getting the support of Raam, an Islamic faction with purported ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, considered a terrorist movement by many international players.Another reason for the low polling numbers is the disapproval ratings concerning the management of the coronavirus pandemic. Although his government didn't close down the country, like under Netanyahu, the way he's handled the fourth wave of the virus has raised eyebrows in Israel.To begin with, his government was slow in recognising that the fourth wave was fast approaching. Then they dragged their feet about deciding whether a booster shot was necessary, and when they finally introduced it, they struggled to encourage the public to take it.Attempts to curb the spread of the disease have also been weak. Law enforcement agencies have been struggling to make sure the masses adhere to a 2-metre distance and wear masks. The international airport has remained open despite it having turned into a pandemic hotspot.Bennett has additionally failed to bring any stability to the country's south, that is still under fire from rockets emanating from Gaza and that is facing nightly disturbances and incendiary balloons sent by militants from various groups in the enclave.To keep Hamas quiet, his government has approved a number of concessions to the Palestinians in the Strip. They opened a border crossing, enabling some products to get in, they expanded the fishing zone, and issued permits to some Palestinians, who can now enter Israel for work and medical treatment.Bennett is also considering returning to an earlier Netanyahu policy that allowed Hamas to receive generous suitcases packed with money from Qatar, a policy that the new PM promised to change.The next several days will be a test for Bennett and his government. Tensions are currently on the rise as Israel is still looking for two Palestinian fugitives who escaped from the Gilboa prison last week.Over the past several days, rallies in their support have been held across various locations in the West Bank. Palestinians attempted several stabbing attacks against Israelis. Some of them resulted in injuries. And Hamas sent rockets from the Strip, disturbing the lives of the country's southern communities.Experts in Israel estimate that the capture of the fugitives might bring the escalation to a boiling point. If that happens, Bennett will need to respond. The scope of his response and the way he handles the situation will determine whether he'll remain in office for long.

https://sputniknews.com/20210825/new-weapon-in-arsenal-against-covid-19-israel-working-on-coronavirus-drug-1083706296.html

https://sputniknews.com/20210901/israeli-state-comptroller-slams-netanyahus-covid-19-mistakes-but-is-bennett-any-different-1083765994.html

LINDADREW 3rd shot to get security support -people just get blackmailed into them to keep security OFF THEIR BACK 0

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https://sputniknews.com/20210915/us-department-of-justice-asks-federal-judge-to-bar-the-controversial-law-on-abortions-in-texas-1089084044.html

US Department of Justice Asks Federal Judge to Bar the Controversial Law on Abortions in Texas

US Department of Justice Asks Federal Judge to Bar the Controversial Law on Abortions in Texas

The development comes several days after the agency filed a lawsuit to challenge a decision by local authorities to introduce legislation that President Joe... 15.09.2021, Sputnik International

2021-09-15T06:48+0000

2021-09-15T06:48+0000

2021-09-15T06:52+0000

joe biden

us

texas

abortion

department of justice

supreme court

us constitution

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The US Department of Justice has asked Judge Robert L. Pitman of the Western District of Texas to block the state's law on abortions from enactment. In an emergency motion filed late on Tuesday, the department argued that Senate Bill 8 (SB8), violates the landmark Supreme Court ruling in Roe vs Wade, which effectively legalised abortion in the United States.The request is the latest salvo in the ongoing battle between the Biden administration and the Lone Star State. At the beginning of September, the US Supreme Court, the country's top court, refused to block the legislation in a 5-4 ruling, while stopping short of voicing a decision on the bill's constitutionality. Why Has the Law Provoked Such Opposition?Critics argue that the SB8, also known as the Texas Heartbeat Act, effectively bans all abortions in Texas. The legislation prohibits doctors performing the procedures as early as six weeks and requires them to check for a foetal heartbeat and if one is detected then the abortion is banned. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists said the law's wording is misleading, noting that at such an early stage of pregnancy doctors detect a portion of a tissue "that will become the heart as the embryo develops".SB8 allows doctors to perform the procedure if they believe that a medical emergency exists, but does not allow terminations in the case of rape or incest. Another thing that worries opponents of the bill is that ordinary citizens and not the authorities will ensure that other individuals adhere to it and that civil lawsuits rather criminal prosecution will be used to "punish" potential perpetrators. Essentially, this means that any individual or organisation, who "aids or abets" or "intends" to aid or abet a woman in receiving an abortion can be sued by Texas residents or those living outside of the state. Even a taxi driver, who drives a woman to a hospital can be held accountable.Several US companies, including Uber and Lyft, have criticised the legislation and said they will cover all legal fees of their employees if they are sued under SB8.The plaintiffs, who don't have to be related to the woman who underwent an abortion, may get at least $10,000 if they win the case, while those found guilty may face fines in the same amount.

Martian All these billioners, departmentes, agencies, judges, privagte contractors, etc, etc. do nothing but serving the corporate profit and spinning around the US public and the world. 1

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https://sputniknews.com/20210915/us-militarys-iron-dome-missile-defence-system-may-be-deployed-in-ukraine-1089100491.html

US Militarys Iron Dome Missile Defence System May Be Deployed in Ukraine

US Militarys Iron Dome Missile Defence System May Be Deployed in Ukraine

US House Armed Services Committees 2022 defence bill proposal stipulates allocating $275 million for security assistance to Ukraine. 15.09.2021, Sputnik International

2021-09-15T15:49+0000

2021-09-15T15:49+0000

2021-09-15T15:49+0000

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The American militarys Iron Dome missile defence system may be deployed to Ukraine as part of the 2022 US Defence Bill, Politico has reported.Between late 2020 and early 2021, Israel sold two Iron Dome batteries to the US under a 2019 bilateral agreement initiated by the US Congress. Since then, the US Army has been working to integrate the Iron Dome into its air defence system.Built by the Israeli defence company Rafael in partnership with the US manufacturing giant Raytheon, Iron Dome is touted by Tel Aviv as a highly effective missile shield that has allegedly knocked down about 90 percent of missiles fired into the Jewish State over the past few years.Politico, meanwhile, recalled that the Biden administration had kept up shipments of weapons to the Ukrainian military since the 46th president assumed office in January.In June, US House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith released a summary of his 2022 Defence Bill proposal, which includes $275 million for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), something that in turn envisages providing support and assistance to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.Russia Warns Against US Defence Air System in Ukraine Politicos report comes after Ukrainian Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories Oleksii Reznikov proposed last month to deploy US air defence systems in Ukraine and said that Kiev is worried about the alleged intentions of Russia to transfer nuclear weapons to Crimea.She was echoed by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who warned that the US plans to provide military assistance to Kiev may result in unpredictable actions by Ukraine, such as attempts to resolve the crisis in the southeast of the country by force.The conflict between Kiev and the self-declared republics of Donetsk and Lugansk (DNR and LNR, respectively) in eastern Ukraine has been going on since 2014, when Kiev launched a military operation in the Donbass region after it refused to recognise a new Ukrainian government at the time.The Minsk peace agreements, designed to find a political solution to the conflict, were negotiated by the heads of France, Germany, Russia, and Ukraine  that make up the Normandy group  in February 2015. Both sides to the conflict have repeatedly broken the agreements, blaming each other for the violationsMoscow has consistently underscored that it is not a side in Ukraine's domestic conflict and is interested in its early settlement.

https://sputniknews.com/20210823/us-army-completes-successful-live-fire-test-of-israel-iron-dome-system-1083693930.html

https://sputniknews.com/20210428/lavrov-warns-reversing-minsk-agreements-could-lead-to-massacre-in-donbass-1082747408.html

Rokenbok Good luck to that. They are better off with the S400s from Russia. To bad they are idiots. 2

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https://sputniknews.com/20210915/us-sec-of-state-blinken-evades-question-on-who-is-authorised-to-mute-joe-biden-during-briefings-1089088851.html

US Sec of State Blinken Evades Question on Who is Authorised to Mute Joe Biden During Briefings

US Sec of State Blinken Evades Question on Who is Authorised to Mute Joe Biden During Briefings

On Tuesday, the top US diplomat attended a meeting of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, where he testified on the administration's decision to... 15.09.2021, Sputnik International

2021-09-15T09:38+0000

2021-09-15T09:38+0000

2021-09-15T09:38+0000

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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken hummed and laughed nervously when asked to address the recent mic-cutting incident during Joe Biden's press briefing on wildfires with federal officials. "Look, we've all seen this. Somebody in the White House has authority to press the button and cut off the president's speaking ability and sound. Who is that person?", asked senator Jim Risch.Risch pressed Blinken on the issue again, asking him to reveal who turned off the live feed when Joe Biden started asking a question. And again the secretary of state responded that there was "no such person". "The president speaks for himself, makes all of the strategic decisions, informed by the best advice that he can get from the people around him", he said. Senator Risch seemed unsatisfied and irritated with the answer and asked a third question.During Monday's briefing on wildfires with federal officials President Biden voiced his desire to ask George Geissler of the National Association of State Foresters a question. But when the 78-year-old started speaking the White House feed was cut off.Voiceless Commander-in-Chief?Blinken's statement came several days after a Politico report cited current officials as saying that the White House staff will mute Joe Biden's microphone during press briefings, when the Democrat's remarks are filled with anxiety or when they deem that he may veer off course while answering questions from reporters.Monday's mic-cutting incident is not the first one. Last month, Joe Biden was "muted" when an NBC reporter asked what his administration would do if it fails to evacuate all US citizens from Afghanistan by the 31 August deadline. The audio on the White House's feed was cut off as the president started responding to the question. A similar situation occurred in March, when the Democrat said he was "happy to take questions", while addressing fellow party members at a virtual event, during which Biden briefed lawmakers on the administration's work, including COVID-19 relief and vaccine rollout.The latest "interruption" as well as the Politico report will likely cause a renewed wave of criticism from Republican lawmakers, who have been questioning Biden's mental health and fitness for months.

it's me SLOW JOE,,,GOTTO GO! SLOW JOE GOTTO GO! 7

it's me new show to be aired 10/31/21 ................. "AMERIKAS GREATEST IDIOT" STARTING SLOW JOE 7

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https://sputniknews.com/20210915/west-bank-city-of-jenin-prepares-for-confrontation-with-israel-as-search-for-2-fugitives-goes-on-1089091019.html

West Bank City of Jenin Prepares for Confrontation With Israel, as Search for 2 Fugitives Goes On

West Bank City of Jenin Prepares for Confrontation With Israel, as Search for 2 Fugitives Goes On

Israel believes that at least one of the fugutives has already reached the city, associated with such militant groups as Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic... 15.09.2021, Sputnik International

2021-09-15T11:05+0000

2021-09-15T11:05+0000

2021-09-15T11:05+0000

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Israel is continuing its manhunt for two of six Palestinian prisoners who escaped from the Gilboa prison last Monday.Four have already been caught after an intensive 5-day search throughout the country. Two remain on the run, and Israel's security apparatus believes that at least one of them has managed to cross the border and reach the Palestinian Authority.Hometown of the FugitivesIsrael believes that one of the cities they may hide in is Jenin, located in the north of the West Bank.It was the city all six hailed from. It was there, where thousands took to the streets to welcome the prison break and it was there, where many celebrated their escape, with drivers honking and crowds firing into the air. Many have also distributed candy and other sweets. Others were waiting in front of one escapee's house in anticipation that they would show up.Mansour Saed, the deputy governor of Jenin, confirmed his people's happiness about the inmates' escape from the Israeli prison and said they did it because they were "trying to take their rights back, especially as Israel violates basic human rights and all international laws".Now as the manhunt after them continues, he says he is unaware of their whereabouts and that he is worried about their fate.Hotbed of ResistanceBut what he is also concerned about is the battle that could erupt if Israeli forces end up entering the city in search of the fugitives.Since the outbreak of the Second Intifada in 2000, Jenin has been a city of fierce resistance to Israel. It was home to many Palestinian terrorists that entered the Jewish state, where they set off bombs, stabbed individuals, or engaged in shooting sprees.Back then, the situation was so unbearable that Israel was forced to seize the city in order to combat the militants living or hiding there. In the process, 170 houses were completely destroyed. Dozens of Palestinians and Israeli soldiers were killed during the operation.Since then, the situation has been relatively quiet but under the surface Jenin has been brewing. Militants in the city have accumulated piles of ammunition, and they've used it against Israeli soldiers in dozens of incidents registered since the end of Israel's latest measures in the Gaza Strip, "Operation Guardian of the Walls".Israeli experts believe that militants from Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, who control the city, will not hesitate to show their strength should Israel enter Jenin in its quest for the fugitives, and Saed promises that people in the area "will not stay quiet and will clash with the IDF"."I don't believe that the two prisoners are in Jenin. It is an Israeli narrative and they'll use it to storm the city and violate our rights. If they do so, we are ready to fight back".Heading Toward Escalation?Recent days have already seen mass demonstrations in Jenin, specifically after the capture of Zakaria Zubeidi, one of the escapees recaptured by Israel, and who was reportedly beaten up by the nation's security forces.Hundreds gathered in the centre of the city to vent their anger at Israel, while dozens of youngsters were captured heading on their motorcycles to the closest Israeli checkpoint, purportedly to confront the IDF.This is why some in the Jewish state have already voiced concerns that the next escalation with the Palestinians is just around the corner. And Saed says that if the situation continues to deteriorate, it will end up "exploding in the face of Israel".

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After coming up sick in the Maple Leaf Trot in her most recent race, Atlanta will try to return to her winning ways in Fridays (Sept. 17) $233,000 Armbro Flight Stakes for older female trotters at Woodbine Mohawk Park.

Atlanta headed to the Maple Leaf Trot, also at Mohawk, off back-to-back victories, including a 1:50.1 triumph in the Sebastian K Invitational that made her the fastest female trotter in the history of The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono.

She finished fifth as the 2-1 second choice in the Maple Leaf, where she got as close to the lead as second place on the final turn before losing ground in the stretch. Atlanta had won the 2020 Maple Leaf Trot in a stakes-record-equalling 1:50.4.

Things dont always go perfectly, even with the great ones, said trainer Ron Burke. Believe me, no one was more surprised. But she seems better, trained back great. I think two weeks was enough to get her all the way.

I dont think she loves shipping, its not her favourite thing. I think she likes going somewhere and getting set up there. Now, shes been (in Canada) a couple weeks, so Im hoping that helps her too.

Burke said Yannick Gingras, Atlantas regular driver, was not thrilled with the way the mare scored down prior to the Maple Leaf, but when he moved her in the race from fourth on the backstretch toward the lead, he felt more confident. Momentarily.

He said, Ronnie, when I scored her down, I thought oh-uh. Then when I pulled her, for three strides I thought I was wrong. Three strides later, I was like, no, I was right, said Burke.

Atlanta, who won the 2019 Armbro Flight in a Canadian record 1:50.2, has four wins and a second in seven starts this season. For her career, she has won 29 of 58 starts and $3.1 million. A two-time Dan Patch Award winner and one-time OBrien Award honouree, she is owned by Crawford Farms Racing, Brad Grant, and Howard Taylor.

In the Armbro Flight, Atlanta will start from post seven in an eight-horse field. She is 5-2 on the morning line. Manchego, the 9-5 favourite with Dexter Dunn driving for trainer Nancy Takter, will leave from post eight.

Manchego is ranked No. 2 in the sports weekly Top 10 poll. Atlanta is ranked sixth.

The remainder of the Armbro Flight field, in post order from the inside, is Teddys Littleangel (15-1), returning champion Hey Livvy (8-1), Royalty Deal (15-1), When Dovescry (7-2), Hypnotic AM (6-1), and Sorella (10-1).

Were going to all race, so were going to have to go forward, said Burke. Everybody is going to have to go forward and then figure it out from there.

Burke has won the Armbro Flight five times, three times with Hannelore Hanover and once each with Atlanta and Buck I St Pat.

Fridays card at Mohawk also includes two eliminations for the Milton Stakes for older female pacers. Lyons Sentinel is the 4-5 favourite in the first and Rocknificent is the 8-5 choice in the second.

Entries for Fridays card, along with complimentary past performances, are available at the following links: Friday Entries -- Program Pages (courtesy TrackIT).

(With files from USTA)
The oldest Standardbred Stakes race in Canada will continue its historic run on Thursday evening with P.E.I. Colt Stakes action at Red Shores Racetrack and Casino at the Charlottetown Driving Park.

The capital track has a 6 p.m. opening post time for the 13-dash program with the marquis event taking place in race three in the P.E.I. Colt Stakes for three-year-old trotting colts.

Mr Finlay Ridge found the wire first last week and has post three in this weeks $8,950 contest for trainer/driver Clare MacDonald, who co-owns the son of Armbro Barrister with Ian Tate and Arnold Rankin of Nova Scotia. A winner of 10 races from 16 lifetime starts, Mr Finlay Ridge will take on his two greatest foes again this week: A Little Go Go (to be driven by Marc Campbell) has post two while Dusty Lane Milo (Gilles Barrieau) leaves from post four.

Peter MacPhee likes Mr Finlay Ridge to repeat for the win in the Post Time Picks. We loved the way Mr Finlay Ridge raced last week drafting all the way and reaching up at the very end to get the gold. He gets the same track, same post, same driver and the same result this week.

Rich Daydreams will attempt knock off her trotting foes in the three-year-old filly division of the P.E.I. Colt Stakes in race nine for a $8,950 pot. Kenny Arsenault drives the Wade Peconi-owned trotter from his own stable with post six on the starting gate.

The first division of two-year-old trotting colts is in race two and sees Up Helly AA favoured in the $6,750 split with Ken MacDonald in the drivers seat from his wifes Clare MacDonald stable.

The second rookie colt division is in race five as Maritime Breeders winner Mr Miller is the top selection from post five for trainer/driver Corey MacPherson.

The $6,750 P.E.I. Colt Stakes two-year-old trot filly division is in race seven with Berts Legacy the top choice off the rail for driver Paul Lanigan and trainer William Lanigan.

The $2,700 Open Rrot rakes the stage in race 11 featuring a dynamic field including Daisy River (Jason Hughes), Cheeky Little Minx (Barrieau) and Freddie (Campbell).

Catch all the action live at the track or tune into the Race Day broadcast at Redshores.ca. Live streaming is also available on the Red Shores Youtube page and you can wager online at HPIBet.com.

To view Thursday's harness racing entries, click on the following link: Thursday Entries - Charlottetown Driving Park.

(Red Shores)
India and Singapore are reportedly working on linking their digital payment systems to allow instant, low-cost fund transfers in cross-border transactions between the two countries. These transactions between India and Singapore amount to more than $1 billion each year. As TechCrunch reports, the project to link India Unified Payments Interface (UPI) with Singapores PayNow should become operational by July 2022 as central banks of both countries announced on Tuesday. Once this is operational, users on either of the systems will be able to make transactions with the other without having to sign up on the second platform.

When implemented, fund transfers can be made from India to Singapore using mobile phone numbers, and from Singapore to India using UPI virtual payment addresses (VPA). The experience of making a PayNow transfer to a UPI VPA will be similar to that of a domestic transfer to a PayNow VPA, Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) explained in a press statement.

Indias UPI is a five-year-old payments infrastructure that has been developed by a coalition of retail banks. It has now become the most popular way for many users to transfer money to each other and to businesses. Adopted by many local and global firms including the likes of Facebook and Google, UPI is now processing more than 3 billion transactions every month, according to reports.

On the other hand, Singapores PayNow also brings interoperability between banka and payment apps and allows users on one payment app to make transactions with the other apps.

A report by Citi states that nearly 250 million people send over $500 billion in cross-border remittances annually, across the globe. The fees are extremely high. It is embarrassing that we have not solved this issue so far, Citi analysts wrote in the report. As per reports, the global average cost for sending money is around 6.5%. The RBI and the MAS have not revealed the cross-border fees that they would charge their users.

Indias central bank RBI described the project as a significant milestone in the development of infrastructure for cross-border payments between India and Singapore in their press release and said the linkage closely aligns with the G20s financial inclusion priorities of driving faster, cheaper and more transparent cross-border payments.

The linkage builds upon the earlier efforts of NPCI International Private Limited (NIPL) and Network for Electronic Transfers (NETS) to foster cross-border interoperability of payments using cards and QR codes, between India and Singapore and will further anchor trade, travel and remittance flows between the two countries.
(Left Panel) Illustration of metal contacts to MoSi 2 N 4 monolayer. A Schottky contact is formed when gold is used as an electrode material to MoSi 2 N 4 . On the other hand, an energy-efficient Ohmic contact can be achieved by using titanium electrode. (Right Panel) The slope parameters S of MoSi 2 N 4 and WSi 2 N 4 metal contacts studied in this work are among the lowest when compared to other species of 2D semiconductors, suggesting the strong potential of MoSi 2 N 4 and WSi 2 N 4 for electronics device applications. Credit: SUTD

According to researchers from the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), a recently discovered family of two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors could pave the way for high-performance and energy-efficient electronics. Their findings, published in npj 2D Materials and Applications, may lead to the fabrication of semiconductor devices applicable in mainstream electronics and optoelectronicsand even potentially replace silicon-based device technology altogether.

In the quest of miniaturizing electronic devices, one well-known trend is Moore's law, which describes how the number of components in the integrated circuits of computers doubles every two years. This trend is possible thanks to the ever-decreasing size of transistors, some of which are so small that millions of them can be crammed onto a chip the size of a fingernail. But as this trend continues, engineers are starting to grapple with the inherent material limitations of silicon-based device technology.

"Due to the quantum tunneling effect, shrinking a silicon-based transistor too small will lead to highly uncontrollable device behaviors," said SUTD Assistant Professor Ang Yee Sin, who led the study. "People are now looking for new materials beyond the 'silicon era', and 2D semiconductors are a promising candidate."

2D semiconductors are materials that are only a few atoms thick. Because of their nanoscale size, such materials are strong contenders as replacements for silicon in the quest of developing compact electronic devices. However, many currently available 2D semiconductors are plagued by high electrical resistance when they come into contact with metals.

"When you form a contact between metal and semiconductor, often there will be what we call a Schottky barrier," explained Ang. "In order to force electricity through this barrier, you need to apply a strong voltage, which wastes electricity and generates waste heat."

This piqued the team's interest in Ohmic contacts, or metal-semiconductor contacts with no Schottky barrier. In their study, Ang and collaborators from Nanjing University, the National University of Singapore and Zhejiang University showed that a recently discovered family of 2D semiconductors, namely MoSi 2 N 4 and WSi 2 N 4 , form Ohmic contacts with the metals titanium, scandium and nickel, which are widely used in the semiconductor device industry.

Furthermore, the researchers also showed that the new materials are free from Fermi level pinning (FLP), a problem that severely limits the application potential of other 2D semiconductors.

"FLP is an adverse effect that happens in many metal-semiconductor contacts, and is caused by defects and complex materials interactions at the contact interface," Ang said. "Such an effect 'pins' the electrical properties of the contact to a narrow range regardless of the metal used in the contact."

Because of FLP, engineers are unable to tune or adjust the Schottky barrier between the metal and semiconductordiminishing the design flexibility of a semiconductor device.

To minimize FLP, engineers usually employ strategies like very gently and slowly positioning the metal on top of the 2D semiconductor, creating a buffer layer between the metal and semiconductor or using a 2D metal as a contact material with the 2D semiconductor. While these methods are feasible, they are not yet practical and are incompatible with mass fabrication using mainstream industry techniques available today.

Amazingly, Ang's team showed that MoSi 2 N 4 and WSi 2 N 4 are naturally protected from FLP due to an inert Si-N outer layer that shields the underlying semiconducting layer from defects and material interactions at the contact interface.

Because of this protection, the Schottky barrier is 'unpinned' and can be tuned to match a wide array of application requirements. This improvement in performance helps put 2D semiconductors in the running as replacements for silicon-based technology, with major players like TSMC and Samsung already expressing interest in 2D semiconductor electronics.

Ang hopes that their work will encourage other researchers to probe more members of the newly discovered 2D semiconductor family for interesting properties, even those with applications beyond electronics.

"Some of them might be very poor in terms of electronics applications but very good for spintronics, photocatalysts or as a building block for solar cells," he concluded. "Our next challenge is to systematically scan through all of these 2D materials and categorize them according to their potential applications."

Explore further Boosting energy efficiency of 2-D material electronics using topological semimetal

More information: Qianqian Wang et al, Efficient Ohmic contacts and built-in atomic sublayer protection in MoSi2N4 and WSi2N4 monolayers, npj 2D Materials and Applications (2021). Qianqian Wang et al, Efficient Ohmic contacts and built-in atomic sublayer protection in MoSi2N4 and WSi2N4 monolayers,(2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41699-021-00251-y
An MEP waits in the plenary for the session to begin at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021. The European Union announced Wednesday it is committing 200 million more coronavirus vaccine doses to Africa to help curb the COVID-19 pandemic on a global scale. Credit: Yves Herman, Pool via AP

The European Union's top official outlined ambitious plans to help beef up the bloc's chipmaking capability in the face of intensifying global competition for semiconductors.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen unveiled the European Chips Act on Wednesday to provide official support for the bloc's "chip ecosystem" so that the continent can stand on its own when it comes to producing the vital technology.

Semiconductors are the tiny microchips that act as the brains for everything from smartphones to cars, and an extended shortage has highlighted the importance of chipmakers, most of which are based in Asia, to global supply chains. Automakers have been among the hardest hit by the shortage, which has slowed or halted production.

"While global demand has exploded (for chips), Europe's share across the entire value chain, from design to manufacturing capacity has shrunk," von der Leyen said in a self styled State of the European Union address to the bloc's parliament in Strasbourg. "We depend on state-of-the-art chips manufactured in Asia."

Europe's Chips Act will link research, design and testing, and coordinate EU and national investment, she said.

"The aim is to jointly create a state-of-the-art European chip ecosystem, including production," which will ensure a secure supply of chips, she said. She didn't specify whether financial support would be given.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen delivers a State of the Union Address at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021. Stung by the swift collapse of the Afghan army and the chaotic U.S.-led evacuation through Kabul airport, the European Union on Wednesday unveiled new plans to develop its own defense capacities to try to ensure that it has more freedom to act in future crises. Credit: Yves Herman, Pool via AP

The U.S. has also been stepping up efforts to bolster the industry, and lawmakers approved a bill earlier this year with the goal of boosting domestic semiconductor production, part of a wider rivalry with China over trade and technology.

Von der Leyen said chipmaking is also important for Europe's "tech sovereignty" - the idea that the EU should be more self-sufficient and rely less on U.S. or Chinese tech.

Explore further Brussels says 70% of EU adults have at least one COVID shot

 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Hackers stole the personal data of around 1.4 million people who took COVID-19 tests in the Paris region in the middle of 2020, hospital officials in the French capital disclosed on Wednesday.

Hospital officials said they filed a complaint with the Paris prosecutor's office on Wednesday after confirming on September 12 that such a cyber attack took place over the summer.

Stolen were the identities, social security numbers and contact details of people tested as well as the identities and contact details of health professionals who dealt with them, along with the test results, the hospital organisation said.

But no other health information was stolen, they said.

In all, "the stolen files concern 1.4 million people, almost exclusively for tests taken in the middle of 2020" in the Paris region, the hospitals organisation said in a statement.

Those affected "will be notified individually in the coming days", they said.

The facts of the case were also reported to France's data watchdog, the CNIL, and the French National Agency for the Security of Information Systems (ANSSI).

The CNIL said it had "opened an investigation into this violation".

The hackers did not target the national testing files but rather a "secure service for sharing files", which were used in September 2020 to transmit information "useful for contact tracing" to various health authorities.

The ministry of health also told AFP it has decided to file a complaint so that "all light is brought to bear on the leak, its consequences, and all the measures needed are taken to prevent a repeat of such an event".

Explore further University of California victim of nationwide hack attack

 2021 AFP
Government employees wait for the opening of the Chivo digital wallet machine, which will exchange cash for Bitcoin cryptocurrency, at Las Americas Square in San Salvador, El Salvador, Tuesday, Sept. 7, 2021. Starting Tuesday, all businesses will have to accept payments in Bitcoin, except those lacking the technology to do so, according to a law approved by the congress. Credit: AP Photo/Salvador Melendez

One week after El Salvador became the first country to make bitcoin legal tender, problems continued to plague the system Tuesday.

El Salvador rolled out a digital wallet known as the "Chivo" on Sept. 8, but the system has often been down for maintenance. It may have been overloaded by the sheer number of Salvadorans looking to take advantage of the $30 bonus that the government put in each account to incentivize adoption.

Even users like street vendor Cesar Estrada, who were able to download the wallet, have been unable to access the bitcoins.

"After several attempts I managed to download the Chivo wallet, but I haven't been able to use the $30," said Estrada.

The problems aren't limited to technical glitches. One of the young workers at the Chivo automatic teller machines set up to handle transactions acknowledged as much.

"The problems continue, but there has also been a lot of false information," said the worker, who would identify himself only as Steven,

"People are saying that if someone downloads the app, the government can spy on them, or even empty their bank accounts," he said in disbelief. "So many things have been said that it gets into people's heads, and added to that is that first, the system collapsed and the errors have continued."

A government-run Chivo machine that will soon exchange cash for dispense Bitcoin cryptocurrency stands in a booth of the state-owned Banco Hipotecario, in San Salvador, El Salvador, Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2021. Starting Tuesday, Sept. 7, all businesses will have to accept payments in Bitcoin, except those lacking the technology to do so. Credit: AP Photo/Salvador Melendez

President Nayib Bukele, the main promotor of using the cryptocurrency, acknowledged the government's three-month rollout may have been too ambitious. He said technical glitches had prevented the app from working some kinds of phones.

"We set ourselves a goal that was too ambitious and we made mistakes," Bukele wrote in his Twitter account. "But we correcting things, and hundreds of thousands of Salvadorans can now use their @chivowallet with no problem. Soon, everyone who wants to can also enjoy the benefits."

There has been skepticism about the government's enthusiastic adoption of bitcoin since Bukele announced it in a video recorded in English and played at a bitcoin conference in Miami in June. Bitcoin is subject to wild swings in value in a matter of minutes.

Last week, bitcoin joined the U.S. dollar as legal tender in El Salvador. Any business with the technological capacity to do so is required to accept payment in bitcoin, but no private citizen is required to use it. Recent public opinion surveys in El Salvador have said a majority of Salvadorans oppose making it an official currency.

Still Bukele claims there are now a half million users of the digital payment system in this Central American nation. And visits to several fast food chains and shopping malls in San Salvador showed that a majority of such businesses are accepting bitcoin.

"So, everybody go out and use their @chivowallet!" Bukele wrote, "everyone who can. Those who can't, they'll have to wait, but it will be worth it! We are working so that the user experience is better and better."

Explore further El Salvador president says half a million using new bitcoin wallet

 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
In the 2021 Budget, Finance Minister Colm Imbert had said the goal of the Government was to boost jobs. But what exactly is the state of unemployment in Trinidad and Tobago?
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The latest coronavirus outbreak in Ho Chi Minh City has taken away the parents of 1,517 students and left thousands infected, according to the municipal Department of Education and Trainings statistics.

The orphans have lost either their fathers or mothers, or both due to COVID-19.

More than 10,000 high school students and over 3,000 teachers have caught the viral disease.

Some 62,100 students enrolled at elementary, middle, and high schools have been stricken by poverty.

As of September 11, 12,341 cadres, teachers, employees, and workers in the citys education and training sector have lost their jobs.

Kindergarten teachers and workers were affected the most, with 10,129 people having their labor contracts canceled or postponed.

The municipal Department of Education and Training proposed the Ho Chi Minh City chapter of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee and socio-political organizations provide aid to students and teachers in need for the 2021-22 school year on September 10.

The department reported that 94.3 percent of 674,173 elementary school students are studying online while another 0.73 percent, who have been stranded in other localities due to travel restrictions, have been temporarily admitted to schools in those places.

Meanwhile, 93.9 percent of over 400,000 middle school students and 97.5 percent of more than 200,000 high school students in the city attended virtual lessons during the first week of the school year.

Respectively, 0.2 percent and 0.07 percent of their stranded peers have temporarily attended middle and high schools in other localities.

The corresponding rates in continuing education students are 88.6 percent and 0.4 percent.

The number of students having difficulty accessing online lessons has decreased from 75,000 at the end of August to 40,000, thanks to the support of organizations, parents, and schools.

The municipal education department is coordinating with Ho Chi Minh City Television (HTV) to broadcast lessons as soon as possible, with priorities given to the first-, second-, fifth-, sixth-, ninth-, and 12th-grade syllabuses.

Ho Chi Minh Citys elementary, middle, and high school students commenced their new academic year virtually on September 5.

The southern city is the gravest COVID-19 hotbed in Vietnam with 309,787 local infections, accounting for about half of the countrys 630,661 community transmissions since the fourth virus waves emergence on April 27.

Vietnam has reported 635,055 patients, including 398,461 recoveries and 15,936 deaths, since the COVID-19 pandemic first struck early last year.

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Authorities in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho are verifying reports that 57 children have been given COVID-19 vaccine shots in the locality.

The medical center in Can Thos Thot Not District organized inoculation at a middle school on August 18, according to documents collected by Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.

A total of 362 people were vaccinated with their first Pfizer-BioNTech shot at the site on this day.

Among them, 57 are under 18 years old, and the youngest is 12 years old.

During the inoculation on September 4, many of these young individuals were also provided with their second Pfizer-BioNTech jab.

Le Thi Thuy Hang, chairwoman of the Thot Not Peoples Committee, stated that local officials are verifying this information and will announce the result in the coming days.

On Monday, a Facebook user posted a status saying that a health worker and her family members, including a 13-year-old niece, had been fully inoculated with the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in Thot Not District.

The post stirred up public concern as authorities in Can Tho and Vietnam in general have yet to issue any guideline on COVID-19 vaccination for people under 18 years old.

Nguyen Kim Hai, director of the Thot Not District Medical Center, confirmed the information later the same day, adding that three other children in the district had also received the jabs.

Hai said these children are family members of frontline workers, adding that there was no personal gain behind this.

The official was suspended on Tuesday over the administering of a COVID-19 vaccine shot to an under-18-year-old person without consulting the local steering committee for COVID-19 prevention and control.

Everyone has the right to receive vaccination, but certain target groups must be prioritized due to limited vaccine supply, according to Tran Viet Truong, chairman of the Can Tho City administration.

Truong said he has ordered local authorities to follow the directions of the municipal steering committee for COVID-19 prevention and control in order to prevent similar incidents from happening.

Vietnam has so far gathered almost 37 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine, the Ministry of Health said on Tuesday.

Health authorities aim to immunize at least two-thirds of a population of nearly 98 million people against COVID-19 by the first quarter of next year.

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Check out the news you should not miss today:

Society

-- Ho Chi Minh City will continue following social distancing measures under the prime minister's Directive No. 16 till the end of September.

-- Since Wednesday, restaurants in the northern city of Hai Phong are allowed to reopen, but they must not serve more than 10 guests in the same room or a separate area at a time and must close before 10:00 pm every day. Meanwhile, street food stalls can receive diners between 5:00 am and 9:00 am and shift to takeaway service in the remaining time.

-- The Ho Chi Minh City Pasteur Institute, in collaboration with the city's Center for Disease Control, took samples for COVID-19 antibody tests from 3,600 residents in six wards in Binh Thanh and Phu Nhuan Districts from August 29 to September 14, which is expected to help assess the situation of COVID-19 infection.

-- At least one homegrown COVID-19 vaccine will be approved for emergency use by the end of this year, the Vietnam News Agency quoted Nguyen Ngo Quang, deputy director of the Department of Science, Technology, and Training under the Ministry of Health as saying on Tuesday.

-- Authorities in Nam Dinh Province on Tuesday found an over-300-square-meter warehouse containing thousands of children's toys in Vu Ban District, with the manager failing to present documents and invoices proving the legal origin of the items.

Education

-- Private high schools in Ho Chi Minh City saw a decrease of 14,301 students in the 2021-22 academic year as the COVID-19 pandemic has caused numerous troubles to their enrollment.

Lifestyle

-- Vietnams biosphere reserves Nui Chua in the south-central province of Ninh Thuan and Kon Ha Nung in the Central Highlands province of Gia Lai will seek UNESCO recognition at the 33rd session of the International Coordinating Council of the Man and the Biosphere Program in Nigeria from September 13 to 17, the Vietnam News Agency reported on Tuesday.

World news

-- Gunmen stormed a hotel in Mexico's central San Luis Potosi state on Tuesday and kidnapped some 20 foreigners believed to be mostly from Haiti and Venezuela, Reuters cited the state's attorney general's office as saying the same day.

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Hanoi authorities will consider loosening the current social distancing mandate based on the real situation of each area in the capital city, the deputy chairman of the Peoples Committee said on Tuesday.

During a meeting on COVID-19 prevention with lower-lever authorities, Chu Xuan Dung, deputy chairman of the municipal Peoples Committee, pointed out that selected businesses in low-risk districts were already allowed to reopen, while other high-risk areas may see the ongoing movement curb relaxed after Wednesday.

Earlier, the city was put under the prime ministers Directive No. 16, which requires non-essential businesses to be closed and unnecessary travels to be prohibited, for nearly two months before being subject to more relaxed measures since September 6.

Other areas with detected coronavirus infections must complete mass testing and vaccination before they can narrow down the high-risk zones and monitor the situation, Dung stated.

As Dung sees it, a two-pronged approach, which includes extensive screening and wide vaccine coverage, is required for Hanoi to quell the spread of the pathogen.

He also underscored that the best vaccine is the one that comes at the earliest, and ordered lower-level authorities to further promote the message among communities.

Relevant agencies must keep their guard up, stay updated on the government and citys directions, and uphold the safety guidelines issued by the Ministry of Health.

They must work to keep crowds from forming at vaccination sites and testing venues, the official added.

We are doing a great job at maintaining the two-pronged solution to contain the disease, but more effort is still required, Dung said.

The city is seeing positive progress in pushing back the virus, with a total of 5.36 million jabs distributed to 56.3 percent of the local populace as of Tuesday, the municipal Department of Health reported.

Local authorities target to test all residents for the novel coronavirus in an effort to drive back its spread and revive the capital's socio-economic development.

The city has recorded 4,331 coronavirus cases and 47 deaths since the pandemic erupted in Vietnam in early 2020, the Ministry of Health reported.

Nationwide, there have been 635,055 coronavirus infection cases and 15,936 fatalities.

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The Ho Chi Minh City Pasteur Institute, in collaboration with the citys Center for Disease Control, has taken samples for COVID-19 antibody tests from 3,600 residents, which is expected to help assess the current state of COVID-19 infection.

The testing campaign began on August 29 and ran through Tuesday in six wards in Binh Thanh and Phu Nhuan Districts, which meet the criteria of infection rates and feasibility.

Six hundred samples, each of which contained three milliliters of blood, were taken in each ward.

The residents participating in the sampling drive were all Vietnamese, who are at least six years old, have no history of blood clotting disorders, and were willing to give samples for testing.

COVID-19 patients bodies produce antibodies against the coronavirus after recovery, according to the Ho Chi Minh City Pasteur Institute.

Testing blood samples of the patients can help discover the antibodies.

Surveying the percentage of people with COVID-19 antibodies is expected to help assess the level of COVID-19 transmissions in Ho Chi Minh City in the past.

Ho Chi Minh City has recorded 309,787 local infections, accounting for approximately half of the countrys 630,661 community transmissions since the fourth virus waves emergence on April 27.

Some 39,296 patients, including 2,914 children under 16 years old, are currently under treatment.

Among them, 2,690 patients are depending on ventilation and 23 others are using extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), or outside-the-body life support.

More than 150,000 patients have recovered and been discharged from hospitals.

About 92,355 others are being quarantined, monitored, and treated at home.

The numbers of infections in the community and deaths in Ho Chi Minh City are on a downward trend, according to the preliminary assessment of the Ministry of Health.

Vietnam has reported 635,055 patients, including 398,461 recoveries and 15,936 deaths, since the COVID-19 pandemic first struck early last year.

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Delivery workers will be permitted to travel among different districts in Ho Chi Minh City, the citys deputy leader said on Monday.

The statement was made by Le Hoa Binh, deputy chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Peoples Committee, during a Q & A session on epidemic prevention and economic recovery, which was broadcast live on Facebook and garnered 14,000 inquiries from residents.

Inter-district delivery

Binh stated that delivery workers will be allowed to travel cross-district from Thursday, provided they meet epidemic safety requirements.

Free testing for delivery workers will also be provided in the following weeks, he added.

Since July, the municipal administration had banned inter-district delivery service and limited the operation to some districts only to curb the spread of COVID-19. Last month, the service was resumed in eight districts previously considered as high-risk areas.

The deputy chairman also disclosed more details on a three-stage road map to reopen the local economy that local authorities had announced.

A checkpoint officer scans QR code-based information of a delivery worker in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Minh Anh / Tuoi Tre

According to Binh, the first phase, which allows selected services to reopen to vaccinated or tested residents, will be piloted in District 7, Cu Chi District, and Can Gio District from September 16 to 30 before being applied citywide until the end of October.

As Binh sees it, local authorities do not wish to escalate social distancing any further, and the success of the two-week pilot will play a vital part in loosening the current restrictions.

We believe that our city will be able to control the disease, Binh said.

A screenshot shows Le Hoa Binh, deputy chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Peoples Committee, answering questions in a live Q & A session on Facebook, September 13, 2021.

Travel restrictions

Addressing the eligibility criteria for a local worker to return to his workplace, Binh pointed out that the safety of the workers destinations is an important factor and the vaccination status by itself is not sufficient.

He also revealed that the city is testing a tech solution during the upcoming tryout, which helps streamline checkpoint procedures by allowing officials to cross-check a residents travel destinations and vaccination details at an instance.

He also recommended that migrant workers should remain in the city instead of trying to return home, as it will contribute to the common goal of pushing back the virus.

A BBQ restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City is closed due to COVID-19. Photo: Quang Dinh / Tuoi Tre

Reopening businesses

The city is devising safety measures to allow businesses to reopen in the forthcoming weeks, with a focus on eight sectors and four production methods.

Officials have also liaised with banks to provide loan interest reduction and debt rescheduling for local businesses.

Many enterprises have got their due dates for water and electricity bills delayed, Binh added.

The official said that the city will prioritize businesses in their administrative procedure processing, providing loans in as early as one week if the applicants meet all the requirements.

Relief packages

The third financial aid package of VND2.577 trillion (US$113 million), set to benefit households and informal workers impacted by the pandemic in the upcoming weeks, will reach all citizens, including those with temporary residencies, Binh confirmed.

Considering the shortcomings of the previous relief attempts, the city will send out relief money support via bank accounts and e-wallets this time.

They will also supply care packages with essential items worth VND2 million ($88) each to financially distressed households.

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Japan has decided to provide more doses of COVID-19 vaccine for several neighbors in Asia, including 400,000 jabs for Vietnam.

Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs Toshimitsu Motegi announced on Tuesday that his country would donate an additional 1.3 million AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine doses to some countries and territories in Asia.

The donation includes 500,000 doses for Taiwan, 400,000 shots for Vietnam, 300,000 jabs for Thailand, and 100,000 doses for Brunei.

The vaccines will be delivered as soon as possible, the official stated.

To date, Japan has supplied more than 23 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine produced in the nation to countries and territories in Southeast Asia, South Asia, and the Pacific region, he said.

Japan has also pledged US$1 billion and 30 million doses to the COVAX Facility, a global vaccine-sharing scheme.

The latest announcement has brought Japans total vaccine donations to Vietnam up to 3.58 million shots, according to the Embassy of Japan in Vietnam.

Vietnam had documented 635,055 COVID-19 cases as of Wednesday morning, with 398,461 recoveries and 15,936 deaths, according to the Ministry of Health.

The country has registered 630,661 local infections in 62 out of 63 provinces and cities since the fourth wave started on April 27.

Around 30.3 million vaccine doses have been administered since vaccination was rolled out on March 8, with over 5.6 million people fully vaccinated.

Health authorities aim to immunize at least two-thirds of a population of nearly 98 million people against COVID-19 by the first quarter of next year.

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The port authority in southern Ba Ria - Vung Tau Province has discussed plans to salvage a Vietnamese ship carrying 10,000 metric tons of clinker that was rammed and sunk by a Liberian cargo vessel on Tuesday.

Liberias Lisa Auerbach vessel with a tonnage of more than 12,500 metric tons collided with Vietnams My An 1 ship during its voyage from Vung Tau, the capital city of the southern coastal province, to Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday morning.

The My An 1 ship was anchored about 7.2 nautical miles south-southwest of Vung Tau Cape, carrying nearly 10,000 metric tons of clinker, at the time of the collision.

As the Vietnamese ship sank, the Lisa Auerbach managed to rescue all of 17 crew members of the vessel.

The My An 1 ship. Photo: Vung Tau Maritime Port Authority

Authorities have prepared to deal with an oil spill from the My An 1 ship, which was laden with about 40 metric tons of fuel oil before the collision.

Functional forces discussed solutions to remove the oil from the wreck, tow it ashore, and set up warning buoys around its last location.

The accident did not affect ship safety and traffic off Vung Taus port, according to an official from the Vung Tau Maritime Port Authority.

No signs of oil spills had been detected at the scene of the accident as of Tuesday afternoon.

A ring of warning buoys is placed around the scene where the My An 1 ship sank off Ba Ria - Vung Tau Province, Vietnam, September 14, 2021. Photo: Dong Ha / Tuoi Tre

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Vietnam's central government has approved Ho Chi Minh Citys proposal to continue following social distancing measures under the prime ministers Directive No. 16 till the end of September.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh agreed that two more weeks under extensive social distancing is necessary for the southern city to put the COVID-19 pandemic under more effective control, according to secretary of Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee Nguyen Van Nen.

The city opted not to relax restrictions as a majority of its districts have yet to meet the criteria for pandemic containment by September 15, as initially targeted in a recent resolution of the national government, Nen said at a conference on Tuesday afternoon.

Nen emphasized that the reopening of economic and social activities in districts that have claimed their control over the virus outbreak must be done carefully, step by step, without risk-taking and complacency.

The municipal Party chief requested the districts' authorities to find out the factors that decided the success and failure of their locales in controlling the pandemic.

He urged the unsuccessful districts to put more efforts to achieve the target, while suggesting the safety first motto in implementing plans for the gradual economic resumption in successful districts.

Ho Chi Minh City has been in an extension of strict travel restrictions since mid-August, under the prime ministers Directive No. 16.

The directive bans gatherings of more than two people in public and requires all residents to stay indoors and only go outside with appropriate reasons.

The city had earlier imposed social distancing regulations at various levels since May 31.

It remains the gravest COVID-19 epicenter in Vietnam with 309,787 local infections, accounting for approximately half of the countrys 630,661 community transmissions since the fourth virus waves emergence on April 27.

Vietnam has reported 635,055 patients, including 398,461 recoveries and 15,936 deaths, since the COVID-19 pandemic first struck early last year.

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The Ministry of Health recorded 10,585 COVID-19 cases across Vietnam on Wednesday, as well as 14,189 discharged patients and 250 fatalities.

Thirty-four provinces and cities reported 10,583 domestic cases whereas the country documented two separate imported infections, the health ministry said.

The ministry had logged 10,496 locally-infected patients on Tuesday.

Over 5,800 of the latest domestic cases were found in the community, with the remaining detected in sectioned-off areas or centralized quarantine facilities.

Ho Chi Minh City registered 5,301 local infections, down by 1,011 patients from yesterday; Binh Duong Province 3,228, up by 1,050; Dong Nai Province 808, Long An Province 424, Kien Giang Province 183; Tien Giang Province 93; Hanoi 14; and Da Nang 9.

Vietnam has confirmed 641,244 community transmissions in 62 out of its 63 provinces and cities since the fourth  and worst  virus wave emerged in the country on April 27.

Ho Chi Minh City is heavily impacted with 315,088 patients, followed by Binh Duong Province with 166,075, Dong Nai Province with 37,169, Long An Province with 29,289, Tien Giang Province with 12,561, Dong Thap Province with 7,968, Khanh Hoa Province with 7,386, Da Nang with 4,844, Hanoi with 4,088, and Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province with 3,933.

By comparison, Vietnam detected a combined 1,570 locally-transmitted infections in the previous three waves.

The health ministry documented 14,189 recoveries on Wednesday, taking the total to 412,650.

The toll has risen to 16,186 deaths after the ministry logged 250 fatalities on the same day, including 189 in Ho Chi Minh City and 42 in Binh Duong Province.

Vietnam has reported 645,640 patients since the COVID-19 pandemic first hit it early last year.

Health workers have administered around 31.2 million vaccine doses, including 866,668 shots on Tuesday, since inoculation was rolled out on March 8.

Over 5.6 million people have been fully vaccinated.

Health authorities aim to immunize at least two-thirds of a population of nearly 98 million people against COVID-19 by the first quarter of next year.

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Representatives of the French and Italian governments on Tuesday ceremonially handed over a total of 1.47 million vaccine doses against COVID-19 to Vietnam during a meeting at the countrys Ministry of Foreign Affairs headquarters in Hanoi.

The shipments from France and Italy, respectively consisting of 670,000 and 800,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, had been pledged to Vietnam prior to the meeting and were distributed through COVAX Facility, a global vaccine-sharing scheme.

On Tuesday, Nicolas Warnery, French Ambassador to Vietnam, and Paolo Epifani, Charge d'Affaires at the Italian Embassy in Vietnam, handed over the doses to the Vietnamese government in a ceremony joined by To Anh Dung, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, as well as officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Health.

The jabs will be promptly distributed to cities and provinces, said Tran Van Thuan, Deputy Minister of Health.

Among the European Union (EU) members, France and Italy rank as two of the largest donors to the COVAX initiative.

They are also listed among Vietnam's biggest EU vaccine donors.

Vietnam has so far gathered almost 37 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine, with 11,725,630 coming through the COVAX program, the Ministry of Health said on Tuesday.

The Southeast Asian country has administered 30.4 million jabs, with more than one million doses given daily from September 9 to 13, according to the official portal for COVID-19 vaccination.

Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long said Vietnam will receive an additional 103.4 million vaccine doses by this year's end, with 22.8 million coming in September, 31.2 million in October, 23.9 million in November, and 25.5 million in December.

The health ministry is liaising with international manufacturers to ensure vaccine coverage for Vietnamese residents next year, including children five years old and above as well as people who require annual booster shots as recommended by the World Health Organization.

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On Monday Australian Story speaks to Biloelas Priya Nadaraja and Nades Murugappen as they wait to hear whether theyll be deported to Sri Lanka.

With their visas set to expire in days, this is the untold story of the asylum seeker family at the centre of a tug-of-war between a small country town and powerful forces at the big end of government.

Three years ago, Border Force officers took Nades Murugappen, Priya Nadaraja and their two young daughters from their adopted Queensland town of Biloela.

Since then, the family has languished in detention as a high-stakes legal battle has played out in the national spotlight between their lawyers and the Federal Government

Theyre the most popular refugee family in Australia, says Tamil Refugee Council founder Aran Mylvaganam. Even if people havent heard of the name Priya and Nades, they would have heard about the Tamil family from Biloela.

Nades and Priya arrived separately in Australia seeking asylum from war torn Sri Lanka. When their asylum seeker applications were knocked back, Biloela locals stepped up to support the family, garnering bipartisan support from many federal politicians.

People all around Australia and the world have started to listen up and take notice, says teacher Simone Cameron.

We were not trained in any sort of activism or campaigning or anything like that, so we absolutely were flying blind for a lot of it, says social worker Bronwyn Dendle.

Australian Story reveals disturbing footage of the familys time in detention and exclusive interviews with Priya Nadaraja and Nades Murugappen as they wait to hear whether theyll be deported to Sri Lanka and an uncertain future.

At the very best they will be arrested when they arrive, says Prof Damien Kingsbury from Deakin University. At the worst what we are likely to see is that the parents will not just face arrest and rejection but likely torture and potentially disappearance.

The level of parliamentary support, the level of community support for this family is well beyond anything that I have seen in my thirty years experience in immigration policy, says Dr Abul Rizvi, former deputy Secretary from the Immigration Department.

Producers: Kristine Taylor and Belinda Hawkins.

8pm Monday on ABC.

Updated.
Q+A is back in Sydney this week with host Stan Grant.

This week on Q+A we ask have we traded away too many freedoms in the name of COVID safety? And are the lost freedoms being shared equitably in communities around the country?

With NSW due for a reopening next month, its clear the promised freedoms will be only for the vaccinated. How will vaccine passports work, who will miss out and will Sydney continue to see a Tale of Two Cities?

Well check the COVID outbreaks in regional Indigenous communities like Wilcannia where infection rates are alarmingly high and health resources scant.

Well also debate the appointment of the new Human Rights Commissioner and the parachuting of Kristina Keneally into a safe Labor seat.

Guests:

Dave Sharma, Liberal Member for Wentworth

Linda Burney, Shadow Minister for Families and Social Services

Mariam Veiszadeh, Lawyer and Diversity & Inclusion Champion

Khal Asfour, Mayor of Canterbury Bankstown

John Lee, Foreign Affairs expert, United States Studies Centre

Thursday, September 16 at 8.30pm on ABC.
Writer / performer B.J. Novak (The Office) has a bold pitch with his new anthology series The Premise.

Described as a fearlessly ambitious new series it uses comedy to engage with the biggest issues of our era through character-driven stories.

There are 5 x half hour episodes tackling guns, social justice, revenge, fame, social media with a roll-call of talent: Ben Platt, Tracee Ellis Ross, Lola Kirke, Lucas Hedges, Kaitlyn Dever, Jon Bernthaland, Daniel Dae Kim, and even the late Ed Asner.

The results are a mixed bag of tales that raise thoughtful questions, playful performances and flashes of ideas yearning to become Black Mirror plots but never quite matching its bite.

In Social Justice Sex tape Ben Platt (The Politician) plays Ethan, a white, woke, twenty-something who proudly insists that he protests, donates and marches for Black Live Matter campaigns. One day when he is filming himself having sex his camera captures a black man Darren (Jermaine Fowler) being accused of police brutality. But young lawyer Eve (Ayo Edebiri) -who has never tried a case- is determined to get Darren justice, if only she can convince Ethan to admit his sex tape as court evidence.

But Ethan will find his white commitment to the brotherhood is directly linked to his personal embarrassment in having explicit videos become public.

Ben Platt gets all the good scenes here as Ethan becomes morally challenged in a plot that wouldnt be out of place on The Good Fight or even an episode of Boston Legal. Which is not to say it need be overlooked.

In Moment of Silence Chase (Jon Bernthal) lands a job as a PR director at the National Gun Lobby. But he is also a grieving father having lost his 5 year old daughter to gun violence. While he shoots up in the basement gun range and plays violent videos with co-worker Aaron (Boyd Holbrook) what are his real motives? Bernthal helps create an ominous feeling us this story unfolds, watch out for Transparents Amy Landecker and a cameo from Beau Bridges.

Other episodes to come include The Ballad of Jesse Wheeler, The Commenter and Butt Plug, with B.J. Novak credit as writer on all 5.

The comedy is dark and fleeting, not that theres anything wrong with that, and there are moments of insight in what is a snack-friendly watch. Anything that has Ed Asner in the cast gets my respect, but Im yet to view that episode.

This could be one where the performers ultimately had more fun in star turns than what the audience experiences and only some of the parts are greater than the whole.

The Premise screens 9pm Friday September 17 on FOX Showcase and Binge.
Chris Gayle in action (Photo/ CPL Twitter)

Basseterre [Saint Kitts], September 15 (ANI): In front of a home crowd, St Kitts and Nevis Patriots secured a place in the 2021 Caribbean Premier League (CPL) final with a dominant seven-wicket victory over the Guyana Amazon Warriors.

The Patriots won the toss and chose to field first. Despite a bright start from the Amazon Warrior's openers, wickets tumbled in the middle overs before a late burst from Shimron Hetmyer took his side to a substantial 178/9.

In their chase, the Patriots once again opted to open with Chris Gayle, and he laid the platform for a successful chase, lashing the ball into the stands on numerous occasions, before Evin Lewis then took over to guide his side to a crushing victory.

The Warriors consolidated after losing Brandon King in the fourth over of their innings, with Chandrapaul Hemraj and Shoaib Malik patiently building. However, three wickets in three successive overs, including that of captain Nicholas Pooran, saw the side collapse, reaching 131-8 at one point.

Spinners Jon-Russ Jaggesar and Fawad Ahmed were exceptional for the Patriots during this period. It was left to Shimron Hetmyer to salvage the innings and he did so in spectacular style, scoring 45 runs from 20 balls, including a remarkable 25 runs from the last over of the innings.

St Kitts and Nevis Patriots in turn reached their highest powerplay score of this year's Hero CPL, Gayle and Lewis bringing up 68-0 after the first six overs. Gayle was in destructive form, scoring 42 from 27 balls, and after he fell to youngster Kevin Sinclair, it was Lewis who took responsibility to lead the chase.

Supported by captain DJ Bravo, who promoted himself to number three, Lewis blasted 77* off just 39 balls as the Patriots won with thirteen balls to spare.

With this win St Kitts and Nevis Patriots will now go on to meet the Saint Lucia Kings in Wednesday's CPL final, with one side set to win their maiden title. (ANI)
Guinea's longtime opposition leaders voiced support Tuesday for the country's new military rulers as a four-day summit got under way that is aimed at charting the West African nation's future following a coup just over a week ago.



Pressure, though, is expected to mount this week for Col. Mamady Doumbouya to set a timeframe for holding new elections. Regional mediators and the international community are calling for the junta to hand over power to a civilian-led transitional government.

Opposition party leaders who came to the heavily guarded People's Palace for the Tuesday meeting, however, publicly backed the coup and laid more criticism on ousted President Alpha Conde. The 83-year-old leader was detained by the junta during the Sept. 5 coup and his exact whereabouts have not been disclosed.

Conde sparked violent street protests last year after he pushed forth a constitutional referendum he said allowed him to extend his rule to a third term.

Ousmane Kaba, leader of the opposition Party of Democrats for Hope, called that bid by Conde to stay in power beyond his mandate a coup as well.

That was not legal, you know, so thats why we had a military coup to stop the institutional, constitutional coup," he told reporters Tuesday. "And I think the international community should help us, should help Guinea to have a good transition.

Guineas most prominent opposition figure, Cellou Dalein Diallo, already has spoken out against Conde, calling him a dictator who had brought on his own downfall. Diallo, who had lost to the ousted leader in the last three presidential elections, has signaled that he intends to run whenever a vote is next held.

But the opposition's request for support and not punishment may not sway the West African regional bloc known as ECOWAS. It already has threatened Guinea with economic sanctions unless the junta releases the deposed president immediately.

The bloc took a similar move in August 2020 when it imposed sanctions on neighboring Mali after mutinous soldiers there overthrew a longtime president who had become increasingly unpopular. Regional mediators called for a one-year deadline for new elections in Mali but later acquiesced to the junta leaders and accepted an 18-month timeframe instead.

Story continues

Even that now appears in doubt as February 2022 approaches, since Col. Assimi Goita effectively staged a second coup in Mali nine months after the first by firing the civilian president and prime minister and later declaring himself president of the transition.

In Mali's case, the junta had overthrown a president who came to power through a democratic election supported by the international community and who had not sought to change the country's term limits.

Guinea's ex-leader, though, had lost credibility with many in Conakry after he won his third term in October. That appears to have muted the public backlash against the junta so far in Guinea's capital, where opposition figures said Tuesday they were optimistic about what the coming days would bring.

Sidya Toure, leader of the Union of Republican Forces party, said conditions already appear to have improved since the military takeover. He recalled how security forces had tried to kidnap me in my home during Conde's regime.

We can see it all around the town in Conakry, absolutely the change amongst the military and policemen," he said. "I think we are going in the right way for the moment.

(AP)
Bitcoin has already used more power so far this year than it did in all of 2020, a new study has suggested, as the debate on the impact of cryptocurrency mining on the environment heats up.

Bitcoin is set to use 91TWh of energy by the end of this year, according to a Bloomberg report, which noted this is as much energy as Pakistan. Last year, Bitcoin was estimated to have consumed about 67TWh of electricity.

While tracking how much energy Bitcoin mining uses is difficult, the trend is clear. The Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index estimates that Bitcoin will consume 95.68 TW/h by the end of the year, which is about the same as the power consumption of the Philippines.

Why does Bitcoin use so much energy?

Bitcoin uses a system called "proof of work", the mechanism is used to confirm transactions and add new blocks to the chain. Its decentralised system requires a global network of computers to run at the same time when a transaction takes place. This is why it uses so much energy, as it is designed to encourage increased computing effort.

Bitcoin could switch to the less energy-consuming "Proof of Stake" mechanism, which randomly allocates coins to users who put up their own tokens as collateral.

The Bloomberg report said as the price of Bitcoin increases, more miners with less energy-efficient machines are joining the network, which then drives up energy use.

The report said it was "essential to improve the efficiency of crypto-mining and move to low-carbon energy sources for electricity".

Electronic waste

But it's not just the running of Bitcoin mining that is costing the environment. The computer equipment used for mining typically only lasts for one and a half years. It can not then thrown out afterwards because the equipment can only be used for mining.

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Science Direct found that as a result, one transaction on the Bitcoin network produces 272 grams of electronic waste.

When governments and Elon Musk get involved

One of the most prominent figures to add to the crypto environmental debate is the Tesla chief executive officer Elon Musk.

Earlier this year he said the electric car company would accept Bitcoin as payment, but environmentalists later convinced Musk to backtrack on his decision.

Musk subsequently announced the company would not accept crypto payments for Tesla vehicles again until at least 50 per cent of mining operations using green energy. But this has not yet happened.

Cryptocurrency experts have previously told Euronews Next that crypto miners have no incentive to make greener choices.

Governments are also weighing in on the debate. China and Iran temporarily halted Bitcoin mining due to the massive energy use that was causing power cuts in some areas.

In the United States, Senator Elizabeth Warren butted heads with two cryptocurrency CEOs.

Earlier this month she tweeted a New York Times article on the environmental impact of cryptos and wrote: Bitcoin mining consumes roughly the same amount of electricity as Washington stateputting pressure on our power grids and worsening the #ClimateCrisis. We need to protect our planet and crackdown on environmentally wasteful crypto mining practices.

In response, CEO of MicroStrategy, Michael Saylor, tweeted: "#Bitcoin mining converts wasted & stranded energy into digital energy, the natural successor to chemical & electrical energy. It can be managed by any computer, transferred anywhere at the speed of light, and lasts forever, thereby improving our climate, economy & power grid".

Meanwhile, FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, responded to Warren in saying Bitcoin mining could be improved but that it is "in line with its economic impact".
Four people have been arrested by police in Northern Ireland investigating the murder of journalist Lyra McKee.

Ms McKee, 29, was shot dead by dissident republicans on 18 April 2019 as she observed rioting in Londonderry.

She was standing near a police vehicle when she was hit by a bullet fired by a masked gunman toward officers in the Creggan area of the city.

The attack was claimed by the so-called New IRA, which said Ms McKee was caught in the line of fire while standing with what the extremist group called "the enemy".

The Police Service of Northern Ireland arrested four men, aged 19, 20, 21, and 33, in the Derry area on Wednesday morning under the Terrorism Act.

They have been taken to the serious crime suite at Musgrave Police Station.

Detective Superintendent Jason Murphy said: "The arrests are the culmination of a detailed two-year investigation into Lyra's murder and the events which preceded it.

"The local community have supported the Police Service of Northern Ireland throughout the course of this protracted investigation, and I wish to thank them for their continued support and patience whilst this phase of the investigations is ongoing."

One man, Paul McIntyre, 53, from Kinnego Park in Derry, has already been charged with Ms McKee's murder.

Another man has been charged with rioting and other offences related to the events of the night in Creggan.
Maxx Coleman Scores Win in Poker Masters Event #6: $10,000 8-Game

September 15 2021 Geoff Fisk

Maxx Coleman's mixed-game prowess finally paid off in a PokerGO Tour win on Monday night. After multiple final table appearances in high-stakes events at PokerGO Studio, Coleman took down his first PokerGO Tour win in Poker Masters Event #6: $10,000 8-Game, earning a $120,000 prize.

Coleman emerged through a field of 30 entries, outdueling Chad Eveslage (2nd - $78,000) in heads-up play for the victory. Stephen Chidwick (3rd - $48,000), Erik Sagstrom (4th - $33,000), and Jeremy Ausmus (5th - $21,000) rounded out the names making the money in the $10,000 8-Game event.

Coleman finished the tournament win by taking the last of Eveslages chips with Razz as the variant on the board.

2021 Poker Masters Event #6 Final Table Results

Place Player Country Points Prize 1st Maxx Coleman United States 120 $120,000 2nd Chad Eveslage United States 78 $78,000 3rd Stephen Chidwick United Kingdom 48 $48,000 4th Erik Sagstrom Sweden 33 $33,000 5th Jeremey Ausmus United States 21 $21,000

Coleman Breaks Through for First PokerGO Tour Win

Colemans all-around poker ability proved valuable in the only mixed-game event on the schedule at the 2021 Poker Masters. Event #6 gave Coleman his first career PokerGO Tour win, which came in Colemans fourth PokerGO Tour final table appearance this year.

In June, Coleman made it to three final tables at the 2021 U.S. Poker Open. The American pro came away with a second, fourth, and fifth-place finish in those three events.

The elusive PokerGO Tour victory finally happened Monday night. Coleman began Day 2 as the tournament chip leader, and ended the day in the Poker Masters Event #6 winners photo.

The $120,000 win brings Colemans career earnings to more than $2 million according to the Hendon Mob. Colemans top ten cash finishes include five events outside of the No-Limit Holdem category.

The deep runs in Event #6 for Ausmus and Eveslage keeps both players in the top ten on the 2021 Poker Masters leaderboard.

2021 Poker Masters Leaderboard

Rank Player Points Wins Cashes Earnings 1 Daniel Negreanu 281 1 2 $281,400 2 Brock Wilson 272 1 2 $271,800 3 Sean Perry 239 1 2 $239,200 4 Shannon Shorr 205 1 1 $205,000 5 Adam Hendrix 186 1 1 $186,300 6 Nick Petrangelo 176 0 2 $175,800 7 Jeremy Ausmus 167 0 2 $167,200 8 Jake Schindler 161 0 3 $161,000 9 Jake Daniels 156 0 2 $155,700 10 Chad Eveslage 151 0 2 $151,000

Daniel Negreanu remains in first place on the leaderboard, thanks to a win in Event #5: $10,000 No-Limit Holdem.

The Poker Masters schedule includes 12 total events, and the series continues through Sept. 19.

Remember, Poker Masters will air daily through September 19, but is only available to PokerGO subscribers. If youre not currently subscribed, you can get a monthly subscription for $14.99, a three-month plan for $29.99, and an annual subscription for $99.99. You can also save $10 off an annual subscription by using promo code PokerNews at checkout.
UNCW Joins Statewide Consortium to Develop Human Performance Technologies and Services for Nations Military

UNCW, in collaboration with more than 25 North Carolina-based academic, industry, nonprofit and state government organizations, will join the North Carolina Center for Optimizing Military Performance, a new consortium tasked with developing world-class human performance solutions for the nations military.

Our university is home to a growing base of military affiliates  current and former military and their loved ones, said Karl Ricanek, director of UNCW Institute for Interdisciplinary Identity Sciences (I3S) and UNCW liaison to NC-COMP. Being a part of NC-COMP is our way of being directly involved in the lives of our current and potential students. We want to be sure these students understand the body of work we do has a direct impact on them as well as national security.

Historically, UNCW has a long tradition of working to solve problems for Americas war fighters. The university has worked with the Department of Defense and others within the intelligence community on funded research projects for nearly two decades. In the past 10 years, UNCW has worked through the UNC System as one of the founding members of the Defense Application Group, a collaborative effort to solve research problems for the military.

The NC-COMP consortium will focus on interdisciplinary and holistic research and development to address three main areas: preventing injury and speeding recovery, maintaining performance in multi-stressor environments, and enhancing baseline physical and mental performance for service members.

Ricanek explained that there are several current UNCW research endeavors that can impact the work of NC-COMP. For example, studies on mild traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress disorder, suicide and suicide prevention, new technologies for prehabilitation or rehabilitation and health assessments through facial analytics all fall under the umbrella of NC-COMP's mission to find innovative solutions to fill critical performance gaps within the military.

A virtual launch event for NC-COMP will be held on Sept. 16 from 1-2 p.m. hosted by RTI International. Participants will hear from Congressman David Price, Congressman Richard Hudson, consortium leaders, and partner teams about the vision and mission of NC-COMP; the benefits to service members, DoD agencies and the economy; and the latest innovations underway.

For more information on NC-COMP, read the full media release.

-- Krissy Vick


With the Taliban (forbidden in Russia) back in charge in Afghanistan and the United States out, attention has turned to the United States main competitors: China and Russia. Moscow and Beijing are likely to experience both a convergence and clash of interests when it comes to Afghanistan, but their long experience in dividing up influence in Central Asia offers a likely path forward.

Foreign Policy reports that on Sept. 2, Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said China serves as Afghanistans main partner and praised Beijings readiness to invest and rebuild our country. Russias ambassador to Afghanistan, Dmitry Zhirnov, met with Taliban officials within 48 hours of the groups takeover of Kabul on Aug. 15 while Russian President Vladimir Putins special envoy to Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, has commented that the Taliban were easier negotiating partners than the government of exiled Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.

Moscow and Beijing were vocally critical of the U.S.-led war effort in Afghanistan even as they indirectly benefited from it. The War in Afghanistan diverted U.S. attention and resources for much of the past two decades and gave space for China and Russia to grow their own influence, both regionally and globally. But the United States withdrawal makes the stakes for Russia and China in Afghanistan higher, not only for their own roles within the country itself but also in how they are able to manage their bilateral relationship in a dynamic and increasingly crowded geopolitical arena.

Thats where the experience of Central Asia comes inmeaning Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. Russia has long served as the dominant external power in the regionwhich was both part of the Soviet Union and, before that, the Russian Empireand maintained a key role even after the Soviet collapse. But China has carved out an increasingly important role in Central Asia over the past decade. China has overtaken Russia as the regions largest trade partner, and Beijing has invested billions of dollars on roads, railways, and energy pipelines that bring in Central Asias vast oil, natural gas, and mineral resources to fuel the Chinese economy.

The rise of Chinese reach into Russias near abroad has long fueled speculation over an impending clash between Moscow and Beijing regarding their overlapping sphere of influence in Central Asia. In part, those speculations come out of Washingtons hopes of dividing the two. Yet, such a clash has not materialized, and the Russia-China relationship has in fact only grown stronger in recent years.

Moscow has two primary goals in Central Asia: to preserve stability and to maintain its position as the dominant external security provider in the region. Russia provides security support for Central Asian governments to help counter militancy threats, especially from Islamist groups, and to buttress the position of Central Asian leadership. Russia is a leading provider of weaponry to each of the Central Asia states, and it frequently conducts joint military exercises in the region. Russia also hosts a direct military presence in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, the latter of which has a long and porous border with Afghanistan.

Beijings primary interest, meanwhile, is to secure access to the regions natural resources as well as facilitate the overland transit of Chinese exports to the region and beyond to Europe via the connectivity links introduced in the initial phase of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Chinas interest and economic rise in the region is not necessarily contradictory to Moscows interest, however, given that Russia does not have the kind of financial resources to construct and invest in large-scale infrastructure nor the need to import Central Asian commodities. (Russia is a major producer of energy and minerals itself.) Moreover, China is also interested in the preservation of stability and political continuity in Central Asia as a means to secure its economic projects.

Thus, Moscow and Beijing have established a workable division-of-labor of sorts, with Russia focused on providing security support while China focuses on economic issues like trade and investment. Unlike the Wests expansion of the European Union and NATO into former Soviet states, Beijing has been careful not to frame any of its economic projects as exclusive to the Kremlins own objectives, with Moscow also playing an important role in the BRI and Russia serving as an increasingly large trade and investment partner with China. Thus, both countries have managed any potential frictions in Central Asia by focusing on complements over competition.

Can such a model of cooperation and mutually understood division-of-labor between Russia and China work for Afghanistan? As with Central Asia, Moscow and Beijing have several important shared interests in the country. First and foremost is the need to preserve stability and prevent any spillover of militant violence or other security threats. Afghanistan previously served as a sanctuary for groups like the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and the East Turkestan Islamic Movement that threaten Russia, China, and their interests in Central Asia. Moscow and Beijing have both made cooperation with the Taliban contingent on denying such groups a safe haven, and the Taliban have, at least rhetorically, acquiesced. Preliminary reports from the Uyghur diaspora suggest they may be keeping that promise, with storiesas of yet unconfirmedof Uyghur refugees and fighters in Afghanistan being detained.

Another shared interest is preserving Afghanistans political stability. Russia and China have fewer qualms about working with the Taliban on ideological grounds than the West does, as long as they keep their ideology within their own borders. Indeed, Russia and China already engaged with the Taliban well before the U.S. withdrawal, with Moscow allegedly providing weapons and financial support for the Taliban while China discussed resuming economic projects with the group, such as the Mes Aynak copper mine. Such efforts suggest that, as in Central Asia, a balance can be maintained between Russia and China even as their engagement with the Taliban grows.

However, there are also several challenges for Russia and China to apply their cooperation model in Central Asia to Afghanistan. First is that the extent of Russias security influence and Chinas economic influence is far more limited in Afghanistan than it is in Central Asia. Indeed, there are a host of other external players who are more active and influential in the country, including Pakistan, Iran, and India, while other regional players like Turkey and Qatar have carved out increasingly important niche roles. And the United States will remain active in Afghanistans security sphere even without a direct military presence, continuing its overarching mission to deny safe havens for transnational jihadist groups as it keeps a wary eye on any moves made by Russia and China.

Finally, Russian-Chinese cooperation in Central Asia has had its limitations and challenges. China has seen protests over some of its economic projects and treatment of ethnic minorities in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan while Russia has sought to limit external influence in the region via its own institutional blocs like the Eurasian Economic Union. Beijing is increasingly becoming involved in security matters in Central Asia, including its own weapons sales and the construction of border posts and security facilities. This could potentially create rifts between Russia and China and upend the balance they have achieved until this point. Such a dynamic could replicate itself in Afghanistan.

It is certainly possible that, as with Central Asia, Russia and China could establish a workable division-of-labor arrangement in Afghanistan, one that balances the strategic interests of both sides and emphasizes their shared goal of preserving and maintaining stability. But also as with Central Asia, such a balance between Moscow and Beijing is not guaranteed to last forever and could become jeopardized as power dynamics (both locally and externally) inevitably shift. Regardless of the outcomes, Russia and China are bound to play an increasingly important role in shaping Afghanistans futurewhich, in turn, could have a significant impact on their relationship within the broader great-power competition.
Combat against a large, high-tech opponent like Russia, even in a limited conflict such as a Russian invasion of the Baltic States, would require divisions and brigades supported by all the specialized systems that a modern army needs: air cover, air transport, electronic warfare, reconnaissance systems, and more, The National Interest reports. Charles de Gaulle famously asked about France: "How can anyone govern a nation that has 246 different kinds of cheese?" He might well have asked how anyone can command an army made up 28 nations and 24 official languages.

French President Emmanuel Macron recently created a stir when he advocated the creation of a European army to defend Europe against Russia -- without having to rely on the United States. Though President Trump has questioned the need for NATO and accused the European allies of freeloading off American defenses, he responded to the idea of Europe defending itself by bringing up France's defeat in 1940.

France could just as easily bring up Pearl Harbor. But macho boasting of military prowess aside, there are good reasons to question the viability of a European army. "I would rather fight a coalition than be a part of one," said Napoleon Bonaparte, a man who knew how to lead French armies to victory against multiple coalitions over nearly two decades. Napoleon knew that an alliance is only as strong as its weakest link.

And a pan-European army would have numerous weak links, of which the political would be the biggest. Unlike its main enemy (Russia) or its muscular big brother (the U.S.), Europe is not a unitary actor. The European Union is more of an economic bloc than a true United States of Europe, and the Brexit of Britain and the growing populist movements in Italy and other nations don't bode well for continental integration. British officials have already rejected the idea of an EU army as undermining and duplicating NATO.

So, who would make the decision to commit a European army to war? If its the European Union, would it have to be a unanimous decision by all EU nations, as it is now to admit a new country to the bloc? Norway and Greece might have different ideas of whats an issue worth fighting for. If its a non-political body like the EU civil service, then there will be complaints that unelected bureaucrats are making decisions about war and peace. If a European army ends up being mainly France and Germany, then how European is it?

War -- or at least war waged efficiently -- is not a consultative process. The World War II alliance between America and Britain -- as close a military embrace as ever existed -- was still riven by major disagreements over strategy. One reason that NATO has lasted 70 years is because it never had to do very much other than deter the Soviets, conduct a few small operations in the Balkans and Mediterranean, and send a few troops to support the U.S. in Afghanistan. Imagine if the U.S. had tried to push NATO into intervening in the Vietnam War.

For reasons of pride and history alone, European nations might want to keep their national armies, which leaves fewer resources for a pan-European army. And speaking of resources, if only 4 out of 29 NATO members met the NATO threshold of spending at least 2 percent of their GDP on defense (the U.S. accounts for 70 percent of NATO spending), then why would a pan-European force be any better funded? Europe has enough problems sustaining the military it has, such as most of Germanys advanced Typhoon fighters being unfit to fly.

Ironically, the military challenges of a European arent as thorny as the political. Much will depend on what a European force will be used for. Europe has made some efforts at military integration over the years. In 1989, a joint Franco-German brigade was created, composed of troops from both nations. In 2017, France pushed through a European Intervention Initiative to promote military cooperation.

However, its one thing to create a small force like the Franco-German brigade that could be used for small peacekeeping or humanitarian operations in the Balkans or North Africa, or maybe dispatching a couple of battalions to Eastern Europe as a diplomatic signal. But combat against a large, high-tech opponent like Russia, even in a limited conflict such as a Russian invasion of the Baltic States, would require divisions and brigades supported by all the specialized systems that a modern army needs: air cover, air transport, electronic warfare, reconnaissance systems, and more. Currently, many of those capabilities are provided by the United States: NATOs 2011 military intervention in Libya was only made possible because the U.S. provided air tankers, smart bombs and reconnaissance planes.

In the end, the real problem is that Europe as an aggregate power is immense: the combined EU economy is the second-largest in the world. But without political integration, Europe cant field military power equivalent to its economic power. Someday, a European army might be formed seamlessly like 246 cheeses melted into a fondue pot. But for now, Europe is just a smorgasbord of individual dishes.
The US Ambassador to Azerbaijan, Earle Litzenberger, said the resilient energy infrastructure of Azerbaijan, in particular the Southern Gas Corridor mega-project, has put Azerbaijan at the forefront of energy security for many US allies and partners. Caspian News reports that according to the ambassador, the natural gas supplies through the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) pipeline would support European energy security for decades to come.

Azerbaijans energy sector has been transformative for the country and for European energy security, Litzenberger said at the closing ceremony of the Advanced Regional Energy Security Symposium 2021  Caucasus held at the ADA University in Azerbaijans capital Baku this week. I want to reaffirm US support for the Southern Gas Corridor and Azerbaijans efforts to expand deliveries into new European markets.

Ambassador Litzenbergers remarks came amidst the increasing prices for natural gas in Europe. European consumers have been shocked by the record-high gas prices in recent weeks. The price of the October futures on the TTF hub in the Netherlands reached $751.17 per 1,000 cubic meters, or 61.565 euro per MWh.

Increased gas exports by Russia, the largest natural gas supplier in Europe, could not relieve stress that is being felt across Europe given the use of natural gas in heating and electrical power generation. European consumers are convinced that the surge in prices will further feed the tariffs for gas and electricity in winter when consumer demand soars due to the cold weather.

The market is very nervous as we move into the winter season, Laura Page, an analyst at Kpler, a research firm was quoted as saying by the New York Times. We have very low storage levels for the time of year.

In the meantime, Russia's Gazprom, the worlds largest natural gas supplier, announced on Friday the completion of Nord Stream 2 pipelines construction. The pipeline will add 55 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas to the annual supply capacity of Nord Stream 1. Nord Stream 2 stretches over 1,200 kilometers from Russias northwestern Ust Luga settlement to Germany underneath the Baltic Sea bypassing overland transit in Ukraine.

German regulators have not yet certified the pipeline. US and Ukrainian authorities oppose the project. While Nord Stream 2 deprives Ukraine of billions of dollars presumably in transit fees, Washington believes it will increase the reliance of Europe on Russian supplies and calls for exploring options for import diversification.

Natural gas trapped beneath the Caspian Sea has long been seen as one of the new supply sources for Europe. In 2011, the European Union and Azerbaijan joined forces to build an all-new route that would carry gas from the Caspian Sea directly to Europe, namely the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC). In addition to European Union countries, in 2012, Turkey was confirmed as the next buyer of the Caspian gas supplied on SGC. The ground for the new pipeline was broken in 2014.

The 3,500-kilometer three-part Southern Gas Corridor spans seven countries starting from Azerbaijan, transiting through Georgia, Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria, Albania before finally coming ashore in Italy. In June 2018, Turkey received the first commercial gas on the SGCs largest segment  the Trans Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP). The Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), which is the last segment of the SGC route, facilitated the delivery of commercial gas to European Union markets in December 2020.

The main source for the gas supplied through SGC is Azerbaijans Shah Deniz 2 gas field beneath the Caspian Sea. The $28 billion project operated by BP supplies 16 bcm of gas to the SGC annually. Ten bcm is purchased by European Union countries and the rest six bcm is destined for Turkey.

As of May 2021, European markets received over 2 bcm of Azerbaijani gas on TAP. While the first volumes are modest in relation to Europes overall gas consumption, the project allows several countries in Europe to diversify their sources of supply to reduce their reliance on gas from Russia. In addition, the project is scalable and can bring additional volumes to reach additional countries in Europe, reads a statement released by Global Energy Center of the American think tank Atlantic Council.

In the meantime, Marija Savova, Head of TAP Commercial, said three expansion scenarios were available for TAP in order to supply Azerbaijani gas to more consumers in Europe. TAP is currently offering three expansion scenarios: a limited expansion (approx. 14.4bcm/a), a partial expansion (approx. 17.1bcm/a) and a full expansion (approx. 20bcm/a). Through the open, transparent, and non-discriminatory market test process, TAP offers forward firm long-term capacity to the market and we look forward to receiving bids during the summer period, Savova noted.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said on Tuesday that he sees no reason for him to meet with Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, despite a number of high-level contacts between Israels new government and the PA, The Times of Israel reported.

Bennett, speaking to the Kan public broadcaster as part of a series of interviews he gave to Israeli news outlets, cited the PAs pursuit of war crimes charges against Israel at the International Criminal Court (ICC) and continued payment of monthly stipends to security prisoners, including those convicted of killing Israelis.
Russia is ready to maintain dialogue with NATO, which should be professional, not hysterical, but the alliance keeps rejecting military negotiations outright, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday, Sputnik reports.

"In general, they totally refuse to conduct a military dialogue, which was suspended as a so-called punishment after the events in Ukraine and Crimea. We are ready to negotiate, but only professionally, without this emotional and half-hysterical tone," Lavrov told reporters.
Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the situation around the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) during a phone call with his Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi Tuesday, the Kremlin press service said, TASS reports.

"[The sides] touched upon some issues of the international agenda, including the situation around the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action," the statement says.

"Considering the President of Irans participation in the September 17 Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Dushanbe as an observer, the sides discussed ongoing issues within the framework of this organization."

The two presidents agreed to continue their contacts.

Putin also planned to attend the summit in Dushanbe in person; however, on Tuesday, the media reported that Putin went into self-isolation after a contact with a COVID patient. The leaders of Russia and Iran were supposed to meet on the sidelines of the SCO summit. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that the personal meeting of the two leaders has been postponed indefinitely due to Putins self-isolation.
Moscow is pursuing a balanced policy on Afghanistan and remains in contact on the situation in the country with interested parties, including the United States, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said, Sputnik reports.

"The situation (in Afghanistan) has changed radically. Our task is to pursue a balanced policy that will reflect our interests.

Among them is to ensure the security of our borders and the borders of our allies in Central Asia and the region as a whole," Ryabkov said in interview with RT Arabic.

He added that Moscow was in dialogue with the United States on the development of the situation in Afghanistan.

"We did not interrupt the dialogue with the Taliban (the movement is recognized as terrorist and banned in Russia). However, what will happen in the future is another matter. We are discussing this with all interested parties, including the Americans," the deputy minister stressed
The UN World Food Program (WFP) said on Tursday that it is establishing a humanitarian logistics hub in Termez, Uzbekistan, to position food for Afghanistan, Sputnik reports.

"In anticipation of the high food needs and further disruptions to supply chains, WFP is positioning food and other stocks at strategic border points in Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. In addition, a logistics hub of 5,000 square meters space is being established in Termez, Uzbekistan," the WFP said in a press release of Tuesday.
The Vietnam Railway Corporation (VNR) has proposed to borrow VND800bn (USD35m) to maintain operations.

VNR struggles amid Covid-19 pandemic.

VNR said it expected a loss of VND942bn (USD41m) in 2021 and over VND2.2trn after two years of being badly affected by the pandemic. It only has nearly in VND1trn in assets and lacks capital. VNR asked for a VND800bn loan to maintain business and asked the Ministry of Transport and local authorities to create favourable conditions for freight vehicles to go through checkpoints to allow goods to access train stations.



In the report, VNR pointed out that they only served 8,640 passengers in August, accounting for 6.5% of the number of passengers last August. It was also harder to find goods for freight trains.



Dang Sy Manh, director of VNR said they had to adjust schedules and halt many trains. After Covid-19 broke out in HCM City and several southern provinces, the number of freight trains from Song Than Station to the northern region dropped sharply. As the result, revenue in August was VND114.7bn (USD5m), equal to 66.4% of the same period last year.



"Weve tried to operate and used revenue from freight trains to offset other losses. But demand in the economy has continued to fall and now everything is affected," Manh said.



According to VNR, over 5,500 people in the railway industry have lost their jobs as all passenger trains were halted on August 25. A quarter of the employees will be temporarily laid off from now until the end of 2021.



"We'll temporarily lay off 1,600 employees. We have to ask the union to provide support and call for help for unemployed workers as our funds have run out," Manh said.

Source: dtinews
Hanoi leaders have mentioned the possibility of loosening social distancing from September 15 if the spread of the coronavirus can be curbed. HCM City is also considering loosening social distancing regulations two weeks after September 15.

Hanoi and HCM City, which make up 45 percent of the countrys GDP, have been under lockdown for 2-3 months. The demand for reopening to resume production and business has become more urgent than ever.

However, Hanoi and HCM City Party Committee Secretaries have reasons to keep cautious. Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh warned against being complacent about the initial achievements after a long social distancing time. He warned about resuming production and business activities when the conditions are not safe enough and localities have not prepared well for reopening.

Criteria

Hanoi, HCM City and other localities are required to refer to regulations on pandemic control stipulated in Ministry of Health (MOH) Decisions 3979 and 3989 released in mid-August to decide whether to loosen lockdowns.

The documents say that localities under lockdown under the Prime Minister Directive 16 can only reopen when satisfying two criteria on the number of new Covid cases and the index on infection risks.

The number of weekly new infections in the community must drop compared with the two previous weeks, and fall by at least 50 percent compared with the peak week of the pandemic wave.

The daily ratio of PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test positive samples to total samples must continuously decrease over a period of 14 days.

Moreover, localities must not report any clusters of new infections for at least seven days.

Regarding indexes about infection risks, they must decrease by at least 50 percent in districts and communes at very high risk level, by at least 50 percent in districts and communes at high risk level, and by at least 50 percent in districts and communes which have infection risks.

In HCM City, the required index decrease is 30 percent.

The criteria cannot be satisfied by localities now, especially when the virus has been spreading in the community as in HCM City, Binh Duong, Long An and Dong Nai.

In Hanoi, the total number of infections in the fourth wave has reached 3,780, including 1,595 community transmitted ones. In HCM City, about 100,000 cases are under home quarantine.

Hanoi, HCM City and all other localities cannot meet the criteria set in Decisions 3979 and 3989 to reopen.

Changing way of thinking

Analysts say that the criteria in the two decisions might have been designed to cope with other viruses in the past, but not with Delta which has been spreading rapidly.

According to scientists, the British variant is over 1.7 times more contagious than the previous variants, but the Delta variant is 1.4 times more contagious than the British variant.

They pointed out that at the moment of designing the criteria, the Ministry of Health did not consider a weapon to fight the pandemic  vaccinations.

Meanwhile, localities all are gearing up to enlarge vaccination coverage. Hanoi, for example, can give 1 million shots every two days. The capital city estimated that 100 percent of the population would get the first shot by September 15, 2021.

In HCM City, 250,000 shots on average are being given daily. It is expected that 100 percent of population will get the first shot and 33 percent the second shot by September 15.

Experts believe that the number of people with Covid-19 antibodies might be up to millions, if noting that the number of real infections is 3-4 times higher than the number of reported infections found by testing.

HCM City Party Committee Nguyen Van Nen said: We cannot continue to apply complete social distancing and we wont be able to eliminate the virus. Instead, we will reopen step by step and live in the new normal."

Dr Vu Thanh Tu Anh said living together with virus is different from living together with the pandemic.

We can live together with small floods, but not with the deluge, he explained. We accept a certain number of Covid-19 infections in the community, but we must not let the infections spread and develop into a pandemic."

He said that if the answer is no, we will continue to follow the Zero Covid strategy, i.e. continuing to impose lockdown, despite vaccinations and economic recession.

if the answer is yes, we will accept to live safely together with Covid, stop pursuing the Zero Covid strategy which no other country in the world does except China and New Zealand.

New circumstances need new policies

Israel, the UK, US and other countries show that even when the majority of people have two vaccine shots, SARS-CoV-2 will continue to exist in the community.

As such, amendment of the criteria in Decisions 3979 and 3989 and the risk assessment methods has become urgent.

Tu Giang

HCM City begins two trial buffer weeks before reopenng A trial reopening in HCM City will be implemented on September 16-30 in districts 7, Cu Chi and Can Gio before following steps are taken.
A trial reopening in HCM City will be implemented on September 16-30 in districts 7, Cu Chi and Can Gio before following steps are taken.

During a Dan hoi, thanh pho tra loi (People ask, city leaders answer) livestream on September 13, HCM City Vice Mayor Le Hoa Binh talked to people about plans to fight the pandemic and recover the economy after September 15.

He said the city reopening plan, to be implemented in three stages, will be submitted to the HCM City Executive Committee of the Party Committee for approval.

There will be an experimental period, which lasts from September 16 to 30. The trial reopening will be conducted in three districts which have basically controlled the pandemic.

The tight control over the travel and goods transportation will be loosened step by step. From September 16, shippers will be allowed to travel among districts if they can meet requirements on pandemic prevention and control. Shippers will receive Covid-19 tests for free.

Binh said HCM City, with support from other provinces, has gained achievements in fighting the pandemic, but many things still need to be done. Its necessary to reconsider the criteria on pandemic control. Also, municipal authorities and healthcare department will adjust some issues during the implementation process.

Regarding the question "Will the lockdown continue in the city?, Binh said that municipal authorities dont want to continue the lockdown but they believe that its necessary to take cautious steps in reopening the city.

That is why there should be the "buffer period" in three districts. The implementation in these areas will show if the city is safe enough, and the city will consider the next steps.

We have got encouraging results. We have classified three levels of treatment, with improvement at the second, and consolidation at the third level to protect peoples lives. We will be able to contain the pandemic and develop the city, Binh said.

The tight control over the travel and goods transportation will be loosened step by step. From September 16, shippers will be allowed to travel among districts if they can meet requirements on pandemic prevention and control. Shippers will receive Covid-19 tests for free.

In answer to the question, "What does it mean living together with the pandemic?" , Binh said the city has prepared 11 plans and strategies to control the pandemic and recover the economy.

After consulting with foreign and domestic experts, the municipal authorities realized that a zero-Covid strategy was an unfeasible goal. The city needs to strive for dual goals  fighting the pandemic and developing the economy. The dual goal period will begin after September 15.

Green cards

Binh confirmed that a green card will be applied upon reopening. There will be two cases. Those who have been fully vaccinated will still have to take a Covid-19 test and follow the 5K principle (in Vietnamese: Khau trang - facemask, Khu khuan - disinfection, Khoang cach - distance, Khong tu tap - no gathering, Khai bao y te - health declaration) in traffic and at work.

Meanwhile, those who have only had one shot will have narrower travel sphere.

People aged over 65, if fully vaccinated and in good health, will be able to go to work like others.

Regarding vaccination for students aged below 18, Binh said there is still no regulation about vaccinating 12-18-year-olds.

Some people during the livestreams complained that Covid patients staying at home find it very difficult to contact medical units for help when they turn more severe. In reply, Binh said the city has an oxygen app with information about hotlines, addresses of clinics and the nearest mobile medical units.

Return to hometowns

People are worried about the extension of social distancing for two more weeks after September 15. They wondered how they could continue living in the city if they have not received support and asked the city to help them return home.

Binh said that there is no discriminatory treatment between temporary and permanent residents.

We are trying to give the highest possible support. But you should be cooperative. At this difficult moment, people should stay where they are to prevent the spread of the virus and protect peoples lives, Binh said.

He said that HCM City is ready to help people return to their home villages, but said they wont be able to go through checkpoints if there is no organization which comes forward to organize trips to their hometowns. People need to contact councils of compatriots, local transport departments and peoples committees of these provinces.



However, Binh advised people not to move at this moment and said it would be better to stay in HCM City. The city will have the responsibility to give support to them during that time.

To date, the city has given two support packages targeting specific groups of people and is considering a third package.

Economic recovery

Regarding criteria for the reopening of the economy, Binh said the city is building a set of eight criteria to ensure safe reopening.

The criteria will be put into trial application on September 16-30 in districts which have controlled the pandemic, and possibly in Tan Thuan EPZ (export processing zones) and hi-tech zones as well.

Also according to Binh, the city has a plan on fighting the pandemic and recovering the economy with longer-term vision, after consulting with experts and the business community.

We are happy that we have got a consensus with the business community that it must be safe upon reopening and only when it is safe will reopening be implemented, he said.

Thu Anh - Ho Van

HCM City speeds up vaccinations in aim to loosen restrictions After nearly three months of social distancing, the conditions to loosen anti-pandemic measures to some extent are being discussed so that localities, businesses and people can feel more comfortable.
Two errors on the S1H branch of the AAE-1 submarine cable are scheduled to be fixed on November 2-14, a local Internet service provider (ISP) told VietNamNet.

The errors on two submarine cables AAG and AAE-1 are expected to be fixed on September 26 and November 14, respectively. (Illustrative image)

Asia-Africa-Europe 1 (AAE-1) is a 25,000km submarine cable from South East Asia to Europe across Egypt, connecting Hong Kong, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, India, Pakistan, Oman, the UAE, Qatar, Yemen, Djibouti, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Greece, Italy and France.

The AAE-1 cable system is designed with 100Gbps technology, with a designed trunk capacity of more than 40 Tbps on 5 fiber pairs. It has been put into operation since July 2017, with the role of improving quality towards Europe and the Middle East as well as providing additional capacity and redundancy towards the connection direction to Hong Kong (China), Singapore.

On September 4 and September 7, errors were reported on two segments of the S1H branch. The incidents disrupted Internet connection capacity from Vietnam to Singapore and Europe. This is the second time this year that the AAE-1 cable has had problems. The first occurred on May 25, which was fixed on July 12.

Meanwhile, another error occurred on August 11 on the Asia America Gateway (AAG) submarine cable,which has not been fully restored, affecting Internet connection between Vietnam and Singapore. It is expected that the repair of the AAG cable line will be completed on September 26.

This is not the first time that errors have occurred on both submarine cables at the same time. However, this time the incidents happened at the beginning of the new school year, when millions of students are studying online under the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Some users complained that their operations have been seriously affected due to poor Internet speed and network quality.

It is hoped that after the errors are fixed completely, Internet speed in Vietnam will improve.

Van Anh
Children sent to grandparents' homes for summer holidays cannot return to cities to school because of travel restrictions during Covid-19.

Thuy Ngan, in Ba Dinh district, planned to send her kids to grandparents in the countryside only for a couple of weeks before returning to Hanoi to start the new academic year.

But the plan was upset as Hanoi imposed the first social distancing campaign, and then a second. The children are still living with the grandparents.

My elder son enters the third grade this year, but my younger daughter goes to preschool. I feel worried about the studies of my son, she said.

Since Hanois schools closed the doors, students have had to study online. Meanwhile, grandparents cannot help, she explained.

After hearing that local authorities admitted students from pandemic-hit areas, Ngan decided to enroll her kids in schools in the countryside.

This is the most feasible solution for now. If students can go to school, they will be able to study in-person with teachers and better understand the lessons, Ngan said.

Her kids were learning online before so Ngan believes that it will be better if they can attend in-person classes.

She was able to enroll her kids in Phu Ho II Primary School in Phu Tho Town.

Trinh Thu Ngoc Anh, a parent in Ha Dong district, said her child is now in Yen Bai City with grandparents.

He is an official student at Tran Quoc Toan Primary School in Ha Dong district. However, he is temporarily studying at a school in Yen Bai because he cannot return to Hanoi, which is under social distancing.

However, sending children to schools in the countryside is not a good solution for everyone.

Nguyen Ngoc Phap, a parent in HCM City, was informed that Nguyen Binh Khiem Primary School students would have to study online until the end of the first semester.

At first, Phap decided to send the kids to a school in his hometown but he later changed his mind.

In HCM City, my daughter follows an integrated English teaching program, but the program is not available in the countryside, he explained.

He fears that the daughter will not be able to keep up pace with her classmates in HCMC after the first semester ends and the girl returns to HCM City.

So, the girl will both study online with Nguyen Binh Khiem School students with her smartphone borrowed from a cousin, and also go to a school in the countryside.

Thuy Nga - Ngan Anh

Telcos ready to cover depressed areas, but still waiting for authorities to clear the way All of the three largest mobile network operators have affirmed that they are ready to cover depressed areas with broadband as per the Prime Ministers request to serve online teaching.
While travelling, tourists not only want to relax and enjoy beautiful natural scenery and visit amusement parks, but also understand the true past of the destinations.

The development of dark tourism with great potential

Therefore, dark tourism (tourism associated with death or tragedy) has become a trend both domestically and around the world.

The attraction of dark tourism

Dark tourism has been known by different names such as thana tourism, black tourism or grief tourism. Dark tourism refers to visiting places where dark events related to death or tragedies of humanity took place. These events could have originated from natural causes such as earthquakes and tsunamis, or from human related events such as genocide, assassinations and terrorism. Destinations could also be also prisons, war scenes and so on.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of tourists around the world ventured to the most unlucky places on Earth, where devastating events, accidents or natural disasters took place, every year.

The most popular destinations for dark tourism include Auschwitz (the largest of the German Nazi concentration camps and extermination centres), Chernobyl, Gettysburg (the site of the Kennedy assassination), the 9/11 Memorial in New York, the area of the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan and the Killing Fields in Cambodia. Visitors have been making the worst parts of history become a piece of their vacations.

According to Uttar Pradesh Tourism in India, the mysterious city of Varanasi (Benares) on the Ganges, famous for traditional cremation ceremony, attracted around 300,000 foreign visitors in 2017.

Since its opening, the 9/11 Memorial in New York City has become one of the most famous destinations in the world, attracting over 7 million domestic and international tourists every year. Visitors come here to commemorate victims from the 9/11 tragedy and feel the loss of the terrible event that shook the US.

In fact, dark tourism is not a new phenomenon. The Washington Post cited an opinion from J. John Lennon, a professor from Glasgow Caledonian University in Scotland, that this type of tourism goes back to 1815 and even the 16th century. However, it has become more and more popular, partly thanks to modern documentaries and films.

Although documentaries mostly deal with historical, geographical or cultural issues and do not promote the destinations based on tourism, they have contributed to arousing curiosity and encouraging tourists to visit painful these monuments.

One documentary film which refers to dark tourism is Dark Tourism by German film producer Manfred Becker. It was produced in Canada and broadcast during 2007-2008. In 2018, the Netflix documentary series "Dark Tourists", featuring a journalist exploring "strange" destinations, attracted large audiences.

Television has been contributing to driving more people to visit these places. Since the series of short films entitled Chernobyl on the 1986 nuclear power plant explosion, premiered in March 2019 on HBO, the number of visitors to the destination has increased by 30-40%.

While the world is still unsure about the purpose of this type of tourism, there is no denying that tours to dark and traumatic places aim to commemorate and remind tourists of the terrible things that humans can do, helping them avoid similar actions in the future. These sites are also a visual repository for historical research and to educate the current generation on the value of the past and respect for the present.

Dark tourism in Vietnam

With a long history of resistance against invaders, Vietnam possesses many destinations marking painful years but showing the indomitable spirit of the nation. Some typical places that could be exploited for dark tourism are piles yard on Bach Dang River, Dong Da Mound, Hoa Lo Prison (in Hanoi), War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City, Hang Duong Cemetery, Con Dao Prison and Phu Quoc Prison. International visitors have also paid special attention to many other places such as the Cu Chi Tunnels, Dang Thuy Tram Hospital, My Lai Village and Quang Tri Citadel.

The places mentioned above bear significant historical and cultural value, helping visitors learn more about the history, especially the unyielding will of Vietnamese people in each historical period of the country.

Over recent years, relic sites have received more investment and methodical management. Visitors to these destinations have been not only the middle-aged and older people but also many young. As many historical sites have applied technological advances and digital transformation, their value has been promoted, especially to young people. For example, since the activities of Hoa Lo Prison were introduced via its fanpage and radio channels via the Spotify and Apple Podcasts platforms, both domestic and foreign tourists have learned in an easier and more interesting manner.

In the long term, management agencies should have appropriate development plans for the development of dark tourism, focusing on creating and promoting many more visual experience products for visitors, especially young people. In addition, it is crucial to avoid excessive exploitation and commercialisation so that the inherent historical and human values of these destinations will not be lost.

Source: Nhan Dan

Prisons make their mark on tourism map Visiting jails is one unique idea of enjoying a holiday in Vietnam, which is well-known for its heroic revolutions against foreign invaders over the years.
Democrats think Biden must focus more on addressing internal party conflicts, both publicly and privately, to push the legislation through a party-controlled Congress.

To ensure that the $3.5 trillion social spending package is approved, Democrats want President Biden to get more involved in the turbulent budget reconciliation process in the House of Representatives and Senate.

For the last month, Biden has been concerned with major issues, including the United States' withdrawal from Afghanistan and the COVID-19 pandemic, and has primarily left responsibility for the details of the package to congressional authorities.

Democrats believe that Biden must emphasize resolving internal party differences, both publicly and privately, to get the measure through a Congress controlled by his party and pass it.

According to a Democratic consultant who has talked with White House officials, "he has to become more involved for a number of reasons."

"He doesn't want to put any pressure on anybody, but he recognizes that he must do it in his own unique manner.

This is a major piece of his personal legacy."

In an allusion to President Barack Obama's 2009 stimulus package, the strategist said, "He doesn't want it winnowed down like Obama's bill."

Even though Democrats could garner additional support from Republicans and centrists within their own party, the law ended up costing more than $700 billion at the time. However, the law could have been much more expensive had Democrats garnered additional support from Republicans and centrists within their own party.

On Wednesday, President Joe Biden will take a major step toward increasing his involvement.

His meetings with Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WVa.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) to address their concerns about the reconciliation proposal are planned separately.

According to sources close to the White House, President Biden will continue to meet with key players in the legislative battle.

According to the sources, he is likely to travel and speak about the legislation whenever the opportunity arises.

President Biden is now on his first official trip to the West Coast as President. He has already begun pushing his economic plan, especially the sections that address climate change.

The President, in my opinion, is likely to be involved, although more behind the scenes is needed to apply pressure.

Democrat strategist Joel Payne said that "for now, we're still in the posturing and positioning phase."

For the promotion of the bundle, Payne predicted that Biden would likely go on "roadshow" throughout the country.

According to the White House, President Biden and other administration officials meet with members of Congress daily to discuss his goals and objectives.

According to the White House, Biden's meetings with lawmakers have been mainly kept confidential. For example, officials have refused to confirm or deny whether Biden has met with West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, a moderate who has expressed concerns about the reconciliation package's $3.5 trillion price tag.

On Tuesday, after declining to confirm any phone calls with Manchin, White House principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One that the president and White House officials were in constant communication and contact with members of Congress and their staff. "This has been, for us, all hands on deck in ensuring the president's agenda moves forward," Jean-Pierre said.

"We want to continue in this manner."

Achieving support from moderate Democrats such as Manchin, Sinema, and Sen. Jon Tester (Mont.) while avoiding alienating progressives who believe the reconciliation plan's baseline price tag of $3.5 trillion is too high is critical to the bill's survival.

Biden is thinking about the present negotiations.

On Monday evening in Sacramento, he downplayed concerns about the package's financial impact, claiming that it would cost "as much as $3.5 trillion" but would be spread over ten years.

According to Jean-Pierre, Biden "supports $3.5 trillion," which is the amount of money in a bill that he offered, legislation that he submitted, and he "will continue to engage with Congress to get that agenda through." Jean-Pierre did not suggest that Biden's remarks indicate that he is willing to accept a lesser package.

Democrats think that Biden will be forced to get more openly engaged in the process in the near future.

Indeed, Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader [Charles] Schumer should be addressing many of these issues properly right now, and they should be handled correctly by both of them.

According to former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid senior advisor Jim Manley, "as the process continues, I anticipate the president being more actively involved," said Manley, a Democrat strategist (D-Nev.).

Manley, along with other Democrats, predicted that the agreement would ultimately go below $3.5 trillion but that the $1.5 trillion amount offered by Manchin would be insufficient to achieve that goal.

At some time, Manley said, "the president himself will have to weigh in on the matter."

Biden told reporters last week that he was confident in his ability to persuade Manchin to join the effort.

"Joe has always been there for me at the end of the day.

He's been at my side since the beginning.

The President expressed excitement at the prospect of meeting with Manchin and coming to a compromise.

Prominent progressives who have expressed dissatisfaction with President Joe Biden's lack of involvement in the fight for voting rights legislation have called on the President to put forth greater effort in squeezing through a final package that does not fall short of Democratic objectives.

In the words of Mary Small, national advocacy director for the progressive group Indivisible, President Biden is expected to "go all-in" to see the legislation approved.

Small indicates that he will be just as dedicated to passing the reconciliation package as he was to achieve a bipartisan infrastructure deal.

The President received a number of bipartisan lawmakers at the White House during the infrastructure negotiations to speak about potential agreements.

In July, he visited Capitol Hill to have lunch with senators after the Senate Democrats agreed on a top-line budget proposal totaling $3.5 trillion in spending.

On the other hand, some feel that Biden's ability to sell the concept to the general public is more critical.

President Barack Obama, according to Joseph Geevarghese, executive director of the leftist group Our Revolution, has to make a sales presentation to the American people:

"I think there is space for backdoor negotiating and arm-twisting," says the analyst.

However, I think the President should take the offensive and say, "This is what here legislation means for you as a voter, and this is what it means for you as a worker."

As Geevarghese points out, the government is doing the right thing, but it has to step up the ante in its sales pitch.

He went on to say, "They need to step it up."
The Museum of Flight and Japans Gifu-Kakamigahara Air and Space Museum signed a Partnership Agreement during a live virtual ceremony on Sept 14. Museum leaders and local elected officials were at each museum during the event. The Partnership Agreement is meant to foster mutual educational, cultural, and institutional goals, and to develop joint collaborations in exhibits and promotions all in the spirit of friendship.

Joining Museum President/CEO Matt Hayes and Museum Senior Curator Matthew Burchett at the ceremony were Washington state Senator Bob Hasegawa, and Inagaki Hisao, Consul General of Japan in Seattle. On location at the Gifu-Kakamigahara Air and Space Museum, was the Museums Director, Takafumi Matsui; Gifu Prefecture Governor Hajime Furuta; Kenji Asano, Kakamigahara City Mayor, and Will Shaffer, The Boeing Japan President.

I am grateful that we are in an industry that gets better not through competition but through cooperation, said Hayes. Partnerships with great museums like the Gifu-Kakamigahara Air and Space Museum enable us all to work together in bettering our institutions, communities, and how we preserve and present history. And I am grateful to have met many kinds and talented people from Japan while going through this process.

Sen. Bob Hasegawa said at the ceremony, Im very pleased that were able to work together with the Gifu-Kakamigahara Air and Space Museum to share and deepen our understandings of each others programs, histories, and develop even closer relationships between the Japanese people and Washingtonians. I know there is much we can learn from each other and as we do, I know our relationships will grow even stronger.

The launch of the partnership of these two museums, said Consul Inagaki Hisao, will create new opportunities to share and exchange knowledge and artifacts, which will facilitate new programs to expand on their wonderful legacies.

The partnership has been developing for over two years when a team from the Gifu-Kakamigahara Air and Space Museum first visited The Museum of Flight and proposed the idea. The formal signing of an agreement was originally planned for 2020, with hopes for an in-person ceremony at one of the museums, but with pandemic restrictions in Japan and the U.S., a virtual ceremony was deemed the only near-term option.

In 2017 The Museum of Flight signed a similar agreement with the Aichi Museum of Flight in Nagoya. The Museums Education Outreach team has conducted numerous public programs in Japan, including programs at the Gifu museum.

The Gifu-Kakamigahara Air and Space Museum is the largest aerospace museum in Japan and has partnerships with the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, the National Air and Space Museum in Paris, and three aerospace museums in Russia.

Remarks from the Gifu-Kakamigahara Air and Space Museum at the Ceremony

Gifu-Kakamigahara Air and Space Museum Director, Takafumi Matsui

The Museum of Flight is the worlds largest private aerospace museum. The Museum also offers excellent educational programs. There is so much we can learn and emulate. On the other hand, Gifu-Kakamigahara Air and Space Museum is located in Kakamigahara City, Gifu Prefecture, which has been an important base of Japans aviation industry for 100 years. The Museum had a massive renewal and reopening on March 24, 2018, as one of the only museums in Japan to combine full-scale aviation and aerospace exhibits. The museum boasts the largest number of actual aircraft on display in Japan43. Many of them can only be seen here in Japan. The Museum inspires children with challenging spirit and excitement, as they will become the leaders of the next generation. Todays agreement will definitely make it possible for us to initiate whatever we can to further enhance and disseminate attractive features from both Museums.

Gifu Prefecture Governor, Hajime Furuta

This partnership agreement with The Museum of Flight is very meaningful at the time of COVID impact worldwide. The state of Washington, where The Museum of Flight is located, is a region that has grown along with the development of the Boeing Company. It is the center of many world-class aerospace companies. In a similar way, the city of Kakamigahara in Gifu Prefecture, where this Museum is located, has developed as an important base for the aerospace industry in Japan. So, there is a strong feel for a long-standing connection between us. Despite the COVID, we hope to roll out the exchange immediately.

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Mayor of Kakamigahara, Kenji Asano

In order to stay vibrant as a region, it is essential to develop a pool of talents to nurture their potential. We have been keen to learn from such an approach and incorporate it into ours. So, we have had a partnership agreement with Everett Community College since 2015. As many as 30 students are dispatched there every year, and so far, 120 students have joined the exchange program. So, we hope to see some synergy once this partnership takes place. I am convinced that this agreement is not just a partnership of two museums, but will link to revitalizing regional industry and community as a whole. I look forward to the day we can freely travel and visit each other.
Sagewind Capital makes fifth government services investment

Private equity firm Sagewind Capital has added a fifth company to its government services portfolio with the addition of Federal Advisory Partners, a federal health care consulting firm.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Federal Advisory Partners' senior leadership team will continue to run the business. That team includes co-founder and CEO Tim Borchert, Chief Operating Officer Andrew Patrick and Vice President Chris Katkocin.

Sagewind has a history of successfully partnering with management teams in the government services sector to expand businesses and we are thrilled to collaborate with them to accelerate our growth by broadening our capabilities and entering new markets, Borchert said in a company release.

Federal Advisory Partners is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia and was founded in 2017. It has focused on federal health care customers including the Veterans Health Administration and the Defense Health Agency. The company offers customers advisory services such as program and project management, strategic planning and analytics.

In conjunction with the deal announcement, retired Vice Adm. C. Forrest Faison III has been named to the companys board of directors. He is a former surgeon general for the Navy.

Federal Advisory Partners joins Axient, By Light Professional Services, GCOM, and Sigma Defense Systems as part of Sagewinds public sector portfolio. The private equity group began building its portfolio in 2017 when it acquired By Light.

Since that start, Sagewind has closed multiple acquisitions to create newer investment platforms as well as adding pieces to them. Axient, for example, was created in June as a way of consolidating four prior acquisitions over the previous year.

For the Federal Advisory Partners acquisition, Sagewind used Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP as their legal adviser. Holland & Knight was legal counsel to Federal Advisory Partners, and G Squared Capital Partners was the financial adviser on the sell side.
I have been watching this non-fanfare event going on. Russia has been silently working with Saudi Arabia

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia on Monday signed an agreement aimed at developing military cooperation with Russia.The Kingdoms Deputy Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman announced the agreement, which he signed alongside his Russian counterpart Colonel General Alexander Fomin.Prince Khalid arrived in Russia on Monday to attend the International Military-Technical Forum (ARMY 2021). The minister also met Sergey Shoygu, the Russian defense minister, and discussed ways to improve military cooperation between the two nations.

Source: Saudi Arabia, Russia ink deal aimed at developing military cooperation

Then a few days later:

The United States has removed its most advanced missile defence systems from Saudi Arabia in recent weeks amid ongoing cross-border attacks levied by Yemens Houthi movement, The Associated Press has reported.

Source: US removes advanced missile defence systems from Saudi air base: Report | Middle East Eye

Actually since the USA systems really do not work, this is a good thing, but that is not why they were removed. Sometimes children take their toys and leave mad

I will just keep watching.for I suspect soon we will see Saudi Arabia dealing with Russia and China in their own currencies and besides, didnt we just have some nasty incrimination going on also?

The document (PDF report here) released on Saturday is from 2016, when the now-closed FBI investigation into Saudi links to the terror attacks was still active. Families of 9/11 victims have asked multiple administrations for its release, expecting it to provide proof implicating the Saudi government or Saudi officials. Riyadh denied any connection to the plot. the FBI has released the first of the 9/11 documents declassified pursuant to President Bidens Sep 3, 2021 executive order:https://t.co/vuCGKsNihT  Katie Benner (@ktbenner) September 12, 2021The heavily redacted 16-page document outlines ties between Saudi associates, some of the 9/11 hijackers and various people sympathetic to the Al-Qaeda cause. It didnt provide the smoking gun that some critics of the Saudi government hoped for, but offered more details about the connections.

Source: Declassified FBI 9/11 memo puts to bed any doubts about Saudi complicity says group of victims families  RT USA News

Hmm.lets watch and see what happens!

WtR
Peer-led support groups. The Well Spouse Association, a national support organization for people caring for spouses, facilitates a network of support groups around the country, all run by volunteers. We've been in their shoes, and we can share, says Dorothy Saunders, the association's former copresident and a caregiver for more than 40 years. Someone may be thinking, I'm really losing my patience. I'm always at his beck and call. That's normal.

Groups led by a trained facilitator. A social worker, psychologist or member of the clergy can help keep the discussion on track and stop one person from monopolizing the conversation. Facilitators can also steer participants toward useful educational programs with elder law or legal aid attorneys, adult day care providers and other professionals.

Online and telephone caregiver groups. These groups can offer priceless support to people who can't travel to a face-to-face meeting (or who prefer not to during the pandemic) or need to talk to someone during off-hours. Though you give up opportunities for local networking and face-to-face contact, research has found that online groups provide the same positive effects as in-person groups when it comes to emotional support and validation.

Support groups for young caregivers. Children are an often-overlooked subset of the family caregiver population. There are more than you may suspect: The 2020 Caregiving in the U.S. report from AARP and the National Alliance for Caregiving estimates that more than 3.3 million people under age 18 in the country are providing care to an adult recipient.

Caregiver education groups. Some caregivers may worry that the very idea of accepting support means others will judge them to be struggling. A more appealing option might be caregiver education groups, at which invited speakers address relevant topics, such as stress management or dealing with Medicare. There are typically discussions among attendees after the presentation, through which caregivers still gain support.

Tips for finding a group that fits

Get out of your comfort zone. Caregiver support groups are underutilized, often because people think they don't have the time or feel self-conscious about speaking about personal subjects with strangers. As Jacobs puts it, There are a lot of introverts in this world. Try to push yourself through your resistance and take the plunge.

Search online. Enter your zip code or city at the federal government's Eldercare Locator to find the nearest Area Agency on Aging and other state and local services for seniors and caregivers. Disease organizations such as the Alzheimer's Association and CancerCare often offer tools to find in-person and online support.

Find out what the format is. Does the group have a facilitator? Some have a trained leader; others don't. You may prefer one approach over the other. And ask about the group's confidentiality policy. You'll want one that follows Las Vegas-style rules: What's said in the group stays in the group.

Know that most groups are free to join. I would be wary if a fee is being charged, says John Schall, chief executive officer of Caregiver Action Network, a national organization working to improve the lives of the nation's 53 million unpaid family caregivers. Some, though, may ask you to join their organization and pay dues. That's the case with the nonprofit Well Spouse Association, which charges membership dues of $30 a year but offers reduced fees to caregivers with financial hardships.

Keep an open mind. Don't dismiss a support group just because it's not perfectly targeted to you, especially if you don't have many options in your area. (And don't assume you need to belong to a congregation or have sought care at a medical center to join a caregiver group there. Call first if you're concerned, but most likely they'll welcome you.) Most caregivers face similar challenges  emotional stress, financial pressure and navigating the health care system, to name a few. A well-run, general caregiver group may meet your needs just fine.

The important thing is to find a space where you can share stories, feelings and advice with people who can relate and won't judge. Knowing that you are not alone can make a world of difference.
A study recently published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases mirrors the CDCs findings: The median age of a small group of seriously ill, yet fully vaccinated, patients hospitalized with COVID-19 at the Yale New Haven Health System between March and July was 80.5 years. Another paper, yet to be peer reviewed, tracks similar trends.

Chronic diseases, delta and dwindling immunity are likely to blame

Throughout the pandemic, older adults have been more likely to suffer from COVID complications than their younger peers, and experts say the same reasons that made them more susceptible from the get-go could be causing them to bear the burden of severe breakthrough cases, although research is ongoing.

Take, for example, underlying health conditions, which affect about 80 percent of older Americans. Many chronic diseases put people at greater risk for a serious case of COVID-19, and emerging research shows these illnesses can still be a disadvantage even after vaccination.

Older adults also have a less robust immune system than younger people, and the protection afforded by the vaccines may wane faster for them because of it, says Mark K. Slifka, an expert in vaccine development and the longevity of vaccine-induced immune responses at Oregon Health & Science University.

Add to the mix the fact that Americans 65 and older were first in line to get their shots last year, says Jill Foster, M.D., a pediatric infectious disease physician at the University of Minnesota Medical School, and that its not unusual for vaccines to fall from their peak efficacy as time goes on. Plus, now were dealing with the highly contagious delta variant, which is just different enough from the virus that the vaccine was developed for that you also need to have super-extra-high amounts of antibodies to fight it, Foster adds.

A recent CDC report found that overall, the vaccines have been 86 percent effective at preventing hospitalization from COVID-19 during deltas dominance; among adults 75-plus, that number drops to 76 percent. This gap is one reason health officials are considering booster shots for older adults as early as this fall, pending all the necessary approvals.

Boosters could change the trends

If the boosters do get the green light and another shot is recommended, dont think of the vaccines as falling short of expectations.

These vaccines continue to provide very secure protection against severe disease, says William Schaffner, M.D., a professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. More than 90 percent of people who wind up in the hospital with COVID-19 are unvaccinated, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, M.D., confirmed in a recent briefing.

An additional dose, however, could maximize vaccine-induced protection and prolong its durability, health officials say, helping high-risk populations mount an even stronger defense against COVIDs wrath. Research out of Israel, which started administering booster shots to its older population over the summer, shows the booster significantly reduced the risk of infection and severe disease.

So it can kind of reset that clock in terms of protection, Slifka adds. And we should see the same thing here.

It continues to be a time to be cautious

Given that older adults are more likely to experience these severe breakthrough cases than younger populations, practicing a few extra precautions doesnt hurt, experts say.

For example, Schaffner  who is fully vaccinated but says, I have gray hair myself  runs errands early in the morning when crowds are less dense and avoids large group events indoors. He also wears a mask in indoor public settings, which the CDC recommends regardless of vaccination status.


Jacques Find - Peyes Farm Mineral Resource Update

Perth, Sep 15, 2021 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Horizon Minerals Limited ( ASX:HRZ ) is pleased to announce an updated Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) for the Jacques Find - Peyes Farm project located within the 100% owned Teal gold project area, located 10km northwest of Kalgoorlie-Boulder in the heart of the Western Australian goldfields (Figure 1*).Jacques Find - Peyes Farm are two of six core open pit and underground satellite gold projects being advanced to complement the baseload Boorara gold project as part of the consolidated Feasibility Study to deliver a minimum five-year initial mine plan and underpin the establishment of a stand-alone centralised processing facility at the Boorara mine site.RC and diamond infill and extensional drilling was completed in the December 2020 and March 2021 quarters with all data now incorporated into the geological model for the updated Mineral Resource Estimate. The new model will now be used to generate a maiden Ore Reserve for Jacques Find -Peyes Farm and is expected for completion in the December Quarter 2021.Project GeologyThe Jacques Find - Peyes Farm gold deposits comprise a well-defined supergene blanket located above shears and quartz within structurally controlled felsic schists, tuffs, sediments and porphyry rocks at depth. Mineralisation is strongly influenced by cross cutting structures and stratigraphy to the north to northwest striking shear zone which trend parallel to the regional NNW geological trend of the Abattoir Shear.Gold mineralisation is developed in a flat lying oxide supergene deposit located between 22-80 metres vertical depth and in primary mineralisation within a sub vertical shear zone. The mineralisation trends N-NW over a strike length of approximately 800 metres.Resource UpdatePrevious drilling by the Company during the 2016/2017 campaigns focussed on building the resource inventory with mostly step back and extension drilling. Combined with an improved gold price and encouraged by the success of the nearby Teal gold mine (open pit produced 229,000t @ 3.2g/t Au for 21,836 oz), the Company designed a program to maximise the open pittable tonnes and grade from the oxide and transitional ore zones.Preliminary test work suggests that the metallurgy is similar to the Teal deposit mined and processed successfully in 2018. Teal was mined to 65m vertical depth with excellent recoveries in both the oxide (94%) and transition (90%) ore zones. In the deeper primary sulphide mineralisation, typically below 80-90m depth, the metallurgy of the ore is semi-refractory and requires pre-oxidation through roasting or ultra-fine grinding to achieve acceptable recoveries.As announced to the ASX on 16 February and 20 April 2021, a total of 94 RC holes and six diamond holes for 8,291m were drilled at Jacques Find - Peyes Farm in 2020/2021 (Figure 2*). The six large diameter HQ3 diamond drill holes were completed for structural geology, geotechnical assessment and metallurgical testwork for Ore Reserve generation.Variations in the depth of weathering and the fresh rock boundary were mapped in greater detail with the new drilling enabling an assessment of the supergene ore for conventional milling and treatment options to be reviewed on the primary sulphide mineralisation.The 2020/2021 drilling also improved drill density to a more uniform 10m spacing allowing improved definition of the ore zones. New high-grade shoots were also discovered in this program. Similar to Teal, the highest grades were typically observed in the supergene zone at 25-80m vertical depth. Mineralisation remains open to the north and south within the supergene enrichment zone.Significant downhole RC and diamond intercepts reported in 2021 included:o 19m @ 12.53g/t Au from 42m (JFD2001) and 8m @ 12.10g/t Au from 60m (JFRC20003)o 12m @ 4.70g/t Au from 60m (JFRC20004) and 8m @ 6.28g/t Au from 72m (JFRC20008)o 24m @ 3.04g/t Au from 80m including 4m @ 6.47g/t Au from 84m (JFRC20040)o 6m @ 6.06g/t Au from 54m including 1m @ 25.6g/t Au from 59m (JFRC20012)o 4m @ 9.28g/t Au from 52m (JFRC20013) and 8m @ 4.17g/t Au from 44m (JFRC20007)o 4m @ 18.17g/t Au from 79m including 1m @ 61.21g/t Au from 81m (PFRC20038)o 7m @ 3.97g/t Au from 30m (PFRC20029)o 5m @ 2.87g/t Au from 32m, 4m @ 1.55g/t Au from 40m and 1m @ 16.35g/t Au from 57m (PFRC20008)o 2m @ 5.65g/t Au from 28m, 2m @ 1.44g/t Au from 44m and 6m @ 2.25g/t Au from 73m (PFRC20022)*To view tables and figures, please visit:About Horizon Minerals Limited

Horizon Minerals Limited (ASX:HRZ) is a gold exploration and mining company focussed on the Kalgoorlie and Menzies areas of Western Australia which are host to some of Australia's richest gold deposits. The Company is developing a mining pipeline of projects to generate cash and self-fund aggressive exploration, mine developments and further acquisitions. The Teal gold mine has been recently completed.

Horizon is aiming to significantly grow its JORC-Compliant Mineral Resources, complete definitive feasibility studies on core high grade open cut and underground projects and build a sustainable development pipeline.

Horizon has a number of joint ventures in place across multiple commodities and regions of Australia providing exposure to Vanadium, Copper, PGE's, Gold and Nickel/Cobalt. Our quality joint venture partners are earning in to our project areas by spending over $20 million over 5 years enabling focus on the gold business while maintaining upside leverage.
Adelaide, Sep 15, 2021 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Resolution Minerals Ltd ( ASX:RML ) ( FRA:NC3 ) is pleased to announce it has received firm commitments for a placement of fully paid ordinary shares in the Company (Shares) to institutional and sophisticated investors to raise a total of $1.7 million (before costs) at an issue price of $0.02 per Share (Placement) to progress exploration at the Company's Benmara and 64North projects. The Company will also offer all eligible shareholders the opportunity to participate in the capital raising via a $1.5 million Share Purchase Plan on the same terms as the Placement (SPP). Fresh Equities acted as Lead Manager to the placement.Participants in the Placement will also receive options to acquire Shares, on a one (1) for two (2) basis with an exercise price of $0.03 per Share and expiring 2 years from the date of issue (Options). The offer of Options will also be extended to SPP participants. The issue of Options will be subject to shareholder approval. The Options will be issued with disclosure via a "cleansing prospectus" to be issued by the Company in due course.Funds received from the $1.7 million Placement and $1.5 million SPP will be used for initial and follow-up drilling at the Benmara project and for trenching & regional exploration at the 64North Project.A total of 84,418,223 shares will be issued at $0.02 per share to raise $1.7 million under the Placement - 41,850,262 shares will be issued under the Company's 15% placement capacity under Listing Rule 7.1 and a further 42,567,961 shares will be issued under the Company's 10% placement capacity under Listing Rule 7.1A.An SPP will be launched in recognition of the continued support of our existing shareholders, on the same terms as the placement. Detailed terms of the SPP will be provided in coming days. Applicants issued shares under the SPP will also be entitled to apply for Options (for no additional consideration) in accordance with the terms of the relevant prospectus to be issued.Subject to the terms of the Junior Mineral Exploration Incentive (JMEI) Scheme, Investors in the Placement and SPP will be eligible to JMEI Credits received by the Company. For details see ASX release 9 September 2021 Junior Minerals Exploration Incentive (JMEI) credits granted to Resolution.To view the full release, please visit:About Resolution Minerals Ltd

Resolution Minerals Ltd (ASX:RML) is a mining company engaged in the acquisition, exploration and development of precious and battery metals - such as gold, copper, cobalt, and vanadium.

The company is led by Managing Director Duncan Chessell and an experienced team with proven success in corporate finance, marketing, metallurgy and geoscience. This equips Resolution Minerals with the tools to meet the changing demands of the mining markets.

Resolution Minerals Ltd Listed on the ASX in 2017 with a focus on the exploration of the Wollogorang Copper Cobalt Project. It has since aquired the Snettisham Vanadium Project and more entered into a binding agreement witth Millrock Resources to earn up to 80% of the highly prospective 64North Gold Project.
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Vancouver, Sep 15, 2021 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Join Ellis Martin for a conversation with Jordan Trimble, the President and Chief Executive Officer of Skyharbour Resources ( CVE:SYH ) ( OTCMKTS:SYHBF ) a preeminent uranium and thorium exploration Company with projects located in the prolific Athabasca Basin of Saskatchewan, Canada which was ranked as the best mining jurisdiction to work in globally by the Fraser Institute in 2017.The Company has been acquiring top tier exploration projects at attractive valuations culminating in five uranium properties totalling approx. 200,000 hectares throughout the Basin. In July 2016, Skyharbour secured an option from Denison Mines ( TSE:DML ) to acquire a 100% interest in the Moore Uranium Project, now the flagship project, which hosts the high grade Maverick Zone.The Company is run by a strong management and geological team who are major shareholders with extensive capital markets experience as well as focused uranium exploration expertise in the Basin.In this segment Mr. Trimble reviews some of the best high grade intersected mineralization at the Maverick East Zone of the Moore Uranium Project with Drill Results of 2.54% U3O8 over 6.0m including 6.80% U3O8 over 2.0m; with more assays pending and drilling to continue.To listen to the Interview, please visit:To view the full press release, please visit:About Skyharbour Resources Ltd.

Skyharbour Resources (CVE:SYH) (OTCMKTS:SYHBF) holds an extensive portfolio of uranium and thorium exploration projects in Canada's Athabasca Basin and is well positioned to benefit from improving uranium market fundamentals with six drill-ready projects. In July 2016, Skyharbour acquired an option from Denison Mines, a large strategic shareholder of the Company, to acquire 100% of the Moore Uranium Project which is located approximately 15 kilometres east of Denison's Wheeler River project and 39 kilometres south of Cameco's McArthur River uranium mine. Moore is an advanced stage uranium exploration project with high grade uranium mineralization at the Maverick Zone. Drill results have returned up to 6.0% U3O8 over 5.9 metres, including 20.8% U3O8 over 1.5 metres at a vertical depth of 265 metres. Skyharbour has signed option agreements with Orano Canada Inc. and Azincourt Energy whereby Orano and Azincourt can earn in up to 70% of specific segments of the Preston Project through a combined $9,800,000 in total exploration expenditures, as well as $1,700,000 in total cash payments and Azincourt shares. Preston is a large, geologically prospective property proximal to Fission Uranium's Triple R deposit as well as NexGen Energy's Arrow deposit. The Company also owns a 100% interest in the Falcon Point Uranium Project which hosts a high-grade surface showing with up to 68% U3O8 in grab samples from a massive pitchblende vein, the source of which has yet to be discovered. The Company's 100% owned Mann Lake Uranium project on the east side of the Basin is strategically located adjacent to the Mann Lake Joint Venture operated by Cameco, where high-grade uranium mineralization has been identified. Skyharbour's goal is to maximize shareholder value through new mineral discoveries, committed long-term partnerships, and the advancement of exploration projects in geopolitically favourable jurisdictions.
Copyright  2021 Albuquerque Journal

A massive data breach at University of New Mexico Health may have allowed a third party to obtain certain medical records from 600,000-plus patients  more than a quarter of the states population.

UNM Health has been mailing letters to affected patients who had been treated at either UNM Hospital, UNM Medical Group or the UNM Sandoval Regional Medical Center, hospital officials said in a news release. The breach happened May 2 and UNM learned of it June 4, according to the release.

Dr. Michael Richards, senior vice chancellor for clinical affairs for the UNM Health System, said in a video posted to the health systems website that patient names, medical record numbers and Social Security numbers were among the information obtained during the data breach. He said patient electronic medical records were not involved in the hack.

We have no indication that any of this information has been misused, he said.

Richards said UNM created a call center dedicated to the data breach so affected people can ask questions. The number is (855) 623-1973. He also said UNM Health will provide complimentary credit monitoring and data protection services to patients who had their Social Security numbers taken. UNM declined to say Tuesday how much they intend to spend on those efforts.

UNM Health takes this issue very seriously and is taking steps to help ensure something like this does not happen again, UNM said in the news release. UNM Health has provided additional education to staff, and is enhancing the security of its systems and the information it maintains.

UNM refused to say Tuesday how many patients were affected and over what timeframe.

However, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Servicess website, which publishes information when breaches of protected health information affect more than 500 people, shows 637,252 people were affected by the breach at UNM.

In one of the letters sent out in the aftermath of the breach, Laura Putz, the UNM Health Sciences Center privacy officer, told a parent that a third party had gained access to their childs medical records, health insurance information and other details about the patient. The letter said that their childs Social Security number and financial information were not compromised.

While we are not aware of any misuse of your childs information, we want to advise you of the incident and assure you that we take it very seriously, Putz wrote.
Copyright  2021 Albuquerque Journal

New Mexico State Police have arrested nearly 100 people on felonies  including a Farmington drive-by shooting suspect and federal fugitive  during the agencys ongoing operation combatting crime in Bernalillo County.

Tripp Stelnicki, a spokesman for the Governors Office, said officers have made 93 felony and 67 misdemeanor arrests since mid-August. He said 58 of those arrested on felonies were people with violent criminal histories.

During the operation, State Police have also recovered 13 stolen vehicles, made 21 DWI arrests, seized drugs  including methamphetamine, heroin and fentanyl  in 15 incidents and confiscated six guns.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said in a statement that the operation has made a real difference in combating crime in the Albuquerque area.

This targeted effort has brought in dozens of offenders with violent criminal histories, and that is and must continue to be our North Star in combating crime in our state: Keeping as many of the worst of the worst off our streets as we possibly can, she said.

Going forward, Lujan Grisham said she will support hiring 1,000 new officers statewide and bail reform changes to fight crime.

Stelnicki said the operation will end a week after the State Fair wraps up on Sept. 19.

The operation involves 35 officers, 25 of whom were already working in and around Albuquerque, and has similarities to the controversial Metro Surge Operation in the summer of 2019.

That operation had 50 State Police officers from around the state target specific Albuquerque neighborhoods to fight violent crime. The end result was 14,674 traffic stops and 738 arrests at a price tag of around $1 million.

A Journal analysis found that roughly 50% of a sample of cases were dismissed for various reasons, including lack of follow-through by officers and shortcomings in their investigations.

Those results, coupled with accusations of over-policing and shootings involving State Police officers during the operation, led some local leaders and advocacy groups to criticize the effort.
SANTA FE  Election officials are deploying drop boxes across New Mexico for people who choose to cast absentee ballots without walking indoors during the Nov. 2 local election for public offices including mayor of Albuquerque and mayor of Santa Fe.

Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver told a legislative panel Monday that county clerks are required to provide one drop box for every 25,000 voters and at least two per county. Exceptions can be made at the request of county officials.

The drop boxes are among a long list of measures backed by Toulouse Oliver, a second-term Democrat, that are aimed at making voting more accessible.

Lawmakers appropriated funding for the initiative amid concerns about COVID-19 and indoor crowding at polling places.

Ballots must be collected at least once a day from the boxes, video surveillance of drop boxes is required, and recordings must be retained by county clerks. It remains illegal for any person to deliver a ballot for another person, with the exception of immediate family, and signs at each drop box are required to explain that prohibition against so-called ballot harvesting.

The proliferation of drop boxes is the outcome of 2019 legislation from the Democratic-led Legislature that was signed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, along with more detailed rules this summer from state election regulators aimed at consistent procedures.

Drop boxes were a focus of Republican Party concerns about election security in the 2020 general election.

Disputes about ballot drop boxes in two counties were resolved in state District Court in October before the close of voting.

President Donald Trump directly challenged New Mexicos use of drop boxes for absentee ballots in the aftermath of the 2020 vote, as well as vote-counting equipment sold by Dominion Voting Systems.

The lawsuit was abruptly dropped in January 2020 a few days after Congress certified the election of President Joe Biden. Toulouse Oliver suggested that the Trump campaign be sanctioned for meritless litigation.

Many emergency balloting changes adopted in response to the pandemic have expired and will not be in effect in this years consolidated elections for city, county and school district offices. Those expired measures included requirements that outer envelopes be signed with the last four digits of each voters Social Security number.

Toulouse Oliver said she hopes the Legislature will help reinstate expired convenience and ballot security measures. She also voiced support for the creation of a permanent absentee voting list to receive a ballot at home without repeated requests.
Copyright  2021 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  Las Cruces City Councilor Gabe Vasquez said Tuesday that he will run next year for the southern New Mexico congressional seat currently held by U.S. Rep. Yvette Herrell, becoming the first Democrat to wade into whats expected to be an expensive and hotly contested race.

Vasquez, 37, a former aide to U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich and executive director of the Hispano Chamber of Commerce in Las Cruces, planned to formally announce his campaign Wednesday. He is seeking to become just the second Democrat to hold the conservative-leaning 2nd Congressional District seat since 2011.

He said his priorities if elected would include changes to federal immigration laws, combating climate change by gradually moving away from fossil fuels, defending voter rights and seeking higher wages for workers.

Vasquez, who has roots in Mexico and was the first member of his family to be born in the United States, said the American dream is becoming increasingly difficult to realize for many low-income residents.

Our economy is more successful when its more fair, he told the Journal.

He also said his past work in both the private and public sectors  including as a city councilor since 2017  has allowed him to forge relationships with local leaders in southern New Mexico.

Among other achievements, Vasquez touted his efforts in helping to craft the New Mexico Outdoor Equity Fund, a grant program created in 2019 to help children from low-income families participate in outdoor programs.

Whoever wins the Democratic primary election in June will face a tough November 2022 general election matchup against Herrell, a Republican who reported having more than $698,000 in her campaign account as of June 30.

The last Democrat to win election in the district was Xochitl Torres Small of Las Cruces, who defeated Herrell in 2018 in a race that did not feature an incumbent because Republican Steve Pearce gave up a possible reelection bid to run for governor.

However, Herrell then beat Torres Small in a 2020 rematch in a race that was one of the nations most expensive congressional races, with roughly $35 million in total spending, a figure that includes political spending by both the candidates and outside groups.

In an interview, Vasquez called Herrell a divisive figure who has not been responsive to district residents needs since taking office in January.

I think that Rep. Herrell is too busy playing partisan politics in Washington, D.C., Vasquez said.

The 2nd Congressional District encompasses all of southern New Mexico  including Las Cruces and the states oil patch  and stretches north into Valencia County and parts of Bernalillo County, including Isleta Pueblo.

But the districts boundary lines are expected to be adjusted when the Legislature convenes later this year for the once-per-decade task of redistricting.

Vasquez, who is not seeking reelection this year to his council seat, said he decided to launch his congressional campaign even before the political boundaries are redrawn.

I think its absolutely a winnable district for a Democrat, he said.
DOVER, Del.  One of the primary insurers of the Boy Scouts of America announced Tuesday that it has reached a tentative settlement agreement with the organization and with attorneys representing tens of thousands of men who say they were molested decades ago by scoutmasters and others.

Under the agreement, insurance company The Hartford will pay $787 million into a fund to be established for the men, the company said in a news release. In exchange for the payment, the Boy Scouts organization and its local councils have agreed to release The Hartford from further liability regarding sexual abuse claims.

Under a separate settlement, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has agreed to pay $250 million into the fund for abuse claimants, said church spokesman Eric Hawkins. The denomination, commonly known as the Mormon church, was the largest single sponsor of Boy Scout troops before ending its partnership with the BSA at the beginning of last year.

The proposed settlements are part of an ongoing effort by the Boy Scouts, which declared bankruptcy in February 2020, to forge a reorganization plan that must win approval by a majority of abuse victims and the court. Attorneys are still trying to negotiate a settlement with the Boy Scouts other major insurer, Century Indemnity.

The proposed settlements are opposed by the official victims committee appointed by the U.S. bankruptcy trustee, as well as law firms separately representing hundreds of men who have filed sexual abuse claims. Representatives of the official victims committee described the proposed settlements as grossly unfair.

The only winners in this latest proposal are the Boy Scouts, their local councils, the Mormon Church, and the Hartford insurance company, Michael Pfau, an attorney whose firm represents more than 1,000 abuse claimants in the bankruptcy, said in a prepared statement.

The Boy Scouts are offering abuse survivors a fraction of what their cases are worth and the assets available to pay them, Pfau added. The Mormon church is reported to have roughly $100 billion in assets, but it is offering a paltry $250 million to compensate the thousands of abuse survivors who were abused in Mormon Boy Scout troops by Mormon Scout leaders.

The proposed settlements will be incorporated into a new reorganization plan that attorneys for the Boy Scouts were expected to file late Tuesday night.

The new agreement with The Hartford was negotiated after the bankruptcy judge last month rejected two key provisions of an $850 million deal that the BSA had reached with attorneys representing a majority of abuse claimants.

Judge Laura Selber Silverstein denied the BSAs request as part of that deal for permission to withdraw from a previous $650 million settlement it had reached with The Hartford. The Boy Scouts sought to withdraw from that April agreement after attorneys for abuse claimants repeatedly insisted that their clients would never vote for a reorganization plan that included it.

Silverstein also rejected a proposal for the Boy Scouts to pay millions of dollars in legal fees and expenses of attorneys hired by a coalition of law firms that represent tens of thousands of abuse claimants. The judge noted that any such payment would come out of the pockets of abuse claimants themselves.

The new settlement with The Hartford was the product of negotiations that included attorneys representing an ad hoc group called the Coalition of Abused Scouts for Justice. Law firms affiliated with the group represent more than 60,000 sex abuse claimants.

These are very significant developments, said Ken Rothweiler, whose law firm is affiliated with the coalition and represents roughly 16,800 abuse claimants.

The proposed settlements, coupled with the $850 million contribution from the BSA and local councils, would bring the fund for abuse claimants to almost $1.9 billion. If the plan is approved, it would represent one of the largest sex-abuse settlements in U.S. history.

Meanwhile, the official victims committee has estimated the total liability exposure of Boy Scouts insurers for abuse claims at more than $100 billion.

The committee supported the previous arrangement, which called for the earlier settlement with The Hartford to be scrapped and for the Boy Scouts and local BSA councils, which run day-to-day operations for Boy Scout troops, to contribute $850 million and their rights to insurance policies to the fund for abuse claimants. The committee noted that the primary value for abuse survivors under that deal would come from available insurance coverage.

Insurance companies pushed back hard against that plan, arguing that the proposed transfer of insurance rights unlawfully stripped them of their ability to question claims and improperly allowed the trustee overseeing the victims fund to determine what insurers owed without being challenged. Insurers also questioned a provision allowing expedited payments of $3,500 from the fund to resolve abuse claims, no questions asked.

___

Sophia Eppolito, a Report for America corps member based in Salt Lake City, contributed to this report.
MINNEAPOLIS  A man who escaped death row in Louisiana in 2012 after he was exonerated by DNA evidence for a murder he didnt commit has died of COVID-19.

Damon Thibodeauxs death earlier this month was so unfair, according to a Minneapolis attorney who worked to free Thibodeaux after 16 years behind bars, including 15 on death row, after he was convicted in the 1996 death of his 14-year-old step-cousin.

Im struggling to make peace with it, but you cant, said Steve Kaplan, the now-retired lawyer who helped clear Thibodeaux and assisted him in moving to Minnesota to restart his life.

Thibodeaux, who eventually settled with his family in Texas, was a long-haul trucker who landed in Jacksonville, Florida hospital with the coronavirus in early August. That was a few days after getting his first vaccine shot against the virus. After three weeks in and out of intensive care, the 47-year-old Thibodeaux was expecting to come home.

Bro, Im ready to get out of this place and come home, he told his younger brother, David Thibodeaux, on the evening of Sept. 2. A few hours later, Davids phone rang again with a doctor asking for permission to stop resuscitation on Damon after his lungs had collapsed and his heart had stopped, the Star Tribune reported.

My heart sunk, David said in an interview with the newspaper last week. I wasnt just being asked to let my brother go. Youre asking me let my best friend go.

Growing up, the brothers endured abuse from their mothers ex-husband. Damon also was sexually abused by the man and later by another relative, a neighbor and eventually his grandfather. We shared a lot of hardships together, David said,

Damon Thibodeaux was a 22-year-old deckhand on a Mississippi River barge in July 1996 when his 14-year-old step-cousin went missing while Thibodeaux was at her familys apartment. After the girls body was discovered along the river, Thibodeaux was subjected to a grueling interrogation that pushed him to confess to a crime he didnt commit. A year later he was sentenced to die.

Kaplan and others from the Minneapolis law firm Fredrikson and Byron helped prove Thibodeauxs innocence, noting that his confession didnt match the physical evidence, that witness statements were inconsistent and that DNA tests showed no connection between him and the murder. The district attorneys own expert concluded that Thibodeaux had falsely confessed to the crime

The conviction was overturned and he was set free in September 2012.

The lawyers who worked on his release said that rather than be angry and bitter about his path, Thibodeaux carried an easy smile along with optimism, kindness and grace.

He had an impact on everyone who had a privilege of knowing him, Kaplan said.
PHOENIX  The state Supreme Court has agreed to review two lower courts rulings against state Attorney General Mark Brnovich in his lawsuit challenging a deal between Arizona State University and hotel developers.

A brief order released by the state high court Tuesday said the justices will consider whether Brnovichs office had authority under Arizona law to file the suit and whether it was filed in a timely fashion.

The Court of Appeals in April upheld Tax Court Judge Christopher Whittens ruling that Brnovichs office didnt have legal authority to file the original lawsuit and later expand it after a one-year statute of limitation had expired.

Building the hotel on university land would make it exempt from property taxes, and Brnovich argued the deal was an unconstitutional gift to developers.

The regents said the transaction wasnt one-sided because it benefited the university by providing rental payments and a needed conference center and hotel.

The Court of Appeals decision also upheld Whittens separate ruling ordering Brnovichs office to reimburse the Board of Regents for attorney fees and other legal costs.
BELGRADE, Serbia  Serbia kicked off a new national holiday on Wednesday with a display of military power and calls for all ethnic Serbs in the Balkans to unite under one flag, triggering unease among its neighbors decades after similar calls led to the bloody wars of the 1990s.

Serbs were told to display thousands of red, blue and white national flags wherever they live in the region or the world to mark The Day of Serb Unity, Freedom and the National Flag.

Opening the full day of celebrations, populist President Aleksandar Vucic inspected military hardware displayed in a Belgrade park, praising the armys readiness to respond to outside threats.

He said that the army is five times stronger than only a few years ago, and announced new military purchases.

Later Wednesday, Vucic spoke at a rally in downtown Belgrade  where nationalist sentiment flew high  attended by government members, Bosnian Serb officials and tens of thousands of his supporters.

Vucic, a former ultranationalist who advocated expansion of Serbias borders at the expense of its neighbors, said the new holiday is not meant to threaten anyone or change established borders in the Balkans.

The Serbian flag is threatening someone, and they expect us to apologize? Vucic asked. My answer is: Never again. We will carry our flag with pride anywhere in the world.

Also speaking at the rally was the Bosnian Serb separatist leader, Milorad Dodik.

Our country is not Bosnia-Herzegovina, it is Serbia, he said to strong applause from the crowd.

The muscle-flexing by Serbian officials as well as their calls for the creation of the Serb World, or political unification of an estimated 1.3 million ethnic Serbs living in Bosnia, Montenegro, Kosovo and Croatia with Serbia, have triggered worries in neighboring countries.

In the 1990s, Serb forces with financial and political support from Belgrade led bloody campaigns in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo with the goal of forming a Greater Serbia. The campaign unsuccessfully tried to redraw the internal borders of the former Yugoslavia and create a single Serb state.

Denis Becirovic, a lawmaker in the Bosnian parliament, said that Vucic is restoring the Greater Serbia project by supporting secessionist policies of Bosnian Serbs.

Sadly, the expansionist forces in Serbia have a potential to again ignite the whole region, Becirovic said. The West has to stop the Greater Serbia demon before its too late.

Croatian President Zoran Milanovic said he couldnt believe that Serbs have nothing more important or smarter to do than create holidays which infringe on the internal affairs of neighboring states.

Serbias Interior Minister Aleksandar Vulin, the most vocal supporter of the Serb World, was quick to respond.

There is nothing more important than the preservation of the Serb identity, he said.

The new national holiday coincides with a key Serbian and French victory in 1918 against the Central Powers in the Balkan theater of operations during World War I.
SASTIN, Slovakia  Pope Francis urged Slovakians on Wednesday to look out for the neediest among them as he ended his first post-surgery trip with a huge open-air Mass that drew tens of thousands of people amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Cheering, maskless crowds lined Francis motorcade route through Sastin, 15 kilometers (about 10 miles) from Slovakias western border, and they were rewarded with a slow-moving popemobile jaunt and a smiling, waving Francis as he arrived at the vast field.

Organizers said 60,000 people attended the Mass, the biggest crowd at any event during the popes four-day pilgrimage to Slovakia.

The venue was the Our Lady of Sorrows national shrine, Slovakias most important one dedicated to the Virgin Mary, where St. John Paul II prayed in 1995. Each Sept. 15, pilgrims from Slovakia and beyond flock to Sastin on the feast day of Slovakias patron, with some this year spending the night on the dusty field to get a better spot.

You can imagine that Im excited because hes from Latin America, said Erick Montalvo, a pilgrim from Mexico. You feel it like you are kind of close to him because of that. And thats a very nice feeling.

During his homily, Francis urged the pilgrims to open their hearts to compassion and live a faith that identifies with those who are hurting, suffering and forced to bear heavy crosses.

He called them to live a faith that does not remain abstract, but becomes incarnate in fellowship with those in need.

The Mass was Francis only big event Wednesday before he returns to Rome after a four-day pilgrimage to Budapest, Hungary and Slovakia, a largely Roman Catholic country of 5.5 million people.

The pilgrims had to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination to receive a barcode that gave them entry to the site. A few thousand non-vaccinated pilgrims were allowed in with proof of a negative test or having been cured of the virus. Hardly anyone in the crowd wore face masks.

With the delta variant dominating, new coronavirus cases have been on the rise recently, reaching 760 on Tuesday, the highest figure since April. Another four people died of COVID-19 on Tuesday for a total of 12,566.

Slovakia has been badly hit by the virus and was the nation with most COVID-19 deaths per capita in the world in the middle of February.

The country now has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the EU, with slightly more than 2 million having been fully vaccinated.

The purely religious finale capped a visit that featured delicate state diplomacy. Francis met with right-wing populist Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Day 1 and outreach to Slovakias Jewish and Roma communities.

The trip was Francis first since undergoing intestinal surgery to remove a 33-centimeter (13-inch) chunk of his colon in July. He has appeared in good form and spirit throughout the grueling itinerary, seemingly energized by the crowds after being cooped up in the Vatican for over a year of COVID-19 restrictions.

Francis has at least two other trips planned before the end of the year: a quick trip to Glasgow, Scotland, to participate in the U.N. climate conference in November, and a trip  not yet confirmed by the Vatican  to Greece, Cyprus and Malta in December.

___

Karel Janicek reported from Prague. Philipp Jenne contributed to this report.
KABUL, Afghanistan  The Afghan man who was killed in a U.S. drone strike last month was an enthusiastic and beloved longtime employee at an American humanitarian organization, his colleagues say, painting a stark contrast to the Pentagons claims that he was an Islamic State group militant about to carry out an attack on American troops.

Signs have been mounting that the U.S. military may have targeted the wrong man in the Aug. 29 strike in Kabul, with devastating consequences, killing seven children and two other adults from his family. The Pentagon says it is further investigating the strike, but it has no way to do so on the ground in Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover, severely limiting its ability to gather evidence.

Accounts from the family, documents from colleagues seen by The Associated Press, and the scene at the family home  where Zemerai Ahmadis car was struck by a Hellfire missile just as he pulled into the driveway  all seem to sharply contradict the accounts by the U.S. military. Instead, they paint the picture of a family that had worked for Americans and were trying to gain visas to the United States, fearing for their lives under the Taliban.

At the home, the mangled, incinerated Toyota Corolla remains in the driveway. But there are no signs of large secondary blasts the Pentagon said were caused by explosives hidden in the car trunk. In the tightly cramped, walled compound, the house is undamaged except for broken glass, even a badly built wooden balcony remains in place. A brick wall immediately adjacent to the car stands intact. Trees and foliage close to the car are not burned or torn.

The family wants the United States to hear their side of the story and see the facts on the ground.

We just want that they come here. See what they did. Talk to us. Give us the proof, Emal Ahmadi, Zemerais younger brother, said of the U.S. military. Near tears, he opened a photo on his phone of his 3-year-old daughter, Malika, in her favorite dress. Another photo showed her charred remains after she was killed in the strike.

On Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken acknowledged he did not know if the man targeted in the strike was an IS operative or an aid worker. I dont know because were reviewing it, he said at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.

The strike was carried out in the final days of the U.S. presence in Afghanistan, as American troops were carrying out evacuations at Kabuls airport. Only days earlier, an IS suicide bombers at the airport killed 169 Afghans and 13 U.S. servicemembers.

The Pentagon says the strike prevented another IS attack at the airport. Officials said the U.S. military had been observing the car for hours as it drove and saw people loading explosives into the back. Days after amid reports of the children killed, Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called it a righteous strike, and said at least one of the people that were killed was an ISIS facilitator, using an acronym for the Islamic State group.

The U.S. acknowledged reports of civilian casualties and said they may have been caused by secondary explosions. The family said when the 37-year-old Zemerai, alone in his car, pulled up to the house, he honked his horn. His 11-year-old son ran out, and Zemerai let the boy get in and drive the car into the driveway. The other kids ran out to watch, and the missile incinerated the car, killing seven children and an adult son and nephew of Zemerai.

That was my last memory, the sound of his horn, said another of Zemerais brothers, Romal Ahmadi, who was inside the house at the time. His three children, aged two to seven, were killed.

Zemerai worked for 15 years for Nutrition & Education International, a California-based non-profit aimed at countering malnutrition in Afghanistan. Romal also worked briefly for NEI.

Only days before the strike, Zemerai and Romal applied for special visas to the U.S. for those who had worked with U.S. companies. His brother, Emal and the nephew who was killed, Ahmad Naser Haideri, had also applied for special visas because of their work for the U.S. military.

Emal provided the AP with documents including their visa applications, letters of recommendation and even a medal Haideri had received for his service with a special U.S. trained elite special force. Haideri also had a letter of reference from the U.S.-based Multi Country Security Solutions Group, where he worked as a contractor, calling him an important part of our commitment to provide the best faithful service to the U.S. Special Forces.

He was an excellent employee, the firms president, Timothy Williams, who wrote the letter of reference, told the AP. Im not going to change from that just because of the incident that happened. Im going to stand behind my guys.

Zemerais colleagues at NEI described him as a talented worker who worked his way up from a handyman to a skilled engineer and an essential employee.

Last year, when the company was unable to pay employees at full salary because of the coronavirus pandemic, employees were given the opportunity to leave their positions for better paying work elsewhere.

But Ahmadi declined, saying, I am NEI. From beginning to end, until we accomplish our goal, the companys founder and president, Steven Kwon, told the AP.

Colleagues recalled him as a doting father and enthusiastic dancer who kept an optimistic spirit amid the chaos of his surroundings and was quick to comfort those around him with a joke. He had grown up poor in Kabul and maintained such a heart for the poor, said a co-worker who asked to be identified only as Sonia for safety reasons.

He was definitely the best of us. Absolutely, she said.

He also always supported the companys efforts to hire more women and create womens programs, which is one of many reasons that colleagues said the suggestion that he was connected to any sort of extremism seems preposterous to them.

Everything were hearing about him is just so disturbing and so absurd because he had such love for his people, said Sonia. How would he overnight turn around and start wanting to kill his own people. It makes absolutely no sense at all whatsoever.

It seems unlikely the U.S. will send anyone to the Ahmadi home to investigate. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said hes not aware of any option that would put investigators on the ground in Kabul. The U.S. Central Command said it would rely on other means, without elaborating but apparently meaning surveillance video and intercepts that led to the strike.

The family, grieving and furious, still wants refuge in the United States. On top of their already existing worries over their past work with the U.S., they now fear the new Taliban rulers will suspect them of being IS. The Islamic State group is a violent rival of the Taliban.

The U.S. has accused us. They havent cleared our name and they wont even talk to us, and now the suspicion is on us, Emal said. We are angry, but we dont know what to do. For our safety we would go to America, but it must be all our families, not just me.

Much to their dismay, Ahmadis colleagues say they havent been contacted by anyone from the Biden administration about what happened.

Just talk to us because our teams are now terrified, Sonia said. I mean, in addition to being afraid of the Taliban and ISIS, theyre now even more afraid of the U.S. government.

___

Tucker reported from Washington. Associated Press Writer Lolita Baldor contributed to this report from Washington.
COPENHAGEN, Denmark  The international animal rights group Sea Shepherd said Wednesday it hopes that pressure will build from within the Faeroe Islands to end its traditional drive of sea mammals into shallow water, where they are slaughtered for their meat and blubber.

A local activist published gruesome video footage of Sundays slaughter of 1,428 white-sided dolphins on the central Faeroese island of Eysturoy in the North Atlantic archipelago. The number of dolphins was so large  much higher than in previous years  that it appears participants may not have been able to follow regulations to minimize the suffering of the mammals.

It was a complete disaster, completely unprecedented in fact, it could even be the largest single hunt of cetaceans in documented history anywhere in the world, said Robert Read, campaign director for the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

Environmental activists have long claimed the practice is cruel. But this year even people on the Faeroes who defend the four-century-old practice have spoken out amid fears that this years slaughter will draw unwanted attention.

We must admit that things did not go as we would like to, said Hans Jacob Hermansen, the former chairman of the Faeroese association behind the drives. We are going to evaluate if anything went wrong, what went wrong and why, and what can we do to avoid that in the future.

Sea Shepherd says it is hoping for much tighter restrictions around such hunts and, if not, at least a ban on the killing of the Atlantic white-sided dolphins.

Faeroese hunters are used to criticism from animal rights groups and push back at what they see as an interference in a cultural practice.

Each year, islanders drive herds of the mammals  chiefly pilot whales  into shallow waters, where they are stabbed to death. A blow-hole hook is used to secure the beached whales and their spine and main artery leading to the brain are severed with knives, turning water in the bay red with blood. The drives are regulated by law and the meat and blubber are shared on a community basis.

The killing of pilot whales is not very much different from killing cattle or anything else. Its just that we have an open abattoir, Hermansen told The Associated Press. Everyone can see it  but if a cow also doesnt die immediately, you dont stop killing cattle.

The white-side dolphins and pilot whales are not endangered species.

But Read said Sundays slaughter was completely indiscriminate. The entire pod is killed and pregnant mothers, calves, everything. He added that residents used power boats and jet skis to chase dolphins and pilot whales for hours on end, they really have no chance of escape.

Fisheries Minister Jacob Vestergaard said everything this year was done by the book in the dolphin hunt. The Faeroes  18 rocky islands located halfway between Scotland and Iceland  are semi-independent and part of the Danish realm.



David Keyton in Stockholm contributed to this report.
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Authorities are looking for a man and woman who robbed a bank Tuesday morning in Northeast Albuquerque.

FBI spokesman Frank Fisher said the woman walked into the Bank of the West, near Candelaria and Juan Tabo NE, around 10:50 a.m.

He said the woman cased the bank and held the door open for the man, who walked in and gave the teller a note demanding money. The man was given cash and fled in a car.

Fisher said the woman was described as Hispanic, in her 20s, with long hair. She had large wings tattooed on her back and wore a green tank top and red mask.

Fisher said the man is described as Hispanic, in his 20s, 5 feet 8 inches tall and 145 pounds. The man wpre a Las Vegas Raiders hat and a dark mask.

Tips: Anyone with information about this robbery is asked to call the FBI at (505) 889-1300, or Albuquerque Metro Crime Stoppers, anonymously, at (505) 843-STOP.
HOUSTON  Some of the 15 Texas school districts that have been sued in the past week for defying Republican Gov. Greg Abbotts ban on mask mandates are pushing back against the lawsuits.

One school district said Wednesday that it doesnt have such a mandate and isnt sure why its being sued, while another said the lawsuit against it was filed in a cowardly manner.

Keeping his promise to file lawsuits over what he has described as unconstitutional mandates, state Attorney General Ken Paxton began suing school districts last week.

There will be more to come as lawlessness continues across the state, Paxton tweeted Tuesday, when he filed suit against nine districts.

At least eight counties and cities and 87 school districts or systems in Texas have imposed mask mandates to slow the spread of the surging coronavirus, which has overwhelmed many of the states hospitals.

Before Paxton began suing school districts, various districts, cities and counties filed at least nine lawsuits challenging Abbotts ban on mask mandates.

A federal lawsuit has also been filed by Disability Rights Texas, an advocacy organization. A federal judge on Wednesday denied the groups request for a temporary restraining order to stop the state from preventing school districts from requiring masks.

Last month, the Texas Supreme Court temporarily blocked a mask mandate issued by San Antonio and Bexar County for their public schools. The court has yet to make a definitive ruling on the issue.

Abbott has argued that a law known as the Texas Disaster Act gives him broad power in deciding how best to respond to emergency situations, including whether to ban mask mandates during a pandemic. In a July executive order, Abbott reaffirmed his ban on mask mandates by any state, county or local government entity, saying wearing a mask is a matter of personal responsibility and shouldnt be imposed by the state.

The counties, cities and school districts say Abbott has exceeded his authority.

The Texas Education Agency has said Abbotts ban on mask mandates is not being enforced during the ongoing lawsuits.

Lawyers for Paxtons office have said that neither Abbotts office nor the attorney general have the authority to enforce the governors ban. Such enforcement would be up to local district attorneys.

The school district in the Central Texas city of Midway, which is among those Paxtons office is suing, said it has tried telling his office that its not requiring masks.

We have respected the governors orders while implementing thoughtful, measured and temporary responses to clusters of COVID cases, district spokeswoman Traci Marlin said in a statement.

When COVID-19 cases get high in the Midway district, officials have created an option for a 10-day mask directive to prevent campus closures.

We use the word directive instead of mandate because it is literally not a mandate, as in it is not enforced, Marlin said.

Paxtons office has also sued the district in Paris, in northeastern Texas, which in August amended its dress code to require that masks be part of what students wear. During a court hearing Monday, a judge granted Paxtons request for a temporary restraining order to stop the districts mask requirement.

Dennis Eichelbaum, an attorney for the Paris school district, said the district was not informed about the lawsuit or Mondays hearing until two hours after the hearing was over.

We werent surprised by the lawsuit. But we were shocked at the cowardly manner in which it was filed, Eichelbaum said.

Paxtons office did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Wednesday.

The Paris district believes the Texas Education Code gives its board of trustees the exclusive authority to govern its schools, including overseeing the dress code, and that Abbotts executive order did not suspend the education code, Eichelbaum said.

Since requiring masks, the Paris district has had among the states fewest COVID-19 absences of any district, Eichelbaum said.

Were hoping that God willing, our numbers dont start going up now that the attorney general has successfully gone into court without us and gotten an order prohibiting us from protecting our faculty and our students he said.

___

Follow Juan A. Lozano on Twitter: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70
PHOENIX  A Phoenix woman has been arrested on suspicion of two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of her two young daughters, police said Wednesday.

They said 35-year-old Retta Renee Cruse was booked into jail Tuesday after being released from a hospital following treatment for alleged self-inflicted stab wounds.

According to court documents, police responded to a 911 call Sept. 8 and found the girls  ages 4 and 9  dead on a apartment bed with their arms around each other and no apparent signs of trauma.

Police said toxicology results still are pending, but Cruse is accused of using over-the-counter and prescription drugs to sedate and overdose the girls.

Investigators reported finding a bottle of oxycodone and other evidence at the scene, but police said the Maricopa County medical examiner has not yet determined the cause of death for the girls.

Police said Cruse was found barricaded in another room of the apartment with multiple stab wounds and a knife nearby.

Cruse allegedly was worried about losing custody of the girls after a recent court hearing, according to police.

Cruse was being held on a $2 million bond. It was unclear Wednesday if she has a lawyer who can speak on her behalf.
PHOENIX  Human rights groups are calling on the Biden administration to consider the effects that climate change-fueled heat has on migrants when designing the governments border policies.

Human Rights Watch on Wednesday released the letter sent by 68 groups to the U.S. government, urging a new approach to actions on the southwestern border after this summers deadly heat.

The Southwest has become one of the fastest warming regions in the U.S. as climate change increasingly wreaks havoc on the environment, ramping up heat waves, hurricanes and wildfires.

The letter says U.S. policies limiting entry to migrants who hope to apply for asylum can prompt them to make risky journeys through dangerous areas.

The groups mentioned the August deaths of a female migrant and her 10-year-old daughter in the desert west of Yuma, Arizona as highs reached 119 F. Border officials found a 2-year-old boy alongside the bodies.

In southwestern Arizona, a new report by the nonprofit Humane Borders and the Pima County Medical Examiners office says that the remains of 19 migrants were found in the Arizona borderlands in July, bringing the annual total number of recoveries for 2021 thus far to 146.
In the middle of this pandemic gloom, a much-needed splash of good news: The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiestas X Marks the Spot is coming back.

It may even be landing on your property. Thats up to you.

Sponsored by the Albuquerque Hispano Chamber of Commerce and the Associated Contractors of New Mexico, X Marks the Spot is designed to get residents involved with the festival by placing large Xs on or near their property that can be spotted by balloonists as they soar over Albuquerque.

Those Xs are a big deal, because they tell balloonists this is a place they can land their craft.

Whenever a balloon pilot is flying all around the world, they see typically a white sheet or something like that, its always an international symbol of a welcome sign, said Sam Parks, director of operations for the fiesta and a balloon pilot. It indicates a safe place for a balloonist to land spread throughout the metro area.

Now in its third year, Albuquerque and Rio Rancho residents who put out the X can win one of nine large gift baskets, gifts and certificates from local businesses.

Here is how the program works:

 Pilots will carry cards with them, and upon landing will gather information from the participating resident. If the resident is not available, the pilot will gather information about the property. Once flights conclude each day, pilots will turn in their cards and balloon fiesta officials will draw a winner for that day.

 One winner will be recognized as landowner of the day at the end of each days flying events. That landowner, or X owner, will be notified that they will receive a prize at the end of the week.

 There will also be a Community Service award winner drawn at the end of balloon fiesta. This winner will be chosen from the Landowner Relations committee as exemplary patron, committed to furthering community involvement and safety. All prizes are sponsored by the Albuquerque Hispano Chamber of Commerces members and partners and the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta.

While 400 Xs will be pieced together by the Albuquerque Hispano Chamber of Commerce  and made available without charge  landowners can also make their own Xs with white sheets.

Theres no limit to the size of homemade Xs, but all road safety practices are to be followed and Xs are not allowed on roads or byways.

The chambers Xs will be available at Signature Sweets & Flowers, 3322 Coors NW; the Albuquerque Hispano Chamber of Commerce headquarters at 1309 4th SW, and The PC Place II at 9324 Menaul NE.

The return of the popular program, now in its third year, signals that the balloon festival  and its huge economic impact  is really on its way back.

The 49th International Balloon Fiesta is going to come off this year and we are very happy about that, said Jim Garcia, board member for the fiesta, at a news conference Wednesday. Its kind of a bienvenidos to Albuquerque.

The 2020 festival was delayed by the states COVID 19 outbreak. Its scheduled for Oct. 2-10 this year.

To register for the event or donate products or services, visit https://www.ahcnm.org/x-marks-the-spot-2021.html. For more information, call the Albuquerque Hispano Chamber of Commerce at 505-842-9003.
PHOENIX  The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors on Wednesday selected a sitting member of the Arizona House to replace a state senator who resigned after being charged with child molestation.

The board chose Rep. Raquel Teran from a list of three candidates vetted by a citizens panel to replace former Sen. Tony Navarrete, who resigned after he was charged and has denied the allegations. Supervisor Steve Gallardo announced the decision on Navarettes replacement in a tweet.

Teran was serving her second term in the House representing District 30 in west Phoenix and Glendale. She is currently chair of the Arizona Democratic Party.

State law requires a replacement to come from the same party as the person they replace. Normally, local Democratic Party officials would vet candidates and recommend a list of three choices to county supervisors. But there were too few elected precinct committeemen in the district so a citizens committee was named to consider applicants.

A similar committee will now be needed to fill Terans House seat.

Senate Democrats issued a statement praising the selection, calling Teran a dedicated and passionate champion not only for her own constituents but for all Arizonans.

Navarrete resigned on Aug. 11 amid increasing bipartisan pressure. He was arrested days earlier by Phoenix police after a now-16-year-old boy came forward and said Navarrete had molested him starting when he was 12 or 13 years old and continuing until he was 15.

Navarrete faces multiple charges of sexual conduct with a minor and a child molestation charge and was released on $50,000 bond.

In his resignation statement, Navarrete adamantly denied the allegations and said he needs to focus his time and energy on his defense.

Navarrete has pleaded not guilty and faces a Jan. 13 trial.
Phil Kym is Executive Director of Drug Discovery Science & Technology and Head of the Medicinal Chemistry Leadership Team at AbbVie. In his career at Abbott/AbbVie, Phils team has contributed to clinical candidate selection in the Neuroscience, Immunology, Oncology, Virology, Metabolic Disease, Cystic Fibrosis, and Pain therapeutic areas and is an inventor of Foslevodopa/Foscarbidopa subcutaneous continuous infusion therapy for Parkinsons Disease. Phil received a BA in Chemistry from Goshen College, a PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and completed an American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Texas at Austin before starting his career at Abbott/AbbVie in 1996. Phil has served on the ACS MEDI Long Range Planning Committee (2018-2020), and is currently a member of the organizing committee for the 2022 National Medicinal Chemistry Symposium, and will be the Chair of the 2023 Gordon Research Conference on Natural Products and Bioactive Compounds.
Career, interrupted

Chemical & Engineering News

For chemists seeking academic jobs, finding a position has always been a challenge, with more candidates than positions available. To make matters worse, the COVID-19 pandemic caused hiring freezes and shifted the interview process to the virtual space. A cover story in Chemical & Engineering News, the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society, explores how the academic job market changed over the last two years and how candidates are adapting to the new landscape.

For colleges and universities looking to hire professors, the process takes months of recruiting and interviewing, as well as many campus visits, to determine the right fit, writes Senior Correspondent Bethany Halford. Chemists wrapping up postdoctoral programs often endure multiple hiring cycles before landing an academic position, though some opt to enter the chemical industry or other related fields instead. The pandemic delayed the hiring cycle by several months, and experts have noted that the 2020-21 cycle posted 40% fewer jobs than in previous years. And because taking an academic position often means relocating and setting up a lab, this delay has created extra challenges for new hires in an already arduous process.

With fewer opportunities available, many hopeful academic chemists had to rethink their job searches. Some took a gamble and accepted positions without visiting the campus first, whereas others expanded their criteria for positions or decided to defer any decisions until the market stabilized. The pandemic also prompted chemists to find jobs outside academia, where opportunities in the industrial, editorial and government realms were more numerous and could be done remotely. Although institutions found the virtual hiring process challenging, it also presented opportunities to better screen candidates and involve fewer people in meetings. Despite the difficult circumstances of 2020 and beyond, job-seeking chemists are optimistic that the hiring market will rebound as a new normal is established.
Religious objections were once used only sparingly around the country to get exempted from various required vaccines.

But they are becoming a much more widely used loophole against the COVID-19 shot.

About 3,000 Los Angeles Police Department employees are citing religious objections to try to get out of the required COVID-19 vaccination.

In Washington state, hundreds of state workers are seeking similar exemptions.

And an Arkansas hospital has been swamped with so many such requests from employees that it is apparently calling their bluff.
CHICO, Calif. - As more coronavirus patients are admitted, hospitals are now cutting back on their orders of one life-saving treatment.

This week, Enloe Medical Center was notified that the Federal Department of Health and Human Services assumed the role of allocating the monoclonal antibody treatment.

For almost a year, Enloe has been using the monoclonal antibody infusion treatment to reduce the severity of COVID-19 symptoms and avoid hospitalizations.

Action News Now spoke with the chief medical officer at Enloe Hospital, Dr. Marcia Nelson about the impacts.

RELATED: Butte County supervisors vote to extend COVID-19 local disaster proclamation

"Without having this treatment for people who have COVID, yes it will result in more people being hospitalized. That's just the bottom line," Dr. Nelson said.

Monoclonal antibodies help the immune system recognize and respond more effectively to the coronavirus.

Dr. Nelson says now that the supply used for this treatment is low, they'll be offering it on a first-come, first-serve basis.

"It's a shock because, even myself, oh I'm not going get it, then you do get it, and you realize it's bad, and someone close to you dies, it makes you stop and think, what is happening," Mickey Nelson, who is from Chico, said.

He tells Action News Now that he's had the coronavirus before and says he lost three friends from the virus.

"It's something you don't want to go through," he said.

As of Tuesday morning, Enloe has 72 COVID-19 patients, 83% are not fully vaccinated and 15 patients are in the ICU.

RELATED: Butte County surpasses 50% fully vaccinated for those who are eligible

"It's terrible, this is a small town that should not be going through this, not at all. I think people don't realize this is getting worse. It's worse now than when we had the lockdowns," Mickey Nelson said.

"The important thing is not to depend on the Monoclonal Antibody as the way to approach Covid it's never good to get Covid first and then hope there's a treatment, the best thing to do is not get Covid in the first place. Get vaccinated and wear a mask," Dr. Nelson said.

Dr. Nelson also says there are currently 13 coronavirus patients on ventilators. This is the most they've seen so far.

"Seeing this many people on ventilators makes me sad and frustrated because it doesn't have to be this way," she said.

Enloe says the majority of COVID-19 patients, including the ones on ventilators, are unvaccinated.

The hospital was also notified that rationing of this treatment is imminent and they may not receive the number of treatments they have requested.
LOS ANGELES (AP)  Public health officials in Los Angeles County will begin requiring proof of COVID-19 vaccination for patrons and workers at indoor bars, wineries, breweries and nightclubs next month.

The new initiative in the nation's most populous county begins Oct. 7, with proof of at least one vaccine dose required.

According to the county's Department of Public Health, proof of full vaccination will be mandatory by Nov. 4.

Health officials strongly recommend the same precautions for indoor restaurants but have not chosen to mandate proof of vaccination for them.

The new restrictions come ahead of the holiday season, which brought a massive surge to Los Angeles last year.
REDDING, Calif. - A Oregon man was arrested after breaking into a Redding apartment and getting into a fight with the victim, according to Redding Police Department.

Police responded to the 2900 block of Polk St. when they received a report of a burglary around 9:49 p.m. Tuesday.

Police said the victim returned home and found 24-year-old Geoffrey McKay of Klamath Falls, Ore. inside the victims apartment.

The victim was assaulted by McKay after confronting him and the two then became involved in a physical fight.

Before the victim arrived home, McKay had packed up items to steal and looked through the apartment.

After the fight, McKay took off from the neighborhood and attempted to avoid arrest.

Officers caught up to McKay on foot and used a K-9 to assist them in arresting McKay.

McKay was booked into the Shasta County Jail for assault with a deadly weapon, residential burglary and resisting arrest.
CHICO, Calif. - The Boys and Girls Club of the North Valley will be hosting its 12th annual Pasta on the Plaza on Thursday, according to the Boys and Girls Club.

The Pasta on the Plaza will be from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Rotary Plaza and Seventh St. roundabout at 628 Wall St.

Tickets are $12 per person and are $45 for a family of four.

It will be to-go orders of spaghetti with homemade sauce, salad and garlic bread. Baked goods will be available for purchase and will be from Chicos National Charity League.

This years event will be to-go orders only and there will be no indoor seating. Guest can do curbside pickup on Seventh St. or walk up to the Nettleton Gym.

The Spaghetti Dinner will be presented by Vicki Sayer of Stae Farm and California Olive Ranch.
CHICO, Calif. - Police have arrested a man in connection to a burglary at a Chico State sorority house on Sept. 8, according to the California State University, Chico Police Department.

36-year-old Adolfo Rivera Jr. was arrested Tuesday night around 7 p.m. and was booked into the Butte County Jail.

RELATED: Police looking for person who burglarized multiple houses near Chico State

On Sept. 8 around 9:30 p.m., police responded to 325 Chestnut St. in Chico for a burglary that was in progress.

The reporting party said a man entered the home unlawfully but by the time police arrived at the scene the suspect had already left.

University police were able to look at surveillance video and later identified the suspect as Rivera Jr.
REDDING, Calif. - Voters in Redding drove up to polling centers around the city to cast their ballot in the Recall Election of Governor Gavin Newsom.

While Gov. Newsom will remain in office, some voters expressed the importance of using the right to vote at all.

Clifford Graham lives in Redding. He and his wife Kathryn Graham have voted for over 60 years, never missing a single election.

While both of them voted to replace Governor Newsom with Redding local candidate Jenny Rae Le Roux, Clifford Graham conveyed how important voting is for everyone.

"It is an expression of the freedom that we enjoy in this country, and that the people are being served and getting a chance to speak about their needs, and their wants, and their likes to the people that we elect," Clifford Graham said. "Its as if the president walked in and said, 'Well, what do you think? Level with me and give me the truth because Im here to make things happen for our country and for other countries in the world.'"

Other voters like Cody Boedner told Action News Now they hope bringing their kids to the polling center will show them the importance of voting.

"They have the right to be able to shape their future and shape their government, and thats what I try to get them involved in," Boedner said. "You know, I had one here a couple of years ago, shes in school now, but my other daughter went to every one of them because its important to be able to show that we have that freedom as Americans."

Candidate for governor and Redding Local Jenny Rae Le Roux competed against 46 other candidates hoping to replace Governor Newsom.

Her campaign didn't earn much statewide support, receiving only 0.2% of the vote.

Even with the low amount of votes, Le Roux is thankful for the people of Shasta County that got her campaign off the ground.

"I just want to say thank you to the people of Shasta County who hosted us, who launched us, who made this campaign what it has been," Le Roux said. "You are the reason why California has great leaders coming up through the ranks because we understand the issues of real people in California."
REDDING Calif.- On Tuesday, the Shasta County Board of Supervisors passed a resolution to send a message to the governor on where the Shasta County Board stands on the vaccine mandate.

In early August, the state announced that all healthcare workers must be fully vaccinated by Sept. 30, which sparked a debate in Shasta County.

"The county is pretty divided on the issue of the mandated vaccine; there are some who are strongly opposed, and some who are strongly in favor of that. What we looked at today was a resolution that told the state that we would like to have a little more local control and not go with the one size fit all for the whole state," Shasta County Supervisor Leonard Moty said.

Moty says the hospitals would still have their own set of rules for healthcare workers.

"It's going to be the healthcare business and hospitals who are going set their own rules regardless of what the county has to say if causes some healthcare workers to leave that is a concern for all of us in the community," Moty said.

Meanwhile, today in Shasta County, there are 174 new COVID-19 cases for a total of 941 active patients.

"Out of 58 counties, Shasta County has the highest COVID cases in the state of California. Our case rate is 714 per 100-thousand people, and the state average is 110. That average case rate is 288, so we are more than double that," Health and Human Services Agency Spokesperson Kerri Schuette said.

The meeting was supposed to happen on Sept. 21 but is now moving to a different date because of COVID-19 cases.
TRINITY COUNTY, Calif. - The Trinity County Sheriffs Office reduced an evacuation order caused by the River Complex to an evacuation warning.

The Sheriffs Office said zone four is no longer in evacuation orders.

Zone four includes Bills Peak southeast to Highway 3 and North Derrick Flat Rd.

This also includes all areas along Highway 3 south through Coffee Creek proper to Hatchet Creek Rd.

The areas that were moved into evacuation warnings are listed below:
Good morning, North State. Here's what you need to know to start your day on Sept. 15.

Local counties voted majority 'Yes' in Recall Election

The California Secretary of State's website shows all California counties have completed and reported vote tallies and 64% voted against the recall of Gov. Newsom. Even so, the Secretary of State reports that a majority of voters in our viewing area voted to recall Gov. Newsom.

Tehama County working to correct ballot printing error

Some Tehama County voters were worried after a printing error impacted ballot counting. The county clerk and recorder Jennifer Vise tells Action News Now it was a human error by the printing vendor, not something within the county. Now the county is using a four-person process to make duplicates of those ballots so the machine can read them. Vise couldn't tell us how many bad ballots there were but does say she is confident in their counting process.

Butte County supervisors vote to extend COVID-19 local disaster proclamation

Butte County supervisors voted to extend the local pandemic disaster proclamation Tuesday. The decision came despite demonstrators protesting vaccine mandates and other state rules. The proclamation passed on a 3 to 2 vote. The official proclamation allows the county to access state and federal emergency funds meant to combat the pandemic.

Judge: Councilmember discussion about the homeless lawsuit could result in Chico getting fined

A federal judge is threatening to fine Chico Councilmember Sean Morgan. It all stems from a radio program that he spoke in. Court documents state that Morgan was on KPAY news talk discussing the active lawsuit. The judge determined Morgan's remarks to be quote "disparaging the parties." The judge also believed Morgan gave too many specifics on the settlement conference. The interview was posted online nearly a week ago.

Coffee shop employee returns to work after stabbing

A local coffee shop is working to support one of its employees recently stabbed in a shocking attack at work. On Aug. 16 police arrested Casey Larsen suspected of stabbing that worker unprovoked. The victim Dimas is recovering and is expected to return to work this week. A GoFundMe is in place to help with expenses. Mondo's is inviting the community to stop by on Monday and celebrate Dimas' recovery and return to work.

18-year-old charged with attempted murder for 2020 shooting in Chico

Set for court today, 18-year-old Deshawn Kelley will be arraigned and tried as an adult for attempted murder. The case stems from a May 2020 shooting when Kelley was 17. Police say Kelley shot a man at least seven times on a bike path near Rio Lindo Ave. in Chico. After the shooting, investigators learned Kelley left for Southern California and arrested him in June of 2020.
Hyper-casual mobile game developers can win a minimum of $300,000 in a new challenge hosted by App Annie and CrazyLabs. The challenge invites developers to submit their hyper-casual games and test their ideas inside the CLIK Dashboard  CrazyLabs' self-serve platform for testing and usage monitoring.

CrazyLabs will offer a minimum guarantee of $300,000 for the first game published, and a minimum guarantee of $200,000 for every other game published. Meanwhile every game that passes the CPI test can access the following cash prizes:

$20,000 for CPI $0.15

$10,000 for CPI $0.25

$3,000 for CPI $0.30

Studios can win the guarantee and CPI prizes again and again with various games. In other words, they can enter as many games as they like. Challenge winners also get to enjoy a range of free App Annie services.

The first 40 studios to pass CrazyLabs CPI test will win 60 days free usage of App Annie Standard Intelligence and Game IQ. Meanwhile there's an incentive for every studio to enter and test a game inside the CLIK Dashboard. All entrants can access A 60-day free trial of App Annie Standard

Intelligence Lite, a hyper-casual e-book (including in-depth data about trends, demographic, mechanics and more) and access to a webinar packed with insights and analysis.

The challenge is already available and mobile game developers are invited to apply now.

"Hyper-casual games downloads grew 15% year over year in H1 2021 and are continuing to be incredibly popular - dominating the top games charts. As consumers continue to discover mobile games via this rapidly growing and evolving genre, it can be difficult for game designers and publishers to analyse and determine what features, mechanics and monetization strategies are gaining market traction. Our Game IQ tool greatly simplifies this analysis because we enable our customers to easily compare genres and subgenres. Now, its easy to see what makes hit games unique, and respond accordingly! says Junde Yu, GM of Gaming, App Annie.

Developing #1 hyper-casual games means not only being able to detect hot trends and come up with innovative ideas - its also heavily influenced by data and experience, knowing where to focus your efforts and how to make your game more playable than the rest. As publishers we aim to provide our studios with all the data and tools they need in order to develop a future hit, and were proud to join forces with App Annie and offer them a detailed overview of the hyper-casual market, says Omri Henkin, VP Publishing & Business Development at CrazyLabs.
Global Content leader, Lionsgate India today announced Shreya Channa who joined the firm earlier this year as Vice President (VP), Head of People Office, to be a part of the expansion for South Asia and Emerging Markets of Asia. She will be reporting to Lionsgate Managing Director Rohit Jain.

Shreya will work closely with Rohit Jain and Lionsgate Global CHRO, Ross Pollack who is based in United State of America, to expand Lionsgates strategy and people operations in emerging markets of Asia. Shreya is a seasoned HR professional with over 17 years of experience in Human Capital consulting, corporate HR and has advised Fortune 500 companies in India and USA in technology and telecom, among other industries. She has held a number of senior HR positions advising executive teams.

At Lionsgate, we believe that people are the differentiating secret recipe and soul of an organization, we work everyday to build a culture of creativity and continuous learning. Shreyas acumen and expertise will help us to supercharge the next era of Lionsgate in the region. says Rohit Jain, Managing Director for Lionsgate-South Asia and Networks-Emerging Markets Asia.

It feels incredible to be a part of this great company. We are looking at an exciting line up in Asia in the coming year. I look forward to partnering closely across the business and our teams as we continue to deliver our strategic priorities and execute on the many opportunities that lie ahead, - Shreya Channa, Vice President (VP), People Office, Lionsgate South Asia & South-East Asia.
Note: Could the gut be the culprit behind the struggles of the young generation, riddled with anxiety, worry, and self-doubt? We know the role it plays in autistic behavior. And a certain doctor tried to ask hard questions a couple of decades ago, as you may recall.....



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Infant Gut Microbiome May Contribute to Fear Response Trajectory

Study Examines Microbiome Content for 1-Month and 1-Year Old Infants

The microbiome is the collection of trillions of microorganisms that colonize the digestive tract. Each person has a completely unique microbiome, made up of a network of microbiota originally determined by their DNA.



The microbiome is the collection of trillions of microorganisms that colonize the digestive tract. Each person has a completely unique microbiome, made up of a network of microbiota originally determined by their DNA. The microbiome develops rapidly during the first year of life. Previous research has linked human behaviors, including fear and anxiety, to the composition of the microbiome. It was due to these reasons that a research team from Michigan State University set out to study the emergence of fear responses in infants around 12-months old and examine if fear behavior is influenced by the development and composition of the microbiome. The Michigan State researchers theorized that there are critical windows in the development of the brain and nervous system in which variations in microbiome composition could impact infants fear behaviors and perhaps influence the physical structure of brain areas involved in generating fear. By recruiting a group of 34 infants, the studys authors assessed microbiome contents and the volume of key brain regions at ages 1-month and 12-months. At the second assessment point, they also examined social and non-social types of fear behaviors in the infants. The studys results indicated that the composition of the microbiome at 1-year is significantly associated with increased fear behavior and that differences in microbial colonization causes differences in fear. The researchers based these findings on a task designed to measure non-social fear. They also discovered that certain qualities of the 1-month microbiome were additionally associated with increased non-social fear at 1-year. Additionally, this study demonstrated a suggestive relation between contents of the infant microbiome and volumes of the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex. Despite finding associations between microbiome and variations between individual fear responses among the infants, the studys authors say it is too early to label any specific microbiome contents as good or bad. This is mostly due to differences among individuals and also because some microbes may have positive and negative impacts in different contexts.
Hans J. Morgenthau was one of the leading scholars of international relationships during the mid-20th century. He served as a consultant to governments and an advisor to presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, before resigning due to disagreements over LBJs Vietnam policy.

Among his many books was Politics Among Nations (1948), at one time the bible of international relations scholars. In 1970, a volume collecting some of his articles and essays written in the 1960s was published under the title Truth and Power. Essays of a Decade 1960-1970. Included in that volume are essays that have particular relevance to U.S. politics in the early 2020s.

Politics in America today includes a dangerous collusion between scientists, big-tech/social media oligarchs, and the federal government that promote their version of the truth and try to stifle and in some cases punish dissenting voices. This dangerous conglomeration of social and political power is cheered on and abetted by the mainstream media. Whether the issue is climate change, pandemic mandates, the validity of the 2020 election, or combating systemic racism, only one truth is acceptable, and those who dissent from the truth can be canceled, socially ostracized, publicly condemned, denied employment, or worse.

Morgenthau wrote the essays in Truth and Power during the turbulent 1960s, but some of his observations have an eerie relevance to todays politics. For example, in 1964, in an essay entitled Modern Science and Political Power, Morgenthau warned that our democracy was endangered by the scientific-technological-governmental trinity. Power, Morgenthau wrote, has shifted from the people to the government. Within the government, power has shifted from democratically responsible officials to certain technological elites, military and scientific, which are not democratically responsible. This development, he wrote, had drastically decreased voters control over the affairs of government. And this situation, he warned, makes totalitarianism possible.

Modern scientific and technological innovations, Morgenthau explained, have given modern governments the tools with which to penetrate and overwhelm the sphere that tradition has reserved for the individual and his freedom -- to condition his thoughts and control his actions without limitation. Our age, he continued, has given modern governments the ability to make themselves total masters of the individual.

Morgenthau foresaw the emergence of a governing system involving rule by a scientific elite. The ascendancy of such elites, he explained, is the inevitable result of the central positions science and technology occupy in the affairs of modern government. Science and technology are increasingly serving the interests of those who wield political power. This utilitarian orientation of science and technology toward the interests of the state, Morgenthau wrote, constitutes a radical break with tradition.

And it has transformed scientific and technological elites into political actors. Such elites, Morgenthau wrote, become political and depend for their success as much upon... political skills and outside political support of their proponents as upon their scientific soundness. This changes their nature: [T]hey become themselves protagonists of political... policies that are in accord with their scientific judgment. These elites, Morgenthau wrote, no longer merely advise on the basis of expert knowledge; they are also champions of policies promoted with unrivaled authority and frequently determined by virtue of it.

Morgenthau knew that scientific and technological elites have their own political worldviews. Their selection of facts, the emphasis given to certain facts, and their theoretical judgment, Morgenthau understood, were part and parcel of [their] total political world view. In the politics of today, scientists and big tech/social media oligarchs have personal and political preferences that influence their advocacy of political policies.

Four years later, Morgenthau wrote The Right to Dissent, which also appears in Truth and Power. There, he warned that when a political elite believes it possesses a monopoly of truth, it will try to suppress dissent, labeling it as heresy or treason. The elites believe they have discovered the truth and have a right and duty... to make it prevail. The majority that wields political power (and military and police power) may attempt to repress the minority -- the dissenters -- and democracy might well die, he wrote. The social and political compact between a majority and minority in a democracy is fragile. And history shows, Morgenthau wrote, that it is those who hold predominant social and political power who induce the majority and its government to overstep the bounds of the compact. In truth, it is the dissenting minority, Morgenthau explained, that performs a vital function for the political and moral welfare of the Republic.

Morgenthau in the lead essay of the book, Truth and Power, summed up the great danger that we in the 2020s face:

It is much... more common, for the powers-that-be, if they are confronted with unpalatable truth, first to try to corrupt it and, if they do not succeed, to try to discredit it and, if they do not succeed in that, to silence it. The governments ability to corrupt derives from its power to reward those who are willing to be corrupted. Its ability to discredit stems from the authority of power with which it speaks and from the influence it is able to exert upon the mass media of communications. Its ability to silence results from its ability to corrupt -- silence being a kind of passive corruption -- and ultimately from the ability to make totalitarian use of the police and the criminal laws.

Those today among the scientific, technological, social media, and governmental elites who claim to have discovered the truth and who attempt, often successfully, to socially banish those who dissent from the truth, are treading on very dangerous ground. America, Morgenthau urged his readers to remember, was founded not upon power blindly and unrestrainedly pursued, but upon power informed and restrained by truth. We ignore his warning at our peril.

Image: Rodri.wikifan

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There are a great many things coming from Biden, Fauci, the CDC, the State Department, the military, the Justice Department, and basically the Deep State that make no sense. From Biden and the Deep State, we are getting executive orders, mandates, guidelines, decisions, policies, and edicts that just do not make any sort of intellectual sense. It is not just a difference of opinion. It is not just different politics or a different point of view. Decisions, guidelines, policies, and proposed laws are coming out of Washington D.C., Biden, and the Deep State that one just can't figure out in an intellectual, factual, common-sense sort of way. The only way to explain what is coming from the placeholder at the White House and the Deep State elites is that they are just evil. They are doing what theyre doing because they are evil. No other answer makes sense.

Why would Biden declare a federal vaccine mandate for every American even though two previous Supreme Court decisions says his federal vaccine mandate is unconstitutional...? Because he is evil.

Why would Biden declare that all Americans must be vaccinated but illegal immigrants crossing our border illegally do not have to be vaccinated...? Because he is evil.

Why would the Biden administration demand that all Americans be vaccinated, regardless of whether they have already acquired natural immunity since they have already had COVID...? Because they are evil.

Why would the Biden administration declare a national vaccine mandate for all Americans, but exempt all of Congress, all the congressional aides, the postal service, the federal justice system, and the Supreme Court...? Because they are evil.

Why would Biden and the militarily happily leave $85 billion worth of military weapon armaments to the terrorist Taliban, but at the same time try to disarm peaceful law-abiding American citizens of their 2A rights...? Because they are evil.

Why would the Biden administration allow for open borders and unlimited illegal immigration, when they know that drug cartels and child traffickers use these openings to push the illegal drugs and the child trafficking into America...? Because they are evil.

Why would the upper echelons of the FBI, CIA, and the NSA violate their own laws, laws within the Constitution, and their own standards of practice for five years against candidate Trump, president-elect Trump, and President Trump...? Because they are evil.

Why would the Biden administration fight so hard against Texas and its pro-life law that protects babies inside the womb whose heart is already beating, but at the same time they federally protect the embryos and eggs of lizards, alligators, and snakes...? because they are evil.

Why would the Justice Department keep the "mostly peaceful protesters" of January 6 locked up in solitary confinement as political prisoners when they actually committed no violent act...? Because they are evil.

Why would the Deep State cabal "place" someone in the White House who obviously has diminished intellectual capacity, most likely suffering cognitively from old age, and appears from all accounts to be suffering from deteriorating mind-functioning skills, (he was hidden in the basement for most of the last six months of the controversial election)...? Because they are evil.

Why is Nancy Pelosi putting the fences and barricades back up around the Capitol dome, the people's building, keeping the people out...? Because she is evil.

Why would Nancy Pelosi put on a "Stalinist Show Trial" concerning the events of January 6, when she ignored the violent and deadly riots all summer long in Portland, Seattle, Minneapolis, Chicago, Atlanta, and Los Angeles...? Because she is evil.

Why did Attorney General Merrick Garland say that the Justice Department is looking at putting people in jail for civil rights violations if they continue to have state forensic auditing of the controversial 2020 presidential election...? Because he is evil.

Why does Fauci continue to demand vaccinations for all, even including all K-12 students, when he knows the individuals that have had COVID are better naturally immunized than if they "take the jab"...? Because he is evil.

Why would General Mark Milley evacuate all the soldiers first from Afghanistan and leave Bagram Air Base unattended, before he got out all the American citizens and all the Afghani interpreters...? Because he is evil.

Why would Biden, the CDC, Fauci, and the Deep State be more angry at American citizens who refuse to take the experimental vaccine rather than focus their anger and retribution on China; the country that actually gave us COVID...? Because they are evil.

Why does Biden, Fauci, and the CDC refuse to admit that the Wuhan COVID virus came from Wuhan, China...? Because they are evil.

Why would Biden and the Deep State be more critical of and use more hateful words towards those Americans who believe in putting America First, rather than be critical of the globalist elite who hurt American interests both domestic and international...? Because they are evil.

Why is General Milley driving many patriot soldiers (conservatives/Christians/constitutionalists) out of the military...? Because he is evil.

Why is Biden and the Justice Department declaring that the unvaccinated have no constitutional right to travel from state-to-state...? Because they are evil.

Why does the ACLU stay silent when books are burned, people are fired, citizens are threatened with bodily harm, academic freedom is squashed, and lives and employment are cancelled simply because of a political difference or a different political point of view...? Because they are evil.

Why would the federal government and CDC close down schools and churches, but leave open alcohol and hemp stores...? Because they are evil.

When one analyzes these separate issues, it is obvious that it goes well beyond normal political difference. It is not just a difference of opinion, not just a different worldview. It is not just a political power play. It is not simply Democrats vs. Republicans nor conservatives vs. socialists. It is not just the rotten fruit of a fraudulent presidential election. These people are not dumb, not stupid, nor illiterate; that's not it. They know exactly what they are doing. The only thing that can explain these unexplainable decisions is...? evil. The answer of evil makes the only sense, nothing else does. I do wish there was a different answer. But there's not.

Image: Piqsels

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If I caused you pain, I know that Im to blame. I must have been insane. From the bottom of my heart I apologize. Please let me make amends.

In the course of the religious services on Yom Kippur (this year on September 16, 2021), the confessions of sins, Al Chet, are uttered ten times. They have wide scope and differing emphases: among them are sins made under duress or willingly, by hardheartedness, inadvertently or with thought and deceit, improper thoughts, evil inclination, false denial and lying, ceaseless hatred, passing judgement, evil talk. The plea of the confessors is pardon us, forgive us, atone for us.

In the U.S. and other countries, issues of repentance and forgiveness have become controversial and troubling problems in this era of BLM and frequent allegations of racism. The many relevant issues have to be seen in the context of a number of factors: the existing prejudice and persecution against certain people or groups in society, the desire to seek a realistic assessment of forgiveness by objective authorities, or in the U.S. specifically by Blacks or the Black community for what is considered racist utterances or behavior.

Consider some of the factors. Differences exist over the possibility of absolving White people of responsibility for the existence of discrimination and prejudice; the degree of change in feeling or sensibility over the years; the willingness to repair contentious relations; the subsequent behavior of the accused person or group since the alleged offence; the anticipation of future behavior; the attempts at reconciliation; the degree of relief afforded to the alleged wrongdoer.

At the core may be the desire for vengeance as the primary factor towards people or society which are said to be the cause of harm. In any case, who has the right to decide on principles of justice and who can justifiably have power to forgive others in a meaningful way in an era when ethical and moral expectations may have changed? Moreover, is there a time limit on punishment for offensive actions committed in the past?

To help find proper policies to deal with forgiveness in the U.S. it may be useful to examine a number of attempts abroad to deal with comparable problems.

South Africa on 1995 established the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a body to help the country come to terms with its apartheid past on a morally accepted basis, and to advance the cause of reconciliation between the different peoples. By this body, individuals identified as victims of gross human rights violations are invited to give statements about their experiences, as part of the transition of the country to full democracy. The TRC sometimes grants amnesty to perpetrators of crimes relating to human rights violations and offers reparation and rehabilitation to victims. The TRC, was replaced by the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation in 2000. It works through three committees, human rights, reparations, and amnesty. Amnesty has been granted to those who committed abuses during the apartheid period, so long as the crimes were politically motivated, proportionate, and there was full disclosure by the person seeking amnesty. This emphasis on reconciliation marks a difference from the approach of the Nuremberg trials.

The register of reconciliation gives the public, including those who failed to prevent human rights violations but who may not have committed gross violations of human rights, the opportunity to indicate their regret for not having been able or even tried to prevent violence.

Northern Ireland has long been the setting for civil and political unrest, and violent political conflict, especially during The Troubles, the ethno-nationalist conflict that lasted for 30 years until 1998, the result of political nationalism and ethnic sectarism. Religion has had an important place in the problem but the conflict is not religious, though the Unionists are mostly Ulster Protestants and the Republicans are mostly Irish Catholics. This correspondence between religion and politics is largely the result of a historical accident, the movement of Scottish and English settlers to the northeast of Ireland to become owners of the land in that area.

To end most of the violence in the conflict in Norther Ireland, on April 10, 1998, the Good Friday Agreement, Belfast Agreement, was signed by the UK and Irish governments, and most of the parties in Northern Ireland, except for the Democratic Unionist party, DUP. Two documents were signed: a multiparty agreement, and another was between the British and Irish governments, and a foundation on which a hoped-for lasting peace between the two politico-religious groups can be built.

In an unrelated event, Tony Blair Prime Minister in 1997, in a message, probably mostly written by his private secretary and aides, apologized for the 19th century Irish potato famine, and stated that the Irish famine was a defining event in the history of Ireland and Britain. Those who governed in London at the time failed while a crop failure turned into massive human tragedy. He also remarked that the British were partly responsible for the 20th century conditions that led to the Troubles. These were in effect statements of fact, that the British government had not done enough to prevent the famine or its consequences, rather than a full apology.

For some years political leaders in Australia were split on the issue of a formal national government apology for treatment of its Aboriginal population. Finally, on February 13, 2008, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on behalf of Parliament made a formal apology to Australias indigenous peoples, particularly the Stolen Generations, for what was a blemished chapter in the nations history. This was government policies of forced removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islands children from their homes, their communities, and their country by federal and state agencies. Tens of thousands of indigenous children were removed until 1970. In addition, Aborigines for a time were institutionalized on segregated reserves.

These policies have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on fellow Australians, on a proud people and a proud culture. Rudd declared that The time has come for the nation to turn a new page in our history by righting the wrongs of the past and so moving forward with confidence to the future. The country was exhorted to harness the determination to close the gap that lies between Australians in life expectancy, educational achievement, and economic opportunity. But problems remain as the Aborigines experience discrimination in various areas of life such as being denied a job or unfairly discouraged from continuing education.

In East Germany, the situation for rectification of wrongs is disappointing regarding the former German Democratic Republic, 1949- 1990, part of the Communist Eastern bloc during the Cold War. There has been acknowledgement of the role of Stasi, the Ministry for State Security, and its spying by audio and video surveillance, reading mails, extortion and bribery. There is ample evidence of the horrors of the Communist dictatorship, and of the fate of prisoners of the Stasi. About 4% of the population of the GDR was officially or unofficially, a spy. Opponents of the regime were imprisoned, and prisoners were tortured by psychological tricks and other methods.

Most Stasi victims have given up hope of any apology and are unable to forgive the regime. There has been some exposure of Stasi employees, but no apology for victims, although the Bundestag in 2008 agreed to pay victims a small pension each month. But most of the 200,000 former Stasi prisoners have received nothing. Meanwhile, former Stasi officers have spread disinformation and even attacked former prisoners in public. They have shown no repentance. Indeed, a considerable number have found employment in the German civil service and even in the police force.

Will these cases help in the U.S. dilemma and in the era of BLM? There appears to be no rush for forgiveness for the discrimination against Black individuals, some of whom believe that apologies and forgiveness are not likely to induce a white majority society to make substantial changes.

Yet, there is one recent incident in the U.S. that suggests hope of change is possible. The former woman Dallas police officer Guyger had been sentenced to 10 years in prison for shooting a Black man, Mr. Jean, in his own apartment. Jeans younger brother made an unusual request and asked the judge he could give Guyger a hug, which he did. After this. he said I forgive you, and I know if you go to God and ask Him, he will forgive you.

Graphic credit: qimono Pixabay license

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More than one blunder is required to screw things up as badly as the U.S. has done in the war with the Islamo-Fascists -- a war that has been waged against this country for over forty years. All the talk in the corporate media of 20 years of war is a lot of folderol. And the idea that the debacle in Afghanistan is an endpoint is even more ridiculous.

The war started in November 1979 when Islamists invaded the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran, and with the support of the incipient religious dictatorship of Ayatollah Khomeini held 52 Americans hostage for over 400 days. In the 22 years between then and September 11, 2001, the American government never mounted a successful attack on Islamo-Fascist terrorists. Because of that, the U.S. was identified as weak by its enemy.

Strategic Blunder #1 - Since 2001 the U.S. Failed to Understand the Enemy.

If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle. -- Sun Tzu, The Art of War.

The enemy in the current war is a shifting alliance of Islamo-Fascists who almost always have state sponsors. Those sponsors have been Iran, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia. In the case of the Saudis we dont know how highly placed in the Saudi royal family were the terrorist supporters.

In keeping with the above principle from The Art of War, the first question any strategist should ask is, What is the enemys center of gravity? The second question is, How do I destroy that center of gravity?

In the current Forty Years War, no President since 1979 has even attempted to answer these most basic questions. President George W. Bush had the best opportunity after the attacks on September 11, 2001. He failed. His administration discouraged the use of the term Islamism. I prefer the term Islamo-Fascism because it emphasizes the political nature of Islamism. It is based on a religion, but it is a totalitarian system of government dictating how a society is organized and the everyday behavior of individuals.

Bush failed to distinguish the religion from the Islamo-Fascist movement. He mouthed platitudes of Islam being a religion of peace. When one considers the history of jihad that spread the religion by the conquest of about half of Christendom in the 800 years leading to the fall of Constantinople, a blanket statement that Islam is peaceful is misleading, if not absurd.

There are over 1.7 billion adherents to Islam. Even if only one percent of them are Islamo-Fascists, then the enemy is 17 million strong. How do you fight them? The best answer is to attack the state sponsors by providing them with a choice: cut off support or face ostracism from the civilized world and, if necessary, punitive military action.

Strategic Blunder #2 - Islam Does Not Allow Any Space for Civic Government.

Sharia is the supreme law in an Islamic society. David Pryce-Jones wrote in The Closed Circle, (2002): In Islam, state authority and religious authority have always gone together. Nobody so far has been able to devise some way of separating them and thus laying the foundation for a civil society.

That insight into Islamic culture was ignored when the U.S. State Department wrote a constitution for the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan that granted supremacy to Islamic law. That same State Department then promoted feminism, gender studies, and everything you would find on the typical college campus in the United States.

In just under twenty years the Americans attempted to foist upon a collection of tribes, all of them Moslem, a western-style national government. There has never been a successful central government in Afghanistan, much less a western-style government, and there isnt now.

Strategic Blunder #3 -- The Cultural Basis for Democratic Government Takes Decades If Not Centuries to Form.

You dont need to know anything about Islam to understand this blunder and avoid it. You just need to know the number of years between the Magna Carta (1215) and the Glorious Revolution (1688) and the number of years between the Glorious Revolution and the U.S. Constitution (1787). It took the English almost 475 years to proceed from feudal government to parliamentary government. Then it took the English colonists in America almost 100 years to proceed from parliamentary government to constitutional government.

When there is no historical tradition in either Afghanistan or Iraq for representative government and when both had been under the heel of Islamic rule for almost 1,400 years, why should a government based on western civic institutions be all that appealing? George W. Bush and the neoconservatives never asked, much less answered, that question.

Strategic Blunder #4 -- The Large Footprint Presence in Afghanistan was a Mistake.

Afghanistan is a collection of tribes. Their national pastime always has been making war on each other. When Americans went into the country in the Fall of 2001, it was a force of CIA operatives and soldiers from the Special Operations Command who joined up with the forces of the Northern Alliance to drive the Taliban out of Kabul. The Taliban and their al Qaeda allies fled to Pakistan and the warm hospitality of the ISI (the Pakistani intelligence service). The ISI had been supporting Islamists in Afghanistan during the preceding 20 years.

If the safe haven of Pakistan was going to be neutralized, the U.S. needed to intimidate the Pakistanis. That was difficult since Pakistan has nuclear weapons. Alternatively, the U.S. could get out of Afghanistan -- with the promise to return with bombers if the country again harbored Islamist terrorists.

Putting U.S. troops into Afghanistan encouraged the us versus them mentality of too many Afghanis. An attempted cultural revolution to bring the country into the late 20th century only made it worse. The infidels were always going to be viewed as invaders.

Strategic Blunder #5 -- Pulling out Air Support Doomed the Afghani National Army.

During the Obama Administration, Afghanistan became the good war in contrast to the war in Iraq. So Obama expanded the fighting in Afghanistan with tens of thousands of troops. Eventually domestic politics required that the burden of fighting be totally shifted to Afghani forces. In subsequent years they suffered over 50,000 fatalities in fighting our common enemy. The idea that the U.S. with about 2,500 killed in action had carried the entire burden of the war is just not true.

What is true is that American generals modeled the Afghani Army on a western army with a dependence on close air support. In 2021 Biden and his toadies at the Pentagon abandoned the Bagram air base in the middle of the night. They also pulled out all the American contractors who maintained the planes and helicopters the Afghanis used for close air support.

I dont have to go into the details of the totally inept evacuation from Kabul to prove that the alleged President Biden made a disaster out of a difficult situation. He did it all to have a photo op on September 11, 2021. He lived down to the assessment by former Defense Secretary Robert Gates that Joe Biden has been wrong about every foreign policy issue in the past four decades.

We will live with the consequences of Bidens blunders and those of his political generals for many years. The U.S. Army took from 1975 to 1991 (the First Gulf War) to recover from Vietnam. Ronald Reagan deserved credit for restoring the American military. We can only hope that this generations Ronald Reagan will be elected in 2024 and that it wont be too little, too late.

Image: Pixabay

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A year ago today, on September 15, 2020, Israeli thenprime minister Binyamin (Benjamin) Netanyahu, Bahrain foreign minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al-Zayani and United Arab Emirates (UAE) foreign minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan stood on the front lawn of the White House with U.S. then-president Donald J. Trump (R) and signed the Abraham Accords. The Abraham Accords, named for Abraham (Avraham in Hebrew), who, with his wife Sarah, fathered Isaac (Yitzhak in Hebrew), the ancestor of the Jews, and, with Sarah's maid Hagar, fathered Ishmael, the ancestor of the Arabs, honored the two peoples' now remote common heritage. (And no, no scandal involved with Abraham; this arrangement was acceptable then legally, if not emotionally.)

How are the Abraham Accords functioning a year later? Unlike the highly lauded, now practically dead Camp David Accords, signed on the same White House front lawn 28 years ago between Israel and the so-called Palestinians with Yasser Arafat, brokered by President Bill Clinton (D), the answer seems to be fairly well. A few months after the signing, Morocco added its official approval, agreeing to mutual embassy openings and mutual full diplomatic relations. Although Sudan has since held back, not finalizing the deal, the Sudanese also agreed a few months later and voila! lost their designation as a terrorist state. Israel and Bahrain signed a trade deal and initiated direct flights between their respective countries. And more.

So the Israeli Jews and the Sunni Muslim Abraham Accordsigners are making progress. But! Sigh  there always seems to be a but when discussing the Democratic Biden administration's attitudes and actions toward anything associated with Donald J. Trump (R). There have been...uh...changes. Bumps. Some are unbelievably petty, such as canceling the name Abraham Accords because it evokes Trump!

And worse!

According to Jeff Dunetz's analysis on his The Lid blog:

To make the deals the Trump administration mediated were the product of thinking outside of the box. The Biden Administration has crawled back into the box. The peace deals that team Trump moderated took a totally different approach. Unlike previous administrations (both Democratic and Republican), the deals did not involve "land for peace," only "peace for peace." The supposed peace experts of previous administrations had always bloviated that no Arab country would ever formalize ties with Israel before a Palestinian state was createdthe Trump team proved them wrong. ... The bottom line is that Donald Trump had a strategy for Arab/Israel peace that was actually working. It stopped when Biden became president because of the belief that everything Trump accomplished was bad. Instead, they went back to the old ways that didn't work. Particularly, before Israel makes peace with any Arab countries, it must first make peace with the Palestinian Authority. And they believe Israel should be the only party making concessions in negotiations with the Palestinians. In other words, thanks to Biden and his team, the Abraham Accords will not expand to other countries and build to a full Middle East peace.

Meanwhile, doing their best to salvage what they can:

The UN ambassadors of Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco marked the one-year anniversary of the signing of the Abraham Accords at a New York event on Monday, highlighting the swift development of ties between their countries since the normalization agreements were inked. Hosted by the Israeli Mission to the UN at Manhattan's Museum of Jewish Heritage, the event was attended by envoys from several other countries, including Oman's deputy ambassador to the UN Ahmed Dawood Ali Al Zadjal, whose country does not have official diplomatic relations with Jerusalem. (snip) Arguably the event's highest-ranking official was US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield. Speaking after her four colleagues, the envoy praised the Abraham Accords participants for transforming "ink on a page to concrete improvements between countries."

But.

Like most Biden officials, she refrained from referring to the agreements as the "Abraham Accords," in an apparent effort to distance herself from the Trump administration-coined term. ... Thomas-Greenfield did not provide any details for how the administration plans to go about advancing those goals, and US President Joe Biden hasn't appointed a specific envoy to spearhead the issue, as was the case under Trump. ... Moreover, the current administration's lack of enthusiasm regarding the sweetened deals the former president was willing to offer to potential Abraham Accords partners  like the sale of F-35 fighter jets to the UAE, the recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over the disputed Western Sahara region, or billions in debt relief for Sudan  indicates that it won't be willing to go as far as may be necessary to coax other reluctant Arab countries to normalize relations with Israel.

But. The destructive partisanship continued last night, when Jared Kushner, who is married to Trump's daughter, hosted an anniversary celebratory event under the auspices of his newly established Abraham Accords Peace Institute. Acting assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs was the highest U.S. official to attend and was "proud" to be in attendance.

Separately on Tuesday, the US State Department announced that Secretary of State Antony Blinken will on Friday host an event marking the Abraham Accords anniversary, using the Trump team-coined term to describe the initiative. Blinken will be joined virtually by the foreign ministers of Israel, the UAE, Bahrain, and Morocco "and discuss ways to further deepen ties and build a more prosperous region," a State Department spokesperson said.

Well, OK, that sounds good. But. Blinken also wants to include the "Palestinians," whose rallying cry is "death to Israel." Nothing to discuss for the Israelis. No buts there. But the Biden administration is talking about reviving the Iran nuclear deal. But Israel's new Sunni Muslim Arab partners are also opposed to Shiite Muslim Iran acquiring nuclear weapons.

Hopefully the Israelis and their new Arab partners can build on their blossoming relationship, strengthening it.

But...we shall see.

Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.

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After showing in a custom evening gown at the Met Gala extravaganza, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is starting to sound nervous

After all, her appearance in the pricey one-of-a-kind evening gown at the celebrity-studded event didn't go over as she'd planned. Her gown had spray-painted on it the words "Tax the Rich" on its backside. It reeled in the charges of hypocrisy. I wrote about that here yesterday, and the fallout is continuing.

So now we get this, justification after justification after justification, for her soiree eating the rarified food and dancing the dance, and drinking the stuff, and doing the air kisses with all the celebrity beautiful people.

Couldnt agree more. Taxing the rich will help us expand Medicare, extend childcare, take action on climate, and so much more.



We have a precious opportunity right now in reconciliation with the Build Back Better Act, and we should use it. https://t.co/zK4qYdP07v  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) September 14, 2021

We really started having a conversation about what it means to be a working class woman of color at the Met ... we cant just play along, but we need to break the fourth wall.

 AOC  QuoteDigger (@QuoteDigging) September 15, 2021

The medium is the message. pic.twitter.com/b4Ssr6HkYR  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) September 14, 2021

And this from super-sycophant InStyle:

"I and my body have been so heavily and relentlessly policed from all corners politically."

Image: AOC/Instagram, Pinterest.

So you see, all that party enjoyment was really about presenting her ideas about taxing the rich to rich people who have heard this for years and already know how to get around it with loopholes. Somehow, they'll consent to be taxed extra  and actually paying this time  all because she showed up.

She also throws in a lot of blather about "women's bodies" as if she were the only woman out there. Blech.

It all sounds like after-the-fact justification, because the reality is, she enjoyed herself at that party, and she had a lot of fun crashing the ruling class ranks as one of them.



Screen shot from video by NBC New York via shareable YouTube.

That's what she wanted. But to keep the little guy happy, she wore on her custom gown "tax the rich," which didn't go over so well, as most people saw through it, and her problems are piling up.

First, there's the question of who paid for her ticket. It turns out she wasn't there as a politician, doing hard duty going to a celebrity gala and bringing home the swag.

The New York Post has uncovered this:

A conservative group is asking the Office of Congressional Ethics to launch an investigation of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for accepting free tickets to Monday's Met Gala, where she wore a custom gown that said "Tax the Rich." The self-declared socialist congresswoman drew broad social media scorn for partying at the elite, $35,000-per-ticket event while presenting herself as their rabble-rousing foe. Thomas Jones, founder of the American Accountability Foundation, wrote in an ethics complaint that he believes Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who represents parts of the Bronx and Queens, broke House rules by accepting "an impermissible gift" of free tickets to attend the annual gala, which also was attended by fellow New York Democratic Rep. Carolyn Maloney. Although House rules allow members to accept free tickets to charity events directly from event organizers, Jones argues that the Met Gala doesn't count because the guest list is curated by a private company, media giant Conde Nast.

Who the heck paid for her ticket? And if it was an impermissible gift, how is it not bribery? Whom is she repaying politically for this celebrity-cavalcade favor? She ought to be answering those question now instead of blathering on about "women's bodies."

Here's another hypocrisy: why has Sandy, who still owes $2,000 or so to the State of New York based on her previous failed business venture, still not paid her own taxes? She's calling for taxing of the rich in order the expand the government. But as for herself, she's skipping that detail about paying her own. Tax the Rich? How about pay your own taxes, Sandy? At a $173,000-a-year congressional salary, we know she has the cash.

Here's another problem:

She claimed to be there representing the working class, but the photos showed that the real working class was actually there beside her. They were the dark-skinned ones in the back and on the sidelines, forced to wear masks as they "served." The hundreds of attendees preening for the cameras wore no masks at all. Pandemics, see, have their privileges.

As long as we are on the class issue, how does she explain that Black Lives Matter held a protest outside the event? Those guys, whatever the merits of their arguments, put their money where their mouths were. Ocasio-Cortez was inside, enjoying the canapes.

In other words, this Met caper with the fig-leaf dress is shaping up to be a political catastrophe for her. We all know she wanted to go and have fun and join the billionaire rich. Now she's droning on about women's bodies as if it had all been some feminist conference. In reality, she's been exposed, not just as a sybarite, but as a sorry hypocrite.

Correction: AOC's tax debt was misattribited to the IRS

Image: AOC Instagram screen shot, shareable post.

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Much to many Californians' disappointment, Gavin Newsom won his election recall, and did so by a wide margin.

Blue state, Democrat voter registrations outnumber Republican ones by a wide margin  what's the news in that?

In this case, it's fair to say it may well have been legitimate, given that its 66-34 breakdown wasn't close. Reputable polls such as Emerson and Trafalgar did show in the days before the vote that the numbers had moved into Newsom's column.

Larry Elder did bring up that there was evidence of fraud going on but effectively undercut his argument by, earlier in the race, dismissing President Trump's claims of 2020 election fraud. Fraud in California now but no fraud in 2020? Give us a break; there's fraud embedded in the system. It just didn't make a difference this time.

Therefore, this recall election could be useful for Republicans because the evidence of fraud was clearly out there. And they should act now because there will be elections that will be close.

Here are some examples of fraud in this go-round that have been reported from multiple sources:

Multiple ballots mailed to residents in the mass mail-in balloting  these were reported all over, often from duplicate registrations (I know someone in Glendale who got one of these) and registered residents who had moved away decades ago.

Ballot secrecy compromised as voter choices were visible from the holes in the ballot envelopes as well as through a flashlight. That's incompetent design or, more likely, quite intentional.

Actual problems casting ballots, for Republicans only, based on faulty or rigged election machinery. This happened in the corruption-plagued San Fernando Valley and hasn't been addressed.

Evidence of tainted voter rolls based on the 449,000 Californians who were dismissed from jury duty for not being citizens. Leftist fact-checkers who have tried to dismiss this by saying illegals aren't allowed to vote beg the question of whether such people are registered  it turns out they are, because the Superior Court Judicial Branch of California has explicitly stated that it selects jury pools based on voter rolls. It also says it gets those names from DMV registrations, which the DMV supposedly has separated carefully citizen from noncitizen  which we know it hasn't. There have been big fails to separate citizens from noncitizens, worsened in part because of their reliance on an "honor system" for people stating their citizenship status. If 449,000 are being dismissed from jury duty based on non-U.S. citizenship, there are a hell of a lot of non-citizens casting votes out there that the state refuses to go after.

All of these things are evidence of fraud, and it doesn't help that the secretary of state is a doddering Democrat machine operative of known reliability and plenty of nepotism.

Other states have done considerable work to hose out election fraud from their systems, but California in this regard lags. There was one important case where Judicial Watch forced Los Angeles County to clean up its filthy voter rolls based on a court order. But the fraud is all over, and this recall shows that it's still in place and ongoing. The time is now for Republicans to fight this fraud while Democrats are happy with their result and Republicans are not disputing it. Having to fight it after a close election where all signs point to Republicans winning is, as the Trump example shows, way too late. The time to fight it is now.

Image: Chad Davis via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.

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Can we believe the shocking allegations of misconduct on the part of General Mark Milley in a new book to come from Bob Woodward? His paper, the Washington Post, has published excerpts. Briefly:

Twice in the final months of the Trump administration, the country's top military officer was so fearful that the president's actions might spark a war with China that he moved urgently to avert armed conflict. In a pair of secret phone calls, Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, assured his Chinese counterpart, Gen. Li Zuocheng of the People's Liberation Army, that the United States would not strike, according to a new book by Washington Post associate editor Bob Woodward and national political reporter Robert Costa... "General Li, I want to assure you that the American government is stable and everything is going to be okay," Milley told him. "We are not going to attack or conduct any kinetic operations against you." In the book's account, Milley went so far as to pledge he would alert his counterpart in the event of a U.S. attack, stressing the rapport they'd established through a backchannel. "General Li, you and I have known each other for now five years. If we're going to attack, I'm going to call you ahead of time. It's not going to be a surprise."



Photo credit: U.S. Secretary of Defense.

I already despise Milley for his focus on "white rage" and for his conduct of what became an abject surrender to the Taliban. But I have to express some caution about believing Woodward, who does not name his sources. Peter Hasson of the Daily Caller News Foundation cautioned us two years ago about Woodward, citing

repeated, credible charges  including from well-respected fellow journalists  that in previous books Woodward embellished the truth, made dubious bombshell claims or was otherwise misleading. Woodward's former editor at the Washington Post, Ben Bradlee, though publicly complimentary of Woodward, privately doubted some of the more dramatic elements of Woodward and Carl Bernstein's Watergate-era bestseller, "All The President's Men."

Richard Grenell has a caution for us today, as Katie Pavlich writes:

Former Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell is pouring cold water on new reporting from Bob Woodward, detailed in the Washington Post Tuesday, that General Mark Milley vowed to give China a heads up if President Donald Trump ordered an attack. Bob Woodward has become the Michael Wolff of Washington, DC.



Its hard to believe anything the two of them write.



Trump isnt a war starter and I dont believe Milley thought he was. https://t.co/4KAX8vLQi1  Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) September 14, 2021

He's also dismissing calls from Alexander Vindman, the "whistleblower" behind Trump's first impeachment over a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, for Milley to resign. Once again, Vindman shows he acts on gossip and innuendo. https://t.co/EnovkNshed  Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) September 14, 2021

Mark Levin pointed out on his syndicated radio show today that Woodward and the WaPo should not have sat on this story, if it is true, until Woodward had a book to hype. Milley allegedly was, after all, discussing a wartime situation in which the U.S. was going to strike China, which would make his giving aid and comfort to the enemy treason, a capital offense. Since we were not at war at the time he allegedly made these overtures, they probably do not qualify as treason per se, but they do indicate a plot to commit treason.

The sooner Milley is placed under oath before Congress and required to testify and produce documentary evidence of his communications, the better.

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If you think media bias is bad now, wait until Dems start shoveling money at the media in outright subsidies. What are the odds that small government points of view will get any attention then?

Subsidies for local newspapers, which are at least as biased against conservatives and Republicans as the rest of the 90% of the media that is progressive, are on the Dems' agenda. Chuck Ross reports in the Washington Free Beacon:

House Democrats are offering more than $1 billion in subsidies to local newspapers as part of a massive spending proposal released this week, even as polls show record levels of distrust in the media. The $3.5 trillion spending plan includes up to $25,000 in payroll tax credits for each journalist on a local newspaper's payroll. The carve-out will cost $1.3 billion over the next decade, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation. (snip) The proposal is nearly identical to the Local Journalism Sustainability Act, a bill introduced earlier this year by Sens. Maria Cantwell (D., Wash.), Ron Wyden (D., Ore.), and Mark Kelly (D., Ariz.). In addition to payroll tax credits, the senators proposed a $250 tax deduction for subscriptions to local newspapers.

In my experience, local newspapers, which mostly employ younger and cheaper journalists than bigger papers, are even more biased than the New York Times or WaPo. Their heads filled with propaganda in J-schools, the youngsters seek attention and maybe even a job offer from the industry's bigger fish by supporting what they (correctly) perceive as the norms of the industry: make conservatives look evil and stupid, and make progressives and Democrats look heroic.

In point of fact, the public does not trust newspapers, which is reason enough to deny them subsidies:

Just 21 percent of Americans said they had "great confidence" in newspapers, according to a recent Gallup survey. Only television news, big business, and Congress had lower confidence ratings.

Some years ago, I had a conversation with a Swedish official of the conservative Sweden Democrats, who told me that our media bias was nothing compared to that in his own country, where the government heavily subsidizes newspapers. He complained that crimes committed by Muslim immigrants get just about zero attention from the media, despite their proliferation in recent years. It is well known that the government does not want such news to get out, and a press dependent on subsidies is not about to displease the government.

Of course, it must be noted that governments already subsidize our media through paid advertising. On the national level, the federal government spends about $1 billion on advertising, according to a Government Accounting Office report.

In addition, states and local governments spend on advertising. In California, I can't find a total, but it is notable that the state outspent the feds four to one when it came to advertising for Obamacare enrollment.

Photo credit: Easolo public domain.

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According to a Twitter feed from Leeroy Johnson, a group of MAGA and BLM activists joined together to demonstrate outside the Manhattan home of New York State Assembly member Linda Rosenthal, who is sponsoring a bill to make COVID vaccinations mandatory. Johnson identified himself as an "independent photographer" and says he takes no sides.

Here is his tweet with film of the smallish demonstrations, followed by MAGA and BLM activists identifying themselves and speaking of their joint effort:

Black Lives Matter and Maga activists team up in solidarity and are both upset about the mandatory vaccine bill NY state legislator Linda Rosenthal put in. Protesters were outside Linda's home yelling NO FORCED VACCINE



Filmed and owned by Leeroy Johnson #CovidVaccine #blm #MAGA pic.twitter.com/k3EpdgUWC0  Leeroy Johnson (@LeeroyPress) January 2, 2021

The suspicion many African-Americans have toward the medical establishment has strong roots in the Tuskegee medical experiment atrocity, in which African Americans were left untreated so disease progress could be studied  in essence dehumanizing them and treating them as lab animals.

The largest single demographic group remaining unvaccinated is Blacks, raising all kinds of hell with plans to force the jab on everyone, given the Democrats' fealty to the doctrine of disparate impact, making anything that adversely impacts Backs more than other groups automatically racist.

Mandatory vaccination is a gut-level issue for many who resist the pressure. If this film is real, and BLMers are willing to join with MAGA types, it suggests that the Dems' hold on the Black vote may crumble. It is not just that 20, 30, or 40 percent of African-Americans might be tempted to vote against them; it is that they may discourage turnout among others. If Black turnout plunges and their share of the remaining Black vote goes much below 15%, it could impact races at the state level in many parts of the country.

I don't think there is much that Dems can do to assuage the suspicions of many Blacks, rooted as they are in bitter history. But they have also committed themselves to forcing vaxes on the public  and demonizing Republicans, Trump voters, and Fox News viewers. If they keep on pushing that line, they risk driving some African-Americans toward checking out the very groups the Dems want to demonize.

Photos: Twitter video screen grabs.

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This is the image the government  and its media maidens  broadcasts: a red-hot map of COVID community spread gone wild. One look at it, and it rightly evokes panic. Five-alarm fire. Run  or at least hide  for your lives. The sky is falling, again. Mommy, make it stop!



Source.

But insofar as government and media are supposed to be purveyors of Truth  which of course includes context  it is a misleading image.

Instead, if the goal is to reflect reality and priorities  meaning risk  below is the better image. This image shows that a little statistic called "deaths" is down, way down. It shows deaths at near the low point of the 18-month pandemic. It arguably shows a wildly improving situation.



Source.

Yet I had to hunt for this image on the CDC website. You won't see it on TV, in the newspaper, or online much.

We should ask ourselves, why is that? Why, in an era with information at our fingertips, are we so manipulated? Why, when all claim to be singularly focused on "following the science," is one image omnipresent and the other omni-absent?

In this case, the answer is, sadly, political.

After all, remember when this all started  a whole 18 months ago  all the articles and graphs about "flattening the curve"? But do you remember what the whole point of flattening the curve was?

It was to spread out and hopefully prevent deaths and hospitalizations so our systems would not be overwhelmed. Death, after all, is the metric we most seek to prevent. Yet deaths are down, way, way down, nationally

Given that, why is the CDC's red-hot map ubiquitous now, while the death map  which is more relevant and telling  effectively hidden? If massive community spread is a precursor to massive death, the CDC graphic sure doesn't show it.

To be clear, I am not advocating against the COVID "vaccine," which is more a preventative "shot" and symptom-lessening therapeutic than it is a "vaccine" in the classic sense. I am all for the shot; got it as soon as I could. Seems to work well, especially at preventing death.

But these are not either-or choices. In fact, no choice needs to be made at all. You can be "vaccinated" and recognize that the sky is not falling, though it is hard to conclude otherwise with the red-hot map.

Some of the puppeteers pulling the strings  media, industry, and government actors  perhaps do so unconsciously, perhaps themselves unknowing victims as well. But knowledge and motives aside, the manipulative result is the same: people  on both "sides"  are left panicked and more ill informed (or duped) than informed.

Too many people on the far right are falsely left thinking there is no issue and the "vaccine" untested or unnecessary, while too many on the far left are left falsely thinking the sky is falling.

It demonstrates that George Orwell's 1984 is not just a cautionary novel. If we open our eyes, we will see that it is a tale we are in the midst of living. But today  with speech codes, cancel culture, and schools even eliminating honors classes  it emanates more from the left, somewhat the analogue of 1950s McCarthyism.

And just like frogs in a simmering pot being raised one degree at a time, it is hard to notice, let alone do much about, while simmering in it.

Ribbit.

A Harvard Law School graduate who clerked for two judges, William Choslovsky is a lawyer in Chicago, where he serves on the local school council of his children's public school.

To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here.
Maybe this is what Obamacare 2.0 is all about. It's a brave new world in which the antiquated doctor-patient relationship is sacrificed in favor of diktats from health care bureaucrats. In this new paradigm, doctors no longer practice medicine as scientists. Instead, they are more like automatons, doing as they are ordered to do  including providing care that isn't care. When I had COVID last fall, I was baffled that my doctor didn't want to see me.

Thankfully, I'm not the only one troubled by doctors' behavior. A group of doctors is fighting back.

On Steve Bannon's "War Room Pandemic," Dr. Robert Malone, Dr. Heather Gessling, and Dr. Ryan Cole announced that some fifteen physicians met in Puerto Rico recently and organized the Pandemic Health Alliance. Malone will be president. Job one is drafting a manifesto and encouraging doctors to get back to what motivated most of them to go into medicine in the first place: the practice of clinical medicine.

"We are here not to discuss the vaccine," explained Malone, the original inventor of the mRNA technology. Instead they came together to defend "the freedom of physicians to practice." Doctors are "being prevented from providing early treatments," he said, referring to pharmacies blocking certain prescriptions. "We are in a situation where the government has seized control of the medical profession and this is causing death," Malone continued. Gessling later in the show explained that the doctors had "incredible success" with early treatment protocols "that have already been tried and have [been] found to work very well." She said the world is dealing with a "pandemic of censorship" regarding ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine. "We are being shut down," Gessling added. "We cannot even tell people what has worked." The Pandemic Health Alliance's manifesto says the doctors wish to strengthen the doctor-patient-relationship. "The profession of medicine as we know is at a crossroad," the manifesto reads. "There has been an unprecedented and intentional assault on our ability to care for our patients. Physicians, and all health care providers, must have the freedom to practice the art and science of medicine without fear of retribution, censorship, slander, and disciplinary action to include possible loss of licensure and hospital privileges, loss of insurance contracts and interference from government entities and organizations  all further preventing us from caring for patients in need." The manifesto laments that patients in Europe are being blocked from going to their physicians, unless they take the "high risk, duplicative vaccine." And this takes place even if patients already acquired natural immunity. The manifesto insists that the blocking of early treatments that is taking place right now in the United States is "sentencing high risk patients to death."

Real medicine is, sadly, a messy business. It's fraught with trial and error, as is all human achievement. All too often, today's doctors are strictly "by the book" and paid the same by insurance companies no matter what the patient outcome. As I said, Obamacare 2.0.

Image: Person who is sick. Pexels license.

To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here.
Late last week, the Biden White House ordered approximately 100 million Americans to be vaccinated for COVID-19. He required federal workers and contractors who work for the federal government to be fully vaccinated and, through OSHA, mandated that employees of businesses with more than 100 workers must be vaccinated or tested on a weekly basis. Irrationally, these orders do not exempt people who already have adequate COVID-19 antibodies due to a previous infection or vaccination.

Businesses that do not comply are subject to fines of $14,000 per violation.

In announcing the mandate, Biden warned, "If you break the rules, be prepared to pay. And by the way, show some respect."

As if such scolding weren't enough, Biden added, "Let me be blunt: My plan also takes on elected officials and states that are undermining you and these lifesaving actions. ... If these governors won't help us beat the pandemic, I will use my power as president to get them out of the way."

Don Corleone could not have said it better himself.

Notably, the Biden vaccine mandate does not cover the House of Representatives and the Senate, the Judicial Branch of the federal government, or illegal aliens and refugees who come under government control. This raises questions about why certain Washington political elites and people entering America illegally or as refugees have a choice, but so many other Americans do not. It is reminiscent of the frustration that Americans experienced when their health care insurance was forcibly canceled and their compliance was mandated for Obamacare, while the White House, Senate, and House were exempted.

Americans are thoughtful people who value their rights and freedoms. Most of all, Americans want to make informed choices. Today, dozens of online "review" websites cover everything from light bulbs to fishing lures to bottled water to health care providers  and everything in between. While it's not necessary to start crowdsourcing reviews of pharmaceuticals for the general public, we do need external reviews by independent non-FDA clinical scientists to inform consumers about the medicines they receive, including vaccines.

Physicians and pharmacists should not be expected to blindly recommend and administer COVID vaccines to their patients without first personally reviewing and being comfortable with available efficacy and safety information. They should not act simply because the White House instructs them to do so.

And here lies the problem: Americans can't obtain a full disclosure about the efficacy findings of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines because the FDA hasn't released its Pfizer vaccine clinical efficacy and safety reviews yet. (The myriad materials at the link do not include the clinical efficacy and safety reviews.) This is true even though we know that these reviews are complete because they are required for the full approval that Comirnaty (the Pfizer vaccine) has been given.

Historically, both the safety and efficacy medical officer reviews are posted online simultaneously with the FDA approval letter  but for one reason or another, they weren't with Comirnaty. A lot of Americans don't know  but deserve to know  the specific data regarding their vaccines' safety and efficacy.

This is especially important right now because there is a wide discrepancy between the safety findings of the vaccine on the confusing-to-use FDA Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) website and the CDC's oddly titled "wonder" website. The discrepancies include the number of deaths reported after the administration of Comirnaty and other COVID-19 vaccines.

Again, Americans and their health care providers are thoughtful people who want to be scientifically informed and do what's right and safe. People understandably hesitate to accept mandates to do things when they lack information, and they become downright suspicious when the information they seek is being withheld or obfuscated by their government  while parts of the government itself are exempt from those same mandates, not to mention all the illegal aliens and refugees streaming into America.

Americans are entitled to make informed decisions, and the FDA should disclose its safety and efficacy reviews for all to see. Having the White House mandate any vaccine without full transparency while members of Congress are exempt is un-American and insulting. Being secretive and non-transparent about public health data could serve to further harden the anti-vaccine and vaccine-hesitant movements in America and abroad.

Dr. David Gortler is a pharmacologist and a pharmacist and an FDA and health care policy scholar at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C. He was a professor of pharmacology and biotechnology at the Yale University School of Medicine and an FDA medical officer who was later appointed by the White House to serve on the FDA's Senior Executive Leadership Team as senior adviser to the FDA commissioner for drug safety, drug epidemiology, FDA science policy, and FDA regulatory affairs.

Image by Doc Cassidy.

To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here.
In a paywalled Washington Post article, reporter Isaac Stanley Becker writes of allegations in a forthcoming book titled Peril by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa that chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley circumvented the chain of command following the January 6 incident, contracted his commander in chief's political rivals, and personally assured the head of China's military that he would give them warning if the U.S. were to attack.

In the book's account, Milley went so far as to pledge he would alert his counterpart in the event of a U.S. attack, stressing the rapport they'd established through a backchannel. "General Li, you and I have known each other for now five years. If we're going to attack, I'm going to call you ahead of time. It's not going to be a surprise." Believing that China could lash out if it felt at risk from an unpredictable and vengeful American president, Milley took action. The same day, he called the admiral overseeing the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, the military unit responsible for Asia and the Pacific region, and recommended postponing the military exercises, according to the book. The admiral complied. Milley also summoned senior officers to review the procedures for launching nuclear weapons, saying the president alone could give the order  but, crucially, that he, Milley, also had to be involved. Looking each in the eye, Milley asked the officers to affirm that they had understood, the authors write, in what he considered an "oath."

If this is true (and Woodward's record is mixed), Milley is guilty of insubordination and probably conspiracy to commit treason. My understanding of treason is that a state of war is required for it to apply. In this case, conspiracy to commit treason could be charged, but not the act itself. President Trump, while cautioning that his remarks only apply if the allegations are true, is not so reluctant to use the t-word:

Many others also believe treason charges should that apply. Bonchie of RedState

The move to alert the CCP would have taken place via a secret backchannel set up by Milley and not sanctioned by the White House. For those who want to quibble with the term treason being used, here's the legal definition of the act under 18 USC Ch. 115. 2381. Treason Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States. Let's think about this. This is a top US general secretly contacting a top Chinese general pledging to notify him of any coming attack without the Commander in Chief's knowledge. In doing so, he would be betraying the American service members who would be carrying out such an attack, almost certainly leading to more casualties. Keep in mind in the event of an attack, we would then be at war with the Chinese, making them an enemy nation at that point.

But I believe that his analysis supports my view that conspiracy to commit treason is the relevant charge, and that treason would apply only to the actual warning that might have been given during a state of war once the attack was underway.



Photo credit: U.S. Secretary of Defense.

Jack Posobiec claims that there are witnesses ready to testify:

BREAKING: Several Pentagon officers present in Milleys secret meeting are willing to testify against him under oath, per WH official  Jack Posobiec  (@JackPosobiec) September 14, 2021

Perhaps the most curious response of all comes from LTC (ret.) Alexander Vindman, who himself went outside the chain of command to alert a "whistleblower" about a Trump phone call, resulting in the second impeachment of President Trump.

If this is true GEN Milley must resign. He usurped civilian authority, broke Chain of Command, and violated the sacrosanct principle of civilian control over the military. Its an extremely dangerous precedent. You cant simply walk away from that. #dotherightthingintherightway https://t.co/izsMMCFPrz  Alexander S. Vindman (@AVindman) September 14, 2021

With the Department of Justice politicized and aligned with the Democrats, the odds of a prosecution of Milley are slim. Should the Republic survive, future historians will have to grapple with the consequences of the nascent coup contemplated and celebrated by Woodward and Costa and the Washington Post, whose headline emphasizes Trump, not Milley as the threat:

Top general was so fearful Trump might spark war with China that he made secret calls to his counterpart in Beijing, new book says

To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here.




In a post on Twitter, the Public Ministry said that Prosecutor Vladimir Farfan head of the above-mentioned office took such decision weighing public order and social interest





Thus, the terrorist's corpse will remain in the custody of the Public Ministry until the prosecutor's investigation which may take up to 30 days is complete.









Iparraguirre a Shining Path member who is also in prison had filed a request through a legal representative to have her husband's corpse handed over to her.





Terrorist ringleader's capture





Abimael Guzman was captured on September 12, 1992 , marking the defeat of Shining Path the most bloodthirsty and cruel terrorist group the South American country had ever seen.





National Police Special Intelligence Group (GEIN) found the place where he and other Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso or SL) leaders were hiding, by following SL Coordinator Luis Arana Sotil, after he met Carlos Inchaustegui, one of the house's guards.





The dwelling in Lima's Surquillo district and its inhabitants Inchaustegui and Maritza Garrido-Lecca were surveilled for months by police officers dressed as street vendors and sweepers.





The quantity of food purchased by the couple, the clothes in extra-large sizes, the medicine used to treat psoriasis (ailment Guzman was diagnosed with) and SL-related notes found in the garbage caught the attention of the police.





On September 11, the day before Guzman's capture, officers saw the silhouette of a fat bearded man inside the house. He was lighting a candle during one of the blackouts common in the city at that time.





The police raided the house during the evening of September 12. Two undercover agents disguised as boyfriend and girlfriend got inside the place as soon as Maritza Garrido-Lecca opened the door to say goodbye to their guests.





Guzman was on the second floor, along with SL second in command Elena Iparraguirre also known as Comrade Miriam Laura Zambrano and Maria Pantoja.





"There he was. The man was sitting and waiting for us. He knew he had lost," affirmed Luis Flores Soli, one of GEIN members who participated in the successful capture.





The Inca nation's dark 1980-2000 terrorism episode is estimated to have claimed over 69,000 lives, according to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).





The majority of said fatalities are attributed to Shining Path.





Guzman and members of the terrorist group were sentenced to life imprisonment on terrorism charges. They were accused of being the ones responsible for terrorist attacks, assassinations, and sabotage.





In September 2018, Abimael Guzman and other Shining Path central committee heads were sentenced to life in prison over the Tarata Street car-bomb attack that claimed the lives of 25 people in Lima.



#LoUltimo | La Tercera Fiscalia Provincial Penal Corporativa del Callao, denego el pedido de Elena Iparraguirre, para que se le entregue el cuerpo del terrorista Abimael Guzman Reinoso.  Ministerio Publico (@FiscaliaPeru) September 15, 2021

Para tomar la decision, el fiscal Vladimir Farfan Kehuarucho, pondero el Orden Publico e interes social.  Ministerio Publico (@FiscaliaPeru) September 15, 2021

El cuerpo quedara bajo custodia del Ministerio Publico hasta que termine la investigacion fiscal. pic.twitter.com/jFGf6inlNS  Ministerio Publico (@FiscaliaPeru) September 15, 2021

(END) FHG/CVC/RMB/MVB

The Third Provincial Corporate Criminal Prosecutor's Office in Callao has rejected a request filed by terrorist Elena Iparraguirre to have the dead body of Shining Path terrorist ringleader Abimael Guzman handed over to her.Published: 9/15/2021
In another thwack against Google Pay... argh.

I've been waiting forever for TD to work with Google Pay, and TD has always stood by 'we have a mobile payment system, we're good' kind of stance. Anywho...

TD now works, not only with Apple Pay, but it now works on Samsung Pay.

Samsung Electronics Canada Inc. (Samsung) announced today that eligible TD cards, including TD Access Cards and TD Credit Cards, are now supported by Samsung Pay, the widely accepted mobile payment system that works almost anywhere shoppers can swipe or tap their card.[1] This collaboration with TD significantly expands the availability of Samsung Pay to Canadian cardholders.

The Samsung Pay expansion comes as contactless payments grow in popularity across Canada. To help spur greater adoption of contactless transactions as a fast and safe payment option, card issuers in Canada increased contactless transaction limits from $100 to $250 last year.[2] At the start of 2021, contactless payments accounted for close to 60 per cent of overall transactions across the country.[3]

Samsung Canada is committed to providing quick and seamless payment experiences for all Canadians, and welcoming TD to our mobile payment ecosystem is the latest collaboration in that mission, said Raj Doshi, Head of Mobile Business, Samsung Canada. Canadians have long relied on their mobile devices to make life easier, and over the last year, their reliance on smartphones has only increased, with contactless payment methods becoming not just the norm but the preference. With Samsung Pay, we are helping to honour that preference for TD customers.

Samsung Pay is simple and convenient to use and is available on compatible Galaxy smartphones and Galaxy wearables. To make purchases, users can simply open Samsung Pay or swipe up at the bottom of their Galaxy device and select the card to pay with, verify using their fingerprint, face recognition or PIN, and tap to pay anywhere contactless payments are accepted in Canada.[4]

In addition to payments, users can collect the same rewards and benefits they normally enjoy with Samsung Pay by uploading eligible loyalty cards to the app.

Samsung Pay is compatible with a wide range of Samsung smartphones including the Galaxy Z Flip3 5G, Galaxy Z Fold3 5G, Galaxy S21 Series 5G, Galaxy Note20 Series 5G, Galaxy Note10 & Note10+, Galaxy Watch4 Series, Galaxy Watch3 and Galaxy Watch Active2[5]. The mobile payment system supports eligible credit and debit cards from more than 80 banks and credit unions across Canada.[6]

Samsung Pay is available for download today from the Samsung Apps Galaxy Store and Google Play. For more information on how to set up Samsung Pay on your Galaxy device and add your eligible TD Card(s), visit https://www.td.com/ca/en/personal-banking/solutions/ways-to-pay-and-send-money/?tdtab=samsung-pay



[1] Works anywhere NFC/MST credit and debit transactions are accepted.

[4] Fingerprint and iris scanner on compatible Samsung devices.

Source: https://news.samsung.com/ca/samsung-canada-expands-availability-of-samsung-pay-with-td
BEIRUT - Media in Lebanon reported that former Lebanese prime minister Hassan Diab fled to the United States to avoid facing an interrogation by the Beirut prosecutor's office, which is investigating the explosion that took place at the port of Beirut on 4 August 2020, in which over 200 people died.



"Diab fled to the United States, officially to visit his children," Lebanese TV broadcaster al Jadid (NewTV) said Wednesday, confirming previous reports by other Beirut media outlets.



Judge Tareq Bitar had repeatedly invited Diab, who resigned as prime minister in August 2020, to be interrogated.



Diab was placed on a list of nine senior institutional officials under investigation on charges of not having done enough to prevent the disaster, despite knowing about the presence of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate at the port, which eventually exploded on 4 August last year.



On Friday, the formation of the new Lebanese government led by Najib Miqati was finally announced.



Diab, who as resigning premier had enjoyed institutional immunity, had continually ignored invitations to be interrogated at the prosecutor's office.


MADRID - A meeting is underway in Barcelona between Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and Catalan regional governor Pere Aragones, as revealed by TV broadcasts that showed Sanchez's arrival at the regional government headquarters and the reception reserved for him by Aragones.



The meeting precedes a summit between delegations from both governments organised to resume political negotiations on the future of the relationship between the Spanish government and that of Catalonia, which were suspended over a year and a half ago.



This is the second official meeting between Sanchez and Aragones since both have been in their current government positions.



The first was held in Madrid at the end of June, just weeks after the election of the Catalan leader as head of a new coalition government between the pro-independence parties Esquerra Republicana (ERC) and Junts per Catalunya, and the decision to resume talks now was taken then.



Just days before, Madrid had granted a pardon to the Catalan leaders sentenced to prison for the 2017 secession attempt.



The Catalan side came to Wednesday's meeting disunited: Aragones came with only two councillors from his own party, ERC, after excluding Junts members from his delegation.



The latter had proposed three candidates who are not part of the regional government, a requirement considered essential by both the Catalan president and the Spanish government.



Great uncertainty still reigns over the outcome of these negotiations.



Aragones' main objective is to get the go-ahead for a referendum on Catalan independence and amnesty for separatists with open judicial cases.



The Spanish government, which at Wednesday's meeting was represented in addition to Sanchez by Deputy Prime Minister Yolanda Diaz and some ministers, is aiming at agreements limited "to what is allowed by the Constitution".



A face-to-face meeting between Sanchez and Aragones is scheduled to take place before the summit between the delegations.


Covid: Israel, antibodies 10 times higher after third dose Study shows, compared to number after second dose

(ANSAmed) - TEL AVIV, 15 SET - A third dose of Covid vaccine provides antibody levels 10 times higher than those following the second dose, according to preliminary studies of a serological study conducted by Sheba hospital in Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv, on its internal staff.



The study, which was reported by the media, compared the level of antibodies in personnel one week after the third-dose booster shot with those of the same personnel one week after the second dose. (ANSAmed).




TEL AVIV - Israel is preparing for Yom Kippur, the "Day of Atonement", which is the most important religious date on the Jewish calendar, with a 24-hour period of fasting, penitence and reconciliation.



Starting Thursday evening through Friday evening, as every year, the country will stop completely.



Public and private transport will be suspended, including flights at the Ben Gurion airport; and shops, bars and restaurants will also be closed, as well as all state offices and borders.



However, pedestrians and bicycles are allowed.



There will be no radio or TV broadcasts and no updates to news websites; they will resume at the end of Yom Kippur.



Border crossings will also be closed with the Palestinian Territories, including Gaza, with the exception of humanitarian cases.



Following the attacks of recent days, security measures will be increased in Jerusalem, where about 2,000 officers will be on duty above all in the Old City and at the Wailing Wall for religious ceremonies.



Following a peak in Covid-19 infections (about 9,500 cases recorded on Tuesday), precautionary measures were introduced for indoor ceremonies in synagogues and the faithful are being invited to pray outside.



This year is the 48th anniversary of the 1973 surprise attack on Israel by Egypt and Syria on the day of Yom Kippur.
Spain: nuclear energy sector on war footing with government Reason is a measure that aims at lowering bills

(ANSAmed) - MADRID, 15 SET - Spanish media reported that the Spanish nuclear energy sector is on a war footing with the country's centre-left government, due to measures adopted by the government as it struggles with an emergency situation over a record-breaking increase in electricity prices and tries to contain the impact on household and business energy costs.



The measure in question is a bill that will have to be approved in Parliament that aims at reducing the so-called "benefits from heaven" obtained by energy producers with low CO2 emissions (such as nuclear energy) that - due to current market mechanisms - manage to sell energy at prices similar to those who have to pay the European CO2 emission rights, thus obtaining higher profits.



This initiative has put the main companies in the sector in Spain on a war footing, including large electricity companies such as Endesa and Iberdrola.



A statement from the Spanish Nuclear Industry Forum (Foro Nuclear) said with the new law the companies would be forced to close the active plants in Spain, currently seven, early due to unsustainable costs.



Current concessions will expire between 2027 and 2035, said Spanish daily El Pais.



It said any plant closures cannot be decided unilaterally by the owners because to do so requires government and market regulator authorization.



Government sources told the sector that the planned measures are "in accordance with national and European law", according to Spanish public broadcaster TVE. (ANSAmed).




Lebanon: media say Diab, former PM under probe, fled to US Under investigation for responsibility in Beirut port explosion

(ANSAmed) - BEIRUT, 15 SET - Media in Lebanon reported that former Lebanese prime minister Hassan Diab fled to the United States to avoid facing an interrogation by the Beirut prosecutor's office, which is investigating the explosion that took place at the port of Beirut on 4 August 2020, in which over 200 people died.



"Diab fled to the United States, officially to visit his children," Lebanese TV broadcaster al Jadid (NewTV) said Wednesday, confirming previous reports by other Beirut media outlets.



Judge Tareq Bitar had repeatedly invited Diab, who resigned as prime minister in August 2020, to be interrogated.



Diab was placed on a list of nine senior institutional officials under investigation on charges of not having done enough to prevent the disaster, despite knowing about the presence of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate at the port, which eventually exploded on 4 August last year.



On Friday, the formation of the new Lebanese government led by Najib Miqati was finally announced.



Diab, who as resigning premier had enjoyed institutional immunity, had continually ignored invitations to be interrogated at the prosecutor's office. (ANSAmed).




US says support for Tunisia to uphold democratic advances Counselor of U.S. Department of State meets foreign minister

(ANSAmed) - TUNISI, 15 SET - Counselor of the U.S. Department of State Derek H. Chollet met with Tunisian Foreign Minister Othman Jerandi in Tunis on Tuesday, and said the US will continue its support to Tunisia, "to continue to uphold democratic advances, the foundations of the rule of law and the values of modernity that link the two countries".



Chollet emphasised the United States' "will to work with Tunisia to face many challenges and continue dialogue on various topics of common interest", according to a statement from the Tunisian Foreign Ministry.



Jerandi assured Chollet that "the exceptional measures announced by President Kais Saied are based on Article 80 of the Constitution and are aimed at protecting the State and its institutions".



Jerandi also emphasised "the commitment to ensure the republican and democratic regime, the respect for human rights, freedoms and the rule of law". (ANSAmed).




Boris Johnson has been criticised for making a disgusting joke that the UK could become the the Saudi Arabia of penal policy under Home Secretary Priti Patel.

Opposition politicians said that the Prime Minister had reached a new low after footage emerged of the comments made at a Conservative Party fundraiser last week.

Critics argued that the joke was in bad taste because Saudi Arabia has one of the worlds most extreme punitive regimes, including capital punishment by beheading.

Hard these days to be shocked by the callous remarks of Boris let the bodies pile high Johnson but this latest revelation marks a new low even for him. He may admire his pals in the Saudi dictatorship but with this kind of humour the joke is on all of us. https://t.co/0FWvUIpbqa  Alistair Carmichael MP (@amcarmichaelMP) September 14, 2021

Homosexuality is illegal in the Gulf state and can be punished by the death penalty and inhumane sentences such as whippings and chemical castration.

The Business Insider website, which obtained the video, said Mr Johnson made the gag in front of some 300 attendees at the InterContinental London Park Lane hotel in Mayfair.

Kicking off his speech, the Prime Minister said: In the immortal words of Priti Patel or Michael Howard or some other hardline home secretary, addressing the inmates of one of our larger prisons: its fantastic to see so many of you here.

Mr Johnson went on to tee up the offending joke by discussing the UKs work on renewable energy.

I said last year were the Saudi Arabia of wind. Probably the Saudi Arabia of penal policy, too, under our wonderful Home Secretary, he said to laughter from the audience.

In 2011, Ms Patel told BBCs Question Time programme that she would support the reintroduction of capital punishment to serve as a deterrent to murderers and rapists.

The front entrance of the British Ambassadors residence, at Riyadh in Saudi Arabia (John Stillwell/PA)

But she later insisted she no longer supports the death penalty after first entering the Cabinet.

Attacking the Prime Ministers comments, Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner said: Saudi Arabia beheads its own citizens, tortures activists exercising their democratic rights and kills homosexuals.

This is disgusting. As ever with Boris Johnson behind closed doors the masks slips and we see what he really thinks.

The Liberal Democrats home affairs spokesman Alistair Carmichael said the comment marks a new low even for Mr Johnson.

He may admire his pals in the Saudi dictatorship but with this kind of humour the joke is on all of us, Mr Carmichael added.

Saudi Arabia beheads its own citizens, tortures activists exercising their democratic rights and kills homosexuals. This is disgusting. As ever with Boris Johnson behind closed doors the masks slips and we see what he really thinks.https://t.co/uQ2UVrpewM  Angela Rayner (@AngelaRayner) September 14, 2021

In July, a journalist at the Politico website reported Mr Johnson making a similar joke about Saudi Arabia during a call with business leaders, but was told by Downing Street the suggestion was total bollocks.

Following a string of controversies, Ms Patel is widely tipped to be sacked as Home Secretary in the reshuffle on Wednesday afternoon.

Downing Street insisted it has taken a clear position on any human rights abuses committed by Saudi Arabia.

Asked if it was then an odd subject to joke about, the Prime Ministers official spokesman declined to get into the details of meetings like that, adding: You can see our position is very clear and our record is very clear.
Former Isis-bride Shamima Begum has begged the British public for forgiveness, saying there is no evidence she was a key player in preparing terrorist acts.

The 22-year-old, who fled her east London home for Syria as a 15-year-old schoolgirl, said she wanted to be brought back to the UK and face terror charges in order to prove her innocence.

She told ITVs Good Morning Britain: I am willing to go to court and face the people who made these claims and refute these claims, because I know I did nothing in IS (so-called Islamic State) but be a mother and a wife.

These claims are being made to make me look worse because the Government do not have anything on me.

There is no evidence because nothing ever happened.

She said she would rather die than go back to IS and added: The only crime I committed was being dumb enough to join IS.

The 22-year-old, who had her British citizenship revoked by the Home Office over security concerns, appeared from the camp in Syria where she is being detained, wearing a Nike baseball cap, a grey vest, and with pink nail varnish on her hands.

EXCLUSIVE: Shamima Begum says she'd 'rather die' than go back to ISIS.@richardm56 questions whether Ms Begum would still be in ISIS if they had not been 'destroyed'. Watch GMB now  https://t.co/6iQ6ebeOEQ pic.twitter.com/zmI3zBeXeT  Good Morning Britain (@GMB) September 15, 2021

Asking for forgiveness, she said: I know its very hard for the British people to try and forgive me because they have lived in fear of IS and lost loved ones because of IS, but I also have lived in fear of IS and I also lost loved ones because of IS, so I can sympathise with them in that way.

I know it is very hard for them to forgive me but I say from the bottom of my heart that I am so sorry if I ever offended anyone by coming here, if I ever offended anyone by the things I said.

I know there are some people, no matter what I say or what I do, they will not believe that I have changed, believe that I want to help.

But for those who have even a drop of mercy and compassion and empathy in their hearts, I tell you from the bottom of my heart that I regret every, every decision Ive made since I stepped into Syria and I will live with it for the rest of my life.

In a direct plea to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Begum said: I think I could very much help you in your fight against terrorism because you clearly dont know what youre doing.

She added: I want them (the British public) to see me as an asset rather than a threat to them.

Shamima Begum clarified her previous comments about the Manchester Arena bombing in 2017, in which 22 people were killed (Martin Rickett/PA)

Begum had previously compared the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing  in which 22 men, women and children died after homegrown jihadi Salman Abedi detonated a suicide bomb  to military strikes on IS strongholds, calling the terror attack retaliation.

But she clarified her comments on Wednesday.

She said: I do not believe that one evil justifies another evil. I dont think that women and children should be killed for other peoples motives and for other peoples agendas.

Begum said she did not know that women and children were hurt in Manchester.

She said: I did not know about the Manchester bombing when I was asked. I did not know that people were killed, I did not know that women and children were hurt because of it.

Begum said she married Dutch convert Yago Riedijk 10 days after arriving in IS territory.

She told The Times that she left Raqqa in January 2017 with her husband but her children, a one-year-old girl and a three-month-old boy, had both died.

Her third child died in the al-Roj camp in March 2019, shortly after he was born.
The UK has announced a new defence partnership with the US and Australia as Western allies look to keep a check on Chinas growing power in the Indo-Pacific.

In a joint statement on Wednesday evening, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, US President Joe Biden and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison confirmed the creation of a new trilateral defence partnership.

Mr Johnson said the alliance, known by its acronym Aukus, would work hand-in-glove to preserve security and stability in the Indo-Pacific.

China was not mentioned in the cross-continental briefing but there was frequent reference to the changing situation in the region.

Earlier this year, in the integrated review of security and foreign policy, the UK Government outlined plans for a tilt in focus towards the Indo-Pacific, with aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth being deployed on a voyage east  a decision said to be about sending a message to Beijing and Russia about Britains own military strength.

Speaking from Australia, Mr Morrison said the world was becoming more complex, particularly in our region, the Indo-Pacific, and said the future of the geopolitical area will impact all our futures.

Mr Biden, who thanked Boris and that fella Down Under for their contributions, said the future of each of our nations, and indeed the world, depends on a free and open Indo-Pacific enduring and flourishing in the decades ahead.

Downing Street hailed the agreement as a landmark defence and security partnership and said it would protect and defend our shared interests in the Indo-Pacific.

Officials said working closer together would allow for an increase in technology sharing and foster deeper integration of security and defence-related science, technology, industrial bases and supply chains.

The first initiative under Aukus will be for the three allies to work together to secure nuclear-powered submarines for the Royal Australian Navy  a move that will increase Western security capabilities in the Pacific.

The initial scoping phase for the submarines is expected to take 18 months, with the UK Government predicting the programme will create hundreds of highly skilled scientific and engineering roles across the country, as well as driving investment in high-tech sectors.

The Royal Navy has been using nuclear-powered submarines for decades (Andrew Milligan/PA)

In a live broadcast from Downing Street, the Prime Minister said the partnership would make the world safer.

Mr Johnson said: Im delighted to join President Biden and Prime Minister Morrison to announce that the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States are creating a new trilateral defence partnership, known as Aukus, with the aim of working hand-in-glove to preserve security and stability in the Indo-Pacific.

We are opening a new chapter in our friendship.

Perhaps most significantly, the UK, Australia and the US will be joined even more closely together, reflecting the measure of trust between us, the depth of our friendship, and the enduring strength of our shared values of freedom and democracy.

Now the UK will embark on this project alongside our allies, making the world safer and generating jobs across the United Kingdom.

Mr Johnson said Scotland and parts of the north of England and the Midlands would feel the benefit of the work on the nuclear-powered submarines, with the Government keen to exploit the Royal Navys decades-worth of knowledge of using such machines.

At a later press conference in Canberra, Mr Morrison said it was undecided if Australia would purchase British-built BAE Systems Astute class submarines or the Virginia class vessels constructed in the US.

French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and armed forces minister Florence Parly said in a statement issued by the countrys embassy in Canberra that it had taken note of Australias decision to halt the Future Submarine programme with France.

This decision is contrary to the letter and spirit of the cooperation that prevailed between France and Australia, based on a relationship of political trust and on the development of a very high-level defence industrial & technological base in Australia, the statement added.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP)  Four former Minneapolis police officers charged with violating George Floyd's civil rights pleaded not guilty Tuesday to the federal charges against them.

A federal grand jury indicted Derek Chauvin, Thomas Lane, J. Kueng and Tou Thao in May for allegedly depriving Floyd of his rights while acting under government authority on May 25, 2020, as Floyd, 46, was held face-down, handcuffed and not resisting in a restraint that was captured on bystander video. His death led to worldwide protests and calls for change in policing.

All four of the men appeared at the hearing remotely via videoconference. Chauvin appeared from a room in the state's maximum security prison, where he is serving a 22 1/2-year sentence for murder in Floyd's death. The other three men appeared remotely alongside their attorneys.

Prosecutors and attorneys for the former officers are also arguing their positions on about 40 pretrial motions Tuesday.

Among them, Kueng and Thao have asked that their federal trials be separated from Chauvins, saying they would be unfairly prejudiced if they went to trial alongside him. Lane asked to join that request, which is being opposed by prosecutors. U.S. Magistrate Judge Tony Leung said he would take oral arguments on that motion.

Keungs attorney, Tom Plunkett, wrote in court documents that evidence against Chauvin would confuse the jury and deprive Kueng of his right to a fair trial. He also said there is a conflict of interest due to Chauvins level of culpability in Floyds death, saying the jurors will not be able to follow the Courts instructions and compartmentalize the evidence as it related to Mr. Kueng.

Prosecutors have said in court documents that the four former officers should face trial together, because the charges stem from the same event and the evidence is similar.

The federal indictment alleges Chauvin violated Floyds right to be free from unreasonable seizure and unreasonable force by a police officer. Thao and Kueng are charged with violating Floyds right to be free from unreasonable seizure by not intervening to stop Chauvin as he knelt on Floyds neck. All four officers are also charged with depriving Floyd of his rights when they failed to provide him with medical care.

During Floyd's arrest, he repeatedly said he couldnt breathe as Chauvin pinned him to the ground. Kueng and Lane helped restrain Floyd; Kueng knelt on Floyds back, and Lane held Floyds legs, according to evidence in state court. Thao held back bystanders and kept them from intervening during the 9 1/2-minute restraint.

The four officers were also charged in state court, where Chauvins trial was eventually separated from the others due to space restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Chauvin was convicted in April of murder and manslaughter and was sentenced to 22 1/2 years. The other three former officers face state trial next March on aiding and abetting counts.

Chauvin is also charged in a separate federal indictment alleging he violated the civil rights of a 14-year-old boy in 2017.

Meanwhile, the federal government is investigating policing practices in Minneapolis. The investigation known as a pattern or practice  examining whether there is a pattern or practice of unconstitutional or unlawful policing  includes a sweeping review of the entire police department. It may result in major changes to policing in the Minnesota city.

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Find APs full coverage of the death of George Floyd at: https://apnews.com/hub/death-of-george-floyd
Appearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday, FBI Director Christopher Wray apologized for the bureau's failure to properly investigate sexual abuse allegations against former USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar.

Wray's testimony came after four of Nassar's victims  Simone Biles, McKayla Maroney, Aly Raisman and Maggie Nichols  described in stunning detail the abuse they suffered and the failure of the agency to take them seriously.

"I'm deeply and profoundly sorry to each and every one of you," Wray said in his opening statement. "I'm sorry for what you and your families have been through. I'm sorry so many people let you down over and over again. And I'm especially sorry there were people at the FBI who had their own chance to stop this monster back in 2015 and failed, and that is inexcusable. It never should have happened, and we're doing everything in our power to make sure it never happens again."

FBI Director Christopher Wray at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday about the bureau's handling of the Larry Nassar sexual abuse investigation. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

A report issued by the Justice Departments inspector general in July concluded that the FBI made fundamental errors in investigating the abuse allegations against Nassar and did not treat the case with the utmost seriousness, including after the bureau was first made aware of them in 2015.

The inspector general estimated that about 70 girls and women were abused by Nassar between the time the FBI was made aware of the allegations and his arrest in late 2016. Wray was appointed to his post in 2017.

The report found that the special agent who interviewed Maroney in 2015 about her claims of Nassars abuse did not write up a formal report of that interview, known as a 302, for 17 months. The special agent, Michael Langeman, was fired by the FBI last week.

The report also found that during the Nassar case, Jay Abbott, the head of the bureaus Indianapolis office, was in talks with USA Gymnastics about getting a possible job with the Olympic Committee. Abbott retired from the bureau in 2018.

In his testimony Wednesday, Wray said those agents "betrayed" the FBI and "broke" the trust that the American people have in the agency.

He said the FBI has made "significant changes," adopting new training protocols and procedures since the inspector general's report was published.

Gymnasts Aly Raisman, Simone Biles, McKayla Maroney and Maggie Nichols after testifying on Capitol Hill Wednesday. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

Each of the gymnasts recalled her abuse and the FBIs failings while speaking Wednesday before the panel.

"After telling my entire story of abuse to the FBI in the summer of 2015, not only did the FBI not report my abuse, but when they eventually documented my report 17 months later, they made entirely false claims about what I said," Maroney said. "They chose to lie about what I said and protect a serial child molester rather than protect not only me but countless others."

She added: What is the point of reporting abuse if our own FBI agents are going to take it upon themselves to bury that report in the drawer?"

It was like serving innocent children up to a pedophile on a silver platter," Raisman said in her testimony.

"We have been failed, and we deserve answers," Biles said through tears. "A message needs to be sent. If you allow a predator to harm children, the consequences will be severe. Enough is enough."

Larry Nassar appears in court for sentencing in 2018. (Rena Laverty/AFP via Getty Images)

In 2018, Nassar was sentenced to a prison term of up to 175 years after more than 160 women came forward with allegations of sexual assault against him. He is currently in federal prison in Florida.

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LOS ANGELES  California Gov. Gavin Newsom easily survived a recall election Tuesday in a closely watched race that drew national attention and campaign visits from President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Associated Press projected less than an hour after polls closed in the state.

With 62 percent of ballots counted  and more than two-thirds of them saying "no" to the recall  Newsom addressed his supporters in Sacramento.

"'No' is not the only thing that was expressed tonight," the governor said. "I want to focus on what we said yes to as a state. We said yes to science. We said yes to vaccines. We said yes to ending this pandemic.

"I'm humbled and grateful to the millions and millions of Americans who exercised their fundamental right to vote and expressed themselves so overwhelmingly by rejecting the division, by rejecting the cynicism, by rejecting so much of the negativity that's defined our politics in this country," he added.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom at a campaign event on Monday at Long Beach City College. (Leah Millis/Reuters)

Preliminary exit polls suggested that the very issue that recall proponents had hoped would unseat Newsom  the pandemic  was the one that helped propel him to victory. Not only did COVID-19 rank as the No. 1 issue on voters minds, ahead of homelessness, wildfires, crime and the economy, but just 3 in 10 California voters said Newsoms pandemic policies were too strict, the main argument behind the recall. More than two-thirds (69 percent) said they supported the states mask mandates for students; just 24 percent said the pandemic was getting worse in the state.

In one sense, Newsoms victory wasnt much of a shock. In 2018, the former San Francisco mayor was elected governor with 62 percent of the vote  the largest Democratic landslide in state history. Nearly three years later, 57 percent of Californians still approve of his performance in office, according to a recent CBS News poll. And Democratic voters outnumber Republican voters statewide by nearly 2 to 1.

But both the pandemic and Californias bizarre recall rules, which set the bar much higher for governors who want to remain in office than for challengers who want to replace them, gave anti-Newsom conservatives a glimmer of hope.

Every California race for governor since Ronald Reagans election in 1966 has inspired quixotic recall efforts. Prior to February 2020, Newsoms opponents introduced five recall petitions against him. None got off the ground. It was only when COVID-19 started to spike over the holidays of that year  and when Newsom seemed to be caught off guard by contradictory public opinion over restrictions and reopenings  that the recall proponents were able to gather the signatures they needed to get on the ballot.

Not helping matters was Newsoms deeply hypocritical decision to attend a lobbyists maskless birthday dinner at the French Laundry, a fancy Napa Valley restaurant, or a state judges decision  on the same November day as Newsoms fateful soiree, no less  to give those seeking a recall four extra months, because of COVID, to canvass the state for signatures.

Even then, the recall would have failed to materialize if California required more than 12 percent of voters to sign the petition  the threshold is 25 percent or higher in other states  or evidence of actual malfeasance. In 2020, at least 14 governors nationwide faced recall efforts. Only Californias attempt proceeded to a ballot.

Gubernatorial recall candidate Larry Elder at Monterey Park City Hall in Los Angeles. (Francine Orr/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Meanwhile, the election itself would never have been considered competitive if not for the way it was structured. The first ballot question ("Do you want to recall the governor?") required Newsom to secure at least 50 percent of the no vote to survive. This, in turn, was followed by a second question ("If the governor falls short of 50 percent, who do you want to replace him?") that would have awarded the governorship in that scenario to whichever one of this years 46 challengers earned a mere plurality  even if the governor got a far bigger plurality on the first question than his new replacement got on the second.

Incidentally, keep Newsom never fell below 47 percent in FiveThirtyEights average of California recall polls. Conservative radio host Larry Elder, the frontrunner in the pack of recall challengers, never cleared 30 percent.

Still, the rules are the rules  and for a while, it looked as if the recall supporters had a chance to capitalize. Partly it had to do with the tensions around the COVID-19 pandemic. Partly it had to do with realities on the ground  rampant homelessness, astronomical living costs, violent crime  that have been amplified by the pandemic. And partly it had to do with an intensity gap between Republicans who desperately wanted to dethrone a Democrat and Democrats who barely realized that the Democrat they just elected could actually be dethroned in an odd-year September vote, or who barely cared enough about state politics to save someone who seemed to represent a fraught status quo.

As a result, in early August the FiveThirtyEight average showed a near-even split between voters who wanted to keep Newsom in office and voters who wanted to remove him. One survey  later effectively disowned by the firm that conducted it  showed Newsom trailing by 11. Other, superior polls suggested that revved-up recall proponents could theoretically prevail if Newsoms far larger but less engaged base failed to turn out. A few weeks of frenzied media attention followed.

Then, suddenly, California Democrats seemed to shake off their summer stupor.

Why? A number of things happened all at once. The surprisingly close polling  and all the coverage it triggered  convinced blase Democrats that Newsom could lose. Simultaneously, the right-wing Elder  who denies the existence of systemic racism, opposes gun control and abortion rights, wants to abolish the minimum wage and pledged to overturn COVID-19 mask and vaccine requirements in schools and elsewhere  emerged as Newsoms likeliest replacement. That transformed the election from a freewheeling referendum on a troubled time to a clear choice between two living, breathing candidates with wildly different politics  one of whom could never win a normal statewide election in heavily Democratic California, and one who already had.

Campaigning on behalf of Newsom on Monday at Long Beach City College, Biden made sure to link Elder to former President Donald Trump, who remains deeply unpopular here.

All of you know last year I got to run against the real Donald Trump. Well, this year, the leading Republican running for governor is the closest thing to a Trump clone that I have ever seen in your state, the president said, echoing Newsoms own refrain that we defeated Trump last year ... but we havent defeated Trumpism.

Voters cast their ballots at a vote center at Santa Monica College. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images).

By the time Biden visited, Newsom had already dropped tens of millions of dollars on commercials contrasting himself with Elder, swamping his Republican rivals and recall proponents on TV by a nearly 4-1 ratio; his campaign spent millions more on a massive get-out-the-vote effort. Harris stumped in the state as well; former President Barack Obama cut an ad.

Soon every single one of Californias 22 million registered voters who was still somehow clueless about the coming election got a very effective wake-up call: a paper ballot sent straight to their home mailbox. By Election Day, more than 8 million mail ballots had already been returned  and Democrats had sent in twice as many as Republicans. The GOPs intensity edge had evaporated; so had its encouraging poll numbers. FiveThirtyEights final average showed keep Newsom ahead of remove Newsom by nearly 16 points, 57.3 to 41.5 percent.

The last hope for Elder and the other 45 candidates on the ballot seeking to replace Newsom was that Republican voters who had been trained by Trump to distrust mail ballots would flood polling places Tuesday and prove the pollsters wrong. But they didn't show up in anything like the numbers it would have taken to overcome Newsom's early advantage.

Because of all these quirks, its difficult to draw any conclusions about national politics from California. But there are three takeaways from Newsoms victory that are worth noting as the 2022 midterms approach.

The first is that the GOP is still the party of Trump  even in a deep-blue state such as California, where the only kind of Republican who might still stand a chance of winning statewide would be an experienced moderate like former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer. But Faulconer failed to crack 5 percent in the polls, and instead GOP recall voters gravitated toward Elder, a brash, Trumpian entertainer.

The second takeaway is that Republicans are now so invested in claiming (without evidence) that fraud is the only way Democrats can win elections, theyre going to keep doing it even when the election in question isnt close. For days now, Trump himself has been releasing preemptive false statements about how millions and millions of mail-in ballots will make this just another giant election scam, while Elders campaign went so far as to create a website declaring that it had "detected fraud" in the "results" of the California recall election "resulting in Governor Gavin Newsom being reinstated [sic] as governor"  but published the page online before the election had taken place or any results had been released.

This election fraud stuff is a crock. Its shameful, Newsom said Monday when asked by a reporter if he had seen any credible evidence of election-altering fraud. As an American, Im ashamed by it. Im disgusted. Stop. Grow up. These people are literally vandalizing our democracy, trust in our institutions.  Accept the results. Theres absolutely none. Its embarrassing to even respond to that, because its fantasy. Theyre making stuff up.

Such fantasies are unlikely to have any impact in California. But they will keep delegitimizing the democratic process for the GOP base, which will continue to provide cover for new voting restrictions and election challenges in Republican-controlled swing states.

And the third takeaway from the California recall is that the politics of the pandemic may be shifting back in Democrats favor.

No Republican running for governor could possibly have defeated Gavin Newsom in the recall election, but COVID could have, Dan Schnur, a former spokesman for Republican former California Gov. Pete Wilson and the late GOP Sen. John McCain who teaches politics at several leading California universities, recently told Yahoo News "Skullduggery" podcast. The reason it's not is because voters here have come to conclude that he is doing a much better job on it than they'd thought last spring and last winter.

President Biden with Newsom at Long Beach City College. (Leah Mills/Reuters)

When the recall qualified for the ballot this past spring, Americans were optimistic that so-called herd immunity was on the horizon and that vaccines would soon vanquish the virus. In that context, the hands-off vision of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, among other Republicans, looked alluring. No indoor mask mandates. No vaccine requirements. No more stress on families or businesses. Just live your life as if the pandemic was already over, and soon it would be.

Then came the hypercontagious Delta variant. Now, a few months later, Florida has become one of the only states where more people are dying of COVID each day  long after free, safe and effective vaccines became widely available to all Americans age 12 or older  than during any previous wave of the virus. In fact, the Sunshine State is now recording nearly twice as many daily COVID-19 deaths (350 on average) than it was at last summers peak (185). No other state comes close.

In contrast, Californians are dying of COVID-19 at a lower rate today (103 per day) than last summer (140 per day), despite the fact that the Delta variant is twice as transmissible as the initial strain of SARS-CoV-2 that was circulating in 2020. Thats the kind of progress you would expect after vaccination.

During Californias bout with Delta, there have been no lockdowns, no business closures, no official curbs on indoor drinking or dining  just a general public bias toward caution that is both reflected and reinforced by indoor mask mandates (along with an emerging trend toward vaccine requirements, particularly for health, school and government employees).

In contrast, DeSantis doubled down on his opposition to mask and vaccine mandates when Delta took off, prohibiting local governments, local businesses and even local school districts from implementing such policies  and therefore discouraging Floridians themselves from behaving more cautiously. In fact, a new New York Times analysis shows that across all states that voted for Trump in 2020, undervaccination allowed nearly 12,000 preventable deaths during July and August alone  more than double the 4,800 in states Biden won in 2020, where vaccination rates are higher.

Californians are not particularly happy with [Newsom] on homelessness, on education, on public safety, but those issues, despite the Republican candidates' efforts to talk about them, are of secondary if not tertiary importance to the virus, Schnur said. And unlike last year, when Newsom was telling people to stay home, given the fact that we have vaccines now, the most onerous thing he's saying is you must wear a mask, you must get vaccinated. That isn't nearly as onerous. So particularly when compared and contrasted to other states in the country, Californians are feeling good about him on the only issue that matters to them right now.

Ever the canny politician, Newsom took advantage of this development to argue that Republicans want to take us backwards with this Sept. 14 recall, as he put it in a recent ad. Theyll eliminate vaccine mandates for health and school workers on day one, threatening school closures and our recovery. On the stump, he warned that Elder will walk us off that same COVID cliff as Texas and Florida, Tennessee and Alabama and Georgia.

In effect, Newsom reframed the recall as a choice, above all else, between the laissez-faire COVID-19 policies that have failed to contain huge summer surges in Republican-led states across the South and the Golden States more careful approach to Delta.

On Tuesday, Californians chose the latter. Whether a similar playbook will work for other Democrats down the road remains to be seen. But what Newsoms win does suggest is that while voters are desperate for the pandemic to end, many of them no longer believe that the best way to get there is by pretending it already has.

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HOUSTON, Sept 14 (Reuters) - Heavy rains lashed Texas and Louisiana on Tuesday as Hurricane Nicholas weakened into a tropical storm, bringing the threat of widespread floods and power outages as it swept down the U.S. Gulf Coast.

It is the second major storm to threaten the region in recent weeks after Hurricane Ida killed more than two dozen people in August and devastated communities in Louisiana near New Orleans.

Nicholas should weaken further and become a depression by Wednesday, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. It could still cause life-threatening flash floods across the Deep South in the next couple of days, the agency warned.

Nicholas was about 15 miles (25 km) south-southwest of Houston by 7 a.m. Central Time (1200 GMT), heading north-northeast with maximum sustained winds of 60 miles per hour (95 km per hour), the NHC said in a bulletin.

President Joe Biden declared an emergency for Louisiana and ordered federal assistance for local responders because of the effects of Nicholas, the White House said.

Tropical Storm Nicholas in Galveston, Texas

Nicholas could knock out electricity and hamper restoration efforts after Ida knocked out power in Louisiana.

Early on Tuesday, more than 95,000 customers in Louisiana had lost power, according to the website PowerOutage.us, while in the Houston area alone, more than 415,000 customers faced outages, utility CenterPoint Energy (CNP.N) said.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott declared states of emergency in 17 counties and three cities, with boat and helicopter rescue teams being deployed or put on standby.

Crowdsourse Rescue, a disaster-response organization in Texas, said on Twitter that its swift-water teams reported no calls for rescue overnight.

"But we'll take a mediocre night of sleep in a truck then no sleep in a boat," it said. "Knocking on wood, but so far so good?"

Volunteers with the organization fanned out across the coastal areas to do damage assessments and found minimal debris and flooding.

Some 14 inches of rain fell in Galveston while Houston got almost six inches of rain overnight and into the morning, the National Weather Service reported.

Galveston Mayor Craig Brown told the Daily News that there was heavy street flooding in low-lying areas early Tuesday morning.

"What caught us a little by surprise was the speed of the winds," Brown said of the 50 mph winds that blew through his city of 50,000. "They were a little heavier with more force than we thought."

Northwest in Houston, many residents, especially on the south and southeast sections of the city, awoke to power outages, downed trees and water in their homes on Tuesday after Nicholas passed over the area.

Houston, the fourth most populous U.S. city, was devastated in 2017 when Harvey, a Category 4 hurricane, slammed Texas, dropping up to 40 inches (102 cm) of rain in some areas and killing more than 100 people.

The Houston Independent School District along with dozens of schools districts across both states canceled Tuesday classes.

The METRO in Houston resumed limited light rail and bus service on Tuesday. Hundreds of flights were canceled or delayed at airports in Corpus Christi and Houston.

The storm was expected to move slowly to the northeast throughout the day, and then turn eastward by Wednesday over Louisiana, the National Weather Service (NWS) said.

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards warned against flash floods triggered by the heavy rain as drainage systems were still clogged with debris from Ida and other storms.

NWS models forecast rainfall totals from Nicholas from 16 inches in coastal parts of Texas to 20 inches in some spots. Its northeast sweep was expected to pummel parts of south-central Louisiana and southern Mississippi with up to 10 inches of rain.

Reporting by Erwin Seba in Houston, Liz Hampton in Denver, Marianna Parraga in Houston, Brendan O'Brien in Chicago, Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles, Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru and Sarah Morland in Gdansk; Additional reporting by Jonathan Allen in New York; Writing by Brendan O'Brien and Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Steve Orlofsky
A coalition of over 100 student environmental action groups from universities across the United States will send a letter Wednesday to 54 large companies that belong to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce asking them to push back against the Chambers campaign to block President Bidens Build Back Better agenda, Yahoo News has learned.

The umbrella organization Change the Chamber, which was formed last year to combat the Chamber of Commerces tendency to defend fossil fuel interests, is joined by leading national green groups the Sierra Club and the League of Conservation Voters in its request that members of the Chamber pressure the group to stop lobbying against the Democrats $3.5 trillion budget bill. The letter will be sent to companies including Microsoft, Coca-Cola, Salesforce, 3M, UPS and United Airlines.

Hundreds of young climate activists in Lafayette Square on June 28 in Washington, D.C. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Businesses, by not calling out what the Chamber is doing while they are members of it, are being complacent, said Aaditi Lele, a freshman at Vanderbilt University, who is a student fellow with Change the Chamber. A lot of these businesses have also put out statements about sustainability, and do a lot to appear sustainable and forward in terms of the environment, but in the background are taking these actions like running ads against the budget reconciliation and blocking these important climate policies.

In August, the Chamber of Commerce threatened to score votes for the budget resolution, which includes a range of efforts to combat and adapt to climate change, as antibusiness votes in its annual scorecards. Now, as the budget moves through the reconciliation process, the Chamber is leading an array of business interests, including the Business Roundtable and PhRMA, which represents the pharmaceutical industry, in a coordinated campaign against the proposal.

Provisions that have drawn the ire of large corporations include proposed tax increases, fees for carbon pollution and prescription-drug-pricing reform.

President Biden during a virtual meeting in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 11. (Sarah Silbiger/UPI/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The businesses are a really important portion of the power map of this [climate] crisis, said Lele. By having those companies use their membership to pressure the Chamber, we cut out a pipeline of influence that is talking into politicians ears telling them to not vote for climate provisions.

Change the Chamber is also releasing a report that details the Chamber of Commerces recent actions to obstruct climate change, such as co-host[ing] impromptu press calls with the American Petroleum Institute to criticize the Biden administrations pause on drilling on federal lands, and filing amicus briefs on behalf of fossil fuel infrastructure projects such as oil pipelines that are tied up in court.

The Chamber of Commerce, reached for comment on the letter, referred to a past statement in which it argued that the budget bill has too many non-climate social welfare provisions. "The Biden administration is arguing that the massive $3.5 trillion tax and spend budget reconciliation bill is a climate bill. Its not," the group wrote on Monday. "The reconciliation bill is an 'everything but the kitchen sink' bill consisting of a wish list of a big government policies that would forever alter the American economy."

This story was updated Wednesday with comment from the Chamber of Commerce.

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YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 15, ARMENPRESS. Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia Armen Grigoryan met with Secretary of the Security Council of Russia Nikolai Patrushev in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, on the sidelines of the joint session of the CSTO foreign, defense ministers and secretaries of the Security Council, Mr. Grigoryans Office told Armenpress.

Armen Grigoryan told his Russian counterpart that such frequency of bilateral meetings shows both countries interest in deepening the partnership between the two Security Councils, as well as developing the ties between Armenia and Russia in the security sector.

Thereafter, the officials discussed the current situation in the South Caucasus. In this context Armen Grigoryan introduced his Russian counterpart on the current situation caused by the recent illegal incursion of the Azerbaijani armed forces into Armenias sovereign territory, stating that any encroachment against the territory of Armenia is unacceptable. He added that Armenia is ready to start the border demarcation and delimitation process as soon as possible.

Talking about the possibility of establishing long-term peace in the region, Armen Grigoryan said the government of Armenia has announced the era of peace which would bring peace and development opportunity to the South Caucasian region, highlighting on this path the opportunity of unblocking all infrastructure.

Nikolai Patrushev also emphasized the importance of continuing the works on unblocking process, stating that it will enable to ensure stable peace in the region.

The talk specifically focused on the issue relating to the Armenian prisoners of war, hostages and other persons held in Azerbaijan. Armen Grigoryan once again stated that according to the November 9, 2020 statement, all prisoners of war, hostages and other persons held must be returned to the homeland. Meanwhile, he said, the Azerbaijani side does not fulfill its commitment. Mr. Grigoryan expressed hope that the quick return of all Armenian POWs would become possible thanks to the efforts of the Russian side.

Touching upon the efforts on solving the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, the Russian Secretary of the Security Council highlighted activating the process within the Minsk Group Co-Chairs.

Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan
YEREVAN, 15 SEPTEMBER, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs Armenpress that today, 15 September, USD exchange rate down by 3.19 drams to 487.00 drams. EUR exchange rate down by 3.38 drams to 575.78 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate down by 0.01 drams to 6.71 drams. GBP exchange rate down by 6.22 drams to 673.33 drams.

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

Gold price down by 201.99 drams to 28069.83 drams. Silver price down by 2.11 drams to 369.51 drams. Platinum price down by 207.85 drams to 14890.2 drams.
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 15, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian Government is making all possible efforts for repatriating the Armenian war prisoners, ARMENPRESS reports PM Pashinyan announced at the National Assembly, answering the question of MP Elinar Vardanyan from Armenia bloc.

Practically, during all the international meetings with the participation of the representatives of Armenia, from parliamentary platforms to the government level, the issue of captives and missing in action is always the key topic. All possible efforts are taken, but this is not the issue that we should discuss here, Pashinyan said.

He added that the works done cannot be considered satisfactory unless all the Armenian POWs return home. I am also a citizen of the Republic of Armenia and maybe I am the most unsatisfied citizen over the results of the works in that direction, the PM said.
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kW

The highlight of the build is the Matte Ravenna Blue paintwork, which represents a premiere for the model . It is contrasted by black elements such as the door handles and rear spoiler, and complemented by the Black Style package, which brings dark 18-inch alloys, grille trim, side mirror caps and tailpipe, in addition to a few glossy black accents inside.Offered in the Edition and Edition Plus specifications, the new T-Roc Cabriolet R-Line Edition Blue has a starting price of 42,565 (equal to $50,287) and 47,490 ($56,105) respectively, in its home market. VW claims that the extras represent price advantages of 1,350 ($1,595) and 2,350 ($2,776) respectively.Choosing the Equipment variant will get you the Digital Cockpit Pro, Discoverer Media infotainment system and App Connect with embedded Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. It also features a heated multi-function steering wheel, two-zone climate control, center armrest, LED headlights and Park Assist that can automatically steer it into parallel and perpendicular parking spaces.Sitting on black 19-inch wheels from VW R, the Edition Plus version of the T-Roc Cabriolet Edition Blue gets the Dynamic Chassis Control. Other standard items include the Comfort smartphone interface, wireless charging pad, voice control, BeatsAudio premium sound system, Vienna leather package, keyless access, anti-theft alarm and proactive occupant protection system.No matter which one you go for, both are offered with the same engine. The powertrain of choice is the 1.5-liter TSI gasoline unit, which produces 150 ps (148 hp / 110). It works in conjunction with a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission that transfers the thrust to the front wheels.
EV

4MATIC

The first step in that plan was to launch the EQS flagshipsedan in North America first, a move that according to Kallenius will allow the German brand to steadily build momentum in this segment over the next decade, reports Autonews Europe The S-Class is such a symbol for the brand and that will help us create the momentum we need for the decade, he said. We start with the flagship and show what a luxury dedicated architecture looks like, and since we are restricted in terms of deliveries anyway, it does not matter from a volume point of view. So, we lead with the EQS, which was the strong with from the market.Kallenius also believes that Mercedes can both lead the luxury segment, as well as help shift the market more quickly towards electric mobility. At the same time, he knows that shifting to EVs isnt enough if were aiming for a sustainable future and that renewable energy supply is also crucial.This means having the proper infrastructure and clean energy sources, things that require more than just good will, but also full cooperation from the worlds governments.U.S. pricing for the all-new 2022 Mercedes EQS has yet to be announced, but all signs point to a starting MSRP of more than $100,000. In Germany, the EQS range is priced from 106,374, which is roughly $125,000. However, the flagship EQS 580variant is considerably more expensive, at 135,529, or about $160,000.If we had to guess, wed say that an entry-level Mercedes EQS is going to cost about as much as a Porsche Taycan 4S, while the flagship spec (for the time being) could cost slightly more than a Taycan Turbo (from $150,900), but almost certainly less than a Turbo S (from $185,000).
The 2022 GMC Sierra HD Pro is nothing to write home about, as the workhorse pickup truck hasnt changed at all. That comes with some good news, though, including an identical MSRP tag. On the other hand, the 2022 Chevrolet Silverado went through a subtle enhancement procedure on the outside and a major redesign inside.Better yet, the first-ever Silverado ZR2 has also been presented, and Chevy now has a proper 420-hp V8 contender for the 2022 Ford F-150 Raptor. None of them, on the other hand, look as good as this official GM Design pickup truck. Granted, its probably just wishful thinking from the ideation sketch category, but that doesnt mean we cant dream about it.Perhaps, one day into the near future the Silverado/Sierra line will feature a flagship pickup truck version packed with traits inspired by this futuristic design. Sure, the boxy-yet-fast (even fastback, considering the angle of the C pillars) design would look good on just about any pickup truck of this world. But, more than anything else, wed love to see the Chevy/GMC trucks sport a suicide-door setup.Chances are that Rolls-Royce purists need not worry about the possible competition from GMs pickup trucks. But, then again, that crimson styling would bode extremely well for the Detroit automakers plans to electrify everything it produces. Heres an edgy design with a sloping roofline, suicide doors, huge wheels, a short bed cargo box, and (perhaps) a fully electric powertrain (1,000-hp one from the 2022 Hummer EV Edition 1 ?).Wow, that really adds up to something... But, on the other hand, its all speculation. After all, GM Designs official social media account gave us nothing to work upon except for the proper link to the designers own Instagram page ( Aaron Riggs , aka zambiniftm).
And the most recent beta version released for testing provides us with an early look at some of the biggest changes Android Auto has received in a long time.Discovered by Italian blog AndroidWorld , this update is reportedly called Coolwalk, and it all comes down to a new button thats embedded into the dynamic bar at the bottom of the screen.What this button does is launch a new overlay showing up on top of your navigation (or another app thats running on the screen), letting you see the latest notification. Furthermore, it launches a new pane that includes playback controls along with artist information and other notification details.At the first glance, it looks to be some sort of action or notification center that displays more information on unread messages while also providing easy access to media controls.For some users, this wouldnt make much sense given the bottom navigation bar also includes playback controls when a music app is running, but theres a chance Google is planning something big in the long term and this UI could make it easier to see the essential information even if you dont have a widescreen in your car.The search giant has also updated the app launch icon, so it now features a whole new design, and the notification button has been moved to the left part of the screen as well.Clearly, Google is working on big changes for Android Auto , but at this point, the implementation is rather unpolished, and it could still take a lot of time until everything becomes available for users out there.
Its one thing to wear a pilots watch, and another thing to fly in the backseat of a Blue Angels jet. Actor Glen Powell got the chance to do both. In honor of the Blue Angels 75th anniversary, the actor, who is also an IWC ambassador, was invited to spend a day at the Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida.The proud owner of a private pilots license himself, Powell experienced first-hand the impressive maneuvers of the U.S. Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron.The milestone anniversary was also celebrated by the launch of a limited-edition collection of watches. IWC became an official licensee of the Department of the Navy in 2019. Now, its releasing three models that honor the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps aircraft and pilots.Inspired by the military-exclusive watch developed for the Blue Angel members, the first model in the new collection features a striking, blue ceramic case and a matching rubber strap. Its also decorated with the Blue Angels crest on the dial and contrasting yellow details.The pilots watch Chronograph Edition Tophatters is inspired by the Strike Fighter Squadron 14, which is the Navys oldest active squadron. Its case is made of black zirconium oxide ceramic, while the pushers and the crown are made from an innovative material thats as resilient as titanium, with the same scratch-resistance as ceramic. The vibrant red details and the leather strap bring out the bold spirit of the Tophatters.The third model honors the Royal Maces - the Strike Fighter Squadron 27, stationed at the Marine Corps Air Station in Japan. Apart from the black zirconium oxide ceramic case and contrasting yellow details, this watch features a unique engraving of the squadrons F/A-18E Super Hornet jet.All the new IWC chronographs are powered by the in-house 69380 caliber movement and feature a soft-iron inner case that protects it. These military-inspired, limited-edition timepieces are available for 11,600 ($13,000) each.
AMG

4MATIC

These two cars should have no business racing against each other. Not only do they belong to different segments, but one of them has - and you can almost take this literally - half the other one's engine. That being said, it has a lot more than half its power and torque, and since it's also lighter, maybe putting them head-to-head isn't as ridiculous as we initially thought.It's not ridiculous, but only as long as the more powerful of the pair wins. You don't want a V8-poweredlosing to one with just four cylinders, especially when they're not that far apart in terms of body style. And these two - a Mercedes-AMG CLA 45 S and a Mercedes-AMG C 63 S Coupe - definitely are not.Digging deeper into their specs, you'll find the one detail that makes this race worthwhile, one that the organizers went to great length to hide in the title: the CLA 45 S is also a+, meaning it has all-wheel-drive, whereas the C 63 S can only rely on its rear wheels to put down all the power made by the 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8.We're looking at 503 hp (510 ps) and 516 lb-ft (700 Nm) of torque, a more than significant amount that could definitely benefit from an all-wheel-drive system itself. The more compact CLA 45 S makes a bit less power - 415 hp (421 ps) and 369 lb-ft (500 Nm) - but has the advantage of its transmission, as well as a bit less weight. When it comes to the latter, though, both are extremely heavy: 4,012 lbs (1,820 kg) for the C-Class and 3,737 lbs (1,695 kg) for the CLA-Class.The two drivers hold a total of six races, four over the standard quarter-mile distance, and two over a full kilometer (0.62 miles) - this is Germany, after all, and they do use the metric system. If you watch the clip, you'll see that it's hard to take the scoring too seriously since there are a few glaring mistakes and a couple of stolen starts. But overall, from a usable performance point of view, you're probably better off with the Mercedes-AMG CLA 45 S 4MATIC+.The C 63 S would have probably won a rolling race comfortably, and it definitely scores higher in the sound department, but looking at the in-cabin footage, you can't help wondering how old-school and dated the interior in the C-Class looks now. It's amazing how not even that long ago, that design was considered modern and premium, if not even luxurious. Talk about not aging well.Heads-up: the video is in German.
AMG

ICE

EV

Actually, it was only earlier this month that Mercedes-got its first serious hybrid model (a plug-in hybrid, to be exact), the oddly named GT 63 S E Performance . By getting a 204-hp electric motor to go with its 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8, the large sedan became the most powerful production AMG model of all time thanks to a combined output of 843 hp, suggesting electrification isn't that bad after all.However, using a motor to boost the power of a V8 engine and having the gas-burner removed altogether are two completely different things for any AMG enthusiast. Let's not forget this is a brand whose fame has been built on two things: great performance and very loud engines and exhausts.Porsche and Tesla, among others, have proven that electric powertrains have no problem going hand-in-hand with on-road and even on-track performance but, no matter what you do, you can't make an electric motor have the same emotional impact as the sound of a V8 has on its own.How is Mercedes-AMG going to solve this problem? They probably won't, and that's OK because they won't have to, either. When no other manufacturer on the market offers-powered cars of any sort, talking about engine sound kind of becomes a moot point. The focus will naturally turn on something else, and all AMG has to do is make sure they'll deliver on whatever it is that will become relevant then.The one thing that's becoming quite obvious is that AMG is taking the electrification progress quite seriously. In a recent talk with British publication Top Gear , Mercedes-Benz Cars Chief Operating Officer (COO), Markus Schafer, opened up about the plans for the brand's future singling out one particular body style.When you think about AMG and turning AMG into an electric brand, we will definitely think about a cabriolet as well, Schafer said. We have to put our thinking caps on and engineer an EV in the form of a roadster, he went on, highlighting the difficulties of designing an open-topas well as the low market demand for convertibles in general.If AMG does put out a cabriolet sports car, there will be no place to hide  it'll have to go head-to-head with Tesla's Roadster. The only question now is which of the two will be the first to come to market. It may look as though Tesla has a considerable head start, but they also has a reputation for pushing back new releases, so it's almost fifty-fifty at this moment.
Isam says he wanted to pay homage to the forefather of competitive motorcycle distance riding, Erwin Cannonball Baker and other figures from history who shared Bakers obsession. Those early riders stormed across the country in the early 1900s, and his dream was to have modern riders on those classic machines do the same.The Motorcycle Cannonball riders will begin their approximately two-week journey across the United States on motorcycles built before 1930, and many of them were exactly the sort of rides you might expect: Harley-Davidsons , Indians, BSAs and BMWs.The competition involves accurately navigating the route using a set of Course Instructions laid out for each day. The bikes are separated out in classes and the winner for each class is the motorcycle and rider who covers the most on-route mileage over the 16-day run. Part of the challenge is that each day includes a specified time schedule and requires compliance with the Event Regulations.In 2010 Isam assembled a group of riders willing to share miles with him along the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, and 45 intrepid riders took off from Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, for a transcontinental journey which would ultimately end at the shores of the Pacific Ocean.The 2012 iteration of the race includes 77 riders who lined up on the grid in Newburg, New York and then headed out on the nearly 4,000-mile ride to San Francisco. I happened to be on the scene with my camera when those riders boarded the Lake Express Ferry for the short trip across Lake Michigan to continue the ride on the other side.Isam says that event played out exactly as did the first run. And in his view, the riders became a family as they struggled to get their ancient iron across the span of the nation.The 2014 ride included 101 riders lined up on the beach at Daytona, Florida. On that ride, the Cannonballers - many from locations around the globe - pointed their machines toward Tacoma, Washington. And the race itself is an event for the many stops along the way as businesses and local motorcycle fans organized events for the modern riders just as Americans did for Cannonball Baker.The 2016 Race of the Century route from Atlantic City, New Jersey to Carlsbad, California came as Isam was fighting for his life against cancer, and just as the details for the 2018 run ironed out, the Motorcycle Cannonballs founder handed the race organization over to his business partner and friend, Jason Sims. Isam then passed away in August of 2017.The 2018 run saw riders traverse the nation across a northern course that ran from Portland, Maine to Portland, Oregon. That run proved brutal and beloved by the riders as they faced torrential rain, scalding temperatures and even icy temperatures and snow in the mountains of Montana. Given all that, you might think the riders found it a bit much. But you would be wrong. That route was recently voted as the favorite of the riders.2020 saw the onset of the health crisis, and as a result Sims found himself with no choice but to postpone the event.But now the Cannonball Run is back as the country is opening back up, and the run from Sault Ste Marie, Michigan to South Padre Island, Texas is already underway.Stage One of the Motorcycle Cannonball 2021 began Friday in Sault Ste Marie, Michigan and the Grand Finale happens Sunday, September 26, 2021, at South Padre Island Convention Centre.
Case in point, the good folks over at the Race Your Ride channel on YouTube have directed our attention towards an incredibly special 31 Ford Roadster Altered thats an original real steel wonder with a twist of madness. The event at the Byron, Illinois-based drag strip featured a wide array of pre-1964 cars that are as period-correct as possible.This ride certainly fits the criteria with its original frame rails, but its also one Altered that stands out in the crowd  or, as the announcer said, One Last Pass might be one of the fastest cars on the track. It supports the praise with a beautiful build that includes a 417ci Donovan Hemi V8 thats 20% nitro-fed and also features a Littlefield 8-71 polished aluminum competition blower on top of that.Inside there is a Reed P6 Air Shifter and underneath a yellow Ford 9 rear end with 3.08 gears proudly announces: Old Fords Never Die, They Just Go Faster. With all that in mind, we had some lofty expectations going into the first race at the 2:21 mark against a 1932 Austin Bantam Roadster.And it didnt disappoint, as the driver of the 31 Ford managed a clean run with an 8.23s victory at 143 mph (230 kph). It was so far ahead that we didnt even catch the time of its competitor before moving on to the next, much harder challenge. From the 3:17 mark, the Altered met a cool brown-orange dragster, but it turned out that keeping the monster at bay was a tad more difficult than before.As such, the dragster took the victory with an 8.49s ET against the Blue Ovals slower 8.62s result  which probably was due to pedaling the Altered Roadster to the finish line. Things got even worse during the solo run from the 4:08 mark, as proved by the slower 9.83 ET. Still, this was a mighty impressive ride if you ask us.
SUV

And we can easily take Tae Dove from the HellaBands exotic bullie breeder brand for example after he recently finished the work on his Genesis GV80 luxury. Hes a self-appointed Chevy boy, but this puppy lover seems to think a South Korean premium crossover also bodes well alongside his other cars  a 71 donk and an 84 box. As a side note, hes got so many cute doggos on his Instagram page, we almost got virtual diabetes because of all the sweetness.Arguably, the modern GV80 is a bit off the classic Hi-riser mark , but that doesnt mean its been left stock either. Instead, we caught the Genesis dwelling on Forgiatos own Instagram page and were immediately mesmerized not by the chunky forged alloy wheels, but rather by the pink wrap that covers the entire body. And, as it turns out, thats not all that changed.With help from a lot of specialists, the rather controversial wrap and the equally polemic-inducing large wheels were joined by a new audio system, as well as all the needed connections to get the GV80 up to Rolls-Royce levels of uniqueness via the crazy one-of-a-kind stars in the ceiling. Yep, this pink-wrapped GV80 has a starry night sky embedded inside...So does it matter that we arent told what powers this custom creation ? It's probably either a 2.5-liter turbocharged inline-four with 300 horsepower or  and our money is on this one  the flagship 3.5-liter twin-turbocharged V6 mill that churns out 375 horsepower. After all, this version (starting from an MSRP of $59,650) also comes with a five-seat layout (as seen on the pink GV80), not just with space for seven people.
SUV

According to recent research conducted by iSeeCars.com, the 2022 Ford Maverick competitor needs just eight days on average to sell, followed by the C8 Chevy Corvette (8.3 days) and the Mercedes-Benz GLS (8.7 days). Naturally, thats good news for the automaker that dared to have a go at the (almost) forgotten compact truck segment.Meanwhile, Nissan just started deliveries of the 2022 Frontier midsize pickup truck. Pricing kicks off at almost $28k and the class jump brings with it a proper body-on-frame construction along with a five-foot (over 150 cm) bed for hauling duties. That would be as opposed to the-derived unibody construction of Santa Cruz and its smaller four-feet (123 cm) cargo space.But of course, until the 2022 Maverick comes out to play, people will find all sorts of apples-to-oranges comparison ideas for the 2022 Santa Cruz. So after testing its mettle via some off-roading trials and premiering the new Will It Fit segment with the Hyundai (all videos embedded below), the pint-sized pickup truck is back for another go, courtesy of the good folks over at The Fast Lane.This time around, the second episode of the Will It Fit series sees the 2022 Frontier do a cargo space battle with the truck of the hour, the 2022 Santa Cruz. There is a payload surprise waiting at the very end, but we also recommend checking out any of the other fitting attempts  the guys were kind enough to give us all the necessary timestamps in the description.As for our two cents, we reckon that for its size, Hyundais Santa Cruz has proven a redoubtable opponent for the larger and more tow-capable 2022 Nissan Frontier...
Introduced to Australian customers for the 2009 model year, the R35 Nissan GT-R wont live past November 1st because of the Australian Design Rule 85/00 side-impact safety regulations. Better known as ADR 85, this piece of legislation was proposed a whopping 11 years ago, which begs a pretty straightforward question. What has Nissan been up to in all these years?The short answer would be sh!*%y continuously variable transmissions, deplorable build quality and second-rate quality control. As for the GT-R, the Japanese automaker didnt make too many improvements to the supercar-shaming R35 because it had other priorities during this timeframe.Dodge falls within this category as well because the Viper was canned over side curtain airbag regulations. Instead of redesigning the roof and pillars for the V10-engined serpents mid-cycle refresh, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles has mistakenly decided that its way more important to Hellcat everything.In the end, our friends at Drive.com.au understand that Nissans iconic performance car will fall short of 1,000 sales in the Land Down Under. This kind of volume paints a bleak picture for the long-rumored R36, which is expected to arrive in showrooms in the guise of a diligently upgraded R35.Other notable casualties of ADR 85 include the Lexus IS, RC and CT, along with the Mitsubishi Mirage, Alpine A110, Fiat 500C and Abarth 595C, as well as the Skoda Fabia and the Volkswagen Amarok. The latter model doesnt really need an update because the Ranger-based Amarok is underway.For those who are curious when the R36 will be unveiled, the latest reports in the automotive media suggest late 2022 for the 2023 model year. Japanese outlets further speculate 48-volt electrification for the force-fed V6.
The joint strategic exercise (JSE) of the Russian and Belarusian armies is organized every two years, and Zapad 2021 is the final stage of this years training, taking place from September 10 to 16. Almost 200,000 servicemen are participating in the joint exercise, unfolding at nine training grounds on Russian territory, and five training grounds in Belarus.Russias supersonic, long-range missile carrier bomber, the Tu-23M3, was among the 80 military aircraft taking part in the training. Crews of six Tu-23M3 bombers, together with Su-35S patrol fighters, carried out attacks against mock enemies, dropping 1.5-ton bombs from over 3,280 feet (1,000 meters) and even 6,500 feet (2,000 meters).The Su-34 bombers from the Western Military District (WMD) also came out to play. After the crews of Su-24MR reconnaissance aircraft located and transmitted the ground target coordinates, the Su-34 bombers destroyed enemy assets such as command posts, equipment and infrastructure elements, with 550-pound (250 kg) bombs.One of the most spectacular operations was a massive air strike carried out by the assault, long-range and operational-tactical aircraft of the two military forces, including 16 Su-34 bombers and six Tu-23M3 bombers.A squadron of Su-25SM3 aircraft carried out the bombing operation, using the latest navigation system and electronic-optical guidance system, which enables the accurate detection of ground targets even at night, at a large distance. The Su-34 fighter-bombers also hit critical targets, such as armored vehicles, with 24 bombs, 1,000 lbs (500 kg) each. The attacks were carried out from almost 4,000 feet (1,200 meters) in the air.The JSE Zapad 2021 continues until September 16. With 80 aircraft, 290 tanks, 15 ships and 240 guns involved, Zapad is a real tour de force for the two armies.
HP

Hyzon Motors has been working on its innovative fuel cell technology for over two decades, testing different types of materials and components, and researching improvements in performance metrics. The result is what Hyzon claims to be the highest-density fuel cell on the market, confirmed as such by a third-party testing authority, TUV Rheinland.The next step for Hyzon was to put this technology to work, by developing ultra-heavy-duty hydrogen trucks. The monster 154-ton truck, which is considered the heaviest in the industry, was unveiled earlier this year.Built on a heavy, rigid truck platform, the hydrogen-powered vehicle was designed for the most demanding operations and equal to diesel-powered ones, in terms of range and payload.Ark Energy Corporation, the Australian subsidiary of Korea Zinc (the largest zinc, lead and silver producer in the world) will become the first company to operate ultra-heavy-duty fuel cell vehicles, after recently placing an order for five Hyzon trucks.The 154-ton vehicles will be deployed by Townsville Logistics, Ark Energys sister company, as part of its short-haul fleet, on 30 km (18,6 miles) routes, from the Port of Townsville to the groups zinc refinery. The future heavy-duty trucks will be assembled in Australia and fueled at Ark Energy's SunHQ hydrogen hub . The green hydrogen used to fuel them is obtained at a co-located solar farm.These first fuel cell heavy-duty trucks operating in Australia are expected to reduce CO2 emissions by more than 1,400 tons per year, compared to the previously-operated diesel versions.Hyzon is set to deliver the trucks by the end of 2022, and it doesnt stop there. The truck manufacturer is working on its next-generation fuel cell system, capable of delivering an output of 500(370kW).
Is it a flying car, or is it just another eVTOL ? Urban Aero says that Cityhawk has more in common with birds, than with current eVTOLS. Without wings and about the size of a car, this 5-seater does look unusual. Its mainly designed for commercial air charters and emergency medical services (EMS), meaning it must be able to conduct multiple flights per day, in cities.That is why the Cityhawk flying car integrates an innovative Fancraft technology, based on dual enclosed, ducted rotors, which not only increase stability even during turbulence, but also decrease noise significantly, both inside the cabin and outside. The compact eVTOL also incorporates autonomous systems able to detect and avoid traffic, power lines and other urban structures, and it can safely operate at night and in all weather conditions.Another benefit of its compact design is the ability to land on vertiports placed on building rooftops, which saves time and increases efficiency, especially in case of emergencies. Inside, its supposed to be as welcoming as a premium car, thanks to the comfortable seats, Wi-Fi and touchscreens.Earlier this year, Urban Aero has also partnered with California-based Hypoint, with the goal of adapting the fuel cell technology for CityHawk, which is designed to be powered by hydrogen. The first flight tests were successfully conducted a couple of months ago.The aerospace companys next goal is to raise $100 million, in order to further develop the hydrogen-fueled Fancraft technology. The start looks promising with the first $10 million coming from private investors in the U.S., Brazil and Israel.Plus, a local Israeli charitable organization for rescue flights, has placed the first pre-order for the Cityhawk eVTOL, to be used as an ambulance.
An Armenian law on individuals subject to special state protection has until now guaranteed such privileged healthcare only for the president of the republic and his family. The NSS wants to extend the government-funded privilege to the two other officials.

The security agency circulated a relevant bill on Monday days after Pashinians government reportedly stopped paying for medical services provided to ordinary citizens by public and private hospitals. According to news reports, the Armenian Ministry of Health attributed the drastic measure to a lack of public funds resulting from an increased number of people seeking free surgeries and other essential treatment.

Opposition politicians and other government critics denounced the NSS bill, saying that it makes mockery of Pashinians past promises to establish social justice and equality in the country.

Three years ago Nikol Pashinian was saying that there are three million prime ministers in Armenia, said Anna Grigorian, a parliament deputy from the opposition Hayastan bloc. But that is still not manifested in any way. The prime minister has extensive powers now, and you can see how just big his security detail is.

Grigorian told RFE/RLs Armenian on Tuesday that the extra privilege sought for him is all the more unethical now that Armenia is continuing to grapple with serious national security challenges after last years war in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Hayk Mamijanian, another opposition lawmaker representing the opposition Pativ Unem bloc, speculated that the NSS bill may be aimed at deflecting public attention from those challenges. He said Pashinian and Simonian must have the morality and the will to renounce that privilege and redirect government funding required for it to low-income Armenians in urgent need of medical aid.

Yerevan residents randomly interviewed by RFE/RLs Armenian Service echoed the opposition criticism.

If ordinary people cannot be treated at the states expense why should they have such privileges? said one woman. Are they better than ordinary people?

This was done covertly in the past. Now they want to legalize that, complained a man.

Hrachya Hakobian, a pro-government parliamentarian and Pashinians brother-in-law, defended the proposed measure which appears to enjoy government backing. Hakobian argued that Armenias presidents and their families have never been criticized for having personal doctors paid by the state. The prime minister and the parliament speaker must not be denied the same right, he said.
Kocharian met with them late on Tuesday to discuss recent political developments and lingering challenges facing Armenia. The meeting reportedly brought together parliament deputies affiliated with Hayastan and other activists of the countrys leading opposition force.

A Hayastan statement on the meeting issued on Wednesday said Kocharian instructed them to increase public activity at this moment fateful for the country and further step up contacts between the Alliance and the public. It said he also told them to set up even more efficient organizational structures in order to give new impetus to the Alliances activities.

Members of the Alliance reaffirmed their aim: to achieve as soon as possible the ouster of the government wrecking Armenia and leading it to destruction, added the statement. It did not give other details.

Seyran Ohanian, Hayastans parliamentary leader, said Kocharian wants his political allies to first and foremost improve communication with Armenians unhappy with the countrys current leadership. The opposition bloc will at the same time remain ready to stage anti-government street protests, he said.

If the current authorities take actions aimed at the fall of the Republic of Armenia and loss of its sovereignty then we will use all tools at our disposal  to prevent that, Ohanian told reporters.

Hayastan won almost 22 percent of the vote and finished second in the June 20 parliamentary elections, according to their official results challenged by it court.

Like other opposition groups, Kocharians bloc holds Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian responsible for Armenias defeat in last years war in Nagorno-Karabakh. It also accuses Pashinians administration of failing to adequately deal with the countrys post-war security challenges.

Hayastan lawmakers repeated these accusations last month during the opening sessions of the new Armenian parliament marred by bitter verbal exchanges with pro-government deputies and even violent incidents.

Arusyak Julhakian, a deputy representing Pashinians Civil Contract party, claimed on Wednesday that the ex-president, who had ruled Armenia from 1998-2008, is dissatisfied with Hayastans work in the National Assembly. She also dismissed the blocs fresh pledges to keep fighting for regime change, saying that the public doesnt trust them.
Every year we address this issue and try agree on at least keeping the price unchanged, rather than raising it, even though there is an insistence on the part of the Gazprom Group that the profit margin set by the 2013 [supply] contract does not satisfy them, Grigorian told lawmakers. But that is a working process, and with your permission I wont say more because negotiations are underway right now.

I cannot say what will happen in two or three years time. We hope to maintain the same price this year, he added during the governments question-and-answer session in the Armenian parliament.

Grigorian spoke the day after Gazprom Chairman Alexei Miller visited Yerevan and met with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian. Very few details of the talks were made public.

The Russian energy giant most recently raised its gas price for Armenia by 10 percent, to $165 per thousand cubic meters, in January 2019. Yerevan tried unsuccessfully to get the Russians to cut it last year, arguing that that global energy prices have collapsed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

International energy prices have rallied strongly this year amid renewed economic growth around the world. In June, Gazprom set its average gas export price for European countries at $240 per thousand cubic meters.
2 depressions could form in the Atlantic soon. Which one will become Odette first?
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A proposed home for homeless women and children has become the center of a legal dispute involving the projects organizers, the city of Baker
You can reach Ishani Desai at 661-395-7417. You can also follow her at @idesai98 on Twitter.
Email Dan Walters of CalMatters at dan@calmatters.org. CalMatters is a nonpartisan, nonprofit journalism venture committed to explaining Californias policies and politics. For more columns by Walters, go to calmatters.org/commentary.
Another celebrity has spoken out against recent actions from the Texas Legislature.

On the daytime talk show The View, actress America Ferrera says she's "deeply concerned" about the abortion law that went into effect on September 1. The law bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy  a period before many women know they are pregnant. The law does not make exceptions for rape or incest.

The Superstore actress said everyone should be concerned about the law while on the show on September 10. She brings up how she's familiar with Texas, specifically the border towns like Brownsville and McAllen.

"Let's just call it what it is  access to abortion is about race and poverty," the Latina activist said. "If you are rich and white, chances are you will find access to the healthcare that you need. When we restrict women's rights and access to choices about their reproductive health, what we are doing is restricting Black and brown women, and poor women."

Ferrera even countered Joy Behar's view when she mentioned it could be more about money than color, bringing up an example of how a person could be rich and be Black. Ferrera noted that in Texas many of the Black and brown women have less access to healthcare.

In 2017, 16.1 percent of Hispanics were uninsured compared with 5.9 percent of non-Hispanic whites, according to an 2020 study from the American Progress. For African Americans, 10.6 percent were uninsured compared with 5.9 percent of non-Hispanic whites in 2017. The independent nonpartisan policy institute pulled data from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"We are not just talking about the awful restrictions on a woman's right to choose what to do with her own body. We are talking about financial oppression. We are talking about the systemic kind of oppression that keeps women of color where a lot of people like them, poor and out of options," Ferrera said.

Ana Navarro, who is a contributor host on the show, mentioned how Ferrera dedicates her time empowering Latinas to vote with a campaign trail called "She Se Puede." She also co-founded with Eva Longoria an online community called Poderistas. It is a hub for modern Latinas who want to connect with other mujeres, celebrate their experiences and dreams, and make the most of their own.

Ferrera said they are hosting a summit from September 17-19 where several guests speakers will host virtual workshops, conversations, and masterclasses about the issues that impact the Latina community the most.

You can learn more about Poderistas in the video below:
LONDON (AP)  The chairman of Prince Charles charitable foundation has resigned after reports the organization was offered a donation of more than 500,000 pounds ($692,000) from a Russian banker seeking British citizenship.

Douglas Connell stepped down Wednesday after the Sunday Times alleged that Charles wrote a letter to thank the businessman, Dmitry Leus, for the offer last year. The newspaper said Charles suggested that they could meet after the pandemic.
DOVER, Del. (AP)  One of the primary insurers of the Boy Scouts of America announced Tuesday that it has reached a tentative settlement agreement with the organization and with attorneys representing tens of thousands of men who say they were molested decades ago by scoutmasters and others.

Under the agreement, insurance company The Hartford will pay $787 million into a fund to be established for the men, the company said in a news release. In exchange for the payment, the Boy Scouts organization and its local councils have agreed to release The Hartford from further liability regarding sexual abuse claims.

Under a separate settlement, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has agreed to pay $250 million into the fund for abuse claimants, said church spokesman Eric Hawkins. The denomination, commonly known as the Mormon church, was the largest single sponsor of Boy Scout troops before ending its partnership with the BSA at the beginning of last year.

The proposed settlements are part of an ongoing effort by the Boy Scouts, which declared bankruptcy in February 2020, to forge a reorganization plan that must win approval by a majority of abuse victims and the court. Attorneys are still trying to negotiate a settlement with the Boy Scouts' other major insurer, Century Indemnity.

The proposed settlements are opposed by the official victims committee appointed by the U.S. bankruptcy trustee, as well as law firms separately representing hundreds of men who have filed sexual abuse claims. Representatives of the official victims committee described the proposed settlements as grossly unfair.

The only winners in this latest proposal are the Boy Scouts, their local councils, the Mormon Church, and the Hartford insurance company, Michael Pfau, an attorney whose firm represents more than 1,000 abuse claimants in the bankruptcy, said in a prepared statement.

The Boy Scouts are offering abuse survivors a fraction of what their cases are worth and the assets available to pay them, Pfau added. The Mormon church is reported to have roughly $100 billion in assets, but it is offering a paltry $250 million to compensate the thousands of abuse survivors who were abused in Mormon Boy Scout troops by Mormon Scout leaders.

The proposed settlements will be incorporated into a new reorganization plan that attorneys for the Boy Scouts were expected to file late Tuesday night.

The new agreement with The Hartford was negotiated after the bankruptcy judge last month rejected two key provisions of an $850 million deal that the BSA had reached with attorneys representing a majority of abuse claimants.

Judge Laura Selber Silverstein denied the BSAs request as part of that deal for permission to withdraw from a previous $650 million settlement it had reached with The Hartford. The Boy Scouts sought to withdraw from that April agreement after attorneys for abuse claimants repeatedly insisted that their clients would never vote for a reorganization plan that included it.

Silverstein also rejected a proposal for the Boy Scouts to pay millions of dollars in legal fees and expenses of attorneys hired by a coalition of law firms that represent tens of thousands of abuse claimants. The judge noted that any such payment would come out of the pockets of abuse claimants themselves.

The new settlement with The Hartford was the product of negotiations that included attorneys representing an ad hoc group called the Coalition of Abused Scouts for Justice. Law firms affiliated with the group represent more than 60,000 sex abuse claimants.

These are very significant developments, said Ken Rothweiler, whose law firm is affiliated with the coalition and represents roughly 16,800 abuse claimants.

The proposed settlements, coupled with the $850 million contribution from the BSA and local councils, would bring the fund for abuse claimants to almost $1.9 billion. If the plan is approved, it would represent one of the largest sex-abuse settlements in U.S. history.

Meanwhile, the official victims committee has estimated the total liability exposure of Boy Scouts insurers for abuse claims at more than $100 billion.

The committee supported the previous arrangement, which called for the earlier settlement with The Hartford to be scrapped and for the Boy Scouts and local BSA councils, which run day-to-day operations for Boy Scout troops, to contribute $850 million and their rights to insurance policies to the fund for abuse claimants. The committee noted that the primary value for abuse survivors under that deal would come from available insurance coverage.

Insurance companies pushed back hard against that plan, arguing that the proposed transfer of insurance rights unlawfully stripped them of their ability to question claims and improperly allowed the trustee overseeing the victims fund to determine what insurers owed without being challenged. Insurers also questioned a provision allowing expedited payments of $3,500 from the fund to resolve abuse claims, no questions asked.

___

Sophia Eppolito, a Report for America corps member based in Salt Lake City, contributed to this report.
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP)  Some North Dakota tribal leaders appealed to lawmakers Wednesday to split legislative House districts that include reservations, a move they believe will increase the odds for electing American Indians to the Legislature.

Mike Faith, chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, told the Republican-led committee in charge of redrawing new legislative boundaries that such an arrangement would result in better representation and communication.

There is no guarantee to get a Native in there, he said. (But) It gives us a fighting chance to get representation.

North Dakota Native Vote Executive Director Nicole Donaghy said subdistricts would allow tribal members to elect the candidate of their choice.

Finley GOP Rep. Bill Devlin, chairman of the committee, said hes not opposed to considering subdistricts as the 16-member committee redraws political maps. Two Democrats are on the committee.

Im open to it as chairman. Devlin said in an interview. The committee might not be.

The committee took no action on the request Wednesday.

Redistricting lawmakers have been adamant that none of the five American Indian reservations in the state would be divided into separate Legislative districts. Each are located within a single district.

A North Dakota legislative district now has one senator and two House members, each elected to represent the entire area. In a subdistrict, the senator would still represent the entire district. It would be split in half for House representation, with one House member representing each half.

The Legislature has previously had little appetite for subdistricts, said Grand Fork GOP Sen. Ray Holmberg, who has served on redistricting committees since 1981. Holmberg said hes open to considering subdistricts for reservations that contain enough population to do so. Two of the five American Indian reservation in North Dakota  Fort Berthold and Turtle Mountain  have the needed population to split House districts at present, he said.

The Legislature currently has three lawmakers who claim Native American or Alaska Native heritage: Fargo Democratic Rep. Ruth Buffalo, a member of the Three Affiliated Tribes; Minot GOP Sen. Oley Larsen, a member of Alaskas Sealaska Corp.; and Sen. Richard Marcellais, a Democrat from Belcourt and member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa. Only Marcellais lives on a reservation.

During the Legislatures redistricting effort in 1991, the Three Affiliated Tribes filed a federal lawsuit in an attempt to force lawmakers to create subdistricts on the Fort Berthold reservation. A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit, saying a subdistrict would lack a majority of American Indian voters.

Faith, the Standing Rock chairman, said American Indians historically have been undercounted during the Census, which he said was especially true in the 2020 effort that was hindered by the pandemic.

The Standing Rock reservation is included in District 31, which contains Mandan, North Dakota's eighth-biggest city. The district is represented by a Republican senator and two GOP House members. None are tribal members.

Standing Rock tribal member Charles Walker said the reservation, which straddles North Dakota and South Dakota, is located within some of the deepest red states we know.

Walker called himself a right-leaning moderate but said it was no secret that Democrats cater to the Native vote. Republicans, not so much.

Walker, who currently lives on the South Dakota side of the reservation, said he also has lived on the North Dakota side. Republicans rarely, if ever, engage with Native voters on the reservation.

And yet, we had Democrats pounding on our door, he said.

Republicans, who wield supermajority control in the North Dakota Legislature, likely would find American Indian voters share some values, if only they weren't overlooked, Walker said.

We would agree on more things than you probably would think, he said.
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP)  Crowds gathered to protest for a second straight night at a University of Kansas fraternity house where a member is accused of sexually assaulting another student.

The Kansas City Star reports that about 250 people arrived Tuesday on the lawn of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house. They chanted no means no and kick him out for hours as about a dozen police officers stood watch. Private security guards also were present.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP)  A man who escaped death row in Louisiana in 2012 after he was exonerated by DNA evidence for a murder he didnt commit has died of COVID-19.

Damon Thibodeauxs death earlier this month was so unfair, according to a Minneapolis attorney who worked to free Thibodeaux after 16 years behind bars, including 15 on death row, after he was convicted in the 1996 death of his 14-year-old step-cousin.

Im struggling to make peace with it, but you cant," said Steve Kaplan, the now-retired lawyer who helped clear Thibodeaux and assisted him in moving to Minnesota to restart his life.

Thibodeaux, who eventually settled with his family in Texas, was a long-haul trucker who landed in Jacksonville, Florida hospital with the coronavirus in early August. That was a few days after getting his first vaccine shot against the virus. After three weeks in and out of intensive care, the 47-year-old Thibodeaux was expecting to come home.

Bro, Im ready to get out of this place and come home, he told his younger brother, David Thibodeaux, on the evening of Sept. 2. A few hours later, David's phone rang again with a doctor asking for permission to stop resuscitation on Damon after his lungs had collapsed and his heart had stopped, the Star Tribune reported.

My heart sunk, David said in an interview with the newspaper last week. I wasnt just being asked to let my brother go. Youre asking me let my best friend go.

Growing up, the brothers endured abuse from their mothers ex-husband. Damon also was sexually abused by the man and later by another relative, a neighbor and eventually his grandfather. We shared a lot of hardships together, David said,

Damon Thibodeaux was a 22-year-old deckhand on a Mississippi River barge in July 1996 when his 14-year-old step-cousin went missing while Thibodeaux was at her familys apartment. After the girls body was discovered along the river, Thibodeaux was subjected to a grueling interrogation that pushed him to confess to a crime he didnt commit. A year later he was sentenced to die.

Kaplan and others from the Minneapolis law firm Fredrikson and Byron helped prove Thibodeauxs innocence, noting that his confession didnt match the physical evidence, that witness statements were inconsistent and that DNA tests showed no connection between him and the murder. The district attorneys own expert concluded that Thibodeaux had falsely confessed to the crime

The conviction was overturned and he was set free in September 2012.

The lawyers who worked on his release said that rather than be angry and bitter about his path, Thibodeaux carried an easy smile along with optimism, kindness and grace.

He had an impact on everyone who had a privilege of knowing him, Kaplan said.
I really dont know what to say about the 20th anniversary of 9/11.

Of course, it was a horrific day in our nations history, and a reminder of what evil persists in our world. There are people out there that want to bring harm to Americans and others who enjoy the freedoms that we take for granted in the United States. Those terrorists will go to places we cant even imagine and demonstrate an unbridled hatred, including the unprecedented suicide missions of flying of aircraft into buildings that were symbols of our American excellence.

Those extremists will lure us into endless wars on their soil and take advantage of the naivety of our leaders, who believe it is possible to force our morals, standards and even our democracy onto places that have existed for centuries without them. If the fall of communism taught us anything, that type of change must come from the grassroots and not appear to be forced on anyone.

I dont know what to say 20 years later, because as much as our leaders wanted to manufacture a mission accomplished moment over the past two decades, there wasnt one. The truth is 9/11 wasnt my generations Pearl Harbor, because the Greatest Generation celebrated victories across the globe to ease the pain of what happened on American soil. Just a couple weeks ago, we gave the Taliban its country back.

It is hard on Patriot Day to come up with the words, because in the end, it is difficult  if not impossible  to pinpoint how the other side was held accountable for the damage caused on 9/11 or in the 20 years afterward. Gold Star Families in West Texas and across the state and nation still mourn the deaths of their brave sons and daughters. Midlands Jake Young was killed in an al-Qaida engineered bombing in Bali in 2002. I want to say thank you to those people who served and their families, but I feel absolutely horrible because those leading them  Republican and Democrat  put them in unwinnable situations with no apparent end game.

Yes, we killed Osama bin Laden  the face of evil after 9/11  but where al-Qaida left off, there are other extremist groups ready to wreak havoc. We have the dead bodies of 13 American service members to prove it.

At home, are we better off than we were on Sept. 10, 2001? Its hard to make that argument. We were unified long enough to sing God Bless America, but it didnt take long for the opinion-makers and self-centered politicians to poison that country-first spirit. Social media made the competition between the left and right to be more divisive, more outrageous, more controversial, more deplorable. The person who disagrees with me online  even on such apolitical things as bond issues, school names, COVID, guns, abortion or Donald Trump -- is no longer a friend but my enemy. Facebook conversations have become the ultimate litmus test of Are you with me or against me.

I will spend time on Saturday remembering 9/11, the shocking images of planes flying into towers, people falling off buildings, smoke billowing from sites of destruction in three states and the aftermath of the declaration of war on America. I will think about how we can do better  not to be more conservative or progressive  but to be better Midlanders, Texans and Americans.

This newspaper will celebrate those who have and continue to put their lives on the line for our freedoms. It will continue to be there for military organizations that want to make use of our space to honor those that have made the sacrifice to protect you and me. We will attempt to be better moderators of civil discussions about whats best for our community, region, state and nation. We will attempt to call for more accountability from our elected leaders and representatives, who put us in these situations that are unwinnable, bring death or injury to those we love, rack up debt this country cant afford, turn our attention away from home and leave our collective spirit broken.

Heres hoping that after you take time to remember, you join us. We hope you arent so entrenched in our current adversarial condition that you take part in the rebuilding of communities, states and this country. We will disagree, but we can certainly also do a world a good.

Thank you again to those who served, and God bless our nation on Patriot Day.
Indonesian President Joko Jokowi Widodo attends the ground-breaking ceremony of the Hyundai-LG Energy Solution battery plant in Karawang, near Jakarta, Sept. 15, 2021.

South Koreas carmaker Hyundai and LG Energy Solution began construction on Wednesday of an electric vehicle battery plant near the Indonesian capital amid Jakartas push to become a regional manufacturing hub.

Indonesian President Joko Jokowi Widodo oversaw the ground-breaking ceremony of the U.S. $1.1 billion (15.6 trillion rupiah) plant in Karawang, a regency in West Java province.

We should be grateful that today we can witness the groundbreaking of the construction of the first electric vehicle battery factory in Indonesia and even the first in Southeast Asia, Jokowi told those attending the ceremony.

The plant is being constructed by a consortium of South Korean companies including Hyundai Motor Co., KIA Corp., Hyundai Mobile and LG Energy Solution in cooperation with PT Industri Battery Indonesia, a joint venture of state-owned energy and mining companies. It is to be built on an 81-acre plot in the Karawang New Industry City complex.

The Hyundai-LG Energy Solution plant is part of a $9.8 billion (139.5 trillion rupiah) electric vehicle battery deal between Indonesia and South Korea signed in Seoul last year.

When finished, it is expected to be capable of producing nickel-cobalt-manganese-aluminum lithium-ion battery cells to power 150,000 electric vehicles per year. Battery production is expected to start in two years.

Indonesia, which mined 800,000 tons of nickel in 2019, is the worlds largest producer, according to the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources. The nation bans exports of nickel ore to maintain reserves and encourage the domestic nickel smelter industry.

The nickel industry will significantly increase the added value of nickel ore. If it becomes batteries, its value can increase six- to seven-fold, and if it becomes electric cars, the value will increase 11-fold, Jokowi said.

Indonesia is seeking to develop industries to produce electric vehicles and the batteries to power them, and has set a goal of electric vehicles accounting for 20 percent of those manufactured by 2025. The nation produces about 1 million vehicles per year  none of them are electric.

Hyundai Motor Chairman Euisun Chung expressed hope that the plant would turn Indonesia into a major player in the electric vehicle (EV) industry.

Through the development of these industries, an EV ecosystem will be successfully developed in Indonesia, and furthermore I am confident Indonesia will play a key role as the hub of Southeast Asias EVs market, Chung said, according to Reuters news service.

LG Energy Solution chief executive Kim Jong-hyun said he was optimistic that the location of the plant within a cluster of industries such as automotive, electronics, building materials, food and logistics, would support business development for a wider target market.

Indonesias good environment and conditions are a stepping stone. We will actively develop this joint factory as the main base toward the global electric vehicle market outside the ASEAN market, Jong-hyun said in a speech delivered online.

When the factory is completed, Indonesia will be one step closer to building the worlds first integrated electric vehicle supply chain, he said.

Indonesian Investment Minister Bahlil Lahadalia said the plant should create jobs for locals.

In the Memorandum of Understanding, we emphasize that jobs must go to as many locals as possible, not foreigners, Bahlil said.

Smelter plans

The South Korean consortium also plans to build a nickel smelter plant in the Batang Integrated Industrial Estate in Central Java province.

The location is ready. God willing, most likely by the end of this year we will start construction, Bahlil said.

In mid-June, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Arifin Tasrif said the government is targeting construction of 53 smelters by 2024. Currently, 19 smelters are under construction, of which 13 are used for nickel processing, followed by bauxite and copper.

A report released by U.S. investment bank Morgan Stanley at the end of 2020 predicted that Indonesias commodity drivers would shift from coal to nickel, supported by a significant increase in investment from China. The demand for nickel that is used in electric vehicles, is projected to rise 12 percent in 2025 and 23 percent in 2030.

Chinese companies including Tsingshan Holding Group and De Long Nickel Co Ltd. have invested $6 billion (85.4 trillion rupiah) in the Indonesian nickel industry.

Meanwhile, Chinas Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) plans to invest $5 billion in a lithium battery plant in Indonesia, to be built in 2024, the government said last year.
Updated at 6:25 p.m. ET on 2021-09-15

A three-judge chamber at the International Criminal Court in The Hague approved on Wednesday a request by its former chief prosecutor to investigate thousands of drug war killings in the Philippines under President Rodrigo Dutertes administration.

The investigation is to cover the period between Nov. 1, 2011, and March 16, 2019, when the Philippines was a member nation of the ICC. The time frame includes part of Dutertes tenure as mayor of the southern city of Davao, where he allegedly controlled an anti-drugs death squad.

The judges considered testimony from 204 victims before issuing their decision, The Hague-based body said in a statement.

[T]he chamber found that there is a reasonable basis to proceed with an investigation, noting that [the] specific legal element of the crime against humanity of murder under Article 7(1)(a) of the statute has been met with respect to the killings committed throughout the Philippines, the statement said.

It stressed that Dutertes war on drugs could not be seen as a legitimate law enforcement operation, and the killings neither as legitimate nor as mere excesses in an otherwise legitimate operation.

Rather, the available material indicates, to the required standard, that a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population took place pursuant to or in furtherance of a state policy, it said.

The chamber concluded that there is a reasonable basis for the prosecutor to proceed with the investigation, in the sense that the crime against humanity of murder appears to have been committed.

Since Duterte took power, at least 8,000 suspected dealers and addicts have been killed in police operations, according to government figures, while rights groups claim that the number could be thousands more when including extrajudicial killings blamed on government-linked vigilantes.

While the Philippines pulled out of the treaty that created the ICC in March 2019, the court has insisted that it retains jurisdiction over alleged crimes in the Southeast Asian nation while it was a signatory to the accord  a period beginning in November 2011.

Beginning of the end

Edre Olalia, president of the National Union of Peoples Lawyers (NUPL), welcomed the news.

We hope that this is the beginning of the end of impunity, he told BenarNews. No one should be invincible and infallible. There is always a time for everything.

Cristina Palabay, secretary general of the rights group Karapatan, which assists families of victims of the drug war, called the announcement the beginning of making Duterte accountable.

We note that the chamber sees as apparent that the attacks against the civilian population in the drug war took place pursuant to or in furtherance of a state policy, she said in a statement. The chambers view that these attacks were widespread and systematic likewise reaffirms the views of the victims and their families.

Presidential spokesmen could not be immediately reached for comment on the announcement, but Duterte has repeatedly insisted that he cannot be prosecuted by the ICC.

In addition, he insulted its former chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, who requested the investigation on June 14, and dared her to come to the Southeast Asian country to investigate him.

At the time, Duterte spokesman Harry Roque said, The president will never, ever cooperate.

He also said the proposed investigation was legally erroneous and politically motivated, noting that Dutertes political enemies brought the allegations against him.

Dutertes six-year term ends in 2022, and he has announced plans to run for vice president. His longtime aide Christopher Go, now a senator, has been named by their party to run for president, but has said he does not plan to do so.

Presidents and vice presidents are elected separately to a single six-year term. Duterte, who cannot seek a second term under the constitution, announced his candidacy for the number two spot in July.

The law says if you are vice president, you have immunity. Then I will just run for vice president, he said at the time.

However, constitutional lawyers have noted that presidents, but not vice presidents, enjoy immunity from lawsuits.

As rights groups hailed the ICC decision, they grieved the death of lawyer Juan Macababbad, head of the NUPL in Cotabato City. Initial reports by the NUPL said Macababbad was shot and killed by two gunmen outside his home on Wednesday.

Local police have not released a motive for the killing, but the victim was a known human rights lawyer who was offering pro bono services to the poor.

Macababbad represented indigenous groups and teachers accused by the government in the south of having links to communist insurgents, the NUPL said.

He received death threats before his murder, purportedly due to his staunch human rights advocacy, rights group Karapatan said.
Former combatants of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) voluntarily turn over 920 high-powered firearms to a decommissioning body in Sultan Kudarat town, Maguindanao province, southern Philippines, July 9, 2019.

A government program to decommission the weapons of thousands of former separatist rebels in the southern Philippines has been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, President Rodrigo Dutertes chief peace adviser said on Wednesday.

Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Carlito Galvez Jr. spoke about the setback while defending his request to the Senate finance committee for a 4.5 billion peso (U.S. $90 million) budget next year.

He said next years proposed budget includes funds that would go the National Amnesty Commission, which is processing application from the former fighters of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which had wanted an independent Muslim state in the southern island of Mindanao before striking a peace deal with the government in 2014.

While our country faces immense challenges in the form of the COVID-19 pandemic, the precious lives of millions of Filipinos in conflict-affected areas should not be compromised by budgetary constraints, Galvez told the Senate committee.

Beyond all of the signed peace agreements, documents and formalities, we recommend that we should not forget the human cost that any delays will inflict on vulnerable communities.

During the deliberations, Galvez, said that only 12,000 former MILF fighters weapons had been decommissioned, or handed over to the authorities. The former separatist groups leaders have said they have some 40,000 fighters with weapons, but analysts believe that the group is larger.

Galvez said 14,000 MILF combatants were supposed to be decommissioned this year, and the same number next year.

So we are delayed [by] 28,000 already, Galvez said.

The handover of weapons is part of the peace deal between the government and MILF, which led to the establishment of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) in the southern Philippines.

Under the deal, each combatant who hands over weapons is expected to receive a cash payment, including money for education.

Galvez said he was hopeful that all fighters weapons would be fully decommissioned in three years.

If  the COVID-19 situation will improve, we will finish the normalization program in 2024, Galvez told the Senate committee.

Dutertes peace chief Galvez said that his proposed budget for next year would also partly fund the deployment of additional joint peace and security teams to prevent hostilities, and a program to control the proliferation of light weapons and small arms inside the autonomous region.

Murad Ebrahim, head of MILF as well as of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority, had told BenarNews last December that he was certain the remaining weapons of former rebels will be decommissioned in the next two years.

Murad heads the transitional local government in five provinces and a handful of districts that make up the autonomous region.

He had said the decommissioning process had been slow because of the pandemic, and because the former guerrillas were reluctant to give up their weapons amid ongoing threats and attacks from Islamic State group-linked militants, and disgruntled factions that broke away from MILF, Murad said.

The violence has gone down, but there are many groups here that have splintered. Here in mainland Mindanao, we have the BIFF, Murad told BenarNews, referring to the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, a small group that is known for audacious attacks on law enforcement.

MILF had signed a Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) with the government in 2014 after 17 years of conflict and negotiations in Mindanao.

The agreement ended MILFs rebellion  which began in the 1970s  to create a separate Muslim homeland in the southern Philippines. The group settled for expanded autonomy and its members agreed to turn in their weapons.
Philippine police and militia members search for the bodies of hostages killed by Abu Sayyaf Group gunmen who attacked a coconut plantation on Southern Basilan island, Aug. 4, 2001.

An Abu Sayyaf militant who allegedly participated in the abductions of 15 farm workers, including five who were later beheaded, on the southern Philippine island of Basilan in 2001 has been arrested in Manila, the justice department said Wednesday.

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) identified the suspect as Albazir Abdulla, also known as Abu Saif.

Police allege he was a member of an Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) unit involved in kidnapping the workers at the Golden Harvest coconut plantation on Basilan 20 years ago. Five of the workers were beheaded and dumped in a village near a military camp, while the rest were either freed or escaped, according to the military.

A victim-witness identified Abu Saif in a photo line-up as one of the abductors and a member of the ASG, said NBI director Eric Distor, who led a Sept. 10 raid in a Muslim village in Quezon City that resulted in the suspects capture.

After the incident, the ASG stayed in the mountains and some of its members assimilated back to society as sleepers or spies, he said.

Distor said ASG leader Isnilon Hapilon, who would later become the regional leader of the Islamic State, led the 2001 plantation attack.

In May 2017, Hapilon led hundreds of Southeast Asian and Middle Eastern militants in a siege of the southern city of Marawi, where he sought to set up a regional base for the Islamic State. This triggered a five-month battle that killed some 1,200 enemy combatants, soldiers and civilians. Much of the city was destroyed in aerial bombings by government forces.

In 2001, ASG also abducted 20 tourists, including three Americans, at an upscale resort on the island of Palawan and took their captives to nearby Basilan. Two of the American captives were killed: one was beheaded by his captors and the other died during a military rescue.

Border security

Philippine security forces have tightened border patrols to thwart any possible terror attacks following a warning by Japan earlier this week of possible suicide bombings in Southeast Asia, the Philippine Coast Guard commandant said, while telling people they should not be alarmed.

Japans warning to its citizens came on the heels of a report by U.S.-based Site Intelligence Group, which monitors extremist communications online, that a pro-Islamic State militant group in Afghanistan had declared it was time for war, especially in Southeast Asian countries.

Commandant Vice Adm. Leopoldo Laroya said forces would continue border protection measures and round-the-clock seaborne patrols.

Rest assured that our men and women will not put their guards down and will continue to be vigilant in conducting precautionary measures for public safety, he said in a statement.

Meanwhile, national police chief Gen. Guillermo Eleazar said police had not received any indication of an imminent attack, but were not taking Japans warning lightly.

Our intelligence monitoring has been continuing since the 9/11 attack in the U.S. and the Marawi incident, and our intelligence sharing and strategic partnership with other countries would continue in dealing with terror groups, he told reporters on Wednesday.

Jeoffrey Maitem in Cotabato, Philippines, contributed to this report.
A protester launches a projectile towards police during a demonstration calling for Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-chas resignation over his government's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, in Bangkok, Sept. 12, 2021.

Dozens of children and teens have been arrested in recent weeks in Bangkok, as police round up mounting numbers of protesters amid near-daily, violent street battles with small groups of anti-government activists, a rights group said.

As protesters have stepped up violence, police have begun to crack down harder  they arrested a 12-year-old bystander this week  but young activists at a demonstration in Bangkok on Wednesday vowed they would not give up until Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha resigned.

We are here to overthrow Prayuth. He said he does everything for the people, but he only does things for himself, a teenage protester, who did not want to be named for fear of reprisal, told BenarNews.

He had joined about 100 demonstrators in the capitals Din Daeng area, where there have been almost daily protests since Aug. 7.

And we hold our grudge against the police because they stomped on our friend on September 7, the protester said, without elaborating on the incident referred to.

As the teenager was talking to BenarNews, activists set off loud firecrackers and set car tires ablaze on the street, as protesters began marching from the Din Daeng junction towards Prayuths house, surrounded by hundreds of riot police.

Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR), a Bangkok NGO, said riot police use disproportionate force, which provokes the protesters.

In Bangkok, riot control police frequently follow a suppression and dispersion approach, with a tendency to overuse force and weapons, which results in frequent confrontations between protesters and authorities, the NGO said on its website on Wednesday.

The situation has led to a sharp increase in cases of violation of the Emergency Decree in August. That is, 353 new people have been accused of it, making the number of people charged with violating the Emergency Decree due to political participation totaling at least 902 individuals in 331 cases.

TLHR was referring to the emergency decree signed by the prime minister in March 2020, during the early days of the pandemic in Thailand. The decree allow authorities to impose curfews, bar public gatherings, and censor news deemed to be fake or seen as inducing general fear and panic.

Arrests have risen too, TLHR said.

[S]ince Aug. 7, at least 225 people, including at least 15 under 15 years of age, and 62 aged 15 to18 were arrested, the NGO said, adding that these were detention numbers only from Ding Daeng and surrounding areas.

According to police, 767 people face charges relating to protests since July, with 522 arrested so far, Reuters news reported Wednesday.

On the day after any arrest, the court allows some people to be let go on bail, depending on the nature of their alleged offense, on the condition they dont join assemblies in the future.

Pro-democracy activists Phromsorn Fah Weerathamjaree (left), Panupong Mike Jadnok (center) and Chartchai Kaedum, raise the three-fingered salute after being freed on bail, outside the Thanya Buri prison outside of Bangkok, Sept. 15, 2021. [BenarNews]

Lese-Majeste

During largely peaceful protests that began in July 2020, protesters have called for Prayuth to step down, the constitution to be rewritten, and the monarchy to be reformed.

Many of the activists who spearhead the demonstrations have been arrested and charged with Lese-Majeste, a strict royal defamation law.

A court on Wednesday granted bail to four leaders of the protest movement, after more than a month of pre-trial detention and repeated rejections of bail requests.

Panupong Mike Jadnok, Phromsorn Fah Weerathamjaree, Chartchai Kaedum and Nutchanon Pairoj were arrested after a protest Aug. 2 and their bail requests were rejected seven times.

Another protest leader, Parit Penguin Chiwarak, was also granted bail on Wednesday but was remanded in custody over charges related to protests last year.

I wont call for justice from unjust persons, Panupong said after being freed.

Having freedom or being jailed is part of the mission for a change to the Republic of Thailand. Now it is time for a change.

TLHR said at least 124 people have been accused of royal defamation since November 2020.

Fireworks thrown by anti-government demonstrators explode in front of a group of riot police officers during a protest, in Bangkok, Sept. 13, 2021. [Reuters]

15-year-old boy 'will be paralyzed for life'

Starting late July this year, frustration over Prayuths alleged failure to handle the COVID-19 pandemic has ignited increasingly violent demonstrations. Agitators set off often-dangerous firecrackers, fire slingshots, and throw glass bottles and rocks at police.

Members of the riot police, meanwhile, have been quelling demonstrations using means such as rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannons.

The increase in violence has led to casualties on both sides as well as on people who belong to neither side.

Dek Wangnoi, a delivery worker, said he fell unconscious after being hit by a riot police car last Friday.

I woke up in a hospital on Saturday, and the doctor said I had a big cut with 27 stitches and that they brought me back to life, Dek told BenarNews, adding he had to pay 7,000 baht (U.S. $212) for his treatment.

Sunti Teapia, a photojournalist for the local Manager Daily newspaper, said he was injured after being hit by a firecracker set off by a young boy at Din Daeng on Sept. 7.

I hid behind a big lamp post, but even then that firecracker slammed the post and spilled over on my neck. My skin was burned, Sunti told BenarNews.

Meanwhile, a 15-year-old boy who was shot and injured in the neck on Aug. 16 is still in the intensive care unit and will be paralyzed for life, a protesters group called Thalu Gaz said on its Facebook page on Tuesday.

Police said one of their men, 28-year-old Thanawut Jirakachen, was seriously injured when a firecracker thrown by a protester hit his face on Sept. 11. Local media said the policeman suffered bleeding in his brain and a crack on the bone around his eye-socket.

The crowd control policeman was injured by a giant firecracker thrown from the Thalu Gaz protester which hit the right side of his face, Major Piya Tawichai, the deputy chief of the Bangkok Metropolitan Police Bureau, told reporters on Monday.

Piya also warned protesters of even more arrests and said numerous criminal charges would be slapped against those who stir up chaos in the country, local media reported.

If youths commit the offence, their parents will also be charged under the Child Protection Act, he said Monday.

That night, police arrested the 12-year-old boy who was riding a bicycle to watch the protest at Din Daeng, rights group TLHR said. The child was arrested for violating a pandemic curfew that prohibits people from being outdoors between 9 p.m. and 4 a.m.

TLHR said the boy is the youngest detainee known in any political arrest in the past year.

The NGO also alleged that police are targeting peaceful protesters too, especially those who participate in car mob rallies around the country to avoid pandemic restrictions.

The NGO says it knows of charges against 186 people from 29 provinces for car mob rallies. In many cases, TLHR said, the accused had not left their vehicle.
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Kristin Chenoweth, Julie Taymor and Lin-Manuel Miranda welcomed back boisterous audiences to Wicked, The Lion King and Hamilton for the first time since the start of the pandemic, marking Tuesday as the unofficial return of Broadway
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NEW LEBANON, N.Y.  Its been a while  three years  since Kathleen Carey last graced a stage; elder care responsibilities, then the pandemic. Now, the well-known veteran Capital District-area actress is back. Shes at The Theater Barn in director Phil Rices generally admirable production of David Lindsay-Abaires remarkably written Good People, a bittersweet comedy-drama about a group of economically challenged people living in South Bostons Lower End who do the best they can to look after themselves, protect whats theirs, make do and survive while causing as little damage as possible.

Theater Review What: Good People by David Lindsay-Abaire. Directed by Phil Rice With: Kathleen Carey, Christopher Brophy, Lisa Franklin, Angela Potrikus, Kim Wafer, Joseph Sicotte Where: The Theater Barn, 654 Route 20, New Lebanon, N.Y. When: Through Sunday. 8 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday; 4 p.m. Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday Running time: 2 hours, 1 minute (including one intermission) Tickets: $33 ($30 Sunday matinees) Reservations and information: 518-794-8989; tbarn.org COVID-19 protocols: All patrons must be fully vaccinated. Masks are required at all times within the building.

Carey plays Margie, a feisty, scrappy, roughly 50-year-old high school dropout. She is a single mother of an intellectually- and developmentally- challenged prematurely-born adult daughter.

Margie does the best she can with the hand shes been dealt. Shes had trouble holding on to a job; indeed, as Good People begins she is being fired from her job as a clerk in a dollar store. Shes been late too many times, her boss says, and he cant protect her any longer without jeopardizing his own job. Its not the first time shes been fired.

Margie is also on the verge of being evicted from the apartment she rents from a high school friend, Dottie, who lives upstairs and may need Margies apartment for her adult son and suddenly out-of-work daughter-in-law.

Margie, Dottie (Lisa Franklin) and another girlfriend since high school, Jean (Angela Portikus), who works for a catering firm that is cutting back hours, spend much of their leisure time playing bingo at the church parish hall.

Margie seizes on one ray of hope when Jean mentions that an old high school flame of Margie  Mike Dillon (Christopher Brophy), with whom she had a summer affair  is back in Boston, having left Southie and the Lower End projects in which he was raised to attend the University of Pennsylvania. Now, after having lived in Washington, D.C. for several years, Mike has returned to Boston and established a successful medical practice. He has a home in Bostons tony Chestnut Hill which he shares with his Black wife, Kate (Kim Wafer), who is roughly 20 years younger, and their daughter, Ally.

At Jeans prompting, Margie arranges to meet an uneasy Michael (Christopher Brophy) in the hope he can find work for her. The meeting leads to an invitation to Margie to come to a weekend-night birthday party Kate is giving him at their home. Ostensibly in the hope that one of Michaels guests might be willing to offer her work, Margie accepts. But when Michael subsequently calls Margie to tell her the party has been canceled, she shows up anyway in the belief that he is lying.

The meat on the bones of Good People is the second act meeting among Margie, Mike and Kate who, as played by Wafer, is a graceful, gracious, welcoming, intelligent, compassionate woman.

At one point, Kate playfully asks Margie to dish out some dirt about the Michael she knew when; secrets. That old saw, Be careful what you wish for, surfaces, big time, and while some of Kates responses are not what one might expect, there is a bombshell or two. By the time Margie has left, life for Kate, not to mention her already shaky marriage, will not be the same.

Lindsay-Abaires particular skill lies in not spelling everything out for us. He has fashioned fully-dimensional, intensely human characters in all their complexities and nuances.

Carey approaches Margie with fearless intensity. She is all in, top to bottom, outside and within. Margie is not the easiest character to like but she is, in Careys hands, her own worst enemy; brash, challenging, vulnerable and oh, so interesting.

Rice has formed a tight, skillful ensemble around her. Brophys Michael is a finely tuned construct of a man who, for all the social and professional skills he has learned to wear in his years away from Southie, is not really quite that removed. Brophy is astute in his ability to catch the duality Michael is forced to confront, in all its shadings, nuances and ramifications, when Margie reappears in his life.

Franklin is fine as Margies landlady and friend, Dottie; Portikas is especially effective as Jean, perhaps Margies best of friends, even if her well-intentioned advice has unforeseen consequences; and Joseph Sicotte is credible as Margies boss, Stevie, who is caught between a rock and a hard place and manages to find a way out.

The pacing and rhythm at the performance I attended was a bit rough and uncertain in places but you kind of have faith that in the hands of this cast those rough edges will become smoother as the run progresses. When this production is on certain ground, it crackles. Its the stuff of good theater.
Investigations editor

Larry Parnass joined The Eagle in 2016 from the Daily Hampshire Gazette, where he was editor in chief. His freelance work has appeared in the Washington Post, Boston Globe, Hartford Courant, CommonWealth Magazine and with the Reuters news service.
The exterior of the proposed new police station in Lanesborough. The Select Board learned Tuesday that the project, if approved by town meeting voters, could cost an estimated $4.3 million.
Reporter

Greta Jochem, a Report for America Corps member, joined the Eagle in 2021. Previously, she was a reporter at the Daily Hampshire Gazette. She is also a member of the investigations team.
Joab is one of the more interesting characters in the Old Testament. He plays a prominent role in the government of King David as the commander of the army. And his name is mentioned repeatedly in the Scripture. Yet he is also mysterious and hard to understand. So just who is Joab?

A Part of Davids Extended Family

David had at least six or seven brothers (1 Sam. 16:10, 1 Ch. 2:13-15) and two sisters (1 Ch. 2:16). One of Davids sisters was Zeruiah, and she had three sons: Abishai, Joab, and Asahel (1 Ch. 2:16). Based on the order given in 1 Chronicles, Joab would appear to be the younger brother of Abishai.

It is likely that Joab was younger that his uncle David. When David died at 80 years old Joab was still very much alive and active in the political intrigues of the kingdom. But he was likely not much younger. During the early days of Davids kingdom, Joab was old enough to command the respect of the army. While it is just speculation, I can see David interacting with Joab and his brothers as they are growing up together in Bethlehem.

An Early Supporter of David

In 1 Samuel 22:1 we are told that soon after David had fled from Saul, his brothers and fathers household joined him in exile, along with about 400 other men. That could well have been for their own protection as much as out of loyalty to David. Saul likely would have been eager to kill not just David, but his family as well. So, while not mentioned by name, Joab likely joined up with David along with the rest of Davids family at this time, early in his exile.

Joab is first mentioned by name in 2 Samuel 2:13. David was king of Judah and Abner was the commander of the army of the northern tribes. Joab, along with Davids men, met up with Abner and his men. Representatives of their respective armies fought and then the battle grew. Abner and his men fled. But during the pursuit, Joabs brother Asahel caught up to Abner, and Abner killed him.

Joab is next mentioned in 1 Chronicles 11:6. David had been crowned as king of Judah, and then, seven years later, by the rest of the tribes. David then chose Jerusalem to be his capital of the united kingdom. The problem was that Jerusalem was occupied by the Jebusites. Joab led the successful attack on Jerusalem and, as a result, was made commander-in-chief of the army.

Jealous of His Position and Ruthless in Maintaining It

After seven years of a divided kingdom, Abner met with David and covenanted with him to establish David as king over a united monarchy. After Abner left David, Joab heard about it and called Abner back. When Joab met up with Abner, he killed him. The given reason was revenge for his brothers death. But it is not hard to imagine that Joab might have felt threated by Abners presence  that David might replace him as commander of the Army.

Davids response to Joabs murder of Abner was curious. He mourned for Abner and emphasized his innocence in the affair. And that is in keeping with Davids character. But in 2 Samuel 3:39 he exclaimed that the sons of Zeruiah were too strong for him, even though he was king of Israel. Why could David not simply have killed Joab, or removed him as commander? It would appear that Joab, at the head of the army, was in some ways a threat to David, and that the loyalty of the army was to Joab more than to David.

Many years later Davids son Absalom revolted against his father. Absalom appointed his cousin Amasa, who was also Joabs cousin (2 Sam. 17:25), to command his army. After the rebellion was put down, David attempted to replace Joab as his army commander with Amasa (2 Sam. 19:13). But when Joab found out about it, he killed his cousin (2 Sam. 9-10), and maintained his hold over the army.





Photo credit: Getty Images/Massonstock

Fiercely Loyal to David

It has always struck me as a little strange that Joab was content to be in charge of the army. He was willing to kill even family members who might replace him. Yet there is never any indication that he had any interest in the throne. That belonged to David, and he was a staunch supporter until near the end of Davids life. And even then, it was only to offer support to one of Davids sons as heir to the throne. But it was not the son that David had chosen.

Once when Joab had the army out attacking a city, he called on David to come to claim the victory (2 Sam. 12:26-28). After Joab and the army defeated the rebel Absalom and his army, David mourned for his fallen son. And it was Joab who talked sense into him and got him to go out and welcome the troops (2 Sam. 19:5-8). And, when David wanted to take a census of Israel, Joab attempted to talk him out of it (2 Sam. 24:1-17). David ignored Joabs advice here and it was costly.

Joab was a ruthless man who would broker no threat to his own position. Yet until he sided with Adonijah against Solomon, Davids chosen successor, Joab had consistently looked out for Davids best interests. He knew David was king and he was unflinchingly loyal to him.

Davids Hatchet Man

As you have seen, Joab was not squeamish about shedding blood, especially of those he saw as a threat. But he was also willing to do the dirty work for David. The most notable example was the part he played in Davids affair with Bathsheba. When David sent Uriah, Bathshebas husband, back to the battle front, he carried a message for Joab. Arrange for Uriahs death in an upcoming battle (2 Sam. 11:14). And Joab seemed to have no compulsion about doing it, even though Uriah was one of the elite soldiers of Davids army (2 Sam. 23:32).

Joab was also not above ignoring Davids command if he felt it was in Davids best interest to do so. Nowhere is this more evident than in Absaloms rebellion. David gave explicit instructions to his army and their commanders not to harm Absalom (2 Sam. 18:5). Yet when Joab found Absalom hanging in a tree, he had no compulsion against killing him (2 Sam. 18 14-15). He knew that so long as Absalom lived, he would be a threat to David and his kingship.

Ultimately a Victim of His Own Ambition

Davids relationship with Joab was a complex one. They were family and had worked together in leading Israel for the 40 years of Davids reign as king. Joab was a skilled and highly successful army commander who was fiercely loyal to David. And David trusted him to act in the best interests of both David and the kingdom. Yet Joab was not above defying David if it meant maintaining his own position at the head of the army. At least twice, he killed men that David had thought to appoint over the army in place of Joab. And David felt powerless to do anything about Joabs insubordination.

But Joab finally made a deadly mistake. Solomon was Davids heir apparent. But another of Davids sons, Adonijah, was ambitious and sought to usurp the crown for himself. He gathered the support of some of the leading men of the realm, including Joab. And then he acted to declare himself king. When David learned of this rebellion, he had Solomon crowned king, putting an end to the short-lived insurrection. While David himself did not punish those who sided with Adonijah, he did leave instruction for Solomon to deal with them. In particular, he made clear to Solomon that Joab should not die in peace. And ultimately Solomon had Joab put to death.

Why did Joab choose to side with Adonijah rather than Davids designated heir? We are not told that. But, given Joabs ambition to rule the army, I think it likely that Adonijah had offered that position to him. So, he made a fateful choice that, in the end, cost him his life.

God Uses Even the Broken

For the 40 years of Davids reign, as well as the years leading up to it, Joab was a loyal lieutenant. I dont believe Joab gets nearly enough credit for Davids conquest of the surrounding nations and the establishment of the empire. Without Joab, things might have turned out quite differently.

The relationship between David and Joab was a complex one. David depended on Joab, even while he felt powerless to completely control him. They grew up together, went into exile together, and together carved out an empire. The golden era of Israel was the reign of David. But standing alongside him was his nephew Joab.

David is described as a man after Gods own heart (1 Sam. 13:14). And God used him mightily. Joabs character seems to have fallen short of Davids. Yet God also used him in establishing the kingdom. God can use all of us, broken as we are, to carry out his purpose in creation and in his kingdom.

Related articles

Why Was Abishag so Important to King David and His Sons?

Beautiful Lessons in Biblical Friendship from David and Jonathan

Why You Really Should Read 1 Samuel



Photo credit: Getty Images/cineuno
BOISE  38-year-old Joseph Anthony Lee, of Boise, was sentenced to 336 months in federal prison for sexual exploitation of a child on Tuesday. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Senior U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill also ordered Lee to serve 15 years of supervised release following his prison sentence. Lee pleaded guilty to the charges on March 22, 2021.

According to court records, the investigation began after a thirteen-year-old female reported that Lee had been sexually abusing her for several years. Following the victims disclosure, the Boise Police Department (BPD) obtained a search warrant for Lees residence. BPD executed the search warrant on January 23, 2020. BPD contacted Lee and seized his cellphone. After obtaining a search warrant for Lees cellphone, BPD located explicit images and videos that Lee had produced of himself sexually abusing the victim. BPD also located numerous files of child pornography depicting other children.

Acting U.S. Attorney Gonzalez commended the investigators from Boise Police Department and the Ada County Prosecutors Office for aggressively pursuing this defendant and holding him accountable. As parents, colleagues, teachers, and caregivers, we must be vigilant in reporting these types of crimes to law enforcement. Please help us prevent child abuse, he concluded.

At sentencing, Judge Winmill also ordered Lee to pay restitution of $18,000 to victims in the images he possessed. As a result of conviction, Lee will be required to register as a sex offender.
Plus, Bill's Message of the Day, on General Mark Milley's call to the Chinese.

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PCIM&H of India Joins Hands with American Herbal Pharmacopoeia

Ministry of Ayush has paved the way for strengthening the quality of Ayurvedic and other Indian Traditional Medicine products globally and also enhance export potential, especially to the US Market.

This has been achieved by the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Pharmacopoeia Commission for Indian Medicine & Homoeopathy (PCIM&H) and American Herbal Pharmacopoeia, USA.

The MoU was signed virtually. Ministry of Ayush has entered this MoU with the specific purpose of strengthening, promoting, and developing standards in the field of Ayurveda and other Indian traditional systems of medicine between the two countries based on equality and mutual benefit.

The collaboration of efforts will go a long way in enhancing the export potential of the ASU&H (Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani and Homeopathy) drugs. Under this MoU, there will be the constitution of a Joint Committee to develop the action plan along with timelines for the development of monographs and other activities for cooperation in the field of traditional medicine.
CHAI will work closely with Laurus Labs to provide technical and regulatory support

Hyderabad-based Laurus Labs has announced that the development is underway to accelerate the commercialisation and registration of the best-in-class second-and third-line HIV treatment darunavir boosted with ritonavir (DRV/r) for children. An agreement was launched between Laurus Labs, Unitaid and the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) in June 2021.



Through this agreement, Unitaid and CHAI are working with Laurus Labs to finally address the critical need and ensure CLHIV (Children Living with HIV/AIDS) have access to high-quality second-and third-line HIV treatment.



Second- and third-line therapies are critical for CLHIV where the World Health Organization (WHO)-recommended first-line treatment dolutegravir (DTG) may not be an option due to medication resistance or intolerance. Currently, available second-and third-line treatments are often difficult for children to take due to bitter taste and difficult forms of administration.



A paediatric version of DRV/r has been a global health priority since 2013, but is still not available, leaving thousands of children without the lifesaving medication they need, said Ann Veneman, interim Co-CEO, CHAI. The innovative incentive programme will enable the development of an effective paediatric medication that will save the lives of children living with HIV.



Dr Satyanarayana Chava, Founder & CEO, Laurus Labs, said, We are excited about this innovative mechanism to accelerate the availability of pDRV/r regimen for children living with HIV. The collaboration between Laurus Labs, CHAI, and Unitaid can positively impact over 100,000 CLHIVs and help them in leading a better life especially in their formative years.
Charges laid against Dis-Chem staff for fraudulent vaccination cards

Dis-Chem Pharmacies has laid charges against four temporary employees for providing fraudulent vaccination cards. After an isolated incident at Dis-Chem Krugersdorp President Square vaccination site, the staff members were arrested and criminally charged.



The pharmacy group says it maintains "rigorous accounting methods" to ensure routine daily balancing of vaccines doses to stock and to the EVDS system, and that it acted swiftly and decisively when a discrepancy was found.



We did not hesitate to act as soon as this was brought to our attention as it is most upsetting to see that a small number of individuals felt they could take advantage of the vaccine rollout drive. We do not tolerate any fraudulent or dishonest activity and more specifically, we abhor and condemn any action that serves to undermine or dilute governments national vaccine rollout campaign, says Dis-Chem CEO Ivan Saltzman.



We are fully supportive of governments vaccine endeavours and have been closely involved in the effort to offer vaccines to as many people as possible. We will continue to maintain our vigilance to ensure the integrity of the process and we remain steadfast in our efforts to get more jabs in arms, he says.
The challenges we faced in 2020, when the pandemic first reached our shores, seemed to threaten the very fabric of our society. But it is fair to say that 2020 appears to have been a mere dress rehearsal for 2021, with its waves of pandemic lockdowns, accelerating Covid-19 infections, and the political chaos, violence and looting in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng in early July. These events have only intensified the hunger and poverty that have been a feature of our society for far too long.

Cathy Duff, Trialogue director

Many companies were hard hit by the recent destruction in two of our provinces and did their utmost to protect staff and jobs, both during and after the events. Massmart, which had 41 of its stores looted and four of its sites burnt, indicated that jobs would remain secure and sent food trucks to KZN to alleviate food insecurity. Shoprite has asked customers to donate to its Act for Change Fund to assist communities affected by the unrest.The recent actions of many companies bring to mind the results of Edelman Trust Barometer research  namely, that most people now trust businesses more than any other institution, including government, non-profits and the media. Companies have shown active corporate citizenship by standing side by side with communities, despite the losses they have incurred. By doing so, they have demonstrated an understanding of their role in society, particularly as many business leaders strongly experienced in the past year  often for the first time in this generation  how interdependent business and society truly are.In a world riven by unsustainable inequality, companies are being called to reassess their purpose and work towards new ways of doing business. With society increasingly looking to business to fulfil the roles traditionally assigned to government and civil society  and with 95% of South Africans expecting company CEOs to publicly speak out on societal challenges  business leaders need to act decisively, incorporating environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations into every aspect of business. Trialogue uses the term integrated thinking to express what it means to do just this.Trialogue, in collaboration with Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose in New York and its Global Exchange country partners, released the inaugural Global Impact at Scale report in 18 countries around the world in January this year. The findings show that there are increasing resources going to environmental and social initiatives, there is increasing ESG reporting, and a high 70% of companies are linking performance and remuneration to ESG issues. There are a number of factors driving this momentum towards more integrated thinking.These include investor pressure (there are currently 1,834 signatories to the UN-supported Principles for Responsible Investment, including 44 South African asset owners and managers); consumer and employee pressure (as many as 90% of Generation Z zoomers believe companies must act to help social and environmental issues); and local and global regulation (the G7 has called for Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures reporting recommendations to be mandated, and in South Africa, Treasurys Draft National Green Finance Taxonomy was recently released for stakeholder input).The King Codes of Governance have long encouraged integrated thinking and reporting, and the Companies Act of 2008 stipulates that large companies should have a social and ethics committee, a requirement that elevates social issues to board level and to some extent legislates corporate responsibility. Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition Ebrahim Patel recently announced proposed amendments to South Africas Companies Act aimed at tackling the gross injustice of executive pay, which will require disclosure of the wage gap between a companys highest and lowest earners.These are just a few examples of the rapid, sweeping changes that will fundamentally transform the business landscape. Businesses adopting an integrated thinking framework are better placed to navigate the many societal shifts that are unfolding, with companies that manage their ESG issues increasingly outperforming companies that do not. However, with some notable exceptions, corporate leadership in South Africa has been slow to embed integrated thinking within corporate strategy.How, then, can companies begin the shift? For a start, they should embrace their expanded mandate and speak out as leaders on sustainability and social issues. They should consider how to involve and engage their stakeholders more, even in the governance and ownership of the organisation. CSI practitioners should align their CSI to the business and their programming to global goals like the SDGs, while development practitioners should apply gender and environmental lenses to the development work they do.Employers should consider offering psychosocial support within their organisations as well as across their development programming. And everyone should advocate for racial and gender equity and equality of pay in the workplace, decent wage gaps, better ESG action and information disclosure, ESG skills at board level, and for organisations to adopt just transition strategies for the net-zero world.Above all, companies should embrace collective action, since none of the huge, intractable social and environmental issues can be solved by a single organisation.
Developing a base for Covid-19 vaccine production on the continent highlights the challenges faced by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as it battles to expand vaccine production to help address the glaring inequalities between rich and poor nations in the pandemic.

Choosing Moderna

Waiver tassels

Joining the African tech transfer hub

The drive to produce vaccines in Africa is designed to help more developing countries access Covid-19 shots after rich nations bought up most of this year's supply.More than three quarters of the 5.5 billion Covid-19 shots administered worldwide have gone to high and upper-middle income countries, which make up just over a third of the world's population.Currently only 3% of Africa is vaccinated, the African Union's top health official said last week, compared with more than half of the US and three quarters of Spain.Efforts to develop an African base for Covid-19 vaccine production will focus on trying to replicate Moderna's shot, but a lack of progress in talks with the US company mean the project will take time, a senior WHO official told Reuters.Moderna said last October it would not enforce patents related to its shot during the pandemic, raising hopes that other companies might be able to copy it and help boost Covid-19 vaccine production.In practice, though, it is hard to replicate a vaccine without the information on how it is made, and the WHO-backed tech transfer hub in South Africa - set up in June to give poorer nations the know-how to produce Covid-19 vaccines - has so far not reached a deal with the company."The talks have not yielded any results," says Martin Friede, WHO Initiative for vaccine research coordinator.Moderna did not respond to a request for comment.Friede said Moderna's vaccine had been chosen as an abundance of public information and its pledge not to enforce patents made the shot slightly easier to copy than some rivals."We have to make a choice now. The deadline is upon us; time to start ordering chemicals. We've chosen Moderna," he says.But even if the hub manages without Moderna's help, it could take more than a year to get a distributable vaccine as clinical trials would only begin in the latter half of 2022, he adds.In May, the US said it would support waiving intellectual property rights for Covid-19 vaccines in order to help speed an end to the pandemic.But the idea has faced opposition from pharmaceutical firms, which argue they need to oversee any technology transfer due to the complexity of the manufacturing process.Pfizer and its partner BioNTech separately struck a deal in July for South Africa's Biovac to help make around 100-million doses a year of their Covid-19 vaccine for Africa. Their shot, like Moderna's, uses so-called mRNA technology.However, the deal is to "fill and finish" the vaccine, the final stages of production where the product is put into vials, sealed and packaged for shipping. It does not cover the complicated process of mRNA production, which Pfizer and BioNTech will do at their European plants. Neither responded to requests for comment.The WHO has been trying to persuade Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech to join forces with its African tech transfer hub.But Covid-19 vaccine makers have warned that non-authorised producers would compete for vital raw materials and production gear that the established players - most of which have earned huge profits from vaccination - rely on.Hub consortium partner Afrigen Biologics will produce the initial batch of doses, before transferring the skills and technology to local manufacturing partner, Biovac Institute - both are Cape Town-based - which will mass produce the vaccines."This is not something that we are asking industry to give us for free," Friede says about talks with the companies for access to information, adding that royalties, territorial limitations and other constraints could be built into a deal.Healthcare analysts doubt the plan can be mobilised quickly."There are many steps which will require lots of iterations before they can be ready for prime time commercial grade production," says Prashant Yadav, a global healthcare supply chain expert at the Centre for Global Development in Washington.
The Anti-Money Laundering (AML) market makes up a significant proportion of the global Gross Domestic Product (GDP), but the real issue is that money laundering is used to fund other illicit activities, such as smuggling, bribery, corruption, cybercrime, illegal arms dealing, human trafficking, modern slavery, and more.

A global challenge

Next-generation technology is key

Meeting changing regulatory requirements

According to a study by Global Newswire, the global Anti- Money Laundering (AML) market is expected to reach $2.3858bn by 2026 (from an estimated at $974.2m in 2019) and expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.6% from 2019 to 2027.The need to curb money laundering is clear, and there are many laws in place around this.For example, in Europe, the 5th Anti-Money Laundering Directive (5AMLD) came into effect in January 2020, with the goal to improve the EUs efforts by preventing the misuse of the financial system for the purpose of money laundering and funding terrorist activities.However, in todays complex digital world, it can be difficult to effectively perform the required levels of due diligence, and to effectively perform Know Your Customer (KYC) initiatives, without the right tools for the job.Money laundering is a global challenge that is rapidly evolving due to a changing economy and the rapid digitalisation of money, combined with ever-growing numbers of cross-border transactions.Digital transformation opens the door for criminal groups to run complex money laundering schemes while continuing to evolve their technique.Against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic, financial institutions must comply with various Anti-Money Laundering (AML) laws and regulations with less funding and manpower than ever.The current climate calls for innovation and modernisation by shifting to a next-generation AML software.To prevent money laundering, financial institutions need to know who their customers are, where the money is coming from and where it is going.This is simply not possible to achieve without the use of technology.Access to data, effective AML technology, and importantly, automation, are all essential in exposing risks such as money laundering.According to the Refinitiv Global Risk and Compliance Report 2021, organisations which use innovative technologies are not just better protected from customer and third-party risk, they are more aware of them and crucially are more likely to continue investing in further prevention and mitigation.Next-generation AML tools help organisations to utilise data and analytics to detect and flag unusual activities for follow up and helps them to more effectively perform KYC processes.In addition, AML tools need to automate transaction monitoring to manage risk and reduce the manual workload around customer monitoring.Payments need to be screened, and senders and receivers need to be effectively identified, which requires visibility from end to end.Financial institutions also need tools like intelligent alerting, potential risk identification and analysis.There is an ongoing challenge involved with AML initiatives and customer service  the goal is to balance the two, so that customer onboarding is not negatively affected by AML and KYC, which frustrates the many legitimate customers of a bank.AML is an ever-evolving field, with the laws and regulations constantly being updated to meet new challenges.It is therefore crucial for financial institutions to ensure that their AML software is up to date and meets the latest standards and regulatory requirements.One example is how KYC is evolving into KYX  from Know Your Customer to Know Your Entity  because money laundering is wider than just individual customers.Organisations need to know not only their customers, but their employees, channel partners and distributors as well. Dynamic customer due diligence is also emerging as a crucial tool in enabling real-time risk management.New technologies such as machine learning and artificial intelligence play a key role in enabling financial institutions to stay on top of the latest developments in AML.
(Advanced Search stars at approx. 2:30)

Flock Safety's license plate readers can now ID vehicles from any camera source. Basically, Flock Safety has turned every camera in the country into potential license plate readers.

Two years ago CBS News revealed , that America is nearly as bad as China when it comes to spying on its citizens.

In 2019, the U.S. trailed only China in the number of surveillance cameras per-person, with at least 70 million surveillance cameras or one surveillance camera for every 4.6 people.

"During the past few years, coverage of the surveillance market has focused heavily on China's massive deployments of cameras and artificial intelligence technology. What's received far less attention is the high level of penetration of surveillance cameras in the United States," report author Oliver Philippou, an analyst at IHS Markit, said in a note. "With the U.S. nearly on par with China in terms of camera penetration, future debate over mass surveillance is likely to concern America as much as China."

The U.S. has more surveillance cameras per person than Taiwan, (5.5 people per camera), the United Kingdom (6.5) and Singapore (7.1).

With that in mind, Flock Safety's new "Advanced Search package" allows law enforcement and Home Owners Associations (HOAs) to ID any vehicle using whatever cameras are at their disposal.

As GovTech pointed out:

"Flock Safety's software allows it to ID vehicles from a security camera at an ATM, a homeowners Ring doorbell, even a photo somebody took on their cellphone. The companys new Advanced Search package  which costs between $2,500 and $5,000 a year, depending on how many of Flock Safetys cameras the agency operates  includes a feature that allows users to upload a picture of a vehicle from any source and then perform a search to see if any of the companys cameras have seen it."

Flock Safety's "Fingerprint Technology" allows HOAs and neighborhood associations to ID a vehicle[s] by its roof rack and bumper sticker.

"Flock Safetys patented Vehicle Fingerprint technology lets you search by vehicle make, color, type, license plate, state of the license plate, missing plate, covered plate, paper plate, and unique vehicle details like roof racks, bumper stickers, and more."

Do you suspect that your neighbor is anti-government or a BLM activist? All you need to do is take a picture of their car or send your Ring doorbell footage to your HOA or to the police and let Flock Safety ID and track them everywhere they go.

Flock Safety specializes in turning HOA's and neighborhood associations into de facto law enforcement operatives in at least 15 states

Flock Safety claims to care about the privacy of people living in HOA's and neighborhood associations. All residents have to do to protect their privacy, is email their home address and license plate number to Flock Safety's "Safe List" and click the remove my vehicles from footage box.

"The Safe List allows footage captured of your vehicle to be marked as resident. This way, if a crime happens in your neighborhood and your HOA or trusted neighbor needs to look through Flock footage, they can filter out all known residents in their search. This keeps your vehicle out of the search."

The problem with Flock Safety's "Safe List" is two-fold. Number one you cannot find it listed anywhere on their website. It appears that the only way for someone to remove their vehicle from Flock footage is to contact them, by entering your first and last name along with your phone number and email address.

So much for "resident" privacy, huh?

The second issue with license plate readers is they will still record every vehicle's license plate regardless of any corporate disclaimers.

License plate readers do not black out and stop recording the moment it reads a "resident[s]" license plate. All the data they record is sent to Flock Safety's database where it gets flagged as "resident[s]" for 30 days or more.

Claiming that Flock Safety will filter out all known "residents" in their license plate search is about as effective as the "Do Not Track Me" button on the world wide web.

The dangers of turning every camera source into license plate readers cannot be overstated.
The Taliban is urging the United States to have a "heart" and step up and pledge humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, as well as unfreeze sanctioned assets. The provocative and deeply ironic statements (after a 20-year occupation which Washington ostensibly framed as "helping" the Afghan people) came after a donor conference in Geneva on Monday resulted in $1.2 billion in aid pledged.

The United Nations hosted the international donor conference, with an initial aim to reach over $600 million, but by the days' end UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres unveiled pledges totaling more than a billion dollars. "This conference has fully met my expectations in relation to the solidarity with the people in Afghanistan," Guterres said.

Amir Khan Muttaqi, the Taliban's acting foreign minister, via EPA/EFE

Subsequently on Tuesday the Taliban thanked the UN donor conference for the better than expected response, but singled out the United States - asking it to show "heart" at a moment of continued economic collapse after years of war and the rapid US withdrawal.

"America is a big country - they need to have a big heart," the Taliban's acting foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said as part of the statements.

He claimed the Taliban would spend all donor money "wisely" and with transparency in order to alleviate crushing poverty in the country, as APF relates:

Amir Khan Muttaqi, the regime's acting foreign minister, told a press conference the Taliban would spend donor money wisely and use it to alleviate poverty. "We thank and welcome the world's pledge for about one billion dollars in aid and ask them to continue their assistance to Afghanistan," Muttaqi said. "The Islamic Emirate will try its best to deliver this aid to the needy people in a completely transparent manner." He also asked Washington to show appreciation for the Taliban allowing the US military to complete its troop withdrawal and evacuation of more than 120,000 people last month.

Previously the Biden administration said it could restore humanitarian assistance and foreign aid to Afghanistan based on its "actions" - particularly allowing Americans and Afghans who assisted the US to leave the country, and based on if it demonstrates a good track record in combatting terrorism.

Taliban says America needs to have a big heart. https://t.co/Wx0YKNiQ7D  Shabtai (@velvetart) September 14, 2021

Since the August Taliban takeover of Kabul, the US has frozen all cash held in its reserves for Kabul, alongside the World Bank and IMF also halting funding. UN chief Guterres has suggested funding could be used as positive leverage to get the Taliban to exercise good behavior and justice.

The Taliban comments are also interesting given they suggest continued efforts at trolling and humiliating Washington on a world stage. Certainly the irony is present of the Taliban appealing on an emotional level to the US having a "heart" - which is a propaganda tactic that Washington typically takes in framing the 'necessity' of its own military interventions abroad. It appears the hardline Islamists in Kabul have now adopted this method.
Under the cover of counterterrorism, AFRICOM is beefing up Nigerias military to ensure the free flow of oil to the West, and using the country as a proxy against Chinas influence on the continent.

Last month, Nigerias President Muhammadu Buhari wrote an op-ed in the Financial Times. It might as well have been written by the Pentagon. Buhari promoted Brand Nigeria, auctioning the countrys military services to Western powers, telling readers that Nigeria would lead Africas war on terror in exchange for foreign infrastructure investment. Though some believe the war on terror [WOT] winds down with the US departure from Afghanistan, he says, the threat it was supposed to address burns fiercely on my continent.

With Boko Haram and Islamic State operating in and near Nigeria, pushing a WOT narrative is easy. But counterterror means imperial intervention. So, why is the Pentagon really interested in Nigeria, a country with a GDP of around $430 billion  some $300 billion less than the Pentagons annual budget  a population with a 40 percent absolute poverty rate, and an infant mortality rate of 74 deaths per 1,000 live births, compared to 5.6 per 1,000 in the US?

A US Naval Postgraduate School doctoral thesis from over a decade ago offers a plausible explanation: the Gulf of Guinea, formed in part by Nigerias coastline, has large deposits of hydrocarbons and other natural resources. It added: There is now a stiff international competition among industrialized nations including the United States, some European countries, China, Japan, and India.

Since then, the US has been quietly transforming Nigerias police and military into a neo-colonial force that can support missions led by the US Africa Command (AFRICOM). Buharis offer makes US involvement in Nigeria appear as if Nigeria is asking for help, when in fact the stage is already set for AFRICOM.

The Pentagons broader aim is to stop China and Russia from gaining a foothold in the continent. In the meantime, it aims to crush any and all opposition groups that disrupt energy supplies so that oil giants can continue exploiting Nigerias resources.

A brief history of a complex country

Its important to get an idea of Nigerias ethnic and regional complexities. The countrys 206 million people, nearly half of whom are Muslim and nearly half Christian, live north of the equator in West Africa. Their country has 36 states, seven of which are coastal. The country borders Cameroon in the east, Benin in the west, Chad in the northeast, and Niger in the north and northwest.

A US Strategic Studies Institute report from the mid-90s describes Nigeria as an artificial state created according to colonial exigencies rather than ethnic coherence. Its fragility explains the countrys susceptibility to ethnic, religious, and class warfare. The majority of Nigerian Muslims are Sunni, but Islam in the country spans the spectrum, from Sufism to Salafism. The Christian population is distributed among the Protestant majority as well as Anglicans, Baptists, Evangelicals, Catholics, Methodists, and Roman Catholics. Most of Nigerias Muslims live in the north in 12 states whose laws are based on sharia.

Nigeria boasts hundreds of languages and ethnicities, the largest groups being the Hausa (who make up 30 percent of the population), Yoruba (15.5), Igbo (a.k.a., Ibo 15.2), and Fulani (6 percent). There are, of course, exceptions, but in general the Hausa-Fulani and Kanuri peoples tend to be Muslim and the Igbo, Ijaw, and Ogoni Christian. Islam and Christianity tend to be mixed among the Yoruba. During the late-19th century Scramble for Africa, the British colonized the region, Christianizing the south and leaving in place the Islamic political structures in the north both for convenience and as a useful divide and rule technique.

Black gold, British rule

Drawing up contracts for energy companies, the Foreign Office (FO) created a monopoly for Anglo-Persian oil (later BP) and particularly for Shell. Prospecting contracts were awarded by the FO in the late-1930s, but it was as late as 1956 that financially viable amounts of black gold were struck. Most of the countrys oil is in the southern, Niger Delta region populated by the Ijaw and Ogoni peoples, hence there is little militant Islam in Nigerias illicit oil sector. Shell operations began in Ogoniland in 1958.

Nigeria gained slow and painful independence from Britain in 1960. Seven years later, armed Igbo fought a war of secession in the oil-rich south to try to form their own country, the Republic of Biafra. Under a One Nigeria policy, the British supported the central regime of General Yakubu Gowon during the Biafra War (1967-70). Fighting and blockade led to three million deaths. Biafra failed to secede.

The UK Labour governments Commonwealth Minister, George Thomas, explained at the time: The sole immediate British interest in Nigeria is that the Nigerian economy should be brought back to a condition in which our substantial trade and investment in the country can be further developed, and particularly so we can regain access to important oil installations.

As the British Empire declined, the US gradually pursued the same policy in Nigeria. At first, the US considered supporting Biafra.

The Kennedy administration initiated $170 million in economic and military spending in Nigeria under a plan that continued until 1966, into the Johnson administration. William Haven North, who served as the Director for Central and West African Affairs for the US Agency of International Development (USAID) said: The issue of supporting Biafra was also tied up with the question of oil interests; the major part of the oil reserves in Nigeria were in the Eastern Region with substantial American oil company investments. In 1978, the US Navys Sixth Fleet began the regular exercises in the Gulf of Guinea that continue to the present.

Indigenous activist Ken Saro-Wiwa " data-medium-file="https://i2.wp.com/thegrayzone.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/external-content.duckduckgo.jpg?fit=300%2C180&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i2.wp.com/thegrayzone.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/external-content.duckduckgo.jpg?fit=1024%2C614&ssl=1" />

Enter Uncle Sam

In 1990, the Nigeria-dominated Economic Community of West African States (ECO) established a military wing, the so-called Monitoring Group (ECOMOG). The George H.W. Bush administration contributed $100 million. The succeeding Clinton White House said that for so-called peace-keeping operations in other African countries like Liberia and Sierra Leone, Nigeria provided most of the muscle. At this point, the seeds were sown for Nigerias use as a delegate for US wars in Africa.

By the dawn of the new millennium, the 3rd Special Forces Group (Army Command) was training Nigerian battalions to assist United Nations support missions. The Nigerian military enjoyed tens of millions of dollars-worth of US weapons.

Meanwhile, indigenous activists suffering under oil spills and environmental destruction established the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People. Nine of this groups leaders, including Ken Saro-Wiwa, were later arrested on trumped up charges and executed by the national military that had been funded by Shell to act as its own private army.

The murders sparked international outrage and activists successfully pressured the US to terminate military aid. General Sani Abacha, under whose dictatorship the Ogoni Nine were hanged, established a Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) to fight both activists and gangs. The MNJTF was later centered in Chad and used as a base from which to fight Boko Haram.

In 1999, Nigeria ended its military rule, at least on paper. By the mid-2000s, Human Rights Watch was wrote that, under the facade of parliamentary democracy, the conduct of many public officials and government institutions is so pervasively marked by violence and corruption as to more resemble criminal activity than democratic governance.

With the Ogoni, Ijaw, and other Niger Delta peoples crushed with force, some turned to violence. Following lobbying by Shell, Nigerias old colonial master, the UK, began spending taxpayer money on military operations to counter armed groups: 12 million between 2001 and 2014, when Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT) co-authored their report. CAAT documents the UK exportation of nearly 500m-worth of weapons to Nigeria in that period, including missiles and grenades. It cites increased UK arms exports as a direct reason for the failure of the southern ceasefire. UK security contractors including Control Risks, Erinys, Executive Outcomes, and Saladin Security were embedded with mobile police units to crush protestors.

Nigeria and the war on terror

Western propaganda paid less attention to Shells systemic violence against the Ogoni and other peoples, focusing instead on the more headline-grabbing resistance, such as high-profile ransom kidnappings and pipeline disruption. State oppression in the drier, less fertile north, meanwhile, fed the narrative pushed by Islamic groups: that Western culture is toxic.

Founded in 2002 and led by Mohammed Yusuf who was later executed by the state, Boko Haram is officially called the Group of the People of Sunnah for Preaching and Jihad (Jamaat Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Dawah wal-Jihad). It emerged in the northeastern city, Maidugari, close to Chad and Cameroon, where it set up semi-autonomous communities. Religious graduates who studied in Sudan attempted to form similar communes but were attacked by the police. In 2009, Boko Haram members allegedly fired at a police station in Bauchi. The government response was to trigger civil war.

The MNJTF mentioned above, is described as notorious in a British House of Commons Library report. It was reactivated, this time to fight the Islamists. The report also notes how the Nigerian Armed Forces terrorized the civilian population with raids, arrests, and indiscriminate shelling.

The UK ramped up its training of Nigerias military while the US used Chad as a base for its war on terror operations: the Pan-Sahel Initiative (covering Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger) and the Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism Partnership (which included Algeria, Morocco, Nigeria, and Tunisia). AFRICOMs initial operations in Nigeria involved maritime training and integrating the countrys forces with those of other African nations to foster pan-African military alliances.

In its early years, AFRICOM paid little attention to Boko Haram. But this changed as the profile of attacks got bigger.

In 2011, Boko Haram launched a formal insurgency. A report published that year by the US House of Representatives Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence outlined Boko Harams roots and the reasons for its popularity. They included a feeling of alienation from the wealthier, Christian, oil-producing, southern Nigeria, pervasive poverty, rampant government corruption, heavy-handed security measures, and the belief that relations with the West are a corrupting influence. It added that [t]hese grievances have led to sympathy among the local Muslim population despite Boko Harams violent tactics.

These grievances were met with the kind of violence that further fuels grievances.

The US escalates involvement

In the context of the war on terror, the Pentagon saw Boko Haram as an opportunity to train Nigerias military and employ it for its objectives. The primary US goal was ensuring that the oil-rich regions did not fall into enemy hands.

The Congressional Research Service noted that by the time AFRICOM was founded in the late-2000s, Africa supplie[d] the United States with roughly the same amount of crude oil as the Middle East. An Armed Services Committee report in 2011 noted: Nigerias oil rich Niger Delta is a major source of oil for the United States outside of the Middle East. The US Energy Information Administration states: Nigeria is the largest oil producer in Africa. It holds the largest natural gas reserves on the continent and was the worlds fifthlargest exporter of liquefied natural gas. The country has 37 billion barrels of proven crude, second only to Libya, which was bombed to pieces by the US and NATO in 2011.

Nigerias forces summarily executed Boko Harams leader Yusuf in 2009. A thesis published by the US Naval Postgraduate School notes that in addition to the assassination, security forces killing or displacing thousands of Nigerian Muslims, is credited with swelling [Boko Haram BH]s ranks.

Yusufs deputy, Abubakar Shekau, took over and escalated a suicide bombing campaign. The Navy thesis also notes that the actions of BH, along with other militant groups such as the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), have reduced the countrys oil production, displacing Nigeria from 5th to 8th on the list of Americas largest foreign oil suppliers.

In 2013, the states of Adamawa, Borno, and Yobe imposed emergency powers. The Pentagon announced a $45 million-dollar budget to counter Boko Haram by training troops in Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria. One of the consequences is that Nigeria has been transformed from a peripheral US interest to a proxy force. Years of war, mostly in the north and border regions, have led to 2.1 million internally displaced people. The World Food Program calculates that 3.4 million face hunger and that 300,000 children are malnourished.

Building a Sparta state

In June 2014, it was reported that a 650-person unit, the Nigerian Armys 143rd Battalion, was set up on the ground and trained by US Special Forces from the California Army National Guards Special Operations Detachment-US Northern Command and Company A, 5th Battalion 19th Special Forces Group (Airborne). By then the Nigerian Army was active in 30 out of the countrys 36 states.

Chief of the US Army Africas Security Cooperation Division, Colonel John D. Ruffing, said: It is not peacekeeping  It is every bit of what we call decisive action, meaning those soldiers will go in harms way to conduct counterinsurgency operation[s]. One US soldier said: This is a classic Special Forces missiontraining an indigenous force in a remote area in an austere environment to face a very real threat.

In 2015, Boko Harams leader Shekau reportedly pledged allegiance to Islamic State, rebranding the organization IS West African Province (ISWAP). A Congressional Research Service report notes that ISWAP has surpassed Boko Haram in size and capacity, and now ranks among ISs most active affiliates.

Its not as if strategists dont understand that violence doesnt work. They understand that violence escalates violence which can then be used as pretexts for more violence. A US Council on Foreign Relations article from 2020 notes: the last two years have been deadlier than any other period for Nigerian soldiers since the Boko Haram insurgency began.

As the war against Boko Haram waged on, Niger Delta gangs in the south threatened to resume attacks on oil infrastructure. US aid expanded to include training the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) across the country. In November 2016, 66 officers graduated from the Fingerprint Analysis and Forensics training program, an initiative run by the US Embassy in collaboration with the Office of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement and Atlanta Police Department.

In March 2017, 28 Nigerian officers graduated from courses offered by the International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs division, led by US police from Prince William County, Virginia. The program also provided equipment, training, mentoring, and capacity-building support to various Nigerian law enforcement and justice sector institutions.

U.S. Army soldiers deployed to Nigeria Armys School of infantry trained more than 200 Nigerian soldiers in 2018 " data-medium-file="https://i2.wp.com/thegrayzone.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/size0.jpg?fit=300%2C200&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i2.wp.com/thegrayzone.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/size0.jpg?fit=640%2C426&ssl=1" />

Expanding AFRICOMs role

In what the US State Department calls a whole of government approach, military operations continued as police training expanded. In early-2018, 12 US Army soldiers, led by Captain Stephen Gouthro, trained 200 Nigerians at the Nigerian Armys School of Infantry. Facilitated by the US Army Africa, eight Security Assistance and Training Management Organization soldiers and four 1st Brigade Combat Team soldiers shared ground-combat tactics with the Nigerian Armys 26th Infantry Battalion.

In July this year, US Army Special Forces trained 25 officers of the Nigerian Navy Special Boat Service as part of JCET: a five-week Joint Combined Exchange Training program. The Acting US Consulate Political and Economic Chief, Merrica Heaton, says that the training is designed to help the Nigerian military stop crime in the Gulf of Guinea and counter violent extremists in the Northeast and enforce the rule of law throughout the region.

As observers seemingly spotted the top-secret US stealth droneNorthrop Grummans RQ-180over the Philippines, the Department of Defense sold nearly $500 million-worth of propeller planes to Nigeria, marking what the US Embassy and Consulate describes as an historic level of cooperation  between the U.S. and Nigerian militaries. AFRICOM recently confirmed that the inauguration of twelve A-29 Super Tucanos into the Nigerian Air Force will serve a critical role in furthering regional security and stability.

The Pentagon allocated $36.1 million to the US Army Corps of Engineers to renovated Kainji Air Base, which will host the Super Tucanos. In addition to training simulator and small arms storage units, the Base includes aircraft sunshades, a new airfield hot cargo pad, perimeter and security fencing, airfield lights, and various airfield apron, parking, hangar, and entry control point enhancements.

Gray zone warfare against China

Having left operations to Special Forces, AFRICOM is now tasked with overseeing an expanding footprint in Nigeria. But in addition to preventing oil supply disruptions, the US seeks to counter Russian but particularly Chinese involvement. According to the US state-run outlet, Voice of America (VOA), the China National Offshore Oil Corporation began investing in Nigerias state oil sector in 2005.

A 2007 US Army War College thesis expressed concern that, following donations of Chinese military equipment to Nigeria, China had helped the government to drill hundreds of boreholes in a goodwill gesture to provide clean drinking water. The US acted to tarnish Chinas image. As part of what is now called the whole of government approach, the US 96th Civil Affairs Battalion, US Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command, networked with Nigerian civilians, private industry, and aid agencies. The US Army War College implies that this was to psychologically counter Chinas influence.

Nigeria signed a Memorandum of Understanding with China in 2018 to integrate into Chinas global infrastructure and investment project, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). More recently, the VOA has said that China took advantage of Nigerias crime- and terror-related oil instability, investing billions of dollars in oil to stabilize supply lines.

From the US military perspective, this so-called political warfare creates what they famously call a gray zone of conflict in which areas traditionally thought of as economic and civilian are weaponized. Analyst Kaley Scholl of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisitions writes that in one war game, the 91st Civil Affairs Battalion coordinated with the 3rd Special Forces Group to uncover a Chinese conglomerate active in Nigeria who announced a deep-water port being constructed in one month as part of Chinas BRI. In the war game, US PSYOPs beat back the Chinese.

Scholl claims that Chinese gray zone operations are eroding the USs legitimacy and challenging the liberal rules-based world order. In reality, US imperial aggression and wars by proxy erode whatever legitimacy Pentagon planners think they have.

But such analysts seem to forget that both the US and China are armed with nuclear weapons and possess the intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of delivering them. The Pentagon might consider Nigeria to be just another pawn in the new cold war chess game. However, any escalation of tensions in flashpoints, like Taiwan, could unintentionally trigger nuclear catastrophe. This appears to be a risk the Pentagon is willing to take to enforce full spectrum dominance.
Political signs are a regular feature of electoral campaigns, but theyre proving to be an issue for one Brandon-Souris federal candidate.

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Political signs are a regular feature of electoral campaigns, but theyre proving to be an issue for one Brandon-Souris federal candidate.

NDP candidate Whitney Hodgins told the Sun Tuesday there have been numerous instances of her signs being moved, disappearing or being vandalized.

A couple of weeks ago in Cypress River, Hodgins was told by a local that all of her signs in the community had disappeared overnight.

Recently in Brandon, signs have been moved from along boulevards into school zones and from public property onto private property.

"Actually just today in Deloraine, we had an issue where I planted a sign last night on RM property ... (and) it was taken and put on private property," she said. "I wake up today to all kinds of messages saying this persons really annoyed, stop putting signs on their lawn."

That sign, she suspects, is one that was present along a public roadway in the RM of Deloraine-Winchester on Monday evening and had disappeared by the next day.

According to Hodgins, she was shown a meme someone posted on social media captioned "this is what happens when Jagmeet Whitney Hodgins place a sign on my lawn, Im here at the range right now" and the sign was perforated with holes.

"Thats a pretty good sign they were riddled with bullet holes," Hodgins said. "Quite frankly, its upsetting simply because, first of all, the person isnt aware that I never put a sign on their lawn, its somebody else doing it ... To see it get to that extreme, its personally upsetting, but it gives you a sense (theres a lack of safety) on the campaign trail."

If a sign from her campaign ends up where its not supposed to be, Hodgins encourages property owners to email her at whitneyhodgins2021@gmail.com or text or call her at 431-720-1122, and someone will come and remove it.

Elections Canada says on its website that private residential property owners have the right to control who enters their property or anything placed on it, including elections signs. While owners have a right to remove an unwanted sign, the organization states that the property owner may want to reach out to a candidate or party to have an unwanted sign removed.

The Canada Elections Act states that no one is allowed to interfere with the transmission of election advertising, including signs, during an election. However, government entities can remove signs that violate federal, provincial or municipal laws after notifying a campaign, remove a sign without notice if it is a safety hazard or have electoral officials remove signs from public property near a polling place.

While Elections Canada does not have the jurisdiction to deal with reports of destroyed, stolen or removed signs, sign owners and candidates can send a complaint to the commissioner of Canada Elections or notify police as it is considered the destruction of private property.

As a result of the incidents, Hodgins said she would be more cautious during the last week of the campaign to preserve the safety of herself and her volunteers.

"That is a very concerning incident to have happen and one that should not be taken lightly at all," she said. "But it hasnt stopped me from campaigning, and I think its important for people to know that the campaign hasnt stopped just because of one person."

Other candidates in the riding have also experienced sign vandalism during this campaign.

Liberal candidate Linda Branconniers campaign manager, Will Goodon, told the Sun their signs went up only a few days ago, but he had to spend an evening putting about a dozen that had been knocked over back up.

"Unfortunately weve also lost signs from vandalism or just being stolen," Conservative candidate Larry Maguire said in an email. "Its very discouraging as our volunteers put in long hours putting them up and maintaining them. This happens every election to all the parties and it needs to stop immediately."

 cslark@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @ColinSlark
The Independent Investigations Unit of Manitoba is investigating after an off-duty Winkler police officer allegedly assaulted someone in Wasagaming on Saturday.

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The Independent Investigations Unit of Manitoba is investigating after an off-duty Winkler police officer allegedly assaulted someone in Wasagaming on Saturday.

The incident was reported to the police watchdog on Monday after the Saturday incident, according to a press release from the organization.

Wasagaming RCMP responded to the residence where the assault allegedly happened and determined the off-duty police officer was the suspect. The complainant was transported to the Minnedosa hospital for treatment, according to the IIU.

The IIU civilian director has determined it is in the public interest for the IIU to investigate.

Witnesses or anyone with information or video footage that may assist the investigation are asked to contact the IIU at 1-844-667-6060.

The investigation is still ongoing.

 The Brandon Sun
BOWDEN, ALBERTA - A man convicted of the mass murder of a family nearly 40 years ago revealed chilling details of his crime Wednesday as the Parole Board of Canada once again rejected his request to get out of prison.

BOWDEN, ALBERTA - A man convicted of the mass murder of a family nearly 40 years ago revealed chilling details of his crime Wednesday as the Parole Board of Canada once again rejected his request to get out of prison.

David Shearing, who now goes by the name David Ennis, shot and killed George and Edith Bentley; their daughter, Jackie; and her husband Bob Johnson, while the family was on a camping trip in 1982 near Wells Gray Provincial Park, about 120 kilometres north of Kamloops, B.C.

David Shearing is shown in 1983. The convicted mass murderer, who killed a family of six nearly 40 years ago, is to once again seek his release when he appears before the Parole Board of Canada at Bowden Institution in central Alberta today. David Shearing, who now goes by the name David Ennis, shot and killed George and Edith Bentley; their daughter, Jackie; and her husband, Bob Johnson, and the Johnson's two daughters, while the family was on a camping trip in 1982 near Wells Gray Provincial Park, about 120 km north of Kamloops, B.C. THE CANADIAN PRESS/ files

He kept the Johnsons' daughters  Janet, 13, and Karen, 11  alive for almost a week and sexually assaulted them before taking them into the woods, one at a time, and killing them. He then loaded the bodies into a car and set it on fire.

Ennis, now 62, pleaded guilty in 1984 to six counts of second-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.

He told the two-member parole panel Wednesday that he had sexual fantasies, including rape and murder, from when he was in his mid-teens. When he saw the family's vehicles parked near the campground he began stalking them.

Ennis said the only one he was interested in was Janet. He killed the adults because they were in the way.

"I saw them as just a means to an end. I saw the four adults basically as being in the way of what I wanted at the time," said Ennis at the federal Bowden Institution in central Alberta.

"It was just Janet as far as what I was thinking and Karen just happened to be there."

Ennis also admitted to hitting and killing a teenager before the murders. He said getting away with it made it easier to escalate his behaviour.

A parole board member asked Ennis what he did to the girls when he had them captive, noting that all forensic evidence had been destroyed in the fire and there were no other witnesses.

"When I saw the effects of that violence in real life ... Janet was crying, as was Karen. Those things stopped me from escalating to more violence," Ennis said.

"It did stop me from using the violence for sexual gratification," he claimed.

The parole board heard nine emotional victim impact statements demanding the board reject his application. They said he is the same monster that he was in 1982.

Jessica Lehman, who said she was related to the victims, said the storyline is like the plot of a horror movie.

"It's more than a horror movie now," she said, calling Ennis a "monster in the woods."

"We fear for our lives. We fear he will kill again. He used it to destroy my family. He doesn't deserve a second chance."

Another cousin, who didn't give his name, said the family is still suffering after Ennis went on his "murderous rampage".

"His death is the only means to us moving on."

Tammy Arishenkoff, who launched a change.org petition that has more than 100,000 signatures urging the board to refuse parole, was a friend of Janet's.

"Six people died because he wanted them dead. He is still the same, sick, brutal, callous, remorseless monster that he was in 1982," she said. "He showed no mercy for my friend."

Ennis apologized to the families. He said he better understands their pain and has powerful feelings of shame and regret.

"I do apologize to all, especially to the victims, for the impact that it has had on them," said Ennis. He added that he has lived with "powerful feelings of shame and regret".

The board was told that Ennis has been attending sex offender programs and works in the prison chapel. He is taking a one-year course at the Prairie Bible College.

But the board rejected his parole application, saying Ennis still has deviant sexual fantasies.

"There are overwhelming negative aspects in your case. The gravity and severity of your offending, it's of the utmost level. It was very violent and it devastated so many people," the board said.

"When we look at your assessed risks, together with your diagnosis of sexual sadism which largely remains unchanged ... the most appropriate place for you to make gains is in the safety and security of the institution."

Ennis previously applied for parole in 2008 and 2012. He applied again in 2014 but withdrew his request a month before the hearing was to take place.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Sept. 15, 2021.
NANAIMO, B.C. - Public concerns over climate change should play a large part in deciding whether a British Columbia forestry company is granted an extension to an injunction against protests over the logging of old-growth forests, a court heard Wednesday.

A bus and sign are shown near the Eden blockade in the Fairy Creek area near Port Renfrew, B.C., on May, 11, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jen Osborne

NANAIMO, B.C. - Public concerns over climate change should play a large part in deciding whether a British Columbia forestry company is granted an extension to an injunction against protests over the logging of old-growth forests, a court heard Wednesday.

The B.C. Supreme Court must weigh the importance to the environment that protecting old-growth trees plays in the Fairy Creek area of Vancouver Island as opposed to considering the economic interests of Teal Cedar Products Ltd., which has applied for a one-year extension to the injunction, lawyer Steven Kelliher said.

Almost 1,000 people have been arrested in the area north of Port Renfrew since May when the RCMP started to enforce an earlier B.C. Supreme Court injunction against blockades erected in several areas near logging sites.

"Could the public interest be more heavily engaged than (about) this issue before you today?" Kelliher asked. "It is a matter of considerable public interest."

Kelliher said he represents Victoria landscaper Robert (Saul) Arbess, who is opposed to the extension of the injunction on grounds that logging of old-growth trees in the Fairy Creek area harms the environment.

He said the battle to protect the old-growth forests of Fairy Creek is connected to the global fight against climate change.

The people of B.C. experienced the effects of climate change in recent months, with a deadly heat dome that produced record high temperatures, raging wildfires across much of the province and a fire that destroyed the community of Lytton, Kelliher said.

Old-growth forests, like the trees in Fairy Creek, store large amounts of harmful greenhouse gases, protect numerous species of plants and animals, and prevent floods and landslides, he added.

"This is the magnitude of issues that constitute the public interest in this case," said Kelliher. "These are interests of our life and safety today. Yes, laws have to be enforced but law enforcement is subject to other values."

Teal Cedar lawyer Dean Dalke told the court Tuesday the blockades are impeding the company's legal rights to harvest timber and alleged that the actions of protesters pose dangers to employees and the RCMP.

He asked the court to "restore law and order on southern Vancouver Island," where he said protests against logging have become more sophisticated and organized. Dalke argued "anarchy" will result if the extension is not granted.

The court also heard submissions Wednesday from lawyers representing six people opposed to the injunction extension. They argued the company and the RCMP have overstepped their authority at Fairy Creek.

"This is really about the rule of law and what kind of country we want to be as we move forward in the climate crisis," said lawyer Patrick Canning.

Canning, representing blockade supporters Kathleen Code, Carole Toothill and Indigenous elder Bill Jones, said Teal Cedar has hired tow truck operators to remove vehicles legally parked along public roads near the protest sites. The owners must pay $2,500 to retrieve their vehicles from an impound lot and are told they could be held liable in further court action, he said.

"We submit this is an experiment," said Canning. "It's happening under the cover of this court injunction."

The RCMP has applied to the court to extend search and access powers in the injunction area.

Lawyer Matthew Nefstead told the court he is representing three members of the protest group Rainforest Flying Squad, who oppose the injunction application on grounds that allege the RCMP's enforcement actions in exclusion zones are unlawful.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 15, 2021.
OTTAWA - Supporters of a Canadian man imprisoned in China for a decade and a half want the next federal government to use the 2022 Beijing Olympics as a bargaining chip to bring him home.

OTTAWA - Supporters of a Canadian man imprisoned in China for a decade and a half want the next federal government to use the 2022 Beijing Olympics as a bargaining chip to bring him home.

And the advocates for Huseyin Celil say they want the deal to be a package that also wins the freedom of two other high-profile Canadian prisoners  Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor.

Huseyin Celil, of Burlington, Ont., is seen in this undated handout photo. Supporters of a Canadian man imprisoned in China for a decade and a half want the next federal government to use the Beijing Olympics of 2022 as a bargaining chip to bring him home. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO

Kovrig and Spavor recently surpassed a grim 1,000-day milestone in Chinese prisons in what is seen by Canada and its Western allies as retaliation for the RCMP's arrest of Chinese high-tech scion Meng Wanzhou on an American extradition warrant in December 2018.

But Celil's advocates don't want Canadians to forget him either  or the fact that unlike Kovrig and Spavor, he has yet to be allowed a single visit by Canadian diplomats since his 2006 arrest  and are calling on whomever wins Monday's federal election to appoint a special envoy to win his freedom.

Canadian consular visits have been banned because China doesn't recognize Celil's dual Canadian citizenship, obtained in 2005, one year before he was arrested in Uzbekistan by the Chinese after his long-standing advocacy for the human rights of his Muslim ethnic Uyghur minority.

"I'm hoping with the 2022 Olympic Games to be held in China that it's another moment where there's another opportunity to secure the release and return of Celil, whether it's part of a package that's done with the two Michaels or a stand-alone," Celil's lawyer, Chris MacLeod, said in an interview Tuesday.

"Obviously, I want all three."

With the Winter Games set to open in February, there are growing calls to boycott the Chinese games or cancel plans to broadcast them amid a chorus of criticism over Beijing's treatment of the Uyghurs, as well as its clampdowns on Hong Kong, Tibet and Taiwan.

Celil's family has been caught up in that geopolitical swirl as they saw their periodic visits to him in prison cut off about five years ago. That's when Beijing began its crackdown on Muslim Uyghurs in China's Xinjiang province, rounding them up into prison camps, citing the need to fight terrorism.

China's treatment of the Uyghurs has sparked worldwide condemnation and allegations of genocide, accusations China vehemently denies.

The upshot for Celil's family and supporters is that they are no longer sure if he is even alive because all contact with his family in China has been cut off, said MacLeod.

"I don't have any communication with the family since the concentration camps opened in China," said Celil's wife, Kamila, in an interview from southern Ontario where she lives with her 16-year-old son  a child her husband has never met.

Kamila Celil said the current Liberal government hasn't done enough to push for her husband's release, and she would like to see more done.

MacLeod agrees, saying the current government deserves a "terrible grade" for its advocacy on behalf of Celil. He said ministers in the former Conservative government of Stephen Harper were able to commute Celil's original death sentence to life in prison.

Alex Neve, the former Canadian secretary-general of Amnesty International, said successive Canadian politicians have failed Celil and his family.

"Over the span of 15 years of unjust imprisonment and grave human rights violations, two prime ministers and 10 ministers of foreign affairs have had the opportunity and responsibility to secure Huseyin Celil's release from detention in China and return to his family in Canada," Neve said in a statement to The Canadian Press.

"There have been many reassuring words, but little in the way of sustained, high-level government efforts to bring him home. The next government must turn that around. Pursuing freedom for Huseyin through every possible avenue must become an absolute top priority."

Prior to last week's televised federal leaders' debate, Neve joined a coalition of several dozen human rights advocates, lawyers and many others in sending an open letter to the five major party leaders to revive their interest in Celil's case.

While they said they supported the Canadian government's efforts on behalf of Kovrig and Spavor, they were "gravely concerned about Canada's foreign policy and its choice to prioritize some Canadians over others," they said in their letter.

"Canada has been actively building a coalition in support of the two Michaels but has left Huseyin Celil behind. We are very disturbed to see him being treated as a second-class citizen and deprived of his rights."

Foreign policy did not figure prominently in either the French or English language debates. Kovrig and Spavor warranted a passing mention in the English debate.

Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole has said Canada should consider boycotting the Beijing 2022 Olympics. Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau in February abstained as prime minister from a House of Commons vote on a motion declaring the atrocities against the Uyghurs a genocide and calling on the International Olympic Committee to move the 2022 Olympic Games out of China.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh supported that motion.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 15, 2021.
OTTAWA - Federal leaders were united in their commitment to fight sexual misconduct in Canadas military  but divided on the right approach  as the issue made a rare appearance on the campaign trail Wednesday after months of allegations, parliamentary hearings and promises of action.

Liberal leader Justin Trudeau makes a campaign stop in Halifax, N.S., on Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

OTTAWA - Federal leaders were united in their commitment to fight sexual misconduct in Canadas military  but divided on the right approach  as the issue made a rare appearance on the campaign trail Wednesday after months of allegations, parliamentary hearings and promises of action.

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, Conservative Leader Erin OToole and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh were asked during separate campaign events if they would commit to creating an independent watchdog to fight inappropriate and criminal sexual behaviour in the ranks.

Many victims advocates and experts have argued since the first allegations in February of misconduct against some of the Canadian Armed Forces top officers that independent oversight and accountability are critical to addressing the problem.

Trudeau at an event in Halifax would not commit to creating an independent body to monitor the military and hold it to account, and he instead promised that a re-elected Liberal government would act on the recommendations of retired Supreme Court justice Louise Arbour.

The Liberal leader as prime minister tapped Arbour in April to conduct a year-long review of the militarys approach to preventing and punishing sexual crimes and behaviour following months of outrage over the conduct of its top commanders.

The Liberals also appointed Lt.-Gen. Jennie Carignan, one of the militarys highest-ranking female officers, to lead the Canadian Armed Forces culture-change efforts, which included tackling hate and discrimination in the ranks.

It has gone on for too long and all the different efforts over the years have improved, but not nearly enough, which is why we needed the top experts to say: This is what we'll do, Trudeau said.

And we commit, absolutely, to following full-heartedly on the recommendations that Gen. Carignan, but especially justice Arbour, have put forward to end discrimination within the military once and for all.

Some have criticized the Liberals for launching another review after Arbours former Supreme Court benchmate Marie Deschamps in 2015 called for an independent centre to monitor the militarys handling of cases and hold it accountable.

Neither Stephen Harpers Conservative government, who were in power when Deschamps released the results of her review, which found a heavily sexualized culture in the military, nor the Trudeau government acted upon the recommendation.

While he did not mention the Deschamps report, OToole on Wednesday did commit to creating an independent watchdog for the military, which his partys platform says would see Canadas military ombudsmans office report to Parliament rather than the defence minister, as is currently the case.

We will have an independent process, OToole said. We will put a freeze in place in terms of promotions and other things to send a real signal that we will clean up the mess and we will restore that trust and faith that is important for an institution as important as our military.

OToole went on to attack the Liberals, who found themselves under fire earlier this year following revelations then-military ombudsman Gary Walbourne raised an allegation of sexual misconduct involving chief of the defence staff Jonathan Vance with Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan in March 2018.

While the government said it acted appropriately by sending the allegation to senior civil servants to investigate, and that the investigation was stymied by the ombudsmans refusal to provide further information, others such as OToole have accused the Liberals of a cover-up.

Vance has denied any wrongdoing. He was charged in July with one count of obstruction of justice and his case is back in court on Friday.

Singh promised to implement Deschampss recommendation even as he accused the Liberals of having let down women in uniform by launching another  in his view, unnecessary  review.

We need to have an independent process, he said. That was a major concern raised by Justice Deschamps.  And despite knowing that, to this day, after six years of having this report, six years of being in power, Mr. Trudeau has not done that.

The Green Party has also said it would implement Deschampss recommendation.

The issue of sexual misconduct in the military had made only a few brief appearances on the campaign trail prior to Wednesday, and received only a short mention during the English-language debate. That was despite having dominated headlines and causing upheaval in the military since February.

That lack of attention had Charlotte Duval-Lantoine of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute worried about a repeat of past cycles, where allegations of military sexual misconduct have caused upheaval and promises of action, before the focus shifts and the issue isnt addressed.

I have seen these patterns, said Duval-Lantoine, who studies gender in the military. So obviously I'm worried about these patterns repeating. I know that right now, there's still quite a bit of momentum within the institution. But that will wane down at some point because culture changes is difficult.

Experts are divided over each of the parties' promises. Some believe implementation of Deschampss recommendation is long overdue. Others feel Arbours review will offer a better roadmap to addressing the problem. And some say the best approach is making the ombudsmans office independent.

Yet most share Duval-Lantoines concern over whether the next government  no matter the stripe  will have the political will or interest in truly addressing sexual misconduct in the military.

I'm totally frustrated, totally frustrated, Walbourne said in an interview. We know what needs to be done. People have talked about it ad nauseum. But that's all we do. We talk and there's a big uproar in the media, it gets on the national level: Oh my, its shocking. And then it goes away.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 15, 2021.
HALIFAX - As prominent climate scientists argue that new offshore oil and gas extraction must end off Canada's East Coast, the three main political parties either support continued development or are unclear on precisely what they would change.

The Hebron Platform, anchored in Trinity Bay, N.L., is shown on Tuesday, April 18, 2017. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Daly

HALIFAX - As prominent climate scientists argue that new offshore oil and gas extraction must end off Canada's East Coast, the three main political parties either support continued development or are unclear on precisely what they would change.

Andrew MacDougall, a professor at St. Francis Xavier University who contributed to the most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change  or IPCC  report, says if Canada is to meet its international commitments to keep temperature rise within safe limits, the age of offshore fossil fuels will have to wind down.

"If the government is serious about Canada's commitment (in the Paris agreement) to help reach the 1.5 or 2 degrees Celsius target, there is no further need for oil and gas development," he said in an interview from his office in Antigonish, N.S., on Monday. "All of the fossil fuels that are necessary for transition have already been found."

The 2015 Paris agreement committed signatories to cutting carbon emissions to levels that would limit warming to 2 degrees Celsius, and preferably 1.5 degrees, above pre-industrial times by the end of this century. Scientists have concluded in IPCC reports that if emissions goals aren't met, more frequent and worse heat waves, droughts, mass migrations and flood-inducing downpours can be expected.

MacDougall said climate modelling indicates the winding down of offshore oil and gas must begin in the mandate of the next federal government: "This is the decade where Canada's emissions really need to come down ....They've stabilized, but they have to start dropping if we have any hope of making 2050 targets (of net zero carbon emissions.)"

Similarly, climate researcher John England, professor emeritus at the University of Alberta, said the time has come to "bite the bullet."

England said in a telephone interview on Monday he understands that the oil and gas industry faces a difficult future, but if the region doesn't begin a shift toward other offshore energy industries, it may fall behind nations that are focusing on developing renewable energy.

"To promote new wells is not the answer," he said.

Raymond S. Bradley, a professor at the climate system research centre at the University of Massachusetts, said in a phone interview, "there definitely should not be further developments. The priority, he said, is "to reduce our dependence on oil and gas as fast as possible, and the notion we need to do more exploration flies in the face of that."

On the campaign trail, only the Green Party has stated explicitly it believes the offshore industry must end in the next government's mandate.

The Liberal party acknowledges that overall emissions for the oil and gas sector must go down and said in an email Tuesday that if re-elected they would cap emissions and ensure they decline "at the pace and scale needed to get to net-zero by 2050, with five-year milestones along the way."

Asked about the offshore industry Wednesday, New Democrat Party Leader Jagmeet Singh said his party would end fossil fuel subsidies, but he didn't specify his party's position on ending new developments.

"We would prioritize investing in renewable energy, prioritize training workers and supporting workers for the jobs of today and tomorrow. We would use those same skills in retrofitting abandoned oil wells, in converting them into geothermal energy production," he said during a campaign stop in Essex, Ont.

"We are a workers party that is committed to fighting the climate crisis, and to do that we need to make sure workers are part of the solution.

The Conservatives said in an email Tuesday the party is committed to supporting Newfoundland and Labrador's offshore oil industry by investing $1.5 billion in an "offshore rebound fund to spur the continued growth of the offshore oil industry, creating jobs in a sector that is critical to the province's future."

The party says that over time it sees a "lower carbon future" but adds, "we should make sure that democratic countries use Canadian resources and not resources from Saudi Arabia or Venezuela or Russia."

Supporters of the offshore oil and gas industry in Atlantic Canada have argued that the fossil fuels produced from the underneath the Atlantic produce fewer carbon emissions per barrel than other oil producers around the world, including Alberta's oilsands.

However, the climate scientists interviewed said the relevant comparison for carbon emissions are with renewable energies like hydro, solar or wind power, and the differences among various crude oils and natural gas are minor in comparison.

Bradley, who has studied the impact of global warming on the Canadian Arctic, said the argument for less polluting forms of hydrocarbons "doesn't make sense" when there are existing alternatives.

The scientists acknowledge there would a significant economic impact from ending new developments offshore but argue that the next government can create transition programs to new industries and set up major retraining efforts.

The offshore industry is particularly critical in Newfoundland and Labrador, where the provincial government says the oil and gas and related services industries accounted for 20.6% of nominal GDP in 2019 and about two per cent of the provinces total employment.

"When an industry gets shut down, it's hard on people and families. And there needs to be a transition to other fields, such as offshore wind or other renewable resources that will hopefully make up a major portion of the future energy supply," MacDougall said.

Whoever is elected prime minister Monday will soon be joining nations at international climate negotiations in Scotland in November, where world leaders will face pressure to cut carbon pollution.

According to the most recent IPCC report, tropical cyclones are getting stronger and wetter, while Arctic sea ice is dwindling in the summer and permafrost is thawing. In addition, the kind of heat wave that used to happen only once every 50 years now happens once a decade. The IPCC reports are summaries of the latest climate science, modelling and projections created to advise national leaders.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 15, 2021.
MONTREAL - A doctor who oversaw the care of residents of a Montreal-area care home where dozens of patients died of COVID-19 told an inquest Wednesday she was concerned about the lack of staff and personal protective equipment at the facility as infections began to mount.

MONTREAL - A doctor who oversaw the care of residents of a Montreal-area care home where dozens of patients died of COVID-19 told an inquest Wednesday she was concerned about the lack of staff and personal protective equipment at the facility as infections began to mount.

Dr. Orly Hermon was one of three doctors who had Residence Herron residents as patients, but in the early days of the outbreak they were under instructions to treat patients remotely.

A funeral home worker walks to his van in front of the Herron seniors residence Monday April 13, 2020 in Dorval near Montreal's Trudeau airport. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz

At a Quebec coroner's inquiry into the pandemic response at elder care homes, Hermon said she was concerned as the facility began to declare positive cases but had trouble filling staff rosters and didn't have any PPE on hand.

Hermon says the facility in Dorval, Que., didn't have a nursing director to co-ordinate the response, and when she reached out to the local health authority, she was told it was also experiencing shortages of workers and PPE.

I was worried that there was no proper preparation for testing, for disinfection, for the protocols, she testified on Wednesday.

As Herron's manager fell ill with COVID-19 and the facility's owner scrambled to find staff to care for patients, Hermon says she sent an urgent text to a health authority doctor asking for help on March 29.

Hermon says the owner of the facility and regional health officials described a lack of co-ordination and co-operation.

It was clear that they didnt seem to be working together, she said, adding the situation improved after the health authority fully took over, with more staff and managers added by mid-April.

While it became clear after a first case on March 27 that other residents were presenting symptoms, widespread testing only happened around mid-April, and only after that were COVID hot zones established to keep those infected separate. Until then, the entire facility was considered a hot zone.

The coroner's mandate is to investigate 53 deaths at six long-term care homes and one seniors residence  including 47 at Herron  during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Coroner Gehane Kamel wondered why the doctors didn't defy instructions from the government and a professional order to limit contact by using telemedicine for patients in long-term care. Hermon said the lack of PPE and fear she could infect other patients loomed large.

"I understand that there is a directive," Kamel said, "but whether it is at Herron or elsewhere in Quebec, there are doctors who have decided that they (don't care about the) directive, (and say), 'We will go because these are our patients.'"

Dr. Lilia Lavallee, another doctor who had patients at the facility, returned to the home on April 11, the day after a Montreal Gazette report detailed how bad the situation was inside Herron. I read it late after dinner, and it showed a situation that I was not aware of, the extent of what was happening there, Lavallee testified.

The coroner questioned how she couldn't have known, given that other doctors had seen the situation first-hand and one even brought her family in to help care for patients.

"I tell myself that if this man (reporter Aaron Derfel) hadn't written the article in the Gazette, would we have gone from 47 to 130 residents that died?" Kamel asked.

Earlier Wednesday, a nurse who volunteered at Herron testified there was such a dearth of equipment when she arrived to volunteer on April 3, she took residents' vital signs using the same device without sterilizing it between patients.

The nurse, testifying with a publication ban on her identity, said she kept the same pair of gloves all day. She noted the availability of PPE improved after her first day, but nurses went in not knowing the patients or their histories.

There was a co-ordinator, but we did what we could because there was no one (from Herron staff) who knew the residents, she said. We knew nothing. It was difficult to know what to do with each patient.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 15, 2021.
FREDERICTON - New Brunswick needs a minister for children and youth, according to a report by the province's youth advocate, which was prompted by the death of a teenager who killed herself after failing to receive mental health care.

New Brunswick's provincial flag flies on a flag pole in Ottawa, Monday July 6, 2020. A new report on youth suicide prevention and mental health services in New Brunswick calls for the appointment of a minister for children and youth. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

FREDERICTON - New Brunswick needs a minister for children and youth, according to a report by the province's youth advocate, which was prompted by the death of a teenager who killed herself after failing to receive mental health care.

Norm Bosse, the province's child and youth advocate, said the memory of 16-year-old Lexi Daken, who took her life in February less than a week after seeking help at a Fredericton hospital, gave power to his report. He said the document, which was released Wednesday, must motivate the people who need to make the necessary changes.

Daken's father, Chris Daken, said he's happy the 108-page report has been dedicated in her memory.

"I've always questioned why Lexi's story has touched so many people and has garnered so much attention," he said in an interview Wednesday. "I've asked why has her story started this chain of events."

Suicide is the second leading cause of death among youth in Canada, deputy advocate Christian Whalen told reporters in Fredericton after the report was released.

"We know that young people are not connecting with care when they urgently need it," he said. "So how do we actually make our health services work for more young people when they are actively seeking help? How do we help more young people recognize the signs that they may need help?

"We are recommending more specialized mental health services in emergency wards, but within hospital wards as well," he said. "We are calling for better triage assessment tools that recognize the urgency psychiatry patients feel when they present at emerge."

The review found a chronic shortage of psychologists and psychiatrists in the province and a lack of standardized suicide risk assessment in emergency rooms. Whalen said the report also suggested it may be time for the creation of a children's hospital in New Brunswick. The Maritime provinces are served by the IWK Hospital in Halifax.

Other recommendations include the creation of a provincial strategy for child and youth rights and for the development of an action plan for child and youth mental health and suicide prevention. The report does not put a cost on the recommendations, but Whalen said the price of underfunding is lives lost.

Daken said he hopes the creation of a new government minister would result in better integration of services in various departments.

But Patty Borthwick of Utopia, N.B., whose daughter died by suicide last December at the age of 27, said she isn't impressed with the call for a new minister.

"I don't see how having another government-paid civil servant is going to help because we have all kinds now and we're still falling through the cracks and we are still losing young people," she said Wednesday.

Borthwick said hospitals need more staff to deal with patients who have mental health issues.

"The fact that people are talking about it has got to help," Borthwick said. "It's got to help that we're talking about mistakes made or young lives lost. They can't die in vain. I hope this report starts something."

Daken said he hopes the health minister will act on the recommendations and move quickly on improvements to mental health care in New Brunswick.

"Why can't we be the province that makes the changes to mental health care for the betterment of everyone?" he asked. "Why can't we be the province that the rest of the country looks to as a leader in mental health care?"

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 15, 2021.
HALIFAX - Nova Scotia reported six new cases of COVID-19 Wednesday and health officials warned of increasing pressure on hospitals due to staffing shortages.

A man heads to receive a COVID-19 vaccination at a clinic in Halifax on Friday, April 16, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan

HALIFAX - Nova Scotia reported six new cases of COVID-19 Wednesday and health officials warned of increasing pressure on hospitals due to staffing shortages.

Three new cases were identified in the Halifax area, two were in the northern zone and one was in the eastern zone, which includes Cape Breton.

The number of active reported cases dropped to 159, following 20 new recoveries. Four people were in hospital with the disease.

Wednesday's new caseload was down significantly from Tuesday, when officials reported 66 new cases and announced that the fourth wave of the novel coronavirus had hit the province.

According to the latest data, 72.9 per cent of the province's population is fully vaccinated.

Meanwhile, the province's health authority advised the public on Wednesday that hospitals were experiencing higher-than-normal visits to emergency rooms and demand for beds, resulting in service delays.

The authority blamed the pressure on "considerable staffing challenges," including a shortage of nurses that has been made worse by the pandemic.

As a result, it said further reductions would be made to surgical capacity in the Halifax area and in the province's northern health zone. And while cancer and other time-sensitive surgeries would continue, the authority said many elective and same-day procedures were on hold until at least the end of next week.

Officials also said they anticipated "longer than usual" waits for care in emergency departments into the fall, due to a rise in COVID-19 cases and hospital admissions.

The recent rise in cases was cited by officials on Tuesday as the reason for delaying the final phase of the province's five-step recovery plan until Oct. 4. Once implemented, Phase 5 will see the removal of most of the public health measures that have been in place since the onset of the pandemic, such as indoor masking and gathering limits.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 15, 2021.

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version said Nova Scotia had 150 active reported cases.
QUEBEC - Erin O'Toole began Wednesday telling voters he's not leading "your dad's Conservative Party," but ended the day sharing a stage with former prime minister Brian Mulroney, who compared the Tory leader's preceding months to the lead-up to his 1984 election win.

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Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole listens to a question during a campaign stop, Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021, in Jonquiere, Que. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

QUEBEC - Erin O'Toole began Wednesday telling voters he's not leading "your dad's Conservative Party," but ended the day sharing a stage with former prime minister Brian Mulroney, who compared the Tory leader's preceding months to the lead-up to his 1984 election win.

The 82-year-old who governed Canada under the former Progressive Conservative banner from that year until 1993 walked onto a stage that evening before an audience of supporters in Orford, Que., as they chanted his name.

He told the crowd of about 170 a story of getting a call from O'Toole about five months earlier where the Conservative leader explained pollsters were predicting he would lose, there was negative media coverage and there was restlessness within the party.

I said, Erin, I think you should be thrilled  because thats exactly what they said about me three months before the election in 84 when we won the largest majority in the history of Canada,'" Mulroney said.

Mulroney drew similarities between himself and O'Toole, saying they both married up and were lawyers.

The former prime minister said O'Toole offers strong, steady and visionary leadership, and will have to tackle ending the COVID-19 pandemic and reviving an "anemic" economy.

Mulroney also foreshadowed that there "will be tough and deep structural changes to be made for our country if we are to enhance prosperity and influence of Canada."

"Some of these decisions may make Erin unpopular, of course, I never was," he told the crowd.

Mulroney said he wasn't interested in attacking anyone in the campaign and was there because he believes in electing O'Toole.

His appearance at the event came one day after former prime minister Jean Chretien, who was in power from 1993 to 2003, campaigned for Liberal leader Justin Trudeau in Ontario.

Both former leaders hit the campaign trail with only days left before Canadians head to the polls on Monday in hopes of giving their respective parties a boost. Polls show the Conservatives and Liberals locked in a tight race.

Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole is introduced by former prime minister Brian Mulroney during a campaign rally Wednesday, September 15, 2021 in Orford, Que. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

One of the accomplishments Mulroney is remembered for is his environmental policies, including the 1991 signing of a historic air quality agreement with the United States.

O'Toole now touts his climate change plan as proof he has renewed the party, acknowledging that it didn't live up to the expectations of Canadians in the past two elections when it comes to the environment.

."We're not your dad's Conservative Party anymore," he said earlier Wednesday.

O'Toole was asked to clarify his recent comments to the Toronto Star, in which he said his plan was an "alternative" to the federal carbon price and it would be up to provinces such as Ontario that currently pay that price to decide whether to make the switch.

The Tory leader has faced criticism from within his own tent for promising a Conservative carbon price on fuel after campaigning during his leadership race to scrap the plan introduced by the Liberals in 2019, which set a minimum price on carbon emissions in provinces that don't have equivalent provincial prices - a law that was challenged by Saskatchewan, Ontario and Alberta.

The Supreme Court of Canada in March ruled that the federal carbon price is entirely constitutional.

O'Toole has said that under his system, the money consumers have to pay through the Conservative carbon price on gas would be sent to personal savings accounts they could then use to make green purchases.

He rejected the suggestion that he has changed his party's policy by allowing provinces to choose among carbon pricing plans.

"That is exactly what I said in April when I launched this plan," O'Toole told reporters in Quebec's Saguenay region.

"Its a very detailed plan to meet our Paris targets and to promote collaboration on a range of issues to pricing carbon to electric vehicles to technology," he said.

"We have to work together as a country  provinces and the federal government  to meet our targets and have a strong economic recovery."

The Conservatives haven't detailed the cost of their proposed loyalty rewards-style program in their election platform, or how it would track people's carbon consumption and their points-based shopping.

O'Toole called his plan innovative and pledged to work with provinces on ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions without fighting with premiers.

Allowing provinces to decide their own fate on issues from health care to climate change has been a central part of the Conservative leader's pitch to prospective voters, as well as to Quebec Premier Francois Legault, who he promised to give more power over areas such as immigration.

Liberal candidate Steven Guilbeault has criticized O'Toole's approach, recently posting to Twitter a July 2020 video in which O'Toole, then running for the Conservative leadership, said that if a province chose to do nothing on climate change, he would allow that.

In the video, O'Toole also said that the Tories needed to have a "real" climate change policy in the next election or they would lose.

Since hitting the campaign trail, O'Toole has faced questions over only committing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030, not the higher target of between 40 to 45 per cent that the Trudeau government submitted to the United Nations ahead of an international conference this fall.

Stewart Elgie, a law and economics professor at the University of Ottawa who chairs the Smart Prosperity Institute, said O'Toole deserves credit for adopting a carbon price, something former leaders Andrew Scheer and Stephen Harper did not.

Unlike the Liberals' carbon price, which is set to rise to $170 per tonne by 2030, the Conservatives' charge would start at $20 per tonne and not rise higher than $50.

Elgie said the lower price means it won't be as effective as the Liberals' at reducing levels of greenhouse gas emissions.

And while the proposed savings accounts is an interesting idea, he said implementing it would be a "nightmare."

How are you going to track the individual carbon footprints of every Canadian and look at every purchase they make?" asked Elgie.

Michael Bernstein, executive director of Clean Prosperity, said it's encouraging that O'Toole appears flexible on his carbon pricing plan, saying the simplest solution would be to keep the existing one in place.

"It works and returns all the money back to Canadians. But if O'Toole wanted to improve the carbon tax policy while giving it a Conservative spin, he could convert the rebates into tax cuts."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 15, 2021.
OTTAWA - People voting by mail could play a crucial role in deciding the outcome of the federal election, figures show.

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A mail-in voting package that voters will receive if requested is seen in Calgary, Alta., Thursday, Sept. 2, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

OTTAWA - People voting by mail could play a crucial role in deciding the outcome of the federal election, figures show.

Postal votes, which have seen a surge in popularity owing to COVID-19, could dictate which party wins in a series of ridings facing a photo finish.

The closest race is in Coquitlam-Port Coquitlam, B.C., where the Liberals fought off a Conservative challenge by only 153 votes at the 2019 federal election.

By Tuesday, more than 5,400 residents there had applied to vote by mail, and at least 1,870 had already returned their ballots.

Election officials do not start counting local postal ballots until the morning after polling day, raising the prospect of a delayed final result and nail-biting finish, like in the U.S. election.

A clutch of tight races in Ontario, Quebec and B.C. could decide which party  if any  seizes a majority.

Across the country, over one million people have applied to vote by mail, many because they do not want to vote in person during the pandemic. Over half a million have already returned their ballots.

By Tuesdays deadline, more than 914,000 Canadians had registered for special ballots where they live. Over 121,000 have applied to vote from other parts of Canada, and over 50,000 from overseas.

One of the closest fights is in the Yukon, which returns a single MP. At the last election, the Liberals fought off the Tories by only 153 votes.

Five candidates are fighting to succeed Liberal Larry Bagnell in the huge seat, where access to a polling station can prove difficult in remote areas. More than 2,000 voters have applied for mail ballots in the riding, and more than 1,500 have already sent them back.

Another close fight is in Richmond Hill, Ont., where the Liberals fended off a Tory onslaught by only 212 votes in 2019. Over 3,200 voters have applied for postal votes in the riding this time. Almost a third of them have already sent back their ballots.

In Quebec  an electoral district in Quebec City  Jean-Yves Duclos, a cabinet minister in Liberal Leader Justin Trudeaus government, fought off a challenge from the Bloc Quebecois by 325 votes in the 2019 election. More than 1,900 voters in the riding have applied to vote there by mail this time. At least 660 had cast their vote remotely by Tuesday.

Postal voters could also decide the outcome in Hochelaga, Que., where Liberal Soraya Martinez Ferrada held off the Bloc Quebecois by only 328 votes at the last election. Over 2,000 voters have been sent postal ballots, and almost 800 have so far been returned.

In a knife-edge battle in Kitchener-Conestoga, the Liberals are fighting hard to hold off a Tory challenge. Liberal Tim Louis won the seat by 365 votes in 2019. More than 2,200 people have applied for postal voting kits, and at least 900 have sent them back.

Elections Canada expects to see record numbers of mail-in ballots cast this time, though fewer people have applied than they predicted.

They have warned that, while postal votes are counted, the final election result could be delayed for days. Close results could also see demands for recounts.

Before they are counted, mail ballots have to be verified by returning officers  with checks to see whether people have sent in multiple ballots or already voted in person.

In an online Leger poll, conducted in co-operation with The Canadian Press, five per cent of respondents said they had already voted by mail, while 19 per cent voted in advanced polls, with only a week to go before election day.

Another six per cent of respondents said they planned to vote by mail, and 23 per cent said they planned to vote in advanced polls.

Only 37 per cent of respondents indicated they planned to vote on election day itself, which would be a significant change from 2019, when 70 per cent of voters went to the polls to cast their ballot on election day.

Voters, including Canadians living abroad, had until 6 p.m. Tuesday to apply for a mail-in ballot.

As of Monday, over 53,000 expatriates had applied to vote remotely. Some consulates in countries with a large Canadian expatriate community, including Hong Kong, have offered to courier back ballots by polling day to beat delivery delays.

In Ottawa Centre, where a large proportion of federal government employees live, more than 8,800 residents have applied to vote by mail. The Liberals, who won the seat with a hefty majority in 2019, are facing an energetic challenge from the NDP. More than 3,800 people, some living abroad and in other parts of Canada, have returned their votes.

Victoria has the greatest number of voters casting their vote by mail. The seat is a three-way battle between the incumbent NDP, the Greens, who came second, and the Liberals who came in third last time. More than 11,600 voters have applied for mail ballots in Victoria, and more than 3,800 voters have already returned them.

In Saanich-Gulf Islands, B.C., held by former Green leader Elizabeth May, more than 10,000 voters have opted to mail in their votes. Almost half of them have already returned them.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 14, 2021.

 With files from Mia Rabson and Joan Bryden
ESSEX, ONT. - Jagmeet Singh says antisemitic comments by two of his party's candidates who resigned were "completely wrong" as the NDP leader made a push to win sought-after Ontario ridings.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh greets supporters during a campaign stop in Kitchener, Ont., Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2021. Two NDP candidates have resigned after comments on social media caused backlash. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward

ESSEX, ONT. - Jagmeet Singh says antisemitic comments by two of his party's candidates who resigned were "completely wrong" as the NDP leader made a push to win sought-after Ontario ridings.

"Antisemitism is real," Singh said during a campaign stop in Essex, Ont.

NDP leader Jagmeet Singh greets supporters as he arrives for a morning announcement in Essex, Ontario on Wednesday, September 15, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward

"We're seeing a scary rise in antisemitism, and we are unequivocally opposed, and we'll confront it."

The party confirmed Wednesday that Dan Osborne, the candidate for the Nova Scotia riding of Cumberland-Colchester, and Sidney Coles, the candidate for Toronto-St. Paul's, ended their campaigns and "agreed to educate themselves further about antisemitism."

Singh said antisemitism has no place in his party and the candidates made the right decision to resign.

"In addition, they're talking about the importance of getting training," Singh said.

Coles, who has since deleted her Twitter account, was reported to have posted misinformation about Israel being linked to missing COVID-19 vaccines.

Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies, a non-profit human rights organization, shared images purportedly from Coles' account over the weekend. Coles later apologized on social media.

Osborne was reported to have tweeted to Oprah in 2019 asking if Auschwitz was a real place, referring to the Nazi-run concentration camp in Poland during the Second World War.

He responded to backlash about the post on Twitter over the weekend, saying he had tweeted it when he was a teenager.

"I want to offer an apology," Osborne tweeted Sunday. "The role of Auschwitz and the history of the Holocaust is one we should never forget.

"Antisemitism should be confronted and stopped. I cant recall posting that, I was 16 then and can honestly say I did not mean to cause any harm."

Jaime Kirzner-Roberts, director of policy at Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies, said in a news release that shehad been in contact with the New Democrats. Shewas relieved the candidates stepped down.

"We thank NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh for his leadership in ensuring this outcome, Kirzner-Roberts said.

"Amid rising Jew-hatred in this country, all political parties and leaders must send a message, loud and clear, that antisemitism will not be tolerated in any shape or form."

A handful of candidates from other parties have also dropped out during the election.

Last week the Conservative Party dropped Lisa Robinson, the candidate for the Beaches-East York riding in Toronto, after Islamophobic social media posts surfaced. Robinson has claimed the account is fake and she has previously reported it to police.

Liberal Raj Saini resigned earlier in the campaign after facing allegations that he harassed a female staff member, claims he firmly denies.

Singh condemned Coles' posts during a campaign stop on Tuesday, but did not demand she step down. At that time, he said the candidate's "unequivocal apology" was the right thing to do.

Singh didn't say Wednesday why he didn't push for a resignation sooner, but reiterated that it was the right decision for the candidates.

The New Democrats are filling their schedule for the final push before the election.

Singh was greeted by hundreds of people cheering and holding signs during stops in London West and Niagara Centre  both of which went Liberal in the last election. He told supporters to vote with their conscience.

The NDP leader has continuedto dismiss that people should follow the idea of voting strategically and kept his sights set on Justin Trudeau during the final push.

"There is a cost to voting for the Liberals," he said.

Singh will also be taking his message to the Ontario ridings of Hamilton and Brampton East.

He will end the busy day with a livestream on Twitch, an online gaming site. Singh, who has embraced social media trends and videos, said it's a way to connect with potential voters.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 15, 2021.

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version referred to Jaime Kirzner-Roberts of the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies as a he.
OTTAWA - Despite Erin O'Toole's attempts to portray himself as an ally of workers, the Conservative leader appears to remain public enemy No. 1 so far as Canada's labour unions are concerned.

Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole participates a virtual telephone town hall meeting on Tuesday, September 14, 2021 in Ottawa. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

OTTAWA - Despite Erin O'Toole's attempts to portray himself as an ally of workers, the Conservative leader appears to remain public enemy No. 1 so far as Canada's labour unions are concerned.

Some of the largest unions are urging their members to vote for anybody but the Conservatives.

Others are actively involved in urging their members to vote strategically in close-fought ridings  either for the Liberals or NDP depending on the riding  to prevent the Conservatives from winning.

Still others, such as United Steelworkers Canada, are endorsing the NDP outright.

But Chris Aylward, national president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, said he's unaware of any union that has endorsed the Conservatives.

The party itself did not respond when asked whether it has received any union endorsements.

That does not necessarily mean that O'Toole's blandishments have not attracted any rank and file union members, who have shown in the past that they don't vote as a block or necessarily heed the advice of their union leaders.

In a bid to broaden the Conservative tent, O'Toole signalled a shift in the party's approach to organized labour in a speech last fall, shortly after assuming the leadership. In it, he emphasized the need for unions to protect workers' rights and bemoaned the decline in union membership.

But the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), for one, is doing what it can to deter its members from falling for what it terms O'Toole's "wolf in sheep's clothing" gambit.

"Erin O'Toole comes across as a friend to workers and a friend to unions, but his track record says something completely different," Aylward said in an interview.

"That's why we're saying that Erin O'Toole's Conservatives would be disastrous for Canada's recovery from the pandemic."

Aylward pointed out that O'Toole was a member of cabinet when Stephen Harper's Conservatives cut 26,000 federal public service jobs in four years and engaged in "blatant attacks" on workers' rights, including imposing two controversial laws that were seen as anti-union and which were repealed once the Liberals won power.

PSAC does not tell its 215,000 members how to vote, but it is urging them to "sit back and think about the fact that they really have nothing to gain and everything to lose by voting Conservative," Aylward said.

The union is targeting that message at specific ridings where PSAC thinks a Conservative incumbent can be defeated or a Conservative candidate can be prevented from winning. But it is not explicitly advising strategic voting.

Similarly, Canadian Labour Congress president Bea Bruske said O'Toole's policies "don't really resonate because they don't deliver what we're looking for." The organization has produced a video reminding voters of what it calls O'Toole's "dangerous" policies for workers.

While Bruske herself is campaigning for some NDP candidates, she said the Canadian Labour Congress doesn't endorse any specific party, because some of its member unions are constitutionally required to remain non-partisan. Rather, she said the organization is urging workers to vote for candidates who are "going to be standing up for the average worker, rather than big banks or corporate interests."

It does not recommend strategic voting, Bruske added, arguing that the average voter doesn't have enough information on the dynamic in individual ridings to know which party has the best shot at preventing a Conservative win.

"I think people should vote for the way they want to vote," she said.

Unifor, by contrast, is "100 per cent" urging its members to vote strategically to produce an "anything but Conservative" result, national president Jerry Dias said.

"It's all about strategic voting."

Dias said Unifor has identified several dozen ridings where the Conservatives won by a margin of less than six per cent of the vote in 2019. And it is providing its members with detailed information on the dynamic of the races in those ridings to show them which party is best positioned to defeat them this time.

"We've been doing this for years. I would like to think we're kind of the masters at it by now," he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 15, 2021.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP)  The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Wednesday criticized South Korea's president and threatened a complete destruction of bilateral relations after both countries tested ballistic missiles hours apart.

FILE - In this Sept. 9, 2021, file photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un waves from a balcony toward the assembled troops and spectators during a celebration of the nation's 73rd anniversary at Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang, North Korea. South Korea says Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021, North Korea has fired an unidentified projectile off its east coast. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP, File)

SEOUL, South Korea (AP)  The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Wednesday criticized South Korea's president and threatened a "complete destruction" of bilateral relations after both countries tested ballistic missiles hours apart.

The launches of missiles underscored a return of tensions between the rivals at a time when talks aimed at stripping North Korea of its nuclear program are stalled.

Kim's sister, Kim Yo Jong, criticized South Korean President Moon Jae-in for comments he made while observing his country's missile tests, including its first of a submarine-launched ballistic missile. Moon said South Koreas growing missile capabilities will serve as a "sure deterrence" against North Korean provocations.

The tests came hours after the South Korean and Japanese militaries said North Korea had fired two ballistic missiles into the sea.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, left, poses with his South Korean counterpart Chung Eui-yong for a photograph before their meeting at the Foreign Ministry in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021. The foreign ministers met Wednesday for talks expected to focus on North Korea and other regional security issues, two days after North Korea claimed to have tested a newly developed cruise missile. (Kim Seung-doo/Yonhap via AP)

In a statement carried by state media, Kim berated Moon for describing North Korean weapons demonstrations as a provocation, and warned of a "complete destruction" of bilateral relations if he continues with what she described as slander of North Korea.

She said North Korea is developing its military capabilities for self-defense without targeting a specific country, and that South Korea is also increasing its military capabilities. North Korea has often accused the South of hypocrisy for introducing modern weapons while calling for talks on easing tensions between the divided countries.

"If the president joins in the slander and detraction (against us), this will be followed by counter actions, and the North-South relations will be pushed toward a complete destruction," she said. "We do not want that."

The South Korean and Japanese militaries said the two short-range ballistic missiles fired by North Korea flew 800 kilometers (500 miles) before landing in the sea inside Japans exclusive economic zone  a worrying development even though they did not reach Japanese territorial waters. The last time a North Korean missile landed inside that zone was in October 2019.

The launches came two days after North Korea said it fired a newly developed cruise missile, its first known missile test in six months.

A man walks past a TV screen showing North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, in Tokyo, Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021. North Korea fired two ballistic missiles into waters off its eastern coast Wednesday afternoon, two days after claiming to have tested a newly developed missile in a resumption of its weapons displays after a six-month lull. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

Hours after the latest North Korean launches, South Korea reported its first test of a submarine-launched ballistic missile. As Moon and other top officials looked on, the missile flew from a submarine and hit a designated target, Moon's office said. It did not say how far the weapon flew.

The U.N. Security Council scheduled emergency consultations on the North Korean missile launches late Wednesday afternoon at the request of France and Estonia, diplomats said.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric expressed concern at the missile launches, reiterating that "diplomatic engagement remains the only pathway to sustainable peace and complete, verifiable denuclearization of the Korean peninsula."

Experts say North Korea is building up its weapons systems to apply pressure on the United States in the hopes of winning relief from economic sanctions aimed at forcing the North to abandon its nuclear arsenal. U.S.-led talks on the issue have been stalled for more than two years.

"North Korea is trying to communicate a message that things will not go as Washington wishes, if it doesnt accept the Norths demands," said Moon Seong Mook, an analyst with the Seoul-based Korea Research Institute for National Strategy. He said North Korea may think it has an opportunity now to win concessions from U.S. President Joe Biden's administration while it is embroiled in a domestic debate following the chaotic pullout from Afghanistan.

People watch a TV screen showing a news program reporting about North Korea's missiles with file footage in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021. North Korea fired two ballistic missiles into waters off its eastern coast Wednesday afternoon, two days after claiming to have tested a newly developed missile in a resumption of its weapons displays after a six-month lull. The letters read "North Korea fired two ballistic missiles." (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

Observers say Moon's government, which has been actively pursuing reconciliation with North Korea, may have taken action to appear tougher in response to criticism that its too soft on the North.

The rival nations are still technically in a state of war since the 1950-53 Korean War, which pitted the North and ally China against the South and U.S.-led U.N. forces, ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said the launches "threaten the peace and safety of Japan and the region and are absolutely outrageous."

The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said the North Korean test "highlights the destabilizing impact of (North Koreas) illicit weapons program" though it said it didnt pose an immediate threat to the U.S.

The North Korean launches represent a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions that bar North Korea from engaging in any ballistic missile activity. But the council typically doesnt impose new sanctions when the North launches short-range missiles, like Wednesdays.

In this image taken from video provided by the South Korea Defense Ministry, South Korea's first underwater-launched ballistic missile is test-fired from a 3,000-ton-class submarine at an undisclosed location in the waters of South Korea, Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021. The rival Koreas test-launched ballistic missiles hours apart from each other on Wednesday in a display of military assets that came amid a faltering diplomatic push to strip North Korea of its nuclear program. South Korea's presidential office said it conducted its first underwater-launched ballistic missile test on Wednesday afternoon. It said a domestically built missile fired from a 3,000-ton-class submarine flew a previously set distance before hitting a designated target. (South Korea Defense Ministry via AP)

Wednesdays tests came as Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was in Seoul for meetings with Moon and other senior officials to discuss North Korea and other issues.

Its unusual for North Korea to make provocative launches when China, its last major ally and biggest aid provider, is engaged in a major diplomatic event. But some experts say North Korea may have used the timing to draw extra attention.

Kim Dong-yub, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, said Wednesdays tests appeared to be of an improved version of a short-range missile it tested in March. He said the weapon is likely modeled on Russias Iskander missiles, which are designed to fly at relatively low altitudes, making them harder to be intercepted by missile defense systems.

The international community wants North Korea to abandon its nuclear program and has long used a combination of the threat of sanctions and the promise of economic help to try to influence the North. But negotiations have stalled since 2019, when then-U.S. President Donald Trumps administration rejected the Norths demand for major sanctions relief in exchange for dismantling an aging nuclear facility.

Kim Jong Uns government has so far rejected the Biden administrations overtures for dialogue, demanding that Washington abandon what it calls "hostile" policies first. But North Korea has maintained its self-imposed moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests, a sign that it may not want to completely scuttle the possibility of reopening the talks.

In 2017, North Korea claimed to have acquired the ability to strike the American mainland with nuclear weapons after conducting three intercontinental ballistic missile tests and its most powerful nuclear test. In recent years, it has also performed a series of underwater-launched missile tests in what experts say is a worrying development because such weapons are difficult to detect and would provide North Korea with retaliatory strike capability.

South Korea, which doesnt have nuclear weapons, is under the protection of the U.S. "nuclear umbrella," which guarantees a devastating American response in the event of an attack on its ally. But South Korea has been accelerating efforts to build up its conventional arms, including developing more powerful missiles.

Experts say South Koreas military advancements are aimed at improving its capacity for preemptive strikes and destroying key North Korean facilities and bunkers.

Separate from the submarine-launched missile, South Korea also tested a missile from an aircraft.

___

Associated Press writer Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.
Lobbyists in Brussels waged a campaign against the rollout of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID vaccine by claiming it was insufficiently European, a new book by the jabs inventors has said.

Opponents allegedly told politicians last year that they should not order doses of the injection because BioNTech, a German company, had teamed up with US behemoth Pfizer rather than working with another company based in Europe.

Deemed un-European: A vial of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. Credit:AP

According to the book - written by journalist Joe Miller in collaboration with BioNTechs founders Dr Ugur Sahin and Dr Ozlem Turec - lobbyists branded Pfizer the epitome of cold capitalism and claimed: If we give one euro to CureVac, or Sanofi, or a European company, it is one euro for Europe. If we give it to BioNTech, 50 cents will always end up in the US.

It is not known what impact the lobbying effort had. However, the European Union only ordered doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine last November once efficacy data for the jab had been published - nearly five months after the UK and US.
Stefan Qins investors thought theyd found a sure thing -- a hedge fund that was generating 500 per cent returns by exploiting the price gaps between cryptocurrencies on 40 exchanges throughout the world.

Instead, the 24-year-old self-proclaimed math whiz used their money on a lavish lifestyle, including a $US23,000-a-month Manhattan penthouse apartment, and failed investments in initial coin offerings and real estate. Federal prosecutors said Qin defrauded more than 100 people out of about $US90 million ($123 million).

Stefan Qin has been sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison over his crypto fraud.

After some of his victims said Qin should spend as long as possible behind bars for securities fraud, US District Judge Valerie Caproni sentenced him on Wednesday (local time) to seven-and-a-half years and called him a potentially very dangerous person.

Qin deliberately and consciously chose a path to rip off investors, including fake account statements and lying to clients about how he was using their money, Caproni said. This kind of white-collar crime is just as devastating to victims as other types of crime, and it will be punished severely.
Work has stopped on a level crossing removal project in Melbournes north east after a worker tested positive for COVID-19.

The worker did a 12-hour overnight shift at the Maroondah Highway in Lilydale from 6pm on Sunday but, after they developed symptoms on Monday, they did not return to the site.

A level crossing removal worker has tested positive for COVID-19. Credit:Eddie Jim

The worker tested positive for coronavirus on Wednesday, leading the project to come to a halt while deep cleaning and contact tracing is underway.

A Level Crossing Removal Project spokeswoman said it was working closely with the Department of Health to ensure the safety of its workforce.

All [Major Transport Infrastructure Authority] project sites, including the Level Crossing Removal Project, have strict rules around physical distancing, wearing masks, QR check-in codes and increased industrial cleaning, the spokeswoman said.

This is ramping up even further to support the government compliance blitz and ensure our workers are doing the right things to stay safe.

The case comes as Victorian authorities have announced a crackdown on the states construction industry, with first dose COVID-19 vaccinations mandatory from 11.59pm on Thursday, September 23.

There is also a ban on crossing the metro-regional boundary for work, and on eating or drinking indoors at worksites.

The construction industry, currently operating at 25 per cent of capacity, has come into the spotlight amid claims of tradespeople not wearing masks and infections linked to worksites, including cases that led to Ballarat being locked down on Wednesday.

Premier Daniel Andrews called Thursdays mandate a down payment on construction reopening to 50 and 75 per cent in the coming weeks and months.

This is a plan to keep the thing open, rather than doing what you could do, and thats to say oh well, were just going to close it down to zero, the Premier said.
A COVID-19 test designed to detect how infectious a person is, developed by a Brisbane-based company, has been approved for use in the UK and Europe.

Biotech company Microbio has been granted a CE Mark by the European regulator to roll out its two tests for COVID-19.

Biotech firm Microbio says its test, now approved for use in Europe, can detect how infectious a COVID-19 case is.

One is a diagnostic test, called a D-Test by the company, and functions similarly to the current PCR tests, which are the gold standard in detecting the virus.

The other test being rolled out is called a replicative or R-Test, and the company says it does what other PCR tests currently cant  determine exactly how infectious a person is.
A teenager who allegedly attacked a 17-year-old in Brisbane, leaving him on life support with brain hypoxia, has been granted bail with strict conditions including that he must wear a tracking bracelet.

Mr Sheriff attended a bail application hearing via video link at Brisbane Magistrates Court on Wednesday. Credit:Jocelyn Garcia

Lasender Sheriff, 18, and nine others were charged with attempted murder over the alleged attack in Milton in August.

Mr Sheriff was also charged with grievous bodily harm.

The victim was allegedly set upon while he was sleeping in a bedroom at an inner-city apartment block on Railway Terrace.
Two of the three sisters who allege they were sexually abused by Malka Leifer have given evidence against the former school principal, but the third accuser wont be questioned in court until Friday at the earliest.

Ms Leifer, the former principal of the Adass Israel School in Elsternwick, is accused of abusing three of her then students between 2004 and 2008 and this week has a hearing in Melbourne Magistrates Court that will determine whether she stands trial in a higher court.

A court sketch of Malka Leifer this week. Credit:Paul Tyquin

The first two women gave evidence between Monday and Wednesday in a closed court, a standard practice in Victoria for complainants in sex assault cases.

The second woman is yet to finish her evidence but wont be called on Thursday, as Jewish witnesses and Ms Leifer have been excused from watching or taking part because of the Yom Kippur holy day. Ms Leifers lawyers will continue with their defence in their clients absence.
Picnics are back on the blanket from Saturday. Credit:Daniel Pockett/Getty Images Officials decided against waiting until Sunday to grant additional freedoms to Victorians, but the plan to release the road map at the end of this weekend remains. The plan is expected to set out how stranded Victorians can come home, and will likely include home quarantine. There will also be some changes to COVID-19 rules in regional Victoria, excluding Ballarat. From 11.59pm Friday night, regional indoor gyms and pools can reopen, although density limits will apply and spas, saunas and steam rooms are excluded.

Hydrotherapy and swimming lessons may occur. Tour transport is allowed with up to 10 people per vehicle, however, there is no change to the current rules which allow movement around the state and public gatherings of up to 10 people. The announcements come as the state records 514 new local cases, a record for the current Delta outbreak, and is the first time since August last year that more than 500 cases have been reported in a single day. Of the new cases, 148 have been linked to known clusters, meaning more than 350 cases remain a mystery. Breakdown of Thursdays 514 new local cases Victorias COVID-19 response commander Jeroen Weimar provided a breakdown of the states new 514 local cases during the daily coronavirus briefing. Three cases are in the regional city of Ballarat;

Seven are elsewhere in regional Victoria - four in the Mitchell Shire, one in Murrindindi, and two in Greater Geelong (all connected to existing clusters);

317 are in Melbournes northern suburbs, including in Craigieburn, Roxburgh Park, and Glenroy;

124 are in Melbournes western suburbs, including in Truganina, Altona North, and Deer Park;

46 cases are in Melbournes south east, including in Dandenong, Keysborough, and Clyde North;

14 cases are in Melbournes eastern suburbs, including in Doncaster and Donvale;

Three cases are currently under investigation.

Victorian COVID-19 response commander Jeroen Weimar said authorities were seeing more COVID-19 cases in Melbournes south-east. If youre in the south-eastern suburbs  around Dandenong, around Keysborough, around Clyde North  if youve got any symptoms whatsoever, or please just check those exposure sites, we really need to see people coming forward to get tested in that part of our city, Mr Weimar said. We think were starting to see some seeding out now, particularly from essential workers ... moving from the north and west into the south-east, and obviously, were keen to stop it wherever we possibly can. More than 81,000 vaccine doses were administered in Victoria on Wednesday, including 41,758 at state hubs, while 61,961 test results were processed  a 12 per cent increase in the number of tests reported the previous day.

There are now 4370 active cases in the state. Ballarat re-enters lockdown Loading Ballarat residents began their first day of a week-long snap lockdown on Thursday as the number of positive cases in the city of about 100,000 climbed to six. One of the three new cases in Ballarat is a mystery case, Mr Weimar said.

Changes for construction workers Mr Andrews also announced on Thursday that construction workers will need to get vaccinated if they want to keep working. Workers in the industry will need to show evidence to their employer that they have had a first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine by 11.59pm on Thursday, September 23. Limited medical exemptions and proof-of-booking exceptions will apply, in line with requirements for aged care workers.

Church, Alfred hospitals emergency centre added as exposure sites A Melbourne church and emergency department are among the COVID-19 exposure sites identified by Victorian health authorities on Thursday. St Joseph Melkite Catholic Church at Fairfield was listed as a tier-1 exposure site across three days, while Casey Hospitals emergency department waiting room at Berwick, in Melbournes south-east, was declared a tier-1 site for an exposure on Tuesday, between 8.28pm and 11.36pm. Also declared tier-1 sites were a childcare at Diamond Creek and TopGear Wheels and Tyres in Heidelberg West - both in Melbournes north-east. The Alfreds emergency and trauma centre was listed as a tier-1 exposure site on Wednesday evening, as was a construction site and an early learning centre attached to a junior school in Ballarat.

Loading An Alfred Health spokesperson said a patient visited the emergency department on Tuesday night and tested positive for COVID-19. Meanwhile, a construction site in Cerberus Lane in Canadian, a suburb of Ballarat, was listed as a tier-1 exposure site on Wednesday night, after a case attended the worksite on September 10 from 6.50am to 5.30pm. Clarendon Colleges Early Learning Centre is also a tier-1 exposure site on September 10, from 8.15am to 9am. But The Ballarat Courier is reporting anyone who attended the Mair Street campus, including the junior school, at any time last Friday is now subject to a 48-hour stop and stay directive, meaning they must go home immediately and get tested after a child tested positive.

Given the speed with which the Delta variant is moving from person to person, anyone associated with the school, and their household, is asked to quarantine for 48 hours in the first instance, Grampians Public Health clinical director Dr Karen Aarons wrote to parents. A playground, an IGA and two shops have also been added to the list of exposure sites in the city. Premier Daniel Andrews, Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton and COVID-19 response commander Jeroen Weimar on Wednesday. Credit: Eddie Jim No guidance for Wodonga as Albury re-enters lockdown No lockdown has been announced for Wodonga, despite its sister city over the border Albury going into lockdown.

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard announced the lockdown for Albury on Thursday after two mystery cases were detected in the border city. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said while there would be knock-on effects for Wodonga, he did not say the city would join Albury in lockdown. In some many ways they are one place, Mr Andrews said. We might have to reach out and try and support them.
One day last week, the front page of this newspaper published a gruelling catalogue of allegations of sexual harassment and misogyny made by Commander Donna Wheatley, the second-highest ranked woman in Victorias firefighting agency, Fire Rescue Victoria.

Wheatley has dedicated almost 20 years of her life to the agency before she succumbed to her mistreatment and could not go on. Since going public she has lodged legal proceedings seeking compensation for the loss of her career.

Commander Donna Wheatley, one of Victorias highest-ranking female firefighters, is calling out a culture of sexism. Credit:Luis Ascui

On that same morning, Prime Minister Scott Morrison fronted the National Summit on Womens Safety. Morrison announced that, We have to talk about the way some men think they own women  about the way some women are subject to disrespect, coercion and violence.

The effect of the Prime Minister solemnly uttering those words was a collective eye roll of many summit participants that it almost generated a seismic tremor.
Despite the department labelling it inappropriate to place Lee in a house with younger children for fear of putting them at risk, he was housed with younger children including Macie. Loading Lee repeatedly expressed concerns to staff about his sexual urges and the safety of younger children who were living in the same residential care home as him, the report read. According to Lees case file, he felt urges towards other residents occasionally, and one in particular. [Lee] didnt understand why DCP would put him in a house with younger people. [Lee] expressed that ... he is crying for help and no one in the house cares about him anymore.

Department staff and other government agencies also expressed concerns about Lees behaviour and the safety of other children, including Macie in particular, according to the report. Lee and Macie lived in the same residential care home for almost seven months, which was not unique or an isolated practise in WA. Despite both teens raising concerns with case workers, very little was done and part of the blame was placed on Lee and Macie for their actions. Case files contained records of both Macie and Lee being told by their respective care teams that the problems they had raised were the result of their own actions, the report read. For example, placing themselves in unsafe situations or not engaging with supports offered.

Loading Emails between the department, case workers and psychologists showed the need to implement a safety plan to manage Lee was discussed a year before he was placed in the home with Macie. It is essential that on admission that a safety plan is developed between the district and the house and [Lee], an email between department staff, including an assistant district director, read. Another email months later from a department psychologist to staff again raised concerns about housing Macie and the teenage boy together. It will be important that we use our relationship with [Lee] to encourage him to make good choices to protect him from himself, and [Macie] (and vice versa), it read.

In the email, the psychologist discusses managing the sex offender by rewarding him with quality staff time and engaging him in activities before saying they hoped Macie, manages the risk. Lee was arrested over the assault on Macie in August 2020 as part of Operation Timing Belt, a WA Police investigation into a Perth paedophile ring. Police initially reported that the victims had been groomed by perpetrators on social media, despite some living together in state-run homes. Lee had previously been charged with at least 10 rape offences over a five-year period, including two counts of attempted penetration of a child under 13. He was convicted of those two charges in 2015 and was a known reportable offender before the government placed him in the group home with Macie. Lee, now 19, was younger than 18 when first convicted. Earlier this year he faced eight additional charges of sexually penetrating a child aged 13-16, as well as other charges including animal cruelty.

He is due in court over more separate charges, including four counts each of aggravated sexual penetration without consent, and indecently dealing with a child over 13 under 16. Lee has pleaded not guilty to the eight charges. Loading He has been in custody since before Christmas 2019 to June 20, 2020, from which point he became a remand prisoner. In the reports message from the commissioner, Mr Pettit said the thousands of WA children and young people in out-of-home care have the right to be safe, to be listened to and to be involved in decisions made about you. Macie and Lee both experienced considerable adverse experiences prior to coming into the care of the [department], the message read.

They each had a right to receive timely and thorough assessments of their needs and effective therapeutic services. If such services were made available to each individual child in the [departments] care and impacts of their trauma and life experiences were addressed or moderated, there could be positive, life-changing outcomes for each young person. While the reviews scope was limited, it highlighted systemic issues that needed urgent attention, making six findings and nine recommendations to both Child Minister Simone McGurk and the department. The report found the department did not have a cohesive or effective framework to understand and respond to children and young people with harmful sexual behaviours, and its internal safeguards and review mechanisms did not contribute effectively to the safety of children and young people in residential care. A department response in the review commended the young people involved for their courage in sharing their experiences, as well as the staff who provided expertise during the review process.

Communities acknowledges the critical importance of taking actions to improve outcomes for the children and young people in our care  we will continue to do this through examining our practice, learning from the experiences of children and young people in care, and being transparent and accountable, the response said. Child Protection Minister Simone McGurk said when she was first made aware of this case last year she was very concerned about what had occurred and asked for the Commissioner to undertake the independent review. The Department of Communities made a decision to put these two young people together in a residential group home, and that simply should not have happened, she said. I would like to acknowledge the young woman at the centre of the report, who has fought for her voice to be heard and to improve outcomes for young people in out-of-home care. Ms McGurk said since Lee and Macie were placed together in 2017, significant work had taken place to strengthen practice and safety planning for children in residential care.
Is billionaire James Packer feeling the squeeze? Its been 15 days since the sun set on the Euro summer, but Packer is packing away the toys  for good. The embattled casino magnate, who turned 54 last week, has put his 108-metre gigayacht IJE on the market with a price tag of $280 million.

Britains exclusive Burgess super-yacht brokers have effusively spruiked the yacht from Italian shipbuilder Benedetti. The boast is of a timeless sculptural exterior from sought-after designers Redman Whiteley Dixon and a relaxed beach house-style interior of the ultimate world-cruising family yacht.

Ultra-luxe specifications for the yacht, which sleeps 22 guests in 11 cabins, include an on-board gym, cinema and nightclub, plus a generous pool and a sun lounge on the bridge deck aft that has a fire pit as its focus.

James Packer has set a price for his superyacht. Credit:John Shakespeare

It was only last month that CBD saw Hamish Douglass, the Sydney-based chairman of Magellan Financial Group, onboard the gigayacht when moored in St Tropez. At the time, we speculated that Packer might need to call on Douglass if he was forced to make some divestments.
A string of councils getting car parks under the federal governments controversial commuter car park fund were not consulted about the projects until after they were announced, even though the original plan was for Commonwealth money to be matched by local or state funding.

The poor consultation was revealed in submissions to a Senate committee published on Wednesday, as an international body that fights corruption says the administration of the grants scheme can be described as corrupt conduct.

Maroondah City Council was one of the few local governments to report asking for federal money for commuter car parks, including the one at Croydon station. Credit:Paul Jeffers

The $660 million fund was used ahead of the 2019 election to announce that the Coalition would build car parks near train stations. A scathing Auditor-Generals report found more than three-quarters of the projects were in Coalition-held electorates, and two-thirds were in Melbourne.

In the more than two years since the 47 car parks were initially promised, three have been built, construction has begun on four more and six were cancelled. The federal government says that by the end of 2022, 33 of the projects will either be completed or under construction.
Australia, the United States and Britain will unveil a landmark new security pact to share advanced technologies, including nuclear submarine technology, in a major international announcement on Thursday morning.

As part of the pact, to be known as AUKUS, the US would help Australia develop a nuclear submarine capability, which could result in Australia dumping its $90 billion submarine deal with France, sources confirmed.

(From L-R) Scott Morrison, Joe Biden and Boris Johnson will unveil a new defence pact on Thursday morning.

The working group will enable the three countries to share information in areas including long-range strike capabilities, artificial intelligence and underwater systems in a thinly veiled bid to counter China, Politico reported, citing a White House official and a congressional staffer.

The announcement will be made at 7am AEST, when the White House said US President Joe Biden would deliver brief remarks about a national security initiative.
Washington: US President Joe Biden has denied a media report that his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, last week turned down an offer from Biden for a face-to-face meeting.

The Financial Times cited multiple people briefed on a 90-minute call between the two leaders last week as saying Xi did not take Biden up on the offer and instead insisted that Washington adopt a less strident tone towards Beijing.

Its not true, Biden said on Wednesday (AEST) when asked by reporters if he was disappointed that Xi did not want to meet with him.

Joe Biden proposed to Mr Xi that the leaders hold the summit in an effort to break an impasse in US-China relations.

Bidens National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement earlier that the report was not an accurate portrayal of the call. Period.
Washington: How remarkable to think that just a few weeks ago Australians were feeling slighted by a lack of attention from the Biden administration.

As the 20-year war in Afghanistan came to its ignominious end last month, President Joe Biden did not pick up the phone to call Prime Minister Scott Morrison until after the final US troops had left Kabul. It seemed a shoddy way to treat a close ally that had sacrificed 41 lives in the war effort.

And it stung that America did not send any spare vials from its abundant supply of Pfizer vaccines down under, forcing the Morrison government to cut a deal with Poland to access its soon-to-expire doses.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison appeared with US President Joe Biden and British Prime minister Boris Johnson at the rare joint virtual press conference. Credit:AAP

Now a country that takes inordinate pride in punching above its weight on the global stage is very much doing so again.
Instead, the United States will share its closely guarded nuclear submarine secrets with Australia, making it the only other country to have access to the highly prized technology besides Britain, which secured access in 1958 after years of negotiation. The announcement is a major coup for Australia, which pushed hard for access to Americas nuclear submarine technology. Australias program to build an attack-class submarine fleet has been plagued by cost blowouts and delays. Credit:Naval Group We intend to build these submarines in Adelaide, Australia, in close cooperation with the United Kingdom and the United States, Morrison said at the joint press conference. But let me be clear: Australia is not seeking to establish nuclear weapons or establish a civil nuclear capability. And we will continue to meet all of our nuclear non-proliferation obligations.

Loading The pact will allow Australia to field nuclear-powered submarines that will easily link with American and British submarines across the region. Speaking at the joint press conference, Biden said: AUKUS will bring together our sailors, our scientists and our industries to maintain and expand our edge in military capabilities and critical technologies such as cyber and artificial technology, quantum technologies and undersea domains. Biden said the partnership was about updating Americas alliance networks to ensure they better meet the threats of today and tomorrow. The future of each of our nations, and indeed the world, depends on a free and open Indo-Pacific enduring and flourishing in the decades ahead, he said.

Earlier in the day a senior Biden administration official told reporters: This is a fundamental decision  it binds decisively Australia to the United States and Great Britain for generations. It is the biggest strategic step Australia has taken in generations. Britains third Astute Class nuclear submarine, the Artful, being lowered into the water. Credit:BAE systems Johnson said it was a momentous decision for any nation to acquire the formidable capability of nuclear-powered submarines. The UK, Australia and the US will be joined even more closely together, reflecting the measure of trust between us, Johnson said of the AUKUS partnership.

The landmark partnership comes on the 70th anniversary of the ANZUS alliance and the anniversary of the Battle of Britain. The British government said the partnership would protect citizens and support a peaceful and rules-based international order. Loading Britain said the scoping phase of the new submarines for the Royal Australian Navy would take 18 months and the design and build would create hundreds of scientific and engineering jobs in the UK. The leaders said in a joint statement that the new nuclear submarines would come online at the earliest achievable date. It is not yet clear if the first submarine will be ready this decade. Nuclear-powered submarines are considered more potent than conventional submarines because they operate more quietly and can last for longer periods in the ocean. They are essentially undiscoverable because they do not need to expel exhaust gases.

American officials said the three countries had agreed to identify the optimal pathway to deliver the nuclear submarine technology to Australia within the next 18 months. The far-ranging trilateral security partnership will also involve co-operation on missile capabilities, cyber, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, research and development, and industrial supply chains. Other capabilities are expected to be added. Political and military leaders from Australia, the US and UK will hold regular meetings as part of the partnership, deepening the close relationship that already exists via the elite Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network. The US administration official said: I think this is an historic announcement and it reflects the Biden administrations determination to build stronger partnerships to sustain peace and stability across the entire Indo-Pacific region. This new architecture is really about deepening co-operation on a range of defence capabilities for the 21st century.

The official said that Biden did not explicitly discuss the new partnership in a telephone call last week with Chinese President Xi Jinping. While the three governments stressed the announcement was not aimed at any particular country, Eric Sayers, an expert in Asia-Pacific security policy at the American Enterprise Institute, said: This is solely and 100 per cent about China, and we should stop pretending it is anything else. There are no ifs, ands or buts about it. Sayers said the US and UK were inviting Australia into an exclusive club by agreeing to share such a highly sensitive technology as nuclear propulsion. This is a significant step by the US and UK to empower one of our closest allies in Asia with an advanced capability that doesnt just get offered to anyone, he said. This is one of the most special and unique ways that countries can co-operate.

Sayers said a decade would be a realistic but still ambitious timeline for the submarines to be fully operational. Describing the submarine agreement as a bold step, former US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper warned it carried risks for Australia given the countrys economic dependence on China. The Chinese will view this as provocative, and they should, Clapper said on CNN. Defence Minister Peter Dutton met with US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin at the Pentagon on Thursday (AEST) ahead of meetings the following day alongside Foreign Minister Marise Payne and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. The annual AustraliaUS Ministerial Consultations (AUSMIN) meeting will be followed by Morrisons visit to Washington next week for meetings with Biden and the other leaders of the Quad nations.
Washington: When Scott Morrison visits the US capital next week for meetings with President Joe Biden and other world leaders, hell also be keeping a close eye on events to the north of the border in Canada.

It is often misleading to draw overly simplistic connections between elections in different countries. But a snap federal election in Canada next Tuesday (Australian time) could offer important clues for Australian politicians about how voters respond to a ramped-up COVID-19 vaccination rollout.

Although Morrison has more in common ideologically with Conservative Party leader Erin OToole, hell be watching whether voters reward left-leaning incumbent Justin Trudeau for his handling of the pandemic as he considers when to send Australians to the polls.

Justin Trudeau campaigning for re-election in British Columbia. Credit:Bloomberg

Like Australia, Canadas vaccination rollout started slowly.
The spectrum auctions will "most probably" be held in February 2022, and the government may even try for a January timeline, Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Wednesday.

Speaking to PTI, Vaishnaw said that the telecom reforms package cleared by the Cabinet is adequate for the survival of existing players, and added that with more reforms, and more structural changes, that are in the pipeline, "more players should come".

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a blockbuster relief package for the stressed telecom sector that includes a four-year break for from paying statutory dues, permission to share scarce airwaves, change in the definition of revenue on which levies are paid and 100 per cent foreign investment through the automatic route.

"Today's reform package is good enough for ensuring competition, definitely it is good enough for survival of the players and making sure this is a healthy sector where competition stays robust...I honestly believe once we do a little bit of more changes that are there in pipeline, more players will come," Vaishnaw said.

"We do not intend to stop," the minister said underlining the government's firm resolve to push ahead with reforms, in order to ensure robust health of the telecom sector.

The further said he had spoken to all the key players in the sector after Wednesday's briefing, and that the are happy with the broad set of measures that have been announced.

"All the three big players feel that this was absolutely what was needed," the minister said.

Asked about the spectrum auction timelines, the minister said it will be held during the last quarter of this fiscal.

"Most probably February of 2022...I think by January also, we can try," Vaishnaw 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.)
Ltd (ATL) on Wednesday said it would invest Rs 1,200 crore in eastern Madhya Pradesh to strengthen the system for MP Power Management Company Ltd (MPPMCL).

The company will build, own, operate and maintain the transmission project in the state for a period of 35 years.

ATL, in a press release, informed that the company had received a Letter of Intent (LoI) for the acquisition of MP Package-II Limited, incorporated by REC Power Development and Consultancy Ltd.

"ATL won the project through the Tariff-Based Competitive Bidding (TBCB) process and received the LoI on 14 September 2021. ATL will build, own, operate and maintain the transmission project in the state of Madhya Pradesh for a period of 35 years," the release read.

The project, 'MP Package-II Limited', consists of approximately 850 ckt km of transmission lines and air-insulated substations of various voltage levels (220kV and 132kV) in 18 Districts of Madhya Pradesh. With a capex of Rs 1,200 crore, ALT's execution of the project is believed to strengthen the transmission system in eastern Madhya Pradesh.

Anil Sardana, Managing Director and CEO of ATL said, "As the leader in building power transmission infrastructure in the private sector, we are accelerating our pan-India presence through the competitive bidding process and also setting industry benchmarks in sustainable best practices. This newest project will allow us to contribute significantly to the development of the transmission infrastructure in Madhya Pradesh."

The release further mentioned that winning this project consolidates ATL's position as India's largest operating private power transmission company and takes it closer to its target of setting up 20,000 ckt km of transmission lines by 2022. "The project will also allow the company to assist in growing measure the Government of India's quest to achieve Power For All by 2022," 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.)
Apna, the professional network for grey and blue collar workers, has become a unicorn after raising fresh funds of about $100 million in series C funding led by

The round also saw participation from Owl Ventures, Insight Partners, Sequoia Capital India, Maverick Ventures and GSV Ventures. With this round, Apna has attained a total valuation of $1.1 billion.

Apna has grown 125x over the past 15 months and is currently conducting 18 million interviews every month.

The company plans to use the funding to further strengthen its presence in existing 28 cities and expand pan-India by the end of 2021. The team plans to double down on their edtech platform for skilling and invest in hiring exceptional talent and building world class engineering and product capabilities. Apna plans to build a global enterprise by venturing into new markets such as the US, South East Asia, and Middle East and Africa starting early next year.

Apna has a deep social purpose, and is committed to discovery and creation of opportunities to enhance a billion livelihoods, across geographies. With the continued support of our partners, we aim to accelerate our journey of solving for the world, said Nirmit Parikh, Founder and CEO, Apna.

As an "undercover" blue collar worker, Parikh worked as a shop floor employee, electrician, foreman, cashier, and other gigs before setting up Apna to cater to this category. His thought process was that one cannot build a platform to cater to this section of the workforce sitting in relative luxury.

Apnas job platform leverages a sophisticated algorithm that matches candidates with employers taking into account their skills, experience and preferences. The app also has over 70 communities for skilled professionals like carpenters, painters, telecallers, field sales agents, delivery personnel and others. Apna communities have enabled users to grow their professional networks, upskill through peer learning and find gig opportunities. Apnas communities enabled 17 million peer to peer professional conversations in the past month.

like Zomato, Bharti AXA, Urban Company, BYJUS, PhonePe, Burger King, Delhivery, Teamlease and G4S Global are among Apna's customers. Apna has facilitated about 100 million interviews through the app in less than two years.

Apnas viral adoption is driven by a novel social and interactive approach to connecting employers with job seekers. We expect job seekers in search of meaningful connections and vetted opportunities to drive Apnas continued explosive growth across India  and the world, said Griffin Schroeder, Partner,

Parikh believes English is an aspirational language for the workforce logging in to Apna, and hence a mixed lexicon works better for its users.

Partnering with Owl Ventures, the largest venture capital firm focused on education technology, will help bolster Apnas global ambitions in the skilling space.

We believe that Apna has the potential to fundamentally shift how approach hiring skilled professionals and how these individuals approach networking and upskilling...By incorporating learning and upskilling offerings to drive strong outcomes for its user communities, Apna is building an end-to-end solution that has the potential to help individuals over the course of their career and not just in a single interaction. That repeated interaction and trust they are building on their platform can profoundly impact not just India but the global talent ecosystem," said Amit Patel, Managing Director Owl Ventures.

Throughout the pandemic period, Apna has supported business continuity by helping employers connect with and hire interested candidates in their vicinity.

After taking concrete steps to accelerate Indias recovery, the company is committed to continue to solve employment and skills related problems for the world. Apna has partnered with organizations such as, National Skill Development Corporation, UNICEF Yuwaah, Truecaller, Akzonobel, and the Ministry of Minority Affairs of India to provide better skilling and job opportunities to candidates.
DealShare on Wednesday said it plans to invest USD 100 million (about Rs 736.3 crore) to scale its operations and hire about 5,000 people across various functions over the next six months, as the social commerce firm looks to rapidly scale its operations.

The company, which had recently raised USD 144 million from Tiger Global, WestBridge Capital, Alpha Wave Incubation and others, also announced its formal launch in Delhi-NCR.

"We plan to invest USD 100 million over the next six months - majorly in rapidly scaling operational capabilities, social virality and gamification led demand generation, AI-driven product and technology capabilities, strengthening sourcing network and aggressive across various functions to scale rapidly," DealShare founder and CEO Vineet Rao told PTI.

Despite the COVID-19 induced harsh conditions, the company's customer base has grown significantly, and it is currently at a GMV (gross merchandise value) run rate of USD 400 million, he added.

"Currently, we are present in almost 900 pin codes across 5 states and over 45 cities. By the end of the year, we will hit a GMV ARR (annual run rate) of over USD 1 billion, covering more than 100 cities across 10 states," Rao said, adding that the company currently has over 4 million users.

GMV is a term used in online retailing to indicate the gross merchandise value of the products sold through the marketplace over a certain period.

Rao said the company plans to expand its headcount from over 1,000 now to more than 5,000 in the next six months. These people will be hired across roles like operational excellence, product and technology, data scientists, expansion marketing, sourcing and private brands and setting up distribution, among others.

The company is also expanding its network of warehouses with the addition of 200 new ones by the end of this year. DealShare currently has 40 warehouses across 45 cities.

The social commerce player already has a presence across Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Karnataka.

Talking about DealShare's expansion in Delhi-NCR, Rao said the company has onboarded over one million users in four months, and as it augments its services across the region, DealShare is confident of quickly grabbing "up to 5 per cent market share in this region in the next one year".

"We postponed the formal announcement as the second wave of the pandemic was going on and there were a lot of factors to be taken into accounts, and moreover, it was a pilot phase as we wanted to see if the model needed some alterations but to our surprise, we got a commendable response from the customers of NCR and that is when we thought to go at it at full force," he explained.

The company is clocking a GMV ARR of USD 60 million in Delhi NCR. DealShare provides its customers with a sharp and curated assortment of products, ranging from grocery to essentials that are required for daily use at highly competitive price points.

Rao said the company's customer base is growing at 50 per cent month-on-month and exuded confidence in reaching 10 million customers by the end of this year.

Since its inception, DealShare has been working with more than 1,000 indigenous brands. In Delhi-NCR, DealShare has associated with more than 200 manufacturers.

(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 on Wednesday issued a notice to the Unique Identification Authority Of India (UIDAI) and others on a petition against alleging unauthorised operations under the banking laws.

A Division Bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh asked Unique Identification Authority Of India, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Google India Digital Services Private Limited to file a reply on the petition.

The Court has listed the matter for further hearing on November 8.

The Court was hearing public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Abhijit Mishra which highlights the grave issue of the unauthorised access, use and storing of the Aadhar and banking information of Indian citizens by as a sheer violation of Article 21 of the Indian Constitution, Aadhar Act 2016, Payments and Settlement Systems Act 2007 and Banking Regulations Act 1949.

The petitioner said that in their terms and conditions have especially and explicitly mentioned that it will collect, store and share the bank account or aadhar details.

He urged the Court to direct to initiate actions against the respondent under the aegis of Section 29, Section 38 and Section 43 of the Aadhar Act 2016 for collecting, storing and using the aadhar information of the citizens.

He further urged the Court to direct to issue appropriate directions under the aegis of Section 23A, Section 28, Section 29 of the Aadhar Act, 2016 for the protection of unauthorised access to the Aadhar information.

(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.)
Leading security solutions provider Mitsogo Inc has planned to recruit 250 new people, as it expanded its footprint by setting up a new office in the city, the company said on Wednesday.

The company currently has an office in Cochin, Kerala and employs over 250 people in that facility, a press release said here. The Chennai office would be the second and the firm plans to hire 250 freshers across Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh over the next few months.

The Chennai unit is expected to have about 300 employees over the next few months. The company grew 33 per cent in terms of headcount and recorded a 200 per cent hike in revenues over the last few years.

"We have seen tremendous growth in the past few years. With India being a powerhouse of talent, we are happy to invest further in homegrown resources," company CEO Apu Pavithran 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.)
Tata Sons Chairman on Wednesday quashed media reports of board revamp happening at Tata Sons.

I would like to state that no leadership structural changes are on the anvil, as speculated in certain sections of media. Any such decisions if relevant, are taken by the Nomination and Remuneration Committee. We are extremely disappointed with such stories that create disruption to regular operations," said Chandrasekaran in a statement.

Bloomberg on Tuesday reported that Tata Sons Ltd., the holding company for Indias largest conglomerate, is considering an historic revamp of its leadership structure by creating a chief executive officers role to help improve corporate governance. The agency quoted people engaged in the deliberations.

"Under the plan being proposed, the CEO will guide the sprawling businesses of the 153-year-old Tata empire, while the chairman will oversee the chief executive on behalf of shareholders, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing private information. The approval of Ratan Tata -- the octogenarian chairman of controlling owner Tata Trusts -- is seen as key to implementing the change, they said," Bloomberg reported.





"Extremely disappointed with media reports regarding major revamp in the Tata Groups organisation framework through a speculative company-wise restructure with me seen to be critical to implanting this change," said Ratan Tata on Wednesday.

The current chairman of Tata Sons, Natarajan Chandrasekaran, is being considered for extension after his term ends in February, while heads of various Tata group firms, including Tata Steel Ltd., are being evaluated for the CEO position, the people said. No final decision has been reached, and the plan and details could still change, the people said, according to Bloomberg.

Tata Sons former chairman Ratan Tata, 83, recently won a years-long legal battle with his successor Cyrus P. Mistry, who alleged mismanagement at the group and sued the patriarch for ousting him in 2016.

With 100-odd businesses and more than two dozen listed firms, the Tata group had a combined annual revenue of $106 billion in 2020. Its 750,000 employees make cars and trucks, blend tea, forge steel, sell insurance, write software, operate phone networks and package salt, among much else.
chief minister Yogi Adityanath today inaugurated global food and beverage major PepsiCos largest greenfield potato chips plant in India at Mathura.

Entailing an investment of Rs 814 crore, the unit spanning 29 acres in Kosi Kalan, Mathura will procure 150,000 tonnes of locally grown potatoes, thus benefitting more than 5,000 farmers and creating 1,500 direct and indirect job opportunities.

The company will also commission a state-of-the-art cold storage warehouse for an improved supply chain. The cold storage technology will increase the shelf life of potatoes substantially, said.

Virtually presiding over the inaugural ceremony from Lucknow, Adityanath noted that plant was an example of a partnership between the state and the private sector investor for the welfare of farmers.

The state government framed the policies, while the private investor has taken it further by setting up the plant. This will ultimately benefit the state farmers and they will get lucrative prices for their farm produce, he underlined.

The CM asserted PepsiCo unit would become a milestone of sorts for the region and spur similar pro-farmer partnerships with the private investors.

UP is the countrys top food grain producer and it has abundant water resources. The state has the largest consumer market of 240 million people with a favourable investment climate, he said, advising PepsiCo to help farmers with advanced potato seeds for mutual benefits.

According to PepsiCo, the Mathura unit marked the companys largest greenfield investment in manufacturing in India. It is the companys first Make and Move factory, which will produce Lays potato chips brand. The state-of-the-art plant aligns with the UP governments industrialisation-led growth agenda, its press communique said.

India continues to be a strategic market and an engine of growth for PepsiCo in Africa, Middle East, and South Asia (AMESA) region The plant will implement the best of what PepsiCo has to offer globally in terms of technology, sustainability & diversity, and will contribute to the States overall development through employment opportunities and strong Agri-linkages, PepsiCo CEO, Africa, Middle East, and South Asia, Eugene Willemsen said.

He observed no partnership with India could be complete without collaborating with UP, home to one-sixth of its citizens.
: The revised announced by the Centre on Wednesday would give the right impetus for to move faster towards future technologies, Chairman Venu Srinivasan said.

"The revised focus of on alternative fuels, electric vehicles and utilisation of advanced technological innovation, will help the industry move faster towards the future technologies" he said in a company statement.

There is a sense of haste in developing these technologies in India and this scheme gives the right impetus to the industry to move rapidly in that direction, he said, adding any country which aspires to lead in a particular sector needs government support and the scheme aims to do just that in the future mobility space



The pandemic has taught us the essence of "Aatmanirbhar" in every aspect possible, he said.

"This is a significant push by the government for its workforce, organisations (OEMs), and the consumers to seek competitive, diverse, and climate conscious mobility solutions and a progressive India", he added.

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a Rs 26,058 crore Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for auto, auto-components and drone industries to enhance India's manufacturing capabilities.

Incentives worth Rs 26,058 crore will be provided to industry over five years.

(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.)
Tiger Global-backed social commerce player DealShare said it is expanding its operations in Delhi-NCR after Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Karnataka.

In the first phase, DealShare will provide services to more than 160 pin codes across Delhi, Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Meerut, Noida, and Gurgaon.

With this expansion, DealShare will be serving more than 45 cities and five states in the country. Launched just four months ago, it has already onboarded 1 million customers with a gross merchandise value average rate of return of $60 million in the Delhi NCR region

Right now we are in 25,000 cities across five states, and our target is to be in 100,000 cities by the end of the year, in ten States, said Vineet Rao, founder and CEO, DealShare.

DealShare recently raised $144 million from Tiger Global, WestBridge Capital, Alpha Wave Incubation (a venture fund backed by ADQ, and managed by Falcon Edge Capital), Partners of DST Global, Matrix Partners India, and Z3Partners and Alteria Capital.

It also plans to hire 100 more people in line with its expansion plans.

DealShare provides customers with a curated assortment of products, ranging from grocery to essentials that are required for daily use at highly competitive price points.

Despite Covid-19-induced harsh conditions, our customer base has grown significantly. We are currently at a GMV run rate of $400 million. Our customer base is growing at 50 per cent month-on-month and we are confident that expanding our market presence will help us to further scale our base to 10 million customers by the end of this year. For market expansion, we are earmarking $100 million, and we are aiming to reach 1500 pin codes by the end of 2021, said Rao.

Given Delhi-NCRs large low and middle-income population, Rao feels DealShare will be able to offer quality products at competitive prices.

It has a gamified, fun-filled and virality-driven local language-driven shopping experience.

At DealShare, the market expansion will also be supported by strengthening of the product portfolio, community leader network and operation efficiency.

Sourjyendu Medda, co-founder, chief business officer and chief finance officer, DealShare, said, Since its inception, DealShare has been working with more than 1,000 indigenous brands and have helped many to register significant growth despite the pandemic. In DelhiNCR currently we are associated with more than 200 manufacturers. The brands have started witnessing 300-500 per cent growth and in some cases even 1000 per cent growth in their sales. NCR for us has been the largest and the fastest market and we have grown at an unbelievable pace.

According to Bain & Companys report on social commerce, the sector in India (in terms of gross merchandise value) is projected to reach $16-20 billion by 2025 and $60-70 billion by 2030. A major driver of this growth would be the low- and middle-income group and the first-time internet users.
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Digital Editor
The telecom reforms announced by the government are the beginning of a new era for the sector as well as for boosting investment in the industry that is reeling under debt burden, leading sectoral players on Wednesday said.

Vodafone Idea, the player under severe crisis, also lauded the decision with its promoter Aditya Birla Group Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla calling the reform measures "pathbreaking" that will go a long way in unshackling the telecom sector.

The Union Cabinet has approved a big-bang relief package for the stressed telecom sector that includes a four-year break for from paying statutory dues, permission to share scarce airwaves, change in the definition of revenue on which levies are paid and allowing 100 per cent foreign investment through the automatic route.

The measures, which aimed at providing relief to such as Vodafone Idea that have to pay thousands of crores in unprovisioned past statutory dues, also include the scrapping of spectrum usage charge (SUC) for airwaves acquired in future auctions.

It also provides telecom with an option to pay the interest amount arising due to the deferment of payment by way of equity.

"These reforms demonstrate the government's firm commitment to ensuring healthy growth of the industry. The measures also reflect the decisiveness of...the government to address long-standing issues.

"These reforms will bring alive the digital aspirations of 1.3 billion people and accelerate India's journey to be a digitally powered economy as envisaged by our Honorable Prime Minister (Narendra Modi)," Birla said.

In June, Birla had written to the government that investors are not willing to invest in the company in the absence of clarity on AGR liability, adequate moratorium on spectrum payments and most importantly floor pricing regime above the cost of service.

Birla, who holds a 27 per cent stake in VIL, had offered to hand over his stake in the debt-laden firm to the government or any other entity that the government may consider worthy to keep the company operational.

According to official data, VIL had an adjusted gross revenue (AGR) liability of Rs 58,254 crore, out of which the company has paid Rs 7,854.37 crore and Rs 50,399.63 crore is outstanding.

VIL's gross debt, excluding lease liabilities, stood at Rs 1,80,310 crore as of March 31, 2021. The amount included deferred spectrum payment obligations of Rs 96,270 crore and debt from banks and financial institutions of Rs 23,080 crore apart from the AGR liability.

Voafone Group CEO Nick Read, majority stakeholder in VIL, commended the resolve shown by the government to find a comprehensive solution that would support a competitive and sustainable

"Although the sector has struggled for many years, we expect that the government's constructive initiative announced today...will be the beginning of a new era for India's digital ambitions and for VI's continued contribution to creating an inclusive and sustainable digital society to the benefit of all citizens," Read said.

Conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd Chairman Mukesh D Ambani and Bharti Airtel Chairman Sunil Mittal also appreciated the reforms.

Bharti Airtel in a statement said the bold initiatives are reminiscent of the decisions taken by the NDA Government in 1999 when the telecom sector was at a crossroads which resulted in an era of affordable mobile services for all Indians.

"The latest reforms ensure that the industry is able to invest fearlessly and support India's digital ambitions. We also compliment the Minister of Communications and the finance minister for their leadership and support," Mittal said in a statement.

Bharti Airtel said the reform package heralds a new dawn for the Indian telecom industry and will catalyse explosive growth of this vital sector.

He further said the reforms pave the way for a sustainable three private plus one state-owned telecom operator structure to serve a large market like India.

Ambani said the latest reforms and relief measures will enable the telecom sector to achieve goals set under the mission.

"The telecom sector is one the prime movers of the economy and the key enabler for making India a Digital Society, I welcome the Government of India's announcement of reforms and relief measures that will enable the industry to achieve the goals of I thank Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) for this bold initiative," Ambani said.

RIL's telecom arm Jio said the government's telecom sector reforms will encourage it to bring newer and greater benefits to the customers.

The Cabinet also allowed 100 per cent FDI (foreign direct investment) in the sector under the automatic route.

So far, up to 49 per cent was allowed through the automatic route and anything thereafter had to necessarily go through the government route. The latest measures are expected to ease the cash flow issues being faced by some players in the industry.

Spectrum user charges have been rationalised and there will now be an annual compounding of rates, instead of monthly. Spectrum can now be surrendered as well as shared.

Spectrum auction calendar will be created while tower set-up process is now simplified on the basis of self-approval.

The Cabinet has approved the allocation of spectrum through an auction for a period of 30 years, compared with the 20-year period prevalent at present.

"These fresh reforms will further boost our efforts to invest in this exciting digital future and enable us to be one of the leading players in India's digital economy. More needs to be done, however, towards a sustainable tariff regime to ensure the industry gets a fair return," Bharti Airtel India and South Asia MD and CEO Gopal Vittal said.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The 21st meeting of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation's (SCO) Council of Heads of State will be held in Tajikistan's Dushanbe on September 17.

Prime Minister will virtually address the plenary session of the summit, the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement on Wednesday.

The meeting will be chaired by Tajikistan's President Emomali Rahmon. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will represent India in Dushanbe, the statement added.

The SCO is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. It will be the first SCO Summit being held in a hybrid format and the fourth Summit that India will participate as a full-fledged member of SCO.

At the Summit, the leaders are expected to review the organisation's activities over the past two decades and discuss the state and prospects of future cooperation.

The summit will be attended by the leaders of the SCO member states, observer states, secretary-general of the SCO, executive director of the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS), and other invited guests.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A total of 736 Afghans were recorded for new registration from August 1 to September 11, the said here, adding that it is scaling up its capacity to meet increasing requests for registration and assistance of Afghans in India.

The UN refugee agency said it is in constant dialogue with the government on matters pertaining to Afghan nationals, including issuance and extensions of visa, assistance, and solutions.

According to the data, the total number of persons of concern to in India stands at 43,157. Among them, 15,559 and asylum seekers are from

"From August 1 until September 11, 736 Afghans were recorded by for new registration," the UN body said in a statement.

Among those who have approached the UNHCR are Afghan individuals who have newly arrived in 2021, those seeking reopening of previously closed asylum cases, students, businessmen, or people on medical or other types of visa who are unable to go back due to the current situation in

The UNHCR further said that it is scaling up its capacity to meet the increasing requests for registration and assistance of Afghans in India.

"UNHCR is increasing its humanitarian response programme for vulnerable new arrivals from Basic assistance such as food, cash-based assistance and core relief items are being provided to the most vulnerable new arrivals from Afghanistan and those already in India," the UN body said.

The UNHCR said it has also set up an Afghanistan emergency cell and a dedicated help page for Afghans with comprehensive information on registration and assistance available.

"Additional 24/7 helplines were established to answer queries around the clock and direct engagement with Afghan communities scaled up. Over 130 calls are received per day, mainly enquiring about assistance and registration," it said.

The swept across Afghanistan this month, seizing control of almost all key towns and cities, including Kabul, against the backdrop of the withdrawal of US forces.

India also evacuated people on military transport aircraft of the IAF under the government's 'Operation Devi Shakti'.

(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.)
workers staged an agitation on Jalna road here on Wednesday to protest against the government's inaction over the issue of political reservation for the OBC community.

workers shouted slogans at Amarpreet Chowk, following which they were detained by the police and taken to Kranti Chowk police station, an official said.

Speaking to reporters, general secretary of the party's state unit Atul Save said that the state government had forcefully disrupted the agitation.

The BJP's district unit president Sanjay Kenekar said, "The state government fooled the Maratha community earlier and now they have similarly fooled the OBCs. Leader of Opposition Devendra Fadnavis had appealed to the state government to submit an empirical data on the OBC population in the court. The state didn't pay heed and the community didn't get justice."



The has planned similar protests in Vaijapur, Gangapur, Khultabad, Kannad, Sillod, Phulambri and other areas of the district, a party official said.

The Supreme Court earlier this year quashed quota for the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in local bodies in after observing that the total reservation should not exceed 50 per cent.

The BJP has since demanded that the state backward class commission should put together an empirical data about the OBC population and till then no local body elections be held.

(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.)
For the first time, Chief of Defence Staff General publicly described the Indian militarys deliberations on reorganising itself into integrated theatre commands. These are warfighting entities, containing army, navy and air force components, that would fight jointly to focus and synergise the combat power of all three services.

In what would be the boldest move since Independence, Rawat said the 17 single-service commands that currently exist would be combined into just four geographical commands, each with elements from all three services.

The first joint theatre command would be responsible for the border against Pakistan in what the military refers to as the western theatre; while a second command  the northern theatre command  would be responsible for the border with China. A third, navy-heavy theatre, called the maritime command will be responsible for the security of the Indian Ocean Region (IOR); and an island command, already functional and called the Andaman & Nicobar Command (ANC), would project power into the eastern Indian Ocean.

Rawat was speaking in New Delhi to an audience of writers and intellectuals at the India Inter Centre on Wednesday.

Today, we have four different army commands looking after Pakistan: Northern, Western, South-Western and Southern commands. From the air force, we have three commands looking after that frontier: Western Air Command, South-Western Air Command and Southern Air Command. From the navy, we have a Western Naval Command and a Southern Naval Command, counted Rawat.

The frontier with China is managed by a similar multiplicity of commands. The Central Air Command, located in Allahabad, has a role in managing both the western and northern theatres, while the Eastern Air Command at Shillong is responsible for the northern theatre. The armys Central and Eastern Commands look after the northern border while the armys Northern Command is split between the western border and the northern border. If you count, there are 17 commands that are responsible for guarding against both our adversaries, said Rawat.

Describing these joint theatre commands, Rawat said the one looking after Pakistan would have a commander, whether from the army, navy or air force  who is best suited for the job. He would have subordinate commanders from the other two services, who could offer him advice specific to their respective services.



There is also a thought process about co-opting the central armed police forces (CAPFs) for tasks with the army. The CAPFs train with us and have weapons systems that are as good as what the army has. So they can take on some defensive tasks and, thereby, relieve the army for carrying out offensive tasks.

The CDS said the military was also looking at creating a single theatre command for managing the threat from China. This theatre commander would also have under him elements from the Eastern Naval Command and IAF components.

Rawat said the navys two combat commands  the western and the eastern naval commands  would be integrated into a single headquarters. Called the National Maritime Command, it would be responsible for the security of the Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal and the northern Indian Ocean.

The fourth joint theatre command would be responsible to defend Indias island territories, which Rawat called islands of resistance.

The military has already created a joint theatre command in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, headed by a CINCAN (Commander-in-chief Andaman and Nicobar), who has been Indias only integrated commander-in-chief. The CINCAN does not report to the navy, but to the Integrated Defence Staff.

The fifth theatre, said Rawat, comprises Indias air space, which is increasingly contested by manned and unmanned aircraft, missiles, rockets and artillery shells, which go as high as 15 km when they are fired. With the air chief engaged in multiple other tasks, the solution being considered is to have a dedicated air force commander-in-chief, responsible for the air space above us, said Rawat.

The sixth joint commander would be in charge of cyber war. Frontal attacks with tanks and infantry may not be the way the next war is fought. Instead, the troops in the rear may become the first to come under attack  a cyberattack launched by the enemy, said Rawat. The adversary may force you to join battle in the manner that suits him. So we need a space agency.
India is considering resuming exports of Covid-19 vaccines soon, mainly to Africa, as it has partly immunised a majority of its adults and supplies have surged, a source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

India, the world's biggest maker of vaccines overall, stopped vaccine exports in April to focus on inoculating its own population as infections exploded. The government wants to vaccinate all of its 944 million adults by December and has so far given at least one dose to 61% of them.

The resumption of exports deliberations come ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Washington next week where vaccines are likely to be discussed at a summit of the leaders of the Quad countries - the United States, India, Japan and Australia.





ALSO READ: Over 10 mn people in MP fully vaccinated against Covid-19: Official

"The export decision is a done deal," said the source, who declined to be named as he was not authorised to talk to the media on the matter. "India wants to help out Africa with both vaccines and its COVID operational model." India's Ministry of External Affairs, one of whose senior officials met with the chief of the World Health Organization on Monday, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The ministry coordinates India's vaccine exports.

The WHO said on Tuesday it was in a constant dialogue with Indian officials to resume supplies to global vaccine-sharing platform COVAX.

"We have been assured that supply will restart this year," senior WHO official Bruce Aylward said in a briefing.

"We are hoping we can get an assurance it can start even faster than later this year, and in the coming weeks." Before India stopped exports, it donated or sold 66 million doses to nearly 100 countries.

India's own inoculations have jumped since last month, especially as the world's biggest vaccine maker, the Serum Institute of India, has more than doubled its output of the AstraZeneca shot to 150 million doses a month from its April levels.



ALSO READ: Sputnik's single-dose vax gets DCGI nod for Phase-III trials in India

A government source told Reuters in June that the U.S. experience showed that vaccinations tend to slow down after a big majority of people get their shots. That might give India a chance to export excess output, said the source.

The African Union on Tuesday accused manufacturers of denying them a fair chance to buy vaccines, and urged manufacturing countries - in particular India - to lift export restrictions.

Out of 5.7 billion doses of vaccines administered around the world, only 2% have been in Africa.
The has permitted termination of the 26 week long of a minor rape victim, at her risk, saying that freedom of a pregnant woman in making a choice as to whether the should be continued cannot be taken away.

The court also said that under the Medical Termination of Act, where any pregnancy is alleged by the pregnant woman to have been caused by rape, the anguish caused by such a pregnancy shall be presumed to constitute a grave injury to the mental health of the pregnant woman.

In view of the provision under the Act and having regard to the victim's age and the circumstances of her pregnancy, its continuance "would involve grave injury to her physical and mental health" and "it is in the interest of justice to permit medical termination of the pregnancy", the court said.

It also directed that if the foetus survives the process, the hospital authorities have to ensure the baby's life is protected.

The court also directed the hospital to preserve blood and tissue samples of the foetus to carry out necessary medical tests, including DNA mapping.

The order came on a plea moved by the minor rape victim and her parents, seeking a direction to the Kozhikode Medical College to medically terminate her pregnancy as the hospital was refusing to carry out the procedure in view of its advanced stage.

The court allowed the plea after a medical board, which examined the girl, gave a report stating that she might require multiple inductions to abort the foetus, failing which surgical intervention may be required.

The report also stated that the foetus may survive.

It, however, said that medical termination of pregnancy can be considered in view of the facts of the case.

"In the result, the writ petition is allowed and the third petitioner (victim) is permitted to undergo the procedure for termination of the pregnancy. The respondents concerned would be free to undertake the said procedure at the risk of the third petitioner.

The hospital authorities shall preserve the blood sample and tissue sample of the foetus to carry out necessary medical tests including DNA mapping. In case the child is born alive, the hospital authorities shall ensure that all necessary steps are taken for protecting the life of the child," the court 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.)
Lt Gen (Retd) Gurmit Singh was sworn in here on Wednesday as the new governor of

The oath of office was administered to Singh by the Chief Justice of the High Court Justice R S Chauhan at a simple function held at Raj Bhawan.

The function was attended by Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, his cabinet colleagues Satpal Maharaj, Dhan Singh Rawat, Assembly Speaker Premchand Aggarwal and a number of senior government officials including Chief Secretary SS Sandhu and DGP Ashok Kumar.

Singh succeeds Baby Rani Maurya, who resigned two years before completing her tenure.

Singh, who retired as the deputy chief of the Indian Army, is a highly decorated officer and considered an expert on India-China affairs.

Talking to reporters soon after being sworn in, Singh said: After serving the country as a soldier, I feel proud to have got an opportunity to serve Uttarakhand which is also called 'Veerbhumi' where every family has someone in the armed forces".

He said addressing issues related to ex-servicemen, soldiers who lost their lives in the line of duty and their dependents will be among his priorities.

I will try to rise to the expectations (of people) from the governor's office, he said.

"Women of Uttarakhand are self-reliant and courageous. A new chapter of women empowerment will be written in the state by encouraging daughters to join military schools and the NDA," he said.

Describing Uttarakhand as a sacred land where famous Himalayan shrines Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri, Yamunotri, and Gurudwaras Nanakmatta Sahib, Reetha Sahib and Hemkund Sahib are located, Singh said he was fortunate to have been given the opportunity to serve the state and thanked President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Uttarakhand is endowed with great scenic beauty and has tremendous potential in tourism, organic farming, yoga, ayurveda, and food processing-based small industries, he said.

Limitless jobs and entrepreneurship opportunities can be created by promoting these sectors, he added.

Singh also paid tributes to Major Somnath Sharma, the first recipient of the Param Vir Chakra (PVC), India's highest military decoration and Lt Colonel Dhan Singh Thapa, who too received the honour.

Singh saluted soldiers from the state who had won 23 Maha Vir Chakras, 147 Vir Chakras, six Ashoka Chakras, and 19 Kirti Chakras.

(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.)
Despite a huge crowd turning out to attend the funeral of Arshid Ahmad Mir, the police sub-inspector killed by terrorists on September 12, there has been no public condemnation of the killers.

There are two basic points which emerge from this enigmatic behaviour of Kashmiri people --Number one: Had Kashmiris approved of the innocent police officer's senseless murder, none would have turned out to join the funeral except the immediate family.

Number two: Why did such a huge crowd attend the police officer's funeral and yet, did not condemn this act of terrorism?

After all the so-called big commanders of terror outfits were eliminated one after the other by the security forces in Kashmir, the handlers of terrorism across the border started realising the futility of glorifying terrorist commanders whether foreigners or locals.

The death of a 'glorified' terror commander has always had a negative impact on the growth of terror outfits in Kashmir. In addition to incurring huge costs to keep the terror commanders in the circuit, Pakistani handlers also realised that one-man terror shows do not last long.

Whether it was Mastgul or Naveed Jat, foreigners have always run out of control for their Pakistani handlers. Sometimes these terrorists have killed on orders from across the border and sometimes they did so following their personal anger and whims. This has forced the handlers to look for 'cheaper assets' among local youth those can be used to carry out killings of soft targets without any fear of being able to reveal the larger designs of their handlers.

An unarmed traffic policeman, a security man on leave in his ancestral village, a political activist sitting inside a shop or a police officer like Arshid Ahmad Mir, who was on practical training and was moving around without an escort.

Most of the time, the boys used to carry out such attacks are locals who might work in pairs or even alone. A pistol in majority of cases or an odd AK-47 in some cases, is all the weapon their handlers trust these 'recruits' with.

A successful kill, whether pre-planned or carried out at the spur of the moment, is all that matters for the 'baptism' of these local boys into terrorism.

Any local recruit who kills a policeman or a political activist immediately understands that it is a one-way road for him thereafter. This realisation makes such boys more subservient to the dictates of their handlers.

The larger message of such killings is to instil fear in the minds of the people. As an ordinary Kashmiri always has his ear close to the ground, he understands that to become the target of the newly recruited local boys, one does not have to be a big shot.

If you have spoken against terrorism in your locality, it is the local terror recruit who comes to know of your utterances. Thus, an all pervading silence takes over the people and this fear ridden silence is projected as public support for ahome grown militancy'.

The general refrain is that since the newly recruited boys are locals with families and relations spread across the valley, public sympathy for them is natural. Nothing could be farther from truth than this piece of misinformation.

There have not been more than one or two cases in which the families did not lodge missing reports with the police and issued appeals through social media for their 'misguided' sons to return.

The case of family approval is, therefore, ruled out for the so-called home grown militants. The newly recruited boys have little training to face the security forces during encounters. This is the main reason that during operations, security forces often make announcements to these boys to surrender.

For their Pakistani handlers, the local boys used for soft target killings are not only easily expendable, but also useful to trigger feuds among families.

Whether it happens today or tomorrow, the families of those soft targets killed by local boys eventually come to know who the killer/killers have been. This development has the potential to trigger unending family feuds in the local society. This is the most dangerous fallout of locals getting killed by locals at the behest of Pakistani handlers.

If the trend continues, an eye for an eye will make every Kashmiri blind.

--IANS

in

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Prime Minister said on Wednesday that is not only about but policy too and noted that content is about "connect" that is as much applicable to the parliamentary system as to the media.

Launching Sansad TV, which has been created by merging Lok Sabha TV and Rajya Sabha TV, jointly with Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, he said it is very important that the common man connects with and feels he is part of it.

is in fact more about policy that politics, Modi said.

The new channel adds another important chapter in the country's parliamentary system, he said.

Noting that the launch coincides with International Day of Democracy, Modi reiterated that India is mother of democracy, saying democracy is not just a system but an idea and not merely a constitutional structure but spirit.

Democracy in India is not just a collection of the Articles of the Constitution but it is our life stream, the prime minister added.

On the occasion, he also stressed the need to focus on duties of the citizens, and said that the media can spread awareness about this.

In his speech, Naidu said there should be meaningful debates echoing people's aspirations in Parliament and legislatures, and added that loud disruptive noise should not drown the voice of citizens.

Naidu said debates should amplify concerns, clarify doubts and deepen shared understanding.

Modi said in the form of Sansad TV, the country is getting a new voice of the nation's democracy and people's representative. He also greeted Doordarshan on completing 62 years of existence.

Highlighting the role of the media in the context of 75 years of India's Independence, he said when it takes up issues like Swachh Bharat the message reaches people with great speed.

He suggested that the media can play a role during "Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav", a campaign launched by the government in the run-up to the 75th anniversary of Independence, by planning 75 episodes on the freedom struggle or bringing out special supplements to mark the occasion.

Talking about the centrality of content, he noted that it is said 'content is king' but in his experience "content is connect". When there is better content, people automatically engage with it.

As much as this applies to the media, it is equally applicable to our parliamentary system as there is not only in Parliament, there is also policy. He emphasized that common people should feel the connect with the proceedings of Parliament. He asked the new channel to work in that direction.

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla said Sansad TV will play an important role in establishing a dialogue between Parliament and people and will create awareness about the working of our democratic institutions from panchayats to parliament.

Birla further said Sansad TV will disseminate information about Parliament, parliamentary Committees and other democratic institutions. It will also lead to optimum utilisation of resources.

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Inc. said that data from the U.S. and Israel suggest that the efficacy of its Covid-19 vaccine wanes over time, and that a booster dose was safe and effective at warding off the virus and new variants.



The company detailed the data in a presentation it will deliver to a meeting of outside advisers to the Food and Drug Administration on Friday. The panel is expected to make recommendations for whether more Americans should receive booster shots.

Real-world data from Israel and the United States suggest that rates of breakthrough infections are rising faster in individuals who were vaccinated earlier, said in its presentation, which was posted on the FDA website. The drug giant is partnering with Germanys BioNTech SE to make the shots.

The decrease in effectiveness is primarily due to waning of vaccine immune responses over time, rather than the delta variant, researchers said in the presentation.

Pfizer shares fell 0.4% as of 9:33 a.m. in New York. BioNTechs American depositary receipts rose 2.2%.

Unpublished Data



According to a meeting agenda the FDA posted on its website, in addition to the Pfizer presentation, the Friday panel will include presentations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, FDA staff and researchers from Israel and the U.K.

The Israel officials will present data from that country on booster protection against infections and severe disease, according to the agenda, and a professor of medical statistics from the University of Bristol will present data on real-world vaccine effectiveness.

While its vaccine continues to provide strong protection against hospitalizations and severe disease in the U.S., Pfizer said, data from Israel and elsewhere suggests that reduction in efficacy against infection may be followed by reduced effectiveness against severe disease, especially among vulnerable elderly people.

Early unpublished data from an Israeli health maintenance organization suggest that a third booster dose is highly effective in areas where the delta variant is dominant, according to the Pfizer document. Giving a third dose to people more than 60 years old was associated with 86% effectiveness against testing positive for Covid starting at least a week after the booster, Pfizer said.

Pfizer also detailed immune response results from a final-stage trial of booster shots in over 300 people, showing that a third dose bolstered blood antibody levels. One month after the third dose, levels of the protective antibodies were more than triple what they had been a month after the second shot.

No new unexpected side effects were identified from safety data associated with boosters in the final-stage study, according to the Pfizer report. Consideration of a booster dose six months after a second dose of its shot is warranted, based on similarities between the outbreaks in Israel and the U.S., Pfizer said.

Signs of Friction



Marion Gruber, one of two top vaccine officials who FDA recently said will step down later this year, is also scheduled to speak. Gruber was co-author of an article in The Lancet earlier this week arguing that booster shots werent yet necessary for most people. The departures of the two longtime agency staff are a potential sign of friction over the Biden booster plan.

The FDA hasnt yet posted its staff report on the booster data. The agencys documents are typically released 48 hours before the start of a panel meeting.

The FDA is working as quickly as possible to post the items throughout the day as they are finalized and available, spokesperson Alison Hunt said.
The Maharashtra Anti- Squad on Wednesday claimed that terror suspect Jaan Mohammad Sheikh, arrested along with five others by the Delhi Police, had links with the 'D-Company' about 20 years back



'D-Company' is a term used to refer to the underworld criminal syndicate controlled by fugitive don Dawood Ibrahim,



The Delhi Police's Special Cell on Tuesday busted a Pakistan-organised terror module with the arrest of six men, including two Pak-ISI trained terrorists, officials said.

The terrorists were allegedly planning several blasts across the country, including Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, during the festivals of Ganesh Chaturthi, Navratri and Ramleela, they said.

Out of the six arrested men, Sheikh (47) hails from Mumbai and his family here was questioned and his home was searched by the Mumbai Police and the Maharashtra ATS on Tuesday after his arrest became public.

Police had also said that Pakistan-based Anees Ibrahim, who is the brother of Dawood Ibrahim, was connected with the underworld operatives to execute the terror plan.

On Wednesday, Maharashtra ATS chief Vineet Agarwal told reporters here that Sheikh was a "henchman of the D-Company" and followed directions "from the other side of the border" when he was connected with it.

The official said they have come across a "link of Sheikh with the D-Company almost 20 years back".

A case had been registered against Sheikh by Pydhonie police here (at that time) in connection with firing and vandalism in the city, the official said, adding that like other accused, Sheikh was also on the radar of police.

On September 13, he boarded the Golden Temple train (from Mumbai) to go to Hazrat Nizamuddin (in Delhi), but he was caught by the when he reached Kota in Rajasthan, the state ATS official said.

During a search of his belongings, no weapon, explosive or gelatin was found, he said.

"Our team will be going to Delhi to question Sheikh and also share (related) information with the We do not have a copy of the FIR (registered against him by Delhi Police), so we cannot reveal more. We will only come to know from the what information they exactly have and what was the conspiracy (of the terror suspects)," he said.

The official further said the Maharashtra ATS has been given a free hand by state authorities to deal strictly with those involved in terror activities and in this case.

To a question, the official claimed the underworld has "zero presence" now.

Besides Sheikh, the others arrested by the Delhi Police have been identified as Osama (22), Moolchand (47), Zeeshan Qamar (28), Mohd Abu Bakar (23) and Mohd Amir Javed (31).

According to police, Osama and Qamar were Pakistan-trained terror operatives working under the instructions of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). They were tasked to conduct the reconnaissance of different suitable locations in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh for placing IEDs (improvised explosive devices), the police earlier said.

The Delhi Police had also said that Sheikh, an underworld operative and a close contact of Anees Ibrahim, was tasked by a Pakistan-based person connected with the underworld operatives hiding in Pakistan to ensure smooth delivery of IEDs, sophisticated weapons and grenades to different entities in India.

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Amid opposition to implementation of the in the state, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Wednesday said the government is open for discussion on it, and there is no need for anyone to worry.

"Government is open to discuss the NEP. There is good intention behind NEP, it is aimed at providing education that is in accordance with today's needs for the good future of our youths. There are several revolutionary changes in it, we will make students understand about it," Bommai said in response to a question about lathi-charge on students protesting against NEP.



Speaking to reporters here, he said, there have been several discussions about NEP, even at the University level. "Regarding primary and secondary education, we will have a committee regarding how to implement it (NEP) there. We have not yet taken any decision on it. We are ready to discuss all this. There is no need for anyone to worry," he added.



Police yesterday resorted to 'mild' lathi charge on students, protesting against the NEP, who had gathered here, under the banner of Campus Front of India, as they tried to march towards Vidhana Soudha, where the legislature session is on, and caused inconvenience to the public.Some student organisations and opposition Congress have opposed the implementation of NEP in the state. Senior Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in Assembly Siddaramaiah had recently urged the state government to withdraw its decision to implement the NEP.

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The new portal, which was unveiled with much fanfare, is not completely glitch-free even as the deadline set by the government for to fix the problems expired on Wednesday.

Tax experts, who use the portal for various functions, said the website continues to face multiple glitches.

Even after over three months of the portal's launch, users are unable to submit rectification for returns filed, check refund status and file refund reissue request. They are also unable to see ITRs filed prior to Assessment Year (AY) 2013-14.

The new portal, www.incometax.gov.in, was launched on June 7. It had a bumpy start since the day of its launch, with taxpayers and professionals reporting glitches and difficulties in its functioning.

was in 2019 given the contract to develop the portal.

The finance ministry had on August 23 "summoned" CEO Salil Parekh to explain why issues continued to plague the portal.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in the meeting with Parekh, expressed "deep disappointment" over persisting glitches and gave him time till September 15 to resolve all the issues.

Infosys and the department did not respond to queries sent by PTI on the matter.

Nangia & Co LLP partner Shailesh Kumar said the government has indicated it is aware of the portal's persistent challenges when it extended the return filing deadlines by three months.

However, there is genuine hardship for taxpayers who have paid self assessment tax but are not able to file ITR due to portal issues. They are still required to pay interest at 1 per cent per month (except senior citizens who have paid entire taxes by July 31) for delay in filing the ITR.

The government should give waiver of interest to those taxpayers who have already paid their entire tax liability, if they file their ITR within extended time limit of December 31, he said.

"The portal is still evolving with changes in modules of of ITR form. On some days, the portal works fine, on some other days, it faces technical glitches in some of the modules.

"Even though the functioning has improved over past few weeks, but still problems persist making it difficult for some taxpayers while filing the ITR," Kumar added.

Tax and consulting firm AKM Global's Director- Tax and Regulatory, Sandeep Sehgal said though there is some improvement in the portal now, there are still many problems.

These include ITRs filed prior to AY 2013-14 still not being available, no auto population of Form 16 in case of salary income, no option available for any rectification online, and even the outstanding demand is not visible in some cases.

Further, refund status is not available in some cases and grievances filed on old portal have not been updated on the new portal, he said.

Additionally, in cases where TDS was not claimed earlier and had been shown as unclaimed and carried forward to the next year while filing the last year's return in the old portal, now while claiming the unclaimed TDS during filing for FY 2020-21, the portal is not allowing this.

It shows the error as "restrict the claim of TDS to the extent of gross income shown", which effectively leads to payment of twice on the same amount of income for FY 2019-20 and FY 2020-21.

"There are also issues in validating bank accounts. Many orders on the portal cannot be downloaded due to 'server issues'. Moreover, the processing speed of the portal is slow," Sehgal added.

BDO India Partner - Tax & Regulatory Services, Amit Ganatra said post the August 23 meeting, visible progress has been made on the functioning of the website. However, the site is still reported to be slow.

There are no tax return forms currently available for companies, partnerships/LLPs. Additionally, there are issues with registering and uploading of digital signatures.

"...instances have also been noticed where certain orders uploaded recently on the new tax portal by the tax authorities are not downloadable due to the portal's server issues and there are issues with filing of adjournment in ongoing assessment cases, as well. It is expected that such issues will get resolved quickly, Ganatra added.

Listing out the glitches in the portal, industry chamber PHDCCI's Chairman Direct Taxes Committee Mukul Bagla said 'response to outstanding demand' functionality is not working, ITR-2 and 3 cannot be filed, and when e-verifying return through net banking, a loop is getting created between the bank website and the portal.

In a statement on September 8, the income tax department had said a number of technical issues on the portal are being progressively addressed and 1.19 crore ITRs for 2020-21 fiscal year have been filed.

Giving updates of activities carried out by taxpayers on the portal, the I-T department said over 8.83 crore unique taxpayers have logged in to the portal till September 7, 2021 with a daily average of over 15.55 lakh in September 2021.

The finance ministry has already extended the due date of filing tax returns and related forms for all taxpayers. It has also relaxed the requirement for compulsory usage of digital signatures in certain cases.

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Indias plans to list state-run Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) face an unusual problem: domestic are shying away from advising the government, deterred by the low fees on offer at the time of a lucrative boom in corporate stock listings.

With millions of policyholders and a share of 66% of new premium collections in a crowded insurance market, is a household name, managing assets of more than $450 billion.

The government is scrambling to list the insurance behemoth by March, in an exercise set to be Indias biggest IPO, at a probable $12 billion. As many as 16 global and domestic investment banks recently bid to handle it.

But top that would normally be keen on such big-ticket IPOs to boost their credibility in government circles are hesitant to advise New Delhi, as their teams are stretched by the corporate boom, five law firm partners told Reuters.

Most big in India are overburdened with work, said Nitin Potdar, an M&A partner at top Indian law firm J. Sagar Associates. And the would need real big teams of experienced lawyers.

LICs massive size and complex business structure and products make it a nightmare for lawyers to draft the prospectus, he added.





ALSO READ: LIC IPO: Govt amends fee structure for legal advisors after failed attempt

The unappealing fees are another dampener, said law firm partners, who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid government reprisals.

The finance ministry, which is handling the IPO process, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Thursday is the deadline for the law firms to submit bids.

Refinitiv data shows India has about $6 billion worth of IPOs in the pipeline.

After food-delivery giant Zomatos $1.2 billion IPO in July, digital payments firm Paytm and ride-hailing giant Ola are eyeing market debuts, keeping lawyers busy and their cash registers ringing.

In an embarrassing episode, the government has twice revised its offer to attract law firms for the IPO.

In early September, after an initial lacklustre response, New Delhi limited the timeline of the firms IPO work to three years.

Leading firms, such as Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas and Khaitan & Co, would typically be keen on a government IPO of this size, but did not bid in the first tender, sources aware of the matter said.

The three firms did not respond to queries from Reuters.

Government officials also recently called a few top law firms and nudged them to join in IPO work, said three law firm partners familiar with the discussions.

This week, the government eased its fee payment timetables, to offer 50% payment after the draft IPO prospectus is filed.

But the IPO work on LIC is expansive and complex, the law firm partners said, which makes them even less keen.

Law firms must tackle 36 tasks on the governments to-do list for LIC, from drafting the IPO papers, and fielding regulators queries to reviewing corporate governance and pending litigation, and analysing risks.

The amount of work needed would be as much as for five private IPO deals, and still it wont be remunerative, said one top partner in an Indian law firm. (Reporting by Abhirup Roy and Aditya Kalra; Additional reporting by Aditi Shah in New Delhi and Scott Murdoch in Hong Kong; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

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The on Wednesday formed a high-powered committee to talk to farmers for removing the National Highway-44 blockade at the Kundli-Singhu border due to the farmers' sit-in there against the three central farm laws.

It comes a day after Sonipat Deputy Commissioner Lalit Siwach held a meeting with farmers' representatives over the blockade.

An official statement on Tuesday had said while taking up a writ petition, the Supreme Court has asked the Sonipat district administration to provide a way to the common people in the public interest.

In compliance with these orders, Deputy Commissioner Lalit Siwach held a meeting with farmers' representatives in Sonipat.

On Wednesday evening, a high-level meeting was held under the chairmanship of Chief Minister M L Khattar here, which, Home Minister Anil Vij said, had been convened in the wake of the apex court's orders last month.

To comply with the apex court's orders, a state-level high-powered panel has been formed under the chairmanship of Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Rajeev Arora.

Keeping in view the Supreme Court orders and the fact that common people are facing inconvenience due to the blockade, the committee will hold talks with Samyukt Kisan Morcha on the opening of the way, Vij, who was also present in the meeting, told reporters later.

The Committee will have DGP, ADGP (Law and Order) amongst its members.

On Tuesday, Sonipat DC had told farmers that while taking up a writ petition filed by Noida resident Monica Agarwal, the Supreme Court has ordered that the farmers protesting on the Kundli-Singhu border in Sonipat district on National Highway-44 should give way to common people and shift to one side of the road.

Siwach, as per the official statement, had said the cooperation of the farmers is expected so as to comply with the Supreme Court directions.

The Supreme Court had last month said the Centre and Delhi's neighbouring states should find a solution to the road blockades on the national capital's borders.

The farmers are protesting against the passage of three laws -- Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020 and Farmers' (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020.

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Kolkata, sEP 15 (ians) The of India is likely to deploy 52 companies of central forces for the upcoming by- in three assembly constituencies in including the high-voltage Bhabanipur bypoll from where Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is a candidate.

According to sources in the Chief Electoral Office of West Bengal, the Commission has decided to deploy 19 companies of central forces in Bhabanipur alone - the highest among the three constituencies that are going for the polls. Apart from that the rest of 33 companies of central forces will be divided between Jangipur and Samserganj in Murshidabad district.

Meanwhile, 15 companies of central forces have already reached the state, of which 8 companies have been deployed in Bhabanipur for pre-poll area domination. The rest of the 7 companies of forces have been sent to Murshidabad district. Of the 15 companies of central forces that have come to the state, 7 are from CRPF, 4 are from BSF, 2 from SSB and one company each from CISF and ITBP.

The in all the three constituencies will be held on September 30 and the results will be announced on October 3. The election in Bhabanipur assembly constituency from where Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is contesting has been marred with controversy.

A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has already been filed complaining that the chief secretary of the state has overstepped his limits in requesting the to conduct election in Bhabanipur else that would lead to aconstitutional crisis. The EC, on the basis of the request from the government has already announced the election as a 'Special Case'. The case is pending before the High Court and is likely to be heard on Monday.

Apart from that BJP candidate in Bhabanipur Priyanka Tibrewal has objected to Mamata Banerjee's nomination alleging that she has suppressed information in her affidavit. The BJP complained that Banerjee has not disclosed five criminal cases pending against her in her affidavit.

In a letter to the Returning Officer of Bhabanipur Assembly Constituency, BJP candidate Priyanka Tibrewal's chief election agent Sajal Ghosh said that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has not disclosed five criminal cases pending against her in her affidavit.

Giving details of the cases, Ghosh said that the Chief Minister has been booked under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), Section 153A (promoting enmity) and Section 338 (causing grievous hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others) of Indian Penal Code in several police stations of Assam including Geeta Nagar police station, Panbazar police station, Jagiroad police station, Lakhimpur police station and Udharbond police station.

The commission is yet to take a decision on that.

--IANS

sbg/skp/

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Rating agency today said the regulatory forbearance has reduced the Indian banking sectors need for fresh core capital to meet minimum regulatory capital requirements. Under the base case, the sector will not need fresh capital to meet the minimum common Tier 1 (CET1) requirement of eight per cent until the financial year ending March 2025 (FY25).

"However, the sector would require $27 billion in fresh capital under a stress case, which incorporates less benign economic assumptions," said.

In 2020, the agency had estimated higher system capital needs of $15 billion and $58 billion under moderate and high stress scenarios. These stress tests assumed recognition of asset-quality stress over a two-year period.

"Our updated assessment, covering a four-year period, reflects the role of regulatory forbearance. The forbearance suppresses the immediate capital requirements by deferring recognition of asset-quality stress and giving banks time to build capital buffers," added.

Public sector banks would not require additional injections to meet minimum capital thresholds until FY25 under our base case. But their capital needs would increase if their loan growth is faster than we assume.

State capital injections will be pivotal to any recapitalisation efforts for state banks. They have had limited success with equity fund raising compared with private banks since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The rating agency ruled out the possibility of Viability Rating (VR) upgrades in the near term under base case. The asset-quality stress will remain unresolved and capital buffers remain thin, particularly for state banks. Lower VRs would be more probable under our stress case, which would also likely warrant a lower operating environment score for Indias banks, it added.
Two months after getting hit by the regulatory ban on Mastercard, private sector lender on Wednesday restarted credit card issuances on rival Visa's payment network.

The had banned from issuing any new cards on July 14 this year for not complying with data localisation requirements. The move had hit a slew of lenders, including RBL Bank, which was fully dependent on the American payment company for its credit card business.

said it signed up with on July 14 itself, and the technology integration was achieved in record time to restart new issuances.

Its head for retail business thanked and technology partner Fiserv, and exuded confidence of meeting its target of issuing 12-14 lakh credit cards in FY22.

Visa's head of business development for India Sujai Raina said the company aims to enable digital payments and help customers avail credit offerings from issuers with ease.

Credit cards contribute 37.5 per cent of the retail book for the lender, which has a 5 per cent market share in the segment. Its credit card book had grown 17 per cent to Rs 12,039 crore as of June, and had 30.69 lakh cards outstanding as of July.

The bank in its guidance had said that by mid-September, it will restart issuances and hoped to do 1 lakh cards a month on average.

The scrip was trading 2.42 per cent up at Rs 179.60 a piece on the BSE at 1252 hrs, as against gains of 0.59 per cent on the benchmark.

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After signing a pact with Visa, now private lender has resumed issuing to its new customers. It plans to issue 1.2-1.4 million cards in the current financial year (FY22).

Its credit card business faced disruptions in July after the Reserve Bank of India placed curbs on Mastercards on on-boarding new domestic customers for breaching norms for data storage. Mumbai-based lender which has a 5 per cent market share in in India.

In July, the bank had indicated that curbs on Mastercards could potentially impact the current run rate of about 0.1 million new credit card issuances per month. It would start issuing on the Visa payment network post the technology integration which is expected to take eight to 10 weeks.
(Srei) on Wednesday said its chief executive officer (CEO) Rakesh Kumar Bhutoria has resigned, mainly on account of the payment issue that has impacted team morale.

"We wish to inform you that Rakesh Kumar Bhutoria has stepped down from the position of the Chief Executive Officer of the company to explore alternative sectors," Srei Infra said in a regulatory filing.

Considering the payment issues arising out of the Trust and Retention Account (TRA) operationalised by the bankers, it has been impacting team morale, it added.

"Bhutoria has been relieved with effect from close of working hours on 15th September, 2021. We will shortly be announcing a replacement for the said position," it said further. He had joined Srei Infra in November 2018.

A degree holder in engineering and Master of Management Studies (MMS), he previously worked as the Group EVP and Head-Commercial Banking and Strategic Initiatives at IDFC Bank.

PTI had on Tuesday reported that Bhutoria has resigned from the company, and Srei has appointed a headhunter to find a replacement.

The company has also shortlisted a few candidates, and the board of directors has interacted with the potential candidates as part of the interview process.

When contacted, Bhutoria said he will now be exploring a couple of opportunities in the asset management space.

The Kolkata-based NBFC has been battling a human resource crisis since December last year with nearly 230-250 people leaving the Srei group, as the pandemic-induced economic crisis created an asset-liability mismatch.

Subsequently, the lenders of Srei group took control of its finances, in a bid to recover their dues. They also capped the salaries of the top level executives to Rs 50 lakh per annum, which was lifted in April this year.

Bhutoria's remuneration in the fiscal year ended March 2021 fell by nearly 18 per cent to Rs 2.59 crore against Rs 3.11 crore a year ago, as per Srei's annual report for 2020-21.

For FY21, the CEO and other senior management members voluntarily reduced their pay in the range of 20 to 25 per cent, it said in the report.

Chairman Hemant Kanoria had voluntarily reduced his pay by 30 per cent and had also relinquished the remuneration payable to him with effect from November 1, 2020.

The chief operating officer (COO) of the company's fully-owned subsidiary Srei Equipment Ltd (SEFL) had left in April. The company secretaries of SIFL and SEFL had resigned in March and May, respectively.

The head of treasury and head of corporate communications also left recently.

While Srei and its board have written to banks several times for the release of arrears and overdue payments of provident fund and taxes, nothing has happened on the ground.

At the behest of the board, Srei has also intimated the regulator (RBI) about their grievances.

It is learnt that the top-level employees (including those who have left) are now exploring seeking legal recourse to get their dues.

Srei group owes around Rs 18,000 crore to around 15 lenders, including Axis Bank, UCO Bank and State Bank of India.

Srei said its total liabilities are around Rs 18,000 crore of bank loans, and another nearly Rs 10,000 crore of external commercial borrowings and bonds. Realisable assets, including arbitration awards, are higher.

Srei, which is mainly a holding company now after transferring its business to subsidiary Srei Equipment (SEFL) in November 2019, expressed full confidence regarding paying back its creditors.

A reworked repayment schedule has been chalked out with the lenders to clear their dues.

In October 2020, the company proposed to pay its dues (principal and interest) to banks and all creditors in a structured and orderly manner over time.

"However, we have still not been able to conclude the discussions with our lenders and move forward. Over the last three decades, Srei has already paid Rs 30,000 crore as interest and paid back another Rs 20,000 crore interest to banks. There has never been any delay in loan servicing by Srei in the past before Covid-19 ravaged the country," it said.

On the capital raise front, SEFL has attracted interest of two foreign players for equity infusion. Srei approved a QIP a few months back.

Srei group mainly serves the MSME and infrastructure sector.

Stock of Srei Infra closed at Rs 8.78 apiece on BSE, up 4.90 per cent from the previous close.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Prime Minister said on Wednesday that was on a historic crossroads as either it would gain lasting peace after 40 years of war through an inclusive government or end up in chaos.

He asserted that the best way forward for peace and stability in the war-torn country is to engage with the Taliban, which seized Kabul last month.

"Where goes from here, I am afraid none of us can predictWe can hope and pray that there is peace after 40 years," Khan said in interview to CNN's Becky Anderson.

He was asked about apprehensions that the will not protect human rights and the future of

Khan said the have said that they want an inclusive government and promised to give rights to their women and also announced amnesty as part of efforts to gain acceptability.

"But if it goes wrong (in Afghanistan), and which is what we are really worried about, it could go to chaos, the biggest humanitarian crisis, a huge refugee problem, unstable Afghanistan and [...] the possibility of again terrorism from Afghanistan's soil, he said.

The seized control of Afghanistan in mid-August, ousting the previous elected leadership which was backed by the West. The interim Cabinet is consists of high-profile members of the insurgent group.

At least 14 members of the Taliban's interim government are on the UN Security Council's terrorism blacklist, including acting Prime Minister Mullah Hasan and his both deputies.

The Taliban had promised an "inclusive" government that represents Afghanistan's complex ethnic makeup, but there is no Hazara member in the Cabinet. No woman has been named in the interim Cabinet.

Talking about the issue of women rights in Afghanistan, Khan said it was a mistake to think that rights of Afghan women can be imposed from outside. Afghan women are strong. Give them time, they will get their rights," he said.

Khan suggested that the Taliban should be given incentives to handle the current situation instead of being forced to do something, calling it a "fallacy" that Afghanistan could be controlled from outside.

"So rather than sitting here and thinking that we can control them, we should incentivise them because this current government in Afghanistan clearly feels that without aid and help they will not be able to stop this crisis. We should push them in the right direction, he said.

He recalled that history showed "no puppet government in Afghanistan is supported by the people".

Khan reiterated that suffered a lot after joining the US war on terror and there was time about 50 militant groups were attacking

To a question, the premier said that he had not spoken to US President Joe Biden since the collapse of the Afghan government.

When asked why Biden hadn't called him since coming into office, the premier curtly said: "He is a busy man" and later said Biden should be asked "why he is too busy to call".

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
on Wednesday supported the Taliban's demand that the US should unfreeze Afghanistan's assets and said that America has no legitimate reasons to do so as the Chinese envoy to Kabul called on acting Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi and congratulated the interim government.

According to reports from Washington, the US has frozen about USD 9.5 billion in assets belonging to Afghanistan's central bank and stopped shipments of cash to Kabul, in a bid to keep the government from accessing the money.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters here that the US has no legitimate reasons to freeze Afghanistan's assets.

Asked about the Taliban's demand that the US should unfreeze Afghanistan's assets stating that they belong to the people of and the interim government will take a legal action possible to get the funds released, Zhao said: I think that the (Taliban's) spokesperson is right.

These assets belong to the Afghan people.

They (the US) should respond to the legitimate requests of the Afghan people and stop the wrong practice of sanctions and stop making obstacles for Afghanistan's peace and reconstruction, he said.

After the Taliban's seizure of power in last month, the Monetary Fund and the World Bank halted their aid to the war-torn country which largely depends upon the flow of foreign funds.

According to reports from Kabul, Afghanistan's economy is near collapse even as the United Nations has made hectic efforts to galvanise global efforts to rush food and essential supplies.

Meanwhile, in a major boost to the Taliban's fledgling interim government which struggled to gain recognition as it mainly comprises the leaders, contrary to its promise of forming an inclusive government, China's Ambassador in Kabul Wang Yu met acting Afghan Foreign Minister Muttaqi on Tuesday.

"This afternoon, Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Emirate of Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi met with the Ambassador of the neighboring Wang Yu in Kabul," spokesman Mohammad Naeem said in a tweet, adding that the Chinese ambassador congratulated the new Afghan government".

Wang also promised that " will continue its humanitarian, economic and political cooperation with Afghanistan," Russia's official news agency TASS quoted Naeem as saying.

"Muttaqi thanked China for its assistance," Naeem said.

Reports from Kabul said Pakistan's Ambassador to Kabul, Mansoor Ahmad Khan has also met Muttaqi.

China along with Pakistan and Russia have kept their embassies open in Kabul.

Wang, in his meeting with Muttaqi, appreciated the efforts of the Afghan side to ensure the safety of Chinese citizens, China's state-run CGTN-TV reported.

He said China respects the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Afghanistan and supports the Afghan people to choose their own development path.

Asked for his reaction to the Chinese Ambassador's meeting with Muttaqi, spokesman Zhao said: I can tell you that China's Embassy in Afghanistan is operating normally. We stand ready to maintain communication with the new government in Afghanistan.

China, which earlier urged the Taliban to form an open, inclusive and moderate government, defended the Taliban's interim government as a necessary step to restore order and end anarchy.

Since the Taliban came to power, China has been asking it to make a clean break from terrorist groups and especially not to permit the Uygur militant group from Xinjiang, the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM).

Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen told China's state-run Global Times on September 10, since the Taliban came to power, the ETIM militants have left Afghanistan. He did not specify where they fled.

China says the ETIM is an al-Qaida backed militant group fighting for the independence of the volatile Xinjiang province.

China's state-run Xinhua news agency on Wednesday reported that Taliban intelligence chief in Afghanistan's northern Kunduz province Hajji Najibullah Haron has said that reports about the presence of militants affiliated with the Islamic State (ISIS) group are baseless and fabricated.

"Lasting peace has returned to Kunduz province and people are living in peace there and any report about the presence of Daesh (Islamic State) militants in Kunduz is utterly baseless," Haron told reporters on Wednesday.

Afghanistan will not allow anyone to sabotage peace and security in Kunduz or any other parts of the country, he added.

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MSCI's new approach converts the current and projected greenhouse gas emissions, taking into consideration emissions reduction targets, of each company to an estimated rise in global temperature. Photo: Reuters

Global equity index compiler is to start providing data on how much the world's top 10,000 firms are likely to be contributing to global warning.

The firm, which runs the widely-tracked $60 trillion All Country World Index, is launching Implied Temperature Rise scores, which estimate whether a firm's activities and plans are consistent with keeping below 2 degrees Celsius.

"The idea is to get companies to change their strategies," said MSCI's head of ESG and Climate, Remy Briand, who estimates nearly 60% of firms still don't disclose even the most basic environmental data.

MSCI's new approach converts the current and projected greenhouse gas emissions, taking into consideration emissions reduction targets, of each company to an estimated rise in global temperature.

Projections are calculated by comparing those projected emissions with the global carbon budget that remains if the planet is to keep temperature rise this century below 2C.

Briand laid out examples using two oil giants, and

Exxon, which has been under heavy scrutiny for its approach to climate change, produces a 4C rise score - a scenario that scientists warn would lead to unprecedented heatwaves, severe droughts, and a major rise in sea levels and mass flooding.

Shell produces an implied 2C rise, having set targets to cut the carbon intensity of its products by at least 6% by 2023, by 20% by 2030, by 45% by 2035 and by 100% by 2050.

"The message is to make the commitment more public," Briand said.

His assumption is that because MSCI's indexes and data are used by most of the world's big investors, companies will need to have low implied temperature rise scores to encourage those money managers to park their cash in them.

There are currently no standardised rules around what the big global firms have to disclose about their emissions. Many also make misleading claims that they are on course to hit net zero targets, Briand said, by leaving out large chunks of their business when they make their own projections.

Briand said leaders going to the UN's COP26 conference in Scotland later this year should pledge to fix those kinds of problems.

"A wish would be to get net-zero commitments across the board for all companies," he said. "If that happens, if it becomes compulsory across many countries, there will an acceleration in companies' strategies".

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Since the September 11 terror attacks, there has been no hiding from the increased militarisation of the Everyday life is suffused with policing and surveillance. This ranges from the inconvenient, such as removing shoes at the airport, to the dystopian, such as local police departments equipped with decommissioned tanks too big to use on regular roads.

This process of militarisation did not begin with 9/11. The American state has always relied on force combined with the de-personalisation of its victims.

The army, after all, dispossessed First Nations peoples of their land as settlers pushed westward. Expanding the American empire to places such as Cuba, the Philippines, and Haiti also relied on force, based on racist justifications.

The military also ensured American supremacy in the wake of the second world war. As historian Nikhil Pal Singh writes, about 8 million people were killed in US-led or -sponsored wars from 19452019  and this is a conservative estimate.

When Dwight Eisenhower, a Republican and former military general, left the presidency in 1961, he famously warned against the growing military-industrial complex in the US. His warning went unheeded and the protracted conflict in Vietnam was the result.

Wikimedia Commons

The then intensified US militarisation, both at home and abroad. George W. Bush was elected in late 2000 after campaigning to reduce US foreign interventions. The new president discovered, however, that by adopting the persona of a tough, pro-military leader, he could sweep away lingering doubts about the legitimacy of his election.

Waging war on Afghanistan within a month of the twin towers falling, Bushs popularity soared to 90%. War in Iraq, based on the dubious assertion of Saddam Husseins weapons of mass destruction, soon followed.

The military industrial juggernaut

Investment in the military state is immense. 9/11 ushered in the federal, cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security, with an initial budget in 2001-02 of US$16 billion. Annual budgets for the agency peaked at US$74 billion in 2009-10 and is now around US$50 billion.

This super-department vacuumed up bureaucracies previously managed by a range of other agencies, including justice, transportation, energy, agriculture, and health and human services.

Read more: Why is it so difficult to fight domestic terrorism? 6 experts share their thoughts

Centralising services under the banner of security has enabled gross miscarriages of justice. These include the separation of tens of thousands of children from parents at the nations southern border, done in the guise of protecting the country from so-called illegal immigrants. More than 300 of the some 1,000 children taken from parents during the Trump administration have still not been reunited with family.

Ross D. Franklin/AP

The post-9/11 Patriot Act also gave spying agencies paramilitary powers.

The act reduced barriers between the CIA, FBI, and the National Security Agency (NSA) to permit the acquiring and sharing of Americans private communications. These ranged from telephone records to web searches. All of this was justified in an atmosphere of near-hysterical and enduring anti-Muslim fervour.

Only in 2013 did most Americans realise the extent of this surveillance network. Edward Snowden, a contractor working at the NSA, leaked documents that revealed a secret US$52 billion budget for 16 spying agencies and over 100,000 employees.

Normalisation of the security state

Despite the long objections of civil liberties groups and disquiet among many private citizens, especially after Snowdens leaks, it has proven difficult to wind back the industrialised security state.

This is for two reasons: the extent of the investment, and because its targets, both domestically and internationally, are usually not white and not powerful.

Read more: Calculating the costs of the Afghanistan War in lives, dollars and years

Domestically, the 2015 Freedom Act renewed almost all of the Patriot Acts provisions. Legislation in 2020 that might have stemmed some of these powers stalled in Congress.

And recent reports suggest President Joe Bidens election has done little to alter the detention of children at the border.

Militarisation is now so commonplace that local police departments and sheriffs offices have received some US$7 billion worth of military gear (including grenade launchers and armoured vehicles) since 1997, underwritten by federal government programs.

Curtis Compton/AP

Militarised police kill civilians at a high rate  and the targets for all aspects of policing and incarceration are disproportionately people of colour. And yet, while the sight of excessively armed police forces during last years Black Lives Matter protests shocked many Americans, it will take a phenomenal effort to reverse this trend.

Read more: Police with lots of military gear kill civilians more often than less-militarized officers

The heavy cost of the war on terror

The juggernaut of the militarised state keeps the at war abroad, no matter if Republicans or Democrats are in power.

Since 9/11, the US war on terror has cost more than US$8 trillion and led to the loss of up to 929,000 lives.

The effects on countries like Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Syria, and Pakistan have been devastating, and with the US involvement in Somalia, Libya, the Philippines, Mali, and Kenya included, these conflicts have resulted in the displacement of some 38 million people.

These wars have become self-perpetuating, spawning new terror threats such as the Islamic State and now perhaps ISIS-K.

Those who serve in the US forces have suffered greatly. Roughly 2.9 million living veterans served in post-9/11 conflicts abroad. Of the some 2 million deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, perhaps 36% are experiencing PTSD.

Training can be utterly brutal. The military may still offer opportunities, but the lives of those who serve remain expendable.

Hasan Jamali/AP

Life must be precious

Towards the end of his life, Robert McNamara, the hard-nosed Ford Motor Company president and architect of the United States disastrous military efforts in Vietnam, came to regret deeply his part in the military-industrial juggernaut.

In his 1995 memoir, he judged his own conduct to be morally repugnant. He wrote,

We of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations who participated in the decisions on Vietnam acted according to what we thought were the principles and traditions of this nation. We made our decisions in light of those values. Yet we were wrong, terribly wrong.

In interviews with the filmmaker Errol Morris, McNamara admitted, obliquely, to losing sight of the simple fact the victims of the militarised American state were, in fact, human beings.

As McNamara realised far too late, the solution to reversing American militarisation is straightforward. We must recognise, in the words of activist and scholar Ruth Wilson Gilmore, that life is precious. That simple philosophy also underlies the call to acknowledge Black Lives Matter.

The best chance to reverse the militarisation of the US state is policy guided by the radical proposal that life  regardless of race, gender, status, sexuality, nationality, location or age  is indeed precious.

As we reflect on how the has changed since 9/11, it is clear the country has moved further away from this basic premise, not closer to it.

Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
The powerful sister of North Korean leader on Wednesday criticized South Korea's president and threatened a complete destruction of bilateral relations after both of the countries tested ballistic missiles hours apart.

The launches of missiles underscored a return of tensions between the rivals at a time when talks aimed at stripping of its nuclear program are stalled.

Kim's sister, Kim Yo Jong, criticized South Korean President Moon Jae-in for comments he made while observing his country's missile tests, including its first of a submarine-launched ballistic missile. Moon said South Korea's growing missile capabilities will serve as a sure deterrence against North Korean provocations.

The tests came hours after the South Korean and Japanese militaries said had fired two ballistic missiles into the sea.

In a statement carried by state media, Kim berated Moon for describing North Korean weapons demonstrations as a provocation, and warned of a complete destruction of bilateral relations if he continues with what she described as slander of

She said North Korea is developing its military capabilities for self-defense without targeting a specific country, and that is also increasing its military capabilities. North Korea has often accused the South of hypocrisy for introducing modern weapons while calling for talks on easing tensions between the divided countries.

If the president joins in the slander and detraction (against us), this will be followed by counter actions, and the North-South relations will be pushed toward a complete destruction," she said. "We do not want that.

The South Korean and Japanese militaries said the two short-range ballistic missiles fired by North Korea flew 800 kilometers (500 miles) before landing in the sea inside Japan's exclusive economic zone a worrying development even though they did not reach Japanese territorial waters. The last time a North Korean missile landed inside that zone was in October 2019.

The launches came two days after North Korea said it fired a newly developed cruise missile, its first known missile test in six months.

Hours after the latest North Korean launches, reported its first test of a submarine-launched ballistic missile. As Moon and other top officials looked on, the missile flew from a submarine and hit a designated target, Moon's office said. It did not say how far the weapon flew.

Experts say North Korea is building up its weapons systems to apply pressure on the United States in the hopes of winning relief from economic sanctions aimed at forcing the North to abandon its nuclear arsenal. U.S.-led talks on the issue have been stalled for more than two years.

North Korea is trying to communicate a message that things will not go as Washington wishes, if it doesn't accept the North's demands, said Moon Seong Mook, an analyst with the Seoul-based Korea Research Institute for National Strategy. He said North Korea may think it has an opportunity now to win concessions from U.S. President Joe Biden's administration while it is embroiled in a domestic debate following the chaotic pullout from Afghanistan.

Observers say Moon's government, which has been actively pursuing reconciliation with North Korea, may have taken action to appear tougher in response to criticism that it's too soft on the North.

The rival nations are still technically in a state of war since the 1950-53 Korean War, which pitted the North and ally China against the South and U.S.-led U.N. forces, ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said the launches threaten the peace and safety of Japan and the region and are absolutely outrageous.

The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said the North Korean test highlights the destabilizing impact of (North Korea's) illicit weapons program though it said it didn't pose an immediate threat to the U.S.

The North Korean launches represent a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions that bar North Korea from engaging in any ballistic missile activity. But the council typically doesn't impose new sanctions when the North launches short-range missiles, like Wednesday's.

Wednesday's tests came as Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was in Seoul for meetings with Moon and other senior officials to discuss North Korea and other issues.

It's unusual for North Korea to make provocative launches when China, its last major ally and biggest aid provider, is engaged in a major diplomatic event. But some experts say North Korea may have used the timing to draw extra attention.

Kim Dong-yub, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, said Wednesday's tests appeared to be of an improved version of a short-range missile it tested in March. He said the weapon is likely modeled on Russia's Iskander missiles, which are designed to fly at relatively low altitudes, making them harder to be intercepted by missile defense systems.

The community wants North Korea to abandon its nuclear program and has long used a combination of the threat of sanctions and the promise of economic help to try to influence the North. But negotiations have stalled since 2019, when then-U.S. President Donald Trump's administration rejected the North's demand for major sanctions relief in exchange for dismantling an aging nuclear facility.

Kim Jong Un's government has so far rejected the Biden administration's overtures for dialogue, demanding that Washington abandon what it calls hostile policies first. But North Korea has maintained its self-imposed moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests, a sign that it may not want to completely scuttle the possibility of reopening the talks.

In 2017, North Korea claimed to have acquired the ability to strike the American mainland with nuclear weapons after conducting three intercontinental ballistic missile tests and its most powerful nuclear test. In recent years, it has also performed a series of underwater-launched missile tests in what experts say is a worrying development because such weapons are difficult to detect and would provide North Korea with retaliatory strike capability.

South Korea, which doesn't have nuclear weapons, is under the protection of the U.S. nuclear umbrella, which guarantees a devastating American response in the event of an attack on its ally. But has been accelerating efforts to build up its conventional arms, including developing more powerful missiles.

Experts say South Korea's military advancements are aimed at improving its capacity for preemptive strikes and destroying key North Korean facilities and bunkers.

Separate from the submarine-launched missile, South Korea also tested a missile from an aircraft.

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and test fired ballistic missiles on Wednesday, the latest volley in an arms race. tested a submarine-launched ballistic missile, becoming the first country without nuclear weapons to develop such a system.

South Korean President Moon was attending that test firing when word came of the North Korean launches, its first ballistic missile tests since March. fired a pair of ballistic missiles that landed in the sea off its east coast, according to officials in and Japan, just days after it tested a cruise missile.

Japan's defence ministry said late on Wednesday the missiles had landed inside Japan's exclusive economic zone (EEZ), contradicting earlier government comments that they fell outside its waters.

has been steadily developing its weapons systems amid a stand-off over talks aimed at dismantling its nuclear and ballistic missile arsenals in return for US sanctions relief.

The United States condemned North Korea's missile launch, saying it was in violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions and posed a threat to Pyongyang's neighbours, a State Department spokesperson said, without mentioning South Korea's tests.
The head of the World Health Organization said Thursday, July 15 that he is asking China to be more transparent as scientists search for the origins of the coronavirus. (Photo: AP)

Africa has been "left behind by the rest of the world" as only 2 per cent of the more than 5.7 billion (Covid-19) vaccine doses administered globally have been administered there, the head of the (WHO) said, warning the world against vaccine inequity.

The WHO's aim is to vaccinate at least 40 per cent of the population of every country by the end of this year and 70 per cent by the middle of next year. However, only two countries in Africa have reached the 40-per cent target, the lowest of any region, Xinhua news agency quoted Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus as saying.

"That's not because African countries don't have the capacity or experience to roll out Covid-19 vaccines. It's because they have been left behind by the rest of the world," he said.

Last year, the and its partners launched COVAX, the global initiative to ensure fair and equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines.

To date, it has delivered more than 260 million vaccine doses to 141 countries.

However, COVAX has also faced several challenges which, according to the WHO, were triggered by manufacturers prioritising bilateral deals and many high-income countries tying up the global supply of vaccines.

According to John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also attended the briefing, less than 3.5 per cent of Africans have been vaccinated against Covid-19, which is far short of the official target of 60 per cent.

"This leaves people at high risk of disease and death, exposed to a deadly virus against which many other people around the world enjoy protection," Tedros said.

"The longer vaccine inequity persists, the more the virus will keep circulating and changing, the longer the social and economic disruption will continue, and the higher the chances that more variants will emerge that render vaccines less effective," he warned.

The WHO, the African Union and COVAX have been calling on vaccine manufacturers to prioritize the COVAX program and urging countries to fulfill their dose-sharing pledges and facilitate the sharing of vaccine technology and intellectual property.

In August, the WHO also called for a global moratorium on booster vaccine doses at least until the end of September to prioritise vaccinating the most at-risk people around the world who are yet to receive their first dose.

As vaccine inequity continues to persist, it then called for an extension of the moratorium until at least the end of the year to enable every country to vaccinate at least 40 percent of their populations.

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Pakistan's provincial government in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region has extended full support for recognising the regime in Afghanistan, local media reported on Wednesday.

"We (Pakistan) should recognise the government and give them full support," Housing Minister Dr Amjad Ali Khan was quoted as saying by Dawn newspaper. The minister also urged the federal government to recognise and support the government, claiming that the "Afghans have welcomed" the Taliban.

Pakistan, which reportedly aided the Taliban's return to power, is urging the world to engage with the outfit. Meanwhile, experts believe that Pakistan's ride on the Taliban could prove harmful in the long run.

While urging the world to restore humanitarian aid for Afghanistan, Amjad Khan also slammed people in the country who are advocating the idea of "Lar-o-Bar Yaw Afghan (Pakhtuns of low and highlands are one Afghan)."

"Yes, we are Pakhtuns, but we are Pakistanis, while Afghans have their own country," he said. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is one of the four provinces of Pakistan, located in the northwestern region of the country, along the border.

"The Taliban gamble of can be ruined by Pashtuns owing to the Durand Line Question that is inhibited by the community," said Canadian think-tank Forum For Rights And Security (IFFRAS).

According to IFFRAS, close to 35 million people from the Pashtun community live in and the Durand Line, which divides their "nation", has always been a sore point.

Pashtuns no longer express blind loyalty to Pakistan as they did in the past and there is rising anger among members living in the tribal areas and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the think-tank said.

For the past three years, Pashtuns have been waging a peaceful battle of nerves with the Pakistani state, especially its army. Pashtuns blame the country's army for the brutal destruction of their homes in successive military operations supposedly targeting terrorists hiding along the Durand Line.

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The Maldives and Sri Lanka, both highly tourism-dependent tropical islands, have seen the pandemic devastate their economies and finances. Government debt this year is expected to linger above 100% of gross domestic product in the two small Indian Ocean nations. Unsurprisingly, both have similar--and similarly poor--credit standings. A default by CCC-rated borrowers is a real possibility on Fitch Ratings scale.

And yet, the Maldives seems to be turning the corner on visitor arrivals, with numbers last month exceeding the figure for August 2019. Sri Lanka, where a deadly Easter Sunday suicide bomb attack two years ago hit tourism even before the pandemic, is falling behind.

With a population of just half a million, the Maldives was hit hard by the delta variant. In May, the virus infected almost three out of a 1,000 people in just one day. Sri Lanka, which is home to 21 million, has seen a more manageable spike by comparison, with the surge peaking at a 7-day average of just under 6,000 new cases late August. Thats 0.28 new infections for a thousand people.

A tale of two islands

Since then, Covid-19 is in retreat, and the country is on track to cover 60% of its population with the required two vaccine doses by the end of the month. Among other popular beach destinations, Mauritius, which reached that milestone late last month, is optimistic about a revival in its leisure industry. With some luck, and restoration of flight links, the winter might bring more holidaymakers to Sri Lankas sandy beaches, too. Will it be enough, though, to make up for a 99.6% drop in tourism earnings from the pre-pandemic level? Clearly not.





But thats not the only problem. It it doesnt help that the 9% decline in the Sri Lankan rupee since the start of the pandemic--a depreciation that could make tourist towns like Galle and Kandy cheaper for vaccinated travelers from India--has also stoked a food crisis. Amid an acute shortage of imported rice, sugar, milk, pulses and cereals, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa announced a state of economic emergency from Aug. 31, and named an army officer as the commissioner general of essential services, a telltale sign that the food queues are turning serious.

At least theyre serious enough for Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa, one of the presidents several brothers in the cabinet, to replace the central bank chief. Ajith Nivard Cabraal, who was the governor between 2006 and early 2015, is returning to his old job to find money. After meeting a $1 billion debt repayment out of foreign-exchange reserves in July, the $3.55 billion kitty can barely cover two months of imports. Additionally, $3.65 billion in repayments are coming due next year on hard-currency borrowings. If Cabraal has a magic wand, he has to wave it now--or Sri Lanka will have to seek a rescue from the Monetary Fund.



A wall of maturities

Tea, the countrys most famous export, could have helped soften the blow. But the commodity that pulled in $1.2 billion last year is facing its own crisis because of the governments sudden decision to do away with chemical fertilizers. The industry cant possibly find enough new buyers of niche, organic tea to offset a threefold jump in the cost of production. Experts warn that crop diseases could lead to unmitigated disasters like in 1869, when the islands then significant coffee plantations were wiped out by a fungal infection.

Colombo couldnt have found a worse time to go back to the 19th century. The countrys share among top global sellers of the beverage has been declining for some time. Rivals who manage to lure more customers away from Ceylon tea wont let go of them in a hurry. That isnt all. With even vegetable crops sputtering, the ban on fertilizer imports is untenable. Still, a decision to reverse it was dropped.



Weak tea

The Rajapaksa administration doesnt want to appear weak politically by changing its mind. Or maybe it knows that Sri Lanka wont need to go to the IMF. Since the onset of the pandemic, a cozy relationship with China has helped the president secure a $1 billion loan, in addition to a $1.5 billion dollar swap facility with the Chinese central bank and a gift of 600,000 vaccine shots. Colombo could approach Beijing again for help, automatically putting some pressure on its next-door neighbor.





At a public debt-to-GDP ratio of about 90%, Indias own finances arent a whole lot better than that of the Maldives and Sri Lanka, though a large, diversified gives it a much bigger sway with investors  and a (barely) investment-grade credit rating.

While aware of the economic trouble brewing at its southeastern tip, India has long delayed a decision on Colombos request for a loan-repayment moratorium. Having just seen its $3 billion investment in Afghanistan go up in smoke, New Delhis appetite for economic diplomacy may even be lower than usual. Still, caught in a debt trap, a previous Sri Lankan government sold the port of Hambantota to China Merchants Port Holdings Co. To stall further Beijing-backed enclaves at its doorstep, New Delhi may be compelled to bring out its checkbook.

A deepening economic crisis is narrowing Rajapaksas options, but the president hasnt run out of cards yet.
Short video platform TikTok, that continues to be banned in India, is adding new warnings to its in-app search that will alert users when results may include "distressing content".

The app has employed "sensitive content" warnings on individual videos since last year, but the updated alerts will appear in search results for terms that could include such content, reports Engadget.

In a blog post, uses the example of "scary makeup" as a search term that may prompt such a warning.

The company notes that users will be able to click through the warning to view results anyway and that individual videos deemed "graphic or distressing" are ineligible from the app's recommendations.

is also changing up search results to provide more resources on searches related to suicide and self-harm, the company said.

In addition to surfacing links to reach helplines like the Crisis Text Line, the app will also point users to "content from our creators where they share their personal experiences with mental well-being, information on where to seek support and advice on how to talk to loved ones about these issues".

Last year in June, the Indian government banned 59 apps developed by Chinese firms, including TikTok, over concerns that these apps were engaging in activities that threatened national security of India.

--IANS

vc/in

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Treasury Secretary has one of the biggest to-do lists in Washington: usher in a global tax overhaul, press Wall Street on climate change and distribute billions of dollars in Covid-relief funds.



Yet her efforts are hampered by vacancies in the Treasurys top ranks, where only three officials including herself have been confirmed by the Senate. Of the 17 key remaining jobs that require confirmation, 10 have nominees stuck in the Democratic controlled-Senate, while the rest have not been named.



Priorities such as a top-to-bottom review of the agencys financial sanctions and work to bolster resilience of the US Treasuries market  which nearly seized up in March 2020 amid a desperate global rush for cash dollars  have progressed far slower than expected, according to people familiar with the matter.



More prosaically, because President Joe Biden hasnt yet nominated a treasurer, rules dictate that Yellens signature cant appear on US banknotes. Her predecessor, Steven Mnuchin, unveiled his autograph on the buck within nine months in office.



The staffing shortfall has left Yellens team frustrated with over-stretched portfolios, hurting morale as work to develop and enact policies becomes more difficult, according to the people, who asked not to be identified discussing personnel matters.



Less Powerful



The vacancies leave the department at risk of losing influence across the administration  such as in the government-wide review of China policy thats been underway for months.



You lose an advocate and a driver of policy when you dont have senior staff read-in on the large and small details, said Brian OToole, who previously worked in the Treasurys sanctions unit. While those filling in on an acting or informal capacity may be well-qualified, their voice in meetings and the inter-agency process where policy making and implementation happens is less powerful because they arent a confirmed official, he said.



Part of the trouble: top Senate Republicans are threatening to hold five Treasury nominations indefinitely, over demands for the to undo a deal allowing the completion of the Germany-Russia Nord Stream 2 project. Lawmakers from both parties have opposed the natural gas pipeline between Russia and the Nato ally, with some arguing it would give Moscow too much leverage over European national security.



Despite having a Democratic-controlled Senate, Bidens nominees are still struggling to win confirmation.



Yellen Outreach



Yellen and her deputy, Wally Adeyemo, have held a handful of phone calls with Republicans whove objected to Nord Stream 2 decisions, according to one person familiar with the matter. The agency has organized briefings some of them classified  for GOP Senators Ted Cruz and Pat Toomey to share analysis behind the deal, the person said. It is essential that the Senate confirm these highly qualified nominees, Treasury spokeswoman Lily Adams said.

bloomberg
China's Ambassador to the Zheng Zeguang has been barred from the Parliament over sanctions imposed on some British MPs for their remarks on alleged human rights violations against Uyghur minorities in Xinjiang, triggering an angry condemnation from the Chinese Embassy here.

Zeguang was due to attend a meeting organised by the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on recently, but a letter from the sanctioned members of Parliament and House of Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle resulted in its cancellation.

The letter flagging the meeting was signed by Conservative Party MPs Ian Duncan Smith, Tim Loughton, Nusrat Ghani and the Chair of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee Tom Tugendhat among those on the sanctions list.

In their letter, the MPs argued: The Chinese government has so far made no attempt to reverse the sanctions, which are a tool to criminalise individuals and limit their freedom internationally.

Indeed, the Chinese government has taken steps to give legal force to the sanctions rendering us potentially vulnerable to prosecution by the Chinese authorities.

It is understood that the ban on the Chinese ambassador is not permanent, but while the sanctions existed. The decision was endorsed by House of Lords Speaker John McFall.

The Speakers of both houses are in agreement that this particular All Party Parliamentary Group meeting should take place elsewhere considering the current sanctions against members including two members of the Lords, Lords Speaker Lord McFall said in a statement.

Earlier this year, had imposed sanctions on British politicians and organisations as a tit-for-tat retaliation over the government's sanctions against Chinese officials for alleged human rights violations against its Uyghur minorities in Xinjiang province.

Commenting on the move to ban its envoy from Parliament, a Chinese Embassy spokesperson said: The decision of the UK Parliament reflects the narrow and parochial mindset of some individuals in the UK. It is a shortsighted, reckless and cowardly move. We despise and strongly condemn this.

China's sanctions on a handful of anti-China parliamentarians of the UK, announced in March, were completely justified and reasonable. It was a necessary response to these people who spread slanderous rumours and disinformation about China's Xinjiang and to the unilateral sanctions on relevant personnel and institutions in China by the UK side on the pretext of Xinjiang-related issues, the spokesperson added.

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The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Wednesday barred Abhay Bhutada the MD and CEO of Poonawalla Finance and seven others from accessing the securities market for allegedly in shares of Poonawalla Fincorpformerly known as Magma Fincorp. The regulator also impounded ill-gotten gains of Rs 13.6 crore.

Sebis surveillance alert system detected suspicious trading patterns in the shares of Magma Fincorp ahead of the acquisition of a controlling stake by Adar Poonawalla-led Rising Sun Holding (RSHPL) in February 2021.

An analysis done by showed that a group of connected entities had taken long positions in Magma and later squared off their positions, generating substantial profits.

After Magma made a preferential allotment of Rs 3,456 crore to the Poonawalla Group, its scrip hit upper circuit for seven straight trading sessions.

Sebis examination of call data records revealed that Bhutada, the MD and CEO of Poonawalla Finance, a private subsidiary company of RSHPL, was involved in the deal-making process and allegedly passed on unpublished price sensitive information (UPSI) to some connected entities.

Further, analysis of bank statements revealed that the wrongful gains were shared between the connected entities.

also found that individuals who took large positions in the Magma stock ahead of the deal announcement had not traded in the scrip before.

The preventive directions are warranted, since Bhutada has now been elevated to the position of MD of Magma (now Poonawalla Fincorp) and has access to ongoing UPSIs of the company, has said in an ex parte interim order.

The regulator said urgent action was taken against the eight entities to protect the interest of investors and ensure market integrity.

In order to crack down on insider trading, Sebi has deployed sophisticated data analytical tools, which help detect abnormal and suspicious trading patterns.

In the recent past, the regulator has passed orders for breach of norms in companies such as Infosys and Zee.

Experts say Sebis recent crackdown on using technology driven tools has sent a strong signal to the market.
Gadkari also asked US investors, particularly insurance and pension funds, to invest in India's road and highway infrastructure

Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways said on Tuesday that the bilateral trade between India and the US has grown from $16 billion to $ 149 billion in the last two decades.

Gadkari said, "The trade is projected to reach $500 billion by 2025."

Addressing the 17th Indo US Economic Summit 'Bouncing Back-Resilient Recovery Path Post Covid-19', he said, "I strongly believe that two countries - India and the US - have an important role to play post-Covid economic recovery. There should be informed discussion at the various levels since the recovery needs new ideas and approaches. Since the global depression that has happened in the 1920s, the current situation is the biggest challenge that mankind has ever faced."

He added, "We need a new thought process and a creative agenda to view a new pathway to recovery. World largest vaccination drive is running in the country to make pandemic-free India."

Gadkari added, "I sincerely hope that more & more US investors will invest in road & highway projects in India which is a gold mine for all stakeholders. They have a tremendous opportunity for investment in the road infrastructure."

He also asked the US investors, particularly insurance and pension funds, to invest in India's road and highway infrastructure.

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The spokesperson said the UN and its partners continue to deliver aid to millions of people in need in Afghanistan

The has appealed to countries that pledged $1.2 billion in relief for to quickly release the funds to turn money into food, health care and protection for victims.

Stephane Dujarric, the spokesperson for UN chief Antonio Guterres on Tuesday, said the pledges in humanitarian aid announced at a high-level conference in Geneva on Monday, include funding for the flash appeal for and regional response.

"We stressed that pledges now need to be disbursed quickly so that the UN and humanitarian partners, including national and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs), can move quickly to turn funds into food, health care and protection for Afghan children, women and men in need," Dujarric said.

The spokesperson said the UN and its partners continue to deliver aid to millions of people in need in Several relief missions made it from Mazar-i-Sharif by road to Maimana and from Kabul to Jalalabad.

A convoy with aid from the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) reached Nangarhar, the spokesperson said. "This is the second convoy of relief items that have entered Afghanistan through the Torkham Border Crossing since Aug. 15."

Seasonal food assistance from Food Programme (WFP) continues with one month's worth of food for previously assessed vulnerable families, he said.

The spokesperson said that the WFP is also pre-positioning food and other stocks at strategic border points in Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan in anticipation of high food needs and further disruptions to supply chains. A logistics hub is being set up in Termez, Uzbekistan.

Meanwhile, WFP also stated that the return of humanitarian flights to Kabul since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan is a turning point in the crisis.

More than 90 per cent of families are struggling to find enough to eat, and with winter fast approaching, aid agencies have been "scrambling to meet massive needs before it is too late", said WFP spokesperson, Tomson Phiri, who was speaking in Geneva.

The WFP-led Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) has completed three cargo flights since the reopening of the air link to Kabul on September 12, bringing in medical supplies on behalf of the Health Organization (WHO).

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Craftsman Automation on Wednesday announced that its board approved the proposal for setting up a new plant at Nagpur, Maharashtra.

The company's automotive powertrain segment currently has an existing capacity of 74 lakh nos (based on current product mix). The existing capacity utilization of automotive powertrain segment stands at an average of 70%.

The company proposes to add capacity of 8% to 10% in automotive powertrain segment based on current product mix.

The company aims to complete phase 1 in 24 to 30 months with an investment of Rs 115 crore. For phase 2, Craftsman Automation will target strategic expansion across auto segments of business. The timeline for phase 2 is 24 to 48 months with an estimated investment of Rs 110 crore.

The new plant is strategically located near the company's existing key customer in the auto sector and also enhances relationship as preferred supply partner. The plant will also free the capacity in Pune plant and benefit new manufacturing units in the region which will lead to lower cost structure.

The company said it will finance 90% of the project through term loan and balance through internal accruals.

Craftsman Automation is a diversified engineering company with vertically integrated manufacturing capabilities, engaged in three business segments, namely automotive-powertrain and others, automotive-aluminum products, and industrial and engineering. The auto ancillary company reported a 49% drop in consolidated net profit to Rs 24.07 crore on 19% fall in revenue from operations to Rs 435.19 crore in Q1 FY22 over Q4 FY21.

Shares of Craftsman Automation entered bourses on 25 March 2021. The stock was listed at Rs 1350, a discount of 9.4% to IPO price of Rs 1490 per share. The IPO of Craftsman Automation was subscribed 3.81 times. The issue opened for bidding on 15 March 2021 and closed on 17 March 2021. The price band for the IPO was set at Rs 1488-1490 per share.

Shares of Craftsman Automation were trading 0.7% higher at Rs 1,980 on BSE.

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Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd is quoting at Rs 277.1, up 1.08% on the day as on 12:54 IST on the NSE. The stock is up 41.81% in last one year as compared to a 50.62% gain in NIFTY and a 34.74% gain in the Nifty Energy index.

Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd is up for a third straight session in a row. The stock is quoting at Rs 277.1, up 1.08% on the day as on 12:54 IST on the NSE. The benchmark NIFTY is up around 0.57% on the day, quoting at 17478.75. The Sensex is at 58592.14, up 0.59%. Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd has added around 7.53% in last one month.

Meanwhile, Nifty Energy index of which Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd is a constituent, has added around 7.8% in last one month and is currently quoting at 21034.9, up 1.4% on the day. The volume in the stock stood at 26.91 lakh shares today, compared to the daily average of 30.36 lakh shares in last one month.

The benchmark September futures contract for the stock is quoting at Rs 277.7, up 0.98% on the day. Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd is up 41.81% in last one year as compared to a 50.62% gain in NIFTY and a 34.74% gain in the Nifty Energy index.

The PE of the stock is 4.03 based on TTM earnings ending June 21.

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RBL Bank has today started issuing credit cards to its new customers on Visa's payment network.

The launch follows the successful completion of technology integration with the new platform following the agreement between RBL Bank and Visa on 14 July 2021.

The Bank, which has a 5% market share in credit cards in India, will leverage its partnership with Visa to offer a wide range of credit cards to a variety of customer segments. These cards are designed to offer smart, convenient and secure transactions, along with attractive reward propositions to customers.

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Tata Motors Ltd is quoting at Rs 307.35, up 0.41% on the day as on 12:49 IST on the NSE. The stock is up 102.94% in last one year as compared to a 50.56% gain in NIFTY and a 25.45% gain in the Nifty Auto.

Tata Motors Ltd rose for a fifth straight session today. The stock is quoting at Rs 307.35, up 0.41% on the day as on 12:49 IST on the NSE. The benchmark NIFTY is up around 0.53% on the day, quoting at 17472.2. The Sensex is at 58597.8, up 0.6%. Tata Motors Ltd has added around 1.2% in last one month.

Meanwhile, Nifty Auto index of which Tata Motors Ltd is a constituent, has added around 1.42% in last one month and is currently quoting at 10209.6, up 0.22% on the day. The volume in the stock stood at 92.76 lakh shares today, compared to the daily average of 226.84 lakh shares in last one month.

The benchmark September futures contract for the stock is quoting at Rs 307.65, up 0.2% on the day. Tata Motors Ltd is up 102.94% in last one year as compared to a 50.56% gain in NIFTY and a 25.45% gain in the Nifty Auto index.

The PE of the stock is 0 based on TTM earnings ending June 21.

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Utilties stocks were trading in the positive zone, with the S&P BSE Utilities index rising 50.23 points or 1.8% at 2846.49 at 09:50 IST.

Among the components of the S&P BSE Utilities index, Tata Power Company Ltd (up 5.08%), Jaiprakash Power Ventures Ltd (up 4.98%),Reliance Infrastructure Ltd (up 4.96%),NTPC Ltd (up 3.58%),Torrent Power Ltd (up 3.07%), were the top gainers. Among the other gainers were GAIL (India) Ltd (up 1.86%), Va Tech Wabag Ltd (up 1.63%), Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (up 1.58%), Adani Transmission Ltd (up 1.5%), and Adani Power Ltd (up 1.36%).

On the other hand, Gujarat Industries Power Co Ltd (down 1.01%), and JSW Energy Ltd (down 0.11%) moved lower.

At 09:50 IST, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 114.72 or 0.2% at 58361.81.

The Nifty 50 index was up 37.55 points or 0.22% at 17417.55.

The S&P BSE Small-Cap index was up 161.14 points or 0.57% at 28203.59.

The S&P BSE 150 Midcap Index index was up 51.98 points or 0.6% at 8695.59.

On BSE,1896 shares were trading in green, 783 were trading in red and 96 were unchanged.

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Vedavaag Systems rose 4.87% to Rs 65.70 after the company said it launched cloud-enabled software embedded device for patient activity monitoring system (PAMS).

The artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) division of Vedavaag has designed and developed PAMS, a cloud enabled software embedded device that helps in taking timely action in saving precious lives of the people.

The patient activity such as physiological conditions, limbs movements, vital parameters data is captured and analysed and presented to the attending nurses/doctors for remedial action.

"Prototype phase is in the advanced stages to take it to marketplace," the company said in a release.

PAMS also helps in remote monitoring, virtual rounding of the wards without compromising on patient care, saving valuable time of doctors/specialists and helps in optimizing the nursing administration costs.

On a consolidated basis, net profit of Vedavaag Systems rose 68.42% to Rs 2.24 crore on 88.09% increase in net sales to Rs 22.10 crore in Q1 June 2021 over Q1 June 2020.

Hyderabad-based Vedavaag Systems is a national business correspondent for SBI, Baroda UP Bank, Bank of Baroda with about 2754 CSP outlets. Additional 789 CSP outlets will be operational in October/November. Vedavaag is also selected as Business Correspondent by Punjab National Bank for financial inclusion.

Vedavaag is certified by IRDA to provide insurance products and is currently offering SBI Life and general insurance products.

The company has also entered into new age technologies in Al & ML segment by introducing cloud based product - Driver Alertness Monitoring System known as V-DAMS and is in the process of developing Artificial Intelligence and cloud based IoT products for other industry segments.

The current market capitalisation of Vedavaag Systems is Rs 152.34 crore. On the BSE, 4.18 lakh shares were traded on the counter so far compared with an average daily volume of 99,000 shares in the past two weeks.

Shares of Vedavaag have jumped 18.91% in four straight sessions. In the past one month, the stock has jumped 11.68% as against 5.73% rise in the Sensex. It has surged over 141% in the past one year compared with 50.13% rise in the Sensex.

On the technical front, the stock's RSI (relative strength index) stood at 75.68. The RSI oscillates between zero and 100. Traditionally, the RSI is considered overbought when above 70 and oversold when below 30.

The stock was trading above its 50-day simple moving average (SMA) placed at 58.14 and 200-day SMA at 57.27.

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Wipro and Women's Business Park joined Salesforce to host a workshop series for women in Saudi Arabia to help them become certified professionals of Salesforce solutions.

The Women's Business Park (WBP), a state-of-the-art Business Center, is the result of a joint venture between Princess Nourah University (PNU), the largest women's university in the world and Wipro Arabia. It is the first all-women business and technology park in Saudi Arabia and aims to provide knowledge-based employment for women.

A key focus area of the WBP is skill development that will enable Saudi women professionals to become savvier technologists and take advantage of the emerging opportunities. The companies in the Middle East are seeing increased demand for highly skilled employees who can help them leverage customer relationship management (CRM) and related technologies to accelerate digital transformation. This workshop was one of the several upskilling initiatives designed to meet the industry demand for specialised digital talent.

On a consolidated basis, the IT major reported a 9.20% rise in net profit to Rs 3,248 crore in Q1 June 2021 (Q1 FY22) as against Rs 2,974.30 crore in Q4 March 2021 (Q4 FY21). Revenues grew 12.35% to Rs 18,252.40 crore in Q1 June 2021 over Q4 March 2021.

Shares of Wipro rose 0.39% to 675.85 on BSE. Wipro is a global information technology, consulting and business process services company.

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Sandhu said that the Indian Ocean is a bridge with nations in immediate, and extended neighbourhood. ( Pic Source: Twitter)

India sees itself as a net provider of security in the Region (IOR) where it helps build economic capabilities and improve maritime security for its friends and partners, India's top diplomat in the US has said, ahead of the next week's first in-person summit.

US President Joe Biden will host the first in-person summit on September 24 in Washington which will be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of Australia Scott Morrison and Japanese premier Yoshihide Suga.

The four leaders would discuss promoting a free and open Indo-Pacific, addressing the climate crisis and deepening their ties and advancing practical cooperation on areas like combatting (Covid-19), White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said on Monday.

The challenges that we face today, as nations, are far too complex, to be tackled single-handedly. This mutual interdependence, to me, is not a sign of weakness; but a source of strength. It is the friendship that we cherish; the trust that we build; the connectivity that we craft that holds potential solutions to many of the pressing problems that confront today's world, India's Ambassador to the US Taranjit Singh Sandhu said on Tuesday.

In his address to an event here of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace for launching the Initiative, Sandhu said that the is a bridge with nations in immediate, and extended neighbourhood.

"The seas that separate us, are also the seas that connect us. India sees itself as a net provider of security, in the IOR. We also have been the First Responder, in HA/DR operations in the Region. Whether it is floods in Sri Lanka, or water scarcity in the Maldives, we have responded, with scale and speed, and that too within hours of the crises," he said.

"Carnegie's launch is coming at a time when the term Indo-Pacific is, perhaps, increasingly becoming one of the most frequently used terms in the global strategic lexicon," the ambassador said.

"Our relationships with countries in the Indian Ocean are strong; and we are also helping build economic capabilities; and improve maritime security, for our friends and partners. During Covid-19, we sent medical teams and supplied equipment to the Indian Ocean island nations of the Maldives, Mauritius, Madagascar, Comoros, Seychelles, Sri Lanka, among other countries in the Indian Ocean region," he said.

Sandhu said that India's vision of the Indo-Pacific was articulated in Prime Minister's keynote address to the Shangri-La Dialogue in June 2018.

We view the Indo-Pacific, as a free, open, inclusive region, which embraces all, in the common pursuit of progress and prosperity. The centrality of ASEAN, is a key element of the Indo-Pacific. There is convergence on this, with our partners, whether it be under the QUAD; or the trilateral with France and Australia, he said.

The US has been pushing for a broader role by India in the strategically important Indo-Pacific region.

India, the US and several other world powers have been talking about the need to ensure a free, open and thriving Indo-Pacific in the backdrop of China's rising military maneuvering in the region.

China claims nearly all of the disputed South China Sea, though Taiwan, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam all claim parts of it. Beijing has built artificial islands and military installations in the South China Sea.

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"The Pakistani role in enabling the Taliban is ultimately a victory for those pro-Taliban hardliners in the Pakistani government," Rubio said. Photo: Reuters

The role of Pakistan in enabling the is a victory for the hardliners in the country's government, a top American lawmaker has said, asserting that the unfolding developments in and the role being played by Islamabad in Kabul are not sending a good message to India.

Republican Senator Marco Rubio, during a Congressional hearing on on Thursday, said multiple US administrations were guilty of ignoring Pakistan's role in helping the to regroup, as other US senators expressed concern over the double dealing of Islamabad.

"India I know that there was an announcement today there'll be a meeting of the Quad fairly soon, which is a good development, except that the Indo-Pacific region, if you are India, you're looking at this and saying, If the United States allowed Pakistan to unravel their standing," he said.

"Because the Pakistani role in all this - and I think multiple administrations are guilty of ignoring it. The Pakistani role in enabling the is ultimately a victory for those pro-Taliban hardliners in the Pakistani government," Rubio told Blinken.

US President Joe Biden would host the first in-person Quad summit on September 24 in Washington which will be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of Australia Scott Morrison and Japanese premier Yoshihide Suga.

The four leaders would discuss promoting a free and open Indo-Pacific, addressing the climate crisis and deepening their ties and advancing practical cooperation on areas like combatting (Covid-19), White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said on Monday.

They (Indians) have to be looking at this and saying if the United States could have, you know, a third-rate power like Pakistan unravel its aims, what chance do they have of confronting China? So, I think this leaves us in a terrible situation, Rubio said during the Congressional hearing on convened by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

He said that all these years, while the Taliban was suffering casualties, they enjoyed safe haven in Pakistan.

They were able to go there to rest, to refit, to train, to recruit. And so, in summary, even before the withdrawal, we had a terrible status quo. The security forces, a small number of US forces, you know, continued to die, he said.

Senator Mike Rounds said Pakistan was considering the Taliban government as a partner to counter India.

Rounds said the Iranian president has openly called this an American military defeat and is considering working with the Taliban.

In his remarks, Senator Robert Menendez, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, spoke about the double-dealing by Pakistan and providing a safe haven to the Taliban.

Senator James Risch told Blinken that the United States must understand Pakistan's role in this entire matter.

Blinken on Monday told angry US lawmakers that the US will look at the role Pakistan played in the last 20 years after the lawmakers expressed outrage over Pakistan's "duplicitous" part in Afghanistan post 9/11 and demanded that Washington reassess its relationship with Islamabad.

The US lawmakers also urged the Biden administration to reassess Pakistan's status as a major non-NATO ally.

The Taliban seized power in Afghanistan on August 15, two weeks before the US was set to complete its troop withdrawal.

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The on Wednesday pulled up the Centre over the recent appointments in some tribunals, saying it was "cherry-picking" candidates from the recommended list and that there was "no consistency" in the selection process.

"We are very much unhappy with the way the issues are going on and how the decisions are taken, the court observed, calling the situation "unfortunate".

Observing that making appointments in tribunals is the only solution, the top court asked the Centre to do so in two weeks as the quasi-judicial bodies face a severe crunch of presiding officers as well as judicial and technical members that crippled their functioning. The Centre was also asked to apprise the court of the reasons if persons from the recommended list are not selected.

A three-judge special bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana took note of the assurance of Attorney General K K Venugopal that the Centre would make appointments in two weeks to the tribunals from the list of persons recommended by the search and selection committee.

There is no consistency, I am sorry. I do not know why you want to bring trouble in all these matters. It is very unfortunate. The government has to realise this...Subject to the consideration of the submissions made by you, so far as the appointment is concerned, the contempt is concerned, we will hold our hands for two more weeks. Let's see what will happen, the CJI said.

There are around 250 posts lying vacant in various key tribunals and such as the NCLT, DRT, TDSAT and SAT.

We are waiting very patiently. A counter affidavit (reply of the Centre to the pleas) is not the solution. We are telling the government to make appointments, said the bench that also included Justices D Y Chandrachud and L Nageswara Rao.

The bench referred to specific instances of Debt Recovery Tribunals(DRT)where its Jabalpur branch has no presiding officer and the recovery cases of banks transferred to Lucknow while neither Telangana nor Andhra Pradesh had such a functional body.

The top court termed the condition pitiable and said the litigants, who are facing bank notices for attachment of properties, have no place to go as the high courts are not hearing them and they cannot be left in lurch.

It referred to the recent appointments and said that without exhausting names from the recommended list of persons, the authorities have appointed from the waitlist also and this amounted to cherry-picking.

"The appointment letters which have been issued clearly indicate they(Centre) have cherry-picked three names from the select list and others from the waitlist, ignoring others in the select list. In service law, you can't go to the waitlist ignoring the select list. What kind of selection and appointment is this?" the bench asked the Attorney General Venugopal.

With respect, I think we are very much unhappy with the way the issues are going on and how the decisions are taken. I want to tell you one thing I am also one of the persons who was part of the selection committee for We have interviewed 534 candidates for judicial posts and 425 for technical posts, the CJI said, adding that the names recommended after such a task were not appointed as desired.

The CJI said the judges undertook an elaborate exercise to shortlist the names during the COVID pandemic and the entire efforts are going in vain.

The bench asked what would be the sanctity of recommendations of the selection committee if the government chooses to act at the last stage and the persons who are conducting the interview are ultimately not heard in the appointments.

Justice Rao shared their experience in recommending names for Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) and said the names have not been considered for appointments for almost one-and-half years.

The CJI said that after interviewing 534 candidates for judicial posts and 425 technical posts, 11 judicial and 10 technical members were recommended for appointment in the

We are taking into consideration all inputs and making recommendations in order of merit for appointing judicial and technical members in Out of these 11 selected judicial members, they selected only four. They went to the waitlist and chose three from the waitlist. Same with the technical members also.

We travelled across the country, the corporate affairs secretary and law secretary were there. Another judge, Justice Surya Kant, was there. This is a waste of time for us then. We spent a lot of time together. During COVID, your government requested us to conduct interviews as early as possible. So we did so over two days via video conferencing," the CJI said.

Venugopal said the government has the power not to accept the recommendations made and referred to the Collegium system regarding the High Courts and High Court judges.

We are in a democratic country following the rule of law. It is under the Constitution that we are working. You cannot say that," the bench responded.

The court took note of the delay in appointing a person in tribunals and said, "Now the problem is that you have selected from the judicial members list, High Court judges who held their office till 62. Now they are already 64 and they have been given tenure until 65 years. They will get only one year of tenure. Mr. AG, would you like to join the job for one year?"



At the outset, senior advocate Arvind Datar, appearing for the Madras Bar Association, said for the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT), the search-cum-selection committee selected 41 people but only 13 have been chosen on the basis of which "we don't know".

"It is a very disturbing trend. I request you to put an end to it at the earliest. All the appointment letters are being issued now including ITAT, they are sending WhatsApp messages. Now whether the tenure is to be four years or five years, that this court will decide next week," he said.

The bench said as per elementary principles of the service law selected candidates cannot be ignored.

The bench then said, "Every time, this happens. This is nothing new. Even after the order is passed, they are notifying like this. Same way, the ITAT members are also affected. Every time, the same story."



Venugopal submitted that the main list of recommendations has been exhausted and it is only after that the government has gone to the waiting list.

The bench also asked the Centre to file its response within a week to the pleas including the one filed by Congress leader Jairam Ramesh challenging the new law on Tribunals.

"So far as the challenge to the 2021 Act is concerned, we have already issued notice. Please file a counter affidavit within a week", the CJI said.

The top court was hearing a clutch of petitions on the issue of vacancies in tribunals and the new law governing quasi judicial bodies.

Separate pleas have been filed by State Bar Council of Madhya Pradesh, lawyer and activist Amit Sahni, Amarjit Singh Bedi, Delhi Bar Association, Advocates Association Bengaluru and some others.

(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.)
Debt /

In Depth: The never-ending battle to curb Chinas hidden debt

Regulators are once again playing whack-a-mole to stamp out practices local government financing vehicles (LGFVs) are employing to evade efforts to curb their borrowings.

Having loosened the reins on local government debt last year to help the economy recover from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, authorities this year have resumed their long-standing campaign to control and defuse financial risks. One of their main targets is hidden local government debt and in particular the borrowings of the financing vehicles they control, typically local state-owned investment companies.

In a document sent to financial institutions recently, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) laid out a series of measures, both existing and new, to tackle the problem and fix loopholes that have allowed LGFVs to skirt rules on borrowing limits.

FINANCE & ECONOMY

The headquarters of Evergrande Group in Shenzhen, South Chinas Guangdong province, on Feb. 9. Photo: VCG

Evergrande /

Evergrande offers retail investors three payment options

Debt-ridden China Evergrande Group offered three options Monday to repay retail investors in its high-yield wealth management products after hundreds of them protested overdue payments Sunday.

Investors can accept cash installments, property or investors payables on residential units they have purchased, according to the plan announced by Du Liang, head of Evergrandes wealth management unit.

It is difficult for Evergrande to make 40 billion yuan ($6.2 billion) of repayments at once for the wealth management products at this moment, Du said. Investors can expect returns as soon as Evergrandes property projects are sold, Du said.

Evergrande hires advisers to resolve cash crisis amid protests

China-U.S. /

Beijing warns Washington against recognizing name change of Taiwans U.S. office

Chinas foreign ministry warned the United States against recognizing a change of the name of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Washington to the Taiwan Representative Office, a change regarded by Beijing as a violation of the One China policy.

The Biden administration is reportedly seriously considering the renaming at the request of Taiwan authorities, according to a report in the Financial Times on Saturday. The report added that senior U.S. and Taiwanese officials had held in-person talks Friday in Annapolis, Maryland.

Corruption /

Former China Development Bank official gets 12 years in prison for bribery

Wang Xuefeng, a former head of the Shanxi provincial branch of the China Development Bank (CDB), was sentenced to 12 years in prison (link in Chinese) for taking bribes, according to a statement issued Friday by a court in Shandong province.

The CDB is the countrys biggest policy lender by assets.

Wang was also fined 2 million yuan ($310,211) for his crime. From 2008 to 2019, Wang took 23.4 million yuan in bribes as he abused his power to offer help in various projects including loan approvals and sales of office buildings, the statement said.

BUSINESS & TECH

A Meituan rider puts a takeout order into Meituans smart takeout cabinet. Photo: VCG

Meituan /

Meituan offers glimpse into how takeout delivery times are set

On-demand services giant Meituan revealed new details about how it sets delivery times for its vast legion of takeout drivers amid criticism that unrealistic deadlines force them into risky behavior.

The State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) and six other government agencies released guidelines (link in Chinese) July 26 urging food delivery platforms to guarantee workers an income above minimum wage, social security and insurance coverage and more relaxed delivery deadlines.

On Friday, mentioning both the guidelines and public curiosity about how delivery times are calculated, Meituan posted an article (link in Chinese) to its official WeChat account saying that the scheduled arrival time is always based on the longest of the different estimates provided by four algorithms.

Aluminum /

Yunnan tightens aluminum production curbs in green push

Southwest Chinas Yunnan province told local smelters to slash aluminum production 30% for the rest of this year to help meet goals for reducing energy use and greenhouse gas emissions.

Yunnan has become a preferred location of aluminum smelting projects and other nonferrous metal refiners in recent years because of its abundant hydropower. In 2020, the province added 2.6 million tons of aluminum capacity, up 72% from the previous year and driving up power consumption. The province originally planned to put an additional 1.4 million tons of aluminum capacity into operation this year.

Gaming /

Two Chinese tech stocks sizzle on latest hot concept in virtual reality

The market values of two China-listed companies soared after they announced plans to work on metaverses, virtual shared spaces based on technologies like virtual reality (VR) and artificial intelligence, even though they have not provided details of how they are going to turn the concept into reality.

Compared with the start of the month, the market capitalization of online game developer Shenzhen Zhongqingbao Interaction Network Co. Ltd. doubled and that of mobile internet firm Zhejiang Jinke Culture Industry Co. Ltd. gained 50%. Both said last week they planned to enter the metaverse field.

IPO /

Tianqi lithium revives plan to list in Hong Kong

Chinas Tianqi Lithium Corp., the worlds top producer of the metal by output, disclosed Tuesday that has a revived a 3-year-old plan to sell shares in Hong Kong.

Tianqi plans to issue shares equal to up to 20% of the companys total issued share capital, according to a filing (link in Chinese) with the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. It will use the fresh capital to increase capacity, cover operating costs and repay debt, including the money it borrowed in 2018 to buy a 23.77% stake in the New York-traded Chilean lithium giant Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile S.A.

Quick hits /

Battery giant CATL invests $2 billion to boost lithium-ion product output

Shanghai resumes flights after Being spared hit from typhoon

China vows to consolidate bloated electric vehicle industry

Energy Insider /

Steel prices rise as production limits tighten

Tech Insider /

Ximalaya revives listing push amid crackdown, Huaweis retro turn, new robot unicorn

GALLERY

Fujian tightens Covid restrictions as cases rise

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Here is todays ranking of the 10 most-read news stories in China, in economics, finance and current affairs, to help give you a sense of whats trending in the Chinese language sphere.

Chinese social media users have been paying close attention to the latest Covid-19 outbreak in Fujian that has grown to include more than 150 people (link in Chinese). They are also following news about debt-ridden Evergrande, which denied rumors of bankruptcy.

1. Al-Qaida leader appears in a video amid rumored death

Ayman al-Zawahri appeared in a video released Saturday (external source), which marks the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, amid rumors of his death that have been circulating since late last year, the Associated Press reported.

2. Denmark removes all Covid restrictions

Denmark had lifted all restrictions (external source) to curb the spread of Covid-19 as of Friday, including a rule requiring people to present proof of vaccination to enter nightclubs. The decision was taken after more than 83% of eligible people aged above 12 in Denmark had been fully vaccinated, according to the Danish Health Authority.

3. Uniqlo boss loses crown as the richest person in Japan

Takemitsu Takizaki, founder of electronic-sensor maker Keyence Corp., has beaten out Uniqlo billionaire Tadashi Yanai (external source) to become the richest person in Japan, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Takizaki is worth $38.2 billion after his companys shares almost doubled from last year. Fast Retailings Yanai is now worth $35.6 billion.

Photo: VCG

4. Evergrande denies bankruptcy rumors

Debt-ridden China Evergrande Group on Monday denied rumors of bankruptcy (external source, in Chinese), saying the company is facing unprecedented difficulties but will firmly carry out its corporate responsibilities. The company offered retail investors in its high-yield wealth management products three repayment options Monday after hundreds of them protested over overdue payments Sunday.

5. Chinas two epidemic prevention mini programs on Alipay combined

Chinas two epidemic control functions on Ant Groups Alipay  a national health code and a travel card that traces where citizens have been within 14 days  have been combined into one (external source, in Chinese) to facilitate Covid-19 inspection at checkpoints, Chinese media reported.

6. Celebrity studios move to small cities to avoid tax

Many celebrities have registered their studios in small cities that have preferential tax policies (external source, in Chinese), domestic media reports.

7. Fujian Covid outbreak mainly concentrated in Putian and Xiamen

China reported 59 locally transmitted Covid-19 cases (external source, in Chinese) on Monday, all in the eastern province of Fujian, according to the National Health Commission. Among them, 32 were found in Xiamen, 24 in Putian and three in Quanzhou. The authorities also reported one asymptomatic case in Putian that day.

8. Chinese Embassy in the U.K. condemns ban on ambassador

The Chinese Embassy in the U.K. said in a statement Tuesday that it strongly condemns (external source) the U.K. parliaments ban on Ambassador Zheng Zeguang that prevents him from attending events upon invitation to the parliamentary estate. The decision of the U.K. Parliament reflects the narrow and parochial mindset of some individuals in the U.K. It is a shortsighted, reckless and cowardly move, the embassy said.

9. Putin self-isolates after coming in contact with Covid case

Russian President Vladimir Putin (external source, in Chinese) is self-isolating after coming into close contact with a staff member in his inner circle who had been infected with the coronavirus, according to media reports. Putin has tested negative for Covid-19, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.

10. Beijing warns Washington against recognizing name change of Taiwans U.S. office

Chinas foreign ministry has warned the U.S. against recognizing a change of the name of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Washington to the Taiwan Representative Office, a change regarded by Beijing as a violation of the One China principle, and urged the U.S. to handle the Taiwan question in a prudent manner.

Translated by reporters Wang Xintong and Cai Xuejiao.

Caixin has not independently verified the veracity or accuracy of all of the headlines or stories.

The daily ranking of most-read news stories among Chinese people, about China and global affairs, is jointly provided to you by Caixin Insight and HANA Data, an artificial intelligence technology team.

The key indicators calculated on the list are based on mass data sourced from Chinas mainstream social media platforms and online news websites. Click here for a detailed introduction of our methodology.
Whats new: Hong Kong on Wednesday resumed a long-delayed program allowing qualified Chinese mainland and Macao residents to enter the city without going through mandatory quarantine, following Chief Executive Carrie Lams announcement early last week.

Under the program, up to 2,000 people a day will be allowed to enter the special administrative region, 1,000 through the Shenzhen Bay Port and 1,000 via the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge Port.

Travelers eligible for the program have to have been staying in the neighboring region of Macao or the mainland province of Guangdong for 14 straight days before entering, according to the Hong Kong government.

Those who were under mandatory quarantine during the 14-day period or those who recently visited at-risk places for Covid-19 infection identified by the Hong Kong government do not qualify.

Currently there are two such places in Guangdong: Yuexiu district and the Nanhua West area of the provincial capital of Guangzhou.

The background: The programs restart had been delayed since May due to Covid-19 flare-ups in the special administrative region and the mainland. Strict border controls between the two regions has been in place for about two years since the outbreak of the new coronavirus in late 2019.

We have been talking about this for a long time but were never able to launch it, as there were often problems, either because of the rebound in cases in Hong Kong, or the mainlands pandemic situation, Lam said during a press conference last week.

Quick Takes are condensed versions of China-related stories for fast news you can use.

Contact reporter Lu Zhenhua (zhenhualu@caixin.com) and editor Michael Bellart (michaelbellart@caixin.com)

Download our app to receive breaking news alerts and read the news on the go.

Get our weekly free Must-Read newsletter.
The TikTok app is displayed in the app store on a smartphone in this arranged photograph in London

(Bloomberg)  TikTok faces two investigations by the Irish data watchdog following intense scrutiny for months over concerns that childrens data isnt safe on the platform.

Irelands Data Protection Commission opened two own volition investigations into ByteDance Ltd.s TikTok, the Irish regulator said Tuesday. The commission became the lead European Union data protection authority for TikTok in December.

The first probe will look into TikToks processing of data for underage users and whether its in line with the EUs strict protection rules. The second follows concerns expressed by the Irish privacy chief, Helen Dixon, that some EU user data could be accessed by maintenance and AI engineers in China.

The Irish authority has dozens of open privacy probes into tech giants, which could face hefty fines for violations under the EUs General Data Protection Regulation. Facebook Inc.s WhatsApp was fined 225 million euros ($266 million) earlier this month, following a record 746 million euro penalty against Amazon.com Inc. by the Luxembourg data watchdog.

The privacy and safety of the TikTok community, particularly our youngest members, is our highest priority, the company said Tuesday in a statement. It said it will cooperate with the Irish authority. Weve implemented extensive policies and controls to safeguard user data and rely on approved methods for data being transferred from Europe, such as standard contractual clauses, the company said.

Contact editor Bob Simison (bobsimison@caixin.com)

Download our app to receive breaking news alerts and read the news on the go.

Get our weekly free Must-Read newsletter.
Thousands of people visited the Universal Beijing Resort amid the rain for its grand opening Monday, the second day of the official three-day Mid-Autumn Festival holiday. As the first global branded theme park in Beijing, the resort is expected to receive 10 million to 12 million visitors annually and bring tourism revenue to the surrounding areas, said Yu Xuezhong, vice general manager of Beijing Tourism Group

Sep 21, 2021 03:38 PM
The Carter Centers Mental Health Program in Liberia works to improve maternal and child health care across the country. The program has had a decade-long presence in Liberia, supporting the government of Liberia to develop and institutionalize the national mental health policy, develop and pass mental health legislation, and bolster the workforce for mental health care across the country. The Center has also contributed significantly to curtailing stigma by building a vibrant consumers movement whose advocacy led to the first national mental health budget.

Maternal mortality in Liberia is among the highest in the world, with 1,072 maternal deaths for every 100,000 births. Infant and early childhood mortality is also staggeringly high. A key factor in sub-optimal maternal and child health outcomes is poor maternal mental health. It is imperative that women be given the mental health care needed during this critical time in their lives and their childrens lives.

Nearly all women are at risk of developing mental health disorders during pregnancy and following delivery. Common perinatal mental disorders, like depression and anxiety, pose a significant threat to the well-being of pregnant women, new moms, and their infants. Yet, a significant number of these women in low- and middle-income countries do not receive the mental health care they need. When womens mental health needs are addressed, both maternal and child health outcomes improve.

Since 2010, The Carter Center has trained 302 mental health clinicians, including 140 child and adolescent mental health clinicians. Additionally, in tandem with its implementing partners  the Liberia Center for Outcomes Research in Mental Health, the Liberian government, and generous donors  the Carter Centers Mental Health Program is adapting a data-driven intervention known as the Thinking Healthy program.

Developed in Pakistan and endorsed by the World Health Organization, Thinking Healthy is a manualized psychological intervention consisting of 16 sessions that begin during pregnancy and continue after delivery. The program is being adapted for use in the Liberian context and, ultimately, training will be embedded into pre-service and in-service health force curricula and become a standard component of maternal and child health care service delivery. Grand Challenges Canada, Grand Challenges Africa, and Open Society Foundations have joined forces to support the adaptation, implementation, and scaling of the Thinking Healthy program in Liberia.

The government of Liberia, through the Family Health Division and the Mental Health Unit, embraced the program and coordinated with The Carter Center and the Liberia Board of Nursing and Midwifery on the selection and training of 17 Liberian health workers as master trainers to be responsible for implementing the program. The master training was conducted by Dr. Najia Atif, co-developer of the Thinking Healthy program. The project is expected to train over 500 registered nurses, midwives, and mental health clinicians by 2023, to be available to pregnant women across the country.

The Open Society Foundations provided a $100,000 grant to The Carter Center in early 2020. Open Society strives to address gaps in the field of caregiver mental health in the context of early child development by assisting organizations that contribute to the process of integrating caregiver mental health into the global field of early child development.

Additionally, Grand Challenges Canada (GCC) and Grand Challenges Africa (GCA) provided grant support to the Liberia Center for Outcomes Research in Mental Health, a partner who will be key in measuring impact and sustaining the initiative. The Grand Challenges global mental health initiatives focus on high-impact innovations that improve treatments, increase access to care, and bolster the worlds health workforce.

Financial support from Open Society Foundations and GCC allows The Carter Center and the Liberia Center for Outcomes Research in Mental Health to leverage the commitment of the Liberian government to improve perinatal outcomes, provide technical and advisory support for training in perinatal mental health, scale up the data-driven intervention, and measure the impact of the intervention in Liberia. This collective effort to implement the Thinking Healthy program is a critical step toward strengthening the health system to address a Liberian health priority. Lessons learned will be applied to other low- and middle-income countries also working to improve maternal and child health.

Bolstering services that address maternal mental health may prove critical in addressing Liberias maternal child morbidity and mortality. Along with Open Society Foundations, GCC, GCA, and other new partners, the Carter Centers Mental Health Program will continue to shape behavioral health systems globally. Together, we can improve the health and well-being of women and future generations.

The Carter Center is funded by the Grand Challenges Africa program, African Academy of Sciences (AAS). This work is further supported through the Alliance for Accelerating Excellence in Science in Africa platform, the AAS and the African Union Development Agency initiative. Grand Challenges Africa is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, and German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The content of this publication is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the funders.

This project is supported by Grand Challenges Canada, funded by the National Institute for Health Research using UK Aid from the U.K. government.

###
Photo: Contributed Federal candidates (from left) Dan Albas (Conservative, Central Okanagan-Similkameen-Nicola), Tim Krupa (Liberal, Kelowna-Lake Country), Richard Cannings (NDP, South Okanagan-West Kootenay) and Imre Szeman (Green, Kelowna-Lake Country)

Im personally interestedand investedin Okanagan cannabis.

How each local candidate approaches weed in this federal election has a say in how I will vote.

(I hope Im not alone in that thinking.) To that end, I reached out to four candidates from different parties in the Okanagan to get their thoughts on pot:

 Dan Albas of the Conservative Party

 Tim Krupa of the Liberal Party

 Richard Cannings of the NDP

 Imre Szeman of the Green Party.

The challenges for the industry are complex and numerous. There are a lot of federal issues that require proper policy and attention. This is, after all, a regulated industry on a global scale.

Issues I asked candidates about included:

 THC limits on drinks and edibles

 Sustainable packaging and practices

 Strict advertising and marketing rules

 Pardons vs. expungements

 How theyd support Canada on the global level

Weed is big business. In May, 2021, cannabis added more than $18 billion to Canadas GDPthats on par with auto manufacturing in this country.

Some licensed producers located in the Okanagan, including The Valens Company and The Flowr Corporation, are global in scope. Weed powers the economy. It employs thousands of people in retail, production, distribution, government and service industries throughout our communities.

Each politician had varying degrees of knowledge and comfort speaking about the issues facing the cannabis industry and its consumers.

Conservative Dan Albas, the incumbent in Central OkanaganSimilkameenNicola, opted not to answer questions. He explained he couldnt speak to the issues but invited cannabis companies to reach out to him.

The three other candidates agreed to interviews.

The first question to each was: Whats the most important issue for you/your party when it comes to cannabis.

Tim Krupa, Liberal candidate in Kelowna-Lake Country

Im really proud that our government legalized and regulated marijuana. I think it helps keep kids safe and keep millions of dollars out of the pockets of criminal organizations and street gangs.

I think one thing thats important is to ensure Canadians who do have possession charges can be pardoned. They have serious lifelong implications from that, even if its a minor charge. This can also help reduce the burden on our court systems.

Overall, regulation can lead to a safer product for Canadians.

Richard Cannings, NDP incumbent in South OkanaganWest Kootenay

This riding has maybe a different focus on cannabis than many ridings in Canada because it was really one of the hearts of the legacy production, as we call it now.

There are still a lot of producers out there on the black market. Many of them would like to get into the legal market. There are real hurdles to that both in terms of investments, money, and a huge amount of bureaucracy. We have Community Futures projects in the Kootenays that are helping some of those producers get over those hurdles.

During the whole process of legalization, I did a lot of lobbying and advocacy for people like that who felt that they were being pushed out of the market by multinational corporate growers instead of the craft cannabis market.

Thats where most of my issues lie in this riding, more in the production side and trying to keep some if that legacy that made BC famous.

Imre Szeman, Green Party candidate in Kelowna-Lake Country

I think some of what the Green Party is worried about is the legal repercussions for people who have simple possession of cannabis. Trying to think about cannabis in relation to public health in the same way that governments do with alcohol and tobacco. But that public health being connected with evidence-based research and the experience of those who have worked in the field. Those are the two things that the Green Party has in its current platform.

For more in-depth coverage of these interviews, subscribe to receive this Fridays edition of the oz. at theounce.ca
Photo: The Canadian Press A sign is shown at the entrance to Eden blockade in the Fairy Creek area near Port Renfrew, B.C., on Tuesday, May, 11, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jen Osborne

A British Columbia forestry company appeared in court Tuesday to apply for a one-year extension of an injunction against ongoing protests over logging of old-growth trees in a remote area of southern Vancouver Island.

A lawyer for Teal Cedar Products Ltd. told a B.C. Supreme Court judge that the protests against logging are becoming more sophisticated, organized and dangerous and anarchy will result if the extension is not granted until September 2022.

"It falls on this court to restore law and order on southern Vancouver Island," said Dean Dalke. "If there is no injunction in place, the blockades will be there."

Almost 1,000 people have been arrested in the Fairy Creek area, north of Port Renfrew, since May when the RCMP started to enforce an earlier B.C. Supreme Court injunction against blockades erected in several areas near logging sites.

Dalke said the blockades are impeding the companys legal rights to harvest timber and alleged that the actions of the protesters pose dangers to employees and the RCMP.

He said the numbers of protesters in the area ranges from 100 to 500 people as a bus service brings supporters to the area on weekends.

Dalke said the protest is organized through the use of social media, adding that a helicopter drops supplies to people camped deep in the forest.

He said the protesters have placed spikes in roads, chained themselves to gates, sometimes dug themselves into trenches or attached themselves to trees in efforts to thwart police who are enforcing the injunction.

"These are clearly designed to frustrate RCMP enforcement," said Dalke. "This is what the RCMP has been faced with since May 18, and it's been getting worse."

The Teal Cedar injunction is one of several civil court applications being heard this week in Nanaimo.

The RCMP has applied to the court to extend search and access powers in the injunction area, and several citizens representing the protesters, known as the Rainforest Flying Squad, are asking the court to find that the Mounties' enforcement actions have been unlawful.
I have been reading articles ad infinitum on West Kelowna topics and I have held my tongue.

People have asked why I have not sent off my usual letters to the editor. Basically, I was resigned to the situation in West Kelowna. Not my circus, not my monkey.

A story in the media gently shook me out of my lethargy.

Five years ago, West Kelowna residents turned down plans for a new city hall. A counter petition (Alternate Approval Process) drew almost 4,000 signatures, it said. That forced the city to hold a referendum, which was narrowly defeated. For the new city hall scheme, municipal manager Paul Gipps presented council with a way to do the necessary borrowing of up to $11million without putting the proposal to voters. Total project cost is currently estimated to be $18 million.

A recent survey did not seek public views on the cost, site and size of the project because council had already made the decision to go ahead in 2020. The survey basically said: You are getting a new city hall, so what do you think we should include?

When the governance committee explored the incorporation of the Westside, the suggestion was that the eventual city hall site should be geographically central to the municipality. But this council obviously has its own opinion

The current selected location is tucked away by the Johnson Bentley swimming pool in West Kelowna (across the highway from the police station) with limited parking and access. Because of the cramped area, it was necessary to demolish a recently built skate park (A mere $400,000 worth!) and then having to spend an undisclosed amount to rebuild the skate park close by.

Many of the city staff have been working remotely during the Covid pandemic and functioned effectively using modern technology, when needed, to seamlessly communicate with colleagues.

In its latest study PricewaterhouseCoopers Canada says Canada-wide, employees want the flexibility to choose between working from home or the office. Their figures say that 27% are ready to return to the workplace, whilst a staggering 59% say they would like to work solely at home and 14% would like a mix of the two.

So there is a general belief and understanding that large offices will become more a thing of the past. Our city council is totally out of touch and cannot seem to accept that a combination of working from home and office will be our future modality.

Obviously the need to get a city hall built as their legacy has blinkered the council to the practicality of anything else. Adding the library to this site was a way to justify its necessity.

This new complex will pull more traffic to an already busy area. Walking to this location is not an option for most people and would not be a safe walking route for children.

Altogether, I believe that this whole scenario should go back to the drawing board.

Taxpayer money could be spent on more practical matters. For example;

Glenrosa road has been the recipient of almost floodlight quality street lighting and two sets of roundabouts.

Old Okanagan Highway represents a dismal boundary between West Kelowna and IR 9. Many people walk and cycle the route in near darkness. The fireflies that are excuses for street lighting on the West Kelowna side of the road are a disgrace. Despite dangerous conditions and past letters to the editor, nothing has been done.

In contrast, a new development on IR9 side of the road has four streetlights that create a short burst of light that merely emphasizes the darkness either side.

Meanwhile, congratulations to West Kelowna for the fact that someone found a bright bulb to light up Elliot Road south of the cemetery. It helps a lot on those moonless nights. Maybe another search might find spare bulbs for Old Okanagan Highway.

On the other side of the coin, the Wine Trail through Boucherie has an amazing number of street lightstotal overkill!

If there is no funding for new bulbs, maybe the Wine Trail could spare just a few!

Heather Yeats, West Kelowna
Photo: BC Gov Flickr

The British Columbia government is offering nurses and other health-care professionals incentives like child care and support for housing and travel as part of a recruitment drive in the northern region.

Health Minister Adrian Dix says the aim is to get more health-care workers to move to the north and stay there as many parts of the country experience a shortage of nurses in particular.

However, he did not provide a timeline for when some of the programs would be launched, including one offering virtual visits with doctors and other health-care professionals in rural communities.

Dix says workforce challenges have been exacerbated in the northern health region as it deals with the highest number of COVID-19 cases per capita in the province, but recruitment has traditionally been more difficult there.

He says the province's first priority is to ensure all health-care workers get vaccinated against COVID-19 as part of a mandatory requirement starting Oct. 26 in order to prevent outbreaks in health-care facilities that would then have more staffing shortages.

Dix says the government will be working with the nurses union as well as the provincial association of doctors and groups representing other health-care workers.
Photo: Chung Chow Glowbal Restaurant Group owner Emad Yacoub says policies to ease immigration and provide work visas would help his business find the staff it needs

Political parties courting hospitality sector votes in the upcoming federal election are trotting out a mix of conventional policies and novel ideas.

With the Liberal Party of Canada largely campaigning on the partys record in government and policies they put in place to help employers during the pandemic, the NDP and the Conservative Party of Canada are trying to break out and attract attention.

Take, for example, the Conservatives promise to compensate restaurant owners so they can offer dine-in customers a 50% discount on food and non-alcoholic drinks on all Mondays through Wednesdays in one month in 2022, once it is safe to do so. The cost of that promise is expected to be about $1 billion.

The party is also vowing to eliminate the goods and services tax (GST) during December  something that would not only encourage consumer spending at restaurants, but also at retail stores and service businesses.

The problem, restaurant owners say, is that creating policies for a single month or for a few specific days in the week would be an administrative nightmare.

You cant say that youre going to remove the GST for one month and then re-implement it because of the amount of energy that would be required, and the people needed to work it out  from the menus to the accounting, Vijs Restaurant co-owner Vikram Vij told BIV.

Its better to just say, Hey, were reducing the GST for one year, and instead of 5%, it will be 4.8%.

That 0.2 percentage-point reduction over the year would be equivalent to one month with no GST, but Vij said it would be easier to manage.

He added that the 50% discount on food and non-alcoholic drinks for three days of the week would similarly be an accounting headache.

Glowbal Restaurant Group owner Emad Yacoub agreed. He called the Monday-through-Wednesday discounts promise stupid.

Yacoub said the policy would be a challenge for small-restaurant owners to navigate, particularly if they have basic point-of-sale systems.

The policy would help some struggling restaurant owners stave off an inevitable closure, but that would also not be healthy for the industry as a whole, Yacoub said.

Vij and Yacoub like the Conservatives promise to halt annual increases to the federal alcohol tax and the NDPs promise to cap credit-card merchant fees at 1%. But both longtime restaurateurs said they doubted that the NDP would be able to keep that promise.

The Conservatives platform is silent on capping credit-card merchant fees. The Liberal government has been consulting industry, with the aim, according to its 2021 budget, of reducing credit-card transaction fees.

British Columbia Restaurant & Foodservices Association CEO Ian Tostenson said his organization has long wrestled with the issue but has come away with little progress.

The complexity of the system needs to be unravelled, so people can understand it, Tostenson said, adding that consumer-reward programs and the wide range of fees that credit card companies charge for them makes it a thorny issue.

We were trying to get to a point where there would be a flat rate, so youd pay 1.7%, and thats your charge on every single card, and we could never get there because they just had all these excuses. So just to simplify the process would be a good starting point.

Vij, Yacoub and Tostenson all agreed that the biggest issue facing restaurant owners is the lack of available workers and that increased immigration or looser visa-entry policies would be a big help.

B.C.s minimum wage rose 4.1% on June 1 to $15.20  the highest rate among provinces and second only to Nunavut in Canada.

Simply paying more is not the issue, Yacoub said.

The guy that was making $20 an hour, we offer him $30 an hour, he said. Its going to get to a point where its going to crack, and nobody is going to be able to afford anybody.

Yacoub has been waiting in vain to hear a party promise to change government policy around business lunches to make it either easier for customers to deduct those costs on their taxes or for them to be able to deduct a higher percentage than the 50% customarily allowed.

In the 80s, people were allowed to claim their meals as business lunches, he said. Then, the government cut [the tax-deduction limit] to 50%, and I think they are very tough on what meals qualify.
Photo: Selkirk Auctioneers

A Missouri cave containing Native American artwork from more than 1,000 years ago has been sold at auction, a sale that disappointed leaders of the Osage Nation who had hoped to buy the land to protect and preserve a site that's sacred to them.

A bidder agreed to pay $2.2 million to private owners for whats known as Picture Cave, along with the 17 hilly hectares that surround it near the eastern Missouri town of Warrenton. The winning bidder was not named.

The cave was the site of sacred rituals and burying of the dead. It also has more than 290 prehistoric hieroglyphic symbols used to represent sounds or meanings.

A St. Louis family that's owned the land since 1953 has mainly used it for hunting.

Researcher Carol Diaz-Granados opposed the sale. She and her husband, James Duncan, spent 20 years researching the cave and wrote a book about it. Duncan is a scholar in Osage oral history, and Diaz-Granados is a research associate in the anthropology department at Washington University in St. Louis.

Auctioning off a sacred American Indian site truly sends the wrong message, Diaz-Granados said. Its like auctioning off the Sistine Chapel."

The Osage Nation, in a statement, called the sale truly heartbreaking.

Our ancestors lived in this area for 1300 years, the statement read. This was our land. We have hundreds of thousands of our ancestors buried throughout Missouri and Illinois, including Picture Cave.

The cave features drawings of people, animals, birds and mythical creatures.
Photo: The Canadian Press

WestJet Airlines Ltd. has named Harry Taylor its interim president and chief executive.

Taylor has been WestJet's chief financial officer since 2015. He will assume the interim CEO role between late November and mid-December 2021.

Taylor will replace current WestJet chief executive Ed Sims, who announced in June his plans to retire at the end of this year. Sims has been CEO since May of 2017.

Jennifer Bue, WestJets current vice-president of finance planning and analysis, has been named interim CFO.

WestJet says Taylor played a key role in helping steer the airline through the COVID-19 pandemic. He was responsible for managing WestJet's liquidity at a time when little to no revenue was coming in.

Taylor also led WestJet's first U.S. bond issue and negotiated the purchase of the airline's new Boeing 787 Dreamliner and Boeing MAX aircraft.

In a news release, Taylor said there is still a great deal of work to be done as WestJet aims to rebuild post-pandemic.

"I look forward to leading our organization through this crucial phase of our recovery," Taylor said.
Photo: VicPD

One officer was head-butted and another spat on this week after responding to a report of a man kicking a building and smashing bottles.

Victoria police were called about 2 a.m. Tuesday to a temporary multi-unit housing facility, but the suspect had left. He was located nearby and fled on a bicycle, twice.

An officer with the Integrated Canine Service found the suspect and arrested him after a foot chase and a struggle on the ground. The suspect resisted, and more officers were needed to subdue him.

As officers began to search the man, he head-butted the canine-service officer, causing non-life-threatening injuries. He then spat at another officer and narrowly missed, and yelled that he was infected with COVID-19.

He was taken to police cells and later released with a court date. Charges of obstructing a police officer and assaulting a police officer are being recommended.

Any time time an officer is assaulted, its deeply concerning for us, given that our officers work tremendously hard to keep our community safe and at the end of the day want to get home like anyone else, said Const. Cam McIntyre. I think in light of recent events where weve had two serious attacks on officers and now an off-duty officer being assaulted, as well as an escalating of violence against our members, it is deeply concerning.

On Monday, an off-duty officer was a attacked by a woman while walking a dog as a volunteer for animal-control services.

Police continue to investigate a violent Sept. 2 attack in Banfield Park that left an officer with potentially life-altering injuries.

Officers have been searching for a 40- to 50-year-old man in connection with the attack, which was carried out about 11:30 p.m. after the officer had spoken to a distraught woman.

The injured officer was treated in hospital and has now been released.
Photo: The Canadian Press Liberal leader Justin Trudeau makes a campaign stop in Halifax, N.S., on Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

Federal leaders were united in their commitment to fight sexual misconduct in Canadas military  but divided on the right approach  as the issue made a rare appearance on the campaign trail Wednesday after months of allegations, parliamentary hearings and promises of action.

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, Conservative Leader Erin OToole and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh were asked during separate campaign events if they would commit to creating an independent watchdog to fight inappropriate and criminal sexual behaviour in the ranks.

Many victims advocates and experts have argued since the first allegations in February of misconduct against some of the Canadian Armed Forces top officers that independent oversight and accountability are critical to addressing the problem.

Trudeau at an event in Halifax would not commit to creating an independent body to monitor the military and hold it to account, and he instead promised that a re-elected Liberal government would act on the recommendations of retired Supreme Court justice Louise Arbour.

The Liberal leader as prime minister tapped Arbour in April to conduct a yearlong review of the militarys approach to preventing and punishing sexual crimes and behaviour following months of outrage over the conduct of its top commanders.

The Liberals also appointed Lt.-Gen. Jennie Carignan, one of the militarys highest-ranking female officers, to lead the Canadian Armed Forces culture-change efforts, which included tackling hate and discrimination in the ranks.

It has gone on for too long and all the different efforts over the years have improved, but not nearly enough, which is why we needed the top experts to say: This is what we'll do, Trudeau said.

And we commit, absolutely, to following full-heartedly on the recommendations that Gen. Carignan, but especially justice Arbour, have put forward to end discrimination within the military once and for all.

Some have criticized the Liberals for launching another review after Arbours former Supreme Court benchmate Marie Deschamps in 2015 called for an independent centre to monitor the militarys handling of cases and hold it accountable.

Neither Stephen Harpers Conservative government, who were in power when Deschamps released the results of her review, which found a heavily sexualized culture in the military, nor the Trudeau government acted upon the recommendation.

While he did not mention the Deschamps report, OToole on Wednesday did commit to creating an independent watchdog for the military, which his partys platform says would see Canadas military ombudsmans office report to Parliament rather than the defence minister, as is currently the case.

We will have an independent process, OToole said. We will put a freeze in place in terms of promotions and other things to send a real signal that we will clean up the mess and we will restore that trust and faith that is important for an institution as important as our military.

OToole went on to attack the Liberals, who found themselves under fire earlier this year following revelations the military ombudsman raised an allegation of sexual misconduct involving then-defence chief Jonathan Vance with Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan in March 2018.

While the government said it acted appropriately by sending the allegation to senior civil servants to investigate, and that the investigation was stymied by the ombudsmans refusal to provide further information, others such as OToole have accused the Liberals of a cover-up.

Vance has denied any wrongdoing. He was charged in July with one count of obstruction of justice and his case is back in court on Friday.

Singh promised to implement Deschampss recommendation even as he accused the Liberals of having let down women in uniform by launching another  in his view, unnecessary  review.

We need to have an independent process, he said. That was a major concern raised by Justice Deschamps.  And despite knowing that, to this day, after six years of having this report, six years of being in power, Mr. Trudeau has not done that.

The Green Party has also said it would implement Deschampss recommendation.
Photo: The Canadian Press

A protracted battle between rival Canadian railways for the acquisition of Kansas City Southern is over, with Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. coming out on top.

CP Rail said Wednesday it has reached a deal to acquire KCS for approximately US$31 billion, after Canadian National Railway Co. dropped its rival takeover offer for the U.S. railway.

The news came after KCS on Sunday ruled the bid by CP Rail was a superior proposal to its deal with CN.

CP Rail said the "once-in-a-lifetime partnership" will create the first U.S.-Mexico-Canada rail network.

"(The merger) will deliver dramatically expanded market reach for CP and KCS customers, provide new competitive transportation options, and support North American economic growth," CP chief executive Keith Creel said in a statement.

CP Rail has said customers will not experience a reduction in railroad choice as a result of the transaction and has pledged to keep all existing freight rail gateways open on "commercially reasonable terms."

Following final regulatory approval expected in the second half of next year, Creel will serve as CEO of the combined company. The combined entity will be named Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC).

Calgary  currently the headquarters of CP Rail  will be the global headquarters of CPKC, and Kansas City, Mo., will be the U.S. headquarters. The Mexican headquarters will remain in Mexico City and Monterrey. CP Rails U.S. headquarters in Minneapolis-St. Paul will also remain an important base of operations, the company said.

Kansas City Southern CEO Patrick Ottensmeyer said the combined railway will provide the best value for the transportation dollar.

The CP-KCS combination will not only benefit customers, labour partners, and shareholders through new, single-line transportation services, attractive synergies and complementary routes, it will also benefit KCS and our employees by enabling us to become part of a growing and truly North American continental enterprise, he said in a news release.

While the new railway will remain the smallest of six large railways operating in the U.S. by revenue, it would operate nearly 33,000 kilometres of rail, employ nearly 20,000 people and generate about US$8.7 billion in annual revenues.

CP Rail's offer, which includes the assumption of US$3.8 billion of outstanding KCS debt, values KCS at US$300 per share, a 34-per-cent premium based on CP's closing price on Aug. 9 and KCS' closing price on March 19.

Following the closing into a voting trust, common shareholders of KCS will receive 2.884 CP Rail shares and US$90 in cash for each KCS common share held. Preferred shareholders will receive US$37.50 in cash for each KCS preferred share held.

CP Rail said the deal will be accretive to its earnings in the first year an is expected to create annualized savings of about US$1 billion within three years.

To fund the stock consideration of the merger, it will issue 262 million new shares. The cash portion will be funded through a combination of cash-on-hand and about US$8.5 billion in debt. The total outstanding debt will be about US$20 billion following closing into a trust.

Montreal-based CN was dealt a setback last month when the U.S. Surface Transportation Board denied the company's use of a voting trust for its own bid for KCS, saying it would be bad for competition. CP Rail already has approval for a voting trust and the merger will be judged on old rules.

The trust allows KCS shareholders to be paid before the U.S. regulator completed its review of the proposed takeover.

KCS shareholders would own 28 per cent of CP's common shares after the trust is expected to close in the first quarter of 2022.

Under its agreement with KCS, CN said the U.S. railway will pay a US$700-million company termination fee as well as US$700 million that CN paid when KCS broke its initial deal with CP Rail to accept CN's offer.

CN says it continues to believe that a combination with KCS would have enhanced competition and delivered many other compelling benefits for stakeholders. But it said there have been significant changes to the U.S. regulatory landscape since CN launched its initial proposal, including a July executive order from U.S. President Joe Biden.

While we are disappointed that we will not be able to deliver the many compelling benefits of this transaction to our stakeholders, the decision to bid for KCS was a bold and strategic move that still resulted in positive outcomes for CN," stated CEO Jean-Jacques Ruest.

"We believe that the decision not to pursue our proposed merger with KCS any further is the right decision for CN as responsible fiduciaries of our shareholders interests..

It vowed to participate in the review of the CP-KCS combination to ensure that "all regulatory rules are enforced fairly, and customers do not suffer anticompetitive effects."

Despite walking away with US$700 million in net proceeds, the battle over Kansas City Southern has prompted a challenge to CN's leadership from activist investor TCI Fund Management Ltd.

The British-based fund said it intends to ask for a special meeting of CN Rail shareholders for the purpose of "refreshing'' the railway's board by adding four members that it has nominated.

The fund, which is also the largest shareholder of Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd., also said it has proposed Jim Vena, former chief operating officer at CN, as a potential replacement to Ruest.

"While CN ultimately made the right decision to not continue its ill-fated pursuit of Kansas City Southern, the fact the company made such an ill-advised bid in the first place exposed a basic misunderstanding of the railroad industry," it said an email, adding that it fears CN might have continued its pursuit of KCS had it not intervened.

"Without much needed change on the board and in management, TCI believes the companys operational and financial performance will continue to suffer to the detriment of CN shareholders. It is imperative that shareholders have a timely opportunity to vote on TCIs proposals to put the company on a path to success."
Photo: The Canadian Press FILE - In this Sept. 1, 2021, file photo Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley speaks during a briefing with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin at the Pentagon in Washington. Fearful of former President Donald Trumps actions in his final weeks in office, the United States top military officer twice assured his Chinese counterpart that the two nations would not go to war. According to a forthcoming book by Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, Milley told a Chinese general that the United States would not strike. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

The top U.S. military officer on Wednesday defended the phone calls he made to his Chinese counterpart in the final months of Donald Trump's presidency, saying the conversations were in keeping with his duties as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

In a written statement, Gen. Mark Milley's spokesman, Col. Dave Butler, said Milley acted within his authority as the most senior uniformed adviser to the president and to the secretary of defense.

His calls with the Chinese and others in October and January were in keeping with these duties and responsibilities conveying reassurance in order to maintain strategic stability, Butler said. All calls from the chairman to his counterparts, including those reported, are staffed, coordinated and communicated with the Department of Defense and the interagency.

The Milley phone calls were described in excerpts from the forthcoming book Peril by Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa. The book says Milley told Gen. Li Zuocheng of the Peoples Liberation Army that he would warn his counterpart in the event of a U.S. attack.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said President Joe Biden has full confidence in Milley.

The president has worked side by side with Chairman Milley for almost eight months," Psaki said. "His experience with him has been that he is a patriot, he is somebody that has fidelity to the constitution and he has confidence in his leadership.

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

WASHINGTON (AP)  Fearful of Donald Trump's actions in his final weeks as president, the United States' top military officer twice called his Chinese counterpart to assure him that the two nations would not suddenly go to war, a senior defense official said after the conversations were described in excerpts from a forthcoming book.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley told Gen. Li Zuocheng of the Peoples Liberation Army that the United States would not strike. One call took place on Oct. 30, 2020, four days before the election that defeated Trump. The second call was on Jan. 8, 2021, just two days after the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by supporters of the outgoing chief executive.

Trump said Milley should be tried for treason if the report was true.

Milley went so far as to promise Li that he would warn his counterpart in the event of a U.S. attack, according to the book Peril, written by Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the book. Details from the book, which is set to be released next week, were first reported by The Washington Post on Tuesday.

General Li, I want to assure you that the American government is stable and everything is going to be okay, Milley told him in the first call, according to the book. We are not going to attack or conduct any kinetic operations against you.

If were going to attack, Im going to call you ahead of time. Its not going to be a surprise," Milley reportedly said.

According to the defense official, Milleys message to Li on both occasions was one of reassurance. The official questioned suggestions that Milley told Li he would call him first, and instead said the chairman made the point that the United States was not going to suddenly attack China without any warning  whether it be through diplomatic, administrative or military channels.

Milley also spoke with a number of other chiefs of defense around the world in the days after the Jan. 6 riot, including military leaders from the United Kingdom, Russia and Pakistan. A readout of those calls in January referred to several other counterparts that he spoke to with similar messages of reassurance that the U.S. government was strong and in control.

The second call was meant to placate Chinese fears about the events of Jan. 6. But the book reports that Li wasnt as easily assuaged, even after Milley promised him: We are 100 percent steady. Everythings fine. But democracy can be sloppy sometimes.

Trump responded Tuesday with a sharply worded statement dismissing Milley as a Dumbass, and insisting he never considered attacking China.

Still, he said that if the report was true, I assume he would be tried for TREASON in that he would have been dealing with his Chinese counterpart behind the Presidents back and telling China that he would be giving them notification of an attack. Cant do that!

Actions should be taken immediately against Milley, Trump said.

Milley believed the president suffered a mental decline after the election, agreeing with a view shared by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in a phone call they had Jan. 8, according to officials.

Pelosi had previously said she spoke to Milley that day about available precautions to prevent Trump from initiating military action or ordering a nuclear launch, and she told colleagues she was given unspecified assurances that there were longstanding safeguards in place.

Milley, according to the book, called the admiral overseeing the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, the military unit responsible for Asia and the Pacific region, and recommended postponing upcoming military exercises. He also asked senior officers to swear an oath that Milley had to be involved if Trump gave an order to launch nuclear weapons, according to the book.

Officials in January and on Tuesday confirmed that Milley spoke with Pelosi, which was made public by the House speaker at the time. The officials said the two talked about the existing, long-held safeguards in the process for a nuclear strike. One official said Tuesday that Milleys intent in speaking with his staff and commanders about the process was not a move to subvert the president or his power, but to reaffirm the procedures and ensure they were understood by everyone.

It's not clear what, if any, military exercises were actually postponed. But defense officials said it is more likely that the military postponed a planned operation, such as a freedom of navigation transit by a U.S. Navy ship in the Pacific region. The defense officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.

Milley was appointed by Trump in 2018 and later drew the president's wrath when he expressed regret for participating in a June 2020 photo op with Trump after federal law enforcement cleared a park near the White House of peaceful protesters so Trump could stand at a nearby damaged church.

In response to the book, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., sent President Joe Biden a letter Tuesday urging him to fire Milley, saying the general worked to actively undermine the sitting Commander in Chief.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, called the report deeply concerning, telling reporters at the Capitol, I think the first step is for General Milley to answer the question as to what exactly he said.

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said he had no concerns that Milley might have exceeded his authority, telling reporters that Democratic lawmakers were circumspect in our language but many of us made it clear that we were counting on him to avoid the disaster which we knew could happen at any moment.

A spokesperson for the Joint Staff declined to comment.

Milley's second warning to Beijing came after Trump had fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper and filled several top positions with interim officeholders loyal to him.

The book also offers new insights into Trump's efforts to hold on to power despite losing the election to Biden.

Trump refused to concede and offered false claims that the election had been stolen. He repeatedly pressed his vice president, Mike Pence, to refuse to certify the election results at the Capitol on Jan. 6, the event that was later interrupted by the mob.

Pence, the book writes, called Dan Quayle, a former vice president and fellow Indiana Republican, to see if there was any way he could acquiesce to Trump's request. Quayle said absolutely not.

Mike, you have no flexibility on this. None. Zero. Forget it. Put it away, Quayle said, according to the book.

Pence ultimately agreed. He defied Trump to affirm Joe Biden's victory.

Trump was not pleased.

I dont want to be your friend anymore if you dont do this, Trump replied, according to the book, later telling his vice president: Youve betrayed us. I made you. You were nothing.

Peril describes Trumps relentless efforts to convince Attorney General William Barr that the election had been stolen. Barr is quoted as telling Trump, The Justice Department cant take sides, as you know, between you and the other candidate. According to the book, Barr had determined that allegations about rigged voting machines were not panning out. Barr also expressed disgust with Rudolph Giuliani and others insisting Trump had won, calling them a clown car.
Re letter: Why Libs need a majority

Getting a little tired of hearing but, but, but Harper as a rallying call for Liberals.

Firstly, I am a disgruntled former Liberal supporter. Here is why I will never vote Liberal again as long as Justin Trudeau is leader of the party.

For starters , he wore brown face as an adult at least three times. Once, as a teen, he stuffed a banana in his pants and was videoed wearing brown face while jumping up and down as waving his hands up and down like a monkey. Classy right?

That wasnt the last time he dressed up. He had his family on their trip to India dress up in Bollywood costumes. The Prime Minister of India said, Mr Trudeau we dont dress like that here. Nice put down.

But wait it gets better. Not only did he fly in from Canada an Indian chef to cook Indian food for Indians, he invited a convicted terrorist Jaspal Atwal to his Canadian reception in India.

Never mind the ethics breaches, more than twice he (showed he is a) firm believer in do as I say, not as I do. Remember Easter last year? Telling us all to stay home, do not share a meal with your family if they are living outside your home and then showing us pictures of him and his family enjoying their Easter. Did I mention not only did he not respect his own advice, he crossed a provincial border to enjoy himself.

He pretends to want to be inclusive with Indigenous peoples but at a Liberal fundraiser, when questioned by an Indigenous female, tells heras the guards escort this poor person out of the hallthank you for your donation and the Liberals erupt in laughter.

He pretends to be a feminist prime minister but regarding elbowing a female MP in her breast and another who complained about his groping her in Creston, well she may have experienced it differently he says. Then the Jody Wilson-Raybould fiasco. Another indigenous female feeling the wrath of daring to ask or question him. So long Jody. An so long Jane Philpott, who stood up to Trudeau and was backing JWR.

How about another scandal? We all know the turmoil and the resignation of our finance minister over (connections to the WE organization). What else do WE know. Well as it turns out, we may never know as Trudeau prorogued Parliament to stop the inquiry. Another female who obviously didnt question him was former Governor General Julie Payette. Trudeau insisted she was totally vetted before she got the job. Turns out his vetting was a referral from Jean Chretien.

Did you know the Wei Wei scandal? You may recall he and a group from China meet with Trudeau at least two times. Following which, the Pierre Trudeau Foundation received a $1 million donation from one of the meetings attendees. Further, Wei was charged for operating an illegal casino in one of his mansions.

Now we have problems in the Department of Veterans affairs. Allegations of harassment and no follow up to investigate. Not the first time VA was in the spotlight. Veterans where asking for their rightful lifelong pensions to be reinstated. Trudeau told them they were asking for more than we are able to give. Thanks for enduring hell and possibly getting killed but dont expect any pensions when you get back

Besides admitting the country he admires most is China, it seems he has a love of Communist dictators like Fidel Castro. You know the kindly leader of Cuba, his fathers friend.

Is it even possible for him to answer a single question without saying he is standing up for Canadians when in fact he will say anything, promise anything to get re-elected.

When responding his usual go to phrase is  We are working very very hard. Hmmm, maybe if you started actually doing something before, you would only need to work hard.

Sorry, but I couldnt remember all his gaffes and incompetence.

So the choice is yours. Vote for whom ever you decide will be best for you and Canada.

Robert Hepting, Kelowna
Re letter: Liberal getting her vote (Castanet, Sept. 15)

I fail to see how the writer thinks voting Liberal will help with climate change other than lightening your wallet and forcing you to listen to more rhetoric from the (Liberal leader Justin Trudeau).

Canada produces less than two per cent of the worlds CO2 which, even if stopped entirely, would have no impact on climate change. This is a fact most politicians in this country fail to mention when they have their hands out for your hard-earned money using climate change as an excuse.

Carbon taxes have proven to be totally useless at lowering the carbon footprint of any country that has instituted them. They just take money out of citizens wallets and give it to the government to waste on their pet green projectsusually run by the politicians supportersand anything else they can think up. It all just goes into general revenues and tax is tax is tax no matter what you call it or why you impose it.

Canada's carbon footprint has actually gone up since the Liberals started stealing money from the wallets of Canadians using the guise of saving the planet, not down.

Instead of admitting their programs and policies don't work and never will because Canada is not the problem, they keep gutting the middle classes wallets and bank accounts so Trudeau, in his infinite narcissism, can try to look like an important world leader.

Do I think the Conservatives plans are any better? No. Same garbage, different can. The NDP and Greens are even worse.

The only thing that will slow climate change is the big carbon producersChina, India, Russia and the USAlowering their emissions drastically and that is not going to happen in the foreseeable future, so bankrupting Canada and middle class Canadians in the name of slowing climate change is just a tax grab by the government supported by ill-informed citizens like the writer (of the above cited letter.)

If the Liberals just said we're raising taxes without attaching it to climate change, would you be so thrilled to vote for them and pay said taxes? I think not. Yet that is exactly what they are doing and lots of well-meaning people are falling for the scam.

China is busy building hundreds of coal-fired power plants in China, Africa and other parts of the Third World, which once operational will produce more carbon than Canada does and that's not including the ones that are already operating.

So how does bankrupting us to stop climate change make any sense to any thinking, rational Canadian? It sure doesn't to me.

Kim O'Reilly
Lafarge Cement Zimbabwe's CEO steps down

15 September 2021

Lafarge Cement Zimbabwe Ltd has announced the resignation of its CEO, Precious Murena, with effect from 9 September. Precious Murena joined the company in 2011 and became CEO in 2020.

Amr Elmowafy Aly Mowafy, currently Chief Financial Officer, will assume the role of Acting Chief Executive Officer in the interim until the appointment of the substantive CEO.

Published under
Carthage Cement lowers cement price

ICR Newsroom By 15 September 2021

Tunisia-based Carthage Cement announced it will lower its wholesale prices for cement to TND150 (US$53.81) per 30t truck for two months. The decision will come into effect from 13 September 2021.



The company said the step follows the advice of the National Chamber of Cement Producers after meeting with senior officials from the Ministries of Trade and Industry.

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Chattanooga State Community College will roll out its free Latin Festival-Reimagined event on Saturday from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. on the main campus of Chattanooga State, 4501 Amnicola Hwy. in Chattanooga. The festival serves to honor and recognize the American Latino community during Hispanic Heritage Month.



This free community event, different from years past, includes an open house-styled event with a focus on welcoming our growing Hispanic population to Chattanooga State.

We want to showcase all we have to offer to support our students, stated Quincy Jenkins, executive director, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI). Some of those activities include campus tours, campus resources, community organizations, cultural performances and fun activities for children.



Scheduled performances include interactive Zumba, Alma de El Salvador and Delta Hernandez, Xochipilli Dalton, Maya and Dance Brasil.



Free food will be provided by SoulQue BBQ, Foodlamo (Venezuelan), and Carla Jones Catering (Guatemalan). There also will be free ice cream.



Five hundred-plus Latino students are currently enrolled at Chattanooga State and festival proceeds have provided more than $80K to help fund the Latino Scholarship program at the college since the festivals inception.



Chattanooga State is grateful for the support of Latin Festival-Reimagined sponsors First Horizon, Cempa, the City of Chattanooga, EPB and TVA.



For more information visit latinfestivalcha.org, email latinfestival@chattanoogaState.edu, or call 423-697-3220.
A Chattanooga man with a felony record who was found with an AM15 rifle after a police pursuit has been sentenced to serve 80 months in federal prison.

Antwain Edmonds appeared before Judge Travis McDonough after earlier pleading guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm.

On Aug. 15, 2020, a Tennessee Highway Patrol officer attempted to stop a car driven by Edmonds in Chattanooga. He sped away and the trooper pursued. The pursuit ended when Edmonds crashed his vehicle. He was then apprehended after a foot chase.

An AM15 rifle was found in the vehicle next to the drivers seat. Edmonds had been the sole occupant of the vehicle.

Edmonds had previously been convicted of at least one felony offense.
A man at the Family Dollar at 2038 South Willow St. told police someone had taken his tool bag containing tools and his identification. He said he left the items in his buggy outside of the business. He first believed it was individuals that go by the name Rachel and Lamar. He told police he spoke with Lamar and changed his mind, saying "Doogy" in a burnt orange sedan might have taken it. Police were unable to locate any suspects in the area.

* * *

A woman on Allemande Way in the apartment complex called police to say she found her driver's license face down in the parking lot. She said she had no idea that it was even lost in the first place. She said she moved there six or seven months ago from her old address on Belle Vista Avenue, which is the one still on her license. She wanted a report in case her identity is used illegally later.

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Police responded to a crash at 1600 North Moore Road. A woman was found to be at fault for failing to yield the right of way; however, there was no visible damage and both drivers stated that a wreck report was not needed.

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An officer responded to 600 Cherry St. where a 1999 Toyota Camry was sitting out of the roadway at a parking meter. The officer placed an orange sticker on the driver's window, and sent an email confirming that the vehicle was located. It has not moved in many weeks but does not appear to be in bad shape.

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An employee at Mapco at 4711 Brainerd Road told an officer than a black male came into Mapco wearing a large, blue puffy jacket and looked to be shoplifting. She said she followed him outside and watched him take a 2 liter out from his jacket. Later on she was approached by some customers who said that the man was attempting to sell them beef jerky, however it is uncertain whether or not the beef jerky is from Mapco.

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A woman on Broad Street called police to say she saw her wallet at work and when she left work she couldn't find the wallet. She said she's unsure if the wallet was lost or stolen at this time and she just wanted to report the wallet lost.

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A man on 13th Avenue told police he heard someone outside his door. Police searched the area and were unable to locate anything.

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Police responded to West 31st Street on a call of two suspicious people in the parking lot of a warehouse. The officer found a man and woman who said they were homeless and would walk at night to dig through dumpsters for things. Both of them were checked for any wants or warrants which came back negative. They were instructed that this was not their property and they could not be there. The officer also checked for any damages in the area and did not see any. Both of the people left the area on foot without issue and were instructed not to come back.

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A Nashville Metro Police detective requested CPD to attempt to make contact with residents on Aspen Lane to inform them of a deceased nephew. Both of the people were informed of the news prior to CPD arrival by the Nashville detective via phone call.

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A woman on Harbor Hills Road called police to say someone stole her car. She said the keys were in the vehicle and the doors were unlocked. There were no witnesses to this incident and no apparent evidence to process.

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The engineering manager at Hotel Indigo at 300 West 6th St. called police to say when he arrived to work he discovered the doors at the rear entrance had been spray painted with graffiti and so had the "no parking" signs. He said he noticed the wall on the highway underpass nearby had graffiti on it also. He said it's just down the street on 6th Street. He said there are cameras across the street that the city has access to but it's unknown at this time if any of them caught this incident. He has taken photos of the graffiti on the hotel and they have been able to clean most of the paint off. He guesses it will be around $300 to re-paint.

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An employee of Transport Enterprise Leasing, LLC at 400 Birmingham Hwy. called police and said he was notified that the Tennessee trailer tag has fallen off of a flat bed trailer. He says security could not give a date as to when or where the tag fell off.

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A man on Polymer Drive called police and said a former employee was causing issues on the property. He said that he would like to begin documentation and wants the man trespassed. The officer attempted to call the former employee, however was unsuccessful and left a voicemail. The man was notified to contact police if he returns.

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An anonymous caller told police a man was on the property on Shallowford Road and was causing issues. When police arrived the man said he came to his property management company to address a plumbing issue. Personnel at this location said that it is the water company that needs to fix the issue. The man was given the phone number to contact the correct people prior to him leaving.

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A woman on Mountain Creek Road called police to say someone broke into her 2017 Toyota Camry and stole several items. She said her car was locked, but found no damage. She said she does not know how entry was made.

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Police were called to North Chamberlain Avenue where a woman was by the dumpster near the exit. She was asked to leave the property. She gathered her things and left without incident.

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A woman on 4th Avenue told police she let another woman borrow her car. It was parked at the other woman's home overnight and, when she woke up, the car was gone. No suspect information was known at this time. Police entered the car into NCIC.

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An officer responded to I-75 northbound where a man said he was behind a vehicle that was hauling Santek Waste Services trash cans and an unknown object flew from a trash can and struck his window. He said his car sustained three cracks in the front windshield.

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A man said he was traveling on Shepherd Road and made a left turn onto Shaw Drive. When he made the right turn a white Yokohama truck pulled out in front of him from Polymer Drive. He then yelled out the window, "There's a yield sign there." The other driver then yelled back at him to shut up and called him a racial slur. The man said he saw the other man reach down towards the passenger side of his vehicle and get out of the car. The man walked towards his car and he sped off. After speeding off he turned around and found the vehicle still at Shepherd Road and Shaw Drive. He then followed the vehicle onto Hwy. 153 northbound and called the police. The caller said he did not know what the man grabbed from the passenger side of the vehicle. Police searched the area and were not able to locate the vehicle.
Defense attorney Amanda Dunns campaign to replace retiring Criminal Court Judge Don Poole began on Wednesday morning on the steps of the old courthouse. She announced her intention to run in the August 2022 election. She said her background in almost every facet of law sets her apart from other attorneys who may run for the job. .

Im one of the rare attorneys in town who has practiced in criminal, state and federal court, along with juvenile court, attorney Dunn said. Ive been in every courthouse with the exception of bankruptcy.



While she has been a defense attorney for almost 20 years, Dunn has never been a prosecutor. She cited her work on the civil side of court in personal injury cases as a similar experience to being a prosecutor. She said that she also has developed relationships with prosecutors and law enforcement officers, which will help her as a judge.



One of the things Ive been able to do in my career is make friends with prosecutors, with assistant DAs and DAs, and with law enforcement officers, Dunn said.



It gives you a different perspective on what is important to prosecutors, because I already know what is important as a defense lawyer. When youre able to see both sides, I think that prepares you to be fair when listening to both sides.



Judge Poole oversees the third division of criminal court, which is in charge of mental health court. Dunn called that program one of the most crucial in the judicial system. She said about 30 percent of the inmates in Silverdale jail are diagnosed with a mental illness, and mental health court can ease the burden on the sheriffs office.



Mental health court is one of the most important aspects of the court, Dunn said. Everyone should care about it because it affects everyone.



Attorney Dunn told the crowd it is important to uphold and protect the constitution as a judge. She elaborated further after the main speech.



Our Constitution provides basic freedoms for every citizen, and it provides a right to a good attorney and a right to be free from government intrusion into your home with the search and seizure law, she said. These are issues that come up very frequently that come up in criminal cases. I think its so important to know our constitution and our supreme courts interpretation of those laws, and to be able to apply it fairly for both the defendants and the state.

A longtime Chattanooga resident, attorney Dunn graduated from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in 1999. She received her law degree from Wake Forest University Law School in 2004, where she was a member of the law review. She, her husband Alan and their daughter Macy live in Chattanooga.

Attorney Dunn has practiced with the Houston and Alexander law firm since 2018.


The League of Women Voters of Chattanooga will hold a dedication ceremony on Friday at 11 a.m. to celebrate suffragist Abby Crawford Miltons work across the state to campaign for passage of the 19th amendment, ultimately winning women the right to vote. The ceremony will be held in Philips Park at the corner of McCallie and Georgia Avenues where Ms. Miltons historical marker stands. The celebration includes the installation of a plaque and park bench donated by the league.

Guest speaker, Linda Moss Mines, Chattanooga and Hamilton County historian, will portray Abby Crawford Milton in character before the masked gathering where many will be dressed in white to honor suffragists whose mission was to expand the right to vote.

Women, over a wide span of history dating back to 1848, have fought for the right to vote and Chattanooga's own Abby Crawford Milton stands prominently among them as a leader in America's women suffrage movement and the battle for the 19th Amendment.

Ms. Milton, a graduate of Chattanooga Law School and the first president of the Tennessee League of Women Voters, traveled the state campaigning for the women's vote, which was finally ratified on Aug. 18, 1920. She spoke of the enormity of the moment. "It seemed too dramatic to happen in real life, but this was the real thrill of history-making, not the excitement of stage or movies. Personally, I had rather have had a share in the battle for woman suffrage than any other world event. It is the purest American patriotism.

League leader Lisa Bilbrey Hyder, who worked to enable this memorial, says the plaque and bench donated to Chattanoogas Philips Park were funded by the generosity of league members and friends of the league. "This project to honor Abby Crawford Milton, the 19th Amendment, as well as the creation of the League of Women Voters of Tennessee, became a reality because those who support the league's mission to expand the vote wanted to come together to acknowledge her legacy. We're so grateful to those who contributed." Ms. Bilbrey Hyder also thanked the city of Chattanooga parks department for working in partnership with the league to enable this memorial's installation.

Members are welcome to join the Chattanooga Bar Association, the DAR and members of county government as they walk to the courthouse to celebrate Constitution Day, following this event.

This dedication ceremony will be rescheduled in the case of rain. Masks are strongly encouraged.




A former jailer for the Murray County Sheriffs Office was sentenced on Wednesday to serve five years in prison followed by 10 years on probation for the crimes of sexual contact with an inmate and violation of oath of office.

Bryson Wallace Starks, 26, of 265 Defoor Road, Resaca, pled guilty before Superior Court judge Scott Minter on Aug. 18.

While Assistant District Attorney Ben Kenemer agreed to dismiss two related charges, there was no negotiated plea agreement as to the sentence length. Judge Minter heard from both sides before announcing the sentence. Starks was represented by Dalton attorney Bart Barnwell.

The investigation began last year when the Murray County Sheriffs Office learned of possible inappropriate conduct by their employee and requested that the Georgia Bureau of Investigation assist. Special Agent Adam Jones of the GBI was assigned the case.

Agent Jones interviewed Starks who confessed to the inappropriate sexual relationship with one inmate. Correspondence between the victim and Starks also confirmed the existence of the relationship. Agent Jones also interviewed other inmates who were aware of the circumstances concerning the inappropriate relationship between Starks and his victim.

Starks faced a potential sentence of 25 years in prison on the sexual assault count and up to five years in prison on the violation of oath of office charge. Judge Minters sentence included sex offender conditions and Starks will have to register as a sex offender upon his release from confinement.
A bitcoin "mining" operation in Walker County may be expanding.

The MGT company earlier set up a location on six acres in LaFayette.

It is seeking a second site at the Walker County Business Park. The firm wants to buy two acres just south of a Georgia Power electrical substation.

Bitcoin is a digital currency, and the term mining is used for utilizing computer processing equipment in bitcoin record keeping. Bitcoins are created as a reward for the mining process. Bitcoins can be exchanged for other currencies, products, and services.

Robert Ladd of MGT said his firm is "a trailer park" for bitcoin miner operations. It sets up 40-foot containers for use by bitcoin mining firms and charges a monthly fee.

He noted that the operation is a huge user of electric power, and his firm makes sure there is an adequate power supply.

Mr. Ladd said the estimated construction cost for the operation at the business park would be $1.2 million. He is asking that the county help with bringing high voltage feeder lines from the substation to power 10 MGT transformers. He said the city of LaFayette brought lines to that operation.

LaFayette has its own electric system. Georgia Power supplies the business park. Mr. Ladd was advised to contact Georgia Power, which has two "cryptocurrency" specialists that deal with such issues.

Mr. Ladd said the current industry demand for bitcoin mining could accommodate in the near term a five-time expansion of the initial project.

He said China "has basically shut down (bitcoin mining) and told everyone to get out." He said that has raised the demand elsewhere.

Mr. Ladd said the clients for the containers install very expensive computer processing equipment and his firm furnishes security. Shannon Whitfield, Walker County Commission chairman, questioned whether the clients are paying personalty tax on that high-value equipment.

Officials said the cost of the two acres at the business park would be about $50,000.
Unprecedented challenges have been a theme for many throughout 2020-2021, and nonprofits in the region are no exception. But thanks to a partnership between green|spaces and Southface Institute, several have already been able to reduce overhead costs  as well as their carbon footprint.

The goal of the GoodUse Grant, available through Southface and facilitated in the Chattanooga area by green|spaces, is to help nonprofits redirect more money internally so they can invest further into their missions  ensuring their dollars stay focused on where they can have the most impact in their communities.

Southface Institute began building capacity to fund mission-driven work in 2008 with the Grants to Green program, transitioning to GoodUse in 2018. GoodUse now helps build sustainability and resiliency in nonprofits over a 26 state reach. Locally, past recipients like the Creative Discovery Museum have used the matching funds for low-emissivity glass for their iconic building.

We are grateful for our partnerships with Southface Institute and green|spaces, said Henry Schulson, CDMs executive director. The support of both organizations helps the museum achieve its goal of being an environmentally friendly and sustainable institution. Additionally, it has allowed us to expand our sustainability initiatives inside of the museum and through our education programs.

Leslie Gower, executive director of the Associated General Contractors of East Tennessee, is leading the development of a new local trade school  which was one of several local recent recipients. Thanks to the Southface's Good Use Grant and technical support from green|spaces, the Construction Career Center will be Chattanoogas first carbon-neutral building and will serve as a model for industry-leading construction practices with innovative educational labs for students, Gower said.

The matching grant is available to nonprofit organizations that own their own space or have a long term lease, and is incrementally available in amounts of $30,000-$75,000.

Michael Walton, executive director of green|spaces, said he wants to see more nonprofits look at how the financial and environmental cost of their operations might be affecting the potential efficacy of their mission. Every dollar we spend is a vote for something, and especially when funding is hard to come by for nonprofits like us, we have to make sure we are squeezing every last ounce of value out of them, he explained. When we invest in energy efficiency, were investing in a better future for our organizations, our community, and our planet.

Chattanooga nonprofits are uniquely positioned to use existing resources through EPB to better prepare and plan for efficiency upgrades, particularly those seeking grant funding. Through EPB Energy Services, nonprofits can receive a free commercial check-up to highlight high-priority projects that can then be included in their GoodUse grant application. (To get started, customers can visit epb.com/business/energy/energy-solutions.)

EPB applauds efforts to use energy efficiently and we congratulate the winners of these grants, said Elizabeth Hammitt, EPB director of Residential Energy and Environmental Solutions. As a municipal utility with a mission to serve the community, we focus on enhancing job creation and quality of life, and one of the ways we do that is by helping our customers make the most of their energy dollars.

In addition to services for commercial customers, EPB supports residential customers by offering free Home Energy Checkups and phone consultations with an EPB Energy Pro. These services are available to both renters and homeowners; visit epb.com/energy.

Past GoodUse Grant recipients include The Boys and Girls Club, Reflection Riding Arboretum and Nature Center, Chattanooga Food Bank, Speech and Hearing Center, First Baptist Church, the Construction Career Center, The Bethlehem Center, Creative Discovery Museum, and Metropolitan Ministries.

GoodUse Grants next deadline dates are Oct. 1 for fall applications and Feb. 4, 2022 for spring. To get more information, grant application assistance, or to see if your organization is eligible for the next round of grants, contact Kelley Cureton at kelley@greenspaceschattanooga.org.

To find out more about green|spaces work or to get involved in the sustainability of living, working, and building, visit www.greenspaceschattanooga.org.




Tennessee Valley Federal Credit Union announces the Fourth Annual Idea Leap Grant finalists for 2021.

We congratulate these five small businesses who have advanced to Idea Leap Grant finalists, said Tommy Nix, vice president of business and commercial services. These five finalists will all receive grant funds from TVFCU during Startup Week Chattanooga. The Oct. 19 pitch competition will help determine who will win $21K in 2021.

In early September, TVFCU invited the community to help select one of the five finalists. Community members were encouraged to vote for their favorite Idea Leap Grant semifinalist. Ten small businesses were part of the text-voting campaign. Chatt Taste Food Tour received the most votes and was named the Peoples Choice finalist. An independent panel of volunteer community judges selected the other four finalists.

Dionne Jenkins, vice president of diversity and inclusion at Tennessee Valley Federal Credit Union, leads the judging committee. Judges include:

Vickye Bone, vice president, Urban League of Greater Chattanooga

Jennie DeCook, director, Tennessee Small Business Development Center at Cleveland State Community College

Emily Gilliam, credit analyst, Brightbridge Capital

Charles Fisher, partner/director, Grant, Konvalinka & Harrison, P.C.

Diane Parks, retired director of Leadership Chattanooga, Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce

Danielle Landrum, co-owner of Locals Only Gifts and Goods, 2020 Idea Leap Grant Winner & 2021 Celebrity Judge

The 2021 Idea Leap Grant finalists include:

Champion Christian Learning Academy

Location: Chattanooga

Owner: Cynthia Evans

Established: 2017

Grant Wishes: To purchase furniture, playground equipment and learning curriculum.



Lil Mama's Chicago Style Hoagy

Location: Chattanooga

Owner: Tiffany Pauldon-Banks

Established: 2019

Grant Wishes: To invest in continued staff training, marketing, catering and new equipment.

Salon Posh

Location: Athens, Tn.

Owner: Allison Stiller

Established: 2018

Grant Wishes: To expand salon creating a space for continued education for license professionals, as well as adding manicure tables, pedicure chairs and treatment rooms so that we can offer more services.

Wild Violet Permaculture, LLC

Location: Signal Mountain

Owners: Nathaniel Bankhead and Bryant Hawkins

Established: 2020

Grant Wishes: To use the grant monies for three different objectives. First, we need to create comprehensive training programs and materials for both our employees and clients. Secondly, we need to invest in our future native plant nursery on Signal Mountain. Thirdly, we want to scale our compost production and distribution program.

Peoples Choice Finalist

Chatt Taste Food Tours, LLC

Location: Chattanooga

Owner: Briana Garza

Established: 2019

Grant Wishes: To build out the region's first electric mobile dining car, an elevated dining room on wheels.

The next step is TVFCUs Idea Leap Grant Pitch Competition, which will take place on Tuesday, Oct. 19, during Startup Week Chattanooga. Each finalist will have up to five minutes to pitch their business detailing why they are deserving of the grant. A brief socially-distant Q&A session with judges will follow each presentation. Once all the presentations are complete, the judges will deliberate and evaluate the finalists according to a set of assessment criteria. The winners will then receive one of five grants valued at $21,000, $15,000, $10,000, $7,000 and $5,000.

TVFCU is closely monitoring the COVID-19 surge. For the health and wellbeing of all involved, TVFCU may have to pivot from an in-person, outdoor event to a virtual event. Follow TVFCU on social media for the latest competition details.

The Idea Leap Grant is an extension of the credit unions Idea Leap Loan Initiative that was created specifically for small businesses in 2016. To date, TVFCU has funded more than $3.8 million in loans to emerging and early-stage businesses through the loan initiative. Furthermore, TVFCU has awarded more than $125,000 in Idea Leap Grants.

For more information about the Idea Leap Grant, please visit tvfcu.com/IdeaLeapGrant.
The Chattanooga Bar Association on Wednesday presented their prestigious Liberty Bell Award to Major General Bill Raines for his community service.

The retired general helped spearhead the campaign to build the Charles H. Coolidge Medal of Honor Heritage Center. The retired Army general has been very active in veterans affairs in the Chattanooga area including the Chattanooga Area Veterans Council. He is also an active member of the Military Officers Association, the John Sevier Chapter, Sons of the American Revolution and numerous other veterans organization.

Major General Raines retired as a Major General from the Army Reserves on April 15, 2000 after 32 years of services. His last assignment was to the Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, Va. as the vice-director of Strategy, Requirements and Integration. His prior assignment was as deputy commander, 125th U.S. Army Reserve Command in Nashville.

General Raines was commissioned a second lieutenant in 1968 at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, New York, where he also received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Engineering.



With 32 years of military service, he served in many important positions on active duty and in the Army Reserve. During the period June 1968 to June 1973, General Raines served in numerous active duty assignments in Okinawa (Hawk), Vietnam (Battery Commander on the Demilitarized Zone) and Fort Bliss, Texas. After leaving active duty, General Raines held numerous assignments within the 3397th U.S. Army Reserve Garrison in Chattanooga and the 125th ARCOM Headquarters in Nashville.

General Raines returned to active duty during Operations Desert Shield/Storm where he served as the commander of the 3397th USAR Garrison from Chattanooga (the unit was presented the Army Superior Unit Award) at Fort Campbell, Ky. during the period August 1990 to September 1991.

General Raines is a graduate of the Airborne School, Air Defense Artillery School, Command and General Staff College and the Army War College.




Many Bachelor in Paradise fans are wondering whether Brendan Morais and Pieper James are still together after their stint on the summer series. The couple has been wrapped around the drama throughout season 7. Now, its finally coming to an end. So are Pieper and Brendan still together, dating, or engaged now after Bachelor in Paradise 2021? Heres what BIP spoilers say about the reality stars.

[Spoiler alert: This article contains potential spoilers about Brendan Morais and Pieper James from Bachelor in Paradise Season 7.]

Who are Brendan Morais and Pieper James on Bachelor in Paradise Season 7?

Pieper James and Brendan Morais from Bachelor in Paradise 2021 | Craig Sjodin via Getty Images

RELATED: The Bachelorette Tayshia Adams Addresses Brendan Morais After Natasha Parker Reveals What Fans Didnt See on Bachelor in Paradise

Pieper and Brendan have been at the center of the drama during Bachelor in Paradise Season 7. Brendan started seeing Natasha Parker, and it seemed like he was all-in at the time. Then when multiple cast members accused Brendan and Pieper of dating before the show, the 31-year-old from Boston suggested that it was a casual relationship.

That said, Brendan and Pieper got together the moment Pieper showed up in Bachelor in Paradise Season 7 Episode 6. Then on their one-on-one date, Brendan told Pieper they needed to have each others back so they could take advantage of what Paradise would promote together. So many BIP cast members and Bachelor Nation fans accused Pieper and Brendan of using Natasha and the show to chase clout.

Bachelor in Paradise 2021 spoilers on whether Brendan Morais and Pieper James are still together or engaged now

(POST BIP SPOILER): Theyve been seen quite a few times since they left BIP together before the final day, but here was Brendan and Pieper yesterday outside of the SLS hotel in Miami. pic.twitter.com/eZvmrzWQ56  RealitySteve (@RealitySteve) August 22, 2021

RELATED: Bachelor in Paradise: Clues Becca Kufrin and Thomas Jacobs Are Still Together and Dating After the Show Ends

Before the Bachelor in Paradise Season 7 premiere, franchise blogger Reality Steve shared spoilers detailing whether Brendan and Pieper end up together on the show. The spoiler guru stated the reality stars will eventually leave as a couple after theyre called out by other BIP cast members. So its likely Brendan and Pieper dont get engaged on the show. Reality Steve also claimed that Pieper and Brendan continued to date post-Paradise.

Now, Reality Steve has provided a few updates. On Aug. 22, the blogger posted a photo of Brendan and Pieper together in Miami, suggesting that they were still dating.

Theyve been seen quite a few times since they left BIP together before the final day, but here was Brendan and Pieper yesterday outside of the SLS hotel in Miami, Reality Steve wrote on Twitter.

Then ahead of the new Bachelor in Paradise Season 7 episode on Sept. 7, the reality stars teased their time on the show on Instagram. Reality Steve also claimed Pieper and Brendan were still together, suggesting that one of Piepers recent photos was taken by her boyfriend. The blogger wrote:

Brendan posts an IG pic with the caption here for the wrong reasons, and Pieper posts and IG story thats basically sorry, not sorry. So clearly they dont care what you think. Ive posted pics of them together post-show, theyve been seen numerous other times, they were together yesterday in Boston, etc. Those pics on Piepers IG yesterday were taken by Brendan. Like, these two have done nothing to hide the fact theyve been together since the second they left Mexico.

Pieper James and Brendan Morais on their Bachelor in Paradise journey in 2021

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Now, there has been quite a lot of fallout after Bachelor in Paradise exposed Brendan for lying to Natasha about Pieper. So viewers will have to see what happens to Pieper and Brendan moving forward. But Brendan took down the here for the wrong reasons post on Instagram, and he issued an apology after losing thousands of followers.

After taking time to begin to process the events that unfolded over the past few days, I have realized I was wrong on so many different levels, Brendan wrote on Instagram, adding that his now-deleted post was completely insensitive.

Most importantly I apologize to you Natasha, he continued. I hurt you. I am deeply sorry for doing so. I understand that the damage is already done and all I can do going forward is acknowledge the error of my ways.

Brendan also shielded Pieper from the backlash, noting that they had misunderstandings going into the show. So he told Bachelor Nation fans to express disdain for the situation at his expense.

Meanwhile, Pieper briefly shared how she felt when speaking with Us Weekly.

Im not an extension of Brendan and his actions, and I dont condone dishonest behavior, she said. I got caught up in the moment while I was with Brendan in Paradise, and while I dont fully blame editing, it doesnt always tell the whole story.

Bachelor in Paradise Season 7 airs Tuesday nights on ABC.
Alli Dore from Below Deck Sailing Yacht shared that not only did she deliver her son River prematurely, the hospital thought she had coronavirus (Covid-19) so he was immediately separated from her.

She recalled the horrors of giving birth early. But then the anxiety of having her newborn removed because Australia, which is where she lives, continues to be under heavy lockdown. And while Dore said she understands the hospital had to follow protocols, she described the experience as cruel.

Why was Alli Dore from separated from her baby?

Dore first wanted Below Deck Sailing Yacht fans to know that River gets stronger every day and she and boyfriend Benny Thompson hope to bring him home in about a week. But she said those first few moments and days were rough. They said my symptoms of vomiting were symptoms of Covid, Dore recalled on the Pita Party Instagram. And they separated me from my baby for  days. Daisy Kelliher pointed out during the discussion that vomiting can occur during birth and after an epidural. Dore did not have Covid.

Alli Dore from Below Deck Sailing Yacht recounted her horrifying birth story | Laurent Basset/Bravo

It was another level of cruel, she said. Like I totally respect lockdown rules, but it was just so cruel. We had a few other instances. I had a pretty unfortunate string of bad luck for the last three weeks before River did come prematurely. But we had quite a few instances where we came up in moments where he wouldnt be allowed to be with me. Also, Thompson was forbidden from being with his son too.

Below Deck Sailing Yachts Alli Dore says shell carry guilt about the sepration forever

Separating the three of us, I had barely met River, Dore continued. A premature baby, not breathing on his own. Hes separated from his mother. And they sent Benny home to isolate at home. And he was just beside himself, being the protector of our little family. He just felt so helpless.

That was another level of emotion, she said. And I think thats some guilt that Im probably gonna carry for the rest of my life. That I wasnt there for his first moments in life.

RELATED: Below Deck Sailing Yachts Dani Soares and Alli Dore Laugh About How Their Hook up Was the Only Drama-Free Romance in Below Deck History

The interesting thing was that even though I was quarantining in the hospital room, there were still giving him my breast milk, she recalled. They were still giving him colostrum. So I dont understand how that really makes sense. Im not gonna criticize the medical industry. But that didnt make sense to me that they were giving him my breast milk, thinking I had Covid? Below Deck Sailing Yachts Dani Soares, who is studying to become a nurse pointed out that breast milk would have had protective antibodies if Dore had Covid.

River is improving every day and almost ready to go home

Dore gave an update on Rivers progress. River is doing really, really well, she shared. Hes out of the incubator and hes in an open cot now. He breathes on his own. Hes still got a feeding tube in his nose. Still a little bit small to be breastfeeding on his own.

RELATED: Below Deck Sailing Yachts Alli Dore Cried for an Hour After the Reunion

And hes regulating his temperature well, she continued. Hes putting on weight and were hoping to have him home hopefully in a week or a week in a half. But she added that life has been pretty intense and she and Thompson spend every day, all day at the hospital.
George Harrison and John Lennon were close for most of the time. George was like a little brother to John, and they bonded. But their relationship was always a step away from ending. George often felt like he wasnt part of the band, mostly because John and Paul McCartney were the chief songwriters. Eventually, toward the end of The Beatles, George and Johns relationship became even more fragmented. While filming Let It Be, they had a fistfight that resulted in George storming out. His departure didnt phase John, and their relationship sailed into rocky waters.

Later, John was hurt that he wasnt included in Georges autobiography, I, Me, Mine. The ex-Beatles relationship never really healed after that. However, following Johns death in 1980, George paid tribute to his ex-bandmate in the only way he knew how; through music.

George Harrison and John Lennon | Harry Thompson/Evening Standard/Getty Images

What was George Harrison and John Lennons relationship like?

In the documentary, George Harrison: Living in the Material World, George explains that he thought John was initially embarrassed to have him in The Beatles because he was so young. John was this older bad boy, and George looked about 10 years old. However, George really wowed John with his skills. George even taught John new chords and told him that a guitar was supposed to have six strings. John had been playing with only four.

As The Beatles grew more famous, George retreated to the back and became known as the quiet Beatle. John and Paul were the leaders of sorts, writing most of the songs. But they gave George a piece of the action occasionally.

John and George were close for a time, but that all went downhill when the band started to break apart. None of the bandmates truly liked each other toward the end of The Beatles, but John and George actually came to blows. The filming of Let It Be was the worst time for the band, and George stormed out. John already had Georges replacement in mind; Eric Clapton, Georges friend, who, by that point, was already in love with Georges wife, Patti Boyd.

After The Beatles broke up, John offered George an olive branch by inviting him to work on his new album Imagine in 1971. They worked on How Do You Sleep? together, which was a dig at Paul. But when George offered John an olive branch back, inviting him to play at his Concert for Bangladesh, for whatever reason, John and Yoko Ono did not attend.

RELATED: Why John Lennon Shot Down George Harrisons Idea for a Post-Beatles Band

Fast forward to Georges autobiography, I, Me, Mine. John took offense that he was not mentioned. In Johns last interview with Playboy, he spoke about how it hurt that George didnt talk about him in the book. My influence on his life is absolutely zilch and nil, he said. Sadly, the ex-bandmates never got to sort things out between them.

George Harrison wrote John Lennon a song after he died

John was murdered outside his home in New York City in 1980. His death shocked the world, but no one was more shocked and sad than his fellow Beatles. George grieved the loss of his friend in the only way he knew; through music.

George penned a touching tribute song to John shortly after his death. In 1981, he released the song All Those Years Ago, which included references to Johns songs All You Need Is Love and Imagine.

The lyrics say, But you point the way to the truth when you say. All you need is love And you were the one they backed up to the wall. All those years ago. You were the one who imagined it all. All those years ago.

RELATED: John Lennon Reacted Strongly When His Songs Got Compared to George Harrisons

According to Express, George talked about John in an interview in 1990, saying, I hadnt seen him for so long. I didnt see him for two years anyway, occasionally [Id] maybe send a postcard, and its knowing that hes on the other end of the telephone if you do want to call. Thats the difference. Now you need the big cosmic telephone to speak to him. But I believe that life goes on, and so to me, I cant get sad.

George said, Well meet somewhere down the line, and they did. George was the next Beatle to die. So now theyre watching over Paul and Ringo Starr, playing guitar together again.
Another Wednesday, another episode of Marvels What If? Marvel posted a teaser image on Twitter for the newest episode, with Michael B. Jordans Killmonger front and center. Thinking back to the initial trailer drop, fans will finally get to see Black Panthers Killmonger and Tony Stark team up for an adventure through Wakanda.

Wax figure of Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark | Ted Soqui/Corbis via Getty Images

Marvel unveils the teaser image

When the first trailer dropped, fans saw dozens of clips or strange scenarios playing out. Peggy Carters Captain America, the twisted Dr. Strange, and the Marvel Zombies all debuted.

The first shot imagines Killmonger rescuing Tony Stark from his explosion and subsequent kidnapping. Such a massive change excited fans, but there was no sign of the Killmonger and Tony Stark friendship as five episodes released.

With non-connecting episodes, when each of these stories release has remained difficult to predict.

What If Killmonger Rescued Tony Stark? Find out in the sixth episode of Marvel Studios' #WhatIf, streaming tomorrow on @DisneyPlus. pic.twitter.com/YB5JIFhP9r  What If? (@whatifofficial) September 14, 2021

Marvel knows how to hype its fan up, though.

Releasing teaser images each Monday, Marvel gives fans a glimpse into the newest What If? stories each week. The Sept. 13 image announced the return of the fan-favorite villain from Black Panther.

Recalling the What If? trailer, audiences can expect to see Killmonger and Tony Stark teaming up in episode six.

Killmonger and Tony Stark revealed as the focus for episode six

The teaser image shows Killmonger standing out among the other alternate realities, some familiar, like the World War II planes from What IfCaptain Carter was the First Avenger. Others are still shrouded in mystery.

Killmonger still retains his look from Black Panther, sporting his armor and hairstyle in animated glory.

Killmonger arrives in the sixth episode of Marvel Studios' #WhatIf, streaming Wednesday on @DisneyPlus. pic.twitter.com/mggZz2C0XE  What If? (@whatifofficial) September 13, 2021

And as always, the Watcher looms in the background, observing the new events.

According to the Illuminerdi, Michael B. Jordans Erik Stevens/Killmonger will be a key player in an episode of Marvel Studios What If? With this information, the episode could see Killmonger in a leading role rather than a supporting one.

Where will the episode take Killmonger and Tony Stark?

The What If? trailer opened with events similar to the original Iron Man film for those who need a refresher. After an extremist group possessed Stark weapons, they attacked a convoy carrying Tony and kidnapped him.

However, this episode sees Tony rescued by Erik Stevens, AKA, Killmonger.

Killmonger and Tony Stark are likely to end up in Wakanda in the events of the episode, judging by accompanying clips.

In one shot, Killmonger battling attacking robots in Wakanda, brandishing a Wakandan spear and flipping off a battle rhino. Aiding in the fight are various Dora Milaje and members of the Border Tribe.

Another shot sees Pepper Potts armed and fighting in what can be assumed the same fight alongside TChallas sister Shuri.

Where tech goes awry in the Marvel Universe, Tony Stark never seems too far behind. What leads to this robotic attack on Wakanda is still to be seen, but the possibilities are exciting.

Marvels What If? episode six releases on Wednesday, Sept. 15.

RELATED: What If? Mid-Season Trailer Teases New Stories
The 25th James Bond movie, No Time to Die, features two new female agents that can hold their own with 007. Lashana Lynch is Nomi, MI6 agent, and Ana de Armas is Paloma, a Cuban agent, playing pivotal roles to save the world from a scarred mask-wearing villain named Safin (Rami Malek). Heres what to know about these agents helping Daniel Craig complete his last 007 mission.

Women roles in James Bond movies changing with the times

It is part of a strategy by producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson to keep 007 relevant in the modern world. Since taking over from her father, Albert R. Broccoli, Barbara and her half-brother Michael have made an effort to redefine female roles in the world of Bond.

Since Daniel Craig took over as Bond in 2006, strong female characters have been featured in the series. Eva Greens Vesper Lynd was intelligent and emotionally vulnerable, forcing the cold-calculated Bond to open in ways never seen before. Naomie Harris redefined the role of Miss Moneypenny as more integral to Bonds missions providing support in the field, unlike her meek predecessors. And Lea Seydouxs Madeline Swann is a resourceful psychologist capable of evading members of SPECTRE. Swanns courage saves Bond from Mr. Hinx.

Lashana Lynch plays Nomi, an MI6 agent trained to kick butt

Daniel Craig, Lea Seydoux, and Lashana Lynch | Photo by MediaPunch/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images

The official James Bond YouTube channel released a behind-the-scenes featurette on the agents. Nomi is highly skilled, said Lynch of her big role. Shes slightly cocky. Nomi is a character that is more than capable of handling weapons and fight any opponent. It required Lynch to train hard, including learning the routines set out by the Bond stunt and armory teams.

They put me through true military training, said Lynch. It took a while, but she eventually developed the fierceness and stealth-like qualities the producers were looking for. And unlike Craig, she escaped without any major injuries. The Bond actor broke his leg and had the tip of a finger sliced off while filming his final movie.

No Time to Die represents change, said Lynch. You see so many different examples of women being strong in this movie and being badasses, at that. Lynch worked on her character with Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who was brought in the project by Craig to work on the script. The focus was on making Nomi competent and skilled but vulnerable and awkward too.

Ana de Armas as Paloma, Cuban agent, joins 007 to save the world

De Armas only agreed to join the Bond movie after discussing the role with co-writer and director Cary Joji Fukunaga. He assured her it would not be a stereotypical Bond girl. And being a secret agent is yet another proof that she can handle different roles.

Paloma is a Cuban agent, said de Armas. Shes intense. I had many action scenes. Thank God I had an amazing stunts team. I really wanted to get it right and look like I knew what I was doing.

What is No Time to Die about?

No Time to Die is shaping up to be one of the most emotional 007 movies yet. Returning as Bonds girlfriend, Madeline Swann may have a past with Safin. To accomplish his last mission, Bond will need all three strong female characters to save the world once again.

At the beginning of No Time to Die, Bond is no longer a 00-agent enjoying a quiet life with Swann in Jamaica. One day, he gets a visit from his old CIA buddy, Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright), who is looking for a missing scientist. They soon discover that a villain kidnapped the scientist armed with dangerous technology that could kill millions of people.

No Time to Die is Craigs fifth and final 007 movie concluding a storyline that began with Casino Royale in 2006. It will be released in theaters on Sept. 28 in the U.K. and Oct. 8 in Canada and the U.S.

RELATED: No Time to Die How Long is the Running Time? Its the Longest James Bond Movie Ever
Prince Charles has not yet met his second granddaughter, Lilibet Diana. The second in line to the British throne has remained in England due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and has not traveled to California where his son Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, currently reside. When will Charles finally get to meet Lilibet?

Prince Charles, Prince of Wales known as the Duke of Rothesay when in Scotland, visits Alloway Mainstreet on September 09, 2021, in Ayr, United Kingdom | Chris Jackson/Getty Images

Lilibet Diana was named after two key women in Charles life

Lilibet Diana has the names of two key female figures in Charles life. She bears the nickname of his beloved mother, Queen Elizabeth, Lilibet, and his late wife, Princess Diana.

Lilibet was born on June 4, 2021. She is the second child of Charles son Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan. Harry saw his father just before his daughters birth when he returned to England for the funeral of his grandfather Prince Philip.

A friend of the Dukes said to Vanity Fair of the moniker, He loves and respects his grandmother. For Harry, these are two very important and meaningful names. The couple will call their daughter Lili.

Prince Charles is reportedly incredibly sad about not meeting Lilibet

Prince Charles and Prince Harry | Keith Mayhew/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

RELATED: Meghan Markle Was Angered by Prince Charles Future Plans for When He Becomes King, Royal Author Says

Prince Charles has not yet met his granddaughter and reports are that he is incredibly sad.

In an interview with Us Weekly, royal expert Nick Bullen claimed that the prince wants to meet Lili.

I think Prince Charles really wants to meet his granddaughter, said Bullen of the situation. Prince Charles is incredibly sad about everything thats gone on. So the family will want to meet each other.

When may Prince Charles meet his granddaughter?

Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, Prince Andrew, Duke of York, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, Queen Elizabeth II, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge watch a flypast to mark the centenary of the Royal Air Force from the balcony of Buckingham Palace on July 10, 2018 | Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images

RELATED: The Palace Is Trying to Resell the Monarchy to the Public, According to Royal Author

Prince Charles may meet his granddaughter at the Queens Platinum Jubilee.

The Platinum Jubilee marks 70 years of Elizabeths reign as the Queen of England. She is the first British monarch to mark this accolade. Elizabeth became the sovereign ruler of England in 1952 at Westminster Abbey after the death of her father, George VI.

The Jubilee is a perfect opportunity for that because if Harry and Megan do come back  because they have to be seen supporting Queen Elizabeth II. Its a great moment for everyone to be together, Bullen said. And everyones going to have to play nicely and behave well because its the Queens moment.

The celebration will take place on June 2, 2022.

Will the Queen meet Lilibet before Charles?

(L-R) Britains Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, Britains Queen Elizabeth II, Britains Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, Britains Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, Britains Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, Britains Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, and Britains Meghan, Duchess of Sussex attend a reception to mark the 50th Anniversary of the investiture of The Prince of Wales at Buckingham Palace in London on March 5, 2019. DOMINIC LIPINSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

In keeping with royal protocol, Bullen believes the ruling monarch will meet the baby first. He claimed that introduction is a priority.

I think she really would want to. As the queen has always said, Harry and Meghan are much-loved members of the family, and I think the queen rises above all of this petty bickering, he said in an interview with Us Weekly. This is her family. Of course, she wants to be [with] them.

Lili is named after her great-grandmother, Her Majesty the queen, whose family nickname is Lilibet, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex said in a statement following their daughters birth. Her middle name, Diana, was chosen to honor her beloved late grandmother, The Princess of Wales. She is more than we could have ever imagined.
A royal photographer is opening up about what its like to photograph the British royal family. From Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles to Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, royals show up to events with photographers in tow. So whats it like to snap photos of them? When it comes to Harry, royal photograph Chris Jackson says its often a question of whats going to happen.

Prince Harrys been making public appearances since childhood

As the son of Prince Charles and Princess Diana Harry has spent his entire life in the public eye. And while hes admitted its certainly taken a toll on his mental health  in a 2021 podcast interview the 37-year-old likened royal life to The Truman Show and living in a zoo  its also meant hes been attending events and making public appearances where his every move has been documented and scrutinized for decades.

Like his older brother, William, Harry too began carrying out royal duties at a young age, accompanying Charles and Diana on official visits or royal tours. As he got older his royal duties grew which meant more public appearances and photo ops with a gaggle of the press.

Since stepping down as a senior working royal Harry no longer attends events on behalf of the queen and the royal family but the father of two still makes public appearances. They may be fewer and farther between  Harry and his wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex have spent most of 2021 out of the spotlight following the birth of their daughter, Lilibet Lili Diana Mountbatten-Windsor, in June  he still does make appearances and get photographed from time to time.

Royal photographer Chris Jackson says theres always an element of unpredictability photographing Prince Harry

Prince Harry in 2012 | Christophe Simon/AFP via Getty Images

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According to Jackson, who has spent almost the last 20 years photographing the royal family, he doesnt always know what hes going to get when capturing the Duke of Sussexs every move during a public appearance.

Harry has a real energy to his engagements, the Getty Images photographer told People in September 2021. He has an element of unpredictability which has always been special. One example of that was when he joined in a charity run in Rio de Janeiro and he ended up finishing the race with a face mask on. You literally couldnt have predicted that.

Jackson toured Australia with Harry and Meghan in the fall of 2018. Hes also taken official portraits of the queen and captured sweet photos of William taking his oldest son, Prince George of Cambridge, to his first day of school.



Even though Harrys no longer a senior working royal it doesnt mean Jacksons done photographing him. The photographer, who is married to Catherine, Duchess of Cambridges assistant and stylist Natasha Archer, is set to photograph the 2022 Invictus Games in the Netherlands.

Cameras are the worst reminder of Princess Dianas life for him

Princess Diana, Prince William, and Prince Harry | Julian Parker/UK Press via Getty Images

RELATED: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Were Always Destined to Fail as the Fab 4 With Prince William and Kate Middleton, According to Royal Author

Although Harry, as Jackson said, brings energy to his official appearances, theres also an element of sadness there too. In the 2019 documentary Harry & Meghan: An African Journey, the Duke of Sussex said the cameras and spotlight are the worst reminder of Dianas life as opposed to the best, describing that for him its a wound that festers.

I think being part of this family, in this role, in this job, every single time I see a camera, every single time I hear a click, every single time I see a flash it takes me straight back, so in that respect, its the worst reminder of her life as opposed to the best, he said.
Its time to revisit the Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex interview that launched many a meme. An interview the 37-year-old gave nearly 10 years ago just wont quit. Why did it go viral? Because he made an abrupt departure, ripping off his microphone and running away. Now chef Jose Andres is making a nod to it in his profile on Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex for TIMEs 100 Most Influential People of 2021.

Prince Harry gave an interview in Afghanistan but cut it short to respond to an emergency

Prince Harry | Hannah McKay/Getty Images

Harry sat down for an interview to discuss military life in 2013. At the time the then-28-year-old was an Apache helicopter gunner.

In the middle of talking about life in the military, Harry got interrupted by someone off-screen. They appeared to say something before he sprung into action. Harry stood up and quickly removed his microphone before running after his fellow troops to respond to what seemed to be an emergency situation (see the full clip on YouTube).

Jose Andres kicked off his profile on Meghan Markle and Prince Harry with a mention of the viral interview

RELATED: Prince Harry Said the Happiest Time of His Life Was When He Was Far Away From the Royal Family

On Sept. 15, 2021, Harrys birthday, Time magazine announced their 2021 list of the 100 most influential people in the world. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex topped the issues Icons list and appeared on the cover after taking photos at their home in Montecito, Calif. Chef Jose Andres penned a brief profile the couple, which began with a description of Harrys 2013 interview.

Theres a famous TV interview of Harry, the Duke of Sussex, when he was an Apache helicopter gunner a few years ago. Hes sitting close to an airfield in Afghanistan, commenting on some royal news, when theres a bang and a group of soldiers scramble behind him, Andres wrote. In one swift motion, he stands up, rips off his microphone and runs toward the action.

The founder of World Central Kitchen continued, saying Meghans driven by the same sense of urgency. According to Andres, It would be much safer to enjoy their good fortune and stay silent but thats not what they do or who they are. They turn compassion into boots on the ground, give voice to the voiceless, and take risks to help communities in need.

In a world where everyone has an opinion about people they dont know, the duke and duchess have compassion for the people they dont know, he said. They dont just opine. They run toward the struggle.

Prince Harry spent 10 years in the British military

RELATED: Prince Harry Is Fighting to Win Back His Military Titles, Insider Says

During his 10 years in the military, Harry spent 10 weeks on the front lines in Helmand, Afghanistan from late 2007 to early 2008. However, his tour with the British Army was cut short due to a news outlet revealing his location.

The Duke of Sussex went home  Prince Charles and Prince William, Duke of Cambridge picked him up at the airport  but later returned to Afghanistan once more before leaving the army in 2015.

Harry gave up his honorary military appointments after stepping down as a senior working royal in 2020.
In the extensive world of Korean dramas, Whats Wrong with Secretary Kim? is on the list of favorites for many fans. The 2018 webtoon K-drama was a success during its initial run but skyrocketed to international success well after. It is now available on Netflix for a worldwide audience. The hook to many K-dramas is its effective use of tropes.

Tropes are storyline elements and plot points that are often used in many television dramas. K-dramas are renowned for their constant love triangles, bad-boy characters, traumatic pasts, meddling family members, and extreme jealousy. Whats Wrong with Secretary Kim? is a fan favorite because it checks off many tropes that add a level of intrigue and drama.

[Spoiler alert: This article contains spoilers about Whats Wrong with Secretary Kim?]

Actors Park Seo-Joon and Park Min-Young in Whats Wrong with Secretary Kim?

The boss-employee relationship turns into a romance

Whats Wrong with Secretary Kim? is about a company boss whose life is turned upside down when his long-term secretary decides to resign. While trying to get her to stay, the two characters fall in love. Lee Young-Joon (Park Seo-Joon) tries to become the man of Kim Mi-Sos (Park Min-Young) dream by fulfilling her perfect date requirements. But, Mi-So is dead set on leaving so she can live her own life. After spending so many years together, Young-Joon realizes he took Mi-So for granted and starts to realize her true beauty.

Mi-So also realizes her sometimes oblivious boss has a kind heart and falls in love as well. The boss-employee romance trope works wonders as fans get to see their evolving relationship in Whats Wrong with Secretary Kim? The characters are hesitant to give in to their feelings beyond a professional capacity and try to keep their love a secret from the office. It just so happens that Park Seo-Joon was the lead in another K-drama involving a boss-employee relationship.

The childhood acquaintances

RELATED: Hospital Playlist 2: K-Drama Returns From Hiatus With New Romantic Relationships

Another trope fans often spot is when the main characters knew each other years prior or during childhood. The trope acts as a meant to be or destined fate element in the overall story. Whats Wrong with Secretary Kim? used the trope well, and it added a bit of suspense and shock value that fans wanted answers to.

When the K-drama originally aired, according to Soompi, fans were in dire need of answers on whether or not Young-Joon and Mi-So had a history together. It was revealed to be true as Mi-So notices small parallels between Young-Joon and a boy she met as a child. The boy she knew had a different name, and she promised to one day marry him. It is normal for the childhood acquaintances trope to indicate how the K-drama can end. The boy that left a lasting impact on Mi-Sos life really was Young-Joon all along, and she came to remeet him by chance in adulthood. Having a shared childhood led them to fall further in love and marry.

The main characters in Whats Wrong with Secretary Kim? have a troubling past

RELATED: K-drama Actor Song Kang Called The Son of Netflix and Heres Why

It is unlikely that a die-hard or new K-drama fan will find a drama that does not capitalize on the troubled past trope. The trope is infamously used in various genres of K-dramas from historical, fantasy, and romance. A character with a troubled past gives them a level of depth that needs to be unearthed and understood by the other characters and viewers. The trope also alludes to why a lead character acts a certain way. In Whats Wrong with Secretary Kim?, Young-Joon can not be near zip ties as it forces him to remember his troubling childhood.

The K-drama reveals Young-Joon and Mi-So were both kidnapped by the same woman when they were children. While Mi-So was able to escape, Young-Joons experience left him scarred into adulthood. Young-Joons past is interwoven into his familys turmoil and his bad relationship with his brother. The trope also allows Mi-So to help Young-Joon overcome his fears and face his past.

Whats Wrong with Secretary Kim? gained popularity for its riveting use of tropes that are expected by many fans but still add differentiating layers of drama. Joan MacDonald, a Forbes contributor, told ABC News, Its kind of an overall thing like pop is not really one sound. A lot of things fit into it. You will have something like a horror, rom-com that starts out as a gangster story, but its really a black comedy that keeps changing genres all the way through.

Whats Wrong with Secretary Kim? is available to stream on Netflix
By incorporating sugar into the web-like architecture of the electrode they have stabilised the sulfur, preventing it from moving and blanketing the lithium electrode.

Simply by adding sugar, researchers from the Monash Energy Institute have created a longer-lasting, lighter, more sustainable rival to the lithium-ion batteries that are essential for aviation, electric vehicles and submarines.

The Monash team, assisted by CSIRO, report in Nature Communications that using a glucose-based additive on the positive electrode they have managed to stabilise lithium-sulfur battery technology, long touted as the basis for the next generation of batteries.

In less than a decade, this technology could lead to vehicles including electric buses and trucks that can travel from Melbourne to Sydney without recharging. It could also enable innovation in delivery and agricultural drones where light weight is paramount, says lead author Professor Mainak Majumder, from the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and Associate Director of the Monash Energy Institute.

In theory, lithium-sulfur batteries could store two to five times more energy than lithium-ion batteries of the same weight. The problem has been that, in use the electrodes deteriorated rapidly, and the batteries broke down. There were two reasons for this - the positive sulfur electrode suffered from substantial expansion and contraction weakening it and making it inaccessible to lithium, and the negative lithium electrode became contaminated by sulfur compounds.

Last year the Monash team demonstrated they could open the structure of the sulfur electrode to accommodate expansion and make it more accessible to lithium. Now, by incorporating sugar into the web-like architecture of the electrode they have stabilised the sulfur, preventing it from moving and blanketing the lithium electrode.

Test-cell prototypes constructed by the team have been shown to have a charge-discharge life of at least 1000 cycles, while still holding far more capacity than equivalent lithium-ion batteries. So each charge lasts longer, extending the batterys life, says first author and PhD student Yingyi Huang. And manufacturing the batteries doesnt require exotic, toxic, and expensive materials.

Yingyi and her colleagues were inspired by a 1988 geochemistry report that describes how sugar-based substances resist degradations in geological sediments by forming strong bonds with sulfides.

Dr Mahdokht Shaibani, second author and Monash researcher, says, While many of the challenges on the cathode side of the battery has been solved by our team, there is still need for further innovation into the protection of the lithium metal anode to enable large-scale uptake of this promising technology  innovations that may be right around the corner.

The process was developed by the Monash team with significant contribution from Dr Matthew Hills research group in CSIRO Manufacturing.

The Lithium-sulfur Battery Research Program at Monash University has been supported by the Commonwealth Government through the Australian Research Council and the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science. In addition, the work has also been supported by Cleanfuture Energy, Australia, an Australian subsidiary of the Enserv Group of Thailand.

Enserv Australia hopes to develop and manufacture the batteries in Australia, the worlds largest producer of lithium. We would be looking to use the technology to enter the growing market for electric vehicles and electronic devices, says Mark Gustowski, Managing Director of Enserv Australia. We plan to make the first lithium-sulfur batteries in Australia using Australian lithium within about five years.

Enserv is an energy research and innovation company that comprises two core businesses: Clean Energy Innovation and Clean Energy Generation.
I wouldnt be surprised if you havent heard about Rizpah. It took me many years of reading the Bible before I discovered her. And when attempting to gain more insight about her, I became disheartened by how little information is available. The fact that Rizpahs story is generally unknown can be discouraging, but it isnt surprising. Its common for the dominant culture to overlook bodies on the margins.

In order for us to recognize abuelita theologians in Scripture, we must continue to re-center those who have been ignored or pushed aside, because God often resides most powerfully among the most powerless.

Despite being a minor character, Rizpah played a major role.

Rizpah appears twice in the book of 2 Samuel. In her first appearance in 3:611, we learn about the circumstance she finds herself in, a situation in which she is being used as a pawn in the great game of kings. Her body is a site of contention for the monarchy after Sauls death. When we first learn about her, she is a victim caught in a web of male domination, power, and sex. This is not unique to Rizpah or to the women of this time. Many marginalized bodies are still disregarded, abused, and misused today. Sexual violence in the US disproportionately impacts women of color, immigrant women, LGBTQIA+ women, and disabled women.

Rizpahs story of abuse and misuse is one story among many.

She was King Sauls concubine and the mother of two of his sons. A concubine was akin to a mistress and merited a status lower than that of other women. Concubines were included among the spoils of war, often awarded like trophies to victors.

Rizpahs first cameo is short. We dont learn much about her other than the fact that one of Sauls sons, Ishbosheth, is accusing Sauls army general, Abner, of sleeping with her. During this time, sleeping with a kings concubine was akin to attempting to usurp his throne, making Rizpah a casualty of the bloody business of king making.

Womanist scholar Wilda Gafney points out two important details about the accusation: (1) the unprotected woman would have had no choice of consent, and (2) when accused of raping Rizpah, Abner doesnt deny it. Instead, his response to the accusation (2 Sam. 3:810) is to rage, list his past support for Sauls house, and promise to help God keep a divine oath to elevate David.

Because the author isnt filling us in on Rizpahs thoughts or feelings concerning this encounter, I wonder, How did she feel? Did anyone defend her? Did God condone such an act from those in power, those who were put in place to lead Gods people? Asking these sorts of questions not only tunes our ears to listen more intently but sharpens our gaze and softens our hearts toward the vulnerable.

Rizpahs story, and the situation thereof, is complicated. She is presented as a woman without agency. But as we keep reading, her story takes an unexpected turn, reappearing in 2 Samuel 21:114.

By the time we reach chapter 21, years have passed, and its now late during Davids reign as king. The nation of Israel is in a three-year drought and famine. Davidcurious about the circumstancesdecides to inquire of God why the Israelites are suffering without food or water. To Davids surprise, God informs him that his predecessor, King Saul, was at fault because he broke a treaty made with the Gibeonites during his reign. This treaty had been important, as it ensured that the Gibeonites would be protected and secure in their land.

Instead of keeping his end of the deal, however, Saul attempted to exterminate the Gibeonites from Israel. What made this situation even more complicated was that in ancient Israel, when innocent blood was shed, it always needed to be avenged.

After learning about this important piece of history, David decides to go to the offended Gibeonites and ask what they would require to vindicate the unjust murder of their people so that God would end the famine. The Gibeonites decide that they want seven sons from the house of Saul. David, choosing to spare his beloved Jonathans son, hands over Rizpahs two sons, Mephibosheth and Armoni, along with the five sons of Sauls older daughter, Merab.

The Gibeonites take the young men and essentially lynch them, leaving the bodies of Sauls sons and grandsons to rot, exposed and humiliated in the presence of God at a local shrine. This is a particularly vile and insulting punishment, as it also violates Israelite burial practices. Not only was decent burial greatly important in ancient Israel, but the law maintained that burial should always take place before sunset.

I want to circle back to Rizpah as my theological imagination begins churning, imagining what an atrocious circumstance this was for her. Not only were her sons murdered; they were left degraded and exposed to rot in the heat of the sun and to be devoured by wild animals.

I cant fathom the agony and desperation Rizpah felt.

On top of losing her children, she lost her financial security, as women relied on the men in their family to provide for them. Rizpah faced complete and utter destitution. Because she was also intimately aligned with the house of Saulwho was considered a rival of Davidsome argue that she was probably socially ostracized and treated as a political outcast.

But in the midst of this sorrow, Rizpah does something radical and remarkable.

She takes action by asserting herself, choosing to act not only in bravery but also in justice. Scripture tells us that Rizpah took appropriate funeral clothing, spread it out by a rock, and stayed at the scene of the execution from the beginning of the harvest until the rains poured down on the bodies from the skyabout six monthsin an act of protest. Scripture says, She wouldnt let any birds of prey land on the bodies during the day or let wild animals come at nighttime (2 Sam. 21:10).

Rizpah puts her life, her misused and abused marginalized body, on the line to seek justice for her own childrens violated bodies. She wanted justice, and she dared to believe that God wanted justice too.

Rizpah is considered an activist, one who not only took action to seek justice for the bodies but boldly shamed the king for not properly burying Saul and his sons.

But the story doesnt end there. King David heard about Rizpahs vigil, and moved by her actions, he decided to order that the bodies of the young men, along with the bodies of both King Saul and Jonathan, be given a proper and decent burial.

Lynching the men did not heal the land or save the people; doing right by a wronged woman did.

It was only after this that the famine ended.

Lynching the men did not heal the land or save the people; doing right by a wronged woman did.

Oftentimes the most overlooked and untold stories are those that teach us the greatest lessons and offer the truest examples of faith rooted in survival, strength, and resistance. More than that, theyre stories in which the seemingly powerless will stand up to power in an attempt to right wrongs.

Rizpah understood and embodied those abuelita values and the abuelita faith that God wants us all to live out: He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Mic. 6:8 NRSV).

Rizpah not only impacted the political powers that be but brought the waters to rain down from heaven, saving thousands of hungry and thirsty lives.

Content taken from Abuelita Faith by Kat Armas, 2021. Used by permission of Baker Publishing www.bakerpublishinggroup.com.
This summer, my husband and I celebrated two decades of marriage. Weve been together now almost as long as weve been aparta feat made possible by the fact that we married right out of college.

In the not too distant past, couples who married young laid a foundation for a life together. Cultural, religious, and personal values meant that these cornerstone marriages would eventually pass through silver, ruby, and golden anniversaries as a matter of course. Whether the marriage was happy, faithful, or even safe was often beside the point.



By now, however, our cultural views on divorce have changed, as well as our understanding of marriage. Whereas in the past, social and cultural bonds held a marriage in place (sometimes trapping the vulnerable in abusive and dangerous unions), today the weight falls on the individuals. Couples must now want to be together in order to stay together. Were not asking whether we are happy in our marriages but whether we could be happier outside of them.



To make matters even more difficult, the changing nature of marriage means we expect more from our spouses. Famed relationship therapist Esther Perel notes that we ask the same person to give us belonging and identity, continuity and transcendence, comfort and edge, and predictability and surprise.

We are asking from one person, says Perel, what once an entire village used to provide.



And when our expectations are this high, well inevitably be disappointed. Perel calls this conundrum a crisis of desire, because in modern marriage, desire plays an outsized role in not only our couplings but in their permanence.



So what are we to do? How do we pursue faithfulness in a culture that elevates desire above everything? The question is not whether we will be attracted to someone other than our spouse but rather what we will do when that happens. How will we respondnot when we are unhappybut when we think we could potentially be happier? Do we cultivate and entertain such attractions, allowing them to simmer on a back burner?

To walk in a holy, healthy sexual ethic, writes Dorothy Greco in Marriage in the Middle: Embracing Midlife Surprises, Challenges, and Joys, we must refute misguided teaching and recognize when culture is leading us astray.

But rather than grit our teeth and hang on until the end, Greco suggests that the path to long-term fidelity runs through a better understanding of desire and attraction. We will also need to acknowledge the power of our God-given sexuality, she continues, become aware of our areas of temptation, and find the balance between self-control and sexual expression.



Unfortunately, many of us are caught off-guard by temptation, in part because we dont understand our own attractions and desires. Rather than learning to examine those feelings, we often opt for repression and avoidance, only to be surprised when we are swept off our feet by an unexpected connection or attraction to another person.



Repression and avoidance have a Christian name but a pagan lifestyle, writes Rachel Gilson. They rely on the will to suppress desire rather than on Christ to transform it. One of the greatest indictments of these approaches, in Gilsons opinion, is that one does not need Jesus Christ to practice them. And a system that doesnt need Jesus is not meaningfully Christian.



In this respect, its essential that we learn to face desire head on, not to undermine faithfulness, but rather to pursue it.



For guidance, we can look to Christians who are already walking this road of self-awareness, especially those whose experience of attraction hasnt been seamless and simple. People of sexual minorities, for example, are often profoundly aware of their attractions precisely because they dont align with those of their peers. And this awareness grants them perspective and knowledge that the rest of us need.



The evangelical community has expended a lot of conversational energy debating and even policing how faithful members of sexual minorities define their experience of attraction. Can they call themselves gay, or does that elevate sexual identity above identity in Christ? (Both the Southern Baptist Convention national gathering and the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America took up some form of this question this summer.)



Although these debates matter, perhaps our time would be better spent learning from brothers and sisters who are sacrificially committed to traditional Christian teaching on marriage. Their experiences of attraction (or lack thereof) wont culminate in marriage or sexual coupling, which means theyre the very ones suited to teach the rest of us how to live faithfully with our own.

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Their lives testify to the fact that being attracted to someone doesnt mean we have to be with that person, any more than experiencing attraction to someone other than your spouse means the end of your marriage.

Learning to examine our desires and attractionsand how to distinguish between the twohas the potential not only to bridge the gap between LGBT and straight believers but to equip couples for lifelong fidelity. That clarity and nuance will go a long way when you find yourself attracted to someone other than your spouse.

But pursuing lifelong marriage requires even more than a study of desire. We must understand that while yearning to be known and loved is God-given, wanting to have a single person satisfy those needs is not.



Perhaps its time we recovered the village.



When the New Testament authors speak about peoples sexual lives, they do so in context of the community of believers. Unlike our modern notion of marriages and nuclear families as discrete building blocks of society, the Epistles reflect a vision of a larger community in which our marriages and families exist. And this community is made up of many different members, all joined together as the body of Christ.



In this sense, healthy community supports lifelong marriage, not by peer pressure or expectation, but by expanding the kinds of relationships each spouse can access. Here in the family of God, we can learn to relate to each other as fathers, mothers, sisters, and brothers. Out of these relationships, we learn to be better husbands and wives while also mitigating how much we expect of each other.



But here, too, we have to be careful. A group of people cannot become our ultimate source of life, love, and transcendence any more than one other person can. Living faithfully in both community and marriage means learning what many of our unmarried brothers and sisters already know.

In the words of writer Vivian Warren: The love of Jesus will never fail as human loves often do, and it will take me into the other world when the time comes.



Out of this love, we can return to our unions as whole people, committing ourselves again to the calling of marriage. We do not trust our desires or even the years weve already invested. Instead, we take up our vows daily and trust that he who promises to keep us faithfully to the end will also keep us faithful to each other.

Hannah Anderson is the author of Made for More, All Thats Good, and Humble Roots: How Humility Grounds and Nourishes Your Soul.
Marilyn Laszlo always considered herself a Hoosier farmgirl. The 88-year-old died last week just a few miles from her familys nine-acre property outside Valparaiso, Indiana. But the news of her death was felt most deeply in a village on the other side of the world.

A missionary and Bible translator known for her bold faith and powerful storytelling, Laszlo spent 24 years living in the Hauna Village in Papua New Guinea. There, she formulated a written language and translated the Bible for the once-unreached Sepik Iwam people, starting by carving words into banana leaves.

When she passed away from Alzheimers on September 9, village leaders launched a five-day mourning ritual called a house cry in Laszlos honor, covering themselves in mud, grieving, and planning commemorations for a woman who changed their community forever.

The ministry efforts she began in Hauna more than 50 years agoincluding a church, school, and cliniccontinue to this day. They have turned the riverside village into a hub for the region. Up until the COVID-19 outbreak, Lazslos sister and ministry partner Shirley Killosky taught and served in Hauna full time.

Marilyns legacy is still touching lives in Hauna Village and across the world, said John Chestnut, president and CEO of Wycliffe Bible Translators. Laszlo was sent to Hauna through Wycliffe in 1967 and later served as a speaker for the ministry, before launching her organization, Laszlo Mission League, in 2003. Praise God that this faithful servant is now in the presence of her Savior.

Laszlos story of persistence in the face of a challenging mission field was retold in documentaries, memoirs, and, most poignantly, her own speaking appearances in churches and colleges. It was used as a testimony of Gods work in faraway places and as inspiration for Christians to dedicate their lives to the Great Commission.

The number of people who are on the mission field today because of Marilyns story? Who knows, said Topher Philgreen, president of Laszlo Mission League, which estimates that she inspired thousands to become missionaries. We need to carry on what she started. The need is still very large in places like Papua New Guinea.

When she was young, Laszlo would often get asked about the risks of living in a remote jungle community and responded, I have learned that the safest place in the whole world is to be at the center of Gods will.

For her, that was the Hauna village, where she lived to see God meet these people in their own culture and in their own language. Laszlo prayed that God would touch the hearts of believers at home so they could serve the unreached villages around hers.

Laszlo shared the story of her Bible translation work at Urbana 81, where she spoke and played her film Come By Here. In it, Laszlo recounts how leaders in a distant village up the river from Hauna had erected a building with a cross to serve as a church, but they had no missionary or pastor. They just wanted to be ready for when someone like her would come to tell their people about God.

During later visits to HaunaLaszlo took her final trip there in 2013, before her memory worsenedshe would meet with members of the original team who helped create the New Testament translation decades before, as well as American missionaries who moved overseas after hearing her story.

Andy Keener, now executive vice president for partnerships at Wycliffe, first met Laszlo on a mission trip to the village in 1985. He said that God used her example to call him to his lifelong work in Bible translation. He described Laszlo as a passionate and skilled storyteller who was committed to the story of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Laszlo completed the Sepik Iwam translation in 1990, bringing men from her translation team to speak in the US the following year, including at a Billy Graham Crusade.

For the rest of her ministry career, she spoke and promoted mission work, retiring due to her health in 2012.

Audiences laughed when Laszlo quipped that all her Bible translation training didnt prepare her to be greeted by a group of villagers wearing zero clothes. Laszlo shared that when she and her missionary partner first arrived, the village gathered to debate whether they were men or women, only to decide these white strangers must have been neither.

Shed walk across the stage, animated, acting out what it was like to try to get them to tell her the word for house or tree, only for them to say finger because she was pointing so much.

Marilyn Laszlo was tough as nails and had guts for Jesus; and she will be greatly missed, said Franklin Graham, who got to know Laszlo through her work in Papua New Guinea in the early 1980s and authored the foreword to her book Mission Possible. To know Marilyn Laszlo was to know a woman of good humor, grace, and grit. She wasnt afraid of anything and her compassion for people was the hallmark of ministry throughout her life.

She was born in Gary, Indiana, as one of four sisters in the Laszlo family and grew up helping her dad on the family farm in Liberty Township. A graduate of Bryan College and Indiana University, she taught high school prior to following Gods call to missions and studying at the Summer Institute of Linguistics.

Wycliffe has said that more than half its translations had been conducted by single women like Laszlo, and Laszlo Mission League plans to launch a scholarship in her name to support women in the field.

Philgreen said, If she could do anything, she would love to see a women get a clear path into Bible translation ministries and for such ministries to reach the goal of getting a Bible into every language and to every unreached people group.

When Laszlo first arrived among the Sepik Iwam, they had no written language and no knowledge of Christianity. And within her lifetime, the villagers were able to communicate with fellow believers in the US almost daily through WhatsApp.

Philgreen messaged last week to let them know Lazslo was in her final days. The day they heard the news, the Bible training school in Hauna celebrated eight more graduates from its programeager to teach the same Good News she brought half a century before.

Her memorial service will take place October 5, 2021, at Liberty Bible Church in Chesterton, Indiana, and will be livestreamed through the Laszlo Mission League site.
Genesis 1 tells us that God formed the beauties of creation simply because he enjoys them. He made a beautiful world, and then he made people who can appreciate and contribute to that beauty.



Even a cursory glance at any historical period shows us that artistry plays a central role in developing culture and sustaining healthy, thriving communities. In the 6th century BC, when King Nebuchadnezzar captured the Israelites and set about dismantling the nation, he not only exiled the military, he also made sure to destroy the artists and craftsmen (2 Kings 24).



He knew that if he wanted to conquer Jerusalem, he would not only have to overcome the military force, but also those who were responsible for establishing the heart and soul of the culture, the makers.

The formation of creative community has encountered a different kind of adversary in the West. The Industrial Revolution mechanized and streamlined production for the sake of simple uniformity; the focus on efficiency and profit drove craftsmanship into the shadows. Creativity was mortgaged to save margins, and the flourishes and personal qualities of gifted artisans were left to fend for themselves in a harsh economic arena.



Unfortunately, the local church has not been immune to this focus on efficiency. The rise of the industrialized megachurchwith millions of dollars raised for the sake of comfortable and symmetrical square buildingsalong with the gradual disappearance of the local congregation, meant that the exquisite neighborhood chapels built long ago by talented, local artisans now sit empty or are appreciated as private residences or amazing cafes.



The modern evangelical church streamlines its expenses when it comes to its physical buildings, giving only fleeting thought to the role of awe and wonder, which are often considered superfluous and excessive. Why have a beautiful sanctuary when a Family Life Center and gymnasium will do? Our places of worship have become indistinguishable from shopping malls, the bland and mundane providing function but lacking inspiration, leaving our latent desire for beauty and transcendence unaddressed in our congregational life.



And yet, the impulse to make sprouts up everywhere, even in a society that deprives it of oxygen and opportunity. Creative desire is, at its core, more than a mere personality trait or interestits a fundamental component of who we are, as creations made in the image of God.



Genesis opens with God creating the heavens and the earth, but it goes on to reveal these creative mandates for Adam and beyond, both in the flora and fauna of the garden, as well as in the building of a place that hosts the very presence of God. God created lightfiat luxbut also created individual humans to be illuminators in their own right.



We are most engaged in Gods creation when we ourselves create and when we take joy in the beautiful work of others. And so, we invite you to meet ten makers whose artistry and intention draw us to delight in God and his world.
Babylon Bee joins legal battle in support of Florida law fighting social media censorship

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The Babylon Bee, a popular Christian satire website, has joined a legal battle over a new Florida law that, among other things, seeks to prevent social media platforms from censoring certain viewpoints.

Earlier this year, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Senate Bill 7072 into law that protects users by prohibiting social media sites from censoring or deplatforming people or organizations they disagree with and requires big tech companies to comply with federal and state laws, among numerous other compliance standards.

Babylon Bee LLC and Not the Bee LLC, the latter being a straight news website, filed an amicus brief on Wednesday in the case of NetChoice LLC, et al. v. Attorney General of Florida, et al.

In their brief, The Bee and Not the Bee expressed support for the Florida law, with the Christian sites noting their own history of being censored by major social media outlets.

They also stated that they support a desire for an intellectually diverse social media universe in which all Americans  including those of the religious center-right  have an equal platform to advocate their views.

At a minimum, Amici want social media platforms to transparently announce and evenhandedly apply their content standards, as Floridas Senate Bill 7072 requires them to do, the amicus brief continued.

The two Christian websites are being represented by the First Liberty Institute, a conservative law firm based in Plano, Texas.

Social media giants have lied to the public about allowing intellectual diversity on their platforms and are selectively applying their standards to censor disfavored conservative and religious speech, said FLI Senior Counsel Jordan Pratt in a statement released Wednesday.

Floridas law is a basic consumer-protection regulation that simply holds social media platforms accountable to the image of neutrality that they project, and it is consistent with federal law and the First Amendment.

Also known as The Stop Social Media Censorship Act, DeSantis said in a statement back in May that the new law would ensure that We the People  real Floridians across the Sunshine State  are guaranteed protection against the Silicon Valley elites.

Many in our state have experienced censorship and other tyrannical behavior firsthand in Cuba and Venezuela, the governor said earlier this year.

If Big Tech censors enforce rules inconsistently, to discriminate in favor of the dominant Silicon Valley ideology, they will now be held accountable.

The Act was scheduled to take effect on July 1, however, U.S. District Judge Robert L. Hinkle of the Northern Districtof Florida issued a preliminary injunction against parts of the law.

The legislation compels providers to host speech that violates their standards  speech they otherwise would not host  and forbids providers from speaking as they otherwise would, wrote Hinkle.

The governors signing statement and numerous remarks of legislators show rather clearly that the legislation is viewpoint-based. And parts contravene a federal statute.
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An earlier article summarized a recent interview with Mark Jacob, former Attorney General of Kaduna State in Nigeria and currently a Nigerian barrister, by Robert Reilly, president of the Westminster Institute, regarding the ongoing mass murders of Christians in Nigeria, and the apparent complicity of the government of President Muhammed Buhari in the killings.



Reilly then asked Robert Destro, former Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor in the Trump administration, and currently Professor of Law at the Catholic University of America, for his perspective of the current persecution in Nigeria.

Destro said that the function of the government is to protect the physical security of the people. He said that there is no local police in Nigeria, only a federal police force, and they do not act when people call. If local people try to defend themselves, they are arrested. He said that during the Trump administration, he was asked by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to try to make sense of the situation. What he discovered was a lack of recognition of physical security as the most basic of human rights. This seems to be calculated, he said.



Polls taken in Nigeria show that the fear of kidnapping for ransom is the greatest fear that people have. He noted that in the most recent attacks in Nigeria, the attackers are destroying crops, with the obvious objective of pushing people off the land. He said that the situation is best described as the government acquiesces in a major land grab by ethno-religious groups from the north and from other areas around Nigeria.

Destro said that getting the State Department to break out of this received narrative of climate change was literally like pulling teeth. He said that his briefing before leaving Washington was entirely the climate change narrative, and only when he got to Nigeria did American personnel there tell him what was really happening on the ground, which was essentially what Mark Jacob described. Destro said that if herdsmen need land to graze cattle, they can rent pasture land. But the real conflict is not a climate change issue.



He said that the State Department is so completely wrapped up in both preserving the status quo in its relationship with the Buhari government, it seems unwilling or unable to come to grips with not only whats happening in the north and middle belt, but also to connect the dots with whats happening with Boko Haram and the growth of Islamic fundamentalism.

Reilly asked what about the effect of placing Nigeria on this list of Countries of Particular Concern? Destro said that the Nigerian government was not happy about it. The big issue, Destro said, will be to look very close at aid being given to Nigeria, and what its being used for.

Reilly asked Jacob what the reaction in Nigeria was to placing the country on the State Departments list of Countries of Particular Concern. Jacob said absolutely we were relieved that for the first time the world or the United States was rejecting the false narrative that has been pushed across the world by the Nigerian government to hide the truth from the world. While religious systemic killing is ongoing, the government, because of its approach and its policy of Islamization, does not want that to be let out. He said that while it was good that America finally recognized what is going on, the Nigerian government was very angry with the State Departments action.

Reilly next asked what Christians in the south are doing to help Christians in the Middle Belt. Jacob said that people in the south are conflicted by family loyalties, as many have Muslim relatives, and therefore they want to appear evenhanded. He said that Christian leaders even in the south will hesitate before speaking out.

Destro said that with respect to the American government, when it comes to religious issues people would prefer not to look. When he was in government, his concern for the physical security of Nigerians was translated as all Destro wants to do is help the Christians. The desire not to rock the boat, in calling these atrocities what they are, is really very difficult. He said that we saw the same kind of denial of religious basis for terrorist action when ISIS appeared. In Nigeria, he said that the country is at war with itself  the religious and ethnic components are simply not understood, because nobody talks about them.



It is quite important, Destro said, that the police protect the physical safety of every one of its citizens equally. Where this does not happen, as is the case in Nigeria, and is beginning to be the case in certain jurisdictions in the United States, what exists is a politicized justice system that cant really be tolerant.

Destro then turned to the Nigerian state of Borno, which he said is the eye of the storm in the war prosecuted by Boko Haram. About a year ago, many international aid agencies found that they simply cannot do business there anymore. He said that the governor himself has been kidnapped.

Reilly asked about Destros comment that the government of Borno is encouraging the destruction of churches. The question was referred to Jacob. Jacob said this is often done by cancelling a churchs certificate of occupancy. He said that the policy in Borno, Kano, and other northeast states is that no certificates of occupancy will be given for churches or beer drinking places. Christians in those areas who turn to other types of buildings to hold worship services risk having those buildings torn down. The governments in these states no longer pretend that churches are being destroyed by Boko Haram, but are acting directly to prevent churches from functioning.

Destro remarked that this is what happens when you close your eyes to the religious and ethnic dimensions of this struggle. He said that Boko Haram now regards Borno state as Dar-al-Islam, or the Land of Islam. This means that churches have no place there. He said that not only is physical security a problem, but these is also an attempt to push people out. There are many internally displaced people in Nigeria. The country is coming apart, he said. Eventually, Destro said, internally displaced refugees in Nigeria will attempt to emigrate, to Europe or America.

Reilly asked how closely religious divisions are tied to tribal divisions. Jacob said that religious affiliation is tied closely to tribal affiliation. There are a few Muslims in his tribe, and there are some Hausa and Fulani Christians, but they are small minorities. In certain areas of Nigeria, ones religion may preclude one from advancement. Riley asked if this wasnt against Nigerias constitution. Jacob said that it is, but people have gone to court about this, and not gotten justice, because the judiciary is intimidated.

Reilly asked what hope there might be for the future. Jacob said there must be an internal reckoning, in which Nigerians decide what kind of country they want, because we cannot go on like this. He believes that if the Nigerian government continues with the current Presidents policies this country will break. Reilly asked what would be the forum for such a conversation or negotiation. Jacob said it would have to be an inter-tribal negotiation, since the National Assembly is skewed in its representation to the north. Destro said that both the United States and European countries are effectively supporting the Buhari government, and commonly not asking hard questions. Attempts to ask those questions are met with anger by the Buhari government. So Western actors in Nigeria generally stick with a narrative that avoids ethnicity, and especially, religion.

As noted at the beginning of the previous article, murder and violence against Christians with state complicity seems to be, if anything, increasing in Nigeria (a 60% increase last year and 1,470 murdered in just the first four months of 2021). The Nigeria based International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law claims 43,000 Christians murdered by Nigerian jihadist in the last 12 years, 18,500 disappeared and 17,500 churches attacked.

Perhaps the greatest awareness we should be left with from Reillys interviews with Jacob and Destro is that Christians are being murdered constantly in Nigeria, with no protection from the state. Indeed, the army may actively assist the jihadists, as happened with the destruction of a Christian orphanage in the northeastern Plateau State at the beginning of last month. It doesnt come easily to Americans living in the comfort and security of life in this country to imagine what life is like knowing that one can be killed, raped, mutilated, or have ones home, farm, or church destroyed at any moment, with likely no state protection.

Although Reilly identified Nigeria as the first democracy ever assigned the Country of Particular Concern (CPC) designation for its violations of religious freedom, one has to wonder, given Mark Jacobs description of the on-the-ground political situation in Nigeria, whether it can really be classified as a democracy at this point. That situation and the personal danger in speaking out, makes Nigeria appear closer to a dictatorship. Democracy is, after all, a continuum, and even hard dictatorships hold (controlled) elections and have constitutions that specify rights. Freedom House rates the country as Partly Free, with political, civil liberties, and overall scores about half of what they could be.

Christians should pray for the deliverance of Nigerian Christians, as the persecution there is ongoing and may even be increasing. Their plight, and the religious motive of Islamization behind it, needs to be continually highlighted to the American government and public. Aid and arms sales to the Nigerian government by America or other western countries should be contingent on very marked improvement in the rule of law, civil liberties, and state protection of its citizens from violence.



Very importantly, Nigerias CPC designation, given in the closing days of the Trump Administration, should be maintained by the Biden Administration until there is a dramatic change in the countrys treatment of non-Muslims. Finally, Christians ought to maintain an eternal perspective on this and other situations of severe persecution. Faithfulness in times of persecution is a glory to God, and should be an inspiration to His disciples.

Originally published at Juicy Ecumenism.

Rick Plasterer is a staff writer for IRD concerned particularly with domestic religious liberty. He attended Eastern Mennonite College (now University) receiving a B.A. degree in history and sociology, and an M.S. in library science from Drexel University.
Christians in Afghanistan facing 'new phase' of crisis, have lost contact with US ministries

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Christian ministries have lost contact with numerous partners in Afghanistan as the embattled country enters a new phase of the crisis sparked by the Taliban takeover, the head of a U.S.-based ministry has said.

William Stark, International Christian Concerns regional manager for South Asia, told The Christian Post that when the Taliban took control of much of Afghanistan following the drawing down of U.S. troops in August, many ministries working with the countrys underground church worked tirelessly to evacuate at-risk Christians.

Now, as Christians trapped in the country face an uncertain future, many have gone silent, desperately seeking to avoid the probing eyes of the Taliban.

Christians are now in hiding because of active threats against their community, Stark said.

He shared stories of how Christians continue to face threats from members of the Taliban. In one situation, an Islamic extremist threatened to kidnap a Christian mans daughters and marry them off to members of the Taliban. In another, a Christian man received a letter from the Taliban saying his house belonged to them. Christians have also been warned to refrain from gathering.

Even within the networks that we have, a number of people have changed their phone numbers because its simply not safe anymore, Stark said. Their work to lie low in the country makes it hard for someone on the outside to stay in contact.

Many estimate the Christian population in Afghanistan to be as many as 12,000, making it one of the countrys largest religious minorities. Afghanistan is over 99% Muslim.

Though all religious minorities in Afghanistan are at risk under Taliban rule, Christians are particularly vulnerable, Stark said, because the vast majority of them have converted to Christianity from Islam. Under Sharia law, leaving Islam is a crime punishable by death.

We talk about Christians as a religious minority, but to the Taliban, theyre seen as apostates, criminals and people that deserve to be punished, Stark explained.

As persecution continues to increase, Afghan Christians need help from the outside to escape their circumstances, he said.

It's going to take a diplomatic process by the U.S., the U.K. and other countries that are going to allow them to leave that country, he said. Essentially, what they need is some sort of special status that would allow them to travel outside of Afghanistan.

Many Aghan Christians are rural, uneducated and don't have a passport, he added, so many of them are unable to acquire the documents needed to leave the country.

Because they don't have passports, and they can't work with the government in order to issue them a passport, it makes it very challenging for them to be able to leave the country, Stark said.

ICC has been advocating for the U.S., the U.K. and other governments to create a special status for Afghan Christians to give them a legal avenue to leave Afghanistan and seek refugee status elsewhere in the world.

As some voices are calling on the government to limit the number of refugees entering from Afghanistan to the U.S., Stark called for nuance. He posited that only allowing Afghans who might be targets of Taliban violence due to their U.S. affiliations into the country leaves little room for Christians.

Vulnerable populations, like the Christian community, often don't fall within that the group of people that work with the military, he said. If we draw a hard line and say only people that did that can be allowed to leave and come to the United States, we're essentially putting a line through most Christians being able to get out of the country.

We have to make sure were not casting out vulnerable populations who are very deserving of resettlement, he added.

ICC is not the only persecution watchdog to share reports of missing Christian contacts in Afghanistan. Nehemiah, from Forgotten Missionaries International, recently shared with Mission Network News the story of a man named Abdar who disappeared after traveling to Afghanistan for evangelism purposes.

He was with us for the last few months, Nehemiah said. He is from Afghanistan, studying in Pakistan, and he said last month that he was going to Afghanistan for evangelism purposes. Its been more than a week since we have been unable to hear from him. We have lost contact.

Nehemiah said: Christians in Afghanistan will be bracing themselves. Will they be forced to convert back to Islam? Will they be killed if they refuse?

In late August, human rights group ADF International urged the international community to address the dire plight of religious minority communities in Afghanistan.

As disturbing accounts of killings, harassment and intimidation against them are rapidly emerging, we urge States and the international community to give utmost attention to these persecuted minorities and guarantee the conditions for their prompt and safe exit from the country, irrespective of whether they have valid travel documents, ADF said.
Evangelical media leader blasts cancel culture' in new book: Enough is enough

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A prominent evangelical Christian media leader has authored a new book that seeks to spread awareness of the dangers of cancel culture to Christians.

Stephen Strang, the founder of Charisma Media and its flagship publication Charisma magazine, critiqued cancel culture and how it can negatively impact Christians in his latest book released earlier this month, God and Cancel Culture: Stand Strong Before Its Too Late.

The book documents incidents of cancel culture committed on social media and by big businesses. Such cases include the backlash MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell got in response to his claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. Lindell wrote the forward for the book.

In an interview with The Christian Post, Strang said that he wrote the book because he believes that people have been trying to cancel Christianity in some way or another, going all the way back to the Roman Empire.

It was a way to write about all the stuff thats going on. And I am particularly concerned about cancel culture, he explained, adding that enough is enough.

CP spoke with Strang about how cancel culture is a danger to Christians and how politically charged censorship should be tackled. Below are edited excerpts from the interview.

CP: In your introduction, you wrote: "Cancel culture isn't new. Censorship, propaganda, and coercion have always been tools of the powerful throughout history, going by different names in each generation and under each new, intolerant regime." Have there been times when American Christians have engaged in "cancel culture" to advance conservative ideas?

Strang: Have Christians done it? Well, if somebody said something that was heretical, of course, there was an effort not to do it. And I suppose that, in a way, Prohibition was an effort to cancel what in that generation was considered sinful behavior.

I dont think that it's tit-for-tat by any means. But I acknowledge that trying to cancel other people is part of the human experience to some extent.

CP: The book featured comments from people who spoke of ways of fighting back, such as boycotting and "buycotting," becoming better educated about history, etc. Do you agree these strategies are good ways to fight cancel culture?

Strang: Ive never really been an advocate of boycotts. But boycotts are so extreme on the other side now that were in a position where we have no option but to try to stand strong.

I believe that if we do nothing, we end up losing everything. Thats certainly the trajectory. But if we let people know that the attempts to eliminate the Christian voice and to punish Christians for believing the Bible and articulating that, that they wont get away with it. Its certainly not to punish, but its just to stand up for our rights and just say, enough is enough.

CP: In addition to documenting examples of social media cancel culture, you also wrote extensively about state-sponsored cancel culture, citing California's heavy restrictions on in-person worship that were eventually struck down by the Supreme Court. Do you believe that state-sponsored cancel culture will eventually become more common than social media cancel culture? Or will cancel culture always remain a mostly non-government-driven phenomenon?

Strang: Time will tell.

When the government gets involved, at some point, it becomes force of law. People can be put in jail, those kinds of things. And we certainly see that. We see it right now in communist countries.

We have a Constitution that gives us a Bill of Rights that starts with religious freedom and freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. And most Americans, including me, felt that this would continue for as long as there was America.

I personally believe that some of these governors, [California Gov.] Gavin Newsom is probably the best example, have no love for the Church. And this was an opportunity, in the name of health, to restrict churches and, even more important, to say theyre not important.

They used the term nonessential, that was the word. And how can you say that the Church is not essential during a crisis? If anything, people need the Church and the community of Church, especially those who are believers, to cope with depression and all kinds of other things that came with the shutdown of the pandemic.

Left-wing rioters were not expected to social distance or have masks. And they were actually lauded, by Gavin Newsom in particular.

Our constitutional rights dont end when a crisis happens.

CP: Do you believe there are times when social media sites can justify canceling someone based on the content of their posts?

Strang: [Social media sites are] like public utilities in a way. The water company does not decide that theyre not going to give water to your house or your office just because you voted for Donald Trump or same thing with the telephone company. The telephone company wont decide, Oh, you belong to the Ku Klux Klan. Were not going to give you electricity.

Also, its just one-sided; Its totally one-sided, and theres a hostility, and its not just religious things.

If you say, "people get better using Ivermectin," youre taken down. And theres reason to believe Ivermectin works, but it goes against a certain view of how we should approach COVID-19.

There are a lot of other examples as well. And the idea that [social media sites] would take down the president of the United States, I mean it is just absurd.

I am just saying, the whole point of the book is this is absurd, thats absurd. At what point should we say, enough is enough? I believe the point is now, and thats why I wrote the book.
Was Jesus really "racist" against the Syrophoenician woman?

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Earlier this year I found myself enmeshed in one of those social media battles that consumes a whole evening, the kind I usually end up regretting. This was about the accounts in the Gospels of Mark and of Matthew about Jesus and His encounter with the Syrophoenician Woman in which He used a metaphor about dogs and bread. I was shocked to hear people accusing Jesus of being a bigot, a misogynist, even of calling the woman "the B word." I'm not talking about the usual array of adolescent atheist trolls (of whatever actual chronological age); I'm talking about published authors and academics, and not atheists, but rather young men from evangelical Christian backgrounds.

I had run across this idea a few times in past years, in progressive mainline church circles, but only occasionally. What shocked me was how quickly this idea has gone "viral," from a "daring" pushing of the progressive envelope among the usual suspects, to the mainstreaming of the idea among "woke" evangelicals and "ex-vangelicals." I tried to explain why they were wrong by looking at the passage in context and talking about the grammar of the original Greek and the historical context. But nothing changed their minds. I realized that they couldn't be reasoned or researched out of this error because they hadn't been reasoned or researched into it in the first place. Eventually, I disconnected from the conversation because it was so terribly sad to watch.

But last Sunday the Lectionary text was this account. The Lectionary is a schedule for reading the Bible which is followed by Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, Episcopalian, Lutheran, and some other churches. I was scheduled to guest preach, so I spent a few weeks studying the Gospel accounts in detail. With half of Christendom, perhaps, reading and hearing sermons on this text on the same day, including some members of my own family who, as it turned out, last Sunday visited a progressive Episcopalian church where the sermon expressed the same erroneous view I had been fighting, it is clear that this is something which had to be, and has to be dealt with.

Let me start with my core area of expertise, economics. This event recorded in the Gospels happened in the region of the city of Tyre. If you've read my book or articles about the New Testament and economics, you know that I think it's important not to ignore details such as place names, and the political, cultural and (yes) economic distinctives of each place in which these episodes in the Gospels occur. We'll come back to Tyre's economic base in a bit.

The woman asks Jesus to cast a demon out of her daughter. Jesus does not initially grant her request, and his disciples urge Him to send the woman away. Jesus does not send her away, instead He explains that his priority is first to the flock of Israel, and then uses a metaphor explaining that it would be wrong to take the bread from the children and throw it to dogs, but that rather the children should be fed first. Instead of rejecting Jesus' metaphor, the woman accepts it and extends it, arguing that the dogs do receive the crumbs which fall from the children's table. Jesus responds by praising her faith and addressing her with the honorific "Woman" and grants her request to deliver her daughter.

Here are something things you need to know about this passage:

Jesus does not use the standard New Testament Greek word for "dog", He uses a diminutive (small) form of the word which suggest a small household dog rather than wild street dogs. This event is the only time this Greek word is used in the New Testament to describe a dog, and it is not used in the Greek translations of the Old Testament. Now, words do have ranges of meaning, so it is possible that He just meant "dog," the dictionary definition indicates a small, often household, dog and other times when Jesus talks about dogs in negative ways, it uses the standard word.

While dogs are unclean in Torah, and Biblical references to dogs are quite often negative, that is not universal. One of the great heroes of the conquest of the Promised Land was a faithful man named Caleb, believed by many biblical scholars to be a Gentile. "Caleb" means, or is associated with, "dog" or dog-like characteristics. So there is arguably an established precedent in the Bible for a canine metaphor for a faithful gentile who wants to align with the God of Israel. Furthermore, Caleb joins Joshua and asks a favor of him, which may take on added meaning when we are reminded that Joshua and Jesus are essentially the same name when read in the original languages. So a loyal gentile named "Dog" pledges loyalty to the authority of an Old Testament hero who shares a name with Jesus. In addition, in the story of Lazarus and the Rich Man the dogs come and lick his wounds, which is at least plausibly a positive reference to dogs.

So, it appears that Jesus is offering this woman a certain role in His metaphor, the role of a member of the household. By telling a story about young people and household puppies, pets, doggies?... He suggests that her people might be suitable to be members of His house. Let's set aside the ridiculous idea that He is calling her the B word. First, it's grammatically impossible. He used the neuter case, not the feminine, and He used plural, not singular. He's not calling her anything. He's describing a class of people, probably gentiles.

Also, let's get rid of the idea that He is dehumanizing her by using an animal analogy. The Bible is filled with metaphors comparing humans to various animals, many of them positive. Jesus is the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, and saying that is not denying His humanity. In fact, in this very encounter with the Syrophoenician woman He refers to the "lost sheep off the house of Israel." So this is not 'Jews are humans; gentiles are animals.' Both are humans and both can be described with animal analogies. Also, please note Jesus' reference to "the house of Israel," which clearly fits with the theme that household inclusion is a theme here. Jesus' objection is not that she is a dog who doesn't deserve help, but rather that His first obligation is to His own household (otherwise He would be worse than an infidel,) who should not have bread "taken from" them.

The woman clearly sees Jesus' meaning. He mentions household dogs, she embraces and extends the metaphor (using the same Greek word.) Puppies do get the bread, but it is not take away from the babies, it simply falls to the floor. Of course, that only happens in the household space. The table is not out in the wilderness with wild dogs or even in the street, it's in the house or courtyard, otherwise her metaphor doesnt make any sense. Jesus suggests the role of a dog who is a faithful member of the house of Israel (like Caleb before) and she responds with a metaphor which makes that scenario even more explicit. Puppies crowd around the tables while the children eat, waiting for crumbs. By the way, she does change one word of Jesus metaphor. He used the general term for young people, whereas she switches that to something again more diminutive, perhaps even a bit softer and more affectionate, more like babes. Like a good puppy, she's showing affection for the little ones.

But, of course, some people just can't get past the whole dog analogy. They remain fixated on the generally negative associations that Israel had with dogs. The problem with this fixation is that Jesus wasn't talking to an Israelite. If the charge is that He insulted her, then the focus must be on how she would receive the dog metaphor. "Dawg" is an affectionate term in American slang. Spouses sometimes call each other "pet." Context is everything here. So what was her context?

Tyre's economy was highly associated with the production of purple dye. It was almost certainly the most important commodity on which the economy was built. It was so important to the Phoenician civilization's identity that the name Phoenicia is likely based on the name of the color known as Tyronian Purple.

But what does all of that have to do with dogs?

Well, both in Phoenician mythology and in Phoenician history the discovery of the dye is credited to you guessed it a dog! In some legends it is Hercules' dog, in other legends it is the dog of the Phoenician god Melquart. One historian attributes the discovery to the dog of a fisherman. But in every case, the actual discovery of the commodity on which Tyre's economy is built is attributed to a dog.

In fact, there was a coin in circulation during that period which commemorates the episode, showing an image of a dog discovering the shellfish from which the dye came. In addition, recent archeological digs of the Phoenician city of Ashkelon show an extensive network of dog graves throughout the city, in which the dogs are all laid out ritualistically in the same position, in what is so far the largest ancient animal cemetery ever discovered. This is not the treatment one would expect from a culture that despised dogs. It may well have something to do with the dog's perceived role as the discoverer of the dye on which the economy was built and on which the very name of the civilization was based.

And Ashkelon shared a close association with Tyre, having been put under Tyronian control by the Persian empire. One ancient historian describes Ashkelon as a "City of Tyrians".

In that context, it appears that Jesus did not insult or dehumanize the woman, but instead invited her into His household. She understood the overture and responded to it in a humble and clever way, accepting the bread of life which was being dropped from the table of children of Israel. (Remember that Jesus went to Tyre after having been confronted by Judean religious scribes for eating bread with unclean hands.) Her willingness to take the historic role of loyal gentile, like Caleb (or like the former Tyronian King Hiram, who had a close trading relationship with David) caused Him not just to accept her but to elevate her using an honorific which is only used of one other woman in the New Testament, Jesus' mother Mary.

Promulgators of the racist Jesus calumny have matters not just regular wrong, but perfectly wrong--a complete inversion of the truth. Jesus is shockingly willing to engage, invite, accept and elevate a woman from a civilization which was not just an enemy of Israel, but an on-going enemy of His own home province, Galilee. The shocking thing, once we take into account the economic and political context of this encounter, is His generosity.
Christian school agrees to implement COVID-19 protocols after county threatens closure

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A Christian school in Colorado has agreed to implement various measures to curb the spread of COVID-19 among its students and staff after receiving an order from local health officials threatening closure if steps aren't taken.

Resurrection Christian School of Loveland garnered national headlines when it received an order from Larimer County officials stating that it must implement various COVID-19 protocols or face the possibility of being shut down.

Kori Wilford, a spokesperson with the Larimer County Health Department, told The Christian Post on Tuesday that the school and local officials were working together to implement the protocols.

RCS is working with our team to implement practices and protocols designed to keep as many students and staff learning and working safely, in person, while the outbreak resolves, detailed Wilford.

The best practices required of RCS are proven strategies to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and stop the current climb in cases associated with the outbreak. The hope is that by implementing these measures quickly, the risk to students, staff, and visitors to the school will be reduced and in person learning can continue.

Wilford said that while the county order demanded that the school implement these protocols by Monday, the county agreed to a deadline extension.

These practices were to be implemented Monday, 9/13, and upon RCS letting us know they could not meet that, we granted them a short extension, Wilford continued.

The Christian Post reached out to Resurrection Christian School. However, the private school did not respond by press time.

Resurrection Christian School experienced a coronavirus outbreak earlier this month, with at least 40 positive cases being reported by local media.

According to a report by Loveland Reporter-Herald last week, Resurrection Christian was refusing to comply with demands that they implement COVID-19 protocols, such as masking and social distancing.

Measures that the county demanded to be implemented as part of a mitigation effort included mandatory face coverings for students and staff, as well as maintaining 3 feet of social distancing. The order also called on the school to cohort students, compile seating charts and vaccination status of students and conduct contract tracing for quarantine purposes.

RCS is refusing to work with and communicate with public health staff, stated the Larimer County Department of Health and Environment in a statement.

They are not implementing practices and protocols designed to keep as many students and staff learning and working safely, in-person, while the outbreak resolves.

Larimer County Public Health Director Tom Gonzales sent a highly publicized letter last Thursday to the school, demanding that the school work with the county or face closure.

The order stated that state regulations require each county to "investigate and control the causes of epidemic or communicable diseases and conditions affecting public health." Additionally, the order argued that the county has authority to "To close schools and public places and to prohibit gatherings of people when necessary to protect public health."

LCDHE is concerned about the health of the students, staff and visitors of RCS and the failure thus far to effectively implement any control measures, wrote Gonzales at the time.

Maintaining in-person learning is the primary goal, but this cannot be possible if the outbreak continues and cases increase.

Resurrection Christian had earlier rejected the county's demands to implement safety protocols. In an email sent to families, the school's Superintendent Jerry Eshleman argued that the county had "no authority" over the private institution. According to The Fort Collins Coloradoan, Eshleman told the school community on Sept. 7 that it had obtained legal counsel and would not require masks or other safety protocols.
Bleak future ahead for majority of Americans due to lower education: study

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Americans who dont have a college degree are now facing a bleak and deadlier future compared to those who do, according to Princeton researchers who recently found increasing deaths by drugs, alcohol and suicide, known as deaths of despair, are largely concentrated among this group while a college degree appears to act as a talisman against them.

In their working paper, The Great Divide: Education, Despair and Death published this month, husband and wife research team, Anne Case and Nobel Prize winner Angus Deaton, build on previous research examining the relationship between mortality and education in America.

Deaths of despair, morbidity and emotional distress continue to rise in the U.S. The increases are largely borne by those without a four-year college degree  the majority of American adults, the researchers wrote in the paper published this month. For many less-educated Americans, the economy and society are no longer providing the basis for a good life. Concurrently, all-cause mortality in the U.S. is diverging by education  falling for the college-educated and rising for those without a degree  something not seen in other rich countries.

Some 32.1% of the population 25 years of age and older holds at least a bachelors degree, according to data from the American Community Survey. In recent reports, however, as college-educated women grapple with the diminishing returns from degrees, many men, some who have cited these diminishing returns, are now completely choosing to forgo college.

If I was going to be a doctor or a lawyer, then obviously those people need a formal education. But there are definitely ways to get around it now, Daniel Briles, 18, who graduated in June from Hastings High School in Hastings, Minnesota, told The Wall Street Journal in a recent report. There are opportunities that werent taught in school that could be a lot more promising than getting a degree.

Case and Deaton cited data showing that the age-adjusted alcohol-related mortality rate among non-Hispanic whites between the ages of 25 and 74 increased by 41% between 2013 and 2019. At the same time, the suicide rate for this group rose by 17% as the drug-related mortality rate skyrocketed by 73%.

After 2010, deaths of despair also began increasing among black Americans and Hispanics without a bachelors degree. For both groups, drug-related mortality more than doubled between 2013 and 2019 as the suicide rate increased by one-third. Additionally, alcohol-related mortality rates increased by 30% for blacks without a bachelors degree and 24% for Hispanics.

These statistics are for the period leading up to the COVID epidemic. Unfortunately, if (when) vaccinations control the virus, there is no reason to expect that these deaths of despair among less-educated Americans will decline, the researchers said.

The Princeton academics also highlight how the progress in the fight against deaths from cardiovascular disease, which led to increases in life expectancy in the final quarter of the 20th century, has now leveled off, even for those with the degree, while reversing for those without.

To highlight the nature of the disparity in the quality of life between the educated and the less educated, Case and Deaton pointed to the suicide rate, which they report is currently at its highest level since 1938.

Contrary to what was long believed, suicide rates in the U.S. are higher among those with less education. While the age-adjusted suicide rate almost doubled from 1992 to 2019 among WNHs ages 2574 without a BA, increasing from 17.6 to 31.1 per 100,000, there was almost no increase among those with the degree, the researchers note in their study.

Suicide rates were declining between 1990 and 2010 for less-educated Hispanics and BNHs, but rates began to rise after 2010, increasing from 7 to 10 per 100,000 (age-adjusted 25-74) between 2010 and 2019.

In their final thoughts on the situation, Case and Deaton noted that Growing inequality in America since 1970 includes diverging fortunes for those with and without a four-year college degree. The evidence on growing mortality and morbidity that we first highlighted in 2015 continues up to and into the COVID-19 pandemic.

Even if the opioid epidemic is brought under control  itself a very difficult task given that so much of the supply is now illegal  the underlying despair is likely to remain, they concluded. The prospects for less-educated Americans remain bleak unless there are fundamental changes in the way that the American economy operates.
Former Archbishop of Canterbury denounces assisted suicide

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The former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Williams of Oystermouth has spoken strongly against assisted suicide.

Parliamentarians are once again considering changing the law to permit assisted suicide, having previously rejected an attempt in 2015.

In a statement to the British Medical Journal, Williams said it was "hard to see that any new facts have emerged in recent years that would justify the changes envisaged."

"The arguments remain essentially the same," he said.

The former archbishop said that although he opposed legalizing assisted suicide "on religious principle," there were further strong grounds for maintaining a legal ban.

"The concerns that continue to be expressed are about what we believe to be the unacceptably high price of a change in the law," he said.

Some of these concerns involve pressure on seriously ill patients "which may (very understandably) come from overstrained families as well as overstretched medical systems."

"We should note that fear of such pressure within the medical system may discourage seriously ill patients from seeking appropriate medical help; the issues of doctor-patient trust involved are real," Williams added.

He questioned whether the quality of palliative care in Britain would diminish "if there are less expensive options," and warned of the difficulty in establishing the conditions for an assisted suicide to be granted.

"There are immensely complicated questions around how the law is to identify conditions that would 'justify' medical intervention that has the direct and intended consequence of ending life," he said, adding, "Many disability groups also have strong views on this set of problems."

His comments stand in stark contrast to another former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, who has reiterated his support in recent days.

A recent YouGov poll found that only a third of MPs support changing the law to legalize assisted suicide.

Originally published at Christian Today
Gov. Gavin Newsom declares victory as AP projects him surviving California recall election

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California Gov. Gavin Newsom has survived a recall challenge, according to the projected results from The Associated Press.

For the recall ballot, a voter first was asked whether they supported recalling Newsom and then, as a second question, they were asked which of the 46 registered candidates they wanted to replace Newsom as governor.

With approximately two-thirds of the ballots counted, the no to recalling Newsom answer held a 30-point lead over the yes option, according to the AP.

Fox News also reported that the race was called for Newsom, noting that of the 68% of the vote counted, over 5.8 million voted no to recall while nearly 3.3 million voted yes.

At a press conference held late Tuesday evening, Newsom claimed that his victory meant that we said yes to science, we said yes to vaccines, we said yes to ending this pandemic.

We said yes to diversity, we said yes to inclusion, we said yes to pluralism, Newsom added. We said yes to all those things we hold dear as Californians and, I would argue, as Americans.

Larry Elder, a 69-year-old African American conservative radio host considered the front runner among the 46 candidates running against Newsom, conceded the race on Tuesday evening.

However, Elder also hinted at a rematch with Newsom, who will be up for reelection next year, telling supporters to stay tuned and that we may have lost the battle, but we are going to win the war.

Elected governor by a landslide in 2018, Newsom became the subject of a recall election when critics of his administration gathered enough signatures in April to trigger the special vote.

Polling before the recall had indicated that Newsom was likely going to survive the challenge, with both FiveThirtyEight and RealClearPolitics predicting a win for the incumbent Democrat.

Before and during the recall election, allegations of voter fraud and mishandling of ballots garnered attention online and in local media.

Conservative political commentator David Rubin took to YouTube to claim he had had issues with his ballot being processed, while some in San Fernando Valley said their ballots were denied by the machines.

Regarding the San Fernando situation, the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorders office replied to local media outlet KTLA that there were device issues that were eventually handled.

After troubleshooting the issue, the equipment at the locations was replaced and voting continued, a spokesman for the office said, as reported by KTLA.

Tuesdays vote marked only the fourth recall gubernatorial election in American history, with the first being held in 1921 and the next three having been held after 2000.

In 2003, California voters successfully recalled Democratic Gov. Gray Davis, with Republican and notable action movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger winning the recall election.

Republican Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin was the subject of a recall election in 2012. However, he secured enough votes to remain in office. Walker was later defeated by Democrat Tony Evers in the gubernatorial election of 2018.
Jailed Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai honored at National Catholic Prayer Breakfast

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WASHINGTON  A notable media entrepreneur and religious freedom advocate currently imprisoned in Hong Kong was honored with an award at the 2021 National Catholic Prayer Breakfast for his commitment to advancing the mission of the Catholic Church as a layperson.

Jimmy Lai, the 73-year-old founder of Apple Daily, a pro-democracy publication critical of the Chinese government, was honored with the 2021 Christifideles Laici Award at the annual National Catholic Prayer Breakfast Tuesday at the Marriott Marquis Hotel.

Named after a 1988 apostolic exhortation written by Pope St. John Paul II, the Christifideles Laici Award is presented to lay Catholics who embark on individual missions on behalf of the Church and the world and work to stir and promote a deeper awareness among all the faithful of the gift and responsibility they share, both as a group and as individuals, in the communion and mission of the Church.

Lai, who also founded the now-defunct Hong Kong-based periodical Next Magazine, could not accept the award in person because he has been imprisoned in Hong Kong for the past 10 months.

Sharing Lais story at the event, National Catholic Prayer Breakfast Founder Joseph Cella reported that the activist was jailed because of his efforts to defend and expand human dignity and to live out and uphold the mission of the Catholic faith in addition to supporting fundamental human rights in China.

It is an honor of the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast Board of Directors to salute and thank Mr. Jimmy Lai for his courageous work for freedom, human rights, justice and support for the Catholic Church in China as the 2021 recipient of the Christifideles Laici Award, he announced.

The award expresses honor and gratitude for fidelity to the Church, exemplary, selfless and steadfast service in the Lords Vineyard.

Cella explained that Lai has consistently advocated for a free press in China informing the world about the political and religious persecution that occurs every day in China. He credited Lai with inspiring millions to defend their God-given rights and supporting the dignity of the individual through his ardent support of the Catholic Church.

Additionally, Cella praised Lai as a man of extraordinary means serving ordinary men and women longing for freedom and the opportunity to fully and freely practice their faith.

A video montage of Lai was played. The video included a clip of Lai asserting that the [Chinese Communist Party] is very afraid of organization because if you have a faith, you could easily organize together and oppose them because our religion, which is the foundation of morality and values which the CCP does not have."

"This is where they are most vulnerable," Lai said in the clip. Chinese people are looking for a faith in addition to their life."

In April, Lai was sentenced to 14 months in prison for unauthorized assembly related to pro-Democracy protests in 2019.

After the montage concluded, William McGurn, a member of The Wall Street Journal editorial board who once served as chief speechwriter for President George W. Bush, accepted the award on Lais behalf.

McGurn noted that his relationship with Jimmy is personal because Lai is McGurns godson.

Hes in prison today for a simple reason, McGurn said. His publications told the truth about China and Hong Kong. And though communism comes in many flavors  Soviet, Chinese, Cuban  the one thing that unites them all is that communism can never tolerate truth or truth tellers.

According to McGurn, Jimmy was received into the Catholic Church just before the British returned Hong Kong to China in 1997."

"For many of us who lived through those times, it was a dark moment," McGurn said. "Jimmys baptism then came as a sign of hope amid the gloom, like a small green shoe breaking through the concrete.

Jimmy believes we were created for truth and that it is our job to speak the truth, especially  when no one else will at whatever the cost," he added. "How else could a man so willingly exchange the comfortable life of a Hong Kong multimillionaire for the prison cell of a Chinese dissident?

McGurn recalled how he received an email from Lais wife shortly after his arrest containing a photo of the media entrepreneur in chains and handcuffs in prison. She asserted that "the security forces were doing it to Jimmy to humiliate him."

But McGurn said he told her not to worry since the people of Hong Kong see those handcuffs and chains as badges of honor because every man, woman and child in Hong Kong knows that Jimmy chose those handcuffs and chains.

Because of his personal wealth, Lai had the ability to leave Hong Kong and live in one of his apartments in Paris and Tokyo and Taipei," McGurn detailed.

Stressing that no one would have blamed him if he had, McGurn remarked that if you thought that was ever a possibility, you dont know Jimmy Lai.

Jimmy submitted to the chains and the handcuffs as an act of solidarity with the thousands of fellow Hong Kongers far less famous than he is, people who did not have the choice he did and were likewise arrested, McGurn added. We are already seeing the fruits of Jimmys witness in the baptisms of some of his fellow prisoners. So while Jimmy may be stuck in prison, his soul remains free.

McGurn compared Lai to Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, a Soviet dissident who once wrote: Bless you, prison. Bless you for being in my life. For there, lying on the rotting prison straw, I came to realize that the object of life is not prosperity as we are made to believe but the maturity of the human soul.

Urging the audience to pray for Lai and other political prisoners, McGurn told the audience to never, ever let anyone tell you your prayers are wasted because theres a good man unjustly held in a prison cell on the other side of the world who would tell you that your prayers are what keeps him going.

According to the National Catholic Prayer Breakfasts website, the annual gathering was first held in 2004 in response to Saint John Paul IIs call for a new evangelization. In the past, prominent politicians, including former Vice President Mike Pence and former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Paul Ryan, have spoken at the event.
Sadie Robertson Huff urges Christians to differentiate God's truth from their own opinions

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Duck Dynasty star and outspoken Christian Sadie Robertson Huff urged young people to discern between God's truth and Satan's lies at a recent womens conference in Louisiana, challenging those in her generation who call their personal opinions "my truth."

At the LO Sister Conference on Aug. 27 and Aug. 28 in West Monroe, Huff presented the audience with the idea that they can either choose to be influenced by Gods voice of truth or Satans voice of lies." She pushed back against the trend today of people being influenced by prevailing societal opinions on certain topics rather than discerning what God has to say on those matters.

Girls, there is a truth, and there is a lie. You have to understand that, said Huff in her sermon. There is a Savior who is the truth and there is a devil who is a liar. They are both available. They are both going to be speaking. The question is: who are you listening to?

When a lie is mixed in with the truth, Huff said, it can be hard for people to see the truth.

The hardest thing for our generation is knowing what truth is, the reality TV star continued. This is really leading us down a bad path.

Thats a scary way to live.  When we are so entitled in our opinion that we change our truth so that no one can tell [us] that its wrong, she said. It can be very confusing when we dont have a standard for truth because if nothing is true, then now we will say, what is love? or what is freedom' because its all relative and it can all change?

She pointed out that some today refer to their personal opinions as "my truth" so that nobody can tell them they are wrong. She cited an Urban Dictionary definition of "my truth" being nothing more than a "Pretentious substitute for 'non-negotiable personal opinion.'"

Huff said in order to avoid temptations from the enemy in the world, one must be on guard. She also said when Christians do not allow the Holy Spirit to convict them, it can be because they listened to a lie.

When we dont allow the Spirit to stop us in the moment, to have discernment to hear the voice of the enemy ... we start to change our whole identity," she said. "And all of a sudden, we are our anxiety, we are our depression, we are our sexuality, we are our addictions, we are all of these things and we dont know how we got here or why we got here. But if you go all the way back, there was a little lie planted that you took on as your truth."

The 24-year-old said that reading the Bible can serve as a guide that can potentially lead to being able to tell the difference between lies and truth.

But, instead, you would hear [lies] and read the Word and say, I am not my sexuality, I am actually not my anxiety.  That is not my identity.  I am a daughter of a good Father, who created me, who has healed me, who has redeemed me, who has washed me clean by the blood of sin, Huff continued.

Huff added that it's better for Christians to find their truth in the Word of God and not based on what everyone else says or does.

This is whats really happening in our day: Whatever the majority says is true  without even thinking, 'is this actually logical' and without even thinking, 'does this actually benefit my life'  we just take it as truth. And it impacts our lives in greater ways than you think, she shared.

Huff followed up with a scripture reading of Jesus speaking in John 8:43.

Why do you not understand what I say? Is it because you cannot bear to hear My Word? You are of your father, the Devil, and your will is to do the fathers desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and he is the father of lies.

After reading the Bible passage, Huff presented a series of questions relating to the process of decision making.

Is it because the crowd is doing it? Is it because thats what's trendy? Is it because thats whats cool right now?" she asked. "Or is it because [you] believed a lie a long time ago and didnt realize? Do I feel like I have truth in me or do I feel like a thief has come and stolen, killed and destroyed my life?

If youre sitting here right now and youre saying, Ive chosen what the crowd has chosen, Ive chosen what the enemy spoke over me, I am living a lie. I believe my life is meaningless. I believe my life has no purpose. I identify with my sexuality. I identify as my addiction. I identify with the things the enemy has spoken over me and convinced me to do. Im living a sinful life, but today I want to choose Jesus. You can, Huff added.

Huff stressed to attendees that they all have the option to choose Jesus.

Your life is not over because your life does have meaning, she concluded. Theres a reason youre here tonight, opening the Word of God. Theres a reason theres conviction in your heart because the Holy Spirit is moving.
National Archives says harmful language' alert covers all documents, not just US Constitution

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Following criticism, the U.S. National Archives Records Association has clarified that the harmful language" alert recently introduced on its website for the U.S. Constitution is a blanket notice that also applies to pages featuring other historical documents in its database.

Conservative radio host Todd Starnes stirred controversy last week when he shared a screenshot of the NARA website, revealing that the U.S. Constitution is now accompanied by a harmful language" alert. In response, the NARA received immense pushback on social media.

This alert is not connected to any specific records, but appears at the top of the page while you are using the online Catalog (https://t.co/dwGmbXhjFP).



To learn more about why the alert about harmful language appears in our Catalog, please go to https://t.co/E3uoAKaF5J  US National Archives (@USNatArchives) September 7, 2021

The criticism prompted NARA to issue a response, asserting that This alert is not connected to any specific records, but appears at the top of the page while you are using the online Catalog.

NARAs records span the history of the United States, and it is our charge to preserve and make available these historical records, the federal agency explained in a statement. As a result, some of the materials presented here may reflect outdated, biased, offensive, and possibly violent views and opinions. In addition, some of the materials may relate to violent or graphic events and are preserved for their historical significance.

NARA's statement added that some items may  reflect racist, sexist, ableist, misogynistic/misogynoir, and xenophobic opinions and attitudes; be discriminatory towards or exclude diverse views on sexuality, gender, religion, and more; include graphic content of historical events such as violent death, medical procedures, crime, wars/terrorist acts, natural disasters and more; [and] demonstrate bias and exclusion in institutional collecting and digitization policies.

NARA was established by Congress in 1934 to preserve and protect documentation of American heritage. The agency vowed to [work] in conjunction with diverse communities, [and] seek to balance the preservation of this history with sensitivity to how these materials are presented to and perceived by users.

Earlier this year, NARA released a task force report on racism. The report determined that the National Archives Rotunda in Washington, D.C., which houses the founding documents of the U.S., reflects structural racism because it lauds wealthy White men in the nations founding while marginalizing BIPOC, women, and other communities.

The task force also criticized the structural nature of racism that permeates all aspects of work and workplace culture at NARA.

The report cited the May 2020 death of African American George Floyd in police custody as the reason why NARA decided to discuss systems of racial inequality in our customer-facing operations and internally within our workplaces."

The task force also defined reverse racism as a fallacy and impossible, as the power structure of the United States has historically benefitted white people and continues to do so today.

Defining structural racism as the overarching system of racial bias across institutions and society, the report concluded that the phenomenon unequivocally impacts how NARA staff interact with records, colleagues, and customers.

According to Freedom of Information Act records obtained by Fox News, approximately 800 NARA employees attended a town hall meeting of the task force on May 11. At the meeting, a presenter from a museum subgroup told a story about a black congressional staffer who objected to the charters of freedom label assigned to the historical documents.

It happened during a tour of the Rotunda led by the congressional office, the presenter said. During this tour, the leader referred to the Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights as the charters of freedom, which many of us often do. It was at this point that one of the tour members, a black congressional staffer, turned to him and said, Those are not my charters of freedom.

I tell this story because it demonstrates the importance of the work of the task force, the presenter continued. We never want our exhibits, programs or educational materials to make people feel alienated or excluded.

Additionally, the subgroup recommended a reimagining of the Rotunda, alleging that it fails to tell the whole story of slavery.
2 elderly pastors imprisoned for their faith in Eritrea

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Two elderly pastors are being held in Eritreas maximum-security interrogation center as one of the worlds most repressive and closed countries continues to persecute Christians.

Pastor Girmay Araya, 75, and Pastor Samuel Okbamichael, 74, were taken from their homes in the middle of the night and brought to an unknown location, the news agency Church in Chains reported, according to the U.S.-based persecution watchdog International Christian Concern. It later emerged that the two pastors were taken to the maximum-security Wengel Mermera Central Criminal Investigation interrogation centre 

Police intended to also arrest 72-year-old Pastor Georgio Gebreab but they found him sick in bed and told him he was under house arrest until he is well enough to be taken into custody.

When arrested, Eritreas persecuted Christians often disappear without a trace, leaving their loved ones with no information on their whereabouts or safety. Prison conditions are some of the harshest in the world, with inmates kept in shipping containers and believers often tortured in an attempt to get them to renounce their faith.

Eritreas President Isaias Afewerki is a member of the Eritrean Orthodox Church in Asmara  belonging to the largest among the only three Christian denominations allowed to function in the country: the Eritrean Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Lutheran churches.

Afewerki, 75, whos the leader of the ruling Peoples Front for Democracy and Justice Party, also has a reputation of being an alcoholic and a ruthless autocrat. Afewerkis policy of restrictions is more about his fear that religion will mobilize people as a political force than religion itself.

In March, authorities raided two separate prayer meetings in Asmara and the city of Assab and imprisoned 13 of the 35 Christians, including several women, who were taken into custody, ICC reported at the time.

Its not known if the 13 Christians have been released.

In February, 70 Christians from evangelical and Orthodox backgrounds, including women, were released from three prisons in Eritrea, some after being held without charge for more than a decade.

Since last September, at least 160 Christians had been released from prisons in Eritrea at the time, but the news arrests dampened hopes that the government was easing its harsh repressive policy against Christians, Barnabas Fund said at the time.

In Eritrea, citizens have a duty to report anything untoward happening in their community, Release International added. This can turn ordinary neighbors into spies. In some cases, their own family members have reported Christians.
China: Police raid Christian music school, arrest principal

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Communist authorities in Chinas Heilongjiang province raided a Christian music school, took away dozens of students and teachers for investigation and arrested the principal, according to a report.

More than 30 officials from the Chinese Communist Party, including SWAT officers, police officers, religious affairs bureau officials and local school district administrators raided Maizi Christian Music High School in Harbin city last Saturday, the U.S.-based rights group China Aid reported.

The officials arrested more than 100 students and most of the staff and released them after an interrogation that lasted for 24 hours. They also confiscated pianos, computers and documents belonging to the school, which caters to students who are younger than 18 and is dedicated to cultivating Christian musicians.

About one-and-a-half hours earlier, police officers stopped the school principal, identified only as Xu, while he took his child to school. Officers transported Xu to their police station and drove his child home to his mother.

Xus whereabouts was not known as of Saturday, and some teachers were still subject to follow-up interrogations.

As the school charges $2,631 (17,000 RMB) for tuition from each student, the authorities might charge Xu for providing illegal education.

Principal Xu has had his home raided twice six months ago, a friend of Xu told The Epoch Times, according to the U.S.-based persecution watchdog International Christian Concern. His phone has always been tapped. Despite our best efforts to learn about his whereabouts, we have received no news.

If a school is not authorized, then the government will arrest the responsible with all its energy, ICC added.

Open Doors USA, which monitors persecution in over 60 countries, estimates that there are about 97 million Christians in China, a large percentage of whom worship in what China considers to be illegal and unregistered underground house churches.

Gina Goh, ICCs regional manager for Southeast Asia, previously said: Beijing seeks to intimidate the leaders in hopes that the churches will dissolve due to fear. Their plot will not succeed, thanks to the resiliency of the Chinese house church. They survived the Cultural Revolution, and they will survive Xis era as well.

Under the direction of President Xi, officials from the CCP have been enforcing strict controls on religion, according to a report released in March by China Aid.

Authorities in China are also cracking down on Christianity by removing Bible apps and Christian WeChat public accounts as new highly restrictive administrative measures on religious staff went into effect this year.

China is ranked on Open Doors USAs World Watch List as one of the worst countries in the world when it comes to the persecution of Christians.

The U.S. State Department has also labeled China as a country of particular concern for continuing to engage in particularly severe violations of religious freedom.
Christian leader warns persecution could be far worse if Biden pulls out of Iraq

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President Joe Biden's plans to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of the year could lead to increased persecution of Christians and other religious minorities, the president of the Congress of Christian Leaders has argued.

Rev. Johnnie Moore, a former commissioner of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and an evangelical communications executive, recently spoke with conservative commentator Glenn Beck on his podcast and discussed the situation for Christians in the Middle East.

The interview comes over a month after Biden announced that the U.S. will end its combat mission in Iraq by the end of the year but will continue to train and advise the Iraqi military.

Considering all the despair surrounding the pullout of U.S. forces in Afghanistan this year and the rise of the Taliban in that country, Beck asked Moore, should we be trying to convince those people [in Iraq] ... get out right now?

Im always hesitant to say Get out right now.' But these are decisions for these people to make, Moore responded. But Im telling you if I were sitting there in northern Iraq, watching the exact same people in Washington, D.C., do the exact same thing with another country ...

So if Im a Christian or Yazidi or another threatened community sitting in Iraq, yeah, I would be getting out of there as quickly as I could," he continued.

Moore, the author of Defying ISIS: Preserving Christianity in the Place of Its Birth and in Your Own Backyard, warned that "we could see" what took place in Afghanistan "all over again."

"But once this genie is out of the bottle, you thought ISIS was bad five or six years ago, you haven't seen anything yet," he said, referencing the Islamic State terrorist group that killed and enslaved thousands after it conquered large swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria in 2014.

According to estimates, there were about 1.5 million Christians in Iraq in 2003, and the number has reduced to fewer than 250,000.

Even after the defeat of the Islamic State in Iraq in December 2017, many of Iraqs Christians havent found their homeland liveable. They have either not returned home or have continued to leave the country.

Following the drawing down of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, the Taliban quickly seized control of much of the country, taking the capital Kabul last month and forcing the government to flee.

Afghanistans newly formed interim government includes more than a dozen leaders who are designated terrorists and ex-Guantanamo detainees.

The U.S.-based persecution watchdog International Christian Concern warned last week that as the Taliban is cracking down on protests and journalists, concerns are being raised among religious minorities of increased oppression and persecution because the Taliban have promised strict enforcement of Sharia law.

Almost all Afghan Christians  estimated to be between 8,000 and 12,000  are converts from Islam and remain largely closeted and hidden from the public eye due to severe persecution.

Their status as converts makes Afghan Christians direct targets for persecution by both extremist groups and society in general, ICC reports. In Afghanistan, leaving Islam is considered extremely shameful and converts can face dire consequences if their conversion is discovered.

The fears are not unfounded, given the new leadership.

Prior to the Talibans takeover of the country, Afghanistan was one of the hardest places in the world to be a Christian, ICCs Regional Manager for South Asia William Stark said in a statement. With the Taliban now in complete control and likely to return the country to the oppression of the 1990s, it will be nearly impossible to be a Christian in Afghanistan.
Hindu mob brutally attacks pastor summoned to police station over claims of 'false' conversions

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A Christian pastor summoned to a police station in Indias Chhattisgarh state was brutally beaten by a mob of 50 Hindu nationalists who were waiting for his arrival.

The mob falsely accused Pastor Ankush Bariaya of converting Hindus illegally and began beating the pastor with shoes and fists inside the Purani Basti Police Station in the state capital of Raipur, U.S.-based persecution watchdog International Christian Concern said in a statement on Saturday.

A witness at the scene was quoted as saying that the attack seemed to be "well planned."

"I think the police knew about the attack before it took place. It is sad that Christians are not safe even inside the police station, the witness, believed to be one of the two pastors who accompanied Bariayar, added.

The pastor who was attacked was quoted as saying: They told me to my face that they would kill me. I thought I was safe, being with the police in their premises, but I was wrong. In the beginning, the police did not do anything to protect me from the attack. After they hit me with the shoe and punched me in my face, the police then tried to stop them from beating me.

Police registered a case against only seven of the people who were part of the mob, but then identified and arrested only two of them.

Dont we have the right to go to the police station and talk to the police? Dr. Arun Pannalal, president of the Chhattisgarh Christian Forum, asked when speaking to journalists. Why didnt the police stop the attackers and protect Pastor Bariayar?

He continued: We have the right to choose any religion and propagate that religion.  The government must take the strictest action against the attackers who brazenly attacked the pastor. This needs to be taken to the highest level of law and order in the state.

The attack indicates the impunity enjoyed by many radical Hindu nationalists, William Stark, ICCs regional manager for South Asia, said.

This is a symptom of a larger problem in India," he added. "Religious intolerance and religiously motivated violence have become so normalized that attacks on Christians in the presence of police, outside the station, have come to be expected. The only thing that has shocked Christians here is the location of the attack and not the attack itself.

Christians make up about 2.5% of Indias population, while Hindus comprise 79.5%.

India ranks as the 10th worst country globally when it comes to Christian persecution, according to Open Doors USAs 2021 World Watch List. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has urged the U.S. State Department to label India as a country of particular concern for engaging in or tolerating severe religious freedom violations.

Open Doors USA warns that since the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party took power in 2014, persecution against Christians and other religious minorities has increased.

The group reports that Hindu radicals often attack Christians with little to no consequences.

Hindu extremists believe that all Indians should be Hindus and that the country should be rid of Christianity and Islam, an Open Doors fact sheet on India explains. They use extensive violence to achieve this goal, particularly targeting Christians from a Hindu background. Christians are accused of following a foreign faith and blamed for bad luck in their communities.

Several Indian states, including Chhattisgarh, have anti-conversion laws, which presume that Christian workers force or give financial benefits to Hindus to convert them to Christianity.

While the anti-conversion laws have been in place for decades in some states, no Christian has been convicted of forcibly converting anyone to Christianity. These laws, however, allow Hindu nationalist groups to make false charges against Christians and launch attacks on them under the pretext of the alleged forced conversion.

Some of these laws state that no one is allowed to use the threat of divine displeasure, meaning Christians cannot talk about Heaven or Hell, as that would be seen as forcing someone to convert. And if snacks or meals are served to Hindus after an evangelistic meeting, that could be seen as inducement.
Pakistan: Muslim gunmen open fire on church, Christians homes

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A group of heavily armed Muslim men fired bullets indiscriminately at a church and Christians' homes, wounding at least four Christians, including a six-month pregnant woman, in Pakistans Lahore city, according to a report.

The shooting took place in the Shamsabad locality of Sherakot area in Lahore city, Punjab Province on Sept. 6, Morning Star News reported.

Asif Masih, one of the wounded Christian residents, was quoted as saying that he heard shouts followed by bursts of gunfire from fully automatic assault rifles after he returned home from work that afternoon.

When I was telling my kids to get inside, I saw a group of heavily armed men firing indiscriminately at a church located on the street, he said. They then trained their weapons on the homes of neighboring Christians and fired volleys of bullets at them.

The gunmen saw him looking and opened fire on him, wounding him in both thighs.

I barely managed to drag myself into my house and locked the gate, but they did not stop firing, Masih said. I could hear them shouting that they would not spare Christians living in the area and would also burn down our church.

The gunmen also wounded three women, identified as Nirma Bibi, Maria Kashif and Samina.

One of the injured women is six months pregnant, Masih said. She was hit in the leg by one of the several bullets fired at their gate, but fortunately her family members were able to secure her inside.

While the area residents called police at 2:30 p.m., officers didn't arrive until 8 p.m., Masih said.

Our entire street has been riddled with bullets, and people have been injured, but the police have not included the sections related to terrorism in the FIR [First Information Report], he added. Moreover, I had stated in my application to the police that the accused had continuously threatened to burn the church and harm us, but even these facts were missing in the formal FIR.

According to Morning Star News, two of the gunmen were identified as Dilshad Dogar and Chand Khencha, who fired hundreds of bullets from Kalashnikov (AK-47) rifles and other weapons.

The police complaint claims that the firing arose out of a dispute between a Christian, Asghar Masih and Dogar.

Ask them why Dogar and his accomplices opened fire on the homes of Christians and injured innocent people like us if they had just a personal dispute with an individual? Dogar was quoted as saying. The police have been protecting the accused since day one because they are Muslims, and we are poor Christians.

Attorney Javed Gill, a senior leader of the Christian Lawyers Association of Pakistan, said there were conflicting reports about the motive for the firing.

Several residents have claimed that the accused were opposed to the presence of a church in the locality and had been pressuring them to stop worship there, while some are saying that the incident was an outcome of a dispute over a girl, Gill was quoted as saying. Nonetheless, even if it was a dispute between two people, how can anyone justify the targeting of the entire Christian neighborhood with automatic weapons?

Muhammad Azeem, the in-charge of the Sherakot Police Station, was quoted as saying that three men had been arrested and raids were being conducted to arrest the other accused, but he refused to answer questions about the delay.

An estimated 1.6% of Pakistans 17 million people are Christian, both Catholic and Protestant. Around 97% of the Pakistanis are Muslim, predominantly Sunni.

International persecution watchdog group Open Doors USA ranks Pakistan at No. 5 on its 2021 World Watch List of countries where Christians face the most severe persecution due to an extreme level of Islamic oppression. Pakistan is also listed by the U.S. State Department as a country of particular concern for tolerating in or engaging in egregious violations of religious freedom.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP)  The powerful new redistricting panel in Ohio failed on Wednesday to reach the bipartisan consensus necessary to pass a 10-year map of state legislative districts based on 2020 census totals.

After hours of negotiations ahead of a midnight deadline, the Ohio Redistricting Commission approved new district boundaries purely along party lines. That means the map will last for only four years.

The two Democrats on the panel  state Sen. Vernon Sykes and House Democratic Leader Emilia Sykes, his daughter  maligned the GOP-drawn map as an unfair and arrogant thwarting of Ohio voters wishes.

I call it offensive and plain wrong to move forward this map after we heard hundreds of people come before us, hours of testimony in cities across this great state, and to put forth something that so arrogantly flies in the face of what people, our voters, asked to do," Rep. Sykes said.

Ohio is using a new redistricting process for the first time this year that was approved by voters through state ballot issues in 2015 and 2018.

The new system, which is meant to fight partisan gerrymandering, required the independent commission  which includes two Republicans and two Democrats from the Legislature, as well as three statewide officals  to finish redrawing legislative districts by Wednesday. It sets an initial Sept. 30 deadline for the General Assembly to complete a new map of the states congressional districts.

An Associated Press analysis found that Ohios maps are among the nations most gerrymandered, during a period when Republicans won more seats than would have been expected based on the percentage of votes they received.

Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose voted for the final map, but he expressed deep disappointment that bipartisan compromise yielding a 10-year map couldnt be achieved.

Weve fallen short, he said. Not enough members of this commission wanted to come along with that effort. He accused unnamed fellow Republicans on the panel of not working in good faith to reach a compromise that could satisfy both parties.

GOP Auditor Keith Faber said he, LaRose and Republican Gov. Mike DeWine spent hours trying to find a map that would draw a unanimous vote. He voted yes with some apprehension.

DeWine, likewise, said he was very, very sorry at where things landed, yet supported the final boundaries. He suggested both sides  not just majority Republicans  were to blame.

Its clear in talking to both sides that theres not going to be an agreement, and that we could go tomorrow and the next day and the next day and it simply is not going to occur, he said

Legal challenges are anticipated.

Fair Districts Ohio is still reviewing the Ohio House and Senate maps and considering next steps, including possible litigation and ballot initiatives in the future," the coalition said in a statement.

Republican Senate President Matt Huffman said the final map will have 62 of 99 Ohio House seats that favor Republicans and 23 of 33 Ohio Senate seats that favor the GOP  down from some earlier maps.

It takes us much closer to the Democratic plan that was presented, he said.

The vote followed eight crowded public hearings around the state, where members were pilloried by critics who said the states existing legislative and congressional districts arent representative. A few witnesses defended the current Republican advantage as fair, given GOP is the states dominant party, but they were in a distinct minority.

Ohios partisan breakdown is roughly 54% Republicans, 46% Democrats.

The separate process for redrawing congressional districts is running concurrently to the legislative map-making process. Ohio lost one congressional seat due to lagging population growth recorded in the 2020 Census, which will give the state 15 rather than 16 seats for the next 10 years.

__

This story has been updated to correct that the panel has not yet approved Ohio's redistricting map. The Associated Press erroneously published the wrong version of the story.
LEBANON, Ind. (AP)  Three people who were found dead inside a central Indiana apartment each died of a single gunshot wound, police said Wednesday, citing autopsies.

Grace Bishop, 19; Brannon Martin, 20; and Larry Stogsdill Jr., 42, were found dead Sept. 8 in Lebanon, the Lebanon Police Department said. The ages of Bishop and Martin have changed from the information initially provided by authorities.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom ably fended off a recall attempt from Republicans on Tuesday, changing the stakes of the contest from a referendum on his own performance and into a partisan fight over Trumpism and the coronavirus.

Five takeaways from Newsom's victory:

COVID PRECAUTIONS CAN HELP DEMOCRATS

Republicans intended the recall to be a referendum on Democrats' rule of California, and the homelessness, crime, high housing costs and energy problems that accompanied it. But in a bit of political maneuvering  and with the help of the spreading delta variant  Newsom turned it into a referendum on Republicans' opposition to precautions against the coronavirus.

The Republicans running to replace Newsom opposed mask and vaccine mandates, and the California governor was happy to highlight that. Newsom aired an ad calling the recall a matter of life and death and accusing the top Republican candidate, talk radio host Larry Elder, of peddling deadly conspiracy theories.

Ironically, the recall gained steam after Newsom was caught in November at a lobbyist's birthday party at a swanky Napa Valley restaurant  unmasked and in a large party that violated his own social distancing orders. But his strategists have been arguing for weeks that his leadership during the pandemic is a plus for him  and that other Democrats shouldn't be afraid to lead on the issue.

In his remarks after winning, Newsom kept the emphasis on the virus. I want to focus on what we said yes to as a state: We said yes to science, we said yes to vaccines, we said yes to ending this pandemic, the governor told reporters.

GOP REVIVES BASELESS FRAUD CLAIMS

Republicans' groundless claims of election fraud aren't going away anytime soon.

Even while ballots were still being cast, Republicans were claiming the election was rigged. It was a baseless allegation  and a strange one considering Republicans performed relatively well under the same California election system in November, gaining four congressional seats.

But former President Donald Trump's false election fraud rhetoric quickly has burrowed into Republican politics. The former president enthusiastically added his own voice to the claims. And, several days before the polls closed, the Elder campaign bizarrely began circulating a link to a petition demanding an investigation into his loss, alleging widespread fraud  which some Republicans feared was a message that his voters shouldn't even bother to show up Tuesday.

The recall was always a long shot in a state where registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans by nearly 2-to-1 and where the GOP hasn't won a statewide election since 2006. But Republicans' turn to conspiracy theories and baseless fraud claims to explain a loss that polls had indicated was coming for months shows the party won't walk away from those suspicions. That led to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol after Trump's defeat.

Notably, Elder seemed to try to climb down from the inflammatory election allegations Tuesday night. In his concession speech he told supporters: Let's be gracious in defeat.

Still, some Californians worry about what could happen in their state.

This is going to be the second election in a row where there are going to be aggressive, emotional charges of voter fraud, said Mindy Romero, director of the Center for Inclusive Democracy at the University of Southern California. I cannot see a positive out of it."

NO LIGHT AT END OF THE TUNNEL FOR CALIFORNIA GOP

The recall offered California Republicans their only plausible shot at statewide office in one of the bluest states in the nation. The recall is a way to dodge a head-to-head match that would send voters to their regular partisan corners.

That's what happened in 2003 when Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger won a recall against Democratic Gov. Gray Davis. Schwarzenegger's moderate politics never would have won a GOP primary but were appealing enough to voters fed up with the incumbent. Some Republicans hoped that would happen again this year, with former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, a moderate, on the ballot.

But there were two problems for the GOP. First, California is very different now compared to 2003  it's more liberal and more diverse. There are more than 3 million more registered Democrats in the state now than during the last recall, but nearly 400,000 fewer Republicans.

Second, Faulconer never caught on. Instead, Elder's bombastic style, honed during his decades on talk radio and echoing Trump, vaulted him to the top of the Republican pack. Newsom, sensing a favorable contrast, started pounding Elder on the airwaves.

Some Republicans had hoped the populist approach of Elder, who is African American, could appeal to California's diverse electorate. But that doesn't seem to have worked.

Larry Elder was exactly what Gavin Newsom needed, said Rob Stutzman, a veteran California GOP strategist.

NEWSOM STEPS BACK FROM THE BRINK

There's no question that Newsom won the recall election. But he might not have emerged unscathed.

When he was elected in 2018, Newsom was riding an anti-Trump wave in a state that saw itself as the heart of the resistance to Republican power in Washington. The former San Francisco mayor was mulled as a possible future presidential candidate.

Three years later, his state is reeling from a brutal drought and accompanying wildfires. Heat waves trigger rolling blackouts. Homelessness continues to plague the state's megacities as the cost of housing shows no signs of letting up.

The recall demonstrated that Republicans are unlikely to beat Newsom in a partisan race. And the governor can boast of a lopsided win on Tuesday, though the precise margin likely won't be known for weeks when all the ballots are counted.

But California has a large bench of Democrats who may be itching to move up and the state's problems aren't going away anytime soon. I think there are Democrats who are watching this thing with their bibs on and their forks and knives out, Stutzman said.

Newsom's political operation was able to keep any major Democrats from running as an alternative in the recall, freeing him up to paint the effort as a partisan Republican scam. Will he be able to keep challengers out in 2022?

MUDDLED SIGNS FOR THE MIDTERMS

The recall is the first significant election of Joe Biden's presidency and served as something of a political stress test for both parties ahead of next year's midterms.

Democrats showed they could turn out their voters even as their party held the White House  a traditionally tough feat that is why the party in power usually loses seats in Congress in midterm elections. Republicans are trying to win back the House and Senate. Turnout in the recall was expected to be high  some experts predicted it'll be in the neighborhood of the more than 12 million who voted in 2018 in California.

The rejection of the recall  and Elder  shows that a candidate who is too aligned with Trump remains toxic in some areas, both Democratic ones and also current political battlegrounds like formerly Republican Orange County.

Finally, the recall was a referendum on Newsom and how Californians wanted their state governed, particularly in regards to the coronavirus  an issue the governor has a lot of influence over. The midterms will be a referendum on Biden. The power the GOP could win  control of Congress  is not the executive branch, where coronavirus regulations have come from to date.

It's not clear Democrats can mount the same defense of Congress as they did of their governor in the nation's most populous state.

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Associated Press writer Kathleen Ronayne contributed to this report.
SKOPJE, North Macedonia (AP)  A group of 44 evacuees from Afghanistan arrived in North Macedonia Wednesday to receive temporary shelter, under an international effort to assist people considered to be at risk under Taliban rule.

Most of the evacuees worked for the Turquoise Mountain charity co-founded by Britains Prince Charles to teach traditional Afghan crafts.
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP)  The international animal rights group Sea Shepherd said Wednesday it hopes that pressure will build from within the Faeroe Islands to end its traditional drive of sea mammals into shallow water, where they are slaughtered for their meat and blubber.

A local activist published gruesome video footage of Sunday's slaughter of 1,428 white-sided dolphins on the central Faeroese island of Eysturoy in the North Atlantic archipelago. The number of dolphins was so large  much higher than in previous years  that it appears participants may not have been able to follow regulations to minimize the suffering of the mammals.

It was a complete disaster, completely unprecedented in fact, it could even be the largest single hunt of cetaceans in documented history anywhere in the world, said Robert Read, campaign director for the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

Environmental activists have long claimed the practice is cruel. But this year even people on the Faeroes who defend the four-century-old practice have spoken out amid fears that this year's slaughter will draw unwanted attention.

We must admit that things did not go as we would like to," said Hans Jacob Hermansen, the former chairman of the Faeroese association behind the drives. "We are going to evaluate if anything went wrong, what went wrong and why, and what can we do to avoid that in the future.

Sea Shepherd says it is hoping for much tighter restrictions around such hunts and, if not, "at least a ban on the killing of the Atlantic white-sided dolphins.

Faeroese hunters are used to criticism from animal rights groups and push back at what they see as an interference in a cultural practice.

Each year, islanders drive herds of the mammals  chiefly pilot whales  into shallow waters, where they are stabbed to death. A blow-hole hook is used to secure the beached whales and their spine and main artery leading to the brain are severed with knives, turning water in the bay red with blood. The drives are regulated by law and the meat and blubber are shared on a community basis.

"The killing of pilot whales is not very much different from killing cattle or anything else. Its just that we have an open abattoir, Hermansen told The Associated Press. Everyone can see it ... but if a cow also doesnt die immediately, you don't stop killing cattle.

The white-side dolphins and pilot whales are not endangered species.

But Read said Sunday's slaughter was completely indiscriminate. The entire pod is killed and pregnant mothers, calves, everything. He added that residents used power boats and jet skis to chase dolphins and pilot whales for hours on end, they really have no chance of escape.

Fisheries Minister Jacob Vestergaard said everything this year was done by the book in the dolphin hunt. The Faeroes  18 rocky islands located halfway between Scotland and Iceland  are semi-independent and part of the Danish realm.

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David Keyton in Stockholm contributed to this report.
Sunday, Sept.19

On this date in 1873, the Globe Ledge was recorded.

On this date in 1880, the Fort Mohave Indian Reservation was established by executive order.

On this date in 1923, the U.S. Biological Survey reported that 100 mountain lions had been killed in one year in a drive to wipe out predatory animals.

On this date, the town of Hayden suffered heavy damage from hail and wind. Ten houses were washed away.

On this date in 1925, Tucson was hit by a tornado and an inch of rain fell in 10 minutes. A total of 2.5 inches (6.35 centimeters) of rain fell in three days.

On this date in 1929, well-known Santa Cruz County rancher, Roy Sorrels, was killed by lightening as he rode an inspection tour around his ranch 12 miles (19.3 kilometers) northeast of Nogales on the Patagonia Road.

On this date in 1929, Tom A. Bullock, Arizona pioneer rancher and horseman, died at age 93. With his brother, Ed, Bullock had owned the Lexington Stables in Tucson and had raced a string of horses at mining camps throughout southern Arizona.

On this date in 1985, medical reporter Charles Thornton of The Arizona Republic was killed while on assignment with an Afghanistan freedom fighter group that was ambushed by Soviet-supported troops.

Monday, Sept. 20

On this date in 1927, Leo, the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer lion, was being flown from San Diego to New York when the Ryan monoplane with its specially constructed cage of glass over steel bars, crashed in the Mogollon Rim, 60 miles (96.5 kilometers) north of Roosevelt Lake. Pilot Martin Jenson found his way to the Apache Lodge and cowboys located the wreckage and rescued Leo.

On this date in 1929, for the first time the waters of the Coolidge Dam produced electric power when Supervisor Theodore Rose opened the gates into the turbine which started the generators.

On this date in 1929, newspapers announced the loss by fire of several valuable paintings by Mrs. A.Y. Smith, noted Arizona artist, when her home at Pearce burned to the ground.

Tuesday, Sept. 21

On this date in 1870, Gov. Anson P.K. Safford came out of the mountains with the Territorial Militia after a 26-day campaign between the San Pedro and Santa Cruz rivers without having seen a single Apache.

On this date in 1920, many residents of Tucson found themselves stuck with thousands of dollars worth of worthless stock in an airless tire company.

On this date in 1921, there were 963 students enrolled at the University of Arizona.

On this date in 1923, four people were killed and many more injured when the Santa Fes California Limited derailed.

On this date in 1929, Valentine Perez, pioneer Yuma resident and one of the first employees of the Colorado River steamers, died.

Wednesday, Sept. 22

On this date in 1554, Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, his fortune lost in the vain search for the fabled Seven Cities of Cibola, died.

On this date in 1917, the Nogales jail overflowed with prisoners as draft dodgers from many states were trapped in that border city.

On this date in 1921, the Ajo Road was designated by the U.S. government as a transcontinental military highway.

Thursday, Sept. 23

On this date in 1829, Gen. George Crook was born in Dayton, Ohio.

On this date in 1879, the Public Shower Bath House opened in Tucson.

On this date in 1921, an early morning fire at the Arizona Egyptian Cotton Co. caused damage estimated by company officials to cost between $25,000 and $30,000.

On this date in 1921, a total of 963 students were enrolled at University of Arizona.

On this date in 1927, Col. Charles A. Lindbergh arrived in Tucson in his plane, The Spirit of St. Louis, to dedicate Tucsons new airport. Officials of three Mexican states joined more than 20,000 enthusiastic Arizonans to welcome him.

On this date in 1929, 225 wild and stray horses and burros were rounded up and held at Bonita Creek northeast of Safford by the Graham County assessors office. The owner did not surface to pay the taxes owed on them and the animals were sold.

Friday, Sept. 24

On this date in 1891, Dr. J.C. Handy, physician and former chancellor of the University of Arizona, was shot and fatally wounded by attorney Francis J. Heney during a quarrel at the corner of Pennington and Church streets in Tucson.

On this date in 1929, while the Sunshine Climate Club celebrated at a dinner in Tucson, record floods cut off all highways east and west of town.

On this date in 1929, Phelps Dodge Corp. announced plans to construct a leaching plant and a mill in the vicinity of Bunker Station between Clifton and Morenci.

Saturday, Sept. 25

On this date in 1868, Arizona became a separate Roman Catholic Diocese under Bishop Jean Baptiste Salpointe.

On this date in 1896, the Tucson School Board decided that it could not afford to open a high school for only six students.

On this date in 1929, 4.7 inches (12 centimeters) of rain washed out bridges throughout southern Arizona, closing roads, isolating towns and stranding motorists, including a school bus which was trapped by mud and deep water northeast of Tucson with 20 children aboard. The children stayed overnight at a nearby home.
PHOENIX (AP)  The Arizona Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected an effort by the state Senate to keep secret records of its ongoing review of the 2020 election in Maricopa County that are in the possession of the contractors conducting the recount.

The high court without comment rejected the appeal filed after an appeals court and trial court both ruled the documents are public records that must be released. The court also dissolved a stay on the appeals court ruling it put in place on Aug. 24 so it could review the record and decide whether to accept the appeal.

The Arizona Court of Appeals had ruled that the documents sought by the watchdog group American Oversight detailing how the recount and audit are being conducted are public and must be turned over.

Republicans who control the Senate have tried for months to keep secret how their contractors are conducting the recount. They argued that because the records are maintained by Senate contractors, they were not subject to public records law and that legislative immunity applies. But the appeals court in its Aug. 19 ruling rejected that argument.

The court said the main contractor, Florida company Cyber Ninjas, was subject to the records law because it was performing a core government function that the Senate farmed out.

"Allowing the legislature to disregard the clear mandate of the (public records law) would undermine the integrity of the legislative process and discourage transparency, which contradicts the purpose of both the immunity doctrine and the (law)," acting presiding Judge Maria Elena Cruz wrote for the three-judge panel.

"The requested records are no less public records simply because they are in the possession of a third party, Cyber Ninjas, Cruz wrote later in the ruling.

A spokesman for Cyber Ninjas, Rod Thomson, did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did Senate spokesman Mike Philipsen.

It is unclear when the records will actually be released. There is a previously scheduled status conference hearing set for Thursday before the trial court judge who issued the original order.

The appeals court ruling came in a case filed by American Oversight that is fighting for transparency in the election recount and upheld a Maricopa County Superior Court judge's ruling. That judge also ordered the Senate to turn over audit records it held, and they were released on Aug. 31.

Arizonans can look forward to much needed transparency, even if it may reveal gross attacks on democracy itself, Austin Evers, executive director of American Oversight, said in a statement.

The unprecedented partisan recount and review of election results in the state's most populous county was prompted by former President Donald Trump's loss in the state and his contention without evidence that he lost in Arizona and other battleground states because of fraud.

Senate Republicans issued subpoenas to Maricopa County for all 2020 ballots, the machines that counted them and other data in the states most populated county.

The materials were given to contractors with little to no election experience for what Senate President Karen Fann calls a forensic audit. Election experts say the 2020 election was secure and well-run, and the contractors are using bizarre and unreliable procedures. Maricopa County has refused further participation.

The results of the audit and hand recount are expected to be handed over to the Senate at any time. But there have been repeated delays. The Senate then plans to review what is expected to be a three-volume report before it is released to the public.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday also rejected an appeal in another public records case involving the Senate election audit. In that case, Cyber Ninjas and the Senate were sued for failing to release records by the company that owns the Arizona Republic newspaper. Cyber Ninjas wanted the case moved to a different trial court judge, but under pandemic rules issued by Chief Justice Robert Brutinel, the automatic right to ask for a different judge was suspended.

Cyber Ninjas argued that denying it the ability to seek a new judge improperly deprived it of a valuable substantive right. The high court without comment declined to consider a challenge to its own order, although two of seven justices would have heard the case.

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Associated Press writer Jonathan J. Cooper contributed to this report.
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP)  The widow of a U.S. Marine killed in a bombing in Afghanistan in August has given birth to a baby girl.

Levi Rylee Rose McCollum was born early Monday at Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton in Oceanside, California, according to a Facebook post by the baby's grandmother, Jill Miller Crayton.

The 8-pound, 10-ounce (3.9-kilogram) girl was born in a lightning quick delivery and doing well, according to Crayton's Monday evening post.

Crayton is the mother of Jiennah Crayton, who is the widow of Lance Cpl. Rylee McCollum, 20, of Bondurant, Wyoming. McCollum was among 13 U.S. soldiers killed in the suicide bombing Aug. 26 at the Kabul airport.

Several online fundraising efforts as of Wednesday had raised about $1 million for the baby's education and for her mother.

McCollum grew up in western Wyoming's Jackson Hole area. Relatives said McCollum played with toy rifles as a toddler and was interested from an early age in becoming a soldier.

He was a high school wrestler known for working hard, even before Marine training.

Hundreds of people lined the streets in Jackson, Wyoming, last Friday when McCollum's remains returned home from Afghanistan. Law enforcement saluted as the hearse passed.

McCollum was killed on his first deployment.
WASHINGTON (AP)  President Joe Bidens build back better agenda is poised to be the most far-reaching federal investment since FDRs New Deal or LBJs Great Society  a prodigious effort to tax the rich and shift money into projects and programs touching the lives of nearly every American.

The thousands of pages being drafted and debated in Congress are the template for grand ambitions of the Biden agenda, a full funding of Democratic orthodoxy. The plan envisions the government shoring up U.S. households, setting industrial policy to tackle climate change and confronting the gaping income inequality that was laid bare by the COVID-19 crisis.

As the contours of the $3.5 trillion package come into focus, an undertaking on par with those earlier landmark bills, Americans will have to assess: Is this what they signed up for when Biden won the White House?

Lawmakers on the front lines are about to find out.

Were doing hard things, said Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, D-N.Y., the chairman of the House Democrats' campaign committee tasked with maintaining the party's slender majority.

Were not perfect, he said in a conference call Wednesday about the party and its goals, but were responsible adults, and were here to fix problems.

Republicans fundamentally disagree, attempting to label the Biden agenda as far left and socialism" that they will fiercely oppose.

If Biden can pass his plan, it will become a central referendum in the midterm elections in 2022 on whether voters embrace the vision put forth by Democrats who control the White House and Congress.

Among the Democrats' goals are priorities like universal child care and lower prescription drug prices that have been elusive for decades.

Republicans have largely sidelined themselves from the debate, other than to say they are a hard no on Biden's priorities. Democrats are relying on a budget process that will enable them to pass or fail with their votes alone, resulting in bruising internal party debate between centrists and liberals.

The Democratic differences may yet doom Bidens project. Biden was meeting separately Wednesday at the White House with key centrist holdouts, Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, who want to lower the price-tag substantially. Meanwhile, the House was almost forced to halt deliberations as centrists objected to new restrictions on pharmaceutical company drug pricing.

Still, Democrats appear determined not to let this moment slip. Even with their majority at risk, they appear poised to push the package to passage.

Democrats see that we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to head this country in a better direction, said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., after an intense private meeting of Democrats this week.

People talk about how big this package is, it's big because we have under-invested for so long, she said.

For all its scope, many of the tax and spending policies are not necessarily new, or even that revolutionary.

The tax provisions largely push top rates back to where they were before the 2017 GOP tax cuts, and the spending expands on popular safety net programs -- for example, adding dental, vision and hearing aid benefits for seniors on Medicare.

The top tax rate bumps up to 39.6% on households earning more than $400,000, or $450,000 for married couples, before then President Donald Trump and the GOP-controlled Congress lowered the top rate to 37%.

For corporations, the proposed 26.5% rate would be an increase from today's 21%, but not as high as the 28% it had been before the GOP tax cuts.

There would be a tax on wealthier Americans -- 3% on earnings above $5 million a year -- but so far the House has refrained from imposing a billionaires or wealth tax as the Senate is considering, mindful as Republicans pile on complaints that Democrats are sliding toward European-styled socialism.

The demonization of prosperity is unwise, said Republican Rep. Adrian Smith of Nebraska, during Wednesday's session at the tax-writing Ways & Means Committee.

On the spending side, the bill would mostly expand on existing programs  continuing a COVID-19 increase in subsidies for people who buy their own health insurance and boosting funding for states to make community colleges free and for Pell Grants to make university tuitions more affordable.

As the coronavirus forced millions of parents, particularly women, out of the workforce to care for children and elderly adults, the Democrats are seizing on the opportunity to upgrade the safety net and begin to address simmering inequities along racial and class lines.

There's universal pre-kindergarten, lower cost child care, paid family leave for working adults, an extension of the $300 a month child tax credit that was put in place during the COVID crisis. To help care for elderly Americans, it would shift Medicaid funding away from nursing homes for poorer seniors and toward home healthcare, as many older adults prefer to age in place.

The climate change provisions tap into long-running ideas to impose new emissions restrictions with a federal clean energy requirement and to boost the electrical vehicles industry with tax breaks and charging station infrastructure.

The last time Democrats succeeded in accomplishing something this big, the Affordable Care Act, it cost them their House majority in the 2010 midterm election, during then-President Barack Obama's first term.

Americans say they overwhelmingly support the public works infrastructure proposals in an earlier $1 trillion package for roads, bridges, broadband and water systems that was approved by the Senate last month. But slimmer majorities backed some of the other ideas being considered now, including expanding child tax credits, according to July polling from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs research.

Support is generally stronger for funding for free preschool programs, with about two-thirds in support, including about 8 in 10 Democrats and about half of Republicans.

Having learned lessons from the Obamacare debate, Democrats and allied groups are fast at work framing the arguments to avoid a repeat of the health care battles from a decade ago.

We have their backs, said Danielle Melfi, the executive director of Building Back Together, which organized some 1,000 events supporting the project during the August congressional recess.

The organization's own survey of polling shows the Biden plans are popular. The American people voted for President Joe Biden and Democrats to deliver on the promises, she said. "On our side we have such a strong case to make.
LOS ANGELES - Gov. Gavin Newsom, D, is projected to defeat a recall campaign against him Tuesday with a large Democratic turnout.

The final results may not be known for days, even though the ballot comprised just two questions. The first is whether Newsom, elected with nearly 62% of the vote in 2018, should be removed from office a year early. If Newsom fails to gain 50% of the vote on that question, the candidate with the most votes seeking to replace him will head to the governor's mansion. Forty-six people are on that list.

But the "no" vote against recalling Newsom was ahead by more than 20 percentage points as polls closed. Many of those votes were early mail-in ballots, which heavily favored Democrats. The day-of voting had yet to be fully counted, but the state's traditional voting pattern appeared to be holding true, with more conservative inland residents favoring Newsom's recall and voters on the more populated, liberal Pacific coast opposing it.

Newsom will face voters again next year in the regularly scheduled election. His likely victory Tuesday will keep him in charge of a state that has become the liberal standard bearer on issues such as climate change and immigration policy for the rest of the nation.

But early exit polls, interviews with voters and a heavy mail-in response by Democrats pointed toward a Newsom victory in a state where Republicans have fallen behind even "declined to state" in terms of party preference. The Republican front-runner, conservative radio talk show host Larry Elder, could in theory have replaced Newsom with far less public support than the governor secured in his effort to avoid the recall if a majority of voters say they want Newsom out

"While I may not be the biggest supporter of the governor, I don't want to have a governor of my state who has maybe 10 percent of the popular vote," said Jacob Roush, a 36-year-old resident of Alameda County in the Bay Area who voted after his gym session and before work.

Roush added that he voted "no" on the first question, leaving the second one blank. That has been Newsom's advice to voters, telling them at rallies to "just vote no and go," depriving the rival field of legitimacy. Roush said he did not vote for a candidate because he did not agree with any of their policy positions.

Only one other California governor has been recalled, Gray Davis, a Democrat, whom voters bounced from office in 2003 and replaced with Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican. Davis was in his second term, and issues over energy supply and competence turned voters against him and toward one of the most famous movie stars in the world at the time. There are roughly 4 million more registered Democrats in the state today.

This recall attempt began soon after Newsom was elected in 2018, replacing retiring Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, after serving two terms as lieutenant governor. The initial reasons were vague, most focusing on his immigration policies in a state that declared itself a "sanctuary" for undocumented immigrants the year before Newsom's gubernatorial election.

What gave the effort focus and momentum was the pandemic, which began ravaging the nation's most populous state in early 2020. Along with several of California's big-city mayors, Newsom acted quickly with restrictions that effectively shut down the economy, backed by generous support payments and tough anti-eviction laws to help keep residents afloat.

According to early exit polls, the pandemic was the top issue for California voters, with 3 in 10 saying it was most important in determining their vote.

Nearly 70% of voters supported school mask requirements, according to the early exit polls, an opinion that appears to favor Newsom.

But Newsom's pandemic mandates had drawn sharp resistance from many small businesses, and Newsom had to open and close the economy on several occasions as the pandemic waxed and waned. He called it "toggling," depending on the severity of the virus at the time. Many Californians simply found it confusing.

Newsom also was his own worst enemy.

In the fall of 2020, after weeks of lecturing Californians to remain at home as much as possible and avoid eating with other families, Newsom was caught dining at a friend's 50th birthday party at the three-Michelin-star French Laundry in Napa County. He apologized publicly for failing to "practice what I preach," but the hypocrisy it appeared to expose damaged him politically.

"I just don't think that the governor's actions during the pandemic were really reflective, I think, of our state's values as a whole," said Elyse Jackson, a 32-year-old stay-at-home mom who voted to recall Newsom at the polling place in her Oakland neighborhood. "And especially the incident at French Laundry didn't show good leadership."

But as covid-19 has surged again this year, mostly among the unvaccinated, the pandemic has helped turned the race decisively in Newsom's favor.

The choice of Tuesday as the last day of the race - people in California have been voting for weeks by mail - was early in the window when it could have been called. With vaccines developed and the economy opening back up this summer, the date, chosen by a secretary of state Newsom appointed, seemed ideal for a governor hoping to convince Californians that the worst of the pandemic was over.

It has not turned out that way.

But polls have shown that voters, more than any other issue, fear the pandemic after experiencing a sense of an open economy briefly this summer. That has boosted Newsom's standing significantly in recent weeks, as he has imposed mask and vaccine mandates that President Joe Biden endorsed during his visit here Monday night on Newsom's behalf.

A Public Policy Institute of California poll conducted late last month showed that 58% of likely voters would cast ballots against the recall - the highest number Newsom has posted to date. The same poll showed that 21% named the pandemic as the most important issue, nearly twice the percentage for the second-rated issue, jobs and the economy.

"Keeping a candidate in office that's going to protect health-care workers, protect children, enforce the mask mandate at this point . . . I'm on the front lines," Jolie Emenike, 41, said as she voted against the recall in Inglewood on Tuesday morning. "I work at UCLA Health in a hospital setting as a manager and am in the thick of it, seeing children get sick. I don't want to see the vaccine or mask mandate change."

Biden won California by almost 30 percentage points, and recalling Newsom for a Republican governor was never going to be easy.

Newsom and many state Democrats made sure that no prominent party member ran to replace him, leaving the ticket almost entirely Republican and with zero elected Democrats.

Party loyalty runs high here.

A Berkeley IGS poll published this month found 93% of likely Democratic voters said they supported keeping Newsom, almost identical to the 92% of Republicans who wanted to remove him. The allegiance held true in several voter interviews at polling places here and in the Bay Area, where Newsom is popular after serving as San Francisco's mayor in the 2000s. He campaigned there Tuesday morning.

Laurie Jones, 47, voted against the recall Tuesday in Inglewood, a city near Los Angeles.

Initially, she said, she was "on the fence" but felt compelled to prevent Elder from taking power. She said advertisements calling it a "Republican recall" swayed her.

"It worked," she said.

Newsom raised more than $50 million for the race, far more than any of his rivals. And he spent it down the stretch on advertising featuring former president Barack Obama and visits from popular national Democrats, including Vice President Kamala Harris, who was San Francisco's district attorney when Newsom was mayor there.

But perhaps Newsom's biggest asset, should he defeat the recall, has been Elder.

The radio host has opposed the minimum wage, called for letting employers ask female applicants whether they plan to get pregnant, rejected the vaccine mandate for state workers, and endorsed former president Donald Trump's disproved assertion that the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent.

In a Tuesday statement, Trump, without evidence, called the vote here "rigged," adding that "many people are already claiming that when they go to vote, they are told, 'I'm sorry, you already voted.' "

In preparation for the aftermath, Elder has set up part of his campaign website as a place to report potential voter fraud, and he has made clear that should he fail to win, he will assert that the race was rigged.

"Looking at the low quality of life in the state and the problems with our education system, I think a recall is a great idea," said Alan Kinman, 59, a retired U.S. Coast Guard member voting in Oakdale, a city in the San Joaquin Valley.

"I'm going to go with Larry Elder," he said. "The current governor has done a very poor job. Let's give it to a guy who's not a career politician."

Many Republicans chose to vote on Election Day, rather than by mail.

Newsom's advisers have warned reporters that the first batch of votes counted - those sent by mail and heavily favoring the Democrat - will eventually be tempered by the Republican "day-of" votes and tighten the race.

California is notorious for taking a long time to count votes. In 2020, the state took weeks to count all votes and certify its results. This special election is far smaller - two questions - but few analysts predicted that the results would be known Tuesday night.

- - -

The Washington Post's Natalie Jones in Alameda, Guy McCarthy in Oakdale, Noah Smith in Inglewood and Scott Clement in Washington contributed to this report.
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)

Jeff Inglis, The Conversation

(THE CONVERSATION) A rally in Washington, slated for Sept. 18, 2021, is being billed as an effort to support people who face criminal charges for their involvement in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Many of the same groups who participated in January are expected to return to the nations capital for this demonstration. Capitol Police are reportedly preparing for violence and erecting protective fencing around the building.

The groups involved in Januarys attack on the Capitol carried a variety of political and ideological flags and signs. The Conversation asked scholars to explain what they saw  including ancient Norse images and more recent flags from U.S. history  and what those symbols mean.

Here are five articles from The Conversations coverage, explaining what many of the symbols mean.

1. The Confederate battle flag

Perhaps the most recognized symbol of white supremacy is the Confederate battle flag.

Since its debut during the Civil War, the Confederate battle flag has been flown regularly by white insurrectionists and reactionaries fighting against rising tides of newly won Black political power, writes Jordan Brasher at Columbus State University, who has studied how the Confederacy has been memorialized.

He notes that in one photo from inside the Capitol, the flags history came into sharp relief as the man carrying it was standing between the portraits of two Civil War-era U.S. senators  one an ardent proponent of slavery and the other an abolitionist once beaten unconscious for his views on the Senate floor.

2. The yellow Gadsden flag

Another flag with a racist history is the Dont Tread On Me flag. A symbol warning of self-defense, it was designed by slave owner and trader Christopher Gadsden when the American Revolution began, as Iowa State University graphic design scholar Paul Bruski writes.

Because of its creators history and because it is commonly flown alongside Trump 2020 flags, the Confederate battle flag and other white-supremacist flags, some may now see the Gadsden flag as a symbol of intolerance and hate  or even racism, he explains.

It has been adopted by the tea party movement and other Republican-leaning groups, but the flag still carries the legacy, and the name, of its creator.

3. Powerful anti-Semitism

Another arm of white supremacy doesnt target Blacks. Instead, it demonizes Jewish people. Plenty of anti-Semitic symbols were on display during the riot, as Jonathan D. Sarna explains.

Sarna is a Brandeis University scholar of American anti-Semitism and describes the ways that [c]alls to exterminate Jews are common in far-right and white nationalist circles. That included a gallows erected outside the Capitol, evoking a disturbing element of a 1978 novel depicting the takeover of Washington, along with mass lynchings and slaughtering of Jews.

4. Co-opted Norse mythology

Among the most striking images of the January riot were those of a man wearing a horned hat and no shirt, displaying several large tattoos. He is known as Jake Angeli, but his full name is Jacob Chansley, and he has pleaded guilty to one of six charges as part of a plea deal for his role in the riot.

Tom Birkett, a lecturer in Old English at University College Cork in Ireland, explains that many of the symbols Chansley wore are from Norse mythology. However, he explains, These symbols have also been co-opted by a growing far-right movement.

Birkett traces the modern use of Norse symbols back to the Nazis and points out that they are a form of code hidden in plain sight: If certain symbols are hard for the general public to spot, they are certainly dog whistles to members of an increasingly global white supremacist movement who know exactly what they mean.

5. An outlier, of sorts

Another flag was prominent at the Capitol riot, one that doesnt strictly represent white supremacy: the flag of the former independent country of South Vietnam.

But Long T. Bui, a global studies scholar at the University of California, Irvine, explains that when flown by Vietnamese Americans, many of whom support Trump, the flag symbolizes militant nationalism.

[S]ome Vietnamese Americans view their fallen homeland as an extension of the American push for freedom and democracy worldwide. I have interviewed Vietnamese American soldiers who fear American freedom is failing, he explains.

Editors note: This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversations archives and is an update of an article previously published on Jan. 15, 2021.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: https://theconversation.com/capitol-police-prepare-for-a-return-of-insurrectionists-to-washington-5-essential-reads-on-the-symbols-they-carried-on-jan-6-167686.
COOS BAY, Ore. (AP)  A longtime Coos Bay police officer has been indicted and arrested on child sexual abuse charges.

According to court records, Terry Scott Rogers, 51, was arrested Friday on 18 felony charges and two misdemeanor charges, The World reported. The indictment alleges Rogers started abusing a child in 2012 when the child was younger than 12 and that it continued for six years.

Rogers was indicted on two counts of first-degree unlawful sexual penetration, three counts of second-degree unlawful sexual penetration, eight counts of first-degree sex abuse, five counts of luring a minor and two charges of third-degree sex abuse.

According to the records, a Coos County grand jury voted to indict Rogers last week.

In a defendants memorandum in support of release, Rogers attorneys argued his law enforcement background and his time in Coos Bay is proof he can be released on his own recognizance while awaiting trial.

Court records show Rogers posted a $50,000 security and is out of jail custody.

According to the memorandum, Rogers has been a police officer with the Coos Bay Police Department for 22 years and is currently on administrative leave.

Coos Bay Police Chief Chris Chapanar confirmed the investigation, telling KPIC-TV the Oregon Department of Justice is handling the case.
COLUMBIA, La. (AP)  The chief civil deputy for a Louisiana sheriff's office has been arrested for allegedly stealing more than $35,000 from the agency.

Louisiana State Police began an investigation after the Caldwell Parish Sheriff's Office was notified of money possibly being stolen from the cash drawer used to collect fines and fees at the sheriff's office, WBRZ-TV reported.
NEW YORK (AP)  Members of a New York City crime family threatened violence, pressured workers and pocketed phony pension payments in a two-decade plot to seize control of a city construction union and its lucrative employee health insurance program, prosecutors alleged in an indictment unsealed Tuesday.

Ten members of the Colombo crime family, including 87-year-old boss Andrew Mush Russo, were charged in connection with the scheme, which prosecutors said had all the major trappings of Mafia-type shakedowns seen in TV shows like The Sopranos and movies.

Prosecutors said crime family members pressured the union to steer health plan business to pals, sought at least $10,000 per month in kickbacks and threatened to kill a union official if he didn't comply, telling an associate on a recorded telephone call in June: Ill put him in the ground right in front of his wife and kids."

Acting U.S. Attorney Jacquelyn Kasulis said the charges describe a long-standing, ruthless pattern by Colombo crime family leaders and underlings to exert control over the union, which was not identified in the indictment or by prosecutors.

Four other people were also charged, including a Bonanno crime family soldier accused of falsifying government workplace safety certifications for hundreds of construction workers.

Several defendants were accused of other crimes, including loan sharking and conspiring to distribute large amounts of marijuana.

Most of the defendants were arrested Tuesday in New York and New Jersey and arraigned by videoconference before U.S. Magistrate Judge Taryn Merkl in Brooklyn federal court. One defendant was arrested in North Carolina and was scheduled to be arraigned there. Another remained at large, prosecutors said.

They each face up to 20 years in prison, prosecutors said.

Russo appeared at his video arraignment from a hospital bed, with an FBI agent by his side. He pleaded not guilty as medical equipment beeped periodically.

The Colombo boss was taken to the hospital after his arrest Tuesday for a medical evaluation prior to being jailed, in part because of concerns about his age and injuries he suffered in a car crash about three weeks ago.

After being deemed medically fit to be detained, Russo was expected to be sent Tuesday night to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. He's been locked up several times before, including a 33-month stint in federal prison after a 2011 racketeering arrest, court records show.

Russo's lawyers did not immediately seek his release on bail Tuesday. A message seeking comment was left with Russo's lawyers.

According to prosecutors, the scheme to infiltrate the union dated to 2001, when Colombo mobster Vincent Ricciardo, known as Vinny Unions started squeezing a union official to fork over a portion of his salary as a pension" he falsely claimed was owed.

Online court records did not list a lawyer who could speak on Ricciardo's behalf.

Russo and other Colombo leaders, including the underboss and consigliere, got involved in 2019, overseeing a plan to force the union to make decisions beneficial to the crime family, including driving contracts to vendors associated with the family, prosecutors said.

Ricciardo and another Colombo mobster went to the union official's home in January 2020 to threaten him and his family, while Vinnys cousin followed up with threatening text messages, prosecutors said.

A few months later, police stopped Ricciardo and the other mobster after they went to the union office and repeatedly banged on a locked door, prosecutors said.

They told the officers they were there to collect a check, prosecutors said.

In the recorded telephone call in June, Ricciardo was heard fantasizing about killing the union official, no matter the cost.

You laugh all you want pal, Im not afraid to go to jail, he said, according to prosecutors.

___

Follow Michael Sisak on Twitter at twitter.com/mikesisak
Lea en espanol

From the start, Norma Cavazos was surrounded by friends and family who were vaccine skeptics: "No one was going to take it, including myself. That was something that we were all adamant about."

As a public health worker for the state of Texas, she was aware of the coronavirus long before people around her in Harlingen, a city about 14 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border in the Rio Grande Valley, started getting sick. But her concerns about the vaccines then being developed stayed steadfast even as the disease started shuttering businesses and claiming family members' lives.

She heard all kinds of falsehoods. The vaccines were being rushed. They were a part of a government plot against Hispanic people. And, most serious to her, that they were dangerous for someone with her health issues, which included a heart condition.

Cavazos, 62, said she worked hard to find facts, but what she read overwhelmed her. "I was just so confused and so upset."

Her experience  and the story of how she turned around and began urging others to get the free vaccine  illustrate some of the reasons vaccination rates among Hispanic people have been lagging, as well as what might help speed up a recent reversal in that trend.

Until recently, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Hispanic people have been getting vaccinated at low levels relative to their population, even though COVID-19 has hit them disproportionately hard.

Deep-seated mistrust in medical research and massive amounts of disinformation are two of the biggest barriers for Hispanic people, said Amelie G. Ramirez, who has a doctorate in public health and is director of the Institute for Health Promotion Research at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

The mistrust predates the pandemic.

A 2019 Pew Research Center survey found 60% of Hispanic respondents considered misconduct by medical research scientists to be a very big or moderately big problem. Only 42% of white people said the same.

Social media amplified that mistrust, particularly among Latinos, who are heavy users of cellphones to connect with far-flung family, Ramirez said. She's seen falsehoods about microchips, fertility risks and more spread rapidly, in English and Spanish, across the hemisphere. "I have a cousin who's a nun, and her whole order didn't want to be vaccinated, even knowing that the pope is supporting it."

Some of the problem is simply people don't like to be told what to do, she said.

But resistance crosses educational, economic and cultural lines among Hispanic people, said Ramirez, who also is director of Salud America, an organization that promotes Latino health. Getting to the core is a challenge. "It's this onion that we just kind of keep peeling back in terms of trying to better understand why and where did this mistrust start."

Hesitancy alone does not explain low vaccination rates, said Dr. Fatima Rodriguez, an assistant professor of cardiovascular medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine in California.

"There are issues of trust in the community, but also factors like access," said Rodriguez, who has researched health disparities.

Many Hispanic workers have jobs that require them to be there in person, which limits when they can get the vaccine, she said. "It is exactly the people who can't take time off work to get vaccinated or can't sign up on complicated online portals who need the vaccine the most."

Despite such obstacles, vaccination rates have been rising in recent months. The CDC reported that as of Sept. 14, Hispanic people, who make up 17% of the U.S. population, made up 26% of the those receiving their initial dose in the previous two weeks.

Why the change? Ramirez said the delta variant, which has filled intensive care units with unvaccinated people, is scaring people into action. She also credited better efforts to share information in English and Spanish. "Finally, the messaging is getting out there to reach our communities," she said.

To keep things moving in the right direction, Rodriguez emphasized a need to remove barriers that keep people from getting vaccinated. Workers shouldn't be forced to take time off work to get vaccines, for example, and to face questions about their immigration status, "particularly in undocumented groups, who may fear deportation."

She also said people need a way to address their fears. Community leaders and trusted public figures could help with that.

Ramirez agreed. She also said people can help themselves by being skeptical about what they read online. For reliable information, she suggested starting with a local medical school or public health department, or the CDC.

The CDC and other major public health organizations like the American Heart Association and American Academy of Pediatrics recommend all eligible people get COVID-19 vaccinations. Those still unsure can talk with their doctor, nurse practitioner, physician assistant or pharmacist, or go to getvaccineanswers.org for credible information.

A wide-ranging report from the CommuniVax Coalition noted "vaccination moves at the speed of public trust." And finding local, trustworthy experts is what helped Cavazos change her mind.

Exasperated by all the conflicting information she found, she finally called her personal doctor directly. "I'd never done that before, to just pick up the phone and call my doctor."

She was demanding. But he was clear, telling her, "It's going to protect you. It's going to keep you from going into the hospital, to the ICU, and into the hospital, and possibly dying." She then asked several specialists she sees. All said  get vaccinated.

So, in January, she did. She's since worked with Salud America to share her story.

Cavazos, whose job involves teaching community workers and others about health issues, said people have the right to make their own choices, but efforts to provide information need to be personal and direct.

"You can't get that from a politician or a commercial," she said. And you can't just tell people to get a vaccine because it's good for them and leave it at that. "People want to know everything. They want to know the truth. And they want it from a person that they trust."

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KABUL, Afghanistan (AP)  Friction between pragmatists and ideologues in the Taliban leadership has intensified since the group formed a hard-line Cabinet last week that is more in line with their harsh rule in the 1990s than their recent promises of inclusiveness, said two Afghans familiar with the power struggle.

The wrangling has taken place behind the scenes, but rumors quickly began circulating about a recent violent confrontation between the two camps at the presidential palace, including claims that the leader of the pragmatic faction, Abdul Ghani Baradar, was killed.

The rumors reached such intensity that an audio recording and handwritten statement, both purportedly by Baradar himself, denied that he had been killed. Then on Wednesday, Baradar appeared in an interview with the countrys national TV.

I was traveling from Kabul so had no access to media in order to reject this news Baradar said of the rumor.

Baradar served as the chief negotiator during talks between the Taliban and the United States that paved the way for the U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, which was completed in late August, two weeks after the Taliban overran the capital of Kabul.

Shortly after the Kabul takeover, Baradar had been the first senior Taliban official to hold out the possibility of an inclusive government, but such hopes were disappointed with the formation of an all-male, all-Taliban lineup last week.

In a further sign that the hard-liners had prevailed, the white Taliban flag was raised over the presidential palace, replacing the Afghan national flag.

A Taliban official said the leadership still hasn't made a final decision on the flag, with many leaning toward eventually flying both banners side by side. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to discuss internal deliberations with the media.

The two Afghans familiar with the power struggle also spoke on condition of anonymity to protect the confidentiality of those who shared their discontent over the Cabinet lineup. They said one Cabinet minister toyed with refusing his post, angered by the all-Taliban government that shunned the country's ethnic and religious minorities.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid has denied rifts in the leadership. On Tuesday, the Taliban foreign minister, Amir Khan Mutaqi, dismissed such reports as propaganda.

Baradar had been noticeably absent from key functions. For instance he was not at the presidential palace earlier this week to receive the deputy prime minister of Qatar, Sheikh Mohammad bin Abdur Rahman Al-Thani, who is also foreign minister and was making the highest-level foreign visit yet since the Taliban takeover. Baradars absence was jarring since Qatar had hosted him for years as head of the Taliban political office in the Qatari capital of Doha.

But in the interview shown Wednesday, Baradar said he did not participate in the meeting because he was not aware about the foreign ministers visit to Kabul. I had already left and was not able to return back, Baradar said.

Several officials and Afghans who are familiar and in contact with Baradar told The Associated Press earlier that he was in the southwestern provincial capital of Kandahar for a meeting with Taliban leader Haibatullah Akhunzada. Another Taliban figure said Baradar was visiting family he had not seen in 20 years of war.

Analysts say the friction may not amount to a serious threat to the Taliban  for now.

Weve seen over the years that despite disputes, the Taliban largely remains a cohesive institution and that major decisions dont get serious pushback after the fact, said Michael Kugelman, Asia program deputy director at the Washington-based Wilson Center.

I think the current internal dissension can be managed," he said. Still, the Taliban will be under a lot of pressure as it tries to consolidate its power, gain legitimacy, and address major policy challenges. If these efforts fail, a stressed organization could well see more and increasingly serious infighting.

However, Taliban divisions today will be more difficult to resolve without the heavy-handed rule of the group's founder, the late Mullah Omar, who demanded unquestioned loyalty.
BERLIN (AP)  The German government expressed concern Wednesday at reports on the possible deployment of Russian mercenaries in Mali.

Germany has several hundred soldiers taking part in United Nations stabilization and European Union training missions in the West African country.

We find the possibility of such a cooperation (between Mali and private mercenaries) very worrying too, said German Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Adebahr, echoing comments by government officials in France, which has a much larger military presence in Mali.

A defense ministry spokeswoman, Christina Routsi, said that if the Malian government were to go ahead with the reported plans then Germany would reach out to its European and international partners, and examine possible consequences.

Asked whether that included examining whether the basis for Germany's current military mission in Mali was still fulfilled, Routsi said: That's precisely what we will examine.

French Defense Minister Florence Parly, speaking on Tuesday to a parliamentary commission, said about what she called a rumor that if the Malian authorities were to enter into a contract with Russian mercenaries, it would be extremely preoccupying and contradictory, incoherent with everything we have done for years in the region.

France now has more than 5,000 troops in the Sahel. Yet Paris announced this year plans to reduce that force to 2,500 to 3,000 troops in the coming years.

French troops have been present in Mali since 2013, when they intervened to force Islamic extremist rebels from power in towns across the countrys north. The operation was later expanded to include other countries in an effort to help stabilize the broader Sahel region.

Russia has denied any official military involvement in Mali.

There are no representatives of the Russian Armed Forces there, and no official negotiations are being held, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday.

A Kremlin-backed private military company, Wagner Group, has been accused by western governments of human rights abuses in the Central African Republic and involvement in the conflict in Libya.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP)  A top Republican lawmaker in Kansas said Wednesday that he's concerned about President Joe Biden's plan to resettle almost 500 Afghan evacuees in the state because he doesn't know how well they're being vetted.

Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson said he's worried both that the evacuees could come to Kansas with COVID-19 infections and that vetting by Biden's administration won't keep terrorists or terrorist sympathizers out.
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP)  International Criminal Court judges on Wednesday authorized an investigation into the Philippines deadly war on drugs campaign, saying the crackdown cannot be seen as a legitimate law enforcement operation.

The courts former prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, sought permission from judges earlier this year to investigate the Philippine governments campaign.

She said that a preliminary probe she began in February 2018 found a reasonable basis to believe that the crime against humanity of murder has been committed in the Philippines between July 1, 2016 and March 16, 2019, the date the Philippines withdrew from the court.

In a written decision, judges who considered Bensoudas request found a reasonable basis to proceed with an investigation into killings committed throughout the Philippines as part of the war on drugs, saying they appear to amount to a crime against humanity under the courts founding statute.

The court said in a statement that the judges ruled that based on the facts as they emerge at the present stage and subject to proper investigation and further analysis, the so-called war on drugs campaign cannot be seen as a legitimate law enforcement operation, and the killings neither as legitimate nor as mere excesses in an otherwise legitimate operation.

They added that the available material indicates, to the required standard, that a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population took place pursuant to or in furtherance of a State policy.

The judges also included in the scope of the investigation killings in the Davao area from Nov. 1, 2011, the date the Philippines joined the ICC, to June 30, 2016. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is the former mayor of Davao.

When Duterte announced he was withdrawing his country from the court he defended the campaign as lawfully directed against drug lords and pushers who have for many years destroyed the present generation, specially the youth.

More than 6,000 mostly poor drug suspects have been killed, according to government pronouncements, but human rights groups say the death toll is considerably higher and should include many unsolved killings by motorcycle-riding gunmen who may have been deployed by police.

Duterte has denied condoning extrajudicial killings of drug suspects although he has openly threatened suspects with death and has ordered police to shoot suspects who dangerously resist arrest.

When Bensouda announced she had asked for authorization to investigate, Dutertes spokesman, Harry Roque, called the move legally erroneous, saying the ICC, as an international court of last resort, could only intervene if a countrys judiciary and prosecutorial system fail to work and investigate domestic crimes. Roque cited many pending murder and other cases involving the governments campaign against illegal drugs which were being tried by Philippine courts.

Human Rights Watch welcomed Wednesday's announcement.

The International Criminal Courts decision to open an investigation into brutal crimes in the Philippines offers a much-needed check on President Rodrigo Duterte and his deadly war on drugs, said Carlos Conde, the rights group's senior Philippines researcher. Victims families and survivors have reason to hope that those responsible for crimes against humanity could finally face justice.

Bensouda has since left the court and been succeeded by British lawyer Karim Khan.
ST. LOUIS (AP)  A Missouri inmate who admitted to a long-unsolved killing while serving time for robbery says he confessed to the crime because his conscience was nagging him.

DeAngelo Thomas said he felt relief when he penned his admission to police from his prison cell in 2018.

Just like a weight lifted on my shoulder, he told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in a recent interview, the first time he has talked to a reporter about the 1999 shooting death of 30-year-old Floyd Epps.

Epps was a stranger who agreed to buy Thomas a bottle of whiskey because Thomas was too young. Afterward, they fought over $18. Thomas claims he only wanted to wound the man. In the years after the killing, police never questioned Thomas nor considered him a suspect.

But Thomas conscience pestered him. Friends urged him not to confess, telling him he could be paroled in his robbery case in as soon as two years and be home free.

But Thomas had been reading the Bible, which he found more convincing than his friends. I knew I had to repent, he said.

Detectives seeking to corroborate Thomas' confession found microfilm of a Post-Dispatch article Thomas had read, to explain how Thomas knew Epps last name. They also confirmed the caliber of the weapon Thomas claimed he used.

It was a unique caliber, Joshua Wenstrom, a detective who has since retired, told the newspaper on Tuesday. And he got it right on the money.

In October 2019, Thomas pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter under a plea deal. Epps relatives urged the judge to deliver a harsh penalty. Thomas received a 15-year sentence, which he thought was too long.

Thomas is being held at the Potosi Correctional Center, where he is scheduled for a parole hearing in December 2026 on his six sentences, including robbery, manslaughter and armed criminal action. Chris Neiman, a spokesperson for the Missouri Department of Corrections, said Thomas' sentences expire in 2041.

It was just amazing how, since this was a stranger-on-stranger crime, if the guy had not come forward with this confession, the case would not have been made, said Morley Swingle, who was an assistant circuit attorney in St. Louis when Thomas confessed.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP)  The number of new coronavirus cases in Iowa in the past seven days surged 51% compared to the previous week, and new COVID-19 hospital admissions also increased along with the number of patients requiring intensive care, the state Department of Public Health reported Wednesday.

The health department reported 11,588 new positive cases in the past seven days. There were another 64 deaths, more than double the 30 reported in the previous week. The total number of COVID-19 deaths in Iowa increased to 6,401.
TEHRAN, Iran (AP)  Iran acknowledged on Wednesday that it had removed several surveillance cameras installed by U.N. nuclear inspectors at a centrifuge assembly site that came under a mysterious attack earlier this year.

The chief of the country's nuclear program, Mohammad Eslami, sought to portray the removal of cameras as Tehran's response to world powers reneging on their commitments under the tattered 2015 nuclear deal.

The parties did not implement their commitments so there were no necessity for the cameras existence, Eslami said after a meeting with lawmakers  remarks apparently aimed at his own domestic audience under the countrys new hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi.

Eslami's comments come days after a confidential International Atomic Energy Agency report that revealed the nuclear watchdog found one surveillance camera to be destroyed and second severely damaged after their removal from the centrifuge manufacturing site in Karaj, a city about 40 kilometers (25 miles) northwest of Tehran.

In June, Iran accused Israel of mounting a sabotage attack on the site, which makes components for machines used to enrich uranium. Without disclosing details of the assault, Iranian authorities acknowledged the strike had damaged the building.

Addressing swirling questions about the agency's broken surveillance cameras, Eslami said Wednesday they were damaged during recent terrorist operations," without elaborating.

The attack on Karaj was just the latest in a series of suspected assaults targeting Irans nuclear program that have heightened regional hostilities in recent months, as world powers attempt to salvage the now-collapsed nuclear deal. Israel is widely believed to have carried out the sabotage, though it has not claimed responsibility.

Tensions eased slightly in the contest over IAEA surveillance cameras at Iran's sensitive nuclear sites earlier this week, when Iran agreed to allow international inspectors to install new memory cards into surveillance cameras at its atomic facilities to continue filming.

Tehran holds all recordings at its sites as negotiations over the U.S. and Iran returning to the landmark nuclear deal remain stalled in Vienna. As Tehran tries to ramp up pressure on the West to grant sanctions relief, the country is now enriching small amounts of uranium to its closest-ever levels to weapons-grade purity as its stockpile continues to grow.

Tehran maintains its nuclear program is peaceful, and Eslami on Wednesday hit back against those who accuse Iran of covertly pursuing a nuclear bomb.

What Iran has gained in the nuclear field is based on domestic research and development, and nobody can stop this Eslami said, adding that he will travel to Vienna next week for a meeting with the IAEA. We should not allow ourselves to be accused of secrecy by the world.

In a similar statement pitched to the Iranian domestic audience, the country's envoy to the IAEA, Kazem Gharibabadi, also struck a harsh tone against the nuclear watchdog.

The IAEA is not fulfilling its duties and responsibilities with regard to the terrorist sabotage of peaceful facilities of its members, Gharibabadi said, warning that as long as the agency does not address the controversies, problems will continue."

___

DeBre reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
NEW YORK (AP)  A federal judge on Wednesday rejected a request by lawyers for former President Donald Trump to delay the progression of a defamation lawsuit by a woman who accused him of rape.

Judge Lewis A. Kaplan in Manhattan issued a brief denial of the request the lawyers made in December to delay the lawsuit while an appeals court decides whether the United States can be substituted as the defendant. It was unclear whether he would explain his reasoning in a subsequent filing.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is slated to hear arguments in November on whether Trump can be replaced as the defendant in the lawsuit brought by columnist E. Jean Carroll.

The U.S. Justice Department has asserted that Trump cannot be held personally liable for crude and disrespectful remarks he made about Carroll because he was president at the time.

Carroll says Trump raped her in the mid-1990s in an upscale Manhattan department store.

Her lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, said in an email, We very much look forward to oral argument in E Jeans case before the Second Circuit. ... In the meantime, we are reviewing todays order.

Lawyers for Trump and the Justice Department did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

The Associated Press generally does not identify people alleging sexual assault, but Carroll has consented to being named in the media.

Former U.S. Attorney General William Barr began the effort to replace Trump as the defendant while Trump was still in office.

Barrs intervention last October was criticized on the campaign trail by Trump's Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, who said it was inappropriate for the Justice Department to attempt to intervene in a private legal battle over Trumps personal conduct.

In June, the Justice Department under Biden, who won the election, stuck to the position it took while Barr led the department.

It said Trump was acting within the scope of his office in denying wrongdoing after White House reporters asked him about Carrolls claims.

Elected public officials can  and often must  address allegations regarding personal wrongdoing that inspire doubt about their suitability for office, the Justice Department said.

Even reprehensible conduct ... can fall within the scope of employment, the lawyers wrote, conceding that Trump used crude and disrespectful language in questioning Carrolls credibility.

Kaplan ruled last October that Trump cannot use a law protecting federal employees from being sued individually for things they do within the scope of their employment.
MADISON, Wis. (AP)  A Wisconsin judge declined to let Republican legislators and a hunting group join a lawsuit seeking to remove the state Department of Natural Resources policy boards leader from his post.

Dane County Circuit Judge Valerie Bailey-Rihn denied motions to intervene from the legislators and Kansas-based Hunter Nation on Tuesday, online court records show. The legislators have filed a motion asking the judge to stay her decision pending an appeal.
JACKSON, Miss. (AP)  A Mississippi public school teacher with 15 years of experience providing health insurance for their family took home just under $30,000 a year in net pay in 2020, a shocking number, a policy adviser with the Southern Regional Education Board told state lawmakers Wednesday.

That's only a few thousand dollars more a year than first-year teachers who were paying for only their health insurance took home, the adviser said.

All of these are shocking numbers to us  that a Mississippi teacher potentially serving 15 years, especially one who is a single parent, is taking home a wage that can barely cover housing and utilities," board policy adviser Megan Boren said.

A teacher with 15 years of experience took home an annual salary of about $29,680 after taxes and benefits in 2020, compared with about $26,580 for first-year teachers, according to data shared by the Atlanta nonpartisan nonprofit.

A teacher with 35 years of experience took home $43,266 after taxes and benefits in 2019. The Southern Regional Education Board did not have 2020 salary figures available for 35-year teachers.

The Legislature's Senate Education Committee met Wednesday to discuss increasing teacher pay in Mississippi, the state with the lowest average teacher pay in the nation.

During the 2021 legislative session, the Mississippi Legislature approved a $1,000 raise for most teachers and a $1,100 raise for those in the early years of their careers. The raises were signed into law by Republican Gov. Tate Reeves in March.

But many contend lawmakers need to go much further to get Mississippi up to speed with other states.

According to the Southern Regional Education Board, the average teacher salary in the U.S. for 2018-19 was $62,304. For Mississippi, the average was $45,105, approximately $8,200 below the southeastern region average.

The starting salary for teachers with zero to three years of experience and a bachelor's degree in Mississippi was $37,000, about $3,300 below the regional average.

We need to pay our teachers based on their level of professionalism, Felica Gavin, chief operating officer at the Mississippi Department of Education, told lawmakers. "Theyre not paid as professionals as in some other industries.

Southern Regional Education Board President Stephen Pruitt said pay is only one piece of the puzzle when it comes to reducing teacher shortages.

Mississippi Insurance Administrator Cindy Bradshaw said health insurance plans for single teachers are affordable compared with other states but families bear a much greater cost.

In 2020, the state contributed $378 a month toward teachers' health insurance, while employees paid $40. Employees opting for a family coverage plan paid $726 a month in 2020, while the state pitched in $378. That's compared with neighboring Alabama, which charges $251 a month for a family plan. The state covers $1,091. Single-plan employees in Alabama pay $42 a month, while the state pays $477.

Republican Sen. Brice Wiggins said the state's current monthly premiums for families are cost prohibitive, especially for families with single incomes.

What are we doing and what is the board doing to address this family coverage to attract teachers who have families so that they can provide family coverage?" Wiggins continued. That's a policy decision we have to consider if we're talking about attracting teachers who generally are family-oriented.

The Southern Regional Education Board offered several lawmakers ideas Wednesday for how they can better retain teachers, including deceasing monthly employee family premiums and raising teachers' starting and average salaries.

___

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.
ST. LOUIS (AP)  A civil rights group sued the St. Louis City Department of Corrections Wednesday for allegedly violating the Missouri Sunshine Law.

The ACLU of Missouri said in a news release that it filed suit on behalf of ArchCity Defenders over requested records about incidents of detainees being abused by corrections officers at the St. Louis City Justice Center.

The lawsuit stems from a written sunshine law request that ArchCity Defenders attorney Maureen Hanlon submitted in April seeking access to use of force reports completed by correctional staff for the prior six months relating to the use of a chemical agent at the City Justice Center. It contends the city has failed to provide a single record.

A spokesman for the city did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment.

In May, several civil rights groups filed suit on behalf of three detainees alleging a pattern of detainees being maced without warning and then denying medical care and water afterward. The facility has been the site of multiple uprisings.

The ACLU of Missouri said understanding the use of chemical agents is crucial considering the departments recent purchases total $17,379, which is more than the previous six years combined.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP)  Attorneys asked a judge Wednesday to dismiss a new manslaughter charge against the former suburban Minneapolis police officer who shot and killed Daunte Wright during a traffic stop this spring.

Former Brooklyn Center Officer Kim Potter says she mistakenly drew her firearm instead of her stun gun as Wright was trying to drive away from officers during the stop in April. Potter is recorded on body-camera video an instant after the shooting saying she drew the wrong weapon. Potter is white. Wright was Black. His death sparked several nights of protests.

Prosecutors charged her with second-degree manslaughter. Attorney General Keith Ellison, whose office later took over the case, added a count of first-degree manslaughter earlier this month.

Potter is scheduled to stand trial in December. The second-degree manslaughter charge is punishable by up to 10 years in prison; first-degree has a maximum 15-year sentence.

Potter's attorneys, Paul Engh and Earl Gray, filed a motion Wednesday seeking to dismiss the new charge. They argued that Minnesota statutes define first-degree manslaughter as endangering someone by recklessly handling a gun or other dangerous weapon and Potter didn't consciously realize she was holding a gun or was about to fire it.

They went on to argue that Potter was justified in using reasonable force to stop Wright and protect other officers at the scene, maintaining that at least one officer and possibly two were clinging to Wright's car as he drove off and could have been killed.

Engh and Gray acknowledged that argument is based on a version of Minnesota use-of-force statutes that allow officers to use deadly force to protect themselves or to carry out the arrest or prevent the escape of someone suspected of committing a felony.

The attorneys acknowledged those statutes weren't in effect on the day of the Wright stop. They had been replaced by new standards requiring officers to justify use-of-force in specific terms adopted in the wake of George Floyd's death in Minneapolis.

A Ramsey County judge on Monday suspended the new standards pending a lawsuit by law enforcement lobbying groups. Potter's attorneys said the old standards should apply in her case.
MADISON, Wis. (AP)  A Madison-area man pleaded guilty Wednesday to a misdemeanor charge in connection with the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol

Brandon Nelson, 29, appeared by video conference in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. on a charge of parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building. He faces a maximum sentence of six months in federal prison and a fine of up to $5,000.
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP)  An Oregon man who assumed the identity of a dead child more than 30 years ago, worked under the childs name and later applied for Social Security retirement benefits under his and the childs names was sentenced to two years of federal probation.

Robert Lizaragga, of Gresham, obtained a Social Security number in the childs name and used that identity as his own from 1991 on, according to a federal prosecutor.
NEW YORK (AP)  A Florida businessman who admitted that his fraud-busting business was a fraud is citing the coronavirus threat in prisons as he asks a judge to release him early from his one-year prison term.

David Correia, 46, made the request in court papers filed publicly Wednesday in Manhattan federal court.

The West Palm Beach resident was sentenced in February after pleading guilty to making false statements to the Federal Election Commission and conspiring to commit wire fraud. Prosecutors said Rudy Giuliani was hired as a consultant to the business, Fraud Guarantee, which purportedly protected investors from being fraud victims.

Correia said in a handwritten filing that an incurable auto-immune disease makes him particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 in prison, where inmates cannot avoid close proximity. He is scheduled to be released in December from a federal prison camp in Butner, North Carolina. Prosecutors declined through a spokesperson to comment.

In a letter to a warden included in the court filing, Correia wrote in early September he was worried after his wife, a physician assistant, reported that four fully vaccinated individuals had died from the Delta variant of the coronavirus.

My sentence ... was just, for the crime I pled guilty to. However, I was not given a death sentence, Correia wrote. Having a wife and two children under 11 years old makes this a very scary situation to be in.

He asked to complete his sentence in home confinement.

Correia was originally arrested in 2019 along with three others, including two men who worked with Giuliani to try to get Ukrainian officials to investigate the son of then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. Giuliani has said he knew nothing about the crimes the men were charged with but has acknowledged working closely with the men as he sought communications with Ukrainian figures.

Giuliani was never charged. But he is under investigation by Manhattan federal authorities who are deciding whether the former New York City mayor was required to register as a foreign agent as he gathered information in Ukraine that he has insisted was part of his duties as then-President Donald Trump's personal lawyer.
Senior military representatives from dozens of countries gathered in Rhode Island Wednesday to talk about ways to address shared challenges, including combatting the coronavirus and ensuring service members are healthy.

Adm. Michael Gilday, the U.S. chief of naval operations, is hosting the 24th International Seapower Symposium at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport. It concludes Friday.

Gilday said some of the navy leaders in attendance had already shared what they learned with one another as they worked to deploy ships during a pandemic, but the symposium provides a forum for a more formal discussion. He told The Associated Press they'll also discuss concerns about mental health, which have spiked lately.

The symposium was not held last year as planned because it wasn't safe since the vaccine was not available, Gilday said.

There are 135 delegates from 104 nations, including about 30 people who are participating online instead of traveling to the United States. It's the first time a virtual option is available. The delegates attending in person are required to be vaccinated, must be tested for COVID-19 daily and wear a mask while indoors at the college.

When Gilday welcomed the group Wednesday, he assured them every precaution possible was being taken to safely conduct the event in person.

The symposium began in 1969 as a way for heads of navies and coast guards to meet to talk about how to ensure maritime security together. Attendees have gone on to work together to counter arms, drug and human trafficking, provide disaster relief and humanitarian assistance, coordinate search and rescue at sea, and thwart piracy, fishing and pollution violations.

Gilday said it's in all of their political, social and economic interest to ensure freedom of the seas. China, Russia and Taiwan were not formally invited to the symposium, Gilday said, in keeping with the broader policies of the U.S. government.
PASCAGOULA, Miss. (AP)  A Mississippi man has been sentenced to life without parole in the capital murder of another man whose body was found last year floating in the Pascagoula River.

Joseph Paul McLeod, 34, of Pascagoula, pleaded guilty to killing Dustin Suttles, 29, on Tuesday before Circuit Court Judge Dale Harkey, The Sun Herald reported.
CONCORD, N.H. (AP)  Lawmakers tasked with redrawing New Hampshires legislative districts received both sweeping and specific suggestions as they began hearing from the public Tuesday.

Members of both the House and Senate redistricting committees hosted their first public listening session Tuesday night in Concord. Similar sessions will be held around the state, with meetings scheduled in Dover on Sept. 22 and Manchester Sept. 30.

Several of those who spoke up Tuesday offered general pleas urging lawmakers to perform their duties as fairly and openly as possible. They spoke out against gerrymandering  drawing boundaries to benefit the party in power  and said they would have preferred districts to be redrawn by an independent commission instead of the Legislature.

The alternative is more wrangling, more roughness, more gerrymandering, more accusations of fraud, said a man from New London. We dont have to travel that road. We could stop that, cold, right now.

Others offered more detailed suggestions, including ensuring that towns with sufficient population be granted their own representatives in the House, and that communities with common interests such as belonging to the same school district or sharing police departments remain grouped together in the Senate and Executive Council maps.

David Andrews, of the Open Democracy Action advocacy group, said the five Executive Council districts should be drastically shifted to better reflect the states distinct geographical regions. Senate districts also are too sprawling, said Andrews, who also outlined different methods of creating floterial House districts that include multiple towns.

Youre not going to have the perfect map, but you can strive for the perfect map, he said.

Republicans hold eight of the 15 seats on the House committee, while the Senate redistricting committee is made up of two Republicans and one Democrat. The Senate panel initially will focus on redrawing the 24 state Senate districts and five Executive Council districts, while the House will initiate plans for the 400 House seats and both congressional districts.

Republicans also controlled the Legislature when the current plan was approved in 2012. But the map was vetoed by Democratic Gov. John Lynch, who argued it was unconstitutional because it denied 62 towns and wards their own seats in the House and that it needlessly broke up municipalities. The Legislature overrode the veto, and the state Supreme Court later found the plan constitutional.

Republican Gov. Chris Sununu vetoed bills in 2020 and 2019 that would have created an independent redistricting commission, saying it was unnecessary because gerrymandering is rare in the state and the current redistricting process was fair. The GOP-led Legislature killed similar bills this year.

Though Democrats hold both of the states U.S. House seats, the 1st District seat flipped five times in seven election cycles before Democrat Chris Pappas won his first term in 2018. Some Republicans want to use the redistricting process to increase their odds of regaining the seat, but Sununu recently told New Hampshire Public Radio, Thats really stupid.

Districts and elections and public service, its won with good candidates. If you dont have a good candidate, I dont care how good you make the district, he said. Im just a big believer that thats just a bunch of political nonsense that really has no place and never really pans out.

The last speaker at Tuesday night's session was a 36-year-old woman from Hopkinton who urged lawmakers to look beyond the next election.

"Please take a long view because there are people who are going to be living here not only 10 years from now but 20, 30, 40, 50 years from now," she said. What you do here will affect what happens decades from now.
NEW YORK (AP)  A case seen as an early test of New York's law criminalizing police chokeholds has ended without an indictment.

A Queens grand jury on Tuesday declined charges for David Afanador, a former New York City police officer who was seen on cellphone video last year putting his arm around a mans neck on the Rockaway Beach boardwalk.

The June 2020 confrontation happened less than a month after the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd and just nine days after the state's chokehold ban was signed into law as part of a package of police reforms.

Afanador, 40, was the first officer charged under the law. Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said at the time that the ink was barely dry." It was his second arrest for job-related conduct in 16 years on the force. After another arrest in the spring for off-duty conduct, he resigned from the NYPD.

The grand jury's decision Tuesday in the Queens chokehold case voids strangulation and attempted aggravated strangulation charges that prosecutors initially brought against Afanador last year.

In New York, grand juries act as a check on prosecutors, and all felony cases require an indictment in order to proceed to trial unless a defendant waives that requirement.

Afanador's lawyer, Stephen Worth, said Tuesday they were gratified that the grand jury saw this act for what it was: a simple act of taking an emotionally disturbed into custody to be evaluated.

Worth said that Afanador testified before the grand jury, though he was not required to do so.

There was no chokehold, Worth said.

Afanador was suspended by the NYPD and arrested after cellphone video surfaced showing him tackling 35-year-old Ricky Bellevue and putting his arm around Bellevues neck as he lay face down on the boardwalk.

Prosecutors said Afanador kept Bellevue in a chokehold, a tactic that's been banned by the NYPD for years, while other officers handcuffed him causing him to appear to go limp and lose consciousness.

Afanador finally let go of Bellevues neck once another officer pulled on his back, prosecutors said.

Before the take down, prosecutors said, Bellevue appeared to grab a can from a trash bin and asked officers if they were scared. Bellevues lawyer said the officers were aware that he suffers from mental illness.

Bellevue's lawyer, Sanford Rubenstein, said Tuesday that he was disappointed with the grand jury's decision. He said a lawsuit against Afanador and the police department is continuing.

Rev. Kevin McCall, who is organizing a protest and rally on Bellevue's behalf Wednesday outside Queens criminal court, called it a misfortune of justice.

Katz said in a statement that she was barred by law from discussing what went on in the grand jury, but that she would move to have minutes of the proceedings unsealed in the interest of transparency.

In 2016, Afanador was acquitted on charges he pistol-whipped a 16-year-old boy during a marijuana bust, breaking two of his teeth. The beating, seen on video, continued until the boy dropped to the ground and was handcuffed.

In March, he was arrested after police on Long Island say he fired a pistol into the Atlantic Ocean while off duty.

Police said officers investigating a report of shots fired in Long Beach spotted Afanador walking off the beach carrying a loaded 9mm Beretta pistol and three loaded 15-round capacity magazines. Afanador was also cited for possession of alcohol for carrying an open can of Truly Hard Seltzer.

Afanador remains free on bail while that case is pending. His next court appearance is scheduled for Oct. 12.

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Follow Michael Sisak on Twitter at twitter.com/mikesisak
MANDAN, N.D. (AP)  The North Dakota Highway Patrol on Wednesday identified the trooper who fatally shot a Montana man following a vehicle chase on Interstate 94 west of Mandan earlier this month.

The patrol said Trooper Stephen Mayer killed the lone occupant of the vehicle, 45-year-old Craig Knutson, of Billings, Montana. Authorities have released few details about the incident, although they confirmed that a gun was found in Knutson's vehicle.
PHOENIX (AP)  A Phoenix woman has been arrested on suspicion of two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of her two young daughters, police said Wednesday.

They said 35-year-old Retta Renee Cruse was booked into jail Tuesday after being released from a hospital following treatment for alleged self-inflicted stab wounds.
ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (AP)  Pope Francis said Wednesday that Catholic bishops must minister with compassion and tenderness, not condemnation, to politicians who support abortion rights and warned that clerics shouldnt let politics enter into questions about receiving Communion.

Francis was asked en route home from Slovakia about the debate in the U.S. church about whether President Joe Biden and other politicians should be denied Communion because of their stances on abortion. U.S. bishops have agreed to draft a teaching document that many of them hope will rebuke Catholic politicians, including Biden, for receiving Communion despite their support for abortion rights.

Francis declined to give a yes or no answer, saying he didnt know the U.S. case well enough. He repeated that abortion was homicide, and that Catholic priests cannot give the Eucharist to someone who is not in communion with the church. He cited the case of a Jew, or someone who isnt baptized or who has fallen away from the church.

Most importantly, he said, was that priests and bishops must respond pastorally and not politically to any problem that comes before them. He said they must use the style of God to accompany the faithful with closeness, compassion and tenderness.

And what should pastors do? Be pastors, and not go condemning, condemning, Francis said.

Francis recalled cases when the church had held fast to a principle on political grounds and it ended badly, citing the Inquisition-era condemnation of Giordano Bruno for alleged heresy. He was burned at the stake in Rome's Campo dei Fiori.

Whenever the church, in order to defend a principle, didnt do it pastorally, it has taken political sides, Francis said. If a pastor leaves the pastorality of the church, he immediately becomes a politician."

Francis said he had never denied Communion to anyone, though he said he never knowingly had a pro-abortion politician before him, either. And he admitted he once gave Communion to an elderly woman who, after the fact, confessed that she was Jewish.

Francis repeated his belief that the Eucharist is not a prize for the perfect" but rather a gift of the presence of Jesus in the church." But he was unequivocal that it cannot be given to anyone who is not in communion" with the church, though he declined to say if a pro-abortion politician was out of communion.

He was similarly unequivocal that abortion is murder, and that even a weeks-old embryo is a human life that must be protected.

If you have an abortion, you kill," Francis said. That's why the church is so tough on this issue, because if you accept this, you accept homicide daily."

U.S. bishops agreed in June that the conference doctrine committee will draft a statement on the meaning of Communion in the life of the church that will be submitted for consideration, probably an in-person gathering in November. To be formally adopted, the document would need support of two-thirds of the bishops.

Despite the short flight back from Bratislava, the Slovak capital, Francis fielded an unusually wide array of questions. Among other things he said:

That he couldn't understand why some people refuse to take COVID-19 vaccines, saying humanity has a history of friendship with vaccines and that serene discussion was necessary to help them.

That states can and should pass civil laws to allow homosexual couples to have inheritance rights and health care coverage, but that the church couldn't accept gay marriage because marriage is a sacrament between a man and woman. Marriage is marriage. This doesnt mean condemning people who are like this. No, please! They are our brothers and sisters and we have to accompany them."

That his surgery to remove 33 centimeters (13 inches) of his colon in July wasn't easy, despite those who have marveled at how well he had recovered. It wasnt cosmetic surgery, he quipped.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP)  Three of the Ohio prison guards involved in the February death of inmate Michael McDaniel were previously disciplined for excessive use of force or not intervening when inmates were in danger or guards used unjustified force, records show.

The disciplinary documents, obtained by The Associated Press, show a number of past incidents where Lt. Bruce Brown and correctional officers Adam Causey and Jerry Perkins were reprimanded for actions similar to those made in connection with McDaniel's in-custody death.

The three men were among the seven employees at the Correctional Reception Center in Orient who were fired last month after a state investigation into the death of the Black inmate found guards used unjustified force and a supervisor failed to intervene.

The Franklin County Coroners office had declared McDaniels death a homicide and ruled the cause as a stress-induced sudden cardiac death. The autopsy detailed injuries to his head, face, shoulders, wrists, hands, knees, feet, toes and abdomen. McDaniel also had multiple rib fractures, and the coroner found evidence of heart disease.

Security footage released by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction in July showed McDaniel, 55, collapsing on his own and being taken down to the floor by guards at least 16 times before he died Feb. 6.

Previous disciplinary records show Perkins was suspended in November 2017 after using excessive force on an inmate. He is also cited as failing to follow orders, administrative regulations and written or verbal directives from other staff during the incident.

In October 2020, Causey was demoted from his position as a lieutenant for failing to take action when informed by an officer that an inmate was threatening to kill himself. The disciplinary record states Causey did not follow the necessary protocols in accordance with the departments suicide prevention policy by not advising officers in the housing unit to supervise the inmate or notifying the shift commander of the suicide risk.

In a statement, the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association, the union representing correctional officers, said it could not comment on previous disciplinary actions or the investigation surrounding McDaniels death as it is ongoing.

Its certainly a tragedy anytime someone dies, but everyone involved in this incident is entitled to their due process rights, union President Chris Mabe said. We shouldnt get ahead of the facts.

On the day of McDaniel's death, Brown was the first supervisor on the scene. He oversaw Perkins, Causey and the other staff who interacted with the inmate.

It was his responsibility to ensure the safety and well-being of everyone involved, the report stated. But investigators determined Brown did not properly supervise or intervene during the various missteps guards and prison staff took throughout the incident, including allowing McDaniel to be escorted across the yard on a 28-degree day with no shoes or a coat, and in a ripped t-shirt.

When questioned by investigators about changing the method of the escort, Brown said he did not think about it at the time. It was definitely on me as the scene supervisor, to do so, he added.

A similar incident involving Brown took place when he was a site supervisor in October 2017 and a use of force incident took place between a prison guard and an inmate. The records state Brown did not properly communicate to staff and failed to recognize the inmate was not coherent and could not understand the commands being given to him.

He was also reprimanded for failing to ensure the inmate received proper medical evaluation and assessment after he was pepper-sprayed by staff. The report also states guards left the inmates cell without decontaminating it and removing the feces from his body and the walls of his cell.

An administrative grievance process as part of the union membership is underway for Causey and Perkins.

On Wednesday, Pickaway County Prosecutor Judy Wolford told The Columbus Dispatch she would not be bringing criminal charges against the staff involved.

I have declined to take the case as I am unable to prove intent on the part of any of the (corrections officers) and/or nurses, Wolford said in an email to the newspaper.

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Farnoush Amiri 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.
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP)  Republicans and Democrats on an independent commission tasked with drawing new political maps instead drew criticism Wednesday when they failed to agree on what they should look like and released competing versions.

The states loss of a congressional seat based on the most recent census date  from 27 to 26  means a district will disappear. Under both Republican and Democratic maps, the vanishing district comes at the expense of upstate, which currently has 12 seats but will now have 11 under redrawn maps, if adopted.

The public will have the opportunity to weigh in on hearings in the coming months.

But the release of competing maps by the Independent Redistricting Commission means that the bulk of the work on redrawing the states congressional map may fall later this year entirely to the Legislature, which is controlled by Democrats.

This lets us know of the divisions among commission members and the inability to agree on one map, which makes their task more difficult and challenging as we approach the end of the year when either an agreed-to map or the maps with the most votes are sent to the Legislature, said Jeffrey M. Wice, a New York Law School professor and an expert in census law and redistricting.

Seven out of 10 commissioners must agree on a map. The commission didnt vote on the separate proposals Wednesday.

If they divided 5-5, then conceivably two similar maps would be sent to the Legislature by the end of year, Wice said.

In general, the final version of any political map doesn't mirror the original proposal.

But Democratic State Party Chair Jay Jacobs said that Wednesdays development suggests the Legislature will likely have to start over when redrawing the new maps.

And he said New York must act soon as 2022 candidates face deadlines to gather signatures.

New York is one of at least five states  along with Colorado, Michigan, Utah and Virginia  that have added nonpartisan redistricting commissions in the past decade in hopes of redrawing maps free of political influence and contorted gerrymanders.

But the competing maps released Wednesday drew immediate criticism from some quarters.

Its clear that these are partisan maps, and that they should drop the word independent from the name Independent Redistricting Commission, said Blair Horner, the executive director of the New York Public Interest Research Group.

The commissions initial draft underscores the challenges that lie ahead, one observer noted.

Its unfortunate, because it doesnt bode well for the commission acting independently to come up with district proposals that reflect communities and local stakeholders  rather than political interests, said Steven Romalewski, the director of CUNY Mapping Service at the Center for Urban Research.

GOP Party Chair Nick Langworthy called the Democratic maps wildly gerrymandered and said its an embarrassing indicator that the public cant expect an independent redistricting process.

Republicans blasted the Legislature this year for placing on this Novembers ballot a measure that would make it easier to override the commission's nonpartisan maps, requiring only a simple majority vote.

The fact we cant have any sort of discussions or compromise that lead to a final work product shows that Democrats in the state are trying to create a political sham and lead this to an ineffective commission that they can co-opt through the Legislature, Langworthy said.

Jacobs said he also feels disappointed by the commission's failure to agree on a single map.

But he said the courts offer protections over unfair maps. New York lawmakers couldn't agree on a congressional redistricting plan following the 2010 census, when New York lost two congressional seats and Republicans controlled the state Senate. A federal magistrate judge ended up tasked with drawing up the map.

And Jacobs said he hopes Congress will pass legislation to prevent gerrymandering across the board.

Jacobs said Democrats  who have the voter registration edge, wield a powerful supermajority in both chambers of the Legislature and control 19 of the state's 27 seats in Congress  should undo previous Republican efforts to draw very unfavorable lines for Democrats in New York.

So if we undo half of that, theyre going to see a change not to their benefit as a result, Jacobs said.

Langworthy scoffed at the idea that New York's current maps are unfair to Democrats, who have won in swing districts.

The situation here is they would like to make permanent supermajorities, he said. They dont want seats in question, they want seats that are guaranteed for them."

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Associated Press writer Bobby Caina Calvan in New York contributed to this report.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP)  Nebraskas prisons face a persistent staffing crisis that has created dangerous conditions, including maximum-security units that are going unstaffed for hours at a time and one incident where an employee fell asleep on the job and woke up to inmates holding his keys, according to a new watchdog report.

The Inspector General of the Nebraska Correctional System warned in its annual report that the long-standing prison workforce shortage has become a "mass exodus" as burned-out employees leave their jobs. The independent watchdog agency was created six years ago and reports problems in the prison system to the Legislature.

With great frustration, six years in, we can only conclude that this crisis has grown alarmingly worse, Inspector General Doug Koebernick said in the report. A system which was already struggling to recruit and retain staff is now grappling with a mass exodus.

The report said the problems stem from correctional staff working remarkable hours  sometimes 24 hours straight, or back-to-back 16-hour days for multiple weeks. It said some staff members suffered emotional breakdowns on their drive home.

The report said the corrections department reported a record-high 391 job vacancies in March, and the number skyrocketed to a new record of 527 in June, out of roughly 2,300 total positions. It cited examples where one employee fell asleep on the job and awoke to find inmates holding his keys. In other cases, longtime employees said they had started to feel unsafe at work.

Nebraska's three largest prison complexes are also under declared staffing emergencies, requiring longer shifts to compensate for the fewer available workers. According to the report, staff members continue to express concerns about their safety, family lives, and mental and physical health given the extensive overtime and stressful work environment.

I'm running out of words to describe the problem," said Sen. Steve Lathrop, the chairman of the Legislature's Judiciary who has worked for years on prison issues. It's very concerning. The first job of government is to keep people safe. We need to keep people safe inside the Department of Corrections. And as the inspector general's report indicates, there are safety ramifications to being short staffed.

The staffing shortage has persisted for so long that the inspector general suggested using Nebraska National Guard members to fulfill some prison duties.

Danielle Conrad, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska, urged lawmakers to make prison changes a top priority in next year's legislative session.

It's time for historic action to ensure adequate staffing, diversion, rehabilitation and reentry, she said.

A corrections department spokeswoman responded to the report with a statement from Taylor Gage, the communications director for Gov. Pete Ricketts. The statement noted Nebraska's record-low unemployment rate, which has contributed to a workforce shortage throughout state and made it more difficult for businesses and governments to find employees.

The state has made significant increases to corrections officer compensation in recent years, and we recognize more needs to be done, Gage said in the statement. We are preparing to sit down with (the correctional officers' union) to negotiate on additional steps we can take to help ensure we recruit and retain the workforce we need.

Lathrop said the core issue appears to be pay, which he said would help reduce employee turnover and ease the staffing problems. He said that, in turn, would create a safer environment and allow inmates to get easier access to rehabilitative programming and various perks designed to promote good behavior.

The report credited prison officials for some of the steps it has taken to try to attract more workers, including hiring and retention bonuses, but said more can be done.

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Follow Grant Schulte on Twitter: https://twitter.com/GrantSchulte
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP)  A state House seat in southeastern Tennessee will remain in Republican hands.

Greg Vital, 65, a businessman from Georgetown, won the special election Tuesday for House District 29 race in northern and eastern parts of Hamilton County, according to totals posted by the Hamilton County Election Commission. He received 3884 votes while Democrat DeAngelo Jelks, a 40-year-old U.S. Army Reserve captain from Ooltewah, received 964.

Vital will replace Republican Rep. Joan Carter, who has held the seat since her husband Mike Carter, died in May after battling pancreatic cancer. He had served in the Tennessee House since 2013.

The election followed a rape allegation made Sunday against Jelks, prompting his resignation from a local Democratic Party position and a denial in which he called the relationship consensual yet inappropriate.

On the day of the special election Jelks posted an apology to his wife in a social media response in which he also said he did nothing illegal. He said he is focused on restructuring my personal life, and reconnecting spiritually."

A Chattanooga Police spokesperson confirmed to news outlets that a rape report was filed Sunday and cannot be shared until the investigation is completed. Jelks does not currently face any charges over the allegations.
MOSCOW (AP)  Alyona Popovas campaign rhetoric is blunt: Unless she is elected to parliament, there wont be much hope for a law against domestic violence in Russia.

One of the countrys most ardent feminists, Popova has fought for years to lobby members of the State Duma to adopt legislation to protect women  without success. So she decided to run herself in the election in which voting begins Friday and runs through Sunday.

Popova believes she has a good chance of winning and will be able to push through a domestic violence law. Analysts and recent actions by Russian authorities, however, suggest that both face an uphill battle.

Few reliable official statistics are kept on violence against women in Russia, but it is clearly a national problem. Police routinely turn a blind eye to domestic abuse, and restraining orders don't exist, leaving victims without a key protection.

The Interior Ministry's official magazine, Russias Police, reported in 2019 that one in three murders occur within family and domestic relations; violent acts of different kinds happen in one out of four families; and 70% of crimes within families and households are against women and children.

There are virtually no legal mechanisms to protect people from domestic abuse. Laws address a wide range of violent crimes, but attempts to create measures that would prevent these crimes from happening have faced resistance from authorities.

Yulia Gorbunova, senior researcher for Human Rights Watch in Russia and Ukraine, said the available statistics suggest Russia isnt much different from the rest of the world. She cited World Health Organization data that showed one in three women around the globe suffers from physical or sexualized violence by her partner or others, "and in Russia, the numbers are quite similar.

Unfortunately, Russia differs from other countries in a bad way, with its inadequate response  lack of legislation, lack of a normal system of supporting the victims, she added.

Popovas decision to run came after her only ally in the Duma  Oksana Pushkina of the ruling United Russia bloc  announced she wasn't seeking reelection.

Popova said she spoke with other advocates about what to do: "To run after Duma lawmakers for five more years, given that this next parliament will be ultra-bigoted, ultra-fundamentalist? Popova said. Or to fight for it ourselves?

Simple assault against a family member was a criminal offense only briefly in 2016 under a measure passed by lawmakers, but it prompted a backlash from conservative groups.

At his annual news conference in December 2016, President Vladimir Putin was asked about parents who could face imprisonment for spanking a child, which the questioner said was quite traditional Russian discipline.

Putin responded that its better not to spank children and not to cite traditions, but agreed that unceremonious interference with the family is unacceptable, and promised to review the law. It was decriminalized the next year and was downgraded to a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of about $68.

Womens rights activists protested vehemently, saying abusers were given a green light.

Our state is sending us a signal that violence is a staple (of the regime), and nothing should be done against this staple, because otherwise the entire system will fall apart, Popova said.

Valentina Matviyenko, the speaker of the upper house of parliament, acknowledged the problem in 2019 and vowed to have a domestic violence bill by the end of the year. One was drafted by Popova, Pushkina and other activists.

It faced weeks of stiff resistance from conservative groups and the Russian Orthodox Church, arguing that the state shouldnt interfere in family matters. As a result, it was watered down and never came up for a vote.

Nasiliu.Net, a prominent nonprofit that supports domestic violence victims and advocated for the law, has been labeled a foreign agent, and given repeated hefty fines.

Diana Barsegyan, its deputy director, said the crippling moves speak volumes about the governments attitude toward domestic violence.

In a healthy situation, the state should work together with experts and NGOs on such a huge and complex problem, Barsegyan said. And now were in a situation when (the government) comes to experts who are dealing with this problem, saying, Youre (foreign) agents now, and from now on, it will be difficult for you to work.'

Pushkina, who in recent years was a firebrand for domestic violence legislation, decided not to run again after United Russia endorsed someone else in her constituency.

Of course, (the authorities) don't need this pro-feminist agenda today," she said. Our state policy has taken an ultraconservative path.

Pushkina said that what Popova stands for resonates with voters, pointing out that even state-funded pollsters found that 70% of Russians support a domestic violence law. She believes Popova will fight for the law if elected, but that authorities will have the final say.

No matter how hard Alyona fights, if theres a decision higher up to slow something down, block it or adopt, then that will come to pass, Pushkina said.

Popova is running in a Moscow district, and her competitors include a famous TV personality widely seen as pro-government and a seasoned lawmaker from the Communist Party.

She said she has fewer resources than her biggest opponents. Her candidacy was put forward by the democratic Yabloko party, which meant that she didnt need to collect signatures, but the party isn't financing her campaign.

Apathy by voters and their conviction that the election wont change anything makes campaigning even harder, Popova said, adding: The scariest thing the authorities achieved over the past 20 years is convincing people that elections are a farce.

She said she was criticized initially for making domestic violence the cornerstone of her campaign, but it strikes a chord with many people she meets.

At every meeting we hold (with voters), at least one person either witnessed domestic violence or suffered from it, she said.

The bill that was shelved had included a system of restraining orders  something that abuse survivors told The Associated Press they wished had been in place when they went to authorities.

Irina Petrakova, 41, suffered years of abuse at the hands of her husband. She said that even when they were finally divorced, he was able to assault her outside the courthouse where she brought a case against him.

Had the law been in force, had I had a (restraining) order, he wouldnt have been able to even approach me, said Petrakova, whose case is before the European Court of Human Rights.

Popova said she receives messages of support from all over Russia. However, political analyst and former Kremlin speechwriter Abbas Gallyamov said it is unclear whether she will have enough support within her district.

Domestic violence hasn't been a priority for voters, Gallyamov said, although he notes it has never been on the agenda of a nationwide election before and may have potential because women usually turn out more than men at the polls.

He added that the Kremlins constant peddling of traditional values has annoyed a significant chunk of protest voters so much that Popova could benefit.

___

Anna Frants contributed to this report.
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP)  A small cargo plane crashed in a steep mountainous forest in Indonesia's easternmost Papua province on Wednesday, killing all three people on board, officials said.

Timika rescue agency chief George Leo Mercy Randang said rescuers had reached the crash site of the Rimbun Air plane and confirmed that all three crew members were dead.
The new Texas law that bans most abortions in the state has been welcomed by many of the religious leaders who help bolster the anti-abortion movement. Yet some abortion opponents in U.S. religious circles are wary of the law and questioning the movements current direction.

The wariness relates in part to the laws most novel feature, which some critics view as an invitation to vigilantes: It provides no enforcement role for public officials and instead authorizes private citizens to sue anyone they deem to be assisting in an abortion, with the prospect of gaining $10,000 in the process.

The law has serious downsides and conveys that anti-abortion activists are willing to engage in desperate and extremist tactics, said Charles Camosy, an associate professor of theological and social ethics at Fordham University who favors tougher nationwide restrictions on abortion.

Because it appears to be playing legal games to get around rulings of federal courts, the law feeds the false narrative that pro-lifers dont have public opinion on our side, Camosy, a Catholic, said via email.

The law, Senate Bill 8, prohibits abortions once medical professionals can detect cardiac activity, usually around six weeks. It was assailed in a recent column in the National Catholic Reporter, an independent online news outlet, by one of its senior reporters, Michael Sean Winters.

I fear greatly that the premature implementation of this truly strange law will turn out to be the historic beginning of a backlash against the pro-life movement for which it is ill-prepared, Winters wrote.

He said the laws provisions encourage a kind of vigilante justice we had all thought consigned to old Western movies and warned that its implementation would likely prompt some women to resort to illegal and potentially risky abortions.

I am as pro-life as pro-life can be, but I detest the pro-life movement, for its short-sightedness, for its moral myopia, for its viciousness, Winters wrote. The pro-choice movement is now energized in a way it has not been for years.

Amid the furor over SB 8, the Catholic bishop of Lexington, Kentucky, John Stowe, issued a broader critique of some elements of the anti-abortion movement, suggesting they pursued their cause while neglecting other pressing social issues.

Those who vehemently fight legal abortion but are uninterested in providing basic healthcare for pregnant mothers or needy children, who are unconcerned about refugee children or those lacking quality education with no hope of escaping poverty cannot really claim to respect life, Stowe tweeted.

Among staunch supporters of the Texas law, theres a degree of disdain for abortion opponents who depict the measure as a strategic mistake.

The pro-lifers who oppose Texas SB 8 play to lose  or rather they play the part of controlled opposition, paying lip service to the unborn, but not actually acting like real lives are at stake every single day, said Chad Pecknold, associate professor of theology at The Catholic University of America.

Whatever happens to Texas SB 8, it will long be remembered as the moment when pro-lifers started playing to win, Pecknold added via email.

Implementation of the law has elated many top faith leaders in Texas and other states whove been campaigning against abortion over the years, including many of John Stowes fellow bishops.

We celebrate every life saved by this legislation, said the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops, which represents the 20 bishops serving the state.

Abortion does not help women, the bishops said. Abortion is never the answer. It is always the violent taking of innocent human life.

The statement was lauded by Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee on Pro-Life Activities.

Naumann acknowledged that the law has sparked controversy but criticized President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for responding with radical pledges to block it and other tough anti-abortion measures.

Like Naumann, some prominent Southern Baptist pastors in Texas welcomed the law while noting its contentious aspects

I do believe its legitimate to ask if we really want third parties to be able to financially profit from reporting the crimes of others, said the Rev. Robert Jeffress of the First Baptist Dallas megachurch.

Overall, Jeffress said via email, Im very supportive of and grateful for this strong affirmation of the value of life by our Texas lawmakers.

Phillip Bethancourt, formerly a senior public policy official with the Southern Baptist Convention and now lead pastor of Central Church in College Station, Texas, noted that theres debate about whether the law is ultimately good or bad.

But theres one community that will be universally thankful for it: those pre-born children for whom this law will mean life instead of death, he said via email. We need to see more legislation and not less around the country that does everything it can to protect life.

Another Baptist pastor, John Elkins of Sovereign Grace Fellowship in Brazoria, Texas, said he welcomes the law while wishing it would ban abortion altogether. He hopes congregation members who share his outlook will find ways to assist unwed mothers in their community.

Among the vocal supporters of SB 8 is Marjorie Dannenfelser, a Catholic who heads the Susan B. Anthony List, a prominent national anti-abortion group.

The goal of the pro-life movement has always been to make abortion illegal and unthinkable, she wrote in a column Wednesday in National Review. Texans are doing just that, in defiance of the undemocratic stifling of debate wrought by the Supreme Court years ago.

Carol Tobias, president of the National Right to Life Committee, said her organization supports any legal strategy that would protect unborn babies.

Too many state attorneys general fail to defend protective laws, or judges strike them down when they do, said Tobias, who belongs to the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. The Texas approach is novel and deserves its day in court using established legal procedures.

Michael New, an abortion opponent who teaches social research at Catholic University, called the law unconventional and predicted it would face multiple legal challenges. Already, it has been targeted by lawsuits from abortion providers and from the U.S. Justice Department.

Nonetheless, New said he was pleased that SB 8 has taken effect.

Pro-lifers have identified a strategy that, at least in the short term, has succeeded in providing legal protection to thousands of unborn children, he said.

Unsurprisingly, SB 8 has been assailed by clergy from faith groups that support abortion rights. Among the plaintiffs in a July suit challenging the law is the Rev. Daniel Kanter, senior minister of First Unitarian Church of Dallas and a past chair of Planned Parenthoods Clergy Advocacy Board.

The Jewish Council of Public Affairs, which represents more than 140 national and local Jewish organizations, condemned SB 8 and other anti-abortion restrictions as dangerous measures that should be thwarted by federal legislation.

___

Associated Press religion coverage receives support from the Lilly Endowment through The Conversation U.S. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has unleashed another wave of lawsuits against school districts over their masking policies  but one of them says it doesnt even require face coverings.

Midway Independent School District is a Waco-area district that sits on a list compiled by the attorney generals office of school districts and counties that have flouted Gov. Greg Abbotts ban and put in place their own mask-wearing orders.

The hitch? Midway ISD doesnt mandate that students, teachers, school staff or visitors don masks while on school premises, a district spokesperson said Wednesday. Midway officials have tried to convince the attorney generals office the district doesnt have a mandate  but to no avail.

We have not received information of why or how we are considered out of compliance or considered for a lawsuit, district spokesperson Traci Marlin said in an email.

The Midway school district is among nine that Paxton announced on Tuesday that he is suing for allegedly defying Abbotts executive order banning public schools and local governments from enacting local mask mandates.

Under Midways virus protocol, campuses can issue 10-day mask directives'' that encourage mask-wearing on the premises if virus transmission reaches a certain level  but doesnt require it. The attorney generals office pointed to that protocol as the basis of its lawsuit against the district but declined to answer other questions from The Texas Tribune.

Those directives are not the same as mandates, Marlin said  and in one case, such a directive successfully cut down the number of active cases on a campus.

Directives are not enforced, she said. There are no punishments or repercussions.

McGregor Independent School District, another district near Waco, did require mask-wearing if virus transmission became too severe but, at Paxtons request, did not enforce the mandate, Superintendent James Lenamon said in a statement.

Nonetheless, Paxton sued the district.

The district is disappointed that the AG has decided to sue anyway, Lenamon said.

In an attempt to slow the spread of the highly contagious delta variant of COVID-19 among schoolchildren too young to get vaccinated, dozens of school districts across the state and several large counties have required mask-wearing in some form despite Abbotts order.

The Texas Education Agency isnt enforcing Abbotts ban  and Paxton and Abbott have argued in court they have no power to punish those who disobey the governor.

In addition to McGregor and Midway, Paxton announced lawsuits against seven other districts Tuesday: Diboll, Honey Grove, La Vega, Longview, Lufkin, Paris and Waco school districts.

Last week, Paxton sued six districts  the first time he had done so since the dispute between the states Republican leadership and local officials began in August.

There will be more to come as lawlessness continues across the state, Paxtons office wrote in a tweet Tuesday afternoon.

Already, Paxton has notched at least one temporary victory against a school district  winning an order in Lamar County court blocking Paris Independent School Districts mask mandate for the time being.

Paris ISD officials had taken the novel approach of requiring students to wear masks as part of the dress code  which the districts general counsel Dennis Eichelbaum credited with keeping absences related to COVID-19 low.

Thank goodness we have the attorney general to come to our rescue, Eichelbaum said.

The Texas Tribune is a nonpartisan, nonprofit media organization that informs Texans  and engages with them  about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
HOUSTON (AP)  Some of the 15 Texas school districts that have been sued in the past week for defying Republican Gov. Greg Abbotts ban on mask mandates are pushing back against the lawsuits.

One school district said Wednesday that it doesn't have such a mandate and isn't sure why it's being sued, while another said the lawsuit against it was filed in a cowardly manner.

Keeping his promise to file lawsuits over what he has described as unconstitutional mandates, state Attorney General Ken Paxton began suing school districts last week.

There will be more to come as lawlessness continues across the state, Paxton tweeted Tuesday, when he filed suit against nine districts.

At least eight counties and cities and 87 school districts or systems in Texas have imposed mask mandates to slow the spread of the surging coronavirus, which has overwhelmed many of the state's hospitals.

Before Paxton began suing school districts, various districts, cities and counties filed at least nine lawsuits challenging Abbott's ban on mask mandates.

A federal lawsuit has also been filed by Disability Rights Texas, an advocacy organization. A federal judge on Wednesday denied the groups request for a temporary restraining order to stop the state from preventing school districts from requiring masks.

Last month, the Texas Supreme Court temporarily blocked a mask mandate issued by San Antonio and Bexar County for their public schools. The court has yet to make a definitive ruling on the issue.

Abbott has argued that a law known as the Texas Disaster Act gives him broad power in deciding how best to respond to emergency situations, including whether to ban mask mandates during a pandemic. In a July executive order, Abbott reaffirmed his ban on mask mandates by any state, county or local government entity, saying wearing a mask is a matter of personal responsibility and shouldn't be imposed by the state.

The counties, cities and school districts say Abbott has exceeded his authority.

The Texas Education Agency has said Abbotts ban on mask mandates is not being enforced during the ongoing lawsuits.

Lawyers for Paxtons office have said that neither Abbotts office nor the attorney general have the authority to enforce the governors ban. Such enforcement would be up to local district attorneys.

The school district in the Central Texas city of Midway, which is among those Paxton's office is suing, said it has tried telling his office that it's not requiring masks.

We have respected the governors orders while implementing thoughtful, measured and temporary responses to clusters of COVID cases, district spokeswoman Traci Marlin said in a statement.

When COVID-19 cases get high in the Midway district, officials have created an option for a 10-day mask directive to prevent campus closures.

We use the word directive instead of mandate because it is literally not a mandate, as in it is not enforced, Marlin said.

Paxtons office has also sued the district in Paris, in northeastern Texas, which in August amended its dress code to require that masks be part of what students wear. During a court hearing Monday, a judge granted Paxtons request for a temporary restraining order to stop the districts mask requirement.

Dennis Eichelbaum, an attorney for the Paris school district, said the district was not informed about the lawsuit or Mondays hearing until two hours after the hearing was over.

We werent surprised by the lawsuit. But we were shocked at the cowardly manner in which it was filed, Eichelbaum said.

Paxtons office did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Wednesday.

The Paris district believes the Texas Education Code gives its board of trustees the exclusive authority to govern its schools, including overseeing the dress code, and that Abbotts executive order did not suspend the education code, Eichelbaum said.

Since requiring masks, the Paris district has had among the state's fewest COVID-19 absences of any district, Eichelbaum said.

Were hoping that God willing, our numbers dont start going up now that the attorney general has successfully gone into court without us and gotten an order prohibiting us from protecting our faculty and our students he said.

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Follow Juan A. Lozano on Twitter: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70
TACOMA, Wash. (AP)  A train derailed Tuesday afternoon at the Port of Tacoma striking a power pole and knocking down power lines.

The Tacoma Fire Department said on Twitter that crews were on the scene in the 2100 block of Port of Tacoma Road.

Officials said a train derailed and that one of the locomotives made contact with the pole which knocked down the lines. A photo posted on Twitter showed a BNSF train was involved.

No injuries were reported.

Tacoma Public Utilities responded to the incident and restored power to about 35 affected customers, the News Tribune reported.

No further information was immediately available.
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP)  A court set up in The Hague to prosecute crimes from Kosovo's 1998-99 war for independence from Serbia opened its first trial Wednesday, with prosecutors saying they have irrefutable evidence that a former rebel commander is guilty of charges including murder and torture of suspected collaborators.

Salih Mustafa was arrested a year ago in Kosovo and sent to the Netherlands to stand trial at the European Union-backed Kosovo Specialist Chambers, a branch of the country's legal system set up specifically to deal with allegations of war crimes committed as ethnic Albanian rebels united in the Kosovo Liberation Army fought a bloody conflict to break away from Serbia in 1998-99.

The lead prosecutor, American lawyer Jack Smith, stressed at the start of the trial that his team wasn't targeting the KLA, Kosovo or its people or their struggle for independence, as he said opponents of the court claim.

Nothing, nothing could be further from the truth, he told the court.

Prosecutors plan to call 16 witnesses to support their case. The first is expected to testify next week. Defense lawyers didn't make an opening statement Wednesday.

Mustafa is charged with the war crimes of arbitrary detention, cruel treatment, the torture of at least six people and the murder of one person at a detention compound in Zllash, Kosovo, in April 1999. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The victims were accused by KLA fighters of collaborating with Serbs or not supporting the KLA, according to his indictment.

To be accused of being a so-called collaborator during the war was grave, and often deadly, prosecution lawyer Cezary Michalczuk said.

Mustafa wore a red T-shirt in court and listened to a simultaneous translation of proceedings through headphones that he held over his left ear.

He left the court after the prosecution's opening statement, angering lawyers for victims.

We do perceive this as a clear disregard and disrespect for victims," attorney Anni Pues said.

The trial is the first to start at the Hague-based court that was established six years ago following a 2011 report by the Council of Europe, a human rights body, that included allegations that KLA fighters trafficked human organs taken from prisoners and killed Serbs and fellow ethnic Albanians they considered collaborators.

Pues said victims that she represents in court have been waiting more than two decades for accountability for crimes committed by KLA fighters, who are widely considered heroes in their home country.

And they all hope to finally see some justice done, she said. None of the wounds inflicted in 1999 have healed.

The court says that, so far, nine victims have registered to take part in the trial.

Among other former rebel commanders in custody awaiting trial are former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci, who resigned from office last year to defend himself against war crimes charges in The Hague.

Most of the people who died in the Kosovo war were ethnic Albanians. A 78-day NATO air campaign against Serbian troops ended the fighting.

Several Serbs have been prosecuted at a former U.N. war crimes tribunal for their roles in atrocities in the Kosovo war.

Smith said: I can say with conviction that war crimes on one side do not justify war crimes on the other side.

Mustafa is charged with personal involvement in arbitrary detention, cruel treatment and torture and with command responsibility for the murder. He also is charged with involvement in all four crimes as a member of a joint criminal enterprise. Michalczuk showed several photos of Mustafa dressed in military fatigues and a red beret.

He said that victims held at the detention center Mustafa ran were forced to sleep on the filthy floor of a barn and given insufficient food, water and medical treatment for injuries sustained in brutal beatings.

We submit the evidence will leave no doubt whatsoever that these crimes occurred, and that the accused was responsible for them, Michalczuk told the court.

Smith told judges that witnesses in Kosovo war crimes cases face a climate of intimidation.

He said the trials that will be held in the Hague courtroom are an opportunity "for Kosovo to put the issues of this war behind it once and for all, an opportunity for victims to have their voices heard and heard in a setting where they can speak the truth without fear of retribution or intimidation.
UNITED NATIONS (AP)  Four million Afghans are facing a food emergency and the majority live in rural areas where $36 million is urgently needed for the coming months to ensure the planting of winter wheat, feed for livestock, and cash assistance for vulnerable families, the elderly and disabled, a U.N. official said Tuesday.

Rein Paulsen, director of the Food and Agriculture Organizations Office of Emergencies and Resilience, told reporters at U.N. headquarters in a video briefing from Kabul that 70% of Afghans live in rural areas and there is a severe drought affecting 7.3 million Afghans in 25 of the countrys 34 provinces. These vulnerable rural communities have also been hit by the pandemic, he said.

Paulsen said 4 million Afghans are facing a humanitarian emergency, characterized by extreme gaps in food consumption, very high levels of acute malnutrition and excess mortality.

He said agriculture is indispensable to the Afghan population. He said it accounts for just over 25% of the country's GDP, directly employs some 45% of the work force, and most importantly it provides livelihood benefits for fully 80% of the Afghan population.

Many vulnerable families rely on livestock for food, he said, but 3 million animals are at risk as a result of the drought leaving inadequate pasture.

Paulsen said the winter wheat planting season -- the most important in Afghanistan -- is threatened by challenges of the cash and banking system as well as challenges to markets and agricultural items.

Since the Taliban takeover on Aug. 15, fears have grown that Afghanistan could face economic collapse. Many banks have been closed, those that are open have limited cash withdrawals, and prices for staples have increased.

More than half of Afghans daily calorific intake comes from wheat, Paulsen said. The crop is simply indispensable in food security terms and farmers must start to plant now.

FAO has resources in place to support an extra 1.25 million Afghans but much more is needed, he said. The seeds cant wait, the farmers cant wait. This window is requiring an urgent scale and support for donors now.

He said the FAOs package of wheat, fertilizer and support for a single farmer costs $150.

For $150 a family of seven Afghans will produce 1.2 million tons of wheat -- theyll produce enough wheat to give them cereal and flour for an entire 12-month period, Paulsen said. That $150 is incredibly impactful, very cost effective  and again, (it) underscores why its imperative that we dont miss this winter wheat season, he added.

He also said more than 400,000 Afghans are displaced from their homes, mainly from rural areas, and those numbers are rising. He said keeping farmers in their fields and herders with their flocks is critical to preventing a deepening displacement crisis.

If agriculture collapses further, Paulson warned, it will drive up malnutrition, increase displacement and worsen the humanitarian situation.

FAO in 2021 has supported nearly 2 million Afghans with livelihood and cash assistance, Paulsen said.

He said the $36 million that the FAO needs urgently for the winter farming season was part of the U.N.s emergency appeal for $606 million. At a conference in Geneva on Monday, donors pledged $1.2 billion  double the amount sought, which Paulsen called encouraging.

FAO hopes the pledges will fully fund the $36 million needed, but Paulsen noted that they are only promises for now and donors need to quickly provide the cash.
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP)  The Biden administration said Wednesday that federal protections may need to be restored for gray wolves in the western U.S. after Republican-backed state laws made it much easier to kill the predators.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service initial determination that the region's wolves could again be in peril  after decades spent restoring them  will kick off a year-long biological review.

It marks an abrupt turnaround for the federal wildlife agency and brought a swift pushback from Montana's Republican governor, who said officials in Washington shouldn't be second guessing the state's wildlife policies.

Federal officials had spent years in court defending their decisions on wolves, including under Biden and dating back to the Obama administration, when wolves were returned to state jurisdiction in the six-state Northern Rockies, opening the door to hunting for the first time in decades.

Former President Donald Trump's administration lifted protections across most of the remainder of the U.S. in his last days in office.

But the deference given by federal officials to state wildlife agencies is now being tested. Republican lawmakers in Montana and Idaho are intent on culling more wolf packs, which are blamed for periodic attacks on livestock and reducing elk and deer herds that many hunters prize.

The states' Republican governors in recent months signed into law measures that expanded when, where and how wolves can be killed. That raised alarm among Democrats, former wildlife officials and advocacy groups that said increased hunting pressure could cut wolf numbers to unsustainable levels.

The Humane Society of the U.S., Center for Biological Diversity and other groups had filed legal petitions asking federal officials to intervene.

The Fish and Wildlife Service said Wednesday the petitions provided credible and substantial information that increased human-caused mortality in Idaho and Montana may pose a threat to wolves" across the western region.

Wilderness areas in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming are strongholds for wolf populations, helping fuel their expansion in recent years into portions of Oregon, Washington state, California and Colorado.

The agency rejected a request to restore protections immediately. But it said the groups provided enough information to justify a year-long review of whether wolves warrant re-listing under the Endangered Species Act, which is for plants and animals considered at risk of extinction.

Center for Biological Diversity attorney Andrea Zaccardi said advocates welcomed the review but added that wolves were under the gun now and need protections right away.

We are concerned that a lot of wolves could be wiped out while undertaking a year-long review," she said.

Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte said the state had been effectively managing its wolves, crafting regulations from the newly enacted laws to make sure wolf populations remain sustainable.

We don't need Washington coming in and second-guessing our science-based approach, Gianforte said in a statement.

Gianforte trapped and killed a wolf in February near Yellowstone National Park. He later received a warning from wildlife officials because he had failed to take a mandated trapper education course in violation of state hunting regulations.

Wolves were exterminated across most of the U.S. by the 1930s under government-sponsored poisoning and trapping campaigns. They were reintroduced from Canada into the Northern Rockies in the 1990s and expanded over the past two decades into parts of Oregon, Washington and California.

In 2011, Montana Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester and Idaho Republican Rep. Mike Simpson pushed a budget rider through Congress that lifted protections for wolves after courts blocked earlier attempts.

A Tester spokesman on Wednesday called Montana's new wolf policies shortsighted." Tester wants science to drive wildlife management, and he plans to closely track the results of the federal review, spokesman Roy Lowenstein said.

Dozens of American Indian tribes had asked the Biden administration on Tuesday to immediately enact emergency protections for gray wolves nationwide, saying states have become too aggressive in hunting the animals. They said wolves are culturally important to a host of tribes and accused the federal government of failing to listen to their concerns about lifting protections.

After protections were lifted in the Great Lakes in January, Wisconsin moved quickly to reduce its wolf numbers. A pro-hunting group with close ties to conservative Republicans won a court order that allowed hunters  some using hounds  to kill 218 wolves in the state in four days.

Recent changes in wolf management reflect an increasingly partisan approach to predator management in state houses dominated by Republicans.

Among the measures approved this year in Idaho, which has an estimated 1,500 wolves, was a law that provided money for the state to hire private contractors to kill the animals. The law also allows hunters to use night-vision equipment, chase wolves on snowmobiles or ATVs and shoot them from helicopters. It authorizes year-round wolf trapping on private property.

In Montana, state wildlife authorities last month approved a harvest quota of 450 wolves, about 40% of the population. Previously-outlawed killing methods can now be used, including snaring, baiting and night hunting for wolves. Trapping seasons were lengthened, and each hunter or trapper can now take up to 10 animals.

Even before the changes, Montana wildlife officials expected wolf numbers in the state to drop from around 1,150 animals to 950 or fewer, following a particularly successful hunting season over the past year.

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Follow Matthew Brown on Twitter: @MatthewBrownAP
DUNWOODY, Ga. (AP)  Gas has been temporarily turned off at an apartment complex in an Atlanta suburb where a building partially collapsed during a weekend explosion, sending four people to the hospital.

Atlanta Gas Light said inspectors have identified appliance and fuel line issues within the buildings. Officials said they have been directed by the Dunwoody City Code Officer to suspend all natural gas service to the entire complex until all units are inspected and deemed safe.

The company told WSB-TV that one of its crews was headed to the complex, in response to a call from someone who reported smelling gas, when the explosion occurred.

Atlanta Gas Light is committed to delivering safe and reliable natural gas service to our customers," it said. Upon arrival, we began coordinating with first responders, turning off the natural gas connected to the impacted units and performing safety checks. At this time, we have not identified any other calls to Atlanta Gas Light related to odor of gas complaints at the impacted locations.

Four people were taken to a hospital after Sunday's explosion at Arrive Perimeter apartments and at least 25 units were damaged, news outlets reported.

Officials with the City of Dunwoody said Monday that on-site inspections revealed two gas leaks in a building at the complex that werent related to the explosion. Gas was shut off so those repairs could be made and crews could inspect additional buildings.

Police said they were called to the apartments in DeKalb County around 1:24 p.m. Sunday, where they encountered heavy gas fumes. Police began evacuating residents but then there was an explosion. The blast was so powerful that it damaged surrounding buildings.

One resident told WSB-TV that the smell of gas has become almost a regular occurrence at the complex.

This has been an ongoing issue, Erik Wiley said. A lot of residents have been complaining about smelling gas.

Wiley said he called SCANA Energy a few months ago about the smell. SCANA confirms they dispatched crews from Atlanta Gas Light on March 29.

They did detect gas and they were going to notify management, Wiley said.

But SCANA said there were no signs of a gas leak. And, Atlanta Gas Light said that other than Sunday, they have not confirmed any calls received from property management or from SCANA.
Eds: This story was supplied by The Conversation for AP customers. The Associated Press does not guarantee the content.

Douglas Laycock, University of Virginia

(THE CONVERSATION) For Americans wary of COVID-19 vaccine mandates, like the sweeping requirements President Joe Biden announced Sept. 9, 2021, it seems there are plenty of leaders offering ways to get exemptions  especially religious ones.

No major organized religious group has officially discouraged the vaccine, and many, like the Catholic Church, have explicitly encouraged them. Yet pastors from New York to California have offered letters to help their parishioners - or sometimes anyone who asks  avoid the shots.

These developments point to deep confusion over how to win a religious exemption. So what are they, and is the government even required to offer the exemptions in the first place?

Many schools, businesses and governments requiring vaccination have offered religious exemptions. Some are loath to challenge peoples claims that getting the shot goes against their beliefs for fear of being sued, but organizations have come up with a variety of ways to assess claimants sincerity.

But the legal basis of Americans supposed right to a religious exemption to vaccination is less clear than such policies popularity would suggest.

As a lawyer and scholar who focuses on religious liberties, I have supported religious exemptions for a baker who refused to create a cake for a same-sex wedding, a family-owned business that refused to provide emergency contraception to its employees, a Muslim prisoner who was obligated to grow a beard and many others.

Even so, I believe that under the general law of religious liberty  including the Constitution and state and federal religious freedom laws  the government has an easy case to refuse religious exemptions from vaccines against infectious disease.

Proving interest

There are a variety of ways to present a religious liberty claim, each with a different set of rules.

The most stringent standard is that the government should not require people to violate their conscience without a compelling reason.

The Supreme Court has never been clear about the full range of what counts as compelling, but some cases are clear. The government has a compelling interest in preventing significant threats to other peoples health, and especially so in a pandemic. The unvaccinated endanger people who are immunosuppressed or cannot be vaccinated because of their age or any other medical reason. The unvaccinated also endanger people who are vaccinated because no vaccination is 100% effective, as is evident from the number of breakthrough COVID-19 infections in the U.S.

Until last month, no state or federal court had ever granted a religious exemption when the government had to demonstrate compelling interest in requiring a vaccine. Now, a federal judge has granted a temporary restraining order to prevent Western Michigan University, a public school, from requiring its student-athletes to be vaccinated. This is a preliminary opinion and seems unlikely to stand up through further proceedings and appeal, since every judge to encounter such an issue in the past has ruled the other way.

The Supreme Courts current interpretation of the Constitution does not always require a compelling interest.

Under the current law of the Constitution, people have no right to a religious exemption from a rule unless there is also a secular exception or gap in coverage that would undermine the governments interests just as much. If there isnt such a secular exception, the government doesnt have to show any reason at all to refuse religious exemptions.

Usually the only secular exception to vaccine requirements is for medical contraindications, meaning that a vaccine would harm the recipient - for example, if someone is allergic to an ingredient in the vaccine.

But these medical exceptions dont undermine the governments interest in saving lives, preventing serious illness or preserving hospital capacity. By avoiding medical complications, those exceptions actually serve the governments interests.

Offering exemptions

In some states, however, the situation is more complicated. Most states explicitly authorize religious exemptions to vaccination, and sometimes philosophical exemptions as well  regardless of the governments compelling interests.

Those state laws could not protect anyone from a federal vaccine mandate, and many of them only apply to certain groups  usually schoolchildren. But they could protect people from mandates from their state or local government.

Many private employers requiring vaccines offer religious exemptions, too. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act requires businesses to accommodate workers religious practice as long as they do not cause undue hardship to the employer. But the Supreme Court has interpreted undue hardship to mean anything more than a minimal expense, meaning employers dont need a reason anywhere near as strong as a compelling interest. So employers do not have to allow religious exemptions to their employees.

Still, many employers and governments alike have been reluctant to challenge religious exemption claims. When it comes to vaccines against childhood diseases, where the danger did not seem great or immediate, many groups have just taken peoples word for it if they say their religious views prevent vaccination.

Backing up beliefs

There is evidence that many claims of religious objections to vaccination are false, particularly given the large anti-vaccine movement in the U.S.

Law professor Dorit Rubinstein Reiss has compiled anecdotal and survey evidence that most claims for refusing school vaccination requirements on religious grounds are false. The objectors really do object to vaccination, but their reasons are not religious. Meanwhile, opposing COVID-19 vaccinations has become a matter of political identity for many on the political right.

These factors could mean a flood of false religious claims. And whenever that situation arises under the federal law of religious exemptions, the Supreme Court has refused them.

The court rarely talks about this explicitly, but there is a compelling interest in not having a general policys effectiveness undermined by thousands or millions of claimed religious objections. Thats part of the reason why the court has refused constitutional protection for religious objections to paying taxes, or serving in the military, or, back in the desegregation era, integrating restaurants.

It is very hard for judges to determine religious sincerity, and mostly they dont try. But when there are likely to be many exemption claims  both true and false  courts reject them because the difficult task of judging the sincerity of one or a few claimants becomes impossible when there are thousands or millions.

Challenges ahead?

Still, some claims are probably sincere. One question to ask people claiming religious objections to the COVID-19 vaccines - whether on cross-examination in a courtroom or arguing at a meeting of your local school board  is whether they or their children are vaccinated against other diseases. Even if the answer is no, however, that may point to longstanding anti-vaccination views rather than sincere religious objections.

Some Catholics object to COVID-19 vaccinations because decades-old fetal cell lines were used in the vaccine research. If that is their sincere religious belief, it doesnt matter that Pope Francis disagrees.

[Over 100,000 readers rely on The Conversations newsletter to understand the world. Sign up today.]

Still, even when religious objections are sincere, the government has a compelling interest in overriding them and insisting that everyone be vaccinated. And that overrides any claim under state or federal constitutions or religious liberty legislation. It is irrelevant to state statutes that explicitly grant vaccine exemptions with no exceptions for compelling government interests. But federal vaccination requirements override those state laws.

With mandates  and vocal objections  looking poised to grow, the United States could see vaccination requirements more and more put to the test in court this fall. But how far can challenges go? Unless governments mandating vaccines do not defend their rules, or the Supreme Court changes the law, the answer is likely, Not far.

The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts. The Conversation is wholly responsible for the content.
WAYNE, W.Va. (AP)  A woman was found dead and her body concealed in a trash bag inside a home, West Virginia State Police said.

A resident of the Wayne County home, Carrie Nicole Ramey, 28, was charged with murder and concealment of a deceased body and arrested, troopers said.

She is charged in the death of Tina Adkins, 58. Adkins' family members found her body Tuesday, officials told news outlets.

Adkins was reported missing from the location Sunday, police said.
BOSTON (AP)  For the first time in 200 years, Boston voters have narrowed the field of mayoral candidates to two women of color who will face off against each other in November.

City Councilors Michelle Wu and Annissa Essaibi George topped the five-person race in Tuesdays preliminary runoff. They bested acting Mayor Kim Janey, City Councilor Andrea Campbell and John Barros, the citys former economic development chief. All five were candidates of color  a major shift away from two centuries of Boston politics dominated by white men.

Wus parents immigrated to the U.S. from Taiwan. Essaibi George describes herself as a first generation Arab Polish-American.

Whoever wins on Nov. 2 will make history in a city that has never elected a woman or Asian American mayor. For the past 200 years, the office has been held exclusively by white men.

Wu and Essaibi George's advancement to the general election ushers in a new era for the city which has wrestled with racial and ethnic strife.

Essaibi George said she was confident she could pose a significant challenge to Wu in November.

I am so grateful to you showing up not just tonight but showing up for the last eight months, she told supporters.

Wu spoke to reporters outside Boston City Hall on Wednesday.

This is the moment in Boston that our campaign and our coalition has been calling for for a long time," she said. We got in this race over a year ago  actually exactly a year ago today  to ensure that Boston would step up to meet this moment."

Essaibi George in her victory speech said the mayor of Boston cant unilaterally restore rent control  a jab at Wu, who wants to revive a version of rent control, or rent stabilization, which was banned statewide by a 1994 ballot question.

Wu pushed back, saying she's addressed tough challenges during her years as a city councilor.

We took on issues that people said were pie in the sky, would be impossible to accomplish but by building coalitions, working across all levels of government and continuing to bring community members to the table, we knocked those down, one by one, she said.

Earlier this year, Janey became the first Black Bostonian and first woman to occupy the citys top office in an acting capacity after former Mayor Marty Walsh stepped down to become President Joe Bidens labor secretary.

I want to congratulate Michelle Wu and Annissa Essaibi George on their victories this evening," Janey said in a statement. This was a spirited and historic race, and I wish them both luck in the final election.

There had been an effort among some leaders in the Black community to rally around a single candidate to ensure that at least one Black mayoral hopeful could claim one of the two top slots.

All of the candidates were Democrats. Mayoral races in Boston do not include party primaries.

Wu was elected to the Boston City Council in 2013 at age 28, becoming the first Asian-American woman to serve on the council. In 2016, she was elected city council president by her colleagues in a unanimous vote, becoming the first woman of color to serve as president.

Essaibi George won a series of key endorsements during the race including from unions representing firefighters, nurses and emergency medical technicians. She also won the backing of former Boston Police Commissioner William Gross.

Essaibi George grew up in the citys Dorchester neighborhood and taught in the Boston Public Schools. She was elected to the city council in 2015. Her father immigrated to the United States from Tunisia in 1972. Her mother was born in a displaced persons camp in Germany of Polish parents.

The November contest could also be a test of whether voters in a city long dominated by parochial neighborhood and ethnic politics are ready to tap someone like Wu, who grew up in Chicago.

Wu moved to Boston to attend Harvard University and Harvard Law School and studied under U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, then a law professor. She's the only candidate not born in Boston.

Boston has changed radically since the 1970s and 1980s, when it was overwhelmingly white and was riven by racial tensions. Today, while still struggling to overcome its racist legacy, it's a majority minority city: The latest U.S. Census statistics show residents who identify as white make up 44.6% of the population compared to Black residents (19.1%), Latino residents (18.7%) and residents of Asian descent (11.2%).

Among the challenges facing modern Boston are those brought on by gentrification, which has forced out many long-term residents, including those in historically Black neighborhoods.

Added to that are a host of other challenges that will face the new mayor, from transportation woes, racial injustice and policing to schools and the ongoing response to the coronavirus pandemic.
When Art Acevedo left Houston and was sworn in as the Miami Police Chief in April, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez boasted that the city had hired "the Michael Jordan of police chiefs."

Five months later, Acevedo appears to be on the hot seat in his new job.

After a series of gaffes by Acevedo, the city's commissioners have called for a special meeting in two weeks to question the chief and possibly decide his future, according to the Miami Herald.

Last week, Acevedo, who is Cuban, took to Twitter to apologize for a joke he made during a morning roll call in which he said the Miami police force is run by the "Cuban Mafia."

"While the statement was made to be humorous, I have since learned that it is highly offensive to the exile Cuban community, of which I am a proud member," Acevedo posted to his nearly 100,000 Twitter followers. "I want to thank the City of Miami Commissioners for kindly informing this morning that historically, the Castro regime referred to the exile community in Miami as 'the Cuban Mafia.' Having been raised in the Los Angeles area as a proud Cuban, I was not aware of this fact."

The apology wasn't enough for some, including Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo, who told the Miami Herald, "He must be the only individual with a Cuban background in the world that didnt know the Cuban dictatorship called us the Cuban Mafia. They named him to be a professional police chief, not a comedian."

Acevedo also has drawn the ire of locals for moves he's made within the police department. This summer, he fired a deputy chief and his wife, who was a commander, after Acevedo determined the couple had not filed proper reports after the commander blew out tires in her patrol vehicle after hitting a curb. Acevedo also demoted four majors, including of the city's highest-ranking Black female officers without explanation, according to the Miami Herald.

He also unwittingly posed for a selfie with someone the Miami Herald calls "a leading member of South Florida's white nationalist group the Proud Boys."

Even after the special meeting later this month, the city's commissioners don't have the authority to fire Acevedo, but their vote of no confidence could influence City Manager Art Noriega to make a move.

Hes put his foot in his mouth enough times and made enough bad decisions that he needs to be called to the table," Fraternal Order of Police President Tommy Reyes told the Miami Herald.
A federal judge on Wednesday scheduled a hearing for Oct. 1 to consider temporarily blocking Texas near-total abortion ban, following an emergency request from the Biden administration.

The Justice Department requested the temporary restraining order late Tuesday as part of its lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas aiming to overturn the law.

Instead of immediately acting on the request, U.S. District Judge Robert L. Pitman agreed to the states request to hear arguments before ruling. If the restraining order is granted, the laws implementation will be blocked as court proceedings unfold.

The law will have been in effect for one month by the time the hearing is held. The statute outlaws abortions once fetal cardiac activity is detected  which can occur before many people know theyre pregnant. Texas abortion clinics worked until the last minute to finish procedures before the deadline and canceled future appointments. Some have even stopped offering abortions that are still allowed under the law, for fear of being sued.

No court has yet reviewed the constitutionality of the law because of the way it was written. State officials and state and local law enforcement agencies are not allowed to enforce the restrictions; instead the statute relies on private citizens to file lawsuits against anyone who may help a person get an abortion that is illegal under the law. Earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to block the law from going into effect, citing procedural difficulties but not addressing its constitutionality.

Because there isnt a clear defendant to name in lawsuits seeking to overturn the law, its difficult for a court to issue an injunction to block it. Legal experts say its hard to predict how such lawsuits will play out.

Justice Department attorneys wrote in their filing that the abortion law is in open defiance of the Constitution. They argued it should be overturned on those grounds, as well as alleging that it interferes with federal interests.

The United States has the authority and responsibility to ensure that Texas cannot insulate itself from judicial review for its constitutional violations and to protect the important federal interests that S.B. 8 impairs, the petition read.

It isnt the only ongoing lawsuit aiming to stop the law. Pitman, a 2014 Obama nominee, is also overseeing a suit filed in district court by abortion providers before the law went into effect. Pitman refused a request from defendants to throw out that case, prompting them to appeal.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, known as perhaps the nations most conservative appeals court, canceled the district court hearing on the providers lawsuit and issued a temporary stay on the suit, keeping it in limbo since late August. The lawsuit would return to district court if the stay is ended.
ALBANY  Employees and children in New York's state-regulated day care centers will be required to immediately resume wearing masks as COVID-19 spread among children has been a cause for concern across the nation, Gov. Kathy Hochul said Wednesday.

"We don't have a vaccine available for 5- to 11-year-olds," Hochul said during a COVID-19 briefing at the Capitol. "We're not hearing that that will occur for a number of months yet."

The governor's office said the requirement  for those age 2 and up to wear face coverings  applies to state Office of Children and Family Services "licensed and registered child care centers, home-based group family and family child care programs, after-school child care programs and enrolled legally exempt group programs during operational hours."

The new directive falls in line with guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease and Prevention that recommends "universal indoor masking by all students (age 2 and older), staff, teachers, and visitors to K-12 schools, regardless of vaccination status."

The mask mandate will also extend to state-regulated congregate facilities, the governor said.

The state is also ramping up in preparation for mass vaccinations of coronavirus vaccine booster shots, which Hochul said could begin before the end of the month. There is a plan to provide training to emergency medical technicians to allow them to administer vaccinations, which Hochul said could add about 50,000 people capable of giving the shots.

"We all want this to be over. Everybody's tired of it," Hochul said. "We have the power to end this if every single person in the state of New York ... over the age of 12 ... will simply get their vaccine."

The state will challenge a federal judge's order issued Tuesday that will temporarily restrain employers from enforcing a state vaccine mandate on health care workers who have sought a religious exemption from receiving the shots.

The order, set to go into effect in part on Sept. 27, will be the subject of a court hearing the following day. State and federal officials have set a series of vaccine deadlines for several population groups.

Hochul said the state is hopeful of making "overwhelmingly persuasive arguments" to U.S. District Judge David N. Hurd in favor of allowing the state to enforce the mandate for health care workers.

Many health care facilities, including hospitals, could see roughly 30 percent of their workforces cut if employees decline to be vaccinated.

The ruling by Hurd involved a constitutional challenge to the mandate in a case filed on behalf of 17 medical professionals.

The governor said the state takes the position that health care workers have an obligation to be vaccinated in the interest of keeping the facilities staffed and treating individuals who are vulnerable to COVID-19 symptoms.
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Alberta broke a new record when it invited 500 Express Entry candidates to apply for a provincial nomination.

Alberta PNP holds largest draw ever with CRS cutoff at 300 Alberta broke a new record when it invited 500 Express Entry candidates to apply for a provincial nomination.

Alberta PNP holds largest draw ever with CRS cutoff at 300 Alberta broke a new record when it invited 500 Express Entry candidates to apply for a provincial nomination.

Alberta PNP holds largest draw ever with CRS cutoff at 300 Alberta broke a new record when it invited 500 Express Entry candidates to apply for a provincial nomination. Shelby Thevenot Aa Accessibility Font Style Serif

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Alberta invited 500 Express Entry candidates to apply for a provincial nomination on September 7.

Following two large draws in August, the Alberta Immigrant Nominee Program (AINP) held its largest draw to date. The previous record was 473 in March 2019.

Discover if Youre Eligible for Canadian Immigration

Invited candidates were in the Express Entry system, and their score had to be at least 300, the minimum requirement to qualify for the Alberta Express Entry stream.

Alberta has now invited 4,507 Express Entry candidates to apply for a provincial nomination since it resumed invitation rounds in January 2021. It had taken a temporary hiatus in the latter months of 2020. Alberta is allowed to issue 6,250 nomination certificates in 2021.

How does the Alberta Express Entry Stream work?

The Alberta Express Entry stream is an enhanced Provincial Nominee Program (PNP). It allows the provincial government to search the federal governments Express Entry pool of candidates for profiles of people who may be eligible for a provincial nomination.

Express Entry is the application management system for the three Federal High Skilled programs: Canadian Experience Class, Federal Skilled Worker Program, and Federal Skilled Trades Program.

If you are eligible for Express Entry, you will get a score based on the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS). You get points depending on your age, education, work experience, language ability in English or French, and other factors.

Canadas immigration department, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) regularly holds Express Entry draws, inviting the highest-scoring candidates to apply for permanent residence. It is possible to immigrate through the Express Entry system without a provincial nomination, however, people who have lower CRS scores may opt for a PNP. Provincial nominees automatically get 600 points added to their overall score. If the lowest-scoring candidates in the new Alberta draw receive the nomination, their new CRS scores will be 901, more than enough to be invited in a subsequent Express Entry draw. Alberta Express Entry Stream Eligibility

In order to be eligible for the provincial nomination through the Alberta Express Entry stream, you need to have work experience in an eligible occupation. The AINP does not provide a list of eligible occupations, rather it offers a list of occupations that are not eligible for the stream.

Many who apply under this stream work as food service supervisors, transport truck drivers, and cooks among others.

Your Express Entry profile should indicate that you have an interest in moving to Alberta. Certain factors increase your likelihood of being nominated, like having work experience, or a job offer in Alberta. A Canadian education helps too. Also, having a parent, child, or sibling who is a permanent resident or citizen in Alberta supports your application.

Discover if Youre Eligible for Canadian Immigration

 CIC News All Rights Reserved. Visit CanadaVisa.com to discover your Canadian immigration options.
There has been no shortage of ransomware headlines in 2021. While these attacks can shut down critical IT systems for extended periods, Rubrik has helped numerous customers quickly recover from ransomware events and get their businesses back up and running.

This blog consists of two important sections. First, well detail the multiple recovery options available with Rubrik Zero Trust Data Management. We will then explore different variations of ransomware attacks and guide the best recovery strategies for individual incidents.

The Basics

Yuba County and the City of Durham are two organizations that have taken advantage of Rubrik Zero Trust Data Management architecture and immutable file system, ensuring that clean, uninfected copies of their data were recovered. In working with global organizations on recovering from ransomware, Rubrik has developed a comprehensive Lessons Learned document outlining how to execute an effective ransomware remediation strategy.

The first step in recovering from an attack is to identify and isolate the incident, followed by determining the scope of infection. Rubrik Radar helps to detect data anomalies, and Sonar helps to identify if certain sensitive data has been affected by the attack. Once initial scoping has been determined, only then can we begin to execute the restore phase of our plan.

Rubrik provides multiple recovery options, from orchestrated mass restore with AppFlows to file-level recovery. Depending on the scope and type of attack, certain recovery techniques can outperform others in terms of speed and efficiency, helping you meet Recovery Time Objectives (RTOs).

For instance, if the ransomware attack has only targeted certain files and left the underlying operating system unaffected, performing a file-level recovery may be less intrusive and help mitigate data loss compared to a full system restore. In contrast, if data loss is not a major issue, it may be faster to utilize Rubrik Instant Recovery to almost instantaneously restore to a certain point-in-time. And in most cases, mixing different recovery options throughout your remediation plan may be necessary.

What are the Rubrik Recovery Options?

Rubrik provides several recovery options:

Rubrik





Export

Export copies a point-in-time backup from the Rubrik platform to a new instance of the protected object. Rubrik operators can choose to export data back to the original environment, or export to a completely new environment.

In-Place Recovery

In-Place Recovery is supported for VMware VMs and, similar to Export, copies point-in-time data from the Rubrik platform to the production environment. There are, however, a few key differentiators between the two recovery methods.

Export copies entire virtual machines or disks belonging to virtual machines and recovers these to new instances. Rather than copying entire data sets, In-Place Recovery copies only changed blocks between the production VM and the selected point-in-time and recovers data back to the original virtual machine. This allows for a more efficient recovery, especially for VMs containing larger virtual disks.

Instant Recovery

Rather than copying entire datasets across the network, Instant Recovery utilizes the Rubrik platform as the underlying storage for the recovery to provide near-zero RTOs. In the case of VMs, the Rubrik platform becomes a datastore, while a new copy of the protected VM is created and mounted utilizing the desired point-in-time backup files. The original VM is marked as deprecated and powered off. No production data is deleted from the original datastore. This allows for almost instantaneous recovery and enables IT and security teams to grant access to the workloads as fast as the underlying operating system can boot. The newly recovered VM can be migrated back to the production storage platform.

Live Mount

Live Mount is essentially the same technology with the same processes as Instant Recovery except for one step. When Live Mounting a VM or database, the source of the data is not deprecated. This means that your production environment is completely unaffected - no VMs are powered off. Because of this, IT teams often use Live Mount as a sandbox tool, providing access to point-in-time copies of their production environment to perform various tasks, beyond simple recoveries.

File-Level Recovery

Rubrik File-Level Recovery (FLR) is straightforward: a point-in-time copy of single (or multiple) files is restored either back to the original, or a new location within the same environment. Rubrik provides important FLR capabilities to make the process as efficient as possible.

First, Rubrik generates metadata describing ingested backups. This metadata powers fast and predictive search to assist in locating files that need to be recovered. Second, when performing an FLR from a backup that has been archived to the cloud, this metadata allows Rubrik to only retrieve the blocks making up the actual desired file, rather than having to endure unnecessary and expensive egress charges by extracting entire images from cloud storage.

AppFlows for Orchestrated DR

AppFlows is an orchestration layer that incorporates plans, or blueprints, detailing recovery execution steps. These customer-defined blueprints contain important recovery information such as the boot sequence, restart priority, and requisite resource mapping configurations. All of this intelligence allows IT teams to automate application failover and failback of production resources in the event of a ransomware attack. AppFlows takes ransomware remediation plans and automates the recovery process. This minimizes the chance of error or misconfiguration, but more importantly, reduces application downtime.

Rubrik







In the event of a ransomware attack, AppFlows orchestrates recovery to various sandbox environments, allowing infosec teams to investigate exact duplicates of production environments, without affecting production resources.

With multiple recovery options available to IT teams, it is important to understand which method to employ during a ransomware incident. To help understand and plan for recovery, lets explore some of the more popular types of ransomware attacks and apply our Rubrik recovery methods to them.

Types of Ransomware Attacks

As with most attacks, ransomware has multiple variants. Commonly, these attacks often target different areas of the network, lying dormant while gathering data. Below are some of the approaches used today.

Encryption Ransomware

Encryption Ransomware is one of the most popular attack types today. It encrypts files, folders, and NAS shares throughout the network, effectively deleting the production data once the encryption takes place.

Recovery involves identifying infected files and systems and then restoring them to a safe point. Depending on the scope of the attack, many Rubrik recovery options can be used to combat Encryption Ransomware. For instance, if the underlying operating system is unaffected, performing a file-level recovery back to the system would suffice. If the underlying operating system is corrupted or encrypted, performing an Instant Recovery or Live Mount to a known good copy can be the best course of action. If the attack targeted a large number of virtual machines, leveraging Rubrik AppFlows can provide highly efficient recovery.

NAS Ransomware

NAS Ransomware works much the same way as Encryption Ransomware but specializes in attacking Network Attached Storage (NAS) systems. By scanning the network for popular NAS-based protocols such as NFS and SMB, the attack identifies and encrypts all discovered shares. Often NAS systems hold crucial data such as user home directories, as well as VM files for major hypervisors. Simply put, NAS Ransomware can completely bring entire production systems to a halt.

Recovery involves identifying all the infected files and systems and restoring both image and file-level to safe point-in-time copies. Depending on the scope of the attack, several Rubrik recovery methods may be utilized. If only a small number of files have been affected, then Rubik NAS File Level Recovery options can be used. However, if the NAS device was also hosting infected virtual machines, a combination of the Export, In-Place Recovery, Instant Recovery and Live Mount can be utilized. And, just as with Encryption Ransomware, AppFlows can be utilized to orchestrate the entire recovery process.

Lock Screen Ransomware

Lock Screen Ransomware does what one might expect it to doit locks the system's screen, demanding different forms of payment to perform an unlock. This type of ransomware rarely performs any encryption to the underlying files within the affected system and is often easily recoverable through the combination of booting into safe mode and running anti-virus recovery tools.

Most often recovery from Lock Screen Ransomware does not need to utilize Rubrik, however, to save time and recover faster, organizations may utilize Rubriks various image level recovery options.

Hardware Locker

Hardware Locker ransomware affects the system by changing the underlying Master Boot Record (MBR). Instead of the MBR directing the system to load the underlying operating system, a ransom demand is displayed on the screen during the boot cycle.

Recovery typically involves fixing the modified MBR. If the MBR is unable to be repaired, or organizations are simply looking to decrease the amount of downtime, recovery teams may leverage image-level recovery options from Rubrik such as Bare Metal Restore for physical servers, or Export, Instant Recovery, and Live Mount for virtual machines.

Application/Web Server Encryption

Application and Web Server Encryption encrypts files and web servers by replacing common Directory Index files such as index.php and index.html. Instead of a web or application server loading its desired content, a page containing ransom instructions is presented in its place.

Recovery typically involves identifying infected files and restoring them to a known good state. A variety of Rubrik recovery methods may be used to help remediate Application and Web Server encryption. While performing many of the Rubrik image-level recovery techniques such as Export and Instant Recovery will do the trick, often it is much faster to simply perform a file-level restore on the infected files themselves.

Conclusion

As ransomware attacks become more widespread and more sophisticated, organizations must have a recovery plan in place. Deploying a Zero Trust Data Management solution is a great first step to ensure your backups can serve as the last line of defense. Understanding the various recovery options, and when to use each, is crucial in the event you need to execute your ransomware remediation plan.

To learn more about how you can accelerate ransomware recovery with Rubrik and avoid paying costly ransoms, visit our Ransomware Solutions page.
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Last week, an Afghan journalist based in Kabul reached out to me. He told me that the situation for reporters in his country had become increasingly bleak since it fell to the Taliban in mid-August and US forces withdrew. After the Taliban took over, the Dari-language newspaper for which he worked shut down, citing the risks of continuing to operate, and all its staff became unemployed; since then, he told me, he has been at home, living with the fear and anxiety that the Taliban might find himworries exacerbated by the fact that he also worked for the former government, which kept his data in files that the Taliban could now access. (Im not naming the journalist or his former paper, for security reasons.) As thousands of Afghans crowded at Kabuls airport in the hope of catching an evacuation flight, he decided that it was too dangerous for him to join them, since he has young children; on August 26, an explosion, claimed by an ISIS affiliate, killed hundreds at the airport, including one of his former colleagues. I lost my job, my freedom everything I had, he told me. If I cant work as a journalist, I dont know what to do. I dont know how I can pay for my life expenses and how to pay my childrens school fees.

As Ive written repeatedly in this newsletter, the period leading up to the Taliban takeover and US withdrawal was replete with worrying signs for press freedom, which had flourished, despite the ever-present threat of violence, since the Taliban last held power. Even as Taliban officials promised that the group has changed and plans to respect the press within the framework of Islamic values, affiliated militants beat some journalists and raided the homes of others, in one case killing a relative; meanwhile, many independent news organizations either shuttered or started to censor themselves. In the two weeks since the withdrawal concluded, at least two private networks, Ariana and TOLOnews, have tested the Talibans claims of tolerance by continuing to put female journalists on the air. As Sharif Hassan, of the New York Times, reported over the weekend, however, many outlets have further moderated their output. TOLO took a political comedy off air. A TV station cut away from a report about the Taliban killing a pregnant police officer; a radio editor removed anti-Taliban chanting from audio of a protest.

From the magazine: The Trouble with Frictionless Briefings

As it has consolidated its power, the Taliban, Hassan notes, has generally been tighter-lipped than it was in its insurgent phase, and has provided less access to official information than the prior government did; TOLO reported this week that despite a cabinet having been appointed, many ministries still lack spokespeople, and journalists queries are often going unanswered. (The Taliban said that its still working on staffing.) When the Taliban has offered access, it has often done so on terms it deems favorable, privileging messages and images that it thinks might bolster its legitimacy, or project strength; last week, it reportedly took a group of foreign reporters to see the husk of a CIA base that the US destroyed on its way out. According to Voice of America, a US-funded broadcaster, in the hours after US troops left Afghanistan, the Taliban detained a dozen or so reportersincluding Pakistani and German nationalsnear the border with Pakistan, accused them of unauthorized photography, and held them overnight. Journalists in various areas have reported the confiscation of their equipment on similar grounds.

A week ago, as protesters, many of them women, demonstrated against the Talibans rule, officials declared the protestsand coverage of themto be illegal; when Nabih Bulos and Marcus Yam, of the LA Times, showed up to a protest in Kabul, militants lunged for their cameras and told them that photographing women is banned now, too. The same day, per Bulos and Yam, police detained Taqi Daryabi and Nemat Naqdi, who covered the protest for Etilaatroz, a newspaper that has continued to report critically since the takeover. Daryabi later said that the Taliban tortured him and beat him unconscious; Naqdi said a militant ground his face against the floor; Yam took photos of both men stripped to their underwear, revealing angry crimson cable marks on their backs and circling their thighs. Three colleagues who turned up to advocate for Daryabi and Naqdi were detained, too, as was a producer for Euronews who was reportedly also beaten in custody. According to the United Nations, at least nineteen journalists were detained last Tuesday and Wednesday; most were released, but Morteza Samadi, a freelance photojournalist who was detained at protests in Herat, was still in jail as of this week. On Friday, UN human-rights officials called on the Taliban to protect protest and reporting rights.

This week, TOLO reported, citing media-rights groups, that 153 Afghan news outlets have gone dark in the month since Kabul fell; Reporters Without Borders has estimated that of the seven hundred or so female journalists in Kabul prior to the takeover, fewer than a hundred were still working as of early September. Many journalistsespecially those with professional ties to international outletswere evacuated before the withdrawal wrapped up. But some of those who got outfor example, Storai Karimi, a female reporter who was evacuated to Pakistan, where there are networks of Taliban sympathizersstill dont feel safe. And, according to the International Federation of Journalists, about thirteen hundred journalists remain stuck in Afghanistan, including hundreds of staffers who worked for VOA and Radio Azadi, another US-funded broadcaster. A State Department spokesman said that the US was working to evacuate those journalists when the airport bombing derailed its plans; officials with the US Agency for Global Media say theyre still working to get their colleagues outbut the process is not moving quickly enough. In general, as Anthony Bellanger, the secretary general of IFJ, has put it, its neither possible to evacuate every remaining Afghan journalist nor desirable, from the point of view of shining a light on whats happening there. IFJ has raised nearly fifty thousand dollars to help Afghan journalists, and is distributing the money to needy journalists stuck in Kabul. There will be journalists who want to stay and do their job, Bellanger told The Guardian, but the future is black for them.

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The journalist who contacted me said that he has not received any financial assistance; he added that he and his colleagues reached out to various Western governments about evacuation during the withdrawal period, but received only automated replies. He said that he cant flee to the border, in no small part because he worries for the safety of his children. But his home might not be safe either. He is unable to escape, and unable to continue with his career. When he first messaged me, he told me first about his desire to get out, then asked if I knew any journalists in Kabul in need of translation, or other help. I have knocked every door, and have sent my application to all organizations that work for journalists, he said. My hope, he added, is going to vanish.

Below, more on Afghanistan and press freedom:

A death: Last week, as Taliban fighters fought with the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, an anti-Taliban alliance, in Panjshir province, in the northeast of the country, Fahim Dashti, a onetime leader of the Afghanistan National Journalist Union who had recently become the resistance fronts chief spokesman, was killed. Dashti was known as a powerful champion for a free media, IFJ reported. He founded a newspaper in Kabul after the US-led invasion in 2001 and provided regular updates on Twitter on the conflict in Afghanistan right up to his death. He was also a contributor to the IFJs South Asia Press Freedom Report, and helped his union join IFJ this year.

Last week, as Taliban fighters fought with the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, an anti-Taliban alliance, in Panjshir province, in the northeast of the country, Fahim Dashti, a onetime leader of the Afghanistan National Journalist Union who had recently become the resistance fronts chief spokesman, was killed. Dashti was known as a powerful champion for a free media, IFJ reported. He founded a newspaper in Kabul after the US-led invasion in 2001 and provided regular updates on Twitter on the conflict in Afghanistan right up to his death. He was also a contributor to the IFJs South Asia Press Freedom Report, and helped his union join IFJ this year. The war, I: This week, Antony Blinken, the secretary of state, appeared before the foreign-affairs committees in the House and Senate, where he was grilled by critics of the administrations execution of the Afghan withdrawal. Writing for Crooked Media ahead of the latter hearing, Chris Murphy, a Democratic senator from Connecticut and member of the committee, argued that the critics, including in the news media, are dangerously wrong. Americans, Murphy wrote, must cure themselves of the execute better mentality behind much of the criticism, so that America never again gets distracted from achievable goals by another impossible Afghanistan-like mission.

This week, Antony Blinken, the secretary of state, appeared before the foreign-affairs committees in the House and Senate, where he was grilled by critics of the administrations execution of the Afghan withdrawal. Writing for Crooked Media ahead of the latter hearing, Chris Murphy, a Democratic senator from Connecticut and member of the committee, argued that the critics, including in the news media, are dangerously wrong. Americans, Murphy wrote, must cure themselves of the execute better mentality behind much of the criticism, so that America never again gets distracted from achievable goals by another impossible Afghanistan-like mission. The war, II: Writing for Just Security, Elliot Williams, an official in Obamas Justice Department who is now a CNN legal analyst, argued that, having ended the war in Afghanistan, the US should now end its war on drugs. Many of the tragedies and sins associated with failure in the war in Afghanistan could equally apply if the words in Afghanistan were swapped out with on drugs, Williams argued. The latter, he went on, has also raged for decades; was immeasurably bloody; was carried out with no clear exit strategy; had the support of an American public that was blinded by politically charged debates and that scarcely appreciated its costs; and is managed by political leaders who overwhelmingly want it to end, but do not want to own the responsibility for doing so.

Writing for Just Security, Elliot Williams, an official in Obamas Justice Department who is now a CNN legal analyst, argued that, having ended the war in Afghanistan, the US should now end its war on drugs. Many of the tragedies and sins associated with failure in the war in Afghanistan could equally apply if the words in Afghanistan were swapped out with on drugs, Williams argued. The latter, he went on, has also raged for decades; was immeasurably bloody; was carried out with no clear exit strategy; had the support of an American public that was blinded by politically charged debates and that scarcely appreciated its costs; and is managed by political leaders who overwhelmingly want it to end, but do not want to own the responsibility for doing so. Meanwhile, in Pakistan: This week, Pakistani journalists staged a sit-in outside the countrys parliament, in Islamabad, in protest of a bill that threatens press freedom; the bill would create a central regulator for Pakistani media and give government officials more powers to crack down on reporting under the pretext of targeting fake news. According to Dawn, journalists also staged a sit-in inside the parliament building on Monday, after they found themselves locked out of the press gallery without prior warning. A further protest against the bill, in Lahore, was planned, starting today.



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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.
MADRID (AP) _ Authorities in southern Spain say that rain has helped to bring under control a major wildfire that ravaged 7,800 hectares (19,200 acres) of land despite more than five days of intense firefighting work by land and air.

Juan Manuel Moreno, the president of the Andalusia region, said in a tweet early on Tuesday that the rain that has been falling for some hours has been the best ally of the intense and admirable work of the crews.

But he said that the blaze in Sierra Bermeja, a mountain range close to the tourist-magnet Costa del Sol, is not over and that work to completely extinguish the flames is complex.

Authorities say they have reasons to believe arson is behind the fire, which started in various hotspots late on Wednesday in an area that environmentalists say harbored a unique ecosystem. Spains prosecutors office has launched an investigation.

The virulence of the fire, fanned by high temperatures and strong winds, surprised authorities, with a veteran forestry technician describing it as a hungry monster that reacted despite hundreds of firefighters, soldiers and dozens of air-dropping aircraft deployed to the area.

A 44-year-old firefighter died Thursday while trying to extinguish the blaze.

Around 2,600 residents have been evacuated, but most of them had returned to their homes by Tuesday morning, said the regional fire extinguishing service, Plan Infoca.

Experts with the agency have said that the Sierra Bermeja wildfire will set a precedent as the first mega-fire that Spain suffers as a result of a warming planet and the progressive abandonment of rural areas.

Official data show that wildfires are getting bigger in Spain. In the first eight months of 2021, they consumed more forest land _ 75,000 hectares or 186,000 acres _ than the average during the past decade.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 14)  With a little over two weeks left before the filing of the certificate of candidacy begins, several of those floated as contenders in the 2022 elections have yet to officially announce their plans.

The upcoming polls are expected to be markedly different from the usual as the COVID-19 pandemic drags on. Still, familiar names remain, although some alliances may have shifted.

Speaking to CNN Philippines' Politics As Usual, three political experts shared their forecasts on those reported or rumored to run, including their prospects of winning.

President Duterte, Senator Go

A faction within the ruling party PDP-Laban has endorsed Senator Bong Go as its standard-bearer, with President Rodrigo Duterte as his running mate.

Go has turned down the candidacy, while Duterte has confirmed he is running for vice president. But Duterte added he will give way if his daughter, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, seeks the highest office.

Political consultant Greg Garcia and campaign strategist Alan German, however, believe Duterte will ultimately not join the race.

READ: Duterte unlikely to push through with VP bid, experts say

They also think the proposed Go-Duterte tandem will fall through, with German noting the senator's numbers have "consistently been low" despite launching political advertisement, including online, "in full speed."

"Definitely, he's got the machinery," German said of Duterte's long-time aide. "I think he has the resources, but I'm not sure if that's enough to carry the man and the message."

The tandem also "does not make sense" given the less-than-ideal reception by the public, according to Garcia, who suggested it could be nothing more than a case of pre-election posturing.

Vice President Robredo

On the side of the opposition, Vice President Leni Robredo is among those eyed to succeed Duterte. While confirming a presidential bid is possible, she also listed other options, including vying for a local seat in Camarines Sur or quitting politics altogether.

For Garcia, national numbers currently show no promise for Robredo.

He said this is probably due in no small part to her image as one of the fiercest critics of Duterte, who seems to continue to enjoy significant support. Going local, he added, may be the better option for the vice president.

German, meanwhile, said she may be "more effective" as an alliance builder.

Robredo earlier told CNN Philippines that she is mulling over bigger factors besides just numbers in deciding on her 2022 plans. She has also been in talks with other potential candidates in a bid to forge unity among the opposition.

READ: Robredo 'way past' numbers, personal convenience' in 2022 plans

Senators Lacson, Sotto

Senator Panfilo "Ping" Lacson and Senate President Vicente "Tito" Sotto III have officially declared their tandem and candidacy for president and vice president, respectively.

According to political strategist Lito Banayo, Sotto has a good fighting chance, but that the same cannot be said so far for his running mate.

Still, the experts agree Lacson is not one to back out of the race or slide down to a vice presidential run. If victory continues to appear murky for Lacson, the more likely alternative would either be another go at the Senate or retirement, they added.

Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte

Also among the expected presidential bets is the First Daughter, Sara Duterte, who has topped a number of election surveys.

The incumbent Davao City mayor earlier said she will not gun for a national seat next year if her father decides to do the same.

READ: Sara Duterte says she won't run for president after her father officially accepts VP nomination

This appears to rule out a Duterte-Duterte tandem, which the experts predict would ultimately not fly. The two highest government posts ending up in the hands of family is fraught with danger and would likely be rejected by Filipino voters, they said.

What could work and is "highly" possible, according to the experts, is a team-up with another political brand, particularly one that holds power in the other side of the country  former Senator Bongbong Marcos.

Former Senator Marcos, Former Defense Chief Teodoro

Marcos said he will definitely run for a national post, although specifics remain unclear.

According to German, an alliance between Sara and the son of the late Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos can be seen as a powerhouse, as the two are cemented brands in the country's southern and northern parts, respectively.

READ: Bongbong Marcos: Tandem with Sara Duterte? Everything is possible

"I think that will happen," Garcia also said. "I see (it) based on the numbers and historically on the way candidates behave. I think there will be a Bongbong-Sara tandem."

Despite the horrors of martial law, he added the Marcoses continue to hold sway in politics, evidenced by Imee winning a Senate seat and Bongbong coming in a close second to Robredo in the 2016 vice presidential race.

Another rumored potential running mate of Sara is former Defense chief Gilbert "Gibo" Teodoro, who flew to Davao City to meet the mayor earlier this year. Teodoro ran for president in the 2010 elections. He returned to private life after placing fourth in the race.

Should he vie for a national post, Banayo and Garcia said over a decade away from the public eye would be disadvantageous for Teodoro. "Twelve years is a long time in politics. Out of sight, out of mind," Banayo said.

Manila Mayor Moreno

Emerging as one of the top public bets in national surveys, the numbers are in favor of Manila City Mayor Francisco "Isko Moreno" Domagoso, Garcia said.

"I think this is Isko's moment, based on the numbers againI've always maintained that Duterte was the everyman 1.0. People are looking for the everyman 2.0, and right now, he fits the bill," the political consultant added.

German and Banayo also think the presidency is the mayor's next step, if not local re-election.

Moreno was appointed party president of Aksyon Demokratiko last month, although he appears to continue to weigh his options for next year.

Other incumbent and former lawmakers

Other lawmakers have also indicated their intent to run for higher office.

For one, Senator Manny Pacquiao is eyed as the standard-bearer of the group he leads within PDP-Laban. He is expected to announce his decision this month.

But experts think his prospects of becoming president are slim.

"Because of the pandemic and because of the economic problems we have...I think this is one election where people will weigh competence much more than popularity or anything else," Banayo said. "With that as a premise, I don't think Senator Manny, even if he runs, will win."

Another member of the Congress, Former House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano, is eyeing the top government post.

In 2016, he lost in the vice presidential race, with Duterte as his running mate. For Garcia and Banayo, Cayetano is already doing well in Congress, numbers-wise, and that trying again for a higher post could be a risky leap.

The same applies to Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, who is seeking a tandem with Sara Duterte, the experts said. They believe it might be best for Gatchalian to stay in the Senate for now, where he's "a cinch for re-election."

Meanwhile, Senator Grace Poe, who is rumored to be considering the vice presidency, would be a strong contender, according to Banayo and Garcia.

"That's what I'm seeing, and the fact that she's come up with television ads lately seems to show she's trying to test the waters whether a vice presidential run is possible or likely," Banayo added.

Asked about former Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, German thinks it could be difficult for him to secure allies.

"First, he was a staunchly anti-Duterte figure. Unfortunately, towards the latter part of his pronouncements, even the Liberal Party, he was already scratching them the wrong way," he said. "Even his erstwhile allies are now looking at him with maybe two or three question marks right now."

Return to Senate

Banayo, Garcia, and German also shared their thoughts on some politicians' reported plans of a Senate comeback.

Among others, the list includes former Senators Loren Legarda, who is now House Deputy Speaker and representative of the lone district of Antique; Francis "Chiz" Escudero, the current governor of Sorsogon; and JV Ejercito.

Legarda and Escudero both confirmed their Senate bids. The experts believe both have a high chance of returning, as they are already established personalities in the upper chamber.

Ejercito, meanwhile, would have his chances reduced if his half-brother former Senator Jinggoy Estrada runs for the same post, as they would cancel each other out, they noted.

READ: Senate race shaping up as 'veterans' eye comeback

'Pandemic, youth to define elections'

The health crisis has given weight to the value of competent government officials, the experts said, adding this will hopefully reflect in the votes.

They urged the public to carefully review candidates' track records instead of simply putting trust in surnames.

"This is one election where people, especially the young people...will look very closely at the accomplishments, the qualifications of the candidates, as well as of course, the character," Banayo said.

"I think that if more young voters go to the polls, that could be a defining moment for Philippine elections," he added.

RELATED: Young Filipinos comprise 52% of total registered voters for 2022 polls so far  Comelec
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 15)  The head of the Commission on Audit (COA) on Wednesday clarified the audit report on the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM) did not mention any overpricing.

"There was nothing in the report that mentioned overprice. One of the issues really was inventory management," COA chairman Mike Aguinaldo told House lawmakers.

The inventory management issue also does not involve the 42-billion transferred by the Department of Health (DOH) to the PS-DBM, he added.

"This really involved more 'yung mga [of the] purchases of PS-DBM out of its revolving fund for the virtual store that they have from which agencies can purchase," Aguinaldo said.

During its own probe into the issue, senators questioned what they called "overpriced" face masks and face shields procured by the Health department during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Overall Deputy Ombudsman Warren Rex Liong  a former PS-DBM director  also insisted there was no overpricing in the purchase of COVID-19 supplies last year.

The Senate and the House have been conducting separate investigations on the DOH's handling of pandemic response funds funds, including the procurement of face masks and face shields. Also at the center of these inquiries is Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp., which bagged billions of pesos in contracts despite having an initial paid-up capital of just 625,000.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 15)  An official from the Commission on Elections on Wednesday said the poll body remains averse to extending the period for voter registration despite another appeal from the Senate.

Commissioner Marlon Casquejo, however, said the matter may be discussed again in the Comelec en banc despite its rejection earlier. But he said an extension remains unlikely since it will affect other preparations for the 2022 elections.

"Mahirap na po magkaron ng extension because there are so many preparations na maapektuhan po. We cant compromise those other preparations because also of the pandemic situation, talagang gipit na kami," he told lawmakers during the Joint Congressional Oversight Committee hearing on the Automated Election System.

[Translation: It's hard to extend because there are many other preparations that will be affected. We cannot compromise those because we are really struggling due to the pandemic.]

Senators on Tuesday adopted a resolution urging the Comelec to extend the deadline for voter registration until the end of October.

The registration period is set to end on Sept. 30 despite several suspensions due to community quarantine restrictions.

CNN Philippines correspondent Melissa Lopez contributed to this report.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 15) With only months left before he steps down from office, medical frontliners are appealing to President Rodrigo Duterte to leave them a legacy: increase the budget for healthcare, including benefits for health workers.

The Alliance of Health Workers (AHW) said Wednesday the minuscule budget of the Department of Health and non-allocation of funds for frontliners are proof that the government is apathetic, heartless and inhumane.

Kaya darating at darating ang panahon kaming manggagawa ay mapupundi at kami ay mauubusan na rin ng pasensiya, Jose Reyes Memorial Medical Center Employees Union-AHW president Cristy Donguines said in a briefing.

[Translation: Thats why there will come a time when us workers will eventually lose our patience.]

They lamented the decrease in the budget of different government hospitals.

Bigyan niyo ako ng isang magandang paliwanag kung bakit yung mga referral COVID hospitals gaya ng Lung Center of the Philippines (LCP) eh binawasan niyo ng 100 milyon (pesos). Saan niyo dadalhin? he said, referring to the 100 million in maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE) slashed from LCP's budget.

[Translation: Give me one good explanation why the budget of COVID referral hospitals like the Lung Center of the Philippines was cut by 100 million. Where will you use it?]

AHW said decreasing the MOOE budget will leave hospitals with no choice but to increase their fees, forcing patients to pay more.

The Budget department only approved 19.68 of its proposed 73.99-billion worth of COVID-19 response funds, where 50.41 billion was allotted for special risk allowance, hazard duty pay, meals, accommodation and transportation, and life insurance of health workers.

AHW warned that health budget cuts amid the pandemic will lead to further deterioration and eventual collapse of the countrys health care system.

Kung hindi papahalagahan at di bibigyan ng prayoridad ng gobyerno ang paglaan ng pondo para sa kalusugan ng mamamayan at kagalingan ng health workers, babagsak ang ating buong healthcare system at maraming ospital ang magsasara, Chit Peralta of the All UP Workers Union-Manila declared.

[Translation: If the government will not prioritize the funding for the health of the people and health workers, our whole healthcare system will fail, and many hospitals will shut down.]
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 15) The House of Representatives on Wednesday approved on third and final reading a bill postponing the first regular elections of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

A total of 187 lawmakers unanimously voted to pass House Bill No. 10121, which seeks to move the BARMM polls from 2022 to 2025.

The bill aims to give the Bangsamoro government more time to strengthen its foundations for a stronger regional government and economy.

It also seeks to allow the national government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front to set better and sturdier foundations and to translate efforts on the gains from the peace agreement.

Last week, the Senate approved its version of the measure.

In 2018, President Rodrigo Duterte signed the Organic Law for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. The law abolished the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and established a new autonomous political entity with more power, including its own parliament.

The creation of the BARMM has raised hopes that the Bangsamoro will have a chance at genuine self-governance that it has been fighting for decades.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 15)  The country received another large shipment of COVID-19 vaccines developed by US drugmaker Pfizer after over 753,000 more doses arrived on Wednesday.

The plane carrying a portion of the 753,480 doses landed at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 in Pasay City, state media reported. Cebu already received its share of 51,480 doses while another 51,480 will be sent to Davao on Thursday, Sept. 16.

From this delivery, 650,520 doses will be transported to the Pharmaserv Express in Marikina City.

Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez, Jr. said in a statement that the country is expecting over 34 million vaccine doses, including other brands, for this month alone. The batch will include 15 million doses of Pfizer vaccines - 10 million from the COVAX facility and five million that were procured by the government. Some 183,000 shots arrived two weeks ago and another 703,000 were delivered on Sept. 1.

According to Galvez, the country has so far received 56,794,130 million vaccines in total, from the 187.6 million that the government secured. The number of fully vaccinated individuals nationwide is now 17,348,671 - with more than 6 million from the National Capital Region, he added.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 15)  The head of the Private Hospitals Association of the Philippines Inc. (PHAPI) doubts the new alert system that will replace community quarantine classifications will be effective in bringing down new COVID-19 cases.

PHAPI President Dr. Rene de Grano on Wednesday said they understand the need to shift to a new alert system to allow more economic activities, but he questioned the basis of declaring a general community quarantine with different alert levels based on COVID-19 case transmission and healthcare utilization.

"Ang nakikita kong problem niyan is iyong basis ng levels... Iyang bagong alert levels na iyan I'm not sure kung na-consult din nila healthcare workers," he told CNN Philippines.

[Translation: The problem I see is the basis for the levels. I'm not sure if healthcare workers were consulted on the new alert levels.]

He said hospital occupancy rate should not be the basis for the alert level because some hospitals are catering to patients from other provinces. Even San Juan City Mayor Francis Zamora appealed to the Department of Health to exclude non-residents in the local government units' COVID-19 data so local officials can respond more appropriately.

A higher hospital utilization rate means a higher alert level will be raised over a locality.

De Grano also said the government's data on transmission rate are still unreliable since contact tracing remains slow, which leads to the non-tracing of close contacts.

Health department data show the interval between detection to isolation is at 6 to 7 days - a slight improvement from the 7 to 11 days in 2020 - but still far from the ideal 2 to 3 days.

"The case transmission, it's okay as long as iyong ating contact tracing is very credible and well done. Ang ating contact tracing presently parang kulang na kulang, so we cannot have siguro a very reliable case transmission rate," De Grano said.

[Translation: Case transmission is acceptable as long as our contact tracing is credible and done well. But presently, it is lacking so we cannot have a reliable case transmission rate.]

From modified enhanced community quarantine, Metro Manila will be placed under Alert Level 4 from Sept. 16 to 30.



CNN Philippines correspondent Carolyn Bonquin contributed to this report.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 15)  Hugpong ng Pagbabago (HNP) still believes that President Rodrigo Duterte might reconsider his plan to run for vice president in the 2022 elections to give way to his daughters possible presidential bid, an officer of the Davao-based regional party said on Wednesday.

HNP secretary general Anthony del Rosario told CNN Philippines' The Source that while the President and his daughter Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte have agreed that only one of them will run for a national position in 2022, and he has expressed interest in running for vice president, the President might change his mind.

Eh sa aming nakikita po (What we are seeing), although the President has already accepted the nomination of his party PDP-Laban to run as vice president, we still believe there is still hope that the President might reconsider his plans for 2022 and hopefully give way for the possibility of Mayor Sara running for president,"he said.

"Right now, it's still early to talk to the President about our desires in the organization. I think the first step really here is just to get members...to join the organization," he added.

Duterte has accepted PDP-Labans endorsement to run for vice president in tandem with Sen. Bong Go. His daughter eventually announced that she would not seek the presidency as she is not in favor of two Dutertes running for national positions.

READ: Sara Duterte says she won't run for president after her father officially accepts VP nomination

Del Rosario noted that a lot can still happen in three weeks, ahead of the filing of certificate of candidacy, or COC, for 2022 aspirants.

The Commission on Elections has set the one-week filing of COCs for all elective positions from October 1 to 8.

Del Rosario, who also serves as vice chairman of the recently launched Hugpong Para kay Sara, also said that the rising support for the citizen movement would hopefully show that many people want Mayor Duterte to run for president and continue her father's programs.

READ: Group pushing for Sara Duterte's presidential bid believes she will be better than her father
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 15)  A group from different regions in Northern Luzon is among those urging Manila Mayor Isko Moreno to run for President in 2022.

Former and current local politicians as well as community convenors joined forces in a virtual conference Wednesday morning to launch the Isko Northern Alliance or INA, which aims to draw support from the Ilocos, Cordillera and Cagayan Valley Regions should Moreno decide to join the national elections next year.

The group said in a statement that it endorses Moreno because speedy recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic cannot be entrusted to what they call a failure of leadership of the Duterte government and whoever it anoints as its successor. It also praised Moreno for his efforts in responding to the pandemic and his programs to clean up the nations capital.

INA lead convenor Cicero Lumauig said that since July, the members have been organizing and preparing their base of politicians, as well as community organizers, for Morenos possible presidential run.

Nananawagan ho kami kay Mayor Isko Moreno: Tanggapin po ninyo ang hamon. Kami ang magtatayo sa inyo rito sa norte. Babasagin namin ang tinatawag nilang Solid North', Lumauig said.

[Translation: We are appealing to Mayor Isko Moreno to accept the challenge (of running for President.) We will be the ones to support you in Northern Luzon. We will shatter what they call the Solid North.]

The term Solid North is oftentimes used to denote support by Ilocanos and neighboring regions to the family of former president Ferdinand Marcos, whose members have run for various local and national positions over the years.

Just recently, former senator Bongbong Marcos - the late Marcos' son - said he will run for a still-unspecified national position in 2022. Marcos lost his bid for the Vice Presidency to current VP Leni Robredo in 2016.

Bongbongs son, Sandro, is also eyeing an entry to politics, declaring he will run for Ilocos Norte 1st District Representative next year.

The INA said that having Moreno as President will help breathe new life into the countrys political scene.

Kaya po tayo nandito para hikayatin si Mayor (Moreno) para tumakbong Pangulo, alam niyo naman ho, marami naring pamilyang Marcos ang nasa Ilocos at lahat na lang po ng pusisyon ay gusto nila from Governor to Mayor to Congressman. Tama na 'yung ganung klaseng pulitika na iisang tao o isang pamilya na lang ang namumuno, said Ricky Farinas, who represents INA members from Ilocos Norte.

[Translation: The reason why we are here to persuade Mayor Moreno to run for President is because you know that many members of the Marcos family are in Ilocos. They want all kinds of government positions  from Governor to Mayor and now Congressman. This kind of politics  where one person or family is leading  should end.]

The group is part of Ikaw Muna Pilipinas (IMPilipinas), an umbrella organization of multi-sectoral groups nationwide urging the 46-year-old Moreno to run for the nations highest office. IMPilipinas recently launched chapters in select cities and provinces such as Cebu, Pampanga, Cavite, and Cagayan de Oro to name a few.

Political analyst Tony La Vina, former dean of the Ateneo School of Government, told CNN Philippines that the latest move is important in introducing Moreno to a wide range of voters, especially those outside Metro Manila.

He is not as well known in the Philippines, so having a regional group like Ilocos for Isko, and youth for Isko is very important, La Vina said in a phone interview.

He added that this might make shattering the Solid North possible despite the advantages of the Marcos family in the North.

That should be possible given the profile of the voters na mas marami naman ang mga bata ngayon [that there are more younger ones now]," La Vina raised. I think theres a chance that they can break that fact because people want to move on from the Marcos family."

La Vina also praised Moreno for his campaigning skills, saying he has the touch of the masses. He also said Morenos chances of winning in areas such as Southern Tagalog would be better if he partners with someone prominent, such as Senator Grace Poe.

Moreno ran as part of Poes senate slate during her failed presidential bid in 2016. Poe has declined the invitation of opposition group 1SAMBAYAN to be its possible standard bearer in 2022.

La Vina also pointed out that should Moreno decide to throw his hat in the ring, he and his campaign team need to work on two key things: garnering more local support and reaching out to supporters of other potential opposition bets.

He said it is important for Moreno to reach out to supporters of Vice President Leni Robredo. "Sa akin, wag i-discount 'yun, kasi theres no chance Isko will win if VP Leni will be running, and vice versa," he added.

[Translation: For me, he shouldn't discount that because there's no chance Isko will win if VP Leni will be running, and vice versa]

Meanwhile, IMPilipinas said a youth, LGBTQIA+, and womens group calling on Moreno to run for the presidency is set to launch soon.

Moreno has yet to fully disclose his plans for 2022 but recently hinted at taking on the administration head-on, saying in the vernacular that he will meet them during the filing of candidacies in October. He also has not yet responded to queries about this recent statement of support.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 16)  The House of Representatives has approved on second reading a bill that seeks to institutionalize the abrogated 1989 agreement prohibiting the entry of state forces to the campuses of the University of the Philippines without notice.

House Bill No. 10171, or the Act Institutionalizing the 1989 University of the Philippines-Department of National Defense Accord, was passed by lawmakers during Wednesdays session.

The proposed measure aims to amend Republic Act no. 9500, or the University of the Philippines Charter of 2008, to incorporate the accord into the system.

The bill seeks to prohibit the entry of police and military units in any UP campus without prior notice and ensure that the right to procedural due process is followed to any member of the university. It also aims to protect UP campuses from intervention of law enforcers, harassment, and intimidation.

The proposed law provides that any law enforcement agency intending to conduct any operation in the university should first notify the president, chancellor or dean of the concerned campus or regional unit.

Except in cases of hot pursuit and similar occasions or emergencies, police and military forces and other law enforcers are barred from entering any UP campus.

To be allowed to enter any UP campus, authorities must request permission from university officials, who shall extend the needed assistance once the request is granted. Only police or military in proper uniform and identification shall be allowed to enter the campus.

The service of search or arrest warrants within the territorial jurisdiction of any university campus or on any student, faculty, employee, or invited participants in any activity in the university shall be done after prior notification is given to the president or chancellor of the constituent university, or dean of the regional unit concerned, the bill read.

During such time, they must coordinate with the campus security group. No warrant shall be served without the presence of at least two faculty members designated by an appropriate official.

The arrest or detention of any student, faculty, or personnel shall be immediately reported by law enforcers to UP officials concerned. No member of the university shall be subjected to custodial investigation without prior notice.

Police and military forces are also prohibited from interfering with peaceful protest actions held by individuals or groups in any UP campus.

A joint monitoring group composed of university and government officials will be formed. They shall meet twice a year to determine compliance with the provisions of the proposed law.

In January, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana unilaterally ended the three-decade old agreement, claiming it is now obsolete because there is a need to protect Filipinos against UP that has become a breeding ground for communists.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 15)  The Rizal Park and certain sites in Intramuros will be welcoming tourists again on Sept. 16, as authorities begin testing a new quarantine classification system in Metro Manila, the Department of Tourism said Wednesday.

Under Inter-Agency Task Force guidelines, however, only visitors from 18 to 65 years old will be allowed to enter.

Rizal Park will be open from 5 a.m. to 9 a.m. with a maximum capacity of 500 visitors. Visitors will be required to accomplish contact tracing forms before entering the park, the DOT said.

Meanwhile, the Fort Santiago in Intramuros will be open from 9 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. every Monday to Friday, and from 9 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. The site will have a maximum capacity of 150 people.

The Baluarte de San Diego will be operating daily from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. with a maximum capacity of 80 people.

An express lane will also be set up in both Intramuros sites as a perk for fully vaccinated visitors, the DOT added. This means that they can accomplish the contact tracing form after entering and just present it to security personnel before they exit.

Plaza San Luis, meanwhile, will be open from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily.

The DOT said mandatory temperature checks and minimum health protocols will be implemented in the tourist sites.

It added that 99% of Intramuros administration workers and 96% of all stationed personnel at the Rizal Park have been fully vaccinated as of Sept. 14.

The historic walled city of Intramuros was cited last year as Asias leading tourist attraction by the World Travel Awards.
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 14) Despite the recent advisory from Japan, Philippine security officials on Tuesday said they have not received reports on possible terror threats in the country.

We have not received any report on possible terror attacks as advised by the Japan Foreign Ministry, Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Guillermo Eleazar said in a statement.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) echoed the statement, adding its personnel constantly validate all reports on security matters.

[A]nd it is a continuous process. As per last review our threat level is moderate, the AFP said separately. We ensure that all citizens, Filipinos or not, as long as they are within our territory, are protected and kept safe from terrorists' threats.

The Defense department also said the advisory will be validated, stressing officials are working closely with other government branches to monitor possible security threats.

News agency Associated Press reported on Monday that Japans Foreign Ministry had advised its citizens to avoid religious facilities and crowds in six Southeast Asian countries, including the Philippines, due to possible attacks.

The report said the ministry obtained information that there are increased risks such as suicide bombings. Japans advisory covered its citizens residing in Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Myanmar, it added.

The Japanese Embassy confirmed that Japan received information about a possible attack, but did not give further details.

We issued a warning to alert Japanese people residing in some Southeast Asian countries, but we cannot disclose the source, the embassy said in a statement.

The Philippines Department of Foreign Affairs, on the other hand, said it has not been officially informed about the matter.

Despite the report, the PNP said security forces wont be letting their guards down.

Noon pa man ay patuloy ang aming intelligence monitoring, Eleazar said.  At nananatiling maigting ang ating pakikipag-ugnayan sa ibat ibang bansa laban sa terorismo through information-sharing and partnership in dealing with terror groups.

[Translation: Our intelligence monitoring continues. And our cooperation with different countries against terrorism remains strong through information-sharing and partnership in dealing with terror groups.]
A decorated Army combat veteran who joined the GOP this spring, Aadland is one of four Republicans running for the nomination to take on Democratic U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, who is seeking a third term in next year's election. It's his first run for office.
Dezirae Espinoza wears a face mask while cradling a tube of cleaning wipes as she waits to enter the building for the first day of in-class learning since the start of the pandemic at Garden Place Elementary School on Monday, Aug. 23, 2021, in north Denver. All students, visitors and staff are required to wear face coverings while in Denver Public Schools regardless of vaccination status with the start of the school year.
The federal government admitted that U.S. District Court Judge William J. Martinez committed the error, but argued the evidence to convict Jose Burciaga-Andasola was so overwhelming that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit should decline to grant a new trial. A three-judge panel agreed.
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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At its big September event Tuesday, Apple showed us how powerful chips boosted by software and hardware integration and bespoke machine intelligence can deliver real value to every user.

What Apple introduced

The company seemingly confirmed all the pre-event rumors, introducing iPhones with all-day battery life, accompanied by an unexpected star in the form of an A15-powered iPad mini powerful enough to use for any mobile productivity task.

The company told us iOS 15 will be available on Monday, Sept. 20. The company also introduced a new Apple Watch and a much-improved entry-level iPad.

What Apple said

About the iPhone, Apple said:

Our customers rely on iPhone every day, which is why weve made iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini more powerful, more capable, and more fun to use, said Greg Joswiak, Apples senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.

Both phones have beautiful designs, industry-leading performance, and advanced camera systems with impressive computational photography features, all with incredible durability, water resistance, and a big jump in battery life to ensure customers can depend on their iPhone when they need it. All of this, tightly integrated with iOS 15 and with privacy built in, make iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini an unbeatable choice.

About the iPad mini, Apple said:

With its ultra-portable design and wide range of uses from everyday tasks to creative and enterprise applications, theres nothing else like iPad mini, said Joswiak. With a new all-screen Liquid Retina display, massive boost in performance, new advanced cameras on the front and back, Center Stage, USB-C, 5G, and support for Apple Pencil, the new iPad mini is a huge leap forward that can be held in the palm of your hand.

Its all about the processor

Apples A15 Bionic processor underpins the two main announcements most likely to interest enterprise users. The chip means Apple now sells the fastest smartphone thats ever existed, and also means the iPad mini has more than enough oomph (and a 5G connection) to make it a shoe-in for almost any mobile enterprise. Want to check the manual when fixing a solar grid? This lightweight device has what you need.

The iPad mini gets Apple's A15 Bionic processor and 5G.

The new iPad mini is a major upgrade and arguably more akin to Apples iPad Pro category given its design, support for the A15 Bionic chip and a USB-C connector, CCS analyst Ben Wood said directly after the event. The iPad mini represents a significant opportunity for the iPad brand to extend deeper into the numerous industry sectors that Apple is already supporting, such as aviation, healthcare and retail.

Recently leaked benchmarks had suggested the new chip would give iPhone 13 the power it needs to achieve 10-20% better performance than the iPhone 12 chip.

It turns out this was indeed the case, with Apple pumping up the chip with more cores.

You get nearly 15 billion transistors, a new six-core CPU with two high-performance cores and four high-efficiency cores. That makes the chip up to 50% faster than the competition, the fastest in any smartphone, and handles demanding tasks smoothly and efficiently, while the new 4-core GPU is up to 30 percent faster than the competition and enables more lifelike visuals and lighting effects in graphics-intensive games, the company said.

The new 16-core Neural Engine is capable of 15.8 trillion operations per second. That means faster machine learning, fast apps, and a plethora of machine vision enhancements, which empower the device with a camera thats almost equal to high-end video capture devices.

This bodes really, really, well for the future of the Mac and the iPad Pro as well. The road to M-series chips with multiple cores can only end in the Mac Pro. Most enterprise users might want to think about that.

But processors must do something to be useful

As Brian Roemmele observed after the event, in 1969 the entire worlds computing power was 66,700 operations per second.

The iPhone 13 (and, I guess, the iPad mini, which shares the chip), gives us 15.8 trillion operations per second in devices you can fit in your pocket. My calculator app tells me that means the Apple device you put in your pocket now provides 236 million times the planet's total computing in 1969.

But power is nothing, if you dont know what to do with it.

Apple likes to use of the power it creates, which is what it has done with iPhone 13; it makes use of that processing power to deliver all-day battery life and to provide video and photography abilities that compete with professional equipment.

This is the kind of processing power your enterprises' internal and consumer-facing apps can now exploit, and its available on both the iPhone 13 (which, despite some focus on triskaidekaphobia prior to the event is a lucky number in some parts of the world) and the iPad mini.

It is important to consider that much of what Apple told us during its launch event suggests almost every feature on all of its devices are increasingly being augmented by machine intelligence, thanks to its home-brewed, powerful chips.

It delivers all-day battery life by intelligently controlling when power should peak and when it is unnecessary. And, of course, another useful thing Apple chips deliver is CenterStage, which makes for better video meetings  increasingly important in a hybrid office world.

OK, but what about the display?

Apple introduced the display everyone expected. The iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max introduce Super Retina XDR with ProMotion display, which supports an adaptive refresh rate from 10Hz to 120Hz. That means fast frame rates when required, better battery life when screen speed is not needed.

Offered in both 6.1-in. and 6.7-in. sizes, the new display leverages a more efficient OLED panel. Apple calls it the brightest display ever on an iPhone with up to 25% higher max outdoor brightness, at 1000 nits. In use, of course, this means better resolution, color, and contrast whatever you do with your device.

Pro Motion on the iPhone is dynamic, and adjusts from 10Hz to 120Hz depending on the content it displays. That means you get fantastic visual performance when you need it but arent battering your battery life when you dont.

The Super Retina XDR OLED displays on the iPhone 13 and 13 mini provide a 28% increase in max outdoor brightness at 800 nits, with higher peak brightness for HDR content like photos and videos at 1200 nits, all while being more power efficient.

The cold truth is that while company critics will always claim Apple should have got these screens out years ago, doing so is, was, and will always be a supply chain issue.

Apple sells a lot of phones and needed a supplier (in this case, Samsung, I think) capable of manufacturing those displays in sufficient quantity and at consistent quality for the tens of millions it intends to sell.

The carriers want to get you hooked on 5G

A final take away.

Prior to the introduction, we know many existing users were trading in their existing iPhones to make a little money toward the new devices.

What makes this more interesting is that while pre-release interest among Android users had declined in contrast to the last model, 18% of them were considering an upgrade to iPhone, while 44% of existing iPhone users were also thinking about the new device. Meanwhile, recent Counterpoint data tells us Apple still holds over 50% of the worlds premium smartphone market, followed by Samsung and Huawei (with both in decline). Apple leads the category in every region.

There has been a great deal of speculation that one thing that has driven iPhone 12s success is that Apple has been able to achieve some sweet carrier deals as networks battle to promote 5G. Apples decision to pimp out the iPad mini with 5G and extend support for the standard across additional nations and regions sits well with this.

Now, it seems the company hopes to ride this wave  which should have a big impact on enterprise purchasing, assuming carrier deals extend to fleet upgrades and purchasing.

The signs are good. Post-announcement, AT&T announced that it intends to give both new and existing AT&T customers the opportunity to get a new iPhone for free.

"They can take advantage of the following iPhone 13 deals with an eligible trade-in, on an unlimited plan and purchased on an instalment plan, a media advisory shared with me states.

These deals mean you can get an iPhone 13 Pro or mini for no up-front cost, or an iPhone 13 Pro Max or iPhone 13 for $99 up front. Cricket Wireless will offer the iPhone 13 range from starting Sept. 24, the company said.

In the event carriers elsewhere in the UK and globally choose to deliver similarly tempting deals, then most business users have a real opportunity to upgrade.

Although new camera features, better battery life and other tech specs will grab the headlines, the biggest story is arguably the impressive trade-in prices being offered by Apple and its partners. US buyers trading-in the previous iPhone can get up to $1,000 toward a new model and we expect similar deals in other markets around the world, said CCS analyst, Ben Wood.

Its a major competitive advantage for Apple, and is likely to boost the residual value of iPhones, which are already the highest in the market thanks to Apples ruthless product consistency and multiyear software updates.

Please follow me on Twitter, or join me in the AppleHolics bar & grill and Apple Discussions groups on MeWe.
Apple on Monday issued emergency security updates for iOS, macOS and its other operating systems to plug a hole that Canadian researchers claimed had been planted on a Saudi political activist's device by NSO Group, an Israeli seller of spyware and surveillance software to governments and their security agencies.

Updates to patch the under-active-exploit vulnerability were released for iOS 14; macOS 11 and 10, aka Big Sur and Catalina, respectively; iPad OS 14; and watchOS 7.

According to Apple, the vulnerability can be exploited by "processing a maliciously crafted PDF," which "may lead to arbitrary code execution." The phrase "arbitrary code execution" is Apple's way of saying that the bug was of the most serious nature; Apple does not rank threat level of vulnerabilities, unlike operating system rivals such as Microsoft and Google.

Apple credited The Citizen Lab for reporting the flaw.

Also on Monday, Citizen Lab, a cybersecurity watchdog organization that operates from the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy at the University of Toronto, released a report outlining what it found. "While analyzing the phone of a Saudi activist infected with NSO Group's Pegasus spyware, we discovered a zero-day zero-click exploit against iMessage," Citizen Lab researchers wrote.

The exploit, which Citizen Lab dubbed "FORCEDENTRY," had been used to infect the phone of the activist  and possibly others as far back as February 2021  with the NGO Group's "Pegasus" surveillance suite. It, in turn, consists largely of spyware that can document texts and emails sent to and from the device as well as switch on its camera and microphone for secret recording.

Citizen Lab was confident that FORCEDENTRY was associated with Pegasus and thus, NGO Group. According to researchers, the spyware loaded by the zero-click exploit contained coding characteristics, including ones never made public, that Citizen Lab had come across in previous analysis of NGO Group and Pegasus.

"Despite promising their customers the utmost secrecy and confidentiality, NSO Group's business model contains the seeds of their ongoing unmasking," Citizen Labs' researcher wrote in their Monday report. "Selling technology to governments that will use the technology recklessly in violation of international human rights law ultimately facilitates discovery of the spyware by investigatory watchdog organizations."

Apple device owners can download and install the security-only updates issued Monday by triggering a software update through the device's OS.
09/15/2021

Photo (c) Ovidiu Dugulan - Getty Images Coronavirus (COVID-19) tally as compiled by Johns Hopkins University (previous numbers in parentheses).

Total U.S. confirmed cases: 41,371,382 (41,223,899)

Total U.S. deaths: 664,019 (662,262)

Total global cases: 225,988,972 (225,389,505)

Total global deaths: 4,652,516 (4,642,054)

U.S. stocks up on COVID-19 treatments

As it encourages more people to get vaccinated against COVID-19, the U.S. government is taking steps to treat those with the virus. The government is purchasing 388,000 doses of Eli Lillys antibody therapy and 1.4 million more doses of Regenerons antibody cocktail.

"The recent increase in COVID-19 cases has caused a substantial rise in the utilization of monoclonal antibody drugs, particularly in areas of the country with low vaccination rates," Lilly's chief scientific and medical officer Daniel Skovronsky told Reuters.

The purchases by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) are a response to the continuing wave of new cases of the virus, caused primarily by the Delta variant.

Vaccination for kids may come sooner than expected

Many of the new cases of the coronavirus are among young children, which isn't surprising  children under 12 aren't yet eligible to receive the vaccine.

That may be about to change. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the White Houses chief medical adviser, believes that approval to vaccinate children between the ages of five and 11 could come this fall as clinical trials are evaluated.

"If you look at the studies that we at the National Institutes of Health are doing in collaboration with the pharmaceutical companies, there will be enough data to apply for an emergency use authorization both by Pfizer, a little bit later by Moderna," Fauci said.

Mixed views on booster shots

Many vaccinated Americans are making plans to get a COVID-19 booster shot. Some have already gotten one. But the scientific jury is still out on when or if a booster is necessary.

A U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel meets later this week to discuss booster shots, and Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University, told CNN he expects spirited debate.

Earlier this week two FDA staffers, who were expressing frustration with President Bidens announcement last month that the administration would launch a booster program, publicly questioned the need for booster shots. They co-authored an article saying the data does not appear to support a need for booster shots for the general public right now.

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This CoolSocial report was updated on 2021-09-15, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want.
In the '40s and '50s, George Metesky kept planting bombs in major New York locations. As terrorist attacks go, George's weren't very deadly. He didn't kill a single person. Still, he planted dozens of bombs, bombing Penn Station five times, Grand Central five times too, and hitting the library, Port Authority, and Radio City Music Hall multiple times each.

George's story began in 1931, when he worked at Consolidated Edison, wiping down generators. A boiler burst, and steam entered his lungs, cooking him from the inside out. He spent a full six months collecting paychecks while too sick to work. When that ran out, he couldn't return to his job. Con Edison had made itself an enemy.

He placed his first pipe bomb against the window of the Con Ed building in 1940. Inside was a note: "Con Edison crooks  this is for you," and he signed it "F.P." (for "fair play," he later explained). The bomb never went off, and in fact if it had, the note would have been the first thing to blow up.

He set another bomb close to the building the following year. Then America entered World War II. And George sent the following message to the police: "I will make no more bomb units for the duration of the war. My patriotic feelings have made me decide this. Later I will bring the Con Edison to justice. They will pay for their dastardly deeds." He kept his word and set no more bombs while war raged, and the police assumed he'd stopped permanently.
Many of us have heard of Vashti from Esthers story. When I was in middle school I had the privilege of singing a song called Vashtis Song written by the church music director. I loved connecting with who she was through music. Many times there are obvious lessons that we learn from the character of Esther, but we cannot forget the woman who paved the way for Esther. Vashti was King Xerxes first wife. She was the queen of Persia. The question is, was Vashti actually the victim in Esthers story?

Who Was Vashti in the Bible?

King Xerxes was a powerful man who ruled over 127 provinces from India to Ethiopia. He reigned in Susa (Esther 1:1-2). Kings Xerxes was a prideful man who showed off his wealth and greatness for 180 days. After the celebrations, he threw a feast for a week. There was glamour and a lot of drinking there (Esther 1:3-8). Vashti threw her own feast for the women.

On the last day of the feast, King Xerxes was drunk and sent Eunuchs to summon Queen Vashti. He desired to show off her beauty to all of the other men (Nasty right?). Vashti clearly had respect for herself and declined. However, in anger, the king sought his advisors and they said what she did will be modeled by other women in the city if there were no consequences. The advice went as follows, If it please the king, let a royal order go out from him, and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and the Medes so that it may not be repealed, that Vashti is never again to come before King Ahasuerus. And let the king give her royal position to another who is better than she (Esther 1:19).

You would think this counsel would have devastated the king. If it were me and that was happening to my husband, I would have done everything in my power not to let that happened because I love him. Sadly, we see the kings heartless response, This advice pleased the king (Esther 1:21). King Xerxes' pride and humiliation caused him to act rashly and unkindly towards Vashti. He banished her and she was removed from the title of queen.

Bible Study Tools shares Esther 2:1-4, Later Xerxes remembered Vashti (verse 1); he likely had begun to miss her. So his attendants proposed that a search be made for the most beautiful girls in the kingdom and that they be brought to the kings harem; then Xerxes could choose the one he liked best and make her his queen in Vashtis place. Xerxes agreed, and the search commenced.

This is where the main character of the book of Esther steps into play when the King decides it is not so fun being without a wife.

Why Did She Refuse to Appear at the King's Banquet?

The mention of respecting her husband comes into play at the end of Esther 1 from the counselors. However, what Xerxes was requesting of Vashti was sinful. Her response was honorable. Women are called to submit to their husbands leadership in the home, but when it comes down to obeying your husband or obeying the Lord, the answer is always the Lord. All people answer to God first. Vashti refused her husbands request because he was a drunken mess and trying to show her body off like pornography. She was a queen who deserved respect and honor, not lust from every man in town and to be paraded like an object.

This teaches us in our marriage today. Crosswalk shares, In all things the husband and wife should seek to honor Christ. This applies in decision-making, as couples work hard to avoid violating one anothers conscience and as they seek the good of the other person (see 1 Corinthians 10:23-33). Spouses should never entice one another to do wrong, but if that happens, each ones first obligation is to obey Christ.

Was it Wrong of Xerxes to Exile Her?

I believe that it was wrong of king Xerxes to exile Vashti. He should have owned up to his own poor decision and asked for her forgiveness. However, he was too worried about his own ego and the publics view of him to make the right choice. Peer pressure from the counsel caused him to not only leave her as his queen but to exile her away. This poor woman had not done anything wrong, but because of the pride of man, she was punished. This reminds us that sin hurts more than just the person committing it.

Although there is devastation in this story, we can see the redemptive hand of God in it all. Even in the midst of sin and poor decisions on behalf of the king, the Lord still took care of His people. He ended up placing Esther in the position of queen. When she had the opportunity to stand up to this king in a bolder way than Vashti herself, we see the king respond quite differently.

Annette Griffin from Bible Study Tools shares God had a different role in mind for the new Queen Esther. When the time came for her to make a stand against the kings unjust decision, she like Vashti, chose to accept the mission and the consequences. However, Queen Esther had the benefit of Vashtis example, and more importantly, she chose to go in Gods power and mightinstead of her own will and strength. Just like Queen Vashti must have known the cost shed pay when she refused to appear before the king, Queen Esther knew the penalty for appearing before the king uninvited. Both acts required courage. And God strategically used both, in different ways, to save His people from annihilation.

Esther 5:4-5 says, If it pleases the king, replied Esther, let the king, together with Haman, come today to a banquet I have prepared for him. Bring Haman at once, the king said, so that we may do what Esther asks. So the king and Haman went to the banquet Esther had prepared.

The king responds with kindness and listening ears to Esther even when he could have done the same or worse to her than he did to Vashti. At the banquet with the King and Haman (The enemy of the Jews), Queen Esther told Xerxes about Hamans evil plan. The King left and Haman tried to attack Esther, but Xerxes came in after her and they impaled Haman on the pole he intended for Esthers noble uncle Mordechai (Esther 7).

What Can We Learn from Vashti's Story?

We can learn from Vashti to stand up for what is right, even if it comes with trials and difficulties. No matter what you are facing today, it is more important to honor the Lord with your life. We each have an opportunity at one point or another to stand against evil and do what pleases the Lord over man. It may not be in a kingdom, but our daily decisions make a difference in the kingdom of God. Just think about how King Xerxes learned from his situation with Vashti and listened to Esther eventually saving the people of God.

Photo credit: GettyImages/max-kegfire

Emma Danzeys mission in life is to inspire young women to embrace the extraordinary. One of her greatest joys is to journey with the Lord in His Scriptures. Emma is a North Carolina resident and green tea enthusiast! She is married to her husband Drew and they serve international college students. She enjoys singing, dancing, trying new recipes, and watching home makeover shows. During her ministry career, Emma recorded two worship EP albums, founded and led Polished Conference Ministries, ran the Refined Magazine, and served in music education for early childhood. Currently, she is in the editing stages of her first two writing projects: a Bible study on womanhood and a non-fiction book on singleness. You can visit her blog at emmadanzey.wordpress.com

This article is part of our People from the Bible Series featuring the most well-known historical names and figures from Scripture. We have compiled these articles to help you study those whom God chose to set before us as examples in His Word. May their lives and walks with God strengthen your faith and encourage your soul.

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Steganography definition

Steganography is a millennia-old concept that means hiding a secret message within an ordinary-looking file that doesn't raise any suspicions. The word has Greek roots, being a combination of steganos, which translates to "concealed, protected," and graphein, which means "writing."

APT groups, ransomware gangs, and other threat actors often hide information when attacking a target. For example, they might conceal data when exfiltrating it, cloak a malicious tool, or send instructions for command-and-control servers. They could put all this information in unassuming image, video, sound, or text files.

Steganography has a critical advantage over cryptography: In cryptography, you know the secret message is there, only its content is concealed; in steganography, the existence of the secret message is often difficult to notice. Threat actors sometimes use the two techniques together, encrypting a message before sneaking it inside a file.

How steganography works

Steganography is one way malicious actors fly under the radar. "We often see it being used as the initial entry point, and once the threat actors are in the network, there are more tools and code that they will use to move laterally," Jon Clay, vice president of threat intelligence at Trend Micro, says.

Frequently, the secret data is cleverly hidden inside an image by manipulating a few bits. Still, if users look at the original photo and compare it with the altered one, they can't tell the difference. To show this, researchers at Kaspersky camouflaged the first ten chapters of Nabokov's novel Lolita inside the standard image Lenna. The initial photo (Lenna.bmp) and the changed one (Lenna_stego.bmp) look exactly the same to the naked eye. Also, both files are the same size, 786,486 bytes.

Several techniques could be employed to achieve that. One of the oldest ones is the least significant bit (LSB) substitution method, which became popular during the mid-1980s. It allowed the manipulation of roughly 15% of an image by changing the least important bit of each byte, the one farthest to the right.

For instance, in the 11001101 byte, the first "1" on the left is the heaviest, while the "1" on the right carries the least weight. (When converting from binary to decimal, you multiply the "1" on the left by 128 and the "1" on the right by 1,) Thus, manipulating the right-most bit of the sequence makes little impact. Of course, the color of the pixel will be different, but the change will be imperceptible to the human eye.

There are a few variations of this method. When JPEG images are used, attackers can employ a technique called discrete cosine transform (DCT), which allows sending data by altering the LSBs of the DCT coefficients of an image. There's also palette-based image steganography, in which data is encoded into the LSB of the image palette. Both these methods can carry only small amounts of secret data.

An even more powerful method is the bit-plane complexity segmentation (BPCS), presented in the late 1990s by computer scientists Richard Eason and Eiji Kawaguchi. The two showed that they could alter about 50% of an image without users perceiving any difference. Their trick was to divide an image into an "informative region" and a "noise-like region" and then to hide the secret data in the noise blocks.

A few wideband methods are also used in steganography, such as the pseudorandom sequence (a secret stego-container is modulated by a pseudorandom signal) or the frequency hopping (frequency of the stego-container signal changes according to a specific pseudorandom law).

In the past years, security researchers noticed that attackers work with many types of files, not just images. Trend Micro found evidence that sound-based steganography is slowly becoming popular, as audio-only social media apps like Clubhouse are rising.

In the future, we might also see augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) based steganography, says Clay. He argues that humans might not be the only ones who could be tricked. "There have been examples of autonomous vehicles that follow visual signposts to drive, and it can cause cars to do things they shouldn't do," he says. "As humans move to a more visual medium to communicate, you're going to see these malicious actors look for ways to take advantage of it and profit off of it."

Attacks that used steganography techniques

Various types of threat actors, from crooks to cyberespionage groups, have used steganography to conceal information. One of the first powerful malware that took advantage of these techniques was Duqu, discovered in 2011. Its makers encrypted data and embedded it into a JPEG file.

More recently, APT groups like Platinum, OceanLotus/APT32, K3chang/APT15/Mirage/Vixen Panda, and MontysThree relied on steganography for cloaking encrypted payloads or maintaining on-system persistence. Meanwhile, RedBaldKnight/Bronze Butler/Tick built tools that can create, embed, and hide executables or configuration files, and Tropic Trooper/Pirate Panda/KeyBoy masked its backdoor routines and evaded anti-malware and network perimeter detection.

Researchers at Kaspersky have also identified an APT gang they call BountyGlad, which used steganography to support multi-stage implant delivery as a part of a supply chain attack, cloaking shellcode within a PNG file used to deliver the final stage payload. "The most sophisticated APT [groups] often use the simplest steganography techniques in elegant ways," says Kurt Baumgartner, principal researcher at Kaspersky. He noticed that, for these threat actors, steganography is more than data hidden in JPEGs or BMPs.

"Most frequently, steganographic imagery techniques are used to support multi-staged malicious implant deliveries in intrusions," Baumgartner adds. "We also see APT hide commands for their implants in web pages with whitespace and within debug logs posted to forums, covertly upload stolen data in images, and maintain persistence by storing encrypted code within specific locations of validly Authenticode-signed executables."

Ransomware gangs have also learned that using steganography could help them carry out their attacks. Lurk/Stegoloadr, for instance, encrypted URLs and hid them inside a white BMP file that downloaded a second payload. SyncCrypt and Cerber also cloaked parts of their code in image files, and TeslaCrypt cleverly included HTML comment tags in a 404 error page that had instructions for a command-and-control server.

Steganography has also been used by cryptomining malware. For example, SentinelLabs recently discovered a campaign affecting the Docker Linux platform. This threat actor embedded an ELF binary inside a JPEG file to bypass detections by many antivirus software products. "The file was 6MB, which was extremely large for a JPEG," Marco Figueroa, principal threat researcher at SentinelOne, says. "The size of the JPEG provided a clue that the file had malicious code within it."

Even actors conducting malvertising campaigns take advantage of steganography. The Stegano/Astrum exploit kit embedded malicious code inside the RGBA transparency value of each pixel of PNG banner ads. When ads were loaded, the malicious code was extracted, and the user was redirected to the exploit kit landing page. Furthermore, the group behind DNSCharge created ads that contained code that launched brute force attacks against users' home WiFi routers.

What companies can do to protect against steganography

Using steganography during an attack is relatively easy. Protecting against it is much more complicated, as threat actors are getting more innovative and more creative. "Companies should embrace modern endpoint protection technologies that go beyond static checks, basic signatures, and other outdated components as code hidden in images and other forms of obfuscation are more likely to be detected dynamically by a behavioral engine," Figueroa says.

He has two more tips for organizations and their employees: First, if an image is unusually large, it might be a clue that steganography was used. Second, companies should focus detection efforts directly at the endpoints where encryption and obfuscation are easier to detect.

Trend Micro's Clay says more should be done to educate users and raise awareness. "Organizations should teach employees that image files can harbor malicious code," he says. "In addition, organizations should have web filtering for safer browsing and should also stay up to date with the latest security patches when updates are available."

Kaspersky's Baumgartner also thinks businesses should do more to protect against such attacks. "A solid host-based antimalware solution will identify actions based on the decrypted commands, find hidden malcode and their loaders delivered with these techniques using heuristic, behavioral, machine learning, and other methods, and suspicious outbound siphoning of data," he says. "Also, network tracking may help support identification of new steganographically delivered malcode or outbound stolen data."

While some researchers worry about the creativity of nation-state actors, others believe that any malicious entity could leverage steganography. "Less advanced adversaries are using fairly sophisticated stuff that can go undetected," Baumgartner says.
WASHINGTON (AP)  Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles told Congress in forceful testimony Wednesday that federal law enforcement and gymnastics officials turned a blind eye to USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassars sexual abuse of her and hundreds of other women.

Biles told the Senate Judiciary Committee that enough is enough as she and three other U.S. gymnasts spoke in stark emotional terms about the lasting toll Nassars crimes have taken on their lives. In response, FBI Director Christopher Wray said he was deeply and profoundly sorry for delays in Nassars prosecution and the pain it caused.

The four-time Olympic gold medalist and five-time world champion  widely considered to be the greatest gymnast of all time  said she can imagine no place that I would be less comfortable right now than sitting here in front of you." She declared herself a survivor of sexual abuse.

I blame Larry Nassar and I also blame an entire system that enabled and perpetrated his abuse, Biles said through tears. In addition to failures of the FBI, she said USA Gymnastics and the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee knew that I was abused by their official team doctor long before I was ever made aware of their knowledge.

Biles said a message needs to be sent: "If you allow a predator to harm children, the consequences will be swift and severe. Enough is enough.

The hearing is part of a congressional effort to hold the FBI accountable after multiple missteps in investigating the case, including the delays that allowed the now-imprisoned Nassar to abuse other young gymnasts. All four witnesses said they knew girls or women who were molested by Nassar after the FBI had been made aware of allegations against him in 2015.

An internal investigation by the Justice Department released in July said the FBI made fundamental errors in the probe and did not treat the case with the utmost seriousness after USA Gymnastics first reported the allegations to the FBIs field office in Indianapolis in 2015. The FBI has acknowledged its own conduct was inexcusable.

Wray blasted his own agents who failed to appropriately respond to the complaints and made a promise to the victims that he was committed to make damn sure everybody at the FBI remembers what happened here" and that it never happens again.

A supervisory FBI agent who had failed to properly investigate the Nassar case, and later lied about it, has been fired by the agency, Wray said.

McKayla Maroney, a member of the gold-medal winning U.S. Olympic gymnastics team in 2012, recounted to senators a night when, at age 15, she found the doctor on top of her while she was naked  one of many times she was abused. She said she thought she was going to die that evening. But she said that when she recalled those memories in a call with FBI agents, crying, there was dead silence.

Maroney said the FBI minimized and disregarded her and the other gymnasts as they delayed the probe.

I think for so long all of us questioned, just because someone else wasnt fully validating us, that we doubted what happened to us," Maroney said. "And I think that makes the healing process take longer.

Biles and Maroney were joined by Aly Raisman, who won gold medals alongside them on the 2012 and 2016 Olympic teams, and gymnast Maggie Nichols. Raisman told the senators that it disgusts" her that they are still looking for answers six years after the original allegations against Nassar were reported.

Raisman noted the traumatic effect the abuse has had on all of them.

Being here today is taking everything I have," she said. "My main concern is I hope I have the energy to just walk out of here. I dont think people realize how much it affects us.

Speaking alongside senators after the hearing, Raisman called for more investigations of USA Gymnastics, Olympic officials and the FBI. The probes should be independent and go back decades, she said, because there might still be people in positions of power who should be held accountable.

Biles acknowledged in January 2018 that she was among the hundreds of athletes who were abused by Nassar. She is the only one of the witnesses who competed in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics  held this year after a one-year delay due to the coronavirus pandemic  where she removed herself from the team finals to focus on her mental health.

She returned to earn a bronze medal on beam but told the committee the lingering trauma from her abuse at the hands of Nassar played a factor in her decision to opt out of several competitions. At the hearing, she said she had wanted her presence in Tokyo to help maintain a connection between the failures of officials and the Olympic competition, but that has proven to be an exceptionally difficult burden for me to carry.

Democratic and Republican senators expressed disgust over the case and said they would continue to investigate. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Richard Durbin, D-Ill., said it was among the most compelling and heartbreaking testimony he had ever heard.

We have a job to do and we know it, Durbin said.

Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kansas, called Nassar a monster and wondered how many other abusers have escaped justice, considering that even world-class athletes were ignored in this case.

The internal probe by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz, who testified alongside Wray, was spurred by allegations that the FBI failed to promptly address complaints made in 2015 against Nassar. USA Gymnastics had conducted its own internal investigation and the organizations then-president, Stephen Penny, reported the allegations to the FBIs field office in Indianapolis. But it was months before the bureau opened a formal investigation.

The watchdog investigation found that when the FBIs Indianapolis field offices handling of the matter came under scrutiny, officials there did not take any responsibility for the missteps and gave incomplete and inaccurate information to internal FBI inquiries to make it look like they had been diligent in their investigation.

The report also detailed that while the FBI was investigating the Nassar allegations, the head of the FBIs field office in Indianapolis, W. Jay Abbott, was talking to Penny about getting a job with the Olympic Committee. He applied for the job but didnt get it and later retired from the FBI, the report said.

Nassar pleaded guilty in 2017 to federal child pornography offenses and sexual abuse charges in Michigan. He is now serving decades in prison after hundreds of girls and women said he sexually abused them under the guise of medical treatment when he worked for Michigan State and Indiana-based USA Gymnastics, which trains Olympians.

Litigation over the abuse may soon be coming to an end after USA Gymnastics and hundreds of Nassar's victims filed a joint $425 million settlement proposal in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Indianapolis last month.

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Graves reported from Pittsburgh.
As Connecticut continues to be one of the most vaccinated states in the country, focus has begun to shift to the looming next wave of inoculation efforts: Giving boosters to those who have already finished their initial course of vaccine.

While health officials believe the boosters will play an important role in sustained immunity, the future remains uncertain. President Joe Biden, along with top federal health officials, had set a potential start date for Sept. 20, eight months after the first doses began going into the arms of health care workers. With that date fast approaching, crucial approvals still hang in the balance.

Despite no official word from regulators, the state and its providers continue to prepare for the next massive round of vaccines.

The Connecticut Department of Public Health is actively working with our federal partners, vaccine providers, and other stakeholders to be sure that Connecticut is ready to provide boosters when they are recommended, said Christopher Boyle, a department spokesperson.

In a recent DPH communication, vaccine providers were told there may be some movement on approvals this week.

DPH highlighted that the Food and Drug Administration's Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee will meet on Friday to discuss data on boosters. The Centers for Disease Control and Preventions Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices will meet to discuss the same information and could make a recommendation on boosters.

While these regulators are reviewing boosters for mRNA, which include Pfizer and Moderna, there has been little news about the future of boosters for Johnson & Johnsons vaccine, which is far less widely used in Connecticut.

We know that (vaccine) providers are actively planning for booster dose administration once recommended. We still do not know exactly what the booster dose recommendation will be, but will continue to provide updates as we learn more, DPH said in the memo last week.

Discussion about the booster come as COVID-19 metrics have started to retreat slightly from recent highs. Through the weekend, the positivity rate for new COVID tests was 2.34 percent  a recent low. Hospitalizations dropped by a net of 37 patients statewide for a total of 327  the lowest since mid-August.

Officials have said the states vaccine rate, one of the highest in the nation, may have helped avoid dramatic increases of cases seen this summer in other parts of the country.

With more than 77 percent of eligible residents fully vaccinated in Connecticut, the vast majority of whom receiving either Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines, a booster approval could mean providers will have to administer millions of more shots.

But unlike the initial vaccine rollout, which started last December with roughly 15,000 doses per week allotted to the state by the federal government, demand is not an apparent concern should boosters get approved.

DPH stresses that there is a more than adequate supply of vaccine available as well as an ample supply of providers who will administer the boosters. At this point in time, Connecticut has a network of vaccine providers that includes more than 500 pharmacy locations and over 200 other health care providers. In addition, many of our leading hospitals and health systems are ready to set up dedicated COVID vaccine clinics when boosters may be recommended, Boyle said.

Hartford HealthCare, one of the states largest vaccine providers, said Monday it was well prepared to offer any booster shot should it gain approval.

We have capacity, from acute settings to our existing clinics. We are looking at expansion in our community clinics, as well. I think one important thing to note is that Hartford HealthCare has had a very robust mobile platform to provide vaccinations to individuals who have had difficulty getting ... vaccinations. We will continue to meet the demand as the boosters are rolled out across Connecticut, said Dr. Ajay Kumar, Hartford HealthCares chief clinical officer.

The push for boosters from federal officials came amid a surge in new cases from the delta variant, along with an emerging rise in breakthrough infections, which involve people who have been fully vaccinated.

However, the surge in delta infections and the increase in new breakthrough infections have leveled off in recent weeks in Connecticut.

And, with limited information about boosters, a debate has surfaced over whether they are medically necessary.

An opinion piece authored by a number of experts, including two FDA scientists that was published in the medical journal, The Lancet, asserted that boosters are not yet needed as the research shows the current regimen still offers a strong level of protection against severe COVID-19 infections.

Even if boosting were eventually shown to decrease the medium-term risk of serious disease, current vaccine supplies could save more lives if used in previously unvaccinated populations than if used as boosters in vaccinated populations, the article read.

Amid this uncertainty, Dr. Ulysses Wu, the chief epidemiologist for Hartford HealthCare, stressed Monday that these vaccines overall are safe and an important tool to address the COVID-19 pandemic.

The vaccine works. Regardless of whatever needs to be done, whether its boosters or its waiting for approval, or uncertainty over J&J, Moderna or Pfizer, whatever it may be, the vaccine work, Wu said. This is our pathway forward if we are going to beat this disease.
WASHINGTON (AP)  Senate Democrats unveiled a pare- back elections bill Tuesday in hopes of kickstarting their stalled push to counteract new laws in Republican states that could make it more difficult to cast a ballot.

But the new compromise legislation is likely doomed to fail in the 50-50 Senate, facing the same lockstep Republican opposition that scuttled their previous attempts to pass an even more sweeping bill. The GOP blasted the earlier measure as unnecessary and a "partisan power grab.

Republican-controlled legislatures have enacted restrictions over the past year in the name of election security that will make it harder to vote and could make the administration of the elections more subject to partisan interference. Texas, which already has some of the country's strictest voting rules, recently adopted a law that will further limit the ability to cast a ballot, empower party poll watchers and create new criminal penalties for those who run afoul of the rules  even if inadvertently.

The spate of new voting laws  many inspired by former President Donald Trump's false claims of a stolen election  have ratcheted up pressure on Democrats in Congress to pass legislation that could counteract the GOP push. Trumps claims of election fraud were widely rejected in the courts, by state officials who certified the results and by his own attorney general.

We have seen unprecedented attacks on our democracy in states across the country. These attacks demand an immediate federal response," said Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., the lead sponsor of the new bill.

The revised legislation was negotiated for weeks by a group of Democratic senators and includes many of the same provisions as the previous bill, known as the For the People Act.

It would establish national rules for running elections, limit partisanship in the drawing of congressional districts and force the disclosure of many anonymous donors who spend big to influence elections, according to a summary obtained by The Associated Press.

But it also includes a number of changes sought by West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, the chamber's most conservative Democrat. That includes provisions that would limit, but not prohibit, state voter ID requirements, as well as the elimination of a proposed overhaul of the Federal Election Commission, which was intended to alleviate partisan gridlock at the election watchdog agency.

The new measure also dumps language that would have created a public financing system for federal elections. It would instead establish a more limited financing system for House candidates that states could opt to participate in.

Other provisions are aimed at alleviating concerns from local elections officials, who worried that that original bill would have been too difficult to implement. And some new additions are aimed at insulating nonpartisan election officials, who may be subject to greater partisan pressure under some of the new state laws.

White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said Tuesday that the administration was encouraged by the momentum and said President Joe Biden would continue to work with Congress to pass the bill.

Yet despite the changes, Republicans are expected to uniformly oppose the measure, which they say amounts to a federal takeover of elections. That leaves Democrats well short of the 60 votes needed to advance the bill unless they change the Senate's filibuster rules, which Manchin and other moderates have ruled out.

Manchin has said Congress shouldn't pass voting legislation unless it is bipartisan. He has shopped the revised bill to some Republican senator in recent weeks, seeking their support. But there are no indications of any signing on.

Manchin told reporters Tuesday that the new bill makes more sense, its more practical, more reasonable, but said he didn't have anything to say about making changes to the filibuster.

Now we have to sit down and work with our Republican colleagues," he said.

"I'm headed to do that right now," Klobuchar said before walking on to the Senate floor.

But moments later, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell threw cold water on the bill, calling it a solution in search of a problem that we will not be supporting.

Let me say for the umpteenth time, the Kentucky Republican said. There is no rational basis for the federal government taking over how we conduct elections.

It all puts Democrats right back where they started. The lack of progress is likely to frustrate party activists, many of whom view voting rights as the Civil Rights issue of the era.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the bill could be called for a vote as soon as next week, when it will almost certainly fail.

Senator Manchin ... believes that we should try to make it bipartisan and we are giving him the opportunity to do that, Schumer said. If that doesn't happen we will cross that bridge when we come to it.

Later Tuesday, Manchin met with McConnell on the subject of voting rights.

I always think there is a pathway forward, Manchin said after leaving the meeting. If you cant even talk to each other, how are you going to work together?

Sen. John Thune, the Senate's No. 2 Republican, said there was no chance McConnell would warm to Democrats' proposal. If he made any headway with the leader, thats news to me," said Thune, of South Dakota.

Activists and some Democratic senators say scrapping the filibuster is the only path forward.

"The filibuster is the only thing standing in our way. Its time for our senators to put Americans freedom to vote ahead of the Jim Crow filibuster, said Sean Eldridge, president of the group Stand Up America.
HONG KONG (AP)  Nine Hong Kong activists and ex-lawmakers on Wednesday were handed jail sentences of up to 10 months over their roles in last years banned Tiananmen Square candlelight vigil, the latest blow in an ongoing crackdown on dissent in the city.

The nine are part of a group of 12 defendants who pleaded guilty earlier this month to participating in the vigil that was the only large-scale public commemoration on Chinese soil of the 1989 crackdown in Beijing on student-led protests. Three others were given suspended sentences.

They were all charged with taking part in an unauthorized assembly, with seven of them facing an additional charge for inciting others to take part in the event.

Police last year banned the annual vigil for the first time in three decades, citing public health risks from the coronavirus pandemic. Critics believe the ban is part of the crackdown on opposition in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory following months of anti-government protests in 2019.

Over a dozen activists turned up at the June 4 vigil despite the ban and thousands followed suit. The crowds broke through barriers set up around the Victoria Park venue to light candles and sing songs despite police warnings.

Police later arrested over 20 activists, including leaders of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, the association that organizes the yearly vigil.

Some of those sentenced on Wednesday, such as lawyer Albert Ho and Figo Chan, former leader of the now-defunct Civil Human Rights Front, are already serving jail sentences over other unauthorized assemblies.

Eight other activists who were charged over last years Tiananmen vigil, including Jimmy Lai, the founder of the defunct Apple Daily newspaper as well as alliance leader Lee Cheuk-yan, have pleaded not guilty and will stand trial in November.

Prominent pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong and three others had previously pleaded guilty over their roles in the event and were sentenced to between four and 10 months in jail.

Last June, Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law on Hong Kong that targets secession, subversion, terrorism and foreign collusion in the citys affairs. Over 100 people have been arrested under the national security law.

Beijing and Hong Kong officials have been criticized for rolling back freedoms promised to Hong Kong for 50 years when the former British colony was handed over to China in 1997.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska  Alaska is reporting its highest number of new coronavirus cases a day after the states largest hospital announced it had entered crisis protocol and started rationing care because of a flood of COVID-19 cases.

Officials on Wednesday reported 1,068 new virus infections, which is 13% higher than last week. State officials say 201 Alaskans are hospitalized for COVID-19, and 34 of them are on ventilators.

The states chief medical officer says hospitals continue to be stressed and there isnt capacity for patients who have COVID-19 as well as those with other needs. Statewide, there are about 1,100 non-intensive care unit beds in hospitals, with only 302 available Wednesday. Only 21 of the state's ICU beds are open.

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MORE ON THE PANDEMIC:

 As COVID-19 vaccine mandates rise, religious exemptions grow

 Biden, business leaders discuss vaccine mandates at White House

 EU pledges 200 million more COVID-19 vaccine doses to Africa

 China imposes local lockdowns as COVID-19 cases surge

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 See AP coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic

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HERES WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:

TORONTO  The leader of the Canadian province of Alberta is apologizing for his handling of the pandemic and says he is reluctantly introducing a vaccine passport and imposing a mandatory work-from-home order two months after lifting nearly all restrictions.

Alberta is declaring a public health emergency as Premier Jason Kenney says the province might run out of beds and staff for intensive care units within 10 days.

Indoor dining at pubs and restaurants is now banned.

Kenney says it is clear the provincial government was wrong to end public health restrictions in the summer. He says COVID-19 is hitting Alberta harder than anywhere else in Canada because it has the lowest rate of vaccination in the country.

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RENO, Nev.  The Nevada Hospital Association is urging people to avoid going to emergency rooms except in true emergencies, especially in northern Nevada where a resurgence in coronavirus infections is running double the rate in the Las Vegas area.

Health officials say the 30-day average for daily new coronavirus cases per 100,000 residents has increased fivefold in the Reno-Sparks area over the past six weeks  from 354 at the beginning of August to 1,621 now. The statewide rate is 951, and its 720 in Clark County, which includes Las Vegas.

The head of the hospital association says that as a result, many hospital emergency departments in northern Nevada are at capacity with patients.

State officials said Wednesday that 1,090 people were hospitalized at the beginning of the week for confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19, the disease that can be caused by the coronavirus.

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HOUSTON  Some of the 15 Texas school districts that have been sued in the past week for defying Gov. Greg Abbotts ban on mask mandates are pushing back against the lawsuits.

One school district said Wednesday it doesnt have such a mandate and isnt sure why its being sued. Another district that has made masks part of its student dress code said its requirement for face coverings has resulted in its schools having among the states fewest COVID-19 absences.

At least eight counties and cities and 87 school districts or systems in Texas have imposed mask mandates hoping to tamp down the pandemic, which has overwhelmed many of the states hospitals with COVID-19 cases.

State Attorney General Ken Paxton began suing school districts last week.

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LOS ANGELES  Public health officials in Los Angeles County will begin requiring proof of COVID-19 vaccination for patrons and workers at indoor bars, wineries, breweries and nightclubs next month.

The new initiative in the nations most populous county begins Oct. 7, with proof of at least one vaccine dose required. According to the countys Department of Public Health, proof of full vaccination will be mandatory by Nov. 4.

Health officials strongly recommend the same precautions for indoor restaurants but have not chosen to mandate proof of vaccination for them.

The new restrictions come ahead of the holiday season, which brought a massive surge in infections to Los Angeles last year.

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WASHINGTON  U.S. government advisers will debate Friday if theres enough proof that a booster dose of Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine is safe and effective.

Its the first public step toward deciding which Americans may get an extra dose and when. The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday posted much of the evidence that it will ask outside experts to consider at Fridays meeting.

But the agency struck a neutral tone in reviewing the data and discussing the rationale for boosters. That careful approach is notable given that White House officials have been previewing a booster campaign that they hoped to begin next week.

Pfizer is making the argument that while protection against severe disease is holding strong in the U.S., immunity against milder infection wanes somewhere around six to eight months after the second dose. The drugmaker is pointing to data from Israel, which began offering boosters over the summer.

The U.S. already offers an extra dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines to people with severely weakened immune systems.

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LJUBLJANA, Slovenia  Hundreds of anti-vaccination protesters hurled flares at the parliament building in the Slovenian capital on Wednesday to protest a new measure that mandates a COVID-19 pass for entering almost any shop, service or a workplace in the country.

Police responded with tear gas and water cannons. There were no immediate reports of injuries.

The small Alpine state has seen a surge in infections with daily cases exceeding 1,300 for two days in a row now, levels last seen in April, while the 14-day incidence per 100,000 population now stands at 533, one of the highest rates in Europe, the state STA news agency reported.

The COVID-19 pass is required for access to almost all services and workplaces and there have been reports throughout the day of store clerks being hassled, the agency reported.

Many complaints by disgruntled customers were targeted at petrol stations after the largest fuel retailer, Petrol, made it mandatory to show the pass  that mandates full vaccination or a COVID-19 test  before people could fill up their tank.

The pass is also mandatory for access to health services, except for emergency care. Community health centers have instituted a strict policy of compliance, while hospitals have offered on-the-spot testing for those who do not have it.

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WASHINGTON  The U.S. government will spend $470 million to learn more about long COVID-19, its causes and potential treatments.

The National Institutes of Health announced the plans Wednesday with a grant awarded to NYU Grossman School of Medicine and a goal of enrolling up to 40,000 adults and children nationwide. The effort, dubbed RECOVER, will involve researchers at more than 30 U.S. institutions.

This is being taken with the greatest seriousness at a scale that has not really been attempted with something like this, Dr. Francis Collins, NIH director, said at a briefing Wednesday.

Collins says its estimated 10% to 30% of people infected with COVID-19 may develop persistent, new or recurring symptoms that can last months or perhaps years.

Long COVID is an umbrella term for symptoms that linger, recur and show up for the first time four weeks or more after an initial infection. It also includes heart inflammation and multisystem inflammatory syndrome, a rare but serious condition that can occur in children after a COVID-19 infection.

Pain, headaches, fatigue, brain fog, shortness of breath, anxiety, depression, chronic coughs and sleep problems are among the reported symptoms of long COVID. Possible causes include the virus lingers in tissues and organs or it overstimulates the immune system.

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WASHINGTON  Religious objections were once used only sparingly around the country to get exempted from various required vaccines. But some are using the loophole to avoid the COVID-19 shot.

About 3,000 Los Angeles Police Department employees are citing religious objections against the required COVID-19 vaccination. In Washington state, more than 3,800 state workers had requested religious exemptions. So far, 737 have been approved, but officials stressed that an exemption does not guarantee continued employment.

President Joe Biden announced sweeping new vaccine mandate last week that covers more than 100 million Americans, including executive branch employees and workers at businesses with more than 100 people on the payroll.

The administration acknowledges a small minority of Americans will use  and some may seek to exploit  religious exemptions. But it says even marginal improvements in vaccination levels will save lives.

Its not clear yet how many federal employees have requested a religious exemption. The Labor Department has said an accommodation can be denied if it causes an undue burden.

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ST. PAUL, Minn.  A Minnesota judge has rejected a request by concerned parents to force a stateside mask mandate in all schools.

Ramsey County District Judge Thomas Gilligan said the court was gravely concerned about the risks of COVID-19 for Minnesota children, but said in his ruling the court lacks the legal authority to order Gov. Tim Walz to issue the directive that the parents sought.

The longshot legal challenge was unique in that it sought to force the governor to declare a peacetime state of emergency and follow it with a mandate, Minnesota Public Radio reported. In other states, governors whove tried to prevent school districts from requiring mask use have been blocked by courts.

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PORTLAND, Maine  Two of the top-ranking Democratic members of the Maine Senate have tested positive for COVID-19 despite being fully vaccinated.

Maine Senate President Troy Jackson tested positive for coronavirus, becoming the highest-ranking official in state government to contract the virus. Senate Major Leader Eloise Vitelli also says she had received a positive test.

Jackson says hes isolating after testing positive. He hadnt experienced symptoms but decided to undergo a rapid test after learning a close contact had the virus.

Jackson said he was grateful to be vaccinated since vaccines have proven to be effective in preventing severe symptoms and hospitalizations. Vitelli says she was experiencing only mild symptoms on Wednesday.

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STORRS, Conn.  Theres been a mix of coronavirus requirements at universities and colleges in the U.S.

At most of the largest public universities, students arent obligated to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Some schools do require vaccines, but with leniency for those who opt out. Still others have expelled students who dont comply.

An analysis by The Associated Press shows 26 of the nations 50 largest public universities arent requiring the vaccination.

Universities with vaccine mandates are concentrated in the Northeast and California. Most without mandates are in states that restricted the ability to implement vaccine requirements, including Florida, Texas and Arizona.

As a new semester begins amid a resurgence of the coronavirus, administrators and faculty nationwide see high vaccination rates as key to bringing some normalcy back to campus. Where mandates face political opposition, schools are relying on incentives and outreach to get more students vaccinated.

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ST. LOUIS  A child has died of COVID-19 in Missouri as the coronavirus sickens record numbers of youths in the state.

According to officials with the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force, the child died last week in the St. Louis area. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports task force officials wouldnt reveal more information, such as the childs age, citing privacy concerns.

The death brings the total number of Missouri children younger than 18 who have died from COVID-19 to six, according to state health department spokeswoman Lisa Cox.

On Sept. 7, there were a record 1,133 positive test results for Missouri children younger than 18, topping 940 set on Nov. 9, according to an analysis released Tuesday by the Missouri Hospital Association.

Some local health departments in the St. Louis area have reported up to a third of new cases are among children.

Dr. Clay Dunagan, chief clinical officer for BJC HealthCare, cited the more infectious delta variant and schools not taking steps to reduce spread, such as requiring masks. Children younger than 12 arent eligible for vaccines, and vaccination rates among teens lags that of adults.

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WASHINGTON  President Joe Biden has invited CEOs and business leaders to the White House to discuss COVID-19 mandates.

The meeting Wednesday follows Bidens announcement last week that the Labor Department is working to require that businesses with 100 or more employees order their workers to be fully vaccinated or submit a negative COVID-19 test at least weekly. Biden said 100 million workers would be subject to the requirement.

Some business groups, including the Business Roundtable, welcomed the presidents announcement.

Americas business leaders know how critical vaccination and testing are in defeating the pandemic, Josh Bolten, president and CEO of the Business Roundtable, said in a statement.

Numerous corporations, including Amtrak, Microsoft, United Airlines and Walt Disney issued vaccine mandates for their workforces before Bidens announcement last week.

Some Republicans accused Biden of overstepping his authority and have threatened to sue the administration over the vaccine mandate.
Theres a detail in many New York photos taken after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks that were easy to miss all these years, but are now impossible to overlook.

Many people fleeing the scene somehow found masks, medical and makeshift, to shield themselves from the noxious dust and debris that filled the air as well as unprotected lungs. The survival instinct was to cover the nose and mouth.

Firefighters arriving at the scene pulled masks from their stock equipment as well. As recovery efforts continued in the months ahead, the toxic substances would slowly add even more lives to the grim tally of nearly 3,000 lost in the terrorist attacks that day.

So why are we fighting so much over wearing masks to try to halt an even higher death toll in America?

Fatigue has a lot to do with it. People just werent built to avoid one another and cover the organs that permit them to breath. After 18 months of this, wrapping a mask over the nose and mouth still doesnt seem natural.

Not wearing them, however, isnt a sign of proud resistance but of surrender.

There are still history lessons to learn from the pandemic of a century ago. The 1918 Flu eventually retreated a couple of years later as it apparently ran out of hosts after infecting about one-third of the worlds population. With no vaccine as a defense, Americans relied on the few preventative measures they had, notably social distancing and masks.

One hundred years later, the nation has become divided not between the haves and have-notes, but between the pragmatists and the contrarians.

Seemingly out of patience with Americans who have declined the invitation to get the free vaccine to fight COVID-19, President Joe Biden has announced sweeping federal mandates for vaccines and testing. In addition to drawing backlash from states that have low turnout for getting the vaccine, this foreshadows the likelihood of an even nastier showdown if similar treatments are approved for children under 12 years of age.

I am so disappointed that particularly some Republican governors have been so cavalier with the health of these kids, so cavalier with the health of their communities, Biden said Friday.

The president, of course, was not referring to Connecticut, which has one of the highest vaccine rates in the nation, more than 76 percent of eligible residents.

While Biden scorned governors who threatened lawsuits with the rejoinder, Have at it, Gov. Ned Lamont has quietly expressed concerns in Connecticut. Outbreaks were documented in August among groups of unvaccinated (those would be the contrarians) at a summer camp, group home and private party. The state Department of Public Health said the cases also involved inconsistent use of masks.

Its vital to keep our schools open, and even more important to be strong role models for our youngest citizens. We must not look back at this crisis in 20 years and wonder why we didnt so the simple things to protect ourselves, and each other.
PHOENIX (AP)  The Arizona commission charged with redrawing maps for congressional and legislative districts every decade approved its basic starting-point grid maps Tuesday, kicking off a months-long process with huge political implications where the boundaries will be heavily tweaked before being finalized.

The grid maps for the state's nine congressional and 30 legislative districts differ greatly from the state's current map. They are also nothing like what the final new maps will outline, according to the chair of the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission.

Instead, it is a basic map that breaks up Arizona's 7.15 million residents into equal parts by census tract.

Please remember it is an arbitrary starting point, Commission Chair Erika Neuberg said. There's no meaning behind these lines outside of equal population."

How the commission changes the grid map could have vast political consequences because they can affect the ability of parties to elect their candidates.

The state's current congressional delegation consists of four Republicans and five Democrats, although the 2nd Congressional District has swung from Democrat to Republican and back over the past decade. The state Legislature is also closely divided, with Republicans holding just a one-seat advantage in both chambers. Republicans have slowly lost seats over the past decade as the state's voters moved from solidly red to more competitively balanced.

The commission, if it has the votes, could let that trend continue or tip the scales to one party or the other by how it divvies up populations and registered voters. It is made up of two Democrats, two Republicans and Neuberg, who is an independent.

How she votes as the chair and tiebreaker as the mapmaking decisions start to be made will be closely watched by political parties. Two early commission decisions, on the mapping consultant and the panel's executive director, left the Democrats unhappy. But it remains unclear where Neuberg will come down on more substantive decisions.

The commission's contract map-makers started the grid map at the six-way intersection of Grand and 19th avenues and McDowell Road where the state fairgrounds is located in central Phoenix, then broke the state into four quadrants moving clockwise. All the congressional and legislative districts are within one person of being equal -- 794,612 people per congressional district and 239,384 legislative district, or one fewer.

The final maps will be able to have up to a plus or minus 5% difference in population.

Now that it has approved grid maps that contain draft districts with equal populations that are compact and connected, commissioners will consider the four other factors the state constitution says it must weigh in setting up the real districts. They are complying with the U.S. Constitution and the Voting Right Act, keeping "communities of interest" together, considering features such as city, town and county boundaries and creating competitive districts.

Rejiggering the maps is a complex process because each move of a line requires corresponding moves in other districts to keep populations relatively close.

The commission has scheduled a series of five public meetings to get input on those factors, with the first Sept. 21 in Mesa with viewing sites set up in Yuma and at Window Rock on the Navajo Nation. The other hearings also have remote participation options.

Arizona was widely expected to get a 10th congressional seat after last year's Census, but the state grew at a slower pace than expected and lost out on that added representation. Detailed Census data was provided to the commission last month that allowed the map-making process to shift into high gear

The redistricting commission was created by voters in 2000 to limit political influence by the Legislature in redrawing congressional and legislative district maps.

Republicans generally liked the district maps drawn after the 2000 census, and those done following the 2010 census were regarded as more favorable to Democrats, prompting strong criticism from Republicans.

The 2001 and 2011 maps led to prolonged court challenges, including a 2015 U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld Arizona voters decision to strip the redistricting process from the Legislature.
Ned Gerard / Hearst Connecticut Media

BRIDGEPORT  Residents with AT&T may not be able to reach 911 tonight, according to Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim.

Bridgeport officials reported that some AT&T telecommunications were down Tuesday night, Ganim said around 6:48 p.m. on a Facebook post.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP)  The Minnesota Supreme Court on Wednesday threw out the third-degree murder conviction of a former Minneapolis police officer who fatally shot a woman who had called 911 to report a possible rape behind her home.

In its ruling in the case of Mohamed Noor, the Supreme Court also clarified what would constitute third-degree murder, or depraved-mind murder, saying the statute doesn't apply if a defendant's actions are directed at a particular person.

Noor was convicted of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the 2017 death of Justine Ruszczyk Damond, a dual U.S.-Australian citizen who called 911 to report a possible sexual assault behind her home. He was sentenced to 12 1/2 years on the murder count but was not sentenced for manslaughter.

The ruling means his murder conviction is overturned and the case will now go back to the district court, where he will be sentenced on the manslaughter count. He has already served more than 28 months of his murder sentence. If sentenced to the presumptive four years for manslaughter, he could be eligible for supervised release around the end of this year.

Damond's fiance, Don Damond, said the ruling was a double blow against justice. In a statement to The Associated Press he said that since Justine's death, he has worked to try to prevent more fatalities at the hands of "stressed and inadequately trained police officers. He said the Minneapolis Police Department hasn't made any real progress toward change, and now Noor is not being held accountable for his fiancee's killing.

I have lived with the tragic loss of Justine and none of this can hurt my heart more than it has been, but now it truly feels like there has been no justice for Justine, he said.

Caitlinrose Fisher, an attorney who worked on Noor's appeal, said she's grateful the Supreme Court clarified the law, and hopes it will lead to greater equity and consistency in charging decisions.

Weve said from the beginning that this was a tragedy but it wasnt a murder, and now the Supreme Court agrees and recognizes that, she said.

Noor's defense team also released a joint statement, saying fairness has been delivered and Noor is looking forward to hugging his son as soon as possible.

Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman, whose office prosecuted the case, said in a statement that he disagrees with the Supreme Court's analysis but must accept the decision. Freeman said the conviction on second-degree manslaughter still stands and was just.

The ruling could give former Minneapolis Officer Derek Chauvin grounds to contest his own third-degree murder conviction in George Floyd's May 2020 death. But that wouldn't have much impact on Chauvin since he was also convicted of the more serious count of second-degree murder and is serving 22 1/2 years on that count. Experts say it's unlikely Chauvin would be successful in appealing his second-degree murder conviction.

The ruling in Noor's case was also closely watched for its possible impact on three other former Minneapolis officers awaiting trial in Floyd's death. Prosecutors had wanted to add charges of aiding and abetting third-degree murder against them, but that's unlikely to happen now. The three men are due to go on trial in March on charges of aiding and abetting both second-degree murder and manslaughter.

The Attorney General's Office, which is prosecuting that case, said it is studying the decision.

The Supreme Court said that for a third-degree murder charge, the persons mental state must show a generalized indifference to human life, which cannot exist when the defendants conduct is directed with particularity at the person who is killed.

The justices said that Noor's conduct was directed with particularity at Damond, and the evidence is therefore insufficient to sustain his conviction ... for depraved-mind murder.

State law has defined third-degree murder as an act eminently dangerous to others and evincing a depraved mind, without regard for human life. A central dispute has been whether dangerous to others must be read as plural, or if the fatal act can be directed at a single, specific person.

In its ruling, the Supreme Court pointed to numerous other cases in which it has interpreted the depraved mind, regardless of human life phrase. In roughly 20 cases over more than 160 years, the Supreme Court has repeatedly held that depraved-mind murder shows an indifference to life in general, not to the life of a specific, targeted person.

We reaffirm our precedent today and confirm that the mental state required for depraved-mind murder cannot exist when the defendants actions are directed with particularity at the person who is killed, the justices wrote. The Supreme Court also made the point of overruling one of its own prior rulings that contradicted this precedent  saying that in that case, the justices had gotten it wrong.

While evidence shows Noors conduct was aimed at Damond, the state argued that depraved-mind murder applied because Noors partner and a bicyclist were nearby.

The Supreme Court said the mere proximity of others does not establish that Noor had an indifference to human life in general.

The justices also said that they may agree that Noor's decision to shoot his gun because he was startled was unreasonable, adding that his conduct was especially troubling given the trust that citizens should be able to place in our peace officers. But the tragic circumstances of this case do not change the fact that Noors conduct was directed with particularity toward Ruszczyk.

Prosecutors had argued that since nearly all killings by officers are directed at a specific person, no officers could be prosecuted for third-degree murder if the statute was interpreted as Noor's attorneys suggested. But the Supreme Court disagreed, saying anyone, including an officer, who kills someone while showing indifference to human life in general could be convicted of depraved-mind murder. The justices also noted that officers could be prosecuted on other murder counts if the facts of the case warrant it.

Noor testified in his 2019 trial that a loud bang on his squad car made him fear for his and his partners life, so he reached across his partner from the passenger seat and fired through the drivers window. Fisher told the Supreme Court justices that it would be very hard to imagine that an officers split-second reaction to a perceived threat would count as a depraved-mind murder but that other charges could be justified instead, such as manslaughter.

Fisher said Wednesday that Noor "really believed that he was saving his partner's life that night, and instead he tragically caused the loss of an innocent life ... I think just having reaffirmation that a mistake like that isnt murder will mean more than words can say.
AKRON, Ohio (AP)  A man who was granted temporary release from a life prison sentence in Mississippi to attend a funeral in that state, but who overpowered his guards and escaped, was found hundreds of miles to the north Tuesday at a home in Ohio, authorities said.

Garnett Hughes, 33, was arrested at a home in Akron, the U.S. Marshals Service said in a news release, according to the Akron Beacon Journal. A woman living at the home has been charged with obstructing official business, authorities said.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP)  A judge on Tuesday rejected an attempt to salvage a proposed charter amendment on the future of policing in Minneapolis, ruling just days before early and absentee voting is due to begin in the city where George Floyd died in police custody that any votes on the question won't count.

Hennepin County District Judge Jamie Anderson said the new language does not ensure that voters are able to understand the essential purpose of the proposed amendment. It is unreasonable and misleading. Ballots containing the question are due back from the printer Wednesday. Andersons order allows election officials to use the ballots, but prohibits election officials from counting any votes cast on the issue.

But her ruling wasn't likely to be the final word. An 11th-hour appeal was coming. Minneapolis City Attorney Jim Rowader said his office was focused on a speedy appellate process to ensure all voters have the opportunity to make known their positions on this critical issue as part of the municipal election this year.

The Yes 4 Minneapolis campaign, which spearheaded the pro-amendment campaign, petitioned the Minnesota Supreme Court ahead of time to hear an accelerated appeal in case it lost. The group tweeted its intention to keep fighting: We who seek justice and safety for all, in the city where George Floyd was murdered will not be silenced because a judge, a mayor, a charter commission, the Police Federation, or corporate developer money have attempted to thwart democracy. #LetThePeopleVote.

Joseph Anthony  an attorney for former council member Don Samuels, his wife and a businessman who sued to block the proposal  said the ruling was a victory for the voters of Minneapolis who are entitled to ballot language that clearly explains what the charter amendment would do. He said the judge or the Supreme Court still have the authority to order a delay in the start of voting by a week to 10 days to allow all sides to come up with mutually acceptable language and print new ballots.

The proposal has its roots in the defund the police movement, which gained momentum after Floyds death last summer sparked protests, civil unrest and a national reckoning on racial justice. It would remove the city charters requirement that Minneapolis have a police department with a minimum staffing level and replace it with a new Department of Public Safety that could have police if necessary, and whose functions and funding levels would be defined later by the mayor and City Council. It does not use the term defund. Supporters insist the city would still have police.

The City Council updated the language last week, just hours after Anderson ordered earlier wording off the ballot because it was vague, ambiguous and incapable of implementation. The judge held a follow-up hearing Monday.

Anthony said his clients never objected to letting voters decide, but he charged that the City Council and Yes 4 Minneapolis could never get the language right because everything came back to defunding the police, a point he accused proponents of glossing over.

The charter amendment and the future of policing in the city have been among the top issues in the municipal election campaign. While most council members supported the measure, Major Jacob Frey tried to keep it off the ballot.
LOS ANGELES (AP)  A Los Angeles jury began deliberating Tuesday in the lengthy murder trial of New York real estate heir Robert Durst after a prosecutor described him as a narcissistic psychopath" who needs to be held accountable.

Deputy District Attorney John Lewin told jurors in Los Angeles County Superior Court that Durst, a multimillionaire, had lived a privileged life in which he played by his own rules and only cared about himself. Lewin said he didn't kill for pleasure but to resolve problems when backed into a corner.

Bob Durst is not crazy. Hes not some nut job serial killer who goes around killing for the thrill of it," Lewin said. Dont let this narcissistic psychopath get away with what hes done.

Durst, 78, who was hunched in a wheelchair in a light blue sportscoat, has pleaded not guilty to a first-degree murder charge in the point-blank shooting of Susan Berman, his confidante.

Jurors deliberated about three hours before recessing for the day. They began hearing evidence in March 2020 before taking a 14-month break during the pandemic. The case resumed in May.

Prosecutors say Durst killed Berman in December 2000 at her home as she planned to speak with police about a phony alibi she provided for him when his wife vanished in New York in 1982.

Lewin said Berman was killed because she was a witness. Prosecutors presented evidence of Kathie Durst's presumed killing to provide his motive and also introduced evidence from a Galveston, Texas, trial where he was acquitted of murder in the shooting death of a neighbor.

Durst had gone into hiding in Texas in late 2000 to avoid what he believed were imminent charges in New York when authorities reopened the investigation into his wife's disappearance. He testified that Morris Black pulled a gun on him in Durst's apartment and was shot in the head during a struggle for the weapon.

The defense challenged the strength of the evidence presented by prosecutors, arguing there was no evidence of Kathie Durst's death and generally a lack of forensic and direct evidence in the case.

They said prosecutors failed to prove that Berman impersonated Kathie Durst to call in sick at the medical school she attended the day after her husband last saw her. The call made it appear she was still alive after Robert Durst had seen her.

"Everythings been this theory but with no meat to the bone, no evidence, defense attorney David Chesnoff said. You know that what Im telling you is real.

Kathie Durst has never been found and no one has been charged in her disappearance.

Durst faces a life sentence if he's convicted.

The defense claimed that prosecutors beat up a sick, old, defenseless man during nine days of brutal cross-examination in which Durst admitted lying under oath and made numerous damning admissions.

Among other things, Durst testified he didnt kill Kathie Durst or Berman, but said he would lie if he had.

I just hope when this is over, you let Mr. Durst be in a hospital of his choosing to live out whatever time he has left, Chesnoff said.

Lewin countered that Durst was only old and feeble because he had been able to live a full life  unlike his victims.

He's up here, hes old and hes sick. He got to live to be old, Lewin said. Kathie never made it to 30. Susan Berman, his close friend, horribly executed. Morris Black murdered and then dismembered. ... Hes lucky to have gotten to live to be 78 to have the health issues he does. Because his victims and their families dont have that same peace of mind."
NEW HAVEN  Yale New Haven Health System President and Chief Executive Officer Marna Borgstrom, who led the largest health care institution in the state for 17 years and through the COVID-19 pandemic as well as overseeing massive expansions of its footprint and services, said Wednesday she will retire March 25 next year.

Borgstrom, who became chief executive officer of Yale New Haven Hospital and Yale New Haven Health in 2005, said there is a time for leadership changes in every organization. The Guilford resident said the arrival of the pandemic in March 2020 did not expedite her decision.

If anything, it delayed because we felt that it would be a lot to deal with all at once, Borgstrom said. I have loved every minute of it. This is an amazing collection of people as a group. Its a beautiful thing to be part of.

Yale New Haven Health Systems board of directors has selected Christopher OConnor, who became president of the health care organization in August 2020, to become the hospitals next chief executive officer.

OConnor joined Yale New Haven Health System in September 2012 when the organization acquired the Saint Raphael Healthcare System, where he was president and chief executive officer.

OConnor called Borgstrom an icon within our industry.

There is no way I can begin to fill her shoes, he said.

Borgstrom said OConnor brings enormous talent to the new duties he will be taking on next spring.

He loves the communities in the Northeast that we serve, she said of OConnor. He values the culture here that is not just what we do here, but how we do it.

Borgstrom said she and the board have been discussing her retirement and transition to a new leader for more than a decade. She has served the health care organization in various capacities for more than 43 years.

I got a letter 43 years ago this fall offering me an administrative fellowship, just as I was coming out of graduate school, Borgstrom said. I told my husband Id work here for a few years and wed move out West. But I wasnt able to make good on that promise because I every time I had an opportunity elsewhere, a new opportunity would come up here.

Garrett Sheehan, president and chief executive officer of the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce, called Borgstrom the best of the best ... the unequivocal leader of our business community.

Health care is a driving force behind so much of the development that we have seen in New Haven during her tenure, Sheehan said. It is incredible to look at the changes and expansions that she has led the Hospital through. She is committed to growing New Haven in a way that is inclusive and improves quality of life and quality of health for all of New Havens residents.

Vince Calarco, chairman of the Yale New Haven Health System board, said OConnor is the best and most qualified person in healthcare to lead the organization.

I have worked with Chris over the years and know that his talent, experience and vision will ensure the continued success of the Health System, Calarco said in a statement.

Borgstrom steered the health system through a series of challenges and milestones, including:

When coronavirus gripped the state in 2020 and brought thousands of victims to its hospitals.

The construction and opening of a premiere cancer center.

The opening of a new Primary Care Medical Center.

An expansion of health services to multiple satellite centers in the state.

Yale New Haven Health System has more than 28,500 employees and 6,900 medical staff, according to a spokeswoman with the organization.

In 2020, Gov. Ned Lamont appointed Borgstrom a co-chairwoman of the industrys response to COVID-19.

When I became Governor, no one could foresee the enormous impact of COVID-19 on Connecticut, Lamont said in the statement. In trying to navigate through this pandemic, I knew I had a friend who was an expert in the field to help me and our state respond, and that was Marna. She has been a partner since day one during some of the most trying times our state has ever seen.

Lamont wished Borgstrom all the best on an extremely well deserved retirement.

Yale University President Peter Salovey called Borgstrom a true partner.

She has long understood the importance of the relationship between the health system and Yale University, and she has fostered vital collaborations with the Yale School of Medicine to improve patient care and advance medical and clinical research, Salovey said in a statement. Her work has made a positive difference in our home city, across the state and throughout the nation.

Borgstrom, who graduated from Yale in 1979 with a masters degree in public health, began her career at the 1,541-bed Yale New Haven Hospital as an administrative fellow.

Her tenure has included staff and management roles and, in 1994, Borgstrom became executive vice president and chief operating officer.

Then, in 2005, she became CEO of Yale New Haven Hospital and CEO of Yale New Haven Health and now remained as the CEO of both, according to the hospital. The system then included Bridgeport Hospital and Greenwich Hospital and a combined operating budget of $1.3 billion.

Borgstrom oversaw the completion of the $51 million South Pavilion renovation and the $156 million Yale-New Haven Childrens Hospital, as well as the opening of the Shoreline Medical Center in Guilford. The newly constructed Smilow Cancer Hospital opened in 2009 and the Smilow Cancer Hospital and Yale Cancer Center opened eight Smilow Cancer Care Centers in Connecticut in 2012.

In 2017, the health system served 75,868 patients, with its days of care provided at 442,930.

In one of the high-profile actions taken during Borgstoms tenure, Yale New Haven Hospital and then-separate Hospital of Saint Raphael agreed in 2011 to merge into one hospital with two campuses.

The two hospitals signed an agreement at that time through which YNHH would buy St. Raphaels assets for $160 million, YNHH Vice President Vincent Petrini said at the time. The move was seen as a way to provide better service and care for Greater New Haven and the region and because YNHH had limited ability to easily expand its campus.

St. Raphaels was a 511-bed hospital founded by the Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth in 1907.

Borgstroms pay through the years has been among the top for hospital administrators in the state and has been regularly released by the state Office of Healthcare Access, such as in 2012 when she received about $2.8 million in salary and fringe benefits, according to the agency.

luther.turmelle@hearstmediact.com
Republican legislators in more than half of U.S. states, spurred on by voters angry about lockdowns and mask mandates, are taking away the powers that state and local officials use to protect the public against infectious diseases.

A Kaiser Health News review of hundreds of pieces of legislation found that, in all 50 states, legislators have proposed bills to curb such public health powers since the COVID-19 pandemic began. While some governors vetoed bills that passed, at least 26 states pushed through laws that permanently weaken government authority to protect public health. In three additional states, an executive order, ballot initiative or state Supreme Court ruling limited long-held public health powers. More bills are pending in a handful of states whose legislatures are still in session.

In Arkansas, legislators banned mask mandates except in private businesses or state-run health care settings, calling them a burden on the public peace, health, and safety of the citizens of this state. In Idaho, county commissioners, who typically have no public health expertise, can veto countywide public health orders. In Kansas and Tennessee, school boards, rather than health officials, have the power to close schools.

President Joe Biden last week announced sweeping vaccination mandates and other COVID-19 measures, saying he was forced to act partly because of such legislation. My plan also takes on elected officials in states that are undermining you and these lifesaving actions," he said.

The KHN review showed that:

In at least 16 states, legislators have limited the power of public health officials to order mask mandates, or quarantines or isolation. In some cases, they gave themselves or local elected politicians the authority to prevent the spread of infectious disease.

At least 17 states passed laws banning COVID-19 vaccine mandates or passports or made it easier to get around vaccine requirements.

At least nine states have new laws banning or limiting mask mandates. Executive orders or a court ruling limit mask requirements in five more.

Much of this legislation takes effect as COVID-19 hospitalizations in some areas are climbing to the highest numbers at any point in the pandemic, and children are back in school.

We really could see more people sick, hurt, hospitalized or even die, depending on the extremity of the legislation and curtailing of the authority, said Lori Tremmel Freeman, head of the National Association of County and City Health Officials.

Public health academics and officials are frustrated that they, instead of the virus, have become the enemy. They argue this will have consequences that last long beyond this pandemic, diminishing their ability to fight the latest COVID-19 surge and future disease outbreaks, such as being able to quarantine people during a measles outbreak.

Its kind of like having your hands tied in the middle of a boxing match, said Kelley Vollmar, executive director of the Jefferson County Health Department in Missouri.

But proponents of the new limits say they are a necessary check on executive powers and give lawmakers a voice in prolonged emergencies. Arkansas state Sen. Trent Garner, a Republican who co-sponsored his states successful bill to ban mask mandates, said he was trying to reflect the will of the people.

What the people of Arkansas want is the decision to be left in their hands, to them and their family, Garner said. Its time to take the power away from the so-called experts, whose ideas have been woefully inadequate.

After initially signing the bill, Gov. Asa Hutchinson, R-Ark., expressed regret, calling a special legislative session in early August to ask lawmakers to carve out an exception for schools. Lawmakers declined. The law is currently blocked by an Arkansas judge who deemed it unconstitutional. Legal battles are ongoing in other states as well.

A DELUGE OF BILLS

In Ohio, legislators gave themselves the power to overturn health orders and weakened school vaccine mandates. In Utah and Iowa, schools cannot require masks. In Alabama, state and local governments cannot issue vaccine passports and schools cannot require COVID-19 vaccinations.

The Montana Legislature passed some of the most restrictive laws of all, severely curbing public healths quarantine and isolation powers, increasing local elected officials power over local health boards, preventing limits on religious gatherings and banning employers  including in health care settings  from requiring vaccinations for COVID-19, the flu or anything else.

Legislators there also passed limits on local officials: If jurisdictions add public health rules stronger than state public health measures, they could lose 20% of some grants.

Losing the ability to order quarantines has left Karen Sullivan, health officer for Montanas Butte-Silver Bow Health Department, terrified about whats to come, not only during the COVID-19 pandemic but for future measles and whooping cough outbreaks.

In the midst of delta and other variants that are out there, were quite frankly a nervous wreck about it, Sullivan said. Relying on morality and goodwill is not a good public health practice.

While some public health officials tried to fight the national wave of legislation, the underfunded public health workforce was consumed by trying to implement the largest vaccination campaign in U.S. history and had little time for political action.

Freeman said her city and county health officials group has meager influence and resources, especially in comparison with the American Legislative Exchange Council, a corporate-backed conservative group that promoted a model bill to restrict the emergency powers of governors and other officials. The draft legislation appears to have inspired dozens of state-level bills, according to the KHN review. At least 15 states passed laws limiting emergency powers. In some states, governors can no longer institute mask mandates or close businesses, and their executive orders can be overturned by legislators.

When North Dakotas legislative session began in January, a long slate of bills sought to rein in public health powers, including one with language similar to ALECs. The state didnt have a health director to argue against the new limits because three had resigned in 2020.

Fighting the bills not only took time, but also seemed dangerous, said Renae Moch, public health director for Bismarck, who testified against a measure prohibiting mask mandates. She then received an onslaught of hate mail and demands for her to be fired.

Lawmakers overrode the governors veto to pass the bill into law. The North Dakota Legislature also banned businesses from asking whether patrons are vaccinated against or infected with the coronavirus and curbed the governors emergency powers.

The new laws are meant to reduce the power of governors and restore the balance of power between states executive branches and legislatures, said Jonathon Hauenschild, director of the ALEC task force on communications and technology. Governors are elected, but they were delegating a lot of authority to the public health official, often that they had appointed, Hauenschild said.

LIKE TURNING OFF A LIGHT SWITCH

When the Indiana Legislature overrode the governors veto to pass a bill that gave county commissioners the power to review public health orders, it was devastating for Dr. David Welsh, the public health officer in rural Ripley County.

People immediately stopped calling him to report COVID-19 violations, because they knew the county commissioners could overturn his authority. It was like turning off a light switch, Welsh said.

Another county in Indiana has already seen its health departments mask mandate overridden by the local commissioners, Welsh said.

Hes considering stepping down after more than a quarter-century in the role. If he does, hell join at least 303 public health leaders who have retired, resigned or been fired since the pandemic began, according to an ongoing analysis by KHN and The Associated Press. That means 1 in 5 Americans have lost a local health leader during the pandemic.

This is a deathblow, said Brian Castrucci, CEO of the de Beaumont Foundation, which advocates for public health. He called the legislative assault the last straw for many seasoned public health officials who have battled the pandemic without sufficient resources, while also being vilified.

Public health groups expect further combative legislation. ALECs Hauenschild said the group is looking into a Michigan law that allowed the legislature to limit the governors emergency powers without Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmers signature.

Curbing the authority of public health officials has also become campaign fodder, particularly among Republican candidates running further on the right. While Republican Idaho Gov. Brad Little was traveling out of state, Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin signed a surprise executive order banning mask mandates that she later promoted for her upcoming campaign against him. He later reversed the ban, tweeting: I do not like petty politics. I do not like political stunts over the rule of law.

At least one former lawmaker  former Oregon Democratic state Sen. Wayne Fawbush  said some of todays politicians may come to regret these laws.

Fawbush was a sponsor of 1989 legislation during the AIDS crisis. It banned employers from requiring health care workers, as a condition of employment, to get an HIV vaccine, if one became available.

But 32 years later, that means Oregon cannot require health care workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Calling lawmaking a messy business, Fawbush said he certainly would not have pushed the bill through if he had known then what he does now.

Legislators need to obviously deal with immediate situations, Fawbush said. But we have to look over the horizon. Its part of the job responsibility to look at consequences.

___

KHN data reporter Hannah Recht, Montana correspondent Katheryn Houghton and Associated Press writer Michelle R. Smith in Providence, Rhode Island, contributed to this report.

This story is part of a collaboration between The Associated Press and KHN. To reach the APs investigative team, email investigative@ap.org.

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.
BERLIN  Police on Wednesday said they believe they have identified a woman who allegedly assaulted a man wearing a military uniform at a local pizzeria last weekend.

The incident was captured on video late Saturday night at Central Pizza on Mill Street.

Acting Police Chief Chris Ciuci said investigators have been in contact with a probable suspect. Ciuci said even though the video was widely shared on social media, police did not start to receive tips about the womans identity until Tuesday.

On Tuesday, Berlin police said a woman assaulted a customer in an incident that was caught on video and shared widely on social media around 11:45 p.m. Saturday. The post indicates the woman hit a man wearing a military uniform. The footage showed the woman accusing the man of wearing a fake uniform. Police have not specified whether the man was in the military.

The video shows the woman apparently throw the mans hat and slap him.

You disgrace the USA, she can be heard saying before walking out of the pizzeria.

Anyone with information is asked to call police at 860-828-7080. Anonymous tips can also be submitted by going to www.BerlinPD.org.
ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (AP)  Pope Francis said Wednesday he didnt understand why people refuse to take COVID-19 vaccines, saying humanity has a history of friendship with vaccines, and that serene discussion about the shots was necessary to help them.

Even in the College of Cardinals, there are some negationists, Francis said Wednesday, en route home from Slovakia.

He noted that one of them, poor guy, had been hospitalized with the virus. That was an apparent reference to U.S. Cardinal Raymond Burke, who was hospitalized in the U.S. and placed on a ventilator last month after contracting the virus.

Francis was asked about vaccine skeptics and those who oppose vaccine mandates by a Slovakian reporter, given that some events during his four-day pilgrimage to the country were restricted to people who had gotten COVID-19 jabs. The issue is broader, however, as more and more governments adopt vaccine mandates for certain categories of workers, sparking opposition.

Its a bit strange, because humanity has a history of friendship with vaccines, Francis said, noting that children for decades have been vaccinated against measles, mumps and polio and no one said anything.

He hypothesized that the virulence of uncertainty was due to the diversity of COVID-19 vaccines, the quick approval time and the plethora of arguments that created this division, and fear. Medical experts say vaccines have been tested and used on tens of millions of people and have been proven to be effective in reducing serious hospitalizations and deaths.

Significantly, Francis didnt cite the religious objection used by some who refuse the vaccines. Some conservatives have refused to get the shots citing the remote and indirect connection to lines of cells derived from aborted fetuses.

The Vaticans doctrine office has said it is morally acceptable for Catholics to receive COVID-19 vaccines based on research that used cells derived from aborted fetuses. Francis has said it would be suicide not to get the jab and both Francis and Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI have been fully vaccinated with Pfizer-BioNTech shots.

Francis noted that the Vatican had vaccinated its residents, staff and their families with the exception of a very small group and theyre studying how to help them.

For those who are still afraid, he said: They have to clarify that and talk with serenity.
It is estimated that thousands of air travelers around the world have a cardiac arrest each year, with nearly a quarter of those occurring on a plane, according to new research that points to the success of CPR and AEDs in keeping survival rates higher than the national average.

The new study, published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Heart Association, comes at the end of a summer when travelers began returning en masse to airports and planes after pandemic lockdowns.

Because cardiac arrests are relatively rare on commercial flights, few studies have looked at their frequency, the use of lifesaving interventions, and the outcomes. Researchers for the new study set out to gauge the impact of a 2004 Federal Aviation Administration requirement that all U.S. commercial airlines be equipped with automated external defibrillators, or AEDs.

They looked at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport records of every adult treated by emergency medical service workers for cardiac arrest, which is when the heart suddenly stops beating because of an electrical malfunction. A heart attack can trigger cardiac arrest, but so can other heart and non-heart issues.

During a 16-year period, from 2004 to 2019, they tracked 143 cardiac arrests that occurred before EMS arrived, with 34 (24%) happening on a plane and 109 (76%) happening off the plane. People who had a cardiac arrest at the airport survived to hospital discharge 44% of the time, compared to 15% for those whose cardiac arrest happened on a plane.

That's still higher than the national average survival rate of less than 11% for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, which points to the importance of CPR and AEDs, said the study's lead author Dr. Neal Chatterjee. He noted, for example, that all survivors of on-plane cardiac arrests were treated with an AED.

"Our study found that even though a cardiac arrest is rare, it's certainly survivable if we can deliver early interventions. Flight attendants and airport staff should be trained to intervene, but there are also things we can do as bystanders on the plane or off-plane to improve outcomes."

Bystanders who see someone collapse or become unresponsive should immediately alert a flight attendant or an airport employee, Chatterjee said. If you're in an airport and are comfortable performing CPR until help arrives, it's OK to do so. But if you're on a plane, you should quickly alert the flight crew and follow their cues.

"It's incredibly important for there to be a calm, organized environment where there's a person in charge. Trust the flight crew to make those decisions, and wait to volunteer if they ask for assistance in resuscitation efforts," said Chatterjee, a cardiologist and cardiac electrophysiologist at the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle.

Around the world, about 5 billion people fly commercially each year. When researchers applied the results of their study to those figures, they estimated 2,000 travel-associated cardiac arrests happen globally each year, with 350 in the U.S.

"I think the study offers a powerful message for the importance of bystander CPR training, and also for having the airline industry work with federal agencies to optimize training around cardiac arrest care and specifically application of AEDs," said Chatterjee, who also is an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Washington.

Dr. Benjamin Abella, director of the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Resuscitation Science in Philadelphia and a professor of emergency medicine, said the study was limited by its small sample size.

Still, Abella, who was not involved in the research, applauded the authors for showing that higher-than-average survival rates can be achieved when cardiac arrest is witnessed on a plane or in an airport and CPR and AEDs are used promptly.

"The study is both reassuring to air travel passengers," he said, "and a challenge to all of us to dramatically improve survival rates in other settings."

He said he'd also like to see studies done on passenger train travel, "which is a completely unstudied area with a much broader population."

If you have questions or comments about this story, please email editor@heart.org.

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HEALTH CARE DISCLAIMER: This site and its services do not constitute the practice of medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always talk to your health care provider for diagnosis and treatment, including your specific medical needs. If you have or suspect that you have a medical problem or condition, please contact a qualified health care professional immediately. If you are in the United States and experiencing a medical emergency, call 911 or call for emergency medical help immediately.
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP)  Thousands of people gathered in El Salvador's capital Wednesday for the first mass march against President Nayib Bukele, who protesters say has concentrated too much power, weakened the independence of the courts and may seek re-election.

Some marchers are also protesting the controversial decision by Bukele's government to make the cryptocurrency Bitcoin legal tender in El Salvador, the first country to do so. Officials rolled out a digital wallet known as the Chivo one week ago, but the system has been down frequently for maintenance.

Some marchers wore T-shirts that read NO To Bitcoin. A few demonstrators vandalized the special ATM machines set up to handle Bitcoin transactions, but which have been inoperable anyway for much of the week. The cubicle housing one ATM machine was destroyed.

They say the vandalism was the work of infiltrators, but there has been vandalism in ALL their demonstrations," Bukele wrote in his Twitter account. And why weren't there any shouts of stop, or 'Don't do that?'

The populist president elected in 2019 has maintained high popularity with his vows to stamp out corruption that was rampant among the countrys traditional parties. But some Salvadorans say he is becoming a dictator and Wednesday's march was the first large protest against his government.

The time has come to defend democracy, said one of the protesters, former Supreme Court justice Sidney Blanco. This march is symbolic, it represents weariness with so many violations of the Constitution.

Bukele's New Ideas party won a congressional majority this year and immediately after taking its seats in the National Assembly in May, it replaced the five members of the Constitutional Chamber and the independent attorney general who had balked at several of Bukeles earlier actions.

Soon after, the Constitutional Chamber tossed aside what had long been interpreted as a constitutional ban on consecutive presidential reelection, setting the stage for Bukele to potentially seek a second term in 2024. Bukele has not so far announced plans to seek reelection, but critics assume he will.

Milton Brizuela, leader of the country's medical association, said judicial independence is important to us.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken issued a statement congratulating Central American countries on their shared independence day Wednesday; the region won independence from Spain 200 years ago.

But Blinken warned that anti-democratic developments pose a growing threat to Central America's future, adding The United States stands with all those speaking truth to power.

The digital wallet appears to have been overloaded by the sheer number of Salvadorans looking to take advantage of the $30 bonus that the government put in each account to incentivize adoption.

Bukele, the main promotor of using the cryptocurrency, acknowledged the governments three-month rollout may have been too ambitious. He said technical glitches had prevented the app from working on some kinds of phones.

There has been skepticism about the governments enthusiastic adoption of bitcoin as a legal tender along with the U.S. dollar since Bukele announced it in a video recorded in English and played at a bitcoin conference in Miami in June. Bitcoin is subject to wild swings in value in a matter of minutes.

Any business with the technological capacity to do so is required to accept payment in bitcoin, but no private citizen is required to use it.

Recent public opinion surveys in El Salvador have said a majority of Salvadorans oppose making it an official currency. Still Bukele says there are now a half million users of the digital payment system in the Central American nation.
In an ideal world, credit unions would be able to perfectly balance their drive to help people with the demands of running a successful business. However, this is not always fiscally possible, as there are a lot of asks of a credit unions operating budget. Does a credit union lower their loan rates, or do they spend that revenue investing in the new technology that will allow them to better serve their members in the long run? Do they drop their fees, or do they buff up their cybersecurity to counter the constant and evolving threats to their members information and funds? Do they open a new branch in an underserved area, or do they hire another compliance officer to make sure they are meeting all the necessary reporting requirements.

Striking the right balance is difficult for any credit union, but it is especially true for the ~3,500 small credit unions out there who bear the brunt of regulatory cost ratios. Add in constant banker attacks against credit unions tax exemption, the current trend of treating any fee as excessive, and repeated attempts to lump credit unions into laws and regulations meant to stop bad actors like payday lenders, and we risk forcing credit unions to cut important member services or to stop taking risks in order to protect their balance sheets. We risk stopping credit unions from acting like credit unions.

In National Credit Union Foundations Credit Union Development Educator (CUDE) program, we spent a significant amount of time on the topic of empathy and its place in the business world. Without empathy, its too easy to turn away the underserved as too risky and focus on whatever will keep the credit union safest. On the other side, too much empathy can lead a credit union to make unwise decisions that jeopardize the credit unions balance sheet and invite a prolonged visit from NCUA.

The fact is that although the empathetic nature of credit unions is at the core of everything they do, credit unions at the end of the day, like any company, must be in the black to remain solvent. And as much as it would be nice to give away everything for free, thats just not possible.

Credit unions know what is best for their members and their communities, and DCUC remains committed to protecting our members ability to make the right decisions for their people, especially servicemembers and their families. We do this by continuing to educate about unintended consequences and remind law makers and regulators alike who credit unions are and what they stand for. From Estes Park in 1934, where our modern credit union movement formed, to today, credit unions are here to serve and provide an alternate way to offer financial services: one not focused on profit, but people.
Germany Accuses Russia Of Electoral Interference

Germany has blamed Russia for cyber attacks on politicians that are attempting to influence its imminent general election later this month and has "reliable information that Russias GRU military intelligence service was behind the attack. The German Foreign Ministry has stated that hackers have tried to steal email passwords from lawmakers in what may have been an attempt at election meddling.

The phishing attack in Germany was attributed to a hacking campaign known as Ghostwriter, which has been linked to similar efforts elsewhere.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Andrea Sasse said this was part of a campaign targeting Germany for some time. She attributed it to an espionage group known as Ghostwriter, who are combining conventional cyber-attacks with disinformation and influence operations. Ghostwriter primarily targets audiences in Lithuania, Latvia and Poland. Sasse outlined: "The German government has reliable information on the basis of which Ghostwriter activities can be attributed to cyber actors of the Russian state and, specifically, Russia's GRU military intelligence service."

Russia has been accused of numerous other attacks throughout the world on numerous occasions over recent years, including in the US and UK.

The question of German ties to Russia has been debated during the current German election campaign, particularly around the future of the gas pipeline Nord Stream 2, which may be a motivating factor for these attacks. Sasse said: These attacks could serve as preparations for influence operations such as disinformation campaigns connected with the election.. The federal government strongly urges the Russian government to stop these unacceptable cyber activities with immediate effect.

Germany will be in formal contact with the Russian government to urge an end such activity immediately and a new report by the Crime and Security Research Institute at Cardiff University says that Western media are often manipulated into spreading pro-Russian government disinformation.

DW: National News: Infosecurity Magazine: Oodaloop: Image: Unpslash

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Leather clothing, lace-up corsets and very graphic public displays of affection might be something that was once left to raunchy members clubs.

But these have all appeared on sexed up red carpets and on A-list social media feeds in recent weeks - as a new phenomenon dubbed 'Horny Girl Autumn' has taken over Hollywood's elite.

Leading the way of the sexed-up celebs is Megan Fox - who is no stranger to packing on the PDA with her rapper boyfriend Machine Gun Kelly. Megan, along with the likes of Kim and Kourtney Kardashian are shaping a 'new wave of feminism' according to a top brand expert.

At this weekend's MTV VMAs - Megan and MGK posed for a very suggestive snap from the men's toilets of the Barclays Center in New York with their couple pals Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker joining them for a raunchy embrace.

Just hours earlier, Megan and Kourtney had introduced their boyfriends - who were performing together - as their 'future baby daddies'.

Get ready for Horny Girl Autumn! At this weekend's MTV VMAs - Megan and MGK posed for a very suggestive snap from the men's toilets of the Barclays Center in New York with their couple pals Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker joining them for a raunchy embrace

And last week, the Jennifer's Body actress shared a sultry snap in a bra and tiny skirt posing in front of a dinner table. With the snap she wrote: 'When I tell you that the table at this air bnb saw some things' with her beau suggestively replying 'I'm really glad that's not our table anymore'.

'The Celeb PDA phenomenon is an interesting one. As pointed out we are seeing an increasing number of celebs engaging in PDAs and being explicit online,' brand expert and publicist Brenda Gabriel told FEMAIL.

'Kourtney Kardashian in particular has seen her market value rocket since the very PDA between her and Travis.

'I think there are several reasons that Horny Girl Autumn this became a thing.

'In many ways the trend appears to be a new wave of feminism,' she added.

'Not dissimilar to what we see every decade. In the 90s we had the Spice Girls with in your face Girl Power. Women who weren't afraid to go after what they wanted and weren't afraid to be vocal about it

'By 2016 we had Kim K, Beyonce, Rihanna and leading the way for women to own their hotness regardless of what anyone else had to say. Remember that selfie where Kim and Emily Ratajkowski took on take on body shamers with a very NSFW bathroom snap?

Leather clothing, lace-up corsets and very graphic public displays of affection might be something that was once left to raunchy members clubs. But these have all appeared on sexed up red carpets and on A-list social media feeds in recent weeks - as a new phenomenon dubbed 'Horny Girl Autumn' has taken over Hollywood's elite. Madonna is pictured at the VMAs

Kourtney and Travis (pictured together) have been packing on the PDA since they got together in August

Last week, the Jennifer's Body actress shared a sultry snap in a bra and tiny skirt posing in front of a dinner table. With the snap she wrote: 'When I tell you that the table at this air bnb saw some things' with her beau suggestively replying 'I'm really glad that's not our table anymore'.

'With the #meetoo movement, we saw women come together in solidarity over shared experiences of sexual harassment.

'With this solidarity we saw a shift from victim/slut shaming to women refusing to take on the outdated societal perceptions and expectations. Women's sexuality and sex was something that had always 'belonged' to men.

'#Metoo wasn't just an opportunity for pulling back the curtain on inequality, it provided an opportunity for women to take back female sexuality and be unapologetic about it.

The trend has taken off so much, Bumble have branded it the age of 'Power PDA'.

Loved up: After getting in her red carpet moment, Jennifer was spotted locking lips with her rekindled flame Ben Affleck , 49

Couple goals: Jennifer Lopez made her first red carpet appearance with her beau Ben Affleck since their reunion at the star-studded The Last Duel premiere during Venice Film Festival 2021

Kissing are you? The actress, 26, took to the photo-sharing site to share a pair of snaps with the 22-year-old son of Victoria and David Beckham, draped around her other half in one image, and planting a kiss on his lips in the other

Megan Fox and Ashanti took to the red carpet in next to nothing at the Barclays Center in New York for the VMAs

Data from the dating app shows that shows that people are looking to pack in the PDA too, with the 'kiss' and 'heart' emojis being the most used in bios.

Over the top displays of affection are happening on this side of the Atlantic too, proving it's not just a Hollywood trend.

Line of Duty start Martin Compston and his wife Tianna Chanel Flynn were told to 'get a room' at the National Television Awards last week.

The aspiring American actress became a viral sensation as viewers watched in astonishment at her very public display of affection towards her husband, 37.

Travis Barker was share a snap passionately kissing his girlfriend Kourtney Kardashian in a photoset that he uploaded to commemorate her 42nd birthday

Doubling down: The Blink-182 drummer added another shot of the two making out, although the photo came out with a much deeper orange hue

Centre: Martin Compston's wife Tianna stole the show as she got up on stage when Line Of Duty accepted their gong at the National Television Awards, held at the 02 on Thursday night

And it's not just PDAs - at Monday's Met Gala, Kim Kardashian, who is known for her risque choices donned a gimp suit.

And the night before, Megan Fox, Ciara, Ashanti and Charli XCX all took to the red carpet in next to nothing at the Barclays Center in New York for the VMAs.

Madonna , 63, also joined in the trend, kicking off the tone for the night in a BDSM-inspired PVC look.

Balenciaga, who made Kim's gimp mask get-up for the Met Gala and for the Donda listening party earlier this month seems to be leading the way for high-end designer wear.

But their not the only fashion house to jump on the BDSM bandwagon: Guccis latest campaign features a model, in nothing but a pair of boot and a leather whip.

The trend has translated to the High Street shopper too - with searches for lace up surging 308 per cent online fast fashion juggernaut Boohoo, while searches for 'White Lace Bras are up 471 per cent in the last week at lingerie retailer Boux Avenue.

Nothing's off limits: Travis even shared a very graphic clip of Kourtney sucking on his thumb on her birthday last year

Happy couple: Brooklyn and Nicola confirmed their engagement in July 2020 and often post PDA packed pic

In May, Rita Ora showed how her relationship with her boyfriend Taika Waititi's appeared to be hotting up as they packed on the PDA and put on a cosy display with Tessa Thompson

So in love: She wasn't invited to the Monday night's Met Gala, despite sisters Kim Kardashian and Kendall Jenner and mom Kris Jenner all attending. Nevertheless, Kourtney Kardashian did not seem the least bit concerned about missing the annual fashion event while enjoying a romantic moment with her boyfriend Travis Barker

Like no one is watching: Justin Bieber didn't hold back as he kissed his wife Hailey last week

Back on! Laura Anderson and Dane Bowers confirmed they were very much together as they packed on the PDAs on the red carpet if the National Television Awards at London's 02 Arena on Thursday

Elsewhere, Boohoo's sister brand PrettyLittleThing launched new 'no bra category' to support the Naked Dressing Trend seen at the Met Gala, and say demand for bras drops by 55 per cent post-lockdown.

Searches for braless fashion ideas are currently up by an incredible 1,375 per cent at the fast fashion site as people mix comfort and racy style following a year of being stuck inside.

Lou Austin co-owner at Fetishwear site MegaPleasure agrees the looks are becoming more mainstream.

'Kim Kardashian is far from the first celebrity to flirt with fetish wear,' he told FEMAIL.

'Vivienne Westwood gained a huge following when she took bondage pants from the bedroom to the streets and invented the iconic 1977 punk look.

'More recently in 2009 Lady Gaga met the queen in a red latex dress by Atsuko Kudo, the very same year the Japanese designer won a European Fetish Award. The dramatic photo op wasn't Gaga's only brush with fetishwear that year, she also wore a gimp mask to the MTV Isle of Malta festival.

'Kim isn't even the first celebrity to take the full gimp suit mainstream, in 2020 Cardi B stunned fans in Paris with a full couture gimp suit designed by cult French brand Marine Serre.

Balenciaga, who made Kim's gimp mask get-up for the Met Gala and for the Donda listening party earlier this month seems to be leading the way for high-end designer wear.

Sizzling: Megan Fox stunned in a red Dundas gown during Monday night's Met Gala - since sales of lace-up wear have surged 300% at Boohoo

Loved up: Kourtney and Travis took their relationship pubic on Valentine's Day this year, though the two had been friends for years before that

Meanwhile, Kim's sister Kourtney has lead the way of the graphic PDAs with her blink-182 drummer boyfriend.

Kravis - who announced their relationship in January after being friends for years - recently went on a PDA-packed trip to Italy, sharing photos kissing on the back of a gondola.

In another picture, Kourtney lies across Travis on the back of a boat, while she happily jumped into his arms and wrapped his arms around him in front of their private plane in one Instagram snap.

Travis even shared a very graphic clip of Kourtney sucking on his thumb on her birthday last year.

Instant connection: Megan and MGK began their relationship in the spring of 2020, shortly after they met on the set of their thriller Midnights In The Switchgrass

And some aren't even afraid to of a three-way PDA. in May, Rita Ora showed how her relationship with her boyfriend Taika Waititi's appeared to be hotting up as they packed on the PDA and put on a cosy display with Tessa Thompson

'In many ways this was the precursor of Hot Girl Summer. Women having fun, chasing that bag, not needing a man to validate them,' Brenda added.

'This is great for the single/independent woman narrative, but what about if you're a grown woman, who likes spending lots a of time with your man. Not because you're incomplete without him, because you can't keep your hands of him?

'Horny Girl Autumn is like the grown up version of Hot Girl Summer.

'Until now, women have always been seen as the 'trophy' of their male partners.

'Horny Girl Autumn seems to turn that notion on its head. Kourtney, Megan and JLo aren't anyone's trophy. They're powerful woman who are sexually confident and don't care who knows it.'

Smooch: The couple couldn't keep their hands off one-another at the VMAs last week

Jennifer Lopez, who recently rekindled her romance with Ben Affleck, is also not afraid to show off her romance. The couple packed on the PDA at the Venice Film Festival last week before moving their public smooching to New York's Red Carpets this week.

As well as women embracing ownership of their bodies - the sexed-up public appearances may also be a result of spending too much time locked down.

'Celeb PDAs have always attracted media attention. Nothing sells better than sex - and after a 18 months of many of us having having to go celebrate due to the state of the world, this has been the first time in months that people are in a position to hook up. We missed a whole cuffing season, having to make do with Zoom dating and cosy nights alone,' Brenda added.

Wow factor: Kourtney Kardashian took to Instagram to share some sultry snaps of herself in a revealing see-through number on Tuesday

'Showing off wealth is so pre-pandemic. What else could celebs possibly sell us the dream of? Great sex!

'PDAs and the emotions conveyed make celebs appear more accessible, more human - their lives more attainable. We no longer have to worry about becoming wealthy enough to afford a celeb handbag, we just need to improve our sex lives.

'If there's one thing that we're fascinated about as a nation, it's how much sex everyone else is getting.

How the high street copied the trend Chain deco body harness, 6.49, Shein Imitation leather top, 19.99, H&M Lace-up choker, 13, Dollskill Black faux leather corset crop top, 26.99, Quiz Leather belted trench mini dress, 303.20, Karen Millen Advertisement

'Many of us don't feel like we're getting enough and if we are, it doesn't seem anywhere near as exciting as that of Kourtney or Megan Fox and even if it is, we aren't going to share those details on social media. What would be TMI for us, is 'we can't get enough' for celebs.

'We could be forgiven for believing that we are getting a sneak peak into the intimate love lives of our favourite celebs. However if we take some of Kourtney's recent 'candid reportage' snaps with Travis, we'll note that most photos have been taken by a bystander, avoiding any unflattering poses.

'The photo of Kourtney on the yacht, kneeling up to Travis in a passionate kiss is a perfect example of this. Kourtney adopted ' he rather uncomfortable Bambi' pose (favoured by influencers when wearing a swimsuit, because of the way it flatters the body accentuating natural curves in a swim suit, avoiding tummy creasing).

'What this demonstrates is that behind every seemingly carefree PDA photo is someone charged with getting the shot right.

'In many ways, PDAs are a great way to 'live' on brand whilst remaining relevant.

'Whilst cuffing season may be is on its way in, I don't believe there's a connection between that and increased PDAs from celebs which I believe - for the foreseeable are here to stay.'

Saffron Rizzo, celebrity publicist and founder of London agency RIZZO PR, says that it's social media leading the way of extreme PDAs.

'If you look back in time extreme celebrity PDA's are nothing out the ordinary, take Tommy Lee and Pamela Anderson, Angelina Jolie and Billy-Bob Thornton even Madonna and Britney.

'However pre social media, we would have to wait for those iconic "red carpet" moments, at a film premier, awards show or Hollywood party.

'Celebrities these days on the other hand no longer need to rely on such events to create headlines, they're able to create their own, whenever and wherever they want.

'Through social media celebrities such as Megan Fox and Kourtney Kardashian are carefully curating and publishing their own iconic moments which they know will go viral within a of matter minutes.

'Whether that's through a risque outfit choice, extreme PDA or even an elusive Instagram caption, they know how to captivate their audiences and keep us emotionally invested in their lives and love stories  Whether you buy into it is up to you

'Such extreme public displays of affection are nothing more than a cleverly masterminded PR stunt by the celebrities and their teams.

'The risker the PDA or pose the more headlines the images will create, therefore generating free publicity for those involved.

'In a time where boundaries are constantly being pushed in order to stand out from the diluted world of showbiz and with a new generation of celebrities rapidly taking over  it's becoming increasing more difficult to stay relevant in such a continually competitive industry.

'There is also a seemingly obvious pattern to this trend, which sees Megan, Kourtney and JLO all becoming so public post their recent break-ups.

'Being seen with a new partner in public having the time of your life and divulging in risque antics will not only grab the media's attention but that of their ex's too, which no doubt goes unnoticed. So-called 'celebrity cougars', such as Mel Sykes, Demi Moore and Madonna have also been victim to the PDA PR stunt post their public breakups.'
It's undoubtedly a bleak time in the jobs market, with one in five bosses planning to make furloughed staff redundant when the scheme ends this month.

Brexit, the pandemic and furlough have created a perfect storm for the UK employment market, meaning many industries are fighting hard to survive the ongoing pandemic, and competition for jobs is fierce.

If you're on the hunt for a new role after losing your job - or simply desperate to get out of your current one - it's never been more important to ensure you stand out from the crowd.

To equip you with the skills for those virtual interviews, FEMAIL spoke with Tony Gregg, chief executive at Anthony Gregg Partnerships, a high end recruitment search business placing senior and board level roles across the UK and Europe.

Tony recruits top retail director talent from the likes of John Lewis, Sainsbury's, Fortnum & Mason and SCS into their new roles.

To equip you with the skills for those virtual interviews, FEMAIL spoke with Tony Gregg, chief executive at Anthony Gregg Partnerships, a high end recruitment search business placing senior and board level roles across the UK and Europe (stock image).

Here he shares the top ten questions most frequently asked in interviews - and how you should best answer them.

Tony revealed: 'There are some questions that are asked frequently in interviews and you should prepare your answers beforehand.

'If you are faced with a difficult question, make sure you stay calm, don't get defensive, and take a moment to think about your response before you answer.'

Meanwhile he said interviewees should 'personalize responses as much as possible.'

Question 1. Tell me about yourself

Tony revealed interviewees should be 'brief' and 'to-the-point' when answering questions during the discussion.

He said: 'Identify some of your main attributes and memorize them.

'Describe your qualifications, career history and range of skills, emphasizing those skills relevant to the job on offer.'

Maximise your CV by making it 'obvious' why you're the right person for the role Tony revealed: 'A CV should not be a CV that fits all job opportunities. 'A great CV takes time and effort, creating a document which highlights your skills and experience and maps to those required and described in the job description. 'Imagine you are the potential employer, sifting through lots of CVs. You should want to make their life as easy as possible by making it obvious why you are the right person for the opportunity and at least warrant an interview.' Advertisement

Q2. What have your achievements been to date?

Tony advised highlighting a recent achievement could be beneficial in an interview scenario.

He said: 'Select an achievement that is work-related and fairly recent.

'Identify the skills you used in the achievement and quantify the benefit it had to the company.'

Tony continued: 'For example, saying, "My greatest achievement has been to design and implement a new sales ledger system, bringing it in ahead of time and improving our debtors' position significantly, saving the company $50,000 per month in interest".'

Q3. Are you happy with your career to date?

The recruitment expert explained: 'This question is really about your self-esteem, confidence and career aspirations.

'The answer must be "yes", followed by a brief explanation as to what it is about your career so far that's made you happy.

'If you have hit a career plateau, or you feel you are moving too slowly, then you must qualify your answer.'

Q4. What is the most difficult situation you have had to face and how did you tackle it?

Tony said: 'The purpose of this question is to find out what your definition of difficult is and whether you can show a logical approach to problem solving.

'In order to show yourself in a positive light, select a difficult work situation which was not caused by you and which can be quickly explained in a few sentences.

'Explain how you defined the problem, what the options were, why you selected the one you did and what the outcome was.

'Always end on a positive note.'

Tony Gregg, pictured, is chief executive at Anthony Gregg Partnerships, a high end recruitment search business

Q5. What do you like about your present job?

Calling this one of the most 'straightforward' questions asked in an interview, Tony explained: 'All you have to do is make sure that your 'likes' correspond to the skills etc. required in the job on offer.

'Be enthusiastic; describe your job as interesting and diverse but do not overdo it - after all, you are looking to leave.'

Q6. What do you dislike about your present job?

Tony said: 'Be cautious with this answer.

'Do not be too specific as you may draw attention to weaknesses that will leave you open to further problems.'

He continued: 'One approach is to choose a characteristic of your present company, such as its size or slow decision-making processes etc.

'Give your answer with the air of someone who takes problems and frustrations in your stride as part of the job.'

Mention hobbies where you work as part of a team Tony explained: 'Chatting about personal interests are a great way to begin an interview, especially if they are a shared interest with the interviewer. 'Already you will have something in common  a connection. 'But the biggest reason as to why hobbies are included in the CV is that they create an ice-breaker, therefore are a great way to get you feeling a little more comfortable and more relaxed. 'Hobbies which involve activities like reading are OK to mention. 'What will help you stand out, is including other activities where you perform as part of a team. Also providing examples of ways in which you use your spare time to stay fit, show that you are motivated and look after your well-being. Advertisement

Q7. What are your strengths?

The recruitment expert said: 'This is one question that you know you are going to get so there is no excuse for being unprepared.

'Concentrate on discussing your main strengths.

'List three or four proficiencies e.g. your ability to learn quickly, determination to succeed, positive attitude, your ability to relate to people and achieve a common goal.

'You may be asked to give examples of the above so be prepared.'

Q8. What is your greatest weakness?

Tony explained there are several ways to answer the difficult 'weaknesses' question.

He said: 'Do not say you have none - this will lead to further problems.

'You have two options - use a professed weakness such as a lack of experience, not ability, on your part in an area that is not vital for the job.

'The second option is to describe a personal or professional weakness that could also be considered to be a strength, and the steps you have taken to combat it.'

He continued: An example would be, "I know my team think I'm too demanding at times - I tend to drive them pretty hard but I'm getting much better at using the carrot and not the stick".

Q9. Why do you want to leave your current employer?

The recruitment expert revealed candidates should remain positive when discussing current employment.

He said: 'State how you are looking for a new challenge, more responsibility, experience and a change of environment.

'Do not be negative in your reasons for leaving. It is rarely appropriate to cite salary as your primary motivator.'

Q10. Why have you applied for this particular job?

According to Tony, asking this question reveals the interviewer may be looking for how good of a fit you could be in the role.

He said: 'The employer is looking for evidence that the job suits you, fits in with your general aptitudes, coincides with your long-term goals and involves doing things you enjoy.

'Make sure you have a good understanding of the role and the organization, and describe the attributes of the organization that interest you most. '
Sydney's iconic Jacarandas are starting to bloom with their famous flowers, covering streets and pathways across the Harbour City in a vibrant purple haze.

The spectacular canopies, which come alive each spring from late September, attract swarms of influencers and snap-happy tourists every year - much to the annoyance of locals who often find their roads blocked by camera-toting visitors.

Jacarandas have been in Australia for more than 150 years since seeds were brought from South America to parts of Sydney including the North Shore, Greenwich and Wollstonecraft, as well as to regional towns across New South Wales.

McDougall Street in Kirribilli is perhaps the most popular spot for social media-obsessed photographers, but there are plenty of quieter places tucked off the beaten track where you can take in the view without the crowds.

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Sydney's iconic Jacarandas are starting to bloom with their famous flowers, covering streets like McDougall Street in Kirribilli (pictured) in a vibrant purple haze

The spectacular canopies, which come alive each spring from late September, attract swarms of influencers and snap-happy tourists every year

Throngs of people descend on McDougall Street throughout October and November in the hopes of capturing a winning shot of the waterside avenue blanketed in violet blooms.

Kirribilli's Jacarandas are so well known that you can even take a walking tour through the suburb's best streets, with guides pointing out the most stunning backdrops before strolling on to areas such as Lavender Bay and Longueville.

Across the bridge in the Eastern Suburbs, areas such as Paddington, Woollahra and Double Bay also have beautiful lilac trees lining the streets.

Eye-catching clusters are also dotted around community parks in Zetland, in the city's inner-east.

Perhaps the most popular s pot for social media-obsessed photographers is McDougall Street in Kirribilli (pictured)

Drone footage filmed by videographer Angio captures the vibrant purple canopy covering McDougall Street on the North Shore

Where to see Jacarandas blooming in Sydney NORTH SHORE * Kirribilli * Lavender Bay * Wollstonecraft EASTERN SUBURBS * Double Bay * Paddington * Woollahra INNER EAST * Zetland INNER WEST * Camperdown * Erskinville * Glebe GREATER SYDNEY AREA * Camden Advertisement

Similarly stunning scenes can be found in the Inner West, with Jacarandas blooming along the paths of Glebe, Camperdown and Erskineville, as well as on the University of Sydney campus.

But you don't need to live in the heart of the Harbour City to see the trees in all their glory.

Those living southwest of Sydney can head to the unique town of Camden, 70km from the CBD, where locals come together each November to celebrate the Jacaranda Festival.

The family event which takes place over three days sees the area come alive with music in the streets and food stalls, car shows and even a miniature Christmas fair.

Similarly stunning scenes can be found in the Inner West, with Jacarandas blooming along the paths of Glebe, Camperdown and Erskineville, as well as on the University of Sydney campus

Large crowds descend on places like McDougall Street (pictured) throughout October and November in the hopes of capturing a winning shot

The festival is set to run from from November 20 to November 22, though it's unclear if it will go ahead this year due to the current Covid outbreak gripping New South Wales.

The state recorded 1,127 new cases and two deaths on Tuesday, with the regional town of Yass plunged back into lockdown after just three days of eased restrictions.

Residents living outside the 12 LGAS of concern in Sydney can now attend gatherings of up to five people for outdoor recreation 'so long as all those at the gathering aged 16 years or over are fully vaccinated'.
Woolworths chefs have created a clever twist on classic Italian lasagne - and it's so simple, anyone can make it.

After creative experimentation, experts from the Australian supermarket chain developed a recipe for 'lasagne bites', snack-sized pieces of the family favourite encased in ready-made wonton wrappers instead of traditional pasta sheets.

The bites, which can be prepared in just 10 minutes, are made with basic ingredients including minced beef, pasta sauce, ricotta and mozzarella cheese.

A video of the recipe is already causing a stir less than 24 hours after it was posted to Instagram, with viewers raving about how affordable and foolproof it is to make.

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After creative experimentation, Woolworths chefs developed a recipe for 'lasagne bites' (pictured), snack-sized pieces of the family favourite encased in ready-made wonton wrappers instead of the traditional pasta sheets

'We could personally never get enough of lasagne, but let's get creative with it and transform it into a bite-sized delight!' the caption from the Woolworths team said.

'You won't believe how easy they are to make and trust us, even easier to eat.'

To make the bites, you'll need to preheat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

While it heats, warm one tablespoon of olive oil in a frying pan over a medium heat, then tip in 250 grams of lean minced beef and fry for seven minutes.

Once the meat has browned, add a 500 gram jar of tomato and basil pasta sauce, seasoning the mixture with salt and pepper before bringing it to the boil.

Reduce the mixture over a medium heat and simmer uncovered for five minutes or until sauce has thickened.

A video of the recipe is already causing a stir less than 24 hours after it was posted to Instagram, with viewers raving about how affordable and foolproof it is to make

Then remove the pan from the heat and stir in half a cup of fresh basil.

Meanwhile, grease a 24-hole mini muffin pan with a scrape of butter and press one wonton wrapped into each hole to create a shell.

Divide the mince mixture between the holes, then top each one with a teaspoon of ricotta, a handful of shredded mozzarella cheese and a spritz of oil.

Bake the bites for 20 minutes or until the wonton wrappers are golden and crisp.

Once cooked, leave them to rest for five minutes before serving with extra basil - it's that simple.

Recipe for Woolworths lasagne bites Ingredients 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil 250g lean beef 500g jar tomato, garlic and basil chunky pasta sauce 1/2 cup basil leaves, plus extra small leaves (to serve) 24 wonton wrappers 1/3 cup smooth ricotta cheese 1/2 cup shredded pizza cheese 5ml olive oil cooking spray Method 1. Preheat oven to 220C/200C fan-forced. 2. Heat oil in a medium frying pan over high heat. Cook mince, breaking up lumps with a wooden spoon, for 7 minutes or until browned. 3. Add sauce and season with salt and pepper, then bring to the boil. Reduce to medium heat and simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes or until sauce has thickened. Remove pan from heat. Stir in basil. 4. Grease a 24-hole mini muffin pan. Press 1 wonton wrapper into each hole to form a case. 5. Divide mince mixture among holes. Top with 1 tsp ricotta, scatter over pizza cheese and spray with oil. Bake for 20 minutes or until wontons are golden and crisp. Stand in pan for 5 minutes, then serve topped with extra basil leaves. Advertisement

The recipe, which has racked up 751 'likes' since it was uploaded online less than 24 hours ago, quickly sparked delighted responses.

'Yum! Such a great spin on a classic,' one person wrote.

'Definitely trying this,' said a second, while a third added: 'So cool.'

Inventive recipes are part of a new social media campaign from Woolworths, which recently expanded its online presence with the launch of its first-ever official TikTok account.

Former cashier Liam Kirley (left) is running Woolworths first-ever official TikTok account, after he became an online sensation by sharing videos of food hacks and store announcements

The page is being managed by former supermarket cashier Liam Kirley, who became an online sensation in August 2020 after his food hacks and store announcements racked up millions of views on the video-sharing platform.

On the back of his stardom, which has earned him 162,000 followers and seven million likes on TikTok, Woolworths hired him to create content for its new channel.

Mr Kirley returned his uniform to the Baulkham Hills store where he worked and stepped into a new role as content coordinator for Woolworths' new TikTok.
An Australian skincare brand is making waves in the beauty industry its ability to shrink pores, clear pigmentation and brighten dark circles in a matter of weeks.

Developed by Melbourne's leading plastic surgeon, Dr Chris Moss, Liberty Belle Rx is a range of products laced with vitamins A, B and C that promise to deliver exceptional results without Botox, injectables or cosmetic surgery.

A 39-year-old Melbourne customer named Brooke recently managed to banish redness and uneven skin tone without touching a needle, using a five-minute 'day and night' routine of the brand's best-selling treatments in just three months.

Liberty Belle Rx customer Brooke, 39, (pictured before and after using the products) transformed her skin in a matter of weeks; her redness and pigmentation were visibly reduced

In the mornings, the mother-of-two used the $70 Heartfelt cleanser, the $158 Eye Do cream and the $144 Next Level serum, followed by the $144 Game Changer treatment, the $138 Superhero moisturiser and the $65 Superstar SPF50+.

Before bed, she treated her face to the $70 Braveheart cleanser, the $138 Eye Dream cream, the $144 Dream Team lotion and the $158 Power Broker moisturiser.

Brooke also used the $142 Quiet Achiever facial treatment three nights each week, as well as the $168 Bright Star serum every second nights.

She started the treatment plan in January 2021 and had wound back the clock on her complexion by the middle of April.

Brooke's transformative regime MORNING

$70 Heartfelt cleanser

$70 Heartfelt cleanser $158 Eye Do cream

$144 Next Level serum

$144 Game Changer treatment

$138 Superhero moisturiser

$65 Superstar SPF50+ NIGHT

$70 Braveheart cleanser

$138 Eye Dream cream

$144 Dream Team lotion

$158 Power Broker moisturiser Three nights per week: $142 Quiet Achiever facial treatment Alternating nights: $168 Bright Star serum All products from Liberty Belle Rx by top cosmetic surgeon, Dr Chris Moss. Advertisement

In a testimonial posted online, Brooke (pictured before and after) said she had spent years following a 'basic routine' that involved a supermarket facial scrub and a cheap moisturiser

In a testimonial posted to the brand's website, Brooke said she had spent years following a 'basic routine' that involved a supermarket facial scrub, a cheap moisturiser and sunscreen each day.

Her areas of concern were crows feet and fine lines across her forehead, clogged pores, sun damage, redness, and puffiness around the eyes.

Within four to six weeks of using the range, Brooke said she started to notice visible improvements.

The $158 Eye Do cream (left) is one of Liberty Belle's best-sellers, while its $168 Bright Star serum (right) is also popular, thanks to its high vitamin C content which fights signs of ageing and clears congestion

'My pores were clearing up, my dark circles and pigmentation were fading,' she wrote.

'I noticed my makeup would go on better and last longer. People stopped commenting on me looking tired and I noticed my skin looked healthier and brighter in photos.'

After seeing before and after photos taken as part of an independent customer trial, Brooke said she was 'blown away' by how much her face had changed.

What should you look for when choosing skincare products? Vitamins for the skin are common active ingredients. The three most well-known and powerful active ingredients for the skin are vitamin A, B and C. Vitamin A increases the rate of mitosis or cell regeneration and is the best anti-ageing ingredient on the market to date, helping to reduce fine lines and wrinkles. Vitamin B (nicinamde) promotes cell repair and hydration. Vitamin C is a potent antioxidant protecting against cell damage and aids in collagen building. For dull and dry skin the go-to active ingredients to look for would be Vitamin B for hydration and cell repair, Vitamin A for increasing cell turnover and natural desquamation, Vitamin C for brightness and finally hyaluronic acid to increase water content on the skin. For congestion the go-to active ingredients would be Vitamin A for increasing cell turnover and natural desquamation, BHAs to dissolve blackhead build up, and a product with antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties to destroy the presence of the p.acnes bacteria. Source: Liberty Belle Advertisement

She said she couldn't believe how much her pigmentation and sun damage had faded, and how much her pores had shrunk - particularly across the bridge of her nose.

'The regime each morning and night takes no longer than five minutes and I have enjoyed taking the time to invest in my skin,' she added.

In a similar way it took just four weeks for a customer called Laura to see a major difference in her congestion, breakouts and pigmentation.

'I was seeing clusters of breakouts through my T-zone and chin constantly. I was really stuck and fed up with the way my skin was and it wasn't improving no matter what I tried,' she said.

In a similar way it took just four weeks for a customer called Laura (pictured before and after) to see a major difference in her congestion, breakouts and pigmentation

In a last ditch attempt to clear her skin, Laura tried the $70 Braveheart cleanser and $158 Bright Star serum - and saw almost instant results.

'I noticed in myself that I wasn't needing to wear as much makeup as I previously was in order to cover up blemishes day-to-day,' she said.

'That in itself is a great result. Having clear skin means a great base for makeup to be applied and this not only looks a lot more flawless but means using fewer products and this has always been a goal of mine, so I'm very happy.'

In a last ditch attempt to clear her skin, Laura (pictured before and after) tried the $70 Braveheart cleanser and $158 Bright Star serum - and saw almost instant results

The products boast hundreds of five-star reviews online, with women claiming they are the only thing that has 'encouraged them to stop paying for Botox'.

'I'm overly complimented on my skin and no doubt much of it is due to you,' one person wrote on Instagram.

Another added: 'Obsessing over my new skin care that REALLY works'.

Australian celebrities like Megan Gale, Jodi Gordon and Carrie Bickmore are fans of the brand and regularly talk about their results on social media.
The Star in Sydney has launched luxurious five-star seafood and meat platters to be delivered to customers stuck at home in the ongoing Covid-19 lockdown.

Guests who have been missing out of dining experiences for months can upgrade their picnics and enjoy mouthwatering meals.

The vast selection will leave customers wanting to try the whole menu from the miso-glazed toothfish from Sokyo to king prawn curry.

Customers in Sydney who have been missing out of dining experiences for months while in lockdown can upgrade their picnics and enjoy mouthwatering platters from The Star

The vast selection will leave customers wanting to try the whole menu from the miso-glazed toothfish from Sokyo to the king prawn curry

The Flying Fish seafood platter for two priced at $140 seems like the ultimate lavish option and comes packed with oysters, ocean trout, cured Mooloolaba scallops and cold poached king prawns with a Mary rose sauce

The Flying Fish seafood platter, for two priced at $140, is the ultimate lavish option and comes packed with oysters, ocean trout, cured Mooloolaba scallops, Marron from Western Australia and cold poached king prawns with a Mary rose sauce.

For an extra $50 customers may wish to add 15kg of Australian black truffle.

Alternatively, the ready-to-eat Black Bar and Grill platter is an ideal option for barbecue lovers across the city.

This comes prepared with wagyu beef jerky, brioche, burrata, king prawn butter poached, wagyu rump cap and a number of sides as well as tiramisu for dessert.

Those wanting the complete at home experience can also order the dinner meal set, priced at $180 - which serves two people.

The ready-to-eat Black Bar and Grill platter would be an ideal option for those who love red meat

Customers can order the platters online to be delivered everyday between the hours of 12pm and 10pm

The platters and meals would be the perfect way to enjoy a dinner date with your partner while restaurants remain shut.

Customers can order the platters online to be delivered everyday between the hours of 12pm and 10pm.

In addition to the platters, delicious cocktails can also be added to the delivery and customers can choose from cosmopolitan, negroni, margarita, coconut martini, espresso martini and 'The Gladus'.

The cocktails are priced at $15 per 100mL bottle and can be ordered in a pack of five.

For more information, please click here.
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The Queen has led birthday wishes to Prince Harry on his 37th birthday, sharing a selection of photos highlighting her grandson's charity efforts while he was a working royal.

The Duke of Sussex, who has quit royal duties and is currently living in an 11m mansion in California also received birthday greetings from the Prince of Wales and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

Poignantly, Prince Charles shared throwback photos with his younger son, amid a rift that Harry made public during his bombshell interview with Oprah.

Meanwhile, Prince William and Kate Middleton kept their message simple, posting a solo portrait of the Duke with the caption: 'Happy birthday Prince Harry,' and a red balloon emoji.

Prince William and Kate Middleton kept their message simple, posting a solo portrait of the Duke with the caption: 'Happy birthday Prince Harry,' and a red balloon emoji

The Queen has led birthday wishes to Prince Harry on his 37th birthday, sharing a selection of photos highlighting her grandson's charity efforts while he was a working royal

The Royal family shared a picture of Harry visiting a school in Nottingham in 2019, where he as on an away-day to meet young people at community projects aimed at improving mental well-being

The Queen also shared a portrait shot of Harry, who is 'making very little progress' in reconciling with the royal family according to Finding Freedom author Omid Scobie

The Royal Family shared a picture of Harry meeting a child in Botswana in September, 2019 during a visit to the Kasane Health Post, run by the Sentebale charity, in Kasane

The Queen posted an image of Harry and Meghan at the Invictus Games in 2018 in their last engagement in Australia before heading to New Zealand

It's not known how the Duke will celebrate his birthday, but Meghan recently marked her 40th with her own endeavor - the 40x40 project - in which she asked high profile people to commit to giving 40 minutes of their time to support women going back to work.

The birthday wishes come after Finding Freedom author Omid Scobie - who penned the biography with Carolyn Durand and released an updated version last month - said Duke and Duchess of Sussex are 'making very little progress' in reconciling with the royal family.

He said Prince Harry and Meghan were 'desperate to get their story out there' when they gave their explosive Oprah Winfrey interview earlier this year.

Appearing on Good Morning America today, Omid claimed the couple and the royal family both want all involved to take 'accountability and ownership' for their role in the rift.

Prince Charles and Camilla also wished the duke a Happy Birthday amid a rift that Harry made public during his bombshell interview earlier this year

Poignantly, Prince Charles shared throwback photos with his younger son, amid a rift that Harry made public during his bombshell interview with Oprah - including a portrait of his son

The Prince of Wales is pictured with Prince Harry leaving their mark in cement, at the Dukuduku village school in South Africa in 1997

The Duke of Sussex and his father are pictured sharing a sweet moment at the Invictus Games Opening Ceremony in September 2014

He explained: 'When we speak to sources close to the couple and also sources close to the royal family, there is this feeling that very little progress is being made.'

Meanwhile Scobie also suggested allegations of Meghan's bullying behaviour made by a senior Palace aide before the Oprah Winfrey interview were 'revenge' from The Firm for the Duke and Duchess' actions.

The Sussexes were accused of leaving behind a 'lot of broken people' with 'young women broken by their behaviour' and a source describing one member of their staff as 'completely destroyed' by the ordeal.

Scobie said: 'For me, it's impossible to come to any other conclusion that this is some sort of revenge from the institution that we saw pulled into action just before the Oprah interview came out.'

The Queen launched an unprecedented inquiry into allegations that Meghan and Harry bullied their staff earlier this year - leaving royal employees 'shaken' by 'unhappy memories' being brought up about a 'toxic period' before the couple emigrated.

Devastating claims that the Duchess of Sussex inflicted 'emotional cruelty' on underlings and 'drove them out' were 'very' concerning, Buckingham Palace said.

Prince Charles' birthday wishes come after a source claimed that Duchess of Cornwall is unlikely to ever forgive her stepson Prince Harry for their actions since stepping back as senior royals in March last year.

Harry has addressed his relationship with his father in several interviews throughout the year - after first opening up about it in a bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey in March where he claimed he has been 'let down' by Prince Charles.

The Duke, 37, and Duchess of Sussex, 40, are 'making very little progress' in reconciling with the royal family, the author of Finding Freedom has claimed

Speaking to The Telegraph, royal expert Camilla Tominey reported that a source close to Camilla has said that even though Buckingham Palace is conveying the message that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are still loved by the family, the Duchess of Cornwall will struggle to move on.

Another source claimed that Prince Charles was deeply affected by the reported fall out with Prince Harry and that it had been 'really hard for him.'

Meanwhile Prince William and Harry are said to have barely spoken and have an 'incredibly strained' relationship after two years of rows over Harry's wife and her alleged treatment of staff, the couple's decision to emigrate to America and the 'truth bombs' the Sussexes have dropped in TV interviews watched by tens of millions of people around the world.

Harry and Meghan believe they were abandoned by the Royals, even accusing them of racism towards Archie and ignoring their cries for help when the Duchess of Sussex felt lonely and suicidal while pregnant in London.

An updated edition of Harry and Meghan biography Finding Freedom also made a string of other fresh claims that are likely to trigger debate about the state of their relationship with the Royal Family.

Richard Fitzwilliams believes Harry could launch a charitable initiative on his upcoming 37th birthday - and has warned the royal to 'watch what he says' on his birthday

A leaked version of the epilogue claimed the couple had considered naming the royal they alleged had made a racist comment about their son, Archie; that some royals were 'quietly pleased' the Duchess of Sussex missed Prince Philip's funeral and that Prince William was 'furious' about their interview with Oprah.

The new edition also said the Sussexes had 'no regrets' about quitting their royal roles and that Meghan found her explosive Oprah interview 'cathartic' and 'liberating'.

Meghan plunged the monarchy into crisis after telling Oprah Winfrey that an unnamed royal had expressed 'concern' about Archie's skin before he was born.

The epilogue reveals that a source told authors Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand that the Sussexes had considered naming the family member  but had ultimately decided not to.

It also claimed that 'sources close to the Sussexes' had said that the Royal Family's reaction to the allegations made by the couple 'was not positive'.

Meanwhile Prince William and Harry are said to have barely spoken and have an 'incredibly strained' relationship after two years of rows (pictured together in July)

The source told the authors that there had to be 'some acknowledgment' about what the Sussexes went through for there to be 'progress'.

The criticism came after a carefully-worded statement from the Queen following the controversial Oprah interview, which expressed concern for the couple but insisted that 'some recollections may vary'.

Harry and First Lady Jill Biden praised each other's support for wounded veterans during a 30 minute virtual event to celebrate Warrior Games Warrior athletes, their families, and caregivers on Monday.

During their first event together since she became First Lady and he moved to the United States, Dr Biden praised Harry, saying: 'You live by a simple principle - served together recovered together.'

And Prince Harry returned the praise, thanking the First Lady for her support of veterans and their families.

'Thank you for your service and your continued support over all these years. It's been fantastic to see you in action in various parts of the world giving everything that you've got to so many people to not just those who wear the uniform but to the families as well. A lot of them wouldn't be here without you so, so thank you,' he said.
If you're a devoted Lidl customer and carrying one of the brand's shopping bags isn't enough to showcase your support, you can now snap up a range of branded clothing emblazoned with the colours and logo of the budget supermarket.

From tomorrow, British fans of the German supermarket chain will be ale to get their hands on the 12.99 yellow, blue and red trainers that became a viral hit when they went on sale in Europe last year.

Accessories including socks and shorts will be available from 99p along with the shoes in Lidl stores around the country, the brand announced on Instagram.

When the shoes dropped in Europe last year, it sent shoppers to the discount store to snatch their pair, and British rans spent as much as 3,100 on bundles of the merchandise from sellers on eBay.

Now, excited British fans cannot wait to get the trainers and clothing in the UK.

The famed Lidl trainers who went viral last year are finally hitting UK shelves this week. From tomorrow, Lidl fans will be able to purchase the trainers, pictured in the German supermarket chain's stores around the country, for 12,99

The trainers will be available in Ladies' 4-7 and Men's 7-11  sizes as part of the new 'Lild by Lidl' range.

The brand have described the shoes as a 'must-have for any Lidl-loving fan, or followers of the latest trainer trends, saying 'their classic retro style makes them the perfect pop of colour for any look'.

'They also feature a comfortable tongue and added ankle padding for all-day wear,' Lidl added.

The rest of the collection includes 1.49 white socks with the Lidl logo, 4.99 shorts and a 99p Lidl tote bag.

The trainers sport the familiar yellow, blue and red Lidl colours, and the brand have described them as a 'must have' for Lidl fans

Last year, fan rushed to their local stores and bought several pairs at a time, pictured, when they were released around Europe

Last year, shoppers went mad for the trainers when they first hit European stores, with people queuing up at their local Lidl in hopes to get a pair.

People were even queuing in Finland, where a customer told The Foreigner: 'Everyone lined up normally. At exactly 8am they ran to the shop and the sneakers' shelf emptied in less than 10 seconds.'

After the shoes and their accessories hit the shelves, savvy shoppers started selling them online for more than 110 times the original price, with UK shoppers going wild over the shoes, which were not available in the UK yet.

One person even listed the extravagant trainers on Finnish auction site Tori for 5,400 at the time.

The Lidl By Lidl collection includes the trainers, as well as 1.49 sock which are white with the Lidl logo

A 99p tote bag and a 4,99 pair of shorts are also sending Lidl fans into a frenzy ahead of the launch, pictured

Lidl is usually known for their copycat versions of premium brands, with shoppers previously picking up lookalike Birkenstocks, beauty products and popular foods.

The branded shoes marks the first time shoppers have gone wild for a Lidl-branded item.

British Lidl fans are gearing up to get their pair.

'I can't wait to own this,' one excited fan wrote in all caps on Instagram.

RuPaul Drag Race UK contestant Ginny Lemon was among the first people to react, writing: 'save me one of each.

'Omgggg wow!!!! I love this,' another fan wrote.

'I'm literally gonna be waiting at 8am when Lidl open,' one said.
Princess Beatrice showed off her burgeoning baby bump as she left a Mayfair private members club yesterday evening.

The Queen's granddaughter, 33, who is expecting her first baby with Italian property developer husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi this autumn, looked effortlessly chic as she stepped out in central London.

Putting on a fashionable display, mother-to-be Beatrice opted for a sophisticated burgundy velvet jacket paired with a stylish pearl headband as she visited the The Arts Club.

Th club, founded in 1863, counts the likes of Charles Dickens, Thomas Hughes and Wilkie Collins as previous members and costs 2500 annually for a full membership.

Princess Beatrice showed off her burgeoning baby bump as she left a Mayfair private members club yesterday evening in Mayfair, central London

Beatrice paired the statement piece with a black minidress and a pair of black leather loafers decorated with gold stars.

She was fresh-faced at the event and completed her look with a tweed Chanel clutch bag and gold bracelet, while her tresses were kept in place with a monochrome headband.

Beatrice tied the knot with Edo in September 2020 and the couple are expecting a child together later this year.

Sarah - the name of Beatrice's mother Sarah Ferguson - is leading as bookies' favourite with Betfair putting it at 8/1 if the little one is a girl, while Ladbrokes have Florence at 4/1, perhaps a tribute to Edo's Italian roots.

Putting on a fashionable display, mother-to-be Beatrice opted for a sophisticated burgundy velvet jacket paired with a stylish pearl headband as she visited the The Arts Club

If the new baby is a boy, Philip is the most likely choice, also at 8/1 as Beatrice may pay tribute to her grandfather who died earlier this year, aged 99.

The moniker would also follow in the tradition of the two latest royal great-grandchildren.

In February, Beatrice's sister Eugenie and her husband Jack Brooksbank welcomed August Philip Hawke Brooksbank, while their cousin Zara and her husband Mike Tindall also welcomed a boy, Lucas Philip Tindall earlier this year.

Like Lucas, August, and Archie, the new baby won't have a title as only grandchildren of the monarch's are given HRH monikers.

Her baby boy or girl will be born 11th in line to the throne, and although their mother is a princess they will be plain Master or Miss Mozzi - and will also be a half-sibling and will also be a half-sibling to Edo's son, Wolfie.

The baby will be the second grandchild for Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, and will be the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh's eleventh great-grandchild - being born shortly after Baby Sussex.

Princess Beatrice and her husband Edo Mapelli Mozzi are expecting their first child together. If the new baby is a boy, Philip is a likely choice as Beatrice may pay tribute to her grandfather who died earlier this year, aged 99. Philip and the Queen are pictured at the couple's wedding in January

Beatrice, who is ninth in line to the throne, is the only princess in the British royal family to marry someone with children and take on a stepchild. She is pictured with Edo at Wimbledon this year

Beatrice, who is ninth in line to the throne, is the only princess in the British royal family to marry someone with children and take on a stepchild.

Her property tycoon husband shares a young son, two-year-old Christopher 'Wolfie' Woolf, with his glamorous former fiancee of three-and-a-half years, Dara Huang.

The only other step-parent in Queen Elizabeth II's immediate family is her son Prince Charles, who became stepfather to Camilla Parker Bowles' son Tom and daughter Laura when they wed in 2005.

In turn, the Duchess of Cornwall has become a stepmother to William and Harry and a stepgrandmother to Wills and Kate's children, Prince George, six, Princess Charlotte, five, and Prince Louis, two.
The Duke of Roxburghe, once Britains most eligible bachelor, is officially off the market after marrying the stepdaughter of a South African mining tycoon.

Charlie, 40, an Army pal of Prince Harry, inherited his father Guy's title and 100m estate after the elder man passed away at the family's ancestral pile, Floors Castle, near Kelso, in the Scottish Borders in 2019.

Former Army captain Charlie  who has a daughter with his ex-girlfriend, the Iranian fashion designer Morvarid Sahafi  met Annie Green, 31, last summer.

After Charlie and Annie announced in February they were engaged, Morvarid, who is a long-term friend of Annie, said she was over-the-moon for the couple.

She revealed: 'I have known her for 15 years. I knew her before I knew him. I am very happy about the marriage. I could not have picked a better person myself. She [Annie] is incredible.

In snaps shared on the Floors Castle Instagram page the newlyweds beamed at the camera after marrying in a low-key ceremony on the estate.

The Duke of Roxburghe, once Britains most eligible bachelor, is officially off the market after marrying the stepdaughter of a South African mining tycoon, Annie Green, 31

The bride was glowing in a cream wrap dress for the wedding at Floors Castle, sweeping her blonde locks into an elegant up-do.

She wore a pearl necklace for the occasion and could be seen carrying a bouquet of cream and pink flowers.

Meanwhile Charlie donned a navy suit with a blue shirt for the big event.

Annie is an Edinburgh University graduate whos training as an occupational therapist.

In snaps shared on the Floors Castle Instagram page the couple appeared to be beaming at the camera after marrying in a low-key ceremony on the estate

She grew up in South Africa, where her stepfather, Patrick Quirk, is one of Africas biggest tycoons.

Her brother Nick was a leading light of the notorious Bullingdon Club while students at Oxford.

In February 2021, Richard Eden revealed Charlie had popped the question, with Annie reportedly telling friends: 'How could I say no?'

Meanwhile another source told him: They will get married as soon as this pandemic is over.

Eton-educated Charlie and his Duchess will move into Floors (prononounced Fleurs), while his stepmother, Virgina, will live elsewhere on the 52,000-acre estate in Roxburghshire (pictured)

After the announcement, it was revealed Annie is close friends with Morvarid, Charlie's ex-girlfriend of six years.

But she gave her blessing to the happy couple telling Richard Eden: 'I think he has made a great choice, shes a friend and really wonderful.'

Eton-educated Charlie and his Duchess will move into Floors (prononounced Fleurs), while his stepmother, Virgina, will live elsewhere on the 52,000-acre estate in Roxburghshire.

Eton and Sandhurst-educated Charlie is the 11th Duke of Roxburghe and also holds the titles Marquess of Bowmont and Cessford, Earl of Kelso and Viscount Broxmouth.

After the announcement, it was revealed Annie is close friends with Morvarid Sahafi, Charlie's girlfriend of six years and the mother of his child (pictured together in April 2015)

The former Army captain now runs Capstar, a chauffeuring and security company which seeks to recruit men and women wounded in combat.

He previously dated Iranian fashion designer Morvarid for six years.

Together the pair welcomed a baby girl, Charlie's first child, four years ago.

Annie was a glowing bride in a cream wrap dress for the wedding at Floors Castle, sweeping her blonde locks into an elegant up-do

His ex-girlfriend Miss Sahafi runs her own womenswear company Morv London, available in Selfridges.

Miss Sahafi studied fashion and art at Parsons School of Design in Paris, working at a Middle Eastern Gallery for eight years before moving to Delhi, India to establish her own brand.

The brand has a factory in Delhi which employs victims of domestic abuse and trafficking - Miss Sahafi has said the ethos of Morv is female empowerment.

Charlie, 40, an Army pal of Prince Harry , inherited his father Guy's title and 100m estate after the elder man passed away at the family's ancestral pile, Floors Castle, near Kelso, in the Scottish Borders in 2019

Charlie was previously married to Lord Beaverbrooks elder daughter, Charlotte Aitken, but the couple separated just a few months later. She works as a wedding planner.

The Castle was first opened to the public in 1977 by the 10th Duke of Roxburghe, the year he married Lady Jane Grosvenor, sister of the Duke of Westminster.

Charlie's father Guy Innes Ker died in 2019 after a long battle with cancer at the family's ancestral pile, Floors Castle, near Kelso, in the Scottish Borders.

Charlie met his new wife in the summer of 2020, with the couple announcing their engagement in February this year

He was a graduate of Sandhurst Military Academy and Cambridge University, inheriting the title from his father at the age of just 19.

Guy split from Lady Jane in 1990, and married Virginia Wynn-Williams two years later.

The castle has a history of tempestuous break-ups with Charlie's grandfather, the 9th Duke, famously trying to evict his wife in 1953 after he had an affair.

Charlie was previously married to Lord Beaverbrooks elder daughter, Charlotte Aitken, but the couple separated just a few months later. She works as a wedding planner (pictured at their wedding in 2011)

She refused leave, locking herself in a suite at the castle for six weeks.

In response the Duke turned off the electricity and gas and even attempted to cut off her water supply to get her out. Eventually, the dispute was settled out of court.

2021 marks the 300th-anniversary of Floors Castle, with the team maintaining the estate planning a series of events to celebrate the landmark.
Queen Maxima of the Netherlands cut a stylish figure today as she visited the House for Culture and Administration in Groningen, for its official opening.

The Dutch Queen, 50, sported a brown chiffon dress that showcased detailed teal embroidered stripes which she paired with soft brown leather gloves to compliment.

Also accompanying the outfit, the monarch chose a suede tan-coloured clutch that matched the tone of her weaved straw hat that featured a flipped brim.

Queen Maxima, 50, sported a brown chiffon dress that showcased detailed teal embroidered stripes which she paired with soft brown leather gloves to compliment

Upon starting her tour, the Dutch Queen inspected some wooden seating and walked around the site while talking to officials

Maxima's stiletto suede heels rounded off the ensemble perfectly by matching with the tan clutch

Also choosing some of her signature dangly earrings the Queen opted for a detailed gold pair that branched out before some delicately hung dark blue jewels and for additional jewellery chose an understated black and gold watch.

Maxima's suede heels rounded off the ensemble perfectly by matching with the tan clutch.

The opening of Hoogezand's House for Culture and Administration comes after a plan in 2012 where officials decided group together the town hall, library, arts centre and theatre in one well-functioning building in a bid to improve facilities.

Architects reused parts of the original theatre and town hall building from the 1980s, and integrated it with new infrastructure in a bid to build sustainably.

The Queen opted for a detailed gold pair of earrings that branched out before some delicately hung dark blue jewels

When the queen arrived she was met by a happy crowd of well-wishers who she warmly greeted

The building's biggest improvement is undoubtedly the bridge that connects the town hall and theatre, two sites that previously were poorly accessible.

Architects of the project said, 'The defining element in the design is the high central inner walkway, which links the two parts of the building, connects all functions and provides an architectural accent at the entrance.'

When the queen arrived she was met by a happy crowd of well-wishers who she warmly greeted.

Upon starting her tour, the Dutch Queen inspected some wooden seating and walked around the site while talking to officials.
The Duchess of Sussex put on a very glamorous display after being styled by an A-list glam squad as she posed alongside husband Prince Harry for the cover of Time 100 magazine.

Meghan Markle, 40, was styled by an elite group of stylists who work with the rich and famous as she appeared in Time's 'world's 100 most influential people', with world renowned fashionista Nina Hallworth, who was assisted by Jane Hallworth, dressing the royal in a white shirt and tailored trousers.

Meanwhile, Serge Normant, who created Meghan's 'messy bun' on her wedding day to Prince Harry in May 2018, was responsible for the Duchess of Sussex's wavy hair style, which hair stylist James Johnson told FEMAIL is the 'main focal point of this piece.'

'Her middle parted big waves highlights her authority and the leg apart stance gives viewers a glimpse of her powerful new status,' he explained. 'It gives me Beyonce vibes showing us girl power - backed up by her man, her Prince leaning on her showcasing the female empowerment, shes wearing the trousers with her big hair.'

The Duchess of Sussex, 40, put on a very glamorous display after being styled by an A-list team of experts as she posed alongside husband Prince Harry for the cover of Time 100 magazine (pictured)

Working together: Nina Hallworth and Clare Hallworth pictured in May 2017 in Los Angeles

Serge Normant attends the 2018 US Weekly Most Stylish New Yorkers at Magic Hour Rooftop Bar & Lounge on September 12, 2018 in New York

He added: 'The hands softens her image as and shows her vulnerable side.'

Elsewhere, Nina's sister Clare opted to dress Prince Harry in a contrasting all-black ensemble and several beaded bracelets as he posed alongside his wife on a terrace at their $14.65million mansion.

In another image they can be seen in green smiling at each other and holding hands while walking through their estate in Montecito, California, while a further shows them in matching grey office-style clothes next to a window.

Stylist Nina Hallworth and her sister Clare Hallworth have worked with a whole host of famous faces and have most recently dressed Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston.

Back in October 2019, the stylist sisters shared a picture of their client Jennifer Aniston apparently posing in her walk-in closet to Instagram, delighting fans.

The image showed the Friends star striking a pose in a black trench coat and strappy sandals.

In another image they are in matching grey office-style clothes next to a window in outfits chosen by celebrity stylists Clare and Nina Hallwroth, who have recently dressed Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston

Harry and Meghan smile as their walk through their Californian estate in a photoshoot branded 'awkward' and 'photoshopped'

But not only are the fashionable siblings behind some of Jennifers most iconic looks, they also work with other Hollywood stars - including Patrick Dempsey, Kirsten Dunst, and Jake Gyllenhaal.

The duo choose to steer clear of the spotlight, but often share sneak peaks from behind the scenes of their styling shoots on social media.

Meanwhile, renowned hairdresser Serge Normant has previously been forced to speak out to defend Meghan's wedding hair after her messy bun was criticised for coming 'undone' during the ceremony.

Social media users slammed the bride's 'unruly' hair, commenting on the 'stray strands' that came loose.

The Duchess of Sussex's hairdresser, who is based in New York, revealed it took him just 45 minutes to style her hair  using grips you can pick up in the supermarket for only a few pounds.

'I always tend to try and go as fast as I can at these events. Nobody wants to sit around.'

Royal fans defended Meghan's 'gorgeous' wedding hair after her messy bun was criticised for coming 'undone'

The hairdresser described the look as a 'messy bun', a style that Meghan has frequently sported in the past.

Describing how long it took him to style Meghan's hair, tge French-born hair stylist, 52, explained: 'You know not that long, believe it or not.

'We had to blow dry it from wet, I would say 45 minutes to an hour. Then they did the make-up and then you fiddle around with it a little bit. But it's not that long.

'It's a messy bun, we call it. Messy in a controlled way,' he said. 'Making sure it doesn't become a whole mess after a few hours! I don't overload the hair with products in general and certainly not on this day.'

The couple responded to being named on the list of the world's most distinguished people with a post on their Archewell website that read: 'Prince Harry and Meghan, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, are not only humbled to be part of this years TIME 100 through the words of friend and partner Jose Andres, but to also write in praise of Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala for the publications annual list of Most Influential People.'

However, the snaps have been criticised, with one critic, a fellow photographer, tweeting: 'Terrible retouching job. They look CGI'.

Others wrote: 'This photo looks photoshopped. Also, the way they are positioned is very revealing: it's the Meghan show and Harry is just the supporting actor'. One critic said: 'Harry looks completely awkward peering behind his wife like this'.
Anderson Cooper has opened up about how the birth of his son Wyatt inspired him to pen a book about his family's history after years of not knowing much about the Vanderbilt dynasty.

The CNN anchor, whose mother was socialite-turned-designer Gloria Vanderbilt, teamed up with historian and novelist Katherine Howe to co-write The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty, which is slated for release on September 21.

'In some ways I wanted this to be a letter to my son,' Cooper, 54, told People magazine of his motivation to publish the historical book.

Candid: Anderson Cooper, 54, opened up about how the birth of his son Wyatt inspired him to write about his family in his new book Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty

Cover story: The CNN anchor covers the latest issue of People magazine, in which he talks about his family's 'painful' past

The journalist welcomed his one-year-old son Wyatt Morgan Cooper via surrogate on April 27, 2020, and named after him after his father, Wyatt Cooper, who died during heart surgery when he was 10.

'My dad wrote a book before he died about his family growing up in Mississippi. And because he died when I was so young, a lot that I know of him came from that book,' he explained in the cover interview. 'I wanted to write a letter to Wyatt about this crazy and unusual part of his family's past.'

History: Cooper co-wrote his upcoming book with historian Katherine Howe. It's slated for release on September 21

The Vanderbilts were once one of the most powerful dynasties in the US after having risen to prominence and wealth during the Gilded Age.

Cooper's great-great-great-grandfather Cornelius Vanderbilt amassed a fortune through his shipping and railroad empires.

Cornelius was the richest man in American when he died in 1877. He left behind an estimated $100 million that was equivalent to $2.5 billion in today's currency, but it was later squandered by his heirs.

'As a kid, my mom didn't really talk about her childhood. It was very painful for her. So I grew up not really knowing much about the Vanderbilts, and the little I did know was that they were very wealthy and they had built enormous palaces, and some of those were museums, but a lot of them had disappeared,' Cooper said.

'It was always this question in my mind: How, in a hundred years, does a family go from having more money than anybody else in the world to having all their houses torn down because nobody can afford them?'

Gloria, who spent her entire life in the public eye because of her family name, passed away at age 95 on June 17, 2019, after a short battle with stomach cancer.

Looking back: Cooper admitted he didn't know much about the Vanderbilts growing up because his mother Gloria (pictured in 2010) didn't really talk about her childhood

Family moment: Cooper's great-great-great-grandfather Cornelius Vanderbilt (pictured) amassed a fortune through his shipping and railroad empires during the Gilded Age

Cooper was going through boxes in her apartment after her death when he found a number of family letters from relatives he had never met.

'There were very personal letters from her grandmother and her aunt and her mother, and all these people who I didn't really know, who I'd never met, but whose voices suddenly kind of came alive in these letters,' he said.

Relations: The titan's grandson Cornelius Vanderbilt II was Gloria's grandfather

'It was really fascinating to start to think of them as human beings and not just historical characters or people I'd read about, people you can read about in history books.'

Cooper's great-great-great-grandfather Cornelius was a self-made man who was born into a family of modest means in Staten Island, New York, in 1794,

The fourth of nine children, he was 11 when he started working on his father's small boat ferrying cargo between Staten Island and Manhattan.

At age 19, he married his first cousin Sophia Johnson. They had 13 children together. He started his shipping fleet with one single boat and earned himself the nickname 'Commadore,' a US Navy title for a naval officer of a high rank.

The Vanderbilts lived on Staten Island until the 1840s, when Cornelius built a house in New York City at 10 Washington Place, which is now known as the Manhattan neighborhood Greenwich Village.

By the 1860s, he had started to focus on the railroad industry and built his second empire while helping to make railroad transportation more efficient.

Estate: Cornelius II's mansion on Fifth Avenue (pictured) was the largest private residence ever built in Manhattan. It was sold in 1926 and demolished to make way for Bergdorf Goodman

History: Cornelius II's summer home in Newport, Rhode Island, 'The Breakers,' still remains. The property was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971

Family: Gloria was the daughter of Reginald and Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt (pictured). Her father, Cornelius II's son, was an alcoholic who died of cirrhosis of the liver when she was one

New life: Gloria was left in the care of her mother Gloria Morgan, who was 20 when Reginald died. She grew up in France and didn't know anything about the Vanderbilts or her trust fund

A year after his wife Sophia's death in 1868, he married his cousin Frank Armstrong Crawford, who had an unusual first name for a woman.

When he died in 1877, he left the majority of his fortune to his eldest son, William Henry Vanderbilt, who inherited the title of America's richest man and doubled the family's wealth.

William built the first of the family's many mansions on the East Coast on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. The property, which resided between 51st and 52 Streets, was completed in 1882.

He resigned from the family business in 1883 due to poor health and died two years later, leaving the family business to his sons Cornelius Vanderbilt II and William Kissam Vanderbilt.

Cornelius II commissioned architect George B. Post to build him a massive mansion on Fifth Avenue between 57th and 58th Streets. It was the largest private residence ever built in Manhattan.

In the early 1890s, he commissioned the construction of his summer mansion 'The Breakers' in Newport, Rhode Island. Cornelius II's brother William Kissam also built lavish estates on Fifth Avenue and in Newport.

Their youngest brother, George Washington Vanderbilt II, had the least to do with the family business and opted to have his 250-room mansion, Biltmore Estate, built on 125,000 acres near Asheville, North Carolina.

The fourth generation of Vanderbilts wasn't as business-minded as their predecessors. Excessive spending, poor business decisions, and a decline in the railroad industry caused the family's fortune to dwindle.

Custody battle: In 1934, when Gloria was 10, her aunt, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, sued her mother Gloria Morgan for custody of her, claiming she was an unfit mother

Hard to handle: In the end, Whitney (pictured) was given custody of Gloria and the judge fired her beloved nanny, whom she called 'Dodo'

Sad: While recalling the heartache of losing Dodo in an interview with Cooper, Gloria said: 'She was my mother, my father, my everything. She was my lifeline; she was all I had'

A number of the family's mansions were demolished over the years, including the 'Cornelius Vanderbilt II House' on Fifth Avenue, which was sold in 1926 to make way for Bergdorf Goodman. Many of the mansions that have remained are now National Historic Landmarks.

Cooper's mother Gloria was the granddaughter of Cornelius II and his wife Alice Claypoole Vanderbilt.

Born in 1924, she was the only child of Reginald Claypoole Vanderbilt and his second wife Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt.

Her father was an alcoholic who died of cirrhosis of the liver when she was one, leaving her in the care of her mother Gloria Morgan.

Reginald left behind him a mountain of debt that pillaged his wealth, but he did set up a $5 million trust fund for Gloria to share with her older half-sister Cathleen Vanderbilt, his only child with his first wife Cathleen Neilson.

Gloria Morgan, who was 20 at the time of her husband's death and therefore considered a minor, was not given access to her daughter's portion of the trust fund.

Instead, she was issued $4,000 monthly installments to care for her daughter, but she used it frivolously.

As a child, Gloria lived in France and was unaware of the Vanderbilts or the trust fund she was set to inherit at age 21. She was predominantly cared for by her beloved nanny Emma Sullivan Kieslich nanny, whom she called 'Dodo.'

Correspondence: Cooper said that he found letters from his mother's relatives after her death. Gloria wrote the letters pictured to her grandmother Laura Kilpatrick Morgan as a child

Moving on: Gloria (pictured with her mother in 1939) socialized in Manhattan as she grew up and charmed film and play directors until she made connections in Hollywood

Too young: In 1941, a 17-year-old Gloria married Hollywood agent Pat DiCicco, a decision she instantly knew was a mistake, according to Cooper

In 1934, when Gloria was 10, her aunt, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, sued Gloria Morgan for custody of her, claiming she was an unfit mother. The trial exposed the dysfunction of one of America's wealthiest and most high-profile families at the time.

Whitney accused Gloria Morgan of being a lesbian. In turn, she claimed Whitney's art, which was full of nudism, would influence her daughter.

The tabloids feasted on the court battle, dubbing it the 'trial of the century' and giving the young Gloria the nickname 'poor little rich girl.'

In the end, Whitney was given custody of the child and the judge fired Dodo. Years later, Gloria recalled her heartache at the decision.

'She was my mother, my father, my everything. She was my lifeline; she was all I had,' she told her son in an interview.

As she grew up, she socialized in Manhattan and charmed film and play directors until she made connections in Hollywood where she would find three of her four husbands.

When she first arrived in Hollywood at the age of 17, her first boyfriend was one of the biggest stars of all time, Errol Flynn.

In 1941, a 17-year-old Gloria married Hollywood agent Pat DiCicco, a decision she instantly knew was a mistake, according to Cooper. The pair were together for four years before they divorced.

Parents: Cooper was raised by his mother and father, writer Wyatt Cooper (pictured in 1970), who was Gloria's fourth husband

Looking back: Cooper's son was named Wyatt Cooper after his father, who died when he was 10 years old. He is pictured with his parents and brother Carter in 1972

Tragedy: Cooper's brother Carter (pictured in 1976) died by suicide in 1988 when he was 23 years old

Legacy: Cooper said he wants his new book about his family's troubled history to be a 'letter' to his son Wyatt

She married her second husband, the conductor Leopold Stokowski, in 1945, when she was 21. He was 63 and she described it as love at first sight, despite the age gap.

They had two children together, Stanley and Christopher, and were married for 10 years before divorcing. She was later linked to a host of famous men, including Frank Sinatra and Marlon Brando.

In 1956, she married her third husband, the famous director and producer Sidney Lumet. They were together until 1963.

Her fourth marriage, to Cooper's father Wyatt, began four months after her divorce from Lumet. Together, they had Cooper and his brother Carter, who was two years older.

While raising her children, Gloria acted on Broadway and in films, wrote poetry and novels, and produced wildly popular art.

In the 1970s, she made a name for herself in the fashion industry with her line of denim  Gloria Vanderbilt Jeans  which were emblazoned with a swan and her name.

But her life was not without tragedy.

Ten years after the death of Cooper's father Wyatt in 1978, her son Carter leaped to his death in front of her from her apartment terrace.

Gloria remained close with Cooper and Stanley throughout their lives, but she and Christopher became estranged in 1978 when he accused her therapist of meddling in his love life.

When she died in 2019, the mother of four left the majority of her estate to Cooper. Her youngest son reportedly inherited all of his mother's belongings except for her co-op apartment at 30 Beekman Place in Manhattan, which went to Stanley.

Gloria did not leave anything in her will for her estranged son Christopher.
Meghan Markle looked the picture of elegance in an all-white ensemble while husband Prince Harry provided the perfect contrast in head-to-toe black as they posed on the cover of Time magazine.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who made it in the publication's 2021 list of the 100 most influential people on the planet, put on a stylish display as they posed on a terrace at their $14.65million mansion, having been styled by celebrity stylists Clare and Nina Hallwroth, who have recently dressed Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston,

The mother-of-two opted for a collared white shirt and tailored trousers, with Prince Harry resting on her shoulder behind donning a black shirt and coordinating trousers.

Speaking exclusively to FEMAIL, fashion stylish Rochelle White commented: 'The contrast of black and white fashion is seen and perceived as a signal of humility. It is a timeless colour palette and has been a staple in fashion.'

The Duchess of Sussex, 40, looked the picture of elegance in an all-white ensemble while husband Prince Harry provided the perfect contrast in head-to-toe black as they posed on the cover of Time magazine (pictured)

Another photograph shows the royal couple in matching grey and green office-style clothes next to a window in pictures taken by Serbian Pari Dukovic (pictured)

'Meghan and Harry appear to be showing their influencer status by wearing this and contrasting with each other. It also shows that they are in sync and are with each other in love and support.'

She continued: 'Their choices are saying a lot without saying anything. I feel that all of this is a symbol of their growth and evolvement over the past few years and their fashion is saying it without them having to.'

In another image, they can be seen in green smiling at each other and holding hands while walking through their estate in Montecito, California.

A further photograph shows the royal couple in matching grey and green office-style clothes next to a window in pictures taken by Serbian Pari Dukovic.

Meghan put on a casual display as she walked along with her hand in the pocket of her grey tailored trousers, which were paired with a green rollneck and moss-coloured coat (pictured)

While Meghan, who wore her hair tied back in a loose ponytail, put on a casual display as she walked along with her hand in the pocket of her grey tailored trousers, which were paired with a green rollneck and moss-coloured coat.

Meanwhile, the duke opted for a coordinating outfit to complement his wife which featured a crisp white shirt, smart trousers and a tailored blazer.

And according to Rochelle, not only is the Autumnal colour palette of green shades seen as 'chic,' it is also 'versatile and could mean peace, growth and balance.'

She added: 'Since leave the UK and living in the US, this is what Meghan and Harry have gained. I think this is a show of how they have evolved and grown.'
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Newly-divorced Melinda Gates managed to put her marriage woes aside this past weekend in order to throw her eldest daughter an intimate bridal shower at the $125 million lakefront eco-mansion she once shared with her ex-husband Bill.

The 57-year-old philanthropist played party host for the celebration, which took place in the grounds of the sprawling 66,000-square-foot property, with images shared by bride-to-be Jennifer revealing the group enjoyed drinks while overlooking the lake - before sitting down to an outdoor meal.

In the photos, which were posted on Instagram, the 25-year-old bride and her mother are seen laughing and smiling alongside their guests, with Jennifer praising her mom in her caption, writing: 'Thank you for this incredibly special celebration, @melindafrenchgates.'

The equestrian enthusiast and medical student - who announced her engagement to Egyptian show jumper Nayel Nassar, 30, in January 2020 - went on to thank the 'amazing women' who attended the party, which included several of her closest friends and family members.

Celebration: Newly-divorced Melinda Gates (right) hosted a bridal shower for her eldest daughter Jennifer (center) at the $125 million eco-mansion she once shared with ex Bill

Picturesque: Jennifer, 25, shared images from the 'incredibly special celebration' on her Instagram, where she praised the 'amazing women' who attended the event

'So deeply grateful for all the amazing women in my life who advise, support, and uplift me. [Cheers] to this new chapter!'

The budding doctor happily traded her medical scrubs for something more bridal in honor of the special occasion, for which she donned a white maxi dress with laser cut-out detailing across the skirt.

Happy times: Jennifer announced her engagement to Egyptian show jumper Nayel Nassar, 30, in January 2020

She paired the frock with a pale pink shawl and some nude heels, and she wore her long hair in loose waves around her shoulders.

In the images, she and her guests are pictured enjoying mimosas out of champagne glasses, while caterers are seen preparing food for all the attendees on long tables in the background.

After their drinks, the group sat down at a long table overlooking the lake, relaxing in cushioned pink chairs - in keeping with the apparent blush theme of the day, which was also incorporated into large floral arrangements that were scattered throughout the party.

The celebration comes just over a month after Jennifer's parents finalized their divorce - in which they split their $130 billion fortune, leaving Melinda with $65 billion from the estate.

But while it was initially reported that Bill, 65, would keep the sprawling Washington eco-mansion that he spent seven years building - the party location would suggest that Melinda still has open access to the home.

The property is one of several luxury mansions owned by the former couple - who boasted homes in various other locations across the US, including Florida, California, and Wyoming.

Views! The party looks as though it was held in the grounds of Xanadu 2.0, the Washington eco-mansion that Microsoft founder Bill, 65, spent seven years building

Pretty in pink: Jennifer (left) donned bridal white for the gathering, however she accessorized with a pale blush shawl - which matched the party's pink decor

Together again: The event looks as though it was attended by several members of the family, as well as some of Jennifer's close friends

However, Xanadu 2.0, as their Washington eco-mansion was known, was considered the jewel in their property portfolio, having taken more than seven years and $63 million to complete.

Bill first purchased the land for the home in 1988 for the relatively small price of $2 million, however he then spent the next seven years pouring money into creating his dream home - much to the chagrin of his new neighbors, who are understood to have been outraged by the construction site that blighted the otherwise stunning lakefront landscape.

Split: Bill and Melinda (pictured in 2018) shocked the world when they announced that they were divorcing earlier this year

'I wanted craftsmanship but nothing ostentatious,' Gates said of the home in his book, The Road Ahead, which was written from the guest house, while the main house was being constructed.

'I wanted a house that would accommodate sophisticated, changing technology but in an unobtrusive way that made it clear that technology was the servant, not the master.'

The home has an indoor-outdoor pool with an underwater music system and fossil designs on the floor, plus an ancient fossil imprint of a palm frond behind the diving board.

In the five-acre plot, there is an artificial stream stocked with salmon and cut-throat trout, and a beach with sand imported, according to some, from the Caribbean.

Inside the seven bedroom mansion, which reportedly boasts 18 bathrooms, is an art deco home cinema with seating for 20, and a 1,000-square-foot dining room with seating for 24.

For larger gatherings, the 2,300 square-foot reception hall can seat 150 people for dinner, or 200 for a cocktail party.

The 2,100-square-foot library includes two secret pivoting bookcases, one of which contains a bar.

A special nook has been constructed to display one of Gates's most prized possessions - a scientific notebook kept by Leonardo da Vinci in the early 1500s, called the Codex. Gates bought it at auction in 1994 for $30 million.

On the ceiling is engraved a quote from The Great Gatsby: 'He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it.'

Home sweet home? Their divorce settlement was finalized in August and sees the former couple splitting their $130 billion fortune - however it is not clear who has taken Xanadu 2.0

Family: Jennifer is older sister to Melinda and Bill's other two children - son Rory, 22, and daughter Phoebe, 19. The family is pictured together in November 2019

There are four rare copies of the book in his library, according to The Washington Post.

Guests at the property, according to Seattle Curbed, are giving a pin to wear on arrival, with sensors.

Depending on their preferences, the temperature, music and lighting will change in the house.

Each room comes with its own touchpad to control the room environment.

'I have a nice house,' said Gates, in a February 2019 'Ask Me Anything' forum on Reddit.

'It includes a trampoline room which seems kind of over the top, but my kids love using it to work off their excess energy. I am not sure how guilty I should feel about being in a great house.'

Xanadu 2.0 is not the only great house that was part of the Gates' enormous estate.

The former couple also owned a $59 million ranch in Wellington, Florida - an area known for its equestrianism, which no doubt appealed to Jennifer, who is a talented horsewoman.

Wellington, described by The Real Deal as the winter equestrian capital of the world, is the seasonal playground for the families of a number of billionaires  Michael Bloomberg, the late Steve Jobs, the Campbell's Soup family, and celebrities whose children compete in horse riding competitions.

The family also own the Irma Lake Lodge, a $9 million, 492-acre Wyoming ranch which was originally settled by Buffalo Bill in 1902 and named after his oldest daughter.

Project: Gates said that he wanted his sprawling Washington home to be of the highest craftsmanship, but not ostentatious

Sharing is caring? It was initially reported that Bill would likely keep Xanadu 2.0, which was described as his dream home, in the divorce however the couple has not shared further details about how they separated their assets

Process: Xanadu 2.0 took seven years to build - and it now contains a 30-car garage and a 20-room main living area

Gates bought the property in 2009.

According to the realtor's description, obtained by Insider: 'The ranch lies adjacent to Shoshone National Forest and nearby Washakie Wilderness, which gives this property a backyard of over three million acres containing continuous wilderness and forest lands.'

In addition to the main 15,000-square-foot house with its five bedrooms and three bathrooms, there is a guesthouse, caretaker's house, dairy cabin, Buffalo Bill stable and a rustic hut on the island located in the middle of Irma Lake.

Perched on a knoll is Buffalo Bill's original three-room hunting cabin - not fit for habitation, and kept in its original state.

The land is home to elk, moose, Mule deer, Bighorn sheep, bear, mountain lion, wolves, bobcats, wolverines and lynx.

The couple also have two homes in California - the 228-acre Rancho Paseana, which he purchased for $18 million in September 2014 from diet queen Jenny Craig.

It includes a racetrack, orchard, and five barns with space for 50 horses.

He bought another $43 million property in California near San Diego, closing the deal in April 2020.

The luxurious six-bedroom, four-bathroom, 5,800-square-foot home was sold by Madeleine Pickens, a former wife of the billionaire oil baron T. Boone Pickens.

According to the listing details, obtained by The Real Deal, the house is well-known as a city landmark and is considered 'one of the most prominent coastal contemporary beach homes on the West Coast.'

It has 120 feet of private ocean frontage.
Potentially preventable COVID-19 hospitalizations have cost the U.S. billions of dollars, a new analysis finds.

The Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) looked at hospitalization costs for unvaccinated people across the country since June 2021.

Researchers estimate that 287,000 hospitalizations have occurred over the past three months, including 187,000 in August alone.

Each one of these hospitalizations costs an average of $20,000, meaning that there was $5.7 billion in preventable health care spending over the past three months.

Researchers from KFF also note that this is a conservative estimate, meaning the true costs could be even higher.

A KFF analysis finds that more than $5.7 billion was spent by Americans on preventable Covid hospitalizations from June to August 2021

Researchers estimate that 287,000 hospitalizations have occurred over the past three months, mostly unvaccinated adults. Pictured: Staff members help a newly arriving 81-year-old COVID-19 patient get settled into the ICU ward at Roseland Community Hospital in Chicago, December 2020

Every single adult in the U.S. has been eligible for the Covid vaccine since about May with every state fully opening its rollout in the spring.

This means that, in practice, 250 million Americans are able to get the jabs - barring specific medical or religious circumstances preventing it and not including teens aged 12 and older, who are also eligible.

Many have still not received the shots, however.

According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 74 percent of eligible Americans have received at least one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine and 63 percent are fully vaccinated.

Adults, in particular, who are unvaccinated are making up almost all of the people hospitalized with the virus.

The KFF report estimates that 84 percent of the 456,000 Covid-related hospitalizations among unvaccinated people from June to August could have been prevented by vaccination.

Around $600 million was lost due to these preventable hospitalizations in June and $1.4 billion in July.

August was a particularly brutal month for the unvaccinated, with more than 100,000 people hospitalized, and $3.7 billion was lost.

'The monetary cost of treating unvaccinated people for COVID-19 is borne not only by patients but also by society more broadly, including taxpayer-funded public programs and private insurance premiums paid by workers, businesses, and individual purchasers,' the researchers wrote.

They also note that unvaccinated people with the virus also may have spread the virus more than vaccinated people, causing even more harm and costing more financially.

Additionally, although breakthrough infections and hospitalizations are rare, unvaccinated people are also more likely to spread the virus to those who have taken measures to protect themselves and others, and those costs are not included in these estimates, researchers wrote.

Health officials in the U.S have been using whatever tools they have at their disposal to get the remaining eligible Americans vaccinated.

Last week, President Joe Biden signed an executive order forcing every company that employs more than 100 people in the U.S. to institute a vaccine mandate or conduct weekly testing.

He also will require all federal employees and federal contractors to get jabbed in order to keep their jobs as well.

Additionally, any organization that receives Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement will have to ensure its employees are vaccinated, essentially mandating the shots for healthcare workers.
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One in 500 Americans has died from COVID-19 since the pandemic began even as the fourth wave continues to show signs of ebbing.

As of Wednesday morning, 663,963 U.S. residents have died from the coronavirus, according to figures complied by Johns Hopkins University - and the country's population sits at 331,449,281, the most recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows.

When the death toll is divided by the population total, it shows that 0.2 percent of Americans have died from virus-related causes.

The grim milestone comes as the overall number of average COVID-19 infections continues to rise but the growth rate significantly slows.

On Tuesday, officials recorded 143,895 new cases of Covid with a seven-day rolling average of 154,449, according to Johns Hopkins.

This is a 12 percent increase from the 137,058 average reported one month ago, a dramatic decline from the 150 percent increase reported over a four-week period last month.

Nearly half of U.S. states have seen Covid infections either decline or hold steady over the last week, a DailyMail.com analysis of the data shows.

Deaths have risen with 1,823 virus-related fatalities recorded on Tuesday with a seven-day rolling average of 1,873, which is a 163 jump from the average of 644 reported four weeks ago.

However, experts say that fatalities are a lagging indicator and often don't start to decline until two or three weeks after cases do.

While one-time hot spots such as Florida and Louisiana are improving, infection rates are still soaring in a few states, such as Ohio and West Virginia, fueled by low vaccination levels.

One in 500 Americans has died from COVID-19 since the pandemic began and 1,823 virus-related fatalities were recorded on Tuesday with a seven-day rolling average of 1,873

On Wednesday, the U.S. recorded 143,895 new cases of Covid with a seven-day rolling average of 154,449, a a 12% rise from the 137,058 average reported one month ago, a decline from 150 % increase reported over a four-week period last month

Nearly half of U.S. states have seen Covid infections either decline or hold steady over the last week

The country is well below the terrifying peaks reached in January 202, when it was averaging about 3,400 deaths and a quarter-million cases per day.

The U.S. is dispensing about 900,000 vaccinations per day, down from a high of 3.4 million a day in mid-April.

On Friday, a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel will meet to discuss whether the U.S. should begin giving booster shots of the Pfizer vaccine.

On another positive note, the number of people now in the hospital with COVID-19 appears to be leveling off or even declining at around 90,000, or about where things stood in February.

Last week, President Joe Bien ordered all employers with more than 100 workers to require vaccinations or weekly tests, a measure affecting about 80 million Americans.

And the roughly 17 million workers at health facilities that receive federal Medicare or Medicaid also will have to be fully vaccinated.

'We read about and hear about and we see the stories of hospitalized people, people on their deathbeds among the unvaccinated over the past few weeks,' Biden said in announcing the rules last week.

'This is a pandemic of the unvaccinated.'

The requirements have met with resistance and threats of lawsuits from Republicans, who say people should be able to choose whether or not they want to received the shots.

However, there are still U.S. hotspots, with some states seeing an increase in cases due to low vaccination rates.

The number of positive cases and people hospitalized for the coronavirus in West Virginia both smashed records as Gov Jim Justice scolded residents who continue to balk at receiving COVID-19 vaccines.

Last week, the number of confirmed virus cases statewide totaled about 8,860, breaking the weekly record of about 8,200 from early January.

In West Virginia, the number of positive cases and people hospitalized broke record levels with just 40% of all residents fully vaccinated

Covid cases have also been rising in Ohio with 7,325 recorded on Tuesday, and fewer than half of people in 66 of Ohio's 88 counties vaccinated

Additionally, there were a record 852 people hospitalized for the virus on Monday.

That blew past the mark of 818 set on January 5 and was a jump from 810 on Saturday. Such cases had bottomed out at 52 in early July before rising sharply over the past two months.

West Virginia currently has the lowest vaccination rate in the nation with just 40 percent of residents fully vaccinated, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data.

'This is a pandemic of the unvaccinated,' Justice said at a news conference.

At the conference, Justice introduced Linda Lanier, who said her adult son, Joe Goodnite, refused to get vaccinated and contracted COVID-19 on a family vacation.

He's been in a Charleston hospital for more than six weeks and remains on a ventilator.

Goodnite 'listened to all the negative and false accusations about vaccination,' she said.

Being in the medical field myself, I tried to convince him. However, it didn't work. He listened to his friends. He listened to social media. And he just listened to what I call the garbage that's out there.'

But while he was still able to talk in the hospital, 'he told people. 'Get vaccinated. You don't want this stuff,' Lanier added.

Covid cases have also been rising in Ohio with 7,325 recorded on Tuesday, with an average of 7,071 infections reported in the last week.

Additionally, there are more than 3,200 people hospitalized with COVID-19, an increase from the 2,600 reported last week.

An analysis from the Ohio Capital Journal found that fewer than half of residents in most Ohio counties are vaccinated against COVID-19.

In 66 of the state's 88 counties, the vaccination rate was found to be fewer than one out of every two people.

Health experts say they are frustrated that large numbers of Ohioans have declined to get vaccinated despite evidence that the shots are safe and effective.

'I'm not really sure we're going to change some people's minds about vaccines,' Pamela Riggs, commissioner of the Sidney-Shelby County Health Department, told the Capital Journal.

Sidney-Shelby County is the third-least vaccinated county in the stat, according to the newspaper

'I don't know what else to say. It has just been a very frustrating experience,' Riggs added.
One in ten children infected with coronavirus may suffer from 'long Covid,' a new study suggests.

The Israeli Health Ministry surveyed 13,834 parents of children between ages three to 18 who recovered from the virus.

More than 10 percent of parents reported their sons and daughters were still experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 months later.

However, rates dropped to as low as under two percent after six months.

Doctors have previously suggested that the percentage of kids with long Covid is very low and that most children who do suffer long-haul symptoms get better.

More than 11% of children who contract COVID-19 will develop long Covid after recovery, an Israeli study finds, with rates dropping as low as 1.8% after six months. Pictured: A child in Jerusalem is tested for the virus on September 3

The Israeli survey, which was conducted between May and June 2021, found that 11.2 percent of parents said their children who recovered from the virus continued to experience symptoms.

After six months, though, the number of children suffering the virus could drop to as low as 1.8 percent among children between ages three and six.

Children aged 12 to 18 were more likely to experience long term symptoms, with 4.6 percent of them still reporting the condition six months later.

Symptomatic Covid cases in children were discovered to be more likely to develop the condition than those who were asymptomatic.

A total of 5.6 percent of children 12 to 18 who had symptoms experienced the condition compared to 3.5 percent for the asymptomatic.

'In conclusion, based on the cumulative findings worldwide, it is evident that the coronavirus has long-term effects not only on the adult population but also among children,' Israeli officials wrote in a report that was initially published in Hebrew.

'The reported long-term morbidity rate means that there are thousands of children in Israel with long-term symptoms.'

A total of 243,373 child COVID-19 cases were reported between September 2 and September 9, which is a 3.3% decrease from the 251,781 cases recorded from August 26 to September 2

However, doctors have suggested the number is far lower with CDC director Dr Rochelle Walensky previously estimating between two percent and three percent suffer from long Covid.

Most children - even the small percentage who fall seriously ill - tend to recover.

Dr Daniel Munblit, a pediatric specialist at Imperial College London, told USA Today that experts shouldn't say that no children develop long Covid but also that 'we should not exaggerate the problem.'

According to a recent report from the American Academy of Pediatrics, 243,373 child COVID-19 cases were reported between September 2 and September 9.

This is a 3.3 percent decrease from the 251,781 cases that were recorded from August 26 to September 2.

In total, 5.2 million children have contracted the virus since the pandemic began, and just under 500,000 in the past two weeks.

What exactly causes long Covid, or how to treat it, has perplexed some experts.

Some believe it is caused by a person's immune system continuing to fight the virus even after it is gone.

Many symptoms a person feels when they are sick are not from the virus itself, but the body attempting to fight it.

If the immune system is still detecting a non-existent foreign substance like a virus, it will continue to make the person experience symptoms.

There are still no known consistently effective treatments or cures for long Covid, however.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) remains skeptical of COVID-19 vaccine booster shots ahead of an advisory committee meeting on Friday despite Pfizer-BioNTech releasing new data suggesting the need for them.

The Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) will meet at the end of the week to discuss data on potential third doses.

Members will vote on whether or not booster doses are safe and effective and if they should be approved for all Americans.

Currently, third doses are only approved for immunocompromised people in the U.S. aged 12 and older.

New data from Pfizer published on Wednesday suggests that efficacy of the regular two-dose regimen declines from 96.2 percent to 83.7 percent after six months, but that a booster dose increased immune responses.

However, in a separate briefing document also published Wednesday, FDA officials expressed doubt about the need for extra doses.

Documents ahead of an FDA advisory committee about COVID-19 vaccine booster shots were published on Wednesday. Pictured: A nurse administers a COVID-19 booster shot to Lana Sellers in Altamonte Springs, Florida, August 18

Pfizer released new data suggesting efficacy of two doses declines from 96.2% to 83.7% after six months but that third doses appeared to boost antibody levels (above) between five-fold and 12-fold, particularly among older adults

Last month, boosters were approved for immunocompromised Americans who had received either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine after data showed they were less likely to develop high antibody levels after two doses.

At the time, Pfizer said its early data suggested people who received booster doses between six and 12 months after their final dose had high levels of protection.

The company filed for emergency use authorization for booster doses in late August and submitted data, made public on Wednesday.

The documents suggest that protection from two doses of the Pfizer vaccine declines from 96.2 percent at seven days after dose 2 to 90.1 percent two months later to 83.7 percent up to six months later.

What's more, they cited data from Israel showing people fully vaccinated in January 2021 had a 2.26-fold increased risk for breakthrough infections compared to those fully vaccinated in April 2021.

Another Israeli study noted in the documents showed that effectiveness against infection was 39 percent and against symptomatic disease was 40 percent from June 20, 2021 to July 17, 2021, when the Delta variant was the dominant strain.

Comparatively, between January and April, these rates were at 95 percent or higher.

Antibody levels appeared to increase 3.1-fold 28 days after dose three (far right) compared to day five after dose 2 (second from the left)

The researchers say that even though Delta was the dominant strain during the summer, the declining percentages are a sign of waning vaccine efficacy not the variant.

'As described...emerging data suggest that vaccine protection may wane approximately six to eight months following the second dose, and evidence is building to suggest that administration of booster doses of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines is potentially an urgent emerging public health issue,' the authors wrote.

The team also released data a clinical trail involving 23 participants who participated in Pfizer's early-stage trials last year.

Each had received two doses of the vaccine and were given a booster dose at least six months later.

Of the participants, 11 were in the younger adults group of those aged 18 to 55 and 12 were aged 65 to 85.

After the third dose, neutralizing antibodies against the original strain of the virus rose five-fold in the 18-to-55 age group and seven-fold in the 65-to-85 group.

Against the Delta variant, antibody levels after a booster shot rose five-fold in the younger adult group and 12-fold in the older adult group.

In a separate document, FDA scientists wrote with a skeptical tone about the need for booster shots.

'Overall, data indicate that currently US-licensed or authorized COVID-19 vaccines still afford protection against severe COVID-19 disease and death in the United States,' the scientists wrote.

They added that studies on booster doses have presented conflicting findings and that 'known and unknown biases that can affect their reliability.'

Additionally, the scientists pondered over whether or not a third dose would increase rates of rare heart inflammation - myocarditis and pericarditis - seen in young males after two doses.

'It is currently not known if there will be an increased risk of myocarditis/pericarditis or other adverse reactions after a booster dose,' of the Pfizer vaccine, they wrote.

'These risks and associated uncertainties have to be considered when assessing benefit and risk.'
Betadine, an iodine-based antiseptic, has been falsely deemed a potential COVID-19 prophylactic. It is FDA-approved but has never shown any ability to combat viruses

An iodine-based antiseptic used for cleaning skin wounds is being touted by some anti-vaxxers as a way to prevent COVID-19.

Povidone iodine, which is sold under the brand name Betadine, has been the subject of false claims on social media, pushing it as a potential vaccine replacement.

Doctors and even the producer of the Betadine, Avrio Health, have warned against misusing the antiseptic and say it does not have any ability to prevent or treat Covid.

It comes only weeks after reports of people overdosing on veterinary versions of ivermectin, an anti-parasite drug, after reports that it could combat the virus.

The rumor surrounding Betadine appears to have started on a Thai television show called Tok Mai Tiang, which translates into The Discussion.

On the show, a doctor claimed that gargling iodine could potentially prevent a person who has been exposed to COVID-19 from being infected.

The video has been viewed more than350,000 times online, not including those who watched the show live when it aired on Thai television.

Whether the views on the video come from Thailand or Western viewers is not known.

Rumors about Betadine originated from a Thai television show, on which a doctor (left) told hosts (right) that gargling the iodine could prevent COVID-19

Other posts then began to crop up on social media sites such as Twitter, promoting the iodine to prevent infection from the virus.

'Betadine nose spray and throat gargle 4x/day. I was taking all these except IVM before I got sick. Betadine as soon as I found out I was exposed,' one Twitter post found by Newsweek wrote.

The developers of the antiseptic quickly moved to shut down these claims.

'No. Betadine Antiseptic First Aid products have not been approved to treat coronavirus,' reads a COVID-19 page on the official Betadine website.

'Betadine Antiseptic First Aid products should only be used to help prevent infection in minor cuts, scrapes and burns.

'Betadine Antiseptic products have not been demonstrated to be effective for the treatment or prevention of COVID-19 or any other viruses.'

Doctors have also warned against using the antiseptic as a method to treat or prevent Covid.

'There is no evidence to support the use of povidone-iodine in preventing Covid-19 infection. If it actually worked, then we would be spraying it all the time,' Dr Pokrath Hansasuta, an assistant professor of virology at Thailand's Chulalongkorn University, told AFP.

Betadine mouthwashes are often used to treat sore throats, a symptom someone may feel when infected with Covid.

Ointment versions of Betadine can also be used to treat skin rashes and prevent cuts and other abrasions from getting infected.

It is approved for use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), but not for use combatting viruses such as SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19.

The situation is similar to that of ivermectin, an anti-parasite drug that has also been touted as a drug that could prevent or treat the virus.

Ivermectin is approved by the FDA for human use to treat certain parasite-related conditions, and it is regularly available by prescription.

However, many are harming themselves because they are purchasing versions of the drug meant for large animals like cows and horses at livestock stores and consuming doses of that are too large to be considered safe for humans.

Ivermectin's developer, Merck & Co Inc, has also warned against using its drug to fight the virus.

Clinical trials will soon begin in Minnesota to test whether or not the anti-parasite drug ivermectin is effective at treating COVID-19.
Wise co-founder Taavet Hinrikus says he had never bought shares in a publicly-listed company, despite being a prominent angel investor and leading one of the UK's most valuable companies.

However, this morning the Wise chairman claims he has changed that with his first trade with Lightyear  a new DIY share investing platform in which he is an investor.

His former colleagues Martin Sokk, Wise's former head of product, and Mihkel Aamer  engineering lead  announced plans to launch earlier this summer.

Today it will start allowing users on its waiting list to start trading, as it aims to go head-to-head with the leaders of the upstart pack - such as eToro, Freetrade and Trading 212 - challenging established DIY investing platforms, such as Hargreaves Lansdown, AJ Bell and Interactive Investor.

Former Wise employees Mihkel Aamer and Martin Sokk came up with the idea for Lightyear after growing frustrated with existing apps and their hefty fees

Lightyear is another commission-free stock trading app coming to market looking to capitalise on the rise of DIY investment platforms.

It will only offer the ability to invest in shares and does not give customers access to high-risk CFD trading.

It was largely born out of Sokk and Aamer's own frustration with the current market, particularly the pricey currency conversion fees.

After working on removing some of the barriers associated with sending money abroad at Wise - previously known as Transferwise - Sokk and Aamer now want to apply the same principles to investing.

'Having spent my career in financial services, I've seen the good, the bad, and the ugly.

'I believe retail investing in Europe is still very much "the ugly," Sokk has said previously.

'We're talking about sneaky fees, less access and complicated products remaining as the status quo.'

Lightyear users will not be charged for foreign exchange fees up to 3,000 per month

For Hinrikus, this lack of transparency is precisely what has put him off buying shares in the past.

'While I have made plenty of private investments, I have never bought a public stock in my life.

'Part of that is because it has never simple enough for my liking,' he says.

'When Martin and Mihkel Aamer came in and told about their plans for Lightyear, I thought to myself maybe now it's time to start investing in public stocks, so I'm going to make my first trade on Lightyear.'

Like the Wise co-founder, this new generation of investors is increasingly attracted to big name US shares like Amazon and Tesla, but the currency conversion means they are faced with hefty charges on already pricey stocks.

Lightyear wants to remove this barrier - applying Wise's core principles - by offering its users multi-currency accounts and 'free' access to global markets.

Users, it says, will not pay account or trading fees and, unlike the majority of rival trading apps, foreign exchange charges. After 3,000 per month, users will have to pay 0.35 per cent in FX fees.

'We are building an investment app with Europe in mind.

'We have so many different currencies and countries in Europe, so having a good solution for FX is incredibly important and something that nobody has done before for investing,' says Sokk.

'Our multi-currency accounts allow people to deposit, hold and invest in multiple currencies, removing the need to be constantly converting your money back and forth which creates extra costs.'

Like its rivals Freetrade, Trading212 and eToro, Lightyear will give users the chance to buy fractional shares - a piece of a share rather than one or more whole individual stocks.

This enables investors to more easily invest in leading stocks with big ticket share prices.

'A high individual share price shouldn't be a barrier to entry when it comes to building a portfolio.

'We've removed all the transaction costs as well, which encourages people to diversify their portfolios through fractional trading,' adds Sokk.

DIY TRADING APP FEES

Transaction size FX rate FX fee Other fees Lightyear 1,000 0.0% N/A 5,000 0.35% 17.50 10,000 0.35% 35 eToro 1,000 50pips c12 (1) After 12 months with no login activity, a $10 monthly inactivity fee will be charged on any remaining available balance. No open positions will be closed to cover the fee. 5,000 50pips c46 (1) 10,000 50pips c88 (1) Freetrade 1,000 0.45% 4.50 The other costs for investors might include a subscription for their ISA (3/month), GIA (Free), SIPP (9.99/month), or for a Plus account (9.99 incl. the cost of their ISA). 5,000 0.45% 22.50 10,000 0.45% 45 Trading212 1,000 0.15% 1.50 5,000 0.15% 7.50 10,000 0.15% 15 (1) eToro - For complete end-to-end costs, i.e. depositing, opening position, closing position, and withdrawing funds (which has a $5 charge).

Early Monzo investor backs Lightyear in $10m round

Lightyear has clearly tapped into a demand for unfettered access to global stocks as newer investors look to diversify their portfolio.

More than 5,000 people have signed up to its waiting list which it launched just three months ago.

From today it will start allowing users the chance to trade more than 1,000 global stocks.

The buzz around Lightyear and its claim to shake up Europe's investment market has seen the team raise $10million from some of the industry's biggest players.

Following an initial $1.5million pre-seed round led by Hinrikus and Teleport co-founder Sten Tamkivi, the Lightyear team has secured a further $8.5million.

The round was led by Mosaic Ventures alongside existing investors and a handful of angel investors including early Monzo backer Eileen Burbidge.

'When it comes to investing in an early-stage business, it's crucial that the team is best in class, that I believe in the sector, and the product has global appeal.

'We've seen more and more people interested in retail investing over the past year and a half, which, combined with this highly motivated, extremely talented and high integrity team, makes for something special,' says Burbidge.

'I'm excited by Lightyear's commitment to transparency and building a platform that's approachable and inclusive, where everyone has the best access, tools and confidence to invest.'

The vote of confidence from such seasoned investors will certainly be welcome but it's still early days for Lightyear.

With plans to expand into Europe next year, Lightyear will have its work cut out competing with well-established platforms which have benefited from the pandemic spike.

The age-old question of whether it can make any money will also be crucial.

For now Lightyear is focused on building its customer base, but the founders have said they will look at a subscription model for access to more tools, news and more sophisticated products.

It says its standard investment account will always remain free.
The world will always need water, so surely it's a sensible investment?

H20 is a precious commodity and becoming increasingly scarce, leading some to dub it 'blue gold'.

The global water industry is also expected to become worth a trillion dollars a year within a decade.

Precious commodity: The global water industry is expected to become worth a trillion dollars a year within a decade

Climate change is understood to be altering weather patterns  causing water shortages and droughts in some areas, and devastating floods in others, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

Brazil has this year been hit with the worst-ever recorded drought, meanwhile Madagascar's shortage is so severe it is leading to famine.

At the same time, floods in Germany and Belgium this summer caused more than 180 deaths.

The WWF predicts that by 2025, two-thirds of the world's population may face water shortages unless a solution is found.

Rob Burgeman, investment manager at wealth advisers Brewin Dolphin, says there are funds available to retail investors that are focused on enhancing the future treatment and purification of water services.

H20 is a precious commodity and becoming increasingly scarce, leading some to dub it 'blue gold'

He says: 'There will be few countries that do not need to invest billions over the next 20 years to improve their water and waste services while addressing water shortages.

'As an investor, there are ways of getting access to this through a selection of exchange traded funds (ETF) and funds that offer exposure to this important industry.

'As ever, it is always best to seek financial advice to ensure your portfolio is diversified as effectively as possible.'

He says the iShares Global Water ETF gives exposure to the top 50 stock market firms involved in water-related business.

Holdings include American Water Works, Veolia Environmental and United Utilities. A 10,000 investment made five years ago, with dividends reinvested, would now be worth 20.381.

Meanwhile, the L&G Clean Water ETF aims to track the performance of a basket of stocks of companies that are involved in the international clean water industry.

A 10,000 investment made two years ago, when the fund was launched, would now be worth 15,259.

The Axa Framlington Global Clean Economy Fund also offers exposure to water and the sustainability of water supply. The fund has turned 10,000 into 17,735 in two years.

Mr Burgeman also suggests the new Fidelity Sustainable Water and Waste Fund that invests in worldwide water and waste management companies.

b.wilkinson@dailymail.co.uk
One of the private equity firms trying to buy Morrisons has struck a deal with the supermarkets pension scheme.

Clayton Dubilier & Rice has said it would ensure the retirement pot would be among the best funded and best supported in the UK.

It has pledged to put down further properties as collateral for the scheme if it wins the bid battle for Morrisons and to support plans for a member buyout within a decade.

Pension pledge: Private equity suitor Clayton Dubilier & Rice has said it would ensure the Morrisons retirement pot would be among 'the best funded and best supported in the UK'

The Morrisons scheme is in surplus but trustees had raised concerns that a debt-fuelled takeover could result in other creditors getting preference on assets if the business later ran into trouble.

But chairman of scheme trustees Steve Southern said: CD&R has been proactive in its engagement delivering a positive outcome for all members of Morrisons pension schemes.

CD&R and private equity firm Fortress are fighting to buy Morrisons, in a contest that looks likely to be settled by an auction this month.

At the moment, a 7billion bid from CD&R is preferred by Morrisons, after Fortress and a consortium bid 6.7billion. However it could still be trumped in the auction.

The Morrisons retirement saver plan and the Safeway pension scheme look after the retirement pots of around 85,500 current and former staff.

Both are well-funded, and are almost 700million in surplus. Trustees hope to get the pension schemes to a buy-out deficit within the next ten years.

However, pensions consultant John Ralfe said CD&R should be paying a big dollop of cash instead of providing property guarantees, adding: Trustees should be demanding this.
Priti Patel provoked fury today as she defended the decision to freeze police pay in a pre-recorded video message after failing to attend a conference for high-ranking officers in person.

The Home Secretary has told the Superintendents' Conference at the Crowne Plaza in Stratford-Upon-Avon that the government 'can't justify' higher salaries.

Ms Patel would normally be expected to attend the conference, as she did in 2019, although last year she spoke virtually for Covid reasons. She is believed to have been invited to attend this year, in person.

PSA president Paul Griffiths told delegates: 'It is disappointing that the Home Secretary is unavailable to attend our conference in person.'

Meanwhile, Police Federation chair John Apter tweeted: 'At the @policesupers conference, hearing that the Home Secretary is now not attending in person.

'In addition, the meeting I had with the Home Secretary later this week has also been cancelled. Seems engagement with the organisations representing police officers is not a priority!'

A conference attendee said Ms Patel's comment on the pre-recorded video that she was 'delighted' to attend the conference was met with laughter.

Allies of the Home Secretary would note that she was in Parliament voting on the social care bill at the time of the conference.

The Home Secretary is addressing the Superintendents' Conference at the Crowne Plaza in Stratford-Upon-Avon by pre-recorded video

A conference attendee said Ms Patel's comment that she was 'delighted' to attend the conference was met with laughter

It came as event organisers the Police Superintendents' Association (PSA) announced it was withdrawing from the independent system that sets their salaries after widespread outrage over a pay freeze.

The PSA is joining the Police Federation - which represents other ranks - in leaving the process following a bitter row over the Government decision to freeze pay for officers who earn more than 24,000.

In contrast, NHS staff will receive a 3% increase and firefighters and local government workers a 1.5% rise.

Today, Met Police commissioner Cressida Dick defied ministers by backing union calls for higher pay, saying: 'I do believe police deserve a pay rise and a fair system for calculating it.'

Mr Griffiths would normally make his annual conference address to Ms Patel in person but this year she will instead provide a recorded speech.

In the video, she said: 'The pandemic deepened the disparity between public and private sector wages - many private sector workers lost jobs, or saw their wages seriously reduced.

'This meant the Chancellor could not justify an across-the-board pay increase for public sector workers.

'He asked the advice of the pay review bodies, proposing to raise pay in the NHS but pause pay rises elsewhere in order to protect jobs.

'This pandemic is something we have never experienced before - a truly seismic event which has affected many sectors and employers across the entire economy.

'It has meant even tougher choices than usual. None of us wanted to be in this situation.'

PSA president Paul Griffiths would normally make his annual conference address to Ms Patel in person but this year she will instead provide a recorded speech.

Shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds said the pay review system must urgently be reviewed.

He added: 'Now that the Police Superintendents Association has joined the Police Federation in withdrawing from the pay-review body, the Home Secretary must - urgently - address how it can be reformed so police have confidence in a system that works for them.'

Currently, the independent Police Remuneration Review Body (PRRB) gathers information from various groups including those representing officers as well as the Home Office, before recommending what pay levels the Government should set.

Today, Met Police commissioner Cressida Dick backed union calls for higher pay, saying: 'I do believe police deserve a pay rise and a fair system for calculating it'

The Police Federation, which represents more than 130,000 officers from the rank of constable to chief inspector, withdrew from the system in July, with chairman John Apter calling it 'inherently unfair'.

Mr Griffiths told delegates at the PSA annual conference: 'No one enters policing to get rich. It is a vocation and a career that provides challenge and demands sacrifice like no other - something clearly demonstrated amidst the pandemic.

'However, with very few employment rights, it is essential that police officers have fair and transparent processes in place to determine their pay, and that they have a clear voice within this.

'The Government direction on public service pay has overridden these processes, making decisions around pay in advance of the evidence it requests from stakeholders right across the service.

'Currently, we have no procedural justice when it comes to pay and police officers are not being heard.

'It is for this reason that I can announce today that the Police Superintendents' Association is withdrawing from the PRRB process.'

The announcement of the pay freeze provoked fury, with the Police Federation passing a vote of no confidence in Home Secretary Priti Patel over pay, and chairman of the National Police Chiefs' Council Martin Hewitt writing to her to stress that officers 'deserve better'.

Inspector Andrew Berry, chairman of the Devon & Cornwall Police Federation, said: 'At the heart of the issue is a Police Pay Body, the PRRB, (Police Remuneration Review Body) which is incredibly unfair in its design and biased against police officers of all ranks.

'The Home Secretary tells the PRRB what it can consider and then once the PRRB has produced its recommendations the Home Secretary is at liberty to ignore them.

'This year even the independent members of the review body commented about the restrictions the Home Secretary had placed on their independence.

'The Home Secretary currently presides over a shoddy, patently unfair sham of a process that is a continuing insult to officers.'
Professor Andrew Hayward, an epidemiologist on SAGE, said 'we have to live with hospitalisations' from Covid

Britain must learn to 'live with hospitalisations' from Covid and stop obsessing over the daily numbers, one of the Government's scientific advisers said today.

Hospital admissions were the key focus in Boris Johnson's winter Covid plan announcement last night, warning that lockdown curbs could be rolled back if they soar.

And since the vaccines became widely available, attention has turned away from case numbers to hospitalisations, which are a better indicator of severe illness and NHS pressure.

Professor Andrew Hayward, an epidemiologist and SAGE member, warned it was inevitable more people are admitted with the virus in winter.

He told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: 'We are in this for the long-term, so Covid isn't going to just go away, no matter how much we vaccinate.

'Covid will continue to transmit every winter so we need to come to a point where society can function and live with the virus and that does mean we have to live with hospitalisations that relate to it.'

He didn't put a number on the number of hospitalisations that could be tolerated this winter. But the comments came after SAGE warned yesterday there could be 7,000 daily Covid hospital admissions by next month.

Modelling by SAGE  now infamous for repeatedly overegging the UK's epidemic  found hospital numbers could eclipse previous waves despite the vaccine rollout.

To reach 7,000, which SAGE said was a 'likely' scenario, daily admissions would need to see a meteoric seven-fold rise in the space of a month.

Even the group's most optimistic scenario still forecasts about 2,000 a day  double the amount occurring now. Admissions peaked at around 4,000 during the darkest spell of the second wave.

Meanwhile, Sajid Javid today doubled down on the Government's warning that another lockdown could be needed if the Covid crisis gets out of hand this winter.

The Health Secretary claimed it would be 'irresponsible' to rule out the intervention completely, but said he was optimistic it won't be necessary because of the vaccine effect.

It follows the Prime Minister's warning last night that a lockdown would be a 'last resort' Plan B and only used if the NHS is in danger of being overwhelmed in winter.

Mr Javid, who is much more of a 'hawk' than his predecessor Matt Hancock, said he wanted to avoid a lockdown because of its detrimental effects on cancer and other health conditions.

He did, however, warn that ministers may need to turn to drastic interventions again in years down the line if new variants that can escape vaccines become widespread.

SAGE'S LATEST GLOOMY MODELS: In an absolute worst-case scenario, which would see the reprotection 'R' rate soar to 2, there could be even more than 8,000 daily hospital admissions by the middle of October (RED). That would be double the number at the worst of the second wave in January, before jabs were widely available. But SAGE admitted this was 'very unlikely' to happen because of how well the vaccines are suppressing the virus. A more likely scenario could see the R  the average number of people each Covid patients infects  rise to 1.5, which could trigger between 5,000 and 7,000 daily hospitalisations at a peak next month (BLUE). The most optimistic forecast has the R rate hovering at 1.1 through the autumn, with daily hospital admissions sitting at roughly 2,000 (GREEN)

Sajid Javid today refused to rule out another lockdown if hospital admissions spike

CURRENT UK COVID HOSPITALISATIONS: The country is currently recording 1,000 daily admissions on average. Even in SAGE's best-case scenario, this is set to double by next month

Pressures on A&E and increasing hospital admissions could trigger the Government's Plan B for tackling Covid, according to the winter plan.

Mr Javid defended not bringing in more stringent measures now, saying vaccines, boosters and new treatments offer 'a very strong' package of tools at present.

MPs don't need to wear masks in Commons because 'they are not strangers', Javid claims Tory MPs do not need to wear masks in the Commons because they are not 'strangers', the Health Secretary has claimed. Sajid Javid said the Government's advice was that people should consider wearing face coverings when they were gathered in a crowded space with people they did not normally mix with. He said a photograph of the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, showing ministers around the table with their faces uncovered, was consistent with that advice. 'What we said is that people should consider wearing masks in crowded places when they are with strangers, when they are with people they are not normally spending time with,' he told Sky News. Asked about Conservative MPs who were not wearing masks when he made his statement in the Commons, he said: 'They are not strangers. Conservative backbenchers, whether they are in Parliament, in the chamber itself or other meeting rooms  you have to take measures that are appropriate for the prevalence of Covid at the time.' Since Parliament resumed full sittings there has been a stark difference between the number of MPs wearing masks on the Opposition benches and on the Conservative side of the House. During his Commons statement on Tuesday, Mr Javid was heckled by Opposition MPs pointing out his unmasked colleagues as he suggested people should wear a face covering in 'crowded, enclosed spaces where you can come into contact with people that you don't normally meet'. Boris Johnson's former aide Dominic Cummings branded the Health Secretary 'trainwreck Saj' for suggesting that 'MPs dont (sic) need masks cos 'theyre (sic) not strangers''. The former No 10 adviser, who argued for tighter lockdown measures in autumn 2020, mocked the Government's Plan B policy of extra restrictions only coming in when the situation was already 'out of control'. Advertisement

During a round of interviews, he denied the UK is in the same position as this time last year, saying the 'big, big difference' is that vaccines are offering a strong line of defence against Covid.

'What happens in the NHS is going to be hugely important to me, to the whole country, making sure that we don't get to a position again where the NHS becomes unsustainable.

'I think we're going to have to look at a number of measures so of course that would be the level of hospitalisation, it will be the pressures on A&E, the pressures on the workforce, so we'd have to take all of these together.'

However, he declined to put a number on how many cases or admissions would trigger Plan B.

Under the blueprint set out by the Government on Tuesday, Plan B includes measures such as vaccine passports, mandatory face masks and advice to work from home.

Experts have told the PM he must be prepared to 'go hard, go early' if cases start to tick up, bringing back rules such as working from home with as little as a week's notice.

Mr Javid said another lockdown was unlikely to be needed this winter because of how well the vaccines are protecting people.

He told BBC Breakfast: 'No-one wants to see another lockdown, I certainly don't. I don't think we are going to need to see another lockdown. I think the vaccines are working.

'But I think it would be irresponsible for any health minister in the world to say that this or that is 100 per cent ruled out, not least because I just don't know whether at some time in the future  next year, the year after, the year after that  there might be a vaccine-escape variant that doesn't work with the current suite of vaccines.

'We always have to be vigilant but we have made huge gains in the last few months.

'We have done those together as a country and the plan yesterday we set out is a plan that will help protect those gains.'

SAGE's most optimistic scenario still forecasts about 2,000 daily hospital admissions this winter  double the amount occurring now  which it warned could lead to a 'difficult few months' for the NHS.

Mr Javid, commenting on the models, told Sky News: 'It is right that experts are looking at what is happening and come up with their best guess of where things might go based on certain assumptions,' he said.

'Back when we made the Step 4 decision there were also experts saying that case rates are going to surge to 200,000, hospitalisations are going to go to 2,000 to 3,000 a day  don't do it.

'We have to listen to them but eventually make what we think is the right decision. There is no risk-free decision but I think what we have announced in terms of this plan, is well thought through.

'It is the act of a responsible Government to set out this is our plan, this is how we are going to protect the gains, but just in case things are not quite as we want them to be we have got to have another plan and get that ready too.'

SAGE calls for a return to the 'pingdemic' if crisis spirals The Government's scientific advisers have called for controversial isolation rules to be brought back in this autumn if hospitalisations start to rise quickly. In advice submitted to ministers last week - but only made public yesterday - SAGE recommended isolating all close contacts of Covid cases, regardless of their vaccination status. It was only this summer that the Government scrapped these rules for fully-jabbed citizens after the measure wreaked chaos across the country. Shops and hospitality were forced to close because so many people were being 'pinged' by the Covid NHS app, which led to food shortages and hospital staffing crises. Advertisement

SAGE has recommended a 'relatively light' set of restrictions are brought back at the first sign of an uptick in hospital numbers, including masks, working from home and a return to isolating all close contacts of Covid cases.

But SAGE's models did not factor in the effect of vaccinating healthy 12 to 15-year-olds or giving booster doses to 30 million vulnerable Britons, two policies that were only announced in the last two days.

Dr Mike Tildesley, one of the scientists behind the models, said reintroducing measures 'quickly', if needed, will mean restrictions do not need to be in place for a prolonged period.

He said: 'At the point that there is a concern, it's really important that any measures are introduced rapidly so that, if that's the case, we catch this rise in infections as it occurs and any measures that are introduced hopefully don't need to be in for as long a period of time in total.

'I don't think there's a suggestion at all that we are in a situation that we need to be mandating lockdown  just that if we start to observe trends where hospital admission start to rise in a concerning way, then it's better to introduce some measures earlier so that we don't end up in a situation that we were last year.'

He said the hospital admissions modelling for Sage include 'best and worst-case scenarios' but the worst-case scenarios are 'not necessarily an expectation'.

Professor Andrew Hayward, an infectious disease expert on SAGE who was not involved in the modelling, said the country needs to learn to live with Covid hospital admissions.

He told the BBC's Radio 4 Today programme: 'We are in this for the long-term, so Covid isn't going to just go away, no matter how much we vaccinate Covid will continue to transmit every winter so we need to come to a point where society can function and live with the virus and that does mean we have to live with hospitalisations that relate to it.'

Scrapping WFH could trigger massive surge, says top adviser Britons should not be forced back to the office because it could trigger a 'rapid increase' in Covid cases, a SAGE adviser has warned. Professor Stephen Reicher said the number of contacts people had already risen to its highest level this year driven by the return to the workplace. He said this increased the likelihood of someone coming into contact with another person who had the virus, and getting infected. Professor Reicher told Times Radio: 'So, the problem isn't that people are choosing to party all the time, the problem is people are given no choice because they are required to go back to work.' Boris Johnson lifted guidance to work from home where possible on 'Freedom Day' July 19, and workers have trickled back to offices since. But unveiling his winter plan at a Downing Street press conference yesterday the Prime Minister warned that the measure could be brought back. Should booster shots for the over-50s and jabs for 12 to 15-year-olds fail to keep the lid on the virus, he said the country will be forced to switch track. But the warning has already sparked fury from pubs, shops and small businesses that are only just getting back on their feet after months of closures. Experts have warned returning to working from home this winter could cripple the economy and lead many businesses to close down. Advertisement

Latest figures showed another 1,009 people were admitted to hospitals across the UK with Covid on September 9, a levelling off from the 988 admissions recorded the same time the previous week.

The country is now recording 1,000 hospitalisations per day, up from around 750 from 'Freedom Day' on July 19, when all legal curbs were lifted in England.

The hospital admission forecasts were done by SAGE's modelling sub-committee SPI-M, who submitted their projections to ministers on September 8.

In an absolute worst-case scenario, which would see the reprotection 'R' rate soar to 2, there could be even more than 8,000 daily hospital admissions by the middle of October.

That would be double the number at the worst of the second wave in January, before jabs were widely available. But SAGE admitted this was 'very unlikely' to happen because of how well the vaccines are suppressing the virus.

A more likely scenario could see the R  the average number of people each Covid patients infects  rise to 1.5, which could trigger between 5,000 and 7,000 daily hospitalisations at a peak next month.

The most optimistic forecast has the R rate hovering at 1.1 through the autumn, with daily hospital admissions sitting at roughly 2,000. Currently the UK R rate is estimated to be between 0.9 and 1.0, but the estimate lags several weeks behind due to the way it is calculated.

SPI-M said it was concerned about high infection numbers, with about 33,000 people testing positive every day, as well as the impact of schools returning and more office workers going back.

The group said it will take a further three to four weeks for the full impacts of these behavioual changes.

In the advice published today, it said: 'While the relationship between cases and hospitalisations has changed due to vaccination, increasing cases remain the earliest warning sign that hospital admissions are likely to rise.'

The group admitted there were high uncertainties about how the epidemic will transpire now but called for light restrictions to be imposed quickly to avoid more damaging measures being needed later.

'If enacted early enough, a relatively light set of measures could be sufficient to curb sustained growth. During a period of sustained epidemic growth, however, the more stringent the measures introduced, the shorter the duration needed for the measures to be in place to reduce to a given prevalence.

'It also remains the case that the earlier that interventions are brought in to curb growth, the lower prevalence is kept, reducing the direct COVID-19 burden and reducing the risk of needing more stringent measures to quickly reduce transmission.'

The advisers also raised concerns about workers returning to offices too quickly. 'There is a clear consensus that continued high levels of homeworking has played a very important role in preventing sustained epidemic growth in recent months.

'It is highly likely that a significant decrease in homeworking in the next few months would result in a rapid increase in hospital admissions.'
A New York judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked the state from enforcing a requirement that healthcare workers receive COVID-19 vaccines against the wishes of employees with religious objections.

U.S. District Judge David Hurd in Utica, in a written order, said he was blocking the mandate from taking effect on September 27 because it does not allow for exemptions based on workers' religious beliefs.

The order came in a lawsuit filed Monday by 17 doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals who say New York's requirement violates their constitutional rights in various ways.

A lawsuit was filed Monday by 17 doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals who say New York's requirement violates their constitutional rights in various ways

New York resident Krystel Walk interacts with a large crowd rainsing their voices against a mandate to get vaccinated or lose their jobs at Stony Brook University in Stony Brook, New York on August 25, 2021

The plaintiffs are all Christians who say they object to receiving the vaccines because the cell lines of aborted fetuses were used in their testing and development.

Hurd gave the state until September 22 to respond to the lawsuit, and said he will hold a hearing on September 28 whether to block the vaccine requirement from taking effect pending the outcome of the case.

The mandate was issued last month by former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who said at the time that about 75% of the state's roughly 450,000 hospital workers were fully vaccinated.

The New York Attorney General's office, which represents the state, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Nor did lawyers for the plaintiffs.

U.S. District Judge David Hurd in Utica, in a written order, said he was blocking the mandate from taking effect on September 27 because it does not allow for exemptions based on workers' religious beliefs.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo speaks during a news conference, Monday, May 10, 2021

Just last week, President Joe Biden announced the federal government's aggressive new approach to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, which included new vaccine rules that the White House says will affect two-third of the American workforce.

The strategy involves six steps all aimed at boosting the US vaccination rate, which fell over the summer as a new wave fueled by the Delta variant plunged health care systems in areas with largely unvaccinated populations back into disarray.

About 73.4 percent of Americans over the age of 12 have at least one vaccine dose, but less than 63 percent are fully vaccinated - far short of the threshold to reach herd immunity.

President Joe Biden announced the federal government's aggressive new approach to fight the COVID-19 pandemic on Thursday, which include new vaccine rules that the White House says will affect two-third of the American workforce

The rate of COVID vaccinations slowed down going into summer, sending the White House into a frenzy looking for ways to encourage people to get the shot

Biden's approach includes mandating all federal employees and federal contractors get vaccinated, requiring vaccinations for more than 17 million healthcare workers at Medicare and Medicaid-participating facilities and requiring all businesses with 100 or more employees to tell their workers to get vaccinated or submit to weekly COVID testing.

On Saturday, a hospital in upstate New York announced it will temporarily stop delivering babies after six employees in a maternity ward resigned instead of getting vaccinated for COVID-19.

Lewis County General Hospital in Lowville said on Friday that it will pause delivering babies after September 24.

In Texas, employees at the Houston Methodist hospital walked out of their shifts to protest the health system's COVID-19 vaccine requirement in June.

Ashton Handley, a worker who resigned a few weeks before the protest, said she believes getting the vaccine is a choice.

'I'm not on either side, I'm not anti-vaxxer, I've received my vaccine, but I believe it should be someone's choice," she told Houston's FOX 26 at the time.
All healthcare staff in Victoria must get a Covid-19 jab or risk losing their jobs under strict new government orders.

Staff at Victorian public and private hospitals as well as GPs and medical clinics will need to be fully vaccinated against the virus as part of the state government plan.

St Vincent's Hospital has already made the jabs compulsory for all of its staff and volunteers across its 16 public and private hospitals, including in Melbourne.

Health care workers at a Covid-19 vaccination hub at the Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital in Melbourne on Monday. All healthcare staff in Victoria must get a Covid-19 jab or risk losing their job as part of new government health orders

A woman receives a rapid Covid test on Monday. Workers employed in Victorian public and private hospitals as well as GPs and medical clinics will need to be fully vaccinated against the virus

The Andrews Government has yet to officially reveal which workers will have to get vaccinated to keep their job, but The Herald Sun reported it would be thousands.

Deputy Premier James Merlino on Tuesday said talks were already underway to impose mandatory vaccination orders in Victoria.

'My view on vaccination is its our pathway through this pandemic and whether youre a teacher, whether youre an education support staff member or a student, get vaccinated,' he said.

NSW health workers have already been told they must be fully immunised or booked in for their second Covid-19 jab by November 30 to continue working.

Among staff working for NSW Health, 20 per cent are still unvaccinated, despite having priority access in the Covid-19 vaccination rollout since February.

Health Minister Brad Hazzard urged staff to come forward and get jabbed to help ease pressure on the public health system, with more than 1,200 healthcare workers have entered isolation each day in the past week.

'Many health workers in NSW are already vaccinated but if all of our staff are vaccinated it will provide greater protection for patients, visitors and other health staff,' he said.

Deputy Premier James Merlino on Tuesday said talks were already underway to impose mandatory vaccination orders in Victoria. Pictured is a health care worker at a pop-up Covid-19 testing centre in Brisbane on Saturday

'The public and private health systems have a responsibility to implement every possible measure to provide a safe work environment for their staff and most importantly, safe circumstances for their patients.'

An exemption has been granted for workers with underlying medical conditions.

Jabs for contagious diseases such as influenza, chicken pox, measles, and whooping cough are already compulsory for frontline workers.

Healthcare staff must provide proof of their vaccination status to their employer by September 30 or face losing their jobs.

NSW frontline health workers (pictured) must receive at least one dose by September 30 and be fully vaccinated by November 30

Qantas also made vaccination mandatory last month, requiring all of its 22,000 employees to be fully immunised against Covid-19.

Cabin crew, pilots and airport workers must receive both jabs by November 15 with the remainder of workers to be vaccinated by March 31 next year.

'Having a fully vaccinated workforce will safeguard our people against the virus but also protect our customers and the communities we fly to,' Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said.

As part of the national airline's commitment to safety Mr Joyce 'strongly encouraged' all staff to get jabbed, even offering paid time off to receive the vaccine.
Workers in a Brisbane office block shared the facility with a Covid-infected person for 10 days before finding out, an

The incident occurred at the start of the pandemic in March 2020 at the Skyscraper Centre, Albert Street in the Brisbane CBD.

The building houses a number of government departments, including the Queensland Mental Health Tribunal.

The Covid-positive person worked at the the Skyscraper Centre, 53 Albert Street in the Brisbane CBD in March 2020

Queensland Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young responded, 'it's happening everywhere' when informed about the Skyscraper case by email

In an email chain, president of the Tribunal Annette McMullen emailed Queensland's Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young in March 2020 to tell her a security guard at the building was telling workers there had been a positive case in the building, the Courier Mail reported.

Ms McMullen was told 'the men in hazmat suits had been'.

She said her inquiries to the building manager were dismissed before she was contacted by an employee of the Department of Housing and Public Works to confirm there had been a positive worker in the building 10 days earlier.

Ms McMullen said she was told the security guard should not have been telling people about the case.

'He said they didn't have a protocol as yet for advising tenants because they didn't want to create unnecessary hysteria.'

Dr Young responded to the email by commenting that 'it's happening everywhere', and referred to other active cases identified at the time.

Three new cases were recorded in Queensland at the time the positive worker was identified in mid-March. By March 30 there were 689 active cases in the state, and 33 new cases recorded on that day.

Yesterday Queensland recorded two new cases among a total of 28 active cases. Total cases since the start of the pandemic last year now numbered 2,009.

Health care workers conduct tests at a pop-up Covid-19 testing centre at St Thomas More College at Sunnybank, Brisbane

An outbreak associated with the St Thomas More College at Sunnybank in Brisbane's southern suburbs appears to be under control, Dr Young said yesterday.

The email about the Skyscraper Centre was included in court documents for a current Federal Court case, Chubb Insurance Australia Limited v Market Foods Pty Limited.

Queensland Health would not comment on the email exchange because it not a party to the proceedings.
A woman was dragged to her death by a train departing a San Francisco station, after her dog's leash, which was wrapped around her waist, got caught in the doors and pulled her onto the tracks.

Amy Adams, 41, was identified by the San Francisco Medical Examiner after she was killed by a BART train departing the Powell Street station Monday at 3.16pm.

According to a statement from BART, Adams was on the platform with a dog that was tethered to her waist, when she boarded a Dublin/Pleasanton bound train.

A woman was dragged to her death by a train departing a San Francisco station, after her dog's leash, which was wrapped around her waist, got caught in the doors and pulled her onto the tracks

Amy Adams, 41, (not pictured) was identified by the San Francisco Medical Examiner after she was killed by a BART train departing the Powell Street station Monday at 3.16pm

Right as the doors were closing, Adams suddenly decided to exit the train as the dog remained behind.

Adams was said to be waving at someone, BART said .

The train departed the station with the dog still inside, as Adams was dragged and pulled onto the track. The dog was not injured, and there was indication it was a service animal.

'This is a tragic loss of life, and we are following all safety protocols,' said BART Spokesperson Alicia Trost.

Leashed or harnessed service dogs are allowed on BART trains, while all other animals, including non-service dogs, must be in carriers.

According to a statement from BART, Adams was on the platform with a dog that was tethered to her waist, when she boarded a Dublin/Pleasanton bound train

Heather Griffin, who was at the Powell station after the tragedy occurred, told KTVU she saw a woman named Angela holding onto a German shepherd.

Griffin said the dog was wearing a service vest, but had no collar or tags, which she said belonged to the woman.

Angela brought the dog to a BART station agent, who then returned it to Adams' roommate, Griffin recounted.

'She was very shaken up,' Griffin said. 'Everyone was very sad.'

Griffin added that Angela told her she saw a mother and daughter crying because they witnessed Adams being dragged by her backpack after banging on the doors of the moving train.

'It was a rough evening,' Griffin said. 'Aside from all the commute issues.'

BARTs Chief Safety Officer is working with NTSB investigators and BART Police and the investigation is on-going.
The TikTok comedian who developed a cult following for predicting NSW's daily Covid cases will fight charges related to his attendance at Sydney's illegal anti-lockdown rally.

Jon-Bernard Kairouz was among 3,500 people who rallied at a violent protest in Sydney's CBD on Saturday July 24 and was filmed addressing the crowds on a megaphone.

Bankstown Local Court heard on Tuesday that the 24-year-old will defend three charges when he appears in Downing Centre Local and District Court next month.

The self-appointed 'people's Premier' is charged with two counts of not complying with noticed direction (Covid-19) and encouraging commission of a crime.

Three police detectives were waiting outside his home in Belmore, in Sydney's south-west, on Sunday July 25 to present him with his court attendance notice.

As Mr Kairouz rounds the corner wearing a NSW Blues Origin jersey, one detective approaches him and explains the criminal charge.

TikTok comedian Jon-Bernard Kairouz (pictured) will fight charges relating to Sydney's illegal anti-lockdown protests

Jon-Bernard Kairouz (pictured) was among 3,500 people who attended an illegal protest in the Sydney CBD on Saturday July 24 and was filmed addressing the crowds on a megaphone

As he explains it is for a breach of the public health act, the TikTok comedian interrupts him and motions for officers not shown in the video to move back.

'I'm listening, yeah... can you just take it easy?' He asks one of the other officers as a friend films the encounter.

The comedian appeared unworried when the notice was handed to him, thanking the police and telling them to 'have a good day'.

A group of investigators are seen waiting outside a Belmore home in Sydney's south-west on Sunday July 25 to issue the Sydney comedian with a penalty infringement notice

As the investigator explains the fine is for a breach of the public health act the TikTok comedian interrupts him and motions for people not shown on the video to move back

Angry fans were quick to voice their disappointment at his attendance.

'Hope you enjoyed the protest, because everyone has lost respect for you,' one woman wrote.

'He was pressed they were close to him but then not pressed to be close to thousands of people at the march? Interesting,' another wrote.

'You had a big rise and an even bigger fall, how hilarious,' a third commented.

'This was my favourite CrimeStoppers call by far but I was probably beaten by 2000 calls first. Everyone was keen to call this loser in,' a fourth shared.

'Maybe he can predict how many people will be in court to greet him,' a user joked.

Mr Kairouz appeared in Bankstown Local Court on Tuesday and indicated he will fight three charges including not comply with a noticed direction and encourage commission of a crime (pictured, Jon-Bernard Kairouz at anti-lockdown protests)

NSW Police set up Strike Force Seasoned to track down all attendees at the protest, which was feared by health officials to be a coronavirus super-spreader event.

Kairouz was filmed at the July protest holding a megaphone and declaring himself 'the people's Premier' as he whipped a crowd of thousands into a frenzy outside Town Hall.

'All we want is freedom,' he shouted to a roar from the crowd, before sharing clips of the speech to his Instagram, which were later deleted.

But the stunt quickly backfired, with some of his 57,100 followers questioning why he joined thousands of protesters and risked extending the city's lockdown.

'This is f**king ridiculous,' one person wrote. 'If your aim is freedom  you've f***ed up by bringing thousands of people together. Watch the spike. Congrats!'

'There are people in ICU how selfish can you be?' added another.

Mr Kairouz accurately predicted the count of NSW Covid figures five days in a row, before his suspected source in NSW Health was exposed

Kairouz shot to fame during Sydney's lockdown after correctly reporting how many cases NSW would announce the following morning five times in a row.

His streak ended on July 19 with his prediction of 109, beyond the actual figure of 98.

Health Minister Brad Hazzard said it was a 'disappointment someone, somewhere in the system' felt it was necessary to leak the numbers to Mr Kairouz.

'I saw someone saying on social media that it was a sting. No it wasn't,' Mr Hazzard told reporters on Monday.

'It was looking at what the issues were and making sure that the system was such that the information could be kept to the appropriate time.'

NSW, which counts cases over a 24-hour period to 8pm, releases figures and the context of each case daily at 11am.

Kairouz has repeatedly insisted his predictions are the result of 'simple maths', but has not released a single video since his suspected leak in the NSW Health department was outed.
An area of Sydney's inner west is still in a hard lockdown despite having fewer active cases than wealthy postcodes on the north shore and eastern suburbs.

Burwood council has 41 active cases, far fewer than many beachside suburbs, but despite that, residents were still subjected to a two-hour daily exercise limit and until Wednesday a 9pm to 5am curfew.

By comparison, people in Bondi are free to take long coastal walks anywhere in their local council even though Waverley has 46 active cases.

An area of Sydney's inner west remains in a hard lockdown despite having fewer active cases than wealthy postcodes on the North Shore and the eastern suburbs

The hotspot council with fewer active cases Burwood council: 41 active cases Hornsby council: 57 active cases Northern Beaches: 63 active cases Woollahra council: 46 active cases Waverley council: 46 active cases Randwick council: 329 active cases Advertisement

The neighbouring Randwick council, covering Coogee, has 329 active cases but residents there retain more of their freedom.

Burwood also has fewer active cases than Sydney's wealthiest postcodes with Woollahra council in the eastern suburbs home to 46 active cases.

It also has even fewer cases than Hornsby council with 57 actives cases in a vast area with two national parks and semi-rural pockets beyond suburbia.

This inner-city area has significantly fewer cases than the northern beaches, stretching 30km from Manly to Palm Beach, which is home to 63 active cases.

Despite so few case, the Burwood council area remains one of 12 councils subjected to a stricter lockdown along with Bayside, Blacktown, Campbelltown, Canterbury-Bankstown, Cumberland, Fairfield, Georges River, Liverpool, Parramatta, Strathfield, and some suburbs of Penrith.

On the NSW Covid map, Burwood is coloured orange, like the eastern suburbs and parts of the north shore.

But the small council neighbours the Canterbury-Bankstown council with 2,792 active cases.

Its other neighbours also many cases with 173 in Strathfield, 102 in Canada Bay and 190 in the Inner West council, a gentrified area stretching from Ashfield to Annandale.

Burwood council has 41 active cases, a level lower than many beachside suburbs, but despite that, residents are still subjected to a 9pm to 5am curfew and a 5km limit on leaving home for exercise (pictured is the main park at Burwood)

By comparison, people in Bondi (pictured) are free to take long coastal walks anywhere in their local government area even though the Waverley LGA is home to 46 active cases

The harsher restrictions in areas with fewer cases were used to argue stricter rules should be imposed a suburb-by-suburb basis instead of entire councils.

While Burwood itself has 35 active cases, Croydon next door has just six active cases.

The state government is reportedly considering replacing the council-wide restrictions in favour of focusing on individual suburbs.

On the northern side of Sydney, Epping is in a harder lockdown despite having just seven active cases because it falls within the Parramatta council area.

But residents of North Epping, which shares the same postcode, are free of these restrictions because they are part of the Hornsby council.

That means they can travel up to 57km away for exercise at Wisemans Ferry under rules allowing recreational activity anywhere within an LGA outside a hotspot.
A US Army Lieutenant Colonel has resigned and given up his pension after more than 19 years of service because he refuses President Joe Biden's 'unethical, immoral and tyrannical' vaccine mandate.

Lt Col Paul Douglas Hague's resignation letter has been shared nearly 10,000 times since his wife tweeted the memo and announced the Army vet is 'walking away from all he's worked for and believed in since he was an ROTC kid'.

In the letter - which he wrote on August 23, the day after the Pentagon announced all active military were to get vaccinated immediately - Hague said he refused to 'sit still and allow a serum to be injected into my flesh against my will and better judgement'.

Lt Col Paul Douglas Hague (pictured) has resigned and given up his pension after more than 19 years of service because he refuses President Joe Biden's 'unethical, immoral and tyrannical' vaccine mandate

Hague (pictured left with his wife), who is stationed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, listed many other reasons for his resignation, including 'an ideologically Marxist takeover of the military and United States government' and a 'complete lack of confidence in the presidential administration'

He wrote: 'It is impossible for this so-called "vaccine" to have been studied adequately to determine the long term effects.

'It simply has not existed for enough time and any claim otherwise is blatantly ignorant and likely an outright lie driven by negligent political agenda.'

Aside from the vaccine mandate Hague, who is stationed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, listed many other reasons for his resignation, including 'an ideologically Marxist takeover of the military and United States government' and a 'complete lack of confidence in the presidential administration'.

'We are watching the fall of liberty at this moment,' he penned.

Lt Col Paul Douglas Hague's resignation letter has been shared nearly 10,000 times since his wife tweeted the memo and announced the Army vet is 'walking away from all he's worked for and believed in since he was an ROTC kid'

The father of seven went on to blame the Biden administration for the suicide bombings that took place in Kabul and resulted in the death of 13 service members, saying the president also 'undoubtedly set our nation up for many more attacks both in Afghanistan and within our own borders'.

'I cannot and will not contribute to the fall of this great nation and its people,' Hague wrote, adding that he will 'continue (to) uphold the constitution of the United States' but can no longer do it while serving in the military as he believes 'the military is currently being used to the contrary'.

As a result of his resignation Hague has also forfeited his ability to retire with a pension.

He noted that while he 'would like nothing more than to continue in the Army to reach my 20 years of active federal service and retire with my pension... I instead will join those who have served before me in pledging... to continue resisting the eternal and ever-mutable forms of oppression and tyranny'.

Hague's wife Katie Phipps Hague told Fox News that her husband submitted the letter on August 30 and it has since been 'sent up his chain of command' and appears to be 'going smoothly'.

Marine Corp Lt Col Stuart Steller said in a widely shared video that military leaders need to take accountability for botched, fatal evacuation out of Afghanistan

Critics on social media tried to debunk the memo, pointing out that it was dated August 23 and referenced the Kabul attacks even though they happened three days later.

According to Fox, Katie said Hague began drafting the letter on August 23, revised it multiple times and never updated the date before he submitted it a week later on August 30.

Other commenters were skeptical, saying Hague had to receive a slew of other vaccines before serving in the military.

Her response, as reported by Fox: 'He didn't resign over a vaccine. He said he felt the vaccine was being used as a political tool to divide and segregate Americans.

'He then went on to list many other reasons for his resignation  none of which have anything to do with vaccines.'

The follow-up post to the video where Scheller said he was relived of his duty

Scheller was relieved of his duties as a battalion commander after a stellar 17-year career. 'I have been fighting for 17 years. I am willing to throw it all away to say to my senior leaders, "I demand accountability,"' he said

Hague is not the only military member to leave his position in light of the Biden administration's vaccine mandate and hasty exit from Kabul.

Last month active duty Marine Lt Col Stuart Scheller was relieved of his duty after publicly calling out senior leaders in a widely shared video.

In the post he demanded leadership to take accountability for the deadly disaster in Afghanistan and slammed Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen Mark Milley and others for not 'raising their hands and accepting accountability or saying, "We messed this up."'

'The reason people are so upset on social media right now is not because the Marine on the battlefield let someone down,' Scheller said in a nearly five-minute video posted on Facebook and LinkedIn.
Anthony Albanese has defended Kristina Keneally's bid to represent a multicultural seat in western Sydney by calling her a 'migrant success story' and pointing to his own Italian heritage.

Labor has been accused of ignoring the importance of cultural diversity by denying local Vietnamese-Australia lawyer Tu Le the chance the represent the seat of Fowler after the next election.

Instead, Senator Keneally, who lives 44km away on ultra-affluent Scotland Island at the top of Sydney's northern beaches, will be parachuted in at the next election.

In a furious outburst after she was shunted aside to make way for Las Vegas-born Senator Keneally, Ms Le attacked Labor for relying on 'superficial connections to our diverse communities' and said the party needs more diversity in Parliament.

Federal Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese joins volunteers packing hampers at Addison Road Community Organisation at Marrickville on Tuesday

Senator Penny Wong (right with Mr Albanese) was born in Malaysia and moved to Adelaide aged eight

In a press conference on Tuesday, Mr Albanese hit back, saying the party has 'done an enormous amount for diversity'.

'The Leader of the House of Representatives is someone called Albanese and the Leader in the Senate is someone called Wong,' he said, referring to his own Italian heritage and Senator Penny Wong's Malaysian background.

He said Senator Keneally, who lives in a $1.8million mansion on the Northern Beaches after becoming an Australian citizen in 2000, was a 'migrant success story'.

'The Labor Party has done an enormous amount for diversity and, by the way, our Deputy Leader in the Senate, Kristina Keneally, was born in the US, came to Australia and is another great Australian success story of a migrant who came here and became the NSW Premier,' he said.

Senator Keneally was born in Las Vegas in December 1968, grew up in Ohio, and moved to Australia in 1998 after marrying Australian consultant and later Mayor of Botany, Ben Keneally.

Former NSW Premier Kristina Keneally

But diversity campaigners said it was a mistake to compare Senator Keneally and Ms Le, who was raised in poverty by immigrant parents who fled after the Vietnam war.

Former Prime Minister Paul Keating also highlighted Senator Keneally's immigrant background as he backed her and took a swipe at Ms Le's inexperience even - though he became an MP aged 25 in 1969.

'Local candidates may be genuine and well-meaning but they would take years to scramble to [Senator Keneally's] level of executive ability  if they can ever get there at all,' he told the Sydney Morning Herald.

'And on the diversity point, she's a migrant herself  she got off the plane and scrambled her way to the NSW premiership, which is a pretty big effort, a pretty good effort.'

Liberal MP Tim Wilson said Mr Keating's comments were 'patronising Aussies of Asian heritage'.

On Wednesday Mr Albanese said he was older than Tu Le when he was elected at the aged of 33 but said she has a bright future.

'I think Tu Le will make a great contribution to the Labor Party in the future. I am very supportive of her,' he said.

Ms Le appeared set to represent the Labor stronghold of Fowler in the city's west until last week when Senator Keneally declared she wanted the seat for herself - even though she lives 44km away on an island on the wealthy Northern Beaches.

The 30-year-old migration lawyer wasn't even told that she was being pushed aside and only found out when she saw reports in the media last week.

Ms Le (right) is pictured with Labor leader Anthony Albanese. She will have to wait a little longer to become a politician

'Well, it all happened very quickly. So I've had a bit of a whirlwind of a week. And I actually found out from the media, I think it was Wednesday night when the first article came out. So I hadn't been contacted by anyone about this,' she told ABC radio on Tuesday.

'So that was pretty disappointing. But it's all, I'm just hearing it all on the media and the news. Like everybody else.'

Ms Le said locals in the multicultural area where 75 per cent of residents are immigrants want greater ethnic diversity in Parliament and revealed that voters who had not even heard of leader Anthony Albanese were suddenly engaged in politics because of what happened to her.

'I actually walked out the other day to Cabramatta to grab some lunch and was just chatting to the business owner,' she said.

'And I was talking to him about this because he told me he saw my face in the media and he was like, "you know, I know Scott Morrison, but who's Anthony Albanese, who's member of the Labor Party opposition, I don't even know."

'So these people who weren't engaged are now becoming furious and feel like... if they don't raise their voices and if they're not heard by their leaders, then we'd constantly be taken for granted and sidelined and pushed aside. And I think that people are no longer putting up with that.'

Tu Le (pictured with Fowler MP Chris Hayes) looked set to represent the Labor stronghold of Fowler but her chance was taken away by former NSW premier, Kristina Keneally

Ms Le was brought up in Canley Vale, southwest Sydney, by Vietnamese immigrant parents and works as a migration lawyer and Buddhist youth leader.

Retiring Fowler MP Chris Hayes had backed Ms Le to take over, calling her the 'appropriate choice', but his preference was ignored.

Due to a history of branch-stacking in the seat, locals are not allowed to preselect candidates and they are instead chosen directly by the NSW Labor right faction.

Senator Keneally was likely lose her place in the Senate because fellow right faction member Deborah O'Neill received strong support to take top spot on Labor's NSW Senate ticket at the next election.

So she was handed the lower house seat instead and will officially be endorsed by the National Executive this week.

A Labor source told Daily Mail Australia it was a no-brainer to put former NSW premier Keneally in the lower house in a safe Labor seat over Ms Le.

'They would be crazy to lose Kristina over a 30-year-old unknown quantity with no political experience,' the source said.

'For a 30-year-old to be granted a safe seat would be extremely rare.'

In a long and moving Facebook post on Monday morning, Ms slammed Labor for overlooking her and called for greater ethnic diversity in parliament.

Kristina Keneally (pictured with husband Ben at the Parliament House Mid Winter Ball in 2019) has confirmed she will run in a culturally diverse safe Labor seat in western Sydney

She attacked Labor for relying on 'superficial connections to our diverse communities' and said the party needs more diversity among its politicians.

'Some politicians only come to our festivals and events (especially before an election) for photo-ops, while ''wearing a sari and eating some Kung Pao chicken to make themselves look good'', she said, quoting Labor MP Ann Aly who had supported her.

'It feels like they seek our support only when looking for fundraising and membership opportunities. It's 2021, and this is no longer acceptable.

'Diversity and inclusion is not a tick the box exercise.

'Our parents and grandparents may have come to this lucky country, put their heads down, worked hard and tried to blend in.

'But our generation has grown up in this sunburnt country. The values of equal opportunity and a fair go were instilled in us through our education.

'We weren't made to blend in, we were taught to stand OUT and stand UP for what we believe in,' she added.

Ms Le said she 'never expected a free ticket to Parliament' but complained she was 'collateral damage' to an internal struggle which made it unlikely Senator Keneally would retain her senate spot.

'That's just the nature of politics and I hold no personal grudges,' she wrote.

'But I know a lot of young people, especially those in my community who usually couldn't care less about politics, are enraged by what has happened.

Lawyer Tu Le, 30, had hoped to represent her community in Parliament but Senator Keneally will be selected instead

In a previous social media post, Ms Le described her challenging upbringing in south-west Sydney.

'For the better part of my life, I felt ashamed about living in a flat, not knowing what it was like to have a white picket fence and backyard with a hills hoist,' she wrote.

'I recall feeling confused that I could get extra UAI points for my HSC because I came from a disadvantaged public school. I don't ever recall feeling disadvantaged because of who I was or where I lived.

For far too long, political parties have relied on superficial connections to our diverse communities Tu Le

'Not until I left my bubble and started university. That's when I truly understood my parents' pressure to succeed at school.

'Education was my ticket to freedom. Freedom from poverty, freedom of opportunity. I could be who I wanted to be and give back to the country that gave us so much when we left everything behind us in Vietnam.

'Naturally, I became a lawyer. I wasn't a fan of blood,' she said, explaining why becoming a doctor was not an option.

A close ally of Ms Keneally said she has strong links with the local community in Fowler - which takes in Liverpool and Fairfield - due to her time as premier.

'They want some-one with experience who will give them a seat at top table, especially if Labor wins government,' the source said.

Senator Keneally - who led Labor to the worst defeat of a sitting government in NSW history as premier in 2011 - said she will move 44km from her $1.8million home on Scotland Island on Sydney's Northern Beaches to live in the Fowler electorate.

A total of 19 per cent of the residents in the electorate - are Vietnamese and Ms Le wanted to Labor to prove it was truly a multicultural party by selecting a Vietnamese candidate.

Ms Le said she was gutted to be elbowed out by Ms Keneally who was parachuted into the senate by then leader Bill Shorten in 2018 when sitting senator Sam Dastyari quit after controversy over links to Chinese donors.

One local community advocate told the ABC that Senator Keneally would not be welcome because she does not represent the disadvantaged area.

'I don't think Kristina Keneally represents the community in Fairfield,' said Winnie Dunn, general manager of Sweatshop Literacy Movement.

'It's predominantly Assyrian and Vietnamese communities, and because she's from the North Shore I just think that disconnect will be overwhelmingly difficult for her to bridge.'

Mr Hayes's brother Gerard, who runs the Health Services Union, also slammed the move, telling the ABC: 'Why are we losing our base? Because we do stuff like this.'

Senator Keneally bought her home (pictured) on Sydney's Scotland Island for $1.8million in 2017

Senator Keneally said she would move out of her Northern Beaches home (pictured) and live in Fowler

And one federal Labor MP described Senator Keneally's bid as 'Labor at its worst'.

But in a statement on Friday the 52-year-old senator, who was born in Las Vegas to an American father and an Australian mother, defended her decision to run despite Mr Hayes throwing his support behind Ms Le.

'Since Chris announced his retirement, I have been approached by ALP branch members urging me to consider nomination for the seat of Fowler,' she said.

'I am humbled by this encouragement.

'Serving this community, living in this community, and fighting for them is what I want to do.'

A move to the lower house would mean Senator Keneally - who is Labor's deputy leader in the upper house - will step down from the party's leadership team but it would open up the possibility of her becoming party leader in future.

It comes after she faced uncertainty over whether she would retain her spot in the senate.

With the left's Jenny McAllister taking second position on the ticket, Senator Keneally would likely have been relegated to the hard-to-win third spot.

Labor has not won three seats in NSW at a regular half-Senate election since Kevin Rudd swept to power in 2007.
Soon after Melbourne man Nick Falos was last seen 18 years ago, his burned-out red Porsche coupe was found in a state forest

Soon after Melbourne man Nick Falos was last seen 18 years ago, his burned-out red Porsche coupe was found in a state forest.

His disappearance - and suspected murder - has been the focus of an ongoing Victoria Police missing persons investigation but without success.

Now a $1 million reward is being offered for information to help solve the cold case.

Detective Acting Inspector Tony Combridge of the Missing Persons Squad said police believe Mr Falos was murdered.

'It may be 18 years since Nick disappeared, however, I would like to strongly reinforce to the community that this is very much an active investigation,' he said in a statement on Wednesday.

'While Nick is no longer believed to be alive, we are still hopeful of finding out what happened to him.

'It is also our belief that a number of people were potentially involved in Nick's murder.'

Police are keen to hear from anyone who recalls seeing Mr Falos or his red Porsche in the Yarra Junction

Mr Falos, 58, of Thornbury, was last seen on Friday, March 14, 2003, around 8.30am as he drove his Porsche along Albion Street in Brunswick.

The car was found burned out in the Yarra State Forest, near Gladysdale, three days later on March 17.

He was reported missing on April 1 by a neighbour who became concerned because they hadn't seen him for several weeks.

Police searched bushland near Gladysdale in May that year but found no trace of Mr Falos.

Police are investigating a number of lines of inquiry including a phone call made from a payphone to Mr Falos on the morning of Saturday, March 15, 2003.

They have also looked at possible links between his disappearance and reports of cannabis cultivation in the Yarra State Park and Yarra Junction areas.

Mr Falso, who was of Greek heritage, also went by the name Nikolaos Falieros.

In 2018, a 77-year-old Endeavour Hills man and an 84-year-old Devon Meadows man were arrested in relation to his disappearance.

Both were later released without charge.

Police are keen to hear from anyone who recalls seeing Mr Falos or his red Porsche in the Yarra Junction area on March 15 or 16, 2003.
The glamorous ex-girlfriend of model Kris Smith has been diagnosed with a rare heart condition after getting the Pfizer vaccine but is still urging Australians to get the shot.

Hannah Scott, an Insights Manager at Network 10 who used to date Smith, revealed on Instagram that she was suffering from pericarditis.

The condition involves inflammation of a sac-like tissue that surrounds the heart that holds it in place and helps it function.

Ms Scott revealed the news in a lengthy post from her hospital bed on Wednesday morning, saying she doesn't 'regret her decision' and 'doesn't want to put anyone off getting vaccinated'.

'I'm not posting this for sympathy and I'm certainly not an anti-vaxxer. I'm pro-choice and my choice was to get the vaccine,' she said.

'As a result, I'm in the unfortunate percentile that has been diagnosed with pericariditis (heart inflammation) a rare side effect of Pfizer.'

Channel Seven reporter Denham Hitchcock revealed last month he too had suffered pericarditis as a result of the jab.

Hannah Scott, an Insights Manager at Network 10 who used to date TV personality and model Kris Smith, revealed on Instagram Wednesday morning she was suffering from pericarditis

Ms Scott, who dated Smith in 2017, said she had symptoms of the rare heart condition straight after getting her first shot and detailed her ordeal with pericarditis

Ms Scott revealed the news in a lengthy post from her hospital bed, saying she doesn't 'regret her decision' and 'doesn't want to put anyone off getting vaccinated'

Ms Scott, who dated Smith in 2017, said she had symptoms of the rare heart condition straight after getting her first shot.

'Almost immediately after my vaccine I had pins and needles down my arm into my hand and fingers, which are still numb today,' she wrote.

'Cold chills and dizzy spells were regular. I pushed on and four days ago (one week post jab) my heart began racing uncontrallably, making it difficult to slow my heart rate down enough to sleep (my heart is still racing today).

'Then yesterday the chest pains started and I took myself to hospital.'

The Network 10 manager posted a picture from her bed showing electrocardiogram stickers on her chest.

She said the point of her post was not to dissuade people from seeking the vaccine but rather to encourage people to look at the different options and monitor their symptoms when they do receive it.

'I don't like to complain and brush most things off, so this is a reminder to listen to your body if you feel off, I'm glad I did,' Ms Scott posted.

Ms Scott, who dated Smith in 2017, said she had symptoms of the rare heart condition straight after getting her first shot and detailed her ordeal with pericarditis.

Ms Scott said the point of her post was not to dissuade people from seeking the vaccine but rather to encourage people to look at the different options and monitor their symptoms

Ms Scott encouraged everyone to seek advice on the right vaccine for them and stressed suffering from Covid was worse than any side effects

'The purpose of this post is to highlight that if you're feeling any of these symptoms - get checked to be safe, because this side effect is rarely talked about, despite my doctors saying they have been seeing this more frequently of late.

'I don't regret my decision as the long term effects of Covid can be far worse and I don't want to put anyone off getting vaccinated.

'Just to point out that there are vaccine options and to be mindful of your symptoms.'

She said she is expected to make a 'full recovery' and has a 'new appreciation' for the doctors and nurses who have been treating her.

Pericarditis and myocarditis have been observed in an extremely small number of people after they receiving mRNA vaccines, of which Pfizer is one.

The cases were disproportionately men and teenagers under the age of 30 after their second dose of the jab.

British data released in August found the rate of pericarditis was 3.8 cases per 1 million doses of the Pfizer shot.

The rate is higher from the Moderna vaccine, at 13 cases, which Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced he has ordered to arrive in the country before the end of the year.

By July 8, the TGA was notified of 50 cases of pericarditis in Australia as a result of 3.2 million Pfizer doses.
Priti Patel last night risked the ire of the Attorney General after her Twitter account labelled a man being arrested in a video as a 'vile people smuggler'.

The Home Secretary's account shared a video on her Twitter account of officers from the National Crime Agency (NCA) detaining an unidentified man in Birmingham.

The post said: 'Excellent work by the NCA in Birmingham arresting another vile people smuggler.

'A suspected high-ranking member of a Vietnamese network trading in human lives via the backs of lorries.'

But media commentators last night suggested the tweet could be putting any future trial at risk.

One commentator, David Banks, even copied in the Twitter account of the Attorney General - who has the power to take legal action against those who breach strict rules around the reporting of criminal cases.

He suggested Attorney General Suella Braverman MP have 'a quiet word' with the Home Secretary about contempt of court - the law that attempts to protect trials from unfair influence.

Priti Patel (pictured) last night risked the ire of the Attorney General after her Twitter account labelled a man being arrested in a video as a 'vile people smuggler'

The Home Secretary shared a video on her Twitter account of officers from the National Crime Agency (NCA) detaining an unidentified man in Birmingham

Posting the video, she wrote: 'Excellent work by the NCA in Birmingham arresting another vile people smuggler

But media commentators - such as David Banks - last night suggested the Tweet could be putting any future trial at risk

What is contempt of court? Contempt of court happens when someone risks unfairly influencing a court case. An incident of contempt may stop somebody from getting a fair trial or influence the trials outcome. This can be through actions in court, including by jury members themselves. But for media outlets it usually refers to reporting before and during a trial. This is why reports often refer to an 'alleged' criminal or an 'alleged' incident prior to and during a court case. Defence barristers can attempt to get a case thrown out if they believe a jury has been influenced by outside pressures, such as media reporting. The contempt of court period begins at the point police make an arrest. In cases of contempt of court, it is up to the attorney general to decide if they believe an offence has been committed. The attorney general is a political role within the Cabinet and the primary job is to advise the Government on legal matters. Because of this, the attorney general usually has prior legal experience. The current attorney general - Suella Braverman MP - is a trained barrister. Advertisement

Mr Banks, who runs a media law consultancy, said: 'Perhaps the Attorney General could lean across the Cabinet table and have a quiet word about contempt of court?

'He's not a vile people smuggler unless and until a jury decide he is. If the Home Secretary can't abide by the law, why should anyone else?

'Far be it from me to tell the Priti Patel her job, but statements like this hand ammunition to defence counsel who could, quite reasonably, argue their client cannot possibly have a fair trial having been declared a vile people smuggler by no less than the Home Secretary.

'Of course, it might not be the Home Sec herself that tapped out that tweet, it might be a hapless minion, in which case send them on a law course.

'If only there were someone who ran such courses to prevent the Home Secretary collapsing trials'

It's not the first time Ms Patel has caused a legal storm with a tweet about a criminal investigation.

She was criticised over what was described as an 'ill-advised' Tweet about the deaths of 39 Vietnamese migrants in a lorry in Essex while the trial was on going.

On October 23 last year, the anniversary of the tragedy, Priti Patel's Twitter account posted: 'One year ago today, 39 people lost their lives in horrific circumstances at the hands of ruthless criminals.

'My thoughts remain with everyone who was affected by that day, particularly the loved ones of the people who so tragically died.'

Two members of a people-smuggling ring were found guilty of the manslaughter of the men, women and children.

But after the trial ended it was revealed that the judge in the case had to tell jury members to ignore comments made by 'politicians' on social media.

Ms Patel was previously criticised over what was described as an 'ill-advised' Tweet about the deaths of 39 Vietnamese migrants in a lorry in Essex (pictured: Police at the scene) while the trial was on going

Asked if she accepted she had made a mistake to comment while the trial was ongoing, Ms Patel told BBC Breakfast in December last year: 'We were asked to remove that tweet, so we did the right thing and absolutely removed that tweet.'

She added: 'I didn't personally write it, but I issued the tweet. Some of my tweets are written for me, and in that instance that was drafted for me  It was drawn to my attention at the time that obviously the case was ongoing and therefore the tweet should be removed.'

Ms Patel also suggested the tweet was in reference to those who had already entered guilty please to a serious of charges in relation to the deaths, rather than those who were on trial.

Asked if the decision to remove the tweet came after a warning by the judge, she said: 'I can't remember  we had been formally asked to remove it and that's effectively what happened.'
Former drug lord Vicente Carrillo Fuentes has been sentenced to 28 years by a judge in Mexico, the Attorney General's Office announced Tuesday.

The former leader of the notorious Juarez Cartel was found guilty of organized crime, money laundering and weapons violations.

The transnational criminal organization - which is not as powerful as it once used to be - is based out of the Chihuahua border town of Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas.

The cartel is now led by Juan Pablo Ledezma, who is also the commander of La Linea, the criminal group's armed gang. The Mexican government is offering a $2million reward for his arrest.

Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, former leader of the Juarez Cartel, will be spending the next 28 years in prison after a judge in Mexico found him guilty of organized crime, money laundering and weapons violations

Vicente Carrillo Fuentes (pictured) is the brother of Amado Carrillo Fuentes, known as 'The Lord of The Skies,' who died on July 4, 1997 at the age of 40 in a botched plastic surgery at Santa Monica Hospital in Mexico

Vicente Carrillo Fuentes took over the cartel's day-to-day dealings following the death of his brother Amado Carrillo Fuentes - known as 'The Lord of The Skies' for his fleet of drug-smuggling planes.

Amado died on July 4, 1997 at the age of 40 in a botched plastic surgery at Santa Monica Hospital in Mexico. He had been trying to alter his appearance to avoid being arrested.

Under Amado Carrillo Fuentes, the Juarez Cartel became the first Mexican drug trafficking organization to partner up with its counterparts in Colombia, working alongside the North Valley Cartel and the United Self-Defences of Colombia, a Colombian paramilitary organization and a major drug trafficking organization, to ship tons of cocaine to Mexico via airplanes.

Vicente Carrillo Fuentes continued his brother's business of smuggling drugs over the border.

On June 1, 2000, the Treasury Department sanctioned him for his drug trafficking ties to 11 other Mexico-based drug capos.

Carrillo Fuentes was charged on a 46-count indictment by the Western District of Texas on September 17, 2000. He was accused of running a criminal organization; importing and possessing cocaine and marijuana with the intent to sell; conspiring to import and posses cocaine and marijuana with the intent to distribute; money laundering, witness tampering, and ordering the killing of individuals to stop them handing over information to law enforcement agencies in the United States.

On July 24, 2009, the Eastern District of New York indicted him on five counts for his illicit dealings with the North Valley Cartel and United Self-Defences of Colombia.

Mexican authorities had also accused Carrillo Fuentes of orchestrating the murder of Juarez State Police chief, Jose Refugio Rubalcava, and his two sons, Alberto Enriquez Rubalcava and Cesar Enriquez Rubalcava. All three were found dead inside an abandoned vehicle on November 27, 1994.

Vincente's brother Amado Carrillo Fuentes (pictured) was considered one of Mexico's most notorious drug lords. He died July 4, 1997, while undergoing surgery to change his physical appearance and avoid being arrested Mexican and United States authorities

Vicente Carrillo Fuentes is led into a helicopter on October 9, 2014 following his arrest in Torreon, Coahuila

Vicente Carrillo Fuentes was charged on a 46-count indictment by the Western District of Texas on September 17, 2000. The court alleged that he had ordered the killing of individuals to stop cooperating with law enforcement agencies in the United States

In 2018, local media reported he was among inmates who signed a letter complaining about increases in the price of snack foods at a prison commissary.

Carrillo Fuentes' arrest was announced on the same day the Mexican government revealed it will release 682 inmates on trial or serving sentences for non-violent crimes because they are over 70, are terminally ill, were victims of torture or belong to an Indigenous group.

The government published a decree in August allowing such releases, and over 4,000 cases are being reviewed.

A separate measure, an April 2020 amnesty law, offered to release Indigenous people who hadn't received a proper defense, poor people convicted of non-violent drug offenses, and those pressured into committing crimes by drug cartels. But only five people had been released one year later, out of 1,000 requests.
The Arizona Supreme Court rejected state Republicans' bid to keep records of its controversial 2020 election audit hidden on Tuesday.

Any documents part of their ongoing review of the 2020 election in Maricopa County are a matter of public record, the court ruled.

Those records are in the possession of Cyber Ninjas, the company mainly responsible for conducting the recount.

'The AZ Supreme Court won't hear [Arizona Senate President Karen Fann's] appeal of the Court of Appeals' ruling that audit documents possessed by Senate subcontractors are public records,' Arizona Mirror reporter Jeremy Duda tweeted.

'The Senate will have to turn over communications, invoices and other audit-related records.'

Arizona Republican officials were determined to conduct the recount after former President Donald Trump lost the 2020 race to President Joe Biden, despite no evidence of fraud.

The battleground state went to Biden at a critical time in the electoral vote count, prompting Trump and his allies to baselessly claim the election was rigged.

Arizona Republicans embarked on the controversial audit after former President Trump baselessly blamed his Arizona loss to Joe Biden on election fraud

The Supreme Court handed down its ruling without comment on Tuesday

Senate Republicans tried to argue the documents should be exempt from public record.

Arizona Public Records Law states that government officials must maintain records 'necessary or appropriate to maintain an accurate knowledge of their official activities, and of any of their activities which are supported by monies from this state.'

Republicans claimed the law did not apply because they were maintained by the lawmakers' contractors - a private company.

They also tried to invoke legislative immunity, which protects legislators from being sued for actions taken in the sphere of legitimate lawmaking activity.

The court rejected the appeal without comment.

Tuesday's ruling is the latest in a long legal fight over the documents' status.

An appeals court and trial court both ruled the documents are public records that must be released.

The appeals court decided on August 19 that Cyber Ninjas was subject to the records law because it was performing a core government function that the Senate farmed out.

The documents to be handed over include communications, invoices and other audit-related records, Arizona reporter Jeremy Duda stated

'Allowing the legislature to disregard the clear mandate of the (public records law) would undermine the integrity of the legislative process and discourage transparency, which contradicts the purpose of both the immunity doctrine and the (law),' acting presiding Judge Maria Elena Cruz wrote for the three-judge appeals court panel.

'The requested records are no less public records simply because they are in the possession of a third party, Cyber Ninjas,' Cruz wrote later in the ruling.

The Supreme Court had issued a stay on the appeals court ruling regarding documents physically in Cyber Ninjas' possession on August 24 so it could review the record and decide whether to accept the appeal.

But Tuesday's ruling overturns that stay.

Records relating to the audit were sought by American Oversight, a national government oversight group.

American Oversight filed the lawsuit in a bid to increase transparency in the election recount.

'Arizona law does not allow public servants to outsource democracy and shroud their conduct in secrecy,' Austin Evers, executive director of American Oversight, said in a statement.

Arizona Senate President Karen Fann filed the appeal

'Arizonans can look forward to much-needed transparency, even if it may reveal gross attacks on democracy itself.'

Republicans who control the Senate have tried for months to keep secret how their contractors are conducting the audit.

A spokesman for Cyber Ninjas, Rod Thomson, did not immediately respond to the Associated Press's request for comment.

It is unclear when the records will actually be released, but Senate spokesman Mike Philipsen told Pinal Central it could be a matter of days.

Trump used the audit to again cast doubt on the 2020 election results during a rally in Phoenix in July.

There is a previously scheduled status conference hearing set for Thursday before the trial court judge who issued the original order.

That judge also ordered the Senate to turn over audit records it held, and they were released on August 31.

Senate Republicans issued subpoenas late last year and earlier this year to Maricopa County for all 2020 ballots, the machines that counted them and other data in the states most populated county.

The materials were given to contractors with little to no election experience for what Senate President Karen Fann calls a 'forensic audit.'

Election experts say the 2020 election was secure and well-run, and the contractors are using bizarre and unreliable procedures. Maricopa County has refused further participation.

The results of the audit and hand recount are expected to be handed over to the Senate at any time. But there have been repeated delays.

The Senate then plans to review what is expected to be a three-volume report before it is released to the public.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday also rejected an appeal in another public records case involving the Senate election audit. In that case, Cyber Ninjas and the Senate were sued for failing to release records by the company that owns the Arizona Republic newspaper.

Trump used the audit to further fuel conspiracies the 2020 election was rigged. His supporters have rallied outside Maricopa County officials' offices in support of the ex-president

Cyber Ninjas wanted the case moved to a different trial court judge, but under pandemic rules issued by Chief Justice Robert Brutinel, the automatic right to ask for a different judge was suspended.

Cyber Ninjas argued that denying it the ability to seek a new judge improperly deprived it of a 'valuable substantive right.' The high court without comment declined to consider a challenge to its own order, although two of seven justices would have heard the case.

The controversial audit has also heightened partisan tensions in Arizona.

A Republican lawmaker in the state senate was threatened by a supporter of the recount, according to a screenshot she posted late last week.

State Senator Michelle Ugenti-Rita said she got the email on September 9. The screenshot shows it coming from someone named Matt Boster.

Boster opens by calling her a racial slur.

'...you have one chance to give the American people the Audit report or were [sic] coming for you, we know where you live, we know where you get groceries and we know where your family lives,' he wrote.

'You better do the right thing or your [sic] going to feel the consequences. Do you Understand? We the people are no longer willing to play...'

Senate President Fann released a statement just before Ugenti-Rita posted the screenshot condemning threats against a lawmaker and their family, regardless of their position on the audit.
Britain's largest doctors' union has dropped its opposition to assisted dying following a landmark vote yesterday.

The British Medical Association (BMA) has been opposed to a change in the law since 2006 but will now adopt a neutral stance.

Leaders stressed this does not mean the organisation will be 'silent' on the issue, but will leave it better placed to represent the views of members.

Some 49 per cent voted in favour of a motion to move to a position of neutrality at the union's annual representative meeting.

The British Medical Association (BMA) has been opposed to a change in the law since 2006 but will now adopt a neutral stance. Stock picture

Additionally, 48 per cent voted against it, with 3 per cent abstaining.

Dr Robin Arnold, who proposed the motion, told the conference: 'You do not have to decide today whether you are in favour of physician-assisted dying or against it.

'You have to consider how best the wide range of views of our membership can be represented.'

But some members of the BMA, which represents 150,000 doctors, warned that neutrality would be seen as 'tacit' approval of euthanasia.

Dr Gillian Wright said: 'The BMA defines physician-assisted dying as assisted suicide and euthanasia. We know that neutrality means tacit approval and has enormous political significance.' Separately, the meeting passed a motion calling for 'robust conscience rights' to be included in any future legislation on assisted dying.

This would mean healthcare workers should be able to conscientiously object to participating in assisted dying.

Leaders stressed this does not mean the organisation will be 'silent' on the issue, but will leave it better placed to represent the views of members

It comes as Parliament considers a Bill to permit doctors in England and Wales to prescribe lethal doses of drugs for dying patients. Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, last week called for a change in the law in The BMJ, saying there is 'nothing holy about agony'.

Dr John Chisholm, chairman of the BMA's medical ethics committee, said: 'Moving to a position of neutrality means that the BMA will not lobby for or against a change in the law. But far from remaining silent on the issue, we will continue to represent the views, interests and concerns expressed by our members.'

The motion was welcomed by some campaign groups, with Sarah Wootton, of Dignity in Dying, branding it a 'historic decision' and 'a victory for common sense'.

She said: 'The BMA can now proudly and accurately advocate on behalf of its members, while sending a message to Parliament that assisted dying is, rightly, an issue for society, where the views of dying people and their loved ones should be heard loud and clear.'

More than 100 leading medics had signed an open letter before the vote urging the BMA to adopt a neutral stance.

But Dr Gordon Macdonald, of the Care Not Killing group, said current laws protect the vulnerable and do not need changing.

He added: 'We are naturally disappointed at the divisive nature of this vote as it exposes the divide between doctors who care for patients at their end of life, whether in hospitals or hospices, who oppose assisted suicide and euthanasia and those medics who work in unrelated disciplines such as child and adolescent psychiatry and occupational health.'
A viral photo of a party leader giving a speech to parliament while nursing her baby has divided opinion - with some Australians 'torn' by the sight and others describing it as a 'beautiful thing to see'.

Tasmanian Labor leader Rebecca White was pictured with her two-month-old son Hudson in a baby carrier as she addressed state parliament on Tuesday.

'Im definitely lucky I can take my baby to work and also super lucky that hes a content and happy little bubba,' Ms White wrote on Twitter.

The mother-of-two was praised online by many for juggling her career with her parenting responsibilities.

A photo of Tasmanian Labor leader Rebecca White giving a speech to parliament while nursing her baby has gone viral online - with many praising her for handling her career and motherhood

While some Australians said the photo was 'beautiful', others were 'torn' by the sight of a female politician nursing a baby in parliament

One Twitter commenter said she was in 'awe at how Rebecca manages it' while another called the photo a 'beautiful thing to see'.

'That photo - she is my hero!' the commenter said.

'This is such a beautiful photo. Couldnt see the little cutie at first. Adorable,' one wrote.

Others though said the image showed the pressures mothers face in the modern working world.

'I'm torn,' one said. 'The wrap is brilliant - used in most non-western nations forever.

'The pressure on women to multitask is still not a burden evenly shared among genders. All power to Bec though.'

Another said they wished for a day when all workplaces allowed women to bring their baby into work with them.

Rebecca White is pictured with her newborn Hudson and husband Rodney. 'Im definitely lucky I can take my baby to work and also super lucky that hes a content and happy little bubba,' Ms White wrote on Twitter

Ms White with her son Hudson in July. One Twitter commenter said she was in 'awe at how Rebecca manages it'

'Remember when Sarah Hanson-Young's very small child was evicted from the Senate as a stranger,' one said.

The Greens senator was in 2009 asked to take her infant daughter out of the Senate chamber as she was considered a 'stranger'.

Ms Hanson-Young later said the incident left her 'humiliated'.

'I don't think I have ever felt so humiliated in my life. The way this was handled was a mistake,' she said.

Ms White pictured with her husband and daughter Mia during an election campaign in Launceston, Tasmania in February 2018

Ms White stepped down as Labor leader in May before being re-elected in July.

'I want young girls and women everywhere to know that they can achieve anything and they should walk through doors when they are open or kick them down if they have to,' she said at the time of her resignation.

The member for Lyons first stepped into the role in March 2017 almost four months after the birth of her first child Mia.
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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez may want to 'Tax the Rich' but she certainly fit in with the rich and famous at Monday's Met Gala thanks to a host of luxury freebies she bagged for the evening.

Aside from her lavish, custom-made gown designed by Aurora James - worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and apparently worthy of a landslide of headlines with it's 'Tax the Rich' slogan, the socialist Cinderella also wore multiple pieces from fine jewelry brand Mejuri.

The minimalistic, 14-karat gold hoop earrings from the brand are valued at $450, according to the designer's website. The matching ring from the brand's Dome collection is worth $65.

The Democratic congresswoman and Squad member also accessorized with a purse designed by James, the founder of fashion line Brother Vellies, which drove the message home with a smaller 'Tax the Rich' slogan in white letters on red.

AOC's open-toed red shoes with long up-the-leg laces, square toes and bright flowers along their heels, adorned with long laces and bright flowers along their heels, completed her head-to-toe Brother Vellies ensemble - according to the brand's website, they are valued around $614.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez may want to 'Tax the Rich' but she certainly fit in with the rich and famous at Monday's Met Gala thanks to a host of luxury freebies she bagged for the evening

Aside from her lavish, custom-made gown designed by Aurora James - worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and apparently worthy of a landslide of headlines with it's 'Tax the Rich' slogan, the socialist Cinderella also wore multiple pieces from fine jewelry brand Mejuri. The minimalistic, 14-karat gold hoop earrings from the brand are valued at $450, according to the designer's website

AOC's open-toed red shoes with long up-the-leg laces, square toes and bright flowers along their heels, adorned with long laces and bright flowers along their heels, completed her head-to-toe Brother Vellies ensemble - according to the brand's website, they are valued around $614

AOC's open-toed red shoes with long up-the-leg laces, square toes and bright flowers along their heels, adorned with long laces and bright flowers along their heels, completed her head-to-toe Brother Vellies ensemble - according to the brand's website, they are valued around $614

Although the dress seems bespoke for her figure, and is obviously customized, the politician said that it was borrowed to 'kick open the doors' at the elite event. On Instagram, she hailed New York-based James as a 'sustainably focused, Black woman immigrant designer who went from starting her dream.at a flea market in Brooklyn to winning @cfda against all odds.'

'The Met Gala is seen as elite and inaccessible,' she told a Vogue reporter at the event. 'As a working class woman, [I] wanted to... to break the fourth wall and challenge the industry.' But with her flashy accessories and custom gown, AOC hardly seemed working class.

She was quickly branded a 'hypocrite' by many online but she responded to some of the criticism on Instagram, saying she had been invited to the event as an elected official.



'Before haters get wild flying off the handle, New York elected officials are routinely invited to and attend the Met due to our responsibilities in overseeing and supporting the city's cultural institutions for the public,' she said.

'I was one of several in attendance in this evening.'

Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez boasted that she boosted Google searches about 'our f****d up tax code' by attending the Met Gala, arguably the most elitist event in American celebrity culture, in a borrowed dress with the words 'tax the rich' on them, in what critics are calling yet another example of her unedifying hypocrisy.

The 31-year-old socialist firebrand attended the event with her boyfriend Riley Roberts after getting ready at The Carlyle Hotel on the Upper East Side.

She claims she was 'invited' to the event, but won't say who paid for her, if anyone. Conde Nast does not ordinarily comp tickets for anyone. It is more often the case that stars will be invited to sit on a donor's table that has been paid for.

AOC was photographed leaving the event with James and James' partner Benjamin Bronfman, the heir to Seagram's Company Ltd. and son of former Warner Bros CEO Edgar Bronfman Jr. AOC's reps won't say who invited her, nor will representatives for Mayor Bill de Blasio - who attended the event with his wife and his son.

On Tuesday morning, AOC boasted about the surge in Google searches for the words 'tax the rich'.

She wrote on Instagram: 'Surge in people looking up and discussing our f****d up tax code is and how we fix it so we can fund childcare, healthcare, climate action and student loan forgiveness for all? Aurora James understood the assignment.'

But she has been slammed for supporting the event by many who say she simply wanted to enjoy the limelight while trying to pass it off as a political protest in yet another example of her tone-deaf hypocrisy.

AOC - who previously posed on the cover of Vanity Fair, drives a $35,000 Tesla and claims to be '100% grass roots from the Bronx' despite growing up in a wealthy NYC suburb - wore a borrowed dress from Brooklyn designer Brother Vellies, a celebrity favorite run by Aurora James and had her make-up done beforehand by a Bobbi Brown artist. Her hair was styled by Vogue stylist Eric Williams and her shoes and bag were also from Brother Vellies.

AOC poses in her 'Tax The Rich' dress while movie star Megan Fox waits behind her. AOC attended the event with designer Aurora James in what she claims was a political protest

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez attends the lavish Met gala wearing a 'TAX THE RICH' dress. She boasted on Tuesday morning about increasing the number of people searching the words 'Tax the Rich'

Before the gala, AOC got ready at The Carlyle hotel on the Upper East Side, where rooms cost upwards of $1,000-a-night. She was escorted to a chauffer-driven car, with someone carrying the train of her dress, and she waved to screaming fans as she left the hotel

AOC with her boyfriend Riley Roberts (far right), her dress designer Aurora James and Benjamin Bronfman (far left), James' partner who is the heir to Seagrams Company Ltd. The group was pictured leaving at midnight.

It's unclear whether AOC's date, her boyfriend Riley Roberts, paid for his ticket, or if he was given it for free too

AOC posted this photo on Instagram last night along with a caption about her 'all BIPOC/women/LGBT+ team' of hair and make-up artists that included a Bobbi Brown make-up artist and Eric Williams, a hair stylist used for Vogue on cover shoots

The only jewelry she wore was a pair of $450 gold hoops from Mejuri and a $65 ring from the same brand.

She didn't wear a mask, like many of the other guests.

The event was for fully vaccinated guests only but the celebrities in attendance - who regularly preach online about COVID rules - ignored the guidance of the CDC and liberal states like California, where masks are recommended indoors regardless of vaccination status.

In a proud Instagram post about the event and her choice of outfit, AOC said: 'The medium is the message. Proud to work with Aurora James as a sustainably focused, Black woman immigrant designer who went from starting her dream Brother Vellies at a flea market in Brooklyn to winning the CDFA against all odds - and then work together to kick open the doors at the Met. The time is now for childcare, healthcare, and climate action for all. Tax the Rich.

'And yes, BEFORE anybody starts wilding out - NYC elected officials are regularly invited to and attend the Met due to our responsibilities in overseeing our city's cultural institutions that serve the public.

'I was one of several in attendance. Dress is borrowed via Brother Vellies.'

Outgoing New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who previously said he'd never attend the event, also attended the event.

In a statement in a press release by Brother Vellies, AOC said: 'There's no way I'd be doing this if it wasn't with a woman of color and with the intent to grow the table and empower women that look like me.

'Despite being held in New York City, the culture of the Met Gala is everything but.

'NYC is often synonymous with inclusivity, inviting millions of people from different walks of life to call this city home.

'The Met Gala, on the other hand, is seen as elite and inaccessible. I'm attending today because I want to change just that and spotlight women of color who are often not included during events like these.'

Donald Trump Jr led the criticism, blasting AOC as a 'fraud' while pointing out that she was also not wearing a face mask 'after spending the last 18 months as one of the biggest mask Karens in the country'.

Andray Domise, a writer and partner in black news network Rezistans Nwa, also pointed out that the gala was taking place just yards from where the NYPD were arresting 'defund the police' protesters - a cause that AOC has previously supported.

'Police were creasing people's heads outside while you and your friends were nibbling watermelon tarts with smoked yuzu soy on panipuri crackers,' he said

Greg Price, a writer for the Daily Caller, added: 'AOC grew up in a wealthy suburb, went to one of the most expensive colleges in America, makes a six figure salary, drives a Tesla, lives above a whole foods, and is currently at an event that costs more to attend than America's average personal income.'

AOC was slammed for attending the event with her boyfriend and lapping up the limelight

Actor and comedian Michael Rappaport also weighed in. He shared a picture of AOC in a dress fitting session and captioned it: 'Custom TAX THE RICH dress while at the most elitist event in the world.

'Will soon be rich with a ginormous production deal from somewhere & done with Politics, guarantee it.

'Stop treating ANY of these people like celebrities they are public servants that work for US.'

As she made her Met Gala debut, AOC will have passed crowds of BLM protesters clashing with police outside the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Brothers Vellies, James' luxury brand, is often worn by celebrities such as Beyonce, Meghan Markle, Zendaya, Rihanna and Lady Gaga, according to the brand's website.

It is AOC'S first time attending the gala, but her political message has already drawn controversy during this year's 'In America: A Lexicon of Fashion' exhibit. It was also James' gala dress debut.

James and Ocasio-Cortez said they were inspired by their experiences as working women of color to make the political statement at the Met gala.

James is the founder of the 15percent Pledge, a nonprofit that asks brands to 'pledge 15percent of their shelf space to Black-owned businesses.'

AOC fawning over British actress Gemma Chan and designer Prabal Gurung at the Met Gala on Monday night in New York City

AOC is interviewed on the steps of the Met Gala while designer Aurora James waits by her side and celebrities walk the famed carpeted stairs

AOC yelling out on the steps of the Met Gala before going inside to mingle with the well-heeled, ultra wealthy guests

Mayor de Blasio with his wife Chirlane and son, Dante, inside the event. He said he saw AOC there and 'commends' her for her 'message'

While AOC and Bill de Blasio mingled with celebrities inside the star-studded event, Defund the Police protesters were arrested outside. Both de Blasio and AOC championed the Defund the Police movement and led to the NYPD having $1billion of its budget cut

A woman gets arrested during a Defund the Police protest outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art during the MET Gala in New York on September 13, 2021 while Rep. AOC and Mayor Bill de Blasio were inside

Others pointed out that while the many people walking the red carpet were maskless, staff around them were not

She designs mostly accessories and shoes listed on her brand's website retail around the $600 and $700 mark.

AOC has been very vocal in the past about her stance on taxing millionaires.

In 2019 she advocated to raising taxes of to 70percent for the wealthy in order to fund measures against climate change.

'As a working class woman, [I] wanted to enjoy the event but also break the fourth wall and challenge the industry, Ocasio-Cortez told Vogue.

'When Aurora and I were first kind of partnered, we started having a conversation about what it means to be working class women of color at the Met,'

'And we said, you know, we can't just play along, but we need to break the fourth wall, and challenge some of the institutions.

'And while the Met is known for its spectacle, we should have a conversation about it,' she added.

In a 2019 Tweet, AOC wrote: When we say 'tax the rich,' we mean nesting-doll yacht rich. For-profit prison rich. Betsy DeVos, student-loan-shark rich.

'Trick-the-country-into-war rich. Subsidizing-workforce-w-food-stamps rich.

'Because THAT kind of rich is simply not good for society, & it's like 10 people.'

There was also uproar over the fact that the celebrities on the red carpet were not wearing masks but teachers and kindergarteners in public schools have to.

'Do as I say, NOT as I do. NYC mayor makes every single NYC public school student and teacher mask up all day in school.

'Guess the Met Gala ain't considered school,' said one angry Twitter user after seeing Mayor Bill de Blasio without his mask, attending the event with his wife and his son.
The Queen sent a message to North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un as his country marked its National Day last week.

Buckingham Palace reportedly confirmed that Her Majesty sent the communication via the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

North Korean media said the message was received on September 7, two days before the communist state celebrated the 73rd anniversary of its founding.

The message said: 'As the people of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea celebrate their national day, I send my good wishes for the future.'

Whilst the goodwill note was not shared with British media or on Buckingham Palace's social media accounts, the Queen is understood to have marked the day with a similar message in the past.

However, this is believed to be the first time that the message has been made public.

The Queen sent a message to North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un as his country marked its National Day last week. Buckingham Palace confirmed that Her Majesty sent the communique via the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

Her Majesty acts on the advice of the foreign office when she sends messages to foreign leaders.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: 'As in previous years, The Queen has sent a message to the people of the DPRK on the occasion of their national day.'

Confirmation of the sending of the message came as North Korea announced it had successfully tested new long-range cruise missiles.

It hailed the missiles - which allegedly flew more than 900 miles - as a 'strategic weapon of great significance,' suggesting that they were developed with the intent of arming them with nuclear warheads.

North Korean media said the message was received on September 7, two days before the communist state celebrated the 73rd anniversary of its founding. Above: The night-time military parade which marked the day

Amid the rising tensions with its neighbour South Korea, a leading expert on the region told The Telegraph it was an 'interesting time' for the UK to be sending a 'gesture of friendship' via Her Majesty.

'With North Korea in the doghouse, it's an interesting time for us to send a gesture of friendship,' said Aidan Foster-Carter, a North Korea expert and honorary senior research fellow in sociology at Leeds University.

This year's National Day featured a night-time military parade overseen by smiling dictator Kim in capital Pyongyang's Kim Il Sung square.

The Queen's message was also published in the official newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, on Sunday.

State media network KCNA announced the Queen's message in a news report.

It said: 'Kim Jong Un, president of the State Affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), received a message of greeting from Elizabeth II, queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, on September 7.'

In 2014, North Korea's then second most powerful man - Kim Yong-nam - sent the Queen a congratulatory letter to mark her official birthday.

The official Korean Central News Agency reported that the message 'wished the queen good health and happiness'.

The letter also reportedly wished 'well-being and prosperity' to the British people.
Trendy tourist and celebrity haven Byron Bay has the lowest first dose vaccination rates in NSW and the Deputy Premier says anti-vaccination groups are to blame.

New figures released under the federal government's Operation Covid Shield show the Richmond-Tweed area in the state's northeast, which includes Byron, is lagging behind other communities.

'No one likes hearing it, but you have a large anti-vaxxer population in some areas, and I am going to say that, there is an issue there,' the state's number two politician John Barilaro said on Tuesday.

Beachside surf hangout Byron Bay is lagging behind the rest of NSW for first dose Covid jabs (pictured: Byron locals in the town on Saturday)

He was being quizzed by regional reporters as to why some areas were slower to roll up their sleeves for a vaccination than others.

'The other part would be eligibility and access to vaccination,' Mr Barilaro said.

According to the Covid Shield data Richmond Tweed has a first dose vaccination rate of 65.4 which is the lowest in NSW and has the second lowest double dose rate at 38.8 per cent.

The state's lowest double dose rate belongs to the nearby New England and Northwest region where 38.1 per cent of locals have had both jabs.

Mr Barilo said he believed more people in those regions would get a Covid vaccine in the next few weeks.

'There is no reason you cannot get that higher... It may not be as high as other parts of the state there are going to be areas that just don't want to be vaccinated and I have to accept,' he said.

'It's unfair because they will get the benefits when the rest of the state opens [but] everyone else has done the heavy lifting.'

The Deputy Premier said 'there are going to be areas that just don't want to be vaccinated' (pictured: the Byron Bay beach on Saturday)

Tweed Family Clinic practice manager Katerina Ristevska said the changing messaging from the government around the AstraZeneca guidelines contributed to the slow uptake.

'You come in on Monday and they say you can't have it if you're under 60, then under 50, then everything changes,' Ms Ristevska told The Daily Telegraph.

She said at that point eligibility was an issue with a large portion of residents under 40 but once they began giving Pfizer jabs the issue is now availability.

Her clinic is booked out until the end of October for the jabs they have - about 500 a week - with Ms Ristevski saying the vaccination requirement to cross into Queensland was behind the surge.

A vaccination hub opened in Dubbo (pictured) on August 21 in an effort to push up vaccine numbers in the region in the state's west

On the other side of the NSW, the Mayor of Dubbo in the state's west has also slammed anti-vaccination groups discouraging vaccine uptake.

The area, which has a large Indigenous population, is currently under stay-at-home restrictions after an outbreak in the region.

There are about thousand cases of COVID-19 in western NSW with authorities particularly concerned about the northwestern town of Walgett.

NSW Health's Jeremy McAnulty said on Monday 12 new locally acquired cases in the state's west had brought the total there to 978, with five in Bathurst, four in Dubbo, two in Bourke and one in Walgett.

The Dubbo mayor said anti-vaccination theories online should be met with 'critical thinking' (pictured: Dubbo in August)

A local Indigenous leader, Ann-Maree Chandler who is managing director of Indidg Connect, recently wrote to her public Facebook page that people should reconsider getting vaccinated.

'For those supporting vaccination because you think it's going to make a positive impact please go off facts and what's happening elsewhere in the world with vax and medicine...ask more questions!,' Ms Chandler wrote.

When asked about her views, Dubbo Mayor Stephen Lawrence said he wouldn't comment on the post directly but disagreed with those views in general.

'I would never comment on what an individual is saying because we do need to be kind and recognise diversity is always going to be there, but I would encourage everyone who is vaccine hesitant to test these theories, because they're absolute b******t,' Mr Lawrence said.

He added Indigenous groups were especially vulnerable but also had some of the lowest vaccines rates in the region.

Public health data showed in August about 30 per cent of the Indigenous community in Far West Orana had received their first dose but this had jumped to about 48 per cent in early September.

About 40 per cent of the Dubbo region's residents have had two vaccine doses.
Mr Sharp took over from Sir David Clementi in February after working in banking

He will also stress impartiality is the first priority of BBC board

The new chairman of the BBC will declare war on fake news in his first major speech today, calling for an overhaul of existing regulations to take on the social media giants.

Richard Sharp will say urgent questions need to be addressed, as conspiracy theories and lies have been able to flourish in closed media environments.

He will also deliver a message about the BBCs impartiality, saying it is something we must prove again every day.

The chairman took over from Sir David Clementi in February after working in banking and later as an adviser to Chancellor Rishi Sunak.

Richard Sharp (pictured above), 65, will say urgent questions need to be addressed, as conspiracy theories and lies have been able to flourish in closed media environments

Mr Sharp, who took over from Sir David Clementi in February, will also stress impartiality is the first priority of the BBC board and of director-general Tim Davie (pictured above)

He will use his speech to the Royal Television Society Cambridge Convention to join calls for tighter regulation of social media  saying the coronavirus pandemic has created the perfect conditions for conspiracy theories to boil over into the mainstream.

These have real-life consequences, he will say, such as 5G masts being pulled down over conspiracies that the technology is linked to Covid and the vaccine drive being affected by disinformation.

Mr Sharp will call for the 2003 Communications Act to be replaced with new legislation more suited to the modern, fast-changing digital environment.

He is expected to tell the event: There are urgent questions to be answered about the future media world we want to live in.

'We need to rethink the regulatory environment in this country  and replace a Communications Act that pre-dates Facebook with one that can deliver on a clear vision.

Now is the time to put in place the rights, protections and education that will safeguard not just our media environment, but the stability of our societies and democracies long into the future.

The chairman will also deliver a message about the BBCs impartiality, saying it is something we must prove again every day (file photo)

Mr Sharp, 65, will also stress impartiality is the first priority of the BBC board and of director-general Tim Davie.

He will say: Impartiality is a prerequisite for the existence of the BBC. And it must be seen as a journey, not a destination  something we must prove again every day.

Getting this right, he will say, would give the BBC the chance to define itself as a pre-eminent purveyor of facts in the disinformation age.
Bake Off star Manon Lagreve has blasted English children for snacking all the time  saying polite French youngsters instead eat four-course meals at the table.

The French influencer and former GBBO contestant says she worries about bringing up her four-month-old daughter Fleur in England where snacking is endemic.

The 29-year-old, pictured, wanted to instil the stricter French values of eating in her daughter, whose father is Miss Lagreves English fiance Luke Bennett.

Bake Off star Manon Lagreve has blasted English children for snacking all the time  saying polite French youngsters instead eat four-course meals at the table

Speaking on the Made by Mammas podcast, the mother of one said: In England its very much snacking  I have to say thats going to be something difficult for me to try to introduce.

In France you have breakfast, lunch, le gouter [afternoon tea] at 4pm and then dinner later. But because in England my daughter is going to see all the children snacking on something, shes going to be like Where is my snack?

In France you dont snack. You just have your meals... at ten, you might have an apple, then lunch.

Miss Lagreve, who was brought up in Brittany, added: Its lart de la table, you know? Youre just sitting at the table with all your friends and family and you spend five hours. You have appetisers, starter, main, cheese, dessert.

The French influencer and former GBBO contestant says she worries about bringing up her four-month-old daughter Fleur in England where snacking is endemic (stock image)

She finished as a quarter-finalist on series nine of The Great British Bake Off in 2018.

Her comments came as a study of 19 workplace cafeterias found cutting the size of lunch by a seventh and replacing it with lower-calorie foods led to staff consuming an average of 50 fewer calories a day. Experts say cutting just 28 a day is enough to prevent weight gain.

The study of 20,327 workers by the Behaviour and Health Research Unit at the University of Cambridge was published in the journal PLOS Medicine.
A sea safety campaigner set two world records and broke a third yesterday after he finished paddleboarding the entire British mainland coast.

Brendon Prince, 48, arrived back in Torquay after he completed the 3,800-mile expedition on a stand-up board.

Mr Prince spent 141 days at sea and paddled for up to 16 hours a day.

Speaking ahead of his arrival, Mr Prince, pictured, said: It is a strange feeling that when I left Torquay I turned right and continued turning right and all of a sudden I am now coming back into Torquay.

Brendon Prince, 48, arrived back in Torquay after he completed the 3,800-mile expedition on a stand-up board

The father of three was driven to take on the challenge after he tried to save three people who drowned at Mawgan Porth beach in Cornwall in 2014.

It inspired the off-duty lifeguard to set up the charity Above Water, which teaches children about water safety.

Mr Princes three world records are the longest paddleboard trip, the first person to paddleboard around Britain and the first to paddleboard from Lands End to John OGroats.

Mr Prince completed the last 25-mile (40km) leg of his challenge from Sidmouth, in Devon, to Torquay, where he was greeted by friends and family.

He was escorted back to the shoreline at Torre Abbey Sands on Torquay seafront by a flotilla of other paddle boarders and boats.

Money raised from the journey will go to seven charities and towards creating a sea safety app.

The shortest time he spent in the water was four hours a day, while the longest leg of his journey took 16 hours.

He added: The North Sea was a challenge and crossing the Thames and going through massive ports like Dover and Portsmouth all kept me on my toes.

The same time it was difficult from a mental point of view - feeling that you are so close but the realisation you are still so far away.

When I got to Brighton I really started to feel like I was on the home strait and felt like Ive done this.

The sea safety campaigner set two world records and broke a third yesterday after he finished paddleboarding the entire British mainland coast

The only way to handle it is to take it every paddle stroke at a day. I just thought about the next day and you can not think about the bigger picture. You have to do it in little chunks - otherwise it can swamp you.

Out of the 141 days since he embarked on the challenge Mr Prince has spent just 22 days off the water due to unsafe conditions.

It tested the limit of anyones skill level and endurance, knowing you have to do an 88km paddle north of Scotland with nowhere to get out for a rest of be saved, he said.

Thats why its never been done before.

I am a different person now from when I set off - and definitely a better paddler. Preparation is everything when it comes to water safety and we have nailed that.

But if I knew what I know now I am not sure if I would do it again. It was best kept as a surprise.

But it is sometimes best not to know and get on with it.
Shopkeepers were urged yesterday not to sell baked beans to children in case they were poured over peoples homes as part of an online trend.

TikTok users started emptying tins of beans and posting beaning pictures online.

Videos posted under the hashtag #beanbandits show the orange gloop smeared over driveways, doorsteps and even cars.

Shopkeepers were urged yesterday not to sell baked beans to children in case they were poured over peoples homes as part of an online trend (stock image)

West Yorkshire Police has urged shop workers to be aware.

PCSO Michelle Owens said beaning involved youths throwing the contents of a can of beans over properties, very similar to the trend of throwing eggs at properties.

She added: If you work in a shop, please be aware of youths buying large quantities of cans of beans.

'If you have children living at home, please be mindful if you see them removing cans of beans from the family home.

TikTok users started emptying tins of beans and posting beaning pictures online (stock image)

Police in Surrey launched an appeal last month after the village of Wonersh was terrorised by bean bandits.

In one picture, four empty cans can be seen discarded near a doorstep studded with little orange beans.

Another shows a grey car with an orange smudge caused by sauce dripping down the drivers window.
Pope Francis urged Slovakia's Roma to better integrate into the mainstream as he met with the country's socially excluded minority group on Tuesday.

Roma in Slovakia have long suffered discrimination, marginalisation and poverty and, in some ways, Francis' visit to the Lunik IX settlement in the eastern city of Kosice emphasised just how excluded they are.

Slovak police and soldiers lined tall fencing along the main route into the neighbourhood, preventing residents who hadn't registered in who hadn't registered in advance from accessing the small seating area for the event.

Despite the problematic optics, the visit was a highlight of Francis' four-day tour of Hungary and Slovakia. The trip is his first outing since undergoing intestinal surgery in July and marks the restart of his globetrotting papacy after a nearly two-year coronavirus hiatus.

Pope Francis urged Slovakia's Roma to better integrate into the mainstream as he met with the country's socially excluded minority group on Tuesday. Pictured: Francis at Lokomotiva stadium in Kosice

Roma in Slovakia have long suffered discrimination, marginalisation and poverty and, in some ways, Francis' visit to the Lunik IX settlement in the eastern city of Kosice is seen as significant

Francis acknowledged Slovakia's Roma had long been subject to 'prejudice and harsh judgments, discriminatory stereotypes, defamatory words and gestures,' and misunderstandings on the part of the Catholic Church. Pictured: Roma await the arrival of Pope Francis

Slovak police and soldiers lined tall fencing along the main route into the neighbourhood, preventing residents who hadn't registered in who hadn't registered in advance from accessing the small seating area for the event

Lunik XI is the biggest of about 600 shabby, segregated settlements where the poorest 20 per cent of Slovakia's 400,000 Roma live.

Most residents lack basics such as running water or sewage systems, gas or electricity.

Francis acknowledged Slovakia's Roma had long been subject to 'prejudice and harsh judgments, discriminatory stereotypes, defamatory words and gestures,' and misunderstandings on the part of the Catholic Church.

It is hoped his visit could help change attitudes among Slovakia's majority, many of whom would never visit the neighbourhood, which until recently police refused to enter at night.

But Francis, 84, urged the residents to think of future generations in trying to overcome their own prejudices, obstacles and longstanding mistrust of the Slovak majority, and try to integrate better so their children can have a brighter future.

The trip is Francis' first outing since undergoing intestinal surgery in July and marks the restart of his globetrotting papacy after a nearly two-year coronavirus hiatus

Pictured: Francis attends a meeting with young people at Lokomotiva stadium in Kosice

Pictured: Francis attends a meeting with young people at Lokomotiva stadium in Kosice

'Their great dreams must not collide with barriers that we have erected. They deserve a well-integrated and free life,' Francis told the crowd.

'Courageous decisions must be made on behalf of our children: to promote their dignity, to educate them in such a way that they can grow up solidly grounded in their own identity and be given every opportunity they desire.'

Roma have long suffered racism and discrimination in Slovakia and elsewhere in Central and Eastern Europe, and continue to face huge hurdles in employment and education.

The mistrust is reciprocal, with some Slovaks blaming the Roma for crime and Roma distrusting state institutions that have long failed them.

That distrust was on display during Francis' visit, with a far more robust Slovak security presence than at any of Francis' other stops, literally keeping the Lunik residents behind wire fencing.

People wait for the arrival of Pope Francis for a meeting with Roma community at the Lunik IX settlement

Lunik XI is the biggest of about 600 shabby, segregated settlements where the poorest 20 per cent of Slovakia's 400,000 Roma live. Pictured: Members of the Roma community wait for the arrival of Pope Francis

Most residents of Lunik XI lack basics such as running water or sewage systems, gas or electricity. Pictured: Members of the Roma community wait for the arrival of Pope Francis

The 'pope of the peripheries' has long sought to meet with society's most marginalised during his foreign trips, making sure to always include visits to slums, ghettos or prisons where he can offer words of encouragement and welcome. Pictured: Members of the Roma community wait for the arrival of Pope Francis

Vladimir Fabian, spokesman for the city of Kosice, said residents had been given the chance to register to attend the event, but many didn't.

In addition, anyone who wanted to attend had to show proof of vaccination, a negative test or proof of recovery from COVID-19.

The fence was erected for security reasons, Fabian said, adding that security also dictated that residents were told to stay in their buildings and watch the pope from their windows.

The Rev. Marian Deahos, a Salesian priest who works with the Roma in a nearby community, said Francis' call for greater integration may fall on deaf ears given the deeply felt barriers the Roma have about integration and the 'racism' some Slovaks have toward them.

'The biggest problem is that we, Slovaks, consider the Roma to be under us, less than us, that they steal, they don't work and have problems with us,' Deahos said on the sidelines of the Lunik event.

While some Roma are able to work and live in mixed neighbourhoods, those in Lunik haven't managed to because either they don't believe they can or don't have the education or means to, he said.

The residents of Lunik IX have faced a compounded hurdle: The settlement was originally a neighbourhood where Roma families lived alongside the families of service members and police officers, a communist-era measure to keep law and order.

It is hoped his visit could help change attitudes among Slovakia's majority, many of whom would never visit the neighbourhood, which until recently police refused to enter at night. Pictured: Francis meets with members of the Roma community

Roma have long suffered racism and discrimination in Slovakia and elsewhere in Central and Eastern Europe, and continue to face huge hurdles in employment and education

Pictured: Members of the Roma community wait for the arrival of Pope Francis as Slovak soldiers watch on

Pictured: Francis meets with members of the Roma community

Kosice authorities later moved Roma from other parts of the city to the neighbourhood, essentially confirming its ghettoisation and the forced separation of Roma from the mainstream.

'Marginalising others accomplishes nothing,' Francis told the crowd. 'Segregating ourselves and other people eventually leads to anger.

'The path to peaceful coexistence is integration: an organic, gradual and vital process that starts with coming to know one another, then patiently grows, keeping its gaze fixed on the future.'

Francis sought to highlight the example of Roma who had left or otherwise integrated more fully into Slovak society.

His encounter featured one resident - Jan Hero, 61, who married a Slovak woman - and a family of four who got out of Lunik IX with the help of the Salesian priests who minister to the community.

'Thanks to this, we can today offer our children a life that's happier and more dignified and peaceful,' said one of those who left, Rene Harakaly.

Noting that she still has family members in Lunik IX, she added: 'We hope that your visit brings a new hope and passion for an internal transformation to those here today.'

Lunik IX mayor Marcel Sana, a resident since he was two, has overseen a host of public works since taking over in 2014, including improving sanitation and security. The local school is well-regarded, and playgrounds have opened for local children.

'When I took over the office, my vision was to make Lunik IX a quarter like all others in Kosice,' Sana said. 'But after everything was neglected for 20 or 30 years, we need time to make it happen.'

Residents said Tuesday that some things had already changed in the runup to Francis' visit, with fresh paint on building exteriors.

'We have new roads, new stairs, they repaired everything,' said resident Alexander Horvath.

Pictured: Francis arrives for a meeting with young people at Lokomotiva stadium in Kosice

Pictured: Francis arrives for a meeting with young people at Lokomotiva stadium in Kosice

Pictured: Crowds greet Pope Francis as he arrives for a meeting with young people at Lokomotiva stadium in Kosice

The 'pope of the peripheries' has long sought to meet with society's most marginalised during his foreign trips, making sure to always include visits to slums, ghettos or prisons where he can offer words of encouragement and welcome.

Francis started his penultimate day by celebrating a Byzantine rite Mass in Presov, near Kosice, in recognition of the country's Greek-Catholic believers.

During the chant-filled, open-air Mass, Francis took a swipe at European politicians who often brandish crosses to emphasise their Christian credentials.

'Crucifixes are found all around us: on necks, in homes, in cars, in pockets,' he said. 'Let us not reduce the cross to an object of devotion, much less to a political symbol, to a sign of religious and social status.'

Organisers said more than 30,000 people attended, and they received the Eucharist via small spoons, as is done in the Eastern rite.

Well before Francis' arrival they had filled the outdoor site as a choir sang hymns. They cheered and wildly waved the yellow-and- white flags of the Holy See as Francis looped through the crowd in his popemobile.

'We came here at 3 a.m. to get the best spot,' said Slavka Marcinakova, a resident of Presov.

'Pope coming to Slovakia - you have an opportunity like this only once in a lifetime. We are so happy for that.'
Whole family has been in isolation, and father has been moved to ICU

Jon-Bernard Kairouz, 24, is in a Covid-19 ward along with his father Richard

A TikTok comedian who shot to fame after he correctly predicted the daily Covid case numbers in NSW has joined his father in hospital suffering from the illness.

Jon-Bernard Kairouz, 24, is in a Covid-19 ward at St George Hospital in Kogarah, Sydney's south, multiple sources told Daily Mail Australia.

His dad Richard Kairouz has also been battling the disease at the same facility since September 4. The gym owner has since been placed in an induced coma in the hospital's intensive care unit.

Mr Kairouz junior became known as 'the TikTok guy' after repeatedly revealing the NSW Covid tally hours before Premier Gladys Berejiklian earlier this year.

His sensational five-day streak ended in July when he got the numbers wrong, but he made headlines days later when he was charged for giving a speech at Sydney's anti-lockdown protest.

Jon-Bernard Kairouz (pictured) shot to fame after he correctly predicted the daily number of NSW case numbers in NSW

Jon-Bernard Kairouz and his father Richard Kairouz (pictured together) have been hospitalised with Covid-19

Bankstown Local Court heard on Wednesday that the entertainer plans to fight two counts of not comply with noticed direction/Covid-19 and encourage commission of crime when he appears in the Downing Centre in October.

Dubbing himself 'the people's premier', Mr Kairouz spoke to a cheering crowd of impassioned Australians who gleefully clutched signs condemning lockdowns, masks and vaccines.

'All we want is freedom,' he told about 3,500 protesters.

'I must say I've crunched the numbers, I don't think the cases are going to go up tomorrow.

'From what I've calculated there's over 50,000 people here today,' he wrongly claimed.

Jon-Bernard Kairouz fired up anti-lockdown protesters during an illegal rally in Sydney in July (pictured)

Three police detectives were waiting outside his home in Belmore, in Sydney's south-west, on Sunday July 25 to present him with his court attendance notice.

The NSW Police Force released tense footage of his the moment detectives confronted Mr Kairouz on the street as he returned from an exercise session.

A source close to the family said last week that the family has been hit hard by Covid.

'He was symptomatic ... and kept deteriorating,' they said, referring to Mr Kairouz senior.

'(He) decided to go to hospital on the Saturday afternoon. The whole family is at home in isolation.

'After predicting the Covid-19 numbers daily, (Jon-Bernard) couldn't predict that he (his dad) would contract it.'

Jon-Bernard Kairouz's streak of accurate Covid case numbers ended after just five days in July

Kairouz is seen above when he was charged by officers on the street near his family's home on July 25

It is still unclear how Mr Kairouz managed to accurately predict the Covid case numbers for five days in a row.

The feat hasn't been repeated by anyone else except for a handful of well-connected political reporters who have reliably forecast ballpark figures.

Health Minister Brad Hazzard denied that a 'trap' had been set for Mr Kairouz where false information was supplied to his source.

Mr Kairouz enjoyed his case numbers stardom, telling reporters prior to the police charges that he was 'having a ball'.

'It's been a whirlwind,' he added.

Mr Kairouz has kept a lower profile in the wake of the police action. No one from the family responded to repeated requests for comment.
The body of a man has been found inside a burnt down home in Sydney's south.

Firefighters were called to a property on The Avenue in Hurstville at about 8am on Wednesday.

The fire was immediately extinguished and the body of a man was discovered inside.

The body of a man has been found after a house fire was extinguished on The Avenue (pictured) in Hurstville, south Sydney

Police were called to the home at about 8am on Wednesday and found the man deceased in the property (stock)

Police are yet to formally identify the victim, and have since launched an investigation into the house fire.

Anyone with information is being urged to contact CrimeStoppers.
Two county lines drug gang members have been jailed for hunting down a mother and claiming her son had been kidnapped for ransom before carrying out a knife raid on her relative's home.

Gullaid Ibrahim, 27, of Pimlico, and Adam Nur, 23, of White City, were each jailed for six years for hunting down the young mother, in her 20s, after she got cold feet about laundering money for them.

The woman, in her 20s, answered an advert on Snapchat about earning extra money before being told she would be paid to launder money for criminals operating a county lines operation called the 'Sergio line'.

Luton Crown Court heard the woman's ordeal began in October last year after she responded to an advert on Snapchat asking if she wanted to earn some money.

She was told she would receive a 6,000 payment into her account, from which she would take a cut.

But within days, the woman started receiving phone calls and texts threatening her and her family over the money. The woman checked herself into a hotel in London - but Ibrahim and an associate managed to find her from her booking reference after they got access to her online accounts.

Gullaid Ibrahim (pictured), 27, of Pimlico, and Adam Nur, 23, of White City, were each jailed for six years for hacking the woman's computer and tracking her to the hotel room she was hiding in after she responded to their advert about earning extra money

They attempted to force their way into her room and were only blocked from doing so by her boyfriend. Hotel staff ejected the men before police arrived.

Officers moved the victim to a secure location, while she also disposed of her phone over fears it was being tracked.

A few days later, men armed with knives turned up at the woman's address in London looking for her. On that same day, the gang's search also brought them to Bedford where a scooter was thrown through a window of the house where the woman used to live.

They also attempted to get inside a family member's address by pretending to be from the police before attempting to blackmail the woman's ex-partner. They called him and lied that they had kidnapped their young son, and demanded 8,000 for his return.

In a separate incident in Bedford, three men pushed their way into the home of another family member, whose children were at the address at the time, and demanded to know where the woman was.

One of the men was carrying a knife and said that they would hurt the victim at this address if they did not settle the 35,000 debt they claimed was owed to them by the original woman.

Detectives have since issued a warning around 'deets and squares' operations where people are approached online and paid to help move money.

Detective Inspector Dale Mepstead, from the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Major Crime Unit (MCU), said: 'Ibrahim and Nur would stop at nothing to recover the money they claim had been taken.

'The fact they brought completely innocent women and young children into this makes their crimes even more despicable. Their actions show a complete absence of morals and decency.

The pair also stormed a home of some of the woman's relatives in Bedford, held them at knifepoint and threatened to harm them if they didn't pay 35,000. Pictured: Gullaid Ibrahim in CCTV footage while tracking the victim

'These people are out there online, on social media and messaging platforms that thousands of young people use every day, looking to recruit people to help them move their money.

'This case demonstrates the scary consequences that might await anyone who gets involved with these schemes. The chance to make a bit of money could cause untold fear and terror for your friends and family - or even worse..'

The woman's ex-partner alerted police after being harassed by the criminals and officers analysed call records and linked them back to Nur and Ibrahim.

Police later arrested Ibrahim at an address in south London. He was arrested holding a phone which had been used to call the ex-partner.

Nur was arrested while driving a car in west London shortly afterwards. A sim card was in his pocket which had also been used to call the ex-partner, while a handset was also found in the rear of the vehicle with his DNA on it.

Ibrahim and Nur were both found guilty of two counts of conspiracy to blackmail after a trial. Nur was given an extra month on top of his sentence for breaching a restraining order.

Both men were also issued with five year restraining orders preventing them from contacting their victims.

Judge Lynn Tayton QC told them: 'Your actions had long term, if not permanent, psychological effect on the victims. They have been left paranoid and this has taken a toll on their personal lives.

'I am satisfied that both of you were equally involved in carrying out these threats.

'The particular aggravated features are the planned and persistent way you hunted the victim and when you couldn't reach her, you resorted to threats designed to terrify the victim's son and ex-partner.'

Bedfordshire's Violence and Exploitation Reduction Unit (VERU) raises the issue of 'deets and squares' in its work with young people, having seen cases of this in the county linked to child criminal exploitation.

The VERU's youth intervention specialist (YIS) team coordinator, Tasha Case, said: 'Young people up and down the country are becoming more vulnerable to this type of crime.

'I know this can be tempting, especially if money is hard to come by. However, if you get involved in this you risk a prison sentence yourself, ruining your credit history or even worse.

'If anyone approaches you - as glamorous as it may appear, as exciting as it may seem - you need to say no and talk to someone you trust.

'We can only tackle this if we work together and support each other.'
Israeli police on Tuesday said they had questioned a suspect over the alleged abduction of a boy who was the sole survivor of a deadly cable car crash in Italy.

Fourteen people, including Eitan Biran's Israeli parents, younger brother and great-grandparents, were killed in the accident in Italy's northwestern Piedmont region in May.

'A 58-year-old suspect was questioned on suspicion of being linked to the case of an abduction of a six-year-old child in Italy,' an Israeli police statement said, adding that a complaint was filed on Sunday.

Eitan's maternal grandfather allegedly took the six-year-old to Israel on Saturday on a private jet after taking him out on an agreed day visit and failing to return.

Israeli police on Tuesday said they had questioned a suspect over the alleged abduction of a boy who was the sole survivor of a deadly cable car crash in Italy. Fourteen people, including Eitan Biran's Israeli parents, younger brother and great-grandparents, were killed in the accident in Italy's northwestern Piedmont region in May. Above: Eitan with his parents Amit Biran and Tal Peleg-Biran and younger brother Tom

He was supposed to have returned Eitan to the boy's paternal aunt and guardian, Aya Biran-Nirko, who lives in Pavia, in northern Italy.

The prosecution in Pavia on Sunday opened an investigation into the alleged kidnapping, according to Italy's ANSA news agency.

After the accident, Eitan had been airlifted to hospital in critical condition.

Since his release, his Italian-resident paternal family and his maternal family in Israel have been locked in a custody battle.

After the accident, Eitan had been airlifted to hospital in critical condition

An Italian court had assigned custody to his paternal aunt, while his maternal family had visitation rights.

Italian authorities had also ordered his passport, held by his maternal family, be returned.

Eitan and his parents, Amit Biran and Tal Peleg, had been living in Italy, where Amit Biran was studying medicine, together with their other child, Tom.

Eitan's maternal uncle, Guy Peleg, told Israeli television channel Kan 11 on Tuesday evening that 'Eitan's parents wanted him to grow up in Israel'.

He denied any 'abduction' and said the boy had been taken to Israel legally.

Police said the investigation was ongoing and that the suspect had been conditionally released.
Young Archie and Lilibet are being 'deprived' of seeing their grandparents by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, her father Thomas Markle today claimed.

The 77-year-old father of the Duchess of Sussex accused the couple of being 'terribly unfair' to their children by keeping them away from relatives, including himself, their grandfather Prince Charles and great-grandmother, the Queen.

Speaking to Australian TV from his home in Mexico, 120 miles south of Harry and Meghan's 11million Montecito mansion, he revealed he is yet to meet Archie, 2, and three-month-old Lilibet.

He also accused his daughter, with whom he is estranged, of having an 'attitude' not to let him to see his grandchildren.

Mr Markle said the only family member who had regular access to the children currently was Meghan's mother, and his ex-wife, Doria Ragland.

But he vowed not to use legal avenues in order to see the children, saying he did not want them to be 'used like pawns'.

Speaking to Channel 7s Sunrise, he said: 'I think they (Archie and Lilibet) are being deprived of seeing all their grandparents and I think they are being deprived of seeing all their relatives and I think that's terribly unfair to them.'

Asked if he would consider legal action to see the children, he said: 'I've had offers from several lawyers - pro-bono - because we do have the right to sue to see our grandchildren.

'But to me that's like trying to descend into a game and using them like pawns and I won't sue to see them because I just think that's using them and it's not what I plan to do.

'They shouldn't be used, they are just babies. So no, I will wait.'

Thomas Markle (pictured) accused Harry and Meghan of being 'terribly unfair' to their children by keeping them away from relatives, including himself, their grandfather Prince Charles and great-grandmother, the Queen

Speaking to Australian TV from his home in Mexico, 120 miles south of Harry and Meghan's 11million Montecito mansion, he revealed he was yet to meet Archie, 2, (pictured here with Harry and Meghan) and three-month-old Lilibet

'I will wait patiently until they are ready to bring them to me. But as long as my daughter has the attitude she doesn't want me to see them, that's the way it's going to be.'

He later urged the couple, who have been living in California since their acrimonious split from the Royal Family, to return to England.

'I would like them, all four of them, to go back to England and fulfil their duties. It's better for the children and it's better for them,' Mr Markle said.

'By not taking back they are cheating their children. They also get much better protection in England than in Montecito.

Thomas Markle also urged the couple (pictured here with Archie and while Meghan was pregnant with Lilibet), who have been living in California since their acrimonious split from the Royal Family, to return to England

'I would like to see them maybe make up with the Queen and make up with his (Harry's) father, and then we can make up.'

The comments were made as part of a 15-minute long interview with the Channel 7 breakfast show, broadcast earlier toady.

Mr Markle, who earlier this year criticised his daughter in an exclusive interview with UK show Good Morning Britain, today described his daughter as 'controlling'.

Asked if it was his daughter who was the 'controlling one' in their relationship, he said: 'I believe that 100 per cent. My daughter is very controlling.'

Mr Markle also took a swipe at Prince Harry during his latest TV appearance.

He said he was yet to meet his son-in-law and that the Prince had not contacted him to ask for his daughter's hand in marriage prior to their 2018 wedding - for which Mr Markle was not present.

In another barbed comment, he also accused the 37-year-old royal of 'failing as a husband' over his handling of Meghan's mental health claims.

Speaking during the couple's interview with Oprah earlier this year, the Duchess, 40, said she had contemplated taking her own life.

But she said after going to palace officials for help, she was refused any kind of medical support.

Mr Markle, who earlier this year criticised his daughter in an exclusive interview with UK show Good Morning Britain (pictured), today described his daughter as 'controlling'

Mr Markle said: 'I think Harry was a total failure as a husband, because if a wife or child of mine came to me and say I have a psychological problems and was thinking about suicide I would get them directly to a doctor.

'I wouldn't have to go and check with someone first.'

It is not the first time Mr Markle has made the claim. After the couple's interview with Oprah in March, he described the Prince as snotty and accused him of failing to support his daughter.

Speaking to Good Morning Britain earlier this year about his daughter's mental health claims, he said: 'It really did upset me, like I said, it would have been easy for her to reach out to me, any of the rest of her family, who she claims she doesn't know.

'But the other thing is that I would think that she could turn to her husband.' When noted she did speak to Harry, Mr Markle said Meghan's husband Harry had 'obviously not supported her that well'.

Mr Markle also slammed his daughter's decision to refuse to see or speak to him in his previous television appearance.

Speaking at the time Mr Markle said: 'The biggest problem here is she's pretty much ghosted all of her family'.

Mr Markle, who raised Meghan as a child, was supposed to walk his daughter down the aisle in May 2018 but pulled out of the ceremony following health problems.

The two were also engaged in a row about him speaking to the press. Mr Markle has maintained he was 'set up' by journalists - who he claims he plans to sue.

During Meghan's interview with Oprah in March, she asked the Duchess: 'Did it feel like betrayal when you found that your father was working with the tabloids?'

During Meghan's interview with Oprah (pictured) in March, she asked the Duchess: 'Did it feel like betrayal when you found that your father was working with the tabloids?'

After weighing up if she was 'comfortable' delving into the issue, Meghan said her father had assured he had 'absolutely not' spoken to the press.

She said: 'If we're going to use the word betrayal it's because when I asked him, when we were told by the comms team this was a story that was going to be coming out which, by the way, the tabloids had apparently known for a month or so and decided to hold until the Sunday before our wedding because they wanted to create drama, which is also a key point in all this, they don't report the news, they create the news.

'We called my dad, and I asked him, and he said no, absolutely not. I said, you know, the institution has never intervened for anything for us, but they can try to go in and kill this story. But if they do this once, we're not going to be able to use that same leverage to protect our kids one day.

She added: 'I said we won't be able to protect our own kids one day, and I said, I just need you to tell me. If you tell me the truth, we can

'And he wasn't able to do that. And that for me has really resonated, especially now as a mother.'

Meghan went on: 'And also me saying just full stop, if we use this to protect you, we won't be able to protect our own children one day, I'm talking about your grandchildren.

'I look at Archie, I think about this child, and I go I genuinely can't imagine doing anything to intentionally cause pain to my child. I can't imagine it. So it's hard for me to reconcile that.'

MailOnline contacted representatives for the Sussexes for comment last night.
Just two per cent of coronavirus patients admitted to intensive care since Australia's vaccine rollout started were fully vaccinated.

New figures underscoring the power of immunisation have revealed a whopping 86 per cent of people needing intensive care treatment had not received a single dose.

Monash University's SPRINT-SARI project examined 574 ICU admissions since February 22, when the first coronavirus vaccines started to be rolled out across the nation.

Only 13 people, or two per cent, had received two doses, while 69 - the equivalent to 12 per cent - had a single shot.

Just two per cent of coronavirus patients admitted to intensive care since Australia's vaccine rollout started were fully vaccinated. A Covid-positive patient is seen being cared for in the ICU of St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney

The remaining 492 patients were unvaccinated.

Infectious diseases epidemiology professor Allen Cheng said younger people including pregnant women were featuring more prominently in intensive care admissions in recent weeks.

'The shift in age of those admitted to ICUs is anticipated, given older Australians were prioritised during the early phases of rollout,' he said on Wednesday.

'These figures again underscore just how much protection vaccinations offer in terms of your likelihood of getting seriously unwell with COVID-19.'

SPRINT-SARI is a hospital-based surveillance database tracks the sickest coronavirus patients in Australian hospitals and intensive care units.

Intensive care director at Melbourne's Austin Hospital Stephen Warrillow said staff were more fatigued during last year's Victorian second wave.

Frontline workers are seen taking a patient into RPA Hospital in Sydney

'There is a growing numbers. We have had additional admissions overnight,' he told the Nine Network.

Dr Warrillow said getting the community as close to 100 per cent vaccinated was crucial with no fully vaccinated person admitted to ICU at his hospital during this outbreak.

National vaccine rollout co-ordinator John Frewen said projections showed Australia could hit 70 per cent double-dose coverage for people aged 16 and over in October.

'It is possible to get to 80 per cent this year but the variable here is people and people's preparedness to get vaccinated,' he told ABC radio.

Lieutenant General Frewen said international experience showed getting from 70 to 80 per cent was difficult.

But he is encouraged by public sentiment surveys showing more than 80 per cent intend to receive a jab, another group are unsure and only a small percentage are anti-vaccination.

Australia should pass 70 per cent first dose vaccination coverage for people aged 16 and above by the end of this week.

More than 43 per cent have full protection.

So far 59,000 children aged 12 to 15 have received a shot.

In NSW, there were 1127 new cases on Tuesday, while Victoria's reported 445 infections.

There were 22 new cases in Canberra where a lockdown has been extended for another four weeks.
A fearless cyclist has offered his top tips for dealing with swooping magpies during the springtime season after a council in Sydney decided to cull the menacing birds.

Shane Miller shared a video on YouTube detailing how he calmly dealt with a swooping magpie along a countryside road in Victoria as part of his training to prepare for the swooping season ahead.

In the footage the avid cyclist stopped on the side of the road as a magpie sitting on the power line above him prepared to attack.

Mr Miller looked back at the bird and said: 'We've got ourselves a stand-off.'

Shane Miller posted a video on Youtube where he calmly dealt with a magpie alongside a countryside road in Victoria as training for the swooping season ahead

As soon as he began to pedal away slowly, the magpie started to swoop at the back of his head and fly above him for several hundred metres.

Mr Miller captured the swooping magpie from his rear camera for over a minute while he cycled until it stopped.

'This one always seems to swoop twice. It's much better going in the other direction [along the road] where I can see the shadow on the ground,' Mr Miller said.

Mr Miller mentioned that one of his followers thought he was torturing the magpies, but he insisted that was not the case

The outdoorsman said this magpie was very persistent, as he began to loop two more times along the same road in the magpie's 'zone' to face the menacing bird again for his training.

'He's not hitting. It's all just practice,' said Mr Miller as the bird started his attack one last time.

Mr Miller mentioned that one of his followers thought he was torturing the magpies, but he insisted that was not the case.

It is best to cover your ears and neck as they are 'scratch zones' where the birds can easily attack you, he offered by way of advice.

Sunglasses also help to offer extra protection despite the birds almost always attacking a person from behind.

Mr Miller concluded that eye contact is crucial as the birds won't swoop or come too close if a person is looking at them, and if a person also raises their hand, it would stop the magpie from attacking.

The fearless cyclist shared tips for dealing with magpies such as wearing protective gear that covers your ears, neck and eyes as well as making sure to hold eye contact with the bird

The swooping season has been particularly horrifying in recent months, with a young mother tragically losing her baby after she tripped in a Brisbane park in August following a magpie attack.

A suburban Sydney street has also dealt with a pair of vicious magpies terrorising local residents, which has caused the local council to cull the menacing birds.

Dozens of locals on Johnston Crescent in Sydney's Lane Cove have been left with cuts and bruises after encounters with the native Australian birds.

Eight magpie attacks were reported in August alone along the quiet street on website Magpie Alert.

The recent attacks have led Lane Cove Council to obtain a 'licence-to-harm' from the National Parks and Wildlife Service, which allows the birds to be culled.

The 'licence-to-harm' is valid until December 1, with the council yet to nominate an animal control contractor.

Lane Cove Council obtained a 'licence-to-harm' last week issued by the National Parks and Wildlife Service after recent attacks on residents in a Lane Cove street (stock image)
A huge bust-up erupted between leaders of the Taliban at the presidential palace before deputy leader Mullah Baradar fled to Kandahar, sources have revealed.

The row took place between Khalil ur-Rahman Haqqani - the minister for refugees - and the group's co-founder Baradar, a senior Taliban official told the BBC.

The pair reportedly exchanged strong words because deputy prime minister Baradar was unhappy about the structure of their interim government.

It is said the argument derived from disagreement over which members of the group should receive recognition for their victory in Afghanistan.

Baradar allegedly believes that focus should be placed on diplomacy, while the Haqqani group gives emphasis to fighting.

The Taliban states there was no argument and denies that Baradar is dead after wild rumours emerged that he was killed during a gunfight with his political rivals.

The group insisted that Baradar is in Kandahar province meeting with the group's supreme leader Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada to discuss Afghanistan's future now the US has withdrawn.

But the social media rumour-mill believes he was actually killed in a gun battle in Kabul's presidential palace on Friday that broke out during a meeting with the powerful and ruthless Haqqani family.

The Taliban produced a handwritten note and an audio recording as evidence that Baradar is alive - which only served to increase speculation further.

The Taliban has been forced to deny wild rumours that deputy leader Mullah Baradar was shot dead during a confrontation in Kabul last week (pictured, Taliban guards in Kabul)

Taliban spokesman Mohammad Naeem released the audio recording on Monday.

In it, a man claiming to be Baradar accuses 'media propagandists' of spreading false rumours about him - insisting 'I and all my colleagues are OK'.

'There had been news in the media about my death,' Baradar said in the clip.

'Over the past few nights I have been away on trips. Wherever I am at the moment, we are all fine, all my brothers and friends.

The only evidence the Taliban has produced is a handwritten note (pictured) and an audio recording, sparking more rumours

'Media always publish fake propaganda. Therefore, reject bravely all those lies, and I 100 percent confirm to you there is no issue and we have no problem.'

The recording was posted to Twitter hours after a handwritten note was also circulated, insisted that Baradar is alive.

The note - which was not signed by Baradar but by a deputy, Mawlawi Musa Kaleem - denied there had been a shoot-out at the palace and said Baradar is in Kandahar.

Muhammad Suhail Shaheen, one of the group's most-senior spokesmen who is based in Kabul, also rubbished the rumours.

'Reports about Mullah Baradar Akhund being injured or killed are baseless and are not true, I categorically refute them,' he said.

Rumours about Baradar's safety began circulating last week when the Taliban announced its new government and named him as deputy prime minister, despite the widespread belief that he would take the top job.

That led to speculation that he had been demoted due to in-fighting between Taliban founding members and the Haqqani Network - a powerful faction of the Taliban whose family members secured top positions in the new administration.

Speculation about Baradar's health was driven into overdrive at the weekend after he was absent from a high-level summit with Qatar (pictured), amid reports of political in-fighting

Speculation then intensified when Taliban leaders met with senior delegates from Qatar in Kabul on Sunday, with Baradar conspicuously absent from the meeting.

Three members of the Haqqani family were at the summit along with other members of the new Afghan government - led by Prime Minister Mohammad Hasan Akhund.

Baradar is one of the Taliban's founding members and served as deputy to its first supreme leader Mullah Omar, who died in 2013 from tuberculosis.

After Omar's death, Baradar took over as leader of the political wing of the Taliban and is one of the group's most-senior figures.

But he is thought to be in conflict with the Haqqani family, leaders of the fearsome Haqqani Network which is affiliated with the Taliban but also has links to terror groups opposed to the Islamists - such as ISIS-K.

Two members of the clan - Sirajuddin and Khalil - now hold senior positions in the new government, taking the roles of interior minister and refugee minister.

Anna Haqqani also holds a role as a high-level negotiator, and was present during the meeting with Qatari diplomats.

Baradar, one of the Taliban's founding members (file image), has been seen in public only a handful of times since arriving back in Afghanistan last month

Adding further fuel to the rumours is the fact that the Taliban previously covered up the death of leader Mullah Omar for two years.

It was only after Afghan intelligence revealed his death in 2015 that the Taliban publicly confirmed it.

The Taliban's supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, was also rumoured to have died for several years before the group recaptured Afghanistan.

Since then, the Islamists have claimed he is alive and in the country - somewhere in Kandahar province.

Akhundzada rarely appears in public, perhaps explaining why the Taliban have been reluctant to release images of Baradar if the pair are meeting.
A violent murderer is suing over a string of alleged incidents behind bars, including claims he was stripped naked in full view of fellow inmates who ridiculed him for the 'size of his genitalia'.

Matej Vanko, who is serving a life sentence for the murder of Donald Stevens, 53, and the kidnapping of Noelene Stevens in rural Darwin in 2012, allegedly took part in a jailhouse riot in May last year.

He alleges his treatment by prison guards in the aftermath 'left him feeling like a tortured animal, vulnerable, unsafe and distressed'.

Matej Vanko (pictured) is suing the NT government for assault and false imprisonment after he was ridiculed by inmates following a riot last year

Vanko is suing the Northern Territory Government for false imprisonment and assault, alleging in court documents he was injured by CS gas after he climbed onto the roof of the prison during the riot.

A guard allegedly sprayed Vanko in the face with the gas while he was complying with orders to come down off the roof, he claims in court documents seen by NT News.

Guards then took Vanko to an 'at-risk' cell where they allegedly ripped his clothes off causing 'an abrasion and friction burn to his perineum and scrotum where his clothes had been pulled through between his legs and ripped from underneath him'.

The convicted killer alleges he was held in solitary confinement for three weeks - 24 hour a day - then allowed out for 15 minutes a day for the next three months.

Vanko (pictured) is serving a life sentence for the brutal murder of 53-year-old Donald Stevens in 2012

He was denied cutlery for at least the first month and had to eat with his hands, he alleges.

Vanko alleges he was later subjected to 'sexual ridicule and bullying' over the size of his genitals when guards left him handcuffed and naked outside his cell.

On June 6, after being restrained for banging on his cell door 'in protest of his conditions' Vanko's clothes were again allegedly cut off by guards and he was left in view of other inmates, one of whom filmed him.

In the court documents, he claimed the incident left him feeling 'humiliated' and 'like a captured animal.'

'The plaintiff suffered and continues to suffer harassment from other prisoners regarding his body and size of his genitalia and has been the subject of sexual ridicule and bullying,' they read.

The government denies allegations of mistreatment of Vanko by prison guards in a defence filed with the court.
The Victorian ombudsman is investigating the handling of border exemptions after more than 80 stranded Victorians have complained.

Victoria's ombudsman is investigating the health department's handling of border exemptions after more than 80 stranded Victorians have complained to the watchdog.

The investigation will examine the department's use of discretion when it comes to decisions about interstate travel permits, exceptions, exemptions and relevant human rights considerations.

The Victorian ombudsman is investigating the handling of border exemptions after more than 80 stranded Victorians have complained

Victoria's ombudsman is investigating the health department's handling of border exemptions after more than 80 stranded Victorians have complained to the watchdog

Among Victorians who have complained are children wanting to be with their parents after their school in NSW closed and a woman who became stuck in NSW after a funeral.

It comes after Victoria closed the border to NSW on July 9 after declaring it as an 'extreme risk zone'.

Victorian Ombudsman Deborah Glass said cases of Victorians trying to get home had been raised with the state's health department and several have been resolved.

However, some complaints are continuing 'raising potentially systemic issues about departmental decision-making'.

Victorian Ombudsman Deborah Glass said cases of Victorians trying to get home had been raised with the state's health department and several have been resolved

The investigation will be completed by the end of this year and tabled in parliament

She said it would be important to probe whether balance had been 'fairly' assessed in decisions to grant border permits.

'The situation is increasingly urgent with the extended lockdown. Some people are telling my office they face effective homelessness, stuck interstate with nowhere else to go,' she said.

'Cases that have come into my office have raised concerns about the exercise of discretion under the relevant public health directions.

'This will be a swift investigation to help the department identify if urgent improvements are needed in processes and decision making.'

The investigation will be completed by the end of this year and tabled in parliament.
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President Joe Biden has thrown his support behind Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez's Met Gala stunt as he agreed it's 'time super-wealthy pay more tax'.

A day after the leftwing firebrand made headlines by wearing a custom white gown with the words 'tax the rich' emblazoned across it to the $35,000-a-head-even, Biden used the momentum to plug his Build Back America Act.

'Its time the super-wealthy and big corporations pay their fair share in taxes,' he tweeted.

Congresswoman AOC, who was slammed as hypocritical and tone deaf by many for trying to pass off the stunt as a political protest, tweeted her agreement with Biden a half-hour later.

'Couldnt agree more. Taxing the rich will help us expand Medicare, extend childcare, take action on climate, and so much more,' replied Ocasio-Cortez. who had boasted that her dress had boosted Google searches about 'our f****d up tax code'.

'We have a precious opportunity right now in reconciliation with the Build Back Better Act, and we should use it.'

Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez has been on a quest to tax the wealthy after her Met gala dress stunt. She was backed up on Twitter by President Biden

AOC (left) reminded followers - yet again- that taxing the rich is the solution to most of America's problems, after she was she is backed up on Twitter by President Biden

Two hours later, Biden used the segue to detail the proposed legislation, which House and Senate Democrats aim to pass into law by the month's end.

'To be clear: If you make under 400k, my Build Back Better Agenda wont raise your taxes a cent,' he tweeted.

'Not only that  youll get a historic tax cut, and see lower costs on things like child care and health care. And all of it will be paid for by the wealthy paying their fair share.'

The package, worth $3.5trillion, will raise taxes on corporations and those making over $400,000 per year if it makes it through Congress. The bill is focused on helping families and combating climate change and is progressives top priority - currently, the bill is in the process of markup and reconciliation.

AOC said she'd been invited to the event as an elected official. DailyMail.com can reveal the Met Museum comped her ticket and Bill de Blasio's

Earlier today, AOC also tweeted that the 'tax the rich' movement was a nonpartisan matter and shared articles from ProPublica, CBS News and The New York Times tackling on the issue

'Were going to put money directly into the pockets of American workers by lowering the costs of child care and elder care, and making universal preschool a reality,' Biden elaborated on Twitter later in the day.

'These investments add up to thousands of dollars in savings each year for working families. Thats a big deal.'

The act is a third of Biden's original 'Build Back Better Plan,' which also included a proposal to rebuild American infrastructure and create jobs, and a COVID relief portion that was passed in March of this year.

'We face a fundamental choice in America right now as we rebuild our economy: this time, will everyone get in on the deal?' said a White House memo issued last week regarding the legislation. 'The time is now. We have to meet the needs in front of us. Not tomorrow, not months from now, not next year. Right now.'

Earlier today, AOC also tweeted that the 'tax the rich' movement was a nonpartisan matter and shared articles from ProPublica, CBS News and The New York Times tackling on the issue.

'After a year where frontline workers were thrown into harm's way (many w/o hazard pay or adequate healthcare) while billionaires hoarded another $4 TRILLION, members of both parties have tried to halt taxing the wealthiest in our society.

'It's unacceptable. We must Tax the Rich,' she concluded.

But Twitter users remained critical of AOC's Met gala stunt

Another Twitter user jumped to AOC's defense, stating that her dress had actually initiated a conversation on the issue. 'She got you attention in the donated designer dress, and invitation. I'd say she's quite brilliant,' they wrote

AOC also addressed 'haters' who criticized her Met gala bold fashion statement and branded her a hypocrite. She said that she was invited as one of New York's elected officials in charge of 'overseeing and supporting the city's cultural institutions for the public.'

But the backlash remained large in the platform, as users continued to bring up the irony in her message and the platform that she used to deliver it.

'By 'the rich', do you mean the kind of people who could afford the stuff sold on the website of the designer who designed your dress & invited you to the Met Gala?,' tweeted an user.

Another Twitter user jumped to AOC's defense, stating that her dress had actually initiated a conversation on the issue.

'She got you attention in the donated designer dress, and invitation. I'd say she's quite brilliant,' they wrote.

The Democrat firebrand attended Tuesday night's star-studded event as guests of the museum, according to Met Museum spokeswoman Nancy Chilton.

Ocasio-Cortez's boyfriend, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio, his wife and son also took free tickets worth total of $175K, that could have been sold to support the museum.

The $35,000 ticket proceeds go to the Met's Costume Institute, one of the only departments that doesn't receive government funding, to supports its exhibitions, acquisitions, and capital improvements.

AOC did not buy her own ticket but mystery remains over who paid for the politicians, after it was revealed that event organizer Conde Nast did not cover the cost of the tickets.

Neither de Blasio nor Ocasio-Cortez had specified who footed the bill on Tuesday.

De Blasio's rep told Politico that he made the decision to attend the event, somewhat ironically, in an economic meeting 'months ago'.

'The mayor made the decision to attend months ago in one of his hours long economic recovery war room meetings led by Lorraine Grillo. He wanted to highlight a local designer who had been able to make it through the pandemic.

'It's a notable way to grab people's attention and highlight the return of the city's fashion industry jobs.'

AOC was spotted leaving with Aurora James, the designer behind her 'tax the rich dress' and her boyfriend, Benjamin Bronfman - the heir to the Seagram's fortune.

He is also the nephew of Clare Bronfman, who was accused of funding NXIVM sex cult with donations to Keith Raniere.

AOC also left the party with her boyfriend, Riley Roberts, and James.

She boasted to the magazine: 'The Met Gala is seen as elite and inaccessible...As a working class woman, [I] wanted to enjoy the event but also break the fourth wall and challenge the industry,' she proudly told Vogue at the event.

AOC with her boyfriend Riley Roberts (far right), her dress designer Aurora James and Benjamin Bronfman (far left), James' partner who is the heir to Seagrams Company Ltd. The group was pictured leaving at midnight. AOC claimed she'd been 'invited' as an elected official. DailyMail.com can reveal she was a guest of the Met Museum

AOC poses in her 'Tax The Rich' dress while movie star Megan Fox waits behind her. AOC attended the event with designer Aurora James in what she claims was a political protest

AOC has been slammed for supporting the event by many who say she simply wanted to enjoy the limelight while trying to pass it off as a political protest in yet another example of her tone-deaf hypocrisy.

The congresswoman, who previously posed on the cover of Vanity Fair, drives a $35,000 Tesla and claims to be '100% grass roots from the Bronx' despite growing up in a wealthy NYC suburb.

She wore a borrowed dress from Brother Vellies, James' celebrity-adored NYC label.

Before the gala, AOC got ready at The Carlyle hotel on the Upper East Side, where rooms cost upwards of $1,000-a-night. She was escorted to a chauffer-driven car, with someone carrying the train of her dress, and she waved to screaming fans as she left the hotel

The only jewelry she wore was a pair of $450 gold hoops from Mejuri and a $65 ring from the same brand.

She didn't wear a mask, like many of the other guests.

The event was for fully vaccinated guests only but the celebrities in attendance - who regularly preach online about COVID rules - ignored the guidance of the CDC and liberal states like California, where masks are recommended indoors regardless of vaccination status.

In a proud Instagram post about the event and her choice of outfit, AOC said: 'The medium is the message. Proud to work with Aurora James as a sustainably focused, Black woman immigrant designer who went from starting her dream Brother Vellies at a flea market in Brooklyn to winning the CDFA against all odds - and then work together to kick open the doors at the Met. The time is now for childcare, healthcare, and climate action for all. Tax the Rich.

'And yes, BEFORE anybody starts wilding out - NYC elected officials are regularly invited to and attend the Met due to our responsibilities in overseeing our city's cultural institutions that serve the public.

'I was one of several in attendance. Dress is borrowed via Brother Vellies.'

Outgoing New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who previously said he'd never attend the event, also attended the event.

In a statement in a press release by Brother Vellies, AOC said: 'There's no way I'd be doing this if it wasn't with a woman of color and with the intent to grow the table and empower women that look like me.

'Despite being held in New York City, the culture of the Met Gala is everything but.

'NYC is often synonymous with inclusivity, inviting millions of people from different walks of life to call this city home.

'The Met Gala, on the other hand, is seen as elite and inaccessible. I'm attending today because I want to change just that and spotlight women of color who are often not included during events like these.'

Donald Trump Jr led the criticism, blasting AOC as a 'fraud' while pointing out that she was also not wearing a face mask 'after spending the last 18 months as one of the biggest mask Karens in the country'.

Andray Domise, a writer and partner in black news network Rezistans Nwa, also pointed out that the gala was taking place just yards from where the NYPD were arresting 'defund the police' protesters - a cause that AOC has previously supported.

'Police were creasing people's heads outside while you and your friends were nibbling watermelon tarts with smoked yuzu soy on panipuri crackers,' he said

Greg Price, a writer for the Daily Caller, added: 'AOC grew up in a wealthy suburb, went to one of the most expensive colleges in America, makes a six figure salary, drives a Tesla, lives above a whole foods, and is currently at an event that costs more to attend than America's average personal income.'

AOC was slammed for attending the event with her boyfriend and lapping up the limelight

Actor and comedian Michael Rappaport also weighed in. He shared a picture of AOC in a dress fitting session and captioned it: 'Custom TAX THE RICH dress while at the most elitist event in the world.

'Will soon be rich with a ginormous production deal from somewhere & done with Politics, guarantee it.

'Stop treating ANY of these people like celebrities they are public servants that work for US.'

As she made her Met Gala debut, AOC will have passed crowds of BLM protesters clashing with police outside the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Brothers Vellies, James' luxury brand, is often worn by celebrities such as Beyonce, Meghan Markle, Zendaya, Rihanna and Lady Gaga, according to the brand's website.

It is AOC'S first time attending the gala, but her political message has already drawn controversy during this year's 'In America: A Lexicon of Fashion' exhibit. It was also James' gala dress debut.

James and Ocasio-Cortez said they were inspired by their experiences as working women of color to make the political statement at the Met gala.

James is the founder of the 15percent Pledge, a nonprofit that asks brands to 'pledge 15percent of their shelf space to Black-owned businesses.'

AOC yelling out on the steps of the Met Gala before going inside to mingle with the well-heeled, ultra wealthy guests

Mayor de Blasio with his wife Chirlane and son, Dante, inside the event. He said he saw AOC there and 'commends' her for her 'message'

While AOC and Bill de Blasio mingled with celebrities inside the star-studded event, Defund the Police protesters were arrested outside. Both de Blasio and AOC championed the Defund the Police movement and led to the NYPD having $1billion of its budget cut

A woman gets arrested during a Defund the Police protest outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art during the MET Gala in New York on September 13, 2021 while Rep. AOC and Mayor Bill de Blasio were inside

She designs mostly accessories and shoes listed on her brand's website retail around the $600 and $700 mark.

AOC has been very vocal in the past about her stance on taxing millionaires.

In 2019 she advocated to raising taxes of to 70percent for the wealthy in order to fund measures against climate change.

'As a working class woman, [I] wanted to enjoy the event but also break the fourth wall and challenge the industry, Ocasio-Cortez told Vogue.

'When Aurora and I were first kind of partnered, we started having a conversation about what it means to be working class women of color at the Met,'

'And we said, you know, we can't just play along, but we need to break the fourth wall, and challenge some of the institutions.

'And while the Met is known for its spectacle, we should have a conversation about it,' she added.

In a 2019 Tweet, AOC wrote: When we say 'tax the rich,' we mean nesting-doll yacht rich. For-profit prison rich. Betsy DeVos, student-loan-shark rich.

'Trick-the-country-into-war rich. Subsidizing-workforce-w-food-stamps rich.

'Because THAT kind of rich is simply not good for society, & it's like 10 people.'

There was also uproar over the fact that the celebrities on the red carpet were not wearing masks but teachers and kindergarteners in public schools have to.

'Do as I say, NOT as I do. NYC mayor makes every single NYC public school student and teacher mask up all day in school.

'Guess the Met Gala ain't considered school,' said one angry Twitter user after seeing Mayor Bill de Blasio without his mask, attending the event with his wife and his son.
Singapore Airlines has blamed a lack of Australian government clarity about international travel on a decision to scrap dozens of pre-Christmas flights.

Cancellations between October and December are the latest blow to Australians stranded overseas desperately hoping to return before the end of the year.

Singapore Airlines spokesman Karl Schubert said the company had not been told when international arrival caps would be lifted.

Singapore Airlines has blamed a lack of Australian government clarity about international travel on a decision to scrap dozens of pre-Christmas flights

'We've had to make the very difficult decision that we simply can't operate the two additional flights that we were hoping to do into Sydney and to other ports across Australia,' he told ABC radio on Wednesday.

The major airline has been unable to secure talks with the government.

'That has been frustrating at times, understanding that governments have had quite a lot of work to do and had their focus directed elsewhere,' Mr Schubert said.

'What we need to do is get airlines, airports, governments at state and federal level around the same table to talk about how Australia is going to reopen.'

A national reopening plan has raised hopes international travel can resume when 80 per cent of Australians aged 18 and above are fully vaccinated.

Under that phase, caps on returning Australians would be abolished and capacity for students, economic migrants and refugees increased.

Restrictions on Australians leaving the country would be lifted and new travel bubbles including with Singapore considered.

But Mr Schubert said the rules around what travel would look like were unclear.

'We just don't have the clarity we need to have the confidence to operate,' he said.

Singapore Airlines is operating two flights a day across four Australian airports, with passenger services carrying between 12 and 25 people.

Mr Schubert said more information from government would allow flights to be reinstated.

'We have the capacity to move very quickly to reinstate operations where demands warrants.'
Angelina Jolie visited Capitol Hill on Tuesday and thanked officers who lost their colleagues after defending politicians from the insurrection during the January 6 riot, as she advocated for the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act.

Jolie took the opportunity to thank Capitol Officer Harry Dunn, who testified in Congress after he was called racial slurs and physically assaulted during the insurrection.

A picture of Jolie standing next to Dunn was shared on Twitter.

Dunn lost fellow officer Brian Sicknick, who suffered two strokes a day after keeping rioters from entering the Capitol and harming lawmakers.

Four other officers who were on duty during the riot in January died by suicide after defending the site.

Officers Gunther Hashida, Jeffrey Smith, Howard Liebengood, and Kyle deFreytag took their lives in the months after the attack.

Jolie also met with Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer to talk about the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, which was signed into law by President Clinton in 1994, but lapsed in 2019.

Angelina Jolie visited Capitol Hill on Tuesday and met with Senators. Jolie also took the opportunity to thank Officer Harry Dunn, who was on the Capitol during the January 6 riot

0fficer Brian Sicknick suffered two strokes a day after keeping rioters from entering the Capitol and harming lawmakers

Four other officers who were on duty during the riot in January died by suicide after defending the site. Pro-Trump rioters breached the security perimeter and penetrated the U.S. Capitol to protest against the Electoral College vote count that would certify President-elect Joe Biden as the winner in Washington

'I'm in DC leading up to the VAWA reauthorization, FBI reforms, and other important protections and rights.

'I've met with experts for years now, learning about best practices including non-biased forensic evidence collection, and advocating for improvements,' Jolie said in a statement.

'I'm grateful for these timely and valuable meetings with senators, especially focused on provisions for children's health,' she added.

The VAWA was introduced by President Biden when he was a senator.

In March, the House of Representatives passed legislation to restore it.

If approved, the act would give funding to states that make dealing with sexual assault and domestic abuse a priority.

Sen. Schumer thanked the actress for her visit and share pictures of their meeting on Twitter

Apart from having a successful career in Hollywood, Jolie has been a longtime advocate of several humanitarian causes.

Spotted in the Capitol: Angelina Jolie pic.twitter.com/yUAgL2y3CV  Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) September 14, 2021

Sen. Charles Schumer meets Angelina Jolie on Capitol Hill on September 14. Jolie met with Democratic leadership in the Senate to discuss the future of the Violence Against Women Act

Jolie reportedly asked senators to consider expanding the act to cover abuse targeted at children and 'prioritize children's health and safety in legal responses to trauma, including through judicial training and advancements in forensic evidence collection.'

Sen Schumer thanked the Maleficent star on Twitter.

'Thank you to Angelina Jolie for coming in today to talk about the fight to reauthorize VAWA in the Senate and how we can help support research on diagnosing injuries from domestic violence and child abuse to help survivors,' Schumer said.

Senator Whip Dick told Forbes that Jolie was 'very serious-minded' and knew a lot about the subject.

Jolie has been deeply involved in social causes. She made her Instagram debut in August, right after the US withdrew its forces from Afghanistan.

Angelina Jolie walks through the Capitol after meeting with Senate Democratic leadership about the future of the Violence Against Women Act

'Thank you to Angelina Jolie for coming in today to talk about the fight to reauthorize VAWA in the Senate and how we can help support research on diagnosing injuries from domestic violence and child abuse to help survivors,' tweeted Sen. Schumer

Actress and activist Angelina Jolie rides the Senate Subway out of the Capitol after meeting with Senate Democratic leadership

On her first Instagram post, Jolie shared 'A Letter from an Afghan Girl,' an account of the consequences of the Taliban taking power for women and girls in the country.

'I was on the border of Afghanistan two weeks before 9/11, where I met Afghan refugees who had fled the Taliban. This was twenty years ago.

'It is sickening to watch Afghans being displaced yet again out of the fear and uncertainty that has gripped their country.

'To spend so much time and money, to have blood shed and lives lost only to come to this, is a failure almost impossible to understand, weighed in Jolie.

'Watching for decades how Afghan refugees - some of the most capable people in the world - are treated like a burden is also sickening.

'Knowing that if they had the tools and respect, how much they would do for themselves. And meeting so many women and girls who not only wanted an education, but fought for it.

'Like others who are committed, I will not turn away. I will continue to look for ways to help. And I hope youll join me, ' she concluded.

Apart from having a successful career in Hollywood, Jolie has been a longtime advocate for several humanitarian causes.

She has visited refugee camps since she was in her 20s, and is an United Nations Special Envoy.
A regional Victorian city has been plunged into a snap seven-day lockdown after recording four new Covid cases as the state's top doctor warns infections are expected to rise.

Premier Dan Andrews has announced Ballarat residents will be under the same restrictions as Melbourne - except for the curfew - from 11.59pm Wednesday as the state's Delta outbreak spreads into the Central Highlands.

'It is not the news Ballarat want to hear or the decision we to make,' he told reporters on Wednesday.

'[But] If we allow the virus to get away in one part of regional Victoria it becomes a threat and a risk to all of regional Victoria. We can't have that happen.'

Dan Andrews has announced Ballarat will enter a seven-day lockdown from midnight Wednesday after the city recorded four new Covid cases

Meanwhile, Shepparton will come out of lockdown, with its restrictions to mirror the rest of the regions from midnight on Wednesday after a local outbreak was brought under control.

Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said the Ballarat decision was made after Covid sewage surveillance indicated the virus may have been circulating within the community for up to a week.

'We have had positive wastewater detections from the eighth, which can sometimes mean someone passing through, someone who has recovered,' he said.

'But when you subsequently have confirmed cases identified, it makes you think that those wastewater detections related to someone who was positive and infectious in the community and not detected.

'So it has been over a week of likely transmission within the Ballarat community. So there are likely to be more cases and it is for that reason that going to an immediate lockdown is really the right response.'

Ballarat residents will have to abide by stay-at-home orders with only five reasons to leave home: shopping for necessary goods and services, authorised work and study, caregiving or compassionate reasons, exercise, and getting vaccinated.

Masks will be mandatory in public indoor and outdoor settings, visitors at homes will be banned and a five kilometre travel limit will apply.

Two Ballarat venues were added to Victoria's exposure sites list overnight, with more expected to be added in coming days.

From 11.59pm on Wednesday, Ballarat residents (pictured) will be under the same restrictions as Melbourne except for the curfew for seven days after four cases, multiple exposure sites and wastewater detections in the area

Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said authorities made the decision to lockdown Ballarat amid fears Covid-19 has been circulating in the community undetected for the past week

The Forge Pizzeria was visited by a positive case on Saturday, between 1.50pm-3.30pm, while Big W was attended on Friday from 4.45pm to 5.30pm.

Anyone who visited the businesses during those dates and times are advised to get tested immediately and quarantine for 14 days from exposures.

Mr Andrews urged Victorians in Covid hotspots to continue coming forward for vaccination, announcing the state had surpassed the one million jab milestone.

'Its so important that people in these LGAs continue to check for exposure sites near them, get tested if they have any symptoms at all and most important  get vaccinated if you havent already.

Although less than 50 per cent of eligible Victorians are fully-vaccinated, Mr Andrews said state was fast approaching the 70 per cent first dose milestone which would usher in new freedoms.

'That means that so many people are coming forward and getting vaccinated,' he said.

'We will have options at the 70 per cent single-dose and then, of course, we have much more options at 70-80 per cent double dose.

'Thank you to those who have come forward and got vaccinated, you're playing a massive part getting keeping yourself and the rest of the community safe.'

Victoria recorded 423 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, bringing the total number of active cases in the state to 4038.

On the flipside, Shepparton (pictured) will exit lockdown from 11.59pm Wednesday after a local Covid outbreak was brought under control

Five cases were in regional areas of Ballarat and Geelong.

Of the new cases, 149 are linked to known outbreaks and the source of the remaining 274 is under investigation.

Two deaths were also reported, a man in his 40s from Whittlesea and another man in his 70s from Wyndham, bringing the toll from the current outbreak to eight.

There are 173 Victorian Covid patients in hospital, including 44 in ICU, with 23 on ventilators.

It is not yet known if one of the deaths is a 46-year-old man who worked at a Serco call centre in Mill Park.

Martin Blight became infected with COVID-19 after a workplace outbreak died in hospital on Monday, according to the Australian Services Union.

The union remembered Mr Blight as "a committed ASU member, a father, a friend to many" and said his family encourages everyone to get vaccinated "as soon as possible".

It's unclear whether he was vaccinated but he had a Pfizer vaccine booked in for September, according to his Facebook.

It comes as Victorians may be given more freedoms from Friday, with an extra hour of exercise and an expanded travel limit on the table once 70 per cent of those eligible have received their first COVID-19 dose.

Mr Andrews has confirmed the state's roadmap out of lockdown will be released on Sunday.

Mr Andrews announced Victoria has surpassed one million Covid vaccine doses, as the state races to hit jab targets. Pictured: A man gets a vaccination at a Melbourne clinic on Monday

Healthcare workers are seen preparing doses of COVID-19 vaccines at pop-up clinic in Broadmeadows, Melbourne, on Thursday

The roadmap, outlining restrictions through to November, will rely on Burnet Institute modelling of vaccination and hospitalisation rates.

He cannot not provide details about Victoria's Covid strategy earlier because he is waiting on the federal government to confirm the state's vaccine dose supplies for October, he said.

Meanwhile, St Vincent's Health Australia has announced a mandatory vaccination policy for all of its health and aged care facilities, including St Vincent's hospital in Melbourne.

The health provider operates 16 public and private hospitals, and 23 aged care facilities across Victoria, NSW and Queensland and will require "all staff, volunteers and contractors" be vaccinated against COVID-19.

Unions, peak bodies and workers will be consulted about the policy in the coming weeks to help determine a date for when it will come into effect, St Vincent's Health Australia Group chief executive Toby Hall said.

He said more than 70 per cent of people across the organisation are already fully vaccinated.

'We see it as a complementary and logical step in the process of keeping our sites as safe as possible as Australia learns to live with COVID-19 long-term,' Mr Hall said.

In the 24 hours to Wednesday morning, 54,649 tests were processed and 41,856 Victorians received a vaccine dose at a state-run hub,.
Utah police have revealed they responded to an 'incident' involving 22-year-old 'van-life woman' Gabby Petito and her boyfriend, just two weeks before she was last seen in Wyoming.

'Our officers did respond to an incident involving Brian Laundrie and Gabrielle Petito on 12 August 2021 however, neither Brian or Gabrielle were the reporting party,'

'Officers conducted an investigation and determined that insufficient evidence existed to justify criminal charges,' Moab Chief of Police Bret Edge told Fox News.

It not clear what the incident was about.

But Gabby's mother, Nichole Schmidt told DailyMail.com, 'Its irrelevant. Two people traveling together with each other 24 hours a day, its not going to be perfect, it was an argument, and thats all Im going to say about it.'

Laundrie, who went to Florida in the van he shared with Petito, has since hired a lawyer and refused to tell Petito's family where she was last seen.

Petito was reported missing by her mother on Sept 11, two weeks after they had last spoken on the phone.

The 22-year-old had been traveling with boyfriend Brian Laundrie in their van and was last seen on Grand Teton National Park.

Schmidt sent her daughter's boyfriend and his family desperate texts looking for her but was ignored.

Twenty-two-year-old Gaby Petito had been traveling with boyfriend Brian Laundrie in their van before going missing on August. She was last seen on Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming

Police have revealed they responded to an 'incident' involving 22-year-old 'van-life woman' Gabby Petito and her boyfriend, Brian Laundrie, two weeks before she was last seen

'I can't say much, but she's no longer with the van,' Schmidt said of her daughter. 'I don't want to say anything more than that but for people looking for her, I want them to look for her now, not look for that van anymore'

Schmidt told DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview that on September 10 she reached out to Brian and his mother Roberta Laundrie trying to reach her daughter after she had not heard from Gabby since August 25.

'I texted Brian's mom that I was trying to get in touch with Gabby. I also texted Brian. I got no replies,' Schmidt said.

'I knew something was wrong,' she said. 'I felt something was off and I needed to get her reported missing immediately.'

She went to report Gabby missing later that day but police initially blew her off. The next day, she was allowed to file a report with the Suffolk County police department.

Brian's family have since refused to let authorities interview their son when the van that the couple had traveled in before she disappeared was seized from their property late on Saturday night.

Nicole Schmidt, of Long Island, New York, gave a teary-eyed interview to reporters in Bohemia on Monday afternoon about her daughter Gabby Petitio, who has been missing since August 24. Schmidt tells DailyMail.com that on September 10 she texted Brian and his mother Roberta trying to get in touch with Gabby, but neither replied

The gloves are off: Schmidt and Petito want answers The Schmidt and Petito family are going through the worst moments of their lives. Their beautiful twenty-two year old daughter is missing and the one person that can help find Gabby refuses to help. Brian Laundrie was traveling with Gabby in the Grand Teton  Yellowstone area. They were traveling together in Gabby's 2012 Ford Transit van. That is where we believe Gabby was last seen. Brian is refusing to tell Gabby's family where he last saw her. Brian is also refusing to explain why he left Gabby all alone and drove her van to Florida. These are critical questions that require immediate answers. The Schmidt and Petito family beg the Laundrie family to not 'remain in the background' but to help find who Brian referred to as the love of his life. How does Brian stay in the background when he is the one person that knows where Gabby is located? The Schmidt and Petito family implore Brian to come forward and at least tell us if we are looking in the right area. Advertisement

Schmidt said Brian's sister Cassie is the only member of Brian's family who has spoken to authorities.

She said she can't understand why neither Brian nor his parents have reached out to her in the aftermath of her daughter's disappearance.

'It's a very mysterious situation. We don't understand why he's doing this. Everybody's assuming the worst and thinking he's guilty of this. But I don't want to believe that. I want to believe she's just in need of help out there and that everybody needs to keep searching.'

Schmidt described how Brian's parents had been warm and welcoming to Gabby during their relationship. She recalled a time when his mother even knitted her future daughter-in-law gifts for Christmas.

'She loved her like a daughter,' Schmidt said. 'As far as I knew they were all very caring and treated her like one of the family. His mom was so excited about the engagement.'

The distraught mother also clarified that Gabby and Brian had been engaged, but decided to call it off and go back to just dating because they felt they were too young for marriage.

'I think they kind of put that on hold just because they felt it was a little fast. They were excited at first, but then they were like, let's just wait, we're very young. So they were really just boyfriend and girlfriend,' she said.

She said they'd been a couple for a little over two years, but met growing up in Long Island.

'They went to high school together. They were friends. They got back in touch and started dating,' she said.

In light of the disappearance, Schmidt says she's now viewing everything under a new lens.

'Maybe the relationship wasn't what I thought,' she said.

Gabby set out on a cross-country trip July 2 with boyfriend Brian Laundrie in the couple's 2012 Ford Transit van. Brian posted this photo of the couple on Instagram on July 16 at Zion National Park

Laundrie's father, 62-year-old Christopher Laundrie (pictured), was seen mowing his lawn on Monday, and refused to comment on his son's whereabouts. 'If they cared about her, they would want to find her,' said Schmidt. 'Why aren't you out helping find her?'

Above is the Laundrie family home in North Port, Florida, where Brian Laundrie returned in the couple's van without Gabby after their trip

Schmidt has recently seen photos in the news of Brian's father performing yard work.

'If they cared about her, they would want to find her,' she said. 'Why aren't you out helping find her?'

'I don't want to seem accusatory,' she said. 'It's confusing, my mind is turning right now.'

She's also questioning Brian's trip back to Florida in August to help his father move their things into a storage unit. She wonders why it was necessary to move Gabby's things during their road trip and what became of her stuff.

'Where are her things?' she asked.

Asked why Brian chose to lawyer up, she replied, 'You know I wish I knew that answer, why.'

'I know that's the reason this story is so sought after is because it's odd. The police have said it's very odd. We don't know what's going on, and where is my daughter. I just want to find her.'

Gabby, who grew up in Blue Point, New York, was last seen on August 24 checking out of a hotel with Brian in Salt Lake City, Utah.

The following day she made her final call to her family, telling them that she and Brian had traveled to Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.

Her last Instagram post on August 25, shows her visiting the Monarch Wall in Ogden, Utah with the caption 'Happy Halloween'. The pair were heading from Ogden to Yellowstone National Park, just north of Grand Teton.

The couple embarked on their trip on July 2 from Blue Point, where they traveled for Gabby's brother's graduation on June 17. She was reported missing by her mother to New York authorities on Saturday night.

Schmidt said they'd been a couple for a little over two years, but met growing up in Long Island. 'They went to high school together. They were friends. They got back in touch and started dating'

The couple had documented their conversion of a 2012 Ford van into a camper and their life traveling in it on YouTube and Instagram

Schmidt spoke of her daughter's love of adventure.

'She was starting with a van life channel. This was the beginning. That was her very first video posted. That was the start of her whole YouTube journey.'

'She just fell in love with that lifestyle and wanted to take journeys. She was a free spirit. Everybody was jealous, everyone was like, we want to do that too, but we all think we just have to get a job and go to school. But she was doing what we were all envious of.

'And I supported her on all of that, even every once and a while when she needed help moneywise and stuff, because it was a really expensive trip. I helped her out a little bit here and there. So did her father. But they were having a great time.'

Schmidt said the last time she spoke over the phone with her daughter was on August 25 - and cast suspicion on the texts received from her adventure-seeking daughter over the next five days.

She said she texted Gabby on August 27 and 30, but now says she isn't sure if her daughter was on the other end of the exchange because it wasn't verbal and she didn't share any photos of herself.

She said, 'It was just a text. I did not verbally speak to her. I can't say much, but she's no longer with the van. I don't want to say anything more than that but for people looking for her, I want them to look for her now, not look for that van anymore.'

She told DailyMila.com, 'It didn't sound stressed or anything like that. It was just a little bit weird, the things that she was saying.' She didn't elaborate further.

Schmidt said Gabby would contact her at least three times a week. 'We would FaceTime, call, text, frequently. She kept me updated on this whole trip... The first couple of days [she went missing], I believe she was in a place with no service. It was day 8 and 9 that I really became concerned and figured she couldn't be off the grid for that long.'

She added: 'I don't know if I believe she's in danger for a particular reason, I just believe she's in danger because she's not in touch with us and she could be alone somewhere, she could be stranded somewhere in the wilderness.

'And she needs help. And I know we're not out there, but I hope everyone's looking for her. I hope that the hikers and the rangers and the campers and everybody has her face and they're looking for her actively.'

Gabby was seen in a YouTube video eating a snack in the van as they made way on their cross-country journey

Gabby's father Joe, who lives in Vero Beach, Florida, is pleading for help bringing his daughter home and addressed the public on Monday when speaking with the New York Post.

He said to 'focus on finding her. I can't implore that enough. All of the crap afterward will sort itself out. Please find her. I beg you.'

He added that on August 21, she let him know on FaceTime that they had lost power during a stop in Salt Lake City.

'Everything was good. She had lost power to wherever she was at. She couldn't get on the WiFi for whatever reason,' Petito said.

Throughout the past week, neither parent heard from her and so 'we got pretty alarmed and tried to do the missing-person report,' he said.

He urged people across the country to be on the lookout for anything that seems 'fishy.'

'The hard part is that it's the van life. They can go anywhere they wanted, unfortunately, in this situation. It's the entire damn country,' he said.

Asked whether she thinks her daughter may just be camping in an area with no cell phone service, Schmidt replied, 'I hope that's the case. And maybe she's off with some other drifters, hanging out. I would love for that to be what she's doing right now.'
The move by Australia's legal drug authority to warn general practitioners against prescribing the drug Ivermectin as a supposed 'Covid treatment' has divided the grass roots medical fraternity.

Last week, the Therapeutic Goods Administration issued new restrictions on the use of ivermectin to treat Covid-19 symptoms amid fear it was being handed out by GPs to those using it as an unauthorised treatment for the virus.

The drug, which has traditionally been used to treat lice and scabies in humans, and which also is used to treat conditions in animals, gained popularity as a potential Covid cure after ex-United States President Donald Trump talked it up while in office.

The TGA had warned against using Ivermectin (pictured) to treat Covid and said there could be a number of dangerous side effects

Australia's TGA and the United States' FDA have both warned against using ivermectin to treat Covid with the FDA saying: 'You are not a cow, seriously y'all stop'

The TGA fears anti-vaxxers are behind a social media campaign pushing the drug as an alternative to vaccination

News of the direction stirred robust debate among doctors commenting under a Royal Australian College of General Practitioners article.

While some welcomed the decision, many appeared furious that they were being told what was best for their patients.

'The contempt we are held in by our bureaucracy is palpable,' one GP stated.

'Once again general practice is considered the lowest common denominator of medicine, and our competence and objectivity to treat our patients appropriately is questioned,' another doctor wrote.

Some GPs argued it was 'common knowledge' among doctors that vaccination alone was not the only approach to manage pandemics.

'Being vaccinated does not make anyone a superhuman to COVID infection. If our goal is to keep Australian safe from dying, shouldn't we give alternatives to those who for whatever reasons will rather die than take the vaccines,' one doctor wrote.

'India saved their nation with Ivermectin. Do we want people to die in their homes in the name of promoting vaccination? GPs should stand up for choice.'

GPs are now only able to prescribe ivermectin for TGA-approved indications, such as scabies and certain parasitic infections.

The changes mean only specific specialists , including infectious disease physicians, dermatologists, gastroenterologists and hepatologists, will be permitted to prescribe the drug for other 'unapproved indications' if they believe it appropriate.

Ex-United States President Donald Trump supported the use of ivermectin as a possible remedy against Covid-19

Australian GPs have expressed frustration at being told what they can and can't prescribe to their patients

'These changes have been introduced because of concerns with the prescribing of oral ivermectin for the claimed prevention or treatment of COVID-19,' the TGA told doctors.

'Ivermectin is not approved for use in COVID-19 in Australia or in other developed countries, and its use by the general public for COVID-19 is currently strongly discouraged by the National COVID Clinical Evidence Taskforce, the World Health Organisation and the US Food and Drug Administration.'

'I am neither for or against Ivermectin at this stage,' one GP commented.

'WHO had given contradictory statements on Covid inflection right from the start. For example, no human to human transmission.'

Some GPs claimed they had been bullied by anti-vaxxers desperate for access to the drug to treat Covid.

'I have been approached by an aggressive family twice and I obliged once which was so hard next time that I needed to call police to get rid of that patient - frustrating indeed,' a GP stated.

It is understood the drug's promotion by anti-vaxxers has led to a dramatic increase in its uptake by the large sections of the community.

The drug has been used as an authorised treatment for Covid-19 in some eastern European, South American and Central American nations, and was used in India to during the outbreak of the Delta strain, but is not recommended by the WHO.

It came back into the headlines this month when prominent podcaster Joe Rogan said he used the drug and others to treat his Covid infection and rapidly recovered, with some attacking his promotion of unauthorised treatments.

A quick look on social media reveals the drug is widely promoted in anti-vaccination circles as an alternative to the jab.

'There has been a 3-4-fold increased dispensing of ivermectin prescriptions in recent months leading to national and local shortages for those who need the medicine for scabies and parasite infections,' GPs were warned.

A nurse administers the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine at a drive through vaccination centre in Melton in August

Authorities are fighting anti-vaxxers on the ground and at the doctor's clinic

The health watchdog has warned improper use of the drug can be associated with serious adverse effects, including severe nausea, vomiting, dizziness and neurological effects such as dizziness, seizures and coma.

Although some GPs remain skeptical of the TGA advice.

'Ivermectin is wrongly painted as a dangerous drug and a "serious overdose reaction" of diarhoea is mentioned. This is laughable,' one GP wrote.

'Many patients taking all sorts of medications are experiencing diarhoea and a S/E. Should we remove all these meds from GP's hands then?'

Former Liberal MP Craig Kelly, who in August assumed the leadership of Clive Palmer's United Australia Party, has repeatedly said drugs such as ivermectin and the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine - another unproven treatment - should be used to treat Covid.

'I'm not saying take the drug. I'm not saying the drug works, but I'm saying the doctor should be free to sit down with their patient and make a decision,' he previously told SBS.

Last month, the equivalent to the TGA - the US FDA - put out a tweet urging people not to take ivermectin, amid a surge of calls to poison centers nationwide.

'You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, yall. Stop it,' the agency wrote.
Kevin Rudd's wife Therese Rein has been criticised for asking why sunbakers were not being arrested as they enjoyed a 30C day during Sydney's Covid lockdown.

In response to a tweet about how 'insanely busy' Sydney's Balmoral Beach was on Saturday, Ms Rein wrote: 'Why are they not being arrested?'

The multi-millionaire 63-year-old, who lives in a $17million waterfront mansion with former Labor prime minister Mr Rudd on Queensland's Sunshine Coast, did not realise that recreation is allowed under NSW public health orders.

Kevin Rudd's wife Therese Rein (pictured together) has been blasted for asking why sunbakers legally enjoying fresh air during Sydney's Covid lockdown were not being arrested.

The 63-year-old who was once awarded a medal for her dedication to human rights demanded to know 'why are they not being arrested?'

Liberal MP Dave Sharma, who has repeatedly defended law-abiding beachgoers in his Wentworth electorate which includes Bondi Beach, said Ms Rein's comments were 'divisive and judgemental'.

'It's been tough for Sydney during lockdown. Getting outdoors has been one of the few relief outlets available for people,' he told Daily Mail Australia on Wednesday.

Mr Sharma also said it was wrong for Ms Rein to criticise Sydneysiders for taking in the sunshine while she enjoys lockdown-free life in Queensland.

'It's both churlish and uncharitable to demand - from interstate no less - that people be arrested for engaging in activities that are in accordance with the public health orders, and which all evidence to date demonstrates do not pose public health risks,' he said.

Beachgoers sit and swim at Balmoral Beach (pictured) amid ongoing social restrictions due to the pandemic in Sydney on Sunday

Liberal MP Dave Sharma (pictured volunteering for a homeless charity earlier this month) said Ms Rein's comments were divisive

'Comments like this only sow division. Let's all try to be a bit more understanding, and a little less judgemental, and we will come through this crisis the better for it.'

An hour after posting her initial tweet on Saturday, Ms Rein admitted she did not realise recreation was allowed - but she called for tougher lockdown rules.

'I guess the rules are different in NSW under lockdown than they were in Qld under lockdown. But it's just that, with as many new cases a day as NSW has, one wonders if the rules are quite adequate,' she wrote.

A source close to her said she wasn't calling for people to be arrested, only asking why they were not.

Due to the low risk of Covid spread outside, NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant has been encouraging Sydney residents - who have been in lockdown since late June - to go outside to keep in good mental and physical health.

A Twitter user described the weekend scenes at Sydney' Balmoral Beach as 'insanely busy' (pictured on Sunday)

While it's possible to catch Covid outside, it is extremely rare - with people generally having to be in close proximity - less than two metres - for a 'significant' period of time.

Several angry Twitter users criticised Ms Rein - who reportedly made up to $150million when she sold her employment and business psychology services business Igneus in 2014 - after she made the comment on the hottest Sydney day since January.

'Imagine sitting in your mansion in Queensland with Kevin07 calling for people interstate to get arrested for going to the beach,' one commenter said.

Another wrote: 'Because they're not criminals hun' and 'because we don't arrest people for being in a public place that they are permitted to be in'.

'I know this is challenging for a lot of people to understand. But, after lengthy research into the details of current restrictions, it appears that it is not technically illegal to be outside,' another said.

Ms Rein lives in this mansion on Queensland's Sunshine Coast. It boasts a 12-metre pool and a cinema room. She bought it for $17million in May 2020, according to Domain

Thousands of sun-starved Sydneysiders who've been living under stay-at-home orders for more than 13 weeks descended on the city's beaches over the weekend as temperatures climbed to 30C.

Beaches from Manly in the north to Cronulla in the south saw jam-packed crowds with photos from Bondi and Coogee in the eastern suburbs looking more like snaps taken before the Covid pandemic hit.

The nearby Woollahra Council was even forced to rope off Camp Cove at Watson's Bay and Redleaf beach at Double Bay, after massive crowds swarmed the popular harbourside spots.

The backlash was immediate from angry Twitter users blasting the former first lady of Australia

Many followed Covid protocols by visiting with just one friend and wearing a mask, but police were out in force reminding sunseekers to follow public health orders - as the number of new coronavirus cases continues to hover between 1200 to 1500 each day.

Photos showed officers approaching scantily-clad Bondi residents to tell them to wear face coverings while they were not swimming, surfing, walking, or jogging.

Sydney residents face $500 fines for not wearing a mask 'in all indoor or outdoor areas, other than a place of residence'.

But infectious disease professor Peter Collignon said the risks associated with outdoor transmission are actually extremely scarce - about 20 to 30 times lower than indoors.

Police patrolling Coogee Beach on Sunday to ensure sunbathers weren't defying Covid-19 restrictions

Police in uniform making sure no one travelled beyond 5km of home to lie on the beach on Sunday morning (pictured, Bondi)

'Essentially, if you are outdoors and particularly if you keep your distance of two metres, you're very unlikely to get the virus. If you're outdoors and you're closer than that [for significant periods], then wear a mask,' he told Daily Mail Australia.

'I think we shouldn't discourage people from going outdoors. It is safer to spend time with your family outdoors than it is indoors.

'Secondly, there's an emotional and psychological cost of staying inside for so long.'

But despite the barrage of criticism levelled at Ms Rein for her hand-cuff happy comments about beachgoers, many on social media agreed with the respected rehabilitation counsellor and social entrepreneur.

A number of social media users agreed with Ms Rein saying there is a 'double standard' when it comes to Sydney Covid restrictions

'There's still a curfew in western Sydney with helicopter fly-overs at dusk!! Unbelievable double standard,' one person wrote.

Others accused Liberal Party Premier Gladys Berejiklian of 'giving up'.

Another wrote: 'Death doesn't care who you are... this pathogen has been unleashed now... these people will find out soon enough.'
The fine art of disguise appears to have been lost on the driver of a fluoro yellow Holden Commodore, who was arrested in broad daylight and charged with more than 30 hooning offences.

Vision released by Queensland Police showed officers approaching the man in the carpark of a business park complex at Grand Plaza Drive, Browns Plains, south of Brisbane at 3pm on August 30.

The motoring aficionado was seen sitting in a bright yellow Ford sedan outside a Supercheap Auto shop, the duco above the back wheel hubs stained black from tyre burnout.

A used tyre could be seen stacked in the back seat space.

The 22-year-old man was seen sitting in a bright yellow Ford sedan outside a Supercheap Auto shop, the duco above the back wheel hubs stained black from tyre burnout

As police approached the sedan, a 22-year-old Nundah man allegedly ran from the scene

As police approached the sedan, a 22-year-old Nundah man allegedly ran from the scene.

He was then taken into custody after a short foot chase.

Police charged the man with driving without a licence, driving an uninsured vehicle, obstructing police and driving an unregistered vehicle. He was released on bail.

But after further investigations, police searched an address on Kao Street, Marsden, and took the same man back into custody.

Police alleged the man was involved in recent hooning incidents in Logan and Rocklea.

He was charged with more than 30 offences, including five counts of dangerous operation of a vehicle, seven counts of driving without a licence and six counts of driving an unregistered vehicle.

He also faces charges related to stealing wheels, driving off without paying for fuel, and two counts of breach of bail.

The man was taken into custody after a short chase on foot and charged with a number of offences

Police alleged the man was involved in recent hooning incidents in Logan and Rocklea. He was charged with more than 30 offences, including five counts of dangerous operation of a vehicle

Queensland Police had already received more than 12,000 hooning reports through Policelink this year

The man appeared in Beenleigh Magistrates Court on September 13 where he was remanded in custody and is next due to appear on October 11.

Queensland Police had already received more than 12,000 hooning reports through Policelink this year.

The service recently introduced a simplified online form for members of the community to upload photos and videos of hoon activity.

In April this year, a gathering of more than 1,000 people at a PImpama industrial estate on the northern Gold Coast saw police pelted with bottles, stones and fireworks during a hoon meeting that attracted about 600 vehicles.

'This behaviour is outrageous, clearly dangerous and will not be tolerated on our streets and in our suburbs,' Gold Coast Acting Chief Superintendent Geoff Sheldon said at the time.
Mark McGowan has threatened to shut the WA border with South Australia if it opens to Covid-hit Victoria and NSW at 80 per cent vaccination.

SA Premier Steven Marshall on Sunday threw his support behind the national plan to reopen interstate borders once 80 per cent of the Australian adult population is fully vaccinated against Covid-19.

But the Western Australian premier wants 85 to 90 per cent of his residents vaccinated before he even considers opening to states with Covid cases - likely not until Easter 2022.

On Tuesday, Mr McGowan said his SA counterpart 'may regret that decision' to open up if the state starts to record transmission of the virus again.

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Pedestrians are pictured walking in Perth on June 29. Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan has threatened to shut his state's border with South Australia if it follows through on a plan to open the border to Covid-hit Victoria and NSW

'The Tasmanian Premier has said 90 per cent before he considers [reopening the border],' Mr McGowan said on Tuesday.

'The SA Premier is now saying 80 per cent. I don't know when they'll get to 80 per cent, what comprises that 80 per cent and whether or not they do it.

'If SA then has community spread of the virus they may regret that decision and if they do, obviously we'd take health advice, but most likely we would close to that jurisdiction.'

Mr Marshall hit back at the WA state leader on Wednesday when asked about Mr McGowan's comments.

'Other premiers can sort out what they want to do in their state... we cannot keep Australia locked up forever,' he said.

'We are going to have to learn to live with this.'

WA's full-dose vaccination rate sits at 39.3 per cent while 41.2 per cent of SA's over-16 population is fully immunised against Covid-19.

A healthcare worker administers a Covid-19 vaccine at a pop-up clinic in Broadmeadows, Melbourne on Wednesday. The national roadmap out of the pandemic plans to end interstate lockouts once 80 per cent of the Australian adult population is fully vaccinated against Covid-19

'Once we get to double dose 80 per cent vaccination across South Australia we will certainly move away from state lockdowns,' Mr Marshall told Sky News' Sunday Agenda program.

Federal Trade and Tourism Minister Dan Tehan has welcomed Mr Marshall's backing of the national plan.

'That's wonderful news, in particular for our domestic tourism industry,' he said.

He said 660,000 jobs rely on people being above to move, particularly between state and territories.
The Queensland government will allow residents over 60 to receive the Pfizer vaccine from this Saturday as the state feverishly attempts to increase its lagging vaccination rate.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced the news in a video on Twitter, calling for anyone in the age bracket who was putting off getting the jab to stop dragging their heels.

According to the federal government's department of health Queensland currently has the lowest rate of first doses received and the lowest percentage of fully vaccinated residents.

Only 57.1 per cent of the population have rolled up their sleeve for their first dose, and 38.8 per cent of residents have received both jabs.

BREAKING: From this weekend, Pfizer will be made available for Queenslanders aged 60 and over. pic.twitter.com/xGQWAkBWLr  Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) September 14, 2021

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk (pictured) has announced that residents over the age of 60 can receive the Pfizer vaccine from Saturday

'I need everyone over 12 who is eligible to be vaccinated,' Ms Palaszczuk said.

'This weekend right across Queensland we are having a super Pfizer weekend.

'We need everyone vaccinated to prevent Delta coming in to Queensland, so this weekend walk on in to a vaccination centre and get your Pfizer.'

The announcement comes as Queensland recorded 0 locally acquired cases of Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, but the vaccination rate is lagging behind (pictured, a nurse with a Pfizer vaccine)

This announcement comes as Queensland recorded zero locally acquired cases of Covid-19 in the last 24 hour period.

However one new case was confirmed in hotel quarantine after a student tested positive while isolating yesterday.

As Queensland lags behind in the vaccination race, the nation's capital has the highest rate of fully vaccinated residents.

In the ACT 52.1 per cent of residents have received both jabs, compared to Queensland and Western Australia's measly 38.8 per cent.

As of September 14, Queensland has the lowest rate of first doses received and the lowest percentage of fully vaccinated residents (pictured, a 12-year-old girl receives a vaccine in Brisbane)

In a bid to boost the Western Australia vaccination rate, Premier Mark McGowan also announced on Tuesday that people over the age of 60 were eligible for the Pfizer vaccine from Monday.

NSW has seen a huge surge in the population rolling up their sleeves, with 79.5 per cent of residents having received at least one dose of a vaccine.

Victoria and Tasmania are neck and neck in the first dose percentages, with 67.7 and 67.5 respectively.

But Tasmania has clearly taken to vaccination earlier, with 49.3 per cent being fully vaccinated, compared to Victoria's 41.4 per cent.

The national total is slowly increasing with 68.5 per cent of Australians rolling up their sleeves for one dose.
The Covid outbreak in Victoria is far from peaking and risks escalating to 1,000 cases a day, the state's Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton has said.

At a press conference on Wednesday, Dr Sutton said that modelling suggests case numbers will continue to rise despite a steady increase in vaccination numbers.

While numbers seem to have stabilised in the 400s in the last few days, the risk of daily case numbers reaching the 1000s is still very real, he said.

Victoria's Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton has stated Covid numbers in the state are likely to continue climbing, with the possibility of cases in the 1,000s very real

Dr Sutton urged Victorians to get vaccinated at the fastest rate possible, especially those in areas of concern, to try to curb community transmission and hospitalizations.

He said that while most people in the hotspot suburbs have been doing the right thing by isolating and quarantining, it is a 'very hard number to keep under wraps.'

The state counted 423 new cases of Covid on Wednesday, with two deaths recorded.

These deaths bring the toll of the current outbreak to eight.

Currently, there are 158 Victorians hospitalised with Covid, with 45 in intensive care and 23 requiring a ventilator.

There were 423 new cases of Covid recorded on Wednesday, with 158 Victorians in hospital with Covid. 23 require ventilators

Over 90 per cent of those in hospital had not been vaccinated.

A reported 41,856 vaccines were administered and 54, 649 test results were received during the 24 hour period to midnight by the Victorian Department of Health.

Suburbs of concern include Broadmeadows, Dallas, Jacana, Campbellfield and Laverton North which are dealing with 1,000 active cases or more per 100,000 population according to data from the Victorian Health Department.

Greater Melbourne's 10 suburbs of concern, where residents are being urged to get tested for Covid-19 as soon as possible

Premier Daniel Andrews is set to announce the states roadmap to freedom after abandoning hope to get back to zero Covid cases.

This will set up the freedoms Victorian residents will be afforded when the state hits its vaccination targets as rates steadily increase.

Close to 68 per cent of eligible Victorian residents have now received one dose of the vaccine while 41.2 per cent are fully vaccinated.
President Joe Biden made a desperate last minute phone call to Senator Joe Manchin on the day before the Senate was due to vote on his American Rescue Plan to beg him to support the $1.9T stimulus deal, telling him 'you're really f***ing me,' according to a new book.

Biden considered Manchin, the most moderate Democrat in the Senate, a key roadblock ahead of the critical vote to pass the expensive stimulus deal, as reported by Fox Business.

Manchin ended up voting with majority of the democratic lawmakers and the relief package was passed in a 50-49 vote. The West Virginia Senator thus helped hand the president his first legislative victory.

Democratic Senator Joe Manchin (pictured), the most moderate Democrat in the Senate, was a key roadblock ahead of the critical vote to pass Biden's expensive stimulus deal back in March 2020

President Joe Biden allegedly told Manchin in March of last year that if he didn't back his $1.9trillion Covid-19 stimulus package, 'you're really f***ing me,' according to a new book by veteran journalists. Pictured, Biden at the Flatirons Campus Laboratories and Offices of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), in Arvada, Colorado, U.S. September 14

But Manchin had previously expressed his concerns about the scope of unemployment benefits in the relief package.

Most recently, on Sunday, he reiterated that he will not back a reconciliation bill with a $3.5trillion price tag as progressives maintain that they won't vote through the $1.2trillion infrastructure bill without passage of the reconciliation bill with trillions in social spending.

He even called for a 'strategic pause' earlier this month as Biden looked to extend the American Rescue Plan for a $3.5trillion budget to spend on social programs.

The book - titled Peril - was excerpted by the Washington Post and reveals information about the Biden administration.

The book - titled Peril - reveals information about the Biden administration and is set to be published on September 21

Authors Bob Woodward, a long-time investigative journalist, and Robert Costa, a political reporter, alleged the phone call took place on March 5 - just one day before the Senate voted on whether to approve Biden's 'American Rescue Plan'.

Set to be published on September 21, co-authors Woodward and Costa described the transition from the Trump to the Biden administration as 'one of the most dangerous periods in American history'.

The bill was passed and Democrats allowed Manchin to make a last-minute call to cut back on Biden's proposed list of federal unemployment benefits, as detailed in Peril, which was written based on interviews with more than 200 people.

Manchin, along with other moderates, have become critical votes in the Senate.

The Senator has continued to snub his party's plan to not pass infrastructure without the progressive reconciliation package, although he has not revealed what amount he would approve.

If he does not budge, the Congress could be at a deadlock where neither of the massive pieces of legislation will get through.
A call centre worker who died from Covid despite having no underlying health conditions made a series of distressing Facebook posts in the weeks before his death.

Martin Blight, 46, contracted the virus last week after his Melbourne office became a Tier 1 exposure site during the city's lockdown.

The father confirmed his diagnosis on social media, warning friends: 'Covid sux guys look after yourselves plz. Do whatever you can to self distance, that's one thing I would say that works.'

Mr Blight died on Monday, two days before he was booked in to get his Pfizer vaccine, but Facebook posts in the lead-up to his death show he had reservations about getting jabbed.

'I've booked in for my Pfizer jab in September... now people who are fully vaccinated in the US are dying,' he wrote last month.

Martin Blight (pictured), a 46-year-old call centre worker from Melbourne, contracted the virus last week after his office became a Tier 1 exposure site. He died in hospital on Monday

The father confirmed his diagnosis on social media, warning friends: 'Covid sux guys look after yourselves plz'

'Also with the new Delta variant you can catch it and pass it on. All being said you can also get blood clots and other side affects.

'Now is it worth getting and secondly is the government happy with the current vaccine or are they trying to improve it?'

Friends reassured Mr Blight the vaccine was safe and the risks of the jab were significantly outweighed by the reality of the virus.

'People get the flu vaccine but still get the flu. Vaccines don't stop you getting a virus, they help the body to recognise the virus and fight against it,' one person replied.

'I've had mine since March, even with it you can still get the virus but you have more chance of not getting it so bad,' another mate commented.

A man told Mr Blight to 'do what you feel is right for you my friend', to which Mr Blight replied: 'That's the problem I'm not sure what to do.'

He eventually commented on his post thanking his friends for the support, saying: 'It's nice to know you all care'.

Victoria's health department has not officially confirmed the death of 46-year-old Martin Blight, which was announced online by the Australian Services Union

A man told Mr Blight to 'do what you feel is right for you my friend', to which Mr Blight replied: 'That's the problem I'm not sure what to do'

The Australian Services Union confirmed Mr Blight's death in a statement, describing him as a 'committed member, father and friend to many'.

'Marty became unwell with coronavirus after his workplace was identified as a Tier 1 site and he was subsequently identified as a close contact,' the union said.

'The union has been speaking with Marty's family directly and both the ASU and Marty's family would like to take this opportunity to encourage everyone to get vaccinated as soon as possible so that no one else has to go through the trauma of losing someone to Covid-19.'

Victoria recorded 423 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, bringing the total number of active cases in the state to 4,038.

Premier Dan Andrews was asked by reporters about Mr Blight's death during his daily Covid press conference on Wednesday and if the state had 'failed' him as he had been waiting for his vaccine for five weeks.

'He's 46 years' old, he was not someone who had a long list of comorbidities and all sorts of complex conditions. He was an otherwise healthy person,' he replied.

Mr Blight made a series of Facebook posts about his condition in the lead-up to his death on Monday, warning friends to 'look after yourselves'

Mr Andrews then took a shot at opposition leader Matthew Guy, who embarrassingly released a statement this morning calling for the immediate end of lockdown, only to backtrack and say he meant to say curfews.

'If we opened up tonight as some are urging us to do, with less than 50 per cent of people double-vaxxed, then there will be hundreds and hundreds of stories just like his,' the premier said of Mr Blight.

'Hundreds of tragedies just like his. Otherwise healthy people who are not vaccinated yet, they might have an appointment, they're not vaccinated yet.

'They're simply not through one dose let alone two. I don't think the chief health officer would ever provide me with advice to do that. But I wouldn't do it even if he did.'

Mr Guy released a statement hours after the blunder, saying he was calling for an end to the 9pm-5am curfew rather than lockdowns altogether.

'I apologise if that's incorrect, it should certainly be the curfew,' Mr Guy said.

'He's 46 years' old, he was not someone who had a long list of comorbidities and all sorts of complex conditions. He was an otherwise healthy person,' Dan Andrews said of Mr Blight

Mr Blight had been working for Serco, a multinational outsourcing company which provides a call centre for Centrelink and Services Australia, helping millions of unemployed Australians through the pandemic.

Serco suspended all staff with no pay in July last year after an outbreak in the building, leaving hundreds of workers in the lurch after helping Australians through the coronavirus crisis.

'The stoppage of work means that you are now stood down from work in accordance with section 524 of the Fair Work Act 2009,' Serco's contract manager June Meldrum said in a letter to employees last year.

'You will receive your ordinary pay in accordance with any confirmed shifts for today. For full time or part time staff, unpaid stand down will commence from Thursday 23 July 2020 onward.'

The company said last year that despite standing down its employees without pay, they were still 'valued' but conceded they may have to look for other work.

'I confirm that while you are stood down, you remain a valued employee of Serco,' the outsourcing giant said.

'However, we of course understand that you may need to make other arrangements during this period.'
A journalist who forgot to hit 'mute' while she ranted about the NSW deputy premier during an online press conference says she was 'p***ed off' because he wouldn't give a straight answer to her question.

Skaie Hull said she waited for about an hour to ask John Barilaro whether Covid-19 patients from western Sydney were transferred to Gosford Hospital during his daily briefing for regional media outlets on Tuesday.

When he refused to comment on the reports claiming it would be 'scaremongering' and turned her camera off, the Central Coast News reporter lost her cool in full earshot of Mr Barilaro and about 90 other news outlets.

'Same thing, 'scare-mongering freakin' rumours'. He turned his camera off on me, so I'm p***ed off,' Ms Hull fumed. 'He purposely did that.

The 29-year-old told Daily Mail Australia said she was furious because she had been trying to get a straight answer about Covid patients in Gosford for weeks.

Central Coast News reporter Skaie Hull (pictured) made her feelings known about what she thinks of NSW deputy premier John Barilaro on Tuesday

'We have been trying to get information and we can't,' she said.

'And then when we try and ask a question and they say we're 'fear mongering' and 'spreading rumours' ... it's frustrating.'

Ms Hull explained that reporters often sit on Zoom calls for more than an hour - 'you have to wait your turn, and then your question isn't taken seriously,' she added.

During the outburst, Mr Barilaro intervened to let her know everyone on the call could hear her, and explain that he didn't turn the camera off intentionally.

'Skaie, we can hear all that and that's not correct, I didn't turn off your camera. I was actually trying to find the next question,' he said during the awkward exchange.

'So Skaie, with everything you've said, I'm disappointed. And everyone else heard it as well, just letting you know.'

He turned his attention to the next reporter, who cheekily promised to express his opinions to the deputy premier's face.

NSW Deputy premier John Barilaro claims he did not intentionally turn his camera off during a press conference

Pictured: Central Coast News reporter Skaie Hull, who ranted about the NSW premier while her microphone was on during a Zoom call

Ms Hull said she received a call from someone in the deputy premier's office immediately following the conference to tell her the camera really did cut out while he looked for the next question.

She didn't believe that was the case at first, but has since reached out to Mr Barilaro and says they're on good terms again.

'I told him I'd put my mic on mute next time, and he said 'don't worry, we all do it',' she laughed.

Ms Hull didn't realise Prime7 Wagga journalist Samantha Costin shared the awkward video in the first place, and only found out until Tuesday night when colleagues started messaging her with words of support.

'Hot Tip: When in John Barilaro's regional daily briefing with a few dozen other journos mute the mic before ranting to colleagues post questions,' Ms Costin captioned the footage.

Skaie Hull has hit back following her heated exchange with John Barilaro. 'I'm definitely not a rumour spreading journalist - I'm a community voice'

Ms Hull explained: 'I was getting messages saying 'good on you' and 'you said what you really wanted to say, don't worry about it' - I was like, 'oh dear'.'

'But I've been inundated with lovely messages - the support from the community has been amazing and out phone has been going off.'

After realising the footage had gone viral, Ms Hull added context to the saga by sharing a video of her news segment and her exchange with Mr Barilaro - while calling for transparency from the state government and NSW Health about local Covid-19 matters.

The segment shows Mr Barilaro turning off his camera while Ms Hull was grilling him about claims western Sydney patients are being transferred to the Central Coast.

'Number one rule as a journalist - share all the sides to the story,' Ms Hull tweeted.

'There's a bigger back story and I'm definitely not a rumour spreading journalist - I'm a community voice.'

The Central Coast has recorded 278 cases since the current outbreak began in mid-June in Sydney, including nine new infections on Tuesday.

Skaie Hull later shared footage from the Zoom press conference showing John Barilaro turning off his camera while she was asking him a question

Ms Hull's online rant went viral after other regional reporters shared the awkward encounter

The local health district also released 13 new potential exposure sites across the region, including Wyong, Umina, Killarney Vale, Wadalba, Tuggerah, Toukely, Gosford and Kincumber.

When asked whether Covid patients were transferred from swamped Sydney hospitals to Gosford, Mr Barilaro said: 'I have no idea, I'm sure that's happened in the past but currently, I don't know.'

'I don't think it really matters. The reality is that we're a network of hospitals that are there to serve all of NSW.'

Ms Hull then asked why the information isn't being disclosed to the local region as she inquired about reports of a quarantine hospital at West Gosford.

The deputy premier had been grilled about claims western Sydney Covid patients had been transferred to Gosford Hospital (pictured)

Mr Barilaro started his response but was quickly shut down by the reporter who reminded him his camera is still off.

'Firstly, I don't speculate on gossip and rumour, I go off the information I'm given from health,' he continued.

'This idea of a quarantine hospital, I don't know. I can't give you that answer.

'No one is deliberately hiding this information from the public but as I often find out when things are raised, it's nowhere near the truth.

'I don't see what the issue is in relation to case numbers, vaccination, and the ability to manage those cases in the local hospital network.

'Anything outside of that is negative scare-mongering.'
Tucker Carlson has slammed Mark Milley as 'treasonous' after a new book claimed the Joints Chief of Staff told officials that Trump was a 'serious threat to national security' and 'may need to be handled with physical force'.

According to the book, Peril, Milley told officials at the National Military Command Center that they 'reported to him, not the elected president of the United States,' and that they were to 'follow no order without consulting him first.'

He also made secret calls with China behind Trump's back, in an attempt to prevent a war breaking out, and attempted to limit Trump's ability to launch nukes, the book by journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa claims.

'How do you describe this? "Deep state" isnt strong enough,' Carlson said on his show on Tuesday. 'Its treason. Its a crime.'

On September 14, the Tucker Carlson Tonight host detailed meetings in which Milley allegedly told senior military officials that Trump was a 'serious threat to national security,' and may need to be handled with 'physical force'

In a later January meeting, Carlson claimed, Joints Chief of Staff Mark Milley (pictured) allegedly told officials at the National Military Command Center that they 'reported to him, not the elected president of the United States,' telling them to 'follow no order without consulting him first'

'To those who say theyre worried about authoritarianism coming in America, well, its here,' Carlson said. 'Thats what this is. Authoritarian government. Government by unelected, unaccountable leaders willing to use violence to preserve their rule.'

Carlson told his viewers that Milley told officials at the first meeting that Trump's behavior put the 'the stability of the Republic' in danger.

Milley reportedly had similar conversations with CIA Director Gina Haspel, NSA Head Paul Nakasone, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Haspel allegedly warned Milley that America was 'on [its] way to a right-wing coup.'

'Donald Trump had dared to question the election results,' said Carlson, pointedly. 'For this, Milley explained, the United States military might be required to use physical force against the president.'

Reportedly, Milley had told the assemblage that '[they] were the guys with the guns.'

Milley reportedly called Chinese General Li Zuocheng, with whom he had associated for five years, without notifying the president, to assure him that the American government was 'stable.'

'General Li, I want to assure you... Everything is going to be okay,' he told the general, Carlson said.

Carlson has slammed Mark Milley as 'treasonous' after a new book claimed the Joints Chief of Staff told officials that Trump was a 'serious threat to national security' and 'may need to be handled with physical force'

'We are not going to attack or conduct any kinetic operations against you... if we're going to attack, I'm going to call you ahead of time. It's not going to be a surprise.'

Carlson said the call was 'treason' and 'a crime.'

'According to this account, our countrys top defense official secretly colluded with our chief military rival to undercut the elected president of the United States. How do you describe this? "Deep state" isnt strong enough.'

He railed against other officials who 'knew it was happening,' saying that 'our intelligence agencies almost certainly heard Mark Milley's call.'

'If they can read emails from a... show on Fox, what are teh chances they were aware that the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was speaking to a senior Chinese general and what they were saying? Around 100 percent. Yet the NSA did nothing.'

Carlson called out other media outlets for painting the alleged behavior in a more venerable light - NBC said he 'prevent[ed] Trump from misusing nuclear weapons, war with China.'

He played segments from TV news aired today: in one Rick Stengel of MSNBC said that Milley was a 'hero' who 'behaved in a heroic manner.'

Milley reportedly expressed his fears that Trump was a risk to national security, Carlson said, with CIA Director Gina Haspel, NSA Head Paul Nakasone, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Speaker Nancy Pelosi

Carlson called out other media outlets, like NBC, for painting the alleged behavior in a more venerable light. He played segments from TV news aired today: in one Rick Stengel of MSNBC said that Milley (pictured) was a 'hero' who 'behaved in a heroic manner'

'But what [Milley] did was ensure the guardrails were in place so I give him high marks for this based on whats described in the book,' Lieutenant General Mark Hertling told CNN.

'We were in a period of extraordinary danger,' Former General Barry McCaffrey told MSNBC. 'I think Milley will be treated favorably by history.'

'They cheered [Democracy] ending,' Carlson said. 'Theyre happy to see Mark Milley secretly conspiring with the Chinese military to end civilian control of our Pentagon. This is the government they want. You should not forget that.'

During his segment, Carlson suggested that officials instead should have been concerned with the 'coup' of 'unelected government employees' 'invalidating the votes of millions of American citizens.'
Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez's brother went after 'leftists ranters' who called out his sister and accused her of being a hypocrite after her 'TAX THE RICH' dress appearance at the $35,000-a-head Met Gala.

On Monday night, the leftwing firebrand made headlines by wearing a custom white gown with the words 'TAX THE RICH' emblazoned across it, designed by Brother Vellies.

Gabriel Ocasio-Cortez, who works in real estate, went on a angry Instagram rant himself while defending his congresswoman sister's bold fashion statement.

'She went with no intention to rub elbows, which is why every other politician goes,

'She wore a statement dress about the ultra-rich not paying their fair share right in front of their faces.

'Would you prefer she try to wear the same dress outside McDonald's in an attempt to solicit the same response? Genuinely curious,' he said.

Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez's brother defended his sister on a social media rant, calling out 'leftists ranters' who accused her of being a hypocrite after her 'TAX THE RICH' dress.

Gabriel Ocasio-Cortez went on a angry Instagram rant himself while defending his congresswoman sister's bold fashion statement. Gabriel went on to call critics of AOC 'f****** corny,' and accused them of criticizing his sister without even knowing 'who their congressperson is.'

AOC poses in her 'Tax The Rich' dress while movie star Megan Fox waits behind her. AOC attended the event with designer Aurora James in what she claims was a political protest

AOC said she'd been invited to the event as an elected official. DailyMail.com can reveal the Met Museum comped her ticket and Bill de Blasio's

Gabriel went on to call critics of AOC's Met Gala appearance 'f****** corny,' and accused them of criticizing his sister without even knowing 'who their congressperson is.'

'Y'all love to talk shit about someone who walks the walk

'I think it's very interesting how many 'leftists' are saying 'how could she go somewhere so expensive?!' as if she paid for it herself or with public dollars.

'Meanwhile, y'all are the same heaux that cry out 'republicans always stick together, we need to copy that energy.'

'Even if it's not your cup of tea when it comes to political messaging, sitting in your unwashed sheets with your d*** in your hand commenting 'healthcare plz' is f****** lame.'

He then dared the 'ranters' to follow through with their social media activism and find a real-life platform to showcase it.

'Why don't you make a statement bigger than this so you can show us all 'how it's done'? I'm waiting,' he concluded.

Backlash against AOC remained large on twitter, as users continued to bring up the irony in her message and the platform that she used to deliver it.

Andray Domise, a writer and partner in black news network Rezistans Nwa, also pointed out that the gala was taking place just yards from where the NYPD were arresting 'defund the police' protesters - a cause that AOC has previously supported.

'Police were creasing people's heads outside while you and your friends were nibbling watermelon tarts with smoked yuzu soy on panipuri crackers,' he said

Greg Price, a writer for the Daily Caller, added: 'AOC grew up in a wealthy suburb, went to one of the most expensive colleges in America, makes a six figure salary, drives a Tesla, lives above a whole foods, and is currently at an event that costs more to attend than America's average personal income.'

Actor and comedian Michael Rappaport also weighed in. He shared a picture of AOC in a dress fitting session and captioned it: 'Custom TAX THE RICH dress while at the most elitist event in the world.

'Will soon be rich with a ginormous production deal from somewhere & done with Politics, guarantee it.

'Stop treating ANY of these people like celebrities they are public servants that work for US.'

Gabriel also defended his sister's designer, Aurora James, praising the fact that her brand, Brother Veilles, is a Black, woman-owned, sustainable business

Gabriel dared the 'leftist ranters' to follow through with their social media activism and find a real-life platform to showcase it. 'Why don't you make a statement bigger than this so you can show us all 'how it's done'? I'm waiting,' he said on Instagram

Gabriel also defended his sister's designer, Aurora James, praising the fact that her brand, Brother Veilles, is a Black, woman-owned, sustainable business.

AOC also addressed 'haters' who criticized her Met gala bold fashion statement and branded her a hypocrite. She said that she was invited as one of New York's elected officials in charge of 'overseeing and supporting the city's cultural institutions for the public.'

'By 'the rich', do you mean the kind of people who could afford the stuff sold on the website of the designer who designed your dress & invited you to the Met Gala?,' tweeted an user.

Another Twitter user jumped to AOC's defense, stating that her dress had actually initiated a conversation on the issue.

'She got you attention in the donated designer dress, and invitation. I'd say she's quite brilliant,' they wrote.

The Democrat firebrand attended Tuesday night's star-studded event as guests of the museum, according to Met Museum spokeswoman Nancy Chilton.

Ocasio-Cortez's boyfriend, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio, his wife and son also took free tickets worth total of $175K, that could have been sold to support the museum.

The $35,000 ticket proceeds go to the Met's Costume Institute, one of the only departments that doesn't receive government funding, to supports its exhibitions, acquisitions, and capital improvements.

AOC did not buy her own ticket but mystery remains over who paid for the politicians, after it was revealed that event organizer Conde Nast did not cover the cost of the tickets.

AOC with her boyfriend Riley Roberts (far right), her dress designer Aurora James and Benjamin Bronfman (far left), James' partner who is the heir to Seagrams Company Ltd. The group was pictured leaving at midnight. AOC claimed she'd been 'invited' as an elected official. DailyMail.com can reveal she was a guest of the Met Museum
An influential global organisation has praised Australian state leaders for abandoning its zero-Covid strategy - but have been warned the country will have to raise the GST to pay for lockdowns.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has promised to allow pub and restaurant visits once 70 per cent of working age and adult population is fully vaccinated as part of a roadmap to reopen the economy.

With Sydney residents likely to enjoy more freedoms from mid-October, the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OCED) has praised Victoria's Daniel Andrews for following Ms Berejiklian's example.

'In Australia, the recent outbreak of the Covid-19 Delta variant has prompted the government to adapt its public health response,' it said.

'Instead of attempting to suppress the virus ('zero tolerance'), efforts are now being made in New South Wales and Victoria to contain the virus together with a more active campaign to vaccinate the population.'

The Paris-based OECD has praised NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian for abandoning the zero-Covid strategy but warned Australia will have to raise the GST to pay for lockdowns

New Zealand wasn't specifically mentioned, but the OECD club for rich countries was subtly having a dig at Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's zero-Covid strategy.

Labor premiers in Western Australia and Queensland, Mark McGowan and Annastacia Palaszczuk, are pursuing the same goal.

Even before Sydney and Melbourne went into hard lockdowns, federal Treasury estimated in the May budget that Australia's gross government debt would surpass $1trillion by June 2023, making up 48.6 per cent of the economy.

The deficit of $161billion for the 2020-21 financial year made up 7.8 per cent of the economy, the highest level since World War II.

Massive spending programs on welfare measures like JobKeeper wage subsidies means Australia will have budget deficits for the foreseeable future.

The OECD said the Goods and Service Tax needed to be raised from its current 10 per cent, a level unchanged since it debuted in July 2000.

While the federal government collects the GST, the proceeds are given back to the states and the OECD said the consumption tax would have to increase to pay off the debt incurred from multiple lockdowns.

'Another legacy of the pandemic will be higher public debt,' it said.

With Sydney residents likely to enjoy more freedoms from mid-October, the OECD has praised Victoria's Daniel Andrews for following the example of New South Wales

'Tax reform will be necessary to reduce Australia's reliance on taxing personal incomes, which leaves public finances vulnerable to an ageing population.

'This could be achieved by increasing the Goods and Services Tax rate or broadening the base.'

The OECD advocated more personal income tax cuts and reductions in superannuation tax breaks and capital gains tax discounts for those who sell property or shares.

It also praised a NSW proposal to replace stamp duty on real estate purchases with land tax.

With Sydney in lockdown since June 26, Australia's economy is expected to shrink in the September quarter.

Lockdowns are costly and push up government debt. The OCED says Australia will have to raise the GST beyond the existing 10 per cent rate to pay for the lockdown debt (pictured are police at Merrylands in Sydney's west)

But the Reserve Bank of Australia is expecting the economy to grow again strongly in the December quarter as NSW and Victoria ended or eased lockdowns.

Australians are more upbeat as the two biggest states signal paths to giving back freedoms.

The Westpac-Melbourne Institute consumer sentiment for September showed a reading that was 13.2 per cent higher than a year ago when only Melbourne, and not Sydney, was in lockdown.

CommSec senior economist Ryan Felsman said news of new vaccines and roadmaps to reopening had boosted morale, despite persistently high case counts.

'Aussies remain resilent, despite extended lockdowns in our biggest cities and rising new Covid-19 Delta case numbers,' he said.

'The quickening of the vaccine rollout and jump in supply of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines  especially to younger Australians  appears to have boosted morale, as state governments announce tentative roadmaps out of lockdowns.'
The Department of Justice sought an emergency order Tuesday night to block Texas' ban on abortions after six weeks.

The DOJ argued in a filing, submitted in a district court in Austin, that the Texas law was enacted 'to prevent women from exercising their constitutional rights.'

'This relief is necessary to protect the constitutional rights of women in Texas and the sovereign interest of the United States,' the statement added.

The new filing furthers one from last week that argued the law is invalid because it unlawfully infringes on the constitutional rights of women and violates the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution, which says federal law supersedes state law.

The department said the 'vast majority' of women seeking abortions in Texas are being turned away.

'All the while, clinics in neighboring states are receiving panicked calls from patients in Texas,' the DOJ said.

U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, did not immediately take action Wednesday on the request by the Justice Department.

The DOJ said Tuesday that if the restraining order is granted, not only should the law not be enforced but also anyone who tries to enforce SB 8 must be informed they no longer have the authority the law offered them while the matter is being litigated.

The Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision earlier this month denied an emergency request to block the bill from taking effect while its most controversial provisions get litigated, but did not rule on the constitutionality of it.

'In reaching this conclusion, we stress that we do not purport to resolve definitively any jurisdictional or substantive claim in the applicants' lawsuit. In particular, this order is not based on any conclusion about the constitutionality of Texas's law, and in no way limits other procedurally proper challenges to the Texas law, including in Texas state courts,' the court said in the unsigned order.

Gov. Greg Abbott, a key advocate of the law who signed it in May, promised to 'eliminate all rape' since the legislation did not provide for an exception for victims of the crime

Attorney General Merrick Garland blasted the law at a press conference last week in the Justice Department's first legal action against the legislation

This Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2021 photo shows a security guard opening the door to the Whole Women's Health Clinic in Fort Worth, Texas, the last day before the abortion law took effect

The Texas law outlaws abortion at the sign of a heartbeat, or around six weeks into a pregnancy, with no exceptions for rape or incest. The law also deputizes private citizens to report women who get abortions and anyone who helps them to do so, even uber drivers. Successful plaintiffs are entitled to $10,000 from defendants, though they cannot sue the woman who sought the abortion herself.

Gov. Greg Abbott, a key advocate of the law who signed it in May, promised to 'eliminate all rape' since the legislation did not provide for an exception for victims of the crime. 'Let's make something very clear - rape is a crime, and Texas will work tirelessly to make sure that we eliminate all rapists from the streets of Texas.'

The White House has already said the Justice Department and other agencies are looking for what actions they can take to counter the law.

'There are possibilities within the existing law to have the Justice Department look and see whether there are things that can be done that can limit the independent action of individuals in enforcing in a federal system a state law,' President Biden said.

Furious abortion rights groups have said many women at six weeks do not even know they are pregnant.

Attorney General Merrick Garland blasted the law at a press conference last week in the Justice Department's first legal action against the legislation.

'The statute deputizes all private citizens without any showing of personal connection or injury to serve as bounty hunters,' Garland added.

The DOJ action marked the second major lawsuit the Biden administration has filed this year trying to block a move by a Republican-controlled state government. The Justice Department sued Georgia in June, challenging the state's sweeping new voting law.

Some women are seeking abortions in neighboring states like Colorado and New Mexico.

A full accounting of the decline in Texas abortions - and how many women are now seeking them elsewhere - is not known. There were more than 19,000 abortion in Texas through April, according to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission.

Though anecdotal evidence shows the law does seem to be effective in preventing abortions in the state of Texas.

In Houston, clinics that typically perform more than 100 abortions in a week are down to a few a day.

In the 10 days after the law took effect, Melaney Linton, president of Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, clinics in Houston had 63 patients scheduled for an abortion, far fewer than the roughly 25 they would normally perform in a single day alone.

One patient who was around five weeks pregnant had no cardiac activity but learned during her visit she had COVID-19, meaning that after a mandatory quarantine she would be too far along in her pregnancy to have an abortion in Texas, according to Linton.

Abortion providers say they are complying with the law, and Texas Right to Life, the state's largest anti-abolition group that set up a tip line to receive alleged violations, has said it has received no credible reports that the law is not being followed.
A West Australian mother who unexpectedly fell pregnant and gave birth years after undergoing a botched sterilisation procedure has been awarded more than $125,000 in damages.

A WA District Court judge has found the boy's parents are entitled to compensation for the costs of raising him after his birth in 2014.

The mother had fallen pregnant with the boy, her seventh child, after having an unsuccessful tubal ligation procedure carried out by a doctor in regional WA.

A WA District Court judge has found the boy's parents are entitled to compensation for the costs of raising him after his birth in 2014 (stock image pictured)

In findings delivered last month, the judge said the doctor had admitted negligence for which the WA Country Health Service had accepted vicarious liability.

AAP has chosen not to identify the parents or the now-retired doctor who carried out the procedure.

The court heard the doctor had recommended the operation to the woman days before the birth of her sixth child in 2009.

He suggested that it be carried out at the same time as her caesarean birth.

The mother agreed to the operation, saying she understood it had been recommended "because any future pregnancy and birth carried a risk to her life".

"She assumed that the procedure was successfully performed," the judge said.

"At the time, (the doctor) did not suggest otherwise to her."

Four years later, she discovered she was pregnant after going to hospital for treatment in relation to unexplained bleeding.

"I accept her evidence that the news of being pregnant was very upsetting because it brought to mind the advice of (the doctor) at the time of the sterilisation," the judge said.

The boy was born with no major complications and the judge described the now seven-year-old as "healthy and much loved by his parents".

His parents, who represented themselves in court, sought damages related to the mother's loss of earnings, "pain and suffering" and the costs related to raising the boy.

The judge said there was no dispute that the mother was entitled to general damages related to her anxiety about the risk of the pregnancy, her experience of being pregnant and the pain and trauma of the birth process.

The mother also argued the birth had prevented her from seeking work despite having relied on social security payments throughout her adult life.

Lawyers for the doctor and WA Country Health Service argued the mother had no earning capacity and would struggle to find employment given she had a previous assault conviction.

The judge ruled in the mother's favour, awarding her $20,000 for loss of earnings in addition to the $22,000 in general damages.

He also jointly awarded the couple more than $83,000 in damages related to the costs of raising the boy.
A new poll finds President Joe Biden's approval rating continuing to decline following the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, and amid an ongoing surge of COVID-19 cases.

In the Quinnipiac Poll conducted over the weekend and released Tuesday, Biden's approval rating stood at 42 percent, with 50 percent disapproving of his overall job as president.

That's a decline from early August, when 46 percent of Americans approved and 43 percent disapproved of the way Biden was handling his job.

'If there ever was a honeymoon for President Biden, it is clearly over,' said Quinnipiac University Polling Analyst Tim Malloy in a statement.

'This is, with few exceptions, a poll full of troubling negatives... from overall job approval, to foreign policy, to the economy,' said Malloy.

A new poll finds President Joe Biden's approval rating continuing to decline following the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan

On Afghanistan, the majority of Americans agreed with the decision to withdraw US troops, but most felt that the logistics of the withdrawal were handled poorly

Predictable, the poll was divided along partisan lines, with 91 percent of Republicans disapproving of Biden's job performance, compared with 52 percent of independents and just 7 percent of Democrats.

On foreign policy, Biden's numbers were particularly negative, with 59 percent disapproving. In August, 42 percent approved and 44 percent disapproved of his handling of foreign policy.

Americans also gave Biden a negative score on his handling of his job as Commander in Chief of the U.S. military, with 40 percent approving and 55 percent disapproving.

On Afghanistan, the majority of Americans agreed with the decision to withdraw US troops, but most felt that the logistics of the withdrawal were handled poorly.

More than half of Americans, 54 percent, say they approve of Biden's decision to withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan. And 69 say it was the right to end the war in Afghanistan.

However, 65 percent gave Biden a negative score for the way he handled withdrawing all U.S. troops from Afghanistan.

A Taliban fighter stands guard while women, many wearing burqas, march in support of the Taliban in Kabul on Saturday, September 11, 2021

Biden's numbers on his handling of the response to the coronavirus pandemic are mixed, with 48 percent approving and 49 percent disapproving

More than 6 in 10 Americans, 62 percent, say they think American troops will have to return to Afghanistan to fight terrorism in the future.

On his handling of the economy, Biden receives a negative rating with 52 percent disapproving.

Biden's numbers on his handling of the response to the coronavirus pandemic are mixed, with 48 percent approving and 49 percent disapproving.

This does mark a decline from August, when 53 percent approved of his handling of the coronavirus.

A majority of Americans (70 percent) say they are very dissatisfied (46 percent) or somewhat dissatisfied (24 percent) with the way things are going in the nation today.
A police manhunt is underway for a gender reveal hoon who was spotted performing burnouts in a suburban street, billowing clouds of blue exhaust smoke into the air.

Queensland Police have released footage of a red Holden Commodore spinning its wheels in Logan, south of Brisbane, about 11.25am Saturday as part of gender-reveal party.

The unusual take on the tradition - which typically involves expectant parents popping balloons to be showered in either pink or blue confetti - was carried out over multiple Marsden streets in front of a crowd of delighted spectators.

A gender-reveal hoon is being hunted by police for dangerous driving after performing burnouts in a Logan street to send blue smoke into the air (pictured)

'The vehicle conducted a 'burn-out' on Burrinjuck Street and then Timberlee Drive,' a Queensland Police Service statement said.

'[This] created excessive noise and blue smoke which obstructed the visibility of other motorists on the public roadway.'

Police said a group of people gathered nearby taking photos and videos.

Officers have launched an investigation the dangerous operation of the vehicle and are appealing for anyone with information about the identify the driver to come forward.

Footage of the incident has gone viral, racking up more than 1400 reactions since it was shared on the Queensland Police Facebook page on Wednesday, with many were amused by the brazen stunt.

'Gives a new meaning to 'boys in blue", one person joked.

'Guess the driver won't be their to see the birth!' another added.

'Give the driver a job as a driver instructor at a racetrack. Poor choice of venue for a reveal, but brilliantly executed,' a third said.

It is not the first time parents-to-be have gone viral after opting for an unconventional gender-reveal ceremony.

In May, a couple from Sydney's west asked a Turkish restaurant to inscribe the gender of their baby on a plate hidden beneath a mound of kebab meat and chips to unveil the sex to their loved ones.
The UK will help fund a series of reception centres in France that will provide accommodation and support for migrants attempting to cross the channel.

Reports suggest the plan forms part of the 54million aid package the Government has promised France to stem the number of small migrant boats reaching the UK.

The Home Office is negotiating with French authorities to help fund the reception centres which will house migrants intercepted before they make the crossing, according to the Telegraph.

The newspaper reports that the centres will enable the French authorities to move migrants away from the coast and allow them to apply for asylum in France or other 'safe' European countries.

A Home Office source told the Telegraph: 'The investment in those centres across France would be dedicated support to migrants and possibly voluntary returns to countries of origin where appropriate.

The UK is set to help fund reception centres for migrants heading for channel crossings in France in a bid to move them away from the coast and help them seek asylum in Europe

'It will include accommodation, medical advice and guidance on asylum applications so that they have an alternative to crossing [the Channel].

'The further away from northern France, the more chance there is of changing their behaviour and decisions.'

The plan is similar to a scheme that was tested last year when the use of reception centres was found to be affective.

Dan O'Mahoney, Clandestine Channel Threat Commander, told MPs: 'As anybody knows whos travelled to France its a perfectly civilised country, it has a fully functioning asylum system and what we find is when we deliver the migrants to the reception centres they do in fact claim asylum in France.'

Mr O'Mahoney said that when migrants weren't moved far enough away from the coast, they were then just 'recycled back into the population in Calais'.

Earlier this month, Home Secretary Priti Patel threatened to cancel the 54million promised to France to block migrant crossings because boat-after-boat continues to land in Kent every day.

Priti Patel threatened to cancel the 54million promised to France to block migrant crossings

The Home Secretary met Conservative MPs last week and blamed the French for the significant number of people coming across the Channel, claiming she was prepared to pull the funding that was pledged less than two months ago if they do not stop three in four crossings by the end of the month.

The Home Secretary has threatened to 'push back' migrant boats from the English coast - insisting Britons expect action amid mounting fury at France's lacklustre efforts to curb the problem despite being handed millions by UK taxpayers to do so.

Ms Patel also came under fire from experts who said her latest plan is 'not going to happen' because overloaded dinghies might sink and France would need to cooperate.
Hurricane Nicholas weakened to a tropical depression as it crawled from Texas into southern Louisiana, unleashing heavy rain across a landscape where Hurricane Ida brought devastation just weeks ago.

Nicholas made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane with sustained winds of 75 mph northeast of Matagorda Bay in Texas early Tuesday, but weakened to a tropical depression shortly after.

Forecasters said Nicholas would slow to a stall over central Louisiana through Thursday, with plenty of water raining down east of its center.

They warned that people along the central Gulf Coast could expect up to 20 inches (50 centimeters) and tropical storm strength winds through Friday in places across the region still recovering from Category 4 hurricanes - Ida weeks ago and Laura last year.

Governor John Bel Edwards warned residents to take the threat seriously, although Nicholas is no longer the hurricane that made landfall in Texas on Tuesday.

'This is a very serious storm, particularly in those areas that were so heavily impacted by Hurricane Ida,' Edwards said.

Nicholas was demoted from a hurricane to a tropical storm Tuesday evening after making landfall earlier that morning

Nicholas has traveled from Texas to southern Louisiana and is expected to stretch into the Florida panhandle as it continues

Forecasters warned that people in parts of southern Louisiana, southern Mississippi, southern Alabama and the western Florida Panhandle are under a flash flood watch through Friday

The intense rain pour could produce life-threatening flash floods in parts of southern Louisiana, southern Mississippi, southern Alabama and the western Florida Panhandle. The National Weather Service issued flash flood watches in these area.

Nicholas became the 14th named storm of the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season on Sunday. Monday night it became the 6th named hurricane of the season when it strengthened in the Gulf of Mexico.

Galveston, Texas, recorded nearly 14 inches (35 centimeters) of rain from while Houston reported more than 6 inches (15 centimeters). Late Tuesday, the New Orleans office of the National Weather Service said that as much as 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain could fall in parts of Louisiana, with some areas seeing particularly intense periods of 2 to 3 inches (5 to 8 centimeters) of rainfall per hour.

According to Poweroutage.us, 112,813 electric customers in Texas were reported without power Wednesday morning.

In the small Louisiana community of Pointe-aux-Chenes, Ida peeled open the tin roof of Terry and Patti Dardars home, leaving them without power and water for more than two weeks since. Nicholas made the damage that much worse, soaking the upstairs. But it also provided them with badly needed water, which their son Terren and grandchildren collected in jugs and poured into a huge plastic container through a strainer. From there, a pump powered by a generator brought the water inside.

Dayton Verdin, 14, left, Lerryn Brune, 10, center, and Terren Dardar, 17, right, move barrels of rainwater they collected from Tropical Storm Nicholas in Pointe-aux-Chenes, Louisiana, Tuesday, September 14, 2021

Terren Dardar, 17, left, Dayton Verdin, 14, center and Lerryn Brune, 10, right, have had no running water since Hurricane Ida, and collected 140 gallons of rainwater in two hours from the tropical storm, which they filter and pump into their house for showers Tuesday, September 14, 2021

Lerryn Brune, 10, center, Terren Dardar, 17, right, and Dayton Verdin, 14, move barrels of rainwater they collected from Tropical Storm Nicholas, in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida in Pointe-aux-Chenes, Louisiana, Tuesday, September 14, 2021. They have had no running water since the hurricane, and collected 140 gallons of rainwater in two hours from the tropical storm, which they filter and pump into their house for showers

Terren Dardar, 17, and Dayton Verdin, 14, left, pour barrels of rainwater they collected from Tropical Storm Nicholas, in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida in Pointe-aux-Chenes, Louisiana, Tuesday, September 14, 2021. They have had no running water since the hurricane, and collected 140 gallons of rainwater in two hours from the tropical storm, which they filter and pump into their house for showers

Terren Dardar, 17, left, and Dayton Verdin, 14, pour barrels of rainwater they collected from Tropical Storm Nicholas, in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida in Pointe-aux-Chenes, Louisiana, Tuesday, September 14, 2021. They have had no running water since the hurricane, and collected 140 gallons of rainwater in two hours from the tropical storm, which they filter and pump into their house for shower

Patti said the family didnt have anywhere to relocate after Ida and were doing their best to endure Nicholas. 'We aint got no other place,' she said. 'This is our home.'

Gov. Edwards acknowledged that infrastructure and homes already badly damaged by Ida were not yet repaired enough to withstand heavy rain.

He also noted that 95,000 electric customers were still without power more than two weeks after Ida hit and said the new storm could mean some who had regained power might lose it again.

The Louisiana governor announced that Nicholas caused an additional 13,500 outages by Tuesday afternoon.

Energy companies working to restore power to remaining areas in the state said Wednesday that they were watching Nicholas closely but didn't expect it to affect their restoration times.

Entergy Louisiana spokesman Jerry Nappi said Nicholas has not yet caused any delays to the previously announced schedule to restore power. He explained that crews cannot operate when lightning is within 10 miles (16 kilometers) and cant put bucket trucks in the air at winds greater than 30 mph (50 kph) but he said that the company plans tp quickly resume work once conditions improve.

Joe Ticheli, manager and CEO of South Louisiana Electric Cooperative Association, said rain doesnt stop the linemen, who are outfitted with slicker suits and grit.

'These are tough guys, and they relish all of this,' he said. The coop services about 21,000 customers across five parishes including parts of the hard-hit Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes. Ticheli said the coop has returned power to about 75% of its customers with the remaining 25% mostly in the hardest-hit parts of southern Terrebonne parish.

In the weather-battered city of Lake Charles, in southwestern Louisiana, Mayor Nic Hunter said the city prepositioned assets should they be needed, and city crews scoured the drainage system to keep it free from debris that might cause clogs and flooding during Nicholas.

Lake Charles has been destroyed. Hurricane Laura caused substantial structural damage across the city of nearly 80,000 residents in August 2020. Weeks later Hurricane Delta ripped through the same area. Freezing temperatures in January burst pipes across the city, and then a May rainstorm swamped houses and businesses yet again.

The mayor says he's naturally worried about how his people are coping.

'With what people have gone through over the last 16 months here in Lake Charles, they are very, understandably, despondent, emotional. Any time we have even a hint of a weather event approaching, people get scared,' he said.

Gary Johnston, left, Grant Boughamer, center, and Jose Garcia, right, place a tarp on a roof damaged by Hurricane Ida, Thursday, September 2, 2021, in Golden Meadow, Louisiana

Storm clouds from Tropical Storm Nicholas are seen behind a home that was destroyed by Hurricane Ida, in Pointe-aux-Chenes, Louisiana, Tuesday, September 14, 2021

Hurricane Nicholas rolled into Louisiana on Tuesday night as the area struggled to restore the destruction left by Hurricane Ida, Tuesday, September 14, 2021

Storm clouds from Tropical Storm Nicholas are seen behind homes of the vanishing Native American community of Isle de Jean Charles, Louisiana, which were destroyed by Hurricane Ida, Tuesday, September 14, 2021
A former prison officer who had personal relationships with two inmates has conceded she's not suited for the job because she's naturally flirtatious.

Melissa Goodwin, 26, was convicted of engaging in an intimate relationship with teenage inmate Corey London in August, a year after she was dragged out of her parents' western Sydney home in a dramatic arrest.

On Wednesday, she spoke with Kyle and Jackie O about her time as a prison guard - revealing she was often spat at and had urine thrown on her while managing a pod with 86 male inmates at any given time.

'I love to pick good men,' she joked while discussing how she got caught up with London and former inmate Caleb Valeri - an associate of the Rebels outlaw motorcycle gang.

'I love to pick good men,' she joked while discussing how she got caught up with London and former inmate Caleb Valeri (pictured together)

Goodwin sported a fresh neck tattoo when she appeared in court to admit to conducting a relationship with an inmate

While she denied ever embarking on a relationship with London, she discussed in depth her relationship with Valeri, which only began when he contacted her on Instagram after he was released from prison.

'My understanding was that he was in love with me, he was my boyfriend, we were together,' she said.

Valeri, she claims, never saw the relationship as exclusive and was 'seeing about 7,500 girls' at the same time.

'Looking back on it now, I'm a complete idiot. I'd never been cheated on before so I didn't know the signs.'

Ms Goodwin said she was 'embarrassed to admit' that she 'completely ignored about 62 red flags' during the course of the relationship.

Valeri, Ms Goodwin claims, never saw the relationship as exclusive and was 'seeing about 7,500 girls' at the same time

Ms Goodwin denied ever embarking on a relationship with London (pictured), instead insisting she offered him 'life advice'

She had not yet declared to corrective services that they were dating because she wanted to make sure they were the real deal first.

But in the meantime, Valeri had reportedly been sharing explicit photos of Ms Goodwin to his social media pages, some of which while she was in uniform.

'The captions were things like, ''I'm literally f**king the system'', referring to me,' the 26-year-old claims.

Ms Goodwin concedes she made a mistake in not alerting corrective services of her relationship with Valeri, but is adamant it was above board.

'I didn't do anything with him until he got out because I loved my job and I followed the rules... to a degree... It's not illegal to have a relationship with a former inmate,' she said.

Just prior to her arrest in May 2020, Goodwin featured on the front cover of Corrective Services NSW's Bulletin magazine

She was in bed with Valeri at her parents' house in May 2020 when police stormed the home at about 7.30am to arrest her

She was in bed with Valeri at her parents' house in May 2020 when police stormed the home at about 7.30am to arrest her.

Initially, she assumed it was related to Valeri. It wasn't until she was on the way to the police station that she learned London had alleged they'd engaged in fellatio inside the prison.

Ms Goodwin pleaded guilty to having a personal relationship with London, but insisted it was a 'pen pal' dynamic and that they were never physically intimate.

While speaking with the radio hosts on Wednesday morning, she played down her involvement with the convicted armed robber even further.

'I gave him life advice... I was trying to help and my personality can be seen as flirtatious, I can be overly nice but that's just me. I'm not like that with just the inmates, I'm like that with everyone,' she said.

Ms Goodwin said her one major mistake with London was accepting a note that he slipped to her inside the prison with a mobile number on it

'Perhaps I wasn't the perfect person for the job... My personality doesn't really suit a jail.'

Ms Goodwin said her one major mistake with London was accepting a note that he slipped to her inside the prison with a mobile number on it.

Curiosity got the better of her, she claims, and she text the number after her shift, learning it was London's mother.

Pictured: Ms Goodwin

She claims this is how London was able to obtain her mobile number and call her outside of work.

'Nothing else happened inside that pod. If you've ever been an inmate or an officer you'd know it's impossible... The inmate made it up [and] I was shocked, embarrassed and ashamed.'

London was shaken after he was bashed on May 14 at the Mid North Coast Correctional Centre in Kempsey, and later refused to testify about the dynamic of their relationship in court.

Asked why, London's lawyer Hannah Dempsey said: 'He just refuses to talk and doesn't want to discuss any comments that he's made so far.'

Magistrate Reiss charged London with contempt of court, but the offence doesn't carry a hefty penalty - just 28 days imprisonment. He still wouldn't budge.

Despite the conviction, for which she was sentenced to a 12 month community corrections order and 100 hours' community service, Ms Goodwin insists she was good at her job.

'I was very good at my job, I was punctual, I loved my job, I treated people fair. It's not my job to judge them, that's the judge's job,' she said.

Ms Goodwin understands her conviction will make it hard for her to secure work in her chosen field in the future, but hopes to put her criminology degree to good use and work in counter terrorism.

In the interim, she's working as a personal trainer in two western Sydney gyms and trying to escape the stigma that comes with her conviction.

'This did a lot of damage to my mental health... I still get messages about it to this day, I copped a lot of abuse.'

Despite the outcome and public outcry, Ms Goodwin does not regret how she dealt with inmates while on the job.

'They're doing it tough,' she said. 'They're locked in cells, they're away from their families and I know they've put themselves there, but it's still tough.'
The organisers of the Booker Prize today said it would be 'problematic' to go back to nominating great books from just Britain, Ireland and the Commonwealth, branding it a 'colonial framework' with roots in the British empire.

There is anger that just one writer from the UK has made the shortlist for this year's prize  fuelling concerns about the opening-up of the competition to non-Commonwealth talent and the domination of American authors.

This year will see Nadifa Mohamed, the only Briton nominated, vying for the 50,000 prize in November for her novel, The Fortune Men, about a real petty criminal wrongfully convicted of murder in 1950s Cardiff.

The author, who came to the UK from Somalia in 1986, will go up against three American writers, a South African and a Sri Lankan. Last years shortlist was also dominated by US authors.

The prize was set up to celebrate British and Commonwealth writers but entry rules were changed in 2013 to allow any submissions published in English by a UK publisher.

But Gaby Wood, of the Booker Prize Foundation, said it would be difficult to go back to the original entry criteria claiming there are 'political as well as literary problems' with returning to the 'colonial framework'.

She added: 'I think a reversion is problematic. I prefer the idea of evolution. I think there are political as well as literary problems with reverting to a Commonwealth framework. It is essentially a colonial framework. I don't know that this is the right time to do that  if there ever is a good time.'

Gaby Wood, of the Booker Prize Foundation, said it would be difficult to go back to the original entry criteria claiming there are 'political as well as literary problems' with returning to the 'colonial framework'. The only shortlisted author of British descent is Somali-British novelist Nadifa Mohamed (pictured) for The Fortune Men

Maya Jasanoff, chairwoman of this year's jury, added that she found it 'pretty remarkable in the 21st century that people were talking about the former British Empire as an appropriate container in which to think about literature'.

Sir Kazuo Ishiguro, the British Nobel winner was longlisted for his eighth novel, Klara and the Sun, but did not make the shortlist. Chigozie Obioma, who is one of the judges and twice shortlisted himself, insisted nationalities were not taken into account. 'The Booker Prize is the great leveller,' he said. 'We look at not just what the writers are saying but how they are saying it.' Maya Jasanoff, chairman of the 2021 judges and a professor of history at Harvard, said: 'I find it pretty remarkable in the 21st century that people are talking about former British empires as appropriate containers in which to think about literature.'

Miss Wood said more would be done if it was 'felt that British writers in particular or Commonwealth writers are not well enough supported'.

The six books shortlisted for the prestigious 2021 Booker Prize for fiction explore themes including racism, injustice, freedom and constraints on women's lives.

The only shortlisted author of British descent is Somali-British novelist Nadifa Mohamed for The Fortune Men.

She is up against three Americans, one Sri Lankan and one South African.

The American-authored novels are No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood, Richard Powers' Bewilderment and Maggie Shipstead's Great Circle, which are up against Sri Lankan Anuk Arudpragasam's A Passage North and The Promise by South African author Damon Galgut.

The six books shortlisted for the prestigious 2021 Booker Prize for fiction explore themes including racism, injustice, freedom and constraints on women's lives. Pictured, The Fortune Men

Patricia Lockwood (right), whose book, 'No one is talking about this' (left), has been shortlisted for 2021 Booker Prize

This is the third time Galgut has featured, having made the shortlist in 2003 with The Good Doctor and again in 2010 for In A Strange Room.

The judges announced a longlist of 13 books in July, chosen from 158 novels published in the UK or Ireland.

Works written in English by writers of any nationality are eligible for the prize.

Sir Kazuo Ishiguro featured on the longlist but failed to make the cut, missing out on becoming a double winner of the prize with his eighth novel, Klara And The Sun.

Anuk Arudpragasam, whose book 'A Passage North', has been shortlisted for 2021 Booker Prize

Maggie Shipstead's (right) book 'Great Circle' (pictured, left), which has been shortlisted for 2021 Booker Prize

The shortlist, announced at a digital press conference on Tuesday, was chosen by judges including historian and panel chairwoman Maya Jasanoff and former archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams.

Asked what conclusions can be drawn about the state of British writing, given only one British writer was shortlisted, judge Chigozie Obioma added: 'For me, I think the Booker Prize is the great leveller.

'If you think about some of the writers that we longlisted, say An Island, for instance, or even A Passage North, these are writers telling stories that don't make the news.

'I don't think that you would hear about the life of a poor woman in Sri Lanka, or a man who is marooned on an island off the coast of Africa.

'But while judging the Booker Prize we look at not just what the writers are saying, but how they are saying it, and therefore nationalities do not really matter.

'What matters is what the writer has brought to the page, and the vision that they have and how they have realised.

'So if we don't have many British writers, I think, it's just a coincidence, not something that we intentionally had made a conscious decision of.'

Discussing Galgut's novel, Obioma added: 'His novel was one of the first ones we read, I think, but we were immediately struck by what seemed, at first, a little bit odd but later on crystallised to be actually a kind of a renewal of what we used to think of as the omniscient voice.

'So here you have a narrator who is super intrusive and extraordinarily penetrating into the consciousness of characters.'

Richard Powers (right), whose book 'Bewilderment' (left), has been shortlisted for 2021

Damon Galgut (right), whose book, 'The Promise', has been shortlisted for 2021 Booker Prize (left)

Obioma described the narrative style as balancing between 'Nabokovian precision' and 'Faulknerian exuberance'.

Jasanoff said Great Circle was 'as absorbing in the manner of the great realist novels of the 19th century, but it also speaks to ever-present questions about freedom and constraints, particularly in women's lives, as some of my fellow judges remarked upon'.

'And we felt that it was kind of a 'tour de force' of scene creation and prose style which earned it its place on this shortlist,' she added.

The winner will be announced on November 3 and will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 4's Front Row, BBC iPlayer and the BBC News Channel.

The winner of the 2021 Booker Prize receives 50,000.
Australia's medicines regulator has accused United Australia Party leader Craig Kelly of breaching copyright and demanded he cease spamming people about adverse vaccine reactions.

Mr Kelly, who quit the Liberals over his refusal to stop spouting unfounded Covid-19 treatment claims, has engaged in a text message campaign about vaccines.

This includes a message with a link taking people to a database of adverse event notifications for coronavirus vaccines.

United Australia Party leader and MP for Hughes Craig Kelly has been accused of breaching copyright by Australia's Therapeutic Goods Administration

One of Mr Kelly's unsolicited text messages (above). The TGA demanded Mr Kelly 'stop distributing incomplete extracts of adverse event reports relating to Covid-19 vaccines which the TGA believes could be seriously misleading'

Lawyers for the Therapeutic Goods Administration have written to the MP for the Sydney seat of Hughes alleging he's in breach of copyright.

The regulator on Wednesday demanded Mr Kelly 'stop distributing incomplete extracts of adverse event reports relating to Covid-19 vaccines which the TGA believes could be seriously misleading'.

It alleged the extracts were taken selectively from the TGA's database, removing important information about the reports and the regulator's copyright statement.

The other text message many Australians received from Mr Kelly and the UAP - there is no law preventing the politician from sending the texts

'Information on the Database of Adverse Event Notifications cannot be used to identify whether a medicine or a vaccine is safe or has caused the reported adverse event or not,' the TGA said.

Further investigation is required before an incident can be deemed related to a vaccine, something the TGA emphasises in its database.

'The extracts disseminated by the United Australia Party excluded this important information at the beginning of the reports as well as the statement indicating that the information is subject to copyright under Australian law,' the TGA said.

Many Australians had randomly received text messages from the Mr Kelly and the UAP in recent weeks but while there is no law to stop politicians sending voters text messages, the alleged copyright breach identified by the TGA is a different story.
A woman in regional Victoria has shared an incredibly rude note left on her car by a resident who assumed she was breaking lockdown because of the dealership stickers on her car.

Lockdown regulations were lifted in country Victoria on Friday, allowing residents to once again enjoy life without strict stay-at-home restrictions, but Melbourne is still deep within the trenches.

Traralgon resident Jodie Oliver came back to her car to find a horrible note left there on Friday, which read: 'Get back to Melbourne selfish c**t'.

Ms Oliver believed that she was targeted due to the Melbourne dealership name on her license plates.

Traralgon resident Jodie Oliver returned to her car to find an angry note (pictured) from a local who assumed she was from Melbourne due to her license plates

Another woman was abused in Wonthaggi, two hours south-east of Melbourne, because a resident thought she was from the city.

Other residents of regional Victoria have promptly removed any relation to Melbourne from their vehicles, hoping to avoid any conflict themselves.

Senior Sergeant Peter Watson called for the attacks and abuse to stop.

'We shouldn't assume just because there's a sticker on a car, they are from out of town,' Sergeant Watson said.

Regional Victoria was lifted out of lockdown on September 10.

Another woman in Wonthaggi, two hours south-east of Melbourne was abused by a local (pictured, Wonthaggi's main road)

Restaurants, cafes and retail shops among others were able to re-open with capacity and social distancing rules, as offices re-opened with up to 25 per cent of staff.

However, residents of regional Victoria must not travel to metropolitan Melbourne.

No private gatherings are allowed and 10 people are allowed to gather in public spaces.

Kindergarten to year two students and year 12 students are able to return to the classroom and childcare centres are able to reopen.

Religious gatherings are capped at 20 people and only 20 people are allowed to attend funerals and 10 at weddings.

Regional Victoria has been enjoying life out of lockdown since Friday, but Ballarat has been plunged into a snap seven-day lockdown from midnight Wednesday (pictured, Vincent street in Ballarat)

The regional Victoria suburb recorded four new cases of Covid-19 prompting Premier Dan Andrews to force a lockdown (pictured, police checking drivers details in Kilmore, north of Melbourne)

On Wednesday, Ballarat was plunged into a snap seven-day lockdown after recording four new cases of Covid-19.

Premier Dan Andrews announced Ballarat residents will be under the same restrictions as Melbourne from 11.59pm Wednesday - except for the curfew.

At the same time, Shepparton, the only regional town to remain in lockdown initially, will enjoy the same freedoms as the rest of the state from midnight on Wednesday.

'It is not the news Ballarat wants to hear or the decision we want to make,' Premier Dan Andrews told reporters on Wednesday.

'[But] If we allow the virus to get away in one part of regional Victoria it becomes a threat and a risk to all of regional Victoria. We can't have that happen.'
The Northern Territory Chief Minister has unleashed on anti-vaxxers in an extraordinary rant and vowed to keep the border shut until every worker in high-risk industries gets a Covid jab.

Speaking on Wednesday, Mick Gunner said his stage 3 reopening plan would involve 'the strongest vaccination rules in Australia'.

'I know I'm supposed to say I respect people's choices and reasons for not getting vaccinated, I don't. I don't understand it. I don't respect it.' Mr Gunner said.

'You don't get to choose to burden out health system because you refuse to follow preventative health measures. You don't get to choose to be a spreader of a deadly virus in our community,' he continued.

'And you absolutely cannot choose to infect Territorians who can't get vaccinated yet like our young kids.'

The NT is in a '50-day race' to get 80 per cent of the population vaccinated (pictured: Darwin in August)

The Northern Territory is aiming to have 80 per cent of its eligible population fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by early November.

If it does, sweeping changes will be introduced as part of the territory's reopening plan to jurisdictions where the virus is present.

'The NT cannot keep Covid out forever,' Mr Gunner told reporters on Wednesday.

'The key to these next steps being a success, the key to the territory staying safe and open, is vaccines. We are now in a 50-day race to freedom.'

To ease restrictions more than 80 per cent of the population over 16 will need to be fully vaccinated.

This includes remote Indigenous communities, some of which currently have vaccination rates below 10 per cent.

There will also need to be 'strong and growing' vaccination rates among 12 to 15-year-olds.

The NT Chief Minister said he would introduce the strictest vaccine rules in the country

If this is achieved, vaccinated people from COVID-19 hotspots will be able to enter the NT and quarantine at home or another suitable location.

'As far as our border measures go when we reach the next phase, it will boil down to this: 'no jab, no entry',' Mr Gunner said.

How the territory responds to virus outbreaks is also set to change, with only those people who choose not to be vaccinated likely to be ordered into lockdown.

'For vaccinated people, life will continue almost as usual,' Mr Gunner said.

Once the new rules are introduced, businesses and venues will have the right to refuse entry to unvaccinated people, and employers will be able to dismiss or re-assign workers who refuse to get the jab.

Jobs that will require mandatory vaccination include those who work with children or vulnerable people, frontline health and emergency workers, and customer service roles in the retail and hospitality industry.

This would include keeping the NT's (pictured) borders shut until every worker in high-risk settings is vaccinated

Essential infrastructure, supply-chain and logistics workers will also be ordered by the NT Chief Health Officer to get vaccinated.

The NT has just started a 'vaccination blitz', with expectations every one of the 246,500-strong territory population, who have not already been offered a jab, will be within 50 days.

Mr Gunner said remote Aboriginal communities that do not reach the 80 per cent vaccination target may have further travel restrictions imposed to protect their vulnerable residents.

The NT government is also exploring further measures to protect children, who are currently ineligible for the jab, including additional ventilation in classrooms.

'This thing is going to be around for years, so we need to work out a way to live safely with this,' Mr Gunner said.

'Waiting for Covid to go away is just not a feasible option.'

About 71 per cent of Territorians (pictured) have had their first vaccine dose

When the NT does open borders there will likely be a traffic light system.

Those arriving from green zoned areas will be permitted free access to the state whether they are vaccinated or not.

Orange zoned travellers will be allowed to quarantine at home if they are fully vaccinated and can leave after a negative test.

While red zoned visitors would be required to isolate for the full 14 days but can do so at home if they're fully vaccinated.

Overall, 71 per cent of all Territorians have received their first vaccine dose and 52 per cent are fully vaccinated.

In remote areas, 54 per cent of people have had their first dose, with 43 per cent fully vaccinated.

When the NT does open borders a green, orange and red permit system is set to be introduced

But pockets of vaccine hesitancy persist in Central Australia and the Barkly region, raising concerns for the vulnerable Aboriginal residents, many of whom suffer from chronic health problems.

The community of Alpurrurulam, on the Queensland border near Mt Isa, had the worst vaccine uptake, according to recent figures released by the NT government.

Eight per cent of the 350-strong population have received their first dose, with five per cent fully vaccinated.

Mr Gunner (pictured) said he 'didn't understand' vaccine hesitancy

The vaccine rollout has also been slow to reach Aputula, 317 kilometres south of Alice Springs on the Finke River.

There too, only eight per cent of the 160 community members have received their first dose and five per cent are fully vaccinated.

In another five communities, first dose rates are less than 15 per cent, with under 10 per cent of the population fully vaccinated.

Overall, 35 per cent of Aboriginal people living in the remote communities in Central Australia have received their first vaccine dose and 23 per cent are fully vaccinated.
The families of four Welsh miners who were killed in 2011 after a shaft flooded have demanded an inquest into the tragedy.

Charles Breslin, 62, David Powell, 50, Phillip Hill, 44, and Garry Jenkins, 39, all died when water flooded the Gleision drift mine, near Pontardawe, South Wales, in September 2011.

The men were killed after 650,000 gallons of water - equivalent to an Olympic-sized swimming pool - rushed over them as they tried to blast into a coal seam.

The mine's manager and owners were cleared of manslaughter charges in 2014 and survivors of the tragedy claim the deaths have been 'swept under the carpet'.

Charles Breslin's widow Mavis added that she felt 'cheated' of a husband and an inquest after the acting coroner for Swansea decided not to not to hold full inquests following the 2014 trial.

Lynette Powell said all she had was a temporary death certificate and added: 'That is no closure for me. I haven't got an inquest. Not only for me, for all the families.'

Survivor Jake Wyatt, who worked as a fitter in the mine, said his fellow workers deserved answers.

He said: 'My opinion was all this was going to get swept under the carpet. Nobody wanted to know anything about it and it went from being such a high profile case to nothing within a couple of years.'

Charles Breslin, 62 (left), David Powell, 50, Phillip Hill, 44, and Garry Jenkins, 39 (right), all died when water flooded the Gleision drift mine in September 2011

David Powell, 50 (left), and Phillip Hill, 44 (right), were two of the victims of the disaster in south Wales in 2011

Jake told how he managed to cheat death - but his tragic colleagues could not be saved.

He said: 'We heard the blast. Then within seconds you could hear, I described it as a jet engine. We knew something had gone drastically wrong. So, I jumped on the belt and we both said the same thing - 'run'. I remember crawling down and within about 10 yards I fell off. I heard Garry behind me: 'run!'

'So, I went on back on the belt, going like the clappers of hell. I'd say about halfway down there was a walkway, so I jumped off the belt, turned around and there was no sign whatsoever of Garry. There was no light, there was nothing at all.'

Fellow former miner Nigel Evans added: 'As it stands, now, nobody's been blamed. Somebody must take responsibility for four bodies, four men, four lives, you know?'

The mine's co-owner Maria Seage, said she supported an inquest and would take responsibility if found to have done something wrong.

She said: 'There's still so many unanswered questions and the only way to get them answered is reopen the mine, re-survey the mine, have a proper inquiry or proper inquest.

'And if, by doing that, I am found that I have done something wrong - as far as I know I haven't - but if that day comes and they find yes I have, well, I've got to take what's coming.'

The men were submerged under a torrent of water after they detonated explosives 300 metres underground in September 2011.

But they were unable to get out of the 2ft 6in high tunnel they were working in as the water came rushing through the seam.

They were drowned by an underground reservoir of water from old workings had been there since 1984.

A massive search and rescue effort was launched after the disaster but the men could not be saved.

Accident investigators found two lengths of rod indicating that drilling had taken place to determine the thickness of coal and the presence of water before the tragedy.

MNS Mining Ltd, which ran the mine at the time of the 2011 tragedy, denied four charges of corporate manslaughter by failing to ensure a safe system of work was in place

The mine's manager and owners were cleared of manslaughter charges in 2014 but a later report found no flood risk assessment had been carried out

The men were killed after 650,000 gallons of water - equivalent to an Olympic-sized swimming pool - rushed over them as they tried to blast into a coal seam

One miner, who had been working in that area of the mine the day before the disaster, told investigators that water had been running from the bore hole 'like a tap running half on'.

MNS Mining Ltd, which ran the mine at the time, denied four charges of corporate manslaughter by failing to ensure a safe system of work was in place.

Pit boss Malcolm Fyfield was one of seven people working inside the Gleision drift mine when a shaft flooded in 2011. He survived after crawling out through sludge and dirt.

As he was being treated by paramedics, Swansea Crown Court heard he told paramedics: 'They've gone. There is no hope for the others.'

Father-of-two Fyfield pleaded not guilty to four counts of manslaughter during the 2014 trial.

The mine's manager and owners were cleared of manslaughter charges but a later report found no flood risk assessment had been carried out

Lee Reynolds, a former surveyor for Gleision mine who gave evidence in the trial, called on authorities to assess whether opportunities to improve safety at the mine had been missed.

He said: 'When you get a major incident - and I believe four people getting killed tragically is a major incident - they have a prior role investigation. It should be undertaken independently.

'With what we're finding in our investigation, a prior role investigation should have been undertaken, but wasn't.'

Conditions in the mine were said to be cramped, with the ceiling height at just 77cm, almost 20cm lower than a standard kitchen worktop.

An HSE spokesman said it would be inappropriate to comment on the points raised by Mr Reynolds and the families.

The spokesman added: 'Our thoughts are with the families on this poignant anniversary. We supported the South Wales Police investigation at the time which ended in a manslaughter trial, but HSE did not bring any charges under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 in addition to their prosecution.'
Canberra, more than 50 per cent of residents aged 12 and older double-dosed

Canberra will stay in lockdown until the national vaccination average hits 70 per cent  even if the ACT achieves the feat weeks earlier.

The Australian capital is set to start opening up gradually after its lockdown, which is slated to end on October 15 following a four-week extension.

Chief Minister Andrew Barr expects the ACT to be in a strong position to start reopening gradually as national vaccination thresholds of 70 per cent from mid-October and 80 per cent from early November are reached.

He argued to end lockdown before the national average caught up would be contrary to the national reopening plan, and would be risky because so many people moved in and out of Canberra.

Canberra will stay in lockdown until the national vaccination average hits 70 per cent  even if the ACT achieves the feat weeks earlier (pictured, a woman getting a vaccination jab in Canberra recently)

In Canberra, more than 50 per cent of residents aged 12 and older are currently double-dosed (pictured, a woman outside the Covid vaccination clinic at the Australian Institute of Sport)

'We are an island jurisdiction within NSW without the capacity to have hard borders. So we also need the population that's coming into the city to be vaccinated as well,' Mr Barr told reporters on Wednesday.

'We expect restrictions to gradually change as we transition through these vaccination phases in October and November, with the caveat that they may need to be adjusted to respond to increased risk of Covid-19 spread.'

In Canberra, more than 50 per cent of residents aged 12 and older are double-dosed.

As of Wednesday, 75 per cent were partially vaccinated.

Mr Barr stuck to his guns as he sparred with reporters who noted that Canberra was projected to hit 70 per cent fully vaccinated 20 days before the national average.

However, he acknowledged that in the very unlikely scenario that NSW and Victoria's vaccination rates 'fell in a hole' and the gap became 'untenable', he would revisit the issue.

The chief minister said the ACT would soon have administered first doses to everyone who wants one.

'Then the balance of the vaccination program will shift to second doses and it will significantly pick up pace,' he said.

The ACT recorded 13 new infections - eight of them household contacts and five of the total in quarantine the whole time - a day after extending its lockdown for a third time.

The situation will be reviewed in two weeks, with small freedoms added in the meantime and the expected return of year 12s to classrooms for start of term four.

Canberra's lockdown had previously been scheduled to run until 11.59pm this Friday.

But authorities hit the brakes because of continued unlinked cases and people infectious in the community.

Mr Barr floated greater caps on the number of people allowed to gather outdoors and the gradual reintroduction of home visits from later in October should things go well.

Chief Minister Andrew Barr (pictured) expects the ACT to be in a strong position to start reopening gradually as national vaccination thresholds of 70 per cent from mid-October and 80 per cent from early November are reached

Lockdown was extended in the ACT until October 15 on Tuesday after 22 new cases (pictured, residents in the Canberra Centre in the CBD)

Density limits of one person per four square metres would apply for businesses. This would then change to one person per two square metres.

Venues considered higher risk would remain closed or face greater restrictions for longer.

'Right now though we need to give more than 100,000 Canberrans the opportunity to get vaccinated in the next four weeks as we suppress our current outbreak,' Barr said.

'Our objective through all of this is to keep our community safe and to work towards a safe and happy Christmas and summer holiday period for everyone.'

ACT hospitals also anticipate taking Covid patients from regional NSW in coming months.
North Korea has test-fired two ballistic missiles just days after firing a new kind of cruise missile with possible nuclear capabilities.

South Korea's military said the two missiles were fired from an unknown inland location before coming down somewhere near the east coast.

The move is likely designed as a provocation to Joe Biden and other world leaders, as ballistic missile tests violate UN resolutions on the North's weapons programme and are likely to trigger a diplomatic response.

Hours later South Koreas presidential office said it conducted its first underwater-launched ballistic missile test on Wednesday afternoon. It said a domestically built missile fired from a 3,000-ton submarine flew a set distance before hitting a designated target.

The statement said the weapon is expected to help Seoul deter potential external threats, boost its self-defence and promote peace on the Korean peninsula.

Kim Jong Un has test-fired two ballistic missiles which landed near North Korea's east coast on Wednesday, South Korea's military has said

The test comes just three days after North Korea fired a new kind of cruise missile (pictured), which analysts believe could carry a nuclear warhead

Hours after reports of the North Korean test, South Koreas presidential office said it conducted its first underwater-launched ballistic missile test (pictured) on Wednesday afternoon

A domestically built South Korean missile fired from a 3,000-ton submarine flew a set distance before hitting a designated target

It comes two weeks after Kim Jong Un restarted a nuclear reactor at Yongbyon which had been shut down during negotiations with Donald Trump.

Kim had shut down much of his nuclear programme and scuttled his main nuclear testing site during the negotiations, in which he hoped to convince Trump to lift crippling economic sanctions in return for permanently giving up his nukes.

The leaders met three times - an historic achievement for Kim, who was the first North Korean leader ever to meet with an American president - but the talks ultimately foundered with the two sides failing to reach an agreement.

Since then, North Korea has carried out a series of low-level missile tests in an attempt to force America back to the negotiating table.

Joe Biden has said he is willing to meet with Kim, but said the pre-condition of any such meeting would be a serious commitment to scrapping his nuclear arsenal.

'What I would not do is what has been done in the recent past,' Biden said back in May, referring to Trump's summits with Kim.

'I would not give him all hes looking for, international recognition as legitimate, and give him what allowed him to move in a direction of appearing to be more serious about what he wasnt at all serious about.'

Biden has since appointed South Korean ambassador Sung Kim as envoy to North Korea, who is working on establishing diplomatic links with a view to arranging a summit and ultimately to getting rid of North Korea's nukes.

Kim's regime test-fired a cruise missile just hours after Biden took office in January, and launched a short-range ballistic missile in March.

However, it has stopped short of testing its intercontinental-range ballistic missiles - which are capable of ranging the US - since the Trump negotiations began.

Joe Biden has said he is willing to speak with Kim, but the pre-condition of talks must be a firm commitment to getting rid of North Korea's nuclear weapons (pictured at talks in South Korea)

It is unclear what the range of the missiles launched on Wednesday are, or whether they are of a new type.

North Korea typically test-fires its ballistic missiles on a steep trajectory, meaning they go up into the atmosphere before coming back down well short of their maximum range.

Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga called Wednesday's launch 'outrageous', saying it threatened peace and security in the region.

'North Korea fired two unidentified ballistic missiles from its central inland region toward the east coast, and intelligence authorities of South Korea and the United States are conducting detailed analysis for further information,' South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

The latest launch came as foreign ministers of South Korea and China held talks in Seoul amid concerns over North Korea's recent cruise missile test and the stalled denuclearisation negotiations between Pyongyang and Washington.

North Korea said it successfully tested a new long-range cruise missile at the weekend, calling it 'a strategic weapon of great significance.'

Kim's regime typically uses the phrase 'strategic weapon' to refer to nuclear missiles, leading analysts to conclude that it could be the North's first cruise missile that is able to carry a nuclear warhead.

If so, it poses security risks to neighbours such as Japan and South Korea because their missile defences are set up to detect and destroy incoming ballistic missiles.

Cruise missiles are self-propelled and fly along a relatively straight and flat trajectory for most of their flight, similar to the way fighter jets fly, meaning they can sneak under radar defences but have a shortened range since they need to carry more fuel.

Ballistic missiles travel along an arched trajectory and are only powered for the first part of their flight before using gravity to fall back to Earth, similar to the way that space rockets fly.

It also comes just two weeks after Kim restarted the North's main nuclear plant at Yongbyon (pictured), which was shut down during nuclear talks with Trump

It means they are easier to detect using radar but have a much longer range because they need to carry less fuel.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, when asked about the earlier cruise missile tests, said all parties should work to promote peace and stability on the Korean peninsula.

"Not only North Korea but other countries are carrying out military activity," he told reporters. "All of us should make efforts in a way that helps resume dialogue."

In a meeting with Wang on Wednesday, Moon asked for China's support to restart dialogue, saying North Korea has not been responding to offers from South Korea and the United States for talks or engagement such as humanitarian aid, Moon's spokesperson said.

The nuclear envoys of South Korea, Japan, and the United States were meeting in Tokyo this week as well. read more

U.S. envoy for North Korea, Sung Kim, said on Tuesday the United States has no hostile intent towards Pyongyang and hopes it responds positively to offers for talks on its weapons programmes.

Kim was due to meet with his Japanese counterpart for a bilateral meeting on Wednesday.
A Chinese defector claims he tried to warn top US officials about a deadly new virus in Wuhan five months before the World Health Organisation declared Covid-19 a pandemic.

Wei Jingsheng revealed in a shocking new documentary that he took his concerns about the unfolding situation to senior figures within the Trump administration but was subsequently ignored.

The long-time democracy campaigner, who has served time in prison for 'counter-revolutionary activities', said he made the approach in November 2019, as whispers of a 'new SARS virus' began circulating on WeChat and other Chinese social media platforms.

Wei Jingsheng (pictured) claims he took his concerns about the unfolding situation to senior figures within the Trump administration but was subsequently ignored

'I felt they were not as concerned as I was, so I tried my best to provide more detail and information,' he tells Sky News in the documentary, What Really Happened in Wuhan.

'They may not believe that a government of a country would do something like that (cover up a virus), so I kept repeating myself in an effort  to persuade them.'

Xi Jinping's authoritarian regime tried desperately to shut down whistle-blowers and silence any discussion of the virus in the early stages of the Wuhan outbreak - even when an untold number of corpses started flooding the city's hospitals.

Any references made in social media about a new SARS virus or 'outbreak' were censored and brave medical staff who tried to speak out and warn the world were detained and forced to sign false confessions of panic-stirring.

Mr Jingsheng who was exiled to the US years earlier said he was aware of what was happening through Beijing Communist Party insiders who shared their fears about the situation and described the central government cover-up.

But despite the impending health crisis set to devastate the US and the rest of the globe, his message was not being taken seriously, he claims.

Medical staff are seen with a coronavirus outbreak in the pandemic's origin city of Wuhan back on January 25, 2020

Wuhan doctor Li Wenliang (pictured, left and right) blew the whistle on the mysterious new coronavirus in December 2019 and died in February 2020 after contracting the virus from a patient

The Chinese dissident would not disclose which political leaders he spoke to but insisted they were senior government figures and had the ear of then-President Donald Trump.

'I'm not sure if this politician wants me to talk about him right here,' he said.

'But I want to say he is a high enough politician, high enough to be able to reach the President of the United States.'

As coronavirus cases continued to ravage Chinese, the authoritarian state kept the outbreak hidden from the WHO until December 31, when it was no longer possible to contain knowledge of its existence.

The Chinese dissident would not disclose which political leaders he spoke to but insisted they were senior government figures and had the ear of then-President Donald Trump (pictured in April)

But even then, Beijing denied the virus could be transmitted from person to person until eventually coming clean a month at the end of January.

The WHO labelled the mysterious outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on 30 January 2020, as infections started sweeping across other nations including the US earlier that same month.

The virus officially got its designation Covid-19 on February 11, 2020, before finally being declared a pandemic a month later by the WHO on March 11.

There have so far been 226 million cases resulting in over 4.6 million deaths.

More than 628,000 of those fatalities occurred in the US.
Dutch anti-lockdown protesters who dressed as Nazis and staged a mock execution of a Jew in a 'demonstration' against Covid-19 measures have sparked fury online.

The group were caught on camera dressed in Nazi outfits and pretending to shoot a kneeling man dressed in a concentration camp uniform with a Star of David on Saturday night.

A still from CCTV footage circulated online on Monday which appeared to show about ten protesters pretending to enforce lockdown rules in the Netherlands city Urk.

One viral image showed a man in Nazi military costume pointing a gun at the back of the 'prisoner's' head with another revealing a man doing a Nazi salute while grinning at the camera.

Another image showed eight men in Nazi uniforms, one holding a fake weapon, two in long black leather trench coats, and three with drawn-on moustaches reminiscent of Adolf Hitler.

The group apologised for the stunt on Monday, making no mention of the pandemic and claiming they were attending a fancy dress party after the images caused outrage online.

Authorities said they were investigating whether a crime was committed at the demonstration against ongoing Covid-19 restrictions.

One viral image showed a man in Nazi military costume pointing a gun at the back of the head of the prisoner, who was wearing a concentration camp uniform adorned with a yellow Star of David

Dutch anti-lockdown protesters have dressed as Nazis, pretended to enforce lockdown rules and staged a mock execution of a Jew in a stunt that has sparked fury online

An image posted online showed eight men in Nazi uniforms, one holding a fake weapon and two in long black leather trench coats

Comments on video site Dumpert branded the men 'snorted brats' and a 'bunch of id***s' and suggested it was good they were unvaccinated because they would die as a result of natural selection.

While annother read: 'Shame on you, your grandfather and grandmother probably experienced the war!'

Cees van de Bos, the mayor of Urk, a predominantly Christian town with the lowest vaccination rate in the country at only 23 per cent, blasted protest, saying it 'very clearly crossed a line'.

He said the apparent demonstration was 'deeply abhorred by the entire community of Urk', describing the stunt as 'highly objectionable and highly inappropriate'.

He added: 'We understand that these young people want to make their voices heard about the impact of the current and upcoming coronavirus measures,

'However, we do not understand the way they are doing it. Not only the municipality of Urk, but the entire community completely disapproves of this way of protesting.'

The protesters have apologised for the stunt, saying 'it was absolutely not our intention to arouse memories of the Second World war,

'We want to emphasise that we are absolutely not anti-Semitic or against Jews, or support the German regime. Our sincere apologies.'

The protesters were later seen apparently partying at a bar with loud music. One man can be seen dancing vigorously to the music while another gives the Nazi salute in the background.

One of the protesters makes a Nazi salute as he poses in the German uniform ahead of a demonstration against ongoing Covid-19 restrictions in the Netherlands

The protesters were later seen apparently partying at a bar with loud music. One man can be seen dancing vigorously to the music while another gives the Nazi salute in the background

The men appeared to be enjoying themselves at a bar in Urk after the 'demonstration' on Saturday night

The group were protesting Covid-19 restrictions, which remain in place across the Netherlands. But it came days before the government announced it would further ease rules, by ending social distancing, but introducing a pass for bars, restaurants and festivals.

The pass showing proof of vaccination, recovery from the virus or a negative test will be needed for people aged 13 and over from September 25, Prime Minister Mark Rutte said.

Infection rates are falling in the Netherlands, which early in the pandemic had some of Europe's most lax restrictions but drastically tightened up during a brutal second wave.

'I'm glad to announce today that from September 25 the compulsory 1.5 metre social distancing rule will be dropped,' Rutte told a televised press conference.

'This means more people can visit a cafe or restaurant at the same time. It also means that festivals and sporting events outside can get back to full capacity.'

The Dutch government rejected criticism from people like the populist, coronasceptic politician Thierry Baudet who said the passes were an attempt to enforce vaccination.

'No, using the corona admission ticket is not forcing anybody to get vaccinated. You can also use testing to get in somewhere and that for now remains free of charge,' health minister Hugo de Jonge said.

The Netherlands will meanwhile still require masks on public transport and in airports, but not on train or tram platforms.
Kaitlin Jones, 23, remains in a serious but stable condition after a teenage boy allegedly attacked her while she was sunbaking on Blacks Beach near Mackay, on Queensland 's mid-north coast, on Monday

A young woman has spoken from her hospital bed after she was stabbed in her head, chest and neck while sunbaking on a quiet beach.

Kaitlin Jones, 23, remains in a serious but stable condition after a teenage boy allegedly attacked her while she was lying topless on Blacks Beach near Mackay, on Queensland's mid-north coast, on Monday.

The local hairdresser was bleeding heavily and screaming for help when a nearby construction worker Gavin Odgaard rushed to her rescue.

Ms Jones was then rushed to Mackay Base Hospital and treated for 'serious lacerations', before the 16-year-old alleged attacker handed himself in to police.

A close friend of Ms Jones', Nic Gal, has since set up a GoFundMe page to support the 23-year-old and her fiance Dylan Gorham as she recovers.

Ms Jones commented on the fundraiser on Wednesday saying: 'Thank you so much Nic, means the world'.

The GoFundMe has so far raised more than $8,000 with close to 100 people donating.

'This tragic event has left her in a serious but stable condition in hospital and unable to work,' Mr Gal wrote.

Kaitlin Jones (left) pictured with her fiance Dylan Jay Gorham (right) was allegedly attacked while sunbaking on the beach

Her rescuer Gavin Odgaard said the victim told him she had spotted someone walking past her on the lonely beach (pictured) several minutes before the attack

'By donating to Kaitlin and Dylan we will be able to make this hard time a little less stressful for them both so they can focus on Kaitlin getting back to 100%.'

Ms Jones who works as a hairdresser spoke to a friend on the phone on Tuesday morning to say she is 'alive, but tired from all the painkillers'.

'Still very shaken, but she's a strong girl - still can't believe it, really,' the friend, who did not want to be identified, told Daily Mail Australia.

'She's in hospital and okay.'

The friend explained that Ms Jones' fiance is a FIFO worker and left his job at a mine site early on Tuesday morning to return to her hospital bedside.

'Her parents would be there too, thank God,' she added.

Kaitlin Jones' fiance Dylan Gorham (pictured together) is a FIFO worker and raced to be by her side after the alleged attack

The teenager was charged with acts intended to cause grievous bodily harm and briefly appeared at the Mackay Childrens Court on Tuesday when his case was adjourned for a later date.

Police will allege the attack was unprovoked.

Moments after she was allegedly stabbed, a bloodied Ms Jones crawled to the top of a nearby sand dune where she managed to stand and scream for help.

Her rescuer said if the blade had landed an inch from where it had, the young beachgoer could have died.

Carpenter Mr Odgaard, 58, who'd been working on a nearby building site, heard a commotion and sprinted to her side while workmates called police.

The victim's screams alerted carpenter Gavin Odgaard, 58, (pictured) working on a nearby building site, who then sprinted to her side while workmates called police

'She was yelling "Help! Help! I need help!" and the urgency of her voice just spurred me into action,' he told Daily Mail Australia.

'She had blood running down the side of her face, down her legs, arms, and she had a blood soaked towel pressed against her chest.

'The first thing she said was: "I've been stabbed, I've been stabbed - I don't want to die, I don't want to die..."

'It didn't become apparent just how serious it was until I was within 8-10 meters and I could see all her injuries.'

The dad-of-two is a trained first aider and tended injuries on her face, head, neck, chest and legs to stem the blood flow while they waited for emergency services to arrive.

He said Ms Jones was covered in multiple stab wounds, each about 2cm to 2.5cm wide, but amazingly the knife had bounced off her chest bones, saving her life.

Just a few millimetres deeper or to the side and the savage stab wounds could have been fatal, he said.

Mr Ordgaard said she told him she had spotted someone walking past her on the lonely beach several minutes before the alleged attack.

Local hairdresser Kaitlin Jones (pictured) crawled to the top of a nearby sand dune where she managed to stand and scream for help

Minutes later she saw a male standing over her.

'She'd noticed him walk by,' said Mr Odgaard.

'Then she said within five minutes or so later, she found him over her, stabbing her.

'It was just a random selection of victim. They make that stuff for horror movies - but apparently it happens in real life too.

'She had been sunbaking topless on her back on the sand, so I don't know if this has somehow provoked it, but it's just bizarre.'
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Only 1.6million Britons are currently eligible for Covid booster vaccines, official data suggests as No10 gets set to kick off the top-up drive next week.

Health chiefs yesterday unveiled plans to offer a third dose to 32million over-50s, frontline NHS workers and over-16s considered to be extremely vulnerable.

People will only be invited for a booster six months after getting their second jab because that appears to be the 'sweet spot', according to officials who signed off on the move due to waning immunity.

But Department of Health figures show only 1.6million people in the UK, mainly care home residents and frontline health workers, were fully vaccinated by March 15.

The UK didn't breach the 30million mark until June, meaning the campaign won't be open to millions of vulnerable adults until much closer to Christmas.

Experts told MailOnline the decision to delay boosters by six months should not be a cause for concern because the gap means people are only given a top-up dose as their immunity starts to wane.

But they warned it could be a problem for a 'small number' of older and vulnerable people whose immunity drops faster than expected.

Official figures show only 1.6million people in the UK received their second jab six months ago, on March 15. And the first 32million people were not fully immunised until June 24. However, this figure will include hundreds of thousands of under-50s, as uptake is no 100 per cent among those who are eligible for third doses. Boosters have to be given at least six months after the second dose, meaning the majority in the group may not be jabbed until November and December

The programme will be rolled out to the same priority groups as previously (the priority list in the first phase of the vaccine drive which began in December). This means care home residents, health and social care workers, people aged over 50, those aged 16 to 49 years with underlying health conditions that put them at higher risk of severe Covid, adult carers, and adult household contacts of immunosuppressed individuals will be prioritised

Booster doses of the Pfizer jab, or a half dose of Moderna, will be administered to those eligible from next week, regardless of which jab they initially received.

For those who cannot get either of those two mRNA jabs, such as due to an allergy, they will be given a dose of AstraZeneca's vaccine.

The jabs will be dished out through vaccination centres, primary care networks and pharmacies and can be given at the same time as annual flu jabs.

Department of Health bosses said the booster campaign will 'ensure the protection vaccines provide for those most at risk of severe illness from Covid will be maintained over the winter months'.

It is the first phase of the Government's winter plan to avoid another lockdown. If hospitalisations rise quickly, ministers have warned they could be forced to reintroduce face masks and work from home guidance.

The Prime Minister was told it is better to act early, rather than dithering and having to go harder to fight off any surge later this year.

Government statistics show the UK hit 10million second vaccinations on April 18, meaning the third dose rollout will not be open to a third of those eligible until mid-October.

Doomster advisors warn of ANOTHER winter lockdown and 7,000 hospital admissions a DAY within weeks Boris Johnson told weary Britons he could not rule out another winter lockdown yesterday as his doom-mongering advisors warned of a potential seven-fold increase in hospitalisations within weeks, despite cases currently remaining static. Experts have told the PM he must be prepared to 'go hard, go early' if cases start to tick up, bringing back rules such as working from home with as little as a week's notice. Mr Johnson said compulsory masks and vaccine passports could still be rapidly imposed if the jab programme fails to hold the virus at bay. The PM claimed the 'smaller changes' in a new 'Plan B' should mean 'we don't need to go back to the lockdowns of the past'. But he refused to rule one out, saying he would do whatever was necessary to 'prevent the overwhelming of the NHS'. It comes as the Government's scientific advisers warned the number of patients being admitted to hospital with Covid could rise to 7,000 a day within weeks. Despite the recent flattening off in cases and little sign of a post-summer surge, modellers from a Sage sub-committee claimed daily hospitalisations could reach almost double their January peak. The predicted total is worse than last year and seven times that of the latest figures  which show the number admitted in England was just 1,009. Yet the Sage modellers called on ministers to be prepared to abandon their 'light-touch' measures and bring in fresh curbs soon or risk a major increase in cases and hospitalisations, due to children returning to school and workers going back to the office. Advertisement

And it took until June 24 to administer 32million second doses, meaning those with waning immunity could be heading into the Christmas season with low levels of protection.

But that figure includes hundred of thousands of under-50s, given that uptake for the jab has never been 100 per cent in any of the most vulnerable groups.

NHS figures suggest there are still around half a million over-50s who have yet to have their first jab, and up to 1.1million who haven't had their second.

Dr Simon Clarke, a cellular microbiologist at the University of Reading, told MailOnline he does not see the small numbers immediately eligible for boosters as a problem.

He said: 'Put simply, we dont know how this will play out over the winter and its worth pointing out that the annual flu numbers are worse in January and February, so it could be the same with Covid.

'Its important not to give boosters too early as their effectiveness may well wane over time too.

'Data seems to indicate that immunity drops off quickest in the most elderly, who were vaccinated first. Given as these should be boosted first, this problem should be mitigated.

'There may however be a small number of people in their 50s and 60s whose immunity drops more quickly than the average, so what you suggest could be a problem for these people.

'However, theres no realistic way of knowing who these people are in such a large population.'

Professor Saul Faust, an infectious disease expert at the University of Southampton, told MailOnline people having to wait until winter to get a booster is 'not concerning' because immunity lasts six months after two doses.

He said the rollout will be staggered as people become eligible at six months and means the NHS is able to cope with demand.

'Some people will need to go for flu vaccines separately from Covid vaccines though, which the NHS will be taking account of,' Professor Faust added.

Dr Doug Brown, chief executive at the British Society of Immunology, told MailOnline: 'Receiving two vaccinations against Covid has been show to be highly effective at preventing severe disease, hospitalisation and death as well as generating an effective immune response that does provide this protection in the long term.

'We dont yet know exactly how long immunity will last, which is why the governments decision to offer booster doses to the most vulnerable is a welcome move which will help us be prepared for the worst this winter.

'With the third dose being offered six months after the second, studies have shown that we can be confident that for those six months people will have protection during that period from their initial vaccinations with the third dose providing an additional boost to the immune system.

'In addition to boosters, we must not take our foot off the gas and continue to make every effort to reach people who have not had their first doses of the vaccine and encourage them to come forward for a Covid vaccination.

'Vaccination is our only way out of this pandemic.'

Earlier this month, half a million severely immunosuppressed people, who are most at-risk from Covid and were unable to mount a full response to the vaccine, were invited to get a third dose.

The JCVI said third dose should be given to them at least eight weeks after the second dose 'as a guide' but the decision on the timing should be made by their doctor.

The decision to offer people with a weak immune system an extra dose was made after a study found they tended to have lower antibody levels, suggesting they had a weaker response to the jabs.

The booster decision comes as Covid cases are falling in the UK, but hospitalisations and deaths are on the rise

Professor Wei Shen Lim, head of the JCVI's Covid vaccine unit, said the recommendation of at least a six-month gap between the second jab and a booster shot was an attempt to find an immunity 'sweet spot'.

'We want to suggest a six-month limit as a lower limit because we dont want people to feel they need to rush to have this booster dose,' he told a Downing Street press conference yesterday.

'Getting a booster dose too early might mean getting a dose when they dont actually need to have vaccination because they still have a high level of protection.

'And, as we have seen with the first and second dose, it may be that a longer interval to the third booster dose may actually be beneficial in the longer term.

'On the other hand, we dont want to wait too long before offering a booster dose, so trying to find a sweet spot between going too soon and going too late we are suggesting that the booster dose is given no earlier than six months after the second dose.'

He added: 'Hopefully, this will mean that the levels of protection people have will be highest during the coldest months of the winter.'

Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, England's deputy chief medical officer, called on all over-50s to get their booster jabs, saying they will make a 'very substantial impact' on tackling Covid over the coming year.

He said: 'I think the booster programme will make a very substantial impact on keeping the lid on things Covid-wise in terms of hospitalisations and deaths, and keeping pressure off the NHS this winter.

'We want to live our lives as normally as possible from now on and we want a normal winter life too. A high uptake of the booster programme is going to give us a much increased chance of doing that in my view.'

The Covid vaccines have so far prevented 24million Covid cases and 112,000 deaths, according to official estimates.

The decision on boosters comes as the NHS is expected to face a challenging winter, as people have usually low levels of immunity to flu and other respiratory viruses, which they did not catch last year due to Covid restrictions like social distancing and face masks.

And Covid cases are expected to surge in the colder months, as people move away from socialising outdoors to indoors and return to offices.

What is the booster, when will I get mine, and what version will it be? As the over-50s and vulnerable people are set to receive a Covid vaccine top-up before Christmas, we answer the vital questions

What is a booster jab?

It is a third dose of coronavirus vaccine intended to give greater and longer-lasting protection than the first two.

A study by Public Health England found immunity starts to wane around 20 weeks after receiving the second dose, particularly in the elderly.

This means people gradually become more likely to catch the virus, end up in hospital with severe disease or die.

A trial called CovBoost, which explored the impact of giving a third dose, found it increased antibody levels beyond that achieved with two jabs.

A study by Public Health England found immunity starts to wane around 20 weeks after receiving the second dose, particularly in the elderly. This means people gradually become more likely to catch the virus, end up in hospital with severe disease or die (stock image)

Who will get one?

Around 32million people in the UK will initially be offered it.

They include everyone in priority groups one to nine in the initial vaccine rollout.

This includes those aged at least 50, people living and working in elderly care homes, and frontline health and social care workers. All those aged 16 to 49 with underlying health conditions that put them at higher risk of severe Covid also qualify, as will adult household contacts of those with suppressed immune systems.

When will I get mine?

People should wait at least six months after their second dose, according to the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).

The NHS will start inviting people this week  vaccinations begin next week. Health officials hope to have offered a booster jab to all those eligible before Christmas.

The NHS will start inviting people this week  vaccinations begin next week. Health officials hope to have offered a booster jab to all those eligible before Christmas (stock image)

Which version will I get?

The JCVI has recommended the use of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, regardless of the one people received for their first and second doses.

A half dose of Moderna may also be used as a booster but the AstraZeneca/Oxford jab will only be used if patients are allergic to the others.

All three have been approved for use by the medical regulator, the MHRA, and are considered safe and effective.

Some vaccination centres or GP surgeries may only offer one type of jab, meaning people will not get to choose.

Will I still get my flu jab?

The NHS is embarking on its biggest ever flu vaccination programme and wants those eligible to have both jabs.

The MHRA has approved the use of the Covid and flu vaccines at the same time, saying this does not affect their safety or effectiveness.

It is possible one will be given in each arm, but it is likely many people will receive them on different days as they may need the flu jab before its their turn to have the Covid booster.
Police have arrested four men under the Terrorism Act over the murder of journalist Lyra McKee.

Ms McKee was shot dead by dissident republicans in Londonderry in April 2019 as she observed rioting in the Creggan area of the city.

The extremist group that styles itself the New IRA was responsible for the killing.

Ms McKee was shot dead by dissident republicans in Londonderry in April 2019 as she observed rioting in the Creggan area of the city

The men - aged 19, 20, 21 and 33 - were arrested in the Derry area this morning under the Terrorism Act.

They have been taken to the Serious Crime Suite at Musgrave Police Station in Belfast for interview.

Police Service of Northern Ireland Detective Superintendent Jason Murphy said: 'These arrests are the culmination of a detailed two-year investigation into Lyra's murder and the events which preceded it.

'The local community have supported the Police Service of Northern Ireland throughout the course of this protracted investigation and I wish to thank them for their continued support and patience whilst this phase of the investigation is ongoing.'

The extremist group that styles itself the New IRA was responsible for the killing. Pictured: Ms McKee's funeral

One man, Paul McIntyre, 53, from Derry, has already been charged with Ms McKee's murder.

Another man has been charged with rioting and other offences related to the events of the night in Creggan.
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Horrifying new video has emerged showing the sea turning red with blood as Faroe Islanders slaughtered 1,438 dolphins during a 'rogue' hunt.

Footage shows men appearing to butcher the animals with some of the dolphins seen writhing around on the shoreline.

It was one of the largest massacres ever recorded during the traditional centuries-old annual hunt known as the Grindadrap, or Grind, in Faroese.

But the scale of the slaughter has turned even some of the most traditional islanders against the annual hunt with some calling it 'cruel and unnecessary'.

Islanders usually kill up to 1,000 sea mammals a year, with pilot whales being the main target according to data kept by the Faroe Islands.

But this year's eye-watering death toll of white sided dolphins has angered many islanders, who despite the traditions have condemned the mass-slaughter.

'I get nauseous seeing this kind of thing,' said one islander on local broadcaster Kringvarp Foroya's Facebook page, while another exclaimed, 'I'm embarrassed to be Faroese.'

Hunters in the Faroe Islands have slaughtered 1,428 dolphins in one of the largest ever recorded massacres, turning the sea red with blood as the beaches were lined with their corpses

Horrifying new video has emerged showing the sea turning red with blood as Faroe Islanders slaughtered 1,438 dolphins during a 'rogue' hunt

Footage shows men appearing to butcher the animals with some of the dolphins seen writhing around on the shoreline

The footage showed hundreds of slaughtered dolphins lined up on the shore after they were butchered by islanders

Boats drove the animals towards the shore of Skalafjrur where men waited in the shallows with hooks, knives and spears as part of the local tradition

Olavur Sjurdarberg, chairman of the Faroese Pilot Whale Hunt Association, admitted his hunters had made mistakes when carrying out the killings, but went onto suggest that the use of smartphones and social media is putting a negative spin on an important island tradition.

'It was a big mistake, somebody should have known better,' said Sjurdarberg.

'When the pod was found, they estimated it to be only 200 dolphins. Most people are in shock about what happened.'

'The world has become much smaller today, with everyone walking around with a camera in their pocket.

'This is a fabulous treat for those who want us badly when it comes to the Grind.'

Heri Petersen, the foreman of one of the local Grind associations responsible for the hunt, said he was not informed of the drive and 'strongly dissociated' himself what appeared to be a poorly organised and unusual hunt.

'I'm appalled at what happened,' he told local web-based In.fo news site. 'The dolphins lay on the beach writhing for far too long before they were killed.'

However, much the anger expressed by locals appears to be directed towards the killing of dolphins specifically rather than the tradition of the Grind itself, which provides meat for families on the islands year-round.

Trondur Olsen, a journalist for Kringvarp Foroya said: 'We did a quick poll yesterday asking whether we should continue to kill these dolphins. Just over 50% said no, and just over 30% said yes.'

He added that in contrast, a separate poll suggested that 80% said they wanted to continue with the killing of pilot whales.

Faroese are divided on the Grind but many urge foreign media and NGOs to respect their traditional island culture where fishing retains a central place and the meat is kept for food

Heri Petersen, the foreman of one of the local Grind associations responsible for the hunt, said he was not informed of the drive and 'strongly dissociated' himself what appeared to be a poorly organised and unusual hunt

But the scale of the slaughter has turned even some of the most traditional islanders against the annual hunt with some calling it 'cruel and unnecessary'

Springwatch star Chris Packham joined criticism of the horrifying scenes, saying he was 'struggling to process' the massacre

Other islanders took to social media to respond to the outcry and clarify their sentiments to outlets reporting on the massacre.

'The reason some Faroe Islanders are criticising is because that one hunt had several errors,' said one user in response to Euro News.

'Firstly, it was white-sided dolphins and not pilot whales, the former of which we're not used to. Secondly, our equipment isn't designed for them. It's not about the grind as a whole.

'I expect either a moratorium on the hunt of these dolphins, or the creation of new equipment specifically for them to make it as humane as the pilot whale hunt.'

Faroese Fishery Minister Jacob Vestergaard meanwhile told Kringvarp Foroya that everything was done by the book in the dolphin hunt.

Boats drove the Atlantic white sided dolphins towards a bay on the shore where hunters had waded into the shallows to kill the animals with hooks, knives and spears.

This year's hunt divided opinion even among some of the more traditional Faroese, but images and videos of the hunt circulated on social media and quickly drew a torrent of criticism from animal rights activists, news associations and foreign users not used to the hunt.

Some users described the hunt as 'senseless', 'pointless' and 'evil', while others went as far to label the islanders a 'subhuman species' for the killings.

This year's hunt divided opinion even among some of the more traditional Faroese, but images and videos of the hunt circulated on social media and quickly drew a torrent of criticism from animal rights activists, news associations and foreign users not used to the hunt

Whaling is governed by Faroese authorities directly and is not regulated by the International Whaling Commission because of disagreements over the body's power to control the cetacean hunts

The Grindadrap dates back to the 9th century when Norsemen first settled on the North Atlantic islands, and it remains the only form of aboriginal whaling still in existence in Western Europe.

According to Faroese law, pilot whales, bottlenose dolphins, white-beaked dolphins and harbour porpoises can also be hunted, though pilot whales are the main target of the hunts.

The meat and blubber from the animals is used for food and dates back to a time when locals were reliant on whale and dolphin meet to survive.

But a recent study found the meat contains mercury and is not recommended for regular consumption.

Whaling is governed by Faroese authorities directly and is not regulated by the International Whaling Commission because of disagreements over the body's power to control the cetacean hunts.

Falling whale numbers led to an international moratorium on whaling in 1986  but the International Whaling Commission still allows some 'subsistence' whaling.

The Faroe islands are semi-independent and part of the Danish realm.

The latest mass killing is the biggest ever documented in the Faroe Islands where locals take part in the carnage, known as the Grindadrap or Grind in Faroese

Zero catch limits were established for all whaling but made an exception for aboriginal whaling because of its cultural importance and how the food is used exclusively by locals rather than being a commercial hunt.

There is also disagreement about whether smaller whales, among them pilot whales, should be covered by the ban.

Faroese law states the animals must die quickly and without suffering but that is not often the case.

Following mounting concerns over the practice, in 2015 the law was updated and hunters now have to attend a course where they learn how to properly slaughter animals with the spinal-cord lance.

Environmental charity Sea Shepherd regularly documents the killings which have resulted in the deaths of more than 8,000 whales and dolphins over the last decade.

The animal rights activists have been operating in the Faroes since the early 1980s, taking direct action against the Grind with their own boats.

Animal rights activists have condemned the 'barbaric' practice but others say it is an important part of their local tradition

The Grindadrap dates back to the 9th century when Norsemen first settled on the North Atlantic islands

The organisation's chief operating officer Rob Read, 47, said: 'This killing is of a whole other scale entirely - it is mind-blowingly unprecedented.

'There is no need for the meat in Faroe Islands nowadays and it shouldn't be happening, never mind in these numbers.

'There were too many to kill humanely, if that's even possible. These days it is little more than sport, using tradition as justification, and that's why we campaign against it.'

Part of the kingdom of Denmark, the Faroe Islands are an archipelago which are situated 230 miles north-west of mainland Scotland.

Similar hunts are known to take place in Peru, Japan and the Soloman Islands.

Over the past three centuries, the Faroese have taken an average of 838 pilot whales each year, according to a 2012 study.

Rob said: 'Many people aren't even aware of this practice - it is such a cruel thing to do. In these killings, no animal is spared - adults, calves, and even pregnant mothers.

'But this particular hunt is completely unprecedented on a scale never seen before in recent hunting history all over the world.'

'It may well be the largest hunt ever, which is awful.

'This is why we will never give up opposing it and we're determined to raise awareness to make change.'

THIS NEEDS TO BE EXPOSED!

This happens at every #grindadrap on the #FaroeIslands. The hunters desperately try to hide away the fetuses, as images of them gives a very bad image.

So... please share!



I filmed this June 27th 2021#dkpol #seashepherd #seaspiracy #visitfaroeislands pic.twitter.com/wJMMqLAyUg  Casper Hilt - Animal Rights (@casperhilt) September 8, 2021

Environmental charity Sea Shepherd regularly documents the killings which have resulted in the deaths of more than 8,000 whales and dolphins over the last decade

The animal rights activists have been operating in the Faroes since the early 1980s, taking direct action against the Grind with their own boats

In 2015, changes to legislation prevented any Sea Shepherd boats from interrupting the hunt and so it launched a land-based crew to tackle the Grind by documenting it with photographers stationed on the shore and drones in the air.

Robert Read, chief operating officer at Sea Shepherd, said: 'The grindadrap is a barbaric relic of a bygone age. A needless hunt of hundreds of pilot whales and dolphins which should have ended a century ago which is not needed to feed anyone on the islands.'

After a pod is located, the Faroese drive the animals often for many hours with recreational boats, fishing boats and sometimes even jet-skis together creating a 'wall of sound' from their boat engines to force the pod towards the nearest designated killing bay.

Men waiting in shallow waters rush into the sea, dragging the whales alive with ropes attached to gaff-hooks which they ram through the whale's blowhole.

In 2015, changes to legislation prevented any Sea Shepherd boats from interrupting the hunt and so it launched a land-based crew to tackle the Grind

After a pod is located, the Faroese drive the animals often for many hours with recreational boats, fishing boats and sometimes even jet-skis

Men waiting in shallow waters rush into the sea, dragging the whales alive with ropes attached to gaff-hooks which they ram through the whale's blowhole

Killers closer to shore then attempt to sever the whale's spinal cord with a lance and then use a knife to cut down through the animal's neck

It can take a long time before the last of the whales and dolphins are killed, left thrashing around in blood-filled waters while boats block any escape

The Faroe Veterinary Service calculated the average duration of killing during grindadrap hunts at 12.7 minutes, though Sea Shepherd crew often record killing taking well over 20 minutes

Killers closer to shore then attempt to sever the whale's spinal cord with a lance and then use a knife to cut down through the animal's neck.

It can take a long time before the last of the whales and dolphins are killed, left thrashing around in blood-filled waters while boats block any escape.

The Faroe Veterinary Service calculated the average duration of killing during grindadrap hunts at 12.7 minutes, though Sea Shepherd crew often record killing taking well over 20 minutes.

Despite calls for the hunt to end, the Faroese insist that it is sustainable and regulated by law.

In September 2018, Sea Shepherd even offered the islanders one million Euros for 10 consecutive years with no whale hunts.
A gang of motorcycle riders dragged a driver out of his luxury BMW at gunpoint in New York City before driving off with the car, police said.

The bikers drove up to the driver, 23, in the Manhattan neighborhood of Inwood at 2:30 a.m. Sunday on Riverside Drive near Henshaw Street, according to authorities.

The driver of the vehicle was beginning to leave a parking spot when one of the motorcycle riders pulled up to the BMW 328i owner and displayed a gun from his waistband.

Police in New York City are on the lookout after a motorcycle gang dragged a driver out of his luxury BMW at gunpoint before driving off with the car early Sunday

A second biker then yanked him out of the car, then punched his face, snatched his chain and drove the expensive sedan away

The suspects drove away on their motorcycles and in the victim's car.

Police are still on the hunt for the bikers, with CrimeStoppers offering a reward of up to $3,500 for information.

The victim was taken to a local hospital and treated for a cut to the eye and a broken nose, according to police.

Police are still on the hunt for the bikers, who drove away both in their own vehicles and the victim's car
A mother who spent half the day waiting at a Sydney vaccination clinic walked away without a jab after being told she couldn't go inside with her newborn baby.

Eleanor Hillard, 39, from Como, in the city's Sutherland Shire travelled 30km to Homebush' Qudos Bank Arena to get her Pfizer jab on Wednesday morning with her seven-week-old daughter Maeve.

But before she even reached the front of the line, Ms Hillard was turned away and told by staff she couldn't bring her child with her but instead could leave her with a stranger waiting outside.

To make matters worse the mother said she'd earlier called the clinic's hotline to confirm there wouldn't be an issue bringing along her baby, and was assured it wasn't a problem.

Eleanor Hillard from Como, in the city's Sutherland Shire travelled to Homebush' Qudos Bank Arena to get her Pfizer jab on Wednesday morning with her seven-week old daughter Maeve

'I called yesterday to see if I could take Meave out and they said that would be fine and other people had been doing that,' Ms Hillard told Daily Mail Australia.

'I told that to the staff and they just said that those people were disconnected to them and that there was incorrect communication going on.

'They said if I had an adverse reaction to the vaccination they'd be liable for my child. What was frustrating was just the lack of empathy.'

Ms Hillard said staff suggested she leave baby Maeve with another lady - who she didn't know - who'd also been waiting in the line while she went to get vaccinated.

'In a Covid-19 situation I find it very ironic that health professionals would be telling you that a complete random you don't know could look after your baby,' she said.

Ms Hillard (pictured with baby Maeve) had been waiting six weeks to get her Pfizer vaccination only to be turned away

Ms Hillard was unable to receive her vaccine because staff at the vaccination clinic wouldn't allow her inside with her seven-week old baby. She was told to leave her with a stranger outside

Other mothers with children at the vaccination hub were also turned away while one reluctantly let another woman mind her baby while she received her jab.

Ms Hillard said that woman was in tears and revealed her husband had passed away last year and there was nobody else to mind her child.

'Women are the heart of families and it's so important that mothers get vaccinated, we're just trying to do the right thing and it's really disappointing being turned away,' she said.

Ms Hillard revealed that because she was breastfeeding, Pfizer was the recommended vaccine for her which was currently unavailable in her suburb - meaning she had to make the 30km trip to Homebush.

Fortunately a senior health official has since been in touch with the mother and medical staff will be sent to her home on Thursday to vaccinate her.

Fortunately a senior health official has since been in touch with Ms Hillard and medical staff will be sent to her home on Thursday to vaccinate her

The mother had travelled to the Homebush vaccination clinic to get jabbed because Pfizer wasn't available in her area

Ms Hillard said the other women turned away on Wednesday were expected to be contacted as well.

'The system needs to be more empathetic to women and mums in all situations,' she said.

The bureaucratic nightmare comes as NSW reached a major vaccine milestone, with 80 per cent of people over the age of 16 now having got their first job.

The double-jabbed rate is at 47.5 per cent, with 70 per cent being the benchmark for October's 'Freedom Day'.
A four-year-old girl who was given just three weeks to live after a bruise on her leg turned out to be cancer has found a potentially life-saving stem cell donor.

Esha Nadeswaran, from Gants Hill, east London, was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) on May 13 and spent 15 weeks at Great Ormond Street Hospital.

But Esha and her family were told less than two weeks ago that her two intensive cycles of chemotherapy had been ineffective and she needed to find a stem cell donor with the right genetic match within three weeks.

Her family - including her father Rishya, mother Kavitha, older sister Ria and aunt Lavanya - appealed for help from the South Asian community to help Esha fight the life-threatening disease, because donors of her ethnicity are rare on the registry.

On Tuesday evening, 12 days after they received the devastating news, Esha's family revealed that a matching donor had been found for the four-year-old, who is of Sri Lankan heritage.

Esha Nadeswaran (pictured), from Gants Hill, east London, was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) on May 13 and spent 15 weeks at Great Ormond Street Hospital

Sharing the heartwarming news on Instagram, they said: 'We have some positive news to share with you! A matching donor has been found for Esha.

'We are yet to learn more details about this development, but we wanted to immediately share this news with all of you who have made this possible for us.

'Your continuous show of support and love, in addition to those who have since registered to become a stem cell donor, has been one of the main driving forces for us as a family.

'You have enabled us to push hard every single day for the last 12 days since we found out the devastating news.'

The procedure will involve doctors giving Esha new stem cells through her bloodstream, which it is hoped will grow to form healthy red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets to send her AML into remission.

But her family said despite a donor being found, they will continue to campaign until September 20 as they initially planned in case they can find someone who is a closer match to Esha.

They also stressed that Esha still has a 'long journey' ahead which involves undergoing 'high-risk procedures with no guaranteed successful outcome'.

The post continued: 'Despite finding a match for Esha, we as a family will continue to campaign until Monday 20th September as initially planned and will be adding more events to our current roster.

But Esha and her family were told less than two weeks ago that the two intensive cycles of chemotherapy had been ineffective and she needed to find a stem cell donor in three weeks

But her family stressed that Esha still has a 'long journey' ahead which involves undergoing 'high-risk procedures with no guaranteed successful outcome'

'Finding someone who is a closer match to Esha would be our priority, however we also feel compelled to share the message of how important it is to sign up as a donor.

'You never know whose life you could save from just a simple 5 minute swab test and if we can help others who find themselves in a similar position to us, then that would be the very least we could do.

'This is just the first step in the right direction of a very long journey ahead. Esha still has to undergo several high-risk procedures with no guaranteed successful outcome.

What is acute myeloid leukaemia? Acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) is a cancer of the blood that starts in the bone marrow and spreads into the blood stream, and is extremely rare in children of Esha's age. Leukaemia is cancer of the white blood cells. Acute leukaemia means it progresses quickly and aggressively, and usually requires immediate treatment. It's not clear exactly what causes AML and, in most cases, there's no identifiable cause. AML is a rare type of cancer, with around 3,100 people diagnosed with it each year in the UK. The risk of developing AML increases with age. It's most common in people over 75. Treatment for AML needs to begin as soon as possible, as it can develop quickly. Chemotherapy is the main treatment for AML. It's used to kill as many leukaemia cells in your body as possible and reduce the risk of the condition coming back (relapsing). In some cases, intensive chemotherapy and radiotherapy may be needed, in combination with a bone marrow or stem cell transplant. Source: NHS Advertisement

'We are praying that with everyone's help, Esha can get through to the other side and be back home with her loved ones leading a normal life one day in the near future.

'We as a family have received an overwhelming number of messages from people who have followed Esha's journey due to an unexplainable connection they have formed with her from what they have seen or experienced online.

'Consequently, we shall be continuing to document and walk you through the next few months of Esha's progress. We believe it is extremely important that all of you who have shown Esha love and support are equally as part of the journey as us, Esha's family.

'We ask and pray that you continue to support & share the message of Esha's journey to help us bring Esha home! Thank you.'

In a follow-up Instagram post, Esha's family explained that in other cases, several donor matches have been needed to ensure a successful stem cell transplant.

They continued to urge people from the South Asian community to go to their swab test drop-ins to be tested and see if they are a match for Esha.

They said: 'In previous cases, similar to Esha, several donor matches are needed to ultimately ensure a successful stem cell transplant.

'One is simply not enough. This is why, as a family, we still urge you to come to our swab test drop-ins.

This is just one small step towards the right direction ,however we still need your help!

'Thank you to everyone who has supported us and who continue to support us on this journey.'

Despite Esha being diagnosed with the life-threatening disease on May 13, her family only found out at the start of September that she needed a stem cell donor within three weeks.

South Asians are heavily underrepresented in the registry and it is much more difficult for patients with a diverse ethnic heritage to find a matching donor.

Esha's father Rishya Nadeswaran, 44, previously said finding a donor for Esha was her 'last chance' after her two rounds of chemotherapy failed to work.

He said: 'We only found out last week that we need a donor because her first two cycles of chemotherapy have not worked.

On Tuesday, 12 days after they received the devastating news, her family revealed a matching donor was found for Esha (pictured in hospital), who is of Sri Lankan heritage

'Generally, ethnic minorities are underrepresented in the bone marrow registry.

''Our aim is to try and get as many people as possible signed up during these weeks.

'If we do get a good turnout, and a match can be found, we can have a better population to choose from.

'Members of my family are hosting sign up events on our behalf throughout London.'

Mr Nadeswaran stressed that time was 'of the essence' to find a donor for Esha, as the process itself takes a few weeks, and then further checks have to be carried out.

He continued: 'I want to stress the urgency of trying to find a donor. The process itself takes a few weeks and even if you are able to register on the bone marrow registry, you have to be sent a swab kit and sent it back.

'Once the hospital can confirm that there is match, there are subsequent checks that have to be carried out.

'They have to check that the potential donor does not have any underlying medical diseases. Time is of the essence. This is Esha's last chance. It's a harsh reality.'

Mr Nadeswaran has praised Esha's character throughout her diagnosis and treatment, calling her a 'caring' and 'loving child'.

He added: 'She always brings a smile to people's faces, very bubbly and cheerful.

'She has had to deal with a lot of unpleasant medical procedures which have been very hard on her physically and emotionally.

'Throughout it all she has managed to fighting on and keep her smile on her face. She is inspiring to us for what she has gone through as a four-year-old.'

The wider family have set up a website for Esha where they paid tribute to her, saying: 'She's a sassy, intelligent, funny and caring girl who puts a smile on those around her.

Her family - including her father Rishya, mother Kavitha, older sister Ria (all pictured) and aunt Lavanya -asked for help from the South Asian community as donors of her ethnicity are rare

'Esha deserves a long and healthy life and a stem cell match would change her life.

'There is someone out there who might be the match that we are praying for.

'The procedure to donate stem cells is non-invasive and takes less than 2 minutes to sign up for.'

How do stem cell donor matches work? For a transplant to take place, the patient needs to have a donor whose tissue type matches theirs. Matching is based on the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) tissue type. A patient's HLA is part of what makes you 'you'  individual genetic characteristics. The patient is tested to see if they are positive for cytomegalovirus (or CMV for short)  a very common virus that often has no side effects. Ideally, a donor would test the same for this virus as the patient. The age of the donor is also considered as research confirmed that transplants are generally more successful when younger donors are selected. Patients are more likely to find a matching donor from someone with a similar ethnic background because our HLA tissue types are inherited  although it's possible to be a donor for someone of any ethnic background. Source: Anthony Nolan Advertisement

On finding out about Esha's diagnosis her aunt, Lavanya, who is a doctor, said: 'It was awful, there aren't the words to explain how it felt.

'After Esha had her blood tests we had a feeling that something wasn't right but as a family you never think this would happen to you.

'This is a very stressful and worrying time for us. We have been told there is a very short time frame to find our little Esha a match.

'We are heartbroken to see the suffering that she must endure and would give anything to take her pain away.

'Esha has missed out on so much the last few months. She was due to start reception but unfortunately is missing lots of firsts.

'We really want to encourage the South Asian and minority ethnic population of the UK to consider joining the Anthony Nolan register because they can really make a difference.'

According to Anthony Nolan, 75 per cent of UK patients won't find a matching donor in their families, while people from minority ethnic backgrounds have a mere 37 per cent chance of finding the best match from a stranger.

Henny Braund MBE, Chief Executive of Anthony Nolan, called for people aged 16-30 from South Asian backgrounds to join the register to help Esha and others like her.

He said: 'After being told that you need a lifesaving transplant it can be devastating to be told that there is no matching stem cell donor for you or a loved one.

'My heart goes out to Esha as her family awaits news and Anthony Nolan will support them every step of the way.

'Nobody should be told that, because of their ethnicity, there is less likely to be a matching stem cell donor for them.'

The family are urging people to join the registry where a swab can check if somebody is a suitable match.

Esha's family also organised drop-in testing events around temples in London. More information can be found at for-esha.squarespace.com.
Philadelphia has agreed to pay $2million to a black mother after police officers beat her, separated her from her toddler son and used a photo of the child with an officer as 'propaganda' during a protest last year.

The city announced Monday that they had reached the settlement agreement after negotiations with the lawyers of Rickia Young, a 29-year-old nursing aide who was the victim of the alleged attack.

A Philadelphia officer and sergeant have also since been fired in connection to the incident, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. An additional 15 officers are also facing disciplinary proceedings.

Jim Kenney, the city's mayor, called the officers' actions 'absolutely appalling' and said the incident 'should have never happened'.

Young, although recovered from her injuries, says she may 'never heal' from the after effects of the incident and that the officers involved 'need to be held accountable'.

Philadelphia has agreed to pay $2million to Rickia Young (pictured) after police officers beat her, separated her from her toddler son and used a photo of the child with an officer as 'propaganda' during a protest last year

'The pain of seeing those images of my son in the arms of an officer and a horrible caption written to describe that picture may never heal,' she said at a press conference attended by WPVI reporter Walter Perez.

'I will never forget what those officers did to us that night. I hope that the officers responsible will never have the chance to do something like this to another person ever again.'

Young was driving in West Philadelphia on Oct. 27, 2020 with her then 2-year-old son when her path was blocked by a protest following the fatal shooting of Walter Wallace Jr.

Despite her efforts to comply with police orders to turn around, Young's attorneys say officers swarmed her SUV, pulled her from the vehicle and beat her.

Video from the incident was shared on social media.

Rickia Young making a statement after her attorneys announced a $2 million settlement with the city of Philadelphia. Young was pulled from her vehicle by police last October. My full story coming up at 5:00. pic.twitter.com/utGxaEP07Q  Walter Perez (@WalterPerez6abc) September 14, 2021

In a statement released Monday, Mayor Kenney said: 'This terrible incident, which should have never happened to anyone, only further strained the relationship between the police and community.

'The officers' inexcusable actions that evening prompted an immediate and thorough investigation of the incident and for personnel to be disciplined and held accountable for their egregious conduct. I hope that the settlement and investigations into the officers' actions bring some measure of closure to Ms. Young and her family.'

Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw also issued with a similar tone.

'The behavior that occurred during the interaction between Rickia Young, her nephew, her son, and some of the officers on the scene violated the mission of the Philadelphia Police Department,' Outlaw wrote.

'As a matter of fact, the ability for officers and supervisors on the scene to diffuse the situation was abandoned, and instead of fighting crime and the fear of crime, some of the officers on the scene created an environment that terrorized Rickia Young, her family, and other members of the public.'

Young was driving in West Philadelphia on Oct. 27, 2020 with her then 2-year-old son when her path was blocked by a protest following the fatal shooting of Walter Wallace Jr. Despite her efforts to comply with police orders to turn around, Young's attorneys say officers swarmed her SUV (pictured), pulled her from the vehicle and beat her

Young was temporarily detained before being transported to a local hospital for treatment. Her head was bleeding from an open wound and the left side of her body was littered in bruises from when officers hurled her onto the concrete

In addition the disciplinary actions taken by the police department, Young's lawyers have called on District Attorney Larry Krasner to file criminal charges against the officers involved.

Krasner told the Inquirer that he could not confirm a criminal investigation and said that often times investigating officer behavior during 'chaotic incidents' can present a 'challenge in terms of locating body-worn cameras for the individuals involved.'

'When you have a situation that is somewhat fluid on the street, it is more difficult to reconstruct exactly what officer was where, when,' he told the newspaper.

Young has also filed a lawsuit against the National Fraternal Order of Police, which two days after the incident posted a photo on social media of her child in the arms of an officer.

The now-deleted post read: 'This child was lost during the violent riots in Philadelphia  the only thing this Philadelphia Police officer cared about in that moment was protecting this child.'

According to the suit, Young is seeking damages for invasion of privacy and infliction of emotional distress.

After the incident, the National Fraternal Order of Police posted a photo on social media of Young's son in the arms of a Philadelphia officer. Young has since filed a lawsuit against the organization, seeking damages for invasion of privacy and infliction of emotional distress

Young, 28 at the time, picked up her nephew, then-16, from a friend's house in West Philadelphia on Oct. 27, 2020.

As she drove back home with her son, 2 at the time, and nephew, she turned down Chestnut Street, where demonstrators protesting the police killing of Walter Wallace Jr. and officers had collided in an intense confrontation.

Waiting at the end of the Chestnut Street was a line of officers, who told Young to turn around and leave the area.

Young responded by attempting to make a three-point turn, but this allegedly prompted a violent response from officers who were already on edge.

Her attorneys said that Philadelphia officers surrounded her SUV and smashed through all six windows before dragging both Young and her nephew out of the car.

Cell phone footage shows a swarm of officers, some carrying large shields and batons, surrounding the motionless vehicle before letting loose a barrage of strikes.

The officer threw the two older relatives onto the ground and grabbing the two-year-old from the back seat.

Young was temporarily detained before being transported to a local hospital for treatment. Her head was bleeding from an open wound and the left side of her body was littered in bruises from when officers hurled her onto the concrete.

Cell phone footage shows a swarm of officers, some carrying large shields and batons, surrounding the motionless vehicle before letting loose a barrage of strikes

Young was later released without charges and the Philadelphia Police Department's internal affairs unit launched an investigation into the concerning ordeal

Sgt. David Chisholm, a 13-year veteran, was fired from the force for violating departmental policies, including inappropriate communications or conduct while on duty, use of force, and lying or attempting to deceive during a departmental investigation. Officer Darren Kardos, a seven-year veteran, was fired for excessive use of force and physical abuse with a baton

Her nephew also reportedly suffered injuries from the incident and the toddler was hit on the head, leaving behind a large bump on his forehead.

Young was later released without charges and the Philadelphia Police Department's internal affairs unit launched an investigation into the concerning ordeal.

Sgt. David Chisholm, a 13-year veteran, was fired from the force for violating departmental policies, including inappropriate communications or conduct while on duty, use of force, and lying or attempting to deceive during a departmental investigation.

Officer Darren Kardos, a seven-year veteran, was fired for excessive use of force and physical abuse with a baton.

Several other officers are still awaiting disciplinary proceedings.

In the days following the event, the Fraternal Order of Police, the country's largest law enforcement union, shared a now-deleted photo to its social media pages.

It showed a female Philadelphia officer holding a small two-year-old boy as he clung to her neck.

'This child was lost during the violent riots in Philadelphia, wandering around barefoot in an area that was experiencing complete lawlessness,' the post claimed.

'The only thing this Philadelphia police officer cared about in that moment was protecting this child.

Walter Wallace Jr. (pictured) was killed during a police-involved shooting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in Oct. 2020

'We are not your enemy. We are the Thin Blue Line. And WE ARE the only thing standing between Order and Anarchy.'

At the time, Attorney Riley H. Ross III, said the version of events outlined in the post was unequivocally false and described the move as 'propaganda'.

Ross was one of the attorneys representing Young in a civil rights case that was sparked on the first night of protests in Philadelphia, where Walter Wallace Jr. was killed in a police-involved shooting.

Wallace Jr. was shot dead by Philadelphia officers after he approached them with a knife.

The family of Wallace Jr., who suffered from bipolar disorder and was in crisis during the incident, said they called for an ambulance to help him with his mental health emergency - not police intervention.
A nine-year-old boy almost died after swallowing tiny magnets as part of a TikTok challenge, his mother has revealed.

Jack McGeoch was taken to hospital after suffering with severe abdominal pain and vomiting at his home in Borestone, Stirling, last Tuesday.

His mother Carolann said an ultrasound scan found 'something was blocking his bowel', with Jack later admitting he had swallowed magnets.

The youngster had to be blue-lighted to the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow on Wednesday and by Thursday morning he needed emergency surgery.

Ms McGeoch was told her son might die because of the devastating impact of the magnets sticking together through the bowel wall.

She said: 'It was explained to me that the damage these magnets can cause could be so extreme that he might not pull through.

Jack McGeoch (pictured), nine, was taken to hospital after suffering with severe abdominal pain and vomiting at his home in Borestone, Stirling, last Tuesday

'Through floods of tears I then had to sign my permission to the operation and to acknowledge that 'anything could happen'.'

Jack swallowed a number of small Magneto balls as part of a TikTok challenge, his mother claimed.

It is not known what the challenge was, but there are currently a number of videos on the short-video app showing teenagers putting the balls into their mouths to create the illusion of tongue and lip piercings.

The youngster had to be blue-lighted to the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow on Wednesday and by Thursday morning he needed emergency surgery. Pictured, Jack in his hospital bed

Revealed: The dangers of swallowing magnets - and why the NHS wants them banned A potentially life threatening social media trend, involving tiny magnets that can be easily swallowed, triggered the NHS to call for a ban in May. These tiny magnetic balls are widely sold as creative toys, with a recent TikTok craze seeing them used as fake facial piercings by teenagers. The viral prank sees people place two magnetic balls either side of their tongue and wiggle it around, creating the illusion that their piercing is real. NHS bosses issued a patient safety alert after at least 65 children were admitted to hospital for urgent surgery in the last three years after swallowing magnets. The magnetic objects are forced together in the intestines or bowels, squeezing the tissue so that the blood supply is cut off. Ingesting more than one can be life-threatening and cause significant damage within hours. Englands top childrens doctor, Professor Simon Kenny, wants the magnets banned altogether to prevent further incidents. They are much more complex than button batteries to extract. The child will need emergency surgery, then, depending on the severity of the injuries, they may need numerous operations, bowel resection and time in paediatric intensive care. Source: Child Accident Prevent Trust Advertisement

During a four-hour operation the 'funny, outgoing, healthy' nine-year-old's appendix, small bowel and 30cm of his large bowel were removed 'all for the sake of some silly magnets,' his mother said.

Five days after the surgery Jack is still solely on fluids, cannot walk unaided and is 'all round not the wee boy he was a week ago', Ms McGeoch said.

'The surgeons are fighting tooth and nail to have these magnets banned for the damage they can do.

'Jack is lucky to be alive, but if his experience can prevent other kids from enduring the same then I will do everything I can to get the word out there.

'There are videos across social media encouraging kids to do tricks with these but what the videos fail to mention is that ultimately those tiny wee magnets could kill. Very easily.

'Jack's life has changed forever, let's stop others from having to go through the same.'

Jack is not the first child to fall victim to the Tik Tok magnet challenge, with the NHS putting out a warning against putting magnets in your mouth earlier this year.

In May, Ellis Tripp, 11, was rushed to hospital after complaining of stomach pains, before surgeons made the 'horrific discovery' magnetic balls were inside his intestines and bowel.

His grandmother told Worchester News: 'Although he is home now, he is a different child. He has lost a lot of weight. He has gone from a bubbly, happy little boy to being quiet and subdued.'

Faye Elizabeth, from Rainhill, previously revealed her 13-year-old daughter had to have her appendix and part of her bowel removed after copying a video recreating a tongue piercing that she saw on TikTok.

Surgeons removed 15 magnetic beads from the young girl's internal organs.

Professor Simon Kenny, paediatric surgeon and national clinical director for children and young people at NHS England, said: 'Magnets are a source of fascination for children, and magnetic toys can look like a cheap and cheerful way of occupying the kids, but ultimately they aren't safe and shouldn't be for sale.

Jack swallowed a number of small Magneto balls (pictured) as part of a TikTok challenge, his mother claimed

'There is nothing fun for children or their parents about surgery to remove magnets that have been swallowed and become stuck together through different parts of the intestines, or the long-term physical problems and internal scarring that can be left behind.

'I would urge parents to be aware of the dangers associated with magnetic toys but ultimately, the only way we can prevent future incidents is to stop these items being sold altogether.'

MailOnline has contacted TikTok and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde for comment.
Sajid Javid today ramped up the war of words with China as Beijing prepares to 'retaliate' over its ambassador being banned from the Houses of Parliament.

The Health Secretary insisted he could 'see why' Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle and his counterpart in the upper chamber, Lord McFall, had told Zheng Zeguang he cannot enter the estate.

The diplomat was due to speak to the broadly pro-Chinese All-Party Parliamentary Group on China (APPG) today.

But Sir Lindsay argued it would not be 'appropriate' for the ambassador to visit while seven British parliamentarians are subject to sanctions for campaigning against human rights abuses in Xinjiang province.

The Chinese embassy has branded the move 'despicable. And Victor Gao, Vice President of the Center for China and Globalization, warned this morning that there would be 'retaliation'.

Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle and his counterpart in the upper chamber, Lord McFall, have told Zheng Zeguang (pictured) he cannot enter the estate

Sir Lindsay argued it would not be 'appropriate' for the ambassador to visit while seven British parliamentarians are subject to sanctions for campaigning against human rights abuses in Xinjiang province

Sajid Javid today ramped up the war of words with China as Beijing prepares to 'retaliate' over its ambassador being banned from the Houses of Parliament. Iain Duncan Smith (right) is one of the MPs sanctioned by the Chinese authorities

'The decision by the two speakers banning the Chinese ambassador was not helpful and constructive by any stretch of the imagination,' he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

'Don't be surprised if the Chinese equivalent will ban the UK ambassador to China from entering the Great Hall of the people.

'And if any decision further is made in the UK they will be pushed back and retaliated.

'That is the reality in the world today. Anyone who wants to push China to the wall without suffering consequences will be doomed to failure.'

Asked about the situation during a round of interviews this morning, Mr Javid told Sky News: 'It's absolutely wrong for the Chinese government to ban British parliamentarians for calling out the gross human rights violations that take place in that country.

'I can see why parliament represented by the Speaker and the Lord Speaker might have made this decision.'

Former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith and other sanctioned politicians welcomed the 'strong principled stand' taken by the speakers.

What is the All-Party Parliamentary Group on China (APPG) Established in 1997, the All-Party Parliamentary Group on China (APPG) aims to widen the parliamentary contribution to the UK-China bilateral relationship. The group's mission is to ensure parliamentarians are kept well informed on China, and to act as a platform for discussions on all issues of importance to the UK-China relationship. The group contains MPs from across the various UK parties, and is chaired by Conservative Richard Graham MP. Its deputy chairs are Labour MP Catherine West, Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP - who once said his family had been doing business in China since the 1920s - Liberal Democrat Lord Clement-Jones CBE, and Labour MP Sir Mark Hendrick MP. Advertisement

But Richard Graham, the Tory MP who chairs the APPG on China expressed his 'regret' that he would have to postpone the talk.

The Chinese Embassy in London condemned the move as 'despicable and cowardly' and one that will 'harm the interests of both countries'.

Announcing the ban, Sir Lindsay said: 'I do not feel it's appropriate for the ambassador for China to meet on the Commons estate and in our place of work when his country has imposed sanctions against some of our members'.

'If those sanctions were lifted, then of course this would not be an issue,' he added.

'I am not saying the meeting cannot go ahead - I am just saying it cannot take place here while those sanctions remain in place.'

Lord McFall's spokeswoman confirmed that the speakers of both houses 'are in agreement that this particular APPG China meeting should take place elsewhere considering the current sanctions against members'.

The Speaker is believed to have consulted Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab before taking the decision.

Sir Lindsay said he was not banning the Chinese ambassador permanently, but only while the sanctions existed.

Sir Iain and a group of his sanctioned colleagues - Crossbencher Lord Alton, Labour's Baroness Kennedy, and Tory MPs Tim Loughton and Nusrat Ghani - welcomed the move, saying allowing the diplomat onto the estate would have been 'an insult to Parliament'.

'We the sanctioned welcome the strong principled stand made by the Speaker and Lord Speaker in standing up for freedom of speech in the mother of Parliaments by supporting those parliamentarians who have been sanctioned by China,' they said in a joint statement.

Mr Graham had argued it was 'very important' for the group to engage with and hear from the new ambassador, who took on the role in June.

After the speakers' decision, the Tory MP said: 'I regret this long arranged event has now been postponed because the best way to discuss issues is to engage.

'This decision is of course the Speaker's prerogative and we will make new arrangements.'

In March, China imposed sanctions on seven parliamentarians, also including Tory MPs Tom Tugendhat and Neil O'Brien.

In March, China imposed sanctions on seven parliamentarians, also including Tory MPs Tom Tugendhat (left) and Neil O'Brien (right). They are all vocal critics of Beijing, having spoken out against the treatment of the Uighur people in Xinjiang.

They are all vocal critics of Beijing, having spoken out against the treatment of the Uighur people in Xinjiang.

China made the move shortly after Britain - along with the US, Canada and European Union - placed sanctions on Chinese officials deemed responsible for human rights abuses in the country's autonomous north-west territory.

A spokesman for the Chinese embassy in London said of the Parliament ban: 'The despicable and cowardly action of certain individuals of the UK Parliament to obstruct normal exchanges and co-operation between China and the UK for personal political gains is against the wishes and harmful to the interests of the peoples of both countries.'

In March, China's ambassador to Britain was summoned to explain the revenge sanctions slapped onto MPs and academics critical of the Beijing regime.

The Government reacted with fury as nine China hawks - plus four UK institutions - were targeted by the Communist regime for speaking out on its human rights abuses.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in March he stood 'firmly' behind them over the tit-for-tat move, which came four days after Britain, the US, Canada and the European Union placed sanctions on Chinese officials deemed responsible for human rights abuses against Uighur Muslims in the country's autonomous Xinjiang.

Former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, one of those targeted, said in March he would wear the sanctions as a 'badge of honour' for speaking out against activities branded 'genocide' by the United States and others.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said that month the Chinese ambassador would be summoned over the sanctions, branding them a 'sign of weakness' from Beijing.

Speaking to broadcasters in March, Mr Raab said: 'The ambassador here will be summoned and we will explain in very clear terms the position both in relation to the MPs and other figures who have spoken out, but also that we will not be silenced in terms of speaking out about these human rights abuses.

'And I think you'll see - as we saw only this week with 30 countries, including the UK, united in imposing sanctions on those abusing the Uighur Muslims and others in Xinjiang - that pressure continue to grow and to rise.'
Boris Johnson has put Michael Gove in charge of resolving problems with the UK's food supply chains amid warnings from business chiefs of shortages at Christmas.

The Prime Minister has reportedly tasked the Minister for the Cabinet Office with 'fixing' ongoing issues caused by a lack of HGV drivers and food processing staff.

Mr Johnson is said to have told his Cabinet yesterday that he had put Mr Gove in charge of a new taskforce as he joked he 'doesn't want to have to cancel Christmas again'.

Boris Johnson has put Michael Gove in charge of resolving problems with the UK's food supply chains amid warnings from business chiefs of shortages at Christmas

The Prime Minister has reportedly tasked the Minister for the Cabinet Office with 'fixing' ongoing issues caused by a lack of HGV drivers and food processing staff

Industry leaders have been urging the Government to do more to prevent food shortages in the coming winter months.

Mr Gove is now in control of a National Economic Recovery Taskforce which will run across Whitehall, according to The Times.

It will seek to boost the number of HGV drivers and deliver more help to food suppliers.

One of the expected changes due to be brought forward will be to streamline the HGV licensing system.

There have been calls for the Government to loosen immigration rules to make it easier for UK companies to employ EU lorry drivers.

But ministers are refusing to budge on the issue, insisting that the right approach is to increase the number of UK drivers.

There are growing fears of shortages of some food products over the Christmas period.

Archie Norman, the chairman of Marks and Spencer, recently warned retailers are facing a 'perfect storm' because of the lack of lorry drivers and supply chain snarl-ups. He said Christmas could be a 'bumpy ride'.

Industry leaders have been urging the Government to do more to prevent food shortages in the coming winter months. The Port of Dover is pictured in December 2020

It comes after the UK Government again announced it is delaying the introduction of full customs checks on EU imports in a bid to avoid further border disruption.

The UK was supposed to be introducing a fresh wave of border rules on imports of animal origin and certain foods from next month.

But they will now be phased in throughout 2022 after they were delayed for the first time back in March of this year.

Lord Frost, the Cabinet Office Minister, said the latest delay would give businesses more time to recover from the coronavirus crisis.
Police have arrested a woman on suspicion of murder after a five-year-old girl was found dead in a top-floor flat in a tree-lined Ealing road.

The 31-year-old woman, who is known to the victim, was taken away by officers after emergency services were called to the property in Leyborne Avenue at 12.56pm on Tuesday following concerns for the welfare of the occupants.

Police and paramedics from the London Ambulance Service found the body of the girl inside the property, located in the Northfields area of Ealing.

Despite their efforts, she was pronounced dead at the scene.

A horrified neighbour described the victim as 'a lovely little girl' who was 'always well dressed and looked after'.

A witness said she saw a couple being questioned outside the house where the girl's body was found.

The area is popular with young families due to being close to Fielding Primary School and Elthorne Park High School, which have both been rated 'outstanding' by the education watchdog Ofsted.

Homes in the immediate area range from 800,000 up to around 1million.

Police said a 31-year-old woman has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a five-year-old girl was found dead in Ealing

Despite efforts from paramedics and police, the five-year-old girl was pronounced dead at the scene

A woman who lives next door, but did not want to be named, said: 'I've known the family for about three years - the mother is from the Czech Republic and he is from Jamaica.

'She was friendly with me and they were always good to me.

'I'm so shocked because she was such a lovely little girl. She was shy and didn't always answer me.

'Her mother never had a cross word with her daughter and always spoke to her in a friendly way. She was always well dressed and looked after from what I could see.

'When I saw them last year, they always seemed friendly. Her husband's mother came and stayed with them during lockdown.

'She told me that her husband and her used to argue sometimes, but that was a long time ago.

'Once I was taking the rubbish out and I heard them having a bad argument.

'I didn't understand what they were saying, but they were speaking very loudly.

'But even though they rowed a lot, they always seemed to make up.

'You know children don't understand, but they know what's going on.

'They were good neighbours, but I guess you never know.'

Police were called to the property at 12.56pm on Tuesday after concerns for the occupants inside

Lorraine Clifford, 48, from Hanwell said: 'I'm a carer and saw four police cars pull up and two ambulances.

'I thought, there must be a body in there because I saw the forensics. It's just so sad because it's a child.

'The police were questioning what I guess was the parents on the wall.

'It didn't seem like the police were angry or anything like that. It just seemed like they were separating them and caring for them.'

Hiba Alsumaidaee, 38, said: 'I've lived here for more than a year now and yesterday I saw many, many police and two ambulance cars.

'There were were around 15 officers standing outside the house.

'There were two people sitting on the wall waiting for something.

'I don't really have a close relationship with many of my neighbours.'

Another resident, a few doors down, said: 'I've lived here for over 40 years so I probably passed them on the street and said good morning, but I wouldn't recognise them.'

Homicide detectives from the Metropolitan Police's Specialist Crime Command are leading the investigation.

A Met Police spokesman said: 'Officers and the London Ambulance Service attended. Despite their efforts, a five-year-old girl was pronounced dead at the scene.

'Her next of kin are have been informed. A post-mortem examination will be held in due course.

'A 31-year-old woman was arrested at the scene on suspicion of murder. She has been taken into custody.

'The girl and woman were known to each other.'

Homicide detectives from the Metropolitan Police's Specialist Crime Command are leading the investigation.

The house is located in the Northfields area of Ealing, west London

The property is located in Leyborne Avenue, Ealing, close to Lammas Park and Ealing Croquet Club

Police said enquiries continue.

The property is located on a road where house prices average more than 800,000, according to RightMove.

It is situated close to Lammas Park, Walpole Park and Ealing Croquet Club. It is also near two churches, Ealing Studios and the University of West London.

**Do you know more about this incident? Email stephen.wynn-davies@mailonline.co.uk**
A factory worker has won more than 5,000 after she was sacked for admitting to drinking three beers - at least nine hours before her shift started.

Malgorzata Krolik was fired after bosses claimed they could smell alcohol on her when she turned up for her afternoon shift.

But an employment tribunal heard the smoked salmon processor had only had a drink in the early hours to help her sleep and that it was the equivalent of someone working a 9am shift having a drink at 11pm before going to bed.

Seafood giant Youngs said its 'zero tolerance' policy on alcohol meant employees could not drink on the same day they worked and fired her for gross misconduct.

But the tribunal ruled Ms Krolik was unfairly dismissed as there had been no proper investigation into claims she posed a health and safety risk to herself or her fellow employees.

The Polish mother had worked at the firm's factory in Livingston, near Edinburgh, for 11 years before the incident in August 2020.

On that day she arrived at work for a 2pm-10pm shift to an employee briefing carried out by Alex Forrest, Operations Manager.

Malgorzata Krolik was fired after bosses at Young's seafood factory in Livingston (pictured) claimed they could smell alcohol on her when she turned up for her afternoon shift

During that briefing, Ms Krolik had an angry outburst and stormed out after being told she would need to take her holiday while work was carried out on the production line.

After the briefing she was admonished by bosses and she apologised to Mr Forrest.

The tribunal heard she started crying, so team manager Rolands Piekmans comforted her by giving her a hug and this is when he smelt alcohol on her.

She was then asked by bosses if she had been drinking and she admitted she had drunk three beers the night before and had gone to sleep around 5am.

She was taken to the office to speak with Jamie Glidden, the Health and Safety Manager, who said they had reason to believe that she was under the influence of alcohol.

Ms Krolik replied: 'I have had one, no three beers before work this morning as I have had trouble sleeping and that is maybe why you smell the alcohol.. I feel ok and lots of other people drink too.'

During the conversation she asked whether she should do the alcohol breathalyzer test which was laid on the table but Mr Glidden told her there was no need to do so as she had admitted herself that she had had three beers.

The tribunal heard Mr Glidden said the company had a zero tolerance approach to alcohol on the site and she was then suspended.

She told an investigatory meeting she had difficulty sleeping due to problems back in Poland and said: 'I don't think I was under the influence, I might of just smelt of alcohol.'

She also admitted to having an alcohol problem and said she needed support to deal with this.

However product development manager Alison Hargreaves sacked Ms Krolik as she believed she only said she had a problem with alcohol 'as an excuse for her behaviour and being under the influence'.

Employment Judge Jude Shepherd said: 'It was simply assumed... she had behaved out of character because she was under the influence of alcohol.

'Without further investigation, Ms Hargreaves rejected the claimant's assertion that she had an alcohol problem as being simply an excuse for her behaviour.

'The evidence before [Youngs] was that [Ms Krolik] had consumed three beers between eight and 10 hours before starting work at 2pm and had slept for a number of hours after consuming the alcohol.

'[Youngs] appeared to place significant emphasis on its "zero tolerance" approach to alcohol and upon the fact that [Ms Krolik] had consumed the alcohol on "the same day" as attending work.

'The tribunal notes that this is equivalent to an employee consuming three beers by 11pm at night, sleeping for a number of hours, and then attending work at 9am the following day.

'It was not reasonable for the respondent to conclude that the claimant posed a health and safety risk to herself or other employees on this basis without further investigation.'

Ms Krolik won a claim of unfair dismissal and was awarded 5454.29 in compensation.
A mystery witness is being tracked over the murder of a top psychiatrist killed in a brutal attack in castle grounds.

Father-of-two Dr Gary Jenkins, 54, suffered an 'unsurvivable' brain injury in the early hours attack in Bute Park, near Cardiff Castle on August 5.

He died 16 days later at the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff and three people - including a 16-year-old girl - have since appeared in court charged with his murder.

Now, detectives combing hours of CCTV footage of the night of Dr Jenkins' death have issued footage of a young man seen in the area at the time he was killed.

They stressed that the man was not a suspect - but said that he may be able to help with the investigation.

Dr Gary Jenkins, 54, died 16 days after he was left fighting for his life following an attack in the grounds of Cardiff Castle in the early hours. South Wales Police said the person (right) they want to speak to 'has done nothing wrong' but they may have important information

Detective Chief Inspector Stuart Wales, said: 'I would like to thank the community for the excellent support they have provided to this investigation to date, which has helped enormously.

'We are now making a further appeal for the man in this CCTV image to come forward, so that we can speak with him about his movements and interactions in Cardiff City centre during the relevant time.

'We believe he would have been in the vicinity of the top of Queen Street near its junction with St John Street at around 11.30pm on Monday, July 19.

'We understand he was then in the vicinity of the Esso garage at the bottom of Cathedral Road at 11.54pm before walking up Cathedral Road away from the city centre,

'I must stress he has done nothing wrong but he may have important information that would further assist our enquiries in relation to what happened to Dr Gary Jenkins.'

Jason Edwards, 25, Lee William Strickland, 36, and a 16-year-old girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, appeared at Newport Crown Court last month.

Mr Edwards, from Riverside, Cardiff, and Mr Strickland, of no fixed address, appeared in court, while the girl attended via video link.

Three people - including a 16-year-old girl - have been charged with murder

Pictured: A section of the park is cordoned off as police carry out their investigations

A hearing will take place on 15 October where pleas are expected to be entered.

The three were previously charged with attempted murder but he died 16 days after the attack.

An inquest opening at Pontypridd Coroners' Court heard Dr Jenkins had suffered 'multiple' head injuries and facial injuries and underwent brain surgery.

Coroner's officer Emma Mathias said: 'Despite full ITU (intensive therapy unit) care, his neurological condition deteriorated, and it became apparent that this was an unsurvivable brain injury.

'He died in intensive care after a transition to palliative care.'

Dr Jenkins' cause of death was given as 'blunt head injury'.

The consultant psychiatrist worked for Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust and was described as a 'loving father of two.'

In a statement, his family said: 'We are distraught to announce the untimely death of Dr Gary Jenkins, who was a loving father of two wonderful daughters.

'He lived his life happily with love, music, creativity and dedication to his profession.'
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Rumours have been swirling that Boris Johnson (pictured today) will wield the knife before Tory conference

Boris Johnson has hailed his new Cabinet and said they will 'get on with the job' after a dramatic reshuffle today.

The PM replaced Dominic Raab as Foreign Secretary with Liz Truss and axed Gavin Williamson, Robert Buckland and Robert Jenrick.

After weeks of frenzied rumours sweeping Westminster, Mr Johnson wielded the knife in what was branded a 'meaty' overhaul.

The premier cleared a series of key departments in a more radical shake-up than many had expected, with the foreign, education, justice, housing, culture and trade Cabinet briefs changing hands.

Amanda Milling has also been ousted from co-chair of the Conservative Party.

Oliver Dowden takes over that post, with health minister Nadine Dorries - a successful novelist with strident views on the BBC and 'woke' Left - elevated to his former job as Culture Secretary.

Mr Raab was stripped of the Foreign Secretary role and given a lower-ranking role as Justice Secretary.

Ms Truss now has that great office of state - becoming only the second woman to hold it.

But Mr Raab was also handed the formal title of deputy PM after throwing what one Cabinet source described as a 'hissy fit'.

As First Secretary of State he was already effectively deputy PM. Mr Raab has been heavily criticised over trying to manage the Afghanistan crisis from a luxury holiday in Crete.

Michael Gove is being shifted sideways to the housing department, and also being given responsibility for 'levelling up' and defending the Union in a nod to the separatist threat posed by Nicola Sturgeon.

Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi is now Education Secretary, while Mark Spencer - who had been tipped by many to get the Department for Environment at the expense of George Eustice - stays as Chief Whip, with Mr Eustice also staying put.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Home Secretary Priti Patel remain in post. Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis and Defence Secretary Ben Wallace are also safe along with Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng, Health Secretary Sajid Javid, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey, Leader of the House of Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg and Suella Braverman as Attorney General.

Anne-Marie Trevelyan returns to the Cabinet, taking over from Ms Truss as International Trade Secretary and President of the Board of Trade.

Mr Johnson tweeted on Wednesday night: 'The Cabinet I have appointed today will work tirelessly to unite and level up the whole country.'

He added: 'We will build back better from the pandemic and deliver on your priorities. Now let's get on with the job.'

But his former aide Dominic Cummings took a potshot at the PM by branding it the 'Carrie Reshuffle' - but No10 dismissed the idea Mr Johnson's wife is involved.

Mr Williamson tweeted: 'It has been a privilege to serve as Education Secretary since 2019. Despite the challenges of the global pandemic, I'm particularly proud of the transformational reforms I've led in Post 16 education: in further education colleges, our Skills agenda, apprenticeships and more.'

He added that he 'looks forward to continuing to support the Prime Minster and the government'.

Mr Buckland said: 'It has been an honour to serve in Government for the last 7 years, and as the Lord Chancellor for the last 2. I am deeply proud of everything I have achieved. On to the next adventure.'

Mr Jenrick tweeted: 'It's been a huge privilege to serve as Secretary of State @mhclg.

'Thank you to everyone at the department for their hard work, dedication and friendship.

'I'm deeply proud of all we achieved. I will continue to support the Prime Minister and the Government in every way I can.'

Liz Truss (left) has replaced Dominic Raab (right) as Foreign Secretary, only the second woman to hold the great office of state

The main purpose of ministers going into Downing Street seemed to be posing for glossy photographs that could be disseminated on the No10 twitter feed

Gavin Williamson tweeted this afternoon that he is out of the Department for Education, and suggested he is leaving government altogether

Robert Buckland confirmed he has been sacked as Justice Secretary, sparking speculation that his job could be offered to Mr Raab

Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick tweeted to say he has been removed

Amanda Milling confirmed she was on the way out as co-chair of the Conservative Party today, just weeks before the conference in Manchester

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson (file picture) lost out in Mr Johnson's brutal overhaul today

WHO IS IN AND WHO IS OUT IN THE RESHUFFLE OUT Gavin Williamson Robert Buckland Robert Jenrick Amanda Milling IN Nadhim Zahawi, Education Secretary Nadine Dorries, Culture Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan, Trade Secretary MOVED Dominic Raab, Justice Secretary and Deputy PM Liz Truss, Foreign Secretary Michael Gove, Housing Minister Oliver Dowden, Conservative Party Co-chair Steve Barclay, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster STAYING PUT Priti Patel Rishi Sunak Ben Wallace Brandon Lewis Advertisement

Questions over Mr Raab's fate were fuelled by his absence from the front bench in the Commons during the weekly session this lunchtime.

He was then seen exiting the Foreign Office carrying bags and heading for Parliament.

Mr Johnson has been calling ministers into his House of Commons office to deliver bad news, so that they are not forced to do the 'walk of shame' in Downing Street.

Those being promoted or shifted into other briefs were summoned to No10 later for a more congenial chat with the premier.

Hours later Mr Raab walked boldly up to the door of No10, with his new position being announced minutes later.

Robert Buckland had already confirmed being sacked as Justice Secretary, sparking speculation that his job would be offered to Mr Raab.

Ms Dorries is set to be a controversial choice as Culture Secretary.

In December 2017, when she was still a backbencher, she tweeted: 'Left wing snowflakes are killing comedy, tearing down historic statues, removing books from universities, dumbing down panto, removing Christ from Christmas and suppressing free speech.

'Sadly, it must be true, history does repeat itself. It will be music next.'

Ms Dorries also famously slated David Cameron and George Osborne as 'posh boys'.

Mr Zahawi was schools minister before being promoted to have responsibility for the vaccine rollout.

The father-of-three is reputed to be one of the richest MPs, having founded the YouGov polling company.

He said education is a 'crucial part' of the Government's levelling-up agenda, adding it is an 'honour' to be appointed Secretary of State.

He said: 'Children and young people have had a tough time during this pandemic and I'll be listening to them and their families as we accelerate our work to build back better and fairer.

'From my own experience, I know what a beacon of opportunity this country can be and I want all children, young people and adults to have access to a brilliant education, the right qualifications and opportunities to secure good jobs.

'That's both vital for them and also our economy, and is more important now than ever before.'

Chief Secretary to the Treasury Steve Barclay takes Mr Gove's old post as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. It was the last opportunity for the premier to overhaul his team before the autumn political season goes up a gear.

He is due to head for New York to attend the UN general assembly next week.

Nigel Adams has been made minister of state (minister without portfolio) in the Cabinet Office as part of the reshuffle changes.

The Selby and Ainsty MP - who recently defended using bad language towards a regular Westminster protester - had previously been minister for Asia in the Foreign Office.

The Labour conference starts soon afterwards - during which there is a long-standing convention that ministers avoid making big announcements.

Cabinet ministers also need time to prepare speeches for the Conservatives' own annual gathering in Manchester at the beginning of next month.

A No10 source said: 'The PM will today conduct a reshuffle to put in place a strong and united team to Build Back Better from the pandemic.

Popularity of Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak surges among Tory grassroots but support for Dominic Raab plummets Liz Truss topped the most recent popularity poll of the Tory grassroots. The new Foreign Secretary was first in Conservative Home's latest Cabinet league table, with a net satisfaction score of plus 85.2. She was more than 10 points clear of Chancellor Rishi Sunak who was in second place with a rating of plus 74.5. Lord Frost, the Cabinet Office minister, was third with a score of plus 65.5 with Defence Secretary Ben Wallace in fourth with a score of plus 64.2. Health Secretary Sajid Javid was in fifth with a rating of plus 62.2. The August survey of Conservative Party members saw the now former Education Secretary Gavin Williamson receive the worst rating at minus 53.5. Mr Williamson has been widely-tipped for a reshuffle demotion after a series of gaffes. Amanda Milling, the chairman of the Conservative Party, had also been tipped for the sack - she had the second worst net satisfaction rating with minus 16.6. Dominic Raab, now Justice Secretary and deputy PM, was also under pressure after he saw his popularity plummet amid the Afghanistan crisis. Mr Raab was third from top in the previous Cabinet league table on plus 73 but he has now sunk to just plus 6.1. Advertisement

'Yesterday the PM set out his plan for managing COVID during the autumn and winter.

'But the government must also redouble our efforts to deliver on the people's priorities. The PM will be appointing ministers this afternoon with a focus on uniting and levelling up the whole country.'

Mr Johnson has not made large-scale changes to his team since February last year, when he brutally ejected a slew of big beasts.

They included Sajid Javid, who quit as Chancellor after he was told he could not choose his own political advisers.

Widespread fear of a reshuffle helped quell a nascent revolt against the brutal 12billion tax rises for the NHS and social care package over the past week.

But up to now it was unclear whether No10 were merely using the threat as leverage, with Mr Johnson having been telling some MPs in recent weeks that he is unlikely to make any changes until next year.

Mr Raab came under heavy fire over his handling of the Afghanistan crisis - when he initially tried to manage the response from a luxury holiday in Crete.

As well as briefing that Mr Raab might be demoted, there has been long-standing sniping at Mr Williamson, regarded by many as having bungled schools and exams during the pandemic.

Home Secretary Priti Patel had also been touted as a possible loser if Mr Johnson does decide to act, but now seems to be safe.

Mr Javid only recently replaced Matt Hancock when it emerged he had been having an affair in his office with one of his aides.

There was never a serious prospect of Mr Sunak being shifted, despite claims recently that Mr Johnson had threatened to put him in the health brief.

Mr Johnson carried out a minor tweak to his team last week as Attorney General Suella Braverman returned from maternity leave.

Michael Ellis, who had been covering for her, was restored to his previous role as solicitor general while Lucy Frazer returned to being justice minister.

Liz Truss, who had been widely-tipped for a reshuffle promotion, topped the most recent popularity poll of the Tory grassroots.

The International Trade Secretary was first in Conservative Home's latest Cabinet league table, with a net satisfaction score of plus 85.2.

She was more than 10 points clear of Chancellor Rishi Sunak who was in second place with a rating of plus 74.5.

Lord Frost, the Cabinet Office minister, was third with a score of plus 65.5 with Defence Secretary Ben Wallace in fourth with a score of plus 64.2.

Mr Javid was in fifth with a rating of plus 62.2.

The August survey of Conservative Party members saw Mr Williamson receive the worst rating at minus 53.5.

Nadine Dorries has been elevated to Culture Secretary, replacing Oliver Dowden who becomes Tory party co-chair

Nadhim Zahawi has been promoted to Education Secretary after overseeing the successful jabs rollout as vaccines minister

As Downing Street confirmed Mr Johnson was wielding the knife, gossip about the fate of Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab was heightened by his absence from the front bench at PMQs

A pensive-looking Dominic Raab was spotted leaving the Foreign Office with bags and heading for the House of Commons this afternoon

Mr Johnson holding a Cabinet meeting in Downing Street yesterday, as the government launches its Covid winter plan

Mr Williamson has been widely-tipped for a reshuffle demotion after a series of gaffes.

Amanda Milling, the chairman of the Conservative Party, is among those subject to gossip about getting the chop. She had the second worst net satisfaction rating with minus 16.6.

Mr Raab, who also serves as Boris Johnson's First Secretary of State, was third from top in the previous Cabinet league table on plus 73 but he has now sunk to just plus 6.1.

As rumours swirled earlier, a Tory MP who is close to the PM told MailOnline: 'Sackings after PMQs. Cabinet appointments rest of the afternoon. Other changes tomorrow and Friday.'

One Cabinet source said: 'We are assuming it is happening today.' Another added: 'It looks like today after PMQs.'

Senior No10 figures fuelled the expectations by 'going dark' and failing to respond to messages.

Priti Patel stays in post as Home Secretary in the revamped Cabinet moulded by Mr Johnson

Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey was in Downing Street today as the reshuffle was confirmed - but then went to the Commons to lead for the government on an Opposition Day debate, suggesting she is not on the move

Dominic Raab

Mr Raab has experienced a meteoric rise to the top in Westminster but his political career finally suffered a setback today as he was demoted in Mr Johnson's reshuffle.

The Prime Minister stunned Whitehall when he made Mr Raab foreign secretary and his deputy as first secretary of state back in July 2019.

But Mr Raab has now lost his position in one of the four great offices of state and will now serve as justice secretary while also formally becoming deputy prime minister.

His demotion comes after a ferocious backlash over his handling of the Afghanistan crisis.

Mr Raab faced accusations from his critics of being 'missing in action' during the crisis after he delayed his return from a luxury family holiday to Crete as the Taliban swept to power.

He spent the next few weeks trying to repair his reputation as a Whitehall blame game erupted over why the UK was taken by surprise by the speed of the Taliban takeover.

But he clearly failed to do enough to persuade the PM to keep him in his role as the second most powerful person in the Government.

The MP for Esher and Walton, who was first elected in 2010, was first made a minister under Theresa May, serving first in a justice brief and then housing.

But it was his elevation to Brexit secretary in July 2018 following the resignation of David Davis that put him on the map.

He only served in the role until November 2018 as he quit over the 'fatal flaws' in Mrs May's Brexit divorce deal with the EU.

But the frontbench position boosted his profile and the former foreign office lawyer launched a bid for the Tory leadership in the middle of 2019 when Mrs May resigned.

He did not make it far in the contest but swiftly backed Mr Johnson's candidacy after he was eliminated.

Even so, the decision by Mr Johnson to make him foreign secretary and first secretary of state took many in Westminster by surprise given his lack of Cabinet experience.

The importance of the appointment was made clear in April 2020 when Mr Johnson was hospitalised with coronavirus and placed the running of the country in the hands of Mr Raab.

The father-of-two, who holds a karate black belt and captained the karate club at Oxford University where he studied law, will continue to serve a key role in the Government but his demotion has robbed him of some of his status.

Gavin Williamson

Of all the changes made by Boris Johnson at this reshuffle, the removal of Mr Williamson was perhaps the least surprising.

The 45-year-old's departure from the frontbench had long been predicted after his time in government was punctuated by a series of gaffes and controversies.

Mr Williamson, who worked as a fireplace salesman before being elected as an MP for the first time in 2010, was elevated to the frontbench for the first time under Theresa May, serving as her Chief Whip from July 2016 to November 2017.

His time as Mrs May's enforcer will be best remembered for him keeping a tarantula, Cronus, on his office desk in Parliament in a bid to inspire loyalty among Tory MPs.

He was rewarded with a promotion to defence secretary but he enjoyed a less than stellar time at the MOD as his critics took to calling him 'Private Pike' after a series of missteps.

He was widely mocked after telling Russia to 'go away and shut up' during a speech in March 2018.

He was sacked by Mrs May in May 2019 following an inquiry into a leak from a National Security Council meeting.

Mr Williamson 'strenuously' denied leaking information but Downing Street said the prime minister had 'lost confidence in his ability to serve'.

He returned as a Westminster power player after serving as a key part of Mr Johnson's Tory leadership campaign team in 2019.

The MP for South Staffordshire was rewarded with the role of education secretary in July 2019 when Mr Johnson became PM.

But his tenure has been littered with rows, most notably over the A-level and GCSE results debacle last summer.

His most recent gaffe saw him claim to have met the Manchester United footballer Marcus Rashford when he had actually chatted to England rugby star Maro Itoje.

Robert Buckland has been sacked as justice secretary

Robert Buckland

Mr Buckland's departure from the Government brings to a close a seven year run on the Tory frontbench for the 52-year-old.

He has spent his entire frontbench career in Whitehall's justice and legal departments, with his elevation to lord chancellor and justice secretary in July 2019 capping a series of promotions in the area.

He was first made a minister by David Cameron way back in July 2014 when he was made solicitor general, a role he held until May 2019.

He was then shifted to the Ministry of Justice to become prisons minister, a job he only held for two months, as Mr Johnson made him justice secretary in July 2019 when he became premier.

The married father of twins served as a barrister in Wales before he was first elected to Parliament as the MP for South Swindon in 2010.

Mr Buckland was dragged into a furious Brexit row in September 2020 when the Government threatened to break international law as part of a long-running feud with the EU.

Mr Buckland faced calls to quit at the time, with critics saying the proposed move was incompatible with his own oath as Lord Chancellor to uphold the law.

He repeatedly ducked questions about his own position but he was ultimately spared having to make a decision as the controversial plans were eventually dropped.

Amanda Milling has been removed as co-chair of the Conservative Party

Amanda Milling

Ms Milling has been a leading ally of Mr Johnson for five years, having helped to run his short-lived and ultimately unsuccessful 2016 Tory leadership campaign.

But Mr Johnson has axed her from the Cabinet after a backlash over her handling of a series of by-elections earlier this year.

The 46-year-old was first elected as Conservative MP for Cannock Chase in 2015 but she had to wait for a long time for a seat at the Cabinet table.

She was appointed as minister without portfolio and co-chair of the Conservative Party in February 2020 as Mr Johnson conducted his first major shake-up.

She took over the roles from James Cleverly after he was promoted to become minister for international development.

But Ms Milling, who joined the Tories at university and who worked in market research before entering Parliament, faced calls to be sacked earlier this year following a series of disastrous by-election results for the Conservatives.

The Tories threw away a poll lead to Labour in the crucial Batley & Spen contest.

They were also humiliated by the Lib Dems as they lost their 'true blue' Home Counties seat of Chesham and Amersham.

The defeats left many Tory MPs privately calling for someone else to be put in charge of the Conservative Party and its election strategy.

Robert Jenrick has been sacked as housing secretary

Robert Jenrick

Mr Jenrick sought to present himself as a clean-cut professional in the Cabinet, but the axe fell on the housing secretary after a string of high-profile and damaging accusations.

His sacking followed the unlawful approval of a Tory donor's housing development and his eyebrow-raising journeys during lockdown.

As Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, he was also in charge of the planning reforms that have provoked persistent ire from fellow Conservatives.

Mr Johnson brought the MP for Newark, and a former international managing director at auction house Christie's, into the Cabinet fold swiftly after entering Downing Street in July 2019.

The Prime Minister stuck by the 39-year-old despite anger over his approval of media mogul Richard Desmond's 1,500-home Westferry Printworks development in east London.

The permission came the day before a new council community levy would have cost Mr Desmond's company an extra 40million.

Mr Jenrick, a father of three, later had to quash his own approval, conceding the decision was 'unlawful' due to 'apparent bias'.

However, Downing Street insisted in June last year that the Prime Minister retained 'full confidence' in the embattled minister despite widespread criticism.

Then, as the nation was ordered to stay indoors and give up social contact during the first lockdown, Mr Jenrick was forced to explain his own movements in April last year.

He travelled 150 miles from his London property to his Herefordshire home, and then travelled for more than an hour to visit his parents in Shropshire.

Amid mounting criticism, he defended his actions  and kept his job  by saying he went to deliver food and medicine to his isolating parents.

Planning reforms were always going to present a major challenge for a Tory government as it tries to hit a target of building 300,000 new homes a year while also keeping constituents in leafier areas on side.

Mr Jenrick's position as the face of those proposals did nothing to improve his appeal on the Tory backbenches.

New Culture Secretary is best-selling novellist who featured on I'm A Celebrity and slammed 'strident, very left wing' BBC

New Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries was once best-known to millions for lying in a cabinet with bugs and cockroaches for company.

But her short-lived stint on I'm A Celebrity  Get Me Out Of Here could barely have gone worse.

Ms Dorries' lacklustre performance in the aforementioned 'Bug Burial' Bushtucker Trial failed to win any food for her campmates, and she subsequently became the first of the 2012 ITV show's famous intake to be voted off by the watching public.

New Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries (pictured today) was once best-known to millions for lying in a cabinet with bugs and cockroaches for company

Matt Hancock seen Boris-biking it through London Matt Hancock was spotted cycling around Westminster while Boris Johnson conducted his reshuffle today. The ex-health secretary was on a Lime bike in a suit - but no crash helmet - in Trafalgar Square. He looked at the ground while he waited for the traffic lights to change as a moped rider stared at him. The former health secretary straddled an electric Lime bike Advertisement

Worse was to come when Tory party bosses suspended the whip over her decision to leave the country to appear on the reality programme, though she defended her actions, saying MPs 'should be' taking part in order to reach large audiences.

The 64-year-old's brief foray into reality television and her rather more successful side-hustle as a best-selling author will at least demonstrate some real experience within the entertainment business.

However, previous comments on the arts might alarm those within the industry, particularly her 2017 lament at what she perceived as the impact of 'left-wing snowflakes' on culture.

She wrote: 'Left wing snowflakes are killing comedy, tearing down historic statues, removing books from universities, dumbing down panto, removing Christ from Christmas and suppressing free speech. Sadly, it must be true, history does repeat itself. It will be music next.'

And last year she turned her attention to the BBC, describing it as favouring 'strident, very left wing, often hypocritical and frequently patronising views that turn people away'.

The former nurse and mother to three daughters has also frequently been at odds with what she thought of as her party's image, memorably referring to David Cameron and George Osborne as 'arrogant posh boys', while describing herself as 'a normal mother who comes from a poor background and who didn't go to a posh school'.

Ms Dorries was born in 1957 in Liverpool and grew up on a council estate.

She started her working life as a nurse before pursuing a career in business, opening a child day-care business before becoming a director at Bupa.

Before being elected to Parliament as MP for Mid Bedfordshire in 2005, she worked for three years as an adviser to the former shadow home secretary and shadow chancellor of the exchequer, Oliver Letwin.
Iranian guards have harassed female UN weapons inspectors allegedly touching them inappropriately and ordering them to remove their clothes at a nuclear plant.

In the first case this year, a female inspector was subjected to an unnecessarily intrusive search by security staff, though details of the episode remain unclear.

The US has demanded Iran stop the 'unacceptable' harassment, believed to have happened on between four and seven separate occasions at the Natanz nuclear site.

The UN nuclear watchdog on Tuesday described the incidents involving inspectors as 'unacceptable' and branded the inappropriate searches harassment.

Iranian guards have harassed female UN weapons inspectors allegedly touching them inappropriately and ordering them to remove their clothes at Natanz nuclear plant (pictured)

In the first case this year, a female inspector was subjected to an unnecessarily intrusive search by security staff, (not pictured) though details of the episode remain unclear

'In recent months, there have been some incidents related to security checks of Agency inspectors at one Iranian facility,' the IAEA said in a statement issued in response to a Wall Street Journal report on the episodes.

The IAEA, which treats details of inspections as confidential, did not specify the inspectors' gender or say what happened.

'The Agency immediately and firmly raised this issue with Iran to explain in very clear and unequivocal terms that such security-related incidents involving Agency staff are unacceptable and must not happen again,' the IAEA said.

'Iran has provided explanations related to reinforced security procedures following events at one of their facilities. As a result of this exchange between the Agency and Iran there have been no further incidents.'

Iran's ambassador to the IAEA, Kazem Gharibabadi, said on Twitter: 'Security measures at the nuclear facilities in Iran are, reasonably, tightened.

'The IAEA inspectors have gradually come up with the new rules and regulations.'

The WSJ earlier reported a US paper circulated among agency members ahead of an IAEA Board of Governors meeting this week demanded an end to such behaviour.

'Harassment of IAEA inspectors is absolutely unacceptable, and we strongly urge you to make clear in your national statement at the Board meeting that such conduct is deplorable and must end immediately, and that the Board should take appropriate action if further incidents are reported,' the statement was reported as saying.

It is not the first time there have been tensions between the IAEA and Iran over access to Natanz but comes as cracks in the fragile relationship seem to be getting wider.

Relations have soured in recent months over Iran's intransigence towards the agency and state media's frequent criticism of its director-general Rafael Grossi, which has accused him of bias and political attacks.

Relations have soured in recent months over Iranian state media's frequent criticism of its director-general Rafael Grossi, (pictured right speaking to the deputy head of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran Behrouz Kamalvandi) which has accused him of bias and political attacks

In April, Natanz (pictured) was the site of an explosion and power cut that Iran has blamed on Israel damaged machines in its main, underground uranium-enrichment plant

Tehran agreed to prolong UN watchdog monitoring of some nuclear activities over the weekend and grant the IAEA access to equipment that monitors some sensitive areas of its nuclear programme (pictured, centrifuge machines in Natanz nuclear facility)

Tensions over the treatment of female inspectors has also run high before. In 2019, Iran for the first time briefly held and confiscated the travel papers of a female inspector.

Tehran later said it had been concerned she might be carrying 'suspicious material'.

After the apparent attack in April, Iran also restricted inspectors' access to the main, underground enrichment plant there, citing security concerns - a standoff that lasted until July.

Meanwhile in April, Natanz was the site of an explosion and power cut that Iran has blamed on Israel damaged machines in its main, underground uranium-enrichment plant.

It comes as Tehran agreed to prolong UN watchdog monitoring of some nuclear activities over the weekend and grant the IAEA access to equipment that monitors some sensitive areas of its nuclear programme.

Agency head Grossi said on Sunday that the agreement solved 'the most urgent issue' between the IAEA and Iran.

But he made clear on Monday that on another source of concern - Iran's failure to explain uranium traces found at several old but undeclared sites - he had obtained no firm commitments.

In response to the concession western powers on Monday scrapped plans for criticising Iran at the UN atomic watchdog meeting this week.

The decision by the US, France, Britain and Germany is intended to avoid escalating tensions as the states seeks to resume wider talks on reviving the Iran nuclear deal.

Then-President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the nuclear deal in 2018, re-imposing punishing economic sanctions on Iran.

Tehran responded as of a year later by breaching many of the deal's restrictions and later enriching uranium to purity levels much closer to weapons-grade.

Indirect talks between Iran and the United States stopped in June, days after hardliner Ebrahim Raisi was elected president of Iran.

Western powers have called on Iran to return to negotiations, saying time is running out, while Raisi has said Iran is willing to, but without Western 'pressure'.
Video captured early Wednesday morning shows how firefighters extinguished a blaze that damaged approximately 40 cars at an Indianapolis auto yard.

Crews, utilizing tanker operations, aggressively attacked the fire that had broken out at Insurance Auto Auctions and had it under control in less than 40 minutes.

Indianapolis fire says that although many vehicles were destroyed, no one was injured during the blaze.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation, however officials believe it may be the result of a lightning strike.

Video captured early Wednesday morning shows how firefighters extinguished a blaze that damaged approximately 40 cars at an Indianapolis auto yard

Crews were dispatched to Insurance Auto Auctions, located at 3202 S. Harding Street, around 1.45am EST Wednesday for reports of an inferno

When firefighters arrived on scene they found more than three dozen vehicles engulfed in flames

Using tankers and multiple hoses, crews were able to bring water deep into the auto yard and get the inferno under control by 3.26am

According to the Indianapolis Fire Department, crews were dispatched to Insurance Auto Auctions, located at 3202 S. Harding Street, around 1.45am EST after receiving 911 calls about a fire and possible explosion at the site.

When firefighters arrived on scene they found more than three dozen vehicles engulfed in flames.

They determined the reported 'explosions' were magnesium product, tires and fuel tanks from the vehicles.

Using tankers and multiple hoses, crews were able to bring water deep into the auto yard and get the inferno under control by 3.26am.

At this time it is unclear how the blaze started but officials are looking into the possibility of a lightning strike as heavy storms recently passed through the area.

Indianapolis Fire Department will continue to investigate this incident.

MailOnline has contacted the department for comment and further information.

Pictured: Vehicles on fire early Wednesday morning at Insurance Auto Actions in Indianapolis

Firefighters say no one was injured during the blaze

Crews took an aggressive approach in their efforts to extinguish the fire

At this time it is unclear how the blaze started

Indianapolis Fire Department will continue to investigate this incident

A firefighter is seen using a hose to battle the fire

A photo of the tankers utilized during the Wednesday morning fire at the auto yard

A large cloud of smoke was spotted over dozens of burning vehicles
The father of the man found dead in Michael Barrymore's swimming pool 20 years ago has died following a battle with cancer without ever getting justice for his son.

Stuart Lubbock, 31, died at Barrymore's 2million mansion in Roydon, Essex, in March 2001. A post-mortem revealed he had suffered severe internal injuries which suggested he had been sexually assaulted.

No one has has been charged in relation to the death, despite his father Terry, a retired toolmaker who lived in Harlow, mounting a decades-long campaign for justice.

Mr Lubbock senior, who earlier this year revealed he had been diagnosed with cancer and said he would 'die of a broken heart', has now passed away at the age of 76.

His friend, and publicist, Harry Cichy, today revealed Mr Lubbock had died and paid tribute to the 'tenacious' father who 'thought about Stuart every waking hour'.

Mr Cichy said that he had 'died sad, because he's died knowing people never knew the truth about what happened', but said his 'fight for justice won't stop'.

Terry Lubbock, whose son Stuart was found dead in entertainer Michael Barrymore's swimming pool

Mr Lubbock had been attending a party at Barrymore's luxury home in Roydon with eight other people on March 31, 2001

'He wanted a fresh inquest because he thought new evidence had emerged in recent years to justify a fresh inquest,' he said.

'Lawyers are working on that, and the fight will continue - I'll make sure it does.'

He added: 'You don't come across many people like Terry Lubbock. His tenacity and determination were incredible.

'He looked like a mild-mannered man, but he had the heart of a lion.'

Mr Cichy added: 'I knew him for 16 years. He thought about Stuart every waking hour, seven days a week.

'No one could have fought harder for their son.'

Terry Lubbock had said earlier this year that he would 'die of a broken heart' as police revealed they would not be charging a suspect.

Essex Police paid tribute to Mr Lubbock, with Detective Superintendent Stephen Jennings, who is leading the investigation into the murder and indecent assault, saying: 'It is with a really heavy heart that I and my colleagues at Essex Police today learned of the sad news of the passing of Terry Lubbock.

Pictured: Stuart Lubbock

'Since I first met Terry, when I became the senior investigating officer into Stuart's murder, I have come to know him professionally and personally.

'First and foremost, Terry was a devoted father, he loved his son Stuart immensely and he understandably never got over the tragedy of not only losing his son, but also the fact that - like us - he never gave up on his search for answers about how Stuart came to meet his death.

'I know from speaking with him on many occasions that at times this must have felt like an unbearable burden for Terry.

'For all of us at Essex Police who had the pleasure of meeting Terry and his family over the years, I know I speak for all of us when I say we were always struck by his dignity and good grace.

'Terry's devotion to his son and to his pursuit of justice knew no bounds. He was an example to many of us in his relentless quest for truth and justice.

'Our investigation into Stuart's death will not end with Terry's - as long as the case remains open, we will do all we can to deliver justice for him and his family.

'To this end we urge anyone who has information about Stuart's death to please now, more than ever, do the right thing and come forward.'

A man in his 50s was detained on suspicion of murder and sexual assault in March in the North of England after Essex Police said 'significant new information' had come to light.

But the force admitted there is 'insufficient evidence to reach the level where there is a realistic chance of a successful prosecution' over the death in March 2001.

Mr Lubbock senior, 76, released a harrowing statement laying bare his devastation at the lack of resolution.

The message on Twitter, which was accompanied by a photo of the gaunt pensioner lying on his care home bed, said: 'Someone knows who killed Stuart Lubbock?

'I will die of a broken heart. Stuart was murdered at the former home of Michael Barrymore in Roydon, Essex.'

Senior investigating officer Detective Chief Inspector Stephen Jennings, who took over the case in 2018, had insisted the investigation was not closed.

Barrymore (pictured walking his dog with a friend in West London) was one of Britain's best known stars

Michael Barrymore's Essex home the morning after the party where Stuart Lubbock died

But he added there was 'huge personal disappointment' among his team.

A post-mortem examination showed that Stuart Lubbock had suffered severe internal injuries which suggested he had been sexually assaulted.

Alcohol, ecstasy, and cocaine were found in his bloodstream.

A coroner recorded an open verdict.

Mr Lubbock, who was divorced and had another son, Kevin, was fighting for a fresh inquest.

'A new inquest was what really mattered to him,' said Mr Cichy.

20/11/18: Michael Barrymore outside the High Court in London

Essex Police arrested a man in March on suspicion of the indecent assault and murder of Stuart Lubbock, and released him without charge in August. Above: Barrymore's former home

'He had lost faith in the police.

'Sadly, he's died not knowing whether there will be another inquest.'

Mr Lubbock told journalists in February that he had terminal cancer and said doctors had told him that he had months to live.

In April, he made a 'final appeal' for witnesses to come forward.

We would like old witnesses to come forward and tell the truth,' he had said.

'For me the clock is ticking, and time is running out. This will be my final appeal.'

Barrymore, now 69, was arrested in 2007 but never charged with any offence.

He subsequently sued Essex Police, claiming his wrongful arrest had cost him about 2.5 million in lost earnings, but Court of Appeal judges concluded he should receive nominal damages.

Barrymore's career imploded in the aftermath of the death, which happened after he and his then partner, Jonathan Kenney, spent the night out in Harlow.

They went home with a small group of people they met in a club including butcher Mr Lubbock, a divorced father of two.

Barrymore  who later apologised after fleeing before police arrived, saying that he had 'panicked'  has always denied any knowledge of what happened.
Surprise urban military drills in Riga have both angered and amused residents as soldiers fired blank rounds and staged training drills in the streets of the Latvian capital.

The city was turned into a simulated warzone at the weekend, with heavily armed soldiers firing weapons among startled civilians who appeared to have been given no warning of the drills.

Footage of the exercise did not show any markings or boundaries as civilians picked their way through groups of soldiers shooting rounds at one another, staging combat drills and carrying out building breaches as part of war games being conducted by NATO countries.

Though some civilians seemed to be amused and entertained by the drills, the Latvian government has faced criticism after residents said their children were terrified.

It comes as Russia stages huge war games and military raining exercises with Belarus, Armenia, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Mongolia in nine different locations.

Though many civilians seemed to be amused and entertained by the drills, the Latvian government has faced criticism after residents said their children were terrified

Following the outcry, the military gave a lacklustre apology, stating that it uses only blank cartridges for such events, and insisting that no harm was caused

Videos that surfaced on social media showed a soldier firing his weapon as a woman with her baby passed by, scaring the woman and causing the baby to cry with fear and shock

Videos that surfaced on social media showed a soldier firing his weapon as a woman with her baby passed by, scaring the woman and causing the baby to cry with fear and shock.

Other scenes showed multiple soldiers in the middle of a street, crouching behind cars and firing their weapons at a building.

While the exercise was not carried out with full force, the sight of military units firing weapons in the city's streets unsettled many residents and drew harsh criticism due to the absence of any official warnings or limitations to the drills.

Following the outcry, the military gave a lacklustre apology, stating that it uses only blank cartridges for such events, and insisting that no harm was caused.

'During such drills, we only use blank cartridges, which make noise but do not pose any danger to the health and life of others.

'In this case, blank cartridges were also used, and this situation was a bitter misunderstanding, for which we apologize.'

Meanwhile, Latvia's Defence Ministry appealed to the public for 'calm and understanding for the exercises' which it said were necessary and did not pose a threat to the city's residents, in a statement cited by the TVnet website.

The Defence Ministry added that two servicemen had been hospitalised as a result of injuries sustained in the training drills, which formed part of NATO's Namejs 2021 war games from August 30 to October 3.

The exercises involve approximately 9,300 soldiers from several NATO countries.

The exercises involve approximately 9,300 soldiers from several NATO countries

Latvia's Defence Ministry appealed to the public for 'calm and understanding for the exercises' which it said were necessary and did not pose a threat to the city's residents, in a statement cited by the TVnet website

Latvia's urban defence drills came just one day before Russian President Vladimir Putin oversaw huge military exercises in Kaliningrad on Monday

Latvia's urban defence drills came just one day before Russian President Vladimir Putin oversaw huge military exercises in Kaliningrad on Monday, including a beach invasion by the world's largest hovercraft.

Some 2,000 servicemen and more than 200 pieces of military equipment featured in the drill, as troops stormed ashore in a war game on the Russian border with the European Union.

Last week, Putin attended more large-scale military exercises which are being jointly held with Belarus, Armenia, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Mongolia at nine different ranges in Russia, including in the Baltic Sea, and five in Belarus in what has alerted the Ukrainian government. In Kaliningrad, footage showed the huge landing exercise involving the Baltic fleets and others on the Zubr-class LCAC, the world's largest hovercraft.

Intended to sealift assault units from vessels to shores, the Soviet-designed hovercraft can also transport and plant naval mines.

Russia, Belarus and others are staging huge military exercises, which included a beach invasion by the world's largest hovercraft (pictured)

In another video, Russian helicopter gunships were seen in action in the Zapad-2021 large-scale drills evolving 200,000 troops intended to highlight Russia's military readiness to the West - and neighbouring Ukraine

Tanks fire during the Zapad-2021 joint military drills at the Mulino army base in the Nizhny Novogorod region, some 350 kilometres east of Moscow

Russian President Vladimir Putin (right) was today overseeing huge military exercises at the Mulino range in the Nizhny Novgorod region

The drills are due to end on 16 September but Russia has announced that its forces will not all return to their military bases until mid-October, the defence ministry said, without providing an explanation for the delayed return.

The massive drills plus an announcement of closer ties between Russia and dictatorship Belarus have spooked Ukraine.

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba warned: 'The scenarios practiced there represent serious risks [to Ukraine].

'We understand that if Russia absorbs Belarus in one way or another, we will have 1,000 kilometres of additional danger to our sovereignty and territorial integrity.'

His predecessor Pavlo Klimkin warned that Russia was seeking to almost encircle Ukraine with forces, and called for a plea for help from NATO.

The exercises are on-going across a swathe of Russia from the Baltic to the borders of Ukraine, while separate drills are underway in the Arctic.

In exercises in the Arctic, Russian nuclear-powered submarine Oryol was shown firing a Granit anti-ship cruise missile in the Barents Sea, where waters were closed to non-naval vessels during the high-latitude war games.

Nine ranges in Russia, including in the Baltic Sea, and five in Belarus are hosting the joint military exercises which are worrying Ukraine
Tributes have poured in for an RAF Sergeant who died after a freak accident that saw her parachute 'fail to deploy' during a training exercise.

Sergeant Rachel Fisk, 32, died at RAF Weston-on-the-Green near Bicester in Oxfordshire earlier this month after her canopy reportedly failed to open on a training jump from 12,000ft.

Sources said there may have been issues with her Automatic Activation Device (AAD), which is supposed to ensure a parachute opens once the jumper reaches a low altitude.

Investigations, led by both the RAF and the British Parachuting Association, have been launched into the circumstances surrounding her death, as an inquest was opened today.

Ms Fisk's family and colleagues have paid warm tributes to her in the wake of her passing.

Her family said in a statement: 'It is with great sadness that we mourn the death of our dear daughter, Rachel.

'She lived her life with joy and thoughtfulness for others and loved the career she had chosen. Rachel will be missed by so many.'

Tributes have poured in for RAF Sergeant Rachel Fisk, 32, (pictured) who died after a freak accident that saw her parachute 'fail to deploy' during a training exercise

According to unconfirmed reports, Ms Fisk had jumped alongside tandem jumpers  a novice parachutist attached to an instructor  and may have been recording their descent with a camera.

The investigation will include examination of the instructor's equipment, which was recovered from the scene, and interviews with those who jumped with her.

Any recoverable footage from the camera will also prove crucial.

It is understood the tragedy occurred during an adventurous training assignment rather than a military exercise and the victim and others had jumped from a light aircraft at an altitude exceeding 12,000ft.

A source close to RAF Weston-on-the-Green said: 'Sometimes jumpers rely on an AAD to inform them when they have reached a pre-selected altitude to deploy their parachute.

'The investigation will seek to confirm whether or not the AAD was effective in this circumstance.'

Born in Nuneaton, Warwickshire in 1989, Rachel joined the RAF in 2011 as a training instructor.

She initially served at RAF Wittering and RAF Cranwell before being selected as a parachute instructor at RAF Brize Norton - the force's top training school.

In 2020, she then moved on to deliver Joint Service Adventurous Training at RAF Weston-on-the-Green.

RAF servicewoman Sgt Rachel Fisk died 'in a training accident' at RAF Weston-on-the-Green (pictured) after her parachute reportedly failed to open

The airfield is used by the RAF's top Parachute Training School

A spokesperson for the force said: 'Rachel was a selfless individual, who was eager to volunteer and reassure those around her.

'She naturally loved her career and not only worked with professionalism and diligence, but also fun and enthusiasm spurred by her passion for what she did

'Rachel was a valued member of the team she worked with and esteemed by those she trained.

'Not only was Rachel known for her infectious smile and bubbly personality, but she could also make a cracking cup of tea.

'She will be deeply missed by her RAF Colleagues, and following are some heartfelt tributes from those who had the pleasure of working with Rachel.'

Flight Lieutenant Nathan Ellis, commanding officer at the Joint Service Parachute Centre, said: 'Rachel brought life, enjoyment and fun to all - her love for the job was infectious and she created a bond with everyone she worked with. She was a natural and conscientious instructor and a role model for her students.'

Paying tribute, Sqn Ldr Helen Simpson added: 'Rachel never failed to impress with her skydiving ability and it was very clear she would go far - but it is her personality, her humour and her huge heart that will be sorely missed by all of us at Weston-on-the-Green.'
Tracy Grimshaw has made an impassioned plea for over 60s who refuse to get the AstraZeneca vaccine to roll up their sleeves before it's too late.

Freedom to choose which Covid-19 vaccination you want to receive has been a hot-button political topic Down Under, with older Australians in Queensland, South Australia, Northern Territory and Western Australia now given access to the Pfizer jab previously only available to younger people.

But with both vaccines proven to be equally effective, the A Current Affair host sent out a power message to those still holding out for an alternate mRNA dose.

'For the record I'm 61 and I've had AstraZeneca and my heart breaks everyday when I hear the death toll among unvaccinated seniors who've had access to a vaccine for months,' she said.

She asked two of the nation's leading doctors whether AstraZeneca-wary over 60s are 'entitled and spoilt' and if they should just 'suck it up' and get what they're given.

Freedom to choose which Covid-19 vaccination you wish to receive has been a hot-button political topic in Australia with older Australians in Queensland, South Australia, Northern Territory and Western Australia now given access to the Pfizer jab. Pictured: A woman receives the AstraZeneca jab in Perth

'DON'T DIE WAITING FOR PFIZER' -TOP DOCTOR REVEALS AZ JAB MAY BE MORE EFFECTIVE AstraZeneca's has actually proven to be more effective at keeping people out of hospital and preventing deaths from Covid than other vaccines, a Columbia University study found. Just 1.52 per cent of people who got two doses of the Oxford-made jab were admitted to wards after they caught the virus, researchers said. And only 0.03 per cent, or one in 3,000, then died from the disease. But among those who got the Pfizer vaccine 1.99 per cent were hospitalised and 0.15 per cent died after they were infected with the virus. 'It's a bit like the captain of the plane is saying that you're about to crash into the sea and people are currently arguing about which brand of life vest they want to put on,' the Australian Medical Association's Dr Chris Moy said. 'Covid is coming to your door and when it's there you don't want to be naked without a vaccine, so do not die waiting for Pfizer.' Advertisement

Poll Are those who refuse to get AstraZeneca spoilt? Yes No Are those who refuse to get AstraZeneca spoilt? Yes 176 votes

No 136 votes Now share your opinion





'Are AstraZeneca-hesitant over 60s being spoilt and entitled?' Grimshaw asked.

'Should over 60s suck it up and just get the vaccine that's available to them?'

Former Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Nick Coatsworth, who is in favour of the age group being restricted from mRNA vaccines like Pfizer and Moderna due to their limited supply, said he 'doesn't think so'.

But he added: 'Over 60s have been able to get a vaccine for a long time so it's a choice not to get a vaccine, it's not an access issue.'

'Young people have been last in just about every decision in this pandemic.

'They weren't included at the start of the vaccine rollout, they've lost jobs, now they're at home under restrictions and we have an opportunity to vaccinate them with mRNA vaccines.'

Former Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Nick Coatsworth (right) believes older Australians should be restricted to AstraZeneca while infectious disease expert Professor Paul Griffin (left) says everyone should have a choice

Tracy Grimshaw asked two of the nation's leading doctors whether older Australians who refuse to get the AstraZeneca jab are 'entitled and spoilt'

What are the chances of dying from a blood clot after AstraZeneca? One in 1.9 million people have died from a blood clot after AstraZeneca. By comparison, Aussies have a one in 33 chance of dying if they catch Covid-19, a one in 12,000 chance of being struck by lightning and a one in 55 chance of winning the Oz Lotto. Advertisement

But infectious disease expert Professor Paul Griffin says older Australians should be given a choice.

'I don't want to detract from AstraZeneca and how safe and effective it is but there are clearly people who have been a little bit reluctant to receive that vaccine,' he said.

'And if this change (seen by other states) allows more people to get vaccinated then I certainly welcome it.'

Vulnerable over 60s were among the first Down Under to be given access to the British-made jab, but some cohorts of older Australians have refused to roll up their sleeves over fears of extremely rare blood clots.

Although the condition TTS can be an unlikely side effect of the AstraZeneca dose, it's far less common in over 60s and only proves fatal in about one in 1.9 million cases.

In comparison, about two per cent of all Covid cases across the world prove fatal with older patients at much greater risk.

Pat Farry (pictured with wife Dianne) who is aged over 60 told the program: 'We need to have what we want to have. We live in a free society'

Australians under 40 were among the last group in Australia to have access to vaccines as limited supplies of Pfizer started to trickle in during the past few months.

What are the chances of getting a blood clot? Number of people who get blood clots after AstraZeneca per 100,000 people: <50 years - 3.1 people 50-59 years - 2.7 60-69 years - 1.4 70-79 years - 1.8 80+ years - 1.9 The overall case fatality rate in Australia is 3 per cent Source: Atagi Advertisement

The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation made the drastic decision to restrict AstraZeneca to over 50s after the death of a 48-year-old woman due to complications from blood clots - which were also observed in parts of Europe.

That advice was then ratcheted up to over 60s with younger people forced to wait months for any protection from the virus.

This was then scrapped when Sydney's outbreak began in June, with Australians of all ages encouraged to consider the AstraZeneca jab.

Pat Farry, who is aged over 60, told the program: 'We need to have what we want to have. We live in a free society.'

His wife Dianne said she feels 'discriminated' against because she's over 59.

'I was diagnosed with some superficial blood clots in my legs and then in March, I was diagnosed with breast cancer,' she said.

The rare blood clotting disorder associated with AstraZeneca has been shown to have no connections or relevance to a person's history of blood clots, meaning they would be no more at risk.

Even if someone does get one of the clots, it is incredibly survivable and increasingly easy to treat.

The message from the Australian Medical Association, and from the federal government is 'do not wait'. Pictured: A woman receives the AstraZeneca dose in Melbourne

But Peter Jackson, 78, has the same view and also plans to hold out for the Pfizer jab.

'I don't want to take the risk with the AstraZeneca one, and the choice has been taken away from me.'

But the message from the Australian Medical Association, and from the federal government is 'do not wait'.

AstraZeneca's has actually proven to be more effective at keeping people out of hospital and preventing deaths from Covid than other vaccines, a Columbia University study found.

Just 1.52 per cent of people who got two doses of the Oxford-made jab were admitted to wards after they caught the virus, researchers said. And only 0.03 per cent, or one in 3,000, died from the disease.

But among those who got the Pfizer vaccine 1.99 per cent were hospitalised and 0.15 per cent died after they were infected with the virus.

'It's a bit like the captain of the plane is saying that you're about to crash into the sea and people are currently arguing about which brand of life vest they want to put on,' the AMA's Dr Chris Moy said.

'Covid is coming to your door and when it's there you don't want to be naked without a vaccine, so do not die waiting for Pfizer.'
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The Taliban has descended into bitter in-fighting with so-called 'moderates' thought to be at war with terrorist hardliners as both vie for power in the vacuum left by America's retreat from Afghanistan.

Mullah Baradar, a member of the Taliban old-guard who led negotiations with the Americans in Qatar, is thought to have been involved in a fight with Khalil Haqqani, a leader in the terrorist Haqqani Network and one of the FBI's most-wanted, in Kabul's presidential palace as the pair argued over who had done more to drive US forces out.

Haqqani - who is the country's new refugee minister - appears to have emerged the victor, with Baradar - the new deputy prime minister - now in hiding, with the Taliban forced to deny rumours that he was shot dead in the fight.

Haibatullah Akhundzada, the Taliban's supreme leader, a close ally of Baradar, and Emir of the new government, is also missing - with the Islamists insisting the pair are in Kandahar, though without providing convincing evidence.

The fighting is threatening to split the Taliban's fledgling government between Baradar, Akhundzada and their allies - including the likes of Abdul Salam Hanafi and Mohammad Yaqoob - on one side, and the fearsome Haqqanis - including Khalil and his nephews Sirajuddin and Anas - on the other.

Up for grabs is a pot of $1.2billion in foreign aid which the UN has pledged to Afghanistan - $64million of it from the US - as well as a share of power in the new administration.

But the conflicts are also threatening to derail the fragile government even as the country's economy teeters on the brink of economic collapse with millions facing starvation and many of the Taliban's assets held or frozen by the West.

. Should the new administration collapse completely it could even plunge the country into civil war - creating a haven for terror groups to operate in.

Mullah Baradar, the Taliban's deputy leader and Afghanistan's deputy PM, is currently missing after reports of a punch-up with Khalil Haqqani, a leader in the fearsome Haqqani network that is vying for power in the new Afghan government with Baradar's more-moderate allies

Afghanistan's power-players: Who's who now the US has withdrawn? Taliban Formed during the Afghan civil war of the 1990s, the Taliban are a religious, political and military group made up of ethnic Pashtuns whose aim is to establish an Islamic nation that adheres to their strict interpretation of Sharia law. Originally trained by the CIA to fight the Soviets, the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in 1996 when they seized the capital Kabul. They were then ousted in 2001 in the US invasion in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks. After two decades of guerilla warfare against the US, the Taliban rapidly recaptured Afghanistan as US forces withdrew this year and now control more territory than at the start of the conflict. Haqqani Network Dating back to the 1970s, the Haqqani Network was founded by Jalaluddin Haqqani in order to fight the Soviets and received extensive training from the CIA. The group continued to be a major force within Afghanistan after the Soviets departed, pledging allegiance to the Taliban in 1995 and forming part of their first government. After the Taliban were deposed by the US, the Haqqani Network turned to terror attacks - leveraging connections with Al Qaeda and ISIS to carry out some of the biggest, deadliest and most-sophisticated attacks during the US war. The US designated the Haqqani Network a terror group in 2012 and placed two of its senior leaders - Sirajuddin and Khalil Haqqai - on the FBI's most-wanted list. Sirajuddin has led the group since his father's death in 2018, and is now Afghanistan's interior minister Al Qaeda Another child of the Soviet-Afghan war, the terror group was founded in 1988 by Osama bin Laden with the aim of ending all western influence in Muslim countries and establishing Islamic states based on strict Sharia law. Jihadists trained and equipped by Al Qaeda have been responsible for some of the biggest and deadliest terror attacks of the last two decades, including the September 11 attacks. Al Qaeda's presence in Afghanistan and close ties to the Taliban led to the US invasion in 2001, prompting Bin Laden to flee into northern Pakistan - where he was killed by American special forces in 2011. Senior Al Qaeda figures have been seen heading back into Afghanistan following the Taliban's take-over of the country, but its overall presence there is largely unknown and so-far it appears to have no role within the government. ISIS-K The most-extreme of all terror groups operating in Afghanistan, ISIS-K was established in 2015 as a splinter group of ISIS while it was at the height of its powers in Iraq and Syria. ISIS-K has been blamed for some of the worst atrocities in Afghanistan in recent years, including attacks on schools, hospitals and a maternity ward - during which pregnant women and newborn babies were killed. Ideologically opposed to Al Qaeda, ISIS-K do have links to the Taliban via the Haqqani Network, and have collaborated with them to carry out attacks. ISIS- K draws its members from Taliban ranks by picking off fighters who believe the group is not extreme enough, though its current strength is largely unknown. It was behind the suicide bomb attack on Kabul airport last month that killed 170 including 13 US Marines. Advertisement

Rumours of in-fighting between the two factions emerged when the Taliban announced its new government, with Baradar passed over for the prime minister's job in favour of Hassan Akhund - a less-prominent figure who served as deputy PM during the first Taliban government in the 1990s.

That led to speculation that Baradar was demoted to appease the Haqqanis, who took a larger-than-expected role in the Cabinet - with Sirajuddin appointed Interior Minister.

Those rumours seemed to be confirmed on Tuesday when senior Taliban sources told the BBC that Baradar's fight with Khalil Haqqani had been partly about the structure of the new government.

The fight had also been over who should take credit for the US retreat, with Baradar arguing that his diplomatic team in Doha should get the credit while Kahlil arguing his network of fighters did the heavy lifting.

'Baradar and Khalil... exchanged strong words as their followers brawled with each other nearby,' the source said.

Unsubstantiated reports of Baradar's death then began to circulate including claims that the palace fight had ended in a gun battle in which he died, with the Taiban strongly denying that anything untoward had happened.

However, the Islamists have so-far failed to produce convincing evidence of Baradar's whereabouts and safety.

The first 'proof' was nothing more than a handwritten note, signed by one of Baradar's deputies Mawlawi Musa Kaleem, insisting there had had been no gun battle and that the leader is in Kandahar.

Taliban spokesman Mohammad Naeem then released the audio recording on Monday in which a man purporting to be Baradar accused 'media propagandists' of spreading false rumours about him

'There had been news in the media about my death,' Baradar said in the clip.

'Over the past few nights I have been away on trips. Wherever I am at the moment, we are all fine, all my brothers and friends.

'Media always publish fake propaganda. Therefore, reject bravely all those lies, and I 100 percent confirm to you there is no issue and we have no problem.'

Muhammad Suhail Shaheen, one of the group's most-senior spokesmen who is based in Kabul, also rubbished the rumours.

'Reports about Mullah Baradar Akhund being injured or killed are baseless and are not true, I categorically refute them,' he said.

The Taliban has so-far given no reason as to why Baradar has not appeared in-person to deny rumours of his death. Akhundzada is notoriously camera-shy and has never appeared in public.

Further fuelling the speculation is the fact that the Islamists previously managed to conceal the death of their supreme leader Mullah Omar before it was uncovered by Afghan intelligence in 2015.

The Taliban subsequently confirmed that Omar had died in 2013, though to be from tuberculosis.

Taliban in-fighting is deeply unwelcome as Afghanistan faces severe food and cash shortages, with its economy near collapse after international aid dried up.

The UN warned today that 4million Afghans are facing 'a food emergency' with $36million urgently needed to ensure the planting of winter wheat and feed for livestock, along with cash assistance for vulnerable families, the elderly and the disabled.

Rein Paulsen, director of the Food and Agriculture Organization's Office of Emergencies and Resilience, told reporters at U.N. headquarters in a video briefing from Kabul that 70 per cent of Afghans live in rural areas and there is a severe drought affecting 7.3million Afghans in 25 of the country's 34 provinces.

These vulnerable rural communities have also been hit by the Covid pandemic, he said.

Paulsen said 4million Afghans are facing a humanitarian emergency, characterized by 'extreme gaps in food consumption, very high levels of acute malnutrition and excess mortality.'

Rumours that Baradar had been killed began circulating when he was absent from a high-level meeting between the Taliban and Qatar at the weekend (pictured), though the Islamists insist he is alive and well

The fighting reportedly took place at Kabul's presidential palace, where just weeks ago gun-toting Taliban fighters had promised to restore peace and prosperity (pictured)

He said agriculture is 'indispensable' to the Afghan population - accounting for just over 25 per cent of the country's GDP, directly employing some 45 per cent of the work force, 'and most importantly it provides livelihood benefits for fully 80 per cent of the Afghan population.'

Many vulnerable families rely on livestock for food, he said, but 3 million animals are at risk as a result of the drought leaving inadequate pasture.

Paulsen said the winter wheat planting season - the most important in Afghanistan - is threatened by 'challenges of the cash and banking system' as well as challenges to markets and agricultural items.

Since the Taliban takeover on Aug. 15, fears have grown that Afghanistan could face economic collapse. Many banks have been closed, those that are open have limited cash withdrawals, and prices for staples have increased.

'More than half of Afghans' daily calorific intake comes from wheat,' Paulsen said. 'The crop is simply indispensable in food security terms' and farmers must start to plant now.

'FAO has resources in place to support an extra 1.25 million Afghans but much more is needed,' he said. 'The seeds can't wait, the farmers can't wait. This window is requiring an urgent scale and support for donors now.'

He said the FAO's package of wheat, fertilizer and support for a single farmer costs $150.

'For $150 a family of seven Afghans will produce 1.2 million tons of wheat - they'll produce enough wheat to give them cereal and flour for an entire 12-month period,' Paulsen said. That $150 is 'incredibly impactful, very cost effective - and again, (it) underscores why it's imperative that we don't miss this winter wheat season,' he added.

He also said more than 400,000 Afghans are displaced from their homes, mainly from rural areas, 'and those numbers are rising.' He said keeping farmers in their fields and herders with their flocks is critical to preventing a deepening displacement crisis.

If agriculture collapses further, Paulson warned, it will drive up malnutrition, increase displacement and worsen the humanitarian situation.

FAO in 2021 has supported nearly 2 million Afghans with livelihood and cash assistance, Paulsen said.

He said the $36 million that the FAO needs urgently for the winter farming season was part of the U.N.'s emergency appeal for $606 million. At a conference in Geneva on Monday, donors pledged $1.2 billion - double the amount sought, which Paulsen called encouraging.

FAO hopes the pledges will fully fund the $36 million needed, but Paulsen noted that they are only promises for now and donors need to quickly provide the cash.
Two primary school children were rushed to hospital after accidentally eating 'sweets' laced with cannabis known as edibles.

The youngsters, aged nine and eight, found the unopened packet in Fernhill in Rutherglen, and thought they were the popular sweets brand, Nerds.

However, they were actually psychoactive candy, which contained 600mg of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) - roughly equivalent to smoking 50 cannabis joints.

Packaging on the sweets is designed to resemble products from the American candy maker Ferrara and their Nerds sweets brand.

The mother-of-one of the children has spoken out about the incident to warn other parents in the area.

She said: 'My son was out playing with his friend and there was an unopened packet of what they thought was Nerds sweets just left at a wall there.

'I've always told him not to pick things up, but you know what kids are like with sweets.

A mother has spoken out after her child and his friend became ill when they ate cannabis laced sweets. Pictured: The 'edibles' which contain cannabis and looked like the image on the left are made to look like real children's sweets (right) but actually contain a super potent level of THC

'He and his friend ate them while out playing.

'When they came back to the house me and his friend's mum realised there was something wrong.

'Both of them looked stunned, their eyes were large and they were laughing at everything.

'I said to my friend that it was like they were high, but I never thought they actually were.

'We had to take them to hospital as they were getting worse. That was when he mentioned they'd found this candy.

'One of the nurses we spoke to said this wasn't the first case like that they've had recently.

'His friend had it worse then he did, she was screaming out in the hospital and was in a bad way.

'My son is still a bit confused about it, and he's not wanting to eat any sweets or anything like that as he's worried it'll happen again.

The two primary school children were taken to University Hospital Hairmyres (pictured) after ingesting the drug and one had to be kept in for treatment after suffering a bad reaction

'I'm still in complete shock that this has happened because it's not something I'd heard of before, where they're designed to look like normal kid's sweets. I just want people to be aware things like this can be found out there.'

One of the children had to remain in hospital overnight after suffering a bad reaction.

A number of similar instances have been reported across the country in recent months, with children believing the brightly coloured packets are sweets that can be bought in a regular shop.

Sarah Kittel, vice-president of corporate affairs at Ferrara, the company that make Nerds sweets, said: 'Companies that infuse our Nerds products with tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and then sell that product in packaging that is nearly identical to our own infringes our trademark and creates a genuine consumer safety risk.

'These products imitate a trusted brand, making it difficult to distinguish between illegitimate, THC-infused product and legitimate candy.

'Ferrara, the maker of Nerds products, is in no way associated with these deceptive products, and want to reassure consumers that Nerds products found at major retailers are safe to consume.

It comes just a week after police in West Yorkshire said three children, including an eight-year-old boy, had been left needing hospital treatment after ingesting cannabis sweets (pictured)

'We continue to pursue various means to limit - and eliminate - these products, including cooperating with law enforcement agencies, investigating dispensaries and other retail outlets selling these infringing products, and pursuing legal action, where and when necessary, to protect consumers.'

Dr James Saldanha, chief of medical services at University Hospital Hairmyres, said: 'If you or a family member has a life-threatening emergency, you should call 999.

'If you think you need to attend A&E but it's not life-threatening, call NHS 24 on 111 day or night, where you will be directed to the right NHS service.'

It comes just a week after three children were left needing hospital treatment after two separate incidents in Bradford after consuming the super-potent cannabis sweets.

West Yorkshire Police said there were 'genuine concerns' that one child, an eight-year-old boy, would not survive but all three have since recovered from their illness.
A husband who fled Britain after his wife was strangled to death 20 years ago appeared in court today charged with her murder.

Zafar Iqbal (pictured above), 61, was extradited to the UK after he was accused of killing mother-of-four Naziat Khan in Streatham, south London, two decades ago

Zafar Iqbal, 61, is accused of killing mother-of-four Naziat Khan, 38, at the family home in Streatham, south London, more than 20 years ago.

Iqbal was extradited from Pakistan earlier this week following a lengthy legal battle.

It is one of the first times a defendant accused of committing crimes in the UK has been extradited from Pakistan following renewed communication between the two countries.

Iqbal, of no fixed address, appeared at Croydon Magistrates Court via video link from Heathrow Police Station wearing a suit, tie and a medical face mask.

Chair of the Magistrates Edward Gold remanded Iqbal in custody before a hearing at the Old Bailey later this week.

He told Iqbal: 'You are being sent for trial at the Central Criminal Court for the offence of murder.

'You will attend there this coming Friday where you will have the opportunity to make the application for bail.

'Then you will attend again on October 13 for a plea and trial preparation hearing. Until September 17, you will be remanded in custody.'

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said Ms Khan's family have been informed of Iqbal's arrest and are being supported by specialist officers (Ms Khan pictured)

Iqbal spoke through an interpreter to confirm his name, age, and to ask a question after the magistrate had finished his ruling.

He asked: 'Does that mean I will be sent to prison now?'

The case has moved forward as Pakistan and the UK, which have never had an extradition treaty, decided on new agreements to tackle international fugitives in June this year.

Pakistan's Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed and UK's Minister of State for South Asia and the Commonwealth Lord Tariq Ahmad, agreed to 'strengthen coordination' and 'to improve the ability of the law enforcement and criminal justice systems in both the countries'.

The two ministers 'stressed to work together and support each other in their joint efforts in tackling transnational crimes', an official statement said.

Iqbal appeared at Croydon Magistrates Court, above, via video link wearing a suit, tie and a medical face mask

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: 'A man who was extradited from Pakistan has been charged in connection with the murder of Naziat Khan in Streatham in August 2001.

'Zafar Iqbal, 61, was extradited from Pakistan on Tuesday. After arriving in the UK he was taken to a west London police station where he was later charged with murder.

'Naziat's family have been kept informed of developments throughout and continue to be supported by specialist officers.'

He added: 'The extradition was the result of collaborative work between the Met, the Crown Prosecution Service, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and the National Crime Agency.'
A date has been set for the trial of a man accused of distributing racist and anti-Semitic podcasts.

James Allchurch, 49, also known as Sven Longshanks, appeared at Swansea Crown Court on Wednesday morning.

He denied 15 charges of distributing a sound recording stirring up racial hatred from May 17, 2019 until March 18, 2021.

Allchurch spoke only to confirm his name and reply 'not guilty' as each charge was read out.

James Allchurch (pictured), 49, also known as Sven Longshanks, appeared at Swansea Crown Court on Wednesday morning

A previous hearing at Haverfordwest Magistrates' Court was told that the case related to a website entitled Radio Aryan. Pictured, Allchurch

Judge Paul Thomas told him: 'Your trial will be on June 27 but there will be a further hearing either in March or April.'

The defendant, of no fixed address but originally from Pembrokeshire, was released on unconditional bail.

Harpreet Sandhu appeared for the prosecution during the hearing, while Laura Miller represented Allchurch.
Millions of Australians have been left with no phone or internet service after a massive telecom failure brought down services including Telstra, iiNet and TPG on Wednesday night.

Optus and Internode were also showing escalating issues on the downdetector.com.au website.

Sydney suburbs including Mascot, Ultimo, Hornsby, Gladesville, Rouse Hill and Baulkham Hills are said to have been among the worst affected.

Furious users took to social media to complain about the unexpected outage.

'If only you fixed issues as quickly as you respond to social outrage,' said one.

Millions of Australians have been left with no phone or internet service after a massive telecom failure brought down services including Telstra, iiNet and TPG on Wednesday night (Pictured a stock image of a woman on her laptop)

The problems with iiNet internet began around 7.20pm and quickly escalated before peaking shortly before 9pm when reports began to ease

Melbourne mobile phone users were also reported to be having issues.

'Hey @Telstra, Im located in south Melbourne 3205 and am barely running in 3G atm whats the deal,' tweeted one user.

The problems with iiNet internet began around 7.20pm and quickly escalated before peaking shortly before 9pm when reports began to ease.

Melbourne was hit hard by the iiNet problems, but reports were also coming in of issues in Adelaide, Canberra and parts of New South Wales including Sydney.

Adelaide and Tasmania were harder hit by the TPG outage which started earlier in the evening around 6.40pm, with services gradually coming back online after 9pm.

Adelaide and Tasmania were harder hit by the TPG outage which started earlier in the evening around 6.40pm, with services gradually coming back online after 9pm

Most of the online issues appeared to be NBN-related with hundreds of reported outages on the high speed internet backbone.

Some users reported they were having DNS issues on their internet connection, which was overcome by switching their ISP DNS servers to Google's DNS servers in their network settings.

DNS servers act as the traffic managers of the internet and direct online traffic from homes to websites in the most efficient method.

They are vital to the smooth running of the internet and usually have back up servers in case of failure. However the back ups also appear to be failing with the ISPs suffering the outages.

Customer service lines were flooded by users looking for support, with waiting times in the call queue said to be more than an hour.

'Our IT and network teams are working hard to resolve an issue which is impacting some TPG, iiNet and Internode fixed services,' said a TPG spokesman.

'Some customers may be experiencing issues while trying to browse the internet. We are sorry for the impact this is having on customers.'
Sajid Javid today said Tory MPs do not need to wear face masks in the packed House of Commons because they are not 'strangers'.

The Health Secretary also defended Cabinet ministers for failing to wear face coverings at a meeting yesterday morning.

He said the meeting, which saw ministers sit shoulder to shoulder around the traditional Cabinet table, was 'perfectly consistent' with the Government's guidance on masks.

Mr Javid said people 'should consider wearing masks in crowded places when they are with strangers, when they are with people that they are not normally spending time with'.

Opposition MPs have accused Tory MPs of being 'cavalier' with the health of other parliamentarians after many stopped wearing masks in the Commons.

Sajid Javid today said Tory MPs do not need to wear face masks in the packed House of Commons because they are not 'strangers'.

Mr Javid said people 'should consider wearing masks in crowded places when they are with strangers, when they are with people that they are not normally spending time with'. PMQs is pictured this lunchtime

While most Tory MPs chose not to wear face masks, most of the Opposition did wear coverings

The Health Secretary also defended Cabinet ministers for failing to wear face coverings at a meeting yesterday morning

Photographs of yesterday's Cabinet meeting suggested that not a single minister wore a mask.

Asked on Sky News about the meeting, Mr Javid said: 'That is perfectly consistent with what the Prime Minister said yesterday and what I said yesterday because what we said is that people should consider wearing masks in crowded places when they are with strangers, when they are with people that they are not normally spending time with.'

Asked whether Tory MPs should wear face coverings in the Commons, Mr Javid replied: 'They are not strangers.

'Conservative backbenchers, whether they are in Parliament, in the chamber itself or in other meeting rooms  you have to take measures that are appropriate for the prevalence of Covid at the time.'

Asked whether people cannot catch coronavirus from their friends, the Health Secretary replied: 'You have to take measures that are appropriate for the prevalence of Covid at the time and with the measures that we have taken with vaccines, with testing, with surveillance, sensible use of masks when required, as we have suggested yesterday which has been perfectly consistent by the way with what we said at the time we entered step four.'

Since Parliament resumed full sittings there has been a stark difference between the number of MPs wearing masks on the Opposition benches and on the Conservative side of the House.

During his Commons statement on Tuesday, Mr Javid was heckled by Opposition MPs pointing out his unmasked colleagues as he suggested people should wear a face covering in 'crowded, enclosed spaces where you can come into contact with people that you don't normally meet'.

Boris Johnson's former aide Dominic Cummings branded the Health Secretary 'trainwreck Saj' for suggesting that 'MPs dont (sic) need masks cos 'theyre (sic) not strangers''.

In July, Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle pleaded with MPs to continue wearing face coverings and 'not push the limits for the sake of it'.

Mr Johnson yesterday unveiled his Winter Plan which sets out how the Government intends to 'manage' coronavirus this autumn and winter.

It contains suggestions on how people can adjust their behaviour to reduce the spread of the disease.

Only a small minority of Conservative MPs including former PM Theresa May wore masks at PMQs last week

The document states that 'it remains important for everyone, including those who are fully vaccinated, to follow behaviours and actions that reduce transmission and help to keep people safe'.

Under a list of 'behaviours encouraged to prevent the spread', it states: 'Wear a face covering in crowded and enclosed settings where you come into contact with people you do not normally meet.'

Mr Johnson told a press conference yesterday afternoon that the UK's vaccination rollout means 'we have one of the most free societies and one of the most open economies in Europe'.

He said: 'And that's why we are now sticking with our strategy.

'In essence we're going to keep going. We will continue to offer testing. We will continue to urge everyone to be sensible, to be responsible, wash your hands, use ventilation, consider wearing a face covering in crowded places with people that you don't know, stay at home if you feel unwell, download and use the app.'
Hollywood stars including Elijah Wood have praised an Italian Lord of the Rings fanatic who now lives as a hobbit and is turning his land into a Middle Earth 'Shire'.

Wood was yesterday joined by actors Sean Aston and Billy Boyd who played hobbits in the trilogy praising Nicolas Gentile, 37, in videos posted to his Instagram page 'My Hobbit Life'.

The actors appealed for funding for the ambitious fantasy project, which Wood described 'a perfect replica of Bag End' and Samwise Gamgee actor Aston branded 'amazing' and 'incredible'.

Gentile, a pastry chef, is planning to turn five acres of land in Bucchianico in central Italy into a hobbit village called Gentile County - it cannot be named The Shire because of a copyright issue.

He already lives on the plot in a hobbit house he built from scratch modelled on descriptions of Bag End burrows in JRR Tolkien's books after he purchased the land in 2018.

Hollywood stars including Elijah Wood have praised Italian Lord of the Rings fanatic Nicolas Gentile (pictured) who now lives as a hobbit and is turning his land into a Middle Earth 'Shire'

Nicolas Gentile, a pastry chef, is planning to turn five acres of land in Bucchianico in central Italy into a hobbit village called Contea Gentile - it cannot be named The Shire because of a copyright issue

Nicolas Gentile was praised by Frodo actor Elijah Wood, who described his hobbit house as 'a perfect replica of Bag End'

Elijah Wood was joined by actors Sean Aston (left) and Billy Boyd (right) who played hobbits in the trilogy praising Gentile, 37, in videos posted to his Instagram page 'My Hobbit Life'

Gentile now hopes to build an entire hobbit village on the plot boasting environmentally friendly hobbit houses with solar power and an adjoining farmhouse, Gentile told the Guardian earlier this month.

He hopes to cover an estimated $1.78 million construction cost by crowdfunding.

Wood and his fellow hobbit actors have thrown their support behind the project, which Gentile says he does not want to become a tourist attraction, in a series of heartfelt messages.

'Hi Elijah Wood here', the actor says in the footage. 'I hope this finds you happy, healthy and well... I went to your Instagram page and it is incredible what you're doing.

'I love all of the costumes and the individual set photos that you've done in front of fires and smoking pipes. It's so beautiful but also the design, the re-design, a perfect replica of Bag End. How did you do that?

'Looking at the 3D mock-ups it is absolutely perfect, from what I remember Bag End to be. So, well done. I can't wait to watch your progress, I will follow you on Instagram.

'That is so, so amazing and if I'm ever in your neck of the woods, in your Shire, I would love to visit. Lots of love, be well Nicolas.'

Gentile came up with the plan to build his own Shire and live like a hobbit after realising reading and watching the Lord of the Rings no longer satisfied his passion for the trilogy.

Prompted after noticing the Abruzzo region where he lived resembled the Shire with rolling hills, rivers and greenery, Gentile made drastic changes, spending most of his life savings on the five acre plot of land.

He now dresses like a hobbit, smokes pipes, and hosts parties akin to those described in Bag End.

The Italian pastry chef documents his new way of life on his Instagram page, posting videos and images of what hobbits do each day.

Gentile came up with the plan to build his own Shire and live like a hobbit after realising reading and watching the Lord of the Rings no longer satisfied his passion for the trilogy

Gentile lives as a hobbit and is regularly joined by his friends who are also fans of the Lord of the Rings trilogy

Gentile dresses like a hobbit from Tolkien's books, smokes pipes, and hosts parties akin to those described in Bag End, according to pictures on his Instagram

Aston said: 'Nicolas, what an amazing thing you are doing. You're making it, the real Shire in Italia, it's incredible. Congratulations and good luck!'

Aston said: 'Nicolas, what an amazing thing you are doing. You're making it, the real Shire in Italia, it's incredible. Congratulations and good luck!'

Peregrine Took actor Billy Boyd appeared in the video, telling Gentile it was 'wonderful' he wanted to build his own Shire in Italy and imploring viewers to donate.

'I hear that's a lot of building going on in Italy so, some good stuff, there's already good stuff in Italy, some beautiful buildings, but here Nicolas is working hard... So if you can help in any way, please do,

'Lots of love to everyone in Italy from me, Peregrine Took, Peppino, and I hope it all goes well for your Nicolas. All the best from Middle Earth.'

In August, Gentile and eight others walked more than 200km dressed as hobbits from Chieti to Naples with a replica ring so he could throw it into Vesuvius in an imitated re-enactment of trilogy's plot.

But the pastry chef told the Guardian he did not actually throw the ring into the volcano for environmental reasons, symbolically tossing a piece of solidified lava and gifting the ring to a local boy instead.

He undertook the journey with eight fellow fanatics he met through an Instagram contest.

In August, Gentile and his friends walked 200km dressed as hobbits from Chieti to Naples with a replica ring so he could throw it into Vesuvius in an imitated re-enactment of trilogy's plot

Gentile pictured outside the environmentally friendly hobbit house he built and where he and his wife live in Bucchianico, Italy
Dr Levy urged on The Project that people should get jabbed for their own health

She also said she has 'no tolerance' for anti-vaxxers in the healthcare sector

A frustrated Sydney doctor has revealed the terrifying reality of Covid-19 while urging Australians that 'going to the pub' isn't the reason they should get jabbed.

Dr Miriam Levy, Chair of the medical staff council at Liverpool Hospital, claimed Australia's focus on vaccination to bring residents out of lockdowns was 'misguided'.

She said the focus of vaccinations should be to stop people becoming seriously ill, and showed a terrifying picture of lungs clouded up by the virus.

'Vaccination is about preventing us dying,' Dr Levy told Carrie Bickmore on The Project on Wednesday.

Dr Levy explained to The Project the lungs of a Covid-19 patient (pictured) were similar to those of a 'drowning person'

Dr Levy, who works at a Sydney hospital hit hardest by Covid-19, pleaded with Australians who are still hesitant to get the jab to consider it purely for their health.

Showing a set of X-ray images of the lungs of a healthy person and the other from a Covid patient, the doctor explained the alarming difference between the two.

'A chest X-ray in Covid is a drowning person,' she said.

'What you can see, all those blotches, are pus and fluid pouring into the lungs. That is what drowning is like, and that's why people are gasping for breath.

'So the pneumonia of Covid can be absolutely catastrophic.'

Dr Levy then stressed people should get jabbed, not to get out of lockdown, but out of concern for health implications 'because the illness is terrible'.

She also said people should be worried about the long-term effects of the virus such as long Covid, where symptoms last for months after the initial infection leaves the body - leaving some with permanent changes to their brains.

Covid-19, the disease caused by the new strain of coronavirus, can infect all of the body's vital organs.

Dr Miriam Levy (pictured) said people should get vaccinated for their own health, not just 'to go to the pub'

'Our wards are being turned over to become Covid wards to manage the numbers of people with Covid pneumonia. Its a serious business. And its hard to understand why people wouldnt get vaccinated for their own health, not just to go to the pub,' she said.

The doctor also slammed health staff who still refuse to get jabbed saying she has 'zero tolerance' for anti-vaxxers in healthcare when 'the evidence is clear for vaccination'.

'I dont understand how you can turn up for work and believe all the evidence, support all the work, except vaccines. Its not acceptable to me,' she added.

Millions of locked down Sydneysiders could be freed from lockdown a week earlier than planned if surging vaccination rates continue to climb.

A new 'freedom day' could be reached by October 11 as vaccination rates climb in NSW

Freedom Day is expected to be on October 18, once 70 per cent of the NSW population are due to have received both doses of the jab.

The government is now reportedly considering opening up a week earlier on October 11 with single-dose vaccination rates already at 80 per cent - indicating the state could reach the target sooner than expected.

Once this goal is achieved residents who have been confined to their homes for the last 13 weeks will finally be able to dine out, visit friends and family, travel regionally and attend retail and beauty venues.

Residents will need to prove they're fully-vaccinated either by a digital certificate on their smartphones or a paper copy confirming they've had both doses.

Just over 48 per cent of adults in NSW have so far received both doses of the jab while 80 per cent have received one dose.
A suspended GP has admitted to being three times over the drink-drive limit after she had dropped her son off at nursery.

Dr Rachael Bartrum, 40, who works at Duke Street Surgery, Barrow-in-Furness, left nursery staff so concerned in June they called Cumbria Police after smelling alcohol on her breath.

The court heard she was found to have had 105 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood - over three times the legal limit of 35.

In March, Dr Bartrum was placed under interim sanctions by the General Medical Council following another drink-driving incident in 2019.

Appearing via video link at South Cumbria Magistrates' Court, she has again pleaded guilty to drink-driving.

Dr Bartrum, who has worked at the Duke Street Surgery since 2014, was seeking treatment for 'long-standing' alcohol issues, the court heard.

The sentencing of Dr Bartrum, of Satterthwaite, Cumbria, was adjourned until October 6th pending a probation service report.

Dr Rachael Bartrum, 40, who works at Duke Street Surgery, Barrow-in-Furness, left nursery staff so concerned in June they called Cumbria Police after smelling alcohol on her breath

Prosecutor Lee Dacre told magistrates the doctor was stopped by police near Ulverston, in Cumbria, on June 16.

Mr Dacre said: 'The defendant was due to take her son to nursery. They were expecting her at 11.45am.

'It raised concern with staff. She then arrived at 12.30pm. A member of staff became concerned because they could smell alcohol.'

The court heard staff then called the police, with officers arriving on the scene to find Bartrum sat in her car about to reverse out of the car park.

Mr Dacre added: 'Officers parked the police vehicle close to her vehicle to stop her driving off.

'When they approached the driver's side the defendant was told to leave and her keys were taken by the officer.'

Mr Dacre said the seriousness of the offence was exacerbated by there being a child in her care.

She was also convicted of drink-driving in 2019 when hitting a dry stone wall driving between Ambleside and Hawkshead, in the Lake District.

Lawyer Andy Gallagher, defending, said Dr Bartrum was taking part in residential treatment for her issues with alcohol.

He said: 'The defendant is currently in a rehabilitation placement to address the long-standing issues that she has with alcohol.

'There are similar offences committed within a short space of time.'

Magistrates ordered the pre-sentence report but imposed an interim ban from driving on the doctor.

Chair of the bench Charles Crewdson told her: 'We're going to stand this down for a pre-sentence report.

'From today we are imposing a interim disqualification.'

She faces an upcoming medical tribunal over claims she saw patients while drunk on the same day as her previous drink-driving offence in 2019.

Interim sanctions have been placed on her practice by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service ahead of a five-day misconduct hearing.

Her work must be overseen by a clinical supervisor and she must not undertake agency or a fixed term contract work.

In the 2019 drink-driving incident, JPs again at South Cumbria Magistrates' Court were told how she was found with bottles of wine in her VW Polo, which had turned on to its roof between Ambleside and Hawkshead.

Officers noticed a strong smell of alcohol from inside the car and saw the bottles by the driver's seat - one of which did not have a lid.

She said she had been driving home and drove over a rock. She hit one dry stone wall and then hit a second wall, causing them 1,500 of damage.

Dr Bartrum was treated by paramedics at the scene and then taken to the Royal Lancaster Infirmary.

While there police arranged for a blood test which revealed she had 123 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood, over the legal limit of 80 milligrams.

Mr Gallagher, also her defence lawyer in that case, said at the time she was 'devastated by her actions'.

He said in December 2019: 'She has taken steps to address the issues she has with alcohol. Since the incident she has not drunk.'

The doctor was disqualified from driving for 12 months.

She was also fined 300 and told to pay 85 costs and a 32 surcharge.
Ivanka Trump told her father three times to stop pedaling election fraud claims as he watched the Capitol riot unfold on TV on January 6, according to a new book.

'Let this thing go,' Donald Trump's eldest daughter and then-senior adviser said at the time. 'Let it go.'

The book 'Peril' also detailed that retired General Keith Kellogg, who was serving as Vice President Mike Pence's national security adviser at the time, told Trump he should send a 'tweet' to help calm the crowd at the Capitol on January 6.

'You really should do a tweet,' Kellogg said, according to the book, written by journalist and author Bob Woodward and veteran Washington Post reporter Robert Costa.

'You need to get a tweet out real quick, help control the crowd up there,' he said as Trump watched the attack happening on television. 'This is out of control. They're not going to be able to control this. Sir, they're not prepared for it. Once a mob starts turning like that, you've lost it.'

Ivanka Trump, pictured January 4, 2021, told her father Donald Trump on January 6 that he should 'let this thing go' as they watched the Capitol riot unfold, according to a new book

Ivanka is seen with her father on January 6 before his speech at the rally

The book also detailed that retired General Keith Kellogg told Trump he should send a 'tweet' to help calm the crowd at the Capitol on January 6

'Peril,' by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa will be released by Simon & Schuster on September 21

The then-president responded to Kellogg with a simple, 'Yeah' and then, the book details, 'Trump blinked and kept watching television.'

The retired general, according to the book, was with Trump on January 6 while he watched the chaos unfold from the White House.

The new book also revealed a bombshell that Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, called his Chinese counterpart twice last year over concerns President Trump was ready to go to war.

Trump responded on Tuesday by saying the United States' top military officer was guilty of treason if he went behind his back with promises to warn China of an impending attack.

'If it is actually true - which is hard to believe that he would have called China, and done these things and was willing to advise them of an attack or in advance of an attack - that's treason,' Trump told Sean Spicer during an interview on Newsmax TV.

Excerpts from 'Peril' were published on Tuesday on several news site and suggested Milley feared Trump would launch a war in the wake of November's election defeat to Joe Biden.

Milley sought to assure Gen. Li Zuocheng of the People's Liberation Army that the U.S. was not about to launch strikes in the calls.

In one call he said he would use backchannels to alert his counterpart if an attack were imminent.

The deadlines triggered a wave of condemnation from Republicans who demanded Milley's resignation and accusations of treason.

Senator Marco Rubio wrote a letter to President Biden demanding that he fire Milley 'immediately' for working to 'actively undermine' Trump while retired Lt Col Alexander Vindman argued that the alleged phone calls 'set an extremely dangerous precedent' that 'you can't simply walk away from.'

Tucker Carlson slammed Milley as 'treasonous'.

He added: 'How do you describe this? 'Deep state' isn't strong enough,' It's treason. It's a crime.'

'To those who say they're worried about authoritarianism coming in America, well, it's here.' 'That's what this is. Authoritarian government. Government by unelected, unaccountable leaders willing to use violence to preserve their rule.'

An angry Trump said Milley was trying to distract from his own role in Afghanistan.

'I think he's trying to just get out of his incompetent withdrawal out of Afghanistan, the worst, the dumbest thing that anybody's seen ... probably the most embarrassing thing that's ever happened to our country,' he said.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army General Mark Milley phoned his Chinese counterpart to give reassurances two days after the Capitol riot and cautioned US military leaders amid fears Trump might attack to keep power, according to a new book

US intelligence reportedly concluded the government of Chinese President Xi Jinping was concerned about a potential US attack after the Jan. 6 riot

The book's revelations triggered a wave of concern that Milley had violated the chain of command, endangering national security and breaking norms of civilian control of the military

Trump repeated his frequent condemnation of the Biden administration's handling of Afghanistan before returning the allegations in the new book, excerpts of which were published by CNN, the New York Times and the Washington Post.

Trump said: 'Milley made it up. he made this story about me attacking China.

'Think of it, I'm going to attack China. What's the reason exactly, other than that they screw a certain trade?

'You don't attack them for that.'

And he described Milley's alleged behavior as 'a disgrace.'

'He was going to inform them when that will take place so they could be prepared,' he said.

'That is a treasonous statement and I cannot tell you how many people called up about it.'

Trump named Milley to the top military post in 2018. However their relationship soured and details of their clashes have seeped into public view with publication of several accounts of the final days of the Trump presidency.

Rubio wrote in his letter to Biden: '[Milley] worked to actively undermine the sitting Commander in Chief of the United States Armed Forces and contemplated a treasonous leak of classified information to the Chinese Communist Party in advance of a potential armed conflict with the People's Republic of China (PRC).

'These actions by General Milley demonstrate a clear lack of sound judgement, and I urge you to dismiss him immediately.'

He added: 'General Milley has attempted to rationalize his reckless behavior by arguing that what he perceived as the military's judgement was more stable than its civilian commander. You must immediately dismiss General Milley. America's national security and ability to lead in the world are at stake.'

Vindman tweeted: 'If this is true GEN Milley must resign. He usurped civilian authority, broke Chain of Command, and violated the sacrosanct principle of civilian control over the military. It's an extremely dangerous precedent. You can't simply walk away from that.'

Republican Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy said Milley 'should resign' if he negotiated with his Chinese counterpart and undermined Trump.

He told Fox Primetime host Lawrence Jones: 'You give me about 15 minutes with Gen. Milley under oath, in front of a committee of the United States Senate, and I will get to the truth.'

'If the truth is as alleged then, yes, he should resign.'

The latest account details how Milley took a series of extraordinary actions after the Jan. 6th Capitol riot because he was concerned an 'unstable' President Trump might undertake military action in a desperate bid to stay in office.

Milley met top military officials in the Pentagon two days after the MAGA riot and told them to keep him in the process for all military actions, including the use of nuclear weapons.

'If you get calls, no matter who they're from, there's a process here, there's a procedure. No matter what you are told, you do the procedure. You do the process. And I'm part of that procedure,' he told reportedly told them.

He feared Trump was suffering 'serious mental decline,' according to the book, which relies on Woodward's well-established methods of relying on 'deep background' information provided sources, some of them anonymously, as well as documents and interviews, to attempt to reconstruct events and conversations..

'The strict procedures are explicitly designed to avoid inadvertent mistakes or accident or nefarious, unintentional, illegal, immoral, unethical launching of the world's most dangerous weapons,' he continued.

'Got it?' Milley asked his team members. 'Yes, sir,' they replied, in an exchange Milley considered 'an oath.'

Milley also told CIA Director Gina Haspel: 'Aggressively watch everything, 360.'

Just as stunning were Milley's reported actions that same date to the head of China's powerful military, to reassure his counterpart that the US was not going to attack China and set off a clash with a major nuclear power. His message, despite his own doubts about Trump's mental state, was that 'everything's fine.'

'Things may look unsteady,' Milley told Gen. Li. 'But that's the nature of democracy, General Li. We are 100 percent steady. Everything's fine. But democracy can be sloppy sometimes.'

Milley called China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) General Li Zuocheng to provide reassurances, the book claims

It was Milley's second call to his counterpart in the final months of the Trump administration. US intelligence concluded the Chinese believed Trump might launch a military strike in order create a basis to stay in power, after an election Trump claimed was fraudulent, despite a series of court and procedural defeats that had him running out of options.

Milley had earlier called Li in October amid ongoing tensions over the South China Straight, and Trump's rhetoric targeting China.

Milley feared Trump might seek to use such an attack to achieve a Reichstag fire type incident, where he would cite the dangerous new situation to cling to power. Milley afterward concluded Li was 'unusually rattled.'

According to the book, Milley even promised his counterpart there would be no surprises. They had reportedly established relations through a backchannel.

'General Li, you and I have known each other for now five years. If we're going to attack, I'm going to call you ahead of time. It's not going to be a surprise,' Milley reportedly told him.

The book quotes Milley expressing concerns Trump might launch a strike that could lead to war. Trump campaigned repeatedly ending Middle East wars he called a waste, and negotiated a departure date with the Taliban in Afghanistan before leaving office.

'I continually reminded him, depending on where and what you strike, you could find yourself at war,' the book quotes Milley as saying of Trump.

A president can only initiate a nuclear strike through a complex procedure that involves multiple layers of officials, coordinated through the National Military Command Center.

Milley also spoke to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who had publicly raised her own fears about Trump's access to nuclear weapons immediately after the riot, which came on a day Congress met to count the electoral votes to make Joe Biden president.

'This is bad, but who knows what he might do?' Pelosi said. 'He's crazy. You know he's crazy. He's been crazy for a long time. So don't say you don't know what his state of mind is.'

The authors cite a transcript of the call.

Milley responded, according to the book: ' Madam Speaker. I agree with you on everything.'

Pelosi told him: 'What I'm saying to you is that if they couldn't even stop him from an assault on the Capitol, who even knows what else he may do? And is there anybody in charge at the White House who was doing anything but kissing his fat butt all over this?'

'You know he's crazy. He's been crazy for a long time,' she told him.

Milley's efforts to give himself the opportunity to potentially head off a strike or a war appears to have been triggered by his call with Pelosi. According to the transcript, she asked him 'what precautions are available to prevent an unstable president from initiating military hostilities or from accessing the launch codes and ordering a nuclear strike?'

Milley then vouched for 'a lot of checks in the system.'

Haspel had raised her own concerns after Trump refused to accept the results of the November election. 'We are on the way to a right-wing coup. The whole thing is insanity. He is acting out like a six-year-old with a tantrum,' she told him.

'This is a highly dangerous situation. We are going to lash out for his ego?' she told Milley in a call.

The maneuvering came at a time after Milley had first accompanied Trump during his infamous photo-op shortly before authorities cleared protesters from Lafayette Square during Black Lives Matter protests in the summer of 2020. He then apologized for having participated in the event in uniform.
The crisis is expected to hit millions of Britons after wholesale energy prices went from a record low last May because of a lack of demand due to global lockdowns to the highest rates since the 1990s. Scott Byrom, Chief Executive Officer of TheEnergyShop.com, told MailOnline the 650,000 customers at the five energy companies to have folded in the past month were likely to be paying around 850-a-year for their energy because of the deals on offer in 2019 and 2020. But could immediately face a hike to 1,277 from October 1 due to the energy cap rise and may be paying as much as 1,500 by next April when they are moved to a new provider. There are concerns that millions more people could be in the same situation after energy consultants Baringa predicted that the number of UK energy companies could fall from 49 to 10 in the next 12 months if wholesale prices remain the same. Experts have said that many of the companies that have gone bust brought in customers on 'dirt cheap' fixed deals on the back of low prices last year - but now have no hope of making any money so either folded or are seeking a Government bailout. Ofgem will automatically move customers of Hub Energy, PfP, MoneyPlus, Utility Point, People's Energy to a new supplier in the coming days with British Gas taking 350,000 of them today and EDF 220,000 last week. Seven firms have collapsed in 2021 in total and many have only been in existence for five years. But energy market rules demand that customers whose supplier goes bust must be offered a fair deal by the new supplier - not the same one they had - meaning they are likely to pay significantly more. Stacey Stothard was one of 220,000 customer at Dorset-based Utility Point, which has gone bust. She believes her bill will now go up by up to 300 or more.
The chairman of the Prince Charles's charity has resigned and another senior executive has temporarily stood down amid an investigation into the acceptance of a six-figure sum from a Russian banker previously convicted of money laundering.

The Scottish Charity Regulator launched an investigation into the matter earlier this week amid reports that the charity initially received 100,000 from Dmitry Leus, but rejected the total sum after its ethics committee raised concerns.

Dmitry Leus believed he had given 500,000 to the Prince's Foundation through third-party fixers, previous reports revealed.

The regulator probe began following reports that Charles wrote a letter thanking Leus for the money and suggesting they could meet after the pandemic.

The Prince's Foundation chairman Chairman Douglas Connell today resigned, saying he was to blame 'if it appears that serious misconduct may have taken place'.

And it is understood Chris Martin, the foundation's executive director of development, has also temporarily stood down from his position pending the outcome of the investigation.

Mr Connell said in a statement: 'I am both shocked and dismayed by newspaper reports that rogue activity of various kinds may have taken place within and outside the Prince's Foundation.

The Scottish Charity Regulator launched the probe following reports that Charles (left) wrote a letter thanking Dmitry Leus (right) for the money and suggesting they could meet after the pandemic

In the letter (above) The Prince of Wales told Russian financier Dmitry Leus he was 'very much looking forward to seeing' him and explained how 'incredibly grateful' he was to him for his six-figure donation to the Prince's Foundation

'I believe that the correct course of action is for the chair to accept that responsibility and to stand down from the role.'

The foundation's ethics committee declined the donation after discovering Leus had been convicted of money laundering in Russia in 2004.

He had the conviction overturned and claims he was the victim of a politically motivated prosecution.

A spokesman for the Prince's Foundation said: 'The Prince's Foundation understands and respects Mr Connell's decision to step down. We would like to thank him for all his work to date and wish him well.

'Dame Sue Bruce, Vice Chair, will take on the role of Acting Chair with immediate effect.

Lord Thurso (left), Prince Charles (centre), and Michael Fawcett (right). Mr Fawcett is accused of helping coordinate an honour relating to the Saudi businessman Mahfouz Marei Mubarak bin Mahfouz

Mahfouz Marei Mubarak bin Mahfouz, pictured with Prince Charles in 2016, is listed as a supporter on the Prince's Foundation website and was given a royal honour from Queen Elizabeth II

'The Prince's Foundation takes very seriously the allegations made in recent news articles and is committed to the highest ethical standards.

'These changes to the board of Trustees will not impact the scope or timing of the rigorous independent investigation already underway.'

A former aide to the prince earlier this month stepped down temporarily as chief executive of the Prince's Foundation while a probe is conducted into claims he offered to help secure an honour and British citizenship for a wealthy donor.

Michael Fawcett pictured outside his home in London

Michael Fawcett is accused of helping coordinate an honour relating to the Saudi businessman Mahfouz Marei Mubarak bin Mahfouz.

Mahfouz is listed as a supporter on the Prince's Foundation website and was given a royal honour from Queen Elizabeth II in 2016.

The foundation aims to 'provide holistic solutions to challenges facing the world today', according to its website.

Clarence House has said that The Prince of Wales has 'no knowledge' of the cash for honours allegations on the basis of donation to his charities, denying claims by a former fixer who said Charles was '100 per cent' behind an offer to help Saudi tycoon Mahfouz Marei Mubarak bin Mahfouz secure UK citizenship.

The allegation emerged in a draft letter from William Bortrick - a paid advisor to Dr bin Mahfouz, who is a major donor to Charles's charities.

The letter by Burke's Peerage publisher Mr Bortrick, which was drafted in May 2014 and revealed by The Times earlier this month, said that Dr bin Mahfouz's application for citizenship would 'now take the highest priority'.

It added: 'His Royal Highness supports these applications 100 per cent, as there is no greater example of contribution [than] yours, therefore this should be rewarded and recognised accordingly.'

A spokesman for the prince had said: 'The Prince of Wales has no knowledge of the alleged offer of honours or British citizenship on the basis of donation to his charities and fully supports the investigation now under way by The Prince's Foundation.'
Suzanne Van Hagen was murdered, aged 34, by her abusive partner John Worton in February 2013

Police have apologised to the family of a domestic abuse victim who officers said should have 'used her legs' to escape the violent partner who killed her.

Chief Constable of West Midlands Police, Sir David Thompson, said he was 'deeply sorry for the many failings' surrounding the investigation into the murder of Suzanne Van Hagen.

The 34-year-old and her abusive partner John Worton, 37, were found dead by her nine-year-old daughter at their home in their in Frankley, Worcestershire, in February 2013.

Officers initially told family members Ms Van Hagen, who was found with marks around her neck, had been murdered.

But they later released a press release - widely covered in local and national media - saying that their deaths were due to an accidental overdose of drugs taken during a sex game.

A battle ensued with the family launching a campaign to reveal the truth behind Ms Van Hagen's tragic death.

It is during this period, the family say that they told officers Ms Van Hagen had been the victim of domestic abuse by Worton.

They say a female police liaison officer replied: 'Your sister had two legs and she should have used them.'

After a lengthy campaign by the family, a police review in 2017 found that the Senior Investigating Officer in the case had failed to make proper enquiries about marks to Ms Van Hagen's neck when her body was discovered.

The Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority also concluded in 2019 that the marks were an act of violence committed by Worton.

Now Chief Constable Sir David has issued a public apology to Ms Van Hagen's family, addressing what he described as a 'number of failings' by the force.

He said: 'On behalf of West Midlands Police, I wish to apologise for a number of failings by the force in the handling of Suzanne's case, both before and after her death, and to acknowledge the immense, additional distress that this has caused to Suzanne's family.

Chief Constable Sir David has issued a public apology to Ms Van Hagen's family, addressing what he described as a 'number of failings' by the force

'We deeply regret a number of missed opportunities to investigate Suzanne's circumstances more widely and to engage with her.

'We could and should have done more to protect Suzanne and her daughter from the abuse they were suffering.

To compound the family's pain, they were let down by a failure to properly investigate Suzanne's death.

'I am deeply sorry for the many failings identified in 2017 when the Force conducted a full review of the investigation.'

Addressing the misleading press release, he said: 'I particularly recognise how hurtful and distressing the inaccurate press release issued in March 2013 must have been for the family.

'This influenced the subsequent press coverage and an incorrect narrative was created about Suzanne's death that was difficult to shift.

He added: 'Suzanne's family have had to engage in a long and arduous fight to understand the full truth about what happened to Suzanne. We deeply regret this.

'I can only hope that these words provide some reassurance to Suzanne's family that the force has reflected on, and learnt from, its serious shortcomings.

West Midlands Police also say they have paid 'substantial' damages to the family.

An inquest in 2014 revealed Worton was diagnosed with schizophrenia and suffered paranoia and auditory hallucinations. He had a history of being abusive to former partners.

A post mortem found he had taken a lethal dose of paramethoxyamphetamine (PMA) - also known as Dr Death.

But after police sent out a press release saying that Ms Van Hagen had also died of an overdose, the family launched a fight to find out the truth.

They successfully appealed for a Domestic Homicide Review with the help of the charity Advocacy After Fatal Domestic Abuse (AAFDA).

In 2017 an internal review by West Midlands Police found the officer in charge of investigating Ms Van Hagen's death failed to make proper enquiries about marks to Suzanne's neck.

An inquest in 2014 revealed Worton (pictured here with Ms Van Hagen) was diagnosed with schizophrenia and suffered paranoia and auditory hallucinations. He had a history of being abusive to former partners. A post mortem found he had taken a lethal dose of paramethoxyamphetamine (PMA) - also known as Dr Death. But after police sent out a press release saying that Ms Van Hagen had also died of an overdose, the family launched a fight to find out the truth

And the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority concluded in 2019 that the marks around Suzanne's neck were not caused by a sexual act but by a crime of violence perpetrated by Worton.

Suzanne's mother, Ann Van Hagen, said in a statement: 'My beautiful daughter Suzanne deserves to be remembered as she was, not as this person who the police tried to portray her as.

'Suzanne was one of the kindest, most thoughtful people you could ever meet.

'She loved spending time with her family and kept a very wide and long-standing network of friends.

'She worked hard to build a career for herself in insurance so that she could enjoy a good life with her daughter.

'Sometimes I think she is still with us which makes it easier to cope. We miss her every single day.'

AAFDA CEO Frank Mullane said: ''The only credible conclusion is that Suzanne was killed by domestic abuse.

'How many other deaths, in domestic circumstances, following violent crime, have been inadequately investigated?'

The family's lawyer Sarah Ricca, of Deighton Pierce Glynn, added: 'This is a truly shocking case that starkly highlights the institutional discrimination women continue to face from the police in relation to domestic violence.'
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Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have said they are 'humbled' to be the cover stars of Time magazine's 2021 list of the 100 most influential people on the planet in a feature that includes an 'awkward' photoshoot and a gushing tribute from a friend who praises them for 'giving a voice to the voiceless' and 'running toward the struggle' rather than living a quiet life in their California mansion.

The US publication released a glossy and heavily-airbrushed cover on Harry's 37th birthday showing the Duke of Sussex stood behind his wife with his arms on her right shoulder in the 'icons' section of the annual line-up alongside Naomi Osaka, Dolly Parton, Britney Spears and Alexei Navalny.

One critic claimed the cover photo reflected the power dynamic in the relationship, because Meghan is in front of her husband, tweeting: 'Wow, this photo speaks volumes. There is no hiding who's in control'. But Time's picture editor, Dilys Ng, who made the final decision on the cover image, said today that the portrait captures the Sussexes' 'powerful dynamic as equal partners'.

The couple responded to being named on the list of the world's most distinguished people with a post on their Archewell website that read: 'Prince Harry and Meghan, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, are not only humbled to be part of this years TIME 100 through the words of friend and partner Jose Andres, but to also write in praise of Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala for the publications annual list of Most Influential People.'

The glossy photos of the Sussexes are accompanied by a profile, branded sycophantic by critics, written by their friend and chef Mr Andres, whose charity World Central Kitchen is loved by the Sussexes and supported financially by their Archewell foundation in India and the Caribbean.

He wrote: 'In a world where everyone has an opinion about people they don't know, the duke and duchess have compassion for the people they don't know. They don't just opine. They run toward the struggle.' Mr Andres said the couple are 'blessed through birth and talent, and burned by fame', adding: 'It would be much safer to enjoy their good fortune and stay silent. That's not what Harry and Meghan do, or who they are'.

On the cover Harry is dressed in all black and Meghan in all white on a terrace at their $14.65million mansion and then in green smiling at eachother and holding hands while walking through their estate in Montecito, California.

In another image they are in matching grey office-style clothes next to a window in outfits chosen by celebrity stylists Clare and Nina Hallwroth, who have recently dressed Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston, in pictures taken by Serbian Pari Dukovic. But one critic, a fellow photographer, tweeted: 'Terrible retouching job. They look CGI'.

Others wrote: 'This photo looks photoshopped. Also, the way they are positioned is very revealing: it's the Meghan show and Harry is just the supporting actor'. One critic said: 'Harry looks completely awkward peering behind his wife like this'.

Actress Kate Winslet, who is often regarded by film critics as one of the preeminent actresses of her generation', and the Ugandan-British actor, Daniel Kaluuya, who portrayed Posh Kenneth in the first two seasons of the British television series Skins, are the two other Britons named on this year's list.

Harry and Meghan have agreed to be the cover stars of Time Magazine's 100 most influential people - with this new image released accompanied by a gushing profile

Harry and Meghan smile as their walk through their Californian estate in a photoshoot branded 'awkward' and 'photoshopped'

In another image they are in matching grey office-style clothes next to a window in outfits chosen by celebrity stylists Clare and Nina Hallwroth, who have recently dressed Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston

The glossy photos of the Sussexes are accompanied by a profile, branded sycophantic by critics, written by their friend and chef Jose Andres (pictured), whose charity World Central Kitchen is loved by the Sussexes and supported financially by their Archewell foundation in India and the Caribbean

Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is praised by Harry and Meghan for 'the groundbreaking nature of her appointment to the role' as Director-General of the World Trade Organisation The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have praised Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala for 'the groundbreaking nature' of her appointment to the role of Director-General of the World Trade Organisation in March. In a post to the couple's website Archewell, Dr Okonjo-Iweala was celebrated for 'her ability to see the COVID-19 pandemic as a crisis with significant implications for both health and economic security'. In February last year Dr Okonjo-Iweala demanded that rich countries donate Covid vaccines to poorer nations immediately rather than waiting until all their citizens are inoculated. In a post to the couple's website Archewell, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (pictured) was celebrated for 'her ability to see the COVID-19 pandemic as a crisis with significant implications for both health and economic security' Harry and Meghan's tribute continued: 'Okonjo-Iweala is acting swiftly, working to improve coordination, supply chains, and the flexibility of trade rules in order to get COVID-19 vaccines to as many people as possible  and to every nation.' Advertisement

Mr Andres describes the famous incident when Harry was serving in Afghanistan for the British Army, when he was forced to run to his Apache helicopter when his airbase came under fire.

He wrote: 'That same sense of urgency drives Meghan, now the Duchess of Sussex, who has long been an active humanitarian and a powerful advocate for women and girls around the world. Springing into action is not the easy choice for a young duke and duchess who have been blessed through birth and talent, and burned by fame. That's not what Harry and Meghan do, or who they are.

'They turn compassion into boots on the ground through their Archewell Foundation. They give voice to the voiceless through media production. Hand in hand with nonprofit partners, they take risks to help communities in needoffering mental-health support to Black women and girls in the U.S., and feeding those affected by natural disasters in India and the Caribbean.

'In a world where everyone has an opinion about people they don't know, the duke and duchess have compassion for the people they don't know. They don't just opine. They run toward the struggle'.

There is no mention of Harry and Meghan's rift with the Royal Family or the series of bombshell interviews including the one with Oprah where they accused a mystery royal of racism towards Archie and said aides ignored Meghan when she was pregnant and suicidal.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle celebrated their third wedding anniversary in May by revealing plans to build a disaster relief centre in India to help battle Covid-19 and 'heal' the virus-ravaged nation in their tie up with Jose Andres' World Central Kitchen.

The building in Mumbai will be based on the blueprint of one the couple's Archewell foundation has already built on the Caribbean island of Dominica, where locals can get free food and medical care including a coronavirus vaccination.

Harry's family put their problems aside as the Queen sent best wishes to Prince Harry on his 37th birthday, sharing a selection of photos highlighting her grandson's charity efforts while he was a working royal.

The Duke of Sussex, who has quit royal duties and is currently living in an 11m mansion in California also received birthday greetings from the Prince of Wales and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

Poignantly, Prince Charles shared throwback photos with his younger son, amid a rift that Harry made public during his bombshell interview with Oprah.

Meanwhile, Prince William and Kate Middleton kept their message simple, posting a solo portrait of the Duke with the caption: 'Happy birthday Prince Harry,' and a red balloon emoji.

It's not known how the Duke will celebrate his birthday, but Meghan recently marked her 40th with her own endeavor - the 40x40 project - in which she asked high profile people to commit to giving 40 minutes of their time to support women going back to work.

The birthday wishes come after Finding Freedom author Omid Scobie - who penned the biography with Carolyn Durand and released an updated version last month - said Duke and Duchess of Sussex are 'making very little progress' in reconciling with the royal family.

He said Prince Harry and Meghan were 'desperate to get their story out there' when they gave their explosive Oprah Winfrey interview earlier this year.

Appearing on Good Morning America today, Omid claimed the couple and the royal family both want all involved to take 'accountability and ownership' for their role in the rift.

The Time 100 stars listed with Harry and Meghan Icons Prince Harry and Meghan, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex - The couple 'turn compassion into boots on the ground through their Archewell foundation', according to chef and the founder of World Central Kitchen Jose Andres. Naomi Osaka - Tennis star won last year's US Open and participated in protests in Minneapolis before prioritising her mental health. Alexei Navalny - The Russian opposition leader was jailed last year and has been a thorn in Vladimir Putin's side for decades. Britney Spears - 'She's survived more than a decade of trauma and abuse from her conservatorship', writes Paris Hilton, yet still 'embodies joy'. Sherrilyn Ifill - A lawyer whose 'advocacy creates paths for the unconvinced to understand things they have overlookedand that may be the real genius of her leadership and skill,' writes Bryan Stevenson. Dolly Parton - Country music star has 'diligently celebrated the queer community', says Miley Cyrus, as well as donating $1million to Covid-19 vaccine research. Shohei Ohtani - A Japanese baseball pitcher who has been described as the best player this year. Cathy Park Hong - A poet who has published three volumes focusing on mixed language including English, Spanish, French and Korean. Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara - A Cuba-born performance artist who has openly criticised the government and its policies. Nasrin Sotoudeh - An Iranian human rights lawyer who has represented opposition activists and politicians. Manjusha P. Kulkarni, Russell Jeung and Cynthia Choi - The Stop AAPI Hate co-founders work together to combat a rise in Asian hate speech. Muna El-Kurd and Mohammed El-Kurd - 23-year-old siblings who have become social media stars with more than two million followers. Pioneers Billie Eilish - Award-winning 19-year-old singer-songwriter is the 26th highest certified digital artist. Ben Crump - Benjamin Lloyd Crump is an American attorney who specializes in civil rights and catastrophic personal injury cases such as wrongful death lawsuits. Adi Utarini - An Indonesian public health researcher who works on disease control of dengue fever. Sunisa Lee - The artistic gymnast was a 2020 Olympic all-around champion and uneven bars bronze medallist. Felwine Sarr and Benedicte Savoy - Economist Sarr and art historian Savoy proposed objects obtained through colonial-era theft be returned in 2018. Fatih Birol - A Turkish economist and energy expert who has served as the Executive Director of the International Energy Agency since September 2015. Aurora James - Founder of the fashion label Brother Vellies, with the goal of promoting traditional African design practices and techniques. Adar Poonawalla - Chief executive officer (CEO) of Serum Institute of India. Founded in 1966 by his father, Cyrus Poonawalla, it is the world's largest vaccine manufacturer by number of doses produced. Phyllis Omido - Dubbed the East African Erin Brockovich, Omido is a Kenyan environmental activist. Frans Timmermans - A Dutch politician and diplomat serving as First Vice President of the European Commission since 2014. Indyra Mendoza and Claudia Spellmant - Activists and LGBTQ+ women who spent years working to demand justice for Vicky Hernandez  a transgender woman found dead in the street in Honduras in 2009. Roger Cox - Partner at the Dutch law firm Paulussen Advocaten wrote a book calling for judicial intervention to save the planet. Olimpia Coral Melo Cruz - A Mexican activist who promoted the creation of a law against digital harassment in Mexico. Dorottya Redai - A scholar and activist focusing on gender and sexualities. Esther Ze Naw Bamvo And Ei Thinzar Maung - Lead the first large-scale protests against the coup in Yangon. Titans Tim Cook - American business executive who has been the chief executive officer of Apple Inc. since 2011. Shonda Rhimes - Showrunnercreator, head writer, and executive producerof the television medical drama Grey's Anatomy. Timbaland and Swizz Beatz - Creators of Verzuz, an American webcast series that airs on Verzuz TV and was introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic as a virtual DJ battle. Nikole Hannah-Jones - Nikole Sheri Hannah-Jones is an American investigative journalist, known for her coverage of civil rights in the United States. Tom Brady - An American football quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the National Football League. Youn Yuh Jung - A South Korean actress whose career in film and television spans across five decades. Allyson Felix - American track and field athlete who specialized in the 200 meters sprint and gradually shifted to the 400 meters sprint later in her career. Angelique Kidjo - A Beninese singer-songwriter, actress, and activist who is noted for her diverse musical influences and creative music videos. She has been a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador since 2002. Kenneth C. Frazier and Kenneth I. Chenault - OneTen co-founders are fighting against legislation that critics say is designed to make it harder for minorities to cast ballots. Luiza Trajano - A Brazilian billionaire businesswoman who is chair of the retailer Magazine Luiza and associated companies. Artists Kate Winslet - A British actress often regarded by film critics as one of the preeminent actresses of her generation. Bad Bunny - A Puerto Rican rapper, singer, and songwriter whose music is often defined as Latin trap and reggaeto. Chloe Zhao - A Chinese-born filmmaker known primarily for her work on independent films. Jason Sudeikis - An American actor, comedian, writer, and producer who began his career in improv comedy in the early 1990s. Scarlett Johansson - An American actress and singer who was the world's highest-paid actress in 2018 and 2019. Lil Nas X - An American rapper and singer-songwriter who rose to prominence with the release of his country rap single Old Town Road. Jessica B. Harris - An American culinary historian, college professor, cookbook author and journalist. Bowen Yang - An Australian-born Chinese American actor, comedian, podcaster, and writer based in New York City. Tracee Ellis Ross - An American actress, singer, television host, producer and director known for her lead roles in the television series Girlfriends and Black-ish. Mark Bradford - An American artist best known for his collaged painting works, which have been shown internationally. N.K. Jemisin - An American science fiction and fantasy writer, better known as N. K. Jemisin who has also worked as a counselling psychologist. Steven Yeun - An American actor and producer who initially rose to prominence for his roles as Glenn Rhee in the television series The Walking Dead and Ben in the film Burning. Daniel Kaluuya - Ugandan-British actor and former writer who portrayed Posh Kenneth in the first two seasons of the British television series Skins. Omar Sy - A French actor, best known for his sketches with Fred Testot on the Service apres-vente des emissions television show. Barbara Kruger - A conceptual artist whose work consists of black-and-white photographs overlaid with declarative captions. Kane Brown - A singer and songwriter who first gained popularity through social media. Leaders Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala - Director-General of WTO: World Trade Organization since March 2021, Okonjo-Iweala is a Nigerian-American economist, fair trade leader, environmental sustainability advocate, human welfare champion, sustainable finance maven and global development expert. Joe Biden - The 46th and current president of the United States. Xi Jinping - General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and Chairman of the Central Military Commission since 2012. Liz Cheney - An American attorney and politician who has been the US Representative for Wyoming's at-large congressional district since 2017. Kamala Harris - The first female vice president and the highest-ranking female official in US history, as well as the first African American and first Asian American vice president. Mario Draghi - Italian economist, banker, academic, and civil servant who has been serving as Prime Minister of Italy since February 13, 2021. Tucker Carlson - Paleoconservative television host and political commentator who has hosted the nightly political talk show Tucker Carlson Tonight on Fox News since 2016. Naftali Bennett - Israeli politician serving as the 13th and current prime minister of Israel since June 13, 2021. Stacey Abrams - American politician, lawyer, voting rights activist, and author who served in the Georgia House of Representatives from 2007 to 2017. Nayib Bukele - The 43rd and current president of El Salvador. Donald Trump - American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States. Narendra Modi - An Indian politician serving as the 14th and current prime minister of India since 2014. Mahbouba Seraj - An Afghan journalist and women's rights advocate who stayed in the country as the Taliban took over. Joe Machin - An American Democrat serving as the senior United States senator from West Virginia. Ebrahim Raisi - An Iranian conservative Islamist, politician, Muslim jurist, and the eighth and current president of Iran since August 3, 2021. Rochelle Walensky - Physician-scientist who is the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. Mamata Banerjee - An Indian academic and politician who is serving as the ninth and current Chief Minister of the Indian state of West Bengal since 2011. Ron Klain - An American attorney, political consultant, and former lobbyist serving as White House chief of staff under President Joe Biden. Elisa Loncon Antileo - Mapuche linguist and indigenous rights activist in Chile. Abdul Ghani Baradar - Afghan political and religious leader who is currently the acting first deputy prime minister of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. Innovators Jensen Huang - A Taiwanese-American billionaire businessman and electrical engineer. Elon Musk - One of the richest people in the world, Musk is the founder, CEO, and Chief Engineer at SpaceX; early stage investor, CEO, and Product Architect of Tesla, Inc.; founder of The Boring Company; and co-founder of Neuralink and OpenAI. Adrienne Banfield Norris, Willow Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith - Hosts of Red Table Talk, which was previously presented with an Emmy award in the outstanding informative talk show category. Katalin Kariko - Hungarian biochemist who specializes in RNA-mediated mechanisms. Mary Barra - An American businesswoman who has been the chair and chief executive officer of General Motors since January 15, 2014. John Nkengasong - Cameroonian virologist and the Director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. MiMi Aung - Burmese-American engineer and project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Vitalik Buterin - Russian-Canadian programmer and writer who is best known as one of the co-founders of Ethereum. Viya - China's star saleswoman Viya runs a $60 billion world of live online shopping. Barney Graham - An American immunologist, virologist, and clinical trials physician. Friederike Otto and Geert Jan Van Oldenborgh - Founders of The World Weather Attribution (WWA) initiative, a collaboration between climate scientists in the UK, the Netherlands, France, the US and Switzerland. Kengo Kuma - Japanese architect and professor in the Department of Architecture at the University of Tokyo. Sara Menker - A trustee of the Mandela Institute for Development Studies and elected one of the World Economic Forum Young Global Leaders. Lidia Morawska - As a distinguished professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Morawska conducts research in the field of air quality and its impact on human health and the environment. Advertisement

Meghan and Harry appeared on Oprah to drop 'truth bombs' on the Royal Family

Prince William and Kate Middleton kept their message simple, posting a solo portrait of the Duke with the caption: 'Happy birthday Prince Harry,' and a red balloon emoji

The Queen has led birthday wishes to Prince Harry on his 37th birthday, sharing a selection of photos highlighting her grandson's charity efforts while he was a working royal

The Royal family shared a picture of Harry visiting a school in Nottingham in 2019, where he as on an away-day to meet young people at community projects aimed at improving mental well-being

The Queen also shared a portrait shot of Harry, who is 'making very little progress' in reconciling with the royal family according to Finding Freedom author Omid Scobie

The Royal Family shared a picture of Harry meeting a child in Botswana in September, 2019 during a visit to the Kasane Health Post, run by the Sentebale charity, in Kasane

The Queen posted an image of Harry and Meghan at the Invictus Games in 2018 in their last engagement in Australia before heading to New Zealand

Prince Charles and Camilla also wished the duke a Happy Birthday amid a rift that Harry made public during his bombshell interview earlier this year

Poignantly, Prince Charles shared throwback photos with his younger son, amid a rift that Harry made public during his bombshell interview with Oprah - including a portrait of his son

The Prince of Wales is pictured with Prince Harry leaving their mark in cement, at the Dukuduku village school in South Africa in 1997

The Duke of Sussex and his father are pictured sharing a sweet moment at the Invictus Games Opening Ceremony in September 2014

He explained: 'When we speak to sources close to the couple and also sources close to the royal family, there is this feeling that very little progress is being made.'

Meanwhile Scobie also suggested allegations of Meghan's bullying behaviour made by a senior Palace aide before the Oprah Winfrey interview were 'revenge' from The Firm for the Duke and Duchess' actions.

The Sussexes were accused of leaving behind a 'lot of broken people' with 'young women broken by their behaviour' and a source describing one member of their staff as 'completely destroyed' by the ordeal.

Scobie said: 'For me, it's impossible to come to any other conclusion that this is some sort of revenge from the institution that we saw pulled into action just before the Oprah interview came out.'

The Queen launched an unprecedented inquiry into allegations that Meghan and Harry bullied their staff earlier this year - leaving royal employees 'shaken' by 'unhappy memories' being brought up about a 'toxic period' before the couple emigrated.

Devastating claims that the Duchess of Sussex inflicted 'emotional cruelty' on underlings and 'drove them out' were 'very' concerning, Buckingham Palace said.

Prince Charles' birthday wishes come after a source claimed that Duchess of Cornwall is unlikely to ever forgive her stepson Prince Harry for their actions since stepping back as senior royals in March last year.

Harry has addressed his relationship with his father in several interviews throughout the year - after first opening up about it in a bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey in March where he claimed he has been 'let down' by Prince Charles.

The Duke, 37, and Duchess of Sussex, 40, are 'making very little progress' in reconciling with the royal family, the author of Finding Freedom has claimed

Speaking to The Telegraph, royal expert Camilla Tominey reported that a source close to Camilla has said that even though Buckingham Palace is conveying the message that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are still loved by the family, the Duchess of Cornwall will struggle to move on.

Another source claimed that Prince Charles was deeply affected by the reported fall out with Prince Harry and that it had been 'really hard for him.'

Meanwhile Prince William and Harry are said to have barely spoken and have an 'incredibly strained' relationship after two years of rows over Harry's wife and her alleged treatment of staff, the couple's decision to emigrate to America and the 'truth bombs' the Sussexes have dropped in TV interviews watched by tens of millions of people around the world.

Harry and Meghan believe they were abandoned by the Royals, even accusing them of racism towards Archie and ignoring their cries for help when the Duchess of Sussex felt lonely and suicidal while pregnant in London.

An updated edition of Harry and Meghan biography Finding Freedom also made a string of other fresh claims that are likely to trigger debate about the state of their relationship with the Royal Family.

Richard Fitzwilliams believes Harry could launch a charitable initiative on his upcoming 37th birthday - and has warned the royal to 'watch what he says' on his birthday

A leaked version of the epilogue claimed the couple had considered naming the royal they alleged had made a racist comment about their son, Archie; that some royals were 'quietly pleased' the Duchess of Sussex missed Prince Philip's funeral and that Prince William was 'furious' about their interview with Oprah.

The new edition also said the Sussexes had 'no regrets' about quitting their royal roles and that Meghan found her explosive Oprah interview 'cathartic' and 'liberating'.

Meghan plunged the monarchy into crisis after telling Oprah Winfrey that an unnamed royal had expressed 'concern' about Archie's skin before he was born.

The epilogue reveals that a source told authors Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand that the Sussexes had considered naming the family member  but had ultimately decided not to.

It also claimed that 'sources close to the Sussexes' had said that the Royal Family's reaction to the allegations made by the couple 'was not positive'.

Meghan Markle hires A-list glam squad for her VERY glamorous appearance on Time 100 cover  including her wedding day hairdresser Serge Normant and Jennifer Aniston's stylist Nina Hallworth

By Chloe Morgan for MailOnline

The Duchess of Sussex put on a very glamorous display after being styled by an A-list glam squad as she posed alongside husband Prince Harry for the cover of Times 100 magazine.

Meghan Markle, 40, was styled by an elite group of stylists who work with the rich and famous as she appeared in Time's 'world's 100 most influential people', with world renowned fashionista Nina Hallworth, who was assisted by Jane Hallworth, dressing the royal in a white shirt and tailored trousers.

Meanwhile, Serge Normant, who created Meghan's 'messy bun' on her wedding day to Prince Harry in May 2018, was responsible for the Duchess of Sussex's wavy hair style, which hair stylist James Johnson told FEMAIL is the 'main focal point of this piece.'

'Her middle parted big waves highlights her authority and the leg apart stance gives viewers a glimpse of her powerful new status,' he explained. 'It gives me Beyonce vibes showing us girl power - backed up by her man, her Prince leaning on her showcasing the female empowerment, shes wearing the trousers with her big hair.'

The Duchess of Sussex, 40, put on a very glamorous display after being styled by an A-list team of experts as she posed alongside husband Prince Harry for the cover of The Times magazine (pictured)

Working together: Nina Hallworth and Clare Hallworth pictured in May 2017 in Los Angeles

He added: 'The hands softens her image as and shows her vulnerable side.'

Elsewhere, Nina's sister Clare looked after Prince Harry's look, opting to dress him in a contrasting smart black shirt and several beaded bracelets.

Stylist Nina Hallworth and her sister Clare Hallworth have worked with a whole host of famous faces, most notably actress Jennifer Aniston.

Back in October 2019, the stylist sisters shared a picture of their client Jennifer Aniston apparently posing in her walk-in closet to Instagram, delighting fans.

The image showed the Friends star striking a pose in a black trench coat and strappy sandals.

Serge Normant attends the 2018 US Weekly Most Stylish New Yorkers at Magic Hour Rooftop Bar & Lounge on September 12, 2018 in New York

Meanwhile, renowned hairdresser Serge Normant has previously been forced to speak out to defend Meghan's wedding hair after her messy bun was criticised for coming 'undone' during the ceremony.

Social media users slammed the bride's 'unruly' hair, commenting on the 'stray strands' that came loose.

The Duchess of Sussex's hairdresser, who is based in New York, revealed it took him just 45 minutes to style her hair  using grips you can pick up in the supermarket for only a few pounds.

'I always tend to try and go as fast as I can at these events. Nobody wants to sit around.'

The hairdresser described the look as a 'messy bun', a style that Meghan has frequently sported in the past.

Describing how long it took him to style Meghan's hair, tge French-born hair stylist, 52, explained: 'You know not that long, believe it or not.

'We had to blow dry it from wet, I would say 45 minutes to an hour. Then they did the make-up and then you fiddle around with it a little bit. But it's not that long.

'It's a messy bun, we call it. Messy in a controlled way,' he said. 'Making sure it doesn't become a whole mess after a few hours! I don't overload the hair with products in general and certainly not on this day.'
A man who was crushed to death by his own car in a freak accident at a McDonald's drive-thru in Vancouver last week has been named as a married father-of-two.

Tony Eyles, 42, accidentally dropped his bank card as he went to pay for his breakfast while visiting the eatery around 5:30am.

He exited his vehicle to retrieve it, but the car then suddenly lurched forward and 'collided into a structural piece of the restaurant,' Vancouver police say.

Eyles was pinned between the side of his vehicle and the establishment's storefront, and was crushed to death.

He died just a few weeks before his ninth wedding anniversary, and leaves behind two children, a boy and a girl, aged eight and six, as well as his wife, Caitlin.

Eyles leaves behind two children, a boy and a girl, aged eight and six, as well as his wife, Caitlin

The freak incident occurred around 5:30 a.m. at a Vancouver McDonald's drive-thru

An investigation is being conducted by the Vancouver Police Department Collison Division and the British Columbia Coroners Service

Eyles was pinned to the wall of the fast-food establishment by his car, and was crushed to death, police say

Police is asking anybody with footage from the incident to contact the Collision Investigation Unit of the Vancouver Police Department

Eyles was described by loved ones as 'an amazing husband, father, friend and coworker,' on a GoFundMe page created to raise money for his family.

He was 'the kind of guy who would give you the shirt off his back,' Eyles' brother-in-law Neal Pender said, speaking to a CTV .

'He was just the most doting father and the most loving husband he was just the perfect guy.'

Eyles - A family man who 'did everything to please everybody else' - died just a few weeks before his ninth wedding anniversary

'He was just the most doting father and the most loving husband he was just the perfect guy'

A family man who 'did everything to please everybody else,' Eyles was hailed as 'the perfect dad, the perfect husband,' by his brother-in-law in separate interview with CityNews.

'Everything he did, he did for them. He did a fantastic job raising those kids with my sister.'

But Pender then lamented the fact that his sister's children will now grow up without a father.

'They have made some comments about how much they are already missing their dad. His son said to me yesterday, "I only got to know my dad for eight years, it's not long enough."'

He added: 'My sister is struggling, of course.'

In the week following the unforeseen tragedy, more than $110,000 has been raised for his family in two separate fundraisers.

Eyles' wife, Caitlin, is said to be 'struggling' after his husband's sudden passing last week

The incident occurred just off of a busy intersection, of Main Street and Terminal Avenue, and was captured by surveillance footage from the restaurant.

Vancouver Fire Rescue Services and Vancouver Police were called to the scene almost immediately - and despite medical responders best efforts, Eyles was declared dead at the scene.

In the week following the unforeseen tragedy, Eyles' family have raised more than $110,000 with two separate fundraisers

'This is an absolutely heartbreaking scenario. Our deepest condolences go out to the family and friends of this man,' said Constable Tania Visintin of the Vancouver Police Department.

'People aren't used to seeing this type of incident happen, especially at your workplace. I would assume everyone is shaken up,'

'Usually when we hear about a fatal motor vehicle accident it is usually, typically a crash with another vehicle.'

'So the fact that no other vehicle was involved this seems like a freak accident,' Visintin told 680 News.

An investigation is being conducted by the British Columbia Coroners Service and the Collision Investigation Unit of the Vancouver Police Department, who called Eyles' death a 'tragedy.'
A creative director is suing Pinterest claiming she helped found the site and make it a multi-billion dollar success - only to receive no money in return.

Christine Martinez, 40, filed a lawsuit in Alameda County Superior Court on Monday accusing the site's owners Ben Silbermann, 39, and Paul Sciarra, 40, of breach of implied contract, idea theft, unjust enrichment and unfair business practices.

She alleges that she co-created the social media platform and made it clear she expected to receive money if her ideas were used.

'I realized that for me, IPO was the day I got passed over,' she said. 'I was passed over for the money, the recognition, the credit.'

Pinterest, which allows users to 'bookmark' images for inspiration on popular topics cooking, home decor and clothing, went public on April 18, 2019 raising about $1.4 billion, and giving the firm a valuation of $14 billion.

Martinez says that many of her friends congratulated her when the company went public knowing that had collaborated on the earliest stages of the creation and assumed she would be receiving something for her work.

Her lawsuit alleges that she gave Pinterest's co-founders many of the ideas that have become synonymous with the site's success.

They include organizing images on boards and the site's catchphrase 'Pin it'.

Martinez also decided on the site's main categories, including home decor, fashion and DIY. And she helped court leading influencers and bloggers to publicize the site and drive its popularity.

Christine Martinez, 40, is suing Pinterest co-founders for breach of implied contract, idea theft, unjust enrichment and unfair business practices claiming that she helped create and develop integral parts of the platform but was never compensated

Pinterest co-founders Ben Silbermann (left) and Paul Sciarra (right) are being sued by their former unofficial creative director

But Martinez claims she was never compensated or recognized once the company took off.

'They divided up among themselves $2 billion of the $14 billion in equity value that Pinterest generated the day it went public, and never paid Plaintiff a single dollar,' the complaint alleges. 'They erased Plaintiff from the history of Pinterest's creation.'

Silbermann has a net worth of $3.1 billion and Sciarra has a net worth of $2.6 billion, according to Forbes. Silbermann currently serves as the company's CEO. Sciarra left the company in 2012 but held on to about 8 per cent of the company. He currently serves as executive chairman of Joby Aviation.

Martinez is seeking payment for her work in an unspecified amount.

Martinez was never officially employed by the company and never asked for a contract but she says that Pinterest's founders had verbally agreed to compensate her many times. She claims that she had an implied contract based on her discussions with the co-founders.

In the lawsuit, she alleges that she created Pinterest with Silbermann and Sciarra suggesting ideas that became 'core organizing concepts' to the platform such as organizing images on boards, using the phrase 'Pin it,' categorizing the apps main uses such as home decor, fashion and D.I.Y., and enabling e-commerce, which allows users to buy items they see pinned and generates a lucrative stream of revenue for Pinterest.

The suit even claims that Pinterest named a section of its source code after her. Martinez says that she began helping Silbermann and Sciarra in 2008 when they began conceptualizing the platform.

She says she went on to promote the company on Good Morning America, developed a training class for brands 'in consultation with Silbermann and Sciarra,' and guided them on how to better appeal to women- the app's main demographic.

Pinterest went public in 2019 raising about $1.4 billion making Silbermann and Sciarra billionaires. That was when Martinez says she realized she was being 'erased'

The lawsuit argues that the co-founders repeatedly used Martinez for her ideas and connections to build the company. 'They had no marketing background or expertise in creating a product for women,' she said. 'My role was always to educate them.'

Martinez studied interior design, developed a lifestyle blog, and founded e-commerce start-up LAMA Designs.

Martinez and her husband had close friendships with Silbermann and Sciarra.

They took them home with her for Christmas, with Martinez also standing as a bridesmaid in Silbermann's wedding. She says she never expected her friends to snub her and didn't even realize that she was being 'erased' until after the company went public and Silbermann and Sciarra became billionaires while she never received anything.

After the company went public, Martinez lost someone in her family. The death of her loved one pushed Martinez to stand up for herself and file the suit. 'I couldn't take this to my grave,' she said.



A Pinterest spokeswoman said in a statement that the allegations made by Martinez were unwarranted and that the company plans to defend its co-founders in court. 'We are proud of what we built at Pinterest and appreciate all the Pinners who have helped shape the platform over the years,' she said.

This is not the first time Pinterest has been sued for their treatment of women. Last summer two former female employees, Ifeoma Ozoma and Aerica Shimizu Banks, tweeted about their time at the company recounting the pay disparities, retaliation and sexist, racist comments they endured.

Soon after the tweets went viral, Pinterests former chief operating officer, Francoise Brougher, sued the company for gender discrimination and retaliation. In December, Pinterest paid Brougher $22.5 million and donated $2.5 million to charities for women and minorities in tech.

That same month, the company was sued by its shareholders claiming that top executives ignored allegations of discrimination and fostered a 'toxic' work place.
Melania Trump was sound asleep the night of the 2020 election as her husband, former President Donald Trump, and his allies were becoming increasingly agitated over then-candidate Joe Biden's growing command in the race, according to a new excerpt from Stephanie Grisham's book released Monday.

The former White House press secretary claims in her memoir 'I'll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw In The White House,' that the former first lady spent part of the election coverage asleep before Trump held an unprecedented press conference prematurely claiming victory and fueling baseless theories of election fraud.

'I knocked a few times, quietly at first but louder at each attempt,' Grisham writes in the excerpt obtained by Politico.

'I finally opened the bedroom door only to find that Melania Trump was sound asleep.'

She reportedly slept through most of the night, according to CNN.

'Maybe she thought that someone would wake her up if Trump won,' Grisham, who was Melania's chief of staff at the time, speculated.

But she woke up in time to join the former president's infamous 2:30 a.m. press conference.

Melania Trump was asleep through most of election night but woke up in time for her husband's infamous 2:30 a.m. press conference, Stephanie Grisham claims

The former White House press secretary (pictured in November 2019) makes the claims in her memoir 'I'll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw In The White House'

Melania and Grisham were at the ex-president's Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida the night before.

The former Trump family confidante said they stayed up late preparing for election night and woke up early to vote before flying back to Washington.

Grisham acknowledged Melania valued her sleep and gave her the benefit of the doubt.

'But still, I couldnt imagine being asleep at a time like that,' she wrote.

A former White House aide told Politico Melania simply expected a late night and 'took a nap.'

In a separate excerpt obtained by Politico, Grisham also writes she was 'shocked' that Melania shared the former president's view the 2020 election was stolen.

'Something bad happened,' Melania told her in regards to the election, and allegedly refused to listen to Grisham's denials of a grand conspiracy to boot Trump from office.

'Ill Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw in The Trump White House,' will be published on October 5 by Harper Collins.

Grisham has already dropped a number of bombshells about Melania Trump in her forthcoming book, 'Ill Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw in The Trump White House,' to be published on October 5 by Harper Collins

Despite the book's name Grisham did not give a single press conference in her eight-month tenure as White House press secretary.

She first began working in Trump's presidential campaign in 2015 as a press wrangler.

She followed the Trumps to the White House, joining Melania in the East Wing to over see her communications From June 2019 through April 2020, Grisham served as White House press secretary, before moving back to the East Wing as Melania's chief of staff.

The two women were once close and would text often.

Melania brought Grisham back to the East Wing, keeping her in the Trump White House, after Mark Meadows had her pushed out as press secretary when he became chief of staff.

But Grisham resigned in protest following the January 6 Capitol riot.

She revealed why in the earlier Politico excerpt.

In it she claims Melania reportedly knew about the January 6 riot earlier than previously thought, and refused to make a public statement denouncing it minutes after supporters of her husband broke into the US Capitol building.

Grisham and the first lady were reportedly close and would text often (pictured watching a performance of dancers in Malawi in 2018)

She instead prepared for a photo shoot with a rug she selected, according to Grisham.

At 1:25 p.m. that day, shortly after MAGA rioters breached the Capitol, she sent Melania a text asking if she wanted to condemn violent demonstrations, Grisham writes.

'Do you want to tweet that peaceful protests are the right of every American, but there is no place for lawlessness and violence?' she asked.

'No.' Melania replied a minute later, according to the book.

Grisham said the response 'broke' her. She quit the White House soon after.

The first lady's former ally said her opinion of her once-good friend shifted to see her more as 'the doomed French queen' Marie Antoinette - 'Dismissive. Defeated. Detached.'

The timing of Grisham's text to Melania also seems to call the White House's timeline of events that day into question.

Grisham is the only top White House staffer to have served in both the East and West Wings (pictured with former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway and former Deputy White House Press Secretary Hogan Gidley)

An hour later on January 6 at 2:24 p.m., former President Donald Trump lambasted his Vice President Mike Pence on Twitter, claiming he 'didn't have the courage to do what should have been done to protest our Country and our Constitution.'

Meanwhile, angry Trump supporters were chanting 'Hang Mike Pence' in the halls and outside.

Security video from that day shows Pence and his family being rushed out of the Capitol just two minutes later.

But the White House claimed Trump wasn't aware Pence was in danger.

Melania finally released a statement condemning the Capitol riot on January 11.

A statement sent to Politico by Melania's office blasted Grisham personally and professionally.

'The intent behind this book is obvious. It is an attempt to redeem herself after a poor performance as press secretary, failed personal relationships, and unprofessional behavior in the White House. Through mistruth and betrayal, she seeks to gain relevance and money at the expense of Mrs. Trump,' her office wrote.
A newlywed died while hiking after slipping and falling 200 feet off a mountainous Utah trail branded 'extremely difficult and dangerous'.

Andrew Acuff, a 26-year-old newlywed from Salt Lake City, died Sunday after he reportedly fell while hiking the Wasatch Uintah Ridgeline Trail in the Dromedary Peak area, The Salt Lake Tribune reported.

A group of hikers found his body later the same day in a 'steep scree field' hundreds of feet below the summit while they were on the Cottonwood Traverse, near the O'Sullivan Peak, according to the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Search and Rescue team.

Andrew Acuff (left) and Josephine Chau (right) were newlywed, who married on July 30th this year. They both went on many trail adventures together, according to Acuff's Instagram

The Department of Public Safety Helicopter was called to help with the recovery of Acuff's remains.

That chopper flew in two members of the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Search and Rescue unit.

They were able to retrieve Acuff's body, so that the helicopter could hoist him off the mountain and transport them to Alta, 0.6miles away from the Dromedary Peak area.

The helicopter then returned for the two rescuers.

Andrew Acuff (pictured), a 26-year-old from Salt Lake City, died Sunday when he plunged 200 feet to his death while attempting to hike the Wasatch Uintah Ridgeline Trail

Acuff was married to Josephine Chau since July 30th this year. The young couple were enthusiastic hikers, according to Acuff's social media.

Commenting on the recent incident, Unified Police Sgt Melody Cutler said the terrain in the area is rough, and only skilled hikers should use the trail Acuff plunged from.

'This trail is becoming increasingly popular and the reality is it's an incredibly dangerous trail which requires a very skilled hiker, so knowing in advance that this is not your average trail  and when we talk about highly skilled, we're not talking about good physical condition, we're talking about having really high technical skills,' Cutler told KSL News.

According to the police, Acuff and some friends had planned to meet up with other hikers, but he never showed up.

He was last heard from around 9.30a.m. on Sunday.

Local police and search and rescue dispatchers said the terrain in the Dromedary Peak area (pictured) is rough, and only skilled hikers should discover the area

Acuff's two uncles, Mike and Jim, from Tennessee and Texas, posted tributes to their Facebook pages after learning about their nephew's death, also asking to pray for their brother.

'I got a call last night that my nephew Andrew had passed away due to a tragic accident. He had just gotten married, finished physical therapy school, and was living life to the fullest,' Mike Acuff posted.

'My nephew Andrew Acuff passed away yesterday at 26.'

'Please pray for my brother and his family as well as our entire family. Andrew was a pure soul- also hysterical and super random as a kid,' Jim Acuff wrote online.

Mike Acuff, one of Andrew's uncles, posted a tribute to his nephew on Facebook on Sunday

Andrew's other paternal uncle, Jim, also paid tribute to his nephew, saying he was a 'pure soul' on Facebook

Meanwhile, search and rescue officials are worried about the popularity of the trail, which is nearly 16,000 feet in elevation.

Hiking experts have said that 'being fit is not enough' and that social media and more people looking for outdoor recreation could be leading more people to attempt the climb, KUTV reported.

The number of rescues has also increased along the Wasatch Ultimate Ridge Linkup trail, experts told news outlets.

'It's not a hike at all. I think that's where some people misunderstand what the WURL is,' Sam Jewkes, who hiked the trail, told Fox 13. 'It's really not a hike; it's climbing. I mean, you're on rocks the entire time.'
Alex Murdaugh's lawyer says he may know who killed the South Carolina legal scion's wife and son earlier this year, and he does expect his client to be arrested for embezzling funds from a law firm to fuel an addiction to painkillers.

Murdaugh survived being shot in the head on September 4 while changing a tire on a rural highway, after allegedly hiring a hitman on himself so his surviving son could collect a $10 million life insurance payment.

Attorney Dick Harpootlian says that the motive for the June 7 murder of Murdaugh's wife, Maggie, 52, and son, Paul, 22, was 'personal' and that the identity of the suspect could be revealed sometime this week.

Harpootlian told NBCs TODAY that Murdaugh, 53, was addicted to opioids and fell into depression after the murder of his wife and son.

The lawyer says that his client hatched the hitman scheme to protect his child - 25-year-old Buster Murdaugh.

'He was in a dark, dark, dark place and he wanted to help his remaining son, Buster, in any way he could,' Harpootlian says.

'He thought this was the only way he could leave him with anything.'

'It was an attempt on his part to do something to protect his child,' Harpootlian says of the suicide-for-hire scheme.

'He didn't want law enforcement spending time on this fake crime instead of focusing on solving the murders of Maggie and Paul.'

Harpootlian acknowledged that Murdaugh is likely to be arrested for allegedly misappropriating millions from his own law firm.

Alex Murdaugh's lawyer, Dick Harpootlian (left), says he knows who killed the South Carolina legal scion's wife and son earlier this year though he does expect his client to be arrested for embezzling funds from a law firm to fuel an addiction to painkillers. Murdaugh is seen right with his late wife, Maggie

Paul and Maggie (together left) were shot dead on June 7. Police say Alex Murdaugh (center) orchestrated a separate shooting to kill himself with the help of a hitman, in a scheme to deliver a $10 million life insurance payout to his other son Buster (right) as the elder Murdaugh faced investigation over misallocated funds

Overnight, an arrest was made in the shooting of prominent South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh, an attack authorities now say Murdaugh actually planned himself. @CatieBeckNBC reports. pic.twitter.com/GyvsqCwAY8  TODAY (@TODAYshow) September 15, 2021

Harpootlian told TODAY that he and another lawyer visited Murdaugh at an out-of-state detox facility on Monday.

He said it was the first time he and the other lawyer, Jim Griffin, spoke to Murdaugh when he wasnt on opioids or Oxy (oxycodone).

He clearly knew that what he had done was wrong, Harpootlian told TODAY on Wednesday.

Curtis Edward Smith, 61, was arrested on Tuesday on charges of assisted suicide in the alleged insurance fraud scheme

'He believed that $10 million policy had a suicide exclusion,' according to the attorney.

'Suicide exclusions are only good for two years, and he didn't realize that. So he arranged to have this guy shoot him.'

Curtis Edward Smith, 61, was arrested on Tuesday charges of assisted suicide, assault and battery, pointing and presenting a firearm, insurance fraud and conspiracy to commit insurance fraud.

Smith, from Walterboro, South Carolina, is a former client of Murdaugh, 53, who represented him in minor traffic matters as well as a 2015 lawsuit that Smith filed against a forest management company.

According to police, Murdaugh paid Smith to shoot him in the head and kill him, making it look like a random, drive-by attack.

But the plan failed as the shot only grazed his head, according to state police.

On June 7, the bodies of Maggie Murdaugh, 52, and her son Paul Murdaugh, 22, were found by Alex Murdaugh at their South Carolina home.

Alex Murdaugh immediately identified himself on the 911 call and told the operator his 'wife and child have been shot' near dog kennels on his property.

Ive been up to it now. Its bad, Murdaugh said.

Exclusive DailyMail.com photos show Richard Alexander 'Buster' Murdaugh Jr. at the family's Edisto Island property in South Carolina on Monday. Buster is Alex Murdaugh's sole surviving heir after the murder of his brother Paul in June

Investigators work the scene where Alex Murdaugh was shot in the head and injured on Sept. 4, 2021 after he had car trouble on a rural road in in Hampton County, S.C.

During the 911 call, dogs could be heard barking in the background and Murdaugh sounded deeply upset and agitated.

He told the operator several times that neither his son or wife was breathing.

No arrests have been made.

Harpootlian adds The murder of his wife and son 90 days ago took a tremendous toll on him.

The lawyer denied that Alex Murdaugh had anything to do with the deaths of his wife and son.

'He did not murder them. He is totally distraught about their deaths,' Harpootlian tells NBC's TODAY.

The lawyer says that in the time he has spent with the family, they were 'affectionate' with each other and that there was no indication Alex Murdaugh wanted to do them harm.

Buster, 25, refused to answer DailyMail.com's questions when approached but did acknowledge that he had spoken to his father in recent days

Murdaugh is seen with his wife and son Paul, who were shot dead at the family hunting lodge on June 7. Police say Murdaugh orchestrated a separate shooting on September 4, hiring a hitman to kill himself in a plot to get an insurance payout for his surviving son

Harpootlian also claims that he and Griffin are pursuing leads and have gathered information that may implicate a suspect in the June killings of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh.

The attorney says that he and Griffin have zeroed in on 'an individual or individuals we believe - may - have some culpability' or had carried out the murder.

'We think we'll know this week whether the one suspect we're looking at bears further scrutiny and we'll make that information available to law enforcement,' Harpootlian says.

When asked what motive this individual may have had in killing Maggie and Paul Murdaugh, Harpootlian says: 'Well, that would reveal who that person is, but it's personal.'

'The motive would be personal.'

Harpootlian says that his client used 'the vast majority' of the funds that he is alleged to have embezzled from his law firm 'to buy drugs.'

The attorney says that he made Alex Murdaugh available for interviews with South Carolina law enforcement.

Murdaugh was changing the tire on his car on this rural road in Hampton County when someone shot him from a passing car, according to his attorney

According to Harpootlian, Alex Murdaugh told investigators that he wrote personal checks to 'drug dealers' to obtain the painkillers.

The lawyer says that he left a paper trail that law enforcement officials are now looking at.

When asked if he expects Alex Murdaugh to be arrested, Harpootlian replies: 'Yes, I think he will be charged.

'But what he doesn't want - and we don't want - is an effort to deal with these issues [which] distract from law enforcement resources that could be used to solve the murders of Maggie and Paul.'

It was Alex Murdaugh who discovered his wife and son's bodies near dog kennels on the property and called 911 shortly after 10pm on the evening of June 7.

According to investigators mother and son were killed between 9 and 9.30pm.

Paul suffered fatal shotgun wounds to the head and torso. His mother was killed with a semi-automatic rifle.

Murdaugh was visiting his sick father in hospital on the night of the shooting  Randolph Murdaugh III died three days later after a long battle with cancer.

What little information has emerged since, has only served to deepen the mystery surrounding the events on the Islandton estate in June.

At the time of his death, Paul Murdaugh was awaiting trial on a charge of boating under the influence causing death in a February 2019 crash that killed 19-year-old Mallory Beach.

Whether local law enforcement agencies tried to obstruct the investigation into the boating death is also being reviewed by state officials.

Alex Murdaugh's father, Randolph Murdaugh III, died of cancer the same week that Maggie and Paul Murdaugh were found dead, according to Harpootlian

Moselle Hunting Lodge where Maggie and Paul Murdaugh were gunned down June 7. Their bodies were discovered by Murdaugh by the dog kennels

On June 7, Alex Murdaugh (right) discovered his son Paul and wife Maggie (center) dead at the dog kennels on the family property

Mallory died when Paul, 'intoxicated' and 'belligerent' ploughed his father's boat into a piling in Archers Creek after an afternoon of drinking at an oyster roast.

Paul was one of six teenagers described by police as 'grossly intoxicated' that night. He was awaiting trial on three felony counts of boating under the influence, including boating under the influence resulting in death, a charge which carries a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison.

He had been released on a $50,000 bond pending his trial. All charges were dismissed two months after his death but the wrongful death suit being brought by Mallory's mother, Renee, is still being pursued.

Buster is named as it was his license that Paul used to purchase the alcohol that night  a practice which, lawyers for Beach allege, was both common and done with Buster's knowledge.

Last week DailyMail.com revealed that Murdaugh's insurance company Philadelphia Indemnity have refused to pay out on two personal injury policies to the tune of $6million.

According to court records seen by DailyMail.com Indemnity found that they had 'no obligation' to defend or indemnify Murdaugh or his older son for a host of reasons.

Mallory Beach, 19, was killed in a fatal boating accident in February 2019 when Paul, 'intoxicated' and 'belligerent' ploughed his father's boat into a piling in Archers Creek

The company stated that Murdaugh 'had knowledge or should have had knowledge that his minor son illegally purchased and consumed alcohol on a regular basis by using or displaying the driver's license of his adult son, Murdaugh Jr.'

They continued, 'It was foreseeable that Murdaugh's son would purchase alcohol for consumption by other minors and would then become intoxicated.'

Attorneys for Beach have since filed yet more paperwork in the wrongful death suit stating their intention to come after Murdaugh's two properties  the hunting lodge and the Edisto Island beach house at which Buster busied himself Friday afternoon.

Neighbors at the waterside enclave recalled the Murdaughs as a family who 'kept themselves to themselves' during their summers at the beach home. One who knew Maggie described her as simply, 'wonderful.'

Throughout this turmoil older son Buster has remained entirely hidden, but DailyMail.com recently revealed that he and a woman believed to be a family member arrived at the family's beach home early afternoon Friday.

The investigation continues.

Murdaugh claims to have an 'iron clad alibi' for the night of his wife and younger son's murder, saying he was visiting his father in the hospital, just days before the father's death of cancer.

Murdaugh's surviving son, 25-year-old Richard Alexander 'Buster' Murdaugh Jr, was spotted by DailyMail.com on Monday at the family's Edisto Island property in South Carolina.

Buster, the sole surviving heir to his father's South Carolina legal dynasty, was apparently supposed to receive the insurance payout from his father's death in the botched assisted suicide scheme alleged by investigators.

Buster refused to answer DailyMail.com's questions when approached but did acknowledge that he had spoken to his father in recent days.

He would not say when he saw his father last, what he thought would happen next or answer any questions about Murdaugh's injuries or recovery.

He said, 'I have no interest in commenting on any of y'all's questions.'
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Prince Andrew was pictured at Balmoral today as the High Court agreed to formally notify him about Virginia Roberts's bombshell sex assault claim - raising the possibility he could have to give evidence.

The Queen's son, 61, was seen with his former wife Sarah Ferguson on a lawn outside the castle, where Her Majesty is currently in residence.

In a major development, English judges accepted a request by Ms Roberts' legal team to formally contact Andrew about the civil proceedings launched in America, after first rejecting the request, citing a technicality.

For one person to sue another in a civil case, the claimant has to formally present legal papers to the other party to notify them of the action - a process known as a service of proceedings.

Last week, Ms Roberts' legal team said it had tried to serve papers to the 61-year-old by leaving the documents with a police officer at his home in southern England, in addition to sending them by Royal Mail.

However, despite Andrew being represented in court, his team have argued he has not yet been properly served so the case cannot progress.

In response, Ms Roberts' legal team used the Hague Service Convention, a treaty governing requests between nations for evidence in civil cases, to ask the High Court to formally notify Andrew about her action.

After earlier highlighting an issue with the application, the High Court today said it has now been accepted. This means the court will serve Andrew the papers itself if Ms Roberts' lawyers are unable to themselves.

Today's development does not necessarily mean Andrew will have to defend himself in court.

Even after receiving the papers he could still ignore the case, according to one UK lawyer, although David Boies, representing Ms Roberts - who is now known as Virginia Giuffre - denied this.

'The bottom line is Prince Andrew is being served,' he told The Sun. 'That is the substance of what the High Court says. He cannot refuse.'

Prince Andrew pictured today at Inchnabobart Lodge on the Balmoral Estate, where the Queen is currently staying

Andrew's former wife, Sarah Ferguson, was seen with Andrew at Balmoral today, and is seen getting into a Range Rover

Andrew - seen today at Balmoral - has been seen regularly with his former wife amid reports he wants to remarry her

Andrew is being sued by Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who accuses him of sexually assaulting her when she was a teenager. She claims to have been trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein

The High Court said today: 'Lawyers acting for Ms Giuffre have now provided further information to the High Court, and the High Court has accepted the request for service under the Hague Service Convention.

'The legal process has not yet been served but the High Court will now take steps to serve under the convention, unless service is arranged by agreement between the parties.'

Ms Roberts is suing the Queen's son for allegedly sexually assaulting her when she was a teenager. She is seeking unspecified damages, but there is speculation the sum could be in the millions of dollars.

She claims she was trafficked by Andrew's former friend and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to have sex with the duke, when she was aged 17 and a minor under US law.

What is the Hague Service Convention? The Hague Service Convention is a treaty governing requests between nations for evidence in civil or commercial cases. It allows claimants in one country to ask the authorities in another signatory nation to request evidence from one of its citizens. Ms Roberts' lawyers invoked the treaty because they were unable to serve Andrew with legal papers to begin their case against him. The High Court has now agreed to serve the papers itself if Ms Roberts' lawyers are unable to do so themselves. The treaty was negotiated in 1967 and 1968 and signed in The Hague on 18 March 1970. It entered into force in 1972. Advertisement

The question about whether Andrew had been properly notified about the case was a major topic at Monday's pre-trial hearing at the US district court for the southern district of New York.

The Duke's attorney, Andrew B Brettler, said their legal team had 'significant concerns' about the lawsuit, and that Ms Roberts had previously entered into a 'settlement agreement' that would nullify her case.

Mr Brettler said during the hearing, held via telephone conference, the duke's team contested 'the validity of service to date', adding he has not been properly served under either UK or international law.

David Boies, representing Ms Roberts, said that the complaint had been 'delivered to the last known address of the defendant', he added that the documents had also been sent 'by Royal Mail'.

But it appears Mr Boies and his colleagues are trying another course by making the request to the High Court.

Ms Guiffre, an alleged victim of convicted paedophile Epstein, filed a lawsuit against the Queen's son in federal court in Manhattan on August 9. She claims she was forced to have sex with the royal three times when she was 17 - under the age of consent in the US.

The lawsuit claimed that Andrew was one of the 'powerful men' who Epstein loaned Ms Guiffre, then Ms Roberts, out to for sex and accused the duke of 'publicly feigning ignorance about the scope of Epstein's sex-trafficking operation and sympathy for Epstein's victims'.

Andrew, Virginia Roberts, aged 17, and Ghislaine Maxwell at Maxwell's townhouse in London

Prince Andrew with his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson leaving Windsor to drive to the Queen's Balmoral estate in Scotland last week

Ms Guiffre alleges the first time with the royal was at the London townhouse of Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's alleged madam.

The second time, in 2001, was at Epstein's New York mansion, and the third time was on Epstein's private island in the Caribbean. The formal allegations against the duke are battery and infliction of emotional distress.

Andrew has long denied the allegations and has not been charged with any crime. In a car-crash 2019 interview with the BBC, he claimed he had no memory of ever meeting Ms Roberts, now a 38-year-old mother-of-three who lives in Australia and goes by her married name.

A now-infamous photo, taken inside the London townhouse of Maxwell shows Andrew smiling for the camera with his arm around Ms Roberts' waist while Maxwell stands in the background.

Andrew has vehemently denied all the allegations.
Commissioners in Surfside, Florida, have rejected a proposal to trade public beachfront to the eventual buyer of the condominium collapse site so that a memorial to the 98 victims could be built there.

The decision followed an emotional meeting Tuesday as family members of those who died in the June 24 collapse of the Champlain Towers South and town residents packed the commission chambers.

After about an hour of public comment, commissioners told the victims' families that they wouldn't consider a proposal to tear down Surfside's 10-year-old community center and build a new one, along with a memorial, at the collapse site. They also said they would not put such a land swap before voters in a referendum.

'My heart breaks for you because I know this is something that you were getting your hopes up about,' Mayor Charles Burkett, who was the lone supporter of the proposal, told the victims' relatives in the crowd. 'I hope you will not give up hope.'

Commissioners Salzhauer and Nelly Velasquez had appealed to opponents of the proposed land swamp to speak up.

Scroll down for video

Surfside, Florida commissioners on Tuesday rejected a proposal to swap public land for the site of the collapsed Champlain Towers condominium to build a memorial

The June 24 collapse of the 12-story condominium building claimed 98 lives

A proposal has been made to trade public beachfront to the eventual buyer of the collapse site so that a memorial and a new community center could be built there

'This is the moment we come together as a community to defend our community center and all town-owned properties,' Velasquez wrote on social media.

Salzhauer wrote separately that the town 'will NOT allow this tragedy to be exploited for profit and become the undoing or Surfside's priceless community center and our residents' quality of life.'

Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett (pictured on July 11), who was the lone supporter of the proposal, told the victims' relatives during Tuesday's meeting: 'my heart breaks for you'

Deliberations were interrupted at times by upset family members, the Miami Herald reported. One man yelled 'Let the people vote!' A woman pressed Salzhauer on her recent comments, saying: 'You called us delusional.'

The board agreed to explore ways to build a victims memorial, either on a sliver of land where part of the tower fell, or at another location.

Currently, an offer of $120million for the Champlain Towers South property is on the table.

The swap plan would have allowed the buyer to build a tower instead at the site of Surfside's community center, which features an oceanfront pool and waterslide and multi-purpose rooms. A new center would be built, along with a memorial, at the disaster site.

Miami-Dade Judge Michael Hanzman, who is overseeing the class-action lawsuit over the collapse, had favored the trade as a way of compensating victims through a property sale while enabling a memorial to be built.

'It shouldn't be their decision, it should be the residents' decision,' said David Rodan, whose brother and three cousins died in the collapse. 'They're afraid because they know that the residents want to do the right thing, they want to look back in history and see a memorial where it should be instead of a building.'

Rodan told the Herald that he and his group will continue pushing for a referendum by starting a petition and harnessing the power of social media to promote it.

Community members were allowed to weigh in on the proposed land swap during an emotional meeting on Tuesday

Commissioners said they would not consider the proposed land trade and would not put it to a vote in a referendum

'The community wants to see a memorial there and if the land swap is the only option, the community is willing to move their community center five blocks,' Rodan said.

However, some residents who oppose the land swap told commissioners they support a memorial site, but not at the expense of the community center.

'I'm in favor of a memorial. I think it's only right for the victims and their families. I'm not in favor of a land swap,' Surfside resident Paul OMalley told NBC6.

Raquel Oliveira, whose husband and 5-year-old son died in the collapse, asked commissioners to help the families find a way to build a memorial.

'Maybe the swap is not the best option or maybe it is,' she said. 'What I ask is that we have a little bit of time to take the right decision.'

Commissioners said they plan to team up with the victims' families to raise money for the memorial.

'I will do what we can to make that happen,' Salzhauer said. 'But we cannot take the towns land. We are not going to swap the community center. That is not an option.'
Two young Honduran children were found near the shore of the Rio Grande in Texas on Tuesday after being abandoned there by people smugglers.

A two-year-old girl was discovered with a car seat containing her three-month-old brother, U.S. Customs and Border Protection revealed.

Officers assigned to the Eagle Pass South Station were patrolling the river that serves as the border between the United States and Mexico when they spotted an 'unusual color on the riverbank.'

The agents stopped their boat operation and found the girl sitting on the grass next to the car seat.

Agents said a note was found under the baby's carrier explaining that the pair were siblings, but did not reveal its exact contents.

The children did not require medical attention, officials said.

A two-year-old girl from Honduras and her two-month-old brother were rescued by U.S. Border Patrol agents Tuesday after they were found on the riverbank of the Rio Grande

A U.S. Border Patrol agent tends to the two Honduran children who were abandoned on the riverbank of the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass, Texas, on Tuesday

The officers immediately took the children in and transported them to a nearby facility.

Agents searched the area, but could not find any trace of the smugglers who had abandoned the young children.

Chief Patrol Agent Robert N. Garcia posted on Twitter: 'The attention to detail our agents demonstrate while preforming their duties can be the difference between life and death.

'It is heartbreaking and frustrating to know that there are children being abandoned without remorse or concern for their lives and wellbeing.'

Chart shows number of unaccompanied minors stopped at the southern border over the last four years. According to data released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection in August, Border Patrol agents had stopped that 113,791 unaccompanied children for crossing the United States-Mexico border since October 1, 2010 - the start of fiscal year 2021

The disturbing finding is just the latest report of unaccompanied minors being abandoned at the border by people smugglers with no apparent regard for the children's safety.

It comes five days after police found a six-year-old boy at a Wal-Mart in Brownsville, Texas.

The Salvadoran child was left behind alone at the store on Thursday and turned over to the Brownsville Border Patrol Station. He provided agents a note with the contact information for his aunt in Houston.

In late August, U.S. Border Patrol agents rescued two Ecuadorian girls who were able to call 911 after they were left stranded in the desert outside Ocotillo, California.

On March 30, two sisters -also from Ecuador - were dumped by smugglers over a 14-foot high border wall in New Mexico. They were later reunited with their parents, who live in the New York area.

A six-year-old boy from El Salvador was found alone at a Wal-Mart in Brownsville, Texas, last Thursday. CBP figures provided in August showed that 113,791 unaccompanied children have been stopped for crossing the United States-Mexico border since October 1, 2001

Ecuadorian siblings (pictured) were rescued by Border Patrol agents in late August after there abandoned in the desert near Ocatillo, California

El Paso Sector Chief Patrol Agent Gloria Chavez provides snacks to the two girls from Ecuador who were abandoned by human smugglers and dropped over a 14-foot high border wall in New Mexico on March 30

Despite the efforts by President Joe Biden's administration to open up the asylum border process and keep migrants from remaining in Mexico for immigration court hearings, parents continue to risk the lives of their children and send them alone in droves over the United States-Mexico southwestern border region.

CBP data released in August showed that 113,791 unaccompanied children have been interdicted by border agents since October 1, 2001 - the start of fiscal year 2021.

Figures have increased over the previous three months, with 18,962 unaccompanied minors being smuggled over the border in July.
Pfizer's Covid vaccine could be rolled out to babies as young as six months in the US this winter, under plans being drawn up by the pharmaceutical giant.

In a move likely to cause international controversy, the company intends to apply for authorisation to immunise American infants within the next two months.

The timeline will depend on the findings of in-house trials looking into whether the vaccines are safe and effective in youngsters aged six months to five years.

Frank D'Amelio, chief financial officer at Pfizer, told an industry conference yesterday that the firm plans to 'go file' by November, the Financial Times reports.

'We would expect to have... data for children between the ages of six months and five years old that we would file with the FDA,' D'Amelio said at the Morgan Stanley Global Healthcare Conference. 'I'll call it in the weeks shortly thereafter the filing of the data for the five- to 11-year-olds.'

Pfizer was already planning to seek approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the jabs to be given in children aged five to 11 by October.

But the latest comments confirm the firm's intention to work its way down much younger age groups. They will be given a lower dose than adults.

Pfizer's jab, made alongside German partner BioNTech, is already approved for over-12s in Britain.

There is no publicly available safety data on babies given the Pfizer jab. Extremely rare events are normally only spotted when vaccines are rolled out on a national scale.

Pfizer and Moderna are due to release safety data on trials of children aged five to 11 in the coming weeks.

Pfizer's Covid vaccine could be rolled out to babies as young as six months this winter in the US (file)

THE RISK OF COVID VERSUS RISK OF PFIZER VACCINE AMONG 12 TO 15-YEAR-OLDS IN THE UK: British regulators looked at the risk of a child being admitted to ICU with Covid. They also looked at the risk of vaccine-induced health inflammation - known as myocarditis - in young people given the Pfizer jab, which was still very small but slightly more common after a second dose

The Pfizer vaccine given to children is weaker than the version given to adults, with those aged between six months and five years injected with a 3 microgram vaccine.

Six to 11-year-olds are given 10 micrograms, while children over 12 and adults receive the full 30 micrograms.

Children may get 'better' immunity from catching Covid naturally Children may get 'better' immunity from catching Covid naturally instead of getting one dose of a vaccine. Professor David Livermore, a microbiologist at the University of East Anglia, claimed it was 'pretty pointless' to inoculate youngsters, who face such a vanishingly small risk of falling seriously ill with Covid. He told MailOnline they would probably develop more protection from catching the virus, in a similar way as to how they build up immunity against other seasonal illnesses. Covid vaccines work by teaching the immune system to recognise the virus and give it the power to fight it off in the future. But some studies have suggested vaccine-triggered immunity starts to wane within six months, while some data has suggested people who have recovered from the virus may be protected for at least a year. One Israeli study claimed people who get the vaccine are 13 times more likely to catch Covid than those who have recovered from a previous infection. Advertisement

Preliminary trials of the Pfizer vaccine in young children suggests it is safe, but there are ethical concerns as well as fears about the small risk of side complications.

For teenage children and young adults, there is about a less than one in 10,000 risk of heart inflammation known as myocarditis.

While the vast majority of people who get myocarditis are treated within days, it's unclear what the long-term effects are.

The US has been vaccinating children aged 12 and above since the start of the summer and elementary-aged pupils are expected to be given the jabs in the fall.

Britain only this week signed off on those plans, with officials claiming the benefit was only 'marginal' because Covid poses such a low risk to children.

British children under 16 are only being offered one dose of Pfizer's vaccine, until more data has been gathered on the safety of giving them two doses.

There are also ethical questions about vaccinating youngsters mostly to protect older adults.

Latest official US data shows that in the week ending August 14, the Covid hospitalisation rate among children aged four or younger was just 2.2 per 100,000.

That was more than six times lower than the 15.8 per 100,000 rate among the highly-vaccinated over-65 age group.

In states reporting pediatric cases, children have accounted for fewer than 0.25 per cent of all Covid deaths.

Seven states have reported no child deaths, while other states reported that children made up as low as 0.03 per cent of all fatalities, according to analysis by National Public Radio.

American children between the ages of five and 11 could be eligible for the Covid vaccine by the end of October, according to the former head of the FDA.

Scott Gottlieb, who headed the FDA under former President Donald Trump and now sits on the board of directors at Pfizer, says that the emergency use approval process for vaccinating young children could be done in a matter of weeks.

Gottlieb says the pharmaceutical giant is expected to file the paperwork with the federal government requesting authorization to vaccinate kids as early as September.
Two Republican congress members introduced legislation to pressure China to reveal everything the country knows about the origins of COVID-19, after the US said it couldn't determine whether it had leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Elise Stefanik, of New York, and Rob Wittman, of Virginia, put forth The World Deserves to Know Act, which would sanction Chinese officials suspected of suppressing the truth. The Act was introduced after U.S. investigators claimed China failed to cooperate with parts of the investigation and blocked critical information.

'It leaves all of us asking: What is China hiding,' Stefanik and Wittman wrote in an opinion piece for Fox.

'We know the Wuhan Institute of Virology was performing potentially dangerous research on coronaviruses. As early as 2018, concerned diplomats warned the Department of State of significant safety issues at the Wuhan lab.'

U.S. Representatives Elise Stefanik, left, and Rob Wittman are pushing for the U.S. to get definitive answers regarding the origin of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China

The Wuhan Institute of Virology was subject to multiple investigations by the U.S. government and the World Health Organization this year

Medical staff are seen with a coronavirus outbreak in the pandemic's origin city of Wuhan back on January 25, 2020

What is Gain of Function research? Gain of Function Research (GOF) is a controversial practice that involves altering a virus or pathogen in order to study the development of new diseases and their transmission. Scientists conducting GOF research modify naturally occurring viruses to make them more infectious so that they can replicate in human cells in a lab. This allows the virus's potential effects on humans to be studied and better understood. GOF has been considered controversial due to its inherent biosafety risks. In 2014, the Obama administration imposed a moratorium on GOF which included halting funding for projects, however, this decision was overturned three years later by the National Institute of Health (NIH). On May 25, 2021, White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci defended funding the Wuhan Institute of Virology through a $600,000 grant given to the non-profit EcoHealth Alliance, to study whether bat coronaviruses could be transmitted to humans. He said the research was essential, pointing out that the SARS outbreak in the early 2000s was eventually traced back to bats. However, Fauci claimed that under the terms of the funding, scientists were not to use the money on Gain of Function research. Advertisement

The bill would also prohibit American taxpayer dollars from being sent to China for potentially dangerous research.

In 2014, The U.S. had granted $600,000 to the Wuhan lab through the National Health Institute to study whether bat coronaviruses could be transmitted to humans.

But White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci claimed that the funds were not used for gain-of-function research. The National Institutes of Health - where Fauci serves as director, and which has ties to the WIV - has also denied it funded the research.

Gain-of-function research, a controversial practice that involves altering a virus or pathogen in order to potentially make it more infectious, to study the development of new diseases and their transmission, is feared to have been a potential cause of the COVID outbreak.

The Wuhan Institute of Virology was a biosafety level 4 lab, meaning it was approved to conduct gain-of-function research.

During a hearing with congress in May, Fauci said that the Chinese scientist at the lab were 'trustworthy,' but admitted they could have been lying about what the funds from the U.S. were being used for, NBC reported.

The grants to the Wuhan lab have ceased.

U.S. Senator Rand Paul, who was widely mocked and dismissed for adopting the theory early on that COVID could have originated in the Wuhan lab and leaked from it, accused Fauci of lying and claimed he knew that the funds were being used for gain-of-function research.

The two had a heated back-and-forth debate at a hearing in July.

'Dr. Fauci, knowing that it is a crime to lie to Congress, do you wish to retract your statement of May 11 where you claimed the NIH [National Institutes of Health] never funded gain of function research in Wuhan?' Paul asked of the nation's top immunologist and Joe Biden's top COVID advisor.

'Senator Paul, I have never lied before the Congress and I do not retract that statement,' Fauci shot back in the exchange on Capitol Hill during a Senate Health Committee hearing.

When Paul asked Fauci if taking an animal virus and increasing its transmissibility to humans is not the definition of 'gain of function', Fauci said: 'That is correct.'

'And Senator Paul, you do not know what you are talking about, quite frankly. And I want to say that officially  You do not know what you are talking about,' Fauci lambasted as the two began talking over each other in front of the hearing room.

'You won't admit the truth,' Paul rebutted.

'You are implying that what we did was responsible for the deaths of individual (sic). I totally resent that,' Fauci said.

'And it could have been,' Paul interjected.

'If anybody is lying here, senator, it is you,' Fauci said as he grabbed hold of the microphone and pointed at the Kentucky senator.

Dr. Fauci insisted to Congress in May that the US has never funded any kind of gain-of-function research in Wuhan to do with COVID-19. Newly unearthed files obtained by The Intercept have led some to question that claim

In 2014, the National Health Institute approved a five-year, yearly grant of $666,000 a year for five years ($3.3million) for EcoHealth Alliance, a US research organization, into bat coronavirus. EcoHealth Alliance, in its proposal to the NIH, acknowledged the risks involved were 'the highest risk of exposure to SARS or other CoVs' among staff, who could then carry it out of the lab. The NIH gave them the anyway - something Fauci was previously forced to admit when testifying before Congress in May this year. EcoHealth Alliance then gave $599,000 of the money to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Stefanik and Wittman also expressed worries over the claims that scientist at the lab ended up being infected with a 'mysterious illness' after working on SARS-like coronaviruses from bats just before the pandemic broke out in the Wuhan province of China.

'This seems too unlikely to be a coincidence,' they wrote.

The representatives have asked members of the House to support their bill and urged President Joe Biden to sign off on it if it passes in Congress.

The late Dr. Li Wenliang, an ophthalmologist at a Wuhan hospital, warned the world about COVID-19 in the early days of its spread, but was reprimanded by police for 'spreading rumors.'

He died in February 2020 from the very disease he was trying to warn everyone about.

China's communist government has claimed the virus likely originated from a Wuhan 'wet market' which slaughters live animals for food. But skeptics say the proximity of one of the few labs in the world that conducts research on coronaviruses is too much of a coincidence to ignore.

Following Wenliang's whistleblowing, Wei Jingsheng, a Chinese defector, said he warned the U.S. about what was unfolding in Wuhan but was subsequently ignored.

The long-time democracy campaigner, who has served time in prison for 'counter-revolutionary activities', said he approached the Trump administration in November 2019, as whispers of a 'new SARS virus' began circulating on WeChat and other Chinese social media platforms.

'I felt they were not as concerned as I was, so I tried my best to provide more detail and information,' he tells Sky News in the documentary, What Really Happened in Wuhan.

'They may not believe that a government of a country would do something like that (cover up a virus), so I kept repeating myself in an effort  to persuade them.'

Wuhan doctor Li Wenliang (pictured, left and right) blew the whistle on the mysterious new coronavirus in December 2019 and died in February 2020 after contracting the virus from a patient

Wei Jingsheng (pictured) claims he took his concerns about the unfolding situation to senior figures within the Trump administration but was subsequently ignored

A aerial view of the bio lab at the Wuhan Institute of Virology

Xi Jinping's authoritarian regime tried desperately to shut down whistle-blowers and silence any discussion of the virus in the early stages of the Wuhan outbreak - even when an untold number of corpses started flooding the city's hospitals.

Any references made in social media about a new SARS virus or 'outbreak' were censored and brave medical staff who tried to speak out and warn the world were detained and forced to sign false confessions of panic-stirring.

Mr Jingsheng, who was exiled to the US years earlier, said he was aware of what was happening through Beijing Communist Party insiders who shared their fears about the situation and described the central government cover-up.

But despite the impending health crisis set to devastate the US and the rest of the globe, his message was not being taken seriously, he claims.

The Chinese dissident would not disclose which political leaders he spoke to but insisted they were senior government figures and had the ear of then-President Donald Trump (pictured in April)

The Chinese dissident would not disclose which political leaders he spoke to but insisted they were senior government figures and had the ear of then-President Donald Trump.

As coronavirus cases continued to ravage Chinese, the authoritarian state kept the outbreak hidden from the WHO until December 31, when it was no longer possible to contain knowledge of its existence.

But even then, Beijing denied the virus could be transmitted from person to person until eventually coming clean a month at the end of January.

There have so far been 226 million cases resulting in over 4.6 million deaths.

More than 628,000 of those fatalities occurred in the US.
The United States is now requiring all new immigrants applying for permanent residency to be vaccinated against Covid-19 as part of their immigration medical examination, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced on Tuesday.

However, the new rule will not apply to migrants crossing the southern border illegally.

Anyone crossing the border has had the option to get the Johnson & Johnson vaccine at various patrol sites since early August, but it will still be on a voluntary basis and no one will need to show proof of vaccination to enter the country.

In a statement about the new mandate, which will be effective October 1, the USCIS wrote that anyone applying to become a lawful permanent resident, and other applicants as deemed necessary, must undergo an immigration medical examination to show they are free from any conditions that would render them inadmissible under the health-related grounds.'

All new immigrants applying for permanent residency must be vaccinated against Covid-19 as part of their immigration medical examination, but the new rule will not apply to migrants crossing the southern border illegally

Anyone crossing the border has had the option to get vaccinated since early August, but it is on a voluntary basis and migrants will still not need the shot or proof of vaccination to enter the country. Above, migrants are seen crossing the Rio Grande river

Most immigrants seeking a green card will be subject to the vaccine mandate, including asylum seekers, refugees and migrants adjusting their status to permanent residence. Those applying for temporary residency will only be subject to the mandate in certain cases, the USCIS states.

Migrants seeking asylum or refugee status from within the US will not be required to have the shot, unless they seek an 'adjustment of status' - the department's phrase to describe applying for a green card.

That application in itself can take years. The I-693 form must be submitted within 60 days of its completion, but it does not have to be submitted at the start of the adjustment of status application process.

That means an applicant could hold off on getting their vaccine while waiting to be called for an interview, or asked to provide a piece of evidence supporting their claim.

It also means that any asylum seeker or refugee who does seek to become a permanent resident would potentially not have to comply with the vaccine requirement for a lengthy period of time after their initial arrival in the US.

Adults caught crossing the southern border illegally are immediately returned to Mexico, as part of a Trump-era policy continued by the Biden administration.

Families with children are allowed to enter the US and can begin an asylum application after being processed.

Anyone seeking permanent citizenship must visit a doctor designated by the USCIS as a civil surgeon eligible to conduct the immigration medical examination and sign Form I-693, or a Report of Medical Examination and Vaccination Record.

The Covid-19 vaccination will be added to the CDCs list of shots required to complete the examination, which also includes varicella, the flu, pneumococcal pneumonia, rotavirus, Hepatitis A, meningococcal disease.

The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 established a precedent for vaccine mandate and required immigrants to be vaccinated against the mumps, measles, rubella, polio, tetanus, diphtheria toxoids, pertussis, haemophilius influenza type B and Hepatitis B.

Anyone seeking permanent citizenship must visit a doctor designated by the USCIS as a civil surgeon eligible to conduct the immigration medical examination and sign Form I-693, or a Report of Medical Examination and Vaccination Record

The above chart from the USCIS details which groups of immigrants are subject to the medical examination and vaccination requirements

Most immigrants seeking a green card will be subject to the vaccine mandate, including asylum seekers, refugees and migrants adjusting their status

Exemptions to the mandate apply if applicants are under 12 and therefore not yet eligible for the Covid-19 vaccination, if the vaccine if not routinely available where the civil surgeon practices or if a limit in the countrys vaccine supply would delay the process of completing the medical examination.

Applicants could also seek exemptions for medical or religious reasons by completing Form I-601, the Application for Waiver of Grounds of Inadmissibility.

President Joe Biden's administration in early August rolled out the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine to migrants as they await processing by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, The Washington Post reported last month, citing sources in the Department of Homeland Security.

The vaccine is offered to those facing deportation as well as though released into the United States pending a court hearing. Migrants who are being sent back to Mexico under the Title 42 public health law are not offered a shot.

According to a report last month, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been stepping up vaccinations at the border, but thousands of immigrants have refused.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said last Friday at a press briefing that the administration's goal is 'to get as many people vaccinated across the country as humanly possible.' But she breezed by a question about why businesses face a new mandate without a policy for vaccinating migrants at the southern border

Biden's new vaccine rules for private employers will affect about 80 million workers in the US and has faced backlash by a number of Republican lawmakers

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich filed a lawsuit on Tuesday and argued that it violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment

The USCIS announcement for those seeking permanent residency comes amid a surge in vaccine requirements by the Biden administration, which last week mandated the shot for federal workers and staff at businesses with 100 or more employees. Employers that do not enforce the mandate could face a $14,000 fine.

At last Friday's press briefing about the new mandate, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was grilled by a reporter about not requiring the shot for illegal migrants crossing the border. She got asked about the juxtaposed policies by Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy.

The reporter at first asked her, Why is it that you're trying to require anybody with a job, or anybody who has a job, or anybody who goes to school, to get a COVID-19 vaccine, but you're not requiring that of migrants who continue to walk across the southern border.'

Psaki responded that the objective is 'to get as many people vaccinated across the country as humanly possible,' adding that when 'more people are vaccinated, whether they are migrants or whether they are workers, protects more people in the United States.'

Doocy then pressed Psaki, saying: 'Vaccines are required for people at a business with more than 100 people. It is not a requirment for migrants at the border. Why?'

'That's correct,' she responded, quickly brushing off the question and moving on.

Many have taken to social media to criticize the administration's decision to force vaccine mandates on Americans while illegal immigrants aren't held to the same standards when entering the country.

Twitter user Todd Hudnall wrote, Are you aware the Biden Vaccine Mandate does not apply to migrants pouring across the border? It is quite clear these mandates aren't really about public health or stopping a virus.

Laurie Roberts, a columnist for azcentral.com, condemned the policies in an op-ed piece and tweeted, In what universe does it make sense for Biden to let border crossers decline a COVID vaccination while coercing American workers to get the jab?

Benny Johnson, who runs a podcast called The Benny Show, shared a clip of the press briefing on Twitter and repeated the exchange, writing,   [Doocy]: Vaccines are required for people at a business with more than 100 people. It is not a requirement for migrants at the border. Why?" Psaki: "That's correct" WHAT?!?!

Pradheep J. Shanker wrote in a tweet, And apparently I got my answer. The Biden admin is requiring legal Americans to get the vaccine, but not forcing those crossing the border illegally to get it. What an insane, unscientific policy that is.

Republican New York Representative Claudia Tenney slammed Biden on Twitter and wrote, Biden gave thousands of guns to the Taliban but wants to take yours away. Illegal aliens get hotel rooms while thousands of veterans are homeless. COVID positive migrants are flooding across the border while Americans get fired over their vaccine status. Bidens America.

And Twitter user Andrew Hudson tweeted, Migrants walking across the southern border arent required to get a vaccine, but everyone else in this country who goes to work is? Where does the hypocrisy stop.

Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers are threatening legal action against the Biden administration and claim the president is favoring unlawful migrants by not requiring the shot of them.

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, who is running in a crowded GOP primary to unseat Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly, filed a lawsuit against the administration on Tuesday and argued that the vaccine mandate violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.

'Migrants who cross the southern border illegally are not subject to any vaccination requirements even when released directly into the United States,' Brnovich said in a statement.

'This reflects an unmistakable -- and unconstitutional -- brand of favoritism in favor of illegal migrants.'

However, undocumented immigrants are required to be vaccinated or complete regular Covid-19 tests if they seek employment.

The Biden administration is pushing to increase vaccinations after rates have stagnated in recent days after a slight incline last month. Over 63percent of Americans have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, with 54 percent of the countrys population fully vaccinated, according to Our World in Data.
MSNBC's Joe Scarborough launched into a tirade against Facebook on Wednesday in response to a report the tech titan has known for years that Instagram is toxic for teenage girls, and has led to increased suicidal thoughts.

'They know that their product ... is killing teenage girls, their product is destroying the lives of teenage girls, their product is causing anxiety to rise in teenage girls, their product is causing depression to rise in teenage girls,' the Morning Joe host shouted on air.

The angry tirade was in response to a bombshell report on leaked internal Facebook research obtained by the Wall Street Journal that shows Instagram harms young girls' body image, and that the tech giant had known about the platform's harmful effects since at least 2019.

Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough launched into a furious rant Wednesday over a bombshell report that Facebook knew internally that Instagram was having a harmful effects on teenage girls, but continued to deny it publicly

"Start holding this malignant force in America in check," @joenbc's message to Congress about Instagram and Facebook pic.twitter.com/7akEgrdhX5  Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) September 15, 2021

Armed with that knowledge, Scarborough said there was no doubt that Facebook employees limited or entirely blocked their children from using the platform at home.

'It would be like asking a tobacco company in the 1960s if they let their 14 year old smoke cigarettes,' he said, drawing comparison to an industry that for years knew its product had adverse health effects but denied them publicly for years.

One message posted on an internal Facebook message board in March 2020 said the app revealed that 32 percent of girls said Instagram made them feel worse about their bodies if they were already having insecurities.

Another slide, from a 2019 presentation, said: 'We make body image issues worse for one in three teen girls.

'Teens blame Instagram for increases in the rate of anxiety and depression. This reaction was unprompted and consistent across all groups.'

Some of the research outlined in the report was shown to company employees as recent as last March

Another presentation found that among teens who felt suicidal, 13% of British users and 6% of American users traced their suicidal feelings to Instagram.

Scarborough claimed that Facebook was already responsible for a number of catastrophes in the US, such as worsening the Covid-19 pandemic through the spread of misinformation, and helping organize that January 6 insurrection on the Capitol.

'Somebody has got to stop this monopoly from not only spreading lies about Covid, not only making a pandemic worse, not only spreading anti-democratic conspiracy theories that lead to January the sixth, and help organize the first attack on Capitol Hill since the war of 1812, but also are killing our teenage girls,' he said casting blame on Washington lawmakers for their inaction.

Lawmakers blasted the leaked data, but Scarborough laid blame at the them, saying they have not acted against previous controversies that have embroiled the tech giant

Parents and politicians reacted angrily to the data, calling it 'sickening' that Facebook and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg have known how harmful Instagram is but have done nothing about it.

'This is appalling. Ill be demanding answers from Mark Zuckerberg,' Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey tweeted.

Zuckerberg, however, has been quiet in the past about the issues the app is blamed for causing among young girls.

He told Congress in March 2021 that Instagram has 'positive mental-health benefits'.

In August, when asked for information on how its products harmed young girls, the company responded in a letter to Senators: 'We are not aware of a consensus among studies or experts about how much screen time is "too much".'

While outrage against Facebook has mounted, Congress has so far stopped short of taking concrete steps to regulate the company

Senator Richard Blumenthal told the Journal that Facebook's answers were vague which raised questions that it was deliberately hiding the research.

'Facebook's answers were so evasive - failing to respond to all our questions - that they really raise questions about what Facebook might be hiding.

'Facebook seems to be taking a page from the textbook of Big Tobacco - targeting teens with potentially dangerous products while masking the science in public.'

In the letter, the company also said it kept the research 'confidential to promote frank and open dialogue and brainstorming internally.'

The slides also revealed how younger users had moved away from Facebook to using Instagram.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg knew about the March 2020 research but still went before Congress virtually in March 2021 (shown above) and claimed Instagram has 'positive mental-health benefits'

Forty percent of Instagram's 1billion monthly users are under the age of 22 and just over half are female.

The group of teens who said they were negatively impacted by the app were aged 13 and above.

Despite this, Zuckerberg even announced plans to launch a product for kids under the age of 13.

He told Congress that it would be safe, answering 'I believe the answer is yes' when asked if the effects of how safe it would be would be studied.

Concluding his rant, Scarborough called on lawmakers to take action against the social media giant.

'Stop telling us what you cant do and start holding this malignant force in America in check,' he said.
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The family of one of Britain's most notorious killers who slayed a family with a 4ft iron bar have paid their respects at his funeral today - along with hundreds of campaigners who insist that he is innocent.

David Morris, 59, always denied murdering Mandy Power, 24, her bed-ridden 80-year-old mother Doris Dawson and her two young daughters Katie, 10, and Emily, eight, who were bludgeoned to death at their home in the village of Clydach, near Swansea, before the house was set alight.

Morris, a builder who said he had been an occasional lover to Ms Power, was found guilty following a trial at Swansea Crown Court in 2002 but the verdict was later quashed. He was again found guilty at a retrial held at Newport Crown Court in 2006, and at the time of his death had spent 22 years behind bars.

Jurors had heard that Morris had battered Ms Power, who had been in a same-sex relationship with an ex-policewoman, to death in her home after she spurned his sexual advances. He then carried out a frenzied attack on her young children and disabled mother, who were also in the house at the time.

Morris, known as Dai, mysteriously died on August 20 at Long Lartin prison, Worcestershire, where he was serving a minimum of 32 years.

More than 200 mourners, including family, friends and members of the Free Dai Morris campaign attended his funeral today. Relatives and campaigners say they will continue to fight to prove his innocence.

Former solicitor John Morris had previously written a book called Clydach Murders: A Miscarriage of Justice, arguing that Morris was innocent and claiming there was no forensic or DNA evidence linking him to the crime.

It claims he was convicted because he did not have a solid alibi, his gold chain was found at the Powers' house and he had initially lied to the police, having previously been in trouble for minor offences.

Pictured: The funeral cortege, led by horses, arrives at Llanelli Crematorium, Wales, Wednesday 15 September 2021

Janiene Morris (centre with red hair), one of the two daughters of David Morris, is embraced as she arrives at Llanelli Crematorium, Wales

The coffin of David Morris being loaded onto a hearse in Swansea, Wales. Morris, 59, killed three generations of the same family in the Swansea Valley village in 1999

The coffin of David Morris is led into Llanelli Crematorium, Wales, Wednesday 15 September 2021

The funeral cortege, led by horses, arrives at Llanelli Crematorium, Wales. Morris, 59, known as Dai, mysteriously died at Long Lartin prison, Worcestershire, where he was serving a minimum of 32 years

David Morris, left, always denied murdering Mandy Power (right), 24, and her two young daughters Katie, 10, and Emily, eight, at their home in the village of Clydach, near Swansea. He was found guilty following a trial at Swansea Crown Court in 2002 but the verdict was later quashed. Morris was again found guilty at a retrial held at Newport Crown Court in 2006 and at the time of his death had spent 22 years behind bars

After a short service at a relative's home in Swansea, a hearse with flowers saying 'son' and 'Daddy' drove his wicker coffin to Llanelli crematorium. For the final part of the journey the funeral procession was led by two mounted black horses. The location of his wake was kept secret over fears it could lead to protests and violence.

Morris had been arrested after the finger of suspicion wrongly pointed to Ms Power's lover, former policewoman Alison Lewis.

Cellular material from Mandy Power's thigh was found to match a DNA sample volunteered by her lover, and DNA material from Ms Lewis was also found on a vibrator that had been inserted into Ms Power's body after death.

Ms Lewis and her former husband Stephen, an officer with South Wales Police, were arrested on suspicion of murder a year after the deaths, and Mr Lewis's brother Stuart, also a police officer, was arrested on suspicion of perverting the course of justice. They were all released without charge.

Prosecutor Patrick Harrington QC had said during the 2006 trial that Ms Lewis and Ms Power had three 'protracted sex sessions together' and 'the sex aid was used as a device as part of the couple's loving relationship'. He said that any DNA material left on the vibrator was as a result of this activity.

Investigations into the murders had been reignited in 2001 after an off-duty police officer claimed they overheard a conversation about Morris and Ms Power having had sex, leading to Morris becoming the focus of the investigations. He had previously given a statement to police in the weeks after the deaths.

Morris was found to have lied about whether a gold chain found at 9 Kelvin Road was his - he swore it wasn't 'on the lives of my children' but later admitted it was. He claimed he had hidden his relationship with Ms Power from police as it would have meant the end of his relationship with girlfriend Mandy Jewell, who had been best friends with Ms Power.

Problems were also found in Morris's alibi - he had claimed he wandered the streets for hours after leaving the New Inn pub on the edge of the village of Clydach before getting home at 3am when Ms Jewell let him in.

Ms Jewell told police he got home between 10.30pm and 11pm but she didn't let him in - later in court she said she didn't know what time he'd got back but she had let him in.

The juries of both of Morris's trials, in 2002 and 2006, were told of his previous convictions for violence. He was found guilty of the four murders at both trials.

The Clydach inquiry was the largest and most complex murder investigation ever undertaken by a Welsh police force.

Morris had a reputation for violence which created a climate of fear in the close-knit community he lived in.

Nervous residents in Clydach and Craig-cefn-parc refused to speak out against the powerfully built former scrap metal dealer, even after he was charged with murder, and key prosecution witnesses shook visibly as they testified against the father-of-three during his trial at Swansea Crown Court.

Jurors got a glimpse of Morris's past when trial judge, Mr Justice Butterfield, ruled that they could be told about almost two dozen previous convictions.

Debra Thomas, the sister of David Morris at Llanelli Crematorium. The location of his wake was kept secret over fears it could lead to protests and violence

Morris was again found guilty at a retrial held at Newport Crown Court in 2006 and at the time of his death had spent 22 years behind bars (pictured: A floral tribute by the coffin of David Morris as it departs from Swansea)

After a short service at a relative's home in Swansea, a hearse with flowers saying 'son' and 'Daddy' drove his wicker coffin to Llanelli crematorium

An onlooker outside the crematorium said: 'It is a big turn out for a man who killed four people including two young girls'

Doris Dawson, left, and Mandy Power, right, who were beaten to death. A Change.org petition demanding Morris's case be re-examined 'by an outside police force' with a 'review of the DNA evidence so far not examined' has brought in more than 6,000 signatures

Pictured: Katie, 10 (left) and Emily 8. Morris was found guilty at a retrial held at Newport Crown Court in 2006 and at the time of his death had spent 22 years behind bars

Following his death, Worcestershire's assistant coroner, Nicholas Lane told an inquest opening on August 27: 'Morris was a serving prisoner at Long Lartin prison and it is here that he died.

'He came out of his cell and collapsed early in the morning and despite attempts at resuscitation, he was confirmed dead at 8.43am on his wing block.

'A post mortem has taken place and as of yet, the cause of death is inconclusive.'

Toxicology tests will now take place in an attempt to determine the cause of Morris's death.

A full inquest in front of a jury is expected to be held next year.

An onlooker outside the crematorium said: 'It is a big turn out for a man who killed four people including two young girls.

'It happened more than 20 years ago but feelings still run high and Morris's death has brought it all back into people's thoughts.'

A Change.org petition demanding Morris's case be re-examined 'by an outside police force' with a 'review of the DNA evidence so far not examined' has brought in more than 6,000 signatures.


Harry and Meghan are choosing to shy away from the spotlight for the prince's 37th birthday this year and will mark the occasion with an intimate dinner instead, DailyMail.com can reveal.

A source close to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex says the couple have opted for a small and more relaxed celebration amid recent world events, and are now focusing on 'being of service' rather than being socialites.

'Meghan is planning a low-key birthday dinner for Harry. In light of what's happening in the world - from Afghanistan to Covid - they both decided to keep it simple,' the insider told DailyMail.com.

'Meghan said they she's making a carrot cake with the help of Archie, and that guests will include Doria and a few close friends.

'Meghan said their focus right now is being of service, and that attending glitzy events like the MET Gala is wasted time and energy that could be put to good use towards those suffering and in need,' the source added.

Meghan Markle is planning a 'low-key dinner' for Prince Harry for his 37th birthday Wednesday and will make a carrot cake with the help of two-year-old Archie (pictured) sources told DailyMail.com

The Queen led birthday wishes to Prince Harry as he turned 37 on Wednesday, sharing a selection of photos highlighting her grandson's charity efforts while he was a working royal

Harry and Meghan agreed to be the cover stars of Time Magazine's 100 most influential people which was released on the Duke of Sussex's 37th birthday

Since their dramatic exit from the royal family last year, the Sussexes have created a new brand for themselves in the US, using their platform for charity work and advocacy, particularly mental health initiatives, rather than for fame.

The couple also chose to forgo lavish party celebrations for Meghan's 40th birthday last month and instead used the day to announce her new charity project.

The Duchess of Sussex shared a video on the website of her charitable foundation, Archewell, on August 4 promoting her '40x40' initiative encouraging people to donate 40 minutes of their time to help someone else or to mentor someone in need.

'For my birthday I have asked 40 friends, activists, athletes, artists and world leaders to help kick off a global effort by contributing 40 minutes of mentorship to support women re-entering the workforce,' Meghan said.

'With this time, I hope they each help someone advance a professional life on her own terms and I hope that they inspire countless others to give 40 minutes of their time as well.'

But despite their hopes to keep things low-key for Harry, the royal couple were back in the headlines on his birthday on Wednesday when they were splashed across the cover of Time Magazine's 'World's 100 Most Influential People' issue.

Prince William and Kate Middleton kept their message simple, posting a solo portrait of the Duke with the caption: 'Happy birthday Prince Harry,' and a red balloon emoji

A source close to the royal couple said the couple have decided to 'keep it simple' in light of recent world events, and will host a few friends

The publication released a glossy and heavily-airbrushed cover showing the Duke of Sussex standing behind his wife with his arms on her right shoulder.

Harry is dressed in all black and Meghan in white on a terrace at their $14.65million mansion and estate in Montecito, California, as Time said they couple are 'blessed through birth and talent, and burned by fame', adding: 'It would be much safer to enjoy their good fortune and stay silent.'

In another image they are in matching grey office-style clothes next to a window in pictures taken by Serbian Pari Dukovic.

But one critic, a fellow photographer, tweeted: 'Terrible retouching job. They look CGI.'

Others wrote: 'This photo looks photoshopped. Also, the way they are positioned is very revealing: it's the Meghan show and Harry is just the supporting actor'. One critic said: 'Harry looks completely awkward peering behind his wife like this'.

Harry and Meghan smile as their walk through their Californian estate in a photoshoot branded 'awkward' and 'photoshopped'

In another image they are in matching grey office-style clothes next to a window in outfits chosen by celebrity stylists Clare and Nina Hallwroth, who have recently dressed Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston

The glossy photos are accompanied by a gushing profile, branded sycophantic by critics, written by their friend and chef Jose Andres, whose charity World Central Kitchen is loved by the Sussexes and supported by their Archewell foundation.

He wrote: 'In a world where everyone has an opinion about people they don't know, the duke and duchess have compassion for the people they don't know. They don't just opine. They run toward the struggle.'

There is no mention of Harry and Meghan's rift with the Royal Family or the series of bombshell interviews including the one with Oprah where they accused a mystery royal of racism towards Archie and said aides ignored Meghan when she was pregnant and suicidal.

The Duke, 37, and Duchess of Sussex, 40, are 'making very little progress' in reconciling with the royal family, the author of Finding Freedom has claimed

On the cover Harry is dressed in all black and Meghan in all white on a terrace at their $14.65million mansion and then in green smiling at each other and holding hands while walking through their estate in Montecito, California.

Harry's family put their problems aside as the Queen sent best wishes to Prince Harry on his 37th birthday, sharing a selection of photos highlighting her grandson's charity efforts while he was a working royal.

The Duke of Sussex, who has quit royal duties and is currently living in an 11m mansion in California also received birthday greetings from the Prince of Wales and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

Poignantly, Prince Charles shared throwback photos with his younger son, amid a rift that Harry made public during his bombshell interview with Oprah.

Meanwhile, Prince William and Kate Middleton kept their message simple, posting a solo portrait of the Duke with the caption: 'Happy birthday Prince Harry,' and a red balloon emoji.
Police advocates say the Department of Justice's bans on federal agents using chokeholds and no-knock warrants 'pander to an anti-police narrative' and are sapping morale among law enforcement officers.

The National Police Association urged the DOJ to reconsider its bans, which were announced on Tuesday, and said that the policies 'hamstring' officers during legal actions to arrest violent offenders.

'Instead of placing more controls and restrictions on federal law enforcement, it would be wonderful to see the DOJ use its efforts to control violent crime and violent criminals,' National Police Association spokesperson Sgt. Betsy Brantner Smith told DailyMail.com.

'That means more arrests, more incarcerations and prosecutions ... It's incredibly frustrating for law enforcement arrest someone and have them back on the street.

'It's time to admit the defund the police is a failure, and let's get back on the right track and protect American citizens,' Sgt. Brantner told DailyMail.com.

The chokehold ban didn't surprise Bill Johnson - executive direction of the National Association of Police Organizations, which represents more than 241,000 officers across the country - or Jason Johnson, executive director of the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund.

'It's about perception versus reality, and the reality is a chokehold is rarely used,' Jason Johnson told DailyMail.com.

Protesters have been vociferously demanding a ban on chokeholds since the death of George Floyd

National Police Association urged the Department of Justice to reconsider its ban on chokeholds and no-knock warrants and said this 'hamstrings' officers' legal actions to arrest violent offenders 'to pander to an anti-police narrative'

Of the U.S.'s 100 largest police departments, 71 now prohibit chokeholds - up from 28 before the death of George Floyd - according to the Police Use of Force Project, which has reviewed use of force policies.

At least 17 states ban chokeholds, up from two since Floyd was murdered.

Brantner, who was a suburban Chicago cop for 29 years, echoed their sentiments, saying a chokehold isn't taught and is more of a media-pushed term.

What most people refer to as a chokehold is a Lateral Vascular Neck Restraint, which is a control technique applied to the sides of the neck and uses a combination of physiological factors to restrict blood flow to the brain which may cause the subject to lose consciousness.

Sgt. Betsy Brantner Smith was a suburban Chicago cop for 29 years. She is now the spokesperson for the National Police Association and said, 'It's time to admit the defund the police is a failure, and let's get back on the right track and protect American citizens'

Sgt. Brantner said it's a technique that's rarely used but 'is effective in cases involving smaller officers.'

'It's difficult to get control of a subject who's actively resisting a lawful arrest while keeping control of our firearm,' Brantner told DaiyMail.com. 'Use of force will never look pretty.

'What is the DOJ's point in doing this? It's not going to protect citizens and it's going to endanger its law enforcement,' Brantner told DailyMail.com.

'I think it's a way for the (Biden) Administration to say we are doing something about the false narrative about these rogue cops out here abusing citizens.'

The Lateral Vascular Neck Restraint falls under the category of 'carotid restraint,' which the DOJ banned for federal law enforcement agencies.

The issue both Bill Johnson and Jason Johnson (unrelated) told DailyMail.com is the ban on no-knock warrants because it sets up a potential confrontation with police and gives suspects a chance to destroy evidence.

'The no-knock warrant ban has great potential to cause harm,' Jason Johnson told DailyMail.com.

Bill Johnson (pictured), executive director of the National Association of Police Organizations, which represents over 241,000 officers, told DailyMail.com that the ban on no-knock warrants hurts police's ability to collect evidence

'When there is reason to believe a suspect is armed, it's better to catch them off guard and avoid confrontation,' he said. 'If there's no confrontation, it's safer for everyone. If you take that way, you're increasing the risk for officers and everyone involved.'

Bill Johnson said there's also the issue of destroying contraband and evidence.

'Politically, there is a lot of pressure after the death of civilians,' Bill Johnson told DailyMail.com. 'I understand the concern, but this went too far and now legitimate law enforcement operations could be hampered.

'You can be at the front door and say, "This is special agent so and so. We have a warrant to search the premise, and then you hear stuff (from inside) like, "Get rid of it."

'It's not good enough to enter. You have to wait at the door. You've kind of lost the tactical advantage of the warrant.'

Bill Johnson told DailyMail.com that 'there's been a lot of political pressure, particularly from Democrats but also some Republicans to do away with restraints around the neck area.

'This was the (Biden) Administration's way of quote unquote fixing policing,' Jason Johnson told DailyMail.com.

When asked if he thought the DOJ no-knock warrant ban would be amended, he said he doesn't know and said his group, which supports and defends police and law enforcement professionals, have never gotten a seat at the table.

Democrats have been pressuring Biden and his administration to make police reforms, Bill Johnson said without naming who.

At first, he said, some Democrats tried to outright ban the restraint, but there are life-threatening situations where an officer needs to do whatever it takes to subdue a violent suspect, he said.

He used the example of a situation where an officer is disarmed or severely beaten or shot.

'At that point, it's no holds barred,' Johnson said.

Tuesday's DOJ announcement of the bans comes in response to the intense political pressure following the murder of George Floyd and the social unrest that gripped the U.S. over the last year and a half.

While situations have largely calmed down in recent months, political pressures - particularly from some members of the left - 'are creating an us versus them mentality, and that's not what we want,' Bill Johnson said.

Attorney General Merrick Garland said 'no-knock' entries would only be allowed in situations 'where an agent has reasonable grounds to believe that knocking and announcing the agent's presence would create an imminent threat of physical violence to the agent and/or another person'

'It's not everyone, but it's in a lot of places,' Bill Johnson said, which is killing morale among the rank and file.

'The physical risk was always there,' Johnson told Dailymail.com, 'but now if the officer makes an honest mistake or a cell phone video catches the last 10 seconds of a situation, the officer is hung out to dry.

'There's a threat to careers, personal reputation and now their freedoms. Anecdotally, it's been more difficult to retain officers who don't want to risk all this,' he told DailyMail.com

Tuesday's bans come after more than a year of police brutality protests and calls for police reform that intensified after George Floyd was killed when Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck and Breonna Taylor was fatally shot by police in Louisville while executing a no-knock warrant on the wrong house.

The restrictions apply to federal agents who work under the DOJ and local police departments who work with the DOJ through a joint task force.

Former President Donald Trump signed an executive order requiring police departments to ban chokeholds to receive certification that allows them to access federal grants.

Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill have both touted police reform measures but remain at an impasse.

House Democrats' George Floyd Justice in Policing Act would explicitly ban chokeholds and end qualified immunity for officers.

Senate Republicans' JUSTICE Act focuses on transparency and training, encouraging choke hold bans but not enforcing them.
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Missing 'van-life woman' Gabby Petito was last seen traveling in the Yellowstone area of Wyoming, but the last text message sent from her cell phone suggests she'd made it to Yosemite National Park in northern California  about 800 miles away, DailyMail.com has learned exclusively.

'No service in Yosemite,' reads the curious text from Petito's cell phone, sent August 30 to her mother Nichole Schmidt, DailyMail.com has learned.

The mother has refused to disclose the contents of her daughter's texts, but tells DailyMail.com, 'That text was NOT from Gabby I know it!'

She believes Petito's boyfriend Brian Laundrie, who was traveling with the 22-year-old, may have sent the message from her phone, possibly to mislead her family and investigators as to her whereabouts.

This comes as police named Brian a 'person of interest' in their investigation into her mystery disappearance.

Cops in North Port, Florida, said: 'Brian Laundrie is a person of interest in this case. As of now, Brian has not made himself available to be interviewed by investigators or has provided any helpful details.'

A statement also revealed exactly when Laundrie arrived back in North Port alone from the road trip he was taking with Gabby, 22.

It said: 'We know that Brian returned here to North Port on September 1 - 10 days before her (Gabby's) family reported her missing on September 11. '

Gabby Petito, the missing van-life woman, was last seen traveling in the Grand Teton and Yellowstone area in Wyoming, according to her family

'No service in Yosemite,' reads the text from Petito's cell phone, sent August 30 to her mother Nichole Schmidt, DailyMail.com can reveal. Her uncle Mike Schmidt posted this handwritten timeline of events

Gabby's mother Nichole Schmidt has expressed skepticism that Gabby was the one who sent the texts

Mike Schmidt is the brother of James Schmidt, who is married to Gabby's mother Nichole. He posted on Facebook the timeline of Gabby's last known whereabouts

Schmidt said she last spoke with her daughter on August 23 or August 24. She texted with her daughter August 27, and then received that final text three days later.

But she said those texts didn't sound like something her daughter would write and said 'It may not have been her.'

Asked whether she thinks Brian sent the texts, she told DailyMail.com, 'Yes, which may not be the truth, but it's a possibility.'

'It was just a little bit weird, the things that she was saying,' the mom added, though she wouldn't elaborate.

Police named Brian Laundrie as a person of interest on Wednesday

Brian Laundrie and his parents released a statement through their lawyer Tuesday stating that a search was being conducted in or near Grand Teton National Park, near Yellowstone, in Wyoming, while adding that 'it is our hope that the search for Miss Petito is successful and that Miss Petito is reunited with her family.'

But Brian, 23, has refused to comment on her disappearance, including where and why he left her, driving their van back to Florida.

On Tuesday, Utah police have revealed they responded to an 'incident' involving Gabby and her boyfriend, just two weeks before she was last seen in Wyoming.

'Our officers did respond to an incident involving Brian Laundrie and Gabrielle Petito on 12 August 2021 however, neither Brian or Gabrielle were the reporting party.

'Officers conducted an investigation and determined that insufficient evidence existed to justify criminal charges,' Moab Chief of Police Bret Edge told Fox News.

It not clear what the incident was about.

But Gabby's mother told DailyMail.com, 'It's irrelevant. Two people traveling together with each other 24 hours a day, it's not going to be perfect, it was an argument, and that's all I'm going to say about it.'

Schmidt told DailyMail.com that she's now questioning everything and looking at things through a new lens.

'Maybe the relationship wasn't what I thought,' she said.

She's also questioning Brian's trip back to Florida in August to help his father move their belongings out of a storage unit.

Brian left Gabby in the Fairfield Inn in Salt Lake City and flew back home to Florida from August 17 to the 23 to help his father empty out a storage unit where he and Gabby had their things.

According to Schmidt, Brian's father offered to let them keep their belongings at his house so they wouldn't have to pay for the storage unit.

He left Gabby at the hotel so she, understandably, wouldn't be alone in the van. Brian then flew back to Utah and they left the hotel together on August 24.

Schmidt now wonders why it was necessary to move Gabby's things during their road trip and what became of her stuff.

'Where are her things?' she asked.

Asked why Brian chose to lawyer up, she replied, 'You know I wish I knew that answer, why.'

'I know that's the reason this story is so sought after is because it's odd. The police have said it's very odd. We don't know what's going on, and where is my daughter. I just want to find her.'

The above map illustrates the places Petito and Laundrie visited since the start of the trip leaving New York on July 2 to when she last spoke to her family on August 25 from Grand Teton National Park

Brian Laundrie (pictured left) returned home to Florida with the pair's camper van and has hired a lawyer

Gabby was last seen on August 24 checking out of a hotel with Brian in Salt Lake City, Utah . The manager at the Fairfield Inn was less that helpful, claiming to know nothing about the girl

Gabby's family lashed out at the Laundrie's in a statement Tuesday. 'Brian is refusing to tell Gabby's family where he last saw her. Brian is also refusing to explain why he left Gabby all alone and drove her van to Florida. These are critical questions that require immediate answers.'

Schmidt's husband and Gabby's stepfather Jim Schmidt has now traveled to Wyoming to help coordinate the search.

'Jim is there and he's not leaving until he brings her home. Now we have eyes ears and feet on the ground in both her home states and the place where she was last seen,' Schmidt said.

Gabby's family lashed out at the Laundrie's in a statement Tuesday.

Schmidt and Petito families demand answers The Schmidt and Petito family are going through the worst moments of their lives. Their beautiful twenty-two year old daughter is missing and the one person that can help find Gabby refuses to help. Brian Laundrie was traveling with Gabby in the Grand Teton  Yellowstone area. They were traveling together in Gabby's 2012 Ford Transit van. That is where we believe Gabby was last seen. Brian is refusing to tell Gabby's family where he last saw her. Brian is also refusing to explain why he left Gabby all alone and drove her van to Florida. These are critical questions that require immediate answers. The Schmidt and Petito family beg the Laundrie family to not 'remain in the background' but to help find who Brian referred to as the love of his life. How does Brian stay in the background when he is the one person that knows where Gabby is located? The Schmidt and Petito family implore Brian to come forward and at least tell us if we are looking in the right area. Advertisement

'The Schmidt and Petito family are going through the worst moments of their lives,' the family stated in a statement released by their lawyer.

'Brian is refusing to tell Gabby's family where he last saw her,' the statement continues. 'Brian is also refusing to explain why he left Gabby all alone and drove her van to Florida. These are critical questions that require immediate answers.'

'The Schmidt and Petito family beg the Laundrie family to not 'remain in the background' but to help find who Brian referred to as the love of his life,' the statement adds.

Gabby was last seen on August 24 checking out of a hotel with Brian in Salt Lake City, Utah.

The manager at the Fairfield Inn claimed to know nothing about Gabby.

When asked if any law enforcement has contacted the hotel regarding Gabby Petito she said, 'no.'

The Perkins restaurant is attached to the hotel and supplies morning breakfast to the Fairfield Inn guests.

A cashier at Perkins restaurant told DailyMail.com that she saw Gabby in the hotel lobby around August 24.

Justina Suazo, 49, said, 'I distinctly remember her because I commented to my co-worker how cut she was. I saw her in the lobby and she appeared to be just a normal guest.'

When showed a picture of Brian Laundrie, she said, 'I never saw him at the hotel.'

At the Kicks 66 convenience store located down the street just a few hundred yards away from the Fairfield Inn, a cashier recognized the couple.

The cashier told the DailyMail.com, 'They came into together on the night of August 21. I remember them because he was telling her to 'hurry up.'

She didn't say anything back to him, at one point she left the store for a few minutes and came back in. They bought bottles of water, a few packages of instant noodles and donuts.'

The cashier pointed out that the Salt Lake City FBI headquarters is across the street from the convenience store, also within a few hundred feet of the Fairfield Inn. 'Their vehicle would have had to pass by the FBI cameras outside of the building pointing toward the street on several occasions.'
Denmark has banned prisoners serving a life sentence from entering into new romantic relationships after a 17-year-old fell in love with 50-year-old submarine killer Peter Madsen.

The ban has come into effect to counter the phenomenon of 'groupies' of criminals, the justice ministry said on Wednesday.

'We have seen disgusting examples in recent years of prisoners who have committed abominable crimes contacting young people in order to gain their sympathy and attention,' Justice Minister Nick Haekkerup said in a statement. 'This must obviously be stopped.'

Denmark has banned prisoners serving a life sentence from entering into new romantic relationships after a 17-year-old fell in love with submarine killer Peter Madsen, 50 (pictured in 2017)

The ban on new relationships will apply during the first 10 years of a prisoner's sentence, restricting them to letter or telephone contact only with people already close to them prior to their detention.

Recently a young woman revealed that aged 17 she had fallen in love with Peter Madsen while he was in custody.

He went on to be convicted of brutally killing journalist Kim Wall, 30, after she boarded his homemade submarine, UC3 Nautilus, to interview him on August 10, 2017.

'Lifers... should not be able to use our prisons as dating centres or media platforms to brag about their crimes,' the minister said.

The six-point bill would also put an end to long-term prisoners being allowed to freely post about their offences on social media or discuss them on podcasts.

The proposal would also require a prisoner to serve 10 years before temporary release can be granted, up from two or four years currently.

Madsen was jailed for life in 2018 for the gory murder of journalist Kim Wall, 30, (pictured) who boarded his homemade submarine for an interview in August 2017

Wall's mutilated body was found days later and police divers found a weighted-down bag containing her head, other body parts and her clothes submerged in the water off Copenhagen. Pictured: Madsen's submarine, UC3 Nautilus

The bill, which was sent to committee on Wednesday and has already been endorsed by the right-wing opposition, is expected to be passed in the autumn with the new legislation coming into force on January 1, 2022.

Madsen was sentenced to life in prison in 2018 for killing, sexually assaulting and dismembering Wall after she boarded his submarine on August 10, 2017.

Wall's mutilated body was found days later and police divers found a weighted-down bag containing her head, other body parts and her clothes submerged in the water off Copenhagen.

An autopsy report presented during the trial concluded that Wall probably died from suffocation or having her throat slit, but the decomposed state of her body meant examiners could not determine the exact cause of death.
A woman who filed a civil complaint last year, accusing Harvey Weinstein of coercing her into having sex with him at the Peninsula Beverly Hills Hotel after threatening to derail her fledgling acting career, has dropped her lawsuit.

Attorneys representing the accuser, identified only as Jane Doe, filed paperwork last week in Los Angeles Superior Court, asking that the case be dismissed 'without prejudice,' which would allow her to refile the lawsuit in the future.

The documents did not explain why the plaintiff has decided to drop her case against Weinstein at this time.

The 69-year-old disgraced movie mogul is currently serving a 23-year sentence in New York for rape and sexual assault of two women. In July, he was extradited to Los Angeles to face an additional 11 counts of sexual assault and rape stemming from incidents involving five other women that took place between 2004 and 2013.

A woman known as Jane Doe last week had her attorneys file paperwork in LA Superior Court, seeking to dismiss her civil lawsuit against Harvey Weinstein (pictured in court in July)

Doe sued Weinstein in March 2020, accusing the disgraced movie mogul of sexual assault and battery stemming from a 2014 encounter (pictured on July 29)

Doe, the plaintiff who is now requesting that her complaint be dismissed, sued Weinstein in March 2020, accusing him of sexual assault and battery related to an encounter that took place at the luxury Peninsular Beverly Hills Hotel in 2014, reported Spectrum News 1.

The accuser said that she first met Weinstein at an event in Los Angeles in 2014, during which time the Miramax movie studio co-founder bragged to her, then an aspiring actress, 'I run Hollywood,' before inviting her to a meeting.

The complaint went on the say that the actress and Weinstein were set to meet in the lobby of the Peninsula Hotel, but the Shakespeare in Love producer did not come down, instead inviting her up to his suite.

According to the lawsuit, Weinstein met the woman at the door wearing a bathrobe without a belt.

During their conversation, Weinstein allegedly called himself the 'King of Hollywood,' told the actress she would be 'perfect' for several movie projects, and urged her to be smart about being nice to the right people in the industry.

Later, Weinstein excused himself to go the the bathroom. The lawsuit stated that when the woman heard the shower running, she exited the hotel room.

The lawsuit claimed that Weinstein coerced the plaintiff - an aspiring actress - to have sex with him at the Peninsula Beverly Hills Hotel (pictured) after threatening to blacklist her

Sometime after that first meeting, Doe claimed in the complaint that Weinstein sent her a script for a film and demanded a second face-to-face meeting at the same hotel.

When she went up to Weinstein's room for what she thought would be a business meeting, according to the court filing, the producer again met him in a bathrobe.

This time, their conversation took a menacing tone when the powerful movie producer allegedly threatened to derail the actress' career if she were to reject his sexual advances.

'You know I can make you a star or I can make a call and you'll never work again,' the suit quoted Weinstein at telling Doe.

'She was afraid he would put her on a blacklist and kill her career,' the complaint alleged. 'She was in a complete daze, unwilling to pleasure him, but at the same time desperate to avoid having her career destroyed by a man who was fully capable of doing so.'

Weinstein was found guilty in February 2020 of a criminal sexual act in the first degree and rape in the third degree (pictured at Manhattan Criminal Court on February 24, 2020)

Doe said she felt cornered and submitted to Weinstein's demands. The lawsuit alleged that during their sexual encounter, the married father-of-five had the woman call him 'king' and repeatedly promised to 'take care of her.'

The woman claimed in the complaint that she left the hotel suite in 'a state of shock.' In the wake of her encounter with the married film producer, she fell into a depression, suffered a mental breakdown, started losing her hair and did not have relations with a man for more than five years.

Weinstein was found guilty in February 2020 of a criminal sexual act in the first degree and rape in the third degree, while being cleared of predatory sexual assault charges.

He was convicted of raping ex-actress Jessica Mann in 2013 and of forcibly performing oral sex on former production assistant Mimi Haleyi in 2006.

Weinstein was extradited to Los Angeles in July to face 11 counts of rape and sexual assault

Nearly 90 women, including Angelina Jolie and Salma Hayek, have leveled sexual misconduct allegations against Weinstein.

In mid-August, a Los Angeles judge dismissed one of the 11 counts against Weinstein because the sexual battery by restraint charge stemming from a 2010 incident at a Beverly Hills hotel was too old and outside the statute of limitations.

Two weeks later, prosecutors filed an amended grand jury indictment against Weinstein for a third time. He has already pleaded not guilty to all 11 charges.

Weinstein is due back in court for an arraignment hearing on September 20. If convicted of the new charges, he could face up to 140 years in prison.
Disturbing footage of an Aboriginal elder being chased into the sea and wrestled in the waves by a NSW Fisheries officer has been revealed in a row over catch limits.

Great-grandfather Kevin Mason, 74, was fishing for abalone when he was ambushed on the shoreline by the officer who demanded the elder's catch.

The investigator chased the elder back into the sea before trying to grab the net containing his haul, shouting: 'Stop! I want to check those fish.'

But Mr Mason refused, insisting he was a native title holder and the officer was trying to take his food away from him.

Great-grandfather Kevin Mason, 74, (pictured) was fishing for abalone when he was ambushed on the shoreline by the officer who demanded the elder's catch

Mr Mason was charged with resisting arrest following the incident near Narooma on the NSW South Coast three years ago and will appear in court on Thursday.

But the confrontation has renewed debate on indigenous rights to hunt and gather produce from the sea under Native Title laws.

Mr Mason insists that his ancestors have fished the waters in the area for countless thousands of years and should be allowed to carry on that tradition.

'I'm Aboriginal, a native title holder, why shouldn't I take anything I want in any closed waters anywhere?' Mr Mason told ABC's 7.30.

'I have a right to.'

But the confrontation has renewed debate on indigenous rights to hunt and gather produce from the sea like abalone( pictured) under Native Title laws

In the shock clip, apparently filmed on a bodycam attached to the fisheries officer, the investigator can be seen tracking Mr Mason as he emerges from the sea.

'Kevin, come with me, now come on,' he yells.

As Mr Mason shies away from the officer, he tells the elder: 'I'm not going to hurt you, just stop obstructing me.

'You know the rules.'

Moments later, Mr Mason was reportedly charged on the shoreline and his fishing and snorkelling gear confiscated.

Kevin Mason (pictured) insists that his ancestors have fished the waters in the area for countless thousands of years and should be allowed to carry on that tradition.

He said later: 'Just to see them [running towards him], it scared the daylights out of me.'

At the heart of the row is the legal catch limits for prized abalone lying just offshore, which can be worth over $100/kg when sold overseas and to high-end restaurants.

Around 100 tonnes of abalone is harvested commercially each year in NSW, but non-commercial operators can legally only take two per person per day.

But the law is different for Aboriginal fishermen for cultural and traditional reasons.

At the heart of the row is the legal catch limits for prized abalone lying just offshore, which can be worth over $100/kg when sold overseas and to high-end restaurants (Pictured, abalone on sale at Sydney Fish Market)

NSW laws enforced by the NSW Department of Primary Industries allow indigenous fishermen to take up to 10 abalone per day.

And for special cultural events, permits have even been granted for Aboriginal fishermen to take up to 1,000 abalone ashore for special pre-approved gatherings.

But Mr Mason and other Indigenous fishermen believe they should be allowed to take as much as they like, whenever they like, to feed their families under the Commonwealth's Native Title laws.

'I'll always have that right for my people to hunt and to gather and to feed my family,' added Mr Mason.

A similar charge against Mr Mason in 2018 was dropped at the last moment when he intended to use Native Title laws to defend himself (pictured, a protest about Aboriginal fishing rights outside of court in 2018 ahead of Mr Mason's hearing)

A similar charge against Mr Mason in 2018 was dropped at the last moment when he intended to use Native Title laws to defend himself.

Aboriginal rights barrister Tony McAvoy warns that the fear of prosecution will stop many from exercising their fishing rights.

He claims police and fisheries compliance officers have not been trained to know what native title rights are in relation to fishing.

NSW DPI's Sean Sloan said officers had to make judgement calls based on what they spotted at the time.

But he insisted: 'We absolutely support and respect the rights of all Aboriginal people to practice their native title and to conduct cultural fishing.'

Aboriginal rights barrister Tony McAvoy claims police and fisheries compliance officers have not been trained to know what native title rights are in relation to fishing (pictured, fresh abalone, straight from the sea)
Shocking video footage emerged Monday of a woman being rescued after being found naked, trapped and with her legs bound together inside a Florida sewage drain.

NBC 2 obtained video showing the woman's dramatic rescue last Friday, after a passerby in the parking lot of a Fort Myers restaurant heard her yelling for help before calling police upon finding her.

Fire crews had to use special tools to remove the massive drain cover and rescue the woman, who was then taken to an area hospital for evaluation.

The incident occurred by the Burlington Coat Factory and Indian Grill on 4724 South Cleveland Avenue, according to authorities.

Police told the outlet that the woman, who's legs had been bound with a strap-like material, had been staying at a nearby Travelodge motel.

The woman told authorities she had no idea how she ended up in the drain in the first place. It's still unclear how long she had been trapped in the sewage drain before being discovered and rescued.

Pictured: a screenshot of the surveillance video footage from Friday night, where a woman was found naked, trapped, with her legs tied together in a Fort Myers sewage drain

Emergency personnel arrive on scene after a passerby heard the woman's calls for help. The man called authorities, who had to use special tools to remove the massive drain cover

Fort Myers police have since reviewed three days worth of surveillance camera footage from the parking lot, but said nothing in those three days showed her entering or being placed into the drain.

'Someone doesn't just bound themselves and climb in there,' said witness Tim Brown, who's also staying at the same Travelodge motel.

'I've got my girlfriend staying with me and I wouldn't want her go out alone now.'

'It's scary,' he added.

Now, officials are asking the public's help in determining how the woman got trapped in the sewage drain.

Crews removed a grate to access the drain for the March 2021 rescue, and used a ladder and a harness to raise the woman to ground level as a small crowd cheered

Pictured: the eight-foot deep sewage drain where a woman was found naked and trapped in Delray Beach back in March 2021

In March, a different woman, who had been missing for several weeks, turned up in an eight-feet deep sewage drain, local authorities said.

Firefighters pulled the unidentified female, believed to be in her 40s, from below the sidewalk in Delray Beach after a pedestrian heard cries for help.

It is unclear how long she was stuck there.

'She was lucky,' Delray Beach Fire Rescue spokeswoman Dani Moschella told the Sun Sentinel of the missing woman rescued in March.

'I dont know how much longer she would have been OK down there. The idea that somebody might be down there for any length of time is disturbing.

Cops confirmed that she was reported missing from Palm Beach County Sheriffs Office on March 3, but it's not clear when she went into the drain or why she was naked

A naked woman has been rescued from a storm drain in Florida, weeks after she was reported missing

Cops confirmed that she was reported missing from Palm Beach County Sheriffs Office on March 3.

While an investigation into Friday's incident remains ongoing, authorities in Delray Beach do not believe the two cases are connected, stating that the woman found in March appeared to have entered the drain on her own free will.

Delray Beach Police spokesman Ted White: 'From the police department standpoint, we dont believe there was any type of crime committed.

'It doesnt feel like she was taken against her will. It appears this was done by her own free will.

Police are asking anyone with information regarding Friday night's incident to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-780-TIPS (8477). Tips may also be made online at southwestfloridacrimestoppers.com or on the P3 Tips mobile app.
Nearly 35,000 British women have come forward to say their periods were disrupted after getting a Covid vaccine, it was revealed today.

The issues  which include an irregular menstrual cycle and painful periods  were reported in the UK up to September 2.

Most affected women found their menstruation returned to normal after one cycle. Issues were linked to Pfizer, AstraZeneca or Moderna vaccines.

No fertility issues were uncovered, according to an analysis of the data by Dr Victoria Male, a lecturer in reproductive immunology at Imperial College London.

Writing in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), she argued more research was needed to investigate the links.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), the UK's drug watchdog, has yet to accept any link between Covid jabs and menstrual issues.

It says: 'The rigorous evaluation completed to date does not support a link between changes to menstrual periods and related symptoms and Covid vaccines.'

Dr Male suggested the body's immune response to jabs may trigger a change in the menstrual cycle.

She pointed to previous studies suggesting the HPV vaccine had disrupted women's menstrual cycles shortly after it was administered.

But other experts have previously dismissed the theory, saying menstrual problems after jabs were not happening at a higher rate than usual.

Data on the number of period problems following vaccination was collected from the MHRA's Yellow Card Scheme, which keeps a record of every case of a potential side effect.

But this data is reliant on women coming forward, meaning nearly 35,000 figure could be the tip of the iceberg,

Nearly 35,000 women have now come forward to say their periods were disrupted after getting a Covid vaccine, it was revealed today. (stock)

Dr Male wrote: 'Primary care clinicians and those working in reproductive health are increasingly approached by people who have experienced these events shortly after vaccination.

'More than 30,000 reports of these events had been made to MHRAs yellow card surveillance scheme.

'Most people who report a change to their period after vaccination find it returns to normal the following cycle.

'And, importantly, there is no evidence Covid vaccination adversely affects fertility. In clinical trials, unintended pregnancies occurred at similar rates in vaccinated and unvaccinated groups.'

But she added: 'Failing to thoroughly investigate reports of menstrual changes after vaccination is likely to fuel these fears.

'If a link between vaccination and menstrual changes is confirmed, this information will allow people to plan for potentially altered cycles.

Anthropologist says her period came early following Moderna's Covid jab Anthropologist Dr Kate Clancy, from the US, is one of many women who say they have experienced period problems after getting the Covid vaccine. She said after getting her first dose of Moderna her period came a day early, and was stronger than normal Dr Kate Clancy, a medical anthropologist in Illinois, is one of many women to say they have experienced period problems after getting the Covid vaccine. She said in February that after getting her first dose of the Moderna vaccine, her period came about a day early. 'I'm on day three of my period and I am still swapping out extra long overnight pads a few times a day,' she wrote on Twitter. 'Typical for me at this time is maybe one or two regular pads (though extra absorbent, Always Infinity ones) for the whole day.' Advertisement

'Clear and trusted information is particularly important for those who rely on being able to predict their menstrual cycles to either achieve or avoid pregnancy.'

The MHRA says online it is investigating reports that the jabs have triggered period problems and unexpected vaginal bleeding.

But it adds: 'The menstrual changes reported are mostly transient in nature.

'While uncomfortable or distressing, period problems are extremely common and stressful life events that can disrupt menstrual periods.

'Changes to the menstrual cycle have also been reported following infection with Covid and in people affected by long Covid.'

The MHRA insists: 'There is no evidence to suggest that Covid vaccines will affect fertility and your ability to have children.'

Guidance published by the Association of Reproductive and Clinical Scientists and the British Fertility Society says there is 'absolutely no evidence, and no theoretical reason, that any of the vaccines can affect the fertility of women or men'.

The MHRA has yet to uncover any pattern between the vaccines and any increased risk of miscarriage or stillbirth.

'Pregnant women have reported similar suspected reactions to the vaccines as people who are not pregnant,' it says.

Up to a quarter of women of childbearing age experience menstrual irregularities, which can include heavier or lighter than usual bleeding, delayed or early periods and cramps.

They are often triggered by hormonal changes and stress, as well as certain medical conditions and medications.

Similar issues after vaccination have been reported in the US, but scientists say it is too early to confirm a link.

One in 10 people experience mild side effects from the jab.

Britons are currently warned that they may experience headaches, nausea, achy muscles and pain at the injection site after getting their jab.

The NHS also warns of a small risk of blood clots linked to AstraZeneca's jab.

Babies could be given Pfizer's Covid vaccine in the US this winter Pfizer's Covid vaccine could be rolled out to babies as young as six months in the US this winter, under plans being drawn up by the pharmaceutical giant. In a move likely to cause international controversy, the company intends to apply for authorisation to immunise American infants within the next two months. The timeline will depend on the findings of in-house trials looking into whether the vaccines are safe and effective in youngsters aged six months to five years. Frank D'Amelio, chief financial officer at Pfizer, told an industry conference yesterday that the firm plans to 'go file' by November, the Financial Times reports. 'We would expect to have... data for children between the ages of six months and five years old that we would file with the FDA,' D'Amelio said at the Morgan Stanley Global Healthcare Conference. 'I'll call it in the weeks shortly thereafter the filing of the data for the five- to 11-year-olds.' Pfizer was already planning to seek approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the jabs to be given in children aged five to 11 by October. But the latest comments confirm the firm's intention to work its way down much younger age groups. They will be given a lower dose than adults. Pfizer's jab, made alongside German partner BioNTech, is already approved for over-12s in Britain. Advertisement

Dr Raj Mathur, a consultant in reproductive medicine and the chair of the British Fertility Society, told MailOnline: 'It does appear that the Covid vaccine can be followed by a transient [lasting for a short time] disturbance in the menstrual cycle in some women.

'However, the evidence also shows that there is no effect on fertility or on the risk of miscarriage.

'Women (and men) who have the Covid vaccine demonstrate no change in their sperm quality or chance of success with IVF.'

He added: 'It is plausible that the vaccine can be associated with some menstrual changes.

'Firstly, this is a common symptom that women report with any stress or illness.

'Also, the ovaries contain immune cells and these may be affected in the same way as other parts of the body in response to the vaccine.

'In summary, yes this effect is possible, but it does not indicate an underlying problem.'

Dr Gemma Sharp, a senior clinical lecturer in molecular epidemiology at Bristol University said it was 'plausible' that vaccines could affect the menstrual cycle.

She told the Science Media Centre: 'It is biologically plausible that vaccines can affect menstrual cycles through short term disruptions to the immune system, but there is no reason to suspect these changes would be persistent or have any lasting effect on fertility.

'Short-lived changes to the menstrual cycle are part of the body's normal response to things like stress and immune disruptions.

'There is no reason to suspect these changes would indicate any long term effects on health or fertility.'

Dr Jo Mountfield, vice president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, said: 'We understand that any changes to periods following a Covid vaccine can be concerning.

'We want to reassure women that any changes generally revert back to normal after one or two cycles.

'We would encourage anyone who experiences heavy bleeding that is unusual for them, especially after the menopause, to speak to a healthcare professional.

'There is no evidence to suggest that these temporary changes will have any impact on a persons future fertility or their ability to have children.

'It is important to get vaccinated as the best protection against coronavirus. This is especially important if you are planning a pregnancy, as we know unvaccinated pregnant women are more at risk of becoming seriously ill from Covid.

'We support calls for more research to understand why women may be experiencing changes to their menstrual cycle after having the vaccine.'

Dr Kate Clancy, a medical anthropologist in Illinois, is one of many women to say they have experienced period problems after getting the Covid vaccine.

She said in February that after getting her first dose of the Moderna vaccine, her period came about a day early.

'I'm on day three of my period and I am still swapping out extra long overnight pads a few times a day,' she wrote on Twitter.

'Typical for me at this time is maybe one or two regular pads (though extra absorbent, Always Infinity ones) for the whole day.'
A hooded thug has attacked a pedestrian with a large knife in an unprovoked attack in central London.

Footage captured by a driver in Stepney Green near Limehouse just before 9am today showed the shocking moment a man repeatedly stabbed a pedestrian in the back.

Police were called at 8.40am and a man in his 20s was taken to hospital with stab wounds that are not considered life-threatening.

In the video the pedestrian is walking along the street when a man in a hood runs up behind him and thrusts a knife into his back.

Footage captured by a driver in Stepney Green near Limehouse just before 9am today showed the shocking moment a man repeatedly stabbed a pedestrian in the back

The pedestrian immediately turned around and started to run, prompting his attacker to make chase.

The attacker continued to lunge forward with the knife and appeared to make contact with the victim's face.

The chase continued along the road before the attacker jumped over a fence and ran away through a park.

The pedestrian immediately turned around and started to run, prompting his attacker to make chase along the busy road

A Metropolitan police spokesman said: 'Police were called at approximately 08:40hrs on Wednesday, 15 September to reports of a man stabbed in Belgrave Street, E1.

'Officers and London Ambulance Service attended and found a man, believed to be aged in his 20s, suffering stab injuries; he was taken to hospital for treatment  his condition is not life threatening.

'No arrests; enquiries into the circumstances continue.'
The European Union will press ahead with plans to develop its own shared military to limit its reliance on the US following the hasty pull-out from Afghanistan according to Ursula Von Der Leyen.

In a self-styled State of the European Union address on Wednesday, European Commission President von der Leyen said that the failure of the government and security forces to repel Taliban insurgents raises troubling questions for the 27-nation bloc, but also for NATO.

The President unveiled new plans for the EU to develop its own defence capacities to ensure that it has more freedom to act in future crises, after Joe Biden's decision to withdraw American troops by August 31 forced the hands of EU countries incapable of facing the Taliban alone.

In her speech, Von der Leyen said the EU needed the 'political will' to intervene militarily without the US, and that 'it is time for Europe to step up to the next level'.

The President concluded by saying France will host an EU defence summit next year to develop the plans.

European Commission President von der Leyen said on Wednesday that the failure of the government and security forces in Kabul and their fall to Taliban insurgents in a matter of days raises troubling questions for the 27-nation bloc, but also for NATO

The President unveiled new plans for the EU to develop its own defence capacities to ensure that it has more freedom to act in future crises

Joe Biden's decision to withdraw American troops by August 31 forced the hands of EU countries incapable of facing the Taliban alone

In her speech, Von der Leyen said the EU needed the 'political will' to intervene militarily without help from Joe Biden's US troops, and that 'it is time for Europe to step up to the next level'

The scenes of chaos in the final days of Kabul evacuations saw Afghans plunge to their deaths from the sides of military aircraft on take-off and a suicide bombing that killed 169 Afghans and 13 US personnel and encapsulated the end of a two-decade war led by Washington with support from the EU.

'Witnessing events unfold in Afghanistan was profoundly painful for all the families of fallen servicemen and servicewomen,' von der Leyen told EU lawmakers.

'To make sure that their service will never be in vain, we have to reflect on how this mission could end so abruptly.'

'There are deeply troubling questions that allies will have to tackle within NATO,' the former German defence minister said.

But she conceded that cooperation with NATO, where the US is by far the most powerful and influential member, must also remain a priority.

The EU currently has a system of battlegroups to deploy to hot spots but they've never been used, and the disjointed nature of the troops gives European leaders little confidence, particularly as they are generally reluctant to send their troops to active conflict zones (pictured: Spanish forces conduct evacuations from Kabul)

Von der Leyen proposed a waiver on value added tax for defence equipment developed and produced in Europe, which could help wean the bloc off its dependence on US gear

'You can have the most advanced forces in the world  but if you are never prepared to use them  of what use are they?' said von der Leyen. 'What has held us back until now is not just a shortfall of capacity - it is the lack of political will'

Still, von der Leyen said at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, that 'Europe can - and clearly should - be able and willing to do more on its own,' and she insisted that 'It is time for Europe to step up to the next level.'

Earlier this month, EU ministers debated creating a standby EU force of around 5,000 troops to deploy in crises like the one at Kabul airport, but the plan faces opposition from some of the 22 EU countries that are also members of NATO, notably countries bordering Russia comforted by US security assurances.

The EU currently has a system of battlegroups to deploy to hot spots but they've never been used, and the disjointed nature of the troops gives European leaders little confidence, particularly as they are generally reluctant to send their troops to active conflict zones.

'You can have the most advanced forces in the world  but if you are never prepared to use them  of what use are they?

'What has held us back until now is not just a shortfall of capacity - it is the lack of political will,' von der Leyen said.

'If we develop this political will, there is a lot that we can do at EU level.'

NATO is currently conducting war games including several EU countries as part of a training exercise between various European militaries (pictured: Belgian army Special Forces)

Some drills are taking part in European cities - this image shows a Latvian soldier firing blank rounds during an exercise in the Latvian capital Riga earlier this week that brought harsh criticism

The President went onto declare that the EU must lay the foundations for better collective decision-making and intelligence sharing, make shared operations of the 27 member countries' military equipment more cohesive, and invest in common projects like fighter jets, drones and cyber capacities.

To do so, she proposed a waiver on value added tax for defence equipment developed and produced in Europe, which could help wean the bloc off its dependence on US gear.

Von der Leyen said that she and French President Emmanuel Macron will convene a summit on European defence when France takes over the bloc's rotating presidency in the first half of 2022.

Her call to arms will likely receive backing from many of Europe's most influential states - Macron has long-called for more EU defence autonomy, notably during the turmoil of the Trump administration, while German Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said earlier this month the EU should become 'a strategic player to be reckoned with'.
Australia acquire nuclear submarines for the first time as part of a major security agreement with the US and Britain to counter the rise of China in the Pacific.

The new alliance will be announced by Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison at 7am AEST on Thursday and by US President Joe Biden at 5pm local time.

The deal means Australia will walk away from its controversial deal to spend up to $90 billion buying French diesel-powered submarines and switch to nuclear-powered subs with help from its two key allies.

This will be the first time Australia has ever embraced nuclear power after decades of debate - and the first time the US and Britain have shared their nuclear submarine technology with another nation.

Australia has at least 40 per cent of the world's uranium supplies and new submarine deal could pave the way for the country to embrace nuclear power to drastically reduce carbon emissions

The historic tripartite security group, known as 'AUKUS', will allow the three allies to share information on artificial intelligence, cyber, underwater systems and long-range strike capabilities, according to Politico, citing a White House official and congressional staffer.

The move towards a nuclear Australia has been described as 'China's Worst Nightmare' in a strategic bid to counter its influence in the region - especially in the South China Sea.

Australia is set to follow its allies the US and UK which both use nuclear technology after it was speculated to tear up the $90b submarine project with France

Pictured: The USS Rafael Peralta (DDG 115) is seen firing the 5-inch gun for Naval Surface Fire Support during Exercise Talisman Sabre 2021 in Queensland

Thursday's announcement comes just days before Mr Morrison travels to Washington DC for the first in-person summit of the four 'Quad' nations - Australia, US, Japan and India.

Australia's relationship with China has become increasingly hostile ever since Mr Morrison demanded an inquiry into the origins of the Covid pandemic, which originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019.

Arbitrary bans and trade tariffs were imposed on billions of dollars worth of key Australian exports to China including barley, wine, beef, cotton, seafood, coal, cobber and timber.

Australia is now set to follow its allies the US and UK, who both use nuclear technology, with speculation it would tear up the submarine deal with France.

Senior Australian ministers were involved in a flurry of late-night meetings on the top-secret shipbuilding program on Wednesday, with Anthony Albanese and other senior Labor MPs briefed on the matter.

The move has been described as 'China's Worst Nightmare' in a strategic bid to counter its influence in the region

China has inflamed tensions in the South China Sea in recent years by expanding its claimed territory, to the objection of its neighbors in the Asia-Pacific

The Prime Minister reportedly held concerns French-owned shipbuilder Naval Group would be unable to deliver submarines until 2030 with deadline and price disputes.

Mr Morrison reportedly tried to speak with the French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday regarding the new deal.

News of Australia's decision was instead reportedly disclosed to Paris by the secretary of the Defence Department, Greg Moriarty, the ABC reported.

The Australian Naval Institute has repeatedly criticised the troubled French submarine project while welcoming the use of nuclear technology.

'With regional tensions increasing, then building our own one-off type submarines which will arrive in the early 2030s is not good enough. We have no guarantee they will work,' the article stated.

'When we built the Collins class submarines (at exorbitant expense) they did not work properly for several years.

'Instead we should buy 12 of a proven design which is already in the water. We want long-range hunter-killer vessels. We also want them to be able to stay submerged for long periods to avoid detection. Nuclear does this in spades.'

It is speculated the US had planned to operate some of its nuclear submarines from Perth's naval base HMAS Stirling.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison (pictured) is set to make an announcement on Thursday morning over the country's international security initiative

The UK, which also uses nuclear technology, is expected to support Australia with the move in the three-nation security pact.

Sources say plan is a move to counter China's rise in the technology and military sectors.

It is one of a string of initiatives designed to demonstrate Washington's global role after the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Biden will next week host his first in-person summit of leaders of the Quad nations  made up of Australia, India, Japan and the United States  which have been coordinating against China's growing reach.

'Hosting the leaders of the Quad demonstrates the Biden-Harris administration's priority of engaging in the Indo-Pacific, including through new multilateral configurations to meet the challenges of the 21st century, said Press Secretary Jen Psaki as she announced the September 24 summit in a statement.

How China's feud with Australia has escalated 2019: Australian intelligence services conclude that China was responsible for a cyber-attack on Australia's parliament and three largest political parties in the run-up to a May election. April 2020: Australian PM Scott Morrison begins canvassing his fellow world leaders for an inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic. Britain and France are initially reluctant but more than 100 countries eventually back an investigation. April 15: Morrison is one of the few leaders to voice sympathy with Donald Trump's criticisms of the World Health Organization, which the US president accuses of bias towards China. April 21: China's embassy accuses Australian foreign minister Peter Dutton of 'ignorance and bigotry' and 'parroting what those Americans have asserted' after he called for China to be more transparent about the outbreak. April 23: Australia's agriculture minister David Littleproud calls for G20 nations to campaign against the 'wet markets' which are common in China and linked to the earliest coronavirus cases. April 26: Chinese ambassador Cheng Jingye hints at a boycott of Australian wine and beef and says tourists and students might avoid Australia 'while it's not so friendly to China'. Canberra dismisses the threat and warns Beijing against 'economic coercion'. May 11: China suspends beef imports from four of Australia's largest meat processors. These account for more than a third of Australia's $1.1billion beef exports to China. May 18: The World Health Organization backs a partial investigation into the pandemic, but China says it is a 'joke' for Australia to claim credit. The same day, China imposes an 80 per cent tariff on Australian barley. Australia says it may challenge this at the WTO. May 21: China announces new rules for iron ore imports which could allow Australian imports - usually worth $41billion per year - to be singled out for extra bureaucratic checks. June 5: Beijing warns tourists against travelling to Australia, alleging racism and violence against the Chinese in connection with Covid-19. June 9: China's Ministry of Education warns students to think carefully about studying in Australia, similarly citing alleged racist incidents. June 19: Australia says it is under cyber-attack from a foreign state which government sources say is believed to be China. The attack has been targeting industry, schools, hospitals and government officials, Morrison says. July 9: Australia suspends extradition treaty with Hong Kong and offers to extend the visas of 10,000 Hong Kongers who are already in Australia over China's national security law which effectively bans protest. August 18: China launches 12-month anti-dumping investigation into wines imported from Australia in a major threat to the $6billion industry. August 26: Prime Minster Scott Morrison announces he will legislate to stop states and territories signing deals with foreign powers that go against Australia's foreign policy. Analysts said it is aimed at China. October 13: Trade Minister Simon Birmingham says he's investigating reports that Chinese customs officials have informally told state-owned steelmakers and power plants to stop Aussie coal, leaving it in ships off-shore. November 2: Agriculture Minister David Littleproud reveals China is holding up Aussie lobster imports by checking them for minerals. November 3: Barley, sugar, red wine, logs, coal, lobster and copper imports from Australia unofficially banned under a directive from the government, according to reports. November 18: China releases bizarre dossier of 14 grievances with Australia. November 27: Australian coal exports to China have dropped 96 per cent in the first three weeks of November as 82 ships laden with 8.8million tonnes of coal are left floating off Chinese ports where they have been denied entry. November 28: Beijing imposed a 212 per cent tariff on Australia's $1.2 billion wine exports, claiming they were being 'dumped' or sold at below-cost. The claim is denied by both Australia and Chinese importers. November 30: Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lijian Zhao posted a doctored image showing a grinning Australian soldier holding a knife to the throat of an Afghan child. The move outraged Australians. December 12: Australian coal is added to a Chinese blacklist. December 24: China suspends imports of Australian timber from NSW and WA after local customs officers say they found pests in the cargo. January 11, 2021: Australia blocks $300million construction deal that would have seen state-owned China State Construction Engineering Corporation takeover Probuild. The bid was blacked over national security concerns. February 5, 2021: China confirms Melbourne journalist and single mother Cheng Lei has been formally arrested after being detained in August, 2020. February 23, 2021: China accuses Australia of being in an 'axis of white supremacy' with the UK, USA, Canada and NZ in an editorial. March 11, 2021: Australia is accused of genocide by a Communist Party newspaper editor. March 15, 2021: Trade Minister Dan Tehan announced he wants the World Trade Organisation to help mediate discussions between the two countries over the trade dispute. April 21, 2021: Foreign Minister Marise Payne announces Australia has scrapped Victoria's controversial Belt and Road deal with China using new veto powers. May 6, 2021: China indefinitely suspends all strategic economic talks with Australia, blaming the Morrison Government's attitude towards the relationship. The move cuts off all diplomatic contact with Beijing under the China-Australia Strategic Economic Dialogue, freezing discussions between key officials below a ministerial level. June 22, 2021: China tries to 'ambush' Australia with a push to officially declare the Great Barrier Reef 'in danger' Advertisement

Mr Morrison, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga will attend.

She added the leaders will discuss Covid-19, the climate crisis, emerging technologies, and promoting a 'free and open Indo-Pacific' - diplomatic speak for countering China's ambitions.

Leaders will be focused on deepening our ties and advancing practical cooperation on areas such as combatting the pandemic, addressing the climate crisis, partnering on emerging technologies and cyberspace, and promoting a free and open Indo-Pacific.

Bill Hagerty, Republican senator and former ambassador to Japan, welcomed the plan after the 'debacle' of the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

'Biden's Afghanistan withdrawal debacle made India's neighborhood more dangerous & raises legitimate questions for Japan and Australia as well, so it's good we will be hosting Quad partners soon,' he said on Twitter.

Officials are increasingly concerned at the way China is laying claim to the South China Sea, ignoring other nations territorial claims (pictured, Chinese troops marching during a military parade in Tiananmen Square in Beijing)

'We must repair & renew our alliances, and this one is key.'

Officials are increasingly concerned at the way China is laying claim to the South China Sea, ignoring other nations territorial claims.

Under current international law Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines, Indonesia, China and Taiwan all claim a portion of the South China Sea.

A Congressional report from earlier in July found China 'gaining effective control' of the region in recent years, which is rich in oil and natural gas deposits, by increasing their military presence and building up artificial islands.

As a result, the US and allies make frequent 'freedom of navigation' voyages through international waters in the region, drawing angry rebukes from Beijing.
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Residents have reacted with fury after a Labour-run council approved plans to build a shopping centre and office buildings in the heart of London's iconic Brick Lane.

Tower Hamlets council approved the plans to transform parts of the Truman Brewery into a five-storey modern building in east London complete with a gym, rooftop and popular High St chains.

The area is currently home to market stalls, independent shops and galleries and campaigners fear the new buildings will 'gentrify' the area - which is known for its thriving curry scene. The former brewery has over 300 small businesses and holds regular public events.

Around 7,500 objections have been registered against the plans, with 82 letters of support.

Campaigners fear that introducing a shopping centre will change Brick Lane's character and that the new office space will not be affordable to local businesses.

Despite widespread opposition, Tower Hamlets Council's Development Committee voted two votes to one in favour of the proposal.

Brick Lane was formerly known as Whitechapel Lane but got its current name from brick and tile manufacturing that started in the area in the 15th century. Before the 70s, the area was made up of poor slums. It was also where Jack the Ripper murdered his victims.

It later became known for its brewing with Joseph Truman establishing the Truman Brewery in 1683. It eventually became the largest brewery company in the world before declining and closing in 1989 following a merger with Watney Mann and Grand Metropolitan.

 Slide me  Residents have reacted with fury after a Labour-run council approved plans to build a shopping centre and office buildings in the heart of London's iconic Brick Lane. Left, today. Right, a graphic showing the development

Tower Hamlets council approved the plans to transform parts of the Truman Brewery into a five storey modern building in east London complete with a gym, rooftop and popular High St chains. Left, today. Right, the proposals

Campaigners fear that introducing a shopping centre will change Brick Lane's character and that the new office space will not be affordable to local businesses. Pictured, illustration of the proposals

Brick Lane is an iconic part of east London, home to a vast number of curry houses and independent businesses

Truman brewery was built in Brick Lane in 1666 by Thomas Bucknall on the site of a wellspring. One of his employees, Joseph Truman, bought the brewery upon Bucknall's death. Left: The brewery's distinctive chimney in 1998. Right: The brewery in the 1960s

Truman Brewery: Built in 1666, how family-run brewery became the biggest in the world and supplied the Russian court The brewery was built in Brick Lane in 1666 by Thomas Bucknall on the site of a wellspring. One of his employees, Joseph Truman, bought the brewery upon Bucknall's death. Truman came from a family of brewers who were in the trade since 1381 and set-up the site at a time of great demand for beer. Truman's son industrialised the process and was later knighted by George III. Sampson Hanbury took over in 1789 and doubled the output of the brewery to thirty million quart pots a year by 1820 with the installation of a steam engine by Boulton & Watt. For a brief time in the 1800s, it was the biggest brewery in the world. It sent Imperial Stout to the Russian court and IPA to the British Raj and remained resolutely independent until succumbing to the merger mania of the 1980s. In 1989 the brewery and pubs were sold and Truman's closed its doors. However, in 2010, James Morgan & Michael-George Hemus bought the name and the yeast, and Truman's beer is now brewed in nearby Hackney Wick. Advertisement

Nijjor Manush, a campaign group for Bengalis and Bangladeshis in the UK, is one of the groups that has led the Save Brick Lane campaign against the plans.

He said: 'Today's decision ultimately came down to the votes of just two Labour councillors : Cllr @Kevin_J_Brady and Cllr @KaharChowdhury - both of whom sided with profiteers this evening. Councillior Leema Qureshi was not allowed to vote because she was self isolating at home.

'The Save Brick Lane campaign, on the other hand, has engaged & mobilised hundreds of locals & residents in and around Brick Lane. It is they that have made it clear to us that they reject this proposal, & resent politics as usual under Tower Hamlets Council.

'We will continue to organise the people of Brick Lane and Banglatown as this campaign moves on to the next stage.'

Supporters of the group took to social media to express their displeasure at the decision.

One said: 'This is miserable news for #BrickLane and hundreds of independent businesses in the area. Short sighted and culturally damaging, so it goes with 'planning' there as most everywhere else.'

Another wrote: 'Devastated to red this about #BrickLane Shame on the councillors they are hell bent on ripping the heart out of the area.'

While a third added: ' And this is how you know it is about profit over people. Profit over existing local communities. Profit over local histories, struggles, sense of belonging. This will displace people and change the landscape of Brick Lane.'

However, some local business owners expressed their support for the plans.

Gujar Khan is the chair of the Brick Lane Business Association and runs Masala restaurant. He told GQ that most local business owners are in favour of the development as it will 'generate a lot of business for the area.

Abdul Ahad grew up on Brick Lane and runs City Spice. He said: 'More people will come from other places to work and spend their money. I'm all for the development. The land has been derelict for years, since I grew up here as a little boy. It will create a better atmosphere than what it is at the moment.'

Shoppers at the bustling clothes market in Brick Lane, Bethnal Green, east London, in around 1900

Buckley Gray Yeoman, the architects behind the new plans, insisted their design would be 'more of the same'

Despite widespread opposition, Tower Hamlets Council's Development Committee voted two votes to one in favour of the proposal. Pictured, the plans

Truman Brewery founder Joseph Truman came from a family of brewers who were in the trade since 1381 and set-up the site at a time of great demand for beer. Above: A truck is loaded with barrels of beer at the brewery in 1959

Truman Brewery sent Imperial Stout to the Russian court and IPA to the British Raj and remained resolutely independent until succumbing to the merger mania of the 1980s. Above: The headquarters in 1977

Three strikers are seen drinking near Truman Brewery at a pub on Brick Lane in 1966

Staff members at the bottling plant of Truman Brewery are seen hard at work in 1976. In 1989 the brewery and pubs were sold and Truman's closed its doors

Striking workers at Truman's are seen listening to company bosses talk from the back of one of the firm's delivery trucks in 1966

A crowd of men and children are seen looking on as their photo is taken outside the Russian Vapour Baths on Brick Lane in 1904

Sunday bird fair, Sclater Street, off Brick Lane, London, 1900s. A bird seller stands outside her shop, the wall of which is covered with cages full of birds

Shoppers are seen perusing stalls at a market on Brick Lane in 1993. The street was formerly known as Whitechapel Lane but got its current name from brick and tile manufacturing that started in the area in the 15th century

Tower Hamlets councillor Kevin Brady, who voted in favour of the scheme, said on Twitter: 'We don't get to decide who or what gets to submit an application. We just have to decide if it's lawful or not.

'About 96 per cent of the Truman Brewery is independent businesses & the brewery has indicated that will remain their model.

'It replaces a car park with a building of similar scale and massing to that which originally stood on site.

'The existing building includes office space with a majority of tenants being small, independent traders and, while policy is limited on how much can be mandated, the brewery has stated this arrangement will continue.'

An officer report recommending the scheme's approval read: 'The proposed development would deliver a well-considered design that is appropriate in terms of mass, scale, form and architectural detailing.

'It would enhance the character and appearance of the Brick Lane and Fournier Street Conservation Area, and would preserve the setting of other heritage assets.'

Now, the London Borough Of Tower Hamlets, in which Brick Lane is located, is home to the largest concentration of Bangladeshis in England and Wales. Above: A customer in a Bangladeshi grocer's shop in Brick Lane in 1978

A small boy is seen holding a toy gun in front of a group of police officers on Brick Lane in the 1990s

Buckley Gray Yeoman, the architects behind the new plans, insisted their design would be 'more of the same'.

Director Amr Assaad said: 'Our proposal says simply, more of the same please.

'We have worked closely with the management of the Truman Brewery and Tower Hamlets Council to provide new space on an underused site to replicate the established successful pattern of the area  with major improvements at street level for Woodseer Street.

'The outcome is a design that focuses on fundamentals: the pedestrian environment, the established character of the surrounding buildings and the provision of flexible and adaptable space of the type that has made the Truman Brewery such an important hub for independent local business and cultural events.'
The U.S., Australia and the U.K. turned up the heat on China on Wednesday with a deal to share defense technology, starting with plans to help Australia build a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines.

President Biden was joined virtually by the prime ministers of Australia and the U.K to make the announcement.

A working group, known by the acronym AUKUS, will allow the three allies to share the latest technology in artificial intelligence, underwater systems and long-range strike capabilities.

Officials said nuclear-powered submarines would be quieter and more capable than Australia's existing fleet, enhancing 'deterrence' across the far East.

'We all recognize the imperative of ensuring peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific for the long term,' said Biden, using diplomatic speak for countering China's ambitions.

None of the leaders mentioned China by name - and officials earlier played down the idea that the announcement was directed at any one country - but the U.S. and its Asian allies have expressed alarm at its territorial ambitions, military buildup in the South China Sea and growing economic might.

'Our nations will update and enhance our shared ability to take on the threats in the 21st century, just as we did the 20th - together,' said Biden.

Each of the leaders took pains to explain that the submarines would only carry conventional weapons.

President Biden unveiled a new security arrangement with Australia and the UK that he said would ensure 'peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific for the long term'

Biden was joined for the announcement by Prime Minister Boris Johnson of the UK and Prime Minister Scott Morrison by videolink

The first project for the new defense tech sharing agreement will be to equip Australia with a nuclear-powered submarine fleet

'These are conventionally armed submarines that are powered by nuclear reactors,' said Biden.

'This technology is proven. It's safe.'

Until now, Washington has only ever shared its nuclear sub technology with London in an arrangement dating back to 1958.

'This is a unique set of circumstances,' said a senior administration official on an earlier briefing call with journalists.

Morrison said plans for the submarines will be developed in the next 18 months. They will be built in Adelaide, he added, but promised that Australia would not not be fielding nuclear weapons.

'We will continue to meet all our nuclear non-proliferation obligations,' he said.

The announcement is expected to scupper a $40 billion deal with France to replace Australia's aging fleet of Collins class submarines.

Johnson said the agreement would make the world safer.

'It is a momentous decision for any nation to acquire this formidable capability, and perhaps equally momentous for any other state to come to its aid,' he said.

'But Australia is one of our oldest friends, a kindred nation and a fellow democracy, and a natural partner in this great enterprise.'

Republican Sen. Bill Hagerty, a former ambassador to Japan, welcomed the announcement.

'I'm pleased to see the Trump Administration's efforts to strengthen cooperation with critical allies and counter our strategic adversary - communist China - continue with the current administration,' he said.

Biden was joined by the leaders of Australia - Prime Minster Scott Morrison (l) - and Britain - Prime Minister Boris Johnson (r) - for the announcement

'I urge the Biden administration to work with Britain and Australia to implement with a sense of urgency and accelerate relevant timelines.'

The new alliance will likely trigger concern in Beijing, which has reacted angrily every time Biden has reoriented U.S. foreign policy towards China.

Chinese leaders have expressed outrage at Biden administration officials condemning their human rights record in Xianjiang province and at criticism of their democracy crackdown in Hong Kong.

Their may be more to come next week when Biden will host his first in-person summit of leaders of the Quad nations  made up of Australia, India, Japan and the United States  which have been coordinating against China's growing reach.

'Hosting the leaders of the Quad demonstrates the Biden-Harris administration's priority of engaging in the Indo-Pacific, including through new multilateral configurations to meet the challenges of the 21st century, said Press Secretary Jen Psaki as she announced the September 24 summit in a statement.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga will attend.

She added the leaders will discuss COVID-19, the climate crisis, emerging technologies, and promoting a 'free and open Indo-Pacific.'

Officials are increasingly concerned at the way China is laying claim to the South China Sea, ignoring other nations territorial claims.

Sen. Bill Hagerty, who sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said it was vital to repair alliances after Biden's handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal

China has inflamed tensions in the South China Sea in recent years by expanding its claimed territory, to the objection of its neighbors in the Asia-Pacific

US Marines with Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 211 flying F-35B Lightning II's conduct routine operations aboard HMS Queen Elizabeth while she conducts a double replenishment with RFA Tidespring and HNLMS Evertsen in the South China Sea on 29 July, 2021

A Congressional report from earlier in July found China 'gaining effective control' of the region in recent years, concerning national security experts who see it as a threat to US interests (pictured: Chinese vessels moored in a disputed South China Sea territory on March 7)

'That assertion treads on the sovereignty of states in the region. We continue to support the region's coastal states in upholding their rights under international law,' said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in July.

Under current international law Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines, Indonesia, China and Taiwan all claim a portion of the South China Sea.

A Congressional report from earlier in July found China 'gaining effective control' of the region in recent years, which is rich in oil and natural gas deposits, by increasing their military presence and building up artificial islands.

As a result, the US and allies make frequent 'freedom of navigation' voyages through international waters in the region, drawing angry rebukes from Beijing.

Last week the US Navy announced that the Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group had entered the area for the first time during its current deployment.

'The freedom of all nations to navigate in international waters is important, and especially vital in the South China Sea, where nearly a third of global maritime trade transits each year,' said Rear Admiral Dan Martin, the group's commander.

Beijing condemned the move when one ship in the group, the USS Benfold, sailed near the Spratly Islands, within 12 miles of a reef claimed by China.
A Florida mother has been reunited with her daughter 14 years after the girl was kidnapped by her father from her Central Florida home and taken to Mexico.

Jacqueline Hernandez - now 19 - was just six years old when father Pablo Hernandez took her from her Clermont, Florida, home on December 22, 2007 and fled with her to Mexico.

But in June this year, her mother Angelica Vences-Salgado received a message on social media from a girl claiming to be Jacqueline.

The pair made arrangements to meet at the Gateway to the Americas Port of Entry in Laredo, Texas, last Friday.

The Clermont Police Department said Vences-Salgado, a native of Mexico, reached out to them on September 2 to advise them of the proposed reunion.

Orange County Sheriff's Office detectives then reached out to the Central Florida Intelligence Exchange and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Orlando and Laredo to devise a plan to confirm Jacqueline's identity.

Vences-Salgado and Jacqueline were picked up by HSI, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Laredo Police Department at approximately 1:50pm on Friday at the border entry gate.

After nearly three hours of reviewing documents, including finger prints and her birth certificate, the agencies were able to confirm Jacqueline's identity - and mother and daughter were finally reunited.

Clermont Police published a photograph of the pair hugging at long last.

Jacqueline Hernandez (right) contacted her mother Angelica Vences-Salgado (left) in June and reunited with her in Laredo, Texas, last Friday, almost 14 years after her father Pablo Hernandez kidnapped her from her Florida home

Jacqueline Hernandez was just six years old when she was abducted by her father from her Clermont, Florida home on December 22, 2007

The teen told Fox 35 Orlando that her father raised her in Cilpancingo, a city in the southern state of Guerrero.

Pablo Hernandez has not been arrested for kidnapping his daughter in Clermont, Florida on December 22, 2007 before fleeing with her to Mexico

She said that she had a good childhood, but that she always missed her mother.

She used Facebook to track down her mother - who at first did not believe she was speaking to her daughter.

But after the pair talked for a while, she realized it was her long-lost daughter.

According to Homeland Security Investigations, Hernandez 'escaped' from her father about three months ago.

She then set off on a 868-mile journey to the United States-Mexico border where she finally met up with her mother.

Angelica Vences-Salgado told Univision on Wednesday that she froze and almost fainted at the sight of her daughter as the police closed in on them.

'She would talk to me and say, 'Ma, it's me. Ma, it's me.' And all the cops are there and I say,' Oh oh,'' she said.

She recalled her daughter telling her, 'if you say you're not my mom, I faint.'

Vences-Salgado said the reunion filled her 'with happiness that I have her here, that I can touch her, I can hug her. I can't say how much I love her.'

Vences-Salgado told Fox35 that she was overjoyed that her daughter had returned.

Jacqueline has now moved in to her Florida home, which is decorated with welcome home signs and balloons.

She is also studying international business at a university in Mexico, Fox35 reports.

Homeland Security Investigations special agent in charge David Pezzutti said: 'A kidnapped daughter was reunited with her mother as a result of enforcement working together.

'This is a great example of how strong partnerships in law enforcement can work to solve problems, no matter the complexity or distance.'

Jacqueline Hernandez (left) escaped from her father about three months ago and the took off on a 868-mile journey to the United States-Mexico border where she saw her mother Angelica Vences-Salgado for the first time in almost 14 years

A missing person poster released 11 years after Jacqueline was abducted included a digitally aged picture of what she might have looked like at age 18

Clermont Police Chief Charles Broadway said: 'This is a prime example of what can be accomplished when multiple law enforcement agencies and their respective communities work cooperatively together and maintain open lines of communication.

'In this case, several agencies in different counties and states across the nation were able to create a force multiplier and aid in reuniting the victim with her mother after 14 years.'

Clermont Police's Kris Kruse told Fox35: 'At this point we are actively working with the FBI and other agencies about trying to apprehend the father of the juvenile.'

Pablo Hernandez has not been arrested or charged in connection with the abduction.
Republicans are ramping up pressure on the Biden administration to declare the Taliban a terrorist organization.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., is introducing a bill Wednesday demanding Congress and the Biden administration designate the Taliban as a foreign terrorist organization and the Afghanistan government they run as a state sponsor of terrorism.

The legislation would ban federal agencies from taking any action that implies recognition of the Taliban's claim of sovereignty over Afghanistan, among other priorities.

The Sunshine State Republican is also proposing that the State Department provide an annual report on which countries have 'diplomatic relations' with the Taliban, and whether any entity 'knowingly' provides assistance to them.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., is introducing a bill Wednesday demanding Congress and the Biden administration designate the Taliban as a foreign terrorist organization

The Taliban completed their takeover of Afghanistan last month, ahead of the US withdrawal

Armed Taliban fighters escort veiled women marching during a pro-Taliban rally outside Shaheed Rabbani Education University in Kabul on September 11

The State Department does not label the Afghan Taliban as a Foreign Terrorist Organization but does sanction the group as 'Specially Designated Global Terrorists,' which freezes their assets and bars Americans from working with them.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., introduced a resolution on Tuesday calling on the State Department to designate the Taliban as terrorists and calling to freeze all assets of the Afghan government in the US and work to make sure other countries do the same.

The resolution also calls on the department to declare the Taliban takeover a 'coup detat' and to use its 'authority and influence' over international institutions to pressure them to deny funds to the Taliban.

'The Biden Administration has misled the American public by attempting to normalize the Taliban as a transitional government but the Taliban continue to engage in terrorist activity, harbor other terrorist groups, commit human rights atrocities, deny women their basic civil liberties, and overthrew a democratically elected government,' Waltz said in a statement.

'Since reestablishing control of Afghanistan, the Taliban resumed the same murderous and oppressive habits that characterized their leadership tenure prior to the arrival of U.S. forces in 2001,' read a letter organized by Sen. Joni Ernst, above

In a letter dated Wednesday, Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, led a group of Republicans in writing to Secretary of State Antony Blinken demanding he declare the Taliban a terrorist organization.

'Since reestablishing control of Afghanistan, the Taliban resumed the same murderous and oppressive habits that characterized their leadership tenure prior to the arrival of U.S. forces in 2001,' the letter, also signed by GOP Sens. Rick Scott, Fla., Dan Sullivan, Alaska, Tommy Tuberville, Ala.

They argued the 'current version of the Taliban government presents a significant threat to the United States.'

The legislative action comes after the Taliban announced its interim government, which brought back many leaders from the Taliban's oppressive reign of the 1990s. No women are part of the interim government and the ministry of women's affairs has been removed.

Ernst's letter pointed to the recent appointment of Sirajuddin Haqqani, who is on the FBI's most wanted list, as acting interior minister. Haqqani is the founder of the Haqqani network, which is designated a terrorist organization by the US.

Biden told reporters last week that the US is a 'long way off' from formally recognizing the Islamist group, while Gen. Mark Milley has said that the US could collaborate with the Taliban against the Islamic State. During the Afghanistan withdrawal, the US relied on the Taliban for security around the Kabul airport.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said earlier this month that the US will 'judge the Taliban by their actions' when determining a relationship and we will 'stay in close coordination with the international community on any steps that we take moving forward.'

On Monday, the United Nations said a total of $1.2billion in emergency aid had been pledged to Afghanistan, $64million of which came from the US.

The Taliban thanked the world for pledging more than a billion dollars, and urged the US to 'have a heart' and offer more.
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Simone Biles broke down in tears during Wednesday's Senate hearing as she recounted the sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar and revealed how the FBI failed her and dozens of other victims by turning a 'blind eye' to the abuse.

The Olympic athlete, 24, called for the agents who failed to take action for more than a year after the abuse was reported to face federal prosecution as they enabled the sexual predator to continue to prey on dozens of young victims.

'To be clear, I blame Larry Nassar and I also blame an entire system that enabled and perpetrated that abuse,' she said.

Biles was joined by her fellow star athletes and Nassar victims McKayla Maroney, Maggie Nichols and Aly Raisman as they each gave damning testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee for its hearing into the FBI's botched probe into Nassar's sexual abuse.

Raisman delivered one of the hearing's most chilling lines, when she blasted the FBI for failing to properly investigate their initial abuse claims against Nassar, leaving him free to abuse another 120 children.

She said: 'Nassar found more than 100 new victims to molest. It was like serving innocent children up to a pedophile on a silver platter.'

The four women testified how they were made to feel the years of abuse they suffered 'wasn't a big deal' when they reported it to FBI agents, who then failed to investigate their allegations and then tried to cover-up their inaction when it came to light.

Such shocking failings enabled the predator to carry on his reign of abuse. Nassar abused a further 120 victims in the 17 months between July 2015 - when victims reported the abuse to the FBI - and December 2016 - when the pedophile was finally arrested on child porn charges.

All four women testified to lawmakers that they know of fellow athletes who were abused during this period when 'the FBI did nothing'.

They all demanded accountability with Biles saying the agents who failed them must 'at least be federally prosecuted to the fullest extent because they need to be held accountable'.

Senator Patrick Leahy, who had asked what accountability the survivors wanted to see, agreed: 'As a former prosecutor, I agree with that.'

Simone Biles broke down in tears Wednesday as she recounted the abuse she suffered at the hands of Larry Nassar during the Senate hearing into FBI's botched probe into the sexual abuse case

US Olympic gymnasts (L-R) Simone Biles, McKayla Maroney, Aly Raisman and Maggie Nichols listen to opening comments

Olympic gymnast McKayla Maroney wipes away tears as she gives testimony (left). Maroney and Biles hold hands as they leave the hearing

Simone Biles, McKayla Maroney, Aly Raisman and Maggie Nichols, listen to opening comments during the Senate hearing

Biles and her fellow star athletes McKayla Maroney, Maggie Nichols and Aly Raisman were sworn in to the hearing Wednesday

The four survivors testified on Capitol Hill about the FBI's botched handling of its sex abuse investigation of Nassar

During Wednesday's hearing:

Simone Biles said the FBI 'failed' her and other victims and revealed the abuse took its toll during the delayed Tokyo Olympics as she was forced to live with 'the reminders of this story for another 365 days'

McKayley Maroney revealed FBI agents asked her if Larry Nassar 'helped' her when he molested her the first time she met him and also asked her 'is that all?' as she broke down in tears during a three-hour 2015 interview that they failed to document for almost two years

Raisman said it took 14 months for the FBI to contact her for an interview after she reported Larry Nassar's abuse and then 'pressured' her into accepting her abuser's plea deal

Larry Nassar's first accuser Maggie Nichols said the FBI 'betrayed' his victims and that she is still waiting for answers six years after reporting the abuse

FBI Director Chris Wray said he was 'deeply and profoundly sorry' to the people failed by the FBI but admitted 'I don't have a have a good explanation' for the bureau's failings

After the hearing, Kaylee Lorincz told reporters she was one of the 120 victims abused after the FBI knew about the abuse and failed to act, saying 'my 2016 abuse is on them'

Senator Richard Blumenthal blasted the bureau saying its 'inaction led to victimization of the most horrific and hideous kind' and also hit out at the DOJ for being a 'no-show' at the hearings

FBI Director Chris Wray issued an apology on behalf of the FBI as he and Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz were called to testify during the second panel of the hearing after the four survivors had given their emotional testimony.

Wray said the FBI agents 'broke the trust' of the victims and he said he was 'deeply and profoundly sorry to each and every one of you' for the actions of the agents who 'failed in their core duty of protecting people.'

He sent a message to the survivors saying he will make sure 'everyone at the FBI remembers what happened here in heartbreaking detail' to make sure it is 'never repeated'.

'I am not interested in simply addressing this wrong and moving it on. It's my commitment to you that I and my entire senior leadership team that everyone at the FBI remembers what happen here in heartbreaking detail,' he said.

'We need to remember that the pain occurred when we fail to do our jobs. That is what we need to know to ensure this tragedy is never repeated.'

He added: 'That was inexcusable, it never should have happened, and we are doing everything in our power to make sure it never happens again.'

Wray said the FBI has started implementing all of the recommendations made in the IG's report but admitted: 'I don't have a have a good explanation' for the bureau's failings.

Two other Nassar survivors joined the women at a press conference after the Senate hearing where one women revealed she was one of the 120 victims abused by the pedophile in the 17-month period where the FBI failed to act.

Kaylee Lorincz said she continued to be abused by Nassar for another year because agents at the FBI 'did not go their job' saying 'my 2016 abuse is on them.'

'My last appointment with Larry Nassar was Feb. 2, 2016 and that appointment should've never happened,' she said.

'I'm here speaking on behalf of the 120 victims who saw Larry after the FBI knew of his abuse in 2015 and failed to investigate, failed to take action and failed to protect.

Former Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar in court in 2018

'Let me be clear, I should not be here. I was abused from 2011 to 2016 and my life has been forever changed.'

Lorincz demanded accountability and criminal charges for the FBI agents who failed to investigate Nassar.

'Where is the accountability for letting Larry continue to sexually assault little girls on your watch?' she asked.

'Where is the accountability for those at the FBI who chose to place personal gain ahead of their duties to protect and serve?

'Had anyone at the FBI done their job, then I would not be here speaking to you today. Accountability will only occur when the FBI agents who did not do their job face criminal charges. My 2016 abuse is on them.'

Senator Richard Blumenthal blasted the FBI in the briefing, saying: 'The FBI's inaction led to victimization of the most horrific and hideous kind.'

'There were 120 young women who laid before Larry Nassar on his examining table and he did with them whatever he wanted because the FBI did nothing,' he said.

Blumenthal also hit out at the Department of Justice for failing to show at the hearing.

'The Department of Justice today was a no-show. The Department of Justice failed to appear. They have responsibility ultimately for the FBI, for the prosecutions, and for action here,' he said.

Raisman said the no-show 'says to me that child abuse does not matter'.

The Senate hearing examined why the FBI failed to investigate Nassar, 58, for his crimes sooner, leaving the predator free to carry on his decades-long reign of abuse for more than a year after the allegations were first reported.

The FBI's handling of the case came under close scrutiny in a damning report by the Justice Department watchdog released in July.

McKayla Maroney, Aly Raisma, Senators Richard Blumenthal and Chuck Grassley (l-r) at a press conference after the hearing

At a press conference after the Senate hearing US Olympic gymnast Kaylee Lorincz (left with Maggie Nichols on right) revealed she was one of the 120 victims abused by the pedophile in the 17-month period where the FBI failed to act. Aly Raisman, McKayla Maroney and three-time National Champion Jessica Howard pictured at the briefing (right)

Horowitz's report found the bureau made a series of failures in its handling of allegations against Nassar when agents were first alerted to the abuse in 2015.

Special Agent in Charge William Jay Abbott for the FBI's Indianapolis office failed to formally open an investigation and then tried to cover-up his inaction by lying during interviews with the watchdog, the report found. Abbott retired from the bureau in 2018.

It emerged Tuesday that the FBI has now fired a second agent accused in the report of failing to launch a proper investigation into the allegations.

Michael Langeman, who worked as a supervisory special agent (SSA) and interviewed Maroney when she came forward with allegations in 2015, was ousted from his role last week.

Langeman did not properly document his interview with Maroney and failed to take action for 17 months, the report revealed.

Langeman was removed from his duties as an agent following the release of the report before his firing this week.

The report also found that the agents 'lied' and falsified records about the case and their handling of it when speaking to the watchdog investigators.

Neither of the agents have been charged over their handling of the case.

John Manly, an attorney for many of Nassar's alleged victims, said Langeman's firing is 'long overdue' but said the timing - just days before the Senate hearing - 'seems cynical'.

Wray and Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz are sworn in Wednesday to give testimony during the second panel of the hearing

Wray sent a message to the survivors saying he will make sure 'everyone at the FBI remembers what happened here in heartbreaking detail' to make sure it is 'never repeated'

Simone Biles says FBI 'failed' Larry Nassar victims and says the abuse took its toll in the delayed Tokyo Olympics as she was forced to live with 'the reminders of this story for another 365 days.'

Simone Biles said she was failed by the FBI, USA Gymnastics (USAG) and the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) in their handling of Nassar's abuse.

She demanded 'answers', saying she fears the same thing could happen to athletes in the future.

'I sit before you today to raise my voice so that no little girl must endure what I, the athletes at this table and the countless others needlessly suffered under Nassar's guise of medical treatment - which we continue to endure to today,' she said.

'We have been failed and we deserve answers. Nassar is where he belongs but those who enabled him deserve to be held accountable.

'If they are not, I am convinced that this will continue to happen to others across Olympic sports.'

Biles testified that, after reading the watchdog report, 'it truly feels like the FBI turned a blind eye to us and went out of its way to protect USAG and USOPC.'

Biles said she was failed by the FBI, USA Gymnastics (USAG) and the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) in their handling of Nassar's abuse

Biles, 24, testified that she was failed by the FBI, USA Gymnastics and the Olympic and Paralympic Committee in their handling of Nassar's abuse and demanded 'consequences' for those who 'allowed the predator to harm children

'A Message needs to be sent. If you allow a predator to harm children, the consequences will be swift and severe,' she said.

Biles also testified about the toll the abuse had taken on her including most recently in the Tokyo Olympic Games this summer, where she pulled out of five final events for mental health reasons.

She told the committee how the delay to the Games due to COVID-19 meant she had 'another 365 days' of training in the gym and being reminded of the abuse.

'As the lone competitor in the recent Tokyo games who was a survivor of this horror, I can assure you that the impacts of this man's abuse are not ever over or forgotten,' she said.

'This meant I would be going to the gym, to training, to therapy, living daily among the reminders of this story for another 365 days.'

The athlete said she felt the 'burden' most when she traveled to Tokyo without the support of her family amid COVID-19 restrictions.

McKayley Maroney reveals FBI agents asked her if Larry Nassar 'helped me' when he molested her the first time she met the doctor and asked 'is that all?' as she broke down in tears during three-hour 2015 interview that they failed to document

Maroney testified how she spoke to FBI agents for three hours in the summer of 2015 telling them her 'entire story of abuse' but they failed to take action - not reporting it for more than a year and, when they did, they made 'entirely false claims about what I said.'

Maroney, who took home gold and silver medals at the 2012 Olympics, said the FBI 'chose to fabricate' the narrative to 'protect a serial child molester and not protect me.'

'After telling my entire story of abuse to the FBI in the summer of 2015, not only did the FBI not report my abuse, but when they eventually documented my report, 17 months later, they made entirely false claims about what I said,' she said.

'I was shocked and deeply disappointed at this narrative they chose to fabricate.

'They chose to lie about what I said and protect a serial child molester rather than protect not only me but countless others.'

She recounted how she had not even confided in her mother at this point but told the agents in 'extreme detail' over the phone about multiple incidents of abuse.

McKayla Maroney testified how she spoke to FBI agents for three hours in the summer of 2015 telling them her 'entire story of abuse' but they failed to take action

'I was too sick to go to anyone in person and speaking about the abuse would give me PTSD for days,' she said, adding that she sat on 'my bedroom floor for three hours' speaking on the phone about the abuse.

'I disclosed all the molestations in extreme detail,' she said.

Maroney testified that the agent asked if Nassar 'helped me' when he inserted his fingers into her vagina during their first meeting when she was sent to him with a sports injury.

'I told them that the first thing Larry Nassar ever said to me was to change into shorts with no underwear because that would make it easier for him to work on me, and within minutes, he had his fingers in my vagina,' Maroney said.

'The FBI then immediately asked, 'Did he insert his fingers into your rectum?' I said, 'No, he never did.' They asked if he used gloves. I said, 'No, he never did.'

'They asked if this treatment ever helped me. I said, 'No, it never did.' This treatment was 100 percent abuse and never gave me any relief.

Maroney described breaking down in tears on the phone as she went into graphic detail about the abuse only for the agents to 'minimize and disregard' her experience and ask: 'is that all?'

'I began crying over the phone, and there was just silence. I was so shocked by the agents' silence and disregard for my trauma and after a minute of silence he just said: is that all?' she said.

'Those words in itself was one of the worst moments of this entire process for me.

Maroney reveals FBI agents asked her if Larry Nassar 'helped me' when he molested her the first time she met the doctor and asked 'is that all?' as she broke down in tears during three-hour 2015 interview that they failed to document

'To have my abuse be minimized and disregarded by the people who were supposed to protect me, just to feel like my abuse was not enough... but the truth is my abuse was enough and they wanted to cover it up.'

Maroney joined Biles in calling for the federal agents responsible for ignoring Nassar's crimes to be indicted on charges.

'They had legal, legitimate evidence of child abuse and did nothing. If they're not going to protect me, I want to know who are they trying to protect?' she told lawmakers.

She added that the falsification of her statement on the abuse is 'an obvious crime' and questioned by the DOJ was refusing to prosecute the agents involved.

'What's even more upsetting to me is that we know that these FBI agents have committed an obvious crime. They falsified my statement, and that is illegal in itself. Yet no recourse has been taken against them. The Department of Justice refused to prosecute these individuals. Why?' she said.

'Deputy attorney general Lisa Monaco couldn't bring herself to be here today. It's the Department of Justice's job to hold them accountable.

'These individuals clearly violated policies and were negligent in executing their duties, and in doing so, more girls were abused by Larry Nassar for over a year.'

She added: 'To not indict these agents is a disservice to me and my teammates, a disservice to the system which is built to protect all of us from abuse.'

Aly Raisman says it took 14 months for the FBI to contact her for an interview after she reported Larry Nassar's abuse and then 'pressured' her into accepting her abuser's plea deal

Raisman, who was captain of the 2012 'Fierce Five' women's women's Olympic gymnastics team that earned a gold medal, said it 'disgusts me' that they are 'still fighting' for accountability years later.

'We are still fighting for the most basic answers and accountability over six years later,' she said.

Raisman said authorities knew of at least six victims in 2015 but continued to serve 'innocent children up to a pedophile on a platter.'

'In 2015 it was known that at least six national team athletes had been abused by Nassar. There was even one of the athletes that was abused on film,' she said.

'Given our abuser's unfettered access to children, stopping him should have been a priority.

'Instead, the following occurred: The FBI failed to interview pertinent parties in a timely manner.

'It took over 14 months for the FBI to contact me despite my many requests to be interviewed by them.'

Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman closes her eyes and puts her head in her hands as Maroney gives testimony to the committee

When agents finally spoke with her about the abuse, Raisman said they tried to 'convince me that it wasn't that bad.'

'I remember sitting with the FBI agent and him trying to convince me that it wasn't that bad. It's taken me years of therapy to realize that my abuse was bad, that it does matter,' she said.

As well as the FBI, Raisman said the USAG and USOPC also have a 'long history of enabling abuse by turning a blind eye - both organizations knew of Nassar's abuse long before it became public.'

Raisman told the committee she also felt 'pressured by the FBI to consent to Nassar's plea deal.'

The former gymnast called for an independent investigation into the FBI, USAG and the USOPC so that 'from there, then we will know the answers of who should be held accountable.'

Larry Nassar's first accuser Maggie Nichols says FBI 'betrayed' victims and she is still waiting for answers six years after reporting the abuse

Nichols, who was the very first victim to report the abuse suffered at the hands of Nassar, said the FBI took more than a year to contact her after she first reported it and that - six years on from making her first complaint - she is still waiting for 'answers.'

She also testified that USA Gymnastics tried to cover up the abuse as well, telling her to 'keep quiet.'

After I reported my abuse to USA Gymnastics, my family and I were told by their former president, Steve Penny, to keep quiet and not say anything that could hurt the FBI investigation,' she said.

'We now know there was no real FBI investigation occurring. While my complaints [were] with the FBI, Larry Nassar continued to abuse women and girls.'

Nichols said she was first abused by Nassar when she was just 15 and told how the predator also sent her messages on social media about her appearance.

She said she went to USA Gymnastics to report the abuse in 2015 and 'my Olympics dreams ended.'

Maggie Nichols told the Senate hearing that - six years on from reporting the abuse in 2015 - she is still waiting for answers

'I don't have a good answer for you': FBI Director Wray's extraordinary answer when asked to explain WHY gymnasts' complaints of sex abuse were ignored FBI Director Christopher Wray stunned a Senate hearing into Larry Nassar's sex abuse of top athletes after saying, 'I don't have a good answer for you,' over why his bureau botched the case. 'The actions and inactions of the FBI employees detailed in this report are completely unacceptable,' he said. 'These individuals betrayed the core duty they have of protecting people, they failed to protect these young women and girls from sexual abuse.' He spoke as it was revealed Michael Langeman, who worked as a supervisory special agent (SSA) in the FBI's Indianapolis office and interviewed victim McKayla Maroney when she came forward with allegations in 2015, was ousted from his role last week. Wray also sought to distance himself from the probe at the very start of questioning, highlighting that he was only appointed in 2017 - the year after the bureau's initial investigation into Nassar was wrapped up. 'I wish I could wave a magic wand to change what happened in 2015 and 2016,' Wray said when questioned by senators. 'We have to earn the people's trust back.' Wray continued: 'The actions and inactions of the FBI employees detailed in this report are completely unacceptable. 'These individuals betrayed the core duty they have of protecting people, they failed to protect these young women and girls from sexual abuse. 'The kinds of fundamental errors that were made in this case in 2015 and 2016 should never have happened. 'In this case, certain FBI agents broke that trust repeatedly and inexcusably, and to pretend otherwise would be one more insult to survivors. 'I want the public to know that the reprehensible conduct reflected in this report is not representative of the work I see from our 37,000 folks every day.' Advertisement

'My Olympic dreams ended in the summer of 2015 when my coach and I reported Larry Nassar's abuse to USAG leadership,' she told lawmakers.

'I reported my abuse to USA Gymnastics over six years ago, and so my family and I received few answers and have even more questions about how this was allowed to occur and dozens of other little girls and women at Michigan State had to be abused after I reported.'

She added: 'In sacrificing my childhood for the chance to compete for the United States, I am haunted by the fact that even after I reported my abuse, so many women and girls had to suffer at the hands of Larry Nassar.'

Nichols said the survivors 'have a right to know why their well being was placed in jeopardy by these individuals who chose not to do their jobs.'

'For many hundreds of survivors of Larry Nassar, this hearing is one of our last opportunities to get justice,' she said.

Biles, Raisman, Nichols and Maroney sat side by side during the panel as they gave their testimony to the committee.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin told the four women 'you were all gold medalists today in the pursuit of justice.'

He had introduced the four star athletes at the start of the hearing saying they are 'star athletes... and they are also survivors.'

Durbin said at the start of the hearing that the FBI's failures in protecting athletes 'shock the conscience', as he noted the inspector general's findings 'paint a shocking picture of FBI dereliction of duty and gross incompetence.'

'It shocks the conscience when those failures come from law enforcement itself,' Durbin said.

'Our focus today is on the FBI, how did it fail, so badly, when it came to Nassar's victims, and what are FBI leaders doing today to ensure this never happens again.'

The failings helped to enable Nassar as he used the 'competitive nature of sport to hide in plain sight.'

He described the FBI's inaction as 'a stain on the bureau'.

'The FBI's handling of this case has done nothing to reassure survivors that they will be treated with the dignity and respect they deserve,' he said.

Durbin said he was committed to trying to prevent similar events from happening and pursuing legislation to hold abusers like Larry Nassar, the former USA Gymnastics team doctor, accountable and 'provide justice to survivors.'

US Senator Jerry Moran asked 'why was there more than one' victim of Nassar, 'more than dozens' - given that victims reported his crimes to authorities.

All four women told the hearing that they know of athletes who were abused in the 13-month period between July 2015 and August 2016 when 'the FBI did nothing'

A survivor wipes away tears during the hearing on Capitol Hill where the victims spoke of the abuse they suffered

Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin said at the start of the hearing how 'it shocks the conscience' that the FBI failed the victims

The DOJ Inspector General released its scathing report in July into the FBI's handling of allegations against Nassar.

It found that two FBI field offices in Indianapolis and Detroit failed to take initial allegations seriously when they were first raised.

The report condemned William Jay Abbott, the former Special Agent in Charge of the bureau's Indianapolis field office, and an unnamed supervisory special agent (SSA) for failing to take action when they learned of the alleged abuse.

Abbott was alerted to Nassar's sickening abuse of young athletes in July 2015.

USA Gymnastics President and CEO Stephen Penny reported the allegations to the FBI's Indianapolis field office that month and provided agents with the names of three victims willing to be interviewed.

The report found Abbott disregarded the allegations and did not formally open an investigation.

Just one witness was interviewed two months later in September 2015 by the SSA, who then failed to formally document the interview for 17 months until February 2017 - well after the FBI had arrested Nassar on charges of possessing sexually explicit images of children in December 2016.

The document was then full of materially false statements, with key information also omitted, the watchdog said.

The SSA was not named in the report but has since been identified as Langeman.

US Olympic gymnasts Aly Raisman, McKayla Maroney, Maggie Nichols, and Simone Biles arrive for the hearing Wednesday

The four star athletes testified to the committee about the abuse they suffered at the hands of Nassar and how they were failed by authorities

Simone Biles, McKayla Maroney, Maggie Nichols and Aly Raisman arriving at Capitol Hill where to testify about the FBI's mishandling of the sex abuse investigation of USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar

Simone Biles arrives on Capitol Hill Wednesday for the Senate hearing into the FBI's handling of the Larry Nassar case

Abbott also failed to share the allegations with other law enforcement agencies or Michigan State University, it found.

FBI officials 'failed to respond to the Nassar allegations with the utmost seriousness and urgency that they deserved and required, made numerous and fundamental errors when they did respond to them, and violated multiple FBI policies,' the report stated.

Nassar's victims have also accused USA Gymnastics and the US Olympics and Paralympics Committee of covering up his abuse for years.

The report showed Abbott failed to take complaints against Nassar seriously or warn authorities at Michigan State University when he first received reports in 2015

Nassar was finally arrested in December 2016 and charged with federal child porn offenses and sexual abuse charges in Michigan.

More than 265 alleged victims came forward to say they were sexually abused by Nassar over the last two decades.

The doctor would assault his victims under the guise of medical treatment when he worked for Michigan State and Indiana-based USA Gymnastics, which trains Olympians.

'Children suffered needlessly because multiple agents in multiple offices at the FBI neglected to share the Nassar allegations with their law enforcement counterparts at state and local agencies,' ranking Republican Charles Grassley said in prepared remarks ahead of Wednesday's hearing.

'Disturbingly, the abuse occurred at the hands of someone who was entrusted with their medical treatment and well-being,' he added.

Horowitz also said that Abbott, who retired from the FBI in 2018, also violated the FBI's conflict of interest policy by discussing a possible job with the US Olympic Committee while he was involved with the Nassar investigation.

The FBI previously called Abbott's behavior 'appalling' and said the supervisory special agent remains with the FBI but is no longer a supervisor and is 'not working on any more FBI matters.'

An attorney for Abbott previously said in a statement he is thankful to prosecutors for bringing Nassar to justice.
A school board member has been condemned over a slew of offensive tweets - including one where she bragged about hitting her sexual peak and demanded someone bring her an 18 year-old boy.

Kate Bishop, who was appointed as a member of the Chula Vista Elementary School District board in California in 2020, dismissed her messages on Twitter as 'past mistakes' and said they were meant to be funny.

'I'm pretty sure I hit my sexual peak today. Somebody bring me an 18 year old boy, STAT!' Bishop tweeted in 2012, with the hashtag 'hormones.'

Parents bashed another tweet, posted in 2011, which read, 'Off to the park to see what hot 3-year-old girls my kid can hit on,' with the hashtag '#ValentinesDay.'

The school district's superintendent, Francisco Escobedo, distanced the school district from Bishop's tweets.

One of the two 'vile' tweets Bishop wrote that concern Chula Vista Elementary School District parents the most says that she's 'off to the park to see what hot 3 year old girls my kid can hit on... #valentinesday'

Parents in Chula Vista, California are demanding answers from Kate Bishop (pictured), a member of the school board whose years-old vile messages on Twitter recently went viral after a concerned father shared them on social media

Katie Davidson-Brock, a Chula Vista local and mother of three children, one of whom attends Chula Vista Elementary School, told Fox News in an interview on Tuesday, 'I think that someone with this type of character is unfit to serve.'

Davidson-Brock doesn't seek Bishop resignation, but she did demand answers.

'I get that most of this stuff is just bad jokes but I would still like to hear or the district address it,' Davidson-Brock said.

Kimberly and Matt Dickson, parents of two, called on Bishop to step down, calling her tweets 'jaw-dropping' and raising their concerns about the school district not taking action to such behavior.

The father who shared these two old tweets, Joe Thomas, among other parents, posted on Facebook last week: 'Her comments are appalling, disturbing and unprofessional for any educator in the public school system,' he wrote.

Thomas that Bishop switched her Twitter account to private mode 24-hours after he reached out to the superintendent's office on Thursday.

Joe Thomas posted a statement (pictured) regarding Bishop's tweet after finding them on social media

Elected school board member Kate Bishop changed her account to private 24-hours after her tweets were reported to the Chula Vista superintendent's office

He also shared a picture of the school district's response to him, suggesting that they had merely given Bishop a verbal slap on the wrist.

'Ms. Bishop received the Let's Talk Dialogue on Friday. I am not aware if there was any further action taken regarding this dialogue,' assistant to the superintendent and school board, Nancy Teehan wrote back, according to the posted screenshot.

'She is the perfect example of who not to put in charge of decisions that affect our children,' Thomas added.

Jonathan Zachreson, founder of Reopen California Schools and a father of three, called attention to two tweets.

'Those tweets, I feel, are disqualifying for anybody involved in K-12 education,' he argued.

The second of the two 'vile' tweets Bishop wrote that concern Chula Vista Elementary School District parents the most says : 'I'm pretty sure I hit my sexual peak today. Somebody bring me an 18 year old boy, STAT! #hormones'

'The 18-year-old boy one is definitely disturbing because 18-year-olds can still be enrolled in school,' Davidson-Brock told Fox News. 'I have a 17-year-old boy. The thought of a school board member writing that is really disturbing to me.'

Matt Dickson said the tweet 'very frightening.'

'To choose an 18-year-old boy as opposed to somebody her own age, it appears to have a predatory context,' he said, adding that Bishop seemed to be 'looking for somebody young and vulnerable. Having somebody who looks at young people in that manner is very scary.'

'If she's a leader with this kind of  in my opinion  predatory thought process, is this going through the rest of the board and of the school district? Is there an acceptance of this kind of behavior?' Dickson added.

The school district's parents also highlighted a tweet from 2011, in which Bishop said she was 'Off to the park to see what hot 3-year-old girls my kid can hit on,' with the hashtag '#ValentinesDay.'

Davidson-Brock said Bishop didn't reflect her acclaimed image of being 'a parent advocate' and 'activist' but she argued that Bishop 'doesn't represent Chula Vista. This isn't how the people I know talk.'

The mother of three also noted that there were comments that 'just don't have any place being written by someone who serves on a school board.'

In a 2012 message, Bishop wrote, 'I wanna hate-f*** (former House Speaker) Paul Ryan, while he is g*gged with my absentee ballot on which I voted for Obama.'

Later on in the same day, she tweeted, 'Couldn't take it anymore. Had to fart on the nearest Prius.'

In 2013, Bishop wrote about having a d**do purchase on her credit card statement.

On Election Day 2016, she wrote of Donald Trump, 'Dear Rust Belt, He lied. Your manufacturing jobs are NEVER coming back. You f***ed us. No love, Kate.'

Above that tweet, another one said: 'Hey "burn it all to the ground because we hate the DNC" liberals! How's that going for ya? #IDontLikeHilarySoYayFacism #Elections2016.'

Kate Bishop, who was appointed as a member of the Chula Vista Elementary School District board in 2020, acknowledged her messages on Twitter as 'past mistakes' and said they were meant to be funny

Davidson-Brock also spotlighted a 2016 tweet in which Bishop mock-quoted Trump.

'It's terrible all the cholera these Mexicans are bringing across the border. Still, nobody loves like I do. Believe me,' she tweeted with the hashtag '#TrumpBookReports.'

'Not everybody gets that,' Davidson-Brock said. 'A lot of people think she's talking about Mexicans, they don't realize that this is a poke at Trump.'

'I understand she may have been joking,' Davidson-Brock admitted. Even so, she insisted that 'someone with that type of character shouldn't be making decisions for our children.'

Chula Vista Elementary School District Assistant Superintendent Oscar Esquivel distanced the board from Bishop's tweets in a statement to Fox News.

'The social media posts occurred years before Kate Bishop's election to the Board of Education. Her personal tweets do not represent the opinions or beliefs of the Chula Vista Elementary School District,' Esquivel wrote.

The assistant superintendent distanced the school district (pictured) from Bishop's old tweets

Kimberly Dickson asserted that the age of the tweets is irrelevant.

'The content of the tweets puts her character into question, whether they were made last week, last year, or ten years ago,' she said. 'Is the fox watching the henhouse?'

Bishop issued a response to her tweets in a statement to Fox News on Tuesday, saying, 'As a parent involved in education, I see this as a teachable moment that things put on the internet last forever. The intent of these tweets was meant to be funny, but they weren't, and without context years later, they have actually hurt people that I care about.'

'I own my past mistakes and I have been more mindful of things that I post publicly online since then,' Bishop concluded.
Two Miami Dade narcotics cops who idolized Will Smith's Bad Boys movies have been jailed for a year after taking their desire to live on the edge too far and landing themselves in the middle of a cocaine sting.

Roderick Flowers, 29, and Keith Edwards, 31, were arrested last October after an undercover sting by the DEA.

They had agreed to act as bodyguards to protect a shipment of cocaine - or what they thought was cocaine.

The pair thought they were helping the Sinaloa Cartel and had been given $5,000 in advance for their roles. They boasted that they'd had SWAT training which they said could help them get the shipment safely through any kind of intervention.

The entire operation turned out to be a sting set up by the DEA. It was one of their undercovers sources who posed as a member of the Mexican cartel group formerly run by El Chapo.

Both Flowers and Edwards were arrested last October.

Roderick Flowers, 29, and Keith Edwards, 31, were arrested last October after an undercover sting by the DEA. The pair modeled themselves on Will Smith and Martin Lawrence's characters in the movie Bad Boys, posting photo collages like this on social media. Edwards posted this comparison on Instagram with the caption 'We ride together, we die together. Bad boys 4 life'

Another photo from the crooked cops' accounts. They thought they were giving security to the Sinaloa Cartel

They were sentenced in August after accepting a plea deal where they admitted conspiracy to distribute cocaine and agreed to do one year in prison, two years on supervised release.

Flowers' attorney David Weinstein said: 'Hes very satisfied with his sentence because it gives him the opportunity to continue with his life.'

in a plea agreement with prosecutor Frederic Shadley. They were sentenced in late August.

The pair had appeared to model themselves on the fictional Miami detectives Marcus Burnett and Mike Lowrey, played by Martin Lawrence and Will Smith in the 1995 comedy movie.

Social media pictures show the two dressed as the two characters for Halloween 2019 alongside the caption 'We ride together. We die together. Bad Boys 4 Life' on Flowers' Instagram - where he also adopted the name 'Detective Mike Lowrey'.

Three other men were also arrested and charged over the fake drug bust. They are Manuel Carlos Hernandez and two accomplices Trevanti McLeod and Durojaiye Obafemi Monsuru Lawal.

The six-month sting began with a confidential source posing as a Mexican cartel member. They made contact with Hernandez several months back, reported the Miami Herald.

Flowers' attorney said he was grateful to have been given a plea deal because even though he can no longer work as a cop, he can 'continue with his life'

Hernandez, who ran Hernandez Investments in Davie, boasted to the source of laundering money for multiple clients, according to the criminal complaint.

He also told the source about his 'fat bank account' and that he planned to open businesses including a barbershop and a car wash as a front to wash the money, the complaint says.

Edwards is a former Army National Guard member and father of three.

The source then planned several money laundering deals involving drug money with Hernandez, Lawal and McLeod over the summer in meetings that were secretly recorded, the DEA says.

In July, Hernandez told them about one potential money laundering client - a Russian strip club owner - who he later said he learnt was an informant after making 'some calls to law enforcement connections' to vet them, it says.

In August, the source then asked Hernandez if his police sources could check a license plate for him through police databases.

Authorities said they later learned it was Flowers who carried this out.

Hernandez later boasted that Flowers and an unnamed cop cousin 'were on his payroll' and acted as 'security for money laundering activities,' according to the complaint.
The Met Gala chef responsible for curating the plant-based menu at the glitzy $35,000-a-head event defended the underwhelming looking food served, saying, 'it tasted plenty good.'

The cuisine served on Monday night at the annual elite fashion event that draws A-listers from across the globe to New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art had been widely mocked after actress Keke Palmer shared a photo of a sad, wilted salad on her Instagram story with the caption: 'This why they don't show y'all the food, I'm just playinnnn.'

The food drew comparison to the meals served at another, in that case infamous luxury event, with one fan tweeting at Palmer, 'They feeding yall like its Fyre Festival.'

The food served at this year's Met Gala was widely mocked after actress Keke Palmer shared a photo of a sad looking salad served the to her 10.5million Instagram followers

The food drew comparison to that served at another, infamous luxury event

Marcus Samuelsson, the head chef behind the Red Rooster in Harlem, helped select the 10 top New York chefs who created the all-vegan menu at this year's Met Gala.

He confirmed to TMZ that the photo shared by Palmer to her 10.5million Instagram followers was one of the meals served at the elite event.

It was a plate of barley and roasted mushrooms, with zucchini slices and a tomato corn salad, and Samuelsson told the outlet that, 'food, likely anything, it a matter of taste, and it tasted plenty good.'

Keke's picture appeared to show the remains of the meal made by Aquavit chef Emma Bengtsson and Junghyun Park, who runs ATOBOY NYC.

Marcus Samuelsson, the chef responsible for curating the event's menu, confirmed Palmer's photo was of a meal served there, and defended the food, saying 'it tasted plenty good'

Samuelsson had recruited the ten chef's (pictured) responsible for preparing the gala's plant-based, vegan menu

The meal in question was assembled by Aqauvit chef Emma Bengtsson (pictured) and Junghyun Park, who runs ATOBOY NYC.

'I couldn't have been more proud of the #MetGalaChefs who created a delicious and memorable meal for all the guests,' he wrote on Instagram.

On social media, the Michelin star chef thanked the culinary artists he recruited for the collaboration, which included Fariyal Abdullahi, Nasim Alikhani, Emma Bengtsson, Lazarus Lynch, Junghyun Park, Erik Ramirez, Thomas Raquel, Sophia Roe, Simone Tong, and Fabian von Hauske.

Before that, the gala guests enjoyed a fresh salad, and dessert was an apple mousse and apple confit with a calvados glaze, served in the shape of an apple.

Canapes at the event included collard greens hot chowder served on coconut buttermilk cornbread, black rice porcini arancini with pumpkin Calabrian chili sauce, as well as watermelon tart with smoked yuzu soy on a panipuri cracker.

The dinner was served on hand-painted plates from Tory Burch's Oiseau collection, and guests' names written on autumnal leaves rather than traditional paper place settings in one of the gala's many moves to be more sustainable.

The Gala had returned this year after being cancelled in 2020 amid the pandemic.

This year it was pushed to September from its traditional slot on the first Sunday in May.
Two Americans have died after falling from a cliff they were trying to climb on the Spanish island of Majorca and plunging into the Mediterranean Sea.

The pair, named locally as Mark Anthony Bacolod Stiles, 35, and Brandon Scott Burns, 25, both of Baltimore, Maryland, were killed after getting into difficulties as they made their daring ascent.

The double tragedy occurred on Tuesday near a cove called Cala Sa Nau, close to the eastern coast town of Portocolom.

Coastguards and police were sent to the scene but could do nothing to save the men.

Mark Anthony Bacolod Stiles, left, and Brandon Scott Burns, both of Baltimore, Maryland, lost their lives climbing the cliffside off the coast of a Spanish island on Tuesday

Mark Anthony Bacolod Stiles was an avid outdoor climber

Two men who are thought to be British have fallen to their death while rock climbing without a rope on a huge sea cliff in Majorca

Post-mortems are due to take place in the coming hours to determine if they drowned or suffered fatal trauma injuries in the fall.

The men, said to have been holidaying on the Mediterranean island, are understood to have been practicing deep-water soloing which is also also known as psicobloc.

It is a form of solo rock climbing that relies solely upon the presence of water at the base of a climb.

That is intended to protect against injury should a climber slip and fall while attempting a difficult route.

It is typically practiced on sea cliffs at high tide but can also be done on climbs above reservoirs, rivers and even swimming pools.

Often a dinghy or other small boat is kept on scene to pick up a fallen climber, as a fall from a taller route can still carry the risk of passing out on impact with the water, which could lead to drowning.

The practice of deep-water soloing in Mallorca has its roots in the late 1970s.

According to Stiles Facebook page, he was an avid outdoor climber.

The Spanish island of Majorca has decades of tradition in deep-water soloing along the cliffs

A spokesman for the Civil Guard in the Mallorcan capital Palma confirmed: 'Two North American nationals have lost their lives in a climbing accident near to the town of Portcolom.'

The alarm was raised around midday on Tuesday by witnesses.

'We responded along with local police and coastguards but there was nothing that could be done to save the men's' lives.

'Our understanding is they were on holiday on the island. 'Post-mortems will now take place to determine the causes of death.'

Well-placed sources said they believed one of the men could have hit rocks below him as he fell.

It is not known where the pair were staying in Mallorca.

The alarm was raised by a witness around 1pm today and Civil Guard, coastguards and local police based in nearby Santanyi were sent to the scene

The exact spot where the men fell to their deaths is a cave-like opening in the cliff known as Cova des Cossi or Cova de Es Cossi.

One of the men's bodies was recovered by a boat belonging a local diving firm and the other by the same vessel but with the help of coastguards.

A regional TV station broadcast footage of Civil Guard patrol cars with their sirens flashing at Portocolom Port as they waited for the bodies to arrive.

Multiple media outlets in the Balearic Islands including Mallorca initially reported the men were of 'British origin' before police confirmation they were US citizens.

Miguel Chicon, Head of the Balearic Maritime Rescue Centre in Palma, said a witness raised the alarm around midday.

Speaking before it was confirmed they were climbers, he said: 'A witness rang the ambulance service here in Spain to report two men were in difficulties in the water.

'It may well have been they were climbers practicing what's known here as psicobloc because of the type of footwear they had on, but that is not something I can confirm at this stage.

'A Coastguard vessel called the Salvamar Illes Pitiuses was mobilized as well as a Coastguard helicopter called the Helimar 205 and a Civil Guard helicopter with specialist GEA officers who are trained to carry out sub-aquatic rescues.

'In the end a privately-owned vessel that was in the area recovered the body of one of the men because the water was too shallow for our vessel to get near and took it back to Portocolom Port.

Police are understood to have found one of the dead men in a cave close to the spot where he fell. Coastguards recovered the other body from the sea

'The body of the other man was recovered in a joint operation between that same privately-owned vessel and the Salvamar Illes Pitiuses.

'CPR was practiced on both men but there was nothing that could be done to save their lives and they were pronounced dead at the scene.'

Local reports said a witness who saw one of the men fall practiced CPR on him while he waited for emergency responders to arrive.

The tragedy is being investigated by Civil Guard officers in Portocolom as part of a probe coordinated by a local court.

It was not immediately clear on Wednesday if next-of-kin have been informed and when the men's bodies will be released to their families so they can be repatriated.
Steven Matlak (pictured) apologized to the victim's families in court on Monday, where the 44-year-old attempted to blame his decades-long 'sex addiction' for his charges

A California lawyer and Bible studies teacher was blasted for blaming sex addiction as he was jailed for 40 years for molesting six girls, the youngest of whom was just five.

Convicted child molester Steven Matlak, 44, apologized to the victim's families in court on Monday, and sparked fury after blaming his crimes on a compulsion to have sex.

'I took advantage of the trust you had in me and manipulated and abused it in the worse way, I am so sorry for what I have done to you and your families,' Matlak said to the families of his victims.

'You were friendly and kind to me and I repaid it by stabbing you in the back.'

However, parents of the girls blasted Matlak for his 'sex addiction' explanation, calling him nothing more than 'a gross old man' and a pedophile.

'Forty years will not repair the damage to innocent little girls who will potentially have to navigate every romantic relationship through the broken lens of being preyed upon by a gross old man,' the mother of one victim said.

'I took advantage of the trust you had in me and manipulated and abused it in the worse way, I am so sorry for what I have done to you and your families,' Matlak said to the victim's families

The former California lawyer was sentenced to 40 years in prison after pleading guilty to molesting six young girls under the age of 10 while leading Bible studies classes at his home

Matlak, who had pleaded guilty to seven felony counts last month as part of a plea deal, was arrested twice in 2017 after targeting young girls who were enrolled in a Bible studies class he was teaching at his home.

The girls' families were a part of the First Presbyterian Church in Fresno, where Matlak lived with his wife and young daughter. His wife sought a divorce in 2017 after the allegations came to light, according to California civil court case records.

All of Matlak's victims knew his daughter, as well, detectives told the Fresno Bee, with the predator leveraging that relationship to take advantage of his victims.

'I lied to you, manipulated situations, and took advantage of free moments to commit my crimes,' the convicted child molester told the victim's families in court Monday.

'My actions were extremely wicked and awful. I'm so sorry I did all of this.'

The father of two victims said the damage Matlak caused is irreparable, saying his daughters have been seeing a counselor to deal with the aftermath of Matlak's actions, which he says has left them anxious and distrustful.

Pictured: Matlak in court on Monday, where the 44-year-old sentenced to 40-years in prison after pleading guilty to seven charges of child molestation

'I lied to you, manipulated situations, and took advantage of free moments to commit my crimes,' the convicted child molester told the victim's families in court Monday

'I bought new security doors, and cameras to make sure my daughters feel that much more safer in our home,' one father said, according to the Fresno Bee.

'I am not trusting anybody anymore with the responsibility to take care of or watch my children.'

That same father said he and his wife have had to seek counseling themselves to repair their relationship.

Matlak must fulfill at least 85 percent of that 40-year prison sentence, meaning he will be nearly 80 years old by the time he is eligible for parole. He will have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life once his sentence is over.
International Criminal Court judges have authorized an investigation into the Philippines' deadly 'war on drugs' campaign, saying the crackdown 'cannot be seen as a legitimate law enforcement operation.'

ICC judges gave the authorisation on Wednesday after prosecutor Fatou Bensouda sought their permission to investigate the government campaign which has allegedly resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians.

She said that a preliminary probe she began in February 2018 found 'a reasonable basis to believe that the crime against humanity of murder has been committed' in the Philippines between July 1, 2016 and March 16, 2019 under President Rodrigo Duterte.

In a written decision, judges who considered Bensouda's request found a 'reasonable basis to proceed with an investigation' into the killings saying they appear to amount to a crime against humanity under the court's founding statute.

In July, Duterte attacked the court, saying he would continue his fight against drugs.

'I have never denied (it), and the ICC can record it: Those who destroy my country - I will kill you,' he said.

International Criminal Court judges on Wednesday authorised an investigation into the Philippines' deadly 'war on drugs' campaign under Rodrigo Duterte, saying the crackdown 'cannot be seen as a legitimate law enforcement operation'

Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda sought the court's permission to investigate the government campaign which has allegedly resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians

Pictured: Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) officials inspecting 1,100lbs of seized drugs on September 7. The 'war on drugs' in the country has seen thousands of civilian deaths at the hands of the police and security forces

In a written decision, judges who considered Bensouda's request found a 'reasonable basis to proceed with an investigation' into the killings saying they appear to amount to a crime against humanity under the court's founding statute (pictured: Philippines police)

The court said in a statement that the judges ruled that 'based on the facts as they emerge at the present stage and subject to proper investigation and further analysis, the so-called `war on drugs' campaign cannot be seen as a legitimate law enforcement operation, and the killings neither as legitimate nor as mere excesses in an otherwise legitimate operation.'

They added: 'The available material indicates that a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population took place pursuant to or in furtherance of a State policy.'

When Duterte announced he was withdrawing his country from the court in 2016, he defended the campaign as 'lawfully directed against drug lords and pushers who have for many years destroyed the present generation, specially the youth.'

But there are widespread concerns Duterte used the 'war on drugs' as a facade to mask ruthless killings enforcing his rule.

Human rights groups accuse Duterte of inciting deadly violence and say police have murdered unarmed drug suspects on a massive scale as part of the campaign.

Police deny this, and Duterte says the police are under orders to kill only in self-defence.

The tough-talking Duterte has repeatedly claimed the ICC has no jurisdiction over him and that he will not cooperate with what he has called an 'illegal' probe, even threatening to arrest prosecutor Bensouda

Duterte was elected in 2016 on a campaign promise to get rid of the Philippines' drug problem, openly ordering police to kill drug suspects if their lives are in danger

In their decision, ICC judges said that even though the Philippines had withdrawn as a state party to the court in 2016, the alleged crimes took place while Manila was still a signature to the court's Rome Statute, so it could still probe them.

The probe will cover the period from 2011 to 2019.

'The court retains jurisdiction with respect to alleged crimes that occurred on the territory of the Philippines while it was a state party,' the judges said.

Set up in 2002, the ICC is a so-called court of last resort and only becomes involved in probing the world's worst crimes if its member states are unable or unwilling to do so.

The crackdown is Duterte's signature policy initiative which he has defended fiercely, especially from criticism from Western leaders and institutions which he says do not care about his country.

He was elected in 2016 on a campaign promise to get rid of the Philippines' drug problem, openly ordering police to kill drug suspects if their lives are in danger.

More than 6,000 people have been killed in over 200,000 anti-drug operations conducted since July 2016, according to official data, but human rights groups estimate the number of dead could be several times higher.

The tough-talking Duterte has repeatedly claimed the ICC has no jurisdiction over him and that he will not cooperate with what he has called an 'illegal' probe, even threatening to arrest prosecutor Bensouda.
Teachers have been told not to hesitate in phoning police to deal with anti-Covid vaccine campaigners amid fears of protests at school gates next week.

Pfizer's jab was approved for 12 to 15-year-olds on Monday, and within hours of the announcement pressure groups had already threatened action.

National guidance published today says if headteachers catch wind that a protest is being staged on school grounds they should 'alert the local authority and police'.

Previous anti-lockdown and vaccine protests have seen streets shut in London's city centre and projectiles launched at the Houses of Parliament.

The rollout of jabs in children begins next week and will primarily be run through the schools vaccination scheme, with 3million more children now eligible.

In was also confirmed in today's guidance that healthcare staff can decide whether a child can get a Covid vaccine against the wishes of their parents.

The guidelines say jabs will be administered by School Age Immunisation Service (SAIS) teams that already carry out routine vaccine programmes for things like flu.

Schools will be used as a site for administering the vaccines and distributing consent and information forms to pupils and guardians.

Mr Zahawi reiterated that the final decision whether to have the jab would be down to children - and not their parents. Pictured: Library image of a paediatrician preparing a vaccine for a child during the coronavirus pandemic

THE RISK OF COVID VERSUS RISK OF PFIZER VACCINE AMONG 12 TO 15-YEAR-OLDS IN THE UK: British regulators looked at the risk of a child being admitted to ICU with Covid. They also looked at the risk of vaccine-induced health inflammation - known as myocarditis - in young people given the Pfizer jab, which was still very small but slightly more common after a second dose

Heads and teachers have also been advised 'not to engage directly' with misinformation campaigns about the vaccine.

Instead they should 'acknowledge receipt of concerns' and 'refer to the latest scientific guidance on the issue', if necessary.

Babies could be given Pfizer's Covid vaccine in the US this winter Pfizer's Covid vaccine could be rolled out to babies as young as six months in the US this winter, under plans being drawn up by the pharmaceutical giant. In a move likely to cause international controversy, the company intends to apply for authorisation to immunise American infants within the next two months. The timeline will depend on the findings of in-house trials looking into whether the vaccines are safe and effective in youngsters aged six months to five years. Frank D'Amelio, chief financial officer at Pfizer, told an industry conference yesterday that the firm plans to 'go file' by November, the Financial Times reports. 'We would expect to have... data for children between the ages of six months and five years old that we would file with the FDA,' D'Amelio said at the Morgan Stanley Global Healthcare Conference. 'I'll call it in the weeks shortly thereafter the filing of the data for the five- to 11-year-olds.' Pfizer was already planning to seek approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the jabs to be given in children aged five to 11 by October. But the latest comments confirm the firm's intention to work its way down much younger age groups. They will be given a lower dose than adults. Pfizer's jab, made alongside German partner BioNTech, is already approved for over-12s in Britain. Advertisement

The guidance was issued by the new UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), which was set up during the pandemic to respond to threats to the nation's health.

It said it is aware some schools have been receiving campaign letters and emails with 'misinformation' about the vaccine programme.

The agency advised schools seeking advice on how to handle protests should get in touch with their SAIS team at the 'first opportunity'.

'In the event of a protest or disruptive activity outside a school, or if schools know a protest is planned, they should alert the SAIS provider, local authority and police contacts to discuss the best way to manage the situation,' the guidance added.

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), has called on pressure groups to stop sending letters 'threatening' legal action if schools or colleges take part in a Covid vaccination programme, and urged them against staging protests.

He said: 'The guidance is absolutely clear that schools are not responsible for mediating between parents and children who may disagree about whether or not to consent. This is the role of registered nurses in the School Age Immunisation Service.

'We are very concerned about the possibility of protests being held outside schools, and we are pleased to see that the guidance references this and provides advice about how to respond to this threat.

'Frankly, however, it is a sorry state of affairs if any individuals or groups think it is helpful in any way to stage a protest outside a school over a vaccine programme which is designed to help reduce educational disruption and which seems to us to be in the best interests of children and young people.

'We implore people not to stage such protests.'

The guidance confirms that children who are 12 or over on the day the SAIS team visits a school will be offered a vaccination as part of the programme.

The vaccines will be administered by healthcare staff working with the school and following the usual approach to school-based immunisation.

The advice added: 'For those aged 12 to 15 years consent will be sought by the SAIS provider from the parent or person with parental responsibility in the same way as for any other school vaccination programme.'

A consent form and information leaflet provided by the SAIS team will be used to seek parental consent and parents will be provided with a contact number in case of any queries.

The guidance said: 'In secondary schools, some older children may be sufficiently mature to provide their own consent.

'This sometimes occurs if a parent has not returned a consent form but the child still wishes to have the vaccine on the day of the session.

'Every effort will be made to contact the parent to seek their verbal consent. The school has no role in this process.'

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders' union NAHT, said: 'We are pleased to see that the Government has made it very clear that whilst vaccination teams might make use of school buildings, the responsibility, including legal responsibility, for delivering jabs will sit entirely with the appropriate medical teams.

'This should help keep disruption in schools to a minimum.

'It's very important that parents can now direct any questions or concerns to the vaccination teams via the channels provided. It is vital that school leaders can focus on the education of pupils.'
The father of one of the four people who were found shot dead inside an SUV in a Wisconsin cornfield has revealed that the victims had been at a bar 65 miles away the night before the murders and left with someone in a car.

Dunn County Sheriff Kevin Bygd on Tuesday identified the victims as Nitosha Lee Flug-Presley, 30, from Stillwater, Minnesota; and Matthew Isiah Pettus, 26; Loyace Foreman III, 35, and Jasmine Christine Sturm, 30, all three from Saint Paul, Minnesota.

Autopsies that were performed on Monday by Ramsey County Medical Examiners Office determined that all four victims died from gunshot wounds.

Bygd said during a news conference Tuesday that authorities dont believe the person or people responsible for the killings are local or still in the area. He said investigators do not have a motive.

'That one is a mystery,' he said.

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Jasmine Sturm, 30 (left) and her boyfriend, Loyace Foreman III, 35 (right), were among four people who were found dead in an SUV left in a Wisconsin cornfield on Sunday

Foreman (left) and his girlfriend's brother, Matthew Pettus, 26 (right), were identified on Tuesday by the authorities

Strum's lifelong friend, Nitosha Flug-Presley, 30, was shot and killed along with the others

Law enforcement officials in Wisconsin are pictured investigating a homicide involving four people who were found dead inside an SUV in the middle of a cornfield on Sunday

This map shows the last sighting of the four friends at a bar in St Paul, Minnesota, on Saturday. Their bodies were found 65 miles away in Sheridan, Wisconsin, on Sunday afternoon

Loyace Foreman III was the son of Loyace Foreman Jr, senior pastor at New Vision Faith Center in Saint Paul.

'He was stolen from us,' Loyace's mother, Jessica, wrote in a post. 'And we will find the thief. If it takes my very last breath. We will not rest. Loyace PulzeRazr Foreman III was my Prince.'

According to recent social media posts, the 35-year-old man had two children and was in a romantic relationship with Jessica Sturm.

He worked as a demolition contractor and enjoyed drawing in his free time.

'He was a doting uncle to his four nieces and nephews,' Jessica Foreman told Twin Cities. 'He was the protector of his three sisters. He was not perfect and we loved him unconditionally. He left an unfillable void.'

Sturm worked two jobs as a paralegal at a law firm and a server at a bar, and was raising her two sons, ages 11 and 5. The youngest boy had just celebrated his birthday last month.

Mourners online described Strum and Nitosha Flug-Presley as very close friends.

'There was never a time where i would see 1 without the other,' a mutual friend wrote. 'Yall were literally inseparable and to think we lost yall together dont even sit right.'

Flug-Presley leaves behind a young son and daughter.

'She was an outgoing person, a very good mother, exceptional daughter,' Presley's father said. 'She was very vibrant, she had a good heart, someone who would lift up your spirits.'

According to family members, Matthew Pettus was Sturm's half-brother. He worked as a server at the same bar as his sister and was about to start college. Their other brother, Zach Pettus, told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune that he has 'an idea who did it,' referring to the homicides, but he declined to go into further detail.

'This is a freak thing that never should have happened,' Zach Pettus said. 'There is nothing that indicated this would have happened.'

The crime scene is located in the town of Sheridan in Dunn County, Wisconsin, located about 70 miles east of Minneapolis

Deputies are seen walking through the field in search of clues as part of the homicide investigation on Tuesday

Authorities believe the four Twin Cities-area residents died less than 24 hours from the time they were found and the location 'was a place these victims were randomly brought,' Bygd said.

'Everybodys a suspect at this point,' he said. 'Were looking at everybody and every possibility.'

Plug-Presleys father, Damone Presley Sr., told the St. Paul Pioneer Press that the four victims were at a St. Paul bar on Saturday night and they got in someones vehicle when they left.

'Why would this happen?' he said on Tuesday. ' It just doesnt make sense.'

Foreman III was the son of a Minnesota pastor. He is survived by two sons

Pettus was Strum's half-brother. He worked two jobs to support himself

Flug-Presley (left) and Sturm (right) were lifelong friends. Each is survived by two young children

The case began unfolding at around 2.20pm on Sunday when a 911 caller alerted deputies to the black SUV that was off a rural road in the Town of Sheridan, the Dunn County Sheriffs Office.

In a Facebook post Monday, sheriff's officials said the victims do not appear to have any connection to the area. The posting also said there may have been a second dark-colored SUV traveling with the vehicle that was abandoned.

Dunn County, Wisconsin, is located about 65 miles east of Saint Paul.

Dunn County Sheriff Kevin Bygd held a press conference on Tuesday, calling the quadruple murder 'a mystery'

The man who made the 911 call that set off the homicide investigation told News 18 he was working in a cornfield on Sunday afternoon when he came across the SUV. He approached the vehicle and saw multiple people inside who appeared to be dead.

Audio from a police scanner obtained by the station KSTP revealed that none of the victims was in the driver's seat.

'Do we have an accident, or we got something else?' one officer asks.

'It's gonna be something else, from what I can tell,' another replies.

Meanwhile, devastated family and friends have been flooding Facebook with tributes honoring the four victims.

No arrests have been announced as of Wednesday.

A man working in the field came across the abandoned black SUV and saw multiple dead bodies inside, which he then reported to the authorities

Officials have not revealed the identifies of the victims, or how they died

Investigators are asking local residents to come forward if they saw or heard someone who was walking in the Sheridan area

'As we have learned more throughout our investigation, we do not believe there to be present danger to the public in the area,' the sheriff's office stated.

The Dunn County Medical Examiners Office, the Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation and the Wisconsin State Patrol and assisting in the investigation.

Investigators are asking local residents to come forward if they saw or heard someone who was walking in the Sheridan area, or going to a home to ask for a ride early Sunday morning or late Saturday night, reported WQOW.

Neighbors are being urged to lock their doors and be aware of their surroundings.
Former President Donald Trump secretly signed a memo just days after his election defeat that would have withdrawn all remaining US troops out of Afghanistan just five days before he left office, according to Bob Woodward's new book, Peril.

The memo, which according to the book got withdrawn after top military and national security officials who were left out of its crafting, intervened with Trump, came months before the Biden administration would oversee a sudden withdrawal - which Trump would slam as chaotic and disorganized.

The Nov. 11th memo, titled 'Memorandum for the Acting Secretary of Defense: Withdrawal from Somalia and Afghanistan,' stunned chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, according to Peril, which Woodward coauthored with journalist Robert Costa.

The new acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller and his chief of staff Kash Patel were also caught off guard.

President Donald Trump signed a secret memo calling for the withdrawal of all US troops from Afghanistan by January 15, 2021 - just five days before he left office, but top security aides scrambled to nullify it, according to the new Bob Woodward book

The memo reportedly directed the new acting Pentagon chief to withdraw all troops from the country 'no later than 15 January 2021.'

The book quotes Milley as telling Miller and Patel: 'This is really f***ed up and I'm going to see the President. I'm heading over. You guys can come or not,' before heading over to the White House.

He then showed it to Trump national security advisor Robert O'Brien, who also had not seen it.

When O'Brien went to the former president, Trump told him he had signed the memo, according to the book.

O'Brien then told Trump he had to meet with this top security team.

The new acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller was caught off guard by the order when they learned about it

According to the book, National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien went to former President Trump to get the memo rescinded

Trump did not complete a troop drawdown by the end of his presidency, and the Biden administration rushed to get out troops and equipment after the government in Kabul fell

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army General Mark Milley went to the White House to try to pull back the memo, according to Woodward's account

Woodward and Costa called it a 'rogue memo,' and O'Brien evidently was able to dispense with it.

'We've already taken care of this. It was a mistake. The memo was nullified,' he told the Pentagon brass.

The episode comes from a book that describes Milley fearing Trump was experiencing 'mental decline' after the election  and undertaking extraordinary actions to reach out to his Chinese counterpart and and secure nuclear weapons.

Trump in a blistering statement Tuesday night accused Milley of treason over the incident.

The existence of a memo with a withdrawal date just days before Trump was to leave office comes amid heated clashes over Biden's own withdrawal.

Biden has blamed Trump for negotiating a withdrawal agreement with the Taliban, and carried it out after a single extension from an April deadline.

Trump blasted Biden's pullout in an August statement: 'He ran out of Afghanistan instead of following the plan our Administration left for him  a plan that protected our people and our property, and ensured the Taliban would never dream of taking our Embassy or providing a base for new attacks against America,' Trump said. 'The withdrawal would be guided by facts on the ground.'

Trump had repeatedly called for ending US wars during his time in office, and negotiated the troop presence there down to 2,500 before it was to drop to zero.

Axios reported on the existence of the memo in May. It said it was drafted by former Trump body man Johnny McEntee, who took on a prominent role in the final months of the Trump presidency, as well as retired Lt. Col. Douglas MacGregor, an advisor to Miller.

McEntee ran a White House personnel office at a time when Trump was seeking to install loyalists across the government.

They delivered the memo to Miller two days after Trump had given instructions to McEntee, according to the report.

According to that report, McEntee handed MacGregor handed a brief note outlining what the president wanted him to do. It said: ' 1. Get us out of Afghanistan. 2. Get us out of Iraq and Syria. 3. Complete the withdrawal from Germany. 4. Get us out of Africa.'

The Pentagon only announced Nov. 11th, 2020 that MacGregor, who had appeared as a Fox news commentator, would be advising Miller.

MacGregor had told the network's Tucker Carlson earlier In January, 2020: ''There is only one man who can take decisive action and end this. His name is Donald Trump,' MacGregor said.

'He could stand up tomorrow and pull us out, but he needs to send everyone out of the Oval Office who keeps telling him, 'If you do that and something bad happens, it's going to be blamed on you, Mr. President.'

His arrival came after Trump fired former Defense Secretary Mark Esper.

'He needs to do it,' MacGregor concluded. 'I think he wants to do it,' Carlson responded.
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Scotland Yard will not launch a criminal investigation into disgraced BBC journalist Martin Bashir's bombshell Panorama interview with Princess Diana, the Metropolitan Police said after assessing Lord Dyson's report into the 1995 documentary.

An independent report by the ex-Master of the Rolls in May found Bashir had lied to obtain the interview, using 'deceitful' methods later covered up by a 'woefully ineffective' internal investigation by Tony Hall, who later became BBC director-general.

Earl Spencer, Diana's brother, had subsequently written to Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick demanding the force investigate the Corporation, in a bid to pressure the Met for a full probe into how Bashir induced the princess to agree to the broadcast.

The inquiry plunged the BBC into one of the worst crises in its history, with Diana's two sons William and Harry accusing the broadcaster of ruining their mother's life with its 'deceitful' exclusive and helping to bring about the tragic chain of events that led to her death in 1997.

But in a statement on the independent report today, Scotland Yard announced it was 'not appropriate to begin a criminal investigation into allegations of unlawful activity in connection with a documentary broadcast in 1995'.

'Following the publication of Lord Dyson's report in May, specialist detectives assessed its contents and looked carefully at the law - once again obtaining independent legal advice from Treasury Counsel as well as consulting the Crown Prosecution Service,' the force said.

'As a result, the MPS has not identified evidence of activity that constituted a criminal offence and will therefore be taking no further action.'

Scotland Yard will not launch a criminal investigation into BBC journalist Martin Bashir 's Panorama interview with Diana, Princess of Wales , the Metropolitan Police said

An inquiry by Lord Dyson in May found Bashir (pictured) had lied to obtain the interview, using 'deceitful' methods later covered up by a 'woefully ineffective' internal investigation by Tony Hall, who later became BBC director-general

Bashir commissioned forged bank statements (pictured) in flagrant breach of BBC rules to convince Earl Spencer to introduce him to Diana, Lord Dyson concluded in his excoriating inquiry

The BBC has been plunged into one of the worst crises in its history by the explosive fallout from the scandal, with Princes William and Harry accusing the corporation of ruining their mother's life with its 'deceitful' exclusive. Pictured: Diana with her sons

William (pictured during a filmed response to the report) privately vowed to continue his battle to uncover 'the truth' about how his mother came to be callously duped

Was Diana duped by BBC over charity cash request? Princess of Wales believed 75% of the profits of her interview with Martin Bashir would be donated Princess Diana believed that 75 per cent of the profits from her Panorama interview with Martin Bashir should go to charity, The Mail on Sunday has learned. It comes as pressure mounted on the BBC last night to confirm the timing and details of when the profits from the 1995 interview would be donated to a charity chosen by the Royal Family. The issue of a donation was first raised by Diana and it is understood that negotiations were ongoing just before the interview was shown. Diana had hoped for a similar agreement to that struck between Prince Charles and ITV the previous year. But, in Diana's case, the BBC refused to honour her wish. Advertisement

It is understood Earl Spencer initially wrote to Dame Cressida in January, and has been in regular touch with the head of the specialist crime squad, Commander Alex Murray.

According to a friend, Earl Spencer claimed several crimes had been committed. He believed his vulnerable sister was spun a web of lies by Bashir who had established 'coercive control' over her.

By filling her mind with terrifying conspiracy theories and tricking her into the interview, he claims the rogue BBC reporter and his superiors had committed blackmail, fraud and obtaining property by deception - because the corporation cashed in when rights to the sensational interview were sold around the world.

Bashir commissioned forged bank statements in flagrant breach of BBC rules to convince Earl Spencer to introduce him to Diana, Lord Dyson concluded in his excoriating inquiry.

Bashir admitted at the time to having the documents forged, but denied ever showing them to anybody.

Matt Wiessler, a graphic artist who said back in 1996 that Bashir had asked him to forge bank documents to help earn Diana's trust, said his career was ruined after he spoke out and was blacklisted by the broadcaster.

Around two months after the BBC interview aired, Mr Wiessler said his house was broken into and CDs containing the forged documents stolen.

He also said that work had dried up after the BBC blacklisted him, with documents released under freedom of information request backing his account up. Bosses had issued an edict never to work with him, in part because he had spoken to the media about the documents.

Despite the fallout, it took until November 2020 for an inquiry to be established based on the Mail on Sunday's reporting - culminating in the Dyson report.

The report slammed BBC bosses, including former director-general Tony Hall, for covering up information on how Bashir was able to secure the interview.

A 1996 internal inquiry into the interview was also slammed as 'woefully ineffective', forcing Tim Suter - another BBC boss who was part of the inquiry - to step down as chair of Ofcom.

Tony Hall also left his job as head of the National Gallery, saying that continuing in the role would be a 'distraction'. Bashir, who was still working as the BBC's religion editor, also quit the corporation in May this year, citing health issues.

BBC bosses are said to have orchestrated a campaign to smear staff speaking out against Bashir as jealous rivals.

Alison Jackson, a publicity officer for Panorama, said she was told to tell the Panorama team that stories about Bashir's use of fake bank statements were being leaked by 'jealous colleagues'.

Asked about the Dyson report, the Prime Minister said: 'I'm obviously concerned by the findings. I can only imagine the feelings of the Royal Family and I hope very much that the BBC will be taking every possible step to make sure nothing like this ever happens again.'

Princess Diana's brother Earl Spencer (pictured) demanded Scotland Yard investigate the BBC over her Panorama interview

Earl Spencer wrote to Cressida Dick (pictured), alleging his sister was the victim of blackmail and fraud

Bashir (left) faked bank statements to get to Diana while the BBC's former director-general, Lord Hall of Birkenhead (right), has been accused of protecting him following his famous 1995 interview

BBC is set to pay 1.5m in Bashir 'guilt money': Profit from Corporation's 'deceitful' interview with Diana would be paid to charity chosen by the Royal Family The BBC hopes to make amends for the Martin Bashir scandal by paying about 1.5 million 'guilt money' to a charity chosen by the Royal Family, The Mail on Sunday can reveal. The unprecedented donation includes 1.15 million  the amount the Corporation made from selling the global rights to Bashir's explosive Princess Diana interview  plus reparations. An inquiry by Lord Dyson in May found Bashir had lied to obtain the 1995 interview, using 'deceitful' methods later covered up by a 'woefully ineffective' internal investigation by Tony Hall, who later became BBC director-general. While the exact terms have yet to be finalised, and there is no date set for the money to paid, it is understood it will come from BBC Studios, the Corporation's trading arm  a commercial operation not funded by the licence fee. Advertisement

Home Secretary Priti Patel said there were 'very strong searching questions' for the BBC.

In a televised statement delivered after Lord Dyson's report was published, Prince William said: 'I would like to thank Lord Dyson and his team for the report.

'It is welcome that the BBC accepts Lord Dyson's findings in full - which are extremely concerning - that BBC employees: Lied and used fake documents to obtain the interview with my mother; Made lurid and false claims about the Royal Family which played on her fears and fuelled paranoia; Displayed woeful incompetence when investigating complaints and concerns about the programme; and were evasive in their reporting to the media and covered up what they knew from their internal investigation.

'It is my view that the deceitful way the interview was obtained substantially influenced what my mother said. The interview was a major contribution to making my parents' relationship worse and has since hurt countless others.

'It brings indescribable sadness to know that the BBC's failures contributed significantly to her fear, paranoia and isolation that I remember from those final years with her. But what saddens me most, is that if the BBC had properly investigated the complaints and concerns first raised in 1995, my mother would have known that she had been deceived.

'She was failed not just by a rogue reporter, but by leaders at the BBC who looked the other way rather than asking the tough questions. It is my firm view that this Panorama programme holds no legitimacy and should never be aired again.

'It effectively established a false narrative which, for over a quarter of a century, has been commercialised by the BBC and others. This settled narrative now needs to be addressed by the BBC and anyone else who has written or intends to write about these events.

'In an era of fake news, public service broadcasting and a free press have never been more important. These failings, identified by investigative journalists, not only let my mother down, and my family down; they let the public down too.'

Prince Harry added: 'Our mother was an incredible woman who dedicated her life to service. She was resilient, brave, and unquestionably honest. The ripple effect of a culture of exploitation and unethical practices ultimately took her life.

'To those who have taken some form of accountability, thank you for owning it. That is the first step towards justice and truth. Yet what deeply concerns me is that practices like these - and even worse- are still widespread today. Then, and now, it's bigger than one outlet, one network, or one publication.

'Our mother lost her life because of this, and nothing has changed.

'By protecting her legacy, we protect everyone, and uphold the dignity with which she lived her life. Let's remember who she was and what she stood for.'

'Queen eats for comfort, Edward has AIDS, Camilla is depressed, Charles is in love with the Nanny': How Earl Spencer's scribbled notes from first meeting between Princess Diana and Martin Bashir became key evidence in Panorama probe

A jaw-dropping list of smears and lies allegedly peddled by Martin Bashir to clinch his sensational Princess Diana scoop was recorded by her brother - including the Queen 'eating for comfort' and Charles being in love with the family nanny.

Earl Spencer kept meticulous notes of a meeting held on September 19, 1995, when he introduced the BBC man to his sister at her Knightsbridge flat.

Earl Spencer's records show that Bashir allegedly claimed that Diana's private letters were being opened, her car tracked and phoned tapped with her bodyguard plotting against her, and close friends were betraying her.

Earl Spencer's handwritten log of the meeting with Bashir at his sister's flat in Knightsbridge also includes a note saying: 'Camilla: depressed, but quiet for time being'.

In an execrable reference to Prince Edward, Spencer recorded Bashir as saying that the Queen's youngest son was receiving treatment for Aids at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London. Even the Queen was mentioned. Spencer noted Bashir as saying she was 'very ill with heart problems' and that she was a 'comfort eater'.

Earl Spencer (left) kept detailed notes when he met Martin Bashir (seen right holding a Bafta award for his Diana interview) when he met the BBC journalist with Diana at his sister's flat

Bashir is accused of effectively grooming the vulnerable princess by playing to her worst fears. Pictured is a still from the 1995 interview

From officials bugging Diana's car to warnings her reputation would be 'destroyed': Earl Spencer's handwritten scraps that could shred Bashir's career

1: Diana's 'scum' former bodyguard

Bashir's opening gambit that three MI6 agents had told him Prince Charles's private secretary Richard Aylard was 'orchestrating' things surrounding Diana. This involved Ken Wharfe, Diana's former bodyguard, described as 'scum'.

Diana was already paranoid her staff and friends were betraying her and, at the meeting, the broadcaster allegedly brandished bank statements purportedly showing her closest aides were selling her secrets.

2: Charles' secretary 'paid by Jonathan Dimbleby'

Aylard, it was claimed, had been paid by the broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby. A decision to reinvent the prince had been taken by aides two years earlier. A year later this allegedly included attacking both Diana and the Spencer family.

3: Charles 'discussing ''end game'''

The notes, handed to Lord Dyson, include allegations MI6 had recorded Prince Charles and his private secretary planning the 'end game' - an extraordinary and false hint the heir to the throne was plotting to 'destroy' the Spencers and force them to flee to the US.

Charles Spencer's detailed notes, from one to five. The manila file contains notes of every meeting he had with Bashir, the logs of phone calls the BBC man made along with the faxes, the letters and even the gushing thank you cards that the reporter sent him

4: Spencers' reputation 'would be destroyed'

Spencers' reputation to be destroyed. In another remark recorded by Earl Spencer, Bashir claimed Prince Charles wanted Spencer's then wife, Victoria, dead. Diana meanwhile would be forced to move to America  possibly with her brother.

5: Will Carling affair claim

His relates to the stories during 1995 of the close friendship between Diana and the married England rugby captain Will Carling. Spencer notes Bashir's assertion that the newspaper stories had been 'fed' by Carling's wife Julia.

9: Diana's car 'bugged'

This note describes Bashir's alleged claim that Diana had been bugged by officials

The claim that Diana's cars and phone lines being bugged and her post intercepted would have increased her worries she was being spied on.

Bashir told Lord Dyson he would not have made these claims at a first meeting, the Telegraph reported.

17: Camilla 'depressed'

Camilla was allegedly described by Bashir as 'depressed, but quiet for the time being'. The second line refers to William and Harry's nanny, Tiggy Legge-Bourke

In the interview, Diana made her feelings clear on Camilla, famously saying, 'There are three of us in this marriage.'

Mentioning her could have been an attempt by Bashir to prompt her to speak out.

'Tiggy' is a reference to Tiggy Legge-Bourke, William and Harry's nanny who Charles was accused of having an affair with in claims that were subsequently dismissed.

17b: Philip's 'v unpleasant correspondence'

Earl Spencer recorded Bashir as describing 'very unpleasant correspondence' allegedly sent by Prince Philip to Diana and Sarah Ferguson

This claims Diana had received 'v unpleasant correspondence' from Philip and suggests he was annoyed at her 'hero status'.

It also references Edwina Mountbatten, the wife of Earl Mountbatten of Burma, who was known to have had affairs.

19: Fergie's business deals in the US

Another reference to Sarah Ferguson, this time describing her trips to the US to try and forge a business career

Sarah Ferguson and Prince Andrew divorced in 1996. This note refers to her numerous trips to the US to forge a business career.

It adds that Andrew still 'look[ed] after her' following their divorce by supporting her financially.

20: 'Queen eats for comfort'

This note suggests the Queen was unwell, stating 'Queen ill: heart' and adds she 'eats for comfort'.
Angelina Jolie surprised reporters at the White House on Wednesday by making an unscheduled appearance in the briefing room.

Her visit was unannounced and only a handful of reporters were around to capture the moment she posed at Press Secretary Jen Psaki's lectern.

She joked with journalists in the briefing room as they shouted questions about her visit to Washington.

'I feel like I walked into a press conference,' she said.

'I've had good bipartisan meetings, so that's encouraging.'

The 46-year-old star arrived at the White House a day after visiting Capitol Hill where she thanked officers who lost their colleagues after defending politicians from the insurrection during the January 6 riot, as she advocated for the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act.

On Wednesday, she met with Psaki and White House Gender Policy Council co-chair Jennifer Klein, an official told DailyMail.com, before being offered a quick peek at the briefing room.

'It feels just like it should feel, feels very serious,' she said as she took up position on the podium.

Movie star Angelina Jolie posed for pictures on the White House briefing room podium on Wednesday during a surprise visit. 'It feels just like it should feel, feels very serious,' she said

Jolie surprised reporters when she appeared in the White House briefing room amid meetings to advocate for the Violence Against Women Act

She took a few questions from reporters during her brief appearance. 'I feel like I walked into a press conference,' she said, before saying she had had a good series of meetings

The White House offered no further details about her visit other than a tweet from Press Secretary Jen Psaki confirming they had met

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki confirmed she had met Jolie on Wednesday morning

She said she wanted to highlight a health crisis facing families and find a less adversarial way to promote protection of women and children.

A spokesperson for Jolie said she was in Washington to further her campaign work.

'UNHCR Special Envoy is in D.C. for a second day meeting with senior White House and Department of Justice officials, and senators to continue to advocate for the rights of women and children and health in families,' said the spokesperson in a statement to NBC.

'In her meetings she will talk about the importance of the VAWA reauthorization, FBI reforms, judicial training and health equity including non-biased forensic evidence collection.'

On Tuesday Jolie took the opportunity to thank Capitol Officer Harry Dunn, who testified in Congress after he was called racial slurs and physically assaulted during the insurrection.

A picture of Jolie standing next to Dunn was shared on Twitter.

Dunn lost fellow officer Brian Sicknick, who suffered two strokes a day after keeping rioters from entering the Capitol and harming lawmakers.

Four other officers who were on duty during the riot in January died by suicide after defending the site.

Officers Gunther Hashida, Jeffrey Smith, Howard Liebengood, and Kyle deFreytag took their lives in the months after the attack.

Jolie also met with Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer to talk about the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, which was signed into law by President Clinton in 1994, but lapsed in 2019.

Angelina Jolie visited Capitol Hill on Tuesday and met with Senators. Jolie also took the opportunity to thank Officer Harry Dunn, who was on the Capitol during the January 6 riot

0fficer Brian Sicknick suffered two strokes a day after keeping rioters from entering the Capitol and harming lawmakers

Four other officers who were on duty during the riot in January died by suicide after defending the site. Pro-Trump rioters breached the security perimeter and penetrated the U.S. Capitol to protest against the Electoral College vote count that would certify President-elect Joe Biden as the winner in Washington

'I'm in DC leading up to the VAWA reauthorization, FBI reforms, and other important protections and rights.

'I've met with experts for years now, learning about best practices including non-biased forensic evidence collection, and advocating for improvements,' Jolie said in a statement.

'I'm grateful for these timely and valuable meetings with senators, especially focused on provisions for children's health,' she added.

The VAWA was introduced by President Biden when he was a senator.

In March, the House of Representatives passed legislation to restore it.

If approved, the act would give funding to states that make dealing with sexual assault and domestic abuse a priority.

Sen. Schumer thanked the actress for her visit and share pictures of their meeting on Twitter

Apart from having a successful career in Hollywood, Jolie has been a longtime advocate of several humanitarian causes.

Spotted in the Capitol: Angelina Jolie pic.twitter.com/yUAgL2y3CV  Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) September 14, 2021

Sen. Charles Schumer meets Angelina Jolie on Capitol Hill on September 14. Jolie met with Democratic leadership in the Senate to discuss the future of the Violence Against Women Act

Jolie reportedly asked senators to consider expanding the act to cover abuse targeted at children and 'prioritize children's health and safety in legal responses to trauma, including through judicial training and advancements in forensic evidence collection.'

Sen Schumer thanked the Maleficent star on Twitter.

'Thank you to Angelina Jolie for coming in today to talk about the fight to reauthorize VAWA in the Senate and how we can help support research on diagnosing injuries from domestic violence and child abuse to help survivors,' Schumer said.

Senator Whip Dick told Forbes that Jolie was 'very serious-minded' and knew a lot about the subject.

Jolie has been deeply involved in social causes. She made her Instagram debut in August, right after the US withdrew its forces from Afghanistan.

Angelina Jolie walks through the Capitol after meeting with Senate Democratic leadership about the future of the Violence Against Women Act

'Thank you to Angelina Jolie for coming in today to talk about the fight to reauthorize VAWA in the Senate and how we can help support research on diagnosing injuries from domestic violence and child abuse to help survivors,' tweeted Sen. Schumer

Actress and activist Angelina Jolie rides the Senate Subway out of the Capitol after meeting with Senate Democratic leadership

On her first Instagram post, Jolie shared 'A Letter from an Afghan Girl,' an account of the consequences of the Taliban taking power for women and girls in the country.

'I was on the border of Afghanistan two weeks before 9/11, where I met Afghan refugees who had fled the Taliban. This was twenty years ago.

'It is sickening to watch Afghans being displaced yet again out of the fear and uncertainty that has gripped their country.

'To spend so much time and money, to have blood shed and lives lost only to come to this, is a failure almost impossible to understand, weighed in Jolie.

'Watching for decades how Afghan refugees - some of the most capable people in the world - are treated like a burden is also sickening.

'Knowing that if they had the tools and respect, how much they would do for themselves. And meeting so many women and girls who not only wanted an education, but fought for it.

'Like others who are committed, I will not turn away. I will continue to look for ways to help. And I hope youll join me, ' she concluded.

Apart from having a successful career in Hollywood, Jolie has been a longtime advocate for several humanitarian causes.

She has visited refugee camps since she was in her 20s, and is an United Nations Special Envoy.
Protesters have gathered outside Parliament to urge the Government to rethink its decision to end the 20 increase in Universal Credit.

As PMQs took place in Parliament on Wednesday, 20 members and supporters of the Unite union chanted: 'What do we want? Cancel the cuts! When do we want it? Now!'

Demonstrators held up signs saying 'keep our families fed' and 'a universal cut to Universal Credit is universally criminal'.

Kiran Khan, 26, used to be a Universal Credit claimant and called the decision to cut the increase 'cruel'.

She said: 'The current system obviously is not good enough in the first place. I feel like this 20 uplift is sort of like a sticking plaster on a system that is already not there to support people.

'I really hope they U-turn on this because it's just so cruel that they are trying to do this during such terrible times for all of us.

'We've seen them U-turn on free school meals and we've seen them U-turn on not offering children support during the holidays.'

As PMQs took place in Parliament on Wednesday, 20 members and supporters of the Unite union chanted: 'What do we want? Cancel the cuts! When do we want it? Now!'

Demonstrators held up signs saying 'keep our families fed' and 'a universal cut to Universal Credit is universally criminal'. Pictured: Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey today

Ms Khan added the Government is 'harsh' for cutting Universal Credit when the effects of the pandemic are still being felt.

'Even though the pandemic has not gone away, the Government is still trying to take this away from people and it is a really harsh cut, especially because we're on the brink of the third wave and loads of people are still unemployed,' she said.

Paula Peters, a legacy benefits claimant who turned up to support the protest on behalf of Unite Community, criticised Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey for suggesting people could work an extra two hours a week to make up for the cut.

'Therese Coffey says she's entirely happy to cut the 20 uplift for millions and they should get everybody extra hours at work,' she said.

'Well that's not always possible because you're on zero hours contracts, the gig economy's exploding, there's been massive job losses. That 20 is needed to feed your children.

'It's easy for her to say. She needs to live in the real world and see what the employment market is like when there aren't any extra hours to be had.'

Demonstrators held up signs saying 'keep our families fed' and 'a universal cut to Universal Credit is universally criminal'

Ms Peters added that beyond a U-turn on the cut, the social care system must be improved as a whole.

As a legacy benefits claimant she was not included in the 20 increase, and described her struggles to make ends meet during the pandemic.

She said: 'There are 2.2 million legacy benefit claimants who weren't included in the 20 uplift. I'm one of those.

'I'm a disabled person myself. There's three-quarters of the 2.2 million legacy benefit claimants who are disabled people who weren't included in the 20 uplift who during the pandemic were shielding. I was myself and we were making stark choices.

'We had additional costs, the costs of living were rising, you needed PPE, the costs of that were extortionate. Obviously the cost of food was rising.'

Ms Peters also has an autoimmune condition and said she was unable to get online food delivery slots, the costs of which soared.

She said for many people in her situation, the 20 difference would be 'life changing'.

'Over 30 per cent of claimants have said, when asked what would the 20 uplift mean to them on legacy benefits, they said it would be life changing.

'It means they wouldn't have to worry about having to heat their homes and to eat,' she added.

Rob Williams, 51, a member of Unite, said that on top of the 20 cut, the Government had made it difficult for working class people to find good work.

He said: 'This Tory Government is trying to make ordinary working class people pay for the pandemic crisis, really.'

He added: 'The fact is, working class people want to work, they want a proper job.

Ms Coffey told the Commons the Government timed the end of the Universal Credit uplift to match the end of the furlough scheme

'But at the same time as these people cut Universal Credit, they're also saying to public sector workers - the people who are key workers, the people who were clapped during the pandemic, the people who put their lives at risk - they're telling them they don't deserve a pay rise.'

Ms Coffey told the Commons the Government timed the end of the Universal Credit uplift to match the end of the furlough scheme.

She said more people would benefit from plans to boost 'pay, prospects and prosperity' in work as the 20 uplift ends.

She told MPs: 'In the Budget earlier this year, recognising the country was still under restrictions, the Chancellor set out that we would continue the Covid financial support until the autumn, several months after the country came out of lockdown.

'This has helped many people stay on furlough and be connected to their employers as businesses gradually reopened, and it did mean keeping that extra financial support for people on Universal Credit, and tax credits for an extra six months.

'As our economy continues to recover it is right that we are investing in jobs and skills to boost pay, prospects and prosperity for people right across the UK as part of our plan to level up and build back better.'
Minnesota's Supreme Court has overturned the murder conviction of rookie Minneapolis cop Mohamed Noor on a legal technicality and ordered his sentence to be reduced, four years after he shot dead Australian-American woman Justine Damond outside her home.

The court upheld Noor's manslaughter conviction and ordered him to be resentenced, agreeing with his attorneys on a technicality that the specific wording of the 'depraved mind' murder charge he was convicted of.

He is currently two years into a 12.5 year sentence. It's unclear how much his sentence will be lowered by, but it is likely to be less than the ten years he was facing.

Ten years is the maximum sentence for second degree manslaughter. There is no minimum.

Noor's lawyers said he was scared when the 40-year-old yoga teacher appeared at the window of his squad car with a 'thump'.

She had called 911 claiming to have heard a woman screaming in the alley beside her home. She feared it was a sexual assault and ran outside when the cop car arrived, approaching it from behind.

Noor pulled his trigger, killing her at the scene. He never testified, nor was he interviewed by police. The only information his attorneys gave was that he may have been scared of her - even though she was unarmed.

In 2019, Minneapolis cop Mohamed Noor shot dead Justine Ruszczyk, an Australian-American woman who called 911. He was convicted of murder but had the conviction overturned on Wednesday

Ruszczyk had called the police on the night of July 15, 2017, after hearing a woman screaming near her home.

As she approached the police vehicle, Noor fired his gun at her from the passenger seat.

There is no bodycam of the actual shooting but there is of what happened next - when Noor's partner told him to 'keep his mouth shut'.

The Supreme Court justices ruled that the 'depraved mind' portion of the murder charge was not fitting.

His attorney focused on the legal wording of the 'depraved mind' section of the charge, which specifies he was acting in a way that put 'others' in danger.

His attorneys claimed that he wasn't, because he was a cop and doing his duty.

'Noor was carrying out his duties as an officer, acted in a split second and directed his actions at a specific person out of fear that his partner's life was in danger from an ambush,' he said.

The Supreme Court judges agreed. The victim's family have not yet reacted to the court's decision.

In their defense of him at trial, Noor's attorneys said he was just doing his job.

Neither Noor nor his partner had their body cameras turned on for the shooting but Noor is shown afterwards, with his head in his hands, while his partner tells him to keep his mouth 'shut'

Damond is pictured with her fiance Don. She had both American and Australian citizenship

The home in Minneapolis where Damond lived with her fiance in 2017. She ran out of it after hearing screams from the alley and approached a cop car

'Mr Noor reacted to a dark alley in the middle of the night, a thump on the squad, a voice, a body appearing at the driver's side window, the startled announcement of fear by Officer Harrity as he reached for his firearm, and his observation that the person in the window was raising their right arm.

'A prison sentence only punishes Mr. Noor for a culture that he didn't create and, by all accounts, a culture that he would have liked to see change himself.

'What really caused this (tragedy) is the fear that continues to permeate our society.

'The police are afraid of the people, the people are afraid of the police,' attorney Thomas Blunkett said.

Damond's family won a $20million settlement from The City of Minneapolis after filing a wrongful death lawsuit.

Her fiance, Don Damond, last year condemned the Minneapolis Police Department for not doing more to change the culture within the department after the death of George Floyd at the hands of Derek Chauvin.

'Other than body camera policy, can you point to what has changed? Can you point to anything that has changed? I cant,' he said in an interview last year.
The Queen has raised eyebrows by expressing her 'good wishes' to North Korea on its national day as Kim Jong-un continued to test missiles.

Her Majesty sent the message via the Foreign Office on September 7, in time for the celebrations two days later.

Buckingham Palace and the FCDO confirmed the congratulations were given 'as has been done before'.

But the timing confused people as it was just days before North Korea again began flexing its muscles.

In recent days the country has launched two ballistic missiles and fired a new kind of weapon with possible nuclear capabilities.

Her Majesty (pictured last month) sent the message via the Foreign Office on September 7, in time for the celebrations two days later

Kim Jong Un has test-fired two ballistic missiles which landed near North Korea's east coast on Wednesday, South Korea's military has said

The test comes just three days after North Korea fired a new kind of cruise missile (pictured), which analysts believe could carry a nuclear warhead

Local media said the message read: 'As the people of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea celebrate their national day, I send my good wishes for the future.'

But it was not handed to the British press or published on the Royal's social media account as has become standard practice.

North Korea marked the country's 73rd anniversary with a typical show of military strength in Pyongyang.

Her Majesty is believed to have penned similar missives with the country in the past, with them written on the advice of the Foreign Office.

But experts have been left baffled by the move as it is said to be the first time her message has been published.

Aidan Foster-Carter, a North Korea expert at Leeds University, told the Telegraph: 'With North Korea in the doghouse, it's an interesting time for us to send a gesture of friendship.

'The key thing we need to know is what exactly has changed here. It certainly seems to be the first time North Korean media have published such a greeting from Her Majesty the Queen.'

He added: 'We need to know who has changed their policy: the UK, sending for the first time?

'Or North Korea, publishing for the first time. If the former, further questions arise. Why now? And on whose initiative?'

North Korean media said the message was received on September 7, two days before the communist state celebrated the 73rd anniversary of its founding. Above: The night-time military parade which marked the day

State newspaper Rodong Sinmun ran the message on page two along with those from other foreign leaders such as China's president Xi Jinping.

North Korea is understood to have sent Her Majesty messages in the past to mark her official birthday.

A Buckingham Palace spokesman said: 'Her Majesty in all dealings with other Heads of State acts on the advice of the FCDO.'

A Foreign Office spokesman said: 'As in previous years, The Queen has sent a message to the people of the DPRK on the occasion of their national day.'

Meanwhile North Korea today test-fired two ballistic missiles days after firing a new kind of cruise missile with possible nuclear capabilities.

Hours after reports of the North Korean test, South Korea's presidential office said it conducted its first underwater-launched ballistic missile test (pictured) on Wednesday afternoon

A domestically built South Korean missile fired from a 3,000-ton submarine flew a set distance before hitting a designated target

South Korea's military said the two missiles were fired from an unknown inland location before coming down somewhere near the east coast.

The move is likely designed as a provocation to Joe Biden and other world leaders, as ballistic missile tests violate UN resolutions on the North's weapons programme.

Hours later South Korea's presidential office said it conducted its first underwater-launched ballistic missile test on Wednesday afternoon.

It said a domestically built missile fired from a 3,000-ton submarine flew a set distance before hitting a designated target.

The statement said the weapon is expected to help Seoul deter potential external threats, boost its self-defence and promote peace on the Korean peninsula.

It comes two weeks after Kim Jong Un restarted a nuclear reactor at Yongbyon which had been shut down during negotiations with Donald Trump.

Kim had shut down much of his nuclear programme and scuttled his main nuclear testing site during the negotiations, in which he hoped to convince Trump to lift crippling economic sanctions in return for permanently giving up his nukes.

The leaders met three times - an historic achievement for Kim, who was the first North Korean leader ever to meet with an American president - but the talks ultimately foundered with the two sides failing to reach an agreement.

Since then, North Korea has carried out a series of low-level missile tests in an attempt to force America back to the negotiating table.

Joe Biden has said he is willing to meet with Kim, but said the pre-condition of any such meeting would be a serious commitment to scrapping his nuclear arsenal.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's 'Tax the Rich' couture gown is still causing quite a stir on Capitol Hill.

Rep. Jim Banks, R-Indiana, and Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., went tit for tat on Twitter, where Banks ended up telling Swalwell: 'Only one of us has a thing for communist women.'

Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., donned a white gown emblazoned with 'Tax the Rich' on the back on Monday to the Met Gala, one of the nation's most lavish displays of elitism and excess. Banks took note, tweeting about the gown three times.

'For Republicans, AOC is the gift that keeps on giving,' the congressman wrote in one tweet.

'Tax AOCs dress!' he wrote in another tweet.

'Last night was symbolic of how the Democrat party governs. The lowly help are forced to mask while the elites party and laugh at you,' he wrote in another, along with a photo of Ocasio-Cortez in her 'Tax the Rich' dress and Rep. Carolyn Maloney in a dress bearing the phrase, 'Equal rights for women.' Behind Maloney was a group of gala staff, all fully masked. Maloney and Ocasio-Cortez did not wear masks at the event.

'3 tweets about @aocs dress? Do you need a restraining order?' Swalwell clapped back.

'Sorry Eric, only one of us has a thing for communist women,' Banks replied.

After that, he retweeted a mock-up of the AOC dress where 'Tax the Rich' was replaced with 'Eric Swalwell slept with a CCP spy.'

Swalwell for years had a relationship with Christine Fang - or Fang Fang, before cutting ties in 2015 after he was tipped off by the intelligence community that she was a Chinese agent.

Fang fled the country as the FBI investigated her and her infiltration efforts which also saw her become friendly with other California politicians and have sex with two mayors from the Midwest.

Swalwell has refused to confirm or deny sleeping with Fang.

Rep. Eric Swalwell is pictured above with Christine Fang

Fang fled the country as the FBI investigated her and her infiltration efforts which also saw her become friendly with other California politicians and have sex with two mayors from the midwest

Some Republicans deemed AOC's Monday debut on the red carpet 'beyond parody.

The 31-year-old socialist firebrand attended the event with her boyfriend Riley Roberts, both of whom attended as 'guests' of the Met.

'The Met Gala is seen as elite and inaccessible...As a working class woman, [I] wanted to enjoy the event but also break the fourth wall and challenge the industry,' she proudly told Vogue at the event.

On Tuesday morning, AOC boasted about the surge in Google searches for the words 'tax the rich'.

She wrote on Instagram: 'Surge in people looking up and discussing our f****d up tax code is and how we fix it so we can fund childcare, healthcare, climate action and student loan forgiveness for all? Aurora James understood the assignment.'

She was met by a wave of criticism from not only the right but also some leftists for rubbing elbows with the rich and famous at an event costing more than the yearly salary of many Americans.

AOC said she'd been invited to the event as an elected official. DailyMail.com can reveal the Met Museum comped her ticket and Bill de Blasio's

The Office of Congressional Ethics was asked by a conservative group to launch an investigation of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for accepting free tickets to Monday's Met Gala, where she wore a custom gown that said 'Tax the Rich'

AOC with her boyfriend Riley Roberts (far right), her dress designer Aurora James and Benjamin Bronfman (far left), James' partner who is the heir to Seagrams Company Ltd. The group was pictured leaving at midnight. AOC claimed she'd been 'invited' as an elected official. DailyMail.com can reveal she was a guest of the Met Museum

She didn't wear a mask, like many of the other guests.

The event was for fully vaccinated guests only but the celebrities in attendance - who regularly preach online about COVID rules - ignored the guidance of the CDC and liberal states like California, where masks are recommended indoors regardless of vaccination status.

In a proud Instagram post about the event and her choice of outfit, AOC said: 'The medium is the message. Proud to work with Aurora James as a sustainably focused, Black woman immigrant designer who went from starting her dream Brother Vellies at a flea market in Brooklyn to winning the CDFA against all odds - and then work together to kick open the doors at the Met. The time is now for childcare, healthcare, and climate action for all. Tax the Rich.

'And yes, BEFORE anybody starts wilding out - NYC elected officials are regularly invited to and attend the Met due to our responsibilities in overseeing our citys cultural institutions that serve the public.

'I was one of several in attendance. Dress is borrowed via Brother Vellies.'

AOC has been vocal in the past about her stance on taxing millionaires.

In 2019 she advocated to raising taxes of to 70percent for the wealthy in order to fund measures against climate change.
Local residents have been warned to stay inside and keep their windows shut as fire crews are tackling a large blaze at a Durham building site.

Eight fire crews have been using water jets to tackle a huge blaze after a cavity wall outside the new Milburngate development in the city centre caught fire on Wednesday afternoon.

It was initially believed that there was an explosion at the site, which used to be a passport office, but County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service confirmed there were no reports of an explosion.

Firefighters from Durham, Spennymoor, High Handenhold and Newton Aycliffe were called to deal with the blaze just after 2pm.

Photographs and videos showed thick plumes of smoke billowing above the city as firefighters rushed to the scene to deal with the blaze.

Eight fire crews are on the scene after a cavity wall that runs outside the Milburngate building site in Durham caught fire on Wednesday afternoon. Pictured: Smoke at the scene

Fire service area manager Keith Wanley confirmed the blaze was contained to the cavity wall and said eight fire crews were using water jets to control the blaze.

Mr Wanley insisted there had been no reports of an explosion, adding: 'What the public may see is smoke swelling up as the wind changes direction, which may have given them concern.'

He urged people to avoid the area and advised residents in nearby properties to stay indoors and keep their doors and windows shut.

A statement posted to Twitter by County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service at 3.20pm read: 'Eight crews are at the scene of a fire at the Milburngate development.

'We would like to confirm there are no reports of an explosion and we are dealing with large fire in the construction site.

'Please avoid the area and find an alternative route home.'

Photographs showed thick plumes of smoke billowing above the city as firefighters rushed to the scene just after 2pm to deal with the blaze

Arriva North East confirmed that all services were disrupted due to the fire in the city centre, but trains are still operating as normal.

An Arriva statement added: 'Services will pick up as follows:- Wharton Park(North Road) Services 61, 62, 64 and X12. Sutton Street - all other Arriva services.'

Mary Kelly Foy, the MP for the City of Durham, urged people to 'stay safe' and 'avoid the area completely'.

A statement posted to Twitter by County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service at 3.20pm read: 'Eight crews are at the scene of a fire at the Milburngate development. We would like to confirm there are no reports of an explosion and we are dealing with large fire in the construction site. Please avoid the area and find an alternative route home'

Police and ambulance service are in also attendance, while the fire service confirmed they would be at the scene for a number of hours.

A Durham Constabulary statement read: 'Fire crews are currently at the scene of a fire in the Milburngate development in Durham City.

'Milburngate Bridge is currently closed, as are Framwellgate Peth and Crossgate Peth.

'We are asking people to avoid the area and find an alternative route.'

A spokesperson for the North East Ambulance Service said: 'We were called at 2.09 to reports of a fire at the Milburngate development in Durham city centre.

'We have dispatched three vehicles from our Hazard Area Response Team and a double crewed ambulance. We are currently still on the scene.'
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'Succession' star Alan Ruck got behind the wheel of a press van in President Joe Biden's motorcade during his California trip Monday.

Biden was in the Golden State to campaign for Governor Gavin Newsom's successful bid to keep his seat in Tuesday's recall election.

White House reporters who accompanied the president on his trip were surprised to see the actor who smashed a Ferrari in 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off' behind the wheel.

Ruck played Bueller's best friend in the 1986 film, where he drove Matthew Broderick's character around Chicago in his dad's classic car before it plunged into a ravine.

He also stars as media tycoon Logan Roy's oldest son Connor Roy in the HBO mega-hit series 'Succession.'

But on Monday the actor garnered rave reviews for his role as a chauffer.

'Alan Ruck handled his driving of press van 1 in the Biden motorcade very capably,' Reuters reporter Steve Holland tweeted on Tuesday along with a photo of a smiling Ruck behind the wheel.

Actor Alan Ruck, known for his acting roles in the film "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" and the television series "Succession," smiles from behind the wheel of a Biden presidential motorcade van in California

Reuters reporter Steve Holland posted the photo of Ruck behind the wheel

It appears Fox producer Pat Ward was the first journalist to recognize Ruck, according to the timing of his Monday night tweet

He seems to have first been spotted late on Monday night by a Fox White House producer - who unwittingly told the screen star he sounded 'just like' Ruck.

'Heres one for you. The driver of our press van is actor Alan Ruck. Cameron from Ferris Bueller/Connor Roy from Succession,' Pat Ward wrote on Twitter.

'I said, you sound just like the actor Alan Ruck Looks like theres a reason. Super nice guy, got a kick out of running all the red lights.'

Ruck told him he was asked to take on the volunteer gig.

'He said someone asked him if he wanted to drive in a Presidential motorcade and he figured why not,' Ward said.

DailyMail.com has reached out to the White House for comment.

Ruck currently stars in HBO mega-hit series 'Succession' as Connor Roy (second from right)

He also played Ferris Bueller's best friend in 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off' - where his character notably took his father's Ferrari for a joy ride (pictured center)

Driver of one of the press vans in the presidential motorcade in Long Beach is actor, Alan Ruck from Ferris Buellers Day Off and Succession pic.twitter.com/gU6bYKvt12  Mario Parker (@MarioDParker) September 14, 2021

Mario Parker of Bloomberg also shared a photo of Ruck on Twitter, standing outside the van and posing with a group of journalists with Parker in the center.

'Driver of one of the press vans in the presidential motorcade in Long Beach is actor, Alan Ruck from Ferris Buellers Day Off and Succession,' Parker captioned the photo.

Biden spoke at a Newsom rally in Long Beach the night before Californians went to the polls to decide whether the Democratic governor should keep his job.

Newsom has been criticized for his handling of the COVID pandemic and California's destructive wild fires.

Biden told voters on Monday that they 'either keep Gavin Newsom as your governor or you'll get Donald Trump.'

Biden was in California campaigning for Governor Gavin Newsom, who successfully fought off an effort to recall him

He was making a reference to the Republican favorite to win the seat, conservative talk radio host Larry Elder.

The president told his audience that the eyes of the country and the world were on their state.

California's recall election presented voters with two questions: Whether to recall the governor, and who should replace him.

If a majority of voters chose 'yes' in the first question, the election would have gone to the majority winner of the second question.

Newsom won 63.9 percent of 'no' votes, solidifying his position, according to the California election results site.

Elder was the runaway winner of question two with 46.9 percent of the vote - but that doesn't matter now that most Californians want Newsom to stay.
The wife of a leader of a major political party in India has fallen to her death while trying to escape a monkey attack.

Sushma Devi, 50, was rushed to hospital but sadly died of her injuries.

She is the wife of Anil Kumar Chauhan, leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The incident took place on September 9 when she was attacked by aggressive monkeys on the terrace of her house in Kairana city.

Feral monkeys have been causing havoc in the Shamli district of Uttar Pradesh in northern India. Pictured, stock photo of a monkey in India

To avoid the attack she jumped down from the terrace.

Feral monkeys have been causing havoc in the Shamli district of Uttar Pradesh in northern India, with local authorities cracking down.

Municipal commissioner Anunaya Jha for the city of Mathura said: 'Monkeys would be caught from Bankey Bihari temple area Vrindavan, Chaubia para, and Dwarkadhish temple area of Mathura in the first phase of the program and they would be released in the forest areas.'

Local residents claim there has been daily monkey attacks on children too.

Sushma was also a politician and was a district panchayat member, which is a district council in India.

She has been cremated at Mayapur farm.

In November 2019, two attacks claimed the lives of a 12-day-old baby and a 58-year-old woman in the city of Agra.

Sushma was also a politician and was a district panchayat member, which is a district council in India. Pictured, a general view of Kairana city

During the first attack, monkeys broke into a woman's home while she was breastfeeding her child snatched the baby from her, and bit it to death.

In the second attack, a 58-year-old woman was bitten by monkeys as she went to relieve herself outside her home on the outskirts of the city and bled to death.

Monkeys have also inadvertently caused deaths - in January last year a woman hanging washing on her roof died after monkeys attacked and she slipped and fell.
A man defecated in a supermarket freezer before covering his waste with a bag of pizza rolls, leaving a mother to get it on her hands when she reached inside to grab some groceries.

Shirley Wright-Johnson, from Oklahoma City, was at Crest Foods on Sunday with her children when she put her hand into the freezer get a bag of pizza rolls.

She felt something squishy underneath the bag and when she turned it over, she discovered the human waste.

'I picked up a bag of pizza rolls and there's literally s**t,' she told News 4 Oklahoma. 'I was so disgusted I was almost in tears.

'I was upset. I was disgusted. I feel like I was violated.'

The Moore Police Department confirmed the sample was human and said the man (pictured) was caught taking photos of women in the store

Literally s**t: Shirley Wright-Johnson was just shopping a Crest grocery store when she unknowingly picked up a bag of pizza rolls covered in human feces. She said she felt something 'squishy' and was 'almost in tears' when she discovered what it was

Moore Police Department confirmed that the feces were human.

Upon checking security camera footage, police saw a man taking photographs of female customers in the store, before walking over to the freezer section.

Lt. Kyle Johnson with the Moore Police Department said: 'That individual was then observed, went to the cooler section where he proceeded to defecate inside one of the coolers before leaving the business.'

The man can be seen wearing dark jeans and a hoodie with white sneakers as he left the store.

He has not yet been identified, and police are hunting for him.

Wright-Johnson says she alerted store employees immediately after making the disgusting discovery.

She says she then 'bleached' her hands and left the store with her children.

Wright-Johnson says Crest's corporate offices offered her steaks to make up for the disgusting experience

She says the kids complained they could smell it the whole way home.

'All the way home they still were like, "Mom, I can smell it, I can smell it,"' she said. 'Im like, "I smell it too, baby."'

Wright-Johnson says Crests corporate offices only offered her some steaks to make up for her disgusting experience.

The Moore Police Department are currently investigating and have been requested for comment.

Crest Foods Oklahoma refused to comment on the incident when contacted by DailyMail.com.
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Jill Biden hit the road on Wednesday to talk about school safety during the COVID pandemic after making her own return to in-person learning but wouldn't answer questions on whether there should be a vaccine mandate for classrooms.

'I don't think we're taking questions,' she said when she was asked by a reporter if public schools should have vaccine mandates.

President Joe Biden recently mandated vaccines for all federal workers and the Labor Department issued new regulations requiring businesses with more than 100 employees to have mandates or weekly testing.

Biden was in Milwaukee to talk school reopening and safety issues as students return to the classroom during the pandemic. She returned to her own in-person teaching job at a Northern Virginia Community College last week.

At the Marvin E. Pratt Elementary School she talked about the worries that come with returning to class during a pandemic.

'A simple cough can get your heart racing,' she acknowledged.

She called for unity, saying it was best for children.

'We can't know what the future holds, but we know what we owe our children. We owe them a province that will do all that we can to keep their schools open, and as safe as possible. We owe them a commitment to follow the science, and we owe them unity. So we can fight the virus, and not each other,' she said.

Jill Biden walks by her police escort in Milwaukee

Jill Biden hit the road on Wednesday to talk about school safety during the COVID pandemic after making her own return to in-person learning

She would not answer questions on vaccine mandates for schools

Jill Biden said she was glad to hear there was not a debate over wearing face masks in the classroom at the Milwaukee school district

After her remarks she spoke with educators and parents of students.

When one parent told her there had not been a debate about face masks in the school district, Biden praised them for being unified on the issue. Several states, like Florida and Texas, are fighting CDC recommendations for face masks in classrooms.

'That probably just takes that stress off of you as well,' she noted.

Biden and the participants in the roundtable wore face masks.

She next went to Iowa to talk about the child tax credit during a visit to a community college outside of Des Moines.

She talked about the stories she hears from struggling parents and argued that day care and the child tax credit are necessary.

'This is infrastructure,' she said, referring to President Biden's $3.5 trillion budget plan filled with social programs.

The first lady, 70, followed the lead of many other students and teachers last Tuesday when she returned to the classroom at Northern Virginia Community College, where she has worked since 2009, teaching English and writing.

She is the first first lady in modern history to have a paying job outside of her White House duties. The role of first lady is largely ceremonial and, while it includes a staff, it is an unpaid position.

Biden defines herself by her teaching job, which she talks about frequently in public appearances and in interviews.

'Teaching isn't just what I do. It's who I am,' she says. She has two masters and a doctorate in education.

She had taught through the COVID pandemic by zoom - even when traveling she would delay official events until the afternoon so she could teach in the mornings. She often grades papers on flights.

But she spoke of her longing to be back in the same room with her students.

'I can't wait to get back in the classroom,' she recently told Good Housekeeping magazine.

Jill Biden was in Milwaukee to talk school reopening and safety issues as students return to the classroom during the pandemic

Jill Biden hugs Rep. Cindy Axne when she arrives in Iowa

First lady Jill Biden arrives at General Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee

During the pandemic, she flew around the country to schools and COVID clinics, urging people to get vaccinated to help lives return to their normal routines. She was advocate - along with her husband - to reopen schools.

In March, she and Miguel Cardona, the secretary of education, visited classrooms in Connecticut and Pennsylvania where students were wearing masks and sitting behind plastic dividers. In May, she and the president visited a class of fifth-grade students at an elementary school in Yorktown to see how they were learning during the pandemic.

Going back to class is old hat for the first lady. She taught at the Northern Virginia school while her husband was vice president.

She arrived for her first day back in class via a presidential motorcade. She has Secret Service agents with her - as she did when she was second lady - but, back then, the agents, at her request, dressed in jeans and toted back packs to mix in with her students.

She will teach on Tuesdays and Thursdays, with travel on days when she is not in the classroom.

And she'll be wearing a face mask. The state of Virginia requires everyone to wear face coverings indoors on Northern Virginia Community College campuses, regardless of vaccination status. Biden is fully vaccinated.
Fury has erupted tonight after a series of anti-monarchy posters with the slogan 'Wales doesn't need a prince' appeared on billboards in Wales.

The signs - featuring a picture of Charles, the Prince of Wales - have been spotted in Aberdare, Cardiff and Swansea.

The slogan, written in bold white letters on a green background, is in both Welsh and English.

The posters have been organised by Republic, an anti-royal group who want the UK's system of monarchy to end after the Queen's death.

They are part of a campaign named 'EndTheMonarchy', which has been paid for by more than 25,000 of crowdfunding.

And they follow on from previous anti-monarchy posters which have appeared on billboards across the UK.

However the posters have tonight been slammed by officials in Wales, who say they do not reflect the public opinion in the country.

The signs - featuring a picture of Charles, the Prince of Wales - have been spotted in Aberdare, Cardiff and Swansea

The posters have been organised by Republic, an anti-royal group who want the UK's system of monarchy to end after the Queen's death. Pictured: A mock-up version of the billboards posted by Republic

They are part of a campaign named 'EndTheMonarchy', which has been paid for by more than 25,000 of crowdfunding. A mock-up version of a billboard designed by Republic

The group wants the UK's system of monarchy to end after the death of the Queen. Prince Charles (pictured) is next in line to the throne

Who are Republic? Republic is a pressure group calling for an end to the UK's system of constitutional monarchy. Set up in 1983 as a group of republicans and officially founded as pressure group in 2006, Republic wants to replace a royal head of state with an elected figure. It would bring the UK into line with countries such as Germany, which has both a political leader, currently Chancellor Angela Merkel, and an elected head of state, the President of Germany, currently Frank-Walter Steinmeier. It is a member organisation of Common Cause - the alliance of republican movements in the Commonwealth - as well as the Stockholm based Alliance of European Republican Movements. The group protested the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton in 2011 and Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding in 2018. It is currently headed up by Peter Cafferkey - who took over as chairman of the pressure group earlier this year. Mr Cafferkey is the UK's representative for the European Venture Philanthropy Association, having founded London-based 'social good' consultancy Boncerto. Its current CEO is long-term member Graham Smith, who has constistently called for the end to the Monarchy - a system he describes as 'wrong'. As of 2015, the group had an income of 140,000. In 2016 it had over 5,000 paying members and about 35,000 online supporters Its most recent campaigner, EndTheMonarchy was launched earlier this year and has raised more than 25,000 through crowd funding. Earlier this year the group put up anti-monarchy posters in Aberdeen, Paisley and Glasgow, Newcastle, Leeds, Liverpool, the Potteries, Birmingham and Portsmouth. Advertisement

Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies told MailOnline: 'As the Western Mail/Beaufort Research poll showed earlier this year, 70 per cent of people in Wales want to see Prince William made the Prince of Wales when the current Prince of Wales becomes King.

'The Royal Family are extremely popular in Wales, and that is because their presence provides guaranteed stability in the UK and they are fantastic ambassadors for this country.

'The campaign behind these billboards were is simply not reflective of Welsh public opinion.'

He added: 'This is a fringe movement, totally divorced from the people's priorities and opinion.'

The campaigning group first introduced the controversial billboards back in late July.

The group argue on their website that a hereditary public office such as the Royal Family 'goes against every democratic principle'.

Though the Queen is a constitutional monarch - meaning she has no effective democratic powers - the group say the royal family cannot be held to account via the ballot box.

'There's nothing to stop them abusing their privilege, misusing their influence or simply wasting our money' argues the organisation.

The group proposes a new elected head of state should be put in place to 'represent our hopes and aspirations - and help us keep politicians in check'.

Such a system is used in countries like Germany, which have both a political leader, currently Chancellor Angela Merkel, and an elected head of state, the President of Germany, currently Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

The UK has had a royal head of state since 1688, when powers were put in place to turn the country from a monarchy to a constitutional monarchy.

But while some have argued for change, many have argued the UK should retain the Royal Family.

The Queen is a figure known around the world, and prior to the pandemic, around 3,285,000 people visited the official royal residences each year.

It estimated by Forbes that the royal family brought in 19billion to the UK's economy in 2019/20.

Republic however estimated in 2015 that the Monarchy actually costs around 340million each year through costs, including security.

Others have pointed to the benefits of having a 'guiding figure', above the realm of politics, who people can look to particularly in times of crisis.

The Queen won praise for her 'unifying' speech at the beginning of the Covid pandemic, along with her message of thanks to frontline workers during her most recent Christmas Day speech.

Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies described the group as a 'fringe movement, totally divorced from the people's priorities and opinion'

The Queen (pictured) is a figure known around the world, and prior to the pandemic, around 3,285,000 people visited the official royal residences each year

Under its EndTheMonarchy campaign, Republic hopes to spread its anti-monarchy message.

The campaign was launched earlier this year and has so far raised more than 25,000 through crowd funding.

On the fundraising page, the group says: 'The monarchy is wrong in principle, wrong in practice and it's bad for British politics.

'That's the message we want the country to hear when we launch a major new billboard advertising campaign!

'We want the country to know there is a positive, exciting, democratic alternative to sitting back and letting Charles become our head of state.'

Earlier this year the group put up anti-monarchy posters in Aberdeen, Paisley and Glasgow, Newcastle, Leeds, Liverpool, the Potteries, Birmingham and Portsmouth.

However, despite the group's campaigning, the Royal Family's popularity remains strong in Britain.

According to an Ipsos MORI survey earlier this year, 43 per cent of respondents said Britains future would be worse should the monarchy be abolished.

Only 1 in 5 believe abolishing the monarchy would be good for the countrys future.

Other figures from a YouGov poll, also in March, showed support for the monarchy

There was however a slight dip in support at the time, following Prince Harry and Meghan's explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey, in which they made allegations of racism within the Royal Family

However much of the popularity has been pinned on the Queen, who is history's fourth longest serving monarch, having reigned for 69 years.

In the March poll 40 per cent described the Queen as their favourite royal, while for Prince Charles, who is next in line to the throne, it was as low as 11 per cent.

Meanwhile, Prince William, who is second in line to the throne, was the second most popular royal, at 28 per cent.

Other figures from a YouGov poll, also in March, showed support for the monarchy - with 63 per cent saying they believed it should continue.

There was however a slight dip in support at the time, following Prince Harry and Meghan's explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey, in which they made allegations of racism within the Royal Family.

However the couple, who quit royal life for America last year, remain among the most unpopular royals according to the YouGov survey - along with Prince Andrew.

MailOnline has contacted Clarence House for a comment on the billboard campaign.
Dominic Cummings has labelled Boris Johnson's Cabinet shake-up a 'Carrie Reshuffle' as he reignited his war of words with the Prime Minister.

But Downing Street categorically rejected the suggestion that Mr Johnson had consulted his wife about ministerial appointments.

It came as Number 10 refused to say when Mr Johnson had formulated his reshuffle blueprint after saying yesterday there were 'no plans' to change the PM's top team.

Dominic Cummings has labelled Boris Johnson's Cabinet shake-up a 'Carrie Reshuffle' as he reignited his war of words with the Prime Minister

But Downing Street categorically rejected the suggestion that Mr Johnson had consulted his wife about ministerial appointments

Mr Cummings has been a vocal critic of Mr and Mrs Johnson since he left Downing Street in November 2020 after losing an internal power struggle.

He tweeted this morning to take aim at Health Secretary Sajid Javid for defending Tory MPs for not wearing masks in the House of Commons and to criticise the Government's Winter Plan for tackling the spread of Covid-19.

Referring to Number 10 aides apparently privately calling Mr Johnson 'shopping trolley', Mr Cummings said: 'Trainwreck Saj channeling the [shopping trolley].

'- MPs dont need masks cos 'theyre not strangers'! - Plan B kicks in AFTER it's 'out of control'!

'If imminent #CarrieReshuffle puts him back in charge of the economy we'll have the world's stupidest 100B tunnel...'

Asked at lunchtime if the PM had consulted Mrs Johnson on this afternoon's reshuffle, the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman said: 'No.'

The spokesman would not be drawn on when Mr Johnson had drawn up his reshuffle plans.

Asked why it took place today, he said: 'As you have seen, we have produced our autumn winter plan for coronavirus yesterday, that remains a key priority for us.

'But we know the public also want us to deliver on their priorities and that is why the Prime Minister wants to ensure we have the right team in place for that.'

Reports had circulated last week that Mrs Johnson wanted Liz Truss to be sacked from her role as international trade secretary amid claims of a row about animal welfare protections in trade deals.

Ms Truss was today promoted as she replaced Dominic Raab as Foreign Secretary.
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Over-60s given a booster Covid jab are 20 times less likely to fall severely ill with Covid than those vaccinated with two doses, a major Israeli study has found.

A third dose was also found to slash the risk of becoming infected with the virus tenfold, in the firmest piece of evidence yet that the UK was right to go ahead with a mass booster programme.

The research, led by the country's health ministry, looked at more than 1.1million Israelis who had been double-jabbed for at least five months.

It found that people given a booster jab were 19.5 times less likely to be hospitalised with Covid than those who were still relying on protection from two doses and 11.3 less likely to test positive for the virus.

Both findings apply to the Pfizer vaccine, which Israel has relied on solely for its coronavirus immunisation programmes.

British experts hailed the findings as 'spectacularly good'. They come just a day after the UK finally signed off on the campaign for 32million over-50s, health and social care staff and Britons with severe health issues.

Israel became the first country in the world to roll out third doses in August, initially inviting over-60s but later gradually opening it up to everyone over the age of 12.

Nearly 3m Israelis have been 'boosted' so far and the country but officials in the UK believe younger people are still enjoying very high protection.

Separate Israeli data also announced today showed a booster dose generates 10 times more antibodies than the second vaccine.

Medics at Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, outside Tel Aviv, compared the antibody levels in staff one week after their third and second doses.

The research, led by the country's health ministry, looked at more than 1.1million Israelis who had been double-jabbed for at least five months. The Y axis shows a reduction in likelihood to test positive for Covid after a booster, with a greater number representing a lower risk. The X axis is the number of days after the booster vaccine

Israel pulled the trigger on a booster vaccine programme in August, which has stabilised the spiralling outbreak. The country recorded 136 hospital admissions in the week to September 12, down from the peak of 165 in the last week of August

Separate data from Public Health England published on Tuesday to justify the booster plan looked at waning immunity from two doses. It showed that vaccine effectiveness against symptomatic disease wanes by up to 20 per cent, though remains above the 50 per cent threshold for all three vaccines being used in the UK

AstraZeneca's protection against hospitalisation appears to wane quicker than Pfizer's, dropping to around the 80 per cent mark compared to Pfizer's 90-plus per cent

But protection against death remained higher still. Officials say they are uncertain how quickly effectiveness will wane over the coming winter months so boosters have been recommended as a precautionary measure

The latest study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, looked at 1,137,804 Israelis over the age of 60 who had received two vaccines by March this year.

Boosters were only rolled out to the age group at the end of July, meaning researchers could only track participants for little over a month.

Of those who received boosters, just 934 went on to catch and test positive for Covid in that time compared to 4439 in the non-boosted group.

Third Pfizer Covid vaccine produces 10 TIMES more antibodies than second jab, separate Israeli study finds A booster Covid vaccine generates 10 times more antibodies than the second dose, an Israeli study has found. Medics at Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, outside Tel Aviv, compared the antibody levels in staff one week after their third and second doses. They found that the Pfizer vaccine  which Israel is solely relying on for its immunisation programmes  stimulated a tenfold greater immune response. While the research only looked at healthcare staff at one specific hospital, it is hoped that the findings will apply more broadly to the rest of the population. The hospital said it was treating the results with caution and would be monitoring staff in the coming months to see how long the boost to immunity lasts. Antibodies are just one part of the overall immune response to Covid, which also includes white blood cells known as T cells that give longer protection. Advertisement

A total of 29 participants that received a third shot were hospitalised with the virus in the following month compared to 294 who were not given boosters.

The researchers said the findings translated to a 19.5 times lower risk of hospitalisation after a booster and a 11.3 times lower risk of infection.

They said their findings 'give clear indications of the effectiveness of a booster dose even against the currently dominant Delta variant'.

However, they noted that more research was needed to assess how long the boost in immunity lasts.

Dr Peter English, former chair of the British Medical Association's Public Health Medicine Committee, said the findings were 'excellent' and that the UK was bound to see successful results with its booster programme.

'These are spectacularly good results, which are likely to have a very significant effect on the direct risk to individuals who receive a booster dose, and also to the risk of their becoming infected and transmitting the disease to others; and thus on transmission rates and the effective R number.

'It is unclear whether such improvements will be seen in the UK.

'Here, we mostly used a longer prime-boost interval than was used in Israel, which enhanced the initial vaccination effectiveness, so we might not see quite as big an improvement as they found in Israel.

'But even if the effect of giving a booster dose of vaccine is not as good as this paper found it to be in Israel, they could be extremely beneficial here in the UK.'

Israel had led the way with the original vaccine rollout last December, becoming the fastest country in the world to vaccinate everyone who wanted a jab.

The trail-blazing programme suppressed the virus by summer which allowed it to become one of the first nations to lift all pandemic restrictions.

But cases began to soar over the summer, due to a combination of vaccines waning and the new Delta variant, which infects vaccinated people more easily. Israel pulled the trigger on a booster vaccine programme in August, which has stabilised the spiralling outbreak.

The country recorded 136 hospital admissions in the week to September 12, down from the peak of 165 in the last week of August. Weekly hospitalisations had soared from just four in June.

Cases continue to rise but this is believed to be due to a big testing blitz in schools, which went back at the start of the month. Infections also remain very low among the triple-jabbed, the country's health ministry said.

The results in Israel will likely have inspired UK health officials to green light a booster programme.

But they have stopped short of recommending third doses to the entire population, with shots being reserved for the roughly 32m deemed most vulnerable to Covid.

It will start next week and Britons will only be invited for a booster six months after getting their second jab. That appears to be the 'sweet spot', according to officials who signed off on the move due to waning immunity.

The UK booster programme will be rolled out to the same priority groups as previously (the priority list in the first phase of the vaccine drive which began in December). This means care home residents, health and social care workers, people aged over 50, those aged 16 to 49 years with underlying health conditions that put them at higher risk of severe Covid, adult carers, and adult household contacts of immunosuppressed individuals will be prioritised

Official figures show only 1.6million people in the UK received their second jab six months ago, on March 15. And the first 32million people were not fully immunised until June 24. However, this figure will include hundreds of thousands of under-50s, as uptake is no 100 per cent among those who are eligible for third doses. Boosters have to be given at least six months after the second dose, meaning the majority in the group may not be jabbed until November and December

That decision is largely in line with Israel's programme, which is only offering third doses to people five months after their second.

However, MailOnline revealed today that only 1.6million people in the UK, mainly care home residents and frontline health workers, were fully vaccinated by March 15 - the cut off point to qualify for a booster.

The UK didn't breach the 30million mark until June, meaning the campaign won't be open to millions of vulnerable adults until much closer to Christmas.

Babies could be given Pfizer's Covid vaccine in the US this winter Pfizer's Covid vaccine could be rolled out to babies as young as six months in the US this winter, under plans being drawn up by the pharmaceutical giant. In a move likely to cause international controversy, the company intends to apply for authorisation to immunise American infants within the next two months. The timeline will depend on the findings of in-house trials looking into whether the vaccines are safe and effective in youngsters aged six months to five years. Frank D'Amelio, chief financial officer at Pfizer, told an industry conference yesterday that the firm plans to 'go file' by November, the Financial Times reports. 'We would expect to have... data for children between the ages of six months and five years old that we would file with the FDA,' D'Amelio said at the Morgan Stanley Global Healthcare Conference. 'I'll call it in the weeks shortly thereafter the filing of the data for the five- to 11-year-olds.' Pfizer was already planning to seek approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the jabs to be given in children aged five to 11 by October. But the latest comments confirm the firm's intention to work its way down much younger age groups. They will be given a lower dose than adults. Pfizer's jab, made alongside German partner BioNTech, is already approved for over-12s in Britain. Advertisement

Experts told MailOnline the decision to delay boosters by six months should not be a cause for concern because the gap means people are only given a top-up dose as their immunity starts to wane.

But they warned it could be a problem for a 'small number' of older and vulnerable people whose immunity drops faster than expected.

Booster doses of the Pfizer jab, or a half dose of Moderna, will be administered to those eligible from next week, regardless of which jab they initially received.

For those who cannot get either of those two mRNA jabs, such as due to an allergy, they will be given a dose of AstraZeneca's vaccine.

The jabs will be dished out through vaccination centres, primary care networks and pharmacies and can be given at the same time as annual flu jabs.

Department of Health bosses said the booster campaign will 'ensure the protection vaccines provide for those most at risk of severe illness from Covid will be maintained over the winter months'.

It is the first phase of the Government's winter plan to avoid another lockdown. If hospitalisations rise quickly, ministers have warned they could be forced to reintroduce face masks and work from home guidance.

The Prime Minister was told it is better to act early, rather than dithering and having to go harder to fight off any surge later this year.

Government statistics show the UK hit 10million second vaccinations on April 18, meaning the third dose rollout will not be open to a third of those eligible until mid-October.

And it took until June 24 to administer 32million second doses, meaning those with waning immunity could be heading into the Christmas season with low levels of protection.

But that figure includes hundred of thousands of under-50s, given that uptake for the jab has never been 100 per cent in any of the most vulnerable groups.

NHS figures suggest there are still around half a million over-50s who have yet to have their first jab, and up to 1.1million who haven't had their second.

Dr Simon Clarke, a cellular microbiologist at the University of Reading, told MailOnline he does not see the small numbers immediately eligible for boosters as a problem.

He said: 'Put simply, we don't know how this will play out over the winter and it's worth pointing out that the annual flu numbers are worse in January and February, so it could be the same with Covid.

'It's important not to give boosters too early as their effectiveness may well wane over time too.

'Data seems to indicate that immunity drops off quickest in the most elderly, who were vaccinated first. Given as these should be boosted first, this problem should be mitigated.

'There may however be a small number of people in their 50s and 60s whose immunity drops more quickly than the average, so what you suggest could be a problem for these people.

'However, there's no realistic way of knowing who these people are in such a large population.'

Professor Saul Faust, an infectious disease expert at the University of Southampton, told MailOnline people having to wait until winter to get a booster is 'not concerning' because immunity lasts six months after two doses.

He said the rollout will be staggered as people become eligible at six months and means the NHS is able to cope with demand.

'Some people will need to go for flu vaccines separately from Covid vaccines though, which the NHS will be taking account of,' Professor Faust added.

Dr Doug Brown, chief executive at the British Society of Immunology, told MailOnline: 'Receiving two vaccinations against Covid has been show to be highly effective at preventing severe disease, hospitalisation and death as well as generating an effective immune response that does provide this protection in the long term.

'We don't yet know exactly how long immunity will last, which is why the government's decision to offer booster doses to the most vulnerable is a welcome move which will help us be prepared for the worst this winter.

'With the third dose being offered six months after the second, studies have shown that we can be confident that for those six months people will have protection during that period from their initial vaccinations with the third dose providing an additional boost to the immune system.

'In addition to boosters, we must not take our foot off the gas and continue to make every effort to reach people who have not had their first doses of the vaccine and encourage them to come forward for a Covid vaccination.

'Vaccination is our only way out of this pandemic.'

Earlier this month, half a million severely immunosuppressed people, who are most at-risk from Covid and were unable to mount a full response to the vaccine, were invited to get a third dose.
Police, fire and ambulance services all failed in their response to the Manchester Arena attack, a public inquiry heard today.

Three police experts wrote four reports on the performance of Greater Manchester Police (GMP) after 22 people were murdered and hundreds injured by suicide bomber Salman Abedi on May 22, 2017.

The inquiry also heard of a delayed and sluggish response by North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) and Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service (GMFRS) amid confusion about a possible marauding armed terrorist.

Only three paramedics went into the City Room - where the attack took place - as the dying and injured were evacuated on crash barriers and the fire service did not arrive at the scene until two hours after the explosion.

Neither fire or ambulance staff could reach the police force duty officer, their point of contact, to find out what was going on as he became 'swamped' and was not answering the phone line.

Three police experts wrote four reports on the performance of Greater Manchester Police (GMP) after 22 people were murdered and hundreds injured by suicide bomber Salman Abedi. Pictured: Police officers and ambulances outside Manchester Arena on May 22, 2017

A handout CCTV image previously shown as evidence at the Manchester Arena Inquiry, showing members of the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service moving empty stretchers towards Victoria Train Station, following the terror attack

All 999 services are supposed to work to the Joint Emergency Services Interoperability Programme (Jesip), which in shorthand, the inquiry heard, means to co-locate and communicate to work together to co-ordinate a response to a major emergency.

The four reports ran to 1,000 pages and were written by ex-senior officers and specialists with other forces.

Scott Wilson, a former detective chief superintendent and counter-terrorism commander at the Metropolitan Police, listed a number of conclusions the experts had come to.

They included there was 'no apparent cohesion and co-ordinated response', a breakdown in communication, operational confusion and no one working to the Jesip principles.

Instead the emergency services were operating independently of each other with GMP 'operating internally in silo'.

Paul Greaney QC, counsel to the inquiry asked Mr Wilson: 'Does that represent a significant failure of response by GMP?'

He replied: 'It does, sir.'

Mr Wilson said it was 'one of the major failings' by commanders from police, fire and the ambulance service they did not quickly agree a rendezvous point at the scene to meet and plan their response.

A handout file photo issued by GMP showing the CCTV image of Salman Abedi at Victoria Station, making his way to the Manchester Arena on May 22, 2017

The inquiry also heard of a delayed and sluggish response by North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) and Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service (GMFRS). Pictured: the fire service arriving at Manchester's Victoria Station following the attack

Andy Berry, the GMFRS duty NILO (national inter-agency liaison officer) rejected the police's suggestion and sent pumps to Philips Park fire station, three miles away to await further information.

This meant that while police and some paramedics dashed to the scene, firefighters were ordered to drive away amid confusion over an active armed gunman.

Mr Wilson told the inquiry that while emergency personnel balanced the risk of safety with the need to help the casualties, there was an 'organisational reluctance' by GMFRS commanders to send in firefighters.

The inquiry, sitting in Manchester, continues.
Lawyers representing a British student found guilty of lying about being gang-raped in Cyprus have said they hope her conviction will be overturned by the country's Supreme Court.

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was handed a suspended four-month jail term last year by a judge who found her guilty of public mischief following a trial.

She had told police she was attacked by up to 12 Israeli tourists in a hotel room in the party town of Ayia Napa on July 17 2020. Ten days later she charged after signing a retraction statement while being questioned without a lawyer.

Now a 21-year-old university student, the woman has maintained that she was pressured by officers to withdraw the rape allegation and has vowed to clear her name, having flown home from the holiday island hours after being sentenced.

Her team of English and Cypriot lawyers will on Thursday take the fight to the Supreme Court, in the island's capital Nicosia, arguing the conviction is unsafe and should be set aside.

Lawyers representing a British student (pictured) found guilty of lying about being gang-raped in Cyprus have said they hope her conviction will be overturned by the country's Supreme Court

The woman is not expected to attend the hearing in front of a panel of three judges, including the UK-born president Persefoni Panayi.

The woman's lawyers have submitted a written document of around 150 pages, which they will expand on in oral arguments based on transcripts from the trial.

The legal team will argue the retraction statement, which formed the basis of the prosecution case, should never have been admitted into evidence because it was made by a vulnerable teenager who had spent almost seven hours in a police station without a lawyer.

Barrister Michael Polak, from the Justice Abroad group, said: 'Decisions in the Supreme Court tend to come within six months but we hope for it to come sooner.

'The best-case scenario is they listen to all our arguments, come back soon, within a month or so, and overturn the conviction.

'It is very important for the young lady in terms of future prospects, jobs, associations, etc.'

Pictured: The Ayia Napa hotel bedroom where the woman claims the rape took place

The woman said she was attacked by up to 12 Israeli tourists, some of whom are pictured above entering the Famagusta District Court in Paralimni, Cyprus, 26 July 2019

If the appeal fails, the lawyers plan to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which Mr Polak said once found against Cyprus after a teenager was brought into a police station in Limassol and separated from his father before confessing to murder.

'With the precedent for us, we are confident in European human rights law,' he said.

They will also argue trial Judge Michalis Papathanasiou failed to consider all the elements of the offence of public mischief before finding her guilty, ignored defence expert evidence and failed to consider police failures in investigating the rape allegations.

The 12 Israeli young men and boys, aged between 15 and 20 at the time, arrested over the incident denied any wrongdoing, were freed, and returned home.
Retta Cruse, 35, was arrested on two counts of first-degree murder after her release from the hospital on Tuesday

An Arizona mother is accused of drugging her two young daughters to death last week, allegedly telling one of their dads that she was 'medicating' the girls for COVID-19 as she was losing a custody battle.

Retta Cruse, 35, was arrested Tuesday on two counts of first-degree murder, almost a week after she was found with self-inflicted stab wounds in her Phoenix apartment on September 8.

She was arrested when she was released from the hospital, where she allegedly told staff that someone suggested she kill the girls and herself, though she 'denied taking any action.'

Aleyah, 9, and Royal McIntyre, 4, were found dead in bed 'facing each other, with their arms around each other as though they had been placed into this position,' police wrote in a probable cause statement for Cruse's arrest obtained by azfamily.com.

Detectives say a prescription pill was found near the girls' mouths. They also say there was a bottle of the powerful opioid oxycodone in the room.

She allegedly used oxycodone to kill 9-year-old Aleyah (right) and 4-year-old Royal McIntyre

Cruse told hospital staff that someone suggested she kill the girls and herself. The father of one of the girls says Cruse told him the girls had COVID and that she was 'medicating' them

The man who found them, Michael Coleman, was detained at the scene but later released after cooperating with investigators, according to Yahoo News.

Police believe Coleman, the two girls and their mother were a family.

When police arrived, Cruse had barricaded herself in the bedroom by pushing a bed against the door, according to azfamily.com. Police say they found a signed handwritten note explaining the situation, which she later denied to hospital staff.

Aleyah, the 9-year-old, was caught in the midst of a custody battle between her mother and her biological father, Kevin Maddox of New Jersey, before her death.

Cruse's partner called the police after finding the girls lying in bed, facing each other, with no signs of trauma in their Phoenix apartment on September 8

A makeshift memorial was set up outside of the apartment complex the day after the deaths

The father of one of the girls allegedly told police that Cruse 'was upset over a recent court hearing where she was losing custody of' her.

He also said Cruse claimed the girls had COVID-19 and that she was 'medicating them to help them sleep.'

Aleyah was a fourth grade student at Sunnyslope School, according to the district.

'My brother, Kevin Maddox, had full custody of his child and [fought] endlessly to get his daughter back to New Jersey,' wrote Monica Ridgeway in a GoFundMe page raising funds to send Aleyah's body to New Jersey.

'At this time of extreme grief we begin the process of bringing Aleyah back home as this act took place in Arizona.'

In March, police were called to the apartment after Coleman and Cruse got into a fight, said Sgt. Andy Williams of the Phoenix Police Department told reporters.

No crime was committed so no report was filed, Williams said.

Aleyah, 9, was caught in a custody battle between her mom and her father Kevin Maddox

Coleman, who found Cruse and the girls, began his own GoFundMe in the wake of the deaths so he could give his 'innocent daughters a proper burial.'

'I moved here with my children and their mother from New Jersey for spiritual reasons. I wanted to make my daughters aware of the spiritual nature that I believe in and I felt Arizona had to offer being its a very spiritual state,' he wrote.

'Unfortunately, I came home to a devastating situation where my daughters were deceased and their mother critically injured. At this point, there are still more questions than answers.'

Monica Ridgeway, Aleyah's aunt, and Cruse's partner Michael Cohen have started dueling GoFundMe pages for Aleyah's funeral costs

Coleman had raised over $8,000 as of Wednesday afternoon, while Ridgeway, the sister of Aleyah's biological dad, has raised $4,452.

Nearby resident Teri Potter left two angel wings on the gates surrounding the girls' apartment complex after the deaths, according to Yahoo News.

'They're angels now,' Potter said.

'I didn't know them. I just know that there's kids involved and it's really upsetting that this could happen. I mean their whole family's going through it.'

A neighbor told a local news station that she had seen the family at a school bus stop the day before the girls were found dead.

'My heart ... I still haven't even fully processed it yet. I'm still speechless and lost for words,' said Disha Joseph.
One of three people killed when a car exploded into a fireball after smashing into a block of flats has been identified as a handyman, MailOnline can reveal.

Jason De Belen, 36, and two more men had been returning from a nightclub when their car ploughed into a block of flats near Westbourne Park tube station in leafy Notting Hill, west London, at dawn yesterday.

Mr De Belen and the car driver were friends who had given the third victim, a barman, a lift home from the club after he finished his shift.

Witnesses said the car spun out of control over a bridge and slammed into the building - through iron railings and a brick wall - at a speed of up to 90mph.

The three inside the car died at the scene as the vehicle erupted into a fireball. Nine people were evacuated to safety from the block.

Mr De Belen lived in nearby Ladbroke Grove but had recently been moved to a local hotel after his flat was damaged by flash-flooding.

Jason De Belen, 36, was one of three people killed when a car exploded into a fireball after smashing into a block of flats at dawn yesterday. Mr De Belen has been identified as a handyman, MailOnline can reveal

He and two more men had been returning from a nightclub when their car ploughed into a block of flats near Westbourne Park tube station in leafy Notting Hill, west London. Above: The burnt out shell of a car at the scene on Great Western Road

A friend told MailOnline today: 'Jason was a really warm-hearted, lovely guy. He was a family-orientated man who doted on his nine-year-old niece.

'It's an awful tragedy but details of what happened exactly are quite scarce at the moment.

Mr De Belen lived in nearby Ladbroke Grove

'He was a passenger in the car and he and his friend were returning home after going to a club.

'They had given one of the barmen a lift. I'm not sure if they knew him or were just being nice and offered to take him home.

'But Jason's family and friends are devastated as you can imagine. He'll be missed so much.'

Mr De Belen's aunt, Estrella Hernandez, told how his death was a double blow for the family after the recent death of his uncle in the Philippines.

Writing on Facebook, Ms Hernandez said: 'Our whole family is deeply saddened and grieving by the loss of our two loved ones.

'My brother Efren Garcia who suffered from illness and my nephew Jason Garcia De Belen who died in a car accident in Notting Hill London.

'It is so painful for our whole family to lose them during these hard times. Our failure to glance our nephew in person brings us too much sorrow and pain, not bidding him goodbye in his resting place.

Residents told how they tried to assist those trapped inside, but were forced to stand back as the car 'exploded' in flames. They said firefighters battled the blaze for roughly 20 minutes as it kept reigniting

Emergency services at the scene on the Great Western Road, Notting Hill, west London

'May our prayers serve as comfort to them as they travel to the paradise of our Lord. We love you both forever...Goodbye for now... till we meet again.'

Flowers and a card of condolence have been attached to metal fencing erected around the crash site.

Three simple candles have been placed next to each other in glasses on the floor.

Local residents told how they tried to assist those trapped inside, but were forced to stand back as the car 'exploded' in flames. They said firefighters battled the blaze for roughly 20 minutes as it kept reigniting.

One horrified witness, who lives across the road and did not wish to be named, told MailOnline that a man was seen trying to pull victims to safety amid cries of 'Get me out!' before their car was engulfed in flames.

'I heard a big smash and knew it was a car crash, but not how bad it was,' he said. 'I came out to see what had happened and two guys were trying to get their friend out of the car, but it was being engulfed in flames.

Emergency services at the scene on the Great Western Road, Notting Hill, west London

'They had the door open and the man was screaming ''Get me out of here!'' But they couldn't get him out and ran away. The next minute the car exploded in a fireball - there's not really anything anyone could have done.'

The witness added: 'I could just hear the screams of the guy saying ''Get me out! Get me out!'' It must have been terrifying. It could have been my kids, could have been anyone.'

A Metropolitan Police officer at the scene said the driver had come north over a canal bridge before losing control of the vehicle, which witnesses said could be a Seat Leon.

The huge impact sent bricks flying across the road and onto neighbouring houses before the car burst into 'yellow flames'.

Brian Waldy, 70, a retired chartered surveyor who lives in a basement flat in the building next door, said: 'I heard this big crash and at least 10 full sized bricks fell down onto the stairs outside.

Detectives from the Serious Collision Investigation Unit are appealing for witnesses and those with dash cam footage to come forward following the incident

'I put my dressing gown on and came out and saw the bright yellow flames enveloping the car - about a metre high.

'There was a man a couple of metres away shouting into the car something about the seatbelt buckle.

'But then someone else shouted ''move away, bro, it's going to blow'', so the guy moved back and got out of the way.

'Then there were at least two explosions and so, to be safe, I went back to my front door.'

Detectives from the Serious Collision Investigation Unit are appealing for witnesses and those with dash cam footage to come forward following the incident.

Anyone who saw the car before the incident, or who has information, video or images that could help police, is urged to call 101 ref CAD 917/14 Sept.
A customer has slammed a Toby Carvery roast delivered to her home by Just Eat, claiming it turned up looking like 'a dog's dinner'.

Nicki White, 26, was left disappointed after ordering the Sunday lunch from the carvery chain's branch in Ramsgate, Kent.

She complained to the restaurant over receiving a few measly dried pieces of meat and undercooked vegetables, saying it was the 'worst roast she has ever eaten'.

Ms White added that despite Toby's being one of her favourite trips, especially at Christmas, she will now never go there again.

The chain confirmed it is investigating the complaint and has apologised to Ms White, offering her a free meal as compensation.

Nicki White, 26, was left disappointed after ordering the 17 roast (pictured above) from the Toby Carvery branch in Ramsgate, Kent, through Just Eat on Sunday

She complained to the store over receiving a few measly dried pieces of meat and undercooked vegetables, saying it was the 'worst roast she has ever eaten'

Ms White said: 'It was undercooked, the portion was small, it was just unsatisfactory. Putting it simply, it was the worst roast I have ever eaten.

'I would normally go to the restaurant, but because I wasn't feeling well my daughter wanted a roast so I thought I would give it a go.

'Never again.'

Ms White had posted images of her dinner to Facebook. She paid 17 for one adult portion and one child portion on Sunday, September 12.

She wrote: 'If anyone's thinking of getting a Toby Carvery delivered. Don't do it! Absolute rip off!

'Under cooked veg, black cauliflower, hardly any meat, gravy was like water, stuffing was wet and mushy.

'I pre-ordered two hours before and was still late, a driver turned up to collect but wasn't ready so he left and had to send another driver. Will never order a takeaway from them again.'

One local commented: 'That's why I don't go there, let alone take away! The number of microwaves in that place is shocking!'

Ms White (above) paid 17 for one adult portion and one child portion on Sunday, September 12. She has complained and the chain - owned by Mitchells & Butlers - is investigating

Ms White said: 'It was undercooked, the portion was small, it was just unsatisfactory. Putting it simply, it was the worst roast I have ever eaten'

Another said: 'I've had quite a poor take away too before - so I didn't bother again', while a third added: 'Had the same problem. Make a formal complaint to them.'

And a fourth wrote: 'Yes we ordered today too and had a similar experience. They even forgot our pigs in blankets.'

Responding to one comment, Ms White said: 'I honestly think my dog could have cooked better.'

Others said they couldn't believe the poor quality because they had always received brilliant meals there.

Toby's has 1158 outlets across Britain and prides itself on offering huge roasts for a bargain price.

The restaurant confirmed it is investigating the complaint and has apologised to Ms White, offering her a free meal as compensation (file photo of a Toby Carvery restaurant)

Ms White has complained and the chain - owned by Mitchells & Butlers - is investigating.

A spokesperson for Toby Carvery said: 'We pride ourselves on our delicious great value roast dinners, so we are very disappointed one of our valued customers received a delivery meal that doesn't reflect our high standards on this occasion.

'We have raised this with our internal teams to investigate and we have reached out to the customer to apologise and invite her to have a meal on us.'

MailOnline has reached out to Just Eat for comment.
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The boyfriend of missing 'van-life woman' Gabby Petito returned home to Florida from their road trip alone 10 days before she was reported missing.

Police said on Wednesday that Brian Laundrie, 23, returned to his parents' North Port, Florida, home without 22-year-old Gabby on September 1 in the couple's van they had used to travel the country.

Gabby was reported missing by her mother Nichole Schmidt on September 11 after she was unable to reach her daughter. The last time they spoke on the phone was August 25.

Schmidt revealed to DailyMail.com that she received a text from Gabby's phone on August 30 saying she was in Yosemite National Park, but Schmidt said she 'knows' it was Brian who sent that text to mislead the family and authorities.

If the couple were in fact together in Yosemite on August 30, that would mean Brian drove over 3,000 miles within two days to arrive in Florida on September 1.

Now police have officially named Brian Laundrie a 'person of interest' in their inquiry into her mystery disappearance as he refuses to cooperate.

Police said on Wednesday that Brian Laundrie, 23, returned to his parents' North Port, Florida, home without 22-year-old Gabby Peon September 1 in the couple's van they had used to travel the country

The above map illustrates the places Petito and Laundrie visited since the start of the trip leaving New York on July 2 to when she last spoke to her family on August 25 from Grand Teton National Park. The last text message sent from Gabby's cell phone on August 30 to her mother Nichole Schmidt suggests she'd made it to Yosemite National Park in northern California  about 800 miles away, but her mother says she 'knows' the text was sent from Brian to throw them off

Policed released a photo of the Ford van that was seized from the Laundrie property Saturday night

'Brian Laundrie is a person of interest in this case,' North Port police said in a statement. 'As of now, Brian has not made himself available to be interviewed by investigators or has provided any helpful details.'

The couple documented their road trip across the U.S. on Instagram and YouTube

Brian's family refused to let authorities speak to their son when the 2012 Ford van was seized from their property late on Saturday night.

Earlier this week, Gabby's mother told DailyMail.com that on September 10 she reached out to Brian and his mother Roberta Laundrie trying to reach her daughter.

'I texted Brian's mom that I was trying to get in touch with Gabby. I also texted Brian. I got no replies,' Schmidt said. 'I knew something was wrong. I felt something was off and I needed to get her reported missing immediately.'

The Petito and Schmidt family released a scathing statement on Wednesday as they continue their desperate search for their daughter.

'Everyday the search for Gabby continues the Schmidt and Petito family becomes more desperate. They are frantically searching for answers and information in their daughter's disappearance while Brian sits in the comfort of his home,' the statement reads.

'Brian claims he wants to sit in the background while we search for Gabby in the wilderness of the Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks. Brian left Gabby in the wilderness with grizzly bears and wolves while he sits in the comfort of his home. In his home!

'Brian, how could you do this to Gabby? You selfishly remain silent while Gabby is all alone in the wilderness.'

The statement goes on to call Brian's silence 'reprehensible' as they beg him to 'do the right thing' and give them answers.

'Brian, whatever happened in Wyoming, happened. The only thing you can control is what you do now. Tell us where Gabby is,' the statement continues. 'You tarnish you love for her with your silence.'

Nicole Schmidt, of Long Island, New York, gave a teary-eyed interview to reporters on Monday afternoon about her daughter Gabby Petitio. Schmidt tells DailyMail.com that on September 10 she texted Brian and his mother Roberta trying to get in touch with Gabby, but neither replied

'No service in Yosemite,' reads the text from Petito's cell phone, sent August 30 to her mother Nichole Schmidt, DailyMail.com can reveal. Her uncle Mike Schmidt posted this handwritten timeline of events

Gabby's mother told DailyMail.com that she texted with her daughter on August 27, and then received that final text three days later.

'No service in Yosemite,' reads the curious text from Petito's cell phone, sent August 30 to her mother Nichole Schmidt, DailyMail.com has learned.

The mother has refused to disclose the contents of her daughter's texts, but tells DailyMail.com, 'That text was NOT from Gabby I know it!'

She believes Petito's boyfriend sent the message from her phone, possibly to mislead her family and investigators as to her whereabouts.

'It was just a little bit weird, the things that she was saying,' the mom added, though she wouldn't elaborate.

Gabby's step father James Schmidt arrived in Jackson Hole, Wyoming Tuesday and traveled to Grand Teton National Park today, where his stepdaughter was last seen.

'I'm not here doing a search at this time,' he told DailyMail.com. 'We're here to make contact with local law enforcement, to have our faces out here so people can see us and to make sure we keep enough attention on this. Right now, it's mainly about letting law enforcement do their investigation. This involves multiple agencies. It's a huge area.'

'I'm just landing in the airport and seeing the vast landscape,' Schmidt added. 'I'm in absolute awe. It's a tremendous area. It's breathtaking and we can see why Gabby wanted to explore this beautiful territory.'

Gabby's family lashed out at the Laundrie's in a statement Tuesday. 'Brian is refusing to tell Gabby's family where he last saw her. Brian is also refusing to explain why he left Gabby all alone and drove her van to Florida. These are critical questions that require immediate answers.'

Brian Laundrie's parents Christopher and Roberta refused to let police speak with their son. He returned to their home on North Port,Florida on September 1

Police are seen outside the Laundrie family home in North Port, Florida, where Brian Laundrie returned in the couple's van without Gabby after their trip

Brian Laundrie and his parents released a statement through their lawyer Tuesday stating that a search was being conducted in or near Grand Teton National Park, near Yellowstone, in Wyoming, while adding that 'it is our hope that the search for Miss Petito is successful and that Miss Petito is reunited with her family.'

But Brian, 23, has refused to comment on her disappearance, including where and why he left her, driving their van back to Florida.

On Tuesday, Utah police have revealed they responded to an 'incident' involving Gabby and her boyfriend, just two weeks before she was last seen in Wyoming.

'Our officers did respond to an incident involving Brian Laundrie and Gabrielle Petito on 12 August 2021 however, neither Brian or Gabrielle were the reporting party.

'Officers conducted an investigation and determined that insufficient evidence existed to justify criminal charges,' Moab Chief of Police Bret Edge told Fox News.

It not clear what the incident was about.

But Gabby's mother told DailyMail.com, 'It's irrelevant. Two people traveling together with each other 24 hours a day, it's not going to be perfect, it was an argument, and that's all I'm going to say about it.'

Schmidt told DailyMail.com that she's now questioning everything and looking at things through a new lens.

'Maybe the relationship wasn't what I thought,' she said.

She said she can't understand why neither Brian nor his parents have reached out to her in the aftermath of her daughter's disappearance.

'It's a very mysterious situation. We don't understand why he's doing this. Everybody's assuming the worst and thinking he's guilty of this. But I don't want to believe that. I want to believe she's just in need of help out there and that everybody needs to keep searching.'

Schmidt described how Brian's parents had been warm and welcoming to Gabby during their relationship. She recalled a time when his mother even knitted her future daughter-in-law gifts for Christmas.

'She loved her like a daughter,' Schmidt said. 'As far as I knew they were all very caring and treated her like one of the family. His mom was so excited about the engagement.'

The couple had documented their conversion of a 2012 Ford van into a camper and their life traveling in it on YouTube and Instagram

Gabby was last seen on August 24 checking out of a hotel with Brian in Salt Lake City, Utah . The manager at the Fairfield Inn was less that helpful, claiming to know nothing about the girl

She's also questioning Brian's trip back to Florida in August to help his father move their belongings out of a storage unit.

Brian left Gabby in the Fairfield Inn in Salt Lake City and flew back home to Florida from August 17 to the 23 to help his father empty out a storage unit where he and Gabby had their things.

According to Schmidt, Brian's father offered to let them keep their belongings at his house so they wouldn't have to pay for the storage unit.

He left Gabby at the hotel so she, understandably, wouldn't be alone in the van. Brian then flew back to Utah and they left the hotel together on August 24.

Schmidt now wonders why it was necessary to move Gabby's things during their road trip and what became of her stuff.

'Where are her things?' she asked.

Asked why Brian chose to lawyer up, she replied, 'You know I wish I knew that answer, why.'

'I know that's the reason this story is so sought after is because it's odd. The police have said it's very odd. We don't know what's going on, and where is my daughter. I just want to find her.

This comes as police revealed Gabby was reportedly seen hitting Brian Laundrie in the arm during a tense argument in Utah two weeks before she disappeared, according to police

An incident report released by the Moab Police Department on Wednesday has shed new light on the 'possible domestic violence' incident involving the couple on August 12, revealing they had been going through 'issues' over the last couple days

According to the incident report, officers were called near the Moonflower Community Co-op (pictured) in Moab, Utah around 4:30pm on August 12 after a witness, identified only as Christopher, reported seeing the pair 'arguing over a phone'

This comes as police revealed Gabby was reportedly seen hitting Brian Laundrie in the arm during a tense argument in Utah two weeks before she disappeared, according to police.

An incident report released by the Moab Police Department on Wednesday has shed new light on the 'possible domestic violence' incident involving the couple on August 12, revealing they had been going through 'issues' over the last couple days.

According to the incident report, officers were called near the Moonflower Community Co-op in Moab, Utah around 4:30pm on August 12 after a witness, identified only as Christopher, reported seeing the pair 'arguing over a phone.'

The bystander told police that when Brian got into the van, he saw 'what appeared to him as Gabrielle hitting Brian in the arm and then climbing through the driver's window as if Brian had locked her out and she was trying to find a way in,' responding officer Daniel Scott Robbins wrote.

Robbins later located the couple, who had already left the area by then, driving in their Ford Transit van towards Arches National Park and pulled them over.

As he approached the vehicle he noticed Petito 'crying uncontrollably' in the passenger seat and asked to speak to her outside, he added.

The report was redacted to conceal sensitive information but suggests Petito and Laundrie became embroiled in an altercation fueled by mental health issues.

'Gabrielle told me that she suffers from [redacted] with [redacted],' Robbins wrote.

'Because of her [redacted] and [redacted], combined with little arguments she and Brian had been having that day, she was struggling with her mental health, which led to the incident that was reported to law enforcement.'

He added that at 'no point in my investigation did Gabrielle stop crying, breathing heavily, or compose a sentence without needing to wipe away tears, wipe her nose, or rub her knees with her hands.'
Ester Morton's casket was found 300 yards away form her grave on private property after Hurricane Ida displaced 30 to 50 caskets

A Louisiana family is facing having to rebury their grandmother after her casket was washed out of a burial vault in Hurricane Ida's flash floods, and ended up on a front lawn 300 yards away.

Ester Morton was buried in 2013 in Barataria, Louisiana - 40 minutes outside of New Orleans.

Her casket had been laying in a burial vault at a nearby graveyard until Hurricane Ida hit the state as a Category 4 storm at the end of last month.

The hurricane sparked flash floods, which left the graveyard underwater and washed Ester's casket out of its burial vault.

The coffin washed up on the lawn of a private property 300 yards away, and was found by CBS news reporter David Begnaud.

After finding a nameplate on the side of the coffin, Begnaud managed to contact one of Ester's daughters.

After Hurricane Katrina displaced nearly a thousand caskets, Louisiana now requires all of them to have some form of identification, according to NPR.

Ester's casket washed up on a private property after floating 300 hundred yards from the cemetery

Ester's grandson Troy Harvey came to collect his grandmother's casket from a man's home. The last time he had seen it was at her funeral in 2013 where he was a pallbearer

Ester's grandson Troy Harvey, who last saw the casket when he was a pallbearer at his grandmother's funeral, came to remove it from the lawn.

Harvey was visibly emotional at the sight of his grandmother's casket.

'Jesus, I love you so much,' he said as he place his hand on the coffin.

'I don't know how we supposed to get the casket back into its place, but I'm sure they're not comfortable having it sitting on their front lawn either,' he told Begnaud.

It turned out that the property owner and Harvey grew up together before Harvey moved to Texas, and the man offered his trailer to get Morton back to her resting place once the flood water went down.

The men haven't seen each other in 30 years.

The coffin was found by CBS news reporter David Begnaud.

Ester's casket had a nameplate on it, which CBS used to identify the family. After Hurricane Katrina displaced nearly a thousand caskets, Louisiana now requires all caskets have some form of identification

It is estimated that 30 to 50 caskets were displaced during the flooding, according to Ryan Seidemann, chairman of Louisiana's Cemetery Response Taskforce.

In the aftermath of the hurricane, he flew around the area in a helicopter looking for displaced coffins.

He said the concrete burial vaults, which are placed directly on the ground or partially buried, have air pockets and when water gets underneath them, the caskets are able to float.

'They want to float,' Seidemann told CBS. 'If those waters come in and rock them back and forth enough, they'll just come up and travel with the floodwaters.'

FEMA offers families up to $8,000 to help properly rebury their loved ones.

The concrete burial plates (pictured) that are placed on the ground or partially buried have air pockets and when water manages to get underneath they float, according to Ryan Seidermann

Seidemann, chairman of Louisiana's Cemetery Response Taskforce, flew in a helicopter over southeastern Louisiana in search of coffins

Two weeks after Ida hit the Louisiana coast, the state is still recovering from the devastating destruction left behind.

Tens of thousands of residents are still without power. The power could be out for another month, according to NPR.

With excessive flooding still lingering Louisiana residents are struggling to import food, gas, and medical supplies.

Hurricane Nicolas hit Texas as a Category 1 hurricane on Tuesday and has since weakened to a tropical depression as it nears Louisiana.

The cemetery and the surrounding areas are still heavily flooded, making it hard to rebury loved ones. The property owner, who knew Harvey as a child, offered to help him rebury Ester after the flood goes down. FEMA also offers families around $8,000 to help properly rebury their family after a disaster

It is expected to bring heavy rainfall to the state.

The Louisiana governor announced that Nicholas caused an additional 13,500 outages by Tuesday afternoon.

Energy companies working to restore power to remaining areas in the state said Wednesday that they were watching Nicholas closely but didn't expect it to affect their restoration times.

Entergy Louisiana spokesman Jerry Nappi said Nicholas has not yet caused any delays to the previously announced schedule to restore power.

He explained that crews cannot operate when lightning is within 10 miles and cant put bucket trucks in the air at winds greater than 30 mph but he said that the company plans to quickly resume work once conditions improve.

Joe Ticheli, manager and CEO of South Louisiana Electric Cooperative Association, said rain doesnt stop the linemen, who are outfitted with slicker suits and grit.

'These are tough guys, and they relish all of this,' he said. The co-op services about 21,000 customers across five parishes including parts of the hard-hit Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes. Ticheli said the co-op has returned power to about 75% of its customers with the remaining 25% mostly in the hardest-hit parts of southern Terrebonne parish.

In the weather-battered city of Lake Charles, in southwestern Louisiana, Mayor Nic Hunter said the city prepositioned assets should they be needed, and city crews scoured the drainage system to keep it free from debris that might cause clogs and flooding during Nicholas.
Landlords are increasing rents in New York City by as much as 70 percent as markets in some boroughs return to pre-pandemic levels.

Amid the depths of the coronavirus-led economic devastation, and exodus of people from New York City, the median asking in rent in all boroughs except Staten Island dropped in early 2021 to levels in not seen in years.

But already in Brooklyn, prices have already recovered to heights seen before the pandemic, with a median asking rental price of $2,600 in July, compared to $2,655 in March, 2020, according to rental listing company StreetEasy.

Manhattan had seen the steepest decline, hitting a low of $2,750 in January, compared to $3,500 during the same month last year, and while it has has yet to reach pre-pandemic levels, with a median rent of $3,000 recorded in July, the prices are on a rebound.

Citywide, rents are rebounding as demand returns, with the median rent in Brooklyn returning to near pre-pandemic levels, and prices in Manhattan too seeing a steep return

Additionally, incentives meant to lure renters are evaporating citywide as demand returns, with 9.1 percent of listed apartments receiving discounts compared to 24.1 percent a year prior according to StreetEasy data.

Nowhere was that trend more apparent than in Brooklyn, with only 9 percent of apartments discounted in July compared to a pandemic high of 26 percent in August, 2020.

In some trendy areas such as Manhattan's East Village, rents have skyrocketed past even pre-pandemic levels, with median asking rents of $3,400 in July compared to $3,195 in March, 2020.

There Andy Kalmowitz, 24, signed a 10-month lease on a two-bedroom, two bathroom apartment for $2,100, when he moved from New Jersey in November, Bloomberg reported, but when it came time to renew, the landlord asked for $3,500, a 67 percent increase.

'When I asked why, they said, "Its a different world,"' he told the outlet.

When he and his roommate moved, he saw his old apartment listed for $4,500, and within two weeks it was off the market, he said.

Similarly, Brandon Himes, 25, signed a lease in November on a two-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment in the neighborhood for $1,700, but now his landlord is saying his renewal price will be, $2,900, a 70 percent increase, he told Bloomberg.

Although driven by market conditions, a considerable number of New Yorkers are still behind on rent, prompting protests pushing to extend the state's eviction moratorium

The skyrocketing increases come as a portion of New Yorkers are still struggling to pay rent, and federal relief has been slow to reach landlords.

As many as 436,671 New Yorkers are behind on rent, according to the Census figures, totaling more than $1.5billion in debt.

As of August, only about $247million of of federal rent relief aid had been distributed, prompting New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and the state Legislature to extend the state's eviction moratorium to January on September 1, when it was set to expire and protesters hit the city streets.

Despite the hardships, however, the rising rent is being driven by market conditions.

New leases are up 54.7 percent in July compared to the July 2020, and more leases were signed in July than in any other July since 2008, Business Insider reported.

In August, New York City surpassed San Francisco as the country's costliest rental market

'More are moving back from out of town, after being away quarantining for the past 18 months,' Bill Kowalczuk, a broker at Warburg Realty told Bloomberg. 'There are more inquiries, more apartments renting within a week or less of the list date, and more prices going over the asking price than I have ever seen.'

New York City also appears to be leading the pack of US cities rebounding in rental prices, with a report late last month from rental listing company Zumper that showed it surpassed San Francisco as the most expensive market in the country, with a median rental price of $2,810 for one bedroom apartments, compared to San Francisco's $2,800.

Some, however, expect the market to cool in the upcoming fall, as the number of vaccinated tenants rushing to rent drops and Delta variant fears slow return-to-office plans, Sarah Minton an agent at Warburg Realty told Bloomberg.
A Capitol police officer is facing disciplinary action after he took a selfie with a rioter on January 6 but says he only posed for the photo to calm the suspect down.

An internal probe condemned three cops for 'conduct unbecoming' after they were caught posing for selfies during the deadly violence.

One cop - who was livestreamed posing for a photo and later nicknamed 'the selfie officer' over his behavior, claimed he'd only posed with the invader to try and calm the situation down.

That cop, who has not been named, said: 'I cant help what they do. If you want to take a photo, Im not going to say no because we are always told to interact and keep the situation calm.'

This Capitol police officer, later named 'the selfie cop' said he posed for a snap with a suspect in an attempt to keep the situation calm

But he was hauled over hot coals by bosses, according to documents seen by McClatchyDC.

A ruling found that 'his actions were inappropriate under the circumstances, and reflected negatively upon himself as a representative of the Department.'

A second officer - whose name has not been released - was discovered after the FBI found a selfie post on his Facebook and then contacted the Capitol Police in February.

He is one of three officers that have committed conduct unbecoming for taking photos with rioters at the Capitol.

The three identified are only half of the six cases that have been discovered by the Office of Professional Responsibility following 38 investigations.

Some cases, however, were dismissed due to lack of evidence found by investigators.

The cop is among six who have faced disciplinary action for their behavior in the riots, three of which for also taking photos with rioters

The details of the officers' behaviors of the riots were revealed in the internal investigation documents obtained by McClatchy.

The department received complaints about the so-called selfie officer taking photos with rioters which were being posted on social media platforms.

The alleged officer then revealed his behavior to the department after a pending arrest warrant was issued.

He later claimed he'd only posed for the snap in a bid to later identify the rioter, but is said to have made no efforts to pass the photo on so the man could be tracked.

Officers are seen securing the entrance to the U.S. Capitol against the rioters

A third cop who posed for selfies sought to blame the 'trauma' of the event for hie behavior.

He said: 'I had people coming up to me and videoing me all day long. Pictures and videos of officers all day long,' one of other officers said.

'So, I mean, there was a lot going on that day. This is after being CS sprayed, OC sprayed, fighting with protesters all day ... Plus that, thats a traumatic life event.'

Despite their defense, their actions were still condemned by the Department.

The three officers have been charged with conduct unbecoming.

The rioters managed to make it into the Capitol after breaking in and posted pictures and videos on social media

Rioters were seen scaling the west wall of the Capitol building in an attempt to get in

'The Department is committed to accountability when officers fail to meet the standards governed by USCP policies and the Congressional Communitys expectations,' the Capitol Police said in a statement.

'The six sustained cases should not diminish the heroic efforts of the United States Capitol Police officers.'

A special agent with the US Capitol Polices Protective Services Bureau is also facing disciplinary action for supposed improper dissemination of information after leaking information to a friend about the lawmaker's location during the riots.

'I dont want to report a friend of forty years but hes says enough concerning statements that I feel like I need to do this... hes just fallen into this cult and these beliefs,' the friend told police according to the document.

The agent has denied the claims he was sympathetic to the cause of the Capitol rioters but admitted he may have accidentally revealed the location of the lawmakers.

The location of lawmakers was revealed by a special agent with the US Capitol Police's Protective Services Bureau to his friend, which resulted in disciplinary action for the agent

The Capitol riots in D.C. were sparked following the controversial 2020 presidential race between former President Donald Trump and current U.S. President Joe Biden.

Pro-Trump rioters stormed the Capitol building on January 6 following a speech at Trump's Save America Rally made by the former president himself.

The crowd was angered due to sharing in Trump's belief that the election was stolen, and wanted to try and stop former Vice President Mike Pence from certifying Joe Biden's win at a ceremony at the Senate.

They then stormed the U.S. Capitol with police attempting to stop the crowd as areas of the building were being evacuated.

Shocking media footage showed rioters breaking into the building which included breaking windows and scaling walls to gain entry.

Shots were fired as rioters ran free throughout the building.

Five people died as a result of the Capitol storming.
Trinidad and Tobago's health minister has criticised Nicki Minaj for wasting his time by forcing him to look into the safety of the Covid-19 vaccine after she claimed that the jab left a cousin's friend with 'swollen' testicles.

The rapper sparked a row with Boris Johnson and Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty after she called into question the safety of the vaccine to her 22million followers.

Trinidadian-born Minaj alleged that her cousin's friend in Trinidad also became 'impotent' as a result of the jab, causing his fiancee to cancel their wedding.

However, speaking on Wednesday, Trinidad's health chief Dr Terrence Deyalsingh blasted Minaj, saying he and his team had 'wasted so much time running down this false claim'.

Yesterday, Dr Anthony Fauci, the director of the US's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said there was 'no evidence' to back up Minaj's remarks.

And after both Mr Johnson and Mr Whitty also slapped down her remarks on Tuesday, the rapper, 38, posted a bizarre voice message where she feigned an English accent and mockingly claimed she 'went to Oxford' and 'went to school with Margaret Thatcher'.

Trinidad and Tobago's health minister has criticised Nicki Minaj (above) for wasting his time by forcing him to look into the safety of the Covid-19 vaccine after she claimed that the jab left a cousin's friend with 'swollen' testicles

Speaking in a press conference, Dr Deyalsingh said: 'One of the reasons we could not respond yesterday in real time to Ms Minaj, is that we had to check and make sure that what she was claiming was either true or false.

'Unfortunately we wasted so much time yesterday running down this false claim.

'It is as far as we know at this point in time, there has been no such reported either side effect or adverse event.

'And what was sad about this is that it wasted our time yesterday trying to track down because we take all these claims seriously, whether it is on social media or mainstream media.'

He added: 'As we stand now, there is absolutely no reported such side effect or adverse event of testicular swelling in Trinidad or I dare say anywhere else. None that we know of anywhere else in the world.'

Dr Terrence Deyalsingh (above) blasted the rapper, saying he and his team had 'wasted so much time running down this false claim'

Trinidadian-born Minaj alleged that her cousin's friend in Trinidad also became 'impotent' as a result of the jab, causing his fiancee to cancel their wedding

His comments came after Mr Johnson told reporters he would rather listen to NHS England's top GP Nikki Kanani about the 'wonderful' vaccine than the rapper.

The UK's Chief Medical Officer Chris Witty also slammed the star, who has not been vaccinated and revealed she has contracted COVID-19, for spreading an 'untrue' and 'ridiculous' myth about the shot.

The saga first erupted when Minaj confirmed she would not be attending Monday night's hotly-anticipated Met Gala, which mandated only fully vaccinated people could attend.

The rapper revealed on Twitter that she had not yet taken the vaccine and said 'if I get vaccinated it won't [be] for the Met'.

She also revealed she had tested positive for COVID-19 while prepping for the MTV Video Music Awards, causing her to skip that event Sunday.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson (left)and Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty (right) spoke at Downing Street yesterday where they condemned her comments on the vaccine

The rapper then said: 'My cousin in Trinidad won't get the vaccine cuz his friend got it & became impotent. His testicles became swollen.

'His friend was weeks away from getting married, now the girl called off the wedding.

'So just pray on it & make sure you're comfortable with ur decision, not bullied,' the rapper followed up.'

Her comments fueled a backlash from several media figures including DailyMail.com columnist Meghan McCain and MSNBC host Joy Reid - who Minaj then accused of being 'thirsty to down another black woman'.

Minaj took to Twitter moments after the interview with Mr Johnson and Professor Whitty aired, saying: 'I love him even tho I guess this was a diss? The accent ugh! Yassss boo!!!'

She then recorded an audio message for Johnson in a comedic British accent, tweeting: 'Send this to the Prime Minister and let him know they lied on me. I forgive him. No one else. Only him.'

Yesterday, Dr Anthony Fauci, the director of the US's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said there was 'no evidence' to back up Minaj's remarks

In the audio, she said: 'Yes, hello Prime Minister, Boris, it's Nicki Minaj - I was just calling to tell you that you were so amazing on the news this morning. And I'm actually British. I was born there. I went to university there. I went to Oxford.

'I went to school with Margaret Thatcher. And she told me so many nice things about you.

'I'd love to send you my portfolio of my work, since you don't know much about me, I'm a big, big star in the United States.'

The rapper's claims about the vaccine were also taken apart by Dr Fauci.

He told CNN: 'There's no evidence that it happens, nor is there any mechanistic reason to imagine that it would happen.

'There is a lot of misinformation, mostly on social media. And the only way to counter mis- and disinformation is to provide a lot of correct information and essentially debunk these kinds kinds of claims.

Dr Fauci said that Minaj's controversial post 'may be innocent on her part.'

'I'm not blaming her for anything, but she should be thinking twice about propagating information that really has no basis, except for a one-off anecdote. That's not what science is about,' he added.


Missing 'van-life' girl Gabby Petito was reportedly seen hitting boyfriend Brian Laundrie in the arm during an altercation in Utah, two weeks before she disappeared, according to a newly-released police report.

An incident report made by public by the Moab Police Department Wednesday sheds new light on the 'possible domestic violence' incident involving the couple last month, revealing they had been going through 'issues' over the last few days.

The pair had been traveling around the country in their camper van since early July and were visiting Moab, Utah when they got into a heated argument, documents reveal.

Gabby, 22, was reported missing a month later on September 11 after her family hadn't heard from her in 13 days. She last spoke to her mother on the phone on August 25 and her last known location was Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.

On Wednesday police officially named Brian Laundrie a 'person of interest' in their inquiry into her disappearance after he refused to cooperate in their investigation.

According to the incident report, officers were called near the Moonflower Community Co-op in Moab on August 12 around 4:30pm after a witness, identified only as Christopher, reported seeing the pair 'arguing over a phone.'

A newly released police report has revealed new details of the 'possible domestic violence' incident involving Gabby Petito and her boyfriend Brian Laundrie, two weeks before she vanished

According to the document, cops were called to a local business in Moab, Utah on August 12, after a witness reported seeing the couple 'arguing over a phone' outside their van

In his report, responding officer Daniel Scott Robbins said he pulled the couple over as they were driving towards Arches National Park and noticed Gabby 'crying uncontrollably' in the passenger seat

In his account, one of the responding officers Eric Pratt, wrote that 'all three individuals' - Gabby, Laundrie, and the witness - gave 'a similar and consistent story, consisting of the basic idea that the driver of the van, a male, had some sort of argument with the female.'

He said no one reported 'that the male struck the female' and that both Gabby and Laundrie said 'they are in love and engaged to be married and desperately didn't wish to see anyone charged with a crime.'

The report states Laundrie had tried to create distance between the two by telling Gabby 'to go take a walk to calm down', but 'she didn't want to be separated from [him] and began slapping him.'

Laundrie then 'grabbed her face and pushed her back as she pressed upon him and the van' and then 'tried to lock her out of the van and succeeded except for his driver's door'.

Gabby managed to open the door and forced her way over him and into the van before it drove off, the report states.

The bystander who reported the incident told cops a similar version of events but noted that he saw 'what appeared to him as Gabrielle hitting Brian in the arm and then climbing through the driver's window' after she appeared to be locked out.

A second officer, Daniel Scott Robbins, later located the couple - who had already left the scene by then - driving in their Ford Transit van towards Arches National Park and pulled them over.

He said he noticed Gabby 'crying uncontrollably' in the passenger seat as he approached the vehicle and asked to speak to her outside.

The report was redacted to conceal sensitive information but suggests Gabby told police she and Laundrie became embroiled in an altercation that was fueled by mental health issues.

'Gabrielle told me that she suffers from [redacted] with [redacted],' Robbins wrote.

'Because of her [redacted] and [redacted], combined with little arguments she and Brian had been having that day, she was struggling with her mental health, which led to the incident that was reported to law enforcement.'

He added that at 'no point' in his investigation did Gabby 'stop crying, breathing heavily, or compose a sentence without needing to wipe away tears, wipe her nose, or rub her knees with her hands.'

Robbins later interviewed Laundrie, who told the cop that issues between him and his girlfriend 'had been building over the last few days'

Cops received reports of a possible domestic violence incident near the Moonflower Community Co-op in Moab on August 12

The above map illustrates the places Petito and Laundrie visited since the start of the trip leaving New York on July 2 to when she last spoke to her family on August 25 from Grand Teton National Park

Robbins said that he had seen Petito and Laundrie's van traveling 45mph in a 15mph zone while he tried to catch up to them earlier and activated his lights to initiate a traffic stop.

But upon doing so, he noticed the vehicle abruptly swerve to the right and the rear right wheels hit the curb before finally coming to a stop.

Robbins said Petito later told him that this was a result of her trying to get Laundrie's 'attention' that they were being stopped and that she did not intend to hurt him.

But during his conversation with the cop shortly after, Laundrie said that when he noticed police lights flashing behind them, he thought Gabby 'had grabbed the wheel of the van and pulled it, causing the van to hit the curb.'

Robbins wrote that he noticed Laundrie had 'small scratches' to his right arm, and when asked about them, told the officer that they 'must've happened' when Gabby was trying to alert him that they were being pulled over by police.

'This, however, was not consistent with Gabrielle's statement, further suggesting her confused and emotional state,' Robbins added.

The report says Laundrie told the officer both he and Gabby suffer from the same problem and that issues between the two 'had been building over the last few days' which 'caused them to argue more than usual.'

'Brian explained he and Gabrielle have been traveling together for the last four or five months. That time spent created emotional strain between them and increased the number of arguments.'

Police on Tuesday revealed they responded to an 'incident' involving 22-year-old 'van-life woman' Gabby Petito and her boyfriend, Brian Laundrie, two weeks before she was last seen

Gabby's family lashed out at the Laundries in a statement Tuesday. 'Brian is refusing to tell Gabby's family where he last saw her. Brian is also refusing to explain why he left Gabby all alone and drove her van to Florida. These are critical questions that require immediate answers.'

Laundrie went on to describe the events leading up to the altercation, saying he and Gabby had gotten into an argument near Main Street and he tried to create space between them 'so they could calm their emotions.'

He said he then got into their van and that Gabby went into a 'manic state.'

'Brian said Gabrielle, thinking he was going to leave her in Moab without a ride, went to slap him,' the report states.

He then pushed her away in an attempt to dodge the hit, but still sustained minor visible scratches to his face.

Robbins later concluded that he did not believe the situation 'escalated to the level of a domestic assault as much as that of a mental health crisis.'

According to officer, both expressed a 'desire to remain together and ultimately agreed to be separated' with Brian staying in a hotel room and Gabby in the van until the following day.

A statement provided by a second responding officer, Eric Pratt, said Laundrie was assessed to be 'at low risk of danger or harm as a result of his proximity' to Gabby and no charges were filed.

Nicole Schmidt, of Long Island, New York, gave a teary-eyed interview to reporters in Bohemia on Monday afternoon about her daughter Gabby Petitio, who has been missing since August 24. Schmidt tells DailyMail.com that on September 10 she texted Brian and his mother Roberta trying to get in touch with Gabby, but neither replied

On Tuesday, Moab Chief of Police Bret Edge confirmed that cops had responded to an incident involving the pair but they later 'determined that insufficient evidence existed to justify criminal charges,' Fox News reported.

He did not disclose additional details at the time.

Addressing reports of the incident on Wednesday, Gabby's mother, Nichole Schmidt told DailyMail.com: 'It's irrelevant. Two people traveling together with each other 24 hours a day, it's not going to be perfect, it was an argument, and that's all I'm going to say about it.'

Petito, who had been traveling across the country with Laundrie in their camper van since July 2, was last known to have been visiting Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming on August 25.

She was reported missing by her mother on September 11, two weeks after she had last spoken on to her on the phone, and ten days after Laundrie returned to his home in North Port, Florida without her.

Laundrie, who drove to Florida in the van he shared with Petito, has since hired a lawyer and refused to tell Petito's family where she was last seen.

Schmidt sent her daughter's boyfriend and his family desperate texts looking for her but was ignored.

Schmidt said they'd been a couple for a little over two years, but met growing up in Long Island. 'They went to high school together. They were friends. They got back in touch and started dating'

Gabby set out on a cross-country trip July 2 with boyfriend Brian Laundrie in the couple's 2012 Ford Transit van. Brian posted this photo of the couple on Instagram on July 16 at Zion National Park

Schmidt told DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview that on September 10 she reached out to Brian and his mother Roberta Laundrie trying to reach her daughter after she had not heard from her.

The gloves are off: Schmidt and Petito want answers The Schmidt and Petito family are going through the worst moments of their lives. Their beautiful twenty-two year old daughter is missing and the one person that can help find Gabby refuses to help. Brian Laundrie was traveling with Gabby in the Grand Teton  Yellowstone area. They were traveling together in Gabby's 2012 Ford Transit van. That is where we believe Gabby was last seen. Brian is refusing to tell Gabby's family where he last saw her. Brian is also refusing to explain why he left Gabby all alone and drove her van to Florida. These are critical questions that require immediate answers. The Schmidt and Petito family beg the Laundrie family to not 'remain in the background' but to help find who Brian referred to as the love of his life. How does Brian stay in the background when he is the one person that knows where Gabby is located? The Schmidt and Petito family implore Brian to come forward and at least tell us if we are looking in the right area. Advertisement

'I texted Brian's mom that I was trying to get in touch with Gabby. I also texted Brian. I got no replies,' Schmidt said.

'I knew something was wrong,' she said. 'I felt something was off and I needed to get her reported missing immediately.'

She went to report Gabby missing later that day but police initially blew her off. The next day, she was allowed to file a report with the Suffolk County police department.

Brian's family have since refused to let authorities interview their son when the van that the couple had traveled in before she disappeared was seized from their property late on Saturday night.

Schmidt said Brian's sister Cassie is the only member of Brian's family who has spoken to authorities.

She said she can't understand why neither Brian nor his parents have reached out to her in the aftermath of her daughter's disappearance.

'It's a very mysterious situation. We don't understand why he's doing this. Everybody's assuming the worst and thinking he's guilty of this. But I don't want to believe that. I want to believe she's just in need of help out there and that everybody needs to keep searching.'

Schmidt described how Brian's parents had been warm and welcoming to Gabby during their relationship. She recalled a time when his mother even knitted her future daughter-in-law gifts for Christmas.

'She loved her like a daughter,' Schmidt said. 'As far as I knew they were all very caring and treated her like one of the family. His mom was so excited about the engagement.'

The distraught mother also clarified that Gabby and Brian had been engaged, but decided to call it off and go back to just dating because they felt they were too young for marriage.

'I think they kind of put that on hold just because they felt it was a little fast. They were excited at first, but then they were like, let's just wait, we're very young. So they were really just boyfriend and girlfriend,' she said.

She said they'd been a couple for a little over two years, but met growing up in Long Island.

'They went to high school together. They were friends. They got back in touch and started dating,' she said.

Brian Laundrie's parents Christopher and Roberta refused to let police speak with their son. He returned to their home on North Port,Florida on September 1

Above is the Laundrie family home in North Port, Florida, where Brian Laundrie returned in the couple's van without Gabby after their trip

In light of the disappearance, Schmidt says she's now viewing everything under a new lens.

'Maybe the relationship wasn't what I thought,' she said.

Schmidt has recently seen photos in the news of Brian's father performing yard work.

'If they cared about her, they would want to find her,' she said. 'Why aren't you out helping find her?'

'I don't want to seem accusatory,' she said. 'It's confusing, my mind is turning right now.'

She's also questioning Brian's trip back to Florida in August to help his father move their things into a storage unit. She wonders why it was necessary to move Gabby's things during their road trip and what became of her stuff.

'Where are her things?' she asked.

Asked why Brian chose to lawyer up, she replied, 'You know I wish I knew that answer, why.'

'I know that's the reason this story is so sought after is because it's odd. The police have said it's very odd. We don't know what's going on, and where is my daughter. I just want to find her.'

Gabby, who grew up in Blue Point, New York, was last seen on August 24 checking out of a hotel with Brian in Salt Lake City, Utah.

The following day she made her final call to her family, telling them that she and Brian had traveled to Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.

Her last Instagram post on August 25, shows her visiting the Monarch Wall in Ogden, Utah with the caption 'Happy Halloween'. The pair were heading from Ogden to Yellowstone National Park, just north of Grand Teton.
A Portland high school teacher removed the American flag from her classroom, saying it represents 'violence and menace and intolerance' in protest of a new ban on Black Lives Matter and Pride symbols.

The Newberg School Board recently introduced a ban which prohibits 'political' symbols in classrooms, which was passed by the board to stop staff flying Black Lives Matter and LGBTQ+ symbols such as pride flags in classrooms.

In response the new resolution, Gail Grobey removed the American flag from her classroom at Newberg High School 'because that's the most political symbol there is,' according to The Newberg Graphic.

'That symbol doesn't stand for freedom or justice or equality anymore. It stands for violence and menace and intolerance, and I will not fly that in my room.'

Gail Grobey removed the flag in protest of a controversial school board policy banning 'political' symbols in the classroom claiming it 'doesn't stand for freedom or justice or equality anymore. It stands for violence and menace and intolerance'

Superintendent Joe Morelock announced that the Newberg Oregon School District will not comply with the ban stating the district's legal team questions the legality and has signifigant issues with the language of the policy

The school board's policy committee states that: 'No district employee shall, while acting within the scope of their employment, either during school hours, or inside their physical area of responsibility at a school (such as a classroom, meeting room, desk area) hang, post, erect or otherwise display  any posters, signs, flags, banners, pictures or other digital or physical image that depicts support or opposition relating to a political, quasi-political or controversial topic.

'For purposes of this policy, a controversial topic shall be defined as one that a professional educator could reasonably understand to have students on more than one side of said issue.

'For purposes of this policy, a political or quasi-political topic includes contemporary issues being debated in the local, state or national political climate.'

Grobey is an English teacher at Newberg High School and the former president of the Newberg Education Association. Newberg, Oregon is a suburb in the Portland metropolitan area.

She said the teachers' union is mobilizing against the new resolution which they believe brings added stress and distraction to a school year already beginning with the added pressure of COVID-19 mandates.

'We're trying to start a school year positively, and the distractions these four people (on the school board) are putting out there are not making that very easy,' Grobey, said ahead of the first day of school on September 8.

'It's challenging to think about putting together the beginning of school but still feeling really compelled to take action as a body to show the kids and families how much we support them and who they are.'

The Newberg Education Association, which Grobey is a part of, has already filed a tort claim against the restrictive policy and is considering further legal action along with the ACLU

Grobey told The Graphic that the NEA is organizing a committee to determine how the union will respond to the new policy beyond the tort claim that the NEA filed last month. Other possible lawsuits from the NEA and the ACLU have been mentioned.

'We are certainly going to become very active in terms of supporting the community coalition that has formed against these actions by the board,' Grobey said.

'There are groups out there in the community who have a stake in this as parents and community members of varying backgrounds.'

She claims that the majority of teachers in the district oppose the new policy although most of them didn't have Black Lives Matter or LGBTQ+ symbols in their classrooms to begin with.

Superintendent Joe Morelock has said that the Newberg Oregon School District will not comply with the policy, stating the district's legal team questions the legality of such a ban. The Oregon School Board Association has agreed with the school district and said that they have significant issues with the language of the policy.

Grobey has been a part of the school district for 23 years. She believes that she knows how to foster a safe learning environment for her students without the direction of the school board.

'I know my kids, and I know what's best for them and what to do to help them feel comfortable.'

The debate in Newberg comes amid a growing national argument over flags in classrooms. Two teachers in California have been put on administrative leave and are set to be fired after they displayed controversial flags in their classroom.

Kristin Pitzen, of Newport Mesa School District in Orange County caused a stir when she posted a since-deleted TikTok video claiming that the American flag made her 'uncomfortable' and had her students say the pledge of allegiance to the gay pride flag.

Gabriel Gipe, of Inderkum High School in Sacramento, faced complaints from parents when a student reported that the Antifa flag and Chinese Communist Party poster that he hung in his classroom made them uncomfortable.

Both teachers have since been fired as a result.

As debate on the ban continued on Tuesday a racist Snapchat group message between Newberg High School students called 'Slave Trade' was discovered by parents

Students used the chat to run an online mock slave auction of their fellow Black classmates

The public debate on political symbols in Newberg classrooms was set to take place at 7pm on Tuesday just hours before Newberg High School parents made the disturbing discovery of a student group chat called 'Slave Trade.'

Students used the Snapchat group message to run an online mock slave auction of their fellow Black classmates. The students haggled prices and left racist comments such as 'All Blacks should die' and 'Let's have another Holocaust.'

'My heart is so broken for these kids who have gotten the message that they are not even seen as human by some of their fellow students,' Heidi Pender, the mother of a Black student at the school told KGW8.

'To imagine your own child being talked about as if they were subhuman slaves to be sold by other students, it made me feel like I was going to throw up.'

'As a community, we continue to grapple with issues of diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging,' Newberg High School Principal Tami Erion said.

'Newberg High School is committed to ensuring that ALL students are afforded a safe learning environment by prohibiting harassment based upon gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, religion or disability.'
The organizer of Saturday's rally in support of defendants charged in the Capitol riot has told demonstrators not to wear Trump-themed gear amid warnings the protest could turn violent.

Video and photographs of rioters in MAGA themed red hats carrying Donald Trump banners have been a staple of coverage of the fall-out from the January 6 violence.

The 'Justice for J6' rally, which is planned for September 18, aims to support the individuals charged in the Capitol riot and demand justice for Ashli Babbitt, who was fatally shot during the riot.

Matt Braynard, a former Trump campaign staffer, told DailyMail.com he was also asking participants not to wear Biden-themed merchandise.

'This rally is about protesting the treatment of these political prisoners. That has nothing to do with any candidate, nothing to do with the election,' he said.

'It's not a pro-Trump rally, an anti-Trump rally.

'It's not a pro or anti-Biden rally.

'It's not political in that way and we don't anything to distract from that.'

'Justice for J6' rally organizer Matt Braynard (l) has told attendees not to wear Trump gear or to bring any political signs in order not to distract from their main message of support for the people arrested after the violence on January 6

Images from Jan. 6 show rioters wearing MAGA hats and waving Trump flags as they stormed the U.S. Capitol. The events of that triggered President Trump's second impeachment

Braynard warned anyone wearing political gear would be treated as 'infiltrators'

Guidance to attendees urged them not to bring 'political' paraphernalia and instead to wear red, white and blue. Troublemakers risk being videoed

Instead, guidance issued to attendees urged them to wear red, white and blue, and to be respectful to law enforcement agencies.

In a tweet, Braynard also said anyone ignoring the instruction would be assumed to be an infiltrator, videoed and 'made famous.'

He said he had told authorities he was expecting about 700 people to turn out and appealed to supporters not to be put off by warnings of violence.

'Don't be deterred from expressing your first amendment rights,' he said.

'We have cooperated completely with three different police forces, we have a diplomatic security team, we have trained volunteers on the ground that are prepared to keep everybody safe.

'The biggest fear people have is not violence per se but that this is some kind of false flag, a trap to lure patriots to DC so they can be arrested and thrown in the gulag.

'But that's not going to happen either.

'That's what people want you to believe so that you become apathetic.

Images from the Jan. 6 violence feature MAGA hats and Trump 2020 flags

His message discouraging political partisanship comes as police and city officials brace for the rally.

Memories of the Jan. 6 violence - when Trump supporters stormed Congress, leaving five people dead and 140 police officers injured - have put Washington, D.C., on edge.

A Pentagon spokesman on Wednesday said officials had received a request from Capitol Police for National Guard help in ensuring security.

'I think it's really in the form of manpower support,' said John Kirby, who declined to give further details.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also wrote to lawmakers saying security officials would be better prepared this time.

'The leadership of the Congress, on a bipartisan and bicameral basis, has been briefed by the Capitol Police Board on the nature of the threat and the unprecedented preparations to address another attempt to defile our national purpose,' she wrote.

U.S. Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger this week said his officers would not tolerate violence and announced that fencing would be put up ahead of the protest.

'We want to reassure everyone these are temporary measures to ensure everyones safety,' he said.

'We are extremely grateful for the support we continue to receive from the local community and our Congressional stakeholders as we carry out our critical mission.'

More than 600 people have been charged for their involvement in the riot, with one rioter, the so-called 'QAnon Shaman', Jacob Anthony Chansley, 33, facing up to five years in prison, with his sentencing due on November 17.

The January 6 riot took place as Congress certified the 2020 Presidential election results in favor of President Joe Biden.

Babbitt, 36, was shot dead by a Capitol cop as the air-force veteran climbed through a broken window in a door to the Speakers Lobby.
Shocking footage shows the moment an off-duty NYPD officer jumped out of the second-story window of her Queens home to escape her husband, who was allegedly threatening her with her own gun after accusing her of cheating.

The officer, whose identity has not been released, was being held hostage by her husband who accused her of adultery and took her service weapon before firing at cops as they tried to rescue her, police officials said Tuesday.

In a 33-second video clip, taken on the cell phone of someone watching the scene unfold, the officer could be seen dangling her legs out of the window and turning her body around to grasp for the ledge before letting go and dropping below.

The subsequent fall left the alleged domestic abuse victim with a broken leg.

Seconds after she lands, a barrage of bullets could be heard as her husband and police engaged in gunfire. The cop who disappeared from view after she jumped, was treated at a local hospital for a broken leg, according to police.

Footage shows the moment an off-duty NYPD officer jumped out of a window to escape her enraged husband who threatened her with her own gun

The man took her service weapon and fired at officers as they tried to save her

The cop called 911 on Tuesday morning before escaping by jumping out of the second-story window of the couples home in Queens as the enraged husband exchanged gunfire with cops, police said Tuesday morning.

The officer, who works for the 101st Precinct, told the 911 dispatcher that her husband was threatening her with a loaded gun and that there were multiple guns in the house, sources told the New York Post.

Hes pulled a gun on me, the woman reportedly said. He will shoot.

The woman could be heard yelling away from the phone, 'Put my f*****g guns down, dummy,' before begging to the dispatcher, 'Please send the cops.'

'You committed adultery, you cheated on me,' her husband allegedly said in the background of the 911 call, which was obtained by the New York Post.

He and police exchanged gunfire before he was struck by in bullet in the arm, said Chief of Department Rodney Harrison at a press conference Tuesday afternoon

A man is in custody after holding his NYPD cop wife hostage with her own gun outside their home in Queens, pictured above

The shooter was eventually coaxed out of his home by hostage negotiators led by Detective Brenda Reddick, pictured above, before he was arrested

Chief of Department Rodney Harrison said the off-duty cop was treated for what appeared to be a broken leg during a press conference outside the womans house at 130th Street and 133rd Avenue in South Ozone Park.

Cops raced to the scene at around 8:30 a.m. after the 911 call to find the woman's husband armed and threatening to shoot them, cops said. Officers with the NYPD Emergency Service Unit were called in an attempt to de-escalate the situation.

However, the husband opened fire multiple times, cops said. While the suspect was engaged in the standoff with police, his wife jumped out a second-story window.

The husband was hit in the arm during the shootout, police said.

Harrison said the off-duty cop was treated for what appeared to be a broken leg. Above, cops were transporting one of the injured to a nearby hospital

Four officers were injured, one of whom was taken to Jamaica Hospital. The other three were treated at the scene

He immediately stopped shooting and a hostage negotiation team coaxed him into coming outside, where he was taken into custody, officials said.

Although someone did get shot, no one lost their life and thats whats most important, said Detective Brenda Reddick, who led the negotiation.

Unfortunately, we respond to a host of different domestics throughout the city, Harrison said. Very rarely do we get one where its one our own, but it was great work done by the men and women who responded to this location.

Four officers were injured, one of whom was taken to Jamaica Hospital. The other three were treated at the scene.
A California-based street artist says that she created the TAX THE RICH design that House Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wore on her expensive dress when she attended Mondays $35,000-per-ticket Met Gala in New York.

The artist who goes by the moniker The Velvet Bandit posted photos on Instagram showing Ocasio-Cortez being prepped for the evening by designer Aurora James.

The words TAX THE RICH appear in red letters on the back of the white dress.

The slogan and its red-lettered all-caps font looks quite similar to the design that appears in artwork by The Velvet Bandit, who says that it went viral on TikTok before Ocasio-Cortezs appearance at the gala.

But the artist is not holding a grudge - and has offered to collaborate with AOC.

The socialist lawmaker from New York, James, and their partners attended the event as guests of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

A California-based street artist says that she created the TAX THE RICH design that House Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (seen left with designer Aurora James before Monday's event in Manhattan) wore on her expensive dress when she attended Mondays $35,000-per-ticket Met Gala in New York

On her Instagram account, she posted photos showing the same TAX THE RICH slogan printed on a face covering worn by a cartoon character meant to depict President Abraham Lincoln

Stickers of the Lincoln face covering are pictured in several locations

'Look familiar? @aoc stepped out at the Met Gala wearing a dress designed by @aurorajames that looks hella similar to my design,' The Velvet Bandit wrote on her Instagram page. 'All of my pasteups are handpainted, and after my Tax the Rich I put up in Sausalito went viral on Tiktok, I began selling stickers and shirts. And low and behold, this dress bears the same likeness as my handwriting'

On her Instagram account, she posted photos showing the same TAX THE RICH slogan printed on a face covering worn by a cartoon character meant to depict President Abraham Lincoln.

Stickers of the Lincoln face covering are pictured in several locations.

'Look familiar? @aoc stepped out at the Met Gala wearing a dress designed by @aurorajames that looks hella similar to my design,' The Velvet Bandit wrote on her Instagram page.

'All of my pasteups are handpainted, and after my Tax the Rich I put up in Sausalito went viral on Tiktok, I began selling stickers and shirts.

AOC is seen with her date, boyfriend Riley Roberts. It was learned on Tuesday that the congresswoman and her partner were invited guests of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

AOC with her boyfriend Riley Roberts (far right), her dress designer Aurora James and Benjamin Bronfman (far left), James' partner who is the heir to Seagrams Company Ltd. The group was pictured leaving at midnight

Before the gala, AOC got ready at The Carlyle hotel on the Upper East Side, where rooms cost upwards of $1,000-a-night. She was escorted to a chauffer-driven car, with someone carrying the train of her dress, and she waved to screaming fans as she left the hotel

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez attends the lavish Met gala wearing a 'TAX THE RICH' dress. She boasted on Tuesday morning about increasing the number of people searching the words 'Tax the Rich'

AOC poses in her 'Tax The Rich' dress while movie star Megan Fox waits behind her. AOC attended the event with designer Aurora James in what she claims was a political protest

'And low and behold, this dress bears the same likeness as my handwriting.'

The artist added: 'I admire both of these women greatly, and I would love nothing more than to collaborate with them in some way.

'I'm a full time lunch lady and single mom, which doesn't leave me much time in my day to try and reach famous people to hit me up.'

The Velvet Bandit asked her fans on Instagram to share her artwork so that it would reach Ocasio-Cortez and James because they need to work with me!

'They need a female street artist working on their team, dontcha think? It would be an honor.

'Obviously they have fabulous taste.

'Together we could take over the world and this s*** hole we're currently living in could be so much better.'

DailyMail.com has reached out to The Velvet Bandit for comment. No word yet as to whether Ocasio-Cortez will take her up on her offer.

The 31-year-old socialist firebrand attended the event with her boyfriend Riley Roberts after getting ready at The Carlyle Hotel on the Upper East Side.

On Tuesday morning, AOC boasted about the surge in Google searches for the words 'tax the rich'.

She wrote on Instagram: 'Surge in people looking up and discussing our f****d up tax code is and how we fix it so we can fund childcare, healthcare, climate action and student loan forgiveness for all? Aurora James understood the assignment.'

But she has been slammed for supporting the event by many who say she simply wanted to enjoy the limelight while trying to pass it off as a political protest in yet another example of her tone-deaf hypocrisy.

AOC, who previously posed on the cover of Vanity Fair, drives a $35,000 Tesla and claims to be '100% grass roots from the Bronx' despite growing up in a wealthy NYC suburb.

She wore a borrowed dress from Brother Vellies, James' celebrity-adored NYC label.

The only jewelry she wore was a pair of $450 gold hoops from Mejuri and a $65 ring from the same brand.

She didn't wear a mask, like many of the other guests.

The event was for fully vaccinated guests only but the celebrities in attendance - who regularly preach online about COVID rules - ignored the guidance of the CDC and liberal states like California, where masks are recommended indoors regardless of vaccination status.

In a proud Instagram post about the event and her choice of outfit, AOC said: 'The medium is the message. Proud to work with Aurora James as a sustainably focused, Black woman immigrant designer who went from starting her dream Brother Vellies at a flea market in Brooklyn to winning the CDFA against all odds - and then work together to kick open the doors at the Met. The time is now for childcare, healthcare, and climate action for all. Tax the Rich.

'And yes, BEFORE anybody starts wilding out - NYC elected officials are regularly invited to and attend the Met due to our responsibilities in overseeing our city's cultural institutions that serve the public.

'I was one of several in attendance. Dress is borrowed via Brother Vellies.'

In a statement in a press release by Brother Vellies, AOC said: 'There's no way I'd be doing this if it wasn't with a woman of color and with the intent to grow the table and empower women that look like me.

'Despite being held in New York City, the culture of the Met Gala is everything but.

'NYC is often synonymous with inclusivity, inviting millions of people from different walks of life to call this city home.

'The Met Gala, on the other hand, is seen as elite and inaccessible. I'm attending today because I want to change just that and spotlight women of color who are often not included during events like these.'

Donald Trump Jr led the criticism, blasting AOC as a 'fraud' while pointing out that she was also not wearing a face mask 'after spending the last 18 months as one of the biggest mask Karens in the country'.

Andray Domise, a writer and partner in black news network Rezistans Nwa, also pointed out that the gala was taking place just yards from where the NYPD were arresting 'defund the police' protesters - a cause that AOC has previously supported.

'Police were creasing people's heads outside while you and your friends were nibbling watermelon tarts with smoked yuzu soy on panipuri crackers,' he said

Greg Price, a writer for the Daily Caller, added: 'AOC grew up in a wealthy suburb, went to one of the most expensive colleges in America, makes a six figure salary, drives a Tesla, lives above a whole foods, and is currently at an event that costs more to attend than America's average personal income.'

Actor and comedian Michael Rappaport also weighed in. He shared a picture of AOC in a dress fitting session and captioned it: 'Custom TAX THE RICH dress while at the most elitist event in the world.

'Will soon be rich with a ginormous production deal from somewhere & done with Politics, guarantee it.

'Stop treating ANY of these people like celebrities they are public servants that work for US.'

As she made her Met Gala debut, AOC will have passed crowds of BLM protesters clashing with police outside the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art.

AOC yelling out on the steps of the Met Gala before going inside to mingle with the well-heeled, ultra wealthy guests

Brothers Vellies, James' luxury brand, is often worn by celebrities such as Beyonce, Meghan Markle, Zendaya, Rihanna and Lady Gaga, according to the brand's website.

It is AOC'S first time attending the gala, but her political message has already drawn controversy during this year's 'In America: A Lexicon of Fashion' exhibit. It was also James' gala dress debut.

James and Ocasio-Cortez said they were inspired by their experiences as working women of color to make the political statement at the Met gala.

James is the founder of the 15percent Pledge, a nonprofit that asks brands to 'pledge 15percent of their shelf space to Black-owned businesses.'

She designs mostly accessories and shoes listed on her brand's website retail around the $600 and $700 mark.

AOC has been very vocal in the past about her stance on taxing millionaires.

In 2019 she advocated raising taxes to 70 percent for the wealthy in order to fund measures against climate change.

'As a working class woman, [I] wanted to enjoy the event but also break the fourth wall and challenge the industry, Ocasio-Cortez told Vogue.

'When Aurora and I were first kind of partnered, we started having a conversation about what it means to be working class women of color at the Met.

'And we said, you know, we can't just play along, but we need to break the fourth wall, and challenge some of the institutions.

'And while the Met is known for its spectacle, we should have a conversation about it,' she added.

In a 2019 tweet, AOC wrote: When we say 'tax the rich,' we mean nesting-doll yacht rich. For-profit prison rich. Betsy DeVos, student-loan-shark rich.

'Trick-the-country-into-war rich. Subsidizing-workforce-w-food-stamps rich.

'Because THAT kind of rich is simply not good for society, & it's like 10 people.'

There was also uproar over the fact that the celebrities on the red carpet were not wearing masks but teachers and kindergarteners in public schools have to.

'Do as I say, NOT as I do. NYC mayor makes every single NYC public school student and teacher mask up all day in school.

'Guess the Met Gala ain't considered school,' said one angry Twitter user after seeing Mayor Bill de Blasio without his mask, attending the event with his wife and his son.
A slew of billboards that have suddenly popped up across the state of Pennsylvania, depicting Joe Biden toting an RPG next to the slogan 'Making the Taliban Great Again,' has been revealed to be the handiwork of an ex-state senator.

Republican Scott Wagner, 65, who ran for governor of the Keystone State in 2018 and lost, proudly took credit for the batch of bizarre billboards - of which there are 15 - when a Pennsylvania news outlet asked the statesman who was responsible.

Prior to the statesman's admission, plenty of Pennsylvanians had been wondering who was responsible for the posters which pay homage to Donald Trump's notorious catchphrase, 'Make America Great Again.'

Wagner ended the mystery after being asked if he was behind the stunt.

'I'm not hiding from anybody, and that's how I feel,' the politician declared, after confirming he was responsible.

A slew of billboards have suddenly popped up across the state of Pennsylvania that depict Joe Biden toting an RPG next to the slogan 'Making the Taliban Great Again'

Wagner, who served the State Senate from 2014 to 2018, said that he has 'several reasons' for displaying the message across the state he once served, and that he alone 'decided to put the billboards up.'

'The pull out rushed through by President Biden had made us the laughing stock of the world,' he explained in an email to Fox News on Wednesday. 'The Taliban are openly stating that they ran the United States out of Afghanistan - they are now very emboldened.'

Wagner added in his email that the freedoms 'young people have experienced since we landed in their country will be taken away now that the Taliban is in control.'

Ex-State Senator Scott Wagner, 65, proudly took credit for the billboards, stating, 'that's how I feel,' when asked about the posters by a Pennsylvania news outlet

He also said he has met hundreds of veterans during his time in the Pennsylvania State Senate.

'What do we say to families who lost loved ones in the Middle East - the country these people served and died for left Afghanistan with its tail between its legs,' he told Fox News. 'It seems that President Biden was hell bent on rushing out of Afghanistan - his ego and lack on information is going to prove to be very bad for the United States.'

And the 'bigger mess,' Wagner says, is the U.S. left behind aircraft, vehicles and a host of weapons and explosives when withdrawing from the war-torn country.

'I was watching an evening news show one night and saw the Taliban in American personnel carriers,' he told the York Dispatch.

'It's like Vietnam - even worse,' he said.

According to Brian Scott, vice president of the company that oversees the billboards, the posters were put up sometime last week - and they will stay where they are for two more months, according to Wagner, who paid a whopping $15,000 for the prominent postings.

Scott defended his company's decision to air the advertisements when questioned by the Dispatch, saying, 'Listen, we stay in the middle. If people want to call up and put up a billboard like this, as long as there's not any cuss words or slang for cuss words, you know, we will do it.'

Wagner paid a whopping $15,000 for the prominent postings - of which there are 15 spread across the Keystone State

'If somebody wants to call up and put a billboard up praising Joe Biden, we will do that as well. But we haven't gotten any phone calls to do that,' he added.

York County Democratic Chairman Chad Baker, on the other hand, told the Dispatch that the billboard 'is a mockery of a serious situation,' citing that both Democratic and Republican presidents have had issues when it comes to the precarious task of withdrawing US troops from Afghanistan.

But Wagner does not share that same sentiment.

'If Trump had done the same thing,' he said, 'he'd be looking the same way.'

Surprisingly, Wagner says he's received few complaints concerning the bevy of billboards - at least, so far.
The New York City Department of Correction on Wednesday handed out suspensions to 20 officers for failing to show up to work amid an ongoing crisis at the notorious Rikers Island jail.

The crackdown took place just one day after Mayor Bill de Blasio issued a warning that any DOC staff member who was AWOL 'will be held accountable with 30-day suspension without pay.'

During his daily press conference on Tuesday, the mayor unveiled a five-point plan to address the dire situation at Rikers Island, which has long suffered from being critically overcrowded and understaffed.

The NYC Department of Correction on Wednesday handed out 30-day suspensions without pay to 20 officers who failed to show up to work for no apparent reason

'We understand it's tough work and a tough environment, but folks, not showing up for work is unacceptable,' de Blasio said of the absent corrections officers. 'And when any officer doesn't show up for work, they actually put every other officer in danger, and that's not acceptable.

Under the mayor's Emergency Rikers Relief Plan, any DOC officer who calls out sick for more than a day will have to undergo a medical evaluation and provide a doctor's note, or face a 30-day suspension.

DOC Commissioner Vincent Schiraldi said last week that more than 1,400 officers out of a staff of 8,500 were out sick on average in August, which is more than double compared to the same time last year, reported New York Daily News.

About 93 officers skipped work a day in August 2021, compared to 29 the year before.

The Daily News reported, citing anonymous sources, that one corrections officer who has been out sick since May was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving. When DOC investigators came by her house to suspend her, she was not home.

The crackdown took place a day after Mayor Bill de Blasio unveiled a plan to address problems at Rikers Island and punish AWOL corrections officers

A plan was approved in 2019 to close New York's violent Rikers Island jail and replace it with multiple smaller jails

Another corrections officer reportedly has spent about a year-and-a-half on sick leave, and claimed she could not remember her shield number when investigators visited her at home.

During a City Council hearing on Wednesday, Commissioner Schiraldi blamed the deteriorating conditions at Rikers on the skyrocketing officer absences.

'This is the direct driver of more dangerous conditions in Rikers, and that is completely unacceptable,' he said.

The commissioner promised to hand out bonuses to the officers who have been showing up for every shift, and even working extra shifts to make up for a lack of staff.

'They are the heroes who have been holding the line during these challenging times,' he said.

Benny Boscio, President of the Correctional Officers Benevolent Association, hit out at de Blasio over the suspensions, blaming the unfolding crisis on a hiring freeze, even as the inmate population at Rikers has doubled.

DOC Commissioner Vincent Schiraldi said last week that more than 1,400 officers were out sick on average in August, which is more than double compared to the same time last year

New York Assemblymember Emily Gallagher described Rikers Island as a 'house of horror'

'More heavy-handed suspensions will only ensure officers continue to work triple and quadruple shifts with no meals and no rest,' Boscio argued.

Boscio slammed de Blasio as a 'dictator' and called on him to resign for punishing overworked officers who have been pulling double and triple shifts in unsafe working conditions, reported Fox Business.

On August 30, a Rikers Island correction officer was left with a fractured skull after being viciously beaten by an inmate - who later said 'voices' in his head told him to carry out the attack.

New York Senator Jessica Ramos says she witnessed a man try to hang himself during a tour of the state's infamous Rikers Island jail

A day earlier, a series of videos from Rikers Island captured violent scenes of inmates attacking prison guards - including one incident where one officer could not stand up after being brutally kicked and stomped on.

In July, a Rikers Island jail captain was making his nightly rounds when an inmate with a history of attacks and escape attempts hurled his feces at him.

De Blasios relief plan also includes bringing in NYPD cops to work in the courts to lighten the burden on DOC officers; speeding up the intake process at Rikers Island; hiring contractors to clean up the jail and make necessary repairs, and hire additional medical providers 'to make sure every single offices is on duty who should be on duty,' the mayor said.

The mayor rolled out his plan a day after a group of state lawmakers toured Rikers Island and called it a horror house of abuse and neglect, with one politician recounting witnessing an attempted suicide.

I cant begin to tell you the deplorable conditions we saw inside OBCC, she told reporters. In one of the intake rooms, there are at least one dozen men  per cell.

The infamous jail is littered with 'guck,' dead cockroaches, fecal matter, and rotting food, she said when describing the 'deplorable' conditions.

Other human rights infractions included a transgender woman locked up with men, an HIV positive man being denied his medication, diabetics being denied insulin, and employees working back-to-back 24-hour shifts, politicians said.

Its inhumane for everyone here, Gonzalez-Rojas told reporters. People were telling me, I feel like a slave. I feel like an animal. Im treated like an animal.

Alice Fontier, managing director of Neighborhood Defender Service, recalled during her most recent tour of the facility seeing people packed in intake cells for weeks, without access to a phone or their attorneys.

A two-by-six foot shower is being used as a segregated intake unit, she said, and prisoners are given a plastic bag to use as a toilet.

A plan was approved in 2019 to shutter Rikers and replace it with several smaller jails, but it won't happen until 2026.
A 12-year-old boy from New Mexico was arrested after allegedly stealing an SUV and leading police on a high-speed chase that ended when he crashed head-on into a car carrying other kids.

Dona Ana County deputies got multiple calls of a reckless driver in a blue-grey SUV that was chasing people off the road around noon on Sunday.

Part of the pursuit happened in Las Cruces, about 46 miles north of El Paso, Texas.

At some point, the underage driver picked up three other kids in a parking lot, but he wouldn't stop for officers who flashed their lights at him to initiate a traffic stop.

The intrepid child then hopped on the highway, leading officers through a maze of exit ramps, side streets and parking lots.

He refused to slow down for deputies in Dona Ana County, New Mexico, leading them on a high-speed chase across parking lots, highway exit ramps and side roads

Police received multiple calls of an SUV that was driving recklessly at noon on September 12

A woman who filmed the incident after the SUV swerved into her lane on Highway 70 said she was caught 'completely off-guard' when she noticed the driver.

'He could barely see over the steering wheel,' said TJ Burks. 'I can't believe he is doing stuff like this so young!'

His three friends, boys between the ages of 12 and 17, jumped out of the moving vehicle near a parking lot, where police found a 9mm handgun.

The child was eventually caught after crashing into a car while driving on a one-way street. He was unharmed, and he already had a felony warrant for conspiracy to commit car burglary

The driver was arrested after he crashed into incoming traffic.

He was not injured, but the driver of the other car, which had other children in it, was taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries, Sgt. Dason Allen told KFOX in El Paso.

Officers found 9 mm casings and bullets on the 12-year-old speeder.

'Twelve-year-old juvenile driving, so that's not something that's common that we deal with within this department,' Allen said.

It turns out the daredevil youngster had an outstanding felony warrant for conspiracy to commit burglary of a vehicle.

He remains in custody on that charge and new counts of 'aggravated fleeing a law enforcement officer' and 'receiving and transferring a stolen motor vehicle.'
More than 200,000 migrants again crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in August, according to Fox News Channel.

A Department of Homeland Security source previewed the latest numbers for the network, saying that there were 208,887 encounters last month.

That is fewer than the 212,000 encounters in July, but still represents a 317 per cent increase in crossing from August 2020, when there were 50,014 encounters.

Customs and Border Patrol agents apprehend a group of Brazilian migrants who illegaly crossed the border in Otay Mesa, California on August 13. Fox News reported Wednesday that more than 200,000 migrants were apprehended last month

Immigrants walk towards a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint after they crossed the Rio Grande from Mexico on August 14

The August numbers break down to 49 per cent single adults - down 7 per cent from July.

Forty-four per cent were expelled via the Title 42 health order, Fox said.

Title 72 was signed by former President Donald Trump in March 2020, in the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing for the rapid removal of border crossers - which was in line with the previous administration's hardline agenda on immigration.

Against the wishes of immigrant rights groups, President Joe Biden's administration extended the order.

Under Biden, the U.S. government has expelled single adults and some families - but not unaccompanied minors and families with young children.

In August, 18,847 unaccompanied children crossed into the United States, down slightly from July, Fox reported.

And also 86,487 family units - up 4 per cent from the month before.

The official government release of the new numbers is expected in the upcoming days.

For months, Republicans have seen the border crisis as a political opportunity with former President Donald Trump hammering Biden on it during an call-in interview on Newsmax Tuesday night.

'We are a laughingstock all over the world,' Trump said, mentioning the migrant surge and Biden's disastrous pull-out from Afghanistan.

Vice President Kamala Harris has been especially criticized, after Biden made her the point person for communicating with the Northern Triangle countries - Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras - where most of the migrants are coming from.

Harris was to handle the root causes of migration.
An embattled Tory peer was under renewed pressure last night after it emerged he apparently used his private email accounts for thousands of messages relating to Covid contracts.

Keyword searches carried out by government lawyers suggest that Lord Bethell exchanged as many as 33,000 such emails.

The Government is resisting detailed searches of all the messages to pinpoint the exact number and examine their contents, saying the effort would not be justified.

The revelation came as Boris Johnson's reshuffle of ministers was expected to continue today  and as Labour called for Lord Bethell to quit his health post immediately or be sacked.

An embattled Tory peer was under renewed pressure last night after it emerged he apparently used his private email accounts for thousands of messages relating to Covid contracts. Keyword searches carried out by government lawyers suggest that Lord Bethell exchanged as many as 33,000 such emails

The disclosure that the former Ministry of Sound nightclub mogul appears to have conducted official business from private email addresses on such a massive scale contradicts what Downing Street claimed in June.

An official spokesman said then that both Lord Bethell and former health secretary Matt Hancock, who is also caught up in the controversy, 'understand the rules around personal email usage and only ever conducted government business through their departmental email addresses'.

They used their private addresses only for matters such as 'diary acceptances', the spokesman said.

Lord Bethell's widespread use of his personal phone and private emails to conduct official business has emerged as a result of a High Court judicial review brought by the Good Law Project.

It is challenging a series of deals worth 87.5million to devise, make and supply home Covid antibody tests, signed in April 2020 between the Department of Health and Social Care a consortium led by York-based firm Abingdon Health.

The latest revelations are in letters from the Government legal department to the Good Law Project ahead of the forthcoming judicial review hearing.

Abingdon, which had recorded losses of 1.5million the previous year, received at least 19million of public money.

The disclosure that the former Ministry of Sound nightclub mogul appears to have conducted official business from private email addresses on such a massive scale contradicts what Downing Street claimed in June. An official spokesman said then that both Lord Bethell and former health secretary Matt Hancock (centre), who is also caught up in the controversy, 'understand the rules around personal email usage and only ever conducted government business through their departmental email addresses'

Its two directors' shares were valued at 19.6million in February after the firm launched on the AIM stock exchange on the back of the antibody deals.

The Mail revealed in February that the main supply contract was eventually cancelled because the tests were not accurate enough.

Official guidance says ministers should use Whitehall systems, and if they do not, should ensure they copy private emails and other communications concerning official business to their departments' computers, so that a full record is preserved.

The use of private emails to conduct official business is being investigated by Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham.

It has also emerged that Lord Bethell has given three different versions of events to explain why he has been unable to produce crucial text and Whatsapp messages relating to Covid deals.

Letters from the Government legal department show that after Lord Bethell confirmed he had sent the texts and messages from his phone relating to the deal, he first said he could not produce them because the phone had been 'lost'.

But, a few days later, Lord Bethell said instead that his phone was 'broken' or 'defective'. Finally, in a meeting with the lawyers, he said that too was wrong, and he had given the phone to a member of his family to use.

Asked by the Mail about a possible security risk and whether he had wiped it clean of official data, the Department of Health and Social Care refused to comment.

Angela Rayner, Labour deputy leader, said last night: 'It is vital that the Information Commissioner's investigation gets to the bottom of this racket, and this must be extended to other government departments.

Letters from the Government's lawyers say searches of Lord Bethell's private email accounts using keywords relating to the Covid contracts reveal there are between 8,463 and 33,428 separate emails in his private accounts that contain them

'These emails and texts must be secured for the public inquiry so we know exactly what has been going on in secret.

'After he has handed them over, Lord Bethell should clear his desk. He has breached security rules, broken the ministerial code and ignored basic standards of integrity and transparency in public office.

'If he had any shame he would resign and if the Prime Minister had a backbone he would sack him.' Lord Bethell was previously caught up in a row over sponsoring a parliamentary pass for Gina Coladangelo, his then boss Matt Hancock's special adviser and lover.

The Good Law Project's High Court case claims the Abingdon Health antibody deals were awarded without proper competition or scrutiny.

Jolyon Maugham QC, the Good Law Project's director, said: 'How on earth do we move from a blanket denial by No 10 that ministers were using private email accounts for government business, to an admission that a single minister may in fact have used his private email for thousands of official emails?

'It's far from clear to me that personal phones used extensively for government business can safely be handed over to family members  one assumes children.

'What steps did Lord Bethell take, for example, to ensure that highly sensitive material couldn't be retrieved by a specialist?'

The Daily Mail revealed in February that  as the deals were about to be finalised  senior officials and government lawyers warned that normal Whitehall processes had been bypassed, which meant they would not survive a legal challenge.

Lord Bethell dealt closely with Sir John Bell, professor of medicine at Oxford University and a key government adviser throughout the pandemic, who put the consortium together and supported the contracts.

Lord Bethell has previously said that although 'third parties' might 'in their enthusiasm' contact ministers via their personal email accounts, 'that's not the same as using a personal email for formal departmental decision-making'. He insisted he did nothing wrong.

Letters from the Government's lawyers say searches of Lord Bethell's private email accounts using keywords relating to the Covid contracts reveal there are between 8,463 and 33,428 separate emails in his private accounts that contain them.

The totals differ according to which keywords are used.

There are also thousands of attached documents containing keywords.

But the Government has told the Good Law Project that to examine or disclose all the emails would be 'disproportionate', and it is refusing to do so.

Downing Street said: 'Ministers will use a range of modern forms of communication for discussions, in line with legislative requirements, and taking into account government guidance.

'The Covid pandemic has necessarily required remote working and fast-paced communications.'

The Department of Health and Social Care refused to comment.
Security forces in Nicaragua have arrested scores of political, business and media figures opposed to long-time president Daniel Ortega, while there has been a violent crackdown on protests against his government.

Ahead of elections in November  when Ortega will seek a fourth consecutive term  seven opposition presidential candidates have been taken in to custody on what are widely regarded as nebulous charges. Last month La Prensa, the nation's oldest and most prestigious newspaper, announced it could no longer print because of government action.

Condemned by the U.S. and the EU, the opposition is, in effect, being 'eliminated', a spokesman for Brussels said this week, and Ortega has 'crushed any prospect of fair and free elections'.

Here Bianca Jagger calls for international action to save the country of her birth . . .

On a riverbed in Honduras, facing a death squad armed with M16 assault rifles, I had a terrifying experience that changed the course of my life.

I had travelled to Central American refugee camp La Virtud, four miles from the border with war-torn El Salvador, in November 1981 as part of a U.S. Congressional fact-finding mission.

Several thousand refugees were seeking safety there, from constant harassment and kidnap by the Salvadorean government's paramilitary force, Orden, and soldiers.

About an hour after we arrived, as we ate lunch with a French medic from the relief agency Doctors Without Borders, an aid worker came racing up. He was shouting that Orden men were abducting a group of refugees.

We ran to a jeep, and followed him. From a bridge we saw about 25 soldiers in plain clothes, forcing a group of 15 to 20 terrified people along a dried-up riverbed.

As we got closer, we could see some had their hands tied behind their backs. One was a pregnant woman. It was a harrowing scene that was seared into my brain.

We knew what fate awaited the hostages. The people in the Cabanas region of northern El Salvador were victims of the army's 'scorched earth' tactics, which involved indiscriminate killing, and the demolition of homes, livestock and crops that fleeing campesinos  the poor farmers left behind. This massacre was happening while we were there.

Nicaraguan-born style icon Bianca Jagger credits an invitation from the British Red Cross to lead a fundraising campaign for Nicaragua as a turning point in her life that began her human rights work in Latin America. Pictured: Jagger (left) in 1979

Pictured: A group of contra guerrillas operating in Nicaragua and Honduras in 1989. They were attempting to overthrow the Sandinista government of Nicaragua

Though they were wearing only partial items of uniform, some of the Orden paramilitaries carried sophisticated radio equipment. We were in no doubt that these were official government troops.

We were yelling at them to release their captives. 'We're members of the international Press,' we told them. 'We will denounce these atrocities to the world. The world will know what you are doing. You're taking innocent and defenceless people.'

Among the captives was a woman carrying a child in each arm. She was kicked twice. Children dashed after us. I remember they were sobbing: 'My mother! My father!'

As we approached the border, the danger they would execute both the refugees and our group became more real. The moment of greatest fear came after we had been giving chase for 20 minutes, taking photographs as we ran.

One of the paramilitaries shouted: 'Estos hijos de putas ya nos estan controlando!'  'These sons of bitches are catching up with us!' One of the captives broke free and ran towards us.

The paramilitaries turned and pointed their guns at us. We screamed back that they would have to kill us all. The refugees were shouting too, begging us to save them: 'Please don't leave us, please, they are going to kill us.' The gunmen, unwilling to open fire on international observers, suddenly freed their prisoners and left. We were too many to kill.

I believe God protected us that day. The refugees were convinced of it, constantly muttering prayers of thanks as we walked back. They had faced certain death.

But as we returned to the camp, we were confronted by a second unfolding atrocity  another attempt to abduct refugees. This time, the heavily-armed soldiers were in full uniform.

When we demanded that they let their prisoners go, the reaction was different  they turned on us, confiscating our cameras and film. For a few, very tense minutes, they threatened us with their M16s. In all that confusion, their hostages were able to escape.

That night, our delegation slept on blankets alongside the refugees at the camp to deter the Orden from coming back.

That terrifying experience taught me the most valuable lesson of my life. It made me realise the importance of bearing witness  of facing up to tyranny and giving my support to those whose lives are threatened and to document the atrocities, to write articles and reports, and testify.

I have no doubt that, without the presence of international observers that day, those refugees would have been murdered. Millions have died in similar circumstances with no one to shield them, to speak for them  or to remember them.

Nicaragua's current president Daniel Ortega is pictured centre in 1989 at an event marking the anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution

Ortega is pictured with his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo at a rally in Managua in 2018

When I returned to the U.S. I testified before the U.S. Congressional Subcommittee on Inter-American Affairs. Thus began my work as a human rights defender  visiting war zones and refugee camps, denouncing genocides, massacres and serious human rights violations, as well as giving evidence before the U.S. Congress and parliaments in Europe.

A journalist with the fleeing refugees from El Salvador, Philippe Bourgois, later testified that the international attention triggered by my presence in the camp forced the death squad patrols along the border into retreat.

For a few days, refugees were able to cross the River Lempa into Honduras. They came in their thousands, helped by courageous aid workers from the camps. Philippe is one of those who owes his life to that break for freedom.

Another was mother-of-four Mercedes Mendez, who was hit by shrapnel during an attack on her village. The whole of the lower part of her face, from the tip of her nose down, was blown away.

The refugees refused to abandon her, though she was so weak that they dug a grave, expecting she would die. Instead, she clung to life. She crossed the river to safety with more than 20 others.

The knowledge that my presence could have helped their escape has inspired me to continue bearing witness. As founder and CEO of the Bianca Jagger Human Rights Foundation, I have campaigned against genocide in Bosnia, tried to halt the destruction of the rainforests in Brazil and fought to abolish the death penalty around the world. I have travelled on fact-finding missions to Iraq, Iran, Syria, Afghanistan, Latin America and other countries where I believe that I could make a difference.

My political awareness is rooted in my teenage years in the Sixties when I participated in student demonstrations and fought for justice in my native country, Nicaragua. My parents divorced when I was ten and my mother brought up me and my two siblings.

The Nicaragua of that era was a conservative society and divorced women suffered terrible discrimination. My mother grew up an orphan and knew how tough life could be. She was a housewife but she was passionate about politics, freedom, democracy and justice.

Bianca Jagger (second from left) with Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger (second from right) on their wedding day in 1971

Bianca Jagger's enduring status as a style icon was on full display this week, when model Kaia Gerber wore attended the Met Gala in a look that paid homage to the dress Jagger wore to the event in 1981

The ruling family then were the Somozas. I became aware, through my mother's eyes, what it meant to live under a dictatorship. Then I won a scholarship to the Institut d'Etudes Politiques in Paris, to study political science, aged 16.

In 1972, a year after my marriage to Mick Jagger, I was in London. It was two days before Christmas, and we were eating dinner when a TV report turned my world upside-down. An earthquake had torn apart the Nicaraguan capital, Managua. Fires were raging and all phone lines, electricity and water supplies were down. Thousands of people were feared dead  and there was no way of knowing whether my parents had survived. Later I learned the death toll was more than 10,000.

I flew back and, walking through the ruins of my home city, I was horrified by the death and destruction. My parents survived but they had lost everything they owned.

I asked Mick to help and he persuaded The Rolling Stones to do a charity concert  among the first of its kind  in Los Angeles, to raise funds for a health clinic in Managua. The dictator's wife, Hope Somoza, refused permission for the clinic, so we used the funds to build homes for victims of the earthquake instead.

Humanitarian aid was pouring in but was immediately being misappropriated by the all-consuming corruption of the Somoza government. In mid-1979 the British Red Cross asked me to help them raise funds for victims of the conflict in Nicaragua. I appealed to Somoza to allow me inside a prison where more than 1,000 were incarcerated and to visit the political prisoners there. I did it under the protection of the Cruz Roja Nicaraguense  the Nicaraguan Red Cross.

The prisoners had little food and many did not even have adequate clothing. They were crammed in a stone dormitory, men on one side, women on the other. The Red Cross staff and I took them rice, tortillas and cigarettes. Outside, Red Cross workers distributed food to the inmates' children.

Dressed in my white Red Cross uniform, Press cameras caught the shock on my face afterwards, as I sat in the back of a car in tears.

The Somoza dynasty was one of the oldest tyrannies in Latin America and so in 1979, the triumph of the Sandinista Revolution brought hope and joy to millions in Nicaragua and throughout the world. I will never forget the euphoria that swept the country. As Daniel Ortega was installed in power, we believed that freedom, justice and democracy would follow  but it was not to be.

Jagger (pictured in 2017) has been a tireless campaigner for human rights in Latin America for decades

My mother saw the truth before me  that Ortega could not be trusted. And terrible though Somoza was, Ortega is worse. Hundreds of people have disappeared or been murdered in recent years, and there is no limit to the repressive measures that he and his wife Rosario Murillo will take to stifle the voices of the opposition.

He has been head of state for more than 25 years and is seeking a fourth consecutive term as president. But the elections in November will be a farce and the results should be declared illegitimate by the international community.

Anyone standing in opposition to Ortega can expect persecution  to be kidnapped, held hostage, put in jail, murdered or made to 'disappear'. Indeed, for months his police and paramilitary forces, known as the Sandinista mobs, have been kidnapping political opponents, business leaders, students, campesinos, diplomats and journalists, eliminating all opposition.

In total, nearly 150 political prisoners have been arrested and detained, including seven presidential candidates. The usual charge is that Ortega's enemies are trying to overthrow him with the covert backing of the United States and the European Union.

Ortega has denied them access to the Red Cross, lawyers, humanitarian and medical assistance and their families. We don't even know if those kidnapped are still alive.

Vice-presidential candidate Berenice Quezada was among many of those detained. The former Miss Nicaragua is said to be 'under house arrest without access to a telephone and prohibited from running for public office'.

Her party, the Citizens' Alliance for Liberty, has been stripped of its legal status by Ortega.

I am often asked why Ortega has gone from inspirational revolutionary leader to murderous dictator. Well, the truth is that when he swept to power for the first time in July 1979, Ortega fooled Nicaragua, me and the rest of the world.

He was never anything more than a mediocre politician, certainly not an intellectual or a visionary. He didn't even participate in the struggle against Somoza, because he spent much of his time in jail.

Over time the so-called saviour turned into a monster who, along with his wife and accomplice Murillo, have committed crimes against humanity and a catalogue of human rights abuses in a desperate effort to cling on to power.

His corrupt and subservient judicial system introduces laws that criminalise his opponents, painting them as 'money-launderers' and 'foreign agents'. Those who use social media to criticise him are accused of 'cyber crime'.

Jagger was one of the biggest style icons of the 1970s and a fixture at the legendary nightclub Studio 54. Pictured L-R: Halston, Jagger, Jack Haley, Liza Minnelli and Andy Warhol celebrate New Year's Eve at Studio 54

She had a close friendship with the designer Halston, whose creations she often wore. Pictured: Jagger with Halston at the 1981 Met Gala

As the wife of a Rolling Stone and a darling of the fashion world, Jagger became something of an IT girl, even being photographed by Andy Warhol. Pictured L-R: Jagger, Halston and Minnelli return to Halston's apartment after a night at Studio 54

Even if international pressure were to force Ortega to stage fresh elections, the results could not be regarded as legitimate until five conditions are met: firstly, the immediate release of all political prisoners, including those held on trumped up charges of fraud, cyber crime and money-laundering.

Secondly, elected offices must be open to all, in a free vote.

Thirdly, the country's civil and political freedoms must be restored, and fourthly, paramilitary rule by violence must cease  the Sandinista mobs, the neighbourhood committees that force people to spy on each other. Finally, elections must be held with oversight by international monitors.

The U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, has accused Ortega of taking 'undemocratic, authoritarian actions' and of seeking to hold on to power at all costs. The EU also recognises this, and has imposed sanctions on eight Nicaraguan senior officials, among them the vice-president and her son, who are accused of human rights violations.

Today, I am calling on President Ortega to allow me to inspect the jails where political prisoners are held, as I did in 1979. I am aware this is a risky demand. Once I have been taken behind bars, getting out again might not be so easy.

It's a risk, however, I am willing to take. I am not any part of the official political opposition and have never been a member of any political party in Nicaragua. But I cannot remain silent while hundreds are murdered, held hostage or imprisoned without trial.

Pictured: Jagger (third from left) attends the #March4Women rally in 2020 with London mayor Sadiq Khan (second from right)

At a peaceful demonstration in April 2018, police opened fire in full view of TV crews who filmed them gunning down unarmed protesters. One of those shot was 15-year-old Alvarito Conrado. He was distributing water to demonstrators when he was hit in the neck.

Defying police, some protesters managed to bundle Alvarito into a car. He was choking on his own blood, pleading: 'I can't breathe.'

They took him to a hospital where, by order of the Ministry of Health, doctors were forbidden to treat the wounded. Soldiers fired on medics who tried to help. Alvarito died on the steps of the hospital building. More than 500 medical staff have been sacked since then, many for daring to treat the victims of Ortega's brutal police.

On May 29 I was back in Nicaragua and came face to face with the indiscriminate violence and murder. I filmed riot police as they attacked two universities and shot at students. The following day, I joined the largest rally in Managua's history, the Mother's Day March, in support of the mothers of those murdered in April.

The night before, one friend told me he was sure Ortega would not attack these grieving mothers, families and children.

I had great doubts and, tragically, I was proved right. Snipers opened fire  in keeping with Ortega's shoot-to-kill policy. This was the very policy I had come to denounce with Amnesty International.

The panic that swept the crowd was terrifying. Nineteen were killed and at least 185 wounded. Ortega later claimed the march was a coup backed by foreign money.

A friend, a courageous young student, helped me to safety. I knew then that Nicaragua would never be safe until Ortega is forced from power.

To achieve this, again I urge the international community to act decisively and in unison, to declare the forthcoming election and his regime illegitimate.

We can win, but must stand together. I learned that on a riverbed in Honduras, facing down guns.
James Peter Farthing, 28, spoke to the 'teenager' on messaging service Kik - under the username 'olderc**k' - as well as on Snapchat

A doctor who attempted to groom a '13-year-old girl' online has been spared prison after his lawyers blamed his actions on working long hours during the Covid pandemic.

James Peter Farthing, 28, spoke to the 'teenager' on messaging service Kik - under the username 'olderc**k' - as well as on Snapchat.

The junior doctor, who worked for the NHS in Stockport, asked to see photographs of her body and shared an image of penis.

The account was actually being run by an undercover police officer and Farthing was later arrested for attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child.

However, today he walked free from Minshull Street Crown Court after being handed a suspended sentence.

Lawyers mitigating for Farthing, said he had been juggling working long hours during the pandemic, his wife's health condition and his training.

They said he had 'emotional struggles', had been watching pornography and smoking cannabis at the time - but that he was working to address his issues.

Her Honour Judge Tina Landale sentenced him to six months in prison, suspended for two years, after he admitted attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child.

He was handed concurrent sentences for attempting to involve a child aged 13 or over in non-penetrative sexual activity; and attempting to engage with a child aged 13 to 15 to watch and look at images of a sexual nature.

The court heard Farthing spoke to the 'girl' on Kik - under the username 'olderc**k', Fiona Clancy, prosecuting said. He also spoke to her on Snapchat, in March.

He said he was 23 and from Leeds. The 'girl' was called 'Beth' and was said to have been from Liverpool.

The cop used a picture of kittens to portray how young she was, Ms Clancy said.

Speaking at Minshull Street Crown Court (pictured), lawyers mitigating for Farthing, said he had been juggling working long hours during the pandemic, his wife's health condition and his training.

Farthing asked 'Beth' if she was into 'older guys' and if she would send him a picture.

'Beth' told him: 'I'm 13, by the way.' Farthing replied: 'Cool. Are you down for role play or sex?'

He asked to see her body and offered to show her his penis. The 'girl' said she was worried about sending a photograph.

Farthing reassured her that if she didn't include her face, it 'should be fine'.

'The fact that the undercover officer was 13 was reiterated, but the sexual conversations continued,' Ms Clancy said, as the conversations moved to Snapchat.

Farthing told 'Beth': 'I have spoken to a few girls that like older men.'

The officer then sent a picture of a young, clothed girl. Farthing sent a photograph of his penis.

'I really want to touch your body and see what you look like naked,' he said.

He then sent another picture of his penis.

Ms Clancy said that when officers arrested Farthing, he said he was 'ashamed' and 'tried to stop', but 'gave in to sexual pleasure', the court heard.

Simon Gurney, defending, said Farthing, who has no previous convictions, was 'deeply ashamed and remorseful for his behaviour'.

Simon Gurney, defending, said Farthing (pictured), who has no previous convictions, was 'deeply ashamed and remorseful for his behaviour'

His supervisor - a consultant - and training programme director provided statements to the court.

Staff and patients 'all expressed shock' after Farthing was arrested, the court heard, as people thought he had a good 'moral compass'.

Mr Gurney said they 'stand by him' because they acknowledge his remorse.

The lawyer said it was the first time in Farthing's career that he didn't enjoy his work - and that his family was in debt as a result of the pandemic.

Mr Gurney said Farthing 'only has himself to blame for jeopardising' his career.

Judge Landale said the 'girl' made it 'clear that she didn't want to talk about sex'.

Farthing was ordered to take part in the Horizon project; to complete 20 rehabilitation activity requirement days; and to undertake 200 hours of unpaid work.

He was also made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order - to last a decade.
Slightly built and latterly rendered frailer still by the ravages of cancer, Terry Lubbock still fought for justice for his son with the determination of a giant.

Neither 20 years, a catalogue of health problems, nor a series of crushing disappointments at the hands of the justice system could dent 76-year-old Terry's cast iron determination to one day face his son's killer in court.

But Mr Lubbock died yesterday without ever seeing justice for his son. Last month, after another arrest came to nothing, he admitted that he would 'die of a broken heart'.

Terry Lubbock, whose 31-year-old son Stuart was found dead in entertainer Michael Barrymore's swimming pool 20 years ago

Stuart was just 31 when he was found dead in entertainer Michael Barrymore's swimming pool, following a late night drug-fuelled party.

The death was at first assumed to be an accident  officers failed to secure the crime scene  before a post-mortem revealed he had suffered severe internal injuries, indicating he had suffered serious sexual assault.

Those early blunders haunted Terry, just as they haunted the subsequent police inquiries.

Up until his last days, at the care home in Essex where he had lived since suffering a series of strokes ten years ago, Terry was using social media to thank new witnesses who had come forward and to declare that all he wanted was 'justice for Stuart  nothing more'.

Hopes had been buoyed in March when police arrested a man in his 50s from the north of England on suspicion of indecent assault and murder.

'My only regret is that whatever happens I will never have the day in court to face my son's killer,' said Terry, hoping against hope that this time charges would follow, but knowing that his own time was limited after being diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer.

But the man was released without charge in August. Alongside a photograph of himself, bedridden and gaunt, Terry posted on Twitter: 'Someone knows who killed Stuart Lubbock. I will die of a broken heart.'

As he himself said, Terry knew he had done his best for his son, but that does not lessen the pain that he died without seeing anyone brought to justice.

Last night Harry Cichy, Terry's friend and publicist, told the Mail: 'The likes of Terry Lubbock don't come along very often. He was a small man, but inside he was a tremendous character who shot from the hip and had the heart of a lion. He woke up every morning thinking about how he could get justice for his son. Every morning, 365 days a year, 24 hours a day, his whole focus was to try and get those guilty in the court.

'It consumed him but he was the ultimate father really.'

Harry is in no doubt that Stuart's death and the ensuing battle for justice contributed to Terry's many years of declining health.

'When Stuart died, everything else stopped,' says Harry. 'When he became focused on what happened to Stuart he lost all his friends, he was on his own, all he wanted to do was get to the truth of his son's death.'

In 2001, Stuart was a divorced father of two and a supervisor at a meat factory in Harlow, Essex. He was a charmer, close to his brother Kevin, with whom he went to the town's Millennium nightclub that fateful night in March.

TV star Michael Barrymore arrives at Harlow Police station August 15, 2001, to establish if he is to be charged in connection with the death of Stewart Lubbock

When Kevin couldn't find his brother at the end of the evening, he assumed he had gone home with a woman. In fact he had met Michael Barrymore, a celebrity earning 2million a year fronting shows such as Strike It Lucky.

Barrymore was with his then partner Jonathan Kenney, and they made the decision to continue the party at home, with a small group of people they had met in the club, including Stuart.

He would, his family later said, have jumped at the chance to have a celebrity tale to tell. Afterwards, there were varying accounts of what happened at Barrymore's Roydon mansion. It was clear, however, that there were drugs, drinks, guests in the pool and in the Jacuzzi. At some point in the early hours, Stuart's body was found floating in the swimming pool.

Barrymore fled before police arrived (there was a delay in them being called). He later apologised, saying he had 'panicked'. He has always denied any knowledge of what happened.

He, Kenney and partygoer Justin Merritt, a local dustman, were arrested in 2007 but later released without charge.

Barrymore subsequently sued Essex Police, claiming his wrongful arrest had cost him about 2.5million in lost earnings, but Court of Appeal judges concluded he should receive nominal damages.

With only nine people present at the house that night, answers might have seemed easy to find.

Indeed, Detective Chief Inspector Stephen Jennings, who took over the case in 2018, said as much in a Channel 4 documentary last year.

'I believe very much that Stuart Lubbock was raped and murdered that night. Somebody at that party knows what happened,' he said.

When police first arrived at the house, the death was initially assumed to be an accident.

By the time a post-mortem showed the extent of Stuart's horrific internal injuries (alcohol, ecstasy and cocaine were also found in his bloodstream), that first error could not be corrected.

Much to the dismay of Stuart's father, a coroner recorded an open verdict, failing to confirm the cause of death. But Terry's determination was undiminished.

He would later say that he had led 'two completely separate lives'. The first ended the day Stuart was pulled dead from Barrymore's pool  the second consumed every waking moment until his death.

In 2005 he suffered a near-fatal stroke, but his campaign did not falter. He was, says Harry, a 'thorn in the side' of police and instrumental in the opening of an Independent Police Complaints Commission inquiry, which in 2009 upheld six of his 36 complaints.

Shockingly, it found two implements photographed by police at the scene  a 12in pool thermometer and a door handle  were never found or accounted for.

Police at comedian Michael Barrymore's mansion in Roydon, Essex after Stuart Lubbock's body was found in the swimming pool

The 20th anniversary of Stuart's death coincided with a breakthrough. 'Significant new information' was said to be behind the arrest earlier this year. That no charges were brought was a crashing blow. DCI Jennings insisted the investigation was not closed, adding there was 'huge personal disappointment' among his team.

And what of Barrymore?

His career collapsed and he was last seen on TV on Celebrity Big Brother in 2006. Now a recovering alcoholic who lives in west London, a planned appearance on Dancing On Ice last year never happened after he broke his wrist.

Yesterday he said: 'I'm saddened to hear of Terry's death. Essex Police must carry on to seek justice for the Lubbock family which I will continue to fully support.' DCI Jennings also told of his 'heavy heart' at the news, adding: 'Terry's devotion to his son and to his pursuit of justice knew no bounds. To this end we urge anyone who has information about Stuart's death to please now, more than ever, do the right thing and come forward.'

Tragically, Stuart's mother Dorothy Hand, who got divorced from Terry back in 1984, also died without answers three years ago.

Harry, who says he saw Terry cry just once  while watching a preview of last year's documentary  told the Mail that his legacy was far from complete.

Three years ago, then-attorney general Jeremy Wright refused to give the father the go-ahead to make an application to the High Court for a second inquest. But paperwork to appeal this decision was submitted by a top QC to the Attorney General on Terry's behalf shortly before his death.

Poignantly, Terry said recently: 'I've always said I will continue to fight for justice until my last breath. I've only got weeks to live but I won't give up on Stuart until I die.'

That time has come. But as Harry proudly says of his friend: 'He never stopped, even on his deathbed. That's the tenacity of the man.'
Prince Charles charity has been plunged into further turmoil after two senior officials stepped down amid cash for access allegations.

Douglas Connell, chairman of the Princes Foundation, resigned yesterday, saying he was shocked by the potential rogue activity taking place at the charity.

Its executive director Chris Martin has also temporarily stepped aside  just days after claims that the foundation accepted more than 500,000 from a controversial Russian businessman.

The moves are the latest blow for the beleaguered charity whose chief executive Michael Fawcett has already stood down amid claims he helped secure an honour for a Saudi donor.

And they are likely to pile pressure on the prince, whose judgment has been questioned following claims he agreed to meet wealthy businessmen who made hefty contributions.

The future king has said he had no knowledge of the alleged cash for honours issues.

Honour: Prince Charles with a Saudi donor at Buckingham Palace in November 2016. The resignations come days after claims that the foundation accepted more than 500,000 from a controversial Russian businessman

Prince Charles pictured with the charity's chief executive Michael Fawcett, who has already stood down amid claims he helped secure an honour for a Saudi donor

But last night royal author Norman Baker blasted the defence as simply not credible.

He added: The chickens are coming home to roost... He should man up and take some responsibility rather than hiding behind others and letting them fall on their swords.

Earlier this week, the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) launched an investigation into the foundation, which is based at Dumfries House in Ayrshire.

The probe came following allegations that Dmitry Leus, a Russian banker, donated hundreds of thousands of pounds to the charity in return for access to Charles.

There is no evidence to suggest that the prince was aware of any offer for access, which was allegedly promised by fixer William Bortrick. On receiving a six-figure sum from Mr Leus last year, the prince wrote him a letter in which he said he was incredibly grateful for the immense generosity.

And he added: I very much look forward to seeing you when this dreadful crisis passes.

The charity initially received 100,000 from Mr Leus but the total sum was rejected by the foundations ethics committee following concerns about its origins, The Sunday Times reported.

Mr Leus was subsequently told that the cash had gone to another charity, Children and the Arts, of which Charles is patron.

The probe came following allegations that Dmitry Leus (above), a Russian banker, donated hundreds of thousands of pounds to the charity in return for access to Charles

On receiving a six-figure sum from Mr Leus last year, the prince wrote him a letter in which he said he was incredibly grateful for the immense generosity

However, the charity said it was unaware of such a donation ever being made. Mr Leus  who did not obtain a meeting with the prince  is now reportedly considering legal action to retrieve his donation.

In a statement yesterday, Mr Connell, who had been chairman since March, said he should accept responsibility and resign if it appears that serious misconduct has taken place.

The Princes Foundation confirmed his resignation, saying it understands and respects his decision. Dame Sue Bruce, the charitys vice-chair, has stepped up to the role.

Last month the charity launched an independent investigation into claims Mr Fawcett, the princes former valet, helped fix a CBE for a Saudi businessman who donated more than 1.5million to royal charities.

Last month the charity launched an independent investigation into claims Mr Fawcett (above), the princes former valet, helped fix a CBE for a Saudi businessman

Mahfouz Marei Mubarak bin Mahfouz also gave thousands of pounds to people linked to Charles who promised they could help him secure an honour.

A spokesman for the charity said it was taking the allegations very seriously and stressed that the recent changes would not impact the scope or timing of the investigation already under way.

A Clarence House spokesman added that Charles fully supported the probe.

While Charles is president of the foundation, he is not involved with its governance or with day-to-day activities overseen by the charitys trustees. He is also not responsible for deciding who is awarded honours.

 The Prince of Wales has suggested families can cut greenhouse emissions and save money by reducing the amount of food they waste.

Writing in the Daily Mirror, Charles said that if children see food as part of a joined-up environmental system, they will be more able to turn the situation around.
A federal judge denied former President Trump's request to pause a lawsuit that accuses him of defaming writer E. Jean Carroll, who has accused him of raping her, because he said that she is not his 'type.'

Trump's lawyer Marc Kasowitz had asked Kaplan to stay the proceedings nine months ago.

Meanwhile Trump and the Department of Justice, who is still defending him even after he left office, are still appealing an earlier ruling in the case where Judge Lewis Kaplan decided against the DOJ's effort to have the US government replace Trump as the defendant.

Wednesday's decision allows proceedings and filings in Manhattan federal district court to move forward for the first time since last year, according to CNBC.

Carroll, a longtime New York advice columnist, alleged in a July 2019 article that Trump raped her in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman in New York City in either 1995 or 1996.

Trump denied the allegations claiming she was 'totally lying' to sell her new book, was 'not my type' and that he had 'never met' her.

Trump's comments prompted Carroll to sue him for defamation later that year.

Carroll wrote the 'Ask E. Jean' column for Elle Magazine for 25 years until her contract was terminated early in early 2020.

The fashion magazine maintained it wasn't because of her accusations against Trump, but Carroll wrote on Twitter in February 2020: 'Because Trump ridiculed my reputation, laughed at my looks, & dragged me through the mud, after 26 years, ELLE fired me. I don't blame Elle. It was the great honor of my life writing 'Ask E. Jean.' I blame @realdonaldtrump.'

Trump has denied E. Jean Carroll's rape allegations claiming she was 'totally lying' to sell her new book, was 'not my type' and that he had 'never met' her

E. Jean Carroll, a longtime New York advice columnist, alleged in a July 2019 article that Trump raped her in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman in New York City in either 1995 or 1996

Carroll wrote the 'Ask E. Jean' column for Elle Magazine for 25 years until her contract was terminated early in early 2020

Biden's Justice Department continued the former president's defense saying he can't be held liable for his 'crude and disrespectful' comments because he was acting within his scope as president at the time.

DOJ lawyers told the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan that responding to allegations of misconduct falls within the official job role of a president.

Under this argument, the DOJ said, Trump was acting 'within the scope of employment' as president of the United States when he denied sexually assaulting Carroll more than two decades before he took office.

'Speaking to the public and the press on matters of public concern is undoubtedly part of an elected official's job,' they wrote.

This means the DOJ, as the federal government - as his employer at the time - should serve as defendant rather than Trump personally, the DOJ argued.

If the defendant is shifted from Trump to the DOJ this would likely lead to the lawsuit being dismissed, as the government cannot be sued for defamation.

It would also push the financial burden of defending the former president onto the American taxpayer.

'The President of the United States is not an employee of the Government within the meaning of the relevant statutes,' Kaplan wrote in his decision on the DOJ's request last October.

'Even if he were such an employee, President Trump's allegedly defamatory statements concerning Ms. Carroll would not have been within the scope of his employment,' the judge wrote.

Meanwhile, the appeal of Kaplan's decision against allowing the DOJ to serve as the sole defendant continues, with oral arguments scheduled for Nov. 29.
Australia will build a nuclear-powered submarine fleet in a major new alliance with the US and Britain to counter the worrying rise of China in the Pacific.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Thursday morning unveiled Australia's role in a landmark tripartite security group, known by the acronym 'AUKUS', to switch to nuclear-powered submarines with help from its two biggest allies.

Mr Morrison was joined virtually for the historic press conference by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and US President Joe Biden - who at one point during the announcement appeared to forget the Australian leader's name.

'Thank you Boris. I want to thank that fella Down Under. Thank you very much pal,' Mr Biden said.

The announcement means Australia will walk away from its controversial deal to spend up to $90billion buying French diesel-powered submarines.

This is the first time Australia has embraced nuclear power after decades of debate - and the first time the US and UK have shared their nuclear submarine technology with another nation.

AUKUS will also allow the three allies to share the latest technology in artificial intelligence, underwater systems and long-range strike capabilities.

However Mr Morrison stressed Australia is not going to acquire nuclear weapons or use nuclear power to help fuel the national power grid.

Australia has at least 40 per cent of the world's uranium supplies and the new submarine deal could pave the way for the country to embrace nuclear power to drastically reduce carbon emissions.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Thursday morning unveiled Australia's plan to build its own nuclear-powered submarine fleet alongside US President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson

Pictured: The Sheean in Tasmania in April. The deal will mean Australia will walk away from its controversial deal to spend up to $90 billion buying French diesel-powered submarines

The move has been described as 'China's Worst Nightmare' in a strategic bid to counter its influence in the region

Why Australia needed a new deal with the UK and the US: Australia's defence capabilities are dwarfed by those of China

The move towards a nuclear Australia has been described as 'China's Worst Nightmare' in a strategic bid to counter its influence in the region - especially in the South China Sea.

'Our world is becoming more complex, especially here in our region  the Indo-Pacific. This affects us all. The future of the Indo-Pacific will impact all our futures,' Mr Morrison said.

'To meet these challenges, to help deliver the security and stability our region needs, we must now take our partnership to a new level.

'So AUKUS is born  a partnership where our technology, our scientists, our industry, our Defence Forces, are all working together to deliver a safer and more secure region that ultimately benefits all.'

Mr Morrison said the submarines would be developed over the next 18 months and built in Adelaide in co-operation with the US and the UK.

Officials have said the vessels will be quieter and more capable than Australia's existing fleet and will 'deter' China's ambitions in the far East.

Neither the Australian leader or his UK and US counterparts made no direct mention of the Chinese government in Thursday's announcement.

He added the deal did not violate Australia's commitment to nuclear non-proliferation treaties

Mr Johnson described the project as 'one of the most complex and technically demanding in the world'.

'Lasting for decades and requiring the most advanced technology,' he said.

The announcement came just days before Mr Morrison travels to Washington DC for the first in-person summit of the four 'Quad' nations - Australia, US, Japan and India.

Pictured: Chinese ships docked at Garden Island Naval Base in Sydney Harbour in June 2019

Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison pictured centre during a virtual press conference on Thursday morning with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and US President Joe Biden

Australia will follow its allies the US and UK, which both use nuclear technology, by building its own nuclear-powered submarine fleet

Jacinda Ardern vows to BAN Australias new nuclear-powered submarines from New Zealand waters just minutes after alliance with US and Britain to build them is announced Australia's new nuclear submarine fleet won't be welcome in New Zealand, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has warned. The new submarines are the centrepiece of a new security deal - known as AUKUS - agreed to by Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom and announced on Thursday morning. New Zealand has been left out of the alliance, despite being a member of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network, along with AUKUS members and Canada. The Kiwi leader said the formation of AUKUS 'in no way changes our security and intelligence ties with these three countries'. 'We welcome the increased engagement of the UK and US in the region and reiterate our collective objective needs to be the delivery of peace and stability and the preservation of the international rules based system,' she said. Ms Ardern was briefed on the alliance by Scott Morrison on Wednesday night. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has warned Australia's new nuclear submarine fleet won't be welcome in New Zealand On Thursday morning, she made clear the submarines would not be welcome in New Zealand's waters, in line with a long-held policy. New Zealand has been staunchly nuclear-free for decades, earning the ire of the United States by declining visits from nuclear-powered ships. 'New Zealand is first and foremost a nation of the Pacific and we view foreign policy developments through the lens of what is in the best interest of the region,' she said. 'New Zealand's position in relation to the prohibition of nuclear powered vessels in our waters remains unchanged.' New Zealand's opposition has rung the alarm over the deal, saying they've been cut out of the new defence pact. 'It's disappointing that after many years of New Zealand's co-operation with our traditional allies, the current Government appears to have been unable to participate in discussions for 'AUKUS',' opposition National leader Judith Collins said. 'New Zealand's strong nuclear-free stance shouldn't have been a barrier to us joining such a partnership. We could have been carved out of the nuclear aspect of the partnership,' Ms Collins says. Advertisement

US foreign policy analyst Zack Cooper said the deal was a major step in the US-Australian alliance in the far East.

'There is a very clear logic for why Australia should acquire nuclear-powered submarines,' the American Enterprise Institute senior fellow told ABC News.

'They [nuclear-powered submarines] are going to be much more capable in the large, expansive oceans that Australia has to deal with.

'This makes sense for Australia strategically but it also makes sense for the US. We need Australia to be doing more in its own region, and this is the kind of capability that will let them do that.'

Australia's relationship with China has become increasingly hostile ever since Mr Morrison demanded an inquiry into the origins of the Covid pandemic, which originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019.

Arbitrary bans and trade tariffs were imposed on billions of dollars worth of key Australian exports to China including barley, wine, beef, cotton, seafood, coal, cobber and timber.

Senior Australian ministers were involved in late-night meetings on the top-secret shipbuilding program on Wednesday, with Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese and other senior Labor MPs briefed on the matter.

The Prime Minister reportedly held concerns French-owned shipbuilder Naval Group would be unable to deliver submarines until 2030 with deadline and price disputes.

HMAS Rankin conducts helicopter transfers in Cockburn Sound, Western Australia in February

Mr Morrison is said to have tried to speak with the French President Emmanuel

Macron on Wednesday regarding the new deal.

News of Australia's decision was instead reportedly disclosed to Paris by the secretary of the Defence Department, Greg Moriarty, the ABC reported.

The Australian Naval Institute has repeatedly criticised the troubled French submarine project while welcoming the use of nuclear technology.

China has inflamed tensions in the South China Sea in recent years by expanding its claimed territory, to the objection of its neighbors in the Asia-Pacific

'With regional tensions increasing, then building our own one-off type submarines which will arrive in the early 2030s is not good enough. We have no guarantee they will work,' the article stated.

'When we built the Collins class submarines (at exorbitant expense) they did not work properly for several years.

'Instead we should buy 12 of a proven design which is already in the water. We want long-range hunter-killer vessels. We also want them to be able to stay submerged for long periods to avoid detection. Nuclear does this in spades.'

It is speculated the US had planned to operate some of its nuclear submarines from Perth's naval base HMAS Stirling.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison (pictured) made the major security announcement on Thursday morning

Thursday's announcement is one of a string of initiatives designed to demonstrate Washington's global role after the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Mr Biden will next week host leaders of the Quad nations  made up of Australia, India, Japan and the United States  which have been coordinating against China's growing reach.

'Hosting the leaders of the Quad demonstrates the Biden-Harris administration's priority of engaging in the Indo-Pacific, including through new multilateral configurations to meet the challenges of the 21st century, said Press Secretary Jen Psaki as she announced the September 24 summit in a statement.

Why is Australia building nuclear-powered submarines? Why nuclear submarines? Nuclear submarines are powered by nuclear reactors which produce heat that creates high-pressured steam to spin turbines and power the boat's propeller. They can run for about 20 years before needing to refuel, meaning food supplies are the only limit on time at sea. The boats are also very quiet, making it harder for enemies to detect them and can travel at top speed - about 40kmh - for longer than diesel-powered subs. The first nuclear submarines were put to sea by the United States in the 1950s. They are now also in use by Russia, France, the United Kingdom, China, and India. A senior US defence official told reporters in Washington DC: 'This will give Australia the capability for their submarines to basically deploy for a longer period, they're quieter, they're much more capable. 'They will allow us to sustain and to improve deterrence across the Indo-Pacific.' Zack Cooper, a senior fellow with the American Enterprise Institute, said nuclear submarines would hugely boost Australia's military capability. 'They are going to be much, much more capable in the large, expansive ocean that is Australia has to deal with,' he told the ABC. Will Australia have nuclear weapons? Scott Morrison made it clear that the nuclear-power submarines will not have nuclear missiles on board. Australia has never produced nuclear weapons and signed the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in 1973 which prevents non-nuclear states which don't already have them from developing nuclear weapons. Mr Morrison also said the Australia has no plans to build nuclear power stations which are widely used around the world. 'But let me be clear, Australia is not seeking to acquire nuclear weapons or establish a civil nuclear capability,' he said. 'And we will continue to meet all our nuclear non-proliferation obligations.' Are they safe? The nuclear reactors are shielded from the rest of the submarine in a separate section to protect the crew from dangerous radiation. The US has an excellent safety record with its nuclear-powered fleet although early Russian subs suffered a few accidents which caused 20 servicemen to die from radiation exposure between 1960 and 1985. At the end of their 20-year lifetimes, the contaminated parts of nuclear reactors need to be disposed deep underground in special waste storage cells. Anti-nuclear campaigners say any leaks of radioactive waste could lead to an environmental disaster. Greens leader Adam Bandt called the submarines 'floating Chernobyls' in reference to the 1986 nuclear power plant explosion in the Soviet Union. Why now? Australia needs to replace its six ageing Collins-class submarines. In 2016 it signed a deal with French Company Naval Group to build 12 diesel-electric attack subs - but the parties were in dispute over the amount of building that would be done in Australia. That deal has now been torn up in favour of nuclear powered subs aided by the US and UK who will provide the technology to Australia. The West is becoming increasingly concerned about the growing assertiveness of China in the Indo-Pacific region where it has made huge territorial claims in the South and East China seas, clashed with Indian troops and repeatedly flown planes over Taiwan. Mr Morrison wants Australia to have serious defence capability to deter China from encroaching in the Pacific and long-range nuclear submarines are just the ticket. China has vastly built up its military in the past few years and now possesses six Shang-class nuclear powered attack submarines, equipped with torpedoes and cruise missiles. Advertisement

She added the leaders will discuss Covid-19, the climate crisis, emerging technologies, and promoting a 'free and open Indo-Pacific' - diplomatic speak for countering China's ambitions.

Bill Hagerty, Republican senator and former ambassador to Japan, welcomed the plan after the 'debacle' of the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

'Biden's Afghanistan withdrawal debacle made India's neighborhood more dangerous & raises legitimate questions for Japan and Australia as well, so it's good we will be hosting Quad partners soon,' he said on Twitter.

'We must repair & renew our alliances, and this one is key.'

Officials are increasingly concerned at the way China is laying claim to the South China Sea, ignoring other nations territorial claims (pictured, Chinese troops marching during a military parade in Tiananmen Square in Beijing)

SCOTT MORRISON'S 'AUKUS' ANNOUNCEMENT IN FULL Good morning from Australia. I am very pleased to join two great friends of freedom and of Australia, Prime Minister Johnson and President Biden. Today, we join our nations in a next generation partnership, built on a strong foundation of proven trust. We have always seen the world through a similar lens. We have always believed in a world that favours freedom, that respects human dignity, the rule of law, the independence of sovereign states and the peaceful fellowship of nations. And while we have always looked to each other to do what we believe is right, we have never left it to each other. Always together, never alone. Our world is becoming more complex, especially here in our region, the Indo-Pacific. This affects us all. The future of the Indo-Pacific will impact all our futures. To meet these challenges, to help deliver the security and stability our region needs, we must now take our partnership to a new level. A partnership that seeks to engage, not to exclude. To contribute, not take. And to enable and empower, not to control or coerce. And so, friends, AUKUS is born. A new enhanced trilateral security partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States - AUKUS. A partnership where our technology, our scientists, our industry, our defence forces are all working together to deliver a safer and more secure region that ultimately benefits all. AUKUS will also enhance our contribution to our growing network of partnerships in the Indo-Pacific region - ANZUS, our ASEAN friends, our bilateral strategic partners, the Quad, Five Eyes countries and, of course, our dear Pacific family. The first major initiative of AUKUS will be to deliver a nuclear-powered submarine fleet for Australia. Over the next eighteen months we will work together to seek to determine the best way forward to achieve this. This will include an intense examination of what we need to do to exercise our nuclear stewardship responsibilities here in Australia. We intend to build these submarines in Adelaide, Australia, in close cooperation with the United Kingdom and the United States. But let me be clear, Australia is not seeking to acquire nuclear weapons or establish a civil nuclear capability. And we will continue to meet all our nuclear non-proliferation obligations. Australia has a long history of defence cooperation with the United States and the United Kingdom. For more than a century, we have stood together for the cause of peace and freedom. Motivated by the beliefs we share, sustained by the bonds of friendship we have forged, enabled by the sacrifice of those who have gone before us, and inspired by our shared hope for those who will follow us. And so, today, friends, we recommit ourselves to this cause and a new AUKUS vision. Advertisement

Officials are increasingly concerned at the way China is laying claim to the South China Sea, ignoring other nations territorial claims.

Under current international law Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines, Indonesia, China and Taiwan all claim a portion of the South China Sea.

A Congressional report from earlier in July found China 'gaining effective control' of the region in recent years, which is rich in oil and natural gas deposits, by increasing their military presence and building up artificial islands.

As a result, the US and allies make frequent 'freedom of navigation' voyages through international waters in the region, drawing angry rebukes from Beijing.
Dominic Raab grimaced but said nothing as a reporter shouted at him: 'Are you going to have more time to spend on holiday?'

Technically, Mr Raab was entering No10 to learn if he was to be reappointed as Foreign Secretary in the reshuffle.

But he already knew his fate, having come straight from a tense meeting with Boris Johnson in which the Prime Minister rejected his plea to keep his job. The walk up the street was purely for show.

To complete the humiliation, he then had to pose for a formal picture for his new role as Justice Secretary.

He did not manage a smile. By contrast, his successor Liz Truss positively beamed as she strode up Downing Street to be appointed as the Tories' first female Foreign Secretary.

And Nadine Dorries looked stunned in her own official portrait after being handed the job of Culture Secretary in one of the surprise moves of the reshuffle.

Earlier, Miss Dorries  a one-time rent-a-quote and former reality TV contestant  had stood and gossiped with reporters about the reshuffle, apparently unaware she was to be handed a Cabinet job.

Yesterday's reshuffle had a long gestation. When Mr Johnson gathered senior aides in Downing Street on Sunday afternoon to finalise his shake-up it was the culmination of months of planning.

Yesterday's reshuffle had a long gestation. When Boris Johnson gathered senior aides in Downing Street on Sunday afternoon to finalise his shake-up it was the culmination of months of planning

Dominic Raab (pictured left today) and Gavin Williamson (pictured right on Tuesday) were humiliated last night as they were ousted from their Cabinet jobs in the reshuffle. Mr Raab was removed as Foreign Secretary in the wake of his disastrous handling of the crisis in Afghanistan. Mr Williamson was sacked as Education Secretary after his calamitous tenure saw chaos in schools during the pandemic, including on exams.

No10: It was nothing to do with Carrie... Downing Street denied that the Prime Minister's wife Carrie Johnson had played any role in yesterday's Cabinet reshuffle. It came after it was branded the 'Carrie reshuffle' by Boris Johnson's former aide Dominic Cummings. Downing Street denied that the Prime Minister's wife Carrie Johnson (pictured) had played any role in yesterday's Cabinet reshuffle But when asked if she had been consulted, a Downing Street spokesman said: 'No.' She has previously been accused of interfering after figures she was believed to be close to were promoted, such as Sajid Javid being made Health Secretary and John Whittingdale as culture minister. Advertisement

The Prime Minister had been frustrated that key parts of his agenda were not being seen to be delivered, but had felt constrained from acting by the demands of the Covid crisis.

Aides had first prepared to hold the reshuffle in July.

But the unexpected departure of Matt Hancock as Health Secretary after being filmed kissing an aide made it less urgent and the PM's enforced self-isolation at the end of the month made it logistically impossible.

Mr Johnson had toyed with the idea of delaying the shake-up until after next month's Conservative Party conference, but finally decided at the weekend that it made no sense to give a platform to failing ministers who were destined to be sacked.

After a fortnight of speculation, the Westminster rumour mill went into overdrive yesterday morning as Government drivers were put on standby to whisk ministers to Downing Street.

It was finally confirmed at lunchtime when No 10 took the unusual step of denying claims by former top aide Dominic Cummings that the PM had consulted his wife Carrie on who to hire and fire.

The formal reshuffle did not begin until after Prime Minister's Questions when the PM and senior aides hunkered down in his Commons office to conduct the sackings away from prying eyes.

As nervous MPs clutched their phones and awaited news of their political futures, journalists swarmed to catch a glimpse of the comings and goings.

Amanda Milling was spotted looking miserable after being sacked as Conservative Party co-chairman and a grim-faced Robert Buckland was also seen leaving after being fired as Justice Secretary.

Amanda Milling (pictured on Tuesday) was spotted looking miserable after being sacked as Conservative Party co-chairman

A grim-faced Robert Buckland (pictured on Tuesday) was also seen leaving after being fired as Justice Secretary

Meanwhile, Miss Truss and Oliver Dowden were having a relaxed lunch with colleagues in the Members' Dining Room before they were handed new jobs by the PM.

Mr Dowden was later moved from Culture Secretary to party co-chairman.According to the Daily Telegraph, he reportedly told his staff yesterday: 'It's time to go to our offices and prepare for the next election.'

Education brief for the former child refugee Nadhim Zahawi, who arrived in Britain as a nine-year-old boy unable to speak English, was promoted to Education Secretary yesterday, replacing Gavin Williamson. The former health minister was rewarded with a Cabinet role after the successful rollout of vaccines across the UK. Mr Zahawi, 54, who fled Iraq under Saddam Hussein with his family when he was a child, gave a double-thumbs up as he left No 10 yesterday after accepting his new job. The MP for Stratford-on-Avon will face a difficult brief at the Department for Education, which has struggled to manage the virus's impact on schooling during the pandemic and it will be a tough job to win back the trust of parents. But, as a former schools minister before his promotion to vaccines minister, he has experience of the department. He said: 'From my own experience, I know what a beacon of opportunity this country can be and I want all children, young people and adults to have access to a brilliant education, the right qualifications and opportunities to secure good jobs. 'That's both vital for them and also our economy and is more important now than ever before.' Mary Bousted of the NEU teaching union, said: 'We hope that Nadhim Zahawi shows a passion and an interest in education and realises the power that valued education professionals have to transform the lives of young people.' Geoff Barton of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: 'The Department for Education may now be under new management but the same challenges remain.' Mr Zahawi was privately-educated at King's College School in west London. He studied chemical engineering at University College London. One of the wealthiest members of Parliament, he set up polling company YouGov. He is said to have a property empire worth around 100million. Advertisement

Meanwhile, Gavin Williamson had already been told he would be departing as Education Secretary after a miserable run that saw his approval ratings among Tory activists fall to an incredible minus 53.

He gave a farewell speech to staff in his department before the reshuffle was even underway.

Eyes are said to have remained dry.

When he was summoned to the Commons, the former chief whip made a brief appeal to the PM to return to his former role, but Mr Johnson stamped on the idea immediately.

Friends said Mr Williamson was philosophical about his brutal removal and believed he might yet have one more comeback in him.

Mr Johnson is said to have been 'pained' by his conversation with the blameless Mr Buckland.

One senior Tory MP said his only failing was that he was 'a middle-aged white man' in a reshuffle that emphasised diversity.

But this was nothing compared to the bust-up with Mr Raab, who battled for more than half an hour to keep his job.

It is believed Mr Raab insisted that he would not accept a demotion from the role of foreign secretary.

He reminded the PM he had stood in for him when his life was in the balance at the height of the pandemic last year.

And he defended his record on Afghanistan, which has faced intense criticism following his decision to stay on holiday as Kabul fell to the Taliban.

The PM, flanked by his chief of staff Dan Rosenfield and his chief whip Mark Spencer, was said to be sympathetic but unmoved.

After what one source described as a 'negotiation' between the two men, the PM offered to throw in the grand, but largely meaningless, title of Deputy Prime Minister to soften what was otherwise a harsh demotion.

The last time it was used was in 2015 by Nick Clegg - then Liberal Democrat leader - during the 2010-2015 coalition government.

Downing Street insiders said the PM had planned to move Mr Raab to justice for months, describing the former lawyer as a 'round peg in a round hole' there.

His fate was sealed not so much by his conduct over Afghanistan as by his toxic falling-out with Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, a close personal friend of the PM.

Mr Raab is said to have felt that he was being wrongly blamed for the government's failings over the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, one government source reportedly told the Times that Mr Raab had now become the 'Angela Rayner of the cabinet'.

The joke is a reference to an incident in May when Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer attempted to demote deputy leader Ms Rayner - only for her to emerge with four titles.

Meanwhile, Miss Truss (pictured) and Oliver Dowden were having a relaxed lunch with colleagues in the Members' Dining Room before they were handed new jobs by the PM

After the sackings, Mr Johnson was smuggled out of Parliament to Downing Street. Ministers were called in to the Cabinet room one-by-one to be handed their roles by him.

They were then taken to the State Dining Rooms to have their official pictures taken in front of a pair of Union flags.

Downing Street said the reshuffle was designed to create a 'united' team and Mr Johnson certainly rewarded loyalty.

Both Miss Truss and Miss Dorries have proved unswervingly loyal to the PM. Michael Gove had made little secret of his desire to move to the Foreign Office, but insiders said the PM had long favoured Miss Truss.

A source said: 'Michael wanted it, but it was always going to be Liz.'

Mr Gove's official portrait records that, like Mr Raab, he could not muster a smile.

Meanwhile, Mr Johnson is reportedly due to reshuffle his non-cabinet ministers later today, according to the Times.

The paper says the promotions will likely include a number of Tory MPs who won their seats in the 2019 election and that it could lead to a clear out of 'pale, male' ministers.

A Government source also told the Telegraph: 'The Prime Minister wants optimistic, can-do, determined, smart people who will run their departments very effectively and deliver for the public.'
Care homes face catastrophic staff shortages unless the Government scraps a deadline for workers to be vaccinated against coronavirus, unions have warned.

Unison said ministers should abandon the 'no jab, no job' policy, while the GMB warned of an exodus of staff.

Care workers have to get their first vaccine by September 15 and be double jabbed by November 11 or be banned from entering care homes in England.

Unison said the policy was partly to blame for a 'severe staffing crisis', adding that many care agencies can no longer provide emergency cover.

The union warned that care homes could close, and urged the Government to concentrate on persuading hesitant workers of the benefits of having the jab rather than resorting to threats and ultimatums.

Care homes face catastrophic staff shortages unless the Government scraps a deadline for workers to be vaccinated against coronavirus, unions have warned

The policy affects as many as 1.5million workers and was introduced following a consultation which concluded it would help protect the most vulnerable in society.

Ministers are concerned about low take-up of the vaccine among care workers  who include care home staff plus home helps.

But Unison general secretary Christina McAnea said: 'Everyone that can have the vaccine, should have the vaccine, but the Government has persisted with a heavy-handed approach, despite warnings from care employers of the dire consequences.

'This move is damaging a sector already on its knees and undermining trust in the vaccine.

'Instead of encouraging much-needed recruitment into care, the Government is actively driving experienced staff away.'

The GMB estimated that up to 70,000 care home workers in England may not be fully vaccinated by the November 11 deadline.

GMB national officer Rachel Harrison said: 'Forcing vaccination of our key workers is not the way to address vaccine hesitancy.

'Care is already facing a staffing black hole of 170,000. Even in a best-case scenario we will lose tens of thousands of key workers if the jab is forced on them.'
Melton Mowbray may be the home of that meaty treat the pork pie.

But vegan fare is leading the field to be named upper crust at the British Pie Awards in the Leicestershire town.

The plant-based category has attracted the most entries this year with nearly 70 competitors.

It follows a controversial triumph for vegan pies after their introduction to the awards in 2019 when, to the surprise of traditionalists, the overall winner was a curried sweet potato, butternut squash and spinach creation.

Matthew O'Callaghan, chairman of the Melton Mowbray Pork Pie Association and a vegetarian, said it had initially been 'a challenge' to convince locals that vegan options had a place in the contest.

But 'we wanted to make the pie awards inclusive', he told The Guardian. 'I know it's a bandwagon  a lot of butchers and others are entering the vegan class to test new recipes and flavours. But I don't think the classics are going anywhere. Steak and ale is always in the top three.'

Vegan fare is leading the field to be named upper crust at the British Pie Awards, with the plant-based category attracting the most entries this year with nearly 70 competitors

After a ceremony to bless the pies, the 150 judges began inspecting 800 entries across 23 categories

Stephen Hallam, a former managing director of Dickinson and Morris, the oldest makers of Melton Mowbray pork pies, said vegan pies were 'bang on trend'.

'Once it was all about meat and two veg but we're more adventurous with our food,' he added.

The contest was postponed in March because of Covid but began yesterday in its usual setting of St Mary's Church. After a ceremony to bless the pies, the 150 judges began inspecting 800 entries across 23 categories. The winners will be announced tomorrow.

Other 'free-from' entries proving popular include pies without gluten and next year there might be a halal class, said Mr O'Callaghan.

He stressed the importance of all entries being proper pies under a definition backed by Parliament.

'A pie is a filling completely encased in pastry and baked,' he said. 'So it's not samosas, which are not baked, it's not tarts, it's not fripperty things with lattices and all those sorts of things.'

The contest was postponed in March because of Covid but began yesterday in its usual setting of St Mary's Church
A court has overturned the murder conviction of an American cop who shot dead Australian woman Justine Ruszczyk Damond.

Rookie cop Mohamed Noor was convicted of third-degree murder after shooting Ms Damond in Minneapolis on July 15, 2017, and jailed for 12-and-a-half years.

But the Minnesota Supreme Court overnight quashed the conviction on a legal technicality and ordered his sentence to be reduced.

The court agreed with his lawyers that the specific wording of the 'depraved mind' murder charge he was convicted of was not justified by his actions.

In 2019, Minneapolis cop Mohamed Noor shot dead Justine Ruszczyk Damond, an Australian-American woman who called 911. He was convicted of murder but had the conviction overturned on Wednesday

He is two years into his sentence and it is unclear how much it will be reduced by - but it is likely to be less than the 10 years he was facing.

Ten years is the maximum sentence for second degree manslaughter. There is no minimum.

Noor's lawyers said he was scared when the 40-year-old yoga teacher appeared at the window of his squad car with a 'thump'.

Ms Damond called 911, the American equivalent of 000, claiming to have heard a woman screaming in the alley beside her home.

She feared it was a sexual assault and ran outside when the cop car arrived, approaching it from behind.

Noor pulled his trigger, killing her at the scene. He never testified, nor was he interviewed by police.

The only information his lawyers gave was that he may have been scared of her - even though she was unarmed.

Damond had called the police after hearing a woman screaming near her home. As she approached the police vehicle, Noor fired his gun at her from the passenger seat.

Neither Noor nor his partner had their body cameras turned on for the shooting but Noor is shown afterwards, with his head in his hands, while his partner tells him to keep his mouth 'shut'

There is no bodycam of the actual shooting but there is of what happened next - when Noor's partner told him to 'keep his mouth shut'.

The Supreme Court justices ruled that the 'depraved mind' portion of the murder charge was not fitting.

His attorney focused on the legal wording of the 'depraved mind' section of the charge, which specifies he was acting in a way that put 'others' in danger.

His attorneys claimed that he wasn't, because he was a cop and doing his duty.

'Noor was carrying out his duties as an officer, acted in a split second and directed his actions at a specific person out of fear that his partner's life was in danger from an ambush,' he said.

The Supreme Court judges agreed. The victim's family have not yet reacted to the court's decision.

In their defence of him at trial, Noor's attorneys said he was just doing his job.

Damond is pictured with her fiance Don. She had both American and Australian citizenship

The home in Minneapolis where Damond lived with her fiance in 2017. She ran out of it after hearing screams from the alley and approached a cop car

'Mr Noor reacted to a dark alley in the middle of the night, a thump on the squad, a voice, a body appearing at the driver's side window, the startled announcement of fear by officer Harrity as he reached for his firearm, and his observation that the person in the window was raising their right arm.

'A prison sentence only punishes Mr. Noor for a culture that he didn't create and, by all accounts, a culture that he would have liked to see change himself.

'What really caused this (tragedy) is the fear that continues to permeate our society.

'The police are afraid of the people, the people are afraid of the police,' attorney Thomas Blunkett said.

Ms Damond's family won a $20 million settlement from The City of Minneapolis after filing a wrongful death lawsuit.

Her fiance, Don Damond, last year condemned the Minneapolis Police Department for not doing more to change the culture within the department after the death of George Floyd at the hands of Derek Chauvin.

'Other than body camera policy, can you point to what has changed? Can you point to anything that has changed? I cant,' he said in an interview last year.
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Nadhim Zahawi, who arrived in Britain as a nine-year-old boy unable to speak English, was promoted to Education Secretary yesterday, replacing Gavin Williamson.

The former health minister was rewarded with a Cabinet role after the successful rollout of vaccines across the UK.

Mr Zahawi, 54, who fled Iraq under Saddam Hussein with his family when he was a child, gave a double-thumbs up as he left No 10 yesterday after accepting his new job.

The MP for Stratford-on-Avon will face a difficult brief at the Department for Education, which has struggled to manage the virus's impact on schooling during the pandemic.

And it will be a tough job to win back the trust of parents following a series of debacles over exams and school 'bubbles'.

Nadhim Zahawi, the new Education Secretary, puts his thumbs up as he leaves 10 Downing Street in Westminster yesterday

Mr Zahawi kisses Boris Johnson's wife Carrie at the 2019 Conservative Party Conference in Manchester in September 2019

Nadhim Zahawi (right) is pictured in his flat at Redcliffe Square in Brompton, West London, with designer Broosk Saib (left)

Mr Zahawi walks through the Birmingham Conference Centre with then prime minister David Cameron in 2010

But, as a former schools minister before his promotion to vaccines minister, he has experience of the department.

He said: 'From my own experience, I know what a beacon of opportunity this country can be and I want all children, young people and adults to have access to a brilliant education, the right qualifications and opportunities to secure good jobs.

Father-of-three Mr Zahawi is pictured in October 1996

'That's both vital for them and also our economy and is more important now than ever before.'

Mr Williamson's time as education secretary was marred by rows, most notably over the A-level and GCSE results debacle last summer.

Education groups yesterday gave a cautious welcome to Mr Zahawi's appointment.

Mary Bousted, joint-general secretary of the NEU teaching union, said: 'We hope that Nadhim Zahawi shows a passion and an interest in education and realises the power that valued education professionals have to transform the lives of young people.'

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: 'The Department for Education may now be under new management but the same challenges remain.

'More ambition is needed on post-Covid education recovery, investment in schools and colleges, support for children with special educational needs, and closing the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers.'

Mr Zahawi was privately-educated at King's College School in West London and University College London where he studied chemical engineering.

Nahim Zahawi speaks to journalists in 1999 on the South Bank in London when he was part of Jeffrey Archer's campaign team

Mr Zahawi in 2004 after being knocked of his moped on Albert Embankment - before the moped was given a parking ticket

Mr Zahawi receives an AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccination in Lewisham, South East London, on March 19

One of the wealthiest members of Parliament, he went on to be named 'entrepreneur of the year' by Ernst & Young and set up successful polling company YouGov.

He is said to have a property empire worth around 100million.

The father-of-three was elected MP in 2010 - the first Kurdish Iraqi to be elected to Parliament.

The Brexit-supporting minister is trusted by Number 10 and is a regular feature on the morning media round.

Geoff Barton (left) of the Association of School and College Leaders, said the 'same challenges remain', while Mary Bousted (right) of the NEU teaching union, said she hopes Nadhim Zahawi 'shows a passion and an interest in education'

Despite initially backing Dominic Raab for Conservative party leader in 2019, he has been loyal to Mr Johnson ever since.

He was previously children's minister from January 2018 to July 2019, during which time he attended the controversial Presidents Club Ball.

He was said to have been given a dressing down by the chief whip after complaints of sexism and harassment at the all-male gathering for the business elite.

During the MPs expenses scandal, he was forced to apologise for claiming taxpayers' money to heat his stables on his Warwickshire estate.
US President Joe Biden appeared to forget Scott Morrison's name while announcing America and Britain will help Australia build a nuclear-powered submarine fleet.

The prime minister joined Mr Biden and British PM Boris Johnson in a historic three-way press conference to unveil the 'AUKUS' alliance to counter the worrying rise of China in the Pacific.

But Mr Biden seemed lost recalling his Australian PM's name as he thanked the other two leaders who spoke before him.

'Thank you Boris, and I want to thank...' he began, before an awkward pause in which he turned and pointed to the screen with Mr Morrison's smiling face.

'That fella Down Under... Thank you very much pal... Appreciate it Mr Prime Minister,' he continued.

Australia will follow its allies the US and UK, which both use nuclear technology, by building its own nuclear-powered submarine fleet

Media commentators were quick to point out the 'awkward' gaffe.

'A very political announcement,' Today show host Karl Stefanovic said after the press conference was aired live.

'But that fella from Down Under, I mean totally awks.'

Nine political editor Chris Uhlmann replied: 'Almost as awkward as the acronym AUKUS, Australia, United Kingdom and United States.'

Americans, Australians, and Britons quickly flocked to social media to have a chuckle at the bizarre moment.

'Just a public speaking tip - if youre going to mention someone by name WRITE IT DOWN,' one American woman Tweeted.

'How did you not remember the prime minister's name? That was honestly so embarrassing.'

British journalist Graeme Demianyk wrote: 'Biden calls the Australian prime minister "that fella down under" and tosses in a "thank you very much, pal".'

'Im definitely a "thanks, mate" kind of guy if I forget someones name.'

'AUKUS getting off to a great start with Biden not knowing Scott Morrisons name,' another wrote.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Thursday morning unveiled Australia's role in a historic tripartite security group alongside US President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson

The deal will mean Australia will walk away from its controversial deal to spend up to $90 billion buying French diesel-powered submarines.

This is the first time Australia has embraced nuclear power after decades of debate - and the first time the US and UK have shared their nuclear submarine technology with another nation.

Mr Morrison said though Australia has no plans to acquire nuclear weapons or build its own nuclear power capabilities.

Australia has at least 40 per cent of the world's uranium supplies and the new submarine deal could pave the way for the country to embrace nuclear power to drastically reduce carbon emissions.

The move towards a nuclear Australia has been described as 'China's worst nightmare' in a strategic bid to counter its influence in the region - especially in the South China Sea.

'Our world is becoming more complex, especially here in our region  the Indo-Pacific. This affects us all. The future of the Indo-Pacific will impact all our futures,' Mr Morrison said.

HMAS Rankin conducts helicopter transfers in Cockburn Sound, Western Australia in February

Pictured: The USS Rafael Peralta (DDG 115) is seen firing the 5-inch gun for Naval Surface Fire Support during Exercise Talisman Sabre 2021 in Queensland

'To meet these challenges, to help deliver the security and stability our region needs, we must now take our partnership to a new level.

'So AUUKUS is born  a partnership where our technology, our scientists, our industry, our defence forces, are all working together to deliver a safer and more secure region that ultimately benefits all.'

Mr Morrison said the submarines would be built in Adelaide in co-operation with the US and the UK.

Thursday's announcement came just days before Mr Morrison travels to Washington for the first in-person summit of the four 'Quad' nations - Australia, US, Japan, and India.

JOE BIDEN'S FORGETFULNESS GAFFES CALLING KAMALA HARRIS 'PRESIDENT HARRIS' In March, Biden accidentally referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as 'President Harris.' The gaffe occurred during a press conference on Thursday, during which he lauded his administration for being close to meeting their goal of 100 million COVID-19 vaccine doses in his first 100 days in office. 'Now when President Harris and I took a virtual tour of a vaccination center in Arizona not long ago, one of the nurses on that, on that tour injecting people, giving vaccinations, said that each shot was like administering a dose of hope,' Biden said. Harris was standing behind Biden as the president carried on with his speech, but did not correct himself. FORGOT NAME OF SECRETARY OF DEFENSE In a speech on March 9, Biden seemed to fumble with his words and forget the name of his Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. 'I want to thank Sec - the former general - I keep calling him "General,"' Biden said. 'My - the guy who runs that outfit over there. I want to make sure we thank the Secretary for all he's done to try to implement what we've just talked about, and for recommending these two women for promotion.' The slip-occurred despite the fact that just a few minutes earlier, he had mentioned Austin's name in the speech without an issue. INTRODUCES GRANDDAUGHTER AS HIS SON During an Election Day speech in Philadelphia, Biden stumbled over his words and confused his granddaughter with his late son, Beau Biden. Biden told the crowd: 'I want to introduce you to two of my granddaughters...this is my son, Beau Biden who a lot of you helped elect to the Senate in Delaware.' The commander-in-chief had meant to introduce the crowd to Natalie, Beau's daughter, but hadn't just mixed up the name but the person - he also put his arm around Finnegan Biden, Hunter's daughter. He finally corrected himself as he draped his arm around Natalie's shoulder and said: 'This is Natalie, this is Beau's daughter.' Beau Biden passed away in 2015 after a months-long battle with glioblastoma, one of the deadliest types of brain cancer. Advertisement

Australia's relationship with China has become increasingly hostile ever since Mr Morrison demanded an inquiry into the origins of the Covid pandemic, which originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019.

Arbitrary bans and trade tariffs were imposed on billions of dollars worth of key Australian exports to China including barley, wine, beef, cotton, seafood, coal, cobber and timber.

Australia is now set to follow its allies the US and UK, who both use nuclear technology, with speculation it would tear up the submarine deal with France.

Senior Australian ministers were involved in a flurry of late-night meetings on the top-secret shipbuilding program on Wednesday, with Anthony Albanese and other senior Labor MPs briefed on the matter.

The move has been described as 'China's Worst Nightmare' in a strategic bid to counter its influence in the region

China has inflamed tensions in the South China Sea in recent years by expanding its claimed territory, to the objection of its neighbors in the Asia-Pacific

The prime minister reportedly held concerns French-owned shipbuilder Naval Group would be unable to deliver submarines until 2030 with deadline and price disputes.

Mr Morrison reportedly tried to speak with the French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday regarding the new deal.

News of Australia's decision was instead reportedly disclosed to Paris by the secretary of the Defence Department, Greg Moriarty, the ABC reported.

The Australian Naval Institute has repeatedly criticised the troubled French submarine project while welcoming the use of nuclear technology.

'With regional tensions increasing, then building our own one-off type submarines which will arrive in the early 2030s is not good enough. We have no guarantee they will work,' the article stated.

'When we built the Collins class submarines (at exorbitant expense) they did not work properly for several years.

'Instead we should buy 12 of a proven design which is already in the water. We want long-range hunter-killer vessels. We also want them to be able to stay submerged for long periods to avoid detection. Nuclear does this in spades.'

It is speculated the US had planned to operate some of its nuclear submarines from Perth's naval base HMAS Stirling.

Pictured: The Sheean in Tasmania in April. The deal will mean Australia will walk away from its controversial deal to spend up to $90 billion buying French diesel-powered submarines

Prime Minister Scott Morrison (pictured) made the major security announcement on Thursday morning

The UK, which also uses nuclear technology, is expected to support Australia with the move in the three-nation security pact.

Sources say plan is a move to counter China's rise in the technology and military sectors.

It is one of a string of initiatives designed to demonstrate Washington's global role after the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Biden will next week host his first in-person summit of leaders of the Quad nations  made up of Australia, India, Japan, and the US  which have been coordinating against China's growing reach.

'Hosting the leaders of the Quad demonstrates the Biden-Harris administration's priority of engaging in the Indo-Pacific, including through new multilateral configurations to meet the challenges of the 21st century,' US press secretary Jen Psaki said.

Mr Morrison, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga will attend.

She added the leaders will discuss Covid-19, the climate crisis, emerging technologies, and promoting a 'free and open Indo-Pacific' - diplomatic speak for countering China's ambitions.

Leaders will be focused on deepening our ties and advancing practical cooperation on areas such as combatting the pandemic, addressing the climate crisis, partnering on emerging technologies and cyberspace, and promoting a free and open Indo-Pacific.

Bill Hagerty, Republican senator and former ambassador to Japan, welcomed the plan after the 'debacle' of the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

'Biden's Afghanistan withdrawal debacle made India's neighborhood more dangerous & raises legitimate questions for Japan and Australia as well, so it's good we will be hosting Quad partners soon,' he wrote on Twitter.

Officials are increasingly concerned at the way China is laying claim to the South China Sea, ignoring other nations territorial claims (pictured, Chinese troops marching during a military parade in Tiananmen Square in Beijing)

'We must repair & renew our alliances, and this one is key.'

Officials are increasingly concerned at the way China is laying claim to the South China Sea, ignoring other nations territorial claims.

Under current international law Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines, Indonesia, China and Taiwan all claim a portion of the South China Sea.

A Congressional report from earlier in July found China 'gaining effective control' of the region in recent years, which is rich in oil and natural gas deposits, by increasing their military presence and building up artificial islands.

As a result, the US and allies make frequent 'freedom of navigation' voyages through international waters in the region, drawing angry rebukes from Beijing.
Michael Gove has been tasked with delivering on Boris Johnsons flagship levelling up policy as well as solving the housing crisis after being made Communities Secretary.

The long-standing minister was moved sideways from his role at the Cabinet Office, but will retain his existing responsibilities for the Union and elections.

The bulging in-tray will be seen as a confidence vote in Mr Gove, 54, by the PM as he entrusts him to deliver on key tenets of the Conservative manifesto.

Michael Gove (pictured) has been tasked with delivering on Boris Johnsons flagship levelling up policy as well as solving the housing crisis after being made Communities Secretary

He replaces Robert Jenrick, 39, who was sacked after a string of controversies, including a cash for favours row last year involving former newspaper tycoon Richard Desmonds plan to build 1,500 homes on the site of the old Westferry print works in east London.

Mr Gove has a reputation in Westminster as a minister who can get a tough job done, having previously led the education and justice departments.

He was tasked with preparing for a no-deal Brexit in the Cabinet Office when Mr Johnson became PM, despite running against him in the Tory leadership race.

Mr Gove replaces Robert Jenrick (pictured) , 39, who was sacked after a string of controversies, including a cash for favours row last year involving former newspaper tycoon Richard Desmonds plan to build 1,500 homes on the site of the old Westferry print works in east London

The Prime Minister has championed sweeping planning reforms which have sparked a ferocious backlash among backbenchers.

And he has described his levelling up agenda  which he hopes will spread opportunity across the country  as his great project.

Mr Gove, who grew up in Aberdeen  and was last month pictured dancing enthusiastically at a nightclub in the city  will continue his work defending the Union, chiefly against calls for a second Scottish referendum.
Ministers should return to rules that sparked the 'pingdemic' to keep Covid cases down, government scientists suggest.

In a controversial move, modellers for the Government's Sage advisory group advised a revival of the system that forced all close contacts of confirmed cases to self-isolate  even if they were double-jabbed.

They insisted that re-introducing the rules could help prevent a surge over autumn and winter.

Without such measures, they said the number of hospitalisations could soar as high as 7,000 a day.

In a controversial move, modellers for the Government's Sage advisory group advised a revival of the system that forced all close contacts of confirmed cases to self-isolate  even if they were double-jabbed. Pictured: Chris Whitty

But last night former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said that the rules  if implemented  would devastate the economy by creating 'chaos' in the workplace. 'Here we go again, Project Fear being unleashed by the scientists as they try to push the Government into another lockdown,' he said.

'This is despite figures from the National Audit Office that fewer than 0.5 per cent of those that have died have had two vaccines. This shows the vaccines work.

'The pingdemic will create chaos in the workplace and become a back door into another lockdown.'

In the summer, Britain was hit with a surge in people testing positive for Covid and reporting close contacts  meaning they had to self-isolate for ten days. This caused havoc in workplaces and was dubbed the 'pingdemic'.

Later, the Government said that people would not need to self-isolate if they had been double-jabbed for two weeks. This solved the pingdemic problem  but with Covid hospitalisations rising, scientists say that the restrictions may need to be reintroduced.

Documents published on Tuesday show the Government's scientific advisors urged ministers to consider bringing in extra restrictions soon  or risk the number of people being hospitalised with Covid rising to between 2,000 and 7,000 a day next month.

This top figure  based on a scenario where the R-rate rises from 1 to 1.5  far surpasses the winter peak of 4,309 hospitalisations on January 11.

Scientists from the Government's SPI-M-O group  which provides modelling for Sage  said they expected cases to rise in the coming months thanks to the end of the school summer holidays and workers' return to the office.

They proposed a 'basket of measures' to keep the epidemic under control. The document said: 'If enacted early enough, a relatively light set of measures could likely be sufficient to curb sustained but slow growth. As well as encouraging home working, more light-touch measures could include clear messaging that recommends people acting cautiously, more widespread testing, a return to requiring all contacts of cases to isolate and more mask-wearing.'

Yesterday, a further 30,597 coronavirus cases and 201 deaths were reported by the Government.
A massive 'megapod' with dozens of humpback whales was spied frolicking in the waters off the Sapphire Coast in New South Wales, Australia.

Humpbacks are fairly solitary creatures, usually only gathering in packs of two to 15, and even then just temporarily.

A tour boat near Bermagui filmed up to 150 whales last week, all dining through a highly synchronized process called bubble-net feeding, when the majestic sea mammals dive deep and blow air bubbles as they rise, confusing the fish above them.

It's only the second time such a massive congregation has been filmed in Australiathe first was last year around the same time and location.

'Something is going on that we need to investigate as scientists to learn more about our big beautiful marine environment,' humpback expert Vanessa Pirotta told the Australian Broadcasting Company.

It's possible the sperm whale super swarms have formed there two Septembers in a row because the waters have been free of cruise ships and other maritime traffic during the pandemic.

'Last year was the first time that this was ever documented in Australian waters, and in addition to that, bubble-net feeding behavior was also documented last year,' Pirotta said.

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A massive 'megapod' of 150 humpback whales has been spotted near Bermagui in New South Wales, Australia. Typically the creatures stay in small pods of 15 or less.

Simon Miller of Sapphire Coastal Adventures, who witnessed the surreal family picnic, told ABC, 'The whales work collaboratively together to herd the bait into a really tight-knit ball.'

'At one stage they started herding it towards the boat, and when it gets to the boat it stops and the whales were lunging into it, so we're very lucky we could get out there and see it,' Miller said.

Pirotta said the whales were chowing down in preparation for their migration back to Antarctica.

'If this is a significant area, maybe they are using Australian waters as an additional feeding ground to Antarctica to help top up that supply,' she told ABC.

Bubble-net feeding is a synchronized technique involving the whales diving deep and blowing bubbles as they rise, stunning the fish above them

Global slowdowns due to the pandemic have had noticeable affects across the animal kingdom: Michelle Fournet, an expert in humpback whale communication, reports humpbacks in Alaska's Glacier Bay changed their vocalization after March 2020, when traffic cruise ships, tour boats, and recreational boaters slowed down.

In summer 2019, about 66 percent of humpback whale calls were what Fournet calls a 'whup.'

In 2020when marine traffic was down 44 percent and median noise levels were three times lower than usualthe frequency of the whales' whups fell to less than 50 percent, according to Hakai magazine.

The rate of whups was similar to recordings made in the 1970s, before Glacier Bay become such a popular tourist destination.

Fournet thinks that for the Glacier Bay humpbacks, whups are 'a way of announcing their presence' to give them their own kind of social distancing during feeding.

The slowdown of maritime traffic in Alaska's Glacier Bay has seen a shift in humpback whale communication, experts say. The whales have been making less 'whup' noises to announce their presence since the pandemic started

A similarly large super-pod emerged on Sapphire Coast last September, too. Experts aren't certain why they're congregating in such unusually large numbers. Pictured: A closeup of a humpback whale near Forster, New South Wales, Australia

'If that interpretation is correct, the prevalence of whups in non-pandemic times suggests that cruise ship noise may be affecting humpbacks' table manners,' Amorina Kingdon writes in Hakai.

Traffic has slowed down considerably on the Sapphire Coast as well during the pandemic, though Miller has continued to take his boat out on the water without passengers, ABC reported.

Humpback super-pods were starting to be reported elsewhere before the pandemicincluding a 200-whale gathering off the coast of South Africa in 2017so it's possible their formation isn't related to lockdowns.

The sightings have all been in within the last decade or so, coinciding with an increase in the humpback population.

Before a 1966 moratorium, the species was hunted to near extinction, with 90 percent of humpbacks killed.

Sperm-whale super swarms may have formed in New South Wales two Septembers in a row because cruise ships and other maritime traffic has been missing during the pandemic. It's also possible they're simply exhibiting typical behavior that stopped when the whales were hunted nearly to extinction. Pictured: A pod of humpback whales lunge feed in Monterey Bay, California

Their numbers continued to increase after they were made a protected species in 1996, with an estimated 80,000 animals worldwide.

'Maybe humpbacks were always this social, and there just weren't enough of them for us to notice,' Sara Chodosh wrote in Popular Science.

Pirotta said Australia's humpback population alone is now somewhere over 35,000

'We might be seeing behaviors that were there before whaling now reemerging,' she told ABC.
Primate mothers who suffer the death of an infant grieve by carrying the corpse with them  sometime for months after the tragedy  a study has concluded.

Experts led from University College London (UCL) analysed data on 409 reports of primate mothers reacting to the death of their child, from across 50 species.

'Infant corpse carrying' behaviour has been witnessed in 80 per cent of the species in the study  most prominently among the great apes and Old World monkeys.

These species are also more likely to carry their deceased young for longer periods.

While scientists have debated the extent to which primates are aware of death, the findings suggest that primate mothers are  or at least can learn about it over time.

Primate mothers who suffer the death of an infant grieve by carrying the corpse with them  sometime for months after the tragedy  a study has concluded. Pictured: a mother baboon in Namibia seen carrying her dead infant with her

FURTHER RESEARCH According to Dr Carter and her team, their study was limited by relying on the unsystematic reporting of death-related behaviours in primates. To address this, they have created an online database  ThanatoBase  into which other researchers may submit their own observations. The team hope that this will provide a more comprehensive look at how non-human primates handle death. Advertisement

According to the researcher's analysis, whether or not primates exhibit infant corpse carrying behaviours was strongly determined by the species in question.

Primates like lemurs that evolutionarily diverged long ago do not carry their dead infants around with them  and instead appear to express their grief in other ways, such as by returning to the corpse repeatedly or calling out for their child.

The team also found younger mothers more likely to carry their infants after death  and that carrying behaviour was more common in the wake of non-traumatic causes of death like illness than traumatic ones like accidents or infanticides.

Finally, it appears that the length of time that the mothers carry their child is related to the strength of the motherinfant bond.

Specifically, infants were carried for longer when they died at younger ages, with a sharp decline when they reached around half of the weaning age.

'Our study indicates that primates may be able to learn about death in similar ways to humans,' said paper author and anthropologist Alecia Carter of UCL.

'It might take experience to understand that death results in a long-lasting "cessation of function", which is one of the concepts of death that humans have.

'What we dont know, and maybe will never know, is whether primates understand that death is universal  that all animals, including themselves, will die.'

'Our study also has implications for what we know about how grief is processed among non-human primates,' Dr Carter continued.

'Its known that human mothers who experience a stillbirth and are able to hold their baby are less likely to experience severe depression, as they have an opportunity to express their bond.'

'Some primate mothers may also need the same time to deal with their loss, showing how strong and important maternal bonds are for primates, and mammals more generally,' she concluded.

Experts led from University College London (UCL) analysed data on 409 reports of primate mothers reacting to the death of their child, from across 50 species. Pictured: in a previous study, Dr Carter and colleagues spent 13 years following and observing a troop of Namibian chacma baboons, during which time they witnessed 12 cases of mothers carrying their dead young  including a miscarriage and two stillbirths  one instance of which is pictured

'We show that mothers that were more strongly bonded to their infant at death carry the corpse for longer, with emotions possibly playing an important role,' said paper author and anthropologist Elisa Fernandez Fueyo, also of UCL.

'However, our study also shows that, through experience with death and external cues, primate mothers may gain better awareness of death.'

This, she explained, may lead them to 'therefore "decide" not to carry their dead infant with them, even if they may still experience loss-related emotions.'

'We found that bonds, particularly the mother-infant bond, possibly drive primates responses to death.

'Because of our shared evolutionary history, human social bonds are similar in many ways to those of non-human primates. Therefore, it is likely that human mortuary practices and grief have their origins in social bonds.

'The thanatological [death related] behaviours that we see in non-human primates today may have been present in early human species as well  and they may have transformed into the different rituals and practices during human evolution.

'We need more data to enable us to further develop our understanding of this and of how much primate behaviours relating to death may not only be explained by bonds but also by the associated emotions and, thus, resemble human grief.'

The full findings of the study were published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.
Life-size camel sculptures in Saudi Arabia that were originally thought to be 2,000 years old actually date back 8,000 years, new analysis has revealed.

The discovery makes them almost twice the age of Britain's Stonehenge, where stones were hauled into their unique circle around 2500 BC.

It had previously been estimated that the 21 camel, horse and other equid figures  found covered in stone in the Saudi desert in 2018  were about 2,000 years old and had been made after the end of the Iron Age.

This is because they share similarities with artworks in the ancient Jordanian city of Petra, which was half-carved into rock around two millennia ago.

However, cutting-edge dating methods revealed that the estimate was out by 6,000 years, with the sculptures likely to date back to around 6000 BC when the now arid deserts of northern Saudi Arabia were 'a savannah-like grassland scattered with lakes and trees'.

Life-size camel sculptures in Saudi Arabia (pictured) that were originally thought to be 2,000 years old actually date back 8,000 years, new analysis has revealed

It had previously been estimated that the 21 camel, horse and other equid figures  found covered in stone in the Saudi desert in 2018  were about 2,000 years old and had been made after the end of the Iron Age

Rock art is extremely difficult to date, particularly at the 'Camel Site' (pictured) in the province of Al Jawf in north-west Saudi Arabia, where erosion has damaged the three-dimensional reliefs extensively

THE HISTORY OF ROCK ART IN SAUDI ARABIA Human presence in the Arabian Peninsula dates back one million years. Out of 4,000 registered archaeological sites in Saudi Arabia, 1,500 include rock art. The earliest examples date to around 12,000 years ago. These depictions show masked men and women dancing, and experts believe they could be mythological figures, although the meaning remains unclear. Between ten and eight thousand years ago people started herding animals and carrying out primitive agriculture. During this period, drawings increasingly show cattle and dogs. Experts believe these animals had been domesticated and were part of their everyday life. Some include images of rare antelope, aurochs, wild camels and African asses, previously not known to live in this area. Source: Bradshaw foundation Advertisement

Rock art is extremely difficult to date, particularly at the 'Camel Site' in the province of Al Jawf in north-west Saudi Arabia, where erosion has damaged the three-dimensional reliefs extensively.

To establish an age for the site scientists assessed the tool marks and weathering on the sculptures, as well as fallen fragments and the density of the rock's topmost layers.

The data indicated that the sculptures were made with stone tools during the 6th millennia, a time when tribes herded cattle, sheep and goats.

Wild camels and equids also roamed the area and were hunted for millennia.

'We can now link the Camel Site to a period in prehistory when the pastoral populations of northern Arabia created rock art and built large stone structures called mustatil,' the study's authors said.

'The Camel Site is therefore part of a wider pattern of activity where groups frequently came together to establish and mark symbolic places.'

The research was a joint effort involving the Saudi Ministry of Culture, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, French National Centre for Scientific Research, and King Saud University.

Similar carvings of three-dimensional reliefs on the face of stone formations can be found in parts of Turkey but are rare in Saudi Arabia.

Researchers believe they were likely a communal effort, perhaps part of an annual gathering of a Neolithic group.

Reconstructions of the carving and weathering processes at the site suggest that it was in use for an extended period, during which panels were re-engraved and re-shaped.

Cutting-edge dating methods revealed that the estimate was out by 6,000 years, with the sculptures likely to date back to around 6000 BC when the now arid deserts of northern Saudi Arabia were 'a savannah-like grassland scattered with lakes and trees'

To establish an age for the site (pictured) scientists assessed the tool marks and weathering on the sculptures, as well as fallen fragments and the density of the rock's topmost layers

The data indicated that the sculptures were made with stone tools during the 6th millennia, a time when tribes herded cattle, sheep and goats

The research on the Camel Site (pictured) has been published in the Journal of Archaeological Science Reports

By the late 6th millennium BC most, if not all of the reliefs had been carved, making the Camel Site reliefs the oldest surviving large-scale reliefs known in the world.

'Neolithic communities repeatedly returned to the Camel Site, meaning its symbolism and function was maintained over many generations,' said the studys author, Dr Maria Guagnin, from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Germany.

'Preservation of this site is now key, as is future research in the region to identify if other such sites may have existed.'

Researchers believe the carvings were likely a communal effort, perhaps part of an annual gathering of a Neolithic group

Reconstructions of the carving and weathering processes at the site suggest that it was in use for an extended period, during which panels were re-engraved and re-shaped

By the late 6th millennium BC most if not all of the reliefs had been carved, making the Camel Site reliefs the oldest surviving large-scale reliefs known in the world

The Stonehenge that can be seen today is the final stage that was completed about 3,500 years ago.

According to the monument's website, it was built in four stages, beginning around 3100 BC and and ending just after 1500 BC.

Some of the stones are believed to have originated from a quarry in Wales, some 140 miles (225km) away from the Wiltshire monument.

To do this would have required a high degree of ingenuity, and experts believe the ancient engineers used a pulley system over a shifting conveyor-belt of logs.

Modern scientists now widely believe that Stonehenge was created by several different tribes over time.

After the Neolithic Britons  likely natives of the British Isles  started the construction, it was continued centuries later by their descendants.

Over time, the descendants developed a more communal way of life and better tools which helped in the erection of the stones.

Bones, tools and other artefacts found on the site seem to support this hypothesis.

The research on the Camel Site has been published in the Journal of Archaeological Science Reports.
Scientists have painted a new picture of Carnotaurus  the 'carnivorous bull' dinosaur  with a complex coat of scale, studs, thorns, bumps and wrinkles.

The updated reconstruction comes after palaeontologists led from the Unidad Ejecutora Lillo in Argentina examined its fossilised skin in closer detail.

Named for its horned skull, the only known specimen of Carnotaurus was found by the palaeontologist Jose Bonaparte back in 1984 in his home country of Argentina.

Unearthed on a farm near Bajada Moreno, in Chubut Province, the 26 feet-long fossil skeleton was also preserved, unusually, with sheets of its scaly hide.

This made Carnotaurus  which lived 71 million years ago in the Late Cretaceous period  the first meat-eating dinosaur to be found with its skin.

Scientists have painted a new picture of Carnotaurus  the 'carnivorous bull' dinosaur  with a complex coat of scale, studs, thorns, bumps and wrinkles, as depicted

The updated reconstruction comes after palaeontologists led from the Unidad Ejecutora Lillo in Argentina examined its fossilised skin in closer detail. Pictured: a natural, negative relief mould of the skin on the right side of Carnotaurus' anterior tail region, with close-ups

Named for its horned skull, the only known specimen of Carnotaurus was found by the palaeontologist Jose Bonaparte back in 1984 in his home country of Argentina. Pictured: then-undergraduate student Guillermo Rougier posing next to the recently-found Carnotaurus' skull

CARNOTAURUS STATS Species: Carnotaurus sastrei Lived: 71 million years ago Location: Argentina Length: Approx. 26 feet (8 metres) Weight: 1.35 tons Notable features: thick horns above the eyes, vestigial forearms and , slender hindlimbs that likely made it rapid runner. Advertisement

The analysis of Carnotaurus' skin was undertaken by palaeontologists Christophe Hendrickx of the Unidad Ejecutora Lillo in Argentina and Phil Bell of the University of New England, Australia.

Unlike previous (and briefer) studies of the dinosaur's skin, the duo reported finding no evidence that the scales were lain out in irregular rows, or that they changed size depending on their bodily location, as seen in some modern lizards.

'Looking at the skin from the shoulders, belly and tail regions, we discovered that the skin of this dinosaur was more diverse than previously thought,' said Dr Hendrickx.

It consisted, he added, 'of large and randomly distributed conical studs surrounded by a network of small elongated, diamond-shaped or sub-circular scales.'

The diamond-shaped scales resemble those seen on the skins of contemporary tyrannosaurids.

The largest scales on Carnotaurus (feature scales) were found dotted across the creature's thorax, as well as along its tail.

According to Dr Bell, an expert in dinosaur skin, the large studs and small scales seen on the Carnotaurus specimen resembles those seen on the thorny devil lizard that lives today in the Australian Outback.

And, the duo explained, the scales would have been import in helping to regulate Carnotaurus' body temperature, just like in modern reptiles.

Unlike many recently unearthed dinosaur specimens  particularly those from China  Carnotaurus was entirely scaly and showed no evidence of sporting feathers.

Unlike previous (and briefer) studies of the dinosaur's skin, the researchers reported finding no evidence that the scales were lain out in irregular rows  or that they changed size depending on their bodily location, as seen in some modern lizards. Pictured: an artist's impression of how Carnotaurus may have looked in life

According to Dr Bell  who is an expert in dinosaur skin  the large studs and small scales seen on the Carnotaurus specimen resembles those seen on the thorny devil lizard (pictured in close-up above) that lives today in the Australian Outback

'Looking at the skin from the shoulders, belly and tail regions, we discovered that the skin of this dinosaur was more diverse than previously thought,' said Dr Hendrickx. Pictured: close-up photographs of the scale on Carnotaurus (top row) with other dinosaur species

As to exactly why Carnotaurus had such a diverse range of large and small scales, the researchers are not entirely sure.

Back in 1997, researchers proposed that some of the larger, cone-shaped scales on the dinosaur may have provided 'some degree of protection during confrontation.'

However, Drs Bell and Hendrickx said that their analysis suggests that these scales would have done little to defend Carnotaurus against being bitten.

Instead, they propose, 'in Carnotaurus and more broadly among dinosaurs, feature scales may simply have served a display/coloration function.'

The full findings of the study were published in the journal Cretaceous Research.

The only known specimen of Carnotaurus was unearthed by the palaeontologist Jose Bonaparte in 1984 on a farm near Bajada Moreno, in Chubut Province. The 26 feet-long fossil skeleton was also preserved, unusually, with sheets of its scaly hide
An amber sample discovered in China shows the great lengths a mother spider will go to protect its young.

A team of researchers at Capital Normal University in China found an adult spider with parts of an egg sac underneath her body and nearly 100 spiderlings, all of which have been encased in the amber for 99 million years.

The female is also position in a stance like that of todays female spiders who are engaged in protecting their eggs from predators.

Researchers determined that this protective mother was a member of the now extinct Lagonomegopidae family, which can be distinguished by a large pair of eyes on the front corners of the head.

A team of researchers at Capital Normal University in China found an adult spider with parts of her egg sac and some hatchlings underneath her body, all of which have been encased in the amber for 99 million years.

The insects lived during the mid-Cretaceous, which spanned 145 million years to 66 million years ago.

Because part of an egg sac and some spiderlings were persevered in the amber, the researchers say this suggest adult lagonomegopid females probably built and then guarded egg sacs in their retreats or nests, and the hatched spiderlings may have stayed together with their mother for some time, reads the study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

A total of four pieces of Burmese amber found in Myanmar tells a complete story of the spider family that lived 99 million years ago.

One of the pieces houses the adult spider and part of an egg sac.

A total of four pieces of Burmese amber found in Myanmar tells a complete story of the spider family that lived 99 million years ago. One of the pieces houses the adult spider and part of an egg sac

In another piece, the team counted 24 persevered spiderlings, most of which are deformed and broken that happened when they were preserved. And another was found with 26 baby spiders and another encased 34

Pictured is an artist's illustration of the mother spider and her young before they were encased in amber

The large spider is covered with emulsion-liked impurities, the dorsal parts of cephalothorax and abdomen are somewhat broken, and some of the leg podomeres are missing. Its large size, peg teeth on the promargin of the chelicera, unmodified pedipalps, spineless legs and trichobothria on the leg tarsus indicate that it belongs to Lagonomegopidae, and is an adult female, according to the study.

Th egg sac is also broken inside the amber but is visibly located under the female spider.

Researchers also found dozens of prelarvae and their egg membranes wrapped in the silk of the egg sac.

In another piece, the team counted 24 persevered spiderlings, most of which are deformed and broken that happened when they were preserved.

And another was found with 26 baby spiders and another encased 34.

Because they are roughly the same size, the study notes that it is safe to assume they are siblings.

The fourth piece housed a collection of other insects that also became trapped 99 million years ago, including a large leg of an undefined arthropod in the chunk, a preserved cockroach and wasp

The fourth piece housed a collection of other insects that also became trapped 99 million years ago, including a large leg of an undefined arthropod in the chunk, a preserved cockroach and wasp.

The researchers used CT-scanning to spot tiny eyes and other features that revealed the identity of the spider as well as the tiny spiderlings in 3D detail.

This allowed the team to identified specific features of the hatchlings, such as two large eyes on the front of their head.

The hatchlings likely died soon after they emerged from their eggs, and some of the arthropod appendages preserved next to them might be their mothers' legs, the researchers said.
Your Fitbit could end one of the biggest arguments couples have in bedwhether one of them is snoring like a chainsaw.

The company has confirmed that its Sense and Versa 3 models are being rolled out with a microphone-powered 'Snore & Noise Detect' feature that indicates if the wearer or their bedmate is sawing logs.

The feature, first reported by 9to5Google, requires users to activate it on their device's 'Sleep' page.

It will then record data on 'snore-specific noises' as well as the overall noise level in the room.

Once your Fitbit detects you're in La La Land, its microphone will 'sample, measure and collect information about the noise in your environment  'every few seconds.'

Detecting snoring could be the first step to addressing serious health issues like sleep apneaand possibly saving your marriage.

However, privacy advocates are unsure of the features motive and sees it as another revenue stream for Fitbit, which could sell data to advertisers.

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Fitbit confirmed a new feature on the Sense and Versa 3 models allows users to track 'snoring events' and overall noise quality while they sleep

'Habitual snoring is a nuisance to bed partners,' Stanford sleep surgeon Stanley Yung Liu said in 2016. 'Many patients seek care because they've been asked to leave the bedroom and sleep on the living-room couch.'

But more than sacking their love lives, Lui said, 'asleep patients are often unaware of breathing interruptions that have serious health risks.'

Snoring can be linked to daytime complaints of sleepiness, headaches, or mood disturbances like anxiety, depression and irritability.

It can also be a warning sign of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), according to the Mayo Clinic, a condition when the throat muscles relax and block your airway during sleep.

The feature is not on by default and must be activated on the user's 'Sleep' settings

Snoring can be linked to daytime complaints of sleepiness, headaches, and mood disturbances like anxiety, depression and irritability. It can also be a warning sign of obstructive sleep apnea, a condition when the throat muscles relax and block the airway

OSA can lead to high blood pressure, irregular heartbeat, and neuro-cognitive impairment.

The snore monitor feature does gobble up battery life, Fitbit warns, recommending devices be charged at least 40 percent before you go to bed.

The Snore & Noise Detect feature is available for the Fitbit Sense (left) and Versa 3 smartwatches with a $10 monthly premium subscription

Both the Fitbit Sense and Versa 3 were released at the end of September 2020.

Besides one of those smartwatches, to use the Snore & Noise Detect feature wearer will need a $10 monthly premium Fitbit subscription.

Not everyone is impressed with the offering, though.

'The narrow hardware and service requirements dampen the usefulness of noise detection,' writes engadget's J. Fingus. 'All the same, it could be helpful if you're already invested in the Fitbit ecosystem. It also gives Fitbit a potential advantage over rivals whose sleep tracking seldom accounts for noise.'

Fitbit cautions the Snore & Noise Detect feature can use a lot of juice and recommends users be at 40 percent battery level or higher before going to bed

Google, which acquired Fitbit in January for roughly $2.1 billion, has been investing more heavily into bedtime technology: in March, the company unveiled a new Nest Hub assistant with a built-in sleep monitor that analyzes snoring and coughing frequency,.

The seven-inch smart screen, which retails for $100 relies on a new chip Google calls Soli, which uses radar to detect motionincluding the depth of a person's breathing.

The Nest Hub generates weekly sleep reports with breakdowns on the length and quality of sleep, how frequently the user gets up at night, along with tips developed in consultation with the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

Introduced in March, the Nest Hub is supposed to generate weekly sleep reports with easy-to-understand breakdowns on the length and quality of sleep, how frequently the user gets up at night

With both the Fitbit and Nest Hub updates, privacy advocates worry a multi-billion-dollar corporation having access to our nighttime data is a risky proposition, especially given Google's history of collecting personal details such as location, habits and interests to target online advertising.

It also underscores Google's obvious intent to extend its tentacles into new areas of people's lives in its relentless quest to make more money, according to Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, a consumer and privacy rights group.

'Google's goal is to monetize every cell of your body,' Chester told the Associated Press in March.

Google emphasized there are privacy protections built into the Hub's sleep-sensing feature, including the fact that owners must opt in to activate it.

Also, sleep data is stored on the device itself, meaning it won't be sent to Google's data centers, and 'will not be used for marketing' purposes,' according to Google Nest project manager Ashton Udall.

Meanwhile a privacy message on Fitbit indicates the snoring data will be used 'improve our products and services and research new ones.'

Google did not immediately respond to an email from DailyMail.com about how data from the Fitbit snoring monitor will be used.
Researchers believe they may have identified the oldest-known work of art  a sequence of five hand and footprints thought to date back up to 226,000 years.

According to researchers led from China's Guangzhou University, the impressions are at least 34 times older than the cave paintings of France, Indonesia and Spain.

Found in 2018 on a rocky outcrop in Quesang, on the Tibetan Plateau, the prints may have been 'prehistoric graffiti' left by young Denisovan children, the team have said.

Researchers believe they may have identified the oldest-known work of art  a sequence of five hand and footprints thought to date back up to 226,000 years. Pictured: the prints as seen when rendered in a three-dimensional scan of the surface in which they were left

According to researchers led from China's Guangzhou University, the impressions (pictured) are at least 34 times older than the cave paintings of France, Indonesia and Spain

Found in 2018 on a rocky outcrop (pictured) in Quesang, on the Tibetan Plateau, the prints may have been 'prehistoric graffiti' left by young Denisovan children, the team have said

It is not certain which species of humans made the prints  but Denisovans are a reasonable bet, given the finding of their skeletal remains elsewhere on the Tibetan plateau. Pictured: an artist's impression of a young Denisovan

WHO EXACTLY MADE THE PRINTS? Based on uranium series dating, the researchers have determined that the prints must have left between 169,000226,000 years ago. And measurements of the prints have led the team to conclude that the footprints were made by a child of around seven and the handprints one of more like 12 years of age. It is not certain which species of humans made the prints  but Denisovans are a reasonable bet, given the finding of their skeletal remains elsewhere on the Tibetan plateau. Advertisement

To help with the question of whether the prints constituted art, the team turned to archaeologist Thomas Urban of New York's Cornell University, whose research has included a study of human footprint's in New Mexico's White Sands National Park.

The first clue, he explained, came from the fact that the prints were pressed into travertine  a form of terrestrial limestone that is deposited in the vicinity of hot springs  that would have then hardened gradually over time.

'It would have been a slippery, sloped surface,' noted Mr Urban.

'You wouldnt really run across it. Somebody didnt fall like that. So why create this arrangement of prints? Theres not a utilitarian explanation for these. So what are they?'

'My angle was, can we think of these as a creative behaviour, something distinctly human. The interesting side of this is that its so early.'

'These young kids saw this medium and intentionally altered it. We can only speculate beyond that.

'This could be a kind of performance, a live show  like, somebody says, "hey, look at me, Ive made my handprints over these footprints." '

Further evidence for the deliberate nature of the impressions comes from the fact that the rock has preserved handprints at all  unlike footprints, these are rare in the fossil record of human ancestors.

According to the team, the presence of the handprints ties the Tibetan impressions to a long tradition of art involving the stencilling of hands of cave walls.

Dated to between 169,000226,000 years ago, however, the Quesang art panel is much older than its more famous peers.

Art found on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi and in Spain's El Castillo cave, for example, date back to around 40,00045,000 years ago, while the the Chauvet cave paintings of France are only some 30,000 years old.

'It would have been a slippery, sloped surface,' said researcher Thomas Urban of the surface into which the prints were pressed. 'You wouldnt really run across it. Somebody didnt fall like that. So why create this arrangement of prints? Theres not a utilitarian explanation for these.'

'My angle was, can we think of these as a creative behaviour, something distinctly human. The interesting side of this is that its so early,' said Mr Urban, who hails from Cornell University

'These young kids saw this medium and intentionally altered it. We can only speculate beyond that. This could be a kind of performance, a live show  like, somebody says, "hey, look at me, Ive made my handprints over these footprints," ' Mr Urban said. Pictured: a scan of the rock

Of course, some connoisseurs might bristle at the very notion that the Quesang prints in and of themselves constitute art.

'Different camps have specific definitions of art that prioritize various criteria,' Mr Urban commented.

He continued: 'But I would like to transcend that and say there can be limitations imposed by these strict categories that might inhibit us from thinking more broadly about creative behaviour.

'I think we can make a solid case that this is not utilitarian behaviour. Theres something playful, creative, possibly symbolic about this.

'This gets at a very fundamental question of what it actually means to be human.'

The full findings of the study were published in the journal Science Bulletin

Further evidence for the deliberate nature of the impressions comes from the fact that the rock has preserved handprints at all  unlike footprints, these are rare in the fossil record of human ancestors. Pictured: one of the footprints from the Tibetan art panel

According to the team, the presence of the handprints ties the Tibetan impressions to a long tradition of art involving the stencilling of hands of cave walls. Dated to between 169,000226,000 years ago, however, the art panel from Quesang is much older than its peers
In just a few hours, four individuals will blast off into space aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 in the first all-civilian space mission, but one of the crew members will go down in history as the first black female pilot of a spacecraft.

Dr Sian Proctor, 51, will board the Dragon capsule prior to an 8pm ET lift off and spend three days circling Earth along with Jared Isaacman, 38, Hayley Arceneaux, 29, and Chris Sembroski, 41.

Proctor will also be the fourth black women in space, which she said during an interview means she has an 'opportunity to not only accomplish my dream, but also inspire the next generation of women of color.'

Along with being an astronaut, Proctor is also a geology professor at the Maricopa Community College in Arizona and has a passion for Afrofuturism space art  she plans on taking some pieces with her to space.

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Siena Proctor will go down in history as the first black female pilot of a spacecraft

Proctor was announced as an Inspiration4 crew member in March after she was selected as the top entrant of an independently judged online business competition that attracted approximately 200 entries.

The competition was conducted by the eCommerce platform Shift4Shop, which is own by Isaacman who purchased the entire SpaceX flight.

The idea of Inspiratin4, first announced in February, is to raise $200 million for St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital.

Now the day has finally come for the crew to take off and Proctor is reflecting on the moment by acknowledging what it means to her.

Dr Sian Proctor, 51, (second from left) will board the Dragon capsule prior to an 8pm ET lift off and spend three days circling Earth along with Jared Isaacman, (second from right) 38, Hayley Arceneaux, 29, (right) and Chris Sembroski, 41 (left)

'I am the mission pilot and it's really special for me to hold that title because I'm going to be the first black female pilot of a spacecraft,' she said in an interview.

'Space to inspire has always been my motto as a teacher.

'When I was talking to my students, the thing about it was when I said space to inspire, they're thinking outer space, but really it is this space, your space.'

'We all have this unique space that we carry with us everywhere we go and getting to know what it is that makes us passionate and how to share our unique gifts with the world is so important.

'I have memories of the Challenger and Christa McAuliffe and what that means to me [is] her legacy as being the first teacher in space to me being now this educator going to space.'

Proctor will also be the fourth black women in space, which she said during an interview means she has an 'opportunity to not only accomplish my dream, but also inspire the next generation of women of color.'

The Space Shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after launching on January 28, 1986, killing all seven crew members on board  but their memory still lives on today as Proctor is honoring one of the fallen astronauts.

In 2009, Proctor went through the astronaut selection process, competing against more than 3,500 applicants, and was chosen as one of 47 finalists.

However, she was not selected as a candidate for the astronaut group.

Undaunted, Proctor became an analog astronaut, contributing to the advancement of human spaceflight, but here on Earth.

She also participated in a four-month NASA Mars simulation in Hawaii and projects in Chile and Alaska.

Along with being an astronaut, Proctor is also a geology professor at the Maricopa Community College in Arizona and has a passion for Afrofuturism space art  she plans on taking some pieces with her to space

'I've been really fortunate to live in multiple moon and Mars simulations, which I believe has just helped prepare me even more for the mission ahead,' she told Arizona State News.

And then in March, Proctor got the call she has been waiting for.

'I couldn't believe it,' she said. 'I think it was analogous to Harry Potter finding out he's a wizard. Like, I can't be a wizard. It's like, 'Ah, I'm going to be an astronaut!' OK. That's amazing. And then to be offered the pilot seat  that just added something extraordinary ... And so now I'm in the position where I'm going to be the first black female pilot of the spacecraft ever.'
Archaeologists in Turkey have uncovered fragments of a larger-than-life marble statue of famed Roman emperor Roman Emperor Publius Aelius Traianus Hadrianus believe to date back some 1,900 years.

The pieces were found in different locations during excavations of a parliament building on the site of the ancient city of Alabanda, in Turkey's western Aydin province.

Experts believe the sculpture was brought to Alabanda in 120 AD in honor of a visit by Publius Aelius Traianus Hadrianus Augustus, who was also known as Hadrian.

To date, six segments of the statue have been foundincluding parts of its head and bodyand It's believed that the intact figure stood more than eight feet tall.

Archaeologists are continuing to find the other parts of the statue, which will eventually be displayed at the Aydn Archaeology Museum.

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Archaeologists in west Turkey have uncovered fragments of a larger-than-life marble statue of famed Roman emperor Hadrian believe to date back some 1,900 years

Alabanda, located on an area of about 1,235 acres in modern-day Cine, is believed to be one of the largest ancient cities in Anatolia, a large peninsula in Western Asia that constitutes the majority of modern-day Turkey.

During the reign of Hadrian, between 117 and 138 AD, Anatolia was under Roman control and the emperor is believed to have visited often.

'We think that there is an inscription of honor next to this statue, which we think was made for the arrival of Hadrian,' Umut Tuncer, Aydn Provincial Culture and Tourism Director, told Hurriyet Daily News.

Ali Yalcn, an archaeologist at Tavukcu Erzurum Ataturk University, began excavations in the region in 2015.

Excavations began excavations in the region in 2015.Hadrian is known to have visited Anatolia frequently and archaeologists believe the statue was brought to Alabanda, one of the largest cities in Anatolia, in 120 AD in honor of such a visit

At least six segments of the eight-foot statue have been located in the parliament building in Alabanda. When it is complete it will go on dispaly at the Aydn Archaeology Museum

'Last year, we accelerated the work in the billiardium [council building], which is one of the three important sections here,' Tavukcu told the outlet.

'This year we found fragments of the armored emperor statue, which we call 'portrait sculpture.'

The parliament building where the fragments were located is one of the largest in Anatolia, according to Tuncer.

'We care about exhibiting the artifacts on their site,' he added. 'When the statue is completed in the next few seasons, we will probably see many visitors here thanks to this statue, which is rare in the world.'

Hadrian's reign started under a cloud, when leading senators who opposed his succession were put to death.

The Senate held him responsible and disapproved of his abandoning the expansionist policies of his predecessor, Trajan, in favor of shoring up borders and unifying the empire's diverse peoples.

He is perhaps best known for building Hadrian's Wall, which marked the northern limit of the Roman Empire, and rebuilding the Pantheon in Rome.

Hadrian also built the majestic Villa Adriana in Tivoli, whose ruins are now a UNESCO world heritage site, and ordered the construction of the Temple of Venus and Roma, the largest temple in ancient Rome.

Hadrian's marriage to Vibia Sabina is considered loveless and bore no children. His passionate relationship with the Greek youth Antinous, though, led the emperor to establish a widespread cult in the young man's honor when he was killed shortly before his 20th birthday.
California's Mount Shasta, one of the tallest peaks in the continental US, has a giant bald spot.

The summit of the mountain, a dormant volcano rising some 14,179 feet above sea level, is typically covered with snow year-round.

But satellite analysis comparing snow cover at Shasta's peak this July and August to previous summers paints a dismal picturewith sparse areas of white.

Record high temperatures and devastating droughts have left the peak nearly snowless earlier in the year, experts say, accelerating the melting of its already imperiled glaciers.

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Record heawaves and drought have left California's Mount Shasts nearly snowless. This August 24 post from Mount Shasta Ski Park shows the iconic summit seemingly devoid of almost all powder.

Shasta's glaciers are 'losing a lot more volume because you stripped your snow off by mid-July,' glaciologist Mauri Pelto, director of the North Cascades Glacier Climate Project, told The Washington Post.

When Mount Shasta has gone bare in the past, it's been in late summer or even into the fall.

'Imagine how fast it was melting for two months instead of maybe a few days at the end of September,' Pelto said.

In the town of Shasta, Californiasome five miles southwest of the mountain and 3,500 feet above sea levelthe thermometer hit 103 degrees twice this summer.

Satellite imagery from June 16 and 28 and July 18 illustrating the progressive loss of snowcover on Mt. Shasta's Whitney Glacier, the largest in California

A photo of Mount Shasta from August 1973 shows it thoroughly carpeted in snow. There's about one square mile of glacier ice left on Mount Shasta today, less than half of what was there in the early 1980s

Even halfway up the mountain, temperatures reached between 77 to 84 degrees at the end of June, leading to the rapid melt of Whitney Glacier, the largest in California.

Whitney Glacier has retreated about a half-milenearly one-quarter of its total lengthin the past 16 years.

In 2021 alone, it's lost 15 to 20 percent of its volume, the Post reported, and is splintering into two smaller glaciers.

There's about one square mile of glacier ice left on Mount Shasta today, Pelto said, less than half of what was there in the early '80s.

'The loss is accelerating and 2021 will be the single biggest volume loss year,' he told the Post.

On Twitter, Pelto said the fragmenting of Shasta's glaciers due to the exceptional melting 'is not an easily or likely reversible.'

A map indicating the glaciers on Mount Shasta are fragmenting due to the exceptional melting, a situation Pelto says 'is not an easily or likely reversible'

Geologist Nick Caselli, operations director for Shasta Mountain Guides, told Mt. Shasta News in August that the 'spectacular loss of snowpack' has left the mountain's west side bare.

In high elevations, snowpack is accumulation on the ground that remains until the arrival of warmer weather.

It contributes mass to glaciers and, when snowpack melts it feeds streams and rivers and provides drinking water for numerous communities.

Because of the glaciers' retreat, he added, there are places where there is a 'striking difference when you are up there.'

The uppermost portion of a ridge that goes out of the Hotlum and Bolam glaciers used to be 'all snow when you got above, say, 11,200 feet,' Caselli told the News. 'You were on snow 100% of the time.'

Now the bare ground has started emerging out of the snow and ice 'and now seems to be a permanent feature,' he said. 'There is even a little trail up it.'

The Hotlum Glacier has reportedly also broken into smaller fragments.

Ryan Sandler, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, says there have been other periods when Shasta has had little to no snowincluding during the height of the 2014 California drought.

Sandler told the San Francisco Gate he'd also see a 1992 photo showing almost no snow on the mountain, but that was from October of that year.

California relies on just a few severe winter storms to account for its snowpack and rainfall, he said, and in recent years the Golden State has seen warmer temperatures and fewer big storms, 'which would make it more common to see a lack of snow on Mount Shasta by summertime.'

'What's happening on Mount Shasta is a visual representation of the drought,' Sandler told the outlet. 'We're in extreme to exceptional drought in the area.'

On August 24, Mount Shasta Ski Park posted a picture on Facebook of the iconic summit seemingly devoid of almost all snow.

We have been receiving a lot of questions the last few days about the status of snow on Mt. Shasta. In the past, Mt.... Posted by Mt. Shasta Ski Park on Tuesday, August 24, 2021

'In the past, Mt. Shasta has snow on the summit year-round. This summer is different,' read the post, which indicated a small white patch in the photo 'is glacial ice, not snow.'

According to the Park's post, Mount Shasta got half of its typical snowpack last winter.

As a result Shasta Lake, the largest reservoir in the state, is at 25 percent cahpacity and dropping by as much as half a foot per day.

'The snow stuck around later in the trees, where it is protected from sun and wind,' the post continued. 'The snow that fell on the mountain was not protected from the wind and the sun [and] was blown right off the mountain. Then as summer came around, there wasn't much snow, and the sun/heat took care of the rest.'

Glaciers visible from the mountain's north side are melting 'very quickly,' the post continued, causing mudflows known as lahars, that can wash out roads and bridges.

'The effects of climate change are visible,' the park concluded. Our hearts are with our neighbors who are currently affected by the mudflows and fires.'
Romelu Lukaku is the No 1 striker in the world and is similar in style to former Inter Milan striker Adriano, according to ex-Brazil playmaker Kaka.

The Belgium striker scored 24 goals for Inter last season to lead them to their first Serie A title in 11 years, finishing 12 points above city rivals and Kaka's former side AC Milan.

The 28-year-old then netted four goals at Euro 2020 as his country reached the quarter-final, before earning a 98million move to Chelsea in August.

Romelu Lukaku is the No 1 striker in the world, according to former AC Milan star

Kaka (left) believes Lukaku has similar characteristics to his former Brazil team-mate Adriano

He has scored three goals for the European champions already this term, and former AC Milan star Kaka believes the Belgian has similar characteristics to his former international team-mate.

'Romelu is number one, he reminds me of Adriano at his best  physical strength, intelligence, speed,' Kaka told Italian publication Gazzetta dello Sport via sempreinter.com.

'A year ago Milan took the lead [in the title race] after the first derby, then Inter took it back and won deservedly.'

Former Brazil striker Adriano scored 67 goals across two spells at San Siro for Inter, while also netting 27 goals in 48 appearances for Brazil between the turn of the century and 2010.

Adriano scored 67 goals in all competitions across two spells at San Siro for Inter Milan

The 39-year-old also enjoyed fine goalscoring spells at Parma, Sao Paulo and in two of his three stints at Flamengo.

Kaka also believes AC Milan have the perfect opportunity to win the Scudetto for themselves this season after finishing as runners-up in 2020-21.

They have not won Serie A since the 2010-11 season, but the former Real Madrid star insists the departures of Lukaku and Cristiano Ronaldo to Manchester United, in addition to Oliver Giroud's arrival from Chelsea to complement Zlatan Ibrahimovic, could swing the pendulum in their favour.

Kaka believes the time is right for Stefano Pioli's men to end AC Milan's 10-year wait for the title

'I think it could be the right time for Milan,' Kaka added.

'They have continuity, while the others have each lost something  Juventus no longer have Ronaldo, Inter will have to spread goals out in the team without Lukaku.

Pioli gave up on Ibra [Ibrahimovic] for a long time [last season]. 'Conte always had Lukaku available to him.

'Today Ibra is still there and Giroud has joined, I think and I hope that we can go all the way.'
Lionel Messi will start his first ever Paris Saint-Germain match this evening after the Argentine was named in an all-star front three with Kylian Mbappe and Neymar.

The former Barcelona captain moved to the French capital last month but has been limited to just 24 minutes of action in a PSG shirt since he made his high-profile free transfer.

But Mauricio Pochettino has ended a very long wait for PSG fans with Messi starting Wednesday night's trip to Club Bruges with Mbappe and Neymar supporting him in attack.

Lionel Messi will make his first Paris Saint-Germain start in their European tie at Club Brugges

Messi (second left) will start up front with stars Kylian Mbappe (middle) and Neymar (right)

There are also Champions League debuts in PSG colours for Achraf Hakimi and Georginio Wijnaldum, while Keylor Navas is preferred to Gianluigi Donnarumma in goal while Sergio Ramos is not back from injury yet.

This will be Messi's first ever Champions League appearance not in a Barcelona shirt after winning four European titles with the Catalans. His last success in the competition came in 2015 when he led Barcelona to the treble alongside Neymar.

Now two cogs of the infamous 'MSN' partnership with Luis Suarez will combine on the pitch for the first time in four years and will lead PSG's charge to win a first ever Champions League trophy after near misses in previous years.

It is the first time Neymar (left) and Messi (right) have linked up since the summer of 2017

Neymar and PSG were beaten in the 2020 final by Bayern Munich before the French giants were dumped out of last season's final by that tournament's beaten finalists Manchester City.

Messi's move to PSG was announced on August 11 but Messi has been forced to wait for a first start at his new club for a variety of reasons.

The 34-year-old had not played a minute of pre-season at Barcelona due to his involvement in the Copa America so needed some time improve his fitness after making his highly-anticipated move.

Neymar (right) and Messi (middle) guided Barcelona to the 2015 Champions League trophy

Messi came off the bench for his PSG debut in a 2-0 victory away at Stade de Reims on August 29 but then jetted off to South America for the international break and his late return ruled him out of PSG's next match - a 4-0 victory over Clermont Foot on Saturday.

Meanwhile, PSG have managed to keep hold of fellow key attackers Mbappe and Neymar after continued speculation over their futures for a number of years.

Brazilian forward Neymar penned a new contract at the club back in May, while Mbappe was the subject of several bids from Real Madrid after Messi completed his move to PSG, but the French club stood firm any rejected every approach.

PSG XI vs Club Brugges: Keylor Navas; Hakimi, Marquinhos, Kimpembe, Diallo; Ander Herrera, Paredes, Wijnaldum; Messi , Mbappe , Neymar
Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko has accused Lewis Hamilton and his Mercedes team of faking the injuries he sustained from last week's Italian Grand Prix crash with Max Verstappen.

Hamilton and Verstappen were involved in a serious accident that saw Red Bull's car flip up and land on the Brit's head at the Variante del Rettifilo in Monza. As a result, Hamilton was taken to hospital for precautionary checks.

Hamilton has since revealed he will be seeing a specialist before the Russian GP as his neck is getting 'tighter and tighter' - although it didn't prevent him from attending New York's glitzy Met Gala last night.

Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen collided in an incident at Monza last weekend (above)

Lewis Hamilton (left) and Max Verstappen (right) were involved in a serious accident at the Variante del Rettifilo in Monza on Sunday afternoon

The accident took place on Sunday last week when the British driver left the pit-lane on lap 26 of 52 and met Verstappen - who had dropped further back following a slow 11.1 second pit-stop.

The pair headed into Turn 1 side by side before Verstappen drove over the raised kerb on Turn 2, causing his car to fly into the air and land on top of Hamilton.

Verstappen was subsequently given a three-place grid penalty and two penalty points. He also received criticism for walking away from Hamilton without checking he was ok.

Red Bull's Helmut Marko has accused Lewis Hamilton and his team of faking his injuries

He attended the Met Gala with Janet Guzman, a model and influencer (above) - who currently boasts 1.9million Instagram followers and manages an OnlyFans account

However, Marko believes the narrative surrounding the crash and Verstappen is unjust. He claims Hamilton's team have 'put on a show' to point the finger at the Dutchman.

Speaking to the Osterreich newspaper, Marko said: 'It was a normal racing accident. All the stories around it were pulled up by the hair by Mercedes.

'Verstappen had already got out when Hamilton tried to go back to get out of the gravel.

'The medical car saw that and drove on. And then a show is put on that poor Hamilton is suddenly injured.'

Despite exiting his car seemingly unharmed - Hamilton has since revealed we will see a specialist over the next few weeks 'just to make sure' he's fit to race at the Russian Grand Prix.

The accident came when Verstappen drove over the kerb at Turn 2 (above) - causing his car to fly into the air and land on Hamilton

They survived but Verstappen was given a three-place grid penalty and two penalty points

Although some have questioned the motives behind the decision to see a specialist as he was seemingly well enough to attend the Met Gala with Janet Guzman, a model and influencer - who currently boasts 1.9million Instagram followers and manages an OnlyFans account.

Nevertheless, Hamilton said: 'I will need to see a specialist to make sure I am good for the next race because my neck is getting tighter and tighter.

'I have been racing a long, long time, so I am so grateful I am still here. We are taking risks and it is only when you experience something like this that you look at life and see how fragile we all are.'

The reigning world champion also admitted he was thankful for the car's Halo - saying it saved 'me and my neck.'

Verstappen (left) was criticised for walking away from Hamilton without checking he was ok

Hamilton says he feels 'feel very fortunate' to be here after his Halo saved him and 'his neck'

Hamilton said: 'Thank God for the halo which saved me and saved my neck. I feel very fortunate today.

'I don't think I have ever been hit on the head by a car before. And it is quite a shock for me. If you look at the images, my head is really quite far forward. His rear wheel landed on the halo and the inside part of his tyre landed on my head.'

Ironically, Hamilton was a critic of the 'halo' ahead of its introduction three years ago. 'The worst-looking modification in Formula One history,' he said prior to its introduction in 2018. 'I hope I am given the option of not using it because I won't.'

Marko also acknowledged the importance of the Halo - crediting it for ensuring things 'turned out' ok.

'Even if I was sceptical at first,' he said, 'I have to admit just like in the fire accident, the Halo was decisive in ensuring that things turned out so well.'

Marko has also referred to Hamilton as a little 'theatrical' - claiming he went overboard on the drama at the Dutch Grand Prix (which Verstappen won)

Nevertheless, Marko has previously referred to Hamilton as a little 'theatrical' - claiming he went overboard on the drama at the Dutch Grand Prix.

'It was an incredibly tough and fair race. From the first to the last lap there was a hard fight,' Red Bull's chief said.

'I have to compliment not only the Dutch, but also Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton. How they behaved  that's how a race should go.

'Hamilton tends to be a bit theatrical. However, we were also watching Mercedes' tyres closely and saw that it became critical with [Valtteri] Bottas at the end. On the whole, it was right.

'We thought after the second stop we could go through with the hard tyres without any problems. Hamilton then attacked strongly, which Max parried. Then it was just a matter of driving the race home.'

Fernando Alonso also hinted at Hamilton's theatrics - saying the Monza crash was 'not a big deal' and that it was an 'unfortunate' racing incident.

Alpine F1 Team driver Fernando Alonso (above) also hinted at Hamilton's theatrics - saying the Monza crash was 'not a big deal' and that it was an 'unfortunate' racing incident

He also said that crash did not compare to the extremity of their British Grand Prix clash.

Alonso said: 'Well they are there, the two champions, and they are always fighting to the limit.

'It looks like an unfortunate position, with the corner and the kerb the car jumps a little, and then they touch. Tyre with tyre, and the rubber makes a car fly.

'But it is low speed, you know, they go at 30 or 40 km/h, there is no danger, there is nothing.

'So I don't think it was a big deal. At Silverstone it probably was, but this one it was just a racing incident.

'I think Lewis tried to open up at Turn 1 to force Max to cut the corner. Max did not cut the corner, he stayed on the outside, but then it was not possible to do Turn 2 on the inside.

Hamilton (above) controversially went on to win the race at Silverstone after the crash

'I think they both they both did what they had to do.

'You know, and unfortunately, they touched, because I saw the replay of the start too, and (Antonio) Giovinazzi and (Charles) Leclerc, they touched, in the same way, and (Lance) Stroll and (Sergio) Perez touched each other in the same way in turn 1 and 2.

'But they did not touch wheel to wheel, but tyre to tyre. So the same did not happen. But it is a very typical manoeuvre [in] Turn 1, Turn 2, and they have been unlucky [to] touch wheel to wheel.'
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Move over Mowgli and Baloo, there's a new jungle book in town - a brand new edition of the stunning coffee table book Jungle Spirits has just been released.

Published by teNeues (www.teneues.com), the 240-page tome has been put together by award-winning photojournalist Christian Ziegler - a former Wildlife Photographer of the Year - and his tropical biologist wife, Daisy Dent.

It's an ode to the tropical splendour of our planets most diverse ecosystems and features almost 200 photographs of the world's rainforests and jungles, taken on four different continents by 20 different photographers.

TeNeues says: 'Zieglers one-of-a-kind images immerse us in pristine landscapes, let us discover fascinating creatures like bonobos, chameleons, and bats, and delight us with rare plants. Brilliant close-ups show the sculpture-like beauty of flora and fauna.'

Its pages are also filled with explanations of the natural phenomena that take place in tropical ecosystems and anecdotes about the experiences the authors had when compiling the book. Ziegler and Dent explain that they have created the book as both a celebration of tropical forests and a plea for help.

Ziegler says: 'We are losing our tropical forests and the species that live there. With this book, Daisy and I want to dazzle you with the beauty and ingenuity of tropical nature and to encourage you to care about the future of these forest habitats.' Scroll down for a taste of the book's incredible photographs.

This striking image of a female bonobo was taken in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Her lips are stained with red clay. Ziegler explains: 'Bonobos often eat clay to help them digest unripe fruit.' There's an entire chapter dedicated to bonobos in Jungle Spirits. Ziegler refers to the animals as 'our unknown cousins'

This characterful photograph captures a southern cassowary in action. According to Ziegler, these flightless birds are native to Papua New Guinea and Queensland, Australia, and they play an important role in seed dispersal. The berries on the floor of this snap belong to a blue quandong plant, which is native to Queensland

In this powerful photo, a fearsome-looking greater bulldog bat catches a fish in Lake Gatun, Panama. In the book Ziegler writes about how he once climbed into the rotted-out trunk of a tree in order to photograph the sleeping bats inside. He says: 'The smell is overwhelming and stings my eyes and nose - I am standing on a soft mound of bat droppings alive with cockroaches'

According to Ziegler, the blue morphotype of panther chameleon that's pictured in this stunning image is very rare in the wild due to exploitation by the exotic pet trade. The book explains how this particular species is endemic to the area around Ambanja, a city in northern Madagascar

This colourful photo shows a keel-billed toucan feeding on palm fruits in Panama. Ziegler reveals: 'Toucans are one of the few birds that can disperse plants with large seeds and play a key role in dispersal in forests in Central and South America. They are especially important in young forests growing on abandoned land, as they bring in seeds of many different species that will help the forest regenerate a diverse tree community'

Pictured is The Daintree rainforest in Queensland, Australia. According to Ziegler it's the worlds oldest tropical forest. This snap is used to introduce a chapter in the book that's titled 'Green'. In it, the authors write about how tropical forests epitomise the power of photosynthesis

This action shot shows a hummingbird pollinating the flower of an orchid in the cloud forest of western Panama. Ziegler explains: 'You can see the purple pollen packet attached to the tip of its beak.' This image features in a chapter on orchids and their pollinators

This saddening image depicts how logging roads and clearfelling have torn into the primary forest of Sabah, Malaysia. The photo features in a chapter titled 'People and the Forest', which considers the impact humans have had on tropical forests and the moral obligation they have to conserve the world's most diverse ecosystems

A complicated tangle of lianas (a woody vine) grows on the slopes of Mount Kinabalu in the state of Sabah, Malaysia, in this image. The book explains: 'Lianas exploit the trees. These vines climb up tree trunks and over branches, using the structure of the trees to put their own leaves above the canopy'

Ziegler calls the cat-eyed snake in this gruesome shot 'a fierce predator'. In this image it's eating a clutch of red-eyed treefrog eggs. The shot was taken in Panama, where Ziegler and Dent now live

The foreword to Jungle Spirits, written by Ruth Eichhorn, former director of photography at Geo magazines, reads: 'Without people like Christian Ziegler and Daisy Dent [pictured], wed be blind to this part of the world that belongs to us and is of the utmost importance to human survival on our planet'
The moon was high and very bright. It lit the clouds creating a very special atmosphere,' Pesquet explained

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These photographs are, unquestionably, out of this world.

French astronaut Thomas Pesquet has captured breathtaking images of the Southern Lights under the full moon from the International Space Station (ISS).

The aurora - which is typically green tinged with red or purple - appeared to have a rare bluish hue, which only occurs under specific conditions.

Thomas Pesquet captured breathtaking images of the Southern Lights under the full moon from the International Space Station

The Aurora - which is typically green tinged with red or purple - appeared to have a rare bluish hue

Pesquet, 43, who is an astronaut for the European Space Agency, explained in a Facebook post: The moon was high and very bright, it lit the clouds creating a very special atmosphere... and it made this aurora polar... almost blue.

Wonder what Mother Nature has in store for us for the rest: a yellow borealis or bright red? A huge rainbow?

The aerospace engineer admitted hed witnessed several auroras during his current mission - Alpha - which launched on April 23 of this year.

However, he confirmed this particular view came with something extra thanks to the moon's glow.

Auroras occur when electrically charged sun particles enter the Earth's atmosphere and collide with oxygen and nitrogen particles

The moon was high and very bright, it lit the clouds creating a very special atmosphere,' Pesquet said, describing the rare phenomenon

WHAT ARE AURORAS? There are two types of auroras - Aurora Borealis, which means 'dawn of the north', and Aurora Australis, 'dawn of the south'. The lights are created when charged particles from the sun enter Earth's atmosphere. Usually the particles are deflected by the Earth's magnetic field, but some enter the atmosphere and collide with gas particles. These collisions emit light in many colours, although pale green and pink are common. Advertisement

Pesquet added: An aurora under the full moon, what could be better?

Auroras occur when electrically charged sun particles enter the Earth's atmosphere and collide with oxygen and nitrogen particles.

The natural phenomenon occurs at the north and south poles, meaning people located in very high or very low latitudes have better chances of observing one.

Northern auroras - often known as the 'Northern Lights' - are called Aurora Borealis, which means 'dawn of the north'.

Southern Lights are called Aurora Australis - from the Latin term meaning southern, which incidentally, is how Australia got its name.

The Aurora Australis is best viewed from Antarctica, Tasmania and the southern mainland coastline.

This isnt the first time Pesquet has delivered spellbinding photographs from the ISS. Earlier this year, he shared stunning images of Uluru, Australia, from his perch in space.

He is one of seven astronauts currently undertaking research in the space station, which is a $100 billion (80billion) science and engineering laboratory that orbits 250 miles (400km) above Earth.

An aurora under the full moon, what could be better? Pesquet wondered, after sharing the photographs from space

The ISS has been permanently staffed by rotating crews of astronauts and cosmonauts since November 2000.

This is Pesquets second stint in the ISS.

In November 2016, he was launched into space for his six-month Proxima mission as a flight engineer for Expeditions 50 and 51.
She's well known for her raunchy wardrobe.

And Lottie Moss showcased her figure in her latest ensemble at the launch of an Alpine-inspired restaurant, Haugen in Stratford, London on Tuesday.

The model, 23, who is the half-sister of Kate Moss, showcased her tiny waist and toned abs in a black crop top and matching slacks as she headed out to the luxe chalet-style restaurant.

Raunchy: Lottie Moss showed off her toned abs in a black crop top and split hem trousers at the launch of an Alpine-inspired restaurant, Haugen in Stratford, London on Tuesday

The OnlyFans star looked incredible in the itsy-bitsy Alli Atelier ensemble, which combined a corset-style bralette and ruched trousers with slits at the ankles.

She kept warm with a matching black cropped blazer, which boasted the same slit detailing as the trousers.

Standing at 5ft5, Lottie stood even taller in a pair of nude distressed tiger-print court heels by Prada at the event.

Blonde beauty: The blonde beauty styled her silky tresses in a straight style with a centre parting - tucking her fringe behind her ears

Wow! The model, who is the half-sister of Kate Moss, showcased her tiny waist and toned abs in a black crop top and matching slacks as she headed out to the luxe chalet-style restaurant

The fashion mogul picked her accessories carefully, opting for a pair of oversized silver hoop earrings while she exuded double diamond black run chic with her dark sunglasses.

The starlet also sported a glamorous palette of makeup for the occasion, including black fox-eye eyeliner and pink lipgloss on her full pout.

Lottie was in good company at the event, sharing the evening with former British boxer Nicola Adams and her girlfriend Ella Baig.

Also in attendance: Lottie was in good company at the event, sharing the evening with former British boxer Nicola Adams and girlfriend Ella Baig

Chic: Nicola cut a chic figure in a patterned yellow shirt which she wore buttoned-up to her neck, while her girlfriend looked a beauty in a skimpy green snakeskin dress

Nicola cut a chic figure in a patterned yellow shirt which she wore buttoned-up to her neck, while her girlfriend looked a beauty in a skimpy green snakeskin dress.

Elsewhere, Lottie also shared sweet photo moments with Game Of Thrones' actress Laura Pradelska, as well as tailoring expert Joshua Kane.

The Moss sister rose to fame with the promise of a successful fashion career, and now sells raunchy photos of herself on websites OnlyFans and Glow.

Sharing the spotlight: Elsewhere, Lottie also shared sweet photo moments with Game Of Thrones' actress Laura Pradelska

Lace up! Laura looked stunning in a cream lace jumpsuit, which featured cut out sides

Erotic photos of influencers sell for as little as 3 on the adult site, with some even offering free subscriptions.

Sources previously claimed that her management Storm is working frantically to protect Lottie and 'save her from herself'  though some family members fear she could have already sabotaged her future.

A source told The Mail On Sunday: 'These photos and the path she's on will affect her future as a model, but also as a woman.'

Joining in: Also joining in on the fun was tailoring expert Joshua Kane, who looked as dapper as expected in a suit with ultra high-waisted trousers

They added: 'What if one day she wants a normal job?

'Storm can't let Lottie become another victim of this crazy influencer-meets-celebrity, image-obsessed culture. Her mental health needs to be protected.'

Another source close to the agency said: 'Storm feels very protective of the lovely Lottie. They are hoping this phase will pass.'

Bright future: The Moss sister rose to fame with the promise of a successful fashion career, and now sells raunchy photos of herself on websites OnlyFans and Glow
Jenna Coleman cut an effortlessly stylish figure as she attended the Royal Academy of Arts summer exhibition 2021 preview party in London on Tuesday night.

The actress, 35, wore a pair of maroon Chanel trousers with a chevron pattern and she looked relaxed as she posed for snaps at the event.

The star teamed the garment with a black boucle jacket as she perused the colourful paintings at the exhibit.

In style: Jenna Coleman, 35, cut a stylish figure in Chanel trousers as she attended the Royal Academy of Arts summer exhibition 2021 preview party in London on Tuesday night

Jenna's high waisted trousers were cinched in at the waist, with the screen star wearing a black Chanel belt.

She completed her ensemble with a pair of black heels with the footwear's pointed toes poking out beneath her trousers.

Jenna posed with American actor Froy Gutierrez, 23, with the Teen Wolf star wearing a grey suit and white shirt which he left unbuttoned at the collar.

Famous friends: Jenna posed with American actor Froy Gutierrez, 23, with the Teen Wolf star wearing a grey suit and white shirt which he left unbuttoned at the collar

Fashion forward: The actress, 35, wore a pair of maroon Chanel trousers with a chevron pattern and she looked relaxed as she posed while out for the evening

Star quality: Jenna's high waisted trousers were cinched in at the waist, with the screen star wearing a black Chanel belt

Jenna recently returned from a wellness retreat in Spain, sharing on Instagram that she spent the week in her dressing gown.

The star posed for a picture as she relaxed at a hotel in the Spanish mountains as she wore her nightwear.

In another snap she could be seen resting on a balcony in front of a beautiful sunset.

Style on point: She completed her ensemble with a pair of black heels with the footwear's pointed toes poking out beneath her trousers

Rest and relaxation: Jenna recently returned from a wellness retreat in Spain, sharing on Instagram that she spent the week in her dressing gown

She captioned the snaps: 'A week spent in my dressing Gown, not brushing my hair, safe In the nurturing hands of @shawellness hidden away in the Spanish mountains.

'A true rest and reboot for mind, body and soul. A comprehensive approach across all pillars of health and healing focusing on fitness, nutrition, rest and natural therapies.

'Thank you for reminding me what it means to really stop and take care yourself.'
Former radio presenter Byron Cooke has announced he has entered politics and is set to run for a seat in the Senate in Federal Parliament.

He shared the news on his podcast, The Byron Cooke Show, on Monday, telling listeners: 'I have joined the Sensible Centre party.'

'I will stand for election in the Senate and my goal is to win a federal senate seat from Victoria and to be a voice for the sensible centre,' he added.

New career: Former Fox FM radio host Byron Cooke (pictured) announced on Monday he was entering politics and running for a seat in the Senate as part of the Sensible Centre party

He appealed to people who 'don't strictly identify as a leftie or as a conservative' and to those who 'want to see everyone in this country do well' to consider his new party.

'I am confident that this party and many of our policies will make sense to you, and I would be honoured to represent you in Canberra,' he said.

Elsewhere, Byron said he wanted to a politician who 'can answer a DM on Instagram'.

'I want to be contactable. I can read. I've got common sense. I am all ears. I don't have one predisposed position politically. Personally, I'm not a lefty, I'm not a conservative,' he said.

'I'm not a lefty, I'm not a conservative': Byron has is a centrist who hopes to appeal to voters across the political spectrum who 'want to see everyone in this country do well'. Pictured with Brendan Fevola in October 2019

'I've been a swinging voter my whole life... I've been all over the map, based on whatever's going on, whatever I'm passionate about at the time, particular issues. So I am right there. I'm in the middle.'

The Fox FM breakfast host continued: 'Politics is really broken now. It's just a blame game between two very polarised groups, right and left.

'I've always found that the best ideas lie somewhere in the middle, where you can learn from people on either side.'

Colleagues: Byron quit Melbourne's Fox FM in November 2020 to focus on his podcast and spend more time with his family. Pictured with Fifi Box (centre) and Brendan Fevola (left)

Byron quit Melbourne's Fox FM in November 2020 to focus on his podcast and spend more time with his family.

The media personality, who had co-hosted Fifi, Fev and Byron since 2017, broke down in tears on air as he announced his resignation.

He said at the time: 'As of next year, I won't be on the show. I've made a decision to move on to other challenges. This is actually quite difficult but I'm moving on.'

New focus: Byron explained at the time he was leaving was to focus on his podcast and spend more time with his family. Pictured: Byron with his partner, Alex

Byron explained he'd struggled getting up at 4.30am every day for five years, and this schedule meant he hadn't been able to do 'much else'.

'It's just hard... It's not because I don't love being it, but I just can't do seven things at once. This has not been easy,' he said.

Since leaving commercial radio, Byron has launched The Byron Cooke Show podcast.
From tear-gas training to living at the epicentre of the mouse plague, there's no doubt the celebrities on SAS Australia are pushed to their limits.

And Channel Seven executive producer Sylvia D'Souza has confirmed some stars pulled out of the competition before it even started due to fears for their safety.

'Every task is scrutinised from all aspects of safety. But the celebrities are aware there's a risk of injury, and we can't guarantee that won't happen,' Ms D'Souza told Mediaweek on Tuesday.

Not game enough: SAS Australia's executive producer Sylvia D'Souza has confirmed some stars pulled out of the competition before it even started due to fears for their safety

'Some celebrities have said no to coming onto the show because of this. We are asking people to test their limits, and we need to deliver that as safely as possible.'

Ms D'Souza also revealed that one of the stars who did make it onto the show was shocked when their request for 'gluten-free meals' was declined.

She went on to describe SAS Australia as one of Seven's most logistically difficult shows to shoot because of the dangerous nature of the challenges.

Even the recruits who were physically capable of doing the military-style tasks were still shocked to their core by their surroundings.

Grim: Ms D'Souza described SAS Australia as one of Seven's most logistically difficult shows to shoot because of the dangerous nature of the challenges. Pictured: contestant Heath Shaw

'The mouse plague was one. That was terrible. We had hundreds of mice and mice traps were everywhere, including the DS dorms and recruits,' Ms D'Souza said.

'In the series, youll see where there are mice running over recruits faces as they slept and nibbling at them,' she added.

Retired NRL star Sam Burgess made similar remarks about the brutality of the competition in an interview with 7News on Tuesday.

He described the experience as 'intense from the first minute to the last minute', adding that there were times he 'genuinely believed it was too much, but pushed through'.

The hardest battle: Retired NRL star Sam Burgess made similar remarks about the brutality of the competition in an interview with 7News on Tuesday

But when asked what was the worst part of the show, Sam said it was 'definitely the lack of food, and cleaning the toilets'.

Sam also revealed he'd prepared for SAS Australia by doing 'general training' and weekly 48-hour fasts for a month.

He added: 'I just think I took a deeper look at my capabilities and understanding of others and other peoples capabilities. It was a great period of growth.'

SAS Australia continues 7.30pm Wednesday on Channel Seven and 7plus.
Todd Rundgren did not hold back as he recalled working with Kanye West during the creation of the rapper's 10th studio album Donda, which was released in late August.

Speaking to UCR, the 73-year-old musician labeled West a 'dilettante' and said he stepped away from the project in July due to lack of 'feedback' from West on his contributions.

Later in the interview, Rundgren claimed that West's hurried approach to Donda stemmed from fear over his rap rival Drake 'one-upping him' with the release of Certified Lover Boy on September 3.

Opening up: Todd Rundgren did not hold back as he recalled working with Kanye West during the creation of the rapper's 10th studio album Donda, which was released in late August; pictured in 2008

'My involvement went on for a year, and in the end I realized why they hurriedly wrapped the whole thing up and put out what is obviously really raw, unprocessed stuff.

'It's because Drake was running the whole process,' said Todd in reference to Drake's unknowing hold on Kanye and the way their longtime rivalry may have affected the album's integrity.

He went on to claim that Kanye 'was too afraid that Drake would one-up him, so he hurried up and released the album the weekend before Drake could get his out.

'And in the end, Drake ate his lunch anyway.'

Yikes: Speaking to UCR , the 73-year-old musician labeled West a 'dilettante' and said he stepped away from the project in July due to lack of 'feedback' from West on his contributions; West pictured in 2019

Though he was at first confused by Kanye's creative approach, Todd told the outlet that he 'eventually came to the realization that West is a shoe designer. ... He's just a dilettante at this point.'

He continued: 'Nobody would regularly make records like that unless they had stupid money to throw around. Nobody rents a stadium to make a record in.

'Nobody flies in the entire world of hip-hop just to croak one syllable, just so you can say that everybody was on it.'

Rundgren would later poke fun at the seemingly endless collaborations on the album by noting that he is 'one of the few artists not on Kanye's album.'

Realization: 'My involvement went on for a year, and in the end I realized why they hurriedly wrapped the whole thing up and put out what is obviously really raw, unprocessed stuff,' said Todd; pictured in 2019

Rivalry: Rundgren claimed that West's hurried approach to Donda stemmed from fear over his rap rival Drake (left) 'one-upping him' with the release of Certified Lover Boy in September

He currently has 'three albums worth of Kanye stems on my computer' because, during the course of production, he 'kept getting called by Kanye to add vocals onto the record.

'When it got into the homestretch in July, I just said, "That's enough for me. I have no idea whether any of this is being used." You don't get much feedback from him regarding what it is.'

Further elaborating on his year-long Donda involvement, Rundgren told the outlet that he was originally 'recruited' by producer 88-Keys, who has worked closely with Kanye for nearly two decades.

'88-Keys is a big fan of mine and wanted to see us work together,' Todd continued, admitting that he was willing to help bring Kanye's vision to life, no matter the genre or subject matter.

Dilettante: Though he was at first confused by Kanye's creative approach, Todd told the outlet that he 'eventually came to the realization that West is a shoe designer. ... He's just a dilettante at this point'; Kanye pictured during his first Donda listening party in July

No holding back: 'Nobody would regularly make records like that unless they had stupid money to throw around. Nobody rents a stadium to make a record in,' said Rundgren of West; Kanye pictured during his first Donda listening party in July

'I didn't mind working on his gospel stuff. If you want to sing about Jesus, go ahead, I don't care. I'll help ya do it, you know? If you want to sing about your troubles with your wife, go ahead and do it. I don't care.'

Even with his easygoing approach, the icon stressed that he is 'still a producer, and I don't just want to be like driftwood in the process. If I can contribute something, fine. If I can't, just let me know. I'm out of here.'

Despite stepping away from the project just a month before its release, the famed multi-instrumentalist admitted that he doesn't know for sure if any of his contributions were used or 'buried in the final mixes.'

He stated: 'There is a possibility that I'm actually in there somewhere. There's so much junk in that record!'

Donda, which is West's 10th studio album, serves as an homage to his late mother Donda West, who tragically passed away in 2007, and consists of 27 songs.

Only one: Rundgren would later poke fun at the seemingly endless collaborations on the album by noting that he is 'one of the few artists not on Kanye's album'; Rundgren pictured in 2019

Endless: features the likes of disgraced rocker Marilyn Manson (pictured right), controversial rapper DaBaby (pictured center), and a slew of other Hip Hop industry favorites, including West's longtime friend and collaborator Jay-Z

It features the likes of disgraced rocker Marilyn Manson, controversial rapper DaBaby, and a slew of other Hip Hop industry favorites, including West's longtime friend and collaborator Jay-Z.

West premiered the album and its variants during three over-the-top listening parties, two of which were held in Atlanta, while the final was held in Chicago.

The parties were attended by Kanye's estranged wife Kim Kardashian, their four children, and Kim's younger sister Khloe.

Following its August 29 premiere, Donda became the hitmaker's tenth No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart.

West is one of only seven musical artists with at least 10 top charting albums in the 65-year history of the Billboard 200 chart.
She is one of the fashion industry's most well-known supermodels.

And Helena Christensen set pulses racing as she posed for a series of sizzling lingerie snaps for luxury brand Coco de Mer's Icons campaign.

The brand - known as the 'home of pleasure' - has teamed up exclusively with the internationally renowned model, photographer and fashionista.

Wow: Helena Christensen set pulses racing as she posed for a series of sizzling lingerie snaps for luxury brand Coco de Mer's Icons campaign

The Danish beauty, 52, highlighted her jaw-dropping figure as she posed in a black sheer two-piece while posing in front of a window.

Letting her brunette locks fall loose down her shoulders, she added glamour to her look with a red lip.

As well as being introduced as the face of Icons, Helena has art-directed and photographed herself wearing the collection from the intimacy of her home in New York in a bid to truly capture 'The Ultimate Female Gaze'.

In another snap, Helena put on a sizzling display as she perched on the edge of a bed in a two-piece while fixing the camera with a sultry stare.

Stunning: The Danish beauty highlighted her jaw-dropping figure as she posed in a black sheer two-piece while posing in front of a window

Looking good: In another snap, Helena put on a sizzling display as she perched on the edge of a bed

The model also posed for several mirror snaps where she accentuated her natural beauty with a light pallet of makeup.

In another look, Helena looked typically stunning in the silky one-piece, which boasted a plunging neckline and strappy detailing across the chest of the garment.

Helena was perched on a piano seat and posed with one leg in the air, while sporting a pair of black stilettos.

Helena had a remote control in her hand for one photo which was linked to her camera and controlled the shots she was taking of herself.

Brand: The brand - known as the 'home of pleasure' - has teamed up exclusively with the internationally renowned model, photographer and fashionista

Style: The model donned another two-piece for the bedroom shots

Beauty: The model also posed for several mirror snaps where she accentuated her natural beauty with a light pallet of makeup

Natural: Helena looked nothing short of sensational for the breathtaking shoot

Scantily clad: Helena sent temperatures soaring with the steamy shoot

In bathroom snaps, the Danish star perched on the edge of her bathtub in the lacy black, semi-sheer bra and thong.

Biting her lip seductively, she rocked a fresh-faced look, allowing her dark locks to fall casually around her naked shoulders.

Helena slipped her lithe, golden limbs into another twin set - an elaborately strapped black two-piece, with suspenders and stockings attached.

Helena sat on the floor by the door for another image, gazing out into the rainy afternoon, a vase of stunning flowers next to her.

Sultry: Helena sported a pair of suspenders in one image where she perched on a sink

Flawless: The star displayed her curves as she struck a playful pose for the camera

Beginning: Helena's modelling career was launched when she won the Miss Universe Denmark title in 1986

Radiant: Helena donned a black silk garment as she posed on a window sill in one snap

Photoshoot: The star's brunette tresses where styled into loose waves

Travel: Along with her home in New York, Helena also owns an apartment in Copenhagen

She donned another bra for this snap and added a chocolate shawl around her waist.

Having snapped the images herself, Helena was seen clutching the flash button in some of the snaps, including one that sees her kneeling on a chair in a stripy black teddy.

Helena's modelling career was launched when she won the Miss Universe Denmark title in 1986.

The bombshell went on to become one of the original 1990s supermodels alongside Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Cindy Crawford, Naomi Campbell, Elle Macpherson and Claudia Schiffer.

Icon: The Danish star perched on the edge of her bathtub in the lacy black, semi-sheer bra and thong

Incredible: Helena sat on the floor by the door for another image, gazing out into the rainy afternoon, a vase of stunning flowers next to her

Perched: Helena donned a black figure-hugging negligee as she ran her hands through her hair

Glamour: Biting cheekily on the clicker, Helena crossed her legs as she glanced off-camera

Wink: The model struck a playful pose as she took a selfie

Since her break into the fashion industry, the clothing designer also has become an accomplished photographer and was a co-founder of Nylon magazine which published from 1999 to 2017.

In 2019, the brunette, who shares son Mingus, 21, with her former partner Norman Reedus, spoke to Daily Mail about some of her fitness secrets.

She detailed how she likes to swim in 'rivers, lakes and oceans' in a bid to maintain her sensational figure.

She shared: 'I think it's important to shake it up and do as many different forms of workout as possible, but also to incorporate nature into them.

Success: After her Miss Universe success, Helena went on to become one of the original 1990s supermodels

Pals: Helena also posed with her friends Brooke Shields and Camilla Staerk

Smouldering: In another saucy snap, Helena sported just a black bra

Career: Since her break into the fashion industry, the clothing designer has also become an accomplished photographer

Business: She was a co-founder of Nylon magazine which published from 1999 to 2017

Jaw-dropping: Helena was perched on a piano seat and posed with one leg in the air for this image while sporting a pair of black stilettos

Fitness: Helena detailed how she likes to swim in 'rivers, lakes and oceans' in a bid to maintain her sensational figure

She said: 'I think it's important to shake it up and do as many different forms of workout as possible, but also to incorporate nature into them'

'Swim in the ocean, swim in rivers, swim in lakes. Hiking, trekking, chopping wood  it's the best way of working out, because it doesn't really feel like a workout. It feels like you're alive.'

Although Helena is best known for her work as a model, she has since expanded her interests into the field of clothing design.

In 2015, she teamed up with her frequent collaborator, Camilla Staerk, to cofound their multi-focus studio, entitled Staerk&Christensen.

The two have focused on several fields over the past few years, with notable efforts in the fields of both fashion and film having been showcased on the latter's Instagram account several times in the past.

She added: 'Swim in the ocean, swim in rivers, swim in lakes. Hiking, trekking, chopping wood  it's the best way of working out, because it doesn't really feel like a workout. It feels like you're alive'

Brancing out: Although Helena is best known for her work as a model, she has since expanded her interests into the field of clothing design
The Sitwells were once one of societys most distinguished families.

But the current generation, which includes MasterChef critic William Sitwell and his baronet brother, the former film producer Sir George, were left cursing after they decided to sell the 3.25 million Northamptonshire pile which had been in the family for 300 years.

S*** happens, William said of the sale of Weston Hall, which was held in a family trust.

Now, Sir Georges ex-wife, the model and former face of Royal Ascot Martha Sitwell, has voiced her fury at the sale of the contents of Weston, where Brideshead Revisited author Evelyn Waugh and Noel Coward regularly stayed. The contents are due to go under the hammer at Dreweatts auction house in Berkshire in November.

The Sitwells were once one of societys most distinguished families. But the current generation, which includes MasterChef critic William Sitwell and his baronet brother, the former film producer Sir George, were left cursing after they decided to sell the 3.25 million Northamptonshire pile which had been in the family for 300 years

My husband, who I spent 12 years with, who I gave up a promising modelling career for, who now lives in Knightsbridge, has now sold the house that, at the time of our divorce, could never be sold, says Lady Sitwell, who divorced Sir George in 2017 and claims she was left almost bankrupt. Now, they are selling the contents which also could never be sold. Should I go back to court to try to get a divorce settlement?

However, Sir George, 54, who is the great-nephew of poet Dame Edith Sitwell, insists: I have no control whatsoever over the sale of Weston Hall and its contents. His brother, 52, has explained that they have joint ownership as beneficiaries of a non-discretionary trust. He said: My grandfather, father, brother and now me have all had a go at keeping the place going.

We kicked the can down the road until George Osborne dealt us a death-blow, introducing a six per cent charge on value, payable every ten years.

Martha, 40, claims, Its been very unjust, and tells me: As someone who has never been to court in my life, it wasnt easy at all. I ended up with a pro-bono lawyer, so I had to read all the court documents myself. It turned into a battle of David and Goliath.

But in this case Goliath won.

Now, Sir Georges ex-wife, the model and former face of Royal Ascot Martha Sitwell, has voiced her fury at the sale of the contents of Weston, where Brideshead Revisited author Evelyn Waugh and Noel Coward regularly stayed. The contents are due to go under the hammer at Dreweatts auction house in Berkshire in November

Middleton marvels at his millions

Pandemic, what pandemic? I hear that business has boomed at the company owned by the Duchess of Cambridges brother-in-law.

Pippa Middletons husband, James Matthews, has seen takings at his investment advice business, Eden Rock Capital Management, soar from 716,000 to more than 3.3 million in 12 months, with the majority of the money coming from overseas.

It means that profits for the partnership hit 2.6 million  dwarfing the 60,000 made in 2019.

The paperwork was signed off by Matthews, 46, a founding partner at the firm, which is named after the five-star Caribbean hotel owned by his parents.

Queen saddles up for more race success

Despite her problems with Prince Andrew, and regular brickbats from California-based Prince Harry and Meghan, the Queen does have one reason to celebrate.

I hear shes enjoyed her most successful racing season in decades. On Monday, her horse, Fresh Fancy, won his race at Kempton Park in Surrey, becoming her 30th winner of the flat season  and theres still a few weeks to go.

Shes also had two winners over jumps this year, giving her 32 victories from 133 runs and 460,000 in prize money. Shes beaten her past modern seasonal best of 29 wins in 2019.

Despite her problems with Prince Andrew, and regular brickbats from California-based Prince Harry and Meghan, the Queen does have one reason to celebrate

Here's something fishy: TV chef Rick Stein has caused tempers to boil over by adding a summerhouse to his home in Padstow, Cornwall  without planning permission. Papers filed at the local council reveal that building work started in June, but it has not been completed. One of his neighbours has formally objected to Steins plans, claiming theyre hopelessly out of place and unacceptably harmful to the character and appearance of the property. Stein has now served up an application for retrospective consent. The seafood specialist has said of his cottage in the past: It has glorious views. Its quite small, but I love it.

Damians sweet Helen gets a poetic tribute

Peaky Blinders star Helen McCrory, who died in April aged 52 after a secret cancer battle, was honoured last night at a party in Londons Holland Park.

The event marked the publication of a book by her close friend Allie Esiri, who has dedicated anthology A Poet For Every Day Of The Year to her.

Helen loved poetry and was brilliant at reading it, Esiri tells me. I asked Damian [Lewis, McCrorys actor husband] for his blessing for the event and he gave it.

Other friends of McCrory at the party were her Harry Potter co-star Helena Bonham Carter, David and Samantha Cameron, and Poldark star Beatie Edney.

Peaky Blinders star Helen McCrory, who died in April aged 52 after a secret cancer battle, was honoured last night at a party in Londons Holland Park

Raspberry delight for newlywed Kitty

Who needs the Met Gala in New York?

Newly married Lady Kitty Spencer demonstrated the art of making a colourful entrance in London last night.

Princess Dianas 30-year-old niece arrived at the Royal Academy of Arts delayed summer exhibition party dressed in a striking pink and red gown that fellow party-goers compared to a raspberry ripple.

Lady Kitty exchanged vows with fashion tycoon Michael Lewis, who is 32 years her senior, in a lavish Italian wedding in July.

Her father, Earl Spencer, who is half a decade younger than her husband, was conspicuous by his absence.
She's the convicted drug smuggler who reinvented herself as a reality TV star after being released from Bali's most notorious prison.

And Schapelle Corby looked remarkably youthful on Tuesday as she returned to Instagram for the first time in almost a month.

The SAS Australia star, 43, showed off her ageless complexion as she posed with two friends in the selfie, sparking rumours she may have recently had a Botox top-up.

Back with a bang! Convicted drug smuggler Schapelle Corby (centre) looked remarkably youthful on Tuesday as she returned to Instagram for the first time in almost a month

Schapelle's selfie attracted plenty of supportive comments.

'Stunning hair colour! Suits you,' one follower wrote.

Another added: 'Look at those beautiful sparkling eyes! Sparkling with happiness.'

'You're so beautiful': Schapelle's selfie attracted plenty of supportive comments

The past 12 months has been a happy time for the Queenslander, who took part on last year's season of SAS Australia.

In August last year, Schapelle looked very different during an interview on Sunrise compared to her days locked up in Bali's Kerobokan Prison.

At the time, she looked every inch the budding reality star - sporting a full face of makeup, including dewy pink blush, rose-coloured lipstick and false lashes.

How you've changed! In August last year, Schapelle looked very different during an interview on Sunrise (right) compared to her days locked up in Bali's Kerobokan Prison (left, in 2006)

Her eyebrows appeared noticeably fluffier than they were in the early 2000s, while her hair was more voluminous thanks to a set of perfectly curled extensions.

Schapelle, who has denied rumours of cosmetic work such as Botox and fillers, also showed off her age-defying complexion, smooth forehead and plump lips.

That same day, the former drug mule later appeared on The Morning Show, wearing a striking red frock that offered a glimpse of her cleavage.

Primped: Looking every inch the budding reality star, Schapelle sported a full face of makeup, including dewy pink blush, rose-coloured lipstick and false lashes. Pictured left: in 2008

The interview also highlighted the impressive length of Schapelle's hair extensions, which tumble well past her shoulders.

Beverly Hills surgeon Dr. Randal Haworth previously told Daily Mail Australia that Schapelle may have invested in 'non-invasive work' to achieve her ageless looks.

'It is not hard to imagine that a stint in an Indonesian prison would be a less than welcome holiday, so it is understandable that anyone would want a fresh start after that,' he said in June 2018. 'It seems as if Ms Corby is no exception to that rule.'

Dr. Haworth was of the opinion Schapelle had 'undergone subtle facial rejuvenation'.

Va-va-voom! The former drug mule later appeared on The Morning Show, wearing a striking red frock that offered a glimpse of her cleavage. Pictured left: Schapelle in 2005; and right: on The Morning Show in August

'I don't believe she underwent any plastic surgery per se,' he claimed. 'But she most likely had non-invasive work to achieve her current look.'

Earlier in 2018, Schapelle had denied having Botox injections or fillers.

She told Woman's Day in March that year: 'No fillers, no Botox. I just use Snapchat and Instagram filters! I look at a photo of me and think, "Gee, that's ugly," and then I put a filter on it and think, "Actually, it's pretty good!"

New look? Beverly Hills surgeon Dr. Randal Haworth previously said Schapelle may have invested in some 'non-invasive work' to achieve her young appearance. Pictured in 2005

'I do get a lot of people commenting saying things like, "Oh, you've had Botox," and I say to myself, "Oh, shut up. You're young, you know how it works, you know that's just all the good filters!"

'I don't think young people should get Botox or fillers.'

In addition to doing SAS Australia last year, Schapelle enjoyed a brief stint on Dancing with the Stars as a 'wildcard' contestant.
Thomas Hardy: Fate, Exclusion And Tragedy

Rating:

A House Through Time

Rating:

Poor Thomas Hardy. He rises from humble origins to carve out a remarkable career as a novelist and poet, he is awarded the Order of Merit and buried in Westminster Abbey.

Yet what happens? More than 90 years after his death, he is exposed on national television as a rotten husband.

One of the most dramatic Hardy moments is the scene in which drunken Michael Henchard, later the Mayor of Casterbridge, sells his wife to the highest bidder at a country fair.

According to Thomas Hardy: Fate, Exclusion And Tragedy (Sky Arts), that was probably wishful thinking: a reflection of the way he felt about his first wife, Emma.

Thomas Hardy, who has fallen out of fashion in recent years, was a gloomy novelist and this account of his life made no attempt to lighten the mood, writes Roland White

As she once bitterly observed: He only understands the women he invents  the rest, not at all.

She lived in the attic rooms of their home in Dorset, and their relationship was so bitter he turned down a knighthood because he didnt want her to be Lady Hardy.

Yet when Emma died and he was free to marry his mistress, Florence Dugdale, he was convulsed by grief and guilt.

He kept her coffin at the end of his bed for three days, visited parts of Cornwall where he and Emma had shared happy memories, and wrote some of the best poetry of his career in her memory. Men, eh?

Hardy, who has fallen out of fashion in recent years, was a gloomy novelist and this account of his life made no attempt to lighten the mood. It was the sort of show you rarely see on mainstream television these days: a procession of serious, rather academic talking heads.

Well, mostly serious: I did note that the pro-vice chancellor of Liverpool University wore a huge brooch in the shape of a white mouse.

An urn containing the heart of novelist Hardy is carried during a funeral procession in Stinsford, England, to be buried in his wife's grave

THIS WEEK'S HIDDEN MESSAGE In Passport To Pimlico (Talking Pictures), part of London leaves the UK in favour of French rule. In 1949 it was a jolly comedy. Now it feels like a training film for voters who want to rejoin Europe. Free Pimlico now! Advertisement

One light moment came when the programme recalled how Hardy probably provided inspiration for the word cliffhanger. When his novel A Pair Of Blue Eyes was being serialised, he left his hero, Henry Knight, dangling from a cliff edge at the end of one episode.

Luckily, Henrys love interest, Elfride Swancourt, was a resourceful young woman. Even though it was 1873, she had no hesitation in whipping off her underwear and lowering it to Henry as a rope.

How fortunate that the knickers of Victorian romantic heroines came supplied by the yard.

In A House Through Time (BBC2), the historian Professor David Olusoga continued to discover enough drama in a modest end-of-terrace home in Leeds to cobble together a soap opera.

Last weeks episode told how a young boy burned to death in a domestic accident, and last night we learnt that later residents also had their share of tragedy.

One of factory owner Benjamin Wilds workers died after his arm was ripped off in an industrial accident, and later the factory was burnt to the ground in a suspected arson attack, soon after a strike. Scooping up the insurance, the Wild family moved to the United States.

In A House Through Time (BBC2), Professor David Olusoga (pictured) continued to discover enough drama in a modest end-of-terrace home in Leeds to cobble together a soap opera

The next residents, Andrew and Mary Mellish, lost a year-old son to rickets. They were replaced by a William and Mary Lucy Whiting, who were Quakers and anti-war campaigners.

There was romance  the young man who literally married the girl next door  and a touch of glamour in the story of Edward Partridge, who mixed with the smart set (at arms length) as a waiter on a Cunard liner.

All human life was there. I wondered, does every home in the country have similar stories to tell, or was the research team just lucky when they picked that address in Leeds?

Christopher Stevens is away.
The new season of SAS Australia is in full swing.

And in a teaser for an upcoming episode, star recruits Sam Burgess and Jett Kenny bare all as they hit the showers after a day of gruelling challenges.

The former NRL star, 32, went completely naked in the blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment, standing with his back to the camera with his buttocks on display.

Steamy! Sam Burgess (pictured) and Jett Kenny showed off their ripped physiques as they hit the showers after a day of gruelling challenges in a teaser for SAS Australia

He was seen lathering up in the bunker showers and using a bucket of water to rinse his ripped body of the day's filth.

Ironman Jett, meanwhile, showcased his impressive physique as he stood nearby, half-naked except for a pair of camo pants.

The 27-year-old model was then seen hoisting a bucket of water over his head, before the camera cut to another scene.

Having a crack! The former NRL star, 32, went completely naked in the blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment, standing with his back to the camera with his buttocks on display. Right: Jett Kenny

Washing the day away: Sam was seen lathering up in the bunker showers and using a bucket of water to rinse his body of the day's filth

Toned: Ironman Jett (right) showcased his impressive physique as he stood nearby, half-naked except for a pair of camo pants

Sam made headlines following Monday's season premiere of SAS Australia, after making the surprise revelation he cheated on his ex-wife of four years, Phoebe Burgess, when they were married.

'I don't think I was the greatest husband at times,' he said to the camera. 'I embarrassed my wife. I'd had an affair with a girl, a woman in Melbourne. That's true.

'I was away on tour, and regretfully that happened. Which would have been... it would have been a tough place for Phoebe to be.'

On Tuesday, the British sportsman described his SAS Australia experience as 'intense from the first minute to the last minute', and admitted there were times he 'genuinely believed it was too much, but pushed through'.

'I don't think I was the greatest husband at times': It comes after Burgess' emotional display during Monday's SAS Australia premiere, in which he sensationally confessed to cheating on his ex-wife Phoebe during their four-year marriage. Pictured: the Burgesses in happier times

When asked what was the worst part of Seven's military-style show, Sam said it was 'definitely the lack of food, and cleaning the toilets'.

The former South Sydney Rabbitohs player also revealed he prepared for SAS Australia by doing 'general training' and weekly 48-hour fasts for a month.

Describing it as a learning experience, he added: 'I just think I took a deeper look at my capabilities and understanding of others and other people's capabilities. It was a great period of growth.'
Andy Lee has given fans a glimpse of the unglamorous side of working in TV.

The comedian, 40, shared video of himself on Instagram recording a voiceover for his Channel Nine game show, The Hundred, on Tuesday.

While he may be used to standing in a recording booth with professional equipment, Sydney's strict lockdown has meant he has had to improvise production.

Do it yourself! Andy Lee revealed the unglamorous side of working on TV as he recorded a voice over in a makeshift home studio for his show The Hundred

Andy was forced use his own equipment and create a makeshift home studio.

His studio comprised of a handheld microphone, with a small sound mixing board that was connected to a laptop on his lap.

Andy hit record and covered himself with a knitted blanket to sound proof his recording.

Makeshift: Andy was forced to use his own equipment and create a makeshift home studio. His studio comprised of a handheld microphone, with a small sound mixing board that was connected to a laptop on his lap

Working from home: Andy hit record and covered himself with a knitted blanket to sound proof his recording. He read his script off his computer screen with plenty of gusto, and was done with the take

He read his script off his computer screen with plenty of gusto, and was done with the take.

Andy joked in the caption that his video was a 'look at the glamour of showbiz and the highly technical recording of the opening titles VO for The Hundred!'

The premise of the show asks 100 Australians from across the country to weigh in on different topics from lockdowns and anti-vaxxers to sleeping in the nude and checking the toilet before flushing.

On show: The premise of the show asks 100 Australians from across the country to weigh in on different topics from lockdowns and anti-vaxxers to sleeping in the nude and checking the toilet before flushing

Away from home: Andy has been living in Sydney for the past couple of months to film the statistics-based comedy show, leaving his girlfriend Rebecca Harding and their dog Henri behind in Melbourne

Andy has been living in Sydney for the past couple of months to film the statistics-based comedy show, leaving his girlfriend Rebecca Harding and their dog Henri behind in Melbourne.

The couple met at a Melbourne cafe where she was working as a waitress in 2014 when he left his email address for her on a napkin.

Andy and Rebecca didn't go public with their romance until January the following year.
Model and former Miss World Australia Erin Holland has released graphic photos demonstrating the physical toll of SAS Australia.

The 32-year-old had dozens of bruises across her battered arms and legs in a series of confronting images shared with her 400,000 Instagram followers on Wednesday.

Erin sustained the injuries while filming Channel Seven's military-style reality show in Capertee Valley, NSW, earlier this year.

That looks painful! Model and former Miss World Australia Erin Holland has released graphic photos demonstrating the physical toll of SAS Australia

'THE AFTERMATH... A raw look at what a few days of selection looked like (plus a sore back from 90+ kilos on it),' she wrote in the caption.

'SAS Australia is unlike anything I've ever experienced. It's 24/7 - so many tasks that can't possibly all make it to air! SO much respect for my fellow recruits still toughing it out in there - it only gets wilder from here.'

Erin Holland was the second celebrity to call it quits on SAS Australia on Tuesday.

Injuries: The 32-year-old had dozens of bruises across her battered arms and legs in a series of confronting images shared with her 400,000 Instagram followers on Wednesday

During the episode, chief instructor Ant Middleton asked Erin to carry actor Dan Ewing after she failed to complete some exercises earlier in the day.

But after a number of failed attempts to lift the strapping actor, she announced that she couldn't go on - especially knowing that the other recruits were being savagely punished with more gruelling exercises until she finished.

'I can't do that to them. I can't,' she said to Ant, before handing in her arm band.

Fans watching at home felt the challenge was unfair, with the slender beauty forced to haul around a full-grown man.

Out: Erin Holland was the second celebrity to call it quits during this year's season of SAS Australia on Tuesday night

Many posted their concerns on Twitter, with one writing: 'Why give Erin the second biggest guy to carry?'

Someone else agreed: 'Erin will never manage to carry Dan.'

Another person Tweeted: 'Could just as well have asked Erin to run 100m in eight seconds.

SAS Australia continues Wednesday at 7.30pm on Channel Seven
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Jessica Chastain showed off a dramatically different look as she attended the star-studded premiere of The Eyes of Tammy Faye in New York with 70s curly hair and a disco-themed silver dress.

And the 44-year-old Golden Globe-winner put on a sweet display with her husband Gian Luca Passi de Preposulo, 39, as they cosied up to one another on the red carpet.

The couple have been happily married since 2017, famously tying the knot at Gian's family estate in Treviso, Italy.

Chameleon: Jessica Chastain debuted 70s curly hair and a silver disco-themed dress as she attended the star-studded premiere of The Eyes of Tammy Faye in New York on Tuesday (left) and pictured on September 11 (right)

Jessica strutted her stuff down the red carpet in a glitzy mirrored dress and a pair of sky-high heels.

The forthcoming film, slated for a September 17 theatrical release, documents the rise, fall, and redemption of American evangelist Tammy Faye Bakker, who passed away in 2007 after a lengthy battle with colon cancer.

Chastain's signature auburn tresses were parted down the middle and styled in voluminous curls reminiscent of disco-era glam.

The Zero Dark Thirty actress accessorized with some large silver hoop earrings, while painting her nails a gorgeous ox blood shade.

As for makeup, Jessica rocked a shimmy eyeshadow look and drew attention to her pout with a generous application of peach lipstick.

Clearly proud of the film, Chastain paraded around the star-studded premiere with a huge smile on her face.

Hot pairing: And the 44-year-old Golden Globe-winner put on a sweet display with her husband Gian Luca Passi de Preposulo, 39, as they cozied up to one another on the red carpet

Going strong: The couple have been happily married since 2017, famously tying the knot at Gian's family estate in Treviso, Italy

She posed for a snap with reverend and AIDS activist Steve Pieters, who Tammy Faye famously interviewed for her television show Tammys House Party in 1985.

Chastain later met up on the red carpet with French actress Isabelle Huppert, who wowed in a bright red power suit.

Before heading into the premiere's venue, Jessica was captured exiting her chauffeured SUV and greeting fans.

Disco diva: Jessica strutted her stuff down the red carpet in a glitzy mirrored dress and a pair of sky-high heels

Working it: She did her dress justice by twirling her skirt for shutterbugs

Accessorize: The Zero Dark Thirty actress accessorized with some large silver hoop earrings, while painting her nails a gorgeous ox blood shade

Besides the film's leading lady, hoards of Hollywood's biggest names turned out on Tuesday night to throw support behind The Eyes of Tammy Faye.

Sharon Stone dazzled in yellow leopard print midi dress layered under a chic black coat.

The 63-year-old actress bright blonde pixie cut was softly styled and she amplified her already stunning features with some red lipstick and a few coats of mascara.

Biopic: The forthcoming film, slated for a September 17 theatrical release, documents the rise, fall, and redemption of American evangelist Tammy Faye Bakker, who passed away in 2007 after a lengthy battle with colon cancer

Beaming: Clearly proud of the film, Chastain paraded around the star-studded premiere with a huge smile on her face

Star-studded: Besides the film's leading lady, hoards of Hollywood's biggest names turned out on Tuesday night to throw support behind The Eyes of Tammy Faye

The Basic Instinct star carried her belongings in a black vinyl handbag with a heart-shaped clasp, while tossing on a pair of glitzy earrings for some added flair.

Maggie Gyllenhaal put on a loved up display as she arrived to the premiere with her husband of over a decade Peter Sarsgaard.

The couple, who wed in 2009, posed closely before walking the red carpet with their hands interlocked.

Key player: She posed for a snap with reverend and AIDS activist Steve Pieters, who Tammy Faye famously interviewed for her television show Tammys House Party in 1985

Having a ball: Chastain later met up on the red carpet with French actress Isabelle Huppert, who wowed in a bright red power suit

Fanfare: Before heading into the premiere's venue, Jessica was captured exiting her chauffeured SUV and greeting fans

The 43-year-old actress cut a chic figure in a patterned oversized blazer and pair of matching trousers that tapered at the leg.

Her jaw-length brunette hair was curled to frame her face, while she made her blue eyes pop by applying a hot pink lacquer to her lips.

Meanwhile, the 50-year-old Orphan actor rocked a significant amount of scruff and styled a pair of classic blue jeans with a groovy patterned button up layered over a polo top.

Dazzling: Sharon Stone dazzled in yellow leopard print midi dress layered under a chic black coat

Layering up: The 63-year-old actress bright blonde pixie cut was softly styled and she amplified her already stunning features with some red lipstick and a few coats of mascara

Glitz: The Basic Instinct star carried her belongings in a black vinyl handbag with a heart-shaped clasp, while tossing on a pair of glitzy earrings for some added flair

Musician Mark Wystrach and actress Vanessa Ray proved the power of a good T-shirt and jeans combo as they walked the red carpet in classic getups.

Erin Richards looked effortlessly cool in a mod patterned two-piece consisting of an oversized short-sleeve button up and a pair of wide-legged trousers.

The Welsh actress, 35, completed the ensemble with a pale pink crop top and a pair of wedge sandals.

Loved up: Maggie Gyllenhaal put on a loved up display as she arrived to the premiere with her husband of over a decade Peter Sarsgaard

Holding hands: The couple, who wed in 2009, posed closely before walking the red carpet with their hands interlocked

Chic: The 43-year-old actress cut a chic figure in a patterned oversized blazer and pair of matching trousers that tapered at the leg

Groovy: Meanwhile, the 50-year-old Orphan actor rocked a significant amount of scruff and styled a pair of classic blue jeans with a groovy patterned button up layered over a polo top

Julia Mayorga put on a leggy display in a shimmery green wrap dress and a blazer in a neon shade of green.

Vincent D'Onofrio got gussied up in a black suit jacket and trousers as he arrived with his 29-year-old daughter Leila George by his side.

George, who wed actor Sean Penn back in August after four years of dating, flashed her toned midriff in a white crop top and a pair of skintight leather pants.

Zachary Quinto sported his signature aesthetic by rolling up to the event in a pinstripe mandarin collar shirt and some fitted slacks.

Perfect date: Vincent D'Onofrio got gussied up in a black suit jacket and trousers as he arrived with his 29-year-old daughter Leila George by his side

Stunner: George, who wed actor Sean Penn back in August after four years of dating, flashed her toned midriff in a white crop top and a pair of skintight leather pants

Colorful: Erin Richards and actress Julia Mayorga were fearless when it came to playing with colorful looks for Tuesday night's premiere

Richard Kind was well-dressed a classic suit jacket and a crisp white dress shirt, while Cherry Jones looked marvelous in an understated monochromatic ensemble.

In anticipation of the film's release, Jessica recently revealed that in order for her to get into the role she had to endure an intense makeup transformation that left her skin in bad shape.

'I think for sure I've done some permanent damage to my skin on this,' she told The Los Angeles Times.

'Listen, I eat very pure and I take very good care of my skin and I stay out of the sun and all that stuff. But it's heavy.'

Finishing touches: The Welsh actress, 35, completed the ensemble with a pale pink crop top and a pair of wedge sandals

Aesthetic: Zachary Quinto sported his signature aesthetic by rolling up to the event in a pinstripe mandarin collar shirt and some fitted slacks

Nailed it: Richard Kind was well-dressed a classic suit jacket and a crisp white dress shirt, while Cherry Jones looked marvelous in an understated monochromatic ensemble

'And when you're wearing it all day every day  the weight of it on your body, it stretches your skin out,' added the red carpet fixture.

'I finally took it off and I was like, "I look 50 years old!"' Jessica said with a laugh.

'No, I'm kidding. But it's fine. It's for my art.'

The California native admitted she 'freaked out' and didn't think she would be able to wear the 'heavy' make-up at first, because it was making it challenging for her to act.

She continued: 'The very first test I did was difficult, honestly. I mean, we fixed it. But I was freaked out. I was like, "I don't know how to act like this."'

Process: In anticipation of the film's release, Jessica recently revealed that in order for her to get into the role she had to endure an intense makeup transformation that left her skin in bad shape

Damage: 'I think for sure I've done some permanent damage to my skin on this,' she told The Los Angeles Times

'People think it's easier, but it's not. You have to reach through the makeup  you can't let the make-up be the performance.'

The Molly's Game star revealed it took her seven-and-a-half hours to have the make-up applied, and it to got 'so heavy and hot', Jessica worried about her circulation.

She said: 'I got to set and I was so panicky. 'I started to have hot flushes because it's so heavy and hot. I was afraid. It was like going on a long-distance flight every day. Because if it takes seven and a half hours to put on, it's going to take at least two hours to get off.

True story: The upcoming film is based on the 2000 documentary of the same name, and the cast also includes Andrew Garfield as Jim Bakker. The Eyes of Tammy Faye will be released in theaters on September 17

Power combo: Musician Mark Wystrach and actress Vanessa Ray proved the power of a good T-shirt and jeans combo as they walked the red carpet in classic getups

'It was concerning to me.'

The upcoming film is based on the 2000 documentary of the same name, and the cast also includes Andrew Garfield as Jim Bakker. The Eyes of Tammy Faye will be released in theaters on September 17.

After the big premiere, Jessica was seen having a Marilyn Monroe moment on the streets of NYC.

The red haired beauty struck several poses for her adoring fans outside the premiere's venue, before approaching them to snap selfies.

Glamorous: After the big premiere, Jessica was seen having a Marilyn Monroe moment on the streets of NYC

Total natural: The red haired beauty struck several poses for her adoring fans outside the premiere's venue
Channel Nine newsreader Deborah Knight has revealed her son, Darcy, has received his first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.

She shared a photo to Instagram on Wednesday of Darcy getting his first Pfizer jab, after vaccine bookings were made available for children aged 12 to 15 this week.

Her 12-year-old son rolled up his sleeve and appeared to smile under his face mask as a healthcare worker gave him the shot.

First one done! Channel Nine newsreader Deborah Knight revealed her son, 12, has received his first Pfizer jab after vaccine bookings were made available for children aged 12 to 15

'Mr Darcy first dose down,' the journalist, 48, proudly wrote in the caption, adding the hashtag #GetVaccinated.

The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) recommended children 12 years of age and above get the Pfizer vaccine from September 13.

It comes after Deborah revealed her five-year-old daughter, Audrey, was classified as a close Covid-19 contact after a positive case was identified at her school.

Getting vaccinated: The journalist, 48, shared this photo to Instagram on Wednesday of a healthcare worker giving Darcy his first dose of the Pfizer vaccine

Proud: 'Mr Darcy first dose down,' Deborah proudly wrote in the caption, adding the hashtag #GetVaccinated. Pictured here with her son, Darcy

Deborah isolated with her daughter in the granny flat of their home last month and hosted her drive-time radio show on 2GB from there, reported 9Honey.

'A five-year-old can't isolate on her own; a grown-up's got to do it with her,' she told listeners, adding that her husband, Lindsay, was with their older children, Darcy and Elsa, 10, in another part of their home.

The family of five subsequently all tested negative to Covid twice and then resumed living together.

Hunkering down: Deborah isolated with her five-year-old daughter, Audrey (right), in the granny flat of their home last month after the little girl was a close contact of a Covid-19 case

In June, Deborah revealed she was fully vaccinated and spoke highly of her experience at the Homebush vaccination hub.

She wrote on Instagram: 'Fully vaxxed - so I won't get fully sick!

'Just had my second #pfizer dose and again a super smooth experience at Sydney Olympic Park.'
Kendall Jenner revealed how she learned about her younger sister Kylie Jenner's pregnancy on Tuesday while visiting The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

'I wasn't really shocked because I felt like it could happen someday soon,' said Kendall, 25. 'But I was excited. I was very excited and it's just a blessing.'

Kendall said she learned the news when her 24-year-old sister called her and showed her a picture of her sonogram.

Talk show: Kendall Jenner revealed how she learned about her younger sister Kylie Jenner's pregnancy on Tuesday while visiting The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon

Jimmy, 46, asked her if she was a good baby-sitter and Kendall said she wanted to be the cool one and liked by all of them.

'It's really fun,' she said.

Jimmy asked if her boyfriend Devin Booker, 24, of the Phoenix Suns helped out at all.

'He loves them. Him and Stormi have an amazing relationship. She has the biggest crush on him and I'm jealous sometimes,' Kendall said referencing Kylie's three-year-old daughter with rapper Travis Scott, 30.

Not shocked: 'I wasn't really shocked because I felt like it could happen someday soon,' said Kendall, 25. 'But I was excited. I was very excited and it's just a blessing'

Jimmy said he saw Kendall on Monday night at the Met Gala and then asked her how long it took her to get ready. Kendall said it took her two hours. She said was really calm and decided to not stress herself out with 'unnecessary nerves.'

Kendall said that Jimmy was the first person she saw inside the event and Jimmy joked that he felt almost like a greeter.

Kendall said that was exactly what her mother Kris Jenner, 65, does every year at the event. She said she insisted on standing at the top of the carpet even when security tried to move her inside. Kendall said Kris will tell security that she will 'absolutely not' move because she had to stand there to watch all her daughters walk in.

Gala attendees: Jimmy Fallon said he saw Kendall on Monday night at the Met Gala and then asked her how long it took her to get ready

'She is just so cute,' said Kendall. 'She takes videos of us. The smile on her face is just everything.'

Jimmy asked Kendall about stepping into a different role for the brand Forward, an online luxury retailer. She said she had her first day on the job and goes around to different designers to pick items for the website.

'It's actually really, really fun,' said Kendall. 'I get to shop a little.'

New role: Jimmy asked Kendall about stepping into a different role for the brand Forward, an online luxury retailer

Jimmy then pulled out a magazine article that he jokingly said was very controversial. It was a photo of Kendall featured In Style magazine of her wearing Crocs shoes. Jimmy said he had never worn Crocs and Kendall told him that they were great and that she was not ashamed.

Jimmy showed two bottles of Kendall's 818 Tequila brand. He asked her what made her get into the spirits business. Kendall said that her parents were long time tequila lovers and that tequila was always her favorite.

'It's all we drink,' said Kendall.

Tequila brand: Kendall said that her parents were long time tequila lovers and that tequila was always her favorite as she explained how she got into the spirits business with 818 Tequila

She said she came into it as a consumer but when she dove into it she realized it was a 'male dominated space.'

'Coming from a really strong female family it just drove me even harder into that space,' said Kendall. 'And made me really excited to get into it. Even diving further into it, I found that not a lot of brands that I saw were as friendly with the planet as they could possibly be so I took that upon myself to make that a really big part of us as a brand.'

Kendall said she had partnered with '1% For The Plane't to donate one percent of their revenue to planet-saving initiatives. She said they have found a way to take agave waste and build a sustainable brick that they are donating back to the community of Jalisco, Mexico.

Making space: 'Coming from a really strong female family it just drove me even harder into that space,' said Kendall of the male-dominated spirits industry

'Along with saving the planet it is important for us to be friendly with the community as well,' said Kendall.

She told Jimmy they were donating the bricks to help people build homes and hospitals.

'Congrats buddy,' Jimmy told her.

Planet saving: 'Along with saving the planet it is important for us to be friendly with the community as well,' said Kendall

Jimmy told her that he loved her family and that they have said some iconic things over the years. He then had her play a game of 'Who Said It' where she guessed which family member said a phrase.

The first quote he read was who said 'Would you stop taking pictures of yourself? Your sister's going to jail.'

'That is actually one of my favorite moments so I know exactly who this is. It was my Mom,' Kendall said.

Famous line: The first quote he read was who said 'Would you stop taking pictures of yourself? Your sister's going to jail'

Next he asked who said 'Honey would you put a bumper sticker on a Bentley?'

Kendall said that was something Kim always said.

Then Jimmy asked her who said 'You're cute jeans.'

'Me,' said Kendall.

Cute jeans: Kendall correctly guessed that she said, 'You're cute jeans'

Jimmy then asked her who said 'But just knowing you're a badass bitch is just what life is about.'

Kendall said she didn't know who said it, but guessed Khloe.

'Of course it was,' she said.

Game show: The model became the latest celebrity to play a game on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon

He then asked her who said 'ABCDEFG. I have to go.'

'It's Kourtney. It's so good,' said Kendall who admitted that Kourtney botched the line, but it became a popular meme anyway on social media

Jimmy asked her who said 'Rise and Shine.'

'Kylie, obviously,' said Kendall as Jimmy showed a clip of Kylie waking up Stormi with a song.
The radio industry is finally getting with the times by updating the way it measures ratings.

Due to the increase in live streaming, ratings will now start to include streaming devices, according to The Australian.

For the past 70 years, ratings were measured by listener surveys, many of which still involved paper diaries that consumers would fill out and submit.

Finally! The radio industry is finally getting with the times by updating the way it measures ratings. Due to the increase in live streaming, ratings will now include streaming devices. Pictured: KIIS FM's Jackie 'O' Henderson and Kyle Sandilands, Sydney's most popular FM duo

Commercial Radio Australia chair and Southern Cross Austereo chief executive officer Grant Blackley said: 'The consumption of audio has changed demonstrably from where it used to be.

'It's more out of home, digital devices, on the run, at leisure and we are moving away from that recall, in-car and at-home model that is being super enhanced to accurately reflect new consumption of audio.'

Breakfast radio royalty Kyle Sandilands and Jackie 'O' Henderson were recently dethroned by Ben Fordham of AM station 2GB in the latest Sydney ratings.

The KIIS FM duo had been named the most popular show across both AM and FM bandwidths in June, but the most recent figures show 2GB has reclaimed its crown.

Fordham, 44, now has the leading share in Sydney's breakfast market with 16.8 per cent, having grown his audience by an impressive 3.5 points since the last survey.

Coming in second was ABC Radio's Wendy Harmer and Robbie Buck with a 14 per cent market share.

Kyle and Jackie O placed third with 12.1 per cent after tumbling by 3.4 points.

Success story: Breakfast radio royalty Kyle Sandilands and Jackie 'O' Henderson were recently dethroned by AM station 2GB's Ben Fordham (pictured) in the latest Sydney ratings

The result is nothing short of a coup for Fordham, who replaced industry titan Alan Jones as host of 2GB's breakfast show a year ago.

Despite the outcome, The Kyle and Jackie O Show still has plenty to celebrate.

The program continues to dominate the FM airwaves, beating their closest rival, WSFM's Jonesy and Amanda, by 3.3 per cent in the latest survey.

The outcome also marks Kyle and Jackie O's twentieth consecutive No. 1 spot on the FM bandwidth.

Nova FM's Fitzy and Wippa, meanwhile, suffered a lacklustre outcome with a 6.1 per cent audience share, and 2Day FM's Morning Crew with Dave Hughes, Ed Kavalee and Erin Molan languished at the bottom of the leaderboard with just 2.4 per cent.
Irena Srbinovska made a style statement as she attended the Mermade Hair event to celebrate Vogue Night Out in Perth on Tuesday.

The Bachelor star, 32, looked incredibly chic in a pink tie-front crop top and beige trousers as she joined Alisha Aitken-Radburn, Stephanie Lynch and Clare Lange at the event.

She had her long blonde hair curled and appeared to be wearing a neutral palette of makeup.

Stylish: The Bachelor's Irena Srbinovska (pictured) cut a stylish figure in a tie-front crop top and pants as she joined the other reality stars at Vogue Night Out in Perth

Irena was all smiles as she posed alongside Bachelor stars Alisha, Steph and Clare at the event.

The beauty also wore a stunning ring on her finger, which boyfriend Locky Gilbert gifted her during the Bachelor finale last year.

The ring features a purple gem and flanked by marquise-shaped diamonds.

Event: The Bachelor star, 32, looked stylish in a pink tie-front crop top and brown pants as she joined Alisha Aitken-radburn, Stephanie Lynch and Clare Lange at the event

The outing comes after Locky and Irena shared their heartbreak over losing a child to miscarriage.

The pair lost their baby 'a few months' into their relationship, but chose to keep it private.

They spoke about the tragic loss for the first time in an interview with Who magazine in July, admitting it was a 'devastating low'.

Natural beauty: She had her long blonde hair curled and appeared to be wearing a neutral palette of makeup

Sentimental: The beauty also wore a stunning ring on her finger, which boyfriend Locky Gilbert gifted her during the Bachelor finale last year

Irena said the miscarriage may have been linked to the stress she was going through in the aftermath of the Channel 10 dating show.

To the outside world, she seemed happy after moving from Melbourne to Perth to live with adventure tour guide Locky.

But she was secretly struggling after her father, Vasco, had suffered a medical emergency and she couldn't be with him due to Covid border closures.

She was also dealing with trolls after Locky had infamously told his runner-up on The Bachelor, Bella Varelis, he was falling in love with her only to pick Irena instead.

Heartbreak: The outing comes after Irena and boyfriend Locky Gilbert shared their heartbreak over losing a child to miscarriage

According to Who magazine, 'the stress led to devastating consequences'.

Irena told the publication: 'During our first few months together I unfortunately suffered a miscarriage. But Locky was my absolute rock and having his support made me love him even more.'

Locky said: 'We are just normal people and while we put ourselves in the spotlight, you never know what is going on in our lives that day.

'If you have to say something, then direct it at me, not my girl.'
Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis says he 'hooked up' with former flame Kourtney Kardashian while he was still dating his then-girlfriend Kim Stewart.

The producer, 48, dished on Heather McDonald's podcast Juicy Scoop that the alleged rendez-vous take place during a group trip to his Mexico mansion, presumably in 2004.

'Did I have sex with Kourtney on that trip? Yes. Did I have sex with Kim Stewart on that trip? Yes. And interestingly enough, that [trip] is when Kourtney and Scott [Disick] met,' Francis said, adding that she initially 'hated' the 38-year-old.

Claims: Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis says he 'hooked up' with former flame Kourtney Kardashian while he was still dating his then-girlfriend Kim Stewart; Joe pictured in 2014

Joe and Kimberly only dated briefly in 2004, while Joe would go on to turn his close friendly relationship with Kourtney into a romantic one in 2005.

Setting the scene, Francis revealed that the late actress Farah Fawcett, who happened to be 'best friends' with Kimberly's mother Lana Stewart at the time, was also on the trip.

Joe recalled he and Kourtney 'had a lot more chemistry' than he and Kimberly did, which led to them spending time together on the trip.

'Kim would sleep up stairs [in the mansion] and so I was sort of alone in my room and Kourtney would come keep me company,' he said

'Did I have sex with Kourtney on that trip? Yes. Did I have sex with Kim Stewart on that trip? Yes. And interestingly enough, that [trip] is when Kourtney and Scott [Disick] met,' Francis said, adding that she initially 'hated' the 38-year-old; Joe and Kourtney in 2008 (left), Joe and Kimberly pictured in 2004 (right)

One night, Joe recalled him and Kourtney deciding to go 'skinny dipping' in his pool and during their late night swim they were 'caught' by Farah, who happened to stumble into their vicinity with Joe's personal trainer.

'So I said, "Kourtney, you gotta go." And Kourtney wouldn't leave my bedroom,' he claimed, which led to him calling upon his friend Scott Disick for assistance.

'This is how they met! All true! And Scott came down and I was trying to devise a plan to get her out of my room and she stood by the door and said, "Joe, go look on your bed."

'I unfold the note and she said, "Joe, [Scott] is the biggest douche bag ever. I hate you for trying to make me go with him. I will never talk to that guy." That's what the note said,'

The trip: The producer (center) dished on Heather McDonald's podcast that the alleged rendez-vous take place during a group trip to his Mexico mansion, presumably in 2004; photo from the trip shared by Kourtney (second to the right) in 2015

First meeting: Joe said it was during the trip that Scott (left) and Kourtney (right) met, adding that the reality star 'hated' the entrepreneur at the time

'And so I pushed her out of my room [into the hallway] with [Scott], and the rest is history, I guess. And then [Kourtney and I] did continue to date on and off after that,' he recalled.

After him and Kourtney split, she moved onto Disick who she now shares three children with. They dated from 2005 until their split in 2015.

Kourtney famously shared a snap from that infamous trip to her Instagram in 2015 as an homage to the 'the night I met Scott Disick.' The snap showed Kourtney cozying up to Joe and two other female guests, while Scott is positioned to the far left with an unidentified blonde.

Chemistry: Joe recalled he and Kourtney 'had a lot more chemistry' than he and Kimberly (pictured right in 2004) did, which led to them spending time together on the trip

Caught: One night, Joe recalled him and Kourtney deciding to go 'skinny dipping' in his pool and during their late night swim they were 'caught' by Farah, who happened to stumble into their vicinity with Joe's personal trainer. This led to him calling upon Scott to allegedly get Kourtney out of the area to alleviate drama; the trio pictured in 2013

Joe went on to allege that the producers for Keeping Up With The Kardashians 'wanted Scott off the show' in the first season and, instead, wanted Joe to step in since 'Kourtney likes [him] better.'

'"We wanna bring you in as the love interest... Kris wants it, Kourtney wants it," and I just didn't know,' he claimed, adding that he did get woven into the series in the second and third episodes when Kourtney, Kim, and Khloe partook in a photoshoot for his bikini line.

In retrospect, Francis kicks himself for not putting in more effort to make things work with Kourtney, gushing that he always thought the POOSH founder was 'a great woman.'

Decade-long love: After him and Kourtney split, she moved onto Disick who she now shares three children with. They dated from 2005 until their split in 2015; Scott and Kourtney pictured in 2014

'And [Kourtney] has grown into an even better woman and I would have been better off [with her] than my situation now,' he quipped, referring to his ongoing custody battle with ex Abbey Wilson.

Francis' podcast appearance comes just three months after the producer was arrested in Mexico after allegedly grabbing a woman by her neck and spitting in her face in an attempt to give her COVID, according to reports.

The charges were later dropped once Joe agreed to 'attend six months of psychological therapy, which law enforcement claimed he has completed,' as per The Sun.
Vincent D'Onofrio was seen staying close to his daughter, Leila George, as the two attended the New York City premiere of The Eyes Of Tammy Faye on Tuesday.

The 62-year-old actor was seen being held by his child, 29, as the duo posed for a few shots before heading inside of the screening area to watch the feature.

The biographical drama film is based on the life of the eponymous televangelist, and it is set to be released to the public later this week.

Dad knows best: Vincent D'Onofrio and his daughter Leila George were seen attending the premiere of The Eyes Of Tammy Faye in New York City on Tuesday

Support system: George is married to 61-year-old actor Sean Penn as they are seen together in January 2020

D'Onofrio kept it simple in a black suit and a beautifully contrasting white shirt during the premiere.

George wore a bright white sleeveless top that exposed her toned tummy as she spent time with her father.

The actress, who is married to 61-year-old actor Sean Penn, also sported a stylish pair of light brown leather pants and a set of high-heeled shoes.

Her beautiful blonde hair fell onto her shoulders and backside, and she kept a small black bag slung over her shoulder.

Dressed for the occasion: The Full Metal Jacket actor opted for a black suit and white shirt while his daughter wore a sleeveless top and light brown leather pants

The Eyes Of Tammy Faye is based on the life of the famed televangelist, who gained notoriety for being accepting towards the LGBT+ community during her lifetime.

A documentary of the same name was previously released in 2000 and notably featured the narration of RuPaul.

The Michael Showalter-directed film stars Jessica Chastain in the title role, with Andrew Garfield portraying her disgraced ex-husband Jim Bakker.

D'Onofrio plays fellow televangelist Jerry Falwell, who became an ardent conservative activist over the course of his lifetime.

Featured role: D'Onofrio portrays prominent televangelist Jerry Falwell in the soon-to-be-released biographical drama feature

The feature's cast includes members such as Cherry Jones and Louis Cancelmi, among others.

Development on the feature was initially announced in May of 2019 when Chastain and Garfield became attached to the project.

D'Onofrio's involvement with the motion picture was made known to the public that November.

Signing on: The performer was added to the forthcoming feature's cast in November of 2019

This past September, Chastain spoke to RogerEbert.com and noted that she was particularly interested in exploring a particular aspect of the televangelist's personality.

Specifically, she was interested in showcasing 'the idea that you can be loved no matter what and when someone sees the goodness in you, then you are good. That was what Tammy Faye saw.'

She added that Faye 'knew how to reach out to others who might feel the same thing because she had empathy for that having felt it herself.'

The Eyes of Tammy Faye is currently set to have its wide premiere on September 17th.
As the Delta variant continues to spread across Sydney and Melbourne, Rebecca Maddern has proposed a new Covid quarantine strategy.

The 44-year-old Weekend Today co-host relayed her thoughts on Twitter, where she suggested reducing the 14-day quarantine period.

'Thoughts today: Does the Delta strain show up quicker?' she began.

Quarantine proposal: As the Delta variant continues to spread across Sydney and Melbourne, Rebecca Maddern has proposed a new Covid quarantine strategy

'If it does, is the 14-day quarantine period for a tier one exposure site necessary? Could it be reduced?' she continued.

The TV presenter added that 'most people don't go into quarantine immediately' as it 'usually takes a few days for you to [be] alerted'.

Rebecca's post received a mixed reaction from others on Twitter.

Weighing in: The 44-year-old Weekend Today co-host relayed her thoughts on Twitter, where she suggested reducing the 14-day quarantine period

Several followers pointed out that many infectious people only received a positive Covid result on their day 13 test in quarantine.

Another tweeted: 'It's 14 days from the date of exposure, not from discovering you are a tier one contact.'

A third wrote: 'That's a very good question! Unfortunately no one in the VIC gov will answer it or even think about it as they didn't come up with the question!'

'If it does, is the 14-day quarantine period for a tier one exposure site necessary? Could it be reduced?' she tweeted

The Delta strain is highly transmissible and is considered to be significantly more infectious than previous strains of coronavirus.

Researchers at the Guangdong Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention in China found that Delta has a shorter incubation period and makes copies of itself in a host - allowing it to spread throughout the body more quickly.

The study found that when someone becomes sick with the Delta variant, it only took about four days to start exhibiting signs like cough and fever.

Comparatively, when infected with the original coronavirus, it took six days on average before the infection was detected.
She dropped jaws on Monday night when she walked the Met Gala carpet in a 'Peg The Patriarchy' bulletproof vest designed by Dior's Maria Grazia Chiur.

But Cara Delevingne cut a low-key figure when she left The Mark hotel in New York on Tuesday, covering up beneath an oversized cardigan, loose-fitting white trousers and a beanie.

The runway star, 29, was also sporting a black face mask, sunglasses and a pair of black biker boots as she was escorted out of the luxury hotel carrying a cane in her right hand.

Low-key: Cara Delevingne, 29, cut a low-key figure when she left The Mark hotel in New York on Tuesday, covering up beneath an oversized cardigan and a beanie

Relaxed look: The runway star was also sporting a black face mask, sunglasses and a pair of black biker boots

Cara's newly-dyed brunette tresses could be seen cascading past her shoulders and the model also wore a pale yellow T-shirt.

The brunette beauty was still sporting the bright red manicure she'd walked the Met's carpet with.

Cara held her phone  stamped with her initials - in her right hand.

During Monday's Met, Cara decided to use her outfit to send out a strong message - with the theme of the night being In America: A Lexicon of Fashion.

Wow: Cara dropped jaws on Monday night when she walked the Met Gala carpet in a 'Peg The Patriarchy' bulletproof vest designed by Dior's Maria Grazia Chiur

Cara told Vogue: 'If someone doesn't know what this means, you're going to have to look it up. It's about women empowerment, gender equality  it's a bit like, ''Stick it to the man''.

She teamed her vest with white cigarette trousers and peep toe heels which showed off her red pedicure.

It comes days after the star wrapped season two of the hit show Carnival Row.

That's a wrap: Cara's co-star Orlando Bloom revealed on Thursday that filming had been completed on Carnival Row season 2

Cara's co-star Orlando Bloom revealed on Thursday that filming had been completed, sharing a string of photos from set  including one of Cara  while bidding his character Rycroft Philostrate farewell.

'Bye bye Philo,' he wrote, adding in summary: 'I love my job. As actors we get to go on these remarkable journeys with our characters. Fall in love, fight for our lives, fight for justice, sometime save the day and other times fall flat on our face.

'The crew who work tirelessly and all the cast and supporting cast who've stood out in all kinds of wether to make some very large filmic moments come to life. Its story telling. It's not rocket science, but it is lightning in a bottle when it works and heartbreaking when it doesn't and yet it never fails to be an opportunity to learn and grow. What a gift.'

Last month, Cara shared a video of herself in character as Vignette Stonemoss on the Prague set.

The model-turned-actress cut an edgy figure as she showed off her dark eye makeup and wet brunette locks in the clip.

Cara, who was clad in Vignette's leather jacket and pink corduroy shirt, joked about having to wait for production to start.

Cara raised her signature bushy eyebrows to music in the video, and captioned it 'acting is... waiting #carnivalrow #setlife.'

Cara stars in the other-worldly Victorian era show, created by Travis Beacham, alongside Orlando.
She sparked rumours of a romance with shamed Brexiteer banker George Cottrell in 2020.

And Georgia Toffolo, 26, appeared to be reunited with her ex during a night out at upmarket hotel-restaurant Chiltern Firehouse in London's Marylebone on Tuesday evening.

The former Made In Chelsea star put on a leggy display in a black leather minidress as she left with George, 27, before making their way back to her central London flat.

Stunning: Georgia Toffolo appeared to be reunited with her ex George Cottrell during a night out at upmarket hotel-restaurant Chiltern Firehouse in London's Marylebone on Tuesday evening

The beauty - nicknamed Toff - wowed in the stunning dress which she paired with a stylish tartan blazer.

She completed her look with brown Fendi stilettos and a cream leather handbag., while tastefully acccessorising with a diamond choker necklace.

Inside the restaurant Toff was spotted chatting to friends and enjoyed a meal and drinks.

Ex beau: She was thought to have split up with financier George. - who was once jailed for fraud - in 2020

Home time: The pair where later spotted arriving at the Made In Chelsea stars flat in central London accompanied by her dog Monty

Toff was escorted to her car by a member of staff, while George sneaked out a side door at the venue.

However the pair jumped into the same car and made their way back to the reality stars flat.

She's said to have split up with financier George Cottrell, who was once jailed for fraud.

George is a former aide to Nigel Farage and allegedly worth 300 million.

Rekindled romance? The pair jumped into the same car and made their way back to the reality stars flat

Wow: The beauty- who is nicknamed Toff- wowed in the sizzling dress which she paired with a stylish tartan blazer

Gorgeous: Toff was escorted to her car by a member of staff, while George sneaked out a side door at the venue

Catch up: Inside the restaurant Toff was spotted chatting to friends and enjoyed a meal and drinks

George, who calls himself the bad boy of Brexit was jailed in the US over a drugs money laundering scandal.

In July 2016, Cottrell was arrested by FBI agents while with Mr Farage at Chicago's O'Hare airport after the pair had attended the Republican National Convention, where they reportedly met Donald Trump's aides.

Mr Farage later said that he did not know about his background.

Cottrell spent eight months in a US jail after advertising his services on the 'dark web', offering to launder money through offshore accounts to what he thought was a gang of drug traffickers.

Before his arrest, he allegedly played a key role in the 2016 EU referendum, running Mr Farage's private office and handling all media enquiries for the pro-Brexit politician.
Julianne Moore cut a stylish figure when she attended a screening of her new film Dear Evan Hansen in New York on Tuesday.

The actress, 60, wowed in a low-cut white dress that boasted chic ruffle detailing, and effortlessly layered the piece beneath a tailored black blazer.

Julianne  who plays Heidi Hansen in the Broadway adaption  also answered questions at the event while sitting next to her co-stars Amandla Stenberg and Ben Platt alongside director Stephen Chbosky.

Wow: Julianne Moore, 60, cut a stylish figure when she attended a screening of her new film Dear Evan Hansen in New York on Tuesday (pictured with presenter Katie Couric)

Q&A: Julianne  who plays Heidi Hansen in the Broadway adaption  also answered questions at the event (pictured with co-stars Amandla Stenberg and Ben Platt)

Wearing her iconic flame-hued tresses loose, Julianne slipped into a pair of stylish open-toe black sandals and beamed while posing for photographs.

The award-winning star accessorised with a bold heart-shaped necklace.

Clearly passionate about the project, Julianne put on an animated display while answering questions alongside her colleagues on stage.

Dear Evan Hansen was selected as the opening night film for this year's Toronto International Film Festival, which runs from September 9 through September 18.

Passionate: Clearly passionate about the project, Julianne put on an animated display while answering questions alongside her colleagues on stage (L-R Stephen Chbosky, writer Steven Levenson, Ben, Julianne, Amandla Stenberg, Nik Dodani, and Katie)

Hair down: Wearing her tresses loose, Julianne slipped into a pair of stylish black sandals and beamed while posing for photographs (pictured with Cynthia Rowley and Carla Gugino)

Debut: Dear Evan Hansen debuted on Broadway in December 2016, winning Best Musical and Best Actor in a Leading Role for Ben, 27

Dear Evan Hansen debuted on Broadway in December 2016, winning Best Musical and Best Actor in a Leading Role for Ben, 27.

The story follows Platt's title character, a high school senior with social anxiety disorder who is encouraged to write daily letters to himself to help ease his anxiety.

When one of the letters is found by a classmate who later commits suicide, Hansen invents an important role for himself in that late classmate's life.

The film also stars Kaitlyn Dever and Amy Adams, with Universal releasing the film in US cinemas on September 24.

The first Dear Evan Hansen trailer was released in May.

Moore will next be seen in When You Finish Saving The World, the directorial and writing debut of actor Jesse Eisenberg.

He's back: Ben, 27,reprises his titular role with the first Dear Evan Hansen trailer being released in May

Sad: The very emotional trailer features Ben as Evan Hansen, a high school student with social anxiety disorder, who is recommended to write letters to himself as a form of therapy by his psychiatrist
She hasn't held back from sharing content from her boozy getaway with fans on social media.

And Emily Atack took to Instagram to share another bikini-clad snap from her whirlwind trip to Marbella on Tuesday.

'4 PERFECT days, 6 bloated heads,' the Inbetweeners star, 31, reflected on the champagne-fuelled girls' holiday as she wowed in a plunging black string bikini.

''4 PERFECT days': Emily Atack reflected on her champagne-fuelled girls' holiday to Marbella on Instagram on Tuesday as she wowed in a plunging black string bikini for a throwback snap

Emily looked jaw-dropping in the sizzling two-piece which boosted her ample cleavage thanks to its halterneck shape and string middle.

The star beamed as she chilled out on a sun bed in gold bedazzled sandals and glamorous black sunglasses.

She then headed to the toilet of the beach club to snap a sizzling mirror selfie with a pal and showcase her figure with a gold body chain.

Emily also shared some clubbing photos in the slew of throwback snaps as she pouted with her friends in very low cut LBDs.

Wow: Emily looked jaw-dropping in the sizzling two-piece which boosted her ample cleavage thanks to its halterneck shape and string middle

Loving life: The star beamed as she chilled out on a sun bed in glamorous black sunglasses

The holiday upload comes after Emily was spotted at Ocean Beach Club kissing 22-year-old Alex Dabner as they partied together in the sunshine.

Her holiday fling came weeks after she split from boyfriend Jude Taylor, who she dated for five months and was a guest at her sister Martha's recent wedding.

Alex, from Birkenhead, studied at Liverpool John Moores University and according to his LinkedIn profile, had a work placement in the Accounts Hub at finance firm BDO UK.

Night out: Emily also shared some clubbing photos in the slew of throwback snaps as she pouted with her friends in very low cut LBDs

A source told MailOnline: 'Emily is single and enjoying herself. She thought Alex was attractive and didn't care about any age gap.

'She's back in the UK now and has no plans to meet up with Alex, it really was just a bit of holiday fun.'

MailOnline has contacted Emily's representative for comment.

Single and ready to mingle: The post comes after Emily enjoyed a holiday romance with an accountancy graduate nine years her junior

'She thought he was attractive': The former Inbetweeners star, 31, was pictured kissing 22-year-old Alex Dabner during a sunshine break at Marbella's Ocean Club on Sunday

The former I'm A Celeb star previously joked she was 'soaking in all the Marbella culture' while sitting poolside sipping margaritas at Ocean Club.

She also shared a souvenir from her girls' holiday on Instagram stories, a penis shaped bottle opener.

Emily's four-day trip has already come to an end, with the comedic actor already landing back in the UK to torrential rain.

'Best gift I've received this year': Emily shared a souvenir from her girls' holiday on Instagram stories, a penis shaped bottle opener

In late August, Emily reunited with ex-boyfriend and former Strictly contestant Seann Walsh, 35, for a meal at Nando's in south London five years after they dated.

The pair reportedly met to discuss comedic material for the return of The Emily Atack Show, which is coming back to ITV2 for a second series this autumn.

She split from boyfriend Jude a few days later, with sources saying Emily struggled to see a long-term future with the fashion influencer.
Too Hot to Handle stars Christina Carmela and Robert Van Tromp have split following nine-months together, MailOnline can reveal.

The couple, who met last December during filming of the Netflix dating series, ended their romance this week after finding the distance between them difficult to manage, and eventually losing love for each other.

In an exclusive interview, Robert, 30, revealed his relationship with Christina, also 30, who's a pilot from South Africa, became 'challenging and uncomfortable', with the pair mutually deciding to go their separate ways.

'Mutual decision': Too Hot to Handle stars Christina Carmela and Robert Van Tromp have split following nine-months together, MailOnline can reveal

Robert told MailOnline: 'Since Too Hot to Handle came out life has certainly changed a lot and in more ways than one. Having a girlfriend in the public eye has been very challenging.

'It's been a mutual decision in terms of parting ways because we both have the same frustrations when it comes to the process, the way the show has happened, and even though I think there maybe potential down the line, in however months or years to come, I feel like in this moment it's gotten very challenging, and it has pushed us further apart.

'The relationship felt loving in the beginning but now it's got uncomfortable.'

Christina and Rob failed to convince Too Hot to Handle producers their romance was the real deal and were booted off the retreat by Lana, the robot that monitors the contestant's relationship development, and sexual activity.

After leaving the show, which is filmed in Turks and Caicos, Robert took a leap of faith and joined Christina and her family for Christmas in South Africa, an opportunity he says he's truly grateful for.

'Challenging': The couple, who met last December during filming of the Netflix dating series, ended their romance this week after finding the distance between them difficult to manage

Rob revealed cracks in his relationship with Christina began to show after Too Hot to Handle, which challenges sex obsessed singletons to be celibate in paradise and win a cash prize, aired in June.

He said: 'Ultimately, it was very easy being together in South Africa, it was seamless, we got on so well and we fell in love. I'm truly grateful for that experience.

'The relationship was so good and healthy before the show aired on Netflix. As the show has come out it's been much more challenging in terms of the relationship being under the microscope, distance hasn't helped, although we've been fortunate enough to visit each other, certain arguments have still been blown out of proportion.'

In a statement posted on Instagram, Christina said: 'There's no easy way to go about this, thought I would just break the news to all of you fam.

'Robert and I have broken up  it was a totally mutual decision and there is no bad blood between us.

'The pressure of long distance and travelling so frequently has taken its toll; he is an amazing guy and I wish him all the best. Only love, thank you for all the support.'

'Distance hasn't helped': Rob revealed cracks began to show after Too Hot to Handle, which challenges sex obsessed singletons to be celibate in paradise, aired in June

Christina confirmed she's bisexual after saying she wanted to kiss co-star Emily Miller, who's still in a relationship with Cam Holmes after meeting on the show.

The model told MailOnline in July Robert supported her bisexuality and wasn't ever jealous of her attraction to females.

She said: 'He's not at all jealous, he's so confident; we're just open and honest the entire time. He's so understanding, I'm so understanding.

'We talk everyday, I'm the least jealous person and so is he. Honestly, that's why I love him so much. Nothing bothers him, which is amazing, I love it.

'Even when we're outside having something to eat and a really gorgeous girl walks past and I'm like 'wow, look at her' and he really likes it. We're just so chilled with that kind of thing.'
Logan Paul was spotted leaving Chiltern Firehouse with singer and close friend Olivia O'Brien after partying until the early hours on Wednesday.

The internet personality, 26, attempted to keep a low profile as he left the West London hotel with the blonde bombshell, 21.

Logan is in London to collaborate with UK Youtubers and released an episode of his podcast IMPAULSIVE with Thomas Simons aka TommyInnit on Tuesday.

Night out: Logan Paul was spotted leaving Chiltern Firehouse with singer and close friend Olivia O'Brien after partying until the early hours on Wednesday

Logan cut a dapper figure as he stepped out in a blue blazer which he layered over an open-necked white shirt.

He completed the look with a pair of skintight black skinny jeans and green suede loafers as he smized on his exit out of the hotel while clutching a Polaroid camera.

Meanwhile, Olivia put on a leggy display in a thigh-skimming russet-coloured mini skirt and chunky black platform sliders.

The blonde beauty wore a yellow check shirt which she left unbuttoned to her waist as she flashed a glimpse of her taut abs.

Under the radar: The internet personality, 26, attempted to keep a low profile as he left the West London hotel with the blonde bombshell

Content creator: Logan is in London to collaborate with UK Youtubers and released an episode of his podcast IMPAULSIVE with Thomas Simons aka TommyInnit on Tuesday

Star: Olivia is an American singer-songwriter. She rose to fame in 2016 after collaborating with Gnash on the single 'I Hate U, I Love U', where she wrote and featured on the single

The pair were seen climbing into a taxi home together as Logan kept his face hidden and his fellow passenger closed the door of the car.

Olivia is an American singer-songwriter. She rose to fame in 2016 after collaborating with Gnash on the single 'I Hate U, I Love U', where she wrote and featured on the single.

This is not the first time Logan has jetted to the UK to collaborate with British content creators as he previously visited in June to work with KSI's YouTube group the Sidemen.

Logan's most recent London outing comes after fighter Jorge Masvidal challenged Logan and his brother Jake to a fight last week, saying he wanted to 'break some Disney characters' faces'

Sharp: Logan cut a dapper figure as he stepped out in a blue blazer which he layered over an open-necked white shirt

Stylish: He completed the look with a pair of skintight black skinny jeans and green suede loafers as he smized on his exit out of the hotel while clutching a polaroid camera

Sultry: Olivia is no stranger to a scantily-clad Instagram snap

Jorge believes he should be the man to represent his sport and overcome the young upstart YouTubers in the ring, should the UFC president allow it.

He told ESPN: 'UFC would have to sign off, but nothing is impossible. Dana doesn't like those guys and Dana knows I'll go in there and put a hurting on those kids. Maybe he does send in the f***ing assassin.

'I'm gonna beat up all the Pauls. If they put money in my pocket, that Logan Paul dude, Jake Paul, whoever Paul dudes - if they put money in my pocket, of course I'd like to break some Disney characters' faces.

'I've been fighting men who have been training since 7, 8 years old to do the same thing to me what I want to do to them. Fighting guys like [the Pauls] is a bonus, man.'

Mystery woman: Meanwhile, the YouTuber's companion put on a leggy display in a thigh-skimming russet-coloured mini skirt and chunky black platform sliders

Home time: The blonde beauty wore a yellow check shirt which she left unbuttoned to her waist as the pair were seen climbing in a taxi together

Jorge and Jake Paul had been on amicable terms until the social media star reacted badly to the 36-year-old picking Woodley to beat him earlier this month.

'Gamebred' responded: 'Who the f*** is this Paul kid? He thinks we're friends, because I gave him some advice in the Ben Askren fight.

'Get the f*** out of here, bro. I'll slap you and whoever the f*** you want, bro. I'm a fighter. Of course you're gonna get offended.'

Jake Paul has repeatedly criticised the UFC over the amount they pay fighters and hit out at Dana White on multiple occasions.

Low profile: Logan kept his face hidden as Olivia showcased her endless pins in the bodycon mini skirt
She's the Australian TV presenter and former Miss World Australia who called it quits during Tuesday's episode of SAS Australia.

And on Wednesday, Erin Holland swapped her combat boots for heels as she flaunted her trim pins in a video selfie shared to her Instagram stories.

The 32-year-old was back to work as an influencer as she gushed over a pair of strappy new high heels.

Back to work! SAS Australia star Erin Holland swapped her combat boots for high heels as she returned to work as an influencer on Wednesday

'@NineWestAus getting me ready for reason...' she wrote over the video.

Dressed in head-to-toe activewear, Erin flaunted her sensational physique in a black top and leggings.

She completed her look wearing a tan coloured puffer jacket, and took safety precautions by wearing a face mask.

World's away! The 32-year-old was back to work as an influencer as she gushed over a pair of new shoes. Pictured right on SAS Australia

The sighting comes after the model revealed the life lesson she learned from her experience on the show.

In a lengthy caption to her Instagram on Tuesday, she wrote: 'Gutted my time on @sasaustralia came to an end so soon.'

'I had all the heart & head, but lacked the body to see it through.'

Lesson: The sighting comes after the model revealed the life lesson she learned from her experience on the show

'Its so hard to see myself so vulnerable, but if this course has taught me anything, its surrendering to the pain & learning how to fail with grace.'

Erin explained that she's grown more from several days on the course than she could have ever imagined.

'Id sign myself up again tomorrow, no hesitation,' she concluded the post.

During the episode, Chief instructor Ant Middleton asked Erin to carry actor Dan Ewing after she failed to complete some exercises earlier in the day.

But after a number of failed attempts to lift the strapping actor, she announced that she couldn't go on - especially knowing that the other recruits were being savagely punished with more gruelling exercises until she finished.

'I can't do that to them. I can't,' she said to Ant, before handing in her arm band.

SAS Australia continues Monday at 7.30pm on Channel Seven
Louise Minchin became emotional when she signed off Wednesday's BBC Breakfast - marking the end of her tenure as co-anchor of the morning show.

The 53-year-old broadcaster - who is leaving the morning news programme after 20 years - wiped away tears while sitting on the iconic red sofa next to co-host Dan Walker.

Dan sweetly took her hand as the cameras panned away from her for the final time, with viewers taking to social media to express how 'sorely missed' she will be.

Goodbye: Louise Minchin became emotional when she signed off Wednesday's BBC Breakfast - marking the end of her tenure as co-anchor of the morning show

Goodbye: Wearing a blindfold, Louise's co-anchor Dan Walker sweetly took her hand as he led her outside where she was met by friends and celebrities alike

Louise  who opted for a beautiful peach-hued dress for her last day on air - quipped that she 'can no longer face the winter mornings' that comes with hosting an early-morning news show.

Dan, 44, kick-started his colleague's farewell segment by leading her outside the London studio with a blindfold on.

There, Louise  who made her BBC Breakfast debut in 2001 - was met by family members and celebrities alike, with some wearing masks with her face printed on them.

Louise's husband David and their two daughters, Mia, 19, and Scarlett, 16, were also present.

Naga Munchetty hailed Louise as 'brilliant' while Charlie Stayt added that it had 'been an absolute joy doing BBC Breakfast' with Louise.

BBC veteran Bill Turnbull branded Louise as 'a warm, sunny person who will always be my friend'.

Supportive: Dan sweetly took Louise's hand as the cameras panned away from her for the final time

Louise poignantly told viewers: 'Have a great day and I'll see you somewhere on the other side'

Family: Louise's husband David and their two daughters, Scarlett and Mia, were also in the audience

Former Strictly Come Dancing judge Darcey Bussell added: 'I have loved watching you over the last 20 years on the BBC early in the morning and I've been lucky enough to sit with you a few times, you are going to be so missed.'

After hearing viewers' tribute messages, Louise told them: 'Thank you so much for your huge support.

'I think particularly over the last two years as well. It's been really tough, hasn't it, and I've felt we're all part of a story together, a shared history and it's been amazing to be here. Have a great day and I'll see you somewhere on the other side.'

Loved ones: Outside, Louise was met by family members and celebrities alike, with some wearing masks stamped with her face

Initial announcement: Louise first announced in June this year that she would be leaving BBC Breakfast

Fans took to Twitter after Louise wrapped her final Breakfast show to let them know just how much she'd be missed.

One social media user noted that they had been moved to tears during Louise's final BBC Breakfast broadcast.

Others wished Louise good luck in the future.

It is unclear who will replace the veteran presenter on the show. MailOnline has reached out to BBC representatives for comment.

Fans: Fans took to Twitter after Louise wrapped her final Breakfast show to let them know just how much she'd be missed

Louise's final day was also documented by her colleagues on social media, offering viewers a peek into her behind-the-scenes antics.

Louise herself took to Instagram to post a fun snap of herself and Dan, writing: 'Good morning and thank you for your love and support and messages. This is the last and final 6am sofa selfie.'

She added: 'Working on BBC Breakfast has been [an] absolute privilege and I will miss it enormously.'

Thank you: Louise herself took to Instagram to post a fun snap of herself and Dan, writing: 'Good morning and thank you for your love and support and messages'

Dan also took to Instagram with a snap of himself and Louise, writing: 'Thank you for all the kind messages today. Louise loved it.'

Journalist Josh Parry hailed Louise as 'the queen of breakfast tv' on his social media page, adding: 'We'll miss you.'

Resident doctor Nighat Arif penned: 'I am going to miss this beautiful face on my TV,' and also shared a selfie of herself, Louise and Dan.

Co-host: Dan also took to Instagram with a snap of himself and Louise, writing: 'Thank you for all the kind messages today. Louise loved it'

Farewell: Journalist Josh Parry hailed Louise as 'the queen of breakfast tv' on his social media page, adding: 'We'll miss you'

Selfie: Resident doctor Nighat Arif penned: 'I am going to miss this beautiful face on my TV,' and also shared a selfie of herself, Louise and Dan

Louise hilariously revealed on Wednesday's show that her BBC building pass had already been deactivated resulting in her being locked out of the office.

She first announced in June this year that she would be leaving BBC Breakfast.

Speaking of her decision to The Mirror this month, she said: 'In December I'd taken three, four weeks off work because of an ankle operation and I had that period to realise that when I'm not getting up at 3:40am in the morning, I'm doing all sorts of things in the evening that I want to be doing  like just watching telly with my family, doing that kind of family stuff.

Thank you: After hearing viewers' tribute messages, Louise told them: 'Thank you so much for your huge support'

'I think it was coming out of winter into this period that the decision was made.'

She also revealed the lockdown period had made her acknowledge her natural body clock, as she mused: 'It made me realise that actually I particularly really struggle with the hours I have found them really hard.'

Louise added she was looking forward to having breakfast with her family and having a morning routine with them after missing out on taking her daughters Mia, 20, and Scarlett, 17, to school.
Jade Thirlwall looked effortlessly chic in a cream sweater vest which she layered over a blue shirt as she arrived at Capital Breakfast Radio studios in London on Wednesday.

The Little Mix star, 28, oozed confidence in trendy leather trousers and heeled boots for her radio appearance.

Her outing comes after Jade recently revealed she hasn't met band mates Perrie Edwards' son Axel and Leigh-Anne Pinnock's newborn twins yet.

Stunning: Jade Thirlwall, 28, looked effortlessly chic in a cream sweater vest over an oversized blue shirt as she arrived at Capital Breakfast Radio studios in London on Wednesday

Showing off her usual glamour, Jade opted for a bright pink handbag to add a pop of colour to the ensemble.

She styled her brunette locks in a chic sleek bun and her neutral makeup enhanced her flawless features.

The musician stopped to take pictures with fans and she strutted to the studios.

Looking good: The Little Mix star, 28, oozed confidence in trendy leather trousers and heeled boots

Designer: Showing off her usual glamour, Jade opted for a bright pink handbag to add a pop of colour to the ensemble

Style: She styled her brunette locks in a chic sleek bun and her neutral makeup enhanced her flawless features

Jade has been on cloud nine since her Little Mix bandmates gave birth just days apart last month, and are now on maternity leave.

Leigh-Anne and fiance Andre Grey welcomed twins five days before Perrie and partner Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain welcomed son Axel into the world in August.

However despite the girls 10 year friendship, Jade revealed to Jimmy Hill on the Capital Evening Show that she is yet to meet the tots.

Giddy: The star laughed with an unknown man who escorted her to the radio studios

Smile: The musician stopped to take pictures with fans and she strutted to the studios

Sweet: Jade took selfies with fans who awaited her arrival at the the studio

She said: 'I haven't met the kids yet but I'm going to, I was giving them a bit of space because there's been a lot going on, bless them, so they needed a bit of time out.

However the bandmates have been sending Jade pictures and updates on the babies.

She said: 'Leigh actually sent me a picture of the babies and I was like: 'What's that on the side' and she was like: 'That's s**t'.

'It was a really beautiful picture of them and then just like poo on the side. I was like: 'Oh, ok!''

It comes after Jade vowed to stay on a different floor of the hotel when she resumes touring, now that Leigh-Anne and Perrie have three newborn babies between them.

Say cheese! Jade beamed as she posed for a slew of selfies with Little Mix fans

Work it! The beauty oozed confidence as she strutted through the city streets

Pose: On Tuesday, Jade stopped by KISS FM where she posed for snaps alongside DJ Tinea Taylor

Flawless: Jade styled her brunette locks into a ponytail while she also sported a pair of shades

Trendy: The hitmaker completed her look with a gold necklace and matching earrings

Funny: It comes after Jade vowed to stay on a different floor of the hotel when she resumes touring, now that Leigh-Anne and Perrie have three newborn babies between them (pictured on Lorraine)

In an interview aired on Lorraine, which was recorded before the pop stars gave birth, Leigh-Anne told Lorraine Kelly: 'It's just nice to do it together [with Perrie] and just share this experience - it's just so beautiful and obviously Jade's been helping us out She's been cracking the whip for us!

Perrie continued: 'Jade's been amazing. She's been going first and finishing last, so we can get a bit more time at home.'

Jade then added: 'I'm very excited to be an auntie again Although I'll definitely be on a different floor of the hotel [on tour]!'

She went on: 'Can I just say, they're smashing it! We've been working so hard recently, I don't know how they've done it? They're goddesses.'

Double trouble: Leigh-Anne and fiance Andre Grey welcomed twins in August
Daisy Lowe was very excited to be modeling a very rare swimsuit by Gucci and Tom Ford on Wednesday.

The media personality, 32, showed off her figure in the little black one-piece, which accentuated her bust and toned physique with its daring side-clasped detailing.

She took to her stairs at her home for some sultry snaps, posing as she climbed up the steps on her hands and knees, before standing statuesquely at the top of the staircase.

Statuesque: Daisy Lowe was very excited to be modeling a very rare swimsuit by Gucci and Tom Ford on Wednesday

Giddy about wearing the special garment, Daisy penned in the caption: 'This swimsuit is giving me LIFE.

'I believe it is the only one of its kind & I never want to peel it from my body but this rare beauty has been sold to a museum & so I wanted to writhe around in it before I removed it from my curves.

'Happy Hump Day- wishing you an extra special Wednesday celebrating all your curves and rare beauty'

She tagged her boyfriend Jordan Saul, adding: 'And thank you for taking these pictures this morning instead of playing PlayStation!'

Apples and pears: The media personality, 32, showed off her figure in the little black one-piece, which accentuated her bust and toned physique with its daring side-clasped detailing

Up she comes: She took to her stairs at her home for some sultry snaps, posing as she climbed up the steps on her hands and knees, before standing statuesquely at the top of the staircase

The swimsuit featured spaghetti straps as well as metallic clasping, and she donned a delicate chain around her neck to match it.

Daisy looked sultry with her wet raven mane slicked back from her face and a bright red manicure to her nails.

She kept make-up natural - a gentle peachy glow with a slick of rose to her pout and a light sweep of mascara to her lashes.

Daisy cosied up to her boyfriend Jordan as she attended the Bird in Hand Wine's Sparkling 2021 dinner at Fortnum & Mason a week ago in London.

Cute: Daisy cosied up to her boyfriend Jordan as she attended the Bird in Hand Wine's Sparkling 2021 dinner at Fortnum & Mason a week ago in London

Daisy was spotted for the first time with her estate agent man in June 2020 - despite being under a government-ordered lockdown for 10 weeks.

It's been a busy summer for the couple as they made an appearance at Bvlgari's summer party in London as well as the Dazn x Matchroom VIP launch recently.

Daisy took to Instagram in June to mark their first anniversary and reveal to her followers how she met her beau with a sweet post where she called Jordan her 'hero'.

She captioned the upload: 'A year ago today I went to meet @misstilda for a walk on the Heath. But I was running a little late- Mercury was in retrograde [crying laughing emoji].

Wow! The model put on a glamorous display in a busty black dress as she beamed for the cameras at the swanky event

'When I arrived, Monty ran straight towards a very handsome Belgium shepherd, attached to this handsome dog was a rather handsome man.

'I dawdled around having some dog chat we ended up walking together for a couple of hours, what a dog walk!'

She continued: 'Here we are a year later, through countless lockdowns, adventures, disasters and triumphs. You @jordanjaysaul have been my hero.

'Through and through. Thanks for feeling like home & always making me giggle even when I really dont want to! Its my absolute favourite making you laugh so much your legs give way.

'I am very happy I was 5 mins late to meet Tilds that day & I am so very grateful you are mine. Happy anniversary my pain in the ass. I love you .' [sic]
He is due to return for 12 new Doctor Who audio adventures in 2022.

And Christopher Eccleston was spotted looking fit and healthy as he displayed his muscular biceps in a black vest on Wednesday.

The Doctor Who alum, 57, - who is ready to reprise the role of the ninth Doctor - sported lycra bicycle shorts while out for a jog around North London.

Looking good: Doctor Who star Christopher Eccleston was spotted looking fit and healthy as he displayed his muscular biceps in a black vest on Wednesday

The two-time BAFTA Award nominee donned a buzz cut as he pounded the pavement.

The Ninth Doctor Adventures will be produced by Big Finish and follow Christopher's Doctor before the 2005 series.

He took on the role of the Doctor during the first season of the much loved sci-fi series.

The adventures will release in four box sets released throughout 2022 and 2023 as CDs, digital downloads, or limited edition vinyl LPs.

He's back! The Doctor Who alum, 57, -who is ready to reprise the role of the ninth Doctor for an audiobook - sported lycra bicycle shorts while out for a jog around North London

In an announcement on the official Doctor Who website Christopher said: 'Just before Christmas in 2020, I walked into a small recording studio in an industrial estate in North London.

'Me and the sound engineer looked at each other and we smiled and say, Lets go! Then I started playing the Ninth Doctor again, and I loved it.

Its been one of the great joys for me of the past year. Its a lovely way to do it, so Im coming back to record more.'

Christopher left the role of Doctor Who after appearing for just one series in 2005, despite being praised by fans for her performance as the Time Lord.

Honest: Christopher left the role of Doctor Who after appearing for just one series in 2005, despite being praised by fans for her performance as the Time Lord, as he battled anorexia

The series gripped viewers with the return of the infamous Daleks, the debut of Captain Jack (played by John Barrowman) and the Doctor's blossoming romance with Rose Tyler.

But the end of series one saw Christopher's Doctor regenerate, with David Tennant taking over the role for the second series in 2006.

Since his departure, the actor has candidly revealed that he battled anorexia during filming for the sci-fi drama, and was praised by fans for bravely revealing his mental health struggles.

Writing in his book I Love The Bones Of You, he said: 'The illness is still there raging within me as the Doctor.

'People love the way I look in that series, but I was very ill. The reward for that illness was the part. And therein lies the perpetuation of the whole sorry situation.'

He recently played criminal organiser Fagin in the 10-part BBC drama Dodger.

Fagin - one of the main characters in the original 1838 Oliver Twist novel - is the leader of a group of children who he teaches to pickpocket in exchange for shelter.

Saira Choudhry, 31, who is best known for playing Anita Roy in Hollyoaks and Tegan in Paul Abbott's No Offence, takes on the role of Nancy who is a member of Fagin's gang and Bill Sikes' lover.

Shameless star David Threlfall, 67, played chief of police Sir Charles Rowan in the series, while child actor Billy Jenkins, 14, - who was in The Crown - also features in the new drama.

The series, which will appear on CBBC and BBC iPlayer, has been written by Rhys Thomas and Lucy Montgomery, while Charlie Higson has also guest-written an episode.

Oliver Twist is Charles Dickens' second novel, and was published as a serial from 1837 to 1839.

New project! He recently played criminal organiser Fagin in the 10-part BBC drama Dodger

It was released as a three-volume book in 1838, before the serialisation ended.

The story centres around orphan Oliver who was born in a workhouse and sold into an apprenticeship with an undertaker.

After escaping, Oliver travels to London, where he meets the 'Artful Dodger' Jack Dawkins, a member of a gang of juvenile pickpockets led by Fagin.

Christopher said of the upcoming series: 'Fagin is an iconic role, I'm a very fortunate actor.

'Rhys Thomas and Lucy Montgomery have taken Charles Dickens' extraordinary characters and imagined a whole new world and lives for them. I'm very, very excited.'

Thomas, who is also co-directing the series, said: 'I have always loved Oliver Twist but wasn't so keen on Oliver himself. I preferred the company of Dodger, Fagin and the gang.

'I thought it would be fun to create a family show with Dodger at its heart and see how he came to be a master criminal in Victorian London.

'Working with the very best material as a springboard, it's a total delight to expand Dickens' rich world of characters and create a few of my own.

'To top it all, we have an incredible cast who are starring in the show. I can't wait for families all over the world to see it!'

For help and support with eating disorders contact SEED on (01482) 718130 or visit www.seedeatingdisorders.org.uk
The One Show guest presenter Angela Scanlon was rushed to hospital on Tuesday after being involved in a serious crash with a private ambulance and two other cars.

According to The Sun, the Irish host, 37, was in an Addison Lee private car at 9.30am, when it collided with the ambulance on north London's The Bishops Avenue - nicknamed 'billionaires' row' due to its concentration of sprawling mansions.

Witnesses claim Angela's vehicle was hit by a van which had first been struck by a BMW. Angela has regularly stood in for permanent host Alex Jones on the BBC show.

Scary: The One Show's Angela Scanlon rushed to hospital after serious four-car crash involving private ambulance (stock image)

MailOnline has approached Angela's representatives for comment.

Shortly after being taken to hospital Angela was released and is said to be 'doing OK'.

She took to Instagram Stories to share some flowers her team had sent her and was busy promoting her friend's podcast, without mentioning the incident.

Angela later shared another video updating fans on her well-being and said she was 'absolutely fine'.

Shocking: Angela was treated by medics at the scene and then taken to hospital, where she was released shortly after and was said to be 'doing OK'

Update: Angela shared a video updating fans on her well-being and said she was 'absolutely fine'

She added: We crashed into an ambulance. 'They were amazing, everyone was amazing. I did have to go to hospital just as a precaution but Im fine'

She said: 'I'm absolutely fine. There was a car accident yesterday, I was in it. It looked pretty bad, nobody was hurt thankfully. We crashed into an ambulance.

'They were amazing, everyone was amazing. I did have to go to hospital just as a precaution but Im fine.

'Took a day off, absolutely fine. Both drivers are fine. Sorry if anyone panicked. I panicked a bit when I saw it!'

Location: The accident occurred south of East Finchley

Pictured: The Bishops Avenue which is also called 'billionaires' row'. The road sits off the A1 and is close to Hampstead Heath, one of the city's most expensive neighbourhoods

A local told The Sun: 'It was a serious crash which involved four vehicles. It made a hell of a racket. Quite loud bangs. It was four vehicles in total.

'People looked shocked and shook up. The damage to the Addison Lee was quite bad and the ambulance itself had to be taken away. It was shocking. The ambulance arrived quickly and took Angela away.'

A London ambulance spokesperson told MailOnline on Wednesday: 'We were called at 9:27am on 14 September to reports of a road traffic collision involving a private ambulance on Bishops Avenue, N2.

'We sent an ambulance crew and an incident response officer to the scene. We treated a woman and took her to hospital.'

On the mend: She took to Instagram Stories to share some flowers her team had sent her and was busy promoting her friend's podcast, without mentioning the incident

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said: 'Police were called at 09:32hrs on Tuesday, 14 September to reports of a collision involving several vehicles - including a private ambulance - on Bishops Avenue at the junction with Bancroft Avenue, N2.

ANGELA SCANLON'S SHOWBIZ CAREER In 2012, Angela was named as one of the 'top ten Irish Instagrammers you need to follow' by The Irish Times In 2013 Vogue named her 'one to watch' and that same year she fronted a Louis Vuitton campaign In 2014 Angela appeared alongside Brendan O'Connor on The Saturday Night Show That same year her first big documentary, Oi Ginger!, aired and she hosted London Fashion Week for the third time Angela first covered for Alex Jones while she was on maternity leave in 2016 That same year she presented a series of her own titled Angela Scanlon's Close Encounters! In 2017 Angela became an ambassador for Garnier Angela hosted her own BBC Radio 2 show between 2018 and 2021 She started hosted BBC 2's renovation show Your Home Made Perfect in 2019 Advertisement

'Officers attended. One person was taken to hospital by the London Ambulance Service. The road was closed whilst emergency services were at the scene.'

It comes after Angela  who shares three-year-old daughter Ruby with her husband Roy Horgan  spoke about motherhood during a March interview with The Daily Mail.

She candidly said: 'No one can prepare you for becoming a mother. I have a ton of nieces and nephews and genuinely thought I knew what was coming, but it's completely different. There is no manual you get given when leaving the hospital.

'Motherhood is a huge gear change. So much of my identity was tied to my career  having a baby and taking time off work meant I didn't know who the hell I was any more.

'After I gave birth, my returning TV presenting role with Dara O'Briain on Robot Wars fell through. That felt devastating. But I looked down at this little human I had pushed out and I thought, ''OK, you know what, I can survive''.'

Further reflecting on her return to work after 12 weeks, Angela said she was 'like a deer in the headlights, fuelled by caffeine and suffering insomnia.'

She continued: 'Often I would beat myself up if I had to travel for work or if I wasn't around for bedtime.

'But I learned to ask for help  and to take it when it was offered. That isn't being weak, it's human.'
She stunned in a bold red Vera Wang gown for Monday's Met Gala.

And two days later, Emily Ratajkowski was spotted stepping out with son Sylvester Apollo, six months, and pup Colombo in New York City.

The gorgeous model, 30, cut a chic figure in a blue knitted dress, adding an orange JW Pei handbag.

Looking gorgeous: She stunned in a bold red Vera Wang gown for Monday's Met Gala. And two days later, Emily Ratajkowski was spotted stepping out with son Sylvester Apollo, six months, and pup Colombo

Emily donned a calf-length number in a bold blue tone; the long-sleeved number had two buttons along her chest and a collar detail.

The supermodel had a stylish ruched orange handbag slung on one shoulder along with Sly's diaper bag.

Emily rounded out her casual yet very stylish look with white sneakers, center parted wavy hair and a touch of makeup.

She pushed Sly's stroller and held on to pup Colombo's leash in one hand while toting her phone in the other.

City stroll: The gorgeous model, 30, cut a chic figure in a blue knitted dress, adding an orange JW Pei handbag

Striking: Emily donned a calf-length number in a bold blue tone; the long-sleeved number had two buttons along her chest and a collar detail

Absolutely gorgeous: The supermodel had a stylish ruched orange handbag slung on one shoulder along with Sly's diaper bag

Two days prior, Emily wowed at the Met Gala, which took place at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the Big Apple.

She donned a custom Vera Wang red hued number that featured lace detailing as well as a large flower element along the chest area.

The beautiful frock had a delicate train, with the stunner adding coordinating lace gloves.

Incredible: Two days prior, Emily wowed at the Met Gala, which took place at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the Big Apple

Breath taking: She donned a custom Vera Wang red hued number that featured lace detailing as well as a large flower element along the chest area

A vision: The beautiful frock had a delicate train, with the stunner adding coordinating lace gloves

Emily and her husband Sebastian Bear-McClard welcomed son Sylvester Apollo on March 8, 2021.

Emily announced her pregnancy in October 2020 via Vogue magazine.

She married actor and producer Sebastian Bear-McClard in 2018 on February 23, 2018 in a New York City courthouse.

Blessing: Emily and her husband Sebastian Bear-McClard welcomed son Sylvester Apollo on March 8, 2021
Reba McEntire was rescued from a historic building in Oklahoma after a staircase collapsed while she was touring the 100-year-old structure.

The 66-year-old legendary musician was one of seven people saved by authorities from the brick building in Atoka, OK on Tuesday.

McEntire was reportedly on the second floor of the building with boyfriend Rex Linn when the 'dilapidated stairs' collapsed and left the group stranded.

Scary situation: Reba McEntire was rescued from a historic building in Oklahoma after a staircase collapsed while she was touring the 100-year-old structure; seen in 2019

Close call for @reba in Atoka, Oklahoma Tuesday (9/14/21) Sure glad she and boyfriend Rex Linn are ok!

While touring an old building, a staircase collapsed. They were among seven people inside. Atokas finest came to the rescue.

No one hurt, just some bumps and bruises. pic.twitter.com/ppLhQOLDuA  Lisanne Anderson (@Lisanne2016_) September 15, 2021

DailyMail.com contacted McEntire's representatives for comment.

In a video shared by KTEN News reporter Lisanne Anderson, local firefighters appeared to hoist up a ladder for the recovery efforts.

With assistance from the team below, McEntire climbed down the ladder and appeared to be in good spirits despite the traumatic event.

Easy does it: With assistance from the team below, McEntire climbed down the ladder and appeared to be in good spirits despite the traumatic event

Once on stable ground, Reba looked up and caught her jacket which was thrown out of the window.

'Sure glad she and boyfriend Rex Linn are ok! While touring an old building, a staircase collapsed,' Anderson shared on Twitter.

'They were among seven people inside. Atokas finest came to the rescue. No one hurt, just some bumps and bruises.'

Yikes: Reba was with boyfriend Rex Linn when the staircase collapsed as they toured the building; seen in 2020

TMZ reported all involved were 'mostly okay,' but 'one person was transported to a hospital with minor injuries.'

Officials told the outlet that 'not only did the second story stairs topple down, but the ones leading up to the third story did as well' and trapped others higher up.

Emergency Management Director Travis Mullins told the outlet that 'the building was in the middle of being renovated when this happened and the dilapidated stairs were already scheduled to be replaced.'
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Piers Morgan beat his former Good Morning Britain co-host Susanna Reid to scoop News Presenter Of The Year at the TRIC Awards 2021 on Wednesday, but nevertheless he invited her on stage to share the win.

The TV star, 56, looked delighted to be back with his old colleagues at the event held in London, as the breakfast show led the winners at the star-studded awards.

It was also a day to remember for his former co-star Kate Garraway, who was recognised with a special award after continuing her tireless TV and radio work while her husband Derek Draper battles Covid-19.

Victory: Piers Morgan beat his former Good Morning Britain co-host Susanna Reid to scoop News Presenter Of The Year at the TRIC Awards 2021 on Wednesday, but nevertheless he invited her on stage to share the win

Piers sensationally quit the breakfast show following his comments about Meghan Markle's Oprah interview and subsequent onscreen clash with co-star Alex Beresford back in March.

But it seemed his dramatic departure didn't stop him being honoured for his tireless presenting during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, beating out both Susanna and Huw Edwards to scoop the coveted prize.

During his acceptance speech, he invited his former co-host on stage and said: 'It felt it was right to share with Susanna,' while noting that they developed a 'close bond' throughout the pandemic.

He said: 'I haven't seen Susanna since I left so it was very emotional. You get very close to someone when you work that closely together. Not many men have seen Susanna Reid at 5am in her curlers.'

Honour: It was also a day to remember for his former co-star Kate Garraway, 54, who was recognised with a special award after continuing her tireless TV and radio work while her husband Derek Draper battles Covid-19

Meanwhile his 'TV wife' chimed: 'He can start an argument in an empty room. I've never known anyone get so worked up over a sausage roll.'

Piers also applauded the 'remarkable' team at GMB before taking a slight jab at the breakfast channel for interviewing IS bride Shamima Begum on Tuesday's show.

'It's ironic they had an ISIS terror bride spouting off her opinions when I wasn't allowed to,' he remarked. 'I wonder if ITV will be asking her for an apology.'

Piers - who was recently cleared by Ofcom for his comments in the Meghan Markle debate - also stated that the award was 'a vindication of free speech,' while declaring: 'That's what democracies are supposed to be built on.'

GMB itself also scooped the prize for Multi-Channel News, while fellow ITV staples This Morning and I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here awarded gongs for Daytime and Reality respectively.

Close: Piers was beaming as he reunited with his former Good Morning Britain co-presenters on the red carpet

Reunited: During his acceptance speech, he invited his former co-host on stage and said: 'It felt it was right to share with Susanna,' while noting that they developed a 'close bond' throughout the pandemic

Famed duo Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly were crowned the winners of the TV Personality category, while Roman Kemp was named best Radio Personality.

Roman's co-star Sian Welby was seen clutching a TRIC trophy as their Capital Breakfast show secured an award in the Radio Programme category.

The Soap Of The Year gong was given to Coronation Street, with the show's actress Shelley King landing the Soap Actor prize.

BBC programme Would I Lie To You? was announced as the winner of the Comedy category and The Repair Shop scooped the gong for best Factual show.

The Crown was awarded the prize for the Drama category. Gordon Ramsay, Gino D'Acampo, and Fred Serieix were elated when their show American Road Trip! was recognised for the Food category award.

Piers looked dapper in a black suit, crisp white shirt and black shoes as he larked around with his friends on the red carpet ahead of the awards show, throwing his arms around both Susanna and Kate to prove there are no hard feelings between the trio.

Sweet: He added: 'I haven't seen Susanna since I left so it was very emotional. You get very close to someone when you work that closely together'

Accomplished: The polarising TV presenter also took to social media to pose with his new trophy which he said represented 'vindication of free speech'

Getting in on the reunion was Ben Shephard, who also joined them on the red carpet.

Ben remains the main male anchor on GMB while Piers still is yet to be replaced with a full-time Monday-Wednesday anchor.

Ben looked smart in an eggplant-hued suit over a crisp white open-collar shirt with a silver pocket square, while Piers went for a classic back suit.

Piers stormed off GMB in March as he discussed the Harry and Meghan interview, where he expressed his belief that Meghan was lying during the chat with Oprah Winfrey and that the couple damaged the royal family's reputation.

2021 TRIC Awards: The Winners RADIO PROGRAMME Capital Breakfast with Roman Kemp - WINNER Kate Garraway The Jason Manford Show FOOD PROGRAMME Gordon Gino & Freds American Road Trip - WINNER Saturday Morning with James Martin The Great British Bake Off NEWS PRESENTER Huw Edwards Piers Morgan - WINNER Susanna Reid PODCAST OF THE YEAR David Tennant Does a Podcast With - WINNER Off Menu with Ed Gamble and James Acaster Sh**ged Married Annoyed ENTERTAINMENT Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway Bradley Walsh & Son: Breaking Dad Gogglebox - WINNER NEW DRAMA Bridgerton Des Gangs of London REALITY I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here! The Masked Singer Strictly Come Dancing SPORT A League Of Their Own Match of the Day A Question of Sport DRAMA Call the Midwife Killing Eve The Crown FACTUAL 24 Hours in A&E Ross Kemp Living with The Repair Shop - WINNER SOAP ACTOR Danny Dyer Jane Danson Shelley King - WINNER COMEDY After Life Sex Education Would I Lie To You? - WINNER DAYTIME Steph's Packed Lunch The Chase This Morning - WINNER TV PERSONALITY Alison Hammond Ant & Dec - WINNER Bradley Walsh MULTI-CHANNEL NEWS BBC Breakfast Good Morning Britain - WINNER Sky News RADIO PERSONALITY Roman Kemp - WINNER Tony Blackburn Zoe Ball SOAP OF THE YEAR Casualty Coronation Street - WINNER EastEnders Emmerdale TRIC SPECIAL AWARD KATE GARRAWAY Advertisement

Happy! The TV star, 56, looked delighted to be back with his old colleagues as he stood between them and posed for snaps

The outspoken host left the daytime series after he insisted he 'didn't believe a word' of Meghan's account of suffering suicidal thoughts and experiencing racism at the hands of the royal family.

Piers then walked off set after a fierce debate with Alex, in which the weather presenter accused Piers of unfairly 'trashing' Meghan, and branded him 'diabolical'.

When Piers walked off screen, Alex continued: 'I'm sorry but Piers just spouts off on a regular basis and we have to sit there and listen.'

Piers, who refused to apologise, later announced his resignation and tweeted his thanks to the GMB team, praising them for their 'hard work and dedication' that led to them beating their main breakfast TV rival.

And Piers shared his own reflections on the events of that fateful week in a piece for the Mail On Sunday shortly afterwards.

Seal of approval: He delivered a thumbs up as he was recognised for his TV presenting and broadcasting achievements

Funny: Getting in on the reunion was Ben Shephard, who also joined them on the red carpet

Piers called Alex 'GMB's occasional stand-in weatherman' and 'uptight' in the telling account, adding that the presenter hasn't messaged him since his exit unlike others on the show.

Reflecting on their now infamous encounter on GMB, which ended in Piers leaving the studio, Piers said he wasn't going to sit there and be 'whacked' by one of his own team.

Pier's comments about the Duchess of Sussex's interview led to the highest number of complaints in Ofcom's history.

The Duchess of Sussex also made a formal complaint to Ofcom about Piers after he dismissed her account of suffering suicidal thoughts and experiencing racism at the hands of the royal family.

Following her own reunion with Piers, Kate was honoured with a Special Award for her tireless broadcasting work while her husband Derek Draper's continues to recover from a year-long battle with coronavirus.

Had enough: The presenter left the show (pictured) following comments he made about Harry and Meghan's Oprah interview

Colleagues: Piers threw his arms around the ladies, proving their are no hard feelings between the trio

It comes just days after the star won Best Authored Documentary at the National Television Awards, while offered viewers a harrowing glimpse of Derek's battle with the virus.

Kate - who has children Darcey, 15, and William, 12, with Derek, 54 - has since revealed that she hopes to make a follow-up to the show.

She told The Sun: 'We are going to make another documentary, there are plans for more. Derek has a very short window of energy, but we are trying. He has been home for four months now and it was enough for him being home. Now we are really hoping we can have more and more people in to see him.'

Also among this year's winners was Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly who were given the award for TV Personality, beating This Morning's Alison Hammond and Bradley Walsh.

Following it's hard-hitting storyline depicting Yasmeen Nazir's horrific abuse by her controlling husband Geoff Matcalfe, Coronation Street was awarded the prize for Soap Of The Year, whie star Shelley King was given the award for Soap Actor.

Celebration! Sian Welby was seen clutching a TRIC trophy as her Capital Breakfast show secured an award in the Radio Programme category

Dream team: She was joined by Capital co-star Roman Kemp who was also named best Radio Personality at the exclusive event

Gogglebox scooped the award for Entertainment, while racy period series Bridgerton scooped New Drama.

The TRIC Awards 2021 kicked off on Wednesday afternoon at 8 Northumberland Avenue in London - with Love Island's Liberty Poole leading the glamour on the red carpet.

Liberty - who appeared in this summer's series of the ITV2 show - still rocked a golden tan as she posed for snaps in a black lace strap-top and chocolate slacks.

She matched the look with a blazer, which she removed and slung over one shoulder for snaps.

Liberty wore amber-hued strap heels and accessorised with gold jewelry. She swept her golden locks back from her features and made a statement with bright red lipstick and a thick sweep of mascara on her lashes.

Smart: Meanwhile Piers looked dapper in a black suit, crisp white shirt and black shoes as he larked around with his friends

Having a laugh: Piers pulled a funny pout for the camera alongside the two women

TRIC Awards 2021: [L-R] Love Island's Liberty Poole lead the glam as she joined GMB stars Kate Garraway and Susanna Reid in stunning cocktail dresses for Wednesday's event

Liberty was among the early arrivals, along with Good Morning Britain co-anchors Kate and Susanna who looked stunning in cocktail dresses for the event.

Kate - who can't move for an awards ceremony at the moment, momentously scooping the National Television Award last week for her documentary Finding Derek, about her husband's battle with COVID-19 - wore a flowing white wrap-dress with delicate sleeves and a floor-length skirt.

Her GMB colleague Susanna wore a figure-hugging red dress with silver heels and wore her dark locks loosely around her shoulders.

Charlotte Hawkins looked radiant in a layered semi-sheer frock while Georgie Porter donned a tiny emerald mini-dress and Charlie Brookes went all-black at the event.

Fun: Susanna - who looked incredible in a red cocktail dress - looked like she was having a great time chatting to Piers

Autumn chic: Liberty - who appeared in this summer's series of Love Island - still rocked a tan as she posed for snaps in a black lace strap-top and chocolate slacks. She matched the look with a blazer, which she wore over her shoulders for snaps

Pretty: Liberty wore amber-hued strap heels and accessorised with gold jewelry. She swept her golden locks back from her features and made a statement with bright red lipstick and a thick sweep of mascara on her lashes

Since 1931 TRIC has promoted mutual understanding and goodwill among those in broadcast technology and related industries, across TV, Radio & online platforms and, as a not for profit organisation, it raises money for good causes through social events and the high profile TRIC Awards.

For over 50 years TRIC has been recognising the on air talent across TV, Radio & online which continues to showcase and praise the diverse talent in UK broadcast media.

TRIC brings the industry together to support good causes through its annual events, corporate partners and the sponsorship opportunities.

TRIC involvement extends to all platforms consumers watch, listen and tune into today to reflect the evolution of the UK's brightest and most innovative of industries. You can be part of a broadcasting tradition through attending or sponsoring TRIC events.

Trio of lovelies: Charlotte Hawkins looked radiant in a layered semi-sheer frock while Georgie Porter donned a tiny emerald mini-dress and Charlie Brookes went all-black at the event

Event: Since 1931 TRIC has promoted mutual understanding and goodwill among those in broadcast technology and related industries, across TV, Radio & online platforms and, as a not for profit organisation, it raises money for good causes through social events and the high profile TRIC Awards
On Tuesday morning, Elsa Hosk shared a snap of herself completely naked while cradling seven-month-old daughter Tuulikki Joan Daly in her arms for a series of Instagram pictures.

And soon after sharing the mommy and me snaps, her comments section was flooded by Internet mom shamers who criticized her for sharing a nude photo of her child - some even calling it 'child pornography.'

Elsa, 32, hit back at the critics with a scathing response shared to her Instagram stories: 'If you think it's porn or a "thirst trap" shame on you, not shame on me.'

The image: On Tuesday morning, Elsa Hosk shared a snap of herself completely naked while cradling seven-month-old daughter Tuulikki Joan Daly in her arms for a series of Instagram pictures

The Swedish-born supermodel reposted a comment someone wrote beneath the nude images, where they had claimed to have reported the image 'for the baby's safety and yours.'

The troll continued: 'You know you can get in serious trouble for posting child pornography right? I know you're a new mom but this is like basic knowledge.'

Elsa responded denying that it was child pornography and called it a 'normal thing' that 'happens everyday' : 'And if I choose to post that, that's my choice. If some sick person on the internet thinks it's porn that's that persons problem not mine.'

The former Victoria's Secret star further explained: 'I refuse to live my life according to or in fear of sick people on the internet. I don't live in that fear...'

Her statement: And soon after sharing the mommy and me snaps, her comments section was flooded by Internet mom shamers who criticized her for sharing a nude photo of her child - some even calling it 'child pornography'

The star went on to say that she loves being naked with her daughter because the skin to skin contact makes their bond even stronger, helping them connect.

'Being naked with my baby is the most beautiful and my most favorite thing.'

Elsa said that growing up in Sweden she was 'naked all the time' including at the beach, home, and in public, which 'was so natural to us.'

The model said that in her country they were not taught that your body was 'something you had to hide away in fear of what strangers might think.'

In her element: The star went on to say that she loves being naked with her daughter because the skin to skin contact makes their bond even stronger, helping them connect

Posing: The last image had the runway star lounging on the bed while her daughter played besides her

This type of view of the nude body is what she thinks 'created a very healthy relationship to nudity and to my own body.'

Adding that nakedness is part of every day life 'if you have a baby.'

The trio of photos that caused the uproar among the comments were taken by her longtime boyfriend Tom Daly.

'This photo was a beautiful moment captured by my boyfriend. If you think it's porn or a "thirst trap" shame on you, not shame on me.'

Family: 'This photo was a beautiful moment captured by my boyfriend. If you think it's porn or a "thirst trap" shame on you, not shame on me;' pictured with Tom and their baby Tuulikki

She closed it out by saying she respects people's choice with what they do with their bodies, what they choose to post or not post.

'Don't worry about the safety of my baby, she is right where she belongs, literally in my naked arms.'

The trio of images featured the stunning views of New York City along with the caption: 'Let me tell you about the city where I fell in love with your dad...'

In addition to the shot of her cradling Tuulikki, a second picture shows them on the bed looking at the views of the city.

The final image shared featured Elsa lounging on the bed with her daughter playing besides her, the cityscape now off to the side.

Elsa welcomed Tuulikki on February 11, 2021 with Tom, whom she began dating in 2015.

She announced the birth with a sweet snap of the family of three adding in an explanation for the name: '2.11.21 Happiest day of my life meeting you. Proudest moment in my life giving birth to you. Named after two strong women, my mom and my grandma-in-law, you came into this world like super-woman with your fist next to your face.'

Mom and dad: Elsa welcomed Tuulikki on February 11, 2021 with her longtime partner Tom Daly, whom she began dating in 2015; seen together on June 13, 2019 in Geneva, Switzerland

Adding: 'We will love you forever, baby Tuuli.'

Tom is the founder of Running Vision, which is a company hat makes sunglasses for running; he is Danish.

Elsa revealed her pregnancy news in September 2020 with a series of snaps taken by photographer Sante D'Orazio.

She wrote: 'Been keeping this angel in my belly a secret for a while. Feeling beyond excited and lucky to be having a baby and begin the next chapter of life with the man of my dreams!!!!'

Blessing! The supermodel announced she was pregnant in September as she posted a stunning photoshoot by photographer Sante D'Orazio (pictured in a behind-the-scenes snap)
Daniel Radcliffe looked worlds away from his days in Hogwarts as he dressed up as an exotic dancer for a scene in his show Miracle Workers: Oregon Trail.

The actor, 32, who plays Reverend Ezekiel Brown in the TBS drama, went undercover in the scene to rescue his love Prudence from her estranged husband Todd.

Daniel sported heavy fake tan and gold crop top for the scene which highlighted his toned abs while he also wore a blue face veil to conceal his true identity.

Transformation: Daniel Radcliffe looked worlds away from his days in Hogwarts as he dressed up as an exotic dancer for a scene in his new show Miracle Workers: Oregon Trail

Daniel is surrounded by several other scantily clad dancers for the scene as he appears to try and dance for an off-screen character.

At one point, the actor is seen rolling around on the ground as his character performs alongside the other dancers.

However, it appears the rouse doesn't last for long as Daniel is later seen unmasked with his hands in the air.

The anthology series is set in 1844 for Oregon Trail and follows Ezekiel as he teams up with a wanted outlaw named Benny The Teen (Steve Buscemi) and repressed prairie wife Prudence Aberdeen (Geraldine Viswanathan).

Character: The actor, 32, who plays Reverend Ezekiel Brown in the TBS drama, went undercover in the scene to rescue his love Prudence from her estranged husband Todd

Outfit: Daniel sported heavy fake tan and gold crop top for the scene which highlighted his toned abs while he also wore a blue face veil to conceal his true identity

Performance: Daniel is surrounded by several other scantily clad dancers for the scene as he appears to try and dance for an off-screen character

The journey leads Prudence away from her husband Todd who has given himself the title of Oregon's new governor.

It comes after Daniel slipped into racy leather chaps and sported make-up for a burlesque-style performance on Miracle Workers.

The film star went shirtless and also donned leather hotpants and a feathered neckpiece for the dance rendition of 'She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain' after getting drunk.

Scene: At one point, the actor is seen rolling around on the ground as his character performs alongside the other dancers

Caught: However, it appears the rouse doesn't last for long as Daniel is later seen unmasked

Setting: In one still, Daniel's character clutches several dollar bills to his chest

Setting: The series follows Ezekiel as he teams up with a wanted outlaw named Benny The Teen (Steve Buscemi) and repressed prairie wife Prudence Aberdeen (Geraldine Viswanathan)

Show: The journey leads Prudence away from her husband Todd who has given himself the title of Oregon's new governor

The Woman In Black star was seen stunning an audience as he showcased his singing skills while energetically thrusting and twerking onstage during the show's third season.

Show bosses Daniel Mirk and Robert Padnick told EW Daniel took 'no convincing at all' to strip off for the performance.

They said: 'Daniel was excited about the idea of the dance sequence as soon as we pitched it to him. He developed the dance with a choreographer and practiced it extensively on his own time, and obviously his hard work paid off because the routine is amazing.

Oh my! It comes after Daniel slipped into racy leather chaps and sported make-up for a burlesque-style performance on Miracle Workers

'One of the fun things about working with Daniel is that the craziest scenes are always his favorite. He commits incredibly hard to pulling off the strangest, funniest bits."

'We knew we wanted Ezekiel to do a crazy vogue dance to a club remix of 'She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain' and the look developed from there... There was a lot of attention paid to the sequined hot pants in particular, and I think you will agree we nailed it.'

When advised to loosen up, Ezekiel decides to drink snake oil which in turn causes him to unleash his wild side.

Hip thrusts: The actor went shirtless and also donned leather hotpants and a feathered neckpiece for the dance rendition of 'She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain' after getting drunk

Wow: The Women In Black star was seen stunning audience as he showcased his singing skills while energetically thrusting and twerking onstage

Not his first rodeo: Show bosses Daniel Mirk and Robert Padnick told EW Daniel took 'no convincing at all' to strip off for the performance

Before: Daniel is seen in his robes ahead of the sizzling scene

This isn't the first time the star has stripped off for a role. In 2007 aged 17, he memorably starred in play Equus which involved a full-frontal nudity scene.

Daniel recently revealed that people are surprised he turned out so well, despite being a child actor.

The star shot to worldwide fame in the Harry Potter film franchise at the tender age of 11 - and played the titular character for ten years as part of the global phenomenon.

He told The Mirror: 'I was very aware early on people have very low expectations of what Ill be like, which is great because hopefully you always exceed them.

'Once I was having dinner with the Director of Photography on a film and I told some weird story about a thing that happened to me in a kind of light, amused way.

'When I got to the end, the DP looked at me and went, How are you not more messed up? Its a reaction that does happen and I dont really have a satisfying answer for people.'

Well rounded: Daniel recently revealed that people are surprised he turned out so well, despite being a child actor (pictured 2019)

Daniel thanks his parents for how he turned out. His father Alan Radcliffe is a literary agent and his mother Marcia Gresham is a casting director, and kept him grounded throughout the filming of Harry Potter by making sure he was still having fun and reassuring him he didn't have to do the films.

To which Daniel always replied: 'I want to do this, I really don't like school.'

In 2019, Daniel admitted he turned to alcohol as a way to deal with his global fame following the success of the Harry Potter franchise.

Making an appearance on Off Camera With Sam Jones on Wednesday, the actor revealed that he would drink as a 'way of forgetting' that he was being watched.

He explained: 'I really struggled with particularly in my late teens when I was going out to places for the first time where you would feelagain it could have largely been in my head butyou would feel watched when you went into a bar, when you went into a pub.

'Then, in my case, the quickest way of forgetting about the fact that you were being watched was to get very drunk and then as you get very drunk, you become aware that, oh people are watching more now because now Im getting very drunk, so I should probably drink more to ignore that more.'

Watch Miracle Workers exclusively on Stan in Australia.
Daniel Craig has poked fun at the never-ending setbacks on his last outing as James Bond in the Covid-delayed No Time To Die, in a new Heineken advert cheekily titled Worth The Wait.

The actor, 53, can be seen pausing for a sip of the lager in the clip as an ode to 007 fans who have patiently been waiting for the film.

No Time To Die has been delayed by a total of 18 months due to the ongoing Covid crisis, but has finally been set for release on 30 September.

Patience is a virtue: Daniel Craig, 53, poked fun at the Covid delays of James Bond film No Time To Die as he paused to take a sip of his lager in a new Heineken advert called Worth The Wait

The beer brand conducted an experiment with pub-goers, giving them the lager or the alcohol free version at different intervals to show that people who waited 20 minutes had the highest levels of satisfaction, proving that good things do indeed come to those who wait.

Daniel can be seen sitting alone in a bar dressed in a black suit typical of his James Bond character.

The barman brings a bottle of the beer and an empty glass to the table and he proceeds to pour the liquid into the glass to drink.

Satisfaction: The actor was seen pausing for a sip of the lager in the promo as an ode to 007 fans who have patiently been waiting for the film

Waiting game: The drinks brand conducted research that showed people who waited 20 minutes to drink reported that they were more satisfied

Film star: Daniel was seen on set as he filmed the advert for drinks brand Heineken ahead of the release of his last James Bond film

He then pauses for a moment before smiling to show his satisfaction at having waited, before picking up the glass to take a sip.

No Time To Die will be released internationally in cinemas from 30 September and in the United States on 8 October.

The film was originally scheduled for release in November 2019 but was postponed to February and then April 2020 following the departure of original director Danny Boyle due to creative differences.

A China premiere and publicity tour was cancelled in April 2020 due to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, originally pushing the release back to November 2020.

In October 2020 it was delayed again to April this year, with further delays happening in January and February of this year, with the world premiere date being announced as 28 September last month.

The news comes as James Bond producer Barbra Broccoli recently revealed movie bosses were concerned about a controversial scene in one of the franchise's most successful films cast an ambiguous shadow over his sexual identity.

Provocative: James Bond producer Barbara Broccoli claims studio executives were left shaken and stirred after a controversial scene in 2012 film Skyfall cast an ambiguous shadow over his sexual identity

The secret agent was seen tied to a chair after being captured by MI5 turncoat Raoul Silva in 2012 smash Skyfall.

But instead of torture, Bond is surprisingly tantalised as Silva - played by Spanish actor Javier Bardem - caresses his exposed chest and rubs his inner-thighs, an unexpected move that appears to hint at a past same-sex encounter.

'You're trying to remember your training now. What's the regulation to cover this? Well, first time for everything I guess,' Silva gently goads as the helpless Bond watches his hands move across his captive body.

Adversary: The scene hints at a past same-sex encounter after Bond is captured by Raoul Silva, played by Spanish actor Javier Bardem

'What makes you think this is my first time?' Bond replies, surprising his adversary.

The scene, a clever ploy seemingly written into the script to satisfy a new generation of fans, won praise at the time in its attempt to alter the otherwise chauvinistic male stereotype characterised by notorious womaniser Bond in earlier films.

But Broccoli admits the highly charged exchange very nearly stayed on the cutting room floor after studio executives balked at the idea of Bond having a more fluid sexual identity.

'We were told to cut that line by the studio and we said no, no, no,' she recalled in new Apple TV+ documentary Being Bond.

'And I remember on the night of the premiere, that line, just the whole place erupted, and I remember looking at the studio executive and going: "See? Told you."'
Mrs Brown's Boys is set to return to screens for a special live Halloween episode to celebrate 10 years since it first aired.

The upcoming special of the show promises to be entertaining, with creator Brendan O'Carroll, 66, once again returning as the family matriarch Agnes Brown.

On the comedy comeback, Brendan said: 'It's a huge thrill to do another ''live'' show for the BBC.

Comeback! Mrs Brown's Boys is set to return to screens for a special live Halloween episode to celebrate 10 years since it first aired

'It'll be so wonderful so see them nervous all over again. We will be trying our best to stick to the script, but honestly a script is just a guideline. Ha ha ha!! Bring it on!'

Charlotte Moore, BBC's Chief Content Officer added: 'I'm thrilled that we are marking the 10th anniversary of the award-winning Mrs Brown's Boys coming to BBC One with this very special live broadcast.'

'A huge thank you to Brendan and the team for keeping us all so brilliantly entertained for a decade.

Creative comic: The upcoming special of the show promises to be entertaining, with creator Brendan O'Carroll, 66, returning as Agnes Brown

'I can't wait to see what mischief Agnes and family have in store for us this Halloween.'

A TV insider added to The Sun: 'Mrs Brown's Boys has done Christmas, now it's time to give Halloween a special treatment. It's a great way to give the sitcom a fresh dose of material and fans will be in for a real treat.

'The show's wardrobe team are going to have a field day, especially when they come to decide what outfits Agnes will wear.'

Award winner: The show has received a number of awards including the 2012 BAFTA Television Award for Best Situation Comedy and Best Comedy at the TV Choice Awards the same year

The Irish-British sitcom was first broadcast on BBC One in 2011 and aired live for the first time in 2016.

The show has received a number of awards including the 2012 BAFTA Television Award for Best Situation Comedy and Best Comedy at the TV Choice Awards the same year.

Brenden was nominated for the BAFTA for Best Male Performance in a Comedy Programme in 2012 but lost out to Darren Boyd for his role in the Sky comedy series Spy.

It was announced last year that Brendan had signed a deal to make a Christmas special of the show annually until 2026.

The star told The Irish Sun at the time: 'It's incredible that the BBC have nailed down such a special slot for Mrs Brown.

'We've been doing it for nine years already  which is six more than the Royle Family had and more than Morecambe and Wise.

'This new deal we signed last week goes all the way to 2026, which means I will be able to grow into the part, and we've a clause in which guarantees Mrs Brown is aired at 10pm on Christmas night, or else we don't have to make it.

'I wanted that because if it's not good enough for Christmas Day, then we shouldn't be making it.'
She's never shied away from showing off her killer eye for design.

And Christine Quinn nailed street style as she stepped out on the Upper East Side of Manhattan on Tuesday afternoon.

The 32-year-old reality star flashed her abs in a crop top paired with vibrant purple pants after whirlwind trip to the city for New York Fashion Week.

City slicker: Christine Quinn nailed street style as she stepped out on the Upper East Side of Manhattan on Tuesday afternoon

The Selling Sunset star rocked an asymmetrical white crop top with a ruffled hem underneath her heavy puffer jacket.

Her toned abs were on display in a pair of straight cut slacks, and she pounded the pavement in pink heels to match a leather purse.

Christine's platinum blonde hair was parted to the side and slicked back into a ponytail braided over her shoulder.

Model behavior: The 32-year-old reality star flashed her abs in a crop top paired with vibrant purple pants after whirlwind trip to the city for New York Fashion Week

Strike a pose: Christine's platinum blonde hair was parted to the side and slicked back into a ponytail braided over her shoulder

Her effortless glam included bold brows and a pale pink lipstick to complement a charcoal smoky eye.

Christine was a staple on the front row this past week having attended a host of shows, including The Blonds, PrettyLittleThing and Christian Siriano, to name a few.

She admitted to having 'such an incredible time' at NYFW, but needed to head back to Los Angeles to film season five of her popular Netflix reality show, Selling Sunset.

Christine noted that filming season four was particularly traumatic as she had to relive her son's 'extremely dramatic' birth where she almost 'flatlined' during an emergency C-section.

Golden girl: Christine was a staple on the front row this past week having attended a host of shows, including The Blonds, PrettyLittleThing and Christian Siriano, to name a few

Big time: She admitted to having 'such an incredible time' at NYFW, but needed to head back to Los Angeles to film season five of her popular Netflix reality show, Selling Sunset

'Reliving the trauma on Selling Sunset about my birth experience, was one of the most difficult things I have ever done; let alone allowing these very raw, personal moments of my life captured on camera,' she wrote in a lengthy caption to honor her son's two-month birthday in July.

It's unclear the premise of the following season, but it will likely include her co-star Heather Rae Young's wedding to home renovation expert Tarek El Moussa.

Christine once compared their relationship to Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt, a claim the couple didn't take too kindly.

On Amanda Hirsh's Not Skinny But Not Fat podcast late last year, Tarek said: 'Christine has a big mouth. She said some s**tty things about us. And that's about it. We're not really interested in dealing with her nonsense.'

Quinn told US Weekly in March: 'I dont regret saying those things at all. I mean, at the end of the day, Im a comedian and you know, its a show. We all say silly things. I talked to her probably a week ago. Shes super sweet, were on great terms. Im really happy for them that theyre getting married.'
Curb Your Enthusiasm creator Larry David enjoyed drinks al fresco with Timothee Chalamet at Sant Ambroeus in Manhattan on Monday.

The 74-year-old godfather of cringe comedy was also joined at the table by his daughter Romy and a man resembling her boyfriend Josiah Adams.

It's unclear exactly how David and Chalamet know each other - but the group certainly looked at ease as they chatted away.

After the meal, Larry gave Romy - a 25-year-old George Washington University grad - a big bear hug.

Odd couple: Curb Your Enthusiasm creator Larry David (R) enjoyed drinks al fresco with Timothee Chalamet (L) at Sant Ambroeus in Manhattan on Monday

David has two daughters - Romy and Cazzie, 27 - from his 14-year marriage to The Social Dilemma producer Laurie Lennard, which ended in 2007.

Hilariously, the two-time Emmy winner and the 25-year-old Oscar nominee could not have had more opposite reactions to the New York Fashion Week festivities.

Timothee proudly co-chaired the Met Gala themed 'In America: A Lexicon of Fashion' on Monday alongside Billie Eilish, Amanda Gorman, and Naomi Osaka.

Whereas Larry literally plugged his ears at the blaring music playing during the Staud SS/22 runway presentation while seated front row at Spring Studios on Sunday.

Storyteller: The 74-year-old godfather of cringe comedy was also joined at the table by his daughter Romy (R) and a man (2-R) resembling her boyfriend Josiah Adams

Family reunion: After the meal, Larry gave his daughter Romy - a 25-year-old George Washington University grad - a big bear hug

Surrounded by women: David has two daughters - Romy (R) and Cazzie (2-R), 27 - from his 14-year marriage to The Social Dilemma producer Laurie Lennard (L), which ended in 2007

Talented twosome: Hilariously, the two-time Emmy winner (R) and the 25-year-old Oscar nominee (L) could not have had more opposite reactions to the New York Fashion Week festivities

No sweat! Timothee proudly co-chaired the Met Gala themed 'In America: A Lexicon of Fashion' on Monday alongside Billie Eilish, Amanda Gorman, and Naomi Osaka

Too loud! Whereas Larry literally plugged his ears at the blaring music playing during the Staud SS/22 runway presentation while seated front row at Spring Studios on Sunday

Fans can catch more of David in the highly-anticipated 10-episode 11th season of his hit HBO series, which premieres sometime in October.

'What I can say is that it's going to be another amazing season. Season 11 is something else,' JB Smoove - who portrays Leon Black - teased to Deadline on Sunday.

'Where does Larry end this? I don't know. When I first met Larry in season six, I asked him when he was going to end this and he said he didn't know. I do think that him taking those years off to shoot the movie and do the play, he came back with new energy.

'And, you know what? He's having a ball. And as long as you're having fun, it's effortless. I think he's having a blast right now. The cast is amazing. As the world keeps challenging him, he keeps making Curb as cringe-worthy as possible.'

Premieres in October! Fans can catch more of David (pictured on set March 3) in the highly-anticipated 10-episode 11th season of his hit HBO series

JB Smoove (pictured Sunday) - who portrays Leon Black - teased to Deadline on Sunday: 'Season 11 is something else...I think he's having a blast right now. The cast is amazing. As the world keeps challenging him, he keeps making Curb as cringe-worthy as possible'

The 55-year-old Emmy winner continued: 'I can't tell you guys everything but what I can say is Larry is really good at attaching his humor to the world and that's consistently what he has done since Curb has been on HBO.

'He's a master at it. He has this thing he does where he attaches himself and his thoughts and his opinions to the beat of whatever is going on in the world. You gotta watch and see what Larry does. He's a genius, he really is.'

The distant cousin of Senator Bernie Sanders' alleged $900M fortune grew exponentially thanks to Netflix's $500M purchase of all 180 episodes of his NBC sitcom Seinfeld, which starts streaming October 1.

Meanwhile, Chalamet will next portray Paul Atreides in Denis Villeneuve's $165M sci-fi epic Dune, which hits US theaters and HBO Max simultaneously on October 22.

'Oh, hello!' The distant cousin of Senator Bernie Sanders' alleged $900M fortune grew exponentially thanks to Netflix's $500M purchase of all 180 episodes of his NBC sitcom Seinfeld, which starts streaming October 1
Hailey Bieber is not pregnant.

While attending fashion's biggest night on Monday evening, her husband Justin Bieber tenderly placed his hands on her belly as they posed for photographers, sparking rumors of a pregnancy, which sent fans into a frenzy.

However, the pose was just innocent, sources close to the couple told TMZ.

Sparking speculation: Hailey Bieber is not pregnant. While attending fashion's biggest night on Monday evening, her husband Justin Bieber tenderly placed his hands on her belly as they posed for photographers, sparking rumors of a pregnancy, which sent fans into a frenzy

The stars attended their first ever Met Gala together on Monday and in video circulating on social media, the model, 24, can be seen removing her husband's hands from her torso shortly after he placed them there.

The images sparked pregnancy speculation on Twitter, and social media users teased Justin, 27, for the suggestive hand placement.

'Babe, they'll think I'm pregnant' tweeted @haileysoutfits with a laughing crying emoji as they posted video of Hailey removing her husband's hands from her belly.

'Hailey Bieber when Justin put his hands on her belly you can tell she said it's gonna look like I'm pregnant LMAOOO,' tweeted @yaaniluv.

Not pregnant: However, the pose was just innocent, sources close to the couple told TMZ

Sparking rumors: While attending fashion's biggest night on Monday evening, the pop star, 27, tenderly placed his hands on her belly as they posed for photographers

Causing a buzz: The video sparked pregnancy speculation on Twitter, and social media users teased Justin for the suggestive hand placement

Hailey donned a sleek black strapless Saint Laurent gown featuring crystals along her bustline with Tiffany & Co. jewels.

The pop star, who won two VMA awards on Sunday, wore La Maison Drew, which is an extension of his brand Drew House.

Despite respectively attending the Met Gala a number of times over the years, they have never gone together.

In May 2018, Hailey attended the event with Shawn Mendes, who she dated from 2017 to 2018, just days before reconciling with Justin.

Striking: Hailey donned a sleek black strapless Saint Laurent gown featuring crystals along her bustline with Tiffany & Co. jewels

Two months after rekindling, Hailey and Justin got engaged on July 7, 2018.

Justin and Hailey originally met in 2009 after dad Stephen Baldwin introduced them.

They dated for a short time in early 2016 before they parted ways; he went on to date Sofia Richie and briefly reunited with ex girlfriend Selena Gomez.

Justin and Hailey obtained a marriage license from a New York City courthouse in September 2018, and tied the knot one year later at an extravagant wedding in South Carolina in front of 154 guests on September 30, 2019.
No Bond film is complete without a high-octane car chase  although with 007's record of totalling expensive motors, the MI6 underling who deals with his insurance must be tearing his hair out.

Stunning new behind-the-scenes pictures from No Time To Die show ten Aston Martin DB5s, eight of which were specifically made for the film, against the backdrop of the stone city of Matera, southern Italy.

But it's uncertain how many of them will still be in tip-top condition after filming. During production of Daniel Craig's previous outing as Bond in 2015, ten Aston Martins were used  and seven of them were destroyed.

In Spectre, a movie record of 24million-worth of motors, also including a Land Rover, ended up being wrecked.

Ten DB5's, eight of which were made specifically for the film, against the backdrop of Matera, Italy. NO TIME TO DIE is an EON Productions and Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studios film

In Spectre, a movie record of 24million-worth of motors, also including a Land Rover, ended up being wrecked. Pictured: A still image from No Time to Die

James Bond (Daniel Craig), Moneypenny (Naomie Harris)and Q (Ben Whishaw) in NO TIME TO DIE, an EONProductions and Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studios film

The recent trailer for No Time To Die also shows 007 putting his Aston Martin in extreme peril, as he and love interest Madeleine Swann (played by Lea Seydoux) shelter behind bullet-proof glass as enemies take aim at them  before Bond floors the accelerator.

The black and white photograph of the ten DB5s is part of a new exhibition at the Leica Gallery in Mayfair, London  steps away from Bond Street  celebrating the release of the 25th spy adventure.

Leica has long been Bond's favourite make of camera. In Ian Fleming's 1959 novel Goldfinger, Bond uses a Leica M3  which had a near-silent shutter  to capture the titular villain's cheating ways.

For the 'No Time To Die  behind the scenes' exhibition, 007 producer Michael G Wilson, Craig and photographers Nicola Dove and Greg Williams captured a series of intimate moments during shooting with their Leica cameras.

Pictured: Still image of Daniel Craig as James Bond in the trailer for No Time to Die

Daniel Craig on the Cuba set, Pinewood Studios. NO TIME TO DIE is an EON Productions and Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studios film

One of Nicola Dove's photos shows Craig, with Naomie Harris as Miss Moneypenny, looking over the shoulder of Ben Whishaw's Q as he taps away on a computer. The exhibition runs until October 15.

No Time To Die, directed by Cary Fukunaga, was originally scheduled for release in April 2020, but was pushed back more than 18 months due to the pandemic.

The premiere will take place at the Royal Albert Hall in London on September 28, and it will be released in cinemas on September 30. Craig, 53, has stated that the film will be his last as Bond.
Priyanka Chopra was spotted arriving at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Wednesday following backlash for her participation in the new reality television show, The Activist.

The 39-year-old actress rocked a leopard print Christian Dior windbreaker with leggings as she was escorted through the terminal to a waiting vehicle.

Soon after she was announced as a host of the upcoming show alongside Julianne Hough and Usher, social media lit up with commentary and ripped the premise to shreds for being performative in light of real activism throughout the country.

Home sweet home: Priyanka Chopra was spotted arriving at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Wednesday following backlash for her participation in the new reality television show, The Activist

Priyanka hid her eyes underneath the brim of a New York Yankees hat and stayed safe wearing a face mask as she wheeled luggage by her side.

Twitter users settled in to rip the CBS series to shreds for its premise last week, which many found distasteful.

According to Deadline, The Activist is a competitive reality series in which six activists will be joined by three public figures to make significant changes to environmental issues, healthcare and education.

But rather than measuring a meaningful change, the winner of the competition will be determined based on 'online engagement, social metrics, and hosts input.'

Airport style: The 39-year-old actress rocked a leopard print Christian Dior windbreaker with leggings as she was escorted through the terminal to a waiting vehicle

Dressed down: Priyanka hid her eyes underneath the brim of a New York Yankees hat and stayed safe wearing a face mask as she wheeled luggage by her side

The teams will have the chance to go to Rome for the upcoming G20 Summit, and whichever group can get the biggest funding commitment from diplomats at the summit will be crowned the winner in a ceremony featuring musical performances.

Some Twitter users were instantly reminded of the infamous and ill-fated Pepsi ad starring Kendall Jenner in which she appeared to resolve an unspecified protest by handing a police officer a can of Pepsi.

At the time, viewers criticized the advertisement for diminishing the importance of the Black Lives Matter movement and misrepresenting the reality of racial justice protests around the US.

Bad memories: Some Twitter users were instantly reminded of the infamous and ill-fated Pepsi ad starring Kendall Jenner in which she appeared to resolve an unspecified protest by handing a police officer a can of Pepsi

In the spotlight: Others criticized Chopra for her support of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has embraced Hindu nationalism and right-wing populism, and her dismissal of Pakistani concerns

Oh dear: The TV writer Broti Gupta managed to tie in the controversy over The Activist to Jeopardy!'s recent disaster with now axed host and producer Mike Richards

One Twitter user posted a still of Jenner delivering her Pepsi and mockingly captioned wrote: 'I go on the activist reality show and do this and everyone including the judges are screaming and crying.'

Others singled out the judges and their past behavior as reasons for why The Activist was misguided.

Chopra has previously been criticized for her support of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has embraced Hindu nationalism and right-wing populism.

In 2019, she was publicly called out at Beautycon for a tweet supporting India's military among rising tensions with neighboring Pakistan. 'The same priyanka chopra who told a pakistani activist to "stop venting"? okay,' mused one user.

Offensive: Other users dug up Julianne Hough's infamous 2013 blackface scandal, when she tried to dress up as Orange Is The New Black's Crazy Eyes, who is Black

Surprising turn of events: '"the activist" and this is deada** one of the hosts?' wrote the shocked user; Hough seen in July in Cap d'Antibes, France

Other Twitter users criticized co-host Julianne Hough, who was previously embroiled in her own racism scandal.

In 2013, she dressed up for Halloween as Orange Is The New Black character Crazy Eyes.

The character was portrayed on the Netflix series by Uzo Aduba, who is Black.

As part of her costume, Julianne dressed up in orange scrubs to approximate a prison uniform and wore blackface.

'"the activist" and this is deada** one of the hosts?' wrote one shocked user who posted Hough's blackface photos.

The dancer and actress later apologized for the offensive display

'I heard you say that the show was performative, promoted pseudo-activism over real activism, felt tone-deaf  and that the hosts werent qualified to assess activism, because we are celebrities and not activists,' she wrote.

'I do not claim to be an activist and wholeheartedly agree that the judging aspect of the show missed the mark, and furthermore, that I am not qualified to act as a judge.'

No laughing matter: Some users took a more serious approach with their complaints and stood up for activists

Dangerous: Another wrote, 'As activists are jailed, maimed and killed around the world, this is grotesque.'

Little of both: One person combined complaints about the series with a dig at Chopra

Some users took a more serious approach with their complaints.

'Dear activist risking your life challenging war criminals, we are sorry to let you know that you didn't get enough "likes" to survive the completion!' complained one person. 'Usher didnt cry when you presented your tragedy either. So you can die in prison silently, or shouting in the Mediterranean.'

Another wrote, 'As activists are jailed, maimed and killed around the world, this is grotesque.'

One person combined complaints about the series with a dig at Chopra.

'like yea using activism as a competition where it is funneled into social media influence is absolutely abhorrent and completely dilutes the importance and impacts of organizing and grassroots effors [sic] but also remember when priyanka chopra asked an activist if she was done venting.'

Fatima Bhutto wrote that, 'The good news is that no actual activists would be caught dead on this show.'

Nothing to worry about: Fatima Bhutto wrote that, 'The good news is that no actual activists would be caught dead on this show'

Simple solution: Jameela Jamil wondered why CBS couldn't just make a donation instead of wasting money on a reality show

'The Activist Hunger Games': Others just delighted in seeing the pile on. 'It's nice to see Twitter united over how despicable the Activist Hunger Games are,' one social media user wrote

Jameela Jamil wondered why CBS couldn't just make a donation instead of wasting money on a reality show.

''Couldn't they just give the money it's going to take to pay this UNBELIEVABLY expensive talent and make this show, directly to activist causes? Rather than turning activism into a game and then giving a fraction of the much needed money away in a "prize...?"'

She added bluntly: 'People are dying.'

Others just delighted in seeing the pile on.

'It's nice to see Twitter united over how despicable the Activist Hunger Games are,' one social media user wrote.

The TV writer Broti Gupta managed to tie in the controversy over The Activist to Jeopardy!'s recent hosting snafu.

'You guys aren't gonna believe who CBS got to host the activist show,' she joked while posting a photo of Mike Richards, the Jeopardy! producer who briefly won the job of host before being fired from both his roles over recently resurfaced offensive comments.
Helen Mirren is now set to enchant as the hostess of the Harry Potter: Hogwarts Tournament Of Houses quiz show.

The English actress, 76, will help celebrate the magical film franchise's 20th anniversary with the previously announced four-part competition.

'I knew someday I'd get a Harry Potter role, and I'm so pleased to take part in the 20-year film celebration,' Mirren told The Hollywood Reporter.

Magical! Dame Helen Mirren is set to host an upcoming quiz show called Harry Potter: Hogwarts Tournament Of Houses. She's seen September 1st above

'The films inspired such enchantment and wonder for so many of us, and it will be such a treat to reignite that magic for the countless fans who continue to revel in this spellbinding world.'

Harry Potter: Hogwarts Tournament Of Houses, which was announced in May, will air on Cartoon Network and TBS before making its way to HBO Max.

The show will see HP fans battle one another for the coveted title of House Cup champion.

A release date has yet-to-be announced, but will hopefully coincide with the anniversary of Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone's release, which came out November 4, 2001.

Finally! 'I knew someday I'd get a Harry Potter role, and I'm so pleased to take part in the 20-year film celebration,' Mirren said

The production will be helmed by Warner Bros. Unscripted Television, in association with Warner Horizon and Robin Ashbrook and Yasmin Shackleton of theoldschool.

'We're creating an arena for the leagues of Harry Potter film fans to flex their knowledge of the Wizarding World, and there's no one better than Dame Helen Mirren to add some British grandeur to this event that will debut across our WarnerMedia brands and platforms,' said Tom Ascheim, president of Warner Bros. Global Kids, Young Adults and Classics.

This isn't the only new Potter-related piece in the works, according to THR.

Back in January the outlet reported that HBO Max were working on a live-action Harry Potter television series.

Enchanting: Back in January the outlet reported that HBO Max were working on a live-action Harry Potter television series. Stars Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, and Daniel Radcliffe are seen above

Things were still in the earliest stages, according to sources, who said the studio was 'engaged in multiple conversations with potential writers exploring various ideas that would bring the beloved property to television.'

The report also revealed: 'Sources say broad ideas have been discussed as part of the early-stage exploratory meetings.'

But if there is an HP project, creators are keeping their lips sealed for now.

'There are no Harry Potter series in development at the studio or on the streaming platform,' HBO Max and Warner Bros. told THR in January.
She has maintained a dignified silence since her ex-husband Sam Burgess admitted to 'embarrassing' her during their marriage by having an affair with another woman.

And while she has yet to acknowledge the NRL player's mea culpa on SAS Australia, Phoebe Burgess raised her voice for another reason on Wednesday afternoon.

The former journalist, 32, shared an Instagram post announcing she was double-vaccinated against Covid-19 and couldn't wait to 're-enter the world'.

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Positive: Phoebe Burgess has shared a powerful message about the importance of getting vaccinated after her ex-husband Sam admitted to cheating on her during their marriage

She wrote: 'Officially fully vaxxed  and very happy about joining this club that I hope becomes the global majority - quickly.

'I can't wait to re-enter the world, move freely, drop my kids at school with their unreal and unparalleled teachers (I really can't pretend to be anywhere near their level much longer).

'I can't wait to book in, for a real-life appointment to sort out the hairy parts of my bod. I can't wait to stop explaining "the virus" to my kids as the reason why they can't kick a ball with their cousins and hold their aunts.

New start: The former journalist, 32, shared an Instagram post on Wednesday announcing she was double-vaccinated against Covid-19 and couldn't wait to 're-enter the world'

Merchandise: Phoebe also shared a gallery of photos of herself posing in a 'Vaxxed' cap

'I can't wait to walk down a street and smile at someone knowing I can't endanger their health. We're almost there. Round-two jabs, here we go!'

Phoebe accompanied her post with a gallery of photos of herself posing in a 'Vaxxed' cap and singlet.

Her pro-vaccine message comes after her ex-husband Sam, formerly of the South Sydney Rabbitohs NRL team, admitted to 'embarrassing' her with his infidelity.

Humiliated: Phoebe's pro-vaccine message comes after her ex-husband Sam (right), formerly of the South Sydney Rabbitohs NRL team, admitted to 'embarrassing' her with his infidelity

Sam, 32, confessed he'd been unfaithful during their four-year marriage while being interrogated by the directing staff on Channel Seven's SAS Australia.

'I don't think I was the greatest husband at times,' he said. 'I embarrassed my wife. I'd had an affair with a girl, a woman in Melbourne. That's true.

'I was away on tour, and regretfully that happened, which would have been... it would have been a tough place for Phoebe to be.'

Breaking his silence: Sam, 32, confessed he'd been unfaithful during their four-year marriage while being interrogated by the directing staff on Channel Seven's SAS Australia

In 2018, Sam was embroiled in a sexting scandal which involved a Melbourne woman who claimed he'd cheated on his wife the year prior.

In the aftermath of the scandal, Phoebe, who was then pregnant with the couple's second child, pulled out of a public appearance but was otherwise supportive of her husband in the weeks that followed.

However, the strain was too much for the Burgesses who ended their marriage shortly after Christmas that year.

They briefly reconciled months later, but called it quits for good in October 2019.
Australia was once a magnet for Hollywood filmmakers hoping to escape America's Covid crisis.

But the country's filmmaking Golden Age has come to an end, as productions jump ship due to Australia's strict lockdowns and border closures.

According to industry bible Variety, Australia's appeal has 'waned' among Hollywood producers in recent months due to the country's low vaccination rate and the uncontrollable spread of the Delta variant.

Hollywood abandons Australia: Multiple film and TV productions have left the country due to endless lockdowns, border restrictions and Covid-zero premiers. Pictured: Natalie Portman, who left Australia in August after pulling out of her film Days of Abandonment

While filming is technically considered 'essential work' in Australia, many productions have struggled to navigate complicated health regulations and border closures.

'Juggling border restrictions, authorised worker lists and changing local rules is becoming too troublesome for large film crews,' the Variety report states.

In August, production on HBO film Days of Abandonment ground to a halt in Sydney after lead actress Natalie Portman dropped out due to 'unforeseen personal reasons'.

Exit: Netflix bailed on the Australian production of Melissa McCarthy's (pictured) series God's Favorite Idiot in June, after filming eight out of 16 episodes

The LA-based star fled Sydney with her family days later, shortly before new Covid restrictions were set to be enforced.

Netflix bailed on the Australian production of Melissa McCarthy's series God's Favorite Idiot in June, after filming eight out of 16 episodes.

Last month, Netflix also halted filming of Chris Hemsworth's movie Extraction 2, relocating the set from Sydney to Prague.

Insiders told Variety the decision to change locations was due to the strict Covid-19 lockdowns in New South Wales.

'Too troublesome': While filming is technically considered 'essential work' in Australia, many productions have struggled to navigate complicated health regulations and border closures. Pictured: Chris Hemsworth, whose film Extraction 2 moved from Sydney to Prague last month

Despite the doom and gloom, Screen NSW remains optimistic about the future of Australia's film industry.

'Contrary to the claim, there is no exodus of international films from NSW because of the current Covid-19 situation,' a spokesman told The Daily Telegraph on Thursday.

Australia Film boss Kate Marks offered a pragmatic response to the industry's decline, saying: 'We always knew that the global environment at some point would even out and it would become as competitive as it was pre-Covid.'

'So this is not a surprise to us to see other territories opening up and coming back online and making it competitive,' Ms Marks added.
Sarah Jessica Parker revealed her character Carrie Bradshaw is still smoking cigarettes while filming HBO Max's And Just Like That in Manhattan's Upper East Side on Wednesday.

The writer-turned-podcaster notoriously puffed away on her beloved Marlboro Lights on and off through all six seasons of Sex and the City, which aired 1998-2004 on HBO.

The Ohio-born 56-year-old was joined in the bad habit by her brand new co-star - Homeland alum Sarita Choudhury - as they hung out in the backseat of a Mercedes.

Waiting to exhale: Sarah Jessica Parker revealed her character Carrie Bradshaw is still smoking cigarettes while filming HBO Max's And Just Like That in Manhattan on Wednesday

Flawed character: The writer-turned-podcaster (pictured in 2004) notoriously puffed away on her beloved Marlboro Lights on and off through all six seasons of Sex and the City, which aired 1998-2004 on HBO

During season three, Carrie's addiction to nicotine threatened her prospective romance with furniture maker Aidan Shaw, but they went on to get engaged before splitting.

Bradshaw would famously bond with her now husband - Mr. Big (Chris Noth) - over their shared love of cigarettes until he underwent heart surgery in season six.

The brown Mercedes belonged to the British 55-year-old's character Seema Patel according to the vanity license plate posted by the And Just Like That Instagram account.

Executive producer Michael Patrick King leaned into the car to chat with SJP at one point, which the AJLT Instagram account captioned: 'MPK trying to bum a cig?'

Spark it up: The Ohio-born 56-year-old was joined in the bad habit by her brand new co-star - Homeland alum Sarita Choudhury (R) - as they hung out in the backseat of a Mercedes

Smoke if you got 'em: During season three, Carrie's addiction to nicotine threatened her prospective romance with furniture maker Aidan Shaw, but they went on to get engaged before splitting

Action! Bradshaw would famously bond with her now husband - Mr. Big (Chris Noth) - over their shared love of cigarettes until he underwent heart surgery in season six

The two-time Emmy winner certainly looked colorful in a checkered and gingham pantaloon ensemble made up of vintage Norma Kamali, Chloe, and Gant.

Rather than her signature 'ghetto gold' Carrie necklace, Sarah wore three different necklaces and styled her middle-parted flaxen locks in curly waves.

Parker was not wearing her character's wedding ring - hinting at trouble to come for Carrie's marriage to Mr. Big aka John James Preston.

In July, Page Six got a glimpse at Emmy-nominated sound mixer Charles Hunt's script pages revealing Bradshaw will be divorcing her toxic ex.

'Hump day': The brown Mercedes belonged to the British 55-year-old's character Seema Patel according to the vanity license plate posted by the And Just Like That Instagram account

Executive producer Michael Patrick King leaned into the car to chat with SJP at one point, which the AJLT Instagram account captioned: 'MPK trying to bum a cig?'

'I was taping the podcast, I was washing my hair,' Carrie tells her friends in the leaked scene.

'Yes, I wasn't eating or sleeping, but at least I felt good about my marriage. Now I'm just one of the wives he was taking care of?'

Sarita contrasted in neutrals in a silk Fendi pussy-bow blouse, matching midi-skirt, Valentino belt, and black ballet flats selected by former SATC costume associate Molly Rogers.

On Wednesday, Cynthia Nixon - who's back as attorney Miranda Hobbes - shared a snap with Keli Goff (who plays a mystery role) and Karen Pittman (who plays Dr. Nya Wallace).

All the colors of the rainbow! The two-time Emmy winner looked colorful in a checkered and gingham pantaloon ensemble made up of vintage Norma Kamali, Chloe, and Gant

Ready for her close-up: Rather than her signature 'ghetto gold' Carrie necklace, Sarah wore three different necklaces and styled her middle-parted flaxen locks in curly waves

Split or widowed? Parker was not wearing her character's wedding ring - hinting at trouble to come for Carrie's marriage to Mr. Big aka John James Preston

Trouble ahead: In July, Page Six got a glimpse at Emmy-nominated sound mixer Charles Hunt's script pages revealing Bradshaw will be divorcing her toxic ex

'Seeing @thekarenpittman and @keligoffofficial on set always brightens my day,' the 55-year-old Emmy winner wrote.

'What a thrill to work alongside such talented, creative and hard-working women!'

Sarah, Cynthia, and Kristin Davis are all earning '$1M per episode' to produce and reprise their Sex and The City roles in the 10-episode limited series - according to Variety.

On August 10, SATC fan Evan Kline posted two TikToks from the set in front of the Wolf Building in Chelsea where all the extras were dressed in black for a funeral scene.

Chic: Sarita contrasted in neutrals in a silk Fendi pussy-bow blouse, matching midi-skirt, Valentino belt, and black ballet flats selected by former SATC costume associate Molly Rogers

'What a thrill!' On Wednesday, Cynthia Nixon - who's back as attorney Miranda Hobbes - shared a snap with Keli Goff (who plays a mystery role) and Karen Pittman (who plays Dr. Nya Wallace)

Killing off a major character: On August 10, SATC fan Evan Kline posted two TikToks from the set in front of the Wolf Building in Chelsea where all the extras were dressed in black for a funeral scene

It's further proof that producers are plotting to kill off a major character in AJLT, with all signs pointing to either Mr. Big or Samantha Jones.

But with Kim Cattrall's exit, they risk making the same mistake The Golden Girls producers made by continuing on without Bea Arthur in The Golden Palace, which was canceled by CBS after one season in 1993.

Returning Sex and the City cast members include Willie Garson, David Eigenberg, Evan Handler, Mario Cantone, Bridget Moynahan, and Julie Halston.

And Just Like That got a shot of diversity by welcoming newcomers Cathy Ang, LeRoy McClain, Cree Cicchino, Nicole Ari Parker, and Sara Ramirez.

Classic: There's no denying the original HBO series based on Candace Bushnell's 1997 book was iconic albeit a whitewashed version of Manhattan

Three-legged table: But with Kim Cattrall's exit, they risk making the same mistake The Golden Girls producers made by continuing on without Bea Arthur in The Golden Palace, which was canceled by CBS after one season in 1993

There's no denying the original HBO series based on Candace Bushnell's 1997 book was iconic albeit a whitewashed version of Manhattan.

Excitement for AJLT might have fans forgetting just how dismally bad the films Sex and the City: The Movie and Sex and the City 2 were in 2008 and 2010.

The CW also aired a forgettable, eighties-set spin-off The Carrie Diaries starring AnnaSophia Robb from 2013-2014.
Sporting great Lisa Curry made a poignant trip to the beach on Thursday morning to commemorate one year since the death of her daughter Jaimi.

The Olympic swimmer, 59, was joined by her surviving children, Morgan, 30, and Jett, 27, and her husband, Mark Tabone, as she threw flowers into the ocean to honour Jaimi, who died on September 14, 2020, at the age of 33.

Jaimi had suffered from alcoholism, depression and an eating disorder prior to her death.

Grief: Sporting great Lisa Curry (centre) made a poignant trip to the beach on Thursday morning to commemorate one year since the death of her daughter Jaimi. Pictured with her surviving children, Morgan (right) and Jett (left)

Lisa also shared a moving quote from Dr. Joanne Cacciatore Aguerke about losing a child, which she said summed up 'what we can't express'.

It read: 'Don't forget that even if I have living children, my heart still aches for the one who is not here - for I am never quite complete without my child.

'My child may have died; but my love - and my motherhood - never will.'

Devastating loss: Lisa announced Jaimi's (left) death on September 15 last year, one day after she lost her battle 'with a long-term illness'

Heartbreaking: Alongside the images, Lisa shared a moving quote from Dr. Joanne Cacciatore Aguerke about losing a child, which she said summed up 'what we can't express'

Farewell: Lisa, her daughter Morgan (left) and her grandson Flynn, three, (right) threw flowers into the ocean

Heartache: Lisa shared a quote that read, 'Don't forget that even if I have living children, my heart still aches for the one who is not here - for I am never quite complete without my child'

Another section said: 'There are days when I still feel paralysed. My chest feels the sinking weight of my child's absence and, sometimes, I feel as if I will explode from the grief.'

The accompanying photos showed Lisa, her daughter Morgan and her grandson Flynn, three, throwing flowers into the ocean.

Lisa also shared a touching photo of herself holding hands with Morgan and Jett, whom she shares with ex-husband Grant Kenny, as they gazed into the distance.

A final image captured Lisa and group of Jaimi's friends posing for a photo, with the words 'Jaimi we love you' written in the sand in front of them.

Lisa also wore a T-shirt with an image of her late daughter on the front.

Celebration: A final image captured Lisa and group of Jaimi's friends posing for a photo, with the words 'Jaimi we love you' written in the sand in front of them

Memory: Lisa also wore a T-shirt with an image of her late daughter on the front

Devastating: Jaimi (pictured) battled depression, alcoholism and an eating disorder before her death at a Sunshine Coast hospital last September

Lisa announced Jaimi's death in a social media post on September 15 last year, one day after her passing.

'Our beautiful daughter Jaimi has lost her battle with a long-term illness and passed away peacefully in hospital yesterday morning with her loving family by her side,' she wrote.

It was later reported that Jaimi had battled depression, alcoholism and an eating disorder before her death at a Sunshine Coast hospital.

For confidential support in Australia, call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or visit www.lifeline.org.au. Alternatively, call Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800
Veteran Dancehall artist Zumjay thanked Bounty Killer after receiving his new rank insignia of Sergeant First Class/E-7 in the United States Army at a pinning ceremony held last Saturday.

In the thirteen years that hes been in the army, Zumjay, whose real name is Rohan Stephens quickly moved up in rank having received a Private E2 (or PV2), bypassing the junior rank of Private One/E-1 (or PV1).

As Jamaicans, we are overachievers, (so) anything we do, we excel, The System deejay told the Gleaner today. I got promoted to the rank of Specialist before I hit my two years in the rank of Private First Class, six months before to be exact.

Zumjay further explained that while completing his tour of duty, he graduated college and earned both a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a Masters degree in Criminal Justice. He took things further and challenged himself by enrolling in the US Air Force in 2017 before returning to the reserves in 2019.

I have been told that [if I] hadnt gone over to the Air Force in 2017, I would have made it to my current rank, but I had wanted a change and felt the need to spread my wings, to see what my options were and test my limits in a different branch of service, Stephens said.

The popular Dancehall entertainer also shared the accomplishment on Instagram on Saturday and revealed that his fellow industry compatriot, Bounty Killer played an instrumental role in the achievement.

Thanks to all who believed in and supported me throughout my military career. Salute to Bounty Killer aka Rodney Price who told me from day one, that he was proud of me and encouraged me to aim higher, he wrote on the post.

Bounty Killer in turn responded; Salute yes sir u did it yute in shining colors bredda congrats.

The passage hasnt been easy for the Waterhouse, Kingston-native, who said enlisting in the US Army was the most important decision I made in my whole life.

In the beginning stages, he explained, I had to complete a practical test that encompassed a two-mile run and routine exercises such as push-ups and sit-ups in the time of two minutes. Because I didnt have a tertiary education then, only a high school diploma, that was the highest rank I could join as. Maybe if I had my tertiary education and degrees, I could have entered as Private First Class.

He graduated basic training in December 2008, and was promoted to Private First Class six months after enlisting, then was deployed overseas to the Middle East in September 2009, leaving his wife Aviesha Stephens, who remained in New York while he assumed active duty.

The couple married in 2006 and soon after migrated to the United States. On his Instagram share, Zumjay also thanked his wife for her relentless support. Aviesha had the honor of pinning the insignia on her husband during the ceremony.

I have to commend my wife. She is very patient; she learnt a lot of patience, Zumjay said. I know my greatest lessons have been patience and tolerance, but it was the same for her  watching me leave for basic training in a different state then heading to another country right after and being stationed in a different state while she is in New York raising our daughter, he continued.

We were a newly married couple, and we had to make a lot of sacrifices together, testing us constantly. All of these times I was travelling, she had our daughter to raise, and for me, it was hard each time. Id see them on holidays and long weekends when theyd come to me, or Id get a chance to fly to see them then being separated all over again

Through it all the Dancehall deejay shared that his wife has been the backbone of his family, and without her support, he could not have done it. With everything he had to endure to pursue his mission it even took a long time to develop a close bond with his daughter, that happened when she was around six years old.

Aviesha held down the fort, She had a good job in New York. I didnt wish for my professional decisions to uproot Zumjay said.

She is my queen right here. She raised our daughter until I, basically, came off active duty and into the reserves when I said it was time to be with my family 100 per cent. My daughter is 13 years old now. Also, my son was born during all of that, in 2013, he added.

Thats why I said the military has taught me patience, and my education through my service has helped me to funnel the part of my brain where I look at peoples behaviour in a different way than I would. What I mean by that is we meet persons from different walks of life along the way, and I guess back in my Dancehall days when I was much younger, I would react to certain things maybe more aggressively. Being in the US Army has taught me to observe from a different angle.

It will require a lot more training and experience in his new rank of Sergeant First Class to move up another rank, but with the support of his family, Zumjay is confident that he will continued to make great strides forward. When you have a dream and know the journey, it is possible, he said.

Zumjay is best known for his appearances alongside artists like Bling Dawg in the track Up Deh and Alozade on the track Shell Shock along with others, Shake It, Do Or Dont, Badman Nuh Show Off, Courtney, Go Look Wuk, Hype Pon a Gal and several others.

He added advice for anyone who wants to follow their dreams and achieve big goals. One thing I noticed when I migrated to the US is certification helps an individual to move up the ladder and set yourself apart from the people you are competing with, he said. The advice I have for anyone making a life-changing decision, whether or not it is similar to the one I made, is to follow through the necessary steps to your dream.

Look at a story like mine and of many others, coming from the ghetto. Not because you are from there means that you have to stay there for the rest of your life or that is all it is going to amount to. This was a huge stepping stone for my life. It has impacted my life in numerous ways, and still, it has opened so many doors. Its been 13 years. I cant believe it went by so quickly. In seven years, it will be 20 years, and I will be paid for life, and I can feel good knowing my family will be okay, Zumjay continued.
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Deer Management Permits (DMPs)

Hunters possessing a Deer Management Permit (DMP) may take one antlerless deer per permit, in addition to deer that may be taken with a regular big game tag or Bow/Muzz Antlerless or Bow/Muzz Either Sex tags.

DMPs may only be used for antlerless deer (have no antlers or antlers less than 3" long).

DMPs may only be used in the WMU for which they are issued.

DMPs are valid during all deer hunting seasons.

Junior Bowhunters may use DMPs during the special archery seasons and during the regular season.

Hunters may transfer or receive up to 2 DMPs from other hunters (see Consignment of Deer Management Permits for instructions).

An overview of how DMP quotas are established is available at Understanding DMPs: Quota Setting and Permit Selection.

Applying for DMPs

DMP Application Deadline: October 1 each year

What You Need to Know Before Applying

All licensed hunters, aged 12 or older can apply for a DMP. Junior hunters aged 12-13 can only hunt deer with a firearm or crossbow in counties that have passed a local law authorizing such action. Check the map on the Junior Big Game Hunting webpage to confirm the counties in which 12- and 13-year-olds can hunt deer with a firearm or crossbow.

You can apply for up to two DMPs within the same Wildlife Management Unit (WMU) or two different WMUs. Both must be applied for at the same time. Find a WMU near you by viewing the written WMU boundary descriptions.

If applying at a license sales agent, hunters who are selected will receive their tags immediately. If applying online or by phone, hunters who are selected must wait approximately three weeks to receive tags.

Follow best practice and check your DMP before leaving the license issuing outlet for the correct WMU information. If the clerk made an error, they can contact our DMP Hotline (1-866-472-4332) to get the error corrected.

There is a $10 non-refundable application fee for all applicants, except for holders of Lifetime Sportsman licenses purchased prior to 9/30/2009, and Junior Hunters & Junior Bowhunters.

Disabled Veterans who are residents of New York and who have a service-connected disability rated at 40% or greater will receive preference on DMPs. Annually, you must bring a letter from the Veteran's Administration, dated in the current year, with your case number and your disability percentage. If you are claiming permanent disabled status, the letter must clearly state that the service-related disability is 'permanent'.

who are residents of New York and who have a service-connected disability rated at 40% or greater will receive preference on DMPs. Annually, you must bring a letter from the Veteran's Administration, dated in the current year, with your case number and your disability percentage. If you are claiming permanent disabled status, the letter must clearly state that the service-related disability is 'permanent'. Landowners who own 50 or more contiguous acres of land within a WMU will receive preference on DMP selection. Annually, you must bring your tax map identification number and SWIS code (found on your tax bill) with you when you apply. Be sure to tell the license issuing agent PRIOR to applying that you are a landowner. Lessees do not qualify as landowners. A spouse of a landowner may receive landowner preference, but both spouses may not apply as a landowner for the same parcel of land. Corporate ownership: only one person may be designated by a corporation as the landowner each year no matter how many 50-acre parcels are owned. The corporation must submit an original letter or certified copy of a resolution, dated in the current year, designating the individual and must include the tax map ID and SWIS code information.

Ways You Can Apply

Chances of Being Selected for a DMP

The chances remain the same throughout the entire application period, which runs from the middle of August through October 1, and are based on the following criteria:

Ranking of the applicant based on the Order of Selection below.

Number of applicants expected.

Number of antlerless deer to be harvested in each WMU.

See DMP Probabilities for a map of WMUs open for DMPs and for a table of the chances of selection for 1st and 2nd choice DMPs for Residents and Non-residents.

Preference Points

Preference points increase your chances of selection but do not guarantee DMP selection.

Preference points are won and lost on first permit selection only.

If you receive a DMP in your first choice WMU, all available preference points will be used.

If you do not receive a DMP in your first choice WMU, you will receive a preference point for the following year.

Any preference points contained in your file are automatically applied to your first-choice WMU selection. If you do NOT receive your first choice, the points are applied to your second choice, but will remain in your file for the following year, regardless of your second choice selection results.

Qualifying landowners and disabled veterans will receive their first choice DMP in all open WMUs.

Preference Points are not WMU specific. That is, if you earned a preference point by being denied in one WMU, you can use that preference point in a subsequent year when applying for a DMP in a different WMU.

Order of Selection

Landowners and Disabled Veterans NYS Residents and Nonresidents with 3 or more preference points. Residents with 2 preference points. Residents with 1 preference points. Residents with 0 preference points. Non-Residents with 2 preference points. Non-Residents with 1 preference points. Non-Residents with 0 preference points.

Additional Opportunities for Acquiring DMPs

Leftover DMPs

If there are permits remaining after the initial application period ends on October 1, an extended application period for leftover DMPs will begin on or around November 1 each year. Applications for leftover DMPs can only be made at a license issuing agent location.

If there are permits remaining after the initial application period ends on October 1, an extended application period for leftover DMPs will begin on or around November 1 each year. Applications for leftover DMPs can only be made at a license issuing agent location. Bonus DMPs in WMUs (1C, 3S, 4J and 8C)

Hunters who fill a DMP tag by harvesting an antlerless deer can apply for an additional (bonus) DMP to harvest another antlerless deer.

DMP Information Hotline

For more information regarding Deer Management Permits, you may call our DMP Information Hotline at 1-866-472-4332.





More about Deer Management Permits (DMPs):
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Crossbow Hunting

DEC recently surveyed hunters about their preferences regarding crossbow use. View the hunter survey results (PDF).

General Crossbow Regulations

Age requirement: Crossbows may be used by licensees who are 12 or older to hunt deer and licensees 14 or older to hunt bear, unprotected wildlife, and most small game species.

Without landowner permission, crossbows may not be discharged within 250 feet of any home, school building or playground, public structure, farm structure in use, or occupied factory or church.

A crossbow may not be possessed in or on a motor vehicle unless it is un-cocked.

While on lands inhabited by deer or bear, and in or on a motor vehicle using artificial lights, a crossbow may not be possessed unless it is unstrung or taken down or securely fastened in a case or locked in the trunk of the vehicle.

Crossbows may not be used for hunting in Suffolk, Nassau, or Westchester counties.

Required Crossbow Hunting Qualification & Safety Training

There are 3 options to choose from in order to complete the required crossbow qualification & safety training. All must accompany a NYS hunting license and in some cases a muzzleloading privilege:

Option 1 : Review the DEC online crossbow qualification training and complete the Crossbow Certificate of Qualification*.

: Review the DEC online crossbow qualification training and complete the Crossbow Certificate of Qualification*. Option 2 : Review the DEC crossbow qualification training and complete the Crossbow Certificate of Qualification* found in the current Hunting & Trapping Regulations Guide.

: Review the DEC crossbow qualification training and complete the Crossbow Certificate of Qualification* found in the current Hunting & Trapping Regulations Guide. Option 3: Complete a Hunter Education course to receive a Hunter Education Certificate of Qualification. Certificates must be dated on or after April 1, 2014 to meet crossbow qualification and safety training.

*Note: The Crossbow Certificate of Qualification from 2012-2013 is not valid.

Crossbow Specifications

A legal crossbow consists of a bow and string, either compound or recurve, that launches a minimum 14-inch bolt or arrow, not including point, mounted upon a stock with a trigger that holds the string and limbs under tension until released.

The trigger unit of such crossbow must have a working safety.

Minimum limb width: 17 inches (outer tip of limbs, excluding wheels and cams, uncocked) Minimum peak draw weight : 100 pounds Maximum peak draw weight : 200 pounds.

17 inches (outer tip of limbs, excluding wheels and cams, uncocked) Minimum overall length: 24 inches from butt-stock to front of limbs.

Crossbow Regulations Per Hunting Season

Big Game

License requirement:

The law treats crossbows as a muzzleloader. Hunters must possess a muzzleloader hunting privilege to legally hunt with a crossbow during any muzzleloader season OR during open portions of the early bowhunting seasons. Muzzleloader privilege is not required when hunting with a crossbow during the early bear season or the regular firearms seasons.

to legally hunt with a crossbow during any muzzleloader season OR during open portions of the early bowhunting seasons. Muzzleloader privilege is not required when hunting with a crossbow during the early bear season or the regular firearms seasons. Bowhunting privilege is not required for use of a crossbow at any time.

Crossbows may be used during the following seasons:

Crossbows may be used to take bear during the early bear season, early muzzleloader season in the Northern Zone, regular firearms seasons in the Northern and Southern Zones, and the late muzzleloader season in the Southern Zone.

during the early bear season, early muzzleloader season in the Northern Zone, regular firearms seasons in the Northern and Southern Zones, and the late muzzleloader season in the Southern Zone. Crossbows may be used to take deer during: early antlerless season in mid-September early and late muzzleloader season in the Northern Zone and late muzzleloader season in the Southern Zone using Bow/Muzz tags, DMPs, DMAP tags, or an unfilled Regular Big Game tag (late season only); regular firearms seasons using a Regular Big Game tag, DMPs, or DMAP tags.

during: Crossbows may also be used to take deer or bear during limited portions of bowhunting seasons as follows, provided that the hunter possesses the muzzleloading privilege: During the last 14 days of the early bowhunting season in the Southern Zone; During the last 10 days of the early bowhunting season in the Northern Zone; this includes the 7-day early muzzleloader season in the Northern Zone; Only Bow/Muzz tags, DMPs or DMAPs may be use during these times.

during limited portions of bowhunting seasons as follows, provided that the hunter possesses the muzzleloading privilege: See Deer and Bear Hunting Season dates

Crossbows may not be used under the following conditions:

To take deer or bear in the following areas of the state: Wildlife Management Unit (WMU) 4J in Albany County WMU 8C in Monroe County In the counties of Nassau, Suffolk, or Westchester

Junior big game hunters (age 12-15) may not use a crossbow to take a deer during the Youth Deer Hunt weekend. Adult mentors who accompany a junior big game hunter on the Youth Deer Hunt weekend may not possess a crossbow (or firearm) while afield on those days.

Small Game

License Requirements: A hunting license is needed to use a crossbow to hunt small game species. A turkey permit is also required to hunt turkeys. All crossbow specifications remain in effect.

Crossbows may be used to take the following small game species during their respective open seasons.

Wild turkey.

Any migratory or upland game birds.

Any other small game species.

Unprotected wildlife (e.g. red squirrels and woodchucks) at anytime.

Crossbows may not be used under the following conditions.

While hunting with a dog for any small game (except for coyotes) in the Northern Zone.

Fish

Crossbows may not be used to take carp or any other fish species.




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Hunter Education Program

Hunter and Trapper Safety and Responsibility

IMPORTANT COVID-19 UPDATE: Hunter Education Program staff are not in the office every day. For prompt service, email us (hunter@dec.ny.gov). Please do not call and leave a voicemail if you have access to email; this will help prevent delays in service.

New - Online Hunter Education and Bowhunter Education Courses

An ONLINE HUNTER EDUCATION COURSE is now available.

An ONLINE BOWHUNTER EDUCATION COURSE is now available.

The Hunter Education Program teaches future hunters and trappers how to be safe, responsible, and ethical. After successful completion of a hunter education course or a trapper education course, students will receive a certificate of qualification necessary for purchasing a first-time hunting or trapping license. Bowhunter education and waterfowl hunter education courses are also available.

Course Details

Choose a course below to review course content, requirements, study materials, and to find a course.

All in-person courses are free and taught by DEC-certified instructors. Online courses charge a fee. Although primarily offered for first-time hunters or trappers, anyone is welcome to attend a Hunter Education Program course, whether it is for a refresher, you have an interest in the topic, or you took the online course and want some more experience.

*New, in-person courses are added throughout the year, however most of the courses are taught between March and September.

*Do not wait until just before the hunting season to take a course. In-person courses fill quickly, so it is important to sign up early.

Hunter Education - Required for first-time hunters using firearms or archery equipment to pursue big game, small game, turkey, waterfowl, and migratory game birds.

Bowhunter Education - Required in addition to the Hunter Education course (above) when using a bow and arrow to pursue deer and bear only (not crossbow). If bowhunting for other wild game, this course is not required but recommended.

Trapper Education - Required for first-time trappers pursuing furbearers.

Waterfowl Hunter Education - Required to gain access to select State and Federal lands (Wildlife Refuges) open to waterfowl hunting.

Crossbow Hunting Qualification - Required for hunters using a crossbow to pursue big game, small game, turkey, or unprotected species.

Instructor Information

Current and prospective instructors can get all of the information they need by visiting the Teaching Hunter Education page.

Replace a Lost Certificate

Due to COVID, staff are not in the office every day. For fastest service, email us (hunter@dec.ny.gov). If you do not have email, call 1-888-HUNT-ED2 (1-888-486-8332). Please supply your name, date of birth, type of course you took (hunter education, bowhunter education, trapper education, waterfowl hunter education), and when and where you took the course. Certificates dated earlier than 1980 cannot be found or replaced. If you need a certificate and yours cannot be found, you will need to retake the course.

Other State Certificates

New York State accepts Hunter Education Certificates from other states when purchasing a New York hunting license.

Certificate Requirements in Other States and Countries: To verify whether a New York State Hunter Education Certificate is accepted elsewhere, visit the International Hunter Education Association (leaves DEC website) to find certificate restrictions and requirements in all other states and countries. Many states and countries will require you to show your hunter education certificate and will not accept your hunting or trapping license as proof of a certificate.

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Contact a Hunter Education Office near you.

Pistol Permit

Generally, a hunter education course does not qualify you to obtain a pistol permit in New York State. Please check with your county clerk's office or county sheriff's office for more information regarding pistol permits.

Program Funding

New York State's Hunter Education Program is funded by the purchase of sporting licenses through the New York State Conservation Fund and purchases of firearms, ammunitions, and archery equipment. through the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Fund (leaves DEC website).

Equal Opportunity

Courses are available to all individuals without regard to race, color, national origin, sex, age, or disability. Complaints of discrimination should be sent to the Office of Equal Opportunity, U.S. Department of the Interior, Office of the Secretary, Washington, D.C. 20240.





More about Hunter Education Program:

Hunter Education Course - Required for first-time hunters using firearm or archery equipment to pursue big game, small game, turkey, waterfowl and migratory game birds.

Bowhunter Education - Required in addition to the Hunter Education course when using a bow and arrow to pursue deer and bear only. If bowhunting for other wild game, this course is not required but recommended.

Trapper Education - Required for first-time trappers pursuing furbearers or small game.

Waterfowl Hunter Education - Required to gain access to select State Parks and National Wildlife Refuges open to waterfowl hunting.

Crossbow Hunting Qualification - Required online training for all hunters that intend to hunt with a crossbow.
Air India is laden with a huge debt of around Rs 43,000 crores of which Rs 22,000 crores will also be transferred to the Air India Asset Holding Limited. (PTI Photo)

New Delhi: The Tata Group has made its financial bid for the debt-laden national carrier Air India (AI) on Wednesday, said government sources.

Meanwhile, the government said that financial bids for Air India disinvestment has been received and the process to sell the airline to private players is now in the final phase.

"Financial bids for Air India disinvestment received by Transaction Adviser. Process now moves to concluding stage," tweeted Secretary, Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM).

Earlier today, the government has initiated the process of financial bids for the debt-laden national carrier. Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia made it clear that September 15 date for the process is fixed and will not change.

After failing to find any buyer for a 76 per cent stake in Air India in 2018, the government is expected to complete the sale of the national carrier with at least two buyers expected to submit financial bids by September 15.

Earlier, industry sources told ANI that Tata Group, through its holding company, and SpiceJet chairman Ajay Singh his personal capacity, are likely to make its financial bid for the airline.

Air India is laden with a huge debt of around Rs 43,000 crores of which Rs 22,000 crores will also be transferred to the Air India Asset Holding Limited (AIAHL).

"The debt of the airline has now increased to Rs 43,000 crores and all these loans are under government guarantee. And the government will bear this debt before the airline is transferred to the new owners," sources said.

The government declined to share any details on expectations from the sale of Air India.

The Centre is planning to sell a 100 per cent stake in the airline and its low-cost subsidiary Air India Express. And a 50 per cent stake in ground handling company Air India SATS Airport Services Private Limited (AISATS).

Other properties including the Air India building in Mumbai, Airlines House in Delhi will also be part of the deal.

Four acres of land at Connaught Place in Delhi and various housing societies in Delhi, Mumbai and other cities for AI employees and others usage. Air India's subsidiaries such as Air India Engineering Services Limited (AIESL) and Air India Air Transport Services Limited (AITSL) will also be part of AIAHL.

At present, Air India has control over 4,400 domestic and 1,800 international landing and parking slots at domestic airports as well as 900 slots abroad.
KAKINADA/ ANANTAPUR: Chandam Vishnu Vivek of Korukonda village in East Godavari district, who secured first rank in the AP EAPCET-2021 in agriculture and pharmacy discipline, said his aim was to study MBBS in All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). He told this newspaper that he wanted to become a good doctor to render services to the people.

When his parents encouraged him for his education, his teachers moulded him to get ranks in the examinations, he said. He got 10 points in Class X and 985 marks in Bi PC group in Intermediate. He wrote the NEET examination recently and is waiting for results. He studied Class VII to Intermediate in a private school near Rajamahendravaram.

His father Venkateswara Rao is a welder and his mother Lakshmi is homemaker. His brother Bhagyesh Durga Sai is doing MBBS in AIIMS in Bhubaneswar.

Venkateswara Rao said Vishnu had realised how hard he was working to earn money and educate them. Their sons had put in great efforts and his second son could get a rank as the education institute and faculty members fully cooperated with him. Lakshmi expressed her happiness and said their family belonged to the middle class and she frequently told their children to study well for their better future.

Meanwhile, Srinivas Karthikeya of Anantapur who got the second rank in APEAPCET said he was hopeful of getting a medicine seat in NEET examination.

Karthikeya's father Dr Sudhindra is famous chest specialist and his mother Dr Padmaja is working as paediatrician in Anantapur city. Karthikeya studied high school at Sri Chaitanya School in Rudrampet Bypass Road in Anantapur. He studied Intermediate at Sri Chaitanya Junior College in Vijayawada. In addition to NEET and other national level entrance examinations, Karthikeya appeared for AP EAPCET and succeeded to get second rank.

Karthikeya also was selected to get national scholarship under Kishore Vignanic Yojana over his talent in academics.

"I am very much happy about getting second rank in AP EAPCET. But my wish is to do MBBS and specialise to serve as a doctor", Karthikeya told this newspaper. He further added both his parents were role models for him.

Dr. Sudhindra expressed joy over his son achieving the second rank in the state. "We encourage whatever he wishes to study," he said. Dr. Sudhindra family hails from Achampalli village in Madakasira mandal and he is running a nursing home near the railway station.
Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Wednesday said that the state is ready to discuss the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP-2020) and mentioned that a committee has been formed to decide on in for primary and secondary schools in the state.

While offering tribute to M Visvesvaraya on Engineers Day, the CM said, "We are ready to have a discussion on National Education Policy. There are revolutionary changes."

"Committee has been formed as we haven't decided on its implementation for primary and secondary schools," he added.

Earlier this month, Karnataka's Higher Education Minister, C N Ashwatha Narayana had commended the policy and had said that it takes freedom of the student to subject level.

On July 29, 2020, the Union Cabinet approved National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 bringing major reforms in higher education including a target of 50 per cent Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) by 2035 and provision for multiple entry and exits.

NEP 2020 includes imparting vocational education from class 6 onwards, progress card in place of the report card, 5+3+3+4 structure, multidisciplinary education with easy entry/exit options and academic bank of credit.
Every year, lakhs of devotees not only from Hyderabad but from across Telangana visit Hussainsagar to take part in the immersion procession during the 11-day festival. (DC Photo)

HYDERABAD: The state government has moved the Supreme Court challenging the order of the Telangana High Court banning immersion of Ganesha idols made of Plaster of Paris (PoP) in Hussainsagar and other wate rbodies inthe city. It moved a special leave petition (SLP) in the apex court on Tuesday, said animal husbandry minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav after holding a meeting with the Bhagyanagar Ganesh Utsav Samiti (BGUS) and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP).

The meeting decided to challenge the High Court order keeping in view the sentiments of devotees and the problems faced in implementing the ban on immersion of idols made of PoP in Hussainsagar. He hoped that the apex court would give its verdict in favour of the government. However, if the verdict is given in favour of the state government, the apex court should act against revised guidelines of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

Speaking after the meeting, the minister said the government was waiting for the verdict from the Supreme Court and was hoping that it would be positive. He said the decision to approach the apex court challenging the orders of the High Court was taken by Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao after discussing it with the senior bureaucrats and legal experts.

Every year, lakhs of devotees not only from Hyderabad but from across Telangana visit Hussainsagar to take part in the immersion procession during the 11-day festival. The Ganesha Shobha Yatra in Hyderabad has a special identity and hopefully the apex court will give a verdict on SLP on Wednesday, the minister said.

He said that the annual Ganesha festivities and immersion procession (Ganesh Shobha Yatra) were unique to Hyderabad and over the years, the government was keen on conducting this year too by ensuring the safety of devotees and following Covid-19 guidelines.
Reddy gave his nod to appoint special officers in hospitals (From CHCs to teaching hospitals) for maintenance of hospitals and they would be held responsible for building services, facility management services and biomedical waste management services. (DC File Image)

Vijayawada: Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy directed officials of the health department to allot 50 percent beds to Aarogyasri patients in the hospitals to be established in municipal corporations and district headquarters across the state.

The Chief Minister conducted a review meeting on Covid-19 situation, vaccination, health hubs, hospital management and family doctor concept in his camp office at Tadepalli on Tuesday. Reddy instructed the officials to give top priority to the hospitals in health hubs in allotting more beds to Aarogyasri scheme and to concentrate towards providing organ transplantation facilities. The night curfew across the state has been extended from September 16 to the 30.

The Chief Minister said the charges paid under Aarogyasri were better as compared to the charges paid by health insurance companies and added that the hospitals which allotted more beds to Aarogyasri patients should be given priority in health hubs. He said there would be one member from the government in the hospital boards in health hubs.

The intention of doctors to serve in their home state will be fulfilled through health hubs. Constant availability of doctors should be made as a criterion for selection of hospitals for health hubs. Officials should focus on setting up hospitals for organ transplantation in health hubs. Priority should be given to hospitals which run on a non-profit basis. People should not go to other states for medical treatment in future, he said.

Reddy gave his nod to appoint special officers in hospitals (From CHCs to teaching hospitals) for maintenance of hospitals and they would be held responsible for building services, facility management services and biomedical waste management services. He directed the officials to focus on the designs of the proposed hospitals and teaching hospitals to ensure they were in line with the best maintenance practices. He said bed management, bathroom maintenance, hygiene and food quality and reception services were very important in the hospitals and added that medical services will be on par with corporate hospitals with adequate doctors and such services. He said services should not be interrupted due to the absence of staff and instructed the officials to take action on staff who were on leave beyond stipulated days.

The officials briefed the Chief Minister on details regarding the family doctor concept. Policies were made to ensure medical services at least two times a month in each village secretariat through 104 services. They said the family doctors concept would be implemented in 258 mandals from November 15 and would be extended across the state on January 26, 2022.

The Chief Minister directed the officials to use 104 services keeping in view the population as well and added to prepare SOPs and policies for village clinics. He instructed the officials to ensure availability of two doctors in each PHC so that one can be available in PHC while the other can provide services through 104 services under family doctor concept.

Keeping the Covid third wave in view, the officials informed that 20,964 oxygen concentrators and 27,311 D type oxygen cylinders were made available and added that oxygen pipeline works were completed in 108 hospitals. They said the state government was setting up oxygen generation plants in 140 hospitals which had beds more than 50 and they would be completed by October. The officials informed the Chief Minister that 3,50,39,318 people were administered vaccines of which 1,33,30,206 received a single dose while 1,08,54,556 have been administered with two doses.

Deputy Chief Minister Alla Krishna Srinivas, medical and health principal secretary Anil Kumar Singhal, 104 call centre in-charge A Babu, health commissioner Katamaneni Bhaskar, Aarogyasri CEO V. Vinay Chand, APMSIDC VC and MD Muralidhar Reddy, industries director J. V. N. Subramaniam and other officials were present.
VIJAYAWADA: Andhra Pradesh High Court on Wednesday observed that prima facie three all India service officers have been wilfully disobedient in implementing its earlier order to regularise services of sericulture department employees and provide benefits to them.

In this regard, a single judge bench headed by Justice Battu Devanand directed serving of a non-bailable warrant against senior IAS officer Poonam Malakondaiah for failing to appear before the court despite instructions to do so. However, the government pleader informed that her absence had been intimated to the court. The judge said as the same has not been filed, the court considers her absence as being without prior intimation.

Another senior IAS officer S.S. Rawat and a senior IFS officer Chiranjeevi Chowdary had been present in the court during the hearing.

A few employees of sericulture department had moved the High Court seeking that it direct the state government to regularise their services and provide benefits due to them. When the court passed an order to this effect but the employees were still not regularised, they moved the court again with contempt of court proceedings saying the courts order to regularise their services has not been implemented.

The court posted the next hearing on the matter to September 29.

HC orders Chief Secretary to appear before it

Andhra Pradesh High Court on Wednesday directed Chief Secretary Aditya Nath Das to appear before it in person for hearing a case related to delay in clearing bills for works taken up under MGNREGS in the next hearing on September 24.

A single judge bench headed by Justice Battu Devanand issued the directive while hearing a batch of petitions on delay in clearing bills for job works done under MGNREGS.

Justice Devanand observed that as both central and state governments are giving different versions over non-clearance of bills, the Chief Secretary should be present during the next hearing.
The AP government has issued orders for dismantling of school buildings that are in dilapidated conditions. (DC file photo)

VIJAYAWADA: The AP government has issued orders for dismantling of school buildings that are in dilapidated conditions. This is in response to the news titled Dilapidated school buildings turn risky, published in Deccan Chronicle on Monday. The government issued an order, GO-MS61 to this effect on Wednesday.

The government has asked officials to initiate steps with utmost care for demolishing dilapidated buildings after inspections are done by committees of parents and officials of the education and other departments.

Principal secretary Rajasekhar said the director of school education had stated that certain schools required dismantling of their old and dilapidated buildings.

A committee shall be constituted with chairperson and vice-chairperson of the parents committee, the HM, the engineering assistant/ward amenities secretary, mandal engineer of the executing agency and the MEO with the HM as its convener for each such school.

In case of government junior colleges, the committee shall be constituted as per the circular issued by the commissioner for intermediate education or by the government.

The committee shall identify the classroom/block/and other structure in the school/college campus under dilapidated condition and after a thorough examination it shall make a resolution for dismantling the building/ structure in dilapidated condition and submit the same to EE of the implementing agency, meaning the engineering department, including the AP education welfare infrastructure development corporation (APEWIDC) or any public sector corporation which is executing the infrastructure development programme through the Mandal engineer.

The EE along with DEE shall, after a thorough scrutiny of the soundness of the structure and finding it is not repairable, may issue a certificate favouring dismantling without any influence being exercised on the ED by the committee members.

Based on the certification of the ED, the DEO shall submit the proposal to the government and take the approval from the district collector for the dismantling. While doing this, necessary precautionary steps shall be taken to safeguard public life and property.
HYDERABAD: State government employees who are natives of Andhra Pradesh and working in Telangana, especially in Hyderabad, are not willing to shift to Andhra Pradesh despite Telangana government coming forward to issue NOC (no objection certificate) for the purpose, according to Telangana employees associations.

Employees of Andhra Pradesh nativity who were allotted to Telangana after the bifurcation of state in 2014 had sought inter-state transfers several times earlier but the Telangana government did not issue NOC then due to staff crunch in various departments.

However, the Telangana government issued a circular on September 9 seeking applications from AP native employees who want to shift to their native state in the wake of Telangana government planning to issue job notifications soon to fill over 50,000 vacancies.

But there has been not much response from AP employees for the Telangana government's offer, say representatives of employees associations. The higher pay scales and 61-year retirement age being implemented by the Telangana government from March 2021 when compared with AP are cited as reasons for the poor response.

Prior to March 2021, the retirement age in Telangana was 58 years while in AP it was 60 years. However, the Telangana government increased retirement age by three years to 61 years in March this year, which is a year more than in AP.

Moreover, the Telangana government extended new PRC pay scales giving 30 per cent fitment (hike on basic pay) from April 2021 while the AP government is yet to implement new PRC and only extending interim relief of 27 percent fitment, which is lower than Telangana.

The AP-native employees were asked to submit applications to their HoDs by October 15. The HoDs have to recommend all such applications to the Telangana government. The secretaries of respective departments have to issue NOC to the AP government.

On receipt of the acceptance/consent from the AP government, the employees should be relieved by the HoDs concerned. Once relieved, the transfer will be permanent and the employee shall not be taken back under any circumstances, says the circular issued by the Telangana government.

Telangana Udyogula Sangham leader A. Padma Chary said, "There are nearly 3,500 AP-native employees who are working in Telangana in various departments. Majority of them work in school education department as teachers. There is not much response from them to shift to AP considering that Telangana has higher pay scales and retirement age than AP being implemented from March/April this year. The situation would have been different had the Telangana government provided this opportunity earlier soon after bifurcation of the state."

He said there were around 350 employees who were Telangana natives working in AP at present and were seeking transfer to Telangana but AP government was yet to allow inter-state transfers.
People wearing masks wait to get vaccinated for COVID-19 outside a school in Kochi, Kerala. (Photo: AP)

New Delhi: India produced the largest amount of social media misinformation on COVID-19 due to the country's higher internet penetration rate, increasing social media consumption and users' lack of internet literacy, according to a new study.

The study, 'Prevalence and Source Analysis of COVID-19 Misinformation in 138 Countries', was published in Sage's International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions journal.

The study analysed 9,657 pieces of misinformation that originated in 138 countries. They were fact-checked by 94 organisations to understand the prevalence and sources of misinformation in different countries.

"Of all the countries, India (18.07 per cent) produced the largest amount of social media misinformation, perhaps thanks to the country's higher internet penetration rate, increasing social media consumption and users' lack of internet literacy," the study said.

Also, the results also showed that India (15.94 per cent), the US (9.74 per cent), Brazil (8.57 per cent) and Spain (8.03 per cent) are the four most misinformation-affected countries.

Based on the results, the study said, it is presumed that the prevalence of COVID-19 misinformation can have a positive association with the pandemic situation.

"Social media (84.94 per cent) produces the largest amount of misinformation, and the internet (90.5 per cent) as a whole is responsible for most of the COVID-19 misinformation. Moreover, Facebook alone produces 66.87 per cent of the misinformation among all social media platforms," it stated.

Earlier, the World Health Organisation had also warned that false information on COVID-19 is spreading and putting people in danger.

The WHO had urged people to make sure to double-check everything they hear with trusted sources.
KTR was addressing an event organised to mark the delivery of 150th C-130J Super Hercules empennage from the Hyderabad manufacturing facility of Tata Lockheed Martin Aerostructures Ltd (TLMAL) on Wednesday. (Photo: Twitter @MinisterKTR)

HYDERABAD: Industries Minister K. T. Rama Rao said the state government was planning to establish a Drone Testing Corridor soon to support the booming drone industry.

Rao was addressing an event organised to mark the delivery of 150th C-130J Super Hercules empennage from the Hyderabad manufacturing facility of Tata Lockheed Martin Aerostructures Ltd (TLMAL) on Wednesday.

The TLMAL, a joint venture of Tata Advanced Systems Limited (TASL) and Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, was established in 2010 in alignment with the Indian Air Forces acquisition of its first six C-130J 30 Super Hercules airlifters.

Rao said the two joint ventures by TASL and Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, in Hyderabad employed more than 1,000 people and invested more than 100 million dollars. "It is an honour that Hyderabad has been home for C-130J flights. More than 85 per cent of C-130J are currently being manufactured in Hyderabad. More than 300 suppliers, vendors and partners are growing under Make in India programme," he added.

Rao said Telangana was emerging as an aero-engine cluster, with numerous foreign and domestic industry majors setting up their units in Hyderabad. "Telangana was the first state in India to come up with its own drone policy and had become the first state to deliver life-saving drugs and vaccines to remote parts of the state through its unique project Medicine from the Sky (MFS) recently," Rama Rao said.

Hyderabad also had a significant space sector cluster as part of ISRO programmes as over 30 percent of components of Mars Orbiter Mission were manufactured by Hyderabad-based companies, he noted.

Rama Rao said the aerospace and defence sector was witnessing a steady and unprecedented growth in Telangana over the last five years. He stated that Telangana had been able to secure mega investments from leading foreign and domestic aerospace majors, through its progressive policies, world-class infrastructure, proactive skilling initiatives and focus on innovation.

He stated that the Telangana government's focus area was innovation in the aerospace and defence sector adding that the state government had been in discussion with DRDO and several other labs. Rao urged the industry to work closely with the state government in order to partner and come up with a strong defence/aerospace incubator that would focus on start-ups.
Association leaders said they took up the issue to the notice of then opposition leader Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy, who raised the matter in the assembly.  Twitter

VIJAYAWADA: Candidates, who qualified in the DSC conducted in 1998, have appealed to Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy that he render justice by appointing them as teachers.

Speaking to media here on Tuesday, Association of 1998 DSC Qualified Candidates leaders G. Mohan Rao, M. Pitchaiah and Sk. Khasim Peeran underlined that though they had passed the DSC test, the selection process was suspended following anomalies in the interview process.

Association leaders said they took up the issue to the notice of then opposition leader Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy, who raised the matter in the assembly. After Rajasekhar Reddy became CM, he asked the 1998 DSC qualified candidates to join as Vidya Volunteers, promising to regularise their services as special teachers. Unfortunately, Rajasekhar Reddy died in a helicopter crash and their issue has remained pending ever since.

Mohan Rao, Pitchaiah and Khasim said they had brought their issue to notice of Telugu Desam government in 2014, which appointed a committee to resolve the issue. They claimed the committee recommended that jobs be allotted to 1998 DSC qualified candidates. But the same has not materialised even though it is 2021 now.

Association leaders said they recently met government advisor (public affairs) Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy who assured justice. Under the circumstances, they urged CM Jagan to consider their issue on humanitarian grounds and offer them jobs.
The honourable High Court should consider this immersion and allow us to do it in Hussainsagar. We have been working hard for two months while this idol was being shaped up and we have faith in the government and the courts that they will consider and allow us to immerse the idol in Hussainsagar.  Representational image/DC

HYDERABAD: The Khairatabad Ganesh Utsav Committee (KGUC) is keen on immersing the idol in Hussainsagar from the Tank Bund, as it is just a few yards away from their pandal, keeping in mind that the idol was designed in such a way that it will be shifted in a tusker-motor for immersion, according to the committee members. The relocation of immersion to any other water body other than Hussainsagar would not be possible technically, they insisted.

KGUC vice president M. Mahesh Yadav said, On Sunday, when minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav visited the Ganesh mandap, we made an appeal to him regarding the restrictions on immersion in Hussainsagar. The minister assured us that the government will file a review petition, and will see to it that the immersion is allowed in the lake in a legal way.

Dolumala Rahul, one of the organisers, said, The honourable High Court should consider this immersion and allow us to do it in Hussainsagar. We have been working hard for two months while this idol was being shaped up and we have faith in the government and the courts that they will consider and allow us to immerse the idol in Hussainsagar.

Khairatabad Ganesh, which has been worshipped for the past 67 years, is one of the tallest idols and lakhs of devotees turn up to worship the lord here. This year the height of the idol is 40 feet.
Sources disclosed to Deccan Chronicle that hundreds of youth in villages of Khammam have been recruited to collect rice from individual beneficiaries at the rate of Rs 5 to Rs 8 per kilo. Representatonal Image. (PTI)

Kakinada: While smuggling of public distribution system (PDS) rice by millers and PDS dealers had once been common, it has now got curbed to a large extent by introduction of biometric system at PDS outlets.

However, smuggling of rice being supplied to poor among people has now been taken over by politically backed individuals. Their mafia have formed illegal networks through which they procure hundreds of tonnes of ration rice from beneficiaries belonging to each and every ward and colony of Khammam and neighbouring mandals. PDS rice thus collected is being stored in small sheds amid fields particularly in Madhira, Vemsoor, Sattupalli, Kallur and Penuballi mandals, which border Andhra Pradesh.

From here, this PDS rice gets transported to neighbouring AP with police and staff at border check posts turning a blind eye. The same rice is even exported abroad, including Africa, through the Kakinada port.

Sources disclosed to Deccan Chronicle that hundreds of youth in villages of Khammam have been recruited to collect rice from individual beneficiaries at the rate of Rs 5 to Rs 8 per kilo. Using two-wheelers, these youth transport the rice thus collected to sheds located amidst fields along the AP-Telangana border. Once 15-20 tonnes of rice get accumulated, the consignment is transported in trucks to AP. It is suspected that these trucks pass through Chintalapudi in West Godavari district.

N. Appa Rao, a social activist from Nagulavancha in Chintakani mandal, said, No police or vigilance officials can object to shifting of rice on two-wheelers. I myself have noticed tens of people transporting PDS rice on two-wheelers.

According to an estimate, around 10 politically connected people and musclemen are involved in transporting rice illegally from Khammam town. Another 25 smugglers are stationed in various mandals. Whenever the quantity touches a lorry load, these people transport the rice to Kakinada, where exporters buy the rice for around Rs 20 per kg. A syndicate of these exporters pays lakhs of rupees to silence police and officials in their area. Exporters ship the rice abroad, particularly to African countries, where it is sold for approximately Rs 30 a kg.

Sources said two ships with a capacity of 2,000 tonnes transport the rice abroad from Kakinada every month.

Nearly 1.79 lakh quintals of PDS rice is being distributed to 4.16 ration cardholders in Khammam district. Ten percent of it is reportedly being smuggled to Kakinada. Telangana Rice Millers Association vice-president Bomma Rajeswara Rao said, It is a fact that dons have now entered the illegal rice business. A few rice millers too are involved in this racket, he confessed.
The latest fight erupted and became public after Congress Legislative Party (CLP) leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka attended a meeting with Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao and three other MLAs. (DC File Image)

Hyderabad: At a time when the ruling TRS is trying to consolidate its political clout ahead of the Huzurabad byelection, and the BJP is working to build a strong support base to emerge as the principal alternative capable of dislodging the ruling party, the Congress is back to its favourite game  serious infighting and one-upmanship between top leaders.

Barely two months since A Revanth Reddy was made president of the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC), all pretended bonhomie has ended. While the new PCC chief and Lok Sabha MP was successful in energising the cadre with a series of Dandoras, the change in leadership did not lead to an alignment of leaders toward a common purpose.

The latest fight erupted and became public after Congress Legislative Party (CLP) leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka attended a meeting with Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao and three other MLAs, whose reserved Assembly (Dalit) constituencies had been selected for an extended beta implementation of the Dalit Bandhu scheme.

After scathing media reports appeared, the party scuttlebutt went into overdrive over the comments of Bhatti praising the arch foe, alleging that the CLP leader called Dalit Bandhu one of the best welfare schemes in the world. He also thanked the chief minister for choosing his and a few other constituencies for the schemes implementation.

At a time when, for the first time in seven years, Congress under the leadership of Revanth Reddy is leading a serious fight against the betrayal, lies, corruption and family rule of KCR, coverts in our own party are singing in praise of the TRS schemes, a leader in the camp of the new PCC chief alleged.

We launched the fight against the inadequacies and flaws in the politically-motivated scheme of KCR aimed at getting Dalit votes in the Huzurabad byelection on the sacred day of August 9, marking the anniversary of Quit India. The programme has been very successful and has scared the government. But here was our own CLP leader giving the government a clean chit a few days before the visit of our senior national leader Mallikarjun Kharge. How will it appear when he (Kharge) criticises the scheme, she asked.

A rival camp leader refuted the charges strongly. Ever since Revanth Reddy took charge, instead of taking senior leaders along, he has been trying to defame them and get them to leave the party. He came from outside and is trying to destabilise the political future of those who have committed their entire lives to the party.

Bhatti himself addressed a press meet to refute the false allegations, which he said were aimed at destroying his reputation and career. Some people dont want me to be in the Congress. I was born in this party. It is in my DNA. I cant help if some people dont like me and want me out. My life is dedicated to the party and to our senior leaders Madam Sonia Gandhi and former president Rahul Gandhi.

Another leader said Bhatti had taken permission after receiving an invite from the CMO to attend the meet, from the AICC, and had even attended a virtual meeting of MPs and MLAs to explain his reasons for attending the event.

As a senior leader and one of Telanganas most-respected Dalit leaders, Bhatti went on to explain the flaws in the programme and sought details like when will all the Dalit families get the benefit, besides demanding its extension to other vulnerable communities, including the tribals, OBCs and minorities, the leader countered.

It is in the history of national political parties, of leaders becoming coverts for regional parties and weakening those parties. This is the feature of both the Congress and the BJP. KCR, like Chandrababu Naidu, is a master at playing this game. Getting co-opted begets several benefits, political and otherwise, he argued. In this context, he named several leaders of both national parties, whom he dubbed as the reasons why the national parties became or remained weak, even as Naidu and Chandrasekhar Rao emerged stronger.

Other leaders blame Revanth Reddy and the partys national in-charge nominee Manickam Tagore for playing the take no prisoners politics. They want not just to lead the party but to own it completely. This is a classic playing out of the Camel and the Arab story, a leader retorted angrily.

However, several leaders backed the duo, saying, Revanth has the perfect Telangana DNA, a rustic mass leader with a strong role in the separate statehood movement. He does not compromise with his stands and is committed to fighting KCR and leading the Congress party to victory.

Paraphrasing a popular movie dialogue, a leader added, These incompetent seniors who could not defeat the TRS must realise that the people are looking not for anyone but for someone who has the courage in him to pump the bullet into the enemys heart.

While the political war will drag, both TRS and BJP will be happy that the Congress is busy fighting  fighting itself.
People are observing the misdeeds of the TRS government and its anti-people policies. They are ready to take revenge against the TRS government and will defeat the party in the Huzurabad bypoll, he claimed.  DC Image

Karimnagar: BJP leader Etala Rajendar has asked Chief Minister Chandrashekar Rao as to who he is afraid of, and why September 17 is not celebrated as Liberation Day in Telangana  the day in 1948 when the Indian Army liberated Hyderabad from the then ruler Nizam and incorporated it to the Indian nation.

Telangana is the only region in the world that is not celebrating its liberation day because Chandrashekar Rao is not keen on doing this, he said.

The former health minister who fell out with KCR recently was speaking at a meeting of BJP mandal leaders at Jammikunta of Huzurabad constituency on Tuesday.

He said Maharashtra and Karnataka that were part of the Nizams kingdom along with Telangana region were celebrating the day on a grand scale every year. During the separate Telangana movement, when the state government did not celebrate September 17 as Telangana Liberation Day, TRS leaders used to hoist flags at TRS party offices, he pointed out.

"The leaders of the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) are showing the gumption to attack the BJP government that has as high as 303 MPs and in power in 18 states. The TRS is going to soon realise what mistake it did by going against the BJP government, he said.

People are observing the misdeeds of the TRS government and its anti-people policies. They are ready to take revenge against the TRS government and will defeat the party in the Huzurabad bypoll, he claimed.

Dont think that the people of Huzurabad are quiet and are afraid of the TRS leaders. They are waiting for the issue of election notification. They will chart a new path for the entire Telangana by giving a fitting reply to all the wrong-doings of the TRS party in Huzurabad, he said.

Etala appealed to BJP leaders to participate in large numbers in the meeting at Nirmal on September 17, which would be attended by Union home minister Amit Shah.

Former MLA Dharma Rao, BJP Jammikunta mandal president Sampath, Gandra Nalini and district vice president Sampath Rao were among those present at the meet.
HYDERABAD: Demanding a detailed probe into the alleged massive-scale corruption of Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao and his family members, Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president and Lok Sabha MP A. Revanth Reddy on Wednesday said he was ready to handover evidence of corruption and irregularities in the construction of power projects, PPAs, irrigation projects, grant of mining lease and land dealings of the Kavakuntla family to Union home minister Amit Shah, if he gives us an appointment.

Revanth Reddy also demanded the formation of a Central Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe into the activities of the drugs mafia in Telangana.

To press for the demand for a probe into the alleged corruption of CM KCR and his family members, the Congress party has sought an appointment with Union home minister Amit Shah during his visit to Telangana on September 17.

Mr Reddy said that while state BJP leaders, including Union minister G. Kishan Reddy, State BJP president Bandi Sanjay and others often claim that BJP-led Central government would send KCR to jail for corruption, their statements had so far been proven to be just hollow threats.

A ten-member delegation of the Congress party comprising of MPs Revanth Reddy, N. Uttam Kumar Reddy and Komatireddy Venkatreddy, CLP leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, MLC T. Jeevan Reddy, MLAs T. Jayaprakash Jagga Reddy, D. Sridhar Babu, Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy, P. Veeraiah and Seethakka plan to meet Home Minister Shah during his visit to Telangana on September 16 - 17.

Revanth Reddy said that Union home minister would also be reminded about the pending cases against CM Rao in the ESI Hospital and Sahara scams. He hoped Amit Shah would give an appointment to the Congress delegation.

He said that the Congress party has given several complaints to the Centre, along with preliminary evidence, against CM Chandrashekar Raos corrupt practices. However, the BJP government at the Centre had never initiated any action or even ordered a probe.

Revanth Reddy said the TRS governments negligence in preventing the rise in consumption of liquor, ganja and other drugs was primarily responsible for the increase in crime rate in Hyderabad, especially in heinous crimes.

Addressing a press conference at Gandhi Bhavan, Revanth Reddy said that a Central SIT, comprising officials from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Union and state home departments, Prohibition and Excise department of Telangana and other related agencies must probe into the drugs case.

He demanded that such a Central SIT should conduct a detailed probe in a time-bound manner under the supervision of the High Court.

Revanth claimed that liquor consumption has almost tripled since the formation of Telangana, while the consumption of ganja and other drugs has become common among youth, including college students. He said most crimes like the rape and murder cases in Warangal, Bhongir, Shadnagar and now Singareni Colony, according to police, were committed under the influence of liquor and drugs. As per the National Crimes Bureau, crimes against women have increased after the formation of Telangana, especially due to rise in consumption of liquor and drugs.

He said that if the SIT was reluctant to place information in the public domain, then it should give all such details in a sealed cover to the court. He alleged that CM Rao was trying to shield those involved in the drug mafia. He said some TRS leaders were named in drugs cases that surfaced in Bengaluru and Goa.
So, while the elevation of a Rajya Sabha cadre officer to the top post is a historic step, the government could do well to clarify doubts about the length of his tenure. (RSTV/PTI Photo)

Parasaram P.K. Ramacharyulu is the first officer of the Rajya Sabha cadre to be appointed as the Secretary-General of the upper house of Parliament. He succeeds Deepak Verma, who was an IAS officer as were those that preceded them.

This is good news for the RS cadre officers for they had long resigned themselves to be led by the mighty heaven-born. But curiously Mr Ramacharyulus appointment letter does not define his tenure. This appointment notification issued by the office of the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha states that the appointment is on a contractual basis until further orders, leaving it open-ended. Babus are wondering whether this implies that Ramacharyulu will continue in the post so long as Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu remains the chairman of the Rajya Sabha? Or is the Modi sarkar trying to wrest another post from the tight clutches of the IAS?

DKB has learnt that Ramacharyulus candidature was helped immensely by the backing of the Vice-President who, reportedly, refused to consider any other person for the post. Apparently, some in the government were keen to retain Desh Deepak for another term, but Naidu managed to prevail.

So while the elevation of a Rajya Sabha cadre officer to the top post is a historic step, the government could do well to clarify doubts about the length of his tenure.

HUDCOs endless wait for a CMD

HUDCO, the premier government housing financing corporation, has been without a regular chairman and managing director since September 2019, when Dr M. Ravi Kanth resigned from the IAS after an extended tenure. Strangely, the government has been content with temporary CMDs by appointing assorted IAS officers from the ministry of housing and urban affairs, which controls HUDCO.

Three ad hoc CMDs were appointed to keep the corporation ticking but this cannot be mistaken for steering it past the many challenges that it faces. They included the corporations director for corporate planning, M. Nagaraj, and Shiv Das Meena and Kamran Rizvi, both additional secretaries at the ministry.

The governments inability to fill the position has, not surprisingly, given rise to rumours and conspiracy theories with some babus convinced that the babus in the ministry are deliberately delaying the appointment, although no one is willing to stick their neck out and go beyond the speculation.

Sources say that the leaderless corporation has performed poorly in the past year despite its IPO having been oversubscribed by 80 times, certainly a first for a public sector company. It is widely believed that it could have built on investor confidence but has chosen to forego its gains for reasons no one seems to know.

Hunt on for new ED chief

A belief is gaining ground within some babu circles in Dilli that the successor to outgoing chief of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) S.K. Mishra will not be an IAS officer but someone from the Indian Revenue Service (IRS) or even the Indian Police Service (IPS). But, as we have come to know, decisions on such key appointments are usually made by the PMO+1, and that combo may spring a surprise. So watch this space for updates.

S.K. Mishra is slated to retire in mid-November and, for once, the government has not left the appointment until the last minute and is visibly and actively scouting for his replacement. Some names are already being talked about as likely contenders for the top post in ED. Among them is senior IRS officer Seemanchal Das, for whom, it is pointed out that a post of principal special director was created within ED, courtesy of the then finance minister Arun Jaitley. He is said to enjoy the confidence of those who matter in the government.

But there are others, too, in the fray including Praveen Sinha, a 1988-batch Gujarat cadre IPS officer and currently special director in CBI. He briefly officiated as CBI chief. S.M. Sahai of the UT (formerly of J&K) cadre is also said to be a frontrunner.

Another IRS officer Balesh Kumar is now said to be out of the running since he has been appointed as a member of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs, but his hat may still be in the ring, observers note.
In a big reform for the telecom sector, the Centre Wednesday allowed 100% foreign direct investment (FDI) through automatic route in place of 49% at present. The rule will, however, not apply to countries that share a land border with India.

Countries that share a border with India include Pakistan, Bangladesh, China, Nepal, Myanmar and Bhutan. The government had imposed regulations on foreign direct investments originating from countries that share a land border with India to thwart any hostile takeover of domestic businesses in April 2020.

The government also approved a four-year moratorium on payment of statutory dues by telecom companies, a move that comes as a relief to ailing telecom operators like Vodafone Idea that have to pay thousands of crores of rupees of the past statutory dues.

Along with that, the government also rationalised the definition of adjusted gross revenue (AGR) by excluding non-telecom revenues of telecom firms. The AGR issue was the major reason for stress in the telecom sector.

Read: Centre approves Rs 26,058 cr PLI scheme for auto, drone sectors

Telecom shares jumped up to 5% after the relief package was approved. Bharti Airtel jumped 4.53% and Vodafone Idea rose 2.76% on the BSE. Shares of Tata Communications gained 1.38%.

Briefing reporters on the Cabinet decision, Telcom minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said these measures are expected to ease the cash flow issues being faced by some players in the industry.

He said the moratorium will facilitate capital investment cycle and de-stress the balance sheet of the telecom sector. It will also infuse healthy competition in the sector.

The reforms are expected to boost proliferation and penetration of broadband and telecom connectivity, the minister said after a huge surge in data consumption, online education, work from home, interpersonal connect through social media, virtual meetings amid the Covid pandemic.

The package is also expected to boost 4G proliferation, infuse liquidity and create an enabling environment for investment in 5G networks.

In another major decision, a telecom firm can hold spectrum for 30 years instead of the current 20. Spectrum can also be surrendered after 10 years in case of any technology change.

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Ride-hailing platform Uber on Wednesday announced the launch of Uber Corporate Shuttle to enable companies to help employees get to and from work, safely and affordably amid the pandemic.

The service will be available across Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Mumbai, and Bengaluru, a statement said.

Uber Corporate Shuttle is a customised commute service for companies, offering seating capacity for anywhere between 10-50 employees in a single-vehicle, it added.

Using Uber's core technology to ensure a reliable, safe, and cost-effective ride, the service helps companies deliver on their sustainability goals by helping decongest cities, reduce pollution and free up office parking spaces.

"This is the first product from Uber's High Capacity Vehicles programme to be launched in India which has been specifically developed keeping in mind the unique challenges faced by office-goers in India and other emerging markets," it said.

Also read: Uber drivers are employees, not contractors, says Dutch court

A significant share of the work related to the technology and product build-out for Uber Corporate Shuttle is being led by Uber's technology team based out of Bengaluru.

Launched in 2014, the Uber for Business platform brings Uber's innovations and solutions organisations globally at scale. It has helped unlock employee productivity and elevated customer experiences for more than 1.5 lakh organisations around the world.

At Uber, we are focussed on meeting the changing needs of our customers. Uber Corporate Shuttle helps companies put their employees first. They get to and from work safely, without the stress of traffic jams, the expense of parking, and car maintenance," Uber for Business Head India and South Asia Abhinav Mittoo said.

He added that by making it easy for employees to give up their cars, the new service can reduce congestion, pollution, and emissions in cities.
Microsoft Corp on Tuesday said it will conduct an up to $60 billion share buyback program, raise its quarterly dividend by 11%, and appoint company President Brad Smith as vice chair.

Microsoft said the buyback program has no expiration date and may be terminated at any time, and that it would pay a dividend of $0.62 per share - 6 cents over the previous quarter.

Also read: Infosys completes buyback of 5.58 crore shares worth Rs 9,200 crore

The US technology giant also called the vice chair position an updated executive role for Smith, who currently leads a team of over 1,500 staff in 54 countries, according to his biography on Microsoft's website.

Smith joined Microsoft in 1993 from law firm Covington & Burling to run corporate and legal affairs operations in Europe. He became general counsel in 2002 and, over the next decade, handled the resolution of antitrust cases, the biography showed.

Smith will continue to report to Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella, Microsoft said.

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Hundreds of students and activists were baton-charged by police on Tuesday morning when they tried to enter the Vidhana Soudha to protest the National Education Policy (NEP).

Several protesters suffered injuries, including head wounds and fractures, and had to be hospitalised. More than 50 were detained by police but released in the evening.

Police justified the crackdown, saying the protest was illegal as the organisers hadnt taken permission beforehand and also cited the prohibitory orders for the ongoing legislative session.

The protesters  numbering nearly 400  had arrived from Tumakuru, Mysuru, Davangere, Mangaluru,Kalaburagi, Bidar and other parts of Karnataka under the banner of Campus Front of India. They held a demonstration near Mysore Bank Circle, calling the NEP an RSS conspiracy, before marching towards the seat of power.

Police, however, stopped them midway and asked them to disperse, citing prohibitory orders in force within a two-kilometre radius of the Vidhana Soudha. The students didnt pay heed and tried to march on by slamming down the police barricades. Police then beat them with lathis, triggering a commotion.

At least one student was seen bleeding from the head while a few others suffered minor fractures, according to the organisers.

What police say

M N Anucheth, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central), justified the baton-charge, saying the protesters had defied the prohibitory orders promulgated under IPC section 188.

About 300-400 students tried to march into the building by damaging the barricades. We had to baton-charge them to control the situation, he said, adding that the protesters didnt have prior permission.

While police promised to register a case against the organisers for defying the prohibitory orders and Covid rules, an officer from the jurisdictional Halasuru Gate police station confirmed late on Tuesday night that no FIR had been registered as yet.

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Known for speaking his mind, actor Naseeruddin Shah says he understands why the Khans of Bollywood don't voice their opinion but he supposes he can because he doesnt have that much to lose.

The Ankur and Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron star added that he wished the Khans, who have been at the top for 20-30 years, had "more confidence in their own abilities.

"How much will they lose? They will lose an endorsement or two. It's not that it's the harassment they will be subjected to. They find it difficult to take. And the fact that Aamir (Khan) and Shah Rukh (Khan) withdrew completely into a shell after making one harmless statement respectively illustrates this. I suppose I can speak because I don't have much to lose," Shah told India Today in an interview aired on Tuesday night.

The actor said the film industry has the power to stay independent and wished they had enough courage to do so.

"But they are giving in because their interests are too large and too varied and they have too much to lose and they're easy targets.

Shah, known for his forthrightness, also warned against rising right-wing fanaticism". He clarified that his comments about a section of Indian Muslims celebrating the rise of the Taliban were misconstrued by the community.

Also read: Govt encouraging filmmakers to make propaganda films, says Naseeruddin Shah: Report

"Maybe I made a mistake by not speaking clearly enough and clarifying that I didn't mean the entire Muslim community, which is how it is being interpreted by interested parties... The Muslims have taken offence to it. The Hindus are celebrating it. Neither of this was my intention." the actor told India Today.

Shah, whose video earlier this month articulating his views on the Taliban and Indian Muslims was circulated widely, has been giving a series of interviews in the last few days to clarify his comments and also voice his concerns on fundamentalism in the world and in India.

Considered to be a pillar of the quality cinema movement in the industry and among Indias most talented actors, he said in another interview that he is worried about hate messages and statements advocating violence against the Muslim community but does not believe India is heading towards Talibanisation.

The actor said he was surprised to be embraced by the right-wing for his statement which was misunderstood by the Muslim community.

"... I do not believe that we are heading towards Talibanisation but what's happening is pretty much worrying where you openly have statements and lectures advocating violence against the Muslim community when you have hate messages being passed on the internet and on social media.

"But despite all that, I'm still not pessimistic about the future and I don't believe that we will end up going the way of the Taliban," he told Barkha Dutt's Mojo Story.

The veteran actor was scathing about Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanaths 'Abba Jaan' comment at a public speech earlier this week -- that rations meant for the poor were gobbled up by those who say "Abba Jaan" before his government came to power.

Also read: Kerala: The Church and Hindutva entente?

Not all Muslims call their fathers 'Abba Jaan', he responded as the remark emerged centre of a polarising debate.

"I didn't call my father Abba Jaan. I called him baba, and so did my Hindu wife, who called her father baba. So this person is what he is, there's no point even reacting to him. But the fact is his 'Abba Jaan statement' is a continuation of the hate statements he has been spewing all along," he said in his India Today interview.

Shah also spoke on a Kerala priests controversial remarks on narcotics jihad.

"When we have absurd statements like love jihad and now 'narcotics jihad' being made by a priest... I don't know under whose influence he said things like that. But this is meant to alienate... or the 'abba jaan' statement made by the chief minister of UP recently which is beneath contempt, which is not even worth reacting to."

Asked what he had to say to Hindus who patted him on the back for warning the Muslim community against the Taliban, Shah said more Hindus should speak against rising right-wing fanaticism in India.

Some moderate Hindus, this time, have spoken against it because it's really going a little too far."

Except for the occasional hate message on Facebook, which he had to get to get rid of the fake accounts, Shah said he has not been a target but he worries about the future of his children. If they are confronted by a mob, they won't have an answer about which religion they belong to as they had no such teachings, he added.

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The war in Afghanistan wasnt a failure. It was a massive success  for those who made a fortune off it.

Consider the case of Hikmatullah Shadman, who was just a teenager when American Special Forces rolled into Kandahar on the heels of Sept. 11. They hired him as an interpreter, paying him up to $1,500 a month  20 times the salary of a local police officer, according to a profile of him in The New Yorker. By his late 20s, he owned a trucking company that supplied US military bases, earning him more than $160 million.

If a small fry like Shadman could get so rich off the war on terror, imagine how much Gul Agha Sherzai, a big-time warlord-turned-governor, has raked in since he helped the CIA run the Taliban out of town. His large extended family supplied everything from gravel to furniture to the military base in Kandahar. His brother controlled the airport. Nobody knows how much he is worth, but it is clearly hundreds of millions  enough for him to talk about a $40,000 shopping spree in Germany as if he were spending pocket change.

Look under the hood of the good war, and this is what you see. Afghanistan was supposed to be an honorable war to neutralize terrorists and rescue girls from the Taliban. It was supposed to be a war that we woulda coulda shoulda won, had it not been for the distraction of Iraq and the hopeless corruption of the Afghan government. But lets get real. Corruption wasnt a design flaw in the war. It was a design feature. We didnt topple the Taliban. We paid warlords bags of cash to do it.

As the nation-building project got underway, those warlords were transformed into governors, generals and members of Parliament, and the cash payments kept flowing.

Westerners often scratched their heads at the persistent lack of capacity in Afghan governing institutions, Sarah Chayes, a former special assistant to US military leaders in Kandahar, wrote recently in Foreign Affairs. But the sophisticated networks controlling those institutions never intended to govern. Their objective was self-enrichment. And at that task, they proved spectacularly successful.

Instead of a nation, what we really built were more than 500 military bases  and the personal fortunes of the people who supplied them. That had always been the deal. In April 2002, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld dictated a top-secret memo ordering aides to come up with a plan for how we are going to deal with each of these warlords  who is going to get money from whom, on what basis, in exchange for what, what is the quid pro quo, etc., according to The Washington Post.

The war proved enormously lucrative for many Americans and Europeans, too. One 2008 study estimated that some 40% of the money allocated to Afghanistan went back to donor countries in corporate profits and consultant salaries. Only about 12% of US reconstruction assistance given to Afghanistan between 2002 and 2021 actually went to the Afghan government. Much of the rest went to companies like the Louis Berger Group, a New Jersey-based construction firm that got a $1.4 billion contract to build schools, clinics and roads. Even after it got caught bribing officials and systematically overbilling taxpayers, the contracts kept coming.

Its a bugbear of mine that Afghan corruption is so frequently cited as an explanation (as well as an excuse) for Western failure in Afghanistan, Jonathan Goodhand, a professor in conflict and development studies at SOAS University of London, wrote me in an email. Americans point the finger at Afghans, whilst ignoring their role in both fueling and benefiting from the patronage pump.

Who won the war on terror? American defense contractors, many of which were politically connected companies that had donated to George W. Bushs presidential campaign, according to the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit that has been tracking spending in a series of reports called the Windfalls of War. One firm hired to help advise Iraqi ministries had a single employee: the husband of a deputy assistant secretary of defense.

For Bush and his friends, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan achieved a great deal. He got a chance to play a tough guy on TV. He became a wartime president, which helped him win reelection. By the time people figured out that the war in Iraq had been waged on false pretenses and the war in Afghanistan had no honorable exit plan, it was too late.

Also read: Blinken says US probing if Afghan strike killed aid worker

What stands out about the war in Afghanistan is the way that it <em>became</em> the Afghan economy. At least Iraq had oil. In Afghanistan, the war dwarfed every other economic activity, apart from the opium trade.

Over two decades, the US government spent $145 billion on reconstruction and aid and an additional $837 billion on war fighting, in a country where the GDP hovered between $4 billion and $20 billion per year.

Economic growth has risen and fallen with the number of foreign troops in the country. It soared during President Barack Obamas surge in 2009, only to plummet with the drawdown two years later.

Imagine what ordinary Afghans might have done if they had been able to use that money for long-term projects planned and executed at their own pace. But alas, policymakers in Washington rushed to push cash out the door, since money spent was one of the few metrics of success.

The money was meant to buy security, bridges and power plants to win hearts and minds. But the surreal amounts of cash poisoned the country instead, embittering those who didnt have access to it and setting off rivalries among those who did.

The money spent was far more than Afghanistan could absorb, concluded the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstructions final report. The basic assumption was that corruption was created by individual Afghans and that donor interventions were the solution. It would take years for the United States to realize that it was fueling corruption with its excessive spending and lack of oversight.

The result was a fantasy economy that operated more like a casino or a Ponzi scheme than a country. Why build a factory or plant crops when you can get fabulously wealthy selling whatever the Americans want to buy? Why fight the Taliban when you could just pay them not to attack?

The money fueled the revolving door of war, enriching the very militants that it was meant to fight, whose attacks then justified new rounds of spending.

A forensic accountant who served on a military task force that analyzed $106 billion worth of Pentagon contracts estimated that 40% of the money ended up in the pockets of insurgents, criminal syndicates or corrupt Afghan officials, according to The Washington Post.

Social scientists have a name for countries that are so reliant on unearned income from outsiders: rentier states. It is usually used for oil-producing countries, but Afghanistan now stands out as an extreme example.

A report by Kate Clark of the Afghanistan Analysts Network outlined how Afghanistans rentier economy undermined efforts to build a democracy. Since money flowed from foreigners instead of taxes, leaders were responsive to donors rather than their own citizens.

I knew the war in Afghanistan had gone off the rails the day I had lunch in Kabul with a European consultant who got paid a lot of money to write reports about Afghan corruption. Hed just arrived, but he already had a lot of ideas about what needed to be done  including ridding the Afghan civil service of pay scales based on seniority. I suspect that he never could have gotten an idea like that passed in his own country. But in Kabul, he had a shot at getting his ideas adopted. To him, Afghanistan wasnt a failure, but a place to shine.

None of this is to say that the Afghan people dont deserve support, even now. They do. But far more can be achieved by spending far less in a more thoughtful way.

What does the Taliban takeover say about the war? It proves that you cannot buy an army. You can only rent one for a while. Once the money spigot turned off, how many stuck around to fight for our vision of Afghanistan? Not Gul Agha Sherzai, the warlord-turned-governor. He has reportedly pledged allegiance to the Taliban.
Haiti's Prime Minister Ariel Henry on Tuesday sacked his top prosecutor, who was seeking charges against the premier over the July assassination of President Jovenel Moise.

Henry's decision to fire Bed-Ford Claude came hours after the prosecutor asked the judge investigating Moise's murder to charge the prime minister with involvement in the case.

"I have the pleasure of informing you that it was decided to terminate your post," the prime minister said in a publicly distributed letter.

Claude, who was the government commissioner in Port-au-Prince -- the equivalent of a federal prosecutor -- had made the request due to alleged phone calls Henry made with one of the main suspects in the hours after the killing.

"There are sufficient compromising elements that form (my) conviction on the appropriateness of prosecuting Mr. Henry and requesting his outright indictment," wrote Claude in an official letter addressed to a Port-au-Prince court.

In a second letter, sent to the director of migration administration, Claude requested Henry be banned from leaving the island nation "for serious presumptions of assassination of the President of the Republic."

Moise, a politically and publicly controversial figure, was killed overnight from July 6 to 7 when an armed group burst into his private residence in the Haitian capital.

Henry had already been asked to appear for questioning in the case about the alleged conversations he had just a few hours after Moise's murder, with a former government official wanted in connection with the killing.

Also read: Haiti prosecutor asks judge to charge, probe PM Ariel Henry in the slaying of the president

Police are still searching for the former official, Joseph Felix Badio, who worked in the justice ministry's anti-corruption unit.

Badio's phone was allegedly tracked to the area near Moise's residence when Badio called Henry twice in the early hours of July 7, after the president was shot dead by gunmen.

In his letter to the judge, Claude said the calls lasted a total of seven minutes. He also noted a government official tweeted last month Henry claimed he never spoke with Badio.

Henry was named by Moise as prime minister days before the president's death and was sworn in on July 20, pledging to improve the country's dire security situation and to organize long-delayed elections.

A prime minister legally cannot be questioned unless the president authorizes it, but in the wake of Moise's slaying, Haiti does not have a president.

So far, 44 people -- including 18 Colombians and two Americans of Haitian descent -- have been arrested in connection with the inquiry into the assassination. None of the president's security guards were injured in the attack.

Henry on Saturday slammed the earlier request for him to be questioned, saying: "These diversionary tactics, designed to create confusion and prevent justice from calmly running its course, will not stand."

"Those who are truly guilty, the masterminds of the odious assassination of president Jovenel Moise and those who ordered it, will be found, brought to justice and punished for their actions."
North Korea launched two ballistic missiles off its east coast on Wednesday, the countrys first ballistic missile test in six months and a violation of multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions that ban the country from conducting such tests.

The launch occurred a day after the special envoy from the United States urged North Korea to resume nuclear disarmament talks, saying that Washington had no hostile intent toward Pyongyang. North Korea conducted its last ballistic missile test in March. Over the weekend, it test-fired what it called newly developed long-range cruise missiles.

Read | North Korea test-fires long-range cruise missile: Report

The resumption of missile tests by North Korea came as neighboring countries stepped up efforts to get Pyongyang to return to the negotiating table. North Korea uses weapons tests to both improve its missile technology and increase its leverage with Washington.

South Korean and US defense officials were analyzing the data collected from the North Korean missile test to determine what type of ballistic missiles were fired on Wednesday and how far they had flown, the South Korean Defense Ministry said in a statement.

Japans Ministry of Defense issued a statement saying that an object that could be a ballistic missile was fired by North Korea, but that it is assumed it did not reach Japans territorial waters or its exclusive economic zone.

The news of the North Korean missile test broke shortly after Foreign Minister Wang Yi of China, North Koreas biggest supporter, had finished a meeting with his South Korean counterpart, Chung Eui-yong, in Seoul.

Its not just North Korea, but other countries as well that engage in military activities, Wang said when asked by reporters to comment on the Norths weekend cruise-missile test. We must all work together to resume dialogue. We all hope to contribute to peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.

Wang didnt elaborate, but the United States and South Korea conducted a joint military exercise last month. North Korea has accused Washington and Seoul of preparing to invade the North, and usually counters joint military drills between the two allies with its own military exercise or weapons tests.

The United States has no hostile intent toward North Korea, Sung Kim, the Biden administrations special envoy, said on Tuesday in Tokyo, where he met with representatives from Japan and South Korea to discuss the North. He said Washington hoped that North Korea will respond positively to our multiple offers to meet without preconditions.

The latest tests showed that North Korea continued to improve its arsenal of missiles despite a series of resolutions from the U.N. Security Council that banned North Korea from developing or testing ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons.

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A month after seizing Kabul, the Taliban face daunting problems as they seek to convert their lightning military victory into a durable peacetime government.

After four decades of war and the deaths of tens of thousands of people, security has largely improved, but Afghanistan's economy is in ruins despite hundreds of billions of dollars in development spending over the past 20 years.

Drought and famine are driving thousands from the country to the cities, and the World Food Programme fears food could run out by the end of the month, pushing up to 14 million people to the brink of starvation.

While much attention in the West has focused on whether the new Taliban government will keep its promises to protect women's rights or offer shelter to militant groups like al Qaeda, for many Afghans the main priority is simple survival.

"Every Afghan, kids, they are hungry, they don't have a single bag of flour or cooking oil," said Kabul resident Abdullah.

Long lines still form outside banks, where weekly withdrawal limits of $200 or 20,000 afghani have been imposed to protect the country's dwindling reserves.

Impromptu markets where people sell household goods for cash have sprung up across Kabul, although buyers are in short supply.

Even with billions of dollars in foreign aid, Afghanistan's economy had been struggling, with growth failing to keep pace with the steady increase in population. Jobs are scarce and many government workers have been unpaid since at least July.

While most people appear to have welcomed the end of fighting, any relief has been tempered by the near-shutdown of the economy.

"Security is quite good at the moment but we aren't earning anything," said a butcher from the Bibi Mahro area of Kabul, who declined to give his name. "Every day, things get worse for us, more bitter. It's a really bad situation."

Also read: Afghanistan: War on terror was corrupt from the start

Following the chaotic foreign evacuation of Kabul last month, the first aid flights have started to arrive as the airport reopens.

International donors have pledged over $1 billion to prevent what United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned could be "the collapse of an entire country."

But world reaction to the government of Taliban veterans and hardliners announced last week has been cool, and there has been no sign of international recognition or moves to unblock more than $9 billion in foreign reserves held outside Afghanistan.

Although Taliban officials have said they do not intend a repeat of the harsh fundamentalist rule of the previous government, toppled by a US-led campaign following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, they have struggled to convince the outside world that they have really changed.

Widespread reports of civilians being killed and journalists and others being beaten, and doubts about whether the rights of women really will be respected under the Taliban's interpretation of Islamic law, have undermined confidence.

In addition, there has been deep mistrust of senior government figures like the new interior minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, designated by the United States as a global terrorist with a $10 million bounty on his head.

To make matters worse for the Taliban, the movement has had to fight speculation over deep internal splits in its own ranks, denying rumours that Deputy Prime Minister Abdul Ghani Baradar had been killed in a shootout with Haqqani supporters.

Officials say the government is working to get services up and running again and that the streets are now safe, but as the war recedes, resolving the economic crisis is looming as a bigger problem.

"Thefts have disappeared. But bread has also disappeared," said one shopkeeper.
Pakistan-backed Khalistani separatist groups, banned by the Indian government, are quietly gaining ground in the US, a top American think tank has warned, ruing that Washington has so far remained indifferent to the appeals made by New Delhi to curb their destabilising anti-India activities.

The US-based Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) is a pro-Khalistan group. In 2019, the Indian government banned it for its alleged anti-national activities.

The SFJ had pushed for Sikh Referendum 2020 as part of its separatist agenda. It openly espouses the cause of Khalistan and in that process challenges the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India. The outlawed group's primary objective is to establish an "independent and sovereign country" in Punjab.

In its 'Pakistan's Destabilization Playbook: Khalistani Activism in the US' report published on Tuesday, the Hudson Institute examines the conduct of Khalistan and Kashmir separatist groups within the United States to investigate their support by Pakistan.

Read | US eyes bases in India to launch drones on terror infrastructure in Afghanistan-Pakistan region

The report looks at these groups ties to militant and terrorist outfits in India, and the possible detrimental effects of their activities on US foreign policy in South Asia.

The report demonstrates that "like Pakistan-based Islamist terrorist groups, the Khalistan groups can emerge under new names.

Unfortunately, the United States government has shown no interest in violence committed by Khalistan activists, even though the Khalistan campaigns most ardent supporters are located in western countries such as the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States.

Unless the US government prioritises oversight of Khalistan-related militancy and terrorism, it is unlikely to identify groups that are currently engaged in violence in Punjab in India or are preparing to do so. One seldom finds what one is not looking for," it said.

Anticipation constitutes a crucial part of national security planning and therefore investigating within the limits prescribed by law, the activities of Khalistani groups located in North America is important to prevent a reoccurrence of the violence orchestrated by the Khalistan movement in the 1980s, it said.

Importantly, the recent increase in Khalistan-related anti-India activism within the US is occurring as the United States and India are collaborating to confront the rise of China, especially in the Indo-Pacific, it said.

Read | Delhi Police arrest 6 people including 2 Pakistan-trained terrorists

"The Khalistan movement's history and recent mobilisation should serve as a reminder that, unless the threat it poses is somehow preempted, it could expand to a level where action might be too late to prevent large-scale loss of life," it said.

The report calls upon the US government to take India's concerns seriously and dedicate the requisite intelligence and law enforcement resources to help India address these concerns.

The report said the US government should include all groups responsible for terrorist attacks in India in its list of designated global terrorist groups and designate as terrorists the various individuals that India and US intelligence and law enforcement have established as being connected to designated terrorist entities.

Apply terror financing laws and regulations to the various groups espousing Kashmiri and Khalistan separatism; Investigate US-based groups espousing Kashmiri and Khalistan separatism for possible violations of US laws related to foreign funding.

Use legal means established specifically to combat terrorism, including FISA warrants, to monitor suspected Kashmiri and Khalistan terrorism sympathisers and advocates," the report said.

Observing that Sikh radical groups are active in New York and in California, the report said that in addition to disseminating anti-India propaganda, the focus of these organisations is advocating the Khalistan cause and to secure the support they target local politicians, US think tanks and human rights activists.

Khalistan activists also use Sikh places of worship, gurdwaras to attract followers, organising special events to commemorate the martyrdom of terrorists in Punjab.

They also commemorate Operation Blue Star and the 1984 anti-Sikh riots to proselytise younger Sikhs into believing that there is a religious conflict between Sikhs and other Indians, it added.

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The trauma of Sri Lanka's civil war, apartheid in South Africa, racial injustice, and the "absurdities" of social media are explored in the six books shortlisted on Tuesday for the 2021 Booker Prize.

The prestigious literary prize is open to works of fiction by writers of any nationality, written in English and published in the UK or Ireland between October 1, 2020 and September 30, 2021.

The six novels shortlisted from 158 works are by Sri Lankan author Anuk Arudpragasam, South African playwright and novelist Damon Galgut, British-Somali novelist Nadifa Mohamed and US writers Patricia Lockwood, Richard Powers and Maggie Shipstead.

Arudpragasam's "A Passage North" evokes the "memory and trauma in the devastating wake of Sri Lanka's 30-year civil war," according to Booker Prize organisers, while Galgut's "The Promise" follows a white family as it falls apart in post-apartheid Pretoria.

We are delighted to announce the #2021BookerPrize shortlist! Take a look at our six authors reactions below, and read more about the shortlisted books here: https://t.co/WlflFL1jfo pic.twitter.com/alVZGcAKJU  The Booker Prizes (@TheBookerPrizes) September 14, 2021

US poet Lockwood is the only debut novelist on this year's shortlist with "No One is Talking About This", in which real-life tragedy comes face-to-face with what Booker organisers called the "absurdities" of social media.

Mohamed is the first British-Somali novelist to be shortlisted for the prize.

"The Fortune Men" tells the story of Mahmood Mattan, a Somali former merchant seaman who was hanged after being wrongfully convicted of the murder of a woman in Wales in 1952.

Powers makes it onto the shortlist for the second time with his 13th novel "Bewilderment", in which an astrobiologist escapes to fantastical worlds as he attempts to deal with his troubled son.

Shipstead's "Great Circle" completes the list, taking readers though the interwoven journeys of two women: a 20th century aviator and a 21st century Hollywood star.

"Perhaps appropriately for our times, these novels share an interest in how individuals are both animated and constrained by forces larger than themselves," said Maya Jasanoff, chair of the judges.

"While each book is immersive in itself, together they are an expansive demonstration of what fiction is doing today," she added.

The winner, to be announced in London on November 3, will receive a 50,000 ($69,000, 59,000 euros) prize and a huge boost in their profile.

Last year's winner Douglas Stuart saw sales for his debut novel "Shuggie Bain" increase by 1,900 percent in the week after the announcement of his Booker victory.
A unit in Afghanistan's central bank leading a 15-year effort to counter illicit funding flows has halted operations, four staff members said, threatening to hasten the country's slide out of the global financial system.

Since 2006, the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Center of Afghanistan (FinTRACA) has gathered intelligence on thousands of suspicious transactions and helped convict smugglers and terrorist financiers, according to its website.

UN officials have said the Taliban, who seized Kabul on Aug. 15, made hundreds of millions of dollars from the drugs trade and other illicit sources when they were fighting government troops. The group has vowed there would be no drug cultivation in Afghanistan from now.

Also Read | One month after fall of Kabul, economic crisis stalks Taliban

Information on FinTRACA's website indicated the Taliban were among those in its sights, while the staff Reuters spoke to said the group had been a target since its launch.

They declined to be named because of fear of reprisals owing to the sensitive nature of their work.

With the Islamist militant movement back in power, the absence of a functioning financial intelligence unit (FIU) could curtail Afghanistan's links to the international financial system and to lenders abroad, some experts warned.

Such units, which scrutinise money flows for potential suspicious activity, are critical for any nation that seeks to participate in the global financial community, said Stuart Jones, Jr., founder and chief executive of risk intelligence firm Sigma Ratings.

He was also US Treasury attache to Afghanistan between 2008 and 2010.

Reconnecting with the financial system could be complicated by existing sanctions against the Taliban and the fact that a senior government minister heads a US-designated terrorist organisation.

"Afghanistan was considered high-risk by nearly all global financial institutions pre-Taliban takeover," said Jones.

"Now, with untested leadership at the central bank, an inoperable financial intelligence unit and current asset freezes on the ruling government by the United Nations and terror designations of key figures by the United States, I would expect foreign financial institutions to tread extremely carefully."

The central bank did not respond to several attempts to reach it via email and telephone.

The Taliban want access to reserves being held abroad as well as aid and other financing, as the economy reels from decades of war, drought, food shortages and the exodus of thousands of professionals.

Staff fled

The Taliban have said they want professionals to return to work to help revive the economy and vowed there would be no vendetta against old opponents. But many members of the ousted administration have fled the country or remain in hiding.

Three staff members said some of FinTRACA's 60-odd employees had left Afghanistan or gone underground in recent weeks.

Also Read | Afghanistan: War on terror was corrupt from the start

One, who is still in Afghanistan, complained that international partners failed to get staff and their dependents out during the mass evacuation from Kabul that ended last month.

A Taliban spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the status of FinTRACA staff or whether the unit would operate in future.

The US Treasury, which provided technical assistance to the unit with other national and international bodies, declined to comment on FinTRACA staff still in Afghanistan.

Some FinTRACA staff returned to the office last week after a request by acting central bank governor, Haji Mohammad Idris - a Taliban loyalist - for all central bank staff to be present in the bank, said one of the employees.

The employee added that the unit's senior management were not present and it was still not operating.

Some parts of the central bank are operational. Idris has been meeting with commercial banks and the central bank has supplied limited liquidity to banks while issuing directives to control scarce U.S. dollar supplies, say bankers.

Unit Disconnected

FinTRACA provided intelligence to the international community through agreements with similar units from countries including Britain and the United States.

It also did so via Egmont Group, which exchanges information on illicit flows between more than 160 intelligence units and partners different bodies in the fight against money laundering and terror financing.

FinTRACA was disconnected from Egmont Group's international secure server on Aug. 15, the day the Taliban took Kabul, Egmont Group said on Sept. 2.

The group said it stood "in solidarity with our colleagues at FinTRACA and hopes that they and their families are safe."

Egmont Group did not respond to requests for an update on FinTRACA's status. One FinTRACA staff member said it was still disconnected on Tuesday.

"Disconnecting is a loss for the global FIU community as the aim is always to foster greater cooperation, but the underlying principle under which this cooperation takes place is trust and that is not in place at the moment in Afghanistan," said Mariano Federici, managing director of K2 Integrity and former chair of Egmont Group.

FinTRACA's website, which appears largely untouched since the Taliban's takeover, lists the Taliban as a terrorist group entity prohibited from depositing or withdrawing U.S. dollar bank notes.

One of the unit's roles included creating a "Watch-List" of individuals deemed high-risk to the financial system.

As recently as August, the unit logged 25 suspicious transactions reports in its database, taking the total for the year to date to 645, data on its website show.

With FinTRACA mothballed, local banks expect Afghanistan's status to be lowered by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an illicit flows watchdog, in a move that could further diminish its connectivity to the global financial community.

"The FATF is closely monitoring the developing situation in Afghanistan," the group said in a statement.

The Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering, of which Afghanistan is a member, did not respond to a request for comment.
The powerful sister of North Korea's leader has criticised South Korean President Moon Jae-in and threatened a complete destruction of relations hours after Moon said South Korea's growing missile capabilities will serve as a sure deterrence" against North Korean provocations.

Moon made the comments after South Korea's first successful test of a submarine-launched ballistic missile. The test came hours after the South Korean and Japanese militaries said North Korea had fired two ballistic missiles into the sea.

Also read: Rival Koreas test missiles hours apart, raising tension

In a statement released by state media on Wednesday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's sister, Kim Yo Jong, criticised Moon's description of the North Korean missile tests as a provocation and warned of a complete destruction of bilateral relations if Moon continues with what she described as slander of North Korea.

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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday undertook a reshuffle of his top team, keeping two of his senior Indian-origin Cabinet ministers Rishi Sunak and Priti Patel in their posts.

Sunak will remain next door to Johnson at Downing Street as his Chancellor of the Exchequer and Patel, who had been at the centre of some speculation of being moved, remains in her post as Home Secretary.

Sunak, the son-in-law of Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy, has been in his post since February last year and has led the UKs financial response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Patel, whose parents are of Gujarati-Ugandan descent, has been the Home Secretary since July 2019.

However, among the senior ministers being shuffled around include Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who accepted a demotion to take charge as the new Justice Secretary, alongside his other roles of Lord Chancellor and Deputy Prime Minister.

Also read: Johnson doubles down on vaccine strategy as his popularity wanes

Raab, who came under fire in recent weeks over his handling of the aftermath of the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban and the evacuation efforts from Kabul, had been at the centre of speculation about his future as the head of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO)  one of the top-most Cabinet posts in the British government.

He has been replaced by Liz Truss, promoted from her role of International Trade Secretary. Earlier this week, she concluded the latest round of trade talks with Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal.

Raab, meanwhile, will instead step into the post previously held by Robert Buckland, who was among three major sackings from the Cabinet, including Education Secretary Gavin Williamson and Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick.

Earlier, Downing Street said Prime Minister Johnson would be reshuffling his top team to "put in place a strong and united team to build back better from the pandemic".

The process was launched soon after the weekly Prime Ministers Questions (PMQs) session in the House of Commons, with news of the sackings coming in first followed by fresh appointments of shuffled ministers.

Johnson is expected to complete the reshuffle of his Cabinet on Wednesday, with changes to lower ministerial ranks to be finalised on Thursday.

Gavin Williamson was widely expected to be sacked after intense criticism over his handling of disruption to schools and exams during the pandemic.

He confirmed that he had left the role in a tweet, saying: "It has been a privilege to serve as education secretary since 2019.

"Despite the challenges of the global pandemic, I'm particularly proud of the transformational reforms I've led in Post 16 education: in further education colleges, our Skills agenda, apprenticeships and more."

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The rival Koreas test-launched ballistic missiles hours apart from each other on Wednesday in a display of military assets that came amid a faltering diplomatic push to strip North Korea of its nuclear programme.

South Korea's presidential office said it conducted its first underwater-launched ballistic missile test on Wednesday afternoon. It said a domestically built missile fired from a 3,000-ton-class submarine flew a previously set distance before hitting a designated target.

The statement said the weapon is expected to help South Korea deter potential external threats, boost its self-defence posture and promote peace on the Korean Peninsula.

Also Read | South Korea successfully tests submarine-launched ballistic missile

The test followed two short-range North Korean ballistic missile launches detected by South Korea's military earlier Wednesday. On Monday, North Korea said it fired a newly developed cruise missile in its first weapons test in six months.

Experts say the North Korean launches showed it's pressing ahead with its arms build-up plans while trying to apply pressure on the United States to resume stalled nuclear talks.

It's not usual for South Korea to publicly disclose high-profile weapons tests that some experts say could provoke North Korea unnecessarily. Observers say Moon's government, which has been actively pursuing reconciliation with North Korea, may be responding to criticism that it's too soft on the North.

South Korea's military said the North Korean missiles, launched from central North Korea on Wednesday, flew about 800 kilometers (497 miles) on an apogee of 60 kilometers (37 miles) before landing in the waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan.

The US Indo-Pacific Command said the launches, while highlighting the destabilizing impact of North Korea's illicit weapons programme, didn't pose an immediate threat to U.S. personal or territory, or to our allies.

The firings threaten the peace and safety of Japan and the region and are absolutely outrageous, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said. The government of Japan is determined to further step up our vigilance and surveillance to be prepared for any contingencies.

Japan's coast guard said no ships or aircraft reported damage from the missiles.

Wednesday's launches were a violation of UN Security Council resolutions that bar North Korea from engaging in any ballistic missile activities. But the UN council typically doesn't slap fresh sanctions on North Korea when it launches short-range missiles, like the ones fired Wednesday.

Also Read | North Korea fires 2 ballistic missiles off its east coast

On Monday, North Korea said it tested a newly developed cruise missile twice over the weekend. North Korea's state media described the missile as a strategic weapon of great significance, implying it was developed with the intent to carry nuclear warheads.

According to North Korean accounts, the missile demonstrated an ability to hit targets 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) away, a distance putting all of Japan and US military installations there within reach.

The North Korean missile tests came as Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was in Seoul for meetings with Moon and other senior officials to discuss the stalled nuclear negotiations with the North.

It's unusual for North Korea to make provocative launches when China, its last major ally and biggest aid provider, is engaged in a major diplomatic event.

Moon's office said Moon told Wang that he appreciates China's role in the international diplomatic push to resolve the North Korean nuclear standoff and asked for Beijing's continuing support. Wang said Beijing will continue to support the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and improved ties between the Koreas.

The talks between the United States and North Korea have stalled since 2019, when the Americans rejected the North's demand for major sanctions relief in exchange for dismantling an aging nuclear facility.

Kim's government has so far threatened to build high-tech weapons targeting the United States and rejected the Biden administration's overtures for dialogue, demanding that Washington abandon its hostile policies first.

North Korea ended a yearlong pause in ballistic tests in March by firing two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea, continuing a tradition of testing new US administrations with weapons demonstrations aimed at measuring Washington's response and wresting concessions.

North Korea still maintains a self-imposed moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests, a sign that it may not want to completely scuttle the nuclear negotiations with the United States.
A British court on Wednesday accepted a request by a woman who is suing Prince Andrew in the United States for alleged sexual assault to notify him about the case.

Virginia Guiffre alleges that the Duke of York sexually assaulted her when she was aged 17, and a minor under US state law.

But Andrew's lawyers say legal papers for the case in New York were not properly served and they will contest the US court's jurisdiction in the civil action.

The High Court of England and Wales in London initially rejected an application by Guiffre's lawyers for it to contact Queen Elizabeth II's second son.

It then accepted the request after Guiffre's legal team provided unspecified "further information", Britain's domestic Press Association news agency said.

"The High Court has accepted the request for service under the Hague Service Convention", which allows countries to ask for evidence in civil or commercial matters, it said.

"The legal process has not yet been served but the High Court will now take steps to serve under the convention, unless service is arranged by agreement between the parties," it added.

Also read: Prince Andrew rejects sexual abuse accuser's 'potentially unlawful' lawsuit: Lawyer

The duke's lawyers questioned whether he had been properly notified of the court action at a pre-trial hearing in New York earlier this week.

The documents were delivered to "the last known address of the defendant" at his mother's Windsor Castle residence west of London, but not to the duke in person.

Andrew is currently with the queen at her remote Balmoral estate in northeast Scotland, according to newspaper reports.

Guiffre is seeking unspecified damages from Andrew, who has denied ever meeting her and claims a photograph of the pair together may have been doctored.

The former Royal Navy helicopter pilot, 60, has rarely been seen in public since he gave a disastrous TV interview in late 2019, which forced him to step down from the royal frontline.

He was criticised for failing to distance himself from the late US financier Jeffery Epstein, who Guiffre says trafficked her for sex.

Epstein, who forged links with a host of celebrities and high-profile figures, killed himself while awaiting trial on charges of sex trafficking of minors.

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Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson will carry out a cabinet reshuffle on Wednesday, a government source said, plunging the future of Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab in doubt over his handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal.

After days of speculation, a Downing Street source confirmed that Johnson would change his top team, saying it would "put in place a strong and united team to build back better from the pandemic".

"The PM will be appointing ministers this afternoon with a focus on uniting and levelling up the whole country," the source added.

The focus will be on Raab and Education Secretary Gavin Williamson, who were notably absent from Johnson's side on the front bench of the House of Commons at his weekly question and answer session.

Raab, who deputised for Johnson last April when he was in hospital intensive care with Covid, has faced sustained criticism for his handling of the Afghanistan crisis.

The former lawyer was on holiday on a Greek island as the government scrambled to evacuate British nationals and Afghan staff as the Taliban advanced and seized power.

Williamson meanwhile has faced a barrage of complaints about his handling of school closures, examination arrangements and university admissions during the coronavirus emergency.

Trade Secretary Liz Truss, who has brokered a series of deals since Britain's full departure from the European Union in January, has been tipped to replace Raab.

Brexit point man Michael Gove has been suggested as a replacement for Home Secretary Priti Patel, another arch Brexiteer who has been under pressure due to a surge in migrant crossings from France, along with bullying claims.
The United States has subtly hinted that it has been in talks with New Delhi for using airfields in India as staging areas for carrying out aerial surveillance and launching attacks on terrorists in and around Afghanistan.

President Joe Bidens administration is deeply engaged with New Delhi, the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, said, testifying before the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives  the lower house of the American Congress.

He was responding to Republican Partys Representative Mark E Green, who asked if the Biden Administration had reached out to New Delhi for using over-the-horizon capabilities from staging areas in north-west India for neutralising potential threats to the United States in and around Afghanistan, in view of the collusion between the Taliban and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan.

Also read: Taliban thank world for promised aid, urge US to show 'heart'

We are deeply engaged with India across the board, Blinken replied to Green.

He, however, did not share the details of the discussion between the two governments on the US launching drones from India for keeping watch on terrorist infrastructures in Afghanistan.

With regard to any specifics about over-the-horizon capabilities and the plans we put in place or continue to put in place, I would rather take that up in a different setting, Blinken replied to Green.

The Taliban of late returned to power in Afghanistan through a swift military campaign across the country taking advantage of the withdrawal of the US troops.

Biden and other senior officials of his administration in Washington DC repeatedly stated over the past few weeks that the US had sent troops to Afghanistan in 2001 in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks and to neutralise the threat posed by Osama Bin Laden and his Al Qaeda  the objectives, which had been achieved over the past two decades.

Though terrorism continued to remain a threat and spread around the world, the US no longer required to deploy a large number of soldiers overseas to combat the menace as it had now developed the over-the-horizon capabilities of carrying out aerial surveillance and launch drones to eliminate such threats, they argued, justifying the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan.

But what may limit the US' capabilities of launching drone attacks on the terrorists and terror infrastructures in the region is the fact that some of the airbases it had earlier used for the purpose are no longer available to it after its withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The nearest airbases the US can use are in Qatar, Kuwait and other countries in the Gulf and far away from the Afghanistan-Pakistan region where the targets may be located  a fact Green pointed out while asking Blinken about the Biden Administrations discussion with New Delhi.

New Delhi did not officially make any comment on Greens query or the reply given by Blinken.

Also read: New Afghan FM says Taliban government won't allow militant attacks on others

The Commander of the US Special Operations Command, General Richard D Clarke, had visited New Delhi in July and held a meeting with the Indian Army chief Gen M M Naravane.

Admiral John C Aquilino, Commander of the United States Indo-Pacific Command, also visited New Delhi and held a meeting with Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat, just about 10 days after the Talibans return to power in Afghanistan.

India is a major defence partner of the US and the two nations had inked a Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA) in 2016, creating a framework to support each other's aircraft, ships and personnel with logistics, fuel and spares.

They also signed the Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA) in 2018 and the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA) in 2020 to enable the exchange of geospatial information between the two countries.

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The Delhi High Court on Wednesday asked the Election Commission why it failed to take action against political parties for violating its guidelines on corrupt practices and offering cash transfers in manifestos to voters.

"Why are you shying from taking action? Start taking action. Don't just issue notices and letters. Let us see what action you are taking. Proposed actions also, you can state," a bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh told a counsel, appearing for the poll panel.

As the EC's counsel submitted that it had issued strict guidelines for the political parties in relation to corrupt practices following S Subramaniam Balaji case judgement (2013) by the Supreme Court, the bench sought to know the action taken by it against the parties, saying powers are ornaments and those have to be used for the welfare of the public at large.

The court was hearing a PIL filed by two advocates Parashar Narayan Sharma and Capt Gurvinder Singh who contended that offering cash without any work in election manifestos has to be declared illegal.

It also sought a response from the Centre on the petition which said such cash for vote promises are in violation of Section 123 of the Representation of People Act related to corrupt practices and bribery.

The bench also issued notice to two political parties -- Indian National Congress (INC) and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) -- as the petition pointed out both had in the 2019 general election offered cash to a certain section of the society. The INC announced the Nyuntam aay Yogyna -- NYAY scheme and offered to put Rs 72,000 yearly to a section of voters.

The court posted the matter for hearing on September 24.

Also read: EC declares bypolls for seven Rajya Sabha seats in six states

Senior counsel Soumya Chakraborty, appearing for the petitioners, contended that when cash is offered, not against any labour, it is not supported by any policy and countenanced in the Constitution.

"During the Covid-19 pandemic, funds were put in accounts of people. It was an extraordinary situation. If political parties start the trend of giving money not against any work, our industries, and agriculture will finish," he submitted.

The petition filed through lawyer Amardeep Maini claimed a spike in practices such as offering cash and freebies would be a death blow to the foundation of democracy and cast a pall of gloom over the free universal franchise.

It further alleged the EC for reasons best known to them have adopted a stony silence.

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Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath's use of the word 'Abba Jaan' (father in Urdu) during a public meeting in Kushinagar district has stoked a massive controversy, with opposition leaders decrying what they said an attempt to "communally polarise" the forthcoming Assembly polls.

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A North Kolkata resident says the coronavirus pandemic was a blessing in disguise for him.

Richard Sujit Gomes, a resident of Dum Dum Cantonment in the northern fringes of Kolkata considers it his good fortune that the viral disease put a stop to his trip to war-ravaged Afghanistan.

Just as he was going to return to his job at the end of March this year, he tested positive for the infection and had to cancel his trip.

"Fortunately, I tested positive for Covid-19 and my trip got cancelled. Otherwise, if I went to Afghanistan, perhaps I would not be able to return home, said Gomes.

In 2011, he took up a job as a cook in the Helmand province, where he worked till 2015 and again went in November 2016.

Gomes, who used to cook food for the US troops, returned home in January on a three-months leave.

Also read: After withdrawal from Afghanistan, US eyes bases in India to launch drone strikes on terror infrastructure in region

Recalling his experience in Helmand, he recalled that he had to stay in a heavily fortified area spread across four kilometres.

"We were not allowed to go outside the area without special permission. But despite the odds I worked there for a bit more income to sustain my family better, said Gomes.

Days ahead of his scheduled return to Afghanistan in March, Gomes suddenly discovered that he had lost his sense of smell which was followed by fever and weakness. He was found to be positive for Covid-19 in the mandatory RT-PCR test required for boarding the flight to Afghanistan.

"My employer told me that they will allow me to rejoin duty when I send them my negative test report. But they never called me perhaps because they realised that the situation in Afghanistan was steadily deteriorating, said Gomes.

Although he is yet to find another job and is facing considerable difficulty in sustaining his family, Gomes and his wife say they would rather cope with the financial crisis rather than face an uncertain and potentially life-threatening situation in Afghanistan.

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In a surprise development, Income Tax teams carried out searches at places linked to actor and philanthropist Sonu Sood, who emerged as a hero of migrant workers during the Covid-19 lockdown.

The Punjab-born Mumbai-resident Sood (48) works predominantly in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu films.

Half a dozen places in Mumbai and Lucknow were surveyed by the taxmen. Sonu Sood or his office is yet to give any statement on this topic, and the details of the I-T action are not yet known.

The tax survey comes days after Sood became the brand ambassador for the Delhi government's mentorship programme for school students after a meeting with Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party supremo Arvind Kejriwal.

There were also speculations in a section of the media that the actor may contest elections in Punjab. However, no formal statement has been made by the actor in this regard.

Sood has acted in films like Dabangg, Yuva, Athadu, Ashok, Jodha Akbar, Arundhati, Dookudu, Shootout at Wadala, Happy New Year, Kung Fu Yoga.

He also owns a film company Shakti Sagar Productions and a hotel in Juhu. The star also endorses a few products as a model and brand ambassador.

In 2020, after the outbreak, he emerged as a messiah for migrants as he organised buses and flights to ensure that stranded people reach their homes.

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Taking the names of goddesses from Hindu pantheon, Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday hit out at BJP and RSS with "fake Hindus" barb and accused the Modi government of trying to "snatch powers of employment and education" from people.

"People from BJP and RSS say they are Hindu parties. If anybody in the last 100-200 years has understood Hinduism most and put it in practice, it was Mahatma Gandhi. We also accept him and the people from RSS and BJP also vouch for him. So if Mahatma Gandhi understood Hinduism, why somebody with (alleged) RSS ideology shot him dead. You should think about this contradiction," Gandhi said addressing a gathering of Mahila Congress at its foundation day in AICC headquarters.

Asserting that the goddess Laxmi is about the power of employment, goddess Saraswati the strength of knowledge and goddess Durga the strength of fearlessness, Gandhi accused the Modi government of snatching all these from the people of India and "weakening women".

Read: Infighting in Gujarat BJP over cabinet berth

"What kind of Hindu are they? They are fake Hindus. They use Hindu religion but they are not Hindus," Gandhi said at the event creating a binary of "good Hindu" and "bad Hindu" and claimed for Congress the "real Hindu" space.

Meanwhile, BJP hit back with its general secretary Arun Singh slamming Rahul saying he is "totally disconnected from the ground" and has "no information".

"No one takes him seriously. He is not a serious person. Look at the track record of Rahul Gandhi. Sometimes he speaks after reading papers, sometimes after copying two or three lines, he doesn't know what is happening on the ground," he said.

BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said, "In his address, Rahul Gandhi hurt Hindu religious sentiments. Laxmi, Durga, Saraswati are the centre of the sentiments of crores of people."

Showing Congress party's symbol of hand, Gandhi at the event said this sign can be seen in photos of lord Mahaveer, lord Buddha, Sai Baba, Jesus Christ and Guru Nanak and even Muslims look at their hands while seeking something from God. "You can't have this hand in the BJP office but can see in every religion," Gandhi said seeking to give an all-religion identity to the Congress symbol.

Congress, which had in AK Antony committee report cited perception of Muslim appeasement about the party one of the key reasons for its worst ever poll debacle in 2014 general elections, had assiduously gone for an image makeover in last few years reaching out to Hindus even while targetting the BJP, whose Hindutva nationalism plank ensured its two consecutive general election victories. The party called Rahul Gandhi a 'janeudhaari Brahmin'' and a "Shiv Bhakt '' during the 2018 Assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh.

Of late, Rahul has been taking a strong position on the plank of secularism and asked "those scared of RSS '' to leave the party. The party this month appointed Digvijaya Singh, a trenchant critic of BJP's Hindutva politics, the head of a panel to identify issues to take on the BJP nationally.

Party sources say that Congress is going in with a balanced approach on the Hindutva issue and will not leave Hinduism plank solely to the BJP and will instead raise questions on the commitment of the BJP and RSS to Hinduism rather than appearing to be against Hindu politics.

At the Mahila Congress event, Gandhi said, "All these people from RSS have got confused. We have to remove this confusion about Hinduism from the mind of such people".

He also said that the ideology of the Congress was completely opposite to that of the BJP and RSS and only one of the two ideologies can rule the country.

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'Sansad TV', which merges the Lok Sabha TV and Rajya Sabha TV after deliberations of over two years, was officially launched on Wednesday with Prime Minister Narendra Modi reminding that "content" is king while Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu warned that the current media scene is confronted with the challenge of "fake news and sensationalism" due to the 'breaking news' syndrome.

Modi said the 21st century is bringing revolution especially through communication and dialogue and in such a situation, it becomes natural that the channels associated with Parliament should also transform themselves according to modern times.

At the launch function, he said, "My experience is -- 'content is connect'. That is, when you have better content, people automatically engage with you. As much as this applies to the media, it is equally applicable to our Parliamentary system. Because there is not only politics in Parliament, there is also policy."

Also read: India top source of social media misinformation on Covid-19: Study

Emphasising that the role of media and TV channels is also changing in the rapidly changing times, he said when MPs know that the country is watching them, they also get inspiration for better conduct and better debate inside the Parliament.

While LSTV and RSTV come under single management, both the channels will be on air throughout and stream proceedings of the Houses separately under the new brand name.

When Parliament is not in session and beyond the working hours of Parliament, both the variants will telecast common content to a large extent with the LSTV, launched in 2006, telecasting programmes in Hindi and RSTV, launched in 2011, in English.

Launching the 'Sansad TV' along with Modi and Lok Sabha Speaker, Naidu also said the media should function as a "Means of Empowerment for Development through Informed Actions" by the citizens.

Naidu said, "With speed and the compulsion to be the first with breaking news occasionally overriding all other considerations, we are confronted with the challenges of fake news and sensationalism. Separating truth from falsehood has become a real challenge. However, we can legitimately be proud of our press which has zealously preserved its freedom over these years and given people multiple viewpoints on issues that matter. This has in many ways greatly enriched our democratic tradition."

He also stressed the need for dialogue and constructive action by all and bringing an end to disruptions in the legislatures.

Calling for "meaningful debates echoing people's aspirations" in the legislatures, Naidu said, "The loud disruptive noise should not drown the voice of people. The debates should amplify concerns, clarify doubts and deepen shared understanding. Debates in the legislature throw up solutions to the problems. But disruptions only dissipate our collective energies and delay the task of building a new India."

The merger of both the channels came after a report by a committee headed by former Prasar Bharati Chairman Surya Prakash in February 2020. The committee, which also included Rajya Sabha Secretariat's A Rao and Lok Sabha Secretariat's Ganpati Bhatt, was formed in November 2019 following a discussion between the Lok Sabha Speaker and the Rajya Sabha Chairman.

The committee under Prakash had concluded that there is a need for two separate platforms to ensure a live telecast of the proceedings of the Houses and recommended an integrated channel 'Sansad TV' with two variants, DH had reported on June 24 last year.

"Two language variants would enable better branding and increased viewership by overcoming the shortcomings associated with the present bi-lingual telecast format of both the channels," the committee had said.

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With the Union Cabinet approving major reforms in procedures in telecom sectors, shifting from prepaid to postpaid connections and vice versa will not require fresh KYC (Know Your Customer).

"While acquiring the new SIM, or MNP, all procedures will be digital. There will not be any physical KYC," Union Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said after the Cabinet meeting.

"Self-KYC (App-based) is permitted and the e-KYC rate has been revised to only Rs 1," he said, before adding that We all have mobile connections and for whatever connection it is, we have filled up some forms. All these forms are deposited in the warehouses and there are 300-400 crore forms in warehouses. In Digital India, there is no need for this paperwork. So all these will be digitised and going forward, there will be no physical KYC."

"In the backdrop of the outstanding performance of the telecom sector in meeting Covid-19 challenges, with a huge surge in data consumption, online education, work from home, interpersonal connect through social media, virtual meetings etc., the reform measures will further boost the proliferation and penetration of broadband and telecom connectivity. The Cabinet decision reinforces the Prime Ministers vision of a robust Telecom Sector. With competition and customer choice, antyodaya for inclusive development and bringing the marginalized areas into the mainstream and universal broadband access to connect the unconnected. The package is also expected to boost 4G proliferation, infuse liquidity and create an enabling environment for investment in 5G networks, the ministry of communications said in a statement.

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A man in Bihar's Khagaria district received Rs 5.5 lakh in his account by a bank error, but refused to return the amount, claiming the money "was sent by Prime Minister Narendra Modi".

The Gramin Bank in Khagaria had mistakenly sent the money to Ranjit Das, a native of Bakhtiyarpur village under Mansi police station, and despite several notices, Das refused to return the amount, saying he had spent it.

"I was very happy when I received the money in March this year. I thought as Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised every one of depositing Rs 15 lakh in their bank account, I thought that it could be the first instalment of it. I have spent all the money. Now, I did not have money in my bank account," Das, who has been arrested, said in a statement to police.

Mansi Station House Officer Deepak Kumar said: "We have arrested Ranjit Das on the complaint given by the manager of the bank. Further investigation is on."

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The swearing-in ceremony of the new cabinet of Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel was cancelled on Wednesday amid reports of infighting in the BJP over the selection of ministers.

Party sources said that several senior ministers of the previous Vijay Rupani government have been dropped, which triggered protests.

The event was supposed to happen on Wednesday at 2:30 PM. The stage was all set and posters were up at the Raj Bhawan for the ceremony. The party had to tear down the posters that had the date of the ceremony as September 16 after it couldn't resolve the disagreement.

Read more: Gujarat: Ministers to take oath in two days, says BJP

Sources said that over 20 ministers were likely to be inducted into Patel's new cabinet, with the majority of legislators first-timers. The future of former Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel, Education Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama, Minister of State for Home Pradipsinh Jadeja and several other ministers are said to be uncertain. Meanwhile, a group of MLAs and former ministers also visited former chief minister Vijay Rupani.

Later in the day, The Chief Minister Office announced on its Twitter handle that "The swearing-in ceremony of the new cabinet of CM Bhupendra Patel will take place tomorrow, September 16, 2021, at 1:30 PM at Raj Bhavan, Gandhinagar."

The BJP denied having scheduled the swearing-in ceremony on Wednesday and brushed aside reports of dissent. "We had never planed the ceremony on Wednesday, to begin with. We think that there was some issue with the coordination in the government agency," said BJP spokesperson Yamal Vyas. He also denied reports of infighting over berth in the new cabinets.

On Monday, 59-year-old first-time MLA Bhupendra Patel was sworn in as 17th Chief Minister of Gujarat which was attended by Union Home Minister Amit Shah and other senior party leaders. Before returning to Delhi, Shah held a meeting with party leaders when the list of probable ministers was finalised. It is said that it didn't have the names of any of the previous ministers. Meanwhile, several ministers of the Rupani regime were asked to vacate their offices.
In a major step to end the impasse, the Maha Vikas Aghadi government has decided to promulgate an ordinance to restore reservation to the OBC community while remaining within the 50 per cent ceiling as done by southern states of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

The decision taken at the weekly Cabinet meeting presided over by chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday assumes significance ahead of polls to six Zilla Parishads and Panchayat Samitis -- spread across Nagpur, Akola, Washim in Vidarbha region and the twin districts of Dhule and Nandurbar in North Maharashtra -- scheduled on October 5.

The Maharashtra government will issue an ordinance to restore OBC reservation in local body polls. This won't cross the 50% reservation cap. The ordinance will be issued on the line of Andhra Pradesh & Tamil Nadu government decision," state food and civil supplies minister and veteran OBC leader Chhagan Bhujbal said.

Also read: SC notice to Centre on plea to quash OBC, EWS reservation in all India quota seats in medical courses

On Monday, the State Election Commission has announced the poll schedule for the 85 wards in ZPs and 144 seats in PSs for seats that have fallen vacant after the OBC quota was quashed by the Supreme Court.

Earlier this year, the apex court has quashed the quota for the OBCs in local bodies in Maharashtra after observing that the total reservation should not exceed 50 per cent.

To restore political reservation for the OBCs in local bodies, the state government has sought empirical data on the population of the social group.

The Supreme Court had said that elections cannot be postponed.

To discuss the issue, last week, Thackeray held an all-party meeting and it was unanimously decided that local body polls be postponed till the state backward class commission compiles empirical data giving a clear picture of the political backwardness of OBCs.

The Supreme Court had said that elections cannot be postponed.

It is a decision, however, it should have come earlier... this situation would not have arise... better late than never, leader of opposition Devendra Fadnavis told reporters in Nagpur.

We also have to take a call on future polls as well, he said.

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Rattled by the brutal rape and murder of a woman last week, the Mumbai Police has swung into action and have set up a Nirbhaya Squad for the safety of women.

The incident - which bore similarities to New Delhis Nirbhaya episode - has come as a major embarrassment for the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government, which has once again come under fire from opposition BJP.

Mumbai is known as one of the safest cities for girls and women. However, after the incident, the government and police have received a bashing on social media platforms.

Basically a women safety cell, the squads would be set up at every police station of Mumbai.

Moreover, the Nirbhaya Squad will include one woman officer of PSI or ASI rank, one female and one male constable and a driver.

The measure was passed on to all officers and other ranks of the police through a circular by Mumbai Police commissioner Hemant Nagrale.

The `Mobile-5 vehicle of each police station will be assigned to this squad. Each station has a fixed number of `Mobile patrolling vehicles at its disposal.

The Nirbhaya Squads will undergo two-day training. Among other things, they will be trained to collect intelligence from areas where girls hostels, childrens shelter homes and orphanages are located.

Under an initiative named Saksham, police will offer counselling to the victims of sexual harassment and assault.

The Nirbhaya Squad would organise training workshops in schools, colleges, girls hostels for self-defence. A box namely Nirbhaya Peti would be provided in every place.

After the incident, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and Home Minister Dilip Walse-Patil met and discussed the issue.

Thackeray himself went to the Maharashtra Police headquarters and held a meeting of top officials including Director General of Police Sanjay Pandey.

The government has directed immediate action against sexual offenders and to file a chargesheet within 60 days.

Pandey has also asked the force to monitor places like railway stations and colleges to keep an eye out for instances of eve-teasing and take action against offenders.

Nagrale has issued an order instructing the force to maintain a list of sexual offenders arrested in offences such as rape, molestation, kidnapping or outraging the modesty of a woman or those held under POCSO charges and to take prohibitory action, as necessary.

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By Andy Mukherjee,

The Maldives and Sri Lanka, both highly tourism-dependent tropical islands, have seen the pandemic devastate their economies and finances. Government debt this year is expected to linger above 100 per cent of gross domestic product in the two small Indian Ocean nations. Unsurprisingly, both have similar  and similarly poor  credit standings. A default by CCC-rated borrowers is a real possibility on Fitch Ratings scale.

And yet, the Maldives seems to be turning the corner on visitor arrivals, with numbers last month exceeding the figure for August 2019. Sri Lanka, where a deadly Easter Sunday suicide bomb attack two years ago hit tourism even before the pandemic, is falling behind.

With a population of just half a million, the Maldives was hit hard by the the delta variant. In May, the virus infected almost three out of a 1,000 people in just one day. Sri Lanka, which is home to 21 million, has seen a more manageable spike by comparison, with the surge peaking at a 7-day average of just under 6,000 new cases late August. Thats 0.28 new infections for a thousand people.







Since then, Covid-19 is in retreat, and the country is on track to cover 60 per cent of its population with the required two vaccine doses by the end of the month. Among other popular beach destinations, Mauritius, which reached that milestone late last month, is optimistic about a revival in its leisure industry. With some luck, and restoration of international flight links, the winter might bring more holidaymakers to Sri Lankas sandy beaches, too. Will it be enough, though, to make up for a 99.6 per cent drop in tourism earnings from the pre-pandemic level? Clearly not.

But thats not the only problem. It it doesnt help that the 9 per cent decline in the Sri Lankan rupee since the start of the pandemic  a depreciation that could make tourist towns like Galle and Kandy cheaper for vaccinated travelers from India  has also stoked a food crisis. Amid an acute shortage of imported rice, sugar, milk, pulses and cereals, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa announced a state of economic emergency from Aug. 31, and named an army officer as the commissioner general of essential services, a telltale sign that the food queues are turning serious.

At least theyre serious enough for Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa, one of the presidents several brothers in the cabinet, to replace the central bank chief. Ajith Nivard Cabraal, who was the governor between 2006 and early 2015, is returning to his old job to find money. After meeting a $1 billion debt repayment out of foreign-exchange reserves in July, the $3.55 billion kitty can barely cover two months of imports. Additionally, $3.65 billion in repayments are coming due next year on hard-currency borrowings. If Cabraal has a magic wand, he has to wave it now  or Sri Lanka will have to seek a rescue from the International Monetary Fund.







Tea, the countrys most famous export, could have helped soften the blow. But the commodity that pulled in $1.2 billion last year is facing its own crisis because of the governments sudden decision to do away with chemical fertilizers. The industry cant possibly find enough new buyers of niche, organic tea to offset a threefold jump in the cost of production. Experts warn that crop diseases could lead to unmitigated disasters like in 1869, when the islands then significant coffee plantations were wiped out by a fungal infection.

Colombo couldnt have found a worse time to go back to the 19th century. The countrys share among top global sellers of the beverage has been declining for some time. Rivals who manage to lure more customers away from Ceylon tea wont let go of them in a hurry. That isnt all. With even vegetable crops sputtering, the ban on fertilizer imports is untenable. Still, a decision to reverse it was dropped.







The Rajapaksa administration doesnt want to appear weak politically by changing its mind. Or maybe it knows that Sri Lanka wont need to go to the IMF. Since the onset of the pandemic, a cozy relationship with China has helped the president secure a $1 billion loan, in addition to a $1.5 billion dollar swap facility with the Chinese central bank and a gift of 600,000 vaccine shots. Colombo could approach Beijing again for help, automatically putting some pressure on its next-door neighbor.

At a public debt-to-GDP ratio of about 90 per cent, Indias own finances arent a whole lot better than that of the Maldives and Sri Lanka, though a large, diversified economy gives it a much bigger sway with investors  and a (barely) investment-grade credit rating.

While aware of the economic trouble brewing at its southeastern tip, India has long delayed a decision on Colombos request for a loan-repayment moratorium. Having just seen its $3 billion investment in Afghanistan go up in smoke, New Delhis appetite for economic diplomacy may even be lower than usual. Still, caught in a debt trap, a previous Sri Lankan government sold the port of Hambantota to China Merchants Port Holdings Co. To stall further Beijing-backed enclaves at its doorstep, New Delhi may be compelled to bring out its checkbook.

A deepening economic crisis is narrowing Rajapaksas options, but the president hasnt run out of cards yet.
Today is International Day of Democracy. Neither House of Parliament functioned for the most part last year, ostensibly due to Covid-19. The winter session of Parliament was cancelled, and the budget session earlier this year was cut short by two weeks citing Assembly elections. Question Hour was suspended in the monsoon session last year, and the functioning of parliamentary committees has remained stalled all through since the pandemic began. Not even a single bill presented and passed before either House in the last 18 months has been sent to a parliamentary committee for scrutiny. Post-second wave, when Parliament eventually did start functioning, it was disrupted frequently. Members did not allow either House to function.

On November 21 last year, the Standing Committee of the Parliament on Health had sent detailed recommendations to the government, calling for ramping up of oxygen facilities. This went unheard, and the lack of oxygen facilities during the second wave of the pandemic led to the death of citizens. Just before the second wave, the Committee on Science & Tech, Environment, Forest and Climate Change, chaired by Jairam Ramesh, recommended the government to ramp up the production of vaccines by providing increased infrastructure support. This, too, went unheard.

A narcissistic government is a troubling development for a democracy. The oft-heard refrain that there is nothing new about governments functioning in this way has some truth attached to it. However, it is the routinization of it that is becoming a growing concern. Covid was not unique to India. It has hit countries globally. Yet, governments across the world chose to deal with it maturely. They made efforts to keep democracy intact even in the most difficult of times. Italy, for instance, which suffered the most during the first wave, allowed its parliament to sit and function virtually, despite its constitution mandating the physical presence of a member to hold a session of parliament. In the UK, MPs were provided with special grants to interact with their constituents virtually. New Zealand allowed its parliamentarians to submit pre-recorded oral and urgent questions, and Germany allowed video submissions of arguments on the debate of relief package for Covid. It also placed a ballot box outside parliament for members to cast their votes and put in their suggestions. Intensive cross-party negotiations over the budget were also held in the US, which led to a broad economic support package for citizens. Sweden, Ireland and Kenya also conducted parliamentary sessions physically even when Covid was at its peak. Countries like Brazil, Spain and Czech Republic allowed parliamentary committees to function during Covid as a check against their governments.

In any democracy, it is the efforts to protect the Constitution and its values that matter. History will always be kind to those who choose to travel through the dark dense forest despite obvious dangers. There can never be a good reason to justify centralisation in a quasi-federal state which believes in co-operative federalism, or for suspending parliament in a country that believes in participatory and deliberative democracy, or for being intolerant towards those who choose to speak truth to power in a country where there is rule of law. This World Democracy Day, our Parliament needs to pause, breathe and reflect.

(The writers are students at National Law University, Visakhapatnam and National Law University, Odisha, respectively)
In a startling revelation, Anglo-Indian MLA Vinisha Nero told the Legislative Assembly that she paid a bribe of Rs 9,000 to get her Covid-19 RT-PCR report within minutes at the Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru.

Theres huge corruption at the airport, Nero said during a discussion. I had an RT-PCR report from Bowring Hospital, which was not accepted. I was told that Id have to wait six hours if I pay Rs 800, two hours if I pay Rs 3,200 and just 15 minutes if I pay an additional Rs 1,200. I paid Rs 9,000 in spite of them knowing Im an MLA. Like this, there were more than 100 people in one flight who paid Rs 3,200 plus Rs 1,200 bribe to the airport officials. I got my RT-PCR printout in under three minutes, she said.

She was speaking on a calling attention notice raised by Shantinagar legislator NA Haris, who asked the government to fix a uniform rate for Covid-19 tests being done at the Bengaluru airport.

People are charged Rs 3,200 for a rapid antigen test (RAT) at the airport and the result is out immediately. In my constituency, the RAT costs just Rs 150-200. The RT-PCR test thats done at the airport costs just Rs 800, Haris said and asked why the RAT rate was so high. This is daylight robbery.

Responding to this, Health & Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar said the Covid-19 test is done only for people on inbound flights entering the airport. We havent said anywhere that the RAT should be done. The rule is to do an RT-PCR test for which the cost is Rs 800. The report will be out in 4-5 hours, he said.

Sudhakar said there is an express test whose result is out in 15 minutes. This Abbott express test is for outbound flyers and its not mandatory, he said.

Contesting this, Haris said he got a RAT done himself. Thats the Abbott express test and its compulsory. Without it, people arent allowed to board the flight, he said.

Sudhakar said the Abbott express test is cartridge-based and cannot be conducted on a large scale. It looks like the legislator does not have the proper information. I will have my officials explain to him the difference between RAT, RT-PCR and the Abbott test, the minister said.

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There were emotional scenes tonight as a Derry man shot dead by a British soldier in the city was remembered on the 50th anniversary of his death.

Billy McGreanery was shot dead by a member of the Grenadier Guards while walking in the Laburnum Terrace area of the Bogside shortly before midnight on September 14, 1971. He died later while being operated on at Altnagelvin Hospital.

A single man, he was aged 41 and well-known in the city, having worked in local sports/shoe shop.

He was shot at the junction of Eastway, Lone Moor Road and Westland Street.

The soldier who fired the shot from an observation post within the grounds of the nearby Essex factory claimed he had opened fire on a gunman but an investigation by the Historical Enquiries Team (HET) on the 40th anniversary of the killing found Mr McGreanery was unarmed.

Following that investigation, the British Ministry of Defence apologised for the killing. However, no one has ever been charged in connection with the killing.

At the time of Mr Greanery's death in 1971, Derry's leading police officer Frank Lagan and another senior RUC man determined the soldier responsible, known as Soldier A, should be prosecuted for the murder of the 41-year-old.

However, the recommendation was quickly quashed by then Attorney General Sir Basil Kelly.

Speaking at tonight's commemorative event, held close to the spot where he was killed, Mr McGreanery's nephew, also called Billy, said they would continue to fight until they got justice.


Stealth company incubated by blockchain unicorn Bitfury Group and global nanoelectronics R&D center imec

Eindhoven, Netherlands  September 15, 2021 AI semiconductor startup Axelera AI announced today that it has successfully closed a seed investment round of $12 million. The round was led by emerging technologies leader Bitfury and joined by global nanoelectronics R&D center imec and deep-tech venture capital funds Innovation Industries and imec.xpand. The funding will support the companys development of an industry-defining product powering AI applications at the edge.

Axelera AI was incubated by Bitfury Group in 2019, formerly operating as Bitfury AI until the company came out as an independent entity this year. Building on its extensive research and development focused on integrating world-class hardware and software technologies for edge and cloud-to-edge enterprise solutions, Axelera AI has also joined forces with imec since early 2020 to develop groundbreaking computing architecture for high-performance AI. Headquartered in the AI Innovation Center of the High-Tech Campus in Eindhoven, Axelera AI also has R&D offices in Leuven (BE) and Zurich (CH). The company has already recruited an elite team of more than 20 senior engineers and developers from world-leading AI companies and research centers, including Intel, Qualcomm, IBM, and imec.

With our launch as a new independent company and the closing of this investment, Axelera AI is now claiming its place as a significant player in the global AI sector, said Fabrizio del Maffeo, CEO and co-founder of Axelera AI. Our extraordinary team merges complementary expertise in software development, image processing, dataflow architecture, in-memory computing, algorithms and quantization with a proven track record of business success, and we look forward to building on our extensive R&D, introducing new solutions across the globe in the next few years.

Bitfury has a proven track record of incubating and bringing game-changing technologies to market, said Valery Vavilov, CEO and co-founder of Bitfury Group. We can look no further than LiquidStack, the emerging leader in two-phase liquid immersion cooling for the worlds most intensive computing applications, and Crystal Blockchain, the most advanced blockchain analytics platform for digital asset compliance. We could not be more excited to support the launch of Axelera AI, which is bound to accelerate the development and delivery of critical AI solutions for across global markets.

Over the years imec has been researching custom circuits and novel architectures for efficient AI using in-memory compute, algorithms and quantization, said Diederik Verkest, Program Director for machine learning at imec. "We are proud that after working together with the Bitfury Group, we can leverage and contribute this expertise to ensure Axelera AI develops and brings the best possible product to the edge AI market."

Axelera AI is a unique Dutch start-up on a journey to deliver a disruptive AI chip that will accelerate the application of AI at the edge of IOT, according to Sander Verbrugge, Partner at Innovation Industries. Affordable AI compute power operating at low power is essential to unlock the full potential of AI in our everyday lives. We are proud to be part of this journey and to support this world-class team achieve its ambitions.

Axelera AI has brought together a stellar team and, as such unites several distinct in-memory compute efforts from across Europe under one roof. We very much look forward to working with Fabrizio and his team and helping them to achieve their ambitious goals by leveraging imec.xpands cross-border, value-add platform and network, said Cyril Vancura, Partner at imec.xpand.

About Axelera AI

Axelera AI is designing the worlds most efficient and advanced solutions for AI at the edge. Its game-changing hardware and software product will concentrate the AI computational power of an entire server into a single chip at a fraction of the power consumption and price of AI hardware today. The companys groundbreaking solution will empower thousands of applications of AI at the edge, making the use of AI more efficient and accessible than ever before. Axelera AIs products will be fully integrated with the leading open-sourced AI frameworks when it launches to select customers and partners in early 2022.

About Axelera AI Leadership

Axelera AI is led by CEO and co-founder Fabrizio del Maffeo. Prior to founding Axelera AI, he was Head of Artificial Intelligence at Bitfury and Vice President/Managing Director of Asus Group company AAEON Europe. Axelera AI is advised by internationally renowned AI experts Professor Luca Benini, chair of digital Circuits and Systems at D-ITET ETH Zurich, and Professor Marian Verhelst, Scientific Director at imec and professor MICAS in KU Leuven. To its non-executive board, Axelera AI has welcomed Bitfury Executive Vice President George Kikvadze alongside Innovation Industries partner Sander Verbrugge. Valery Vavilov, CEO and co-founder of Bitfury, will also serve as a board member.

About Artificial Intelligence at The Edge

More than 125 billion things are expected to be connected to the internet (IoT) by 2030  including smartphones, cameras, smart city sensors, and more. Each of these devices, even the most miniature sensor, creates an exponential amount of data for analysis. While available now, only 2% of that data has been analyzed due to a lack of expertise and AI tools. Artificial intelligence allows us to analyze and understand this data thoroughly. However, the sheer amount of information and the increasingly complex algorithms require a new generation of more powerful, efficient, and accessible computation hardware. Due to growing privacy, security and bandwidth concerns, data is increasingly processed close to its origin, or the edge.

The AI hardware available today has been designed primarily for cloud computing operations, a sector with limited cost, power, and scalability constraints. This computational hardware for edge applications needs an entirely new design that considers specific power needs, computational needs and economics. Axelera AI will capture this opportunity by developing and delivering a game-changing and scalable technology with superior performance and efficiency to accelerate AI applications at the edge.

About The Bitfury Group

The Bitfury Group is the worlds leading emerging technologies company. Bitfury is building solutions for the future, with the most significant technologies of the millennium. Our mission is to make the world more transparent and trusted by innovating at every level of technology  hardware, security, and software  to put trust back into the equation. Founded in 2011, Bitfury is the leading security and infrastructure provider for the Bitcoin Blockchain. In addition to securing the Bitcoin Blockchain, Bitfury also designs and produces innovative hardware that keeps cryptocurrencies and blockchains secure, including custom semiconductor chips and mobile data centers. Bitfury is also a software provider for some of the worlds most cutting-edge applications through its Exonum private blockchain framework and its Crystal Blockchain advanced analytics platform. To learn more, visit www.bitfury.com.

About imec

Imec is a world-leading research and innovation centre in nanoelectronics and digital technologies. Imec leverages its state-of-the-art R&D infrastructure and its team of more than 5.000 employees and top researchers, for R&D in advanced semiconductor and system scaling, silicon photonics, artificial intelligence, beyond 5G communications and sensing technologies, and in application domains such as health and life sciences, mobility, industry 4.0, agrofood, smart cities, sustainable energy, and education. Imec unites world-industry leaders across the semiconductor value chain, Flanders-based and international tech, pharma, medical and ICT companies, start-ups, and academia and knowledge centers. Imec is headquartered in Leuven (Belgium), and has research sites across Belgium, in the Netherlands, Taiwan and the USA, and offices in China, India and Japan. In 2020, imec's revenue (P&L) totaled 680 million euro. Further information on imec can be found at www.imec-int.com.

About Innovation Industries

Innovation Industries is a Deeptech venture capital investor that invests up to 30M in Hightech, Agri&Foodtech and Medtech businesses. Today, Innovation Industries manages over 275M across two funds and has a team of 15 investment professionals. Its largest investors are the Dutch pension funds PME and PMT. Innovation Industries invests from seed to late stage and has partnerships with all Dutch technical universities and research institute TNO. For more information on Innovation Industries see: www.innovationindustries.com

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Imec.xpand is an early stage and growth fund with a game-changing approach to turn hardware driven nanotechnology innovation into successful global companies. The fund is independently managed by a team of entrepreneurs, seasoned venture capitalists and business experts and is targeting ambitious tech start-ups were imec knowledge, expertise and infrastructure can play a determining role in the success. For more information about imec.xpand please visit us on www.imecxpand.com






An 'unusually excited' Katrina Kaif steps out for grocery shopping during her time off from Tiger 3 shoot

Katrina Kaif expressed how unusually excited she gets at visiting departmental stores as she posted a video roaming about in one. The actress is busy filming Tiger 3 with Salman Khan on an international schedule and it seems she took some time out for some grocery shopping during her time off.

The actress was seen dressed casually in a pink sweatshirt paired with denims and sneakers as she roamed the aisles in the store. She wrote, "Anyone else as unusually excited for supermarkets as I am.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by KATRINA KAIF SUPREMACY  (@katrinakaifstunner)

Katrina and Salman began the international schedule of Tiger 3 shooting in Russia and later moved to Turkey where they currently are. They had left India for the shoot in August for this schedule which will last two months according to reports.

As the duo shoot several fans have posted pictures and videos of the two stars as they spotted them. Recently Salman was seen dancing to his hit dance number Jeene Ke Hain Char din at a party in Turkey too. Salman and Katrina also met the Culture and Tourism Minister of Turkey Mr. Mehmet Nuri Ersoy during their stay in the country.

Tiger 3 is touted to the biggest film of the franchise so far and is being helmed by filmmaker Maneesh Sharma.
Bahvai: Pratik Gandhi open to thinking of Raavan as a grey character says, "Who are we to claim what is right and what is wrong?"

Actor Pratik Gandhi hopes the audience is open to the moral dilemma at the centre of his upcoming film "Bhavai" because what is right or wrong changes with time.

Gandhi, who shot to fame following his acclaimed performance as notorious stockbroker Harshad Mehta in last year's hit SonyLIV series "Scam 1992", said information explosion through the Internet adds to the complexities of India as a country.

"Bhavai" is a film about two people who work in a Ram Leela presentation and how it affects their personal life off stage. Its title initially was "Raavan Leela (Bhavai)" but was changed to respect the sentiments of a section of viewers.

"It's very easy to colour the thoughts of people in the age of social media. If you are being bombarded with some lies constantly, you tend to believe it's true. That is what is happening all across the world.

"There is so much diversity in India in terms of religion, schools of thought, everything... that makes it easier to colour people using these things. The Internet is cheap and people have a lot of spare time; it is a big evil that we are fighting. These are such complex times that no one has any answer to this," the 41-year-old actor told PTI in a Zoom interview.

In "Bhavai", Gandhi plays Rajaram Joshi, a stage artist who essays the role of Raavan in a Ram Leela, the dramatic folk re-enactment of the Ramayana.

Traditionally, a Ram Leela uses song-and-dance sequences to showcase the legendary war between Good and Evil, symbolised by Lord Ram and Raavan.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Pratik Gandhi (@pratikgandhiofficial)

The actor said that while he is not justifying the actions of Raavan that led to his eventual fall, he is open to viewing the character as grey.

"When Valmiki wrote Ramayana he could have described him as a 'black' character or talked about only his shortcomings, but he didn't. When this hasn't happened right from the beginning, who are we to claim what is right and what is wrong? Why was Raavan called a 'prakaand pandit' (learned scholar) or a Shiva devotee then? Perhaps he also wanted the people to understand the greyness and didn't want to paint him just as a demon," he said.

There are several interpretations of the epic Ramayana across India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Malaysia, and it is interesting how people belonging to these different countries have "tweaked the story a lot and believe in their versions," Gandhi pointed out.

"Even if I look at it as a metaphor, both Ram and Raavan exist in each one of us. It's all about one's mindset. All the goodness is Ram, all evil is Raavan. But we are living in a world which is grey. So there is a constant battle between Ram and Raavan that goes on inside us.

"That is a moral dilemma. What is right and what is wrong keeps changing according to time... Having said that, I'm not trying to justify what Raavan did. But what I'm saying is let's be open to interpretation."

Hailing from a religious Gujarati Vaishnav family, Surat-born Gandhi said while he has grown up with 'pooja-paath' all around him, he considers himself a "spiritual person".

"As an engineer and a student of science too I believe that energy can neither be created nor destroyed. If that is the case, then energy is universal," he added.

Calling "Bhavai" an "important film of his life", Gandhi revealed director Hardik Gajjar offered the role to him even before "Scam 1992" came to him. Had it not been for the coronavirus pandemic, the film would have been released way back.

Set against the backdrop of Bhavai, a popular folk theatre form from Gujarat, the movie marks his first Hindi feature film as a lead.

"I can't thank Hardik and the team enough for having me as a lead before 'Scam' when no one knew what was going to happen. We were going just by the script, the faith in each other," the actor, who is set to reunite with Gajjar in the horror comedy "Atithi Bhooto Bhava", said.

Another reason he agreed to take up the musical drama feature, Gandhi said, was because "Bhavai" was a perfect blend of his two loves -- theatre and cinema.

"I get to perform on the stage in the film. Both these mediums are close to my heart. Theatre being my first love, it was a treat for me to perform (the role of) Raavan on stage for the film. So it was a very interesting journey for me, I had a lot of fun.

"People often ask us to comment on the difference between acting on stage and in films. There is a certain change in the personality of the actor when they leave the stage because that's his real life," the actor, a known face in Gujarati theatre and films, said.

Gandhi said he constantly wanted to raise the bar for himself.

"I want to give the audience a new character every time so that they can think about something different every other time. I'm excited that people want to see more of me. We are in the business of experimentation. What is fun in this line is that you can truly enjoy the process when you experiment without pressure."

The actor reiterated that the film doesn't have anything that might hurt the religious sentiments of the public.

"Please watch the film first and then decide," he appealed.

"Bhavai" also stars Aindrita Ray, Rajendra Gupta, Rajesh Sharma, and Abhimanyu Singh in pivotal roles and is set to release theatrically on October 1.

The film is presented by Dr Jayantilal Gada (Pen Studios) and produced by Dhaval Jayantilal Gada, Aksshay Jayantilal Gada, Parth Gajjar, and Hardik Gajjar films in association with Backbencher Pictures.

Gandhi will next be seen in the Disney+ Hotstar series "Six Suspects" and "Dedh Bigha Zameen", a drama feature.
Ambassador Mulhall & Consul General O'Driscoll visit Montana & "the Most Irish Town in America"

Blog

Ambassador Mulhall, Consul General O'Driscoll, Lt. Governor Kristen Juras & group at the Thomas Francis Meagher Statue in Montana.

Ambassador of Ireland to the United States Daniel Mulhall and Consul General of Ireland in San Francisco Robert ODriscoll travelled to Montana over 8-12 of September for a full programme celebrating Irelands historical ties with the Treasure State, meeting with political leaders and focusing on Montanas diversifying economy.

A highlight of the first day was meeting with Lieutenant Governor Kristen Juras at Montanas famous Meagher statue. Thomas Francis Meagher, a well-known Irish nationalist and leader of the Young Irelanders in the Rebellion of 1848, was one of Montanas first governors of the territory in 1865. The meeting included an exchange on economic and COVID developments in Montana and Ireland, reflections on the historic connections between Ireland and Montana, and discussion on how to foster modern economic ties between Ireland and Big Sky Country.

While in Helena, the Ambassador and Consul General met with Mayor Wilmot Collins. The discussion focused on Irish links to Helena, economic developments, and Mayor Collins extraordinary journey from Liberia to Montana. Leaving Liberia as a refugee from the First Liberian Civil War, Mayor Collins arrived in Helena in 1994 and joined his wife who came to Montana 2 years prior. In 2017 Mayor Collins was the first black person to be elected mayor of any city in Montana since statehood.

As a Meagher enthusiast, the Ambassador also took time to visit the Montana Historical Society, where former Governor Steve Bullock and former Lieutenant Governor Mike Cooney joined the tour to see the impressive collection of Meagher papers. The Historical Societys collection featured original papers of Thomas Francis Meagher as well as collected papers about him. The papers consisted of originals and copies of Meagher's general correspondence, including a love letter to his fiance Elizabeth Townsend (1855), letters from Meagher while in a Dublin prison (1848-1849), and a letter and writings by him describing life in Van Dieman's land, Tasmania (1901).





Wrapping up the programme in Helena, the Ambassador met with the brand new Irish Caucus in the Montana State Legislature. The Caucus is bipartisan and co-chaired by State Senators Mike Lang and Shannon O'Brien, and Representatives Ross Fitzgerald and Katie Sullivan. The group had a vibrant exchange on developments in Ireland and Montana, Ireland-US relations, Brexit, as well as opportunities to build on the strong heritage links between Ireland and the Treasure State.

The Ambassador and Consul General then journeyed to Butte, which has the largest Irish heritage community per capita in the United States and is renowned for an impressive St. Patricks Day parade. At the Butte Silver Bow Archives, Ambassador Mulhall launched the online digitised community papers project. This project has received approximately $30,000 in grant funds over the last 6 years through the Government of Irelands Emigrant Support Programme, the Irish Studies Program at the University of Montana, and the Friends of Irish Studies in the West to develop exhibits, host cultural events, and digitise archival collections. The Ambassador also announced an additional funding of $24,000 for the Friends of Irish Studies at the launch event.

The programmes afternoon was focused on honouring the memory of the Irish miners in Montana with a visit to the World Museum of Mining, where Ambassador Mulhall and Consul General ODriscoll went underground in an old mine. The Ambassador laid a wreath at the Memorial for the Speculator Mine Disaster in memory of the victims of the disaster and other mining accidents in Butte. To conclude the evening, the Ambassador and Consul General visited St. Patricks Cemetery to pay their respects and remember the important Irish heritage of those who rest there. St. Patricks Cemetery, which was recently renovated by the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH) in Montana, is the final resting place of many of the Irish who travelled to Montana in the latter half of the nineteenth century.



The following day Ambassador Mulhall and Consul General ODriscoll met with the Chief Administrator (Mayor) of Butte JP Gallagher, and participated in a roundtable with Butte economic development contacts hosted at the Montana Craft Malt facility. The roundtable was an excellent opportunity to learn about the potential for Ireland to engage economically with Montanas diversifying economy in a region of deep historical connection to Ireland.

The Ambassador and Consul General then departed for Anaconda where they had lunch with the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH) where the focus of discussion was on Brexit and the implications for Ireland. The AOH in Anaconda is one of the oldest and most successful AOH branches in Western United States. While in Anaconda the Ambassador visited the statue of Marcus Daly, also known as the Irish Copper King, who founded the town of Anaconda in 1883. Daly was a huge employer of Irish miners and most of his supervisors were Irishmen. He was a generous supporter of the Irish cause and Daly himself was a member of the Ancient Order of Hibernians.

Next stop was the Montana World Trade Center in Missoula. The Ambassador and Consul General were able to learn about the emerging technology and bioscience sector in Montana, and the potential for collaborations with Ireland during their visit to MonTEC and reception at UM Missoula College.

Later that evening, the Ambassador and Mrs. Mulhall were guests of honour at a dinner hosted by the Friends of Irish Studies. The Friends of Irish Studies is a strategic partner for the Consulate General of Ireland in San Francisco, recognised by the provision of just over US$500,000 in Emigrant Support Programme funding since 2009. The Friends of Irish Studies unite all those of Irish heritage and those who have a love of Ireland to raise funds to grow and sustain the Irish Studies program at the University of Montana, provide the community with public access to visiting guests, and to sponsor evening classes and cultural events within the community.

On Friday morning the Ambassador visited the University of Montana, where their WelcomeFeast was in full swing, and the Ambassador and Consul General were recruited by UMs hurling team- the Grizzlies.

 

University of Montana (UM) began a strategic partnership with University College Cork (UCC) in 2004 and since then both universities have had student and faculty exchanges, a joint-degree program in Field Geosciences, and UM has hosted nearly 20 Fulbright Irish Teaching Assistants over the years. Ambassador Mulhall was able to meet with the Dean of UMs Law School Paul Kirgis and Judge Donald Molloy to discuss the very well regarded Irish language and law exchange program between UMs School of Law and UCC.

The University of Montana is home to the largest Irish Studies program west of the Mississippi. The Ambassador was also able to meet with UMs Global Engagement Office and connect with the cohort of Inclusive Ireland Scholars. The Inclusive Ireland Scholarship Program is a collaboration between Education in Ireland and Diversity Abroad to support BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) students to study abroad in Ireland.

After a great meeting with the University Provost Reed Humphrey, the Irish Studies faculty, Fulbright Scholars, and 2019 Dublin Literary Award winner Emily Ruskovich, the Ambassador and Consul General left UM for Whitefish, where they had a welcoming reception organised by the Senior Economic Advisor to the Governor Scott Osterman.

On the final day of his trip, Ambassador Mulhall had an incredible visit to Glacier National Park, which is a sister park with Killarney National Park in County Kerry.



The agreement between the two parks was signed in a virtual ceremony in 2021 and facilitates collaboration related to the management of these cherished, protected places. Killarney National Park, managed by the National Parks and Wildlife Service of Irelands Department of Housing, Local Government & Heritage, and Glacier National Park, managed by the U.S. National Park Service, have many common issues including; heavy visitation, controlling exotic and invasive species, outreach with local communities, and ecological monitoring. Under their sister agreement the parks will share best practices through the exchange of technical and professional knowledge, data, technology, training, and possible site visits.

Glacier National Park was an excellent way to conclude the trip- ending on a note of international cooperation and Irelands global connections.

For local Montana press and other media coverage of the visit please follow the links below:

NBC News Local-Ambassador of Ireland Visits Montana

Montana Standard- Irish Ambassador Feels a Kinship to Butte

Irish Ambassador Daniel Mulhall visits Montana

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Minister Byrne welcomes decision of President von der Leyen to make 2022 Year of the European Youth

Press release

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen delivered her annual State of the Union address this morning, outlining her vision for Europe for the year ahead.

Speaking after the address, Minister for European Affairs, Thomas Byrne T.D. praised von der Leyens clear vision for the European Union:

Von der Leyens address focused on pragmatic solutions to the problems facing citizens. I was particularly struck by her recognition of the impact the Covid-19 pandemic has had on our youth: a generation that sacrificed so much to keep others safe. The decision of the Commission to make 2022 the Year of the European Youth recognises this sacrifice. In particular, I welcome that the President has announced a new programme which will offer concrete and tangible benefits to young European citizens.

The ALMA programme will offer young people the possibility of work experience in other member states. The programme aims to help those young people who do not have a job, or who have not received education and training, those who have fallen through the cracks. The Erasmus programme has been an enormous success and many Irish students have benefited from it. I hope ALMA will follow in the success of the Erasmus programme and look forward to developing this initiative here in Ireland

I also hope that young Irish citizens will also get involved in the Conference on the Future of Europe and have their say on what they would like the EU to look like in the next five, ten, twenty years and would strongly encourage them to do so. The Conferences Digital Platform (www.futureu.europe.eu) is one such practical means of engaging and starting a conversation on where Europe is headed.

ENDS

Press Office

15 September 2021

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Jio has been largely credited with Internet penetration in tier-2 and tier-3 cities in India, and now, with its newest offering launched, it should further its mission to bring internet literacy all over the country. This new Jio Phone recharge plan is priced at Rs 75, making it the cheapest offering from the company so far.

What does the new Jio Phone recharge plan include?

The Rs 75 recharge gives users access to unlimited phone calls over 28 days of validity. It also includes 50 SMSs per day and 200MB of data per day. Users will be able to access a host of Jio apps like JioTV, JioCinema, JioNews, JioSecurity, and JioCloud, which should allow users to gain access to a host of content.

When will the next Jio Phone be launched?

Jio has also announced that it has delayed the launch of its next smartphone to Diwali. While this news came as a blow to fans of the company, the latest Jio Phone recharge plan should help keep their gloominess at bay.

Isnt the new Jio Phone recharge plan more expensive?

If one is to compare the old Jio Phone recharge plan (Rs 39) with the new one, its quite apparent that while on paper this plan may seem costlier, it actually works out to be more or less the same. The old Jio recharge plan priced at Rs 39 offered a validity period of 14 days along with 100MB data. This new plan offers double. While the Rs 69 plan offered 0.5GB of data per day along with 100SMSs, it also had a validity period of only 14 days. Hence, the new Jio Phone recharge plan works out to be much cheaper and should facilitate widespread smartphone adoption in tier-2 and tier-3 cities in India.

Also Read: New Jio plans now come bundled with a Disney+Hotstar subscription and more
Washington State Broadband Office

Eychaner

Dawn Eychaner will serve as acting director of the Washington State Broadband Office effective Sept. 30, when current director Russ Elliott leaves the position to serve as Chief Executive Officer of a California telecommunications carrier. Eychaner has served as deputy director of the office since June this year. Eychaner has a background in local infrastructure financing with the Washington State Public Works and Community Economic Revitalization Boards, as well as significant policy experience in the legislature on issues and programs related to early learning, temporary aid to needy families, food assistance and affordable housing.

Since it was established in 2019 with a minimal budget and two full time staff, the Washington State Broadband Office has built successful public-private partnerships across the state to meet the state's aggressive broadband goals and break down digital equity barriers.




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SEATTLE (AP)  Seattle COVID-19 testing sites created over the coronavirus pandemic have administered one million tests since operations began in 2020, officials said.

Mayor Jenny Durkan said Tuesday in a news release that the free testing has been used by more than one in three Seattle residents.





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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP)  Just because a house under construction isn't finished and lacks key features doesn't mean it's not a dwelling under the New Mexico law that makes burglary of a residence a crime, an appellate court ruled for the first time.

The New Mexico Court of Appeals ruled Thursday in case from San Juan County, upholding Albert Dell Shelby's conviction for residential burglary of a home that was enclosed and had a complete exterior but had an incomplete interior and lacked utility services.





. . .
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SEATTLE  The Envoy Apartments, at 821 Ninth Ave., sold for almost $9.5 million, according to King County records.

The seller was Win Forever LLC, which acquired the property in 2015 for almost $5.3 million.





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Dundalk Stadium has announced that BetVictor has signed a new sponsorship deal for quarter four of 2021 where the bookmaker will have precedence over most of the autumn into winter fixtures commencing this Friday 17th September.

With 22 fixtures from September 17th to December 17th it is the Stadiums busiest time of year. Their signature Floodlit Fridays and racing twice a week from the end of October to the end of December will give punters plenty of opportunities to enjoy the many BetVictor sponsored races on site with the re-opening of Hospitality Packages also returning on Friday

Director of Sportsbook Matt Scarrott spoke on behalf of BetVictor regarding the sponsorship; We are delighted to be back sponsoring at Dundalk once again, the action at Irelands only all-weather track always offers our customers competitive betting heats as well as the chance to see a future star or two emerge. We hope our deal across twenty race-days this year will help to support the Irish racing industry and is a sign of our ongoing commitment to the sport.

Jim Martin, CEO Dundalk Stadium said; It is great to be working closely with BetVictor again, we are very grateful for their support of our track and Irish Racing. It is going to be an action packed season and we are very much looking forward to opening our Restaurant doors for the first time in a year and a half so people can experience BetVictors contribution up close and personal.

Dundalk Stadium is now taking bookings for indoor and outdoor packages online: https://www.dundalkstadium. com/booktickets.
Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly confirmed to Senator Erin McGreehan that his department will be establishing a Specialist Menopause clinic at the National Maternity Hospital Dublin.

This will be the first of its kind in Ireland and will provide specialist guidance and advice.

The clinic is due to open this year, and it is expected that additional regional clinics will be delivered in 2022.

Louth Senator Erin McGreehan said: In the Seanad this year the Fianna Fail Senators discussed the significant issues women were facing in accessing the appropriate healthcare such as menopause supports so I am pleased to see the Minister listening to the calls made, and responding appropriately.

Women generally live one-third of their lives post-menopause.

"The quality of that third of their lives very much depends on the support and treatments they receive during the menopause- with 80% of women having a difficult menopause.

In the past women have been denied treatment and given incorrect treatment. We need to change that for women who will go through the menopause in future, and the clinic announced by Minister Donnelly is a huge step in the right direction for women.

"This will be a vital service, and one that we have needed for some time.

Senator McGreehan concluded: I want to commend Minister Donnelly for his commitment to this issue, and for tackling it head-on.

"I look forward to continuing to work with him to further improve womens access to vital female-specific healthcare.
An international project that uses cultural events and festivals to help teach primary school students is set to host its first meeting since Covid-19 hit in Dundalk today.

Culture United, which has previously held meetings in the Netherlands and Scotland, will today meet in Dundalk due to its heritage and closeness to Irish legends.

The project partners will meet in the historical town of Dundalk, Ireland, a place rich in heritage and surrounded by Irish legends. A perfect setting to fit the theme of this project, said the group in a statement.

The aim of the project is to utilise cultural events and heritage festivals to incorporate multidisciplinary methods of teaching in primary schools.

According to the project, this way of teaching helps students to become more engaged with what they are learning and that it also contributes to the cultural and social development of students, alongside their creativity.

The goal of the partner meeting is to continue developing educational materials for teachers to learn how to incorporate culture in their classrooms in a multidisciplinary way, said the group.

Meeting in person will help to build partner relationships and allow various members to contribute in new ways to the project.

Moreover, the partners will be able to experience in real life how their fellow partners includes culture and events into their primary school teaching.

The Irish partners in the project include Creative Spark and Gaelscoil Dhun Dealgan, who have said that they are delighted to welcome their international colleagues to Dundalk.

The meetings will last for two days and the group will also visit cultural sites in Dundalk, with a focus on the SEEK Contemporary Urban Arts Festival.

The group will also participate in Culture Night events with both Creative Spark and AAEX in St Helenas Park.
AAEX (Art as Exchange) and the Monaghan Poets and Songwriters Group (MOPOSOGS) will present poems, prose and song in response to artworks, exhibited alongside, on Culture Night, Friday, September 17 at St. Helenas Park from 6p to 8pm.

The event will kick off a three-day art event called Art in the Park celebrating five years of AAEX, supported by Create Louth, Creative Spark, Creative Ireland, Dundalk Credit Union and The Arts Council.

Awash With Colour is a form of artistic call and response where visual artists respond to written work and vice versa, conceived by AAEX member Caoimhe ODwyer, leveraging an existing connection between Julie Corcoran of AAEX and Monaghan Poets and Songwriters Group leader Dara MacGabhann.

Initiated in late 2020, during lockdown, Awash With Colour was a way for artists to connect virtually on Zoom from Counties Louth, Monaghan, Cavan and Donegal and even Detroit where MOPOSOGS member Enda Reilly dialled in from a different time zone.

The project provided a way to stay connected and create new work during a time when many artists and performers found themselves working from home and performances, classes and meetings held through Zoom, using art and writing as a tool of stimulation.

Initiated with no specific outcomes in mind, the project took shape quickly and grew in momentum, resulting in 94 different artworks, songs and texts in total by 21 artists and 16 writers.

Assigning partners was not pre-ordained. We had a list of our artists in alphabetical order from AAEX and I assigned a writer to each artist according as the written pieces were submitted. Dara from MOPOSOGS assigned artworks to writers in a similar way. There has been a touch of serendipity about the pairings, with incredible outcomes, says artist/designer Caoimhe ODwyer.

The Culture Night event will present just a selection of the works created. However, a full exhibition of all works of Awash With Colour will take place at Iontas Arts Centre, Castleblaney, Co. Monaghan with a launch event on 9th December. The exhibition will run till January.

The buzz and energy from this project is phenomenal and way beyond our expectations. Its amazing how artists who have never met each other can be so tuned in to each others work says Dara MacGabhann, as far as we are concerned Culture

Night and the exhibition at the Iontas are just a start. There may be more to come.

The Culture Night event is free but tickets need to be booked at aaex.eventbrite.ie A full list of events for the weekend can be found on aaex.artspark.ie/artinthepar.
After a break in 2020, 15 volunteer groups have signed up for Clean Coasts Big Beach Clean 2021 and are ready to tackle litter in County Louth.

Over 400 volunteers will help to tackle marine litter in County Louth from 17th to 19th September.

People wishing to register for the Big Beach Clean at Templetown beach this Saturday September 18th can do so on https://www. eventbrite.ie/e/big-beach- clean-2021-templetown-beach- tickets-167460180909

The event will be launched on Friday 17th of September and will run until the 19th of September, the same weekend as International Coastal Cleanup.

Clean Coasts, supported by Cully and Sully, will provide volunteers with clean up kits.

The Big Beach Clean is an annual call-to-action organized by Clean Coasts that calls volunteers from communities all over Ireland getting involved to remove litter from our beautiful coast at the end of the bathing season, as part of the International Coastal Clean-up (ICC), operated internationally by Ocean Conservancy.

The initiative is also an opportunity for the over 400 registered volunteers to get involved in a worldwide citizen science project, which will entail collecting the amount and types of litter on Irish beaches and filling in Clean Coasts Marine Litter Data Cards that will help heighten awareness about the issue of marine litter serving as an indicator of the magnitude of the problem.

This year will see the involvement of the National Spring Clean programme once again with registrations having been open nationwide to all residents of Ireland, no matter how far from the coast they are based.

Statistics have shown that over 70% of plastic pollution affecting our ocean comes from land-based actions.

For this reason, Clean Coasts have asked volunteers to help prevent litter from entering our waterways and seas by holding a clean-up no matter where they are in the country and tackling the problem at the source.

Founder Cullen Allen (Cully) said, Cully & Sully are proud to be partners with the Big Beach Clean again for 2021. The work carried out by the teams across the Island of Ireland is amazing and unfortunately very much needed during these times. We all use our local beaches and have spent time on many of the beautiful beaches and waterways across Ireland and are so thankful for the work that the groups and organisations do.

Clean Coasts would like to thank the over 6,500 volunteers who signed up for this call to action nationwide for their commitment and effort.

A map of clean-ups organised by volunteers is available on our website. For more information visit www.cleancoasts/org.
Early Childhood Ireland (ECI) is calling on the government to take the childcare investment crisis seriously.

ECI made the call today as TDs return to Dail Eireann after the summer recess.

The early years organisation wants the government to meet their commitment to double investment in childcare by 2028, as well as include a detailed plan as part of Budget 2022.

According to ECI, serious concerns about staffing and working conditions have been raised with local representatives recently.

Director of Policy with ECI, Frances Byrne, said the situation "simply cannot go on" and that the sector's 30,000 staff have lived with "uncertainty and insecurity" for too long.

She said, Throughout the COVID-19 crisis, the Government recognised the unique challenges faced by the childcare sector  because of historic under-funding  by introducing specific supports such as a bespoke Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme  which, even as the rest of society is showing signs of recovery, continues to support more salaries in childcare settings than in any other sector. By providing additional funding, the government has recognised childcare as an essential public service and we sincerely hope that will not be forgotten about in the upcoming budget."

Budget 2022, which will be announced in the Dail in just four weeks, must build on this and establish a multi-annual funding and reform plan, which values early years and after-school care as much as primary and secondary education," she said.
By The Staff of The News

CLOVIS  Eastern New Mexico residents with business  or pleasure  in Dallas-Fort Worth will have another travel option this fall.

Starting Nov. 1, the Clovis Regional Airport will offer passenger service to the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.

A news release from the city of Clovis states tickets will go on sale Oct. 1.

The Clovis airport, through Denver Air Connection, will continue to provide direct flights to Denver as well, the release said.

DAC currently provides 12 non-stop round trips per week to the Denver International Airport using its 30-passenger Dornier 328 Jet aircraft, according to the release. In November, flight schedules will be split evenly between Dallas and Denver.

Some area residents were disappointed last year to learn DAC would not be traveling to Dallas from Clovis as its predecessor, Boutique Air, had done since 2014. Officials said the U.S. Department of Transportation made the decision to change directions as part of the federally subsidized Essential Air Service operations.

Boutique made its final Clovis to DFW flight April 30 of last year, and DAC took over the following day.

Denver Air Connection is driven first by the needs and wants of the communities we serve; adding DFW to Clovis air service is part of our commitment to you, said Jon Coleman of Denver Air Connection in Tuesday's news release.

It wasn't immediately clear what times or days flights to Dallas might be offered. A woman who answered the phone for DAC on Tuesday said she didn't have any information on possible flight times. DAC's website  flyclovisnm.com  on Tuesday did not list Dallas options for scheduling.

DAC currently offers at least one flight daily to Denver.
CLOVIS  Four, if not all five, of Curry County's commission districts will see some level of upheaval by the end of the year, as the Census-driven process of redistricting is starting to take shape.

Commissioners heard a first presentation on the matter during Tuesday's commission meeting, where John Sharp of Research and Polling said the plan is to have three different redistricting plans for commissioners to approve by Dec. 31.

Sharp said the ideal population for each district is 9,686, representing one-fifth of the total county population of 48,430, but a 5% margin either way is acceptable. That means each district must be between 9,202 and 10,170 people.

While the county is only up 54 residents from 2010, Sharp said new district lines are needed because population changes tend to be unequal over time.

The current populations of each district:

 District 1: 8,890, down 568 (6%) from the 2010 population of 9,458

 District 2: 10,266, up 342 (3.4%) from the 2010 population of 9,924

 District 3: 9.827, down 166 (1.7%) from the 2010 population of 9,993

 District 4: 8,453, down 1,240 (12.8%) from the 2010 population of 9,693

 District 5: 10,994, up 1,686 (18.1%) from the 2010 population of 9,308.

Basically, Sharp said, Districts 1 and 4 need to grow, District 2 and 5 need to shrink and District 3 could ostensibly stay where it is. However, he warned decisions are not made in a vacuum, and any change to one district will affect at least one other district.

Commissioner Chet Spear noted that under the current district lines, Districts 1 (represented by Robert Sandoval) and 2 (James Ridling) are almost entirely within city limits. Spear said all of Sandoval's voters are in city limits and 95% of Ridling's are as well.

We're county commissioners, Spear said, with emphasis on county. Each commissioner should have unincorporated parts of the county in their district. The three of us (remaining) pretty much control roads in the county, and that's not fair.

Fellow commissioners said they didn't disagree with Spear's point, but Chair Robert Thornton said it would be tough to honor that request and keep districts contiguous and compact. Thornton told Sharp that he'd like changes to impact as few residents as possible, while adding with a laugh he knew his instructions were basically, Change things, but don't change anything.

In other business at the Tuesday meeting:

 Fairground and Event Center Manager K.C. Messick reported the 2021 fair wasn't ideal, but still a great result. The total attendance of 29,308 exceeded projections of 20,000, and that was with rain hurting Thursday and Friday attendance.

Total amusement park profits were $293,565, up $38,500 from the 2019 fair. A total of $113,970 was paid to the county under its deal with Wright Amusements. Additionally, Messick said the county would receive a $41,000 payout from a rain interruption insurance policy.

I couldn't be prouder of my team, Messick said. We have a small team, but everybody jumped in and did a little bit of everything.

Commissioner Seth Martin told Messick he appreciated the way his staff has worked with the extension office staff. Messick said in meetings over the last few years, the group has always spoke in terms of us instead of you and me.

 The commission approved a settlement with the New Mexico Tax and Revenue Department for underpayment of gross receipts taxes between 2010 and 2017. The county, after legal fees, will see $87,814.41.

 The commission voted to no longer send a commissioner as a representative on the city of Clovis Senior Services Committee. Spear, who is the current nominee, said the county is adequately represented through its Retired Senior Volunteer and Foster Grandparents programs. Even though the membership is a non-voting role, Spear said the mere presence of a commissioner can sometimes influence a vote.

 A resolution was approved asking the state to rework Public Employee Retirement Association guidelines to make it less punitive for retired employees to come back in limited roles. County Manager Lance Pyle said retirees would benefit by working a few hours to supplement incomes, and municipalities would have access to knowledgeable employees.

Pyle said getting the state to change the rules would be a challenge, but he is contacting other municipalities to join the effort.

 Commissioners approved an amended contract for administrative services with the Central Curry Soil and Water Conservation District on land trust matters. County Attorney Steve Doerr brought the contract to the commission's attention, and commissioners voted 4-1 to accept the contract that added contract employees to the services agreement. Sandoval cast the dissenting vote.

 The county's Infrastructure and Capital Improvements Plan was approved. The top five capital outlay projects for the upcoming year were fairgrounds improvements, upgrades to Curry roads 6 and 10, a building for the Countyline Volunteer Fire Department, equipment barn covering and elevator repairs at the county courthouse.

 In commissioner reports, Thornton and Spear said they were impressed with the 9/11 Flag of Honor Across America ceremony that Curry County held on Saturday.

The county was one of 60 founding communities in the project, which collectively remembered every victim of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the Feb. 26, 2003, World Trade Center attack. Spear credited Community Programs Coordinator Kristian Price for putting on the event.

Thornton said he was a volunteer that read one of the victim's names, and the experience made him want to find out more about that person.

 The next meeting is scheduled for 9 a.m. Oct. 12 at the Curry County Administrative Complex.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has adopted a new country strategy for the Czech Republic focusing on supporting the green and inclusive economic recovery from the Covid-19 crisis.

In response to a request by the Czech authorities triggered by the severe economic impact of the pandemic the EBRD agreed earlier this year to resume investing in the country. The EBRDs re-engagement will be temporary and not exceed a period of up to five years. It will be limited in scope and focused on the private sector.

The newly adopted country strategy creates the foundation for this engagement. The document states that the EBRD will apply its skills, knowledge and products to help reboot the Czech economy. The Bank will provide an additional source of funding, ensuring the complementarity of its offer with the European Unions Recovery and Resilience Facility. With its approach the EBRD will focus on equity, capital market transactions and structured financed.

The EBRD will also support the countrys reform agenda, in particular in relation to climate change adaptation and in line with its commitments under the Paris Agreement. The Bank is also available to work with Czech partners to assist other countries of operations in their transition process, including through regional projects, knowledge sharing and cross-border investment.

The EBRD stopped investing in the Czech Republic at the end of 2007 following the countrys request to graduate from being a recipient of the Banks funds. However, the Czech Republic always remained a shareholder of the EBRD and supported Czech companies in third markets. The new approach will be reviewed after three years.
This week the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) marks 15 years since the start of its operations in Mongolia and establishment of its resident office in Ulaanbaatar. During this time the EBRD has invested US$ 2.1 billion in various sectors of the national economy. Ninety-three per cent of the Banks loans were extended to private companies, making the EBRD the largest lender to Mongolias private sector out of the international financial institutions (IFIs).

In Mongolia the EBRD is helping to promote the countrys resilience by supporting non-extractive sectors of the economy, providing better access to finance and improving energy supply. The Bank is also working to improve the sustainability of infrastructure services through greater efficiency, commercialisation and green technologies.

After providing its first loan to XacBank in 2006, the EBRD significantly expanded its work with local financial institutions such as Khan Bank, XacBank (including its subsidiary XacLeasing) and Transcapital through its Trade Facilitation Programme, small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) and energy efficiency lending facilities and risk-sharing schemes. To date, almost 190,000 loans worth more than US$ 535 million of EBRD funds have been provided to local micro and small businesses.

In early 2021 the EBRD and the Bank of Mongolia set up a long-term dollar-tugrik (MNT) swap facility to increase the availability of local currency financing to Mongolian businesses affected by the coronavirus pandemic. The swap helped the EBRD secure reliable access to MNT liquidity and to provide local currency loans both directly and through local banks to companies in such sectors as agribusiness, building materials, light manufacturing and services, as well as to SMEs which employ over 40 per cent of the countrys population.

A lot has been done to promote sustainable infrastructure and green municipal solutions, both in the countrys capital Ulaanbaatar and beyond. The city, with a population of 1.4 million, became the first municipality in Asia to join the EBRDs Green Cities programme and is now addressing environmental and infrastructure challenges. As part of the Ulaanbaatar Green City Action Plan, the city is improving its waste management. This work is supported by the Republic of Korea and the European Union (EU).

A major step towards improved regional integration and international trade between Mongolia, China and Russia is the reconstruction of a 202-km road between Mongolias capital and Darkhan, the third-largest city in Mongolia and 100 km south of the border with Russia.

The promotion of renewable energy is another area where the Bank has been active in Mongolia. The EBRD has financially supported the construction of the Sainshand, Salkhit and Tsogttsetsii wind farms. These facilities are today helping to reduce the countrys carbon emissions and provide a better energy mix.

Mongolias mining sector is a major contributor to the national GDP. The EBRD has been working with international and local mining companies such as Rio Tinto, Energy Resources, Kincora Copper and Erdene Resource Development to promote sustainable mining in line with best international corporate and environmental standards.

The Banks efforts to support non-extractive industries in Mongolia gave a major boost to local agribusiness producers such as the juice manufacturer Vitafit, beverage producers APU and MCS, the food producer Teso Group and the countrys leading dairy company Suu Milk. With the help of the EBRD, Suu Milk is renewing its transport fleet, serving more than 2,500 nomadic herders across Mongolia.

For 15 years the Bank has also been supporting the countrys traditional industries such as the production of cashmere with loans to the local manufacturers Gobi and Ezio Foradori. The cashmere sector is one of Mongolias key industries; the country is the largest supplier of cashmere wool in the world, accounting for 30 per cent of global production.

EBRD funds have also helped to develop other modern production facilities for clients such as Mongolias leading pharmaceutical conglomerate Monos Group and the leading local logistics company Terra Express.

Almost 600 micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in Mongolia, including those in remote rural areas, have participated in various advisory projects supported by the EU and implemented by the EBRD. More than half of them are women-led businesses. These projects have helped create almost 5,000 new jobs, increased their efficiency and productivity and widened product range.

Hannes Takacs, EBRD Head of Mongolia, said: The EBRD is very proud to have contributed to the development of so many good projects in Mongolia. Our work of making the countrys economy greener, more diversified, sustainable, inclusive and digital, is far from complete. These are the challenges we look forward to tackling.

To date, the EBRD has invested more than US$ 1.85 billion in Mongolias economy through 116 projects.
By Cate McCurry, PA

The Government is to donate at least one million vaccines to low-income countries, it has been confirmed.

The Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly and the Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney said that Ireland will donate the doses to the Covax programme.

It comes as the European Union said it will donate another 200 million Covid-19 vaccines to developing countries.

Mr Donnelly said that universal and fair access to Covid-19 vaccines and treatments is a priority for Ireland and for the EU.

Every COVID-19 vaccine makes a difference, helping to reduce the amount of severe illness caused by #COVID19.



If you haven't had your vaccine yet, check with your pharmacist or GP or register online. Because every vaccine makes a difference #ForUsAll



 https://t.co/Zy23PZjexC pic.twitter.com/5wlw6P2Z5m  HSE Ireland (@HSELive) September 15, 2021

The Covax programme aims to provide poorer states with vaccines from wealthy countries.

As the current phase of Irelands vaccination programme nears completion, it is important for Ireland to demonstrate solidarity with developing countries during this global pandemic, Mr Donnelly said.

I am very pleased therefore to announce that Ireland will contribute one million Covid-19 vaccines to the Covax global vaccine initiative.

This donation represents the first step in Irelands commitment to Covax and vaccine donation, with other possibilities for vaccine sharing to help those most in need likely to arise later in the year.

Mr Coveney said he is delighted to share Irelands surplus vaccines.

It is a mark of Irelands solidarity with developing countries during this truly global crisis, he added.

To keep ourselves safe, we must ensure everyone is protected from Covid-19.

This virus does not respect international borders, as we have learned.

Minister of State for Overseas Aid and the Diaspora Colm Brophy added: To ensure that the vaccination rollouts in recipient countries are well-managed and well-resourced, my department has also allocated an additional 3 million to Covax before the end of the year.

This brings Irelands total contribution to Covax to 7 million in 2021, part of Irelands contribution to Global Health of over 100 million.
Press Association

Updated 8.20pm

Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney has survived a motion of no confidence after the Dail voted confidence by 92 votes to 59.

Controversy surrounding the failed appointment of former government minister Katherine Zappone as a special envoy to the United Nations led to the motion of no confidence in Mr Coveney being tabled by Sinn Fein.

Amid lengthy debate on Wednesday evening, the Dail heard a claim from Sinn Fein TD Matt Carthy that Minister for Further and Higher Education Simon Harris was the Cabinet member who leaked the proposed appointment of Ms Zappone.

Mr Carthy claimed that rather than dealing with the debacle, Fine Gael were running a sting operation to expose that Simon Harris had leaked the appointment from the Cabinet meeting because that is how business is done.

Appointments to public bodies right up to the Supreme Court are decided not by what you know, but who you know, he added.

A spokeswoman for Mr Harris said later this was a clear misuse of Dail privilege and it is untrue, according to The Irish Times.

'Cheap publicity'

The Government's counter motion of confidence in Mr Coveney was passed on Wednesday night with the support of a number of Independents.

The debate began just minutes after TD Marc MacSharry resigned from the Fianna Fail parliamentary party, saying he intended to vote no confidence in Mr Coveney. Taoiseach Micheal Martin said he regrets the resignation and wishes Marc well in a statement.

As the Dail debate opened, Mr Martin accused Sinn Fein of tabling the motion of no confidence to get publicity and deliver populist partisan attacks.

Tanaiste Leo Varadkar meanwhile accused the party of attempting to hound a decent man out of office for cheap publicity.

Mr Martin said there was no question or debate about the substantive issues in the Zappone controversy.

They are uncontested, he said. The position involved was intended to be part-time and awarded no permanent benefits to anyone.

There is no allegation of a benefit being sought for or conferred on any office holder, and ultimately as we know, no-one was appointed to the role.

However, Mr Martin added that the matter was a perfectly legitimate issue of public concern and said the creation of the envoy role and appointment process was handled carelessly and badly.

'Caught red-handed'

Sinn Fein president Mary-Lou McDonald, whose party moved the no-confidence motion against Mr Coveney, said they were acting against the culture of cronyism at the very heart of this government.

She said the motion was brought because the Taoiseach refuses to do his job, he refuses to hold Minister Simon Coveney to account.

Ms McDonald claimed Mr Coveney sought to make up a job for a friend and a former colleague, and when caught red-handed he went about covering his tracks.

This is by any standard an abuse of office and Sinn Fein was left with no option but to move a no-confidence motion, she said.

She accused Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and the Green Party to cast this fiasco as a non-issue and said the issue goes to the heart of how politics has been conducted in this state for decades.

Coveney 'too defensive'

Speaking in the Dail as TDs debated confidence in him, Mr Coveney said he should have and could have dealt with controversy around the appointment of Ms Zappone much more comprehensively in early August.

He said he had not taken the issue seriously enough and was too defensive in interviews, allowing speculation to drift into a political narrative that does not reflect the truth of what actually happened.

Mr Coveney said in 23 years in politics, he made mistakes but that he has never had his integrity questioned in the way that it has been in the last month leading to this debate.

I regret this issue has distracted from the important work that weve been trying to do and for the mistake made by me in advance of the cabinet decision, and subsequently in terms of not clearing these issues up earlier, he said.

Ive apologised to the Taoiseach and my colleagues, and I do so again this evening to everybody in this house.

Mr Coveney defended his decision to appoint Ms Zappone as a special envoy following an extensive process, [which] was in no way corrupt or dishonest.

It was a genuine effort to add to the credibility and effectiveness of Ireland in an area of promoting human rights and freedom of expression, he said.

'Friend and colleague'

Among those who expressed support for Mr Coveney was the Tanaiste, who said it was an honour to express his full confidence in his friend and colleague, adding he knows nobody more committed to public service.

Mr Varadkar said Mr Coveney made mistakes when it came to the appointment of Katherine Zappone as special envoy that he had acknowledged and apologised for.

He stressed the need for balance, paying tribute to Mr Coveneys work on the New Decade New Approach deal in January 2020 which led to the restoration of the Stormont Assembly and referenced his role in Brexit negotiations.

Sinn Fein knows the work that he put in to ensure there was no hard border in Ireland yet they seek tonight to hound an honourable man out of office for cheap publicity and political gain, he said.

Green Party leader Eamon Ryan also expressed his backing for Mr Coveney, describing him in politics as tough, gruelling but fair, knowledgeable, committed and sincere in all the dealings that I have had with him.

He added that Brexit has proven what a capable foreign minister he has been and is at this present time.
Pretty much all of us have insurance of one sort or another. We (hopefully) have health insurance. Some of us have life insurance. We have insurance on our cars, on our homes, sometimes even on our pets.

Insurance is designed so that you pay a small amount on a regular basis over time. Then, if you need it, its there for you to use when things go bad. Its a bit like a savings account and it works because not everyone will need to use it.

But, make no mistake: Insurance isnt a giveaway. Its YOUR money and you pay for insurance hoping you never need it back. But, its also a peace of mind, allowing you to live without fear of losing everything.

If you need any proof that insurance isnt a giveaway, look no further than the profit statements of virtually every insurance company. They are hugely profitable; again, with YOUR money.

Unemployment insurance (UI) is no different. Heres how it works (via the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, emphasis mine):

The federal-state unemployment insurance system helps people who have lost their jobs and are eligible for benefits by temporarily replacing part of their lost wages. Created in 1935, UI is a form of social insurance in which employers pay taxes (which economists believe are financed by reductions in their employees compensation) into the UI system and states use those funds to provide income support to workers and their families if they lose their jobs. To qualify for UI benefits, a person must have lost a job through no fault of his or her own and be ready, willing, and able to take a suitable new job. Unemployment insurance does not cover people who leave a job voluntarily, people looking for their first job, or re-entrants who previously left the labor force voluntarily. For the past 25 years, fewer than half of unemployed workers have actually received unemployment insurance, except during recessions. The average unemployment benefit is about $300 per week [] The total number of weeks of benefits available in any particular state depends on the unemployment rate and unemployment insurance laws in the state where the person worked. Workers are eligible for up to 26 weeks of benefits from the regular, state-funded UI program in most states.

A common misconception about UI is that it is a giveaway to lazy people who dont want to work. This absurd notion ignores the fact that this is the workers money, paid into over their lives whether they use it or not. Its also not truly enough to live on, generally replacing half or less of your income.

Another misconception is that UI isnt funded by employees but is actually paid for by employers. Technically this is true. However, as the CBPP citation above notes, businesses arent charities so employers effectively reduce your income by the amount they pay into UI. In other words, without UI, your wages would be that much higher. So, the reality is that workers DO pay for it with their income.

The CBPP citation also notes that Workers are eligible for up to 26 weeks of benefits from the regular, state-funded UI program in most states. Thats true for virtually all of the Midwestern states but one: Michigan. In 2011, Republican Governor Rick Snyder signed into law legislation passed by the all-Republican legislature that reduced the time you can receive UI benefits from 26 weeks to 20 weeks starting in 2012. If you are unemployed in Michigan, your benefits (i.e., YOUR money) end a full month and a half before those of unemployed residents of the neighboring states.

Its time for Michigan to restore unemployment benefits to the full 26 weeks to bring us into parity with states like Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and New York. Especially now, when so many people have lost their jobs due to the pandemic and struggle to find new employment due to depressed wages, fear of COVID-19, and lack of affordable  or in some cases ANY  childcare, a full 26 weeks of UI benefits is critical.

Sadly, that is unlikely to happen with the current hard-right legislature we have in our state. The first step in moving back to the 26 weeks of UI benefits we had in Michigan until 2012 is to educate people about the what UI really is: INSURANCE. Not a giveaway. Not charity. Not a handout. Insurance that you pay into with YOUR wages over your entire working career.

Spread the word.


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Amazon is launching two initiatives aimed at better preparing individuals and businesses to deal with cybersecurity threats and hardening the authentication of users of its AWS cloud.

In a post on the aboutamazon.com website, the company announced that beginning in October, which is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, it will make available to the public the training materials it's developed in-house to keep its employees and sensitive information safe from cyberattacks.

It also revealed that it will be offering "qualified" Amazon Web Services customers a free multifactor authentication device designed to strengthen the security of their cloud environments.

"A fundamental problem when addressing current cybersecurity threats is education, which is why we're excited to share our Amazon Security Awareness training for free, to help organizations and individuals understand how to navigate and fight against security events," AWS CISO Steve Schmidt said in the web post.

"And by giving qualified AWS customers access to free MFA tokens, we've made it even easier for companies to use this powerful tool to protect their data and important technology assets," he added.

Jake Williams, co-founder and CTO of BreachQuest, an incident response company in Dallas called the release of Amazon's training materials "a game changer, in particular for small to mid-sized businesses."

"Security awareness training can have substantial impacts in preventing breaches," he told TechNewsWorld.

"Amazon's training will put a quality product within reach for organizations that wouldn't have it otherwise, likely preventing thousands of breaches every year," he said. "If there's one thing in the announcement that will give threat actors a big headache, this is it."

Flexible Curriculum

Amazon explained that people and organizations need security training to identify and keep themselves safe from social engineering attacks, such as those mounted in phishing emails and scam phone calls. The rub, though, is people and businesses don't have the time to take training courses that, while effective, can take hours.

Amazon's training materials, the company noted, form a digestible and succinct curriculum that's enabled its employees to anticipate possible security threats. The materials follow proven neuroscience and adult learning principles to enhance content retention, it added.

The curriculum is also flexible, it continued, so businesses and organizations can build on it to suit their needs.

In addition, the materials are regularly updated to accommodate the changing threat landscape.

"No employee wants to see the same training more than once," observed Perry Carpenter, chief evangelist and strategy officer at KnowBe4, a security awareness training provider in Clearwater, Fla.

"One key to a successful security awareness program strategy is to always be putting key concepts in front of people in new and unique ways," he told TechNewsWorld.

"A redo of last year's training will not cut it," he said. "Materials need to be updated with fresh facts, new scenarios, and even to reflect new uses of language, cultural trends, brands and more."

"Not only do methods from threat actors change, but an organization's culture, its applications and infrastructure can also change," added Chenxi Wang, founder and general partner at Rain Capital, a venture capital firm in San Francisco.

"For those reasons," she told TechNewsWorld, "training materials must be constantly updated to maintain training efficacy.

'Symbolic Gesture'

Access to security training materials alone won't make an organization secure, asserted Doug Britton, CEO of Haystack Solutions, a cybersecurity talent assessment company in Kensington, Md.

"This is a symbolic gesture on behalf of AWS," he told TechNewsWorld. "Just having top shelf training materials won't ensure security," he said.

"How is an organization ensuring that staff take time to read and understand training materials?" he asked. "Is there a learning management system in place that tracks training? Is there a way to validate that staff have absorbed the information?"

"The culture of an organization is the critical element in making training materials most effective," he maintained.

An organization gets out of security training what it puts into it, Carpenter added.

"By that I mean that if an organization only plays lip service to security awareness and employee training, then they will wind up with a culture where people only pay lip service to security itself," he explained.

"But," he continued, "if an organization is willing to make a dedicated effort to deliver a transformational security awareness program, then it will pay off."

"Such a program is extremely intentional about communication, behavioral management, taking human nature into account and taking deliberate steps to foster a culture that values security," he said.

Free MFA Token

In addition to free training materials, Amazon will be offering some AWS users a free token that can be used with a password to access an organization's cloud assets.

In its online post Amazon explained that AWS customers with access to the AWS Management Console will be able to authenticate themselves by typing their passwords and then simply touching the MFA security token, which plugs into a USB port on their computer.

The free MFA token adds a layer of security to protect customers' AWS accounts against phishing, session hijacking, man-in-the-middle, and malware attacks, Amazon noted.

Customers can also use their MFA devices to safely access multiple AWS accounts, as well as other token-enabled applications, such as GitHub, Gmail, and Dropbox, it added.

"The use of hardware or software authentication tokens is vastly superior to SMS based two-factor authentication and can massively improve any organizations security," observed Chris Clements, vice president of solutions architecture at Cerberus Sentinel, a cybersecurity consulting and penetration testing company in Scottsdale, Ariz.

"SMS based two-factor authentication is routinely and simply bypassed by attackers using SIM swap attacks and should be avoided unless absolutely necessary," he told TechNewsWorld.

Carpenter noted, though, there is a downside to using physical tokens as an MFA factor.

"I love the idea of hardware tokens from a security perspective," he said, "but I am also realistic that hardware tokens are not for everyone."

"There is additional friction added for the user because now they have to train new habits and keep up with one more thing," he continued. "The physical token becomes one more thing that people have to keep track of."

Still, Amazon's weight as a company could change user sentiment about tokens.

"Given Amazon's market position and notoriety, it will certainly cause companies and people to pay attention to this move," observed Dean Coclin, senior director of business development at DigiCert, a digital security company in Lehi, Utah.

"The Fire Stick is a huge success for this company," he told TechNewsWorld. "Perhaps the 'Fire Token' will have a similar outcome."

John P. Mello Jr. has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2003. His areas of focus include cybersecurity, IT issues, privacy, e-commerce, social media, artificial intelligence, big data and consumer electronics. He has written and edited for numerous publications, including the Boston Business Journal, the Boston Phoenix, Megapixel.Net and Government Security News. Email John.


Specialist insurance broker GrECo acquires 100% of MAI CEE Ltd., a major risk, insurance and employee benefits consultant in CEE

(Vienna/GrECo)News Aktuell - The combined company, to be named GrECo, will be the leading professional services firm focused on the areas of risk and insurance management and employee benefits consultancy in CEE. GrECo has been active in Eastern Europe since 1989 and established a market-leading position with more than 1,000 employees in 16 countries.

MAI was founded in 1991 in Hungary and is active in 13 CEE countries with more than 240 employees, generating a revenue of 16 million EUR. MAI services over 15,000 corporate clients and places insurance premiums of 150 million EUR. With 20+ years in the company, the MAI executive board members are staying on board as part of GrECo's leadership team.

"We followed MAI's successful progress over the last decades, and made no secret of our long-standing respect for MAI and belief in the cultural compatibility of the two groups. I am confident that, as we bring the strengths of MAI into GrECo, we will have a significant influx of talent and create a combined group with deep expert skills and an unmatched CEE network in 18 countries. The acquisition of MAI adds a decisive momentum to the growth strategy of our entire group and significantly enhances our value proposition for clients and partners" says Friedrich Neubrand, Chief Executive Officer, GrECo International Holding AG.

Piotr Cieslak, MAI CEE Group*s Chief Executive Officer, summarizes: "MAI's foundation was traditionally the servicing of international business, meeting the requirements of over 260 insurance brokers and their clients from all over the world. Today we serve both international and local clients across the CEE, CIS and Caucasus region. GrECo, being fully committed to an independent future, is the best fit. The combination of the specialist solutions of GrECo and the network of MAI creates the largest broker in the region. Together we will continue to be an independent, professional and reliable partner for our clients and international broker partners."

Steve Bonynge, Group Chief Executive of the Oman based RMS LLC states: "RMS's decision to sell our 72.08% stake in MAI CEE reflects our strategy of serving clients in the Middle East and Asia. We believe the combination of GrECo and MAI CEE represents the best outcome for our clients in Central and Eastern Europe."

The transaction was signed on the 14 of September 2021, and the parties have agreed not to disclose the underlying purchase price of the transaction. Closing is subject to regulatory approvals.

About GrECo

The GrECo Group offers its clients individual solutions in risk and insurance management and is the leading insurance broker & consultant for corporations, associations and authorities in CEE. GrECo was founded in 1925 and is an independent, family-owned company, with the family Neubrand holding 86.67% of the shares. The GrECo Group is headquartered in Vienna, Austria and employs more than 1,000 people in 60 offices. In 2020 the Group placed a premium volume of 871 million EUR and generated total consolidated revenues of 101 million EUR.

About MAI MAI CEE Insurance Brokers Group was established in 1991 to bring international standards and a broad range of insurances to clients in the CEE, CIS and Caucases regions. MAI CEE has since grown considerably, gaining a presence in 26 countries in Central and Eastern Europe with 13 owned operations and 13 cooperation partners. In 2016 MAI CEE's shareholder structure changed following an MBO and the RMS Group, a leading Omani insurance broker, became the majority shareholder. The RMS Group operates throughout the Middle East and Indian Sub-Continent as well as through MAI CEE in CEE, CIS and Caucases.

GrECo International Holding AG

Petra Steininger | Head of Group Communications

p.steininger@greco.services

P: +43 50404 175 | +43 664 5485 558

MAI CEE Ltd.

Natalia Zaborovska | MAI CEE Group Network Director

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Residents and non-residents can now travel to IOM under a 'natural immunity' pathway

Along with the new border changes announced last week, residents and non-residents can now travel to the Isle of Man under a natural immunity pathway.

Anyone who provides proof of a positive PCR COVID-19 test on arriving in the Isle of Man can now be made exempt from testing by proving theyve been infected within the previous six months.

The new immunity exemption will be in place from 00:01 Thursday 16 September, and applies to residents and non-residents who enter this pathway on arrival.

Evidence of previous infection must be provided through PCR test confirmation, and at least 11 days must have elapsed since the previous positive result.

The exemption is only applicable to confirmed cases that have occurred within the Common Travel Area. The affected individual must also have remained within the Common Travel Area for the 10 days prior to arrival on the Island.

The approach follows guidance issued by the European Centre on Disease Control and mirrors COVID status certification in the UK and other parts of the world. Evidence from a number of studies point towards protection from reinfection for a number of months. And while people can remain positive for 10 days after diagnosis, they are unlikely to carry infectious viral particles after 10 days.

The Travel and Borders section of the COVID website will be updated to reflect the changes when they come in at midnight.

The exemption will not be applicable retrospectively meaning anyone already in isolation or booked for testing will continue to do so.
Sonys upcoming live-action adaptation of Twisted Metal has found its leading man. Altered Carbon and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier star Anthony Mackie will play the role of series protagonist John Doe. Deadline was the first to report on the casting. Were thrilled to have Anthony Mackie on board. His ability to blend comedy, action and drama is perfect for the Twisted world were creating, Asad Qizilbash, the head of Sonys PlayStation Productions unit, told the outlet.

News that Sony was developing a live-action adaptation of the Twisted Metal franchise first came out at the end of February. The company is billing the project as an action comedy, with Deadpool and Zombieland writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick set to produce the series. Cobra Kai scribe Michael Jonathan Smith is also on board to write and produce.
Ford, Walmart and Argo AI plan to launch autonomous vehicle delivery services in Miami, Austin, Texas and Washington DC later this year, Ford has announced. The service will focus on last mile deliveries and use Ford vehicles equipped with Argo's AI self-driving system to deliver Walmart orders. Don't count on driverless ghost cars pulling up to your house with groceries, however, as Argo emphasized that the new venture is all about "testing" and "potential."

"Our focus on the testing and development of self-driving technology that operates in urban areas where customer demand is high really comes to life with this collaboration," said Argo AI founder and CEO Bryan Salesky. "Working together with Walmart and Ford across three markets, were showing the potential for autonomous vehicle delivery services at scale."

Jared Wickerham/Argo A

Deliveries will be available in those cities "within defined service areas" and expand over time, Ford said. It will focus on next day or same day deliveries in urban cores, helping the players learn about autonomous technology as it relates to deliveries, particularly for logistics and operations.

Ford and Walmart previously announced a collaboration with Uber's PostMates to deliver goods in Miami, and it has been operating with Argo AI in Miami and Washington DC since 2018. All current testing is done with safety drivers at the wheel.

The Walmart delivery effort "marks a significant step toward scaling a commercial goods delivery service," according to Ford. Left unsaid, however, is that level 4 and higher autonomous driving is still a distant dream, even after many years of development. As such, vehicles are nowhere near ready to ply city streets without a safety driver at the wheel.
Microsoft has just rolled out an update fixing 66 security vulnerabilities as part of this month's Patch Tuesday. One of them addresses a critical zero-day vulnerability that's being actively exploited by hackers using Office files containing malicious ActiveX controls. A few days ago, Microsoft issued a warning about the flaw after being notified by security researchers who discovered that bad actors are exploiting it by tricking potential victims into opening malicious Office files. Upon being opened, the file automatically launches a page on Internet Explorer, which contains an ActiveX control that downloads malware onto the victim's computer.

When Microsoft published the warning, it didn't have a fix yet and only asked users to make sure Microsoft Defender Antivirus or Microsoft Defender for Endpoint are switch on. Both programs can detect attempts to exploit the vulnerability. It also advised users to disable all ActiveX controls on Internet Explorer. The vulnerability known as CVE-2021-40444 affects Windows Servers from version 2008 and Windows 7 through 10. Security researchers proved that the exploit is 100 percent reliable, and all it would take to infect a computer is to open the file a hacker sends. Now, the new update will make sure the flaw can't be exploited anymore.

In addition to patching CVE-2021-40444, the update also fixes two other critical flaws. As The Register notes, it fixes two remote code execution vulnerabilities for Windows WLAN AutoConfig Service and Open Management Infrastructure.
You no longer need to use the likes of Chrome or Safari if you want the occasional suggestions for web searches. Mozilla is rolling out a Firefox Suggest feature that, as the name implies, offers relevant links when you're typing in a search, whether from the general web or from Pocket. Look for Costa Rica, for instance, and you'll get a Wikipedia link to help you learn more about the country.

The company is also working on contextual suggestion that rely on sending typed searches, click info and "city-level" location info. That may raise concerns given Firefox's historical focus on privacy, but Mozilla stressed the handful of early US users would have to opt-in.

The larger concern may be the objectivity of some Suggest links. Mozilla also plans to recommend content from "sponsored, vetted partners," such as an eBay link when you look for Vans shoes. While Mozilla is promising "credible" material, these won't necessarily be the most logical, organic suggestions possible. You can simply launch a standard web search to ignore these de facto ads, but this does mean you'll want to look carefully at some links before you click them.
2021-09-15

Maeci

100.800 doses of the AstraZeneca (AZ) vaccine have arrived on 12 September to Iraq, as the first delivery from a pledge of 15 million doses to be donated to COVAX by Italy. In May this year, as chair of the G20, Italy hosted The Global Health Summit alongside the European Commission, which saw seven European countries pledge to share over 100 million vaccine doses to priority countries like Iraq, boosting short-term supplies.

This donation by Italy, one of the main contributors to Gavi, allows COVAX to deliver more vaccines in the third quarter of this year, meaning that more people will be able to access vaccines now, at a time when variants are a major threat to global health and stability.

Italy stands by Iraq and supports its efforts in tackling the Covid-19 pandemic said the Ambassador of Italy to Iraq, H. E. Mr. Bruno Pasquino, attending the delivery of the vaccines at the Baghdad International Airport together with the Director General of the Public Health Directorate of the Iraqi Ministry of Health, Dr. Riyadh Al-Hilfi, and the representatives of WHO and UNICEF to Iraq, Dr Ahmed Zouiten and Sheema SenGupta. This donation is a tangible sign of the solidarity and friendship ties between Italy and Iraq, with a view to contributing to economic, social and sanitary recovery.
2021-09-15

Maeci

The Italian Cultural Institute in London supports the first edition of the 'Art History Festival', celebrating the different languages related to art and visual culture.

The Italian Cultural Institute in London supports the first edition of the 'Art History Festival', celebrating the different languages related to art and visual culture.



The Festival, organised by the Association for Art History and to be repeated annually, will last one week. It starts online with a series of engaging, interactive and freely accessible digital events from Monday 20 to Thursday 23 September. Such events will be followed by two in-person events (24 and 25 September) at the National Gallery.



Throughout the Festival week, presentations and lively conversations exploring various topics, perspectives, historical periods and geographies are planned.

It will address from different perspectives how works of art, design and architecture provide insight into ourselves, others and cultures past and present.



For the programme and information on the Festival click here


Almeria

Hallan los cuerpos sin vida de un nino de corta edad y dos adultos en las playas de Vera y Carboneras, en Almeria
The European Union rejected a British demand to renegotiate their deal governing the trading position of Northern Ireland, saying that to so would only bring instability and uncertainty.
Jasper, IndianaKevin Schewe is racking up screenplay awards for Bad Love Strikes, the first in his Bad Love Gang book series, from all over the world. Over the last few weeks, he picked up his fifth and sixth awards at the New Wave Short Film Festival, in Munich, Germany, and the Seoul International Short Film Festival in Korea. Bad Love Medicine, the fourth installment, was just released and is receiving rave reviews.

The Seoul festival claims they "aim to become a place, a community, for unique, indie artists, for films/web-series/scripts that explore new approaches to the world of narrative and form. As our name suggests, we welcome submissions from all over the world as we strive to connect filmmakers, producers, screenwriters, actors, editors, music composers and etc. through a shared platform."

The four previous awards are Prix Royal Paris Silver Screenplay Award, Best Original Screenplay for Young Adults at the South Florida Intl. Film Festival, L.A. Film Award for Best Sci-Fi Screenplay and a Gold Script Writing Award for SciFi Adventure from the Depth of Field Intl. Film Festival.

Amazon reviewers show the uniqueness of Bad Love Strikes: Pam G. wrote, "Author Kevin Schewe has taken a dark time in history, namely the Holocaust and creation of the Atomic Bomb, and buffered it with a gaggle of teens who offer us hope, friendship, and ultimately, a whole lot of fun." B.T. Thomas described the book this way, "Schewe does a masterful job weaving the elements of history and fantasy together to create a captivating tale that carries the reader quickly through the story. His writing is crisp, and his characterization is vivid propelling the reader quickly through the two hundred pages. He makes clear his (and his sister's) love for time travel in the dedication and it is apparent in his debut novel. It is an absolutely fun read to which Schewe adds the brilliant concept of music."

Bad Love Strikes was a bestselling book in the 'Time-Travel Fiction' category on Amazon, just behind Stephen King, and asks the question, "What if you could go back in time and save a Holocaust victim? Even just one?" A group of teens from Oak Ridge, TN is given that chance when they happen upon a defunct experiment left over from President Roosevelt, Albert Einstein, and the creation of the Atomic bomb.

Expert Click Radio  Kevin Schewe, Author of 'Bad Love Medicine,' Featured on Talk with Audrey Radio Show

The fourth book, Bad Love Medicine, takes readers from the deep-space beauty of Planet Azur back to a WWII Europe riddled with danger and espionage, bringing the time traveling heroes face-to-face with one of history's greatest villainsAdolf Hitler himself. The Bad Love Gang series is part history lesson and part sci-fi adventure. Schewe's engaging Bad Love Gang (based on his own friends in high school) once again set out to save historythis time, by stopping the Nazis from creating a time machine of their own.

The screenplay recently drew its 5th award in Munich, Germany at the New Wave Short Film Festival where it was chosen as a Special Jury Screenplay Selection. His screenplay has also won the Prix Royal Paris Silver Screenplay Award, the South Florida International Film Festival for Best Original Screenplay for Young Adults, the L.A. Film Awards Best Sci-Fi Screenplay, and a Gold Script Writing Award for Sci-Fi Adventure from the Depth of Field International Film Festival. "Great writing needs to be savored and rewarded," say the Prix Royal judges.

"If history was taught this way in school, everyone would be a scholar and educating ourselves not only about our accomplishments but the horrors of the past that should awaken and give insight to the path of a better future. A rare gem!" David Holladay, MD, 5-Stars

They also discussed exactly how Schewe picked the popular songs which are spread throughout all four of the books. The author talked about growing up with the songs of the 1960s and 1970s and how, during the writing process, those songs come to him in what he calls his "musical brain." This is really a fun part of the Schewe's interview with Mark Bishop.

In Bad Love Strikes, the Gang discovered The White Hole Project, a time machine created by President Franklin Roosevelt in case the atomic bomb failed. In the exciting first sequel, Bad Love Tigers, the gang used the White Hole Project to travel back to 1945 to thwart Russian spies and protect the secrets of Area 51. In Bad Love Beyond, the gang traveled not just through time but through space as well to learn the reason behind Blue Nova One's mysterious visit to earth. Now, in Bad Love Medicine, the gang has a two-fold mission: reunite a love-struck couple (while saving one of them from a future fate of cancer) separated by time and stop the Nazis from creating a time machine of their own.

Watch the Bad Love Medicine Book Trailer at https://bit.ly/BadLoveMedicineTrailer





Readers of all ages will love Bad Love Medicine, which also contains a soundtrack to guide you on your journey. Schewe, a lifelong WWII aficionado, has spent years researching the topics included in his books, including the nuclear physics behind the time and space travel, which makes the story that much more immersive. "These stories just come to life in such an organic way," says Schewe. "They combine my childhood memories with my love of history, music, military aviation, WWII, science fiction and time travel."

Whether you're a history aficionado, a time-travel buff, a sci-fi lover, or are just in need of a fun book to cheer you up, Bad Love Medicine is the adventure you've been waiting for. Grab your copy today!

About Kevin Schewe: Kevin L. Schewe, MD, FACRO, is a board-certified cancer specialist who has been in the private practice of radiation oncology for over 34 years. He is an entrepreneur, having founded Elite Therapeutics and Bad Love Cosmetics Company, LLC. He also serves as Chairman of the Board of a small, publicly traded, renewable energy and animal feed company called VIASPACE, Inc.

A long-time history buff, Schewe is the author of the Bad Love Book Series, a young adult sci-fi adventure that spans much of early 20th century history. The series includes titles such as Bad Love Strikes, Bad Love Tigers, Bad Love Beyond, and the newest in the series, Bad Love Medicine. His series has garnered international critical acclaim, including the Wishing Shelf Book Award Red Ribbon. He has also adapted Bad Love Strikes into a feature-length screenplay, earning him multiple accolades, including Best Original Screenplay for Young Adults from the South Florida International Film Festival, Best Sci-Fi screenplay from the LA Film Awards, and a Gold Script Writing Award for Sci-Fi Adventure from the Depth of Field International Film Festival.

You can connect with Kevin Schewe through his website KevinSchewe.com or on his Instagram, @realkevinschewe

Bad Love Medicine, ASIN: B098TN6GKC, Broken Crow Ridge Publishing, July 6, 2021, available on Amazon and www.jancarolpublishing.com in ebook and paperback, 258 pages. Be sure to watch the exciting book trailers for the first three books here: https://bit.ly/BadLoveStrikes-Trailer and https://bit.ly/BadLoveTigers_Trailer and https://bit.ly/BadLoveBeyondTrailer

Media Contact: For a review copy of Bad Love Medicine, or previous books in the series, or to arrange an interview with Dr. Kevin Schewe, contact Scott Lorenz of Westwind Communications Book Marketing at scottlorenz@westwindcos.com or by phone at 734-667-2090. Follow Lorenz on Twitter @abookpublicist
Wednesday, September 15, 2021

The Herman Trend Alert

September 15, 2021

Where Do We Go From Here?

Though this Herman Trend Alert highlights what is going on in the United States, much the same could be said for other developed countries around the globe. (For my subscribers who would seek to make this message political, it is not intended to be. I have lived most of my life based on science and you may disagree with my opinions, but not with the science. The problem is that through social media, many of us believe that we may not trust the science.)

Finally, a National Response



With science telling us unequivocally that the way to economic recovery is to vaccinate everyone, it was not surprising to see the US President Biden taking action. He has issued a mandate to employers to vaccinate or test all employees in companies with 100 or more employees. Most employers who have not yet required vaccines are grateful; this executive order allows them to get their people back into the workplace safely. Raising the percentage of people vaccinated and giving boosters will reduce the number of daily COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths in the US.

Employers and Employees Still Reluctant, But . . .



With the advent of the fourth wave of COVID infections in the US, some employers decided to postpone returning their employees to their workplaces---especially in states where there are low vaccination rates and high rates of infection and hospitalizations. Many science-believing employers see that higher vaccination rates will result in lower rates of infection and higher worker productivity. Some of the intended and positive consequences of vaccination mandates include employees feeling less stressed and more secure about returning to their workplaces. Ultimately, this lower level of stress and greater sense of security will result in more employees working and higher productivity. Plus, once we get more people into jobs and being constructive, that will have a very positive effect on the national economy.

Attitudes about Returning to Congregate Workspaces



There is no doubt that the Pandemic has changed us. I have written entire Herman Trend Alerts about the high percentage of folks who want to work remotely and others who are shifting careers as the result of reassessing their values. Many employees are now making decisions about where they will work based on their values and attitudes.

Delta and Other Variants



With an extensive Greek alphabet soup of SARS COV2 variants (and many as yet unnamed) already proliferating, there are 25 different variants of concern or being monitored by the World Health Organization. Epidemiologists assess the infectiousness of a variant by looking at how many people the average infected person will make sick. For the Alpha version of SARS-CoV-2, the number of people was 2 to 3; for Delta, it is 6 to 7 people. So, the fact that almost all the COVID cases in US hospitals today are connected to the Delta variant should give us something to think about. In August. The health department in Israel sounded the alarm about a new Delta variant (AY3) that was responsible for 50,000 active cases of COVID, up from 200 cases a month earlier. Then there's the fact that the Mu variant seems to be more resistant to antibodies. . .

Vaccines Holding and Boosters, Too



The latest research has demonstrated that for most people, the vaccines are indeed doing their jobs. Over 90 percent of the people hospitalized with COVID-19 in the US have not been vaccinated. Those findings prompted the US president's decision to get more serious about getting everyone vaccinated. Meanwhile, vaccine makers are busy working on new iterations of the COVID-19 vaccine customized to the Beta and Delta variants. On top of that in the US, people who are immune compromised are already being given booster shots to help their bolster their immune response. Eventually, all US citizens will be offered boosters, depending on which vaccine they were given originally.

SARS-CoV-2 is Here to Stay



As I have said so many times before, SARS-CoV-2 is not the last infection we will witness. However, here's the good news: researchers believe that widespread vaccination could help transform COVID-19 into a seasonal annoyance, rather than the public health catastrophe with which the world is still struggling.

Next Week's Herman Trend Alert: Leading a Double Worklife



While millions of people remain unemployed, a growing segment of the remote workforce is holding down more than one job. To research this topic, I interviewed the founder of the website Overemployed.com, who encourages his subscribers to enjoy this version of double-dipping.
The communitys COVID-19 risk level remains moderate, but residents should do their part by wearing masks, getting vaccinated and donating blood to aid overloaded hospitals, San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg said Tuesday.

While certain data points tracked during the pandemic  such as new cases reported and COVID-19 patients hospitalized  have fallen measurably from their peaks during the current third surge, they remain well above levels recorded before the surge began this summer.

The level of people in the hospital with COVID-19 is still a major concern, Nirenberg said Tuesday evening during a televised COVID-19 briefing with Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff and San Antonio Metropolitan Health District Director Claude Jacob.

Currently, there are 1,016 COVID-19 positive patients, down 30 percent from 1,466 hospitalized patients on Aug. 23.

Of the patients hospitalized, who include 20 children, 329 are in intensive care units and 194 are relying on ventilators to breathe.

Thats way, way too many, Wolff said.

Six new deaths were reported Tuesday, bringing the local death toll to 4,145. Bexar County surpassed 4,000 COVID-19 deaths last week.

Officials also reported 775 new coronavirus cases. Metro Health said 300,263 cases have been reported by testing labs over the past 18 months.

On ExpressNews.com: COVID-19 risk level downgraded, but area 'not out of the woods'

A good sign: The seven-day rolling average of positive cases has dropped to 818, from 1,646 cases on Aug. 16.

We remain cautiously optimistic, Jacob said. As you can recall, this COVID experience has kept us on our toes. Remain vigilent is the take-home message. Lets be humble here.

Public health officials continue to plead with residents to get vaccinated to prevent unnecessary hospitalization or death from the coronavirus. Later this month, Metro Health plans to start offering $100 H-E-B gift cards to people who get vaccinanted at one of the city-run sites.

So far, more than 70 percent of Bexar County residents eligible for the vaccine are fully vaccinated. Nirenberg said while they are not eligible for the gift card, they should feel good about helping protect the community.

Metro Health said the majority of patients requiring hospital treatment for COVID-19  84 percent of those currently hospitalized  are unvaccinated.

On ExpressNews.com: COVID risk level explainable; recommended behavior less so

People who have not received the vaccine are 11 times more likely to die from COVID-19 than those who are fully vaccinated, according to a recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

High admissions of COVID-19 patients have strained the local health care system over the pandemic, which puts the community at risk of not having medical care available when needed. Resources have been diverted to coronavirus treatment, which delays surgeries and has left the city at times without enough ambulance service.

Currently, area hospitals have 8 percent of their staffed beds available for health emergencies.

Nirenberg said San Antonio is also experiencing a blood emergency with less than a one-day supply of type O-negative, which can be given to any patient.

laura.garcia@express-news.net
Comedian Luz Pazos grew up dreaming of becoming a stand-up, but for a long time, she had zero confidence that would happen.

When I was a girl, I didnt trust myself so much and I was scared, Pazos, a native of Peru, said in a telephone interview. There was not really stand-up in Peru, and I didnt think I could do it. It was like a dream back in my head.

Then I went to live in Europe for college, and then I started seeing that people in Europe really live their dreams, do whatever they want, so I thought, maybe I can do whatever I want.

Luzs childhood dream came true. She is one of more than 40 performers taking part in the HA Festival: The Art of Comedy this weekend. It is the second year of the event, a reiteration of the groundbreaking Latino Laugh Festival that took place in San Antonio in the 1990s.

HA stands for Hispanic Arts.

Our set, it looks like a museum, and the subtitle is The Art of Comedy because comedy is an art form, said Executive Producer Jeff Valdez, who also was a driving force behind the Latino Laugh Festival.

The name also is designed to underscore the fact that the festival is open to everyone.

HA Festival: The Art of Comedy What: The Latinx comedy festival takes place Friday-Sunday at four downtown-area venues. Tickets and reservations: Unless otherwise indicated, tickets are available at hacomedyfest.com. Reservations also can be made for free events on the site. Passes, which cost $150, are available by emailing general@hacomedyfest.com. Friday 6 p.m.: Screening of clips from "Comedy Chingonas 2020," an upcoming HBO Max special about Latina comics. Panel discussion hosted by Samantha Najera and Nina Duran will feature Luz Pazos and Carmen Lynch. Will Naylor Smith River Walk Plaza, Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, 100 Auditorium Circle. Free. 7 p.m.: "Fresh Faces 2021," a performance by up-and-coming comics hosted by Rick Gutierrez. Anacacho Room, St. Anthony Hotel, 300 E. Travis. $25. 8 p.m. and 10 p.m.: Latino comedy showcases. Jokesters 22 Pub N Grub, 713 S. Alamo. $20, jokesters22.com. Midnight: Open mic. Anacacho Room, St. Anthony Hotel. Free. Saturday 4 p.m.: Panel discussion with the cast of "The Garcias," an HBO Max reboot of the 2000-2003 series "The Brothers Garcia." Hosted by Tito Caballero. Will Naylor Smith River Walk Plaza, Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, 100 Auditorium Circle. Free. 6 p.m.: Equal Footing Film Festival, featuring 10 shorts by female filmmakers. Hosted by Lisa Alvarado. Will Naylor Smith River Walk Plaza, Tobin Center. Free. 7 p.m.: "Comedy Chingonas 2021." All-female lineup hosted by Carmen Lynch. Anacacho Room, St. Anthony Hotel. $25. 7 p.m.: "Fresh Faces 2021" and "Fresh Faces 2020 - On Their Way." Showcases for up-and-coming performers and for performers from last year's festival. Hosted by Paul Rodriguez. Lila Cockrell Theatre, 200 E. Market St. $42 to $77. 8 and 10 p.m.: Latino comedy showcases. Jokesters 22 Pub N Grub. $20, jokesters22.com. 9 p.m.: "Veteranos of Latino Comedy," hosted by Rick Gutierrez and featuring Nick Guerra, Fabrizio Copano, Chris "Crazy Legs" Fonseca and Carmen Lynch. Anacacho Room, St. Anthony Hotel. $25. Midnight: Open mic. Anacacho Room, St. Anthony Hotel. Free. Sunday 3 p.m.: Equal Footing Film Festival finale. Winners will be announced and all 10 films will be screened. Will Naylor Smith River Walk Plaza, Tobin Center. Free. 5 and 8 p.m.: "Best of the Fest." Chingo Bling, Jessica Keenan, Steve Trevino, Carlos Santos, Lisa Alvarado, Dave Jay and Renee Santos will perform. The showcases also will feature Paul Rodriguez, Emilio Rivera, Danny Trejo, Paulina Chavez and the cast of "The Brothers Garcia." Both shows will be filmed for a special that will stream later on HBO Max. Lila Cockrell Theatre. $52 to $102. 6 and 9 p.m.: Latino comedy showcase. Jokesters. $20, jokesters22.com. See More Collapse

This is a festival not just for Latinos, Valdez said. Its for everyone. The material, the humor, its universal.

Valdez and the rest of the team at New Cadence Productions, a content-creation company for Latino and Latina artists, staged the first edition of HA in February 2020, just ahead of the pandemic shutdowns.

If we had waited two more weeks, we would have probably had to cancel the whole thing, he said.

The special that was recorded last year, HA Festival: The Art of Comedy, is streaming on HBO Max. A new special will be filmed during this years festival.

On ExpressNews.com: Guide to hot arts and entertainment tickets in San Antonio this fall

The lineup this time around includes at least one callback to the Latino Laugh Festival. Paul Rodriguez, who co-hosted back then with Cheech Marin and Daisy Fuentes, is hosting a few showcases this weekend.

One of Valdez hopes for the festival is that it gives a boost to up-and-coming comics who may not yet be on the radar of most comedy fans. Thats what happened during the first time around.

The young comedian back then was Gabriel Iglesias  he was completely unknown, Valdez said. People can see whos the next Gabriel Iglesias.

In an interview with the Express-News in May ahead of his residency at the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, Iglesias spoke fondly of taking part in the Latino Laugh Festival.

For comics, that was like our Super Bowl, he said. We were all excited to get to do those festivals.

Among the events this weekend is a preview of The Garcias, a reboot of The Brothers Garcia, a television series about a San Antonio family created by Valdez and filmmakers Gibby and Mike Cevallos. There also are some open mics and a short film showcase spotlighting the work of female directors.

We have as many, if not more, shows and comics, Valdez said. Theres a lot of events going on, and were super-excited.

Pazos took part in the festival last year and had a great time. And she is looking forward to coming back.

She mines much of her comedy from the contrast between life in Peru and in the United States. In one very funny bit from a video posted to her website, luzpazos.com, she talks about a guy asking her to go for a hike like its something recreational.

I come from a country where people hike all the weay down a mountain just to get water, she says. Get your stuff together. I want to go to the mall.

On ExpressNews.com: Country star Clay Walker coming to Floores this weekend

Pazos first started thinking that she might want to try to stand-up as a kid, when she started watching Woody Allen movies.

Now, hes not very welcome, but I used to watch his movies a lot, and I discovered he was a comedian, she said, adding that inspired her to seek out videos of stand-up. I loved it and I was thinking maybe I could do that one day.

She studied theater and literature in Italy before moving to the United States. To try to get a handle on American culture, which she knew she would need for her act, she worked with a sketch comedy troupe for a while. And she worked on her English.

She learned the language as a child  My mom, thank God, forced me to learn English  but she had lost a lot of it while she was living in Europe.

I was not fluent, she said. I think it took working, studying and putting the work in on learning English. I tried to get rid of my accent, but it didnt work.

She knew she had made the right career choice immediately.

The first time I went up on stage, I knew that was the thing I was meant to do with my life, she said. It was a really nice discovery.

dlmartin@express-news.net | Twitter: @DeborahMartinEN
In San Antonio, nothing satisfies the fall appetite like fideo. Just the smell of noodles toasting in oil can trigger powerful memories of family meals  even if everyones grandmother had a slightly different version of the dish. And that warm hug of hearty Mexican pasta soup is exactly what we want to help you master this week.

The first thing to know about fideo, which has become an iconic comfort food staple in many Texas homes, is that its the result of centuries of migration. The word fideo comes from the Arabic term fidaws, which refers specifically to the thin noodles we know today and not any particular preparation of them. Fidaws was part of the diet in Al-Andalus, the Muslim-ruled part of modern-day Spain, which ended in the 15th century.

A signature fideo cooking technique  browning the noodles in some type of fat before adding liquid  likely originated in the Middle East, where pasta and rice are often toasted together before simmering.

Once fideo arrived in the New World (likely during the Spanish Colonial era) it began evolving into the dish we now associate with Mexican cuisine. And that evolution led to two of the most common and distinct preparations: sopa de fideo, which typically features the noodles swimming in a thin soup of tomato and chicken broth, and the much thicker fideo seco, in which the noodles are cooked in a bright red tomato sauce thats almost completely absorbed by the pasta.

Both preparations have roots in Spain. The soupy version has been common comfort food there for centuries and has traveled the world with Spaniards. Its become a particularly beloved staple in the Philippines.

Sopa seca (or dry) de fideo is more closely related to the Valencian dish fideua, a seafood dish similar to paella made with fideo instead of rice, in which the cooking liquid is almost completely absorbed by the pasta. That technique led to the thick version we know here with the addition of New World ingredients such as tomatoes and chiles.

On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio millennials have gone loco for fideo, making it hot again

Its that latter dry style that chef Gabriel Ibarra of La Fonda on Main and Cappys Restaurant is particularly inspired by.

Fideo is for me the ultimate puro San Antonio comfort food, Ibarra said. Me personally, Im all about the fideo seco. I like it kind of dry.

His current menu at La Fonda features fideo made with ingredients such as steak, duck, mushrooms, kale, green beans and more. Hes done a luxe version as a special at Cappys with smoked duck breast and foie gras.

For Ibarra, the key flavor of fideo is properly toasted noodles. He recommends neutral-flavored oils to avoid overpowering the natural taste of the fideo. Hes particularly fond of avocado oil for its high smoke point, which allows the noodles to take on a deep brown hue without creating too much smoke in the kitchen.

Youll find a soupier version of fideo at The Original Blanco Cafe. Sylvia Gonzalez, who manages the restaurants Blanco Road location in Beacon Hill, said Blanco Cafe cooks prepare the fideo in large batches. They also turn it into fideo loco by adding proteins such as ground beef or shredded chicken based on customer orders.

We cook all of our fideo separate, Gonzalez said. We top it what you want because a lot of people dont like beans or dont want meat. It helps us cut down on waste.

While Gonzalez and Ibarra both advocate toasting the fideo in a neutral-flavored oil, one place youll find them at odds is which brand of fideo to use. In general, fideo is cooked to a point a little past the al dente stage, but it can become overly mushy if left on the heat for too long. Ibarra and Gonzalez find different products work best for their takes on the dish.

On ExpressNews.com: How to cook perfect rice every time, whether it's plain white rice, Mexican rice, cilantro rice and more

For Ibarra, the iconic yellow and red box of Q&Q brand fideo is the only way to go. Its been a staple in San Antonio households for generations and for him, it immediately triggers feelings of family and nostalgia.

Gonzalez said Blanco Cafe used to be on team Q&Q, but the larger batches the restaurant makes required a change. They now swear by the fideo sold under H-E-Bs private label Hill Country Fare, which she said doesnt swell up and get mushy like Q&Qs version when held for a longer period of time.

In writing this story, I tested several brands of fideo to see what the strengths and weaknesses of each were. Ive used Q&Q extensively in the past, and never have been particularly fond of the way it tends to fragment while toasting. Its also thicker than other brands, resulting in a cooked noodle closer to the size of spaghetti.

I do like the Hill Country Fare version, which I found to have better integrity while toasting, and I like that its thinner. La Modernas fideo performed similarly well in my kitchen.

I found both Faraon and Tierra Linda brands of fideo to be too short and thin, with both burning in the pan quicker than expected.

However you prepare it, nows the perfect time to start making steaming batches of the stuff.

Recipe: Sopa de Fideo

Recipe: Fideo Seco

pstephen@express-news.net | Twitter: @pjbites | Instagram: @pjstephen
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A 19-year-old man was stabbed to death and a 20-year-old man was hospitalized with a stab wound following an argument Tuesday night at a Southeast Side home, San Antonio police said.

According to police, there was an apparent altercation after the 20-year-old showed up to the teenager's home in the 200 block of Bartholomew Avenue at around 10 p.m.
A North East ISD student at Tex Hill Middle School is accused of threatening the school in a social media post and has been charged with making a felony terroristic threat, the school district said.

The threat was made over the weekend on Instagram, according to a letter sent to parents Monday from the school's principal, Charles Reininger Jr.

The school did not specify the type of threat but said it was one of two made against the school. On Friday, an Instagram account with the handle "shootingtexhillsoon" said "I will give out the list soon and date," NEISD spokeswomen Aubrey Chancellor said.

On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio ISD chief Pedro Martinez will leave to run Chicago Public Schools

The post, which has since been deleted, was created by a former student who no longer lives in Texas, the district said. Police have not decided on whether the individual will face charges, according to the district.

On Saturday, the second threat was posted by a current student from an Instagram account with the handle "shootingtexhill2" that listed first names of students in the post, Chancellor said.

Law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, did not find the threats credible and said the two individuals were likely looking for attention and to cause panic, Reininger's letter said.

The middle school, located at 21314 Bulverde Rd., has an enrollment of about 1,100 students.

taylor.pettaway@express-news.net
The largest Hispanic-majority city in the nation has cause to celebrate.

Hispanic Heritage Month is underway in San Antonio, which will play host to more than 20 events to honor the vibrant mix of beliefs and traditions that make up the culture.

While the U.S. has recognized Hispanic Heritage Month since 1988, this year stands out. 2021 marks the 500th anniversary of the founding of Mexico City, and the 200th anniversary of the end of Mexicos war for independence from Spain.

Because this land once was Mexico, San Antonios Hispanic heritage is very much a part of the fabric of what makes us a city, said Krystal Jones, the interim director of the citys Department of Arts and Culture.

The celebration begins with a civic ceremony and professional dance performance by the Guadalupe Dance Company at 6:30 p.m. today in Historic Market Square. Both will be streamed on Facebook Live to accommodate people reluctant to attend in person because of COVID-19.

The coming weeks will feature everything from Maya artifacts to modern poetry.

Looking to the past, the San Antonio Museum of Art on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays will showcase relics dating back over 1,000 years that were recovered from two royal tombs in Buenavista del Cayo, Belize, between 2014 and 2019.

Focusing on the here and now, at 6 p.m. Tuesday, the museum welcomes panelists to discuss the recently published collection of poems, Puro Chicanx: Writers of the 21st Century. They will read excerpts from this new edition of an anthology that tackles themes ranging from immigration to oppression to life in the barrio.

At 6 p.m. next Thursday, the Instituto Cultural de Mexico en San Antonio will screen a documentary about the shooting of Vaqueros de la Cruz del Diablo. Werner Segarras photography exhibit at the Briscoe spotlights the Norteno cowboys of Huasabas, Sonora, Mexico.

It brings the still images of the exhibition to life, allowing viewers to see other angles of the subjects that Segarra has so expertly captured in his photographs, said Stacey Norton, marketing manager for the city.

After the screening, Segarra and Ellen Riojas Clark, a professor of bicultural studies at the University of Texas at San Antonio, will take the stage to discuss the exhibit.

Some of the months attractions will be available to watch online to accommodate people reluctant to pack into small venues because of COVID-19, but others will be solely in person.

Visit https://bit.ly/3lxFbvP for a full list of events.

caroline.tien@express-news.net
Pedro Martinez, the San Antonio Independent School District superintendent who changed its schools and many parents expectations during six years of ambitious innovation, will be the new CEO of Chicago Public Schools.

The announcement was made early Wednesday by the Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, with Martinez at her side.

Martinez grew up in Chicago, started his career there and was the school systems chief financial officer from 2003 to 2009. But he said he will return home with a heavy heart because he cares deeply about San Antonio ISD.

The strongest organizations are those that are built to outlive us  to be sustainable beyond the current leadership. And SAISD clearly has the depth of talent and skill to move gracefully forward, Martinez, 51, said in a statement. The Board and the staff are extremely effective at what they do, and SAISD is in a strong position for continued success.

On ExpressNews.com: The turnaround: SAISDs Pedro Martinez takes on poverty, charters and the teachers union

The board will determine Martinezs last day and interview candidates to replace him as interim superintendent when it meets Monday, district spokeswoman Laura Short said.

A statement by board president Christina Martinez signaled the boards intention to conduct a national search. The district, she said, is in a great position to recruit a nationally respected leader to lead our students, teachers, administrators and families into the future.

Pedro Martinez arrived here in 2015, hired by a school board hungry for a transformative leader in a high-poverty, mostly Hispanic district that had a poor academic record and a number of schools on the brink of failure under the states accountability system.

It had long been the third largest school district in San Antonio, eclipsed by suburban Northside and North East ISDs. Martinez had led public schools in Nevada after his stint as a top administrator in Chicago.

He spent a year gathering feedback and announced a dramatic set of goals for academic performance. They are still not fully met, but his aggressive push for major changes on almost every front has left the district in considerably better shape, his admirers said.

Martinez faced setbacks. He was accused of ignoring the majority of neighborhood schools as he converted a select few into specialized campuses with magnet and dual-language programs. But the specialized programs multiplied into the dozens, performed well, and drew the interest of parents.

In 2018, he made an enemy of the teachers union by embracing a partnership with the New York-based charter network Democracy Prep to run Stewart Elementary School, which faced a state-mandated closure for underperformance.

On ExpressNews.com: Even with recession, SAISD says it needs no property tax rate increase to pay off largest-ever local bond

The union sued, accusing the district of cutting corners on a state requirement to involve teachers in the process. The suit couldnt stop the changes at the school  which registered another failed year under the new management before recovering.

In the 2019 state ratings  the latest before the pandemic halted standardized testing in 2020  Stewart Elementary was given a D, and its overall score of 61 was not much improved from the failing grades that earned it an Improvement Required designation under the previous Texas Education Agency rating system.

Alejandra Lopez, who taught at Stewart and is now the president of the San Antonio Alliance of Teachers and Support Personnel, said the district has not met its goals when it comes to academic success or community involvement.

I think its important to note that a large part of his project was bringing in outside partners, Lopez said of Martinez. If we look back, we do not see success stories there. What we see is schools that have essentially been put under these private operators and havent really moved the needle in terms of their achievement.

Martinez was an early and enthusiastic adopter of partnerships with outside groups to run schools under a 2017 state law that funneled extra state funding to them. His admiration for charter schools, however, gradually turned to criticism, and he would point out that charters operating in SAISD also had schools that failed by the states metrics.

Martinez cemented the unions hostility to his priorities by resolving a budget crisis in 2018 with the layoffs of 132 teachers. But he later expanded a program of extra pay for master teachers working in the highest-need schools, and persuaded voters to approve a tax rate increase and, more recently, a set of bond proposals totaling $1.25 billion, the largest in the areas history.

A 2019 legislative overhaul of Texas school finance system helped the districts bottom line, reversing years of shrinking state funding. But the coronavirus pandemic upended Martinezs push for academic improvement as it shifted hundreds of thousands of area students to remote learning.

Unlike most superintendents, he was deliberate about persuading parents to keep children at home to allow SAISD to concentrate classroom teaching on students who needed it most. For most of last year, only about 30 percent of the districts 48,000 students were on campus.

The resulting damage to learning made this years return to classrooms both necessary and a challenge under state rules that restricted school safety protocols. Martinez ordered all students and employees to be masked, joining dozens of Texas school districts in defying Gov. Greg Abbotts order against mask mandates.

And Martinez went further, ordering all employees to be vaccinated. That prompted Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, at a briefing last month, to call Martinez a hero because hes trying to protect children. A state lawsuit attempting to halt the vaccination order is to be heard next week.

Hes dramatically changed the San Antonio Independent School District to so much better than what it was before, Wolff said Wednesday. Hell be really, really missed. I think the school district will find it hard to replicate somebody that had the vision and the gumption to get it done. I hope they find the right person.

In 2015, Martinez was greeted with at least 19 schools that had an Improvement Required rating under TEAs former evaluation system. In 2018, the district earned a C rating, or a numerical score of 74, and had 16 campuses deemed Improvement Required. As of 2019, SAISD had an overall B rating, or a score of 83, with 15 schools with an F grade under the new rating system.

But 23 campuses still had a D grade. Martinez said SAISD could be an A district in five more years.

If that goal always seemed out of reach, it was only part of what he was trying to accomplish, said former board member Steve Lecholop. The superintendent has worked hard to put together teams of experts  in classrooms, campuses and the central office  that are the foundation of steady progress, Lecholop said.

This isnt a house of cards that is going to crumble down when Pedro leaves, he said. So the new superintendent, whoever it is that is recruited, it need not be someone who wants to come in and recreate a district in their image. What we need is someone who will continue to empower great people to do great things.

Required Reading: Get San Antonio education news sent directly to your inbox

A lot of the successes we have seen are not going to show up on the test score printout that so many people see, but they certainly have an impact in our community and they will for years, Lecholop said.

The SAISD board, which had a history of division over previous superintendents, backed Martinez throughout his tenure, though in recent years two of its seven members won election with the unions backing.

In his statement Wednesday, Martinez cited the boards commitment to equity and to supporting students and families. He also lauded the districts nationally recognized safety practices, its record-setting bond program to bolster facilities, and the parent feedback that will be incorporated into a thoughtful and inclusive plan to use federal pandemic relief funds.

Improving the lives of children through education has always been, and will always be, this districts top priority. I am grateful to everyone within the SAISD family and throughout the San Antonio community for their support in embracing change  and in welcoming me, Martinez said.

Patti Radle, a trustee since 2011 and the board president for most of Martinezs tenure at SAISD, said other districts had tried to recruit him but this time the call came from home.

But even with that, he wanted to assure us that he was really happy in San Antonio but that he felt he had a calling or a responsibility to give attention to the city he came from, she said.

Martinezs focus on ensuring every student was supported, regardless of where they came from, will be his legacy here, Radle said. It was a driving factor in many of his decisions, she said, from replacing 29 principals during his first year as superintendent, to hiring more experienced teachers and administrators.

He didnt look upon a child of poverty as someone who could not accomplish, Radle said. He had high expectations for everyone.

Christina Martinez, the board president, said SAISD was sticking to its goal of being an A-rated district under Texas accountability system.

And as much as we hate to lose him, we know that the internal motivation that he has to go back to his hometown and work in the same public schools that raised him is deeper or stronger than any of us will ever understand. Our Board stands cohesively ready to embrace the next great superintendent, Christina Martinez said.

Staff writer Scott Huddleston contributed to this report.

danya.perez@express-news.net | @DanyaPH
MATAGORDA COUNTY  Shelly Steel and her husband Eddie were cooking red snapper and shrimp and drinking wine Monday after rain started striking their Sargent Beach house sideways. Gusts of wind rattled the windows. Their wine glasses trembled.

The couple splits their time between here and a home in Fort Worth. Steel, 58, wished theyd left their coastal home.

Nicholas became a Category 1 Hurricane just before making landfall around 12:30 a.m. Tuesday some 10 miles west of the Steels forest-green house. The couples power cut out. Tidal surge knocked over their exterior shower. But overall they were OK.

I'm relieved but exhausted, said Steel, who runs a concrete demolition company. Everyone was safe.

Across southeast Texas on Tuesday, weary residents such as the Steels awoke to begin assessing the damage. The greater Houston region fared better than feared after many prepped Monday and hunkered down. Coastal areas bore the brunt of the rain, winds and surge  which proved largely manageable  leaving the city of Houston mostly suffering from power outages and fallen branches.

Now Playing: Here's the damage Tropical Storm Nicholas left in the Houston area. Video: Houston Chronicle

No injuries or deaths were reported in Houston because of the storm, Mayor Sylvester Turner said. The fire department conducted one high-water evacuation in the Kingwood area. Regionally, Texas A&M Task Force 1 rescue crews picked up five people and a dog, and three people spent the night in Red Cross shelters.

This storm could have been a lot worse for the city of Houston, Turner said. I think we fared fairly well from Hurricane Nicholas.

Nicholas weakened to a tropical storm hours after landfall. By Tuesday evening, it was a tropical depression, with winds around 35 mph, centered near Winnie. The storm was expected to head toward Louisiana, stalling on Thursday. It was weakening, but forecasters still warned of potentially life-threatening flash-flooding in areas from southern Louisiana to the far western Florida Panhandle.

Houston officials and others throughout the area reported no significant damage, with businesses reporting few disturbances. The House of Pies on Kirby Drive lost its awning, while billboards along Texas 288 were tattered and torn. Homeowners in the Heights and Oak Forest neighborhoods were cleaning up branches and a few felled fences.

Some Tuesday morning flights were canceled. Houston ISD planned to resume classes at its campuses Wednesday, while schools with power outages assessed whether they could reopen; Galveston ISD said its schools would be closed Wednesday due to a lack of electricity. Metro buses and trains started operating again.

We say it every time: We dodged a bullet, said Mark Rossi, 44, as he helped his neighbor in Clear Lake clean up a downed limb. Until the times we dont say it, like Harvey.

Nicholas was erratic, a quality that ended up sparing the city from the worst rains. Its center kept developing, breaking down and redeveloping. Just before landfall, the lopsided Nicholas shifted east, with most of its heavy rain bands southeast of the storms center.

Jon Shapley/Staff photographer

This change kept the heavy rains offshore for longer, said Katherine Lenninger, a meteorologist with the National Weather Services Houston/Galveston office.

Still, the storms impacts werent insignificant: Roughly 6 to 8 inches of rain fell in coastal communities. In Harris County, overnight rainfall averaged less than 2 inches in northwest areas and between 5 and 6 inches in southern ones, according to the flood control district. Some areas along Clear Creek reported 7 inches of rain.

Some channels such as Clear Creek overflowed banks, but no flooded structures were reported to the county as of Tuesday afternoon.

In Angleton, where ditches and drainage channels appeared inches from causing flooding, streets were instead littered with small twigs and pine needles. Those with electricity were forging ahead.

Dustin King, who lives just outside of the incorporated area, broke down a pine branch that had fallen in his friends yard.

They helped us during Harvey, so we are helping them now, said King, 48.

Forecasters had focused on flooding as the biggest risk, but Nicholas also brought wind and surge. Winds blew as fast as 78 mph around Magnolia Beach on Matagorda Bay, according to early National Weather Service reports. In southeast Harris County, winds were recorded between 30 and 40 mph, with gusts from 50 to 55 mph.

Elizabeth Conley/Staff photographer

So crews were at work Tuesday addressing the roughly 475,000 customers that CenterPoint Energy said were without power early that morning; as of 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, around 110,000 customers were still without power. Kenny Mercado, CenterPoints executive vice president for electric utilities, said crews were being brought in from out of state. He asked for patience as they worked around issues such as downed trees.

The city of Houston opened community and multi-service centers for residents to charge devices.

Around Matagorda County, those high winds uprooted massive live oaks, snapped power poles and crumpled roof sheds like aluminum foil. An RV rolled over at the Pelican Point RV Park, said Greg Boyd, who returned Tuesday after evacuating to take stock and check on neighbors.

It went pretty well, Boyd said, To be honest it could have been a whole lot worse.

Storm surge along the coastline carried debris and driftwood  including huge fallen trees  and ripped outdoor stairways from homes. Three to six feet of surge inundated coastal areas, including about 5 feet in Galveston Bay.

To the west, in Surfside, Arely Gomez found pieces of trees, shingles and roofing outside of Surfside Food Mart when she showed up to work. Staff had prepped the night before, moving up chips, candy and canned goods from shelves near the ground. They unplugged electronics, too.

Elizabeth Conley/Staff photographer

Lacking running water Tuesday, they used gallon jugs to push the storm water out with mops. They did this in the dark because the power was out. About a foot and a half of water swept into the store at one point, Gomez estimated. On the nearby beachfront, a house was reduced to a pile of wood.

The lights flicked on.

Near San Luis Pass, Janet Coen and her 17-year-old son Carson picked up red lawn chairs and a paddle. They lived full-time there in the Treasure Island community. They stacked up their neighbors missing items.

When we came out this morning, the water was pretty much down, recounted Coen, an embroiderer, turning to a few feet of water behind her. This right here, this will stay flooded for a few days. This happens every time.

But surge and wind had done their damage: Half of the baby-blue outdoor stairs of one house ended up down the street. Massive chunks of pavement cracked in another section of the community. The fencing that enclosed another house was mostly gone, much of its wood nowhere in sight.

It felt a little apocalyptic, Carson Coen said. There is brush everywhere. There is rubble everywhere.

As the mother and son walked through swampy grass, they ran into a new neighbor.

Welcome to the coast, Janet Coen said.

Marcy de Luna, Zach Despart, Hannah Dellinger, Dylan McGuinness and Shelby Webb contributed to this report.

emily.foxhall@chron.com
Retired Army Sgt. 1st Class Bob Jones said he was on the path to suicide.

Then he found Grace.

The service dog gave me back hope, a sense of dignity, and (a sense) that I fit back into society again, said Jones, 54.

I feel awake again.

Jones, another veteran and their service dogs toured a Petco Love K9 Center on Tuesday at an opening ceremony that drew a crowd of over 100. The center will train service dogs to support warriors with invisible wounds.

On hand were the likes of State Sen. Jose Menendez, D-San Antonio; Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush; District 6 Councilwoman Melissa Cabello-Havrda and District 8 Councilman Manny Pelaez.

Pelaez noted a direct relationship between veteran mental health and opioid victims, (homelessness) and poverty.

On ExpressNews.com: Grant funds K9s For Warriors kennel in San Antonio

You guys are helping solve that in a new way weve never seen in San Antonio, he said.

Jessica Phelps /San Antonio Express-News

The gray-paneled and white-trim center, with 26 employees and 30 kennels, will offer veterinary care and preliminary training to dogs rescued from across Texas before sending them to a site in Florida for finishing school, said Rory Diamond, CEO of K9s for Warriors.

Jones and retired Army Sgt. 1st Class Jaime Leon thanked K9s for Warriors for providing companionship in their time of need. The nonprofit, founded in 2011, reports it has rescued more than 1,300 dogs and paired animals with nearly 700 veterans.

When you rescue a dog, that dog turns around and rescues the warrior, Diamond said. Its something beautiful about two souls taking their first steps together.

In 2019, the City Council approved an initial 10-year lease to build the facility on 3 acres of Animal Care Services land. That same year, Petco awarded K9s for Warriors with a $2 million grant to support the center.

On ExpressNews.com: San Antonio shelter dogs to help veterans with PTSD

Susanne Kogut, president of adoption nonprofit Petco Love, credited K9s for Warriors for helping veterans grappling with military-related trauma and for believing in a better life for them.

As the ceremony ended, Leon, the 44-year-old veteran who toured the center with Jones, sat in the shade of a tent with Joshua, his 13-year-old son, and Shadow, a 10-year-old German Shepherd-Rottweiler mix.

Leon said the biggest impact Shadow has had on him is outside the house.

Shes made it where I can go out and not worry about anxiety or being in a crowd, Leon said. She helps me to re-evaluate myself.

vtdavis@express-news.net
Twenty years ago today, four loaded barges crashed into the support columns of South Padre Islands Queen Isabella Causeway, causing an 80-foot span of the bridge to collapse into the Laguna Madre.

The Sept. 15, 2001, incident sent 11 people into the water 85 feet below and killed eight just four days after 9/11.

It took two weeks for officials to recover the bodies from the Laguna Madre in the Rio Grande Valley.

Officials said a tug boat captain lost control of a string of barges he was pushing in the water. A loose barge then rammed into a support piling 100 yards from the opening in the bridge.

ERIC GAY/AP

The youngest victim was 22-year-old Stvan Rivas, and the oldest was 52-year-old Gaspar Hinojosa.

The collapse had a significant impact on the region because the causeway is the only road connecting the mainland to the island. The bridge also carried electricity lines and fresh water to the island. Until the bridge could be repaired, ferries hauled cars and people across the Laguna Madre.

DELCIA LOPEZ/SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

The causeway was repaired in just over two months after it collapsed. It is now known as the Queen Isabella Memorial Causeway.

Every year, the cities of South Padre Island and Port Isabel on the mainland alternate hosting a memorial ceremony for the lives lost. This year's ceremony was hosted at Memorial Park on the median between the eastbound and westbound lanes on the South Padre Island end of the causeway.

Timothy.Fanning@express-news.net
The St. Marys University School of Law will offer the nations first American Bar Association-accredited J.D. law degree program that is fully online.

A cohort of 25 students will launch the program in the fall of 2022, taking classes part time to complete the degree in four years instead of the usual three, the university announced Tuesday. Half of their curriculum will be synchronized, videoconferencing in a class with a professor, and half will be self-directed.

Students wont need to be in San Antonio to attend, though they will have access to student services and attend in-person events, including orientation and professional development activities, once every other semester, or four times over the course of four years.

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We wanted to provide greater access to the profession for those who dont have the privilege of moving somewhere and taking three years off in order to obtain a J.D. degree, said Patricia Roberts, the dean of the school. We were thinking primarily of South Texas and the (Rio Grande) Valley.

When I arrived (at the university) a lot of alumni from the area would say we really needed to do more as the southernmost law school in Texas.

J.D. stands for Juris Doctor and the degree is meant to qualify recipients to take the bar exam and become lawyers. A handful of American law schools already offer fully-online J.D. programs, but St. Marys has the first to be approved by the ABA.

Among other hurdles to getting the accreditation, St. Marys had to demonstrate that it could provide students with opportunities to develop their professional identities while not being face-to-face with peers and professors, Roberts said.

While tuition for its online and in-person program is the same, the school estimates students spend approximately $20,000 a year on living and personal expenses if they move here for the three-year program.

Contributed /

We wanted students to be able to save that money while they are at home or still working in another part of the country, Roberts said.

The coronavirus pandemic has broadened the use of virtual learning in education and sharpened its tools and techniques, but Roberts said the new program was not born from that.

The law school has been offering fully online programs in its Master of Jurisprudence degree programs for five years. Interest in an online J.D. program was consistent even before the pandemic, said Catherine Casiano, the assistant dean of admissions for the school.

People have always inquired if we will have a fully online program at some point. That is something that has always been an interest, Casiano said.

The pandemic did not hurt enrollment at the law school  at 736 students, last years was typical of any recent year, Roberts said. Given the choice of being fully online or in person, many first-year law students opted for classrooms while virtual learning was more popular among second-years, Roberts said. This year, most students are on campus, in masks when indoors.

I had a really positive online experience, mainly because, I attribute it to the professors I had being so accessible, even though I wasnt on campus, said Kathryn Cantu, a current second-year J.D. student who was fully online last year.

I was always on office hours on Zoom, or Saturday review sessions on Zoom, or professors would give phone calls if they werent able to get behind a computer.

Cantu said she liked being able to go back to her class lectures online, scheduling study groups with peers via Zoom, and having some of the classes asynchronized, or on her own time.

It was helpful that it wasnt all self-guided,she said. The live lectures gave me more guidance from the professors. In general, with online programs you must have a lot of discipline because you are at home all the time, you cant get distracted with the stuff at home.

Claire.Bryan@express-news.net
Al Rendon had just begun talking about his latest series of portraits in this years Fotoseptiembre lineup when he was interrupted.

It was a representative of the Floresville Peanut Festival, whod dropped by Rendons South Alamo studio and home to pick up photos of a royal court that will reign over its October celebrations.

Rendons photographs may be in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., but the commercial and art photographer has remained firmly on the ground in his hometown, documenting everything from rock concerts to grand openings.

He has captured a great big swath of Texas moments  from small-town life to concert back stages and in studios where album covers are made.

It all started when his mother, the family photographer, started cutting off peoples heads  in photos. Rendon, then a teenager, took the familys Instamatic camera from her. It had a rotating, square bulb that provided a flash.

Now 64, Rendons archive reflects our stars, our shared moments and our sorrows.

His latest project features home-bound patients living with chronic disease and terminal illness and receiving palliative care.

They may be battling cancer, heart disease, strokes, pulmonary-related ailments and Alzheimers disease. Some are dealing with co-morbidities.

They need help managing their symptoms. In this supportive care mode, they may have years before they enter hospice care. Some have survived COVID-19.

Theyre the Faces of Resiliency, a portrait series that was the brainchild of Dr. S. Liliana Oakes, medical director of WellMeds supportive care program, which she calls the largest home-based program in the nation.

It cares for more than 1,000 patients in nine cities, seven in Texas. Next month, WellMed will publish an e-book with more of the portraits than those in the Fotoseptiembre show.

Rendons website features more works than those curated for the show, too.

At some point, post-pandemic perhaps, Oakes hopes the portraits will be exhibited in a physical space.

Before Rendon took aim, the series was called the patient portrait project. As his images began accumulating, they began to tell a counter-intuitive story  one of resiliency among those facing death.

A few of those photographed for the series have died.

Oakes, a native of Colombia who landed in San Antonio for medical training, came up with the photography project early in the pandemic, as her staff made safety adjustments to deliver care.

In geriatrics, Oakes said, caregiving involves listening and storytelling.

Patients are often at a point in their lives in which they must make decisions and resolve business, she said. Theyre counseled to love, forgive and reach out to those they must speak with before its too late.

The photos, which took Rendon to several Texas cities and included interviews with both patients and caregivers, were taken on what Oakes called sacred ground  in patients homes, where they may take their last breaths.

The project was financed by WellMeds charitable foundation, which also provided other services to patients in dire circumstances. In one case, Oakes said the company provided a mobile home to a patient living in untenable conditions.

Some patients live alone, accompanied only by pets. Some dont have air-conditioning. Others worry about the welfare of spouses and caregivers theyll leave behind or about relatives fighting COVID-19.

They talk to us about the most important things, and its not about money, Oakes said. Its about loving their families.

Their last wishes are about hope, she said, even if its (hope) not to die alone or to die without pain. Its very humbling.

She thinks the series will encourage dialogue and be used as a platform for healing.

To me, it was just important to show these people as they are, Rendon said.

Its the kind of assignment I love. Even though I was working for a company in a commercial sense, they were very hands off.

Over the last year, Rendon has been home a lot, too. He has used the time to organize his archives and get them ready to donate to a local institution.

It has him thinking about a retrospective in which he can showcase his half-century of photography.

They document his hometown, South Texas conjunto and Tejano musicians, local artists, charros, street vendors and the rock stars whose tours brought them here, among them Rod Stewart, the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin.

That retrospective will take some time. Hes not in a rush, but 2023 might be the year for it, he said.

eayala@express-news.net
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, with his snowballing legal troubles and slim margin of victory in his 2018 re-election, has instilled new fervor in challengers from both parties  but especially Democrats hoping to seize on what they see as a prime opening.

Paxton, who has been under indictment since 2015 for felony securities fraud charges and is facing an FBI investigation after being accused of corruption by his top aides last October, will face at least two high-profile challengers in the Republican primary: Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush and former Texas Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzman. Both have identified the seat as one vulnerable to a Democratic flip.

They see that Ken Paxton is our weak link, Bush said about Democrats at his campaign announcement in June. They know that if he was the lowest vote-getter statewide in the last election cycle, and they know that if he is our nominee again, they have their first statewide elected office in close to 30 years.

Two candidates are so far vying for the Democratic nomination: Joe Jaworski, 59, a mediator and former Galveston mayor, and Lee Merritt, 38, a nationally recognized civil rights attorney.

IN-DEPTH: Texas AG Ken Paxtons donors are defecting to his challengers and taking big money with them

Both of the Democrats have emphasized the need to bring integrity back to the attorney generals office. Its a line of attack that Paxtons Republicans challengers are putting front and center, as well.

Of course, I was saying that before George Bush was, but I welcome his perspective, Jaworski said. I mean, of all offices, for Christs sake, the attorney generals office needs to be above reproach.

Austin attorney Justin Nelson also focused on Paxtons legal woes when he came within 3.6 percentage points of defeating him in 2018.

Paxton has denied any wrongdoing in both the securities fraud case and the corruption inquiry. The FBI investigation has been ongoing for nearly a year without a resolution.

A Paxton primary win would indeed give the Democrats their best chances to win a statewide election next year, said Juan Carlos Huerta, professor of political science at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi.

If Guzman or Bush were to win the nomination, that takes away all the scandal and investigations that surround Paxton, Huerta said.

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Republicans understandably have the advantage over Democrats when it comes to attracting well-known candidates because of their hold on power in Texas, Huerta said. Its an issue also afflicting the party when it comes to finding a Democrat to run against Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.

Theres not a deep bench of high-profile candidates, Huerta said. Also, some of the higher profile names may already have elected positions and dont want to risk those. Other than (former 2020 presidential candidates) Beto ORourke and Julian Castro, there are not many Democrats in Texas who have a high statewide profile.

A Ken Paxton problem

Practicing law was part of the family legacy for Jaworski, whose grandfather is the late Watergate special prosecutor Leon Jaworski.

Jaworski was elected mayor of the Gulf Coast island city in 2010 after pulling 53 percent of the vote in a five-way contest. Prior to that, Jaworski had served three terms on the city council before unsuccessfully challenging state Sen. Mike Jackson, R-Pasadena, in 2008.

His tenure as Galveston mayor was marked by a controversial plan to rebuild public housing destroyed by Hurricane Ike as a mixed-income development, a move that cost him politically.

In 2012, despite backing by prominent Democrats including U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee and then-state Rep. Sylvester Turner, Jaworski was defeated by retired businessman Lewis Rosen who opposed the project  and took 57 percent of the vote to his 43 percent after a heated runoff.

Some of it was racism, some of it was Galveston has a landlord industry there, Jaworski said. It was hostile. It was incredible. I just couldnt believe Id gone from this wonderful, popular, new-energy guy to this single-issue bean bag, but I knew I was doing the right thing.

Jaworski now runs his own law firm that concentrates on mediation for claims brought by military contractors.

PAST COVERAGE: Grieder: Texas AG Paxton draws 2022 challenger who vows to work across the aisle

If elected, Jaworski said he plans to push for policies that increase voter access to the polls, support the Affordable Care Act, expand Medicaid and legalize cannabis. Jaworski, like Merritt, says the attorney generals office is wasting tax dollars on investigating rare voter fraud cases.

We dont have a voter fraud problem; we have a Ken Paxton problem, he said. He is using this as an ideological pivot for his base and to justify whatever few prosecutions he can muster. Jaworski said Paxton should instead be doing more to address gun violence, adding people are actually dying in those instances.

Both Merritt and Jaworski have said they would create a civil rights division within the office.

Merritt was top fundraiser

Merritt, though he entered the race this summer, almost a full year later than Jaworski, has wasted no time fundraising. In the last reporting period that spanned July 7 to Aug. 6, Merritt raised more than $285,000, more than any Republican in the race, including Paxton.

Over the same period, Jaworski raised about $30,000, while Bush raised about $158,000 and Guzman raised $193,000. Paxton raised about $39,000, but the incumbent maintained the most cash-on-hand by millions at last count.

Merritt rose to prominence in recent years for taking on high-profile police accountability cases and representing families of Black Americans killed by police, including George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Atatiana Jefferson and Botham Jean. If elected, he would be the states first Black attorney general.

In 2017, online magazine The Root named Merritt the eighth-most-influential African-American between ages 18 and 45 in the U.S, three spots ahead of Beyonce.

Having worked on criminal justice reform issues with attorneys general in other states, even Republicans such as Chris Carr of Georgia, Merritt said he could see a stark contrast between the work they were doing and what little Paxton has done.

For instance, Carr in May signed a law repealing the citizens arrest that was used as a defense in the fatal shooting of Arbery. Meanwhile, Merritt said, he sees Paxtons office regularly allowing law enforcement to keep video evidence of police abuse of force outside of public view.

It was that frustration of: The most basic responsibility of the attorney general is to uphold the constitution and protect life, liberty and property, he said about his decision to jump in the race. And we have an attorney general who has been completely asleep at the wheel, and people are dying.

Though its not his only campaign issue, Merritt says hes confident that police reform will appeal to voters of both major political parties.

When were all in a room together, we find that were not really that far apart, he said. Law enforcement officers agree that they arent equipped to deal with the mental health crisis.

Merritt said he hopes to address other areas where Paxton falls short, such as advocating for Texas consumers, especially in the wake of the February 2021 winter storm, and finding root causes for unpaid child support rather than focusing on criminal penalties.

This is going to be a campaign about meeting the practical needs of Texans, Merritt said.

taylor.goldenstein@chron.com


Croatia Airlines has said the Airbus A220 aircraft is an ideal choice for its Croatia Airlines has said the Airbus A220 aircraft is an ideal choice for its upcoming fleet renewal , as the European plane manufacturer presented the jet in Zagreb yesterday. During a demonstration flight for airline executives and aviation industry stakeholders, the national carriers Chief Commercial Officer, Slaven Zabo, said, This is an aircraft that has been designed today for the next thirty years, which is something we need. These are narrow-body jets that delight with their comfort and I think they would perfectly fit within Croatia Airlines fleet. The Croatian carrier is on the lookout for new jets as it plans to renew its fleet with up to fifteen aircraft. The A220 is believed to be the front-runner in their selection process.







Airbus Head of Single-Aisle Market Development, Claude Debaquenne, noted that the A220 would allow Croatia Airlines to launch a number of new routes, with its range enabling the carrier to cover all of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. The CEO of airBaltic, Martin Gauss, who was present in Zagreb yesterday as the largest operator of the A220, said that Croatia Airlines could have similar benefits from the aircraft as the Latvian carrier, since it is profitable to operate both on longer routes, as well as short sectors, such as the one Croatia Airlines has domestically. airBaltic now exclusively operates the A220 and has retired other aircraft types from its fleet. Its longest route with the jet is between Riga - Dubai, taking over six hours. Airbus Head of Single-Aisle Market Development, Claude Debaquenne, noted that the A220 would allow Croatia Airlines to launch a number of new routes, with its range enabling the carrier to cover all of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. The CEO of airBaltic, Martin Gauss, who was present in Zagreb yesterday as the largest operator of the A220, said that Croatia Airlines could have similar benefits from the aircraft as the Latvian carrier, since it is profitable to operate both on longer routes, as well as short sectors, such as the one Croatia Airlines has domestically. airBaltic now exclusively operates the A220 and has retired other aircraft types from its fleet. Its longest route with the jet is between Riga - Dubai, taking over six hours.









The A220 family, comprising the A220-100 and the A220-300, is considered to be the most efficient small single-aisle aircraft. It has a range of up to 6.390 kilometres, as well as widest seats, largest windows and 20% more overhead stowage space per passenger than other narrow-body aircraft. Its windows are bigger than that on the Boeing 777. Currently there are ten operators committed to the type. In addition to airBaltic, they include, Swiss, Korean Air, Delta Air Lines, Air Tanzania, Egypt Air, Air Canada, jetBlue, Air Manas and Air Austral. It is powered by two Pratt & Whitney PW1500G latest generation engines (geared turbofans), belonging to the same engine family as those powering the A320neo family.








If you were anywhere near social media on Monday night, it wouldve been nearly impossible to miss coverage of the famed Met Gala in New York City.

The fundraiser, which traditionally takes place on the first Monday of May each year, has been around since 1948 and is known as the biggest night in fashion as stars and designers dazzle in over-the-top looks adhering to each years theme.

Actress Keke Palmer served as this years Vogue livestream host alongside Ilana Glazer, with the duo offering humor, candor and lightheartedness to the red carpet and the event at large.

Palmer took to Instagram once inside the show, sharing snippets of performances, decor, guests and most notably, the food selection.

In an Instagram story posted Monday night, Palmer shared a photo of what appears to be a (somewhat sad?) salad next to a place setting with her name on it.

This is why they dont show yall food, she jokingly wrote over the image. Im just playinnnn.

Palmer currently has more than 10.5 million followers on the platform.

Keke Palmer via Instagram

Its been reported that a ticket for the Met Gala costs guests a cool $30,000 (provided theyre invited and approved by the events chair, Anna Wintour). But hey, it's all in the name of charity.

This years vegan menu was curated by 10 top chefs to be a multi-course experience that had to fit the theme of the event, In America: A Lexicon of Fashion.

Palmers picture appears to display the dish created by chefs Emma Bengtsson and Junghyun Park, which consisted of creamy barley with corn, pickled turnips, and roasted maitake, per Vogue.

The star also posted a photo of the dish to her Twitter account, responding to a fan who asked her what was on the menu.

The menu Chile, Palmer joked back next to the photo, in a Tweet that has since received over 22,000 likes.

After a difficult two years for the restaurant industry, this will showcase the work and tell the stories of a dynamic group of chefs while presenting an exciting menu of delicious, plant-based dishes," chef and Bon Apetit advisor Marcus Samuelsson told Vogue. "The gala offers an incomparable opportunity for emerging talent to elevate their careers and share their perspectives and craft."

Copyright 2021 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved
BRUSSELS (AP)  The European Unions top official said Wednesday that ramping up COVID-19 vaccinations around the world was the bloc's No. 1 priority right now and committed another 200 million vaccine doses to Africa and low-income nations.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen used her State of the European Union speech on Wednesday to announce the new donation that will be fully delivered by the middle of next year and comes on top of 250 million vaccine doses already pledged.

Even when rich nations are already contemplating giving a third booster vaccine shot to large swathes of their populations, most of the world's poorer nations are still waiting to be fully vaccinated, laying bare an acute sense of vaccine inequality.

Our first and most urgent priority is to speed up global vaccination," von der Leyen told European parliamentarians in a plenary left nearly empty because of continued virus regulations.

Von der Leyen said the bloc was also investing 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) to boost increased vaccine production capacity in Africa.

African health officials say they need just under 800 million doses to vaccinate 60% of the continents population. As of last week, 145 million doses had been procured, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Just 3.5% of people across the continent of 1.3 billion people have been fully vaccinated, the CDC says, amid frustrations over hoarding, vaccine export controls and now the rollout of booster shots in richer countries.

Reacting to von der Leyens announcement, Jagoda Munic, the director of Friends of the Earth Europe, said the EU should make COVID-19 vaccines and treatments a public good, accessible to everyone instead of relying on vaccine donations.

We are witnessing a global vaccine apartheid, she said. People in the Global South least responsible for the climate crisis and least protected from it, are now being left unprotected from the pandemic. This compounding of injustice is at odds with European values and solidarity.

Von der Leyen stressed that on top of delivering 700 million vaccine doses to Europeans, the 27-nation bloc had also sent as many shots to 130 nations.

We are the only region in the world to achieve this, she said. "With less than 1% of global doses administered to lower income countries, the scale of injustice and the level of urgency is obvious.

Even though the EU had allowed vaccine exports even when its own population was still struggling to get enough doses, the challenge to get the world vaccinated remains immense.

Lets do everything possible to ensure that this does not turn into a pandemic of the unvaccinated, she said.

The European Commission president did acknowledge that the bloc was initially caught unaware, lagging the U.S. and Britain in vaccination rates before regrouping and meeting its goal of having 70% of EU adults vaccinated this summer.

She lauded the preparations to set up the HERA emergency preparedness and response authority and insisted that academic science and private sector knowledge should be joined up with government authorities in a new group backed by 50 billion euros ($60 billion) in funding by 2027.

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Sam Petrequin from Brussels and Cara Anna from Nairobi contributed to this report.

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FAIRFIELD  Another affordable housing development may be in motion as officials review a residential development proposal at at 888-898 Oldfield Rd.

The project includes 10 two-bedroom units, along with 11 parking spaces  10 in the garages and 11 outside.

The new proposal is scaled down from the original submitted in November 2020, which called for 17 units. That plan has gone through a series of changes, including submitting the application under the state law Section 8-30g, which states the only way the commission could deny the plan is to prove it poses a threat to public health, welfare and safety that outweighs Fairfields need for affordable housing.

There has been significant evolution here in regards to the development of this project, said Attorney John Fallon, who represents the developer, 888 Oldfield Rd LLC.

As the plans for the site came together, the number of units became the main issue for residents who live in the area of Oldfield Road. Sixteen neighbors represented by Attorney Joel Green and several other individual residents voiced their concern of the impact that a 17-unit development would have on the neighborhood.

After numerous conversations, the developer reduced the plan to only include 13-units, a number that still didnt sit right with neighbors.

With the reduction in units, the amount of affordable units was also modified. Three units instead of the previous four are now set aside as affordable housing for the required 40-year period. In this case, two of the units will be reserved for people earning less than 60 percent of the statewide medium income and one unit will be reserved for people earning less than 80 percent, according to the application.

I like to thank the applicant and Attorney Fallon for their generous cooperation,  Green said. You know were all resistant to change. For my clients this isnt perfect and its not perfect for all involved. I know the developer would like to have a larger development the one they started with and we would like to have a smaller development, but we engaged in dialogue. We shared our concerns and objectives and we were able to reach this common ground.

He said these kinds of conversations were needed to address the housing crisis in Connecticut.

Fallon echoed Greens sentiments by saying that while 8-30g is controversial, it can be used in a way where developers can collaborate and work constructively with their neighbors.

Were glad we were able to reach this consensus with the neighbors, Fallon said. We think we have a development that will inure to not only the benefit of Fairfield with regards to its need for affordable housing, but also to this fine neighborhood.

The only other major concern involved landscaping. In order to satisfy this concern, the developer plans to add additional landscaping which will include a screening buffer of evergreen trees. The trees will run down the southern portion of the property and parallel to Oldfield Road.

The public hearing closed Tuesday. The commission is now expected to make a decision in the coming weeks.
Though last year's racial justice protests unleashed an avalanche of donations for minority causes, the philanthropic community remains divided about which donations should be counted as advancing racial equity.

Candid, a leading philanthropy research organization, told The Associated Press that it broadened its definition of racial equity to better reflect the intent of contributors and to help foster additional donations.

It now defines racial equity donations as grantmaking explicitly awarded to benefit people of color broadly or to organizations that serve these populations. Previously, it had limited its definition to grantmaking focused on systemic change to advance racial equity.

The change, introduced on its website Wednesday, raised the number of racial equity donations the organization has categorized in the past decade from roughly 60,000 to 600,000, according to Anna Koob, Candids director of research. Under the new definition, Candid says it's cataloged nearly 29,000 grants valued at $14.1 billion donated since George Floyds death. These include grants from foundations, corporations and wealthy philanthropists though not from everyday Americans, whose giving is difficult to fully track.

Contributions to racial equity are generally defined as providing resources to racial groups according to need, a practice that has been criticized by some conservatives who argue that this approach could neglect other communities in need.

The effort to re-examine Candid's definition of racial equity followed an influx of donations after the police killing of Floyd, especially from corporations, many of which had had little role in such initiatives. Bradford Smith, the president of Candid, said there were two goals: To help organizations that are combating racism find contributors and to help donors see who else is funding racial equity work and which groups could use support.

We wanted to show the many different ways contributions are making real progress, he said.

His organization partnered with the Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity (PRE) and sought input from other groups about the broadened definition.

Before the change was announced, Howard Husock, a philanthropy expert at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, had criticized Candid's prior definition as favoring counting advocacy initiatives instead of programs that provide direct services. Husock says the new definition is an improvement.

A consensus definition of what constitutes racial equity giving would provide clearer examples of donations to minority communities, said Una Osili, an associate dean at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at Indiana University, and make it easier to determine how much money flows into these causes.

The reality is there is inexactness in a huge range of terminology within the foundation sector," said Lori Villarosa, PREs executive director. "The number of different ways funders decide what is arts, what is education, what is health, is often fuzzy,

Though it worked with Candid on its new definition, PRE has a definition of its own. It defines racial equity giving as grants that focus on the prevention of harm and the redistribution of benefits within existing systems.

Using Candids new definition, which was developed with PRE, the organization reported this week that only about $3.4 billion was given to racial equity by corporations and foundations in 2020, even though billions more have been promised in business and other initiatives to benefit minority communities.

Villarosa said Candids new definition is necessary for greater consistency in comparing past funding to current funding.

Other experts suggest that determining whos benefiting from such donations will continue to be difficult, regardless of any definition. Naomi Schaefer Riley, a philanthropy expert at the conservative AEI who has been critical of equity initiatives, says foundations must decide for themselves what makes for the most effective giving that they want. And if its giving to a particular community, theyre going to have to measure those results and look at what those particular organizations are doing.

Candid expects the debate to continue.

With this data set, more people will see themselves in it, Smith said. Some people will not see themselves in it and be upset. That will start a dialogue and part of that dialogue is, how you can provide better information so people can see not only what your foundation is doing but what it adds up to?

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The Associated Press receives support from the Lilly Endowment for coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of APs philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.
ST. LOUIS (AP)  Missouri's new health czar lamented that the pandemic had become so embroiled in politics as another child died of COVID-19 and the virus sickened record numbers of youths.

Donald Kauerauf, who began serving three weeks ago as the director of the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, told lawmakers Tuesday that we failed, as a nation, public health because we got to this point, the Springfield News-Leader reports.

In emergency planning, Kauerauf said, you plan for the absolutely worst scenario  but we didnt plan for this reaction from the public. And he said it was crucial to retool the public message as he works toward a goal of getting around 80% of the states residents vaccinated. Currently, 52.8% have gotten at least one dose of the vaccine, state data shows.

Weve got to start something new, Kauerauf said.

The state just ended what is shaping up to be one of the deadliest months of the pandemic. Data lags by several weeks, but COVID-19 deaths in Missouri have already reached 878 in the five weeks that span August  more than triple the numbers seen this past spring, before the highly infections delta variant took hold, according to state data analyzed by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Hospital officials hope the number of deaths will start to drop, as cases and hospitalizations have shown signs of easing. Statewide, the average number of COVID-19 hospitalizations dropped to 1,999 after a peak of 2,417 on Aug. 20, according to the latest data.

Recent deaths include a child who died last week in the St. Louis area, the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force announced Tuesday. No other details were released, including the child's age and whether the child had underlying health conditions, the Post-Dispatch reports.

The death brings the total number of Missouri children younger than 18 who have died from COVID-19 to six, according to state health department spokeswoman Lisa Cox.

This summer saw nearly 34,000 cases among children, more than four times the number from last summer, according to an analysis released Tuesday by the Missouri Hospital Association. And the state set a single day record for child cases on Sept. 7 with 1,133 positive test results.

Some local health departments in the St. Louis area have reported that up to a third of new cases are among children.

Dr. Clay Dunagan, chief clinical officer for BJC HealthCare, blamed the increasing number of cases among children on the delta variant and schools not taking steps to reduce spread such as requiring masks. Children younger than 12 aren't yet eligible for vaccines, and vaccination rates among teens lag behind that of adults.

That really puts kids in harms way, Dunagan said.

In southeast Missouri, some parents of students in the Jackson School District told school board members Tuesday that they were concerned about a policy that recommends, but doesnt require, that students and staff wear masks, the Southeast Missourian reports.

Forty Jackson students have COVID-19, according to associate superintendent Jessica Maxwell. Maxwell said the district has quarantined 268 students in total.
An insidious infectious disease such as toxoplasmosis was likely to be the cause of barrenness or abortion in ewes seen earlier this year, according to vets.

Blood samples from sheep farms across the United Kingdom were tested between February 2021 and June 2021.

According to data from 375 farms, 66% of units had one or more ewes testing positive for the productivity-damaging parasite Toxoplasma gondii.

The parasite causes toxoplasmosis, and it remains a key cause of barrenness and abortion in sheep flocks across the country.

It also causes reabsorptions, mummified fetuses, stillbirths and weakly lambs, and as a result of the range of different disease pictures that can manifest, its impact on flock profits is often significantly underestimated.

MSD Animal Health livestock veterinary adviser Dr Kat Baxter-Smith said the continued high exposure of sheep to Toxoplasma gondii highlights the importance of vaccinating ewes.

Each year we consistently see about two thirds of UK sheep units testing positive for this serious, productivity-limiting parasite," she explained.

"Consequently, we urge all sheep producers to discuss their individual farm situation with their vet, well in advance of the upcoming autumn tupping season.

Toxoplasmosis is so widespread that the industry focus should be on preventing infection in breeding ewes and the best way to do that is to vaccinate replacements well before they go to the ram.

"The clear industry advice is to ensure every ewe is vaccinated before she breeds.

According to Dr Baxter-Smith, sheep pick up the infection from the environment and so normal biosecurity measures are not enough to control the disease.

Infected cats are one of the ways this parasite spreads to sheep, they shed toxoplasma eggs in their faeces and sheep become infected when they ingest these eggs from contaminated pasture, feed and water.

EAE is caused by Chlamydophila abortus bacteria, said Dr Baxter-Smith. The disease can cause devastating abortion storms affecting approximately 30% of ewes.

"Once a flock has the disease it is likely it will never disappear due to its persistence in carrier sheep. The disease often arrives on farm through bought-in replacements and is passed on from ewe to ewe at lambing time.

"If an unvaccinated ewe is infected, she will more than likely abort in the next pregnancy, she warned.

Sheep producers who recorded a flock barren rate greater than 2% during the 2021 lambing season are being urged to talk to their vet for advice.
Two of Suffolk's largest employers are working together to drive home the potentially life-saving message of staying safe around electricity when working on the farm.

UK Power Networks, which distributes electricity in the East of England, has joined forces with British Sugar to warn of the dangers of contact with overhead power lines.

Points covered include awareness of risks around the power network and the importance of safe working, including requesting overhead power line plans ahead of harvesting and loading crops onto vehicles.

Touching high voltage cables can be fatal or cause serious injuries if people or an object they are in contact with get too close to a line and a flashover occurs.

Farmers, along with road hauliers, tree surgeons and builders, belong to the most at-risk groups when it comes to overhead power lines.

Figures for 2020 show that 44% of overhead line incidents were through road hauliers, 18% farmers, 16% tree surgeons and self-employed builders 12%.

Ros Forbes, a safety advisor at UK Power Networks, said: We want to prompt collaborative working and positive conversations about safety which, ultimately, will help save lives.

Our advice is always to be vigilant, to look up and around to see what electrical equipment is near you if driving or using agricultural machinery.

"British Sugar take safety very seriously and gave us tremendous backing and support to deliver our message.

Clare Beaumont, beet delivery service manager at British Sugar, added: Nothing is more important than the safety of our colleagues and partners across the British beet sugar industry.

Working in collaboration with UK Power Networks is a proven way of ensuring the right messaging about electrical safety can be shared and understood."

Power line advice

 Risk assess  know where overhead power lines are and mark them on a map. Find out the height and reach of your equipment and how this compares to the maximum working height under overhead power lines.

 Control measures  dont work near an overhead power line if you dont have to. Speak to your electricity network operator for advice. Select suitable machinery and equipment and use it safely.

 Know whats safe, and what isnt  certain work should be avoided within 10 metres of overhead power lines, such as stacking bales and potato boxes, operating telehandlers and moving irrigation pipes.

 Know what to do - if you come into contact with an overhead power line. If contact is made when youre in a vehicle, stay in the cab and try to drive clear. If it is not safe to stay in the vehicle, jump clear of the machine, move away and dont touch it once on the ground.
A young farmer from Cornwall with a large social media following has won an award for devoting her time to educating her audience on the topic of farm safety.

Maria Warne was revealed as the winner of the National Federation of Young Farmers Clubs (NFYFC) Farm Safety Award 2021 on Monday (13 September).

The 18-year-old has nearly one million fans on the social media platform TikTok and over 34,000 followers on her Instagram account.

She regularly posts updates from her familys beef, sheep and arable farm and is well-known for involving her Granfer  76-year-old Tom Warne  in her posts as he speaks in a strong Cornish accent.

Maria, who is a Yellow Wellies Ambassador, devotes many of her updates to highlighting farm safety by sharing practical tips or discussing mental wellbeing.

The young farmer's dedication to promoting these messages to such a wide audience impressed the three judges the most.

The NFYFC launched the Farm Safety Award for the first time this year as part of its annual YFC Achiever Awards.

Judges Hannah Jackson  aka the Red Shepherdess, Steph Berkeley, Manager of the Farm Safety Foundation and Ed Dungait, NFYFCs Vice Chair were unanimous that Maria should be this years winner.

Hannah Jackson said during the online ceremony: Maria makes farm safety cool, which is exactly what we need.

"She is getting other people involved and taking them with her. She is reaching a huge amount of people and really bigging up farm safety.

As well as Marias social media accounts, she has also encouraged everyone who works on the family farm to take a quad bike safety course and takes part in an annual voluntary workplace safety test.

Maria also faces her own physical and mental wellbeing battles after being diagnosed with arthritis at only 18-years-old and uses her personal experience to ensure others are aware of their mental health.

She said: It humbles me to have been put into such a strong class with such outstanding candidates, who have all shown an incredible commitment to farm safety.

"I will endeavour to pursue my commitments to such a worthy message to sow and harvest amongst fellow agriculturalists both in farm safety and mental health within the rural community."
A 'lower-than-expected' level of interest in the UK's post-Brexit environmental grant schemes for farmers could ruin next year's planned roll out, a new report has warned.

The National Audit Office (NAO), which scrutinises public spending for Parliament, said on Wednesday (15 September) that a lack of interest from farmers 'increased the risk' to the government's plans.

The Environmental Land Management (ELM) scheme will pay farmers for undertaking actions that improve the environment through the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), and the Local Nature Recovery and Landscape Recovery schemes.

Defra is piloting SFI with an initial cohort of up to 1,000 participants from October 2021, with a plan to launch some core elements of SFI at scale in mid-2022.

While the NAO said Defra had made progress in ELM's development and design since its last report in 2019, it warned that a 'continued low level of interest' amongst farmers could 'threaten' the government's environmental ambitions.

In March 2021, the department invited farmers to express an interest in participating in the SFI pilot which is due to go live from October 2021.

Defra had assumed that there would be between 5,000 and 10,000 expressions of interest out of around 44,000 eligible farmers, from which it would select a representative 1,000 participants.

In the event, it received only 2,178 responses, a response rate of just 5%. Defra said it was confident that this provided a "healthy pipeline" to test aspects of SFI, but the NAO said it had not shown any analysis to support this.

"A continued low level of interest could threaten Defra's environmental ambitions," the audit office said in its report.

And despite Defra adapting its engagement plans during Covid-19, it had not yet 'regained enough trust from farmers to be confident in achieving a high level of participation in ELM'.

"Defra lost farmers' trust as a result of difficulties with its management of past agricultural subsidy schemes," the NAO's report explained.

The SFI launch in 2022 will be the first time that tens of thousands of farmers will experience the post-Brexit ELM scheme in a live situation.

But the NAO warned that failure to launch SFI2022 successfully would cause Defra 'further reputational damage' and reduce long-term participation in ELM.

Delays in informing farmers which actions farmers would be paid for in the SFI pilot and SFI in 2022, and how much they would be paid, had made 'matters worse'.

"Defra sees rebuilding trust as vital, but both the NAO's and Defra's own evidence show it has not yet succeeded," the report warned.

The NAO recommends that Defra identifies why there was a lower-than-expected level of interest in the SFI pilot, and develop measures to achieve a more positive response in the future.

The audit office also warned that Defra had not yet established objectives to support its high-level vision for the ELM scheme.

HM Treasury guidance requires more specific strategic policy objectives to turn the vision for ELM into an implementable programme.

Defra told the NAO that development of these objectives was in progress, but could not be completed until government had made key decisions about its approach to meeting UK carbon budget targets and set legally binding targets in the Environment Bill.

Gareth Davies, the head of the NAO said: "The success of the Environmental Land Management scheme depends on securing participation from farmers.

"Defra has not yet set detailed objectives for the scheme and has been slow to provide information on what farmers can expect from it.

"Defra must now develop detailed plans for the scheme's delivery if it is to achieve its intended environmental goals."
A decade after an improvised explosive device left Marine Cpl. Larry Bailey II clinging to life in combat against the Taliban in Afghanistans Helmand Province, the triple amputee and Purple Heart recipient recalls that day. Bailey, 35, lives in Sumerduck in a fully accessible home that a 9/11 charity, the Tunnel 2 Towers Foundation, helped construct.

Twenty years ago I was 15, in freshman year at Zion Benton Township High School in Illinois. Im from a military family so we moved around a lot. Both my parents were in the Navy; my Dad made it a career.

It was before first period. We had TVs on in the common areas. I was watching when the second plane hit.

After a little bit of college, I started talking to the military recruiters more. The Air Force and Navy offered me two special forces programs for para-rescuers and air combat commandos, but I signed a five-year, security forces contract with the Marines and went to boot camp in California.

In 2011, I deployed to Afghanistan. We had a lot of really ridiculous rules of engagement that kept our hands tied in a lot of cases. The day I got blown up [June 28, 2011] was one of the first times they lifted a lot of those rules of engagement so we could go do an operation.

We hiked five or six hours from our patrol base, on foot most of the time. We stopped and rested twice. I switched off carrying the heavy machine gun with my gunner. There were quite a few IED hits that day, but nothing serious (at first) with the group of riflemen I was with. Nothing life-threatening.

We had just taken what turned out to be the compound of the local Taliban commander. Good intel wasnt passed along, so we didnt know it was his compound. If we had, I cant say we would have been more cautious -- we were always cautious with the amount of IEDs out there  but we might have had a little bit less lax mindset. We were unpacking and pretty much relaxed there for the day.

Most of the time, once we win a gunfight, which we always did, the Taliban leave, and just stay gone and regroup and fight somewhere else a different day. But this time they regrouped and ambushed some Marines we had on the outside of the compound holding security. One of my buddies died from that ambush.

Myself and another machine gunner, we went up to the rooftop of the compound. It was a two-story building made of mud and hay with a flat roof. The Taliban were maybe a good 300 to 400 yards away. They were small dots. If we werent in a fire fight, we probably would have noticed the roof was discolored where theyd dug it up to put the IED in. Rooftop IEDs are rare.

I turned around and called for some ammo. Really, this is the only part I didnt remember, but apparently as soon as I pivoted back around to reload the machine gun, thats when the IED went off.

Its kind of weird because a little bit of this is kind of like the movies. I could see the spot where I was standing and there was like a clear circle or halo underneath me, then in slow motion, it started to break apart and fall through. Then I hit the roof and the roof caved in.

The next thing I knew I had a bunch of my buddies jumping on top of me, dragging me. I didnt realize it was them at first. I was punching and throwing people off me. I dont know what I was thinking. I might have been snatched up [by the Taliban]. They held my arms until I realized it was them. I go to myself, OK, thats cool, I dont have to stab anybody or whatever.

I guess I blocked my gunner from taking most of the blast. He was bleeding a little bit, had a concussion, but other than that, he was fine. Oddly enough, my clothes were ripped; all his clothes got blown off.

Even as they were trying to calm me down, I could feel they were putting tourniquets on my legs and arms. My buddy Marino did most of it. We sat there  I lay there  and talked until the birds came in. As soon as the Taliban heard the helicopters come in, they took off.

We had run out of litters from other injuries, so they grabbed a ladder and put a sheet on it and I think put a sheet over me, as well, and carried me to the helicopter that way. It was a British unit that flew in.

They took me to Camp Leatherneck and from there to Landstuhl [Medical Center] in Germany and from there to Walter Reed [where both legs and his left arm were amputated].

I believe they could have salvaged my left leg but, at that point, they had me too drugged up to ask me, which is fine. I see guys who had a salvaged limb; not all, but a majority of them end up coming back and getting that limb amputated because it was causing too much pain.

I got blown up on June 28, 2011, and, in total, I spent almost three years at Walter Reed  a good year of intense rehab, physical therapy, working with the prosthetics and things like that, and after that, more classes including separation classes and next steps. I medically retired in October 2013.

Personally Im doing pretty good. Just living, living life, trying to work and get my business running and moving. You can call it an advertisement and investment fund type thing. At least, that is what Id like it to be in the long run.

I still have a lot of stuff to do. I generally dont have a negative outlook on anything. Im not one of the guys  well, weve had a few guys we had to go and pull out of their basement because they were only leaving the house to buy food and something to drink.

I go to the V.A. for general medical care, but all my prosthetics I still do at Walter Reed. They actually have a prosthetic lab right there where they make all the corrections. The V.A. has to make a cast of the limb, mill it out and wait for it to come back.

I break my hand prosthetic quite often just because Im pretty active, but not my legs. I got an operation called an osseointegration where they connect metal to the femurs, and you connect your prosthetic to that. Thats a lot better for balance and shoulder prosthetic.

You always see me in prosthetics when I leave the house, but at home, I generally dont have them on. I might have some really short prosthetics on, close to the ground, which are more comfortable and have better balance.

[Before moving to Sumerduck] I used to be really, really short-tempered about people who would break their neck staring at me. Back then Id say, You got a question to ask? Stop staring. Now either I wont say anything or ask them a little bit nicer if they have a question.

I have a lot of different thoughts, a lot of emotions [about the pullout from Afghanistan]. A lot of us got the feeling, Okay, so the time we spent over there and the buddies we lost, was that pointless now?

I dont think it was pointless. I think a lot about the families we were helping. Maybe its me reaching to find a positive, but there was a time period where it was a lot more peaceful. Families didnt have to hide their daughters all the time. The Taliban wasnt coming around forcing them to do things. The Taliban was coming around trying to cut deals with them, stuff like that.

That bothers me a lot.

Other than that, I have no regrets at all. My only regret is I cant deploy more.

More coverage from the Fauquier Times on the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks
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Category Select Category Apparel/Garments Textiles Fashion Technical Textiles Information Technology E-commerce Retail Corporate Association Press Release

SubCategory Select Sub-Category
FY21 pro forma revenues of 480 million, up 53%, or 166 million growth on FY20

FY21 pro forma adjusted EBITDA of 180 million, up 65%, or 71 million growth on FY20

Continued high quality organic revenue of 10%, and 15% recurring revenue growth

Continued strategic M&A with 18 acquisitions completed

Achieved target of 1 million Access Workspace users

Formation of the 7 million Access Foundation expanding charitable support in UK and APAC

The Access Group, a leading provider of business management software to mid-market organisations, has announced significant year-on-year pro forma revenue growth of 53%, leading to pro forma revenues of 480 million and pro forma adjusted EBITDA of 180 million for its fiscal year ended June 30, 2021 ("FY21"). These results represent 16 straight years of uninterrupted profitable growth for the company.

Organic revenue growth of 10% demonstrates the underlying power of Access technology and services. The total number of Access Workspace users, its global SaaS solution, grew to more than 1 million during FY21 and Access added approximately 20,000 new customers bringing the total to more than 55,000 customers across the company.

Commenting on today's announcements, Chris Bayne, CEO of The Access Group, said: "This year's outstanding financial results demonstrate the value our customers are receiving from Access. In what was the most challenging year for businesses globally, Access remained committed to assisting our people, our customers and partners. I'm very proud of how Access has shown, not only resilience, but also such progress and growth during the past incredibly challenging 18 months."

Bayne continued, "We have continued our significant investment in our Access Workspace digital workplace a simple and accessible way of joining the dots for an organisation's moving parts of people, processes and technology so they can address the challenges and opportunities ahead of them with confidence and certainty. ?We've spent a long time listening to our customers and they told us that a single view of their organisation coupled with a clear ability to take action would be the most valuable way to get more done so that's what we've built.? Access' organic growth of 10% demonstrates that Access is trusted by our customers to bring them the software and solutions they need as they move into growth mode out of the pandemic".

Access completed 18 acquisitions in FY21 which have contributed to the company's accelerated growth. These included "HAS Technology" in Health Social Care; "My School Portal" in the independent Education sector; "Eazipay" has been added as a fundamental element to Access PaySuite; "EasyBuild", "Ezitracker" and "Unleashed" support the growing ERP business in the UK, EU, Australia and New Zealand. "Acteol" expanded the Access Hospitality offering by bringing CRM and managed services capabilities, and "CPL Learning" added industry leading learning and development solutions at a critical time for the hospitality and retail sectors.

The largest acquisition of FY21 was of Sage Group PLC's local businesses in Australia and Asia, completed in May 2021 and continues Access' focus on the Asia Pacific region as a centre of growth. Access' established presence in the region presents a unique opportunity for customers and partners to leverage a leader in integrated people and financial management software services.

Kerry Agiasotis, President, The Access Group Asia Pacific said, "In 2021 The Access Group signalled its intent of becoming a leading business software provider in the Asia Pacific region with the acquisition of Sage's local businesses in the region. Combining it with its previous acquisitions of Attache Software, Unleashed, and more recently Definitiv, Asia Pacific has become the 3rd largest part of The Access Group, with more than 30,000 customers and revenues of greater than AU$100 million. We intend to further accelerate our expansion in the region through continued M&A activity and organic growth, leveraging the Access Workspace platform to make available our broad range of solutions to existing and new customers."

Access People launched in September 2020 by joining all existing Access Group HR operations with seven acquired companies, plus adding "Abintegro" in December, to improve candidate attraction, employee development, engagement and retention. The flexibility, unparalleled breadth, depth and scalability across all areas of HCM, payroll, learning development and compliance are a pivotal part of Access Group's growth across all sectors from small and mid-sized to upper mid-market organisations in the UK and Asia Pacific.

In April 2021 Access formally launched its new legal software division, Access Legal, promising to help the UK's most ambitious law firms achieve their potential through a powerful suite of technology. The launch followed the acquisitions of case and practice management providers Eclipse Legal Systems and DPS Software during 2020, as well as previous acquisitions of legal online training, compliance and risk management solution providers Riliance and Socrates. The acquisitions of "Select Legal" and "Oosha" in June 2021, both leaders in legal technology, accelerated the Access Legal division and further supports the approximately 3,500 law firms who use Access software.

Access PaySuite was launched in May 2021, delivering payment solutions to 5000+ mid-market organisations and has processed over 82 million transactions. FCA authorised, PaySuite is supporting organisations who during the last 18 months in many cases had to re-think their approach to implementing digital payment methods. Integrated or embedded payments are an increasingly popular solution, able to connect the payments system with existing financial and business management software. Access PaySuite drastically cuts the cost and time spent on manual duties such as invoice processing, chasing payments and providing a more flexible, efficient and less error-prone organisation.

Access has formed The Access Foundation, a charitable status entity with a 7M fund that will be launched later this year. It will support charities linked to employees in a meaningful way, and community causes close to its offices in the UK, Ireland, Romania and Asia Pacific. With the intention of striking the right balance between company, employee and customer, the Access culture is focused on giving back and devoting time to causes that are important to its people. Access has increased its fundraising total by 775% in the last three years and continued activities during the pandemic by adapting to online events to maintain momentum and commitment to its charity partners.

The Access team raised a total of 376,495 for the National Deaf Children's Society (NDCS) as its chosen Charity of The Year with more than 50 fundraising initiatives and events taking place during the partnership.

The Access Group global employee base has grown to over 3,850 with continued investment in hiring people expected in FY22. Access has continued to focus on embedding its values through "The Access Way" a platform of behaviours that supports personal and company success by uniquely developing and engaging its people. This was central to its COVID-19 response, driving strong teamwork and customer focus while colleagues continued to work largely from home.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210914006160/en/

Contacts:

Media

For The Access Group

Kate Hassler

The Access Group

kate.hassler@theaccessgroup.com

Martin Stone

Tank PR

+44 (0)115 958 9840

+44 (0)7872 909 711

martin@tankpr.co.uk
DALLAS (dpa-AFX) - AT&T (T) said it continues to anticipate that its pending WarnerMedia-Discovery transaction will close by mid-2022. After close of that transaction and on a pro-forma basis, AT&T expects annual revenues to grow at a low single digits CAGR from 2022 to 2024 with annual adjusted EBITDA and adjusted earnings per share growing at a CAGR in the mid-single digit range. The company anticipates annual dividends paid of $8 billion to $9 billion, reflecting a payout ratio of 40% to 43% on projected free cash flow of $20 billion plus in 2023. AT&T continues to successfully execute in its market focus areas of 5G, fiber and HBO Max. With respect to its fiber initiatives, the company remains confident in its ability to achieve its adjusted end-of-year incrementa customer locations passed target in the 2.5 million range. As previously noted, AT&T has experienced some disruption in its supply chain. However, at this juncture the company believes the issue has been addressed and remains comfortable in its ability to achieve its long-term guidance for 30 million locations by the end of 2025. AT&T also continues to experience healthy demand for HBO Max in both domestic and international markets. 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.
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Xcel Energy Inc. (XEL) said it is more than halfway to achieving its goal, having reduced carbon emissions 51% across its electric system. It is on track to reduce carbon emissions 80% by 2030 with more than 65% of the energy to customers company-wide coming from wind and solar. Xcel Energy Executive Chairman Ben Fowke met with the U.S. President Joe Biden during his visit to the National Renewable Energy Lab in Colorado. Congressional leaders and Colorado Governor Jared Polis were also on hand. Ben Fowke appreciated that the President Biden recognizes the leadership role Xcel Energy is playing in transforming the energy grid as the first major U.S. power provider to announce a vision of providing 100% carbon-free electricity to our customers by 2050. Fowke said that the company looks forward to continuing to engage with the President, his Administration and Congress, the Governor and other state leaders to develop the policies needed to help create a clean energy future. 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.


Three Areas of Focus and Future Vision

TOKYO, Sept 15, 2021 - (JCN Newswire) - NEC Corporation (TSE: 6701) announced today an initiative to create healthcare and life science business that utilizes AI and other digital technologies as part of the "creation of future growth businesses" set forth in the 2025 Mid-term Management Plan. NEC will focus on the three areas of Medical Care, Lifestyle Support, and Life Science, aiming for a business value of 500 billion yen (approximately 4.5 billion USD) in 2030.Currently, in the field of healthcare, in addition to the spread of new types of coronavirus, the growing number of people with lifestyle-related illnesses, such as certain forms of cancer, is now a common challenge worldwide. NEC has contributed to the efficiency and sophistication of medical services through the provision of reception systems(1) and electronic medical record systems for more than 50 years. Furthermore, NEC began full-scale entry into the drug discovery business in 2019 (2), with the aim of promoting innovative next-generation medical care based on the results of research activities to date. This new initiative aims to accelerate and expand the healthcare-related business more than ever before and to grow the business toward the creation of social value.Specifically, NEC will expand business in the following three areas by taking advantage of its leading-edge biometrics technologies, "Bio-Idiom"(3), featuring the world's No. 1 face recognition accuracy(4), as well as its portfolio of leading artificial intelligence technologies, "NEC the WISE"(5), including video analytics and graph-based relationship learning developed by NEC laboratories.The first area is the "Medical Care" business, featuring digital support for medical care; the second is "Lifestyle Support" business, which helps individuals in their daily lives; and the third is "Life Science" business, which supports personalized medical care with technology. Through these three areas of business, NEC aims to create a world in which individuals may live more freely and comfortably.In addition, NEC will promote R&D with an eye toward 2030 and the needs of hospitals, nursing care, rehabilitation, and other situations. NEC will also launch the Healthcare and Life Sciences Project Management Office (PMO) to support the acceleration of business development across the NEC Group.Furthermore, NEC will create new value in the healthcare and life sciences fields through co-creation with a wide range of external partners. In November, for example, NEC will launch NEC Expert Committee on Healthcare and Life Sciences, aiming to implement a future image of society with experts from a variety of positions and perspectives.NEC aims to support society and the healthcare sciences field through the provision of services and products tailored to individuals, including both consumers and healthcare professionals.(1) Reception system: System for preparing medical fee statements(2) NEC's AI Drug Development Businesshttps://www.nec.com/en/global/solutions/ai-drug/index.html(3) About Bio-IDiomhttps://www.nec.com/en/global/ad/bio-idiom/(4) Since 2009, NEC has repeatedly been ranked first in the face recognition accuracy evaluation by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).https://www.nec.com/en/global/solutions/biometrics/face/index.html(5) NEC announces new AI technology brand, "NEC the WISE"https://www.nec.com/en/press/201607/global_20160719_01.htmlAbout NEC CorporationNEC Corporation has established itself as a leader in the integration of IT and network technologies while promoting the brand statement of "Orchestrating a brighter world." NEC enables businesses and communities to adapt to rapid changes taking place in both society and the market as it provides for the social values of safety, security, fairness and efficiency to promote a more sustainable world where everyone has the chance to reach their full potential. For more information, visit NEC at https://www.nec.com.Source: NEC CorporationCopyright 2021 JCN Newswire . All rights reserved.
TechnipFMC plc (NYSE: FTI) (Paris: FTI) (the "Company") announced today the results as of 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on September 14, 2021 (the "Early Tender Time") of its previously announced cash tender offer (the "Tender Offer") to purchase up to $250 million aggregate principal amount (the "Maximum Tender Amount") of its 6.500% Senior Notes due 2026 (the "Notes

As of the Early Tender Time, $164,113,000 aggregate principal amount of the Notes had been validly tendered and not validly withdrawn. These Notes are being accepted by the Company today without proration. Holders of Notes validly tendered at or prior to the Early Tender Time, not validly withdrawn and accepted for purchase in accordance with the terms of the Tender Offer are receiving today, for each $1,000 principal amount of such Notes, the "Total Consideration" of $1,075, which includes an "Early Tender Premium" of $30.00. In addition to the Total Consideration, such Holders are also receiving, in respect of such Notes, accrued and unpaid interest from August 1, 2021 (the last interest payment date for the Notes) to, but not including, today.

Additionally, the Company announced today that the Early Tender Premium of $30.00 shall apply to Notes validly tendered from the date hereof to at or before the Expiration Time. The terms and conditions of the Tender Offer, including the withdrawal deadline, which was 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on September 14, 2021, otherwise remain unchanged and are set forth in an Offer to Purchase (the "Offer to Purchase"), dated August 31, 2021. Accordingly, tendered Notes may no longer be withdrawn.

The Tender Offer will expire at 11:59 p.m., New York City time, on September 28, 2021 (the "Expiration Time"), unless extended or earlier terminated. Holders of Notes validly tendered after the Early Tender Time and at or before the Expiration Time will be eligible to receive $1,075 for each $1,000 principal amount of such Notes. Following this announcement, such amount shall also be referred to as the "Tender Offer Consideration

In addition to the Tender Offer Consideration, such Holders will also receive, in respect of such Notes, accrued and unpaid interest from the last interest payment date for the Notes to, but not including, the settlement date for such Notes. Payment for all Notes validly tendered after the Early Tender Time and accepted for purchase will be made promptly after the Expiration Time.

If more than the Maximum Tender Amount of Notes are validly tendered, and Notes are accepted for purchase, the amount of Notes that will be purchased will be prorated as described in the Offer to Purchase. Only Notes validly tendered after the Early Tender Time and at or before the Expiration Time will be subject to possible proration. The Company reserves the right, but is not obligated, to increase the Maximum Tender Amount in its sole discretion. The Company will return any Notes not accepted for purchase promptly after the Expiration Time.

The Company has engaged Citigroup Global Markets Inc. and BofA Securities, Inc. to act as the dealer managers for the Tender Offer. The Information Agent for the Tender Offer is Global Bondholder Services Corporation. Copies of the Offer to Purchase and related offering materials are available by contacting the Information Agent at (866) 470-3700 (toll-free) or (212) 430-3774. Questions regarding the Tender Offer should be directed to Citigroup Global Markets, Inc. at (800) 558-3745 (toll-free) or (212) 723-6106 (collect) and BofA Securities, Inc. at (980) 388-3646 (collect) or debt_advisory@bofa.com.

This press release is not an offer to purchase or a solicitation of an offer to sell any securities. The Tender Offer is being made solely pursuant to the terms of the Offer to Purchase. The Tender Offer is not being made to holders of Notes in any jurisdiction in which the making or acceptance thereof would not be in compliance with the securities or other laws of such jurisdiction.

Forward-Looking Statements

This release contains forward-looking statements. The words "expect," "believe," "estimated," and other similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, which are generally not historical in nature. Such forward-looking statements involve significant risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from our historical experience and our present expectations or projections. For information regarding known material factors that could cause actual results to differ from projected results, please see our risk factors set forth in our filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, which include our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, and Current Reports on Form 8-K. We caution you not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any of our forward-looking statements after the date they are made, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except to the extent required by law.

United Kingdom

The communication of this press release and any other documents or materials relating to the Tender Offer is not being made and such documents and/or materials have not been approved by an authorized person for the purposes of section 21 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 ("FSMA"). Accordingly, such documents and/or materials are not being distributed to, and must not be passed on to, the general public in the United Kingdom. The communication of such documents and/or materials is exempt from the restriction on financial promotions under section 21 of the FSMA on the basis that it is only directed at and may be communicated to (1) those persons who are existing members or creditors of the Company or other persons within Article 43 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005, and (2) to any other persons to whom these documents and/or materials may lawfully be communicated.

European Economic Area (EEA)

In any European Economic Area (EEA) Member State (the "Relevant State"), this press release is only addressed to and is only directed at qualified investors in that Relevant State within the meaning of Regulation (EU) 2017/1129 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 June 2017, as amended (the "Prospectus Regulation"). Each person in a Relevant State who receives any communication in respect of the Tender Offer contemplated in this press release will be deemed to have represented, warranted and agreed to and with each Dealer Manager and the Company that it is a qualified investor within the meaning of Article 2(e) of the Prospectus Regulation.

About TechnipFMC

TechnipFMC is a leading technology provider to the traditional and new energy industries, delivering fully integrated projects, products, and services.

With our proprietary technologies and comprehensive solutions, we are transforming our clients' project economics, helping them unlock new possibilities to develop energy resources while reducing carbon intensity and supporting their energy transition ambitions.

Organized in two business segments Subsea and Surface Technologies we will continue to advance the industry with our pioneering integrated ecosystems (such as iEPCI, iFEED and iComplete), technology leadership and digital innovation.

Each of our approximately 20,000 employees is driven by a commitment to our clients' success, and a culture of strong execution, purposeful innovation, and challenging industry conventions.

TechnipFMC uses its website as a channel of distribution of material company information. To learn more about how we are driving change in the industry, go to www.TechnipFMC.com and follow us on Twitter @TechnipFMC.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210914006238/en/

Contacts:

Investor relations

Matt Seinsheimer

Vice President, Investor Relations

Tel: +1 281 260 3665

Email: Matt Seinsheimer



James Davis

Senior Manager, Investor Relations

Tel: +1 281 260 3665

Email: James Davis



Media relations

Nicola Cameron

Vice President, Corporate Communications

Tel: +44 1383 742297

Email: Nicola Cameron



Catie Tuley

Director, Public Relations

Tel: +1 713 876 7296

Email: Catie Tuley
BIRMINGHAM, England, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Niche Technology, creator of NicheRMS365, is honoured to sponsor the upcoming British Police Symphony Orchestra's (BPSO) Proms Night Spectacular: Back on the Beat in Birmingham.

Occurring on 4 December 2021 at Symphony Hall in Birmingham, the British Police Symphony Orchestra is a unique force of volunteers, drawn from across the United Kingdom. BPSO's musicians are either serving or retired Police Officers, Police Staff or other members of the extended Police Family.

This year's exciting programme includes:- John Williams'- Harry Potter Suite; Hymn to the Fallen; Stanley Black's - Themes from James Bond; sing-along hits from 'The Sound of Music'; '2001 - a Space Odyssey'; and 'You Raise Me Up'; plus so much more, before launching into the traditional 'Proms Night' finish of Jerusalem; Rule, Britannia!; and Land Of Hope & Glory, complete with the BPSO's flagship Fireworks finish!

Tickets are priced at - 29; 23.50; or 13 each (concessions apply) and can be purchased via the BPSO's online booking system. Get 10% off your order when you buy 10 or more full price tickets! Niche is proud to support the BPSO in their mission of "Uniting the police service with the magic of music to engage, excite and enlighten communities in the UK and beyond."

About NicheRMS365

At Niche, our focus is on the information demands of frontline officers when seconds count. The responsive NicheRMS365 UI provides a consistent, intuitive user experience on phone, tablet, laptop and desktop devices, so agencies can simply train once and use anywhere - on any device.

NicheRMS365 is the cloud engineered, mobile-first platform that sets the standard for Police RMS worldwide, serving 162,000 sworn officers in the United Kingdom, United States, Canada and Australia. It's the most highly configurable, capable and respected RMS platform in the world.

Schedule a demonstration to see the potential of NicheRMS365 for your agency at www.NicheRMS.com.

###

For More Information:

Mike Gardner

+44 1656 661774

Mike.Gardner@NicheRMS.com

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LONDON (dpa-AFX) - Rio Tinto and Caterpillar said that they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding for Caterpillar's development of zero-emissions autonomous haul trucks for use at one of Rio Tinto's Western Australian mining operations. The collaboration will advance the development of the manufacturer's future 220-tonne 793 zero-emissions autonomous haul truck including the validation of Caterpillar's emerging zero-emissions technology. Rio Tinto and Caterpillar will progress a series of development milestones to include a 793 prototype pilot program, testing and pre-production trials. In June, Rio Tinto announced it would deploy the world's first fully autonomous water truck at Gudai-Darri, which will also be produced by Caterpillar. Rio Tinto is assessing multiple project scopes for Gudai-Darri Phase 2 as part of an ongoing $44 million pre-feasibility study. Gudai-Darri is Rio Tinto's most technically advanced iron ore mine, in the Pilbara, Western Australia. 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.
Volta FinanceLimited (VTA/VTAS)

Dividend Declaration

NOT FOR RELEASE, DISTRIBUTION OR PUBLICATION,

IN WHOLE OR IN PART, IN OR INTO THE UNITED STATES

Guernsey, 15 September 2021

Volta Finance Limited ("the Company") hereby announces a third interim dividend for the financial year commencing 1 August 2020.

The Company announces that it has declared a quarterly interim dividend of 0.14 per share payable on 30 September 2021 amounting to approximately 5.12 million, equating approximately to an annualised 8% of net asset value. The ex-dividend date is 23 September 2021 with a record date of 24 September 2021.

The Company has arranged for its shareholders to be able to elect to receive their dividends in either Euros or Pounds Sterling. Shareholders will, by default, receive their dividends in Euros, unless they have instructed the Company's Registrar, Computershare Investor Serviceswithin the "Investors - Other Documents" section. The deadline for receipt of currency elections is 12:00 (midday) on 27 September 2021.

For further information, please contact:

For the Investment Manager

AXA Investment Managers Paris

Serge Demay

serge.demay@axa-im.com



+33 (0) 1 44 45 84 47

Company Secretary and Administrator

BNP Paribas Securities Services S.C.A, Guernsey Branch

guernsey.bp2s.volta.cosec@bnpparibas.com

+44 (0) 1481 750 853

Corporate Broker

Cenkos Securities plc

Andrew Worne

Daniel Balabanoff

Will Talkington

+44 (0) 20 7397 8900

*****

ABOUT VOLTA FINANCE LIMITED

Volta Finance Limited is incorporated in Guernsey under The Companies (Guernsey) Law, 2008 (as amended) and listed on Euronext Amsterdam and the London Stock Exchange's Main Market for listed securities. Volta's home member state for the purposes of the EU Transparency Directive is the Netherlands. As such, Volta is subject to regulation and supervision by the AFM, being the regulator for financial markets in the Netherlands.

Volta's investment objectives are to preserve capital across the credit cycle and to provide a stable stream of income to its shareholders through dividends. Volta seeks to attain its investment objectives predominantly through diversified investments in structured finance assets. The assets that the Company may invest in either directly or indirectly include, but are not limited to: corporate credits; sovereign and quasi-sovereign debt; residential mortgage loans; and, automobile loans. The Company's approach to investment is through vehicles and arrangements that essentially provide leveraged exposure to portfolios of such underlying assets. The Company has appointed AXA Investment Managers Paris an investment management company with a division specialised in structured credit, for the investment management of all its assets.

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ABOUT AXA INVESTMENT MANAGERS

AXA Investment Managers (AXA IM) is a multi-expert asset management company within the AXA Group, a global leader in financial protection and wealth management. AXA IM is one of the largest European-based asset managers with 753 investment professionals and 801 billion in assets under management as of the end of April 2021.

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This press release is published by AXA Investment Managers Paris ("AXA IM"), in its capacity as alternative investment fund manager (within the meaning of Directive 2011/61/EU, the "AIFM Directive") of Volta Finance Limited (the "Volta Finance") whose portfolio is managed by AXA IM.

This press release is for information only and does not constitute an invitation or inducement to acquire shares in Volta Finance. Its circulation may be prohibited in certain jurisdictions and no recipient may circulate copies of this document in breach of such limitations or restrictions. This document is not an offer for sale of the securities referred to herein in the United States or to persons who are "U.S. persons" for purposes of Regulation S under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"), or otherwise in circumstances where such offer would be restricted by applicable law. Such securities may not be sold in the United States absent registration or an exemption from registration from the Securities Act. Volta Finance does not intend to register any portion of the offer of such securities in the United States or to conduct a public offering of such securities in the United States.

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This communication is only being distributed to and is only directed at (i) persons who are outside the United Kingdom or (ii) investment professionals falling within Article 19(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005 (the "Order") or (iii) high net worth companies, and other persons to whom it may lawfully be communicated, falling within Article 49(2)(a) to (d) of the Order (all such persons together being referred to as "relevant persons"). The securities referred to herein are only available to, and any invitation, offer or agreement to subscribe, purchase or otherwise acquire such securities will be engaged in only with, relevant persons. Any person who is not a relevant person should not act or rely on this document or any of its contents. Past performance cannot be relied on as a guide to future performance.

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This press release contains statements that are, or may deemed to be, "forward-looking statements". These forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology, including the terms "believes", "anticipated", "expects", "intends", "is/are expected", "may", "will" or "should". They include the statements regarding the level of the dividend, the current market context and its impact on the long-term return of Volta Finance's investments. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties and readers are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. Volta Finance's actual results, portfolio composition and performance may differ materially from the impression created by the forward-looking statements. AXA IM does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking statements.

Any target information is based on certain assumptions as to future events which may not prove to be realised. Due to the uncertainty surrounding these future events, the targets are not intended to be and should not be regarded as profits or earnings or any other type of forecasts. There can be no assurance that any of these targets will be achieved. In addition, no assurance can be given that the investment objective will be achieved.

The figures provided that relate to past months or years and past performance cannot be relied on as a guide to future performance or construed as a reliable indicator as to future performance. Throughout this review, the citation of specific trades or strategies is intended to illustrate some of the investment methodologies and philosophies of Volta Finance, as implemented by AXA IM. The historical success or AXA IM's belief in the future success, of any of these trades or strategies is not indicative of, and has no bearing on, future results.

The valuation of financial assets can vary significantly from the prices that the AXA IM could obtain if it sought to liquidate the positions on behalf of the Volta Finance due to market conditions and general economic environment. Such valuations do not constitute a fairness or similar opinion and should not be regarded as such.

Editor: AXA INVESTMENT MANAGERS PARIS, a company incorporated under the laws of France, having its registered office located at Tour Majunga, 6, Place de la Pyramide - 92800 Puteaux. AXA IMP is authorized by the Autorite des Marches Financiers under registration number GP92008 as an alternative investment fund manager within the meaning of the AIFM Directive.

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TEMECULA, Calif., Sept. 15, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Nikkiso Cryogenic Industries' Clean Energy & Industrial Gases Group (Group), a subsidiary of Nikkiso Co., Ltd (Japan), is pleased to announce Nikkiso Cosmodyne recently commissioned its TGNO-1000 gaseous oxygen and nitrogen plant. The new plant targets float glass manufacturing and was sold to an industrial gases company.



The Nikkiso Cosmodyne TGNO is a cryogenic oxygen and nitrogen generator designed to produce three gaseous product streams: medium and high-pressure nitrogen gas and oxygen gas. The high-pressure nitrogen comes directly off the nitrogen column at approximately 8.5 bar(g). The medium pressure nitrogen stream comes from the oxygen column overhead and is boosted by a waste stream expander to approximately 2.3 bar(g). The gaseous oxygen comes directly off the oxygen column which runs at an elevated pressure of 2.3 bar(g). All this is accomplished at a low specific power of 0.27 KW/Nm3

The TGNO-1000 was configured with mostly preexisting components to meet the developmental needs of this multi-product plant. This allowed them to meet the stringent goals of their industrial gas customer, who is selling the molecules to the float glass customer. The plant also operates without an attendant, so can handle fluctuations in product demand without human intervention.

The prefabricated TGNO is delivered in pre-piped, pre-wired, easy-to-install modular sections. The chiller, adsorber beds, switching valves and turboexpander are mounted in a single skid, minimizing field work. The control room module houses the motor control center and required analyzers.

"This is Cosmodyne's most recent effort to supply cryogenic systems and plants which allows our industrial gas customers to develop their market and compete effectively, according to George Pappagelis, President of Cosmodyne Process Systems. "The TGNO-1000 was a collaborative effort among our operations in the US (Escondido, Seal Beach and Temecula) and India."

Nikkiso Cosmodyne has extensive experience with liquid merchant plants as well as on-site gas plants like the TGNO-1000.

ABOUT CRYOGENIC INDUSTRIES

Cryogenic Industries, Inc. (now a member of Nikkiso Co., Ltd.) member companies manufacture engineered cryogenic gas processing equipment and small-scale process plants for the liquefied natural gas (LNG), well services and industrial gas industries. Founded over 50 years ago, Cryogenic Industries is the parent company of ACD, Cosmodyne and Cryoquip and a commonly controlled group of approximately 20 operating entities.

For more information, please visit www.nikkisoCEIG.com and www.nikkiso.com.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Anna Quigley

+1.951.383.3314

aquigley@cryoind.com
BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - At 2.00 am ET Wednesday, the Office for National Statistics releases UK consumer and producer prices for August. Ahead of the data, the pound traded mixed against its major counterparts. While it held steady against the yen, it advanced against the rest of major rivals. The pound was worth 1.3814 against the greenback, 151.35 against the yen, 1.2711 against the franc and 0.8545 against the euro at 1:55 am ET. 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.
OSLO, Norway, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Photocure ASA (OSE: PHO), the Bladder Cancer Company, announces a clinical data presentation and highlights from the 2021 American Urological Association Annual Congress (AUA2021), which was held virtually September 10-13, 2021. During the program, new results from a study using Blue Light Cystoscopy (BLC) with Cysview in the surveillance setting were reported in a podium presentation, and separately, BLC with Cysview was discussed in an Expert Presentation on Surgical Techniques.

The American Urological Association (AUA) meeting is one of largest international meetings in the urology calendar. This year's event included an innovative, evidence-based, quality program for urologists and urologic health care professionals worldwide.

Podium Presentation

Title: UTILITY OF BLUE LIGHT FLEXIBLE CYSTOSCOPY FOR BLADDER CANCER SURVEILLANCE AFTER INTRAVESICAL THERAPY

Presenter: Sanam Ladi Seyedian, M.D., University of Southern California

Session and Date: PD-63: Bladder: Cancer Non-Invasive III: Sept. 13, 2021

Results were provided by two high-volume treatment facilities that perform Blue Light Flexible Cystoscopy (BLFC) and are participants in the Blue Light Cystoscopy with Cysview Registry. In this study, data was captured from 277 office based BLFC examinations in 136 patients who received intravesical BCG or chemotherapy, as part of standard of care treatment for non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC).

From these examinations, a total of 52 office-based biopsies were taken, of which 23 (44%) were confirmed as malignant. BLFC identified all 23 malignancies, demonstrating 100% sensitivity for cancer detection in this cohort, whereas analysis by cytology identified only 3 of the 23 confirmed malignancies. Additionally, from the 277 total examinations, 23 (8%) were White Light Cystoscopy (WLC) normal and BLFC abnormal. Of these 23 discordant results, 16 had office-based biopsies and cancer was confirmed in 9 cases (56%), which would have been missed by WLC alone.

The study authors concluded that office-based BLFC helps improve early detection of recurrence in cases with normal WLC and can aid in surveillance of patients receiving intravesical therapy, enhance performance of office-based biopsy and increase early detection of BCG unresponsive disease.

"The results from this study show that use of Blue Light Cystoscopy with Cysview for patient surveillance improved the ability to detect recurrent disease in this high-risk, recently-treated patient cohort, which can significantly impact future treatment decisions," said Dr. Sia Daneshmand, one of the study authors. "Early detection of recurrent or residual cancer during initial treatment is essential for properly risk-stratifying all bladder cancer patients, and confirming response to treatment on follow-up and can have a major impact on subsequent treatment pathways and patient outcomes. As a result, Blue Light Cystoscopy can be an important tool throughout the continuum of care for patients diagnosed with bladder cancer."

Dr. Sia Daneshmand, M.D., is a Professor of Urology with Clinical Scholar designation and serves as director of clinical research as well as the urologic oncology (SUO) fellowship director at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles.

Abstract Link: https://www.auajournals.org/doi/abs/10.1097/JU.0000000000002107.03

Expert Presentation

Title: ADVANCES IN ENDOSCOPIC TREATMENT OF BLADDER TUMORS

Presenter: Yair Lotan, M.D., UT Southwestern Medical Center

Session and Date: Plenary Session: Surgical Techniques: Sept. 10, 2021

In this presentation, Dr. Lotan emphasized the importance of BLC with Cysview in accurately detecting NMIBC, stratifying bladder tumors, and helping to perform a complete TURBT in the operating room. He also provided an expert perspective on how biopsy and fulguration in the surveillance setting can positively impact patient outcomes using BLC with Cysview in the office-based setting.

Dr. Lotan is a Professor of the Department of Urology at UT Southwestern and Jane and John Justin Distinguished Chair in Urology, In Honor of Claus G. Roehrborn, M.D. He is Vice chair of Clinical Affairs and chief of urologic oncology.

"The study results presented at this year's AUA meeting as well as the discussion on BLC in the Surgical Techniques presentation underscores how critically important it is for patients to receive the proper bladder cancer care whether they are having tumor resection in the hospital or follow-up procedures" said Geoffrey Coy, Vice President and General Manager of North American Operations at Photocure. "These new study results also highlight the range of opportunities made possible by Blue Light Cystoscopy for urologists, and the benefits to patients, especially when including flexible Blue Light Cystoscopy in the office setting as part of the continuum of care. We remain focused on expanding the availability of the procedure so that more physicians and patients have access to this important solution."

Note to editors: All trademarks mentioned in this release are protected by law and are registered trademarks of Photocure ASA

About Bladder Cancer

Bladder cancer ranks as the seventh most common cancer worldwide with 1 720 000 prevalent cases (5-year prevalence rate)1a, 573 000 new cases and more than 200 000 deaths annually in 2020.1b

Approx. 75% of all bladder cancer cases occur in men.1 It has a high recurrence rate with an average of 61% in year one and 78% over five years.2 Bladder cancer has the highest lifetime treatment costs per patient of all cancers.3

Bladder cancer is a costly, potentially progressive disease for which patients have to undergo multiple cystoscopies due to the high risk of recurrence. There is an urgent need to improve both the diagnosis and the management of bladder cancer for the benefit of patients and healthcare systems alike.

Bladder cancer is classified into two types, non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) and muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC), depending on the depth of invasion in the bladder wall. NMIBC remains in the inner layer of cells lining the bladder. These cancers are the most common (75%) of all BC cases and include the subtypes Ta, carcinoma in situ (CIS) and T1 lesions. In MIBC the cancer has grown into deeper layers of the bladder wall. These cancers, including subtypes T2, T3, and T4, are more likely to spread and are harder to treat.4

1 Globocan. a) 5-year prevalence / b) incidence/mortality by population.

Available at: https://gco.iarc.fr/today, accessed [April 2021].

2 Babjuk M, et al. Eur Urol. 2019; 76(5): 639-657

3 Sievert KD et al. World J Urol 2009;27:295-300

4 Bladder Cancer. American Cancer Society. https://www.cancer.org/cancer/bladder-cancer.html

About Hexvix/Cysview (hexaminolevulinate HCl)

Hexvix/Cysview is a drug that preferentially accumulates in cancer cells in the bladder making them glow bright pink during Blue Light Cystoscopy (BLC). BLC with Hexvix/Cysview improves the detection of tumors and leads to more complete resection, fewer residual tumors and better management decisions.

Cysview is the tradename in the U.S. and Canada, Hexvix is the tradename in all other markets. Photocure is commercializing Cysview/Hexvix directly in the U.S. and Europe and has strategic partnerships for the commercialization of Hexvix/Cysview in China, Canada, Chile, Australia, and New Zealand. Please refer to https://photocure.com/partnering-with-photocure/our-partners/ for further information on our commercial partners.

About Photocure ASA



Photocure: The Bladder Cancer Company delivers transformative solutions to improve the lives of bladder cancer patients. Our unique technology, making cancer cells glow bright pink, has led to better health outcomes for patients worldwide. Photocure is headquartered in Oslo, Norway and listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange (OSE: PHO). For more information, please visit us at www.photocure.com, www.hexvix.com, www.cysview.com.

For further information, please contact:

Dan Schneider

President and CEO

Photocure ASA

Email: ds@photocure.com

Erik Dahl

CFO

Photocure ASA

Tel: +4745055000

Email: ed@photocure.com

David Moskowitz

Head of Investor Relations

Tel: +1 202 280 0888

Email: david.moskowitz@photocure.com

Media and IR enquiries:

Geir Bjrlo

Corporate Communications (Norway)

Tel: +47 91540000

Email: geir.bjorlo@corpcom.no

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/photocure/r/presentations-of-blue-light-flexible-cystoscopy-study-results-and-bladder-cancer-surgical-techniques,c3414940

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LONDON (dpa-AFX) - Homebuilder Redrow Plc. (RDW.L) reported Wednesday that its fiscal 2021 profit before tax climbed 124 percent to 314 million pounds from last year's 140 million pounds. Profit before tax declined 23 percent from the pre-pandemic 2019. Earnings per share grew to 73.7 pence from prior year's 32.9 pence. Revenue for the year was 1.94 billion pounds, 45 percent higher than 1.34 billion pounds a year ago. Revenues declined 8 percent from 2019. Legal completions increased 39 percent to 5,620 units from 4,032 units a year ago. Legal completions declined 13 percent from 2019. Further, the Board is proposing a final dividend of 18.5p making a total of 24.5p for the year, in line with the company's policy of three times dividend cover. Looking ahead, the company reported encouraging trading since the start of the new financial year. Further, the company said it is able to resume medium term guidance, expecting fiscal 2024 revenue above 2.2 billion pounds, operating margin of about 19.5 percent and earnings per share of in line or above 90 pence. 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.
Vocera Communications, Inc. (NYSE:VCRA), a recognised leader in clinical communication and workflow solutions, today announced that Royal Stoke University Hospital (part of University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust) deployed the Vocera Badge across its emergency department to streamline communication and collaboration among team members, enabling better patient flow, care and safety.

The hands-free communication devices were funded by a grant to support the hospital's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The voice-controlled Badge can be worn under personal protective equipment (PPE), helping protect staff from the need to don and doff PPE for important care team connection and potentially reduce the risk of contamination. By simply saying a name, role or team, healthcare workers can connect and collaborate completely hands-free, even in isolation, while scrubbed in, or in PPE.

"Vocera has allowed us to improve patient care by making it easier for clinicians to communicate quickly and safely," said Dr Brijesh Patel, Emergency Medicine Consultant at Royal Stoke University Hospital. "We are a big hospital with many compartmentalized divisions and reaching the right clinician is the key to providing better patient care. The Vocera Badge allows us to quickly communicate, reduce delays, and increase responsiveness."

Purpose built for healthcare, a nurse, doctor, or other care team member wearing a Badge can use simple voice commands to reach a specific person, request supplies, or get help. Based on the impact at Royal Stoke University Hospital, University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust plans to implement the solution in the emergency department at County Hospital in Stafford.

"We are proud to support University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust and the frontline workers at Royal Stoke University Hospital as they care for patients, families and the community throughout the pandemic and beyond," said Brent Lang, Chairman and CEO for Vocera.

About Royal Stoke University Hospital

Royal Stoke University Hospital is a teaching and research hospital located in Stoke-on-Trent. It is one of the largest hospitals in the country and a major local employer, with more than 6,000 staff. It is part of University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust (UHNM), which cares for over two million people. UHNM provides specialised services in trauma, cancer diagnosis and treatment, management of liver disease, neonatal and paediatric intensive care, and respiratory conditions. It also boasts expertise in spinal surgery, upper gastro-intestinal surgery, complex orthopaedic surgery, laparoscopic surgery, cardiothoracic surgery, and neurosurgery with some of the most modern operating theatres in Europe. For more information, visit www.uhnm.nhs.uk.

About Vocera

The mission of Vocera Communications, Inc. is to improve the lives of healthcare professionals, patients, and families. Founded in 2000, Vocera provides solutions that help protect and connect team members, simplify workflows, increase efficiency, enhance quality of care and safety, and humanise the healthcare experience. More than 2,300 facilities worldwide, including nearly 1,900 hospitals and healthcare facilities, have selected Vocera solutions to enable their workforce to communicate and collaborate with co-workers and engage with patients and families. Mobile workers can choose the right device for their role or task, including smartphones or one of the company's wearable communication devices, and use voice commands to easily reach people by name, role, or group. The hands-free Vocera Smartbadge was named to TIME's list of the 100 Best Inventions of 2020. Vocera solutions can integrate with more than 150 clinical and operational systems, including electronic health records, nurse call systems, ventilators, physiological monitors, and more. In addition to healthcare, Vocera solutions are found in aged care facilities, veterinary hospitals, schools, luxury hotels, retail stores, power facilities, and more. Visit www.vocera.com to learn more and follow @VoceraComm on Twitter.

Vocera and the Vocera logo are trademarks of Vocera Communications, Inc. registered in the United States and other jurisdictions. All other trademarks appearing in this release are the property of their respective owners.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005348/en/

Contacts:

John Elias

Vocera Communications, Inc

+1 416-899-4976

jelias@vocera.com
LONDON (dpa-AFX) - Ricardo Plc. (RCDO.L), an environmental, engineering and strategic consulting company, reported Wednesday that its fiscal 2021 profit before tax was 3.9 million pounds, compared to last year's loss of 5.3 million pounds. Earnings per share were 2.9 pence, compared to prior year's loss of 12.2 pence. Underlying profit before tax was 18 million pounds, compared to 15.6 million pounds last year. Underlying earnings per share were 22.4 pence, compared to 21.3 pence a year ago. Revenue was 351.8 million pounds, down 0.1 percent from 352 million pounds last year. Order intake for the year declined 4.5 percent from last year to 352.1 million pounds. Order book was at 293.5 million pounds, down 6.5 percent from the previous year. Further, the Board has declared a final dividend of 5.11p per share, which will be paid on November 25 to holders of ordinary shares on the Company's register of members on November 4. Graham Ritchie will join the Group as Chief Executive Officer on October 1, succeeding Dave Shemmans, who steps down from the role on September 30 after leading the company for the last sixteen years. Looking ahead, Ricardo said, 'As we enter FY 2021/22, we do so with a robust order book and pipeline. This is a business with a positive outlook and as a Group we continue to push the boundaries, strengthening our business for a sustainable future.' 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.
Javier Cavada has been appointed President and Chief Executive Officer of Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Mitsubishi Power, effective January 3, 2022. Mr. Cavada will lead the Mitsubishi Power business to expand its presence in the region, accelerate decarbonization and provide total solutions that empower its customers to affordably and reliably combat climate change.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005380/en/

Javier Cavada has been appointed Mitsubishi Power's President and Chief Executive Officer of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He will lead the business to expand its presence in the region, accelerate decarbonization and provide total solutions that empower customers to affordably and reliably combat climate change. (Credit: Mitsubishi Power)

Mr. Cavada joins Mitsubishi Power with more than 20 years of global experience in the energy industry and will help expand the company's presence in the EMEA region. Since 2018, he has been President and CEO of Highview Power, headquartered in London. Prior to that, he spent 17 years with Wartsila Corporation serving as President of the energy division and member of the executive board, leading the transformation into renewables integration including energy storage.

Paul Browning, Chairman of the Board, EMEA, Mitsubishi Power, said, "Appointing Javier to President and CEO of the EMEA region is another step in delivering on our mission to create a future that works for people and the planet by developing innovative power generation technology and solutions to enable energy decarbonization and deliver reliable power everywhere. He is a dynamic leader who will continue to expand our presence in EMEA. Under Javier's leadership, we will create a Change in Power."

Committed to decarbonizing EMEA's power industry, Mitsubishi Power provides total solutions including hydrogen capable advanced class gas turbines, battery energy storage for short duration storage and hydrogen for long duration storage. The company is expanding its service and waste-to-energy offerings to enable growth in the region.

About Mitsubishi Power in Europe, the Middle East and Africa

Mitsubishi Power is a leading provider and innovator of technology and solutions for the energy sector with a presence in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) since 1908 through its predecessor companies. Today, there are more than 1,000 employees across the EMEA region, with centers of excellence in Germany, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in addition to customer support capabilities in countries across the region. Mitsubishi Power designs, manufactures and maintains equipment and systems that drive decarbonization and ensure reliable power delivery. Among its solutions are a wide range of gas turbines, including hydrogen-fuelled gas turbines and solid-oxide fuel cells (SOFCs), and an experienced services business with an extensive reach across the entire region. Committed to providing exemplary service and working with customers, Mitsubishi Power's TOMONI intelligent solutions leverage advanced analytics, adaptive control technology, artificial intelligence and machine learning to make power plants smarter, reduce emissions, increase flexibility and support decarbonization. Mitsubishi Power is a wholly owned subsidiary of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd., which has engineering and manufacturing businesses spanning energy, infrastructure, transport, aerospace and defence.

For more information, please visit: https://power.mhi.com/regions/emea/

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005380/en/

Contacts:

Claudia Wedemann

Mitsubishi Power Europe GmbH

Tel.: +49 203 8038 1368

Email: c_wedemann@eumhi.com
Over 17 million EUR invested in LABIO 4.0 Marino Golinelli

Two days dedicated to Open Innovation and the promotion of young talent with a group of Spanish students winning Alfathon Day

POMEZIA, Italy, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- With an initial investment of over 17 million euros for the development of 5,600m2 of new laboratories dedicated to pharmaceutical technology and analytical chemistry, Alfasigma confirms its commitment to Research and Development. The inauguration of LABIO 4.0 Marino Golinelli is part of a broader corporate strategy of progressive investment in Research and Development (R&D) that allows Alfasigma, one of the first five pharmaceutical companies with Italian capital, to stand out both nationally and internationally for innovation and technological development.

The Prime Minister, Mario Draghi, welcomed the project in a letter of good wishes: "The decision to invest in research and technological innovation in Italy is what the whole country is asking of its most innovative minds."

"The research and development center of Pomezia, LABIO 4.0, was registered in the name of our founder, Marino Golinelli," declared engineer Stefano Golinelli, president of Alfasigma, "because he has taught us and still teaches us today, over 100 years later, to have faith in the future and in innovation. We believe in pharmaceutical research and in this all-Italian success story: we demonstrate this with our investment in R&D, but also with the upgrading of production plants and the acquisition of new molecules and new projects."

Inside the new multipurpose center there are the development laboratories of innovative formulations, the R&D Pharmaceutical technology labs, the R&D Analytical development labs and the new R&D Oral solids pilot Plant, to which the biotechnology and nanotechnology laboratories will be added. This plant represents one of the peculiarities of LABIO 4.0: it is able to calibrate the production of clinical-experimental batches for new specialties in oral form (granules, coated and uncoated tablets, capsules, chronoids / minitabs) operating on an intermediate scale between the Kilolab (the size of the technological development laboratory) and semi-industrial production.

Through the new Pilot Plant, it will be possible to accelerate the intermediate steps between the design phase and the implementation phase, i.e. perform micro-productions with innovative pharmaceutical forms in Scale-Up (scalability from small to large) and in Scale-Down (scalability from large to small) by exploiting the potential of the intermediate scale. The goal is to optimize existing processes, to better characterize those developed in the technological laboratories before the industrialization phase, with a consequent impact in terms of resources and timing.

The company's Research and Development department employs 138 researchers, the majority of whom are women (86 female and 52 male). LABIO 4.0 hosts about half of these which are distributed throughout the R&D centers of Pomezia and Bologna.

"Alfasigma has recently started updating the research pipeline for new products, both maximizing internal know-how in the gastroenterological area and favoring selected partnerships for innovative and frontier aspects," commented Director of Research and Development, Emilio Merlo Pich. "For example, we have some projects in development aimed at the intestinal microbiota, an area in which Alfasigma is already present with Rifaximin, and other innovative projects based on the use of biotech and nanotechnological products, with a strong interest in the area of diseases. rare gastrointestinal and neurological. These activities are supported by outsourced research platforms, such as the Microbiome Lab, recently created by Alfasigma with Humanitas in Milan, or the start-up Novavido, created with the Italian Institute of Technology. "

Open innovation and promotion of young talent - The components of Alfathon Day

On the eve of the inauguration of LABIO 4.0 Marino Golinelli, Alfasigma dedicated an entire day to open innovation and the promotion of young talent, both internal and external to the company. Indeed, yesterday Alfathon Day was held, an afternoon of talks on innovation and health with professionals that ended with the award ceremony of Alfathon, the first Alfasigma hackathon. Among more than the 40 teams from more than 10 countries around the world who have proposed innovative solutions in the context of three challenges in the field of pharmaceutical research and innovation, the first prize was awarded to an all-Spanish working group. Lluis Pascual Masia, PhD in Medicines and Health at the University of Navarra, Irene Santos Martinez and Maria Cholvi Simo, pharmacy students at the University of Valencia, presented SituGel which responds to the need to develop a formulation platform capable of guaranteeing liberation prolonged use of the active ingredient, thus maximizing its therapeutic action. Alfasigma handed the team a check for  5,000 to invest in the project. The winner of the OurAlfathon, the hackathon within the company that saw the participation of about a hundred colleagues from 17 branches around the world, was also awarded.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1626095/Alfasigma.jpg
LONDON (dpa-AFX) - Tullow Oil plc (TLW.L) reported that its profit attributable to owners of the company for six-month period ended 30th June 2021 was $92.7 million or 6.2 cents per share compared to a loss of $1.33 billion or 94.2 cents per share in the previous year. Revenue for the period declined to $726.8 million from $731.0 million in the prior year. Tullow is committed to becoming a Net Zero Company by 2030 on its Scope 1 and 2 emissions. Over the period, this will be achieved through a combination of decarbonising its operated assets in Ghana and pursuing a nature-based carbon removal program. Tullow Oil plc said that its Chief Financial Officer and Executive Director, Les Wood, will step down from the company. Les will remain CFO and an Executive Director of the company throughout the current reporting cycle and is expected to leave the Group at the end of March 2022 following the publication of the company's 2021 Full Year Results. The company noted that it will launch a search process to find a new CFO, and expects to conclude the process in the first quarter of 2022. 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.
OSLO (dpa-AFX) - Norway's trade balance swung to surplus in August, amid a rise in exports and imports, data from Statistics Norway showed on Monday. The trade balance registered a surplus of NOK 42.576 billion in August versus a deficit of NOK 3.624 billion in the same month last year. In July, trade surplus was NOK 42.205 billion. Exports accelerated 96.9 percent year-on-year in August and increased 7.7 percent from a month ago. Imports grew 17.3 percent annually in August and gained 12.2 percent from the previous month. The mainland trade logged a deficit of NOK 28.2 billion in August. 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.
COMMERZBANK AG (London Branch) - Pre Stabilisation - Amprion GmbH EUR 12yr

Pre-Stabilisation Notice

15 September 2021

Not for distribution, directly or indirectly, in or into the United States or any jurisdiction in which such distribution would be unlawful.

Amprion GmbH, Dortmund Germany

EUR Benchmark

Fixed Rate Notes due 23 September 2033

Commerzbank AG (contact: Ian Turner; telephone: +44 20774751817) 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: Amprion GmbH Guarantor (if any): none Aggregate nominal amount: EUR benchmark Description: Fixed Rate Notes due 23 September 2033 Offer price: tbc Other offer terms: Launched off Debt Issuance Programme, denoms 100k, / 3m Par Call / Tax Call / Clean-up Call (75%). ISIN DE000A3E5VX4. Stabilisation: Stabilisation Coordinator:

Stabilising Managers: Commerzbank AG

ING Bank

SEB

UniCredit Bank AG Stabilisation period expected to start on: 15 September 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: Luxembourg Euro MTF

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.

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VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / September 15, 2021 / Pampa Metals Corp. ("Pampa Metals" or the "Company") (CSE:PM)(FSE:FIRA)(OTCQX:PMMCF) is pleased to provide an exploration update regarding its 7,600-hectare Cerro Buenos Aires Project in northern Chile, where the Company has completed the drilling of nine reverse circulation ("RC") holes totaling 2,738m focused on the Cerro Chiquitin area in the north of the property. Analytical results are pending. See previous news releases dated April 28, May 12, July 7, July 29 and August 3, 2021 for further technical information and updates.

Julian Bavin, CEO of Pampa Metals commented: "The area around Cerro Chiquitin, and to the south, currently shows highly encouraging indications of a porphyry system, with quartz veinlets in drill holes CBA-RC-07 and CBA-RC-08, quartz-sulfide veinlets and phyllic alteration in CBA-RC-02, together with the presence of a significant series of tourmaline breccia bodies and a hydrothermally altered dioritic-magmatic center. Drill hole evidence suggests that the drilling to the north of Cerro Chiquitin is at the periphery of the principal area of interest and reveals quartz veinlets in the pyritic, propylitic halo to the alteration system. Most of the area of interest to the south of Cerro Chiquitin is covered by 40m to 85m of post-mineral gravel cover where the underlying geology is not exposed. The core of the porphyry-related system may not have a footprint of more than 500m x 500m beneath the gravels, and further work is required to focus in on this target area, where sufficient space for a significant system remains untested."

Technical Summary

Three drill holes are located on the east flank of the small outcropping hill at Cerro Chiquitin (see maps at the end of this release), all of which were drilled with an inclination of 60  to the west to cut the base of the previously reported tourmaline breccia body exposed at Cerro Chiquitin.

Hole CBA-RC-01 cut discrete magmatic-hydrothermal breccia structures with a tourmaline matrix, which in turn cut a magnetite-rich metasomatic alteration in andesitic tuffs. The hole cut 56m of gravel cover and was abandoned at 386m due to technical problems with the drilling.

Holes CBA-RC-07 (384m) and CBA-RC-08 (470m) cut important sections of magmatic-hydrothermal breccia with a combination of tourmaline and quartz-tourmaline matrices, as well as segments of wide-spaced quartz veinlets in a fine grained dioritic porphyry, which is interpreted to be similar to a possible porphyry gold system. The host rocks comprise andesitic tuffs with contact metasomatism including pervasive fine biotite alteration, silicification and disseminated magnetite.

Two other holes were drilled south of the exposed breccias body.

Hole CBA-RC-02 (244m) cut phyllic alteration and a series of quartz-sulfide veinlets indicative of the epithermal-porphyry transition. This hole cut 64m of gravel cover and was abandoned due to technical problems with the drilling.

Hole CBA-RC-06 (324m) was drilled a little further south, and cut advanced argillic alteration, with evidence of an epithermal system, after penetrating 84m of gravel cover.

Four further holes were drilled to the north of Cerro Chiquitin, including CBA-RC-03 (240m), CBA-RC-04 (234m), CBA-RC-05 (240m) and CBA-RC-09 (216m), all of which cut peripheral hydrothermal alteration with quartz veinlets, pyrite and a transition to propylitic alteration with the presence of epidote.

The principal area of interest is located to the south of holes CBA-RC-07 and 08, and to the north and east of CBA-RC-02, where considerable space for a mineralised porphyry system exists. Detailed interpretations of magnetics data support this interpretation, with magnetic susceptibility depth slices showing a clear transition from near surface magnetite-destructive alteration (advanced argillic and phyllic) to deeper magnetite stable alteration (potassic), which may represent the mineralised porphyry core, and the focus of follow-up exploration work.

Pampa Metals is now awaiting the results of the chemical analyses of the RC drill hole chips to further help vector towards potential ore and to help decide the next steps for the project. Further work may include detailed IP survey lines to penetrate deeper than the current gradient array IP survey and to give better definition of IP features at depth, combined with further drill follow-up. 1,279 samples, most of which represent 2m intervals from the drilling, have been sent to the laboratory for analysis. This number includes control samples (blanks, duplicates, standards) that will allow for QA/QC control of the sampling, preparation, and analytical processes.

Qualified Person

Technical information in this news release has been approved by Mario Orrego G, Geologist and a Registered Member of the Chilean Mining Commission and a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. Mr. Orrego is a consultant to the Company.

COVID-19

The global outbreak of COVID-19 has led governments worldwide to enact emergency measures to combat the spread of the virus. Such measures may result in a period of business disruption including reduced operations, which could have a material adverse impact on the Company's results of operations, financial condition and the market and trading price of the Company's securities.

As of the date of this news release, the duration and immediate and eventual impact of the COVID-19 pandemic remains unknown. It is not possible to reliably estimate the length and severity of these developments and the impact on the financial results and condition of the Company. The outbreak of COVID-19 has not caused significant disruptions to the Company's business to date, with field activities being conducted by Chile-based specialists and consultants, although international travel to Chile for management is currently not practical. Important business communication is largely reliant on digital media. However, the COVID-19 outbreak may yet cause disruptions to the Company's business and operational plans.

ABOUT PAMPA METALS

Pampa Metals is a Canadian company listed on the Canadian Stock Exchange (CSE: PM) as well as the Frankfurt (FSE: FIRA) and OTC (OTCPK: PMMCF) exchanges. Pampa Metals owns a highly prospective 59,000-hectare portfolio of eight projects for copper and gold located along proven mineral belts in Chile, one of the world's top mining jurisdictions. The Company has a vision to create value for shareholders and all other stakeholders by making a major copper discovery along the prime mineral belts of Chile, using the best geological and technological methods. For more information, please visit Pampa Metals' website www.pampametals.com.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD Julian Bavin | Chief Executive Officer INVESTOR CONTACT Ioannis (Yannis) Tsitos | Director investors@pampametals.com www.pampametals.com

Neither the CSE nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This news release contains certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All statements in this release, other than statements of historical fact, that address events or developments that Pampa Metals 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", "indicate" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur. Although Pampa Metals believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guaranteeing of future performance and actual results may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements.

Cerro Buenos Aires - General Geology Map Showing Historic Drilling and New Drill Holes

Cerro Buenos Aires - Cerro Chiquitin Area - Showing Simplified Geology and Drill Holes

Cerro Buenos Aires - Cerro Chiquitin Area - Gradient Array IP Chargeability and Drill Holes

SOURCE: Pampa Metals Corp.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/664143/Pampa-Metals-Reports-Drilling-Results-Indicative-of-a-Porphyry-System-at-Its-Cerro-Buenos-Aires-Project-in-Chile
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 15, 2021) - Spearmint Resources Inc. (CSE: SPMT) (OTC Pink: SPMTF) (FSE: A2AHL5) (the "Company" or "Spearmint" or "Optionee") is pleased to announce, further to its news release on September 01, 2021, the closing of an option agreement with an arm's-length party (the "Owner") to acquire the Green Clay Lithium Project (the "Property") comprised of 97 contiguous claims totaling approximately 2,000 acres in Clayton Valley, Nevada.

James Nelson, President of Spearmint Resources stated, "We are pleased to have closed on this acquisition demonstrating Spearmint's mandate on acquiring and developing high quality projects. Spearmint currently has approximately $3 million in cash on hand as of today and we plan to implement multiple work programs in both the US and Canada. We are currently formulating work programs for this new lithium clay project, in addition, a phase III drill program on our flagship Clayton Valley Lithium project is being planned for Fall 2021 with the goal to build upon our recently released maiden resource estimate which included a total of 1,006,000 tonnes of Lithium Carbonate Equivalent (LCE). Additionally, we expect to be underway with a phase II work program on our gold project directly bordering New Found Gold's Keats discovery in Newfoundland shortly."

Pursuant to the terms of the option agreement, the Optionee shall have the exclusive right and option to earn a 100% interest in the Property from the Owner by issuing a total of four million common shares (subject to a four-month hold) at a deemed price of eight cents per share and by making cash payments totalling sixty thousand dollars in cash as set out below:

On signing thirty thousand dollars and two million common shares; Within six months after signing, thirty thousand dollars and one million common shares; Within the first anniversary of signing one million common shares;

Upon fulfilling the obligations set out in option agreement, the Optionee will acquire 100% right, title and interest in and to the Property subject only to:

a 1.5% Net Smelter Return ("NSR"), to Owner provided that the Optionee shall have the right to purchase 0.75% NSR for five hundred thousand dollars at any time up to commencement of production; and providing the Owner written notice of its intention to exercise its option pursuant to this Agreement.

Qualified Person

Mr. Greg Thomson, P.Geo., a director of Spearmint and a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical disclosure contained within this news release. Management cautions that past results or discoveries on properties in proximity to Spearmint may not necessarily be indicative to the presence of mineralization on the Company's properties.

About Spearmint Resources

Spearmint's current projects include the 'Clayton Valley Lithium Projects' in Nevada comprised of two claim blocks totaling 1,160 acres directly bordering Pure Energy Minerals & Cypress Development Corp. where Spearmint has recently discovered lithium in all 10 out of 10 drill holes, intersecting lithium values as high as 1,840 ppm Li; the 'Green Clay Lithium Project' in Nevada comprised of 97 contiguous claims totaling approximately 2,000 acres; the 'Goose' Gold project directly bordering New Found Gold Corp. where Spearmint has sampled up to 973 ppb gold; the 'Escape Lake North' PGM Project in Ontario consisting of ~4,000 contiguous acres directly bordering Clean Air Metals Inc.; the Case Lake South Cesium Project in Ontario consisting of ~7,300 acres directly bordering Power Metals Corp.'s Case Lake Cesium Property; the River Valley East Platinum-Palladium Prospect in Ontario consisting of approximately 4,700 contiguous acres directly bordering the River Valley Platinum Group Metals (PGM) project; the Carscallen West Gold Project in Ontario consisting of a ~2500 contiguous acres in the direct vicinity to Melkior Resources Inc.; the Perron-East Gold Project consisting of 5 mineral claim blocks covering 11,608 acres located in the Abitibi greenstone belt of northwestern Quebec in the direct vicinity of Amex Exploration Inc.'s Perron property and past-producing Normetal mine; and the 'Chibougamau Vanadium Project' comprising of 15,493 contiguous acres directly bordering the vanadium deposit of BlackRock Metal's (private) Ilmenite vanadium project.

Spearmint's current projects also include a portfolio of prospects in the Golden Triangle of British Columbia; the 'Golden Triangle Gold Prospects' comprising of five separate claims blocks totaling 8,265 acres bordering GT Gold Corp, the 2,397 acre 'NEBA' Gold-Copper Project bordering Aben Resources Ltd, and the 'EL North' Nickel-Copper Project is a land package of 1,053 acres in the Eskay Creek Camp bordering Garibaldi Resources Corp, as well as the 4,980 acre 'Prickle' property bordering Brixton Metals Corp.

Spearmint's other projects in British Columbia include the 'Safari' Copper-Gold Project consisting of 9,007 contiguous acres located in the northern Quesnel Trough in North-Central BC, and the 'Hammernose' Gold Project consisting of 8,685 acres directly bordering Westhaven Gold Corp.'s Shovelnose Property in the Spences Bridge Gold Belt located in Southern British Columbia, Canada. Management cautions that past results or discoveries on properties in proximity to Spearmint may not necessarily be indicative to the presence of mineralization on the Company's properties.

If you would like to be added to Spearmint's news distribution list, please send your email address to info@spearmintresources.ca.

Contact Information

Tel: 1604646-6903

www.spearmintresources.ca

"James Nelson"

President

Spearmint Resources Inc.

The CSE has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the content of this release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/96593
Pre-Stabilisation notice

September 15, 2021

Not for distribution, directly or indirectly, in or into the United States or any jurisdiction in which such distribution would be unlawful.

Kreditanstalt fuer Wiederaufbau (KfW)

 3,000,000,000 green senior, unsecured due 2031

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: KfW Guarantor (if any): The Federal Republic of Germany Aggregate nominal amount:  3,000,000,000 Description: fixed rate, green, Rating Aaa/AAA/AAA Offer price: tbc Other offer terms: Maturity 15 Sept 2031, RegS bearer, EMTN programme, Green Bonds, Made by KfW' framework, settlement 22 Sept 2021, denoms 1k/1k Stabilisation: Stabilisation Coordinator:

Stabilising Managers: Commerzbank

Citigroup

CACIB Stabilisation period expected to start on: 15th September 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: Luxembourg regulated market

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
NEW YORK, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- From $1,015.7 million in 2020, the value of the global peer-to-peer carsharing market will reach $7,225.2 million by 2030, advancing at a CAGR of 21.7%, according to the market research report published by P&S Intelligence.

The major factors propelling the demand for such transport services include:

Convenience and Cost-Effectiveness: Owning a vehicle is becoming increasingly costly due to the rising vehicle and fuel prices, parking expenses, licensing and registration fees, and insurance premiums. In this regard, P2P carsharing allows people to enjoy driving a car, but without having to pay for anything except for the ride. Moreover, cars can be booked for rental almost throughout the day via the website or mobile app of the service enabler.

Air Pollution: The worsening problem of air pollution is another big factor behind the P2P carsharing services market growth, as the idea behind encouraging people to opt for such services is to reduce carbon emissions by decreasing the number of private vehicles in operation. Moreover, most of the cars deployed for such services are electric variants, which gives environmental conservation efforts a strong boost.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the P2P carsharing services market negatively because of the lockdown measures around the world, which forced people indoors. This led to a drastic drop in the number of trips being taken for leisure, business, and college purposes. Moreover, the fear of infection has impelled people to use other means of transport, such as micromobility and their own vehicles, thereby further pushing down the demand for P2P carsharing.

Get the sample copy of this report at: https://www.psmarketresearch.com/market-analysis/p2p-carsharing-market/report-sample

The executive category has been projected to contribute the highest revenue to the P2P carsharing services market throughout this decade, based on car type. Such cars provide the best mix of comfort and cost, which makes them popular among commuters.

Europe dominates the P2P carsharing services market as people here, especially those in major urban centers, have been reluctant to buy cars because of their high purchase and maintenance costs. Moreover, government efforts to electrify sharing fleets are boosting the market revenue here.

Browse detailed report on Global P2P Carsharing Services Market Size and Industry Growth Forecast to 2030

The most-prominent companies in the global P2P carsharing market are Turo Inc., GoMore ApS, Social Car SL, SNCF Reseau Group, HyreCar Inc., Getaround Inc., Car Next Door Australia Pty. Ltd., JustShareIt Inc., and Hiyacar LTD.

Browse More Reports

Carsharing Market Report - Asia-Pacific (APAC) is currently the largest carsharing market, majorly on account of the strong government support for such a transportation system, especially in China.

Mobility as a Service Market Report - In recent years, the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region witnessed the most-rapid proliferation of shared mobility services on account of the rising disposable income and growing concerns over air pollution, especially in India and Taiwan.

About P&S Intelligence

P&S Intelligence is a provider of market research and consulting services catering to the market information needs of burgeoning industries across the world. Providing the plinth of market intelligence, P&S as an enterprising research and consulting company, believes in providing thorough landscape analyses on the ever-changing market scenario, to empower companies to make informed decisions and base their business strategies with astuteness.

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P&S Intelligence

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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.
Long-time Goldman Sachs managing director will see stewardship of company through its imminent IPO and beyond

SpectrumX, a UK-based healthcare and pharmaceutical company, announced today an agreement with Aziz McMahon to join as Executive Chairman. In his role, he will focus on investor relations, corporate governance, and the formulation of the company's new ESG policy.

A finance professional, angel and early-stage cornerstone investor in SpectrumX, McMahon brings over 20 years' experience in investment banking. He spent the previous 14 years as a Managing Director, Emerging Markets, at Goldman Sachs. His other interests include early-stage biotech, environmental regeneration and digital assets. McMahon also runs a mentorship programme to promote racial, gender and socio-economic diversity in finance.

SpectrumX is currently closing in on final pre-IPO capital-raising ahead of its planned listing on the London Stock Exchange, in Q4 2021. Additionally, the company is set to begin phase II clinical trials of its ground-breaking SPC-069 respiratory therapy, designed to treat COVID-19 as well as other respiratory ailments such as influenza, common cold, bronchitis and pneumonia. Initial in-vitro data shows that SPC-069 is 100% effective at neutralising wildtype, Alpha variant and Delta variant forms of COVID-19.

Damien Hancox, CEO Co-Founder of SpectrumX said: "As an early-stage cornerstone investor, Aziz has been a key team member and advisor since our inception. We are delighted he has agreed to this appointment, where he will focus his abilities and wealth of experience on the development of our group as we enter this exciting new phase ahead of our listing. Aziz believes as I do that we truly are on the cusp of one of the most revolutionary treatments since the discovery of penicillin, and that passion combined with his expertise makes him the ideal person for such an important role."

Aziz McMahon commented"Having supported SpectrumX since the outset, I am excited to agree to an executive chairman role, as the company accelerates the development and deployment of its patented chemistry, a 100-percent safe and effective nature-based cure to all pathogens known to mankind. I look forward to ensuring the company continues its path of success as it becomes a public company, adhering to strict ESG standards, including carbon neutrality, transparent investor relations and the highest standards in corporate governance."

ENDS

About SpectrumX

SpectrumX is a UK-based healthcare and pharmaceuticals company focused on bringing to market a ground-breaking respiratory therapy (SPC-069) and the roll out of the most powerful hand sanitiser in the world to the NHS and other healthcare clients. Both products utilise unique patent pending HOCL formulations. HOCL is naturally occurring in human's white blood cells and is a key contributor to mankind's evolution and protection over millions of years. It is human safe whilst also being the most effective disinfectant known to mankind.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005057/en/

Contacts:

Media Contact

Jeff Segvich

Luther Pendragon (on behalf of SpectrumX)

jeffsegvich@luther.co.uk

+44 (0)20 7618 9100
Gazelle Wind Power has received statement of feasibility from leading, independent classification society DNV for its patented, breakthrough hybrid floating wind platform with a first-of its kind mobile mooring system.

Gazelle's unique concept is the first and only offshore floating wind system of its kind to be verified by DNV. Its system combines the best features of tension-leg and semi-submersible platforms while eliminating most of the drawbacks, enabling wind farms to be placed in deep waters as far out as 400 meters. Lighter than conventional platforms, it uses approximately 70% less steel and is one-third the weight of other floating platforms. It delivers 70% less horizontal movement than semi-submersible platforms, and has a tilt of less than 1 degree, and has 80% less mooring tension load than tension leg platforms. The Gazelle platform is more compact and simpler to build, deploy, and maintain than other floating platforms, which translates to dramatically lower levelized cost of energy (LCOE).

"Achieving DNV verification of our disruptive platform is a major milestone that validates the 12 years of research and innovation that has gone into this technology," said Jon Salazar, founder and president of Gazelle Wind Power. "Our system, and technologies like it, will be key in global decarbonisation goals and will have a significant impact on the growth of the floating offshore wind market."

The floating offshore wind market is projected to reach 250GW by 2050, according to DNV. Based in Norway, DNV is a global independent classification, assurance and risk management provider, it is one of the world's leading certification bodies, helping businesses assure the performance of their organisations, products, people, facilities and supply chains.

"Gazelle's innovative mooring system is a completely new concept," said Claudio Bittencourt Ferreira, business development director at DNV. "Achieving the Statement of Feasibility as part of the concept assessment defined in DNVGL-SE-0422 is a confirmation that Gazelle has demonstrated technical feasibility of the technology to deliver its targets in line with the requirements of our service specification that was developed to enable innovation in the marine renewables market."

Gazelle is supported by an elite group of energy industry veterans on its board of directors, including leading global policymakers, government officials, engineers, and CEOs.

About Gazelle Wind Power

Gazelle Wind Power Limited is unlocking the massive deep-water offshore wind market to achieve global decarbonisation. The company's durable, disruptive hybrid floating platform with a high stability attenuated pitch surmounts the current barriers of buoyancy, and geographic limitations while reducing costs and preserving fragile marine environments. The company is based in Dublin and has a presence in Dubai, London, Madrid, Paris and Texas. For more information, visit www.gazellewindpower.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005137/en/

Contacts:

For Gazelle Wind Power:

Wendy Prabhu Mercom Communications

T: +1 512 215 4452

gazelle@mercomcapital.com
DXC Technology (NYSE: DXC) and Lenovo today announced a collaboration with visionary robotics scientist Dr. Peter Scott-Morgan and his philanthropic foundation to develop ambitious assistive technology solutions by integrating the latest hardware, software, and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to empower people with disabilities, illnesses, and other challenging conditions.

Scott-Morgan, known as the "world's first human cyborg", is pushing technology to extend and enrich lives. He was diagnosed with motor neuron disease (MND) also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in 2017. When the first symptoms emerged, Scott-Morgan began exploring ways to upend the typical disease progression through his belief in the limitless potential of technology. Scott-Morgan's vision is to: "Make the vulnerable safe, the powerless strong, the unfulfilled thrive."

"The bedrock of our collaboration is a belief in the untapped potential of technology to unleash your dreams whatever you are, whatever your background, whatever your circumstances, whatever your ambitions," Scott-Morgan said. Initially told by doctors he had only two years to live, Scott-Morgan has a mantra: "Add hopewith AI and Robotics!"

DXC and Lenovo alongside a team of volunteers and leading technologists will provide hardware, software support, integration, and artificial intelligence expertise. Key initiatives include:

Developing autonomous, self-driving wheelchairs to navigate homes and beyond;

Preserving personality with an avatar that renders quickly in photo-realistic detail;

Leveraging augmented reality (AR) as a user interface controlled with only eye movements;

Accelerating the generation and customization of emotionally expressive digital voices; and

Embedding smart technology throughout a family home to enhance the life of all its occupants.

In addition to developing custom solutions, Lenovo has donated computing equipment for Scott-Morgan's home-office. Calvin Crosslin, Lenovo's Chief Diversity Officer and President of the Lenovo Foundation said: "We have a responsibility to make powerful technology as accessible as possible and create new opportunities. This is precisely why we rally behind the idea of smarter technology for all, and I am grateful to Dr. Scott-Morgan for inviting us to collaborate and share some small part of his extraordinary vision."

DXC will act as technology integrator. Deploying capabilities from the Enterprise Technology Stack, DXC will bring technology know-how and experience to ensure seamless and secure integration across infrastructure, applications, analytics, and engineering solutions.

"Peter is an astonishing inspiration," said Steve Turpie, President, EMEA at DXC. "The DXC team will offer consulting and support to define requirements, the target architecture, and the technology roadmap. Specifically, they will enable the functions for eye tracking, virtual keyboards, speech, and avatar performance. Peter, with the Foundation, has a tireless passion to challenge our thinking on how technology can be used to enhance people's lives and society."

Learn more about Dr. Peter Scott-Morgan, including his background, ongoing research, and opportunities to get involved through The Scott-Morgan Foundation.

"I applied a lifetime of research to rewrite my own future an extraordinarily lucky break! But far more important, we've now the chance to rewrite the future for millions eventually billions by applying the lessons learned to make the vulnerable safe, the powerless strong, the unfulfilled thrive. I wanted a way to break free of my suddenly inadequate body, to overcome a devastating diagnosis and reimagine what 'terminal disease' could mean. But we can help everyone who feels disadvantaged. They can rise like a phoenix! With extraordinary support from my husband Francis, countless kind and brilliant collaborators, and technology leaders like DXC and Lenovo, I find the once-dark future incredibly bright."

About DXC Technology

DXC Technology (NYSE: DXC) helps global companies run their mission critical systems and operations while modernizing IT, optimizing data architectures, and ensuring security and scalability across public, private and hybrid clouds. The world's largest companies and public sector organizations trust DXC to deploy services across the Enterprise Technology Stack to drive new levels of performance, competitiveness, and customer experience. Learn more about how we deliver excellence for our customers and colleagues at DXC.com.

About Lenovo

Lenovo (HKSE: 992) (ADR: LNVGY) is a US$60 billion revenue Fortune Global 500 company serving customers in 180 markets around the world. Focused on a bold vision to deliver smarter technology for all, we are developing world-changing technologies that power (through devices and infrastructure) and empower (through solutions, services, and software) millions of customers every day and together create a more inclusive, trustworthy, and sustainable digital society for everyone, everywhere. To find out more visit https://www.lenovo.com and read about the latest news via our StoryHub.

About Lenovo Tech World 2021 and Dr Peter Scott-Morgan

Scott-Morgan joined Lenovo at its Tech World 2021 event on September 8 to speak with Thorsten Stremlau, Lenovo's director of strategic enterprise consulting, about their shared goals of delivering smarter technology for all.

"I am deeply humbled to work with Peter, an absolutely brilliant scientist and inspiring human," said Stremlau, who is leading Lenovo's efforts. "We focus a lot on increasing accessibility and diversity at Lenovo, and this is a singular opportunity to ensure our innovation makes a real difference for both Peter and, I hope, many others."

About other partners supporting The Scott-Morgan Foundation

Other key collaborators already working with Scott-Morgan on this initiative include Matthew Aylett of CereProc, Amanda Darby of Optimize3D at Pinewood Studios, and Ari Shapiro of Embody Digital.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005415/en/

Contacts:

Media

Antoine Roussel, Communications EMEA: aroussel@dxc.com
LONDON, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Hakluyt, the strategic advisory firm for businesses and investors, is delighted to announce that Alexandra Schwartz, a London-based partner, has joined the 'Rebuilding Childhoods' board of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), the UK's leading children's charity.

The NSPCC's 'Rebuilding Childhoods' board comprises 13 individuals from a variety of backgrounds, including strategic advice, finance, art, fashion and luxury brands, who raise vital funds for the NSPCC's life-changing services for children and young people who have been abused.

Alexandra said: "I'm thrilled and honoured to be able to support the NSPCC in this way. The charity has done fantastic work over more than 100 years to tackle child abuse in the UK, a subject which is very dear to my heart. I look forward to collaborating with my colleagues on the 'Rebuilding Childhoods' board, and I'm very pleased that Hakluyt will be supporting my work in this area."

Varun Chandra, Hakluyt's managing partner, commented: "Hakluyt's philanthropic activities are a major priority for us, and we encourage everyone in the firm to share their time and skills with good causes all over the world. I'm therefore thrilled that Alex Schwartz, an immensely able leader of our business, is going to be devoting her considerable talents to helping the NSPCC. I'm sure she'll make a significant contribution to their incredibly important work to protect children in the UK, and we as a firm will of course offer our support in whatever way we can."

David Tait, who chairs the NSPCC's 'Rebuilding Childhoods' board, added: "We're extremely grateful for the generous support of Alex Schwartz from Hakluyt, the strategic advisory firm. Today one in five children in the UK has suffered abuse, robbing them of their childhood, so our pioneering services to help them rebuild their lives have never been more important. The work that Alex and the other members of the 'Rebuilding Childhoods' board do is critical to this effort."

Notes to editors

Hakluyt is a strategic advisory firm that works with corporate leaders and investors around the world on their most important commercial issues. For more information on Hakluyt, please visit www.hakluytandco.com

Alexandra Schwartz joined Hakluyt in 2015 and leads the firm's work with financial sponsors. She also works with corporate clients. Prior to Hakluyt, Alex practised law at Latham & Watkins LLP in New York, and before that worked at L.E.K. Consulting. Forbes Magazine has previously chosen Alex as one of the top "30 under 30" in the US for her work in law and policy.

The NSPCC is the UK's leading children's charity, and has helped many millions of children over more than 100 years. For more information on the NSCPCC, please visit www.nspcc.org.uk
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The global polyethylene vapor barrier films for under slabmarket size is expected to reach USD 2.18 billion by 2028, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. The market is expected to expand at a CAGR of 5.9% from 2021 to 2028. Rising demand for green buildings is projected to fuel the growth of the market during the forecast period. Green buildings are gaining popularity over conventional ones in recent years. Efficient use of energy, water, and renewable energy, reduced operating costs, improved air quality, and reduced overall load on metal structures as compared to conventional buildings are fueling the demand for green buildings.

Key Insights & Findings:

In terms of product, the linear low-density polyethylene segment accounted for the largest revenue share in 2020 and is expected to witness prominent growth over the forecast period

The new construction application segment dominated the market and accounted for more than 70.0% of the revenue share in 2020

In 2020, Asia Pacific accounted for the largest revenue share of more than 50.0%. The growing construction activities are expected to boost the demand for PE vapor barrier films for under slab in the region

Various strategic initiatives were recorded over the past few years, which helped in boosting the growth of the market. For instance, in November 2020 , INEOS Olefins & Polymers USA announced the acquisition of Sasol's ownership of Gemini High-density Polyethylene (HDPE). Gemini, a startup founded in 2017, is a manufacturer of bimodal HDPE products. The proposed acquisition will allow INEOS Olefins & Polymers USA to further expand its reach in the specialty polyethylene market of pressure pipes and high molecular weight films

Read 102 page market research report, "Polyethylene Vapor Barrier Films For Under Slab Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Product (HDPE, LLDPE), By Application, By Thickness, By End-use, By Grade, By Region, And Segment Forecasts, 2021 - 2028", by Grand View Research

Furthermore, the increasing influence of social factors, such as creating a sense of community, improving occupant health and well-being, and encouraging sustainable business practices, is propelling the growth of green buildings. In green building construction, polyethylene (PE) vapor barrier films play a significant role in making the building energy efficient. These films seal the roof against wind and moisture and prevent heat loss as well as improve the air quality by providing maximum protection against moisture, mold, and mildew growth.

Green buildings incorporate the use of eco-friendly and lightweight materials to maintain and improve the indoor air quality and efficiency of energy, water, and other resources. Since an ascending number of polyethylene vapor barrier films are being designed to be environment-friendly, their popularity is expected to increase over the forecast period and act as a driver for the market. The residential end-use segment is estimated to witness significant growth over the forecast period.

The residential construction sector is primarily driven by the growth in single-family housing units. According to the United States Census Bureau, 903,000 single-family homes and 352,000 multi-family units were completed in 2019. Factors such as population growth in major cities, low mortgage rates, and a rise in immigrant influx to major cities are propelling the demand for residential housing. In addition, the ongoing transition to a sustainable energy system, especially in North America and Europe, is fueling the demand for residential green buildings, further creating demand for polyethylene vapor barrier films for under slab applications.

Grand View Research has segmented the global polyethylene vapor barrier films for under slab market on the basis of product,thickness,grade,application,end-useand region:

PE Vapor Barrier Films For Under Slab Product Outlook (Volume, Kilotons; Revenue, USD Million, 2017 - 2028)

High-density polyethylene



Linear Low-density Polyethylene



Higher Alpha -olefin Linear Low-density Polyethylene (HAOLLDPE)

-olefin Linear Low-density Polyethylene (HAOLLDPE)



Metallocene Linear Low-density Polyethylene (mLLDPE)

PE Vapor Barrier Films For Under Slab Thickness Outlook (Volume, Kilotons; Revenue, USD Million, 2017 - 2028)

10-15 mil



15-20 mil



Above 20

PE Vapor Barrier Films For Under Slab Grade Outlook (Volume, Kilotons; Revenue, USD Million, 2017 - 2028)

Concrete



Foundation

PE Vapor Barrier Films For Under Slab Application Outlook (Volume, Kilotons; Revenue, USD Million, 2017 - 2028)

New Construction



Refurbishment

PE Vapor Barrier Films For Under Slab End-use Outlook (Volume, Kilotons; Revenue, USD Million, 2017 - 2028)

Residential



Single Family





Multi-family



Non-residential

PE Vapor Barrier Films For Under Slab Regional Outlook (Volume, Kilotons; Revenue, USD Million, 2017 - 2028)

North America



U.S.





Canada





Mexico



Europe



Germany





U.K.





France





Italy



Asia Pacific



China





India





Japan



Central & South America



Brazil



Middle East & Africa

&

GCC Countries





South Africa

List of Key Players of Polyethylene Vapor Barrier Films For Under Slab Market

Exxon Mobil Corporation

LyondellBasell Industries Holdings B.V.

Repsol

SABIC

Dow Inc.

Poly-America, L.P.

A. Proctor Group Ltd.

Reef Industries

Layfield Group

RKW Group. Ltd.

W. R. Meadows, Inc.

Cover-Tech Inc.

Browse through Grand View Research's coverage of theGlobal Plastics, Polymers & Resins Industry:

Medical Flexible Packaging Market - The global medical flexible packaging market size was valued at USD 15.8 billion in 2020 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.5% from 2021 to 2028.

The global medical flexible packaging market size was valued at in 2020 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.5% from 2021 to 2028. Flexible Packaging Market - The global automotive relay market size was valued at USD 11.39 billion in 2016, growing at an estimated CAGR of 5.9% from 2017 to 2025, further the demand is expected to reach 5.17 billion units by 2025.

The global automotive relay market size was valued at in 2016, growing at an estimated CAGR of 5.9% from 2017 to 2025, further the demand is expected to reach 5.17 billion units by 2025. Pouches Market- The global pouches market size was valued at USD 35.0 billion in 2019 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.5% from 2020 to 2027.

Gain access to Grand View Compass, our BI enabled intuitive market research database of 10,000+ reports

About Grand View Research

Grand View Research, U.S.-based market research and consulting company, provides syndicated as well as customized research reports and consulting services. Registered in California and headquartered in San Francisco, the company comprises over 425 analysts and consultants, adding more than 1200 market research reports to its vast database each year. These reports offer in-depth analysis on 46 industries across 25 major countries worldwide. With the help of an interactive market intelligence platform, Grand View Research helps Fortune 500 companies and renowned academic institutes understand the global and regional business environment and gauge the opportunities that lie ahead.

Contact:

Sherry James

Corporate Sales Specialist, USA

Grand View Research, Inc.

Phone: 1-415-349-0058

Toll Free: 1-888-202-9519

Email: sales@grandviewresearch.com

Web: https://www.grandviewresearch.com

Follow Us: LinkedIn | Twitter

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/661327/Grand_View_Research_Logo.jpg
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The global dental services market size is expected to reach USD 554.5 billion by 2028, based on a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. It is expected to expand at a CAGR of 6.4% from 2021 to 2028. The marketing efforts to commercialize dental practices including education camps and online campaigns are contributing to the adoption of dental services. The rapid urbanization around the world, constant economic growth, and the rising disposable income of people have contributed to the relatively steady growth of the market. In addition, per capita consumption expenditure on healthcare services is likely to significantly increase in the coming years.

Key Insights & Findings:

Based on type, the dental implants segment dominated the market in terms of revenue in 2020 as they provide patients with functional options for teeth replacement procedures. With the R&D in this field, dental implants are available with better biomaterials, improved designs, and surface modifications

The cosmetic dentistry type segment is likely to witness the fastest growth from 2021 to 2028 owing to the rising adoption of teeth appearance improvement procedures, such as teeth whitening, crowns, inlays and onlays, and veneers

Based on end use, the dental clinics segment held the largest share in terms of revenue in 2020 and is expected to witness the fastest growth over the forecast period. The majority of patients visit private practice dental clinics due to the availability of specialists, cost efficiency, and advanced technology

In 2020, North America dominated the market in terms of revenue owing to factors including the presence of independent dental clinics, growing R&D activities in dentistry, and rising disposable income. The increasing government funding for dental programs is likely to contribute to the market growth

Asia Pacific is anticipated to witness the fastest growth from 2021 to 2028 due to the growing number of dental clinics and rising awareness about oral care. The healthcare infrastructure in Asia Pacific is expanding with advanced technology and equipmen

Read 80 page market research report, "Dental Services Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Type (Dental Implants, Cosmetic Dentistry), By End Use (Hospitals, Dental Clinics), By Region (North America, Europe, APAC, LATAM, MEA), And Segment Forecasts, 2021 - 2028", by Grand View Research

The market for dental services was severely impacted due to the COVID-19 pandemic as the clinics were closed due to the imposed social distancing. In March 2020, the American Dental Association (ADA) issued guidelines to postpone elective dental procedures. Only the emergency procedures were allowed to carry out during the early phase of the pandemic.

In April 2021, Mills Administration in partnership with Northeast Delta Dental launched Maine Veterans' Dental Network. It was launched officially in May 2021 and provides services to Maines's veterans who were not able to afford it. In July 2021, Geyer Dental Group updated their Dental Crown Repair/Cap Fitting Restorative Dentistry service for the people in Greater St. Louis. The practice offers periodontal, cosmetic, and restorative dentistry.

Grand View Research has segmented the global dental services market based on type, end use, and region:

Dental Services Type Outlook (Revenue, USD Billion, 2016 - 2028)

Dental Implants



Orthodontics



Periodontics



Endodontics



Cosmetic Dentistry



Laser Dentistry



Dentures



Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery



Others

Dental Services End-use Outlook (Revenue, USD Billion, 2016 - 2028)

Hospitals



Dental Clinics

Dental Services Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Billion, 2016 - 2028)

North America



U.S.





Canada



Europe



U.K.





Germany





France





Italy





Spain



Asia Pacific



China





India





Japan



Latin America



Brazil





Mexico



Middle East & Africa

&

South Africa

List of Key Players of Dental Services Market

Aspen Dental Management Inc.

InterDent, Inc.

National Health Service England

The British United Provident Association Limited

Apollo White Dental

Abano Healthcare Group Limited

Coast Dental

Dental Service Group

Axis Dental

Check out more studies related to dental procedures and devices, conducted by Grand View Research:

Dental Implant Market - The global dental implant market size was valued at USD 3.6 billion in 2020 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.0% from 2021 to 2028.

The global dental implant market size was valued at in 2020 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.0% from 2021 to 2028. Cosmetic Dentistry Market - The global cosmetic dentistry market size was valued at USD 6.9 billion in 2020 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.0% from 2021 to 2028.

The global cosmetic dentistry market size was valued at in 2020 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.0% from 2021 to 2028. Dental Crowns And Bridges Market-The global dental crowns and bridges market size was valued at USD 2.1 billion in 2018 and is expected to expand a CAGR of 7.78% by 2026.

Browse through Grand View Research's coverage of the Global Medical Devices Industry.

Gain access to Grand View Compass, our BI enabled intuitive market research database of 10,000+ reports

About Grand View Research

Grand View Research, U.S.-based market research and consulting company, provides syndicated as well as customized research reports and consulting services. Registered in California and headquartered in San Francisco, the company comprises over 425 analysts and consultants, adding more than 1200 market research reports to its vast database each year. These reports offer in-depth analysis on 46 industries across 25 major countries worldwide. With the help of an interactive market intelligence platform, Grand View Research helps Fortune 500 companies and renowned academic institutes understand the global and regional business environment and gauge the opportunities that lie ahead.

Contact:

Sherry James

Corporate Sales Specialist, USA

Grand View Research, Inc.

Phone: 1-415-349-0058

Toll Free: 1-888-202-9519

Email: sales@grandviewresearch.com

Web: https://www.grandviewresearch.com

Follow Us: LinkedIn | Twitter

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/661327/Grand_View_Research_Logo.jpg
Ethris GmbH announced today that its lead COVID-19 therapeutic candidate, ETH47, has been awarded "Most Innovative Product Top 3" in the category of Leap Innovations at the Pharma Trend Image Innovation Awards 2021. Ethris was eligible to apply for the prize after having received a research grant from the State of Bavaria in Germany for the development of its COVID-19 therapy. ETH47 is a therapeutic candidate that harbors the mRNA blueprint for type III interferon. It is designed to be administered directly to the respiratory tract to treat early infection caused by SARS-CoV-2 and its variants by activating the innate immune system, and therefore stop infection before the onset of severe symptoms. The prize was presented to Dr. Carsten Rudolph, CEO of Ethris, at a ceremony on September 14, 2021 at the Deutches (German) Museum in Munich, Germany.

Dr. Carsten Rudolph, CEO of Ethris commented, "Receiving this prize in the Innovation Product category is a testament to the potential of Ethris' science and RNA technology platform, and I am honored to accept it on behalf of the incredibly dedicated team at Ethris. As the coronavirus pandemic continues, the need for therapeutics to treat the virus and its variants is more pronounced. ETH47, which is based on our proprietary and unique pulmonary SNIMRNA therapeutics platform, has the potential to treat SARS-CoV-2 and other respiratory viruses due to its broad applicability. We look forward to publishing preclinical results from our ETH47 program in the near term."

About Pharma Trend Image Innovation Award

The announcement of the specialist-specific awards and the interdisciplinary ranking took place on 14 September 2021 at the Deutsches Museum in Munich. The speeches were held by the patron of the event, the Bavarian Minister of Health Klaus Holetschek, as well as Dr. Kai Joachimsen, Chief Executive Officer of the German Pharmaceutical Industry Association.

The basis for the ranking and the awards is the Pharma Trend benchmark study, which has been conducted annually among doctors in Germany in the Rx category since 2000 and also in the OTC and Orphan Drugs categories since 2018 and additionally in the Specialty Care category since 2019 on behalf of the PharmaBarometer magazine. In 2021, the survey was expanded to include the categories "Diagnostics" and "Digital Health Applications". In the category Leap Innovations, companies from the fields of biotechnology, medical technology and digital health can apply and are evaluated by a jury.

About Ethris

Ethris has paved a new path from genes to therapeutic proteins using its proprietary, non-immunogenic messenger RNA technology platform to discover, design and develop innovative therapies. With more than a decade as an mRNA pioneer, we are a global leader in delivering stabilized mRNAs directly to the respiratory system via optimized formulation and nebulization technologies. We are rapidly approaching in vivo proof of concept for generating therapeutic antibodies against COVID-19 in the lung while advancing our pipeline of immuno-modulation and mRNA-based protein replacement therapies with the ultimate goal of improving patients' lives. For more information, visit www.ethris.com

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005521/en/

Contacts:

For Ethris, please contact:

Dr. Carsten Rudolph

+49 89 8955788 10

rudolph@ethris.com

Media Relations

Dr. Jacob Verghese

Trophic Communications

+49 89 2388 7731

ethris@trophic.eu
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / September 15, 2021 / Mawson Gold Limited ("Mawson") or (the "Company") (TSX:MAW)(Frankfurt:MXR)(OTC PINK:MWSNF) announces that pursuant to the Company's Stock Option Plan and Restricted Share Unit Plan ("RSUs"), the Company has granted 250,000 stock options and 700,000 RSUs to certain officers and employees of the Company, exercisable and issuable for up to 950,000 common shares of the Company (the "Common Shares"). The stock options are exercisable at $0.22 per Common Share for a period of three years. The RSUs vest immediately and entitle the holder to receive one Common Share for each RSU granted. Each of the Stock Option Plan and RSU Plan were last approved by the Company's shareholders at the annual general meeting held on November 18, 2020.

About Mawson Gold Limited (TSX:MAW, FRANKFURT:MXR, PINKSHEETS:MWSNF)

Mawson Gold Limited is a gold exploration and development company and has distinguished itself as a leading exploration company with a focus on the flagship Rajapalot gold-cobalt project in Finland and its Victorian gold properties in Australia.

Mawson's flagship is the 100%-owned Rajapalot gold-cobalt project, located just south of the Arctic Circle in Finnish Lapland. At Rajapalot the Company has made a significant greenfield discovery and on 26 August 2021 published an updated Inferred Mineral Resource. The updated resource estimation was completed by Eemeli Rantala, AFRY - P.Geo, Ville-Matti Seppa, AFRY - EurGeol of Finland and Craig Brown, Mining Associates Pty Ltd - FAusIMM of Australia. All authors are independent "qualified persons" as defined by NI 43-101. The NI 43-101 technical report is entitled "Mineral Resource Estimate NI 43-101 Technical Report - Rajapalot Property" and is available under Mawson's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on Mawson's website at www.mawsongold.com

The August 2021 base case open pit and underground constrained Inferred Mineral Resource was estimated at 10,907,000 tonnes @ 2.5 g/t gold ("Au"), 443 ppm cobalt ("Co"), which equates to 3.0 g/t gold equivalent ("AuEq") for 887,000 ounces ("oz") Au or 1,041,980 oz AuEq. The AuEq value was calculated using the following formula: AuEq g/t = Au g/t + (Co ppm/1005) and using a gold price of US$1,590 per ounce and a cobalt price of US$23.07/lb. Mineral Resources are stated at a 0.3 g/t AuEq open pit cut-off and 1.1 g/t AuEq underground cut-off from five block models comprising 8 prospects.

The 2021 base case resource increases gold grade by 19% (AuEq grade by 12%) and contained gold ounces by 47% (contained gold equivalent ounces by 35%) as compared to the previous Rajapalot resource estimation published on September 14, 2020.

Qualified Person

The Qualified Person, Dr Nick Cook, Mawson's Chief Geologist, and a Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, has reviewed and verified the technical contents of this release.

On behalf of the Board,



"Michael Hudson"



Executive Chairman Further Information

www.mawsongold.com

1305 - 1090 West Georgia St., Vancouver, BC, V6E 3V7

Mariana Bermudez (Canada), Corporate Secretary,

+1 (604) 685 9316, info@mawsongold.com

Forward-Looking Statement

This news release contains forward-looking statements or forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws (collectively, "forward-looking statements"). All statements herein, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements and are based upon various estimates and assumptions including, without limitation, the expectations and beliefs of management, including that the Company can access financing, appropriate equipment and sufficient labor. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as: believe, expect, anticipate, intend, estimate, postulate, and similar expressions, or are those, which, by their nature, refer to future events. Mawson cautions investors that any forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future results or performance, and that actual results may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including, but not limited to: capital and other costs varying significantly from estimates; changes in world metal markets; changes in equity markets; ability to achieve goals; that the political environment in which the Company operates will continue to support the development and operation of mining projects; the threat associated with outbreaks of viruses and infectious diseases, including the novel COVID-19 virus; risks related to negative publicity with respect to the Company or the mining industry in general; reliance on a single asset; planned drill programs and results varying from expectations; unexpected geological conditions; local community relations; dealings with non-governmental organizations; delays in operations due to permit grants; environmental and safety risks; and other risks and uncertainties disclosed under the heading "Risk Factors" in Mawson's most recent Annual Information Form filed on www.sedar.com. While these factors and assumptions are considered reasonable by Mawson, in light of management's experience and perception of current conditions and expected developments, Mawson can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made and, except as may be required by applicable securities laws, Mawson disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise.

SOURCE: Mawson Gold Limited

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/664158/Mawson-Announces-Grant-of-Stock-Options-and-RSUs
New Site Showcases Expanded Offerings to MedTech, Performance Automotive Aftermarket, Industrial, Telecom, AgTech and Other Industries

Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - September 15, 2021) - Kingstec, the company offering complete solutions to project management, engineering, manufacturing, and logistical challenges, today announced the launch of its new website at www.kingstec.com. The new site features expanded and frequently updated content for companies in medical technology, performance automotive aftermarket, industrial controls, telecommunications, agricultural technology and more.

For nearly 40 years, Kingstec has partnered with established businesses and startups all over the world, connecting them with trusted manufacturing partners in Asia and seeing projects through from ideation to delivery. Kingstec's services include project management, engineering, manufacturing, logistics, and more.

Kingstec's experienced and proactive logistics team helps clients stay ahead of supply chain issues, keeping them informed of important changes in unsettled times. As a result of the pandemic and global supply chain issues, many suppliers are facing component shortages and shipping delays which are driving up costs and drawing out delivery times. With its close ties to China and trusted manufacturing facilities, the Kingstec team can provide clients advance warning of potential challenges and help develop reliable alternative plans.

Kingstec's president, Wilson Chiu, notes, "We've seen longer lead times for all raw materials, along with price increases for these materials. Shipping challenges have also been substantial. Limited shipping capacity and the resulting rise in prices have been difficult. Between a mysterious shortage in shipping containers, reduced travel, reduced port staff - and then the curveball of the blocked Suez Canal, it's hard to predict what will happen next." He adds, "We've had to be very careful and extremely transparent in our conversations about lead time and pricing."

To that end, the refreshed website features a blog that offers news and updates about how the company is addressing supply chain issues, lockdowns and other current challenges. The blog also offers additional helpful content in multiple formats, including infographics and videos.

For companies seeking manufacturing support, the new site also features expanded content highlighting Kingstec's capabilities, from PCB assemblies to custom cable assemblies, plastic injection molded parts, and more. There are helpful videos and downloadable data sheets offering more detailed information about each service.

To learn more, visit www.Kingstec.ca.





New Kingstec Website at www.kingstec.com

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

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About Kingstec

Kingstec, a leading engineering, manufacturing, and logistics business partner, connects growing companies with the cost-efficient, highly adaptable contract manufacturers of Asia. In nearly 40 years of business and with more than 5000 projects completed to date, Kingstec has earned customers' trust by maintaining the strictest quality standards while helping to get their products quickly and reliably into the marketplace.

Headquartered in the Toronto area, the company employs a team of highly specialized engineers, logistics professionals and seasoned project managers to support projects from ideation straight through to the store shelf. At any point in the process, Kingstec is ready to jump in and shepherd your product to completion.

Learn more at www.kingstec.com.

Contact:

Linda Wu-Dunphy

(647) 868-2250

Linda@mezzaninegrowth.com

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/96145
- Leading provider of global business solutions Mauve Group announces its new article featured in The Times

- CEO Ann Ellis advises UK businesses on global solutions to overcome the challenges of Brexit

- Demand for Mauve Group's Employer of Record services increases by 124% from 2019 to 2020

LONDON, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Mauve Group, a leading provider of global business solutions, today announced the release of a new feature in the Raconteur reports - available in The Times.

Coinciding with the recent boom in the Employer of Record model, Mauve Group has seen sustained growth in its solutions since the 2016 Brexit referendum, with a 124% rise in demand between 2019 and 2020. In Raconteur's report, Mauve's experts explain how UK businesses are using global business solutions like Employer of Record to overcome the challenges of Brexit.

An Employer of Record allows businesses to employ workers in countries where their own entity is lacking. According to a 2021 research study by the Institute of Directors, over a quarter of employers said they had experienced difficulties in hiring staff since the Brexit referendum in 2016.

Addressing common expansion challenges such as varying labour legislations, talent shortages, and resource limitations, in the report Mauve's CEO Ann Ellis and Head of Research Joanna Hart explain how Employer of Record services are becoming an increasingly popular way of coping with the return of EU workers to home countries, and other barriers to EU-UK trade.

Raconteur's special reports target business leaders across a diverse range of industries. Recognised for their high-quality journalism, the reports are published exclusively for the UK's award-winning national daily newspaper, The Times. CEO Ann Ellis explains why the Raconteur report may be a valuable resource for UK businesses battling with Brexit:

"Brexit has brought about undeniable challenges to many UK businesses. For open-minded business leaders, opportunities like Employer of Record can help them to continue operating, or even grow, in the EU and beyond. We're delighted to share the well-kept secret that is Employer of Record in Raconteur's prestigious report."

The report is available now in The Times newspaper, online, and on The Times app.

About Mauve Group:

With 25 years of experience, Mauve Group's global HR and employer of record solutions support organisations across 150 countries+ worldwide.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1625460/Mauve_Group_Raconteur.jpg

For more information, please contact press@mauvegroup.com or visit www.mauvegroup.com.
SUDBURY, ON / ACCESSWIRE / September 15, 2021 / Northern Superior Resources Inc. ("Northern Superior" or the "Company") (TSXV:SUP) is pleased to announce that it entered into an agreement to acquire 100% of Kintavar Exploration Inc.'s (TSXV:KTR) Gaspard Nord mineral property. Located in the Chapais- Chibougamau gold- copper camp, the Gaspard Nord property ties onto the northern part of Northern Superior's large, 100% owned Lac Surprise mineral property (Figure 1).

Northern Superior's Lac Surprise gold property has within it, the recently discovered Falcon gold-silver zone, believed to be a 900m extension of the neighboring Vanstar/ IAMGold, 3.2M ounce (at 1.02 g/t Au) Nelligan gold deposit*. Lac Surprise's Falcon Zone remains open along strike to the west and at depth (see Northern Superior press release, August 17, 2021). This property also contains several reported gold showings (see Northern Superior Corporate presentation, www.nsuperior.com).

The Gaspard Nord property consists of 5 claims covering an area of 2.8km2. This property overlies a portion of the Opawica Guercherville Deformation Zone (OGDZ) and the northeast-southwest Lac Dore Fault. The OGDZ hosts the Vanstar/ IAMGOLD Nelligan Gold deposit and Northern Superior's Falcon Zone, southwest of the Gaspard property. Northeast-southwest faults are thought to be an important characteristic associated with both the Nelligan gold deposit and the Falcon Zone. Of particular interest on the Gaspard Nord property, is the southern contact between a suite of volcanic rocks with metasediments of the OGDZ. Two gold occurrences and "B" soil horizon gold anomalies are reported at or near this contact (Huss, 2010).

Dr. T.F. Morris (PhD., P,Geo, FGAC, ICD.D), President and CEO of Northern Superior commented: "This property, containing highly prospective ground, is an excellent addition to the Lac Surprise land package. We have already initiated planning an exploration program to test the "B" Horizon anomalies and gold occurrences identified on the Gaspard Nord property. This program will extend onto the current northern part of the Lac Surprise property to provide an understanding of the gold potential west of the Falcon Zone."

Northern Superior has agreed to acquire 100% ownership of the Gaspard Nord property in exchange for 85,000 common shares of Northern Superior and the granting of a 2% net smelter return royalty ("NSR") on the property. Northern Superior will retain an option to buyback 1% of the NSR royalty for CAD$1,000,000. No finders fees will be paid in connection with the transaction and completion of this transaction is subject to regulatory and Board approval.

Qualified Person

Dr. T.F. Morris (P.Geo.) is a Qualified Person ("QP") within the meaning of National Instrument 43-101. Dr. Morris has reviewed, and approved information disclosed in this press release.

Note to readers: Mineralization hosted on adjacent and/or nearby properties is not necessarily indicative of mineralization hosted on the Company's property.

*Reference for IAMGOLD/Vanstar's Nelligan 3.2MM Inferred Gold Resource: "Carrier, Alain (M.Sc., P.Geo); Nadeau-Benoit, Vincent (P.Geo); Fauvre, Stephane (PhD., P.Geo). October 22, 2019. NI 43-101 Technical Report and Initial Resource Estimate for the Nelligan Project, Quebec, Canada."

Reference Cited:

Huss, L. (2010). Propriete Vent d'Or, Exploration 2010. Corporation Miniere Golden Share, GM65493, 59 pages.

About Northern Superior

Northern Superior is a reporting issuer in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec, and trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol SUP, and the OTCQB VentureMarket under the symbol NSUPF.

For further information contact:

Thomas F. Morris PGeo., PhD., FGAC

President and CEO

Tel: (705) 525 -0992

Fax: (705) 525 -7701

e-mail: info@nsuperior.com

www.nsuperior.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.

Figure 1. Location, Gaspard Nord property relative to the Lac Surprise property.

SOURCE: Northern Superior Resources Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/664107/Northern-Superior-Expands-Land-Holdings-at-Lac-Surprise-via-Strategic-Acquisition-of-Kintivars-Gaspard-Nord-Property
BENGALURU, India, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Infosys (NSE: INFY) (BSE: INFY) (NYSE: INFY), a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting, today announced a strategic collaboration with SAP, a market leader in enterprise application software, to provide Business Process Transformation-as-a-Service to enterprises.

Through this collaboration, Infosys will leverage business process intelligence (BPI) from SAP to identify opportunities and obstacles in the transformation journey and create a roadmap for clients. Infosys' BPTaaS will augment the RISE with SAP offering to reduce complexity and time to benefit as well as accelerate value realization, helping clients reimagine the customer experience - all by leveraging Infosys' portfolio of Industry Cloud solutions which are a part of Infosys Cobalt.

During SAPPHIRE NOW 2021, Infosys was announced among three partners for BPI. As part of this collaboration, Infosys will put BPI at the center of its process transformation offerings, leverage its proven accelerators and methodologies, and its innovative use cases on Live Enterprise Suite to meet the process transformation requirements for clients on an ongoing basis.

With BPTaaS, businesses can benefit from in-depth process analysis during transformation and can benchmark against industry peers to identify potential areas for improvement. They can also improve process governance by gaining better visibility in operations and identifying instances of process deviations so that corrective actions can be initiated in time. Businesses can achieve this by opting for BPTaaS thereby, outsourcing their process transformation to experts who will continuously and incrementally improve the effectiveness of their processes, driving down cost, and delivering ever-increasing value to their stakeholders.

Dinesh Rao, Executive Vice President & Global Head of Enterprise Application Services, Infosys said, "As we navigate through Cloud, BPI becomes an essential component of the transformation journey for enterprises. We are delighted to work with SAP in bringing the best-in-class offering to clients for enhancing their process efficiencies. By harnessing our Cobalt portfolio, we look forward to improving the inefficient business processes that become an impediment to enterprises' transformation journey. Given our strong relationship with SAP, we will continue to deliver value and innovative solutions to our clients."

Rouven Morato, General Manager, Business Process Intelligence, SAP commented, "The value of BPI extends beyond IT and actually impacts how businesses operate. Our blended expertise with Infosys, will enable enterprises to accelerate their digitization journey and scale their businesses globally."

About Infosys

Infosys is a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting. We enable clients in more than 50 countries to navigate their digital transformation. With over four decades of experience in managing the systems and workings of global enterprises, we expertly steer our clients through their digital journey. We do it by enabling the enterprise with an AI-powered core that helps prioritize the execution of change. We also empower the business with agile digital at scale to deliver unprecedented levels of performance and customer delight. Our always-on learning agenda drives their continuous improvement through building and transferring digital skills, expertise, and ideas from our innovation ecosystem.

Visit www.infosys.com to see how Infosys (NSE: INFY) (BSE: INFY) (NYSE: INFY) can help your enterprise navigate your next.

Safe Harbor

Certain statements in this release concerning our future growth prospects, financial expectations and plans for navigating the COVID-19 impact on our employees, clients and stakeholders are forward-looking statements intended to qualify for the 'safe harbor' under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding COVID-19 and the effects of government and other measures seeking to contain its spread, risks related to an economic downturn or recession in India, the United States and other countries around the world, changes in political, business, and economic conditions, fluctuations in earnings, fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, our ability to manage growth, intense competition in IT services including those factors which may affect our cost advantage, wage increases in India, our ability to attract and retain highly skilled professionals, time and cost overruns on fixed-price, fixed-time frame contracts, client concentration, restrictions on immigration, industry segment concentration, our ability to manage our international operations, reduced demand for technology in our key focus areas, disruptions in telecommunication networks or system failures, our ability to successfully complete and integrate potential acquisitions, liability for damages on our service contracts, the success of the companies in which Infosys has made strategic investments, withdrawal or expiration of governmental fiscal incentives, political instability and regional conflicts, legal restrictions on raising capital or acquiring companies outside India, unauthorized use of our intellectual property and general economic conditions affecting our industry and the outcome of pending litigation and government investigation. Additional risks that could affect our future operating results are more fully described in our United States Securities and Exchange Commission filings including our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2021. These filings are available at www.sec.gov. Infosys may, from time to time, make additional written and oral forward-looking statements, including statements contained in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that may be made from time to time by or on behalf of the Company unless it is required by law.

Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/633365/Infosys_Logo.jpg
STOCKHOLM, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- OptiGroup has acquired 100% of the shares of Koemans Verpakkingen BV in the Netherlands. The acquisition, which marks OptiGroup's 22nd addition in the last five years and its second in the Netherlands, continues the company's European expansion, and further strengthens its strategic position in supply solutions for wrapping and packaging products to customers in the transport sector, e-commerce companies, food- and manufacturing industry. The purchase price has not been disclosed.

Koemans Verpakkingen, with a turnover of EUR 28 million in 2020, is a packaging specialist offering a wide range of packaging products and services. The company has developed very successfully as a family business, and will continue to be led by Frank Koemans as Managing Director together with his brother John Koemans. The company will become part of OptiGroup's Packaging business area and will continue to operate under its current brand.

"Following the acquisition of Moonen Packaging in 2018, we are today very pleased to continue our strategy of expansion in continental Europe with a second investment on the Dutch market. By welcoming Koemans Verpakkingen to OptiGroup we take another step towards being a leading player in selected markets and segments in Europe. We believe that by creating a stronger position we can serve our customers better, expand our distribution network and generate improved financial returns." Soren Gaardboe, President and CEO of OptiGroup.

"With the addition of Koemans Verpakkingen, we bring a stronger offering to our customers in the Netherlands. I really look forward to working closely with Frank Koemans and his team to further develop our business." Jesper Hall, Senior Vice President Packaging at OptiGroup.

"Koemans Verpakkingen has been our family business for many years and it has been very important for us to find the right long-term home for it. With OptiGroup we share both values and business philosophy and we truly look forward to continue developing the company with the resources and support from OptiGroup." Frank Koemans, Managing Director, and previous co-owner of Koemans Verpakkingen BV.

CONTACT:

For further information, please contact:

Soren Gaardboe, CEO OptiGroup, Tel. +45 24 286700

Stefan Sikander, Corporate Communication Director, Tel. +46 706 404684

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/optigroup/r/optigroup-acquires-koemans-verpakkingen-bv-in-the-netherlands,c3415498
H.I.G. WhiteHorse, a credit affiliate of global investment firm H.I.G. Capital ("H.I.G."), is pleased to announce that it has arranged a refinancing package for Kermel (the "Company"), which also includes a growth capital component.

Kermel is a technical fibre manufacturer for flame and heat resistant clothing. The Company manufactures polyamide-imide fibres for garments dedicated to personal protection that demonstrate exceptional resistance to heat, fire and abrasion in extreme circumstances.

H.I.G. WhiteHorse has committed 73 million of unitranche and capex facilities to refinance the borrower's existing indebtedness and provide additional capital to finance the Company's growth. Kermel has plans to increase its production capacity in the coming years to support new client wins and ongoing demand.

Pascal Meysson, Head of Europe at H.I.G. WhiteHorse, said: "We are thrilled to support Kermel's growth by providing flexible capital that allows its management team to realise the Company's expansion plans. This transaction highlights H.I.G. WhiteHorse's ability to support the strategic development of its clients by establishing tailored solutions for their financing needs."

About H.I.G. Capital

H.I.G. is a leading global alternative assets investment firm with $45 billion of equity capital under management.* Based in Miami, and with offices in New York, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Atlanta in the U.S., as well as international affiliate offices in London, Hamburg, Madrid, Milan, Paris, Bogota, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, H.I.G. specializes in providing both debt and equity capital to small and mid-sized companies, utilizing a flexible and operationally focused/value-added approach:

H.I.G.'s equity funds invest in management buyouts, recapitalizations and corporate carve- outs of both profitable as well as underperforming manufacturing and service businesses. H.I.G.'s debt funds invest in senior, unitranche and junior debt financing to companies across the size spectrum, both on a primary (direct origination) basis, as well as in the secondary markets. H.I.G. is also a leading CLO manager, through its WhiteHorse family of vehicles, and manages a publicly traded BDC, WhiteHorse Finance. H.I.G.'s real estate funds invest in value-added properties, which can benefit from improved asset management practices. H.I.G. Infrastructure focuses on making value-add and core plus investments in the infrastructure sector.

Since its founding in 1993, H.I.G. has invested in and managed more than 300 companies worldwide. The firm's current portfolio includes more than 100 companies with combined sales in excess of $30 billion. For more information, please refer to the H.I.G. website at www.higcapital.com.

Based on total capital commitments managed by H.I.G. Capital and affiliates.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005575/en/

Contacts:

Pascal Meysson

Head of H.I.G. WhiteHorse Europe

pmeysson@higcapital.com
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / September 15, 2021 / Orsu Metals Corporation (TSXV:OSU) ("Orsu" or the "Company") provides an update on its activities at the Sergeevskoe project.

On 2nd of September 2021 Orsu signed an agreement with the Russian Government confirming that the Sergeevskoe project is included into the territory of the Advanced Social Economic Zone in the Russian Federation.

The territories of Advanced Social Economic Zone in Russia aim to stimulate investments into various industries by, inter alia, providing approved projects with reduced tax rates.

Specifically, the Company will benefit from reduced tax rates as follows:

The Mineral Extraction Tax (MET) standard rate for gold production is set at 6.5% of sales. This rate will be reduced to nil for the first two years of production and will grow incrementally to a standard rate over the 10 years from the beginning of production.

The standard rate of income taxes set at 20% of profit will be reduced to nil for the first two years since from the first operating profit and will incrementally grow to a standard rate over the 10 years since turning the first profit.

The Company will also benefit from (1) reduced rates of social contributions levied on salaries of the project employees and (2) reduced rate of property tax that applies to the future fixed assets of the project.

The Company is also pleased to report that:

It is working with Wardell Armstrong International to issue an updated resource report later this autumn; and

It is conducting a geochemical sampling survey as announced in the Company's press-release dated July 19, 2021. The survey is nearly complete, and the results of this program will be report in due course.

The Company is also happy to report that upon issuance of the updated resource statement it is an intention of the Company to produce a Preliminary Economic Study for the oxide part of the resource.

Dr. Sergey V Kurzin, the Executive Chairman, commented: "I am very content that the Sergeevskoe project was included into the territory of the Advanced Social Economic Zone. The overall tax benefits package is substantial and the benefits will depend upon the size and profitability of the future mining and processing operations. The Company is advancing the project and intends to commission a Preliminary Economic Study for the oxide part of the resource to move the project towards a construction decision".

About Orsu Metals Corporation

Orsu Metals Corporation is a mineral exploration and development company. The 90% owned Sergeevskoe gold project located in the Mogocha District of the Zabaikal'skiy Region of the Russian Federation is the focus of Orsu's activities. Orsu has filed a technical report titled: "NI43-101 Technical Report on the Updated Mineral Resource Estimate for the Sergeevskoe Property, Zabaikalskiy Krai, Russian Federation" dated effective January 9, 2020 (the "Sergeevskoe Report") to support the Inferred Mineral Resource of 30.42 million tons, grading 1.45 g/t gold and containing 1.417 Moz gold at a 0.5 g/t gold cut-off grade and US$1,450 per troy ounce of gold, optimized into an open pit constrained by the license boundaries at Sergeevskoe.

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.

Cautionary Statement:

This news release contains forward-looking statements that are based on the Company's current expectations and estimates. Forward-looking statements are frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate", "suggest", "indicate" and other similar words or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from estimated or anticipated events or results implied or expressed in such forward-looking statements. . There may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made and, except as may be required by applicable securities laws, the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise. Forward-looking statements are not a guarantee of future performance and accordingly undue reliance should not be put on such statements due to the inherent uncertainty therein.

For further information, please contact:

Sergei Stefanovich, Managing Director, Orsu Metals Corporation

Doris Meyer, Corporate Secretary, Orsu Metals Corporation

E: doris@gocs.ca

SOURCE: Orsu Metals Corporation

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/664136/Orsu-Metals-Reports-Russian-Government-Approves-Tax-Benefit-Package-for-Orsus-Sergeevskoe-Gold-Project
MELVILLE (dpa-AFX) - Henry Schein Inc. (HSIC) announced a new organizational structure, which seeks to harness the benefits of consolidating the management of the company's Dental and Medical distribution businesses. Henry Schein noted that it will create two groups to lead the management globally of its Dental and Medical distribution businesses. The North America Distribution Group will be led by Brad Connett as CEO. Connett, who joined the Company in 1997, previously served as President of Henry Schein's U.S. Medical Group. The International Distribution Group will be led by Andrea Albertini as President. Albertini, who joined the Company in 2013, previously served as President of Henry Schein's EMEA Dental Distribution Group and has nearly 20 years of experience in successfully managing global dental businesses. The company plans to continue to focus on addressing customer needs by expanding its three specialty products and services businesses. Henry Schein One, led by Mike Baird, CEO, which provides integrated software and services to the dental profession. The Global Oral Reconstruction Group, led by Rene Willi, CEO, and Steve Boggan, Chief Commercial Officer, which includes the Camlog and BioHorizons Group as well as medentis medical, collectively a leading dental implant and bone regeneration products business. The Strategic Business Units Group, led by David Brous, CEO, Strategic Business Group, which spans manufacturing and service-based endodontic, orthodontic, and other health care businesses. 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.
"Pursuing Better Together" at core of how company does business

Arch Insurance, part of Arch Capital Group Ltd., today announced the launch of its new brand promise, Pursuing Better Together?, that aligns with the culture, approach and ambition of the organization.

Pursuing Better Together is at the core of how the company operates and engages with its brokers and customers, through collaboration, responsiveness and a commitment to continually raising the bar.

Nicolas Papadopoulo, President of Arch Capital Group Ltd. and CEO of Arch Worldwide Insurance Group said, "We believe that this promise Pursing Better Together perfectly captures how we do business at Arch Insurance. It is about striving to deliver more for our brokers and their customers by being responsive, building collaborative and respectful relationships and working together to provide an exceptional customer experience through more informed solutions.

"We believe that by constantly reinforcing a customer-focused mindset across our organization we are much better positioned to help our partners achieve their goals in a challenging market," Papadopoulo said.

About Arch Capital Group Ltd.

Arch Capital Group Ltd., a publicly listed Bermuda exempted company with approximately $16.7 billion in capital at June 30, 2021, provides insurance, reinsurance and mortgage insurance on a worldwide basis through its wholly owned subsidiaries.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-looking Statements

The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a "safe harbor" for forward-looking statements. This release or any other written or oral statements made by or on behalf of Arch Capital Group Ltd. and its subsidiaries may include forward-looking statements, which reflect our current views with respect to future events and financial performance. All statements other than statements of historical fact included in or incorporated by reference in this release are forward-looking statements.

Forward-looking statements can generally be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "may," "will," "expect," "intend," "estimate," "anticipate," "believe" or "continue" or their negative or variations or similar terminology. Forward-looking statements involve our current assessment of risks and uncertainties. Actual events and results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in these statements. A non-exclusive list of the important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements includes the following: adverse general economic and market conditions; increased competition; pricing and policy term trends; fluctuations in the actions of rating agencies and the Company's ability to maintain and improve its ratings; investment performance; the loss of key personnel; the adequacy of the Company's loss reserves, severity and/or frequency of losses, greater than expected loss ratios and adverse development on claim and/or claim expense liabilities; greater frequency or severity of unpredictable natural and man-made catastrophic events, including pandemics such as COVID-19; the impact of acts of terrorism and acts of war; changes in regulations and/or tax laws in the United States or elsewhere; the Company's ability to successfully integrate, establish and maintain operating procedures as well as consummate acquisitions and integrate the businesses the Company has acquired or may acquire into the existing operations; changes in accounting principles or policies; material differences between actual and expected assessments for guaranty funds and mandatory pooling arrangements; availability and cost to the Company of reinsurance to manage the Company's gross and net exposures; the failure of others to meet their obligations to the Company; changes in the method for determining the London Inter-bank Offered Rate ("LIBOR") and the potential replacement of LIBOR and other factors identified in the Company's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC").

The foregoing review of important factors should not be construed as exhaustive and should be read in conjunction with other cautionary statements that are included herein or elsewhere. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to us or persons acting on our behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by these cautionary statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005352/en/

Contacts:

Media

Greg Hare

SVP Branding and Communications, Arch Capital Services LLC

+1 678 462 8647

Patrick Palmer

Head of Marketing and Communications, Arch Insurance International

+44 7900 743664

Nigel Allen or Suzanne Hirst

PR agency Allen Clapham

+44 7988 478824 +44 7988 140357
374Water Announces Formation of Advisory Board

Advisory Board to provide strategic input to advance the company mission and AirSCWO technology

DURHAM, NC / ACCESSWIRE / September 15, 2021 / 374Water Inc., (OTCQB:SCWO), a social impact, cleantech company located in Durham, North Carolina is pleased to announce the members of its industry Advisory Board who are experts in the fields of water, waste, energy, climate, and defense. 374Water is shifting the waste and wastewater industry from end-of-pipe treatment to resource recovery by commercializing a novel approach to supercritical water oxidation that transforms waste into recoverable resources. The following experts have joined 374Water's Advisory Board to provide industry advice and strategic guidance:

Tatjana Vujic is a nationally recognized expert on greenhouse gas abatement and related environmental, energy and agricultural policy. Within that realm, Tatjana's special areas of expertise include renewable natural gas development, methane destruction, carbon offset and renewable energy generation, natural climate solutions, agricultural waste management, and climate resilience. Tatjana founded the Duke Carbon Offsets Initiative (DCOI) in 2009 and spearheaded the launch of North Carolina's first swine waste-to-energy system to generate renewable energy certificates and carbon offsets, which then led to an analysis of options for generating electricity from swine waste that has served as a roadmap for swine biogas project development in North Carolina. Tatjana also co-authored the June 2020 report Rural Investment: Building a Natural Climate Solutions Policy Agenda that Works for Rural America and the Climate. Tatjana chairs the Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas' Education and Research Advisory Board and is on the Board of Advisors of SustainRNG, a dairy-focused biogas development company. Tatjana received her J.D. with honors from the George Washington University Law School, and double majored in Geology & Geophysics and Studies in the Environment at Yale University.

Steve Brock (CAPT USN RET) served in a variety of capacities within the U.S. Department of Defense and the White House. He was Deputy Director for Intelligence and Chair of the Functional Capabilities Board at the Joint Staff, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He also co-chaired an Interagency Policy Committee at the White House Council on Environmental Quality and was Director for Asia Security Affairs for the National Security Council. Prior to working in the White House, Captain Brock served in several senior capacities in the U.S. military, including Assistant Chief of Staff (Information Dominance) for the NIMITZ Strike Group, Officer in Charge of DOD Field Operating Base Europe - Berlin, and Senior Analyst for the United States Seventh Fleet. He also served as Advisor to the US Ambassador to the United Nations. He also currently serves as a Senior Advisor with the Council on Strategic Risks and the Center for Climate and Security, and Chief of Staff to the Chair and Secretary General of the International Military Council on Climate and Security. He is a principal at Provenance Co., Regeneration Management Partners, and an Adjunct at RAND. He holds masters' degrees from Georgetown University and National Defense Universityand a bachelor's degree in Marine Engineering from the United States Naval Academy.

Damian Georgino counsels and advises U.S. and international corporations, including Fortune 50 companies, financial institutions, private equity funds, and other investors in complex transactions involving water and wastewater, environmental, industrial/manufacturing, energy, infrastructure, and natural resource projects. Damian has extensive experience in buy-and-build and hyper-growth strategies, structures and operations primarily focused on the water, wastewater, energy, technology, and environmental industries. Damian previously served as managing partner and senior advisor to several private equity firms, where he focused on water and wastewater investments, alternative energy and related infrastructure investments. Damian also has served as a corporate development executive and Chief Legal Officer of several high-profile/high-growth public companies.

Tali Harif brings over 20 years of experience in the global water space, with particular focus on new technology development and market adoption. She has held senior technical and commercial management roles in companies ranging from start-ups, technology integrators, consultancies, and FTSE100 utilities, giving her a very broad perspective on diverse water related sectors and the challenges they face. Her expertise includes go-to-market and growth strategy, technology commercialization, innovation management, financial planning, (international) business development, complex technical sales, P&L management, strategic alliances, leadership, and governance.

Howard Teicher was a US Government national security official from 1977 - 1987. Howard Teicher advises clients on how to promote innovative solutions to government agencies and international organizations. A summa cum laude, phi beta kappa graduate of Boston University (BA) and the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (MA), Howard is a media commentator on foreign policy and national security affairs as well as the co-Author of Twin Pillars to Desert Storm: America's Flawed Vision in the Middle East from Nixon to Bush.

About 374Water

374Water Inc., (OTCQB:SCWO), offers innovative technology to process and eliminate organic waste including "forever" chemicals from natural and developed environments. Our mission is to preserve a clean and healthy environment that sustains life. We apply cutting-edge science and engineering prowess to recover resources from the wastes our society generates to keep our drinking water clean. We help businesses and local governments deploy solutions that help achieve the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

CONTACT: Rick Davis, rd@374water.com

Related Links: https://www.374water.com

SOURCE: 374Water, Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/664097/374Water-Announces-Formation-of-Advisory-Board-to-Provide-Strategic-Input-to-Advance-the-Company-Mission-and-AirSCWO-Technology
SMH is one of the UK's leading vehicle preparation, logistics storage businesses

Operating from 6 sites across the UK for reconditioning, imaging, storage delivery

Team of over 500 experienced vehicle preparation staff and 300 logistics specialists

Including own online auction platform for remarketing used cars to wholesale market

Combines Cazoo's world-class consumer platform with SMH's leading infrastructure

Deal will double Cazoo's UK reconditioning and logistics capability storage capacity

Providing Cazoo with a total of 11 reconditioning/storage sites across over 265 acres

Creates significant opportunity for Cazoo to scale its operations in line with its growth

Cazoo (NYSE: CZOO), the UK's leading online car retailer, which makes buying and selling a car as simple and seamless as ordering any other product online, today announced that it has acquired SMH Fleet Solutions (SMH), one of the UK's leading vehicle preparation, logistics and storage businesses.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005095/en/

Bedford: one of six sites Cazoo now owns as part of its acquisition of SMH Fleet Solutions one of the UK's leading vehicle preparation, logistics and storage businesses. (Photo: Business Wire)

Established in 2003, SMH has a team of over 500 expert staff currently processing more than 70,000 vehicle refurbishments annually from 6 vehicle preparation sites across 136 acres in Bedford, Gloucester, Throckmorton, Worcester and St Helens. SMH also carries out over 150,000 vehicle movements per year with a team of over 300 logistics specialists as well as operating an online wholesale platform for used cars.

The combination of Cazoo's world-class online retail platform and brand with SMH's leading infrastructure and expertise will double Cazoo's overall vehicle reconditioning, logistics and storage capabilities in the UK with 11 total sites across more than 265 acres, as well as providing it with an experienced team of hundreds of additional vehicle preparation and logistics specialists and its own digital wholesale platform.

This deal will provide Cazoo with one of the most extensive portfolios of vehicle preparation sites and production capabilities in the UK to meet its rapid growth plans. Once fully integrated, Cazoo will have the capacity to recondition and deliver hundreds of thousands of cars per year and store tens of thousands of cars, helping to secure its future requirements and materially de-risk its ability to meet its growth targets.

Cazoo is one of the fastest growing businesses in Europe, pioneering the shift to online car buying and selling and this acquisition follows its listing on the NYSE last month. Cazoo has already sold over 35,000 cars in the UK since its launch less than 2 years ago as consumers have embraced the selection, value, transparency and convenience of buying and selling used cars entirely online.

Cazoo has recently launched an all-inclusive monthly subscription service for new cars as well as now buying used cars directly from consumers in the UK and is gearing up to launch later this year in both France and Germany. Cazoo owns and fully reconditions all of its cars before offering them on its website for either delivery or collection in as little as 72 hours and has thousands of cars available at any time.

Cazoo has acquired SMH for approximately 70m in cash from LDC and other minority shareholders. The transaction is expected to have a negligible impact on Cazoo's FY2021 operating results.

Alex Chesterman OBE, Founder CEO of Cazoo said: "Given strong consumer demand, the only real constraint to our future growth is ensuring that we have adequate capability to recondition, store and deliver enough cars to keep up. By acquiring SMH, this helps solve that and de-risks our future growth by immediately doubling our number of vehicle preparation sites and significantly enhancing our team of vehicle preparation and logistics staff. I look forward to welcoming the SMH team to Cazoo.

"Buying or selling a car entirely online from the comfort of your home and having it delivered or collected in a matter of days, just like any other product today, is clearly resonating with consumers and our record growth continues as they embrace the selection, value, quality and convenience of our proposition."

Tim Hudson, CEO at SMH Fleet Solutions said, "We're delighted to be joining forces with Alex and the team at Cazoo and see this as a perfect fit for SMH. We have built one of the leading teams in vehicle preparation and logistics in the UK and are very well placed to support the remarkable pace of growth at Cazoo and help it deliver on its mission of providing the best car buying and selling experience in the UK."

About Cazoo www.cazoo.co.uk

Our mission is to transform the car buying and selling experience across the UK Europe by providing better selection, value, transparency, convenience and peace of mind. Our aim is to make buying or selling a car no different to ordering any other product online, where consumers can simply and seamlessly buy, sell, finance or subscribe to a car entirely online for delivery or collection in as little as 72 hours. Cazoo was founded in 2018 by serial entrepreneur Alex Chesterman OBE, is backed some of the leading technology investors globally and is publicly traded (NYSE: CZOO).

About SMH Fleet Solutions www.smhfleet.com

We provide a full suite of fleet management services including preparation, refurbishment, remarketing and delivery of vehicles to a broad range of automotive customers. Our team are experts in vehicle management and providing ancillary services and our commitment to service and quality is at the forefront of all our business activity. SMH has continued to expand its footprint in recent years with new sites across the UK and expansion into new business areas.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the "safe harbour" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The expectations, estimates, and projections of the business of Cazoo may differ from its actual results and, consequently, you should not rely on forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. These forward-looking statements generally are identified by the words "believe," "project," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "intend," "strategy," "future," "opportunity," "plan," "may," "should," "will," "would," "will be," "will continue," "will likely result," and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are predictions, projections and other statements about future events that are based on current expectations and assumptions and, as a result, are subject to risks and uncertainties. Many factors could cause actual future events to differ materially from the forward-looking statements in this press release, including but not limited to: (1) realizing the benefits expected from the business combination with Ajax I (the "Business Combination"); (2) achieving the expected revenue growth and effectively managing growth; (3) executing Cazoo's expansion strategy in Europe; (4) acquiring and integrating other companies; (5) achieving and maintaining profitability in the future; (6) having access to suitable and sufficient vehicle inventory for resale to customers and for Cazoo's subscription offering and refurbishing and selling inventory expeditiously and efficiently; (7) expanding Cazoo's subscription offering; (8) increasing Cazoo's service offerings and price optimization; (9) effectively promoting Cazoo's brand and increasing brand awareness; (10) expanding Cazoo's product offerings and introducing additional products and services; (11) enhancing future operating and financial results; (12) acquiring and protecting intellectual property; (13) attracting, training and retaining key personnel; (14) complying with laws and regulations applicable to Cazoo's business; (15) successfully deploying the proceeds from the Business Combination; and (16) other risks and uncertainties set forth in the sections entitled "Risk Factors" and "Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements" in the registration statement on Form F-4 and the proxy statement/prospectus included therein filed by Cazoo Group Ltd (f/k/a Capri Listco). The foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. You should carefully consider the foregoing factors and the disclosure included in other documents filed by Cazoo from time to time with the SEC. These filings identify and address other important risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events and results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements, and Cazoo assumes no obligation and does not intend to update or revise these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Cazoo gives no assurance that it

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005095/en/

Contacts:

Media:

Cazoo: Lawrence Hall, Group Communications Director, lawrence.hall@cazoo.co.uk

Brunswick: Chris Blundell Simone Selzer +44 20 7404 5959 cazoo@brunswickgroup.com

Investor Relations:

Cazoo: Robert Berg, Director of Investor Relations and Corporate Finance, investors@cazoo.co.uk

ICR: cazoo@icrinc.com
Sparq Systems Inc. Announces Details of Private Placement

Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - September 15, 2021) - MJ Innovation Capital Corp. (TSXV: MSMJ.P) ("MJ") is pleased to announce that, further to its press release dated June 10, 2021, it has received conditional approval from the TSX Venture Exchange (the "TSXV") for its proposed qualifying transaction (the "QT") with SPARQ Systems Inc. ("SPARQ"), whereby the parties intend to effect a reverse takeover of MJ by SPARQ. Trading in the common shares of MJ (the "MJ Shares") has been halted in accordance with TSXV policies since the date of the initial announcement, and will remain halted until such time as all required documentation has been filed with and accepted by the TSXV in connection with the QT. There can be no assurances that the QT will be completed on the terms set out below or at all.

The completion of the QT is subject to a number of conditions, including but not limited to, receipt of all applicable regulatory approvals, including final TSXV acceptance, completion of the SPARQ Private Placement (as defined below), approval of the QT by shareholders of SPARQ, and satisfaction of other customary closing conditions. Assuming all conditions are satisfied, closing of the QT is expected to occur by the end of October 2021.

Final acceptance of the QT will occur upon the issuance of the final exchange bulletin (the "Exchange Bulletin") by the TSXV. Subject to final approval by the TSXV, MJ will no longer be a capital pool company and will be classified as a Tier 2 Technology Issuer, trading under the symbol "SPRQ" and renamed as "SPARQ Corp." (the "Resulting Issuer"). MJ will issue a news release once the TSXV issues the Exchange Bulletin and will advise of the expected listing date when known.

A filing statement (the "Filing Statement") in respect of the QT has been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the TSXV and will be filed under MJ's issuer profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

SPARQ PRIVATE PLACEMENT

In connection with the QT, SPARQ intends to complete a brokered private placement financing (the "SPARQ Private Placement") of up to 20,000,000 subscription receipts (the "Subscription Receipts") at a price of $0.50 per Subscription Receipt for gross proceeds of up to $10,000,000 (or $11,500,000 if the Agent (as defined herein) exercise their option in full to increase the size of the SPARQ Private Placement by 15%). Each Subscription Receipt shall entitle the holder thereof to receive, upon the satisfaction or waiver (to the extent such waiver is permitted) of certain escrow release conditions prior to the escrow release deadline, including all conditions precedent to the QT being satisfied, and without payment of additional consideration therefor, one unit of SPARQ (each, a "SPARQ Unit"). Each SPARQ Unit shall consist of one common share in the capital of SPARQ (each a "SPARQ Share") and one common share purchase warrant (each, a "SPARQ Warrant") with each such SPARQ Warrant entitling the holder thereof to acquire one additional SPARQ Share at a price of $0.75 per share for a period of 24 months from the date of issuance. Concurrent with the completion of the QT, each issued and outstanding SPARQ Share and SPARQ Warrant, including the SPARQ Shares and SPARQ Warrants underlying the Subscription Receipts will be exchanged for common shares of the Resulting Issuer ("Resulting Issuer Shares") and warrants of the Resulting Issuer ("Resulting Issuer Warrants") in accordance with the terms of the QT.

SPARQ has engaged Echelon Wealth Partners Inc. as lead agent and sole bookrunner ( the "Agent") to offer the Subscription Receipts for sale on a "best efforts" agency basis.

The Agent will receive a cash fee equal to 7.0% of the gross proceeds of the Subscription Receipts sold in the SPARQ Private Placement (reduced to 3.5% in respect of sales to president's list subscribers which president's list shall not exceed a total of $3,000,000) and compensation warrants (the "Agent's Warrants") equal to 7.0% of the number of Subscription Receipts sold in the SPARQ Private Placement (reduced to 3.5% in respect of sales to the president's list). Each Agent's Warrant will be exercisable to acquire one SPARQ Unit at the issue price. In accordance with the terms of the QT, the Agent's Warrants will be exchanged for Resulting Issuer Warrants at the agreed upon exchange ratio and on substantially the same commercial terms.

CAPITALIZATION

As of the date hereof, (i) MJ has 3,055,940 MJ Shares issued and outstanding, as well as options to acquire up to an aggregate of 305,000 MJ Shares; and (ii) SPARQ has 453,957,613 SPARQ Shares issued and outstanding.

Assuming the completion of the SPARQ Private Placement for gross proceeds of $10,000,000 and taking into effect a consolidation of the MJ Shares on a 1.25:1 basis (the "MJ Consolidation") and a consolidation of the SPARQ Shares on a 10.8085146:1 basis (the "SPARQ Consolidation"), it is expected that the Resulting Issuer will have approximately 82,444,752 Resulting Issuer Shares issued and outstanding on a non-diluted basis, of which (i) the current shareholders of MJ will hold 2,444,752 Resulting Issuer Shares representing approximately 2.9% of the issued and outstanding share capital of the Resulting Issuer; (ii) the former shareholders of SPARQ will hold approximately 60,000,000 Resulting Issuer Shares, representing approximately 72.8% of the issued and outstanding share capital of the Resulting Issuer; and (iii) purchasers of Subscription Receipts under the SPARQ Private Placement will hold 20,000,000 Resulting Issuer Shares representing approximately 24.3% of the issued and outstanding share capital of the Resulting Issuer. In addition, Agent's Warrants issued in connection with the SPARQ Private Placement exercisable into a maximum of 1,190,000 SPARQ Shares shall be outstanding.

DIRECTORS, OFFICERS AND OTHER INSIDERS OF THE RESULTING ISSUER

On completion of the QT, the current directors and officers of MJ will resign and it is currently expected that the proposed directors and officers of the Resulting Issuer will include:

Dr. Praveen Jain - Director and Chief Executive Officer - Dr. Jain is the Founder and the CEO of SPARQ. He is also a Professor and Canada Research Chair in Power Electronics at Queen's University in Kingston, Canada. He has considerable industrial experience in power electronics, working and consulting at Canadian Aeronautics, Nortel Network, Astec, Intel, Freescale and GE. He founded CHiL Semiconductor, a digital power control chips company, which was acquired by International Rectifier (later merged with Infineon). Dr. Jain is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers ("IEEE"), the Engineering Institute of Canada and the Canadian Academy of Engineering. He is the recipient of the 2021 IEEE Medal in Power Engineering, the 2017 IEEE Canada Electric Power Medal, the 2011 IEEE William E. Newell Power Electronics Award, and. 2004 Engineering Medal from the Ontario Professional Engineers. He holds over 100 patents. Dr. Jain obtained his PhD degree from the University of Toronto.

Kyle Appleby - Chief Financial Officer - Mr. Appleby spent the first 10 years of his career working in public accounting where he worked in both audit and advisory practices working with private companies and investment funds. From 2007 to present, Mr. Appleby has provided management and accounting services to public companies across a variety of industries including crypto-currency, technology, junior mining, food production, agriculture, cannabis, and others. Mr. Appleby has been the Chief Financial Officer for numerous companies, listed in Canada, the US and London and has extensive experience in financial reporting, IPOs, fund raising, and corporate governance. Mr. Appleby is a member in good standing of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario.

Nishith Goel - Director -Dr. Goel is the CEO of Cistel Technology, an Information Technology company he founded in 1995 which has operations in Canada and the USA. A veteran technology executive and entrepreneur, he is also co-founder of CHiL Semiconductor, iPine Networks, Sanstream Technologies and Sparq Systems. Dr. Goel has served on the Board of Directors of Enablence and Excelocity. He has also served on the Board of Directors of the Community Foundation of Ottawa, the Queensway Carleton Hospital Foundation, the Indo-Canada Ottawa Business Chamber, and as well as the Chair of the Queensway-Carleton Hospital Foundation. Dr. Goel obtained his PhD degree from the University of Waterloo.

BaoJun (Robbie) Luo - Director - Robbie Luo is the President of Ti-Lane Precision Electronic Company Limited and Ti-Lane Group, Shenzhen, China. Ti-Lane is the global leader in providing solution of connector and cable assembly products for communications, computer, medical, automotive and clean energy applications. He is a firm believer of renewable energy deployment and is a Deputy Director General of Shenzhen Solar Energy Society. He earned his MBA from Ursuline College at Tsinghua University, China.

Ravi Sood - Director - Mr. Sood is managing director of Signal 8 Limited based in Toronto, Canada. Mr. Sood has been a founder of and the principal investor in several businesses in emerging markets and currently serves as Chairman of Jade Power Trust (TSXV) and Galane Gold Ltd. (TSXV) and as a director of Eve & Co Incorporated (TSXV). He was the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Navina Asset Management Inc., a global asset management firm headquartered in Toronto, Canada. Mr. Sood led the investment activities of Navina and its predecessor company, Lawrence Asset Management Inc., from its founding in 2001 until he sold the firm in 2010. Mr. Sood was educated at the University of Waterloo (B.Mathematics) where he was a Descartes Fellow and the recipient of numerous national awards.

Nick Blitterswyk - Director - Nick Blitterswyk is the Chief Executive Officer and founder of UGE International Ltd., a solar developer listed on the TSX Venture Exchange. Nick is a graduate of the University of Calgary and winner of its 2012 Graduate of the Last Decade award. Nick is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries and before founding UGE held positions at Towers Perrin, JPMorgan Chase & Co., and American International Group, Inc. Nick founded UGE in 2008 and has grown the company from inception to becoming a leader in distributed renewable energy, with over 500MW of solar experience spanning more than 100 countries.

Richard Kimel - Corporate Secretary - Mr. Kimel is a partner at the law firm of Aird & Berlis LLP. Mr. Kimel practices in the areas of corporate finance and corporate/commercial law with considerable experience in mergers and acquisitions (cross-border and domestic) of both public and private corporations, public offerings (both initial and secondary), private placement financings (including debt and equity offerings), hedge fund formations and financings, corporate governance matters, and the formation and completion of qualifying transactions for companies established under the TSXV CPC program. Mr. Kimel acts as corporate counsel for numerous companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, the TSXV and the NEO Exchange. Mr. Kimel also acts as a director or officer for a number of his publicly listed clients. Mr. Kimel received his LL.B. from the University of Toronto and an Honours degree in Business Administration from the Richard Ivey School of Business at Western University in London, Ontario.

As at the date hereof, the above individuals and entities, own in the aggregate, directly or indirectly, 145,958,763 (32.2%) of the issued and outstanding SPARQ Shares and 50,000 (1.6%) of the outstanding MJ Shares. Based on the current shareholdings, present knowledge of each of MJ and SPARQ, and assuming completion of a $10,000,000 SPARQ Private Placement and after taking into effect the MJ Consolidation and the SPARQ Consolidation, it is anticipated that following the closing of the QT, no person or company will beneficially own, directly or indirectly, or control or direct more than 10% of the voting rights associated with the issued and outstanding Resulting Issuer Shares other than: (i) Highchart Investments Limited, which is expected to own, directly or indirectly, 12,105,007 Resulting Issuer Shares representing approximately 14.7% of the issued and outstanding Resulting Issuer Shares; (ii) Greg Steers who is expected to own, directly or indirectly, 8,394,292 Resulting Issuer Shares representing approximately 10.2% of the issued and outstanding Resulting Issuer Shares; and (iii) Dr. Praveen Jain, who is expected to own, directly or indirectly, 16,047,442 Resulting Issuer Shares representing approximately 19.6% of the issued and outstanding Resulting Issuer Shares.

FINANCIAL INFORMATION OF SPARQ

The following tables set forth selected historical financial information for SPARQ for the fiscal years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019 and the six months ended June 30, 2021, and selected balance sheet data for such fiscal years and period. The financial statements of SPARQ are denominated in Canadian dollars.

Balance Sheet Data As at June 30, 2021

($)

(unaudited) As at December 31, 2020

($)

(audited) As at December 31, 2019

($)

(audited) Cash and cash equivalents 867,282 1,346,904 57,558 Total assets 1,522,322 1,946,051 1,048,906 Total liabilities 196,089 106,120 1,534,559 Shareholders' equity 1,326,233 1,839,931 (485,653)

Income Statement Data Six month period ended

June 30, 2021

($)

(unaudited) Year ended

December 31, 2020

($)

(audited) Year ended December 31, 2019

($)

(audited) Total revenue Nil 1,169 590,683 Total expenses 894,349 1,631,692 1,494,619 Net income (loss) 513,698 (1,091,988) (1,010,516)

ABOUT MJ INNOVATION CAPITAL CORP.

MJ is a capital pool company created pursuant to the policies of the TSXV. It does not own any assets, other than cash or cash equivalents and its rights under the definitive agreement dated June 10, 2021 with SPARQ. The principal business of MJ is to identify and evaluate opportunities for the acquisition of an interest in assets or businesses and, once identified and evaluated, to negotiate an acquisition or participation subject to acceptance by the TSXV so as to complete a qualifying transaction in accordance with the policies of the TSXV.

ABOUT SPARQ

SPARQ was incorporated on July 16, 2009 pursuant to the provisions of Business Corporations Act (Ontario). SPARQ's head office is located at 945 Princess Street, Kingston, Ontario, K7L 0E9. SPARQ originated from the advanced research conducted at ePOWER, the Centre for Energy and Power Electronics Research at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. SPARQ was founded at Queen's University in 2009 by Canada Research Chair in Power Electronics, Dr. Praveen Jain, Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the Royal Society of Canada.

SPARQ designs and manufactures next generation single-phase microinverters for residential and commercial solar electric applications. SPARQ has developed a proprietary photovoltaic ("PV") solution called the Quad; the Quad inverter optimizes four PV modules with a single microinverter, simplifying design and installation, and lowering cost for solar power installations when compared to existing market offerings.

SPARQ has one wholly-owned subsidiary, Sparq Systems (USA), Inc. which was incorporated under the laws of Delaware on August 30, 2013.

CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This news release contains statements that constitute "forward-looking statements." Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause MJ's actual results, performance or achievements, or developments to differ materially from the anticipated results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such 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 statements in this document include, among others, statements relating to expectations regarding the completion of the QT (including all required approvals), the SPARQ Private Placement, the proposed name of the Resulting Issuer, and other statements that are not historical facts. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or other future events, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors and risks include, among others: (a) that there is no assurance that the parties hereto will obtain the requisite director, shareholder and regulatory approvals for the QT; (b) there is no assurance that the SPARQ Private Placement will be completed or as to the actual offering price or gross proceeds to be raised in connection with the SPARQ Private Placement; (c) following completion of the QT, the Resulting Issuer may require additional financing from time to time in order to continue its operations which may not be available when needed or on acceptable terms and conditions acceptable; (d) domestic and foreign laws and regulations could adversely affect the Resulting Issuer's business and results of operations; (e) a drop in retail pricing of electricity from utilities providers or other renewable energy sources or improved distribution of electricity could negatively impact the Resulting Issuer's business; (f) the stock markets have experienced volatility that often has been unrelated to the performance of companies and these fluctuations may adversely affect the price of the Resulting Issuer's securities, regardless of its operating performance; and (g) the impacts of COVID-19.

The forward-looking information contained in this news release represents the expectations of MJ as of the date of this news release and, accordingly, is subject to change after such date. Readers should not place undue importance on forward-looking information and should not rely upon this information as of any other date. MJ undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change.

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities in the United States. MJ's securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act") or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to U.S. Persons unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption from such registration is available.

The MJ Shares will remain halted until such time as permission to resume trading has been obtained from the TSXV. MJ is a reporting issuer in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia.

Completion of the QT is subject to a number of conditions, including but not limited to, TSXV acceptance. Where applicable, the QT cannot close until the required shareholder approval is obtained. There can be no assurance that the QT will be completed as proposed or at all.

Investors are cautioned that, except as disclosed in the Filing Statement to be prepared in connection with the QT, any information released or received with respect to the QT may not be accurate or complete and should not be relied upon. Trading in the securities of a capital pool company should be considered highly speculative.

The TSX Venture Exchange Inc. has in no way passed upon the merits of the QT and has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release.

NOT FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES OR THROUGH U.S. NEWS WIRES

For more information, please contact:

MJ Innovation Capital Corp.

Bryan Van Engelen

Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer and Director

Telephone: 226.750.9914

SPARQ Systems Inc.

Dr. Praveen Jain

Chief Executive Officer

Email: pjain@sparqsys.com

Tel: 343.477.1158

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/96507
Fredericton, New Brunswick--(Newsfile Corp. - September 15, 2021) - TRU Precious Metals Corp. (TSXV: TRU) (OTCQB: TRUIF) (FSE: 706) ("TRU" or the "Company") is pleased to announce additional assays from its 12-hole, Phase 1 diamond drilling program at its 100%-owned Twilite Gold Project in the Central Newfoundland Gold Belt ("Twilite Gold'). The Company is also providing an update on drilling preparations at its flagship Golden Rose Project ("Golden Rose"), also in the Central Newfoundland Gold Belt located along the deposit-bearing Cape Ray - Valentine Lake Shear Zone.

Highlights from the latest batch of Twilite Gold drill results (Tables 1 and 2) include:

6.00 metres (m) grading 1.06 grams per ton (g/t) gold (Au) in drill hole TL-21-18.

3.00m grading 0.85 g/t Au in drill hole TL-21-20.

Robust shear zone hosted quartz breccia system remains open along strike in all directions.

Barry Greene, VP of Property Development and Director of TRU, commented: "The strength of the alteration, brecciation and mineralization remains intact as the gold system is continuing to the southeast. As is common, structural complexities play a part in the distribution of gold as the gold zone is deeper than expected. We are working to determine if this is an offset or part of a separate zone."

Table 1. Uncut Assay Highlights

Hole No. From (m) To (m) Interval (m) Au (g/t) Zone TL21-18* 191.00 197.00 6.00 1.06 Fort Knox TL21-20 97.32 98.00 0.68 0.33 And 225.00 228.00 3.00 0.85 And 299.00 301.00 2.00 0.53

* Results based on partial recovery from a fault zone.





Figure 1. Plan Map of Twilite Gold Drilling

To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit:

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Figure 2. Cross Section of Twilite Gold Drilling

To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit:

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Table 2. Collar Details for TL-21-18 to TL-21-21

Hole No. Azimuth () Dip () Length (m) UTM E UTM N TL21-18 239.9 -65.9 224 589850 5408773 TL21-19* 241.0 -46.8 47 589914 5408700 TL21-20 238.4 -66.0 362 589936 5408680 TL21-21* 237.6 -46.4 122 589936 5408680

* Abandoned prematurely due to bad ground conditions.

TRU Co-Founder and CEO Joel Freudman added: "We are pleased that we continue to encounter gold mineralization in the results from our recently-completed inaugural drill program, and we look forward to the remaining results, which will guide future drilling at Twilite Gold. I am even more excited about our imminent 5,000-metre diamond drill program at our flagship Golden Rose Project - with permitting now in hand, drilling will soon be a reality. Over the past 4 months, our team has worked ardently in preparation. Golden Rose represents a unique opportunity for TRU for numerous reasons, with the key drivers being that it is well-situated both geologically and geographically, sandwiched between two neighbours with significant known gold deposits."

Golden Rose Drilling Preparations

At Golden Rose, drill permitting is now in place and a drill contract has been awarded to Logan Drilling Limited for a planned 5,000m diamond drilling campaign, scheduled to begin in early to mid-October. The Company is working closely with GoldSpot Discoveries Corp. in laying out and targeting its drill program.

TRU's main objectives for this drill program are (1) infill drilling at the South Woods Lake Gold Zone, to better delineate the known mineralization there, and (2) exploratory drilling at the recently-optioned King George IV claims in hopes of making a new discovery there, following the Company's discovery of visible gold grains on such claims this summer, as previously announced on July 14, 2021.

As additional preparatory steps, the Company recently completed a 1,568 line-kilometer airborne magnetic gradiometer survey over select portions of Golden Rose, including the King George IV claims. The Company is also preparing for an IP/Resistivity survey at the King George IV claims.

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 website at https://www.resurgentcapital.ca/

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 Golden Rose. These statements are based on numerous assumptions regarding Twilite Gold and Golden Rose, 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 and/or Golden Rose; the exploration potential of Twilite Gold and/or Golden Rose and the nature and style of mineralization at such properties; 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/96577
 Shareholders with questions or require assistance with voting should call Laurel Hill Advisory Group at 1-877-452-7184 or by email at assistance@laurelhill.com

Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 15, 2021) - Eric Finlayson, Interim President and Chief Executive Officer of Kaizen Discovery Inc. (TSXV: KZD) ("Kaizen" or the "Company") , is pleased to announce that two leading independent proxy advisory firms, Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. ("ISS") and Glass Lewis & Co. ("Glass Lewis"), have provided their respective voting recommendations to shareholders at the Company's upcoming Annual General Meeting of shareholders (the "Meeting") to be held on Monday, September 27, 2021 at 11:00 am (Pacific Time).

Both ISS and Glass Lewis were supportive in their recommendations on Kaizen's Meeting resolutions, with the exception of Glass Lewis who recommended shareholders vote against the resolution to approve the long-term incentive plan. However, ISS has recommended in favor of the long-term incentive plan.

Meeting Matters

The Meeting will be held as a physical and virtual hybrid meeting:

Physical Attendance:

Pan Pacific Vancouver, Pacific Rim Suite 1

300-999 Canada Place, Vancouver, British Columbia V6C 3B5

Virtual Attendance:

https://78449.themediaframe.com/dataconf/productusers/kdc/mediaframe/46340/index.html

Participant / Guest (Toll-Free): 1-877-407-2991

or

1-201-389-0925 (Toll Number)

Meeting #14

To ensure a smooth functioning Meeting and in light of the ongoing public health concerns related to COVID-19 and the challenges and uncertainties that it brings, we kindly ask shareholders planning to attend the Meeting at the physical address above to notify the Company's Corporate Secretary at Suite 606-999 Canada Place, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V6C 3E1, or by calling toll-free within North America at 1-888-571-4545 or direct, from outside of North America at +1-604-669-6446 (not a toll-free number) or by email at info@kaizendiscovery.com.

YOUR VOTE IS IMPORTANT - PLEASE VOTE

The Company recommends that shareholders vote FOR all resolutions.

Kaizen shareholders who have questions or require assistance with voting can contact our proxy solicitation agent, Laurel Hill Advisory Group at 1-877-452-7184 or by email at assistance@laurelhill.com.

We strongly encourage your participation in the Meeting this year. It is an exciting time for the Company, as we are undertaking a corporate reorganization that we believe will act as a catalyst for a new period of growth and development of our business and for our shareholders. The reorganization involves several separate steps, including a conversion of outstanding debt to common shares that will clean-up our balance sheet; a $7.5 million rights offering, fully supported by a stand-by commitment, that raises new capital for the development of our business; the addition of new independent directors to build out the expertise of our board and for corporate governance purposes, and finally, a share consolidation that will establish an appropriate issued common share capital for the Company. Upon completion, the reorganization will result in the Company being well-capitalized, debt-free and efficiently structured to advance our mineral projects and to drive value for our shareholders.

Kaizen encourages all shareholders to read the Meeting materials available on the Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com and the Company's website at www.kaizendiscovery.com.

Shareholder Information and Questions

Kaizen shareholders who have questions about the Meeting materials or require assistance with voting their shares can contact our proxy solicitation agent, Laurel Hill Advisory Group:

Laurel Hill Advisory Group

North America Toll Free: 1-877-452-7184

Calls Outside North America: 416-304-0211

Email: assistance@laurelhill.com

About Kaizen

Kaizen is a Canadian mineral exploration and development company with exploration projects in Peru and Canada. More information on Kaizen is available at www.kaizendiscovery.com

ON BEHALF OF THE COMPANY

Eric Finlayson, Interim President and Chief Executive Officer

Information contact

Ran Li +1-604-689-8765

info@kaizendiscovery.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.

Forward-looking statements

This news release includes "forward-looking statements" and "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. All statements included in this news release, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements including, without limitation, statements with respect to the reorganization; rights offering; voting recommendations; and the Meeting and approval of matters thereat. Forward-looking statements include predictions, projections and forecasts and are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "estimate", "expect", "potential", "target", "budget" and "intend" and statements that an event or result "may", "will", "should", "could" or "might" occur or be achieved and other similar expressions and includes the negatives thereof.

Forward-looking statements are based on a number of assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by management based on the business and markets in which the Company operates, are inherently subject to significant operational, economic, and competitive uncertainties, risks and contingencies. These include assumptions regarding, among other things: the receipt of all necessary regulatory, stock exchange and third party approvals in respect of the reorganization and the rights offering; the voting recommendations of ISS and Glass Lewis; the intended benefits of the reorganization; and the closing of the rights offering. In addition, forward-looking statements are also based upon assumptions about general business and economic conditions; the availability of additional exploration and mineral project financing; the supply and demand for, inventories of, and the level and volatility of the prices of metals; the timing and receipt of governmental permits and approvals; the timing and receipt of community and landowner approvals; changes in regulations; political factors; the accuracy of the Company's interpretation of drill results; the geology, grade and continuity of the Company's mineral deposits; the availability of equipment, skilled labour and services needed for the exploration and development of mineral properties; and currency fluctuations. There can be no assurance that forward-looking 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 the Company's expectations include actual exploration results, interpretation of metallurgical characteristics of the mineralization, changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined, future metal prices, availability of capital and financing on acceptable terms, general economic, market or business conditions, uninsured risks, regulatory changes, delays or inability to receive required approvals, unknown impact related to potential business disruptions stemming from the COVID-19 outbreak, or another infectious illness, and other exploration or other risks detailed herein and from time to time in the filings made by the Company with securities regulators, including those described under the heading "Risks and Uncertainties" in the Company's most recently filed MD&A. The Company does not undertake to update or revise any forward-looking statements, except in accordance with applicable law.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/96590
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / September 15, 2021 / Viva Gold Corp. (TSX-V:VAU)(OTCQB:VAUCF) (the "Company" or "Viva") is pleased to announce strongly positive results on the first hole of its 2021 reverse circulation ("RC") drill program announced on July 12, 2021.

Tonopah Project

Drill Results Hole TG 2101 Hole Azimuth Dip From To Length Gold Grade Silver Grade Meter Meter Meter Gram/Tonne Gram/Tonne TG 2101 110 -60 0.0 204.0 25.9 29.0 3.0 0.25 10.90 125.0 147.8 22.9 1.53 8.34 including 125.0 137.2 12.2 2.69 9.41 which includes 125.0 129.5 4.6 6.16 6.83

Hole TG 2101 was drilled as a 90-meters step-out to extend a new zone of mineralization intercepted in drill hole TG 2004 (announced on October 14, 2020). TG 2004 was collared on the east side of the regional Rye Patch fault, and cumulatively intercepted 36.1 meters at 0.76 grams per ton. Previously, it was thought that mineralization did not occur on the east side of the Rye Patch fault, but these two recent holes prove that mineralization may extend significantly further east, opening up very fertile untested potential. Both TG 2101 and TG 2004 fall on the centerline strike of a mineral trend originating in the Midway Hills section of the property in the west and extending three-kilometers through the declared resource pit area to the east. Gold mineralization encountered in TG 2101 was found in lower Tertiary volcanics, and unmineralized Palmetto argillite was intercepted at a shallower depth than anticipated.

Review of existing drilling in light of the results of holes TG 2101 and TG 2004 highlights drill-hole MW 305, which also falls on the same trend line, a reconnaissance hole drilled by Newmont in 2004. MW 305, was collared 355-meters further to the east-south-east from TG 2101 and encountered 7.6 meters at an average of 0.47 g/t gold in Tertiary volcanics. The combination of results from existing resource trends, TG 2004, TG 2101 and MW 305, plausibly points to the potential for up to 500-meters of additional mineralization along this trend.

"We are extremely pleased with these results as they represent the confirmation of a major open extension to the Tonopah resource. The high-grade results seen in TG 2101 clearly point to the potential for additional high-grade zones at Tonopah and, when analyzed in relation to prior drilling, this results and also points to the potential to add significant gold ounces along the major linear trend of the deposit from Midway Hills to MW 305. The high-grade mineralized zone encountered in TG 2101 was intercepted at a relatively shallow true-depth of 62-meters indicating the potential to further extend potentially open-pit minable mineralization in an east-south-east direction. Mineralization in this direction also appears to be carrying higher silver grades. Viva is developing plans for additional step-out and in-fill drilling to further prove this extension as drill rigs and crews become available." states James Hesketh, President & CEO.

As a result of these findings, Viva has commenced additional geostatistical and geologic model review of the Tonopah deposit with Gustavson Associates LLC, a member of WSP, in Lakewood, Colorado. Assays for hole TG 2101 were expedited and Viva is still waiting on additional assays for two infill holes drilled in this short program.

James Hesketh, MMSA-QP, has approved the scientific and technical disclosure contained in this press release. Mr. Hesketh is not independent of the Company; he is an Officer and Director.

About Viva Gold Corp:

Viva Gold is a gold exploration and project development company with a focus on Nevada. Viva holds 100% of the advanced Tonopah Gold Project, a large land position of approximately 8,800 acres with demonstrated high-grade measured, indicated and inferred gold resources, located on the prolific Walker Lane gold trend in Nevada, about 30 kilometers south-east of the Round Mountain mine of Kinross Gold and 20 kilometers north from the Town of Tonopah. Viva's management team has extensive experience in mineral exploration, mine development and production and are supported by a Board of Directors and advisors who are proven mine finders, deal makers and financiers. Viva trades on the TSX-V as "VAU", on the OTCQB in the US as "VAUCF" and on the Frankfurt exchange under "7PB". For additional information on Viva Gold and the Tonopah Gold Project, please visit our website: www.vivagoldcorp.com.

For further information please contact:

James Hesketh, President & CEO

(720) 291-1775

jhesketh@vivagoldcorp.com

Valerie Kimball, Director Investor Relations

(720) 933-1150

vkimball@vivagoldcorp.com

Renmark Financial Communications Inc.

Daniel Gordon: dgordon@renmarkfinancial.com

Tel: (416) 644-2020 or (212) 812-7680

www.renmarkfinancial.com

Forward-Looking Information:

This news release contains certain information that may constitute forward-looking information or forward-looking statements under applicable Canadian securities legislation (collectively, "forward-looking information"), including but not limited to drilling operations and estimates of gold mineral resource at the Tonopah Gold Project. This forward-looking information entails various risks and uncertainties that are based on current expectations, and actual results may differ materially from those contained in such information. These uncertainties and risks include, but are not limited to, the strength of the global economy; the price of gold; operational, funding and liquidity risks; the potential for achieving targeted drill results, the degree to which mineral resource estimates are reflective of actual mineral resources; the degree to which factors which would make a mineral deposit commercially viable are present; the risks and hazards associated with drilling and mining operations; and the ability of Viva to fund its capital requirements. Risks and uncertainties about the Company's business are more fully discussed in the Company's disclosure materials filed with the securities regulatory authorities in Canada available at www.sedar.com. Readers are urged to read these materials. Viva assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking information or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from such information unless required by law.

Cautionary Note to U.S. Investors - The United States Securities and Exchange Commission permits U.S. mining companies, in their filings with the SEC, to disclose only those mineral deposits that a company can economically and legally extract or produce. We use certain terms in this report, such as "measured," "indicated," "inferred," and "resources," that the SEC guidelines strictly prohibit U.S. registered companies from including in their filings with the SEC.

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.

SOURCE: Viva Gold Corp.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/664155/Viva-Gold-Drills-229-Meters-at-15-gt-Including-46-Meters-at-62-gt-on-a-Significant-Step-Out-Drill-Hole-at-its-Tonopah-Gold-Project-in-Nevada
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / September 15, 2021 / Wedgemount Resources Corp. (CSE:WDGY) ("Wedgemount" or the "Company"), is pleased to announce that it has commenced its 2021 field exploration program at the Company's Friendly Lake copper-gold property ("Friendly" or the "Project") in south-central British Columbia. Friendly becomes Wedgemount's third copper focused exploration program of the 2021 exploration season.

Mark Vanry, President and CEO of Wedgemount commented, "We are excited to commence our first exploration program at the Friendly copper-gold project. The mobilization marks our third exploration program of what has been an extremely busy 2021 season for the Company. The program will be the first significant exploration on the project since 2004 and will include mapping, sampling and IP geophysics with the goal of defining priority drill targets. Friendly's location in southern B.C. allows for a longer and lower cost exploration season. Access and logistics for the Project are excellent with a multitude of logging roads, ATV trails and lodges in the area."

Friendly Property

The year-round, road accessible, 13,000-hectare Friendly property is approximately 100 kilometers north of Kamloops, a community with a rich mining and development history. New Gold Inc.'s New Afton copper-gold mine is 100 kilometers to the south of Friendly and Imperial Metals Corporation's Mount Polly copper-gold mine is 130 kilometers to the northwest. Previous exploration on the Project, dating back to the 1960's, has included geological mapping, extensive soil and rock-chip sampling, trenching, geochemical surveys and ground-based geophysics, however, only limited shallow drilling.

The Project is underlain by arc-related volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks of the Quesnel Terrane (Nicola Group) cut by Triassic-Jurassic intrusions varying from syenite to diorite with associated porphyry and skarn-related copper and gold mineralization. The Project comprises two key target areas; Friendly Lake and Deer Lake.

The BOGG occurrence, central to the Friendly Lake target, comprises local zones of chalcopyrite-bornite cemented magmatic breccias associated with the margins of a northwest-elongated monzodiorite to syenite intrusive complex (Friendly Lake complex). A grab sample from the BOGG occurrence by the B.C. Geological Survey yielded 3.4% copper (Schiarizza and Israel, 2001). The BOGG occurrence forms the northwest extent of an approximately 7 kilometer northwest-trending corridor of widespread copper and multi-element soil geochemical anomalies locally coincident with complex IP (induced polarization) chargeability anomalies defined by previous surveys. Based on a preliminary compilation of historic drill data, only six drill holes with depths greater than 200 meters have tested for porphyry-related copper and gold mineralization along this prospective 7 kilometer corridor.

The Deer Lake target comprises numerous magnetite-chalcopyrite skarn occurrences (e.g., Lakeview) associated with the Deer Lake diorite. Historic work has defined multiple poorly tested, multi-element soil and rock geochemical and coincident geophysical anomalies (Gruenwald, 2010) considered high priority areas for detailed investigation.

Program Details

The 2021 field program will consist of prospecting, geological mapping and geochemical sampling to be conducted over a 2-week period. It is anticipated there will be a number of rock samples, soil samples, and alteration chip samples taken with the primary purpose to gain an understanding of the mineralization on the property. Field work will include inspection of known areas of mineralization to further define their type, size, and potential; resample historic sample locations to validate historic assay data; locate, inspect, and ground truth previous IP anomalies, and inspect access roads, stream locations, and laydown areas for a planned IP survey and potential fall drill program. The main focus will be the northwest trending linear corridor between the RO and BOGG showings on the Friendly Lake target area where approximately 45 line kilometres of IP is planned subsequent to the completion of the field program. Approximately 20 line kilometres of IP is planned for the secondary target area at Deer Lake; centered on a large diorite intrusive with peripheral skarn-related copper showings.

Data Verification and National Instrument 43-101 Disclosure

Some data disclosed in this news release relating to sampling and drilling results are historical in nature. Neither the Company nor a Qualified Person, as defined by National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101"),have verified the data, and, therefore, investors should not place undue reliance on such data. In some cases, the data may be unverifiable due to lack of drill core. Mineralization hosted on adjacent and/or nearby and/or geologically similar properties is not necessarily indicative of mineralization hosted on the Company's Project. The technical information disclosed in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Ken Macdonald, P.Geo., a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101.

References

Gruenwald, W., 2010, Diamond drilling assessment report on the Deer Lake Property Little Fort, British Columbia, Assessment Report 31299, Assessment Report Indexing System, aris.empr.gov.bc.ca, 62 p.

Schiarizza, P., and Israel, S., 2001, Geology and mineral occurrences of the Nehalliston Plateau, south-central British Columbia (92P/7, 8, 9, 10), Ministry of Energy and Mines, Paper 2001-1, pp. 1-30.

About Wedgemount Resources Corp.

Wedgemount Resources is a junior mineral exploration company focused on maximizing shareholder value through the acquisition, discovery and advancement of high-quality copper-gold projects in North America.

On behalf of the Board of Directors,

WEDGEMOUNT RESOURCES CORP.

Mark Vanry, President and CEO

For more information, please contact the Company at:

Telephone: (604) 343-4743

info@wedgemountresources.com

www.wedgemountresources.com

Reader Advisory

This news release may contain statements which constitute "forward-looking information", including statements regarding the plans, intentions, beliefs and current expectations of the Company, its directors, or its officers with respect to the future business activities of the Company. The words "may", "would", "could", "will", "intend", "plan", "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect" and similar expressions, as they relate to the Company, or its management, are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements made in this news release include the Company's plans for exploration of the property and anticipated exploration results. Investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future business activities and involve risks and uncertainties, and that the Company's future business activities may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including, but not limited to, availability of funds, personnel and other resources necessary to conduct exploration programs, successes of the Company's exploration programs, availability of capital and financing and general economic, market or business conditions. There can be no assurances that such information will prove accurate and, therefore, readers are advised to rely on their own evaluation of such uncertainties. The Company does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking information except as required under the applicable securities laws.

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE: Wedgemount Resources Corp.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/664161/Wedgemount-Commences-Exploration-Program-at-the-Friendly-Copper-Gold-Project-in-South-Central-British-Columbia
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / September 15, 2021 / Interra Copper Corp. (CSE:IMCX)(OTCQB:IMIMF)(FRA:3MX) ("Interra" or the "Company") is pleased to announce it has completed and filed a technical Report, a N.I. 43-101 compliant report on it's primary asset - the 206 square kilometer Thane Property in North Central B.C.

The Company has filed a current independent National Instrument 43-101 compliant technical report entitled "Technical Report on the Thane Copper-Gold Project, Omineca Mining Division, British Columbia, Canada" (the "Technical Report") with an effective date of July 12, 2021, prior to this summer's drill program. The Technical Report outlines the history of exploration and work completed on the 206 square kilometre project over the past decades, as early as the 1940's, as well as subsequent geophysical and geochemistry work and sampling completed by Interra Copper (and Thane Minerals Inc., acquired by the Company in March 2020.)

See Sedar website: https://www.sedar.com/DisplayCompanyDocuments.do?lang=EN&issuerNo=00047101 ).

Interra Copper is sitting in a strong cash position, largely from the previously announced CDN $2.7 M financing that was completed earlier this year in Q2 2021.

The summer program expenditures have been on budget. The Company eagerly awaits assay results on cores from the diamond drill program as well as further soils and chip sampling.

Interra also announces management has decided not to pursue further work on the Bullard Pass project in Arizona, in order to focus 100% efforts and company resources on the Thane Project, effective September 1st, 2021.

ON BEHALF OF INTERRA COPPER CORP.

Jason Nickel, P.Eng.

Chief Executive Officer

Telephone: +1-604-754-7986

Email: ceo@interracopper.com

INVESTOR RELATIONS:

Email: invest@interracopper.com

Telephone: +1-604-588-2110

Website: https://interracopper.com

ABOUT INTERRA COPPER CORP.

Interra is a junior exploration and development company focused on creating shareholder value through the advancements of its current assets that include the Thane Property in north-central British Columbia. Utilizing its heavily experienced management team, Interra continues to source and evaluate assets to further generate shareholder value.

The Thane Property covers approximately 206 km2 (50,904 acres) and is located in the Quesnel Terrane geological belt of north-central British Columbia, midway between the previously-operated open pit Kemess Mine and the current open pit Mount Milligan mine, both two copper-gold porphyry deposits. The Thane Property includes several highly prospective mineralized areas identified to date, including the 'Cathedral Area' on which the Company's exploration is currently focused.

Forward-Looking Statements: This news release contains certain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation, relating to further exploration on the Company's Thane Property, the submission of core samples and receipt of assays thereof. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts; they are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects," "plans," "anticipates," "believes," "intends," "estimates," "projects," "aims," "potential," "goal," "objective," "prospective," and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will," "would," "may," "can," "could" or "should" occur, or are those statements, which, by their nature, refer to future events. The Company cautions that forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made, and they involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Consequently, there can be no assurances that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Except to the extent required by applicable securities laws and the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements if management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change. Factors that could cause future results to differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements include risks associated with mineral exploration operations, the risk that the Company will encounter unanticipated geological factors, the possibility that the Company may not be able to secure permitting and other governmental clearances necessary to carry out the Company's exploration plans, the risk that the Company will not be able to raise sufficient funds to carry out its business plans, and the risk of regulatory or legal changes that might interfere with the Company's business and prospects. The reader is urged to refer to the Company's reports, publicly available through the Canadian Securities Administrators' System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval (SEDAR) at www.sedar.com for a more complete discussion of such risk factors and their potential effects.

SOURCE: Interra Copper Corp.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/664154/Interra-Copper-Files-43-101-for-Thane-Copper-Gold-Project
Following the collaboration debut, the license agreement is the natural next step in the partnership

MIDDLEBURY, Conn., Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --?Timex Group, a global leader in watchmaking for over 165 years, today announces?a strategic new license agreement with?Judith Leiber Couture, a global luxury brand.

The partnership will begin September 15, 2021 with the introduction of two limited-edition watch designs, the T80 digital and Q analog. With the bold, artful and fashion-forward touch of Judith Leiber, the styles will be limited to 200 units each and feature over 900 hundred Swarovski crystals on the watch cases, dials and bracelets in playful color combinations that could only come from such a distinctive designer.

"We are?proud to reinforce our partnership with Authentic Brands Group and to add a brand that is a true cultural icon in the fashion world," notes Tobias Reiss-Schmidt, CEO of Timex Group. "We look forward to combining our expertise in luxury watchmaking with the disruptive, pop-culture inspired designs that the Judith Leiber brand is so renowned for."

As part of this new partnership, Timex Group's creative designer Giorgio Galli has teamed up with Judith Leiber's creative director Dee Ocleppo Hilfiger to maintain the essence of the Judith Leiber brand while ensuring the watches and collections reflect the colorful aesthetic and contemporary luxury styling of the brand.

"We're so excited to design and release a collection with Timex. Watches are timeless, functional and the ultimate style accessory," said Dee Ocleppo Hilfiger. "Each watch has been transformed into wearable art through the impeccable craftsmanship, bold colors and iconic designs our audience loves and expects from Judith Leiber Couture."

Under this license agreement, Timex Group will be responsible for the production and worldwide distribution of Judith Leiber and Judith Leiber Couture-branded watches beginning in Spring 2022 at Judith Leiber boutiques, select authorized retailers and online.

More information on the collaboration can be found HERE.

###

About Timex Group ??

Timex Group designs, manufactures and markets innovative timepieces around the world. Timex Group is a privately-held company headquartered in Middlebury, Connecticut with multiple operating units and over 3,000 employees worldwide. As one of the largest watch makers in the world, Timex Group companies produce watches under a number of well-known brands, including Timex, adidas, Furla, Gc, Guess, Judith Leiber, Missoni, Nautica, Salvatore Ferragamo, Ted Baker, Versace and Versus.

Join Timex on social media: @timex

For more information, please visit http://timexgroup.com .

About Judith Leiber

Judith Leiber is a name synonymous with elegance, style and sophistication. For more than fifty years, Judith Leiber's incomparable evening bags and crystal minaudieres have been recognized worldwide for their meticulous attention to detail, flawless hand-craftsmanship and whimsical designs. Under the creative direction of Dee Ocleppo Hilfiger, the brand's co-owner, collaborator and global brand ambassador Judith Leiber, has expanded its global footprint and re-launched Judith Leiber jewelry. Judith Leiber is available in 105 points of sale across North America, Europe and the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

For more information, visit https://judithleiber.com/.

Follow Judith Leiber on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

About Authentic Brands Group

For more information, visit authenticbrands.com.

Follow ABG on Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.

Press Contacts

Timex

Katie.Condon@zenogroup.com?|?TimexPR@zenogroup.com?

Authentic Brands Group, Owner of Judith Leiber

Scarlet Manzueta |?smanzueta@abg-nyc.com

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1624454/Timex_JL_Co_Lab.jpg

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1624456/Timex_JL_Logo.jpg
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Brazil's GOL Linhas Aereas Inteligentes S.A. (GOL) agreed to expand its commercial cooperation with American Airlines Group Inc. (AAL) through a codeshare agreement for the next three years. As part of the Agreement, GOL will receive an equity investment of US$200 million from American Airlines. GOL's network services 63 destinations in Brazil as well as 140 international through codeshare agreements. The company recently confirmed that Cancun (Mexico) and Punta Cana (Dominican Republic) will be its first international routes to reopen since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. GOL will begin to operate flights on those routes by mid-November 2021. American will invest US$200 million in 22.2 million newly issued preferred shares of GOL in a capital increase, for a 5.2% participation in the Company's economic interest at a price of US$9.00 per preferred share. 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.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 15, 2021) - Oculus VisionTech Inc. (TSXV: OVT) (OTCQB: OVTZ) (FSE: USF1), an emerging data compliance innovator, through its brand, ComplyTrust, today announced the latest v1.1.0 release of the "Forget-Me-Yes" (FMY) data privacy solution. This is the first software release update in the scheduled product road map. This allows the ComplyTrust, team to market and sell the "Forget-Me-Yes" software as a service to a broader customer base.

This latest software release now incorporates the ability to connect and query multiple database data/metadata connections simultaneously, optimizing infrastructure and IT budget utilization costs and resources, while providing automated data privacy compliance.

"Forget-Me-Yes" (FMY) is ComplyTrust's Software-as-a-Service application for organizational Data Subject Access Request (DSAR) Right-to-be-Forgotten (RtbF) and Right-of-Erase (RoE) data privacy compliance. The Forget-Me-Yes" secure Zero-Knowledge platform provides single-source capability of continuous compliance by incorporating automated policy-driven re-query services that guarantees a Data Subject's requested RtbF/RoE data remains 'forgotten' over the life of their FMY subscription.

"We are pleased to announce that FMY now incorporates a multi-connector query feature," said Michael Johnson, co-founder at ComplyTrust. "Enterprise organizations can now cost-effectively streamline DSAR processing with a single request query across all their organizational databases and metadata simultaneously, saving both time and money."

Running within the global AWS cloud infrastructure, FMY provides a cost-effective, elastic, resilient, scalable and secure platform for CCPA/CPRA (California), CDPA (Virginia), CPA (Colorado), GDPR (Europe), LGPD (Brazil) and PIPL (China) data subject privacy compliance management. FMY's cloud-native microservice architecture, is available on a monthly subscription-basis for cost-effective, automated DSAR structured data query processing across multiple organizational databases.

"The Forget-Me-Yes data privacy platform has helped us internally to streamline the DSAR process workflow, as data privacy compliance continues to become a more prevalent and prominent factor in protecting and maintaining our Salesforce client data," said Rowland Perkins, CEO at Oculus.

For more information and to request a Forget-Me-Yes demonstration, please visit https://www.complytrust.com today.

About Oculus VisionTech

Oculus VisionTech Inc. (OVT), www.ovtz.com, is a development-stage technology company focused on cyber security and data privacy compliance solutions for Enterprise business customers. With offices in San Diego, California and Vancouver, British Columbia, the company is currently expanding its' new ComplyTrust, www.complytrust.com, product suite which includes the ComplyScanTM cloud backup reporting tool and Forget-Me-Yes B2B data privacy Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform, optimizing CCPA, CDPA, GDPR, LGPD, SB220 and other regulatory compliance legislation for Salesforce organizations worldwide. OVTZ's legacy Cloud-DPS digital content protection solution implements invisible forensic watermarking technology that seamlessly embeds imperceptible tracking components into documents and video-frame content that enables tamper-proof legal auditability for intellectual property protection.

Learn more about Oculus at www.ovtz.com or follow us on Twitter (https://twitter.com/OculusVT) or Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Oculus VisionTech/ )

About ComplyTrust

ComplyTrust Inc. https://complytrust.com/, a 100% wholly-owned subsidiary of Oculus VisionTech, is specifically focused on providing enterprise organizations and individuals with secure data privacy tools that provide sustained and continuous global regulatory compliance of data subject rights. Headquartered in San Diego, California, ComplyTrust was founded by industry veteran storage technology experts and is operated by an experienced management team.

Learn more about ComplyTrust at https://complytrust.com/.

For further information, contact:

Anton Drescher

Telephone: (604) 685-1017

Fax: (604) 685-5777

Website: http://ovtz.com/

TSXV: https://money.tmx.com/en/quote/OVT/companyprofile-section-company-spoke

US OTC Markets (OTCQB): https://www.otcmarkets.com/stock/OVTZ/security

Berlin Borse: https://www.boerse-berlin.com/index.php/Shares?isin=US67575Y1091

Frankfurt Borse: https://www.boerse-frankfurt.de/equity/oculus-visiontech

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 contains forward-looking statements and information within the meaning of applicable securities laws (collectively, "forward-looking statements"), including the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements in this news release which are not purely historical are forward-looking statements and include any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future. Such forward-looking statements include, among others, statements as to the intended uses of the proceeds received from the Offering. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by words such as "pro forma", "plans", "expects", "may", "should", "budget", "schedules", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", "believes", "potential" or variations of such words including negative variations thereof and phrases that refer to certain actions, events or results that may, could, would, might or will occur or be taken or achieved. Actual results could differ from those projected in any forward-looking statements due to numerous factors including risks and uncertainties relating to, among others, the change of business focus of the management of Oculus, the inability of Oculus to pursue its current business objectives, the ability of the Company to obtain any required governmental, regulatory or stock exchange approvals, permits, consents or authorizations required, including TSXV final acceptance of the Offering and any planned future activities, and obtain the financing required to carry out its planned future activities. Other factors such as general economic, market or business conditions or changes in laws, regulations and policies affecting the Company's industry, may also adversely affect the future results or performance of the Company. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release and Oculus assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those projected in these forward-looking statements. Although Oculus believes that the beliefs, plans, expectations and intentions contained in this news release are reasonable, there can be no assurance those beliefs, plans, expectations, or intentions will prove to be accurate.

Investors should consider all of the information set forth herein and should also refer to the risk factors disclosed in Oculus' periodic reports filed from time-to-time with the United States Securities Exchange Commission and Canadian securities regulators. These reports and Oculus' public filings are available at www.sec.gov in the United States and www.sedar.com in Canada.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/96535
Val-d'Or, Quebec--(Newsfile Corp. - September 15, 2021) - Abitibi Royalties Inc. (TSXV: RZZ) (OTCQX: ATBYF) "Abitibi Royalties" or the "Company") announces that the Company's monthly dividend payment of CDN$0.015 per common share for October 2021 will be paid as follows:

Record Date Payment Date Payment Amount ($CDN) October 4, 2021 October 29, 2021 $0.015

The October 2021 payment will represent the 21st dividend payment made to shareholders since the Company's adoption of a dividend policy in September 2019. The full amount of the dividend will be designated as an "eligible dividend" as defined in the Income Tax Act (Canada).

About Abitibi Royalties

Abitibi Royalties owns various royalties at the Canadian Malartic Mine near Val-d'Or Quebec. In addition, the Company is building a portfolio of royalties on early stage properties near producing mines. The Company is unique among its peers due to its strong treasury, no debt, monthly dividend, share buyback program and limited number of shares.

For additional information, please contact:

Shanda Kilborn - Director, Corporate Development

2864 chemin Sullivan

Val-d'Or, Quebec J9P 0B9

Tel.: 1-888-392-3857

Email: info@abitibiroyalties.com

Forward-Looking Statements:

This news release contains certain statements that may be deemed "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 or realities may differ materially from those in 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 law, 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 TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/96545


WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - A Republican effort to remove California Governor Gavin Newsom from office failed after the majority of voters in the state voted 'No' in the election to recall the Democratic leader, according to projections by US media.



While more than 65 percent of the voters voted against removing him from office in the high turnout in Tuesday's election, only around 34 percent were in favor of the recall, reports said.



The big support that he received in the special recall election means Newsom, who was elected in 2018 by a landslide majority, can complete his term that ends in January 2023.



'I'm humbled and grateful to the millions and millions of Californians that exercised their fundamental right to vote,' Newsom said in a victory speech Tuesday night. 'Economic justice, social justice, racial justice, environmental justice, our values where California has made so much progress, all of those things were on the ballot this evening,' he told supporters in the state capital of Sacramento.



'We said yes to science. We said yes to vaccines. We said yes to ending this pandemic. We said yes to people's right to vote without fear of fake fraud or voter suppression. We said yes to women's fundamental, constitutional right to decide for herself what she does with her body and her fate and future,' he said at a press conference late Tuesday.



Newsom's record on multiple issues, including his handling of the pandemic, was in question in the recall campaign launched by conservative Californians in 2020.



President Joe Biden campaigned strongly for Newsom until the last minute. Speaking at a Get Out the Vote Event with the Governor at Long Beach City College in Long Beach, Biden tore down the leading Republican challenger Larry Elder. He called Elder, who was a supporter of former President Donald Trump, 'the closest thing to a Trump clone.'



He said that by voting 'no' on a recall, 'we'll be protecting California from Trump Republicans trying to block us from beating this pandemic.'



Newsom's survival is seen as a boost to the Democrats going into the 2022 midterm elections in the blue state.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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- Bicameral legislation in U.S. House and Senate designed to address equity issues in patient access and affordability for innovative diagnostic radiopharmaceuticals -

Blue Earth Diagnostics, a Bracco company and recognized leader in the development and commercialization of innovative PET radiopharmaceuticals, today announced its support of legislation recently introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. The bicameral, bipartisan bill, known as the "Facilitating Innovative Nuclear Diagnostics Act," or the FIND Act of 2021 (H.R. 4479/S. 2609), would reform the current Medicare payment system to improve Medicare beneficiaries' access to innovative technologies and safeguard appropriate payment to hospitals for innovative diagnostic radiopharmaceuticals.

The U.S. healthcare system relies on diagnostic imaging radiopharmaceuticals and nuclear medicine to inform patient management and assess disease severity and progression across a wide variety of medical conditions. According to the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI), more than 20 million Americans benefit each year from nuclear medicine procedures1

Although diagnostic radiopharmaceuticals are appropriately defined by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as drugs, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) categorizes them as "supplies" by packaging them, after an initial three-year period, alongside nuclear medicine services, into "bundles" for procedures that are conducted in hospital outpatient settings. Bundling payment often reimburses only a fraction of the actual cost of newer diagnostic radiopharmaceuticals and impedes the scientific advancement of new products that can help patients. Procedural bundling results in hospitals not receiving appropriate payment, and patients' access to advanced diagnostic imaging radiopharmaceuticals may be restricted or denied. The FIND Act, if passed, would help give patients greater access to a wide range of advanced diagnostic radiopharmaceuticals for conditions such as prostate and breast cancers, heart disease, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, and neuroendocrine tumors.

"Blue Earth Diagnostics is the recognized leader in diagnostic PET prostate cancer imaging, and in line with our commitment to deliver innovative solutions that inform patient care, we fully support legislative passage of the FIND Act," said Terri Wilson, President, Blue Earth Diagnostics, Inc. "The FIND Act can correct CMS payment policies to provide patients with equity in access and payment, and encourage ongoing development of targeted radiopharmaceuticals that can have transformative effects in patient lives."

Further information about the FIND Act of 2021 is available at www.congress.gov (H.R.4479; S.2609).

About Blue Earth Diagnostics

Blue Earth Diagnostics, an indirect subsidiary of Bracco Imaging S.p.A., is a growing international molecular imaging company focused on delivering innovative, well-differentiated diagnostic solutions that inform patient care. Formed in 2014, the Company's success is driven by its management expertise and supported by a demonstrated track record of rapid development and commercialization of positron emission tomography (PET) radiopharmaceuticals. Blue Earth Diagnostics' expanding oncology portfolio encompasses a variety of disease states, including prostate cancer and neuro-oncology. Blue Earth Diagnostics is committed to the timely development and commercialization of precision radiopharmaceuticals for potential use in imaging and therapy. For more information, please visit: www.blueearthdiagnostics.com.

About Bracco Imaging

Bracco Imaging S.p.A., part of the Bracco Group, is a world-leading diagnostic imaging provider. Headquartered in Milan, Italy, Bracco Imaging develops, manufactures and markets diagnostic imaging agents and solutions. It offers a product and solution portfolio for all key diagnostic imaging modalities: X-ray imaging (including Computed Tomography-CT, Interventional Radiology, and Cardiac Catheterization), Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Contrast Enhanced Ultrasound (CEUS), and Nuclear Medicine through radioactive tracers and novel PET imaging agents to inform clinical management and guide care for cancer patients in areas of unmet medical need. Our continually evolving portfolio is completed by a range of medical devices, advanced administration systems and dose-management software. In 2019 Bracco Imaging also enriched its product portfolio by expanding the range of oncology nuclear imaging solutions in the urology segment and other specialties with the acquisition of Blue Earth Diagnostics. Visit: www.braccoimaging.com.

1 Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, http://www.snmmi.org/ClinicalPractice/content.aspx?ItemNumber=4825

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005068/en/

Contacts:

For Blue Earth Diagnostics (U.S.)

Priscilla Harlan

Vice President, Corporate Communications

(M) (781) 799-7917

priscilla.harlan@blueearthdx.com

For Blue Earth Diagnostics (UK)

Georgina Mowatt

Communications Manager

Tel: +44 (0) 7810 355 912

georgina.mowatt@blueearthdx.com

Media

Sam Brown Inc.

Mike Beyer

(M) (312) 961-2502

mikebeyer@sambrown.com
CBG-O-Acetate added to the Company's Specialty Molecules Division

Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 15, 2021) - Nextleaf Solutions Ltd. (CSE: OILS) (OTCQB: OILFF) ("Nextleaf", "OILS", or the "Company"), a federally regulated cannabis oil producer that owns one of the largest portfolios of U.S. patents for the extraction and distillation of cannabinoids, is pleased to announce that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has granted the Company a patent pertaining to a novel process for acetylating Cannabigerol ("CBG"), and subsequent refinement of CBG-O-Acetate.

Acetylation is an organic esterification reaction, which often utilizes acetic acid. Examples of acetylated pharmaceuticals include Aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid) and diacetylmorphine. The Company was previously granted U.S. and Canadian patents for the acetylation of both CBD and THC, and subsequent refinement of CBD-O-Acetate and THC-O-Acetate. THC-O-Acetate acts as a metabolic prodrug for THC itself, and chemically works the same way that diacetylmorphine does as a metabolic prodrug for morphine.

The Company's latest U.S. patent describes its proprietary production process of modifying CBG found in cannabis distillate into a prodrug, referred to as CBG-O-Acetate. As CBG-O-Acetate is metabolized in the body, the acetate group is removed, allowing the CBG to interact with the cannabinoid receptors.

"CBG is often referred to as the mother cannabinoid as so many other cannabinoids can be derived from its acidic form," said patent author and Nextleaf Solutions Chief Technology Officer Ryan Ko. "This issuance provides further validation for our specialty molecules development roadmap."

The Company believes the CBG-derived prodrug produced under its patented process may hold significant potential as a therapeutic product based on research that CBG may be effective in the treatment of inflammation, pain, and nausea. Peer-reviewed research also suggests that CBG in higher doses may be beneficial in treating conditions such as Crohn's disease1 and cancer2.

Nextleaf owns 16 issued U.S. patents and over 80 issued patents globally for the extraction, purification, and delivery of cannabinoids - representing the third largest patent portfolio amongst all cannabis companies after Canopy Growth and GW Pharma.





Image 1

To view an enhanced version of this image, please visit:

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"We are thrilled to enhance our U.S. patent portfolio with this novel production process, that along with our Health Canada licenses, allows Nextleaf to develop and produce truly differentiated cannabinoid-based products through our Specialty Molecules Division," said Nextleaf Solutions co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Paul Pedersen. "To the best of our knowledge, Nextleaf is the first company in the world - publicly traded or private - to be issued patents for the production of CBG-O-Acetate, a specialty molecule not legally available anywhere in the world."

The purpose of the Specialty Molecules Division is to leverage Nextleaf's existing intellectual property ("IP") and delivery technology to develop IP-protected therapeutic products from novel molecules that may provide a therapeutic alternative to opioid-based medications.

About Nextleaf

Nextleaf is a federally regulated producer of cannabis oil that owns one of the largest portfolios of U.S. patents for the extraction and distillation of cannabinoids. Nextleaf supplies cannabis oils to its wholesale customers and distributes consumer products under its award-winning prohibition-era brand, Glacial Gold. Nextleaf's proprietary closed-loop automated extraction plant in Metro Vancouver has a design capacity to process 600 kilos of dried cannabis into oil per day. Nextleaf is developing delivery technology through its Health Canada Research Licence with sensory evaluation of cannabis via human testing. The Company owns 16 U.S. patents and has been issued over 80 patents globally.

Nextleaf Solutions trades as OILS on the Canadian Securities Exchange, OILFF on the OTCQB Market in the United States, and L0MA on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

Follow Glacial Gold across social platforms: Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

www.glacial.gold

Follow the Company across social platforms: Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.

www.nextleafsolutions.com

For more information please contact:

Jason McBride, Corporate Development

604-283-2301 (ext. 219)

jason@nextleafsolutions.com

On behalf of the Board of Directors of the Company,

Paul Pedersen, CEO

Certain statements contained in this press release constitute "forward-looking statements". All statements other than statements of historical fact contained in this press release, including, without limitation, those regarding the Company's ability to capitalize on its IP portfolio, the Company's strategy, plans, objectives, goals and targets, and any statements preceded by, followed by or that include the words "believe", "expect", "aim", "intend", "plan", "continue", "will", "may", "would", "anticipate", "estimate", "forecast", "predict", "project", "seek", "should" or similar expressions or the negative thereof, are forward-looking statements. These statements are not historical facts but instead represent only the Company's expectations, estimates and projections regarding future events. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve assumptions, risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. Therefore, actual results may differ materially from what is expressed, implied or forecasted in such forward-looking statements. Additional factors that could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially include, but are not limited to the risk factors discussed in the Company's MD&A for the most recent fiscal period. Management provides forward-looking statements because it believes they provide useful information to investors when considering their investment objectives and cautions investors not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Consequently, all of the forward-looking statements made in this press release are qualified by these cautionary statements and other cautionary statements or factors contained herein, and there can be no assurance that the actual results or developments will be realized or, even if substantially realized, that they will have the expected consequences to, or effects on, the Company. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this press release and the Company assumes no obligation to update or revise them to reflect subsequent information, events or circumstances or otherwise, except as required by law. The CSE has not reviewed or approved the contents of this press release.

1 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23415610/

2 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33562819/

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/96599
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 15, 2021) - Prime Meridian Resources Corp. (TSXV: PMR) ("PMR" or the "Company") is pleased to provide the following overview of both the Company's projects and its neighbors' activity in the Dixie Lake area of the Red Lake Mining District of Ontario. Historically, the Red Lake Mining District has produced approximately 30,000,000 ounces of gold.

PMR's total land position in the Red Lake Dixie area now comprises 10,180 hectares. The Company's claims in the Bruce Lake and Camping Lake projects now cover approximately 8.5 kilometres of the Pakwash Lake Fault Zone and 18.0 kilometres of the Sydney Lake Fault Zone (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Claim Position

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Deep Fault Interpretation

The source of gold mineralization at the main mine trend at both Red Lake and the LP Zone of Great Bear Resources' Dixie Project is believed to be related to a similar deep crustal source. A 2006 geophysical survey suggests that the same structure associated with GBR's LP Zone is associated with the Pakwash Lake Fault Zone (PLFZ) and Sydney Lake Fault Zone (SLFZ), which underlie a large extent of Prime Meridian's newly-expanded land position (Figure 2).

A 3D seismic traveltime tomography cross-sectional interpretation from Zeng and Calvert (2006) identifies two major crustal-scale structures underlying the Red Lake district. One structure is associated with the main mine trend at Red Lake (right, north along cross-section), while the second structure is believed to be associated with the LP Fault Zone of Great Bear Resources' Dixie Project (left, south along cross-section). (1)

Figure 2. Deep Fault Model

(modified from Zeng & Calvert, 2006)

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Activity in the Dixie Region of Red Lake

The Great Bear Resources Dixie project is one of the largest recent gold discoveries in Canada. To date, GBR has completed a total of 630 drill holes (283,000 metres), identifying three high-grade gold discoveries. The most significant discovery is the large-scale "LP Fault" zone, which comprises high-grade disseminated gold mineralization within broad moderate-to-lower-grade envelopes in felsic volcanic and sediment units. The LP Fault drilling has identified gold mineralization along 11 kilometres of strike length to date and GBR is expected to publish an initial NI 43-101 compliant mineral resource estimate for the Dixie project in early 2022. (2)

The BTU Metals has discovered a potentially large VMS style Cu-Ag-Au alteration system called the TNT Target (which now includes an option of the GoldON Resources Pakwash North claims) BTU recently completed IP surveys and an EM survey that has resulted in the identification of priority targets on the Pakwash North claims which are directly to the north of PMR's claims. BTU reported on June 1, 2021: "The strongest geophysical targets from the TNT geochemical-geophysical study are on the Pakwash North property and plans are being made to drill these targets in the coming months." (3)(4)

Golden Goliath Resources have been drilling their Kwai project, focused on identifying and delineating gold deposits associated with crustal-scale fault structures. This drilling to date, has been concentrated on the Pakwash Lake Fault, a major east-west trending fault in the Dixie region. Currently, GNG drilling is moving in an easterly direction toward PMR's claims along the Pakwash Lake Fault. GNG reported on August 25, 2021: "We are excited about finding alteration and similar stratigraphic units that occur on the GBR Dixie property. For some time we have felt that the Kwai property covers the south flank of a regional fold that repeats the geology of the Dixie property." (5)(6)

The Great Bear Resources Pakwash project is located southeast of its Dixie project and covers portions of the regional Pakwash fault structure central to PMR's claims in the area. Historical work on the property identified gold lake sediment anomalies that coincide with regional fault zones and gold in-soil anomalies. (7)

Trillium Gold Mines have been building an extensive claim position over the regional Sydney Lake Fault zone through its Leo and Karas projects on the western and eastern flanks of PMR's claims on the same fault.

PMR is currently finalizing a geological and work program overview for its claims in the Dixie Lake area of the Red Lake Mining District.

Qualified Person

The technical contents of this release were approved by Case Lewis, P.Geo., a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.

References

(1) Zeng, F. & Calvert, A.J., 2006. "Imaging the upper part of the Red Lake greenstone belt, northwestern Ontario, with 3-D traveltime tomography". Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences.

(2) Great Bear Resources, Dixie Project overview, Great Bear Resources corporate website. https://www.greatbearresources.ca/projects/overview/

(3) BTU Metals, Dixie Halo Project. https://www.btumetals.com/?project=3

(4) BTU Metals news release dated June 1, 2021. "BTU Exploration Update". https://www.btumetals.com/?news=110

(5) Golden Goliath corporate website, "Properties". https://goldengoliath.com/properties/canada/

(6) Golden Goliath news release dated August 25, 2021. "Golden Goliath Drilling Continues With Silicified Sediments and Albitization found on Pakwash Fault Trend". https://goldengoliath.com/news/2021/golden-goliath-drilling-continues-with-silicified-sediments-and-albitization-found-on-pakwash-fault-trend/

(7) Great Bear Resources corporate website, "Regional Projects". https://www.greatbearresources.ca/projects/regional-projects/

On behalf of the Board of Directors of

Prime Meridian Resources Corp.

"Brian Leeners"

Brian Leeners, CEO & Director

604-893-8384

The TSX Venture Exchange has in no way passed upon the merits of the proposed transaction and has neither approved or disapproved the contents of this press release.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/96500
Melbourne, Australia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 15, 2021) - Dotz Nano Limited (ASX: DTZ) ("Dotz" or the "Company"), an advanced materials company specializing in tracing, authentication and diagnostics solutions, has recently announced the signing of a distribution agreement with El Alamo SA for its Dotz Test Kits. El Alamo SA is an ISO-9001 certified supplier of diagnostic, pharmaceutical, and medical products with strategic ties to laboratories and suppliers worldwide. With an initial purchase order of $220,000, the distribution agreement grants El Alamo the conditionally exclusive right to promote, sell, and distribute Dotz's SARS-CoV-2 virus diagnostics kits in Paraguay.

Dotz's second distribution agreement for its diagnostic test kits follows on the heels of a new, more aggressive global spike in infections fueled by the Delta-variant of the COVID-19 virus. As nations worldwide grapple with prospects of renewed economic shutdowns, the Dotz Test Kit offers a rapid and mass testing solution designed to significantly streamline the diagnostic process. With the capacity to test hundreds of samples per device in under 30 minutes, Dotz's diagnostic technology has a wide range of potential applications, from testing passengers disembarking commercial airline passengers to keeping schools and workplaces open and safe. By facilitating rapid testing en-masse, the Test Kits provide a viable solution for relieving pressure on public and private health systems that are struggling to keep up with skyrocketing rates of infection unseen since the height of the pandemic.

The distribution agreement signed with El Alamo SA extends for an initial two-year period, contingent on the fact that minimum annual purchase orders, valued at approximately US$200,000 in 2021 and at least US$420,000 in 2022 and 2023, are met. Dotz is to receive $80,000 of the initial purchase order prior to delivery, and in subsequent orders 50% will be paid up-front, with the remainder paid prior to delivery. Further specified in the agreement is the automatic renewal of the distribution agreement for additional one year periods on a non-exclusive basis, reflective of both parties' long-term outlook.

Dotz has successfully received a Certificate of Free Sale (CFS) in Paraguay for both its nasopharyngeal swab and saliva-based test kits, clearing the product for sale to the public and private sectors in the country. Dotz Test Kits have additionally been granted CE Mark Authorization from the European Union, thereby enabling future opportunities for commercial inroads into the Eurozone. Following a successful blind clinical trial for its nasopharyngeal swab test kits in the US conducted in April 2021, Dotz has also applied for Emergency Use Authorisation from the FDA and is currently awaiting approval from US authorities.

These regulatory benchmarks follow a five-year non-exclusive manufacturing agreement Dotz recently concluded with Systaaq Diagnostic Products, based in Virginia, USA, for the production of its diagnostic test kits in compliance with FDA and EU regulations. On the basis of these regulatory and commercial achievements, Dotz Test Kits are on track to play an important role in the worldwide push to ramp-up testing efforts as ever-more infectious strains of the COVID-19 virus emerge, spread, and threaten to remain for the long-run.

In July 2021, Dotz signed its first commercial order for its COVID-19 diagnostics kit with Hygiene Links for distribution in the UAE, Egypt, and Sudan with an initial purchase order of $2.1 million. Considered alongside its most recent agreement with El Alamo SA for distribution in Paraguay, these two deals evidence the Company's commitment to bolstering the diagnostic and public health infrastructure of developing nations that, to date, have struggled to obtain sufficient COVID-19 vaccinations for their populations. Moreover, the conclusion of these two deals are an encouraging sign that Dotz is successfully bringing its diagnostic test kits to markets-in-need at a crucial moment in the global struggle against COVID-19.

Dotz Chairman and Interim CEO Bernie Brookes echoed this sentiment, commenting: "In line with our long term growth strategy, we continue to commercialise our SARS-CoV-2 virus detection technology. Our second distribution agreement within the diagnostic domain cost-effectively increases our global target market while providing public and private facilities with access to an effective and timely testing method."

About Dotz

Dotz Nano Limited (ASX: DTZ) is a technology leader in research, production and marketing of anti-counterfeiting, authentication and tracing solutions. Since the onset of the global pandemic, the Company has expanded its technological portfolio to include a number of groundbreaking COVID-19 solutions. Its unique products ValiDotz, BioDotz, Fluorensic and InSpec are exceptional solutions for numerous applications that range from bio-imaging, liquids tagging, lubricants and DEF authentication, polymers tagging, anti-counterfeiting, oil/gas, and brand/reputation protection.

To learn more about Dotz or contact the Company, please visit the website and corporate video via the following link: www.dotz.tech.

About El Alamo SA

Incorporated in 1997, privately owned and based in Asuncion, Paraguay, El Alamo SA is the representative and strategic ally of leading laboratories worldwide, and has more than five decades of successful commercial history. El Alamo has been dedicated to importing, dividing, packaging and distributing internationally prestigious products for the development of human health. El Alamo's mission is to offer Paraguay products made with the highest quality and technology to continue improving people's lives. For more information visit the El Alamo website: www.elalamo.com.py.

Media Contact

Shirley Shoshaney-Kleiner

shirley.s@dotz.tech

Marketing Director

+972-52-9076555

SOURCE: Dotz Nano Limited

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/96614
The Project is located in the heart of the Red Lake Gold Camp and adjoins Canada's newest high-grade gold mine

Victoria, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 15, 2021) - GoldON Resources Ltd. (TSXV: GLD) ("GoldON" or the "Company") is pleased to announce it has elected to accelerate the option agreement with Great Bear Resources Ltd. (see news release of May 28, 2019) and has acquired a 100% interest in the original Block A and B portions (see Figure 1) of the West Madsen Gold Project (the "Project").





Figure 1: Original West Madsen Blocks A and B optioned from Great Bear Resources (click to enlarge)

To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/7436/96529_3c914a0a44afcbdb_001full.jpg

In keeping with the terms of the option agreement, GoldON paid Great Bear a total of $175,000 in cash, issued 1,375,000 common shares and incurred exploration expenditures exceeding $2,300,000 to complete the acquisition. Great Bear retains a 2.5% Net Smelter Return royalty on the Property with GoldON having the right to buy back 1% of the Royalty for $500,000 at any time prior to a production decision being made on all or part of the Property.

GoldON now owns a 100% interest in the Project that covers 5,862 hectares in the heart of the Red Lake Gold Camp (see Red Lake regional map ) and is comprised of the Block A and B claim groups; the Flat Lake and Madsen-Medicine Stone claim groups that GoldON acquired a 100% interest in from Bounty Gold (see news release of January 7, 2021); and claims GoldON acquired via staking in December 2020. The expanded Block A adjoins Pure Gold's Red Lake mine property where they achieved commercial production last month (see Pure Gold's news release of August 3, 2021).





Figure 2: West Madsen Phase I & II target area and drill hole locations (click to enlarge)

To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/7436/96529_3c914a0a44afcbdb_002full.jpg

"We have completed the acquisition of the West Madsen property over two years ahead of the term of the option agreement," said Mike Romanik president of GoldON. "We are still in early days of exploration at West Madsen and look forward to getting back out in the field this fall to define our next drill targets."

Ian Russell, P.Geo., an independent Qualified Person as defined in NI 43-101, has reviewed and approved the contents of this news release on behalf of the Company.

About GoldON Resources Ltd.

GoldON is an exploration company focused on discovery-stage properties located in the prolific gold mining belts of northwestern Ontario, Canada. Our current project portfolio includes six properties in the Red Lake Mining Division (West Madsen, Red Lake North, Pipestone Bay, Pakwash North, McInnes Lake, and McDonough) and a seventh property in the Patricia Mining Division (Slate Falls).

For additional information: please visit our website at goldonresources.com, you can download our latest investor presentation by clicking here and you can follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/GoldONResources.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

Signed "Michael Romanik"

Michael Romanik, President

GoldON Resources Ltd.

Direct line: (204) 724-0613

Email: info@goldonresources.com

179 - 2945 Jacklin Road, Suite 416

Victoria, BC, V9B 6J9

Forward-Looking Statements:

This news release may contain "forward-looking statements" that involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that 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 the forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of this news release and, except as may be required by applicable securities laws, the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise.

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/96529
Femtech pioneer unveils new breast pump covered by U.S. health insurers to bring its signature breastfeeding technology to more women

Elvie, the disruptive global femtech innovator, today announced the launch of Elvie Stride. The new smart, ultra-quiet, hands-free breast pump is the first of Elvie's products to be broadly covered by insurance in the U.S. It joins Elvie's collection of breastfeeding innovations, including the silent wearable breast pump, Elvie Pump, as well as the award-winning smart device for pelvic floor muscle care, Elvie Trainer.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005153/en/

Elvie Stride (Photo: Business Wire)

With a mission to improve women's lives through smarter technology, Elvie developed Elvie Stride to create greater access to its revolutionary solutions. This latest product will be available exclusively in the U.S., where 80% of breast pump sales come through the insurance market. Unlike any other pump covered by insurance or at its price point, Elvie Stride blends high-quality technology with sleek design so women can seamlessly integrate pumping into their daily lives. Elvie Stride is powered by a lightweight motor that can be worn on the user's waistband or placed in a pocket, with tubes connecting the two 5 oz milk cups to discreetly collect milk in-bra. Noise reduction technology ensures that Elvie Stride is quiet enough to blend into most background noise and it pairs with a smart app to control the pump remotely and log your pumping history.

"We are bringing women's technology out of the dark ages and are committed to designing cutting edge products at accessible prices in order to do so," said Tania Boler, Founder and CEO of Elvie. "We know the majority of women in the U.S. buy breast pumps that are covered by insurance so we created Elvie Stride to better meet their needs today. No other pump offers mobility, quietness, connectivity and efficiency, along with a premium design at a fully reimbursed price point, and we can't wait to put this game-changing technology in the hands of more women!"

Since launching in 2013, Elvie has continued to lead the femtech category by delivering groundbreaking innovations to support women in their everyday lives and change conversations around women's health. The company recently raised $97M in a Series C fundraise, the largest investment in femtech to-date. This capital infusion is a testament to the company's continued growth and will be used to support new product development and research, as well as expansion into new markets. Elvie plans to design more accessible solutions to improve women's lives, prioritizing their health concerns that are most often overlooked like breastfeeding and pelvic floor care.

In celebration of this new product release, Elvie is launching an integrated, digital first campaign with UK-based creative agency Mother, as well as influencer partnerships and street-level activations. Elvie partnered with Colossal to design murals in SoHo and Williamsburg to spark conversation around women's health, and a branded Elvie Stride truck will travel throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn from Wednesday, September 15th through Sunday, September 19th offering complimentary breast-shaped cookies and empowering women to celebrate their smart bodies.

Elvie Stride is now exclusively available in the U.S and covered broadly by health insurance providers. To learn more about how to purchase Elvie Stride, visit www.Elvie.com/Stride.

About Elvie

Founded in 2013, Elvie is a British brand developing smarter technology for women. After realizing the lack of support for new mums, CEO Tania Boler brought together a team of world-class engineers, designers and business minds to redesign the existing unattractive and outdated medical devices in women's health into sleek consumer products that could be used at home.

With the launch of Elvie Stride, Elvie now has five products on the market. The first to launch, Elvie Trainer, is an award-winning Kegel trainer and app. Its second product, Elvie Pump, is the world's first silent wearable breast pump. Elvie's breastfeeding line-up also includes Elvie Curve and Elvie Catch; both enhancing the Elvie breastfeeding range. Elvie Curve is a wearable, silicone breast pump that uses natural suction to enable comfort and Elvie Catch is a set of two secure milk collection cups to catch leaks and collect additional milk.

For more information visit elvie.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005153/en/

Contacts:

For Media Requests:

Julia Brown: Elvie@Kaplow.com
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - September 15, 2021) - Leveljump Healthcare Corp. (TSXV: JUMP) (OTCQB: JMPHF) (FSE: 75J) ("Leveljump" or the "Company"), a Canadian leader in B2B telehealth solutions, is pleased to announce that it has closed its acquisition of 23.8% of the issued and outstanding shares of each of Shaw Vision Inc. ("Shaw Vision") and Shaw Lens Inc. ("Shaw Lens") from a minority shareholder (the "Shaw Acquisition"), as originally announced on August 31, 2021.

The Shaw Acquisition has been approved by the boards of Shaw Vision and Shaw Lens. Closing of the Shaw Acquisition and has received final consent of the TSX Venture Exchange.

All securities issued will be subject to a hold period of four months and one day pursuant to applicable securities laws.

Both Shaw Vision Inc. and Shaw Lens Inc. are Toronto-based privately owned federal corporations.

About Shaw Lens and Shaw Vision

Shaw Lens holds a U.S. patent protected lens technology that can solve a condition for people who wear glasses, known as aniseikonia. It is a condition that causes each eye to perceive the size of objects differently. Issues related can include headaches, double vision, disorientation or dizziness, tearing, eye pain or fatigue, sensitivity to light, visual acuity issues and trouble reading, as well as nauseaaccording to the Columbia University Department of Ophthalmology "20-30% of the general spectacle wearing population may have a measurable amount of aniseikonia." The potential market size for corrective lenses for aniseikonia is over 800 million people that may be currently living with some degree of aniseikonia and its relative effects.

More information about Shaw can be found at www.shawlens.com.

About Leveljump Healthcare

Leveljump Healthcare Corp., (TSXV: JUMP) (OTCQB: JMPHF) (FSE: 75J) is building a national medical diagnostic imaging company and brand, primarily by providing teleradiology (remote radiology) services to its client hospitals and imaging centers. Additionally, JUMP plans to expand through the acquisition of independent healthcare facilities focused on diagnostic imaging as well as acquiring new disruptive imaging technologies.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF

LEVELJUMP HEALTHCARE CORP.

Mitchell Geisler, Chief Executive Officer

info@leveljumphealthcare.com

(833) 840-2020

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION

This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws relating to the Company's business plans and the outlook of the Company's industry. Although the Company believes, in light of the experience of its officers and directors, current conditions and expected future developments and other factors that have been considered appropriate, that the expectations reflected in this forward-looking information are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on them because the Company can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. Actual results and developments may differ materially from those contemplated by these statements. The statements in this press release are made as of the date of this release and the Company assumes no responsibility to update them or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances other than as required by applicable securities laws. The Company undertakes no obligation to comment on analyses, expectations or statements made by third parties in respect of the Company, Canadian Teleradiology Services, Inc., their securities, or their respective financial or operating results (as applicable).

Neither the Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

The securities being offered 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 U.S. state securities laws, and may not be offered or sold in the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of, United States persons absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act and applicable U.S. state securities laws. This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy securities in the United States, nor in any other jurisdiction.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/96541
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Prudential Financial Inc. (PRU) agreed to sell a portion of its in-force legacy variable annuity block to Fortitude Group Holdings for a total transaction value of $2.2 billion. As per the terms of the deal, Prudential will sell one of its stand-alone legal entity subsidiaries, Prudential Annuities Life Assurance Corporation (PALAC), including PALAC's in-force annuity contracts, to Fortitude Re, for an all-cash purchase price of $1.5 billion, plus a capital release to Prudential and an expected tax benefit. The transaction is expected to close during the first half of 2022. Upon closing, Prudential anticipates a reduction to pre-tax annual adjusted operating income of approximately $290 million. Proceeds from the transaction are expected to be used for general corporate purposes. 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.
Rise in demand for cargo transportation through ships, increased need for workplace safety in industrial applications, and focus on renewable energy development drive the growth of the global ship loader and unloader market.

PORTLAND, Ore., Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Allied Market Research published a report, titled, "Ship Loader and Unloader Market by Product Type (Stationary and Mobile), Bulk Type (Dry, and Liquid), Technology (Mechanical and Pneumatic), and Application (Mining, Machinery, Construction, Sea Ports & Cargo Terminals, and Others): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2021-2030." According to the report, the global ship loader and unloader industry generated $39.77 billion in 2020, and is projected to reach $57.87 billion by 2030, witnessing a CAGR of 3.6% from 2021 to 2030.

Prime determinants of growth

Rise in demand for cargo transportation through ships, increased need for workplace safety in industrial applications, and focus on renewable energy development drive the growth of the global ship loader and unloader market. However, fluctuation in raw material prices and high operational and equipment costs hinder the market growth. On the other hand, increase in demand for prefabricated construction and automation in ship loaders and unloaders create new opportunities in the coming years.

Download Sample PDF: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/8636

Covid-19 Scenario

Owing to lockdown measures implemented in various countries to curb the spread of Covid-19, there have been delays in manufacturing activities of ships and transportation of products from one port to another.

The daily operations in the application industries such as mining, construction, and others have been restricted due to lockdown measures and lack of workforce. This led to reduced demand for ship loaders and unloaders. However, the demand is expected to rise steadily during the post-lockdown.

The stationary segment to continue its lead position during the forecast period

Based on product type, the stationary segment accounted for the highest share in 2020, contributing to nearly two-thirds of the global ship loader and unloader market, and is projected to continue its lead position during the forecast period. This is due to its features such as bulk material handling capacity, high flexible loading booms, post-Panamax vessels, and cost-effective design. However, the mobile segment is expected to manifest the highest CAGR of 4.0% from 2021 to 2030, owing to features such as high efficiency and remote accessibility and increase in adoption in various industries such as mining, packaging, and seaports sectors.

The mining segment to maintain its dominant share in terms of revenue during the forecast period

Based on application, the mining segment held the highest share in 2020, accounting for nearly one-third of the global ship loader and unloader market, and is estimated to maintain its dominant share in terms of revenue during the forecast period. This is due to heavy lifting capacity of loaders and unloaders and ability to configure as per the requirements and applications. However, the seaports and cargo terminals segment is projected to portray the fastest CAGR of 4.1% from 2021 to 2030. This is attributed to efficient cargo handling and application in ship and component manufacturing.



Get detailed COVID-19 impact analysis on the Ship Loader and Unloader Market: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-for-customization/8636

Asia-Pacific, followed by Europe and North America, to maintain its leadership status during the forecast period

Based on region, Asia-Pacific, followed by Europe and North America, contributed to the highest market share in 2020, holding more than one-third of the global ship loader and unloader market, and is expected to maintain its leadership status during the forecast period. Moreover, this segment is estimated to witness the highest CAGR of 4.3% during the forecast period. This is due to rapid infrastructural development and shift in ship production in Asian countries for abundance of human workforce and low land prices.

Leading Market Players

FLSmidth A/S

Fluor Corporation (American Equipment Company Inc.)

Buhler Group

Sandvik AB

Vigan Engineering S/A

NEUERO Industrietechnik fur Forderanlagen GmbH

SMB International GmbH

Aumund Group

EMS-Tech Inc.

Liebherr-International AG

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Educational and Partnership Events Highlight Organization's Dedication to Building an Inclusive and Dynamic Fintech Ecosystem in Massachusetts

BOSTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / September 15, 2021 / The newly launched Mass Fintech Hub , a public-private partnership dedicated to making the Commonwealth a global leader in fintech, today announced three new virtual events that will be featured at this year's Boston FinTech Week (September 28 - October 1, 2021), the leading fintech conference in Massachusetts. These include the Mass Fintech Hub Fintech Career Fair , Fintech Forum and an Angel Investor Education Series. Each represents key pillars of the organization's programming and provides educational and business opportunities for students, educators, investors, entrepreneurs and nonprofit and public sector professionals.

"This year's Boston FinTech Week not only features some of the leading voices in fintech across financial services, but is also home to new forums to learn, network and build great relationships as our thriving community continues to grow," said Sarah Biller , Co-founder of FinTech Sandbox and a member of the Mass Fintech Hub. "By bringing together these great leaders to discuss the new era of fintech, we are also making great strides in promoting financial inclusion and sustainability to ensure that anyone can have access to financial services."

Additional details about the Mass Fintech Hub programming during Boston FinTech Week:

Mass Fintech Hub Career Fair (September 28. 2021: 2:30 - 4:30 p.m.): A virtual career fair that will bring together several industry partners and startups, 50-100 students and 10-20 faculty members from Massachusetts academic institutions to meet, learn and network to help students jumpstart their fintech careers. To sign up, please visit the registration page here .

A virtual career fair that will bring together several industry partners and startups, 50-100 students and 10-20 faculty members from Massachusetts academic institutions to meet, learn and network to help students jumpstart their fintech careers. To sign up, please visit the registration page . Mass Fintech Forum (September 29, 2021: 1:30 - 2:30 p.m.) : A panel of partnered enterprises and fintech companies will discuss the successes, challenges and significance of partnerships, among other topics. To sign up, please visit the registration page here .

: A panel of partnered enterprises and fintech companies will discuss the successes, challenges and significance of partnerships, among other topics. To sign up, please visit the registration page . Angel Investor Education Series (September 29, 2021: 5:35 - 6:35 p.m.): A panelist discussion for accredited investors, in which successful angel investors will share stories of how they got started, how they source and vet deals, and lessons they learned along the way.

Boston FinTech Week returns for its fourth year from September 28 - October 1, 2021. This illuminating, virtual four-day event consists of keynotes, panel discussions and fireside chats centered on the modern fintech landscape. It is presented by FinTech Sandbox , a nonprofit enabling innovation in the financial sector, with strong support and involvement from the Mass Fintech Hub (an initiative under FinTech Sandbox).

The conference will host dozens of speakers from prominent financial organizations and fintech companies including Fidelity , Flywire , MassMutual and Silicon Valley Bank , among many others, for thousands of attendees, spanning entrepreneurs, senior financial services executives, data providers, venture capitalists, academics, students, regulators and media members from across the country and globe.

Co-chaired by Housing and Economic Development Secretary Mike Kennealy, and Mike Fanning , Head of MassMutual U.S., the Massachusetts Fintech Working Group established the Mass Fintech Hub , a Massachusetts-based and led initiative to strengthen the Commonwealth's fintech ecosystem and drive continued success and growth for the industry.

"This exceptional programming will provide great opportunities for anyone - the early-stage fintech startup founder, high-powered investor or student interested in a career in fintech," said Fanning. "We look forward to providing the attendees with the opportunities to connect with and learn from the leaders and innovators building the future of financial services."

Register for free for Boston FinTech Week here . For more information on the Mass Fintech Hub, please visit: www.massfintechhub.com ; stay up to date on recent developments and relevant content on Twitter at @MassFintechHub , and LinkedIn .

About the Mass Fintech Hub

The Mass Fintech Hub is a public-private partnership comprising a network of Fintech leaders, financial experts, academics, public sector leaders and venture capitalists who empower Fintech startups to achieve success around the world. The initiative supports the Fintech ecosystem through programs that attract investment, talent, collaboration and encourage regulatory innovation. The Mass Fintech Hub stimulates activity and connections, creates opportunities and aligns key stakeholders for a better entrepreneurial environment that supports Fintech startups in all development stages. Learn more here: www.massfintechhub.com/contact-us/ .

Media Contact:

Stephen Sumner

Caliber Corporate Advisers

stephen@calibercorporate.com

press@massfintechhub.com

845-489-0612 (m)

SOURCE: FinTech Sandbox

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/664147/Mass-Fintech-Hub-Launches-First-Series-of-Virtual-Programs-at-Boston-FinTech-Week-2021
ATHENS, Greece, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Intracom Telecom, a global telecommunication systems and solutions vendor, has announced a partnership with Winncom Technologies, a worldwide networking solutions distributor, to promote Intracom Telecom's advanced 5th generation Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) platform, the WiBAS G5, to address demand for cutting-edge business and residential solutions across North America.

More specifically, Winncom Technologies, will be focusing on promoting the WIBAS G5, in 24 GHz and 28 GHz (24.25-29.50 GHz) frequency bands to enable its customers to provide Gigabit Tier throughput to subscribers. Based on the most advanced technology in the market, the WiBAS G5 evo-BS, has an exceptional deployment flexibility serving anyone within a large area footprint, and it supports a variety of sectoral antennas ranging from 90 to 180, and up to full 360 coverage. Due to its compact size this FWA base station is not demanding heavy telecom infrastructures. At the same time, the new WiBAS G5 Connect+ is an advanced terminal station aimed for operators that want to focus on worry-free quick installations at homes and businesses.

It is noted that both companies will be present at the CCA's Annual Convention 2021, taking place in Phoenix, Arizona in North America (September 20-22) at Intracom Telecom's stand #2802.

Igor Kurochkin, Vice President, Global Vendor Management & Marketing at Winncom, said: "The addition of Intracom Telecom's FWA products will allow us to expand our broadband offerings as well as keep up with current demands of Gigabit speeds to our customers. We believe this new relationship and Intracom Telecom's WiBAS G5 Product Family operating at the unique frequency bands 24.25-29.50 GHz, will bring great value to our core customers in North America, and we look forward to expansion globally with Intracom Telecom in the future."

Dharminder Chanana, CEO of Intracom Telecom's subsidiary in USA, Conklin-Intracom, stated: "We are looking forward to partnering with Winncom Technologies for our expansion in North America. Our FWA systems fit ideally into Winncom's product portfolio, allowing the distributor to perfectly meet the demands for the Gigabit business society, bridging the digital divide in rural and sub-urban areas in USA."

About Winncom Technologies

Winncom Technologies is a worldwide distributor and provider of complete networking solutions, wireless and wired. Our unmatched expertise in broadband wireless networking products and full range of network infrastructure and access products by the leading industry manufacturers allows us to sell the products and provide complete solutions for various markets and applications. For more information, visit: www.winncom.com

About Intracom Telecom

Intracom Telecom is a global telecommunication systems and solutions vendor operating for over 40 years in the market. The company has become the benchmark in fixed wireless access and it successfully innovates in the 5G/4G wireless RAN transport and small-cell SON backhaul international arena. Intracom Telecom offers a comprehensive revenue-generating software solutions portfolio and a complete range of ICT services, focusing on IoT, SDN/NFV, Big Data analytics & data-driven intelligence, and Smart City solutions. Moreover, it addresses the Energy & Utilities industry, emphasizing on smart metering and end-to-end IT solutions. Intracom Telecom is also active in the public and private sectors providing security integrated systems for critical infrastructure protection and border surveillance. The company has extensive know-how and a proven track record in the market, serving fixed and mobile telecom operators, public authorities and large public and private enterprises. Intracom Telecom maintains its own R&D and production facilities, and operates subsidiaries worldwide. For more information please visit: www.intracom-telecom.com
- 45% of all Mergers & Acquisitions in 2020 were in the Digital Engineering space

- PE deals in Digital Engineering Services in the first half of 2021 have already surpassed the numbers in 2020; Hitachi's acquisition of GlobalLogic and Apax Partners' Infogain deal are prominent

NEW YORK, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Zinnov, a leading global management and strategy consulting firm's recent study "Investment and Value Creation in the New Digital Normal" evaluated the global Digital Engineering Services space by analyzing 3000+ PE transactions in the overall Technology Services segment across buyouts, growth capital, and add-on acquisitions. The global Private Equity (PE) landscape, Zinnov stated, has had an increasing focus on Digital Engineering and its evolution over the last six years. Zinnov investigated multiple parameters across transactions, including deal types and sizes, valuations, and multiples on the buyer side to understand the accelerated investments in the Digital Engineering space. It also assessed key parameters such as revenue, EBITDA, growth, headcount, delivery regions, type and quality of service offerings, etc., on the asset side.

The Rise of Digital Engineering Service Providers in the Post-pandemic Era

As witnessed over the last 18 months, the complexities of the pandemic have forced years of technological advancements to happen within a short period. The accelerated adoption and implementation of digital technologies have resulted in the convergence of IT and ER&D spends by companies competing to become leaders in their digitally transformed industries. New-age technologies have become a strategic tool to strengthen businesses across industries, and Digital Engineering Service Providers are a critical cog in that endeavor, noted the study. The growing demand for Digital Engineering Service Providers across verticals and the positive market reaction is reflected in their higher valuations as compared to traditional IT firms.

Over the past year, Zinnov has observed and tracked strategic acquisitions (M&A) within the Digital Engineering space, that have accounted for 45% of all M&A transactions in 2020. What stood out was that while traditional IT firms like Capgemini (which acquired Altran) and Cognizant (Softvision) are actively pursuing Digital Engineering firms to consolidate their market position, PE investors are not far behind in tapping this newly available opportunity. Newer digital skillsets that offer agility and a resilient business model have become key differentiators for Service Providers in the post-COVID digital world.

Private Equity Players and the Digital Engineering Opportunity

Zinnov's analysis shows that the post-COVID era has seen the highest number of PE deals in the Service Provider space in the last five years, with a CAGR of 19.8% from 2015 to 2020. In fact, the number of deals in the first half of 2021 has already surpassed the numbers in 2020, including some large deals such as the Hitachi's acquisition of GlobalLogic (from Partners Group & CPPIB at 37X EBITDA) and of Infogain by Apax Partners. These large ticket deals are a testament to the growing interest in the Digital Engineering space, and the exponential valuations of these firms as compared to their IT counterparts a clear indicator of the opportunities in this space. Zinnov has been at the center of such deals by helping investors make the right strategic decisions in this space.

Recently, Zinnov acted as the sole commercial advisor to a UK-based PE firm, BC Partners ("BC Partners"), on their investment in Valtech, a global leader in digital services and business transformation. The transaction, announced in July 2021, valued Valtech at USD 1.4 Bn and is expected to close in Q3 2021. Valtech designs, builds, and delivers transformative digital solutions for some of the world's leading brands. It is forecasted to deliver a 30% revenue growth in 2021, and this new investment is expected to further strengthen its technological capabilities and help drive geographical expansion to enter newer markets.

Today, more than ever, Digital Engineering Service Providers are looking at the best value creation drivers to attract higher investments or to generate higher returns for their investors as they become critical players in the PE playbook. Zinnov's expertise in the Digital Engineering space and years of experience as a commercial advisor to many a strategic PE deal, has enabled them to curate a list of frameworks that can help evaluate an asset at its true potential. The need of the hour is to put digital strategies at the core of every fund, making it integral throughout the cycle of a deal for sustainable value creation.

Pari Natarajan, CEO, Zinnov, said, "The more than one-third of the overall global Engineering R&D spend (USD 1.5 Tn in 2020) being channelized towards Digital Engineering by enterprises emphasizes the potential and the opportunity that this space holds for larger players and investors alike. More than 45% of all M&A deals taking place are in the Digital Engineering space, which further underscores the rising interest and the impending opportunity. A trifecta of factors - an informed investment thesis, a robust due diligence framework, and deploying the right mix of value creation levers - are key to a successful PE investment in the Digital Engineering space. As companies grapple to adapt to the new and evolving digital normal, we will witness large ticket deals across the board."

About Zinnov

Founded in 2002, Zinnov is a global management and strategy consulting firm, with a presence in Santa Clara, Houston, Chicago, Bangalore, Gurgaon, and Paris. Over the past 19 years, Zinnov has successfully consulted with over 250+ Fortune 500 enterprises to develop actionable insights to help them accelerate value creation - across dimensions of both revenue and optimization. With core expertise in Digital Engineering, Digital Transformation, Innovation, and Outsourcing Advisory, Zinnov assists clients by:

Advising global PE firms in asset shortlisting and target evaluation, commercial due diligence, and value creation;

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;

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;

Growing revenue for companies' products and services in newer markets through account intelligence, market-entry, and market expansion advisory.

With their team of experienced consultants, subject matter experts, and research professionals, Zinnov serves clients from across multiple industry verticals including Enterprise Software, Hi-Tech, BFSI, Healthcare, Automotive, Retail, and Telecom in the US, Europe, Japan, and India.

For more information, visit http://zinnov.com .

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LONDON (dpa-AFX) - IVECO, the commercial vehicles brand of CNH Industrial (CNHI) and Nikola Corp. (NKLA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Hamburg Port Authority AoR (HPA) during the inauguration of their joint-venture manufacturing facility in Ulm, Germany. The agreement states their joint intent to partner in two phases encompassing up to 25 Nikola Tre battery-electric vehicles (BEV) for delivery to the Port throughout 2022. The first phase involves testing of the Nikola Tre BEVs at the port for transport and logistics operations together with high-performance charging solutions. A more definitive second phase in the project partnership plans to see the full integration of the BEV vehicles in port operations, installation of charging infrastructure and on-site service support including major suppliers. 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.
SealPath's regional distribution partner Credence Security to provide support to customers in their journey to compliance with the National Cybersecurity Authority Essential Cybersecurity Controls and Critical Systems Cybersecurity Controls

DUBAI, UAE, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- SealPath, a leading provider of information protection and control solutions, has recently highlighted how its revolutionary data-centric security approach can help enterprises in Saudi Arabia meet National Cybersecurity Authority (NCA) compliance with ease and confidence.

With the ambition to become a global hub for technology and innovation, Saudi Arabia launched Vision 2030, a national transformation strategy that aims to diversify its economy from being oil-reliant to a digitally empowered one.

As digital technologies increasingly permeate across all aspects of the Kingdom's economy, it has also made it a more attractive target for threat actors. This intensified the nation's commitment to boosting cybersecurity readiness and enabling a secure environment for data and digital operations across all industries. As a result, Saudi Arabia established the NCA to develop and implement the Essential Cybersecurity Controls (ECC) and Critical Systems Cybersecurity Controls (CSCC).

The objective of the ECC and CSCC is to establish cybersecurity best practices at a national level, covering critical infrastructure, high priority sectors and government services. These security protocols were developed following a comprehensive study of various national and international cybersecurity standards.

SealPath's feature-rich solutions empower enterprises to have full visibility and control over their data wherever it may be throughout its lifecycle. With one click, SealPath allows data access to be restricted, in real-time, even if this data is outside the organization's network. Furthermore, once integrated with any corporate security infrastructure, SealPath's protection automation technologies can help foster a culture of cybersecurity awareness throughout the organization.

"Saudi Arabia is among the leading nations in the Middle East when it comes to digital transformation and innovation," said Syed Almas Azam, Regional Director - Middle East, SealPath. "In line with this, the Kingdom has taken major steps to strengthen its strategies to keep cyber threats at bay. The NCA's security mandates do not only ensure data protection for individual organizations but also help prevent any national security incident. SealPath's security innovations travel with the data, allowing organizations to keep it under control even when it is outside their perimeters. We promise to enable local enterprises to achieve the strongest possible protection for their data, ensuring that they are well-equipped to fulfil the necessary measures stipulated in the ECC and CSCC."

Attesting to the capabilities of SealPath's cutting edge data protection tools, leading regional cybersecurity VAD Credence Security's Managing Director, Garreth Scott said, "Data is the lifeblood of any organization. As regional governments and enterprises continue to embrace the digital age, they are realizing that protecting this vital asset is paramount. We are proud to be SealPath's distribution partner in the region and we strongly believe that their world-class data protection offerings are exactly what organizations need to bolster their security postures and remain compliant with stringent industry regulations such as the NCA ECC and CSCC."

ABOUT CREDENCE SECURITY:

Established in 1999, Credence Security, a PAN-EMEA speciality Value-added Distributor, is a leader in Cybersecurity, Forensics, Governance, Risk and Compliance. With headquarters in Dubai and regional offices in Johannesburg, London, Nairobi, and Hyderabad. We are a pure-play provider of security and forensics solutions, to both public and private sector enterprises across Europe, Middle East, Africa and India, through a select network of specialist resellers.

Unlike most other distributors, we take a consultative 'value-add' solution approach, we collaborate with our partners and their customers to understand their needs, both from a technology and business perspective, and then work very closely with our partners to deliver tailor made solutions. Working closely with globally recognized, award winning vendors including AccessData, an Exterro company, HumanFirewall, Entrust, Netskope, Oxygen Forensics, SealPath, ZecOps and ZeroFox, Credence Security delivers best-in-class, Cybersecurity & Forensics technologies and solutions that protect organizations against advanced persistent threats, malicious adversaries and internal malpractice.

For more information about Credence Security, visit credencesecurity.com or follow them on social media at:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/CredenceSecure

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/credence-security

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CredenceSec

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCn4O73EKgUE-1BbMZS95yzQ

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/credencesecurity/

ABOUT SEALPATH

SealPath is an enterprise digital rights management solution, The most user-friendly and flexible EDRM leader. SealPath helps organizations to protect sensitive documents both on the network and on customers' or partners' networks, in the cloud or on a mobile device. It's a persistent encryption that accompanies the files and emails wherever they travel. It controls who accesses the data, when and with what permission.

For more information about SealPath, visit www.sealpath.com.
Chief Marketing Officer Kim Albrecht bolsters leadership team

STOCKHOLM, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Medius, a leading provider of spend management solutions, announces the appointment of Jim Lucier as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Per Akerberg, who has been the Chief Executive Officer since 2015, will join the Medius Board of Directors.

Lucier brings a wealth of expertise to this role, having served in several senior leadership capacities, most recently as President of SAP Concur, the leading travel and expense solution. Prior to that, Lucier served as Chief Revenue Officer for North America and Chief Services Officer for SAP Concur driving SAP Concur's global growth.

After seven years with the company, Per Akerberg will join the Medius Board of Directors. During his tenure, Akerberg played a pivotal role in helping lead the organization through some of its most significant growth.

"It has been a privilege to lead Medius the last seven years. After significant reflection, I concluded that the time is right for someone else to lead Medius on the next phase of its growth journey," said Akerberg. "Jim is the right leader for the next stage of growth for Medius given his experience leading global software organizations coupled with his strong understanding of the category. I look forward to seeing the company continue to evolve and grow under his leadership."

"Customers are under increasing pressures to optimize company spend across all sources and categories as they respond to the demands of an ever-changing digital and global economy," said Lucier. "Medius addresses these pressing customer challenges, and we have the opportunity to build Medius into the leading global provider of spend management solutions. It's an exciting opportunity to lead this next phase of growth. I want to personally thank Per for all he's done to set Medius up for continued global success."

Lucier joined SAP Concur in 2008 and held a series of executive roles, including GM for the Federal Government Business unit, Chief Services Officer, overseeing the Services, Support and Customer Experience teams, Chief Revenue Officer for North America overseeing the Sales team, and subsequently the role of President.

Additionally, Kim Albrecht joins Medius as the new Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). Albrecht is a seasoned software marketing leader with a strong track record of innovation, creativity, and growth acceleration in B2B SaaS companies. She joins Medius from SAP, where she led solution area marketing.

"Kim is a highly-experienced, talented, strong business leader with a proven track record of building brands," said Akerberg. "With her extensive marketing experience, we're confident that she will help propel Medius to the next level."

The appointment of Jim Lucier follows a thorough recruitment process overseen by a special Hiring Committee of the Board using the global recruitment company Egon Zehnder, which saw a wide variety of exceptional candidates vetted and interviewed across Sweden, the UK and the US.

Lucier and Albrecht join Medius during a season of recognition and accomplishment. Earlier this year, Medius won the Fintech Breakthrough Award for Best Procure-to-Pay Software and was recognized as a Visionary in the Gartner Magic Quadrant. Additionally, Medius reported strong 2020 performance that included a 49% increase in new sales - despite the challenging macro environment.

CONTACT:



For more information, please contact:

Erica England, Arketi Group, PR & Marketing (for Medius)

eengland@arketi.com, 904.803.8808

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/medius/r/medius-appoints-jim-lucier-as-chief-executive-officer-to-lead-the-business-through-next-stage-of-gro,c3415224
Second Drill Expected October 1

Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - September 15, 2021) - David H. Brett, President & CEO, EnGold Mines Ltd., (TSXV: EGM) ("EnGold" or the "Company") reports that drilling at its 100% owned Lac La Hache Copper Gold Property in the Cariboo region of BC commenced September 10th. A 175 metre hole at the Road Gold Zone is complete with follow up drilling there pending assay results. The drill has now commenced drilling at the Ann North alkalic porphyry target where a series of deeper, 800m - 1000m drill holes are planned.

Previously, NQ core drilling at Road Gold was hampered by highly broken ground conditions caused by the strong faulting and alteration associated with the gold-copper-silver mineralization. R21-04 was successfully competed using HQ drill rods, cutting below hole R21-03, including the 7.5 gpt gold assay (over 1.5 m core length) cut at the bottom of that hole. The new hole has intersected similar strong potassic alteration with several hydrothermally brecciated and fractured zones with narrow quartz veins. Sampling is in progress, assays pending.

The drill has been moved to Ann North Prospect where interpretation of geological, geochemical and geophysical data from historical shallow drilling indicates mineralization (including 234.1 m grading 0.24% copper and .34 gpt gold in Hole AN04-19) projects to depth. AN21-02 will test this target.

"It's good to be back drilling at Lac La Hache," said EnGold President and CEO David Brett. "Our bold new strategy to target deeper porphyry mineralization is unfolding and we expect to be adding a second drill in the coming weeks."

Rob Shives P.Geo., VP Exploration and a Qualified Person as defined under National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved the technical content of this release.

About EnGold

EnGold is a Vancouver-based copper, gold, silver, magnetite exploration company focused solely on its 100% owned Lac La Hache property in the Cariboo region of BC which hosts the Spout Copper Deposit, the Aurizon Gold Deposit and the G1 Copper Deposit and other targets within a large porphyry mineralizing system. With world class infrastructure at its doorstep, Lac La Hache is a great location to be exploring.

EnGold Mines Ltd.

David Brett

President & CEO

For further info contact David Brett, 604-682-2421 or david@engold.ca

This news release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the expected use of proceeds of the financing. Such statements and information are based on numerous assumptions regarding present and future business strategies and the environment in which EnGold will operate in the future. Certain important factors that could cause actual results, performances or achievements to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements include, amongst others, the global economic climate, dilution, share price volatility and competition. Although EnGold has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. EnGold does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/96595
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - September 15, 2021) - Canadian Silver Hunter Inc. (TSXV: AGH.H) ("Canadian Silver Hunter" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that drilling has commenced at the Lost Dog property in Denton Township west of Timmins, Ontario.

Past geophysical surveys have identified a consistent magnetic low that crosses the property associated with Induced Polarization chargeability anomalies. The magnetic low may be an expression of an extension or splay of the Destor Porcupine Fault that has been linked to numerous gold deposits in the prolific Timmins Gold Camp. Drill targets for this initial exploratory drill program have been identified using these geophysical and soil geochemical survey results, to test structure and geology on the property.

The contents of this press release have been reviewed by Wayne Holmstead, P.Geo, Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.

About Canadian Silver Hunter Inc.

Canadian Silver Hunter Inc. is a Canadian mineral exploration company focused on gold, silver and cobalt exploration in Ontario and Quebec. Canadian Silver Hunter currently owns three properties: the Silver-Centre property which includes the prolific past producing Keeley and Frontier mines, located near Cobalt, Ontario; the Lac Lachance property, located in the Windfall Lake area near Lebel sur Quevillon, Quebec; the Dark Horse and Whitesides property located near West Timmins, Ontario, and has an option to acquire a 100% interest in the Lost Dog property, located near Timmins, Ontario.

For further details about Canadian Silver Hunter's projects, plans and results please visit Canadian Silver Hunter Inc. website at www.canadiansilverhunter.ca.

For more information please contact:

Jeffrey Hunter

President & CEO

(416) 707-4230

jhunter@cshi.ca

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT: 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.

Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Information

Certain information set forth in this news release may contain forward-looking information that involves substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties. This forward-looking information is subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond the control of the Company, including, but not limited to, the impact of general economic conditions, industry conditions, dependence upon regulatory approvals, and commodity prices. Readers are cautioned that the assumptions used in the preparation of such information, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, undue reliance should not be placed on forward looking information. The parties undertake no obligation to update forward-looking information except as otherwise may be required by applicable securities law.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/96620.
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - September 15, 2021) - Appia Energy Corp. (CSE: API) (OTCQB: APAAF) (FSE: A0I.F) (FSE: A0I.MU) (FSE: A0I.BE) (the "Company" or "Appia") today announced that The Depository Trust Company ("DTC") has completed the Eligibility review and has approved the Company's shares as being DTC full service eligible. This will facilitate investors in the United States in trading, settlement and clearance of Appia's shares on the OTCQB Venture Market under the symbol APAAF. Investors in the United States can find current financial disclosure and Real-Time level 2 quotes in US currency on www.otcmarkets.com.

About Appia

Appia is a Canadian publicly-listed company in the uranium and rare earth element sectors and is currently in its largest exploration and diamond drilling program in the Company's history, focusing on delineating very high-grade deposits of rare earths, gallium and uranium on the Alces Lake property, as well as exploring for high-grade uranium in the prolific Athabasca Basin on its Loranger, North Wollaston, and Eastside properties. The Company holds the surface rights to exploration for 83,706 hectares (206,842 acres) in Saskatchewan. The Company also has a 100% interest in 12,545 hectares (31,000 acres), with rare earth element and uranium deposits over five mineralized zones in the Elliot Lake Camp, Ontario.

Appia has 108.2 million common shares outstanding, 128.4 million shares fully diluted.

For more information, visit Appia's website at www.appiaenergy.ca or contact:

Tom Drivas, CEO and Director: (cell) 416-876-3957, (fax) 416-218-9772 or (email) appia@appiaenergy.ca

Frederick Kozak, President: (cell) 403-606-3165 or (email) fkozak@appiaenergy.ca

Frank van de Water, Chief Financial Officer and Director, (tel) 416-546-2707, (fax) 416-218-9772 or (email) fvandewater@rogers.com

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/96626
LONDON, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Being increasingly perceived as among the most promising materials in the world of next-generation energy, graphite is set to uphold a multi-billion-dollar market. Predominantly driven by the demand in green energy technologies, theglobal graphite market is projected for a robust CAGR of 8.5% during 2021 - 2025. A recent study of Fairfield Market Research forecasts that the global market valuation of graphite will exceed US$26 Bn toward the end of 2025. Besides high electrical conductivity, the other favourable attributes of graphite like superior mechanical strength, excellent lubricity, and desirable thermal shock resistance will account for the flourishing market outlook.

For more insights into the Market, Get a Sample Copy of Global Graphite Market: https://www.fairfieldmarketresearch.com/report/graphite-market/request-sample

Natural, and Synthetic Graphite Receive a Push from Li-ion Battery Sales for EVs

On the back of its superior conductivity, and purity, the synthetic variant continues to dominate in the global market, capturing over 60% of the total market value. The report indicates a broad range of its applications, including synthetic carbon, electrodes, Li-ion battery anodes, foundries, lubricants, refractory materials, graphite shapes, coatings, conductive fillers, and recarburisers. However, a majority of consumption is recorded by the application in electrodes that are utilised in melting furnaces, and electric arc furnaces (EAF) at silicon, as well as steel plants.

On the other hand, the natural variant of graphite has been garnering preference in flexible graphite production - ultimately to be used in rechargeable Li-ion batteries. With an expanding application base in battery storage, and thermal management, the demand for natural graphite is expected to see an upward trend in the near future. The rise of e-mobility, and consecutively exploding electric vehicle (EV) sales will continue to benefit market growth.

COVID-19 Impact on Graphite Market

Like a majority of metallurgy-related sectors, the graphite market also experienced the wrath of the global COVID-19 outbreak. The market growth was severely challenged throughout 2020 and beyond as all the key end-use industries, including EVs, electronics, and automotive, witnessed a heavy plunge amid the pandemic. With signs of revival visible in automotive, steel, and Li-ion battery production sectors, graphite sales are likely to gradually climb up in the near future.

Do You Have Any Query Or Specific Requirement? Request Customization of Report: https://www.fairfieldmarketresearch.com/report/graphite-market/request-customization

Asia Pacific Maintains Lead; China Remains Global Graphite Hub

Asia Pacific, with the volume share of more than 55% in the global graphite market, will continue to dominate throughout the forecast period. Being the world's largest steel, automobile, and rechargeable Li-ion battery manufacturer, China is expected to prevail its hegemony as the global hub for graphite. China, leading in term of both production capacity, and consumption of graphite electrodes, also registers more than 60% captive consumption. Steelmaking industry predominantly drives this consumption, upholding China's top rank in the global graphite landscape.

An increasing number of steel plants across the country, coupled with swelling steel consumption for niche application areas, point to a promising outlook for the graphite market in China. Significant growth in the ultra-high power (UHP) graphite electrodes is also expected to uplift the growth prospects of Chinese market. Ascending adoption of energy storage systems (ESS), and new energy vehicles (NEVs) further support the graphite market expansion in the country. Government support, and initiatives like New Energy Vehicle Subsidy Program that encourage EV production, and sales will remain crucial to the graphite market build-up here. India is also an important contributor to the market in Asia Pacific.

Key Market Players

Nacional de Grafite, Shanshan Technology, Shenzhen BTR New Materials, Showa Denko Materials Co. Ltd., Aoyu Graphite Group, and Qingdao Haida Graphite Co., Ltd.

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CHICAGO, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- In-depth analysis and data-driven insights on the impact of COVID-19 included in this Vietnam data center market report.

Vietnam data center market size is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 8.18% during the period 2020-2026. Vietnam data center market research report includes market size in terms of area, investment, power capacity, and colocation revenues. Get insights on 21 existing and 3 upcoming facilities spread across 4 cities, including Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, and other cities (including Binh Duong Province and Da Nang).

Key Highlights Offered in the Report:

Vietnam is one of the emerging data center markets within Southeast Asia , with the COVID-19 pandemic and resultant acceleration of digitalization, data localization requirements, government initiatives, low start-up costs, and global connectivity expected to boost the market in the coming years. Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City are the two major locations for data center development. Hanoi has 12 unique third-party data center facilities accounting for around 60% of the existing power capacity. The country's Law on Cybersecurity (LCS), introduced in 2019, requires data of Vietnamese users to be stored in Vietnam itself by local and offshore service providers. Considering the population of Vietnam , the data localization requirements are expected to boost the data center market in the country. Major data center service providers include NTT Global Data Centers, VNTT, FPT Telecom, CMC Telecommunication Infrastructure Corporation (CMC Telecom), Viettel, Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT), and Telehouse Vietnam that operate data centers in the country. Vietnam has over 110 SEZs, including those set up to encourage data center investments. For example, Viettel IDC cloud system is in Hoa Lac High-tech Industrial Park. In addition, VNPT's Thang Long Data Center is located in Thang Long Industrial Park. Vietnam is aiming to generate around 30% of its electricity via renewable sources and reduce its Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions by 8% by 2030. By 2045, renewable energy is expected to contribute to over 50% of the overall capacity. Data center operators in Vietnam are increasingly investing in efficient data center operations.

Key Offerings:

Market Size & Forecast by Area, Power Capacity, Investment, and Colocation Revenue | 2020-2026

Impact of COVID-19 on Data Center Market

Snapshot of existing and upcoming third-party facilities in Vietnam

Facilities Covered (Existing): 25



Facilities Identified (Upcoming): 2



Coverage: 3 cities



Existing vs. Upcoming (Data Center Area)



Existing vs. Upcoming (IT Load Capacity)

Data center colocation market in Vietnam

Market Revenue & Forecast (2020-2026)



Retail Colocation Pricing



Wholesale Colocation Pricing

Market Dynamics - Leading trends, growth drivers, restraints, and investment opportunities

Market Segmentation - A detailed analysis by IT infrastructure, electrical infrastructure, mechanical infrastructure, general construction, and tier standard

Key Market Participants - List of 12 IT infrastructure providers, 8 construction service providers, 18 support infrastructure providers, and 8 data center investors

Get your sample today! https://www.arizton.com/market-reports/vietnam-data-center-market-investment-analysis

Vietnam Data Center Market - Segmentation

The adoption of advanced technologies such as cloud, IoT, Big Data, and artificial intelligence by enterprises will lead to higher adoption of high-performance computing infrastructure during the forecast period. Telecommunication providers, retail and e-commerce, manufacturing, and professional services are the top demand generators in the Vietnam data center market, increasing the demand for servers and promoting procurement of high-performance infrastructure solutions.

data center market, increasing the demand for servers and promoting procurement of high-performance infrastructure solutions. FPT Telecom's Ho Chi Minh City data center facility is installed with two UPS systems with 1,250 kVA power capacity. In addition, FPT Telecom's Fornix data center facility in Hanoi is equipped with 2N redundancy of 1,500 kVA UPS system.

data center facility is installed with two UPS systems with 1,250 kVA power capacity. In addition, FPT Telecom's Fornix data center facility in is equipped with 2N redundancy of 1,500 kVA UPS system. In Vietnam , data centers will include both air and water-based cooling systems with N+1 redundancy. Certain data center facilities are installing chillers with a redundancy of N+1, whereas large facilities are being powered by water-based cooling techniques.

Market Segmentation by IT Infrastructure

Servers

Storage Systems

Network Infrastructure

Market Segmentation by Electrical Infrastructure

UPS Systems

Generators

Transfer, Switches & Switchgears

Rack PDUs

Other Electrical Infrastructure

Market Segmentation by Mechanical Infrastructure

Cooling Systems

Rack Cabinets

Other Mechanical Infrastructure

Market Segmentation by General Construction

Building Development

Installation & Commissioning Services

Building Design

Physical Security

Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM)

Market Segmentation by Tier Standard

Tier I & Tier II

Tier III

Tier IV

Vietnam Data Center Market - Dynamics

As part of Industry 4.0 and increased digitalization in the country, Vietnamese government and enterprises are investing heavily on IoT and big data. In May 2021, Kerlink partnered with Vietnamese IoT startup, Cloud Energy, to develop new solutions for IoT services in rural areas around Ho Chi Minh City and collaborating on smart-building and energy-management projects. In April 2021, SonKim Land Corporation, Qualcomm Technologies, and Infinite Computer Solutions collaborated to provide comprehensive Internet of Things (IoT) solutions to the 9 Stellars Project, creating a luxury smart city, in Vietnam. In 2020, SAS, the US software analytics firm, partnered with local partner TMA Solutions to provide artificial intelligence (AI) and data analytics solutions to Vietnam's enterprises. Vietnam's software outsourcing services are also booming. According to the Ministry of Information and Communications, in 2018, Vietnam exported around $3.5 billion worth software to other countries. Viettel is involved in the process of developing a platform using NB-IoT technology-related services for its customers. Viettel has deployed around 1,000 NB-IoT stations to cover the entire Ho Chi Minh City, followed by Hanoi city that has deployed around 500 NB-IoT broadcasting stations.

Key Drivers and Trends fueling Market Growth:

Cloud Adoption is Driving Data Center Demand

Rise in Submarine Cable Investment

COVID-19 Impact on Vietnam Data Centers

Rise in 5G Network Connectivity

Vietnam Data Center Market - Existing Vs. Upcoming Data Centers

Existing Facilities in the region (White Floor Area and Power Capacity)

Hanoi

Ho Chi Minh City

Other Cities

List of Upcoming Facilities in the region (White Floor Area and Power Capacity)

Get your sample today! https://www.arizton.com/market-reports/vietnam-data-center-market-investment-analysis

Key Market Participants

IT Infrastructure Providers

Cisco Systems

Dell Technologies

Fujitsu

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)

Huawei Technologies

Hitachi Vantara

IBM

Internet Initiative Japan (IIJ)

Juniper Networks

NEC Vietnam (NEC)

(NEC) NetApp

Oracle

Construction Constructors & Sub-Contractors

Aurecon

Archetype Group

AWP Architects

Apave

Delta Group

GreenViet

Sato Kogyo

Universal Smart Data Center Technology (USDC Technology)

Support Infrastructure Providers

ABB

Cummins

Caterpillar

Climaveneta Climate Technologies (Mitsubishi Electric)

Cyber Power Systems

Delta Electronics

Eaton

Fuji Electric

HITEC Power Protection

KOHLER

Legrand

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation

Rittal

Schneider Electric

Siemens

STULZ

Trane Technologies ( Ingersoll Rand )

) Vertiv Group

Data Center Investors

CMC Telecommunication Infrastructure Corporation (CMC Telecom)

FPT Telecom

Global Data Service (GDS)

NTT Global Data Centers

Telehouse

VNTT

Viettel IDC

Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT)

Explore our data center knowledge base profile to know more about the industry.

Read some of the top-selling reports:

Singapore Data Center Market - Investment Analysis and Growth Opportunities 2021-2026

India Data Center Market - Investment Analysis and Growth Opportunities 2021-2026

Hong Kong Data Center Market - Investment Analysis and Growth Opportunities 2021-2026

Thailand Data Center Market - Investment Analysis and Growth Opportunities 2021-2026

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STOCKHOLM, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Minesto's CEO Dr Martin Edlund has been nominated for the industry body Ocean Energy Europe's Vi Maris Award. Vi Maris ("Force of the Sea") recognises individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the development of the ocean energy sector. The winner will be announced at the annual OEE conference in December 2021.

Martin Edlund is nominated for the award for having "relentlessly driven forward tidal kite technology across several countries, attracting significant private investment, industry partnerships and media attention in the process."

The Vi Maris Award is presented for the third year and the award winner is selected by a subcommittee of Ocean Energy Europe's board consisting of individuals with extensive experience in the ocean energy sector and who are not affiliated to a particular company.

"I am very honored to be nominated for this year's Vi Maris Award. The nomination is a natural consequence of Minesto's Deep Green technology today being perceived as a breakthrough technology that opens up a new and so far unused renewable energy resource", said Martin Edlund.

"Minesto is a leading player in adding marine energy as an essential part of the solution to the world's climate challenge. Being able to work towards this and drive the development of the ocean energy industry forward is extremely inspiring both for me personally and for the entire Minesto team."

For additional information, please contact

Minesto

Press & Media

press@minesto.com

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/minesto-ab/r/minesto-s-ceo-martin-edlund-nominated-for-the-industry-award-vi-maris,c3415803

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OTTAWA (dpa-AFX) - Canadian Pacific Railway Limited (CP, CP.TO) has agreed to acquire Kansas City Southern (KSU) or 'KCS' in a stock and cash transaction representing an enterprise value of about US$31 billion, which includes the assumption of $3.8 billion of outstanding KCS debt, the companies said in a statement.



The transaction values KCS at $300 per share, representing a 34 percent premium, based on the CP closing price on August9, 2021, the date prior to which CP submitted a revised offer to acquire KCS, and KCS' unaffected closing price on March 19, 2021.



CP President and Chief Executive Officer Keith Creel will serve as the Chief Executive Officer of the combined company. The combined entity will be named Canadian Pacific Kansas City or 'CPKC'.



Calgary will be the global headquarters of CPKC, and Kansas City, Missouri will be the U.S. headquarters. The Mexico headquarters will remain in Mexico City and Monterrey. CP's current U.S. headquarters in Minneapolis-St. Paul will remain an important base of operations.



Following the closing into a voting trust, common shareholders of KCS will receive 2.884 CP shares and $90 in cash for each KCS common share held. Preferred shareholders will receive $37.50 in cash for each KCS preferred share held.



The companies expect the transaction to close and KCS shareholders to receive their consideration in the first-quarter of 2022.



The U.S. Surface Transportation Board or STB review of CP's proposed control of KCS is expected to be completed in the second half of 2022. Upon obtaining control approval, the two companies will be integrated fully over the ensuing three years, unlocking the benefits of the combination.



Earlier today, Kansas City Southern said it has terminated merger agreement with Canadian National Railway Company (CNR.TO, CNI) or CN, and is entering into a merger agreement with CP.



In connection with the termination of the CN merger agreement, KCS will pay CN a breakup fee of $700 million and will also pay CN an additional $700 million in return of the $700 million previously paid by CN to KCS to reimburse the termination fee paid to CP in May.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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First dry port of its kind will connect the region's fully integrated energy hub to the world

KHOBAR, Saudi Arabia and HONG KONG, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- SPARK and Hutchison Ports are pleased to announce the signing of a shareholders' agreement for the formation of a joint venture to manage and operate the dry port and bonded logistics zone in the SPARK energy industrial city. Designed to ensure ease of access to global markets, the three-square-kilometre dry port will enable the future joint venture to capture the growing demand for logistics services for energy-related products in the Middle East and beyond while also serving the neighboring industrial cities.

SPARK is a sustainable, global energy hub in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province. The mega project, which spans over 50 square kilometres, is a manufacturing, service center and logistics hub for the energy sectors and is an integral part of the Saudi Vision 2030. SPARK will create significant employment, further diversify the economy, and attract additional foreign investment into the Kingdom.

Mr. Mohammed Y. Al-Qahtani, Chairman of SPARK, summarised the significance of the agreement: "We are so proud to give investors another reason to do business at SPARK. Hutchison Ports is a world class ports and terminal operator, and the step we take together today will give SPARK's investors ease of access to local and global markets. Furthermore, the logistic hubs will also serve the eastern region and its industrial cities. It will also help us fulfil our IKTVA promise to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the world by giving local manufacturers the physical infrastructure they need."

Group Managing Director of Hutchison Ports, Mr. Eric Ip, added: "Saudi Arabia is an important market and we are very excited to participate in this ambitious, game-changing mega project. As the world's leading port group, we will leverage our logistics expertise to create value and competitiveness for the tenants of SPARK."

Commenting at the ceremony, Mr. Saif Al Qahtani, SPARK President and CEO said: "Our partnership with Hutchison Ports marks an important milestone in the ongoing development of SPARK. The dry port and logistics zone will be the key to unlocking the potential of our strategic location in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia, a region which is known for its unmatched oil and gas resources. We are tremendously excited to work with Hutchison Ports to help connect our investors to the world, allowing them to operate efficiently and save on transport times and costs."

SPARK's first phase is divided into a number of clusters: logistics zone, industrial hub, business district, digital hub, and residential and commercial areas. The dedicated three-square-kilometre dry port and logistics zone will include warehouses and storage facilities, a bonded area and on-site customs clearance.

Notes to the Editor:

Hutchison Ports is the ports and related services division of CK Hutchison Holdings Limited. Hutchison Ports is the world's leading port investor, developer and operator with a network of port operations in 52 ports spanning 26 countries throughout Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, the Americas and Australasia. Over the years, Hutchison Ports has expanded into other logistics and transportation-related businesses, including cruise ship terminals, distribution centres, rail services and ship repair facilities.

In 2020, Hutchison Ports handled a combined throughput of 83.7 million TEU.

For more information, please visit www.hutchisonports.com.

About King Salman Energy Park (SPARK)

King Salman Energy Park (SPARK) is a fully integrated industrial ecosystem. SPARK spans an area of 50 square kilometres and is being developed with a vision to become the leading gateway to the regional energy sector, providing a complete spectrum of solutions to support business growth in the Kingdom. SPARK is also the first and only industrial city in the world to achieve silver LEED certification.

SPARK offers infrastructure at international standards for global investors in the oil and gas, refining, petrochemical, power and water production and treatment industries.

Execution is planned over three phases. SPARK has completed 80% of its first phase, which consists of infrastructure, roads, utilities and real estate assets established across 14 square kilometres; phase one is set to be completed in 2021. This is in addition to a dedicated three-square kilometres dry port and logistics zone.

www.spark-ksa.com

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Kolkata, India--(Newsfile Corp. - September 15, 2021) - SAFCOIN claims its spot alongside the world's hottest cryptocurrencies; becomes first South African crypto to be listed on a global trading platform.

SAF

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

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SAFCOIN, Africa's first Proof of Work (POW) coin that launched exclusively to South African buyers in 2018, is going global with its listing on HotBit, one of the world's leading cryptocurrency trading platforms.

The list date is scheduled for mid-September 2021.

As the first local cryptocurrency to be offered to the global market - and with only 10 million coins available and 8.7 million already circulating - the HotBit listing gives international investors the opportunity to own a native African cryptocurrency that's driven by a core purpose: to make investing in crypto easy, accessible, and understandable for everyone in Africa.

Africa's Pride

SAFCOIN CEO Neil Ferreira says: "SAFCOIN really is Africa's pride. It's been amazing to watch our vision come to life, and it keeps growing from strength to strength, connecting and empowering more Africans across the continent every day."

He says they never intended SAFCOIN to be 'just another cryptocurrency' but wanted to demystify crypto for the man on the street and provide him with tools and resources to participate in the digital currency revolution. The ultimate goal was to see SAFCOIN become a widely and globally accepted form of payment that in turn boosts African trade and simplifies cross-border payment processes. With the HotBit listing, it seems nothing can stop SAFCOIN's growth and impact.

"There's a lot more to cryptocurrencies than just profiting from it," says Ferreira. "Individuals can be empowered, marketplaces can be opened, cross-border trade can be supported, and social and economic growth can be stimulated. This is why SAFCOIN was created: to help people while also empowering them to help themselves."

SAFCOIN Listing

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:

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About SAFCOIN

SAFECOIN is a family. Literally. The SAFCOIN project, first launched in 2018 by founders Neil and Michela Ferreira, together with Tony Ferreira, is a pioneering venture tailored to the increased need for broad-based digitisation on the African frontier. SAFCOIN in itself is more than just a cryptocurrency and boasts within it an extensive network of functions united under the SAFCOIN umbrella.

Over and above its accolade as the first Proof-of-Work cryptocurrency on the continent, the SAFCOIN eco-system has been developed to accelerate Africa's small -to medium businesses and freelance participation in a global economy.



Total Supply 10,000,000

Company WhitePaper:

https://www.safcoin.africa/SAFCOINWhitepaper2.0.pdf

Journey to the global stage

SAFCOIN has achieved many firsts for the South African crypto market in three years.

Highlights include:

2018:

Blockchain company FHM (Pty) Ltd issues an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) for 500,000 SAFCOIN tokens. The ICO was only open exclusively to South Africans.

for 500,000 SAFCOIN tokens. The ICO was only open exclusively to South Africans. Launches bespoke, decentralised blockchain mainnet, built using a Scrypt algorithm; the centralised SAFCOIN Exchange; and SAFCOIN Wallets on Android and iOS.

mainnet, built using a Scrypt algorithm; the centralised and on Android and iOS. On 12 December, the Safcoin blockchain went live.

2019:

Launches SA's first "plug-and-play" SAFCOIN mining opportunity , allowing new, small, and start-up miners to earn a passive monthly income by mining SAFCOIN.

, allowing new, small, and start-up miners to earn a passive monthly income by mining SAFCOIN. Launches SAFPay, a secure crypto ecommerce payment gateway.

Western Cape Government invites SAFCOIN to discuss on regulatory framework for cryptocurrency and exchanges in South Africa.

2020:

Expands into Nigeria and Uganda.

Launches MobiJobs , Africa's first blockchain-powered micro jobs platform that connects businesses and gig economy workers across Africa.

that connects businesses and gig economy workers across Africa. Launches SAFCOIN pool mining programme.

2021:

Launches Cryptovalley , an e-commerce platform powered by SAFCOIN and SAFPAY that allows small businesses to sell and pay for products with crypto.

powered by SAFCOIN and SAFPAY that allows small businesses to sell and pay for products with crypto. First locally founded digital currency to list internationally with HotBit debut.

Where to buy SAFCOIN:

SAFCOIN Exchange

HotBit

Catex and P2Pb2B

To learn more about SAFCOIN or to create an account, visit https://www.safcoin.co.za or download the SAFCOIN app for Android or iOS.

Safcoin Review Video in Hindi: Safcoin Review.

Media contact details:

Avijit Dutta

Email address - ceo.digitalrider@gmail.com

Phone number - +91 6289211452

Website - http://digitalrider.website2.me/

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/96616
Qatar's leading telecommunications operator has announced it has been certified as a Best Place to Work in Qatar for 2021.

Best Places to Work is an international certification programme, considered the 'Platinum Standard' in identifying and recognising top workplaces around the world. The programme provides employers the opportunity to learn more about the engagement and satisfaction of their employees, and honours those employers who deliver an outstanding work experience with the highest standards of working conditions.

This certification is based on the feedback given by employees who participated in the survey focusing on employee satisfaction with a number of factors including workplace culture, opportunities for growth and people practices in addition to an independent and rigorous review of the company's Human Resources (HR) policy and practices.

Ooredoo's 82% score is outstanding in several aspects of its workplace, such as learning and development, leadership, talent strategy, culture and career and succession.

With this recognition, Ooredoo joins a prestigious group of companies worldwide that are dedicated to excellence in HR and committed to upholding the highest standards in the workplace environment including Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, Accenture, Nestle and Coca Cola.

Sabah Rabiah Al-Kuwari Director PR at Ooredoo said: "We are extremely proud of this achievement, as a firm commitment to recruiting, training and developing the next generation of talent from within the markets in which we operate is a key pillar of our corporate strategy. We will strive to continually improve our people practices to increase employee engagement which, in turn, will help generate higher satisfaction for our customers. We look forward to continuing to demonstrate our commitment to our people in the years to come."

Eman Mubarak Al Khater Chief Human Resource Officer at Ooredoo Qatar said: I am extremely pleased to receive this recognition on behalf of our employees. This certification reiterates our core belief in driving business excellence through our people."

Ooredoo Qatar joins a number of other Ooredoo Group operating companies also certified as a Best Place to Work; Ooredoo Oman, Ooredoo Maldives and Ooredoo Algeria.

About Ooredoo

Ooredoo is Qatar's leading communications company, delivering mobile, fixed, broadband internet and corporate managed services tailored to the needs of consumers and businesses. As a community-focused company, Ooredoo is guided by its vision of enriching people's lives and its belief that it can stimulate human growth by leveraging communications to help people achieve their full potential.

Twitter: @OoredooQatar

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ooredooqatar/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ooredooQatar

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/OoredooQatar

Website: www.ooredoo.qa

For more information about the program, visit www.bestplacestoworkfor.org

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005772/en/

Contacts:

Maria Mercedes

maria@bestplacestoworkfor.org

+44 208 895 6562
Family-owned and operated business now has 15 convenient express car wash locations

SAN DIEGO, CA / ACCESSWIRE / September 15, 2021 / Soapy Joe's , the local family-owned car wash, has announced the opening of its new Friars Road location, the latest of four car washes to be built in San Diego County within the last 18 months. The grand opening event will be held on Wednesday, Sept. 15 from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. and will be held at the newest car wash location: 10383 Friars Rd., just off the 15 freeway in Mission Valley. Honorary guests for the event will include: Raul Campillo, San Diego City Councilmember for District 7, Rob Hutsel, President and CEO of the San Diego River Park Foundation and COO of Soapy Joe's, Megan Ragsdale.

"We are thrilled to continue to grow our Mission Valley community," said Lorens Attisha, Founder and CEO of Soapy Joe's. "For every new location opening, we provide more than an essential service, but jobs that will continue to flourish the community."

San Diego City Councilmember Raul Campillo will attend and deliver remarks at the grand opening event. Additionally, Soapy Joe's COO, Megan Ragsdale will be in attendance to say a few words, followed by the presentation of a $1,000 donation to support The San Diego River Park Foundation. Rob Hutsel, President and CEO of The San Diego River Park Foundation, will be in attendance to accept the donation and make remarks. This is Soapy Joe's second contribution this year to the foundation. Free Magic Joe washes will be available to the public during the event.

Soapy Joe's will also be offering new members in the area the opportunity to join for $5 for their first month, online or at Friars Rd. through Sept. 31.

The new location is the 15th in San Diego County after the recent opening in Mission Gorge off of Camino Del Rio North earlier this year. Additional locations in San Diego near SDSU, in Miramar and El Cajon are slated to open in the coming months. For more information about Soapy Joe's, please visit www.soapyjoescarwash.com .

About Soapy Joe's

Soapy Joe's is a locally owned family business with multiple locations serving San Diego County. Soapy Joe's prides itself in its commitment to the environment, using advanced water reclamation systems, and earning the International Carwash Associations WaterSavers designation. This year is especially poignant for Soapy Joe's as it celebrates the brand's 10-year anniversary. Over the past 10 years Soapy Joe's has donated nearly 100,000 free washes, benefiting communities such as veterans, healthcare workers, schools, hospitals, and firefighters, and more.?The Soapy Joe's community extends to its employees as well, where the company adds 20 new jobs with each new site opening.? Soapy Joe's prides itself not just on their contribution to the environment but the community and members as well. Soapy Joe's was recently named the winner of a Gold Stevie Award in the PR Campaign of the Year category in the 19th Annual American Business Awards for its Tunnel of Love 2020 campaign. For more information, current brand news and updates please visit www.soapyjoescarwash.com and follow Soapy Joes on Instagram @soapyjoes .

Media Contact/On-Site Contact:

Lauren Spinelli

Public Relations Account Manager

lauren.spinelli@powerdigitalmarketing.com

SOURCE: Soapy Joe's Car Wash

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/664109/Soapy-Joes-Car-Wash-Continues-San-Diego-County-Expansion-With-Grand-Opening-Celebration-of-New-Friars-Road-Location
Future Market Insights (FMI) survey on mud pumps market reveals key factors impacting the pace of the market growth through 2031. The survey also offers comprehensive overview of key factors affecting growth across segments in terms of product type, driving system, and application. It also discloses popular strategies adopted by market leaders to increase mud pumps sales globally.

DUBAI, U.A.E, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The global mud pumps market is projected to surpass US$ 1.1 Bn by 2031, in comparison to the valuation of US$ 872.2 million estimated in 2021, as per FMI's analysis. Owing to the increasing application across mining and oil & gas industries, the market for mud pumps is anticipated to expand at a CAGR of 3.4% over the assessment period, from 2021 to 2031.

Increasing exploration activities undertaken to meet the growing demand for energy across various the world is spurring the sales of mud pumps. Governments of several countries are adopting initiatives for expanding the mining operations.

For instance, in March 2021, Coal India Ltd. (CIL) announced approving 32 new coal mining projects, as per a report by the India Brand Equity Foundation. As mud pumps assist in reaching greater depths every hour and save rig operator time and money, they are increasingly being utilized in mining activities.

The rise in adoption of such initiatives will facilitate the mining industry's growth, consequently, providing lucrative sales opportunities for the market players.

Onshore drilling application accounts for the lion's share, contributing nearly 80% of the revenue in the market. In response to the increasing demand for 7500 psi mud pumps for onshore oil well drilling activities in the countries such as Saudi Arabia, China, the U.S., Oman, and India among others, the segment is projected to grow by 1.4X over the next ten years.

"Manufacturers are emphasizing on developing advanced configuration mud pumps with compact structure to make them suitable for high-pressure drilling operations. Launch of such novel mud pumps will facilitate the market growth in the coming year," says the FMI analyst.

Request a report sample to gain comprehensive insights at https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-8990

Key Takeaways from FMI's Mud Pumps Market Analysis

Favored by the increasing demand from the oil & gas industry in the U.S., the North America market is forecast to expand by 1.2X over the assessment period 2021-31.

market is forecast to expand by 1.2X over the assessment period 2021-31. China is projected to emerge as a remunerative market for mud pumps in the coming year, owing to the discovery of new oil reservoirs in Western China .

is projected to emerge as a remunerative market for mud pumps in the coming year, owing to the discovery of new oil reservoirs in . The market in India is estimated to grow at a rapid pace, on the back of increasing government initiatives to expand mining and oil & gas sector in the country.

is estimated to grow at a rapid pace, on the back of increasing government initiatives to expand mining and oil & gas sector in the country. Triplex mud pumps are expected to account for a substantial revenue share, driven by the extensive adoption for deep oil well drilling activities.

Based on driven system, electric pumps are gaining immense traction among end use industries due to stringent regulatory norms concerning environment friendliness.

Key Drivers

Rising oil & gas exploration activities in countries such as China , Saudi Arabia , and others are propelling the demand for mud pumps.

, , and others are propelling the demand for mud pumps. Rapid expansion of the mining and oil & gas industries will create sales opportunities.

Government initiatives undertaken to encourage investment in new mining projects will spur the sales of mud pumps.

Key Restraints

High cost of mud pumps is a key factor hindering the growth of the market.

Lesser adoption of mud pumps due to lack of awareness in developing and underdeveloped countries is restraining the market growth.

Discover more about the mud pumps analysis with figures and data tables, along with the table of contents. , Ask an Analyst@ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/ask-question/rep-gb-8990

Competitive Landscape

Leading players operating in the global mud pumps market are currently emphasizing introducing novel products to meet the changing consumer preferences. Other market players are aiming at adopting strategies such as collaboration, mergers & acquisitions, and partnership in order to strengthen their market position. For instance,

In 2019, Xylem, a large American water technology provider, announced introducing its new product named, Flygt N3069. It is a stainless steel submersible pump specially designed to address the rigid pumping obstacles. The product launch will assist the company to expand in consumer base in acquaculture and industrial foods applications.

In 2021, Sulzer, a leadering in fluid engineering company, announced the acquisition of a key supplier of water treatment technology, Nordic Water.The acquisition will assist the Sulzer to expand its offering to the water treatment sector.

Leading players in the mud pumps market profiled by FMI are:

National Oil Varco Inc.

Schlumberger Limited

Gardner Denver Inc.

Weatherford International Plc.

China National Petroleum Corporation

Trevi-Finanziaria Industriale S.p.A.

MhWirth

BenTech GmbH Drilling Oilfield systems

American Block Inc.

Honghua Group Limited

White Star Pump Company LLC

Flowserve corporation

Ohara Corporation

Mud King Products, Inc.

Herrenknecht Vertical GmbH

More Valuable Insights on Mud Pumps Market

FMI, in its new report, offers an unbiased analysis of the global mud pumps market, analyzing forecast statistics through 2021 and beyond. The survey reveals growth projections on in mud pumps market with detailed segmentation:

Product Type:

Duplex

Triplex

Quintuplex

Driven System:

Electric

Fuel Engine

Application:

Onshore

Offshore

Region:

North America

Latin America

Europe

South Asia & Pacific

& Pacific East Asia

Middle East & Africa

We Offer tailor-made Solutions to fit Your Requirements, Request Customization@ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/customization-available/rep-gb-8990

Key Questions Covered in the Report

The report offers insight into mud pumps market demand outlook for the forecast period 2021-2031

The market study also highlights projected sales growth for mud pumps market between 2021 and 2031

Mud pumps market survey identifies key growth drivers, restraints, and other forces impacting prevailing trends and evaluation of current market size and forecast and technological advancements within the industry

Mud pumps market share analysis, covering key companies within the industry and coverage of strategies such as mergers & acquisitions, joint ventures, collaborations or partnerships, and others

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TwentyFour Income Fund - Notice of AGM

TwentyFour Income Fund Limited

(a closed-ended investment company incorporated in Guernsey with registration number 56128)

LEI Number: 549300CCEV00IH2SU369

(The "Company")

15 September 2021

NOTICE OF ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Notice is hereby given that the 2021 Annual General Meeting of the Company will be held at the offices of Northern Trust International Fund Administration Services (Guernsey) Limited, Trafalgar Court, Les Banques, St Peter Port, Guernsey on 14 October 2021 at 9.15am.

The Notice of AGM has been posted to shareholders.

In accordance with Listing Rule 9.6.3, the Notice of Annual General Meeting, proxy form and accounts have been submitted to the National Storage Mechanism and will shortly be available for inspection at: https://data.fca.org.uk/#/nsm/nationalstoragemechanism

Enquiries:

Northern Trust International Fund Administration Services (Guernsey) Limited

The Company Secretary

Trafalgar Court

Les Banques

St Peter Port

Guernsey

GY1 3QL



Tel: 01481 745001

END
Tikehau Capital's value-creation strategy in the alternative asset management space, combined with an increasingly profitable business model and a robust balance sheet, has powered the firm to deliver strong growth during the first half of 2021.

Double-digit growth from top to bottom line Record high fundraising over the last twelve months with 5.5bn 1 in net new money since 30 June 2020 for the asset management business, of which 2.4bn was raised during H1 2021 20% growth for Group assets under management (AuM) over the last 12 months, reaching 30.9bn at end-June 2021, driven by a 23% increase in AuM for the asset management business at 29.4bn Rapid expansion of Tikehau Capital's range of impact-investing products across the Group's asset classes Management fees 2 up +39% yoy to 121.1m with average fee rate increasing to 1.04% at end-June 2021 (vs. 0.94% at end-June 2020) Fee-related earnings 3 (FRE) up +62% yoy to 44.5m at end-June 2021, bringing FRE margin to 36.7% , up 5.2 points compared to H1 2020 Material increase in net result , Group share, reaching 176.1m at end-June 2021 4



Accelerated fund deployment and recognized expertise in financing the real economy 1.9bn invested by the firm's closed-end funds over the first half (vs. 0.8bn in H1 2020), while maintaining a high level of selectivity in investments Tikehau Capital recognized as a key partner by European governments to support corporates and help finance the post-Covid economic recovery



Second-to-none alignment of interests Successful completion of the firm's reorganisation , strongly supported by shareholders, with close to 100% approval rate 221m of new capital committed during H1 2021 by Tikehau Capital in its own strategies, thanks to the Group's strong balance sheet



Favorable outlook Target to reach at least 33bn in Group AuM at 31 December 2021 Confirmation of 2022 organic targets to reach more than 35bn for Group's assets under management and generate more than 100m of fee-related earnings (FRE).



Regulatory News:

The Tikehau Capital (Paris:TKO) Supervisory Board met on 14 September 2021 to review the consolidated financial statements5 at 30 June 2021.

1. RECORD LEVELS OF FUNDRAISING AND HEALTHY DEPLOYMENT

Very strong fundraising in H1 2021

At 30 June 2021, AuM for the asset management business reached 29.4bn, up 5.4bn or 22.5% over the last twelve months. This increase was mainly driven by 2.4bn in net new money for the first half of the year, twice the level of fundraising achieved during H1 2020, reflecting the strong performance of the firm's strategies and the continued interest of investors in the asset classes in which Tikehau Capital is positioned. All asset classes contributed positively to net new money, in particular the private debt and real assets strategies, which accounted for nearly two-thirds of total fundraising over H1 2021. Over the last twelve months, net new money for the asset management business reached 5.5bn, a Group record.

With this strong fundraising momentum, Tikehau Capital continued to expand its international client base, with international investors accounting for 35% of the firm's asset management AuM at 30 June 2021, reaching 10.1bn, a 31% increase compared to 30 June 2020. The firm has also continued to diversify its client base, notably with the launch of new initiatives dedicated to individual investors through tailor-made investment products across asset classes.

Expansion of Tikehau Capital's impact platform

Tikehau Capital has continued to expand its impact-investing platform during H1 2021 and now operates dedicated impact strategies across the majority of its asset classes. In particular, during the first six months of 2021, the Group completed fundraising for its private equity strategy focused on energy transition with over 1 billion raised, outperforming its original fundraising goal. In private debt, the Group is currently raising capital for its impact lending strategy, which aims to provide more favourable financing conditions to companies which meet their sustainability goals. Within the Group's capital markets strategies, July 2021 was marked by the launch of Tikehau Impact Credit, pioneering an impact approach in the high yield universe. These strategies are classified "Article 9" as per the European Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), a set of EU rules which aim to make the sustainability profile of funds more comparable and better understood by end-investors. Tikehau Capital intends to continue launching in priority fund strategies that support and accelerate sustainable business models and the decarbonisation of economies.

Healthy pace of fund deployment, with continued high selectivity

Deployment pace has accelerated within the closed-end funds managed by Tikehau Capital, which deployed 1.9bn over H1 2021, more than twice the level invested during H1 2020 (0.8bn), confirming the firm's key role in financing the real economy. Fund deployment in H1 2021 was mainly driven by private debt funds, followed by real assets. Tikehau Capital maintained a disciplined and selective deployment approach while keeping a strong focus on ESG across asset classes.

Looking ahead, the Group has a rich deployment pipeline across asset classes. At end-June 2021, Tikehau Capital had dry powder of 6.4bn within the funds it manages, enabling them to capture attractive investment opportunities. This compares to 6.2bn at 31 December 2020 and 4.7bn at 30 June 2020.

Tikehau Capital at the heart of the economic recovery

Tikehau Capital's expertise in providing tailor-made financing solutions to corporates makes it a partner of choice for European governments looking to support the economic recovery following the Covid-19 pandemic. This was first evidenced in July 2020 when Tikehau Capital was appointed by the French government and leading aerospace players to manage a dedicated private equity fund to support that industry. Mirroring that initiative, the Spanish government selected Tikehau Capital in June 2021 to manage a new private equity fund, which will invest in lower and upper midmarket companies active in the Spanish aerospace and defence sector. More recently, in September 2021, the Belgian federal authorities selected Tikehau Capital to manage the Belgian Recovery Funds aiming at financing Belgian companies negatively impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. All these initiatives confirm Tikehau Capital's positioning as a key player able to support Europe's economic recovery

2. MATERIAL INCREASE IN ASSET MANAGEMENT PROFITABILITY

39% growth in management fees6 in H1 2021, with continued fee margin progression

At 30 June 2021, fee-paying AuM amounted to 24.4bn, up 20% yoy. This growth was partly driven by fundraising within private equity, capital markets strategies and Sofidy, in addition to active deployment within Tikehau Capital's private debt funds, for which management fees are charged on invested capital. Future fee-paying assets under management stood at 3.6bn (up 33% yoy) and represent over 30m of potential additional revenue for the Group's asset management business.

Management fees grew considerably over the last twelve months to 121.1m (up 39% yoy), reflecting the material increase in fee-paying AuM. They also include late management fees related to the T2 Energy Transition strategy, for which fundraising was finalized during Q1 2021. Management fees represent 99% of revenue from asset management at 30 June 2021 and are primarily generated by the long-dated closed-end funds managed by Tikehau Capital, therefore giving high visibility to the firm's revenue generation.

Weighted average management fee rate, calculated as management fees divided by average fee-paying AuM, increased to 1.04% at 30 June 2021, compared to 0.94% last year. The level of management fee rate increased steadily by 10 bps per year since 30 June 2019 and by over 30 bps since the firm's IPO in 2017. This significant progression has been driven in particular by Tikehau Capital's accretive business mix evolution with the increasing contribution of private equity and real assets, which generate higher management fees than the current Group average.

Material increase in FRE margin, reaching 36.7% at end-June 2021

Since the beginning of 2021, Tikehau Capital has continued to invest in its asset management platform with the arrival of new talents and experienced hires across all geographies and asset classes. Operating expenses thus rose by 28% in H1 2021 reaching 76.6m, growing at a slower pace than revenues.

As a consequence, fee-related earnings (FRE) amounted to 44.5m in H1 2021, up significantly compared to 30 June 2020 (+62%). FRE margin grew by 5.2 percentage points reaching 36.7%, thus demonstrating the relevance of Tikehau Capital's profitable growth model within the alternative asset management space.

Performance-related revenues amounted to 1.1m in H1 2021, mainly driven by some of Tikehau Capital's open-ended funds, thus taking the Group's NOPAM7 to 45.6m in H1 2021, up 59% over the last 12 months. NOPAM margin at end-June 2021 stands at 37.3%, up 4.9 percentage points over the last twelve months.

3. RESILIENT PORTFOLIO PERFORMANCE

Alignment of interest is at the heart of the Tikehau Capital's capital allocation policy, as evidenced by the material share (64%) of its portfolio coming from commitments made by the Group's balance sheet in its own strategies.

At 30 June 2021, Tikehau Capital's investment portfolio totalled 2.9bn (vs. 2.4bn at 31 December 2020), of which:

1.8bn invested in the asset management strategies developed and managed by the firm (64% of total portfolio), an 18% increase compared to 30 June 2020. In addition, Tikehau Capital has also 1.0bn of undrawn commitments in its own funds, which will be progressively called as they deploy capital. Therefore, the total of drawn and undrawn commitments from Tikehau Capital's balance sheet in its funds and strategies amounted to 2.8bn at 30 June 2021, highlighting the firm's strong alignment with its investor-clients.

1.0bn invested in direct assets, of which around half is invested in listed assets (mainly Eurazeo) and the other half in unlisted assets, such as direct private equity investments, co-investments or investments in third-party funds.

Portfolio performance proved very solid in H1 2021 in a favourable market environment. Group portfolio revenues amounted to 252.2m at 30 June 2021, of which:

78.1m of "realized" revenues , up 19% compared to H1 2020, which breaks down as follows: Realized capital gains of 5.9m linked to ongoing portfolio rotation; Dividends, coupons and distributions of 72.2m , up 71% yoy. Within these revenues, the contribution from Tikehau Capital funds in which the firm has invested continues to increase, amounting to 40.1m over the first half of 2021, compared to 31.2m during H1 2020, i.e a 29% increase yoy. This further demonstrates the relevance of Tikehau Capital's capital allocation policy and the solid performance of its asset management strategies.

, up 19% compared to H1 2020, which breaks down as follows: 174.1m of "unrealized" revenues, which reflect the change in fair value of the assets held in the Group's portfolio. During H1 2021, the positive changes in fair value were mainly due to 112m positive contribution from listed portfolio investments (of which 93m relate to Eurazeo), 38m from unlisted investments and 25m from Tikehau Capital funds.

4. STRONG NET PROFIT GENERATION

Group corporate expenses for the first half of 2021 amounted to 20.4m, including the effects from the Group's reorganisation, which became effective as of 15 July 2021 and was retroactive to 1 January 2021. These expenses have been more than halved compared to the 47.3m cost published in at 30 June 20208

Financial interest expenses improved materially to -9.1m9 in H1 2021, to be compared to -19.2m in H1 2021, reflecting the Group's relevant debt management policy.

Net profit Group share for the first half-year 202110 was 176.1m, a significant improvement compared to H1 202011. It includes -0.3m of net result from associates, a -71.9m one-off impact from the derivatives portfolio (which has been fully unwound during Q1 2021), a -19.9m income tax expense, as well as minority interests payments of -0.2m.

5. A ROBUST BALANCE SHEET, KEY DIFFERENTIATING FACTOR

Tikehau Capital has a robust and liquid balance sheet that enables the firm to launch innovative new products, invest in its own funds to align its interests with its Limited Partners, and seize accretive external growth opportunities. At 30 June 2021, consolidated shareholders' equity came to 2.9bn, compared with 2.8bn at 31 December 2020.

At 30 June 2021, Tikehau Capital's consolidated cash position reached 964m12, compared to 845m at end-December 2020. This evolution takes into account the 500m proceeds from the firm's inaugural sustainable bond issuance, partly offset by capital calls from vehicles in which the Group has invested, in particular Tikehau Capital funds and Pegasus Europe, the firm's first SPAC, which successfully launched during H1 2021.

Financial debt at end-June amounted to 1.5bn, with a gearing13 ratio of 52%. The Group also benefitted from an undrawn revolving credit facility of 500m at end-June 2021, which has been increased to 700m on 15 July 2021. Following this refinancing as well as the successful issuance of a 500m inaugural sustainable bond in March 2021, ESG-linked debt account for c. 60% of the Group's total debt to date.

Tikehau Capital is thus benefitting from a sound financial position, with ample means to finance its future growth.

6. SHARE BUYBACK PROGRAMME

Tikehau Capital extended under the same conditions to 9 November 2021 (included), date of the Group's assets under management at 30 September 2021 release, the share buyback mandate, which was signed and announced on 19 March 2020 and extended on 29 July 2021 until today.

As of today, 3,097,714 shares were repurchased under the share buyback programme. The description of the share buyback programme (published in paragraph 8.3.4 of the Tikehau Capital Universal Registration Document filed with the French financial markets authority on 1 April 2021 under number D. 21-0246) is available on the company's website in the Regulatory Information section (https://www.tikehaucapital.com/en/finance/regulatory-information).

7. FAVOURABLE OUTLOOK

Tikehau Capital has been delivering on all fronts during H1 2021, from top to bottom line, demonstrating the relevance of its differentiated growth model in the alternative asset management space.

Since its listing in 2017, Tikehau Capital has made significant progress in growing its asset management platform while improving its profitability. Furthermore, as evidenced by the Group's capital allocation policy and the recently-completed reorganization, alignment of interests stands at the core of Tikehau Capital's corporate culture. These developments have contributed to improving the firm's profile as a listed company. Going forward, in line with the feedback from existing and potential shareholders, Tikehau Capital believes that a larger free float and higher stock liquidity would help unlock value and further improve its stock market profile

During the second half of 2021, the Group will maintain a solid pace of capital deployment with continued selectivity and discipline, expand its asset management platform and invest for future growth. As such, Tikehau Capital is planning on launching new initiatives, in particular sustainability-themed and impact strategies, and is targeting to reach at least 33bn for Group AuM at end-December 202114

Tikehau Capital is in working order to exceed 35bn of Group AuM and 100m of fee-related earnings (FRE) by 2022, as per its organic guidance.

CALENDAR

9 November 2021 Assets under management at 30 September 2021 (after market close) 3 February 2022 Assets under management at 31 December 2021 (after market close) 9 March 2022 2021 annual results (after market close) 21 April 2022 Assets under management at 31 March 2022 (after market close)

ABOUT TIKEHAU CAPITAL

Tikehau Capital is a global alternative asset management group with 30.9 billion of assets under management (as of 30 June 2021). Tikehau Capital has developed a wide range of expertise across four asset classes (private debt, real assets, private equity and capital markets strategies) as well as multi-asset and special opportunities strategies.

Tikehau Capital is a founder led team with a differentiated business model, a strong balance sheet, proprietary global deal flow and a track record of backing high quality companies and executives.

Deeply rooted in the real economy, Tikehau Capital provides bespoke and innovative alternative financing solutions to companies it invests in and seeks to create long-term value for its investors, while generating positive impacts on society. Leveraging its strong equity base (2.9 billion of shareholders' equity as of 30 June 2021), the firm invests its own capital alongside its investor-clients within each of its strategies.

Controlled by its managers alongside leading institutional partners, Tikehau Capital is guided by a strong entrepreneurial spirit and DNA, shared by its 629 employees (as of 30 June 2021) across its 12 offices in Europe, Asia and North America. Tikehau Capital is listed in compartment A of the regulated Euronext Paris market (ISIN code: FR0013230612; Ticker: TKO.FP).

For more information, please visit: www.tikehaucapital.com

DISCLAIMER:

This document does not constitute an offer of securities, fund units or any financial instruments for sale or investment advisory services. It contains general information only and is not intended to provide general or specific investment advice. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future earnings and profit, and targets are not guaranteed.

Certain statements and forecasted data are based on current forecasts, prevailing market and economic conditions, estimates, projections and opinions of Tikehau Capital and/or its affiliates. Due to various risks and uncertainties, actual results may differ materially from those reflected or expected in such forward-looking statements or in any of the case studies or forecasts. In particular, an investment in a fund is speculative and presents risks, including a risk of loss of capital. All references to Tikehau Capital's advisory activities in the US or with respect to US persons relate to Tikehau Capital North America.

Appendix

Assets under management

AuM at 30-Jun-2021 YoY change YTD change In m Amount (m) Weight (%) In % In m In % In m Private debt 9,865 32% +18.4% +1,536 +5.6% +523 Real assets 10,934 35% +14.4% +1,374 +5.8% +601 Capital markets strategies 4,679 15% +22.0% +843 +11.8% +495 Private equity 3,936 13% +71.5% +1,641 +12.8% +446 Asset Management 29,415 95% +22.5% +5,394 +7.5% +2,064 Direct investment 1,495 5% (11.2)% (188) +26.7% +315 Total AuM 30,909 100% +20.3% +5,205 +8.3% +2,379

LTM evolution (in m) AuM at

30-06-2020 Net new

money Distri-

butions Market

effects Change in

scope AuM at

30-06-2021 Change Change (m) Private debt 8,329 2,177 (747) 106 9,865 +18.4% +1,536 Real assets 9,560 1,067 (290) 58 539 10,934 +14.4% +1,374 Capital markets strategies 3,836 586 (8) 266 4,679 +22.0% +843 Private equity 2,296 1,621 (56) 26 49 3,936 +71.5% +1,641 Total Asset Management 24,021 5,451 (1,101) 456 588 29,415 +22.5% +5,394

H1 2021 (in m) AuM at

31-12-2020 Net new

money Distri-

butions Market

effects Change in scope AuM at

30-06-2021 Change

Change

(m) Private debt 9,342 882 (384) 25 9,865 +5.6% +523 Real assets 10,334 682 (144) 63 10,934 +5.8% +601 Capital markets strategies 4,184 398 (6) 103 4,679 +11.8% +495 Private equity 3,491 394 (33) 36 49 3,936 +12.8% +446 Total Asset Management 27,351 2,355 (567) 227 49 29,415 +7.5% +2,064

Amount YoY change YTD change In m In % In m In % In m Fee-paying AuM 24,411 +20.1% +4,092 +5.0% +1,167 Future fee-paying AuM 3,595 +33.3% +897 +19.3% +583 Non-fee-paying AuM 1,408 +40.3% +404 +28.7% +314 Asset Management AuM 29,415 +22.5% +5,394 +7.5% +2,064

Fee-paying assets under management

In m 30-Jun-2019 30-Jun-2020 30-Jun-2021 Private debt 6,009 6,735 7,485 Real assets 6,868 8,026 9,258 Capital markets strategies 3,305 3,836 4,679 Private equity 1,237 1,723 2,990 Fee-paying AuM 17,419 20,320 24,411

Weighted average management fee rate

In bps 30-Jun-2019 30-Jun-2020 30-Jun-2021 Private debt 69 79 85 Real assets 99 107 105 Capital markets strategies 53 62 56 Private equity >150 >150 >150 Management fees15 84 94 104 Performance-related fees 1 5 3 Total weighted average fee-rate16 85 99 107

Simplified consolidated P&L

H1 2020 H1 2021 In m Published Proforma17 Proforma15 Management fees other revenues 87.1 87.1 121.1 Operating costs (59.7) (59.7) (76.6) Fee Related Earnings (FRE) 27.4 27.4 44.5 FRE margin 31.5% 31.5% 36.7% Realized Performance-related earnings (PRE) 1.2 1.2 1.1 AM net operating profit (NOPAM) 28.6 28.6 45.6 NOPAM margin 32.4% 32.4% 37.3% Realized portfolio revenues 66.1 66.1 78.1 Change in fair value (unrealized) (143.3) (143.3) 174.1 Corporate expenses (47.3) (20.9) (20.4) Net result from associates (0.4) (0.4) (0.3) Financial interests (19.2) (19.3) (9.1) Derivative portfolio result (165.4) (165.4) (71.9) Non-recurring items18 (1.3) (1.3) Tax 41.4 36.6 (19.9) Minority interests (0.0) (0.0) (0.2) Net result, Group share (240.9) (219.5) 176.1

Simplified consolidated balance sheet

In m 31-Dec-2020 30-Jun-2021 Investment portfolio 2,410 2,878 Cash cash equivalents 845 964 Other current and non-current assets 764 789 Total assets 4,018 4,632 Shareholders' equity, Group share 2,797 2,898 Minority interests 7 6 Financial debt 999 1,506 Other current and non-current liabilities 216 221 Total liabilities 4,018 4,632 Gearing19 36% 52% Undrawn credit facilities 500 500

1 Figures have been rounded for presentation purposes, which in some cases may result in rounding differences.

2 Corresponding to management fees, subscription fees and arrangement fees.

3 Fee-Related Earnings (FRE) correspond to net operating profit from asset management less performance fees and carried interest.

4 Pro forma financial information taking into account the Group reorganization effective as of 15 July 2021 and retroactive to 1 January 2021.

5 On 15 September 2021, the Statutory Advisors submitted their report without comments or reservations on the condensed consolidated financial statements at 30 June 2021.

6 Management fees, subscription fees and arrangement fees

7 Net operating profit for the asset management business, defined as the sum of Fee-Related Earnings and Performance-Related earnings.

8 Pro forma the reorganisation, corporate expenses for H1 2020 were 21.6m

9 Financial information pro forma the reorganisation

10 Financial information pro forma the reorganisation

11 On a published basis, net loss for H1 2020 amounted to 240.9m. Pro forma the reorganisation, net loss for H1 2020 was 219.5m.

12 Financial information pro forma the reorganisation

13 Gearing Total financial debt Shareholders' Equity, Group share.

14 At constant AuM for the Capital markets strategies.

15 Corresponding to management fees, subscription fees and arrangement fees.

16 Implied fee rates are calculated based on average fee-paying AuM.

17 Financial information pro forma the reorganisation.

18 Includes in particular non-recurring share-based payments primarily refer to the cost of the free share grant (IFRS 2) of 1 December 2017, including social security costs, put in place following the IPO.

19 Gearing Total financial debt Shareholders' Equity, Group share.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005747/en/

Contacts:

PRESS:

Tikehau Capital: Valerie Sueur +33 1 40 06 39 30

UK Prosek Partners: Henrietta Dehn +44 7717 281 665

USA Prosek Partners: Trevor Gibbons +1 646 818 9238

press@tikehaucapital.com

SHAREHOLDER AND INVESTOR:

Louis Igonet +33 1 40 06 11 11

shareholders@tikehaucapital.com
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / September 15, 2021 / Searchlight Resources Inc. ("Searchlight" or the "Company") (TSXV:SCLT), (US:CNYCF), (FSE:2CC2) is pleased to announce that field exploration is underway on the Company's Kulyk Lake Rare Earth Element ("REE") project, located approximately 165 kilometres north of La Ronge, Saskatchewan, and 65 km south of the Key Lake Mine.

A geological team is presently on the Kulyk Lake REE property, prospecting, mapping and sampling to confirm and expand the 2009 and 2010 reported results. The Kulyk Lake claim block covers 105.4 sq km over a 35-km length, covering 21 REE showings including the Kulyk Lake target. Historically, the Kulyk Lake area had been explored for uranium, followed by preliminary REE exploration in 2010 when REE prices spiked.

In addition to the ongoing field work, a contract has been signed with Special Projects Inc. of Calgary, Alberta, to conduct high resolution aeromagnetic and radiometric surveys covering approximately 39 sq km of the claim area (Map 1). This program is planned for the second half of September 2021.

"We are pleased to have boots on the ground to assess this strategically located claim block, allowing us to verify this historic high grade Rare Earth showing", stated Stephen Wallace, Searchlight's CEO.

In 2009, grab and channel samples were collected and analysed with a rare earth analytical package at the Saskatchewan Research Council Laboratory. The results included grab sample AGKJR001 with 56.18% Total Rare Earth Oxides ("TREO"), including 12.49% Critical Rare Earth Oxides ("CREO"), grab sample AGKJR002 with 30.6% TREO including 6.82% CREO, and channel sample AGKJR003 with 19.04% TREO including 4.21% CREO. (Note: CREO is the sum of Pr6O11 + Nd2O3 + Tb4O7 + Dy2O3).

In 2010, samples from a series of follow-up trenches were similarly analysed at the Saskatchewan Research Council Laboratory. Selected results include trench samples DFKJR026 with 45.1% TREO and 10.08% CREO over 0.6 metres, DFKJR025 with 24.44% TREO and 5.49% CREO over 0.7 metres, and DFKJR013 with 19.75% TREO and 4.41% CREO over 0.7 metres.

Geologically, the showings consist of multiple fractures containing brown to red monazite running parallel to, and enclosed by, the surrounding Wollaston Group metasedimentary gneisses. A narrow zone of deep pink to red coarse-grained granite encloses the mineralized fractures. The showings are fracture filling "ore-vein".

Map 1. Proposed flightlines for aeromagnetic and radiometric surveys over Kulyk Lake Property

Data sources for assays

Brown, J.A., 2010; 2009 Geological, Geochemical and Geophysical Report for the Baska-Eldorado Project, Eagle Plains Resources Ltd, Saskatchewan Industry and Resources for Assessment

Brown, J.A., and McKeough, M., 2011; 2010 Trenching and Prospecting Programs for the Baska-Eldorado Project; 99 Capital Corporation, Saskatchewan Industry and Resources for Assessment

The results presented are historical in nature and Searchlight has not undertaken any independent investigation of the sampling, nor has it independently analyzed the results of the previous exploration work in order to verify the results. Searchlight considers these sample results relevant as the Company uses historical reports to evaluate historic sample results as a guide to plan future exploration programs.

Qualified Person

Stephen Wallace, P.Geo., is Searchlight's Qualified Person within the meaning of National Instrument 43-101 and has reviewed and approved the technical information contained in this news release.

About Searchlight Resources Inc.

Searchlight Resources Inc. (TSXV:SCLT, US:CNYCF, FSE:2CC2) is a Canadian mineral exploration and development company focused on Saskatchewan, Canada, which has been ranked as the top location for mining investment in Canada by the Fraser Institute. Exploration focus is on gold and battery minerals throughout the Province, concentrating on projects with road access.

Searchlight holds a 427.6 square kilometre land position within the gold and base metal rich Flin Flon - Snow Lake Greenstone Belt. The Company is currently advancing its Bootleg Lake Gold Project which hosts four past-producing high-grade gold mines, located in Saskatchewan, less than 10 km from Flin Flon, Manitoba.

On behalf of the Board of Directors,

"Stephen Wallace"

Stephen Wallace, President, CEO and Director

SEARCHLIGHT RESOURCES INC.

For further information, visit the Company's website at www.searchlightresources.com or contact:

Searchlight Resources Inc.

Alf Stewart, Chairman

(604) 331-9326

info@searchlightresources.com

Forward-Looking Statements

Information set forth in this news release contains forward-looking statements that are based on assumptions as of the date of this news release. These statements reflect management's current estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations. They are not guarantees of future performance. The Company cautions that all forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain and that actual performance may be affected by a number of material factors, many of which are beyond the Company's control. Such factors include, among other things: risks and uncertainties relating to the Company's limited operating history and the need to comply with environmental and governmental regulations. Accordingly, actual and future events, conditions and results may differ materially from the estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations expressed or implied in the forward-looking information. Except as required under applicable securities legislation, the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking information.

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.

SOURCE: Searchlight Resources Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/664204/Searchlight-Resources-Undertakes-Kulyk-Lake-Rare-Earth-Exploration-Program
EBITDA improves 23% and Net Operating Result 32%

Cash runway through 2023

Regulatory News:

SpineGuard (FR0011464452 ALSGD), an innovative company that deploys its DSG (Dynamic Surgical Guidance) sensing technology to secure and streamline the placement of bone implants, announced today financial results for the half year ending June 30, 2021, as approved by the Board of Directors on September 15, 2021.

Pierre JEROME, Chairman CEO of SpineGuard, said: "Our collective determination, the sustained global commercial performance, and the great strides we made on the innovation front, allowed us to significantly recover financially. SpineGuard's cash runway is secured through 2023 and we have successfully exited from Chapter 11 both in France as well as in the USA. We now have the necessary means to keep deploying our R&D pipeline and strengthening our commercial operations, all the more so as our net operating result continues to improve. The data from our developments in robotics announced last week are truly outstanding and the perspectives ahead of us for clinical and corporate value creation are very exciting."

 thousands IFRS H1 2021 H1 2020 Revenue 2,227 2,275 Gross margin 1,814 1,915 Gross margin (% of revenue) 81.5% 84,1% Sales, distribution, marketing -1,253 -1,309 Administrative costs 779 852 Research Development -474 -311 Recurring operating profit (loss) - 692 - 557 Non-recurring operating costs -90 -597 Operating profit (loss) -782 -1,153 Financial result -50 -235 Income tax Net profit (loss) -832 -1,389 EBITDA -661 -854

NB: unaudited

EBITDA improves 23% and Net Operating Result 32%

EBITDA improved 23% at -661 K compared to -854 K at June 30, 2020.

The net operating loss improved as well by 32% at -782 K vs. -1,153 K at June 30, 2020.

Operating expenses were 2,506 K for H1 2021, compared with 2,472 K, an increase of 34 K compared with June 30, 2020.

Gross margin of 81.5% at June 30, 2021 decreased 2.6%. While ASP remained globally stable, the company faced some higher costs of manufacturing in the context of the pandemic and also had to scrap 41 K of obsolete inventory in the USA.

For H1 2021, the Company reported revenues of 2,227 K, up 4% in constant currency and down 2% as reported compared with H1 2020. Revenue was still impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Revenue in the United States decreased 8% cc (-16% reported) to 1,575 K in the first half of 2021, compared with 1,864 K in the first half of 2020. In the rest of the world, revenue increased by 59% during the first half of 2021 to 652 K compared with 411 K in the first half of 2020. The revenue of the second quarter grew by 39% cc (+31% as reported), 22% cc in the US (13% as reported) and +146% in the rest of the world.

2,731 DSG units were sold in the first half of 2021 compared with 2,422 in the first half of 2020, including 1,293 in the United States, representing 47% of total units sold.

Working capital requirements were -246 K compared with -176 K at December 31, 2020.

At June 30, 2021, cash and cash equivalents were 5,137 K compared with 1,222 K at December 31, 2020, and is explained as follows:

Operating cash flow of -620 K compared with the same period last year of -436 K.

Equity funding using the equity lines for a gross amount of 5,300 K throughout the period.

The payment of interests to Norgine Ventures and Harbert European Growth of 156 K.

The exit of the French 'procedure de sauvegarde' (equivalent of Chapter 11 in the USA) led to the resuming of the creditors including for the reimbursement of the principal of the venture loans for 256 K over the half-year.

Update on US Chapter 11 procedure:

On August 24, 2021, the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware entered an order confirming SpineGuard Inc.'s exit from Chapter 11. The plan of reorganization proposed by SpineGuard, calling for payment in full of all creditors including the bond holders, is now effective and Spineguard Inc. is no longer a debtor-in-possession in a bankruptcy case.

Extraordinary Shareholders' Meeting held in a closed session on September 23, 2021

In compliance with recent French legislation related to the pandemic situation and per the recommendations of the French AMF (Autorite des Marches Financiers or AMF), SpineGuard will hold its Extraordinary Shareholders' Meeting on September 23, 2021 at 10:00 am CEST in a closed virtual session. It is hereby reminded that AMF strongly encourages the shareholders to vote, such right being a fundamental prerogative of each shareholder.

The Extraordinary Shareholders' Meeting will be webcasted (in French) at: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_KhgKKmCPTQ6Y2tGBtXlycQ

Shareholders are invited to pre-register for the Extraordinary General Meeting via this link, indicating their name, first name and e-mail address. They will then receive a confirmation of registration with the possibility to add the event to their agenda.

2021 Perspectives

The cash position as of August 31, 2021 of 6.2 M plus the secured equity line facility for 5.0 M means that the total cash available to the Company is 11.2 M. Considering the current cash position, the secured convertible bond facility and the recurring expected business, the Company estimates that it can fund its needs throughout 2023.

For 2021 SpineGuard focuses on the following priorities while striving to remain close to breakeven:

1. Boost commercial activities with the launch of the DSG-Connect visual interface.

2. Accelerate the implementation of the DSG digital technology in ortho-robotics through the deployment of AI algorithms, new scientific evidence, and additional patents.

3. Intensify the collaboration with ConfiDent ABC for the dental application and co-develop a new generation of products embedding the DSG technology.

4. Affirm the company's technological shift and sign strategic partnerships, in particular, for the use of DSG technology in the robotic field.

The company's half-year financial report is available in the Investors Exchange filings section of the www.spineguard.com website in French only.

Next financial press release: Third quarter 2021 revenue on October 14, 2021.

About SpineGuard

Founded in 2009 in France and the USA by Pierre Jerome and Stephane Bette, SpineGuard is an innovative company deploying its proprietary radiation-free real time sensing technology DSG (Dynamic Surgical Guidance) to secure and streamline the placement of implants in the skeleton. SpineGuard designs, develops and markets medical devices that have been used in over 85,000 surgical procedures worldwide. Seventeen studies published in peer-reviewed scientific journals have demonstrated the multiple benefits DSG offers to patients, surgeons, surgical staff and hospitals. Building on these solid fundamentals and several strategic partnerships, SpineGuard has expanded its technology platform in a disruptive innovation: the smart pedicle screw launched late 2017 and is broadening the scope of applications in dental implantology and surgical robotics. DSG was co-invented by Maurice Bourlion, Ph.D., Ciaran Bolger, M.D., Ph.D., and Alain Vanquaethem, Biomedical Engineer.

For further information, visit www.spineguard.com

Disclaimer

The SpineGuard securities may not be offered or sold in the United States as they have not been and will not be registered under the Securities Act or any United States state securities laws, and SpineGuard does not intend to make a public offer of its securities in the United States. This is an announcement and not a prospectus, and the information contained herein does and shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of the securities referred to herein in the United States in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or exemption from registration.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005820/en/

Contacts:

SpineGuard

Pierre Jerome

CEO Chairman

Tel: +33 1 45 18 45 19

p.jerome@spineguard.com

SpineGuard

Manuel Lanfossi

CFO

Tel: +33 1 45 18 45 19

m.lanfossi@spineguard.com

NewCap

Investor Relations Financial Communication

Mathilde Bohin Pierre Laurent

Tel.: +33 1 44 71 94 94

spineguard@newcap.eu
NEW YORK, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- According to Research Report Published by Zion Market Research, the global beer market, which was estimated at approximately 551 (USD Billion) in 2019 and is predicted to accrue earnings worth nearly 780 USD Billion by 2026, is set to record a CAGR of nearly 6% over 2020-2026. The report offers valuation and analysis of Beer market on a global as well as regional level. The study offers a comprehensive assessment of the industry competition, limitations, sales estimates, avenues, current & emerging trends, and industry-validated market data. The report offers historical data from 2017 to 2019 along with a forecast from 2020 to 2026 based on value (USD Billion).

Beer is usually prepared through use of four basic constituents including malted cereal grains, yeast, hops, and water that undergo fermentation over a specific timespan. With reduction in alcoholic content of beer, there is going to be huge product demand as consumers prefer beer having low alcohol content. For instance, beer contains alcohol proportion ranging from 3% to 6% in terms of volume. While, alcohol-free beers possesses lesser than or equal to 0.5% of alcohol by volume. Apparently, modern industrial methods of producing beer have replaced conventional practices that have led to massive changes in the beer composition.

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Market Growth Dynamics

Swift urbanization along with altering customer trends will favorably leverage the market trends. Introduction of new technologies for improving yield and quality of the beer will proliferate the expansion of beer industry over the forecast timeline. Growing health concerns along with surge in the proportion of obesity and rise in the lifestyle-related disorders will propel the demand for light beer kinds. With beer forming a part of the culture in some of the western countries and beer festivals becoming social traditions, the market for beer is likely to accelerate over the forecasting period.

Furthermore, easy availability of beer at affordable costs will prop up the business growth over the forecast timeline. With consumers becoming more aware about the benefits derived due to beer intake, the market for beer is likely to witness an enlarged growth over the forecast timeline. Nevertheless, oscillating raw material costs along with huge import duties levied on beer will pose a challenge to the expansion of the beer industry over the ensuing timespan.

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Asia Pacific Market to Expand At Swift Rate Over 2020-2026

The expansion of the industry in Asia Pacific over the forecast timeline is due to large-scale setting up of microbreweries in the countries of Asia. In addition to this, massive alcoholic drink intake along with beer consumption in countries like China and India will promulgate the market growth in the zone over the forecasting timespan.

Key participants leveraging the business landscape are Modelo, Anheuser-Busch InBev, Diageo, SABMiller, Heineken, Molson Coors, Carlsberg, Boston Beer, China Resources Enterprise, Tsingtao Brewery, Oettinger, and Yanjing Beer.

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This report segments the global beer market as follows:

Global Beer Market: Product Segment Analysis

Light Beer

Strong Beer

Global Beer Market: Production Segment Analysis

Micro-Breweries

Macro Breweries

Global Beer Market: Category Segment Analysis

Premium

Super Premium

Normal

By Region

North America

The U.S.

Canada

Europe

France

The UK

Spain

Germany

Italy

Rest of Europe

Asia Pacific

China

Japan

India

South Korea

Southeast Asia

Rest of Asia Pacific

Latin America

Brazil

Mexico

Rest of Latin America

Middle East & Africa

GCC

South Africa

Rest of Middle East & Africa

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Grenoble, France and Dallas, TX, USA - September 15, 2021 Tronics, a TDK Group Company that manufactures custom MEMS products and standard inertial sensors for industrial applications, announces the holding of its Annual Combined Shareholders' Meeting on September 29, 2021 at 2:00 p.m at the company's registered office, 98 rue du Pre de l'Horme - Z.I - 38920 Crolles.

The prior notice of meeting including the agenda and the draft resolutions presented to the General Meeting was published in the Bulletin des Annonces Legales Obligatoires (BALO) on August 6, 2021 and the convening notice was published in the BALO on September 15, 2021. The terms of participation and voting at this Meeting are set out in these notices.

The documents and information that must be made available to shareholders within the framework of the Annual Combined Shareholders' Meeting will be posted on the Company's website, section Investors / General Meetings, https://www.tronicsgroup-bourse.com/en/shareholders-meetings.html (only in French).

-----





About Tronics Microsystems

Tronics Microsystems is a division of TDK's Temperature & Pressure Sensors Business Group that manufactures custom MEMS products and standard inertial sensors for industrial applications. Addressing high-growth markets relying on increasing miniaturization of electronic devices, the company provides custom and standard products especially to the industrial, aeronautics, security, and medical markets. Founded in 1997, Tronics is located in Crolles, near Grenoble (France) and in Dallas, Texas (United States), and has around 100 employees, most of them engineers and scientists. Following a tender offer ending January 2017, TDK Electronics AG now holds 74 percent of Tronics' shares.

* ISIN code: FR0004175099 ALTRO





About TDK Corporation

TDK Corporation is a world leader in electronic solutions for the smart society based in Tokyo, Japan. Built on a foundation of material sciences mastery, TDK welcomes societal transformation by resolutely remaining at the forefront of technological evolution and deliberately "Attracting Tomorrow." It was established in 1935 to commercialize ferrite, a key material in electronic and magnetic products. TDK's comprehensive, innovation driven portfolio features passive components such as ceramic, aluminum electrolytic and film capacitors, as well as magnetics, high-frequency, and piezo and protection devices. The product spectrum also includes sensors and sensor systems such as temperature and pressure, magnetic, and MEMS sensors. In addition, TDK provides power supplies and energy devices, magnetic heads and more. These products are marketed under the product brands TDK, EPCOS, InvenSense, Micronas, Tronics and TDK-Lambda. TDK focuses on demanding markets in the areas of information and communication technology and automotive, industrial and consumer electronics. The company has a network of design and manufacturing locations and sales offices in Asia, Europe, and in North and South America. In the 2021 financial year, TDK achieved a turnover of USD 13.3 billion and employed around 129,000 people worldwide

TRONICS CONTACT

Vincent Gaff

Director, Marketing & Business Development

Phone: 00 33 4 76 97 29 50

info@tronicsgroup.com



For more information: www.tronicsgroup-bourse.com/en/

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Edmonton, Alberta--(Newsfile Corp. - September 15, 2021) - Grizzly Discoveries Inc. (TSXV: GZD) (OTCQB: GZDIF) (FSE: G6H) ("Grizzly" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that phase 1 sampling results targeting existing anomaly areas and new high-priority conductivity anomalies in the search for Cobalt (Co), Copper (Cu) and Silver (Ag) mineralization that have been received at its Robocop Property.

The rock grab samples delivered results with up to 3.35% copper (Cu) and 196 ppm Co (Figure 1 below). The Company has isolated multiple high-priority geophysical targets that are supported by anomalous copper-cobalt geochemistry along a 7 km trend (Figures 1 & 2 below). The anomalous trend includes multiple geophysical anomalies that measure 200 to 600 m strike length. The Robocop Property is 100% owned by Grizzly and is easily road accessible in Southeast British Columbia (the "Property"), near the hamlets of Grasmere and Roosville.

Brian Testo, CEO of Grizzly commented, "It is great to find a high grade sample of battery metals associated with a new anomaly at the Robocop. The Property has significant potential for new copper-cobalt discoveries. The team is looking forward to drilling this new discovery and other promising anomalies, this year."





Fig 1. 2021 and historical Cu in rocks & soils (bright samples are 2021 results).

To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4488/96661_4646a9f2345dfb3b_002full.jpg

The follow-up Phase 1 ground geochemical survey was designed to extend known anomalous areas and targets, and test a number of high and secondary priority geophysical anomalies identified by the 2021 VTEM survey in the vicinity of the "Discovery Area" (See Figures 1 & 2) and across the property. The Discovery Area has provided historical anomalous trench and core intersections of up to 0.134% Co, 1.19% Cu and 33.8 grams per tonne (g/t) Ag over 1.23 m. Over the course of the three-week program a total of 530 soil samples and 16 rock samples were collected from across the property (see Figure 2 below). Outcrop of the targeted favourable horizon is poor.





Fig 2. Property wide rock and Soil sample results over conductivity from 2021 (bright samples are 2021 results).

To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4488/96661_4646a9f2345dfb3b_003full.jpg

A rock grab sample of malachite-bearing arkosic sandstone float material (See Figure 3 below) on a south facing slope approximately 340 m west of the Discovery area returned 3.35% Cu and 196 ppm Co and represents a new discovery of copper and cobalt. Coincident Cu and Co in soils in the area indicates that Roo Formation sandstones, host to Cu- and Co-bearing mineralization, likely continue well west of the known trenched and drilled mineralization at the Discovery area (Figure 1). The rock grab sample was collected immediately down slope from the up-hill high priority conductive anomaly 15-3. VTEM conductive anomalies 14-3 and 16-3 in the immediate vicinity also are coincident with significantly anomalous Cu and Co in soils (Figure 1). None of these VTEM conductive anomalies have been drill tested. The historical drilling to date is comprised of 15 holes in three locations over a strike length of 1.1 km from the Discovery area to the southeast towards a tributary that flows into Phillipps Creek without testing any of the VTEM anomalies. The 2021 soil sampling program has extended the known length of anomalous Cu and Co to over 7 km of strike length up Phillipps Creek to the southeast (Figures 1 and 2).

A number of additional priority 1 and 2 VTEM anomalies to the southeast including 13-3, 58-3, 57-3, 55-3, 60-3, 45-3, 78-2 and 8-2 are spatially co-incident with Cu and Co in soil anomalies, both in historical sampling and 2021 sampling. None of these anomalies nor the anomalous soils associated with them have been drill tested. The 2021 soil sampling program has identified that the Phillipps Creek Cu and Co soil anomaly can be traced continuously from the Discovery area up Phillipps Creek for close to 7 km (Figures 1 and 2). A 2021 rock grab sample from altered arkosic sandstone retuned 1.4% Cu approximately 4.3 km east of the Discovery area up Phillipps Creek (Figures 1 and 2).

A Notice of Work land use permit application for drilling a number of the VTEM anomalies from the Discovery area up Phillipps Creek has been submitted to Front Counter BC's Cranbrook Office with approval and anticipated drill testing sometime in fall, 2021. Funding permitting, ground geophysical TDEM or IP surveys will be used as a Phase 2 program to test and firm up targets for drilling in fall 2021. Additional soil and rock sampling may also be conducted as part of the Phase 2 work.





Fig 3. Strong malachite staining on metasiltstone-sandstone float found during the field program in June 2021.

To view an enhanced version of Figure 3, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4488/96661_4646a9f2345dfb3b_004full.jpg

The property is hosted within a similar geological setting to the Idaho Cobalt-Copper belt where conductivity (EM) and magnetic surveying techniques along with soil and rock geochemistry have been used previously to successfully guide drilling of prospective targets and assist in making new metal discoveries.

HIGHLIGHTS FOR THE ROBOCOP PROPERTY

The Robocop Project is comprised of 9,053acres (3,663 ha) in five mineral claims that are all road accessible, just off Provincial Highway 93 in southeast B.C.





Initial surface trenching in the late 1980's to early 1990's yielded up to 0.06% Co and 1.93% Cu over 6 metres (m) in one trench, and in a separate trench up to 0.146% Co , 1.8% Cu and 5.3 grams per tonne (g/t) Ag over 5 m in sediment-hosted sulphide mineralization within middle Proterozoic Purcell Group rocks (Thomson, 1990).





and over (m) in one trench, and in a separate trench up to , and 5.3 grams per tonne (g/t) Ag over in sediment-hosted sulphide mineralization within middle Proterozoic Purcell Group rocks (Thomson, 1990). A total of 15 drill holes in the area between 1990 and 2008 have yielded several intersections of near surface Co-Cu-Ag mineralization with grades of up to 0.134% Co , 1.19% Cu and 33.8 g/t Ag over 1.23 m core length in hole R-1990-5 and 0.14% Co , 0.9% Cu and 2.7 g/t Ag over 3.1 m core length in hole R-1990-6 (Thomson, 1990), along with an intersection of 0.18% Co , 0.28% Cu and 4.1 g/t Ag over 1 m core length in hole R-2008-02 (Pighin, 2009).





, and over core length in hole R-1990-5 and , and 2.7 g/t Ag over core length in hole R-1990-6 (Thomson, 1990), along with an intersection of , and 4.1 g/t Ag over core length in hole R-2008-02 (Pighin, 2009). All but one of the historical drillholes tested a single target in an area about 500 m by 350 m. The Property is approximately 10 km in length and 3.5 km in width and contains numerous untested anomalous soil +/- rock geochemical targets.





Sediment hosted Co-Cu-Ag mineralization is similar in style, age and host rocks to mineralization at Jervois Mining Ltd.'s Idaho Cobalt project and Hecla's Revett Formation hosted mineralization near Troy, Montana.

The Property has yielded significant historical cobalt, copper and silver results and presents an opportunity to discover battery and electrification metals as the world shifts to electric vehicles, sustainable practices and greener alternatives. The macroeconomic outlook for battery metals such as Co and Cu remains strong with the ongoing shift to electric vehicles. It is estimated that the battery sector accounts for approximately 57% of current Co demand; this is expected to grow over the next five years to 72% and will require an additional 100,000 tonnes/annum of Cobalt to meet demand.1

The technical content of this news release and the Company's technical disclosure has been reviewed and approved by Michael B. Dufresne, M. Sc., P. Geol., P.Geo., who is the Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

ABOUT GRIZZLY DISCOVERIES INC.

Grizzly is a diversified Canadian mineral exploration company with its primary listing on the TSX Venture Exchange, with 90 million shares issued, focused on developing its over 160,000 acres of precious and base metals properties in southeastern British Columbia. Grizzly is run by a highly experienced junior resource sector management team, who have a track record of advancing exploration projects from early exploration stage through to feasibility stage.

On behalf of the Board,

GRIZZLY DISCOVERIES INC.

Brian Testo, CEO, President

For further information, please visit our website at www.grizzlydiscoveries.com or contact:

Chris Beltgens

Corporate Development

Tel: 604 347 9535

Email: cbeltgens@grizzlydiscoveries.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.

Caution concerning forward-looking information

This press release contains "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. This information and statements address future activities, events, plans, developments and projections. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, constitute forward-looking statements or forward-looking information. Such forward-looking information and statements are frequently identified by words such as "may," "will," "should," "anticipate," "plan," "expect," "believe," "estimate," "intend" and similar terminology, and reflect assumptions, estimates, opinions and analysis made by management of Grizzly in light of its experience, current conditions, expectations of future developments and other factors which it believes to be reasonable and relevant. Forward-looking information and statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause Grizzly's actual results, performance and achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking information and statements and accordingly, undue reliance should not be placed thereon.

Risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to vary include but are not limited to the availability of financing; fluctuations in commodity prices; changes to and compliance with applicable laws and regulations, including environmental laws and obtaining requisite permits; political, economic and other risks; as well as other risks and uncertainties which are more fully described in our annual and quarterly Management's Discussion and Analysis and in other filings made by us with Canadian securities regulatory authorities and available at www.sedar.com. Grizzly disclaims any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information or statements except as may be required by law.

1 Cobalt's Price Rises Highlight Shift to Battery-Driven Pricing Dynamics, Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, November 19th, 2021

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/96661
DGAP Post-admission Duties announcement: Haier Smart Home Co.,Ltd. / Third country release according to Article 50 Para. 1, No. 2 of the WpHG [the German Securities Trading Act]

Haier Smart Home Co.,Ltd.: ANNOUNCEMENT ON POLL RESULTS OF THE SECOND EGM AND THE THIRD CLASS MEETINGS OF 2021



15.09.2021 / 19:33

Dissemination of a Post-admission Duties announcement according to Article 50 Para. 1, No. 2 WpHG transmitted by DGAP - a service of EQS Group AG.

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.



ANNOUNCEMENT ON POLL RESULTS OF THE SECOND EGM AND THE THIRD CLASS MEETINGS OF 2021 Qingdao / Shanghai / Frankfurt / Hongkong, 15 September 2021 - Haier Smart Home Co., Ltd. (the 'Company' or 'Haier Smart Home', D-Share 690D.DE, A-Share 600690.SH, H-Share 06690.HK) today published an announcement on Shanghai Stock Exchange and Hongkong Stock Exchange with regard to the Poll Results of the Second EGM and the Third Class Meetings of 2021. Reference is made to the Notice of the Second EGM of 2021 (the 'EGM') and the Notice of the Third D-Shares Class Meeting of 2021 (the 'D-Shares Class Meeting') (collectively, the 'Notices') dated 04 August 2021 and the circular to Shareholders dated 31 August 2021 (the 'Circular') of Haier Smart Home Co., Ltd. (the 'Company'). 1. Poll results of the EGM

The board of directors (the 'Board') of the Company is pleased to announce that the EGM was held at 2:00 p.m. CST on Wednesday, 15 September 2021 at Haier University, Haier Information Industry Park, Laoshan District, Qingdao, the PRC. All resolutions have been duly passed. The meeting was convened by the Board and voting was conducted through a combination of on-site voting and online voting. The convening of the meeting was in compliance with the Company Law of the People's Republic of China, the Articles of Association, and pertinent provisions of the Shanghai Stock Exchange, Hong Kong Stock Exchange and Deutsche Boerse. The on-site meeting was presided over by the Chairman of the Company. As at the date of the EGM, the Company had a total of 9,394,614,113 shares in issue, which was the total number of shares entitling Shareholders to attend and vote in favour of, against or in abstention on the resolutions at the EGM. If a Participant is also a Shareholder, he/she and his/her respective associates, who are entitled to exercise control over the voting right in respect of their shares, are required to abstain from voting on the proposed resolutions for the adoption of the Share Option Incentive Scheme and related matters. Save as disclosed above, to the knowledge of the Directors, no Shareholder or its associate (as defined in the Listing Rules) is deemed to have a material interest in any of the resolutions to be proposed at the EGM, and therefore, there was no Shareholder who was required to abstain from voting on any resolution proposed at the EGM, nor any Shareholder who was entitled to attend the EGM but was required to abstain from voting in favour of any resolution at the meeting pursuant to Rule 13.40 of the Listing Rules. No person has indicated in the Circular that he or she intends to vote against or in abstention in respect of any resolution proposed at the EGM. Shareholders or their proxies holding 5,996,610,506 shares in the Company carrying voting rights (representing approximately 63.83% of the total share capital of the Company in issue as at the date of the EGM) attended the EGM. In accordance with the provisions of the Listing Rules, voting on the resolutions at the EGM was conducted by way of poll. The voting results in respect of the resolutions proposed at the EGM are set out as follows: Special resolution In favour Against Abstention Number of shares Percentage



(%) Number of shares Percentage



(%) Number of shares Percentage



(%) 1. To consider and approve the 2021 A-Share Option Incentive Scheme (draft) of Haier Smart Home Co.,

Ltd. and its summary. 5,957,923,083 99.3548 32,256,154 0.5379 6,431,269 0.1072 The resolution has been duly passed as a special resolution with over two-thirds of valid votes held by Shareholders (including proxies) attending the EGM cast in favour thereof. 2. To consider and approve the Appraisal Management Measures of the 2021 A-Share Option Incentive Scheme of Haier Smart

Home Co., Ltd. 5,962,235,933 99.4268 27,943,304 0.4660 6,431,269 0.1072 The resolution has been passed as a special resolution with over two-thirds of valid votes held by Shareholders (including proxies) attending the EGM cast in favour thereof. 3. To consider and approve the proposal to the general meeting to grant authority to the Board and such persons as delegated by the Board to handle in full discretion all matters in connection with the 2021 A-Share Option Incentive

Scheme of the Company. 5,962,225,283 99.4266 27,953,954 0.4662 6,431,269 0.1072 The resolution has been duly passed as a special resolution with over two-thirds of valid votes held by Shareholders (including proxies) attending the EGM cast in favour thereof. 2. Poll results of the A-Shares Class Meeting

As at the date of the A-Shares Class Meeting, the Company had a total of 6,308,552,654 A-Shares in issue, 6,262,154,495 of which was the total number of shares entitled to vote on the resolutions at the A-Shares Class Meeting. If a Participant is also a Shareholder, he/she and his/her respective associates, who are entitled to exercise control over the voting right in respect of their shares, are required to abstain from voting on the proposed resolutions for the adoption of the Share Option Incentive Scheme and related matters. Save as disclosed above, to the knowledge of the Directors, no Shareholder or its associate (as defined in the Listing Rules) is deemed to have a material interest in any of the resolutions to be proposed at the A-Shares Class Meeting, and therefore, there was no Shareholder who was required to abstain from voting on any resolution proposed at the A-Shares Class Meeting, nor any Shareholder who was entitled to attend the A-Shares Class Meeting but was required to abstain from voting in favour of any resolution at the meeting pursuant to Rule 13.40 of the Listing Rules. No person has indicated in the Circular that he or she intends to vote against or in abstention in respect of any resolution proposed at the A-Shares Class Meeting. Shareholders and Shareholders' proxies attending the A-Shares Class Meeting held a total of 3,850,245,299 A-Shares, representing 61.48% of the total number of A-Shares in the Company carrying voting rights. Details of Shareholders attending the A-Shares Class Meeting are set out as below: Special resolution In favour Against Abstention Number of shares Percentage



(%) Number of shares Percentage



(%) Number of shares Percentage



(%) 1. To consider and approve the 2021 A-Share Option Incentive Scheme (draft) of Haier Smart Home Co.,

Ltd. and its summary. 3,840,117,209 99.7369 10,030,890 0.2605 97,200 0.0025 The resolution has been duly passed as a special resolution with over two-thirds of valid votes held by Shareholders (including proxies) attending the A-Shares Class Meeting cast in favour thereof. 2. To consider and approve the Appraisal Management Measures of the 2021 A-Share Option Incentive Scheme of Haier Smart

Home Co., Ltd. 3,840,741,609 99.7532 9,406,490 0.2443 97,200 0.0025 The resolution has been passed as a special resolution with over two-thirds of valid votes held by Shareholders (including proxies) attending the A-Shares Class Meeting cast in favour thereof. 3. To consider and approve the proposal to the general meeting to grant authority to the Board and such persons as delegated by the Board to handle in full discretion all matters in connection with the 2021 A-Share Option Incentive

Scheme of the Company. 3,840,741,409 99.7532 9,406,690 0.2443 97,200 0.0025 The resolution has been duly passed as a special resolution with over two-thirds of valid votes held by Shareholders (including proxies) attending the A-Shares Class Meeting cast in favour thereof. 3. Poll results of the D-Shares Class Meeting

As at the date of the D-Shares Class Meeting, the Company had a total of 271,013,973 D-Shares in issue, which was the total number of shares entitled to vote on the resolutions at the D-Shares Class Meeting. If a Participant is also a Shareholder, he/she and his/her respective associates, who are entitled to exercise control over the voting right in respect of their shares, are required to abstain from voting on the proposed resolutions for the adoption of the Share Option Incentive Scheme and related matters. Save as disclosed above, to the knowledge of the Directors, no Shareholder or its associate (as defined in the Listing Rules) is deemed to have a material interest in any of the resolutions to be proposed at the D-Shares Class Meeting, and therefore, there was no Shareholder who was required to abstain from voting on any resolution proposed at the D-Shares Class Meeting, nor any Shareholder who was entitled to attend the D-Shares Class Meeting but was required to abstain from voting in favour of any resolution at the meeting pursuant to Rule 13.40 of the Listing Rules. No person has indicated in the Circular that he or she intends to vote against or in abstention in respect of any resolution proposed at the D-Shares Class Meeting. Shareholders and Shareholders' proxies attending the D-Shares Class Meeting held a total of 149,499,080 D-Shares, representing 55.16% of the total number of D-Shares in the Company carrying voting rights. Details of Shareholders attending the D-Shares Class Meeting are set out as below: Special resolution In favour Against Abstention Number of shares Percentage



(%) Number of shares Percentage



(%) Number of shares Percentage



(%) 1. To consider and approve the 2021 A-Share Option Incentive Scheme (draft) of Haier Smart Home Co.,

Ltd. and its summary. 148,698,988 99.4648 256,554 0.1716 543,538 0.3636 The resolution has been duly passed as a special resolution with over two-thirds of valid votes held by Shareholders (including proxies) attending the D-Shares Class Meeting cast in favour thereof. 2. To consider and approve the Appraisal Management Measures of the 2021 A-Share Option Incentive Scheme of Haier Smart

Home Co., Ltd. 148,699,238 99.4650 256,304 0.1714 543,538 0.3636 The resolution has been passed as a special resolution with over two-thirds of valid votes held by Shareholders (including proxies) attending the D-Shares Class Meeting cast in favour thereof. 3. To consider and approve the proposal to the general meeting to grant authority to the Board and such persons as delegated by the Board to handle in full discretion all matters in connection with the 2021 A-Share Option Incentive

Scheme of the Company. 148,688,788 99.4580 266,754 0.1784 543,538 0.3636 The resolution has been duly passed as a special resolution with over two-thirds of valid votes held by Shareholders (including proxies) attending the D-Shares Class Meeting cast in favour thereof. 4. Poll results of the H-Shares Class Meeting

As at the date of the H-Shares Class Meeting, the Company had a total of 2,815,047,486 H-Shares in issue, which was the total number of shares entitled to vote on the resolutions at the H-Shares Class Meeting. If a Participant is also a Shareholder, he/she and his/her respective associates, who are entitled to exercise control over the voting right in respect of their shares, are required to abstain from voting on the proposed resolutions for the adoption of the Share Option Incentive Scheme and related matters. Save as disclosed above, to the knowledge of the Directors, no Shareholder or its associate (as defined in the Listing Rules) is deemed to have a material interest in any of the resolutions to be proposed at the H-Shares Class Meeting, and therefore, there was no Shareholder who was required to abstain from voting on any resolution proposed at the H-Shares Class Meeting, nor any Shareholder who was entitled to attend the H-Shares Class Meeting but was required to abstain from voting in favour of any resolution at the meeting pursuant to Rule 13.40 of the Listing Rules. No person has indicated in the Circular that he or she intends to vote against or in abstention in respect of any resolution proposed at the H-Shares Class Meeting. Shareholders and Shareholders' proxies attending the H-Shares Class Meeting held a total of 2,055,477,618 H-Shares, representing 73.02% of the total number of H-Shares in the Company carrying voting rights. Details of Shareholders attending the H-Shares Class Meeting are set out as below: Special resolution In favour Against Abstention Number of shares Percentage (%) Number of shares Percentage (%) Number of shares Percentage



(%) 1. To consider and approve the 2021 A-Share Option Incentive Scheme (draft) of Haier Smart Home Co.,

Ltd. and its summary. 2,009,328,347 97.7548 45,741,791 2.2254 407,480 0.0198 The resolution has been duly passed as a special resolution with over two-thirds of valid votes held by Shareholders (including proxies) attending the H-Shares Class Meeting cast in favour thereof. 2. To consider and approve the Appraisal Management Measures of the 2021 A-Share Option Incentive Scheme of Haier Smart

Home Co., Ltd. 2,013,016,547 97.9342 42,053,591 2.0459 407,480 0.0198 The resolution has been passed as a special resolution with over two-thirds of valid votes held by Shareholders (including proxies) attending the H-Shares Class Meeting cast in favour thereof. 3. To consider and approve the proposal to the general meeting to grant authority to the Board and such persons as delegated by the Board to handle in full discretion all matters in connection with the 2021 A-Share Option Incentive

Scheme of the Company. 2,012,889,147 97.9341 42,053,591 2.0461 407,480 0.0198 The resolution has been duly passed as a special resolution with over two-thirds of valid votes held by Shareholders (including proxies) attending the H-Shares Class Meeting cast in favour thereof. 5. Witnessing Lawyer

Zhong Lun Law Firm has expressed its opinion as witness to the EGM and the Class Meetings. In the opinion of the witnessing lawyer, the convening of the EGM and the Class Meetings, the eligibility of the persons attending the meeting, the eligibility of the convenor and voting procedures and the poll results are in compliance with the relevant laws, regulations and rules, including the Company Law and Rules on Shareholders' General Meetings and the relevant provisions of the Articles of Association. The voting results are legal and valid. Tricor Investor Services Limited (H-Share registrar of the Company), Zhong Lun Law Firm (PRC legal advisor of the Company), the Shareholders' representatives and supervisors' representatives of the Company jointly acted as vote counters and scrutineers at the general meeting.

About Haier Smart Home Co., Ltd.:

Haier is one of the world's leading manufacturers of household appliances with a focus on smart home solutions and customized mass production. Haier Smart Home Co., Ltd. develops, produces and distributes a wide range of household appliances. These include refrigerators, freezers, washing machines, air conditioners, water heaters, kitchen appliances as well as smaller household appliances and an extensive range of intelligent household appliances. The Company distributes its products through leading household brands such as Haier, Casarte, Leader, Candy, GE Appliances, AQUA and Fisher & Paykel. Haier Smart Home Co., Ltd. has launched Smart Home Experiential Cloud, which connects homes, users, enterprises and ecosystem partners, and facilitates the integration of Haier's online, offline and micro-store businesses and supports user interaction to further optimize the user experience. IR Contact:

Yao Sun (Sophie) - Haier Smart Home Germany

T: +49 6172 9454 143

F: +49 6172 9454 42143

M: +49 160 9469 3601

Email: y.sun@haier.de

15.09.2021 The DGAP Distribution Services include Regulatory Announcements, Financial/Corporate News and Press Releases.

Archive at www.dgap.de


First dry port of its kind will connect the region's fully integrated energy hub to the world

KHOBAR, Saudi Arabia and HONG KONG, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- SPARK and Hutchison Ports are pleased to announce the signing of a shareholders' agreement for the formation of a joint venture to manage and operate the dry port and bonded logistics zone in the SPARK energy industrial city. Designed to ensure ease of access to global markets, the three-square-kilometre dry port will enable the future joint venture to capture the growing demand for logistics services for energy-related products in the Middle East and beyond while also serving the neighboring industrial cities.

SPARK is a sustainable, global energy hub in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province. The mega project, which spans over 50 square kilometres, is a manufacturing, service center and logistics hub for the energy sectors and is an integral part of the Saudi Vision 2030. SPARK will create significant employment, further diversify the economy, and attract additional foreign investment into the Kingdom.

Mr. Mohammed Y. Al-Qahtani, Chairman of SPARK, summarised the significance of the agreement: "We are so proud to give investors another reason to do business at SPARK. Hutchison Ports is a world class ports and terminal operator, and the step we take together today will give SPARK's investors ease of access to local and global markets. Furthermore, the logistic hubs will also serve the eastern region and its industrial cities. It will also help us fulfil our IKTVA promise to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the world by giving local manufacturers the physical infrastructure they need."

Group Managing Director of Hutchison Ports, Mr. Eric Ip, added: "Saudi Arabia is an important market and we are very excited to participate in this ambitious, game-changing mega project. As the world's leading port group, we will leverage our logistics expertise to create value and competitiveness for the tenants of SPARK."

Commenting at the ceremony, Mr. Saif Al Qahtani, SPARK President and CEO said: "Our partnership with Hutchison Ports marks an important milestone in the ongoing development of SPARK. The dry port and logistics zone will be the key to unlocking the potential of our strategic location in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia, a region which is known for its unmatched oil and gas resources. We are tremendously excited to work with Hutchison Ports to help connect our investors to the world, allowing them to operate efficiently and save on transport times and costs."

SPARK's first phase is divided into a number of clusters: logistics zone, industrial hub, business district, digital hub, and residential and commercial areas. The dedicated three-square-kilometre dry port and logistics zone will include warehouses and storage facilities, a bonded area and on-site customs clearance.

Notes to the Editor:

Hutchison Ports is the ports and related services division of CK Hutchison Holdings Limited. Hutchison Ports is the world's leading port investor, developer and operator with a network of port operations in 52 ports spanning 26 countries throughout Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, the Americas and Australasia. Over the years, Hutchison Ports has expanded into other logistics and transportation-related businesses, including cruise ship terminals, distribution centres, rail services and ship repair facilities.

In 2020, Hutchison Ports handled a combined throughput of 83.7 million TEU.

For more information, please visit www.hutchisonports.com.

About King Salman Energy Park (SPARK)

King Salman Energy Park (SPARK) is a fully integrated industrial ecosystem. SPARK spans an area of 50 square kilometres and is being developed with a vision to become the leading gateway to the regional energy sector, providing a complete spectrum of solutions to support business growth in the Kingdom. SPARK is also the first and only industrial city in the world to achieve silver LEED certification.

SPARK offers infrastructure at international standards for global investors in the oil and gas, refining, petrochemical, power and water production and treatment industries.

Execution is planned over three phases. SPARK has completed 80% of its first phase, which consists of infrastructure, roads, utilities and real estate assets established across 14 square kilometres; phase one is set to be completed in 2021. This is in addition to a dedicated three-square kilometres dry port and logistics zone.

www.spark-ksa.com

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CHICAGO, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Digitalization is leading the innovation for almost all major industries and this trend is currently having a large impact on the chemical industry. The adoption of digital technology is helping chemical companies increase the profitability of their operations and is improving supply chain management. Manufacturers are scaling up their operations, allowing them to gain end-to-end financial visibility by building digitally enabled intelligent chemicals plants. This digital integration creates reduced risk, better waste management, optimization of the production network, and most of all better workforce safety.

Arizton has a dedicated product vertical that focuses on the chemical and materials market across geographies. These market research reports cover detailed analysis of the COVID-19-induced supply chain disruptions, innovations in technology, equipment financing, economic impact, and detailed study of the competitive landscape. Arizton's approach includes the key highlights of the market such as trends and driver analysis, market share analysis, growth opportunities, and the impact of government initiatives in the chemical industry.

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Industrial Coatings Market - Global Outlook and Forecast 2021-2026

Industrial coatings market size will reach 27.19 billion liters by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 4.20% during the period 2021-2026.

Due to the arrival of new products and various technological advancements such as electrification, autonomous vehicles, additive manufacturing, and connectivity the demand of vehicles is increasing. This will in turn increase the demand of industrial coatings market. Customers are prioritizing products that are environment friendly. In the industrial coatings market, sustainability is the key enabler to adapt to the constantly changing environmental regulations. Stricter environmental regulations are in place owing to increasing awareness amongst consumers about the harmful effects of VOC. Thus, the demand for coatings with lower VOC, solvent-based coatings, and water-based coatings is increasing.

KEY HIGHLIGHTS

The growth of end-user industries such as automotive, construction, and aerospace and defense is driving the growth of the global polyester coatings market.

APAC is the largest market for water-borne coatings and accounted for 46.7% of the global market share in 2020 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 4.88%.

APAC is the fastest growing industrial coatings market and has several large manufacturers.

Price volatility of raw materials is a major challenge to the growth of the global industrial coatings market.

Acrylic is a widely used resin type in industrial coatings due to their advantages such weatherability, brilliant resistance to yellowing, fast drying, gloss retention, better resistance to alkaline conditions, and excellent adhesion.

The consumer electronics and appliance sector are estimated to witness steady growth in the coming years and therefore poses great growth opportunities for the vendors operating in the coatings industry.

The industrial coatings market report includes segments by resin type (epoxy, polyurethane, alkyd, polyester, acrylic, and others), technology (water borne, solvent borne, powder based, and others), and end-users (general industry, automotive, construction, electronics, oil & gas, marine, aerospace, and others).

The key vendors in industrial coatings market are AkzoNobel, Axalta Coating Systems, BASF, Nippon Paint, PPG Industries, and Sherwin-Williams etc.

Get more insights: https://www.arizton.com/market-reports/industrial-coatings-market-size-analysis

Powder Coatings Market - Global Outlook and Forecast 2021-2026

Powder coatings market size will reach USD 13.5 billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 5.97% during the period 2021-2026.

The demand for powder-based coatings has increased owing to their superior durability and enhanced efficiency. Powder-based coatings are most resistant to scratches, chipping, fading, and wearing and are widely used in the construction and automotive industries. In 2019, global automotive production was recorded at 91.70 billion and is likely to grow in the coming years. With to the increasing number of vehicles, the demand for powder-based coatings will also increase.

Stringent regulations set by the authorities of various regions to control VOC levels will lead to an increased adoption of powder-based coatings across the globe.

The appliances industry is the largest contributor to the powder coatings market contributing a share of 23.83% in 2020.

Thermoset resins are a widely used resin in powder coatings, contributing 94.57% to the powder coatings market.

In thermoset resins, epoxy polyester hybrid resins are the most widely used, contributing a 45.10% share of overall thermoset resins used in powder coatings.

APAC is the largest geographical market for powder coatings, owing to the increasing demand from infrastructure, construction, and automotive industries.

The powder coatings market includes segments by resin type (thermoset resin (epoxy, epoxy polyester, polyester, polyurethane, & others) and thermoplastic resin) and end-user industry (appliances/ consumer goods, automotive, general industrial, furniture, architectural & others).

The key vendors in the powder coatings market are AkzoNobel, PPG Industries, Sherwin-Williams, RPM International, and Axalta Coating Systems.

Get more insights: https://www.arizton.com/market-reports/powder-coatings-market

Waterborne Coatings Market - Global Outlook and Forecast 2021-2026

Waterborne coatings market size will reach USD 105.05 billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 5.07% during the period 2021-2026.

The factors that will drive the water-borne coatings market are stringent government regulations toward low VOC content and characteristics such as environment-friendliness and ease of handling. Apart from these, the growing middle-class population and rising standards of living are also aiding the demand for decorative coatings which, in turn, will drive the market for water-borne coatings.

KEY HIGHLIGHTS

Acrylic resins held a 22.44% market share in 2020. They are widely used in the manufacturing of water-borne coatings industry due to their excellent properties of UV and weather resistance.

The APAC region accounted for the largest market, contributing 39.40% to the global water-borne coatings market, followed by Europe and North America .

and . Rising foreign investments in APAC are expected to boost many industries, which will drive the market for water-borne coatings.

The highly competitive environment is likely to intensify further with the increase in product approvals, technological innovations, and strategic acquisitions.

Key vendors in the water-borne coatings market include AkzoNobel, PPG Industries Inc., Sherwin Williams, RPM International Inc., and Axalta Coating Systems.

The water-borne coatings market report includes segments by resin type (epoxy, polyester, acrylic, polyurethane, alkyd, and others) and end-user (automotive, general industrial, architectural, wood industry, packaging, and others).

Get more insights: https://www.arizton.com/market-reports/waterborne-coatings-market

Coating Additives Market - Global Outlook and Forecast 2021-2026

Coating additives market size will reach USD 11 billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 5% during the period 2021-2026.

The demand for coating additives is increasing at a rapid rate in every region. These coatings are widely used to protect the surface from scratches, dust, yellowing, UV rays, stain, general wear, and tear and offer durability and conductivity. Coating additives play a significant role in heightening the aesthetic appeal of the exterior surface of buildings, vehicles, aerospace, furniture, among others, thus making it appealing for the customer. The major change happening in the coating industry is the continuous adoption of coating technologies with the motive of offering better products every time. These new coating technologies include water-borne coatings, powder-borne coatings, high solids coating, two-component systems, and radiation-curable coatings.

KEY HIGHLIGHTS

The rise in living standards, growing disposable income, rapid urbanization, and substantial investment by the government are contributing to the rapid growth of the construction industry, which is driving the market for coating additives.

Water-borne formulation holds 48.62% of the market share and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6.38% between 2020 and 2026.

The fluoropolymer coating additives are expected to witness rapid growth during the forecast period because they provide excellent protection against chemicals, abrasion, temperature, non-stick and toxic, electrical resistance, and corrosion properties.

The construction industry accounts for 32.58% of the market share in 2020, the highest among all the end-users.

In 2020, APAC was the leading market for coating additives, accounting for 40.70% of the global market. This is due to the growing population, substantial investments in the construction industry and demand from automotive, marine, furniture, and paper industries.

Owing to several government regulations, the demand for the water-borne formulation is increasing. Thus, companies should focus on developing sustainable and environment-friendly coating additives products.

The coating additives market includes segments by formulation (solvent-borne, water-borne, and powder-borne), function (rheology modification, defoamer, biocides impact modification, wetting & dispersion, and others), type (acrylic, fluoropolymers, epoxy, urethanes, and others), and end-use industries (automotive, furniture, construction, industrial, aerospace, and others)

Key vendors include AkzoNobel NV, BASF, BYK, Evonik Industries, and Arkema SA.

Get more insights: https://www.arizton.com/market-reports/coating-additives-market-size-analysis

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VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / September 15, 2021 / FALCON GOLD CORP. (TSXV:FG)(GR:3FA)(OTCQB:FGLDF); ("Falcon" or the "Company") announced on August 4th,2021, the Company applied for a warrant incentive program (the "Incentive") to encourage the exercise of its outstanding warrants from the Private Placement dated July 13, 2020. If all the warrants are exercised from the Incentive the Company would receive aggregate gross proceeds of $ 690,000.

Under the proposed Incentive, if the Placement Warrants are exercised prior to 4:00 p.m. (Vancouver Time) on the 30th day after TSX Venture approval (the "Incentive Period"), the Placement Warrant holders would receive one (1) additional warrant (an "Incentive Warrant") in consideration of the early exercise of each Placement Warrant. Each Incentive Warrant will be exercisable to acquire one (1) common share of the Company at a price of $0.18 per share for a period of one (1) year from the date of issuance. The Company believes this will give existing Placement Warrant holders the right incentive to exercise their existing Warrants. The Incentive Warrant will be subject to a hold period of four months plus one day after the date of distribution.

In the event the Placement Warrant holder decides not to participate in the Incentive program, then following the expiry of the Incentive Period, the Placement Warrant holder may exercise the Placement Warrants on their original terms.

No Directors or Officers of the Company owns or control any of the Placement Warrants. The Company is not aware of any potential new insider position that would be created upon the exercise of the Placement Warrants nor the Incentive Warrants.

The Company intends to use the proceeds from the exercise of any Placement Warrants for working capital and exploration on its properties.

These securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, (the "U.S. Securities Act") or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption from registration is available. This announcement does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities in this Warrant Incentive Program within the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of, U.S. Persons (as defined under Regulation S under the U.S. Securities Act).

Camping Lake

The Company also reports that it has decided not to proceed with the Camping Lake option previously announced on September 6th 2019. The Company has mutually terminated its joint venture agreement with Marvel Discovery Corp.

About Falcon Gold Corp.

Falcon is a Canadian mineral exploration company focused on generating, acquiring, and exploring opportunities in the Americas. Falcon's flagship project, the Central Canada Gold Mine, is approximately 20 km southeast of Agnico Eagle's Hammond Reef Gold Deposit which has currently estimated 3.32 million ounces of gold (123.5 million tonnes grading 0.84 g/t gold) mineral reserves, and 2.3 million ounces of measured and indicated mineral resources (133.4 million tonnes grading 0.54 g/t gold). The Hammond Reef gold property lies on the Hammond shear zone, which is a northeast-trending splay off of the Quetico Fault Zone ("QFZ") and may be the control for the gold deposit. The Central Gold property lies on a similar major northeast-trending splay of the QFZ.

The Company holds 7 additional projects. The Springpole West Property in the world-renowned Red Lake mining camp; a 49% interest in the Burton Gold property with Iamgold near Sudbury Ontario; and in B.C., the Spitfire-Sunny Boy, Gaspard Gold claims; and most recently the Great Burnt, Hope Brook, and Baie Verte acquisitions adjacent to First Mining, Sokoman-Benton's JV, and Marvel Discovery in Central Newfoundland.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Falcon Gold Corp.

"Karim Rayani"

Karim Rayani

Chief Executive Officer, Director

Telephone: (604) 716-0551

Email: info@falcongold.ca

Cautionary Language and Forward-Looking Statements

This news release may contain forward looking statements including but not limited to comments regarding the timing and content of upcoming work programs, geological interpretations, receipt of property titles, 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.

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.

SOURCE: Falcon Gold Corp.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/664264/Falcon-Awaits-Final-Approval--Warrant-Exercise-Incentive
CF Industries Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: CF), a leading global manufacturer of hydrogen and nitrogen products, today announced that it is halting operations at both its Billingham and Ince, UK, manufacturing complexes due to high natural gas prices. The Company does not have an estimate for when production will resume at the facilities.

About CF Industries Holdings, Inc.

At CF Industries, our mission is to provide clean energy to feed and fuel the world sustainably. With our employees focused on safe and reliable operations, environmental stewardship, and disciplined capital and corporate management, we are on a path to decarbonize our ammonia production network the world's largest to enable green and blue hydrogen and nitrogen products for energy, fertilizer, emissions abatement and other industrial activities. Our nine manufacturing complexes in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, an unparalleled storage, transportation and distribution network in North America, and logistics capabilities enabling a global reach underpin our strategy to leverage our unique capabilities to accelerate the world's transition to clean energy. CF Industries routinely posts investor announcements and additional information on the company's website at www.cfindustries.com and encourages those interested in the company to check there frequently.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915006088/en/

Contacts:

Media

Chris Close

Director, Corporate Communications

847-405-2542 cclose@cfindustries.com

Investors

Martin Jarosick

Vice President, Investor Relations

847-405-2045 mjarosick@cfindustries.com
Calgary, Alberta--(Newsfile Corp. - September 15, 2021) - Copper Fox Metals Inc. (TSXV: CUU) (OTCQX: CPFXF) ("Copper Fox" or the "Company") is pleased to provide an update on activities in advance of the Company's Annual General Meeting to be held on September 16, 2021.

Annual General Meeting ("AGM")

The AGM of the Company is scheduled for 10am MDT September 16, 2021. The meeting will be virtual in nature and all shareholders are encouraged to attend. To attend the AGM, please use the following link: https://www.gowebcasting.com/11461

Schaft Creek Preliminary Economic Assessment ("PEA")

The PEA is nearing completion and while it has taken longer than anticipated to complete, it will benefit from additional detailed financial and technical reviews. The Company will be disseminating the results of the PEA shortly.

Schaft Creek Joint Venture

The 2021 drilling program is scheduled to commence before the end of September, utilizing two drilling rigs. The program contemplates completing up to a 3,500-metre drill program and associated metallurgical and geotechnical testwork to provide information to confirm select value opportunities. The 2021 program will confirm throughput assumptions, metal recoveries, metal production, and ensure a capital efficient 'fit for purpose' process design flowsheet. The collection of additional geotechnical information in the proposed pit area may provide opportunities to decrease the LOM strip ratio and reduce operational cost and associated greenhouse gas emissions. The geometallurgical drilling is directed at collecting samples representative of the geometallurgical domains in the mine plan to conduct comminution, open and closed-circuit flotation, mineralogical analysis, and tailings thickening/filtration testing. The laboratory component of the program will take place in early 2022.

Van Dyke Project

Montgomery & Associates is advancing the conceptual Hydrogeological Model. A significant component of this study will assess the conditions of existing drill holes and evaluate the future possibility of using these drill holes to acquire water quality samples and hydrogeological data. The conceptual Hydrogeological Model forms the basis of preliminary discussions with the Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA") and Arizona Department of Environmental Quality ("ADEQ"); the lead agencies overseeing the permitting process. The preliminary comments from both the EPA and ADEQ would be used to determine an estimated timeline and cost to complete the permitting process to obtain an Aquifer Protection Permit and an Underground Injection Control Permit. The purpose of this study is to provide the information necessary to allow the Company to decide on entering the permitting process.

Eaglehead Project

The deep penetrating chargeability/resistivity survey is underway and is extending the chargeability/resistivity coverage from the mineralization in the Camp, Pass, Bornite and East zones, approximately 2.5 kms to the north, thereby covering the entire Eaglehead stock. Re-logging of historical drill cores from the Far East zone has been completed and in some instance, re-sampling of previously unsampled intervals of porphyry style copper-molybdenite mineralization hosted in altered granodioritic has been completed. The re-logging of the historical core has better located the major structure associated with the above-mentioned mineralized zones.

Qualified Person

Elmer B. Stewart, MSc. P. Geo., President and CEO of Copper Fox, is the Company's non-independent, nominated Qualified Person pursuant to National Instrument 43-101, Standards for Disclosure for Mineral Projects, has reviewed the scientific and technical information disclosed in this news release.

About Copper Fox

Copper Fox is a Tier 1 Canadian resource company focused on copper exploration and development in Canada and the United States. The principal assets of Copper Fox and its wholly owned Canadian and United States subsidiaries, being Northern Fox Copper Inc. and Desert Fox Copper Inc., are the 25% interest in the Schaft Creek Joint Venture with Teck Resources Limited on the Schaft Creek copper-gold-molybdenum-silver project located in northwestern British Columbia and the 100% ownership of the Van Dyke oxide copper project located in Miami, Arizona. For more information on Copper Fox's other mineral properties and investments visit the Company's website at http://www.copperfoxmetals.com.

For additional information contact:

Lynn Ball at 1-844-464-2820; 1-403-264-2820; investor@copperfoxmetals.com

On behalf of the Board of Directors

Elmer B. Stewart

President and Chief Executive Officer

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.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of the Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking information is generally identifiable by use of the words "believes," "may," "plans," "will," "anticipates," "intends," "budgets", "could", "estimates", "expects", "forecasts", "projects" and similar expressions, and the negative of such expressions. Forward-looking information in this news release include statements about: the Schaft Creek 2021 program confirming value opportunities; confirming throughput, recoveries, production and a 'fit for purpose' process design flowsheet; decreasing the LOM strip ratio and reducing costs and greenhouse gas emissions; comments on preparation of the conceptual Hydrogeological Model for the Van Dyke project and the potential of entering the permitting process; progress of the geophysical program on the Eaglehead project, results of re-logging and sampling of historical drill;.

In connection with the forward-looking information contained in this news release, Copper Fox and its subsidiaries have made numerous assumptions regarding, among other things: the geological, metallurgical, engineering, financial and economic advice that Copper Fox has received is reliable and is based upon practices and methodologies which are consistent with industry standards; the speed of field studies; and the stability of economic and market conditions. While Copper Fox considers these assumptions to be reasonable, these assumptions are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and contingencies.

Additionally, there are known and unknown risk factors which could cause Copper Fox's actual results, performance, or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information contained herein. Known risk factors include among others: the Schaft Creek 2021 program may not be completed within the timeline or at all; the conceptual Hydrogeological Model at Van Dyke may not be completed as planned or at all; the discussions with the EPA and ADEQ may not occur; Copper Fox may decide not to enter the permitting process on a timely basis or at all; the geophysical survey on the Eaglehead project may not be completed as planned; the additional sampling from historical drill holes may not return significant mineralization or certainties relating to interpretation of the previous results; the overall economy may deteriorate; uncertainty as to the availability and terms of future financing; fluctuations in commodity prices and demand; currency exchange rates; and uncertainty as to timely availability of permits and other governmental approvals.

A more complete discussion of the risks and uncertainties facing Copper Fox is disclosed in Copper Fox's continuous disclosure filings with Canadian securities regulatory authorities at www.sedar.com. All forward-looking information herein is qualified in its entirety by this cautionary statement, and Copper Fox disclaims any obligation to revise or update any such forward-looking information or to publicly announce the result of any revisions to any of the forward-looking information contained herein to reflect future results, events, or developments, except as required by law.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/96692
Regulatory News:

Ontex Group NV (Euronext Brussels: ONTEX) announced today that it has entered into an agreement with Hypera S.A. ("Hypera", formerly Hypermarcas S.A.) settling certain claims relating to the acquisition of the Brazilian personal hygiene business of Hypera by Ontex. As part of the settlement, Ontex will receive 500 million Brazilian Reais (81 million1) from Hypera by October 1, 2021. Ontex acquired the Brazilian personal hygiene business from Hypera in March 2017 for an enterprise value of 1 billion Brazilian Reais.

Under this agreement, the arbitration proceedings that Ontex initiated in relation to those claims will be closed.

After deduction of certain arbitration-related costs, the remaining settlement amount will be used to pay down debt, consistent with the Group's ambition to reduce leverage.

Note 1: The amount of the settlement is denominated in Brazilian Reais. The amount in this press release is computed at a EUR/BRL rate of 6.19.

About Ontex

Ontex is a leading international provider of personal hygiene solutions, with expertise in baby care, feminine care and adult care. Ontex's innovative products are distributed in more than 110 countries through Ontex brands such as BBTips, BioBaby, Pompom, Bigfral, CanBebe, CanPed, iD and Serenity, as well as leading retailer brands. Employing some 10,000 passionate people all over the world, Ontex has a presence in 21 countries, with its headquarters in Aalst, Belgium. Ontex is listed on Euronext Brussels and is part of the Bel Mid. To keep up with the latest news, visit www.ontex.com or follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915006108/en/

Contacts:

Investors

Philip Ludwig +32 53 333 730

Philip.ludwig@ontexglobal.com

Press

Caroline De Wolf +32 478 93 43 93

corporate.communications@ontexglobal.com
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / September 15, 2021 / AMPD Ventures Inc. ("AMPD" or the "Company") (CSE:AMPD)(OTCQB:AMPDF)(FRA:2Q0) announces that 500,000 incentive stock options have been granted to certain employees, officers, directors, or consultants pursuant to the Company's stock option plan. The options have an exercise price of CAD $0.34 per share. 200,000 of the options will vest over a 36-month period with 8.33% vesting upon the date of issue and 8.33% vesting every three months thereafter and are exercisable for a period of five years from the date of issue, unless terminated pursuant to the terms of the stock option plan. 300,000 of the options are issued fully vested and are exercisable for a period of two years, unless terminated pursuant to the terms of the stock option plan.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

AMPD Ventures Inc.

/s/ "Anthony Brown"

Anthony Brown

CEO & Director

AMPD Ventures Inc.

ir@ampd.tech | Tel: 604-332-3329

For more information on AMPD, please contact:

Investor Relations

Tel: 604-332-3329 ext. 3

ir@ampd.tech

Or visit http://www.ampd.tech

The CSE does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautionary Statement

Certain statements made herein may contain forward-looking statements or information within the meaning of the applicable Canadian securities laws. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements and forward-looking information can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", or "believes" or the negatives thereof or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements should not be unduly relied upon. Actual results achieved may vary from the information provided herein as a result of numerous known and unknown risks and uncertainties and other factors. The Company believes the expectations reflected in those forward-looking statements are reasonable, but no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct. The Company does not undertake to update these forward-looking statements, except as required by law.

SOURCE: AMPD Ventures Inc.

View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/664290/Stock-Option-Grant


NEW YORK CITY (dpa-AFX) - Pfizer Inc. (PFE) said on Wednesday that data from its Covid vaccination program in Israel where it administered boosters revealed that a third shot showed benefits same as that seen after the receipt of the second primary dose and restores around 95 percent protection against the Coronavirus. These findings were based on data collected from July 1 through August 30 when the delta variant was widespread throughout the country.



Data presented by Pfizer to the Food and Drug Administration revealed that the third dose of Covid vaccine taken six months after a second shot gives around 95 percent protection against the deadly virus.



The company, in a 52-page presentation, put forward the point that a booster shot will bring about the same type of protection as after taking the second dose.



The report prepared by Pfizer is to give details to the FDA's Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, which meets on Friday to review the request by the company and its vaccine partner, BioNTech (BTX), to approve of Covid booster doses for the general public.



Based on the data, Pfizer plans to request for licensure of a booster dose of the vaccine administered intramuscularly approximately 6 months after the second dose in individuals above 16 years.



The Food and Drug Administration staff on Wednesday declined to comment on whether the authority would allow booster shots of Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine in the United States, citing that the regulators haven't verified all the available data.



The FDA said on its website that 'there are many potentially relevant studies, but FDA has not independently reviewed or verified the underlying data or their conclusions. Some of these studies, including data from the vaccination program in Israel, will be summarized during the September 17 VRBPAC meeting.'



The FDA staff is of the opinion that the in use COVID-19 vaccines in the country are efficient to protect against severe COVID-19 disease and death in the United States.



The U.S Government has plans to offer booster shots to the general public as early as next week, as soon as it gets approval from the FDA. The move is part of President Joe Biden's wider plan to safeguard against higher number of coronavirus cases brought about by the Delta variant.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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CANBERA (dpa-AFX) - Australia will on Thursday release August figures for unemployment, highlighting a modest day for Asia-Pacific economic activity. The jobless rate is expected to tick up to 4.9 percent from 4.6 percent in July, with the loss of 90,000 jobs following the increase of 2,200 in the previous month. The participation rate is pegged at 65.7 percent, down from 66.0 percent a month earlier. New Zealand will see Q2 numbers for gross domestic product, with forecasts suggesting an increase of 1.3 percent on quarter and 16.3 percent on year. That follows the 1,6 percent quarterly increase and the 2,4 percent yearly gain in the three months prior. Japan will provide August data for imports, exports and trade balance. Imports are expected to surged 40.0 percent on year, up from 28.5 percent in July. Exports are called higher by an annual 34.0 percent, slowing from 37.0 percent in the previous month. The trade deficit is pegged at 47.7 billion yen following the 441 billion yen surplus a month earlier. Hong Kong will release August unemployment data; in July, the jobless rate was 5.0 percent. Finally, the markets in Malaysia are closed on Thursday for Malaysia Day and will re-open on Friday. 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.
Regulatory News:

NHOA (Paris:NHOA):

In H1 2021 NHOA confirmed its growth trend in terms of revenues, backlog and pipeline despite global restrictions for Covid-19 and related delays in project development and execution. However, the world has been affected dramatically by the ongoing supply chain disruption, with no exception for NHOA. As of today, NHOA is confirming the clear trajectory towards the achievement of the 2021 and 2022 revenues guidance.

Revenues and Other Income increased by 44% with respect to H1 2020, including non-recurring income related to the Vehicle-to-Grid project with Stellantis.

Backlog 2 increased by 88% compared to September 2020, and together with the Contracts Secured 3 amount to 149 million.

increased by 88% compared to September 2020, and together with the Contracts Secured amount to 149 million. During H1 2021 NHOA has devoted significant costs and time to the incorporation of the Joint Venture with Stellantis, and the acquisition related to the major shareholder change, which are one-time and non recurring events.

Revenues and Other Income amount to 7.2 million, including 1 million of non-recurring income related to the Vehicle-to-Grid project with Stellantis, as of 30 June 2021, up 44% compared to First Half 2020. The increase in Revenues and Other Income is mainly driven by the 4.9 million revenues realized by the eMobility Global Business Line ("GBL") which became fully operational in May after the completion of the Joint Venture ("JV") between NHOA and Stellantis dedicated to eMobility activities: Free2Move eSolutions. The Energy Storage GBL 2.3 million Revenues and Other Income, were partially affected by Covid-19 related logistic restrictions that challenged construction schedules. Nonetheless, NHOA has been able to realize the Factory Acceptance Test for a 10 MWh system in Massachusetts, and complete the test run of the Sol De Insurgentes solar-plus-storage project in Mexico. Other Income is mainly driven by the recognition of the non-recurring 1 million contribution related to the development of the Vehicle-to-Grid project with Stellantis. The 26% Gross margin including such non-recurring item is mainly driven by revenues mix, and is partially affected by set up cost of the eMobility GBL. The gross margin excluding this non-recurring income amounts to 0.9 million, i.e. 14%.

Backlog and Contracts Secured totalize 149 million, represented by 700 MWh in U.S.A., Europe and Africa. Backlog amounts to 45 million, up by 88% compared to the Backlog communicated on 24 September 2020, with over 90 MWh between California, Massachusetts, Vermont and Italy. Contracts Secured amount to 104 million, thanks to more than 600 MWh of projects secured in Guam and Hawaii with ENGIE.

Pipeline4 in the Energy Storage GBL5 increases by 6% over the same period, reaching 835 million, thanks to the rapid market acceleration we experienced across all key geographies particularly in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific.

Personnel costs increased by 55% reaching 5.7 million compared to 3.7 million in First Half 2020, in line with the increase in headcount, increased by 63% over the period. As of 30 June 2021, NHOA has 179 employees, from 19 nationalities. The strengthening of the workforce is in line with NHOA's roadmap following the Masterplan 10x and mainly devoted to the execution of the projects in USA, APAC and the ramp-up of the eMobility GBL.

R&D investments amount to 1.6 million and represent 27% of the consolidated Revenues, confirming the strong commitment towards R&D and innovation, which is progressively addressed also towards the eMobility GBL.

Other Operating Expenses increased by 17% amounting to 1.6 million, compared to 1.4 million in the first semester 2020 expressing a physiological growth in this specific moment of the company.

EBITDA including non recurring income represents a 5.5 million loss in the first semester 2021 compared to a 4.4 million loss in the first semester 2020, due to the increase in operating expenses and in personnel costs, which more than offset the increase in revenues. This is a natural effect of the investments that NHOA made in terms of people and industrial footprint (just partially offset by low revenues/gross margin generated as of H1 2021) in order to carry forward the industrial base needed to execute the 149 million Backlog and Contracts Secured.

Non recurring expenses and Incentive Plan account for 2.6 million and 4.8 million respectively, both items being affected by the extraordinary transactions performed during the period: such as the closing of the JV with Stellantis and post-closing relevant events, essentially the closing between ENGIE and TCC, implying an acceleration on SARs plan.

EBIT and Net Result as of 30 June 2021 stand, respectively, at -15.8 million and -15.9 million compared to -6.5 million and -6.5 for the previous year.

Net Financial Position at the end of the first semester 2021 stands at -24.7 million compared to -21.3 million on 31 December 2020.

NHOA

NHOA (formerly Engie EPS) develops technologies enabling the global transition towards clean energy and sustainable mobility, shaping the future of a next generation living in harmony with our planet.

Listed on Euronext Paris regulated market (NHOA:PA), NHOA forms part of the CAC Mid Small and CAC All-Tradable financial indices. Its registered office is in Paris, with research, development and production located in Italy.

For further information, go to www.nhoa.energy

Forward-looking statement

This release may contain forward-looking statements. These statements are not undertakings as to the future performance of NHOA. Although NHOA considers that such statements are based on reasonable expectations and assumptions at the date of publication of this release, they are by their nature subject to risks and uncertainties which could cause actual performance to differ from those indicated or implied in such statements. These risks and uncertainties include without limitation those explained or identified in the public documents filed by NHOA with the French Financial Markets Authority (AMF), including those listed in the "Risk Factors" section of the NHOA Universal Registration Document filed with the AMF on 7 April 2021 (under number D.21-0273). Investors and NHOA shareholders should note that if some or all of these risks are realized they may have a significant unfavorable impact on NHOA.

These forward looking statements can be identified by the use of forward looking terminology, including the verbs or terms "anticipates", "believes", "estimates", "expects", "intends", "may", "plans", "build- up", "under discussion" or "potential customer", "should" or "will", "projects", "backlog" or "pipeline" or, in each case, their negative or other variations or comparable terminology, or by discussions of strategy, plans, objectives, goals, future events or intentions. These forward-looking statements include all matters that are not historical facts and that are to different degrees, uncertain, such as statements about the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on NHOA's business operations, financial results and financial position and on the world economy. They appear throughout this announcement and include, but are not limited to, statements regarding NHOA's intentions, beliefs or current expectations concerning, among other things, NHOA's results of business development, operations, financial position, prospects, financing strategies, expectations for product design and development, regulatory applications and approvals, reimbursement arrangements, costs of sales and market penetration. Important factors that could affect performance and cause results to differ materially from management's expectations or could affect NHOA's ability to achieve its strategic goals, include the uncertainties relating to the impact of Covid-19 on NHOA's business, operations and employees. In addition, even if the NHOA's results of operations, financial position and growth, and the development of the markets and the industry in which NHOA operates, are consistent with the forward-looking statements contained in this announcement, those results or developments may not be indicative of results or developments in subsequent periods. The forward-looking statements herein speak only at the date of this announcement. NHOA does not have the obligation and undertakes no obligation to update or revise any of the forward-looking statements.

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1.1 Consolidated Income Statement

CONSOLIDATED INCOME STATEMENT

(amounts in Euro) 30/06/2021 31/12/2020 30/06/2020 Revenues 6.052.300 10.798.205 4.914.240 Other Income including non-recurring 1.145.868 253.596 111.887 TOTAL REVENUES AND OTHER INCOME (including non-recurring income) 7.198.168 11.051.801 5.026.127 Cost of goods sold (5.337.029) (7.221.152) (3.690.491) GROSS MARGIN FROM SALES (including non-recurring income) 1.861.139 3.830.649 1.335.636 on Revenues and other income 25,9% 34,7% 26,6% Personnel costs (5.735.830) (7.774.565) (3.703.950) Other operating expenses (1.645.346) (2.937.171) (1.406.757) Other costs for R&D and industrial operations (1) 0 (1.543.425) (610.141) EBITDA excluding Stock Option and Incentive Plans expenses, including non -recurring income (2) (5.520.036) (8.424.511) (4.385.212) Amortization and depreciation (2.815.237) (3.325.887) (1.291.930) Impairment and write down (56.348) (1.509.491) (196.061) Non-recurring income and expenses and Integration costs (2.642.690) (569.535) (142.226) Stock options and Incentive plans (4.771.255) (824.790) (513.025) EBIT (15.805.568) (14.654.215) (6.528.455) Net financial income and expenses (54.459) (90.791) 39.481 Income Taxes (15.776) (69.540) (31.291) NET INCOME (LOSS) (15.875.803) (14.814.545) (6.520.264) Attributable to: Equity holders of the parent company (15.463.596) (14.814.545) (6.520.264) Non-controlling interests (412.206) 0 0 Basic earnings per share (1,21) (1,16) (0,51) Weighted average number of ordinary shares outstanding 12.766.860 12.766.860 12.766.860 Diluted earnings per share (1,21) (1,16) (0,51) (1) Other costs for R&D and industrial operations have been reclassified to cost of goods sold in 2021. It is defined in notes 4.5 of Consolidated Financial Statement. (2) EBITDA excluding Stock Option and Incentive Plans expenses is not defined by IFRS. It is defined in notes 3.8 and 4.6 of Consolidated Financial Statement.

1.2 Consolidated Statement of Other Comprehensive Income

OTHER COMPREHENSIVE INCOME

(amounts in Euro) 30/06/2021 31/12/2020 30/06/2020 NET INCOME (LOSS) (15.463.596) (14.814.545) (6.520.264) Exchange differences on translation of foreign operations and other differences 0 0 (2.739) Other comprehensive income not to be reclassified to profit or loss in subsequent periods (net of tax) 0 (1.323) 7.714 Actuarial gain and (losses) on employee benefits 218.120 (193.087) (64.945) Other comprehensive income (loss) for the year, net of tax 218.120 (194.410) (59.970) Total comprehensive income for the year, net of tax (15.245.477) (15.008.955) (6.580.235) Attributable to Equity holders of the parent company (15.245.477) (15.008.955) (6.580.235)

1.3 Consolidated Balance Sheet

ASSETS

(amounts in Euro) 30/06/2021 31/12/2020 30/06/2020 Property, plant and equipment 3.744.415 2.521.277 2.860.550 Intangible assets 8.750.510 9.272.391 8.120.705 Investments in entities accounted using the equity method 9.445 9.445 996 Other non-current financial assets 4.890.346 190.346 168.346 TOTAL NON CURRENT ASSETS 17.394.716 11.993.458 11.150.597 Trade and other receivables 9.950.093 11.639.388 4.068.586 Contract assets 344.311 1.068.083 7.226.231 Inventories 2.803.845 1.988.444 3.218.163 Other current assets 3.609.388 2.502.356 3.266.872 Current financial assets 8.174.213 467.500 459.219 Cash and cash equivalent 9.082.310 3.930.868 3.773.701 TOTAL CURRENT ASSETS 33.964.160 21.596.638 22.012.772 TOTAL ASSETS 51.358.876 33.590.096 33.163.369 EQUITY AND LIABILITIES

(amounts in Euro) 30/06/2021 31/12/2020 30/06/2020 Issued capital 2.553.372 2.553.372 2.553.372 Share premium 48.147.696 48.147.696 48.147.696 Other Reserves 4.623.788 4.399.167 4.529.648 Retained Earnings (66.947.590) (52.139.663) (52.953.882) Profit (Loss) for the period before Revaluation of European Investment Bank warrants liabilities (IFRS 2) (15.463.596) (14.814.546) (6.520.264) TOTAL GROUP EQUITY (27.086.331) (11.853.975) (4.243.431) Minorities interest 20.187.793 0 0 TOTAL EQUITY (6.898.538) (11.853.975) (4.243.431) Severance indemnity reserve and Employees' benefits 1.441.327 4.925.948 4.819.075 Non current financial liabilities 32.780.509 24.237.071 20.254.905 Other non current liabilities 2.857.771 1.903.628 1.998.478 Non-current deferred tax liabilities 16.494 16.494 16.494 TOTAL NON CURRENT LIABILITIES 37.096.101 31.083.141 27.088.952 Trade payables 7.635.292 6.887.267 5.370.248 Other current liabilities 12.522.524 6.505.062 3.664.869 Current financial liabilities 1.003.498 968.600 1.271.175 Income tax payable 0 0 11.556 TOTAL CURRENT LIABILITIES 21.161.313 14.360.929 10.317.848 TOTAL EQUITY AND LIABILITIES 51.358.876 33.590.095 33.163.369

1.4 Consolidated Statement of Changes in Equity

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF

CHANGES IN EQUITY

(amounts in Euro) Share

Capital Premium

Reserve Stock

Option

and Warrants

plan reserve Minority

interests Other

Reserves Retained

Earnings

(Losses) Profit (Loss)

for the

period Total Equity

before European

Investment Bank

variation

(IFRS 2) TOTAL

EQUITY Net Equity as of 31 December 2019 2.553.372 48.147.696 4.969.291 (382.504) (38.306.765) (14.644.285) 2.336.804 2.336.804 Previous year result allocation (14.644.285) 14.644.285 Opening reclassification 01/01/2020 Other movements Loss for the period (6.520.264) (6.520.264) (6.520.264) Total comprehensive income (57.231) (2.739) (59.970) (59.970) Net Equity as of 30 June 2020 2.553.372 48.147.696 4.969.291 (439.735) (52.953.789) (6.520.264) (4.243.431) (4.243.431) Previous year result allocation 6.520.264 6.520.264 6.520.264 Opening reclassification 01/01/2020 6.790 (6.790) Other movements 818.178 818.178 818.178 Loss for the period (14.814.545) (14.814.545) (14.814.545) Total comprehensive income (137.179) 2.739 (134.440) (134.440) Net Equity as of 31 December 2020 2.553.372 48.147.696 4.969.291 (570.125) (52.139.663) (14.814.546) (11.853.975) (11.853.975) Previous year result allocation (14.814.546) 14.814.546 Opening reclassification 01/01/2021 Other movements 6.502 6.618 13.120 13.120 Non controlling interests 20.187.793 20.187.793 20.187.793 Loss for the period (15.463.596) (15.463.596) (15.463.596) Total comprehensive income 218.120 218.120 218.120 Net Equity as of 30 June 2021 2.553.372 48.147.696 4.969.291 20.187.793 (345.503) (66.947.590) (15.463.596) (6.898.538) (6.898.538)

1.5 Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows

CASH FLOW STATEMENT

(amounts in Euro) 30/06/2021 31/12/2020 30/06/2020 Net Income or Loss (15.875.802) (14.814.545) (6.520.264) Amortisation and depreciation 2.815.237 3.325.887 1.291.930 Impairment and write down 56.348 1.509.491 196.061 Stock option and incentive plans impact 4.771.255 824.790 513.025 Defined Benefit Plan (3.484.621) 100.328 (6.544) Working capital adjustments Decrease (increase) in tax assets (296.234) (296.234) (790.475) Decrease (increase) in trade and other receivables and prepayments 1.199.318 8.461.612 9.140.030 Decrease (increase) in inventories (815.401) 997.504 (232.215) Increase (decrease) in trade and other payables 6.709.138 (8.598.884) (11.631.110) Increase (decrease) in non current assets and liabilities (3.289.635) (459.378) 584.369 Net cash flows from operating activities (8.210.397) (8.949.428) (7.455.193) Investments Net Decrease (Increase) in intangible assets (3.372.219) (4.528.996) (1.995.160) Net Decrease (Increase) in tangible assets (144.276) (208.837) (53.117) Net Decrease (Increase) due to IFRS 16 FTA (1.254.962) (53.207) 0 Reversal of IFRS 15 FTA 0 818.178 0 Net cash flows from investments activities (4.771.457) (3.972.862) (2.048.277) Financing Increase (decrease) in bank debts 8.578.334 10.673.494 6.993.903 Minorities cash injection 8.300.000 IFRS 16 Impact 1.254.962 (251.711) (148.104) Net cash flows from financing activities 18.133.296 10.421.783 6.845.799 Net cash and cash equivalent at the beginning of the period 3.930.868 6.431.375 6.431.375 NET CASH FLOW FOR THE PERIOD 5.151.442 (2.500.507) (2.657.670) NET CASH AND CASH EQUIVALENTS AT THE END OF THE PERIOD 9.082.310 3.930.868 3.773.704

_________________

1 These preliminary results are unaudited. Completion of the standard audit procedures and release of audit report with publication of the H1 2021 Financial Statements is expected on September 30, 2021.

2 As per the Universal Registration Document 2020, Backlog or Project Backlog means, as of a given date, the estimated revenues and other income attributable to (i) purchase orders received, contracts signed and projects awarded as of the date hereof, and (ii) Project Development contracts associated with a Power Purchase Agreement, where the agreed value is a price per kWh of electricity and an amount of MW to be installed.

3 According to the Universal Registration Document 2020, Contracts Secured means projects awarded, for which the signature of the full sets of the agreements has not been yet completed. Typically, when NHOA is awarded with a tender, typically being project financing, there are several steps to be completed (i.e. the EPC Agreement, the Notice to Proceed, permission to be signed). Once terms of documentation and planning permissions are defined, Contracts Secured becomes Backlog.

4 As defined in the Universal Registration Document 2020, Pipeline means the estimate, to date, of the amount of potential projects, tenders and requests for proposal for which the NHOA Group has decided to participate or respond.

5 As per the Press Release dated 23 July 2021 and consistently with the trading and operational update to be released on a quarterly basis, Pipeline will be an indicator exclusively referring to the Energy Storage Global Business Line (and Atlante GBL, starting from Q3 2021).

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915006145/en/

Contacts:

Press Office: Claudia Caracausi, Image Building, +39 02 89011300, nhoa@imagebuilding.it

Corporate and Institutional Communication: Cristina Cremonesi, +39 345 570 8686, ir@nhoa.energy
Canva, a Sidney, Australia-based global visual communications platform, raised USD $200m in a funding round which valued tha company at USD $40 billion.

The round was led by T. Rowe Price with participation from new and existing strategic investors Franklin Templeton, Sequoia Capital Global Equities, Bessemer Venture Partners, Greenoaks Capital, Dragoneer Investments, Blackbird, Felicis, and AirTree Ventures.

The company intends to use the funds to accelerate growth, including expanding its team of more than 2,000 employees, which it is expected to double in the year ahead.

Launched in 2013 and led by CEO Melanie Perkins, Canva provides a free online visual communications and collaboration platform featuring a drag-and-drop user interface and a vast range of templates ranging from presentations, social media graphics, posters, apparel to videos, plus a huge library of fonts, stock photography, illustrations, video footage, and audio clips. The service is available on desktop, web, iOS, and Android.

The community has created more than 7 billion designs, using Canvas library of more than 800,000 templates and over 100 million ingredients, including photos, videos, stickers, audio tracks, and illustrations.

Canva is also used by enterprise customers such as Fortune 500 companies including Zoom, Salesforce, Marriott International, PayPal, and American Airlines.

FinSMEs

15/09/2021
Canvas, a San Francisco, CA-based diversity recruitment platform, raised $50m in Series C funding, bringing its valuation to $400m.

The round was led by Owl Ventures, with participation from Sequoia, Lachy Groom, Zoom Apps Fund, HighSage Ventures, BAM Elevate and Fifth Down Capital.

The company intends to use the funds to:

expand its product into other industries and verticals outside of technology, and

make new R&D investments to further develop the platforms insights and recommendation systems.

Led by Ben Herman, CEO, Canvas is a Diversity Recruitment Platform (DRP) to hire diverse teams. Companies like Lyft, Headspace, Airbnb & Dropbox use Canvas to understand the diversity of their recruiting pipeline, source underrepresented talent, run engaging virtual events, enhance employer brand, and measure the ROI of their diversity recruiting initiatives.

Coupled with the Series C is the launch of a new product, Canvas Diversity Analytics & Benchmarking, already allows companies including Airbnb, Bloomberg, Lyft, Pinterest, Roblox, and more to access detailed data insights and diversity benchmarks, so hiring teams can uncover diversity disparities, identify biases and track progress in real time. Additionally, the product allows companies to get visibility into their own diversity hiring metrics relative to companies of similar industries and sizes. Recruiters can now view at-a-glance how their top-of-funnel compares, grouped by ethnicity or gender from the analytics dashboard, and spot and prioritize equity efforts more confidently to achieve diversity hiring goals.

FinSMEs

14/09/2021
Chaldal, a Dhaka, Bangladesh-based grocery delivery platform, raised $10m in Series C funding round.

The round was led by Taavet Hinrikus (co-founder of Wise), Sten Tamkivi (CPO of Topia), and Xploration Capital, with the participation from Mir Group.

The company will use this funding to expand across Bangladesh and develop its other product offerings.

Co-founded in 2014 by Waseem Alim, Tejas Viswanath, and Zia Ashraf, Chaldal delivers groceries on-demand through a network of warehouses enabled by their technology platform. Their customers can select from over 8,500 different products and have them delivered within an hour. In the past 12 months, the company generated $40M in revenue and performed 2.5 million orders.

The online grocery platform is available in Dhaka, Narayanganj, Chattogram, and Jashore. The company delivers over 3 million orders a year through 27 warehouses located in 4 cities.

FinSMEs

15/09/2021





Best regards,

Alexandra Suslova

MA Family

Senior PR Manager

+79161210120

Telegram: @alsuslova

Twitter: @alsuslova_
Constructor, a San Francisco, CA-based provider of eCommerce search and product discovery solutions, raised $55M in Series A funding.

The round was led by Silversmith Capital Partners with participation from David Fraga, former President of InVision, who will be joining Constructors board; Kevil Weil, former Head of Product at Twitter and Instagram; Jason Finger, founder of Seamless; Carl Sparks, former CEO of Travelocity; Robyn Peterson, CTO at CNN; Dave Heath, Founder of Bombas; Ryan Barretto, President at Sprout Social; Melody Hildebrandt, EVP Engineering and CISO at Fox; Zander Rafael, Co-Founder of Better.com; and Seth Shaw, CRO at Airtable. Also participating is the Cap Table Coalition. As part of the investment, Silversmith General Partner Sri Rao will also join the Constructors Board of Directors.

The company intends to use the funds to expand operations and its business reach.

Founded in 2015 by Eli Finkelshteyn, a former data scientist and search engineer at Shutterstock, Tumblr, and Backplane, and Dan McCormick, former CTO of Shutterstock, Constructor is a search and product discovery platform for enterprise ecommerce. Its cloud-based solutions use artificial intelligence, natural language processing, machine learning-enhanced results ranking, and collaborative personalization to deliver user experiences across all facets of product discovery, from search to browse, recommendations, collections, and autosuggest.

Customers include Backcountry, Sephora, Bonobos, American Eagle, Target Australia, and more.

FinSMEs

15/09/2021
Cortical.io, a Vienna, Austria and NYC- and San Francisco, CA-based provider of solutions that classify, extract and search information within unstructured documents, raised $6m in Series A funding.

The round was led by Ezpada, a global commodity trading house.

The company intends to use the funds to continue to expand operations and its business reach.

Cortical.io leverages patented artificial intelligence (AI)-based natural language understanding (NLU) technology based on semantic folding and neuroscience to provide business solutions that accurately classify, extract and search information within unstructured documents. Fortune 500 businesses in segments including contract analysis, message intelligence and intelligent document processing (IDP) are using the companys solutions to solve business problems with complex NLU challenges without the need for in-house AI experience.

Cortical.io recently announced Contract Intelligence 4.5, which automatically and accurately searches, extracts, classifies and compares key information from agreements, contracts, and other unstructured documents like policies and financial reports. They also have new capabilities coming soon in an upcoming announcement around Cortical.io Message intelligence, an IDP that provides high accuracy in filtering, classification, and extraction of emails, attachments, and other types of unstructured documents.

Earlier this year, the European Investment Bank (EIB) provided $9.1m to the company.

FinSMEs

15/09/2021
Measurabl, a San Diego, CA-based ESG (environmental, social, governance) technology platform for real estate, closed a $50m Series C funding round.

The round was led by Energy Impact Partners with participation from repeat investors S&P Global, Salesforce Ventures, Sway Ventures, Constellation Technology Ventures, and Building Ventures and new investors including an affiliate of Starwood Capital Group, Colliers and Cushman & Wakefield, Lincoln Property Company, and individuals from Stone Point Capital.

The company intends to use the funds to accelerate the expansion of its platform and support the launch of new services.

Led by Matt Ellis, Founder and CEO, Measurabl provides a platform that helps companies measure, manage and disclose ESG performance, assess exposure to physical climate risk, and act on decarbonization and sustainable finance opportunities. It connects information to action across the entire real estate experience, from operational aspects of buildings in the boiler room all the way to capital markets activities conceived in the boardroom. Customers have insights into peer relative performance, can create credible disclosures, and can identify pathways to improve performance.

The company now counts US public REITs and global real estate asset managers representing a combined $2 trillion in gross asset value among its subscribers, as well as corporations with significant real estate footprints.

FinSMEs

15/09/2021
Modifi, a NYC-based global fintech company, raised $24M in funding, which brings its valuation to more than $120M.

The round was led by new investor Heliad Equity Partners with a co-investment from Neva SGR, the venture capital investment vehicle of Italian banking group Intesa San Paolo, and participation from existing investors Global Founders Capital, Maersk Growth, and Picus Capital.

The company intends to use the funds for major upgrades to the platform, allowing customers to take care of all trade-related activities in one place, including finding new trade partners and managing foreign exchange risk, among other things.

Led by CEO and Co-Founder Nelson Holzner, Modifi is a digital trade finance platform for SMBs that spans the three major trading regions of Europe, Asia, and North America  a cluster that encompasses approximately 80% of global imports and exports. It provides SMBs with digital solutions to finance their trades, protect them from counterparty risk, and track and manage their shipments.

The company launched in the US, Netherlands, and Bangladesh in the first half of 2021, after raising a $60m debt facility from Silicon Valley Bank. The company currently operates out of nine offices in New York, Berlin, Amsterdam, Delhi, Mumbai, Dhaka, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, and Dubai.

It serves over 1,000 buyers and sellers across more than 40 countries.

FinSMEs

15/09/2021
Ribbon, a NYC- and Charlotte, NC-based homeownership company, secured $150m.

The funding is inclusive of:

$75m in Series C equity financing led by Greenspring Associates, with participation from existing investors Greylock, Bain Capital Ventures, NFX, Nyca, Thomvest and Jake Seid, and new strategic investors, including First American Financial, Waterfall Asset Management, TriplePoint Capital, Spencer Rascoffs 75 & Sunny Ventures, Gary Beasley, Gregor Watson, and Guy Gal; and

$75m in additional working capital.

Additionally, Ribbon has also upsized its $500m credit facility.

The company intends to use the funds to accelerate expansion into new states.

Founded in 2017, and led by Shaival Shah, CEO, Ribbon provides a homeownership platform that allows real estate agents and lenders with the ability to design winning cash offers, empowering their everyday homebuyers  while providing sellers with on-time closing. Over 100 brokerage and lender partners have created their own Ribbon-powered cash experiences, growing to a network of 20,000 agents and loan officers creating $600 million in home offers a month.

FinSMEs

15/09/2021
At its event, Apple announced the iPhone 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max successor of last years iPhone 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max models, both with support for 5G, upgraded displays, A15 Bionic chips and bigger batteries. These come with 6.1-inch and 6.7-inch OLED Super Retina XDR displays with ProMotion, supporting an adaptive refresh rate from 10Hz to 120Hz. This is the brightest display ever on iPhone with up to 25% higher max outdoor brightness, at 1000 nits.

These come with Ceramic Shield protection, A15 Bionic 5nm Chip with new 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine and has IP68 water resistance (6 meters for up to 30 minutes) ratings.

Camera

The iPhone 13 Pro line up features all-new Wide camera with a larger sensor with 1.9 m pixels, the largest ever on iPhone and has /1.5 aperture, the Wide camera on iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max offers a massive improvement in low-light situations, up to 2.2x when compared to iPhone 12 Pro, and nearly 1.5x when compared to iPhone 12 Pro Max. The Sensor-shift optical image stabilisation (OIS) is available on both models, stabilising the sensor instead of the lens.

The new Ultra Wide camera features a much wider /1.8 aperture and has a new autofocus system, bringing a 92% improvement for low-light environments, producing images that are brighter and sharper. The new lens design, autofocus capability for the first time in the Ultra Wide on iPhone, and also brings macrophotography with a minimum focus distance of 2 centimeters. Macro also extends to video including Slo-mo and Time-lapse. iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max also boast a new 77 mm Telephoto camera, offering 3x optical zoom for a total 6x optical zoom range on the camera system.

The Cinematic mode records videos of people, pets, and objects with a beautiful depth effect with automatic focus changes and it records in Dolby Vision HDR. These also introduce ProRes (1080p at 30 fps for 128GB storage, 4K 30 fps in other models), an advanced video codec used widely as the final delivery format for commercials, feature films, and broadcasts, to offer higher color fidelity and less compression. iPhone is the only smartphone in the world to provide an end-to-end workflow  capture, edit, and share in Dolby Vision or ProRes, said Apple.

The customized hardware design in the iPhone 13 Pro line up features more 5G bands, allowing it to work in more places on 5G for greater coverage and performance. By the end of 2021, support for 5G on iPhone will double around the globe, with over 200 carriers worldwide in 60 countries and regions, said Apple.

Apple iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max specifications

iPhone 13 Pro- 6.1-inch (25321170 pixels) OLED 460ppi Super Retina XDR display with ProMotion with adaptive refresh rates up to 120Hz, 1000 nits brightness, up to 1200 nits brightness, HDR, Ceramic Shield protection

iPhone 13 Pro Max -6.7-inch (27781284 pixels) OLED 458ppi Super Retina XDR display with ProMotion with adaptive refresh rates up to 120Hz, 1000 nits brightness, up to 1200 nits brightness, Ceramic Shield protection

Six-Core A15 (2 performance and 4 efficiency cores) Bionic 5nm chip with 64-bit architecture, 5core GPU, 16core Neural Engine

128GB,256GB, 512GB and 1TB storage options

iOS 15

Water and dust resistant (IP68)

Dual SIM (nano + eSIM)

12MP wide-angle (f/1.5) camera, 7P lens, Sensorshift optical image stabilisation, True Tone flash, HDR video recording with Dolby Vision at 4K 60 fps, Slomo 1080p at 240fps, 12MP 120 Ultra Wide (f/1.8) camera, 5P lens, 12MP Telephoto camera with f/2.8 aperture with 3x optical zoom for a total 6x optical zoom range, Night mode portraits enabled by LiDAR Scanner

12MP TrueDepth front camera with f/2.2 aperture, Retina Flash, 4K video recording at 60 fps, Slomo 1080p at 120fps

iPhone 13 Pro dimensions: 146.7 71.57.65mm; Weight: 203grams

iPhone 13 Pro Max dimensions: 160.8 78.17.65mm; Weight: 238grams

TrueDepth camera for FaceID facial recognition, Stereo speakers

5G (sub6 GHz), Gigabit-class LTE, 802.11ax WiFi 6 with 22 MIMO, Bluetooth 5.0, Ultra Wideband chip for spatial awareness, NFC with reader mode, GPS with GLONASS

Built-in rechargeable lithium-ion battery with MagSafe wireless charging, fast charging, up to 22 hours (iPhone 13 Pro) / 28 hours (iPhone 13 Pro Max) of video playback

Pricing and availability

The Apple iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max come in Graphite, Gold, Silver and Sierra Blue in 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and all-new 1TB storage options.

Pricing and availability

iPhone 13 Pro 128GB Rs. 1,19,900

iPhone 13 Pro 256GB Rs. 1,29,900

iPhone 13 Pro 512GB  Rs. 1,49,900

iPhone 13 Pro 1TB  Rs. 1,69,900

iPhone 13 Pro Max 128GB Rs. 1,29,900

iPhone 13 Pro Max 256GB Rs. 1,39,900

iPhone 13 Pro Max 512GB  Rs. 1,59,900

iPhone 13 Pro Max 1TB  Rs. 1,79,900

The iPhone 13 Pro series will be available through Apple Authorized Resellers in India starting from September 24th with pre-orders starting from September 17th at 5:30PM IST.
Paxton, IL (60957)

Today

Considerable cloudiness with occasional rain showers. High 64F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%..

Tonight

Cloudy with occasional showers overnight. Low 54F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
The Merchant Of Venice Flamant Rose Eau de Parfum Concentree

New Fragrances

In 2013, the beautiful and very inspiring collection, The Merchant Of Venice, was launched. Since then, their numerous fragrances, divided into several collections, celebrate the beauty and heritage of Venice and its specific connections with other parts of the world. Some of the latest releases we have admired were the impressive Imperial Emerald, illustrated with peacock feathers; the shiny white My Pearls, a delicate white floral fragrance; and the special creation, Vinegia 21, that celebrated the 1600th anniversary of the birth of Venice.

The newest fragrance, Flamant Rose EdP Concentree, launched in September 2021, is inspired by one of the most elegant and unique creatures in the animal kingdom: the pink flamingo.

"Symbol of harmony and positivity, flamingos have always fascinated artists and poets who, through the language of art, have paid tribute to their charm, representing a unique balance between gentleness and extravagance. The Merchant of Venice and its L'Arte Profumatoria Veneziana take inspiration from the vitality and the colourful, luminous plumage of this creature, whilst talking about some of the brand features.

"First of all, the connection with the lagoon, Venetian emblem and place where flamingos love to gather, but also the refined perfume ingredients used in high concentration as well as the detailed style of the bottle and its case.

"In Flamant Rose EdP Concentree the classic flacon of The Merchant of Venice, inspired by the most precious masterpieces of Murano glass art, comes with a flamboyant varnish with warm coral tones recalling the iconic feathers and colours of the flamingo. The golden cap used for the brand's most exclusive fragrances seals the fragrance, whilst a flamingo feather features on its side, once again recalling the iconic inspiration. The curtain-opening box, characterizing the most special projects of The Merchant of Venice, is decorated with a pattern with flamingos depicted on an exquisite golden background.

"Flamant Rose EdP Concentree is a unique Eau de Parfum Concentree combining a strong floral character with a light fruity touch recalling a walk at sunset. Flamant Rose inebriates the senses with a delicate, refreshing sparkle of mandarin and verbena which soon evolves into an enveloping warm embrace, where orange blossoms blend with a milky apricot aroma. The fragrance settles in a soft oriental base with woody notes of patchouli, tonka bean and musk, evoking on-skin warmth."

The perfumer of the Flamant Rose composition is Cyrill Rolland.

Opening notes: Mandarin, Petitgrain, Verbena

Heart notes: Orange Blossom, Apricot, Geranium

Base notes: Tonka Bean, Musk, Patchouli

For the launch of Flamant Rose, The Merchant of Venice decided to collaborate with Nima Benati, one of the most talented emerging fashion photographers in Italy and the author of several advertising campaigns for renowned international magazines. A partner of The Merchant of Venice in the "Nima By Nima" project, which saw herself filmed behind the lens as both photographer and model, it is an innovative partnership to enhance the new Eau de Parfum Concentree signed by The Merchant of Venice.

***

Flamant Rose EdP Concentree is available in 100ml flacons at the suggested price of 250 EUR.

Source: The Merchant Of Venice press release


Three New Flowers in the Atelier des Fleurs line by Chloe

New Fragrances

Drawing on a wide variety of natural bouquets, the Maison Chloe has collaborated with renowned perfumers to create the Atelier des Fleurs. The original collection of 12 perfumes has been extended to introduce three new all-natural fragrances, crafted from responsibly grown flowers. Although each perfume has a unique signature rooted in the perfumers memory, they are designed to work in harmony in endless combinations.





IRIS

Whilst exploring the Atlas Mountains in Morocco, Steve Guo discovered Iris x germanica and its beautiful, complex scent. The unique plant is a sun worshipper that dots the mountain slopes and highlands with its blue-violet hue. Once gathered, its roots are dried for months in large jute bags, exuding soft, captivating emanations. Its memorable scent made such an impression on the perfumer that he wished to interpret it as the incomparable Iris Perfume.

YLANG CANANGA

The Madagascan island of Nosy Be is home to spectacular fields of ylang-ylang that stretch as far as the eye can see. Serge de Oliveira remembers the scent particularly well. In a cheerful family atmosphere, flower gatherers pluck flowers by hand, one by one. They move so precisely, lithely and rhythmically that they almost appear to be dancing. Each one drops Ylang-ylang flowers into their basket, unleashing the incomparable fragrance that inspired the perfumer to create this sensuous, smooth, sunny perfume.

NARCISSUS POETICUS

A fresh and slightly powdery perfume, Narcissus Poeticus captures a joyful memory of springtime delight. The narcissus is the first flower Philippine Courtiere ever fell for in childhood when she would stroll along the paths of the Jardin du Luxembourg with her grandmother and gather it in little bouquets. The delicate narcissus brings honey-scented notes to the perfume.

The elegant pleated glass bottle is made with partially recycled materials. Printed with a new eco-friendly method, the plant-inspired verdigris label reflects the all-natural origins of the Atelier des Fleurs perfumes.



All fragrances of the Atelier des Fleurs line



Source: Chloe
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.
CERRITOS, Calif., Sept. 14, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Korean Ginseng Corp. (KGC), and its CheongKwanJang brand, the Worlds No. 1 brand of Ginseng, hosted a grand opening event at its new Ginseng Museum Cafe located at 315 5th Street, on the corner of 32nd Street and 5th Avenue in Manhattan on September 14th. Ginseng Museum Cafe introduces each guest to the thousand-year history and efficacy of one of South Koreas first-ever export products, ginseng, in an entertaining way. Using fun, immersive digital animation, the museum hopes to provide each visitor with a unique ginseng experience, the highlight of which is the first-of-its-kind opportunity to taste their refreshing, reenergizing specialty: draft 24-hour-fresh-brewed pure ginseng extract.



Commenting on the grand opening of the Ginseng Museum Cafe, Nae Soo Kim, KGCs Head Director of Global Business, said, We are particularly grateful for the opportunity to introduce the culture of Korean Red Ginseng on 32nd Street, the street that best symbolizes the historic role of Korea in the United States. Our wish is that people from all around the world can learn about, experience, and bring home the natural and cultural wonder that is Korean Red Ginseng.

Entry into the Ginseng Museum Cafe is free to the public and open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Monday through Saturday, and closes at 6 p.m. on Sundays. Visitors will be required to follow New Yorks current COVID-19 guidelines.

About Korea Ginseng Corp.

For more than 120 years, Korea Ginseng Corp. and its Cheong Kwan Jang brand, the Worlds No. 1 brand of Ginseng, has been dedicated to providing the worlds leading Korean Red Ginseng. Key benefits of Korean Red Ginseng include: supporting a healthy immune response; supporting healthy energy and stamina levels; supporting healthy brain function and blood circulation; and supporting menopause relief. Korean Red Ginseng is also rich in antioxidants. For more information visit, https://www.kgcus.com/ . You can also follow Korea Ginseng Corp. on Facebook: www.facebook.com/KGCUS , Twitter: www.twitter.com/KGCUS , Instagram: www.instagram.com/KGCUS , and YouTube: www.youtube.com/KGCUS .

Media Contacts:

Joanne Tedesco, Dresner Corporate Services, (573)355-7855, jtedesco@dresnerco.com

David Gutierrez, Dresner Corporate Services, (312)780-7204, dgutierrez@dresnerco.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/5df50541-656b-41c7-9de4-697c6c991b92
CINCINNATI, OHIO, Sept. 14, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- IncludeHealth, a digital musculoskeletal (MSK) health company, today launched its proprietary Musculoskeletal Operating System (MSK-OS) in collaboration with Google and ProMedica Health System. The MSK-OS is a hardware-free, device-agnostic platform combining the most accessible, measurable pose estimation technology available with proprietary clinical intelligence and tools to transform virtual MSK care delivery. The new MSK-OS platform will power the next generation of integrated virtual care for MSK patients, allowing providers to offer convenient, trusted and affordable virtual physical therapy to patients through any device. As costs for musculoskeletal health conditions continue to rise and consumer demand for virtual care accelerates, the ability to offer seamless access to virtual MSK care for both patients and providers is more important than ever.

We are inspired by IncludeHealths vision to empower providers to deliver fast, accurate musculoskeletal care to patients whenever and wherever they need treatment, said Sandeep Gupta, Product Manager for TensorFlow at Google. At Google, were always looking for high-impact applications of our new technologies. So, we provided early releases of our latest pose estimation model, MoveNet, and worked together with the IncludeHealth team to achieve the ideal balance of speed and accuracy for physical therapy treatments. Were excited to contribute to this meaningful application and look forward to continued collaborations.

IncludeHealth began collaborating with Google in 2020 to further advance its pose estimation models and accurately measure a patient's balance, strength and range of motion during physical therapy activities. First previewed at the 2021 Google I/O conference, the innovation significantly advances the speed and applicability of traditional pose estimation models for virtual MSK care. IncludeHealths comprehensive MSK platform utilizes this novel technology to deliver prescriptive care with precise tracking of patient progress and outcomes for physical and occupational therapy across MSK treatment pathways.

While consumer demand for virtual MSK solutions has grown in recent years, many existing solutions circumvent traditional healthcare providers. This limits the ability to deliver end-to-end integrated care that deploys a combination of virtual and in-person services based on patient preference and clinical appropriateness. As such, existing virtual MSK solutions have further fragmented care and created downstream challenges for patients and providers alike. IncludeHealths new MSK-OS is built specifically to enable providers to support patients with seamless virtual and onsite touchpoints throughout their care journey. The lack of hardware or sensors and the overall affordability of the solution translates to increased patient access, greater adherence to recommended MSK treatment pathways, and better clinical outcomes.

The MSK-OS connects clinicians and patients through a HIPAA compliant cloud-based digital platform. The transformative design and technology streamlines delivery while harvesting objective, measurable data and creating actionable insights for improved health outcomes.

ProMedica Health System, an integrated healthcare system headquartered in Toledo, Ohio serving communities in 28 states, has partnered with IncludeHealth to offer this breakthrough platform to its patients. The healthcare system will incorporate IncludeHealths MSK-OS as it enables personalized plans to be built and stored in the cloud, with real-time pose estimation delivered on any device with a forward-facing camera (no software download required). Patients can use their phones, tablets, or computers to engage with their trusted MSK providers and complete treatment plans at the time and place most convenient for them.

The landscape of care delivery has shifted, says John Pigott, MD, Chief Innovation Officer at ProMedica. Health systems must now seek powerful tools to navigate the new frontier of blending on-site and remote services. Were excited to partner with IncludeHealth to pioneer the next generation of care delivery and ensure our patients receive care that is convenient, engaging, and most importantly, effective. By combining this easy-to-use technology with our existing high-quality care, our clinicians will be able to enhance the patient experience and deliver better outcomes.

Healthcare is moving beyond an old paradigm where patients could only get care at pre-scheduled times and inconvenient places, remarks Ryan Eder, Founder & CEO of IncludeHealth. The new MSK-OS was built to facilitate the hybrid model, where providers can deliver a seamless blend of on-site and remote digital care with high confidence and increased accessimproving convenience, efficiency, and outcomes. Were proud to collaborate with these world-leading organizations to usher in the next evolution of MSK care.

To learn more about how IncludeHealths MSK-OS can improve engagement, access, and adherence, visit https://www.includehealth.com and schedule a demo.

About IncludeHealth

IncludeHealth is a digital musculoskeletal health company delivering next-generation musculoskeletal care. The proprietary technology at IncludeHealth has been recognized with 28 international innovation and health awards and is utilized in orthopedics, neuroscience, pediatric care, senior care, government, and general wellness.









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NEW YORK, NY, Sept. 15, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Several architectural glass products from Bendheim blend transparency and privacy in a major renovation at one of the worlds most iconic structures.

Bendheims Gothic and Houdini glass were among the architectural choices in the $500 million renovation of Willis Tower in Chicago. Formerly known as the Sears Tower, the renovation covered 460,000 square feet and reached across five floors. Gensler led the project for real estate holders Blackstone and Equity Office.

Willis Tower, which held the mantle of the worlds tallest building for 25 years, is home to about 15,000 workers and hosts 1.7 million annual tourists. The Skydeck Chicago observatory at Willis Tower is a major tourist attraction for the city.

Architects specified nearly 2,700 square feet of Bendheims glass to achieve different design objectives in the project. Backlit translucent white glass stair raisers highlight the main exterior staircase. In the lobby, textured, 40% post-consumer recycled Gothic EcoGlass in clear and translucent white provides transparency, while also offering some obscurity.

Houdini glass was used in a security area to help obfuscate security equipment. Gensler also specified translucent White and Grey colored glass in the project. A custom-made, double-sided bronze etch mirror from Bendheim was used to bring a sense of hospitality and a warmer backdrop to the lobby.

The overall design objective was to design a building that felt more welcoming for workers, tourists and the 170,000 people who work or live within a 5-minute radius of the building. Gensler, in a project profile on its website, said its charge was to create a vibrant, world-class destination at a site that is not currently realizing its full potential.

The renovation includes 300,000 square feet of new retail at the base of the tower as well as a new 30,000 square foot outdoor deck. The redesigned building also includes a subterranean area that allows visitors to look up 111 stories. New amenities include a fitness center, tenant lounges, and a private event space.

Willis Tower was completed in 1974. The 1,450-foot skyscraper is the third largest building in the Western Hemisphere, and stood as the worlds tallest building for nearly 25 years. One World Trade Center and Central Park Tower are the only buildings taller than Willis Tower in the United States.

Christopher Glass Services of Chicago served as the installer while Turner and Clayco were the general contractors.

Attachments
New York, Sept. 15, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Global Activated Charcoal Products Market By Source, By Application, By Region, Competition, Forecast & Opportunities, 2026" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06150603/?utm_source=GNW





Global Activated Charcoal Products Market By Source (Wood, Coconut Shell, Others), By Application (Personal Care, Medicine, Others), By Region, Competition, Forecast & Opportunities, 2026



Global activated charcoal products market is expected to grow at a substantial rate during the forecast period due to the increasing demand in water treatment and sewage treatment applications, owing to its ability to remove particulate and dissolved impurities.Additionally, rising population and rapid urbanization in developing countries are contributing to the emergence of several end user industries which utilize water for their productions.



This in turn has resulted in water contamination in many countries.Therefore, rapid industrialization is anticipated to fuel the demand for activated charcoal products in wastewater treatment.



Moreover, it is also a cost-effective solution for purifying the air from pollutants such as siloxanes, hydrogen sulfide, and volatile organic compounds. This is anticipated to fuel the market until 2026.



Activated charcoal, also known as activated carbon, is a fine black powder made from bone char, coconut shells, peat, petroleum coke, coal, olive pits or sawdust.Manufacturers make activated charcoal by heating common charcoal in the presence of certain gases at high temperature.



The high temperatures changs its internal structure, reducing the size of its pores and increasing its surface area. The activated charcoals porous texture has a negative electrical charge, which causes it to attract positively charged molecules, such as toxins and gases.



Global activated charcoal products market is segmented based on source, application, company and region.Based on source, the market can be segmented into wood, coconut shell and others which include petroleum pitch and phenolic resin.



Coconut shell dominated the global activated charcoal products market in 2020 as charcoal products created from coconut shell have the highest hardness when compared with other source type. The manufacturers are always concerned about the quality of raw material as it has direct impact on performance of the product.



Major players operating in the global activated charcoal products market include Kingsford Products Co LLC, Royal Oak Enterprises, LLC, Gryfskand sp. z o.o, Sagar Activated Charcoal Depot, Parkar Activated Charcoal Company, NAMCHAR (Pty.) Ltd., Timber Activated Charcoal Company LLC, Duraflame Inc., Bricapar S.A., Maurobera SA and others.



Years considered for this report:



Historical Years: 2016-2019

Base Year: 2020

Estimated Year: 2021

Forecast Period: 20222026



Objective of the Study:



 To analyze and forecast the market size of global activated charcoal products market.

 To classify and forecast global activated charcoal products market based on source, application, company and regional distribution.

 To identify drivers and challenges for global activated charcoal products market.

 To examine competitive developments such as expansions, new product launches, mergers & acquisitions, etc., in global activated charcoal products market.

 To conduct pricing analysis for global activated charcoal products market.

 To identify and analyze the profile of leading players operating in global activated charcoal products market.



The analyst performed both primary as well as exhaustive secondary research for this study.Initially, the analyst sourced a list of manufacturers across the globe.



Subsequently, the analyst conducted primary research surveys with the identified companies.While interviewing, the respondents were also enquired about their competitors.



Through this technique, the analyst could include the manufacturers which could not be identified due to the limitations of secondary research. The analyst examined the manufacturers, distribution channels and presence of all major players across the globe.

The analyst calculated the market size of global activated charcoal products market using a bottom-up approach, wherein data for various end-user segments was recorded and forecast for the future years. The analyst sourced these values from the industry experts and company representatives and externally validated through analyzing historical data of these product types and applications for getting an appropriate, overall market size.



Various secondary sources such as company websites, news articles, press releases, company annual reports, investor presentations and financial reports were also studied by the analyst.



Key Target Audience:



 Activated charcoal products manufacturers, distributor, suppliers and other stakeholders

 Government bodies such as regulating authorities and policy makers

 Organizations, forums and alliances related to activated charcoal products

 Market research and consulting firms

The study is useful in providing answers to several critical questions that are important for the industry stakeholders such as manufacturers, suppliers, partners, end users, etc., besides allowing them in strategizing investments and capitalizing on market opportunities.



Report Scope:



In this report, global activated charcoal products market has been segmented into following categories, in addition to the industry trends which have also been detailed below:

 Global Activated Charcoal Products Market, By Source:

o Wood

o Coconut Shell

o Others

 Global Activated Charcoal Products Market, By Application:

o Personal Care

o Medicine & Pharmaceuticals

o Others

 Global Activated Charcoal Products Market, By Region

o North America

United States

Canada

Mexico

o Europe

Germany

France

United Kingdom

Italy

Spain

o Asia-Pacific

China

Japan

India

South Korea

Singapore

o Middle East & Africa

South Africa

Saudi Arabia

UAE

o South America

Brazil

Argentina

Colombia



Competitive Landscape

:

Company Profiles: Detailed analysis of the major companies present in global activated charcoal products market.



Available Customizations:



With the given market data, we offers customizations according to a companys specific needs. The following customization options are available for the report:



Company Information



 Detailed analysis and profiling of additional market players (up to five).

Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06150603/?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.



__________________________
SALT LAKE CITY, Sept. 15, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Suralink , the leader in PBC request list management and approval workflow software, today announced that it is releasing a new product designed to make requesting and sharing one-off files simple and secure.

Secure File Sharing combines the ease of email with the protection of a document exchange portal to help accounting firms transfer files securely. With no limits on file sizes and an easy-to-use interface, Suralink's Secure File Sharing solution uses a series of customized links to improve the file transfer experience for both firms and clients.

Secure File Sharing builds on Suralink's industry expertise, proven technology, and banking-level security to offer a solution that allows firms to increase efficiency while improving the client experience.

Says Tim Ballantyne, CEO and Founder of Suralink: "Until the last year, client experience wasn't a topic of conversation with many firms; however, making it a priority through a seamless use of technology will be critical for any firm that wants to seriously compete in the future. With the release of Secure File Sharing, in conjunction with our flagship product Request List Management, firms can now provide a streamlined, differentiated client experience by consolidating multiple file-sharing applications into a single point of client interaction."

With ever-increasing security and compliance regulations and the growth of remote work, it's more important than ever that firms can easily request and share every documentwithin or outside their organizationsin a secure manner. While there are many solutions available in the market, what exists today is complicated and antiquated, and was not designed specifically for the needs of accountants.

Secure File Sharing includes the following features:

File preview

Secure sharing via a personalized link system

Link regeneration

Bulk upload and download

No file type or size restrictions

Enterprise-grade security

Secure File Sharing is now available in all markets. For more information, contact sales@suralink.com.

About Suralink

Suralink is the leader in request list management and approval workflow, helping businesses simplify the document workflow process while improving the client experience. The company's cloud-based application integrates a dynamic request list and assignment workflow solution with a secure file hosting platform to serve as a single location for client interaction. Suralink's technology, combined with its industry expertise, helps more than 600 clients in North America and the UK ensure security, simplicity, transparency, and accountability throughout the document workflow process.

# # #

CONTACT

Meghan Mitton

VP, Marketing

Suralink

meghan.mitton@suralink.com

Related Images











Image 1: Secure File Sharing





Secure File Sharing









This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com.

Attachment
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Sept. 15, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Solstice Gold Corp. (TSXV: SGC) (Solstice, we, our or the Company) is pleased to announce that we have executed a purchase agreement (the Transaction) to acquire a portfolio of royalty and property interests (the "Portfolio") from a group of vendors including renowned Canadian prospector and entrepreneur Perry English who has amongst other successes unrelated to this transaction vended the claims to Great Bear Resources that today comprise part of the Dixie Project in Red Lake, Ontario. This sale will be consummated through his company 1544230 Ontario Inc., along with his business partner Gravel Ridge Resources Ltd. and its principals (collectively, with Perry English, the Vendors) for a cash purchase price of C$3.8 million and 400,000 common shares of Solstice. C$235,000 cash has already been paid as a deposit to the Vendors. Key highlights are summarized below:



Acquisition Details

Acquisition is expected to be fully funded from proceeds of concurrent financing and early exercise of existing warrants of the Company.

The Portfolio consists of royalty and property interests in 86 projects , including:

, including: 45 projects that are currently under option to third parties, of which 42 include provision for net smelter return ( NSR ) royalty interests (subject to exercise of the options)

) royalty interests (subject to exercise of the options) 10 stand-alone NSR royalty interests

30 additional 100 percent owned properties available for option or sale.

Buyout of our RLX project including its NSR royalty.

Deal Highlights

Nominal Cash and Share Payments due to Solstice from the 45 projects currently under option to 3 rd parties totaling C$3.9MM (Table 1).

parties totaling C$3.9MM (Table 1). Subject to the exercise of the underlying options, Solstice will retain 42 royalties on the optioned properties and is acquiring 10 existing NSR royalties in this acquisition for a total of 52 newly acquired stand alone NSR royalties.

Solstice plans to offer to sell or option a 100% interest in each of the remaining 30 properties either in separate or packaged deals. If consummated, these additional option agreements will generate cash and share payments along with additional NSR royalties to be generated that will be 100% owned by Solstice on closing, further enhancing the potential returns on this acquisition.

Following pay back, Solstice will have an extensive royalty portfolio at zero cost. Subject to the exercise of the underlying options, Solstice will have acquired 52 royalties as part of the Transaction and this will potentially increase by up to 30 projects if new options agreements are entered into.

Solstice buys-back as part of the deal its own Red Lake Extension (RLX) option in Ontarios Red Lake Gold District, which will become 100% owned and royalty-free. Solstice is currently carrying out expanded surveys at RLX which will lead to drill targeting in the latter part of 2021. Formerly, the RLX royalty was 1.5%, of which a 1% could be purchased by Solstice for C$1.5 MM with a 0.5% NSR royalty remaining in perpetuity in favour of the vendors.



Table 1: Cash and Share Payments due from Existing Option/Sales:

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/f4c7c2f6-527e-4b4d-9e08-106dca909827

Note: Share values used are: current share price for public companies, prospectus price (where available) for private companies going public, and C$0.10 for private companies with no available price data. Excludes any potential royalty value and excludes any value for 30 currently un-optioned agreements. Table assumes all option payments are made under the option agreements.

The Portfolio comprises holdings in numerous actively explored mining districts in Canada's Superior Geological Province and includes properties in the prolific Red Lake Gold District, as well as in highly prospective districts of the Abitibi (in both Ontario and Quebec), Uchi, Wabigoon and Wawa sub-provinces (Figure 1).

Approximately 74% of the portfolio is gold-focused although a significant percentage (23%) offers exposure to strategic metals: Copper, Lithium and Rare Earth Elements.

The Companys rationale for the acquisition is as follows:

Short payback expected on the acquisition of approximately 3 years after which Solstice will potentially hold royalties on 52 or more exploration assets in Ontario and Quebec.

Potential royalties are essentially acquired at no cost after payback. Potentially significant value creation from any commercial discovery on the 52 properties optioned or where we hold held NSR royalties.

Upside in the share payments received by our option partners following any exploration success on the optioned properties.

Future value creation in the form of cash, shares and NSR royalties on the 30 properties yet to be optioned out by Solstice.

Provides annual and visible cash-flow and pending exploration success on optioned properties potential sales of NSR royalties held, to fund continued exploration of the Companys Red Lake Extension and KGP Projects.

Provides no-cost exploration exposure to Solstice shareholders in high profile districts in the top tier jurisdictions of Ontario and Quebec.

Maintains our core focus on flagship KGP project in Nunavut which is adjacent to the Meliadine Mine (Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd.) and on our emerging RLX project in Red Lake. Solstice has demonstrated mine-finding experience in both districts.



We view this acquisition as transformative and highly accretive for Solstice Shareholders. This acquisition with a compelling payback and significant upside helps create in Solstice a unique blend of exposure to focused, high quality 100% owned projects, proven mine-finding ability and now exposure to a stable of other cash-flowing option agreements with potential future royalties which are being explored by third parties. I would also like to highlight the strong commitment of our board members who have agreed to exercise $1.64MM dollars worth of warrants approximately two years early to help fund this acquisition. Our market-savvy Board and Management will own 40% of issued and outstanding shares post closing of the financing. We believe that our unique project portfolio, demonstrated mine finding ability and capital markets experience combined with our strong management and board ownership position provides a compelling platform for future shareholder value accretion, stated Chairman David Adamson.

To view the accompanying map please visit:

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/014cd7c6-8358-41db-a685-070cbedcfc9e

To view the accompanying pie chart please visit:

https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/afdae116-5020-4eb2-8498-7ddd5d6d23bc

Note: Numbers may not total 100% due to rounding.

Figure 1: Project Location Map and breakdown (Ontario and Quebec) for list of projects and additional details, see:

https://www.solsticegold.com/investors/presentations/

About the Vendors.

Perry English is a successful prospector having been extensively involved in Ontarios mineral exploration industry for over 35 years. He was honored with the Ontario Prospector Associations (OPA) Prospector of the Year Award in 2007 as well as the OPAs Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014. Perry has been very active with claim staking in Northwestern Ontario and has often been among the largest private claim holders in the province. He sold his portfolio of 90 mineral properties to Rubicon Minerals Corp. in 2003 which now form a significant portion of the regional landholdings of producer Evolution Mining Ltd. in Red Lake. In 2015, Perry vended claims to Great Bear Resources Ltd. which currently form part of their Dixie Lake gold discovery holdings.

Gravel Ridge Resources Ltd. is an exploration and project generation company led by President Mike Frymire and has focussed on precious metals in Ontario and Quebec over the past 14 years. Recently Gravel Ridge has generated multiple projects that are progressing to the advanced exploration stage. In 2017, Mr. Frymire was recognized with the NWOPA Discovery of the Year Award for the Bedivere Gold Project, Atikokan Ontario. Katie Misener, Vice President, has a business background and has also been part of multiple gold discoveries in northwestern Ontario, specifically the Atikokan area.

Concurrent Financing and Warrant Exercise

Completion and funding of the acquisition is subject to Solstice raising not less than C$2,000,000 in a concurrent financing for the purpose of funding the balance of the purchase price for the Portfolio. The Company proposes to raise up to C$2,500,000 pursuant to a non-brokered private placement of up to 25,000,000 common shares at a price of $0.10 per share (the Transaction Financing). It is expected that one or more of the directors of the Company (each, a Participating Director) will participate in and subscribe for common shares in the Transaction Financing. If a Participating Director purchases common shares under the Transaction Financing, the Transaction Financing will constitute a related party transaction within the meaning of Policy 5.9 of the TSX Venture Exchange (TSX-V) and Multilateral Instrument 61-101  Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions (MI 61-101) as a result of the Participating Director being a director of the Company.

Related party transactions require a formal valuation and minority shareholder approval unless exemptions from these requirements are available. If the Transaction Financing constitutes a related party transaction, the Company expects to rely on the exemption from the formal valuation requirement in section 5.5(b) of MI 61-101 (as a result of its common shares being listed on the TSX-V) and the exemption from the minority approval requirement in section 5.7(1)(b) of MI 61-101 (as neither the fair market value of the common shares to be distributed to, nor the consideration to be paid by, the Participating Director(s) is expected to exceed C$2,500,000).

The common shares issued pursuant to the Transaction Financing will be subject to a four-month hold period in accordance with the policies of the TSX-V and applicable securities legislation. Further details in respect of the Transaction Financing will be included in a material change report to be filed by the Company. The material change report will be filed less than 21 days prior to closing of the Transaction due to the timing of the announcement of the Transaction Financing and the Company wishes to complete the Transaction Financing in an expeditious manner.

Additionally, three of our directors, Mr. Michael Gentile, Mr. Blair Schultz and Mr. Kevin Reid, have agreed to exercise prior to the closing of the acquisition and approximately 2 years early all their currently held warrants in Solstice for total proceeds of approximately C$1.64MM which will be used in conjunction with the proceeds raised from the Transaction Financing to cover the cost of this acquisition and, to the extent that proceeds from such warrant exercises exceed the cost of this acquisition, for general corporate purposes.

The Transaction Financing is subject to customary closing conditions and TSX-V approval.

For additional details, please see the Companys corporate presentation at:

https://www.solsticegold.com/investors/presentations/

About Solstice Gold

Solstice is a gold-focussed exploration company engaged in the exploration of our high-quality exploration assets in top tier jurisdictions. Our 55 km Red Lake Extension project along with the combined 96 km Taillon, Moreau and Berens projects are located on the north end of the prolific Red Lake Gold District in Ontario. Our district scale KGP project covers 886 km with certain other rights covering an adjacent 683 km, all with no underlying option or earn in payments. KGP has seen over $12MM dollars spent on significant field work, identified a 10 km gold boulder field and now prepared with multiple drill-ready targets. KGP is located in Nunavut, Canada, only 26 km from Rankin Inlet and approximately 7 km from the Meliadine gold deposits owned by Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. Solstice has approximately 99.8 million shares outstanding.

Solstice is committed to responsible exploration and development in the communities in which we work. For more details on Solstice Gold, the Red Lake Extension Project and the KGP Project, please see our Corporate Presentation available at www.solsticegold.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.

Sandy Barham, M.Sc., P.Geo., Senior Geologist, is the Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101 standards responsible for reviewing and approving the technical content of this news release.

On Behalf of Solstice Gold Corp.

David Adamson,

Ph.D.

Chairman

For further information please visit our website at www.solsticegold.com or contact:

Marty Tunney,

P.Eng.

President

info@solsticegold.com

Phone: (604) 622-5040

Forward Looking Statements

This news release contains certain forward-looking statements (FLS) including, but not limited to the Companys expectations, intentions, plans and beliefs in connection with the Companys planned exploration activities, the proposed acquisition and concurrent Transaction Financing and the terms and conditions thereof, the expected use of proceeds from the Transaction Financing and early warrant exercises from the Participating Directors, and the expected benefits and returns to the Company following the acquisition. FLS can often be identified by forward-looking words such as approximate or (~), emerging, goal, plan, intent, estimate, expects, potential, scheduled, may and will or similar words suggesting future outcomes or other expectations, beliefs, plans, objectives, assumptions, intentions or statements about future events or performance. There can be no guarantee that the Company will complete the proposed transaction and financing on the terms currently contemplated or at all. There is also no guarantee that continued exploration at Solstice exploration projects, all of which are at an early stage of exploration, will lead to the discovery of an economic gold deposit. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from any FLS include, but are not limited to, failure of the Company to raise sufficient proceeds in the financing to satisfy the purchase price of the portfolio acquisition, failure of the Company to obtain TSX Venture Exchange approval on terms acceptable to the Company or at all, the future impacts of the COVID 19 pandemic and government response to such pandemic, the ability of the Company to continue exploration at its projects during the pandemic and the risk of future lack of access to the projects as a result thereof, delays in obtaining or failures to obtain required governmental, environmental or other project approvals, inability to locate source rocks, inflation, changes in exchange rates, fluctuations in commodity prices, delays in the development of projects, regulatory approvals and other factors. FLS are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from expected results.

Potential shareholders and prospective investors should be aware that these statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those suggested by the FLS. Shareholders are cautioned not to place undue reliance on FLS. By their nature FLS involve numerous assumptions, inherent risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, that contribute to the possibility that the predictions, forecasts, projections and various future events will not occur. Solstice undertakes no obligation to update publicly or otherwise revise any FLS whether as a result of new information, future events or other such factors which affect this information, except as required by law.

This news release contains information with respect to adjacent or other mineral properties in respect of which the Company has no interest or rights to explore or mine or acquire. Readers are cautioned that mineral deposits on adjacent or similar properties are not indicative of mineral deposits on the Companys properties, nor is there certainty that Solstices projects will contain economic mineralization. This news release mentions other companies that are unrelated to Solstice and this does not imply any agreements, partnerships or rights with respect to any of these companies or their properties other than where explicitly defined. Past performance is no guarantee of future performance and all investors are urged to consult their investment professionals before making an investment decision.
ZUG, Switzerland, Sept. 15, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CasperLabs , a leading enterprise blockchain company, announces the hire of Randi Drinkwater as its managing director of marketing. In this role, Drinkwater will be responsible for guiding CasperLabs brand, marketing and communications strategy.



Drinkwater has over two decades of experience in branding, messaging, demand generation, content development, public and analyst relations, sales enablement and marketing operations. She has a proven track record for driving growth and transformational change across a range of industries, including dynamic global B2B, technology and healthcare brands. Before joining CasperLabs, she was vice president of global marketing communications at Stibo Systems, a leader in master data management solutions.

Randi is a bold leader who will expertly guide the CasperLabs brand into its next chapter of growth, said Mrinal Manohar, CEO of CasperLabs. She is known for bringing innovative and revenue-generating ideas to fruition for global technology organizations. Her leadership will be instrumental as we further promote our mission to become the blockchain of choice for the enterprise.

Drinkwater joins CasperLabs amid a year of growth. This includes brokering recent collaborations with networks like IPwe and Amazon Web Services. Additionally, CasperLabs is working to solve new business challenges for organizations like global product engineering and lifecycle services company QuEST Global and Amprion, the latter of which navigates brain health through early testing.

I couldnt be joining the CasperLabs team at a better time. The company is in a great position to further their global reach and impact as the enterprise solution of choice for blockchain, said Drinkwater. CasperLabs is truly breaking down barriers for business blockchain adoption and I look forward to telling their story to the world.

About CasperLabs

CasperLabs, a leading blockchain company for the enterprise market, is re-imagining blockchain for enterprise with a future proof solution. The company also provides support for organizations building on the Casper network. Guided by open-source principles, CasperLabs is committed to supporting the next wave of blockchain adoption among businesses and providing developers with a reliable and secure framework to build private, public and hybrid blockchain applications. Its team possesses deep enterprise technology experience, hailing from organizations including Google, Adobe, AWS, Dropbox and Microsoft. To learn more, visit casperlabs.io .

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/114f0fd6-cf5f-4fd0-b89f-f301b5f61fe0
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Sept. 15, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Gold Bull Resources Corp. (TSX-V: GBRC) (Gold Bull or the Company) is pleased to report definition of new high priority multimillion ounce gold targets using an expanded exploration model and recently digitized historic drill hole geochemical data within its 100% owned Sandman Project (Sandman or the Project) located in Humboldt County, Nevada, USA.



HIGHLIGHTS & UPDATE:

Exploration Model Expanded to target gold bearing hydrothermal fluid feeder structures below known deposits at the Tertiary-Triassic unconformity. Hydrothermal breccias formed at this contact at the nearby Sleeper deposit hosting bonanza gold ore (Figure 1).

to target gold bearing hydrothermal fluid feeder structures below known deposits at the Tertiary-Triassic unconformity. Hydrothermal breccias formed at this contact at the nearby Sleeper deposit hosting bonanza gold ore (Figure 1). John Wood , the geologist who discovered the nearby Sleeper deposit in the 80s, has been engaged to advise, challenge and mentor Gold Bulls geology team.

, the geologist who discovered the nearby Sleeper deposit in the 80s, has been engaged to advise, challenge and mentor Gold Bulls geology team. Multi-element geochemical data has defined new (undrilled) target areas adjacent to known gold deposits

adjacent to known gold deposits Historic drill hole geochemical data have defined new broad haloes of pathfinder elements and gold that are being used to define new regional exploration targets .

. High priority drilling scheduled to re-commence in Q4 2021

John Wood, discoverer of the circa 5-million-ounce Sleeper gold deposit commented: The size of the Sandman surface gold anomaly, at least, 15 km in length, and the apparent elevation control of the gold deposits and adularia cap rocks are direct indications that a very large gold-bearing hydrothermal system was active at Sandman. At the Sleeper deposit and regionally at other deposits, bonanza grade gold often occurs at the pre-Tertiary contact where gold-bearing fluids depressurize quickly and deposit high-grade gold. This horizon is not well tested at Sandman and offers an opportunity to target bonanza grade structures, essentially feeder zones to the known deposits. The target here is for relatively small but very high-grade structures like the Sleeper vein and at this stage, could reflect multi-million-ounce potential

CEO Cherie Leeden commented: To have globally renowned Advisors, locally available to us here in Nevada, such as John Wood, combined with a Sandman database worth circa $25 million dollars to replicate, is such a gift to Gold Bull. This new target horizon at the geological contact is super exciting. If there is another Sleeper deposit laying just beneath the surface at Sandman, after this next round of drilling, we should know about it.

Background: Expanded Sandman exploration model

Exploration at Sandman since 1987 has focused on shallow gold mineralization. Only 9% of holes drilled to date had end-of-hole depths greater than 200 m and only a minority of holes have intersected the basement rocks underlying the Tertiary sequence. The bulk of these holes testing basement were drilled in two gold occurrences. Bonanza-grade gold deposits like Sleeper (which produced 1.66 million ounces of gold and 2.3 million ounces of silver from 1986 to 1996 at an average cash cost of $158/oz Au) occur close to the contact between the relatively unconsolidated Tertiary volcanic/volcaniclastic rocks and the underlying tight, metamorphosed Triassic basement rocks of the Auld Lang Syne Group (Figure 1) consisting of the Raspberry Formation phyllite and ONeill Formation quartzite. Due to the emphasis on shallow mineralization in previous exploration programs, this contact is largely un-tested at Sandman. The shallow mineralization in the district hosted within adularia caps is recognized as being formed by hydrothermal fluids migrating upward from the bonanza grade deeper zone into the last available trap sites before flowing out onto the land surface.

Figure 1 Expanded exploration model for the Sandman project. Currently known deposits comprise strata-bound and structurally controlled mineralization formed at shallow depths near the paleo-water table. Bonanza grade gold deposits are expected to have formed at greater depth, near the contact between the Tertiary volcanic-volcaniclastic sequence and the Triassic basement rocks not previously targeted.

The Tertiary-Triassic contact at Sleeper and other epithermal gold deposits in Northern Nevada is a locus for the formation of hydrothermal breccias, which are zones of fractured rock that result when the pressure of hydrothermal fluids exceeds the sum of the lithostatic load and the tensile strength of the rocks. The sharp lithostatic pressure gradient around this contact makes it a favored horizon for hydrothermal breccia formation, which results in a rapid decrease in fluid pressure and temperature, leading to exsolution of volatile components (CO 2 and H 2 S), which causes a decrease in pH and consequent precipitation of precious metals. (Refer to USGS publication Descriptive Models for Epithermal Gold-Silver Deposits, Scientific Investigations Report 20105070Q)

Gold Bull is developing drill targets at Sandman based on the projection of interpreted hydrothermal feeder structures below known gold deposits to the Tertiary-Triassic unconformity. This work incorporates historic drilling and geophysical data such as the 3D IP/resistivity survey read at North Hill in late 2020.

Historic multi-element drill-hole geochemical data define new targets

Another direction for target generation at Sandman centers on analysis of historic multi-element geochemical data compiled from scanned paper records. Statistical analysis of these data indicates a strong association of elements such as arsenic and antimony with mineralizing systems at Sandman.

Gold mineralization at Silica Ridge and North Hill is fundamentally controlled by a west-dipping normal fault that is evident in geophysical data, as well as several smaller antithetic structures. 3D contouring of recently digitized historic multi-element drill-hole geochemical data define broad halos of anomalous gold and potential pathfinder elements (principally arsenic and antimony) along this prospective structural corridor (Figure 2). The Midway target area extending west of the normal fault has very sparse historic drilling. Dipole-dipole IP/resistivity surveying completed in this area in early 2021 defined resistive anomalies consistent with adularia-quartz alteration, which hosts most of the known gold mineralization in the project area. Drilling west of Silica Ridge intersected anomalous gold and arsenic deposited by the hydrothermal system that likely extends several kilometers northward into Midway towards the North Hill deposit.

Figure 2 3D perspective view (looking downward toward 349) of the Silica Ridge  North Hill area, where broad halos of anomalous gold (>50 ppb Au contour shown) and arsenic (>25 ppm As) are defined by drilling adjacent to the main normal fault (blue surface) influencing mineralization.

Drill hole SA-0024 (results reported in press release Sandman drill holes at North Hill and Silica Ridge intersect gold mineralization outside of current resource dated July 19, 2021) intersected gold mineralization (19.8 m (65 ft) @ 0.67 g/t Au from 111.3 m (365 ft), including 9.1 m @ 1.13 g/t Au from 114.3 m (375 ft)) west of the Silica Ridge deposit, in rocks that are interpreted to be downthrown on the west side of a normal fault (Figure 3) below the level of previous drilling. The regional dip of the Tertiary sequence in the North Hill  Silica Ridge area is towards the east, so the mineralized receptive units intersected in SA-0024 can be projected up-dip to the west if mineralisation is stratiform. 3D contouring of the historic drill hole geochemical data indicates the presence of a hydrothermal system in this western target area depositing gold and associated pathfinder elements such as arsenic in a halo extending over 300 m from the Silica Ridge deposit (Figure 4). These results further highlight the prospectivity of this newly identified target zone adjacent a previously defined Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) which is largely untested with drilling.

Figure 3 Cross-section of the Silica Ridge deposit, including hole SA-0024. Contours of gold (Au>50 ppb) and arsenic (As>25 ppm) derived from drill hole geochemical assays are shown. The geochemical anomaly extends west from SA-0024 and the host units are interpreted to extend up-dip into this western target area.

Figure 4 Plan view of the Silica Ridge deposit area. A zone of anomalous gold, arsenic and other potential pathfinder elements is defined by historic drilling west of the Silica Ridge Mineral Resource Estimate. Gold mineralization intersected in hole SA-0024 is hosted in receptive rocks that extend up-dip into this zone and the zone also continues northward into the Midway target area.

The Gold Bull exploration team is currently defining similar target areas to the north of the Abel Knoll deposit and east of Silica Ridge, where a CSAMT survey is planned for late August.

Figure 5. General Location map of the Sandman Project, in proximity to major nearby gold deposits.

Figure 6 General Location map of the Sandman Project, located near Winnemucca, Nevada.

Next steps

The Sandman Project is fully permitted for exploration under a comprehensive Plan of Operation. The next round of drilling will include deeper (up to 400m) targets below the current Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE), as well as some extensional targets based on recent drilling results (for example, the thick strata-bound mineralization intersected at the SE edge of the Abel Knoll MRE  see press release Gold Bull Reports Significant New Gold Mineralization Outside of Current Resource at Sandman Including: 90m at 0.6 g/t Au dated July 28, 2021). A CSAMT survey is scheduled to commence in about 2 weeks over a regional target east of Silica Ridge, where surface geochemical sampling using a portable XRF instrument has defined broad zones of pathfinder element anomalism. Targets arising from this program will form part of the next drilling campaign in the fourth quarter of 2021.

About Sandman

In December 2020, Gold Bull purchased the Sandman Project from Newmont. Gold mineralization was first discovered at Sandman in 1987 by Kennecott and the project has been intermittently explored since then. There are four known pit constrained gold resources located within the Sandman Project, consisting of 21.8Mt @ 0.7g/t gold for 494,000 ounces of gold; comprising of an Indicated Resource of 18,550kt @ 0.73g/t gold for 433kozs of gold plus an Inferred Resource of 3,246kt @ 0.58g/t gold for 61kozs of gold. Several of the resources remain open in multiple directions and the bulk of the historical drilling has been conducted to a depth of less than 100m. Sandman is conveniently located circa 25-30 km northwest of the mining town of Winnemucca, Nevada.

Qualified Person

Cherie Leeden, B.Sc Applied Geology (Honours), MAIG, a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, has read and approved all technical and scientific information contained in this news release. Ms. Leeden is the Companys Chief Executive Officer. Cherie Leeden relied on resource information contained within the Technical Report on the Sandman Gold Project, prepared by Steven Olsen, a Qualified Person under NI 43-101, who is a Qualified Persons as defined by the National Instrument NI 43-101. Mr Olsen is an independent consultant and has no affiliations with Gold Bull except that of an independent consultant/client relationship. Mr Olsen is a member of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists (AIG) and is the Qualified Person under NI 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

About Gold Bull Resources Corp.

Gold Bulls mission is to grow into a US focused mid-tier gold development Company via rapidly discovering and acquiring additional ounces. The Companys exploration hub is based in Nevada, USA, a top-tier mineral district that contains significant historical production, existing mining infrastructure and an established mining culture. Gold Bull is led by a Board and Management team with a track record of exploration and acquisition success.

Gold Bulls core asset is the Sandman Project, located in Nevada which has a 494,000 oz gold resource as per 2021 43-101 Resource Estimate. Sandman is located 23 km south of the Sleeper Mine and boasts excellent large-scale exploration potential. Drilling at Sandman is currently underway.

Gold Bull is driven by its core values and purpose which includes a commitment to safety, communication & transparency, environmental responsibility, community, and integrity.

Cherie Leeden

President and CEO, Gold Bull Resources Corp.

For further information regarding Gold Bull Resources Corp., please visit our website at www.goldbull.ca or email admin@goldbull.ca.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This news release contains certain statements that may be deemed forward-looking statements with respect to the Company within the meaning of applicable securities laws. 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, indicates, opportunity, possible and similar expressions, or that events or conditions will, would, may, could or should occur. Although Gold Bull believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance, are subject to risks and uncertainties, and actual results or realities may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Such material risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the Companys ability to raise sufficient capital to fund its obligations under its property agreements going forward, to maintain its mineral tenures and concessions in good standing, to explore and develop its projects, to repay its debt and for general working capital purposes; changes in economic conditions or financial markets; the inherent hazards associates with mineral exploration and mining operations, future prices of copper and other metals, changes in general economic conditions, accuracy of mineral resource and reserve estimates, the potential for new discoveries, the ability of the Company to obtain the necessary permits and consents required to explore, drill and develop the projects and if obtained, to obtain such permits and consents in a timely fashion relative to the Companys plans and business objectives for the projects; the general ability of the Company to monetize its mineral resources; and changes in environmental and other laws or regulations that could have an impact on the Companys operations, compliance with environmental laws and regulations, dependence on key management personnel and general competition in the mining industry. Forward-looking statements are based on the reasonable beliefs, estimates and opinions of the Companys management on the date the statements are made. Except as required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that managements beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change.
CARY, NC, Sept. 15, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NewMediaWire -- Small Business Development Group, Inc. (OTC:SBDG) announced today that it has retained E&E Communications (www.eandecommunications.com) to assist its Investor Relations efforts.

Part of our mission is to provide ongoing growth value for our shareholders, said Roy Y. Salisbury, CEO and Chairman. We are counting on E&E Communications to explain our story to new investors and to answer inquiries from our present investor base.

Mr. Salisbury has extensive experience as a CEO of both private and publicly traded companies. He has worked as a turnaround specialist, restructuring companies in multiple industries, and has handled public offerings, private placements, mergers and acquisitions.

We choose E&E Communications and its founder, Paul Knopick, because of its experience worldwide in helping public companies with stock prices under $5, said Brian Jue, Chief Operating Officer and a Director. I have known Paul for many years and am confident he will successfully present SBDG to many potential investors.

Mr. Jue has significant experience in sourcing, negotiating, structuring, and closing transactions in numerous industries. Further information about Mr. Salisbury, Mr. Jue, the Companys business strategy and achievements is available at www.SBDGStock.com .

Small Business Development Group recently announced that it is available to discuss acquiring public companies that will not be able to trade their securities at the end of September because of new guidelines established by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. SBDG has an active mandate to identify and acquire small to medium size companies that feature predictable growth and profitability. The ideal candidate has a value between $2 and $50 million.

Small Business Development Group works to establish sound business fundamentals for the companies it acquires, increasing their revenues and profitability. The end goal is to spin them off as separate, successful publicly traded companies, Mr. Salisbury stressed.

About SBDG:

Small Business Development Group, Inc. (OTC: SBDG) is a holding company publicly traded on OTC Markets. SBDG has an active mandate to identify and acquire operating companies with a preference for those in the small to medium sized enterprise arena (SMBs and SMEs) based in North America, specifically those demonstrating modest but predictable growth and profitability over time. Ideal candidates for acquisition have an enterprise value between $2 million and $50 million with positive cash flows between $500,000 and $5 million. SBDG's intent for all acquisitions is to affirm or establish sound business fundamentals and to drive revenue and profitability growth. The goal of SBDG is to develop and align portfolio companies into high performance industry verticals and deliver additional value for its stakeholders and SBDG investors.

For more information, go to www.SBDGStock.com

Investor Relations:

Paul Knopick

pknopick@eandecommunications.com

www.eandecommunications.com

940.262.3584

Safe Harbor

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements based on our current expectations, forecasts and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties. This release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of offers to buy any securities of any entity. Forward-looking statements in this release are based on information available to us as of the date hereof. Our actual results may differ materially from those stated or implied in such forward-looking statements, due to risks and uncertainties associated with our business.
CHARLOTTE, N.C., Sept. 15, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The LPL Financial Foundation today announced two new charitable partnerships aligned to the foundations focus on advancing the economic well-being of underserved populations, with an emphasis on increasing the diversity of the financial services talent pipeline and providing resources to small business owners in underserved communities. The American College of Financial Services and LISC (Local Initiatives Support Corporation) received grants that, combined, total nearly a half million dollars.

The LPL Financial Foundation strives to support underserved communities, with an emphasis on supporting small businesses, in communities where access to capital is often limited. And the Foundation supports programs that promote a more diverse generation of financial professionals to strengthen the communities they represent, said LPL Financial Foundation President Tim Carter, senior vice president at LPL Financial, the major funder of LPL Financial Foundation.

Grant Partners

LISC is a nonprofit institution that supports community development initiatives across the nation. With the Foundations grant, LISC will provide high-touch, specialized support and technical assistance to at least 100 small businesses led by entrepreneurs of color, specifically targeting the Charlotte and San Diego markets. According to a recent Federal Reserve Bank survey, this year approximately 9 million of roughly 30 million small businesses in the U.S. are at risk of closing for good due to the ongoing pandemic. Support from the Foundation will help improve the financial stability of businesses and is expected to increase sales, improve employee retention and increase capacity to hire new employees, among other benefits.

The American College of Financial Services will use the Foundations grant to establish The LPL Financial Foundation Equity Scholars Program. The new career-readiness program will be designed to increase and retain the number of financial services professionals from underserved communities, with a focus on African Americans, Asians, Hispanics, veterans, women and the LGBTQ community. Scholarships will be awarded to qualified candidates who pursue designations such as CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER (CFP), Retirement Income Certified Professional (RICP), Wealth Management Certified Professional (WMCP), or other financial education programs.

About The LPL Financial Foundation

The LPL Financial Foundation is an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that supports advancing the economic well-being of underserved populations, with an emphasis on providing training for individuals interested in the financial services industry and providing resources and training to small-business owners. For more information about The LPL Financial Foundation, visit the LPL Community Involvement page.
Portland, OR, Sept. 15, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- According to the report published by Allied Market Research, the U.S. solar battery market was estimated at $16.9 million in 2020 and is expected to hit $37.7 million by 2030, registering a CAGR of 8.2% from 2021 to 2030. The report provides a detailed analysis of the top investment pockets, top winning strategies, drivers & opportunities, market size & estimations, competitive landscape, and evolving market trends.

Supportive government regulations for use of photovoltaic technology and growing interest toward renewable energy storage solutions drive the growth of the U.S. solar battery market. On the other hand, high initial installation cost impedes the growth to some extent. However, advancements in energy backup systems are anticipated to pave the way for lucrative opportunities in the industry.

Download Report Sample (127 Pages PDF with Insights) @ https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/13473

COVID-19 scenario-

The outbreak of the pandemic has had a negative impact on consumer expenditure across the world. And, the United States has also not been an exception in this regard. Accordingly, the public funded solar energy projects and residential solar businesses have been hugely affected during the period, thereby exerting a negative influence on the U.S. solar battery market.

However, the overall situation across the states is getting better, and the market is projected to revive soon.

Get detailed COVID-19 impact analysis on the U.S. Solar Battery Market Request Here

The U.S. solar battery market is analyzed across type and end user. Based on type, the lithium ion segment accounted for around four-fifths of the total market share in 2020, and is anticipated to rule the roost by 2030. The lead acid segment, on the other hand, would cite the fastest CAGR of 10.4% during the forecast period.

Based on end user, the industrial segment contributed to more than two-fifths of the total market revenue in 2020, and is expected to lead the trail by the end of 2030. The commercial segment, however, would exhibit the fastest CAGR of 8.8% throughout the forecast period.

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The key market players analyzed in the U.S. solar battery market report include Aims Power, BBI Battery, Enersys, Fortress Power, Goal Zero, Adara power, Panasonic Corporation, Power Sonic Corporation, U.S. Battery Manufacturing Co., Tesla. Inc, Simpliphi Power, Inc, Sunpower, and Solaredge Technologies Inc. These market players have embraced several strategies including partnership, expansion, collaboration, joint ventures, and others to highlight their prowess in the industry.

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SINGAPORE, Sept. 15, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Singapore-based Global Schools Foundation has announced that it has entered into a strategic partnership with Dwight School Seoul, one of South Korea's top international schools, popular with expatriates and locals.

Dwight School Seoul is the first International Baccalaureate (IB) World School in Seoul with authorisation in all three IB Programmes for students aged 3-18 years. The Seoul campus spreads across 200,000 sq. feet, with facilities that kindle student interest in innovative pursuits to make them inquisitive, informed, self-aware and ethical citizens.

GSF, founded and headquartered in Singapore, is a not-for-profit entity focussed on the K12 education sector. It owns and operates a network of 23 premium international schools across eight countries, which offer multiple curricula from IB to Cambridge IGCSE, through a data-driven, technology-intensive approach.

In 2021, GSF was recognised as the "World's Most Awarded Network of Schools" by World Book of Records, UK & Switzerland, for being a recipient of 235 awards in different categories from Innovation to Sustainability.

The partnership between GSF and Dwight School (Seoul) marks GSF's entry into South Korea's K12 market, which will help expand its reach and ideology. In return, Dwight School can expect to benefit from the synergies, learning technologies and innovation capabilities of GSF.

Welcoming the partnership, GSF Chairman Mr Atul Temurnikar said: "We are delighted to work with Dwight leadership to support their vision of high academic standards to students. In the next few years, we plan to establish a second K12 campus in South Korea, as well as expand across North Asia and South-East Asia."

Dwight's Head of School for Seoul, Mr Jason Hayter, said the team was thrilled to partner with GSF. "This partnership will help build our ideology of igniting the spark of genius in every child. We look forward to working closely with GSF to strengthen our capabilities in preparing our students for the 21st century."

GSF's entity, Global Schools Holdings, is part of the Scale Up SG Programme by Enterprise Singapore (ESG), which focuses on the growth of home-grown, high-potential entities and helps them increase their global reach to become leaders in their field. GSH was among the 25 handpicked organisations to be included in the pioneer batch of the Scale Up programme.

About GSF

Founded in 2002, Global Schools Foundation is a community-oriented institution whose mission is to nurture young minds into global leaders of the future. Students of GSF schools have been recipients of several top accolades in IB & Cambridge curricula.

About Dwight School Seoul

Specially selected by the Seoul Municipal Government to open a model IB World School in Seoul, Dwight's global network spans across five global campuses in New York, London, Dubai, Shanghai and Seoul. Its goal is to create world leaders through academic excellence and develop student passion through an individualised, strategic approach.

Media Contact:

Ms Rupali Karekar

rupali.karekar@myglobalschool.org

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Image 1: GSF Certificate of recognition





The Certificate by World Book of Records









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Toronto, Ontario, Sept. 15, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A frustrated group of 15 Ontario not-for-profit and municipal long-term care and retirement homes today criticized government for failing to introduce mandatory vaccinations and announced they will instead do it themselves.

The stakes are high, said Jeff Renaud, Administrator at Ritz Lutheran Villa and a spokesperson for the coalition. Our residents and staff are on the front lines of Ontarios battle with COVID-19. We saw heartbreaking losses of life over the first three waves of the pandemic. We simply cant take chances with the lives of our most vulnerable citizens. Thats why weve decided to act.

Ontario has begun to see breakthrough infections impact its long-term care homes, including deaths of some vaccinated residents. Scientists and public health officials recommend higher rates of vaccination within the population as the best way to prevent infection and death.

Members of the not-for-profit and municipal coalition will make mandatory vaccinations a condition of employment, both for existing and new staff. The policies will go into effect over the next number of weeks.

The 15 coalition homes are:

Bennett Centre Long Term Care, Georgetown

Bob Rumball Home for the Deaf, Barrie

Cedarhurst Dementia Care Home, Toronto

Chester Village, Toronto

Copernicus Lodge, Toronto

Fairview Mennonite Home, Cambridge

Greenwood Court LTC, Stratford

Idlewyld Manor, Hamilton

Mitchell Nursing Home, Mitchell

Nithview Community LTC, New Hamburg

Parkwood Mennonite Home, Waterloo

Ritz Lutheran Villa, Mitchell

St. Peters Residence At Chedoke, Hamilton

The John M. Parrott Centre, Napanee

The Wexford Residence Inc., Scarborough

Through AdvantAge Ontario, an association representing 213 not-for-profit and municipal long-term care homes in the province, the coalition of homes had asked government to implement mandatory vaccinations for all health care workers. Government has been missing in action on this important issue, said Renaud. We cant wait any longer for Queens Park to get its act together.

The Ontario governments current position on vaccinations requires individual homes to develop their own policies. The resulting patchwork policy environment will leave individual organizations more susceptible to legal challenges and will mean different standards of care for residents across the province.

AdvantAge Ontario is therefore considering a pooled legal fund for its members. Our members are not deep-pocketed corporations, said Lisa Levin, Chief Executive Officer of AdvantAge Ontario. They are often stand-alone homes run either by a volunteer board, or, in the case of municipal homes, by local officials. Its deeply frustrating that government is putting not-for-profit homes in a position where they may have to spend money on lawyers, rather than the people they care for.

Among Canadian provinces, Quebec, British Columbia, Alberta and New Brunswick have all developed or are developing mandatory vaccination policies for health care facilities.

What is Ontario waiting for? asked Levin. I fear there will be more preventable deaths in long-term care before they finally act.

Ontarios not-for-profit homes put all surpluses back into operations to continually increase the level and quality of care they offer.

-30-

About AdvantAge Ontario

AdvantAge Ontario has been the trusted voice for senior care for over 100 years and is the only provincial association representing the full spectrum of the senior care continuum. Our more than 400 members are located across the province and include not-for-profit, charitable, and municipal long-term care homes, seniors housing, assisted living in supportive housing and community service agencies.
PIEDMONT, S.C., Sept. 15, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Jimmy Wilson has donated a collection of 85 antique tractors, valued at approximately $500,000, to be auctioned off to support the Powdersville YMCA. Money raised will help fund a Child Development and Training Center (CDTC) in the Powdersville/Wren community.

The YMCA's CDTC will meet some of the community's needs by providing three core services. First, it will offer childcare for infants through 4K with a focus on equipping children for kindergarten. Secondly, it will focus on helping train family members in the community serving as primary caregivers. Lastly, it will provide support services to expecting and new mothers.

"The YMCA is one of the best things that's happened to the Powdersville community," Jimmy Wilson said. "We celebrate that we can play a small part in the YMCA's growth by contributing the proceeds from this auction of life-long collecting to our community."

Mr. Wilson amassed an impressive assortment of tractors, which date back to 1919, that are restored to their original working condition. The collection includes a Hart Parr 30, 3 IHC 8-16 Junior Kerosene, International Harvester Titan 10-20, a Case 18-32, more than 50 John Deere tractors and others.

Scheduled for October 9 at 300 Shiloh Road, Piedmont, the live and online auction will be handled by Aumann Auctions of Illinois.

"This gift from Mr. Wilson is an unbelievable blessing for our YMCA, and we will use this to continue our mission for more life-changing work in the Powdersville community," said Sid Collins, CEO of the YMCA of Easley, Pickens & Powdersville. "Mr. Wilson has a heart for this community and we want to honor this gift by establishing a new CDTC in his honor so that the lives of thousands of families will be positively impacted for years to come."

Steve Crowe, owner of Foothills MotorSports and YMCA advocate, is leading the tractor auction effort as a volunteer. "It continues to amaze and please me to see how our community has embraced the mission and the vision of the YMCA," said Crowe. "When you have the opportunity to work with someone like Jimmy Wilson and see first-hand his passion and generosity toward our community, it further illustrates what a bright future we have here in the Powdersville - Wren area."

The Powdersville YMCA serves the community through programs that build healthy spirit, mind and body for all. The Y offers health and wellness programs for members of all ages, serves community youth through After School, Summer Camp, Y Mentor and Swim Lessons, and offers events that provide friends and families opportunities for fun and fellowship.







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Image 1: Wilson Collection on Display





The Jimmy Wilson Antique Tractor Collection Will Sell at Auction with Proceeds Benefitting Powdersville YMCA

















Image 2: Jimmy Wilson Donates Antique Tractor Collection to Charity





Proceeds benefit Powdersville YMCA









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MINEOLA, N.Y., Sept. 15, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hanover Bancorp, Inc., the holding company for Hanover Community Bank, today announced that Lance P. Burke was appointed Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer of the Company and the Bank. Mr. Burke will oversee all aspects of financial management of the Company and the Bank as he assumes the role of Chief Financial Officer from Brian K. Finneran. Mr. Finneran, who has been serving as President and Chief Financial Officer since March 2020, will remain as President of the Company and the Bank.



Mr. Burke joined the Company and the Bank as Deputy Chief Financial Officer in May 2021. He has over twenty years of senior leadership experience in the banking industry with extensive accounting, operations, and M&A expertise. Prior to joining Hanover, Mr. Burke served as Senior Vice President and Controller of Dime Bank (formerly BNB Bank), a $13 billion community bank headquartered on Long Island, and was an integral part of three acquisitions and one merger of equals.

Mr. Finneran, who joined the Company and the Bank as Chief Financial Officer in July 2017, will concentrate on corporate strategy and oversee certain operations of the Company and the Bank as President.

Michael P. Puorro, Hanovers Chairman and CEO, stated: The changes we announced today position us well for our next stage of growth. Lance has been a great addition to the Hanover management team. Lance joined Hanover earlier this year with the idea that he would succeed Brian, and with our integration of our Savoy Bank acquisition going well, this was the optimal time to allow Brian to focus on strategy development and improving the operational efficiency of the Company and the Bank and for Lance to take over as CFO.

Hanover Community Bank is a member of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and is an Equal Housing/Equal Opportunity Lender. For further information, call (516) 548-8500 or visit the Banks website at www.hanoverbank.com.

Investor and Press Contact:

Brian K. Finneran

President

(516) 548-8500
Fort Collins, CO, Sept. 15, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Green Sun Medical, a pioneer in non-surgical scoliosis treatment solutions, has been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II grant for $1M to commercialize an advanced sensor system for the connected Whisper Scoliosis Brace.

This intelligence platform will provide live wear time data to patients, caregivers and providers. Showing patients retrospective data has been proven to increase compliance and reduce the need for complex scoliosis surgeries. The platform will collect data from smart pads and empower clinicians to prescribe more effective treatments and optimize healthcare resources needed to treat adolescent scoliosis.

The Whisper Brace has attracted some of the worlds thought leaders in scoliosis treatment including Dr. David Skaggs, Director of Pediatric Orthopedics at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles. Commenting on the intelligence system, Dr. Skaggs said, The smart pad can assure accurate pressure is being applied to prevent discomfort and support better patient compliance. The combination of the sensors and the physician dashboard assures us that the patient is not wearing the brace in vain and will allow us to know when to adjust the brace over time to account for growth and curve correction.

Jamie Haggard, CEO of Green Sun Medical said, We are honored and grateful to the NSF for this grant supporting the enhancement of the Whisper Brace. Scoliosis is a complex three-dimensional deformity of the spine, and to improve treatment, we developed the Whisper ring technology to drastically change traditional, rigid bracing. With the SBIR grant funds, we will further develop our integrated smart technology designed to capture every moment of our dynamic brace and track the trends with the interventions that we apply.

The Whisper Brace is a comfortable and flexible dynamic solution for treating patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. It is built from modular components and allows each scoliosis patient to have a custom brace designed specifically for their anatomy. The Whisper Brace will debut in September at the 2021 Scoliosis Research Society annual meeting in Minneapolis, MN.

Green Sun Medical is a graduate company of the Colorado-based Innosphere Ventures accelerator program that supports MedTech and Advanced Industry startup companies. Green Sun Medical is also headquartered at Innospheres incubator facility that includes specialized laboratory and office space in Fort Collins, CO.

To learn more about Green Sun Medical visit http://www.greensunmedical.com.

Media Contact:

Jamie Haggard, CEO, Green Sun Medical

970-818-7090

jamie@greensunmedical.com

About Green Sun Medical:

Green Sun Medical was founded to transform non-surgical treatment of Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis. The company has developed a connected, dynamic scoliosis brace that applies continuous corrective pressure and allows the physicians track the performance of the brace in real time. Green Sun Medical has won numerous grants and awards, including the global MedTech Innovator Competition.

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LOUISVILLE, Ky., Sept. 15, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Trinity Dynamics today announces that the company has been awarded the contract for audiovisual and technology services throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia, as sanctioned through the Virginia Information Technologies Agency (VITA), the Commonwealth's consolidated information technology organization. As a certified VITA contractor, any public institutions within the Commonwealth of Virginia (reciprocity with DC and Maryland), such as government organizations, can purchase directly from Trinity Dynamics through this contract vehicle.

With the VITA contract, Trinity Dynamics joins an exclusive list of 13 preferred AV/IT and telecommunication providers who have met specific requirements set by VITA and are approved to provide service to organizations within the Commonwealth. All public bodies can utilize statewide contracts developed by VITA, including state, county and city agencies, as well as K-12 schools and higher education.

"We are proud to have been awarded a VITA contract, and we look forward to continuing to work with public institutions and government organizations throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia," says Barry Sawayer , CEO of Trinity Dynamics. "This reinforces our commitment to helping customers in the Mid-Atlantic region communicate and work using a variety of dynamic audiovisual solutions."

VITA ensures that certified companies provide outstanding service and technology solutions to support customers and address their business needs. There are significant benefits of using a company that uses VITA-approved AV contracts, including that an organization is able to get the best value for their purchases and there is no "bid process," saving valuable time and effort.

"Providing exceptional customer service is paramount in every project," says Julie Kolb , Director of Administration at Trinity Dynamics. "We are proud to serve as trusted partners with many federal, state and local organizations."

Trinity Dynamics has worked on projects for customers in Virginia for many years, including the Prince William County Courthouse in Manassas; the Prince William Public Library System (PWPLS; the The McConnell Public Safety and Transportation Operations Center (MPSTOC), a 147,000-sq. ft. facility located in the heart of Fairfax, VA; and the FBI Academy at Quantico , removing outdated analog systems, as well as designing, integrating, and installing digital presentation systems within 31 classrooms.

In March 2021, Trinity Dynamics was recognized on Virginia's List of Small Businesses by the Small Business Supplier Diversity Agency (SWaM) in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The SWaM list is an all-inclusive roster of firms that are certified as a Small Business, meeting all the requirements set forth under the Code of Virginia Section 2.2-16.1 et seq. and Administrative Code 7VAC 13-20 et seq. SWaM designations include Small, Women-owned, Minority-owned, Micro, Service Disabled Veteran-owned, and ESO businesses. DBE includes DBE and ACDBE businesses.



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About Trinity Dynamics

Founded in 2000, Trinity Dynamics is headquartered in Louisville, KY, and is an enterprise-level audiovisual system and telemedicine solution provider. Serving customers across the country, Trinity Dynamics delivers fully featured, completely integrated audiovisual systems to companies large and small in the public and private sector, as well as hospitals and medical facilities and educational systems. Trinity Dynamics' engineers, designers, and installers build corporate and healthcare communication platforms, bringing software design expertise, hardware engineering, and professional services to enhance the ways businesses communicate with customers and through remote working and learning. www.trinitydynamics.net

MEDIA CONTACT:

Anne Clarrissimeaux

Trinity Dynamics

214.552.0910

aclarrissimeaux@reclinatagroup.com

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NEW YORK, Sept. 15, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- September 11, 2021 marks the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks . On this historic day, over 30 volunteers from Tai Ji Men Qigong Academy and Action Alliance to Redress 1219 (ACT 1219) gathered in front of the United Nations building and other locations in New York to pray for the city, the U.S. and the world, wishing that everyone's conscience will be awakened, disasters will be prevented, and a world of love and peace will be realized.



Three of the volunteers witnessed the 9/11 attacks 20 years ago. Pamela Chen, a Tai Ji Men member from Los Angeles, arrived in New York on the morning of September 11, 2021. Shortly after landing in the Big Apple, she and other Tai Ji Men members gathered in front of the United Nations Headquarters to spread love, peace, and conscience to New York, the U.S. and the world through their dancing and singing. They also visited Times Square, the Manhattan Neighborhood Network TV Station, Ground Zero, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York and other locations to spread the idea of conscience, love, and peace.

Pamela said that 20 years ago, she witnessed the two planes crashing into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. The city was instantly engulfed in terror and confusion, and everyone was desperate to flee. Dr. Hong, Tao-Tze, the leader of Tai Ji Men , and Tai Ji Men members did not leave New York. On September 12, 2001, at the invitation of the Manhattan MNN Television, he led Tai Ji Men to host a ceremony of ringing the Bell of World Peace and Love to pray for the victims, New York, and the U.S. He prayed for the souls of the departed to rest in peace, as well as for the living to be comforted. Traffic in Manhattan was halted at the time, and people were panicking as if it were a world war. The suffering inflicted by the terrorist acts has made people all across the world yearn for peace more than ever. Even though getting around was difficult and some UN ambassadors had to walk for hours to reach the MNN TV station, many arrived at the bell ringing ceremony venue to ring the Bell and make wishes for peace, safeguarding love and peace with concrete action.

Lung Ogle, another Tai Ji Men member, was also present during the 9/11 attacks. Despite being over 80 years old, she managed to travel from Florida to New York on this significant day 20 years later to express her best wishes to the victims, the city, the United States, and the world. She visited the MNN TV Station with a group of Tai Ji Men members. In addition to sharing her vivid memory of the ceremony of ringing the Bell of World Peace and Love 20 years ago right after the 9/11 attacks, she expressed her gratitude to the TV station for broadcasting the program produced by Dr. Hong, Tao-Tze, titled Commemorating the 20th Anniversary of the September 11 Attacks with Love, Peace and Conscience, which reminds global citizens to awaken their conscience and respect one another with love and tolerance, as well as urges those in power to administer policies with conscience and avoid violating their peoples human rights. The 90-minute program broadcast on the TV station's various channels on September 11 and 12 will be repeated on September 15.

In addition to promoting the message of love, peace, and conscience, the volunteers also held signs protesting against the Taiwanese government's disregard for the rule of law, violation of their human rights , and allowing a few rogue bureaucrats to persecute Tai Ji Mens master and disciples for nearly 25 years. They chanted slogans in Times Square, such as, The Taiwanese government has persecuted Tai Ji Men and violated their human rights. The Taiwanese government robbed the leader of Tai Ji Men of his property and failed to return his money. Rectify the false Tai Ji Men case . Return to Tai Ji Men its sacred land. Taiwans democracy, Go! Go! Go! Many onlookers were intrigued and inquired about the case with the volunteers. They expressed surprise that such an unjust case occurred in Taiwan.

Their protest drew the attention of nearby police officers. The volunteers described the objective of their demonstration and stated that for the past 20 years, they have been fighting for justice while spreading love and peace . They utilize their own experiences of victimization to convey the value and significance of freedom and human rights to the rest of the world, in the hopes that there would be no more unjust cases and the world would be at peace. The police officers were moved by the volunteers' efforts and inquired if they required any assistance.

This group of volunteers stayed in New York for only 10 hours. They took real action to support New Yorkers and pray for the world when they returned to New York 20 years later. They hope that global citizens will rise above history's scars, care for one another, transcend differences and animosity, and work together to address the world's current issues. They also believe that the combined efforts from world citizens will prevent future calamities and that love should be practiced to create an era of conscience where everyone enjoys freedom, equality, love, and peace.

Tai Ji Men Qigong Academy : Tai Ji Men is an ancient menpai (similar to school) of qigong, martial arts, and self-cultivation. It has carried forward the wisdom of Daoist philosophy, one of the highest philosophies of humankind. It is an international nonprofit cultural organization. Its contemporary zhang-men-ren (grandmaster), Dr. Hong, Tao-Tze established the Tai Ji Men Qigong Academy in 1966, and since then it has grown to 15 academies worldwide.

Dr. Hong teaches his dizi (similar to disciples) methods to achieve physical, mental, and spiritual balance, and tens of thousands of families have benefited from his teaching. At Tai Ji Men, martial arts and wisdom have been passed down from the shifu (master) to his dizi. Through this time-honored tradition, the shifu and dizi promote the Tai Ji Men culture and martial arts around the world while embodying what is true, good, and beautiful as well as spreading the ideas of conscience, love, and peace. Over the past half-century, the shifu and dizi have self-funded trips to over 300 cities in 101 nations to conduct more than 3,000 cultural performances and exchanges and have been recognized as International Ambassadors of Peace and Goodwill .

Media Contact:

Lily Chen

Representative

info@taijimenla.org

626-202-5268

www.taijimen.org/TJM2016G_ENG

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/4609b85f-95fc-48b5-8343-5650ec39fc67
Tel Aviv, Israel and Fort Collins, Colorado, Sept. 15, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Tailor-ED announced today the closing of an extended Seed Round led by Israel - Colorado Innovation Fund and Lucas Venture Group. The round was joined by existing investors Benson Oak Ventures, Symbiosis Technology and private investors who invested in the original seed round along with Y Combinator.

Tailor-ED has developed a proprietary software solution that leverages artificial intelligence to personalize all educational content based on both student social-emotional readiness as well as academic achievement. This provides immense benefits to all stakeholders in the education ecosystem - teachers, students, parents and content providers. Educators can easily create short assessments to understand both the social-emotional and academic needs of students as well as receive personalized recommendations as to which educational resources are the most effective for each student, for each lesson.

Tailor-ED is now launching its new Exit Ticket Builder and the worlds largest Smart Resource Library for the new school season. Tailor-EDs innovative product capabilities save educators hours of their time as well as help them better understand the needs of their students who in turn benefit from effective learning experiences tailored specifically for them. The Smart Library incorporates content from multiple sources including over 40 Tailor-ED content partners who benefit from valuable exposure to users as well as data on efficacy of materials for long-term development.

Tailor-EDs innovative technology to ingest different content sources to continuously assess what is the most effective learning content for students is the first of its kind. The potential to be able to compare the effectiveness of learning content at scale truly achieves the vision of driving more effective learning experiences and I am excited to join the founders journey, said Sarah Lucas, General Partner, Lucas Venture Group.

Both co-founders have computer science degrees from leading Israeli universities and master degrees from Stanford University and combined with their business acumen and passion for education they are bringing an advanced technology approach that revolutionizes the education industry by taking into account, for the first time, the social-emotional state of kids and not only the learning skills while teaching in class, according to Gili Elkin, General Partner, Israel  Colorado Innovation Fund.

We are very excited to partner with Israel  Colorado Innovation Fund and Lucas Venture Group on our journey to transform the student and teacher educational experience, said Maayan Yavne, Co-Founder and CEO of Tailor-ED. We look forward to growing our company in the US market and implementing our technology in K-12 schools in the U.S., said Yael Haramaty, Co-founder and CTO at Tailor-ED.

Through the use of Machine Learning and Tailor-EDs unique data, the solution knows how to identify different learner groups based on multiple learning dimensions, predict student progress, and personalize lessons for both individual students and entire classes. The ultimate outcome is an increased effectiveness of learning through a more personalized student-centric approach that is not based on achievement alone.

Innosphere Ventures partners with the Israel - Colorado Innovation Fund and has worked closely with many domestic and international companies supporting them with individualized growth accelerating packages. This assistance is focused on areas of greatest need within the companies and in many cases includes product commercialization services for the United States market. Tailor-EDs solution will bring significant value not only to students, teachers and educational institutions, but also to content developers, says Tim Jones, General Partner at Israel  Colorado Innovation Fund.

As early seed investors in Tailor-ED, we have witnessed firsthand as Maayan and Yael navigated the stresses on the education ecosystem brought by Covid-19 to continue development of their personalized platform to promulgate their vision that every student requires - and deserves - a personalized approach to their learning, said Robert Cohen, Managing Director of Benson Oak Ventures, We are thrilled to have such value-added investors join the shareholder group and provide support Tailor-ED to be the leading personalized education platform.

"Though our cutting-edge technology is core to what we do, the main driver behind our product development are educators. Most of our team are former teachers and we believe that to truly disrupt this market you need to be as close to the ground as possible and have an amazing team with you. Luckily, we have both," said Haramaty.

With over 100,000 students on the Tailor-ED platform and partnerships with over 40 content providers, Tailor-ED works with teachers, schools and content providers towards their vision to ensure each student receives the most effective learning experience.

For more information about Israel - Colorado Innovation Fund contact Tim Jones at +1970.221.1301 Tim@innosphereventures.org. For more information on Tailor-ED, contact CEO Maayan Yavne at +972054.215.5500 Maayan@Tailor-ED.com.





About Israel  Colorado Innovation Fund:

Israel  Colorado Innovation Fund is a US based venture capital fund investing in early stage Israeli companies and supporting their scale-up in the US market. ICI Fund leverages the expertise of Innosphere Ventures, Colorados leading technology incubator. ICI Fund was formed to commercialize Israeli cutting-edge technologies in Colorado and beyond. https://www.ici.fund/

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Governor Northam Announces Service Center Metals to Invest $101.7 Million in Prince George County, Creating 94 New Jobs

Manufacturing company to construct two new facilities, increase production capacity

RICHMONDGovernor Ralph Northam today announced that Service Center Metals, a manufacturer of aluminum extrusions, will invest more than $100 million to expand in Prince George County. The company will construct two new facilities, an aluminum extrusion plant and a Compact Remelt plant, in Crosspointe Centre. The facilities will increase production capacity to meet customer demand. Virginia successfully competed with Tennessee for the project, which will create 94 new jobs.

Service Center Metals has experienced tremendous success in Prince George County over the past two decades, and an investment of this magnitude is extremely significant for the region, said Governor Northam. The advanced manufacturing sector is strong in Virginia and has played an important role in helping the Commonwealth achieve the Best State for Business title. We look forward to the expansion of Service Center Metals and its continued success in the Commonwealth.

Service Center Metals, founded in 2002, began its operations in Prince George County in 2003 and has since evolved into a top aluminum extrusion and billet company. Service Center Metals produces aluminum rods, bars, shapes, and tubing, all of which are shipped to metal service centers across the United States. The company is vertically integrated with two plants on its 30-acre campus in SouthPoint Business Park. Its flagship extrusion plant has two state-of-the-art presses, and its Compact Remelt plant, the worlds largest horizontal billet casting plant, recycles scrap and produces aluminum logs for extrusion presses. The new facilities will be constructed to mirror the existing SouthPoint Business Park plant.

We are proud that Service Center Metals will expand its production capabilities in the Commonwealth with the construction of two new facilities and the creation of 94 new, well-paying jobs, said Secretary of Commerce and Trade Brian Ball. Securing a competitive project of this caliber demonstrates that Virginias strategic location, competitive operating costs, and first-rate workforce provide unparalleled advantages to businesses. We look forward to supporting Service Center Metals in its next phase of growth in Prince George County.

The Commonwealth of Virginia and Prince George County have both played significant roles in catapulting Service Center Metals from a Greenfield startup in 2002 into the North American benchmark for safety and productivity today, said Service Center Metals President and Chief Executive Officer Scott Kelley. Our next expansion will be the largest in our history, adding significant capacity to both our billet casting and extrusion operations that will further satisfy our customers needs. Virginias excellent business climate, including its business-friendly regulatory environment, and access to a world-class workforce, was significant in our site selection process. As the saying goes, theres no place like home, and were proud and excited to be expanding in Virginia.

The Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with Prince George County to secure the project for Virginia. Governor Northam approved a $350,000 grant from the Commonwealths Opportunity Fund to assist Prince George County with the project. The Governor also approved a performance-based grant of $900,000 from the Virginia Investment Performance Grant, an incentive that encourages continued capital investment by existing Virginia companies. Service Center Metals is eligible to receive state benefits from the Virginia Enterprise Zone Program, administered by the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development. Funding and services to support the companys employee training activities will be provided through the Virginia Jobs Investment Program.

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In the weekend of the Italian Grand Prix an important meeting was scheduled. All manufacturers would sit down at the table again to discuss the new engines from 2025 onwards, and good news has come out of those talks. The MGU-H will disappear according to Motorsport.com.

Engine meeting in Italy

The Formula 1 teams will drive with the current engines until 2024. At the end of 2021, they can be updated one more time, after which the development will be frozen. The engine will be used for at least three years, after which new rules will come into force. For those new rules F1, the FIA, current manufacturers and also the Volkswagen Group sat around the table in Italy.

The most important outcome of this discussion is that the MGU-H will disappear. The part in the current engine that converts exhaust gasses into energy is very expensive and was especially pointed out by Red Bull as a part that should be removed from the new engine. The other parties have complied.

Although Volkswagen hoped for a four-cylinder engine, they have resigned themselves to the fact that from 2025 onwards a 1.6 litre V6 Turbo will be used. However, this one will be much more standardised. Parts of the combustion engine will be standardised and will ensure that teams do not continue to spend a lot of money on the small details of this combustion engine. That will now go more into the electrical component.

Electric power in F1

From 2025, the combustion engine should only provide half of the total power (1000hp). The rest must be generated electrically, so the sport remains relevant for car manufacturers. Whether the engine will be introduced in 2025 is uncertain. Earlier, there was talk of postponing it to 2026, but both plans are still on the table.

Read more F1 releases new camera footage: Hamilton was really very lucky

The biggest stumbling block according to Motorsport.com is the cost. Despite the disappearance of the MGU-H, there are still some wrinkles to be ironed out here. The future engine should no longer cost 2 million, but 1 million euro, for which a budget cap will also be established. This still needs to be negotiated though. Mercedes, with four customer teams, would like to have more leeway with the budget cap and the current manufacturers also want more leeway in the transition year from the current engines to the new engines.

Read more Ocon also questions consistency of racedirectors at Monza
Hyundai Motor Group and LG Energy Solution have begun construction of an electric vehicle (EV) battery cell plant in Indonesia to secure leadership in the global battery electric vehicle (BEV) market.

Hyundai and LG Energy Solution announced that they held a virtual groundbreaking ceremony with the Government of Indonesia at the site of the planned plant in Karawang New Industry City, near Jakarta.

Participants from the Indonesian side were President Joko Widodo; Investment Minister Bahlil Lahadalia, and Coordinating Minister for Maritime and Investment Affairs Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan. Hong Woo-pyeong, CEO of Battery Cell joint venture and Youngtack Lee, Head of Asia-Pacific headquarters at Hyundai Motor Company, attended the ceremony.

Euisun Chung, Chairman of Hyundai Motor Group; Sung Hwan Cho, President and CEO of Hyundai Mobis, and Jong-hyun Kim, President and CEO of LG Energy Solution, virtually attended the ceremony from Korea.

Hyundai Motor Group is focusing its capabilities on becoming a global leader in the EV market, which is the key to securing future competitiveness. The plant is a part of these efforts. Starting with this plant, an EV ecosystem will be successfully established in Indonesia with the development of various related industries. Furthermore, we expect Indonesia to play a key role in the ASEAN EV market. Euisun Chung, Chairman of Hyundai Motor Group

Today marks a significant step in starting a new era of the EV battery industry in Indonesia, with the establishment of its first battery cell manufacturing plant in the country. Through the joint venture partnership, together, we are now a step closer to establishing the worlds first EV comprehensive supply chain. LG Energy Solution will do its utmost to foster the joint battery cell manufacturing facility into becoming a key base to take on the global EV market. Jong-hyun Kim, President and CEO of LG Energy Solution

In July 2021, the Group and LG Energy Solution signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of Indonesia to establish a joint venture (JV) in Indonesia to manufacture battery cells for BEVs. The Group and LG Energy Solution announced to invest a total of US$1.1 billion into the JV, each owning a 50% ownership stake.

The new battery cell factory will be built on a 330,000-square-meter parcel of land. Plant construction will be completed by the first half of 2023. Mass production of battery cells in the new facility is expected to commence in the first half of 2024. When fully operational, the facility is expected to produce a total of 10-GWh worth of NCMA lithium-ion battery cells every year, enough for more than 150,000 BEVs. In addition, the facility will be ready to increase its production capacity up to 30 GWh to meet the growth of future BEV needs.

Battery cells produced in Karawang will be used in Hyundai Motor and Kias EV models built upon the Groups dedicated BEV platform, Electric-Global Modular Platform (E-GMP). The new factory will help Hyundai Motor and Kia produce vehicles with high efficiency, performance, and safety by supplying battery cells optimized for the two automakers BEV models.

The Group and LG Energy Solution expect to secure a stable supply of EV battery cells in upcoming years, as the global demand of EVs is expected to continue rising. Hyundai will contribute to increase the production efficiency of the plant with its expertise in vehicle and compartment manufacturing. The Group will also help the JV produce battery cells with most performance and safety with its integrated quality management systems.

The Indonesian government agrees to offer various incentives and rewards to support the stable operation of the plant as well.
Rio Tinto and Caterpillar have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for Caterpillars development of zero-emissions autonomous haul trucks for use at one of Rio Tintos Western Australian mining operations.

The collaboration will see Rio Tinto work with Caterpillar to advance the development of the manufacturers future 220-tonne 793 zero-emissions autonomous haul truck including the validation of Caterpillars emerging zero-emissions technology.

Rio Tinto and Caterpillar will progress a series of development milestones to include a 793 prototype pilot program, testing and pre-production trials.

It is anticipated that the worlds first operational deployment of approximately 35 new Caterpillar 793 zero-emissions autonomous haul trucks will be at Gudai-Darri once development is complete. Gudai-Darri is Rio Tintos most technically advanced iron ore mine, in the Pilbara, Western Australia.

In June, Rio Tinto announced it would deploy the worlds first fully autonomous water truck at Gudai-Darri, which will also be produced by Caterpillar. Rio Tinto is assessing multiple project scopes for Gudai-Darri Phase 2 as part of an ongoing $44-million pre-feasibility study.
HARTFORD  Insurance giant The Hartford has reached a tentative settlement agreement worth $787 million with the bankrupt Boy Scouts of America and attorneys representing tens of thousands of men who allege that they were sexually abused decades ago by scoutmasters and others.

The Hartford would pay the $787 million, before tax, for claims associated with policies mostly issued in the 1970s, according to an agreement-in-principle announced Tuesday. In return for the payment, the BSA and its local councils would release the Hartford-based company from further liability related to sexual abuse claims.

The new agreement supersedes a $650 million settlement agreement with the BSA that was announced in April. The previous deal did not include the Boy Scouts local councils or representatives of a majority of the claimants.

Company officials said they expect to receive court approval in late 2021 for the new agreement. But they also said no assurance can be given that all the conditions ... will be satisfied or that bankruptcy court approval, if obtained, will not be delayed for various procedural reasons.

The new pact was negotiated after a bankruptcy judge last month rejected two major components of an $850 million deal that the BSA had reached with attorneys representing a majority of abuse claimants.

Judge Laura Selber Silverstein turned down the BSAs request as part of that deal for permission to pull out of the earlier $650 million settlement with The Hartford. The Boy Scouts sought to withdraw from the April agreement after attorneys for abuse claimants repeatedly asserted that their clients would never vote for a reorganization plan that included it.

For the current quarter, The Hartford expects to incur a related pre-tax charge against earnings of approximately $137 million. Ranking as the No. 142 company on this years Fortune 500 list, The Hartford recorded revenues of more than $20 billion in 2020.

Through a separate new settlement, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has agreed to pay $250 million into the fund for abuse claimants. Commonly known as the Mormon church, the denomination comprised the largest single sponsor of Boy Scout troops before ending its partnership with the BSA at the beginning of last year.

The agreements with The Hartford and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are part of the BSAs efforts to formulate a reorganization plan capable of garnering the backing of a majority of abuse victims and the bankruptcy court. Combined with an $850 million contribution from the BSA and local councils, the proposed settlements would bring the fund for abuse claimants to nearly $1.9 billion.

Attorneys are still trying to forge a settlement with the Boy Scouts other major insurer, Century Indemnity.

There is still much to be done to obtain approval from the court for the BSAs amended plan, but these settlements represent a critical step toward a global resolution, the BSA said in a statement. With the support of the Coalition of Abused Scouts for Justice, this plan has the overwhelming support of survivors, and the BSA continues to work with other key groups to ensure our plan has their support.

But some parties still have major concerns. An official victims committee and law firms that separately represent hundreds of men who have filed sexual abuse claims oppose the proposed settlements. The committee has estimated the total liability exposure of Boy Scouts insurers for abuse claims at more than $100 billion.

The only winners in this latest proposal are the Boy Scouts, their local councils, the Mormon church and The Hartford insurance company, Michael Pfau, an attorney whose firm represents more than 1,000 abuse claimants in the bankruptcy, said in a statement. The Boy Scouts are offering abuse survivors a fraction of what their cases are worth and the assets available to pay them.

Based in Irving, Texas, the BSA sought bankruptcy protection in February 2020 to try to halt hundreds of individual lawsuits and create a massive compensation fund for men with molestation claims against the company. By last month, the organization was facing more than 82,000 sexual abuse claims.

This article contains reporting from The Associated Press.

pschott@stamfordadvocate.com; twitter: @paulschott
Evan Agostini/Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

CONCORD, N.H. (AP)  A videographer who accuses Marilyn Manson of spitting and blowing his nose on her during a concert in New Hampshire consented to being exposed to bodily fluids, according to an attorney for the musical artist.

Manson, whose legal name is Brian Warner, is charged with two misdemeanor counts of simple assault stemming from the encounter at the Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion in Gilford on Aug. 19, 2019.
GREENWICH  Sentencing has been postponed in the criminal case against Chris von Keyserling, a former Greenwich public official who is facing the possibility of a year behind bars after he was convicted in July on a misdemeanor charge of fourth-degree sexual assault.

The sentencing for von Keyserling had been set for Thursday. But it has now been rescheduled for Oct. 5 at Superior Court in Stamford, according to the court calendar.

After a trial that lasted three days, a jury found von Keyserling guilty of touching or pinching a woman in late 2016 after a holiday party at the Nathaniel Witherell, a town-owned and -managed nursing home and rehabilitation facility.

Von Keyserling, who was then a member of the Representative Town Meeting, had a contentious discussion about politics with the woman, who was a town employee, and he followed her to her office, according to testimony. He put his hands on her rear-end and intimate parts as she was leaving the office, according to state prosecutors.

While on the witness stand, the woman who accused von Keyserling recounted her recollections of that December morning, in which von Keyserling used demeaning language and then made a repugnant comment in front of her and another woman about how he liked his women cold and bitter, like his coffee.

The misdemeanor conviction carries a maximum penalty of one year behind bars, although judges rarely impose prison time for first-time offenders on misdemeanor cases. The court has a range of options, including fines, community service, required education and probation, that can be ordered.

Von Keyserling, 76, was an active and vocal fixture in town government for years. He served on the RTM and refused to step down after his arrest in January 2017 on the misdemeanor charge. He later lost an election in District 8.

A plea deal failed to advance, leading to the jury trial. Von Keyserling, who is out on bail, did not testify during the trial.

In his summation to the jury, von Keyserlings defense attorney Phil Russell called the accuser a strong-willed union leader who was seeking to advance her own cause at the expense of von Keyserling, whom he called foolish but not criminally motivated.

The arrest prompted a wider discussion, as well as noisy protests, about workplace harassment of women and male entitlement that made national headlines. Some 20 protesters waved signs and jeered as von Keyserling made his way into the Stamford courthouse when he was first arraigned in 2017 in the criminal case.

Judge Kevin Randolph is presiding over the case.

Von Keyserling had been criticized by town workers and residents in previous years, for making off-color remarks and offensive gestures, according to testimony during the trial and earlier accounts.

rmarchant@greenwichtime.com
SURFSIDE BEACH, Texas (AP)  Tropical Storm Nicholas continued weakening Tuesday night after being downgraded to a tropical depression and slowing to a crawl over southeastern Texas and southwestern Louisiana, drenching both states with flooding rains.

The downgrade earlier Tuesday evening came the same day Nicholas blew ashore as a Category 1 hurricane, knocking out power to a half-million homes and businesses and dumping more than a foot (30.5 centimeters) of rain along the same area swamped by Hurricane Harvey in 2017.

Nicholas could potentially stall over storm-battered Louisiana and bring life-threatening floods across the Deep South over the coming days, forecasters said.

Nicholas made landfall early Tuesday on the eastern part of the Matagorda Peninsula and was soon downgraded to a tropical storm. By Tuesday night, its center was 15 miles (24.14 kilometers) west-northwest or Port Arthur, Texas, with maximum winds of 35 mph (55 kph) as of 10 p.m. CDT, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. However, weather radar showed the heaviest rain was over southwestern Louisiana, well east of the storm center.

The storm is moving east-northeast at 6 mph (9 kph). The National Hurricane Center said the storm may continue to slow and even stall, and although its winds will gradually subside, heavy rainfall and a significant flash flood risk will continue along the Gulf Coast for the next couple days.

Galveston, Texas, saw nearly 14 inches (35 centimeters) of rain from Nicholas, the 14th named storm of the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season, while Houston reported more than 6 inches (15 centimeters) of rain. That's a fraction of what fell during Harvey, which dumped more than 60 inches (152 centimeters) of rain in southeast Texas over a four-day period.

In the small coastal town of Surfside Beach about 65 miles (105 kilometers) south of Houston, Kirk Klaus, 59, and his wife Monica Klaus, 62, rode out the storm in their two-bedroom home, which sits about 6 to 8 feet (1.8 to 2.4 meters) above the ground on stilts.

It was bad. I wont ever do it again, Kirk Klaus said.

He said it rained all day on Monday and, as the night progressed, the rainfall and winds got worse.

Sometime around 2:30 a.m. Tuesday, the strong winds blew out two of his homes windows, letting in rain and forcing the couple to continually mop their floors. Klaus said the rainfall and winds created a storm surge of about 2 feet in front of his home.

It looked like a river out here, he said.

Nearby, Andrew Connor, 33, of Conroe, had not been following the news at his family's rented Surfside Beach vacation house and was unaware of the storm's approach until it struck. The storm surge surrounded the beach house with water, prompting Connor to consider using surfboards to take his wife and six children to higher ground if the house flooded.

The sea never made its way through the door, but it did flood the family sport utility vehicle, Connor said.

When I popped the hood, I had seaweed and beach toys and all that stuff in my engine, he said.

Nicholas is moving so slowly it will dump several inches of rain as it crawls over Texas and southern Louisiana, meteorologists said. This includes areas already struck by Hurricane Ida and devastated last year by Hurricane Laura. Parts of Louisiana are saturated with nowhere for the extra water to go, so it will flood, said University of Miami hurricane researcher Brian McNoldy.

Its stuck in a weak steering environment, McNoldy said Tuesday. So while the storm itself may weaken that wont stop the rain from happening. Whether its a tropical storm, tropical depression or post-tropical blob, itll still rain a lot and thats not really good for that area.

More than a half-million homes and businesses had lost power in Texas, but that number dropped below 200,000 by late Tuesday afternoon, according to the website poweroutage.us that tracks utility reports. Most of those outages were caused by powerful winds as the storm moved through overnight, utility officials said. Across Louisiana, about 89,000 customers remained without power Tuesday afternoon, mostly in areas ravaged by Hurricane Ida.

Nicholas brought rain to the same area of Texas that was hit hard by Harvey, which was blamed for at least 68 deaths, including 36 in the Houston area. After Harvey, voters approved the issuance of $2.5 billion in bonds to fund flood-control projects, including the widening of bayous. The 181 projects designed to mitigate damage from future storms are at different stages of completion.

McNoldy, the hurricane researcher, said Nicholas is bringing far less rain than Harvey did.

Its not crazy amounts of rain. It isnt anything like Hurricane Harvey kind of thing with feet of rain, McNoldy said. Harvey not only stalled for three days over the same area, it moved a bit back into the Gulf of Mexico, allowing it to recharge with more water. Nicholas wont do that, McNoldy said.

Nicholas, expected to weaken into a tropical depression by Tuesday night, could dump up to 20 inches (51 centimeters) of rain in parts of southern Louisiana. Forecasters said southern Mississippi, southern Alabama and the western Florida Panhandle could see heavy rainfall as well.

On Tuesday, heavy rains from Nicholas pelted blue tarps that covered roofs damaged by Ida all over southern Louisiana.

Ida destroyed one building and left holes in the roof of the main plant at Motivatit Seafoods, a family-run oyster wholesaler in Houma, Louisiana. With rain from Nicholas pouring in on high-pressure processing equipment, owner Steven Voisin said he didnt know whether the machines could be saved after the latest round of tropical weather.

And many people from here to New Orleans have this or more damage, he said. Theyre not going to recover quickly or easily.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency Sunday night, ahead of the storms arrival in a state.

In southwestern Louisiana, Lake Charles Mayor Nic Hunter said Monday that crews were scouring the drainage system to keep it free from debris that might clog up and cause flooding. But after multiple natural disasters in such a short period of time, he said hes worried about residents state of mind.

Last year, Category 4 Hurricane Laura caused substantial structural damage across the city of nearly 80,000 residents. Weeks later, Hurricane Delta ripped through the same area. Freezing temperatures in January burst pipes across the city, and a May rainstorm swamped houses and businesses yet again. Some residents have had to gut houses multiple times over one year.

With what people have gone through over the last 16 months here in Lake Charles, they are very, understandably, despondent, emotional. Any time we have even a hint of a weather event approaching, people get scared, he said.

___

Associated Press writers Terry Wallace in Dallas; Jill Bleed in Little Rock, Arkansas; Jay Reeves in Houma, Louisiana; Rebecca Santana in New Orleans; Julie Walker in New York, and AP Science Writer Seth Borenstein in Washington contributed to this report.

___

Follow Juan A. Lozano on Twitter: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70
Huawei has been cut off from some services, but it sees this as an opportunity rather than a setback. The latest step is the foundation of the Digital Finance and Security Innovation Lab (aka FinSec) in Helsinki, Finland.

The lab will seek to address the requirements of the banking, finance and payment services in Europe and Huawei has invited various industry leaders in those fields to collaborate. Those include pan-European banks, FinTechs and other industry players. Also, the lab is a donor of the Helsinki-Aalto Institute for Cybersecurity and is working closely with the Alto University.

The FinSec lab will act as an incubator, developing new ways to improve security for consumers and service providers while keeping things easy to use. It will look into things like using voice recognition as an additional type of biometric authentication.

Huawei has been running an R&D center in Finland for almost a decade now, a center that has helped develop the hardware-assisted trusted environments that are critical to services like Huawei Pay, WeChat Pay, authentication solutions for Huawei phones and car keys.

Huawei points to Digital Car Key as an example of an NFC-based app that allows you to unlock and start your car with just your phone. If your car supports a virtual key, you can activate the feature from the makers app (e.g. myAudi and similar apps). More details here.

The R&D center in Finland that helped set up the lab is credited with other developments too. For example, Huawei says the center is responsible for several major camera tech on our smartphones. It also worked on the sleep technology for Huawei wearables and (in partnership with several universities) developed the TruSport algorithm. One of the project leaders is Dr. Jan-Erik Ekberg, who spend 18 years working at Nokia before joining Huaweis R&D efforts.

Source
We know its coming, but it bears repeating  the Galaxy S22 series will not have an under display camera. Samsung released its first phone with an UDC already, but it only shoots in 4 MP resolution and is meant more for video calls. If you really want to snap a selfie with the Z Fold3, you can use the 10 MP camera on the cover display (or open the phone and use the main cameras).

From what were hearing, the Galaxy S22 and S22+ will get a major upgrade to their rear cameras, including a 50 MP main sensor, 12 MP tele camera with actual 3x optical magnification (possibly with variable focal length) and a 12 MP ultra wide module. If the selfie camera is the same punch-holed 10 MP unit, we think many will still be happy with the camera changes.

The punch hole selfie camera on the Samsung Galaxy S21+

The Galaxy S22 Ultra will have a similar setup to its predecessor, though with improved tele cameras. Both will have continuous zoom functionality, starting at 3x for one and 10x for the other, along with larger senors with 12 MP resolution. The main and ultra wide cameras may get a few tweaks, but thats about it. The same goes for the 40 MP camera on the front.

If you check out our review of the Z Fold3, youll see that the 4 MP under display camera doesnt produce flagship-worthy photos (but the Fold has better ways to snap a selfie). So, for the 2022 Galaxy S series Samsung will understandably stick with the tried-and-true punch hole cameras.

Source
Published on 2021/09/15 | Source

New poster added for the upcoming Korean movie "Changgeuk, Farewell my Concubine" (2019)

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Directed by Wu Hsing-kuo

With Kim Jun-soo, Jung Bo-kwon, Kim Geum-mi, Heo Jong-yeol, Yoon Seok-an, Cho Yoo-ah,...

Synopsis

The Chinese Imperial Dynasties two thousand years ago. King Hoe promised his disciples that the first person who entered Hamyang, the capital of Jin, would be king. The Cho Dynasty is led by the god of war Hang-woo, marched from the north, and the Han Dynasty led by a good man, Yu-bang, marched from the south to Hamyang. Yu-bang arrived in Hamyang first, but Hang-woo breaks through the Hamgokgwan at once and Yu-bang's life is on the line. Hang-woo holds a banquet when Yu-bang came and begged for his life. Hang-woo's schemer Beom-jeung tries to kill Yu-bang by setting a trap in Hongmunyeon, but Hang-woo rejects the advice, saying it is not a head-to-head match. Meanwhile, Yu-bang retreats. The end of the Korean War is coming to an end. After hearing The advice from Jang-ryang, Yu-bang gradually takes the lead in battle with various methods such as slowly moving and striking the enemy hard, being surrounded by enemy from all sides. Hang-woo's wife, Woo-hee is wondering if there is any way to help her husband, who seems to be losing...

Release date in Korea : 2021/09/23
Severe isolation has been imposed on the leader since February 15th, 1999, by Turkish state, his family and lawyers were prevented to meet him.

Well- known by the spectra in NE, Syria that the Turkish state purpose is aiming at isolating the leader on his people, because they know well he has great huge mass base that believes his ideology, so they keep him away from the events of society and countries of the world.

In an interview with ANHA agency on this Turkish policy, the head of the Jabbour Clan Council, Fawaz Al-Zawbaa, indicated that the thought of the leader Abdullah Ocalan and his project for the democratic nation in the Middle East is a project that serves all the peoples of the region, and reveals the policies of the nation-states, foremost of which is Turkey.

He went to say that Turkey seeks to eliminate the Ocalan's ideology, as it recognizes that it is based on democracy and co-existence for the fraternity of peoples, which for the States of the Middle East is a guarantee of security and stability."

Al-Zawbaa considered that the capture of the leader Abdullah Ocalan and the imposition of strict isolation on him by the Turkish authorities, amid international silence, "is nothing but an international message through which it clarifies its endeavor to eliminate the democratic project in the Middle East and keep its peoples at war."

Jabbour Clan Council Head "As the peoples of the region, we are safe with the thinking and ideology of the democratic leader Abdullah Ocalan, who aims to unite the peoples of the region, to change the authoritarian mindset of the governing authorities of the region and not to distinguish between components and religions."

"We, NE, Syria people need Ocalan ideology ."



The role of leader Ocalan in resolving the crises in the Middle East, Mohammed al-Mulla, the notable of the Al-Tahhin clan, indicated that they need the thinking of leader Abdullah Ocalan, who serves all the peoples of the region and who contributes to resolving all the crises in the Middle East and reducing their deepening through his project based on fraternity, freedom of religion and belief and solidarity.

Despite the issuance of the report of the European Committee against Torture (CPT), which emphasized the exercise of non-rights policies in Imrali Prison, and which documented many violations in its report, the Turkish authorities have stressed the isolation of leader Abdullah Ocalan and taken negative steps towards him.

T/S

ANHA
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Now Open

15 September 2021

Archer Hotel is expanding with the debut of ARCHER Hotel Tysons on September 14, 2021. This luxury, new-build hotel in Fairfax County in the new Scotts Run South development marks the seventh property in Archer's collection and its fourth on the East Coast. At the foot of the McLean Silver Line Metro Station and just 9 miles northwest of Washington, D.C., guests who check in to Archer Hotel Tysons, whether for business, leisure or celebrations, will find refined design, and artful spaces around every corner. The 178-room boutique hotel will follow in the award-winning footsteps of its sister properties, laden with thoughtful touches, anticipatory service and local discoveries, that continuously land them in the coveted top spots on trusted review sites. The common theme is the team's dedication to sincere service that is often mentioned in tandem with compliments on Archer's attention to details big and small.

LodgeWorks Partners, L.P., the owner, developer and operator of Archer Hotel, made a strategic decision to bring boutique sophistication to emerging metros that had a need - and an audience - for boutique hotels once reserved for major cities. After successful openings in New York City, Austin and Napa, Archer welcomed three properties in Burlington, MA (just outside of Boston), Florham Park, NJ (a business and social hub in Morris County) and Redmond, WA (Seattle's Eastside suburb). Archer Tysons joins the fastest growing region in the DC area. The Tysons site is at the foot of the McLean Line Metro Station, providing easy access to Washington DC and Reagan National Airport. The hotel is minutes Tysons Corner Center (the 10th largest mall in the US) and the upscale Tysons Galleria  and a short 5-7-minute walk to Capital One Center and Capital One Hall. Just across the street, 1800 Chain Bridge promises a soon-to-be a vibrant public plaza with restaurants, shops and luxury residences. With a location that lends itself to attracting groups and social functions, Archer Tysons boasts over 17,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor meeting and event space, with capabilities to host up to 150 in flexible, elegant venues  including the stunning seventh-floor Penthouse with soaring wood-plank ceilings and crystal-clad chandeliers and the adjoining mostly-covered Penthouse Terrace with soft seating, festoon lighting and movable bars.

As with each hotel in the collection, Archer Tysons, designed by LK Architecture Inc., has stayed true to Archer's core design philosophy  melding a distinct nod to the destination that each property calls home with an intentionally open and inviting floor plan. The seven-story building blends historic adaptive reuse architecture with the modern urban infill of Scotts Run  mixing tumbled multicolor brick with contemporary metal panels and floor-to-ceiling muntin framed windows to create an urban-chic destination. The consistent thread among the hotels in the collection is the attention to detail, with fabulous finishes, touches and trims at every turn. This includes the House Art Collection of unique and storied work, a fluid grouping of pieces in a range of mediums, all created by local and regional artists. Their works tell individual or Virginia-centric stories  and those stories help make each guest experience at Archer singular and special. Guests will take in an original series of hand-painted pieces that pay homage to the famed 1950s advertising slogan "Virginia is for lovers" commissioned through Art Whino  the D.C. metro's leader of the alternative art culture  and by artist Nicholas Zimbro. There are a number of guest room selections including a field guide of Virginia butterflies by Kate Dolamore and a close-up of the red-spotted purple, a beautiful forest butterfly commonly seen in wooded suburban areas of the state. There will also be mini galleries adorning each guest corridor. A seventh-floor photo gallery of several of the most iconic musicians of all time who once called Virginia home  Ella Fitzgerald, Jim Morrison, June Carter Cash, Wayne Newton, Patsy Cline and Roberta Flack - is a must see.
Appointment

15 September 2021

Etereo, Auberge Resorts Collection, a new luxury retreat in Riviera Maya's Kanai destination, is pleased to announce David Arraya as General Manager. A seasoned hospitality professional with over a decade of experience in the luxury hotel space, Arraya will oversee all operations for the oceanfront property that is anticipated to open in late 2021.

Prior to joining Etereo, Auberge Resorts Collection, Arraya served as General Manager for Hotel Jerome, Auberge Resorts Collection in Aspen, CO. He was also part of the opening team for Auberge's first city hotel, Commodore Perry Estate, Auberge Resorts Collection, in Austin, TX. Previously, Arraya spent five years with Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts at the brand's properties in Lana'i, HI and Austin, TX, where he was Resort Manager and Hotel Manager respectively. Arraya also served as General Manager of EAST Miami, the first hotel in the US for Swire Hotel which he helped open, and was part of the lauded re-opening team of The Pierre, A Taj Hotel in 2009.

Arraya was born and raised in La Paz, Bolivia. He speaks Spanish, English, French and Portuguese fluently, is an avid Manchester United fan, and a proud father of three. Arraya holds a Bachelor's degree in International Business and Hospitality Management from Winthrop University in South Carolina.
Appointment

15 September 2021

Conrad Bora Bora Nui Resort announces today the appointment of new Resort Manager, Gregory Brossard, to lead operations and elevate the award-winning resort's luxury offerings.

Gregory Brossard has been a key player in the hospitality and fine dining industry for nearly 20 years. He has led culinary teams and managed operations in hotels and top-tier restaurants around the world including The Ritz Carlton in Kyoto, Japan, The Ritz Carlton in Saudi Arabia, Caprice at the Four Seasons Hong Kong, and has extensive experience managing food and beverage operations for 3-Star Michelin rated establishments in France and London. He most recently served as Director of Operations at Higashiyama, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve in Niseko, Japan.

His passion for the culinary arts has helped him achieve outstanding results that translate to an unparalleled guest experience in the food and beverage arena. This is furthered by his meticulous attention to detail and ability to seamlessly manage complex operations. At the heart of his work, is making it his mission to go the extra mile for guests, leading and inspring large teams to succeed, all while providing a five-star product to dazzle today's global traveler.
Supplier News

15 September 2021

IDeaS, a SAS company, the worlds leading provider of hotel revenue management software and services, is proud to announce its new partnership with Settlers Hospitality. The family-owned-and-operated hospitality group selected IDeaS G3 Revenue Management System (RMS) for its five historic, boutique properties after a competitive evaluation period.

IDeaS has also committed to providing customized consulting services pre- and post-implementation to ensure the legacy hospitality business successfully adopts the new technology and instills an organizational culture of revenue optimization.

A personalized approach  The IDeaS team engaged closely with Settlers Hospitality to ensure a smooth process with successful results, offering flexible terms, tailored consulting, hands-on training and 24/7/365 support.

 The IDeaS team engaged closely with Settlers Hospitality to ensure a smooth process with successful results, offering flexible terms, tailored consulting, hands-on training and 24/7/365 support. Automated decisions  Moving from manual revenue management to machine-learning automation, IDeaS provides immense time savings, allowing Settlers Hospitality to be more strategically focused with a more sophisticated approach to revenue optimization.

 Moving from manual revenue management to machine-learning automation, IDeaS provides immense time savings, allowing Settlers Hospitality to be more strategically focused with a more sophisticated approach to revenue optimization. Immediate improvements  Within 60 days of implementation, Settlers has already seen measurable results with yield up 9.5 points along with a more consistent ADR up 11 points.

Scott Eitelberg, chief operating officer, Settlers Hospitality, said: Im not just here to run five propertiesIm here to grow the company. If you dont implement sustainable technology that can scale early on, its very painful down the road. We needed an algorithmic, dynamic system that could do the work we were doing manually with a greater impact on the yield. IDeaS came highly recommended in the industry. G3 RMS is technically savvy but with simplified visualization, heat-mapping and reporting that provide the business insights we need. Its been a seamless, easy process working with the IDeaS team.

Garth Peterson, area vice president, Americas, IDeaS, said: We are proud to partner with Settlers Hospitality as they move from a manual, heavy-lifting process to the bliss of automated revenue management. Youre never alone with IDeaS, and we look forward to working closely with Settlers every step of the way with our unrivalled consulting, training, and support services.

About Settlers Hospitality

Settlers Hospitality, a boutique, multi-concept hospitality group in Hawley, PA, consists of The Settlers Inn, Ledges Hotel, Silver Birches Resort, Hotel Anthracite, Sayre Mansion, The Dock on Wallenpaupack, Glass-wine.bar.kitchen, Kol Steakhouse, Cocoon Coffeehouse and Bakery, Lake Region Fitness and Art on the Edge. For more information, check out settlershospitality.com
Press Release

15 September 2021

Since the end of the second quarter, demand has grown in all of Scandics markets. As previously announced, Scandics occupancy was approximately 36 percent in June. Since then, occupancy has improved, amounting to approximately 58.5 percent in July and about 53.5 percent in August, mainly as a result of domestic leisure travel. Compared with the previous year, the greatest increase has been in the larger cities, even if general occupancy levels at Scandics big city hotels are still clearly lower than before the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

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During the first weeks of September, Scandics occupancy has remained above 50 percent, while price development has been positive compared with the previous quarter. Demand during weekdays is increasingly being driven by domestic business travelers and meetings, while occupancy has remained at a satisfactory level on weekends. At the moment, Denmark and Norway are the Nordic markets with the highest occupancy rates while activity levels in Finland are at a considerably lower level.

There is a great pent-up need for meetings among Scandics customers after a long period with extensive restrictions and many people working from home. Although customers are continuing to act with short lead times, there is a clear increase in booking activity related to meetings. This is apparent not least in Sweden after the government recently announced that restrictions on the number of participants at public gatherings and events will end on September 29.

Scandic continues to estimate that an occupancy rate of around 40 percent is needed to achieve positive adjusted EBITDA and about 50 percent for positive cash flow. Additionally, during the third quarter, Scandic expects to receive direct state aid of approximately 80 MSEK, mainly attributable to the companys operations in Germany.

"It is extremely gratifying to see that our occupancy rate has remained higher than 50 percent from the second week of July up until today. This clearly shows that an increased demand for business travel and meetings has compensated for the reduced leisure travel on weekdays in connection with the end of the holiday period in mid-August. The increased booking activity were now experiencing means that we have a positive outlook on development in the coming months," says Jens Mathiesen, President & CEO of Scandic Hotels.

Scandics interim report for the third quarter will be published at 07:30 CET on October 28.
Opinion Article

15 September 2021

In the hospitality industry today, convenience is everything. Given the events of the last year, theres no reason for hoteliers to prefer their customers come to them exclusively through their own channels. Instead, hoteliers should accept that customers have their own preferred channels and realize that customers can show brand loyalty without channel loyalty.

The reality of travel in 2021 is that travelers have options when it comes to how they book and where they stay. Securing brand loyalty should be prioritized over channel loyalty. After all, if one customer books 5 stays through an OTA like Expedia or Travelocity, and another customer books 4 stays directly through your voice channels, would you value the first customer any less?

In short, no. At the end of the day, reservations are what matter. To comprehend loyalty in todays travel landscape, hoteliers must understand todays travelers, recognize what booking channels are preferred, create offers that appeal to travelers on their desired channels, and make it easy for travelers to book across all channels.

1. Understanding todays travelers

When OTAs first emerged onto the travel scene, they were highly disruptive. Thats because, in the past, most bookings occurred through direct channels or traditional travel agencies. The introduction and mass use of online travel agencies was now changing the travel landscape. Consequently, hoteliers saw a loss in direct booking revenue as online booking options became mainstream, making OTAs the antithesis to a hotels revenue.

Since then, the hospitality industry has adjusted to the presence of OTAs. Afterall, they still present hotels with valuable insights, such as data that revenue professionals can use to help secure future reservations. And for the marketing team, this information can further their understanding of todays travelers to establish brand loyalty.

Today, hoteliers exist in relative harmony with the many popular online booking options. In part, because travelers enjoy the convenience and numerous benefits available through their preferred booking channel. Regardless of where hoteliers stand on this topic, OTAs have forever shifted the marketplace, and they are here to stay.

The simple truth is that OTAs, alone, no longer pose the threat to hotel revenue streams that they did when they first appeared. Now OTAs are institutionalized in the hospitability industry and should be embraced by all parties.

At the end of the day, travelers are going to do whats easiest for them to book. If thats booking through an OTA, then hoteliers must understand why travelers turn to OTAs and ask, "how can they create brand loyalty without channel loyalty?"

2. Should loyalty always be defined by source?

Emily Bowen, CRME, CHDM Director of Revenue Strategy, questions whether the source of the booking becomes less relevant as long as it meets the emotional needs of the guest during their transactional experience.

The variability in each traveler's needs, the emotional weight of today's travel decisions, combined with general decision fatigue could make meeting the guest where they are in the purchase journey even more critical in connecting the emotional journey to the transactional one, creating a higher likelihood of return.

According to Emily Bowen, people external to the travel industry likely do not understand the nuances of booking sources and their importance to a companys bottom line. When we become hyper-focused on the source, we may risk the guest perceiving that they are doing something wrong and ultimately, affecting the [emotional] connection to the guest."

3. Recognize what booking channels travelers prefer to use.

When a traveler books your property through an OTA, your CRM can still house their data. So, despite the traveler using a third-party channel, hoteliers still have access to a traveler's stay history, booking patterns, and more. From this data, you can learn how to market to that OTA guest in-house for future reservations.

Similarly, once a hotel identifies what a traveler's chosen booking channels are, they can work to facilitate future bookings. If its apparent that many travelers are booking through certain third-party sites, appeal directly to those travelers on their current channel of choice and offer special rates and promotions exclusively for those OTA channels.

4. Create offers that appeal to travelers based on the channels they prefer to use.

Hotels can still work to build brand loyalty with guests who book through OTAs. As noted above, enticing travelers to book through their favorite OTAs with exclusive promotions and special rates will persuade guests to book your property again.

Repeat bookings, even through a third party, help establish brand loyalty. Incentivizing travelers with exclusive deals and promotions through their chosen OTAs will urge them to develop brand loyalty, despite them having channel loyalty to an OTA.

Travelers, like all consumers, are habitually driven. As discussed in The New Wave of Brand Loyalty, purchasing behavior can be incredibly difficult to influence. Once a purchaser, or in this case, a traveler, has their mindset on a booking channel, theyre likely to return to that same channel for future travel.

According to Emily Bowen, travelers will follow the path of least resistance when it comes to booking their stays." By using targeted promotions on OTAs, hotels can create a path for travelers to follow that ends at their properties.

5. Make it easy (fewer restrictions, more flexibility)

When addressing the presence of OTAs in the travel marketplace, John Smallwood, Travel Outlook President, acknowledges that many travelers will favor OTAs over direct channels. But what truly matters is travelers having options. OTAs have changed the way we do business and the way most travelers now plan their stays. Hotels should accommodate and facilitate all reservations regardless of what channels they come from, while still actively promoting the use of direct channels.

Instead of fighting an uphill battle to attempt to change a traveler's purchasing behavior and convert them to a direct channel user, facilitate their booking process on their channel of choice, which includes your hotels voice channel. Then focus your attention on incentivizing repeat bookings.

In summary, giving travelers the ability to conveniently book through OTAs and providing travelers with reliable direct channels will increase reservations and build brand loyalty.

About Emily Bowen , CRME, CHDM Director of Revenue Strategy

Emily Bowen is a practicing Revenue Management professional with more than 15 years of experience in operational and strategic management in the luxury and independent hotel and resort space. She holds certificates through HSMAI as a Revenue Management Executive and Hotel Digital Marketing and was a recipient of their Revenue Management Professional of the Year award. She is a proud alumna of The Pennsylvania State University, where she works as an executive for the Hospitality Services team, has contributed to the School of Hospitality Management as an Adjunct Professor and is currently serving as a Board member of the Recreation, Park and Tourism Management's Affiliate Program Group.
More than a dozen Lubys locations in Houston will stay open for the long haul after a Chicago catering entrepreneur scooped them up, but the fate of several others remains unclear.

Calvin Gin bought the Lubys brand and 35 locations in Texas, including 16 in Houston, for roughly $30 million. The deal was previously valued at $28.7 million before Gin agreed to buy an additional three locations; neither party has disclosed an updated price.

LUBY'S LOCATOR: What's the status of your favorite local Luby's? Find it on our interactive map.

Gin also agreed to operate the 18 Lubys restaurants that he didnt buy, including seven in Greater Houston, said John Garilli, interim CEO of Lubys Inc. Gin will oversee the additional operations until the company determines whether to sell  if it can find other buyers  or shut them.

The move allows Lubys Inc. to get out of its restaurant operations entirely while it liquidates the rest of its company. The company is focusing on selling its real estate and food services arm, Culinary Contract Services.

In addition to the sale to Gin, the company has sold its Fuddruckers brand to former franchisee Nicholas Perkins, and recently reached a deal to sell much of its real estate to Store Capital of Arizona in a deal valued at $88 million.

Gin, who will lease the properties, said he considered buying the real estate but decided against it.

I looked at it and thought, I need to be singular in focus: running the restaurants, he said.

Gins company will operate under the name Lubys Restaurant Corporation. He said hes working with the team from the restaurants he acquired in Houston to advance the Lubys brand while respecting its history.

Weve already got a list of ideas for ways to move forward with the brand, Gin said. Its not going to be any one thing.

On HoustonChronicle.com: He bought Luby's Fuddruckers business. What's his plan for reviving the brand?

Gin came to Texas last month to close his deal with Lubys Inc on Aug. 26. Hell keep the company here in Houston. Its a Texas brand and a Texas company, he said.

First on his agenda is ensuring a smooth transition, making sure deliveries keep coming and paychecks keep going out, and preparing Lubys for the holidays. After that, he said, Well be introducing some of the whats next components of the business.

We have a great team of people working on that, he said. My success has always come by working with great people.

amanda.drane@chron.com

twitter.com/amandadrane
DALLAS (AP)  Southwest Airlines President Tom Nealon, who was once seen as a leading candidate for CEO but was passed over this year, has retired.

Southwest said Monday that Nealon, 60, will still serve as an adviser focusing on environmental issues, including plans to reduce carbon emissions. In a statement issued by the airline, Nealon said he was honored to have served Southwest in several jobs, especially president, and looks forward to taking on a strategic role.
The U.S. subsidiary of Formosa Plastics has been fined millions of dollars for endangering the health of the public as well as workers at its Texas petrochemical plant.

The plastics company, with headquarters in Taiwan, has agreed to pay $2.85 million in civil penalties to resolve alleged violations of the Clean Air Act at its petrochemical manufacturing plant in Point Comfort, near Victoria.

The Clean Air Act, enacted in 1963, is the United States primary federal air quality law, intended to reduce and control air pollution nationwide. Formosas Point Comfort plant is subject to CAA regulations known as the Risk Management Program, put in place to prevent the accidental release of hazardous substances.

TEXAS RAILROAD COMMISSIONERS: Texas oil body makes it a little harder for wells to flare gas

According to a complaint filed with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas by the Justice Department on Monday, a series of explosions, fires and toxic chemical releases from May 2013 through October 2016 resulted in plant workers being injured with second- and third-degree burns and chlorine inhalation. The incidents led to an investigation by the Environmental Protection Agency and the case by the Justice Department.

Formosa repeatedly failed to comply with the chemical accident prevention provisions of the Clean Air Act at the Point Comfort plant, repeatedly placing their workers, neighbors and the environment in danger, Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim of the Justice Departments Environment and Natural Resources Division said in a statement Monday. This settlement will ensure Formosas compliance with essential regulations intended to protect workers and the community as well as help prevent dangerous chemical releases from occurring in the future.

As part of the settlement, Formosa will be required to update the risk management program at its Point Comfort facility, including the company's response and personal protection plans to prevent employee injury. Formosa will also be required to conduct a third-party audit of its risk management practices.

Formosa Plastics takes any incident at our facilities very seriously, Ken Mounger, EVP at Formosa said in a Wednesday release. Following the events in 2013, Formosa supplemented the existing risk management staff with a team of dedicated Health and Safety Professionals. The HSPs work with Formosas operating units to help ensure events of this nature do not reoccur."

In addition, Formosa said it has increased staffing in the process safety management department at the plant.

"We believe that these actions, along with other steps, have greatly improved our overall process safety and risk management programs," Mounger said.

The current settlement follows Formosa's $50 million civil settlement with Texas residents in 2019 over the discharge of billions of plastic pellets into Texas waterways from the same plant. About 10 million metric tons of single-use plastic end up in the worlds oceans each year, scientists say, killing or injuring all kinds of sea life.
These local designers are making moves to expanded spaces as they continue to craft their collections.

Christina Greene

Christina Greene

Christina Greene, known for exquisite jewelry in gold and silver accented with semiprecious stones, is opening her first retail store. The new, 2,400-square-foot Rice Village space will house an expanded collection of clothing, accessories and unique gifts that complement Greenes designs. The flagship will also serve as the companys wholesale and direct-to-consumer headquarters. 2528 Amherst; christina-greene.com

Chloe Dao

Chloe Dao

Houstons own Project Runway winner, Chloe Dao, has opened a new location at the Heights M-K-T, one of Houstons newest shopping and dinning areas. The second boutique, which she designed herself, features her own collections and other brands that marry well with her style. This year, Dao celebrates 20 years of business at her Rice Village outpost. 600 N. Shepherd; chloedao.com

Travis Forrester Evans / Travis Forrester Evans

David Peck

Womenswear designer David Peck is expanding to Fountain View Square in Tanglewood. The designer has spent the past year preparing for the move into the 2,600-square-foot space; he previously was located on Voss in a space about half the size. Pecks new shop and atelier are slated to open this fall. He plans to offer his own designs, along with other artists and designers, gifts and accessories. 1922 Fountain View; ShopDavidPeck.com
The Friendswood Independent School District is hosting a COVID-19 Pfizer vaccination event, supported in alignment with the UTMB Health Mustang Clinic.

The event is planned for two FISD campuses, Friendswood High School and Friendswood Junior High School, on Wednesday, Sept. 22, and is open to district teachers, administrators, staff members and students who are age 12 or older (with parental or guardians consent if under 18).

Friendswood High will host the event in the library from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and the junior high will host the event in the Trailblazer room from 2:30-4 p.m.

Schedule vaccination times using the application located on UTMBs website at https://bityl.co/8hqZ. These appointments are for first doses only (no second doses or booster shots will be offered at this event).

Midwestern State confers high honors on area students

Two League City students graduated from Midwestern State University with high honors in August.

Amanda Janae Chipman earned a bachelors degree in respiratory care with summa cum laude honors. Cesar Castillo earned a bachelors degree in applied arts and sciences with magna cum laude honors.

Summa cum laude honors require a GPA of 3.9-4.0. For magna cum laude, a GPA of 3.7-3.89 is required. Learn more about the school in Wichita Falls at www.msutexas.edu.

Area student earns academic honor at SNHU

Ann Kihara, of Friendswood, has been named to Southern New Hampshire Universitys summer 2021 presidents list.

Eligibility for the list requires a student to accumulate an academic GPA of at least 3.7 and earn 12 credits for the term. Learn more at www.snhu.edu.

Updated letters showcase renewed Hawk spirit

The iconic white UHCL letters that mark the entrance to University of Houston-Clear Lake  the backdrop for thousands of graduation photos and countless selfies  are scheduled to be replaced with a new design featuring better lighting.

The HAWKS letters, on University Drive at the Bay Area Boulevard entrance, also have been updated.

These letters have been on our campus for years, but its time to replace them with something more permanent that is fitting for our campus, said Mark Denney, vice president for administration and finance. Last spring, we submitted four different designs, and the students chose the one that will be installed.

The Hawk Spirit and Traditions Council celebrated the outgoing letters and welcomed the new letters Sept. 15. Students were able to leave painted fingerprints and signatures on the old letters before they were removed. For information, visit https://bit.ly/3Ca086u.

Local students earn academic recognition at SNHU

Southern New Hampshire Universitys most recent honor roll includes two area students.

Jessica Lapointe, of Deer Park, has been named to the universitys summer 2021 presidents list. Full-time students must accumulate an academic GPA of 3.7-4.0 to qualify for the list.

Additionally, Lisa Garcia, of Pasadena, was named to the summer 2021 deans list. Eligibility requirements include an academic GPA of 3.5-3.699 and 12 credits for the term.
The patrons of Conroes Woodforest Bank Texas 105 branch are in for an unexpected artistic surprise while carrying out their banking transactions.

The bank has partnered with the Conroe Art League to offer exhibition space along the central corridor of its recently remodeled building. The art space is just inside the branch to the right along a long wall.

Its a vision that started more than 20 years ago when George Sowers, Board Member of Woodforest National Bank and now retired from Woodforest National Bank, had Conroe Art League work displayed on easels in the Conroe branch.

Patricia Brown, President of Woodforests Conroe Market, and Linda ODell, Manager of Conroe Woodforest branch on Texas 105 and in downtown Conroe, said up until about two years ago, the project consisted of a couple easels of artwork set up throughout the bank building.

But the banks recent remodel offered more possibilities for the project.

The art project was expanded greatly when the Woodforest branch on Texas 105 finished a remodel of the building in February 2020 offering a long wall of blank space perfect for an art showing.

As we had the opportunity to upgrade our building, it made so much sense to center on the art more, Brown said.

Brown reached out to the Conroe Art League in late 2019 and worked with then president Brett Hall to develop an art hanging system for the new exhibit space.

Through the leagues Art in the City program Conroe Art League members have their pieces displayed in public spots in the city like Conroe City Hall, the Conroe Lake Conroe Chamber and others.

But those have been no where near the scale of the Woodforest space.

It makes such a difference to be able to feature a single artist in a large space, said former league president Brett Hall.  I think it certainly gets peoples attention when they walk in. Its a wonderful space.

He said often there are long-time residents who dont realize the Conroe Art League is there in downtown Conroe. Exhibits like this expand their audience and draw new patrons to the gallery in downtown and to classes there all the time.

Brown said in the remodel much consideration was given to how the bank can best serve the community. For example, they also offer a meeting space for community groups in the bank.

We asked How do we make something really happen with the arts? Brown said.

For nearly two years, Conroe Art League members art has been displayed in the space.

The first artist was oil painter Juan Cantavella. Hes a founding member of the Oil Painters of America and does classes through the Conroe Art League.

Then exhibits have rotated through on a two-month display time.

The current exhibit Native Portraits for September and October is from Hall who is also the chair of the CAL National Show which will become international in 2022.

Hall wanted to be an artist since kindergarten.

He lived for art class in school and drew the cartoon for the student newspaper.

He left high school in Great Bend, Kansas two weeks early, leaving a self-addressed, stamped envelope for his diploma and headed for Denver to Colorado Institute of Art, a commercial art school.

He then backpacked through Europe meeting Salvador Dali and Madame Gala.

He settled into a career of commercial art and one day realized he had not drawn anything other than ad layouts and logos in 15 years.

In his first show, the curator told him he was all over the place in his art. The curator reminded him If you do everything, people will remember nothing.

He had been selling yearbooks to Native American high schools on reservations just before making this turn and decided Native portraits would be his focus, resulting in the Native Portraits series.

He said some pieces were painted five or six years ago. Others were created just last month.

They were done with a unique color palette. The artwork is done with just four colors for the portraiture and a fifth color for the background, he said. The color grabs peoples attention. Its a suggestion of sepia tone and antiquity yet it presents itself as contemporary and bright in color.

He and his wife traveled to art festivals around the country.

My passion is to bring attention to the story and it got attention, he said.

His most humbling experience with the art came at the Rio Grand Art Festival in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

A Native American man in long braids and leather gloves in a wheel chair wheeled into his tent and pointed at a portrait of a young waif-like girl.

He said the man pulled off one of his gloves and his hand went up to his eyes as he was crying.

When he found his voice he said She reminds me of a girl I knew in Indian boarding school. The schools were organized in the late 1800s and early 1900s to assimilate the Native Americans to American ways of life. Often schools forced removal of indigenous cultural signifiers, cutting the childrens hair, having them wear American-style uniforms, forbidding them from speaking their indigenous languages.

To think paint on a canvas could evoke that kind of emotion from somebody just blew me away, he said. I dont think Ill ever top that particular experience.

The show will be up at the bank branch through the end of October.

Visit www.brettghall.com for more about the series and Halls art. Visit https://conroeartleague.com/ for more on the Conroe Art League. See https://www.woodforest.com/ for more on Woodforest National Bank.

shernandez@hcnonline.com
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP)  Two central Pennsylvania men were arrested Monday and accused of participating in the mob attack on the U.S. Capitol earlier this year, with their social media communications cited by federal prosecutors as evidence against them.

A U.S. Justice Department news release said Marshall Neefe, 25, of Newville, and Charles Bradford Brad Smith, 25, of Shippensburg, both face felony charges over their alleged roles in the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol.

Prosecutors said Neefe told Smith in early November he was getting ready to storm D.C. and then later wrote to him, We goin? ... Cause hot damn son I really wanna crack some commie skulls.

Details were not available late Tuesday on the federal courts online records system. Messages were left Tuesday seeking comment from federal public defenders in Harrisburg and at a phone number linked to Neefe.

Prosecutors alleged that both men entered Capitol grounds. They said Neefe carried a wooden club and helped push a metal sign into a defensive police line. Neefe is also alleged to have later sent a Facebook message that said he wanted police officers who hurled batons or maced them to "be lined up and put down.

Smith is purported to have sent a message on Facebook afterward saying we literally chased them into hiding and making an apparent reference to stopping certification. The mob had been attempting to stop Congress from certifying the presidential election results, but was unsuccessful.

Prosecutors said Smith used Facebook to transmit a video in which he said, We stormed the gates of the Capitol.

Neefe is accused of assaulting, resisting or impeding officers while using a dangerous weapon; carrying out an act of physical violence on Capitol grounds; and other charges. Smith's charges include disorderly or disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding.
CANTERBURY, Conn. (AP)  A Connecticut woman and her adult daughter have been charged with trespassing and other crimes for entering the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot by supporters of then-President Donald Trump, federal authorities said.

Jean Lavin, 56, and Carla Krzywicki, 19, of Canterbury, were arrested Tuesday after an unidentified tipster told the FBI that Krzywicki had posted two photos on Facebook of her and her mother outside the Capitol and of the scene inside the building, according to court documents.
HONOLULU (AP)  Citing the high vaccination rate among Hawaii residents, Gov. David Ige said there would not be another shutdown in the state despite the recent surge in COVID-19 cases.

I can pretty much tell you there wont be another full-scale shutdown, Ige told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Monday.

Instead, if further restrictions are needed, they would likely be in the form of curfews or reducing the size of social gatherings.

There are signs the rapid rise in cases in abating, and hospitalizations of COVID-19 patients have remained stable.

The state health department on Monday reported 461 new cases. The seven-day average for new cases is 567, a 37% drop from two weeks ago, and the number of tests coming back positive has declined to 6.9% from 7.8% over that same time period.

As of Monday, 392 people were hospitalized in Hawaii, down from 435 a week ago. Those in intensive care units also fell, from about 100 more than a week ago to 79 on Monday.

It is getting a little better, but I think it is still too early to call it a definite trend that would provide relief, Ige said.

Any increase in hospitalization rates or those admitted to ICU units would trigger new restrictions, he said.

He said curfews could reduce the number of people coming into emergency rooms because of accidents. Social gatherings could also be reduced. Currently 10 people can gather inside, and that could be cut in half. The limit for people congregating outdoors is 25, and that could be reduced to 10.

Hawaiis vaccination rate remains among the highest in the country, and the recent surge of cases along with some vaccinate mandates is likely pushing more to get their shots.

Nearly 77% of Hawaiis eligible population is fully vaccinated, and just over 86% has received at least one shot.

Hospitalization rates have also fallen off. Ige said that early in the pandemic, up to 10% of people testing positive for COVID-19 were hospitalized. That rate has now fallen to about 3%, he said.

The state has ample hospital beds, but staffing has been strained. The state brought in an extra 600 nurses and other health care professionals to assist with COVID-19 patients.

Thirty clinicians will arrive in Hawaii later this month to help administer monoclonal antibody therapy, which can reduce the severity of symptoms in people recently infected.

No hospital in Hawaii has had to implement protocols rationing critical health care to those most likely to survive, Ige said.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP)  Republican leaders defended their fast-track work to approve Indianas new congressional and legislative election districts over the next two weeks, pushing back Wednesday against critics who have argued that the public wont have enough time to weigh in on the once-a-decade redistricting.

The Indiana House elections committee opened two days of public hearings on the redistricting plan a little more than 24 hours after the new congressional and Indiana House maps were posted online. Proposed new maps for the Republican-dominated state Senate wont be made public until Tuesday.

Political analysts say the new maps are likely to preserve the 7-2 Republican control of Indianas congressional seats and protect the commanding 71-29 majority Republicans have in the state House.

Democrats and voting-rights groups argue the public will have little time to study and comment on the new maps ahead of the final votes for General Assembly approval expected on Oct. 1  making Indiana one of the first states to complete redistricting work.

Republican House Speaker Todd Huston said Wednesday that the redistricting plan avoids splitting counties and cities among districts while keeping them compact. He said the redistricting work needed to move quickly because census delays meant state officials didnt receive data on Indianas population shifts until Aug. 12.

We wanted to have maps that honored the goals and what we were trying to accomplish, Huston said. People are going to think what they want to think.

The new Indiana House maps create six districts without incumbent legislators, Huston said. Three are in suburban Indianapolis and one is in Fort Wayne  areas that saw population growth over the past decade, while rural populations shrank. Forty-nine of Indianas 92 counties lost residents.

Six of the new districts have two Republican legislators living in them, although some of those lawmakers  most prominently House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Tim Brown of Crawfordsville  are not expected to seek reelection next year. Huston said no Democratic legislators were drawn out of their current districts.

House Republican Caucus Chairman Greg Steuerwald of Avon, who is sponsoring the redistricting bill, said the election district changes were driven by population changes and that he had not analyzed their political impact.

Steuerwald maintained that Republicans took into consideration public comment during nine hearings around the state last month. He pointed to complaints about Fort Waynes Allen County being divided into nine House districts, including five in which most people lived outside the county. The new map has five House districts fully within Allen County and only one crossing into another county.

Several people who testified Wednesday complained about a lack of time for the public to analyze the proposed districts.

Democratic Rep. Matt Pierce of Bloomington said even a few more days before hearings started would have allowed for better public input.

Its kind of maddening because you get the sense that theyre trying to have a lot of hearings, but theyre trying to manipulate them in a way that the public cant say a whole lot, Pierce said.

Democrats had braced for some districts they hold now to be targeted in the new maps. Pierce said it appeared that Republicans aimed to deal with population shifts in a way that preserved their two-thirds House supermajority that allows them to advance legislation even if the Democrats arent present.

Perhaps there was a strategic decision made, `Well if we dont throw Democrats in together, or eliminate a couple more of their seats, maybe thatll lower the temperature a little bit during debate, maybe public wont get quite as exercised about the process,' Pierce said.

Republicans maintain the speedy work is needed so that county officials have as much time as possible to prepare for next years elections as the candidate filing period starts Jan. 5. The redistricting debate would have typically occurred as the regular legislative session ended in April, but the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the release of census data.

Huston said Republicans listened to statewide input and shared all the population data used for the redistricting work on a public website.

Because of the uniqueness of these circumstances there has been more visibility than ever and thats been a good thing, Huston said.
WINSTON -SALEM, N.C. (AP)  A North Carolina man has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in a fatal shooting in 2018 that authorities say resulted from an argument over a drug deal.

Charlie Andrew Goldsmith, 23, pleaded guilty on Monday to second-degree murder in the 2018 death of 21-year-old Jordan Anthony Gabriel, the Winston-Salem Journal reported. Goldsmith had been facing a first-degree murder charge, was allowed to enter the guilty plea to second-degree murder as part of a plea arrangement.
BROOKLINE, Mass. (AP)  A former Massachusetts firefighter engaged in a yearslong legal fight with the Boston suburb of Brookline over what he said was a racist work environment has reached an $11 million settlement with the town, officials said.

The settlement with Gerald Alston, who is Black, was announced Tuesday by Brooklines Select Board.

The agreement is poised to end a painful 11-year saga which deeply harmed Mr. Alston and brought discredit to the Town of Brookline, the board said in a statement.

It went on to say: This Select Board extends to Mr. Alston our sincere apologies for the Towns mistakes, and our commitment to seriously address racist and other discriminatory behaviors.

The settlement is contingent upon approval at a special town meeting scheduled for Oct. 5.

Should Town Meeting fail to authorize funding, all parties will return to court where the finances and reputations of the Town and the individual defendants are further at risk, and where the Town will need to expend significant resources at trial, the board wrote.

Alston's attorney, Brooks Ames, declined to comment when reached Wednesday.

The dispute dates to 2010 when Alstons superior mistakenly left a voicemail for Alston in which he referred to a motorist who had cut off his son with a racial epithet. The supervisor apologized but was subsequently promoted.

Alston refused to return to the job and stopped communicating with the department, which he said was due to his fear of working in a racially hostile environment.

Alston, a firefighter since 2002, was placed on leave in 2013 and fired in 2016.

He sued the town in federal court 2015 alleging racial discrimination.

The state Civil Service Commission ordered Alston reinstated with back pay in 2019, and he has technically been on paid leave since.

In April, the highest court in Massachusetts ruled that the town was wrong to terminate Alston.
It feels like Hurricane Nicholas took pity on us, in a way.

This was a sloppy-looking storm, and one that behaved erratically after forming in the Gulf of Mexico over the weekend. Although its trajectory and impact were hard to predict, we knew the tropical storm was heading for the Texas coast and bound to do something. So on Monday evening, most Houstonians were in a state of suspended animation, hunkered down at home, under an eerily beautiful pink and orange sky, waiting, once again, to see what the night would bring.

Those of us who could sleep amid the howling winds woke up to good news: Nicholas had mustered some ambition, making landfall on the Matagorda Peninsula shortly after midnight, as a Category 1 hurricane. It then whuffled up the coast, uprooting trees and knocking down power lines and raining on everybody, but ultimately seeming more oafish than anything else.

This storm could have been a lot worse for the city of Houston, Mayor Sylvester Turner said Tuesday morning.

Thats accurate. No deaths were immediately reported from Nicholas, and only a few high-water locations had been reported. Some 440,000 CenterPoint customers in the Houston region were without power Tuesday morning, according to the company, as a result of the storm. But most Texans on the Gulf Coast did have power, which was  all things considered  a remarkable achievement as well as a pleasant surprise.

Not that there werent disappointments, like the cancellation of British pop star Harry Styles concert at NRG Stadium Monday night  surely the right move under the circumstances at the time.

Safety must take priority, so please go home and be safe, Styles tweeted Monday afternoon. Im so sorry, thank you for understanding. I love you all.

Gov. Greg Abbott, for his part, made an unusual plea before the storm, tweeting to Texans on Sunday that they should heed warnings from local officials and be sure to avoid high water.

If only the governor were so respectful when it came to the mask and vaccine mandates that local authorities have been pushing for to bring an end to this 18-month-long pandemic.

In any case, Abbott turned his focus back to politics soon enough. Monday evening, as Nicholas approached the Texas coast, the governorwho declined to take questions from the media at a briefing on storm preparations earlier in the dayappeared on Fox News host Sean Hannitys show to bash President Joe Bidens new plan to promote vaccines. While there, he touted a monoclonal antibody treatment that he received after coming down with COVID-19.

Ive seen the value of Regeneron, said Abbott, a pitch that echoed President Donald Trumps own testimonial last year.

Back to Nicholas. The Houston region got lucky this week, just as we got lucky with Hurricane Ida, a Category 4 hurricane that made landfall in Louisiana last month and went on to kill dozens of people in four states. But our luck will run out at some point.

So lets knock it off with the learned helplessness, shall we? The federal government should go ahead and build the Ike Dike  the proposed coastal barrier first envisioned (on a smaller scale) by Bill Merrell, a professor at Texas A&M University at Galveston. Merrell started pushing the idea shortly after Hurricane Ike caused massive damage to Galveston and other coastal communities in September 2008.

I checked with Evan Mintz, a former Houston Chronicle editorial board writer and a strong advocate for building the Ike Dike, to see if his mantra should be understood literally or metaphorically.

Both, Mintz said. We should build the Ike Dike specifically, flood prevention generally, and Texas statewide officials need to lead on critical infrastructure issues rather than just pander to culture wars.

Its hard to disagree with that, isnt it?

Some have argued that building the Ike Dike would give the impression that Houstons most crucial vulnerability is to storm surge, rather than inland flooding. But thats not an argument against building the Ike Dike, per se. Thats a reflection of how low our expectations are  that we think the nations fourth-largest city (and a major hub of industry) can only be protected from one form of predictable catastrophe.

And now is the time to make the case for the Ike Dike. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers last week released the final version of its Coastal Texas Study, six years in the making, which proposes various physical barriers to protect the region from storm surge. Texans on both sides of the aisle are backing the plan. And Abbott earlier this year signed bipartisan legislation to create the Gulf Coast Protection District, which can receive and issue funds for projects identified by the study.

The Army Corps of Engineers study is expected to go to Congress next month, where lawmakers will decide whether to pony up for the projects it identifies, which would cost $29 billion  a lot of money, of course, but less than the $30 billion in estimated damage that Ike caused.

So lets make sure the nation hears from Houstonians on this subject in the coming weeks. We got lucky with Hurricane Nicholas  and when Houston gets lucky, the whole nation benefits. But luck is not a plan, much less a strategy: we all know that, and its time to act accordingly.

erica.grieder@chron.com
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune, a nonpartisan, nonprofit media organization that informs Texans  and engages with them  about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has unleashed another wave of lawsuits against school districts over their masking policies  but one of them says it doesnt even require face coverings.

Midway Independent School District is a Waco-area district that sits on a list compiled by the attorney generals office of school districts and counties that have flouted Gov. Greg Abbotts ban and put in place their own mask-wearing orders.

The hitch? Midway ISD doesnt mandate that students, teachers, school staff or visitors don masks while on school premises, a district spokesperson said Wednesday. Midway officials have tried to convince the attorney generals office the district doesnt have a mandate  but to no avail.

We have not received information of why or how we are considered out of compliance or considered for a lawsuit, district spokesperson Traci Marlin said in an email.

'COWARDLY MOVE': Paris ISD lawyer cries foul as AG Ken Paxton trumpets win over mask rule

The Midway school district is among nine that Paxton announced on Tuesday that he is suing for allegedly defying Abbotts executive order banning public schools and local governments from enacting local mask mandates.

Under Midways virus protocol, campuses can issue 10-day mask directives'' that encourage mask-wearing on the premises if virus transmission reaches a certain level  but doesnt require it. The attorney generals office pointed to that protocol as the basis of its lawsuit against the district but declined to answer other questions from The Texas Tribune.

Those directives are not the same as mandates, Marlin said  and in one case, such a directive successfully cut down the number of active cases on a campus.

Directives are not enforced, she said. There are no punishments or repercussions.

McGregor Independent School District, another district near Waco, did require mask-wearing if virus transmission became too severe but, at Paxtons request, did not enforce the mandate, Superintendent James Lenamon said in a statement.

Nonetheless, Paxton sued the district.

The district is disappointed that the AG has decided to sue anyway, Lenamon said.

In an attempt to slow the spread of the highly contagious delta variant of COVID-19 among schoolchildren too young to get vaccinated, dozens of school districts across the state and several large counties have required mask-wearing in some form despite Abbotts order.

The Texas Education Agency isnt enforcing Abbotts ban  and Paxton and Abbott have argued in court they have no power to punish those who disobey the governor.

In addition to McGregor and Midway, Paxton announced lawsuits against seven other districts Tuesday: Diboll, Honey Grove, La Vega, Longview, Lufkin, Paris and Waco school districts.

Last week, Paxton sued six districts  the first time he had done so since the dispute between the states Republican leadership and local officials began in August.

There will be more to come as lawlessness continues across the state, Paxtons office wrote in a tweet Tuesday afternoon.

Already, Paxton has notched at least one temporary victory against a school district  winning an order in Lamar County court blocking Paris Independent School Districts mask mandate for the time being.

Paris ISD officials had taken the novel approach of requiring students to wear masks as part of the dress code  which the districts general counsel Dennis Eichelbaum credited with keeping absences related to COVID-19 low.

Thank goodness we have the attorney general to come to our rescue, Eichelbaum said.
Amid rush hour traffic on a late August afternoon, a Metro bus lurched to a halt in front of a stop on Hillcroft Ave. in southwest Houston.

Two passengers were waiting, but only one got to board.

The driver held out her hand to stop the other, would-be rider: a man not wearing a face mask. In June, she might have offered him one, but those supplies have apparently dwindled over the summer. Instead, she shut the door and shook her head as the bus pulled away.

Since June 2020, refusing service to mask-less riders has been standard operating procedure for Harris Countys Metropolitan Transit Authority. The mass transit operator is bound by federal Transportation Security Administration guidelines requiring everyone over 2 years old to be masked onboard its vehicles. Violators can face fines of up to $3,000.

NICE BUT FIRM: Texas school districts grapple with how to enforce mask mandates

The rule, recently extended to Jan. 2022, has allowed Metro to sidestep a Texas-sized showdown over local mask mandates that erupted this summer after Governor Greg Abbotts May executive order banning such mandates. As Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton escalate reprisals against school districts for requiring masks, Metro is quietly operating some of the most masked facilities in Houston: public buses and light rail.

Mask enforcement is usually handled by bus operators, who deny passengers attempting to board without face coverings. But once or twice per day across the network, a passenger will board anyway and refuse to comply, according to Metro spokesperson Jerome Gray.

When that occurs  operators contact supervisors, stop the vehicle and arrange for alternate transportation, Gray said in an August interview. Generally, that prompts the patron who refuses to wear a mask to either put on a mask or get off the vehicle.

Requiring bus drivers, teachers or other employees to enforce mask requirements has produced mixed results in many cities. Social media abounds with viral videos of irate, maskless customers arguing with or assaulting service workers asking them to comply with rules.

MASKED THREAT: 'They are going to hang you': Woman harasses Texas county judge at H-E-B over mask mandate

But on Houstons buses and rail, the mask requirement has been going pretty smoothly, said Fidel Minor, vice president of the Transit Workers Union Local 260, which represents Metro workers. The policy is part of a range of protective measures Metro implemented quickly after the pandemic started, Minor said.

I have to give the transit authority praise when due  they were the first major transit agency to have their PPE in place and distributed to employees, said Minor. Gloves, sanitizer, and face masks issued, sanitizing stations on all of their vehicles for public use, and a shower curtain between the riding public and operators.

The agency had also purchased 3 million masks for passengers back in 2020, though as of early August, some buses no longer appeared to offer masks. Despite Abbotts recent pledge to crack down on dissenting local officials, which has caused some school districts to vacillate on mandating masks, Metro has made clear it will require all students to mask up as schools resume classes and ridership is projected to increase.

That commitment helps operators maintain order, said Minor. Our operators have done a really great job handling things with our governor saying nobody can make you wear a mask, he said.

Still, Minor said Metro workers are feeling the toll of working through pandemic, including a disproportionate rate of COVID-19 among bus operators and transit police officers. As of Tuesday, the agency had reported cases among 769 Metro employees and 159 contractors since March 2020. About half of them had no contact with the public, the agency said in a release.

Under Abbotts executive order, Metro is prohibited from mandating vaccinations among its 4,000 employees. The agency is instead offering up to eight hours of pay for workers to be vaccinated, said spokesperson Tracy Jackson. The agency in August also began requiring unvaccinated employees to submit to weekly COVID testing.

Metro, which recently received $299 million in federal aid, is gearing up for fleet upgrades and route expansions despite depressed pandemic ridership. The agency is in need of more bus operators and mechanics, offering hundreds of dollars in hiring bonuses.

But without a comparable retention bonus and more equitable pay for drivers working split shifts, said Minor, the hiring bonus diminishes the morale of those who have been here and who have made heroic efforts through the pandemic, the freeze, the storms.

Dug Begley contributed to this report.

charlie.zong@chron.com
The ruling from the states highest court Wednesday to Harris County prosecutors was definitive, and final: Turn the documents over.

For more than a year, Harris County prosecutors have fought requests from defense attorneys for information and evidence that are routinely turned over in every criminal case. The documents being sought are those used to charge some of the Houston police narcotics officers at the center of the Harding Street drug raid scandal.

After a 2019 drug raid ended in the deaths of two homeowners, Houston police investigators said the operation by Narcotics Squad 15 was based on lies by Gerald Goines, the veteran narcotics officer who led the operation.

The firefight led to investigations from the FBI, the Harris County District Attorneys Office, and an internal probe by the police department. The FBIs investigation led to federal charges against Goines  for violating the rights of the slain couple, Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas  and Goines former partner, Stephen Bryant, with lying on government documents.

Local prosecutors, meanwhile, began re-examining hundreds of cases Goines and his colleagues worked, dismissing many of them and pushing to have some convictions overturned. Ultimately, Goines was charged with felony murder, and a grand jury indicted him and 10 other current and former officers with a slew of other crimes, mostly related to lying on government documents to pad their overtime pay.

Court fight: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Judge-orders-DA-to-turn-over-documents-to-15506113.php

Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg trumpeted the indictments in January, comparing the officers behavior to straight-up graft, which she said can literally rot an institution from the inside out.

At the time, defense attorneys representing several of the accused officers asked Oggs prosecutors for documents and information DA investigators used as the basis for the charges  documents they say they routinely receive in other cases.

Under the Michael Morton Act, prosecutors are required to share such information with defendants, but Oggs civil rights prosecutors have fought defense attorneys requests for the documents by arguing that they are protected from disclosure because they are work product.

The move has led to serious acrimony between defense attorneys and prosecutors, and even led a district judge to say last month that Oggs statements had tainted the public's view of the case.

The ruling from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals follows similar requests by civil rights prosecutors in front of judges three other times over the past 13 months, a move that led local defense attorneys to accuse Oggs prosecutors of political prosecutions and prompted both the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association and the Texas Criminal Defense Attorneys Association to file amicus briefs in support of the officers and urging release of the documents.

Appellate ruling: Judge orders Harris County prosecutors to turn over records in Harding Street raid

Defense attorneys reacted Wednesday by saying the courts ruling was long overdue.

It is pretty sad that the Harris County District Attorneys Office, who, by law, is supposed to not seek a conviction but seek justice, will refuse to turn over an offense report that they know by law they have to, said HCCLA President Joe Vinas, and have to have judges at every level in the state tell them to do their job and prosecute cases fairly.

Criminal defense attorney Ed McClees accused Oggs prosecutors of using every trick they could think of to withhold the documents hed requested.

Im glad to see the Court of Criminal Appeals has put an end to their nonsense, said McClees, who is representing Thomas Wood, a former Squad 15 member charged with aggregate theft and lying on government documents. It flies in the face of Texas law and their ethical duties.

On Wednesday, DA spokesman Dane Schiller downplayed the significance of the court ruling and said prosecutors would continue pursuing their case against Goines and the other accused officers.

Prosecutors have a right to try to make their case to the court, defense attorneys make their case, and the court decides, Schiller said. And we respect that decision.

Wrong Door: Botched Houston drug raid not the first

Presiding Judge Sharon Keller and Judge Kevin Yeary filed a dissenting opinion, agreeing with Oggs prosecutors that the documents and information they seek to withhold was work product or exempted under the states code of criminal procedure.

The trial courts rationale for nevertheless requiring discovery is that the State, as opposed to a police department, was the investigating agency in this case, Keller wrote, before arguing that prior rulings that prosecutors lose the work-product privilege if it investigates a case has no basis in the law.

But in one concurring opinion, judges David Newell, Barbara Hervey, Bert Richardson and Scott Walker argued that the materials Oggs attorneys were seeking to withhold do not clearly fall within the recognized parameters of work product,  and in a separate concurring opinion  noted that under the landmark Supreme Court case Brady vs. Maryland, prosecutors are specifically required to turn over exculpatory evidence to defendants.

The work-product privilege is not absolute, and the duty to reveal exculpatory evidence as dictated by Brady overrides any privilege under the work-product doctrine, wrote Newell, who worked at the Harris County District Attorneys Office as an appellate prosecutor before being elected to the Court of Criminal Appeals.

Correction: A previous version of this story mischaracterized the Court of Criminal Appeals' ruling. The opinion had two dissenters.

st.john.smith@chron.com
NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei is extending his stay on the International Space Station.

Vande Hei and Russian cosmonaut Pyotr Dubrov had planned to fly home this fall, but NASA announced Tuesday that their trip would be extended to March 2022.

Its being lengthened so the Russian space agency Roscosmos can bring spaceflight participants  not professionally trained astronauts or cosmonauts  to the space station this October.

TERMINOLOGY: If NASA didn't train you, are you an astronaut or a space tourist?

Typically, cosmonauts and astronauts fly to the space station for six-month missions. When a new crew arrives, those whove been in microgravity for six months fly home. The spaceflight participants wont stay for six months, so they will need Vande Hei and Dubrovs seats on the Soyuz spacecraft to get home more quickly.

When Vande Hei returns to Earth, he will hold the record for the longest single spaceflight by an American. Retired NASA astronaut Scott Kelly currently holds that record at 340 days.

Ill be staying on @Space_Station until March 2022 for a ~353-day mission, a possibility that I was prepared for from the beginning, Vande Hei said on Twitter. The opportunity to experience this with wonderful crewmates while contributing to science and future exploration is exciting!

The Roscosmos mission will fly a Russian film director and actress to the space station.

The extended trip has another potential benefit for NASA. It could help the agency better understand how the human body adapts to long periods in microgravity. This information will be important as NASA prepares to send people to the moon and, one day, Mars.

And while the body does behave differently in space, there are similarities. Pinched nerves, for instance, dont go away just because an astronaut is floating.

Vande Hei recently had a pinched nerve in his neck that caused NASA to reschedule a spacewalk. He wasnt sure what caused the injury.

Im pretty confident its not from sleeping funny, he said.

Vande Hei and his crew member on the space station, NASA astronaut Megan McArthur, spoke with the Houston Chronicle Friday on a variety of topics, ranging from life in microgravity to seeing hurricanes from above.

McArthur recently shared photos of Hurricane Larry that she took from the International Space Station. As someone who lost her home to Hurricane Ike in 2008, she wanted to help people understand the seriousness of these storms and why its important to take the appropriate precautions.

She said seeing the Earth from above provides a different vantage. The atmosphere looks thin and fragile compared to the size of Earth and the vast blackness of space.

"Thats what is keeping us safe on our own spaceship Earth," she said. "So its very important to do what we can to protect it."

OBSERVATION: Photos show 'frightening' orange sky over Houston ahead of Tropical Storm Nicholas

McArthur had been to space before, but this is her first long-duration mission on the space station. She provided advice for living on the station and explained why its important to have a piece of gray tape nearby when brushing her hair.

On Earth, strands of hair naturally fall out in small amounts. But on the space station (where she said her hair doesnt tangle more than it does on Earth), clumps of hair come out as she washes and combs it. McArthur uses the piece of tape to collect it.

So we dont get big clumps of Megans hair floating around the space station, she said.

Vande Hei similarly discussed how difficult it can be adjusting to life in microgravity. Simple acts, such as leaving something in one spot so it can be retrieved later, require an extra step.

If youre not really careful about making sure theyre attached to something in that particular spot, when you turn your back on it and come back  it wont be there, he said. The habits you formed on the ground over a lifetime just dont apply anymore, so youve got to put effort into forming habits.

andrea.leinfelder@chron.com

twitter.com/a_leinfelder
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton won a temporary restraining order stopping Paris ISD in North Texas from enforcing its mask requirement for students; Paris had attempted to use its dress code policy to circumvent Gov. Greg Abbotts ban on such mandates.

Dennis Eichelbaum, lawyer for Paris ISD, said Paxtons office  despite the fact Paxton had sent multiple letters threatening lawsuits beforehand  didnt notify the district of the lawsuit until after the hearing was over, and the restraining order had been granted. Paris ISD didnt get to make its case against the restraining order as a result, Eichelbaum said, describing it as a cowardly move from Paxton.

First, its against the rules of civil procedure. So he doesnt care about the law when it applies to him, Eichelbaum said. Hes very brave to go to court when youre not there to defend yourselves.

A lot of times attorneys will get sanctioned for it if they do something like this, he added, saying he will ask the districts trustees if they want to pursue the matter with the judge.

THE BIG PICTURE: Whos enforcing Gov. Abbotts ban on school mask rules? Not Abbott.

Paxton blasted out a press release trumpeting his victory in court over Paris ISD, describing it as a win for the rule of law in Texas. The release doesnt mention that Paris attorneys werent present in court.

The law is clear, and this superintendent knows this, yet he has no issue continuing to waste precious state resources on impossible lawsuits instead of providing for his students, Paxton said in the release. This temporary restraining order is just the first step in restoring order to our great state and ending this disruption from rogue local officials.

Paxtons office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Statewide, implementation of Abbotts ban on local mask mandates has been patchwork. The federal government is pursuing investigations of several states with bans on mask mandates in schools, but not Texas because of inconsistent enforcement. Paxton has acknowledged in court that it will be left to local district attorneys to enforce the ban, and several prosecutors from the states largest counties  such as Bexar and Harris  have said they dont intend to do so.

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Eichelbaum said Paris ISD will go along with the restraining order, although students, staff and visitors will still be encouraged to wear masks. He noted that Paris ISD and Lamar County have the lowest percentage of students who have missed class due to COVID-19 in the state.

Paris ISD got attention last month when it announced it would be modifying its dress code to include masks, a step that Eichelbaum previously told Hearst Newspapers would allow the district to argue for its authority to do so on different legal grounds than other districts. So long as Abbott didnt suspend the states education law, he said, he couldnt stop Paris ISD from making rules on its own turf.

A spokeswoman for the governors office previously disputed that interpretation of the law.

We are all working to protect Texas children and those most vulnerable among us, but violating the governors executive orders  and violating parental rights  is not the way to do it. Gov. Abbott has been clear that the time for mask mandates is over; now is the time for personal responsibility, Renae Eze, spokeswoman for Abbott, said last month in an email. Under Executive Order GA-38, no governmental entity or school district can require or mandate the wearing of masks. There is no loophole.

edward.mckinley@chron.com
Regarding Dont focus on hate: World marks 20th anniversary of 9/11, (Sept. 10): On the morning of 9/11, I was at Hobby airport, in line to get my boarding pass, when the second plane hit. All flights were canceled.

I had an older friend in college named Rich Aronow. A lawyer at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Rich was killed in one of the towers when they were attacked. He was a good guy with a wife and baby.

After 9/11, I went to New York. I asked a cab driver to take me as close as possible to the site where the cranes were still working. I got out and walked towards the crane lights. I remember walking quietly with strangers, who like me, just wanted to pay their respects. The air had an acrid smell, like an electrical fire. Two firefighters in full gear were walking in our direction. I shook their hands, offering my thanks and condolences. Their faces were blank with exhaustion. I made it as far as I could go and, with others, stood and watched the cranes work through the night. I was on Liberty Street. All of the buildings and businesses nearby were closed; most had sustained serious damage. I looked up and saw an American flag still flying.

A few years later, on a 9/11 anniversary, I was walking to court and noticed none of the flags were lowered. After calling the county judges office, the issue was fixed.

We must never forget this day.

Robert J. Fickman, Houston

Unity

Regarding Bush warns of domestic extremism, appeals to nation I know, (Sept. 11): As I watch the memorial for the 20th anniversary of 9/11, I can only wonder, what happened to America? Those moving and emotional memorials rekindle in me what America can and should be.

When those planes crashed into the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and the field in Pennsylvania, we werent Democrats or Republicans. We were the United States of America, united behind President Bush to bring to justice those who would do harm to our great country. Those firefighters and police officers running into the Twin Towers werent asked their political leanings. They were American, doing what Americans do.

Now we stand here in this moment in history as a country fighting itself, no longer working for the common good of every American, but fighting to defeat our fellow Americans.

We cannot let all those lives lost be in vain.

We should take the feelings that united us during past challenges as a way forward. Failing to work together is only bringing death by a thousand cuts to American democracy. We must seek compromise to save ourselves and this great country.

Lester Tyra, Magnolia

Regarding Editorial: America after Sept. 11 is still a night at Shea Stadium and strangers dancing Zydeco, (Sept. 11): This is a collection of editorials by a collection of writers who expound on the memories of that infamous date in history. Certainly it changed some of us, but decidedly not all, as it is still possible to find loyal Americans who believe in the future of the country  a future that I hope will be good for my children, my grandchildren and my great-grandchildren.

I was fortunate to have moved to the United States as a high schooler and, every day, I appreciate this great country.

Lawrence Keen, Pearland

Nation-building

Regarding Tomlinson: U.S. still has lessons to learn from 9/11, must stop living by the sword, (Sept. 10): Reflecting on Chris Tomlinsons beautiful essay, and Ahmad Rashads reflections reported by Elizabeth Trovall, Im trying to embrace the lessons that we need to learn from this past somber 20 years, that went unlearned from the Cold War and Vietnam.

A society is a group of participants with shared values and common purpose. The society of the United States of America is based on inherited values of Western culture: respect for common law, freedom to choose with minimal interference of others, capitalism and respect of others unlike ourselves.

In our hubris of being only 245 years old we expect people from millennia-long cultures  in Korea, Vietnam, the Middle East and South-Central Asia  to wholly embrace our society. If they dont, weve demonstrated a heavy reliance on violent intervention to impose our way.

The emboldening of our repressive and violent tendencies on our own soil is aided and abetted, not by other societies we call terrorists or communists or socialists, but by our own hand. This reliance on violent means to enforce our way on other countries will change our society for the worse as surely as it does not create new benign and prosperous societies abroad.

Walt Lind, Houston

After reading Chris Tomlinsons cogent and well-informed commentary on the 9/11 attacks and the events that followed, I have only one thing to say: Amen. It should be required reading for anyone with discretionary powers over when, where and if this country ever goes to war or attempts to engage in nation-building again.

Mark Edge, The Woodlands
Federal District Judge Lee Yeakel said Wednesday morning he intends to fast-track a lawsuit filed on behalf of 14 Texas schoolchildren with disabilities who allege that Gov. Greg Abbotts ban on mask mandates breaks federal law by discriminating against them because they are particularly vulnerable to COVID-19.

In Wednesdays hearing, Yeakel denied a request for a temporary restraining order that would have barred Texas from enforcing Abbotts order until Oct. 6, when the case is scheduled for trial.

Yeakel said he needs more information about the case before he will be ready to make a ruling.

The delay will allow the judge to hear from witnesses and see other evidence in the case. No matter what his decision on the case, Yeakel said he expects it to be appealed to higher courts  possibly as far as the U.S. Supreme Court.

I think the issues in this case are extremely important, Yeakel said.

In legal filings and in court, lawyers for the 14 children argued that Texas mask mandate prevents school districts from making reasonable accommodations for children with disabilities, in violation of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act. They also said it preempts the federal American Rescue Plan, the COVID-19 relief package signed into law by the president earlier this year, which they said provides discretion for school districts to follow federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations.

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The CDC currently recommends that all people 2 or older wear masks while inside schools.

By forcing parents and their children to engage in this Hobson's choice to go to school and get COVID, they are not providing meaningful access to public education, said Tom Melsheimer, the chief attorney for the disabled kids. This is true for all children in a sense, Melsheimer said, but because its particularly true for children with disabilities, it violates federal civil rights law.

The lawsuit is against Attorney General Ken Paxton, Abbott and Abbotts Texas Education Agency. The order was defended in court Wednesday by lawyers from Paxtons office.

The crux of their defense was that the lawsuit was improper because none of the defendants are the right people to sue over Abbotts mask order. They said the proper people to sue would be those who are enforcing the law, but no one is actually enforcing it, so theres no one to sue.

(Abbotts order) doesnt stop the plaintiffs from doing anything. They can say, think, do whatever they want. It does not regulate their conduct, it regulates the conduct of local officials, said Todd Dickerson, an assistant attorney general, adding that there is no credible threat of enforcement from the local district attorneys who are supposed to enforce it.

I dont think the plaintiffs want state troopers enforcing emergency orders, Dickerson said. It has never been enforced.

The plaintiffs pointed out that Paxton has gone to court against 11 school districts seeking injunctions preventing them from establishing mask mandates, and he has also sent a number of letters threatening lawsuits  including one they read in court in which Paxton threatens school district officials, saying they will face legal action from my office to enforce the law.

Dickerson replied that there are different types of enforcement of the law.

edward.mckinley@chron.com
A U.S. magistrate judge this week recommended striking down parts of Texas law that prohibit wearing political apparel within 100 feet of a polling place as unconstitutionally vague  but upholding a narrower provision that specifies that clothing bearing messages related to whats on the ballot can be banned.

The issue first arose in 2018 when Harris County resident Jillian Ostrewich wore a Houston firefighters T-shirt to a polling place and election workers told her to turn it inside out because it related to Prop B, a pay parity measure for firefighters on that ballot that year. Claiming she was unconstitutionally censored and her right to free speech infringed upon, she sued Harris County and state officials.

The case puts to the test a U.S. Supreme Court ruling from June of that year in which the justices struck down a Minnesota law that banned voters from displaying issue-oriented apparel at the polls for being overbroad. The Texas suit was brought by Pacific Legal Foundation, the same California-based libertarian public interest law firm that won the Minnesota case.

Its a win for free speech and for objective standards, said foundation attorney Wen Fa.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Voters in Houston and the Dallas area challenge clothing restrictions at polls

The parties to the suit will now have 14 days to respond to the magistrates recommendation. A U.S. district judge will ultimately make the final ruling.

The Texas Attorney Generals office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

All 50 states restrict political activities near polling places while voting is taking place, but the types of restrictions vary. Texas is one of at least seven states other than Minnesota that ban political apparel near polling places.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrew M. Edison in his report on Tuesday said the election judge had a constitutional basis for rejecting Ostrewichs shirt because it had a clear relationship to the ballot measure, even if it did not explicitly say to vote for that measure. Under that law, Edison said, Ostrewich had not been harmed and therefore was not entitled to damages.

NEW PRECEDENT: Supreme Court strikes down law barring political apparel at polling places

Other parts of the law, however, which define electioneering as advocating for or against any candidate, measure, or political party through posting, use, or distribution of political signs or literature leaves room for misunderstanding, he said. Ostrewich would have no way of knowing whether wearing that same shirt in a future election, even if the measure werent on the ballot then, could also be considered illegal electioneering.

Those parts of the law do not give Texas voters notice of what is expected of them in the polling place, and they do not provide election judges with objective, workable standards to rein in their discretion, Edison wrote. This is impermissible under the First Amendment and these statutory provisions should be struck down as unconstitutional.

taylor.goldenstein@chron.com
WASHINGTON  Simone Biles said she was haunted for years by the abuse she suffered at the hands of Larry Nassar, including as she trained for and competed in the Tokyo Olympics this summer.

Biles, who said she was the lone competitor in the games who had been abused by Nassar, testified to a U.S. Senate committee on Wednesday that the Olympic training process meant I would be going to the gym, to training, to therapy, living daily among the reminders of this story.

And because the games were postponed due to the pandemic, it meant another year of reminders.

Biles said she persevered because she did not want this crisis to be ignored. It was the same reason that Biles agreed to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee  even as the Houston native said she could imagine no place that I would be less comfortable  about sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of Nassar while the FBI and other agencies failed to investigate allegations against him.

IN-DEPTH: Larry Nassar's legacy haunts Tokyo Olympics, with abusers still enabled

Biles, the most decorated gymnast in the world, did not draw a connection between the abuse and her decision to opt out of several competitions at the Tokyo Olympics to focus on her mental health. But she said her experience in Tokyo amid the constant reminders of the abuse were an exceptionally difficult burden for me to carry.

I can ensure you that the impacts of this mans abuse are not ever over or forgotten, Biles said. I am a strong individual and I will persevere, but I never should have been left alone to suffer the abuse of Larry Nassar. And the only reason I did was because of the failures that lie at the heart of the abuse that you are now asked to investigate.

Biles was one of four Olympic gymnasts who testified Wednesday as the panel continues to probe the FBI's bungled investigation into the allegations against Nassar, a former USA Gymnastics doctor who was sentenced in 2018 to up to 175 years in prison for sexually abusing women and girls. Hundreds of athletes have complained of abuse by Nassar, including Biles and the others testifying, Aly Raisman, Maggie Nichols and McKayla Maroney.

I dont want another young gymnast, Olympic athlete or any individual to experience the horror that I and hundreds of others have endured before, during and continuing to this day in the wake of the Larry Nassar abuse, Biles said, briefly choking up during her testimony. To be clear, I blame Larry Nassar and I also blame an entire system that enabled and perpetrated his abuse.

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The hearing follows a July report by the Justice Department Inspector General that found the FBI failed to respond to the Nassar allegations with the utmost seriousness and urgency that they deserved and made numerous and fundamental errors when they did.

The report found that the FBI did not begin investigating the allegations against Nassar until 17 months after they were first taken to the agencys Indianapolis field office in 2015. Nassar abused about 70 additional athletes from the time the FBI was first alerted to the allegations to his eventual arrest, according to the report.

The report led the FBI to fire a key agent in the case, but the Justice Department declined to pursue criminal charges against agents involved, even as senators have called for them to do so.

FBI Director Christopher Wray, who took the helm at the agency after the Nassar scandal, vowed changes are underway at the agency, including strengthening training, policies and procedures for responding to allegations of sexual abuse.

Im deeply and profoundly sorry to each and every one of you, Wray said during testimony at Wednesdays hearing. Im sorry for what you and your families have been through. Im sorry that so many different people let you down over and over again. And Im especially sorry that there are people at the FBI who had their own chance to stop this monster back in 2015 and failed. And that is inexcusable, it never should have happened and were doing everything in our power to make sure it never happens again.

A separate Senate panel previously found that the U.S. Olympic Committee and USA Gymnastics knowingly concealed abuse by Larry Nassar, leading to the abuse of dozens of additional amateur athletes from summer 2015 to September 2016.

Theres been a consistent theme of neglect and inaction by those who were responsible for protecting the athletes, said U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat who chairs the committee.

BACKGROUND: Mental health advocacy part of post-Olympic tour for Simone Biles

Biles, who has said she was abused by Nassar at the Karolyi Ranch, a training camp in Texas, testified that the scars of this horrific abuse continue to live with all of us.

We suffered and continue to suffer because no one at the FBI, USAG, or the USOPC did what was necessary to protect us, she said. We have been failed and we deserve answers. Nassar is where he belongs, but those who enabled him deserve to be held accountable."

Senators on the committee praised Biles and the other athletes who testified as they condemned the FBI and called for further action.

I want to thank you for calling out the abuse, calling out the system that failed you  and that system needs to change, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, said. That system needs to be held accountable so this wont happen again.

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, another Texas Republican, said the FBIs mishandling of the Nassar case works against efforts to convince survivors that their claims will be treated urgently and carefully.

If allegations raised by well-known, world-class athletes are not taken seriously by the FBI, what hope do other victims of sexual assault have? Cornyn said. If this monster was able to continue harming these women and girls after his victims first went to the FBI, how many other abusers have escaped justice?

ben.wermund@chron.com
SACRAMENTO, Calif.  A Republican-led bid to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom of California ended in defeat late Tuesday, as Democrats in the nations most populous state closed ranks against a small grassroots movement that accelerated with the spread of COVID-19.

Voters affirmed their support for Newsom, whose lead grew insurmountable as the count continued in Los Angeles County and other large Democratic strongholds after the polls had closed. Larry Elder, a conservative talk radio host, led 46 challengers hoping to become the next governor.

The vote also spoke to the power liberal voters wield in California: No Republican has held statewide office in more than a decade.

But it also reflected the states recent progress against the coronavirus pandemic, which has claimed more than 67,000 lives in California. The state has one of the nations highest vaccination rates and one of its lowest rates of new virus cases  which the governor tirelessly argued to voters were the results of his vaccine and mask requirements.

Although Newsoms critics had started the recall because they opposed his stances on the death penalty and immigration, it was the politicization of the pandemic that propelled it onto the ballot as Californians became impatient with shutdowns of businesses and classrooms. In polls, Californians said no issue was more pressing than the virus.

As a health care worker, it was important to me to have a governor who follows science, said Marc Martino, 26, who was dressed in blue scrubs as he dropped off his ballot in Irvine.

The Associated Press called the race for Newsom, who had won in a 62% landslide in 2018, less than an hour after the polls closed Tuesday. About 66% of the 8 million ballots counted by 10 p.m. Pacific time said the governor should stay in office.

It appears that we are enjoying an overwhelmingly no vote tonight here in the state of California, but no is not the only thing that was expressed tonight, Newsom told reporters late Tuesday.

We said yes to science. We said yes to vaccines. We said yes to ending this pandemic. We said yes to peoples right to vote without fear of fake fraud and voter suppression. We said yes to womens fundamental constitutional right to decide for herself what she does with her body, her faith, her future. We said yes to diversity.

In Orange County, Elder spoke to a packed ballroom of supporters and conceded the race. Lets be gracious in defeat, he said, adding, We may have lost the battle, but we are going to win the war.

Considered a bellwether for the 2022 midterm elections, the recall outcome came as a relief to Democrats nationally. Though polls showed that the recall was consistently opposed by some 60% of Californians, surveys over the summer suggested that likely voters were unenthusiastic about Newsom. As the election deadline approached, however, his base mobilized.

President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota traveled to California to campaign for Newsom, while Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and former President Barack Obama appeared in his commercials. Some $70 million in contributions to his campaign poured in from Democratic donors, tribal and business groups and organized labor.

The governor charged that far-right extremists and supporters of former President Donald Trump were attempting a hostile takeover in a state where they could never hope to attain majority support in a regular election. He also contrasted Californias low rates of coronavirus infection with the large numbers of deaths and hospitalizations in Republican-run states like Florida and Texas.

Electoral math did the rest: Democrats outnumber Republicans 2-1 in California, and pandemic voting rules encouraged high turnout, allowing ballots to be mailed to each of the states 22 million registered, active voters with prepaid postage. More than 40% of those Californians voted early.

Initiated by a retired Republican sheriffs sergeant in Northern California, Orrin Heatlie, the recall was one of six conservative-led petitions that began circulating within months of Newsoms inauguration.

Recall attempts are common in California, where direct democracy has long been part of the political culture. But only one other attempt against a governor has qualified for the ballot  in 2003, when Californians recalled Gov. Gray Davis on the heels of the Sept. 11 attacks, the dot-com bust and rolling electricity blackouts. They elected Arnold Schwarzenegger to replace Davis as governor, substituting a centrist Republican for a centrist Democrat.

Initially, Heatlies petition had difficulty gaining traction. But it gathered steam as the pandemic swept California and Newsom struggled to contain it. Californians who at first were supportive of the governors health orders wearied of shutdowns in businesses and classrooms, and public dissatisfaction boiled over in November when Newsom was spotted mask-free at the French Laundry, an exclusive wine country restaurant, after urging the public to avoid gatherings.

A court order extending the deadline for signature gathering because of pandemic shutdowns allowed recall proponents to capitalize on the outrage and unease.

As the outcome in Tuesdays recall election became apparent, Darry Sragow, a Democratic strategist and publisher of California Target Book, a nonpartisan political almanac, said the governor held off a Republican mugging and could come out of this stronger than ever, depending on his margin.

Recall backers also claimed a measure of victory.

We were David against Goliath  we were the Alamo, said Mike Netter, one of a handful of Tea Party Republican activists whose anger at Newsoms opposition to the death penalty, his embrace of workers in the country illegally and his deep establishment roots helped inspire the attempted ouster.

Just gathering the nearly 1.5 million signatures necessary to trigger the special election was a historic accomplishment, Heatlie said.

The recall campaign, the two men said, had expanded the small cadre that began the effort into a statewide coalition of 400,000 members who are already helping to push ballot proposals to fund school vouchers, forbid vaccine mandates in schools, and abolish public employee unions, which have been a long-standing Democratic force in California.

Other Republicans, however, called the recall a grave political miscalculation. About a quarter of the states registered voters are Republicans, and their numbers have been dwindling since the 1990s, a trend that recall proponents believed might be reversed if they could somehow flip the nations biggest state.

Tuesdays defeat  in a special election that cost the state an estimated $276 million  instead marked another nail in the coffin, said Mike Madrid, a California Republican strategist who has been deeply critical of the party under Trump, charging in particular that the GOP has driven away Latino voters.

Madrid said the recall signified that, even in California, Trumps party had become part of an increasingly radical, exercised and shrinking Republican base, lashing out in different ways in different parts of the country. He took note of the voter fraud accusations that some in his party began to make well before the polls closed, echoing Trump, who claimed without evidence that Democrats had rigged the recall election.

Despite the yawning gap in support, for example, Elder demanded this week, before the voting was finished, that a special legislative session be called to investigate and ameliorate the twisted results. He said there had been instances of undocumented ballots but provided no examples.

Some Democratic observers were circumspect, warning that the disruption caused by the recall effort hinted at deeper problems.

This recall was a canary in the coal mine, said Sragow, a veteran Democratic strategist who cited the states income disparities, housing shortages and climate crises. And until the issues that created it get dealt with, people in power are in trouble. Theres a lot of anger and fear and frustration out there.

Tuesdays vote capped a nearly yearlong push by the governor to persuade voters to see beyond that darkness. Since early this year, when it became clear that the recall would have the money and time to qualify for the ballot, Newsom has campaigned relentlessly.

Taking advantage of a huge state surplus  a result of higher-than-expected gains in income and stock prices for affluent Californians  the governor moved aggressively to demonstrate that the state could both protect its economy and curb the virus. In recent months, he has rolled out vaccinations, cleaned up trash in neighborhoods neglected by pandemic-worn Californians, thrown motel rooms open to homeless Californians, announced stimulus checks and rent assistance for poor and middle-class Californians and stood repeatedly in front of a gold lame curtain to host one of the nations largest vaccine lotteries.

Past recall efforts informed his political strategy. Unlike Davis, whose lieutenant governor ran as a Democratic alternative in the 2003 recall, effectively giving partisans permission to oust Davis, Newsom and his team quickly cleared the field of potential Democratic alternatives.

Like Scott Walker, the former governor of Wisconsin and the only previous governor to prevail in a recall election, Newsom painted the recall effort in national, partisan terms and rejected a defensive posture. His strategy galvanized major donors and his base.

As in 2003, when he ran against a popular progressive for mayor of San Francisco, Newsom framed the race not as a referendum on him but as a choice between himself and a potentially catastrophic alternative  in this case, Elder, whose name recognition quickly vaulted him to the top of the list of challengers.

Noting that Elder had built a career bashing liberal causes, the governor painted him as a Trump clone who would foist far-right policies on a state that has been a bastion of liberal thinking.

Vote no and go, the governor told voters, suggesting that they stick to voting against recalling him and not even dignify the second question on the ballot, which asked who should replace Newsom if the recall succeeds.

Millions of voters chose not to answer the ballots second question, with Elder receiving about 44% of the vote from those who did. Kevin Paffrath, a Democrat, and Kevin Faulconer, a Republican and former mayor of San Diego, each had about 10% of the vote as of 10 p.m. Pacific time.

Republican support and money failed to come anywhere close to matching Newsoms large operation and war chest.

California has no limits on donations to committees for and against recalls, but the state caps contributions to candidates from individual donors. Newsom capitalized on the rules, raising more than $50 million just in donations of more than $100,000 to oppose the recall. Elder raised about $15 million, with even less raised by committees promoting the recall.

Many major Republican donors said it seemed futile to try to recall a Democratic governor in such an overwhelmingly liberal state.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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MCLA Climbs U.S. News College Rankings

NORTH ADAMS, Mass.  According to the 2022 U.S. News and World Report rankings, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts has risen to #7 on the list of Top Public Colleges, and risen to #21 as a Top Performer on Social Mobility and first among all Massachusetts schools.

"I am proud to see MCLA recognized again as a Top Public College, but I am more proud of the work we've done to continue to climb these rankings for nine of the last 11 years, said MCLA President James F. Birge. We have an excellent faculty body with expertise and dedication to a liberal arts education. We have staff dedicated to student outcomes at every level and in every department. We have incredible programs that contribute to social mobility, helping our under-resourced students achieve a college education, which will help them earn more in their lifetimes, find fulfilling careers, and live meaningful lives. Public colleges help contribute to furthering economic equity every day, and we are proud to make this part of our mission as an institution."

MCLA also continues to appear on the list of Top National Liberal Arts Colleges.

MCLA has appeared on U.S. News' list of Top Public Colleges for nine of the past 11 years. The College has also appeared on its list of National Liberal Arts Colleges for Social Mobility since the organization adopted this ranking in 2019.

This list measures how well schools graduate students who receive federal Pell Grants, typically awarded to students whose families make less than $50,000, though most Pell Grant money goes to families with income below $20,000.

More than 45 percent of MCLA undergraduate students receive Pell Grants, and more than 40 percent are the first in their families to go to college. Nearly 85 percent of students receive some kind of financial aid.

In 2021, MCLA was ranked #9 on the list of Top Public Colleges, and appeared in the top 50 National Liberal Arts Colleges for social mobility.

In recent years, MCLA has added new programs that help bolster student support. The TRiO Program, supported by a $1.2 million federal grant and founded in 2020, works toward increasing the retention, good academic standing, and graduation rates of low-income, first generation, and students with disabilities. This program serves up to 160 students a year.

In 2020, in response to economic uncertainties brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, MCLA established the Resiliency Fund, which has to date distributed nearly $300,000 to 296 students in need. The College maintains a food pantry to combat student food insecurity, supported with student volunteer work and donations. The College also boasts over 100 of its own private scholarships, including five new additions in 2020.
International news channel Indus News is the second Pakistani media house in under two years to have closed down under real estate tycoon Malik Riaz Hussains ownership. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its affiliate the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) condemns the closure of Indus News by its management, putting hundreds of media workers under financial stress.

On September 14, Indus News employees were alerted to the media houses temporary closure by an email from its management citing unavoidable legal and technical issues. The channel, owned by billionaire Malik Riaz Hussain, was launched in late 2018.

The email sent to Indus News staff guarantees all employees will resume work once the issues identified by management have been addressed. The email indicates the closure will last for a period of two months, within which staff will receive a half month salary.

In April 2020, another media outlet owned by Hussain, AAP News, ceased operations after Hussain owned the outlet for a year. AAP News administration informed employees by email that due to legal and technical issues, the Urdu broadcaster would close immediately, leaving hundreds of journalists and media workers jobless.

In 2016, Malik Riaz Hussain revealed his interest in media, particularly TV channels, as a means of protecting his reputation and advancing business ventures and is also reportedly tied to Pakistan military officials and senior politicians.

The PFUJ has announced it will stage country-wide protests on September 16 and urges PEMRA and other the relevant authorities to take necessary legal action against the Indus News management.

The PFUJ said: Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) has strongly condemned the closure of Indus News and termed it financial murder of the media workers.

The IFJ said: The IFJ is concerned by the pattern of job losses emerging from within the Pakistani media-sphere and the ongoing impact of closures on media workers livelihoods. The IFJ condemns the manipulation of media ownership for personal gain.
President Joe Biden, right, stands next to Colorado Governor Jared Polis on the grounds of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory on September 14 in Arvada, Colorado. Getty Images

Build Back Better has plenty of goodies for small businesses.

While it contains tax increases that could affect pass-through businesses and venture firms, the $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package--also known as President Biden's "Build Back Better" agenda or the Build Back Better Act--would inject $25 billion into small-business-related programs.

The funding is "aimed at our most challenged small businesses to provide justice in America in entrepreneurship," Ben Cardin (D-Md.), the chair of the Senate's Committee on Small Business & Entrepreneurship, said during a call with reporters Tuesday. Cardin, along with House Small Business Committee chair Nydia Velazquez (D-N.Y.) and vice chair Kweisi Mfume (D-Md.), discussed provisions of the bill that relate to small businesses.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has said that congressional committees will have text drafted by Wednesday, just before lawmakers are out for Yom Kippur, according to Politico. Here are three major takeaways from the proposed legislation.

1. Direct lending for key SBA loan programs

The bill would allow the U.S. Small Business Administration to make its popular 7(a) and 504 loans directly, instead of through a commercial bank, according to the lawmakers. It allocates about $4.5 billion over 10 years for 7(a) for direct lending, and $2.8 billion over 10 years for 504. Further, the bill allows for 7(a) loans of up to $1 million for manufacturing companies and up to $150,000 for other small businesses, Cardin said. Small-business owners would be able to go straight to the SBA (just as they do for an EIDL advance or loan) to access the capital.

The provision was spurred by the experiences of founders who were "left behind" by the Paycheck Protection Program because they lacked banking relationships or their banks prioritized larger, more profitable loans, Velazquez said.

Because of Senate rules, a reconciliation bill can typically provide funds for no longer than 10 years, according to the Brookings Institution. Lawmakers, however, could try to make direct lending permanent if it works well, Cardin said.

2. Boosts to the SBIC program

An SBIC, or a small business investment company, is an investment fund licensed by the SBA that gives capital to U.S. businesses. SBICs borrow money from the SBA at favorable interest rates and bring their own money to the table to create a fund.

The new bill would create SBIC subprograms, called venture small business investment companies (VSBICs), per a House summary. One would invest $9.5 billion in "underserved markets and critical industries." Another provision allocates $20 million for a mentorship program for less experienced fund managers. The goal is to ensure managers are sourced from underserved areas, geographically and otherwise, Cardin said.

Ideally, these changes would provide "ample access to affordable capital," Velazquez added. More startup capital available from the government ultimately could mean more funding opportunities for your business.

3. Help with federal contracts

The federal government is the largest buyer of goods and services in the world--and the bill's backers want small businesses to get a greater cut.

Small businesses got a record $145 billion in federal contracts in 2020. However, the number of small businesses awarded government contracts went down by 38 percent from 2010 to 2019, according to a June report from the Bipartisan Policy Center, Goldman Sachs, and political action committee Center Forward.
A crew member on the set of the Netflix movie Me Time, starring Mark Wahlberg and Kevin Hart, was seriously injured on Tuesday morning (14 September).

Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Brian Humphrey told Deadline that they had received a 911 call reporting that someone had taken a long fall.

An ambulance came and took the injured person to a regional trauma centre, according to the publication, which reported sources saying the male technician, who is in his thirties, fell from the grid above Stage 12 at Sunset Gower Studios in Hollywood. The structure is reportedly as high as 30 feet.

Humphry told People magazine that the unidentified male had suffered "massive trauma" and was "haemorrhaging.

A fire department official also told TMZ that first responders had to use a defibrillator multiple times in order to jumpstart a heartbeat.

The Independent has contacted Netflix for comment.

The film stars Hart as a stay-at-home father who finds himself with some me time while his wife and children are away. Wahlberg plays his former best friend, who he reconnects with for a wild weekend.
Nicki Minaj has called Piers Morgan ugly, a clown and a stupid piece of s*** after he accused of her of peddling lies with her Covid-19 tweets.

The rapper caused controversy on Monday (13 September) after claiming that her cousins friend had been made impotent by the coronavirus vaccine after his testicles became swollen.

The baseless tweet was criticised by Chris Whitty and Boris Johnson during Tuesdays (14 September) Covid-19 press conference, with Whitty saying that Minaj should have been ashamed of sharing misinformation to her large following.

Minaj responded by posting a bizarre voice note mocking the pair in a British accent, before calling BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg a dumbo.

Morgan tweeted: Professor Whitty beefing with the ghastly @NICKIMINAJ (one of the rudest little madams Ive ever met) is not the breaking news that I expected today  but its most welcome, Morgan wrote, adding that Minaj was peddling lies that will cost lives.

In response, Minaj wrote back: Sir Ive never met you. I know we all look alike. Rudest little madam. I like it. Has a special ring to it. Thanks Pierce [sic]. Love the accent. Id love to come chat. Scones. Tea. Clown nose & big red shoes for you. Lmk babe.

She also changed her Twitter bio to Rudest little madam with a Union Jack emoji.

Morgan then claimed that the pair had met when he was a judge on Americas Got Talent, and that she had turned down a photo with his three children.

Minaj disputed this, writing: Stop f***ng lying. I never turn [sic] down pics with kids. If a middle person told you that, they were out of line. dont blame me you stupid piece of s***.

She then added: He gon make me go live. Chiiiiileeee. Does he have an ig. I wanna go live with him. ENOUGH UGLY!

However, she ended the tweet by tagging the Twitter user @pierce rather than the former Good Morning Britain host, leaving Protocol editor David Pierce somewhat confused.

Oops sir, Minaj responded to Pierce after realising her mistake.
Allison Mack has begun serving her prison sentence early after pleading guilty in the NXIVM case.

The former Smallville actor is currently an inmate at the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, California, according to online Bureau of Prisons records.

Mack has been in custody since Monday, The Hollywood Reporter wrote on Wednesday, citing a prison spokesperson. She was originally expected to surrender to authorities on 29 September.

Mack was sentenced in June to three years in prison. She had pleaded guilty to charges related to her involvement in NXIVM, the cult-like group founded by Keith Raniere.

Raniere was sentenced to 120 years in prison in August last year following a federal trial.

Back in April 2019, Mack pleaded guilty to charges that she was involved in a scheme to turn women into sex slaves for Raniere.

During her sentencing hearing, she talked about experiencing remorse and guilt, telling the court: I made choices I will forever regret.

I am sorry to those of you that I brought into NXIVM, she wrote in a letter filed with the court, excerpts of which were shared by The Associated Press. I am sorry I ever exposed you to the nefarious and emotionally abusive schemes of a twisted man.
Dancing With The Stars will soon return for a 30th season.

The competition series recently unveiled the list of 15 celebrities who will face off to win the mirror ball trophy.

In accordance to the shows format, each contestant will be paired with a professional dancer. One pairing will be eliminated each week.

Tyra Banks will return as host, having taken over from co-hosts Tom Bergeron and Erin Andrews last year.

Here is everything you need to know about the 30th season of Dancing with The Stars:

When is it?

Season 30 will begin on Monday (20 September) at 8pm ET/ 7pm CT/ 1am BST.

It will then air weekly until the finale. The two most recent seasons each had 11 instalments.

How can I watch?

In the US, Dancing With The Stars airs on the ABC network.

If you miss the TV broadcast, you can stream the episodes the next day on ABCs website and on Hulu.

Dancing With The Stars doesnt air in the UK, but the performances are available to watch in full on the shows YouTube channel.

Who will compete?

This years list of contestants includes Mel C of the Spice Girls, star Peloton instructor Cody Rigsby, and Olivia Jade Giannulli, whose casting has been met with criticism.

For a full list of all 15 contestants, click here.
Jennifer Aniston has said she will not attend the 2021 Emmys ceremony because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Speaking on Jimmy Kimmel Live! this week, Aniston said: I will not be going. This is still a big step for me just to be here [on the talk show]. Its just baby steps.

While the 2020 Emmys was a virtual awards ceremony, this years event will see a limited amount of nominees gather at the Microsoft Theatre in downtown Los Angeles to accept their prizes and celebrate the best in television.

Aniston presented an award at last years awards, which was hosted by Kimmel.

The actor has chosen not to attend this Sunday (19 September) despite Friends: The Reunion receiving three nominations.

Aniston has been vocal about her concerns over Covid safety since the pandemic began. In June 2020, she urged her Instagram followers to continue wearing masks to help prevent the disease from spreading.

Earlier this year, she also revealed she has distanced herself from some people over differences in their response to the crisis.

Its a real shame, Aniston said. Ive just lost a few people in my weekly routine who have refused or did not disclose [whether or not they had been vaccinated], and it was unfortunate.

I feel its your moral and professional obligation to inform, since were not all podded up and being tested every single day.
Merely weeks after several civil society organisations in Hong Kong announced their disbandment, the Hong Kong government has turned the focus of their crackdown to the Hong Kong Alliance, known for organising the annual Tiananmen candlelight vigil in the city.

On Wednesday, a court in Hong Kong handed nine activists and former lawmakers a prison sentence of up to ten months over their participation in last years banned Tiananmen Square vigil, saying they have taken part in an unauthorized assembly

The Hong Kong Alliance had previously refused to comply when the citys police demanded they hand over financial records and detailed information about its members, citing the National Security Law (NSL). Instead, they handed the police a letter explaining their decision not to cooperate with the authorities.

Then last Wednesday, five members of the alliances standing committee were arrested by police and charged with failing to comply with the request under NSL. On Thursday, the alliance said its chairperson Lee Cheuk-yan, vice chairpersons Albert Ho and Chow Hang Tung had all been charged with subversion of state power, a crime that has often been used to target dissidents in China.

On the same day, police from Hong Kongs national security unit raided the June Fourth Museum, which was run by the Hong Kong Alliance, taking away logos, signs and other materials. The museum had previously been shut down in June after Hong Kongs Food and Environmental Hygiene Department launched an investigation into its license.

Experts view the crackdown on the alliance and the museum as a sign that the One Country, Two Systems model has been destroyed. One of the most important symbols of Hong Kong remaining a place politically distinct from its mainland neighbours was that people could gather there in large numbers on the anniversary of the June Fourth Massacre in Beijing in 1989 and talk freely about the meaning of the many acts of protests and repression that took place across China that year, said Jeff Wasserstrom, a historian of modern China at the University of California, Irvine.

It used to be a beacon of freedom and democracy, but now it has become a very large prison Zhou Fengsuo, a Tiananmen student leader who now lives in the United States

Wasserstrom says by making the vigil illegal in Hong Kong and Macau, as well as launching more repressive actions against an organisation known for defending the tradition related to the Tiananmen Square Massacre, the Chinese government proves all that really remains of the two systems are some differences in how people can make and spend money.

Along with the crackdown on civil society groups in Hong Kong, some Tiananmen student leaders and participants view the museum raid and moves against the Hong Kong Alliance as an attack on efforts to preserve memories related to the massacre.

The Hong Kong Alliance has been one of the most important organisations that are dedicated to preserving the spiritual legacy of the Tiananmen Square protests, said Zhou Fengsuo, a Tiananmen student leader who now lives in the United States.

The museum is part of the confrontation of the CCPs efforts to manipulate public memory about the Tiananmen Massacre, and it is also a project that documents the CCPs crackdown on human rights as well as Chinese peoples resistance Chang Ping, a prominent Chinese author and one of the curators of the online archive for Tiananmen

This alliance has been the core of the democratic movement in Hong Kong, and it has been the main platform for the annual candlelight vigil and other activities, including support for Chinese prisoners of conscience, he added.

Zhou explains that since the alliance has accumulated so much influence over the years that they are a thorn in the side of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP.) The CCP thinks that it must be eliminated in order to comply with the Chinese governments political ideology.

Part of the efforts to preserve memories related to the Tiananmen Square protests is the creation of an online version of the June Fourth Museum, which includes digital backups of the museums collections and records of the movement.

Part of the annual Tiananmen vigil that took place last year (AFP via Getty Images)

While the thought of creating a digital version of the museum had been brewing before the anti-extradition bill movement in 2019, the introduction of the NSL accelerated the process of establishing the digital archive, said Chang Ping, a prominent Chinese author and one of the curators of the online archive.

The museum is part of the confrontation of the CCPs efforts to manipulate public memory about the Tiananmen Massacre, and it is also a project that documents the CCPs crackdown on human rights as well as Chinese peoples resistance, he added.

According to Chang Ping, Hong Kong was a very important force during the student-led movement in 1989, especially the Operation Yellowbird, which facilitated the escape of several Tiananmen student leaders to other countries via Hong Kong. The operation was spearheaded by the Hong Kong Alliance and ensured that many pro-democracy activists were rescued.

Hong Kong provided strong support to the pro-democracy struggle in China, which gives the CCP a reason to launch a suppression against Hong Kong, he said.

Zhou Fengsuo says it was clear during the anti-extradition bill movement in 2019 that if the movement couldnt succeed, Hong Kong will begin its process of mainlandization, which refers to the process of Hong Kong becoming more and more similar to China in all aspects. The CCP has gone crazy in many aspects, but one thing surprising is the severity of the NSLs punishments, said Zhou.

The fact that the Chinese government decides to enforce such a law in Hong Kong, where there is space for civil liberties and freedom, shows the nature of this regime. It will use all its power to extinguish the freedom that people enjoy, and Hong Kong is the first target of its expansion. It used to be a beacon of freedom and democracy, but now it has become a very large prison, he added.

These preservation efforts are valuable, especially perhaps when it comes to the mainland events of 1989, as collections relating to those do exist in other places, but to events in Hong Kong itself Jeff Wasserstrom from the University of California, Irvine

Chang Ping adds that all the transformation that China went through over the last 70 years under the CCPs rule will now take place in Hong Kong in a more condensed way. This is the future that Beijing has designed for Hong Kong, he told the Independent.

Despite the bleak outlook for Hong Kongs future, some experts think the preservation of historical records will still be important for the city. These preservation efforts are valuable, especially perhaps when it comes to the mainland events of 1989, as collections relating to those do exist in other places, but to events in Hong Kong itself, said Jeff Wasserstrom from the University of California, Irvine.

Since there were also large-scale public events in Hong Kong and Macau in 1989, which were expressing solidarity with activists in Beijing, Wasserstrom thinks those records are both an important part of history for the 1989 protest and Hong Kong.

There is a real danger of a full record of those being lost, as the CCP is trying to impose an orthodox vision of the past in Hong Kong, Wasserstrom said. In a sense, the annual vigils and related events since 1989 are an important part of Hong Kongs history, and preserving those again is significant.
Nine of Hong Kongs pro-democracy activists have been handed jail sentences of up to 10 months after taking part in last years vigil to commemorate the death of Chinas 1989 Tiananmen square massacre, which was banned by police.

Three others were given suspended sentences on Wednesday by the court. All of them were among the 12 people who pleaded guilty earlier this month to participating in the vigil.

Hong Kongers hold a large-scale vigil on 4 June annually to commemorate the deaths of those killed in the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown in Beijing.

But authorities had banned the event for the last two consecutive years, citing concerns over the coronavirus pandemic. Despite the ban, thousands of students and activists gathered to light candles as they raised fears of the ban being part of a larger crackdown on the former British colony.

Amnesty International condemned the verdicts, describing it as another outrageous attack on the rights and freedom of the people of Hong Kong, given that those convicted had not committed any internationally recognisable crime.

Yet there may be worse to come for the organisers of the vigil  some of whom are also facing more serious, yet no less spurious, national security charges, Amnesty Internationals Asia-Pacific director Yamini Mishra said in a statement.

Police arrested more than 20 activists, including leaders of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, after dozens of people gathered and crowds broke through barriers set up around the Victoria Park venue to light candles.

The Hong Kong Alliance group had been organising vigils for 30 years to mourn the deaths of those who died in the crackdown.

Albert Ho, former chairman of Hong Kong Alliance and veteran vigil organiser, was handed a 10-month sentence while he is already serving jail sentences over other unauthorized assemblies.

Former lawmaker Eddie Chu and Figo Chan, a former leader of the now defunct Civil Human Rights Front known for organising large-scale pro-democracy rallies, had pleaded guilty and were given jail terms.

Eight others, including Jimmy Lai, the founder of the defunct Apple Daily newspaper and alliance leader Lee Cheuk-yan, who were charged for attending last years vigil, did not plead guilty and will stand trial in November.

During Wednesdays sentencing, District Court judge Amanda Woodcock said: The defendants ignored and belittled a genuine public health crisis.

"They wrongly and arrogantly believed their common purpose was more important than protecting the community or the publics right to protection from a serious health risk."

In scenes witnessed during the sentencing, supporters of the defendants in the public gallery stood up and waved while shouting hang in there, reported Hong Kong Free Press. The defenders waved back and held their fists in the air standing from the dock.

The judgement came after police last week raided the premises of the closed 4th June museum dedicated to the Tiananmen victims. In the same week, the police arrested several members of the Hong Kong Alliance under national security legislation imposed by Beijing last year and accused them of being an "agent of foreign forces. The charge was denied by the alliance.
Animals carrying coronaviruses like the one which caused Covid-19 can infect thousands of people annually in China and Southeast Asia annually, reveals a new study.

Researchers of the EcoHealth Alliance and Singapores Duke-NUS Medical School have raised an alarm over the possibility of a new pandemic from spillover events.

The study, released on Thursday before peer review and publication, estimated 400,000 such infections happen every year. Most of them, however, go undetected because they either have mild or no symptoms and are not easily transmitted between people.

It said that each spillover event  when a virus overcomes naturally occurring barriers to spill over from one species to another  could lead to a Covid-like outbreak.

The origin of the novel coronavirus, which causes Covid, remains a mystery and has become a matter of contention among world leaders and experts alike, years after the disease emerged and spread to become a pandemic.

At the heart of the controversy are two theories that suggest the deadly virus either naturally spilled over to human beings from bats through an intermediary host animal or that the virus spread as the result of a lab leak.

The research by New York-based EcoHealth Alliance and Singapore medical college builds on the former theory that suggests bats are the main host-animals for viruses and people living in the vicinity of the mammals are most vulnerable.

The research was supported by the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

This is probably the first attempt to estimate how often people are infected with Sars-related coronaviruses from bats, Edward Holmes, a biologist at the University of Sydney who was not involved in the research, told Bloomberg.

He said it was not unusual for humans to be exposed to bat coronaviruses. Given the right set of circumstances, one of these could eventually lead to a disease outbreak, he added.

The Asian subcontinent is home to almost two dozens bat species that can be infected by coronaviruses. Southern China and parts of Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam and Indonesia have been found to be most vulnerable for spillovers, according to the study.

Mr Holmes said: This is just bats. The risk of exposure is even higher when you factor in all the possible intermediate animal species.

The study found that in Asia alone, there are about 478 million people, who live in areas inhabited by coronavirus-carrying bats.

Peter Daszak and his colleagues at the New York-based EcoHealth Alliance estimated that about 50,000 bat-to-human spillover events occur in South-east Asia annually and the conservative figure could actually run into millions.

Dr Daszak has faced criticism from several quarters for collaborating in research funded by the National Institutes of Health at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which has been at the centre of the lab-leak theory.

The theory, which was earlier dismissed as a far-right conspiracy theory, has since seemingly been acknowledged by many in the scientific community.
Taiwan carried out practice landings for aircraft, including an indigenous one, as part of its annual drill to prepare its defence in the event of an attack by China.

A Taiwanese-made Indigenous Defensive Fighter, US-made F-16, French-made Mirage 2000-5 and an E-2K early warning aircraft landed on a highway being used as a makeshift runway in a rural area of Jiadong, in Pingtung County early on Wednesday.

According to Associated Press, the highway was designed to be used as a runway to practice what would be done if their airbase was damaged by enemy forces.

The exercise is part of a five-day military exercise to prepare the forces as tensions between Taiwan and China increase and Beijing continues to claim its ownership over the island.

The exercise was overseen by Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen who won a landslide victory on the promise of dealing with Chinas threats.

Such splendid combat skills and rapid and real actions come from solid everyday training and also demonstrate the confidence of the Republic of China air force in defending its airspace, Ms Tsai wrote, referring to Taiwan by its formal name.

Mounting tensions have been reflected in increased military activities. China, last month, carried out joint assault drills near Taiwan and has been repeatedly accused of threatening the island nation by flying its fighter jets towards it.

In response, Taiwan has also grown its military capabilities by investing more to bolster its defence and purchasing weapons from the US. Before its indigenous fighter jet, Taiwan produced its first homemade submarine, as well as warships.

In August, the US approved an arms sale to Taiwan, first under the Biden administration, as part of a $750 million deal.

China has continually objected to the US involvement in the matter.
We are no longer to be called the University of jihad but the University of the Taliban cabinet, chuckles the head of Darul Uloom Haqqania, arguably one of the most infamous Islamic seminaries in Pakistan.

Flanked by adoring supporters, one of whom crouches on the floor kissing his legs, Maulana Hamid Ul-Haq jokes about the nickname given by critics who have repeatedly labelled the school a hotbed of radicalisation. This is because its alumni include some of the Talibans most powerful and feared leaders, many of whom are on global wanted lists and are now in their new cabinet after the group swept to power in neighbouring Afghanistan last month.

Among those with close links to the school, located about 100km from the Afghan border in northwest Pakistan, was the Talibans founder Mullah Muhammed Omar, the one-eyed reclusive cleric-warrior who sheltered Osama bin Laden. The seminary awarded him an honorary doctorate because he brought peace to Afghanistan and the region Ul-Haq says.

The biggest names from the notorious Haqqani network, a US-designated terrorist group linked to the Taliban, have been taught there, including its founder, Jalaluddin Haqqani, and Khalil Haqqani, now the Talibans minister for refugees. The Talibans spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid is also a graduate.

But despite this, Ul-Haq, 54, vehemently rejects the accusations that the school is a factory for violence. The former member of parliament, who now heads up a religious political party, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-S), remains deeply proud of the Taliban connections and waxes lyrical about his meetings with Jalahuddin and his son Sirajuddin, the Talibans new interior minister (and a wanted militant), whom he calls humble, well-mannered, and visionary.

He sees the Talibans surge to power in Afghanistan, and the announcement of their interim cabinet, as legitimising their position even more, and calls on the west to recognise them in order to prevent more war.

We dont want to be known as the terror or warrior university. We are proud that a number of our alumni are in the Taliban cabinet, says Ul-Haq, estimating that more than half a dozen Taliban ministers either attended the madrasa or have sent family members there.

That means the Taliban think that these people are visionary, humane and well educated.

They were chosen as they know the political ups and downs, they know how to deal with the world, he adds, beaming.

America did not come to spread love and did not give flowers. They came to bomb the region, and these men  the Taliban  were defending themselves Maulana Hamid Ul-Haq, head of Darul Uloom Haqqania

The day Ul-Haq speaks to The Independent happens to be the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, masterminded by Osama bin Laden, which triggered the US-led invasion of Afghanistan, where Bin Laden was sheltering.

Ul-Haq condemns the horrific attacks, which killed over 2700 people in the States, but claims Osama bin Laden was not responsible for them, saying the US invasion forced the Taliban to defend themselves.

And so, he says, the fact that the 20th anniversary of the attacks occurred when Afghanistan was back in the hands of the Taliban, after US-led Nato troops had withdrawn, was a kind of justice.

America did not come to spread love and did not give flowers. They came to bomb the region, and these men  the Taliban  were defending themselves, he adds with force.

Washington has made the right decision in leaving. It was spending so much money, but suffered a lot  economically, politically, and in terms of loss of life of its forces.

Maulana Hamid Ul-Haq is proud of the connections the Haqqania seminary has with the Taliban (Bel Trew)

The world-infamous madrasa, which teaches a fundamentalist brand of Sunni Islam known as Deobandi Islam, was founded by Hamid Ul-Haqs grandfather  an Islamic scholar called Abdul Ul-Haq  in the weeks after Pakistan won independence from the British in 1947.

Abdul Ul-Haqs successor was his son, Sami Ul-Haq, who was known as the father of the Taliban  a name the family still sees as a badge of honour. Sami was assassinated by unknown gunmen in 2018.

Now, twinkling in the sunlight, the new, pink-hued, sprawling campus is home to some 2800 students, the student body now being about half the size it was at its largest.

Behind a gate manned by guards armed with Kalashnikovs, streams of men in traditional Islamic dress, with prayer rugs slung over their shoulders, pour out of the mosque after Saturday morning prayers.

In front of them, preserved behind glass windows, is a vintage 1940s car with a sign saying it was used by Abdul Ul-Haq in the 1970s as he toured the country making speeches, but also as he participated in the movement against the (persecuted) Ahmadiyya religious community  a stark reminder of the ideological leanings of the place. Human Rights Watch says the Ahmadis have been subjected to targeted killings and violence over the decades.

Another reminder, of course, is the list of graduates. Among Darul Uloom Haqqanias most famous students was Taliban supreme leader Akhtar Mansour, who was Mullah Omars successor until he was killed in a 2016 US drone strike in southwest Pakistan.

The notorious Haqqani network, and its founder Jalaluddin Haqqani, took their names from the school because Jalaluddin studied there. (The Taliban deny the existence of an offshoot Haqqani network, and say Jalaluddin is a top Taliban figure.)

Nonetheless, Jalaluddin sent several of his sons here, including, reportedly (although Ul-Haq denies this), Sirajuddin, the Talibans new interior minister. Sirajuddin has a $10m American bounty on his head because of his alleged involvement in a 2008 attack on a hotel in Kabul, as well as for his ties to al-Qaeda.

Sirajuddin is alleged to have been involved in the 2008 attack on the Serena Hotel in Kabul (AFP via Getty)

Ul-Haq confirms that several other ministers studied here, including the Talibans minister of education, Abdul Baqi Haqqani, and the minister for refugees, Khalil Haqqani. Other ministers, including deputy prime minister Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, a co-founder of the Taliban, sent their sons to the school or had uncles and fathers who studied there.

And so the history of the seminary is one that is very much tied to the muddy history of conflict in Afghanistan and Pakistan, two countries that share a 2500km border and countless political, religious and cultural connections.

Pakistan experts told The Independent the school gained prominence in the 1980s when it was backed by western intelligence services, who paid for its activities as a useful place to cultivate the mujahideen forces fighting the Soviets next door. The same experts say it was later heavily funded by Saudi Arabia, and became tied to the Taliban when the group emerged in the early 1990s from northern Pakistan following the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan.

I interviewed Sami Ul-Haq [Hamids father] several times. He boasted of his connection with Osama bin Laden at one point, recalls prominent Pakistani journalist Zahid Hussein, who has written several books about Pakistans struggle with militant Islam and its relationship with Afghanistan.

It can be called an ideological centre for the Taliban on both sides of the border.

Ahmed Rashid, who has written several books about the Taliban, says the madrasa was also supported by Pakistan in the early 1990s as a way to combat warlords in lands immediately adjacent in neighbouring Afghanistan, who had a stranglehold on key trade routes.

At that point it became world-famous.

Students would come from all over the world. It was their first introduction to jihad, he says.

Both experts say that, despite the connections, it has never come to blows with Pakistani administrations. Its doors have never been closed, even when the government vowed to crack down on unlicensed religious schools after a 2014 massacre of over 100 schoolchildren in the nearby city of Peshawar, which was claimed by the Talibans Pakistan branch, Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP). (The TTP also reportedly have connections to the school.)

Instead, in 2018 the Pakistani media reported that the local government had granted the seminary over 277m rupees (around 1m), which prime minister Imran Khan said was to assure reforms in the syllabus, but critics think might have been politically motivated.

Ahead of an election that took place in the same year, Ul-Haqs father Sami and his JUI-S party briefly entered into a pre-election alliance with the prime ministers Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party in an effort to broaden his support base.

Fast-forward to 2021 and the school has taken centre-stage again.

When the Taliban cabinet was announced I congratulated them via phone, and requested them to continue very carefully as the world is watching them, Hamid Ul-Haq tells The Independent, in his office.

He says he warned the Taliban against the immediate application of the strictest Sharia law punishments (giving the example of lashing women), as it might be deemed by the west to be a violation of human rights.

He says he hopes the wider government, when it is announced, will be more inclusive and will have female members.

They must be careful so the struggle should not be wasted, he adds.

And this is the crux of the issue for neighbouring Pakistan, which has a tightrope to walk ahead as it builds ties with the Afghan Taliban administration while trying to contain a domestic terrorism problem in the form of the linked TTP.

I hope [the Afghan Taliban] will inspire a struggle for a true Islamic system here in Pakistan Maulana Hamid Ul-Haq

Ul-Haq, who also heads up a platform of nearly 20 religious parties, was among the many hardline religious figures in Pakistan who cheered the rapid Taliban takeover of Afghanistan as a victory over western imperialism and secularism.

Shortly after the Taliban announced the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, he told his followers in a statement that the Taliban had established unmatched peace and security in Afghanistan and should inspire a similar change in Pakistan.

Yes, I hope it will inspire a struggle for a true Islamic system here in Pakistan, he reiterated to The Independent, while adding that the struggle should be democratic and peaceful.

Our constitution says there will be Sharia law, and all laws will be made under Quranic law, but there are still British laws in our country.

And so the question is what this struggle looks like in practice for Pakistan.

Senior Pakistani security sources told The Independent they were lobbying the Afghan Taliban to cut off ties, isolate, and so ultimately defang the Talibans Pakistan branch because of its involvement in terrorist activities. Pakistans foreign minister told The Independent that the Taliban had verbally assured Pakistan that they would not allow Afghanistan to be used as a staging ground for TTP (or Isis) terror attacks on Pakistani soil. This is particularly urgent after the TTP claimed a suicide bombing in the southwestern town of Quetta just two weeks ago.

Pakistans spy chief even flew to Kabul, where this issue was allegedly at the top of his agenda.

The Independent repeatedly pressed the Haqqania seminary on its exact relationship with the TTP, which is banned in Pakistan, but received no clear answer.

However the school, and Ul-Haq, have repeatedly denied any involvement in terrorist activity.

There are uncomfortable connections. Police investigating the 2007 assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto said her killers (thought to be members of the Pakistan Taliban) had been briefed about the plan in one of the many departments of the madrasa.

The TTP later nominated Sami Ul-Haq, Hamids father, to represent it in its short-lived peace talks with the government in 2014.

There are so many people who blame us and label us as the university of terror because they are against Islam, Ul-Haq insists.

By labelling us as a terrorist organisation campus, they want to scare people off us, and Islam.

He says the school has played host to the likes of US and Afghan ambassadors, as well as Pakistans prime minister, while his father acted in an important mediating role between Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Taliban to bring about reconciliation and peace to the region.

Until his last breath my father played a peaceful role for the whole of humanity, Ul-Haq insists, adding that he continues that legacy.

As another supporter sits at his feet and begins massaging his leg, Ul-Haq returns to the subject of Afghanistan. He finishes with a warning.

The hopes of the western world and all of the world will come true now the Taliban are in power. But they must recognise the Taliban government, he says.

If they dont, it means the world wants wars for another four decades.
The Malaysian government is facing backlash after appealing against a high court ruling which would provide equal rights for mothers and fathers to pass on citizenship to their children.

Malaysian citizenship laws allow fathers to automatically transmit citizenship to children, but does not make mention of mothers, excluding them from the same provisions.

The Malaysian government appealed against a high court ruling on Monday following a legal challenge lodged by six mothers. The high court ruling determined that citizenship laws must be considered alongside the federal constitution which prohibits gender discrimination - a decision which would allow both mothers and fathers to pass their Malaysian citizenship to their children born overseas.

The government has come under fire since the controversial appeal prompting a petition to drop the appeal which has already received over 10,000 signatures in a day.

Government minister Wan Junaidi Wan Jaafar said he sympathised with Malaysian mothers and would bring up the issue in congress while two other government ministers - Communications and Multimedia Minister Annuar Musa and also Women, Family and Community Development Minister Rina Harun - backed the initial high court ruling.

Under the current law, Malaysian mothers with children born overseas to non-Malaysian partners must apply for their children to receive citizenship in a process that has an approval rate below 2 per cent.

Malaysia is one of 22 countries in the world to still have unequal citizenship laws between mothers and fathers.

Family Matters, a campaign group seeking to change the citizenship law since 2009, said the government had chosen to defend the status quo of injustice.

Malaysian women have borne the injustice for 64 years, Family Frontiers said in a statement on Monday.

The Home Ministry, led by Hamzah Zainudin, defended the citizenship law in Parliament last year stating that it was a matter of national security to stop overseas-born children from attaining double citizenship.
A little over a year before the Second World War broke out, a team of Germans wearing muddy boots landed entirely unobtrusively, and almost surreptitiously, along the eastern borders of India. Were the Germans there to scout for spots for a sabotage mission in case peace with England did not work out and a conflict became inevitable?

Were they looking at the Rajs vulnerabilities on one of its most precious territories, or at the possibilities of tying up with some of Indias eastern neighbours for an alliance that might prove to be strategically and tactically useful in the short and medium term? Did they want to gauge the readiness or the mood of the Indian soldiers recruited by the British for the defence of India?

This expedition was the brainchild of Heinrich Himmler, Reichsfuhrer or head of the SS, the Nazi force whose insignia of the double thunderbolt had created terror across Germany.

Himmler was the chief of all of the German police in the Nazi regime, whose men were in supreme control of the concentration camps which had begun to spring up from the year in which Hitler had come to power. The first concentration camp had come up in Dachau just outside Munich; their number had gradually increased and they were to gain an unforgettable notoriety in the years still to come.

Right from the beginning, India was very much a part of the Aryan race theory. The Indo-Germanic group of languages had established a philological link, and racial supremacists had come up with their own twisted theories to make the case for a people of superior blood.

Even if Indians had suffered on account of what the racialists termed as miscegenation, might not some remnants of the original be found, at least somewhere close to it, was the question. This is where Tibet came into the bizarre picture. Those who swore by the idea of white Nordic geniuses were either taken in, or at least extremely familiar with, the story of the imagined lost city of Atlantis, where apparently the heaven-sent people of the purest blood had lived.

Believed to have been situated somewhere between England and Portugal in the Atlantic Ocean, this island city had allegedly sunk after being struck by a divine thunderbolt. All of gods rather superhuman gifts to humankind that had somehow survived had supposedly moved on to more secure spheres.

German dictator Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945) and his chief of police Heinrich Himmler (1900 - 1945) inspecting the SS Guard (Getty Images)

The region of the Himalayas was on this shortlist of regions of refuge, and Tibet in particular was one of the all-time favourites because it was famous for being the roof of the world, as far away from any sinking feeling that a race whose rightful home had been swallowed up by the sea could possibly get.

Most of the Nazi leaders were enthusiastic believers in such scarcely credible theories, but Himmler definitely went the farthest of them all.

In 1935, he set up a unit within the SS called the Ahnenerbe or The Bureau of Ancestral Heritage. Its remit was to find where exactly those extraordinary beings from Atlantis had gone after the bolt from the blue and the resultant deluge, and where traces of the great race still remained and could be discovered. In 1938, the SS Reichsfuhrer sent a squad of five Germans to Tibet on his fancied, pseudo-scientific search operation.

Two of the teams members stood out from the rest. One was Ernst Schafer, a gifted zoologist. Schafer was young, barely twenty-eight years old, and had been to the India-China-Tibet border twice earlier. In the post-war years, he attempted to either downplay or altogether deny his Nazi connections, but the truth was that he had joined the SS soon after the Nazi triumph of 1933, much before Himmler acted as his patron for the Tibet expedition.

Schafer was crazy about hunting and loved to gather all sorts of trophies in his home in an elite neighbourhood in Berlin. Sometime in late 1937, Schafer took his wife Hertha out for a duck hunt on a lake near the German-Polish border. He was about to shoot from the boat they were in, when he slipped. The rifle fell against the seat of the oarsman and fired off, the bullet hitting his wifes head. She died within an hour.

The second key man on the team was Bruno Beger, a young anthropologist who had joined the SS in 1935. He would take measurements of the skulls and facial details of the Tibetan people and make face masks, he said, especially to collect material about the proportions, origins, significance and development of the Nordic race in this region.

US Army chaplain Samuel Blinder examines one of hundreds of Jewish Sefer Torah scrolls, stolen from all over Europe by Nazi forces, and stored in the cellar of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics (KWI-A) in Frankfurt, Germany, 6th July 1945 (Getty Images)

The ship carrying the five Germans docked at Colombo early in May 1938. From there, they took another one to Madras and a third one to Calcutta. The British authorities in India had been pretty wary of the travelling Germans and saw them as nothing but a bunch of spies. They were initially reluctant to allow them to pass through India, and the then British-run The Times of India even ran the accusatory headline, A Gestapo Agent in India.

The British political officer in Gangtok in Sikkim, an independent mountain kingdom at the time, too, was not enthusiastic about granting the men entry into Tibet through Sikkim.

But ultimately, Britains appeasement policy prevailed over all these concerns, as did the Nazi teams own resolve to push as far ahead as possible en route to their desired destination.

At the end of the year, the five Germans, with swastika flags tied to their mules and heavy baggage, entered Tibet. The swastika was a ubiquitous sign in Tibet, known locally as yungdrung. Schafer and the team would have seen plenty of it during their time in India itself, where, among Hindus, it had been for long a symbol of good fortune, visible outside homes, inside temples, at street corners and on the backs of tempos and trucks.

The Nazis had taken this symbol, sacrosanct and popular in cultures, not just across Asia but the world, and distorted it in every way, including its appearance, by turning its arms around and changing it to stark black in colour and placing it inside a white circle which, in turn, was surrounded by the stark red of the party flag.

The thirteenth Dalai Lama had died in 1933 and the new one was only three years old, so the Buddhist Tibetan kingdom was being controlled by a regent at the time. On the whole, the Germans were treated exceptionally well by the regent as well as by common Tibetans, and Beger, who made face masks, even acted as a sort of amateur doctor for locals for a while.

What the friendly and unsuspecting Tibetan Buddhists did not know was that in the perverse imagination of the Nazis, Buddhism was a religion that had weakened the Aryans who had come to Tibet and resulted in the loss of both their spirit and strength.

Just when it appeared that Schafer and the others could spend a lot more time exploring things for their real research in the guise of carrying out serious scientific investigations in areas such as zoology and anthropology, in August 1939 the German expedition was abruptly cut short by the inevitability of the conflict which began early the following month.

Beger had, by then, measured the skulls and features of 376 Tibetans, taken 2,000 photographs, made casts of the heads, faces, hands and ears of seventeen people and the finger and hand prints of another 350. He had also collected 2,000 ethnographic artefacts, and another member of the contingent had taken 18,000 metres of black and white film and 40,000 photographs.

Himmler made all the arrangements for his favoured team to fly out of Calcutta at the last moment and was himself present to greet them when their plane landed in Munich.

This is an excerpt from the book Hitler and India: The Untold Story of His Hatred for the Country and its People by Vaibhav Purandare, taken with permission from Westland Non-Fiction.
British Airways has operated its first flight using sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).

The airline said the flight from London Heathrow to Glasgow demonstrated how aviation is decarbonising.

CO2 emissions from Tuesdays flight were 62% lower than a so-called perfect flight which it operated from London to Edinburgh with as few emissions as possible in 2010.

The reduction was driven by a combination of innovations including more efficient aircraft and operations, contributing to a cut of 34 percentage points.

The flight was operated by an Airbus A320neo with a special sustainability livery.

It is the quietest and most fuel-efficient short-haul plane in British Airways fleet.

Heathrow and Glasgow airports plus air traffic control provider Nats worked to minimise the flights emissions.

The plane was directly powered by SAF blended at 35% with traditional jet fuel, provided by energy giant BP.

SAF is produced with materials other than crude oil, and produces up to 80% less carbon emissions.

It is more expensive than traditional fuel, but it is hoped technological advances will reduce costs.

The use of SAF on Tuesdays flight contributed to a 28 percentage point cut in overall CO2 emissions compared with the 2010 flight.

British Airways said the London-Glasgow flight was carbon neutral as it offset the remaining carbon emissions.

The airlines chief executive Sean Doyle said: This flight offered a practical demonstration of the progress were making in our carbon reduction journey.

By working together with our industry partners weve delivered a 62% improvement in emissions reductions compared to a decade ago.

This marks real progress in our efforts to decarbonise and shows our determination to continue innovating, working with governments and industry and accelerating the adoption of new low carbon solutions to get us closer still to the perfect flight of the future.

Last week British Airways launched a sustainability programme named BA Better World, which included a series of initiatives to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
More than 850 anti-logging protesters have been arrested in Canada since April 2021, setting a record for the countrys biggest act of civil disobedience.

The protesters are aiming to protect trees in the old-growth forest that lies within Vancouver Island. While most of the trees have been logged, the protestors want to preserve the remaining trees that are hundreds of years old.

In their fight to preserve the trees, protesters have clashed with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

The protesters, who are a part of the Rainforest Flying Squad, have used various methods to resist logging: they have locked their bodies to the road, chained themselves to logs, and stayed in the trees.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police have reportedly responded aggressively. The [police] are getting very frustrated by our tenacity because were constantly rebuilding and coming up with new ideas. People arent giving up, protester Jean-Francois Savard told The Guardian.

The police have also been criticised for covering their faces, removing name badges, and preventing the press from covering the ongoing dispute.

The protesters are also protecting the Marbled Murrelet chicks, which are endangered species that live within the old-growth trees.

Logging can also cause soil to become dry, making the land prone to wildfires.

Surrey-based Teal-Jones was granted an injunction by the BC Supreme Court on 1 April to start logging in Fairy Creek area, which is in the South Vancouver Island region.

Even as tensions escalate, the Rainforest Flying Squad has no plans to stop protesting.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police did not respond to request for comment.
Half a million homes and businesses were without power amid flooding brought about by storm Nicholas, which dumped six inches of rain on Houston, Texas, and 14 inches along the Gulf Coast.

Drone footage from Tuesday showed Surfside Beach, a town 90km (56 miles) southeast of Houston, submerged by floodwaters and dozens of homes damaged.

The town, just east of the Matagorda Peninsula, was where Nicholas made landfall early Tuesday  when it was downgraded from a Category 1 hurricane to a tropical storm.

Fierce winds were also seen early on, with the National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami recording wind speeds of 45mph as Nicholas hit Texas. The storm itself, however, is moving slowly, and toward Louisiana.

As much as (30.5 centimetres) of rain was recorded along the Gulf Coast after Nicholas made landfall, according to forecasters.

That was when more than 60 inches (152 centimetres) of rain dumped in southeast Texas over a four-day period in 2017 during Hurricane Harvey, which caused mass flooding and 68 deaths in Texas.

In Houston on Tuesday, six inches of rain was brought by Nicholas, which was less severe than in 2017 and that seen on the Texas Gulf Coast, where dozens of homes are still submerged. In total, 200,000 are without power.

Flooding after storm Nicholas, as seen by drone camera (TheWeatherChannel)

Another video showed what appeared to be a shark flying through the air of Port OConnor, Texas, but was actually a fibreglass figure of a creature called Bruce that had broken free in winds. The town was among those first hit by Nicholas.

Heavy rains are forecast for southwest Louisiana and much of Texas, which could go on for days, according to forecasters, as Nicholas stalls.

According to the National Hurricane Centre, it is moving east-northeast slowly, at 6 mph (9 kph), and had wind speeds of 35 mph (55 kph) late on Tuesday.

Footage showed houses with roofs blown off and flooding after storm Nicholas (TheWeatherChannel)

Inches of rain are forecast for areas already saturated by Hurricane Ida in recent weeks, which is likely to cause further flooding and damage for communities in Louisiana and Texas.

Additional reporting by The Associated Press.
Tropical Storm Nicholas stalled over Texas on Tuesday, tipping a deluge of water onto an area battered by Hurricane Harvey in 2017, and leaving half-a-million people without power.

Nicholas made landfall in Texas as a Category-1 hurricane in the early hours with warnings of heavy rain, high winds and dangerous tidal surge.

The storm moved slowly inland, dumping more than a foot of rain and bringing maximum winds of 40 mph south of the city of Houston.

Utility company, CenterPoint Energy, reported on Tuesday afternoon that 180,000 customers remained without power.

Galveston, Texas, saw nearly 14 inches of rain from Nicholas, while Houston reported more than 6 inches (15 centimeters) of rain. Harvey dumped more than 60 inches of rain in southeast Texas over a four-day period, the Associated Press reported.

Category-4 Hurricane Harvey devastated Texas and Louisiana in August 2017 with widespread flooding. More than 100 people died in what was one of the costliest disasters on record.

Houston emergency response officials deployed high-water rescue vehicles and barricaded more than 40 locations likely to flood, Mayor Sylvester Turner said.

This city is very resilient. We know what we need to do. We know about preparing, the mayor said.

Forecasters warned that Nicholas could bring life-threatening floods to Louisiana and parts of the Deep South in the coming days.

Nicholas made landfall early Tuesday on the Matagorda Peninsula on the southeastern Texas coast with winds of up to 75 mph (120 kph) but was soon downgraded to a tropical storm.

A number of schools closed along the Gulf due to the incoming storm. Multiple Covid-19 testing and vaccination facilities in the Houston and Corpus Christi areas were also shuttered.

Nicholas is the 14th named storm of the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season.

The climate crisis is creating conditions which are driving more powerful storms with greater rainfall.

While its unclear whether the climate crisis will mean an increased number of hurricanes in the future, scientists have long warned that increased global heating will likely make the storms that we do experience more destructive.

The ocean absorbs over 90 per cent of excess heat caused by greenhouse gas emissions  largely caused from the burning of fossil fuels  and that warm water feeds into hurricanes.

And as the planet heats up, more moisture is held in the atmosphere, meaning storms hold the potential of a lot more rainfall. Global sea level rise is compounding the danger of storm surge.

President Joe Biden declared an emergency for Louisiana on Tuesday and ordered federal assistance to supplement local response efforts, the White House said.
The climate crisis could push more than 200 million people to leave their homes in the next three decades and create migration hotspots unless urgent action is taken to reduce global emissions and bridge the development gap, a World Bank report has found.

The second part of the Groundswell report published on Monday examines how the impacts of slow-onset climate change such as water scarcity, decreasing crop productivity and rising sea levels could lead to millions of what the report describes as climate migrants by 2050 under three different scenarios with varying degrees of climate action and development.

Under the most pessimistic scenario, with a high level of emissions and unequal development, the report forecasts up to 216 million people moving within their own countries across the six regions analyzed.

Those regions are Latin America; North Africa; Sub-Saharan Africa; Eastern Europe and Central Asia; South Asia; and East Asia and the Pacific.

In the most climate-friendly scenario, with a low level of emissions and inclusive, sustainable development, the number of migrants could be as much as 80 per cent lower but still result in the move of 44 million people.

The report didnt look at the short-term impacts of climate change, such as effects on extreme weather events

The findings reaffirm the potency of climate to induce migration within countries, said Viviane Wei Chen Clement, a Senior Climate Change Specialist at the World Bank and one of the reports authors.

In the worst-case scenario, Sub-Saharan Africa  the most vulnerable region due to desertification, fragile coastlines and the population's dependence on agriculture  would see the most movement, with up to 86 million climate migrants moving within national borders.

North Africa however, is predicted to have the largest proportion of climate migrants, with 19 million people moving, equivalent to roughly 9 per cent of its total population, due mainly to increased water scarcity in the northeastern coast of Tunisia, the northwestern coast of Algeria, western and southern Morocco, and the central Atlas foothills, the report said.

In South Asia, Bangladesh is particularly affected by flooding and crop failures accounting for almost half of the predicted climate migrants, with 19.9 million people, including an increasing share of women, moving by 2050 under the pessimistic scenario.

This is our humanitarian reality right now and we are concerned this is going to be even worse, where vulnerability is more acute, said Prof. Maarten van Aalst, Director of the international Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre

The report did not look at climate migration across borders.

Globally we know that three out of four people that move stay within countries," said Dr. Kanta Kumari Rigaud, a lead environmental specialist at the World Bank and co-author of the report.

Still, migration patterns from rural to urban areas often precede movements across borders.

While climate change's influence on migration is not new, it is often part of a combination of factors pushing people to move, and acts as a threat multiplier. People affected by conflicts and inequality are also more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change as they have limited means to adapt.

The report also warns that migration hotspots could appear within the next decade and intensify by 2050. Planning is needed both in the areas where people will move to, and in the areas they leave to help those who remain.

Among the actions recommended were achieving net-zero emissions by mid-century to have a chance at limiting global warming to 1.5C and investing in development that is green, resilient, and inclusive, in line with the Paris Agreement."

Clement and Rigaud warned that the worst-case scenario is plausible if collective action to reduce emissions and invest in development isn't taken, especially in the next decade.
Beefs are usually fought out by rappers on either side of the United States, or postcode areas in cities like London. But yesterday Nicki Minaj, the tough-talking Trinidadian-born New York-raised star, renowned for her animated flow, became embroiled in a transatlantic war of words with Professor Chris Whitty, the original gangster of chief medical officers, who criticised her over an apparently anti-vax tweet, the details of which are probably best spared at this hour of the morning. The dis sparked a surreal turn of events in which Minaj sent a personal message to Boris Johnson, jokingly saying how she went to school with Margaret Thatcher before heading off to Oxford. She clearly knows the Tory Party. The episode was a bit of light relief in what was an otherwise ominous day at a Covid press conference. Ministers have been warned that without new measures to damp down Covid-19 infections, hospital admissions could soon soar beyond the peak seen at the start of 2021 to as many as 7,000 a day.

Inside the bubble

Our political commentator Andrew Grice on what to look out for today:
Six years after it was signed into existence, only one country in the entire world is currently on track to meet the demands of the 2015 Paris climate agreement.

That country is the Gambia in west Africa, which also happens to be the continents smallest mainland country.

According to research compiled by Climate Action Tracker (Cat), the Gambia is the only one where official government action, alongside its internationally supported targets, are compatible with keeping global average temperature rises below 1.5C since the pre-industrial era.
The prime minister is probably unequalled in the democratic world (leaving aside the more sycophantic dictatorships) in the number of things named after him. Boris buses, various Boris bridges, Boris Island (a putative airport in the Thames estuary that never, erm, got off the ground) some have had more going for them than others, and some havent really existed outside Boris Johnsons imagination. The latest casualty is the Boris Tunnel, a plan to connect Northern Ireland (and the island of Ireland) with Scotland, between Belfast and Stranraer, roughly following the present short ferry route.

The scheme was, so far as can be judged, to stimulate trade across the British Isles, of particular use post-Brexit, and to create a land link to better cement Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom. Ambitious and visionary as it may have been, the scheme did not commend itself to the prime ministers (now former) senior adviser, Dominic Cummings, who called it the worlds most stupid tunnel. Even at this distance, one can almost sense the sadness in the prime minister's eyes as he read his Svengalis verdict on his brainchild. More to the point, the chancellor of the exchequer, Rishi Sunak, a man who was supposed to have been Mr Johnsons obedient chief bank clerk, a sort of human overdraft for his madder ideas, has axed the bridge scheme. The Treasury has thus saved a handy 15bn, a modest contribution to putting the public finances back on track. Mr Sunaks sultans of swing have ensured that the headlines made clear that it was he who euthanised the prime ministers latest pet project.
After a break of nearly two months, the Duchess of Cambridge was back in the spotlight today with a visit to RAF Brize Norton

Kate took a solo trip to the Oxfordshire base to meet service personnel who helped with the evacuation of thousands of people from Afghanistan last month.

(Steve Parsons/PA) (PA Wire)

The mum of three chose an understated but fashionable outfit for the occasion, teaming a Reiss beige double-breasted blazer with a simple white top and navy blue trousers.

She accessorised her ensemble with a matching beige mini handbag from British leather goods brand Tusting, a navy belt and navy suede heels.

(Frank Augstein/AP)

Relaxed tailoring is a major trend right now and with her slightly oversized jacket and wide-leg trousers Kate nailed the look.

For years, if the 39-year-old was seen in trousers they were usually skinny jeans, but recently shes ditched the skinnies in favour of on-trend straight leg styles  and judging by the comments, online fans approve of the fashion-forward look.

I cant cope with how cute The Duchess of Cambridge is! wrote Twitter user Kayla Adams. I said I wanted a blazer moment and she delivered!

My girl is back looking all fresh and elegant, commented another user.

(Steve Parsons/PA) (PA Wire)

Want to steal Kates style? The Reiss Larsson Double Breasted Twill Blazer, 285 is still available in a couple of sizes, while the Tusting Mini Holly bag, 295, is in stock in Taupe Atlantic and five other shades.
SpaceXs Inspiration4 mission will launch later today, putting the all-civilian space crew into orbit.

A team of four astronauts  including a teacher, a cancer survivor, a raffle winner, and an internet entrepreneur - will leave Kennedy Space Center in a SpaceX Dragon capsule on top of a Falcon 9 rocket.

They will journey upwards to a maximum of 600 kilometres from Earth, and then descend into the Atlantic Ocean after three days.

It is difficult to know when the Inspiration4 will be visible until it launches, but experts say it is likely it will be visible. SpaceX has said that the journey will continually eclipse more than 90 per cent of the Earths population.

Its large size, and white, reflective colour, as well as its 590-kilometre apogee low-Earth orbit means that in principle it will be bright enough to see, President of the Federation of Astronomical Societies Dr. Paul Daniels told The Independent.

The three-day flight of the craft means approximately 45 orbits of the Earth  one every 90 minutes  and as such there is a good chance it will pass over the UK at some point.

Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Centre for Astrophysics, agrees that it will certainly [be] bright enough but without orbital data its difficult to say which content it will be over, and at what time of night it will be visible - but it would be naked eye bright if it goes over you at night while it is in view of the sun.

It will not be easy to spot as other bodies though; while it will only be a few hundred kilometres higher than the International Space Station, a common bright sight in the night sky, Inspiration4s small size will make it a much harder target to spot once in orbit, Greg Brown, an astronomer at Royal Observatory Greenwich, told The Independent.

Once the craft is in the air, the craft will be much easier to track through websites such as Celestrak, Heavens-above, or N2YO  and special equipment is likely not to be needed.

Itll almost certainly be naked eye brightness, Dr Daniels said. Binoculars can be used but wont have a high enough magnification to see any details, and telescopes could be used but the much higher magnification and smaller field-of-view will make it harder to track.
Sonos has launched the second generation of its Beam soundbar, adding Dolby Atmos and a new design.

The first version of the Beam was released in 2018, and aimed to offer the features of Sonoss home theatre system  streaming music over the internet, alongside being plugged into the TV  in a smaller package and at a relatively smaller price.

Now it has updated the soundbar with better sound, while keeping its small size. It was able to do so with a range of changes to the processor that powers the soundbar, it said.

The inclusion of Dolby Atmos means that the speaker can play sound that is intended to give a sense of real space, by sending sounds over a viewers head or around the side, for instance, in a more developed way than with more traditional surround sound.

The new Beam costs 449  compared with 399 for the old model, which will be discontinued  and will go on sale from 5 October.

From the outside, the new Beam looks largely similar, although it does have an updated grille on the front which the company says is easier to clean. The majority of the changes are however on the inside.

The internal changes  and those to the sound  are the result of a faster processor that is inside the Beam, and allows it to better co-ordinate the playback across the speakers inside the Beam. While it still has a relatively limited number of actual speakers due to its size, Sonos said it was able to overcome that using psychoacoustic techniques that allow it to give the sense that sound is coming from overhead, for instance.

At the same time as announcing the new version of the Beam, which it refers to as Gen 2, Sonos said that it would be adding new audio formats to its platform. They will include Dolby Atmos Music and Ultra HD through Amazon Music, as well as support for DTS Digital Surround Sound.

The latter format has long been unavailable on Sonos, much to the frustration of some of its users. While the company argued that it tended to focus on streaming television  and DTS Digital is used primarily with Blu-rays  it has now relented and it will arrive later this year.

Since Sonos released the first version of the Beam, it has also launched the Arc  a much larger soundbar with more speakers, and the first to include Atmos. That is much more expensive as well as being physically bigger, and is intended for larger rooms or more premium setups, Sonos said.
A Super Bowl ad is offering something a little more out of this world than the usual snacks, drinks and cars: a trip into space.

The ad, for the Inspiration4 mission, highlights a raffle in which the winner will get a chance to travel on top of a SpaceX rocket.

It is part of a mission funded by billionaire Jared Isaacman, who has commissioned the first ever entirely commercial journey into space.

Mr Isaacman will also pay for the seats of the three other people who will join him on his journey. One will be a customer of his company Shift4 Payments, another will be a healthcare worker from St Jude Children's Research Hospital who has already been selected  and the last will be the winner of the raffle, the proceeds from which will go to St Jude too.

The Super Bowl ad is titled 'Join Us' is intended to introduce the Inspiration4 mission to the public.

It is directed by Bryce Dallas Howard, with those behind the mission noting that she has been fascinated by space since childhood, has directed episodes of The Mandalorian and is the daugher of Apollo 13 director Ron Howard. It also features a version of 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star' by Celeste, and a voice over by Octavia Spencer.

The Inspiration4 mission gives us a historic opportunity to not only explore space but assemble a crew that represents the best of humankinds ideals, said Mr Isaacman in a statement about the new ad.

Its our intention to build a crew that reflects humanity and the diversity inherent in our society while giving back to those who need it. I want to use this moment to bring humanity together and remind people that inspiring ourselves and each other can change the course of our future.

The ad is intended to encourage people to join in as part of that raffle. It actually gives people the chance to join two ways: the Generosity or Prosperity seat, either by donating or signing up as a customer of Mr Isaacman's new "Shift4Shop" product.

The Generosity seat is likely to be the simplest to get involved in. All people have to do is donate at least $10 to the research hospital  which can be done from the website  though entrants can donate as much as they want, and donating more will get more "tickets" and therefore a higher chance of winning.

The other, Prosperity, seat will go to someone who signs up to use the Shift4Shop service and posts "an inspirational business story on Twitter".

Beyond doing one of those two things, the conditions on joining are relatively simple. Entrants are told that the winner of the seat "must be physically & psychologically fit for training and spaceflight, and must meet the requirements to be admitted into related government facilities".

Anyone interested in trying to win a space on board the mission is asked to visit Inspiration4's website, which includes further instructions and rules for both seats.
Halle Berry has spoken candidly about preconceived notions about her appearance, with the actor explaining that it is often assumed shes been spared any hardship.

The 55-year-old, who is promoting the upcoming film Bruised, which she directed, reflected on her experiences, and the realities of life despite her physical beauty, during an interview with The New York Times.

This is another battle I fought my whole life. That because I look a certain way that Ive been spared any hardship. Ive had loss and pain and a lot of hurt in my life. Ive had abuse in my life, Berry said. I get really frustrated when people think because I look a certain way that I havent had any of those real-life experiences because I absolutely have.

This hasnt spared me one heartbreak or heartache or fearful or tearful moment, trust me, she added.

Berry, who has worked with organisations dedicated to preventing and intervening in domestic violence for more than 15 years, has previously spoken about being abused, with the actor telling People in 1996 that she was attacked by a former boyfriend.

In 2015, while speaking at an event for the Jenesse Center, a national domestic violence prevention and intervention organisation, Berry also acknowledged that she has an an understanding, a knowing that connects her to the nonprofit.

Elsewhere in the interview with The New York Times, the Catwoman actor, who is directing for the first time, said that the opportunity has made her feel powerful.

I feel powerful just because I get to do it and put my voice in the world in some way, and my sensibilities as a Black woman out there, she said of the film, in which she also stars as a disgraced mixed martial arts fighter who reconnects with her son.

Berry also noted that directing allows her to tell the story from her point of view, with the actor explaining that the world portrayed in the film is one she knows.

We havent seen an African American woman in this way in a movie, she said. Im from Cleveland, Ohio. I am salt of the earth, its a world I know and is intrinsic to who I am. If Im going to get to tell a story, Im going to make it from a point of view that I know. I thought that was a very good way for me to start.
Kendall Jenner has revealed that she and her tequila brand are donating back to the community of Jalisco after she sparked accusations of cultural appropriation when she first launched the spirits brand.

The criticism over the Keeping Up With The Kardashians stars tequila brand began in February shortly after Jenner announced the launch of the alcohol, with many accusing her at the time of exploiting Mexican culture and profiting off an agricultural industry that is integral to the Mexican economy.

Most tequilas, including Jenners, come from Jalisco, Mexico, where the spirit is made through a time-intensive process that sees farmers harvesting agave plants, which take up to eight years to mature.

The supermodel then faced additional criticism over the press campaign that coincided with the launch of the tequila, which featured Jenner, dressed in jeans, braids, and an oversized shirt with a cowboy hat slung around her neck as she led a horse, posing in an agave field in Mexico.

The supermodel also included photos of actual tequila farmers in her Instagram album, which has since been deleted, as well as a video of herself watching a farmer engage in the time-intensive process of distilling tequila from a distance.

Is Kendall Jenner really wearing braids and pretending to be a farm worker while colonising tequila? Its a no for me, one person tweeted at the time.

Following the criticism, Jenner has now revealed that she, through her tequila company, has launched a new initiative to support the community of Jalisco.

Appearing on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, the 25-year-old said: We actually, at our distillery, which I was just at the other day, we found a way to take the agave waste, the agave fibres and the water waste, and build this sustainable brick that we are actually donating back to the community of Jalisco.

According to Jenner, the sustainable bricks will then be used to build homes for people that need homes, with the reality star noting that they have already been used in the construction of a half-built hospital.

During the interview, the model also said that one of the reasons she decided to launch 818 Tequila was because many of the other tequila brands on the market were not as friendly to the planet as they could possibly be.

So I took that upon myself to make that a really big part of us as a brand, she continued, explaining that the spirits company has partnered with international organisation One Per cent for the Planet to donate one per cent of their revenue to planet-saving initiatives.

Along with saving the planet, its important to us to be friendly to the community as well, Jenner added.

Apart from her desire to craft a spirits brand that prioritises the planet, Jenner told Fallon that she chose tequila specifically because it is the preferred alcohol of her and her friends, and because she realised that tequila production is a male-dominated space.

According to Jenner, growing up in a really strong female family drove her even harder into the space and made her really excited about the venture.

While Jenner has not specifically addressed the accusations of cultural appropriation, she disabled comments on her Instagram shortly after launching her tequila campaign in May, before ultimately deleting the photos and videos.
This summer, a very public display of affection (PDA) between Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck confirmed the news that everyone had been hoping for; that almost 19 years after their first relationship, the couple  or Bennifer as they were affectionately known by fans  was back together.

The rumours started back in May after Affleck was spotted wearing the same watch Lopez gifted him in 2002 when he starred in the music video for her hit single Jenny From The Block. Fans went wild for the prospect of a reunion, and this week, they gave their reignited relationship the ultimate seal of commitment in the celebrity world, by walking the red carpet together.

Arriving at the screening of The Last Duel at the Venice Film Festival, they posed side by side before kissing for the cameras. Photographs of the pair, either engaged in a smooch or gazing lovingly into one anothers eyes quickly went viral. Then, as if the internet wasnt already obsessed enough, they engaged in the most 2021 PDA of all time: kissing through their face masks at the Met Gala.

Bennifer isnt the only couple making headlines with their out-there lip locking. More than a year after confirming their relationship in July 2020, Megan Fox and Machine Gun Kelly have looked loved up as ever at various celebrity events. After Kourtney Kardashian and Travis Barker made their relationship red-carpet official by touching tongues in front of the cameras at Sundays MTV 2021 Video Music Awards, Kelly and Fox joined them in the mens bathroom to reenact the same pose for a couples shot. The PDA bug has even bitten the usually low-key Avril Lavigne, who was also spotted kissing her partner Mod Sun on the red carpet for the first time at the awards show.

Simone Bose, a counsellor at Relate, says PDA is mostly a healthy thing to engage in with a partner because it keeps you connected to each other whilst around other people. It also has a calming effect, she says, because it reduces the bodys primary stress hormone, cortisol, and increases oxytocin, also dubbed the love hormone. But it can also be less about how each person in the relationship feels about the other, and more about how their relationship appears to the outside world. It has a sense of showing you are a unit. Some people need public validation. They need to have their partner show that they are proud to be with them and vice versa, Bose says.

They are trying to say that theyre wildly in love, that theyre having an amazing time and that they are proud of their relationship Simone Bose, Relate

For us laypeople, the gap between our private lives and public lives is much smaller, and much of what we do in public goes unnoticed and undocumented, so engaging in PDA is a much more unremarkable behaviour that isnt given much of a second thought. But for celebrities who are constantly scrutinised, displaying affection becomes another part of an image management tactic, Dr Madeleine Mason Roantree, a relationship psychologist at The Vida Consultancy says.

This is heightened on a red carpet when celebrities know they will be photographed and seen by millions across the world. For celebrities, its more of a statement, and its thought out as a performance, Bose says. They are trying to say that theyre wildly in love, that theyre having an amazing time and that they are proud of their relationship, she adds.

(Getty Images)

While celebrity PDA is hardly a new phenomenon, nor are red carpet relationship debuts, social media culture and restrictions on social interactions imposed during the coronavirus pandemic have certainly changed the way celebrities are publicising their relationships.

As the pandemic brought a standstill to many celebrity events, notable red carpet soirees like the Cannes Film Festival and Met Gala were cancelled in 2020, while the 72nd Emmy Awards took place virtually. And, without an upcoming red carpet event to announce new relationships via the press, many turned to social media.

The divide between public and private life has become more porous amongst more celebrities Dr Madeleine Mason Roantree, The Vida Consultancy

Fox and Kelly confirmed their romance by getting matching manicures, while Travis went as far as to get Kourtneys name tattooed on himself. Kelly and Fox even faced backlash last week after she hinted that the couple had sex on a dining table in an Airbnb in a post on Instagram. The actor shared a photograph of herself leaning back against a large table, with the caption: When I tell you that the table at this Airbnb saw some things. All but confirming what she was alluding to, Kelly commented: Im really glad thats not our table anymore.

Roantree says that this willingness to share so much of their relationships could suggest that the divide between public and private life has become more porous amongst more celebrities during the pandemic. Many couples have spent so much time together in lockdown that they were able to be more physically affectionate, so perhaps their social boundaries when it comes to public displays of affection are blurred, she says.

Bose says the sudden increase in displays of affection between many celebrity couples now that real life events are back on the table, could simply be to show off a new relationship that they werent able to during lockdown. Take Ben Affleck and J-Lo, thats planned in some way. Why is it that we are always seeing them kissing? They want to establish themselves as a couple because as we know, couples can be quite powerful together in Hollywood, she says.

Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck kiss at Venice Film Festival (Matt Baron/Shutterstock)

Arguably, one reason celebrity couples may be engaging in so much PDA as of late is the positive response from the public. A possible Bennifer reunion was the subject of headlines for weeks before pictures of them kissing sent the internet into a complete frenzy. The buzz around the couple could be credited to the publics penchant for a rom-com-esque storyline of an old love reignited, or because good news during a pandemic has been hard to come by. As one Twitter user admitted: Yes I am obsessed with Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopezs reunion. Joy is hard to come by these days alright. I take it where I can get it. And, with celebrities more than familiar with trolling and cancellation  we can hardly blame them for taking the good when it comes.

As the response to that video of Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain at the Venice Film Festival suggests, people simply love love, and celebrities know it. Isaac and Chastain, who are co-stars of a new drama series, Scenes Of A Marriage, put on an affectionate display on the red carpet, with Isaac stroking her arm before gently kissing it. God bless the person who decided to slo-mo this video of Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain in Venice, one person tweeted. The tender arm stroke, eyebrow raise they are giving us the red carpet chemistry that we didnt even realise we needed.

Chastain and Isaac are both married to other people  Isaac to Danish film director Elvira Lind since 2017 (who was present at the festival and watching the actors from the side), and Chastain, to an executive at fashion brand Moncler. Their display, therefore, appeared as the affection of a platonic friendship  and what can be more pure than that?

As the relationship experts suggest, this sudden influx in public displays of affection between celebrities  whether platonic or not  could be the result of a pandemic that gave them enough time away from the media that the lines between their private and public lives became somewhat blurred. Or perhaps the greater autonomy over the narrative of their lives, afforded to them by social media, has inspired Hollywoods stars to take back control of how their relationships are perceived by the public.

Or, as Id love to believe, theres a much simpler explanation: that even Hollywood stars arent above the desire for closeness to one another that we yearned for more than ever during the pandemic. After more than 18 months of social restrictions, maybe theres just more love to go around.
Members of the royal family have sent well wishes to Prince Harry on his birthday.

The Duke of Sussex, who lives in California with his wife, Meghan Markle, and their two children, Archie and Lilibet, turns 37 today.

In a message posted to Twitter, the Royal Family said: Wishing The Duke of Sussex a happy birthday today!

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge posted a separate message, alongside a picture of Harry smiling. Happy birthday Prince Harry! the couple said.

Prince Charles and his wife, the Duchess of Cornwall, also sent well wishes to his youngest son on Twitter.

Wishing The Duke of Sussex a very Happy Birthday today! the couple wrote.

Charles also included a picture of himself and Harry as a young boy from a tour of South Africa in 1997.

While it has become custom for members of the royal family to mark their birthdays with a charitable initiative or donation, Harry has yet to announce how he will celebrate his 37th milestone.

On his 36th birthday, he chose to support CAMFED, a charity that promotes girls education in Africa.

Last year, CAMFED announced that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex had donated $130,000 to the cause, matching donations that the charity had collected in a day.

No better way to celebrate what really matters. Thank you to everyone who donated, the couple said in a message posted to CAMFEDs Twitter.

As Meghan turned 40 in August, she launched a new initiative that aims to help women who suffered job losses during the pandemic return to work.

The project, named 40x40, encourages people from around the world to donate 40 minutes of their time to help women get back into work.

Because Im turning 40 Im asking 40 friends to donate 40 minutes of their time to help mentor a woman who is mobilising back into the workforce, the duchess said in a video at the time.

Over 2 million in the US alone and tens of millions around the world have lost their jobs due to Covid, and I think if we all do it and all commit 40 minutes to some sort of act of service we can create a ripple effect, she said.

Earlier this month, Prince Harry made a surprise virtual appearance at the 24th British GQ Men of the Year Awards to honour Professor Dame Sarah Gilbert and other Oxford University staff who developed the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine.

Their breakthrough research on the Oxford Vaccine has brought the world one of our greatest tools for achieving vaccine equity, he said, awarding them the title of GQs Heroes Of The Year.

They are heroes of the highest order who gave us an instrument to fight this disease. They are our nations pride, and we are deeply indebted to their service, he said.
Read about telecommunications these days, and youll find no shortage of predictions of the amazing things communication service providers (CSPs) can do with network transformation. Smart factories, remote surgery, drone-based delivery, a metaverse of augmented reality (AR) experiences the list goes on. All these innovations, and many others, are legitimate possibilities. And the business models they represent are very much in play for operators building new cloud, edge and 5G capabilities into their networks.

At the same time, the sci-fi future these use-cases represent tells just one side of the story. You dont have to live on the cutting edge to benefit from modern telco cloud innovations. In fact, plenty of service providers use these tools to deliver solutions that might not show up on Star Trek, but that drive tremendous value for CSPs and their customers today.

Lets explore the transformation journeys of two CSPs: Airtel Africa and KDDI. I sat down recently with these service providers, which operate in very different markets, serving different types of customers. And while their goals and strategies couldnt be more different, both report major benefits from network transformation.

KDDI  building new experiences with 5G edge innovation

If you want examples of the more cutting-edge possibilities of network transformation, look no further than KDDI, one of Japans premier mobile operators. KDDI leads the pack in telco cloud and edge innovation, and should be among the first places we look to when contemplating possibilities for 5G.

The broader telecom industry has been talking about digital transformation for years; KDDI has actually done it. It has adopted agile software methodologies and DevOps to quickly develop, test and bring to market new services on its cloud-based network platform. In fact, KDDI has become so expert in agile software that it now offers services to help with customers own digital transformations.

Building on new edge investments, KDDI also now offers a public cloud-connected edge compute service for enterprise customers. And it has launched multiple proof-of-concepts to show what enterprises can do with edge cloud capabilities, including some of the most advanced AR applications youll find deployed.

KDDI has shown even greater leadership, however, in advancing 5G innovation. KDDI leaders dont claim to know exactly what the future holds for 5G or which use-cases will prove most valuable. But rather than using that as an excuse for stagnation, KDDI is working directly with third-party innovators and customers to find out. The company has established the 5G Business Co-Creation Alliance, complete with a 5G co-innovation lab. KDDI invites technology partners creating new 5G applications, and enterprises interested in using them, to work together to develop new ideas using their 5G and edge infrastructure. When those ideas prove successful, KDDI and its partners can jointly bring them to market as new service offerings. For example, one joint effort is now a live service that one enterprise customer uses to control automatic guided vehicles (AGVs) on its factory floors, over public 5G networks.

Airtel Africa: overcoming market challenges with edge cloud transformation

KDDI is blazing an exciting trail in telco innovation, but its path is far from the only one. Consider an operator working with a very different set of circumstances: Airtel Africa.

Airtel Africa stands at a different place in its network transformation journey. Its customers have less interest in exploring new 5G possibilities  and indeed, Airtel Africas 5G plans are still several years out. African enterprise and consumer customers care very much, however, about getting reliable, always-on data services everywhere they need them. Given the unique challenges of the African continent  vast distances to cover, extreme geographic and weather variation, lack of power grid availability in many places  delivering that is no simple task. At the same time, those challenges create opportunities to use new telco cloud and virtualisation technologies in innovative ways.

In many African markets, mobile handsets serve as the primary gateway for consumers to access the digital world. As a result, Africa has become a natural testbed for mobile-first innovations, such as mobile money, which is more advanced there than in most European markets. African enterprises are also hungry for new options for secure, reliable data connectivity  especially in mining, where companies operate billion-dollar operations in hard-to-reach locations far from traditional IT infrastructure.

Airtel Africa aims to lead the market in meeting these needs, and others, with new cloud and virtualised data centre capabilities that its building at the network edge. These network enhancements enable Airtel Africa to position content close to consumers to provide a better digital experience, while delivering highly available data services to enterprises. Airtel Africa can scale edge services up and down with demand, while managing its multinational footprint from a centralised operations centre. And, as the edge cloud infrastructure grows, Airtel Africa can use new edge computing capabilities to offer fully-featured IT services to mining sites and other remote enterprise locations.

All of these advances draw on modern telco cloud and virtualisation technologies, which help Airtel Africa overcome the unique challenges of its market. The ability to virtualise core network functions, for example, means it can extend reliable network coverage and new digital capabilities to more places, quicker, and inexpensively. This is critical, as it would be enormously costly to deploy and maintain specialised hardware in many parts of the market, if its even possible at all.

Airtel Africa also uses extensive network automation  including sophisticated AI- and machine learning-driven self-healing capabilities  to fix network issues that previously took hours in minutes. In other markets, that level of automation might be a useful cost-saving exercise. For Airtel Africa, which struggles to hire skilled engineering personnel, its a fundamental requirement for meeting customer needs.

Where will your network transformation take you?

KDDI and Airtel Africa are clearly following very different paths on their transformation journeys. So which approach is best? Both are, because the right network transformation strategy is the one that solves your unique business problems and benefits your customers.

Thats the great thing about embracing cloud, edge and overall network transformation. Whatever your business strategy, you now have a versatile platform to execute it quicker, reliably, and at a lower cost. And, unlike yesterdays networks, this platform is built to continually change and evolve. So, no matter where youre starting your transformation journey, you can continually build on your investments to bring new possibilities to your customers.

For more information please click here

Originally published on Business Reporter
Caribe Dorvil wakes up at 3 a.m. each day to prepare food to sell in a small street market with dozens of other Haitian migrants in this southern Mexican city.

Unable to find other work because they still lack legal status, Dorvil and Haitian migrants sell meals, soft drinks, clothing and offer services such as haircuts, manicures and tailoring under umbrellas in the street market.

Dorvil has requested asylum in Mexico, but the agency processing such requests is deeply backed up and has not had enough resources to deal with the exponential growth in asylum claims in recent years.

A couple years ago, migrants such as Dorvil might have quickly passed through Tapachula, historically a stop on one of the main migrant routes north. But more recently it has become a Kafkaesque quagmire of bureaucracy without exit for thousands.

The growing frustration led hundreds of migrants to walk out of Tapachula this month and attempt to travel north. Mexican authorities stopped them each time, sometimes violently. Another attempted caravan has been rumored for this week.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump threatened Mexico with tariffs if it did not slow the flow of migrants to the U.S. border. Mexico responded by deploying its National Guard and more immigration agents to try to contain migrants in the south.

Facing daily images of Mexican authorities clashing with migrants, many travelling as families, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has showed his own frustration with the containment strategy and said it was not sustainable.

On a recent morning, Dorvil prepared spaghetti with chicken and a small side salad, which she sold for about $2 in the market. Her usual 10-hour workday typically earns her $5 to $10.

That covers her rent  an apartment south of Tapachula she shares with nine other migrants  and just enough food to keep her going.

You cant work (here), there are no papers, there is nothing, Dorvil said. You have to sell to pay rent, to eat. The government doesnt help anyone.

Dorvil arrived in Mexico early this year. Like many of the Haitian migrants, she had lived in Chile for years after leaving her own country, but set out when the economy stalled there during the pandemic.

She thought things would be better in Mexico, but now says it is worse. Her husband and their two children remain in Chile, but have been thinking of joining her in Mexico, which is why she has not joined any of the groups trying to leave Tapachula.

Dorvil has an initial appointment scheduled for her asylum request in mid-November. But the system is overwhelmed with applications and its not unusual for someone to wait a year for their case to be processed.

The system was already behind and the pandemic slowed things even more. So far this year, more than 77,000 people have applied for protected status in Mexico, 55,000 of those in Tapachula. Haitians account for about 19,000 of those applicants.

Some in the Mexican government have proposed giving Haitians  the second largest migrant group behind Hondurans  an option that would let them seek work outside the state of Chiapas, where Tapachula is located. But opposition remains.

Activist Luis Villagran of the Center for Human Dignity estimates there could be as many as 100,000 migrants stuck in Tapachula, nearly one for every three of the citys residents. They are visible all over the city, though other groups estimate half that number.

Even for those who succeed in getting some legal status, Tapachula can seem inescapable.

Another Haitian migrant, who declined to give his name to avoid repercussions, showed a humanitarian visa he had obtained in Tapachula. With that in hand, he travelled north to the state of Tamaulipas, which borders Texas But there a Mexican immigration agent stopped him and told him it was not valid. He was sent back to Tapachula.

Ive had this (visa) for a year and they sent me back here, I dont know why, he said during a recent protest against Mexicos immigration and asylum agencies to demand that migrants be allowed to travel freely.

Enrique Vidal, coordinator for Fray Matias de Cordoba Human Rights Center in Tapachula, said the policy of containment and the militarization of that policy has collapsed the immigration system.

We have seen in recent days these massive mobilizations trying to leave Tapachula, Vidal said. They are all people who have started some process with Mexican authorities and it is the Mexican authorities who have not followed through in guaranteeing a respectful and timely access for the people.
Anti-vax groups are circulating a letter threatening headteachers with legal action if children are given Covid jabs at school without parental consent.

Lawyers for Liberty, a campaign group, has offered to send letters to headteachers stating the legal risks of this policy at the request of parents.

Meanwhile, anti-vaxxers are continuing to plan meet-ups around schools to target young people after Covid jabs for 12- to 15-year-olds were given the green light by officials.

The government has said teenagers will have the power to overrule parents who do not give consent and get jabbed for Covid.

A letter threatening headteachers with legal action if they do not take parental consent into account has been circulated around anti-vax groups on messaging site Telegram, with members urging others to send it to schools.

Everyone needs to do this, one post in channel Outreach WorldWide said.

On its website, Lawyers for Liberty appealed to parents whose childs school is promoting Covid-19 vaccination for children aged 12 years and over and are concerned their child could be jabbed without their consent while at school.

Lawyers for Liberty can send a formal email to the headteacher advising them of the legal risks of their policy, the group said.

Their letter says: If a parent communicates to you that their child is not to be included in the vaccination programme or does not provide consent, then that decision must be respected, without any further consequences for the child, including direct or indirect discrimination or coercion.

It adds: Failure to do so may result in possible legal claims against you personally and for your school.

Nadhim Zahawi, who spoke on Tuesday while still in position as vaccines minister, said that a doctor or nurse would try to intervene when there was a difference of opinion regarding Covid vaccination between a child and their parent.

If a parent still did not consent to their child being vaccinated after this discussion, the teenager  if deemed competent  would be allowed to go ahead with getting a Covid jab.

A schools union said this week that many of its members had received letters threatening schools and colleges with legal action if they take part in any Covid vaccination programme.

Geoff Barton from the Association for School and College Leaders said: This is extremely unhelpful and we would ask those involved in this correspondence to stop attempting to exert pressure on schools and colleges.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said it is aware some schools have been receiving campaign letters and emails with misinformation about the vaccine programme, after ministers confirmed children aged 12 to 15 will be able to get a first jab from next week.

It has suggested headteachers who believe protests could be held outside their school over participation in the Covid vaccination programme should contact police to help manage the situation.

Anti-vax channels on Telegram are continuing to organise meet-ups near schools this week.

Local branches of the group Outreach Worldwide are planning on hanging around schools in the afternoon to catch children on their way home.

The North London Central group said leaflets would be provided at their meet-up in the vicinity of local schools.

We will be focussing on education and empowering teens and encouraging resistance, a post in their channel said.

Meanwhile, media non-profit organisation the Citizens has discovered a member of the Telegram chat group Rebels at Vax Centres emphasising the need for more extreme action in future.

Using the name Tim Covid Warrior, he posted that it is now time for people to get organised into well drilled armies to take the government down.

In further paragraphs he detailed that this would involve vaccination squads entering and smashing up vaccine centres, a mass assault against police and taking over government/council and mainstream media buildings.

According to Tim Covid Warrior, people could swarm police to prevent arrests being made and should also begin a campaign of harassment against doctors and other medical professionals.

His plan for schools went one step further and advised members to protest constantly outside the homes of teachers who promote the vaccine.

Children will be able to get their first Covid-19 vaccination from next week.

The UKs four chief medical officers (CMOs) recommended all children aged 12 to 15 should be offered a single dose of the Pfizer vaccine.

Professor Chris Whitty and his counterparts said vaccinating this age group will help to reduce the spread of Covid in schools and the risk of disruption to education.

This story was published in collaboration with media non-profit organisation the Citizens

Additional reporting by Press Association
Four former Minneapolis police officers charged with violating George Floyd s civil rights are scheduled to be arraigned in federal court Tuesday at a hearing that could also address some pretrial motions.

A federal grand jury indicted Derek Chauvin Thomas Lane J. Kueng and Tou Thao in May for allegedly depriving Floyd of his rights while acting under government authority on May 25, 2020, as Floyd, 46, was held face-down, handcuffed and not resisting in a restraint that was captured on bystander video. His death led to worldwide protests and calls for change in policing.

At federal arraignment hearings, defendants can have the charges read to them, and not guilty pleas are typically entered. The parties were to appear at Tuesday's hearing via videoconference.

Prosecutors and attorneys for the former officers could also argue several motions on Tuesday.

Among them, Kueng and Thao have asked that their federal trials be separated from Chauvins, saying they would be unfairly prejudiced if they went to trial alongside him. Lane asked to join that request, which is being opposed by prosecutors. It wasnt immediately clear if that issue will come up at Tuesdays hearing, because both sides have agreed the request was premature and have asked to set it aside until more information develops, according to court documents.

The federal indictment alleges Chauvin violated Floyds right to be free from unreasonable seizure and unreasonable force by a police officer. Thao and Kueng are charged with violating Floyds right to be free from unreasonable seizure by not intervening to stop Chauvin as he knelt on Floyds neck. All four officers are also charged with depriving Floyd of his rights when they failed to provide him with medical care.

During Floyd's arrest, he repeatedly said he couldnt breathe as Chauvin pinned him to the ground. Kueng and Lane helped restrain Floyd; Kueng knelt on Floyds back, and Lane held Floyds legs, according to evidence in state court. Thao held back bystanders and kept them from intervening during the 9 1/2-minute restraint.

The four officers were also charged in state court, where Chauvins trial was eventually separated from the others due to space restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Chauvin was convicted in April of murder and manslaughter and was sentenced to 22 1/2 years in prison. The other three former officers face state trial next March on aiding and abetting counts.

Chauvin is also charged in a separate federal indictment alleging he violated the civil rights of a 14-year-old boy in 2017.

Meanwhile, the federal government is investigating policing practices in Minneapolis. The investigation known as a pattern or practice  examining whether there is a pattern or practice of unconstitutional or unlawful policing  includes a sweeping review of the entire police department. It may result in major changes to policing in the Minnesota city.

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Find APs full coverage of the death of George Floyd at: https://apnews.com/hub/death-of-george-floyd
An F-16 screeched across the sky then landed on a highway surrounded by pineapple fields in southwestern Taiwan to quickly refuel before taking off again.

Four military aircraft, including Taiwan's self-made Indigenous Defensive Fighter, the U.S.-made F-16V and the French-made Mirage 2000-5, landed in Jiadong  simulating what they would do if their air base were damaged by enemy forces.

The simulation is part of Taiwan's five-day Han Guang military exercise designed to prepare the island's forces for an attack by China which claims Taiwan as part of its own territory. The annual exercise was smaller this year due to COVID-19 restrictions.

In the last two years, the threat from China has risen, as the People's Liberation Army flies fighter jets towards Taiwan on a near-daily basis in an effort to intimidate and harass the island's air forces.

In August, Chinese fighter jets, anti-submarine aircraft and combat ships conducted joint assault drills near Taiwan with China saying the exercise was necessary to safeguard its sovereignty.

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Wu reported from Taipei
Police have reportedly ruled out suggestions to dig up land at a farm in Berkeley, where as many as 20 more victims of Fred and Rose West are believed to have been buried.

A documentary to be aired by ITV next week claims that there is evidence that the sadistic serial killers and child abusers murdered more young women and girls than originally thought.

The couple are known to killed 12 people between 1967 and 1987 for which they were charged in 1994.

However, the documentary team, led by former DCI Colin Sutton and presenter Sir Trevor McDonald, believe there are up to 20 more victims whose bodies are yet to be discovered at three sites  two in Herefordshire and one in Gloucestershire.

At one site, a farm on the outskirts of Berkeley in Gloucestershire, a dozen more bodies are believed to be buried.

Multiple sources, who had been in contact with the Wests in the 1990s, had told the investigators that more bodies could have been hidden on the farm.

Janet Leach, a social worker who was Fred Wests appropriate adult during police questioning, said that he had told her there were many more bodies of young women and girls from Herefordshire buried at the farm.

She said, as the Daily Mail reported: Fred told me there were another 20 bodies to be found after the 12, some in fields, the rest in the barn.

Fred said some of the victims bones were missing because it was a ritual thing and they did something with the fingers so there was no way of finding out who they were.

A pair of Wests former employers, Wendy and Derek Thomson, claim that he had told them he had done something in Berkeley.

The programme claims, after a seven-month-long probe, that potential burial sites have been uncovered using ground penetrating radar and dogs trained to detect human remains.

Sir Trevor has urged police to investigate and excavate the site, saying that there is still much more to the murderous campaign of Fred and Rose West.

It comes after police spent at least 55,000 to excavate land at a cafe in Gloucestershire in May.

Fred West is thought to have killed teenager Mary Bastholm in 1968 and hid her body at the Clean Plate Cafe, originally named Oasis Cafe, in Gloucester. But the investigation that involved digging the cellar found no trace of any bodies.

Now, Gloucestershire Police are ruling out the possibility of digging up any more areas, according to Gloucestershire Live.

A police spokesperson said, according to the news website: After careful assessment we do not believe the evidence submitted to us at this time meets the threshold to justify further searches in the locations identified.

However  as with all cases  we will review any new evidence submitted to us.

The other two sites the investigation team had urged police to excavate are located in Fingerpost Field near Much Marcle, Herefordshire, a village where Fred West was born and had grown up.

He buried his first known victim, 18-year-old Anne McFall, in the same field that the investigators want to dig in.

He also disposed of the body of his first wife, Catherine Rena Costello, in the nearby Letterbox field.

Both of the womens remains were discovered in 1994, the year before Fred West killed himself in prison before he stood trial. Before his death, he admitted to killing all 12 women and girls.

Rose West was convicted of being involved in the murder of 10 women and girls, including her and Freds daughter Heather  who was killed by her parents after revealing to her friends that she was repeatedly raped by her father.

Also among her victims  who were all buried under their homes on Midland Road and at 25 Cromwell Street, both in Gloucester  was her husbands step-daughter Charmaine, who was eight-years-old and whose mother was Rena Costello.

Rose West is still alive and serving a life-long sentence in a prison in West Yorkshire.
A police officer left a farewell message for his wife and baby on his bodycam after he was so badly beaten in an attack that he thought he would die.

The Met Police constable has since recovered from the attack, but has been left with four metal plates in his face.

He was attacked while responding to a domestic incident in Bromley on 10 February.

Alan Keeble, 40, was being arrested at the scene for making threats to kill but became aggressive and punched the officer repeatedly in the face, back and head. A second officer who tried to help was also struck in the head.

Thinking that he was going to die, the officer activated his bodycam to record a message to his wife and baby.

The London Ambulance Service administered first aid at the scene, before transporting the officer to the Princess Royal University Hospital in Orpington for treatment.

Keeble was sentenced at Croydon Crown Court on Monday to seven years in prison and placed on extended licence as the judge deemed it necessary to protect the public. He was also sentenced to three months to run concurrently, for assaulting the second officer.

At an earlier hearing, Keeble plead guilty to causing grievous bodily harm with intent.

Detective Sergeant Danielle Power welcomed Keebles sentencing, and said that it emphasized the forces zero-tolerance policy for abuse of officers.

Police officers never know what they will face when they attend an incident during their shift, she said.

These officers have shown incredible bravery on the frontline. The impact of always running into danger and helping the public cannot be underestimated.

In this case, Keeble lashed out and viciously attacked the officers for just doing their job. The quick actions of colleagues stopped the situation from becoming much worse.

She added: What this officer has had to go through is abhorrent. He has been left with a permanent reminder of the attack with metal plates in his face.

This sentencing shows that we do not tolerate any abuse of our officers and offenders will be dealt with. Violence has consequences and I am glad that Keeble has rightfully been held to account for his actions.
Medics have issued a warning to parents after a boy "nearly died" by swallowing magnets as part of a TikTok challenge.

Jack Mason, 9, was admitted to hospital in Scotland last Tuesday complaining of stomach cramps and sickness.

Following scans, the child admitted to ingesting several small silver magnets, which blocked his bowel.

Surgeons at the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow had to remove a part of Jack's small bowel and part of his big bowel to dislodge the magnets.

His appendix also had to be removed during the procedure.

Jack's mum, Carolann McGeoch, 36, said she had been terrified by the ordeal.

Ms McGeoch The Sun: It was explained to me that the damage these magnets can cause could be so extreme that he might not pull through.

Through floods of tears I then had to sign my permission to the operation and to acknowledging that anything could happen.

She added: My funny, outgoing, healthy nine-year-old had been affected that badly that he had lost his appendix, his small bowel and 30cm of his large bowel - all for the sake of some silly magnets.

The TikTok challenge Jack is understood to have been attempting is one where youngters put tiny magnets in their mouth to give the impression of a pierced tongue.

The NHS has previously said there has been a rise in hospitalisations due to the craze.

Medics are calling for the small metal balls to be banned.

Professor Simon Kenny, paediatric surgeon and national clinical director for children and young people at NHS England, said: "Magnets are a source of fascination for children, and magnetic toys can look like a cheap and cheerful way of occupying the kids, but ultimately they aren't safe and shouldn't be for sale.

"There is nothing fun for children or their parents about surgery to remove magnets that have been swallowed and become stuck together through different parts of the intestines, or the long-term physical problems and internal scarring that can be left behind."

He added: "I would urge parents to be aware of the dangers associated with magnetic toys but ultimately, the only way we can prevent future incidents is to stop these items being sold altogether."

TikTok has previously said keeping its online community safe was its "top priority".

A spokesperson added: "Our Community Guidelines make clear what kind of content is not acceptable on our platform, and this includes content that encourages, promotes, or glorifies dangerous behaviour that might lead to injury.

"The content in question violates our guidelines, and it had already been removed from our platform.
A range of measures could be implemented if numbers of Covid-19 cases surge this winter, Sajid Javid has said.

The Health Secretary said the measures are part of a Plan B if attempts to control the spread of coronavirus  that include a massive booster vaccination programme  are not effective.

The contingency plans will only come into force if there is unsustainable pressure on the NHS in England, Mr Javid said.

Those measures could include public warnings that the level of risk has increased, the legal requirement to wear face masks in some settings, and advice for people to work from home if they can.

The government is also considering as part of the Plan B measures to introduce mandatory vaccine-only Covid passes to access settings such as indoor venues with 500 or more attendees, outdoor settings with 4,000 or more people, and any settings with 10,000 or more people.

The Covid passes would be proof that the bearer has been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.

Ministers shelved plans to introduce mandatory Covid passes by the end of September, but the possibility of them being used  along with mandatory face masks  risks a backbench revolt from Tory MPs that are opposed to the plans.

Mr Javids statement detailing Englands autumn and winter plan came after experts set out the case for a booster vaccination programme.

Third jabs will be offered to people aged 50 and over, those in care homes, and frontline health and social care workers from next week.

The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine will be used as the booster dose for around 30 million people, with experts saying it is safe to be given alongside the usual winter flu jab and to those who have previously had AstraZeneca Covid vaccines.

People will be able to get their Covid and flu vaccines on the same day, preferably with one shot in each arm.

Wales has also said it will begin a rollout of booster vaccines. Updates are expected from Scotland and Northern Ireland later on Tuesday.

All those who are clinically extremely vulnerable and anyone aged 16 to 65 in an at-risk group for Covid (who were included in priority groups one to nine during the initial vaccine rollout) will also be eligible for a jab.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) set out its findings, recommending that booster doses should be administered six months after the second jab.

When there is more data, the JCVI also plans to look at whether boosters should also be offered to healthy people under the age of 50.

Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, deputy chief medical officer for England, told a Downing Street briefing: We know that this pandemic is still active, we are not past the pandemic, we are in an active phase still.

We know this winter could be bumpy at times and we know that winter viruses such as flu and RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) are highly likely to make their returns.
A criminal investigation will not be launched into BBC journalist Martin Bashirs Panorama interview with Diana, Princess of Wales, police have announced.

The Metropolitan Police said on Wednesday that it made the decision after reviewing Lord Dysons report into the controversial 1995 documentary which saw Mr Bashir speak at length with the royal.

The report, which was published in May, strongly criticised the methods used by the journalist to obtain his exclusive interview with Diana and said that he was in serious breach of the BBCs producer guidelines when he faked bank statements to gain access to her.

Although Scotland Yard said in March that it would not launch a criminal investigation into the interview, it looked again at that decision following the publication of Lord Dysons findings.

In March 2021, the Metropolitan Police Service determined it was not appropriate to begin a criminal investigation into allegations of unlawful activity in connection with a documentary broadcast in 1995, the force said in a statement.

Following the publication of Lord Dyson's report in May, specialist detectives assessed its contents and looked carefully at the law, once again obtaining independent legal advice from Treasury Counsel as well as consulting the Crown Prosecution Service.

As a result, the Metropolitan Police Service has not identified evidence of activity that constituted a criminal offence and will therefore be taking no further action.

After the report was published earlier this year, both Prince William and Prince Harry issued strongly worded statements criticising Mr Bashirs actions.

The Duke of Cambridge and Duke of Sussex condemned the BBC for its treatment of their mother, arguing that the interview fuelled her fear, paranoia and isolation and was part of a culture of exploitation and unethical practices that ultimately led to her death.

Former BBC director-general Lord Tony Hall also said he was deeply sorry for the hurt caused by the interview scandal, but denied that there had been a BBC cover-up over the methods used to obtain the interview.

Mr Bashir himself has previously apologised for his actions, saying that he deeply regrets his decision to use fake bank statements to secure access to Diana.

However, the journalist argued that the bank statements had no bearing whatsoever on her personal choice to take part in the programme.

Additional reporting by PA
 Close Shamima Begum says she would rather die than go back to Isis

Shamima Begum has begged the British people for forgiveness, saying there is no evidence she was a key player in preparing terrorist acts and is prepared to prove her innocence in court.

The 22-year-old, from east London, has had her British citizenship revoked by the Home Office on national security grounds, and is currently living in a camp in Syria.

It comes after she travelled with two other schoolgirls to Syria to join Isis in 2015.

In her first live TV interview, the former Isis bride told ITVs Good Morning Britain she could be an asset in the fight against terror, saying she had been groomed to flee to Syria as a dumb and impressionable child.

She also said she was pretty sure Sajid Javid would change his mind about her citizenship - a decision he made while home secretary - if the pair met face to face.

But the health secretary defended the decision to revoke Begums citizenship as absolutely right and hit back at her claims that she played no part in Isis terrorism.
Shamima Begum has apologised to the British people for joining the so-called Islamic State (Isis) and asked for their forgiveness in a new TV interview with ITV.

Ms Begum left the UK aged 15 with two other east London schoolgirls to travel to Syria in February 2015..

Here are the key dates and events of her story so far.

August 1999: Shamima Begum is born in England to parents of Bangladeshi heritage.

February 2015: British counter-terrorism police launched an international hunt to find three London schoolgirls who were making their way to the so-called Islamic States (Isis) territory in Syria.

Shamima Begum, 15, had slipped out of her house in east London, with friends, Kadiza Sultant, 16 and Amira Abase. They caught a flight to Istanbul, Turkey and travelled to the Syrian border from there.

In late February, the Metropolitan police confirm that Begum and her friends had reached Syria. Ten days after arriving in the country, Shamima Begum marries Yago Riedijk, a Dutch-born convert to Islam and a convicted terrorist.

October 2017: A US-backed alliance of Syrian fighters takes full control of Raqqa, ending three years of Isis rule in the city.

13 February 2019: The Times war correspondent Anthony Loyd finds Shamima Begum, then 19-years-old, at the al-Hawl refugee camp in Norther Syria. A pregnant Shamima Begum tells him that she wants to return to the UK to raise her child but that she did not regret her decision to join Isis. She reveals that she had had two other children who died of malnutrition.

She says she had been unfazed by seeing the head of a beheaded man as he was an enemy of Islam but believes that Isis did not deserve victory.

Three days later, Ms Begum gives birth to a baby boy.

19 February 2019: The UK government serves notice that it intends to strip Ms Begum of her British citizenship.

The then-Home Secretary, Sajid Javid, writes to Ms Begums parents to inform them of his order to strip her citizenship. He believes that, because her parents are of Bangladeshi heritage, she can apply for citizenship of that country.

The law allows the government to remove citizenship if they can show the person behaved in a manner which is seriously prejudicial to the vital interests of the UK and when there is reasonable grounds for believing that the person is able, under the law of a country or territory outside the UK, to become a national of such a country or territory.

24 February 2019: Shamima Begums father, Ahmed Ali, speaks to The Mail on Sunday and says that he doesnt have a problem with his daughters British citizenship being removed.

Speaking from his home in Bangladesh, he said: If she at least admitted she made a mistake then I would feel sorry for her and other people would feel sorry for her, but she does not accept her wrong.

16 July 2020: The Court of Appeal rules that Shamima Begum should be permitted to return to the UK in order to fairly contest the British governments decision to revoke her citizenship.

26 February 2021: This ruling was appealed and sent to the Supreme Court. On February 26, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously against bringing Ms Begum back, thus reversing the previous decision.

15 September 2021: Shamima Begum asks the British people for forgiveness in an interview with ITV. The now-22-year-old says that Isiss killing of innocent people is unjustifiable.

She apologised for comments she had previously made to a BBC journalist about the Manchester Arena bombing. In 2019, she had claimed - when asked about the 2017 attack - that it was wrong to kill innocent people, but that Isis considered it justified as retaliation for coalition bombing of Isis-held areas.

She told ITV on Wednesday: I do not believe that one evil justifies another evil. I dont think that women and children should be killed for other peoples motives and for other peoples agendas.
Boris Johnson has rejected a plea to introduce emergency work visas after a Conservative MP warned that "crops are rotting in the fields" of his constituency due to labour shortages.

Roger Gale, who represents Thanet, said producers in his local area have had to throw away vast quantities of produce because there are not enough people to pick it or transport it to market.

Businesses across the country have been hit hard by a shortage of workers since Britain left the EU's single market and ended free movement at the start of the year.

Many sectors that were previously staffed by migrant workers from the European Union have struggled to recruit enough employees, with repercussions along the supply chain.

Addressing the prime minister Mr Gale said: "We're at harvest time, and Mr Speaker, all is not safely gathered-in. In three weeks Thanet Earth in my constituency, one of the largest glass house companies in the country growing tomatoes has had to trash 320,000 worth of produce because of no pickers and no drivers.

"Because of a lack of labour force the crops are rotting in the fields and on our trees. Mr Speaker, will my Right Honourable friend, seek to introduce immediately, a Covid recovery visa, so that this year's crops are not lost?"

Mr Johnson rejected the plea and said the existing arrangements were already sufficient to deal with the issue. He claimed the problem had been going on "for a long time"  in an apparent bid to absolve his own recent ending of free movement from blame.

"He's absolutely right in what he says about the importance of buying British eating British," the prime minister said, wearing a wheat sheaf badge at his suit breast pocket to mark "British Farming Day".

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PA UK news in pictures 1 September 2021 Goldfinches fighting over food in a garden in Strensham, Worcestershire PA UK news in pictures 31 August 2021 Gold Medallist Sarah Storey of Britain celebrates on the podium Reuters UK news in pictures 30 August 2021 Extinction Rebellion protesters hold a a tea party on Tower Bridge in London EPA UK news in pictures 29 August 2021 A police office tussles with a demonstrator on Cromwell Road outside the Natural History Museum during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion in London PA UK news in pictures 28 August 2021 Members of the British armed forces 16 Air Assault Brigade walk to the air terminal after disembarking a Royal Airforce Voyager aircraft at Brize Norton, Oxfordshire POOL/AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 27 August 2021 Fabio Quartararo crashes during a MotoGP practice session at the British Grand Prix, Silverstone Circuit Action Images via Reuters UK news in pictures 26 August 2021 An Extinction Rebellion activist holds a placard in a fountain surrounded by police officers, during a protest next to Buckingham Palace in London Reuters UK news in pictures 25 August 2021 Gold Medallist Great Britains cyclist, Sarah Storey, celebrates after winning the Womens C5 3000m Individual Pursuit Final at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. 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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. 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"Our food is the best in the world, and he's right also to address the problems in the supply chain that we're currently seeing, but we are taking steps. And of course, this has been a problem for a long time, but what we have here we have is a seasonal agricultural workers scheme, which we'll use to ensure that British farms get the labour, that they need."

Last week the National Farmers' Union (NFU) said that while most farms were "just about surviving" the current lack of drivers was unsustainable and urgent action was needed to prevent more serious problems with food deliveries.

Some UK farmers have been told to throw away milk because of a shortage of lorry drivers to collect it, while one dairy logistics firm warned of a collapse of parts of the supply chain.
Gavin Williamson was the biggest casualty of Boris Johnsons reshuffle, in a major clear-out which also saw justice secretary Robert Buckland and housing secretary Robert Jenrick kicked out of the cabinet.

Mr Williamson announced on Twitter that he was leaving the job of education secretary which he has held since 2019, with No 10 later confirming that he, Buckland and Jenrick were all returning to the backbenches.

The long-expected sacking comes more than a year after the bungled GCSE and A-level exams that first triggered widespread calls for him to go.

Mr Bucklands removal created a vacancy for Dominic Raab, who was demoted to the Foreign Office with the consolation of the titles not only of justice secreatry but also Lord Chancellor and Deputy Prime Minister.

There was speculation that Mr Raabs vacated role as foreign secretary will be filled by Liz Truss, darling of the Tory grassroots for her efforts to seal post-Brexit trade deals.

The international trade secretary was seen entering 10 Downing Street as Mr Johnson began the job of making appointments, after dealing with sackings in the relative privacy of his Commons office.

Mr Jenrick, who survived the scandal of unlawfully approving a planning application in a way that favoured a major Tory donor  became the third reshuffle casualty.

And Amanda Milling lost her job as Tory chair, following criticisms of her handling of the Chesham and Amersham byelection debacle, where Conservatives lost a rock-solid seat with a gigantic 25-point swing to Liberal Democrats.

Ms Milling said: Its been a privilege and an honour to be the co-chairman of the Conservative Party. Thank you to the voluntary party and the team at CCHQ for their support. Thank you to Boiris Johnson for this opportunity. I will continue working to deliver on our plans to level up the UK.

Meanwhile, The Independent understands that the Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove is being offered Mr Jenricks job at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

His daunting in-tray would include huge court backlogs, a shortage of criminal lawyers and a controversial review of the Human Rights Act.

Mr Williamson tweeted: It has been a privilege to serve as education secretary since 2019.

Despite the challenges of the global pandemic, Im particularly proud of the transformational reforms Ive led in post-16 education: in further education colleges, our skills agenda, apprenticeships and more... I look forward to continuing to support the prime minister and the government.

Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner welcomed his dismissal: Its good that Gavin Williamson has been sacked but he should have been sacked over a year ago.

That prats absolute idiocy, failures and uselessness have damaged the life chances of our countrys children and this government has failed young people, teachers and education staff.

Jo Grady, general secretary of the University and College Union (UCU), has called on the incoming education secretary to commit to repairing the damage that has been done by Mr Williamson.

Ms Grady said: Gavin Williamson will be remembered by university and college staff as a disastrous secretary of state who caused deep and lasting damage.

From the mutant algorithm which attempted to hardwire inequalities into the exam system, to his negligent mismanagement of the pandemic leading to schools, universities and colleges becoming Covid incubators, Williamsons long list of failures is shocking.

Mr Buckland tweeted: It has been an honour to serve in Government for the last 7 years, and as the Lord Chancellor for the last 2. I am deeply proud of everything I have achieved. On to the next adventure.

Harriet Harman, Labours former deputy leader, tweeted her thanks to Mr Buckland for the important changes you made on domestic violence & sex violence against women.

And the chair of the Commons Justice Committee, Tory MP Sir Bob Neill, told Sky News his removal was unjust, outrageous and he has been shabbily treated.
Boris Johnson has started his long-awaited Cabinet reshuffle.

The Prime Minister plans to put in place a strong and united Cabinet following the turbulence caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

A Downing Street source said: The PM will be appointing ministers this afternoon with a focus on uniting and levelling up the whole country.

Removed

Gavin Williamson has been sacked as Education Secretary, a position he has held since 2019.

Mr Williamson has faced regular criticism of his handling of how children would receive an education through the pandemic, which saw schools closed and the 2020 fiasco in the awarding of A-level and GCSE grades.

Robert Buckland has lost his position as Justice Secretary and Lord Chancellor, positions he has held for seven years.

After being sacked, he said it is on to the next adventure.

Robert Jenrick has been sacked as Housing Secretary. Mr Jenrick said it had been a huge privilege to serve in the government, saying he will continue to support the Prime Minister and the Government in every way I can.

His sacking followed his departments unlawful approval of Tory donor Richard Desmonds housing development in east London, as well as the ongoing cladding scandal, Grenfell inquiry, and governments attempts to have 300,000 new homes built a year.

Amanda Milling loses her position as Conservative Party chair. The sacking comes weeks ahead of the Tory conference in October.

Nick Gibb has been sacked as Schools Minister, a position he has held for ten years since he was first appointed by David Cameron.

John Whittingdale has been removed as Media Minister and is returning to the backbenches. He had held the position since February 2020.

Reshuffled

Dominic Raab has become Deputy Prime Minister, Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary after being moved from Foreign Secretary.

The demotion is believed to be the result of a lengthy meeting between Mr Raab and Mr Johnson over his handling of the evacuation of British citizens and Afghan allies from Afghanistan last month.

Mr Raab has been succeeded by Liz Truss, who has been promoted from International Trade Secretary to Foreign Secretary.

Nadhim Zahawi has become Education Secretary after previously being the Vaccines Minister. Mr Zahawi is likely being rewarded with a promotion after the UKs successful Covid vaccine rollout.

Sacked Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick has been replaced by Michael Gove.

Mr Gove - who was previously the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster - will also be responsible for the Governments levelling-up agenda and have responsibilities for strengthening the Union.

Oliver Dowden has been demoted to Minister without Portfolio and replaced as Culture Secretary by Nadine Dorries.

Ms Dorries, who previously appeared on Im a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, is an outspoken Brexiteer, BBC critic and ardent supporter of the prime minister.

Anne-Marie Trevelyan has been promoted to replace Ms Truss as International Trade Secretary and Steve Barclay has succeeded Mr Gove as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and minister for the Cabinet Office.

Penny Mordaunt has announced that she will leave her role as Paymaster General at the Cabinet Office, moving positions to become minister of state at the Department of International Trade. She will be succeeded by Michael Ellis.

Mr Ellis currently holds the position of Solicitor General at the Attorney Generals Office.

Greg Hands has become Minister of State for the department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, moving from his position as the Minister of State for Trade Policy in the Department for International Trade.

Remains

Priti Patel remains in her position has Home Secretary, Rishi Sunak stays as Chancellor of the Exchequer and Ben Wallace is still Defence Secretary.

Sajid Javid, who only recently replaced Matt Hancock as Health Secretary, is keeping his job. He tweeted that he is determined to get our country through the pandemic and deliver lasting reforms to health and social care.

Kwasi Kwarteng, who spent around 40 minutes at No10, will stay as Business Secretary.

George Eustice has kept his Environment Secretary job, while Alister Jack and Simon Hart will remain as Scotland Secretary and Wales Secretary respectively.

Kit Malthouse is still a minister in the Home Office and Ministry of Justice and will attend Cabinet.

Baroness Evans said she is very pleased to be back as she remains Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of Lords.

Lord Frost stays in post as Brexit minister in the Cabinet Office.
A US Air Force B-2 Spirit stealth bomber worth $2bn crash landed at the Whiteman Air Force Base runway in Missouri on Tuesday.

The bomber resorted to emergency landing at around 12.30 am on Tuesday after experiencing an in-flight malfunction during a routine training mission, Jennifer Greene, an air force spokesperson, told KMBC 9 News.

The aircraft sustained some damage though there are no details available yet on the extent.

No injuries or casualties have been reported so far and the crash landing did not result in a fire, local media reports said. An investigation has been ordered into the crash landing.

The Federal Aviation Administration imposed a temporary flight restriction zone for six miles in all directions and about 8,000 feet from the ground after the accident. It is set to expire on 17 September.

Counted among the deadliest aircraft in the United Statess military arsenal, the B2 bomber can deliver conventional and nuclear munitions. It accommodates two pilots  one in the left seat and a commander in the right seat.

The entire fleet Americas B-2 bombers - there are 21 such aircraft ever manufactured for the US - has been stationed at the Whiteman Air Force Base since 17 December 1993.
New York Representative Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez has said that she refused to stay in the secure location where lawmakers were taken during the Capitol riot because police officers could have shared it with rioters.

Her comments come after a special agent in the US Capitol Polices Protective Services Bureau has been accused of revealing information about the secret location that lawmakers were taken to during the Capitol riot on 6 January.

The agent could face disciplinary action because of the supposed improper dissemination of information, according to McClatchy.

The reported allegation came after the agent spoke to a friend about a week after the insurrection, in which a pro-Trump mob stormed the US Capitol to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Bidens election victory.

During the conversation, the special agent allegedly shared information about the lawmakers secret riot location to which he helped evacuate members of Congress on 6 January during the siege of the Capitol.

In the internal investigation documents obtained by McClatchy, the friend is referred to as Anonymous. The friend called the FBI tip line to report the conversation and shared their concerns that the agent believed in election conspiracy theories boosted by former President Donald Trump.

The documents show that in a follow-up interview with Capitol Police, the friend said: I dont want to report a friend of forty years but he says enough concerning statements that I feel like I need to do this ... hes just fallen into this cult and these beliefs.

The agent said he didnt agree with the cause of those who stormed the Capitol, but said he might have unintentionally shared information about the secret, secure location that lawmakers were taken to as the mob closed in.

I cant say one hundred per cent that I didnt do what youre telling me I did, the agent told investigators, according to McClatchy.

Ms Ocasio-Cortez tweeted on Wednesday: There were several reasons I refused to stay in the secure location on the 6th. This was one of them. Few people want to discuss the reality and implications of this because its politically difficult, fraught, and unpopular, but its right there. And we need to talk about it.

Ms Ocasio-Cortez has previously spoken about how she hid in the bathroom of her office during the riot, fearing for her life and the possibility that she might be sexually assaulted.

 AOC says she feared being raped during Capitol riot

The internal investigation documents also show that a Capitol Police officer told investigators that he posed with a rioter for a selfie during the siege so that the member of the mob could be identified at a later time. The officer, who is facing disciplinary action, didnt tell his supervisor of the plan, nor did he tell the FBI or the Capitol Polices investigations unit.

The officer finally notified his superiors of the supposed scheme when the FBI contacted the Capitol Police about the officers image being used in posts on Facebook. The FBI was using the social media posts to obtain an arrest warrant.

The officers name is redacted in the documents and is one of six who could be disciplined for their actions on 6 January. The recommendations for disciplinary actions were made after internal investigations by the Office of Professional Responsibility. Three of the cases involved officers posing for photos with rioters.

The six recommendations for action stemmed from 38 internal investigations, with many of the dismissed cases involving officers that investigators were unable to identify.

The officer told investigators that he posed for the photo to keep the situation calm.

I cant help what they do. If you want to take a photo, Im not going to say no because we are always told to interact and keep the situation calm, he said.

His actions were inappropriate under the circumstances, and reflected negatively upon himself as a representative of the Department, investigators said.

The Department is committed to accountability when officers fail to meet the standards governed by USCP policies and the Congressional Communitys expectations, US Capitol Police said in a statement on Saturday. The six sustained cases should not diminish the heroic efforts of the United States Capitol Police officers.
Police have named Brian Laundrie as a person of interest in the disappearance of his girlfriend Gabby Petito.

Ms Petito, 22, was last seen checking out of a Salt Lake City hotel with Mr Laundrie on August 24.

Her family last heard from her the next day when she told them she was in the Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming and was on her way to Yellowstone.

Mr Laundrie has so far stonewalled police, instead referring them to a family attorney.

In a statement on Wednesday, North Port Police in Florida said Mr Laundrie had returned from the trip alone on September 1, 10 days before Ms Petito was reported missing.

Several detectives are working around the clock to piece together this complex and far-reaching situation together, the statement read.

Gabrielles vehicle was recovered here in North Port at her home on September 11th. A home shared with her boyfriend Brian Laundrie and his parents.

The vehicle had been processed for evidence on Tuesday evening.

Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie (Instagram/GabsPetito)

North Port Police released photographs of the van they seized from Mr Laundries home (North Port Police)

They appealed for anyone who had seen the van, which has distinctive stickers, to call a national hotline 1-800-CALLFBI (225-5324) (North Port Police)

As of now Brian Laundrie has not made himself available to be interviewed by investigators or has provided any helpful details.

We know Brian returned here to North Port on September 1st - 10 days before her family reported her missing on September 11th.

We have no information that a crime occurred here in North Port. Brian Laundrie is a person of interest in this case, the statement said.

The couple left Long Island on July 2 and had been travelling in a converted Ford Transit van to national parks over the summer.

They had been documenting their trip across the United States on Instagram and their YouTube channel Nomadic Statik, but fears grew for Ms Petitos safety when she failed to contact her family for several weeks.

Latest on Petito case Wednesday September 15, 11:30am. Please use 1-800 CALLFBI pic.twitter.com/NpkUEjoME5  North Port Police (@NorthPortPolice) September 15, 2021

North Port Police Chief Todd Garrison said: As a father, I can imagine the pain and suffering Gabbys family is going through.

We are pleading with anyone, including Brian, to share information with us on her whereabouts in the past few weeks.

The lack of information from Brian is hindering this investigation. The answers will eventually come out.

We will help find Gabby and we will help find anyone who may be involved with her disappearance, Mr Garrison said in a statement.

North Port Police are leading the investigation with assistance from the FBI. Suffolk County Police in Long Island, New York, where Ms Petitos mother reported her missing, is also working on the investigation.

They released several images of the Ford Transit van the couple had been travelling in, and appealed for sightings.

So far, we have received hundreds of tips which are being vetted through multiple agencies, the statement said.

Ms Petitos father Joe Petito issued a desperate plea for information about his daughters whereabouts on Tuesday night.

Her mother Nicole Schmidt told the Daily Mail that on September 10 she tried texting Mr Laundrie and his mother on September 10 but they had did not respond. Ms Schmidt reported her missing the next day.

North Port Police spokesman Josh Taylor told The Independent they feared something very bad may have happened to her.

Gabby Petito shared this picture of her and Brian Laundrie in July 2020 to announce their engagement (Instagram/GabsPetito)

On Tuesday, Utah police revealed officers were called to an unspecified incident involving the couple on August 12, two weeks before she was last seen or heard from.

Moabs chief of police Bret Edge told Fox News: Our officers did respond to an incident involving Brian Laundrie and Gabrielle Petito on 12 August 2021, however neither Brian or Gabrielle were the reporting party.

He said officers conducted an investigation and found insufficient evidence existed to justify criminal charges.

Ms Petitos Instagram account was mysteriously disabled before being reinstated on Wednesday, adding to the familys distress.

Their attorney told WABC-TV: We have no idea who deleted Gabbys Instagram account.

We contacted Instagram and the FBI to let them know that it was deleted.

North Port Police said it was looking into how the Instagram page was taken down.
Utah police have revealed officers were called to an incident involving Gabby Petito and her boyfriend just two weeks before she was last seen or heard from.

Ms Petito was reported missing by her family on 11 September, with a GoFundMe page set up by a family friend confirming Ms Petito told them in a phone call she had made her way to Grand Teton, Wyoming, on 25 August [and was] heading towards Yellowstone National Park [next].

However, reports suggest 22-year-old Ms Petito, of Long Island, New York, has not actually been seen by anyone since she checked out of a Salt Lake City hotel on 24 August with her partner of more than two years, Brian Laundrie

The couple had been traveling in a Ford Transit van to different national parks over the summer when her family say they lost contact with her.

Speaking about the latest development, Moabs chief of police Bret Edge told Fox News: Our officers did respond to an incident involving Brian Laundrie and Gabrielle Petito on 12 August 2021, however neither Brian or Gabrielle were the reporting party.

He continued: Officers conducted an investigation and determined that insufficient evidence existed to justify criminal charges.

It was not immediately clear what the incident involved or why police were called.

The couple documented their cross-country van life trip on Instagram and Ms Petitos YouTube channel. On 12 August, when Moab police say they responded to the report, Ms Petito had posted pictures taken in Arches National Park  just north of the Utah city.

From there, she kept in regular contact with her mother, Nichole Schmidt, until the last week of August.

Ms Schmidt then reported her daughter as missing on 11 September, around two weeks after she says they last spoke on the phone. She claims police initially blew her off but by the next day, she was allowed to file a report with the Suffolk County police department.

The boyfriend, Mr Laundrie, has since returned home to North Port, Florida, in the van he shared with Ms Petitio, hired a lawyer and, according to his girlfriends family, has refused to explain where he last saw her.

While he has not been charged with a crime or accused of playing a role in his girlfriends disappearance, police in North Port told Fox on Tuesday that they are keen to speak to Mr Laundrie about the case.

I think anyone would assume that the possible last person to be around her is a person of interest to want to talk with, a spokesman reportedly told the broadcaster. However, there is no crime at this point.

Police seized the couples van on Monday as part of their investigation, which involves law enforcement agencies in multiple states and the FBI, the latter of which began forensically examining the vehicle on Tuesday, North Port police told Fox.

Meanwhile, a search for Ms Petitio remains underway in Wyoming, with Ms Schmidt claiming the family has begged Mr Laundrie to cooperate.

In an interview with the Daily Mail, she said she could not understand why neither Brian nor his parents have reached out to her in the aftermath of her daughters disappearance.

Its a very mysterious situation. We dont understand why hes doing this, Ms Schmidt told the paper. Everybodys assuming the worst and thinking hes guilty of this. But I dont want to believe that. I want to believe shes just in need of help out there and that everybody needs to keep searching.

She added: If they cared about her, they would want to find her.
The US Senate Judiciary Committee is currently investigating the FBIs alleged mishandling of sexual harassment allegations against Dr Larry Nassar during his tenure as team doctor for USA Gymnastics.

The congressional body heard on Wednesday from elite athletes Simone Biles, Aly Raisman, McKayla Maroney and Maggie Nichols about the abuse they suffered at the hands of the disgraced physician.

Nassar is currently serving a 40 to 175-year prison sentence for seven counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct after being accused by more than 300 women.

The hearing follows on from US Justice Department inspector general Michael Horowitz issuing a scathing report in July that accused the bureau of botching the investigation it began six years earlier and therein allowing the abuse to continue unchecked.

Both Horowitz and FBI director Christopher Wray will also address the Senate alongside the gymnasts, the latter expected to face tough questions on why the agents responsible for bungling the investigation were never prosecuted for misconduct.

Heres a timeline of the case against Larry Nassar.

2014 - Amanda Thomashow becomes first woman to file an official Title IX complaint against Nassar, telling Michigan State University (MSU) that he had touched her inappropriately during a medical examination, only for the institutions inquiry to result in no charges and rule that his behaviour had been medically appropriate.

July 2015 - FBIs investigation into Nassar commences after USA Gymnastics president and CEO Stephen Penny reported allegations made by Maggie Nichols against the doctor to the FBIs Indianapolis field office and provided agents with the names of three victims willing to be interviewed.

September 2015 - FBI interviews first and only witness but does not document its findings in a report, eventually known as a 302, until February 2017.

4 August 2016 - The Indianapolis Star publishes first of a series of investigative reports into Nassars conduct.

30 August 2016 - MSU relieves the doctor of his clinical and patient duties as it carries out a new investigation.

12 September 2016 - The same Midwestern newspaper publishes another article, this time featuring disclosures from two ex-gymnasts who alleged that Nassar had sexually abused them as children in the 1990s and early 2000s. One, Rachael Denhollander, was named in the article and had filed a complaint against Nassar with the Michigan police. The second accuser was later revealed to be Jamie Dantzscher, a member of the US Olympics team for Sydney 2000, who had launched a civil lawsuit against him in California.

20 September 2016 - Nassar fired from MSU.

22 November 2016 - Nassar charged with three counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct in Ingham County, Michigan, including one with a person under 13. He pleaded not guilty and was freed on a $1 million bond but the states attorney general said the matter was just the tip of the iceberg, with police revealing that 50 victims had made sexual abuse claims against him.

16 December 2016 - Nassar arrested and indicted on federal child pornography charges. Indictment says he was in possession of thousands of indecent images of children collected between 2003 and 2016.

10 January 2017 - Eighteen victims file federal lawsuit against Nassar, Michigan State University, USA Gymnastics and the Twistars USA Gymnastics Club, alleging sexual assault, battery, molestation and harassment between 1996 and 2016. Nassar loses medical licence.

19 February 2017 - Three ex-gymnasts - Dantzscher, Jeanette Antolin, Jessica Howard - discuss experiences with Nassar in an interview with 60 Minutes on CBS.

11 July 2017 - Nassar pleads guilty to three child pornography charges.

22 November 2017 - Nassar pleads guilty to seven counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct as part of a plea deal in exchange for prosecutors dropping eight other charges against him and not adding charges for other sexual assault incidents that had subsequently emerged.

7 December 2017 - Nassar sentenced to 60 years in federal prison on child pornography charges.

16 January 2018 - Seven-day hearing begins in Ingham County at which 156 women give powerful victim-impact statements.

22 January 2018 - Entire board of USA Gymnastics steps down under pressure from the US Olympic Committee.

24 January 2018 - Ingham County hearing ends with Judge Rosemarie Aquilina sentencing Nassar to 40 to 175 years in prison and telling him: I just signed your death warrant. On the same day, Lou Anna K Simon steps down as president of MSU, apologising to the victims in her resignation letter and reflecting on the evil of Nassar.

31 January 2018 - Eaton County hearing begins, also in Michigan, where Nassar pleads guilty to three charges of criminal sexual conduct - two of the charges relating to girls between the ages of 13 and 15 and one against a girl younger than 13. Another 60 women come forward to give victim-impact statements, with the total of accusers now at 265.

5 February 2018 - Nassar sentenced to 40 to 175 years in prison, to be served concurrently with Ingham County sentence but after the child pornography sentence.

16 March 2018 - MSU reaches $500 million settlement with 332 of Nassars victims.

22 August 2018 - Nassars appeal of his 60-year sentence on child pornography charges is rejected by three-judge panel of US Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.
A Connecticut mother and her daughter have been charged with taking part in the storming of the US Capitol after a friend on Facebook reported photos to the FBI.

Jean Lavin and her daughter Carla Krzywicki, 19, were charged with entering a restricted building, disorderly conduct and two other offences for allegedly entering the seat of the US Congress through a broken door during the riot on 6 January.

Both were arrested on Tuesday, released without bail, and ordered to appear by Zoom before a court in Washington DC on 21 September, according to the Connecticut TV news station WFSB.

An FBI warrant issued last week said the pair had admitted climbing up a bike rack onto the Capitol terrace and walking around inside the building for about 50 minutes in total.

It included a selfie posted on Facebook that allegedly shows the two women outside the Capitol, declaring: This is history... that is our house and you work for us.

Ms Lavin and Ms Krzywicki are among 608 people facing federal charges in connection with the Capitol siege, in which supporters of former president Donald Trump and members of paramilitary groups attempted to forcibly overturn his election defeat.

One of the screenshots sent to the FBI (FBI)

The defendants hail from almost every state in the US, as well as the District of Columbia. More than 85 per cent of defendants were charged in part using evidence from their social media profiles, according to a report from George Washington University in DC.

Their supporters have organised a Justice for J6 protest on 18 September, describing them as political prisoners who are being persecuted for their beliefs. Members of Congress and their staff have been advised to avoid the rally due to the possibility that far-right groups such as the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys will attend.

On Wednesday, it emerged that an officer of the Capitol Police itself has been accused of leaking the secure location where legislators were sheltered during the riot.

According to the FBI warrant, Ms Lavin and Ms Krzywicki went to Washington on 6 January on a bus trip organised by a local Facebook group, but missed Mr Trumps speech because their driver got lost in New York.

Photos included in the warrant allegedly show Ms Lavin carrying a sign that read TRUMP WON as she strolls around the Capitol corridors with her daughter.

The investigation was triggered by a tipster who sent a screenshot of Ms Krzywickis alleged Facebook post to the FBI. The screenshot was taken from a smartphone and included a privacy setting icon, indicating that the tip came from one of her own Facebook friends.

The FBI then traced the pairs phone records and studied footage posted on the internet, before interviewing both of them at their homes.

According to the warrant, Ms Krzywicki admitted posting a picture on Facebook, but later deleted it because it seemed like a bad idea to leave it up.
Three former US intelligence agents admitted to committing hacking crimes against the country and providing sophisticated computer hacking tools to the United Arab Emirates, according to court documents made public on Tuesday.

The three hackers that include two US nationals and a former American citizen agreed to pay the penalty of $1.68 mn under a legal settlement with the federal government in a bid to avoid prosecution, said US Justice Department.

The operatives, Marc Baier, Ryan Adams and Daniel Gericke, all former employees of the US Intelligence community, worked as senior managers in a UAE-based company called DarkMatter, reported the New York Times. The Justice Department alleged that while working with the company, the three conducted hacking operations for the benefit of the UAE government.

The department accused the three men of committing computer fraud and violating export control laws by providing defense services without the required license.

It alleged that between 2016 and 2019, the three men provided access to zero-click computer hacking services which could compromise a device without any action by the target. These were then used to obtain unauthorized access to computers, like mobile phones, around the world, including in the US, said the Justice Department statement.

According to the media reports, the issue came to the fore after Lori Stroud, a former National Security Advisor and a former employee with DarkMatter raised the alarm with authorities about the Abu Dhabi-based organization hacking US citizens.

This is progress, she told AP, as she saw the case come to a resolution.

Lori Stroud is pictured in her home at an undisclosed location in the US, 27 September 2018 (REUTERS)

The UAE government has so far not issued a statement in the matter, reported AP, adding that the email sent to the officials at DarkMatter could not be delivered.

In 2018, DarkMatters founder and CEO, Faisal al-Bannai, had told AP that the organization does not take part in hacking. He, however, acknowledged the companys close business dealings with the Emirati government, as well as its hiring of former CIA and NSA analysts.

The Justice Department said that on 7 September they entered into a three-year deferred prosecution agreement with the US government for their crimes. This essentially restricts their future activities and employment and requires the payment of $1,685,000 in penalties to resolve a Department of Justice investigation against them.

Under the terms, the three will have to immediately relinquish any foreign and domestic security clearances, face a lifetime ban on future US security clearances, and certain future employment restrictions, including a prohibition on employment that involves computer network exploitation operations.

If the accused comply with the agreement, the Justice Department will drop the criminal prosecution against them.

Mark J Lesko, acting assistant attorney general for the Justice Departments National Security Division, called it first-of-its kind resolution in this kind of criminal activity. Hackers-for-hire and those who otherwise support such activities in violation of US law should fully expect to be prosecuted for their criminal conduct, he added.

Channing D Phillips, the acting US attorney of the District of Columbia explained that the unregulated proliferation of offensive cyber capabilities undermines privacy and security worldwide. He added that under the countrys International Traffic in Arms Regulation, even with proper licenses and oversight, a US citizen can only provide defense services in support of such capabilities. Their status as a former US government employee certainly does not provide them with a free pass in that regard.

This is a clear message to anybody, including former US government employees, who had considered using cyberspace to leverage export-controlled information for the benefit of a foreign government or a foreign commercial company  there is risk, and there will be consequences, said Bryan Vorndran, the assistant director of the FBIs Cyber Division.

Additional reporting from the wires
The identities of four people found dead in an SUV parked in a Wisconsin cornfield have been made public by authorities.

The four deceased victims have been named as Nitosha Lee Flung-Presley, 30; Matthew Isiah Pettus, 26; Loyace Foreman III, 35; and Jasmine Christine Strum, 30. According to Ramsey County Medical Examiners Office in Minnesota, all four victims died from gunshot wounds.

They were were found on 12 September by a man who spotted the car parked roughly 50 yards into a cornfield. He told News 18 he saw the bodies after peering inside the car. Police say they received a call about it at roughly 2pm.

The deaths are being treated as homicides by investigators. Many agencies, both local and state, are involved, according to local police officers. These include the Dunn County Medical Examiners Office, the Wisconsin State Patrol, the Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation and the Wisconsin Department of Justice crime lab.

According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Pettus was the half-brother of Sturm, who was in a relationship with Foreman. Lee-Presley was said to be a close friend of Sturm.

All the victims lived in Minnesota, the neighbouring state. Flug-Presley was said to be from Stillwater. The remaining victims resided in St Paul, which is roughly 50 miles away from Sheridan. It is not yet clear how and why they came to be in the Dunn County area.

Friends and family of the victims, in an appeal in the Pioneer Press, pleaded for anyone to come forward with information.

Damon Flug-Presley Sr, Flug-Presleys father said that he had been with them all the evening before.

Why would this happen? he told the outlet. It just doesnt make sense.

Local authorities said that they could find no information about how the four people ended up in Sheridan.

We cant find any connection to this area other than possibly randomly driving out of the Twin Cities, Dunn County Sheriff Kevin Bygd said on 14 September.

Earlier in the investigation, Dunn County Sheriffs Office released a statement urging nearby residents to remain cautious. However, in a later statement they said there was little danger to the community after they concluded the four victims had no connection to the town.

In addition, law enforcement have struggled to establish any potential motives for their deaths.

That one is a mystery. We do not know a motive yet, Sheriff Bygd told a reporter at the news conference.

He went on to say he had a very high degree of certainty that any potential suspects had already left the county. He ruled out suspects being local to the area as the victims had no known connection to the area.

No arrests have been made in connection to the deaths, Sheriff Bygd confirmed.

He said he had never worked on a four-victim murder investigation in Dunn County during his more than three-decade police career in the department.

Its highly unusual for the area. Obviously weve had homicides in the last several years, but something of this magnitude, Im working on my 33rd year working for Dunn County and this is a first, Sheriff Bygd told reporters.

Sheriff Bygd said that his department had received tips an individual walking in the area on Sunday, however they were unable to be corroborated.

He also said authorities are looking for a potential second vehicle, believed to be a green SUV, that may have been involved in the incident.

They are appealing for anyone with information to come forward and contact them on 715-232-1348.
A Florida landlord has told tenants to get vaccinated or leave the apartment building.

Jasmine Irby told The Washington Post that when she left her South Florida apartment last month, she saw a notice from the management company of the building fastened to her door.

As of August 15th, all new tenants must show proof of vaccination before moving in  Existing tenants must show proof of vaccination before leases are renewed, the notice said, adding that the rule also applied to employees who worked at the building.

The 28-year-old security guard told The Post that she was upset as she intended to renew her lease by the end of that month, but she wasnt going to get vaccinated.

Following failed talks with the management company and her landlord, Ms Irby filed a complaint with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

She asked that she be allowed to renew the lease without being required to disclose my personal health information.

The notice on her door appeared as the state was struggling to control the highly transmissible Delta variant of the virus.

As of 14 September, 65.6 per cent of Florida residents had received one dose of vaccine and 55.3 per cent were fully vaccinated, according to figures collected by Our World In Data.

Governor Ron DeSantis was vaccinated in April but has said that getting immunised should remain a personal choice, pushing back against both mask and vaccine mandates in schools and businesses.

He has issued executive orders banning proof of vaccination from being required at businesses and government entities.

The policy of landlord Santiago Alvarez was first reported by the South Florida Sun Sentinel, and it pushes the limits of Mr DeSantis orders.

Ms Irbys lawyer sent a letter to Mr Alvarez arguing that his policy was in violation of the governors order prohibiting businesses from demanding that patrons or customers show proof of vaccination.

Mr Alvarez told The Post that he would allow longer-term residents some more time to get vaccinated, adding that employees will be fired if they refuse inoculation.

Mr Alvarez owns around 1,200 units in Broward and Miami-Dade counties. The 80-year-old survived Covid-19 earlier this year but has lost two friends to the virus as well as at least 12 of his residents.

He told The Post that hes unwilling to compromise the health of his employees and vaccinated tenants for those refusing to get the shot.

Juan Zorrilla, Mr Alvarezs lawyer, told the paper that the landlord is not violating the governors order because his tenants aren't customers or patrons and because Mr Alvarez isnt providing a service.

Mr Alvarez is willing to make exceptions for religious or medical reasons.

Mr Alvarez cant require vaccine passports as a condition of entry or service, a spokeswoman for the governor, Christina Pushaw, said.

In early August, Mr Alvarez sent letters to his nearly 70 employees, telling them to get their first dose by 15 August or be fired. Two employees left their jobs, the landlord said.

In a letter to tenants, he urged them to get vaccinated and said new tenants would have to show proof of vaccination by 15 August and those who wanted to renew their leases were told to do the same.

You dont want to get vaccinated? You have to move, Mr Alvarez told The Post. And if you dont move, one must move forward with eviction.

Mr Alvarez said the move was appreciated by most of his employees and tenants.

But Ms Irby left her building when her lease ended on 31 August and moved in with her brother.

No one wants to live anywhere where they are not wanted  If thats the case, then I might as well get out, she told The Post. It was just best that I walked away.
The fiance of a missing 22-year-old New York woman, who went on a cross-country trip with her, has refused to help the family and investigators with the details of where he last saw the woman, reported NBC news.

Gabrielle Petito, also known as Gabby, was reported missing last week by her family who said that they last spoke to her on 25 August while she was on the last recorded spot in Wyoming on a road trip with her fiance Brian Laundrie.

Police officials have called Mr Laundrie a person of interest in the case and abstained from associating him with his fiances disappearance, reported NBC. There is no evidence that a crime has been committed.

Mr Laundrie, the one person that can help find their daughter, has now refused to help the family, Ms Petitos mother Nicole Schmidt told NBC.

"The Schmidt and Petito family are going through the worst moments of their lives. Their beautiful twenty-two year old daughter is missing and the one person that can help find Gabby refuses to help," Ms Schmidts attorney Richard Stafford said.

Mr Stafford said that Gabby was accompanied by her partner as they were travelling together in the womans 2012 Ford Transit van. The family believes that Gabby was last seen in the Grand Teton area in Yellowstone, he said.

Ms Petito and her partner had left New York together in early July and covered a range of national parks on their 2,328 miles of road journey before finally reaching Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.

Only Mr Laundrie returned from the trip to his parents house in Florida recently, shortly after which his family released a statement hoping for Ms Petito reunites with her family.

"On the advice of counsel, the Laundrie family is remaining in the background at this juncture and will have no further comment," the family said in a statement, reported Insider.

Slamming the mans decision to remain in the background, the attorney representing Ms Petitos family accused the fiance of refusing to tell Gabbys family where he last saw her. "Brian is also refusing to explain why he left Gabby all alone and drove her van to Florida. These are critical questions that require immediate answers," Mr Stafford told NBC.

The Suffolk County police also launched an investigation on Saturday into the missing complaint made by Ms Petitos family.
 Close Related video: Autopsy today on remains found in Wyoming

An eyewitness claims she saw Brian Laundrie acting weird in the Spread Creek portion of the Bridger-Teton National Forest while she was vacationing in Wyoming. The woman, Jessica Schultz, tipped off the FBI to her encounter, which helped them narrow their search area to Spread Creek. Police are also investigating trail cam footage that may have captured an image of Brian Laundrie hiking.

Medical examiners in North Port, Florida, have said the post-mortem of a body found in Wyoming over the weekend will be conducted later, as officials seek to determine if it is that of Gabby Petito. A spokesman for the FBI said the body found was consistent with the 5ft 5in, 110-pound missing 22-year-old.

The examination of the remains, which were discovered on Sunday in a remote area of Bridger-Teton National Forest, in western Wyoming, was announced as police continued to search for Ms Petitos fiance, Mr Laundrie. Investigators have called him a person of interest in the case.

Officers spent much of Monday searching the Laundrie family home and were pictured loading cardboard boxes into a van and towing away a silver Ford Mustang. His parents claim they have not seen their son for more than a week.

Police were tipped off to a potential sighting of Mr Laundrie, 23, near Mobile, Alabama, on Monday. They are yet to confirm if the lead was legitimate.
A zoo in Baltimore is planning to give Covid-19 vaccines a number of its species as a part of a trial.

The Maryland Zoo will vaccinate animals that research has shown to be more vulnerable to catching the disease. The zoo has experienced no Covid cases in its animal population, and is making the move as a precaution.

We expect to receive the vaccine in the fall from the animal health company Zoetis, which has developed a vaccine specifically for animals, said Dr Ellen Bronson, the zoos senior director of animal health, conservation, and research, in a statement.

Zoetis is an international animal vaccine manufacturer and developer and have donated over 11,000 of their specially formatted Covid-19 vaccines to 70 zoos and animal centers. The scheme has been backed by the US Department of Agriculture.

Christina Lood, a spokesperson for the company, told the Independent: Zoetis has a long history of supporting zoo veterinarians, and we are proud to continue to help them provide a high standard of care for the animals living in their zoo communities.

Covid-19s impact on animals is not very well understood, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, it is still being looked into.

The zoos Covid vaccines will be allocated to animals they have assessed to be at most risk. In the statement, Maryland Zoo specified that they were going to inoculate chimpanzees, North American river otters and many of their wild cats, such as amur leopards and cheetahs.

Dr Bronson said that the animals were trained to participate in their own healthcare.

They willingly work with the animal care team and veterinary technicians to receive injections, and in some cases to even allow blood to be drawn and have ultrasound examinations performed while awake, she continued.

She said this attempted to remove the need to sedate the animals for minor medical procedures.

According to the statement, the effort is a part of their larger pandemic control measures, such as mask wearing and social distancing. After the animals have had their jabs, they will be closely watched for side effects.

The Maryland Zoos decision to vaccinate some of their animals comes as a number of other zoos have done the same. In March, the San Diego Zoo became the first zoo to vaccinate their animal population when they vaccinated their gorillas. Oakland Zoo began their vaccine programme for some of their animals in June.

In July, Erin Harrison, a spokesperson for the California zoo, told CNN that the 50 animals involved in the process were doing well and that they were being checked over. In addition, she gave further detail about the reasons why they were doing it.

Were concerned about the animals overall population and long-term survival on the planet, she told the network. Theres been concern about wild populations of these animals, some of the last on earth, and what may happen when the virus gets into these animals. Were just trying to do the best we can.

In June, tiger reserves in India were forced to close by the government after there was an covid outbreak. A lion was said to have died from complications from the virus. In April 2020, there were reports of lions and tigers becoming infected at the Bronx Zoo.

The Independent contacted the Maryland Zoo for further comment.
The Justice Department has asked a federal judge to issue an emergency order preventing Texas from enforcing a law that bans nearly all abortions, saying that this move by the state prevents women from exercising their constitutional rights.

In the first such legal pushback by president Joe Bidens administration, the department has sought a temporary restraining order or a preliminary injunction prohibiting the controversial laws implementation, saying it will have far-reaching consequences for womens reproductive rights. The law does not make any concessions for victims of rape and incest.

In its brief, the department has said: This relief is necessary to protect the constitutional rights of women in Texas and the sovereign interest of the United States.

Stating that the law has gravely and irreparably impaired womens ability to exercise their constitutional right to an abortion across the state, the department argued: The United States has the authority to seek redress from this Court against the State of Texas, particularly in light of the procedural obstacles that Texas erected to shield S.B. 8 from judicial scrutiny in suits by directly affected persons, reported CNN.

The Texas bill is contrary to the decades of precedent prohibiting states from banning abortions before foetal viability, the department said.

The law  Senate Bill 8  bans abortion in women once a medical professional detects cardiac activity in a foetus, which occurs usually around six weeks, an early stage where most women wont be able to tell if they are pregnant.

It has been viewed as part of a broader policy move by Republicans nationwide pushing to outlaw most medical terminations of pregnancy, and has sparked a wave of protests from people defending womens right to choose.

The legislation has also been criticised strongly by Mr Biden, who has called it almost un-American and vowed help from the federal administration to ensure that women in Texas have access to safe and legal abortions.

Texas governor Greg Abbott has defended the law and said that it gives the time span of six weeks to victims of rape and incest to terminate the unwanted pregnancy.
As tens of thousands of Afghan refugees fleeing the Taliban arrive in the U.S., a handful of former Trump administration officials are working to turn Republicans against them.

The former officials are writing position papers, appearing on conservative television outlets and meeting privately with GOP lawmakers  all in an effort to turn the collapse of Afghanistan into another opportunity to push a hard-line immigration agenda.

It is a collaboration based on mutual conviction, said Stephen Miller the architect of President Donald Trumps most conservative immigration policies and among those engaged on the issue. My emphasis has been in talking to members of Congress to build support for opposing the Biden administration's overall refugee plans."

The approach isnt embraced by all Republican leaders, with some calling it mean-spirited and at odds with Christian teachings that are important to the white evangelicals who play a critical role in the partys base. The strategy relies on tactics that were commonplace during Trumps tenure and that turned off many voters, including racist tropes, fear-mongering and false allegations.

And the hard-liners pay little heed to the human reality unfolding in Afghanistan, where those who worked with Americans during the war are desperate to flee for fear they could be killed by the new Taliban regime.

But the Republicans pushing the issue are betting they can open a new front in the culture wars they have been fighting since President Joe Biden s election by combining the anti-immigrant sentiment that helped fuel Trumps political rise with widespread dissatisfaction with the Afghan withdrawal. That, they hope, could keep GOP voters motivated heading into next years midterms, when control of Congress is at stake.

From a political standpoint, cultural issues are the most important issues that are on the mind of the American people, said Russ Vought, Trumps former budget chief and president of the Center for Renewing America, a nonprofit group that has been working on building opposition to Afghan refugee settlement in the U.S. along with other hot-button issues, like critical race theory, which considers American history through the lens of racism.

His group is working, he said, to kind of punch through this unanimity that has existed that the withdrawal was chaotic, but that Afghan refugees deserve to come to the U.S.

Officials insist that every Afghan headed for the country is subject to extensive vetting that includes thorough biometric and biographic screenings conducted by intelligence, law enforcement and counterterrorism personnel. At a pair of hearings this week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said those rigorous security checks begin in transit countries before refugees arrive in the U.S. and continue at U.S. military bases before anyone is resettled. Checks then continue as refugees await further processing.

But Trump and his allies, who worked to sharply curtain refugee admissions while they were in office, insist the refugees pose a threat.

Who are all of the people coming into our Country? Trump asked in a recent statement. How many terrorists are among them?

With the U.S. confronting a host of challenges, it's unclear whether voters will consider immigration a leading priority next year. It was a key motivator for voters in the 2018 midterm elections, with 4 in 10 Republicans identifying it as the top issue facing the country, according to AP VoteCast data. But it became far less salient two years later, when only 3% of 2020 voters  including 5% of Republicans  named it as the No. 1 issue facing the country amid the COVID-19 pandemic and related economic woes.

When it comes to refugees, 68% of Americans say they support the U.S. taking in those fleeing Afghanistan after security screening, according to a Washington Post/ABC News poll in late August and early September. That includes a majority  56%  of Republicans.

The party's leaders are far from united. Dozens of Republican lawmakers and their offices have been working tirelessly to try to help Afghans flee the country. And some, like Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., have admonished those in his party who have suggested the Afghans pose a security risk.

Some of the skepticism voiced by the right has been exacerbated by the Biden administration's refusal to date to provide an accounting of who was able to leave Afghanistan during the U.S.'s chaotic evacuation campaign from Kabul's airport.

The State Department has said that more than 23,800 Afghans arrived in the U.S. between Aug. 17-31. Thousands more remain at U.S. military sites overseas for screening and other processing. But officials have said they are still working to compile the breakdown of how many are applicants to the Special Immigrant Visa program designed to help Afghan interpreters and others who served side-by-side with Americans, how many are considered other Afghans at risk, like journalists and human rights workers, and how many fall into other categories.

The organization War Time Allies estimates as many as 20,000 special visa applicants remain in the country, not counting their families and others eligible to come to the U.S.

Ken Cuccinelli, who served as Trump's acting deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and is now a senior fellow at the Center for Renewing America, says he doesn't believe the refugees have faced sufficient review.

Its unachievable as a simple administrative matter, he said of the process. While Cuccinelli, like Miller, believes that SIVs should be allowed to come to the U.S., he argues that the other refugees should be resettled in the region, closer to home.

The "mass importation of potentially hundreds of thousands of people who do not share American cultural, political, or ideological commonalities poses serious risks to both national security and broader social cohesion," he wrote in a recent position paper on the groups website that cites Pew Research Center polling on beliefs about Sharia law and suicide bombings.

Other former administration officials strongly disagree with such inflammatory language.

Some of the people whove always been immigration hard-liners are seeing this wrongly as an opportunity ahead of the midterms to, lack a better term, stoke fear of, I dont want these people in my country, said Alyssa Farah, a former Pentagon press secretary who also served as White House communications director under Trump.

Farah said she has been working to politely shift Republican sentiment away from arguments that she sees as both factually false and politically questionable. The Republican Party, she noted, includes a majority of veterans  many of whom worked closely alongside Afghans on the ground and have led the push to help their former colleagues escape  as well as evangelical Christians, who have historically welcomed refugees with open arms.

It's totally misreading public sentiment to think that Republicans should not be for relocating Afghan refugees who served along side the U.S.," she said. The Christian community is there. The veterans community is for it.

___ Associated Press writers Hannah Fingerhut in Washington, Julie Watson in San Diego and Ellen Knickmeyer in Oklahoma City contributed to this report.
US Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will file legislation to extend federal pandemic unemployment relief through early 2022 after benefits expired for millions of Americans in September.

Ive been very disappointed on both sides of the aisle that weve just allowed pandemic unemployment assistance to completely lapse, when we are clearly not fully recovered from the cost effects of the pandemic, she said during her monthly town hall with constituents on 14 September, according to a statement from her office.

I simply just could not allow this to happen without at least trying, she said.

The legislation proposes extending all federal unemployment aid through 1 February, 2022, retroactive to 8 September. A suite of Covid-19-related jobless assistance expired for more than 7.5 million people on Labor Day.

That day, three programs lapsed  one provided an additional $300 in weekly federal unemployment aid, another provided relief to jobless Americans who did not otherwise qualify, and another extended federal aid for those who exhausted state-level benefits.

President Joe Biden has suggested that states should allocate other relief funds to continue to float unemployment aid, but state lawmakers do not appear prepared to do so, and Congress and the White House have not signalled any readiness to revive aid in the middle of the pandemic and its economic fallout.

A key component of now-lapsed federal assistance included a weekly supplement to state jobless benefits, initially adding $600 a week from April through July 2020, then, after it was revived in December, dropping to $300 a week.

Congress also created two other programmes  the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance programme supported independent contractors and self-employed Americans, while the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation extended jobless aid to people who exhausted their state benefits.

More than 9 million people were receiving benefits from the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation programme or Pandemic Unemployment Assistance programme, and roughly 100,000 others filed an initial claim for the latter programme within the last week of August, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Enhanced unemployment aid lifted 5.5 million Americans out of poverty, according to the US Census Bureau. Direct stimulus payments lifted 5.5 million people out of poverty, the agency found in its latest report.

When factoring in those benefits, the nations poverty rate declined by 2.6 per cent from 2019 to 9.1 per cent in 2020, the lowest rate since since 2009, when the agency began accounting for impacts from all government aid in its annual poverty assessment.

A report from the US Department of Agriculture also suggest that pandemic relief helped stave off a larger hunger crisis in 2020, while mass unemployment in the wake of the pandemics onset acutely impacted Black households, families with children and people in the South.

The report found that 10.5 per cent of all American households were food insecure, or nearly 14 million households  overall rates that remained unchanged from 2019.

The end of Covid-19-related unemployment aid follows the loss of benefits for nearly 3 million Americans who were cut off from some or all unemployment aid across half of all US states  all but one governed by Republicans  in a bid to push residents back to work earlier this summer.

Analysts have argued that cutting off those benefits did not lead to an uptick in hires.

For every eight workers who lost their unemployment aid, only one found a job.

More than 3 million people were also not employed because of health concerns, without adequate or consistent safety measures in place against Covid-19 transmission, while 5.5 million others were caring for children who are not in school or enrolled in daycare, according to a recent survey from the US Census Bureau.

The unemployment aid cliff could not come at a worse time, said Rakeen Mabud, chief economist at Groundwork Collaborative. Millions will suffer as they lose this critical source of income and the loss of spending will suppress job growth, setting us back yet again in our efforts for an inclusive and equitable recovery.
President Joe Biden reportedly overruled Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on his plan to withdraw military forces from Afghanistan.

The revelations come in a soon-to-be-released book by veteran reporter Bob Woodward and Robert Costa of The Washington Post titled Peril. The book is set to be released next week and a copy was obtained by CNN, which broke the story of the Afghanistan decision.

The book says that Mr Biden was adamant about withdrawing from Afghanistan regardless of the advice from his top advisers and that Mr Austin, a retired general who served in the region, and Mr Blinken, a longtime adviser of Mr Bidens, both advised a slower withdrawal.

The report said that Mr Blinken initially had been foursquare with Biden for a full withdrawal. But after Mr Blinken visited NATO ministers, the top US diplomat urged the president to extend the mission with US troops for a while to see if it could yield a political settlement in hopes it could buy more time for negotiations.

During his testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday, Mr Blinken said he and Mr Austin he visited NATO well before the presidents decision on Afghanistan.

We factored in everything we heard from our allies into our own decision-making decision process, Mr Blinken told Republican Sen Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, who noted that many allies were angered by the United States speedy withdrawal from Afghanistan.

But in the book, Mr Blinken reportedly said he heard from NATO ministers that the United States should leverage its withdrawal to gain concrete steps for a political settlement.

Similarly, Mr Austin proposed a gated withdrawal in three or four stages to give leverage during diplomatic negotiations.

Despite this, Mr Biden reportedly said he would not allow for mission creep, the book said.

Our mission is to stop Afghanistan from being a base for attacking the homeland and US allies by al Qaeda or other terrorist groups, not to deliver a death blow to the Taliban, he said, during one of 25 foreign policy briefings held during the review.

During his testimony on Tuesday, Mr Blinken faced bipartisan criticism on the Hill.

Mr Secretary, the execution of the US withdrawal was clearly and fatally flawed, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Robert Menendez, a Democrat from New Jersey, said in his opening remarks. This committee expects to receive a full explanation of this administrations decisions on Afghanistan since coming into office last January.

And the ranking Republican member criticised Mr Austin for not appearing at the hearing alongside Mr Blinken.

isch, the ranking Republican member on the committee, criticised the fact that Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin did join Mr Blinken and testify.

Theres questions that we really need to have answered, and its disheartening that they decline to testify. The debacle in Afghanistan is an interagency failure, and the fact that you are the only one stepping up is disheartening, Senator James Risch said in his opening remarks.
A poll worker was reprimanded during Tuesdays recall election in California for wearing clothes that expressed support for former US president Donald Trump.

A photo of the worker at a polling station in West Hollywood wearing a Trump 2020 hat and a T-shirt that read Wheres Hunter? (a reference to Hunter Biden) began trending on Twitter, leading to outrage.

Social media users soon began questioning the legality of an election worker showing political bias.

The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk said late on Tuesday that the worker was contacted after these reports and advised that the attire was inappropriate and unacceptable. He is no longer serving as an election worker, they added.

The poll worker was not identified by the LA County. It is still unclear if the election worker was asked to leave or opted to do so after being reprimanded.

Meanwhile, California governor Gavin Newsom survived the Republican efforts to remove him from office in the recall election.

He told reporters late on Tuesday: It appears that we are enjoying an overwhelmingly no vote tonight here in the state of California.

Mr Newsom became the second governor in US history to beat back a recall attempt. The only other person to ever do so was governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin in 2012.

Joe Biden had on Monday provided last-minute help to Mr Newsom and compared his opponent and leading Republican candidate Larry Elder to Donald Trump. Mr Biden had said: You can either keep Gavin Newsom as your governor, or youll get Donald Trump.

Mr Elder, even before the results were decided, had begun to make preemptive claims of voter fraud. But he quickly conceded after the results were announced, and called on his supporters to accept the outcome.
Two Pennsylvania men indicted for allegedly joining in the 6 January mob at the US Capitol said they came to Washington ready for violence because they believed they were following Donald Trumps orders, likening him to a mafia boss.

The call to action was put out to be in DC on January 6th from the Don himself, one of the men said in December, according to court documents.

Mashal Neefe and Charles Bradforth Smith, both 25, were indicted on a host of federal charges on Tuesday, including conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; attacking officers using a dangerous weapon; and carrying out violence on the US capitol grounds.

Their charging documents reveal just how thoroughly Donald Trump seemed to influence the violent mob that stormed the Capitol.

The pair seemed to fixate on the ex-presidents public statements after the election. On 18 December, for example, Mr Trump began promoting the 6 January protests in Washington and hinting at violence, telling supporters on Twitter, Be there, will be wild!

Trump is literally calling people to DC in a show of force, Mr Smith allegedly said on Facebook two weeks later . Militias will be there and if theres enough people they may fucking storm the buildings and take out the trash right there.

The two allegedly discussed plans to travel to the Capitol, and set about arming themselves. Mr Smith allegedly said he wanted to buy an axe handle and attach an American flag to the end, so we can wave the flag but also have a giant beating stick just in case.

(Court records indicate that the men do not yet have legal representation to contact, and they havent entered an official plea in the case.)

Once they arrived in the Capitol, the men allegedly continued to boast about violence and attacking the Capitol.

We stormed the gates of the Capitol, Mr Smith allegedly said in a Facebook video.

Mr Neefe, meanwhile, allegedly used a quote from Abraham Lincolns assassin that was later repurposed by Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, as he stormed the Capitol.

Theyre rushing the Capitol right now. . . . Theres people literally rushing it right now. Sic semper tyrannis.

The quote means Thus always to tyrants, in Latin.

Once the chaos was over, Mr Neefe allegedly vowed to be even more violent next time.

Im bringing a gun next time [] Its only going to get more violent, he said . Today was p**** s*** dude If I had it my way every cop who hurled a baton or maced on us would be lined up and put down . . . We made sure they know we f******* OWN them.

A number of Capitol riot suspects, including the so-called  Qanon Shaman , have used Mr Trumps words as part of their defence, arguing things wouldnt have escalated without the presidents fiery words that day and in the months leading up to the rally. In his speech just before the riot broke out, Mr Trump told the MAGA faithful to fight like hell and that we will not take it anymore.

For example, an attorney for Emanuel Jackson , a 20-year-old Washington-area man accused of using a metal bat to hit officers riot shields, told the court earlier this year that the nature and circumstances of this offense must be viewed through the lens of an event inspired by the President of the United States.

So far, the argument hasnt been enough to get anyone out of charges, but rather has been used to argue for lighter detention conditions or charges. A spokesperson for Mr Trump did not respond to a request for comment.

Mr Trumps words will come under more direct scrutiny in Congress, which requested records last month from at least 30 members of his inner circle as part of its investigation into the Capitol riot.

If those officials dont comply with the request, they could face legally binding subpoenas.
A federal judge on Wednesday rejected a request by lawyers for former President Donald Trump to delay the progression of a defamation lawsuit by a woman who accused him of rape.

Judge Lewis A. Kaplan in Manhattan issued a brief denial of the request the lawyers made in December to delay the lawsuit while an appeals court decides whether the United States can be substituted as the defendant. It was unclear whether he would explain his reasoning in a subsequent filing.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is slated to hear arguments in November on whether Trump can be replaced as the defendant in the lawsuit brought by columnist E. Jean Carroll.

The U.S. Justice Department has asserted that Trump cannot be held personally liable for crude and disrespectful remarks he made about Carroll because he was president at the time.

Carroll says Trump raped her in the mid-1990s in an upscale Manhattan department store.

Her lawyer, Roberta Kaplan said in an email, We very much look forward to oral argument in E Jeans case before the Second Circuit. ... In the meantime, we are reviewing todays order.

Lawyers for Trump and the Justice Department did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

The Associated Press generally does not identify people alleging sexual assault, but Carroll has consented to being named in the media.

Former U.S. Attorney General William Barr began the effort to replace Trump as the defendant while Trump was still in office.

Barrs intervention last October was criticized on the campaign trail by Trump's Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, who said it was inappropriate for the Justice Department to attempt to intervene in a private legal battle over Trumps personal conduct.

In June, the Justice Department under Biden, who won the election, stuck to the position it took while Barr led the department.

It said Trump was acting within the scope of his office in denying wrongdoing after White House reporters asked him about Carrolls claims.

Elected public officials can  and often must  address allegations regarding personal wrongdoing that inspire doubt about their suitability for office, the Justice Department said.

Even reprehensible conduct ... can fall within the scope of employment, the lawyers wrote, conceding that Trump used crude and disrespectful language in questioning Carrolls credibility.

Kaplan ruled last October that Trump cannot use a law protecting federal employees from being sued individually for things they do within the scope of their employment.
California governor Gavin Newsom will remain in office, after fending off a historic recall election that challenged his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and would have altered the political balance of the state and country at large.

The special election result was called by US television networks and the Associated Press by late Tuesday, with early results showing Mr Newsom easily winning a majority of support from voters.

Im humbled and grateful to the millions and millions of Californians that exercised their fundamental right to vote, Mr Newsom said in a victory speech in the state capital Sacramento.

The governor beat out a field of more than 80 candidates in the recall  only the second in state history to make it onto the ballot  including the provocative conservative radio host Larry Elder, who became the leading challenger late in the race.

Taking a page from Donald Trumps book, the Elder campaign began baselessly insisting the contest was rigged before the votes were even finished being tallied.

The campaign set up an online forum where Californians could report incidents of perceived fraud, and also claimed without evidence they had detected fraud in the election resulting in Governor Gavin Newsom being reinstated as governor, even though vote totals hadnt been publicly announced yet.

Mr Trump joined the conspiratorial pile-on, claiming without evidence on Monday that Millions and millions of Mail-In Ballots will make this just another giant Election Scam, no different, but less blatant, than the 2020 Presidential Election Scam!

Following his victory, Mr Newsom hit out at Mr Trump over the suggestion the ballot was rigged, saying: Democracy is not a football. You don't just throw it around. It's more like, I don't know, an antique vase. You can drop it and smash it in a million pieces. And that's what we're capable of doing if we don't stand up and meet the moment.

He added: We may have defeated Trump, but Trumpism is not dead in this country.

Despite a shaky month of August where yes and no recall votes were polling nearly equally, the governor was expected to cruise to an easy win and came into Tuesdays election with a projected margin of victory of more than 15 per cent. A phalanx of high-profile allies, including president Biden, vice president Harris, and US senators Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren also joined the governor in California for last-minute campaign support.

Efforts to recall Mr Newsom, the liberal former mayor of San Francisco, began almost immediately when he took office as governor in 2019, though none of the campaigns from pro-Trump groups succeeded in garnering a large statewide following.

The governor enjoyed wide support across the state at the beginning of the pandemic, earning plaudits for being the first state in the country to order a lockdown and boasting a 64 per cent approval rating in September 2020.

Things took a dramatic nose dive when pictures leaked of Mr Newsom dining without a mask at a lobbyist friends birthday party at The French Laundry, a luxury restaurant in Napa, even as many businesses across the state remained closed or restricted. (The governor has since apologised.)

His support fell to less than half of the state in a manner of a few weeks. The recall campaign, led by a former Yolo County sheriffs sergeant named Orrin Heatlie, suddenly had wind in its sails, and racked up a total of 1.7 million signatures in short order.

Republicans came out of the woodwork to challenge Mr Newsoms hold on the deeply blue state, including Kevin Faulconer, the former mayor of San Diego; John Cox, a San Diego businessman; and Caitlyn Jenner, the reality TV personality and former Olympic athlete.

None of them, especially with the ascendance of Mr Elder, had much of a shot at winning in the crowded field, political insiders told The Independent. The state has got even more Democratic since voters recalled Democrat Gray Davis in favour of the Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2003.

Part of the challenge for Republicans for decades at this point is that none of them are provided a platform to build up statewide name ID and recognition, Jason Roe, a Republican consultant who previously worked for former Republican San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, said before the election.

The governor framed the recall effort, which grew to prominence riding waves of outrage over coronavirus shutdown measures, as part of a larger struggle against right-wing ideology taking over US politics.

We defeated Trump last year, and thank you, but we havent defeated Trumpism, the governor said multiple times during the final stretch of his recall campaign. This is a matter of life and death.

If Mr Newsom had lost it would have been a major blow to the largely Democratic state, potentially altering the balance of the US Senate if one of Californias senators resigned and a temporary successor was appointed by the governor.

Political observers were also concerned that other candidates like Mr Elder seemed to be copying former president Trumps strategy of sowing doubt as to the integrity of the election system to cover for clear losses at the polls.

This is really becoming the standard GOP playbook, Lee Drutman, a senior fellow at the New America think tank, told NBC News. This is democracy 101. If you dont have elections that are accepted and decisive, then you dont really have a democracy, because the alternative is violence or authoritarianism.

Mr Newsom wont have too long to rest though: hes up for re-election in 2022.
President Joe Biden has defended General Mark Milley , chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, amid a controversy about the generals allegedly secret calls to China in the final months of the Trump administration.

I have great confidence in General Milley, the president said on Wednesday.

According to a new book by journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, General Milley made two secret phone calls in late 2020 and early 2021 to Chinas top general, Li Zuocheng, to reassure him that the United States did not intend to go to war with his country.

In one call, General Milley allegedly told his Chinese counterpart, General Li, you and I have known each other for now five years. If were going to attack, Im going to call you ahead of time. Its not going to be a surprise.

On Wednesday, a spokesperson for General Milley denied that the calls were secret and defended the actions.

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs regularly communicates with Chiefs of Defense across the world, including with China and Russia, Colonel Dave Butler said in a statement. These conversations remain vital to improving mutual understanding of US national security interests, reducing tensions, providing clarity and avoiding unintended consequences or conflict.

All calls from the chairman to his counterparts, including those reported, are staffed, coordinated and communicated with the Department of Defense and the interagency, he added.

Separately, White House press secretary Jen Psaki spoke up for General Milley as well.

The president knows General Milley, he has been chairman of the Joint Chiefs for almost eight months of his presidency, theyve worked side by side through a range of international events, Ms Psaki said on Wednesday. And the President has complete confidence in his leadership, his patriotism and his fidelity to our Constitution.

Republicans have lashed out over the calls, which they see as violating the chain of command and undermining a US president. Donald Trump himself has accused General Milley of treason.

I hope reports of Gen Milley reaching out to his Chinese counterpart to undermine a sitting President is [sic] proven false, because if this is true it wasnt an act of patriotic heroism, Senator Marco Rubio tweeted. It was an act of treachery that posed a grave risk to our security & our constitutional order.
Both sides of Americas political divide have called on Gen Mark Milley to resign amid accusations that he broke the chain of command by assuring Beijing that Washington would not wage war against China in Donald Trumps final two months in office.

As revealed by Peril, an upcoming book by Watergate reporter Bob Woodward and his Washington Post colleague Robert Costa, the US Chief of Staff called his Chinese counterpart Gen Li Zuocheng to avert war with the United States  amid fears that Beijing was concerned about an attack.

Alexander Vindman, a former member of the US Security Council and a retired US Army lieutenant colonel, was among the figures to call for Gen Milleys resignation following reports of his conversations with China on Tuesday.

If this is true Gen Milley must resign, Mr Vindman wrote on Twitter. He usurped civilian authority, broke chain of command, and violated the sacrosanct principle of civilian control over the military. Its an extremely dangerous precedent. You cant simply walk away from that."

Rand Paul, a Republican senator for Kentucky, agreed with Mr Vindman and wrote on Twitter: I dont care what you think of President Trump, the Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff working to subvert the military chain of command and collude with China is exactly what we do not accept from military leaders in our country. He should be court martialed if true.

According to Woodward and Costa, Gen Milley called Gen Li twice with assurances that the American government is stable and everything is going to be okay, and that Washington was not going to attack or conduct any kinetic operations against you.

Two calls  which occurred both before and after the Capitol riot on 6 January  also saw Gen Li receive assurances that he would be warned before any attack. According to The Post, Gen Milley told him that:If were going to attack, Im going to call you ahead of time. Its not going to be a surprise.

California Democrat Ted Lieu was also among those criticising Gen Milley on Tuesday, and wrote on Twitter: The fate of the world should not depend on a single general, in this case Mark Milley, trying to stop a President who is unstable.

Thats why we need to pass my bill with senator Ed Markey that requires POTUS to get congressional authorisation before launching a nuclear first strike.

Mr Trump, responding to reports of Gen Milleys calls with China, told Newsmax on Tuesday that if it is actually true, which is hard to believe that he would have called China and done these things and was willing to advise them of an attack or in advance of an attack...thats treason.
Survivors of convicted former US Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassars abuse testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee to express their shock and anger at the FBIs handling of the federal investigation into Mr Nassar.

And while FBI Director Christopher Wray answered questions about his response to the Justice Department Inspector Generals report into the FBIs handling of the case at the hearing on Wednesday, many of the lawmakers had questions for the DOJ itself as to why it declined to prosecute two FBI agents referred for criminal prosecution over their conduct in the case.

Those questions went unanswered as neither Attorney General Merrick Garland nor any other official at DOJ appeared at Wednesdays hearing, a decision that evoked exasperation and anger from the members of the Senate panel.

Chief among the Department of Justices most outspoken critics was Sen Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat, who told gymnasts Simone Biles, Aly Raisman, Maggie Nichols and McKayla Maroney that they were owed an explanation by the absentee officials.

 Simone Biles give emotional testimony during Lary Nasser hearing

Those [criminal] referrals were declined...without any public explanation at all, said the senator. My hope is that the Department of Justice, which was invited to attend today and has declined to appear, will match your courage by explaining why those lies by FBI agents did not lead to criminal prosecution and accountability.

They owe the American people and you an explanation, he continued.

At times the hearing saw raw and emotional testimony, both when the gymnasts described the abuse by Mr Nasser and during descriptions of the responses of FBI agents assigned to investigate their claims, whose actions and words the athletes said were cold and callous.

What is the point of reporting abuse if our own FBI agents are going to take it upon themselves to bury that report in a drawer? asked Ms Maroney during her prepared opening statement. They had legal legitimate evidence of child abuse and did nothing. If theyre not going to protect me, I want to know who are they trying to protect.

"Not only did the FBI not report my abuse, but when they eventually documented my report 17 months later, they made entirely false claims about what I said," she continued, visibly angered.

Ms Nichols accused the FBI, and two US organisations involved with the case, of betraying her and other victims.

USA Gymnastics, the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee, and the FBI have all betrayed me and those who were abused by Larry Nassar, she said. "The survivors of Larry Nassar have a right to know why their well-being was placed in jeopardy by these individuals who chose not to do their jobs."

And Ms Biles was brought to tears when telling the committee in her own prepared statement that she hoped no other athlete or individual would ever face the ongoing trauma that she and others faced as a result of Mr Nassers actions and the failures of investigators.

Simon Biles (AP)

I dont want another gymnast, Olympic athlete or any individual to experience the horror that I and hundreds of others have endured before, during, and continuing to this day, she said, before breaking down with emotion.

"To be clear, I blame Larry Nassar and I also blame an entire system that enabled and perpetrated his abuse," she continued a moment later.

In his attempts to respond to the witnesses and committee members after the panel returned from a break for lunch, FBI Director Wray said he could not explain or go into his discussions with the Justice Department regarding their decision not to prosecute the two FBI agents singled out by the inspector general, and added that it was a frustration that a third former agent involved in the case could not face disciplinary action due to having retired.

We have made some real doozies of mistakes over 113 years, Mr Wray said during a response to Sen John Cornyn. What I would say to those women is that Im so deeply for sorry for what our folks did and more importantly didnt do back in 2015.

During questioning by committee members, Ms Raiman and Ms Biles offered a path forward for the three entities  USA Gymnastics, the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee, and the FBI  which saw their reputations heavily tarnished in the wake of the massive scandal, which in total is believed to have involved hundreds of victims, including many after the first allegations of sexual abuse were raised.

McKayla Maroney (REUTERS)

I think a complete and full independent investigation of the FBI, USA Gymnastics, and the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee [is necessary], Ms Raisman said, explaining: And then from there, we should know the answers of who should be held accountable.

Ms Biles added: We want to see them...federally prosecuted to the fullest extent.

Mr Nassar currently resides in a federal prison in Florida, serving out a 60-year sentence. He also faces a sentence of 40-125 years in a Michigan state prison for a second conviction should he ever be released.

At his second trial in early 2018, a Michigan judge famously declared that she had signed his death warrant by imposing the lengthy second sentence, virtually assuring that Mr Nassar will never live as a free man again.
As members of Congress hid from the insurrectionists who had invaded the Capitol on 6 January, the nations highest-ranking military officer reportedly told a Democratic congresswoman that he believed then-President Donald Trump had wanted that days violent confrontation to happen.

According to Peril, the forthcoming book on the end of Mr Trumps presidency by The Washington Posts Bob Woodward and Robert Costa  a copy of which was obtained by The Independent  Michigan Representative Elissa Slotkin reached out to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley by phone as she and many of her colleagues hid out in their Capitol Hill offices. The congresswoman stressed the importance of getting National Guard forces to the complex to push back the pro-Trump horde.

In response, Mr Milley assured Ms Slotkin that help was on the way, and told her that he had purposefully bypassed Mr Trump directly, but had told then-Vice President Mike Pence of plans to send in the Guard.

After Ms Slotkin praised his decision to keep Mr Trump out of the loop, Gen Milley noted that Mr Trump had approved the use of National Guard soldiers to support Washington DC police officers in the days leading up to the riot. But he then added that he thought Mr Trump had desired and was enjoying the violent scene that was playing out.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley chats with US President Donald Trump after he delivered the State of the Union address at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on February 4, 2020 (AFP via Getty Images)

I think he wanted this. I think that he likes this. I think that he wants that chaos. He wants his supporters to be fighting to the bitter end, Gen Milley said, according to the book, before adding: I dont know.

The 63-year-old Army officer plays a central role in Mr Woodward and Mr Costas telling of the chaotic days between Mr Trumps loss to then-former Vice President Joe Biden in early November 2020 and Mr Bidens inauguration on 20 January.

In the books prologue, Gen Milley was reportedly so alarmed by intelligence reports which posited that Chinese authorities believed Mr Trump could order a nuclear strike to create a crisis by which he could keep himself in power, that he began a series of back-channel conversations with his Chinese counterpart in the days before the 3 November election.

Out of the same concern, he also reportedly convened a meeting with senior military officers to remind them of the proper procedures governing the release of nuclear weapons.

In a statement released by his political action committee, Mr Trump called the four-star general he had personally nominated as the 20th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff a dumbass and accused the decorated combat veteran of treason before accusing Mr Woodward and Mr Costa of working with the general to fabricate the story.

In response, Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesperson Colonel Dave Butler said in a statement on Wednesday that Gen Milley regularly communicates with Chiefs of Defense across the world, including with China and Russia and that such conversations remain vital to improving mutual understanding of U.S. national security interests, reducing tensions, providing clarity and avoiding unintended consequences or conflict.

He added that Gen Milley frequently conducts meetings with uniformed leaders across the Services to ensure all leaders are aware of current issues, and said the meeting regarding nuclear weapons protocols was to remind uniformed leaders in the Pentagon of the long-established and robust procedures in light of media reporting on the subject.
The organisers of an upcoming rally in support of those arrested for their alleged part in the 6 January insurrection have instructed attendees not to bring pro-Trump clothing or signs  and insisted the rally is not about the 2020 election.

At the same time, the House sergeant-at-arms has told all members of Congress and their staff to avoid the US Capitol on 18 September, the day of the rally, amid warnings that the event may be attended by members of violent extremist groups.

The so-called Justice for J6 rally, whose organisers insist their intentions are peaceful, is causing consternation among local and federal law enforcement. The Department of Homeland Security has said it anticipates a crowd of roughly 700, though it cannot say for sure how many will actually attend. More worrying than the number of attendees is the possibility that among the crowd will be members of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, both of which have been linked to specific violence on the day of the 6 January attack.

Leading the rally is former Trump campaign staffer Matt Braynard, who has described people arrested and charged in connection with the insurrection as political prisoners being persecuted for their beliefs and compared the FBIs attempt to track rioters down to domestic terrorism. Under the auspices of his nonprofit political action group Look Ahead America, he helped organise a similar rally in July this summer at a Washington DC detention centre where some 50 insurrection defendants were being held.

With the latest rally approaching, he has been at pains to reframe it as more (or less) than a pro-Trump event  and his message to attendees to that effect came off more like a threat than a request.

We request that anybody attending our events not wear any clothing or have signs supportive of either President Trump or Biden, he wrote. Anyone not honoring this request will be assumed to be an infiltrator and we will take your picture, find out who you are, and make you famous.

This event is 100% about #JusticeforJ6 and not the election or any candidate.

That policy tallies with one of the strains of 6 January revisionism that has surfaced in recent months, namely that the insurrectionists were mostly peaceful and even naive patriots who are being penalised for their sincere conservatism by a draconian liberal-controlled state.

In his pre-rally warning memo directed to members of Congress, Sergeant-at-Arms William J Walker wrote that the Capitol Police  who were badly underprepared and underresourced for the 6 January attack  will have additional personnel and external law enforcement partners posted throughout Capitol Grounds. He also warned that unless required to be onsite, members and staff are strongly encouraged to avoid the US Capitol complex, and that they should park in underground garages and use tunnels between the Capitol and office buildings rather than moving around above ground.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has made her feelings about the upcoming rally abundantly clear. These people are coming back to praise the people who were out to kill, she told a press conference, out to kill members of Congress, successfully [caused] the deaths  successfully is not the word, but thats the word, because its what they set out to do  of our law enforcement.

Mr Braynard, meanwhile, has claimed that members of Congress will appear at the rally, but it is not as yet clear who, if anyone, is on the slate. Top far-right House Republicans Madison Cawthorn and Marjorie Taylor Greene are reportedly staying away.

Others particularly associated with the events of 6 January are far-right representatives such as Mo Brooks, who spoke at Donald Trumps Stop the Steal rally shortly before the attack; Lauren Boebert, who tweeted Today is 1776 on the day of the riot; and Paul Gosar, an Arizona congressman who has attended events with prominent white nationalists. The Independent has sought comment from their offices on whether they will be attending or addressing the rally; Mr Banyard did not immediately respond to a message.
Bulgaria's president has called a third parliamentary election this year that will be held on Nov. 14 after two previous votes failed to produce a government, authorities said Wednesday.

Parliament will be dissolved and a new caretaker government will be appointed in the European Union country of 7 million. Bulgaria already held parliamentary elections in April and July this year, but the country's largest three parties fail to produce a working coalition government.

On the same day as Novembers parliamentary vote, a presidential election will be held in which incumbent President Roumen Radev is seeking a second term. The president said holding the two votes together will save time and money.

The two campaigns will be taking place at the same time and will merge. I will count on the support of all respectable Bulgarians on the big issues  the fight against poverty and injustice, Radev told reporters.

Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, who was at the helm for more than a decade, resigned in April after widespread anti-corruption protests against him and his center-right GERB party.

In July's election, the anti-establishment There is Such a People party won the most seats but fell well short of the majority needed to form a government. The GERB party now lacks support from any of the other parties.

Daniel Smilov, a professor of political science at the University of Sofia told The Associated Press that Novembers early election will probably lead to another fragmented parliament, extending the political impasse in the EU's poorest member.

My hope is that the leading parties have learned lessons from the two previous failed parliaments, he said. What needs to happen is, either the old parties need to reform ... or the new parties that pretend to bring change need to pull their act together.

Radev is expected to present the interim government Thursday.

The next official government will continue to work to eradicate corruption from institutions, Radev said.

Bulgaria ranked 69th out of 180 countries in Transparency Internationals 2020 Corruption Perception Index.

Political turmoil in Bulgaria is also taking place as the EUs least-vaccinated nation struggles to contain rising coronavirus infections. Bulgaria has vaccinated just 23% of its people  far fewer than the EU average.
Kevin McCarthy was allegedly the subject of foul-mouthed rants by former US president Donald Trump, who claimed that the Republican House leader pretended to be his friend, a new book says.

Mr Trump, according to an account from Peril, a book soon to be released by Watergate reporter Bob Woodward and his Washington Post colleague Robert Costa, flipped after Mr McCarthy condemned the 6 January riot.

This guy called me every single day, pretended to be my best friend, and then, he f****d me, Mr Trump reportedly said of the Republican House leader in February. Hes not a good guy.

Mr McCarthy told the House a week after 6 January that the former president bore responsibility for the attack on Congress by mob rioters, and that Mr Trump should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding.

Like many Republicans, the House leader later walked back his remarks following Joe Bidens inauguration on 2020 January, and asked Mr Trump for his backing.

Behind Mr McCarthys back, according to Woodward, Mr Trump told friends in February that "Kevin came down to kiss my a** and wants my help to win the House back, a month he after travelled to Mar-a-Lago in Florida for a photo op with his former boss.

The book by Mr Woodward and Mr Costa, which is scheduled for release on 21 September, also contains allegations that Mr Trump told his vice president, Mike Pence, that he would not be his friend anymore if he refused to overturn the 2020 results in his favour.

Mr Pence went on to oversee the joint session of Congress that confirmed the results of the 2020 election as the US Capitol building came attack from a pro-Trump mob.

Gen Mark Milley, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also allegedly took action to stop Mr Trump from going rogue with nuclear weapons, wrote Woodward.

The top US military figure also called his Chinese counterpart to assure them that Washington DC would not attack in Mr Trumps final months in office, reported CNN, who obtained a copy of Peril.
Former president Donald Trump on Tuesday claimed that the United States would come to an end in the next three years, without explaining what that might mean in practice.

The US has gone really downhill in the last eight months like nobody has ever seen before, Mr Trump said during an appearance on Sean Spicers show on conservative news channel Newsmax.

[If we] go to these elections coming up in 22 and 24, we are not going to have a country left, he said, falsely claiming that the 2020 election was rigged and we are not gonna have a country left in three years.

Immediately after this statement Spicer, who served as the former presidents press secretary, hastily ended the interview with: Youve been very generous with your time, thank you for that.

Newsmax is facing a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems for allegedly spreading misinformation about fraud involving the companys voting machines in the 2020 presidential elections. Newsmax has defended its coverage, saying the network simply reported on allegations made by well-known public figures.

Over the last few months, Mr Trump has aggressively criticised president Joe Biden for withdrawing US troops from Afghanistan. He continued to attack Mr Biden on Tuesday.

He [Biden] was going to be the great unifier... He is not a unifier, he is the opposite, he is worse than Obama. Of course, Obama is probably running the government now according to many, Mr Trump said.

Mr Trump is reportedly aspiring to run for the presidents office again in 2024. Despite not making a formal announcement, he has kept the door open for a presidential run through crowdfunding and rallies, and hinted repeatedly that the only reason he isnt announcing already is because of campaign financing rules.

In an interview with the Washington Examiner in August, Spicer claimed that Trump will run for office again. A couple of months ago, I wasnt sure. Now, there needs to be something that will keep him out, he said.

Hinting at this, Spicer said: Mr Biden has sought to kick off 11 of your appointees to service academies, including my appointment to the US Naval Academy. If you ran for president again and won, excluding the statutory boards, would you kick off every Biden presidential appointee?

The former president responded that he might because what he [Mr Biden] did is unprecedented.

We have great people on the boards, for them to be thrown off  it never happened before, Mr Trump said. They [the Biden administration] are vicious people, thats what they are good at. They use prosecutors all over the place, local prosecutors, federal prosecutors and yet Hunter Biden [Joe Bidens second son] is fine.

He added: What they are doing is horrible, these are great people, including you Sean. It is very disrespectful for our country.
A fugitive who spent 30 years on the run has handed himself into authorities after Covid-19 left him homeless and jobless.

Darko Desic, 64, escaped from Grafton jail in 1992 and spent decades living in Sydneys Northern Beaches area working as a labourer and handyman.

But when Sydneys lockdown began in June to combat a Covid outbreak, Desic lost his job, police sources told Sydneys Daily Telegraph.

He slept on the beach on Saturday night and said, Stuff it, Ill go back to prison where theres a roof over my head, a source told the newspaper.

He surrendered at Dee Why Police Station in Sydney on Sunday morning and was denied bail when he appeared in court on Tuesday charged with escaping from lawful custody in 1992, a police statement said. The charge carries a potential seven-year prison sentence.

Desic was jailed in 1991 for three-and-a-half years for growing marijuana, but on the night of 31 July 1992 used a hacksaw blade and bolt cutters to cut through his cell window and a perimeter fence, police allege.

Born in the former Yugoslavia, Desic told police he escaped from jail because he thought he would be deported once he had served his sentence.

He feared he would be punished for failing to do his compulsory military service in his former country, which has since broken up into several nations.

Desic managed to avoid detection from immigration officials and was granted residency in 2008.

He told police he had spent his entire time at large at Sydneys northern beaches in the suburb of Avalon, and maintained a low profile but was once mentioned on Australias Most Wanted, a true crime TV programme.

Additional reporting by AP
Spains prime minister and Catalonias leader met on Wednesday to restart negotiations in the hopes of finding a solution to the ongoing political crisis caused by the regions separatist movement.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is sitting down with regional president Pere Aragones at the seat of the Catalan government in Barcelona.

Expectations are low for any huge advances from the meeting which has caused a rift within the separatist camp. Mr Aragones and his Republican Left of Catalonia party called the talks a historic opportunity.

But leaders of the junior party in Mr Aragones government have publicly voiced their doubts about the chances that there will be any real gains for the separatists. The influential grassroots group National Catalan Assembly goes further, saying that the talks will only serve to derail their cause.

The talks come with 7.5 million Catalans entrenched into two roughly equal camps. Polls and election results over the past five years consistently show that half of Catalonia wants to remain in Spain, while the other half wants to sever all ties.

Mr Sanchez is keen to find a solution to the crisis he inherited when he took office in 2018, not a year after the leaders of Catalonias government and separatist grassroots groups failed in a unilateral breakaway bid that violated the Spanish Constitution.

In a bold move to reduce tensions, the Socialist leader took the decision in June to pardon the nine imprisoned instigators of the 2017 secession attempt. Both the pardons and the talks have been heavily criticised by Spains right-wing parties.

Now, heading into the meeting in Barcelona, Mr Sanchez said that he would insist on finding ways to improve the economic and social wellbeing of Catalans, while firmly denying any separatist claims to sovereignty.

Mr Aragones has insisted that the only issues on the table are the possibility of Spain authorising a referendum on independence, and a general amnesty of all those separatists in trouble with the law.

After years of scant dialogue between Catalonias leaders and Spains then ruling conservatives, Mr Sanchez met with Mr Aragones predecessor, Quim Torra, in February 2020 in Madrid. The outcome of that meeting was to agree to hold meetings once a month. But those were put on hold by the pandemic, which struck Spain just weeks after.
A Swedish court on Wednesday sentenced a 47-year-old man to three years in prison for spying for Russia, which involved selling secret information from truckmaker Scania.

The court said it had found the man guilty of acquiring and selling the secret information from the truckmaker to a Russian embassy official. The court acquitted the man of similar espionage charges at Geely-owned carmaker Volvo Cars.

To be convicted of espionage, it is required that Swedens security can be damaged if the information benefits foreign powers, the court said in a statement.

The district court has ruled that this is the case with regard to the information that the man obtained from Scania, while it has not been proven that this is the case with regard to the information from Volvo.

The court statement said the man regularly received cash at his meetings with the Russian embassy official, which it considered was compensation for the information provided.

The man was apprehended whilst meeting the diplomat in a restaurant, having just received 27,800 Swedish crowns (2345.08).

The man, who has denied wrongdoing, worked as a consultant for Volvo Cars in 2016 and 2017 and for Scania in 2018 and 2019, until he was arrested.

The mans lawyer said he would appeal.

Scania is owned by truckmaker Traton.
Germanys far-right party, AfD spokesperson Tino Chrupalla embarrassed himself when he couldnt name even a single German poem on childrens TV after just stressing the importance of teaching German folk songs and poems in schools across the country.

Mr Chrupalla, one of the two lead candidates from AfD  Alternativ fur Deutschland (Alternative for Germany)  for the upcoming 26 September elections was promoting the importance of German culture on the childrens news programme, logo! on broadcaster ZDF.

He told the young anchor  who local media identified as logo! childrens reporter Alexander  that it was important to teach traditional German folk songs and poems in schools across the country alongside German philosophers.

In a viral video clip, the 46-year-old far-right leader tells the young anchor that young people should learn more German folk songs, more German poems in school.

The 12-year-old child interviewing him tells him: I think we already have to memorise plenty of poems in school.

Then continues to ask him, Whats your favourite German poem?

Mr Chrupalla says, after a pause My favourite poem is, uh, I have to, I should think about it now, I cant think of any.

The young journalist, Alexander has along with other children, for the ZDF childrens program logo! interviewed high profile German politicians ahead of the upcoming federal elections.

To save him from embarrassing himself further, Alexander asked the politician to name his favourite poet.

Mr Chrupalla said Heinrich Heine was his favourite poet.

However, local media noted that this was a weird choice for a far-right politician as Heinrich Heine despised all forms of German nationalism.

On social media, the young German journalist was celebrated. One user said: Can anyone give this child a prize?

Editor of Germanys Der Spiegel pointed out that Mr Chrupallas embarrassing interview is like asking Sarah Palin about her newspaper reads. Or Donald Trump after his favourite passage from the Bible.

Meanwhile, Germany goes to the polls on 26 September to elect a new Bundestag or federal parliament.

AfD is a populist right-wing party that is known for its opposition to European Union and immigration. The party was established in April 2013 and Guardian reports that it has generally been moving to the right ever since.

AfD first entered the parliament in 2017 and Jorg Meuthen and Tino Chrupalla are the two party leaders. NPR reported that AfD became the countrys third-largest political party and the official opposition to the centrist coalition government.

In December last year, a poll showed that 24 per cent of AfD supporters believed that the pandemic is a conspiracy to oppress people.

More recently, Mr Chrupalla opposed offering asylum to Afghans. He complained earlier this month that of the first 4,000 people who had been flown out by the German military from Kabul airport, only 136 counted as what he would consider to be local support staff in Afghanistan.

He also said that the Afghans should be sent back at the border.
Russian and separatist flags flutter in the air as lively music blares and soldiers from the self-proclaimed Donetsk Peoples Republic sit listening to speeches. Members of the Russian nationalist Night Wolves motorcycle club mill around nearby.

Russia will hold parliamentary elections on 17-19 September and for the first time, United Russia, the ruling party that supports President Vladimir Putin, is campaigning in eastern Ukraine on territory controlled by Moscow-backed separatists.

Up for grabs are the votes of more than 600,000 people who were given Russian passports after a Kremlin policy change in 2019 that Ukraine decried as a step towards annexation.

I will vote for sure, and only for United Russia because I think with them we will join the Russian Federation, said Elena, 39, from Khartsysk in the Donetsk region.

Our children will study according to the Russian curriculum, our salaries will be according to Russian standards, and actually we will live in Russia, she said, speaking at a United Russia rally in the city of Donetsk.

In 2014, after street protests ousted Ukraines Kremlin-friendly president Viktor Yanukovich, Russia swiftly annexed another part of Ukraine, the Crimean Peninsula. Pro-Russian separatists then rose up across eastern Ukraine, in what Kyiv and its Western allies called a Moscow-backed land grab.

More than 14,000 people have died in fighting between separatists and Ukrainian forces, with deadly clashes continuing regularly despite a ceasefire that ended large scale combat in 2015.

Two self-proclaimed Peoples Republics run the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, in a part of eastern Ukraine known as the Donbass. Moscow has cultivated close links to the separatists but denies orchestrating their rebellions.

In Donetsk, election billboards with images of Russian landmarks such as Moscows St Basils Cathedral are dotted around. The Russian rouble has supplanted the Ukrainian hryvnia. Kyiv, meanwhile, is furious at Russia staging an election on separatist-held territory.

Russification

There is a total Russification of this region going full steam ahead, Oleskiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraines security and defence council, told Reuters in Kyiv.

The other question is why is the world not reacting to this? Why should they recognise this State Duma? he said, referring to the Russian parliaments lower house that will be chosen in the vote.

Russia says there is nothing unusual about people with dual Russian and Ukrainian nationality voting in a Russian election.

Donbass residents with Russian passports were entitled to vote wherever they live, Russias TASS news agency quoted Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying on 31 August.

Kyiv and Moscow accuse each other of blocking a permanent peace in the Donbass. A mass mobilisation of Russian forces near Ukraines border earlier this year caused alarm in the West.

Across Russia itself, United Russia is expected to win the parliamentary election, as it has never failed to do in the Putin era, despite opinion poll ratings that have sagged lately over stagnant living standards. Opposition groups say their candidates have been denied access to the ballot, jailed, intimidated or pushed into exile, and they anticipate fraud. Russia says the vote will be fair.

Although the Donbass is small when compared with the overall Russian electorate, the ruling partys overwhelming support there could be enough to secure extra seats.

Obviously United Russias rating there is much higher and the protest vote is much lower there than across (Russia) on average, said Abbas Gallyamov, a former Kremlin speech writer turned political analyst.

Thats why they are mobilising Donbass.

Yevhen Mahda, a Kyiv-based political analyst, said Russia was letting Donbass residents vote not only to boost United Russia, but to legitimise the separatist administrations.

Russia, I would put it this way, with great cynicism, is exploiting the fact that most of the people living there have nowhere to go to get help, nobody to rely on, and often a Russian passport was the only way out of the desperate situation that people found themselves in on occupied territories.
Looking down a hillside dotted with large stumps and nearly devoid of trees, a pair of retired U.S. Forest Service employees lamented logging policies they helped craft to deal with two harbingers of climate change -- pine beetles and wildfires.

Timber production dramatically ramped up two decades ago in the Black Hills National Forest along the South Dakota-Wyoming border, as beetles ravaged huge expanses of forest and worries grew over wildfires.

The beetles left, but the loggers havent  and they're now felling trees at twice the rate government scientists say is sustainable. That means the Black Hills forests are shrinking, with fewer and smaller trees.

Timber sales from federal forests nationwide more than doubled over the past 20 years, according to government data. In Washington, D.C., Republicans and Democrats alike have pushed more aggressive thinning of stands to reduce vegetation that fuels wildfires.

But critics of federal forest management say that in their fervor to do something about climate change, officials are allowing the removal of too many older trees that can actually better withstand fire.

In the Black Hills, stands of century-old ponderosa pines were thinned over the past two decades, then thinned again. In some areas, most of the remaining older and larger trees are being cut, leaving hillsides almost bare.

Eventually youre not going to have any big trees on the whole forest, said Dave Mertz, who worked as a government natural resources officer overseeing Black Hills logging until retiring in 2017. The timber industry is pulling the strings now. The Forest Service has lost its way.

DIRE PREDICTIONS

Across the western U.S., more trees have been dying as climate change dramatically alters the landscape and leaves forests more susceptible. Wildfires, insects and disease are the top killers, researchers say.

A sweeping government review of forest health surveys since 1993 found that the rate of trees dying increased this century and outpaced new growth in all eight states examined  Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. Timber harvested from Forest Service lands over the past two decades also increased.

In the Black Hills, those two trends have collided. With more trees being logged and even more killed by beetles and fires in recent years, government scientists say the forest cant grow fast enough to keep up.

The timber industry and allies in Congress are pushing back against that conclusion. Timber company representatives predict dire economic consequences if forest managers sharply reduce harvest levels. And they say wildfires and beetle outbreaks would get worse.

One of the region's seven mills closed in March, eliminating 120 jobs in Hill City, South Dakota. Owner Neiman Enterprises said a recent slowdown in timber sales meant it wouldn't have enough logs.

"These companies arent tech startups. They are multi-generational family companies that want to be there for the long term. said Ben Wudtke, director of the Black Hills Forest Resource Association of saw mills and logging companies.

FIGHTING FIRE

To counter growing havoc from western wildfires, Biden's administration wants to double the forest acreage thinned or treated with prescribed burns to 6 million acres (2.4 million hectares) annually  bigger than New Hampshire.

One method to reduce fire risk is to remove dense stands of small trees and thick underbrush that accumulated for decades as wildfires  a natural part of the landscape  were suppressed.

Its expensive, labor-intensive work, and theres little market value in small trees. When sworn in this summer, Forest Service Chief Randy Moore said combating climate change will require making it worthwhile to harvest smaller trees, such as using the vegetation as biomass to generate electricity.

It doesnt pay for itself and we dont have markets that seem to be increasing quickly enough," he said.

The service's former deputy chief, Jim Furnish, criticized the agency as too focused on timber production and too slow to react to climate change, to the detriment of the forest.

There are signs of change under President Joe Biden including the administrations move last month to end large-scale commercial logging of old-growth trees in Alaskas Tongass National Forest.

But other projects that include old-growth removal are pending, including in Montana's Kootenai National Forest along the Canada border, the Kaibab National Forest just north of the Grand Canyon in Arizona and Idaho's Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest.

The Forest Services approach to date has been to attack this as a management problem: We need to cut more trees,' Furnish told The Associated Press. You cant cut your way out of this problem.

Moore, the agency's chief, acknowledged the warming planet was forcing changes, but said he hoped to find a sweet spot between the environment and industry  while removing enough vegetation to reduce wildfire risk. In the Black Hills, officials said they would consider the latest science alongside economic impacts as they seek to make logging sustainable.

We need the industry to help us, Moore said, referring to climate change. Its not really about timber sales or cutting large trees.

BEAT TO HELL

The Black Hills played an outsized role in the early formation of the nation's timber policies. In the 1890s, excessive logging to feed demand for timbers for a nearby gold mine helped spur creation of the national forest system. The first regulated logging sales in forest service history took place there in 1899.

When artist and environmentalist Mary Zimmerman bought property within the Black Hills in 1988, neighboring public lands where that first timber sale took place had regrown so successfully that huge branches overhead were like a cathedral.

The site was thinned in 1990, removing some big trees but leaving many. It was thinned more in 2016. Then logging crews returned last year and took out the remaining big trees. Cattle now graze the area.

Its just beat to hell, said Zimmerman.

Her account was confirmed by Blaine Cook, forest management scientist for the Black Hills for more than two decades until his 2019 retirement.

EARLY WARNINGS

Cook said his monitoring began to show last decade that the forests growth rate wasnt keeping up with aggressive logging that was a response to the pine beetle outbreak that began in 1998. The high harvest rate continued after the outbreak peaked in 2012 and even after it ended in 2017.

Cook said his warnings that the forest was being damaged were rejected by superiors who faced political pressure to provide a steady supply of logs to sawmills in South Dakota and Wyoming.

Disagreement within the agency over whether there was too much logging culminated in a report this April by scientists from the forest services research branch that was unequivocal: Black Hills logging needs to be cut back by at least half, possibly more, to be sustainable.

The problem is that the forest changed but logging rates have not, said Mike Battaglia, one of the lead authors.

In the late 90's, you had twice as much volume of trees in the forest, he said. To take out the same amount now, you're taking too much."

Forest industry representatives criticized the governments multi-year study for including only parts of the forest, saying that created an incomplete picture of how many trees are available to harvest.

They estimated up to 80% of the regions timber industry jobs would be lost if the forest service reduced logging to recommended levels. If that happens, they said the agency would have difficulty finding companies willing to do less profitable thinning work for wildfire protection.

You have to have somebody around to do it," said the forest industry's Wudtke. It's really critical that we keep these companies going."

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Follow Matthew Brown on Twitter: @MatthewBrownAP

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Read more of APs climate coverage at http://www.apnews.com/Climate

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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.
A former Lord Chancellor has criticised the Governments Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill (PCSC) as not proportionate, claiming that the legislation is a scatter gun that wont do enough for criminal justice.

Lord Falconer of Thornton, Labours shadow attorney general, issued the warning during a second reading of the bill in the House of Lords on Tuesday afternoon as several peers raised concerns that it will curtail the right to protest.

The bill introduces new powers for police forces in England and Wales to restrict protests, and will allow authorities to impose time limits on demonstrations and maximum noise levels.

Under the proposed new laws, police can impose conditions on non-violent protests deemed to be too noisy and thereby causing intimidation and harassment or serious unease to the public. Those convicted of breaching conditions could face a fine or imprisonment.

Lord Falconer, who served as Lord Chancellor in Tony Blairs cabinet, told the Lords that while the criminal justice system did need improvement, a Christmas tree Bill of this size is not the way to deal with it.

The Labour frontbencher also criticised the controversial proposed curbs on protests, highlighting the opposition to the measures by the Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR).

To give the executive the power to ban demonstrations because they make excessive noise is not proportionate. You would expect demonstrations to make noise, he said.

His concerns were echoed by Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb, a Green party peer, who claimed the bill was obviously not going to help the police.

If you cant get police chiefs, UN special rapporteurs and the JCHR on your side then something is wrong with the bill, she told the House of Lords.

This bill only makes it more difficult for oppressed groups to have a voice in our society and it undermines democracy by undermining freedom of speech. It poses a threat to the core purpose of protest for people to be heard.

Regarding the bills focus on noise levels at demonstrations, Baroness Jones suggested that the wording of the legislation was too vague and left too much open to interpretation by officers at the scene of a protest.

Several clauses in the legislation also target Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities, by creating a new criminal offence of residing on land without consent in a vehicle, and broadening police powers to seize caravans and other property.

Commenting on this aspect of the Bill, Lord Falconer said: This is an attack on the Roma or Gypsy way of life and its not necessary.

This is a Bill that is simply a scatter gun that wont do enough for criminal justice.

The legislation, which was voted through Parliament by MPs in March, has been criticised by campaigners and sparked widespread Kill the Bill protests earlier this year. It was drafted partly in response to disruptive action by environmental campaign group Extinction Rebellion (XR).

Baron Jonathan Oates, a Liberal Democrat peer and former Chief of Staff to Nick Clegg, told the Lords on Tuesday that the Bill would not halt environmental protests as the government was failing to address the issues being highlighted by demonstrators.

The solution is to address the issues and try to understand the issues behind the anger and the protests, not to force it further underground, he said.

These powers will not remove divisiveness from society, they will do the opposite. They will not quell environmental protests...acting with the urgency the existential threat of climate change requires is the only way to do that.

The debate comes after the Home Office published documents on Monday admitting that different groups would be disproportionately impacted by measures in the bill.

The Home Office admitted that proposed Serious Violence Reduction Orders (SVROs), which would allow police to stop and search people based on their previous offending history without the reasonable grounds currently required, would disproportionately affect black people.

But its equalities impact assessment added: Any indirect difference on treatment on the grounds of race is anticipated to be potentially positive and objectively justified as a proportionate means of achieving our legitimate aim of reducing serious violence and preventing crime.
The Inspiration4 is about to take a trip into space, setting new precedents as it goes.

In a year of major launches for private space tourism, SpaceXs version in the form of Inspiration4 is arguably the most dramatic: it will an entirely private crew of tourists head out into orbital space for the first time ever.

As such, it will go much higher than Jeff Bezos or Richard Bransons similar journeys in recent months  the latter of which, by some definitions, did not even reach space at all. It will also be much longer, with the crew spending three days in flight rather than the short jumps taken on board the Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic flights.

In all, the journey on 15 September will likely help establish SpaceX as the most accomplished of the worlds space tourism firms, as well as setting a number of firsts.

What form will the trip take?

The team will be blasted off from Kennedy Space Centre on 15 September, all being well. They will leave from the Launch Complex 39A, famous for its role in the work to get to the Moon in the Apollo mission as well as for launching Nasas Space Shuttles.

They will then spend three days in orbit, floating around Earth and looking both down at the planet and up into space. At their furthest from the planet, they will be some 600km from Earth.

After those three days are up, they will drop into the Atlantic Ocean and the mission will come to an end.

How will they get there?

Inside SpaceXs Dragon capsule, which will be mounted on top of one of its Falcon 9 rocket. Together, that equipment has conducted a number of missions successfully  including being the only private spacecraft to have taken humans to the International Space Station  and so this will not be among its most difficult missions.

It is Dragon that will be the teams home for the journey. It can fit up to seven people in total, and is decked out with the seats and gear that ensures they can get to, around and back from space safely. Importantly, it can do that journey itself: Dragon is autonomous, which is why the civilian crew will be able to do the journey without needing to be able to fly the craft themselves.

The capsule is a little different for the Inspiration4 journey. Usually, it has a space at the top to dock with the International Space Station; that wont be needed this time, so SpaceX have instead installed a large window called a cupola that will allow them to gaze out to space with a 360-degree view.

Falcon 9 will just help with the start part of the journey, pushing the capsule up into orbit and then detaching. Once it is detached, it will drop back down to Earth so that it can be re-used  the ability to recycle the rockets is a key part of SpaceXs plans for space tourism, since it makes the journeys much cheaper.

Why is this happening?

As with the other trips undertaken by Mr Bezos and Mr Branson, the primary reason for the journey is as marketing for private space travel, but all three companies are keen to give the appearance that the journey is a trip for all of humanity, and about pushing the limits of space travel.

In the case of Inspiration4, that is a little more than just talk, since the trip will also look to raise awareness for St Jude Childrens Research Hospital  which provides free healthcare to children with cancer, as well as conducting research  as well as raising money for it.

One of the people on the trip will be Hayley Arceneaux, who was cared for by St Jude as a child and now works there. Another traveller, Christopher Sembroski, was given a spot on the flight by a friend who won a raffle, which looked to raise money for the hospital.
The blood, sweat and tears of astronauts can literally be used to build future colonies in Mars through a novel method, researchers say.

Transporting even a single brick to the Red Planet can be prohibitively expensive, as it would cost more than a million pounds, said researchers, including those from the University of Manchester in the UK.

They suggest that a concrete-like material created using extra-terrestrial dust along with astronauts bodily fluids be used instead.

In their study, published on Monday in the journal Materials Today Bio, scientists found that a protein from human blood, combined with a compound from urine, sweat or tears, could glue together simulated moon or Mars soil.

They said this produced a material stronger than ordinary concrete, perfectly suited for construction work in extra-terrestrial environments.

Citing the need for in-situ utilisation of resources (or ISRU) for constructing astronaut living quarters on Mars, researchers assessed the use of loose rock and Martian soil known as regolith and sparse water deposits.

According to the scientists, the most overlooked resource that would be available on any crewed mission to the Red Planet would be the crew themselves.

They showed in the new study that a common protein from blood plasma  human serum albumin  could act as a binder for simulated moon or Mars dust to produce a concrete-like material.

The resulting novel material  named AstroCrete by the scientists  had high strengths of 25 Megapascals (MPa), about the same as the 2032 MPa seen in ordinary concrete.

Urea  a biological waste produced by the human body and excreted via urine, sweat and tears  could further increase compressive strength by over 300 per cent, the researchers said.

The use of urea and serum albumin from the crew members, the study said, can offer the best performing material, with a compressive strength of almost 40 MPa, which is substantially stronger than ordinary concrete.

Researchers said the new technique could offer considerable advantages over many other proposed construction techniques on the moon and Mars, adding that animal blood was historically used as a binder for mortar.

Analysing the underlying bonding mechanism, researchers found blood proteins denature or curdle to form an extended structure  known as beta sheets  that tightly binds the material together.

The concept is literally blood-curdling, remarked Aled Roberts, who is from the University of Manchester and who was involved in the project.

Scientists have been trying to develop viable technologies to produce concrete-like materials on the surface of Mars, but we never stopped to think that the answer might be inside us all along, Dr Roberts said.

Based on the findings, scientists estimated over 500kg of high-strength AstroCrete could be produced over the course of a two-year mission on the surface of Mars by a crew of six astronauts.

It is exciting that a major challenge of the space age may have found its solution based on inspirations from medieval technology, Dr Roberts said.
Ahead of the next traffic light travel announcements Covid data expert Tim White has been analysing the latest information from genomic sequencing records held by Gisaid, the worldwide database, with a focus on variants of concern.

He then spent time answering your most urgent queries when it comes to plans to travel abroad during an ask me anything event, which ranged from questions about holidaying in Thailand to concerns about getting married in Greece.

Here is the rundown of the top 15 questions and answers from Tims ask me anything he held on Tuesday (14 September):

1

Asmith92

Hi Tim, hope you are well? Would you be able to advise on the likelihood of the Maldives turning amber in the next review? we are due to fly there on Sunday for our honeymoon but will need to postpone if its travel status doesnt change.

Tim White

Honeymoon? Congratulations. Youll have an amazing time. I am that confident you will be going and Maldives will be removed from red.

Its my number one tip. If Maldives is not removed then there is something severely wrong with the system and the people making decisions.

With no indoor bars or restaurants in resorts, I rate it as the safest Covid-19 destination on the planet!

2

Smu1986

Hi, we are due to fly to Egypt on the 25th October. As yet Thomas Cook are not cancelling the holiday. What are the chances of us being able to go?

Tim White

I am doubtful. Egypt has seemingly low cases, but must be doing very little testing. The death rate indicates much higher infection rate. So its difficult to know how bad the situation there really is.

The deciding factor though could be that Egypt is another country not to upload data to GISAID, so they have not been able to prove the country is free of variant strains of Covid19/Coronavirus.

3

MuserreofMorgan

Hi Tim, thanks for your for analysing the data. Do you think there will be more than 50% chance for Turkey to go amber this Thursday. Thanks for advance.

Tim White

Yes I do. Probably around 60% this week. If not then 80% chance in the 1 October reform.

4

btizzle

Hi Tim, how concerned should i be about Grenada? Due to fly next Wednesday

Tim White

Honestly? Very concerned. No country has ever gone from green to red, but looking at the data Grenada really could be the first. I would be looking at options.

Grenadas infection rate is higher than Montenegro was when it was red listed 3 weeks ago while the island is another which has not done any genomic testing, or at least not shared it with the international collective.

5

KMPorter

Hi Tim, chances on USA going red this week? Im a US citizen resident in the UK and planning to go there on Thursday for a small family wedding  just getting a bit worried.

Tim White

No chance USA will go red as far as I can see. I would be shocked to say the least. Cases are high and there are some low level variants like the new "Mu" variant. But its very unlikely to be made red, it would cause outrage and unnecessary political problems. But lucky you being admitted into the US. Mere mortals like us Brits cant get stateside - give Joe a nudge when youre there can you please?!

6

SinemS

Hi Tim. If we go to an Amber schengen country after a red country before coming to the UK to avoid the hotel quarantine, is it allowed to move from Greece to Italy for example without staying in Greece 10 days after Turkey? Or would Italy question where I have been last 10 days while coming from Greece? Hope it makes sense as going a little crazy here with all the rules. Thank you in advance.

Tim White

First check for example Greece and Italy to see if they admit you without quarantine from where you are coming from.

If they are both happy to admit you without quarantine, then its fine to move around between the two.

The day you land in the first country after leaving the red country is day ZERO remember, so you need to stay in Greece/Italy or other non red places for 10 whole days after that before touching down in UK again

7

TomWill25

Hi Tim. Thanks so much for the analysis you do - its really appreciated. My partner is a Brazilian national living in the UK. Shes not been able to see her family for more than 2 years now. Appreciate its not easy but what would you suggest when she asks when she could travel there? We dont have the savings or income to afford hotel quarantine.

Tim White

I really fear nothing will change for Brazil (or Chile for that matter) in the immediate future.

Most of South Americas at the lowest ever infection levels since the virus first arrived on the continent. However as youll know Brazil was over run by the Gamma variant. Brazil does upload hundreds of samples to GISAID thankfully, but 41% are still Gamma. Many scientists think its not really a danger, and that vaccines cope with it. But others are fearful it can reinfect more easily, as we saw in Manaus. If Delta takes complete control it will help extinguish the variants but that could take a while.

I know its extra expense, and I dont know where your wifes family lives in BRZ but is it possible if it stays red, but a neighbouring country gets taken off red, they could rendezvous there - Argentina is looking good.

8

DanB123

Hi Tim,

My partner and I are meant to be going to Mauritius on Friday for a week long holiday. Ive seen that cases are increasing, but I know the vaccination rate is pretty good, do you think we will be safe from the dreaded red list?

Tim White

Yes I have some fears about Mauritius as well.

It also has not uploaded any data to GISAID (about possible variants) for over a month.

It really comes down to:

a) if Mauritius can upload data to prove there is no Beta or anything else, and

b) how hard line the UK govt will be on countries with small populations not uploading these data.

I think you will be ok though, because youre only there for a week. Hopefully it wont go red this week (more likely in the October reform), and by then you will be back home - phew!

9

JJ28

Hi Tim! I know its on a knife-edge, but if you had to swing either way on the chances of Jamaica surviving this week, what would your bet be?

Tim White

On the basis Mr Shapps did not change it 3 weeks ago and he hates to admit he was wrong (remember the France amber+ fiasco?), then you may get lucky. Lets say 51-49% in favour of no change!

10

Helenb2015

What are the chances of costa rica coming off the red list by December- they seem to be doing well with the vaccination drive but arent a popular holiday destination for brits yet which is why i feel like theyre being left behind but keeping them on the red list will be detrimental for tourism and for British airways who opened this new route recently.

Tim White

I had a close look at Costa Rica when I researching for the article by Simon Calder, published here on the Independent yesterday. Its not good news Im afraid as there is evidence of the Gamma variant circulating which will likely make UK reticent to remove it from red just yet. Cases are still relatively high too. One place Ive not visited and would love the chance to go, but think we will be kept waiting a while yet Helen, Sorry!

11

EdH

Do you think the government will introduce quarantine at home rather than in a hotel if you arrive back from a red country/ test positive?

Tim White

I know it was considered, but its gone quiet on that front. That would be my recommendation for the double jabbed. However as there have been no leaks about it, I doubt it will happen, but lets see what is said in the reform of the system on 1 October.

12

BeccaK

HI Tim. I am travelling to Ghana for work on 27th Sept. My husband is planning on joining me on the 15th Oct for a two week holiday. We havent booked his flights yet. Do you think Ghana will go on the red list?

Tim White

Ghana is really tricky to be honest Becca. A lot of people returning from Ghana in the last couple of months have tested positive for Covid19, and thats often the reason for red listing. But it survived 3 weeks ago and may survive again. However, Ghana has not uploaded any genomic sequencing in the last 30 days, so I have to say there is a risk of being placed on red. Its far from certain though - so keep everything crossed.

13

PamS

Quick question on Italy. We need a 48 hour covid test for entry. Can this be the antigen test- will this be accepted? Thank you

Tim White

Yes, if you are fully vaccinated. This is whats written on the Gov.uk web page about requirements for Italy. always worth keep checking that page in case there are any late changes.

"..travellers from the UK can enter Italy without being required to quarantine if you have proof of having completed a full vaccination cycle or having recovered from COVID, plus a negative PCR or antigen test, taken within 48 hours before entering Italy."

14

PamS

We are hoping to travel to Phuket in December. Is Thailand likely to come off the red list soon, and if so, when? Thank you

Tim White

Thailand was a strange choice to put on red last time because cases were already going down quite a lot and infection rates were not particularly high. Its emerged Thailand became the first victim of the concentration on purely variants. Ive been shown data proving Thailand has done a lot of genomic sequencing in the past and that Beta was dying out as Delta took over. However in the last month theyve only uploaded 5 samples, one of which proved Beta positive. Just one case, but 20%. If they can share a lot more data, showing Beta is no longer active, then you will be ok. Until they do that, December trip is in jeopardy Im afraid.

15

RosieO

Hi Tim,

Due to fly to the Balearics on Friday 17th. Would you say Spain has no chance of going red?

Thank you!

Tim White

I would indeed say that Rosie. Pack calmly in the knowledge you wont have your lovely trip disrupted. Have a great break!
After months of uncertainty about the California recall election, Governor Gavin Newsom easily defeated Republican challenger Larry Elder to hold onto his seat.

Its tempting to dismiss this victory as paltry and inevitable; California, after all, is an overwhelmingly Democratic state. Its worth remembering, though, that at close to the same point in Trumps term, his party lost a major Senate seat in Alabama, which is about as red as California is blue. Off-year special elections are a particular kind of test of party discipline, competence, and coordination. The 2017 Alabama contest and the 2021 California one suggest that Republican chaos, extremism, and antipathy to democracy does in fact have a real cost for them in contesting elections.

The 2017 Alabama election was held at one of the (many) low points of Trumps presidency. Thanks in part to his administrations efforts to gut the nations healthcare system, his approval in early December was only about 38 percent according to poll aggregator 538. Democrats nominated respected attorney Doug Jones, who had deep roots in the state and was well-known for successfully prosecuting Ku Klux Klan members for the infamous 1963 racist church bombing which killed four African American girls.

Republicans, for their part, nominated Roy Moore, an extremist who had been removed from the Supreme Court in 2016 for ordering probate courts not to issue same-sex marriage licenses in defiance of federal law. During the campaign, multiple women accused Moore of sexually assaulting or harassing them when they were underage.

It was a perfect storm for Republicans. Their president was unpopular, they had nominated an extreme and toxic candidate, and the Democrats had a solid, popular alternative. Jones managed to turn out Black voters in large numbers, while Moores conservative base was uninspired and stayed home. Republicans stabbed themselves in the foot, the stomach, and the eye; Democrats managed to avoid similar self-maiming, and as a result Jones squeaked out a narrow but stunning victory.

In the California recall, the details are different, but the overall story arc of Republicans self-destructing is similar. Californias recall process is incredibly poorly designed. Governors can be recalled for any reason or no reason by petition of a sliver of the electorate, and the rules discourage the party in power from backing a replacement candidate. That means its easy for a minority party to win despite opposition from the vast majority of voters.

Republicans were hoping to take advantage of this broken process, and for a while it looked like they would succeed. Newsom damaged himself by violating his own Covid-19 restrictions; partially as a result, Democratic voters were disinterested and Republican voters were energized. Early polling suggested Newsom could be narrowly unseated.

But the ever-radicalizing GOP inevitably settled on a radical candidate: talk radio host Larry Elder, who promised to end vaccine mandates for state workers and who has made inflammatory statements about women. Nationally, Democratic President Joe Bidens approval has weakened recently, but hes still at 46 percent: popular enough to make him a welcome presence on the trail for Newsom. Democrats are mostly happy with their national leadership, and Elder scares them. They focused as the election drew closer, and buried Republicans easily.

In both Alabama and California, Democrats managed to find national and/or local politicians who were respected and not particularly polarizing. Meanwhile, Republicans chose candidates at the local and national level who whipped up their base, but whose extreme positions and ethical lapses made them toxic for large numbers of voters. The last Republican governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, carefully cultivated an aura of pragmatism and bipartisanship. A similar candidate could have given Newsom a real scare. But the GOP has largely lost the ability to compromise in any way since Schwarzenegger stepped down a decade ago.

Losing two unusual off-year elections four years apart doesnt mean the GOP is doomed, of course. Theyve won plenty of contests in the interim, and have huge structural advantages on top of their willingness to simply cheat. They could easily win control of Congress in 2022, and the presidency in 2024.

Its easy, and not necessarily wrong, to catastrophize. But its also important to recognize that the GOP is not infallible, and often is not even marginally competent. Their assault on basic decency and competence, and their refusal to hold their politicians even minimally accountable (as the Democrats did, for example, by forcing out Andrew Cuomo) does come at a price. For California, that means the Republicans wont get a chance to turn the state over to Covid, and many lives will be saved. For the rest of us, its a small but real hope for a future in which voters hold Republicans accountable.
California Republicans months-long, incredibly expensive temper tantrum attempt to unseat Gavin Newsom as governor ended exactly how people could expect it in an overwhelmingly Democratic state: with a humiliating defeat.

The party that supposedly swears by fiscal conservatism and limited government cost the state of California $276 million and wasted everyones time. As I wrote earlier in the week, Republican voters in the state did themselves in by coalescing around an unelectable candidate like talk radio host Larry Elder rather than a more electable candidate like former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer. This gave Newsom something to run against, rather than simply having to defend his record.

But beneath the favorable outcome for Newsom, the fact still remains that Democrats havent fixed their longstanding problem with Latino voters, which could pose trouble for them further down the line.

According to exit polls, 58 percent of Latino voted now against the recall, who made up a quarter of the electorate. While that was certainly a majority, its down from the 64 percent that Newsom won when he was first elected governor in 2018.

The breakdown is even starker when accounting for gender. While 62 percent of Latinas voted against the recall, 53 percent of Latino men voted against it. Thats an 8-point slip from the 61 percent of Latino men who voted for Newsom back in 2018.

If California Republicans can ever get their act together and have a narrow focus on jobs, the economy and law enforcement, Latino men could wind up becoming a swing vote in California, as they have been in other places.

This continues the trend that Democrats saw in the 2020 presidential election, where Democrats lost ground with Latino voters across the board. Much of the focus on Democrats decline with Latinos was focused on the Rio Grande Valley in Texas and South Florida, where the large Venezuelan and Cuban communities oppose anything that even hints at socialism, but Trump and Republicans gained with Latinos across the board.

This was also the case in Latino communities across the country, including heavily Latino Imperial County, which borders Mexico, where 61 percent of voters backed Joe Biden but also where Donald Trump gained 17 points from 2020. That was the same margin that voted no on the recall.

I see this even in the places of my youth. A detailed breakdown by The New York Times showed that parts of Chino Hills, the town where I grew up  where there are about equal parts Hispanic and non-Hispanic white people, and roughly 46.7 percent of people have a bachelors degree or higher  swung by as much as 36 points to the Democrats between 2016 and 2020.

Conversely, neighboring Chino, my maternal familys ancestral hometown, is 51 percent Hispanic or Latino and only 23 percent of people have a bachelors degree or higher. And while it mostly stayed Democratic, some parts swung toward Donald Trump by as much as 10 or even 20 points.

There are, of course, limits to what can be gleaned from exit polls. Case in point: There is no breakdown of individual nonwhite racial groups by education, when education levels can be an important indicator of how someone will vote. A majority of white men and women without college degrees both voted against the recall, whereas the nonwhite option was only a category labeled voters of color with no degree, which doesnt give a glimpse into how Latinos vote (especially since many Latinos dont identify as people of color).

Furthermore, in an overwhelmingly Democratic state like California, where roughly only a quarter of the states registered voters are Republicans, there is only so much room for Republicans to grow. But Democrats would be wise to heed the warnings before a critical race.
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www.indiainfoline.com is part of the IIFL Group, a leading financial services player and a diversified NBFC. The site provides comprehensive and real time information on Indian corporates, sectors, financial markets and economy. On the site we feature industry and political leaders, entrepreneurs, and trend setters. The research, personal finance and market tutorial sections are widely followed by students, academia, corporates and investors among others.
Imagine yourself enjoying a swim in the not-too-cold, not-too-hot sea. You then step onto the beach to dry off. Close call, you almost stepped on a squishy object. It looks gross - you want to say it's hard, but it's also a little like jelly. And so you stand there wondering what it really is.

You post the photos on Facebook looking for answers and its fate is forever sealed in the internet archives for all that is strange and inexplicable.

One can imagine this to have been the script for Donna Reardon who noticed the none too pleasing object after her swim. The incident comes from Bombo Beach in Kiama, Australia.

Supplied via news.com.au

She took some photos and shared them on Facebook, reported news.com.au, along with ''Hi everyone, just went for a swim down at Bombo Beach and found this. Anyone have any idea?' According to her post, the object was no bigger than a regular tablespoon.

There were some silly reactions, then there were some serious ones claiming it could've been shark poop or a human tooth. So, what the hell was this mysterious thing?

Supplied via news.com.au

So she did some digging around on the website of the Autralian Museum and realised it was "a swim bladder from a porcupinefish," as told to news.com.au.



She added, Its actually quite big. I wouldnt like to see the porcupine fish it was in."

News.com.au

She even contacted the museum to find out if she's correct in identifying the object that currently has the internet--and her husband--icked out. And, no surprise, she wants to keep it.



I dont know what I will do with it. If my hubby gets his way it will go in the bin."



For more fun articles, click here.




People mourn for the victims at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York, the United States, Sept. 11, 2021. (Wang Ying/Xinhua via Getty Images)
Thousands of Indian Americans stuck in a decades-long wait for a green card could be immediately eligible by paying a $5,000 sub-fee, as proposed in a portion of the budget reconciliation bill passed by the House Judiciary Committee. Immigration attorney Cyrus Mehta predicted to India-West that almost everyone stuck in the green card queue will pay the $5,000 fee. (representational image/Ferdinand Ostrop photo via Getty Images)
The andalusite market has been supported by strong fundamentals since the beginning of the year due to intermittent issues affecting production operations and a progressive worsening of international transport conditions.

Raw material markets have been recovering quickly after the steep drops in traded volumes and demand during 2020 at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. Industrial activity, investment and capital deployment now show a rebound after last years lows, pushing up prices and demand for feedstock materials.

While the andalusite market is generally more balanced in terms of supply and demand than other refractory minerals such as magnesia or chromite, growing pressure from consumers as demand returns has left supply struggling to keep up.

Earlier this year, Fastmarkets reported production issues in South Africa, with one instance of temporary force majeure at a mine after community unrest and intermittent power outages affecting output at other mines too. The price of andalusite moved higher due to the production slowdown and the effect of rising freight costs on delivered prices.

Fastmarkets assessed the price of andalusite, 57% Al2O3 min, cif Europe at 350-440 ($413-519) per tonne on August 27, unchanged from May but up 5% from 325-425 per tonne in February. The February price was already 5 up on both ends from the previous quarterly assessment in November 2020.

"Price is secondary to being able to secure the volumes right now," one consumer said. "There is tightness everywhere and consignments are late."

A producer source told Fastmarkets they have received several requests for additional volumes from their customers, who want to purchase more than what they had contracted for this year. The source said he was "unable to meet any of those requests" and he was sold out until 2022.

This sense of tightness is being felt further down the chain. An agent distributing andalusite in southern Europe described a similar situation. "We are not receiving any more volumes until next year," the source said in late August. "There is demand from our customers: they all want to buy more, but we cant supply."

Sources on both sides of the market stated that strained logistics and increasing shipping costs continue to be a leading source of concern.

Sea freight costs have been increasing since the fourth quarter of 2020. Initially, this only affected container freight out of China towards other destinations, but in the following months the issues began to affect other seaborne routes such as South Africa to Asia, South Africa to Europe, and Latin America to Europe. Costs have also risen for bulk freight and the ongoing capacity shortage is leading to long delays and congestion.

"The logistics mess is compounding the issue of tighter supply at a time of high demand," one buyer said.



Global andalusite output in an average year is estimated to be around 300,000 tonnes, excluding China, which accounts for another 10,000-15,000 tonnes, although those volumes are all consumed internally. China is a net importer of the raw material.



"Its early to say what global output will be this year, but I can tell you this  not a single tonne is going spare," a seller said.

Tightness in alternative raw materials

As Fastmarkets reported earlier this year, recent developments affecting other raw material markets are compounding the sense of tightness that andalusite market participants are feeling.



Following an electrical incident, Imerys mullite plant in Georgia, the United States, was offline for almost a month during April and May. The company restarted its operations in mid-May and has been working since then to recover the production shortfall. Mullite and andalusite can be used as alternative feedstock in some refractory formulations.



Bauxite can be used as a substitute in some applications, too, although mullite tends to be a preferred alternative.



"Mullite 60% is the first alternative to andalusite. The two are the closest relatives. So, the issues you have in alternative markets such as mullite are affecting andalusite," a trader said.



Likewise, supply of Chinese refractory grade bauxite has been limited since the beginning of the year, owing to ongoing mining restrictions and widespread logistics bottlenecks, at a time when demand from buyers is growing fast.



The price assessment for bauxite, refractory-grade, 85%/2.0/3.15-3.2 (0-6mm), fob Xingang stood at $420-430 per tonne in August, up from $385-395 per tonne in September 2020.



Supply concerns abound over supply of bauxite from China later this year and early next year. The winter months are likely to bring another round of restrictions to heavy industry in China, as will the Winter Olympics, due to take place in Beijing in February.



Logistics are also likely to continue to affect deliveries and stock levels of bauxite in consuming markets. The perception of low availability in related raw materials is adding to pressure in the andalusite market, sources said, and is bound to shape supply flows in the coming months.
According to Chinese customs data, Chinas shipments of bauxite (HS code 25083000) in January-July 2021 surged to 554,510 tonnes from 365,812 tonnes a year earlier, Chinese customs data showed. The major importers of Chinas bauxite were the Netherlands (128,722 tonnes), Japan (86,152 tonnes), India (78,517 tonnes), the United States (50,810 tonnes) and Taiwan (29,377 tonnes).



Total exports of bauxite to the Netherlands showed a jump of 255.73% from 36,185 tonnes in January-July 2020. Shipments to the US rose by 171.48%, to India by 108.42%, to Taiwan by 29.33% and to Japan by 15.04%.



Meanwhile, export volumes of WFA (HS code 28181090) from China jumped by 52.37% year on year in January-July to 212,863 tonnes compared with 139,706 tonnes a year earlier. The five principal destinations for this material were Japan (37,881 tonnes), India (32,688 tonnes), the Netherlands (20,688 tonnes), South Korea (19,945 tonnes) and the US (15,833 tonnes).



Shipments to major destinations all showed significant increases in the first seven months of the year. Shipments to the Netherlands soared by 240.60%, to India by 105.97%, to Japan by 60.79%, to the US by 40.46% and to South Korea by 40.21%.



Similarly, Chinas exports of BFA (HS Code: 28181010) totaled 286,717 tonnes in January-July, up by 26.34% from a year earlier when exports were 226,935 tonnes, according to Chinese customs data.



Major importers of Chinas BFA during the period were Japan (47,036 tonnes), the US (36,012 tonnes), India (24,188 tonnes), the Netherlands (23,003 tonnes) and South Korea (21,563 tonnes). Total shipments to the Netherlands surged by 367.92% in the first seven months, while those to India rose by 125.28%. Shipments to Japan increased by 22.51% and those to South Korea by 17.01%.



Solid demand

The rapid growth in Chinas bauxite and fused alumina exports in the first seven months of this year could be attributed to solid demand led by operational recoveries in major consuming markets such as Europe, India and the US, according to sources.



Crude steel output in the European Union reached 90.8 million tonnes in January-July, up by 20.1% from a year earlier, while Indias output stood at 68 million tonnes over the same period, up by 28.7% against the corresponding period of last year, according to World Steel Association data.



Given that bauxite and fused alumina are major upstream materials for refractories used in the steelmaking sector, the robust growth in crude steel output boosted demand, according to a bauxite producer source in China. "We shipped large volumes of bauxite and fused alumina in bulk shipments last month. I heard that there were about three bulk carriers loaded with bauxite and fused alumina, most of which was [headed to] European markets," the same source added.



Adding to the strong shipment volumes could be buyers concern over short-term supply and shipment delays affecting Chinese bauxite and fused alumina, resulting from the global logistics bottlenecks and production interruptions in the East Asian country, Fastmarkets understands. Soaring freight costs, shipment delays and port congestion continued to weigh on international exports.



Supply-side risks

In terms of supply, Chinas bauxite and fused alumina were at risk of tighter availability considering events in major production regions such as Shanxi province for bauxite and Henan and Shandong provinces for fused alumina, according to sources.



"While refractory-grade bauxite is in a supply-demand balance at the moment, with relatively ample inventory, the outlook is uncertain if you factor in the [likely disruption because of the] Winter Olympics and the traditional winter halt [of production] in Shanxi province," a second producer in China told Fastmarkets. "We have received a notice requiring [that we initiate] staggered operations from September, as a matter of fact."



Elsewhere, production of both BFA and WFA is still under the threat of low operation rates in major production hubs in Henan and Shandong provinces, as well as Guizhou, due to power shortages, increasing costs, and in some areas, the resurgence of Covid-19 infections.



Fastmarkets price assessment for bauxite, refractory-grade, 85%/2.0/3.15-3.2 (0-6mm), fob Xingang, was $420-430 per tonne on August 19, narrowing downward by $10 per tonne against the price at the start of the year.



Meanwhile, Fastmarkets fortnightly price assessment for alumina, fused brown, min 95% Al2O3, refractory sized (0-6mm), fob China, was $750-770 per tonne on August 19, up by 10.95% at the mid-point from the start of 2021.



And the assessment for alumina, fused white, 25kg bags, cif Europe, was 720-830 ($846-975) per tonne, up by 13.14% against the start of the year.
Microsoft continues to do interesting open source work through its Deis Labs team. Here youll find important Kubernetes tools like Helm and CNAB, as well as a set of intriguing WebAssembly projects. Having a group like Deis is important for Microsoft. It allows Azure to experiment with new cloud-native technologies without committing to launch, while providing it with a useful point of contact with standards bodies and open source foundations.

Deis work with WebAssembly is particularly interesting. Its clear that Microsoft is concerned about the limitations of containers as the lowest level of cloud-native application development. Significant overhead makes containers impractical for many edge applications, especially where small devices come into play. Theyre an issue in larger-scale distributed applications where you want the isolation of containers but dont need to run a complete operating system, using serverless models outside of traditional serverless infrastructures.

Extending distributed computing with WebAssembly

We shouldnt be surprised to see Deis experimenting further with WebAssembly. This specification for browser- and JavaScript engine-hosted binary runtime meets many of the requirements for an alternative to containers. Its a standard runtime for multiple languages, offering good isolation and fast start-up. Theres no need to run an entire operating system to host WebAssembly; all you need is enough to run a browser and host a JavaScript runtime.

Alongside the browser-hosted WebAssembly, the WebAssembly System Interface (WASI) allows it to stand alone, supporting technologies like Deis Krustlets, which are WASI applications managed by Kubernetes. WASI is also at the heart of one of its newer experiments, the WebAssembly Gateway Interface (WAGI).

WAGI might seem like a throwback to an older age. After all, it offers much of the functionality that was originally delivered by HTTPs Common Gateway Interface (CGI). Familiar to anyone working in the early days of the web, CGI allowed developers to extend browser functionality with embedded code called from HTML. It was the precursor to PHP and JavaScript, hosting early web interactivity and providing the tools used to manage and run e-commerce sites and services.

As an aside, I spent much of the mid-1990s writing CGI-based software to run one of the first content-driven ISPs before moving on to build more complex e-commerce systems. My last big CGI project was a set of Perl scripts that ran AOL UKs web card system. Intended to last only one holiday season, its templated CGI code ran for several years and added plenty of seasonal events to its library. So I have a certain personal interest in seeing the concepts return!

Introducing WAGI

Deis has taken the idea of CGIs HTTP handlers and applied them to WASI as a way of building a server implementation on top of WASI. This gets around some key architectural limitations in WASI, particularly its lack of a networking layer and its underlying single-threaded nature. These make it hard to use WASI as it currently stands as a microservice platform.

The old CGI model has an answer, providing a way of linking scripts to a server and loading them as needed. They could be written in any language, using environment variables and query parameters to manage state. The result was a flexible tool that took the web beyond its basic content delivery model into a full-fledged application platform. Youd probably look back at the sites and services we built in the 1990s as primitive, but they pushed the envelope of what could be done at the time.

WAGI does much the same with WASI, pushing it into running as a platform that can dynamically load WASM code, providing a framework for calling, loading, and executing modules. Headers are loaded via environment variables, query parameters as command line options for the modules, with HTTP payloads loaded via stdin and output coming from stdout. Using these simple, well-understood methods to work with WASM simplifies interface design and development, providing the necessary tools for WASM to work as a lightweight server.

Deis has made some decisions that make WAGI different from CGI, with a focus on security and controlling access to and from the host system. The intent here is to prevent malicious code from running, as WAGI modules are distributed as binaries and may come from third parties. Modules dont get full file-system access; without explicit grants, they cant make outbound network connections. They can only access environment variables passed into the WASI environment, and theyre unable to call additional executables.

Configuring a WAGI server

Getting started with WAGI is fairly simple. You can download a binary of the server from its GitHub releases page or build your own by compiling to WebAssembly using Rust. Currently WAGI is best run on Linux, though Windows builds are available and are being tested by Deis. As WAGI is a Rust application, you have the option of running it from source rather than building a binary.

Once built and installed, you can start to experiment with WAGI. Its a command line tool, so you need to learn its flags. One useful feature is support for another Deis project, Bindle. This is a way of aggregating all the objects needed to run an application, as an alternative to its modules configuration file. Bindle is a flexible and powerful tool, but like WAGI, its very much under development and you may prefer to configure WAGI with a more traditional config file.

You will need to configure the host name and port used, along with the IP address used to listen for requests. Other configuration elements include the directory used to cache binary WASM modules and any common environment variables: for example, secrets needed to access remote services.

Most of your configuration is in WAGIs modules.toml file. This defines the routes used to access modules, which give users URLs to access your code. You next provide a local file system reference to a module, so WAGI can load it when called. At the same time, the configuration file can define the entry point of a module, letting you call a specific function. This allows one module to contain multiple features, each defined in a separate function. Deis is allowing for expansion here, as theres a reserved entry for repositories, suggesting that in the future you may be able to dynamically load modules as they update to central repositories. Theres already support for using OCI registries to load modules, if you want to make WAGI the endpoint of a continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipeline.

Modules can even be configured to get explicit access to specific directories, allowing them to work directly with server resources. This can be used to provide access to resources used to generate content, such as images. Any required environment variables are passed via the command line as part of the WAGI call. Environment variables that need to be shared across modules can be stored in an additional configuration file and loaded at run time.

Writing your first WAGI module

Writing modules is as easy as configuring them. Youre not limited to any one language. As long as it compiles to wasm32-wasi it can be used with WAGI. Theres very little complexity, and no need for specialized libraries as everything is managed via standard I/O operations. All you need to do is read stdin and print output to stdout. If you remember how to write CGI applications, you can write WAGI modules. The only real constraint is ensuring that you format outputs so they can be delivered as HTTP responses. That means delivering a content type header and a blank line before adding your content.

The result is a familiar, practical way to extend web servers, adding dynamic content where needed and providing a way for edge devices to deliver formatted content. That last point is perhaps the most important. WAGI is a lightweight way of delivering web content, and formatted HTML is an effective way to manage outputs in a way that can be parsed by any client. Its possible to imagine a WAGI endpoint on an edge device that delivers formatted data in response to a query from a management application or a highly distributed WAGI-based application that uses as little cloud resource as possible, keeping costs to a minimum.

Having a relatively simple way of building and deploying code to edge devices is important. All your device firmware needs to implement is a WAGI server and a WASI runtime; modules can be loaded over any IP connection from an Open Container registry and cached on your device, updating as new releases are delivered. Future support for package description technologies like Bindle should simplify the process even further, with a common description of resources and content that can be loaded on start-up.
The University of New Hampshire has been awarded a $1.8 million grant to study how and why coastal hazards like excessive flooding are causing roads to crack and crumble.

Were trying to better understand the causal links of not only the extreme events but also the gradual changes in sea level rise that can increase the rate of damage to pavement and trigger failures that require major road reconstruction, Jo Sias, professor of civil and environmental engineering, said in a news release last week. Were looking at storm surges and wave action but also factors like the amount of time the pavement is under water.

UNH researchers and their partners at the University of South Alabama and the Rockingham Planning Commission will develop a number of hydrodynamic models that can analyze fluids in motion. The information will be valuable to state and town officials to assess the impact of sea level rise on the longevity of coastal roadways and help implement practical alternatives for communities to protect the infrastructure.

The study will focus on the northeast coast of New Hampshire and the southeast coast of Alabama.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Flood Education Universities
Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. acquired Bedford Hills, New York-based Lloyd Bedford Cox. Inc. (LBC). Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Founded in 1921, LBC is a fourth-generation retail insurance agency providing insurance coverage, services and risk assessment tools to high-net-worth individuals and families throughout the U.S., Europe, the Bahamas and the Caribbean.

J. Jeffers Cox and his associates will remain in their current location under the direction of Patrick Kennedy, head of Gallaghers Eastern region retail property/casualty brokerage operations.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., a global insurance brokerage, risk management and consulting services firm, is headquartered in Rolling Meadows, Illinois. The company has operations in 57 countries and offers client service capabilities in more than 150 countries around the world through a network of correspondent brokers and consultants.

Source: Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.

Topics Mergers New York A.J. Gallagher
Generali said a majority of its board members was in favor of keeping Chief Executive Philippe Donnet in his job for another mandate, as shareholders in Italys biggest insurer spar over governance and strategy.

Generali said a majority of non-executive directors had expressed appreciation for Donnets work at a meeting on Tuesday and had welcomed his willingness to be re-appointed when the insurer names a new board in the spring.

Two people close to the matter said eight out of 12 board members at the meeting were in favor of Donnet.

Generali said the outgoing board would put forward Donnet as CEO if it decided to file its own slate of nominees  as it is allowed to do for the first time after a change in the companys by-laws last year.

Donnets reappointment has been challenged by two leading Generali investors, construction magnate Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone and eyewear billionaire Leonardo Del Vecchio.

Caltagirone and Del Vecchio, respectively Generalis No.2 and No.3 investor, are ready to support an alternative CEO candidate, sources have said, while Donnet has the backing of Generalis single biggest shareholder Mediobanca.

Caltagirone and Del Vecchio are also investors in Mediobanca, Italys leading investment bank.

In a sign that simmering tensions are coming to a head, Del Vecchio and Caltagirone on Saturday unveiled a consultation pact over their combined 11% Generali stake.

(Reporting by Gianluca Semeraro and Claudia Cristoferi; editing by Valentina Za)

Topics Generali Life Assurance (Thailand) Plc.
This edition of International People Moves details appointments at three insurance companies: AXA XL, QBE and International General Insurance Holdings.

A summary of these new hires follows here.

AXA XL Promotes Innes as Global Practice Leader  Products & Airports, Aerospace

AXA XL announced it has promoted Andrew Innes to global practice leader  Products & Airports, Aerospace, effective immediately.

Based in London, Innes will be responsible for strategically developing AXA XLs global portfolio of aerospace manufacturers, service providers and airports, while also driving global governance, underwriting guidelines and pricing standards across the business units. Hell also join the divisions Global Aerospace leadership team.

Innes has more than 20 years experience working across the aviation and aerospace insurance industries, beginning his career with Brit Insurance in 1995. Most recently, he held the position of senior aviation underwriter at AXA XL, having been promoted within the business several times since he joined the company (formerly Catlin) in 2006.

***

QBE Appoints Besant to New Chief Customer Officer Role

QBE European Operations has appointed Andy Besant as chief customer officer. In this newly created role, Besant will report to Cecile Fresneau, managing director, Insurance.

Besant will be responsible for QBE European Operations sales strategy, distribution, client proposition, the management and development of major trading partnerships, major client relationships, as well as other priority customer segments.

He will join from Collinson Group where he is currently managing director for Travel Experiences. He previously has held senior sales and distribution leadership roles at HiFX and American Express.

Our overall business and customer strategy is at the heart of this role as we continue to deliver value to our customers in a responsible, accountable way to ensure long-term sustainable relationships. Andy will bring further customer experience in terms of his mindset, insight, and delivery, commented Fresneau, who said he will be joining the team towards the end of this year.

***

IGI Names QBEs Kaur Gill as Asia Pacific Financial and Professional Lines Underwriter

Bermuda-based International General Insurance Holdings Ltd. announced the appointment of Manpreet Kaur Gill to the role of Asia Pacific financial and professional lines underwriter of IGI Labuan. Kaur Gill will be based in the companys Kuala Lumpur office.

Kaur Gill has 24 years industry experience in managing and driving a broad range of financial and professional lines and casualty products. Prior to joining IGI, she worked for QBE Malaysia as the head of professional lines, general liability and workers compensation. Previously, Kaur Gill was manager of casualty and financial lines for MCIS Zurich Insurance, which she joined from AIG Malaysia where she was vice president and head of casualty and then property.

She will report to Nick Garrity, chief executive officer of IGI Labuan.

The significant increase in the demand over the last 12 months for the solutions we provide to the financial and professional lines sector means there is a great opportunity to embed our position as a recognized lead market and long-term partner, said Garrity. Manpreets appointment will enable us to provide specialist capabilities and excellent service led by an established and a well-regarded professional.

Topics Aviation AXA XL
The Hartford announced a new agreement in the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) bankruptcy in which it will pay $787 million for sexual abuse claims under policies mostly issued in the 1970s.

The new agreement supersedes a prior $650 million agreement and now includes the BSA, its local councils and the representatives of a majority of the sexual abuse claimants.

In exchange for The Hartfords payment, the BSA and its local councils would fully release The Hartford from any obligation under policies The Hartford issued to the BSA and its local councils.

In addition, the representatives for the claimants joining this agreement-in-principle will support a plan of reorganization which incorporates the settlement.

As announced on April 16, 2021, The Hartford had entered into a $650 million settlement with BSA; however, that previous settlement did not include the local councils or representatives of a majority of the claimants.

The BSA also announced yesterday a separate agreement for $250 million from one of its supporting organizations, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Boy Scouts Delays Bankruptcy Step After Judge Questions Legal Fees, Insurer Deal

Attorneys for the Boy Scouts of America last month postponed a key bankruptcy hearing after Judge Laura Selber Silverstein cast some doubt on the future of the overall bankruptcy settlement case. The judge approved BSAs proposal to enter into an agreement that includes an $850 million fund to compensate men who say Scout leaders sexually abused them as youngsters.

However, the judge rejected two provisions of the bankruptcy reorganization plan, one being the earlier Hartford agreement and the other having to do with legal fees. The judge criticized the BSA for using the bankruptcy agreement as a way to get out of the previous deal it struck with The Hartford.

The BSA is pursuing the side settlements  and one with another insurer as part of its effort to settle abuse claims, reorganize and emerge from bankruptcy.

However, the official victims committee opposes the proposed settlements with The Hartford and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Lawyers representing other sexual abuse claimants also oppose them.

The Official Tort Claimants Committee claims The Hartfords new offer is subpar as it yields an average of less than $9,500 per survivor.

The Tort Claimants Committee investigated Hartfords exposure and it has the ability to fairly compensate survivors without jeopardizing its financial condition, said John Humphrey, chair of the TCC. As Chairman of the TCC, I cannot in good conscience support the release of a major insurance company for cents on the dollar.

The TCC said the LDS church offer would amount to $3,000 per claimant, which it said is not reasonable compensation for the broad releases of the sexual abuse claims that occurred in local councils controlled by the LDS.

The Hartford said the parties now expect to receive court approval of the settlement in late 2021.

The Hartford said it expects to record a charge against earnings of approximately $137 million, before tax, in the third quarter 2021.

Topics Claims Abuse Molestation
U.S. President Joe Bidens plan requiring more than 100 million Americans to get vaccinated against COVID-19 relies on a rarely used workplace rule with a history of being blocked in court, making it an inviting target for legal challenges by employers.

As part of Bidens plan, unveiled Thursday, private employers with 100 or more staff must ensure that their workers are fully vaccinated or produce a negative COVID-19 test weekly.

The measure will be implemented through an emergency temporary standard, or ETS, issued by the U.S. Department of Labors Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which regulates workplaces. The rule is expected in the coming weeks, and it was not clear when it would take effect.

OSHA can implement an emergency standard when workers are exposed to a grave danger and the standard is needed to protect them. This allows the agency to cut short the usual process for developing a standard, which averages seven years.

The Republican National Committee and some Republican state governors have already threatened to sue over Bidens vaccine plan, which also covers most federal employees and contractors, and some healthcare workers.

While many large employers have said they plan to comply, some businesses are also likely to sue.

Some employers reflexively oppose OSHA, said Michael Duff, a professor at University of Wyoming College of Law. They will not like this precedent.

Opponents could argue a grave danger, which is not defined in the law, doesnt exist on a national level as the current spike in COVID-19 cases has been regional.

Biden said on Thursday that the country was losing patience with those who declined to get vaccinated, with just over 62% of Americans fully inoculated against COVID-19.

Cases of the disease remain stubbornly high in the United States, and job growth and other signs of economic health are slowing as hospitals fill up.

COVID is new and has been a grave danger in the workplace. I think the agency is on solid legal ground here, said Debbie Berkowitz, a former senior OSHA official.

There is not much precedent for an emergency temporary standard.

Before the pandemic, OSHA issued only nine emergency temporary standards  and the last one was in 1983. Courts blocked or stayed four of them and partially vacated another, according to a report by the Congressional Research Service.

Its a seldom-used approach, said Roger King, senior labor and employment counsel for the nonprofit Arlington, Virginia-based HR Policy Association, which examines public policy issues for large employers.

OSHA implemented an ETS in June to address COVID-19 for healthcare settings. It was challenged in court by two labor unions which wanted the standard expanded to cover other industries.

The unions lawsuit is ongoing in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

After issuing its June emergency standard, OSHA invited comments on whether the ETS should become a final rule. The American Hospital Association urged withdrawing the standard, arguing that COVID-19 was not a grave danger at the job site since studies showed such infections were more likely to occur in the community.

U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh said in June that the standard was targeted at the most at-risk workers.

OSHAs mandate could also be vulnerable to legal challenges because months have passed since vaccines became widely available, and it may be difficult for the agency to explain why there is a grave danger now but there was not one earlier this year, said James Sullivan of law firm Cozen OConnor, who represents employers.

Courts also could find that the mandates 100-employee threshold is arbitrary, providing grounds to invalidate the rule, according to Sullivan.

The Biden administration may be hoping that any defeat in court comes after many employers begin to comply with the rule and millions of people are vaccinated, Sullivan said.

If employers dont comply, the fines are potentially considerable, at $14,000 for each employee in violation.

That could result in some very nasty math, said Eric Hobbs, an employment lawyer with Ogletree Deakins.

(Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware, and Dan Wiessner in New York Editing by Noeleen Walder, Cynthia Osterman and Jonathan Oatis)

Topics Commercial Lines Business Insurance
Tropical Storm Nicholas slowed to a crawl over the Houston area on Sept. 14 after making landfall earlier as a hurricane, knocking out power to a half-million homes and businesses and dumping more than a foot (30.5 centimeters) of rain along the same area swamped by Hurricane Harvey in 2017.

Nicholas could potentially stall over storm-battered Louisiana and could bring life-threatening floods across the Deep South over the coming days, forecasters said.

Nicholas made landfall early Tuesday on the eastern part of the Matagorda Peninsula and was soon downgraded to a tropical storm. It was about 10 miles (15 kilometers) southeast of Houston, Texas, with maximum winds of 45 mph (75 kph) as of 10 a.m. CDT Tuesday, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

Galveston saw nearly 14 inches (35 centimeters) of rain from Nicholas, the 14th named storm of the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season, while Houston reported more than 6 inches (15 centimeters) of rain. Thats a fraction of what fell during Harvey, which dumped more than 60 inches (152 centimeters) of rain in southeast Texas over a four-day period.

Nicholas is moving so slowly it will dump several inches of rain as it crawls over Texas and southern Louisiana, meteorologists said. This includes areas already struck by Hurricane Ida and devastated last year by Hurricane Laura. Parts of Louisiana are saturated with nowhere for the extra water to go, so it will flood, said University of Miami hurricane researcher Brian McNoldy.

Its stuck in a weak steering environment, McNoldy said Tuesday. So while the storm itself may weaken that wont stop the rain from happening. Whether its a tropical storm, tropical depression or post-tropical blob, itll still rain a lot and thats not really good for that area.

The center of Nicholas was expected to move slowly over southwestern Louisiana today.

Nicholas, weakened into a tropical depression by Tuesday night, could dump up to 20 inches (51 centimeters) of rain in parts of southern Louisiana. Forecasters said southern Mississippi, southern Alabama and the western Florida Panhandle could see heavy rainfall as well.

Much of Texas coastline was under a tropical storm warning that included potential flash floods and urban flooding. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said authorities placed rescue teams and resources in the Houston area and along the coast.

In Houston, officials worried that heavy rain could inundate streets and flood homes. Authorities deployed high-water rescue vehicles throughout the city and erected barricades at more than 40 locations that tend to flood, Mayor Sylvester Turner said.

This city is very resilient. We know what we need to do. We know about preparing, said Turner, referencing four major flood events that have hit the Houston area in recent years, including devastating damage from Harvey.

Meteorologist Kent Prochazka of the National Weather Service told The Associated Press early Tuesday that Nicholas winds downed trees in coastal counties and caused some gas stations to lose awnings.

Right before it made landfall, it abruptly intensified into a hurricane and as it moved inland, the pressures began to rise with it. The winds have relaxed slightly and now were getting down into tropical storm force (winds), he said.

More than 500,000 homes and businesses were without power in Texas by midmorning on Sept. 14, according to the website poweroutage.us that tracks utility reports.

Numerous school districts along the Texas Gulf Coast canceled classes Monday and Tuesday because of the storm. The weather threat also closed multiple COVID-19 testing and vaccination sites in the Houston and Corpus Christi areas and forced the cancellation of a Harry Styles concert scheduled for Monday evening in Houston.

Nicholas brought rain to the same area of Texas that was hit hard by Harvey, which was blamed for at least 68 deaths, including 36 in the Houston area. After Harvey, voters approved the issuance of $2.5 billion in bonds to fund flood-control projects, including the widening of bayous. The 181 projects designed to mitigate damage from future storms are at different stages of completion.

McNoldy, the hurricane researcher, said Nicholas is bringing far less rain than Harvey did.

Its not crazy amounts of rain. It isnt anything like Hurricane Harvey kind of thing with feet of rain, McNoldy said. Harvey not only stalled for three days over the same area, it moved a bit back into the Gulf of Mexico, allowing it to recharge with more water. Nicholas wont do that, McNoldy said.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency Sunday night, ahead of the storms arrival in a state.

Misty Tran dreaded the thought of Nicholas reaching as far east as her home south of New Orleans in Empire, Louisiana. Ida damaged the roof of Trans mobile home. A tarp covers the roof now, Tran said, but it wouldnt be a match for even a weak storm.

A tarp can only do so much, said Tran, helping clean up at a marina where she works.

The storm was expected to bring the heaviest rainfall west of where Ida slammed into Louisiana two weeks ago. Ida has been blamed for 86 deaths throughout the United States. Across Louisiana, about 95,000 customers remained without power Tuesday morning, according to poweroutage.us.

Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach said via Twitter that only four other years since 1966 have had 14 or more named storms by Sept. 12: 2005, 2011, 2012 and 2020.

Associated Press writers Jill Bleed in Little Rock, Arkansas, Jay Reeves in Empire, Louisiana, Julie Walker in New York, and AP Science Writer Seth Borenstein in Washington contributed to this report.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Alera Group acquired Fendley Benefits in Flagstaff, Ariz.

Fendley Benefits joins Alera Group through Benefit Commerce Group, an Alera Group company based in Scottsdale.

The Fendley Benefits team will continue serving clients in their existing roles. Terms of the deal were not announced.

Friendly Benefits is an employee benefits firm that focuses on cost management, compliance, HR support, technology and employee advocacy.

Alera Group is an independent, national insurance and wealth management firm.

Topics Mergers Arizona
Were seeing a number of new cannabis insurance products being rolled out.

Insurers may be gearing up for a potential 10-fold increase in sales to the booming $17 billion-a-year cannabis industry, as Congress potentially inches closer to legalizing marijuana at the federal level.

With any potential boom, there usually a corresponding bang in demand  demand for not only more products and services to support growth, but also for more sophisticated products and services.

Banking, of course, would be among the top requirements to support the cannabis industrys continued growth, as would insurance and risk management.

There has lately been some new innovations and offerings in the insuring cannabis space. Insurance Journal interviewed some of these innovators about the products and services theyre bringing to the market. Following are a few takeaways from that conversation.

Charles Pyfrom, chief marketing officer of CannGen Insurance Services, talked about a new division CannGen launched in late August called CannGenPRO, which is designed to fill an industry need for management and professional liability insurance.

Under the division, CannGen is now offering Directors and Officers liability and Employment Practice Liability with limits of up to $5 million on a combined or single exposure line basis.

Its our newest division specifically focused on the needs of buyers in the cannabis, CBD, and hemp industry on the professional liability, management liability side of the house, Pyfrom said. And were rolling out our D&O directors and officers and EPL employment practices liability policy last week to make sure that our best in breed solutions are expanded to this much needed cover offering in a general insurance commodity.

Pyfrom said they spent six months with another proprietary custom trading partner for CannGen working on the new division and new products.

We were lucky enough to hire away from a large insurance company a very talented senior management liability underwriter with more than a decade of experience in specialized placements to run this division for us, and Im happy to report that, after all these months of hard work and working with our carriers, our re-insurance trading partners, and our underwriting team, weve got lots of resources dedicated to make sure that our valued proposition of top notch service and great response time and coverage and product offering will remain at that same level with our new CannGenPRO division, he said.

QuadScore has been around as a cannabis insurance company for a little bit under three years. In that time, they carved out a specialty in creating comprehensive insurance solutions for multistate operators.

In June, they launched QuadScore Risk Services.

Matt Johnson, the vice president of QuadScore, explained why they made this move.

Many of these large multi-state operators have in-house risk managers who can often find themselves stretched very thin when trying to manage a schedule of over 100 locations, and total insurable values in the hundreds of millions of dollars, Johnson said. The exposures out there are tremendous, and the larger operators are going to need more resources than one person can provide to keep their business safe.

The idea is that QuadScore Risk Services examine the schedule of properties and casualty exposures operators have from an underwriting perspective and a risk management perspective and design a proposal on methods to improve the organizations risk profile.

He said QuadScore sees a heightened need to have a risk management focus on the cannabis industry, so much so that they are putting a significant chunk of their time and resources into being able to offer these services to clients.

As cannabis really enters the mainstream in the United States, they need to play by the same rules as pharmaceutical companies and manufacturers, large agricultural companies as well, he said. Any of those enterprises, youre going to see take a very proactive stance towards risk management to try to keep their operations safe. And we think cannabis absolutely falls in the same vein.

Rocco Petrill, chairman of the National Cannabis Risk Management Association, a not-for-profit group that started out with a focus on providing education to its members, agreed that risk management needs to be font-and-center for the industry.

The cannabis industry is definitely in the spot where it needs these products and services, he said. What we continue to find concerning is that were just not seeing the responsiveness out of the owners and the operators to take advantage of what were bringing to the marketplace. So they are going to have to move it up on their priority list in order to be prepared for some of the eventualities thatll happen in the future.

In early August, the NCRMA launched an independent risk management company through its National Cannabis Risk Prevention Services arm.

They are offering stand-alone services to companies outside of those they previously only served through their captive.

What we finally decided is that given this potential threat to the long-term sustainability that poor risk management represents in cannabis, that it really didnt make sense for us to offer this risk management platform only to those that were interested in our insurance product, Petrill said. So what we did is we formed a separate standalone business that is now free to offer the same risk management prevention services to cannabis companies whether theyre interested in the captive insurance product or not.

Related:

Topics Cannabis
CORK CITY

Exhibitions, Music and Poetry

Nano Nagle Place, 4pm - 9pm

Visitors to Nano Nagle Place tomorrow night will be spoiled for choice by their offerings, which will also be available to join online. Their Changing Habits: 250 Years of Convent Life exhibition will be in the museum, a new exhibition by Clare Keogh exploring convent life in Nano Nagle Place today will be opened, and Cork Printmakers Inflorescence exhibition in The Print Gallery will be open too. There will be music from violinist Caitriona OMahony and organist James Taylor, who will perform the Glorious Mysteries live, while a virtual concert of the same will also be released on the website. A video recording of Eilean Ni Chuilleanain reading poems from her book The Mother House will also be available.

Upstaged: Culture Night at the Park

Fitzgeralds Park, 4pm - 8.30pm

One for all the family, Fitzgeralds Park will present a series of short circus and street performance shows that have been specially programmed by the Circus Factory for Culture Night. The evening of circus, music and art will also feature Cork Puppetry Company and other local artists and creatives, and Fitzgeralds Park is the focal point of the citys Culture Night celebrations this year, so there will be lots to see and do in the area.

Cork Barrack Street Band Open Rehearsal

Colaiste Eamann Ris, St Patrick's Road, 7.30pm - 8.30pm

If youve missed the music of the oldest band in Ireland wafting through the citys streets, youll be pleased to know you can see Corks Barrack Street Band perform at an outdoor open rehearsal on Culture Night, which will also stream live on its Facebook page. Featuring musicians from the youth brass and wind programme, which runs in partnership with Music Generation Cork City, the band will perform a range of concert band standards including marches, music from the movies, and pop music in a rehearsal setting.

Performers from Cork Puppetry Company, Natasha Bourke, Alex Hindmarsh and Noelle O'Regan at Fitzgerald's Park in Cork for the launch of the city's Culture Night programme. Picture: Cathal Noonan

Readings from The Stinging Fly

Maureen's, 14 John Redmond Street, 6pm - 9pm

Cork readers are spoiled on Culture Night as literary magazine The Stinging Fly brings an evening of readings and conversation to the city. Poet Dean Browne and fiction writer Niamh Prior will read from their work while a conversation on craft, moderated by Stinging Fly editor Danny Denton, features chef Denis Cotter and writer Danielle McLaughlin. They will compare notes on the tools of their respective trades, their work processes, and the lessons learned in the journey of apprenticeship in their craft.

Pottery Workshops

Shandon Art Studios, 19 Dominic Street, 4pm - 9pm

Wow the smallies by allowing them to make their own pottery in this historic area. Shandon Art Studio is welcoming adults and children to free pottery workshops in their creative space, where they will host a make-your-own hanging pottery decoration class for all ages. These decorations will be fired in a kiln and available for pick up at a later date. Visitors can also see some of the samples of art and craft work made by the artists and the studio will be open for tours.

For more info, go to CultureNightCork.ie.

CORK COUNTY

Catherine Kirwan is one of the crime writers on the bill for an event at Spike Island. Picture Denis Minihane

Cork Crime Writers on Spike Island

Spike Island, Cobh, 6pm - 8.30pm

There isnt a more perfect location for a night of crime than the island prison of Spike Island. Cork crime writers Michelle Dunne, Kevin Doyle, Catherine Kirwan, Amy Cronin and Tadhg Coakley will speak with moderator PJ Coogan about their work and their love of crime fiction. Attendees will journey from Kennedy Pier in Cobh to Spike Island via ferry, where they will be given a short guided tour of the spooky isle before a meet and greet with the authors.

Guitartown Cinema

Emmet Square, Clonakilty, 8pm - 9.30pm

Guitartowns first outdoor cinema will transform Emmet Square briefly and safely into a theatre of dreams suitable for all ages. They will premiere performances exclusively filmed for Clonakilty International Guitar Festival at iconic locations throughout the town. There will also be screenings of Scoil na mBuachaillis Scoilavision 21, a series of performances from Shanleys piano bar and the world premiere of a new concert film recorded in Clonakilty by Irelands top music documentarian, Myles OReilly.

Cork Printmakers

Exhibition Working Artists Studios, Ballydehob, 6pm - 8pm

The talented members of Cork Printmakers are bringing their works west with an exhibition of art prints in Ballydehob. They partnered with Working Artist Studios (WAS), which encourages art created through sustainable, environmental friendly processes, to display the pieces. The artworks explore a range of printmaking processes and techniques including etching, lithography, screenprint, monoprint, wood engraving, lino print, mezzotint, collagraphy and digital processes.

Visual artist Tomasz Madajczak, based in Skibbereen in West Cork, has been announced as the Cork County Council recipient of the inaugural PLATFORM 31 Bursary Award. On Culture Night, Tomasz will screen four films in the Uillinn West Cork Arts Studio. Picture: Darragh Kane

Circus Factory

Town centre, Carrigaline, 4pm - 9pm

Theres no thrill like a circus being in town, and one is rolling up in Carrigaline for Culture Night. Circus Factory will bring the stories, colour and life of circus arts to the streets of the town, with performances throughout the day in different areas of Carrigaline. Among the highlights is Wobbly Circus, which will be in the area with a clown on a bike: they call it free-range circus with added bass.

Mitchelstown Culture Walk

Clongibbon Hotel, Mitchelstown, 4pm - 6pm

Mitchelstown is a town with much culture and history, and this walking tour will take it all in - warts and all. There will be demonstrations of native games along the way, such as road bowling and skittles, vehicle the route on the night will take in St Fanahans Abbey, Pagan Well, the ballroom of romance, and orphanage and so much more.

For more info, go to: CultureNightCorkCounty.ie

MUNSTER

Mayor of Kerry Jimmy Moloney and KCC Arts officer Kate Kennelly in Kerry for the launch of the county's Culture Night events. Picture: Domnick Walsh

A Night At The Museum

Kerry County Museum, Tralee, Co Kerry, 6pm - 9pm

From Tom Crean to the Rose of Tralee, the exhibitions at Kerry County Museum showcase Kerrys rich history and culture. For Culture Night, the Kingdoms museum will remain open late and host a special exhibition by a group of young people from St John of God Kerry Services.

Sliabh Luachra Music Trail

Sliabh Luachra Heritage Centre, Scartaglin, Co Kerry, 8pm - 9pm

Weve touched upon the history and traditions of the music of Sliabh Luachra in these pages many times, and this is a perfect opportunity for the devoted and the curious to get an insight into it. A new mural will be unveiled on the night at the Sliabh Luachra Heritage Centre with music and song at a very special outdoor event.

Culture Night at the Milk Market

Milk Market, Co Limerick, 4pm - 8pm

Limericks iconic Milk Market will feature music, food and fun for Culture Night in partnership with the Limerick Food Group. Were not telling porkies when we say there are lots of events for families to take part in: events will include a display of the giant pig and recently commissioned family pig floats, and a pigtown mask-making demonstration. Elsewhere, food producer displays, close-up magic by illusionist Steve Spade, and music by the Downtown Dixie Band will entertain visitors while shops and stallholders will be open for the night.

What Lies Beneath

St Marys Cathedral, Co Limerick, 3.30pm - 4.30pm and 6pm - 7pm

Youre familiar with Limericks dominating cathedral, but do you know whats hidden beneath it? For over 850 years, St Marys Cathedral has been at the historic core of Limerick City and on Culture Night, archaeologist John Elliott will host a tour of the cathedral grounds, taking in its medieval history, and investigating elements of the medieval streetscape of the city that survive in the cathedral grounds.

Screening of Henry Glassie: Field Work

Garter Lane Theatre, Co Waterford, 7pm

American folklorist Henry Glassie has spent half a century writing in-depth studies of communities and their art, including those in Ireland. Inspired by his writings and ideas, Field Work is an immersive documentary that follows working artists across Brazil, Turkey, North Carolina and Ireland. There is a particular focus on the artists real-time process of making, of the work of hands and of the close attention the artist is bringing to the work.

DUBLIN

Live Screenprinting

Damn Fine Print, Stoneybatter, Dublin 7, 5pm - 9pm

If youd like to put more art on your walls, why not something of your own? Visit this Stoneybatter studio on Culture Night to try your hand at creating your own limited edition print. There will also be live screenprint and risograph demonstrations and a chance to see the work of the studios print masters.

Brothers Mark and Luke McCormack play alongside work by Irish artist Patrick O'Reilly in Merrion Square, Dublin, as the city centre is set to host an outdoor sculpture trail featuring 12 life-size works by the artist. Picture date: Brian Lawless

Music at Farmleigh

Phoenix Park, Dublin 15, 4.30pm - 5.30pm

Inspired by the music books at the library at Farmleigh, music will be performed under the porch at Farmleigh House and feature a selection of pieces housed in the Benjamin Iveagh Library. Performances will include music from Thomas Moores Irish Melodies, Old Irish Folk Music and Tunes by PW Joyce and broadsheet songs published by the Cuala Press, arranged for voice, guitar and fiddle.

Performers from Verdant Productions' Pop Up Musical: Songs From The Film The Commitments on Dublin Bus.

IMMA Outdoors: In Place, by Croi Glan Integrated Dance

Royal Hospital Kilmainham, Dublin 8, 8pm - 8.30pm

An hour-long live performance from IMMA Outdoors will take place at the IMMAs beautiful courtyard on Culture Night. In Place is a unique live performance produced by Croi Glan Integrated Dance and is a multi-faceted work. Choreographed by Croi Glan co-artistic director Tara Brandel, the performance offers insights into how our environment shapes our trust, attachments, and closeness and is an aural and visual feast for the senses.

Tours of Marsh's Library

St Patrick's Close, Dublin 8, 5pm - 9pm

You might know Dublins landmarks, but this is one that probably hasnt been on your radar. Marshs Library is a hidden gem and since opening in 1707 has welcomed writers like Jonathan Swift, James Joyce, and Bram Stoker through its doors. Home to over 25,000 books, the building is one of the few Georgian structures in Dublin which is still used for its original purpose. The library, complete with reading cages and the oak bookshelves, has been largely unchanged and preserves a long-ago era, which can be explored via guided tours on Culture night every thirty minutes on a first-come, first-served basis.

Culture Night Short Films: The Female Take

Barnardo Square, Dublin 8, 8pm - 9.30pm

This outdoor screening of short films has been curated by Screen Ireland and has a focus on female filmmakers. Each of the short films screened is directed, produced or written by women. They include Procession by Claire McCabe, Welcome to a Bright White Limbo by Zlata Filipovic and The Dead Hands of Dublin by Niamh Herrity.

For more info, go to: CultureNightDublin.ie
A third of cases of mouth cancers diagnosed in Ireland each year are caused by alcohol consumption, a health official has said.

There has also been an increase in the number of women diagnosed with the disease, while the average age of patients has fallen.

Marking Mouth Cancer Awareness Day on Wednesday, Aisling Sheehan, national lead for the HSE alcohol, mental health and wellbeing programmes, said there were links between alcohol and cancer generally.

It has the strongest association with the tissues that come directly into contact with the alcohol, so mouth cancer, she said.

Alcohol is a carcinogen, it breaks down in the body into chemicals that actually damage your DNA. Theres also other ways it can cause cancer, it can stop your body from absorbing nutrients to protect you against cancer, and it can increase some hormones.

Dr Sheehan said about a third of mouth and upper throat cancers are caused by alcohol, followed by 24% of voice box cancers and 20% of oesophagus cancers.

The prevalence of mouth disease is also increasing by about 3% annually, with about 700 cases of mouth, neck and head cancer being diagnosed in Ireland each year. Case numbers are also expected to rise by 30% in the next 25 years.

My colleagues that work in this area specifically are seeing a decrease in the age in terms of presentation. Originally, it had been over 65s and now theyre seeing people in their 40s and 50s, Dr Sheehan said.

Theyre also seeing a lot more women. In the past, it had been a ratio of six men to one woman, whereas now its a two to one ratio."

Tickle in my throat was cancer

Elijah Sewell (50), from Ballincollig, was diagnosed with oropharynx cancer in 2018 after he noticed a tickle in his throat.

"I was going to Turkey and my wife was going to her GP when I had a sore throat. I decided to go with her to get it checked out and get some antibiotics," he told the Irish Examiner.

"When the sore throat didn't go away after the holiday, I went back. We did tests and they told me I had throat cancer."

Mr Sewell believes it was luck that they caught the diagnosis so early.

"I was surprised because it was just a tickle in my throat, there was nothing wrong with me. I had just spent 10 days in Turkey, I was in great form," he said.

"I know if I wasn't going to Turkey or my wife wasn't going to the GP, I wouldn't have caught it as early. I would have said it was just a sore throat. Now I know I have to listen to my body when it's trying to tell me something is wrong."

Mr Sewell underwent treatment and was given the all-clear in January 2019.

"I feel great now. Every three months I go for a check-up, and everything has been fine."
A bereaved mother campaigning for health service accountability is demanding Stephen Donnelly explain why the word accountability doesnt appear in the latest Slaintecare progress report.

This will be one of the questions Roisin Molloy, who believes a system of fitness to manage hearings should be brought in for health chiefs, will ask when she and her fellow members of the Slaintecare Implementation Advisory Council meet the health minister later today.

She believes a legislatively-based accountability framework for all healthcare professionals is the single most important action for health service reform.

Another question she plans to ask the minister is why HSE staff investigate adverse events that happen at their own hospitals.

She also wants to know why those who do the investigations have little or no formal training.

The meeting tonight has been called after Laura Magahy, director of the Slaintecare programme, and the chair of the Slaintecare advisory council, Dr Tom Keane, resigned.

Ms Molloy was appointed to the council as a patient advocate by former health minister Simon Harris in 2018.

She believes health chiefs who fail in their jobs should be forced to face the consequences.

Nobody has been disciplined for failings that led to the death of the mother of four and husband Marks son at the Midland Regional Hospital in Portlaoise on January 24, 2012.

Roisin and Mark Molloy from Castlebrack, Killeigh, Co Offaly . The couple's son died at Midland Regional Hospital in Portlaoise on January 24, 2012. File picture: Stephen Collins/Collins Photos

As well as fighting for answers as to why their son died, the couple has been campaigning for greater HSE staff accountability.

Ms Molloy, from Killeigh, Co Offaly, said: Doctors and nurses go before fitness to practise panels but there needs to be a way of determining whether someone is fit to manage.

And those that arent should be made to explain their decisions, especially where there were decisions taken not to act on previous recommendations.

Nearly ten years after Mark died, there is still the need for a far more robust system to deal with hospital management and other non-clinical staff who dont do their jobs properly.

She said she was always told that one of the cornerstones of Slaintecare was going to be accountability.

I see very little of that and I would like to know what the issues are," she said.

On a very basic level, you do have to wonder how serious the health service is about accountability when the word doesnt even feature in the latest progress report.

In May 2015, then health minister Leo Varadkar said the way the HSE had treated the Molloys and other parents of babies who died was "appalling".

As well as finding their treatment "extremely worrying", he also admitted that the Molloys and other parents "were not dealt with honestly".

A year before Mark died in 2012, senior consultants at Portlaoise hospital had warned the HSE that the obstetrics unit was dangerously overstretched.

The letter was sent after the deaths of babies Katelyn McCarthy in 2006, Nathan Molyneaux in 2008, and Joshua Keyes in 2009 had occurred.

Reviews that could have prevented further tragedies were not acted upon.

Both the HSE and Mr Donnelly were asked for a comment.
Unionists have questioned why President Michael D Higgins has declined an invite to attend a church service alongside Britain's Queen Elizabeth II to mark Northern Irelands centenary.

The DUP and Ulster Unionists have asked for clarity after it emerged that the President would not be present at the event in Armagh next month.

It is understood the Queen has also been invited to the service, which is a focal point of a programme of events in 2021 to mark 100 years since the island of Ireland was partitioned.

A spokesperson for the Irish president told the Irish Times: The President is not in a position to attend the ceremony you mention, and this has been communicated to the organisers.

They did not say why he would not attend.

The President, through his office, has already conveyed his good wishes to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

The President has welcomed, and continues to welcome any opportunities to meet with Her Majesty and members of her family.

The creation of Northern Ireland in 1921 remains highly divisive a century on and unionists and nationalists have contrasting views on the anniversary.

Nationalist politicians in Northern Ireland have not been participating in events organised by the UK Government to mark the centenary.

DUP MLA Peter Weir has written to Mr Higgins asking if he was engaging in a similar boycott.

The Republic of Irelands president has turned down an invitation to be a guest at a service in Armagh marking the centenary of Northern Ireland, he said.

I have written to the Irish president asking if his office is officially snubbing all events marking this milestone in the decade of centenaries.

If President Higgins is officially snubbing NI Centenary events, I have urged him to think again. This island has been living through a decade of centenary milestones.

At every stage unionism has engaged positively and sought to use such events to advance reconciliation and peace.

It is narrow-minded and deeply disappointing that Sinn Fein and the SDLP have vetoed almost every publicly funded initiative to mark Northern Irelands centenary.

They even vetoed the placement of a centenary stone in Parliament Buildings even though it was being gifted by unionist MLAs.

For such high office in the Republic of Ireland to join Sinn Fein and the SDLP in boycotting centenary events speaks volumes about that countrys commitment to reconciliation and progress.

Ulster Unionist Mike Nesbitt said the move by Mr Higgins was uncharacteristic.

The news that President Michael D Higgins has declined an invitation to attend a service at Armagh Cathedral alongside Her Majesty The Queen to mark the Centenary of Northern Ireland, is surprising and uncharacteristic from someone who has shown a consistent willingness to reach out and promote reconciliation, he said.

The reciprocal State Visits were a high watermark in Anglo Irish relations and until we know the reason why he is not in a position to attend we cannot be critical.

Whether the President of Ireland attends or not should not detract from the fact Her Majesty the Queen will be in Northern Ireland marking our centenary at a church service which will see both Catholic and Church of Ireland Primates participate in an event entirely consistent with the Ulster Unionist vision of a Union of People.
A highly commended Naval Services officer and role model has been fined about 1,450 for striking a superior officer while drunk aboard a Naval Services ship.

Petty officer Diarmuid Cunningham, who has been ordered to pay 1,000 compensation to his victim, was attending a Christmas party onboard the ship while it was, anchored off the coast, although it was operational and on patrol duties.

The 43-year-old had consumed an excessive amount of alcohol during the party, which carried on until around 4am.

He was talking to the superior officer when at one point he demanded: Who the f**k are you?.

He then punched him in the face, injuring the officer, who was looking the other way at the time, and disobeyed an order to go back to his bunk.

His conduct was seen as completely out of character as he cannot tolerate alcohol, according to his lawyer Fergus ORegan.

And at yesterdays adjourned sentencing hearing at the Naval Base in Haulbowline, Ringaskiddy, Co Cork, the judge, Colonel Michael Campion heard petty officer Cunningham was in a bad place at the time due to marital difficulties.

Although the incident took place in 2017, it only came to trial at McKee Barracks in Dublin on July 27, earlier this year.

Petty officer Cunningham pleaded guilty to three charges arising from the incident between him and the officer, who cannot be identified due to the sensitivity of his current position within the Defence Forces.

The three charges he pleaded guilty to in Dublin were that he struck a superior officer, was insubordinate and disobeyed a superior officer, all contrary to sections of the Defence Act 1954.

A number of senior officers provided glowing references about petty officer

Cunningham, including a lieutenant colonel who had commended him for the above the expected standard of his service with the Navy.

A chief petty officer described him as a true team member, while a senior petty officer described him as a role model.

In his victim impact statement, read out in court by prosecuting barrister Commandant Maeve OGrady, the injured officer said the event has not had any lasting nor meaningful influence on him.

And he acknowledged petty officer Cunningham did make known his wish to apologise the day after the incident and he said he feels no animosity towards him.

And he said: The initial anger I felt following the incident was replaced with frustration both with the length of time it has taken to bring closure to the incident and concern that my position at the time not to retaliate had not been vindicated.

The level of anger and uncertainty I was feeling did cause me to question my future in the organisation.

This did cause me some level of distress insofar as questioning whether my reputation in the organisation was diminished. He concluded by saying that the wholly unprovoked strike which happened when he was looking the other way has led to an overriding feeling [of] frustration about the amount of time this has been hanging over my head.

Lieutenant Colonel Wayne Tyrrell, also a prosecuting barrister, said that at no point had the injured officer ever suggested or requested any form of compensation.

The judge acknowledged that and said that it was the courts decision to award the injured officer 1,000 to help towards the injuries he sustained during the incident.

Petty officer Cunningham, who earns 104.19-a-day, was fined 14 days' pay, and received three reprimands, two of which were severe.
Eric Eoin Marques, who has been described as the worlds biggest facilitator for child sexual abuse imagery, is due to be sentenced by a US court later today.

The 36-year-old who was born in New York but has dual citizenship was extradited from Dublin to Maryland in the US in 2019 following his 2013 arrest.
The Green Party leader and the party's deputy leader, who is also the minister for sport, have denied there is any division within the Government on the hosting of the America's Cup.

Cork has been earmarked as a potential host for the yacht race in 2024 and may be the last applicant standing after Valencia in Spain, which was shortlisted along with Cork and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, recently withdrew its bid. With a reported reluctance from American teams to travel to Saudi Arabia, Cork could have a clear path to hosting the event.
Alan Kelly famously stated that power is a drug, but it feels as though some in the current three-stool coalition have become addicted to controversy over the past 15 months.

Once it gets over the drama of today's confidence motion, this Government will have to face the far more complex challenge of actually getting down to the nitty-gritty of basic governing.

The pandemic provided Micheal Martin and his ministers a level of protection from the petty squabbles and vicious backstabbing that usually goes with being in power.

But as the Dail returns, so too will the evergreen issues of housing, healthcare waiting lists, climate change, education underfunding, childcare costs, traffic congestion and public transport, disability supports, and broadband not to mention the pre-budget battles over funding and allocations.

How this Government copes with the transition from emergency legislators to day-to-day governors will undoubtedly define it.

The unwinding of pandemic supports and emergency powers will be a delicate operation and reducing the overall spend on Covid measures from around 15bn to 7bn next year is no easy task.

But as Covid tumbles down the agenda, the Government will come under more scrutiny on its action (or lack of) across other areas.

HEALTH

The reduction and in some cases complete suspension of healthcare services has led to what Sinn Fein's David Cullinane has referred to as a tsunami of missed care.

Waiting lists have now tipped over the 900,000 mark for the first time ever. This, on top of the expected return of the annual trolley crisis over the winter months, will be a significant test for Health Minister Stephen Donnelly.

Mr Donnelly will also have to address the unexpected departure of two key figures on the Slaintecare management team.

In his resignation letter, Professor Tom Keane said the "requirements for implementing this unprecedented programme for change are seriously lacking.

The Slaintecare blueprint, which achieved buy-in from across the political spectrum, was hailed as a significant feat when it was published in 2017, allowing it to fail would be catastrophic for any government and Mr Donnelly must get the implementation of the plan back on track.

Throw issues with the CervicalCheck tribunal, a review of abortion legislation, and a report on student nurse pay into the mix and it makes for a very busy Dail term for the Health Minister.

CLIMATE

Eamon Ryan, who has already been plagued by in-fighting and disagreement within his own ranks, will come under renewed pressure to put a green stamp on the Government's agenda.

A new plan to tackle the climate crisis will be published in the coming weeks and will set out fresh targets sector by sector.

The Taoiseach has already said that this blueprint will set out detailed steps necessary to achieve our overall objective of halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

The measures are likely to be unpalatable for some sectors, including farmers, who have repeatedly claimed that they have been used as scapegoats in the climate emergency argument.

Mr Ryan, whose party was split on entering government in the first place, must prove that doing a deal with Fianna Fail and Fine Gael was worth it.

EDUCATION

Detractors within his own party, refer to Simon Harris as the "pop-up minister" because they claim he runs a "pop-up department for six weeks every Autumn".

Having received feedback on the Cassells report from the EU Commission, Mr Harris will have the entire future funding model for a third level sector that has been neglected for decades.

It's a decision that successive education ministers have put on the long finger.

The Cassells report, published in 2016, set out three options for the future funding of Irelands higher education sector, but Mr Harris has already indicated that a student loan scheme is out of the question, meaning the State will have to fork out more to bridge a crippling gap in funding.

Education Minister Norma Foley has already had a rocky start to the school year and will be under pressure to get a handle on the policy around Covid close contacts in the classroom to ensure children remain in education.

CHILDCARE

A report on the early years sector last week revealed that childcare facilities across the country face reducing services or potential closure over the coming months due to an inability to recruit the necessary qualified staff.

The Siptu survey found that the sector is "drifting further into crisis as low paid staff members exit.

Children's Minister Roderic O'Gorman has already indicated that he would like to see a fully State-funded model of childcare, but given the starting point, this is years  if not decades  away.

HOUSING

Minister Darragh O'Brien may have published his long-awaited Housing for All plan, but many of the aspects will require further legislation to implement and Sinn Fein's Housing spokesperson Eoin O Broin has already published a Bill that would remove the Part V affordable housing exemption for developers who purchased land between September 2015 and 2021, which he claims was a last-minute addition to Mr O'Brien's plan.

Expect stormy exchanges between Mr O'Brien and his opposition counterparts as he tries to halt what has been a runaway housing train for many years now.
As Ireland celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Easter Rising in 1966, Myles Kinsella, a UCD student set off for an ascent of Irelands highest mountain.

Tragically, his day ended with a fatal fall from the east face of Carrauntoohil. Soon after, a member of an English school party also died while climbing in the same area.

In the light of these events and with increasing numbers going to the McGillycuddys Reeks, Frank Lewis of Cork-Kerry Tourism assembled a team of volunteers willing to provide search and rescue services to fellow hillwalkers on the slopes of Irelands highest mountains. The renowned Kerry Mountain Rescue Team (KMRT) was born.

In the intervening years, much has changed in terms of equipment, search management, remote first-aid and climbing competencies. In contrast to the informality of the early years when the volunteers had no specific training, mountain rescue has now become a complex undertaking.

All rescuers are qualified in Remote Emergency Care, with ongoing first-aid training to maintain these skills.

Each team member is obliged to undergo training in a wide range of skills such as casualty care, ropework, stretcher lowers, rescues by cableway, helicopter winching, search management, navigation and radio communication.

But one factor remains unaltered from the early days: the mountain rescue service is provided on a totally volunteer basis with members not even receiving travel expenses when using their own vehicles. Such altruism is not universal.

In most European countries mountain rescue is a commercial service and must be paid for. As a result, most climbers and hillwalkers see it as prudent to insure against the extraordinarily high bill that can follow if things go wrong.

In the past there was little need for such a system in Ireland. Mountain accidents and subsequent callouts were rare since relatively few people had recourse to the Irish uplands.

Also, hillwalkers tended to be cautious and well-equipped because, in the era before mobile phones, they knew safety was in their own hands. The most common reason for rescue callouts in the past was when someone failed to return from the hills.

Now, in the mobile phone era, rescuers can become aware of an incident soon after it happens but are often hampered when the phone dies. The only option then is a manual sweep of the mountainside, which is the most labour-intensive and demanding task that can face a rescue team.

For years, the volunteer system of rescue worked well, with KMRT never failing to respond to a callout. This summer there was, however, a sharp increase in the number of requests for assistance and this has put added pressure on the rescue service.

During the first three weeks of August, KMRT were called, on average, once a day to upland accidents. While the situation did not reach a point where the team was unable to respond when called upon, the pressure is undoubtedly growing on the rescue volunteers.

This pressure mostly arises from careless walkers who see mountain rescue, not as a last, but as a first resort when a problem arises.

According to Alan Wallace, Assistant Pro at KMRT, being called on successive days places a huge strain on volunteers who are seriously committed to what they do. Volunteers who must juggle day jobs and family commitments.

"Volunteers who are increasingly exhausted and worn down by sequential callouts. Volunteers who are loathe to judge the sequential errors that underlie serious accidents.

And most of this trauma, and time-consuming rescues, could be avoided if those heading into the hills took the time to prepare properly. Wallace urges those heading out to plan their route in advance and have the skills to navigate competently even in the poorest of conditions.

Many accidents occur when walkers stray off the trail and onto the steep ground and then become cragfast (unable to move up or down), but competent navigation skills should keep walkers on the route. They should have sufficient spare food, protective clothing and torches to stay out safely after dark and at least one person in a party should carry a map and compass they know how to use.

Simple, sensible rules that every hillwalker should obey  yet so many are ignoring them at considerable cost. These individuals should now reflect on what a huge benefit it is to have a free mountain rescue service available to all, and show respect for our rescue volunteers by careful planning to eliminate silly and avoidable callouts.

The full story of the Kerry Mountain Rescue Team is contained in John G O'Dwyer's latest book titled 'Wild Stories from the Irish Uplands' available from currachbooks.com
Burma Any Embassy Sales by Junta Would Be Illegal, Myanmars Shadow Govt Warns

Myanmar Embassy in Tokyo in July 2020. / Segodon

Amid reports that the Myanmar military junta seeks to sell the land housing the countrys embassy in Japan, the shadow National Unity Government (NUG) has warned that any sale, in part or in whole, of a Myanmar diplomatic mission by the illegal military regime would be unlawful.

NUG Minister of Planning, Finance and Investment U Tin Tun Naing told The Irrawaddy that the warning was issued after the shadow government received credible reports of the regimes proposed sale of the site of the Myanmar Embassy in Tokyo.

A part of the Myanmar Embassys land in Tokyo was sold off under the former military regime. According to press reports at the time, the then regime sold 60 percent of the embassy grounds, netting it about US$234 million.

The Irrawaddy contacted the embassy in Tokyo for comment but embassy officials werent available.

While details of the proposed sale are not yet known, the plan shows that the regime is increasingly desperate for hard currency. The countrys economy has been in freefall since the coup with new investment drying up, the withdrawal of existing investment and the halting of key international-backed infrastructure projects, as Western countries sanction the military regime amid its forces brutal killing of more than 1,000 peaceful protesters, activists and youths.

Myanmar people are also refusing to pay commercial and income taxes and have stopped buying lottery tickets as they continue their boycott campaign to reduce the regimes revenue and deny it legitimacy.

As they are in dire need of foreign currency, it is likely they are plotting to sell embassy land in other countries as well, U Tin Tun Naing said. This fear prompted his ministry to issue its announcement, he said.

The announcement states that the illegal military regimes governing body as well as its subsidiary institutions and organizations have no right to control, manage or dispose of the public estate and thus any sale of the sites of the countrys diplomatic missions is prohibited.

Either the seller or the purchaser, or both, partaking in any such prohibited transaction will be prosecuted at a time and jurisdiction of the NUGs choosing, the announcement added.

The NUG said it will follow up with relevant authorities in the host countries of Myanmar diplomatic missions to preclude unlawful transactions prohibited by the announcement.



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Burma Myanmar Junta Cuts Internet Access in Anti-Regime Resistance Strongholds

A house burns after junta gunboats opened fire randomly on villages in Kani Township, Sagaing Region in July. / CJ

Myanmars military regime has cut off internet access in several townships in Sagaing and Mandalay regions. The affected townships are strongholds of anti-regime resistance groups who have inflicted heavy casualties on junta forces.

Mobile and wifi internet services from Myanmars three main telecom operators  MPT, Telenor and Oredoo  have been blocked since 12.30pm Tuesday in Kani, Mingin, Yinmabin, Pale, Shwebo and Budalin townships in Sagaing, and Mogoke and Myingyan townships in Mandalay Region.

In the three months from June to August, more than 840 junta soldiers were killed and 355 wounded in Sagaing Region in clashes with local Peoples Defense Forces (PDF).

184 civilians in Sagaing have also been slain and 49 wounded by junta forces, according to the parallel National Unity Government. Myanmar military forces are also facing intense opposition from resistance groups in Mandalays Mogoke and Myingyan townships.

Junta-owned Mytel telecom masts have also been destroyed across the country, including in Sagaing and Mandalay regions, since last week.

A resident of Sagaings Yinmabin Township said that civilian resistance fighters have managed to defeat junta troops in every clash in the region, because locals and resistance groups are sharing every movement of regime forces online.

Actually, they [junta forces] block the internet access as they are afraid of the people [sharing information], said the resident.

Before the internet blackout, some Facebook users and Facebook pages from Sagaing Region were actively sharing information about regime troop movements in order to have advance notice of potential raids.

A spokesperson for the Kani-PDF told The Irrawaddy that the internet blackout likely means that the junta is planning to attack civilian resistance forces in the region, and wants to ensure that locals dont share information about troop movements.

Junta soldiers have been raiding villages in Kani Township over the last few days, while several Myanmar military gunboats have been patrolling the Chindwin River and helicopters have been hovering overhead.

They are frightening the people here by blocking the internet and the information flow. They also frighten us with their helicopters, drones and gunboats. This is a kind of psychological war against our people, the spokesperson for the Kani-PDF told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday.

In August, junta forces raided a series of villages in Kani after blocking phone and internet access.

Many locals are also concerned that the internet blackout means that the regime is more likely to use intense violence on anti-regime strongholds in the region.

Since August, internet access has also been cut by the junta in the jade-mining town of Hpakant, Kachin State.



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Burma Myanmar Junta Troops Suspected of Killing and Mutilating Civilians

One of the five victims found dead with signs of torture in Gangaw. / CJ

Five civilians have been found dead with their bodies mutilated close to where junta troops clashed last week with local resistance fighters in Magwe Regions Gangaw Township. The victims had been shot and tortured, while the genitals had been cut off two of the bodies, according to local residents.

The bodies were found near Mwe Lel village, where three of the dead were from. The other two victims were from Lel Shae Village. Two bodies were discovered on Monday, and the other three on Tuesday.

The victims had been shot in the back of their heads and their arms and legs had been slashed with knives. Genitals had been removed from some bodies, said a villager.

The victims were innocent civilians. We found gunshot wounds on their bodies. They had been beaten. Two of the residents of Mwe Lel Village had their genitals cut off. There were cuts on the legs and arms of the bodies. The heads and faces were badly disfigured. We had to cremate the bodies at the site as they were too mutilated to move, said the local resident.

Junta troops and resistance fighters clashed on September 9 near Myin Thar village in Gangaw. At least 17 locals, most of them youths, died in the battle.

Clashes continued the following day, and some 40 houses were destroyed as military regime troops torched Hnan Kha Village. Some villagers from Mwe Lel were detained the same day by junta forces.

There were further clashes on September 12 after junta soldiers torched Htel Hlaw Village. On Monday, junta troops returned again to Hnan Kha Village, burning down another 14 houses.

Residents from at least ten villages in Gangaw Township have fled their homes following the junta raids.



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Burma Myanmar Military Regime Accuses Resistance Fighters of Bago Bank Heist

Robbery suspects with stolen cash and weapons in photos published in junta-controlled media.

Local resistance groups in Bago Region have denied the juntas accusation that civilian resistance fighters were responsible for the robbery earlier this week of over four billion kyats from AYA Bank vehicles in Indagaw Township.

Junta-controlled newspapers reported that seven men  four in civilian clothes, one disguised as a traffic policeman and two armed men disguised as policemen  held up two AYA bank vehicles on Monday evening on the old Yangon-Mandalay Highway in Indagaw, Bago Region. The men escaped with four billion kyats, after tying up the AYA bank staff and taking their cell phones.

On Tuesday, the military regime said it had captured some of the robbers, who it claimed were members of the Bago Peoples Defense Force (PDF), as well as a striking clerk from the AYA Bank in Bago.

Three men and four women  two of them nuns  were arrested in connection with the robbery. The junta claimed that it seized multiple weapons from the suspects, including an M-79 grenade launcher and two AK47 rifles.

The regime accused Ko Myo Ko, the commander of the Bago PDF, of plotting the robbery. He denied the accusation.

All the people who are rebelling against the military regime have to stay in hiding at this time. Most of the resistance forces in Bago are finding it very difficult even to get back into the town. So it is impossible for them to appear in public at this time, Ko Myo Ko told The Irrawaddy.

Yoma Tiger, another local resistance force in Bago Region, said that the group has no policy to rob banks and will never target a public place or public property.

Their [the junta] statements are similar to those issued by successive military dictators in the past. They are waging a psychological war. It was not the PDFs who exploded bombs near markets, schools and hospitals. It was not the PDFs who robbed banks, said an information officer for the group.

Many locals have expressed doubts as to how such a robbery could take place in Indagaw, which is a Myanmar military garrison town that is home to three light infantry battalions under Division 77 and a logistics battalion.

Anti-regime forces say that the robbery was a deliberate attempt by the junta to smear the PDFs and undermine public confidence in the resistance movement.

Mondays robbery was the third bank heist since late August, following the robbery of a Global Treasure Bank branch in Yangons Mayangone Township on August 30 and of a KBZ Bank branch in Shan States Kyaukme on September 7. In July, a Global Treasure Bank branch in Yangons South Okkalapa Township was also robbed. The military regime stayed silent in all those cases.



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Three former American intelligence operatives have agreed to pay a fine of US$1.685 million (A$2.3 million) as part of a deferred prosecution agreement that places conditions on their future employment, after they were found to be working for a hacking company that carried out operations for the UAE Government.

The US Department of Justice said in a statement on Tuesday that Marc Baier and Ryan Adams, both US citizens, and Daniel Gericke, a former US citizen, had agreed to the DPA to resolve an investigation into violations of US laws around export control, computer fraud and access device fraud.

Baier, Adams and Gericke agreed to pay US$750,000, US$600,000, and US$335,000 respectively, over a three-year term, with reimbursement of the amounts needing US Government permission.

The trio worked as senior managers for a clandestine unit known as Project Raven, operating within a company known as DarkMatter, that spied on enemies of the UAE from 2016 to 2019. The existence of this project was uncovered by Jenna McLaughlin of The Intercept in in October 2016. Reuters published a similar yarn in January 2019, with a former NSA analyst, Lori Stroud, blowing the whistle on the activities of the ex-intelligence operatives.

As the story gets renewed attention today, highly recommend reading the last piece in our 2019 series.



How Project Raven was initial built by White House insiders https://t.co/aLY3HBLaQc  Chris Bing (@Bing_Chris) September 14, 2021

Baier worked for the NSA in Hawaii prior to going to the UAE. The employers of the other two men before the UAE adventure were not specified, with the DoJ statement merely saying that the three were "all former employees of the US Intelligence Community or the US military".

They were said to have carried out hacking operations for a UAE Government firm known as NESA during the years mentioned despite being told on numerous occasions that, under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, their actions constituted a defence service requiring a licence from the US State Departments Directorate of Defence Trade Controls.

After the three men left US Government jobs, they worked for an unnamed American firm that conformed to the necessary rules while providing services to a UAE Government agency.

When they left this American firm for jobs in the UAE, they were told the services they were going to provide came under "defence services" under the International Traffic in Arms Regulation, and that US citizens could not lawfully provide such services to an UAE firm without obtaining a Technical Assistance Agreement.

It's almost like the folks at Project Raven were daring @TheJusticeDept to charge them ("fsck around and find out" style). I highly doubt this would be happening today without @Bing_Chris reporting on Raven that made it impossible for DOJ to ignore.https://t.co/ZCcyW8ZbjP pic.twitter.com/I0A2CIsfjL  Jake Williams (@MalwareJake) September 14, 2021

This agreement is the first-of-its-kind resolution of an investigation into two distinct types of criminal activity: providing unlicensed export-controlled defence services in support of computer network exploitation, and a commercial company creating, supporting and operating systems specifically designed to allow others to access data without authorisation from computers worldwide, including in the United States, said Acting Assistant Attorney-General Mark Lesko on behalf of the Justice Departments National Security Division.

Hackers-for-hire and those who otherwise support such activities in violation of US law should fully expect to be prosecuted for their criminal conduct.

Acting US Attorney Channing Phillips of the District of Columbia said: Left unregulated, the proliferation of offensive cyber capabilities undermines privacy and security worldwide.

"Under our International Traffic in Arms Regulations, the United States will ensure that US persons only provide defence services in support of such capabilities pursuant to proper licences and oversight.

A US persons status as a former US Government employee certainly does not provide them with a free pass in that regard.

Assistant Director Bryan Vorndran of the FBIs Cyber Division said: The FBI will fully investigate individuals and companies that profit from illegal criminal cyber activity.

This is a clear message to anybody, including former US Government employees, who had considered using cyberspace to leverage export-controlled information for the benefit of a foreign government or a foreign commercial company  there is risk, and there will be consequences.
This Week in Review

A weekly review of the best and most popular stories published in the Imperial Valley Press. Also, featured upcoming events, new movies at local theaters, the week in photos and much more.
                                         

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Judges at the International Criminal Court on Wednesday gave the green light for a full investigation into crimes against humanity during the Philippines so-called war on drugs.

The Hague-based court approved the probe despite the fact that Manila left the court in 2019 following a preliminary probe into President Rodrigo Dutertes crackdown.

Former ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda had asked judges in June to authorise the full-blown probe into allegations that police unlawfully killed as many as tens of thousands of civilians.

The judges found there is a reasonable basis to proceed with an investigation, noting the specific element of the crime against humanity of murder, the court said in a statement.

The court said it appeared that the so-called war on drugs campaign cannot be seen as a legitimate law enforcement operation, and the killings neither as legitimate nor as mere excesses in an otherwise legitimate operation.

The available material indicates, to the required standard, that a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population took place pursuant to or in furtherance of a state policy, it added

The probe will cover the period from 2011 to 2019.

Firebrand Duterte drew international censure when he pulled the Philippines from the court after it launched its preliminary investigation into his drugs crackdown.

 Court retains jurisdiction 

But the judges said that even though the Philippines had withdrawn as a state party to the court, the alleged crimes took place while Manila was still a signature to the courts Rome Statute, so it could still probe them.

The court retains jurisdiction with respect to alleged crimes that occurred on the territory of the Philippines while it was a state party, the judges said.

Set up in 2002, the ICC is a so-called court of last resort and only becomes involved in probing the worlds worst crimes if its member states are unable or unwilling to do so.

The crackdown is Dutertes signature policy initiative and he defends it fiercely, especially from critics like Western leaders and institutions which he says do not care about his country.

He was elected in 2016 on a campaign promise to get rid of the Philippines drug problem, openly ordering police to kill drug suspects if their lives are in danger.

More than 6,000 people have been killed in over 200,000 anti-drug operations conducted since July 2016, according to official data. Human rights groups estimate the number of dead could be several times higher.

The tough-talking Duterte has repeatedly claimed the ICC has no jurisdiction over him and that he will not cooperate with what he has called an illegal probe, even threatening to arrest Bensouda.
The UN will withdraw Gabons 450-strong peacekeeping contingent from the Central African Republic over sexual abuse allegations, a scourge that has long tarnished UN interventions, Gabons defence ministry said Wednesday.

In recent weeks, exceptionally serious acts that go against military ethics and the honour of the armed forces, committed by certain elements in the Gabonese battalions have been reported, the ministry said in a statement sent to AFP.

Following many cases of alleged sexual exploitation and abuse that are being processed, the United Nations today decided to withdraw the Gabonese contingent from MINUSCA, the UN mission in the CAR, and an investigation has been opened by Gabon, the statement read.

One of the worlds poorest countries, CAR has been chronically unstable since it gained independence from France in 1960.

The former French colony is currently suffering from the aftermath of a brutal civil conflict that erupted in 2013 after a coup against then president Francois Bozize.

MINUSCA was deployed by the UN in April 2014 to try to end the conflict pitting the Seleka coalition of armed groups that overthrew Bozize against militias supporting him.

The conflict has dramatically reduced in intensity, but MINUSCA still has 15,000 personnel in the country, of whom 14,000 are in uniform.

Their main mission is to protect civilians.

 822 claims of sex crimes 

Allegations of sexual crimes involving peacekeepers in CAR have been recurrent.

If the alleged facts are proven, the perpetrators will be brought before the military courts and judged with extreme rigour, Gabons defence ministry said.

Gabon has always demanded irreproachable and exemplary behaviour from its army, both on its territory and abroad.

The UN has struggled for years over allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse by UN peacekeepers around the world.

Since 2010, it has posted 822 such allegations on its website.

By nationality, the peacekeepers with the most allegations against them since 2015 have been Cameroon, with 44 cases, South Africa (37), the Democratic Republic of Congo (32), Gabon (31) and the Republic of the Congo (26).

In March 2018, Gabon had announced it planned to withdraw its contingent because the conflict was abating.

But at the time there were allegations of sexual abuse involving the Gabon contingent.

However, three months later, at the behest of CAR President Faustin-Archange Touadera, his Gabonese counterpart Ali Bongo Ondimba said the Gabon contingent would stay on.

Already by late 2016, Libreville announced investigations into 15 of its troops suspected of committing sexual assaults.

That same year and in 2017, more than 700 soldiers from the Republic of Congo were sent away after allegations of sexual assaults and various other offences.

In 2014, French soldiers from the Sangaris operation, a peacekeeping force in CAR authorised by the UN, were also accused of raping children aged seven to 13.

France opened a probe which was later dismissed.

The two armed groups that clashed in the civil war have also been accused of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity between 2014 and 2015.

The civil war has dropped in intensity since 2018 but armed groups, some with past links to the Seleka or anti-Balaka, occupied more than two-thirds of the country until late last year.

Some of them launched a rebellion against the administration of Touadera, who was re-elected on December 27, 2020.

His army, with the support of hundreds of Russian paramilitaries and Rwandan soldiers, have today largely reconquered lost territory.
The International Criminal Court on Wednesday authorised a full probe into Philippines President Rodrigo Dutertes war on drugs, saying it resembled an illegitimate and systematic attack on civilians.

Judges said there was a reasonable basis to believe that the crime against humanity of murder had been committed in the crackdown, which has left thousands of people dead.

Duterte pulled Manila out of the Hague-based court in 2019 after it launched a preliminary probe, but the ICC said it had jurisdiction over crimes committed while the Philippines was still a member.

The ICC judges said that the so-called war on drugs campaign cannot be seen as a legitimate law enforcement operation, and the killings neither as legitimate nor as mere excesses in an otherwise legitimate operation.

Evidence suggested that a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population took place pursuant to or in furtherance of a state policy, they said in a statement.

Former ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda had asked judges in June to authorise the full-blown probe into allegations that police unlawfully killed up to tens of thousands of civilians.

The case will now be taken up by her successor, Karim Khan, who took over shortly afterwards.

 Signature policy 

The drugs crackdown is Dutertes signature policy initiative and he defends it fiercely, especially from critics like Western leaders and institutions which he says do not care about his country.

The firebrand leader was elected in 2016 on a campaign promise to get rid of the Philippines drug problem, openly ordering police to kill drug suspects if their lives are in danger.

At least 6,181 people have been killed in over 200,000 anti-drug operations conducted since July 2016, according to the latest official data released by the Philippines in July this year.

ICC prosecutors in court papers estimate the figure to be between 12,000 to 30,000 slain victims.

Prosecutors said that Manila has not denied people were killed during police operations but have instead consistently contended that these deaths resulted from officers acting in self defence.

Duterte drew international censure when he pulled the Philippines from the court after it launched a preliminary investigation into his drugs crackdown.

But the judges said that even though the Philippines had withdrawn as a state party to the court, the alleged crimes took place while Manila was still signed up to the courts Rome Statute, so it could still probe them.

Set up in 2002, the ICC is a so-called court of last resort and only becomes involved in probing the worlds worst crimes if its member states are unable or unwilling to do so.

 Death squad 

The ICC investigation will also cover alleged extra-judicial killings in the southern Davao region between 2011 and 2016, when Duterte was mayor.

They were allegedly committed by local police officers and vigilantes, including a group calling themselves the Davao Death Squad.

Persons involved in these killings in some cases appear to (be) the very same people that were later involved in the war on drugs campaign, ICC prosecutors said.

The majority of victims were young men suspected of small-scale drug dealing or minor crimes such as theft and drug use while gang members and street children were also killed, prosecutors said.

The tough-talking Duterte has repeatedly claimed the ICC has no jurisdiction over him and that he will not cooperate with what he has called an illegal probe, even threatening to arrest Bensouda at one point.

But rights groups welcomed the move, saying the ICCs decision offers a much-needed check into Dutertes deadly war on drugs.

Victims families and survivors have reason to hope that those responsible for crimes against humanity could finally face justice, Human Rights Watch researcher Carlos Conde said.
The Russian mercenary group Wagner is a shadowy military outfit comprised of private fighters that has been linked to the Kremlins wars in Ukraine, Africa and the Middle East.

France and Germany this week warned West Africas Mali against a reported deal with Wagner amid claims that the country is close to hiring 1,000 mercenaries of the secretive Russian group.

 Guns for hire 

Reports of Wagners existence emerged at the beginning of the war in Ukraine, which was sparked in 2014 and spurred allegations the Kremlin was backing a separatist insurrection in the east of the country.

The group later reappeared in Syria, where it bolstered the embattled regime of President Bashar al-Assad and was accused by Russian media of torturing detainees and securing oil assets.

Wagner fighters have since resurfaced in politically volatile African countries like the Central African Republic as military instructors and Libya, where they are propping up the rival administration of strongman Khalifa Haftar.

Apart from buttressing official Russian military operations, as in Syria, Wagner is reported to have also played the traditional role of a private security company elsewhere.

 Putins chef 

Wagner is believed to be financed by 60-year-old businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, who has been hit with EU and US sanctions for destabilising Libya and meddling in US elections.

Prigozhin spent nine years in prison for fraud and theft towards the end of the Soviet Union, emerging as a catering magnate with Kremlin contracts after the Soviet collapse.

He was hit with sanctions by Washington, which said his troll factory was behind 2016 election interference. Prigozhin has denied links to Wagner.

Day-to-day operations were reported by the Russian state-run TASS news agency to be overseen by former military intelligence officer Dmitry Utkin, who was hailed at a heroes of Syria ceremony in 2016 and photographed with Putin.

 Secretive funerals 

The group, which like all private fighting companies is outlawed in Russia, is understood to recruit from law enforcement agencies and the military, wooing prospective soldiers with salaries five or six times larger than the average in Russia.

Several local Russian news sites have reported from funerals in Russia of suspected fighters saying families receive large payouts in exchange for their silence.

The Carnegie think-tank has described Wagner as one of Moscows worst kept secrets.

It said the group has two primary goals: To provide the Kremlin with plausible deniability when deploying fighters in war zones and be a ready-made capability for building influence with receptive states.

 Unwanted attention 

Its operations however have not been without losses or scandal.

Belarus last year detained 33 militants from the group, accusing them of planning riots with the opposition ahead of elections.

The men claimed they were transiting through the Belarusian capital Minsk to destinations including Venezuela, Libya, Cuba, Turkey and Syria, in an embarrassing admission for Moscow, which discreetly secured their release.

Dozens of Wagner contractors are believed to have been killed and wounded in the Syrian province of Deir Ezzor in 2018 during a operation to claim oil facilities guarded by US troops and their proxies.

In July the same year, three journalists researching Wagners operations in the Central African Republic for an investigative media outlet were killed in an ambush.

Activists have accused Wagner of committing war crimes in Syria, while the United Nations has suspected the group of human rights violations in the Central African Republic.
The United Nations on Wednesday ordered the withdrawal of Gabons 450-strong peacekeeping contingent from the Central African Republic over sexual abuse allegations, a scourge that has long tarnished UN interventions.

The UN said it has now received a total of 32 allegations of sexual abuse or sexual exploitation against troops from Gabon, which are part of an international peacekeeping force numbering thousands in the CAR.

Gabon said it had opened an investigation following the UN decision to withdraw Gabons contingent to MINUSCA, the UN mission in CAR.

In recent weeks, exceptionally serious acts that go against military ethics and the honour of the armed forces, committed by certain elements in the Gabonese battalions have been reported, Gabons defence ministry said.

Following many cases of alleged sexual exploitation and abuse that are being processed, the United Nations today decided to withdraw the Gabonese contingent from MINUSCA, the ministry said in a statement to AFP.

MINUSCA confirmed the news, citing what it called the serious nature of these latest reported allegations.

It said the decision was based on a Security Council resolution that stipulates where there is credible evidence of such abuse, or a failure to properly investigate such matters, the units of the Member State should be replaced.

In New York, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said: Since 2015, with this new allegation, we have received a total of 32 allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse concerning 81 alleged perpetrators from the Republic of Gabon.

All concerned military members deployed or formerly deployed in MINUSCA, he said, adding that six of the 32 allegations had been substantiated after an investigation.

One of the worlds poorest countries, CAR has been chronically unstable since winning independence from France in 1960. It is still suffering the aftermath of a brutal civil conflict that erupted in 2013 after a coup against then president Francois Bozize.

MINUSCA was deployed by the UN in April 2014 to try to end that conflict, and while it has dramatically reduced in intensity, MINUSCA still has 15,000 personnel in the country, of whom 14,000 are in uniform.

Their main mission is to protect civilians.

 822 claims of sex crimes 

Allegations of sexual crimes involving peacekeepers in CAR have been recurrent.

If the alleged facts are proven, the perpetrators will be brought before the military courts and judged with extreme rigour, Gabons defence ministry said.

Gabon has always demanded irreproachable and exemplary behaviour from its army, both on its territory and abroad.

The UN has struggled for years over allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse by UN peacekeepers around the world.

Since 2010, it has posted 822 such allegations on its website.

By nationality, the peacekeepers with the most allegations against them since 2015 have been Cameroon, with 44 cases, South Africa (37), the Democratic Republic of Congo (32), Gabon (31) and the Republic of the Congo (26).

In March 2018, Gabon announced it planned to withdraw its contingent because the conflict was abating.

But at the time there were allegations of sexual abuse involving the Gabon contingent.

However, three months later, at the behest of CAR President Faustin-Archange Touadera, his Gabonese counterpart Ali Bongo Ondimba said the Gabon contingent would stay on.

Already by late 2016, Libreville announced investigations into 15 of its soldiers suspected of committing sexual assaults.

That same year and in 2017, more than 700 soldiers from the Republic of Congo were sent away after allegations of sexual assaults and other offences.

In 2014, French soldiers from the Sangaris operation, a peacekeeping force in CAR authorised by the UN, were also accused of raping children aged seven to 13.

France opened a probe, which was later dismissed.

The two armed groups that clashed in the civil war have also been accused of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity between 2014 and 2015.

The civil war has dropped in intensity since 2018 but armed groups, still occupied more than two-thirds of the country until late last year.

Some of them launched a rebellion against the administration of Touadera, who was re-elected on December 27, 2020.

His army, with the support of hundreds of Russian paramilitaries and Rwandan soldiers, have today largely reconquered lost territory.
EVANGELINE PARISH - Effective immediately, the following road closures are in place due to high water. The roads will be reopened as soon as conditions improve.

US 167 from LA 748 to St. Landry Parish Line - Now Open

LA 95 from LA 758 to LA 29

The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD) reminds motorists to take extra precautions should traveling be necessary.

Call 511 or visit www.511la.org for additional information. Out of state travelers may call 1-888-ROAD-511 (1-888-762-3511).

Motorists may also monitor the LA DOTD website at www.dotd.la.gov, by selecting MYDOTD, or by visiting the DOTD Facebook and Twitter pages.
OPELOUSAS, LA (KADN)- Local officials in St. Landry parish are making preparations for Tropical Storm Nicholas. Over 3,000 sandbags are available to residents at the Yambilee building in Opelousas.

Barbara Britt, a resident of St. Landry Parish, said that she has been to the location twice in one day to get bags for her and her neighbors. She does this because when a heavy rain comes, water usually gets up to their front door.

Photo courtesy of MGN Photo courtesy of MGN

It's gotten up to my door before and mainly because the ditches weren't draining, you know, the neighbors, it's gotten up to their door to from the back, and that's what Im worried about and getting sandbags for them, Britt said.

Britt was born and raised in the parish and has never seen it flood as much as it has in recent years.

So much (comes) so fast, they're just not draining as well as they used to because my house is on the highest point of our subdivision, but it has been flooding lately, she said.

The resident picked up a total of 25 sandbags so that they can prevent water from getting into her home.

Homeowners (insurance) does not cover flood. It covers what comes from above, but what comes from below is not homeowners, she said.

Jessie Bellard, the St. Landry Parish president recommends that residents prep the same way as they would for a hurricane.

You're looking at maybe 30 miles an hour winds, but again, normally you don't have this kind of wind, you know, so it's gonna be a little more than what you used to see and you have a whole lot more water than what you used to see, Bellard said.

Bellard is aware that the parish floods easily but he is doing everything he can to fix that problem.

We have a study being done by the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and the Acadiana Planning Commission and ourselves and we have a consultant firm coming in to study our drainage problems in our parish, so we're gonna have a master plan by next year this time. but until then, I gotta fight this battle we fight now, he said.

St. Landry Parish officials are also offering sandbag delivery. You can contact them at 337-948-3688.
Lafayette,LA - Acadiana schools went virtual in anticipation of flooding from Nicholas... University of Louisiana at Lafayette students prepared to walk through the rain to get to in-person classes.

"There was the possibility of it being a lot worse.", says Shawn, an undergrad at the university.

U-L student Victoria Whitney says she is stunned that the university didn't cancel school following the warning of flash flooding. "How often it floods around here and how bad it gets its kind of outstanding that we're her."

In the future, Whitney believes U-L should try sending out quicker emails would help," We got emails at like ten o'clock last night, and most people don't check their emails about that time."

Freshmen Michaya Nathaniels says he applauds U-L on how they go about making sure students can maneuver when there's bad weather. "They did take precautions during Ida so that if people did leave, you would tell them so that they could have the right amount of food for people that couldn't leave, and they also put most of the classes online or just canceled them.

several students are happy that teachers understand that they cannot make it to campus when there's bad weather.

" They'll be like, okay let's go on zoom today or they'll be no class. Overall teachers are understanding."

"Some teachers who did in-person actually went high-flex for a little bit just so that some of their students who couldn't actually make it."

U-L announced that all classes after 3p.m were cancelled and students unable to attend class tomorrow should contact their instructors directly. We also spoke to ul who says the university works to strike a balance between ensuring the health and safety of students, faculty and staff members and protecting its academic mission. They stated that they only rely on the latest and best information available from the national weather service and other sources.
The 2021 Netflix film "Sweet & Sour" certainly left a huge impact on everybody who has watched it. From its engrossing and relatable cast to its amazing storyline and shocking twist, the whole nation has been hooked.

But the talent and acting abilities of the three main actors Jang Ki Yong, Chae Soo Bin, and Krystal Jung are not limited. Three months later, the industry has been given a slew of impeccable dramas from the trio.

Here are the new dramas and upcoming films from the cast of "Sweet & Sour".

Jang Ki Yong

The heartthrob who stole not only the hearts of his two leading ladies but also the hearts of the viewers, Jang Ki Yong gained popularity and praise worldwide.

After the drama's release, the 31-year-old actor was coupled up with Girl's Day member and "Reply 1988" actress Hyeri in the tvN's romance comedy fantasy drama series "My Roommate Is A Gumiho".

He also made a cameo in another romance comedy fantasy series "Hello, Me!" which starred Choi Kang Hee and Kim Young Kwang.

On August 23, Jang Ki Yong took a break from the limelight to serve the country, and enlisted in the military.

However, the actor is thoughtful enough to leave the viewers something to get excited about. The actor will appear in the small screen with "Descendants of the Sun" star Song Hye Kyo in the upcoming romance drama "Now, We Are Breaking Up".

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 'My Roommate is a Gumiho' Star Jang Ki Yong Flaunts Overflowing Visuals in His Military Uniform

It is slated to air for the first time in November, and will continue to air every Friday and Saturday at 10:00 p.m. KST on SVS TV.

Chae Soo Bin

The 28-year-old beauty showed an amazing performance in "Sweet & Sour", where millions of people resonated with her character. Because of this, the actress received appreciation from new fans all over the world.

After the film, she immediately started to film her new drama film "The Pirates 2". Prior to its release, the cast of the film are currently making their appearances in tvN's "On Rent: House on Wheels".

She is also set to return to the small screen with a new Disney+ drama "Our Police Course". Details and premiere date are yet to be disclosed.

Aside from filming, the actress is also busy with her theatre career as Constance in the musical play "L'etudiante Et M.Henri".

The actress is quite active on her own YouTube Channel, where she shares a glimpse of her work and her day-to-day life.

Krystal Jung

Beauty and brains, the two words that were associated with idol-turned-actress Krystal Jung in her role as Jang Ki Yong's officemate in the film.

During the release of the film, Krystal was busy with filming her new drama "Police University" with B1A4 Jinyoung and veteran actor Cha Tae Hyun.

Currently, the coming-of-age romance comedy drama "Police University" airs every Monday and Tuesday on KBS2, with its promising cast and storyline.

The 28-year-old stunner will once again grace the small screen with her beauty and talent, now coupled up with "Voice" actor Kim Jae Wook in "Crazy Love". Production and further details are yet to be announced.

ALSO READ: Krystal in Talks to Star in New Drama with Kim Jae Wook

What was your favorite scene in the film "Sweet & Sour"? Share it with us in the comments!



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KDramastars owns this article.

Written by Elijah Mully.
Lovers of the Red Sky episode 6 featured a look back at Ahn Hyo Seop and Kim Yoo Jung's unforgettable moment and being reunited years later.

Moreover, the latest episode showed surprising development between the duo's blossoming romance.

Lovers of the Red Sky Viewership Rating

Two weeks after the historical fantasy drama premiered, the SBS Monday and Tuesday drama continued its dominance with soaring ratings.

According to Nielsen Korea, "Lovers of the Red Sky" episode 6 garnered an average nationwide rating of 10.2 percent, setting a new all-time high in viewership rating.

Interestingly, the series managed to set its personal best for three episodes in a row, signaling a growing recognition from viewers.

On top of it, Ahn Hyo Seop and Kim Yoo Jung's drama remained the leading program on all channels on its time slot.

Lovers of the Red Sky Episode 6 Highlights: Hong Cheon Ki's Recollection of Ha Ram

As the Maejukheon art competition continued, the participants were given a task to illustrate a specific scenario.

Ha Ram gave a particular subject for the second round, which includes his memories with the blind girl from the peach field.

During the presentation, the judges, including Grand Prince Yang Myung, were puzzled by her representation.

She explained that the black boulders were an illustration of wet Inwang mountains, which she first saw when she regained her sight.

With this, the crowd was stunned and moved by her interpretation, prompting her to advance to the third round.

Prince Yang Myung Gets Brutally Honest with Hong Cheon Gi

As the palace advised the competitors to rest to get ready for the third round, the grand prince spoke Cheon Gi separately.

Here, he got honest with her and told her about the copycat painter at the Sochoondo.

Prince Yang Myung expressed his disappointment, but Cheon Gi explained that she only did it for a living.

In a separate conversation, the royal learned about Chein Gi's father through the Master of landscape painting, Han Geon.

He tells the grand prince that she is the one that they were looking for, given that Chen Gi is a descendant who drew the King's royal portrait.

"She is the divine painter that the majesty seeks," Han Geon told the young royal.

Ha Ram and Hong Cheon Gi's Kiss Under the Moonlight

The historical fantasy drama never fails to give the audience a series of stellar visuals that add to the drama's breathtaking beauty.

In "Lovers of the Red Sky," episode 6 showcases a surprising yet heart-fluttering moment between Hong Cheon Gi and Ha Ram.

As the blind astrologer visited his horse, Soma, at the stable, he found Cheon Gi crying and lamenting about her situation.

During their conversation, Ha Ram brutally told her how disappointed he was for Cheon Gi for wavering at someone else's words and pitying herself over the things she had no control over.

To help Cheon Gi feel good, he invited her to ride with Soma and went to a magnificent field overlooking the lake.

Here, a surprising development happened after Ha Ram kissed Cheon Gi under the moonlight.

Unfortunately, things didn't go well as the water demon, Ma Wang, sealed inside his body, interfered, causing him to struggle with pain.

Ha Ram's sudden reaction sent mixed signals to Cheon Gi that made her question his feelings.

KDramastars owns this article

Written by Geca Wills
MBC entices fans with a sneak peek of the upcoming Kdrama The Veil starring Namgoong Min, alongside Park Ha Sun and Kim Ji Eun.

The mystery crime drama is making a buzz due to its intriguing visuals that piqued the viewer's interest.

KDrama The Veil Behind-the-Scenes Snippets Showcase the Lead Stars' Teamwork

In the latest update, the broadcast network released a series of behind-the-scenes stills, showing how the actors fully immersed themselves in their respective roles.

In one photo, the man in uniform, Namgoong Min, flashed a beaming smile, hinting that the actor was having fun on the set despite an intense action scene.

This was followed by another snap highlighting his serious side as the 43-year-old star totally engaged himself in his character and appeared to can't take his eyes off the script even during a short break.

The same goes for his co-star, Park Ha Sun, whose eyes were glued to the script even during her glam team retouching her makeup.

As soon as the camera rolls, the "temptation" star immerses herself in her role, proving her professionalism and dedication to her work.

Meanwhile, rookie actress Kim Ji Eun shows off her eagerness to portray her role better by discussing the scene with Kdrama The Veil director Kim Sung Yong.

On the other hand, the 27-year-old beauty is not afraid to display her playful side on the set as she strikes a pose and smiles in front of the cam while holding a pistol.

The Veil Release Date, Cast, and Everything You Need to Know

The release of behind-the-scenes still cuts comes ahead of the highly anticipated broadcast of the mystery crime drama.

Helmed by "My Healing Love" PD Kim Sung Yong and penned by Park Seok Ho, MBC Kdrama The Veil release date is scheduled to premiere on September 17, airing every Friday and Saturday.

The spy-themed drama follows the story of a top National Intelligence Service (NIS) agent Han Ji Hyuk, played by Namgoong Min, who is popular among his peers due to his combat skills and a long list of his successful missions.

Unfortunately, he found himself in the middle of a devastating ordeal after a traitor from his organization plotted his downfall.

After a year of mysterious disappearance, Han Ji Hyuk returned to the organization with one goal of finding the traitor who is responsible for his destruction.

His much-awaited vengeance is set to bring a conflict between his colleagues, including Park Ha Sun's character Seo Soo Yeon, the head of the Crime Information Center team.

Apart from the duo, Kim Ji Eun took on the role of Han Ji Hyuk's field partner Yoo Je Yi.

Namgoong Min Explains his Massive Transformation for His New KDrama The Veil

Following the confirmation of the cast and the release of still cuts, viewers were also stunned by Namgoong Min's physical transformation.

In an interview, the versatile actor revealed that he purposely gained 10 kilograms to justify his character.

"Since Han Ji Hyuk is NIS' greatest agent, I thought I needed a huge physique and strength that made it seem obvious he could overpower his enemies."

In addition, he also shared his workout routine, which includes spending hours at the gym and practicing martial arts.

IN CASE YOU MISSED: Namgoong Min Reportedly Gained 10kg of Muscle for his Upcoming KDrama The Veil

KDramastars owns this article

Written by Geca Wills
The highly anticipated Police University episode 12 sent its viewers to a rollercoaster ride during its broadcast on Tuesday, September 14.

In the latest episode of the coming-of-age romance comedy drama, Yoo Dong Man (Cha Tae Hyun) continues to investigate the illegal gambling case and unexpectedly gets involved in a serious accident.

Meanwhile, Kang Seon Ho (Jinyoung) conducts his own investigation in secrecy, worrying his girlfriend Oh Kang Hee (Krystal).

Police University Episode 12: Cha Tae Hyun Continues His Investigation on the Illegal Gambling Case

To recall, detective-turned-professor Yoo Dong Man believed that the investigation on the illegal gambling case wasn't closed yet. With this, he decided to spearhead his own investigation, particularly on the administration and professor inside the university.

In the latest episode, Dong Man focused his attention on his colleagues Seo Sang Hak (Kang Shin Il), Kwon Hyuk Pil (Lee Jong Hyuk), and Choi Hee Soo (Hong Soo Hyun), who seemed a little suspicious to the detective.

During his vacant time, he investigates the three professors through a little chit-chat. Dong Man, who is in disbelief, gave focus on his same-age friend and potential romantic partner Choi Hee Soo.

Previously, the Judo professor visited the Seoul Metropolitan Police Station to visit the head of the illegal gambling case Han Ji Hyuk (Yoo Tae Woong) in confidence.

The following day, Dong Man decides to speak with the beautiful Judo professor. However, Hee Soo leaves for Daejeon as quick as a flash early in the morning.

With his heightened suspicions, Dong Man drives after the Judo professor, steering the wheel in confusion as they both head to Seoul.

Kang Seon Ho Receives a Suspicious Message

In the meantime, Seon Ho suddenly receives suspicious and fear-inducing messages. To his surprise, the stranger reveals that he knows Kang Seon Ho and his past criminal record, which Yoo Dong Man shreds off.

Scared that the truth will be revealed while he aims to be a police officer, he hesitates to tell the critical messages to his professor and confidant.

With this, he conducts his own investigation and exerts effort and time coding the programs to catch the man behind the threats.

On the other hand, his girlfriend Kang Hee, although worried about the risk, expresses her support and love for her boyfriend.

Yoo Dong Man Gets Involved in an Unexpected Accident

As Dong Man focuses on following Hee Soo, he isn't vigilant of the 10-wheeler truck that wages across him.

Because of this, a heart-wrenching news shocked the police university. Yoo Dong Man was involved in a hit-and-run and was rushed immediately to the emergency room for an operation.

Seon Ho, Kang Hee, Joon Wook (Youngjae), and Beom Tae (Lee Dal) were crestfallen about the news, especially the hacker who is the professor's partner.

Professors Sang Hak and Hyuk Pil dropped their classes and drove to the hospital with their hearts beating quickly.

Though it seemed like an accident, the professors as well as Dong Man's senior in the police station, believe that it is a framed accident, wondering who is the man behind this tragic accident.

Yoo Dong Man's Operation Ends Successfully, Kang Seon Ho Figures Out Who Hurt the Professor

The closest friends and students of Yoo Dong Man now breathe with ease as his operation ended successfully, and they only have to wait a bit for the detective to wake up.

However, the culprit who caused the accident visited Dong Man disguised as a nurse with the intention to finish the professor off.

Luckily, Kang Hee, who is quick-witted as ever, fought the criminal away and removed the poison that was injected in Dong Man.

The criminal possesses a barcode tattoo in his neck, the same guy who worked under Go Deok Bae's (Shin Seung Hwan) wings.

Not long after, the professor wakes up from his medicine-induced coma.

On the other hand, Kang Seon Ho pulled his best strings to counterattack the criminal who has been threatening him online.

He successfully catches Jang Jae Gyu (Lee Seong Woo) and intends to avenge the poor professor.

Mastermind of the Illegal Gambling Case: Revealed!

While Dong Man adjusts to his situation, police detective Han Ji Hyuk visits him in the hospital with a heavy heart. Unbeknownst to him, Dong Man finally regained his consciousness.

Dong Man, who still doesn't trust the administration in the police university, feigns unconsciousness.

To his surprise, the suspicious detective revealed his involvement in the illegal crime, and he soon plans to target Dong Man's little brother and partner, Kang Seon Ho.

As Dong Man balled his hands into fists due to anger, the quick-witted Kang Hee trembled in fear in the corner.



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KDramastars owns this article.

Written by Elijah Mully.
ASHLAND, Ore.  The Jackson County Sheriff's Office says that an Ashland man has been charged with murder and animal abuse after a stabbing along Eagle Mill Road just outside of Ashland in the early hours of Wednesday morning. One unidentified victim is dead.

Dispatch received a call to report the stabbing at 2:14 a.m. at an address in the 300-block of Eagle Mill Road. Deputies and police officers from the Ashland, Phoenix, and Talent police departments all responded, quickly arresting a suspect.

The suspect was identified Wednesday afternoon as 30-year-old Auriel Zipher Scattergood. He's been charged with second-degree murder, second-degree assault, and aggravated animal abuse.

Beyond some traffic violations in 2018, Oregon court records do not show any previous offenses for Scattergood.

JCSO was assisted at the scene by detectives from Oregon State Police, and the Major Assault and Death Investigative Unit (MADIU) has been called out to investigate.

The victim's name will be released once their next of kin has been notified. JCSO said that the victim's dog was injured in the incident and is receiving emergency care at the Southern Oregon Veterinary Specialty Center.

Carl R. Crenshaw II lives just up Eagle Mill Road from the house where the stabbing took place  an area that borders the Bear Creek Greenway, not far from where the Almeda Fire started. He recalls hearing the sirens early Wednesday morning, though his dogs alerted him to something earlier.

"My dogs always bark, and I think it was about two o'clock that I heard this guy pull up and he was trying to find a place to park here, and that was pretty much it," Crenshaw said. "I didn't hear anything, but they always let me know when something's going on and . . . I knew something was going on."

Crenshaw lost his home in the Almeda Fire, a home that he'd had since the mid-'70s, and he's stayed there to rebuild. He says that most of his neighbors in the area are good people.

"Since we've had the fire, we haven't had much action out here . . . so it's kind of a surprise over here," Crenshaw said. "Not a total surprise  we've had a lot of people going through. I'd say 90 percent of the people that go through here I help out once in a while."

Eagle Mill Road was closed by Jackson County Roads on Wednesday morning, and the closure remained in place well into the afternoon. It was set to be reopened shortly after 4 p.m.
KENO, Ore.  Fire officials will be making extensive use of firefighting aircraft to combat the Bear Flat Fire burning in Klamath River Canyon. The fire was first reported on Monday afternoon within the canyon southwest of Keno in Klamath County.

In an update on Tuesday, the South Central Oregon Fire Management Partnership (SCOFMP) did not indicate that the Bear Flat Fire had grown significantly between Monday night and Wednesday, but its inaccessibility to ground crews remains an issue. It was still estimated at 50 acres as of that morning, with no containment.

"Due to the terrain, wildland firefighting aircraft is expected to be used extensively today," SCOFMP said. "Area residents may notice more air traffic in the area, as well as increased wildland firefighting equipment arriving in the Keno area. Area residents and visitors are asked to use caution driving in the area."

The Bear Flat Fire is burning in steep, inaccessible terrain and heavy timber within the Klamath River Canyon. Smoke from the fire is heavily visible throughout the area, but there are no structures threatened or at risk within nearby communities like Keno.

SCOFMP said that numerous air and ground resources are assigned to the fire, with more on order. As of Tuesday morning, a SCOFMP Type 3 Incident Management Team had taken command of the fire.

Campgrounds in the Upper Klamath River Canyon on river right are closed and the public is asked to stay out of the canyon area. Road closures are also expected to go into effect Tuesday afternoon on Ward Road and Klamath River Canyon Road on the north and west side of the river. The Klamath River will also be closed to rafting from the Klamath Dam to the Oregon-California state line.
KENO, Ore.  Despite steep, nigh-inaccessible terrain within Klamath River Canyon, fire officials say that they've been able keep the Bear Flat Fire southwest of Keno within the same 50-acre area first reported on Monday night.

The fire is located about nine miles southwest of Keno on the northwest side of the Klamath River. While there is still no containment on the fire, it also has not shown any significant growth even as ground crews struggle to operate in the area.

"Air resources, primarily helicopter work, were effective on the fire yesterday, with minimal fire growth," the South Central Oregon Fire Management Partnership said in an update. "CalFire assisted yesterday, providing a helicopter, two engines and a battalion chief for the day."

SCOFMP said that the weather has helped, with winds dropping overnight and moderate humidity recovery helping to keep fire activity to a minimum. Conditions on Wednesday are expected to include higher humidity and light winds increasing throughout the day.

There are almost 100 personnel assigned to the fire as of Wednesday, including three hand crews, six engines, two water tenders and a dozer, with more resources on order. Crews are still working to secure lines, identify and mitigate hazard trees, and identify contingency line options. SCOFMP's Type 3 Incident Management Team remains in command of the response.

The Lakeview District Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has temporarily closed Ward Road from Route 66 to Mud Springs Road and Copco/Big Bend Road-entire road south of the Emergency Spillway. The Klamath River is also closed to rafting from the Klamath Dam to the Oregon-California state line. Campgrounds in the Upper Klamath River Canyon on river right are closed and the public is asked to stay out of the canyon area.

Smoke from the Bear Flat Fire will remain highly visible on Wednesday, but there are no structures threatened and SCOFMP underlined that the community of Keno is not at risk.
GRANTS PASS, Ore.  The suspect in a violent carjacking outside of Safeway in Grants Pass has been apprehended after a high-speed chase along I-5 in Siskiyou County.

Grants Pass Police said that officers responded shortly before 10 a.m. Tuesday morning to the parking lot of Safeway on SE 7th Street. A woman had reportedly been robbed of her vehicle and then "dragged across the parking lot."

Officers arrived at the scene to find that the woman and her passenger had both received minor injuries when they were pulled from their vehicle by the suspect. The suspect had driven away in the victim's car, a 2008 Hyundai SantaFe.

Information about the stolen vehicle was quickly sent to nearby law enforcement agencies. Investigation of the crime scene soon found that the suspect had been inside Safeway just before the robbery, and his image was captured on security cameras.

Shortly before 12:30 p.m., Grants Pass Police learned that officers from the California Highway Patrol were in pursuit of the Hyundai southbound on I-5 near Mount Shasta. Minutes later, CHP reported that the suspect had crashed at high speeds south of Dunsmuir.

The suspect was taken into custody, but was reportedly in serious or critical condition after the crash, having been ejected from the vehicle. Grants Pass Police said that the suspect is a 33-year-old Hispanic male, but his identity is being withheld for the time being due to his injuries.

Once released from the hospital, the suspect faces charges of second-degree robbery, two counts of fourth-degree assault, and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle.

"The Grants Pass Police Department would like to thank all who assisted with the investigation and apprehension. We especially want to thank our community partner Safeway and our professional partner the California Highway Patrol," the agency said in a statement.

Anyone with further information about the robbery investigation is asked to call the Grants Pass Police non-emergency line at 541-450-6260 and reference case #21-39993.
UPDATE--Auriel Zipher Scattergood, 30, has been arrested in this mornings homicide near Ashland. Scattergood has been charged with Murder in the 2nd degree, Assault in the 2nd degree, and Aggravated Animal Abuse.

The victims name will be released pending notification of next of kin. The victims dog was injured in the altercation and received emergency care at the Southern Oregon Veterinary Specialty Center.



(UPDATED AT 2:05 pm)

ASHLAND, Ore.  The Jackson County Sheriffs Office (JCSO) is investigating a homicide that occurred early Wednesday morning on Eagle Mill Road outside of Ashland. The agency says that a suspect is in custody.

The call to dispatch came in around 2:15 a.m.

The Jackson County Sheriff's Department was assisted on scene by Oregon State Police, Ashland Police Department, Phoenix Police Department, and Talent Police Department. The Major Assault and Death Investigative Unit (MADIU) has been called out to investigate.

Next of kin are being notified, and the Jackson County Sheriffs Department will release an update when more information when possible.

Currently, Eagle Mill Road is closed between N Valley View and Butler Creek Rd; the expected opening is approximately noon on Wednesday.
SALEM, Ore.  Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum has joined 23 other attorneys general in an amicus brief supporting the US Department of Justice's challenge of a newly-minted Texas abortion law, one which essentially bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.

The amicus brief, filed Wednesday in the US District Court for the Western District of Texas, supports the Justice Department's motion for a preliminary injunction to halt the new law.

According to Rosenblum's office, the Texas law contradicts almost 50 years of Supreme Court precedent affirming abortion as a constitutional right  precedent that the law seeks to circumvent by giving enforcement authority to private individuals instead of the state.

This anti-abortion law is unequivocally unconstitutional. By turning private citizens into bounty hunters targeting anyone, including medical professionals, who assists someone in obtaining an abortion, Texas is ignoring well-established legal rights and federal law. It is shocking that Texas would seek to skirt the constitution so blatantly,  said Attorney General Rosenblum. We are at a crucial moment in the fight to keep abortion accessible, safe and legal. As Oregon's attorney general, I am glad to be able to join this national fight for bodily autonomy and reproductive freedom."

In their brief, the attorneys general argue that the Texas law's private enforcement structure produces an across-the-board ban on constitutionally protected activity, and that private enforcement does not shield the law from judicial review. They argue that failing to grant a preliminary injunction would cause "irreparable harm" to patients and clinics both in Texas and in surrounding states.

"The law also threatens the many people who help patients in Texas obtain access to an abortion by creating more than $10,000 in potential liability for anyone who so much as gives a patient a ride to a provider or otherwise helps," Rosenblum's office said. "The states are committed to shielding their residents and clinicians from these harms when they help a patient in Texas obtain constitutionally protected care."

In addition to Oregon, the amicus brief was joined by California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.
YREKA, Calif.  Many California voters headed out to the polls on Tuesday, the last day of a recall election that will decide the fate of Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom.

Newsom served as lieutenant governor of California between 2011 and 2019 before ascending to the Governor's office. When Newsom was elected Governor in 2018, he won handily over Republican John Cox with nearly 62 percent of the vote.

Regardless of Newsom's early popularity and California's recent history as a solid majority Democratic state, the recall election's structure gives Republicans and other opponents of the sitting governor a fighting chance of toppling Newsom. It consists of only two questions  should Newsom be recalled, and who should succeed him if he is recalled. If the majority of voters pick "yes" on the former, the candidate who receives the most votes on the latter will be elected.

Forty-six candidates appear on the ballot for the second question. The vast majority of alternative candidates are Republicans, and polling suggests that conservative radio host Larry Elder has emerged as the front-runner.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, all of California's active registered voters should have received a mail-in ballot in August. Regardless, there are many Californians who will still come out to the polls to vote in-person on Tuesday, with polls closing at 8 p.m.

Yreka resident Kathleen Jones says that she normally votes by mail, but she did not receive a mail-in ballot for this election. She headed for the polls even though she has issues with mobility.

"I've heard that I'm not the only one  other people that I know did not receive ballots," Jones said.

Jones said that despite her trouble walking, it's important for her to cast her vote because she feels California needs a new governor.

There are certainly voters who received a mail-in ballot but still want to vote in-person, and Siskiyou County Clerk Laura Bynum says that they should bring their mail ballots with them.

"For voters who are wanting to go to the polls on Election Day, I encourage them to keep their vote-by-mail ballot that they received in the mail to surrender at the polls, otherwise the poll workers will need to call us so we can suspend that vote-by-mail ballot," Bynum said.

As of Tuesday morning, Bynum said that about 46 percent of Siskiyou County mail-in ballots had been returned.

Though California tends to swing blue on statewide elections, Siskiyou County's population of about 43,500 reliably prefers Republicans. One voter that NewsWatch 12 spoke with on Tuesday said that whether Governor Newsom is recalled or not, she hopes to see a change in how California's government is run.

"I came to vote today because I think it's really important for people in the state of California to have a say in how they expect the state to be run," said Chloe Kirby. "I know that a lot of people support Governor Newsom and want him to continue doing the job that he's done, and there's many many people who do not, and they would like to see someone else come and try to lead the state in a different direction."

Kirby said that her biggest concerns with California right now are people moving out of the state and how schooling is being handled under recent COVID-19 guidance.

Not all Siskiyou County voters feel the same as Jones or Kirby, and one man who went to the polls on Tuesday told NewsWatch 12 that he voted to keep Governor Newsom in place.
Kelowna airport officials expected the return of international flights to the terminal last week, based on federal guidance given in the summer. But permission still hasn't been given to add YLW to the list of nine other Canadian airports allowed to handle international flights.
Former Kelowna-Lake Country MP Stephen Fuhr, shown here at a federal funding announcement in 2018, brought millions of dollars in government investment to the riding, according to Tim Krupa, the Liberal candidate trying to win the riding back from the Conservatives.
Damaged structures are seen in Lytton, B.C., Friday, July 9, 2021, after a wildfire destroyed most of the village on June 30. The Insurance Bureau of Canada estimates the insured damage caused by the wildfire that wiped out most of village of Lytton, B.C., is $78 million. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry looks on as Health Minister Adrian Dix speaks during a news conference at the legislature in Victoria, Monday, Aug. 23, 2021. The British Columbia government is offering nurses and other health-care professionals incentives like child care and support for housing and travel as part of a recruitment drive in the northern region.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chad Hipolito
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On September 1st, 2021, Texas Senate Bill 8 went into effect. While the laws stated goal is to severely limit a womans constitutional right to an abortion in Texas, it also designates private citizens to sue not just abortion providers, but anyone aiding and abetting a woman seeking to obtain an abortion after six weeks of gestation. If such a lawsuit is successful, the party bringing the suit can collect a $10,000 reward from the state.

The law clearly seeks to intimidate anyone trying to seek or perform an abortion. However, it also has the effect of interfering with regular physicians for doing their job. Primary care physicians routinely counsel patients about reproductive health. If a vigilante decided that one of us was aiding and abetting a patient seeking an abortion, we could be in the crosshairs as well. It is for this reason that the law egregiously interferes with the sacred physician-patient relationship, and places bounties on physicians and health care workers simply for delivering care, as correctly noted by AMA president Dr. Gerry Harmond. The Texas Medical Association, traditionally a conservative organization, correctly noted that SB 8 will be precedent-setting and could normalize vigilante interference in the patient-physician relationship in other complex, controversial medical or ethical situations.

As physicians, we cannot stand quietly by. Already, state legislatures in other conservative states are looking to follow Texass lead. Weve stared down death and disability during COVID-19 pandemic, and we cannot let cynical politicians frighten us now. Our oath and medical code of ethics command that we provide the most evidence-based and compassionate care to our patients and communities. This means fighting both for what our patients need to lead their healthiest lives and what we need to be able to provide that care to them.

So, what can we do? First, we need to get the best care for our patients. Given the very real threat to Roe v. Wade, we need to prevent more unintended pregnancies. To achieve this end, more primary care doctors should learn how to place and manage long-acting reversible contraceptives, or LARCs. A comparison of contraceptive options shows that LARCs are by far the most effective. Moreover, in countries where LARC usage is widespread, abortion rates drop. Yet the United States has the lowest adoption of LARCs of any industrialized nation, and one of the highest unintended pregnancy rates as a result. Recent studies have shown that while demand for LARCs in the US has steadily increased since the Affordable Care Act started requiring that the devices be fully covered, only 21 percent of family physicians regularly place IUDs and only 13.6 percent regularly place implants. A 2013 survey found that only 26 percent of internists and pediatricians combined were comfortable counseling, placing, and managing IUDs. By significantly increasing the number of physicians who can place and manage the devices, we can dramatically increase access to effective contraception and prevent unplanned pregnancies to begin with.

Unfortunately, simply increasing access to LARCs will not prevent all unintended pregnancies, and we still need to protect the privacy of the physician-patient relationship, including counseling regarding abortion and access to quality abortion care. Therefore, the second thing we need to do is contact our lawmakers. Medical societies have messaging systems for members to contact legislators. If you are a member of a society, reach out to find out what is being done. If you are not a part of organized medicine, there is still a lot you can do. Find your local, state, and federal legislators by using a special search engine such as Common Cause, then call or write them. Point out that you are a medical professional, and explain how you feel about the intrusion into your ability to provide patients with safe care. Make it very clear where you stand on the importance of the physician-patient relationship and that doctors be able to give comprehensive care. Write out what you want to say first and then review it, checking to make sure you are coming across as reasonable and professional.

Third, we need to remove elected officials who wont prioritize science and the health of their constituents and elect people who do. We need to talk to our patients about the importance of voting and help them get registered if need be. Organizations like Vot-ER and Civic Health Alliance provide education on how to talk to patients about the connection between voting and their health, and toolkits to help patients get registered to vote during an office or emergency room visit. And in its Prioritizing Equity series, the American Medical Association featured a lecture discussing how improving access to voting is vital to reducing health inequity in American Society.

To be sure, getting involved in politics and health policy is something that many physicians are wary of doing. This is why I first outlined a way to help women that is separate from getting involved in politics. That being said, this fight has been brought to our doorstep, and we risk imperiling our livelihoods if we ignore the issue. Additionally, while the Department of Justice may very well succeed in getting Texas SB 8 struck down, a Pandoras Box has been opened in the concept of allowing novel assaults on the physician-patient relationship.

It is imperative that we as physicians respond forcefully to these egregious threats to our profession. We must first help our patients avoid harm as abortion becomes more restricted in this country. We must push back forcefully against elected officials who work to interfere with the physician/patient relationship. We also need to fight to protect access to full reproductive services for those of us who believe in a womans right to choose. We need to speak out to those legislators who will listen and vote out those who wont. Weve been pulled into the fray whether we like it or not. Its time to fight for our livelihoods.

Joanna Bisgrove is a family physician.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
The United States has reached another grim milestone in its fight against the devastating Covid-19 pandemic: 1 in 500 Americans have died from coronavirus since the nation's first reported infection.

As of Tuesday night, 663,913 people in the US have died of Covid-19, according to Johns Hopkins University data. According to the US Census Bureau, the US population as of April 2020 was 331.4 million.

It's a sobering toll that comes as hospitals in the US are struggling to keep up with the volume of patients and more children are grappling with the virus. In hopes of managing the spread and preventing more unnecessary deaths, officials are implementing mandates for vaccinations in workplaces and masking in schools.

They're fighting against daily case, hospitalization and death rates that jumped after the early summer as the highly contagious Delta variant became dominant.

The country averaged more than 152,300 new Covid-19 cases each day over the past week as of Tuesday -- more than 13 times than what it was on June 22, when the average was at its lowest of 2021 (11,303 daily), according to Johns Hopkins University data.

The US averaged 1,805 new Covid-19 deaths each day over a week as of Tuesday -- significantly higher than the low average of the year (218) reached July 5, according to Johns Hopkins.

With only 54% of the population fully vaccinated, the rate of people initiating vaccinations each day (more than 341,900) is a 4% drop from last week and 28% drop from a month earlier, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.

Health experts have hailed vaccinations as the best source of protection against the virus, noting that the majority of people hospitalized with and killed by Covid-19 are unvaccinated. In Pennsylvania, from January 1 to September 7, 97% of the state's Covid-19 deaths were among unvaccinated people, Pennsylvania's acting secretary of health said Tuesday.

Another layer of strong protection, experts say, is masking.

The CDC recommends people -- even those fully vaccinated -- wear masks indoors in areas with substantial or high community transmission. More than 99% of the population lives in a county with one of those designations.

In Ohio, where children's hospitals are overwhelmed with Covid-19 and respiratory cases, Gov. Mike DeWine is encouraging schools to issue mask mandates since the state legislature has told him it would overturn any mandate he issued.

"Reasonable people may disagree about a lot, but we can all agree that we must keep our children in the classroom so they don't fall behind and so their parents can go to work and not take time off to watch their kids at home," DeWine said.

The combination of masks and vaccinations is the way to keep children in school, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN on Tuesday.

"If you surround the kids with vaccinated people and you have everybody wear a mask, you can get a situation where the children will be relatively safe in school," Fauci told CNN's Jake Tapper.

Coronavirus models foresee hospital admissions declining, CDC says

A CDC ensemble forecast that uses 10 models from other researchers predicts Covid hospital admissions to decrease during the next four weeks for the first time since the June 23 report.

The forecast predicts the US will see 5,000 to 15,300 new Covid-19 hospital admissions on October 11.

A total of 97,051 people are currently in hospitals with Covid-19, according to data from the US Department of Health and Human Services.

Fight brewing over vaccine mandates

To manage the spread of the virus, many officials and experts have promoted vaccine mandates -- but others are opposing such measures.

New York issued an order in August requiring all health care workers be vaccinated against Covid-19 by September 27. But on Monday, 17 Catholic and Baptist medical professionals filed a federal complaint seeking to prevent the state from enforcing the mandate, saying they oppose getting the vaccine for religious reasons.

On Tuesday, a federal judge issued a restraining order temporarily suspending New York state from enforcing its vaccine mandate if health care workers claim a religious exemption.

Because the mandate does not require health care workers to receive their first dose of the vaccine until September 27, the judge's order states the temporary restraining order "does not, as a practical matter, go into effect until that date."

A hearing is scheduled for September 28.

After the ruling, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul's press secretary, Hazel Crampton-Hays, said that the governor is considering all legal options.

"Governor Hochul is doing everything in her power to protect New Yorkers and combat the Delta variant by increasing vaccine rates across the State," Crampton-Hays said.

In Los Angeles, despite a mandate that all city employees be inoculated against the virus, nearly a quarter of the police force is seeking an exemption, according to Mayor Eric Garcetti's office. Those who are not vaccinated will be required to show evidence of weekly testing and a negative Covid-19 result if regularly reporting to work.

By November 1, Nevada workers who serve "vulnerable populations" must show proof of vaccination under a new emergency regulation passed Tuesday.

New hires must have at least one dose by their start date and must follow through on the required vaccination schedule to remain employed. Workers are allowed to ask for a medical or religious exemption.

Meanwhile, most American adults believe that the public health benefits of Covid-19 restrictions on activity are worth the economic and lifestyle costs they exact, a report released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center shows.

The Pew report also found about 80% of adults say they believe mask requirements on airplanes and public transportation are necessary to address the spread of the virus, and that international travel should be restricted.

Booster meeting won't be a slam dunk

On Friday, the US Food and Drug Administration will meet to discuss whether most Americans need a booster of their Covid-19 vaccine.

Unlike other meetings to discuss the vaccine, this one, with requests from Pfizer to authorize a third dose for most people, won't be a slam dunk.

"This will be much messier than in December," said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University. The FDA committee was quick to recommend authorization of vaccines made by Pfizer and rival Moderna last December.

When the FDA's Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee meets Friday, it will be presented with dueling data, some of it suggesting there's a need for boosters, but other pieces of data suggesting there is no such need.

Three separate articles published last week in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report suggest that we don't need boosters.

On the other hand, an Israeli study found that over time, the vaccines' power to keep people from getting very sick with Covid-19 diminished. Looking at illnesses in the second half of July, that study found that those who'd received their second dose of Pfizer's vaccine in March were 70% more protected against severe disease than those who received the second shot in January.

President Joe Biden announced plans last month to begin administering booster doses next week. While she wouldn't say directly if that date would be met, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said Tuesday she is hopeful about the timeline to get doses administered.

If the booster does get approved, experts will still have to wait and see how much protection is added by the third dose.

"I would hope that that would sustain us for an extended period of time, but I don't know that right now," Fauci said. "We're just going to have to do the boost, and then follow people long enough to determine what the durability of that protection is."

Moderna on Wednesday said booster doses of its Covid-19 vaccine recharged waning antibody levels and boosters formulated to match variants also worked as expected, according to their research team.

The 80 volunteers were given two doses of Moderna's vaccine. Their blood was tested six months later and they got a third shot.

Moderna has started its application for emergency use authorization of the third dose of its vaccine, but the FDA has not scheduled discussion of Moderna's application.

The-CNN-Wire

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NEWBERG, Ore.  Hours before the Newberg school board is set to discuss a controversial ban on the display of "controversial political symbols" in schools, parents at Newberg High School found out some of their kids were either participating in -- or targeted by -- a social media group chat called "Slave Trade," which joked about how much participants would pay for their Black classmates in a slave auction.

In an email to KGW News, the principal of Newberg High School, Tami Erion, said that Newberg High students took part in a Snapchat group chat, and used photos of students, along with racist and homophobic slurs. She said the chat originated in Michigan in late 2020, but the school's administration learned about it on Friday. She sent a letter to the school community about it on Tuesday.

"My heart is so broken for these kids who have gotten the message that they are not even seen as human by some of their fellow students," said Heidi Pender, the mother of a Black student at the school. "To imagine your own child being talked about as if they were subhuman slaves to be sold by other students, it made me feel like I was going to throw up."

Screenshots obtained by KGW News show pictures of the students, followed by a discussion around their price, and private details of their lives. Participants also commented, "All Blacks should die" and "Let's have another Holocaust."

"As a community, we continue to grapple with issues of diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging," wrote Erion, the school's principal. "Newberg High School is committed to ensuring that ALL students are afforded a safe learning environment by prohibiting harassment based upon gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, religion or disability."

But parents say their students don't feel safe at Newberg High, especially after the school board voted to ban Black Lives Matter and LGBTQ Pride symbols. In past public comments over the ban, parents of Black students say having Black Lives Matter displays in the school show their students who they can turn to when they're experiencing racism.

"For my daughter who is Black, it's confusing for her, why people would be against saying her life matters," said Pender. "Those words just mean what they say: Black lives matter. For her to have adults who are in charge of her school district say teachers are not allowed to tell you that your life matters is very confusing and a very hurtful message for her."

The school board is taking public comment on the ban at 7 p.m. on Tuesday.
Local TD John Paul Phelan has criticised Sinn Feins economic policies, which he says would do nothing to support businesses and would stifle job creation in Kilkenny and Carlow.

Deputy Phelan said Sinn Feins proposal for a 4% hike in employers PRSI to fund their plan to reduce the State pension age would heap more costs on all businesses in Kilkenny and Carlow at a crucial time when the focus is on growing the economy and creating jobs.

Once again Sinn Fein are talking out of both sides of their mouth by bringing forward an unclear and uncosted policy that would harm businesses in Kilkenny and Carlow at a time when Government has been doing all it can to help them respond and recover from Covid-19 through the provision of unprecedented supports," said Deputy Phelan.

What Sinn Fein fail to understand is employers PRSI is a tax on jobs and this proposal makes it more expensive to hire employees, just as we come out of a recession caused by the pandemic when so many people lost their livelihoods. The Commission on Taxation has said increases in rates of PRSI, in particular employer PRSI, would likely have a negative impact on employment.

As the Dail returned this week, party leader Mary Lou McDonald struggled to answer basic questions when asked who exactly would pay for this measure, with further question marks on the costing of 127 million which she claimed it would take to reduce the pension age.

She was equally under pressure ahead of her party think yesterday when she was asked on RTE Morning Ireland about Sinn Feins proposal to set a salary ceiling for a tax relief that would apply to a private pension. She couldnt provide a figure as to what the ceiling would be set at, which seems to be a recurring theme for Sinn Fein representatives when probed for basic detail on most of their policy proposals on public finances, housing, health and education.

Even on Wednesday morning, Deputy McDonald was asked about the 127 million that it would cost to restore the state pension age to 65 and responded its a figure weve been given by the system.

The most recent figure from the Department of Social Protection is that decreasing the pension age would cost up to 1 billion per year  eight times what Sinn Fein are admitting to. This cost would continue to rise year by year, and these estimates were stated in black and white by the Department in response to a parliamentary question just two months ago.

The simple fact is Sinn Feins reckless economic policies do not stand up to scrutiny and the party cannot be trusted with manging our economy, particularly as the country emerges from the greatest crisis in living memory."
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WASHINGTON (AP)  Fearful of Donald Trump's actions in his final weeks as president, the United States' top military officer twice called his Chinese counterpart to assure him that the two nations would not suddenly go to war, a senior defense official said Tuesday after the conversations were described in excerpts from a forthcoming book.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley told Gen. Li Zuocheng of the Peoples Liberation Army that the United States would not strike. One call took place on Oct. 30, 2020, four days before the election that defeated Trump. The second call was on Jan. 8, 2021, just two days after the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by supporters of the outgoing chief executive.

Milley went so far as to promise Li that he would warn his counterpart in the event of a U.S. attack, according to the book Peril, written by Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the book. Details from the book, which is set to be released next week, were first reported by The Washington Post on Tuesday.

General Li, I want to assure you that the American government is stable and everything is going to be okay, Milley told him in the first call, according to the book. We are not going to attack or conduct any kinetic operations against you.

If were going to attack, Im going to call you ahead of time. Its not going to be a surprise," Milley reportedly said.

According to the defense official, Milleys message to Li on both occasions was one of reassurance. The official questioned suggestions that Milley told Li he would call him first, and instead said the chairman made the point that the United States was not going to suddenly attack China without any warning  whether it be through diplomatic, administrative or military channels.

Milley also spoke with a number of other chiefs of defense around the world in the days after the Jan. 6 riot, including military leaders from the United Kingdom, Russia and Pakistan. A readout of those calls in January referred to several other counterparts that he spoke to with similar messages of reassurance that the U.S. government was strong and in control.

Trump, interviewed by phone on Newsmax Tuesday, said Milley's calls to the Chinese could amount to treason.

If it is actually true, which is hard to believe, that he would have called China and done these things and was willing to advise them of an attack, or in advance of an attack, thats treason, said Trump. "For him to say that I was going to attack China is the most ridiculous thing Ive ever heard.

The second call was meant to placate Chinese fears about the events of Jan. 6. But the book reports that Li wasnt as easily assuaged, even after Milley promised him: We are 100 percent steady. Everythings fine. But democracy can be sloppy sometimes.

Milley believed the president suffered a mental decline after the election, agreeing with a view shared by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in a phone call they had Jan. 8, according to officials.

Pelosi had previously said she spoke to Milley that day about available precautions to prevent Trump from initiating military action or ordering a nuclear launch, and she told colleagues she was given unspecified assurances that there were longstanding safeguards in place.

Milley, according to the book, called the admiral overseeing the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, the military unit responsible for Asia and the Pacific region, and recommended postponing upcoming military exercises. He also asked senior officers to swear an oath that Milley had to be involved if Trump gave an order to launch nuclear weapons, according to the book.

Officials in January and on Tuesday confirmed that Milley spoke with Pelosi, which was made public by the House speaker at the time. The officials said the two talked about the existing, long-held safeguards in the process for a nuclear strike. One official said Tuesday that Milleys intent in speaking with his staff and commanders about the process was not a move to subvert the president or his power, but to reaffirm the procedures and ensure they were understood by everyone.

It's not clear what, if any, military exercises were actually postponed. But defense officials said it is more likely that the military postponed a planned operation, such as a freedom of navigation transit by a U.S. Navy ship in the Pacific region. The defense officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.

Milley was appointed by Trump in 2018 and later drew the president's wrath when he expressed regret for participating in a June 2020 photo op with Trump after federal law enforcement cleared a park near the White House of peaceful protesters so Trump could stand at a nearby damaged church.

In response to the book, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., sent President Joe Biden a letter Tuesday urging him to fire Milley, saying the general worked to actively undermine the sitting Commander in Chief of the United States Armed Forces and contemplated a treasonous leak of classified information to the Chinese Communist Party in advance of a potential armed conflict with the Peoples Republic of China (PRC).

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, called the report deeply concerning, telling reporters at the Capitol: I dont know if the quotes are accurate or not, but if they are, that is a gross violation of the chain of command. I think the first step is for General Milley to answer the question as to what exactly he said.

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said he had no concerns that Milley might have exceeded his authority, telling reporters that Democratic lawmakers were circumspect in our language but many of us made it clear that we were counting on him to avoid the disaster which we knew could happen at any moment.

A spokesperson for the Joint Staff declined to comment.

Milley's second warning to Beijing came after Trump had fired Secretary of Defense Mike Esper and filled several top positions with interim officeholders loyal to him.

The book also offers new insights into Trump's efforts to hold on to power despite losing the election to Democrat Biden.

Trump refused to concede and offered false claims that the election had been stolen. He repeatedly pressed his vice president, Mike Pence, to refuse to certify the election results at the Capitol on Jan. 6, the event that was later interrupted by the mob.

Pence, the book writes, called Dan Quayle, a former vice president and fellow Indiana Republican, to see if there was any way he could acquiesce to Trump's request. Quayle said absolutely not.

Mike, you have no flexibility on this. None. Zero. Forget it. Put it away, Quayle said, according to the book.

Pence ultimately agreed. He defied Trump to affirm Joe Biden's victory.

Trump was not pleased.

I dont want to be your friend anymore if you dont do this, Trump replied, according to the book, later telling his vice president: Youve betrayed us. I made you. You were nothing.

Peril describes Trumps relentless efforts to convince Attorney General William Barr that the election had been stolen. Barr is quoted as telling Trump, The Justice Department cant take sides, as you know, between you and the other candidate. According to the book, Barr had determined that allegations about rigged voting machines were not panning out. Barr also expressed disgust with Rudolph Giuliani and others insisting Trump had won, calling them a clown car.

Trumps office had no immediate comment on the book.
CHARLES CITY, Iowa  A Mason City woman accused of multiple Floyd County burglaries is taking a plea deal.

Sarah Sue Schilling, 40, was charged with three counts of third-degree burglary and one count of second-degree criminal mischief after law enforcement says Schilling burglarized the same home in the 1200 block of 215th Street several times between June 9 and June 15.

Investigators say Schilling caused over $1,500 in damage when she forced her way inside, stole items, and damaged two safes.

Schilling has now pleaded guilty to one count of third-degree burglary and has been sentenced to three to five years of supervised probation and a $1,025 fine.
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP)  Masks will be required for all students, staff and visitors in Cedar Rapids schools.

Superintendent Noreen Bush on Tuesday announced the requirement beginning Wednesday in an email to families. The decision came a day after a federal judge ordered the state of Iowa to immediately halt enforcement of a law the prevents school board from ordering mask mandates. The Cedar Rapids Gazette reports more than 90 students in the district are now positive for the coronavirus.

Cedar Rapids is the states second-largest school district after Des Moines schools, which within hours of the court ruling reinstated its mask mandate, also beginning Wednesday.
CHARLES CITY, Iowa  A financial planning company has named a Charles City educator one of its Unsung Heroes.

Diane Sande, a teacher at Lincoln Elementary in Charles City, has received a $2,000 award from Voya Financial. The company says its Unsung Heroes program has awarded grants to K-12 educators in the United States for 25 years to honor their innovative teaching methods, creative educational projects, and their ability to positively influence the children they teach.

Educators have faced unprecedented challenges during this past year and, more than ever, need support as they work to develop todays students into tomorrows leaders, says Angela Harrell, Voyas chief diversity and corporate responsibility officer and president, Voya Foundation. Our Unsung Heroes program helps bring to life educators innovative teaching ideas to enrich the learning experience and better prepare our nations children for a rapidly changing workplace.

The company says it has given educators $5.8 million through this program.

This year, educators like Diane Sande have had to be particularly innovative to find new and creative ways to reach students to help keep them engaged during challenging times, adds Harrell. We are proud to support educators across the country as they go above and beyond to ensure they are connecting with their students with innovative approached to learning.

Voya Financial says Sande was awarded for her STEM Innovation Lab idea, which focuses on setting up an elementary Science, Technology, Engineering and Math lab so students can begin to learn problem-solving and innovation at a young age. The new STEM lab, created with resources from the Voya grant, will provide students with a separate classroom, equipped with resources to help them focus on engineering design, problem solving, pitching ideas and innovation.
CLEAR LAKE, IA - On Monday, a federal judge ordered the state of Iowa to immediately halt the enforcement of a law that prevents school boards from ordering masks to be worn for COVID-19 prevention.

Judge Robert Pratt said that the Iowa law passed in May increases the risk of children with health conditions contracting the COVID-19 virus.

Superintendent Doug Gee of the Clear Lake School District said the schools in their district are not requiring masks, but are taking other health precautions to ensure the kids' safety.

He said their district has had less than five positive COVID cases a week and their board is continuing to examine COVID cases week to week.

The Clear Lake School District board will meet later today.

"We'll probably discuss it," said Gee. "I don't see us taking any kind of action or any kind of change. But, ultimately the board can dictate that. We've always taken the approach of studying it and take our time on this and really look into some things. I don't really believe we've seen a difference in the number of positive cases at Clear Lake than we did last year when we were requiring masks."

Gee said he does not foresee any change in the Clear Lake district following this overturn.

He also said that Clear Lake is happy to have the kids back in school and he feels as though that is the best place for the kids to learn.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP)  A judge has rejected the latest version of a proposed charter amendment on the future of policing in Minneapolis.

Judge Jamie Anderson ruled just days before early and absentee voting begins in the city where George Floyd died in police custody. If her ruling stands, it means any votes on the question wont count. The judge says the new language still does not ensure that voters would be able to understand the proposed amendment. She called it "unreasonable and misleading.

The city plans an 11th-hour appeal. The ruling lets officials use ballots containing the question, but prohibits them from tabulating any votes cast on the issue.
DECORAH, Iowa - It won't be long before high school seniors considering college after graduation will decide where they want to continue their education. One Iowa private liberal arts school is hoping to draw in new admissions with free tuition.

Beginning in the fall of 2022, incoming students from Iowa who have a GPA of at least 3.5, a family Adjusted Gross Income of $70,000 or less, will qualify for free tuition for all four years of their undergraduate degree at Luther College in Decorah. The only catch is that students must maintain their eligibility, live on campus, and pay room and board plus other fees such as textbook costs.

This opportunity is through the Iowa Impact Award. Tuition costs will be covered by a combination of existing scholarships plus donor funds.

As Luther's tuition sticker price is $46,130, this award makes the cost of education similar to attending one of Iowa's major universities.

The goal is to make a liberal arts education more accessible and affordable for lower-income families and hopefully keep Iowans in Iowa. "It really is about promoting access. We all know that the cost of higher education continues to rise and as somebody who myself is a first-generation college graduate, who is concerned with cost, I know that the sticker price of education can be a deterrent," says Jeremy Reed, director of enrollment.

Reed also tells KIMT the COVID-19 pandemic has made college admissions unpredictable, so this award could also help enrollment numbers.

The Iowa Impact Award does not require a special application. Interested students just have to apply to Luther and complete their FAFSA application by March 1st of 2022. Luther College is not capping the number of students who can benefit from this award.
MASON CITY, Iowa  Two Minnesota men arrested in North Iowa on drug charges are pleading not guilty.

Brann Sidney Trosclair, 31 of Richfield, MN, and Kayne Allen Kyrin Bulow, 20 of Bloomington, MN, were pulled over for speeding on Interstate 35 in Cerro Gordo County on August 4. Law enforcement says a search of their vehicle found marijuana, products labeled at THC, a vacuum-sealer, a scale with marijuana residue, plastic bags labeled for repackaging marijuana, and numerous containers of THC concentrate.

Trosclair, the driver, has pleaded not guilty to possession with intent to deliver marijuana. His trial is set for November 30. Bulow has pleaded not guilty to possession with intent to deliver marijuana. His trial is scheduled for December 7.
ROCHESTER, Minn.  A Rochester man is arrested for a fatal shooting in northwest Minnesota.

The Rochester Police Department, the Olmsted County Sheriffs Office, and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension worked together to arrest Idris Haji-Mohamed, 26 of Rochester, for the murder of Abdi Abdi on Friday night in Moorhead.

Haji-Mohamed was taken into custody after a high-risk traffic stop shortly after 1 pm Monday at 48th Street and Main Avenue SE in Rochester. He is being held in the Olmsted County Adult Detention Center for second-degree murder, pending extradition to Clay County.

The Moorhead Police Department says it does not know what relationship existed between Haji-Mohamed and Abdi but says they do not think this killing was random.
ROCHESTER, Minn. - A Rochester-based podcast that amplifies the stories of local entrepreneurs is hoping for community support in order to continue its work.

Rochester Rising is kicking off a month-long campaign to raise $10,000 so the podcast, which has been operating for five years, can continue sharing the stories of local entrepreneurs.

As of October 2019, Rochester Rising merged with the nonprofit, Collider Foundation. Executive director Amanda Leightner says together theyre looking to raise the funds to ensure stories of growth and gaps in Rochesters entrepreneurial ecosystem can be shared.

She said, Right now we're running a fundraising campaign through October 15th to fund Rochester Rising and support these efforts to tell stories of entrepreneurs in the community.

Despite not officially kicking off until Wednesday the $10,000 campaign has already raised more than $400.

I do it all myself, Leightner explained of the podcast. I do all the writing, the recording, the podcast editing, the video editing. It's all my own time so if we're doing that we're not helping an entrepreneur in another way so it's just justifying our time as best as we can to support entrepreneurs.

Leightner is hopeful the campaign will allow Rochester Rising to highlight inspirational capital.

She added, If you don't see someone like you doing something like running a business it's not very accessible to you as a person. So, hearing those stories of people in the community from various different backgrounds with different pathways doing this thing which is business ownership is so critical because if you don't see then you don't know it's a pathway that exists for you.

If the $10,000 goal isnt reached the money will still be used for a good cause. Leightner says it will go to educational efforts to support entrepreneurs.

If youre interested in donating to the effort you can do so by clicking here.
ROCHESTER, Minn. - A Med City brewery is making a splash on the national stage.

Little Thistle Brewing scored an impressive win at the Great American Beer Festival in Colorado last weekend, taking home a bronze medal for its German Dark Lager.

Made right here in Rochester, the lager went head-to-head with more than 2,000 small and independent breweries in the prestigious competition, coming from across all 50 states plus Washington DC and Puerto Rico.
ANAMOSA, Iowa (AP)  A judge has sentenced a second inmate to life in prison for the beating deaths of two workers at an Iowa prison during a failed escape attempt in March.

Michael Dutcher, 28, pleaded guilty Wednesday to two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Anamosa State Penitentiary correctional officer Robert McFarland and nurse Lorena Schulte.

He also pleaded guilty to kidnapping another prison worker during the failed escape and to attempted murder for the beating of an inmate who tried to stop the attack. Judge Fae Hoover-Grinde sentenced Dutcher to back to back life sentences plus another 50 years behind bars for the crimes.

Last month, she sentenced inmate Thomas Woodard to life for his role in the attacks.
Local legend Second Street Joe Johnson waved his various American flags and cheered on staff and patients at Mayo Clinics Saint Marys campus from Canadian Honker's rooftop on Tuesday.

Johnson is known as an avid community engager, waving his flag daily on Second Street.

Tuesday was the first time Johnson was granted access to Canadian Honker's rooftop and did so for his brother, who is currently being treated at Saint Marys.

Johnson said his brother's undisclosed illness has been tough for him, often leaving him in tears before and after his patriotic duties.

"Just out here waving to the people up there because one of my brothers is not doing well and I wanted to do it for all of the people that are sick. Just do it for everyone, to get them cheered up some way. We all need the hope," Johnson said.

Johnson invites everyone to stop by his spot on Second Street and say hi.
AUSTIN, Minn. - Earlier today, Woodson Kindergarten Center held a Multicultural Storytelling event as part of Austin's Welcome Week festivities to highlight the diverse community of the Iowa city...and to spread the message that all are welcomed and loved.

The kindergarten center paired with Austin Public Library to host six volunteers at the school to read to the students in their outdoor classrooms.

Principal of Woodson Jill Rollie said the hope from this event was to let the students know they should welcome all and work together as a community to accomplish great things.

"There were many messages of welcoming all individuals of different backgrounds and experiences - sharing our differences and celebrating those," said Rollie. "We're definitely grateful to invite readers to come and visit us. And we were able to hold it outside - luckily the sunshine came out! Keep our environment safe for all of our kiddos. Definitely love to have them experience these opportunities and hear such wonderful messages."

Rollie said Austin Public Library will continue the read-aloud events all through the week.
John Shutske is a professor in the department of biological systems engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a specialist with with UW-Division of Extension. He also is the director of the UW-Center for Agricultural Safety and Health.
Three branches of the US military have reportedly set deadlines for when active-duty, reserve and National Guard service members must be vaccinated against Covid-19.
JEFFERSON CITY  Missouri's House Judiciary Committee hosted a public hearing Wednesday morning at the Capitol regarding the federal vaccine mandate issued last week by President Biden.

The new requirements could apply to as many as 100 million Americans, including 17 million health care workers at facilities receiving funds from Medicare and Medicaid to be fully vaccinated.

There is a special session today at the State Capitol with the House Judiciary Committee. @PeytonHeadlee and I will have updates. The meeting starts at 10:00 am. @KOMUnews pic.twitter.com/9tSTqXy9la  Grayson Rainey (@GraysonRainey12) September 15, 2021

Representative David Evans led the discussion with several witnesses expressing their support for the mandate or frustrations against it.

Ray McCarty was one of the people who gave comment to the committee. He is the president of Associated Industries of Missouri and stated he is against any federal mandate.

Nikki Strong from the Missouri Health Care Association also spoke at the stand. She mentioned at the hearing that 40% of Missouri's health care staff have been vaccinated against COVID-19.

Strong said when the testing mandate came, some employees left the job over the mandate. She said the health care industry cannot shut down and that there needs to be enough staff to help around the clock.

"The state cannot afford to lose more facilities," Strong said.

Before the committee, protestors held signs outside the Capitol against the new federal vaccine mandate. The protestors held signs that read Stop COVID mandates and Free speech not free shots.

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Several Missouri lawmakers spoke at the hearing, including Rep. Nick Schroer who is against the new mandate. I believe we must take action now. This order is frightening, Schroer said.

As we have seen this past week from the Biden administration is anti-liberty, anti-American, and in my belief unconstitutional, Schroer said.

Senator Rick Brattin, along with 15 other senators, signed a letter just a few days ago explaining the reasons why the new mandate wont work, including that there is nowhere in the Constitution is the President given the authority to unilaterally force private businesses and private citizens to get vaccinated.

Rep. John Wiemann from St. Charles County also spoke at the hearing. He stated his disproval in the Bidens administration vaccine mandate. I support the Governor with opposing this mandate, Wiemann said.

The special session came after Missouri's Republican House leaders submitted a letter to President Biden, asking him to provide legal justification for the proposed mandate for private businesses.

House Speaker Rob Vescovo wrote the letter, which was signed by more than 50 Republicans, including Speaker Pro Tem John Wiemann and Majority Floor Leader Dean Plocher.

The letter describes the proposed mandate as "blatantly unconstitutional," citing the U.S. Constitution's limit of federal power to enact laws to provide for the public health. The Constitution grants this authority to the states.

If President Biden is unable to provide legal justification for the mandate, Vescovo demands in the letter that the mandate be rescinded immediately.

The hearing lasted for an hour and a half before it was adjourned. Only one person spoke during the public comment section.




National Tax Service (NTS) Commissioner Kim Dae-ji, right, poses for a photo with his Danish counterpart, Merete Agergaard. Courtesy of National Tax Service



By Lee Kyung-min



National Tax Service (NTS) Commissioner Kim Dae-ji agreed to share experience and knowledge in advancing electronic tax administration and crack down on overseas tax evasion with his Hungarian and Danish counterparts in a recent weeklong trip to Europe, the tax agency said Wednesday.



The tax agency head also met with Alix Perrignon de Troyes, executive secretary of the Intra-European Organization of Tax Administrations (IOTA), in Budapest, Sept. 14.



Kim held a meeting with his Danish counterpart, Merete Agergaard, from Sept 9 to 10, the first time for the two countries' top tax administrators to hold a bilateral meeting.



The two discussed tax policies on welfare, including ways to strengthen the public trust in administrative procedures. The government's role in helping the public see how fairly tax revenue is collected for transparent use of public resources was among areas both were interested in, the tax agency said.



Effective fiscal spending and the government's control of information on individuals' income and assets were closely related to how Denmark was able to remain a top welfare country, a key takeaway for Korea where welfare demand is soaring amid the COVID-19 pandemic, compounded by a fast-aging society.





National Tax Service (NTS) Commissioner Kim Dae-ji, right, signs a copy of a memorandum with his Hungarian counterpart, Vagujhelyi Ferenc. Courtesy of National Tax Service



Kim signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with his Hungarian counterpart, Vagujhelyi Ferenc, to increase cooperation in exchanges of personnel, electronic tax administration, employee training, streamlining tax filings, artificial intelligence-driven taxation and policy incentives to exemplary taxpayers.



The MOU was the first signed between the two countries.





National Tax Service (NTS) Commissioner Kim Dae-ji, right, poses for a photo with Alix Perrignon de Troyes, Executive Secretary of the Intra-European Organization of Tax Administrations. Courtesy of National Tax Service




Indonesian President Joko Widodo, left, gives a congratulatory speech at the joint Hyundai Motor GroupLG Energy Solution battery plant groundbreaking ceremony held in Karawang New Industry City (KNIC), Wednesday. Upper right, Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Euisun, bottom right LGES CEO Kim Jong-hyun. Courtesy of Hyundai Motor Group
In this Nov. 18, 2019, file photo, the logo of Google is displayed on a carpet at the entrance hall of Google France in Paris. Google said Wednesday it offers around 12 trillion won ($10.25 billion) in economic benefits for Korean consumers annually through its services. AP-Yonhap



Google said Wednesday it offers around 12 trillion won ($10.25 billion) in economic benefits for South Korean consumers annually through its services, highlighting its presence in the country amid growing scrutiny from local regulators and politicians over allegations of unfair business practices.



During an online recorded event, the tech giant said it provides 5.1 trillion won per year in benefits for South Koreans through its Play store, 4.2 trillion won through its search service, and 2.5 trillion won through its productivity programs, including Google Docs, citing analysis from AlphaBeta, a Singapore-based economics strategy firm.



Google added that it also provides 10.5 trillion won in economic benefits annually for South Korean companies.



Google's announcement came a day after the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) fined the tech giant 207.4 billion won for pressing smartphone makers into only using its Android mobile operating system.






Kendallville, IN (46755)

Today

Showers and thundershowers early, then overcast overnight with occasional rain. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 51F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%..

Tonight

Showers and thundershowers early, then overcast overnight with occasional rain. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 51F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%.
Angola, IN (46703)

Today

Rain. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 52F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall may reach one inch..

Tonight

Rain. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 52F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall may reach one inch.
Auburn, IN (46706)

Today

Showers and thundershowers early, then overcast overnight with occasional rain. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 52F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall may reach one inch..

Tonight

Showers and thundershowers early, then overcast overnight with occasional rain. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 52F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall may reach one inch.
(ST. JOSEPH, Mo) With only a few months left to go in 2021, the Missouri State Highway Patrol are concerned with the rise in traffic fatalities.

"Not what we want, an increase ever, I don't care if it's 1% or 30% we don't want an increase," said Missouri State Highway Patrol Public Information Officer for Troop H, Jake Angle. "Here locally in Troop H, as of yesterday, I think we had a 30% increase over this time last year"

And traffic fatalities are higher across the state as well.

"But as of yesterday I think there was a 2 percent increase statewide," said Angle.

Last year at this time there were 26 deaths from traffic accidents. At the same point in 2021, there have been 34.

Officials say it is hard to determine the main cause behind this, but do say drivers need to slow down and be aware.

"Seems like everybody is in a hurry, you know if we can get people to slow down, you know plan extra time in your trip so you don't have to be in a hurry," said Angle.

Roadway accidents aren't just becoming more fatal, but more common.

According to MoDOT officials, statewide there has been a 25% increase in work zone related crashes

"We've seen a record number of the work zone TMA truck crashes this year so far. It's definitely trending in the wrong direction," said MoDOT State Highways Safety and Traffic Engineer, Nicole Hood.

The TMA trucke are the main victims. MoDOT says these trucks have been struck 52 times this year while protecting road crews. 10 more than this time last year.

"The crashes often are the result of a driver not paying attention or driving too fast. We really saw a lot of the speeding and reckless driving during the pandemic and unfortunately we are see that disturbing trend this year," said Hood.

With the majority of these accidents happening between 11:00am and 2:00pm.

MoDOT hopes to see a decline.

"It's something that we should all take very seriously and that personal responsibility that we all have is very important," said Hood.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol and MoDOT partner up frequently to get the message across, to drive safely.

"One fatality is too many. We will keep hammering away and doing what we do, but we sure need the public help as well," said Angle.
NEW YORK, SEP 15 - Premier Mario Draghi was the only Italian to feature in Time's 2021 list of the world's most influential people, which was released on Wednesday. It is the third time that Draghi, the former president of the European Central Bank, has made the list. "Mario and the ECB helped stabilize the European economy," said US Trade Secretary Janet Yellen in her profile of Draghi for Time. "At the time, I was at the Federal Reserve and felt particularly grateful to have a partner like Mario across the Atlantic, someone with deep expertise and a steady demeanor. "Now the U.S. is grateful to have Mario as a partner once again. This time, as Italy's Prime Minister". (ANSA).
ROME, SEP 15 - The Italian region of Liguria is preparing for the 2021 Genoa Boat Show, which runs from September 16 to 21, with one eye on the upcoming Expo 2020 in Dubai. The Universal Exposition in Dubai opens on October 1 and is expected to attract around 25 million visitors between then and its closure at the end of March. Liguria will be present, especially from March 9 to 13, when the Dubai International Boat Show will be taking place too. Indeed, the region will have a stand at the Genoa Boat Show offering a preview of the showcase it will put on in Dubai. "We are preparing the programme for our participation in the (Expo at the United Arab) Emirates," said Liguria Governor Giovanni Toti. "The aim is to valorize the indelible historic, social and economic bond the nautical world has with Liguria". The region is home to many of Italy's top brands in the nautical sector. (ANSA).
In time for the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, innovative streaming platform STRUUM pays its tributes to the heroes and victims by curating a list of commemorative titles across its content partners in its platform.

Struum subscribers can instantly access the commemorative titles, which are spread across different streaming platforms, all in one app with just a single monthly subscription. The platform is currently available for iOS devices, AirPlay, Chromecast, and the web. With Struum, streaming is made simple as viewers access many of their favorite channels and platforms where they can search, discover, and even redeem new content through in-platform credits.

ALSO READ: 2 More People Killed in the 9/11 World Trade Center Attack Identified Days Ahead of 20th Anniversary

Curated titles for the 9/11 include:

9/11: Truth, Lies, and Conspiracies (BBC Select): This documentary looks into different theories about the attacks and tries to uncover if there's more to the eye fifteen years after the fateful incident.

Financing Terror (Docubay): Tracing the paper trail that enabled Al Qaeda and ISIS, this documentary traces the support terror groups found from Gulf nations, the Syrian regime under Bashar Al Assad, and even corporate entities like Lafarge.

The Woman Who Wasn't There (Docurama): A gripping psychological thriller that goes inside the mind of Tania Head, the infamous 9/11 survivor who had an epic story to tell save for one problem: she was never in the Twin Towers that day.

Children of 9/11 Revealed (MagellanTV): Ten years after the attacks, we see what happens to the children of four parents who perished in the attacks, being orphaned in a sudden, public, and tragic circumstance.

Evolution Of Evil (S1, Episode 6: Osama Bin Laden: A Terrorist Mastermind) (MagellanTV): Follow the rise of Osama bin Laden, from a Saudi child of an affluent household to leader of the terrorist organization Al Qaeda.

Between Heaven and Ground Zero (Docurama): Inspired by the hit heart-wrenching book, this documentary follows Leslie Harkin's first-hand experience of being one of the last to leave the crumbling Twin Towers and her life afterward.

Vertical City: Rediscovering Great Heights Around The World (S1, Episode 7: World Trade Center New York) (MagellanTV): From the unique perspective of the world's bravest window washers, this Vertical City episode revisits the former World Trade Center building.

Man On Wire (Magnolia): See the "artistic crime of the century" as tightrope walker Philippe Petit illegally attempts to conduct his high-wire routine between the Twin Towers.

With just one monthly subscription of $4.99, Struum additionally offers 100 credits to be used on the app, on top of the access to most of the content. Its first-of-a-kind, credit-based subscription model offers viewers a cost-effective and efficient strategy to sample and discover programming as they spend their monthly credits only on the shows and programs they like.

Struum is the brainchild of Lauren DeVillier, head of Digital for Disney Channels and former Head of Product for Discovery Ventures; Eugene Liew, Disney+ former Vice President of Product and Technology; Paul Pastor, former EVP of Strategy, Revenue, and Operations at Disney Networks; and Thomas Wadsworth, former Walt Disney Imagineering Advanced Product Development lead.

RELATED ARTICLE: Pres. Joe Biden Gets Booed by a Crowd at 9/11 Anniversary Event in New York City
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich legally challenged the Biden administration on Tuesday, as he announced a lawsuit to challenge the president's hardline vaccine mandates that would affect American workers from private businesses and enterprises.

The said lawsuit announced by Arizona's attorney general marked the first legal pushback against Biden's vaccine requirements announced by the president himself in the previous week.

READ NEXT: President Joe Biden Slams Florida and Texas Governors Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott Over Pandemic Response

Arizona Vs. Biden's Vaccine Mandate

Attorney General Brnovich officially filed the complaint against the Biden administration on the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona, after he voiced out his criticisms on the new COVID-19 policies.

"The federal government cannot force people to get the COVID-19 vaccine," Brnovich said on Tuesday, pointing out that the Biden administration flouted the laws and precedents "to push their radical agenda."

Under the new vaccine mandate, corporations with more than 100 workers would be required by the Labor Department to have their staff vaccinated or tested weekly. Meanwhile, federal workers and contractors will be required to get the vaccine, and they will have no option for testing. Every violation of the new vaccine requirements will be fined up to $14,000.

The Arizona attorney general also slammed the Biden administration over migrants crossing the border, contending that they were not subject to any vaccination requirements even when released into the United States, while U.S. citizens will be subject to the jab requirements.

"This reflects an unmistakable - and unconstitutional - brand of favoritism in favor of illegal migrants," Brnovich said in a press release.

The lawsuit filed by the Arizona attorney general also pointed out that the new vaccine mandate violates the Equal Protection Clause, emphasizing that the federal government favors the migrants crossing the southern border over the U.S. citizens.

Brnovich also took to Twitter to post a video announcing the lawsuit against the Biden administration. In the video, the Arizona attorney general called the mandate "unconstitutional," adding that they will continue to hold the administration accountable and try to stop the "federal overreach" to protect, not only Arizona, but the whole United States.

I promised Arizonans that we would not stand for the Biden Administration's egregious federal overreach on vaccine mandates.



Today, we have filed the first lawsuit in the nation against the unconstitutional mandates. Arizona will not tolerate this assault on our sovereignty. pic.twitter.com/1eHAUX8GYs  Mark Brnovich (@GeneralBrnovich) September 14, 2021

Army Official Resigns Over Vaccine Mandate

Apart from the vaccine mandate announced by President Biden, some of the vaccine mandates, like the one issued by the Pentagon, also received opposition among their army members. On Friday, the wife of Army Lt. Col. Paul Douglas Hague announced that his husband will retire after 19 years of service, over the Pentagon's mandatory vaccination order for all U.S. service members.

After eighteen years of active duty service in the US Army, my lieutenant colonel husband has resigned



Hes walking away from all hes worked for and believed in since he was an ROTC kid at UGA



Hes walking away from his retirement



His resignation memo: pic.twitter.com/u1QU488fmI  Katie Phipps Hague (@AtTheHague) September 9, 2021

In the resignation memo posted by Hague's wife, the army lieutenant colonel said that he cannot subject himself to the "unlawful, unethical, and tyrannical order" to be inoculated by a "serum" that is against his will and better judgment. Hague also referenced studies claiming that exposure to the virus promotes naturally derived immunity against the disease.

The army member also listed other reasons for his resignation including the U.S. withdrawal in Afghanistan, contending that the complete lack of confidence from the Biden administration and secretaries directing the military made him leave his post.

READ NEXT: Biden Administration Asks More Than $30B to Congress for Refugees from Afghanistan, Natural Disasters

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WATCH: Here's What a Legal Expert Thinks of Biden's Vaccine Mandate - From 11Alive
Retired Army Lt. Colonel Alexander Vindman said on Tuesday that General Mark Miley, the chairman of the Joints Chief of Staff, should resign from his post if his secret phone calls with a Chinese official occurred.

The secret calls were reported to be about Miley preventing the former president from misusing the country's nuclear arsenal.

READ NEXT: Arizona AG Sues Biden Administration Over Hardline Vaccine Mandates

Ex-Army Official Alexander Vindman Urges Gen. Milley to Resign

On Tuesday, the retired army official took to Twitter to urge Miley to resign from his post if his secret calls with China occurred.

Vindman pointed out that the alleged secret calls with China made Milley "usurp" the civilian authority, break the Chain of Command, and violate the "sacrosanct principle of civilian control over the military."

If this is true GEN Milley must resign. He usurped civilian authority, broke Chain of Command, and violated the sacrosanct principle of civilian control over the military. Its an extremely dangerous precedent. You cant simply walk away from that. #dotherightthingintherightway https://t.co/izsMMCFPrz  Alexander S. Vindman (@AVindman) September 14, 2021

It's an extremely dangerous precedent. You can't simply walk away from that," Vindman stressed in his statement.

Vindman's comments came as the upcoming release of a book named "Peril" alleged that Milley communicated with his Chinese counterpart in the final months of former President Donald Trump's tenure in his post. The said book was reported to be authored by Bob Woodward, an associate editor from The Washington Post, as well as national political reporter Robert Costa.

The book revealed that Milley received intelligence that officials from China believed that the United States was preparing to attack them. The book alleged that Miley reached out to general Li Zuocheng from the People's Liberation Army to ease the tension between the two countries.

In the calls, the chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff was reported to assure General Li that he will call him ahead of time if the United States was going to attack. The book also revealed that Miley also assured General Li that the U.S. was stable and that it will not attack China.

"I take you at your word," General Li said in the book.

The book also alleged that the secret calls of General Milley to the China official happened on October 30, in the previous year, and January 8, two days after the Capitol insurrection.

Rubio Called on President Biden to Fire Gen. Milley Over China Secret Calls

As Vindman urged Milley to resign if the secret calls occurred, Republican Senator Marco Rubio on Tuesday urged President Joe Biden to fire the chairman of the Joints Chief of Staff.

In a statement, Rubio argued that Milley made a "treasonous" leak on the classified information to the Chinese Communist Party "in advance to the potential armed conflict with the People's Republic of China."

Furthermore, Rubio also pointed out that Milley tried to rationalize his "reckless behavior" through contending "what he perceived as the military's judgment" as more secure than its civilian commander.

"You must immediately dismiss General Milley," Rubio concluded, adding that national security and America's ability to lead the globe are at stake.

Meanwhile, Former President Trump commented on the issue on Tuesday, calling Milley "dumb" and the details of the story "Fake News." Trump said that he did not think of attacking China, adding that the people who "fabricated" the story were "sick and demented."

READ NEXT: Rescue Operation Organizer Says U.S. State Department 'Exaggerating' Role in Rescuing 4 Americans From Afghanistan

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WATCH: New Book Claims Top General Feared Trump Might Start a war With China - From CBS Evening News
Haiti's chief prosecutor is seeking prosecutor charges against the country's Prime Minister Ariel Henry in light of President Jovenel Moise's killing.

Bed-Ford Claude has accused Henry of communicating with a key suspect hours after Moise was killed, according to an Aljazeera report.

Claude had asked judge investigating the killing to charge Henry with involvement in the case over the said phone calls between the prime minister and the suspect.

The chief prosecutor had also called to authorities that Henry is banned from leaving Haiti due to the weight of the facts exposed. He further noted that there are enough compromising elements to prosecute Henry and ask for his outright indictment.

READ NEXT: Haiti Prime Minister Ariel Henry, Asked to Testify in Pres. Jovenel Moise's Assassination Hearing, Rejects the Invite

Ariel Henry's Connection

Henry had made a move on Tuesday by firing the chief public prosecutor after Claude had sought to file charges against him.

Henry had been named by Moise as prime minister just days before the president's assassination. The prime minister is now being alleged of having connections with the chief suspect of the case, according to a Reuters report.

A letter from Henry to Claude read that the prime minister was firing the chief prosecutor for "grave administrative error" without any further details.

Henry had named Frantz Louis Juste as the replacement to the post Claude had vacated on a letter on September 14. However, it is still unclear whether Henry's move is legitimate as Haiti's 1987 constitution orders that the prosecutor can only be appointed or fired by the president.

The office of the president in Haiti remains vacant since Moise's assassination.

Claude earlier invited Henry to meet with him to explain why he spoke with one of the main suspects connected to the president's killing, which the prime minister had rejected.

Henry said that those were "diversionary tactics" to confuse and prevent justice from being served.

Henry took on Twitter on September 11 and said that the real culprits and masterminds will be brought to justice and punished for their crimes.

Haiti's Office of Citizen Protection had demanded Henry to step down from his position and pushed to appear in the prosecutor's office as requested.

Head of the office, lawyer Renan Hedouville, said that they would all love to know the content of that conversation. Hedouville added that the prime minister cannot remain in his position without washing away all suspicions.

President Jovenel Moise's Assassination

Moise was shot dead in his private residence in Port-au-Price on July 7, with police saying the suspects were a group of mercenaries, according to a BBC News report.

Most of the suspects that were apprehended were Colombians. The president was shot 12 times.

Twenty-six Colombians were involved in the crime with two Haitian Americans. The Colombian suspects were mostly former soldiers.

Haitian national Christian Emmanuel Sanon was reported to have hired the group through a Miami-based company called CTU.

Police chid Leon Charles said that Sanon was the "first person" that one of the Colombians had called when police surrounded them.

READ MORE: 4 of Haiti President Jovenel Moise's 'Presumed Assassins' Killed, 2 Arrested by Police

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WATCH: Haitian PM fires prosecutor who asked to question him for president's murder - from FRANCE 24 English


A Florida nurse has pleaded guilty on Friday after admitting to threatening to kill Vice President Kamala Harris multiple times in a series of videos sent to her imprisoned husband earlier this year.

Niviane Petit Phelps told a Secret Service investigator that she was upset that Harris was named the vice president. The 39-year-old Florida nurse added that she believed that Kamala Harris was not Black and did not place her hand on a Bible during her inauguration.

Phelps pleaded guilty to a six-count indictment, including charges of threats against the vice president, and she now faces up to five years of imprisonment.

According to a criminal complaint, the Florida nurse knowingly and willfully made threats to kill and inflict bodily harm upon the vice president from February 13 through February 18.

The Florida nurse has applied for a concealed weapon permit in February, New York Daily News reported. Phelps, a licensed practical nurse, was scheduled to be sentenced on November 19.

The former nurse worked at the Jackson Memorial Medical Center's Ambulatory Care Center West for 20 years. She was reportedly fired after the arrest.

Authorities arrested Phelps in April after she was considered a danger to the community.

READ NEXT: California Recall: VP Kamala Harris Rallies With Gavin Newsom; Larry Elder Cuts Tour After an Egg was Thrown at Him

Florida Nurse Records Videos of Her Threatening to Kill Kamala Harris

Niviane Petit Phelps had sent videos to her husband, who is imprisoned in Crawfordville, through JPay, a computer application that allows families to connect with prisoners. An inspector then sent the videos to the Secret Service.

In one of the six 30-second videos, the Florida nurse threatened to kill Kamala Harris and claimed she had been paid $53,000 to kill the vice president and was "the hit man."

The Florida nurse was also recorded saying: "Today is your (Kamala Harris) day you're gonna die. 50 days from today, mark this day down."

Another video also showed Niviane Petit Phelps saying that she would kill the vice president if she saw her on the streets.

"I'm going to the gun range, just for your ass, until you f**in' leave the chair," Phelps noted.

The Florida nurse also sent a photo of herself with a handgun at a gun range and smiling next to a target sheet. Another photo sent by the Black nurse showed her teenage son holding a pistol and a target.

Florida Nurse's Attorney on Kamala Harris' Death Threats

Niviane Petit Phelps' defense attorney, Scott Saul, said the Florida nurse never had any intent to carry out any threats. Saul noted that Phelps was only going through a tumultuous time in her life and just venting.

"Ms. Phelps has led an honorable life until this incident... Ms. Phelps has pled guilty, but she plans on demonstrating significant mitigating circumstances," the lawyer said.

Meanwhile, the Florida nurse's mother earlier told NBC 6 that she hopes the charges can be dropped as her daughter is "sick." She added that Niviane Petit Phelps does not even know what she's doing.

READ MORE: As Joe Biden Admits He Bears Responsibility for Kabul Attacks, Rep. Cawthorn Calls on Kamala Harris to Remove the President

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WATCH: Miami Nurse Faces Federal Charges Over Threats to Vice President Kamala Harris - From WPLG Local 10
Former Juarez cartel leader and cofounder Vicente Carrillo Fuentes has been sentenced to 28 years in prison by a judge in Mexico.

The Mexican Attorney General's Office announced it on Tuesday. Carrillo Fuentes, also known as "Viceroy," has been in jail in Mexico since his arrest in 2014 in Coahuila, KRQE reported.

Carrillo Fuentes inherited his brother's drug cartel after Amado Carrillo Fuentes, known as "The Lord of The Skies," died in a botched plastic surgery in 1997. Prosecutors said Carrillo Fuentes took over the drug cartel that year and continued his brother's business of smuggling drugs.

U.S. authorities said the Juarez cartel was the most powerful drug-trafficking organization in the world during the mid-90s.

Amado Carrillo Fuentes was known to use a fleet of cargo planes to transport cocaine from South America and tons of marijuana from Southern Mexico to clandestine runways south of the U.S. border.

READ NEXT: Mexico Drug War News: Juarez Cartel Leader Vicente Carrillo Fuentes Arrested Without Incident

Vicente Carrillo Fuentes' Sentence in Mexico

Vicente Carrillo Fuentes' sentence came nearly seven years after his arrest due to numerous legal actions being done by the former Juarez cartel leader to prevent any conviction.

The Mexican Attorney General's Office said the 28-year sentence against Carrillo Fuentes includes charges ranging from organized crime, money laundering, drugs, and weapons possession.

He's currently under federal indictment on the Eastern District of New York on charges of running a continuing criminal group, firearm offenses, and other drug-related charges as the Juarez cartel leader. Reports said the U.S. still wants him to answer federal charges in New York.

In 2019, then-U.S. Attorney Richard P. Donoghue said that Carrillo Fuentes was responsible for transporting thousands of kilograms of cocaine into the U.S.

Donoghue added that the former Juarez cartel leader also conspired to murder his cartel's rivals while earning tens of millions of dollars from drug trafficking.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's then-chief, Michele Leonhart, earlier lauded Mexico for catching "one of history's most notorious drug traffickers," France 24 reported.

The Juarez Cartel

The Juarez cartel is one of the oldest and most powerful criminal groups in Mexico. Based in Ciudad Juarez, a city on the border with the U.S. state of Texas, the Juarez cartel fought against the Sinaloa cartel for control of the major drug transit route.

Juarez cartel's history traces back to the 1980s when the Ciudad Juarez area was still under Rafael Aguilar Guajardo's control. Aguilar Guajardo, one of the leaders of the Juarez cartel, has also worked closely with the Guadalajara Cartel.

Aguilar Guajardo was granted control of Juarez after the Guadalajara cartel's leader, Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo, was arrested, Insight Crime reported. When Aguilar Guajardo was killed in 1993, his lieutenant, Amado Carrillo Fuentes, quickly assumed control of the Mexican drug cartel.

Under Amado, the cartel grew aggressively, controlling at least half of all Mexican trafficking and extending its operations to Central America and South America. The Juarez cartel has managed to move thousands of tons of Colombian cocaine into Mexico by air and then into the U.S. by land.

Aside from Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, their brother Rodolfo also joined the cartel's leadership after Amado died. However, a power struggle ensued between the two brothers. The two brothers, and their nephew Vicente Carrillo Leyva, eventually established a firm command after some infighting.

Juarez cartel has also long collected a tax for letting groups use its "plaza" or drug trafficking corridor. It had also relied on alliances to operate nationwide.

The Mexican drug cartel has also created the Linces, who is in charge of protecting cartel members and transporting drugs. The group Linces was composed of around 80 Mexican army deserters.

In 2019, a faction of the cartel called La Linea was linked to the massacre of nine dual U.S.-Mexican citizens from a Mormon community. Until now, the remnants of the Juarez cartel are reportedly still battling rival groups around Ciudad Juarez.

READ MORE: El Chapo's Sinaloa Cartel Continues to Thrive Despite the Drug Lord's Absence: Report

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WATCH: Mexico Captures Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, Alleged Juarez Cartel Chief - From Super News Planet






The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced Tuesday that migrants seeking U.S. citizenship must be fully vaccinated for COVID.

According to the new agency rule, individuals applying for U.S. citizenship must show proof of COVID vaccinations before a civil surgeon can complete the required immigration medical examination. The USCIS noted that the said requirements would take effect on October 1.

READ NEXT: Mexico Blocks Migrant Caravan Headed to U.S. Border

Migrants Seeking U.S. Citizenship Must Provide COVID Vaccine Proof

KRQE reported that the new rule also requires migrants subject to immigration medical examination to complete the COVID-19 vaccines series, whether one or two doses, depending on the vaccine brand.

USCIS underscored that its update on its policy guidelines is in line with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) update to the Technical Instructions for Civil Surgeons on August 17.

The agency said it designates eligible physicians as civil surgeons to perform the immigration medical examination for applicants within the U.S. and to document the results of the medical test on "Form I-693."

Migrants or those who will apply for U.S. citizenship must undergo an immigration medical examination to determine if they are free from any conditions that would prevent them from obtaining citizenship "under the health-related grounds."

The new rules noted that physicians may not sign off on Form I-693, officially called the "Report of Medical Examination and Vaccination Record," unless the applicant has had COVID vaccines.

The USCIS said it may still waive the process if an individual falls under these conditions, like if the applicant has contradicting medical conditions or contradicting religious beliefs or is a minor not eligible for a vaccine.

Applicants who live in places where there is a limited supply of vaccines will also be exempted from the new rule.

DHS Inspector General Office Issues ICE COVID Guidelines

Meanwhile, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has agreed to a list of recommendations to stop the spread of COVID in detention facilities and to better respond to future pandemics.

The Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) recently conducted inspections in some ICE facilities and found that the agency struggled to effectively control COVID and protect detainees and staff.

The OIG report revealed that many areas in the said detention facilities had a hard time managing the health and safety of detainees.

Among the OIG recommendations for ICE facilities to practice was the use of masks by staff, ensure all detention facilities conduct facility-wide COVID testing especially for all new detainees, transfer detainees only allowed by the Pandemic Response Requirements (PRR), and keep detainees with COVID away from those who are believed to have COVID but are not confirmed.

The report noted that the staff and detainees did not always practice physical distancing and wear PPEs, although there is a sufficient supply of the said protective equipment. The OIG also said the ICE detention facilities did not test all new detainees coming into facilities for COVID.

The OIG report came as the Biden administration increased the number of migrants placed into an expedited federal immigration court process in August.

According to Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a Syracuse University research institute that tracks immigration court cases, at least 11,847 migrants who were seeking asylum were placed into the Dedicated Docket program last month.

In May, the DHS said it would start placing migrant families into this new fast-track program designed to process immigration cases in under 300 days.

READ MORE: Colombian Migrant, 11-Year-Old Daughter, Found Dead in Arizona Desert After Smugglers Abandoned Them

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WATCH: How Migrants Cross U.S./Mexico Border - From Peter Santenello
A Texas man has been arrested after he allegedly murdered a woman and shot her husband because they supported President Joe Biden during last year's election.

According to PEOPLE, the El Paso Police Department SWAT team and detectives arrested Joseph Angel Alvarez on September 8, almost a year after the death of Georgette Kauffmann and her husband Daniel Kaufmann, who was shot.

In a press release issued last week, the police department said the 38-year-old suspect is currently incarcerated at a county detention facility.

Alvarez's bail was set at $2 million after he was charged for the murder of Georgette and another $500,000 for the aggravated assault of Daniel.

Joe Biden's Supporter Killed

On November 14, 2020, the Texas couple was attacked in their El Paso home, just a week after Joe Biden was declared the winner over former President Donald Trump in the presidential election.

At the time, the El Paso Police Department responded to reports of a shooting at the Kaufmanns' home. When they arrived at the scene, police officers found Georgette dead while Daniel was alive but suffering from gunshot wounds.

After the arrest of Alvarez, Daniel Kaufmann told KFOX14 that he was relieved after hearing the news, but it would not bring his wife back. The survivor said he was shot five times during the attack and was hit three times. Daniel noted that he was shot in the head, in the shoulder, and the wrist.

READ NEXT: Capitol Police Arrests California Man With Bayonet and Machete Near DNC Headquarters; Man's Vehicle Decorated With Supremacist Symbols

Texas Man Shot Joe Biden's Supporters After Presidential Election

Based on a copy of the arrest affidavit, the Texas man allegedly carried out the crime because of the Kauffmanns' political views.

Before he attacked the Kauffmanns, Joseph Angel Alvarez reportedly wrote an email to the 902D Military Intelligence of the U.S. Army about his extremist religious and political beliefs.

The suspect's beliefs include identifying pro-choice people as the "Jewish Satanist Party" and believing abortions as "Jewish child sacrifice."

The Texas man further identified Memorial Park, a place near the Copper Avenue house of the Kaufmanns, as a "ritualistic satanic ground to conduct abortions by the manner of magic." KFOX14 also reported that Alvarez even included photos of both the park and the couple's driveway in his email.

According to El Paso Times, the suspect believed that four houses on the corners of Raynor Street and Copper Avenue were part of "satanic activities" because they are near the Memorial Park.

The Texas man also reportedly wrote that he specifically targeted the Kauffmanns because they voted for Joe Biden and had a Biden flag in front of their house.

The Kauffmanns also have a doll of Donald Trump hanging outside their home. The home also reportedly had pro-Democrat posters and LGBTQ flags.

The affidavit cited Joseph Angel Alvarez's photos and written statements in the email as evidence that the murder and assault were pre-planned.

A post on a Facebook account belonging to the suspect reportedly stated that he had been recently fired from his job at General Aviation Terminal because he allegedly stalked a female co-worker.

READ MORE: President Joe Biden Slams Florida and Texas Governors Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott Over Pandemic Response

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WATCH: Texas Man KILLS Neighbor For Supporting Biden - From The Young Turks
Governor Gavin Newsom on Tuesday clinched a victory, winning the California recall election aimed to oust him from office early.

Newsom has become the second governor in U.S. history to defeat a recall. His win had made him a prominent figure in national Democratic politics and maintained his prospects for a future U.S. run, Associated Press reported.

The California governor said he would continue to focus on what the residents said "yes" to as a state, such as in science, vaccines, and ending the pandemic.

The California recall election reflected the country's heated political divide on business closures and mask and vaccine mandates imposed amid the pandemic.

Aside from that, the California recall election was also a test of whether opposition to former President Donald Trump and his right-wing politics remains a driving force for Democrats and independents.

President Joe Biden had campaigned for the Democratic governor, urging Californians to show the nation that "leadership matters, science matters."

Gavin Newsom noted that they had defeated Trump. However, he added that Trumpism is still alive across the country.

The California governor had also branded his opponent conservative talk radio host, Larry Elder, as "more extreme than Trump."

Meanwhile, Joe Biden said that Larry Elder was "the closes thing to a Trump clone" that "I've ever seen in your state."

READ NEXT: Newsom To Face Recall Election After Signature Threshold Reached

The Opposition: Larry Elder

California voters were asked whether Gavin Newsom should be recalled and, if so, who should replace him. Larry Elder held a commanding lead on the second question from a handful of the 46 names on the replacement ballot. However, Elder, a Republican, still failed to get the votes needed to unseat Newsom.

Fox News reported that before the polls closed on Tuesday, Elder was still hopeful, saying that long lines at the polls are a good sign in an election, wherein ballots were mailed to every registered voter in the state. He noted that Democrats "trust the mail," while Republicans lean toward physical polls.

Elder had risen to the top of the polls on the replacement question among other candidates such as Republicans Kevin Faulconer and Caitlyn Jenner.

He said that despite several top Democrat figures campaigning for Newsom, such as senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, and former President Barack Obama, no one had told Gavin Newsom that he had done a fine job in California.

Elder also claimed that people are leaving California for the first time. AP News reported that Elder's campaign reportedly paid for a website implying that Gavin Newsom had already won the election by fraud.

The language was removed from the website by Tuesday afternoon but left a form for people to report "irregularities, interference, or intimidation while voting."

Elder's campaign spokeswoman said the site is operated by a third party, adding that websites "update their language all the time."

Larry Elder earlier insinuated that he sees "shenanigans" similar to those that happened during the 2020 presidential election.

Gavin Newsom commented on the matter and said it was "embarrassing" to respond to baseless voter fraud accusations.

The California governor noted that the people spreading claims about election fraud were vandalizing democracy and trust in institutions.

Mike Sanchez, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Registrar's Office, said that voting by mail is "trusted, secure, and safe."

Sanchez noted that these statements and messaging about election fraud could confuse voters and discourage them from participating.

Gavin Newsom was declared the winner by the AP News, NBC News, and CNN less than an hour after the polls closed in California. However, he may soon be running against Elder again as the California governor is up for reelection next year.

READ MORE: Pres. Biden Agrees To Limit Eligibility for $1,400 Stimulus Checks

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WATCH: Newsom Wins: Gov. Newsom Stays in Office After Californians Reject Recall - From FOX 11 Los Angeles






The GAA have a landmark survey to give all players, members and supporters an opportunity to shape the Associations next five-year strategic plan.



For the first time, the Association will use Foireann - its purpose-built membership management system - to send the survey link directly to the e-mail address of every eligible member.



Since April of this year, the Associations Strategic Plan Steering Group chaired by Uachtaran CLG, Larry McCarthy, has been consulting with a wide range of its members and partners to determine broad focus areas and issues.



He said: This process of engagement with our membership will be hugely important in helping us to establish the direction of travel for the Association over the next five years.



Over the next 10 days there will be an opportunity for members  across every section of the GAA  to have their say on what they believe are the issues we need to prepare for and what solutions might help us meet those challenges.



I urge everyone to take up this opportunity and we look forward to feedback that for the first time we will be asking for via Foireann, our own membership system.



The questions in the survey are based on the feedback from a comprehensive programme of research which included surveys and focus groups with players, coaches, officers, other volunteers, and employee at Club and County levels, along with other key GAA stakeholders.



The Steering Group wants everyone to have a say in shaping the Associations future has engaged data analytics experts to pinpoint the key themes from the survey which should inform their thinking on the strategic

change required.



The group is especially eager to ensure that the views of Club members are reflected in the Associations strategic priorities. All feedback will be reviewed over the course of several workshops the Steering Group will hold this October to create the strategic plan before it is present to An Coiste Bainistiochta for approval.



Ard Stiurthoir Tom Ryan added: Having a clear vision and strategy for the Association over the next five years is of utmost importance and equally, finding out from the wider membership the concerns and aspirations for our organisation can only benefit this work.



Our clubs and their members drive Cumann Luthchleas Gael and this is a chance for them to be heard as priorities are identified.



We want a diverse range of perspectives and ideas, so our strategy solves real problems and exploits meaningful opportunities. I would encourage as many members as possible to complete the survey".



The survey takes approximately 10 minutes to complete and the deadline for completing the survey is 2pm on 24 September.



To access the survey link, visit: https://www.gaa.ie/2021-2026



You can learn more and keep up to date with the planning process at: https://www.gaa.ie/the-gaa/administration/strategic-plan.
People protesting against the building of an electricity substation in Laois were accused of hijacking other residents according to a councillor who says he would not ask questions about an alleged threat to water supplies it may pose.

Cllr Paschal McEvoy also insists he is not being 'populist' by supporting the 100 million substation at Coolnabacky when the issue was raised at the Portarlington Graiguecullen Municipal District. The project is planed by State-owned companies Eirgrid and ESB.

The building of the plant which is opposed by the Ratheniska, Timahoe, Spink Action Group came up when councillors were asked to select a representative on the Eirgrid Laois Kilkenny Reinforcement Project Community Forum.

The meeting was told that Laois County Council had received an letter on behalf of the Forum asking that the Municipal District nominate a councillor to the Forum.

Cllr McEvoy was chosen but was challenged over what he would do on the forum when appointed.

Cllr Aisling Moran said she understood from Laois County Council's Chief Executive that the District's Chair should represent the public. However, Cllr Pardraig Fleming, who is now the chair, said he would decline the offer. Cllr Moran also did not to attend.

Cllr McEvoy volunteered and was accepted.

"I'm from Timahoe, and I live in Timahoe and I would want to be on that board," he said.

When this was was agreed Cllr Fleming said the community around the site of the facility wants Eirgrid and ESB to abide by a verbal agreement made with residents to have a study carried out on the risks to the water supply in the aquifer which supplies water to a large part of Laois.

He claimed this did not happen but instead Eirgid commissioned desktop study, the outcome of which was similar to research carried out a decade ago.

"When you make a verbal agreement it is strong as a written and signed agreement," he said.

The Fianna Fail councillor referred High Court case in the UK over a merger which he claimed led to a ruling that a verbal agreement is as good as a signed agreement.

However, his party colleague Cllr McEvoy said that while he did not wish to get into a tit for tat, he took issue. In the first instance he said Ireland has its own laws. He also commented on ongoing protests against the ESB starting work.

"There is a family living on the lane where this development is taking place. Their house and their lane has been hijacked for the past four or five years. I think it is an absolute disgrace.

"I would be absolutely be disgusted with the carry on of protestors standing their with their placards," he said.

He asked: "Why don't they go to the ESB offices and not hijacking a family"?

He highlighted the importance of a reliable supply.

"We need power in this country. One of our biggest selling points when it comes to attracting international business is that we are always able to supply the electricity grid," he said.

Cllr Fleming said the protester were 'respectful' and were not 'inhibiting or upsetting' others. However, Cllr McEvoy countered and called on Cllr Fleming to ask the family affected 'how they feel'.

This caused Cllr Aisling Moran, Fine Gael, to intervene and enquire what position Cllr McEvoy will take on the forum.

She asked: "Is he to be neutral or on one side or the other? Is he for people of Ratheniska, for Eirgrid or in between?"

Cllr Fleming interjected and said the Community Forum was a funding related entity which would see money coming from the electricity companies to community projects.

Cllr Moran said the money would be miniscule. She added that she asked Eirgrid about the water supply.

"Where they want to build this station is directly over an aquifer which serves 25,000 people," she said.

She added that the company denied that supply would be polluted by oil that has to be stored on the site. She challenged this saying other types of disaster have happened that have never been envisaged.

"The Twin Towers and the Titanic were not supposed to happen and they did," she said.

She challenged Cllr McEvoy to ask Eirgrid about the supply risk and if they can provide an alternative supply of water if the underground supply is contaminated. She also wanted him to ask if the would asses the cost of fixing the contamination.

"I would ask Paschal if you would ask that question to Eirgrid," she said.

In reply Cllr McEvoy said the Forum was concerned with spending 500,000 in communities on the Laois Kilkenny reinforcement supply line.

"It has nothing to do the with the development. I could go into the what would happen if the aquifer goes but I am not going to," he said.

Cllr Moran repeated her request saying that he Cllr McEvoy lived in Timahoe and would also be affected if the water supply was contaminated.

The District's Chairman Cllr Fleming agreed with Cllr McEvoy that the aquifer issue does not arise in the context of the forum. He added in support of Cllr Moran that Eirgrid had ignored the question she wanted asked to date and had no back up plan if the water is polluted.

At this point Cllr Aidan Mullins intervened.

"I think we are gone crazy here. We are gone way off the agenda. Aisling's concerns could be genuine and have been raised in other fora but today they are not up for discussion.

"Paschal's role is not going to be to do with raising issues of concern it is to do with distributing funds to communities," he said.

But Cllr Moran countered.

"Throwing money at people is not the solution. This is a problem we represent these 25,000 people (dependent on the supply)," she said.

She repeated the demand on Cllr McEvoy to ask the power companies about their plans to protect the water supply.

"I won't ask the question. I am happy that Laois County Council gave planning and Bord Pleanala in turn gave the planning and that all the consultants involved have their work done are happy that this go ahead. I'll go ahead I am not a populist," he said.

Cllr Fleming added that holes dug by contractors at the site led to water coming up from the ground. He added the reason the issue had been going on for years is that there is a lack of confidence in the community. He insisted that deep testing must be done.

But Cllr Mullins interjected again saying he did not know why coucillors are discussing the issue.

"We are wasting our time," he said.

While Cllr Moran said issues should be allowed to be aired, Cllrs Mullins and McEvoy warned they would leave the meeting.

"I'm going home if we don't move on," he said. Cllr McEvoy added: "I'm going with you".
The Laois TD who is the Minister with responsibility for overseen credit unions has welcomed a big new social and affordable housing fund.

Sean Fleming, Minister of State at the Department of Finance, said the Credit Union Approved Housing Body Fund would will oversee up to 800 million investment in social and affordable homes all across the country. He added that the Fund will invest 200 million in the next 12 months.

He said this is a first for the Irish credit union and approved housing body sectors and has been widely welcomed for its collaborative approach to helping solve the housing crisis. Minister Fleming explained that the initial planned investment of 200 million by credit unions will allow for the delivery of upwards of 1,000 homes, with the Fund ultimately approved for investment of up to 800 million in the medium to long term.

The Laois Offaly TD said the fund established has the backing of four credit unions: Core, Dubco, Heritage and Progressive and but is open to all credit unions throughout the country to invest in.

I would like to congratulate the four Credit Unions on the establishment of a Fund authorised by the Central Bank to invest in approved housing bodies," said the Fianna Fail TD.

"This will provide a welcome boost in delivery of social housing in Laois and all across the country. This was a commitment in Fianna Fails manifesto that we have delivered in Government. This new Fund will help support the delivery of our Housing for All Action Plan, which is the largest State led building programme in Irelands history.

"The progress made by the Credit Union Approved Housing Body Fund and other collaborative ventures should inspire further growth of further collaborative efforts. In the months ahead, I shall bring forward new policy proposals to help grow and support credit unions, he said.
The death has occurred of Molly Gorman (nee Casserly)

Hortland, Donadea, Kildare / Clonard, Meath / Rathwire, Westmeath



Molly Gorman (nee Casserly), Hortland, Donadea, Co. Kildare and formerly of Clonard, Co. Meath and Rathwire, Co. Westmeath, 14th September 2021, in her 95th year peacefully in the dignified and excellent care of her daughter Yvonne and the staff of St.Camillus Nursing Centre, Killucan, pre-deceased by her husband Michael and her daughter Ann, sadly missed by her daughter Yvonne, son in law Michael (Lynam), grandchildren Anne and Jane, sister Jenny (Brennan), nieces, nephews, cousins, relatives and friends. Associate of the Order of St.Camillus.

May Molly Rest in Peace

In compliance with current Government guidelines Mollys Funeral Mass will be for immediate family only and will take place at St. Camillus Nursing Centre Chapel at 12.00 noon on Thursday (16th September) followed by burial in Clonard Cemetery arriving approx 1.30pm.

The service will be streamed online & maybe viewed on the following link http://www.churchservices.tv/killucan

Family flowers only, donations, if desired, to St. Camillus Comfort Fund.

The death has occurred of Michael (Mick) Enright

Meadow Brook Close, Ballinasloe, Galway / Newbridge, Kildare



Formerly of Newbridge, Co. Kildare. Peacefully, at his residence, after a short illness, surrounded by his loving family. Sadly missed by his loving wife Agnes, sons Darren and Matthew, step-daughters Angelique and Tara, grandchildren Lauren, Owen, Jerome, Corey, Levi, Reilly, Madison, Taylor, Rosie and Mikey, brother Billy, in-laws, nephews, nieces, relatives, neighbours and friends.

May his gentle soul rest in peace

Reposing at his home for family and friends only. Removal from his residence on Wednesday, 15th September, to St. Michael's Church, Ballinasloe for Requiem Mass at 12 noon which may be viewed online at www.churchservices.tv/ballinasloe. Interment afterwards in St. Conleth's Cemetery, Newbridge arriving at 3.30 pm approximately.

With the easing of funeral service restrictions, the Requiem Mass is now permitted with an attendance of 50% capacity of the Church. However in keeping with HSE and government guidelines, please maintain social distancing and respect the safety of the family at this time. For those who would have liked to have attended the funeral but cannot due to current restrictions, please leave a message of sympathy for the family in the Condolence section below.

The death has occurred of Elizabeth (Lily) Fitzpatrick (nee Dunne)

Moone, Kildare



Formerly of Blarney Park, Kimmage, Dublin. Peacefully,in the loving care of the staff in Parke House Nursing Home. Elizabeth (Lily), predeceased by her beloved husband John and parents Martin and Brigid. Deeply regretted by her sister Bridie Murphy, sadly missed by her brothers-in-law, nieces, nephews, extended family, relatives, friends and her Legion of Mary members.

May She Rest In Peace.

Reposing at William Ryan and Sons Funeral Home, Church St., Kilcock, W23 XC90 from 5pm to 7pm on Tuesday with removal to The Little Chapel, Kilcock arriving for 7:30pm. Due to government advice the capacity of the Church is limited to 50%. Funeral Mass on Wednesday at 11am in The Little Chapel followed by burial in Moone Cemetery, Co. Kildare. Those who would have liked to attend, but due to current restrictions cannot, please leave a personal message for Lily's family in the 'Condolences' section below.

The death has occurred of Eileen McCluskey (nee Madsen)

1 Sunnyside Lawns, Dunn Brin, Athy, Kildare



Late of The Revenue Commissioners. Peacefully at home surrounded by her loving family. Daughter of the late Eileen. Deeply regretted by her loving husband Christy, Dad Karl, sisters Esther (O'Connor) and Karen (Power), brothers Pat, Karl and Dermot, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, nieces, nephews, family and a large circle of friends.

Rest in Peace

Removal from her residence at 10.30 am on Wednesday morning (September 15th) to arrive at St Michael's Parish Church, Athy, for Requiem Mass at 11am, limited to 50% capacity. The Mass will be livestreamed, see www.parishofathy.ie. Burial afterwards in St. Michael's New Cemetery, Athy.

Those who would have liked to attend the funeral but cannot due to current restrictions may leave a message in the 'Condolences' section below.
A second army whistleblower has commended retired army captain Dr Tom Clonan's recent radio interview regarding sexual abuse and bullying within the Irish Defence Forces (IDF).

64-year-old Anthony O' Brien, who himself is also a former member of the IDF, alleged to KFM Radio that the presence of abuse is "well known" in the IDF, echoing comments made by Dr Clonan in an interview with the same station that were made just yesterday.

He also similarly expressed doubts on a recent statement from the Department of Defence on alleged sexual abuse in the IDF (the statement can be read in full here).

The Department said all members of the Defence Forces have a right to be treated with respect, equality and dignity and to carry out their duties free from any form of sexual harassment, harassment or bullying.

Mr O' Brien said he feels that Dr Clonan has done "excellent work" in highlighting the issue and helping survivors to come forward with their stories.

He told KFM Radio of a past incident in which he was allegedly molested by a commanding officer as a young man while driving a military vehicle, and that the officer in question only backed off when Mr O' Brien angrily threatened to crash the car.

Mr O' Brien elaborated that he has heard of multiple similar stories from other IDF members about this officer, and at another time, the officer asked him for a kiss.

As for other incidents of alleged sexual abuse and rape, he said: "I knew one female soldier who grew up on the Curragh Camp and was a survivor of child sexual abuse committed by an IDF soldier."

"She later went on to join the IDF but refused to name the unit that the soldier who abused her was for fear of being sued by the army."

He continued: "After leaving the army, I also heard of a case involving two soldiers in the army who spiked the drinks of female officers and abused them while they were unconscious; other members knew about this going on."

In addition, he recounted an instance of a female soldier in the IDF who was allegedly raped by fellow IDF members while stationed in Lebanon, and said that he also knew of cases of female soldiers being coerced into having sex with their commanding officers in exchange for keeping their jobs.

"The abuse being reported, including the cases by the brave girls in the recent Women of Honour programme, is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of how many cases of harassment and sexual abuse there is in the IDF."

Speaking on the response from the Dept of Defence, Mr O' Brien said: "Nothing progressive has come from my meetings (with them)."

Previously, Anthony O'Brien spoke to KFM about the allegations back in March under the pseudonym "Michael", and stands by his belief that there is a "cover up" and a "paedophile ring" present in the Curragh Camp.

He also claimed at the time that he wrote over 90 letters to the Dept of Defence over the alleged abuse, but has yet to receive a reply.

If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, you can call Samaritans Ireland at 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.ie, or you can contact the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre by visiting drcc.ie.

Help is always at hand and there is always someone available to listen.
Like many annual events, the Big Beach Clean took a break in 2020... but now, the event is back floating and flowing with life again.

10 volunteer groups have signed up for the charity group Clean Coasts Big Beach Clean 2021 to tackle litter in County Kildare, the organisation has been confirmed.

However, the group has made it very clear that they are more than open to receiving outside help from volunteers from all over the county.

The Big Beach Clean is an annual call-to-action organized by Clean Coasts that calls volunteers from communities all over Ireland getting involved to remove litter from our beautiful coast at the end of the bathing season, as part of the International Coastal Clean-up (ICC), which is operated on an international level by Ocean Conservancy.

Clean Coasts have said that the initiative is also an opportunity for the over 200 registered volunteers to get involved in a worldwide citizen science project, which will entail collecting the amount and types of litter on Irish beaches and filling in Clean Coasts Marine Litter Data Cards in an attempt to heighten awareness about the issue of marine littering.

It explained: "This year will see the involvement of the National Spring Clean programme once again with registrations having been open nationwide to all residents of Ireland, no matter how far from the coast they are based."

"Statistics have shown that over 70 per cent of plastic pollution affecting our ocean comes from land-based actions."

"For this reason, Clean Coasts have asked volunteers to help prevent litter from entering our waterways and seas by holding a clean-up no matter where they are in the country and tackling the problem at the source," it added.

Finally, Clean Coasts will once again be supported by the food company Cully & Sully, who will provide registered volunteers with Big Beach Clean kits, although a competition to win prizes will also take place.

Explaining their latest competition, Clean Coasts said: "Cully and Sully will also be giving away 10 of their exclusive swim robes to clean up participants. To be in with a chance to win, all you have to do is share a photo or video of your Big Beach Clean on social media, use the hashtag #BigBeachClean21 and tag @CleanCoasts and @CullyandSully in the post."

Cully and Sully will also be hosting a Big Beach Clean event in Schull, West Cork on Friday September 17 for volunteers in the area.

So far, over 6,500 volunteers have signed up nationwide for the Big Beach Clean 2021.

The event will be launched on Friday and will run until the September 19 to coincide with as International Coastal Cleanup.

Clean Coasts is a charity programme, run through the Environmental Education Unit of An Taisce, which engages communities in the protection of Irelands beaches, seas and marine life.

Clean Coasts works with communities to help protect and care for Irelands waterways, coastline, seas, ocean and marine life, and it also works to create tangible and immediate improvements to Irelands coastal environment.

For more information, visit www.cleancoasts/org.
A new initiative to promote Irish artists and bands has been announced this week with the Irish President hailing it as a hugely important and genuinely historic new initiative in Irish radio.

Irish Music Month, launched in partnership with Hot Press, will see significantly increased radio play of original homegrown music across 25 independent radio stations. 100 will be going directly to musicians and performers through benefits such as extensive support from Hot Press to drive additional exposure, sales and revenue for artists, a 125k radio campaign to buy Irish music and merchandising along with a major nationwide talent search to launch a New Local Hero Award onto the national and international stage.

#IrishMusicMonth has been announced by Hot Press & @IBIreland.



The major initiative to promote Irish artists & bands will see significantly increased radio play across 25 independent stations  and 100k being paid directly to Irish artists.https://t.co/ZN98NqW9T6  Hot Press (@hotpress) September 14, 2021

To celebrate the launch, the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, has voiced his support for this new major initiative.

""yet another profound statement of the central role of culture in our lives; of the commitment of so many dedicated people within the artistic community to ensuring access to that culture; and of the support that is there for them from the media, which is so important to nurturing and encouraging our artistic talent.

"I have no hesitation in saying that we owe a great debt of gratitude to every single one of the 25 independent radio stations, spread as they are around the country  and providing as they do a special connection to the citizens of this country and to music fans across all genres  for supporting this important event; and to Hot Press, who have made such a valuable, lasting contribution to Irish music across so many years."

Click here to listen to the President's full message.

Irish Music Month, which will run throughout the month of October, will be the biggest ever programming event undertaken by local and regional stations, since the foundation of independent radio in Ireland, in 1989. The event is supported by the BAI, under its Sound & Vision scheme.
During the last few weeks Tidy Towns volunteers in Carrick-on-Shannon have been busy with a project called 'Coffee Cup Campaign' aiming to greatly reduce and eventually try to eliminate takeaway coffee cups by customers bringing their own reusable cup when purchasing a takeaway hot drink.

It all started with a survey to find out the current situation regarding takeaway cups and if cafes would accept customer's own cups.

Over 20 cafes took part in the survey and we were heartened by the response and feedback our young volunteers received.

Once the information was collated and analysed, we realised that the survey was only the start of the project.

We did a little more research and were shocked and dismayed to discover that despite the best intentions and efforts of cafe owners, recyclable takeaway cups are notoriously difficult if not impossible to actually recycle here in Ireland or indeed many other countries either. It is due to the sorting machines not being able to properly recognise them.

By taking home compostable cups and composting them yourself is the best way to make sure they are dealt with responsibly.

Next we wanted to make people aware that over 22,000 coffee cups are disposed of in Ireland every hour, which is a shocking number and made us even more determined to make a difference.

We are grateful to have a display window on Main street, where we created an art installation with the help of local artist Laura Burke to help illustrate the importance of simply bringing your own cup.

We were delighted to have Sheila Guckian, Environmental Awareness Officer from Leitrim Co.Co launch the 'Coffee Cup Campaign' last Friday.

Now for the next part of the campaign, our volunteers are returning to the cafes to ask them to sign up the conscious cup.ie website.

This non profit organisation is funded by the Regional Waste Management Offices, The Department of Environment, Climate and Communications and supported by VOICE.

Once the cafes sign up they are put on the Cafe Map, making it easy for customers to find them.

Coffee Cup Campaign window display

As a courtesy to cafe staff please make sure the reusable cup you are using is clean.

Please let us all play our part in reducing the waste of disposable cups, not only the resources of the raw materials but in manufacturing, transport and disposal of them.

Get yourself a reusable cup - the easy part-and remember to bring it with you- the less easy part. Another new habit for us! Keeping Leitrim Lovely one sip at a time.

Tidy Towns Carrick-on -Shannon would like to thank all our volunteers especially Eimear, Grace and Nicola, Sheila Guckian Leitrim Co. Co, all the cafes for their help, the cafes that have signed up to the Conciouscup.ie website, Laura Burke, Marian Dolan and Ivan Keaney.
Drivers who switch to remote working for just three days a week could save up to 14 days of travel time a year, or an average of 2.5 hours per day, according to new research.

Conducted by NoCo, Irelands largest hybrid workspace network, and Trinity College Dublin, the research reveals interesting insights into how remote working hubs are impacting our commuting patterns and our carbon footprint, and also shows that 70% of people would consider changing their home location as a result of the ability to work remotely.

A key focus of the research was to measure the potential carbon emissions savings as well as travel time savings. The results indicate that a switch to working from a remote working hub for just three days a week could save a driver up to 14 days of travel time a year, saving approx. 670kg of CO2.

Public transport users would save almost 11 days of commuting time, saving the equivalent of 2.19kg CO2 from these public transport trips.

When travelling to their place of work, 59% of people left home before 7.30am however nearly 80% of people left after 7.30am when travelling to a remote location. 49% said they would consider buying an e-bike for their new trip to their local remote working hub and 14% said they would consider buying a push bicycle. 15% said they are now considering selling a car as a result of this new work dynamic.

38% of people said the ability to spend more time in their local community would be a major benefit if they could switch over to working from a remote hub. NoCos service has the potential to boost local economies and encourage more community engagement in towns across Ireland, as well as providing the more rural areas with the opportunity to prosper and grow, both economically and socially.

Prof Brian Caulfield, Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering, Trinity College Dublin, said: Our research clearly shows that remote working hubs may play an even more substantial role than we thought in reducing carbon emissions in the transport field from commuting. From a personal-time perspective, the findings of the survey demonstrate that remote workers are able to spend significantly more time at home and substantially less time commuting.

NoCo, who recently unveiled an expansion partnership with The National Association of Community Enterprise Centres (NACEC) and Enterprise Ireland, is now Irelands largest workspace network provider with remote working hubs in over 350 locations nationwide.

While the study indicates a clear desire to have the option of remote working (80% of people believe its possible for their employer to implement a hybrid work scheme post-Covid 19), and highlights the potential environmental benefits that could come from it (on average those using a remote hub are travelling 60km less per day), it also revealed some issues that need to be addressed:

78% of people said they experienced feelings of isolation as a result of working from home

85% of people experienced Wi-Fi and general connectivity issues while working from home

84% of people experienced problems with inadequate home office space or equipment

Brian Moran, co-founder of NoCo, said: We are delighted to have worked alongside Trinity College Dublin to carry out this research. The slowdown of economic activities during the pandemic resulted in significant improvements to air quality and GHG emissions.

"None of us can afford to ignore our carbon footprints anymore and we believe that the shift to remote working will help to meet Irelands national carbon targets, aswell as provide people with reduced commuting time and a better work/life balance.
THE Department of Public Health Mid-West has confirmed it has been notified of 11 Covid-19 outbreaks in schools across the region.

While the location of individual outbreaks has not been disclosed it says the vast majority of cases in schools come from outside the school setting and that this occurs more frequently when there is a high level of infection in the community.

It's not known if the outbreaks have been reported in primary or secondary schools.

"It is the departments experience that basic mitigation measures are effective in preventing onward transmission where a child or staff member is attending school while infectious. Transmission can still occur in the school setting where mitigation measures are in place, albeit very infrequently," said a spokesperson.

"While children are highly unlikely to develop serious illness if they are infected with Covid-19, we ask parents to be conscious of their childrens social activity outside school," they added.

Separately, public health officials are managing a small number (less than five) of outbreaks linked to long-term care facilities in the Mid-West as well as a small number of outbreaks connected to workplaces across the region.

"While there was a significant number of outbreaks linked to workplaces in the summer, workforces have attained a great understanding of what constitutes a Covid-safe work environment, and the business community should be commended for its efforts to date," said a spokesperson for the Department of Public Health Mid West.

Meanwhile, as of close of business on Monday, 1,242 cases of Covid-19 had been reported across in the region over the previous 14 days including 732 in Limerick, 383 in Clare, and 127 in North Tipperary.

Commenting on the recent trends, Dr Mai Mannix, Director of Public Health Mid-West, said: "While our department is busy managing a significant number of complex outbreaks across the region, there is a lot about which the public can be optimistic and hopeful. The significant uptake in the Covid-19 vaccine has resulted in a huge shift in the rate of illness and death among our most vulnerable and the older population across the region. If it wasnt for the publics commitment to the vaccine programme, the outcome would have been very serious amid the current rate of infection in the community."

Dr Mannix added: We continue to see widespread transmission in the community, so we ask that everyone who is eligible for a vaccine to do so as soon as possible, and to remain vigilant and cautious when following Public Health guidelines in public, in busy or crowded areas, and where there is an increased risk of infection.

The Department of Public Health Mid West says it is aware of increased social activity among young people, particularly in Limerick, over the past two weeks and it is urging young people to register for a vaccine if they have not already done so, and to socialise sensibly.
GARDAI are seeking information after an elderly man was coerced by bogus tradesmen and forced to hand over a significant quantity of cash.

According to gardai the two fraudsters, who claimed to be tradesmen, called to the home of the man in recent days.

"They coerced the elderly man, who lives in the city, into agreeing to clean his gutters. They then forced the victim to drive around and make a number of cash withdrawals from a bank and from an ATM," said Garda John Finnerty.

"Once the victim handed over the cash the fraudsters disappeared," he added.

Gardai are advising all citizens to be responsible and to keep an eye out for their elderly and vulnerable neighbours as the culprits will likely target somebody else.

"Remember - you are under no obligation to entertain cold callers at your door. If you do need to get some odd jobs done

only deal with tradesmen that you know are legitimate," said Garda Finnerty.

Gardai at Henry Street are investigating the incident.
A LIMERICK councillor who was criticised by members of a private WhatsApp group has written to the Green Party to call out "double standards" and "sexism" in politics.

Messages from a private chat group saw Independent City West member Elisa O'Donovan, and a number of other local women mentioned in a derogatory manner.

The story has been covered extensively across Ireland, and there have been protests outside the constituency office of local Green TD Brian Leddin, who described Cllr O'Donovan as "unhinged", and stating "she craves fame".

The first-time deputy apologised for those comments, but Cllr O'Donovan previously described this as "weak" and saying it "meant nothing" to her.

This morning I wrote to the @greenparty_ie Executive Committee. All I can ask is that my experience is read and reflected upon pic.twitter.com/ZAA9ddd3oJ September 14, 2021

There has been criticism of the Green Party from a number of women's groups for their failure to sanction Mr Leddin, with party deputy leader Catherine Martin this week saying: "It's a legal matter now and subject to Garda investigation.

In a two-page long open letter published on her Twitter page, Cllr O'Donovan said since the article was published: "I have had my personal, professional and political reputation discussed in local and national media as well as across social media. I have also heard many times of this being discussed at Green Party executive level. I have been told of the impact this has had on the TD and their political career."

Speaking to the Leader in the immediate aftermath of the group's public emergence, Mr Leddin said he had apologised to Cllr O'Donovan, adding: "I made one comment which can be considered derogatory. It was about somebody I had a personal relationship with. My thinking wasnt divorced from the fact I had a personal relationship with that person which ended quite badly

But the former Social Democrats councillor wrote: "It is unacceptable to me my privacy can be invaded so grossly to provide context in this situation."

Councillor O'Donovan, who works in mental health provision, hit out at the use of the word "unhinged".

"The use of this language is something many women are painfully aware of. These types of tropes that question our emotional stability have become a knee-jerk way to put women in their place to control and silence us. Using these types of words act as a reminder no matter what I achieve, there are those who consider me inherently flawed simply for being a woman," she said in her letter.

In terms of Mr Leddin's other claim, that she "craves fame", she added: "I wonder how a politician could be expected to do their work without engaging with the media and attempting to get coverage? Most professional women will be used to the double standards of being criticised for being attention seeking or fame hungry when they are trying to use their platform in the exact same way as men do. Men instead praised for being strategic and knowing how to work well with the media."

She said being spoken about in the private WhatsApp group was "a really horrible and distressing experience".

"I am very happy for people to be critical of my work, but what I read in those WhatsApp conversations was not that. It was humiliating, degrading and threatening. When I became aware of the membership of the group I became even more ashamed. There were two Green Party members in that group that I had a lot of respect for and I thought a level of respect for me," she said.

Cllr O'Donovan, who is one of only eight women on the 40-member Limerick City and County Council, describes serving on the local authority as being a "lonely and isolating experience."

"The problem with becoming a visible woman with influence is that it makes people very uncomfortable. They react by being disrespectful and trying to diminish that woman in a number of ways. They will question her mental health , dissect her looks, criticise her for getting attention. These are really old and very sexist and disrespectful tropes that women hear from their earliest days at school - criticised for being ambitious, or loud or too tall in my case. But most women at some stage have been criticised for being 'too much' and I have experienced non-stop criticism on these grounds since I was elected."

Rounding the letter off, she said she will not tolerate these "double standards" for the next generation.

"All I want is simply a level playing field - a place where I will not get criticised for things my male colleagues get praised for. A place I can carry out my work safely with a level of respect and dignity. A place where there is zero tolerance for these kinds of double standards," she concluded.

The chairperson of the Green Party Hazel Chu, a former Dublin Lord Mayor, replied to Cllr O'Donovan's Tweet, writing: "I wanted to say I have received a copy of your letter that you've sent to me and others and I will ask for it to be read and reflected on at the Green Party executive."
LIMERICK firefighters spent over three hours battling a house fire in Castleconnell in the early hours of this Wednesday morning.

Four units from Limerick Fire and Rescue Service rushed to the location on Castle Street at 1.30am.

Two occupants had managed to escape the blaze before it took hold.

One local told the Leader - "It is a beautiful house. It is sad to see it the way it is but thankfully nobody was seriously injured. In fairness to the firemen they went in and rescued a dog from inside the house, but the poor little dog died afterwards.

"The owners are lovely people. I think they are away in Spain. 'Tis a terrible shock to get God love them," they told the Leader.

It is not known how the fire started but it is not being treated as suspicious.
LIMERICK is on a winning streak at the moment!

There was only one Limerick family in the finals of the NDC & Kerrygold Quality Milk Awards but the McCarthys, from Feenagh, took home the top prize

The awards, dubbed the 'Oscars of the Dairy World' or the 'Liam MacCarthy of farming' recognise, and celebrate the highest standards of excellence in dairy farming.

The winner was announced at a special awards ceremony at Moorepark Dairy Open Day this Wednesday following presentations to 12 farming families, representing the best of Irish dairy, by Olympic gold medallist Kellie Harrington.

Winners Michael, Mary Ita and Alex McCarthy, supplying Kerry Agribusiness, received prize money and took home the coveted NDC & Kerrygold Quality Milk Awards perpetual cup. Michael, Mary Ita, and Alex farm together in Feenagh, and live on the farm with Alexs wife Siobhan and daughter Chloe.

Congratulations to Michael & Alex McCarthy, Co. Limerick, supplying Kerry Agribusiness. Overall Winner of the NDC & @KerrygoldIRL Quality Milk Awards & winner of the Environmental Infrastructure award.



"Being a dairy farmer is the art of producing quality food" #madeforthis pic.twitter.com/s158x9Ik8W  NationalDairyCouncil (@NDC_ie) September 15, 2021

Speaking on the awards, Minister for Agriculture, Food & the Marine, Charlie McConalogue said: "The NDC & Kerrygold Quality Milk Awards are a unique way of celebrating what is truly special about Ireland. The passion and dedication of Irish family farms, together with our unique farming system, has helped build a strong reputation for Ireland as a high-quality, sustainable food producer.

"While we face significant challenges as an industry, it is important to celebrate our dairy farmers who are ambassadors for the industry, committed to maintaining exceptional standards in milk quality and sustainable farming."

John Jordan, CEO Ornua, congratulated the McCarthy family on their win.

"Each year, the NDC & Kerrygold Quality Milk Awards celebrate the hard work and passion of Irish farming families. Their dedication to their craft results in the best quality milk in the world, off a grass-based system, and is the key ingredient to Kerrygolds global success. The McCarthy family are incredible role models for sustainable, high-quality milk production, and were delighted to be able to celebrate with them here today," said Mr Jordan.

All farming finalists underwent a detailed assessment by an expert judging panel including Professor Pat Wall from UCD, Dr David Gleeson from Teagasc and Dr Jack Kennedy, Deputy Editor of the Irish Farmers Journal.

All finalists were judged on sustainable farming practices, milk quality, technical knowledge, and animal welfare on-farm practices. The NDC & Kerrygold Quality Milk Awards judges praised the impressive team effort from the family and the top-class results produced by the farm.

Commenting on the winning Limerick family, judge Dr Gleeson, said: "Every year, we are incredibly impressed by the dedication and performance of the entrants to the awards. In 2021, the commitment of family farms across Ireland to producing the best quality milk in the world is still clear. This year, we are delighted to announce the McCarthy family, supplying Kerry Agribusiness, as the overall winner of the NDC & Kerrygold Quality Milk Awards.

"The McCarthy family are innovating in all the right places, making data-driven decisions, and have succeeded in establishing sustainable systems in the environmental, welfare and technical activities of their farm. They are excellent ambassadors for the Irish dairy industry and are well-deserved winners of this years award."

Zoe Kavanagh, CEO National Dairy Council, commented: "I am delighted to congratulate this years worthy winners who once again have demonstrated the excellence of Irish dairy farming. Dairy farming has been going on in Ireland for over 4,000 years, its a part of our national identity.

"Our grass-fed family farming system is ideally suited to the Irish climate and delivers world class produce. The farmers who have been awarded this year represent the highest standards as food producers delivering an exceptional product that is enjoyed at home and revered by consumers all over the world."

Twelve farming families, from eight counties, representing 12 dairy co-ops nationwide reached the finals of the NDC & Kerrygold Quality Milk Awards.

But like in the All-Ireland Limerick came out on top!
A teenager who alleges she was raped by a man who invited her to his home one night has told a jury that she felt dead after the attack.

The 41-year-old man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to a charge of rape, sexual assault and false imprisonment in a Dublin suburb on August 21, 2017. The complainant was 15 years old at the time of the alleged rape.

The now 19-year-old, who gave evidence via video link, told Patrick McGrath SC, prosecuting that she had snook out of her home that night after she had been grounded by her mother.

She said it was about 3.45am when she left her home with the help of a male friend. She and her friend later separated and she was alone in an suburban area when the accused approached her a number of times.

The complainant said the man asked her did she need money for food or a taxi but she said she didnt need it. He asked her how old she was and she told him she was 15 years old.

She said the man later asked her if she would like to go to his apartment. I was scared to go back home because I thought Mam would know that I had left.

He said he didnt want me to stay out on the street, he wanted to make sure I was OK. He said he would sleep on the couch and I could take his room, the teenager told the jury.

It was freezing cold and I just wanted to get warm so I gave in and said yeah, the complainant continued before she described walking back to an apartment with the man.

When they arrived at the apartment, she said the man offered her a whiskey but she said she was too young and told him again that she was 15 years old.

The teenager said she then went to the bedroom after the man showed her where it was. The bedroom window was closed and locked. She said she knew it was locked because she had tried to open it and could not.

She lay down on the bed, on top of the covers, fully clothed and fell asleep.

She said the next thing she remembered was feeling heavy breathing. She thought she was dreaming but she was not.

I felt something on top of me. I opened my eyes and he was just there on top of me, the teenager said.

She said the man was touching her breasts and she told him to stop. She tried to push him off her.

She said the accused didnt stop. He put his hand over his mouth and put his other hand under her hoodie, while grabbing at her breasts. He pulled at her bra and the back of it broke.

I was trying to stop it but he was stronger, I couldnt, the teenager replied.

She said the man pulled down her leggings as far as her ankles, before he ripped her underwear, pulled down the zipper of his jeans and raped her.

When asked by counsel how long the incident lasted, the teenager replied, it felt like forever. She said she was a virgin and she started bleeding. She later saw blood on the mattress.

She said afterwards the accused told her If I was older, he would keep me there forever.

The accused left the room and closed the door. She said there was no handle on her side of the door.

When asked by counsel how she felt, the teenager replied I felt dead.

The man came in later with fruit and asked her if anyone would be looking for her. She said a while later she could hear her brother shouting her name out on the street.

She said at one point the accused left the room to have a shower but he didnt close the door properly and she took her chance and left.

When you were in the house that day, were you free to leave? Mr McGrath asked.

No, replied the complainant.

The following November she spoke to a teacher about it. She said she couldnt get the words out so she wrote down that she had been raped.

When asked by Mr McGrath why she told her teacher at that point, the teenager replied If I had kept it any longer, Id be in the grave.

The trial continues before Mr Justice Paul McDermott and a jury.
Pfizer Inc. said that data from the U.S. and Israel suggest that the efficacy of its Covid-19 vaccine wanes over time, and that a booster dose was safe and effective at warding off the virus and new variants.

The company detailed the data in a presentation it will deliver to a meeting of outside advisers to the Food and Drug Administration on Friday.

The panel is expected to make recommendations for whether more Americans should receive booster shots.

Real-world data from Israel and the United States suggest that rates of breakthrough infections are rising faster in individuals who were vaccinated earlier," Pfizer said in its presentation, which was posted on the FDA website.

The decrease in effectiveness is primarily due to waning of vaccine immune responses over time," rather than the delta variant, Pfizer researchers said in the presentation.

According to a meeting agenda the FDA posted on its website, in addition to the Pfizer presentation, the Friday panel will include presentations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, FDA staff and researchers from Israel and the U.K.

The Israel officials will present data from that country on booster protection against infections and severe disease, according to the agenda, while a professor of medical statistics from the University of Bristol will present data on real-world vaccine effectiveness.

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.

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A female of the now-extinct Lagonomegopidae spider family guards her egg sac in a tree cavity. (Image credit: Painted by Xiaoran Zuo; Xiangbo Guo, Paul Selden and Dong Ren; Proceedings of the Royal Society B (2021))

Big-eyed spiders were likely guarding their egg sacs and possibly caring for already hatched spiderlings when they were trapped in sticky tree resin some 99 million years ago. That resin hardened, locking up those arachnid mamas in four chunks of amber recently mined in Myanmar, and now considered the oldest evidence of maternal care in spiders, researchers say.

Although the finding isn't unexpected, given that many spider mothers care for their offspring nowadays, "it's lovely to have actual physical evidence through these little snapshots in the fossil record," study co-researcher Paul Selden, a distinguished professor emeritus of the Department of Geology at the University of Kansas, told Live Science.

Related: 10 animal mothers that carry babies on their backs

Of the four amber chunks, the most extraordinary is a piece holding a large female spider with part of an egg sac under her, Selden said. This spider's facial appendages, spineless legs and trichobothria, or "sensing hairs," indicate that she is a member of the Lagonomegopidae family, a now-extinct group of spiders that lived in the Northern Hemisphere during the Cretaceous period (145 million to 66 million years ago). The mother's protective stance over her egg sac is suggestive of maternal care, Selden said.

"The female holding onto an egg sac with little tiny spiderlings inside  that's exactly the position that you would find female spiders guarding their eggs," which may have also helped to keep the eggs warm, Selden told Live Science. "So, it really is a typical female spider behavior caught in an instant by this fossilization process."

The amber even preserved the silk thread that wrapped the spider's eggs together. Some scientists think that spiders originally used silk to bundle their eggs together, and then later used it for other purposes, such as webs, Selden noted.

A mother spider positioned over her egg sac was caught in tree resin about 99 million years ago. (Image credit: Xiangbo Guo, Paul Selden and Dong Ren; Proceedings of the Royal Society B (2021))

The other three specimens hold spiderlings  one with 24, another with 26 and a third with 34 hatchlings  as well as a few silk spider threads, some arthropod legs and a wasp. It's likely that each piece contains a unique group of spiderling siblings, as the hatchlings in each specimen are about the same size. They also have Lagonomegopidae features, including two large eyes at the front of the head, much like jumping spiders today, the researchers said. These large eyes indicate the lagonomegopid spiders were likely free hunters rather than web builders , as web-building spiders typically have poor vision.

One of the amber specimens with hatchlings contains spider silk entwining pieces of detritus, which may have been part of a nest that the mother built to guard her egg sac. This suggests that the hatchlings stayed with their mom in the nest after hatching, rather than immediately dispersing, the researchers said.

However, these spiders met a sticky end when they became trapped in tree resin, which eventually hardened into amber. The hatchlings likely died soon after they emerged from their eggs, and some of the arthropod appendages preserved next to them might be their mothers' legs, the researchers said.

Related: Incredible photos of peacock spiders

Image 1 of 2 Photos of the spiderlings, who died after getting trapped in tree sap about 99 million years ago in what is now Myanmar. (Image credit: Xiangbo Guo, Paul Selden and Dong Ren; Proceedings of the Royal Society B (2021)) Image 2 of 2 Photos of the arthropod parts, wood fibers and spider silk threads preserved in the amber. (Image credit: Xiangbo Guo, Paul Selden and Dong Ren; Proceedings of the Royal Society B (2021))

Ethical considerations

The four amber pieces were mined in Tanai, a village in northern Myanmar before 2017, when the armed forces of Myanmar, known as the Tatmadaw, seized control of the country's amber mines and began pocketing the profits. Scientists are heavily discouraged from studying amber fossils mined after the takeover, to avoid funding the Tatmadaw, who took over the entire country of Myanmar (not just the mines) in a military coup in February 2021, according to a letter from the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology .

The four amber specimens are now housed at the Key Laboratory of Insect Evolution and Environmental Changes, at the College of Life Sciences at Capital Normal University in Beijing, China, where study co-researcher Dong Ren is a curator.

The study will be published online Wednesday (Sept. 15) in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences .

Originally published on Live Science.
Acquisition will further expand and develop DFDS European logistics services, boosting its transport solutions between Scandinavia and Eastern Europe, particularly Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Latvia, and Lithuania

European logistics and ferry operator DFDS has acquired 100% of the share capital of the Danish freight forwarder ICT Logistics, to further expand and develop DFDS European logistics services, with a particular focus on extending its capabilities in Eastern Europe.

Since 2006, DFDS has owned 19.9% of the shares in ICT Logistics, which is focused on providing transport solutions between Scandinavia and Eastern Europe, particularly Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Latvia, and Lithuania, and will now come under full DFDS ownership and control.

ICT Logistics has 80 employees and annual revenues of DKK 260 million (US$41 million). That compares with revenue within DFDS existing Logistics Division of DKK 5.069 billion (US$805 million) in 2020, roughly one third of DFDS Group revenue in 2020.

The figures indicate that ICT Logistics will add about 5% to the scale of DFDS Logistics Division.

Niklas Andersson, DFDS executive VP and head of the groups Logistics Division, commented: ICT Logistics greatly improves our offering to customers trading with Eastern Europe. The expansion of our logistics network also complements our Baltic ferry route network.

DFDS said ICT Logistics provides transport solutions for full- and part-loads as well as groupage between Scandinavia and Eastern Europe (CIS countries) for an attractive customer base, including large Danish industrials. The main offices outside Denmark are Moscow, Kaluga, Lviv, Kiev, Bucharest, Riga, and Klaipeda. In addition, the company has an office in Hamburg.

Transport modes deployed include road, air, sea, river, and rail, and services include oversize cargo, warehousing, distribution, and customs clearance. The company operates its own haulage companies in Lithuania and Russia and its operations include a fleet of around 600 trailers and 20 owned trucks.

Strategic fit

DFDS said ICT Logistics expands DFDS logistics activities in Eastern Europe. In addition, the integration with DFDS existing logistics network is expected to generate synergies from business development opportunities and operations.

It added that ICT Logistics will be consolidated in the DFDS Group once the transaction is closed, with the transaction subject to approval by relevant competition authorities.

DFDS said the transaction had no material impact on DFDS outlook for 2021.

Other recent logistics acquisitions by DFDS include Finnish logistics company Freeco Logistics, which was integrated during 2020, adding transport services between mainly Finland and Scandinavia, Baltics and continental Europe.

And the acquired Dutch logistics company Huisman Group was also integrated during 2020, adding part-load solutions between the Netherlands and the UK, including warehouses and cross-docking facilities in Wijchen in the Netherlands and in Corby, UK.

HSF Logistics acquisition approved

Separately, the EU Commission earlier this month approved DFDS acquisition of the HSF Logistics Group, announced on 26 January 2021. HSF Logistics Group is one of Europes leading cold chain logistics providers to meat producers and other food producers that operate temperature-controlled supply chains.

The closing of the HSF Logistics transaction is expected to complete this week.

Image: Alamy
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A whos who of some of the most famous faces among the Hollywoods Asian diaspora turned out to support writer, director and actor Justin Chon at the Los Angeles premiere of his buzzed-about new film Blue Bayou, including Awkwafina, Benedict Wong, Jimmy O. Yang, Harry Shum, Jr., Manny Jacinto and George Takei.

Chong told Variety he was moved to craft the story  in which he stars as an Asian-American adoptee whos lived the bulk of his life in a small Louisiana town and suddenly finds himself facing the terrifying prospect of an unjust deportation  after hearing of real adoptees facing similarly jarring circumstances.

I started hearing through the adopted community that this issue is taking place, where adoptees who were brought here as young children and were now adults, getting deported after they were adopted by U.S, citizens, said Chon, who headlines the film opposite Alicia Vikander. It just really absolutely made no sense to me, so I thought it was a very important issue, very important issue to shine a light on.

I was really hoping to put as much effort into doing the adoptee experience some justice, make sure that they that they felt like in some way I authentically portrayed their experiences in this country, specifically adoptees who are getting deported, he added. That was what was very important to me.

Blue Bayou made a significant impact on audiences at the Cannes Film Festival, and Chon, whose previous films Man Up and Gook pushed forward cinematic storytelling with Asian characters front and center, said hes hopeful about the state of inclusion in film today.

Theres been some really positive change, he said. I do think we have some more, a lot of work to do. But I think its, its a good time. I think that the fact that a film like this is coming out is very encouraging. And weve got to continue to tell our stories.

Wong, who reprised his Marvel Cinematic Universe role as the sorcerer Wong in the recently minted blockbuster Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, said hes pleased to see films of all budget levels featuring Asian leads getting in front of audiences.

Most of these projects are all kind of founded for the lack of, really, and then people are just getting up and kind of going, We are having to tell our stories, as opposed to Wait  there is no waiting. Its in the doing, said Wong, expressing hope that Shang-Chi stood tall as proof of the appetite for inclusive storytelling.

Were in our second week and its number one, and I love what this impact has made  this swell of Asian pride rippling across the world is much needed, he said. I recently saw a little kid holding aloft the figure of Shang-Chi. And for a kid [like myself] that didnt really have any sort of, kind of Asian heroes to grow up toto experience that is change itself, and that is welcomed.

Asked if hed started to feel his own sense of belonging in Hollywood, Chon mused for a moment. Thats a very tough question. I do feel now that I have rights to tell my stories. Hollywood, I think, is maybe slowly starting to come around, and its a good feeling that theyre acknowledging some of my work, but Im very excited for whats to come and the opportunity to tell more of my community stories.

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U.K. Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden is expected to set out the financial benefits that privatization could bring to British public service broadcaster Channel 4.

On Tuesday, in response to a U.K. government Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) consultation on the proposed privatization, Channel 4 had warned that its public service remit would be compromised in favor of profits if privatized.

In his speech to the Royal Television Society (RTS) convention at Cambridge on Wednesday, Dowden will argue that new private investment could usher in a new era for Channel 4 as a leading public service broadcaster creating a unique, risk-taking content which reflects modern Britain.

In the speech, in which he is also expected to announce new measures to protect the success of British broadcasting, Dowden will reiterate that Channel 4s status as a PSB will continue in the event of a sale, with the obligations and requirements that come with it.

Dowden will say that private investment could give Channel 4 more opportunities, like the deal with Amazon Prime Video for the rights to air Emma Raducanus victory in the U.S. Open, and the recent Paralympics coverage. He will make the case that this is the best chance of securing a successful and sustainable future for Channel 4 in the face of intense competition from the continued rise of on demand rivals such as Netflix and Amazon.

Channel 4 is one of this countrys greatest assets One clear way of making sure our British broadcasters thrive is putting them in the right financial position to compete and succeed for decades to come  no matter what the future of broadcasting holds, Dowden is expected to tell the convention. I believe that if Channel 4 wants to grow then at some point soon it will need cash. Without it, Channel 4 wont have the money to invest in technology and programming, and it wont be able to compete with the streaming giants.

The next obvious question: Where does that cash come from? It can either come on the back of the taxpayer, or it can come from private investment. And its my strong position  as a point of principle  that I do not believe the borrowing of a commercial TV channel should be underwritten by a granny in Stockport or Southend, Dowden is expected to say.

Dowden will also challenge people to put suggest better ways to protect Channel 4s future and its public service remit than private investment, saying that standing still would be an act of self-harm.

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The health minister of Trinidad and Tobago challenged Nicki Minajs claim about a cousins friend who suffered swollen testicles as a result of the Covid-19 vaccine, noting that  after an exhaustive search  no patients with that condition have been reported to medical professionals in the Caribbean nation.

Dr. Terrence Deyalsingh held a press conference Wednesday to debunk Minajs outlandish claim about a hitherto unreported side effect of the Covid-19 vaccine that allegedly resulted in impotency and the disintegration of the rappers cousins friends engagement. The health minister also criticized Minaj for spreading the unconfirmed rumor that health officials had to waste precious hours looking into.

One of the reason we could not respond yesterday in real-time to Ms. Minaj was because we had to check and make sure what she was claiming was either true or false, Deyalsingh told reporters, stifling his own laughter mid-sentence.

#BREAKING  Trinidad & Tobago Health Minister Dr. Terrence Deyalsingh responds to swollen testicle claim made by Trinidad-born entertainer @NICKIMINAJ; says there is no such reported case in Trinidad & Tobago (TTT) pic.twitter.com/NNsc9EUTKP  Kevz Politics (@KevzPolitics) September 15, 2021

We did, and unfortunately we wasted so much time yesterday running down this false claim. It is  as far as we know, at this point in time  there has been no such reported as a side effect, he added.

On Monday, Minaj caused a social media uproar  even among her own Barbz fanbase  when she revealed that she wouldnt be attending the 2021 Met Gala because they required the guests be vaccinated, which she isnt. The rapper then infamously added, My cousin in Trinidad wont get the vaccine cuz his friend got it & became impotent. His testicles became swollen. His friend was weeks away from getting married, now the girl called off the wedding. So just pray on it & make sure youre comfortable with ur decision, not bullied.

My cousin in Trinidad wont get the vaccine cuz his friend got it & became impotent. His testicles became swollen. His friend was weeks away from getting married, now the girl called off the wedding. So just pray on it & make sure youre comfortable with ur decision, not bullied  Nicki Minaj (@NICKIMINAJ) September 13, 2021

What was sad about this is that it wasted our time yesterday trying to track down, because we take all of these claims seriously, [whether] its based on social media or mainstream media, Deyalsingh added Wednesday. While Minaj didnt outright state the her Trinidadian cousins friend also resides the island, Deyalsingh noted, As we stand now, there is absolutely no reported such side effect or adverse event of testicular swelling in Trinidad or, I dare say, anywhere else in the world.

Deyalsinghs remarks echoed that of Dr. Anthony Fauci, who  when pressed about the swollen testicles claim  said of the rumored side effect, Theres no evidence that it happens, nor is there any mechanistic reason to imagine that it would happen. So the answer to your question is no.
The Tejano music scene is remembering Noe "Gipper" Nieto, a Kumbia Kings veteran who died after a two-week battle with COVID-19.

Nieto, or "Gip," as friends like A.B. Quintanilla and Chris Perez call him, was an accordionist and producer. He played with Quintanilla in Los Kumbia Kings and then joined him in the Kumbia Kings All Starz following the breakup, according to Tejano Nation.

According to his obituary, Nieto was born in Columbus, Georgia, but moved often with his military family. He eventually called San Perlita, a small town in South Texas, home. The 46-year-old recently married Kelly Nieto. Nieto is the father of three children.

A.B. Quintanilla's social media pages reflect the loss.

"I never had a brother till I met 'Gipper,'" he says online.

One post by Quintanilla, the older brother of late Tejano icon Selena, says Nieto battled the infection for two weeks.

"He was my best friend and amazing musician and will be truly missed," another post says.

Quintanilla family patriarch Abraham Quintanilla also shared his condolences for the Nieto family online and encouraged vaccinations.

Chris Perez is also remembering Nieto online. He says the fellow musician was "close" to his heart. The rocker, who was married to Selena at the time of her 1995 death, says he found out about Nieto's death just before going on stage for a Dallas concert. Perez says performing after hearing the news was "tough."

Bobby Pulido, another Tejano hitmaker of the 1990s, says online that he's heartbroken by the loss of a "tremendous human being."

In addition to sharing his talent with Latin music fans, Nieto also worked with young musicians. San Perlita Independent School District shared that he was a former student who returned as an employee as an instructor for the ACE after school program and "shared his love of music and immense talents with our children."
WASHINGTON (AP)  Three former U.S. intelligence and military officials have admitted providing sophisticated computer hacking technology to the United Arab Emirates and agreed to pay nearly $1.7 million to resolve criminal charges in an agreement that the Justice Department described Tuesday as the first of its kind.

The defendants  Marc Baier, Ryan Adams and Daniel Gericke  are accused of working as senior managers at a UAE-based company that conducted hacking operations on behalf of the government. Prosecutors say the men provided hacking and intelligence-gathering systems that were used to break into computers in the United States and elsewhere in the world.

The Justice Department alleges that the men committed computer fraud and violated export control laws by providing defense services without the required license. The case also appears to be part of a growing trend highlighted earlier this year by the CIA of foreign governments hiring former U.S. intelligence operatives to bolster their own spycraft  a practice officials have said risks exposing U.S. secrets.

This is a loud statement that the Justice Department takes such cases seriously, said Bobby Chesney, a professor at the University of Texas School of Law who specializes in national security issues.

The charges were filed under a deferred prosecution agreement that, in addition to requiring a $1.68 million payment, will also force the men to cooperate with the Justice Department's investigation, to sever any ties with any UAE intelligence or law enforcement agencies and to forego any security clearances. If they comply with those and other terms for three years, the Justice Department will abandon the prosecution.

As part of the agreement, the three men did not dispute any of the facts alleged by prosecutors.

The Justice Department described it as the first-of-its-kind resolution of an investigation into two distinct types of criminal activity, including providing unlicensed technology for the purposes of hacking.

Hackers-for-hire and those who otherwise support such activities in violation of U.S. law should fully expect to be prosecuted for their criminal conduct," Mark Lesko, acting assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department's national security division, said in a statement.

According to court documents, the trio left a U.S.-based company that was operating in the UAE to join an Emerati company that would give them significant increases in their salaries.

The companies arent named in charging documents, but Lori Stroud, a former National Security Agency employee, said she worked with the three men in the UAE at U.S.-based CyberPoint and then for UAE-based DarkMatter.

Stroud said she quit because she saw DarkMatter hacking U.S. citizens. She said she assisted the FBI in its investigation and was glad to see the case come to a resolution.

This is progress, Stroud said.

The Emirati government did not immediately respond to a request for comment early Wednesday. Questions sent by email to officials at Abu Dhabi-based DarkMatter could not be delivered.

Since details of DarkMatters hacking campaign became public, the companys profile has dropped over the last few years, with some staff moving onto a new Abu Dhabi-based firm called G42. That firm has been linked to a mobile app suspected of being a spying tool as well as Chinese coronavirus tests that American officials warned against using over concerns about patient privacy, test accuracy and Chinese government involvement.

DarkMatter's founder and CEO, Faisal al-Bannai, told The Associated Press in 2018 that the company takes part in no hacking, although he acknowledged the firms close business ties to the Emirati government, as well as its hiring of former CIA and NSA analysts.

Prosecutors said that between January 2016 and November 2019, the defendants increased operations being providing to the UAE government. They bought exploits to break into computers and mobile devices from companies around the world, including those based in the U.S., according to the Justice Department. That includes one so-called zero-click exploit  which can break into mobile devices without any user interaction  that Baier bought from an unnamed U.S. company in 2016.

Lawyers for Adams and Gericke did not immediately return messages seeking comment, and a lawyer for Baier declined to comment.

The Justice Department described each of them as former U.S. intelligence or military personnel. Baier previously worked at the NSA, according to a former colleague who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity surrounding the matter.

The CIA warned in a letter earlier this year about an uptick in the number of former officers who have disclosed sensitive information about CIA activities, personnel, and tradecraft.

The letter sent to former CIA officials was signed by Sheetal Patel, the agencys assistant director for counterintelligence. It described as a detrimental trend a practice of foreign governments hiring former intelligence officers to build up their spying capabilities. Some listed examples included using access to CIA information or contacts for business opportunities as well as working for state-sponsored intelligence related companies in non-fraternization countries.

We ask that you protect yourself and the CIA by safeguarding the classified tradecraft that underpins your enterprise, Patel wrote.

____

Suderman reported from Richmond, Virginia. Associated Press writers Nomaan Merchant in Washington and Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.
BERLIN (AP)  A memorial in Berlin to the Polish victims of World War II has moved a step closer to realization, and Germany's foreign minister said Wednesday that construction should start during the next German parliament's four-year term.

The project was mandated last October by the German parliament. In a resolution approved by most parties, it called on the German government to create a place in a prominent location in Berlin that, in the context of the special German-Polish relationship, is dedicated to the Polish victims of World War II and the Nazi occupation of Poland.

Nazi Germany invaded Poland in 1939, beginning more than five years of brutal occupation. Around 3 million of the countrys 3.3 million Jews were murdered, as were more than 2 million other mostly Christian Poles. That history has been a frequent source of tension between Germany and Poland.

A panel of German and Polish experts presented a concept drawn up over the past few months for the memorial, which it wants to combine with exhibitions on the history of German-Polish relations.

The commission identified two possible sites, and called for whichever parties form the new government after Germany's Sept. 26 parliamentary election to include a commitment to building the memorial quickly in their coalition agreement.

Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said that the suffering of the Polish civilian population was for a long time only a fragment in Germany's remembrance of World War II. That, he said, is why the memorial project is fundamentally important, as a gesture to the Polish victims and as a step that brings the culture of remembrance in our countries closer.

It will follow memorials already constructed in Berlin over the past two decades to the Jews, gays, Sinti and Roma and disabled people murdered by the Nazis.

Maas said the newly elected German parliament will have to make a formal decision on the concept for the project, and finally, after an architectural competition, the foundation stone for the memorial should be laid in the next parliamentary term."

A Polish deputy foreign minister said the monument will be an important stage on the path of historical debate about responsibility and reconciliation.

Szymon Szynkowski vel Sek said the central idea is that Germany has full responsibility for the crimes carried out by the Germans, in the name of Germany," and that Polish historians have a role in shaping the memorial.
CAIRO (AP)  Egypts president met Tuesday with Libyas parliament speaker and a powerful military commander as Cairo pushes for the withdrawal of foreign forces and the holding of elections as scheduled in December.

President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi received Speaker Aguila Saleh and Gen. Khalifa Hifter, commander of the self-styled Libyan Arab Armed Forces, in Cairo, the Egyptian leaders office said in a statement.

El-Sissi said his government would continue its efforts "with all Libyan brothers ... to hold the significant presidential and parliamentary vote by the end of this year.

He also reiterated calls for foreign forces and mercenaries to be pulled out of the oil-rich country.

Saleh and Hifter, whose forces run most of Libyas eastern and southern regions and oil facilities, are close allies to Egypt. In recent months, el-Sissis government has also reached out to officials in western Libya, apparently to counterbalance Turkeys influence there.

Libya has been wracked by chaos since a NATO-backed uprising toppled longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011 and split the oil-rich country between rival governments, each backed by armed groups and foreign governments.

In April 2019, Hifters forces, backed by Egypt, Russia and the United Arab Emirates, launched an offensive to try and capture Tripoli. His 14-month-long campaign collapsed after Turkey and Qatar stepped up their military support of the Tripoli-based government with hundreds of Turkish troops and thousands of Syrian mercenaries.

U.N.-sponsored peace talks brought about a cease-fire last October and installed an interim government that is expected to lead the country into December elections. The cease-fire deal also required the withdrawal of foreign fighters and mercenaries within three months, a deadline that was never met.

The U.N. has estimated there have been 20,000 foreign forces and mercenaries, mostly Syrian, Turkish, Russian and Sudanese, in the North African nation. The presence of foreign fighters and mercenaries is a major hurdle to holding the planned vote.

Libyan lawmakers have failed to finalize a legal framework for voting to take place, throwing the election schedule into doubt.

With mounting international pressure, the parliament earlier this month adopted a controversial presidential electoral law and said it is in the process of finalizing it for parliamentary elections, according to the U.N.'s envoy to Libya.

However, the High Council of State, an executive institution that among other duties proposes electoral laws, complained that the law was adopted without consulting its members, which could derail the roadmap.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP)  Californians voted to keep Gov. Gavin Newsom in office on Tuesday, ending a statewide recall election that saw some Republicans again float unfounded claims of voter fraud.

Days before the polls closed, the campaign of one of the leading Republican candidates promoted a website urging people to sign a petition that declared Newsom had already won because of voter fraud. That language was lifted from a petition circulated to help former President Donald Trump's effort to overturn last year's presidential election results.

By Tuesday afternoon, that language was removed from the website, leaving only a form for people to report irregularities, interference, or intimidation while voting. A spokeswoman for Elder said the website is operated by a third party and that websites update their language all the time."

Elder did not revive any such claims Tuesday night, quickly conceding the race and urging booing supporters to be gracious in defeat."

The claims of fraud  both from Elder and former President Donald Trump  prompted a rebuke from Newsom in an election night victory speech.

Democracy is not a football. You don't throw it around, Newsom said. It's more like a, I don't know, an antique vase. You can drop it and smash it into a million different pieces. And that's what we're capable of doing if we don't stand up to meet the moment and push back.

There were few reported problems with voting on Tuesday. A polling center in Tulare County was closed because of a wildfire, with voters redirected to nearby alternatives. And a poll worker at a West Hollywood voting site was removed for wearing a pro-Trump shirt, according to the Los Angeles County Registrars Office.

In the Woodland Hills neighborhood last weekend, some people who showed up said they were told they had already voted, which the registrar's office said was caused by settings on some computers used to check in voters. The office said those affected were allowed to cast provisional ballots, which act as placeholders until voter eligibility is determined. Similarly, a Newsmax reporter tweeted Tuesday that he was told he had already voted at an Orange County polling place. The county registrar said he couldn't comment on this case, but anecdotally this situation happens but in small numbers and often there is an explanation. He, too, was allowed to cast a provisional ballot.

Some Republicans worried the fraud claims from some party leaders could suppress turnout. Harmeet Dhillon, an attorney and the national committeewoman of the Republican National Committee for California, said she made a video with her husband showing them casting ballots by mail and urging everyone to do the same.

But Dhillon also said she could not say whether California's election would be secure, saying she and a team of attorneys monitoring voting have witnessed dozens of problems.

There will be a lot of questions and potentially litigation after this election about this sloppy-at-best treatment of peoples ballots and their right to vote, Dhillon said.

The GOP's predicament was similar to that in last year's presidential election, when many in the party feared that Trump's claims about widespread fraud from expanded mail-in voting would backfire by persuading Republicans to stay home.

In California, the GOP needed all the help it could get.

Democrats make up 46.5% of all registered voters, while Republicans make up just 24%. Independent voters are roughly equivalent to Republicans, but tend to vote Democratic. Republicans have not won a statewide office since 2006, when Arnold Schwarzenegger won reelection as governor.

___

Associated Press writer Michael R. Blood in Los Angeles and Nicholas Riccardi in Denver contributed to this report.

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See APs complete coverage of the California recall election: https://apnews.com/hub/california-recall
Laredo College was visited by Mayor Pete Saenz and state representatives to proclaim on Tuesday that the week of Sept. 13, 2021, will be designated LC Hispanic Serving Institution Week in honor of the college celebrating its 75th anniversary.

Starting in September 1946 as Laredo Junior College, later changing to Laredo Community College in the 90s and now as Laredo College, thousands of students from different generations have walked through the grounds of LC.

Saenz said that efforts between students and staff at the college have propelled it receive top honors including several from online websites naming LC as the top college in Texas, the top nursing program and among the most affordable colleges. And with over 95% of the population of Hispanic origin, he and many others are a product of LC that have benefited from having an HSI in their hometown.

The success of the community is (based on) how successful our school districts and the entire educational system is in our city, and we demonstrated that through the efforts of so many people, he said.

The proclamation emphasized the HSI designation allows for more resources and the creation of needs fit for the community it serves. With over 10,000 students from Webb, Jim Hogg and Zapata Counties at LC, countless lives are affected that will ultimately affect the local, regional, national and global needs, it states. Saenz added that it the city is pleased to honor the anniversary of the college.

It has excellent educational credentials, technologies and international reputation, and whereas Laredo College is a fine educational institution and its 75th anniversary is an excellent occasion for Laredo to commemorate its historical significance and many contributions to the community, Saenz said.

The announcement was held in front of the recently renovated Harold Yeary Library, where Interim President Dr. Marisela Tijerina said that LC has been an HSI since its inception and promoted the opportunities provided for students in Laredo.

Nestled on the bank of the Rio Grande, the 200-acre site traces its history back to 1849 when Camp Crawford was established to defend Laredo Frontier. It was later renamed as Fort McIntosh in honor of war hero Lt. Col. James McIntosh, she added.

Sometime later, Laredo Junior College was created by LISD in 1947 to help and prepare returning soldier for the workforce after World War II. Thirteen sophomores received their associates during the first year, thus beginning the story of Laredos college.

Today the college is a two-campus district serving the diverse needs of the growing community, Tijerina said. The downtown Fort McIntosh campus maintains its historic origins while history begins anew at our south campus in south Laredo with contemporary architecture and the latest technology. Today we begin our celebration of the 75th year legacy of excellence at Laredo College.

Rodriguez touted a number of accolades received throughout the years involving their affordability, nursing program and overall performance. Just this past year, the college helped in vaccinating members of the community amid the pandemic and opened a new health science facility that will help address the issue of Laredo being medically underserved.

She also reminded the community that it was the first and founding member of the Texas Hispanic Serving Institution Consortium, an organization linking over 50 other private or public institutions that serve Hispanic students.

Their ultimate goal is to create opportunities, access, networking and leadership for Hispanic students and other HSIs.

As a 75-year HSI, many of those attending had attended or been affected by the college at some point in their lives. Dr. Nora Garza said that after a community vote pushed to create the college, the community is being invited to celebrate their decade spanning decision.

The people that started the college had a vision for this community. They knew how underserved it was academically and the potential the students had, she said. That was a shame, as we had a good student with potential, but they didnt have the money and there was no institution that could serve them.

Now as students walk through the campus, the names of those who worked to start the college can be seen on their buildings. She said that despite their drive, it was a long and difficult process as Laredo is a poor community. With around 19% of the population achieving a bachelors degree, Garza acknowledged that it will be difficult to increase that rate, but in spite of the circumstances, LCs affordability and programs are tailored for the community.

As the HSI designations began in the 90s, she added that LC has always been a proud historic HSI that served the Hispanic students well before the designation came into play. As colleges and universities become HSI by having at least 25% of Hispanic students in their population, Garza said that LC was a college that set the benchmark for many HSIs.

As for the future, LISD Superintendent Dr. Sylvia Rios, LISD Director of Curriculum and Instruction Dr. Gerardo Cruz and CCMR Director Rogelio Garcia discussed the partnership between their district and the college.

Both school districts continuously work to find opportunities for their students including the partnerships with both LC and TAMIU.

Rios said that through the partnerships between the higher education institutions and districts, students who face difficulties do to being economically disadvantaged have the opportunity to start on their college degrees in high school and the HSI designations allows for tailored programs that fill their needs.

The partnerships started approximately 20 years ago, and since then, courses and trainings have been provided for students and LISD faculty, Cruz said.

This has resulted in five existing early colleges within the past five years that serve students, including at-risk students who can achieve 60 college hours by the time they graduate, Garcia said. The partnership also includes workforce certification in multiple fields that students can check out in the case where the workforce is preferred and this includes, welding, HVAC, cybersecurity and more.

Over 1,400 LISD students are currently enrolled in the dual-credit program within the LC-LISD partnership, and over 35 individual courses are offered. This creates a good foundation for those students well before attending LC as a high-school graduate student. Additionally, the course also gives students a chance to experience college like never before and reflect on what they would like to do as a career moving forward.

Laredos first institution of higher learning was established to serve the needs of a bustling city that was yearning for a place that offered academic excellence, Tijerina said. As an institution with a rich history, Laredo College has gone through multiple name changes, structure redesigns and leaders, yet it remains and will continue to be a historic gem that shines throughout south Texas.

cocampo@lmtonline.com
SEOUL, South Korea (AP)  The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Wednesday criticized South Korea's president and threatened a complete destruction of bilateral relations after both countries tested ballistic missiles hours apart.

The launches of missiles underscored a return of tensions between the rivals at a time when talks aimed at stripping North Korea of its nuclear program are stalled.

Kim's sister, Kim Yo Jong, criticized South Korean President Moon Jae-in for comments he made while observing his country's missile tests, including its first of a submarine-launched ballistic missile. Moon said South Koreas growing missile capabilities will serve as a sure deterrence against North Korean provocations.

The tests came hours after the South Korean and Japanese militaries said North Korea had fired two ballistic missiles into the sea.

In a statement carried by state media, Kim berated Moon for describing North Korean weapons demonstrations as a provocation, and warned of a complete destruction of bilateral relations if he continues with what she described as slander of North Korea.

She said North Korea is developing its military capabilities for self-defense without targeting a specific country, and that South Korea is also increasing its military capabilities. North Korea has often accused the South of hypocrisy for introducing modern weapons while calling for talks on easing tensions between the divided countries.

If the president joins in the slander and detraction (against us), this will be followed by counter actions, and the North-South relations will be pushed toward a complete destruction," she said. "We do not want that.

The South Korean and Japanese militaries said the two short-range ballistic missiles fired by North Korea flew 800 kilometers (500 miles) before landing in the sea inside Japans exclusive economic zone  a worrying development even though they did not reach Japanese territorial waters. The last time a North Korean missile landed inside that zone was in October 2019.

The launches came two days after North Korea said it fired a newly developed cruise missile, its first known missile test in six months.

Hours after the latest North Korean launches, South Korea reported its first test of a submarine-launched ballistic missile. As Moon and other top officials looked on, the missile flew from a submarine and hit a designated target, Moon's office said. It did not say how far the weapon flew.

The U.N. Security Council scheduled emergency consultations on the North Korean missile launches late Wednesday afternoon at the request of France and Estonia, diplomats said.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric expressed concern at the missile launches, reiterating that diplomatic engagement remains the only pathway to sustainable peace and complete, verifiable denuclearization of the Korean peninsula."

Experts say North Korea is building up its weapons systems to apply pressure on the United States in the hopes of winning relief from economic sanctions aimed at forcing the North to abandon its nuclear arsenal. U.S.-led talks on the issue have been stalled for more than two years.

North Korea is trying to communicate a message that things will not go as Washington wishes, if it doesnt accept the Norths demands, said Moon Seong Mook, an analyst with the Seoul-based Korea Research Institute for National Strategy. He said North Korea may think it has an opportunity now to win concessions from U.S. President Joe Biden's administration while it is embroiled in a domestic debate following the chaotic pullout from Afghanistan.

Observers say Moon's government, which has been actively pursuing reconciliation with North Korea, may have taken action to appear tougher in response to criticism that its too soft on the North.

The rival nations are still technically in a state of war since the 1950-53 Korean War, which pitted the North and ally China against the South and U.S.-led U.N. forces, ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said the launches threaten the peace and safety of Japan and the region and are absolutely outrageous.

The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said the North Korean test highlights the destabilizing impact of (North Koreas) illicit weapons program though it said it didnt pose an immediate threat to the U.S.

The North Korean launches represent a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions that bar North Korea from engaging in any ballistic missile activity. But the council typically doesnt impose new sanctions when the North launches short-range missiles, like Wednesdays.

Wednesdays tests came as Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was in Seoul for meetings with Moon and other senior officials to discuss North Korea and other issues.

Its unusual for North Korea to make provocative launches when China, its last major ally and biggest aid provider, is engaged in a major diplomatic event. But some experts say North Korea may have used the timing to draw extra attention.

Kim Dong-yub, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, said Wednesdays tests appeared to be of an improved version of a short-range missile it tested in March. He said the weapon is likely modeled on Russias Iskander missiles, which are designed to fly at relatively low altitudes, making them harder to be intercepted by missile defense systems.

The international community wants North Korea to abandon its nuclear program and has long used a combination of the threat of sanctions and the promise of economic help to try to influence the North. But negotiations have stalled since 2019, when then-U.S. President Donald Trumps administration rejected the Norths demand for major sanctions relief in exchange for dismantling an aging nuclear facility.

Kim Jong Uns government has so far rejected the Biden administrations overtures for dialogue, demanding that Washington abandon what it calls hostile policies first. But North Korea has maintained its self-imposed moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests, a sign that it may not want to completely scuttle the possibility of reopening the talks.

In 2017, North Korea claimed to have acquired the ability to strike the American mainland with nuclear weapons after conducting three intercontinental ballistic missile tests and its most powerful nuclear test. In recent years, it has also performed a series of underwater-launched missile tests in what experts say is a worrying development because such weapons are difficult to detect and would provide North Korea with retaliatory strike capability.

South Korea, which doesnt have nuclear weapons, is under the protection of the U.S. nuclear umbrella, which guarantees a devastating American response in the event of an attack on its ally. But South Korea has been accelerating efforts to build up its conventional arms, including developing more powerful missiles.

Experts say South Koreas military advancements are aimed at improving its capacity for preemptive strikes and destroying key North Korean facilities and bunkers.

Separate from the submarine-launched missile, South Korea also tested a missile from an aircraft.

___

Associated Press writer Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.
MIAMI (AP)  Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is seeking to add to a new member to his team negotiating in Mexico with his political opponents  an ally jailed in Cape Verde awaiting extradition to the U.S. on money laundering charges.

Alex Saab will be incorporated into the government delegation immediately, National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez, who heads Venezuela's team, announced Tuesday on Venezuela's state television.

Saab's appointment is unlikely to have any immediate impact on his legal troubles. A week ago, Cape Verde's Constitutional Court voted unanimously to reject his appeal of an earlier court ruling approving his extradition to face federal charges in Miami.

But the Maduro government's decision to redouble its embrace of the fugitive is likely to hang over dialogue efforts that already faced huge obstacles after years of bitter street fighting in Venezuela.

Venezuela's opposition compared the gambit to a failed attempt by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia to name a rebel leader jailed in the U.S. to its delegation that negotiated a landmark peace deal in 2016 to end that country's half century armed conflict.

"We're not going to get distracted from our central agenda," the opposition delegation said in a statement. We Venezuelans need an integral accord that restores democracy and the opportunity to emerge from this immense social, economic and political crisis.

Saab, a businessman originally from Colombia, was arrested in June 2020 when his private jet made a refueling stop in Cape Verde en route to Iran on what the Venezuelan government has described as a humanitarian mission.

U.S. officials believe he holds numerous secrets about how Maduro, the presidents family and his top aides allegedly siphoned off millions of dollars in government contracts amid widespread hunger in oil-rich Venezuela.

Maduro's government has protested his arrest as illegal, claiming Saab was a diplomatic envoy and therefore possesses immunity from prosecution while on an official mission.

The talks that began a month ago in Mexico are aimed at resolving the South American countrys longstanding political dispute. The sessions are being sponsored by Norway, with Russia and the Netherlands playing a supporting role.

As part of the dialogue effort, the opposition  which with U.S. backing refuses to recognize the legitimacy of Maduro's administration  has agreed to participate in regional elections scheduled for later this year.
Texas officials vowed to fight a federal regulator's decision to approve plans to allow thousands of tons of highly radioactive nuclear waste to be stored in oil fields in the state.

"Texas will not become America's nuclear waste dumping ground," Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, said on Twitter Tuesday. Abbott last week signed into law legislation that attempts to block the project from moving forward.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued a license Monday to Orano CIS LLC and its joint venture partner, J.F. Lehman & Co.'s Waste Control Specialists LLC, to establish a repository in the heart of Texas' Permian Basin oil fields for as many as 40,000 metric tons of radioactive waste.

Texas' blowback underscored the federal government's decades-long, futile hunt for a permanent disposal site for spent nuclear fuel. A political logjam over the issue has stranded tons of waste on site at several dozen power plants and other sites across the country including at two nuclear power plants in Texas.

The joint venture, known as Interim Storage Partners, plans to have waste shipped by rail from around the country and sealed in concrete casks where it would be stored above ground at a site about 30 miles (48.28 kilometers) from Andrews, Texas, near the New Mexico border.

Local officials once embraced the Texas project as an economic boon, but it now faces stiff opposition from the local community, the state, and oil companies that fear a leak could taint a region that produces millions of barrels of oil a day. The waste can remain radioactive for thousands or even hundreds of thousands of years.

"We have opposition to this project on every level," said Karen Hadden, executive director of the Sustainable Energy & Economic Development Coalition, an Austin, Texas-based environmental group fighting project. "We do not consider this fight over. We will continue to battle these dangerous plans."

The Andrews County Commissioners' Court, which functions as the county's board of commissioners, had previously backed the plan as a means of diversifying the area's fortunes from the boom and bust of oil cycles. But it reversed course earlier this year and voted unanimously to oppose the project.

"The concerns are what if there was a leak, if there an was an attack, if there was a transportation accident," County Judge Charlie Falcon said in a phone interview. "It could affect our entire area and we are a very large oil producer in the state."

Congress in 1987 designated a ridge in the Nevada desert about 90 miles north of Las Vegas called Yucca Mountain to be the nation's repository. But decades of political opposition led by Nevada Democrat and former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid kept the project from moving forward. In 2010, President Barack Obama scrapped the plan and the Biden administration opposes its use as well.

Instead, the administration plans to work with Congress and states to reach consent on storing nuclear waste, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told Congress earlier this year.

A similar nuclear waste storage project, proposed in New Mexico by Holtec International Corp., is also awaiting approval by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The agency said it expects to make a decision on that proposal in January 2022.
Longfords former Providers building could become the home of a new county museum, it has been revealed.

The three storey premises, which was acquired by council bosses four years ago with a view to developing a digital hub in the county town is one of a number of possible locations currently under consideration.

The other is a site inside Connolly Barracks as part of the local authoritys Northern Quarter regeneration project for the town.

Local councillors flagged both locations at yesterdays meeting of Longford County Council following the recent discovery of n 800-year-old vest of chain mail.

The historical artefact was discovered at an unknown location in the county and currently being held by local tourist attraction, Granard Knights & Conquests Heritage Centre, before it goes to the National Museum of Ireland.

Cllr Paul Ross said the find, given the large swathe of possible sites and vacant properties available to the council, had reignited the importance for a county museum.

We have any amount of archival history and artefacts to put on display, we own a lot of property and we have a lot of vacant property in a number of towns and its something we should be looking for, he said.

He was supported by fellow Fine Gael councillor and group leader Colm Murray who suggested monies directed towards yearly storage bills of historical artefatcts, could be best served in developing a purpose built facility.

I would hope that the business plan would be developed and that we would move on from consideration stage at this point and a site will be identified and costings drawn up so we, as political representatives, can begin working on towards identifying funding to put this museum in place in the county, he said.

Cllr Gerry Warnock suggested the county towns Connolly Barracks as one prospective venue with Cllr Gerry Hagan arguing the case for the still vacant former Providers building.

Cllr Hagan said the large number of windows contained on the main street premises strengthened its case as a possible venue.

We have an ideal premises right in the heart and centre of the town. You want a museum accessible in the centre of town where lots of businesses can get spin offs from it, he said.

I think get the money sorted, we have the building there and it most definitely can be turned into a museum.
Bank of Ireland chiefs have been accused of turning their backs on Granard after confirming plans to withdrawn its ATM from the town next month.

A notice posted on its cash facility in the north Longford town detailed the news in a move which has sparked outrage locally.

Local Councillor PJ Reilly lambasted the decision, describing the decision as a huge setback for a town which will be left with no on street ATM going forward.

It's very disappointing, he contended.

All that will be left is an ATM in SuperValu, but all you can withdraw out of that in one go is 200.

They (Bank of Ireland) will say the Post Office is there for people but outside of business hours there is nothing.

Cllr Reilly said a large slice of the despondency felt locally came largely as a consequence of the closure of the town's Ulster Bank branch in 2014.

The Fianna Fail local politician claimed certain assurances were made over the bank's long term future in the town.

It's not that long ago they were saying how committed they (Bank of Ireland) were to Granard and that they would not be leaving, but they have turned their backs, he said.

Earlier this year, the bank told of how its Granard offices was one of over 100 branches to cease business from the end of September.

Francesca McDonagh, group CEO of Bank of Ireland said the decision was largely due to the changing face of modern day banking.

Technology is evolving, and customers are using branches less, year on year on year. Covid-19 has accelerated this changing behaviour, and weve seen a seismic shift towards digital banking over the past 12 months, she said

Weve now reached a tipping point between online and offline banking.

It's expected staff employed in Granard will be offered voluntary redundancy or will be redeployed to another branch or to work within its online services.

In a statement, the bank confirmed it would be removing its ATM service alongside its branch closure on October 8, but said a new partnership deal with An Post would allow for cash withdrawal services during business hours and until 1pm on Saturdays.

Like many other companies with a large number of retail locations, and like banks across the globe, we had to change our branch services to better reflect how people are banking today, read a statement.

Customers have been moving away from cash to cards and digital banking, and this has rapidly accelerated in recent years.

"Customers are also choosing cashback  where they take the opportunity to get cash back in shops when making purchases  and there are also an increasing number of businesses, including taxis, now taking card payments.
The rights of people with disabilities are not adequately respected and upheld in Ireland, according to a new RED C Survey commissioned by Safeguarding Ireland.

The survey highlights the need for stronger supports for independent decision-making and a greater focus on achieving equality, through greater awareness and strengthened adult safeguarding laws.

The survey of a representative sample of 1,000 adults nationwide found that:

More than a third did not believe that people with disabilities have equal rights in Ireland while 25% believe that people with an intellectual disability are adequately supported to make their own decisions.

76% said stronger safeguarding laws are needed to ensure the rights of people with disabilities with just 33% believing that people with a physical disability are adequately supported to do so.

Safeguarding Ireland Chairperson, Patricia Richard-Clarke, said the survey highlighted, once again, the need for progress on adult safeguarding legislation in order to protect every citizen at risk of abuse, exploitation or neglect.

Safeguarding means living safely, free from abuse or neglect. It means our choices, particularly if we have reduced capacity, are clearly heard and respected. The key principle to better safeguard all people is to respect their human rights and support decision making. This is especially important for people who live with a disability.

People living with a physical, sensory or intellectual disability can have very different needs. Individuals, organisations and services must respect, listen to and reach out to each person regardless of any challenges faced. Many of these challenges can be significantly overcome with simple supports.

The Confidential Recipient to the HSE for People with Disabilities and Older People, Leigh Gath, said people with disabilities do not have equal rights in Ireland, and while things are improving  lots remain to be done.

Each person with a disability is different and has different needs. Each person should be supported to make their own choices  to take risks, and also to make lifes mistakes as we all do. Many people with a disability need supports help them to make decisions and to be independent  and where challenges are identified these should be risen to.

Of course there is also a need too to keep people safe, and protect them. However, the balance needs to shift more towards independence, decision making, and choice. This means both a change in attitudes and increase in supports to accommodate to the level of the individual.

There are no Personal Assistance Services all money is being directed toward home help services, which doesnt provide the support we need to live independently Leigh Gath #independentliving #Equality pic.twitter.com/nwwRTDSQad  ILMIreland (@ILMIreland) October 4, 2019

Ms. Richard-Clarke said of particular importance will be the implementation of the Assisted Decision making Act which is due to come into effect in June 2022. The Act will put into law much improved clarity and protocols for circumstances where capacity is an issue and people are in receipt of healthcare, or financial and public services.

We are signed up to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities in Ireland. This means that everybody has a right to make their own choices, and every effort must be made to support people whose capacity to make decisions is a challenge, she said.

The research is informing a new public awareness campaign on safeguarding and disability being led by Safeguarding Ireland. The campaign is being supported by the Disability Federation of Ireland, HSE, Inclusion Ireland, National Disability Services Association and National Federation of Voluntary Service Providers.

More information on the Safeguarding Ireland website at www.safeguardingireland.org.
(Alliance News) - The following is a round-up of share dealings by London-listed company directors and managers announced on Wednesday and not separately reported by Alliance News:







James Fisher & Sons PLC - Barrow In Furness, Cumbria-based marine services - Top three leaders buy 5,000 shares each at 860p to 869p, worth about GBP130,000 in total, on Tuesday. The purchase is the only holding for Non-Executive Chair Angus Cockburn and Chief Financial Officer Duncan Kennedy, while Chief Executive Officer Eoghan O'Lionaird now has 18,447 shares. Cockburn, the former CFO of outsourcer Serco Group PLC, and Kennedy, the former CFO of BTG PLC, both joined the James Fisher board in May.







Blackbird PLC - London-based cloud video editing platform - CEO Ian McDonough buys 579,139 shares via McDonough Family Trust at 34.28p and 34.70p, worth GBP200,000, on Monday and Tuesday. The CEO now is interested in 26.2 million shares, a 7.7% stake.







Trackwise Designs PLC - Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire-based products using printed circuit technology - CFO Mark Hodgkins buys 10,000 shares at 243p, worth GBP24,300, on Wednesday. Now 168,869 shares, a 0.6% stake.







Symphony International Holdings Ltd - strategic investment company - Director Anil Thadani buys 119,859 shares at USD0.44, worth USD52,211, on Monday.







Cake Box Holdings PLC - CFO Pardip Dass sells 375,000 shares at 345p, worth GBP1.3 million, on Tuesday. Dass now is interested in 2.0 million shares, while his ex-wife, Kulwinder Kaur, after their recent divorce has 1.5 million shares, a 3.8% stake.







By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2021 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
MGC Pharmaceuticals Ltd - Perth, Australia-based medicinal cannabis company - Says ArtemiC, its nutraceutical food supplement designed to support the immune system, has received regulatory approval for sale in Germany. Says ArtemiC successfully underwent a Phase II clinical trial in 2020, which demonstrated efficacy in improving and expediting the clinical recovery of patients with mild Covid-19.

Separately, says as part of the registration process for CimetrA in India, an observational open label controlled clinical trial of its sister product ArtemiC, showed the formulation demonstrated its efficacy in the treatment of patients with severe Covid-19 for the first time.

Says findings from observational trial expands potential use of CimetrA and ArtemiC to treat patients with severe Covid-19, and further supports previous preclinical and clinical findings for patients with moderate Covid-19, both of which assist placing CimetrA as an anti-inflammatory agent.

Current stock price: 3.44 pence

Year-to-date change: up 44%

By Arvind Bhunjun; arvindbhunjun@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2021 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
(Alliance News) - Moody's Investors Service on Tuesday affirmed all the ratings of easyJet PLC, including budget airline's Baa3 long-term issuer rating.

The outlook on all the ratings has been changed to stable from negative, the ratings agency added.

Moody's said the move follows easyJet's fully underwritten equity rights issue, alongside a new USD400 million revolving credit facility.

The new shares issued as part of easyJet's GBP1.2 billion rights issue started trading in London on Monday. The carrier turned to the cash raise as it looked to bolster its "long-term positioning" in the European airline market.

easyJet shares were trading 2.6% lower in London on Wednesday at 560.20 pence each.

The rights offer, which saw shareholders offered 31 new shares for every 47 existing shares already owned, was announced on Thursday last week. The rights issue was priced at 410 pence per share.

Moody's said the affirmation of ratings also reflects the improvement in liquidity, reduction in net debt and expected stronger recovery in balance sheet metrics as a result of the right issue.

Moody's said it expects the proceeds from the rights issue to be retained as cash on balance sheet, however, the company will seek to use surplus cash to repay debt and reduce its gross leverage at an appropriate point when a reduction in risks related to the pandemic allow.

By Evelina Grecenko; evelinagrecenko@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2021 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
(Alliance News) - Pan African Resources PLC on Wednesday declared a record final dividend after revenue and profit were given impetus by elevated gold prices.

Pan African shares were up 4.8% to 17.02 pence each in London on Wednesday morning. In Johannesburg, where it is also listed, the stock was up 4.0% at ZAR3.36.

For the 12 months that ended June 30, pretax profit doubled to USD104.8 million from USD52.2 million, on the back of a 35% rise in revenue to USD368.9 million from USD274.1 million.

Gold production rose 12% to 201,777 ounces from 179,457, with sales up 16% to 201,777 ounces from 173,864.

The company booked an average gold price of USD1,826 per ounce for the year, jumping 16% from USD1,574, offsetting a 14% rise in cash costs to USD1,035 per ounce from USD911.

Chief Executive Cobus Loots said: "We are, once again, pleased to report major positive strides in Pan African's operational and financial performance, despite the challenges of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. The operational flexibility afforded by our multiple producing assets has enabled the group to improve margins, achieve record profits and realise our second-highest annual gold production. We are also proposing our highest-ever dividend for approval at the upcoming annual general meeting."

A final dividend of 18 rand cents per share was declared, up 29% from 14 cents last year. The miner also said it has approved a share buyback programme, but more information on this will be release later this year.

Pan African Resources remains on track to produce a minimum of 195,000 ounces of gold for financial 2022, which is in line with its planned production profiles.

By Greg Roxburgh; gregroxburgh@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2021 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
(Alliance News) - Pharos Energy PLC unveiled on Wednesday the farmout of two of its Egyptian concessions, as the oil and gas company noted a drop in production in the first half of 2021.

London-based Pharos said it has struck a USD115 million farmout agreement for its Egyptian El Fayum and North Beni Suef concessions to IPR Lake Qarun Petroleum Co, which will sell a 55% interest in each concession.

Through the transaction, Pharos will get USD5 million in cash at completion, USD38.4 million to fund its interest in future activities costs and a contingent consideration of around USD20 million, dependent on Brent oil prices per annum from 2022 to 2025.

IPR Lake Qarun Petroleum Co is a fully owned subsidiary of IPR Energy AG, a London-based petroleum company with offices in Cairo and Islamabad.

The proposed transaction will give IPR a 55% working interest and operatorship in the two onshore concessions.

"The farmout, while instantly boosting our balance sheet, will allow the entry of a partner who has committed to carry Pharos on a capital programme on these Egyptian assets, which will in turn lead to increased production, helping to fulfil the full potential of the concessions," commented Chief Executive Ed Story.

Shares in Pharos were up 5.8% at 20.10 pence in London on Wednesday afternoon.

For the six months to June 30, Pharos' swung to a pretax profit of USD26.7 million from a loss of USD317.9 million in the same period last year. However, revenue dropped to USD59.2 million from USD80.1 million.

Production in the period slipped to 9,147 barrels of oil equivalent per day, compared to 12,093 barrels year-on-year.

Consequently, Pharos dropped its production forecasts to between 8,700 and 9,500 barrels of oil equivalent per day, from between 9,200 and 10,600 barrels.

Pharos declared no interim dividend, citing cash resources and continuing "uncertainty in the macro environment".

Looking ahead, the company hopes to return to free cash flow in the medium term.

"The signing of the Egyptian farm-out and the infill development programme in Vietnam means that the medium term outlook for the company is a return to free cash flow and ultimately to distributions to shareholders," Story added.

By Josie O'Brien; josieobrien@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2021 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
(Alliance News) - Renewables Infrastructure Group Ltd on Wednesday said it raised GBP200 million through a "significantly oversubscribed" share placing.

The Guernsey-based sustainable energy sources investor said 161.3 million new shares were placed at 124 pence each, through both the company's share issuance programme and a PrimaryBid offer to retail investors.

The placing was first announced in late August to repay amounts drawn under Renewables Infrastructure's revolving credit facility, which is expected to be around GBP200 million once its acquisition of four solar photovoltaic sites in Spain is completed by the first quarter of 2022.

Investec Bank PLC and Liberum Capital Ltd acted as joint bookrunners.

The investor added that, due to significant oversubscription, a scaling back exercise took place.

"We are delighted with the strong support from existing shareholders and new investors in this fundraising," said Chair Helen Mahy.

"The proceeds of the issue will be used in part to fund TRIG's first investment in Iberia, a landmark for TRIG, adding further to TRIG's geographic and technological diversification."

Shares in Renewables Infrastructure were up 2.2% at 127.55 pence in London early Wednesday.

By Josie O'Brien; josieobrien@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2021 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
(Alliance News) - Tullow Oil PLC on Wednesday raised its 2021 production guidance after swinging to a profit in the first half of the year, and announced the departure of its chief financial officer.

Shares were up 5.9% to 47.66 pence in London on Wednesday morning, making Tullow the top performer in the FTSE 250 index.

The West Africa-focused oil and gas producer made USD727 million in revenue in the period, down 0.5% year-on-year from USD731 million. Tullow made a pretax profit of USD213 million, after a loss of USD1.44 billion a year ago.

Production averaged 61,230 barrels of oil equivalent per day, down 21% from 77,700 boepd, following asset sales in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.

The firm raised full-year production guidance, to between 58,000 and 61,000 boepd. The previous forecast, issued on July 14, was for between 55,000 and 61,000 boepd, and the upgrade reflects an acceleration of production at the Simba field in Gabon and the deferral of a planned shutdown of the Jubilee field in Ghana, Tullow said.

But full-year capital expenditure is now expected to be USD260 million, up from the earlier USD250 million forecast.

The company will continue to not pay a dividend. It hasn't made a payout since 2019's 2.35 cents-per-share interim.

The results are "in line with guidance and our forecasts," Davy analyst Colin Grant said in a note.

The first half was "principally about executing the transformational refinancing of debt liabilities in the group. This has been achieved and there are now no debt maturities until 2025," he added.

Net debt was reduced to USD2.29 billion on June 30 from USD3.02 billion a year before.

But the architect of the refinancing, Chief Financial Officer Les Wood, has "mutually agreed with the board that he will step down," the company said. He will leave at the end of March 2022, while Tullow searches for a replacement.

"Following our comprehensive refinancing earlier this year, the culmination of a number of steps to strengthen the group, it is the right time for me to leave Tullow after five years as CFO," Wood said.

By Ivan Edwards; ivanedwards@alliancenews.com

Copyright 2021 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
(Alliance News) - UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday readied a fresh cabinet "to build back better from the pandemic" in a reshuffle that casts Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab's future into doubt.

Raab, who deputised as premier last April when Johnson was in intensive care with Covid-19, has faced sustained criticism for his handling of the Afghanistan crisis.

The spotlight was also on Education Secretary Gavin Williamson, who like Raab was notably absent from the government front bench of the House of Commons at Johnson's weekly question and answer session.

The gaffe-prone Williamson was the first minister to indicate he was out of a job, tweeting that it had been a "privilege" to serve in his role since 2019 when Johnson took office on a vow to "get Brexit done".

Now that Britain has formally left the EU after a years-long divorce, the Conservative government has been battling to tame one of the world's highest per capita death tolls from the pandemic.

Johnson on Tuesday outlined a plan to restore restrictions if needed, to avert fresh crisis for the state-run National Health Service heading into what could be a difficult winter with hospitalisations rising again.

After days of speculation, a Downing Street source confirmed the reshuffle was happening, saying Johnson would "put in place a strong and united team to build back better from the pandemic".

"The PM will be appointing ministers this afternoon with a focus on uniting and levelling up the whole country," the source added.

Raab was on holiday on a Greek island as the government scrambled to evacuate British nationals and Afghan staff as the Taliban advanced and seized power last month.

Trade Secretary Liz Truss, who has brokered a series of deals since Britain's full exit from the EU in January, has been tipped to replace Raab.

Williamson meanwhile has faced a barrage of complaints about his handling of school closures, examination arrangements and university admissions during the coronavirus emergency.

Brexit point man Michael Gove has been suggested as a replacement for Home Secretary Priti Patel, another arch Brexiteer who has been under pressure due to a surge in migrant crossings from France, along with bullying claims.

However, Patel sat alongside Johnson in the Commons on Wednesday, suggesting she may be safe.A

Finance minister Rishi Sunak was another flanking the prime minister, having emerged as a Conservative darling during the pandemic.

But Justice Secretary Robert Buckland and Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick confirmed on Twitter that they were on the way out.

"On to the next adventure," Buckland said.A

As Johnson met with colleagues in his office inside the Commons, away from the public glare of 10 Downing Street, his official spokesman said the premier understood "the importance of having a diverse cabinet".

But the spokesman would not guarantee that female representation in the ministerial team would be maintained at its current high level.A

Political strategist Dominic Cummings, the Brexit mastermind who fell out with Johnson last year, branded the shake-up the "Carrie reshuffle", suggesting that allies of the prime minister's wife will be rewarded.

The Downing Street spokesman denied this.

By Jitendra JOSHI

source: AFP

Copyright 2021 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
(Alliance News) - UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has demoted Dominic Raab and sacked three Cabinet ministers in a dramatic reshuffle.

Raab has been given the title of Deputy Prime Minister and moved to the Ministry of Justice after being ousted from the Foreign Office.

His demotion comes after being heavily criticised for the Afghanistan debacle while foreign secretary.

The title Deputy Prime Minister formalises a role he performed as first secretary of state when he stood in for Johnson while the prime minister was in hospital with coronavirus.

Raab accepted the new role following lengthy talks with Johnson in the prime minister's Commons office.

While Raab retains his seat at the Cabinet table, the prime minister sacked Gavin Williamson, Robert Jenrick and Robert Buckland.

Downing Street confirmed Williamson had been sacked by the prime minister on Wednesday afternoon, with the same fate being met for Buckland as justice secretary and Jenrick from housing.

The prime minister was carrying out a long-awaited shake-up of his top team with plans to put in place a "strong and united" Cabinet following the turbulence of the coronavirus pandemic.

Williamson was one of the ministers deemed most at risk of being told to return to the back benches, particularly due to his handling of the exams fiasco during the Covid-19 crisis.

He announced his exit by saying "it has been a privilege to serve as education secretary since 2019", adding that he will continue to support the prime minister and the government.

After receiving the axe, Jenrick pledged to continue supporting the prime minister "in every way I can".

"I'm deeply proud of all we achieved," he said, thanking his colleagues at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

His sacking from Johnson's top team followed controversies including the unlawful approval of a Tory donor's housing development and his eyebrow-raising journeys during lockdown.

Also to go was Buckland, who said it had been an "honour" to serve in the government for the last seven years, including the last two as justice secretary and lord chancellor.

"I am deeply proud of everything I have achieved. On to the next adventure," he said.

The courts system has been under huge strain during the pandemic, but a specific reason for his departure was unclear.

Bob Neill, the Conservative MP who chairs the Commons Justice Committee, criticised Buckland's exit, saying: "You deserved better."

"You did a first-rate job and, importantly, always stood up for the rule of law and the integrity of the justice system," Neill added.

By David Hughes and Sam Blewett, PA Political Staff

source: PA

Copyright 2021 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
15 September 2021

Second Swedish acquisition, strengthening platform in the Nordics

FORWARD FUNDING ACQUISITION OF 13,181 SQM LOGISTICS PROPERTY IN PRIME LOCATION JUST NORTH OF STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN FOR SEK 284 MILLION (27.9 MILLION1)

Tritax EuroBox plc ("Tritax EuroBox" or the "Company") (ticker: EBOX (Sterling) and BOXE (Euro)), which invests in high-quality, large, sustainable, prime logistics real estate strategically located across Continental Europe, announces that conditional contracts have been entered into to acquire the land and provide forward funding for the development of a new high specification and sustainable logistics asset for a total consideration of SEK 284 million (27.9 million1) in a prime location just north of Stockholm, Sweden.

This is the Company's second acquisition in Sweden and comprises a 13,181 sqm logistics facility consisting of two separate units of 8,204 sqm and 4,977 sqm to be constructed between November 2021 and December 2022. The development is being undertaken by Verdion, a highly experienced European industrial and logistics real estate specialist, which has recently expanded into the Nordic area opening offices in Sweden and Denmark and has a growing number of projects in the Nordics. The land purchase is conditional on receiving the building permit which is expected in the near-term.

The buildings are located in the established logistics market of Rosersberg, one of the best logistics hubs in Sweden, strategically situated close to Stockholm Arlanda Airport on the E4 motorway to Stockholm. Given its strategic location, market rents in Rosersberg are amongst the highest in Sweden and its importance as a hub is expected to increase further in coming years.

This acquisition is structured as a forward funding development opportunity, where the Company will buy the land initially and then fund the construction of the buildings. The total development cost is capped at SEK 284 million (27.9 million1). From completion of the land purchase and during the construction phase, the Company will receive from the developer an income return equivalent to the agreed net initial yield.

The Company will also benefit from a 12-month rental guarantee of SEK 12 million (1.18 million1) from completion of construction which is estimated to be in December 2022. This rental guarantee is in line with the current estimated market rental value per annum assuming a rent of SEK 907 (891) per sqm.

Due to the strength of the local leasing market the Company is confident that it will be able to lease the units quickly and benefit from any increased value that a new lease may create. Verdion will assist the Company with the letting based on pre-agreed leasing criteria with an incentive mechanism. Verdion will be retained as asset manager.

As is standard in the Nordic markets, the ESG credentials of the development will be strong. The development is targeting a minimum BREEAM Very Good certification, and the construction will include a range of energy saving initiatives and staff wellbeing measures.

The acquisition price of SEK 284 million reflects a net initial yield of 4.2% based on the income from the rental guarantee.

Alina Iorgulescu, Assistant Fund Manager of Tritax EuroBox, commented:

"We are delighted to acquire our second asset in Sweden, following the acquisition of the Gothenburg asset in June this year, building up our presence in this important market, which we expect to continue to perform well due to strong fundamentals. Tenant demand is strong and land supply is constrained in the prime markets in Sweden such as Stockholm and Gothenburg where we are investing.

Acquiring assets using a forward funding structure is an effective way of accessing the best assets in the best locations at prices discounted to the market. We expect both assets to perform well and deliver good value to our shareholders."

Notes

1 Exchange rate assumed at 1SEK = .0.098

For further information please contact:

Tritax Group+44 (0) 20 8051 5070

Nick PrestonMehdi Bourassi

Jo Blackshaw (Investor Relations)

Maitland/AMO (Media inquiries)James Benjamin+44 (0) 7747 113 930tritax-maitland@maitland.co.uk

The Company's LEI is: 213800HK59N7H979QU33.

Notes:

Tritax EuroBox plc invests in and manages a well-diversified and sustainable portfolio of well-located Continental European logistics real estate assets that are expected to deliver an attractive capital return and secure income to shareholders. These assets fulfil key roles in the logistics and distribution supply-chain focused on the most established logistics markets and on the major population centres across core Continental European countries.

Occupier demand for Continental European logistics assets is in the midst of a major long-term structural change principally driven by the growth of e-commerce. This is evidenced by technological advancements, increased automation and supply-chain optimisation.

The Company's Manager, Tritax Management LLP, has assembled a full-service European logistics asset management capability including specialist "on the ground" asset and property managers with strong market standings in the Continental European logistics sector.

Further information on Tritax EuroBox plc is available at www.tritaxeurobox.co.uk
15 September 2021

Longboat Energy plc

("Longboat Energy", "Longboat" or the "Company")

Spud of Rdhette Exploration Well and Operational Update

Longboat Energy, the emerging full-cycle North Sea E&P company with a portfolio of significant, near-term, low-risk exploration assets, is pleased to announce the spudding of the Rdhette exploration well and to provide a further operational update.

Highlights

 Drilling commenced at Rdhette (Company 20%), Longboat's first exploration well  Further two wells, Egyptian Vulture (Company 15%) and Mugnetind (Company 20%), expected to commence drilling by the end of September  Drilling at Ginny/Hermine (Company 9%) expected to commence in December  Rig confirmed for Kveikje and Cambozola wells, to be drilled in 2022  Copernicus well site survey to be acquired shortly, to facilitate 2022 drilling, following well commitment decision  Executive team further strengthened through additional ex-Faroe appointment of Hilde Salthe as Managing Director, Norway

Rdhette exploration well spud

The drilling of the Rdhette prospect (Company 20%) has commenced using the deep water Scarabeo 8 semi-submersible drilling rig. This is a proven Jurassic play in the Hammerfest Basin with the potential for early monetisation through a 30km tie-back to the Goliat Field.

The well, operated by Var Energi, is expected to take up to six weeks to drill with an estimated pre-carry net cost to Longboat of c.$7 million (c.$1.5 million post tax).

The Rdhette prospect is estimated to contain gross mean prospective resources of 41 mmboe with further potential upside to bring the total to 81 mmboe. The chance of success associated with this prospect is 41% with the key risk being related to fault seal and oil column thickness.

Drilling schedule 2021

The following three additional near-term wells are scheduled for drilling in 2021:

Drilling of the Egyptian Vulture prospect (Company 15%) is expected to commence towards the end of September using the West Hercules semi-submersible drilling rig, which is on a long-term contract with the operator, Equinor. The Egyptian Vulture well is targeting gross mean prospective resources of 103 mmboe with further potential upside to bring the total to 208 mmboe on a gross basis. The chance of success associated with this prospect is 25% with the key risk being related to reservoir quality and thickness.

Drilling of the Mugnetind prospect (Company 20%) is also scheduled to commence at the end of September using the Maersk Integrator jack-up drilling rig. The Mugnetind prospect, operated by AkerBP, is estimated to contain gross mean prospective resources of 24 mmboe with further potential upside estimated at 47 mmboe on a gross basis. The chance of success associated with the Mugnetind prospect is 51% with the key risks being reservoir presence/quality.

Drilling of the dual-target Ginny and Hermine prospects (Company 9%) is now scheduled to commence in December 2021, using the West Hercules semi-submersible drilling rig operated by Equinor. These prospects have a combined target gross mean prospective resource of 68 mmboe with further potential upside estimated at 129 mmboe on a gross basis. The chance of success associated with these prospects are 27% and 22%, respectively, with the key risk being related to fault seal and phase risk.

2022 Drilling Programme

Longboat is pleased to confirm further details of its 2022 exploration drilling programme which will see the Company participate in three additional wells.

The Company has recently been informed by Equinor, the operator, that the Deep Sea Stavanger semi-submersible drilling rig has been contracted to drill the Kveikje (Company 10%) and Cambozola (Company 25%) exploration wells in H1 2022.

Kveikje is a low-risk, Paleocene injectite play located near the Fram infrastructure offering opportunities for rapid commercialisation. Cambozola is a significant, play-opening well located near some of the largest fields on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. Further details about both wells, including size and chance of success, can be found on the Company's website.

Additionally, following the well commitment made on Copernicus (Company 10%) at the end of August, the acquisition of a site survey is anticipated to be acquired shortly which will facilitate the drilling of an exploration well during 2022 by operator PGNiG.

Appointment of Managing Director Norway

Longboat is pleased to announce that Ms Hilde Salthe will be joining the Company as Managing Director Norway on 1 October 2021, further strengthening the Company's executive team as it transitions to a full-cycle E&P business. Ms Salthe, a petroleum geologist by background, has over 20 years' industry experience with Shell, Statoil (Equinor), Talisman and Paladin. Ms Salthe was a key member of the Faroe technical team from 2008 until 2019 when the business was acquired by DNO ASA. Most recently, Ms Salthe was the Subsurface Manager of DNO's North Sea Business Unit. Ms Salthe has a Masters Degree from Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim.

The full list of the licenses, working interests and resource estimates are set out in the background notes below.

The Company will release further announcements as and when appropriate. More details on Longboat's seven well exploration drilling programme can be found on the Company's newly updated website: www.longboatenergy.com.

Helge Hammer, Chief Executive of Longboat, commented:

"Following the successful completion of our first transactions at the end of last month, I am pleased that we are already under way with exploration drilling. Rdhette is the first of three wells, which we expect will begin drilling over the next few weeks in an extremely busy and exciting time for the Company. The wells have the potential to create significant shareholder value.

"The exploration programme over the next 18 months offers shareholders a unique opportunity to gain exposure to a drilling portfolio of seven wells targeting net mean prospective resource potential of 104MMboe1 with an additional 220 MMboe1 of upside which provides the potential to create a Net Asset Value of over $1 billion based on precedent transactions in the Norwegian North Sea for development assets."

The information contained within this announcement is not considered to be inside information prior to its release.

Notes:

All resource figures and chance of success estimates are from the ERC Equipoise Competent Person Report and using a gas-to-barrel of oil equivalent conversion factor of 5,600 scf/stb

Ends

Enquiries: Longboat Energy Helge Hammer, Chief Executive Officer Jon Cooper, Chief Financial Officer Nick Ingrassia, Corporate Development Director via FTI Stifel Nicolaus Europe Limited (Nominated Adviser and Broker) Callum Stewart Jason Grossman Simon Mensley Ashton Clanfield Tel: +44 20 7710 7600 FTI Consulting (PR adviser) Ben Brewerton Ntobeko Chidavaenzi Tel: +44 20 3727 1000 longboatenergy@fticonsulting.com

Background

Longboat Energy was established by the ex-Faroe Petroleum plc ("Faroe") management team to create a full-cycle North Sea E&P company through value accretive M&A and low-risk, near-field exploration. The management team has a proven track record of delivering value to shareholders through exploration success, accretive acquisitions and farm-ins, and a demonstrated ability to monetise discoveries through sales and asset swaps. At Faroe, the team grew reserves from 19 MMboe to 98 MMboe between 2013 and 2018, a compounded annual growth rate of approximately 39%. The team monetised numerous assets through development and active portfolio management, including asset swaps and sell downs. Faroe Petroleum was sold to DNO ASA in January 2019, providing a Total Shareholder Return of 129% to investors from the previous equity fundraise.

The Company has created a hand-picked portfolio and material drilling programme, including seven attractive exploration wells over the next 18 months and further appraisal drilling likely on success.

The full list of the licences, working interests and resource estimates are detailed below:

Licence Prospect Longboat Working Interest Gross Attributable Prospective Resources (MMboe)1 Geological Chance of Success2 Pre-tax Well Cost Gross/Net ($million)3 Expected Drilling Date3 Equinor PL939 Egyptian Vulture 15% 103 25% $31/5 Aug-21 PL901 Rdhette 20% 41 41% $35/7 Sep-21 PL1060 Ginny 9% 41 27% $25/2 Q3-21 PL1060 Hermine 9% 27 22% incl above Q3-21 PL906 Mugnetind 20% 24 51% $33/7 Q4-21 PL10494 Cambozola 5% 159 15% $64/16 Q2-22 PL1017 Copernicus 10% 254 26% $38/4 Q2/3-22 Spirit PL10494 Cambozola 20% 159 15% $64/16 Q2-22 Idemitsu PL293B Kveikje 10% 36 55% $31/3 Q4-21 Source: ERC Equipoise Competent Persons Report. The geological chance of success (GCOS) is an estimate of the probability that drilling the prospect would result in a discovery as defined under SPE PRMS. In the case of Prospective Resources, there is no certainty that hydrocarbons will be discovered, nor if discovered will it be commercially viable to produce any portion of the resources. Notes: 1 ERC Equipoise estimates, using a conversion factor of 5,600 scf/stb 2 ERC Equipoise estimates 3 Longboat management/operator estimates 4 Transaction also includes the extension licence PL1049B

Standard

Estimates of reserves and resources have been prepared in accordance with the June 2018 Petroleum Resources Management System ("PRMS") as the standard for classification and reporting with an effective date of 31 December 2020.

Review by Qualified Person

The technical information in this release has been reviewed by Helge Hammer, Chief Executive Officer, who is a qualified person for the purposes of the AIM Guidance Note for Mining, Oil and Gas Companies. Mr Hammer is a petroleum engineer with more than 30 years' experience in the oil and gas industry. He holds a degree in Petroleum Engineering from NTH University in Trondheim and an MSc in Economics from the Institut Francais du Petrole in Paris.

Glossary
14 September 2021

Tertiary Minerals plc ("Tertiary" or the "Company")

Appointment of Managing Director

Tertiary Minerals plc is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Patrick Cullen as Managing Director of the Company with immediate effect.

Mr. Cullen is an experienced mineral exploration executive with a strong technical background in geology, geophysics and mining and a proven track record leading multi-disciplinary teams across Southern Africa and Europe.

Commenting today, Executive Chairman Patrick Cheetham said:

"I am delighted that Patrick has agreed to join us. He does so at an interesting time in the development of our exploration projects in the USA and his experience in Zambia will be a valuable asset as we seek to progress our recent initiatives there. The Board and I look forward to working with him on the future success of the Company."

Most recently, Mr. Cullen was Chief Executive Officer at AIM listed Arkle Resources PLC, exploring for gold and base metals in Ireland. Prior to that, he was Technical Director at Kodal Norway (UK) Limited and he has also held senior positions at Montero Mining & Exploration Ltd and African Energy Resources Ltd, exploring for phosphate and uranium in Africa. Prior to this, he held technical roles with AngloGold Ashanti and Schlumberger.

He holds a degree in Geology from the University of Portsmouth and an MBA from the University of Southern Queensland.

The following information is disclosed pursuant to Rule 17 and Schedule Two paragraph (g) of the AIM Rules for Companies in relation to Patrick Brendan Cullen, aged 50:

Current directorships and/or partnerships: Former directorships and/or partnerships (within the last five years): N/A Arkle Resources PLC Arkle Resources Ltd Oldcastle Zinc Limited

There are no further disclosures required under Schedule 2(g) of the AIM Rules for Companies.

Mr. Cullen's appointment is for an initial 12 months' term with a view to the appointment being renewed on an open-ended basis thereafter. Mr. Cullen does not hold any shares in the Company.

For more information please contact:

Tertiary Minerals plc: Patrick Cheetham, Executive Chairman +44 (0) 1625 838 679 SP Angel Corporate Finance LLP Nominated Adviser and Broker Richard Morrison +44 (0) 203 470 0470 Caroline Rowe Peterhouse Capital Limited Joint Broker Lucy Williams + 44 (0) 207 469 0930 Duncan Vasey

Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) Disclosure

The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014 which forms part of UK domestic law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 ("MAR"). Upon the publication of this announcement via Regulatory Information Service ("RIS"), this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain.

Note to Editors

Tertiary Minerals plc (ticker symbol 'TYM') is an AIM-traded mineral exploration and development company building a multi-commodity project portfolio in Nevada (USA), Zambia and Europe.
Editor

Darren Marcy, a journalist since 1992, is the editor of the Manchester Journal. A New Mexico native, he previously worked for newspapers in the Land of Enchantment before moving to Vermont in 2004. He joined the Journal in October 2018.
On Dec. 29, 2014, Vermont Yankee went offline and all the fuel was removed from the nuclear reactor on Jan. 12, 2015. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued a permit to a close affiliate of NorthStar, the owner of Vermont Yankee nuclear plant, to build the country's first high-level radioactive waste disposal site in Texas.
(TNS) In the days before COVID-19, Id often get frustrated by the response that doctors would give when I turned up at their clinics with some infection or other: Its just a virus, theyd say.

As someone whos long been fascinated by the detective work that goes into tracing the origins and history of infections, the answer always seemed too perfunctory. Which virus was it? Where and when did this strain emerge? How many other people were getting infected with this same variant this year?

Those questions arent of much relevance to most general practitioners, because the majority of viruses simply burn themselves out as part of the teeming backdrop of endemic infections that roll around the globe each year. At some point, with rising immunity from vaccinations, infections and booster shots, COVID-19 will join that club.

Early last year, the world urgently needed to raise its sense of alarm around the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and see it as the imminent threat it was rather than a more routine infection on a par with influenza. Right now, though, the vaccinated parts of the planet need to mentally send themselves in the opposite direction. It's time to remind ourselves that, for those whove been inoculated, COVID-19-19 is no longer a horseman of the apocalypse but instead is gradually becoming just a virus.

Thats broadly the place that some of the countries that have advanced furthest in their vaccination programs are reaching. In Singapore, where 81% are fully immunized, the Ministry of Health has started prioritizing data on hospitalizations rather than infections, since the vast majority of cases are now relatively benign. Israel is riding out a surge in new cases without returning to lockdowns for the vaccinated, since the vast majority of infections no longer result in serious illness.

The calls from some quarters to stop publishing daily case totals may be premature for a disease thats still killing thousands of people a day. At some point, though, when COVID-19 has passed from its current pandemic status to the endemic situation where it fades into the background, were likely to be as vague on daily or even annual case numbers as we are in the case of influenza.

Its hard to believe that an infection thats killed more than 4.5 million people could be thought of in such a routine way, but viruses through history have flipped between endemic and pandemic status with remarkable frequency.

The Russian Flu pandemic that circled the world in the late 1970s appears to have been an unremarkable seasonal flu strain from the 1940s and 1950s, possibly released to the world anew via a laboratory accident. People over the age of 25, whod been exposed to the variant in their childhood, were largely immune. Yellow fever, which shaped the history of the Americas for four centuries through its devastating effects on expeditionary military forces who lacked immunity, has now largely vanished from urban areas of the western hemisphere, while remaining a devastating infection in sub-Saharan Africa.

A July study in the journal Microbial Biotechnology even presented an argument that a coronavirus strain called HCoV-OC43 might have been responsible for an 1889 outbreak also known as the Russian Flu, arguably the first true modern global pandemic. That particular strain now crops up as one of the main causes of the common cold, a classic example of an endemic infection that doctors safely dismiss.

Were not at that stage yet. Fully vaccinated, I feel relatively sanguine about the likelihood that at some point in the years ahead I, too, will be exposed to COVID-19. Still, fully inoculated friends who recently moved from Sydney to New York and caught the virus within weeks of arrival have suffered a vicious infection that spread to their unvaccinated preteen son. Thats reason to keep treating this disease with respect, at least until everyone has had the chance to be vaccinated and we have a clearer sense of how long protection against severe infection persists.

This terrible scourge will always be with us, but in a milder, less troubling form. After the trauma of the past two years, its hard to believe that well ever look upon that prospect with a sense of equanimity  but thats what must ultimately happen. The moment weve beaten COVID-19 wont be when we eradicate it from the human population, but when weve reached a level of vaccinated and natural immunity where we no longer have reason to fear it. That moment will come  and when it does, even this dreadful infection will be just another virus.

David Fickling is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering commodities, as well as industrial and consumer companies. He has been a reporter for Bloomberg News, Dow Jones, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times and the Guardian.
MANISTEE  Manistee is sending summer off in style with the return of its Hops and Props celebration this weekend.

Both residents and visitors are welcome to enjoy a day filled with craft beer from Michigan breweries and classic boats at the ninth annual event on Saturday.

Located along the Riverwalk in downtown Manistee, Hops and Props pairs classic Century Boats with Michigan craft beer, cider, wine and spirits. Most of the activities will be centered near the Manistee Municipal Marina on River Street.

It's a really unique event to come to because you get a tasting event with all Michigan drinks. But then you also get to see Century Boats, which are local to Manistee and have a great history here. So I think it's a really great local slash Michigan event all tied into one, said Hops and Props committee chair Carrie Mosher.

The event was canceled last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This year its coming back with live music, games and 100 locally-crafted beverages from over 30 Michigan-based brewers, distilleries and wineries.

Each entry ticket includes a commemorative tasting glass and six beer samples. Additional drink tickets are available for purchase for $1 each. Tickets for designated drivers and those under the age of 21 are also available at the door for $5 each.

The event, hosted by the Manistee Downtown Development Authority, starts at 1 p.m. and attendees can buy tickets online for $30 each or pay an additional cost ($5 more) at the door. To buy tickets, sign up to volunteer, or for more information, visit manisteehopsandprops.com.

Another returning favorite this year is the Thoroughbred Boat Show, sponsored by the Century Boat Club. Attendees can expect to see around 40 classic Century Boats that were made in Manistee.

Club president and boat show chair Thomas Holmes said a record number of boaters are slated to attend this years event, including some Century-owners arriving from as far as Louisiana, Tennessee and Virginia.

Over half of the people are coming from a long distance, and they come because it's the best Century Boat show in the country, Holmes said.

Manistee was home to a Century Boat Co. manufacturer from 1929 to 1986.

Two boats will be highlighted at this years event. The first, a 1929 Century Traveler, is the earliest Century Boat Company built in Manistee. Thoroughbred Boat Co., a local boat manufacturer, will also unveil a new boat.

Holmes encourages people to arrive at the boat show early, as the props half of the event is scheduled to run from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m.

More information about Hops and Props on the River can be found at visitmanistee.com.
Former Bayern Munich CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge was full of praise for the German club after their 3-0 victory against Barcelona at the Camp Nou on Tuesday night, as they got their Champions League campaign off to a great start.

Thomas Muller opened the scoring in the 34th minute before Robert Lewandowski added the second and third goals in the 56th and 85th minutes respectively, but Rummenigge focused on the way in which Barcelona appear to be a different team without Lionel Messi in their ranks.

"They played outstandingly well and deserved to win. It's too early to talk about favourites. [The competition] only really starts with the knockout phase," Rummenigge told Bild after Bayern's 3-0 win against Barcelona.

"If you look at the team, the way they performed tactically. Without Messi, their souls have been ripped out. They are facing difficult times.

"It was imperative to sell him. The Spanish league has scored an own goal with him."

Rummenigge was asked about Lewandowski's future at Bayern and whether the club may turn to Borussia Dortmund's Erling Haaland as a possible replacement for the Pole.

"With Lewandowski you have the best striker in the world. Haaland is the second best," Rummenigge noted.

"I think Bayern have an interest in Robert staying beyond the end of his contract in 2023.

"Haaland is an investment. I don't think he will go to Liverpool. With Haaland, I wouldn't rule out Real Madrid either. Maybe they will dip into their kitty a bit more in the summer and possibly get Haaland and Kylian Mbappe."

Cristiano Ronaldo's return to Manchester United was also put to the former Bayern CEO, who told a story from the Portuguese forward's time at Juventus.

"He is a phenomenon! He's 36 years old, he's played 20 years at this level," Rummenigge commented.

"He has an upper body like Adonis. I remember a situation when I was in Turin.

"He was standing behind a door with his hands in the air. I asked him: 'What are you doing?'

"And he said: 'I'm practising the celebration of my next goal...'"
All is not well at Barcelona, but that's no secret. Their 3-0 defeat at home to Bayern Munich on Tuesday evening didn't teach anybody anything, though it did deliver the Catalans with something of a reality check.

In the early hours of Wednesday morning, the club's senior officials met. President Joan Laporta was joined by vice president Rafa Yuste and CEO Mateu Alemany. Both Alemany and Yuste left at around 2am, while Laporta stayed put at the Camp Nou for longer.

It's not expected that any drastic decisions would have been made overnight, and everybody knows that Barcelona are not at Bayern's level anymore. Even Gerard Pique said "it is what it is" afterwards.

Bayern's superiority was clear once again, and now Ronald Koeman might just find himself in the eye of a storm.
After Ajay Devgn, actor Vicky Kaushal is all set to feature in an upcoming episode of Into the Wild With Bear Grylls. According to the note shared by Discovery+, Vicky will be testing his survival skills along with Ajay Devgn. The shoot of the particular episode would take place in the Maldives. Ajay is already in the Maldives for the shoot.

It will be interesting to see two popular Bollywood actors with Bear Grylls, showing their fans a very different side to their personalities.

This is not the first time we have seen a Bollywood actor with Bear as Akshay Kumar has already been a part of the popular show. After the success of the episodes featuring Akshay and even Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the makers decided to have Ajay and Vicky on board.

Into The Wild With Bear Grylls is a survival skills reality show that involves Indian celebrities venturing into the wilderness with the famous British survivalist and adventurer.

Last year, Akshay had shot the episode in the famous Bandipur National Reserve, Karnataka, which is known to harbor the second-highest tiger population in India. Even superstar Rajinikanth had shot for the show in the Bandipur forest.

On the professional front, Vicky Kaushal will next be seen in Sardar Udham Singh. Just a couple of days ago, a report in Pinkvilla suggested the film is set to release on Prime Video this year. The Vicky Kaushal-starrer is expected to be released on the OTT platform on October 16.

A source told Pinkvilla, Sardar Udham Singh will premiere directly on Amazon Prime Video during the Dussehra weekend. The tentative release date at the moment is October 16 and the team is supremely excited to present their film to the audience. It was meant for a theatrical viewing; however, an unprecedented situation has resulted in a direct to OTT premiere.

It will be interesting to see Vicky on Into the Wild and in his upcoming film Sardar Udham Singh. Which one are you more excited for? Let us know in the comments section.
Telugu movie stars Samantha Akkinen and Naga Chaitanya have been in the news over the past few weeks. According to many reports which were surfacing on the internet, the couple might be heading for a divorce.

Well, new reports suggest that Samanthas father-in-law Nagarjuna is trying his best to get the duo to reconcile and move on from their differences. Samantha was missing from her father-in-laws birthday celebrations on August 29, which further fuelled the separation rumours.

Their separation rumours started when Samantha removed her husbands surname Akkineni from her Instagram handle and changed her display name to S. Since then, there have been reports of a rift. Recently, the actor also lashed out at media reports comparing the paparazzi to rabid dogs in a meme.

The news of their relationship falling apart gained even more momentum when Samantha went on a Goa vacation with friends of her husband.

According to a report by SpotboyE, It is not that Naga Chaitanya is guilty of any marital transgression. He has never cheated on his wife. On the contrary, he has been a loving husband ever since they tied the knot in a simple ceremony in Goa in 2017.

The website further mentions, When Naga had to be rude to his wife on-screen during the shooting of the film Manjili, he was unable to look into his wifes eyes with hatred. He did not know where to start in mending his relationship with wife Samantha."

Recently, there was a little ray of hope for the ChaySam duo. Naga had shared the trailer of his upcoming film Love Story on his Twitter account and Samantha responded to it by saying Winner! All the very best to the team."

Then Chaitanya thanked his wife by saying, Thanks, Sam.


The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is really kicking things up with the release of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and the Eternals, which will see a huge and whole new Avengers like team-up in November across the globe.

 Marvel Studios

 Marvel Studios

Now, while Marvel obviously explores a whole new list of comic characters for their films, they are also in line to touch upon or revamp some older franchises, at the heart of which remain some really strong superhero characters. Movies like Fox's Fantastic Four series have truly been one of the things that MCU has been looking to revive, and well, there are a few others as well.



Now, we have news that should clearly excite Marvel fans. Disney just updated its release schedule for the year 2024, where four new "untitled Marvel movies" will be launched on February 16, May 3, July 26, and November 8.

 Marvel Studios

We already know that we are going to see the Guardians of the Galaxy 3 in 2023, so all in all, there are a few exciting superheroes that could finally come up in the cinemas for MCU, and we decided to list who they could be.



1. Deadpool 3

 20th Century Fox

The Ryan Reynolds starring Deadpool franchise was an immediate hit with the foul-mouthed mercenary anti-hero doing everything that the fans wanted in the Superhero universe. With Deadpool 2 releasing back in 2018 under the Fox banner, its takeover by Marvel will now see Deadpool make its debut in MCU's Deadpool 3, giving the superhero an opportunity to form an alliance with a whole new list of superheroes under Marvel.



Reynolds as well as the makers of the film have been positive that the film will finally start filming at the end of 2022, paving the way for a release in 2024.

Wouldn't it be cool to see a Deadpool and Spider-Man alliance just like in the comics?

2. Fantastic Four

 Twitter

It would be an understatement to say that Fox's attempt at reviving the Fantastic Four series in 2015 was a failure. The movie that starred Miles Teller, Michael B. Jordan really sucked, so much so that they scrapped all plans of a sequel to it. Well, this was till Disney's acquisition of 20th Century Fox.



According to reports, Fantastic Four, one of the most iconic superhero alliances in Marvel comics is considered a very important element in the MCU future and well, we will very well see the franchise be revamped under Disney.

It's already no news that fans want husband-wife actor duo John Krasinski and Emily Blunt for the roles of Mister Fantastic and Invisible Woman.

Well, the movie could definitely be the project slated for release in 2024 and would be one to look out for.

3. X-Men

 20th Century Fox

So many times, so many things have gone wrong with this franchise. It almost seems like the original X-Men film along with Hugh Jackman's portrayal as Wolverine in the movies through the years, have been the only good things about the Fox film series.



However, now that MCU gets a say on X-Men, it could truly be the biggest thing to have happened since the Avengers. Why? Well, unlike the Avengers which had a core team of Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, Black Widow, Hawkeye, and Captain America, the X-Men have far too many renowned superheroes.

It's a universe in itself and to represent it on the big screen, one really needs to do justice to it, because so far, the attempts have really been very poor. Marvel Studios, which has now become an expert in handling superhero franchises (barring Black Widow, perhaps), will look to do just that with X-Men and we could see that happen in 2024 for sure.

4. Blade

 Twitter

The Blade movie series starring Wesley Snipes as the Vampire hunting 'Dhampir' (a human with vampire strengths but not their weaknesses) was one hell of an entertaining franchise. However, the last film in the series was released in 2004, and we have been left waiting as to when we will see the beloved comic character on the screens again.



Well, fans' pleas were finally answered in 2019, when Marvel announced the reboot of the series at Comic-Con 2019 with Mahershala Ali confirmed in the lead role as Blade. In February of this year, it was announced that Watchmen's Stacy Osei-Kuffour would come on board as the writer for the film which will be directed by Bassam Tariq.

This could really be the final film that we could see as part of Marvel's 2024 calendar year.

Certainly doesn't look like a bad line-up at all, if you ask me.

 20th Century Fox

We'll get vampires, mutants, and loudmouth assassins who love munching Chimichangas!


1.23 million tonnes of material were imported to the Philippines in January-June 2021, down from 1.39 million tonnes over the first half of 2020, according to statistics compiled by the Philippines' Department of Trade and Industry.

Continued battles with the Covid-19 pandemic, including lockdowns in...
Sept. 14, 2021

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources was honored Monday for an environmental investigation led by conservation officers in the DNR Law Enforcement Division revealing that Flint-based Oil Chem illegally disposed of more than 47 million gallons of environmentally harmful liquid in the City of Flint's sewer system over an eight-year period.

DNR Law Enforcement Division Chief Gary Hagler, together with Lt. Vence Woods, accepted the 2021 Chief David Cameron Leadership in Environmental Crimes Award at the International Association of Chiefs of Police annual conference, held virtually this year.

"It is fantastic to see the DNR's Law Enforcement Division and Environmental Investigations Section recognized with this prestigious IACP award," said Hagler.

The DNR's environmental investigation detectives are funded by, and conduct criminal investigations for, the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy.

"Our partnership with EGLE is mutually beneficial and very productive for the residents of our state," Hagler said. "This is an honor that law enforcement agencies around the world compete for."

This short video posted to the IACP website takes a look at the investigative work of DNR conservation officers.

Case background

In October 2015, Detective Jan Erlandson, conservation officer in the DNR's Environmental Investigations Section, received a complaint from an employee at the Flint Wastewater Treatment Plant. The employee believed that Oil Chem was receiving leachate from area landfills and illegally dumping it into the sanitary sewer, which flows into the Flint River. The treatment plant's discharge point for the treated wastewater was downstream of the location where drinking water was taken from the Flint River in 2014 to 2015.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, leachate is formed when rain water filters through wastes placed in a landfill. When this liquid comes in contact with buried wastes, it leaches, or draws out, chemicals or constituents from those wastes.

Oil Chem is a global company that specializes in the formulation and custom blending of metalworking lubricants, industrial cleaning chemicals and maintenance oils. Consistent with a permit issued by the City of Flint under the Clean Water Act, the company was not permitted to accept leachate or to discharge any amount of polychlorinated biphenyl waste. PCBs have been shown to cause a variety of adverse health effects, notably cancer in animals. Noncancer effects include impacts to the nervous, immune, reproductive and endocrine systems, among others.

Erlandson's investigation revealed that Robert Massey, Oil Chem's owner, authorized from 2007 to 2015 for the company to accept leachate from eight different landfills - including People's Landfill, a garbage dump in Saginaw County, which contained PCB waste. This put Oil Chem and Massey in direct violation of laws prohibiting discharging on-site wastewater into state waters and disposal of liquid industrial byproducts.

Resolution and penalties

Based on Erlandson's investigation, the case was pursued by the EPA's Criminal Investigations Division, which resulted in Massey's indictment.

In December 2020, Massey signed a plea agreement for violating the Clean Water Act, and, in May 2021, he was sentenced to 12 months in federal prison by the United States District Court, Eastern District of Michigan. Oil Chem paid a civil fine of $250,000 to the City of Flint and EGLE revoked the company's waste hauler license.

Detective Erlandson, now retired, served the DNR Law Enforcement Division from 2000 to 2021.

"The Michigan DNR Environmental Investigations Section would like to thank the EPA Criminal Investigations Division, the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy's Materials Management and Water Resource divisions and Michigan State Police for their assistance with this criminal investigation," said Lt. Vence Woods, DNR Environmental Investigation Section supervisor.

Known for its commitment to enhancing community safety by shaping the future of the police profession, the International Association of Chiefs of Police is the world's largest and most influential professional association for police leaders. Since 1893, IACP has been serving communities worldwide by speaking out on behalf of law enforcement and advancing leadership and professionalism in policing worldwide. With more than 31,000 members in over 165 countries, IACP is a recognized leader in global policing, committed to advancing safer communities through thoughtful, progressive police leadership.

Michigan conservation officers are fully commissioned law enforcement officers who protect natural resources, ensure recreational safety and protect residents by providing general law enforcement duties and lifesaving operations in the communities they serve. Due to the nature of their job, these officers often work with federal, state and local law enforcement officers to ensure public safety. Learn more at Michigan.gov/ConservationOfficers.
Sept. 15, 2021

Michigan Department of Natural Resources deputy director Shannon Lott and Wildlife Division chief Jared Duquette will attend the DNR's Western Upper Peninsula Citizens' Advisory Council meeting next Wednesday in Marquette Township.

Among its agenda items, the council is scheduled to receive department updates from Lott and be introduced to Duquette. In addition, a forest resources division outlook will be provided, as well as wildlife division small game, waterfowl, bear and deer season hunt projections.

The meeting will be held from 6 to 8:30 p.m. EDT Wednesday, Sept. 22 at the Marquette Township Community Center, located at 1000 Commerce Drive.

Michigan Department of Health and Human Services COVID-19-related recommendations and mandates in place at the time of the meeting will be followed.

For public comment instructions or additional details please, contact Kristi Dahlstrom at dahlstromk@michigan.gov or 906-226-1331.

The DNR's eastern and western Upper Peninsula citizens' advisory councils are designed to provide local input to advise the DNR on regional programs and policies, identify areas in which the department can be more effective and responsive and offer insight and guidance from members' own experiences and constituencies.

The council members represent a wide variety of natural resource and recreation interests. Agenda items are set by the council members and council recommendations are forwarded to the DNR for consideration.

To find application forms to be considered for a future council member vacancy, or to locate meeting packets and agendas, visit the council's DNR webpage.

For more information, contact the DNR Upper Peninsula field deputy's office at 906-226-1331.
Governor Whitmer proclaims Sept. 12 - 18 as Direct Support Professionals Week

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Sept. 15, 2021

Contact: Lynn Sutfin, 517-241-2112

LANSING, Mich. - To honor the valuable services provided by the state's direct support professionals who provide hands-on care, support and respite for individuals with physical disabilities, mental illness and developmental disabilities, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has proclaimed Sept. 12 - 18 as Michigan Direct Support Professionals Recognition Week.

"Tens of thousands of Michigan families are relying upon them to help manage their daily lives and activities," said Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, chief medical executive and chief deputy for health at the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. "Direct support professionals are dedicated, passionate and caring - and we could not be more grateful for their work, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic."

Direct support professionals, including direct care workers, personal assistants, personal attendants, in-home support workers and paraprofessionals, are key to providing publicly funded support and services for children and adults with serious emotional disorders and adults with mental health needs and disabilities. Direct support professionals are a critical element in supporting individuals who are receiving health care services for severe chronic health conditions, as well as individuals with functional limitations, and in helping with the transition from medical events to post-acute care and long-term support and services.

Many of these professionals actually took time away from their own lives and families to support clients who were ill with COVID-19 during the pandemic.

"They were determined to support the people in their care no matter what," said Sherri Boyd, executive director and CEO of The Arc Michigan. "Given the low pay and limited career pathways that exist in this field, we offer them an extra helping of our gratitude as we honor them this week."

Nearly a million Michigan residents rely on the services of direct support professionals. Currently, about 50,000 of these workers are on the job in Michigan.

# # #
I-94 ramp to Elm Road in Jackson closed beginning Friday

I-94 ramp to Elm Road in Jackson closed beginning Friday

Aaron Jenkins, MDOT Office of Communications, 517-243-9075 Transportation

COUNTY:

Jackson

HIGHWAYS:

Elm Road

I-94

CLOSEST CITY:

Jackson

ESTIMATED START DATE:

6 a.m.

Friday, Sept. 17, 2021

ESTIMATED COMPLETION DATE:

6 p.m.

Friday, Oct. 1, 2021

OVERALL I-94 PROJECT COMPLETION DATE:

June 2023

PROJECT:

The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) will close the westbound I-94 exit ramp to Elm Road in Jackson for rebuilding.

This work is part of MDOT's ongoing $120 million investment to rebuild and widen I-94 near the Airport Road interchange to just west of the east US-127/I-94 interchange in Blackman and Leoni Township. The I-94 project involves upgrading the US-127/M-50 (West Avenue)/I-94 interchange to a diverging diamond interchange, the Elm Road interchange with roundabouts, and the Lansing Avenue bridge over I-94.

Funding for this project is made possible by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's Rebuilding Michigan program to rebuild the state highways and bridges that are critical to the state's economy and carry the most traffic. The investment strategy is aimed at fixes that result in longer useful lives and improves the condition of the state's infrastructure.

TRAFFIC RESTRICTIONS:

Traffic will be detoured via westbound I-94 to the Cooper Street interchange, then along eastbound I-94 to Elm Road. Please follow posted detours. Motorists are advised to seek alternate routes.

SAFETY BENEFITS:

This traffic configuration will increase safety for workers and motorists through this work zone. These improvements will provide increased safety and mobility in this area of I-94, which is a significant local and national trade corridor.
Sept. 14, 2021

The popular fall color rides at Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park in Ontonagon County are closed until at least mid-October.

With the popularity of the rides, which offer a spectacular view of the surrounding autumn countryside and the deep blue waters of Lake Superior, upgrades were necessary to the triple-chair lift to meet current engineering and design specifications.

These upgrades will allow more visitors to ride up and down simultaneously, decreasing wait times. Unfortunately, the work is taking place between now and mid-October - the traditional peak of the fall color season.

The chairlift may not be operated until the work to upgrade the lift is completed, tested and certified. Alternatives to try to accommodate fall color visitors while repairs were being made were explored.

Meanwhile, other scenic areas popular during the fall color season remain open for visitors, including the Lake of the Clouds overlook, the Summit Peak tower and the series of waterfalls along the Presque Isle River, located at the west end of the park.

For the latest information on closures and reopening of DNR facilities across Michigan, visit Michigan.gov/DNRClosures.

Find out more about Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park.
MPSC marks two years of implementing recommendations from 2019 Statewide Energy Assessment

MPSC marks two years of implementing recommendations from 2019 Statewide Energy Assessment

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Sept. 15, 2021

Media Contact: Matt Helms 517-284-8300

Customer Assistance: 800-292-9555

Michigan.gov/MPSC

Twitter

The Michigan Public Service Commission today released a summary report on its efforts to implement the recommendations contained in its 2019 Statewide Energy Assessment, which launched a major effort to pursue ways to make the state's energy systems more secure, reliable, and resilient.

In 2019, after a statewide energy emergency threatened the state's natural gas supply during a brutal winter cold snap, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer asked the MPSC to study whether the state's energy systems are adequate to handle operational problems, extreme weather events and other changing conditions, and to recommend ways to reduce risks.

The result was the MPSC's Statewide Energy Assessment (SEA), a comprehensive evaluation of the systems supplying and distributing electricity, natural gas and propane for Michigan homes and businesses as the energy industry deals with challenges that include more frequent extreme weather, aging infrastructure, limitations on energy supply, and emerging threats such as cyber and physical attacks on energy infrastructure.

"The work stemmed from a series of weather and energy emergencies that I'm sure many of us remember vividly, and has spurred over 50 recommendations and observations that the Commission Staff has been executing on ever since," said Commissioner Katherine Peretick. "The quantity and quality of the work on the Statewide Energy Assessment is impressive, and it's also deeply important for the future of our energy infrastructure, and the integrity of our energy production and distribution systems as we continue to see the amplified effects of our changing climate."

In implementing the recommendations from the Statewide Energy Assessment over the past two years, MPSC Staff has worked with utilities, consumer advocacy groups and other stakeholders on an array of efforts. In addition to the summary of implementation activities released today, the Commission marked the milestone at its most recent meeting with a presentation from MPSC Staff outlining the progress so far.

Commissioner Tremaine Phillips praised MPSC Staff for simultaneously taking on the work of implementing SEA recommendations while also launching, in partnership with Governor Whitmer, MI Power Grid, a multiyear effort to guide Michigan residents and businesses through rapid changes in the energy industry's transition to clean energy, all amid a global pandemic.

"Events like Hurricane Ida and other extreme weather scenarios that have occurred throughout our globe coupled with the physical security and cyberattacks that have occurred over the last 24 months, have only helped to reinforce the importance of the recommendations identified in the Statewide Energy Assessment and the work undertaken by the Commission to increase the reliability and resilience of our energy systems," Phillips said.

MPSC Chair Dan Scripps said the last two years of work implementing improvements outlined in the SEA shows the MPSC Staff's commitment to increasing reliability and resilience for the state's energy systems and reducing risks.

"It's one thing to produce a comprehensive snapshot of where we are and what our energy systems are facing," Scripps said. "It's another thing to take each of those 50-plus recommendations, boil them down into what needs to be done, often in consultation with the regional grid operators or with other departments in state government, and see them through. This continued focus on implementation day after day is a testament to the diligence of our Staff and the MPSC's culture of focusing on actual implementation. It's not just enough to study it; we've got to move forward and provide real results for the people that we serve."

Read the MPSC's update on two years of progress implementing recommendations from the SEA. Background information about the SEA is available in the MPSC's SEA fact sheet and at the MPSC's SEA webpage.

For information about the MPSC, visit www.Michigan.gov/MPSC, sign up for its monthly newsletter or other listservs, or follow the Commission on Twitter or LinkedIn.

# # #
Sept. 19 has been dubbed International Talk Like a Pirate Day and that has given rise to this pirate themed list of books and movies available from the Manistee County Library.

From the Disney version seen in Pirates of the Caribbean to the very real Somali pirates who took the a U.S. containership hostage about a dozen years ago, pirates have been a constant in history and storytelling. Whether one prefers pirates who are humorous, romantic or ones from history, here are some pirate titles of interest.



 Enemy of All Mankind: A True Story of Piracy, Power and Historys First Global Manhunt by Steven Johnson follows the seventeenth century pirate Henry Avery as he, along with his crew, attack an Indian ship and inadvertently spark a new market. Read about the profitable crime this group perpetrated and the trial that followed.



 The Golden Age of Piracy: The Truth Behind Pirate Myths by Benerson Little looks at piracy between 1655 and 1725. Highlighted are the legends surrounding Henry Morgan, Blackbeard and Bartholomew Roberts.



 Outlaws of the Atlantic: Sailor, Pirates and Motley Crews in the Age of Sail'' by Marcus Rediker takes the perspective of the common man who sailed the high seas. Focusing on the experiences of indentured slaves, pirates and sailors, the author shows the effect on capitalism and globalization.



 Brian Kilmeade brings to life a little known chapter in our history in Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates: The Forgotten War that Changed American History. Pirates had been kidnapping American ships and sailors when Jefferson was inaugurated into office. His plan was to block Tripoli and attempt to negotiate. When the USS Philadelphia ran aground, a young sailor risked his life to set her on fire to keep it out of the hands of the pirates. Another soldier led a desert attack on the port city. These events became the first lines of the Marine Corps Hymn: From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli...



 On DVD, Captain Phillip tells the true story of Captain Richard Phillips whose ship was hijacked by Somali pirates.

 Also on DVD, Pirates! The Scourge of the Seven Seas provides the background stories for three well known pirates. Sir Francis Drake, Captain Kidd and Blackbeard are each featured in an episode.



 In Booty Bones a Sarah Booth Delaney Mystery written by Carolyn Haines, Sarah Booth takes her fiance on a vacation to raise his spirits after an injury. An historical tour leads to Sarah Booth taking on a wrongly convicted man and a pirate treasure hunt. Can she save the day and her depressed fiance?



 Captain in Calico by George MacDonald Frasier features an eighteenth century pirate trying to turn his life around and win back the heart of his fiance. Unfortunately, shes now engaged to the governor.



 Clive Cusslers Sam and Remi Fargo Adventure: Pirate combines an 800-year-old treasure and an adventure that will either make them famous or be the end of them. Someone else wants the treasure and will stop at nothing to get it.



 Pirate Alley by Stephen Coonts involves modern day pirates who hijack a luxury cruise ship. The failed rescue mission threatens all passengers on board and the situation deteriorates when information surfaces that Islamic militants are planning to use the hostages to force America into war.



 The Pirate King by R.A. Salvatore puts a fantasy spin on the world of pirates. A dark elf joins the fight to save a city taken over by pirates.



 Set in Jamaica in 1665, Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton sees Captain Hunter taking on the Spanish military in an attempt to commandeer a Spanish galleon filled with treasure.



 No conversation on pirates would be complete without Disneys Pirates of the Caribbean movies. Join Captain Jack Sparrow in his adventures as he avoids his enemies, barters for his ship and his life and wreaks havoc wherever he goes.



 The Night Pirates by Deborah Allwright centers on an all-girl band of pirates who allow a boy to join them as they attempt to steal the front of his house.



 Pig Kahuna Pirates by Jennifer Gordon Sattler joins two beach loving brothers on a pirate adventure as one brother tries to cheer up the other.



 In Pirate Boy by Julie Fortenbury, a mother reassures her son he can depend on her as he embarks on a pirate adventure.

 Chapter books involving high seas adventures are Frank Dixons Hardy Boys who take on pirates twice, once in The Secret of Pirates Hill where a brush with a mysterious stranger alerts the boys to a sunken treasure and the second time in The Pirate Ghost when a friend thinks hes haunted after winning a map to buried treasure.



 Kidnapping a high-spirited girl proves to be too much for a band of pirates in Pirate Girl by Caroline Cornelia Funke.

 Children may enjoy the movie Pirate Fairy which takes viewers back to Neverland where Tinker Bell and her friends must fight the pirates who stole the Blue Pixie Dust.



 The Mickey Matson movie Pirates Code finds Mickey and Sully working with a secret organization to foil the pirates attempt to steal the last part needed for an invention that would allow them to eliminate all electronic devices.



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 'Without libraries, what do we have?' - Manistee County edition

 Manistee County Library marks 9/11 with memorial display


Looking for something to do? Heres a list of local community and nonprofit events. Please check with your club or organization to be certain of meetings, outings and classes, as they may be canceled because of bad weather or other reason. If any listing is inaccurate or to submit an event, contact Julie Norwood at 231-592-8358 or julie.norwood@pioneergroup.com.

 Free Concert and Dinner: 5:30 p.m. (dinner), 6:30 p.m. (concert) Thursday, Sept. 16, at Trinity Lutheran Church and School, 19778 U.S.-10, Reed City. AriSon recording artist Jennie Williamson will perform a free family concert. A freewill offering will be gratefully accepted.

 Artworks Gala: 6-9 p.m. Friday, Sept. 17, at Artworks, 106 N. Michigan Ave., Big Rapids. Cost: $60. Contact: 231-796-2420, www.artworksinbigrapids.org/gala.

 Shred Event: 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, Sept. 18, at Lerner Csernai Fath Financial, 15505 Waldron Way, Big Rapids. Bring your shred in non-returnable bags/boxes. Donations to benefit Manna Pantry of Big Rapids. For more information, visit mannapantry.org/programs-2.

 Basket Weaving  Scarecrow Basket: 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 18, at Artworks 106 N. Michigan Ave., Big Rapids. Cost: $55. Contact: 231-796-2420

 Glass Fusion  Glass Heart: 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 18, at Artworks, 106 N. Michigan Ave., Big Rapids. Cost: $75. Contact: 231-796-2420.

 Animal Tales  Australian Kangaroo: 10-11 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 18, at Card/Riley Conservation & Wildlife Education Center, 820 Campus Drive, Big Rapids. Learn about Australian Kangaroo with a story and a craft. Cost: Free. Contact: Carrie Weis at weisc@ferris.edu, 231-591-2536.

 Tuba Bach Festival: 4 p.m. Saturdays, Sept. 11-Oct. 17, outside at Immanuel Lutheran Church, 726 Fuller Ave., Big Rapids. A separate concert will be livestreamed online only, as well as on Sunny 97.3 FM at 4 p.m. Sundays. Visit www.tubabach.org. for links.

 Cub Scout Pack 174 Registration Night: 6:30-7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 23, 223 E. 5th Ave., Reed City. Reed City Cub Scout Pack 174 will kick off its 2021-22 season with a Pack Meeting. All new and returning Scouts are invited to attend, and new Scouts can register to join the Pack during the meeting. Open to boys in grades 1-5.

 Wolfy Memorial Tournament: Friday, Sept. 24, and Saturday, Sept. 25. Contact: Cody Wyman at cwyman@cityofbr.org, 231-349-2060. For more information or to register a team, visit wolfymemorialtournament.com.

 Mosaic Mirror: 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 25, at Artworks 106 N. Michigan Ave., Big Rapids. Cost: $80 for Sept. 25 and Oct. 2 sessions; $60 for Sept. 25 session only. Contact: 231-796-2420

 Little Women: 7 p.m. Sept. 24, Sept. 25, Oct. 8, Oct. 9; and 2 p.m. Sept. 26, Oct. 2, Oct. 3 and Oct. 10; at CrossRoads Theatre, 249 W. Upton Ave., Reed City. Tickets are $10 each and can be reserved by calling 231-465-4044.

 Swiss Steak Dinner: 4-6:30 p.m. the last Friday of every month, April-October, at the Barryton Senior Center, 71 Northern Ave., Barryton. Includes dinner and dessert. Everyones welcome.

 Tai Chi: Noon on Wednesdays at Hemlock Park. Improve muscle tone, flexibility, balance and coordination. Newcomers welcome. brpr.org.

 Mecosta Co. Genealogical Society: Open 5-7 p.m. Wednesdays and 10 a.m.-2 p.m. every second Saturday, at 424 N. Fourth Ave., Big Rapids, next to Recycle. Thousands of obits and hundreds of books with history and genealogy for the Mecosta Co. area. Stop by or call Maureen Nelson at 231-250-5555 to set up an appointment.

 Mecosta County Sheriff Posse: 7 p.m. the second Thursday of each month at the Mecosta County Jail basement training room, 225 S. Stewart Ave., Big Rapids. This volunteer group is always looking for more members. For more info call 231-250-9241

 Lords Table Food Pantry: 3-5 p.m. Wednesdays at Faith Community Church, 610 Green St., Big Rapids. Everyone is welcome.

 Reed City Food Pantry: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesdays, beginning Sept. 7, at St. Philip Neri Catholic Church, 831 S. Chestnut St., Reed City.

 Morley Community Center: The center, at 151 7th St., Morley, hosts weekly pickleball, open gym, indoor garage sales and outdoor market, in addition to monthly ancestry class, craft night and blood drive. For a list of activities, visit morleycenter.org/events or call 231-856-4496.

ARTWORKS ONGOING CLASSES, EXHIBITS

106 N. Michigan Ave. in Big Rapids / 231-796-2420 / artworksinbigrapids.org

 After School Arts: 3:45-5:15 p.m. Wednesdays, Sept. 1-29. Drop-ins welcome on a first come, first serve basis, but registration recommended. Register at Artworks gift shop or by calling 231-796-2420 the Monday before each session.

 Open Pottery: 5-8 p.m. Tuesdays. Cost: $10 per session, $60 for an eight-session punch card. (Additional firing fees apply. Clay may be purchased in bulk for $20 per 25 lbs.) Call 231-796-2420 to schedule your session.

 Hand Built Pottery Fall Session: 6-8 p.m. Mondays, Sept. 13, 20, 27, and Oct. 4, 18, 25. Cost: $150. Register by calling 231-796-2420 or online at www.artworksinbigrapids.org/pottery.

 Beginning Wheel Fall Session: 6-8 p.m. Wednesdays, Sept. 15, 22, 29, and Oct. 5, 12, 26. Cost: $150. Register by calling 231-796-2420 or online at www.artworksinbigrapids.org/pottery.

 Fundamentals of Photography Beginner Course: 5:30-7:30 p.m. Tuesdays, Sept. 15-Oct. 19. Cost: $75. Register by calling 231-796-2420 or online at www.artworksinbigrapids.org/photography.

 Exhibit  Joyful Journey: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Saturday, Aug. 30-Sept. 18. Exhibit features artwork Hope Network and MOISD students.
NEW YORK (AP)  Just hours before the HBO documentary Jagged was to premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on Tuesday, Alanis Morissette criticized the film about her life as reductive and salacious.

Morissette participated in the film, directed by Alison Klayman, sitting for lengthy interviews. But in a statement issued by her publicist, the Canadian musician said she would not be supporting the film, named after her breakthrough 1995 album, Jagged Little Pill.

I agreed to participate in a piece about the celebration of Jagged Little Pills 25th anniversary, and was interviewed during a very vulnerable time (while in the midst of my third postpartum depression during lockdown), wrote Morissette. I was lulled into a false sense of security and their salacious agenda became apparent immediately upon my seeing the first cut of the film. This is when I knew our visions were in fact painfully diverged. This was not the story I agreed to tell.

Morissette didn't specify her issues with Jagged, which is to premiere Nov. 19 on HBO. But its most sensitive material includes Morissette discussing sexual encounters when she was 15 that she calls statutory rape. The Washington Post earlier reported on that section of the film.

"It took me years in therapy to even admit there had been any kind of victimization on my part, Morissette says in the film. I would always say I was consenting, and then Id be reminded like Hey, you were 15, youre not consenting at 15. Now Im like, Oh yeah, theyre all pedophiles. Its all statutory rape.

Canadas age of consent has been 16 years old since 2008. A person under the age of 18 cannot consent if the sexual activity is with a person with authority over them. Youths 14 or 15 years old can consent to nonexploitive sexual activity when the age difference is no more than five years. Before 2008, the age of consent was 14. Morissette doesn't go into any detail on who the encounters were with.

Representatives for Klayman didn't immediately return requests for comment Tuesday. In an interview with Deadline Hollywood published Tuesday, Klayman, whose films include "Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry" and the Steve Bannon documentary Brink, lamented that Morissette wouldn't be there for the premiere.

Its a really hard thing, I think, to see a movie made about yourself, Klayman said. I think shes incredibly brave and the reaction when she saw it was that it was a really  she could feel all the work, all the nuance that went into it. And again, she gave so much of her time and so much of her effort into making this and I think that the movie really speaks for itself.

Morissette is currently on tour and is to perform in Cincinnati, Ohio, on Wednesday.

I have chosen not to attend any event around this movie for two reasons: one is that i am on tour right now. The other is that, not unlike many stories and unauthorized biographies out there over the years, this one includes implications and facts that are simply not true, said Morissette. "While there is beauty and some elements of accuracy in this/my story to be sure  I ultimately wont be supporting someone elses reductive take on a story much too nuanced for them to ever grasp or tell.
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On Tuesday, Amazon boosted its average starting wage to $18 per hour said it plans to hire more than 125,000 warehouse and transportation workers in the United States, per a press release from the company.

The world's largest online retailer also said it would pay a sign-on bonus of $3,000 in some locations and the hourly wage could go up to $22.50. Amazon was among the first few retailers to set a $15 an hour minimum wage in 2018.

Amazon had said in May it would pay around $17 in average wages.

The company is hiring to run the 100 logistics facilities it will launch this month in the United States, on top of the more than 250 that opened earlier this year.

Amazon plans to hire in both Illinois and Michigan. The company said it will also provide full-time employees with benefits from the first day of work, including health, vision and dental insurance.

"Amazons job creation efforts will be welcomed by job seekers across America  especially in more rural locations, which are traditionally not the focus of strong retail investment," said Neil Saunders, managing director, retail, for Global Data, an intelligence and analytics research firm, in a statement.

The additional staffing will also help roll out one-day delivery for Amazon's Prime loyalty club members.

In 2021, Amazon opened over 250 new fulfillment centers, sortation centers, regional air hubs, and delivery stations in the U.S., and will open over 100 more buildings in September. Since the beginning of the pandemic, Amazon has hired more than 450,000 people in the U.S.

Amazon is now the largest job creator in the U.S.

"We are proud to offer opportunities for people from a range of backgrounds, from furloughed workers to former military personnel," said Dave Clark, CEO of Worldwide Consumer at Amazon, in a statement. "We take our responsibility as an employer seriously and want our employees to succeed and thrive. That's why we offer an average starting wage of over $18 per hour, provide a great range of comprehensive benefitsincluding healthcare coverage, parental leave, career training, and ways to save for the future  and have a team of thousands working to build a safe and inclusive work environment. Whether you're looking for a short-term job to make money for the holidays or a long-term career, you're welcome here, and we look forward to having you on our team."

Retailers are scrambling to hire hourly workers in a national labor shortage and have been offering benefits and sign-on bonuses to entice them.

Walmart, Inc. said earlier this month it planned to hire 20,000 workers at its supply chain division ahead of the busy holiday season, according to Reuters.

In addition to hiring employees for its operations, Amazon will also support the growth of small and medium-sized businesses and help to create tens of thousands of additional jobs. Amazon works with more than 2,500 Delivery Service Partners, enabling these aspiring entrepreneurs to build their own delivery companies by leveraging Amazon's experience in operations and logistics. These partners plan to hire more than 50,000 delivery associates by the end of the year.
LOS ANGELES (AP)  As busy as Cedric the Entertainer is with his sitcom The Neighborhood and other projects, he quickly said yes when asked to host his first major awards show.

Then he sought advice on how to handle Sunday's Emmy ceremony, airing on CBS (8 p.m. EDT).

Steve Harvey, my good friend whos hosted a lot of these big nights, he had some great tidbits for me, said the actor-comedian. Others on his call list for trade secrets: Billy Crystal, Anthony Anderson and Chris Rock, all veterans at emceeing Hollywood bashes.

And if you have a line on Tina Fey, I dont have her number, but I would love to talk to her, Cedric said.

He was already aware of one modern pitfall of hosting: Offensive old jokes, like the ones on Twitter that cost Kevin Hart the Oscar emcee gig in 2018.

Just try not to get canceled beforehand, thats the biggest thing," Cedric said, tongue firmly in cheek. It's the kind of puckish observation that a man with a three-decade-plus career and at the top of his game is comfortable making.

He stars in and produces The Neighborhood, the CBS sitcom returning Monday for its fourth season. He's a producer for the male-bonding TV dramedy Johnson" and has voiced roles for animated projects including the Madagascar and Ice Age films and The Proud Family" series.

His on-screen film credits range from the Barbershop franchise to dramas including Cadillac Records and Son of the South and the Spike Lee documentary The Original Kings of Comedy. Cedric appeared on Broadway in a 2008 revival of David Mamet's American Buffalo.

He's got a production company that's developing comedies, dramas and a superhero story, with a long-envisioned project nestled in his back pocket: A biopic of early 20th century Black nationalist leader Marcus Garvey. Cedric has his eye on playing him.

Cedric is also a doting granddad to a brand-new kindergartner he's dubbed #GrandCookie.

The Neighborhood" is his immediate career focus. He plays a family man in a largely Black neighborhood near Los Angeles who's struggling to adjust to the chipper white Midwesterner who's moved next door.

The show's intent is to address the merging of cultures.... and what happens when people do figure out how to live together, how to be in harmony, without necessarily changing the identity of the other person, he said. That's what we try to do with the show, and have a good time. Not preach, but teach.

Born Cedric Antonio Kyles, the Jefferson City, Missouri, native takes a grounded view of his success. Or as he put it: I'm very blue-collar about it."

He was a claims adjustor for State Farm insurance in St. Louis and playing comedy clubs at night when he realized he could win over audiences. That's when he decided to go for it as a performer.

I feel really blessed to have such a long career and one that has mainly just been kind of gradual and steady, Cedric said. I laugh a lot on my job. I make people laugh. It's a good time.

As expert as he is, awards show audiences can be tough. Those waiting to hear if they've won or lost are tense, and viewers at home may shrug over unfamiliar nominees plucked from among an ever-expanding world of streaming and cable shows.

Sunday's ceremony also faces the challenge of ongoing COVID-19 precautions, which have forced it from a theater into a glammed-up tent and limited the number of stars in attendance. That's a step up from last year's event, which was nearly all virtual and audience-less.

Cedric said his goal is a show that avoids stuffiness and brings the TV audience "behind the velvet rope.

The ceremony's executive producers, writer-director Reginald Hudlin and Ian Stewart, said they're confident the event is in good hands. Hudlin and Cedric are friends, and Stewart was convinced in their first Zoom meeting.

His smiling face beamed out, and he said, Lets party. Lets celebrate," Stewart recalled. And it was just this breath of fresh air coming through the doom and gloom period that weve all been through.

Cedric's versatility will be showcased, Hudlin said, adding, He's literally a king of comedy, and you'll see why he wears the crown.

One element that's out of Cedric's control involves his pal Anderson, the black-ish star who's had six previous best comedy actor bids without a win and is competing again.

'Now that you're the host, take care of that for me,' Anderson told him, jokingly refusing to accept rejection.

So he's going to win something, Cedric said with a smile. I don't know what it's going to be, but something."
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP)  Facebook briefly took down Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey's campaign page Tuesday morning, indicating it had been mistakenly flagged as an imposter account, though the governor suggested the move was prompted by her criticism of President Joe Biden's vaccination mandate.

Ivey, a Republican , cited her staunch opposition to the Democratic president's vaccine push. But Facebook indicated that was not the case.

Facebook banned my campaign page this morning. We fought back and won. Evidently, theyre upset that I said Im standing in the way of President Biden to protect Alabamians from this outrageous overreach by the federal government, Ivey said in a statement posted on social media. The dispute involved Ivey's campaign page and not her gubernatorial account. Ivey is running for reelection in 2022.

Ivey added that "if big tech thinks they can silence us and that I wont fight back, then honey, they havent met me. They have another thing coming. Im not backing down. I never will. Were fighting Washington. Well fight big tech too. Ivey said.

However, Facebook indicated the content on Ivey's page played no role.

Earlier today, the Governors campaign page was mistakenly restricted for less than an hour for reasons unrelated to any posted content. When we learned of our mistake, the page was quickly restored," a Facebook company spokeswoman wrote in an email.

The tech giant indicated that the campaign page had been mistakenly flagged as an imposter account.

The governor's campaign responded with a statement calling that a nonsense excuse." It added that Facebook first said it was unpublishing the page because of harassment and bullying and the campaign fought to get it restored.

Ivey has strongly encouraged peopled to get vaccinated against COVID-19, even going as far to say. its time to start blaming the unvaccinated folks for a spike in COVID-19 cases. But Ivey is also among Republican leaders nationwide who have vowed resistance to Bidens mandate. Biden is mandating that all employers with more than 100 workers require their employees to be vaccinated or test for the virus weekly, affecting about 80 million Americans. Another 17 million workers at health facilities that receive federal Medicare or Medicaid also will have to be vaccinated, as will all employees of the executive branch and contractors who do business with the federal government.

Iveys campaign indicated the action came after a post that shared a conservative streaming network's post headlined Joe Biden threaten governors" and included a snippet from Biden's announcement.

The segment of the speech appeared to reference governors who have fought local school districts efforts to require masks in schools, something Alabama has not done. Alabama leaves the decision to local school districts.

If they will not help, if those governors wont help us beat the pandemic, Ill use my power as president to get them out of the way. The Department of Education has already begun to take legal action against states undermining protection that local school officials have ordered, Biden said.
DETROIT (AP)  Federal investigators who searched Detroit City Hall last month hauled away electronics, payroll documents and records related to vehicle towing, a newspaper reported Tuesday.

The items were listed on a search warrant inventory obtained by The Detroit News through a public records request. The search was focused on an office used by council member Scott Benson.

Because the investigation is ongoing, I am unable to provide any additional information about the search warrants," FBI spokeswoman Mara Schneider said.

Agents searched City Hall on Aug. 25 as well as the homes of Benson, council member Janee Ayers and some aides. No one has been charged since the raids.

Benson's attorney, Steve Fishman, said he's done nothing wrong. Ayers hasn't commented.

As Gladys Knight once said, Believe half of what you see, and none of what you hear,'" Fishman said.

The city council is considering changes to how the city hires towing companies by turning to competitive bids. Mayor Mike Duggan said the current process, which involves the police department, is fraught with potential for abuse.

"The amounts of money that are involved are just breeding potential for abuse, Duggan said a day after the raids.
LANSING, Mich. (AP)  State Rep. Jewell Jones was taken into custody Tuesday after prosecutors accused him of violating bond conditions by tampering with an alcohol monitor on his ankle.

Jones, 26, has been in and out of Livingston County court since April when he was charged with drunken driving, resisting police and other offenses.

The Inkster Democrat told Judge Michael Hatty that he takes responsibility for testing positive for alcohol on Sept. 3 and tampering with the monitor on Labor Day. The judge revoked his bond.

This defendants actions from his conduct during the charged crimes through each of the three violations show that he believes that as a person who makes our laws, that he is above our laws, assistant prosecutor Christina Richards said.

In June, Jones was excused from court-ordered drug and alcohol screenings while he was at Michigan National Guard training in Grayling. Jones, however, was seen in a Facebook photo at Planet Fitness during that time.

Jones was fined $1,000 in July for failing to pay the fee for the alcohol monitor.

Hatty set another court hearing for Friday.

Maybe he does need to sit down for a few days. We pray this will all come to an end and Representative Jones will be able to go further in his career, the Rev. Paul Turner Jr., a friend, said outside court.

___

Anna Liz Nichols 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.
MANISTEE  Emergency personnel were dispatched on Monday afternoon after a truck struck a pedestrian.

Manistee police and fire departments were called out at about 2:52 p.m. on Monday to the intersection at 12th and Oak Streets near Manistee Middle/High School for a truck striking a pedestrian.

"Manistee City Fire Department personnel transported the pedestrian to the hospital where they were treated for non-life threating injuries," according to a news release from the Manistee Police Department.

The incident remains under investigation, however, police said "there is no indication that drugs or alcohol were involved."
GENEVA (AP)  The U.N. human rights chief is calling for a moratorium on the use of artificial intelligence technology that poses a serious risk to human rights, including face-scanning systems that track people in public spaces.

Michelle Bachelet, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, also said Wednesday that countries should expressly ban AI applications which dont comply with international human rights law.

Applications that should be prohibited include government social scoring systems that judge people based on their behavior and certain AI-based tools that categorize people into clusters such as by ethnicity or gender.

AI-based technologies can be a force for good but they can also have negative, even catastrophic, effects if they are used without sufficient regard to how they affect peoples human rights, Bachelet said in a statement.

Her comments came along with a new U.N. report that examines how countries and businesses have rushed into applying AI systems that affect peoples lives and livelihoods without setting up proper safeguards to prevent discrimination and other harms.

This is not about not having AI, Peggy Hicks, the rights offices director of thematic engagement, told journalists as she presented the report in Geneva. Its about recognizing that if AI is going to be used in these human rights  very critical  function areas, that its got to be done the right way. And we simply havent yet put in place a framework that ensures that happens.

Bachelet didn't call for an outright ban of facial recognition technology, but said governments should halt the scanning of people's features in real time until they can show the technology is accurate, won't discriminate and meets certain privacy and data protection standards.

While countries weren't mentioned by name in the report, China has been among the countries that have rolled out facial recognition technology  particularly for surveillance in the western region of Xinjiang, where many of its minority Uyghers live. The key authors of the report said naming specific countries wasn't part of their mandate and doing so could even be counterproductive.

In the Chinese context, as in other contexts, we are concerned about transparency and discriminatory applications that addresses particular communities," said Hicks.

She cited several court cases in the United States and Australia where artificial intelligence had been wrongly applied..

The report also voices wariness about tools that try to deduce people's emotional and mental states by analyzing their facial expressions or body movements, saying such technology is susceptible to bias, misinterpretations and lacks scientific basis.

The use of emotion recognition systems by public authorities, for instance for singling out individuals for police stops or arrests or to assess the veracity of statements during interrogations, risks undermining human rights, such as the rights to privacy, to liberty and to a fair trial, the report says.

The reports recommendations echo the thinking of many political leaders in Western democracies, who hope to tap into AI's economic and societal potential while addressing growing concerns about the reliability of tools that can track and profile individuals and make recommendations about who gets access to jobs, loans and educational opportunities.

European regulators have already taken steps to rein in the riskiest AI applications. Proposed regulations outlined by European Union officials this year would ban some uses of AI, such as real-time scanning of facial features, and tightly control others that could threaten people's safety or rights.

U.S. President Joe Biden's administration has voiced similar concerns, though it hasn't yet outlined a detailed approach to curtailing them. A newly formed group called the Trade and Technology Council, jointly led by American and European officials, has sought to collaborate on developing shared rules for AI and other tech policy.

Efforts to limit the riskiest uses of AI have been backed by Microsoft and other U.S. tech giants that hope to guide the rules affecting the technology. Microsoft has worked with and provided funding to the U.N. rights office to help improve its use of technology, but funding for the report came through the rights office's regular budget, Hicks said.

Western countries have been at the forefront of expressing concerns about the discriminatory use of AI.

If you think about the ways that AI could be used in a discriminatory fashion, or to further strengthen discriminatory tendencies, it is pretty scary," said U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo during a virtual conference in June. We have to make sure we dont let that happen.

She was speaking with Margrethe Vestager, the European Commissions executive vice president for the digital age, who suggested some AI uses should be off-limits completely in democracies like ours. She cited social scoring, which can close off someones privileges in society, and the broad, blanket use of remote biometric identification in public space.

-

O'Brien reported from Providence, Rhode Island.
DETROIT (AP)  Wayne State University in Detroit and a faculty union have reached an agreement on a new three-year contract.

Members of the Wayne State Chapter of the American Association of University Professors-American Federation of Teachers (AAUP-AFT Local 6075) will receive a 2% lump sum salary increase in the deals first year, the university said Wednesday.
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The fate of a healthy Democracy does not come down to a phone call with Dan Quayle. But, well, here we are.

According to an upcoming book by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, in the final days of Trumps presidency, then-Vice President Mike Pence was struggling to decide whether to honor the votes of the American people or to refuse to certify Joe Bidens victory over Donald Trump and set off an unprecedented constitutional crisis.

The authors write that Pence sought advice from Dan Quayle, the only living Republican vice president who had been in the position of certifying an election where his ticket was the losing one. And it was Quayle  the same man who has been something of a national punchline for a decade  who talked Pence off the ledge and into doing the right thing.

Trump at the time was frantically trying to find a way to cling to power. He was spreading lies that rampant election fraud took place, pushing election officials in Georgia to undermine their states results and pushing the Justice Department to just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the [Republican] congressmen. And he was privately and publicly pressuring Pence.

During their conversation, Quayle said Pence had no wiggle room and told him to certify the election results. Mike, you have no flexibility on this. None. Zero. Forget it. Put it away, Quayle told him.

I know, thats what Ive been trying to tell Trump, Pence responded. But he really thinks he can. And there are other guys in there saying Ive got this power.

Pence then brought up Trumps allegations of voter fraud and the lawsuits filed by Trump supporters in Arizona attempting to decertify Biden as the winner in the state. Well, theres some stuff out in Arizona, Pence said to Quayle, who immediately shot him down.

Mike, I live in Arizona, Quayle said. Theres nothing out here.

The book also reveals that Trump ally and former White House senior strategist Steve Bannon was fueling the presidents delusions. According to the authors, Bannon told Trump on December 30th that he and Pence needed to return to D.C. immediately to prepare to bury Biden during the moment for reckoning on January 6th.

Youve got to return to Washington and make a dramatic return today. Youve got to call Pence off the fucking ski slopes and get him back here today. This is a crisis, Bannon told the president. People are going to go, What the fuck is going on here?' Bannon added. Were going to bury Biden on January 6th, fucking bury him.

After Pences call to Quayle, he spoke with Trump in the Oval Office on January 5th  the day before the election certification and Capitol attack  and refused Trumps orders to stop the certification process. Already, the presidents supporters were gathered in front of the White House. Referring to the protesters, Trump asked Pence: If these people say you had the power, wouldnt you want to?

I wouldnt want any one person to have that authority, Pence said.

To this, Trump replied, But wouldnt it be almost cool to have that power?

No, Pence said, according to the book. Ive done everything I could and then some to find a way around this. Its simply not possible.

It was then, the authors say, Trump began to shout. No, no, no! You dont understand, Mike. You can do this. I dont want to be your friend anymore if you dont do this, said Trump, who, by chronology, is an adult.

Trumps anger continued into the next morning when he called Pence to again apply pressure. If you dont do it, I picked the wrong man four years ago, Trump said, then added, angrily and defeatedly, Youre going to wimp out.

According to the book, Pence wasnt the only person in the White House who was desperately trying to contain Trump as he became increasingly unhinged after the election. Gen. Mark A. Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, was also scrambling trying to prevent a nuclear war because he was worried the president would go rogue and launch nuclear weapons at China unprovoked.

On some level, Pence deserves credit for ultimately doing the right thing, even if it meant not getting to be Trumps BFF4eva. On another level, its rough that he had to chew it over with anyone. Pences early career had an awful lot of talk about being a constitutional conservative, and were pretty sure theres nothing in the Constitution that says the losing candidate gets to stay in office if he really, really wants to.
CROMWELL  A monument was erected and dedicated to Emily Pierson, an advocate for womens right to vote, on Main Street Tuesday as part of an effort to celebrate the centennial anniversary of the 19th Amendment.

The memorial plaque is Connecticuts first stop to be established as part of the National Votes for Women Trail. This trail consists of a series of historical markers dedicated to important figures and moments in the womens suffrage movement. There are now close to 250 markers across the country.

The trail organization teamed up with the Cromwell Historical Society to organize this tribute to Pierson. Rebecca Bayreuther Donohue, director of living history for the historical society, said the tribute is well-deserved.

Emily Pierson I think is the most famous, most influential person to come from Cromwell, Donohue said. Im happy shes finally getting her due.

The plaque was placed at 423 Main St., where Piersons childhood home still stands. Her family also owned the adjacent greenhouses now run by Cromwell Growers. She began her work with the suffrage movement in October 1909 after attending a talk on the subject in Hartford.

She then traveled the country advocating for womens right to vote, often while driving her car she named, Votes for Women.

She wasnt afraid to utilize all the freedoms women had already to gain more, Donohue said.

Donohue said she admired that fact, and how Pierson leveraged her privileged position to give others a voice.

She always had something to say for the less fortunate, Donohue said.

After the 19th Amendment passed in August 1920, Pierson pursued a medical degree. She was the only woman in her graduating class from Yale University. She then returned to Cromwell where she served as the medical liaison and health director for Cromwell schools.

Connecticuts Secretary of the State Denise W. Merrill attended the dedication ceremony, which took place at the Valor Green Veterans Memorial.

She was a true renaissance woman, Merrill said of Pierson.

Last year, Merrill formed a commission to establish celebrations for the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment. The pandemic delayed most of these plans, but Tuesday the celebration was able to take place.

It changed America, Merrill said. It was evidence that voting rights could be expanded through grassroots efforts.

State Rep. Christie Carpino, R-Cromwell, said Pierson proved women belong wherever we want to be.

For state Sen. Matthew Lesser, D-Middletown, the event made him think of his grandmother, who he said inspired his interest in public service. He reflected on how his grandmother grew up without the right to vote, but in her lifetime, was eventually able to run for public office. He credited Pierson with making this possible.

Shes an incredible person from right here in Cromwell, Lesser said.

Cromwell Mayor Enzo Faienza said Pierson is just one of many women in the towns history that have stood out.

From our history, weve had so many women lead the way, Faienza said. Im proud of this town.

Merrill said this monument is the first of many that will become part of the nationwide National Votes for Women Trail. The next is a dedication to Elsie Vervane to be unveiled in Bridgeport in January.
PHOENIX (AP)  Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich filed the first lawsuit Tuesday to block President Joe Biden's new vaccine requirements that could affect 100 million workers.

Brnovich, who is running in a crowded Republican primary for U.S. Senate, claims Biden is illegally treating U.S. citizens and legal immigrants differently from people caught crossing the border illegally, many of whom are offered vaccines but not required to accept them.

Brnovich's lawsuit is the first of many expected challenges to Biden's proposed vaccine rules. But while many details about the rules remain unknown, Biden appears to be on firm legal ground to issue the directive in the name of protecting employee safety, according to several experts interviewed by The Associated Press.

Biden said last week that his administration will require employers with at least 100 workers to ensure everyone is either vaccinated or tested weekly for COVID-19, affecting about 80 million workers. The roughly 17 million workers at health facilities that receive federal Medicare or Medicaid also will have to be fully vaccinated. So will employees of the executive branch and contractors who do business with the federal government  with no option to test out. That covers several million more workers.

The Biden administration has no authority under the Constitution to mandate COVID-19 vaccines, period, Brnovich said. This is a heavy-handed attempt by the federal government that shows big government at its worst, not its best.

Brnovich told reporters in a conference call that Biden is overstepping his constitutional powers and argued that the Congress has delegated too much power to the president. But his lawsuit is focused on what he claims is the differential treatment of U.S. citizens and those living in the country illegally.

It is not a sensible argument, said Paul Bender, a constitutional law professor at Arizona State University. It's worse than nonsensical. It's really laughable."

The lawsuit is based on a lie that Biden's vaccine rules will exclude immigrants, Bender said. If immigrants living illegally in the country are working without authorization at an employer covered by Biden's vaccine rules, they will have to follow them.

Even if a court were to buy Brnovich's argument, the most likely outcome would be to impose the same vaccine and testing requirements for immigrants, not to eliminate them for citizens, Bender said.

Picking fights with the Biden administration could help Brnovich as he faces well-funded opponents in a tough primary to challenge Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly, one of the GOP's top pickup targets in 2022.

The White House is gearing up for a wave of legal challenges from Republican officeholders and potentially affected employers that oppose the rules. White House press secretary Jen Psaki outlined the legal justification Friday, saying the Department of Labor has an obligation to keep workplaces safe.

The law basically requires the Department of Labor take action when it finds grave risk to workers, Psaki said. "And certainly a pandemic that killed more than 600,000 people qualifies as grave risk to workers.

Brnovich filed his lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Phoenix.
WASHINGTON (AP)  President Joe Biden met Wednesday with the CEOs of Walt Disney and Columbia Sportswear, and other business executives and leaders, to discuss his recently announced vaccine requirement for companies that employ at least 100 people.

The White House meeting comes less than a week after Biden said that the Labor Department is working to require businesses with 100 or more employees to order those workers to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, or show a negative test result at least weekly.

Some 80 million workers would be subject to the requirement, Biden said. The Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration is working to issue an emergency rule to implement the requirement in the coming weeks.

Biden said it would take a little while for the agency to put the new requirement on the wall alongside other health and safety policies, but noted that employer moves toward mandates are already moving to improve the nation's laggard vaccination rate. His administration hopes that the announcement of the rule-making will jumpstart the business community's embrace of vaccinate-or-test requirements even before the OSHA rule is implemented.

Biden noted that Fox News, many of whose hosts have sharply criticized his policy, has required its employees to report their vaccination status and is moving to require testing for its unvaccinated staffers.

Just over half, or 54%, of the U.S. population has been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Biden announced the new requirements and several other steps last Thursday as part of a tougher effort by the administration to curb the surging delta variant of the coronavirus, which is responsible for surge in U.S. infections, hospitalizations and deaths. He also sharply criticized the tens of millions of people who remain unvaccinated, despite the fact that the shots are free of charge and widely available.

Weve been patient. But our patience is wearing thin, and your refusal has cost all of us, Biden said.

The business leaders and CEOs Biden met with at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, part of the White House complex, either have put in place vaccine requirements or are working to implement such rules, the White House said.

Some business groups, including the Business Roundtable, welcomed the president's announcement, while some Republicans accused Biden of overstepping his authority and have threatened to sue the administration over the vaccine mandate.

Numerous corporations, including Amtrak, Microsoft, United Airlines and Walt Disney issued vaccine mandates for their workforces before Biden's announcement last week.

Also scheduled to attend Biden's meeting were representatives from health insurer Kaiser Permanente, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Walgreens Boots Alliance, Molly Moon's Homemade Ice Cream and Louisiana State University.

Josh Bolten, president and CEO of the Business Roundtable, was also scheduled to attend. The Roundtable represents more than 200 businesses that employ some 20 million people. Last week it issued a statement welcoming Biden's announcement.

Americas business leaders know how critical vaccination and testing are in defeating the pandemic, Bolten said in a statement.
WASHINGTON (AP)  The top U.S. military officer on Wednesday defended the phone calls he made to his Chinese counterpart in the turbulent final months of Donald Trump's presidency, saying the conversations were intended to convey reassurance to the Chinese military and were in line with his responsibilities as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Some in Congress accused Gen. Mark Milley of having overstepped his authority and urged President Joe Biden to fire him, but Biden indicated Wednesday he stands behind Milley.

I have great confidence in Gen. Milley, Biden said when asked by a reporter whether Milley had done the right thing.

In a written statement, Milley's spokesman, Col. Dave Butler, said Milley acted within his authority as the most senior uniformed adviser to the president and to the secretary of defense.

His calls with the Chinese and others in October and January were in keeping with these duties and responsibilities conveying reassurance in order to maintain strategic stability, Butler said. All calls from the chairman to his counterparts, including those reported, are staffed, coordinated and communicated with the Department of Defense and the interagency.

The Milley phone calls were described in excerpts from the forthcoming book Peril by Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa. The book says Milley told Gen. Li Zuocheng of the Peoples Liberation Army that he would warn his counterpart in the event of a U.S. attack.

Milley was appointed chairman of the Joint Chiefs in 2019 by Trump and kept on by Biden. In that position Milley does not command any troops but rather is an adviser to the president and to the secretary of defense. John Kirby, spokesman for Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, said Austin has complete and utter trust and confidence in Gen. Milley.

The book by Woodward and Costa reported that Milley, fearful of Trump's actions in his final weeks as president, twice called his Chinese counterpart to assure him that the United States was not going to attack China. One call took place on Oct. 30, 2020, four days before the election that Trump lost. The second call was on Jan. 8, 2021, less than two weeks before Biden's inauguration and just two days after the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by supporters of Trump.

The Associated Press obtained a copy of the book. Details from the book, which is set to be released next week, were first reported by The Washington Post on Tuesday.

General Li, I want to assure you that the American government is stable and everything is going to be okay, Milley told him in the first call, according to the book. We are not going to attack or conduct any kinetic operations against you.

If were going to attack, Im going to call you ahead of time. Its not going to be a surprise," Milley reportedly said.

In his statement Wednesday, Milley's spokesman did not directly address this aspect of the call but said Milley regularly communicates with his counterparts across the globe, including in China and Russia, to reduce tensions, provide clarity and avoid unintended consequences or conflict.

Milley spoke with a number of other military leaders around the world after the Jan. 6 riot, including from the United Kingdom, Russia and Pakistan. A readout of those calls in January referred to several other counterparts that he spoke to with similar messages of reassurance that the U.S. government was strong and in control.

The second call was meant to placate Chinese fears about the events of Jan. 6. But the book reports that Li wasnt as easily assuaged, even after Milley promised him: We are 100 percent steady. Everythings fine. But democracy can be sloppy sometimes.

On Tuesday, Trump said Milley should be tried for treason if it was true that he had promised Li that he would warn him in the event of a U.S. attack. In a follow-up statement Wednesday, Trump called Milley a complete nutjob and said he never told me about calls being made to China.

He put our Country in a very dangerous position but President Xi knows better, and wouldve called me, Trump added.

Milley believed the president suffered a mental decline after the election, agreeing with a view shared by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in a phone call they had Jan. 8, according to officials. Milley also asked senior officers to swear an oath that Milley had to be involved if Trump gave an order to launch nuclear weapons, according to the book.

In the statement Wednesday, Milley's spokesman said Milley had conferred with the senior officers about nuclear weapons protocols to remind uniformed leaders in the Pentagon of the long-established and robust procedures in light of media reporting on the subject. Butler, the spokesman, appeared to be referring to news reports of the Jan. 8 Milley-Pelosi phone call. Butler did not address whether Milley had insisted he be part of the nuclear weapons procedures.

Pelosi had previously said she spoke to Milley that day about available precautions to prevent Trump from initiating military action or ordering a nuclear launch, and she told colleagues she was given unspecified assurances that there were longstanding safeguards in place.

Milley, according to the book, called the admiral overseeing the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, the military unit responsible for Asia and the Pacific region, and recommended postponing upcoming military exercises.

It's not clear what, if any, military exercises were actually postponed. But defense officials said it is more likely that the military postponed a planned operation, such as a freedom of navigation transit by a U.S. Navy ship in the Pacific region. The defense officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.

In response to the book, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., sent Biden a letter Tuesday urging him to fire Milley, saying the general worked to actively undermine the sitting Commander in Chief.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, called the report deeply concerning, telling reporters at the Capitol, I think the first step is for General Milley to answer the question as to what exactly he said.

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said he had no concerns that Milley might have exceeded his authority, telling reporters that Democratic lawmakers were circumspect in our language but many of us made it clear that we were counting on him to avoid the disaster which we knew could happen at any moment.

___

Associated Press writers Hillel Italie in New York and Lisa Mascaro and Lolita C. Baldor contributed to this report.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP)  New Mexico is on the downslope of the pandemic as the number of new infections has started to decline, state health officials said Wednesday during a virtual briefing.

Still, Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. David Scrase said that community spread remains high across the state  surpassing the benchmark of more than 300 cases a day  and precautions need to be taken to ensure more people don't become infected. That includes extending the states mask mandate for at least another month in indoor public settings.

The masking mandate had been set to expire Wednesday. New Mexico in May 2020 was among the first states to require that face coverings be worn in public settings. That order was lifted last May for fully vaccinated people.

As we're coming off this wave, if it continues, we really need to step back and look at what are the things we can do in the long haul to prevent spread of COVID without having to go back and forth with this on-off switch and mandates, what are some things we can all live with, Scrase said.

Under the current public health order, the mask requirement applies to all people age 2 and older in all indoor public settings, except when eating or drinking. Businesses, houses of worship and other entities may enact stricter requirements at their discretion.

Scrase also renewed his call for people to wash their hands, keep their distance from others and get vaccinated.

The latest data from the New Mexico Department of Health shows just over 69% of residents 18 and older have been fully vaccinated and that vaccination rates are higher among those communities that are considered more socially vulnerable due to poverty, access to health care, language barriers and other factors.

Officials said the state, its medical partners and providers have been working hard to reach those communities.

State data also shows a 37% drop in infections on school campuses in New Mexico compared to the previous week. Public Education Secretary Kurt Steinhaus said the agency will be keeping an eye on the numbers over the next two to three weeks to see if the decrease amounts to a trend.

The positivity rate among school staff also has dropped to less than 1% over the past month, according to the data shared by Steinhaus.

He said the state is in the middle of a full-court press to make sure in-person learning can continue. Schools are facing an Oct. 1 deadline to submit enhanced COVID-19 safety plans to the state.

If you look at the research about how kids learn  and if you're a parent you know this  in-person learning just works better so that will continue to be our focus as move forward, Steinhaus said.

So far, only 30 schools have opted to temporarily shift to remote learning due to an uptick in cases. Those decisions are being made by individual districts, not the Public Education Department, officials said.

Several dozen schools, including charter schools and Bureau of Indian Education schools, have opted into a grant program that funds COVID-19 testing and screening. More than 30,000 staffers and 184,000 students around the state already have been tested through the program.
An estimated 2,600 Los Angeles Police Department employees are citing religious objections to try to get out of the required COVID-19 vaccination. In Washington state, thousands of state workers are seeking similar exemptions.

And in Arkansas, a hospital has been swamped with so many such requests from employees that it is apparently calling their bluff.

Religious objections, once used sparingly around the country to get exempted from various required vaccines, are becoming a much more widely used loophole against the COVID-19 shot.

And it is only likely to grow following President Joe Biden's sweeping new vaccine mandates covering more than 100 million Americans, including executive branch employees and workers at businesses with more than 100 people on the payroll.

The administration acknowledges that a small minority of Americans will use  and some may seek to exploit  religious exemptions. But it said it believes even marginal improvements in vaccination rates will save lives.

It is not clear how many federal employees have asked for a religious exemption, though union officials say there will be many requests. The Labor Department has said an accommodation can be denied if it causes an undue burden on the employer.

In the states, mask and vaccine requirements vary, but most offer exemptions for certain medical conditions or religious or philosophical objections. The use of such exemptions, particularly by parents on behalf of their schoolchildren, has been growing over the past decade.

The allowance was enshrined in the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964, which says employers must make reasonable accommodations for employees who object to work requirements because of sincerely held religious beliefs.

A religious belief does not have to be recognized by an organized religion, and it can be new, unusual or seem illogical or unreasonable to others, according to rules laid out by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. But it can't be founded solely on political or social ideas.

That puts employers in the position of determining what is a legitimate religious belief and what is a dodge.

Many major religious denominations have no objections to the COVID-19 vaccines. But the rollout has prompted heated debates because of the longtime role that cell lines derived from fetal tissue have played, directly or indirectly, in the research and development of various vaccines and medicines.

Roman Catholic leaders in New Orleans and St. Louis went so far as to call Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 shot morally compromised." J&J has stressed that there is no fetal tissue in its vaccine.

Moreover, the Vaticans doctrine office has said it is morally acceptable for Catholics to receive COVID-19 vaccines that are based on research that used cells derived from aborted fetuses. Pope Francis himself has said it would be suicide not to get the shot, and he has been fully vaccinated with the Pfizer formula.

In New York, state lawmakers have attempted to make the vaccine mandatory for medical workers, with no religious exemptions. On Tuesday, a federal judge blocked the state from enforcing the rule to give a group of workers time to argue that it is illegal because it lacks the opt-out.

Andrew Kurtyko, a registered nurse, is among those who want a religious exemption to not take the vaccine, and he is preparing to leave New York for Florida with his 18-year-old daughter if necessary.

Kurtyko said the draconian vaccine requirements in the U.S. remind him of communist Poland where he grew up before he and his family immigrated to the United States in 1991. He is a Catholic who believes fetal stem cells were experimented with in making the vaccine. He called Pope Francis guidance to get vaccinated his own opinion."

My parents came to this country for better living and crossed the ocean, said Kurtyko. The least I can do is fight for myself and my family is to go to a different state where religious exemptions are still being honored.. . . Our rights are being trampled."

Across the U.S., public officials, doctors and community leaders have been trying to help people circumvent COVID-19 mask and vaccine requirements.

In Tulsa, Oklahoma, pastor Jackson Lahmeyer is offering a "religious exemption form on his churchs website for download, along with links for suggested donations to the church. The 29-year-old is running for the U.S. Senate as a Republican.

Anyone interested can get the form signed by a religious leader, or Lahmeyer can sign it himself if the person joins the church and donates. He said more than 35,000 people downloaded the form in just three days.

Were not anti-vaxxers. Were just pro-freedom, Lahmeyer said. A lot of these people who have signed ... have already taken the vaccine. They just dont think its right that somebody else should be forced or lose their job.

But obtaining a religious exemption is not as simple as producing a signed form. Measles outbreaks in schools over the past decade prompted some states to change their policies. Some now require an actual signed affidavit from a religious leader, instead of an online form. California got rid of nonmedical exemptions in 2015.

Some employers are taking a hard line. United Airlines told employees last week that those who obtain religious exemptions will be put on unpaid leave until new coronavirus testing procedures are in place.

In Los Angeles, Police Chief Michel Moore said he is waiting for guidance from the city personnel department on how to handle exemption requests. The city has mandated that municipal employees get vaccinated by Oct. 5 unless they are granted a medical or religious exemption. A group of LAPD employees is suing over the policy.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti had a warning for those seeking exemptions: We will not tolerate the abuse of these exemptions by those who simply dont want to get vaccinated. To anyone thinking about filing a disingenuous exemption request, I strongly urge that you reconsider.

In Washington state, approximately 60,000 state employees are subject to a mandate issued by Gov. Jay Inslee that they be fully vaccinated by Oct. 18 or lose their job, unless they obtain a medical or religious exemption and receive an accommodation that allows them to remain employees.

As of Tuesday, more than 3,800 workers had requested religious exemptions. So far, 737 have been approved, but officials stressed that an exemption does not guarantee continued employment.

Once the exemption is approved, each agency has to evaluate whether the employee can still do the job with an accommodation while ensuring a safe workplace. Seven accommodations so far have been granted.

Inslee spokeswoman Tara Lee said the process "may help distinguish between a sincerely held personal belief and a sincerely held religious belief.

In Arkansas, about 5% of the staff at the privately run Conway Regional Health System has requested religious or medical exemptions.

The hospital responded by sending employees a form that lists a multitude of common medicines  including Tylenol, Pepto-Bismol, Preparation H and Tums  that it said were developed or tested using fetal cell lines.

The form asks people to sign it and attest that my sincerely held religious belief is consistent and true and I do not use or will not use any of the listed medications.

In a statement, Conway Regional Health President and CEO Matt Troup said: "Staff who are sincere ... should have no hesitancy with agreeing to the list of medicines listed.

___

Associated Press writers Zeke Miller, Carla K. Johnson, Ricardo Alonzo-Zaldivar Sean Murphy, Stefanie Dazio, Brady McCombs and Rachel La Corte contributed to this report.
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP)  South Dakota has enlisted one of former President Donald Trumps lead attorneys to help in its attempt to lift a decade-old injunction that nullified part of a state law requiring women to consult with a crisis pregnancy center before having an abortion, the governor and attorney general said Wednesday.

Jay Sekulow, who was one of President Donald Trumps lead attorneys during his impeachment trial last year, will offer the services of his firm, the American Center for Law and Justice, for free, the governors and attorney generals offices said. The nonprofit Christian legal advocacy group is based in Washington, D.C.
3 1 of 3 Berlin Police Department / Contributed Photo Show More Show Less 2 of 3 Berlin Police Department / Contributed Photo Show More Show Less 3 of 3





BERLIN  Police are looking for a woman they say assaulted a customer in a Berlin pizza shop that was captured on video Saturday night.

The incident occurred at Central Pizza on Mill Street around 11:45 p.m. Saturday, according to the Berlin Police Department. The woman is accused of physically assaulting a customer in the incident that was caught on video and shared on social media (Warning: The video contains language that may be offensive or disturbing to some viewers).
NEW LONDON  After a woman was beaten, robbed at gunpoint and kidnapped from a Marlborough gas station parking lot over the weekend, police released some tips to help residents stay safe.

A 64-year-old woman was putting groceries in her car outside the Big Y supermarket in Marlborough around 7 p.m. Saturday when two men wearing masks walked up to her and demanded money. The two men then threw her in the backseat of her vehicle, pulled out a gun, put a bag over her head and hit her in the face with an object several times, police said.

They stole the vehicle, with the victim in the backseat, and drove to the DND Food Mart in East Hartford, where one of them used the victims ATM card to get money, police said. The pair threw the victim out of the vehicle in Berlin and drove behind a building, where they lit the vehicle on fire, according to police. The men fled in a 1999 to 2003 model Acura TL.

Police in New London shared some tips to residents via social media on Monday, following news of the Marlborough abduction.

The department urged residents to be aware of their surroundings.

If anyone ends up in a similar situation, police urged residents to make a scene, but stay calm and make mental notes of any details about the person or persons involved.

Yell, scream, make as much noise as possible, police said. Draw as much attention to you and the situation as you can.

Police said in that situation, the best defense is to run away. But if that isnt an option, police urged residents to be prepared to fight as if your life depends on it.

As the investigation in Marlborough continues, with police having released an image on Monday of one of the individuals involved in that incident, Marlborough First Selectman Greg Lowrey asked residents to stay calm and patient.

I find the report alarming and hope that the victim gets the care and support needed, Lowrey said Monday. Private citizens and government agencies are cooperating with investigators to develop evidence.

Police ask anyone with information to contact Detective Frank Cuoco at 860-465-5469.
An administrative officer at the Washington, D.C., Veterans Affairs Medical Center is under investigation for tweeting details of a veteran's surgery and mocking the procedure as a waste of taxpayer money.

The employee, who works in the hospital's anesthesia department, posted a screenshot of a note about the procedure -- a penile implant for a veteran patient with erectile dysfunction.

"72 y/o male gets government funded surgery," wrote @CarrieeeeC, using an eggplant emoji to denote a penis.

The post and the employee's Twitter account have since been deleted, but its presence on social media caused outrage over the release of a former service member's medical information.

"If I worked for the Department of Veterans Affairs -- I certainly wouldn't be posting the medical information of a patient I was privileged too [sic]," wrote one Twitter user, @GhostHostJustin, who captured the post and tweeted it. "Seems like that could be bad. And mocking him, no less."

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A VA official said Tuesday that the department is aware of the incident and "takes it very serious [sic]."

"An investigation is underway and the employee has been removed from all access to Veteran medical records for the foreseeable future," spokesman Terrence Hayes wrote in an email to Military.com.

The screenshot of the preoperative anesthesia note provides no identifiable details for the patient but lists the date of the surgery as Sept. 7 and includes his blood pressure, heart rate and other vital signs.

Patient information is protected by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, which requires health care companies, hospitals and anyone involved in the health services to protect information that goes into medical records.

While the anesthesia note that was disclosed would not necessarily be inserted into a permanent health record, it would qualify as information shared among providers regarding treatment, which also is protected by HIPAA, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

A number of factors can contribute to erectile dysfunction, from mental health conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety, to medications for treating physical and mental conditions, as well as injuries, illness and aging.

A 2019 study showed that veterans with PTSD have a higher rate of sexual dysfunction than their civilian counterparts, while some veterans also have physical or psychological injuries that can affect sexual performance.

A 2015 study found that roughly 18% of veterans have some type of sexual dysfunction. The VA considers sexual health to be not only a reproductive issue but a quality-of-life issue, affecting emotional and mental well-being and physical health.

Penile implants usually are reserved for patients who don't respond to medication for erectile dysfunction or are not candidates for other treatments for sexual dysfunction, according to an informational summary from the Mayo Clinic.

The surgery is complex, taking between 45 minutes to two hours. It requires five to eight weeks of recovery time for a healthy individual or longer for older men, a representative for a company that sells penile implants to the VA and oversees the surgeries told Military.com.

He asked that his name not be used because he was not authorized by his company to speak to the press.

-- Patricia Kime can be reached at Patricia.Kime@Monster.com. Follow her on Twitter @patriciakime.

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Three former U.S. intelligence operatives have admitted to selling their hacking talents, connections, and U.S. cyberweapons to the United Arab Emirates, federal officials announced Tuesday.

U.S. citizens Marc Baier, 49, and Ryan Adams, 34, as well as Daniel Gericke, 40, a former U.S. citizen, all were working for an unnamed American company that was developing intelligence capabilities for the United Arab Emirates. However, in January 2016, the three left for a UAE-based company "after receiving an offer for higher compensation and an expanded budget," according to federal officials. They were hired as senior managers of a team known as "Cyber Intelligence-Operations (CIO)," a Department of Justice statement said.

Once there, federal officials say the men provided "support, direction and supervision" in developing two "zero-click" computer hacking and intelligence gathering systems.

A zero-click exploit doesn't require its victims to click or open the malicious file for it to infect their devices.

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The three men agreed to a deal with federal officials to cooperate in a continuing investigation, as well as accept restrictions on future jobs they can hold, and pay hefty fines while not refuting the Justice Department's description of their role in the scheme, in exchange for avoiding prosecution.

Reuters first wrote about Baier, a former National Security Agency employee, and the exploits of his company, Cyberpoint, in January 2019. The account was based on information provided by nine former operatives, including one who was named for the story. According to the report, the former U.S. government hackers used state-of-the-art cyber-espionage tools, some of which were developed on behalf of the Emiratis to spy on human rights activists, journalists and political rivals -- including U.S. citizens.

Reuters reported that those cyber tools helped the team hack into phones used by government officials including Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, as well as the devices of Turkey's former Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek, and Oman's head of foreign affairs, Yusuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah. Human rights activists including Tawakkol Karman, known as the Iron Woman of Yemen, also were listed by the news agency as a hacking target.

Court documents allege that between 2015 and 2019, the three men "purchased and obtained numerous proprietary computer exploits" with the intent to use them against devices such as smartphones "using U.S. companies' software, services, and internet browsers."

The charges said that the three had worked "to deliver sophisticated hacking technology," exporting and then modifying U.S. cyberweapons and exploit tools as part of their effort to bolster the capabilities of the unnamed UAE company. In doing so, the men violated arms control laws and committed fraud as a result of their hacking activities, according to the Justice Department.

The result was that they were able "to obtain remote, unauthorized access to any of the tens of millions of smartphones and mobile devices utilizing a U.S. Company Two-provided operating system."

Although court documents and federal officials do not reveal the identity of "U.S. Company Two," the Reuters report said that the hacking relied on an undisclosed vulnerability in Apple's iMessage text messaging software.

Instead of going to trial, Baier, Adams and Gericke have agreed to pay more than $1.68 million in fines, according to the Justice Department. All three faced charges of conspiracy and violating the Arms Export Control Act and the International Traffic in Arms regulations, as well as two computer fraud charges, according to court documents.

-- Konstantin Toropin can be reached at konstantin.toropin@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @ktoropin.

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KABUL, Afghanistan  The Afghan man who was killed in a U.S. drone strike last month was an enthusiastic and beloved longtime employee at an American humanitarian organization, his colleagues say, painting a stark contrast to the Pentagons claims that he was an Islamic State group militant about to carry out an attack on American troops.

Signs have been mounting that the U.S. military may have targeted the wrong man in the Aug. 29 strike in Kabul, with devastating consequences, killing seven children and two other adults from his family. The Pentagon says it is further investigating the strike, but it has no way to do so on the ground in Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover, severely limiting its ability to gather evidence.

Accounts from the family, documents from colleagues seen by The Associated Press, and the scene at the family home  where Zemerai Ahmadis car was struck by a Hellfire missile just as he pulled into the driveway  all seem to sharply contradict the accounts by the U.S. military. Instead, they paint the picture of a family that had worked for Americans and were trying to gain visas to the United States, fearing for their lives under the Taliban.

At the home, the mangled, incinerated Toyota Corolla remains in the driveway. But there are no signs of large secondary blasts the Pentagon said were caused by explosives hidden in the car trunk. In the tightly cramped, walled compound, the house is undamaged except for broken glass, even a badly built wooden balcony remains in place. A brick wall immediately adjacent to the car stands intact. Trees and foliage close to the car are not burned or torn.

The family wants the United States to hear their side of the story and see the facts on the ground.

We just want that they come here. See what they did. Talk to us. Give us the proof, Emal Ahmadi, Zemerais younger brother, said of the U.S. military. Near tears, he opened a photo on his phone of his 3-year-old daughter, Malika, in her favorite dress. Another photo showed her charred remains after she was killed in the strike.

On Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken acknowledged he did not know if the man targeted in the strike was an IS operative or an aid worker. I dont know because were reviewing it, he said at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.

The strike was carried out in the final days of the U.S. presence in Afghanistan, as American troops were carrying out evacuations at Kabuls airport. Only days earlier, an IS suicide bombers at the airport killed 169 Afghans and 13 U.S. servicemembers.

The Pentagon says the strike prevented another IS attack at the airport. Officials said the U.S. military had been observing the car for hours as it drove and saw people loading explosives into the back. Days after amid reports of the children killed, Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called it a righteous strike, and said at least one of the people that were killed was an ISIS facilitator," using an acronym for the Islamic State group.

The U.S. acknowledged reports of civilian casualties and said they may have been caused by secondary explosions. The family said when the 37-year-old Zemerai, alone in his car, pulled up to the house, he honked his horn. His 11-year-old son ran out, and Zemerai let the boy get in and drive the car into the driveway. The other kids ran out to watch, and the missile incinerated the car, killing seven children and an adult son and nephew of Zemerai.

That was my last memory, the sound of his horn, said another of Zemerais brothers, Romal Ahmadi, who was inside the house at the time. His three children, aged two to seven, were killed.

Zemerai worked for 15 years for Nutrition & Education International, a California-based non-profit aimed at countering malnutrition in Afghanistan. Romal also worked briefly for NEI.

Only days before the strike, Zemerai and Romal applied for special visas to the U.S. for those who had worked with U.S. companies. His brother, Emal and the nephew who was killed, Ahmad Naser Haideri, had also applied for special visas because of their work for the U.S. military.

Emal provided the AP with documents including their visa applications, letters of recommendation and even a medal Haideri had received for his service with a special U.S. trained elite special force. Haideri also had a letter of reference from the U.S.-based Multi Country Security Solutions Group, where he worked as a contractor, calling him an important part of our commitment to provide the best faithful service to the U.S. Special Forces.

He was an excellent employee, the firms president, Timothy Williams, who wrote the letter of reference, told the AP. Im not going to change from that just because of the incident that happened. Im going to stand behind my guys.

Zemerais colleagues at NEI described him as a talented worker who worked his way up from a handyman to a skilled engineer and an essential employee.

Last year, when the company was unable to pay employees at full salary because of the coronavirus pandemic, employees were given the opportunity to leave their positions for better paying work elsewhere.

But Ahmadi declined, saying, I am NEI. From beginning to end, until we accomplish our goal, the companys founder and president, Steven Kwon, told the AP.

Colleagues recalled him as a doting father and enthusiastic dancer who kept an optimistic spirit amid the chaos of his surroundings and was quick to comfort those around him with a joke. He had grown up poor in Kabul and maintained such a heart for the poor, said a co-worker who asked to be identified only as Sonia for safety reasons.

He was definitely the best of us. Absolutely, she said.

He also always supported the companys efforts to hire more women and create womens programs, which is one of many reasons that colleagues said the suggestion that he was connected to any sort of extremism seems preposterous to them.

Everything were hearing about him is just so disturbing and so absurd because he had such love for his people, said Sonia. How would he overnight turn around and start wanting to kill his own people. It makes absolutely no sense at all whatsoever.

It seems unlikely the U.S. will send anyone to the Ahmadi home to investigate. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said hes not aware of any option that would put investigators on the ground in Kabul. The U.S. Central Command said it would rely on other means, without elaborating but apparently meaning surveillance video and intercepts that led to the strike.

The family, grieving and furious, still wants refuge in the United States. On top of their already existing worries over their past work with the U.S., they now fear the new Taliban rulers will suspect them of being IS. The Islamic State group is a violent rival of the Taliban.

The U.S. has accused us. They havent cleared our name and they wont even talk to us, and now the suspicion is on us, Emal said. We are angry, but we dont know what to do. For our safety we would go to America, but it must be all our families, not just me.

Much to their dismay, Ahmadis colleagues say they havent been contacted by anyone from the Biden administration about what happened.

Just talk to us because our teams are now terrified, Sonia said. I mean, in addition to being afraid of the Taliban and ISIS, theyre now even more afraid of the U.S. government.

___

Tucker reported from Washington. Associated Press Writer Lolita Baldor contributed to this report from Washington.
Roughly 12% of the Department of Veterans Affairs' 380,000 hospital workers have not received their COVID-19 vaccine or told the department they plan to get immunized, according to VA officials.

VA Secretary Denis McDonough issued two separate vaccine mandates. The first, on July 26, requires medical personnel at VA hospitals and clinics, such as doctors and registered nurses, to get vaccinated by next week. The second, released Aug. 13, requires staff members, volunteers and any other worker who interacts with veterans to be inoculated by Oct. 8.

But while 88% of all employees of the Veterans Health Administration, or VHA -- the portion of the VA that oversees all hospitals and clinics -- reported they were fully or partially vaccinated as of Wednesday, 45,600, or 12%, had not completed paperwork attesting they have been vaccinated or that they intend to get an immunization.

During a press conference in Washington on Wednesday, McDonough said the VA is reaching out to these employees, pushing public awareness campaigns and working with the department's union representatives to encourage vaccination.

Read Next: What Happens to Soldiers Who Refuse the Vaccine?

The VA also is offering four hours of leave to all workers who get vaccinated.

However, incentives will go only so far, McDonough said. Those who decide not to get vaccinated must request a medical or religious waiver or face "progressive discipline" that could end in dismissal.

"This will be a very clear process implemented at the supervisory and local level, the goal of which is to get people vaccinated by educating them," he said. "But at the end of that, if they still have chosen not to get vaccinated or get an exemption, they will be separated from federal service."

McDonough said he didnt know how many of the more than 45,000 employees have applied or indicated they plan to apply for a waiver.

"We don't have enough clarity yet to see into the data to find out how many such exemptions are being sought," he said.

Because VA employees can get their COVID-19 vaccines either at work or elsewhere, the department is tracking vaccines in two ways. It has asked all employees to complete paperwork saying they have been vaccinated, and it tracks the vaccinations of those in the VA employee health records system.

According to the VA, the number of vaccinated VHA employees has risen by 9% since the initial mandate. Vaccinations are important, McDonough said, because staff absences for COVID-19 have risen sharply in the last eight weeks, putting a strain on VA hospitals and forcing some to cut health services.

The department saw a 272% increase in hospitalizations for COVID-19 this summer, largely due to the Delta variant of the virus, according to McDonough. "It's made our push to vaccinate even more urgent," he said.

More than 328,000 veterans in the VA health system have contracted COVID-19 during the pandemic and 14,254 have died, including 182 employees.

VA employees who do not work in the health system also are required to be vaccinated by Nov. 22 under a deadline set Monday by President Joe Biden.

The VA has fully vaccinated more than 3.8 million people, including veterans, employees, caregivers and eligible family members, with an additional 3.7 million having received their first dose.

As of Wednesday, 313,833 VA employees were vaccinated against COVID-19.

-- Patricia Kime can be reached at Patricia.Kime@Monster.com. Follow her on Twitter @patriciakime.

Related: VA Employee Tweets Out Details of a Surgery No Vet Would Want Public
WASHINGTON  The Biden administration is releasing nearly $200 million in military aid to Egypt but will hold back millions more over human rights concerns, the State Department said Tuesday in an announcement quickly criticized by rights groups and some lawmakers.

The department said Secretary of State Antony Blinken would withhold $130 million of $300 million in military financing for Egypt due to the concerns. It said he would allow the rest go through to preserve U.S.-Egypt security engagement that Washington believes is critical to Mideast stability.

The $170 million to be released will be sent using authority the administration has to waive human rights conditions placed on the assistance by Congress. Under federal law, the secretary of state must certify that Egypt is meeting those conditions or issue a waiver for the aid to be sent.

The department said Blinken was unable to certify compliance but added that continued engagement with Egypt is a critical U.S. national security interest. The decision was criticized by human rights groups and some lawmakers as an indication the Biden administration is reneging on pledges to put human rights at the center of its foreign policy.

Because we are continuing to discuss our serious concerns about human rights in Egypt, the secretary of state will not certify that the government of Egypt is taking sustained and effective steps related to the legislative human rights-related conditions" on the aid, the department said.

Nonetheless it said the administration would provide the majority of the assistance for border security, nonproliferation and counterterrorism programs while withholding the remaining $130 million. The withheld amount will be released if the government of Egypt affirmatively addresses specific human-rights related conditions, the department said.

Anticipating criticism of the announcement, which was previewed to some lawmakers on Monday, the State Department said the administration's human rights concerns about Egypt, which remains in the throes of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisis harsh crackdown on dissent, are significant.

But, it said maintaining positive ties with Sisis government is important and noted that new Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett had visited Egypt just on Monday. Egypt is one of just two Arab nations to have gone to war with Israel to have signed a peace treaty with the Jewish state.

Our bilateral relationship with Egypt will be stronger, and Americas interests will be better served, through continued U.S. engagement to advance our national security interests, including addressing our human rights concerns, the State Department said.

Under Sissi, Egypt has seen the heaviest crackdown on dissent in its modern history. Officials have targeted not only Islamist political opponents but also pro-democracy activists, journalists and online critics. Lengthy pretrial detentions have become a common practice to keep the governments critics behind bars for as long as possible.

Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, a strong supporter of President Joe Biden who has repeatedly called for human rights conditions to be attached and enforced for foreign aid, lamented the decision. He called it a big missed opportunity to stand up strongly and unequivocally for human rights.

Continuing our security relationship with Egypt, with only minor changes, sends the wrong message, Murphy said in a statement. This was a chance to send a strong message about Americas commitment to human rights and democracy, with little cost to our security, and we fell short.

A group of 19 human rights groups, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Freedom House, also decried the decision, calling it a terrible blow to its stated commitment to human rights and to the rule of law.

This administration has repeatedly vowed to put human rights at the center of its foreign policy and specifically its relationship with Egypt, they said. This decision, however, is a betrayal of these commitments.
The U.S. and Great Britain will help Australia develop nuclear-powered submarines as part of a new alliance that could counter China in the Asia-Pacific region, a senior administration official said Wednesday.

The "extremely sensitive" advanced technology would give a longtime U.S. ally in the region a fleet of subs with greater stealth, speed, survivability and endurance, said the official, who spoke on a call for reporters set up by the White House under the condition that participants not be identified.

The sharing agreement with Australia comes as regional security and competition for influence over key trade routes and sea lanes with Beijing, which has its own nuclear subs, have become a top policy concern. The U.S. previously has shared nuclear propulsion technology only with Great Britain, which also plans to expand its role in the Pacific region under the trilateral alliance.

"We view this as a one-off," the official said, noting that it would be a rare historical exception in which the U.S. would provide nuclear technology to Australia.

The joint 18-month program will include the U.S. Navy and could allow Australia to complete new subs within several years. It will bind Australia to the U.S. and Great Britain for generations, the official said.

Read Next: Milley, Fearful of Trump's Rhetoric, Called China to Promise US Wouldn't Strike, Book Says

The Chinese navy has built 12 nuclear subs over the past 15 years, according to the Defense Department's last annual China report in 2020. Its four operational Jin-class subs can launch ballistic missiles and represent the country's "first credible sea-based nuclear deterrent."

President Xi Jinping ordered faster growth of China's nuclear-powered ballistic missile sub fleet, and a next-generation sub to be constructed in the early 2020s could carry a new type of ballistic missile, the department reported.

Related Video:

President Joe Biden, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison were expected to formally announce the new trilateral alliance, called AUKUS, on Wednesday.

In addition to the nuclear sub program, the three longtime allies also will use the newly minted alliance to cooperate on cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, quantum technology and undersea capabilities. They will launch a more dedicated effort to secure industrial supply chains that have been threatened by a reliance on Chinese goods and components, which are vulnerable due to the influence the country's military and government have over industry.

The Pentagon's core strategy to counter China's rising military might depends on strengthening alliances in the Asia-Pacific region, where Beijing has disputed territorial claims and created island military bases, particularly in the South China Sea.

-- Travis Tritten can be reached at travis.tritten@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @Travis_Tritten.

Related: Australia Will Invest Millions to Upgrade Military Sites Where US Marines Train
Soldiers have limited options to refuse the COVID-19 vaccine, and may have a hard time claiming an exemption if they have never protested a dozen-plus other vaccines the Defense Department mandates for all troops, according to new Army guidelines.

Punishments for troops, especially senior leaders, who steadfastly refuse without an exemption could include discharge.

The Army on Tuesday issued a service-wide directive on vaccine mandates, the last service branch to do so. But it has mandated the slowest timeline within the military, giving soldiers a long window to be inoculated.

Read Next: 3 Former US Intelligence Operatives Plead Guilty to Developing Cyberweapons for the UAE

Its active-duty troops have until Dec. 15 to be vaccinated, while the Air Force and Space Force issued a Nov. 2 deadline. Marines and sailors have until Nov. 28. Meanwhile, soldiers in the Army National Guard and Reserve have until June 30, 2022, to get inoculated, a full half-year longer than any other reserve service. Air National Guard members must be vaccinated by Dec. 2.

"Given the size, scale and geographic dispersal of the National Guard workforce, we understand it will take additional time to develop an implementation plan that would be most feasible for fully vaccinating our personnel," Christina Mundy, a National Guard Bureau spokesperson, wrote in an email.

A total of 1.1 million troops are already fully vaccinated against the virus, which has infected more than 238,000 service members and killed 46, according to the Pentagon's latest update.

It remains unclear whether some service members still may refuse to take the shot after Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered mandatory vaccinations in August. The Pentagon has said the requirement is considered a lawful order by the military.

Vaccination Refusal

Soldiers who refuse could face "administrative or non-judicial punishment [under the Uniform Code of Military Justice] -- to include relief of duties or discharge," according to the new Army guidelines obtained by Military.com.

Administrative action includes initiating what is called a General Officer Memorandum of Reprimand, or GOMOR, for all refusals without an allowed exemption. The reprimand is widely seen as a military career killer but can, under certain circumstances, be tossed from a soldier's record.

All judicial action will be launched by colonels in a soldier's chain of command, or a general in units without a colonel.

Soldiers who have pending decisions on medical or religious exemptions will not face any adverse action.

As a first step in the process, soldiers who refuse will be formally counseled, effectively creating a paper trail for leaders to show they discussed a topic with a soldier. The Army already has issued a template for units.

Click here to see the COVID vaccine refusal counselling form

Then, the service requires that they watch an educational video from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention explaining the science behind the vaccines.

If the soldier continues to refuse, they will "meet with a medical professional to further discuss the benefits of vaccination and address the soldier's concerns," according to the Army documents. Continued refusal will prompt the soldier's commander to consult with the Judge Advocate General's Corps, the legal arm of the Army.

That process can lead to discharge. "Commanders will initiate mandatory separation of soldiers who refuse the vaccine," the Army warned.

Religious Exemptions

Two vaccine exemptions are available, but it is unlikely either will be approved if soldiers making the request have not already refused other mandatory vaccines required by the military, such as smallpox, influenza and hepatitis.

Receiving a religious exemption also could be an uphill battle after major religious institutions and leaders have supported the vaccine on moral grounds to save lives.

Soldiers claiming a religious exemption will be interviewed by an Army chaplain, who will "assess the basis and sincerity of belief" behind the objections and write a memo to the chain of command.

After meeting with a chaplain, the soldier will be ordered to meet with a medical official, who will "counsel the soldier to ensure they are making an informed decision on risk."

Medical Exemptions & Pregnant Women

Medical exemptions may be given to soldiers with legitimate health concerns backed by medical professionals. For example, soldiers who had adverse reactions to previous vaccines may be excused from future shots.

However, adverse reactions, such as heart inflammation, are incredibly rare.

Those seeking a medical exemption still will be counseled by their commander and referred to a medical professional for evaluation.

Exemptions may be temporary, given for up to a year, or permanent, according to the Army documents. An Army medical professional will decide whether a soldier's medical concerns are valid; if so, that will be documented in the service member's medical records.

Pregnant soldiers may seek a waiver to delay their vaccine until after pregnancy, after meeting with a health care provider. But Army documents note, Getting a vaccine could help both mother and the fetus. Pregnant women have a higher risk of severe illness from COVID-19 than nonpregnant women.

The American College of Obstetrics & Gynecologists says there is no evidence of adverse effects of the vaccine on pregnant women or their babies. Meanwhile, there is emerging evidence that unvaccinated women are at risk of having a stillbirth after contracting COVID-19.

Senior Leaders Face Quick Action If They Refuse

There is very little wiggle room for senior Army leaders in the service's new guidelines.

Commanders, sergeants major, first sergeants and other senior officers who refuse the vaccine order and don't have a pending exemption decision "will be suspended ... provided a reasonable period not to exceed five calendar days to respond, and then be subject to relief of their duties," the Army documents say.

"I believe accountability starts with Leaders -- you cannot lead Soldiers by disobeying lawful orders," the force's top enlisted leader, Sergeant Major of the Army Michael Grinston, said Tuesday on Twitter.

Editors Note: This story has been updated with more information about medical exemptions for pregnant women.

-- Steve Beynon can be reached at Steve.Beynon@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @StevenBeynon.

Related: Marine Corporal Discharged over Refusal to Wear a Mask
Brig. Gen. James R. Risner was the kind of pilot every fighter pilot wanted to be. He became a fighter ace in the skies during two wars, served in three wars, became one of only four airmen to receive more than one Air Force Cross and was the first airman to receive the award while alive.

Risner also led a squadron of F-105 Thunderchiefs in Vietnam, leading his men in 55 air combat missions. On his 55th, he was shot down over North Vietnam and was captured. He spent the rest of the Vietnam War, from 1965 to 1973, as a prisoner of war.

Although his exploits in Vietnam gave him national attention, what he did in the Korean War was so spectacular that it will live forever in aviation history. He had first joined the Army Air Forces in 1944 as an aviation cadet, but he never saw combat during World War II. After spending some time as a civilian, he joined the Oklahoma National Guard, where he took to the skies once more.

After the Korean War broke out, Risner was called up to active duty in the newest branch of the armed forces, the U.S. Air Force. This time, he was dead-set on seeing some action. Risner arrived in Korea in May 1952, flying the F-86 Sabre out of Kimpo. His first few months of duty in Korea were light on combat, but things soon picked up. Theres a reason they called the area MiG Alley.

Risner shot down his first enemy MiG in August 1952, and the tempo of intercepting communist aircraft began to rise steadily. On the night of Sept. 15, 1952, Risners squadron was escorting a bombing run near the North Korean border with China when he engaged in a low-altitude, supersonic dogfight with an enemy as it tried to flee to its airbase inside China. Risner followed the MiG home.

(U.S. Air Force)

As the aircraft began to head for the base, Risners Sabre tore it to pieces and the aircraft went down, through a hanger full of parked airplanes. After scoring the kill and setting the hangar on fire, Risner turned to head home with his wingman, Lt. Joseph Logan. As they flew over Antung, a Chinese city on the banks of the Yalu River, Logans Sabre took heavy anti-aircraft fire and began to dump fuel.

It was clear that Logan would not make it back to their home base at Kimpo, more than 100 miles away. To help his wingman, Risner attempted a maneuver that never had been attempted before in aviation. He told Logan to cut his engine, then positioned the nose of his plane into his wingmans tailpipe.

Risner was trying to give Logans Sabre enough lift to make it close to Cho-do Island in the Yellow Sea. Technically, the island belonged to North Korea, but the Air Force maintained an air rescue unit on the island. If he could get Logan close enough to the island to either bail out in the Yellow Sea or on the island itself, it could keep him from being captured by the Communists.

Engine fluids poured over Risner's canopy as the planes flew in tandem. They flew like this until the gasoline and other engine liquids began to threaten the safety of Risners own plane. Still, they made it close enough to Cho-do that Logan could bail out and Risner could head home.

He almost didnt. As he approached the air base at Kimpo, his engine flamed out, and unable to restart it, he was forced to perform a deadstick landing, gliding it down safely onto the runway. Logan had come down close to the shoreline at Cho-do, but he became tangled in his own parachute and drowned before he could be rescued.

Risners last words to his wingman as he bailed were, "I'll see you at the base tonight." He would go on to shoot down eight enemy fighters in the Korean War.

-- Blake Stilwell can be reached at blake.stilwell@military.com. He can also be found on Twitter @blakestilwell or on Facebook.

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One of Americas most dedicated veteran mentorship companies issued a challenge to Americans nationwide. In recognition of the 20 years of service given by U.S. military veterans since the 9/11 attacks, American Corporate Partners (ACP) is asking people to show themselves doing 20 push-ups in support of veterans leaving the military.

Using the hashtag #GiveThem20, Americans from all corners of the country are answering the call. Former New York Yankees outfielder Hideki Matsui, WWE superstar Eva Marie, employees of Southwest Airlines and the Notre Dame cheerleading squad all have done 20 push-ups for veterans.

In 2015, ACP ran a similar campaign that featured celebrities like John Oliver, Stephen Colbert and Marine Corps veteran and comedian Rob Riggle joining the New York Mets, the Washington Nationals and many others to answer the push-up challenge. The 2021 challenge also will raise $200,000 for ACP to help post-9/11 veterans with their civilian careers.

Anyone interested in supporting the cause can post their #GiveThem20 video using the hashtag. Anyone who wants to help raise money by forming a push-up group as part of a community or team fundraiser can join on the website. So far, the University of Notre Dame, the City of New York and the U.S. Army groups have given the most push-ups.

.@Wally97 is joining @acpvets for #GiveThem20, doing 20 pushups to honor those who have kept us safe over the past 20 years & those who fell while doing so.



Now were challenging all of Red Sox Nation & our friends @NESN to do the same! #BostonGives20: https://t.co/0voIslAhxE pic.twitter.com/Wc800CHErl  Red Sox (@RedSox) September 11, 2021

ACP is a nonprofit organization that provides career counseling to transitioning post-9/11 military members and active-duty military spouses through yearlong, one-on-one mentorships with well-placed corporate executives from one of its corporate partners, many from Fortune 500 companies.

Every year, 200,000 veterans leave the military for new civilian lives. ACP estimates that 5 million individuals have served in the military since Sept. 11, 2001, and launched the campaign to show appreciation and raise money for the cause while keeping up the work of helping those veterans find jobs, start careers and successfully begin new lives.

The nonprofit organization believes the biggest issue facing veterans isnt unemployment; its underemployment. Underemployment is the lack of a meaningful, challenging career that can provide veterans with a sense of purpose and fulfillment along the lines of what they felt serving in the military.

Whether a veteran actively is searching for a new career or is newly employed and looking for advice about how to be successful in their role and advance their career, ACP mentors will customize a program designed to help them along on their path toward rewarding, meaningful, long-term employment.

To learn more about ACPs #GiveThem20 campaign, visit the Give Them 20 website. You also can check out whos doing 20 push-ups for veterans by plugging the hashtag #GiveThem20 into your favorite social media search engine.

You can learn more about American Corporate Partners or apply for an ACP mentorship through the ACP website, acp-usa.org.

-- Blake Stilwell can be reached at blake.stilwell@military.com. He can also be found on Twitter @blakestilwell or on Facebook.

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The Orioles announced theyve selected infielder Pat Valaika back to the big league roster. Baltimore also recalled righty Marcos Diplan from Triple-A Norfolk. Left-hander Tanner Scott has been placed on the 10-day injured list with a left knee sprain, while utilityman Jorge Mateo was placed on the 60-day IL due to right lumbar inflammation.

Valaika has logged substantial big league action with the Os in each of the last two seasons. He flashed some intriguing power potential last year, popping eight home runs in 150 plate appearances en route to a solid .277/.315/.475 showing. But he struggled badly over a slightly longer look this year, posting a .192/.251/.280 line over 212 trips to the dish. He was designated for assignment and passed through outright waivers last month. Valaika will be eligible for arbitration this offseason, but given his disappointing season, he looks like a non-tender candidate.

Baltimore grabbed Mateo off waivers from the Padres last month, with the rebuilding Os in a far better position than the win-now Padres to give regular playing time to the former top prospect. (Mateo is out of minor league option years, so hed spent much of his San Diego tenure in a bench role). The 26-year-old showed fairly well in his look with the Orioles, hitting .280/.328/.421 with a pair of homers and five stolen bases over 116 plate appearances. His season comes to a premature end because of the injury, but hes seemingly done enough to warrant a spot on Baltimores 40-man roster over the upcoming offseason.

Unlike Mateo, Scott isnt officially ruled out for the rest of the year by his IL placement. Nevertheless, manager Brandon Hyde suggested to reporters (including Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com) the hard-throwing reliever is unlikely to make it back this season. Scott appeared in 62 games and tossed 54 innings of 5.17 ERA ball, striking out a solid 27.9% of opponents but issuing walks at an elevated 14.7% clip. Hell be eligible for arbitration for the first time this offseason.
The Padres announced theyve signed reliever Ross Detwiler to a major league contract. Righty Shaun Anderson was optioned to Triple-A El Paso to clear active roster space. San Diego already had a vacancy on the 40-man roster, so no move was necessary in that regard.

Detwiler had previously spent the entire 2021 campaign with the Marlins, who signed him to a one-year, $850K guarantee over the offseason. The veteran southpaw spent the year as a bullpen option for Miami manager Don Mattingly, working primarily in lower-leverage situations. Detwiler made 46 appearances (including five starts as an opener) and worked 45 1/3 innings of 4.96 ERA ball.

It has been an interesting season for Detwiler, who has revamped his plan of attack. Generally a low-strikeout, ground-ball oriented hurler, hes tweaked his pitch mix and gotten wildly different results than he has in years past. Detwiler has cut his sinker usage nearly in half in favor of a more four-seam heavy approach. That has resulted in a career-best strikeout rate (28%), with hitters taking a career-high 19.2% of his offerings for called strikes. But its come with an accompanying dip in ground balls, as Detwiler has gone from inducing grounders on more than half the balls in play against him between 2019-20 down to 39.7% this season.

With Detwiler nearing free agency anyways, the non-contending Marlins designated him for assignment and released him over the weekend. Miami will remain on the hook for the majority of Detwilers remaining salary, with the Friars responsible for paying him only the prorated portion of the league minimum for his final couple weeks of work.

Detwiler signs with San Diego after August 31, so he wont be eligible for the Padres postseason roster if the team makes it to the playoffs. The 35-year-old will get an opportunity to pitch in meaningful games down the stretch, though, as he tries to help the Friars get into the postseason before again reaching free agency this winter.

For the Padres, theres no real harm in bringing Detwiler aboard. They enter play tonight tied with the Cardinals, half a game behind the Reds for the National Leagues final playoff spot. Their season quite obviously hangs in the balance over their final nineteen games, but the pitching staff continues to deal with injuries. Chris Paddack landed on the injured list last night, and Blake Snell left his most recent start early. Detwilers not a true rotation option at this stage of his career, but hes capable of shouldering an inning or two to deepen an overall pitching staff that might have to rely on a few bullpen games down the stretch.
The Phillies announced theyve released Vince Velasquez. That was the anticipated outcome once Philadelphia designated him for assignment over the weekend.

Velasquez was on the injured list at the time of his designation (although he had begun a minor league rehab assignment). Injured players cant be placed on outright waivers, and with the trade deadline having passed, Velasquezs designation meant hed wind up released. Thats mostly a formality anyhow, since he wouldve had the right to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency while still retaining his entire salary as a player with more than five years of MLB service time.

If Velasquez clears release waivers, hell be free to sign elsewhere. That seems likely, as claiming him would require a team to assume the remainder of his $4MM salary (approximately $452K through seasons end). If he clears waivers, a new club could sign the right-hander for the prorated portion of the league minimum while leaving the Phils on the hook for the bulk of the salary.

Whether hes claimed or signed as a free agent after clearing waivers, Velasquez wouldnt be eligible for a new teams postseason roster since he was released after August 31. Its still possible a team on the fringes of contention could look to bring him in for a couple weeks in an attempt to bolster their pitching depth as they try to make a playoff push. Velasquez worked 3 2/3 innings during his rehab outing last Wednesday, so hes seemingly nearing readiness in his recovery from the blister issue that landed him on the IL last month.

The release concludes an up-and-down tenure for Velasquez in Philly. Acquired from the Astros as part of the December 2015 Ken Giles trade, the 29-year-old spent parts of six seasons with the Phils. He got off to a very promising start, tossing 131 innings of 4.12 ERA ball while striking out 27.6% of batters faced, a mark that dwarfed that years 20.2% league average for starting pitchers. That ultimately proved to be the high-water mark of Velasquezs tenure in Philadelphia, though.

Over the next five seasons, Velasquez never posted an ERA below 4.85. He showed flashes at times, working in the mid-90s and missing bats at a league average or better rate. But he also issued walks at a higher than average clip in four of his last five seasons (2019 being the exception) while giving up a fair amount of hard, airborne contact. That predictably led to consistent troubles with home runs  particularly in Philadelphias hitter-friendly home ballpark  that inflated his run prevention totals.

Velasquezs up-and-down performances will make him an interesting free agent this winter. (Even if he signs elsewhere for this seasons final couple weeks, hell again reach the open market this offseason). Hes still only 29 years old, and Velasquez has shown enough bat-missing promise to remain intriguing. Between their park and lackluster team defenses in recent years, the Phillies havent been in position to get the greatest results from their pitching staffs. Perhaps a club with a more pitcher-friendly environment and/or solid defense feels they can yet coax mid-rotation production out of Velasquez, with a multi-inning relief role a fallback possibility if he continues to scuffle as a starter.
He was speaking at a new RTI series called Conversations on RTI with Shailesh Gandhi, launched recently by Moneylife Foundation.

Incidentally, even before he became a commissioner and entered the bureaucracy in 1986, Prof Acharyulu was one of the first people to use transparency provisions for inspection of government files.

I was an investigative journalist in a Telugu newspaper. Though it was not my duty area, I went to Tirupati, though I was supposed to be in Hyderabad.

Out of curiosity, I took some interest in probing into Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD), the richest temple trust in the country after Thiruvanathapuram; I found a lot of financial irregularities. I found the irregularities scandalous, and when I started collecting information, it was very revealing. I then filed nine investigative reports in my newspapers, the circulation of which simply shot up by my reports, thousands of extra copies! he informed.

NT Rama Rao, the then chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, was furious because I was exposing one of the very prestigious temple trusts. He ordered a judicial enquiry. However, he said he would not appoint anyone else but the person who reported, Sridhar, to prove it. My newspaper management also said because you wrote, please do it, we will support and luckily, they did.

When I was in Tirupati for attending the commission of enquiry, I wanted to see the engineering contract files under TTD. I made an interim application before the retired High Court judge. The HC judge said, we never had such a thing happen in this country. Nobody asked for an inspection of the file. I replied, now I am asking, so you decide. Because it is a wealthy temple, the state government appointed a senior and very influential official of chief secretary rank. He (the officer) said it was his file and who I was to ask for it.

I retorted, saying, who are you? You are an executive officer of a temple trust board. You are not the owner of the files. You are not the owner of the money. I am the owner of the money because I donated Rs100 whenever I went to Tirupati. I am the owner, I am the devotee, I am the reader, I am the general member of the public it is my file, and fortunately, my argument was accepted, commented Prof Acharyulu on his first RTI experience before he became the commissioner.

Speaking about the information commission, Mr Gandhi asked Prof Acharyulu, What should be the qualities of an information commissioner before they are selected? Everybody is eminent in this country.

It is a very, very vague expression, and whenever there is a vague expression in law, it gives huge discretion to the authorities. Out of uncertainty and indefinability of a term, the officer assumes more and extreme powers so he can do anything, and that is covered by it, Prof Acharyulu replied.

The RTI Act states nine fields from which eminent personalities must be selected, but the government did not follow even that literally. Forget the vagueness of the expression, but when there is a clear mandate that you have to select commissioners from those subjects, they have completely ignored some of the subjects and depended on one or two areas like administration or management experience and roughly speaking about 90% of commissioners are picked up from that category only and very rarely people like you and me are appointed, he added.

While you came on invitation, I was surprised to become a commissioner, Prof Acharyulu says, adding, I made an application and then forgot about it. There was nobody to take my application to the authority. I requested some of the members of Parliament (MP) to do it, but nobody did it, and I forgot it.

But I was surprised when I got a call from the PMs Office (PMO) that I was appointed as central information commissioner.

Private bodies do not fall under RTI. But they do have to share information with the bodies regulating them. Speaking about details from private bodies and regulatory authorities, Prof Acharyulu says, Very little information is available with public authorities. But most of the public authorities are regulatory bodies, and there is a statutory duty cast upon the private bodies to submit certain reports to various authorities. These reports are available with public authority. So they are supposed to share it. That is what the law says and the information needs to be shared. But that is not how courts interpret it.

If a public authority can collect information from private bodies, then they should share the same with the general public, he added.

In response to high courts repeated attempts to muzzle RTI commissioners and their orders, 15 sitting and former information commissioners got together and wrote a letter to the Chief Justice of India NV Ramana. Prof Acharyulu was one of the signatories of the letter.

Speaking about the letter, he says, The RTI act is very clear on one point; there is no further appeal over and above the judgement of the information commission. There is only a possibility of filing a writ petition, and that is a general constitutional proposition. However, because the information commission is a legal, statutory authority, any order of any statutory authority can be reviewed, including even the President of India. That is how everything comes under judicial review. It is a most profound and federal constitution rule and I welcome it.

Speaking further, he said, As far as HCs are concerned, they are limited to judicial review and the legal process. They cannot increase or reduce or annul the files. They cannot order and say information cannot be disclosed. They cannot do all this. However, the Supreme Court has a wider discretionary power, and to do complete justice, they were given such extraordinary powers to say anything. This is required in a democracy, but if such powers are used to stop disclosure of the information, then that is against transparency.

When asked about the future of the RTI act, Prof Acharyulu says, More and more people need to join in it and take it as a challenge to file or take questions and make it a habit for the public information officers-PIOs to give information. Unless you cultivate the habit of disclosure to the public authorities, unless people are massively involved in this mission as a movement, it is very difficult to save the right information because the judiciary is also adding so many barriers and so many limitations so many restrictions on the RTI Act.

The session saw the attendance of many RTI activists, including Commodore Lokesh Batra. Sucheta Dalal, founder-trustee of Moneylife Foundation, asked the panellists about the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and banks going back to court against disclosure of information. She asked, What can we as people do? We have written about the inspection reports that have been released so far. Moneylife is the only one that has put out these reports so far, and the inspection reports show two things. There are no names mentioned. Banks talking about privacy is mischievous because they have redacted everything, and on the broader issue, it is evident that there is a need to disclose this information. Do you have any suggestions on what we the people can do?

Prof Acharyulu responded, We have to enlist the services of good lawyers and ensure that we can defend the RTI Act and the judgement in the Jayantilal case. That is the first course. The second is raising such RTI requests in every relevant way; wherever there is a need for information, we should not hesitate to submit an RTI application, and we should go on doing it. It should be like a movement. These are two things that will increase the pressure on the banks and regulators to give information.

Watch the full video here:

Note: You can now get all your RTI related queries resolved at the click of a button. The Moneylife RTI Advice app is now live on the You can now get all your RTI related queries resolved at the click of a button. The Moneylife RTI Advice app is now live on the Google Playstore and the Apple playstore . So download and ask all your RTI related queries now!

"Look at the name; it is the Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM CARES Fund). It is not Modi care fund. If it was the Modi care fund, we would not have asked for the information. It is the prime minister and the PM is a public authority, a constitutional authority. Who is the controller of the entire fund? It is again the PM. The PM is the executive head of the trust and the trust is handled by the ex-officio secretaries in the ex-officio capacity. That means if he is not a chief secretary or a principal secretary of a particular department, he cannot touch it. That means you are using the public authority, you are using the authority conferred by the Constitution, and you are operating in the public domain. So even without the Right to Information (RTI) Act, simply because you are a public trust, you are supposed to be accountable and be transparent," says Prof Sridhar Acharyulu, the former central information commissioner.
The Kolkata-headquartered SREI group, which includes SREI Infrastructure Finance (SIFL) and SIFLs wholly-owned subsidiary SREI Equipment Finance (SEFL), has been under stress for about a year now. In December 2020, the Kolkata bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) had issued an order stating that any non-payment by SREI will not be recognised as an event of default, till a scheme of arrangement is signed by all creditors. On 7th September, National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) has set aside this earlier order. Options are quickly running out and emergency debt restructuring might well be the only option left for the group and its lenders.

In yet another setback, SIFL's chief executive officer (CEO) Rakesh Kumar Bhutoria has resigned even as the company is going through the debt resolution process. His last working day is yet to be decided but the company has hired a head-hunter to look for a suitable candidate as the new CEO.

Credit rating agencies CARE Ratings and Acuite Ratings & Research have already downgraded the company rating and since its a known stressed account, many lenders are now getting ready to have it appropriately recognised (downgrading to non performing asset (NPA) or stressed pool) or provisioning for it in this month as the second quarter draws to a close on 30th September.

The forensic audit of SREI Infrastructure Finance and SREI Equipment Finance is still going on and the report is expected by this month-end.

It may be recalled that a lot of retail investors, including many senior citizens, have invested in non-convertible debentures (NCDs) of SREI (both group companies) in the hope of earning better interest on their investment corpus. Since, SREI has been a non-deposit taking non banking finance company (NBFC), the retail investors investments are restricted to only NCDs.

Since October 2019, the SREI group has been pursuing a merger of its two group companies, SREI Infrastructure Finance and SREI Equipment Finance.

In December 2020, NCLT granted relief to SREI by directing banks and financial institutions to not take any coercive action against the company after it had approached the NCLT bench requesting moratorium on loan payments (including interest on NCDs) and postponement of redemption dates until the merger is complete.

In March 2021, UCO Bank, along with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), had appealed against the order in NCLAT. Credit rating agencies too had moved NCLAT against the NCLT order.

Debenture trustees Axis Trustee Services Ltd and Catalyst Trusteeship had also approached NCLAT on behalf of the bondholders. Many retail investors have repeatedly highlighted the utter failure on the part of the debenture trustees to protect investors interests. Questions have been raised on their monitoring and tracking mechanism and how they almost always wake up when it is too late and the company is doomed.

Meanwhile the SREI group is in the midst of raising equity capital from foreign investors.

Earlier in June, the company's board gave an approval to raise up to Rs2,500 crore through various means, including qualified institutional placement. Even before this, its subsidiary SREI Equipment Finance Ltd attracted a total investment proposal of Rs4,200 crore from the US- and Singapore-based investors.

Sources said that while many banks have already categorised the loans granted to the SREI group as stressed loans in the previous quarter, they will initiate accelerated provisioning in the September quarter. Under the accelerated clause of a contract, a lender can demand the borrower to repay all of the outstanding loan if the latter fails to fulfil certain requirements.

According to reports, public sector lenders like Indian Bank and Canara Bank have credit exposure (potential loss due to default by borrower) of around Rs2,000 crore and Rs1,200 crore, respectively, to SREI, while private sector banks like ICICI Bank and Axis Bank have Rs800 crore each.

In February 2021, lenders to SREI Infrastructure hired consultancy firm KPMG to do a transaction audit on the firm as the lenders evaluate a loan restructuring proposal by the NBFC, which is struggling to meet repayment obligations due to cash-flow problems engendered by the pandemic. SREI had requested its lenders to reschedule loan repayments citing liquidity mismatches during the pandemic. As per the scheme of arrangement, the NBFC had proposed a structure where they would make repayments in a manner which is aligned to their customers' cash flows.

Back then, a core committee of banks, including State Bank of India (SBI), Indian Bank, Union Bank of India and UCO Bank, had expressed concerns that a part of the total debtabout Rs31,000 crore - may not be sustainable immediately. Bankers had said that a final decision would be taken after considering the KPMG report.

Based on the ministry of corporate affairs (MCA) website and the debt prospectus of SREI (August 2019), we have tried to collate exposure of banks to this stressed group. Again, the data is of charges and may not represent or be equivalent to actual fund-based exposure.

SREI group's bank loans as per debt prospectus (August 2019) are as follows:

Note: There is a consortium loan of Rs105bn, but bank-wise details are not available (not included in above)

Top 10 Debenture Holders on cumulative basis for all outstanding secured NCDs: (as on August 2019)

SREI group exposure as per MCA portal (as of September 2021)

Note: UCO Bank & Axis Bank are lead bankers among a consortium and hence charges are reflected against them. However, it may not represent their actual fund-based exposure.

Source: MCA portal

In June 2021, SREI had revealed in regulatory filings that RBI had detected under-provisioning against stress and had also (in FY 2019-2020) flagged off lending to probable related and connected parties by the SREI group.

RBI had initiated an audit of its books in November 2020 and RBI had identified certain borrowers with loans worth Rs8,576 crore as 'probable' connected or related parties. This corresponds to almost 30% of the groups total loan assets amounting to Rs28.794 crore.

Several top-level executives have quit the SREI group since December 2020 as the lenders have taken control of company finances and have put a cap of Rs50 lakh salary for top-level officials. Some of these employees are even said to be exploring the option of taking legal recourse for release of their salary arrears, which has been held by banks controlling the TRA (Trust and Retention Account).

The chief operating officer (COO) of SEFL quit in April 2021. The company secretaries of SIFL and SEFL had resigned in March and May 2021, respectively. In the past few weeks, the head of treasury and head of corporate communications have also quit.

Additionally, on 13 September 2021, SIFL announced that it has entered into an agreement of sale of shares in subsidiary company Trinity Alternative Investment Managers Limited (TAIML) to Backbay Investment Managers Private Limited (BIMPL). The company will receive a consideration of approximately Rs1.33 crore, i.e., Rs166.23 per equity share.

BIMPL is into the business of an asset management company acting as manager, operator and administrator of alternative investment funds registered with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the company said in a regulatory filing on Monday.

SIFL has three main categories of business, namely, fund based, fee-based, and strategic investments. The company, listed under public financial institution (PFI) by the MCA, was incorporated on 29 March 1985. The companys first public issue was in 1992.
On Tuesday morning, the Midland Health officials taking part in the morning COVID update decided to address those who believe the hospital was using a pandemic to make money.

Were not making money, Midland Health Chief Operating Officer Stephen Bowerman said. With the last couple of months and the census spike that we have seen, we would have significant losses if it wasn't for the city and the county stepping up to provide over $4.75 million in grant money to the hospital to help cover those travel nurses that I talked about, to help cover incentive shifts for our own staff and to provide a bonus for all of our staff below the director level.

Bowerman is referring to recent votes by the Midland City Council and Midland County Commissioners Court to allocated American Rescue Plan Act funding to Midland Memorial Hospital.

We're very grateful to the city council and the county commissioners for approving that, Bowerman said. Our staff is appreciative. I think our partnership with the city and the county is stronger than it's ever been. Not that it's been weak, but they've been in lockstep with us, all three of us organizations together through this pandemic.

Chief Medical Officer Larry Wilson also addressed the accusations being made in social media and by hospital critics, who have stated that hospital officials are purposefully not using some of the alternative therapies because that prolongs hospitalizations and that makes money for the hospital.

Wilson said the facts dont support that narrative. He said during the most recent months when the COVID census has spiked to record highs during the pandemic that the net operational loss to our hospital has been twice what Midland Health experienced in previous months.

Wilson said during the Tuesday press conference that when a COVID admission comes in, theres a bundled payment  a set number  so the longer a patient is in the hospital, the more we lose on those patients and unfortunately COVID patients tend to have very long hospitalizations because the requirement for oxygen and other interventions that tend to overrun what the bundle would normally pay for.

So, if you have any misconception that we're making money with COVID, and that we're not trying to do everything we can to get past this by getting people vaccinated, by using Regeneron therapy, Wilson said, please recognize that it's not a winner for us, and we're trying to make sure that our community is healthy, which is our mission.

Wilson said there is no money to be made on a prolonged hospitalization or keeping MMHs beds full, but that best opportunities is to get a diagnostic code that supports the admission of a patient and he or she goes home quickly.

That's a win for us and we're not experiencing those kinds of wins, Wilson said.

Bowerman also said that people need to remember that the hospital has experienced increased costs, having to pay incentive pay for employees working extra shifts and travel staff, who help communities in a pinch but also receive top dollar for their jobs they perform.

Midland Health President/CEO Russell Meyers told both city and county leaders that the some of the money he sought from both entities would be used for travel nurses and incentive shifts for a two-month period.

Bowerman said Tuesday that even as the COVID census is down nearly 50 over the past few weeks, an unseasonably high census of 223 inpatients at MMH remains.

So, don't forget that we are dependent on outside staff to even do the work we are doing today, Bowerman said. The fact that the COVID census is down is very positive. But we're not out of the woods.

Midland Memorials bottom line also has been impacted because it cant provide elective inpatient surgeries because of the need for beds from our COVID patients. Bowerman said Tuesday discussions will happen over the next week on the hospitals ability to do that.

if we're not providing elective inpatient surgeries, Bowerman said, that tells you that we're still under a lot of stress in the hospital. So please remember that.
JIADONG, Taiwan (AP)  The F-16 screeched across the sky Wednesday before landing on a highway cut through pineapple fields in southwestern Taiwan to refuel quickly and take off again.

The Taiwanese military exercise envisioned a Chinese attack taking out the island's main airfields, necessitating the use of rural roads as runways to carry on the fight.

War is not imminent, but as China has grown increasingly assertive in both the East China and South China Seas, Taiwan is stepping up its defense. Across the region, the United States and its allies are deepening military cooperation and strategizing over an effective response.

China, which claims Taiwan as part of its territory, flies fighter jets toward Taiwan on a regular basis in an effort to warn and intimidate the islands air force. Last month, Chinese fighter jets, anti-submarine aircraft and combat ships conducted joint assault drills near Taiwan with China saying the exercise was necessary to safeguard its sovereignty.

U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced a meeting next week with key regional players that form the so-called Quad  India, Australia and Japan together with the U.S.  for in-person talks the White House said are meant to show the administration's commitment to promoting a free and open Indo-Pacific.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian slammed the U.S. for forming exclusive cliques after the meeting was announced and countered that China was a firm defender of regional peace and stability.

Chinas development is a growing force for peace in the world and a boon to the prosperity and development of the region, he said. The countries concerned should abandon the outdated zero-sum mentality and narrow-minded geopolitical thinking.

Japan, a U.S. ally that hosts the U.S. Navy's 7th Fleet, has long moved cautiously with regard to China, an important trading partner. But it has recently become less reserved in the face of Beijing's growing military activity and broad territorial claims in the western Pacific, including to a group of islands near Taiwan that Japan controls.

Masahisa Sato, a senior lawmaker of the governing Liberal Democratic Party and an expert on defense, told a recent forum on security in Asia that right now the U.S.-Japan alliance is focused largely on a response to a possible conflict stemming from the Korean Peninsula, and it needs to be broadened to consider what to do if there is a Chinese attack on Taiwan.

He noted that the Sakishima island group, which includes some of Okinawa's remote islands, is right next to Taiwan and is part of a same theater.

We should consider a Taiwan contingency as nearly equal to a Japan contingency, Sato said.

All three candidates running on Sept. 29 to become Japan's new leader are proposing hawkish policies toward China, though still acknowledging its importance as a trading partner.

Taro Kono, the minister in charge of vaccinations who is seen as a front runner, has said he will seek to establish a regional framework that adds to Japans alliance with the United States in countering Chinas growing military activity.

In a joint statement after they met in April, outgoing Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and Biden said they recognize the importance of deterrence to maintain peace and stability in the region" and added that they oppose any unilateral attempts to change the status quo in the East China Sea and reiterated their objections to China's unlawful maritime claims and activities in the South China Sea.

Underscoring its concerns, Japans Defense Ministry added a new section on Taiwan in its annual report released in July, saying the situation requires a sense of crisis. It says Chinas military capability has become far greater than that of Taiwan and that Japan must pay attention to further increases on both sides.

Suga announced he will not run in the Sept. 29 Liberal Democratic Party leadership vote, which chooses a new party leader who will become Japan's next prime minister.

Taiwan has stepped up purchases from the U.S. of weapons including missiles and aircraft over the past two years.

Taiwan's defense ministry submitted a budget of $16.8 billion for the next year, a modest increase from last years $16.2 billion. Some of the funds would purchase 66 F-16V fighter jets, according to the semiofficial Central News Agency.

Many believe, however, that despite the bellicose rhetoric and drills like the Han Guang exercise on Wednesday, as well as the Chinese posturing, that open conflict is not on the horizon.

This is a type of gray zone tactic  military intimidation, said Ou Xifu, a researcher at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research in Taiwan. This shouldn't lead to war.

___

Wu reported from Taipei and Yamaguchi from Tokyo. Associated Press researcher Yu Bing contributed to this report from Beijing.
After the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued a license Monday to a company planning to store high-level waste in Andrews County, officials opposed to the project vowed to continue fighting the NRCs decision.

The license authorizes Interim Storage Partners to receive, possess, transfer and store up to 5,000 metric tons of spent fuel and 231.3 metric tons of Greater-Than-Class C low-level radioactive waste for 40 years. ISP has said they plan to store the waste until a permanent repository is built.

Midland County Commissioner Randy Prude has been vocal about his opposition to the storage site and led the Commissioners Court in signing a resolution in 2017 stating their objection to nuclear waste being transported through Midland.

He told the Reporter-Telegram on Tuesday that he was not surprised by the NRCs decision, and he believes they made their minds up years ago to approve ISPs application.

Other states have fought to keep nuclear waste out and have won. We will keep fighting and win as well, he said in an email. Chernobyl times 1,000,000 is our eventual future if we allow the nations nuclear waste to be dumped on the surface in Andrews County. Its not if but when terrorists or accidents cause a Holocaust.

U.S. Congressman August Pfluger of District 11, which includes Midland and Odessa, called the NRCs decision a massive blunder.

This disappointing announcement failed to consider the lack of community support for the project  a vitally important aspect of siting nuclear waste laid out by the Blue Ribbon Commission on Americas Nuclear Future, he said in a statement.

The majority of folks who live and work in this community are vehemently opposed to this waste being stored in Andrews, and not a single elected official supports this decision, he said. In fact, the NRC received over 10,000 responses to their public comment period, and the majority of them were against the site. I have been and will remain vocal in my opposition. I urge the NRC to reverse course.

Texas Rep. Brooks Landgraf co-authored House Bill 7, which was passed by the Legislature during a special session and signed by Gov. Greg Abbott last week. The bills text bans high-level waste storage in Texas, but its unclear if will have any effect on decisions made by the federal government.

Landgraf said in a statement Monday that the NRC would violate Texas law if the license issued to ISP results in the storage of spent nuclear fuel.

I expect that the State of Texas will deploy our available resources to enforce our laws, he said. Prior to the passage of HB 7, the State of Texas had no leg to stand on if it became necessary to fight back against the Biden administration. HB 7 is our weapon against high-level waste.

Abbott also directed blame toward President Biden, writing on Twitter that his administration is trying to dump highly radioactive nuclear waste in West Texas oil fields. NRC staff first recommended approving ISPs license last year  before Biden took office  after the company filed the application in 2016.

Texas will not become America's nuclear waste dumping ground, Abbott wrote.

The Sustainable Energy & Economic Development Coalition, an Austin-based environmental group that has testified at NRC hearings, also indicated they will continue opposing the project.

We do not consider this fight over, Executive Director Karen Hadden told Bloomberg. We will continue to battle these dangerous plans.
The Midland RockHounds will support the West Texas Food Bank during Hunger Action Month. This Friday during the RockHounds game, spectators are invited to wear orange, the color of hunger, and cheer on the RockHounds and the West Texas Food Bank team alongside their partner agencies. The WTFB and partner agencies are on the frontlines for distributing food in the 19 counties the West Texas Food Bank serves.

H-E-B will present a check on behalf of the community, who were invited to give at the H-E-B registers and Whataburger will be spreading orange love as they cheer on their partnership with the WTFB to promote Feeding Students Success.
They're going where few civilians have gone before: All the way up to Earth's orbit.

SpaceX is launching the first all-civilian orbital flight ever at 7:02 p.m. CT/8:02 p.m. EDT Sept. 15 in a mission benefiting St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Here's what you should know.

The four civilians are part of SpaceX's private orbital mission, Inspiration4, researching how space affects the human body.

Inspiration4

Billionaire tech entrepreneur and pilot Jared Isaacman, St. Jude physician's assistant and pediatric cancer survivor Hayley Arcenaux, data engineer Chris Sembroski and geoscientist, science communicator and commercial astronaut Sian Proctor will orbit Earth over three days and conduct multiple experiments from space.

According to Space.com's Chelsea Gohd, crew members' ECG activity, movement, sleep, heart rate and rhythm, blood oxygen levels will be measured throughout the flight. They will also take tests to monitor cognitive and behavioral performance while in space.

This is the first spaceflight for all four crew members.

The flight will raise a lot of money for St. Jude.

The crew's goal is to raise $200 million for the children's hospital. In addition, Isaacman is donating $100 million.

I believe that in the future everyday people will explore amongst the stars, Isaacman said in February, the Houston Chronicle's Andrea Leinfelder previously reported. But before that, we better have defeated some of lifes greatest hardships. St. Judes mission is not about rockets or space exploration. Its about treating some of the most heart-wrenching conditions that any parent could imagine. And if were going to continue making advances up there, in space, then we have an obligation to do the same down here on Earth.

You can watch the flight live.

The flight takes off from the Kennedy Space Center on Sept. 15 and will air live on Netflix's YouTube channel. SpaceX will determine a launch timeframe based upon Florida's weather conditions approximately three days before.

Ahead of the launch, Netflix will release a series showing the preparation for the flight. The first two episodes premiere on Sept. 6, followed by another two episodes on Sept. 13.

On Sept. 30, a final episode will premiere on Netflix documenting the crew's return home.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP)  California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday emphatically defeated a recall aimed at kicking him out of office early, a contest the Democrat framed as part of a national battle for his partys values in the face of the coronavirus pandemic and continued threats from Trumpism.

Newsom bolted to a quick victory boosted by healthy turnout in the overwhelmingly Democratic state. He cast it as a win for his handling of the pandemic and liberal issues, and it ensures the nations most populous state will remain in Democratic control as a laboratory for progressive policies.

No is not the only thing that was expressed tonight, Newsom said. I want to focus on what we said yes to as a state: We said yes to science, we said yes to vaccines, we said yes to ending this pandemic.

With an estimated two-thirds of ballots counted, no on the question of whether to recall Newsom was ahead by a 30-point margin. That lead was built on votes cast by mail and in advance of Tuesdays in-person balloting, with a strong showing by Democrats. While likely to shrink somewhat in the days ahead as votes cast at polling places are counted, Newsoms lead couldnt be overcome.

Republican talk radio host Larry Elder almost certainly would have replaced Newsom had the recall succeeded, an outcome that would have brought a polar opposite political worldview to Sacramento.

The recall turned on Newsoms approach to the pandemic, including mask and vaccine mandates, and Democrats cheered the outcome as evidence voters approve of their approach. The race also was a test of whether opposition to former President Donald Trump and his right-wing politics remains a motivating force for Democrats and independents, as the party looks ahead to midterm elections next year.

Republicans had hoped for proof that frustrations over months of pandemic precautions would drive voters away from Democrats. The GOP won back four U.S. House seats last year, success that Republican leaders had hoped indicated revived signs of life in a state controlled by Democrats for more than a decade.

But a recall election is an imperfect barometer  particularly of national trends. Democrats outnumber Republicans nearly 2-to-1 in California, so the results may not translate to governors in toss-up states or reflect how voters will judge members of Congress next year.

Trump, who had largely stayed out of the contest, made unsubstantiated claims that the election was rigged in the closing days, claims echoed by Elder's campaign. Elder did not mention fraud as he addressed his supporters after the results were in.

Lets be gracious in defeat. We may have lost the battle, but we are going to win the war, he said, later adding that the recall has forced Democrats to focus on issues such as homelessness and Californias high cost of living.

Newsom for months had likened the recall to efforts by Trump and his supporters to overturn the presidential election and a push in Republican-led states to restrict voting access.

Democracy is not a football, you dont throw it around. Its more like  I dont know  an antique vase, Newsom said after his win. You can drop it, smash it into a million different pieces  and thats what were capable of doing if we dont stand up to meet the moment and push back.

He became the second governor in U.S. history to defeat a recall, cementing him as a prominent figure in national Democratic politics and preserving his prospects for a future run. Republican Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker survived a recall in 2012.

California voters were asked two questions: Should Newsom be recalled, and, if so, who should replace him? Only a handful of the 46 names on the replacement ballot had public recognition, but most failed to gain traction with voters.

Elder entered the race just two months ago and quickly rose to the top of the pack. But that allowed Newsom to turn the campaign into a choice between the two men, rather than a referendum on his performance.

Newsom seized on Elders opposition to the minimum wage and abortion rights as evidence he was outside the mainstream in California. The governor branded him more extreme than Trump, while President Joe Biden, who campaigned for Newsom, called him the closest thing to a Trump clone Ive ever seen.

Though the contest didnt quite bring the circus-like element of Californias 2003 recall  when voters replaced Democratic Gov. Gray Davis with Republican movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger  it featured quirky moments of its own.

Reality TV star and former Olympian Caitlyn Jenner entered the race but gained little momentum and left the state for part of the campaign to film a reality show in Australia. Businessman John Cox, who lost badly to Newsom in 2018, tried to spice up his campaign by hiring a live bear to join him, branding himself as the beast to Newsoms beauty.

Newsom will soon be campaigning again; he's up for reelection next year.

Orrin Heatlie, the Republican who launched the recall effort last year, cast it as a David and Goliath battle and said it was telling that Newsom had called on national Democrats like Biden to salvage his damaged political career.

The president and other prominent Democrats offered Newsom support in the races closing days, while national Republican leaders largely kept the contest at arms length.

The recall needed 1.5 million signatures to make the ballot out of California's 22 million registered voters. It never would have come before voters if a judge hadnt given organizers four extra months to gather signatures due to the pandemic. That decision came the same day Newsom attended a maskless dinner at the lavish French Laundry restaurant with lobbyists and friends, stirring outcry.

Supporters of the recall expressed frustration over monthslong business closures and restrictions that kept most children out of classrooms. Rising homicides, a homelessness crisis and an unemployment fraud scandal further angered Newsoms critics.

But the broader public stayed on his side. Polling from the Public Policy Institute of California showed his approval rating remaining above 50% throughout the pandemic. With weeks to go, the institutes poll showed 60% of Californians approved of Newsoms handling of the pandemic.

The rise of the highly contagious delta variant led Newsom to frame the race as one of life or death consequences. He pointed to Texas and Florida, which were seeing worsening surges as their Republican governors rejected mask and vaccine mandates, as cautionary tales for what California could become.

Newsom has been viewed as a potential White House contender since at least 2004, when he defied federal law to issue marriage licenses to LGBT couples as mayor of San Francisco. His victory maintained those prospects, though he will still have to navigate around the ambitions of Harris, who came up through San Francisco politics alongside Newsom.

He came to the contest with advantages. Californias electorate is less Republican, less white and younger than it was in 2003, when voters booted the Democratic Davis. Newsom was allowed to raise unlimited funds, dwarfing his competitors while flooding TV screens with advertising. Public worker unions and business and tech executives poured millions into his campaign.

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Associated Press writers Julie Watson in San Diego, Jocelyn Gecker in Lafayette, Don Thompson in Lincoln, Christopher Weber in Los Angeles and Adam Beam in Sacramento contributed.

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See AP's recall coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/california-recall
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP)  Afghanistans new foreign minister said Tuesday that the Taliban governing the country remain committed to not allowing militants to use their territory to launch attacks. But he refused to say when or if the countrys new rulers would create a more inclusive government.

Without other political factions and women serving in the government, the Taliban seem unlikely to win international recognition as the legitimate leaders of Afghanistan. And without such recognition, the Afghan state is unable to tap billions of its funds frozen abroad, leaving it virtually bankrupt at a time of immense humanitarian need.

The Taliban received sharp criticism last week after they announced a Cabinet made up entirely of men from their movement, including several on international terror lists. Taliban leaders previously had promised broader representation.

Amir Khan Mutaqi, a longtime Taliban negotiator named as foreign minister, appeared Tuesday at his first news conference since becoming a member of the interim government. But he gave little indication of whether the Taliban would bend to international pressure.

Asked if the Taliban would include women or ethnic and religious minorities in the government, Mutaqi answered, We will decide in time but did not offer a commitment.

He underscored that the current government is ruling on an interim basis and said that when a permanent one is formed, we will take into account what the people want. He would not give a timetable for a permanent government.

We are taking everything step by step. We have not said how long this Cabinet will last, Mutaqi said.

After the withdrawal of Western troops and the Talibans sudden return to power last month, the U.S. and its allies have used money, potential recognition and warnings of isolation to pressure them away from repeating their repressive rule of the 1990s. At that time, the Taliban imposed a harsh interpretation of Islamic law, including severe restrictions on women and minorities.

Mutaqi, responding Tuesday to a question about the eventual holding of elections, replied that other countries must not interfere in Afghanistans internal issues, a comment he repeated several times during the news conference.

However, the foreign minister did give the first confirmation from the interim government of the new Cabinets intention to honor a deal the Taliban reached with the United States last year.

Under the deal, which opened the way for the American withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Taliban promised to break ties with al-Qaida and other militant groups and ensure they dont threaten other countries from the movements territory.

We will not allow anyone or any groups to use our soil against any other countries, Mutaqi said.

While ruling Afghanistan during the late 1990s, the Taliban sheltered al-Qaida and its chief, Osama bin Laden. Their refusal to hand over bin Laden and other al-Qaida members after the Sept. 11 terror attacks prompted the U.S. to launch a military assault which ousted the Taliban and led to a 20-year war in Afghanistan.

Many experts remain skeptical the Taliban have broken ties with al-Qaida since they reached the 2020 withdrawal deal with the Trump administration. But al Qaida has been significantly weakened, and Washington has made clear its top priority is preventing Islamic State attacks from Afghanistan.

The Taliban have battled with the Islamic State since its emergence in Afghanistan in 2014. A burgeoning IS affiliate has claimed responsibility for most recent attacks, including the horrific bombing outside the Kabul airport that killed 13 U.S. service personnel and 169 Afghans during last months chaotic evacuations.

Still, U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier, who leads the Defense Intelligence Agency, said at a national security summit Tuesday that al-Qaida could begin to threaten the United States from Afghanistan within one to two years, echoing warnings that were issued before the U.S. withdrawal.

Meanwhile, the broader terms of the worlds relationship with the Taliban remain unsettled a month after they swept into Kabul on Aug. 15 and Afghanistan's U.S.-backed president, Ashraf Ghani, fled the presidential palace.

There also appear to be divisions within the Taliban over the next steps. Some leaders are said to be more open to compromise, while others insist on resolute Taliban domination.

The makeup of the Taliban government poses a dilemma for the United Nations as it prepares to open a new session of the U.N. General Assembly. Several of the interim ministers, including Mutaqi, Prime Minister Mohammad Hasan Akhund and Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, are on the U.N.s so-called black list of international terrorists and terrorist financers.

Haqqani is also wanted by the FBI for questioning in connection with attacks in the Afghan capital during the last two decades. As the interim interior minister, he oversees Afghanistans police and has already called former officers back to work. While some have returned, including most traffic police, many are reluctant.

Mutaqi urged the U.N. to remove the Taliban ministers from the watch list. The list has no logic, he said.

When the Taliban last ruled, the U.N. refused to recognize their government and instead gave Afghanistans seat to the previous, warlord-dominated government of President Burhanuddin Rabbani, who eventually was killed by a suicide bomber in 2011. It was Rabbani's government that brought bin Laden to Afghanistan from Sudan in 1996.

This time around, it is not clear whether the seat will be reserved for a representative of Ghani's government. The president's sudden departure shocked the political leadership in Kabul, including former President Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah, the governments chief negotiator, who were still negotiating with the Taliban to form an interim government.

The governments of the U.S. and other countries promised millions in new humanitarian aid for the U.N. to spend in Afghanistan as the country faces increasing hunger and economic collapse, but they suggested a future willingness to help could depend on the actions of the Taliban.

During a second day of tough congressional questioning about the Afghanistan withdrawal, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the Biden administration would hold the Taliban, to their promises not to allow Afghanistan to be used again as a base for terrorist attacks.

Mutaqi said the Taliban-led government seeks good relations with foreign nations but insisted they must not interfere in its affairs. He also called for international donors to send more aid and international banking institutions to continue their projects in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan is poor. It needs all the help the world can give, Mutaqi said, promising that foreign aid would be distributed without corruption.

He also said that all of Afghanistans embassies operating abroad have been told to continue their operations. He promised Afghans would be allowed to leave the country and said it was the job of the Taliban government to provide passports to its citizens.

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Lee Keath contributed from Cairo.
CARLINVILLE  A Litchfield man has been sentenced to three years in prison for defrauding a Carlinville bank and two others out of more than $4 million between 2010 and 2012.

Wayne H. Kruger, 73, of Litchfield pleaded guilty Feb. 22 to three counts of bank fraud. He admitted that, from December 2010 through May 2012, he defrauded or tried to defraud Carlinville National Bank and Trust Co., State Bank of Cerro Gordo and State Bank of Bement, according to court documents.
Overnight reports from Jacksonville police:

 Nathaniel L. Jones, 29, of 511 S. Prairie St. was arrested at 12:28 a.m. Wednesday on a charge of violating an order of protection.
SASTIN, Slovakia (AP)  Pope Francis urged Slovakians on Wednesday to look out for the neediest among them as he ended his first post-surgery trip with a huge open-air Mass that drew tens of thousands of people amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Cheering, maskless crowds lined Francis motorcade route through Sastin, 15 kilometers (about 10 miles) from Slovakias western border, and they were rewarded with a slow-moving popemobile jaunt and a smiling, waving Francis as he arrived at the vast field.

Organizers said 60,000 people attended the Mass, the biggest crowd at any event during the pope's four-day pilgrimage to Slovakia.

The venue was the Our Lady of Sorrows national shrine, Slovakias most important one dedicated to the Virgin Mary, where St. John Paul II prayed in 1995. Each Sept. 15, pilgrims from Slovakia and beyond flock to Sastin on the feast day of Slovakias patron, with some this year spending the night on the dusty field to get a better spot.

You can imagine that Im excited because hes from Latin America, said Erick Montalvo, a pilgrim from Mexico. You feel it like you are kind of close to him because of that. And thats a very nice feeling.

During his homily, Francis urged the pilgrims to open their hearts to compassion and live a faith that identifies with those who are hurting, suffering and forced to bear heavy crosses.

He called them to live a faith that does not remain abstract, but becomes incarnate in fellowship with those in need.

The Mass was Francis only big event Wednesday before he returns to Rome after a four-day pilgrimage to Budapest, Hungary and Slovakia, a largely Roman Catholic country of 5.5 million people.

The pilgrims had to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination to receive a barcode that gave them entry to the site. A few thousand non-vaccinated pilgrims were allowed in with proof of a negative test or having been cured of the virus. Hardly anyone in the crowd wore face masks.

With the delta variant dominating, new coronavirus cases have been on the rise recently, reaching 760 on Tuesday, the highest figure since April. Another four people died of COVID-19 on Tuesday for a total of 12,566.

Slovakia has been badly hit by the virus and was the nation with most COVID-19 deaths per capita in the world in the middle of February.

The country now has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the EU, with slightly more than 2 million having been fully vaccinated.

The purely religious finale capped a visit that featured delicate state diplomacy. Francis met with right-wing populist Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Day 1 and outreach to Slovakias Jewish and Roma communities.

The trip was Francis first since undergoing intestinal surgery to remove a 33-centimeter (13-inch) chunk of his colon in July. He has appeared in good form and spirit throughout the grueling itinerary, seemingly energized by the crowds after being cooped up in the Vatican for over a year of COVID-19 restrictions.

Francis has at least two other trips planned before the end of the year: a quick trip to Glasgow, Scotland, to participate in the U.N. climate conference in November, and a trip  not yet confirmed by the Vatican  to Greece, Cyprus and Malta in December.

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Karel Janicek reported from Prague. Philipp Jenne contributed to this report.
GRAFTON  This summers Light Up the River Road fireworks in Alton and Grafton end Thursday with an expanded show in both communities.

Great Rivers & Routes Tourism Bureau of Southwest Illinois will mark the end of 16 weeks of Thursday night fireworks in Alton and Grafton with an enhanced show starting at 8:30 p.m. Thursday.

Thursday night fireworks have drawn visitors to our region from the time we began in June until now, said Cory Jobe, the bureaus president and CEO. We are going to mark the end of our fireworks season with a special show that will last approximately 25 minutes and include even more fireworks than people saw throughout the summer.

The Alton fireworks will launch from the parking lot at Landmarks Boulevard and Henry Street on the citys riverfront. The Grafton show will launch from Grafton Lighthouse Park.

When we began the fireworks earlier this summer, our goal was to draw people to our region midweek to enjoy all the great dining and recreational opportunities available in both Alton and Grafton, Jobe said. We believe we accomplished that.

We found that the communities were very busy during Thursday night fireworks and many of our restaurant partners reported increased sales. People are discovering that our region is not just a weekend destination.

The Alton Marina also will host a free concert featuring The Owlz Band starting at 7:30 p.m. Thursday. No outside coolers will be allowed.

Great Rivers & Routes Tourism Bureau serves Madison, Jersey, Calhoun, Macoupin, Montgomery and Greene counties.
When it comes to how he feels about big tech, Jeff Bartos didnt mince his words.

From shadow-banning conservatives, censoring content online, biased fact-checking, and now funneling millions of dollars into our elections its become clearer than ever: Big Tech must be reined in, Bartos, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate from Pennsylvania, wrote on Twitter on July 1.

But even as the suburban Philadelphia businessman parroted a popular Republican talking point, he and his wife also were enjoying the financial benefits that come with investing in such big tech titans as Alphabet Inc., which owns Google, and Apple.

Financial disclosure forms that Bartos filed with the U.S. Senate as a requirement for his bid for the GOP nomination in 2022, show that he and his wife jointly and individually hold hundreds of thousands of dollars in stock in the Silicon Valley giants.

Bartos isnt alone. Disclosure forms filed by Val Arkoosh, whos Bartos neighbor in heavily Democratic Montgomery County, whos also running, similarly show individual and joint investments in Amazon, Alphabet, and Microsoft that run to the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Arkoosh also serves on Montgomery Countys Board of Commissioners.

As they head into the thick of one of the most closely watched U.S. Senate contests in the country, the filings underline the tightrope that the hopefuls walk as they talk tough on the outsized influence of big tech, but also see their wealth enlarged by their sizable investments.

Both are part of a large field of Republican and Democratic candidates vying to replace Republican Sen. Pat Toomey, who is retiring in 2022.

In a wide-ranging interview, Bartos kept up his drumbeat of criticism, even as he defended his investments.

If anything, it proves Im not afraid to state my convictions, even if its against my financial interests, he said. I can advocate for policies that I think are right. As a shareholder, who owns stock, I believe that the company needs to change for the better. He added that its the responsibility, and the duty of shareholders to lodge such criticisms.

Bartos, who accused social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook of behaving like Democratic super PACs for what he believes are unreasonable restraints on speech by conservatives, says hed support looking at anti-trust action if these companies dont take a hard look at what theyre doing and change their policies.

Its a familiar grievance. Republican state lawmakers across the country, including Pennsylvania, began pushing legislation that would punish social media companies for policing content on their websites, the Associated Press reported.

The efforts began surfacing not long after former President Donald Trump was banished from Twitter and Facebook for spreading baseless claims of election fraud on the platforms.

Arkoosh, whose campaign declined an interview request, said through a spokesperson that she believes members of Congress owning or trading stocks is a conflict of interest.

Arkoosh supports legislation to bar members of Congress from owning and trading stocks, and if elected, would put her eligible assets into a blind trust. the spokesperson, Rachel Petri, said in an emailed statement.

And while theyre on opposite sides of the aisle, Arkooshs and Bartos respective criticisms of Big Tech mirror national trends that have Republicans and Democrats uniting on an issue at a time where bipartisan agreement on most issues is elusive at best and impossible at worst.

In June, for instance, a bipartisan cadre of lawmakers on Capitol Hill rolled out a package of antitrust bills. That spirit of bipartisanship has not prevented the issue from being politicized in Pennsylvania or elsewhere.

In a statement, Brad Bainum, a spokesman for the progressive super PAC American Bridge, said it was classic politician behavior for anti-Big Tech Jeff Bartos to own hundreds of thousands in tech company stocks.

If he somehow manages to get out of this messy GOP primary, its clear Bartos cant be trusted to represent Pennsylvania families in Washington, Bainum said.

But with most Americans harboring the same skepticism, even as they, too, pad their retirement portfolios with Big Tech stocks, one veteran observer said he doubts the average voter will share in that outrage.

Even though you own stock in Alphabet, you can still say Google should be reined in because its anti-competitive, Republican consultant Christopher Nicholas said. Or theres Amazon, which is on both sides of the equation. parse through stuff, understand it through the lens of common sense, he said.

John L. Micek is an award-winning political journalist. He can be reached at jmicek@penncapital-star.com.
UNITED NATIONS (AP)  The U.N. Security Council on Wednesday encouraged Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan to resume negotiations on the contentious issue of water availability from the dam that the Ethiopians are building on the main tributary of the Nile River.

A brief presidential statement approved by all 15 council members said negotiations should resume at the invitation of the African Unions chairperson to finalize expeditiously the text of mutually acceptable and binding agreement on the filling and operation of the (dam) within a reasonable time frame.

The Security Council calls upon the three countries to take forward the AU-led negotiation process in a constructive and cooperative manner, it said.

The dam on the Blue Nile is 80% complete and is expected to reach full generating capacity in 2023, making it Africas largest hydroelectric power plant and the worlds seventh largest, according to reports in Ethiopias state media. Ethiopia says the $5 billion dam is essential to make sure the vast majority of its people have electricity.

Egypt and Sudan have said 10 years of negotiations with Ethiopia have failed, and the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is starting a second filling of its reservoir. They say this not only violates a 2015 agreement but poses an existential threat to 150 million people in their downstream nations.

Egypts Foreign Ministry welcomed the statement as a significant push to the stalled negotiations and urged Ethiopia to engage seriously in talks to achieve a legally binding agreement on the filling and operation of the dam.

Sudanese Foreign Minister Mariam al-Mahdi also called for resumption of the talks soon to reach an agreement acceptable for the three parties. She commented while welcoming a visit to Khartoum by Congolese Foreign Minister Christophe Lutundula, whose nation chairs the African Union.

Ethiopias foreign ministry said it welcomes the council directing the issue to the AU-led negotiations, but then added that it regrets the council pronounces itself over an issue of water right and development that is outside of its mandate.

In July, Egypt and Sudan sought a legally binding Security Council resolution that would require the three countries to negotiate a legally binding agreement within six months under AU auspices that ensures Ethiopias ability to generate hydropower  while preventing the inflicting of significant harm on the water security of downstream states.

The council has not adopted such a resolution, instead approving this presidential statement.

The brief council statement encouraged observers that have been invited to attend negotiations and any other observers the three countries agree to jointly invite to continue supporting the negotiations with a view to facilitating resolution of outstanding technical and legal issues.

The council underscored that its statement does not set out any principles or precedent in any other transboundary water disputes.

By EDITH M. LEDERER

Associated Press
Taiwan drills military as concerns over China grow View Photo

JIADONG, Taiwan (AP)  The F-16 screeched across the sky Wednesday before landing on a highway cut through pineapple fields in southwestern Taiwan to refuel quickly and take off again.

The Taiwanese military exercise envisioned a Chinese attack taking out the islands main airfields, necessitating the use of rural roads as runways to carry on the fight.

War is not imminent, but as China has grown increasingly assertive in both the East China and South China Seas, Taiwan is stepping up its defense. Across the region, the United States and its allies are deepening military cooperation and strategizing over an effective response.

China, which claims Taiwan as part of its territory, flies fighter jets toward Taiwan on a regular basis in an effort to warn and intimidate the islands air force. Last month, Chinese fighter jets, anti-submarine aircraft and combat ships conducted joint assault drills near Taiwan with China saying the exercise was necessary to safeguard its sovereignty.

U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced a meeting next week with key regional players that form the so-called Quad  India, Australia and Japan together with the U.S.  for in-person talks the White House said are meant to show the administrations commitment to promoting a free and open Indo-Pacific.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian slammed the U.S. for forming exclusive cliques after the meeting was announced and countered that China was a firm defender of regional peace and stability.

Chinas development is a growing force for peace in the world and a boon to the prosperity and development of the region, he said. The countries concerned should abandon the outdated zero-sum mentality and narrow-minded geopolitical thinking.

Japan, a U.S. ally that hosts the U.S. Navys 7th Fleet, has long moved cautiously with regard to China, an important trading partner. But it has recently become less reserved in the face of Beijings growing military activity and broad territorial claims in the western Pacific, including to a group of islands near Taiwan that Japan controls.

Masahisa Sato, a senior lawmaker of the governing Liberal Democratic Party and an expert on defense, told a recent forum on security in Asia that right now the U.S.-Japan alliance is focused largely on a response to a possible conflict stemming from the Korean Peninsula, and it needs to be broadened to consider what to do if there is a Chinese attack on Taiwan.

He noted that the Sakishima island group, which includes some of Okinawas remote islands, is right next to Taiwan and is part of a same theater.

We should consider a Taiwan contingency as nearly equal to a Japan contingency, Sato said.

All three candidates running on Sept. 29 to become Japans new leader are proposing hawkish policies toward China, though still acknowledging its importance as a trading partner.

Taro Kono, the minister in charge of vaccinations who is seen as a front runner, has said he will seek to establish a regional framework that adds to Japans alliance with the United States in countering Chinas growing military activity.

In a joint statement after they met in April, outgoing Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and Biden said they recognize the importance of deterrence to maintain peace and stability in the region and added that they oppose any unilateral attempts to change the status quo in the East China Sea and reiterated their objections to Chinas unlawful maritime claims and activities in the South China Sea.

Underscoring its concerns, Japans Defense Ministry added a new section on Taiwan in its annual report released in July, saying the situation requires a sense of crisis. It says Chinas military capability has become far greater than that of Taiwan and that Japan must pay attention to further increases on both sides.

Suga announced he will not run in the Sept. 29 Liberal Democratic Party leadership vote, which chooses a new party leader who will become Japans next prime minister.

Taiwan has stepped up purchases from the U.S. of weapons including missiles and aircraft over the past two years.

Taiwans defense ministry submitted a budget of $16.8 billion for the next year, a modest increase from last years $16.2 billion. Some of the funds would purchase 66 F-16V fighter jets, according to the semiofficial Central News Agency.

Many believe, however, that despite the bellicose rhetoric and drills like the Han Guang exercise on Wednesday, as well as the Chinese posturing, that open conflict is not on the horizon.

This is a type of gray zone tactic  military intimidation, said Ou Xifu, a researcher at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research in Taiwan. This shouldnt lead to war.

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Wu reported from Taipei and Yamaguchi from Tokyo. Associated Press researcher Yu Bing contributed to this report from Beijing.

By JOHNSON LAI, HUIZHONG WU and MARI YAMAGUCHI

Associated Press
Third shot: UK to offer COVID booster jabs to over 50s View Photo

LONDON (AP)  The U.K. announced Tuesday it will offer a third dose of coronavirus vaccine to everyone over 50 and other vulnerable people to help the country ride out the pandemic through the winter months.

The booster shots, which will be rolled out beginning next week, were approved a day after the Conservative government also backed plans to offer one vaccine dose to children 12 to 15 years old.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization, which advises the government, recommended that booster shots be offered to everyone over 50, health care workers, people with underlying health conditions and those who live with people whose immune systems are compromised. They will be given no earlier than six months after a person received their second dose of vaccine.

Around 30 million people will be eligible for the booster shots, which aim to protect against a modest waning in immunity among those who have received two jabs.

The result of this vaccination campaign is we have one of the most free societies and one of the most open economies in Europe, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told reporters on Tuesday. Thats why were now sticking with our strategy.

Although the number of people now contracting COVID-19 is way higher than this time last year  over 30,000 new infections a day  the British government has opted not to re-introduce further virus restrictions for England, as the vaccine drive this year has reduced the number of people requiring treatment for COVID-19 and subsequently dying.

However, Johnson said the government was ready to re-introduce measures over the coming weeks and months if the pressure on hospitals becomes acute. The number of people in U.K. hospitals with COVID-19 stands at around 8,500, way down from the near 40,000 that were hospitalized earlier this year during a catastrophic second wave of the pandemic.

Measures held in reserve include mandatory mask-wearing, vaccine certifications for nightclubs and other large-scale events, though not pubs, and a requirement for people to work from home.

When youve got a large proportion, as we have now, with immunity, then smaller changes can make a bigger difference and give us the confidence that we dont have to go back to the lockdowns of the past, Johnson said. In the meantime, we are confident in the vaccines that have made such a difference to our lives.

The JCVI said the Pfizer vaccine should be the primary choice for booster shots, with a half-dose of Moderna as an alternative. It said these messenger RNA vaccines are more effective as booster shots. The AstraZeneca vaccine shot, which is based on a different technology, will be offered to anyone who cant receive an RNA vaccine for clinical reasons.

The decision to offer booster shots is not one thats being recommended by the World Health Organization, which has asked wealthy nations to delay giving them out until every country has vaccinated at least 40% of their people. Only a few other wealthy countries have recommended their use. In the United States, the FDA is publicly debating booster shots later this week.

Englands chief medical officer, Chris Whitty, said its hugely important that developing countries get the jabs they need but pointed to the difficulties in transporting the Pfizer vaccine, which has a relatively short shelf-life and needs to be kept at super-chilled temperatures.

Appealing to everyone eligible for a vaccine to get one as soon as possible, Whitty said there is a very substantially smaller risk of being admitted to a hospital with COVID-19 if someone is vaccinated compared to those who are not. He said someone in their 30s who is unvaccinated is running the same level of risk as someone in their 70s who is vaccinated.

One of the most depressing things for doctors, including myself, is talking to people who have just chosen not to get vaccinated because it wasnt convenient at that particular moment. And you see them being wheeled down to intensive care, and you know this was a very serious problem as a result of them not being vaccinated, he said.

Whitty also took aim at those who spread misinformation about the vaccines after being asked about comments from rapper Nicki Minaj, saying anyone peddling untruths to discourage others from getting the vaccine should be ashamed of themselves.

On Monday, Minaj sent a series of sometime conflicting tweets to her more than 22 million followers, including an unsubstantiated story regarding her cousins friend being rendered impotent after being vaccinated. However, she also said that she was sure she would end up getting a shot in order to go on tour but wanted to do more research.

When asked about the impotency remark, Whitty sought to stress that most people are ignoring baseless claims and are getting the vaccines  81.2% of people 16 and older in Britain are fully vaccinated.

There are a number of myths that fly around, some of which are just clearly ridiculous and some of which are clearly designed just to scare, Whitty said. That happens to be one of them. That is untrue.

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Follow APs pandemic coverage at:

https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic

https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine

https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak

By PAN PYLAS and DANICA KIRKA

Associated Press
BERLIN (AP)  The German government expressed concern Wednesday at reports on the possible deployment of Russian mercenaries in Mali.

Germany has several hundred soldiers taking part in United Nations stabilization and European Union training missions in the West African country.

We find the possibility of such a cooperation (between Mali and private mercenaries) very worrying too, said German Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Adebahr, echoing comments by government officials in France, which has a much larger military presence in Mali.

A defense ministry spokeswoman, Christina Routsi, said that if the Malian government were to go ahead with the reported plans then Germany would reach out to its European and international partners, and examine possible consequences.

Asked whether that included examining whether the basis for Germanys current military mission in Mali was still fulfilled, Routsi said: Thats precisely what we will examine.

French Defense Minister Florence Parly, speaking on Tuesday to a parliamentary commission, said about what she called a rumor that if the Malian authorities were to enter into a contract with Russian mercenaries, it would be extremely preoccupying and contradictory, incoherent with everything we have done for years in the region.

France now has more than 5,000 troops in the Sahel. Yet Paris announced this year plans to reduce that force to 2,500 to 3,000 troops in the coming years.

French troops have been present in Mali since 2013, when they intervened to force Islamic extremist rebels from power in towns across the countrys north. The operation was later expanded to include other countries in an effort to help stabilize the broader Sahel region.

Russia has denied any official military involvement in Mali.

There are no representatives of the Russian Armed Forces there, and no official negotiations are being held, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday.

A Kremlin-backed private military company, Wagner Group, has been accused by western governments of human rights abuses in the Central African Republic and involvement in the conflict in Libya.
Mexico finishes 3-month push to vaccinate border residents View Photo

MEXICO CITY (AP)  The Mexican government said Tuesday it has successfully completed a three-month push to provide coronavirus vaccines to all adult residents of communities along its border with the United States.

Mexico said that when it began the effort in June, it hoped the mass vaccinations would aid in lifting pandemic restrictions on non-essential travel across the border, something that has not yet occurred.

Mexicos public safety department said it was administering the last 64,000 doses Tuesday to people in the Gulf coast border state of Tamaulipas. In total, the program handed out 3.8 million shots in 45 townships and cities in six states along the border.

The United States donated about 1.35 million doses of Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine to help in the effort.

Mexico officials said the goal was to boost vaccination rates along the border to levels similar to that on the U.S. side. Once that level was reached, they assumed there would be no reason to continue restricting travel over the U.S. border.

The project became a priority for President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador because the cross-border economy is so important for northern Mexico.

So far, Mexico has received about 100 million doses of vaccines and given at least 61 million people at least one dose. But the Mexican government has so far resisted calls to vaccinate children under 18.

Officials have said eventually they may begin vaccinating people under 18 who have chronic health conditions that put them at increased risk.

But in the first mass vaccination of minors, state officials in the border state of Coahuila bused 1,000 children across the border to Eagle Pass, Texas, where they got their first shot of the Pfizer vaccine administered by members of the Texas National Guard. The youths ages 12 to 17 are the children of workers at border assembly plants known as maquiladoras.

Because the federal government controls vaccination efforts in Mexico, parents must file for a court injunction to get shots for their children, or take them to the United States.
Guests abducted from hotel in Mexico by gunmen, later found

MEXICO CITY (AP)  Police in northern Mexico found 38 people, including 22 Haitians and Cubans, who were abducted from a hotel early Tuesday, authorities.

The chief prosecutor of the northern state of San Luis Potosi said the victims were found alive on a roadside, apparently abandoned by their captors.

Prosecutor Federico Garza Herrera said the group included 16 Mexicans and 22 foreigners, among them three children and a pregnant woman.

It was not immediately clear whether the foreigners were migrants. Initial reports suggested some were Venezuelans. Immigration authorities were checking their status in the country.

The abduction took place early Tuesday at a hotel in the city of Matehuala. Prosecutors said three SUVs carrying armed men arrived before dawn at the Hotel Sol y Luna and abducted the guests.

Some of the victims identification documents were found inside rooms. The abductors apparently also took the hotels log of its guests.

The abductees were found later by National Guard and police officers on a road outside Matehuala, after a caller said a group of people were asking for help on the road.

Costlier migrant smuggling operations often put up their clients in small hotels as they move them north. Organized crime gangs traditionally charge a tax for each migrant moved through their territory. If that tax is not paid or a rival smuggling group sees an opportunity, such abductions can occur.

Rival gangs also sometimes simply hijack groups of migrants from other traffickers.
MEXICO CITY (AP)  A judge in Mexico has sentenced drug lord Vicente Carrillo Fuentes to 28 years in prison for organized crime, money laundering and weapons violations, prosecutors announced Tuesday.

Carillo Fuentes was a former leader of the Juarez drug cartel, based in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas. He is the brother of drug lord Amado Carrillo Fuentes, known as The Lord of The Skies, who died in a botched plastic surgery in 1997.

Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, 58, took over the cartel that year and was arrested in 2014. Known by his nickname The Viceroy, he continued his brothers business of smuggling drugs over the border, prosecutors said.

In 2018, local media reported he was among inmates who signed a letter complaining about increases in the price of snack foods at a prison commissary.

Also Tuesday, the Mexican government announced it will release 682 inmates on trial or serving sentences for non-violent crimes because they are over 70, are terminally ill, were victims of torture or belong to an Indigenous group. The government published a decree in August allowing such releases, and over 4,000 cases are being reviewed.

A separate measure, an April 2020 amnesty law, offered to release Indigenous people who hadnt received a proper defense, poor people convicted of non-violent drug offenses, and those pressured into committing crimes by drug cartels. But only five people had been released one year later, out of 1,000 requests.
Tuolumne Public Health reports a death due to COVID-19 a man in his 60s. There are 36 new COVID-19 cases since yesterday report and 270 active cases including 12 who are hospitalized. The total current case rate, a 14-day average for Tuolumne County is down to 52.7 per 100,000 population from 52.8 yesterday- the number was corrected from 25.7 which was a mistake. A total of 4,143 have been released from isolation after testing positive for COVID-19, 270 cases are currently active, there have been 99 deaths and 1,619 inmate cases for a total of 6,095 total cases.

Todays newly reported cases include 3 cases age 17 or under and 9 cases age 60 and older. The gender and age breakdown is; 1 boy age 0-11, 2 boys age 12-17, 4 women and 1 man age 18-29, 4 women and 5 men age 30-39, 2 women and 1 man age 40 to 49, 5 women and 2 men age 50-59, 2 women and 1 man age 60 -69, and 4 woman and 2 men age 70 to 79.

Of the 36 new community cases, 30 were unvaccinated, and 6 were vaccinated, and the man who died was unvaccinated. There are no new Sierra Conservation Center (SCC) inmate cases, the California Department of Corrections reports 15 active inmate cases, there are two correctional facilities in the state with more active Covid cases.

Dr. Tony Conte, a local pediatrician shared his thoughts on school starting and common sense information for 2021 in his blog here.

Calaveras County Public Health reports 29 new Covid cases since yesterdays report and 83 active cases including 3 Covid hospitalizations. There are 10 new cases age 0-17 and 1 new case in individuals age 65 years old or older. Since the pandemic began Calaveras has had 461 Covid-19 positive people who are 17 and under and 571 Covid-19 positive people 65 and over.

Youth Activity COVID-19 Mandatory Order On Friday September 10, the Tuolumne, Calaveras, Amador, and Mariposa Counties updated the youth activity rules. The order went into effect yesterday, Monday, September 13, and will remain in effect until it is rescinded. Adherence to the order applies to all extracurricular and organized youth activities that occur before or after school, on school campuses or in the community, public or private. Details are in the Health Officer Order here.

COVID-19 Testing Public Health officials say, If you have more serious symptoms such as pain or pressure in your chest, trouble breathing, bluish lips or face, sudden confusion, having a hard time staying awake, dizziness, contact your healthcare provider or urgent care.

If you believe you have been exposed to COVID, schedule an appointment to get tested 5 days after exposure. If you are having any symptoms, please get tested right away. The State testing site is open 7 days a week beginning from 7 AM to 7 PM at the Mother Lode Fairgrounds. Appointments should be made rather than walking in. Appointments can be scheduled at www.lhi.care/covidtesting or by calling 888-634-1123. Testing is also available through, some pharmacies, at Rapid Care or the hospital emergency department if you are experiencing any symptoms, or contact your healthcare provider.

COVID-19 Vaccines Vaccine appointments can be made at local pharmacies and through myturn.ca.gov or by calling 833-422-4255. Anyone 12 and older is eligible for a COVID vaccine, Pfizer is approved for anyone age 12 or over. As detailed here healthcare workers are required to be vaccinated by September 30. The Pfizer vaccine requires 3 weeks between doses and the Moderna requires 4 weeks. The J&J vaccine requires only one dose. Call or email with any questions you may have Tuolumne is available at (209) 533-7440 Health@tuolumnecounty.ca.gov, Mariposa at (209) 259-1332 or mariposacovid19@gmail.com more numbers are available on our COVID-19 vaccine page here.

Public Health continues to strongly encourage everyone who is eligible to get vaccinated, as the most important step to reduce the spread of disease and prevent serious illness and death, as well as to reduce the impact on the healthcare system. In addition, the continued practice of other preventive actions like wearing a mask in public, keeping your distance, avoiding crowds, washing hands, and staying home when sick will help slow the spread of the virus. The vaccination rate for Tuolumne county is 54% of eligible people.

Health Officials detail, Choosing to help the Public Health Department slow the spread of COVID-19 helps protect you, your family, and your community. We all need to work together to slow the spread of COVID-19. We strongly encourage everyone to be part of the solution and answer the phoneit may be the health department calling to let you know your test result came back positive for COVID-19, or that you have been in close contact with someone who has it. For more information on contact tracing click here, for isolation and quarantine information go here.

Mariposa County Public Health says We have had a lot of questions around Vaccine Immunity vs. Natural Immunity, here are some quick facts  Both can provide some protection from infection (or reinfection with natural immunity), but the risks of relying on a natural infection for immunity are significant. Learn more about long-term risk of infections here. Also regarding Long COVID they state, this resource helps to address all post-COVID conditions, including long COVID. Its important to know that each person will experience and cope with long-term illness differently, so its a good idea to follow up with your primary care provider. There is a common misunderstanding that recovered means someone is completely well. This is not the case. In fact, in some medical sense, being deceased could qualify as recovered. The CDC definition of recovered for COVID-19 means 24 hours have passed since the fever break without fever-reducing medications, and symptoms have improved, and at least 10 days have passed since the onset of symptoms.

County/Date

Tier Color Active

Cases New Cases

Total Cases COVID

Deaths Amador 9/14 141 56 2,879 49 Calaveras 9/14 83 29 3,145 67 Mariposa 9/14 59 10 933 10 Mono 9/14 47 7 1,242 5 Stanislaus 9/14 2,576 229 71,135 1,197 Tuolumne 9/14 270 36 6,131 99 For other county-level statistics view our page here.
A tanker flies over Wrights Lake while battling the Caldor Fire in Eldorado National Forest, Calif., on Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2021. (AP Photo/Noah Berger) View Photo

Sonora, CA  At midnight tonight, two days earlier than originally ordered, a majority of the 18 national forests closed for nearly a month due to dangerous fire conditions will reopen.

That will include the Stanislaus National Forest (STF), where fire officials stressed enhanced fire restrictions remain in place to reduce the risk of new wildland fires. STF spokesperson Traci Allen shared that while legally the forest will be open at midnight it could take a little longer to actually fully reopen. She detailed, It might take all through Friday to get everything completely open, like all the gates. But campgrounds, wilderness, trailheads, and all the visitor areas will be open. Allen strongly urges all visitors to call ahead to forest district stations to make sure areas are open, click here for the numbers.

As reported here, on Aug. 22nd the USDA Forest Service Pacific Southwest Region temporarily closed nine forests citing the dry conditions and high fire risk until Sept. 17th. That order did not include the Stanislaus National Forest. Then on August 31st, it along with all national forests in the state were closed ahead of the Labor Day holiday weekend to reduce the risk of wildfire with no visitors allowed in the forests, as detailed here.

Regarding the early openings, forest Service officials relayed, A key factor in the decision was an anticipated increase in available firefighting resources to California due to fire danger lessening in other areas of the country. They also cited improved weather conditions and the end to the peak summer traffic. Five National Forests will remain closed until Sept. 22nd most in the southern part of the state. The other closure is the El Dorado National Forest due to the still burning Caldor Fire. Its closure order is set to run until Sept. 30th.

With tomorrows opening, STF Supervisor Jason Kuiken said, As we reopen the Stanislaus National Forest to visitors, I want to remind the public that enhanced fire restrictions on the forest are for public and firefighter safety. Thank you for your patience as it will take time to get campgrounds and developed areas open for public enjoyment. Below are the enhanced fire restrictions provided by STF officials:
AP Interview: UN refugee chief says Afghan stability needed View Photo

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP)  The international community and the Taliban will need to find a way to deal with each other for the sake of stabilizing Afghanistan, the chief of the U.N. refugee agency said Tuesday.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Filippo Grandi said the world faces a difficult choice. He said it needs to balance the danger that an isolated Afghanistan would descend into violence and chaos against the political minefield supporting a Taliban-led government would present.

The international community will have to balance pragmatism, the need to keep Afghanistan stable and viable, and the political considerations that that would mean supporting a government led by the Taliban, said Grandi.

The Taliban toppled Afghanistans U.S.-backed government on Aug. 15. They have faced international criticism for forming an interim government made up entirely of Taliban members despite promises to be more inclusive. Governments around the world have said they will not recognize Afghanistans new rulers until a more inclusive government is put in place.

Grandi said a compromise is urgently needed to avoid an economic meltdown that could cause violence and chaos that would ignite a mass exodus. A collapse of the already fragile Afghan economy would engulf Afghanistans neighbors and ripple across the world, he said.

Its urgent. This is not one of those developmental issues that one can discuss for five years before coming to a conclusion, but it will require compromises on the part of everybody, he said. I think that the international community will have to adapt some of its more stringent rules about working with governments  and the Taliban will have to make compromises as well.

Grandi said he met with Taliban ministers and found that they listened. They have discussions among themselves, suggesting some might be open to an approach that is less harsh, less restrictive than their past rule, he said. He added however that they will be judged by their actions.

The task of meeting Afghanistans humanitarian needs has global support, he said, as indicated by the $1.2 billion raised by the U.N. on Monday.

Grandi said humanitarian aid must be delivered quickly to keep people fed and sheltered, noting that winter is approaching quickly.

While the world is united to provide humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, the logistics challenge is enormous in a country that does not even have a working banking system. Each day, thousands of people gather outside banks in the Afghan capital hoping for an opportunity to withdraw the $200 they are allowed each week.

The U.N. has warned that by the end of the year 97% of Afghans will be living below the poverty level.

More than 3.5 million people have been displaced by the fighting in recent years and more than half a million in just the last month. Many are living in makeshift camps in parks in the Afghan capital. Dozens of families take shelter under tattered sheets strung across rope.

In Kabuls Shahr-e-Now Park, 63 families live in squalid conditions, many of the children are sick and the only portable bathroom has long since exceeded capacity. Women wash behind a foul smelling curtain.

Conditions will only worsen as winter approaches, said Grandi, who is scrambling to provide shelters.

This political, military crisis, this change in government that has occurred has caught the entire population at the worst possible moment, emerging from years of insecurity, said Grandi. This is why its so difficult now to tackle it.

By KATHY GANNON

Associated Press
SANAA, Yemen (AP)  Yemens southern separatists on Wednesday resorted to emergency measures in a bid to put down growing protests over dire living conditions in areas under their control.

Aydarous al-Zubaidi, the head of the separatists Southern Transitional Council, declared a state of emergency across Yemens southern provinces, including the port city of Aden. The city serves an interim capital for the internationally recognized government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.

Al-Zubaidi, in a speech to the STCs supporters late Wednesday, said the emergency measures go into effect immediately.

Protests erupted earlier this week in Aden and other southern areas amid unprecedented drop in the value of the local currency, the Rial, making it difficult for most of Yemenis to afford basic needs including food.

Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in Aden and other cities, in some cases clashing with forces loyal to the STC.

Protesters briefly blocked major roads and streets in Aden. Forces used tear gas and batons to disperse the protesters, security officials said. At least two protesters were wounded in Aden and five others in Mukalla, Yemens fifth-largest city, they said.

The officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media.

The secessionist council is at odds with Hadis government. The two sides clashed in 2019 and 2020, adding fresh chaos in a country already embroiled in the yearslong conflict.

The STC is backed by the United Arab Emirates. It still believes in the restoration of an independent southern Yemen, which existed from 1967-1990.

Yemen has been convulsed by civil war since 2014 when Iran-backed Houthi rebels took control of the capital of Sanaa and much of the northern part of the country, forcing Hadis government to flee to the south, then to Saudi Arabia.

A Saudi-led coalition entered the war in March 2015, backed by the United States, to try restore Hadi to power, and threw its support behind his internationally backed government. Despite a relentless air campaign and ground fighting, the war has deteriorated largely into a stalemate and spawned the worlds worst humanitarian crisis.

In recent months, conditions have deteriorated further, with the Yemeni Rial losing 36% of its value in July, compared to the same time last year, according to the U.N. humanitarian agency, OCHA.

Tens of thousands of Yemenis live in famine-like conditions. More than 20.1 million of the countrys some 30 million people need some form of humanitarian aid, according to the U.N.

BY AHMED AL-HAJ

Associated Press
Few voting issues reported with California recall election View Photo

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP)  Californians voted to keep Gov. Gavin Newsom in office on Tuesday, ending a statewide recall election that saw some Republicans again float unfounded claims of voter fraud.

Days before the polls closed, the campaign of one of the leading Republican candidates promoted a website urging people to sign a petition that declared Newsom had already won because of voter fraud. That language was lifted from a petition circulated to help former President Donald Trumps effort to overturn last years presidential election results.

By Tuesday afternoon, that language was removed from the website, leaving only a form for people to report irregularities, interference, or intimidation while voting. A spokeswoman for Elder said the website is operated by a third party and that websites update their language all the time.

Elder did not revive any such claims Tuesday night, quickly conceding the race and urging booing supporters to be gracious in defeat.

The claims of fraud  both from Elder and former President Donald Trump  prompted a rebuke from Newsom in an election night victory speech.

Democracy is not a football. You dont throw it around, Newsom said. Its more like a, I dont know, an antique vase. You can drop it and smash it into a million different pieces. And thats what were capable of doing if we dont stand up to meet the moment and push back.

There were few reported problems with voting on Tuesday. A polling center in Tulare County was closed because of a wildfire, with voters redirected to nearby alternatives. And a poll worker at a West Hollywood voting site was removed for wearing a pro-Trump shirt, according to the Los Angeles County Registrars Office.

In the Woodland Hills neighborhood last weekend, some people who showed up said they were told they had already voted, which the registrars office said was caused by settings on some computers used to check in voters. The office said those affected were allowed to cast provisional ballots, which act as placeholders until voter eligibility is determined. Similarly, a Newsmax reporter tweeted Tuesday that he was told he had already voted at an Orange County polling place. The county registrar said he couldnt comment on this case, but anecdotally this situation happens but in small numbers and often there is an explanation. He, too, was allowed to cast a provisional ballot.

Some Republicans worried the fraud claims from some party leaders could suppress turnout. Harmeet Dhillon, an attorney and the national committeewoman of the Republican National Committee for California, said she made a video with her husband showing them casting ballots by mail and urging everyone to do the same.

But Dhillon also said she could not say whether Californias election would be secure, saying she and a team of attorneys monitoring voting have witnessed dozens of problems.

There will be a lot of questions and potentially litigation after this election about this sloppy-at-best treatment of peoples ballots and their right to vote, Dhillon said.

The GOPs predicament was similar to that in last years presidential election, when many in the party feared that Trumps claims about widespread fraud from expanded mail-in voting would backfire by persuading Republicans to stay home.

In California, the GOP needed all the help it could get.

Democrats make up 46.5% of all registered voters, while Republicans make up just 24%. Independent voters are roughly equivalent to Republicans, but tend to vote Democratic. Republicans have not won a statewide office since 2006, when Arnold Schwarzenegger won reelection as governor.

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Associated Press writer Michael R. Blood in Los Angeles and Nicholas Riccardi in Denver contributed to this report.

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See APs complete coverage of the California recall election: https://apnews.com/hub/california-recall

By ADAM BEAM

Associated Press
Book: Top US officer feared Trump could order China strike View Photo

WASHINGTON (AP)  Fearful of Donald Trumps actions in his final weeks as president, the United States top military officer twice called his Chinese counterpart to assure him that the two nations would not suddenly go to war, a senior defense official said Tuesday after the conversations were described in excerpts from a forthcoming book.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley told Gen. Li Zuocheng of the Peoples Liberation Army that the United States would not strike. One call took place on Oct. 30, 2020, four days before the election that defeated Trump. The second call was on Jan. 8, 2021, just two days after the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by supporters of the outgoing chief executive.

Trump said Milley should be tried for treason if the report was true.

Milley went so far as to promise Li that he would warn his counterpart in the event of a U.S. attack, according to the book Peril, written by Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the book. Details from the book, which is set to be released next week, were first reported by The Washington Post on Tuesday.

General Li, I want to assure you that the American government is stable and everything is going to be okay, Milley told him in the first call, according to the book. We are not going to attack or conduct any kinetic operations against you.

If were going to attack, Im going to call you ahead of time. Its not going to be a surprise, Milley reportedly said.

According to the defense official, Milleys message to Li on both occasions was one of reassurance. The official questioned suggestions that Milley told Li he would call him first, and instead said the chairman made the point that the United States was not going to suddenly attack China without any warning  whether it be through diplomatic, administrative or military channels.

Milley also spoke with a number of other chiefs of defense around the world in the days after the Jan. 6 riot, including military leaders from the United Kingdom, Russia and Pakistan. A readout of those calls in January referred to several other counterparts that he spoke to with similar messages of reassurance that the U.S. government was strong and in control.

The second call was meant to placate Chinese fears about the events of Jan. 6. But the book reports that Li wasnt as easily assuaged, even after Milley promised him: We are 100 percent steady. Everythings fine. But democracy can be sloppy sometimes.

Trump responded Tuesday with a sharply worded statement dismissing Milley as a Dumbass, and insisting he never considered attacking China.

Still, he said that if the report was true, I assume he would be tried for TREASON in that he would have been dealing with his Chinese counterpart behind the Presidents back and telling China that he would be giving them notification of an attack. Cant do that!

Actions should be taken immediately against Milley, Trump said.

Milley believed the president suffered a mental decline after the election, agreeing with a view shared by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in a phone call they had Jan. 8, according to officials.

Pelosi had previously said she spoke to Milley that day about available precautions to prevent Trump from initiating military action or ordering a nuclear launch, and she told colleagues she was given unspecified assurances that there were longstanding safeguards in place.

Milley, according to the book, called the admiral overseeing the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, the military unit responsible for Asia and the Pacific region, and recommended postponing upcoming military exercises. He also asked senior officers to swear an oath that Milley had to be involved if Trump gave an order to launch nuclear weapons, according to the book.

Officials in January and on Tuesday confirmed that Milley spoke with Pelosi, which was made public by the House speaker at the time. The officials said the two talked about the existing, long-held safeguards in the process for a nuclear strike. One official said Tuesday that Milleys intent in speaking with his staff and commanders about the process was not a move to subvert the president or his power, but to reaffirm the procedures and ensure they were understood by everyone.

Its not clear what, if any, military exercises were actually postponed. But defense officials said it is more likely that the military postponed a planned operation, such as a freedom of navigation transit by a U.S. Navy ship in the Pacific region. The defense officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.

Milley was appointed by Trump in 2018 and later drew the presidents wrath when he expressed regret for participating in a June 2020 photo op with Trump after federal law enforcement cleared a park near the White House of peaceful protesters so Trump could stand at a nearby damaged church.

In response to the book, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., sent President Joe Biden a letter Tuesday urging him to fire Milley, saying the general worked to actively undermine the sitting Commander in Chief.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, called the report deeply concerning, telling reporters at the Capitol, I think the first step is for General Milley to answer the question as to what exactly he said.

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said he had no concerns that Milley might have exceeded his authority, telling reporters that Democratic lawmakers were circumspect in our language but many of us made it clear that we were counting on him to avoid the disaster which we knew could happen at any moment.

A spokesperson for the Joint Staff declined to comment.

Milleys second warning to Beijing came after Trump had fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper and filled several top positions with interim officeholders loyal to him.

The book also offers new insights into Trumps efforts to hold on to power despite losing the election to Biden.

Trump refused to concede and offered false claims that the election had been stolen. He repeatedly pressed his vice president, Mike Pence, to refuse to certify the election results at the Capitol on Jan. 6, the event that was later interrupted by the mob.

Pence, the book writes, called Dan Quayle, a former vice president and fellow Indiana Republican, to see if there was any way he could acquiesce to Trumps request. Quayle said absolutely not.

Mike, you have no flexibility on this. None. Zero. Forget it. Put it away, Quayle said, according to the book.

Pence ultimately agreed. He defied Trump to affirm Joe Bidens victory.

Trump was not pleased.

I dont want to be your friend anymore if you dont do this, Trump replied, according to the book, later telling his vice president: Youve betrayed us. I made you. You were nothing.

Peril describes Trumps relentless efforts to convince Attorney General William Barr that the election had been stolen. Barr is quoted as telling Trump, The Justice Department cant take sides, as you know, between you and the other candidate. According to the book, Barr had determined that allegations about rigged voting machines were not panning out. Barr also expressed disgust with Rudolph Giuliani and others insisting Trump had won, calling them a clown car.

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Associated Press writers Hillel Italie in New York and Lisa Mascaro and Lolita Baldor contributed reporting.

By JONATHAN LEMIRE

Associated Press
Afghan killed by drone praised by co-workers in US aid group View Photo

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP)  The Afghan man who was killed in a U.S. drone strike last month was an enthusiastic and beloved longtime employee at an American humanitarian organization, his colleagues say, painting a stark contrast to the Pentagons claims that he was an Islamic State group militant about to carry out an attack on American troops.

Signs have been mounting that the U.S. military may have targeted the wrong man in the Aug. 29 strike in Kabul, with devastating consequences, killing seven children and two other adults from his family. The Pentagon says it is further investigating the strike, but it has no way to do so on the ground in Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover, severely limiting its ability to gather evidence.

Accounts from the family, documents from colleagues seen by The Associated Press, and the scene at the family home  where Zemerai Ahmadis car was struck by a Hellfire missile just as he pulled into the driveway  all seem to sharply contradict the accounts by the U.S. military. Instead, they paint the picture of a family that had worked for Americans and were trying to gain visas to the United States, fearing for their lives under the Taliban.

At the home, the mangled, incinerated Toyota Corolla remains in the driveway. But there are no signs of large secondary blasts the Pentagon said were caused by explosives hidden in the car trunk. In the tightly cramped, walled compound, the house is undamaged except for broken glass, even a badly built wooden balcony remains in place. A brick wall immediately adjacent to the car stands intact. Trees and foliage close to the car are not burned or torn.

The family wants the United States to hear their side of the story and see the facts on the ground.

We just want that they come here. See what they did. Talk to us. Give us the proof, Emal Ahmadi, Zemerais younger brother, said of the U.S. military. Near tears, he opened a photo on his phone of his 3-year-old daughter, Malika, in her favorite dress. Another photo showed her charred remains after she was killed in the strike.

On Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken acknowledged he did not know if the man targeted in the strike was an IS operative or an aid worker. I dont know because were reviewing it, he said at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.

The strike was carried out in the final days of the U.S. presence in Afghanistan, as American troops were carrying out evacuations at Kabuls airport. Only days earlier, an IS suicide bombers at the airport killed 169 Afghans and 13 U.S. servicemembers.

The Pentagon says the strike prevented another IS attack at the airport. Officials said the U.S. military had been observing the car for hours as it drove and saw people loading explosives into the back. Days after amid reports of the children killed, Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called it a righteous strike, and said at least one of the people that were killed was an ISIS facilitator, using an acronym for the Islamic State group.

The U.S. acknowledged reports of civilian casualties and said they may have been caused by secondary explosions. The family said when the 37-year-old Zemerai, alone in his car, pulled up to the house, he honked his horn. His 11-year-old son ran out, and Zemerai let the boy get in and drive the car into the driveway. The other kids ran out to watch, and the missile incinerated the car, killing seven children and an adult son and nephew of Zemerai.

That was my last memory, the sound of his horn, said another of Zemerais brothers, Romal Ahmadi, who was inside the house at the time. His three children, aged two to seven, were killed.

Zemerai worked for 15 years for Nutrition & Education International, a California-based non-profit aimed at countering malnutrition in Afghanistan. Romal also worked briefly for NEI.

Only days before the strike, Zemerai and Romal applied for special visas to the U.S. for those who had worked with U.S. companies. His brother, Emal and the nephew who was killed, Ahmad Naser Haideri, had also applied for special visas because of their work for the U.S. military.

Emal provided the AP with documents including their visa applications, letters of recommendation and even a medal Haideri had received for his service with a special U.S. trained elite special force. Haideri also had a letter of reference from the U.S.-based Multi Country Security Solutions Group, where he worked as a contractor, calling him an important part of our commitment to provide the best faithful service to the U.S. Special Forces.

He was an excellent employee, the firms president, Timothy Williams, who wrote the letter of reference, told the AP. Im not going to change from that just because of the incident that happened. Im going to stand behind my guys.

Zemerais colleagues at NEI described him as a talented worker who worked his way up from a handyman to a skilled engineer and an essential employee.

Last year, when the company was unable to pay employees at full salary because of the coronavirus pandemic, employees were given the opportunity to leave their positions for better paying work elsewhere.

But Ahmadi declined, saying, I am NEI. From beginning to end, until we accomplish our goal, the companys founder and president, Steven Kwon, told the AP.

Colleagues recalled him as a doting father and enthusiastic dancer who kept an optimistic spirit amid the chaos of his surroundings and was quick to comfort those around him with a joke. He had grown up poor in Kabul and maintained such a heart for the poor, said a co-worker who asked to be identified only as Sonia for safety reasons.

He was definitely the best of us. Absolutely, she said.

He also always supported the companys efforts to hire more women and create womens programs, which is one of many reasons that colleagues said the suggestion that he was connected to any sort of extremism seems preposterous to them.

Everything were hearing about him is just so disturbing and so absurd because he had such love for his people, said Sonia. How would he overnight turn around and start wanting to kill his own people. It makes absolutely no sense at all whatsoever.

It seems unlikely the U.S. will send anyone to the Ahmadi home to investigate. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said hes not aware of any option that would put investigators on the ground in Kabul. The U.S. Central Command said it would rely on other means, without elaborating but apparently meaning surveillance video and intercepts that led to the strike.

The family, grieving and furious, still wants refuge in the United States. On top of their already existing worries over their past work with the U.S., they now fear the new Taliban rulers will suspect them of being IS. The Islamic State group is a violent rival of the Taliban.

The U.S. has accused us. They havent cleared our name and they wont even talk to us, and now the suspicion is on us, Emal said. We are angry, but we dont know what to do. For our safety we would go to America, but it must be all our families, not just me.

Much to their dismay, Ahmadis colleagues say they havent been contacted by anyone from the Biden administration about what happened.

Just talk to us because our teams are now terrified, Sonia said. I mean, in addition to being afraid of the Taliban and ISIS, theyre now even more afraid of the U.S. government.

___

Tucker reported from Washington. Associated Press Writer Lolita Baldor contributed to this report from Washington.

By KATHY GANNON and ERIC TUCKER

Associated Press
Thousands protest against Bukele government in El Salvador View Photo

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP)  Thousands of people gathered in El Salvadors capital Wednesday for the first mass march against President Nayib Bukele, who protesters say has concentrated too much power, weakened the independence of the courts and may seek re-election.

Some marchers are also protesting the controversial decision by Bukeles government to make the cryptocurrency Bitcoin legal tender in El Salvador, the first country to do so. Officials rolled out a digital wallet known as the Chivo one week ago, but the system has been down frequently for maintenance.

Some marchers wore T-shirts that read NO To Bitcoin. A few demonstrators vandalized the special ATM machines set up to handle Bitcoin transactions, but which have been inoperable anyway for much of the week. The cubicle housing one ATM machine was destroyed.

They say the vandalism was the work of infiltrators, but there has been vandalism in ALL their demonstrations, Bukele wrote in his Twitter account. And why werent there any shouts of stop, or Dont do that?

The populist president elected in 2019 has maintained high popularity with his vows to stamp out corruption that was rampant among the countrys traditional parties. But some Salvadorans say he is becoming a dictator and Wednesdays march was the first large protest against his government.

The time has come to defend democracy, said one of the protesters, former Supreme Court justice Sidney Blanco. This march is symbolic, it represents weariness with so many violations of the Constitution.

Bukeles New Ideas party won a congressional majority this year and immediately after taking its seats in the National Assembly in May, it replaced the five members of the Constitutional Chamber and the independent attorney general who had balked at several of Bukeles earlier actions.

Soon after, the Constitutional Chamber tossed aside what had long been interpreted as a constitutional ban on consecutive presidential reelection, setting the stage for Bukele to potentially seek a second term in 2024. Bukele has not so far announced plans to seek reelection, but critics assume he will.

Milton Brizuela, leader of the countrys medical association, said judicial independence is important to us.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken issued a statement congratulating Central American countries on their shared independence day Wednesday; the region won independence from Spain 200 years ago.

But Blinken warned that anti-democratic developments pose a growing threat to Central Americas future, adding The United States stands with all those speaking truth to power.

The digital wallet appears to have been overloaded by the sheer number of Salvadorans looking to take advantage of the $30 bonus that the government put in each account to incentivize adoption.

Bukele, the main promotor of using the cryptocurrency, acknowledged the governments three-month rollout may have been too ambitious. He said technical glitches had prevented the app from working on some kinds of phones.

There has been skepticism about the governments enthusiastic adoption of bitcoin as a legal tender along with the U.S. dollar since Bukele announced it in a video recorded in English and played at a bitcoin conference in Miami in June. Bitcoin is subject to wild swings in value in a matter of minutes.

Any business with the technological capacity to do so is required to accept payment in bitcoin, but no private citizen is required to use it.

Recent public opinion surveys in El Salvador have said a majority of Salvadorans oppose making it an official currency. Still Bukele says there are now a half million users of the digital payment system in the Central American nation.

By MARCOS ALEMAN

Associated Press
The biggest Latinx comedy festival is returning to San Antonio this week, bringing famous actors like Danny Trejo and Emilio Rivera to make locals laugh.

The second annual HA Comedy Festival features 20-plus shows of more than 40 Latinx comedians across four San Antonio venues from September 17-19 for its "The Art of Comedy" special set to air on HBO Max later this year.

In 2020, the first festival took place before the coronavirus pandemic shut the world down. It allowed the festival, launched by Warner Media and New Cadence Productions, to conclude with the taping of the critically acclaimed stand-up special, HA: The Art of Comedy, which is currently available to stream on HBO Max.

Jeff Valdez, the producer of the festival, tells MySA he's excited to host the shows in San Antonio again. The Alamo City, he adds, is a perfect place as the HA Comedy Festival was formerly known as the Latino Laugh Festival  an event that only took place once in San Antonio back in 1996.

"The very first one featured a special comedian named Gabriel Iglesias, who had never been on TV before. It also featured Anjelah Johnson, Pablo Francisco and Carlos Mencia," Valdez says. "There were a lot of people nobody had ever heard of before that came to the very first one. That's part of the beauty of this festival, you'll get to see all the great new talent before it breaks."

What to expect in San Antonio this week?

The three-day event features performances by some of the funniest Latino comedians across the country, such as Trejo, Rivera, Carlos Santos, Jessica Keenan, Steve Trevino, Lisa Alvarado, and Paul Rodriguez.

Rodriguez, Chavez, Rivera, Trejo, and The Brothers Garcia cast will host the 2021 HA: The Art of Comedy HBO Max Special, which will be filmed during the 5 and 8 p.m. "Best of the Fest" events at Lila Cockrell Theater on Sunday, September 19.

Tickets for the events range from $50 to $100 each. You can purchase it at Ticketmaster.com.

What other shows should you attend besides the HBO events?

Valdez recommends to "Fresh Faces of 2021" show that takes place twice during the stint. It highlights some of the newest and freshest voices in comedy from around the country.

"In my opinion, that's going to be one of the best shows on the lineup," Valdez says.

The first show is at 7 p.m. on Friday, September 17 at The Anacacho at The St. Anthony Hotel. Tickets are $25 on Eventbrite. The second event is part of a double-header that will bring in fresh faces from 2021 and 2020 at 7 p.m. on Saturday, September 18 at the Lila Cockrell Theater. Tickets begin at $42 on Ticketmaster.com.

Are any shows free?

There are a few free shows to head to if you're in the mood to laugh. Valdez suggests heading to the live interactive panel celebrating the release of the Comedy Chingonas HBO Max special. Stars will share their inspiring journeys as Latinas in comedy. It's hosted by San Antonians Sam Najera and Nina Duran from The Bean and Chisme Show.

The show takes place at 6 p.m. on Friday, September 17 at the Will Naylor Smith River Walk Plaza. You can RSVP here.

He also says you can't go wrong attending the midnight open mic night at The Anacacho at The St. Anthony Hotel on Friday, September 17, and Saturday, September 18.

"Ya know, we priced tickets probably half of what they would normally cost just because of the fact that we are going through a pandemic," Valdez says. "We still have to be careful with everything and wear our masks because it's not going away, but we know everyone could use a laugh right now and this is the perfect place to do it."

Masks are required at the Lila Cockrell Theatre and strongly encouraged at all venues per local regulations. Hand-washing stations and sanitizer will be offered at all venues. All members involved with the festival production are following strict COVID-19 protocol including testing, vaccination mandates, and wearing masks in all venues, according to Valdez.

For the full schedule and tickets to the 2021 festival, visit hacomedyfest.com.
Austin favorite Carnitas El Guero now has a San Antonio outpost.

Chef and owner Gustavo Reyes opened an Alamo City extension of his popular restaurant at 10151 Culebra Road on Wednesday. The new Northwest Side restaurant will be serving its signature menu of tacos that can be filled with a variety of proteins including cueritos (deep-fried pork skins), buche (pork stomach), and costilla (beef rib).

The original carnitas menu ranges from $6.99 to $18.99, depending on the order size. It's unclear if the San Antonio prices will mirror its predecessor.

Customers can order the carnitas in tacos, tortas, or quesadillas.

Reyes shared photos of his new digs with MySA. Festooned with "Guero"-branded papel picado and set up with dining room tables, the space sits inside the Shell gas station, replacing La Takiza.

Courtesy, Gustavo Reyes

Carnitas El Guero promotes itself as having the "best carnitas around Texas." In July, Reyes' restaurant went up against San Antonio's now bygone La Fonda de Jaime 2.0 in the Taco Rumble, an inaugural competition aiming to find the best between the rival taco cities. The San Antonio team won, but there's always room for some friendly competition and the more carnitas, the better.

The restaurant's regular hours will be 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.
DETROIT (AP)  Former Detroit Police Chief James Craig formally announced his campaign for governor Tuesday, but not before protesters derailed his kickoff event at a state park and forced him to move.

He effectively has been running for months but waited to make it official. He is among 10 Republicans, all of them political newcomers, looking to unseat Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2022. He and two others  former conservative media host Tudor Dixon and chiropractor Garrett Soldano  appear best positioned for the primary next August while many others may not be able to qualify for the ballot.

Craig, who would be Michigan's first Black governor if elected, was to speak to reporters on Belle Isle in the middle of the Detroit River in his hometown. But he abandoned that plan when he was shouted down by a couple-dozen people critical of his role as chief.

He turned around and walked back toward a waiting vehicle, which took him to a nearby office complex. It was there that he made the announcement a short time later.

My name is James Craig. And Im running to be your governor, he said, flashing a thumbs-up. The governor for the state of Michigan.

He nodded as supporters chanted, Chief Craig.

As for the disruption on the island park, Craig said a small group of paid protesters did nothing. What they did is reinforce why we need change.

Asked about his statement that the demonstrators were paid, Craig said he did not have evidence of that, but that he believed it.

The message is: Im winning, he said. I got the message out anyway.

Craig was critical of Whitmer, saying the first-term governor has been more focused on political science rather than actual science. She has come under GOP criticism for ordering capacity restrictions and mask requirements to curb the spread of COVID-19, which has contributed to more than 20,000 deaths in the state. She lifted the rules in June, citing vaccinations and other factors.

Craig also predicted support for his campaign from outside southeast Michigan, saying: I will resonate with those folks up north or on the west, because Im authentic, Im a leader and Im blue-collar. I know what hard work looks like. Nobodys ever given me anything.

Rodericka Applewhaite, a spokeswoman for the state Democratic Party, said it objectively was not a good morning" for Craig, who also planned stops in Flint and Grand Rapids after the rocky start.

Disruption or no, Michiganders are the ones who lose here, she said. "For months theyve gone without answers from the Detroit Dodger on the integrity of our elections, his refusal to speak out against criminalizing abortion, his willingness to condemn the insurrection and every other issue hes avoided for flashy national cable interviews. Michiganders deserve better.

Six other Republicans have created campaign committees: Army veteran Austin Chenge, Bob Scott, Ryan Kelley, a real estate broker who organized protests against the governors coronavirus orders, pastor Ralph Rebandt II and Articia Bomer. Also running is Evan Space, who has no committee.

___

Eggert reported from Lansing, Michigan.
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP)  A state official told a North Dakota legislative committee on Tuesday that the states largest and most expensive leased office space is now mostly utilized, after it sat nearly vacant for months when an agency allowed its more than 400 employees to work from home indefinitely.

The Associated Press reported in May that taxpayers are on the hook for nearly $3 million in rent over the next two years for the North Dakota Information Technology Departments unused office space in Bismarck. The report spurred a legislative review of all state leases.

Greg Hoffman, the Information Technology Departments director of administration, told the interim Government Administration Committee that about 90% of the 85,000-square-foot leased space in a newly remodeled, privately owned office building in north Bismarck is now being used.

The Department of Environmental Quality last month moved about 140 of its employees from a leased office building just north of the state Capitol to the IT departments space.

Hoffman said the environmental agency is subleasing two floors of the building at $12 a square foot; the IT agency pays $15 a square foot to lease the building.

Other agencies also are using the buildings meeting spaces, he said.

The IT agency is funded at 479 employees, but only 12 to 15 of them currently work in the big building, Hoffman told the AP in an interview.

Occupancy doesnt always translate into bodies and chairs, Hoffman said Tuesday. It doesnt mean the building is not being utilized.

Though the lease was signed before the coronavirus pandemic, Shawn Riley, who heads the Information Technology Department, had already begun moving toward having employees work remotely.

Republican Gov. Doug Burgum has long promoted working from home as a way to cut costs and to promote workplace flexibility as a recruiting tool.

Documents obtained by the AP show that the state pays more than $10 million in rent for agencies at about 170 locations statewide, at an average rate of $13.33 a square foot.
San Antonio ISD's superintendent will trade the Alamo City for the Windy City, his home, to make history as the new leader of Chicago Public Schools system.

Superintendent Pedro Martinez will take over as the new CEO of Chicago Public Schools, leaving behind a six-year tenure as with SAISD, the school system announced Wednesday morning during a press conference.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot says Martinez will be the first Latinx CEO of the school system.

"We need him to be successful, because if he is successful, that means our students are successful," Lightfoot says.

Martinez says he plans to start with Chicago Public Schools during the week of September 29. In a statement, Martinez says he will leave SAISD with a "heavy heart."

"I will always care deeply about San Antonio ISD," Martinez says. "I know this district will not skip a beat in its pursuit of excellence on behalf of our children."

MySA reached out to SAISD for more information on an interim leader and the superintendent search process.

Martinez, who worked at Chicago Public Schools from 2003 to 2009 as chief financial officer, and was selected among 25 applicants. He replaces Janice Jackson who stepped down in May.

Martinez will also move into the Chicago Public Schools begins its transition to a fully-elected school board by 2027. He says at the press conference that he is ready to work together with the community and 21-member school board amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The enemy is COVID. The enemy is the systemic racism we've had in our country. The enemy is poverty. There are many enemies," Martinez says at the press conference. "We are on the same side."

While at SAISD, Martinez helped improve the district's grade from an F to a B in an area where over 90 percent of its students live in poverty. Recently, he is known for implementing mandatory mask mandates and vaccine mandates for employees at SAISD despite Gov. Greg Abbott's executive orders banning such policies.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued SAISD again over the vaccine mandate on September 13.

The new role is a homecoming for Martinez, who grew up as an immigrant from Mexico in the Chicago neighborhood of Pilsen and attended schools in the very system he will now lead.
Stringer/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

MEXICO CITY (AP)  A judge in Mexico has sentenced drug lord Vicente Carrillo Fuentes to 28 years in prison for organized crime, money laundering and weapons violations, prosecutors announced Tuesday.

Carillo Fuentes was a former leader of the Juarez drug cartel, based in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas. He is the brother of drug lord Amado Carrillo Fuentes, known as The Lord of The Skies, who died in a botched plastic surgery in 1997.
Tony Savino/Corbis via Getty Images

San Marcos could become the next Texas city to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana. During a September 10 press conference in front of the San Marcos Public Library downtown, members from nonprofit Mano Amiga and Vera Institute of Justice outlined the initiative.

Currently, possession of small amounts of marijuana is considered a "citation eligible offense" in San Marcos, meaning that the person won't be arrested on the spot, but instead issued a citation to turn themselves into Hays County at a later date.
Yves here. Please welcome Lawrence Grossman, who has provided a second post on the CalPERS long-term care policy train wreck. Grossman, a financial analyst, describes the extreme underfunding of this zombie program in his earlier piece: CalPERS Long-Term Care Program Bleeds Policyholders Dry via 10X Higher Premiums, Gross Mismanagement, Bad Faith Dealing. The rate increases that CalPERS is putting through, a 900% increase over the rates charged at the outset, are wildly disproportionate to the level of any other significant long-term care program. In other words, even by the standards of an industry that is in deep financial trouble, CalPERS rate increases are such an outlier that it is hard to explain them solely as a result of the original underpricing. It is not unreasonable to suspect that mismanagement also contributed to this sorry outcome.

Grossman continues his analysis by describing how the settlement of a class action suit conveniently ignored a key fact: that CalPERS flagrantly violated the legislation that allowed the giant fund to offer long-term care policies. Grossman cites the work of former California Deputy Attorney General and Court of Appeal Attorney, Linda J. Vogel, who argues that CalPERS has ignored the clear-cut statutory requirement that it offer long-term care policies from third party providers, and not only try making its own sausage in house. Grossman describes why this violation of the long-term care programs governing law led to its failure and the damage to its policy-holders.

We discussed this sorry situation in 2019 in CalPERS Long-Term Care Policy Train Wreck  Is Bankruptcy the End Game?. The opening of that post:

It doesnt look like there will be a happy ending for the over 100,000 CalPERS long-term care policy holders who are represented in the class action lawsuit, Wedding v. CalPERS. That doesnt mean theres a good outcome for CalPERS either. However, things should work out for the plaintiffs attorneys. The bone of contention is that CalPERS approved an eye-popping 85% increase in premiums in 2013, hitting only the policies with the most generous payment features. The plaintiffs contend that these increases werent permissible and are seeking substantial damages. The case has been grinding through the California courts since 2013. Judge William Highberger, in his decision from a June 10 trial, explicitly called on the legislature and state government to bail out the long-term care scheme.

We said then that the only winners in this case were likely to be the attorneys representing the plaintiffs. Sadly is how it appears to be playing out.

By Lawrence Grossman, CalPERS Long-Term Care policy holder and Certified Financial Planner, Accredited Investment Fiduciary, Registered Investment Adviser, and MBA. This post represents solely his personal views

The ongoing CalPERS long-term care insurance program crisis continues to unravel. It is also revealing overarching behavior which is both unethical and contrary to law.

CalPERS announced insurance premium increases of 52%-90% that become effective very shortly, at the same time that CalPERS has agreed to a class action lawsuit settlement over its last 85% rate increase. (In my next article I will discuss why I suspect the settlement is another con job by CalPERS.) But here I first must address a shocking revelation previously unreported about CalPERS long-term care insurance program (LTC) which needs to be recognized before moving on to the issues of the proposed settlement.

There is new and truly disturbing information about the CalPERS long-term care insurance program from a recent review of the enabling legislation prepared by a former California Deputy Attorney General and Court of Appeal Attorney, Linda J. Vogel.

According to Vogels analysis, the CalPERS long-term care insurance program since inception in 1991 has operated contrary to law.

It then follows that if CalPERS had followed the law, there most likely would be no CalPERS long-term care insurance crisis and no class action lawsuit. That said, there is no evidence that either the class-action plaintiff lawyers or the judge on the case are aware of this issue. Here are the details.

The 1991 legislation enacting the Public Employees Long Term Care Insurance Act (the Act) stated that the CalPERS board shall contract with carriers offering long-term care insurance plans and enter into health care service contracts covering long-term care . . .the board shall award contracts to carriers who are qualified to provide long-term care benefits, and may develop and administer self-funded long-term care insurance plans. The board may offer one or more long-term care insurance plans or health care service plan contracts covering long-term care and may offer service or indemnity-type plans. (former Gov. Code  21411, subd. (a), underlining added for emphasis.) Government Code defines carrier as a private insurance company holding a valid outstanding certificate of authority from the Insurance Commissioner . . . (Gov. Code,  22764.)

The current version of that language, now at Government Code section 21661, subdivisions (b) and (c), eliminates the second clause of former section 21411, and simply says that [t]he board shall contract with carriers offering long-term care insurance plans. (Gov. Code.  21661, subd. (b).). Language allowing the board to offer its own plan, at its discretion, in addition to contracts with carriers remains the same: The board shall award contracts to carriers who are qualified to provide long-term care benefits, and may develop and administer self-funded long-term care insurance plans. The board may offer one or more long-term care insurance plans (Gov. Code  21661, subd. (c), underlining added for emphasis.)

The threshold fact about CalPERS LTC program, according to Vogel, is that CalPERS has never done what the Act required and still requires it to do, which is to contract with long-term care insurers for group long-term care insurance, something the federal LTC program for federal employees and service members does with great success relative to CalPERS program.

Notwithstanding the clarity of the law, CalPERS never awarded a contract to any carrier qualified to provide long-term care benefits. CalPERS proceeded with only the self-funded option.

While it is unclear how this was decided, and more about that below, it is apparent that the carrier option would have presented competition to the self-funded option and in that way protected policyholders from abusive rate increases from the self-funded plan. But it seems that CalPERS quietly buried the competitor that was required by law.

For example, premiums on CalPERS policies issued decades ago have increased 400%  900%. Yet the policy contracts stated that the premiums were designed and/or guaranteed not to increase. Now CalPERS is raising premiums another 90% on top of past increases. Though CalPERS tries to explain these increases as normal for the industry and legal, those assertions are not accurate and are part of a cover-up.

During the same past two decades the Federal Long-Term Care Insurance Program, which is not self-funded but utilizes a competitive bidding process to select and subcontract to John Hancock Insurance, reports rate increases of no more than 157%. Moreover, commercial carrier insurers in California such as Mutual of Omaha, Transamerica, and Thrivent report increases no greater than 59%. As well, two Court rulings have declared that significant parts of past CalPERS rate increases violate policy contracts.

CalPERS failure to provide the mandated insurance carrier option means that the entire program has been run on a no-bid basis. The result has been a predictable fiasco.

Vogel has personal experience with the kinds of errors CalPERS makes on a statewide basis. Some years ago, she demonstrated that CalPERSs attorneys were misinterpreting a Revenue Code section to deny members the opportunity to buy service credit (air time) to which they were entitled. Her legal analysis resulted in CalPERS acknowledging its error and changing its eligibility criteria statewide.

In light of the shall and may statutory language as well as Legislative Counsels Digests that summarized the Act as requiring the Board to contract with carriers offering long-term care insurance plans for eligible employees, Vogel wrote in June an e-mail memorandum of law to CalPERS General Counsel Matthew Jacobs, pointing out the consistent shall and may statutory language, citing the legal authority that interprets shall as mandatory and may as discretionary, and requesting CalPERS legal authority for not contracting on behalf of enrollees with long-term care insurance carriers.

A few days later she received an email from Senior CalPERS Attorney David vander Griff, on behalf of Jacobs, that stated in toto: We would like to thank you for your concern, but this is how the LTC Program has always operated, and there are no present plans to change it.

More recently, Vogel submitted Public Records Act requests for all documents concerning implementation of the statutory requirement for CalPERS to contract with insurance carriers. CalPERS repeatedly responded that it does not have any responsive documents concerning contracts with long-term care insurance carriers, including documents reflecting CalPERS assessment of the Acts requirement to contract with carriers. According to Vogel, it defies belief that CalPERS never considered offering insurance through carriers as called for by the legislation. But officially, there are no staff analyses or reports, no committee minutes of discussions, no nothing. A very private burial indeed.

In sum, it appears that for over three decades CalPERS has acted contrary to law and is now stonewalling any explanation of why. Board members refuse to explain their behavior, even when directly and publicly asked, and CalPERS staff says no information is available.

Board members that lack the character to properly explain their actions are unacceptable. CalPERS members voting now for Board Member-at-Large candidates should keep that in mind. But stonewalling is not new to CalPERS, which is the largest pension fund in the nation. In my next article, Ill explain how stonewalling is the reason why the class action lawsuit settlement is suspect.

CalPERS failure to implement the law regarding the carrier option is the primary reason why hundreds of thousands of policyholders have effectively been extorted over the past decades. If CalPERS had followed the law and acted like the federal government in subcontracting the program, then most likely there would be no CalPERS long-term care insurance crisis. So, this legal issue is not just old trivia, but is dramatically damaging some 120,000 policyholders today, 80,000 of which are part of the class action lawsuit settlement.
Paper wasp nests have a secret fluorescent glow Popular Science. Only after the second martini.

New company is trying to resurrect the woolly mammoth to combat climate change The Hill

Widespread lapses in climate risk reporting found in company accounts FT. Sun Slated to Appear in East.

KNP Complex of fires grows, crosses Highway 198 in Sequoia NP Wildfire Today

Digital Currencies Pave Way for Deeply Negative Interest Rates WSJ

For the Most Pronounced CBDC Enthusiasm, Look to the Underbanked Morning Consult

Senators demand cryptocurrency regulation guidance from SEC Chair Gary Gensler CNBC

#COVID19

China?

Myanmar

Laos Authorizes Cryptocurrency Trial Program The Laotian Times. For this, theyre damming the Mekong?

Indonesian intelligence agency compromised in suspected Chinese hack The Record

India

The Koreas

South Korea successfully tests submarine-launched ballistic missile: Blue House Channel News Asia

Syraqistan

EXCLUSIVE WHO-backed vaccine hub for Africa to copy Moderna COVID-19 shot Reuters

What Tigray Portends: The Future of Peace And Security in Africa War on the Rocks

UK/EU

The Caribbean

New Cold War

Biden Administration

Recall Election: Voters Resoundingly Defeat Recall Of Gov. Gavin Newsom San Francisco Chronicle. You cant beat something with nothing.

Democrats en Deshabille

Once Again, Everyone Is Talking about What AOC Is Wearing Vanity Fair

Trump Legacy

Class Warfare

The Teamsters File for First Union Election at an Amazon Warehouse in Canada Vice Five Recent Labor Struggles You Should Know About TESA. The media blackout on the Warrior Met strike has been a little too obvious. The Great Divide: Education, Despair and Death Anne Case & Angus Deaton, NBER. From the Abstract: Concurrently, all-cause mortality in the US is diverging by educationfalling for the college-educated and rising for those without a degreesomething not seen in other rich countries. We review the rising prevalence of pain, despair, and suicide among Americans without a BA. Pain and despair created a baseline demand for opioids, but the escalation of addiction came from pharma and its political enablers. We examine the politics of despair, how less-educated people have abandoned and been abandoned by the Democratic Party. While healthier states once voted Republican in presidential elections, now the least-healthy states do. We review the evidence on whether or not deaths of despair have risen during the COVID pandemic. More broadly, excess mortality from COVID has not increased the ratio of all-cause mortality rates for those with and without a four-year degree, but has instead replicated the pre-existing mortality ratio.

What animals think of death Aeon (AL).

A Wrong Number, Whoadies, and Whispers in the Night The Bitter Southerner

Antidote du Jour (via):

Bonus Antidote (Furzy Mouse):

Double Bonus Antidote:

Shrimp using water tension to make their way back to water pic.twitter.com/rUhN71CNDD  Science Videos (@dailysciencevid) September 11, 2021

See yesterdays Links and Antidote du Jour here.
My position with Nashville Post has evolved since 2000 when I began work with the now-defunct The City Paper. TCP became a Post sister pub in 2008 (when I began some Post work) and folded in 2013. I have worked mainly with the Post since late 2011.

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Hunter-gatherers did not have Dodge Ram trucks or cable television  and they did not have vaccines  because they did not live in a SOCIETY. We do.
(Natural News) President Joe Biden recently announced sweeping vaccine mandates, a departure from his earlier stance that the federal government would not require the shots. Biden made the announcements during a Sept. 9 White House press conference alongside strong remarks aimed at unvaccinated Americans. The presidents mandates affected many Americans who have invoked their freedom of choice by declining the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines.

Biden pointed his finger at Americans who were refusing the COVID-19 vaccine despite the vaccine doses being available for free in many locations. This is a pandemic of the unvaccinated. [Its] caused by the fact that despite  free vaccines [being] available in 80,000 different locations, we still have 80 million Americans who have failed to get the shot, he said.

He also accused politicians advocating for health freedom, specifically Republican state governors, of actively working to undermine the federal governments COVID-19 pandemic. Biden said: Instead of encouraging people to get vaccinated and mask up, theyre ordering mobile morgues for the unvaccinated dying  in their communities. This is totally unacceptable. While Biden did not name names, some GOP governors who have clashed with him include Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

The president then made a thinly veiled threat to unvaccinated Americans: Weve been patient, but our patience is wearing thin. And your refusal has cost all of us. So please, do the right thing. (Related: King Biden blames unvaccinated Americans for COVID vaccine mandate as red states line up around the block to sue.)

Biden using the stick approach to get Americans injected

Biden then proceeded to announce his new vaccine mandates. He ordered the Department of Labor (DOL) to require all companies with 100 employees or more to ensure their staff complete their vaccination schedule or show a negative test at least once a week. Were going to protect vaccinated workers from unvaccinated co-workers  [and] reduce the spread of COVID-19 by increasing the share of the workforce that is vaccinated, Biden argued.

He also ordered the DOL to require the same companies to give workers paid time off if they or their loved ones plan to get the shot. Biden said: No one should lose pay in order to get vaccinated or take a loved one to get vaccinated.

He also expanded an earlier mandate requiring vaccination in the healthcare sector. Bidens earlier mandate said nursing home staff who treat patients entitled to Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement should be vaccinated. The Sept. 9 expansion now encompassed all workers in hospitals, care homes and other medical facilities. If youre seeking care at a health facility, you should be able to know that the people treating you are vaccinated, Biden said.

Furthermore, Biden announced that he will sign an executive order mandating all employees under the federal governments executive branch to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Another executive order he signed mandated federal contractors to vaccinate their workers before doing any business with the government.

Aside from vaccine-related mandates, he also announced heavier fines for travelers refusing to mask up. Biden said: Im announcing that the Transportation Safety Administration  will double the fines on travelers that refuse to [wear a] mask. If you break the rules, be prepared to pay.

GOP politicians slam Bidens medical tyranny

Bidens Sept. 9 announcement came as a stark contrast to his earlier statements. Back in December 2020, he said that vaccines should not be mandated at the federal level. He said that time: I dont think it should be mandatory, [and] I wouldnt demand it  but I would do everything in my power as president  to convince people to do the right thing.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki also espoused this stance back in July 2021. She said that time that the federal government was in no position to require COVID-19 vaccines. That is the role that institutions, private sector entities and others may take, Psaki said.

Following Bidens mandates, GOP politicians quickly slammed his medical tyranny. Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves tweeted that Biden has no authority to require that Americans inject themselves because of their employment at a private business. He added: [This] unconstitutional move is terrifying. This is still America, and we still believe in freedom from tyrants. (Related: VACCINE REBELLION: Growing number of US states are refusing to go along with Bidens covid vaccine fascism.)

Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte called the unlawful and un-American mandates from Biden a gross federal overreach. Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey meanwhile said the mandates [require] pushback and response, but did not elaborate on how his state would respond.

Rep. Rob Wittman (R-VA) expressed disagreement over the forced vaccine mandates. I fundamentally disagree with forcibly injecting Americas public servants. Our government was founded to secure the liberties of all, he told the Daily Mail.

But even before Biden announced the sweeping vaccine mandates, Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-TX) already laid out an argument against forced vaccination. It is not the goal  or the job of the government, [and] it shouldnt be the goal of the government, to mandate whether or not we get this vaccine, he said in a July 2021 Fox News interview.

Jackson continued: it should be a personal choice for every single American. The federal government does not have the right to tell Americans they have to get this vaccine, and it is none of [its] business who has had it and who hasnt had it.

MedicalTyranny.com has more articles about the Biden administration requiring the COVID-19 vaccine for Americans.

Sources include:

DailyMail.co.uk

WhiteHouse.gov

Twitter.com

FoxNews.com
(Natural News) Joe Biden issued a mandate for businesses with 100 or more employees to require all staff to either take a COVID-19 vaccine or be subjected to weekly testing, lest the company be fined $14,000 for each violation.

This, after Biden as president-elect vowed he did not have the authority to issue any vaccine mandates on private businesses and individuals.

At the same time, King Biden said that all federal employees and federal contractors would also have to get the jab, but it turns out he lied about that, too, and at the same time gave every business he commanded a legal out, as if they needed one, given that Bidens order is unconstitutional on its face.

Turns out that members of Congress and their staffs are exempt, along with about a quarter of the overall federal workforce, The Epoch Times reported:

President Joe Biden unveiled two executive orders that could mandate vaccinations for the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus for millions of working Americans in both the public and private spheres. But absent from these mandates are similar requirements for members of Congress, federal judges, or their staffers.

Bidens executive orders would unilaterally require vaccination for federal employees, the military, and government contractors. The president also asked Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to require that firms with over 100 employees either mandate vaccination or weekly CCP virus tests. In total, these mandates could affect over 100 million American workers, making it one of the widest-reaching vaccine mandates in world history.

It is the policy of my Administration to halt the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), including the B.1.617.2 (Delta) variant, by relying on the best available data and science-based public health measures, Biden wrote in his order.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) within the Department of Health and Human Services has determined that the best way to slow the spread of COVID-19 and to prevent infection by the Delta variant or other variants is to be vaccinated, the order continued.

When he addressed the nation, Biden indicated that in addition to private industry, federal employees would be mandated as well.

I will sign an executive order that will now require all executive branch federal employees to be vaccinated  all. And Ive signed another executive order that will require federal contractors to do the same, Biden said. If you want to work with the federal government and do business with us, get vaccinated. If you want to do business with the federal government, vaccinate your workforce.

However, as The Epoch Times noted, not included in the executive orders are mandates for members of federal employees in the legislative or judicial branches, including members of Congress, their staffers, as well as federal judges and other court employees.

But reports last week said that U.S. Postal Service workers are going to be exempted. The Washington Post reported that the union representing the 644,000 USPS workers had carved out a deal where they would not be required to get the jab, though the New York Post says the White House has issued a clarification stating otherwise.

The White House issued a clarification late Thursday after the Washington Post, citing an official, reported USPS workers were not required to get the shot and were only being strongly encouraged to do so, The Post reported.

USPS is not included in the executive order requiring vaccination of Federal employees. USPS has a separate statutory scheme and is traditionally independent of federal personnel actions like this, said an administration official.

The administration saying that the USPS is not actually exempt is meaningless; the Washington Post wouldnt get something like this wrong about a Democrat regime. But beyond that, it makes perfect sense that our elites are exempt from the mandate they impose on us.

Sources include:

NYPost.com

TheEpochTimes.com

Pandemic.news
(Natural News) A call has been issued for Americans to take a stand against vaccine mandates by walking out of their jobs or schools.

(Article by Jack Davis republished from WesternJournal.com)

On Thursday, President Joe Biden said he would draft executive orders forcing all employers with more than 100 workers to institute vaccine mandates, as well as imposing them on federal workers and federal contractors.

According to a news advisory provided to The Western Journal, The Great American Walkout kicked off Saturday with a San Diego news conference to announce the launch of a nationwide peaceful protest of Police Officers, Fire Fighters, Medics, Educators and Parents who are all greatly concerned with President Biden and multiple other state Governors recent calls for nationwide COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

The advisory noted the mandates will affect 100 million Americans including all federal workers and contractors, accompanied by a requirement that large companies must impose vaccines or regular invasive testing for employees.

A news release also provided to The Western Journal said the four-day protest of vaccine mandates from Saturday through Tuesday is being led by Rachel Hamm, a conservative candidate for California Secretary of State in 2022, political strategist Jason Sullivan and a Riverside County businessman identified only as Cameron R.

The news release said that on Saturday, Americans who are attending work, or school are asked to peacefully leave what they are doing and to immediately flood social media with their own powerful messages in defiance of forced vaccinations.

The effort is also calling for social media postings using the hashtag: #TheGreatAmericanWalkout.

We also encourage you to email your boss or school officials and let them know WHY you are protesting, the release said.

The release noted that Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has failed miserably as the Chief Executive Officer of the 5th Largest Economy on Earth, and now hes also saying that you have to be vaccinated in order to provide for your families.

Californians need him to leave office for their lives to thrive once again. In addition to participating in this walkout, remember to vote YES to recalling Newsom on September 14th! the release said.

Those trying to force shots on us need to feel the pain of our absence. Then, they need to lift the vax requirements NOW!!#TheGreatAmericanWalkout https://t.co/nLVcCUfvFp  Rachel Hamm (@RachelHammSOS) September 10, 2021

First, we were told we were shutting things for a couple weeks, Hamm said.

Then, it was wear this mask, now wear two masks, dont attend your church, your business must stay closed, and your kids cant go to school. On top of that, Newsoms and Bidens administration have intentionally left our border wide open for COVID-positive invaders to flood into our country, while imposing extreme restrictions on our own citizens.

Hamm said citizens are facing the most dangerous of Newsoms and Bidens dictatorial mandates; Get this shot, or you cant keep your job. As an educator in California my husband has been told by Gavin Newsom, Take this vaccine or lose your ability to provide food for your family.

Were not anti-vaxxers in general, but we do believe everyone should have the right to choose whats best for themselves when it comes to the COVID shot. There are serious concerns about its safety and efficacy, regardless of what politicians say, she said.

One thing we know about career politicians is that they lie! Id encourage all Americans to consider why a shot is being pushed this hard for a virus that has a 99% recovery rate. Weve had enough, and now we will make our voices heard loud and clear by this peaceful protest, Hamm added.

We need this here. Noncompliance is the only answer. https://t.co/BgCxa1V9Hr  SteveMcAuliffe (@beholdcosmicwav) September 10, 2021

Sullivan said, We the people are in charge of our country, not the politicians. We live in a constitutional republic, not a tyrannical oligarchy led by an out of control, mentally unstable train wreck President, Joe Biden.

On her Facebook page, Hamm said employers who are not on the Biden bandwagon should not be targeted.

If your employer is NOT requiring you to get vaccinated, dont walkout! Do a great job for them and thank them for supporting freedom, she wrote.

Read more at: WesternJournal.com and VaccineWars.com.
(Natural News) An ethics professor in a Canadian university was terminated after she declined the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine. University of Western Ontario (UWO) fired faculty member Julie Ponesse on Sept. 7 after refusing to get the vaccine, which the institution mandated. Ponesse defended her stance in a video she posted, calling the universitys vaccine mandate unethical.

Poneese, who also taught at the UWO-affiliated Huron University College, said in the video that her employers vaccination mandate posed an ethical dilemma. My employer has just mandated that I must get a vaccine for COVID-19. If I want to keep working at my job as a professor, I have to take this vaccine, she elaborated. Ponesse added that the university has ordered her to get the shot immediately or not report for work.

My school employs me to be an authority on the subject of ethics  [and] Im here to tell you that its ethically wrong to coerce someone to take a vaccine. If it happens to you, you dont have to do it, Ponesse said. She added in the video that peoples vaccination status are their own businesses alone and no one had the right to demand that information.

Ponesse also brought up safety issues surrounding the COVID-19 vaccines, citing medical journals she read and her colleagues in the university she talked to. There are questions about how well they work, [and] nobodys promising that I wont get  or transmit [COVID-19] if I get the vaccine, she said. The ethics professor also clarified that she has taken other vaccines in the past of her own volition.

Ponesse continued: Ultimately, none of that matters to me, because I am a professor of ethics and  a Canadian. Im entitled to make choices about what does and what does not enter my body regardless of my reasons. If Im allowed back into my university, its my job to teach my students that this is wrong. [It] is ethically wrong to impose an experimental medical procedure as a condition of employment.

Despite her points, the professor informed everyone of her eventual fate. I am facing imminent dismissal after 20 years on the job, because I will not submit to having an experimental vaccine injected into my body, Ponesse said before breaking down in tears. The video ended by confirming her Sept. 7 dismissal.

More and more universities mandating the COVID-19 death shot

Huron spokesman Drew Davidson refused to answer specific questions over Ponesses employment status. He told CTV News: While I cant comment on individual HR matters, I can confirm to you at this time [that] no one at Huron has been dismissed as a result of this policy. Davidson added that anyone who has not submitted proof of vaccination by Sept. 7 would not be allowed on campus.

Both UWO and Huron imposed COVID-19 vaccine mandates for students, employees and visitors. Those who refuse the vaccination would be required to present two negative COVID-19 antigen tests on a weekly basis. The two institutions permitted exemptions for medical reasons, religious reasons and others indicated in the Ontario Human Rights Code. However, those awaiting a decision for these accommodations were still required to undergo COVID-19 testing.

The two universities also implemented stringent COVID-19 testing guidelines for unvaccinated individuals. They mandated that the tests be separated by a minimum of 72 hours if done on campus. Only pharmacists or providers accredited by the universities were allowed to conduct off-campus testing, with the results to be submitted directly to them. Self-administered antigen tests were not allowed, the rules stated.

Furthermore, the UWO and Huron policies were to be effective from Sept. 7, 2021 until Sept. 7 of the following year. Both universities said they will review the policies on a regular basis to ensure that the measures remain appropriate in consideration of the circumstances and any recommendation  by the [Ontario] provincial government and public health officials.

UWO and Huron, both in Canada, were not the only universities that mandated students and faculty members to get injected with the COVID-19 vaccine. Many educational institutions in the U.S. also made COVID-19 shots compulsory. In fact, more than 580 American colleges and universities required the vaccine as a prerequisite for entering campuses.

Indiana University (IU) was among the colleges that made COVID-19 vaccines mandatory. Its website said all IU students, faculty and staff must be fully vaccinated or have an approved exemption before they are allowed to return to school grounds. The university said the vaccine mandate will allow  [the lifting of] most restrictions on masking and physical distancing.

IU allowed a few exemptions to vaccinations  including religious, ethical and medical exemptions. For medical reasons, the university required individuals to provide documentation that they are indeed allergic to COVID-19 vaccines or their ingredients. IU students who are enrolled in a 100 percent online program with no on-campus component were also allowed to seek an exemption. (Related: Indiana University students file a lawsuit over COVID-19 vaccine mandate.)

Rutgers University was another institution that required students to be injected with the COVID-19 vaccines. Back in March 2021, it announced that students who are enrolled for the 2021 fall semester must get vaccinated. Rutgers Executive Vice President Antonio Calcado strongly urged faculty and staff members to get vaccinated likewise.

The university said students may request a vaccination exemption for medical or religious reasons. However, Rutgerss vaccine mandate did not apply to students enrolled in fully remote online degree programs. Those participating in continuing education programs with solely online classes were not included in the mandate, the university added. (Related: Rutgers students protest mandatory vaccination rule.)

MedicalTyranny.com has more articles about universities requiring students and faculty members to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

Sources include:

LifeSiteNews.com

London.CTVNews.ca

UWO.ca [PDF]

HuronAtWestern.ca [PDF]

IU.edu

Rutgers.edu
(Natural News) Once the lab-leak theory broke out in truth news, the communists who designed the pandemic rushed to stop the bleeding by gathering a couple dozen scientists to pen a letter in the Lancet swearing up and down that Covid was not made in a laboratory. Problems with that narrative arose when investigative journalists kept digging, and the deeper they dug, the more dirt came up, directly tying 26 of the 27 Lancet letter-penning scientists to their Wuhan Plandemic lab buddies. Paper trails. Research money. Everything. Oops. Now theyre retracting and back-peddling faster than Fauci changes his mind about Covid rules.

Just like that, another virus and vaccine conspiracy theory is proven true, with even super-fake-news MSM forced to admit Covid originated in a lab

Any time the mass media goes crazy with fear-factor stories full of propaganda that make them advertising money through audience increase, thats the time to stop internalizing the news and start investigating the motive. As far as the plandemic goes, we know now that they planned it all, covered it up with lies, and all with the end goal of getting the majority of humans on Earth vaccinated with a bioweapon that clogs their blood and organs.

Turns out that Lancet letter published back in March that claimed anyone talking of lab-made Covid was a conspiracy theorist or extremist  or right-wing nut, anti-science, tin-foil-hat-wearing-anti-vaxxer, or any other discrediting name they use for truth seekers  that letter was written by Wuhan partners-in-crime.

We are supposed to believe them when they swear that Covid wasnt lab made and released on purpose? Sure, and does anyone still believe burning jet fuel brought down the World Trade Center buildings, plus building 7 thats half-a-mile away? Weve all been hit with the boogie man terror plots before, and Covid is no different. It was designed, planned, carried out, covered up and the truth censored from all mass media, forever, including Google, YouTube and all of social media.

26 Virology and medical scientists from around the world wrote false Lancet letter to bury the truth about China Flu being made in their Wuhan colleagues level 4 biohazard lab

Every scientist, spare just one, who wrote the Lancet letter, has significant ties to Chinas Wuhan lab freaks or the labs benefactors. The President of EcoHealth Alliance (that funded Wuhan research) Dr. Peter Daszak, Anthony Faucis best friend and one of the 27 Lancet letter authors, was already in deep water from covering up Faucis approval and funding of gain of function research at Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Now, with that leverage, the CCP scientists asked Daszak to write this cover-up letter for the Lancet to keep the world from figuring out that the pandemic was a plandemic that is all about population control through dirty vaccines for a dirty, lab-made virus.

Remember now, at the end of July, Republican Senators released HHS-and-NIH-redacted parts of Faucis emails, revealing Peter Daszak, a British Zoologist, admitting he collaborated with Fauci and the Chinese virologists at the Wuhan lab, including orchestrating some of its major funding. Clearly, this is no longer a conspiracy theory in any way, shape or form. The proof is in the pudding, as they say.

All in on the plandemic plot and cover-up was Sir Jeremy Farrar, one of the UK governments scientific advisors and a tropical medicine expert. Then there was the professor who studied emerging respiratory viruses at NIAD. Hes on the list below. Its easy, just follow the money, uncover the lies. Its that simple.

Wuhans bio-terror lab was Covids ground zero, not some silly wet market selling pickled monkey brains and fried bat wings (they got that from an Indiana Jones movie). Talk about conspiracy theories, that is about as hokey as they come, and mass media worked the Chinese wet market contaminated animal meat theory as long as they possibly could.

Remember the names of the 26 WUHAN SHILLS who sold out America and the World for a deadly scamdemic of biblical proportions

Dr. Peter Daszak  British President of EcoHealth Alliance (orchestrated Lancet letter) Professor Kanta Subbarao  virology expert at University of Melbourne, Australia, plus Subbarao was a chief researcher of emerging respiratory viruses at NIAD Professor Linda Saif  microbiology expert at Ohio State University (Wuhan workshop speaker regarding animal coronaviruses) Professor Hume Field  veterinary sciences expert Dr. Josie Golding (Wellcome Trust connections that funded Wuhan lab) Professor Mike Turner  Parasiteology expert (another Wellcome Trust connection) Dr. William Karesh  infectious disease expert Professor John Mackenzie  tropical infectious disease expert (scientific advisory committee member at Wuhan) Sir Jeremy Farrar  UK government scientific advisor and tropical medicine expert Professor Peter Palese  microbiology expert, Icahn School of Medicine, New York Professor Stanley Perlman  microbiology expert, University of Iowa Professor Charles Calisher  microbiology expert, Colorado State University Professor Bernard Roizman  microbiology expert, University of Chicago Larry Madoff Dennis Carroll Rita Colwell Christian Drosten Luis Enjuanes Alexander Gorbalenya Leo Poon Bart Haagmans James Hughes Gerald T Keusch Sai Kit Lam Juan Lubroth Jonna Mazet

Several of these 26 Wuhan shills are now claiming to be interested in investigations of the Wuhan lab origin theory, but they really want no part of it. Shills lie, thats what they do for a living. Now they say it was just a bunch of sloppy scientists. Sure, thats believeable.

Tune your truth news dial to Pandemic.news for updates on the war against dirty vaccines and communism, and how to keep your family happy, healthy and safe.

Sources for this article include:

Pandemic.news

NaturalNews.com

TruthWiki.org

NaturalNews.com

DailyMail.co.uk
(Natural News) New Zealand is fast becoming a full-blown tyrannical regime, with virtually the entire country going under a seemingly endless lockdown over just a few cases of the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19).

A single case necessitates a snap lockdown, in which all rights of millions of citizens are immediately restricted until a total containment of the disease. The current lockdown has been extended over Auckland until at least the middle of September, with many predicting a much lengthier sentence. According to past precedent, Kiwis will not receive their freedom back until there is zero community spread of COVID-19.

New Zealand is now the only country in the world left that is dedicated to COVID Zero, the pursuit of the total elimination of SARS-CoV-2 nationwide. That pursuit comes with draconian measures.

The countrys police and military services are installing security checkpoints throughout New Zealand to make sure citizens are not traveling during the lockdown. Freely traveling during the lockdown now carries a massive fine and/or prison sentence as punishment.

On Thursday, Sept. 9, New Zealand authorities said that a man who tested positive for COVID-19 could face a fine or jail time after he escaped a quarantine hotel to return home. Police dressed in full protective gear arrested the man about six miles away from the hotel in Auckland, which is currently facing an outbreak of the delta variant.

Authorities said that the man had been on the run for about 12 hours before he was detained. The Guardian reported that the man appeared virtually in Auckland district court before being returned to a managed quarantine center.

He was charged with failing to comply with New Zealands coronavirus health order. Under a law passed last year, he could face a fine or up to six months in jail if convicted. (Related: New Zealand promises to HUNT PEOPLE DOWN for not submitting to covid-19 vaccinations.)

COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said it was not immediately clear how the man escaped, though security footage in the area showed a man hiding in bushes away from security guards. According to Hipkins, the quarantine facilities are heavily managed and secured.

Single COVID-19 infection triggers ongoing lockdown

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced on Aug. 17 a nationwide lockdown after a single coronavirus infection was reported in Auckland. Shortly after the shutdown, authorities recorded several additional COVID-19 cases, including one individual who had worked four shifts at Auckland City Hospital while being infected with the virus.

The countrys outbreak of the highly infectious delta variant reached 879 on Friday, Sept. 10. With 11 new infections reported, Friday marked the seventh day in a row with numbers below 21.

All of Fridays cases were in Auckland, with six not yet epidemiologically linked to existing cases. There were 29 unlinked cases in total as of Friday.

Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said there were two cases from one household of which genomic sequencing suggested there was another unknown person who may have passed the virus to them. Two unlinked Middlemore patients were also being investigated very thoroughly, Bloomfield said.

Experts say the unlinked cases could keep Auckland in lockdown. University of Otago epidemiologist Michael Baker, who advises the New Zealand government on COVID-19, said there needed to be a number of days with no unlinked cases before Auckland could leave lockdown.

On Friday afternoon, Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson said that more funding would be made available for businesses struggling with a loss of earnings due to lockdown measures.

Biggest mistake in public health history

Loss of earnings is just one of the challenges presented by lockdowns. For public health expert Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, lockdown is the single biggest mistake in public health history.

I dont see how anyone can look at lockdown and say there was successful policy, said Bhattacharya. We have had lockdowns in country after country after country. I dont think by any measure you can call them a success. (Related: Report: States that imposed lockdown have more COVID-19 deaths per million compared to no-lockdown states.)

Bhattacharya said the harms caused by lockdowns are extremely multi-dimensional and traumatic, especially for children. For a child who skips a year of school, the consequences will last a lifetime, he said.

According to Bhattacharya, lockdowns lead to dramatic increases in poverty, food insecurity, outright starvation, depression, anxiety, suicide and death.

Last years data supported his claims. Most of the excess deaths in the U.S. were not attributed to COVID-19. Excess mortality is the best gauge of the pandemics impact. It compares the overall number of deaths with the total in previous years.

There were roughly 56,000 excess deaths among Americans aged 15 to 54  22,000 were related to COVID-19 and 34,000 were from other causes.

Preliminary reports point to some obvious lockdown-related factors. There was a sharp decline in visits to emergency rooms and an increase in fatal heart attacks due to failure to receive prompt treatment. A lot fewer people were screened for cancer, and social isolation contributed to excess deaths from dementia and Alzheimers.

As unemployment surged and mental-health and substance-abuse treatment programs were interrupted, the reported levels of anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts increased dramatically, as did alcohol sales and fatal drug overdoses.

The number of people killed last year in motor vehicle accidents in the U.S. rose to the highest level in more than a decade, even though Americans did significantly less driving than in 2019. It was the steepest annual increase in the fatality rate per mile traveled in nearly a century, apparently due to more substance abuse and more high-speed driving on empty roads.

Follow Pandemic.news for more news and information related to the coronavirus pandemic.

Sources include:

ZeroHedge.com

TheHill.com 1

TheHill.com 2

LifeSiteNews.com
(Natural News) Weve told you about how Anthony Fauci is funding wasteful $424,000 parasite experiments on beagles in which the dogs are vocalizing in pain.

(Article by Amanda Nieves republished from Blog.WhiteCoatWaste.org)

And weve told you about how he shipped tax dollars to Wuhan, China for dangerous coronavirus experiments on animals that experts, and most Americans, believe caused the pandemic.

Now, what if we told you that Dr. Fauci was sentencing beagles to death on taxpayers dime overseas, too?

Photos and government records discovered by our investigators show that Faucis NIH division shipped part of a $375,800 grant to a lab in Tunisia (where the NIH has no oversight and there are no laws protecting animals used in experiments!) to drug beagles and lock their heads in mesh cages filled with hundreds of infected sand flies.

EXCLUSIVE VIA ?@WhiteCoatWaste?: Dr. Fauci Used Taxpayer Money to Have Dogs Tortured and Eaten Alive By Parasite Infected Flies in Tunisia (PHOTOS) https://t.co/5KasmDCcKS

 Cassandra  Peta and Biden Kill Animals (@CassandraRules) August 31, 2021

In the recent study, the experimenters starved the flies so theyre hungry and the sand flies were then allowed to feed on the sedated dogs.

Watchdog Report: Faucis NIAID Funded Experiment Forcing Dogs To Be Eaten Alive By Infected Flies https://t.co/kKAuEHW8GD  The Federalist (@FDRLST) September 1, 2021

Thats right: these taxpayer-funded white coats intentionally had the insects eat these beagles alive.

It gets worse: These sickos also locked beagles alone in cages in the desert overnight for nine consecutive nights to use them as bait to attract infectious sand flies. See for yourself

Angry? Us too. Is this how you want your money spent?

The NIH, under Anthony Fauci, funded experiments in Tunisia in which beagles were sedated and then had their heads put in mesh bags filled with parasite-infected sand flies who had been starved so that they would feed on the live dogs, per @WhiteCoatWaste. https://t.co/hiWyS3ftZt  Leighton Akira Woodhouse (@lwoodhouse) August 31, 2021

Fortunately, Congress is taking action to hold Fauci accountable for this beagle abuse and wasteful foreign aid.

Cruel experiment forcing dogs to be "eaten alive" by sand flies funded by Fauci's NIAIDhttps://t.co/m5BoJnZeDF  The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) September 2, 2021

This is the most disturbing thing you'll see today. https://t.co/cQVzGvrNNZ  The Western Journal (@WestJournalism) September 2, 2021

Tell Congress that you dont want your tax dollars wasted on abusing dogs and puppies in cruel and unnecessary experiments at home or abroad!

Read more at: Blog.WhiteCoatWaste.org and Evil.news.
(Natural News) On Thursday Joe Biden announced his proposed illegal and unconstitutional covid mandates.

(Article by Jim Hoft republished from TheGatewayPundit.com)

Biden declared war on vaccinated Americans and demanded that ALL federal employees be vaccinated. Biden also announced he will be forcing companies with more than 100 employees to either test workers or prove they are vaccinated.

In response to his unprecedented and unconstitutional mandates, Ohio Senate candidate J.D. Vance called for mass civil disobedience.

J.D. Vance: Do not comply with the mandates. Do not pay the government fines. Dont allow yourself to be bullied & controlled. Only mass civil disobedience will save us from Joe Bidens naked authoritarianism.

Here is J.D.s statement.

** You can donate to J.D. Vance for Senate here.

 JD Vance calls for mass civil disobedience in response to Biden's mandates. "Do not comply with the mandates. Do not pay the government fines. Dont allow yourself to be bullied & controlled. Only mass civil disobedience will save us from Joe Bidens naked authoritarianism." pic.twitter.com/ORG0DNr49t  Andrew Surabian (@Surabees) September 9, 2021

Read more at: TheGatewayPundit.com
(Natural News) The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) has recently announced that it will mandate Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines for schoolchildren aged 12 years and older.

On Thursday, the LAUSD school board voted to approve the vaccine mandate. With around 630,000 students, this made the LAUSD the largest school district in the United States to require COVID-19 vaccines.

Under the districts mandate, the first students who will be required to show proof of vaccination are those involved in extracurricular activities supported by their schools. This includes student-athletes and students participating in drama and band activities. If they are 12 years old or older, they must receive at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine no later than Oct. 3 and a second dose no later than Oct. 31.

The rest of the students must receive their first dose of COVID-19 vaccines by Nov. 21 and their second dose by Dec. 19. (Related: VACCINE PREDATORS: Fauci thinks it is a good idea for schools to mandate COVID-19 vaccines for children.)

The spring semester will resume on Jan. 11, 2022. Before this date, students proof of vaccination documents must be uploaded online and approved by the LAUSDs Daily Pass program. The Daily Pass will allow students onto campus and track their coronavirus test results weekly.

Meanwhile, the LAUSDs mandate stipulates that students under 12 years old need to get their first dose of COVID-19 vaccines no later than 30 days after their 12th birthday, and their second dose no later than eight weeks after their birthday.

Exemptions will only be granted for medical reasons. The school district said it will not honor requests for exemption based on religious or personal beliefs.

Los Angeles parents protest against vaccine mandate

On the day the school board voted to pass the vaccine mandate proposal, hundreds of parents came to the districts headquarters in downtown Los Angeles. Many of them carried signs protesting the mandate, such as Children Are Not Guinea Pigs, COVID Testing Is a Scam, The Vax Equals Racism and Save Our Children.

Bridgett Bradley, a mother of three, wore a shirt that read Babies Lives Matter. She said she would rather homeschool her children  one is 14 and another is nine  than force her eldest to get the vaccine.

Who knows, they might try to put it in babies, she said of the COVID-19 vaccine.

This is no ones right but the parent and child to make, said Bryna Makowa, who has a 15-year-old son attending one of the public schools under the LAUSD.

As parents, we have a lot of concerns about this vaccine, said Diana Guillen, one of the seven parents the board allowed to speak before voting. Guillen is the chair of the districts English learner advisory committee and spoke to the board in Spanish. This vaccine is experimental. We dont understand why you are so rushed  This decision should be ours, a family decision.

We know if our children need the vaccine or not, she added. Its like youre taking away our rights to care for our children.

Another parent, who identified himself as Juan and also spoke Spanish, asked the board: Can we sue the district if our child has secondary side effects that are negative? None of the school board members were able to respond to his question.

Despite the parents pleas, the LAUSD school board still voted unanimously to require COVID-19 vaccination. The board even applauded after the vote.

I do not see this as your choice or my choice, said board member Jackie Goldberg. I see this as a community necessity. That means people have to do things theyre not comfortable with, theyre not sure of, that may even contain some risk.

Our goal is to keep kids and teachers as safe as possible, and in the classroom, said school board Vice President Nick Melvoin. He claimed without evidence that there is broad medical and scientific consensus that the best way to keep people in classrooms safe is to get everybody who is eligible vaccinated. This policy is the best way to make that happen.

Data shows that the school district has around 414,000 students between the ages of 12 and 18 who are eligible to receive COVID-19 vaccines. A little under 58 percent of them have already received at least one dose as of the end of August.

Los Angeles County health officials reported on the day the school board passed the mandate that there have been 5,599 COVID-19 cases among LAUSD students. This represents less than one percent of the entire student population of the LAUSD.

Learn more about the ways officials all over the country are trying to force children to take experimental and deadly COVID-19 vaccines at Vaccines.news.

Sources include:

TheGuardian.com

LATimes.com

APNews.com

CBSNews.com

WSJ.com

Reuters.com

ABCNews.go.com
(Natural News) Immigration expert Michael Cutler says the federal governments open borders stance is highly destructive to the nation. He shares his thoughts with Dan Happel during an Aug. 31 appearance on the latters Connecting the Dots program, which aired on Brighteon.TV. Cutler also says that any nation without strong borders is akin to a house without walls.

During his appearance on Happels program, Cutler talks about the consequences of having a border policy that is too open. Cutler has worked for three decades at the former Immigration and Naturalization Service and began as an inspector at the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City. He describes his experience as a time when he had his eyes to the people on Americas front door.

Cutler challenges two notions that come to peoples minds whenever the topic of immigration is mentioned. First, people often associate the border policy with the border shared with Mexico and the four border states  California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. The reality is that America doesnt have four border states, but 50, he says.

Second, he points out that Republicans, not Democrats, are responsible for bringing in cheap immigrant labor. According to Cutler, the GOP introduced the notion as a way to placate their campaign donors such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other entities. He also says that GOP donors saw in our borders not a line of defense, but an impediment to their wealth.

Cutler however clarifies that his position is not anti-immigrant. He describes himself as a middle-of-the-road guy who was a registered Democrat.

The immigration experts conversation with Happel comes at a time when the Trump administrations gains on immigration law have been reversed by President Joe Biden. As soon as he entered the White House in January 2021, Biden signed a number of executive orders reversing former President Donald Trumps mandates on immigration. Biden defended his move by saying that was only erasing bad policy, Voice of America reported.

Cutler: Nothing wrong with using term aliens, enforcing immigration law

Cutler tells Happel two important points to think about. First, he says that a country without a secure border cannot stand, like a house without walls. Second, there is nothing anti-immigrant about enforcing immigration laws.

According to Cutler, former President Jimmy Carter insisted that INS employees stop using the word aliens and use the term immigrants instead. The term alien is not an insult, its not a pejorative. Its a legal term, Cutler says, explaining that the definition of alien in Title VIII of the Immigration and Nationality Act is any person not a citizen or national of the U.S.

The immigration expert also notes how the U.S. admits roughly a million lawful immigrants on a yearly basis. These lawful immigrants possess certain rights their illegal counterparts do not have. [Theyre] given green cards, theyre on the path to citizenship. They can bring family here, theyre here forever. They can hold any position in our government other than president and vice president.

He then returns to Title VIII and its definition of aliens: That section of law tells us who were supposed to keep out. Not one word about race, ethnicity or religion. [When] we say we need to enforce anti-immigration laws, thats not anti-immigrant. Why in the world would anybody not want to enforce these laws? (Related: Tucker Carlson: No country could survive Bidens border policies.)

Cutlers remarks echo the sentiments of Chad Wolf, the former acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Bidens refusal to implement overturning of current immigration laws will cause an immigration and border security crisis, Wolf said during a January 2021 interview with Fox News.

[The actions] Biden and [his] administration have taken is actually going to cause an immigration and border security crisis on the southwest border, and thats something we dont need right now, he said. (Related: Former ICE official: Biden has declared the entire country a sanctuary jurisdiction.)

According to the former DHS head, the Biden administration is effectively saying it will not deport illegal aliens with final orders of removal for a period of 100 days. Wolf said: What the Biden administration is saying is, were not going to deport them because were going to focus on other things. Theyre moving resources to the border to process immigration  [and] asylum claims. I think in a COVID-like environment, thats dangerous.

OpenBorders.news has more articles about the consequences of refusing to enforce immigration laws.

Sources include:

Brighteon.com

VOANews.com

Newsmax.com
(Natural News) The most prominent members of the Republican party, including over a dozen governors and at least two attorneys general, have issued statements strongly criticizing and vowing to resist President Joe Bidens Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine mandate.

The president signed a new executive order reaffirming his COVID-19 vaccine mandate for all federal employees. This new mandate gets rid of a previous option for unvaccinated employees to opt-out by subjecting themselves to COVID-19 testing at least once a week.

Biden followed this executive order with an announcement saying he would direct the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) of the Department of Labor to craft new rules that would force companies with over 100 employees to mandate either vaccinations or weekly testing.

Such a move will apply to about two-thirds of all U.S. employees or around 100 million people, including about 17 million people who work at health facilities that receive federal Medicare and Medicaid funding. (Related: 70% of unvaccinated Americans would QUIT their jobs over vaccine mandates, to avoid being injured or killed by deadly jabs.)

OSHA will be tasked with figuring out the specific details of Bidens vaccine mandate. This includes figuring out how employees will prove their vaccination status, and whether the vaccine mandate will apply to employees that work remotely.

Republicans stand firm against vaccine mandate

At least 19 governors and two attorneys general immediately issued statements criticizing the Biden administrations dictatorial COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

They include the governors of Wyoming, Texas, Tennessee, South Dakota, South Carolina, Oklahoma, North Dakota, Nebraska, Montana, Mississippi, Missouri, Iowa, Idaho, Georgia, Florida, Arkansas, Alaska, Alabama and Arizona. All 19 governors are Republicans.

They have been joined by the attorneys general of Utah and Indiana, as well as by other prominent members of the Republican Party.

Some of the statements merely expressed their criticisms of Bidens expanded vaccine mandate.

This unconstitutional move is terrifying, said Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves. This is still America, and we still believe in freedom from tyrants.

I am absolutely against a government mandate on the vaccine, said Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey. This is not the role of the government.

The American Dream has turned into a nightmare under President Biden and radical Democrats, wrote South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster on Twitter. They have declared war against capitalism, thumbed their noses at the Constitution and empowered our enemies abroad.

Other statements, like the ones from the governors of South Dakota, Missouri, Georgia and Arizona, also threatened legal action.

Getting the vaccine is and should be a choice, said Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey in a statement. These mandates are outrageous. They will never stand up in court. We must and will push back.

I will pursue every legal option available to the state of Georgia to stop this blatantly unlawful overreach by the Biden administration, wrote Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on his personal Twitter account.

South Dakota will stand up to defend freedom. Joe Biden, see you in court, said South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem. On her Twitter account, she later shared a post saying that her legal team is preparing to pursue legal action against the vaccine mandate.

The decision to get vaccinated is a private healthcare decision that should remain as such, said Missouri Gov. Mike Parson. My administration will always fight back against federal power grabs and government overreach that threatens to limit our freedoms.

Other prominent Republicans, like Ronna McDaniel, chairwoman of the Republican National Committee (RNC), also vowed to fight to stop the mandate.

Joe Biden told Americans when he was elected that he would not impose vaccine mandates. He lied. Now small businesses, workers and families across the country will pay the price, said McDaniel. Many small businesses and workers do not have the money or legal resources to fight Bidens unconstitutional actions and authoritarian decrees, but when this decree goes into effect, the RNC will sue the administration to protect Americans and their liberties.

Biden disappointed Republicans wont obey

In a statement on Friday, Biden said he was disappointed that the governors and other prominent Republican officials are not willing to just go ahead with his vaccine mandate.

Some Republican governors have been so cavalier with the health of these kids, so cavalier with the health of their communities, said Biden during a visit to Brookland Middle School in Washington, D.C. This is playing for real, this isnt a game.

We got to come together. I think the vast majority  look at the polling data. The vast majority of the American people know we have to do these. Theyre hard but necessary. Were gonna get them done. Thank you.

During the visit, Biden even expressed his disappointment at people who are hesitant to get injected with the experimental and deadly COVID-19 vaccines. He also blamed the unvaccinated for the countrys current situation.

Weve been patient, he said. But our patience is wearing thin, and your refusal has cost all of us. He added that the unvaccinated can cause a lot of damage, and they are.

Learn more about the tyrannical policies Biden is proposing that will supposedly deal with the coronavirus pandemic by reading the latest articles at JoeBiden.news.

Sources include:

TheEpochTimes.com

Reuters.com

FoxNews.com

FT.com
(Natural News) The vaccines for the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) are so safe and effective that the Branch Covidians pushing them now insist that people who refuse the shots are an existential health threat to those who took them.

You read that right: Unless all unvaccinated people also agree to get vaccinated, the already vaccinated are somehow still at risk of getting sick and dying, supposedly because of the unvaccinated.

Never before in history has there been a need to protect the vaccinated,' says Karl Denninger. There isnt one now unless the jabs not only dont work, [but] in some percentage of people who took them they make infection worse  and they know it.

As has always been the case until very recently, the purpose of vaccination is to provide personal protection against disease. People who take vaccines, we are told, obtain special immunity that the unvaccinated supposedly never get because their natural immune systems did not receive the vaccine upgrade.

This was the crux of the overall vaccine narrative until 2020 came around. Donald Trump, who calls himself the father of the vaccine, introduced covid shots at warp speed and now, suddenly, vaccines are a collective effort.

They only work, we are now told, if everybody takes one. If even just one person skips the shot, then all the people who took the shot can still get sick and maybe even die from covid even if they are considered to be fully vaccinated.

It makes absolutely no sense, of course, but the world is apparently so dumbed down at this point that this train of thought is generally accepted as scientific in the new normal.

REALITY CHECK: The unvaccinated need protection against the vaccinated

Even if everyone did agree to roll up their sleeves for a Chinese Virus jab, the best that would happen, according to the authorities, is that there might be fewer hospitalizations or something.

At no point in time has the government or Big Pharma ever claimed that getting injected for Chinese Germs would cure the plandemic, even if everyone complied. At most, there could, maybe, in some alternate universe, be more mild cases of the disease as opposed to more serious ones.

Even this measly claim, as worthless as it is, has been debunked as nothing more than wishful thinking by members of the Church of Covid who wish it was true so they could convince more people to get vaccinated.

The truth is that the injections do nothing whatsoever to keep people healthy, and actually appear to make people sicker and more prone to death. Had these shots never been introduced in the first place, covid as we currently know it would already be in the history books.

If anything, the biggest public health threat right now are vaccinated people who have become walking spike protein factories, potentially infecting every person they come into contact with. It is the unvaccinated that need protection from the vaccinated, in other words.

Unless Pope Fauci tells his minions the truth, though, they will likely never listen to the actual science. So many of these people are so invested into the Cult of Covidism at this point that their pride alone will forever stop them from admitting that they were duped into believing a lie.

 they know the vaccines not only have failed but are actually potentiating infections instead of protecting against them, Denninger says about the establishment.

Why else would you protect the vaccinated?' he adds, pointing to perhaps the biggest logical flaw with the current plandemic narrative.

More news about the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) clown circus can be found at Pandemic.news.

Sources for this article include:

Market-Ticker.org

Archive.is

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) Aegis Living, a senior assisted living center, is coming under fire after four healthcare professionals blew the whistle on multiple accounts of elder abuse and medical fraud taking place at the Issaquah, Washington facility. Facility caretakers allegedly lie to residents about vaccines and chemically restrain the residents to force them to submit to the COVID vaccines. This is the level of fraud and abuse that occurs when seniors are isolated from their families, treated like property, and cordoned off like prisoners.

One of the whistleblowers at Aegis Living is a former medical technician named Cassandra Renner. In an interview with Project Veritas, she says that Aegis Living is grossly taking advantage of severely vulnerable adults through fraud on care plans. She also said signatures have been forged multiple times to make it appear that care was given, when it clearly was not. Her claims have been corroborated by multiple care directors.

Whistleblower reveals macabre practices used to force COVID vaccines on seniors

Most shocking of all, Cassandra Renner said that a chemical restraint was given to one of the residents she worked with in order to get her to take the COVID vaccine. The resident was lied to about the vaccine. The resident suffered medical complications from the shot and died as a result.

Renner testified on the residents behalf, They had given her a PRN, like Xanax, and they were successful after giving her the PRN in order to get her to take the COVID vaccine. The resident was lied to about what shot she was receiving. She was told that it was the flu shot Shes no longer with us and in her last moments of life, she had to have her dignity removed.

Aegis Living abuses residents and falsifies documents to cover up neglect

According to Renner, the facility chooses to be short-staffed to cut corners and save money. This is leading to widespread resident neglect and creating an environment of coercion and abuse. Renner says on a good day the staff satisfies about half of the tasks that the residents pay for. In the past I had not signed for certain things that I knew I hadnt completed, and I was told by the ACD [Associate Care Director] who had told me to sign them, that I needed to just sign them anyways, she said. Even if I hadnt completed the taskI noticed the other day, or like a little bit ago that one of my signatures looks like it wasnt mine.

Renner explained that her signature was forged several times. One of the forgeries was for a service she didnt complete. I specifically did not sign because it was not completed, she said. According to Renner, care directors force caretakers to commit forgery and sign off on tasks that arent completed.

Averi Robinson, another Associate Care Director, said the current staff at Aegis Living arent capable caregivers, but they have job security, because the company cannot afford to fire anyone at the moment. This only means that nobody is held accountable.

Another Aegis Living whistleblower, Jonathan Schlect, said, I was told by the care director, Jen, if I didnt [forge signatures], I would be out of compliance with my job and not following her direction, and Id be written up. Schlect said he was also encouraged to falsify documents by another associate care director named Adam. Schlect said he received a group text from Adam, clearly stating to falsify documents because it will pay off.

Its not just an individual incidence, either. Margie Massa, another Associate Care Director for Aegis Living, said that she jots down the initials of people who worked that day, to make it look like a service was completed even though she knows it wasnt. If I knew who worked that day, then I might jot in an initial because Im kind of saving their asses too. You know? said Massa.

As long term care facilities establish a culture of isolation, abuse and fraud, how many seniors are being coerced to take vaccines they dont want? How many seniors are chemically restrained as vaccines are forced into them? How many vaccine-induced deaths are covered up?

Sources include:

ProjectVeritas.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) Californias state pension invested hundreds of millions of dollars in Chinese state-owned enterprises linked to the Peoples Liberation Army, according to records reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon.

(Article by Chuck Ross and Matthew Foldi republished from FreeBeacon.com)

The California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) had more than $3 billion invested in Chinese companies, including 14 state-controlled enterprises blacklisted by the Trump administration, as of June 2020. Many of these companies are funding the Belt and Road Initiative, a massive infrastructure project Beijing is using to expand its geopolitical and military influence.

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D., Calif.), who recently praised a Chinese-owned media company for its journalistic integrity, has not commented on CalPERSs Chinese investments. It is a notable silence from the embattled governor, who has called on CalPERS, the countrys largest public pension system, to divest from tobacco companies and companies linked to the Turkish government. Newsom faces a recall election on Sept. 14.

CalPERS had more than $450 million invested in 14 Chinese companies the Trump administration put on an investment blacklist last year because of their ties to the Chinese military. President Donald Trumps executive order, which the Biden administration has continued, prohibited Americans from investing in companies that aid the Chinese military.

It is unclear whether CalPERS has complied with the executive order by divesting in the blacklisted companies. The pension fund declined the Free Beacons requests for comment. CalPERS had more than $490 million invested in seven Chinese state-owned enterprises that, while not on the U.S. blacklist, are funding the Belt and Road Initiative, according to its 2020 investment report. CalPERS invested in some of the Chinese companies as early as 2016, records show.

Two companies in the CalPERS portfolioChina Merchants Port and CITICcontrol ports in Sri Lanka and Myanmar that the Peoples Liberation Army has used for military exercises. CalPERS had $3.7 million invested in China Merchants Port and $110 million in CITIC as of June 2020.

CalPERS, which has more than $400 billion in assets under management, also had $5 million invested in China State Construction Co., which has built roads and bridges in Asia, Africa, and the United States as part of Belt and Road. China State Construction is one of the firms on the Trump administration investment blacklist.

CalPERS had another $6 million invested in China Communications Construction Company, a state-owned company that U.S. officials have said is building military installations in the South China Sea in violation of agreements that China has with its neighbors. Former secretary of state Mike Pompeo singled out China Communications Construction last year as one of the weapons Beijing uses to impose an expansionist agenda.

The pension fund has hundreds of millions of dollars more invested in some of Chinas largest lenders, including $185 million invested in China Construction Bank. China Construction has invested $405 billion in 176 Belt and Road projects. China Merchants Bank and Bank of China, two other state-owned enterprises in the CalPERS portfolio, are invested heavily in Belt and Road projects.

CalPERS has come under scrutiny from state and national lawmakers over its investments in Chinese companies. The funds critics say the investments not only aid the Chinese Communist Party but also create financial risk for the states pensioners because of the lack of transparency into the operations of Chinese firms.

CalPERS would do well on its own to reconsider some of its billions of dollars of investments in China just for the fact that immediate international turmoil produces large uncertainties for California retirees, said Lance Christensen, the chief operating officer at the California Policy Center, a conservative think tank.

Some investment managers are reportedly reconsidering investments in China because of the governments crackdown on tech companies and other for-profit companies. Chinese companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges lost $400 billion in value in July amid a series of regulatory crackdowns orchestrated by the Chinese government, the Wall Street Journal reported.

CalPERSs former head under Newsom, Ben Meng, is an American citizen of Chinese origin. Prior to leading CalPERs, he worked in China as the deputy chief investment officer of Chinas State Administration of Foreign Exchange. In that role, he oversaw $3 trillion of foreign-exchange reserves.

During Mengs time at CalPERS, Rep. Jim Banks (R., Ind.) criticized Mengs membership in Chinas Thousand Talents Program, which the nation uses for espionage. Banks wrote to Newsom suggesting the governor fire Meng, a power Newsom does not technically have.

Governor Newsom, if it were up to me, I would fire Mr. Meng immediately, Banks wrote in a February 2020 letter. Banks took specific issue with Chinese companies like Hikvision, for example, that are used by China to further its detention of Uyghurs. CalPERS responded by calling Bankss letter a politically opportunistic attempt to force us to divest, undermining our ability to perform our fiduciary duty to provide retirement security to Californias public employees.

Last year, Banks and Sen. Rick Scott (R., Fla.) called on Newsom and CalPERS to divest from Chinese state-owned companies. CalPERS rejected the requests, saying that its portfolio largely mirrors investments in the MSCI and FTSE stock indices. MSCI has said it is divesting from the 14 companies on the federal blacklist, but it is not clear whether CalPERS plans to follow MSCIs lead.

While Newsom does not directly control CalPERs, he has actively used his bully pulpit as a statewide elected official to force the agencys investment decisions in the past. In 2019, he signed an executive order directing CalPERS and other state pension funds to invest in green energy companies in order to fight climate change.

In 2016, then-Lt. Gov. Newsom urged CalPERS not to reverse a decision to prohibit investment in tobacco companies. He said CalPERS would be investing in death if it allowed investments in Big Tobacco. CalPERS voted later that year to expand its prohibition on tobacco investments.

As a gubernatorial candidate in 2018, Newsom called on CalPERS to divest from Turkish companies because of the regimes refusal to recognize the mass murder of Armenians in 1915.

It is wrong of us as a state  to invest in Turkish businesses. Its time for divestment at the [University of California] and CalPERS, Newsom said at a rally outside the Turkish consulate in Los Angeles.

Newsom has not made a similar demand of CalPERS regarding China, even though both the Trump and Biden administrations have said that the government is carrying out genocide against Muslims in Western China.

Gov. Gavin Newsom is quick to leverage his position on issues like climate change by outlawing gas-powered cars or other similar mandates, but slow to speak out on government investments in China, where their environmental and labor record is abysmal, said Christensen, the official at the California Policy Center.

Newsoms office did not respond to requests for comment.

Read more at: FreeBeacon.com and Corruption.news.
(Natural News) At least 16 percent of those who decide to get fully vaccinated for the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) go on to cut ties with their unvaccinated loved ones following the stab, a new poll has found.

OnePoll asked 1,000 Americans to reveal their vaccination status along with any changes that occurred with regard to friendship over the past year and a half. It was discovered that one in seven Branch Covidians  meaning people who got jabbed because they buy into the plandemic deception  has axed at least three unvaccinated loved ones from their lives for refusing the injections.

Jennifer Aniston, some washed-up Hollywood nobody, told The Morning Show that she personally chose to end several friendships because of their unbelief in the Cult of Covidism.

The survey found that opposition to getting injected currently ranks as the top reason why Branch Covidians are breaking up with their friends. Lying, making up rumors, and committing infidelity ranked lower on the list.

Nearly every Branch Covidian who responded to the survey said they believe their now-ex-friends who oppose covid injections to be full-blown anti-vaxxers, as if this was some kind of insult.

Because they were unable to manipulate their much-smarter-than-them friends into rolling up their sleeves for a Wuhan Injection, these Branch Covidians decided that cutting their loved ones out of their lives was the best solution.

Unvaccinated four times more likely to be tolerant of their pro-injection friends

The unvaccinated, conversely, say that they merely want to be left alone to make their own personal health decisions. If their fully vaccinated friends cannot accept that, then perhaps they were never real friends in the first place.

While it certainly makes sense that unvaccinated people might feel uncomfortable being around their vaccinated loved ones  who would want to be bombarded by all those vaccine-shed spike proteins?  the same cannot be said for the vaccinated feeling uncomfortable around the unvaccinated.

If your vaccine works, then what are you afraid of? If it is not that, then what is it? Is it simply that you have no tolerance for people who believe differently than you do about a Big Pharma chemical injection? What happened to my body, my choice?

Most of the fully vaccinated who are complaining about the unvaccinated and shunning them from their lives are Democrats, the survey further found. Nearly all Democrats have gotten an injection from Donald father of the vaccine Trumps Operation Warp Speed arsenal, while maybe half of Republicans have.

It is Democrats, in other words, that are unable to tolerate anyone who does not think and believe exactly as they do. If you think that it is probably not a good idea to take experimental drug cocktails that were rushed to market at warp speed in order to cook the books of Wall Street, for instance, then these Democrats will take you to the woodshed for a reeducation whipping.

Interestingly, only about half of the people who took the vaccines still feel confident about their decision, so perhaps there is some Stockholm Syndrome type of thing happening here as well.

Perhaps the fully vaccinated now regret their decision to take the stab and resent their unstabbed friends and family members for holding their ground against the push. The unvaccinated will now go on to live as normal while the vaccinated will be forced to contend with whatever Pandoras box of vaccine-induced hell comes next for them.

I think the real question is: Do we want to take care of our sick friends that laughed at us for NOT taking the shot? pondered one commenter at StudyFinds.org.

The latest news about Branch Covidian insanity can be found at Fascism.news.

Sources for this article include:

StudyFinds.org

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) Its all now incredibly clear. Everything weve been watching over the last 20 months has been a globalist-led effort to convince billions of people to exterminate themselves without them knowing it.

See, waging an open kinetic war on humanity would meet instant resistance. People tend to fight back when theyre being attacked and slaughtered with bullets and bombs. So globalists had to figure out a way to carry out mass slaughter on a planetary scale without alerting the masses to what they were doing.

Its a very difficult challenge, but they figured out how to achieve it in a few simple steps:

First, build a toxic nanoparticle weapon system (the spike protein) and mass produce it in labs run by the Chinese and US military. Fake an outbreak in China along with leaked scary videos of Chinese people falling over dead in mere seconds after breathing in the virus. Cue media frenzy. Drop the toxic nanoparticles on NYC (and Northern Italy) to simulate a viral outbreak, while diagnosing people with covid via PCR tests that merely detect the presence of the toxic nanoparticles. Unleash mass media propaganda, claiming everybody will die unless they take vaccines. Fill the vaccines with the exact same toxic nanoparticles you dropped on New York City in the first place. Unleash mass injections of the population with the spike protein bioweapons, fraudulently labeled vaccines. As people get injected with the bioweapons, they start shedding the toxic nanoparticles, making others sick around them. Frame this as a worsening pandemic to spread more fear and drive more people into the spike protein injections. Censor anyone talking about vaccine injuries or deaths. Pay off hospital administrators to wildly exaggerate covid numbers to keep the scamdemic going.

In a nutshell, thats how they did it. Notice there is no virus required to pull it off. All they needed was a spike protein nanoparticle weapon system combined with media collusion and Big Tech censorship.

From the globalist point of view, the real genius in all this is how theyve managed to get people to beg for their own vaccine death shots. Never before in human history have the masses been manipulated into lining up and demanding their own deaths. The vaccine holocaust is a stealth operation, requiring no bullets, bombs or missiles. It only needs censorship, journo-terrorism and a toxic nanoparticle bioweapon combined with a fraudulent PCR protocol authorized by the criminal CDC.

Its now completely obvious that the real goal is mass extermination of the human race

In a sane world where globalists werent trying to exterminate the human race, ivermectin would be celebrated as a safe, effective, low-cost medical intervention. Vitamin D would be recommended for nearly everyone. Fauci and the other bioweapons criminals would be indicted and charged with crimes against humanity. And the science journals wouldnt be run by communist China.

But our world is not sane. It is ruled by a completely insane globalist death cult that seeks the total destruction of the human race. Thats why everything youre seeing unfold makes no sense unless you realize the goal really is depopulation / genocide against humanity. In that context, suddenly it all makes sense: The gain-of-function research, the medias psychological operations, the hospitals faking covid numbers to scare the public, the science journals scheming to attack ivermectin and hide the origins of the spike protein, the incessant pushing of covid vaccine mandates, the economic lockdowns that destroy lives, etc. Once you understand that the goal is total death and destruction, suddenly it all makes sense.

In Scotland, 80% of the covid deaths are now occurring among the vaccinated. And in high vaccination rate countries like Israel and Singapore, hospitalizations and deaths are skyrocketing. It shouldnt be any surprise, of course, because when you inject lots of people with biological weapons, many of them get sick and die. 1 + 1 = 2. Its straight up cause and effect.

The globalists are aware of something much bigger thats approaching our world something on a COSMIC scale

As Ive revealed previously, the total panic of the globalists in their mad rush to exterminate the human race reveals something truly astonishing: They themselves fear whats coming something cosmic, something bigger than any pandemic or any war. Theres an approaching threat they know about, and they believe this event will collapse human civilization as we know it hence their need to rapidly cleanse the planet of humans so that the chaos can be somewhat controlled. (They dont want billions of people realizing whats happening and then panicking in the streets, going after all the resources that globalists themselves need to survive.)

Its almost as if these anti-human globalists know for certain that theres an approaching supervolcano event, or an asteroid thats going to collide with the planet, or an alien invasion (or perhaps a faked one) or some other similar world-ending event thats imminent. So theyre in a mad rush to exterminate as many as possible before that event approaches. (Could it be Planet X?)

We can therefore take an informed guess that since the vaccine death agenda is being aggressively, desperately accelerated right now, this approaching event is probably expected to emerge sometime in 2022. The coming winter is likely to be the target window for globalists to release the second half of their binary bioweapon, causing mass casualties among the vaccinated, via hyperinflammation reactions to the newly-released pathogens or particles. This could theoretically kill off billions of humans by the time mid-2022 arrives.

See my recent video interview with Steve Quayle for more details on what this could be, as he warns our world wont make it to the 2022 mid-term elections without some major collapse unfolding:

Brighteon.com/fa06f2c1-02b0-4318-b60c-dcb73eb873df

Its also nearly certain that globalists will unleash other engineered collapse events in the coming months in order to accentuate the deaths from vaccine reactions. We can therefore expect engineered food shortages, debt bomb implosions, large-scale deep state terrorism (false flag events) and even deliberate initiations of geopolitical warfare to occur, all as layers of destruction and chaos to maximize the fatalities across the globe.

The governments of the world have become murderous regimes

Without question, the governments of the world are now murderous regimes. Hospitals are murder factories and doctors are serial killers. Perhaps thats why Randi Pinkerton rages at AmericanThinker.com, I will never trust another doctor.

I have no doubt he isnt alone in that conclusion. No mainstream doctor or health care worker can ever be trusted again. And just to prove the point, Project Veritas just released new whistleblower videos showing how nursing homes are using chemical restraints to trick the elderly into taking covid shots by lying to them, claiming theyre flu jabs.

Face the reality. You are now living in a world where doctors are murderers. Hospital administrators are caught on Zoom videos openly admitting theyre fudging the covid numbers to terrorize the public. Governments are scheming up ways to maximize the deaths of their own people. Science journals are scheming against the pillars of science, and media propagandists function as full-blown psychological terrorists, reveling in their power to spread fear as a means of political control.

The oblivious masses wont remain oblivious for much longer. The mass awakening is right around the corner, and when it gains traction, God help those in government, science and medicine who tried to exterminate humanity through this cosmic-scale deception. They may kill a billion people (or even more) but unless they manage to kill us all, humanity is coming for them and it wont be pretty.

Ive got more details on all this in todays hard-hitting Situation Update podcast, which also gives you practical information on how to deal with friends and family members who have become mindless vaccine zealots:

Brighteon.com/67f461fe-6bb4-4163-992a-e13ea6007aa8

Discover a new podcast (and interviews) each day at:

https://www.brighteon.com/channels/hrreport
(Natural News) Everest Medicines Ltd., a Chinese biopharma firm, is set to license Canadas Providence Therapeutics Holdings Inc. mRNA COVID-19 vaccine as it tries to bring the most effective inoculation platform to China.

Everest will gain rights to the vaccine in Greater China and other nearby countries, including Indonesia, Singapore, and Thailand. It will pay $100 million cash upfront for access to the vaccines and the technology and up to $100 million in profit-sharing. Another payment of up to $300 in stock is also in the contract if further products are developed using the mRNA technology platform.

Almost 1 billion people have been fully vaccinated in China; however, the country still lacks mRNA shots, as most of the population was inoculated with inactivated vaccines from Sinopharm Group Co. and Sinovac Biotech Ltd, which were shown to be less effective.

A deal by Fosun Pharmaceutical Group Co. to sell BioNTechs mRNA shot in mainland China hasnt been approved by regulators yet, suggesting that bringing a foreign mRNA vaccine may not be easy due to political sensitivities.

If approved, the Everest-Providence vaccine will be used as a booster shot in China as most of the population has already been vaccinated, according to Everest Chief Executive Officer Kerry Blanchard.

Everests full technology transfer of the Providence shot means that the Chinese firm will have a bigger stake as it will improve its chances to be considered as a Chinese vaccine, compared to Fosun Pharma, which would only manufacture and distribute the BioNTech vaccine.

However, the vaccines only recently completed their Phase-1 trials in Canada, so it will be difficult to put a timeline on its development. This will include the enrolment of patients, the execution of trials, and the flexibility of their regulatory system. At the very least, a phase III trial will likely start this year or early next year.

There is little knowledge on how much protection the vaccine will provide against the virus; however, Blanchard said that the immunogenicity and neutralization are as good or better than Pfizer and Moderna against the original strain of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and its variants.

The delay in approving other vaccines such as BioNTech-Pfizers only fueled speculations that the Chinese government is trying to avoid acknowledging that local shots may be less effective. However, Blanchard said that focusing on locally-manufactured vaccines is the right approach, so full technology transfer is important.

Chinas own mRNA vaccine from Walvax Biotechnology Co. is currently in its third phase of trials, and efficacy data is expected by the end of the year. Sinopharm, on the other hand, has administered around 1.6 billion shots globally, and has said that it is working on developing mRNA shots against COVID-19. (Related: Chinese authorities hid the fact that medical staff in coronavirus-hit city were infected.)

Rising cases drive China to change tactics

Foreign governments appear to be losing confidence in the performance of Chinese vaccines compared to mRNA vaccines from companies like BioNTech and Moderna. Thus, bringing an mRNA vaccine in could bolster its own pandemic response and likely ease border reopenings.

The plan to use BioNTech vaccines as optional booster shots after people get a two-dose regiment of Chinese vaccines may be a way for China to avoid undermining confidence in its existing campaign while improving the populations immunity.

China has relied on Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines, which the World Health Organization approved for emergency use. However, governments appear to be losing confidence in them despite the backing, questioning their efficacy, especially against the more transmissible delta variant.

If China does not embrace mRNA vaccines, it may get left behind. What is now clear is that [mRNA] technology works and is superior to the current Chinese [inactivated] approach. The Chinese government needs to unpick its own position on mRNA vaccines if it is to provide better community protection as it opens up, said Nicholas Thomas, a professor of health security at the City University of Hong Kong.

Find out more news and information from Pandemic.news.

Sources include:

Bloomberg.com

Fortune.com
(Natural News) Earlier today, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki announced that Joe Biden would address the nation about his robust plan to stop the spread of the delta variant and boost vaccinations. Psaki explained that Bidens hands were tied when it comes to implementing a mass vaccine mandate.

(Article by Patty McMurray republished from 100PercentFedUp.com)

On Friday, Biden conveniently blamed the shocking jobs report on the Delta variant: Theres no question the delta variant is why todays jobs report isnt stronger. I know people were looking, and I was hoping for a higher number. But next week, Ill lay out the next steps that are going to  were going to need to combat the delta variant, to address some of those fears and concerns. He also talked about giving states more federal money to fight the Delta variant.

So, how do we know the dangerous Delta variant is actually the CCP virus variant spreading across America if patients arent even allowed to know if they have it?

Last month, I asked my primary care physician how doctors in her office know when a patient has the Delta variant versus the original version of the man-made CCP virus? She explained that labs were not checking for specific variants and that they have no way of knowing. So, how do we know if the Delta variant is really responsible for the increase in cases in Michigan if theyre not testing for it? I asked. She replied, Were just guessing thats what it is because the Delta variant is so contagious. So were just supposed to trust what the media and Dr. Fauci are telling usright?

Business Insider reports  Most people with COVID-19 in the US are legally prevented from knowing which variant infected them.

Thats because sequencing tests have to be federally approved for results to be disclosed to doctors or patients, and most are not yet.

Lab scientists say the process of validating the tests for approval is too costly and time-consuming.

Sam Reider, a musician from San Francisco, got a call from the California Department of Public Health in June. Though fully vaccinated, Reider had recently tested positive for COVID-19 after teaching music at a summer camp. The health department asked him to take a second test at a local Kaiser Permanente.

Reider assumed it was because authorities wanted to find out whether he had a Delta infection. He, too, was curious  but when he got the test results back, he was surprised to learn that doctors couldnt give him any information about his variant.

When I got the follow-up from Kaiser, they said its positive, but they didnt have any of the sequencing information, Reider told Insider. That felt odd to me, he said.

Other patients, like Ryan Forrest, a 30-year-old in Midland Park, New Jersey, are simply curious to figure out how they were infected.

Forrest tested positive for COVID-19 after attending an indoor wedding in July. He said he didnt have any personal interactions with the weddings patient zero, so hes still wondering how he got sick  especially since he was vaccinated in March. Knowing that the Delta variant infected him could clear up confusion, he said.

It would have been nice to know just for curiosity more than anything else, he said.

Several legal barriers prevented Reider and his doctors  as well as nearly all Americans who have tested positive for the coronavirus  from knowing which variant was to blame.

Why???

Why are doctors and patients allowing legal barriers to stand between receiving full or partial COVID test results? Are vaccinated patients being denied information from tests performed on their bodies because medical experts dont want them to know they have the same type of COVID they were vaccinated against? Or is it because it would blow up the propaganda machines narrative that every American needs to be vaccinated to prevent becoming infected with the newest variants of the CCP virus?

Why is there so much secrecy about this virus?

Why should Americans trust the propaganda when patients cant even know the full truth about the virus theyve been infected with? How do we know were not being played by a dishonest government that almost daily finds new ways to strip Americans of precious freedoms over the man-made CCP virus?

Read more at: 100PercentFedUp.com and Conspiracy.news.
(Natural News) First, it was the War on Terror, where every American was supposed to be terrified of those evil doers that took over airplanes and turned them into weapons of mass destruction, even though theres not one single airport security video of any of the supposed 19 terrorists of 9/11. Now comes the War on Covid, where every person in the world is supposed to be terrified of the China flu to the extent that we all beg for blood-clotting vaccines to stave off our death by virus with death by spike protein invasion. Now, the hysteria is spreading, with the injected calling any sane person who rejects death by vaccination a bio-terrorist who wants to spread Covid and kill off the world. Burn them alive! Drop bombs on them all using drones!

Todays War on Terror is the Anti-Vax War

Want to fight for your country and the republic? Never accept vaccines that push billions of toxic spike proteins into your organs and blood vessels. Its the sure shot way of losing all of your rights and privileges as your health will quickly decline, as will your mental capacity to understand what is happening to you. This is the case with the talking heads at MSNBC, who are calling for drone strikes on anyone who is exercising their God-given right to not have Covid heart spike injections.

Everyone must clog their brain with billions of protein particles that mimic viruses, or face being wiped off the face of the Earth, starting now, says Frank Schaeffer, a deranged, clot-shot-lover and guest on MSNBC.

When you get shot up with billions of blood-clogging viral fragments and wear an oxygen-depriving mask most of every day, you quickly lose your patience for people who function in a normal, civilized, healthy manner. The bio-terrorist pundits and their guests need to be treated as such and locked up until they can prove they are sane. Death threats are no joke, and right now the vaccine industry and mass media talking heads want to kill Joe Rogan for using vitamins and ivermectin (anti-parasite medicine) to cure his case of Covid.

They should be treated as such. Drone strikes on selected worst offender pod-casters anyone? decries the violent antagonist Schaeffer (hes talking about the Joe Rogan Experience podcast here). To MSNBC fans the new Taliban are anti-vaxxers who are now the American Taliban and who are going around killing millions of people on purpose with their China Flu germs.

So now, if you dont get shot up with billions of blood-clogging prions, youre worse than an Islamic terrorist. Drone bomb them all, right? Everyone, run for your lives, the MSNBC goons are planning to drone bomb the unvaccinated in America.

We have a situation in Texas right now tonight where the American Taliban, because thats what it is  theres not an American evangelical right-wing movement  there is an American Taliban  is weirdly similar in so many ways to the Middle Eastern Islamist terrorists, the MSNBC goon declares.

Whats next, drone strike Americans who wont take chemotherapy as preventative medicine for cancer?

Covid vaccines, like all other vaccines, are supposed to keep you from getting a virus, but they dont. Vaccines are supposed to be a preventative measure, and the benefit is supposed to far outweigh the risk, but it doesnt. Did you know chemotherapy only saves four percent of its victims, on average? Thats because chemotherapy is poisonous and causes more cancer to develop inside your body, leading to organ failure, just like Covid vaccines cause blood clots and myocarditis by clogging blood vessels and vital organs with billions of toxic, virus-mimicking spike proteins.

The big pharma push for clot shots is all about the elimination of freedom, personal medical choice and good health. Vaccinated people are finding out fast that getting vaccinated for Covid doesnt help them have freedoms and privileges, it takes them all away.

So whos ready for some pre-cancer-chemotherapy that fuels and spreads cancer growth? If you dont get it, then the goons at the CDC and fake news will demand you lose all rights as an American. Pre-chemo doesnt work, by the way, and neither do the China flu clot shots.

The Covid vaccines dont stop you from catching it or spreading it. Even if they save you from a deadly case of China flu, the effect wears off after a couple months, so rush out and get those boosters that clog your blood even more, while you lose all of your freedoms when your body collapses from lack of proper oxygen and nutrient flow.

Tune your truth news dial to Pandemic.news for updates on the war against dirty vaccines and socialism, and how to keep your family happy, healthy and safe.

Sources for this article include:

Pandemic.news

NaturalNews.com

TruthWiki.org

NaturalNews.com

Breitbart.com
(Natural News) Former intelligence operative Jeffrey Prather talks about the different generations of warfare in his Brighteon.TV program Prather Point. Prather elaborates how these concepts apply to current events such as the 9/11 terrorist attack and the Afghanistan pullout. Prather adds that false flag attacks are part of the latest generation of warfare to undermine the U.S.

In the Sept. 10 edition of his program, Prather defines the five generations of warfare as follows. The first generation involves troops lining up, such as Leonidas and his 300 Spartans and the Roman legionnaires. Second-generation warfare involves indirect fire such as artillery and long-range arrows being used in combat.

World War II brought about the rise of third-generation warfare, with modern technology coming into play. Armies funded by the modern economy and modern nation took center stage during this time.

The fourth generation of warfare  guerilla warfare  follows soon after. Communist leaders such as Mao Tse-Tung and Ho Chi Minh are masters of this concept, with Prather saying most U.S. generals are not. The Prather Point host adds that the first phase of guerrilla warfare involves centralizing and collectivizing the political base. He says the left has done this through the mainstream media, Antifa and corrupt Democratic lawmakers.

Now, Prather says the world is currently in the fifth generation of warfare that involves information and influence. He says the U.S. lost this war in China back in 2020. Quoting intelligence from Beijing, Prather adds that the U.S. being preoccupied with internal arguments is a crucial sign that it is losing the human terrain.

Furthermore, the former intelligence operative elaborates that the 9/11 terrorist attack is an example of ongoing fourth-generation warfare. [Thats] a perfect example of third-world folks taking first-world technology and using it in fourth-generation warfare as improvised weaponry. That is, the planes as bombs, Prather says.

He adds: Thats still whats going on. That has been repeated in China, Vietnam, Somalia [and] in Syria. According to Prather, generals are unable to respond because they fail to understand the concept of guerrilla warfare  having been used to the first, second and third generations.

Biden left them, but we will get them

Prather also talked about the events in Afghanistan, specifically the suicide bombing outside the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul. The attack by the Taliban killed 13 U.S. military service members, alongside many Afghans. He commemorated the American victims, saying: When we fall, we rally and rise around our fallen. It didnt end in Kabul because we remember our 13 [soldiers who died.]

According to the Prather Point host, scores of westerners  including some Americans  have been able to fly out of Kabul. However, the total number of Americans who managed to flee and those who are still in the Afghan capital remain unknown as the State Department refuses to reveal the actual numbers.

However, Prather alleges that there is something sinister behind President Joe Bidens seemingly incompetent response to the Afghanistan situation. He bumbles because they like him to bumble, so its a cover for their evil plans, he says. He continues: Ive talked about how giving up Bagram [Airfield and]  leaving all of the weaponry there was planned,  [even] flying in Afghan terrorists and military-aged male fighting folks. (Related: Steel Truth: Arizona audit and Bidens Bagram blunders  Brighteon.TV. )

Prather continues that the Deep State aims to destroy the U.S. with these nefarious plans in concert with foreign nation-state enemies such as China.

Prather also claims that the State Department and White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki are trying to take credit for the efforts to rescue Americans still trapped in Kabul. He quotes veterans who claim the Deep State, through the corrupt State Department, is trying to stop the rescue operations. Prather adds that the Central Intelligence Agency, which he called clowns in action, plays a role in undermining the rescue operations in the Afghan capital. (Related: Melissa Redpill talks about how the fall of Afghanistan affects the globalist cabal  Brighteon.TV. )

Prather ultimately warns that the Deep State is probably setting people up for a false flag event. He mentions instances of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) aiding in these plans and blocking investigations. These include the FBI flying in Israeli art students who were later involved in attacks before 9/11; former intelligence agent Tony Shaffer being blocked from investigating about Osama Bin Laden; and a former FBI agent who was told to do something else after trying to investigate the Muslim terrorists learning to fly aircraft but not to land them.

You should be very much on alert [for false flag events] as we approach the 20th anniversary of 9/11, he warns.

Watch the full episode of Prather Point here .

DeepState.news has more articles about the Deep States plan to decimate the U.S. through Bidens seeming incompetence.

Sources include:

Brighteon.com
(Natural News) Hesitant New Yorkers who work in the medical field will not have to get vaccinated for the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) after all now that a federal judge has struck down the states attempted mandate.

A band of 17 health care workers in the Empire State joined up to sue the state over its unconstitutional decree, which came down from the now-expelled former state governor and sexual predator, Andrew Cuomo.

In order to continue working in hospitals and long-term care facilities like nursing homes and adult care centers, those in the field were told by Cuomo that they must roll up their sleeves for an Operation Warp Speed vaccine or else lose their jobs.

This was compounded by the states attempted elimination of the religious exemption clause, which would have left medical necessity as the only option with which to refuse the jabs.

Plaintiffs in the case, which include doctors, nurses, a medical technician and a physicians liaison, were all on the verge of being fired for just saying no when they decided to mount a legal case instead.

Court documents reveal that the plaintiffs cited religious beliefs for their refusal to get a vaccination with the available COVID-19 vaccines, all of which employ aborted fetus cell lines in their testing, development, or production.

Mandating said shots violates the plaintiffs sincerely held religious beliefs, which are protected under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. A judge agreed, striking down New Yorks attempted prohibition against using the religious exemption clause.

What New York is attempting to do is slam shut an escape hatch from an unconstitutional vaccine mandate, said attorney Christopher Ferrara, special counsel at the Thomas More Society, in a statement.

And they are doing this while knowing that many people have sincere religious objections to vaccines that were tested, developed, or produced with cell lines derived from aborted children.

Youre a loser, Cuomo

Bill Clinton appointee Judge David Hurd of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York, granted a temporary restraining order on September 14. This means that the decision could later be reversed through other action.

The vaccine mandate is suspended, Hurds order states, adding that the New York Department of Health is barred from taking any action, disciplinary or otherwise, against the licensure, certification, residency, admitting privileges or other professional status or qualification of any of the plaintiffs on account of their seeking or having obtained a religious exemption from mandatory COVID-19 vaccination.

News of the decision likely sent chills down Cuomos spine as his covid vaccine mandate constitutes much of his legacy  that and thousands of elderly nursing home residents who were killed by his Chinese Virus policies.

Happy for this decision, but my God-given natural rights are not dependent on some random judges decision, noted one commenter at The Epoch Times about how our rights do not come from government. That this was even attempted is criminal, treason, EVIL.

Every person should have a choice what they put into their own bodies, wrote another. And for those unborn and silent (unable to choose) the Constitution and the Bible are clear that no one interfere with their life. Such sinister individuals will come face to face with their Maker and it wont end well. In fact, their suffering will never end.

Others reiterated that my body, my choice must always be the approach when it comes to vaccines or any other chemical that goes into the body and alters its function.

The latest news about the governments efforts to force everyone to get injected for Wuhan Germs can be found at Fascism.news.

Sources for this article include:

TheEpochTimes.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) The city of Los Angeles faces a legal challenge to its Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine mandate. Six police officers from the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) members file a federal lawsuit against the city on Sept. 11 because its vaccine mandate violates their rights. The six officers join many others standing up for their health freedom against vaccine mandates.

The six LAPD officers argue in their Sept. 11 lawsuit that L.A.s vaccine mandate forces them to choose between their livelihood  and preservation of their fundamental constitutional privacy rights. They add that the vaccination order seeks to deprive the liberty of persons turning down the COVID-19 shorts through testing, masking and other punitive measures. Furthermore, the plaintiffs also accuse the police department of failing to provide a process to submit requests for medical or religious exemptions.

The suit names L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti, L.A. City Administrative Officer Matthew Szabo and LAPD Chief Michel Moore as defendants. The three plaintiffs threaten to fire police officers who refuse the vaccine, the suit adds. Thus, it asks the court to declare the vaccine mandate by Garcetti unlawful and block the city from enforcing it.

The LAPD officers lawsuit argues that the city refused to consider studies that show natural immunity [providing] equivalent or greater protection against severe infection than immunity generated by  vaccines. Some of the suits plaintiffs include LAPD employees who recovered from a bout of COVID-19. These employees say they should be exempt from the vaccine mandate due to their natural post-infection immunity.

The lawsuit also accuses the LAPD of failing to establish a process for those seeking medical or religious exemptions for vaccination. Federal law permits medical and religious exemptions, but Garcettis mandate does not mention a specific form those seeking exemptions can submit. Many police officers use Form 15.7, the default form for reporting general issues, to seek exemption. However, the suit says most requests are rejected due to the use of an incorrect form  if not being delayed.

Attorney Daniel Watkins, who represents the six plaintiffs, hopes the lawsuit will force the city and the LAPD to implement a lawful process of handling vaccine exemption requests. He says: The law calls for an individual review of the requests. [That] requires a significant process  [and] a system for individual review and criteria for evaluation, and [the LAPD is] just not doing it.

Other police officers also stand up against vaccine mandates

Lt. Raul Jovel of the LAPDs media relations division says the department has not yet received direction on going about the mandate. Because of this, he is unable to comment on how the LAPD will handle requests fo vaccine exemptions.

The process and procedures have not been developed yet. Theres talk that the city is still coordinating or working with the labor unions, the [L.A. Police Protective] League and different employer organizations to try to figure our how this is going to work, Jovel says. He continues: Once thats written, well know exactly the process. [But]  the other half of that coin is trying to figure out, if people dont [get vaccinated], what are the consequences. (Related: WATCH: Los Angeles fire captain refuses covid vaccine in epic speech.)

An anonymous LAPD officer says the side of the group affected by the Sept. 11 federal lawsuit could grow to as many as 3,000 employees. These encompass employees of all ranks and classifications, and include civilian workers as well. The officer adds: Our particular group has 1,300 people sign up to get assistance in filing exemptions and retain legal counsel in the event of denial.

However, the six LAPD officers are not the only ones standing up against tyrannical COVID-19 vaccine mandates. New York Citys Police Benevolent Association (PBA), which represents 24,000 employees of the New York City Police Department (NYPD) says it plans to sue the city the moment it mandates COVID-19 vaccines.

PBA President Patrick Lynch writes in an email: If [NYC] attempts to impose a vaccine mandate on PBA members, we will take legal action to defend our members right to make such personal medical decisions. His email comes as NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio mandates public school teachers to get vaccinated. Lynch continues: As of writing, [NYC] has not yet indicated whether it will attempt to impose vaccine mandates on other city workers, including police officers. (Related: NYC police union threatens to sue if city requires cops to get vaccinated.)

HealthFreedom.news has more articles about law enforcement officers standing up to vaccine mandates.

Sources include:

TheEpochTimes.com

NYPost.com
(Natural News) Beginning September 24, the Lewis County Health System in upstate New York is pausing all baby deliveries in the hospital systems maternity ward after a slew of nurses quit due to the new Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccine mandate.

According to CEO Gerald Cayer, at least six employees in the maternity unit have already resigned and another seven are considering it. As a result, there is no way for the Lewis County Health System to continue safely delivering newborn children.

If we can pause the service and now focus on recruiting nurses who are vaccinated, we will be able to reengage in delivering babies here in Lewis County, Cayer told local media affiliate WWNY.

In the system as a whole, some 27 percent of medical workers are currently unvaccinated, presumably with no plans to take the jab. Should they, too, continue to resist the shots, the Lewis County Health System will be short medical workers in other areas as well.

The turmoil comes after New York state, under the failed leadership of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, mandated back in August that all health care workers at hospitals and long-term care facilities get jabbed for the Chinese Virus in order to keep their jobs.

New Yorks government also abolished the religious exemption from mandatory vaccination, making it even harder for workers who object to maintain bodily autonomy as well as their jobs.

Thus far, according to Cayer, some 30 workers throughout the Lewis County Health System have resigned from their posts due to the mandate. The system is now stretched to the limits and unable to provide the same services it did prior to the mandate.

Medical fascism is everywhere, including in red states

The situation is much the same in other states like New Mexico and Texas where hospital systems are demanding that people get injected with Donald father of the vaccine Trumps Operation Warp Speed shots or else lose their jobs.

Houston Methodist Hospital is one of them, as are the hospital systems in New Mexico where, like New York, medical workers are now being told that their bodies are owned by the state government.

A group of New Mexico health care workers converged for a protest recently to try to stop the elimination of peoples choice and informed consent. Forcing anyone to take an injection against their will is a violation of medical codes of ethics as well as fundamental human rights, the Constitution, and the Nuremberg Code, they say.

There have likewise been protests in California, Colorado, Wisconsin, Arizona, Washington, and elsewhere in response to Fauci Flu shot mandates that violate the right of individuals to make their own medical decisions.

Both blue states and red states are facing similar tyranny from different angles. The difference is that most of the protests appear to be happening in blue states while the red states are just putting up with it?

Just yesterday, I spoke with one of the people at my doctors office because I had to cancel an appointment due to possible covid exposure. I mentioned I hadnt had the injection and she said neither had she, wrote one commenter at Zero Hedge about her personal experience.

She went on to tell me the office had tried to mandate it and they pushed back and told the higher-ups they would quit and the office would be left with no triage department. They backed down on mandating it. It was refreshing to hear directly from a person who actually works in healthcare what the sentiment is.

Branch Covidian medical fascism is everywhere these days. To learn more and to help stop it, visit Fascism.news.

Sources for this article include:

ZeroHedge.com

NaturalNews.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) Lewis County General Hospital in Lowville will no longer have the capacity to deliver babies after six employees in the maternity ward resigned instead of taking a COVID-19 vaccine as part of Governor Andrew Cuomos executive order several weeks ago.

The hospital has said that it will work with state officials to make sure that the maternity unit does not shut down permanently. Six employees employed in the unit have resigned, while seven others who are not vaccinated remain undecided, said Officer Gerald Cayer, Lewis County Health System Chief Executive Officer.

The staffing shortage resulted in the hospitals incapacity to deliver newborns. If we can pause the service and now focus on recruiting nurses who are vaccinated, we will be able to reengage in delivering babies here in Lewis County, Cayer said in a conference.

There are still around 165 hospital employees who havent been vaccinated against COVID-19. This is about 27 percent of the total workforce.

The hospital is already short-staffed as it is, and it took a significant hit after the resignation of its employees. Officials cannot adequately staff the maternity department and newborn nursery: the unit nurse manager was already working shifts as a staff nurse. Patients will also have to rely on other facilities for maternity and postpartum care.

Contingency plans are also in place. These include reassigning nurses from administration roles to clinical functions, among others.

Cayer hoped that the number of vaccinated individuals will increase as the deadline for inoculation looms. He also hoped that fewer employees will leave, and some of those who have resigned will consider.

Employees who resign or are terminated over their vaccination status will not be eligible for unemployment benefits. The hospital staff shortages were an issue even before the pandemic started, so now he wants to focus on recruitment.

If we can pause the service and now focus on recruiting nurses who are vaccinated, we will be able to reengage in delivering babies here in Lewis County, he said. (Related:NYC restaurants REFUSE to enforce vaccine passport mandate and become vaccination police.)

In August, Cuomo issued an order that all health care workers in New York state must get their first COVID-19 vaccine shot by September 27. Last week, President Joe Biden also issued an announcement that said healthcare workers at facilities that receive Medicaid or Medicare funding have to get vaccinated, with no exceptions. Officials estimate that around 50,000 employees would be affected by the mandate.

Hospitals in other parts of the U.S. also demonstrated against the recent vaccine mandates; however, Cayer said that he supports the mandate for health care workers and other employees. He shared that the mandates ensure a healthy workforce, and that they will not be responsible for the transmission of COVID-19 in or out of facilities.

Bidens announcement also targeted millions of workers who are employed at companies with 100 workers or more, as mandates say that these employees have to either get their vaccines or be tested weekly for the virus. Few details have been released about how the mandates will be enforced, although some officials said harsh fines may be imposed.

Workers comply with mandate

The vast majority of workers in the health system have complied with the vaccination mandate. Unfortunately, the resignations have taken place in a region with staffing shortages; there is a lack of experienced maternity nursing staff throughout upstate New York.

Thousands of open nursing positions still remain, however, Cayer said that those who resigned, but changes their mind will be welcomed back.

Lewis County is among the least populous and most politically conservative counties in the state. It also has one of the lowest COVID vaccination rates with only 44 percent full vaccinations, compared to 61 percent statewide.

Health care facilities have been affected by the vaccine mandate. The pandemic has already exacerbated staffing shortages at medical facilities in the United States and hospitals have offered incentives to get workers to keep their jobs or encourage applications during the pandemic, such as offering sign-on bonuses.

Get more COVID-19 related news and updates at Pandemic.news.

Sources include:

TheEpochTimes.com

TheGuardian.com

Edition.CNN.com

NYTimes.com
(Natural News) A massive spike in new cases of the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) has struck Singapore, one of the most fully vaccinated countries on earth with about an 81 percent compliance rate, according to the latest data.

Surging infections due to mass injection are stymieing efforts to reopen the country as fully vaccinated residents flood hospitals in desperate need of oxygen and other treatments.

Over the weekend, the number of patients requiring oxygen in Singapore doubled, showing that the injections they call vaccines are failing to provide the promised protection against Chinese Germs.

Compared to most other nations, Singapore was exceptionally quick to accept the Fauci Flu shots. Its residents lined right up and rolled up their sleeves, only to now face the consequences of antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE) and other spike protein damage.

Injection rates have plateaued, reports indicate, as the vast majority of Singapore has taken all of the currently available shots pushed by the government. To now be seeing this spike in new infections and hospitalizations has some people questioning how and why this is happening.

Infections over the weekend were more than a combined 1,000 cases, a tenfold increase from a month ago, reported Reuters.

Many experts, though, are not overly concerned about the rise in infections because of the low number of serious cases and Singapores high vaccination percentage.

Vaccinated people are killing others with spike protein shedding

Early on in the plandemic, Singapore was one of the first countries to report any Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) infections at all.

Along with Australia, Singapore announced to the world that the China Virus had been detected there, which sent the global media into a tailspin.

Fast-forward to now and Singapore is leading the way in both vaccine compliance and simultaneous accelerated spread of the Wuhan Flu and its many variants  which are still being blamed, in many cases, on the unvaccinated.

There is no evidence to suggest that healthy, unvaccinated people are spreading anything other than their untainted existence, but the mainstream media wants you to believe that they are the disease vectors as opposed to the fully vaccinated.

Ironic is the fact that the plandemic would have long been done and over with had everyone just said no to vaccination. Thanks to the vaccinated, we now have variant after variant spreading around unfettered, leaving in its wake misery, suffering and death.

And things are about to get a whole lot worse as the first round of booster shots gets distributed. These secondary jabs will cure everything, we are told, though the reality is that the world is about to experience another wave of hell because of them.

If by offering booster shots to the people, including young adults, Singapore is able to relax its restrictions quicker especially with respect to reopening Singapores borders, then this may be an existential decision that the government is forced to take, announced Teo Yik Ying, dean of the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health at the National University of Singapore.

In other words, Singapore is still clinging to the Branch Covidian doctrine that more injections will equal better health outcomes  even though the data shows the opposite to be true.

The world will apparently have to learn this all the hard way, though, as there appear to be no signs of the plandemic agenda relenting anytime soon. It will be booster shot after booster shot until the end of time  or until people decide that enough is enough.

As people continue to suffer and die due to the vaccines, we will keep you informed about it at ChemicalViolence.com.

Sources for this article include:

Trust.org

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) The nations of Southeast Asia are reopening their economies that were devastated by their ill-advised Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdowns.

Officials in many of the regions governments are all pushing forward with their plans to reopen their economies after spending the last few weeks or even months keeping most businesses closed and millions of families unable to make a living.

The economic devastation of the lockdowns has forced Southeast Asian governments to get creative with their supposed solutions to see to peoples needs. In Vietnam, the communist government brought up its military to deliver food to sequestered workers and to the homes of families without decent incomes.

In other parts of the region, other governments are attempting micro-lockdowns and segregating the unvaccinated from the rest of society by only allowing vaccinated individuals to access restaurants or even work at offices.

Now, instead of trying to get creative to implement complex solutions, Southeast Asian governments are simply easing up their lockdowns and rolling back the economically devastating restrictions that came with them.

In Jakarta and most areas on the heavily populated Indonesian island of Java, many restaurants inside shopping malls can now operate at 50 percent dine-in capacity, and shopping malls are being allowed to remain open until 9 p.m. Factories on the island are also being allowed to operate at 100 percent capacity.

In Bangkok and 28 other provinces in Thailand, dine-in restaurants are allowed to operate at a capacity between 50 to 75 percent. But operating hours for dine-in restaurants and shopping malls are still capped at 8 p.m.

Southeast Asia under pressure to restart economy

The goal of easing lockdowns is to make the regions growth look more positive than last year. Malaysia already cut its 2021 growth forecast in half to just three to four percent due to the lockdowns. Thailands critical tourism industry is still lagging behind significantly due to economic restrictions.

Even in Vietnam and Singapore, where both countries economies are expected to grow a good six and seven percent, respectively, both governments are pressured to fully reopen their factories to contribute to addressing global supply chain blockages. The regions economic experts also fear that continued lockdowns would discourage further investments into the region.

Vietnam is feeling even more pressure due to the aforementioned supply chain breakdowns. The countrys exceptionally restrictive lockdowns have exacted a high toll on manufacturers and exporters. At the same time, the lockdown has notably failed to halt the spread of the coronavirus.

The Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade even warned that the country risks losing a lot of its overseas customers because the lockdown has led to many of the countrys factories shutting down.

According to the European Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam, around 18 percent of its members in the country have already relocated at least part of their production to other countries with less debilitating economic restrictions to ensure the stability of the global supply chain. If the Vietnamese government ignores the advice of its economic advisers, it stands to lose even more business.

Many inhumane pandemic restrictions still remain

The strategies of many Southeast Asian countries have been described as a reorientation. Instead of treating COVID-19 as a pandemic event, the regions governments are transitioning to treating the coronavirus as endemic.

Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia are taking their cues from Singapore, whose strategy has been described as learning to live with the virus. This means different things to the regions different countries.

In Indonesia, the government is creating even more regulations to force people to carry around vaccination passports wherever they go. Government ministers are also considering implementing a years-long mask mandate. (Related: Indonesia has become the COVID epicenter of Asia, caseload now claimed at 2.6 million and more than 69,000 dead.)

In Malaysia, the government is crafting long-term plans that involve keeping the countrys mask mandate in place, regularly forcing people to take COVID-19 tests and mandatory quarantine for people that test positive.

In Vietnam and the Philippines, both governments are implementing more localized and targeted lockdown strategies. Neighborhoods, down to the street or even houses, can be placed under lockdown if cases in the area increase.

It is unlikely that any of these targeted restrictions will actually deter the spread of the coronavirus. It is also unlikely that the economies of the aforementioned Southeast Asian nations will recover properly unless most, if not all, pandemic restrictions are rolled back.

Sources include:

Bloomberg.com

Reuters.com

TheDiplomat.com
(Natural News) Dave Racer says its time for Americans to push back against President Joe Bidens tyrannical coronavirus (COVID-19) mandates.

Biden has issued several executive orders mandating that federal contractors, federal workers and most health care staff in the U.S. get the COVID-19 vaccine. Biden also asks the Department of Labor to issue a rule that requires employers with more than 100 employees to mandate vaccines or require weekly testing to avoid getting a fine.

This is the United States of America, we the people are suffering. It is time that we say enough, says Racer during his program Americas Civics Teacher on Brighteon.TV. Stop, you will no longer scare us into compliance.

Racer also questions the science behind the mask mandates. Biden has always been an ardent supporter of mask-wearing. From the early days of his presidency, he has been touting the use of masks, especially among unvaccinated people. (Related: Biden demands endless mask mandates for all Americans even though masks dont stop coronavirus spread.)

Masks dont stop the coronavirus droplets. Neither do they stop flu droplets, says Racer. Funny we didnt need to wear a mask when were all getting flu, right?

According to Racer, some politicians are employing what he calls political science to their advantage. I dont mean the study of politics, but the use of politics to determine our science, he says. I know the fear thats been developed by the politicians who are using COVID as a political hammer to get your support into whatever they want.

The vaccine mandates will affect an estimated 80 million Americans, drawing criticisms from Republican governors and some business leaders. It is likely that numerous lawsuits will be filed against the order.

GOP governors oppose Bidens vaccine mandates

Racer shares a text that he has just received saying that the Biden administration will run over GOP governors who resist vaccine mandates. At least 19 governors have already issued statements disagreeing with the administrations move.

I fully support continued efforts to increase vaccination rates across our nation, but the federal government mandates on private businesses are not the right answer, says Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, chair of the National Governors Association.

I have been consistent in freedom of businesses to require their employees to be vaccinated, and I have opposed the government from saying businesses cannot exercise that freedom. The same principle should protect the private sector from government overreach that requires them to vaccinate all employees.

Gov. Henry McMaster of South Carolina uses Twitter to criticize Bidens move. Rest assured, we will fight them to the gates of hell to protect the liberty and livelihood of every South Carolinian, his post reads.

Before Biden is even finished with his announcement, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp tweets his response. I will pursue every legal option available to the state of Georgia to stop this blatantly unlawful overreach by the Biden administration, he writes.

One of Bidens mandates negates the executive order signed by Kemp on Aug. 19, which prohibits local governments from ordering businesses to adopt mask or vaccine mandates. The executive order bars local officials from mandating the orders, but allows private businesses to require masks or vaccines if they want to.

Local governments will not be able to force businesses to be the citys mask police or the vaccine police, says Kemp. He adds that his executive order will ensure that businesses in Georgia cant be punished by local governments for trying to make a living, pay their employees and save their livelihoods. (Related: Georgia bars local governments from imposing mask and vaccine mandates.)

Unfortunately for business owners in Georgia and the rest of the country, the Biden administration can.

Bidens mandates may be breaking several laws

Biden may be breaking several laws with his vaccine mandates. Most, if not all, of the COVID-19 vaccines available, are under emergency use authorization (EUA). In other words, they are experimental.

Both the Nuremberg Code and federal regulations state that no one can force a human being to participate in the experiment. Under U.S. laws, it is unlawful to deny someone a job or an education because they refuse to be an experimental subject. Potential recipients have an absolute right to refuse experimental vaccines.

No employer can fire you for refusing vaccination, says Racer.

Watch the Sept. 10 episode of Americas Civics Teacher with Dave Racer here:

You can catch Americas Civics Teacher live every Friday at 4-5 p.m. on Brighteon.TV.

Follow Immunization.news for more news and information related to vaccine mandates and coronavirus vaccines.

Sources include:

Brighteon.com

BusinessInsider.com

ValdostaDailyTimes.com

ChildrensHealthDefense.org
"All over the world, people know what is happening in Germany - the floods - in Italy - the hailstorm - in China - the sandstorm - but Africa gets little media attention."

These are the sentiments of Nigerian activist Oladosu Adenike about the little to none coverage on Africa's climate crisis.

"It might take weeks or months for us to get that kind of attention. And this is disproportionately affecting us because a spotlight is going to help the world know what Africa is faced with."

Ugandan activist Vanessa Nakate added that disasters do not just happen in European countries, but in all places all over the word. One among other things that swept across the African continent were floods, drought, heatwaves, fires and famine.

Africa's summer of extremes

Just over the past months, the African country had experienced different climate crisis that drove widespread famine in the island nation. This includes deadly wildfires in Algeria, devastating flooding in Uganda and Nigeria and severe drought conditions in southern Madagascar.

So far, the only reasonable cause that explains these events can be linked to human-induced climate change, as reported by UN's climate authority. "'It is clear that the next decade is going to be pivotal to securing the future of our planet," says UK prime minister Boris Johnson.

In northern Africa and southern Europe, an extreme heatwave called "Lucifer" swept across the region, killing at least 90 people and 33 military officers. Recent reports suggest these earlier fires caused more damage to Algeria's forests than all fires from 2008 to 2020 combined.

According to senior research fellow Dr Luke Harrington, intense heatwaves is rapidly increasing over sub-Saharan Africa.

In addition, some parts of Africa have also struggled with unusually heavy rainfall and massive flooding, destroying people's homes.

Meanwhile, other regions battle lack of rainfall, putting these areas under the grip of its worst drought.

Also read: Global Analysis Reveals Increased Mortality Rate Linked to Wildfire Pollution

Tackle the root cause of climate crisis

World's leading climate scientists' recent assessment suggests that human-induced climate change and rising greenhouse gases increases risks of wildfires, flooding, and drought.

Unfortunately, some of these worst events go unreported which could be putting people in danger. Without these records, policymakers are less able to put measures in place to help people cope with the crisis.

"Humanitarian aid is good but we must have sustainable ways of dealing with the crisis."

Recent assessments also show that with additional global warming, these events are likely to increase almost everywhere in Africa.

"This is what the real consequences of climate change look like, and the people here have done nothing to deserve this," Issa Sanogo, the UN resident coordinator in Madagascar.

What activists are trying to highlight is the fact that the severity of the event is not acknowledged around the world. Dr. Harrington added that "as a rule of thumb, the impact of climate change will always be less pronounced for drought and flooding events, when compared with corresponding changes to extreme temperatures."

Activists encourage media to do more to spotlight these issues.

Also read: Melting Ice Sheet in Greenland May Trigger Tsunamis and Underwater Landslides, Expert Warn
The seaplane only just lifted off the water before a scientist noticed the first oil spill. Just Belle Chasse's south, a scientist with environmental group Healthy Gulf whose name is Naomi Yoder, directed attention to the rainbow sheen blanketing the floodwaters that Ida threw across Phillips 66 Alliance Refinery complex of 2,400-acre.

Ida's Impact

Farther south close to the edge of the Mississippi River, the scientist discovered shrimp boats chugging past a luster over nine miles long. The region where Ida made landfall on the 29th of August - South of Port Fourchon - was filled with rusted platforms that storms have ravaged discharging long, thin trails of oil.

During the return journey, the plane passes over not less than four patches of oil in the vulnerable wetlands rimming Barataria Bay.

Following Healthy Gulf's fourth flight to observe the spills left after Ida's impact, Yoder said Friday: "It's mind-boggling. It's definitely a surprise to see what's out there. It's always more than you expect to find."

More than anticipated, but how much? Two weeks following the impact of the Category 4 hurricane on the Louisiana coast, it remains a difficult task to identify the amount of oil, the number of spills, and other chemicals that are found in the water.

Also Read: Over 100 Oil-soaked Birds Discovered off Louisiana's Coast After an Oil Spill Prompted by Ida's Flooding

Oil Spill

The Coast Guard has received over 2,300 reports of spills and approximately 900 have not been investigated yet. The spills that have been examined range from minor fuel drip off boats to the extending mile sheens from oil platforms.

If there happens to be any fortunate information in the preliminary tallies, it should be that the volume verified to have been spilled as yet is remarkably below the 10.8 million barrels discharged when hurricanes Katrina and Rita took place in 2005. Still, the piling of spilled oil from more hurricanes since that time is disturbing scientists.

A professor of marine sciences at the University of Maryland named Don Boesch said: "A lot of the pictures I've seen [of Ida spills] are in coastal areas where there's a lot of old infrastructure. That indicates a background question of longer-term contamination. Companies are leaving a lot of wells more or less plugged, but they could be releasing oil."

Federal Audit

Boesch made reference to a recent federal audit that discovered energy regulators are allowing oil and gas companies to leave pipelines in the Gulf of Mexico at a high rate.

Boesch said the regulators have chosen to allow companies to abandon pipelines in place about 90% of the time. So now they've got around 18,000 miles of inactive pipeline that are just lying in the Gulf.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office audit also discovered that regulators hardly require or carry out underwater pipeline inspections, abandoning around 9,000 miles of pipelines that are active largely uncontrolled.

Related Article: Oil Spill the Size of New York City Poses Risk to Marine Life in Mediterranean Sea

For more news, updates about oil spill and similar topics don't forget to follow Nature World News!
On Monday, Joe Biden journeyed to California to observe wildfire destruction as the state experience a catastrophic fire season that plans on outdoing the one of 2020, the worst fire season in the state that is on record.

Climate Crisis

Biden is using his trip to point up the link between the climate crisis and the increasingly severe wildfires in the west as he seeks to rally assistance for a spending plan of $3.5tn which congress is discussing.

The president pointed to flames blazing through the west to make an argument for his plan. He called year-round flames and other severe weather a climate crisis reality to which the nation cannot turn a blind eye any more.

Biden's visit to California is among a two-day exploration of the west which includes stopping at the National Interagency Fire Center in Denver, Idaho, and Colorado. When the president was in California, he also campaigned with Gavin Newsom, Democratic governor of the state, who on Tuesday faces a recall election.

Speaking next to Newsom before touring areas damaged by the wildfires in northern California, the president said this summer's massive flames that had rocked the area "are being supercharged by climate change".

Also Read: California's Devastating Dixie Fire Now 2nd Largest Wildfire in State's History

Extreme Weather

The president said: "It isn't about red or blue states. It's about fires. Scientists have been warning us for years that extreme weather is going to get more extreme. We're living it in real time."

Newsom spoke before the president, warning that California was experiencing extremes the kind that has never been experienced in the state's history.

When the president visited Boise, Idaho earlier, he echoed the statement he made the previous week while touring Hurricane Ida's damage, emphasizing that the dangers of the climate crisis are a bipartisan problem.

The president said: "It's not a Democrat thing, it's not a Republican thing. It's a weather thing. It's a reality. It's serious. And we can do this. We can do this. And in the process of building back, we can create jobs."

Biden's Rebuilding Plan

The president argued for using funds now in order to make the potential effects of the crisis inexpensive, the same as what he did during recent stops in New York, Louisiana, and New Jersey, all places that put up with millions of dollars in flood and other ruins and death scores following Hurricane Ida.

With the aim to increase support for his rebuilding intention, Biden said every dollar used on "resilience" would preserve $6 in costs for the future. The president said efforts must exceed just rebuilding damaged systems and make sure communities can hold out against catastrophic weather.

Prior to his visit Monday, the president issued a disaster declaration for California, responding to the Caldor fire, that damaged 782 homes, consumed 342 sq miles, and prompted tens of thousands in the Lake Tahoe Basin to evacuate their homes.

Related Article: Worsening Climate Crisis May Intensify Global Water Shortage, Says New Report

For more news, updates about climate crisis and similar topics don't forget to follow Nature World News!
Another illegal poaching happened in Idaho, this time a black bear mother was separated from her cubs, and the three weans could possibly not stand a chance, either.

Illegal Poaching

It hurts to tell these type of stories. People that capture or kill animals illegally are the scum of the earth. For Outsider, the humans that can do this and similar cruel acts should be jailed. The latest poaching case that took place in Idaho is a primary instance of why.

Idaho Fish & Game are currently, asking for any guide on the unauthorized poaching of a bear sow - black in color - who was shot and killed close to Hills Resort.

A famous Priest Lake community located in North Idaho, Hills Resort also borders the living area of black bears. Sighting this animal is frequent for residents who are familiar with the bears. So immediately IGF officials discovered the female black bear lost her life and is decaying close to the resort, they had a clue of the bear that was a victim.

In August, IFG would reply to information regarding constant visits to Hills by a black bear sow and her three offspring. Through several weeks, the family would go in search for food, as curious black bears usually do, and show they are kind of scared of humans. This final detail is sad and important.

Also Read: Heroic Dogs Track, Skydive to Save Wildlife From Poachers in Africa

The Black Bear's Death

Initially, Fish & Game officials were successful in helping residents by safeguarding refuse cans and through 'bear aware' education programs. But following two serious attacks of pet dogs by the sow that was guiding her three cubs, IFG became aware the issue had gone out of control.

As September arrived, IFG would make effort to trap the family of the bear close to Hills Resort. If this is done, officials could evacuate the sow together with her cubs in the absence of any more harm to residents or the bears themselves. Sadly, the trapping wasn't successful.

Reports of the bears would persist through the coming week. Later, on the 8th of September, local NBC News affiliate KHQ Q6 discloses shots from rifles were heard close to the dumpsters of Hills Resort.

On the 9th of September, IFG officials would locate the mother sow with a number of bullet wounds, lifeless and left to decay.

The Missing Cubs

The cubs have not been sighted yet. Unfortunately, IFG is convinced there is a need for the trio to be euthanized. It is believed the cubs are to be too young to pull through the coming winter in the absence of their mother.

In a press release, Idaho Fish & Game said: "Although frustration with the bears among the local residents was entirely justified, the circumstances surrounding the poaching incident were dangerous for other citizens."

Also, IFG says "the use of artificial light and the waste of game are punishable wildlife crimes." This gives a clue that artificial light may have been nearby in the poaching.

Related Article: Busted! Raid at Ex-Colonel's House in India Reveals Massive Animal Poaching Racket

For more news, updates about poaching and similar topics don't forget to follow Nature World News!
Even the most ardent supporters of traditional whaling in the Faroe Islands have condemned the "cruel and unnecessary" slaughter of a superpod of nearly 1,500 dolphins on Sunday, which was herded into shallow waters off Skalabotnur beach on the island of Eysturoy and left to writhe for hours before being slaughtered.

The Sea Shepherd conservation organization, which has been campaigning to end the traditional Faroese "Grind" hunt since the 1980s, claims that Sunday's hunt was "the largest single killing of dolphins or pilot whales in the islands' history," with more animals killed than in an entire season at the infamous "Cove" in Taiji, Japan.

However, this time, the slaughter was so immense that even many Faroese, who considered the hunt a part of their traditional history, voiced displeasure.

Locals Voicing Displeasure

One commenter on the local broadcaster Kringvarp Froya's Facebook page remarked, "I get nauseated witnessing this type of stuff," while another called the slaughter "full-on awful" and said, "I'm embarrassed to be Faroese."

Heri Petersen, who leads the local Grind hunting club in the area where the slaughter occurred, claimed that far too many dolphins had been brought into the bay over an excessively long distance, with far too few persons waiting on the beach to kill them, prolonging their misery.

He told the local In.fo news site, "I'm shocked by what occurred." "The dolphins writhed on the shore for far too long before being slaughtered."

Related Article: Deadly Virus Detected in Hawaiian Dolphin May Trigger Global Outbreak Amongst Marine Animals



Dolphin Hunt

The Grind is significant for many Faroese people, with onlookers flocking to the beach to watch and the meat from the catch typically divided among the participating families, with any surplus distributed to residents.

However, one resident told the Danish daily Ekstra Bladet that people would never want to eat this much dolphin flesh.

"I expect the majority of the dolphins will end up in the trash or a hole in the ground," they said. "Quotas should be set for each region, and dolphins should not be killed."

Captain Alex Cornelissen, the worldwide chief executive of Sea Shepherd, which fights against whaling, said it was "simply awful to witness an attack on nature on this scale in the Faroe Islands" in the middle of a global epidemic.

Whaling and Dolphin Hunting on the Modern World

The dolphin drive hunt involves herding dolphins and other small cetaceans into a narrow bay, where they are slaughtered or caught for their flesh, which is then sold to dolphinariums. Taiji has a lengthy history of whaling in Japan.

However, despite its historical significance, conservationists say that just because something has been done for generations does not imply that people should continue it. Many traditional methods have been phased out and are now deemed cruel by modern standards.

Also Read: Dead Dolphins, Turtles Are Washing Ashore in Sri Lanka: Could the Cargo Ship Fire be Blamed?



For more animal, don't forget to follow Nature World News!


Holt charity holds prayer meetings for Malawi

North Norfolk charity Aid Africa tells of a new toilet in Malawi, and invites everyone to a monthly on-line prayer meeting to pray for their work in that country. Tony Rothe reports.

Aid Africa is based in Holt in North Norfolk, and operates a charity shop on Shirehall Plain in the town. Their work is based in Malawi in Africa, where they support communities in poverty by building water pumps, planting Moringa groves, providing goats, supporting schooling, distributing grain and much more.



Dave & Lynda Mills, who founded the charity, share the tale of a toilet ..



Memory is a lady in her 40s, blind and AIDS-affected. Back in 2018 we built her a small house near her elderly mother, her main carer, who is also disabled. Following the devastating cyclone the following year, we added a toilet as one of the national award-winning 60 we replaced at that time, in the aftermath of the storms.



However, during the subsequent years, many local people, with little alternative to open fields when their own units collapsed, used the toilet too, so the simple structure, only designed for a single lady, was damaged, and the pit nearly filled.



So to meet the challenge we constructed a sturdy brick-built public facility, with two doored compartmentsone a long-drop toilet, and the other a washroomunder a secure metal roof.



Its just a simple facility, but life transformingexpected to be in use for 15 years, with about 60 people without personal sanitation, from 2 villages, using it. The pit beneath is extra-deep  4m, and 2m wide  dug by hand, and brick-lined for stability and safety. Memorys family are proud to provide the water, cleaning, and oversight, and caring for it gives Memory a valuable task in the community.



This is just one of many projects that Aid Africa supports. Despite Covid and all other challenges, they continue to impact the vulnerable rural communities in Malawi - one life at a time.



They hold a prayer meeting at 6.30pm on the first Sunday of each month to share progress and pray for even more! It's been going on for many years, but because Covid, it has needed to become remote, and not restricted to one venue - with supporters praying individually or in groups, from the comfort of their own sofas.



We'd just like to extend the invitation to you to join us, either for that allotted time on a Sunday evening, or any opportunity you have to bring the work before the Lord said Lynda.



If you would like to receive a monthly update Aid Africas work in Malawi, or to join the prayer meetings, or to contribute financially, e-mail Lynda at : lyndamills@aid-africa.com .



The Holt charity shop is open five days a week, and can always use more volunteers  e-mail Lynda if you are interested in volunteering, especially on Thursdays.



Aid Africa is based at : 7 Shirehall Plain, Holt, NR25 6HT.

Phone 01263 713641 or 07979 888398



Visit : www.aid-africa.com



The top picture shows Memory, her Village Head, and friends, celebrating the new public toilet and washroom. The lower picture shows the toilet pit being dug (you can just see the heads of the diggers in the hole!). Both photos are courtesy of Aid Africa.



Do you have a news story or forthcoming event relating to Christians or a church in North Norfolk?

If so, e-mail tony.rothe@networknorwich.co.uk with details and, if possible a suitable picture.

Tony Rothe, 15/09/2021
Newport, OR (97365)

Today

A good deal of sunshine. High 76F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Clear skies this evening will become overcast overnight. Low 49F. Winds light and variable.
Champaign, IL (61820)

Today

Rain likely. High 66F. Winds N at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall around a quarter of an inch..

Tonight

Considerable cloudiness. Occasional rain showers after midnight. Low around 55F. Winds N at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
War and armed conflict causes a significant loss to human life and is a major cause of disability worldwide. In addition to those hurt and killed as a direct result of violent conflict, a vast amount of people are also negatively impacted by the wider effect of war on global health.

Image Credit: SugaBom86/Shutterstock.com

War diverts essential and often scarce resources from those who need it to survive towards the war effort. It also damages the infrastructure put in place to support healthcare. War forces people to flee their homes in search of safety, with the latest figures from the UN estimating that around 70 million people are currently displaced due to war. This displacement can be incredibly detrimental to health, with no safe and consistent place to sleep, wash, and shelter from the elements. It also removes a regular source of food and proper nutrition. As well as impacting physical health, war adversely affects the mental health of both those actively involved in conflict and civilians.

Here, we discuss the various consequences of conflict on global health.

Displaced people

War causes civilians to leave their homes in search of safety. Recent data estimates that there are currently 70 million people who have lost their homes due to conflict. These displaced populations are at a greater risk of disease and illness. In particular, refugees are at an elevated risk of contracting infectious diseases. Recent research has reported the prevalence of various infectious diseases in refugee and asylum seeker populations: latent tuberculosis (945%), active tuberculosis (up to 11%), and hepatitis B (up to 12%).

The increased prevalence of infectious disease in refugee populations revealed itself during the conflict in Syria, where the collapse of health systems led to a spike in infectious diseases such as leishmaniasis, rabies, and tuberculosis in refugees.

People who are displaced from their homes during times of conflict are subject to numerous factors that contribute to putting them at a greater risk of disease and illness. These factors include increased levels of poverty, overcrowded living conditions, and increased likeliness of taking on work in cramped conditions.

Displacement can double a persons risk of contracting an infectious disease, with recent studies in OECD countries finding that the risk of infection for immigrants is twice as high as that for the native-born population.

Access to water, food, and sanitation

War inevitably reduces access to clean water, food, and sanitation. This further increases the risk of contracting communicable diseases. It elevates the risk of malnutrition and diseases linked with malnutrition. Lack of access to clean water can also enhance the prevalence of cholera and other water-borne illnesses.

Cholera can spread relatively quickly through a population living closely. This is particularly concerning, given that, if left untreated, cholera can kill in a matter of hours. People forced to live in the kind of conditions where illnesses like cholera can prevail, such as those that are often linked with living in an area actively involved in war, have higher mortality rates than those living in peaceful countries.

Womens health

The impacts of war on health are strongly gendered. While men are traditionally more likely to die or become injured in battle, women are more likely to be left to face the lasting consequences of conflict on health. Access to family planning serving and obstetric care become challenging. Limited access to such services is thought to significantly impact the safety of giving birth.

Research has shown that between 1980 and 2008, half of all maternal deaths that occurred worldwide happened in six countries, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), all of which were involved in war or an armed conflict that was ongoing or recent at the time of death.

Women also face an increased risk of rape during violent conflict. Rape and sexual violence are often used as a tool of war. These war crimes result in both physical and psychological injury to the women at the hands of the violent assaulters.

Childrens health

Childrens health is strongly linked with maternal health. As discussed above, war can have a significantly detrimental impact on a womans health, which can impact the health of their children, particularly children born during conflict.

Children born during conflict are at a higher risk of being of a low birth weight, which is associated with an increased risk of infant mortality, poorer health in later life, and childhood developmental problems. Additionally, vaccination programs are limited during times of armed conflict. This can significantly increase a childs chances of contracting what are now largely preventable diseases.

Overall, children born into conflict and those who are children at the time conflict breaks out are at a greater risk of a multitude of health issues due to the impact of war on maternal health, the lack of access to healthcare, and the harsh living conditions they face.

Mental health

Finally, many studies have shown that war has a negative impact on the mental health of both those involved in the conflict and civilians. People who live through war face psychologically challenging situations, often being uprooted from their homes, facing food insecurity, and constant fear of death and injury to name a few. This inevitably causes damage to a persons psychological well-being and can exacerbate existing problems.

References:

Eiset, A. and Wejse, C., 2017. Review of infectious diseases in refugees and asylum seekerscurrent status and going forward. Public Health Reviews, 38(1). https://publichealthreviews.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40985-017-0065-4

Razum, O., Barros, H., Buckingham, R., Codd, M., Czabanowska, K., Kunzli, N., Lyubomirova, K., Otok, R., Signorelli, C. and Middleton, J., 2019. Is war a man-made public health problem?. The Lancet, 394(10209), p.1613. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(19)31900-2/fulltext

Sidel, V. and Levy, B., 2008. The health impact of war. International Journal of Injury Control and Safety Promotion, 15(4), pp.189-195. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19051082/

Further Reading
WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and a group of global health leaders today issued an urgent call for vaccine equity globally and in Africa in particular. The leaders stressed that the worst pandemic in the last hundred years will not end unless and until, there is genuine global cooperation on vaccine supply and access. They also reiterated the WHO's global vaccination target for 70% of the population of all countries to be vaccinated by mid- 2022.

Dr Tedros was joined by Dr Seth Berkley, CEO Gavi, Strive Masiyima, AU Special Envoy for COVID- 19, Dr John Nkengasong, Africa CDC Director, Professor Benedict Oramah, President and Chairman of the Board of Directors, Afreximbank, Dr Vera Songwe, UN Under- Secretary- General and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission For Africa and Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa.

The press conference followed two days of meetings among the leaders, with Richard Hatchett, Chief Executive Officer of CEPI joining the meetings as well.

Selected quotes:

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus: Director-General, WHO

"More than 5.7 billion doses have been administered globally, but only 2% of those have been administered in Africa."

"This doesn't only hurt the people of Africa, it hurts all of us. The longer vaccine inequity persists, the more the virus will keep circulating and changing, the longer the social and economic disruption will continue, and the higher the chances that more variants will emerge that render vaccines less effective."

Strive Masiyima, AU Special Envoy for COVID- 19

"Vaccine sharing is good but we shouldn't have to be relying on vaccine sharing. Particularly when we can come to the table, put structures in place and say, we also want to buy."

"American taxpayers, European taxpayers, they financed some of this intellectual property and it should be for the common good. So, it is not wrong that we say there should be waivers, it was for the common good. So, we ask for this IP to be made available."

"It was a great miracle to have these vaccines, now let this miracle be available to all mankind."

Dr John Nkengasong, Africa CDC Director

"We will not be able to achieve 60% of our population fully immunised if we do not fully explore and deploy the power of partnership, the power of cooperation, and the power of solidarity"  "We all have acknowledged now that vaccines are the only solution for us to get out of this pandemic collectively. That has to be done quickly."

Dr Vera Songwe, UN Under- Secretary- General and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission For Africa

"For every one month of lockdowns in the continent cost us $29 billion of production that was lost. For [the African continent], when we say that COVID-19 is an economic issue and we need to respond to it, to be able to recover and reset our economies, it is real. And for that we need financing and we need to see how we can bring together global financial structures to ensure that we can actually respond to this crisis".

"We know that scarcity means increased cost, and we cannot afford today as a continent that kind of scarcity."

Professor Benedict Oramah, President and Chairman of the Board of Directors, Afreximbank

"Africa did not want to once again be at the bottom of queue in regard to vaccines because it was well known to everybody that economy recovery meant bringing the virus under control."

"It is important that we do this for the simple reason that countries want us to make sure that we do not fail, and make it difficult for us to recover quickly."

Dr Seth Berkley, CEO Gavi

"Today's meeting is important, as it symbolizes the spirit of partnership between COVAX, the African Union and AVATT: Africa needs more doses and together we will get them."

"We're poised to embark on the busiest period of what is the largest and most complex vaccine rollout in history. We've demonstrated that COVAX can work at scale, but it's really time for the world to get behind it."

Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director For Africa.

"The question is sometimes asked do African countries have the capacity to absorb the vaccines? The simple answer is yes. The continuous challenge is that global supplies are not being shared in ways that will get the world out of this pandemic."

"Hundreds of WHO staff are on the ground, ready to support countries to expand vaccination sites and to manage the complexities of small deliveries of a variety of vaccines".

"What's more, African countries have done this before  successfully implementing massive vaccination campaigns against polio, yellow fever and cholera."
Site 1 sodium channel blockers such as tetrodotoxin and saxitoxin are small-molecule drugs with powerful local anesthetic properties. They provide pain relief without toxic effects on local nerves and muscles, and are an attractive alternative to opioids. But injected by themselves, they can easily float away, causing severe systemic toxicity.

Encapsulating these drugs in safe delivery systems has been a challenge: Because they are extremely water soluble, they tend to exit into the surrounding water in the body.

"The toxicity becomes dose-limiting, and you can't get a long-lasting nerve block," says Daniel Kohane, MD, PhD, director of the Laboratory for Biomaterials and Drug Delivery at Boston Children's Hospital and vice chair for research in the Department of Anesthesiology, Critical Care and Pain Medicine.

Tianjiao Ji, PhD, a former postdoc in Kohane's lab, had an idea for a biomimetic system that would release local anesthetics slowly, prolonging their effect. As described in the September issue of Nature Biomedical Engineering, the system mimics the body's own receptors for the anesthetic. The mimics grab onto the drug and the system, once in place, slowly releases the anesthetic, providing prolonged nerve blockade with minimal toxicity.

The Kohane lab has created many slow-release systems, including ones to deliver tetrodotoxin, but this one is the first to hijack nature's design. Although tetrodotoxin and saxitoxin were the test anesthetics, the approach could potentially be applied to other drug delivery systems.

Taking cues from nature

To create the slow-release system, Ji, with co-first author Yang Li, PhD, and other lab members, began with a mixture of two peptide sequences, P1 and P2. Both peptides are part of the actual sodium ion channel; when tetrodotoxin is delivered to the nerve, it binds simultaneously to both peptides.

The team then modified P1 and P2 with long chains of hydrophobic (water-repelling) molecules. This caused the resulting molecules to assemble themselves into nanostructures with the two peptides positioned together, mimicking the way they're positioned on the sodium channel. The peptide pairs take up the anesthetic, just as they would on the sodium channel itself.

When you add the hydrophobic chains, the peptides form a long fiber with thousands of P1s and P2s waving around. Each set of peptides binds one tetrodotoxin molecule. Think of the peptides like hands -; if you're trying to catch tetrodotoxin, you need two hands to come together to hold it." Daniel Kohane, MD, PhD, Director, Laboratory for Biomaterials and Drug Delivery, Boston Children's Hospital

When this structure is injected near the target nerve, the tetrodotoxin slowly releases itself by diffusion and other processes, and binds to P1 and P2 on the nerve itself.

Putting the design to work

The team then put the tetrodotoxin-bearing nanostructures to the test, injecting them near the sciatic nerves of live rats. The anesthetic stayed in place longer than free tetrodotoxin, with no toxic tissue reaction, and neurobehavioral tests in the animals showed that the nerve block lasted for as long as 16 hours.

"By hijacking nature's design, we created a synthetic receptor for anesthetic drugs that acts as a delivery and release system," says Ji.

The team has patented their approach. "In theory, it could be applied to different drugs and other receptordrug interactions," Kohane says.
A study of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in urine did not find an association between use of menstrual products and VOCs. The study, which measured VOCs in the urine of reproductive-aged women across the menstrual cycle, is published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Women's Health.

The study showed that tampon users had higher urinary concentrations of 2-butanone and methyl isobutyl ketone than those who used pads/liners during their periods. Sung Kyun Park and coauthors from the University of Michigan examined the variations of urinary VOC concentrations during menstrual cycles in 25 women and evaluated the relationships between the use of menstrual products and urinary VOC concentrations. They also linked urinary VOC concentrations to those measured in menstrual products. "We did not see statistically significant variations in VOC concentrations across the menstrual cycle," stated the authors. They did find that "estimated levels of n-nonane, benzene, and toluene in the menstrual products were associated with urinary levels of these VOCs."

It remains unclear whether VOCs in feminine hygiene products increases health risks for women who use them." Journal of Women's Health Editor-in-Chief Susan G. Kornstein, MD, Executive Director of the Virginia Commonwealth University Institute for Women's Health, Richmond, VA.
An Artificial Intelligence (AI) test performed by the bedside in 10 minutes quickly and safely triages patients coming to hospital for Covid-19, a University of Oxford-led study has shown.

Results of the CURIAL-Rapide evaluation study show Covid-19 screening results were available 45 minutes after patients arrived in the emergency department - 16 minutes, or 26 percent, faster than lateral flow tests (LFTs) - during a three-month evaluation at the John Radcliffe hospital. When compared against results of PCR testing, CURIAL-Rapide was more likely to identify Covid-19 patients than the LFTs, and corrected ruled out the infection 99.7 percent of the time.

Collaborating with University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, Portsmouth University Hospitals NHS Trust, and Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation trust, the study found that the AI test performed consistently across 72,000 admissions to 5 UK hospitals, providing high-confidence negative results for uninfected patients up to 98.8% of the time. The study also found that CURIAL-Rapide was 21 percent more effective at identifying Covid-19 patients than LFTs between December 2020 and March 2021.

Lead researcher and NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow at the John Radcliffe Hospital Dr Andrew Soltan said: 'Many of our patients coming to the ED are in the most vulnerable groups. CURIAL-Rapide is exciting because it uses new near-patient testing to collect all the data needed for a prediction by the bedside in 10 minutes, cutting out the time for transporting samples to a lab. This means infected patients are identified sooner, while patients being admitted with other conditions can be quickly and safely transferred to wards where they are less likely to be exposed.

'This technology can help hospitals run more smoothly and may make a particularly big difference for smaller hospitals where there isn't a lab on-site. CURIAL is an example of how the collaborative strength of the NHS, bringing together universities with hospital groups across the country, is helping to build an evidence base for safe and responsible use of clinical AI.'

The CURIAL-Rapide AI screening test, developed from the technology used in the CURIAL-1.0 model released last year, uses routine tests to screen emergency department patients for COVID-19. The new version of CURIAL uses only tests that can be performed at the bedside, achieving a 10-minute processing time without needing access to a laboratory.

Other key findings from the study:

During a three month evaluation period at the John Radcliffe Hospital CURIAL-Rapide results were available 6:52h sooner than PCR results, and correctly ruled-out COVID-19 for 58.5% of negative patients who were triaged by a clinician to 'COVID-19-suspected' (amber) areas.

In a retrospective evaluation of lateral flow testing for all patients admitted to OUH between December 23 2020 and March 6 2021, LFTs were 56.9 percent effective at identifying patients who had Covid-19, but this improved to 88.2 percent when used in combination with CURIAL-Rapide.

A different AI model named CURIAL-Lab, which uses routine blood tests performed in a laboratory alongside vital signs, was at least as effective as CURIAL-Rapide when tested at collaborating hospitals. As all the data required for CURIAL-Lab is collected within 1h as part of standard-care, this test can be deployed rapidly at-scale rapidly without additional costs.

The CURIAL studies are an exciting demonstration of the potential for AI-led diagnostic tools in acute clinical settings, with the power to rapidly translate into tangible benefits for patient care and optimise service performance at the frontline". Dr Alex Novak, Lead Consultant for Emergency Medicine Research in Oxford (EMROx)

Emergency medicine consultant at OUH Dr Ravi Pattanshetty added: 'CURIAL has proven to be a very effective tool for both rapid front door diagnosis of COVID-19 and to ease the patient flow through the hospital. This ultimately results in fewer hospital acquired infections and opens up an exciting prospect for future AI tools to help overburdened emergency departments.'

Dr Soltan, also a researcher at Oxford University's Radcliffe Department of Medicine, added: 'Lateral flow tests help identify cases sooner, giving high-confidence positive results. But negative results are more uncertain - in our evaluation LFTs gave negative results for almost half (43 percent) of patients who went on to swab positive. CURIAL-Rapide complements LFDs with high-confidence negative results in minutes. Combining the two rapid tests gives the best performance, and both results are available within one hour.'

David Clifton, Professor of Clinical Machine Learning at the University of Oxford, said: 'The University has demonstrated that it has risen to the challenge posed to society by the COVID-19 pandemic, and this AI-driven tool being implemented for use in Emergency Departments is a great example of how we and the NHS can work together to produce something of lasting value to patients.

'With the emphasis moving to "living with COVID-19" every year, research collaborations delivering tools such as CURIAL are the future for our field. Our recently-announced Pandemic Sciences Centre will be a key means of supporting such collaborations in future, with the goal of getting us to a state of advanced preparedness for the arrival of new diseases or variants.'

The research team are in the process of applying for funding from the NHSx AI Health and Social Care Award to drive a national rollout as well as widescale decision-support trials.
Promise: I'm never going to raise the white flag and surrender. We're going to beat this virus. We're going to get it under control, I promise you. 

On the campaign trail last year, Joe Biden promised that, if elected president, he would get covid-19 under control. Since assuming office in January, Biden has continued to pledge that his administration would do its best to get Americans vaccinated against covid and allow life to return to some semblance of normal.

Both signs of progress and setbacks have cropped up along the way.

Initially, as covid vaccines became available early this year, demand exceeded supply, frustrating many. Eventually, all those who wanted to were able to become fully vaccinated.

In May and June, new covid cases, hospitalizations and deaths dramatically fell, prompting the Biden administration to ease mask requirements and guidance for fully vaccinated people. But many states and localities responded by dropping mask mandates altogether, even for people who were not inoculated.

The summer also ushered in the highly contagious delta variant, causing another pandemic wave. By Labor Day, daily cases in the U.S. were at their highest point since last winter. Deaths, too, were rising.

On Sept. 9, Biden announced a six-part plan to combat the delta variant and step up efforts to get control of covid. The plan includes vaccine mandates for federal workers, government contractors and those working at private companies with 100 or more employees; requirements that employers offer paid time off for those getting a shot; increased distribution and lower costs for covid tests, including rapid at-home tests; and stronger covid safety protocols in schools and on interstate transportation.

The vaccine mandate for private employers includes an option for workers to be tested weekly instead of getting the shot. Federal workers won't have that option.

KHN teamed up with our partners at PolitiFact to analyze Biden's promises during the 2020 presidential campaign. We asked the experts for their take on whether this list of action items will help make this promise  to beat the virus  a reality.

Limitations and benefits of Biden's plan

While the plan is a "big step in the right direction," according to Dr. Leana Wen, a visiting professor of health policy and management at George Washington University, it should have been released two months ago. That would have slowed the delta variant from gaining such a strong foothold in the U.S.

"Had they acted much earlier, we would be in a different position," she said.

And the current plan doesn't go far enough, said Wen, who urged the Biden administration to give companies and jurisdictions incentives to require proof of vaccination for entry into restaurants and other businesses, as New York City and San Francisco did.

"That would send the message of 'You don't get to enjoy the privileges of pre-pandemic life unless you're vaccinated,'" said Wen. "Right now, the vaccinated are being held hostage by the unvaccinated. The vaccinated are having breakthrough infections and the unvaccinated are endangering those who cannot get vaccinated, like kids."

Dr. Marcus Plescia, chief medical officer at the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, is optimistic that Biden's plan will move the needle, "but it's hard to know how much."

The vaccination mandates for employers, for example, will definitely be helpful in states where similar measures, such as requirements that state workers get vaccinated or test regularly, have already started, he said. It "will reinforce what the state is trying to do."

But it's less clear what will happen in states with strong political opposition to mandates. "There will be partisan disagreement on this," Plescia predicted.

Biden's proposal has elicited broad opposition from many Republican governors, with some pledging to fight it. Others issued more tempered statements. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, told a Cincinnati radio station the plan may hamper efforts to educate people on the importance of vaccines, because "we're going to now be talking about a federal mandate, which no one likes, instead of talking about Look, here's the science."

But Plescia is pleased the vaccination mandate broadly extends the requirement for health care workers to get vaccinated. It now goes beyond an earlier announcement affecting only nursing home workers to include staffers at nearly all health facilities that receive federal funding, such as Medicare or Medicaid.

An August announcement that targeted mainly nursing home workers raised concern that some employees would simply quit and find work in health care settings where vaccines were not required, further exacerbating a shortage of nursing home workers.

With the president's new move, "this levels the playing field," Plescia said. The same goes for other industries.

And the mandate might prove less objectionable for some unvaccinated adults, said Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, because the employer becomes the enforcer.

"The person telling them what to do is their boss at their job," he said. "That's a different leverage point than the government."

However, Jen Kates, director of global health and HIV policy at KFF, said the testing option for companies with 100 or more workers could slow any positive impact of the vaccine push.

It will also take time to see how the mandates and requirements are implemented. Possible legal challenges could delay results, as could the regulatory steps involved in the enforcement of the employer vaccination requirement, which will rely on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for enforcement.

The goal to get more testing kits to health centers and to make home test kits available through major retailers for a lower price could also be helpful, Plescia said.

Benjamin gives Biden a "healthy B-plus" on progress in getting covid under control, citing the more than 200 million Americans who have had at least one shot, even as he acknowledges that, "as a nation, we haven't achieved critical vaccination levels in enough of the country." Currently, 63% of the U.S. population age 12 and over is fully vaccinated.

But, in many pockets of the country, not even half the population is vaccinated, far short of the levels many public health experts believe necessary to tamp down the virus.

"It's pretty clear the carrot has not worked," said Benjamin, referring to the carrot-and-stick metaphor. "We have enormous forces pushing back, both the usual anti-vaccine community plus the politicization at the most senior levels."

Disparities remain in vaccination rates among people of color compared with that of white people, though the gap has been shrinking recently. Still, the share of doses Black and Hispanic people have received is disproportionately smaller than their share of covid cases in most states.

Continuing to reach out to these populations will be an important tool to boost the vaccination rate across the U.S.  and to slow the delta variant surge.

When will we (if ever) get covid under control?

Despite all this, Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, is hopeful.

If things move forward expeditiously, "by sometime this winter we could have covid under control," he said. By that, he does not mean the virus will be vanquished. Instead, Schaffner said, "we would be on the same track as before delta, entering a new normal."

Kates envisions covid becoming manageable if the U.S. can achieve a much higher rate of vaccination coverage. But she also thinks its likely the virus will continue to circulate and covid will become an endemic disease.

"The likelihood of it not being an issue is diminishing since vaccine coverage is so poor in other countries. Containing covid depends on what we do globally, too," said Kates. "The likely scenario of the U.S. is we'll be living with it for a while and containment will be dependent on vaccination rates." We continue to rate this promise In the Works.
Respect, support and opportunities for feedback are vital to ensure Australians experience quality aged care, say Flinders University experts.

The research, recently published in the journal Geriatrics & Gerontology International, forms the basis of a new practical person-centered tool available to Australias aged care sector to assist in measuring and assessing the quality of aged care.

Conducted by Flinders Universitys Caring Futures Institute, the extensive review identified nine key themes vital to quality aged care:

Treating the older person with respect and dignity Acknowledging and supporting their spiritual, cultural, religious and sexual identity The skills and training of the aged care staff providing care Relationships between the older person and the aged care staff Social relationships and the community Supporting the older person to make informed choices Supporting the older persons health and wellbeing Ensuring the delivery of safe care in a comfortable service environment The ability to make complaints and provide feedback to the aged care organization.

The study was commissioned following the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety in 2019, which called for fundamental and systemic aged care reform.

Project leader Professor Julie Ratcliffe from Flinders Universitys Caring Futures Institute says previous methods for assessing quality of care didnt take into consideration older peoples own experiences.

Traditionally, quality of care in aged care has been measured using traditional clinical indicators of care quality, says Professor Ratcliffe.

Whilst clinical indicators are important, the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety has shown us that we must put the older person and their own experiences, their own quality of life at the forefront. Our new tools are designed to do just that. Professor Julie Ratcliffe, Project Leader, Flinders Universitys Caring Futures Institute

Based on several years of research, two tools developed by Professor Ratcliffe and her team are now readily available to aged care providers: The Quality of Care Experience  Aged Care Consumers (QCE-ACC) and the Quality of Life-Aged Care Consumers (QOL-ACC).

The tools are designed to measure and value quality of care experience and quality of life from the perspective of aged care consumers, predominantly older people and family carers.

In total, approximately 3000 older Australians and seven aged care providers have been involved in the development of the tools, with comprehensive sector wide quality of life assessment and the QCE-ACC recommended for use by the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety in its final report, handed down in February.

Professor Ratcliffe says its important that older people are encouraged and given the tools to report their own quality of life and quality of care experience data.

The quality of the care provided to frail older people in aged care is a concern for all Australians and for the citizens of many other countries internationally, says Professor Ratcliffe.

Following the findings of the Royal Commission we know changes to the industry need to be made and they must put older people at the heart.

Our tools are valid and reliable measures, and we implore providers to put them to use and bring about a change toward person-centered care.

Several formats are available for both instruments, including self-assessment, proxy assessment and interview-facilitated versions, with user guides now available and digitalization of the tools in progress.
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) variants have been an ongoing concern since their emergence. The first variant, known as the alpha variant or B1.1.7, was discovered in the UK and quickly became dominant globally. Since then, more variants have been discovered, including beta (B1.351), gamma (P.1), and the current biggest threat, the delta variant (B.1.617.2). The delta variant emerged in India in early 2021 and now accounts for more than 90% of new cases.

Study: Structure-activity relationships of B.1.617 and other SARS-CoV-2 spike variants. Image Credit: Lightspring/ Shutterstock

New variants are recognized by mutations of the highly glycosylated spike protein. This protein is largely responsible for the pathogenicity of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The receptor-binding domain (RBD) within the N-terminal S1 subunit of the spike protein binds to the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptors presented by human cells, allowing viral entry. The alterations caused by the mutations to this protein can reduce the effectiveness of treatments such as monoclonal antibodies and lower the effectiveness of vaccines. Both Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have shown up to a 12-fold drop in vaccine effectiveness against the beta variant.

To investigate the impact of these mutations, researchers performed cryo-electron microscopy analysis on the variants spike proteins to determine any structural changes. A preprint version of the study is available on the bioRxiv* server while the article undergoes peer review.

The study

The scientists examined the structural effect of the mutations in the beta, gamma, delta, and kappa variants and determined the structures of the 25 spike protein variants. In the beta variant, the RBD showed three states  most were fully open (all RBDs in the up conformation) and two partially open, with one or two RBDs in the up conformation. The structure was also solved without any furin cleavage site substitutions or stabilizing tandem profile to confirm the unusual triple RBD-up conformation.

The gamma spike protein did not show the same fully open state, only the two partially open states (1 RBD-up and 2 RBD-up), but there were two substates for the 1-RBD-up state when the structure was examined three-dimensionally. Delta showed the most variation, including an unusually fully closed conformation in which all RBDs were in the down conformation. There were also five 1-RBD up substates and three 2-RBD up substates. The most unusual results were seen in the kappa spike protein, with a previously unseen head-to-head dimer, with all three RBDs in all three spike proteins binding to another RBD from another spike protein. This structure could be resolved into three substates. Two 1 RBD-up substates were seen, and a single 2 RBD-up conformation and the uncommon all RBD down conformation.

It is thought that these altered conformations allow at least the gamma and delta variants to escape immune responses from previous strains, as the chromosomal rearrangements alter the glycan shield around the supersite normally targeted by neutralizing antibodies. Almost all of these structural variants also showed greatly enhanced ACE2 binding, with the kappa variant binding the strongest. When analyzed using cryo-electron microscopy, it was found that the kappa spike protein dimers showed a reduced negative charge, allowing a much stronger electrostatic binding to the negatively charged ACE2. Several other mutations in alternate variants had the same effect, to a lesser extent.

The authors have already identified three effective monoclonal neutralizing antibodies against wild-type SARS-CoV-2, the alpha variant, and D614G, a mutation common to both the delta and kappa strains. These are RBD-chAb -15, -25 and -45. RBD-chAb-15 is not effective against the alpha, beta, or gamma variants protected by the N501Y mutation. Still, a mix of the other two antibodies can neutralize both the alpha variant and variants carrying D614G.

These results help further our understanding of the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors highlight the benefit of knowing the different structural conformations of the variants and the mechanisms by which they escape immunity from common vaccines and monoclonal antibody treatments. The ability of all three discovered neutralizing antibodies to combat the widely spread delta variant is of great importance, as is the versatility of RBD-chAB-45 in recognizing different states of conformation of the RBD, as it binds to the site la/class 2 on the RBD of the spike protein, which is accessible in either up or down conformations.

Other takeaways from this study include the insight into N-terminal mutations in the variants, which in many cases completely avoid the neutralizing ability of N-terminal domain-specific neutralizing antibodies, further highlighting the importance of targeting the RBD.

*Important notice

bioRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information
(Newser)  Bill Gates would have thought more would have been done by now to make sure the next pandemic doesn't catch us by surprise. "The attention to pandemic preparedness is lower than I would have expected," Gates told the Wall Street Journal. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation published a report Monday that lists lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic and steps nations need to take to minimize the next health crisis. Existing problems worsened, and new ones surfaced, he said. For example, "Every dimension of inequityrich versus poor in the US, inner-city schools versus suburban schools, Blacks versus Caucasians, rich countries versus middle-income versus low-income [countries]this has exacerbated every dimension of inequity that I can think of," he told Stat News.

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The report addresses the need to:

Invest in long-term health infrastructure . Vaccination rates for children has dropped to 2005 levels for diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis.

. Vaccination rates for children has dropped to 2005 levels for diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis. Improve vaccine distribution . In the first half of 2021, 49 million doses of coronavirus vaccines were given in Africa, while 43 million went to California. "The only real solution to this problem is to have factories that can make enough for the entire world in 100 days," Gates said, "and that is doable."

. In the first half of 2021, 49 million doses of coronavirus vaccines were given in Africa, while 43 million went to California. "The only real solution to this problem is to have factories that can make enough for the entire world in 100 days," Gates said, "and that is doable." Counter the effects on poverty . Another 31.3 million people fell into extreme poverty by the end of last year. The percentage of people living in extreme poverty, meaning they live on $1.90 per day, had been dropping. That decline stopped during the pandemic and appears unlikely to resume for years, per CNBC.

. Another 31.3 million people fell into extreme poverty by the end of last year. The percentage of people living in extreme poverty, meaning they live on $1.90 per day, had been dropping. That decline stopped during the pandemic and appears unlikely to resume for years, per CNBC. Gender disparities. Women have lost 13 million more jobs around the world than men have during the pandemic. Some issues apply regardless of national wealth. "Women also bear the brunt of caregiving responsibilities across rich and poor world alike," Gates said. Employment among men is forecast to recover.

"The extreme poverty number in some ways is the most depressing number," Gates said, who worries about an uneven economic recovery. Wealthy nations will have an easier time recovering, he said, in ways that leave other nations out. "The scary thing is that whenever theres trouble in rich countries they have a tendency to turn inward," he added. "I am worried going forward about the debt levels of the low-income countries and the global outlook." (Women and people of color were more likely to say they're worse off financially because of the pandemic.)
(Newser)  Four former Minneapolis police officers pleaded not guilty to federal charges in the death of George Floyd Tuesdayand three of them asked for their trials to be separated from that of Derek Chauvin, who is in prison for murdering the Black man. Chauvin appeared remotely from a maximum security prison for the arraignment Tuesday, CNN reports. A federal indictment says the officers violated Floyd's civil rights, including the right to be free from unreasonable force, during the May 2020 arrest that led to his death.

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The Tuesday hearing also dealt with dozens of pretrial motions, the AP reports. Lawyers for Thomas Lane, J. Kueng, and Tou Thao have asked for their trials to separate from Chauvin's. They argue that trying the men alongside a man convicted of murder in the case would deprive them of the right to a fair trial. US Magistrate Judge Tony Leung did not indicate how he would rule on the issue. The three officers will also face trials in state court in Minnesota on second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter charges.

Lawyers for Keung and Lane also argued that the indictment inaccurately said the men had been police officers since December 2019, the Star Tribune reports. In what was seen as a preview of their defense strategies, they said their clients had been in training and under supervision for months. Keung was on his third shift without supervision on the day of Floyd's death and Lane was on his fourth, the lawyers said. "Common sense dictates that a law officer with four days on the job would be less apt to intervene," Lane's attorney said. Prosecutors argued that December 2019 was when they graduated from the police academy and became officers. (Read more George Floyd stories.)
(Newser)  A little girl in Pennsylvania consumed hand sanitizer on her second day of kindergarten and ended up in the hospital with a frighteningly high level of blood alcohol, her mother says. The 5-year-old's mother tells CBS Pittsburgh that initially, nobody was sure what was wrong with the girl. "The principal called and said to get to the school immediately, she says. "She was walking a little wobbly down the hall. By the time they got to the classroom, to the lunchroom, she fell and couldnt sit up straight." The mom says the girl, who was "completely out of it," was rushed to the hospital.

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The mother says the Moon County school eventually determined that the girl had consumed hand sanitizer at her desk. "This class, each student has their own sanitizer pump bottle at their desk with their name on it for their personal use," she says. "My daughter had consumed half of that bottle. She consumed 6 ounces of 70% alcohol." Her blood alcohol level was .23%, almost triple the state's DUI limit. The mother says hand sanitizer was included on the list of school supplies. The school's superintendent says students are allowed to have bottles of sanitizer on their desk or in their backpacks, but it isn't mandatory.

The mother, who has two other young children, wants other parents to be aware of the dangers, reports the New York Daily News. Dr. Michael Lynch, head of the Pittsburgh Poison Center, says there has been a rise of more than 50% in hand sanitizer exposure cases, mostly involving children under 5, since the start of the pandemic. "Hand sanitizers will typically have 70% or so ethanol, which means theyre about 140 proof," he says. "Even a small amount can be enough to get intoxicated." (Read more hand sanitizer stories.)
(Newser)  A Missouri cave containing Native American artwork from more than 1,000 years ago was sold at auction Tuesday, disappointing leaders of the Osage Nation who hoped to buy the land to protect and preserve our most sacred site. A bidder agreed to pay $2.2 million to private owners for what's known as Picture Cave," along with the 43 hilly acres that surround it near the town of Warrenton, about 60 miles west of St. Louis, the AP reports. Bryan Laughlin, director of Selkirk Auctioneers & Appraisers, the St. Louis-based firm handling the auction, said the winning bidder declined to be named. A St. Louis family that's owned the land since 1953 has mainly used it for hunting. The Osage Nation, in a statement, called the sale truly heartbreaking.

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The cave was the site of sacred rituals and burying of the dead. It also has more than 290 prehistoric glyphs, or hieroglyphic symbols used to represent sounds or meanings, making it the largest collection of indigenous peoples polychrome paintings in Missouri," according to the auction website. Thats exactly why Carol Diaz-Granados opposed the sale. She and her husband, James Duncan, spent 20 years researching the cave and wrote a book about it. Duncan is a scholar in Osage oral history, and Diaz-Granados is a research associate in the anthropology department at Washington University in St. Louis. Auctioning off a sacred American Indian site truly sends the wrong message, Diaz-Granados said. Its like auctioning off the Sistine Chapel."

Our ancestors lived in this area for 1300 years, the Osage Nation statement says. This was our land. We have hundreds of thousands of our ancestors buried throughout Missouri and Illinois, including Picture Cave. The cave features drawings of people, animals, birds and mythical creatures. Diaz-Granados said various means were used to create the art. Charred botanical material was used to draw. For one depiction of a mythical being, the artist created a white figure by scraping off the brown sandstone. Years ago, analytical chemists from Texas A&M used pigment samples to determine the drawings were at least 1,000 years old. Diaz-Granados is holding out hope that the new owner will donate it to the Osage Nation. That's their cave, she said. "That's their sacred shrine, and it should go back to them.

(Read more Osage tribe stories.)
(Newser)  Utah police say they responded to an incident involving a now-missing woman and her fiance two weeks before she was last seen. Moab Police Chief Bret Edge told Fox News on Tuesday that officers responded to an incident involving Brian Laundrie and Gabrielle Petito on Aug. 12. "However, neither Brian or Gabrielle were the reporting party" and, after conducting an investigation, officers "determined that insufficient evidence existed to justify criminal charges."

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The traveling couple left Florida in Petito's 2012 white Ford Transit van in July before Petito shared photos from Arches National Park, just north of Moab, on Aug. 12. Her family says they last heard from the 22-year-old at the end of August, when she was in Wyoming's Grand Teton National Park. The couple's next destination was to be Yellowstone, though it's unclear if Petito made it. Laundrie has returned to North Port, Fla., with the van but is refusing to say when he last saw his fiancee, according to a family statement.

"Brian is also refusing to explain why he left Gabby all alone and drove her van to Florida. These are critical questions that require immediate answers," Richard Stafford, an attorney for Petitos family, said in a statement, per NBC News. Laundrie's family responded that they were "remaining in the background" on the advice of counsel amid a search for Petito near Grand Teton. "It is our hope that the search for Miss Petito is successful and that Miss Petito is reunited with her family," they added.

Stafford countered, "How does Brian stay in the background when he is the one person that knows where Gabby is located?" "I think anyone would assume that the possible last person to be around her is a person of interest to want to talk with," a North Port police spokesman told Fox News. "However, there is no crime at this point." Police hadn't contacted Laundrie as of late Tuesday afternoon, per NBC News. WTVT reports investigators have searched the van, finding "no obvious signs of foul play." (Read more missing person stories.)
(Newser)  North Korea fired two ballistic missiles toward the sea in defiance of UN resolutions, the second weapons test in several days that experts say shows its pressing ahead with its arms build-up plans while nuclear diplomacy with the United States remains stalled. South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said that the missiles, launched from central North Korea, flew about 497 miles on an apogee of 37 miles before landing in the waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan. The military said South Korean and US intelligence authorities are analyzing more details about the launches, the AP reports. The US Indo-Pacific Command said the launches, while highlighting the destabilizing impact of North Korea's illicit weapons program, didn't pose an immediate threat to US personal or territory, or to our allies."

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The firings threaten the peace and safety of Japan and the region and are absolutely outrageous, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said. The government of Japan is determined to further step up our vigilance and surveillance to be prepared for any contingencies. Japans coast guard said no ships or aircraft reported damage from the missiles. The launches were a violation of UN Security Council resolutions that bar North Korea from engaging in any ballistic missile activities. But the UN council typically doesn't slap fresh sanctions on North Korea when it launches short-range missiles, like the ones fired Wednesday. North Korea's last missile launch involved long-range cruise missiles. Also Wednesday, South Korea conducted its first underwater-launched missile test.

(Read more North Korea stories.)
(Newser)  Update: In a Today show interview, an attorney for Alex Murdaugh indicated that an opioid addiction was a driving force in his client's plot to have a man kill him so his son could collect his life insurance policy. Attorney Dick Harpootlian said that on the day of the Sept. 4 shooting, Murdaugh was in "a massive depression" as he tried to wean himself off the drugs and decided to end his life. "He believed that $10 million policy had a suicide exclusion," Harpootlian said, adding his client "clearly knew what he's done was wrong." He added the money Murdaugh embezzled from his law firm was used to feed his addiction. Our original story follows:

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Police say Alex Murdaugh, the prominent South Carolina lawyer who was shot in the head months after his wife and son were found fatally shot, arranged his own shooting. Curtis Edward Smith, 61, was arrested Tuesday and hit with a slew of charges related to the alleged plot, Fox News reports. Police say Murdaugh, who resigned from his law firm under odd circumstances soon after being shot, conspired with Smith to fatally shoot him so that his surviving son, Buster Murdaugh, could collect on his $10 million life insurance policy. Instead, the elder Murdaugh received only a superficial wound.

Murdaugh has not been charged, but additional charges are expected, according to authorities. His law license had already been indefinitely suspended. His former firm accused him of misappropriating funds, allegations the state's law officials were looking into. Police say Murdaugh gave Smith the gun that was used in the shooting, NBC News reports. Meanwhile, the killings of his wife and other son remain unsolved. (Read more South Carolina stories.)
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(Newser)  Another billionaire is headed to space, this time with an all-civilian crew, in what CNN reports is the "first orbital mission in the history of spaceflight to be staffed entirely by tourists or otherwise non-astronauts." A retrofitted SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule dubbed Resilience will spend three days orbiting Earth from an altitude of 350 miles100 miles above the International Space Stationafter launching on a Falcon 9 rocket in a mission known as Inspiration4. Here's what you need to know:



Liftoff: It's scheduled for between 8:02pm ET Wednesday and 1:02am ET Thursday at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. Forecasts showed a 70% chance of favorable weather conditions for an evening launch as of Wednesday morning, per NBC News. You can take in the expected action live on SpaceX and Netflix's YouTube channels, reports the New York Times. If the launch is delayed, another attempt might be made after 8:05pm ET on Thursday.

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72 hours: The four passengers will spend three days inside the 13-foot-wide capsule, sleeping in their reclining seats and relieving themselves in a single "zero-gravity-friendly toilet," per CNN. They'll also perform medical experiments when not taking in the panoramic views via a clear dome at the tip of the gumdrop-shaped spacecraft, which will then splash down off the coast of Florida.

The four passengers will spend three days inside the 13-foot-wide capsule, sleeping in their reclining seats and relieving themselves in a single "zero-gravity-friendly toilet," per CNN. They'll also perform medical experiments when not taking in the panoramic views via a clear dome at the tip of the gumdrop-shaped spacecraft, which will then splash down off the coast of Florida. Passengers: They are Jared Isaacman, 38, billionaire founder of payment processing company Shift4, who's financing and commanding the mission, estimated to cost $200 million; Hayley Arceneaux, 29, a bone cancer survivor and physician assistant at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital; Sian Proctor, 51, a geologist, educator, pilot, and lifelong space enthusiast; and Chris Sembroski, 42, a US Air Force veteran, aerospace data engineer, and a former counselor at Alabama's Space Camp. They've been in training since March.

A series of firsts: Arceneaux, who'll serve as chief medical officer, will be the youngest American and the first person with a prosthetic body part to go to space, per CNN and NBC. She has prosthetic leg bones, per the Times. Proctor, a 2009 finalist in NASA's astronaut selection process, will be just the fourth Black woman from the US to head to orbit. Per a news release, they'll carry the first-ever minted NFT song into orbit, Kings of Leon's "Time in Disguise," which will then be sold at auction.

Arceneaux, who'll serve as chief medical officer, will be the youngest American and the first person with a prosthetic body part to go to space, per CNN and NBC. She has prosthetic leg bones, per the Times. Proctor, a 2009 finalist in NASA's astronaut selection process, will be just the fourth Black woman from the US to head to orbit. Per a news release, they'll carry the first-ever minted NFT song into orbit, Kings of Leon's "Time in Disguise," which will then be sold at auction. Selection: Isaacman is using the mission, and the auction, as a fundraiser for St. Jude's. He asked the hospital to select a cancer-survivor-turned-healthcare-provider for the trip. Proctor won an online contest for Shift4 users, while Sembroski's friend won a seat in a raffle benefitting St. Jude's, then transferred it to him. Some $30 million of a $100 million goal has been raised for the hospital. Isaacman personally donated $100 million more.

No easy feat: "I think this is a major milestone in human spaceflight," NASA's director of commercial spaceflight, Phil McAlister, tells Today. He notes the mission is more dangerous than other recent space trips by billionaires Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson because the Crew Dragon will need to travel in the area of 17,500 miles per hour to enter Earth's orbit. It's probably "10 times more difficult" to go to orbit, says McAlister.

"I think this is a major milestone in human spaceflight," NASA's director of commercial spaceflight, Phil McAlister, tells Today. He notes the mission is more dangerous than other recent space trips by billionaires Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson because the Crew Dragon will need to travel in the area of 17,500 miles per hour to enter Earth's orbit. It's probably "10 times more difficult" to go to orbit, says McAlister. The risks: But NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine told CNBC on Wednesday that the Crew Dragon is likely the safest crewed vehicle ever flown. Crew members face a 1 in 270 chance of death or permanent disability by NASA's estimates, SpaceNews reported in May 2020. CNN notes "NASA's Space Shuttle missions in the 1980s to early 2000s ultimately logged a failure rate of about 1 in every 68 missions."

(Read more space travel stories.)
(Newser)  It's far from the first story about how non-COVID patients with medical emergencies have found themselves stymied by a lack of available beds due to those with COVID, but ProPublica illustrates its article on the topic with two cases.

Case I: Seth Osborn, a 12-year-old who went to a Florida ER in late July with stomach pain. A nurse blamed his six-hour wait to be seen on COVID. He was diagnosed with appendicitis and transferred to a nearby hospital for surgery, which happened, but not before his appendix burst. The complication wasn't fatal (it could have been), but it did mean the boy was stuck in the hospital for about four additional days receiving antibiotics.

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Case II. Daniel Wilkinson, who went to a Texas ER on Aug. 21 with abdominal pain. He was seen quicklyin about 30 minutesand was given a gallstone pancreatitis diagnosis. He needed surgery at the hands of a specialist and an ICU bed. The ER doctor couldn't find one, even after calling hospitals in Kansas and Colorado. A bed finally freed up in Houston and he was transported by helicopter about six hours after his diagnosis. But by that time his condition had deteriorated to the point where he had to be put in a medically induced coma. Roughly 18 hours later he was dead.

Daniel Wilkinson, who went to a Texas ER on Aug. 21 with abdominal pain. He was seen quicklyin about 30 minutesand was given a gallstone pancreatitis diagnosis. He needed surgery at the hands of a specialist and an ICU bed. The ER doctor couldn't find one, even after calling hospitals in Kansas and Colorado. A bed finally freed up in Houston and he was transported by helicopter about six hours after his diagnosis. But by that time his condition had deteriorated to the point where he had to be put in a medically induced coma. Roughly 18 hours later he was dead. ProPublica's point. In prior pandemic waves, "localized COVID-19 hot spots led to bed shortages, but there were usually hospitals in the region not as affected that could accept a transfer. Now, as the highly contagious delta variant envelops swaths of low-vaccination states all at once, it becomes harder to find nearby hospitals that are not slammed."

In prior pandemic waves, "localized COVID-19 hot spots led to bed shortages, but there were usually hospitals in the region not as affected that could accept a transfer. Now, as the highly contagious delta variant envelops swaths of low-vaccination states all at once, it becomes harder to find nearby hospitals that are not slammed." The numbers. ProPublica drives home that point with these numbers: Texas is home to 29 million people, and had just 319 adult and 104 pediatric staffed ICU beds available as of Monday.

(Read the full article .)
(Newser)  The Minnesota Supreme Court on Wednesday reversed the third-degree murder conviction of a former Minneapolis police officer who fatally shot an Australian woman in 2017, saying the charge doesn't fit the circumstances in this case. Mohamed Noor was convicted of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the death of Justine Damond, a dual US-Australian citizen who called 911 to report a possible sexual assault behind her home. He was sentenced to 12 1/2 years on the murder count but was not sentenced for manslaughter. The ruling means his murder conviction is overturned and the case will now go back to the district court, where he'll be sentenced on the manslaughter count.

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He has already served more than 28 months of his murder sentence. If sentenced to the presumptive four years for manslaughter, he could be eligible for supervised release around the end of this year, reports the AP. The Star Tribune reports the language in the third-degree murder statute has repeatedly raised questions, because it applies when a defendant kills someone "by perpetrating an act eminently dangerous to others and evincing a depraved mind." The word "others" has come under the microscope, with attorneys arguing it means the statute only holds when more than one person is threatened.

In the ruling, the Supreme Court said that for a third-degree murder charge, the person's mental state must show a "generalized indifference to human life, which cannot exist when the defendant's conduct is directed with particularity at the person who is killed." The justices said that the only reasonable inference that can be drawn in Noor's case is that his conduct was directed with particularity at Damond, "and the evidence is therefore insufficient to sustain his conviction."

The Supreme Court ruling could give former Minneapolis Officer Derek Chauvin grounds to contest his own third-degree murder conviction in George Floyd's death in May 2020. But that wouldn't have much impact on Chauvin, since he was also convicted of the more serious count of second-degree murder and is serving 22 1/2 years. The ruling in Noor's case was also closely watched for its possible impact on three other former Minneapolis officers awaiting trial in Floyd's death. Prosecutors had wanted to add charges of aiding and abetting third-degree murder against them, but that's unlikely to happen now. They face charges of aiding and abetting both second-degree murder and manslaughter. (Read more Justine Damond stories.)
(Newser)  Update: The people spoke, producers listened. A CBS reality show focusing on activism is undergoing a format change after intense criticism. The Activist, which had been set to be a competition, is being transformed into a primetime documentary special, Rolling Stone reports. "The push for global change is not a competition and requires a global effort," noted CBS, producer Global Citizen, and Live Nation in a statement. "As a result, we are changing the format to remove the competitive element and ... [to] showcase the tireless work of six activists and the impact they have advocating for causes they deeply believe in." Variety notes the program will be shot from scratch, even though filming for the original format had already wrapped up. The new airdate isn't clear, per People. Our original story follows:



If you think pitting activists against each other in an X Factor-style reality show is a terrible idea, you're not alone. CBS is being widely criticized over The Activist, a show set to premiere Oct. 22 in which six activists from around the world focusing on health, education, or the environment will "compete in missions, media stunts, digital campaigns and community events aimed at garnering the attention of the world's most powerful decision-makers," according to a CBS release. The winners will get a chance to lobby world leaders at the G20 summit, with "The Activist" crowned in the fifth and finale episode. The judges will be Julianne Hough, Usher, and Priyanka Chopra Jonas. More:



"Truly horrific." The idea's many critics include writer Stephanie Yeboah, who called it "truly horrific," the Guardian reports. "A reality competition show on who can be the next Insta-activist?" she tweeted. "Its performative at best, and kinda makes light of the hard work a lot of grassroots organizations do on the ground, on a daily basis. Gross.

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An "inherently cursed idea." Andy Wilson, who manages online campaigns for an environmental nonprofit, calls the idea of pitting activists and causes against each other "cynical and inherently cursed" at BleedingCool. He also takes issue with the show's plan to measure success by social media engagement. "Measuring the success of activism by engagement and social metrics is inherently wrong," he writes. "I have seen campaigns do incredible, powerful work that isn't quantifiable by how many retweets it got. And I have seen apparently incredibly popular things on social media fizzle and not take hold, never affect change."

Andy Wilson, who manages online campaigns for an environmental nonprofit, calls the idea of pitting activists and causes against each other "cynical and inherently cursed" at BleedingCool. He also takes issue with the show's plan to measure success by social media engagement. "Measuring the success of activism by engagement and social metrics is inherently wrong," he writes. "I have seen campaigns do incredible, powerful work that isn't quantifiable by how many retweets it got. And I have seen apparently incredibly popular things on social media fizzle and not take hold, never affect change." "Failure is part of the equation." Michele L. Norris calls the show an "unhelpful distraction" that doesn't reflect the real nature of activism. "This Darwinist touch runs counter to the core work of activism," she writes at the Washington Post. "Failure is part of the equation. Effective activism requires solidarity with Sisyphus. Setbacks dont stop warriors for change from trying to push that rock up the hill. And they dont get voted off the hill or made to feel like a loser."

Hough addresses backlash . Hougha former judge on Dancing With the Starssaid in an Instagram post that the backlash has been a "powerful demonstration of real-time activism," CNN reports. Hough said she was listening to critics with "an open heart and mind." She also addressed renewed controversy over her 2013 Halloween blackface costume, saying it was a "poor choice" that she regrets to this day.

. Hougha former judge on Dancing With the Starssaid in an Instagram post that the backlash has been a "powerful demonstration of real-time activism," CNN reports. Hough said she was listening to critics with "an open heart and mind." She also addressed renewed controversy over her 2013 Halloween blackface costume, saying it was a "poor choice" that she regrets to this day. Producers deny trivializing activism. The show is being co-produced by international advocacy group Global Citizen, which is defending it as a way to put the spotlight on activists. "This is not a reality show to trivialize activism. On the contrary, our aim is to support activists everywhere, show the ingenuity and dedication they put into their work, and amplify their causes to an even wider audience, the group said in a statement, per Deadline.

(Read more reality TV stories.)
(Newser)  Donald Trump and other Republicans are hopping mad about reports that the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff secretly called his Chinese counterpart because he was worried about Trump's mental state in the last months of his presidencythough the former president believes the report in Bob Woodward's new book Peril is "fake news." In a statement on his website, Trump called Gen. Mark A. Milley a "dumbass" and said that if the report is true, he "should be tried for treason." On Newsmax Tuesday night, Trump told Sean Spicer the idea that he'd order a nuclear strike on China, as Milley reportedly feared, was "totally ridiculous," USA Today. According to Peril, Milley reassured his counterpart that the US would not strike China and said that if there was going to be an attack, he would call him in advance.

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Republican Sen. Marco Rubio also called Milley "treasonous" and urged President Biden to fire him. GOP Sen. Rand Paul said Wednesday that Milley should be "questioned under oath, if not with a polygraph test" and court-martialed if the reports are true. Biden, however, said Wednesday that he has "great confidence" in Milley. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at a Wednesday briefing that the president has "complete confidence in his leadership, his patriotism, and his fidelity to our Constitution," per the Hill. Psaki noted that in the final months of Trump's presidency, administration officials had been "questioning his stability, his behavior, and his suitability to oversee the national security of the United States."

A spokesman for Milley confirmed some of Peril's reporting Wednesday, the Washington Post reports. Col. Dave Butler said Milley had acted constitutionally with his calls to Gen. Li Zuocheng of the Peoples Liberation Army. He said Milley regularly "communicates with Chiefs of Defense across the world, including with China and Russia" to reduce tensions and avoid unintentional conflict. "His calls with the Chinese and others in October and January were in keeping with these duties and responsibilities conveying reassurance in order to maintain strategic stability," Butler said. (Read more Mark Milley stories.)
(Newser)  Police in Florida have confirmed that a man who returned from a cross-country road trip without his fiancee is now a person of interest in her disappearance. Relatives of 22-year-old Gabby Petito say Brian Laundrie returned to North Port, Florida alone in the couple's van and has refused to say when he last saw her. "We are pleading with anyone, including Brian, to share information with us on her whereabouts in the past few weeks," North Port Police Chief Todd Garrison said in a statement Wednesday, per WFLA. "The lack of information from Brian is hindering this investigation."

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Garrison said Laundrie, 23, returned to North Port in the couple's white Ford Transit van on Sept. 110 days before her family reported her missing. "We will help find Gabby and we will help find anyone who may be involved in her disappearance," the chief promised. Police spokesman Josh Taylor says officers knocked on the door of the home Laundrie shares with his parents, People reports. He says officers asked to speak to Laundrie and his parents but were told to contact a lawyer. Taylor says anyone with information on Petito's whereabouts should call ( 800) CALL-FBI.

Relatives say Petito was last seen on Aug. 24, when she checked out of a Salt Lake City hotel with Laundrie, reports ABC. Her mother says that in a phone call the next day, Petito told her they were on the way to Wyoming's Grand Teton National Park. Police in Moab, Utah say they encountered the couple on Aug. 12, when a witness saw them arguing and reported possible domestic violence. No charges were filed. In a report, an officer wrote that the incident could be "more accurately categorized as a mental/emotional health break than a domestic assault," Fox reports. The couple said "they are in love and engaged to be married and desperately didnt wish to see anyone charged with a crime," the officer wrote.

Petito's family called Laundrie "reprehensible" in a statement issued via their attorney Wednesday. They accused him of leaving Petito "in the wilderness with grizzly bears and wolves." "Brian, how could you do this to Gabby? You selfishly remain silent while Gabby is all alone in the wilderness," the statement said, per the New York Post. (Read more missing person stories.)
(Newser)  Pope Francis delivered his most direct admonishment yet of the US bishops who want to refuse Communion to President Biden and other political leaders who support abortion rights. Speaking to reporters Wednesday on a flight returning him to Rome after a trip to Hungary and Slovakia, the pope spoke of bishops going wrong when they become involved in politics. Atrocities have resulted, committed in the cause of faith, he said, per the New York Times. Given that history, he asked, "What must the pastor do?" The answer, Francis said, is: "Be a pastor, don't go condemning. Be a pastor, because he is a pastor also for the excommunicated."

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At the same time, the pope strongly reaffirmed his opposition to abortion. "Abortion is homicide," he said Wednesday. "Whoever has an abortion kills." But Francis appeared to steer away from deciding who is entitled to the sacrament, saying, "Communion is not a prize for the perfect." The Vatican had warned the bishops in June against denying the Catholic president Communion, but it seemed to have little effect on attempts in the Conference of Catholic Bishops to approve a document codifying such a policy. On Wednesday, the pope stepped out from behind the institutional cover. "God's style is closeness, compassion and tenderness," he said, per the Washington Post.

The pope said he didn't know if he'd had a politician come to him for Communion whose positions were in conflict with the church's. But, he said, "I have never refused the eucharist to anyone." Other popes also have declined to set rules for disqualifying Catholics from receiving Communion, per the Post. John McGreevy, a history professor at the University of Notre Dame, said it seemed clear that the pope was saying "not to use Communion as a weapon against particular politicians for particular issues." (Read more Pope Francis stories.)
Students line up to receive class schedules and planners on the first day of school at Ryan Middle School Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2016.
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TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain has succeeded in strengthening and consolidating democracy, thanks to the royal leaderships vision and unwavering support.

In a statement on the International Day of Democracy celebrated around the world on September 15 each year, Speaker Fawzia bint Abdullah Zainal commended Bahrains democracy, public freedoms and human rights successes under the prosperous era of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.

Speaker Zainal highlighted Bahrains accomplishments, thanks to the great support by HM the King, to the parliament that has had positive effects on the democratic process in the kingdom.

Bahrain has adopted the lofty principles that enhance the objectives of the state of law and institutions and build modern constitutional foundations that are reflected in the constitutional amendments emanating from the National Action Charter, the milestone for a new era of sweeping political reforms and modern democratic life, she said.

She affirmed that the parliament is keen to enhance democratic values and principles, especially those related to public freedoms, responsible freedom of opinion and expression, human rights, and democratic development, she added.

Reform march Shura Council Chairman Ali bin Saleh Al Saleh praised the democratic approach adopted by HM the King to promote parliamentary work and political participation since the launch of the comprehensive reform march.

He stressed the kingdoms strides in developing its democratic march and broadening political participation, which gained regional and international praise.

Al Saleh also lauded the measures taken by Bahrain to engage all national competencies in the nations building, fostering democracy and ensuring respect of human rights and political freedom.

Popular participation First Deputy Speaker of the Representatives Council Abdulnabi Salman underscored Bahrains democratic achievements which are based on popular participation in decision-making through an elected council representing the Bahraini people.

Salman said Bahrains celebration of the International Day of Democracy with the rest of the world reflects the quality achievements brought about by the kingdom in fostering democracy and building on previous accomplishments thanks to the leadership of HM the King and synergised efforts of all.

Growth and prosperity Second Deputy Speaker of the Representatives Council Ali Ahmed Zayed praised the sustainability of the democratic march initiated by HM the King, describing it as the solid basis of the kingdoms continuous growth and prosperity.

Zayed underlined the kingdoms success in fostering democracy by promoting the culture of tolerance, peace and co-existence and protecting human rights.

He also asserted Bahrains efforts to protect freedom and promote justice and transparency
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

The Royal Thai Embassy, in collaboration with the embassies of Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei Darussalam in Manama, will organise an ASEAN Week in Bahrain at Thai Mart from tomorrow to Friday at 6-10 pm.

The purpose of this event is to bring awareness of ASEAN and its activities, as well as ASEAN communities in Bahrain to the Kingdoms public sector and private sectors, media, and the local community.

It also aims to enhance cooperation between ASEAN and Bahrain, particularly since the Kingdom signed the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia (TAC). There will be ASEANs information exhibition space, Southeast Asias cultural display booths, food stalls, nonfood products, and souvenirs, as well as a fun game booth for kids at the event.

From 7 pm onwards, participants can also enjoy cultural performances from ASEAN communities in Bahrain such as the Muaythai show from Thailand, Renjis cooking demonstration from Brunei Darussalam, Angklung and traditional dance performance from Indonesia, traditional dress fashion show and dance performance from Malaysia, as well as the Philippines live music performance.

The event will follow the health guidelines and measures issued by the Bahraini government throughout the two-day event. The participants will be able to comfortably visit all the booths while strictly following a proper social distance protocol, and hand sanitisers will be provided in every booth.
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

The bilateral relations between Bahrain and Israel have been progressing remarkably following the signing of several memoranda of understanding in various fields.

This has led to establishing promising cooperation that contributes positively to the peace and development process in the region.

Bahrains Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York Jamal Faris Al Ruwaie made the remarks as he participated in the celebration of the first anniversary of the signing of the historic peace agreements between the Kingdom and Israel.

The arrival of Bahrains Ambassador to Israel and the expected official opening of the Bahraini embassy in Tel Aviv constitute another milestone in the growing bilateral relations, he added.

Al Ruwaie highlighted the approach of Bahrain under the leadership of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and of His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister, based on promoting peace in the region and on the values of coexistence, mutual respect and true cooperation.

Al Ruwaie expressed appreciation for the US role in taking the historic step on the path to peace, security and real and lasting prosperity in the region and stressed Bahrains keenness to advance the values of coexistence, tolerance and harmony for the good of humanity.

He also affirmed that based on its belief that a just and comprehensive peace is the best guarantee for the future of the peoples of the region, Bahrain will continue to work with its international partners to achieve the desired peace and meet the peoples aspirations for security, stability and prosperity.

The UAE Permanent Representative Lana Nusseibeh, Moroccos Permanent Representative Omar Hilale and Israels Permanent Representative Gilad Erdan also participated in the ceremony held in the presence of the US Permanent Representative Linda Thomas-Greenfield.
TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune  www.newsofbahrain.com

Labour and Social Development Minister Jameel bin Mohammed Ali Humaidan has praised Bahrains top ranking on the Basel AML Index.

Bahrain ranked first in the Arab region and second in the Middle East, for the second year in a row, on the Basel AML Index, an independent annual ranking that assesses the risk of money laundering and terrorist financing (ML/TF) around the world.

Bahrain scored 4.5 points according to the report, the only independent indicator issued by a non-profit organisation that rates countries worldwide according to the risk of money laundering.

This achievement that confirms Bahrains prestigious international status in numerous areas, including efforts to combat money laundering and terrorist financing, was achieved thanks to the wise leadership of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and the sound directives and vigorous follow-up of His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister, the minister said.

They have strengthened Bahrains regional and international role in combating money laundering and terrorist financing in accordance with the national vision in this regard, he added.

The minister also paid tribute to the Interior Minister General Shaikh Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa, the Chairman of the Committee to Combat Extremism, Terrorism, Its Financing and Money Laundering, and the Governor of the Central Bank of Bahrain, Rasheed Mohammed Al Maraj
LAS VEGAS (AP)  An Idaho man who served more than four years in federal custody for his part in an armed 2014 standoff against federal agents near states rights figure Cliven Bundys Nevada ranch is suing the U.S. government and prosecutors for damages.

Todd Engel seeks $100 million in a civil rights and conspiracy complaint filed Sept. 7 in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas, where a judge in January 2018 found flagrant prosecutorial misconduct and dismissed criminal charges against Bundy and more than a dozen other defendants, including Engel.

Its important that people have access to the facts, said Craig Marquiz, the Las Vegas-area attorney who authored the lawsuit accusing the government, three lead prosecutors, an FBI agent and four Bureau of Land Management officials of fabricating the criminal case that led to Engel being branded in the media as a domestic terrorist.

The a 48-page document details the prosecution of 19 people that ultimately led U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro to find government conduct outrageous" and to declare a universal sense of justice has been violated.

Officials with the FBI, Bureau of Land Management and U.S. attorneys office in Las Vegas declined Tuesday to comment about the lawsuit.

Government prosecutors maintained that Bundy racked up more than $1.1 million in unpaid grazing fees and penalties by March 2014 by letting his cows roam on public property.

Federal judges granted land managers court orders to remove Bundy cattle from arid land dotted with scrub brush and petroglyphs near the Virgin River in what is now Gold Butte National Monument.

Bundy continues to argue the U.S. government has no jurisdiction on land his family has grazed for generations surrounding his ranch about 90 miles northeast of Las Vegas. He and his sons pleaded on social media for help, and hundreds of supporters arrived from at least 11 states.

The standoff came to a tense end in April 2014 with Bundy backers, including Engel, positioned on a high Interstate 15 overpass with military-style assault rifles looking down on a group of heavily armed land management agents and contract cowboys facing a crowd of men, women and children in a dry river bed below.

No violence resulted and no injuries were reported. But the event became a symbol for advocates of states rights, anti-federal policies and the sovereign citizen movement.

Engel was arrested in early 2016  about the same time a group including Bundys eldest sons, Ryan and Ammon Bundy, ended more than a month occupying a federal wildlife reserve in Oregon.

Engel, now 54 and living in northwest Idaho, served 54 months in federal custody before and after his jury trial in 2017 with five other defendants on charges that could have gotten each of them more than 100 years in prison.

Engel represented himself in court and was convicted of obstruction of justice and interstate travel in aid of extortion. He was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison. Four of his co-defendants were acquitted. One remains in prison.

After Navarro dismissed charges against Bundy, his sons and others who stood trial in a third group among the 19 people initially indicted in the case, an appeals court granted Engel a new trial.

The government eventually dropped charges against Engel, and Navarro in September 2020 threw out his conviction.

____

This story corrects the spelling of an attorney's name. He is Craig Marquiz, not Marquee.
The ICA's user-friendliness, sensitivity, absence of learning effect and remote capability render it naturally suited to deployment in the ever-growing elderly care sector

VANCOUVER, BC, Sept. 14, 2021 /CNW/ - Cognetivity Neurosciences Ltd. (the "Company" or "Cognetivity") (CSE: CGN) (OTCQB: CGNSF) (FWB: 1UB) today announced that it has reached an agreement with Loveday & Co regarding the deployment of the Integrated Cognitive Assessment (ICA) in the specialist dementia and senior care provider's practice.

Loveday is the only dedicated operator of specialist memory care in the UK. It offers a variety of tailored services to its elderly members, including residential and "day club" environments, as well as home care.

Loveday's philosophy is to go "above and beyond" for its members and their families, providing world-class hospitality and care that takes a highly active approach to dementia management. Its flagship residence, Loveday Chelsea Court Place, located on King's Road, was recently rated "Outstanding" by the Care Quality Commission, and three more central London residences are set to open in 2022.

Cognetivity's ICA will be deployed within Loveday's practice to monitor the cognitive health of its members. This will enable the Loveday team to identify when certain interventions may be needed and ensure members receive an appropriate, best-in-class care plan at the earliest possible stage. As shown in previous clinical deployments, the ICA is capable of supporting the whole patient journey, from the screening of at-risk individuals and assessment during the diagnostic process to longer-term monitoring.

The precise nature of the ICA will allow for a personalized and data-driven approach, supporting the many programs run by Loveday that target the modifiable risk factors of dementia, such as nutrition, exercise and social support. Several other key features of the ICA render it perfectly suited to the Loveday environment: its user-friendliness, its sensitivity to small changes in cognitive performance, and the absence of a learning effect upon repeat testing. The ICA's simple test format and its lack of need for administration by a healthcare professional also enable remote testing and monitoring from the comfort of people's homes.

As such, the ICA has proven itself ready-made for the elderly and long-term care sector, in addition to its existing deployments in more conventional clinical settings, notably as an end-to-end solution within primary, secondary and community care in the UK's National Health Service (NHS). This sector is forecast to grow substantially in the coming decade, as the world's population grows older and around 10 million new cases of dementia are diagnosed each year. The global long-term care market is expected to reach USD 1.7 trillion by 2028 , growing at an annual rate of 7.1%.

Commenting on the announcement, Gabriela Zackova, Director of Wellbeing and Dementia at Loveday & Co, said, "We're thrilled to be implementing the ICA in our practice. At Loveday, we believe that our members deserve dignity and a high quality of life regardless of any conditions they are living with. I am confident that Cognetivity's innovative, industry-leading tool will support us on that mission, and I greatly look forward to seeing it deployed soon."

Dr Sina Habibi, Cognetivity's CEO, said, "We're very excited at the prospect of supporting Loveday's fantastic work. Clearly, we have very similar goals  to push the boundaries of what is conceivable and achievable when it comes to health outcomes and the quality of life we as a society can envisage for our elderly loved ones."

"What's also exciting for us at Cognetivity is to see ourselves branching out from more traditional assessments in the hospital clinic and into the residential and home care environments," he continued. "This is going to be a more and more important area as time goes on, and the fact that the ICA is naturally so well-suited to it means that we can be confident of playing an increasingly large role in the years to come."

About Cognetivity Neurosciences Ltd.

Cognetivity is a technology company that has created a cognitive testing platform for use in medical, commercial and consumer environments. Cognetivity's ICA uses Artificial Intelligence and machine learning techniques to help detect the earliest signs of impairment by testing the performance of large areas of the brain to support diagnosis of dementia. It has achieved regulatory approval for clinical use in the UK and Europe with future clinical approval anticipated in North America and elsewhere in the world.

For more information, please visit: www.cognetivity.com or contact: [email protected]

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

"Sina Habibi"

Sina Habibi

Chief Executive Officer and Director

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS:

Certain statements included in this news release constitute forward-looking information or statements (collectively, "forward-looking statements"), including those identified by the expressions "anticipate", "assume" "believe", "plan", "estimate", "expect", "intend", "may", "should" and similar expressions to the extent they relate to the Company or its management. The forward-looking statements are not historical facts but reflect current expectations regarding future results or events. This news release contains forward looking statements. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions which are difficult to predict. Such statements are based on current expectations and various estimates, factors and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors. Such statements and information are based on numerous assumptions regarding present and future business strategies and the environment in which the Company will operate in the future. The Company assumes no responsibility to update or revise forward-looking information to reflect new events or circumstances unless required by law. Readers should not place undue reliance on the Company's forward-looking statements.

The Canadian Securities Exchange does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE Cognetivity Neurosciences Ltd

For further information: For media enquiries, please contact: Josh Stanbury | [email protected] | 416-628-7441

Related Links

https://www.cognetivity.com/


US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry, who is on India visit from September 12-14, lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi for setting ambitious climate targets and added that India has demonstrated that economic development and clean energy can go hand-in-hand.

India and the US on Monday jointly launched the Climate Action and Finance Mobilization Dialogue (CAFMD) of the Agenda 2030 Partnership. Taking forward the initiative by Prime Minister Shri @NarendraModi ji and @POTUS at the Leaders Summit on Climate in April 2021, today both countries jointly launched the Climate Action and Finance Mobilization Dialogue of the Agenda 2030 Partnership, tweeted Union Cabinet Minister for Environment, Forest & Climate Change, Bhupender Yadav.

US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry who is on India visit from September 12-14 lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi for setting ambitious climate targets and added that India has demonstrated that economic development and clean energy can go hand-in-hand. While congratulating India for making significant progress in climate targets, Kerry said that the 450 gigawatts renewable energy goal will be reached by India.

CAFMD will provide both countries an opportunity to renew collaborations on climate change while addressing the financing aspects and deliver climate finance primarily as grants and concessional finance, as envisaged under Paris Agreement to strengthen climate action, tweeted Yadav. The US-India Agenda 2030 Partnership was announced by President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Leaders Summit on Climate in April 2021.

The dialogue will not only strengthen India-US bilateral cooperation on climate and environment but also help to demonstrate how the world can align swift climate action with inclusive and resilient economic development, added Yadav.

Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the India-US climate and clean energy partnership to help mobilise investments and enable green collaborations. Meanwhile, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar also welcomed Kerry. Good to see @ClimateEnvoy John Kerry. Continued our discussions on climate action and climate justice, tweeted Jaishankar. Earlier today, Kerry met Union Power Minister RK Singh here in New Delhi, as part of his India trip to address the climate crisis.

The special envoys travel will bolster the US bilateral and multilateral climate efforts ahead of the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which will be held October 31 to November 12, 2021, in Glasgow, United Kingdom.
Zheng had been expected to attend a summer reception of the All-Party Parliamentary China Group, a group of lawmakers broadly in favour of engagement with Beijing, and the China-Britain Business Council at the Terrace Pavilion at the House of Commons on Wednesday evening.

Chinese new ambassador Zheng Zeguang was prevented from a meeting in the UK Parliament on Wednesday after the invitation sparked outrage amongst British lawmakers under sanction by Beijing. The decision to bar the diplomat, Zheng Zeguang, was issued by the speakers of the House of Commons and the House of Lords after complaints from a group of British lawmakers placed under sanction by China, Washington Post reported. This comes amid heightened tensions between UK and China.

Zheng had been expected to attend a summer reception of the All-Party Parliamentary China Group, a group of lawmakers broadly in favour of engagement with Beijing, and the China-Britain Business Council at the Terrace Pavilion at the House of Commons on Wednesday evening. An email from the group sent Tuesday confirmed that the event would be postponed but that a replacement event would be planned at an alternative venue.

In a statement, British lawmakers Iain Duncan Smith, Nus Ghani and Tim Loughton  Conservative members of Parliament sanctioned by Chinese authorities in March for alleged lies and disinformation  welcomed the decision to bar Zheng. It would have been an insult to Parliament and to the principle of free speech upon which democracies are founded if the official representative of a regime which had just banned Parliamentarians from entering Chinese territory because they had stood up in the House of Commons to call out Chinas appalling human rights abuses was allowed to set foot in the Mother of Parliaments which cherishes those freedoms, the three lawmakers wrote.

The Chinese Embassy in London condemned what it called the despicable and cowardly action of certain individuals of the UK Parliament. Responding to a question if the postponement is related to Chinas sanctions on some British parliamentarians, a spokesperson for the embassy said the sanctions on relevant persons and institutions in Britain announced by the Chinese side in March are beyond reproach.

Chinas sanctions are justified responses to the unilateral sanctions imposed by the British side on relevant Chinese individuals and entities based on disinformation and under the pretext of so-called human rights abuse in Xinjiang, the spokesperson added. Tit-for-tat sanctions between Britain and China escalated this year after Western powers joined to sanction Chinese officials in Xinjiang for their alleged role in the regions human rights abuses.
Republicans especially have been hammering the administration for what was a chaotic withdrawal that ultimately stranded thousands of people attempting to escape. Republican Senator James Risch said that he was concerned over the Biden administration rushing to normalise ties with the Taliban government and how it must not occur without extensive congressional consultations.

For the second day, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken on Tuesday confronted a barrage of questions from US lawmakers about last months withdrawal from Afghanistan and the attempts to rescue people and deal with a future Taliban government. Lawmakers cutting across the party lines demanded more severe action against Islamabad for its subversive role in Afghanistan. The top two members of the committee, New Jersey Democrat Bob Menendez and Idaho Republican James Risch, both assailed the withdrawal as a debacle in their opening remarks and demanded action against Pakistan for double-dealing in Afghanistan.

Bob Menendez Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee asserted: We need to understand the double-dealing by Pakistan and providing a safe haven to the Taliban. We need to understand why successive administration made so many of the same mistakes, repeatedly. Perhaps most urgently we need to understand why the Afghan government and military collapse so precipitously, the democratic leader Mendez cited in his opening remarks.

Republicans especially have been hammering the administration for what was a chaotic withdrawal that ultimately stranded thousands of people attempting to escape. Republican Senator James Risch said that he was concerned over the Biden administration rushing to normalise ties with the Taliban government and how it must not occur without extensive congressional consultations. We also must understand Pakistans role in this entire matter, as the Chairman (Mendez) has alluded to. This is a difficult but important situation.

US Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican from Florida, spoke at the hearing telling Secretary of State Antony Blinken that the Biden Administrations disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan is evidence that we have got the wrong people making military and diplomacy decisions in our government.

With Reference to India, Rubio told Secretary Blinken: if you are India, you look at this and saying if the United States allowed Pakistan to unravel their standing because the Pakistani role in all this  and multiple administrations are guilty of ignoring it  The Pakistani role in enabling the Taliban is ultimately a victory for those pro-Taliban hardliners in the Pakistani government. India has to be looking at this and say, If the United States could have a third-rate power like Pakistan unravel its aims, what chance do they have of confronting China?'

Asked by Senator Ron Johnson and Senator Mike Rounds if the US had factored in and developed a strategy towards Pakistan for having a history of supporting terror to which Blinken noted: We have established across more than 100 countries, and in the UN, through a Security Council resolution basic expectations of the Taliban led government. And if those expectations are not met, and other countries are aiding and abetting so that the Taliban is able to not fulfil those, those expectations. Therell be consequences for that too.

The secretary also faced questioning on how it will be possible to deal with the Taliban led government and also with Pakistan going forward. During his testimony, Blinken said the US is aware of countries like China, Russia and Pakistan that stand as outliers in the effort of resolving the situation in Afghanistan and declared thats something well be very vigilant about as well.

Responding to Blinken, US Senator Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat from Maryland, said: So obviously we have to keep an eye on the ISI, get that but lets all work together to achieve the goal of a stable Afghanistan that protects the rights of his people. Blinken during his testimony noted that it was the Trump administration that struck a deal with the Islamist Taliban organization that paved the way for its return to government. The Trump administration also all but shut down the program to issue visas to Afghan interpreters and others the U.S. now wants to rescue. The secretary made the same points Monday before a House committee.
Joe Biden floated the summit as one of the possible engagements with Xi Jinping and he did not expect any immediate response from him. He thinks that the in decision for a person-to-person meeting with the Chinese president is not yet ripe due to Covid-19.

Joe Biden denied that Chinese president Xi Jinping rejected the idea of a summit on the 90-minute phone call that he had made last week. Sources, however, point out that the information is true. Xi apparently intimated that the tone and atmosphere of the relationship needed to be improved first, a source told Reuters.

According to Financial Times, instead of accepting the invite Xi Jinping told Biden that Washington should use a less stringent tone with China. When asked by reporters if Xi Jinping had turned down the offer, Biden said, Its not true. Bidens national security advisor, Jake Sullivan also said that the information is not an accurate portrayal of the call.

Joe Biden floated the summit as one of the possible engagements with Xi Jinping and he did not expect any immediate response from him. He thinks that the in decision for a person-to-person meeting with the Chinese president is not yet ripe due to Covid-19. The venue for the meeting is likely to be the G20 Summit in Italy on October. Jinping, however, has not moved out of China since the pandemic.

Sullivan was quoted saying that the two world leaders were having private discussions and this will be respected by them at all costs. A US official said that the communication over phone was supposed to be crucial in ending the stone-cold relationship between the US and China that is the worst compared to previous decades. This is the first call between the two countries in seven months.

The White House said that it will have the channels of communication open but it has no plans on follow-on engagements.
Christian Abraham / Hearst Connecticut Media

A correction officer died last week from complications associated with the coronavirus, according to a memo from the agencys commissioner.

Department of Correction Commissioner Angel Quiros sent a memo to all DOC personnel on Friday, announcing the death of Correction Officer Quentin Foster from complications associated with COVID-19.
LOS ANGELES (AP)  An ominous four-word message issued by California Gov. Gavin Newsoms campaign on the morning of Aug. 5 served as the shock Democrats needed to take seriously a recall election that could remove him from office: This recall is close.

Newsom's warning in a fundraising email came just days after a poll indicated the once-popular Democratic governor who was elected in a 2018 landslide was facing the unthinkable prospect of losing his job in a state that hadnt elected a Republican in a statewide race in 15 years.

The race is close enough to start thinking about what itd be like if we had a Republican governor in California. Sorry to put the thought in your head, but its true, Newsom's campaign wrote.

The alarmist message was quickly incorporated into Newsoms remarks on the campaign trail  he was in serious trouble, he warned. The sequence of events combined to create a turning point in the race and helped energize Californias dominant Democratic voters, who until then appeared to be greeting the contest with a collective shrug.

Newsom on Tuesday easily turned back the attempt to retire him less than three years into his first term. Incomplete returns showed him headed toward a landslide win with about 65% of the vote.

A major lesson of Newsoms decisive win is you can wake up the base, Newsom strategist Sean Clegg said this week. The base may start out asleep ... but you can wake up the base.

Newsom's victory also provides him with a dramatic comeback story that he is likely to employ as he seeks to broaden his popularity in advance of a 2022 reelection race, while seeking to return his name into discussion about future presidential candidates.

Concentrating the narrative on the threat of a Republican upset in the nations most populous state became a self-fulfilling prophesy, where the more you talk about it being close, the more (Democrats) pay attention, said Los Angeles-based Democratic consultant Michael Trujillo, who was not involved in the campaign.

For Democrats, the fear of losing the California governor's seat also opened up national fundraising pipelines that gave Newsom a vast cash advantage over his rivals. That concern also provided a connection point with minority communities about how their lives could change with a conservative Republican governor in Sacramento.

Newsom also benefited at other critical junctures of the campaign with strategy decisions by his campaign and other factors involving happenstance or even luck.

The state collected an astounding windfall of tax dollars that resulted in a record surplus, allowing Newsom to dispense billions in funding for an array of programs, from cleaning up trash to early education and homelessness.

In what Democrats said was a fortunate turn for Newsom, the election was reshuffled when conservative talk show host Larry Elder entered the race in July. The lawyer and author who could have become the states first Black governor quickly emerged as Newsoms chief foil, and the race came into sharper focus for voters as a one-on-one matchup.

Elder came to the race with conservative-libertarian principles that were out of step with many of the states left-leaning voters.

He is a supporter of former President Donald Trump, who is a reviled figure in California outside of his conservative base. Elder is critical of the landmark Roe v. Wade decision on abortion rights, has spoken in opposition to the minimum wage and promised to erase state vaccine and mask mandates that Newsom has insisted save lives.

With Elder in the race, Newsom seized the opportunity to frame the election as a competition between two radically different visions for California's future. He warned repeatedly that progressive values on the environment, health care and womens rights were on the ballot, while Elder would herald the return of an era of Trumpism.

Elder galvanized the conservative base, but gave Democrats a clear enemy.

Larry Elder handed them so many gifts on a platter. He is literally the antithesis of most California voters, said Dana Williamson, who was a top adviser to former Democratic California Gov. Jerry Brown, who preceded Newsom.

Ron Nehring, former chairman of the California Republican Party and a supporter of GOP candidate Kevin Faulconer, said Elder served as a life preserver for Gavin Newsom because he gave the governor a target and shifted attention from his own record.

Newsom came to the recall with advantages not shared by governors in other states.

Democrats hold a vast numerical edge over Republicans in California - a nearly 2-to-1 margin, or about 5 million voters. As the target of the recall, the political committee backing Newsom was allowed to raise unlimited funds, which gave him the cash to flood TV screens with advertising.

That main committee backing Newsom raised nearly $70 million through the end of August. By comparison, two committees supporting Elder's campaign raised about $15 million.

Newsom also was supported by the nations largest state Democratic Party and politically powerful public worker unions - his campaign said 25,000 volunteers hit the streets the weekend before the election.

Meanwhile, infighting broke out among Republican candidates. The GOP never seemed to settle on a unified strategy - the party considered endorsing a candidate, then dropped it. National Republicans largely stayed on the sidelines after the Republican National Committee gave $250,000, most of it to the state party.

Another key advantage for Newsom came when his campaign succeeded in keeping the replacement ballot free of any established Democrats. Newsoms strategists were wary of the historical context: Voters in a 2003 recall election ousted Democrat Gray Davis, who faced an intraparty challenge from Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante.

Bustamante's appearance on the ballot gave Democrats a viable option to the unpopular Davis and Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger ended up cruising to victory.

Newsom's campaign team also pinpointed the emergence of the highly contagious delta variant as a factor that reordered the race, especially with Elder emerging as the dominant GOP rival.

We saw the delta surge as a real inflection moment in this campaign. I think it was a turning point for us, said Clegg. What delta brought into clear, clear focus was what the stakes are in this election, when one party has basically become an anti-science, anti-vaccine, anti-public health party.

Referring to Elder, he said the race could be distilled into a single sentence: This recall is a vote for a pro-Trump, anti-vax Republican governor whos going to reverse vaccine mandates on day one.
DoorDash is suing New York City over a new law that requires delivery companies to share customer data with restaurants.

The lawsuit filed Wednesday is the latest in a string of legal tussles between delivery companies and local governments, reflecting unease over the phenomenal growth of delivery and its impact on restaurants.

Last week, DoorDash, Grubhub and Uber Eats sued New York over a separate bill that caps fees delivery companies can charge to restaurants. DoorDash and Grubhub are also suing San Francisco over fee caps adopted there.

In its new lawsuit, DoorDash says an ordinance passed by the New York City Council in late July is unconstitutional and violates customer privacy. Under the law, delivery companies must share data collected on customers  including names, addresses, phone numbers and order contents  with any restaurant that requests that information. Customers can opt out and keep their information private, but only on an order-by-order basis.

In an era of heightened concerns about data privacy and identity theft, this compelled disclosure is a shocking and invasive intrusion of consumers privacy, the San Francisco company said in its court filing. The company noted that in-person diners would never be asked to share the same information with restaurants.

But many restaurants  fed up with delivery fees and lack of transparency  supported the bill. The NYC Hospitality Alliance, which represents 25,000 bars and restaurants in New York, says the bill ensures that restaurants can market directly to their customers. The law also makes it easier for restaurants to leave delivery platforms without losing access to their customers.

DoorDash spends millions of dollars to take restaurants customers and withhold their information so they can control the market and extract more fees from small businesses," said Andrew Rigie, the executive director of the alliance.

Delivery companies saw big sales gains over the last year as pandemic lockdowns closed restaurant dining rooms and more people ate at home. DoorDash booked a record 345 million orders in its most-recent quarter, and its sales jumped 83% from the prior year to $1.24 billion.

Delivery companies say they help restaurants by connecting them to diners and handling tricky logistics. But their commission fees, which can be as high as 30% per order, have cut into the already thin margins of restaurant owners in an unprecedented era. The National Restaurant Association estimates 90,000 U.S. restaurants have closed permanently or long-term because of the pandemic.

That relationship between delivery companies got more scrutiny from local lawmakers as the pandemic wore on. Dozens of cities passed temporary fee caps. In July, Massachusetts sued Grubhub, claiming it charged restaurants illegally high fees during the pandemic. And last month, Chicago sued DoorDash and Grubhub, accusing them of deceptive business practices, including delivering from restaurants without their consent. Both companies denied those claims.
AP

MARION, Ind. (AP)  A northern Indiana woman convicted of murder in the strangulation death of her 10-year-old stepdaughter was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Amanda Carmack, of Gas City, was sentenced during a hearing Wednesday. A jury convicted her last month on murder, strangulation, neglect and battery charges in the killing of Skylea Carmack. She was arrested days after her stepdaughter's body was found in trash bags in a shed behind the family's home in September of 2019. When questioned by police, Amanda Carmack admitted to strangling the girl in the shed.
HAMDEN  This time, she won.

Two years after losing to incumbent Mayor Curt Balzano Leng, Lauren Garrett prevailed Tuesday in Hamdens Democratic primary.

Backed by an endorsement from the Democratic Town Committee, she beat both Leng and challenger Peter Cyr in the first three-way mayoral primary in town history.

She will now face two challengers in November  GOP candidate Ron Gambardella and Independent candidate Albert Lotto. But because Hamden leans heavily Democrat, the win could put her on track to become the towns first female mayor in 20 years.

Garrett won the primary a landslide, earning 2,960 votes to Lengs 1,493 and Cyrs 853, according to preliminary totals provided by DTC Chairman Sean Grace.

After the win, Garrett said she felt amazing.

Im so happy for the whole slate and so thankful for all of the volunteers who have put in so much time to raise money, to knock on doors, make phone calls, send text messages...we had such a huge team out today. Im just so appreciative of them all , she said.

Karimah Mickens, the DTC-endorsed town clerk candidate, beat Melinda Saller.

The remaining candidates on Garretts slate  for Board of Education and at-large council seats  also swept, earning spots on the November ballot.

Two years ago, the DTC endorsed Leng, and he easily beat Garrett after she petitioned to be on the ballot. But as the make-up of the DTC changed, a rift emerged between party and mayor, who bypassed the endorsement process completely.

This time, he petitioned his way onto the ballot.

But there was one more twist in what already promised to be a contentious election. That was Cyr, another petitioning candidate.

Hamden-raised, the 26-year-old political organizer pitched himself as a fresh face who would bring fresh ideas and be the change the town needed. Since he was not tied to past administrations, he argued, he could approach the budget with a better perspective.

After learning about the results Tuesday, Cyr told the New Haven Register in a written statement that he was proud of he run.

We kept our campaign positive and focused on the issues. It wasnt our time just yet, but (Im) going to keep fighting for the issues that are important, he said.

Garrett, who previously served on the Legislative Council, has a background in engineering and manages the finances for her familys real estate business. She ran on a platform of financial reform, telling voters she would bring more transparency and long-term fiscal planning to Hamden.

Meanwhile, Leng ran on a pro-police platform, suggesting Garrett would support cuts to the department since she questioned its funding when she was a councilwoman. He also indicated that widespread criticism of his financial record was unfair, contending municipal finances had improved under his watch.

The towns fund balance, for example, is higher than it has been in years, according to the mayor.

The state recently ranked Hamden as the most indebted Connecticut town per capita. It also has one of the highest tax rates in the area.

Leng could not immediately reached Tuesday night.

But Josh Watkins, Lengs campaign manager, said, the Leng campaign team would like to congratulate Lauren Garrett for winning the primary.

It was a tough fight butwe are willing to assist in any way possible to move this town forward, he said.

Watkins thanked the campaign team for their hard work.

The candidates supporters could be found near the polls Tuesday morning, handing out brochures or coming to cast their ballots.

At the school districts central office in Whitneyville, Gil Cyr, Peter Cyrs father, arrived early in the day wearing a T-shirt with his sons name on it.

When he learned his son would be seeking office, Gil Cyr said, he was happy Peter Cyr wanted to help his town.

Father and son have been knocking on doors day after day, Gil Cyr said.

That was the best approach for us  to have the residents meet Peter, he said. Hes got new energy, he wants to make Hamden better...We feel very good about the way Peter ran his campaign. It was a clean campaign, it was a hardworking campaign.

As Gil Cyr spoke, he spotted someone he recognized: Mallory Bogart, a Peter Cyr supporter, was leaving the polls after casting her ballot for him.

A lifelong Hamden resident, Bogart said she was more invested in this primary than any other. She like Cyrs platforms on taxes and addressing gun violence, she said.

Other voters were going a different route.

Adam Matlock said he liked Cyr but was worried about splitting the vote  so he voted for Garrett.

He was also interested in small-scale responses to climate change  Garretts platform included some.

Ashley Northey was another Row A voter. She moved to town in May and did not feel embedded enough in the community to make her own decision, she said, opting to take the advice of friends.

The Row A candidates also seemed more progressive, she said.

Meanwhile, at the Keefe Community Center, Oscar Bolanos  who unsuccessfully petitioned for a spot on the ballot as a candidate for the third Legislative Council district  was out speaking to voters about his support for Leng.

His children attend the same school as the mayors son, he said, and he trusted Leng to do what is best for the future of Hamden, and for their kids.

meghan.friedmann@hearstmediact.com
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP)  As the sun went down on the Vila Cruzeiro favela on Monday, bathing this working class neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro with warm evening light, kids lined up to catch a free movie screening.

Some had never stepped foot in a cinema because tickets for families can be prohibitively expensive  even before the pandemic battered their parents' jobs. And their disposable income has been eroded by surging inflation, especially the costs of home electricity and food.
TRUMBULL - Elizabeth Kalu compares her efforts at raising money for needy children in her native Kenya to facing an enormous expanse together with her spouse.

What Im doing right now, me and my husband, is just putting a drop in the ocean, Kalu said.

But those drops in the ocean will hopefully turn into a flood for at least three children of the Maasai people in Kenya. Kalu, a Maasai herself, is a chaplain at the Yale New Haven St. Raphael Campus in New Haven and she has teamed up with the Christ Church in Trumbull for a virtual fundraiser this Sept. 18 to raise money for the groups Vision of Education for Maasai Visually Impaired Children in Kenya and St. Paul's Child Development Center in Bridgeport.

Tickets for the event are $8 and Kalu said that the evenings modest goal is to raise at least a few hundred dollars. Her fellow chaplain at Yale New Haven, Jane Jeuland, is the pastor for Christ Episcopal Church in Trumbull. Jeuland heard of Kalus story and was eager to help.

She said, Im going to talk to a few of my church members, and Ill see if you can come and share your story, Kalu said.

Jeuland got Kalu to speak at the congregation during the Sept. 12 service, where Kalu spoke about her wish to help Maasai children.

She later explained the unique difficulties in obtaining basic medical care for the Maasai. When she was a 21-year-old teacher at a local primary school, she encountered a Maasai father dropping off his son, named Kuntai, who was blind and therefore unable to care for their animals. Kalu tried to get him medical care at a nearby health care facility. They couldnt care for him either.

So Kalu took matters into her own hands and paid out of her own pocket to get him help at a specialized medical facility.

I took him there. They looked at him and they realized that Kuntai had cataracts, and they were able to operate on him and the boy was able to see, she said.

The experience further reinforced her belief that education was the key to changing cultural attitudes towards physical disability, which she said is a taboo subject for the Maasai.

After coming to the U.S. for an education, she earned a graduate degree in adult education at the University of Pennsylvania, and later became a chaplain at Yale New Haven, where she met Jeuland.

She has helped more than 20 children in the years since, but her efforts have succeeded to a point where she needs to raise funds to properly care for them. She estimates it costs at least $100 to educate a child in Kenya for a year.

Jeuland said it was crucial that any fundraising for children outside of the country was rooted in local concerns and that the people getting aid would also have a say in it.

I always find its better to work with someone who is from the place and has connections here. So when I was speaking with her about her organization and learning more about it, I thought, Oh my gosh, this is perfect, because its not only a worthy cause but we also really have such a good relational connection with the person whos actually doing the work, Jeuland said.

She explained that the money would go to education amd teaching children how to ward off communicable diseases, which in many cases can lead to vision damage or even blindness.

The church had originally planned on hosting a live event Sept. 18, but the rise in COVID delta variant cases forced the church to change the event to a virtual one. The decision was a hard one, but Jeuland said the current situation made an in-person event inadvisable.

Were gonna call it with the numbers, she said.

As for Kalu, she remembers making a promise to Kenyan parents with needy children during the summer of 2013.

I am coming back to help your children. This is a promise, she said.
WEST HAVEN  If ever you needed to find Fran Withington, he was probably smoking a cigar by the shoreline.

He was a fixture down there, said former Mayor Ed OBrien.

Withington, a former tax collector for the city, died Sunday. He was 74.

OBrien said he spoke with Withington daily for years as a friend and mentor.

He was one of those guys where Id bounce things off him, OBrien said. He had a witty humor and loved to be out among people. Very personable.

Hearst Connecticut Media

Debbie Collins, a longtime city clerk, said Withington did not just look at the glass as half-full  he always saw it as completely full.

He was always looking on the sunny side, she said.

Under the OBrien administration, Withington was made part-time complaints officer. Collins said Withington took the job of helping his community so seriously that it became well known in City Hall.

Every time he had to go on a complaint he would end up helping everybody, she said, figuring out who in the community needed new furniture, groceries or a ride and giving it to them.

I love West Haven. Its my home. Its my familys home. All my kids are here, Withington said when he was appointed complaints officer in 2014. I want it to be better, just like Ed (OBrien) wants it to be better, and Im pleased to be a member of the team.

Contributed photo

Withington is survived by three children  son Gary and daughters Denise and Dawn. Withingtons daughters described their father as someone who threw himself into helping others, with a deep passion for his city.

Hes always been involved in politics since I was a little girl, said Dawn Withington. Me and my sister used to get dropped off on the streetcorner to hand out pamphlets.

Denise Withington said many people her age once were employed by her father at the former Sears Roebuck Factory, where he worked for 32 years.

They all remember that in a positive, fun way, she said.

Denise Withington said she believes it was family that helped inspire her father to keep going for so long through a lengthy illness.

I have a 15-year-old daughter and she was the bright spot in his day, she said. Seeing her grow up really kept him going.

Collins said Withington had millions of friends in the city, many of whom he likely did not know their last names, but he was extremely generous and helpful to all. She said that helping others with recovery from alcoholism was an active cause for him. Denise Withington said her father was sober for more than 30 years.

Contributed photo /

He was on the 12-step program. He survived all that and ran all those meetings and had such a great connection with his program there and he was just a kind man, Collins said. He just was a good person that wanted to help everybody. He knew the demons some people had and your secret was safe with him.

Dawn Withington said that, after announcing her fathers death, there were hundreds of comments on social media platforms. Among the ones that touched her the most were people commenting that her father had saved their life.

He wanted to leave West Haven better than when he found it, she said.

OBrien said Withington was deeply embedded in city politics because he wanted what was best for the city.

He was a Democrat, but he just wanted what was best for West Haven. He supported the person he thought was the best candidate, he said. He was just an all-around good guy.

brian.zahn@hearstmediact.com
My girlhood was spent playing outside in a soft rain, but the lightning was just over the horizon. One day, Im catching fireflies in a Mason jar, and the next day, conversations in my fundamentalist Sunday school came loaded with lessons meant to train me to guard my virginity. In my teens, a shade came down, voices lowered, and I and my friends were repeatedly reminded that we were but vessels for any children with which God might grace us.

After a while, I asked to move on to other adult topics  like choosing college majors or finding decent car insurance  but no. Everything eventually circled back to the womb I was meant to cherish and protect.

The lessons were nonsensical and painful. At church camp one summer, a male teacher cautioned us pre-teens against petting. None of us knew what that was, and when we asked, he told us to ask our female counselor.

When we asked her, she punted and told us to ask our mothers. By the time the week-long camp was over, I forgot to ask. That meant that I would, like so many others of that age and in that place, figure out petting on my own.

Its enough to make a girl resent having a womb in the first place, given that it is the locus of so much silly discussion and bad legislation. A girl can start to wonder if things would be easier if the men who appear so interested in regulating this part of the female could maybe have their own wombs to worry over, so that the girl could go about her business as something more than a vessel.

Maybe we can all pull out our sewing kits and stitch them wombs, or hand them a pussy hat and tell them to go crazy.

Despite the fact that this is 2021, Texas has given us a refresher course on vessel-dom. That states legislators have been abundantly clear about the shade-pulling, lowered-voice religiosity behind their new law that restricts abortions beyond roughly six weeks after a womans last menstrual period. That that time frame is often weeks before most women even know theyre pregnant is exactly the point.

Lawyers and activists cried foul, but the Trump-stuffed Supreme Court punted (just like my female camp counselor!) and refused to listen to arguments against what is effectively an abortion ban. Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor said it best: Her fellows on the bench chose to bury their heads in the sand. The Justice Department has stepped in to counter what is euphemistically called the Texas Heartbeat Act  euphemistically because at six weeks, embryos dont have heartbeats.

But wait. Theres more. In Texas, everything is bigger, including legislators ability to do ignorant things. The law sets up a vigilante system whereby citizens can reap monetary rewards for ratting out one another should a person perform an abortion or help a woman get an abortion or should a person intend to engage (actual language from the law) in said conduct. That means enforcement of this godforsaken law is performed through private civil actions (also language from the law).

In other words, Texas has deputized an army of womb bounty hunters. The state can levy a fine against any defendant in a successful suit, and the money goes to pay the people who turned the defendant in in the first place. In a leap far, far from legal precedent, anyone can bring suit. The person doesnt have to have standing. They can just decide to wade in and turn someone in.

It is a chilling attempt by the American right to once again invade womens bodies, while hiring two-bit vigilantes to do the dirty work. It is also a gross invasion of privacy, which is something we in Connecticut  home of the precedent-setting court case Griswold v. Connecticut  take seriously. Connecticut takes a womans right to choose seriously in general. In 1990, the state passed a law the protects the right even if a latter-day Supreme Court decides otherwise.

Not so with Texas. A website set up for would-be bounty hunters has been tossed around hosting services because, well, its a stupid idea and no hosting service wants to be tainted by it. Services such as GoDaddy got tired of all the keyboard activists crashing the site by turning in fake reports on fake people.

Companies such as Salesforce have offered to help Texas employees and their families relocate. Other companies such as Bumble and Match set up relief funds for people who are affected by the ban. Uber and Lyft promised to cover legal fees should someone bring suit against one of their drivers. The Womens March vowed to take to the streets on Oct. 2. I stand ready.

And heres where I take comfort: Everyone under the age of 48 has only ever lived in a country where abortions are legal. Roe v. Wade, the landmark court case for which Griswold v. Connecticut helped pave the way, opened the door for legal and safe abortions. Everyone over 48 remembers the bad old days.

Texas, which also has been busily restricting voters rights, has poked the beast. Dont mess with Texas? We havent even begun.

Susan Campbell is the author of Frog Hollow: Stories from an American Neighborhood, Tempest-Tossed: The Spirit of Isabella Beecher Hooker, and Dating Jesus: A Story of Fundamentalism, Feminism, and the American Girl. She is a distinguished lecturer at University of New Haven, where she teaches journalism.
The Minister of Police Affairs, Maigari Dingyadi, has said that former acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, CP...

The Minister of Police Affairs, Maigari Dingyadi, has said that former acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, CP Ibrahim Magu, is still on the Federal Governments payroll as a police officer despite his suspension by the President, Muhammadu Buhari.

The minister spoke on Tuesday when he featured as a guest on Channels Televisions Politics Today current affairs programme.

Magu, who served as acting chairman of the EFCC from 2015 to 2020, was rejected twice by the Senate.

He was later suspended along with several others in July 2020 for allegedly mismanaging funds of the commission, an allegation which he vehemently denied.

The former EFCC boss was probed for over three months by a judicial panel of inquiry led by a former President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Ayo Salami.

The panel made several recommendations but the report has not been made public to date.





The President later in February 2021 named Abdulrasheed Bawa as the new EFCC chairman to replace Magu.

In July 2021, the Police Service Commission approved the promotion of 24 Commissioners of Police to the next rank of Assistant Inspectors General of Police but a statement by the Commissions Head of Press and Public Relations, Ikechukwu Ani, said that the Commission declined the promotion of CP Magu pending clearance from the office of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice and the Office of the Inspector General of Police.

Giving an update on Magus case on the programme on Tuesday, the minister said, The matter is investigated and the man is still in the service, he is still in the Force Headquarters, I dont want to expatiate at this material time as to what is happening to the report of the committee. What I know is that the report has been submitted to Mr President and as far as I know, no communication has yet to be submitted to the ministry or the police force on this matter.

So, we are waiting for the final outcome and the public will be informed as and when the need arises.

Of course, he is still a police officer even though he is under suspension. He used to be the chairman of the EFCC but he is no longer one.

But that does not mean he is not on the payroll of the Federal Government; he is still a civil servant, he is still a police officer until a final decision is taken on the matter, I dont think I should say anything more than I have said on this matter now, Dingyadi added.
Focusing on your childs grades can backfire

Helping students find the way to their own best is key
The National WWII Museum reopened to the public this week, with free admission to thank those who got the city back on its feet after Hurricane Ida.

Electrical employees, first responders, members of the National Guard and emergency personnel will be admitted free to the museum, 945 Magazine St., through the end of September.

The museum is also offering half-off admission to Louisiana residents through the end of October.

The newest permanent exhibit at the museum is called "The Arsenal of Democracy: The Herman and George R. Brown Salute to the Home Front." That exhibit explores the evolution of debate and commitment, both political and practical, in the United States before and during World War II.

Staff members monitored the collections and prepared the museum to reopen after Hurricane Ida buffeted the city.

The National World War II Museum encourages visitors to reserve their tickets in advance here.
The vintage burger stand LaPlace Frostop has been a neon-lined landmark of Americana along the main drag of this River Parishes town for more than 60 years. It reopens Wednesday, Sept. 15, after Hurricane Ida with its most distinguishing feature missing, but with a sense of optimism unbowed.

The giant frosty root beer mug that stood over the restaurant was knocked off its pedestal by the storm.

But to the relief of third-generation owner Terry Toler, the rest of the damage could be fixed or mitigated enough to get back open quickly.

The mug is down, but spirits are high, Toler said. To lose the mug but keep the restaurant, Ill take that any day considering what we all went through here.

The LaPlace Frostop will start with a limited menu of burgers and fries until more staff can get back to work. The shops own house-made root beer is also on hiatus as long as LaPlace remains under a boil water advisory. The restaurant will serve canned soft drinks only to begin.

As for the mug, Toler has no doubt she will repair and reinstall it as soon as she can. It landed nearby, and she has already rebuffed offers to buy the damaged relic.

"There's no way we could part with it," she said.

The old sheet metal mug is a vital part of the restaurants story, lighting up this stretch of Airline Highway in the center of town. Traced with neon, it's a nostalgic beacon from the glory days of the American drive-in.

The LaPlace Frostop ranks as the oldest continuously operated restaurant in the town, and it has always been a family business.

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It was opened in 1958 as a drive-in by Tolers grandfather, Morris Terry, and later run by her parents, Jimmie and Evelyn Toler. Terry Toler joined as co-owner after graduating from LSU in 1993.

The Frostop brand dates to 1926, when its first root beer stand opened in Springfield, Ohio. Eventually, hundreds of locations would spread across the country, a precursor to the multinational burger chains to follow.

By the 1950s, they were opening around southeast Louisiana, from Baton Rouge to Thibodaux. Teds Frostop in New Orleans, across South Claiborne Avenue from Tulane University, was opened in 1955 by Ted Sternberg, who added more under the Teds Frostop name.

By the 1980s the parent company went out of business and the restaurants continued as independent operators using the Frostop name. Today, there about a dozen left; each one is run separately and each is a bit different.

The status of the LaPlace Frostop mug may bring to mind the fate of the mug at Teds Frostop in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. That mug was knocked down by storm winds and landed upside down in the parking lot. It was repaired where it stood, with frosted top to the pavement. When Teds reopened in 2006, the logo on its menus and T-shirts was even changed to show the mug upside down. For years it remained that way, like a symbol of topsy-turvy post-Katrina life in the city.

In 2011, a newly restored mug sign was returned to its original, frosted-side-up stature.

LaPlace Frostop

411 E. Airline Hwy., LaPlace, (985) 652-6361

+13 With catfish, bloody marys, two landmarks of hard-hit Des Allemands vow return after Ida Franks Lounge was dark and hot as Reva Kramer worked inside, mucking out mud that Hurricane Ida had pushed across the bar's floor. And yet, m

+12 'We cant stop.' Inside the community kitchen cooking with heart for Louisiana after Ida The aromas of roasting meat and simmering gravy spreading through the kitchen were hearty and homey. But the pace around the long, bright, cro

+9 Rebuilt to weather climate change, historic Middendorfs restaurant survives Hurricane Ida One thing chef Horst Pfeifer heard constantly when he bought Middendorfs Restaurant back in 2007 was a plea not to change it. But to preserve
Dear Dennis Quaid,

Where yat, cher? Weve never spoken, but I am admirer of your work.

Well, most of it.

That being said, I have what I think is a worthwhile suggestion. Go see Blue Bayou. Itll teach you things about making a New Orleans movie.

Not that your 1986 thriller The Big Easy isnt fun in its own way. But theres a reason why it, and your attempt at a South Louisiana dialect in particular, remains the gold standard for all that can go awry when someone from Out There tries to capture New Orleans on film.

Writer-director-actor Justin Chons independent drama Blue Bayou, on the other hand, demonstrates what can happen when a filmmaker is diligent enough, observant enough, and willing to immerse himself in local culture and surround himself with a largely local crew.

Chons film played at the Cannes Film Festival over the summer before finally opening on these hurricane-wracked shores Friday (Sept. 17), and local moviegoers will appreciate what he has assembled.

Thats true despite the fact that his story isnt at its core a New Orleans one. The city is the setting for Chons film, but its not the narrative fulcrum.

BLUE BAYOU 3 stars, out of 4 SNAPSHOT: A New Orleans-shot, New Orleans-set drama about a man who, after being adopted at age 3 by a family in St. Francisville, is now being threatened with deportation to Korea, a country he doesnt even remember. CAST: Justin Chon, Alicia Vikander, Sydney Kowalske, Linh-Dan Pham, Mark OBrien, Emory Cohen, Vondie Curtis-Hall. DIRECTOR: Chon. RATED: R, for language throughout and some violence. TIME: 1 hour 57 minutes. WHEN AND WHERE: Opens Friday (Sept. 17) at Canal Place, the Broad Theater.

Rather, that story, which shines a light on a real, ripped-from-the-headlines issue, is a character-driven one, involving a young Korean-American man named Antonio Leblanc (played by Chon) who, at 3 years old, was adopted by a St. Francisville family.

All these years later, hes married to a New Orleans woman (Alicia Vikander) who is pregnant with his child and whose young daughter from a previous relationship he has raised as his own. They dont have much from a material standpoint, but they love each other, and so theyre happy.

Unfortunately, after a run-in with the law at the Westwego Piggly Wiggly, Antonio now faces deportation to Korea  a country he doesnt even remember  on a legal technicality.

But even though Blue Bayou could have been set anywhere, Chon is smart enough of a storyteller to leverage the personality and textures of New Orleans  just as he did with southern Los Angeles in his 2017 film Gook  to lend his film a very specific and very authentic sense of place.

Unlike The Big Easy and other films of its ilk  which often lead viewers to believe the city consists almost solely of the French Quarter and outlying swamps  Blue Bayou isnt unhealthily obsessed with postcard-friendly New Orleans. Rather, Chons is a grittier New Orleans, the one in which the paint is peeling off his homes sagging wood siding.

He briefly gives us beauty shots of the bridge, Bourbon Street, a riverboat and other such Chamber of Commerce images, but hes careful not to overdo it, using them instead as a visual shorthand to establish his setting before focusing his camera on his perfectly imperfect New Orleans.

Just as important are the myriad little details with which he peppers his film and which, subtle as they are, add to its authenticity. Theres the canister of Rouses Parmesan cheese on his familys dinner table. Theres a pelican-adorned tote bag hanging on his young daughters bed post. Theres a whole, lovely scene set in the backyard of a family of Vietnamese immigrants.

(That scene, which occurs almost exactly halfway through the film, also gives us a memorable, showstopping performance by Vikander of the Linda Ronstadt song that gives the film its name. Unlike your screechy zydeco performance in The Big Easy, Dennis, if theres an issue to be taken with Vikanders performance, its that Chon doesnt let it play longer.)

But perhaps most impressive is the obvious work Chon did to replicate a down-the-bayou accent. Its front and center in the film, given that his character is in nearly every scene, but it never feels forced or put-on.

It flows from him naturally, sprinkled with dey and dat and other such linguistic subtleties that so many other actors have failed to capture.

I wont mention any names here, but Ill point out theres not a cher to be heard in Blue Bayou.

Thats not to say Chons film is a perfect one. It tends toward melodrama at times, and it sometimes feels a little too on-the-nose.

Nit-pickers might also catch Vikanders mispronunciation of okra as something like ahkra, one of the rare hints of her Swedish roots in what is otherwise an equally subtle capturing of local dialect.

Others might also notice that, while Chons character says he works in a west bank tattoo parlor, its really at Ursulines and North Rampart streets. (For the record, its Aart Accent Tattoos & Piercings, the owner of which, Jacci Gresham, plays herself.)

But mistakes happen, and  pay attention, Dennis; this is important  when a filmmaker takes such obvious care to get things right, it makes it a lot easier for locals to forgive when he missteps.

Who Dat,

Mike

Mike Scott can be reached at moviegoermike@gmail.com.
Seventeen days after Hurricane Ida barreled across the region, the Jefferson Parish Council grilled representatives of debris, garbage, electricity and internet service providers Wednesday, voicing the aggravation of their constituents and urging them to speed their restoration work to more quickly return the parish to normal conditions.

The at-times sharp questioning focused on the pace of garbage and debris pickup, as well as the lags in getting internet restored to some customers. The various company officials vowed to work quickly and make sure the parish government leaders were kept aware of their progress.

A Category 4 storm with nearly 150-mph winds, Ida crashed into the Louisiana coast at Port Fourchon and then meandered slowly north, leaving a path of destruction  mostly from the churning winds  in its wake. Parts of Jefferson Parish, especially Grand Isle, Lafitte, and Kenner, were badly damaged, and a few areas, largely on the west bank around Nine Mile Point, Avondale and Westwego, were still without power Wednesday morning. Large piles of debris still line streets in many parts of the parish, and fetid garbage sits in cans in the stifling heat in many areas as well.

John Sullivan, president of DRC Emergency Services, the parish's debris removal contractor, said relief is in sight, but it won't be quick. The company is on schedule to have made its first, major pass for vegetative debris within the standard window of 30 days after the storm, he said. It will then begin a second pass for construction and demolition debris and then white goods, such as refrigerators or other appliances, he said.

"I really think after about two or three months it's going to look very, very normal around here," he said, noting Grand Isle and the southern parts of the parish might be an exception.

Council member Deano Bonano pointed to the debris pickup map provided on the parish's website by the debris monitoring contractor. Some of the districts show as white, which means debris pickup has not started in those zones.

"When can we expect to see trucks in those zones?" he asked Sullivan.

"Immediately," Sullivan responded. He pleaded with residents not to mix construction debris, even wooden items like fence boards and posts, with vegetative debris. When those items are mixed in, the current pickup pass will leave those piles because tree debris and the like are taken to a different place than construction debris, which has to go to the landfill.

Clay Richardson, regional manager of garbage collector Waste Connections, said there has been 57% more trash by weight in the days since the storm than normal, the equivalent of adding 50,000 more homes to the service area.

Richardson said that while there is still a lot of excess waste to collect, the company's trucks on the east bank are back running their regular schedules, so residents can expect pickup on their regular service days. The west bank may take a few more days before a normal schedule resumes.

He said Waste Connections trucks have been picking up as many white bags placed on top of and around cans as possible, but leaving ones that were deeply embedded in tree limbs or too heavy to lift because they were full of shingles.

Richardson said trucks belonging to Ramelli Waste, which is a subcontractor that services parts of Old Metairie and River Ridge, don't have GPS locators and video cameras. Council member Jennifer Van Vrancken said this needs to be addressed to make them more accountable. She said because people don't care whether they're being served by a subcontractor or not, they just know they're getting inferior service.

Bonano said the problem areas in his district are serviced by Ramelli, which did not have a representative at the council meeting. Reached by phone Wednesday afternoon, company owner Robert Ramelli said he had three extra trucks out running routes in Metairie and River Ridge. He said the company had done its regular routes but had been slower in getting to extra routes they had been asked to handle.

Some council members pushed back on assertions that certain Waste Connections areas had been serviced at least once, as the company has said.

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"There are quite a few streets that are not under the Ramelli subcontract, and if you roll the window down you will almost vomit from the stench, council member Dominick Impastato said.

He noted that the city of Kenner, which is serviced by IV Waste, has fared much better since the storm in terms of trash collection. "I haven't gotten a single complaint from the Kenner side of the district about trash pickup, because its done, he said.

Similarly, council member Byron Lee said many residents in Avondale, Waggaman, Marerro and particularly the Woodmere subdivision haven't had their trash picked up once since the storm.

"There's no excuse for not picking up trash in Woodmere," he said. "There are people who are being left behind, and I can't accept that."

River Birch, another Waste Connections subcontractor, picks up those west bank routes.

Television and internet providers AT&T and Cox Communications also came under scrutiny.

Asked by Impastato whether Cox has agreements to bring in outside contractors after storms, spokesperson Erin Monroe Wesley said the company does not, relying instead on Cox employees from other regions.

Bonano chided Cox for ending a news release by noting crews were on their way from points north a full 16 days after the storm. He said it has been a year since the parish asked Cox to provide a real-time outage map to the public like the ones Entergy has. Wesley said the company uses one internally but is still working on making one public.

Wesley said 27% of customers in Jefferson had their service back a week after the storm and 76% had it back two weeks after the storm. She said the vast majority of customers in Metairie should have all service back by the end of Wednesday, and Kenner by Sunday, saying power needs to come back on first before Cox can move in.

Impastato was not mollified.

Going forward, something bigs got to change, he said.

As for Waggaman, Avondale and the western reaches of the west bank, Wesley said it wouldn't be until the end of the week before Cox could give Lee an estimate on when service might be restored.

Council members praised Entergy for how quickly it got power restored and for making officials and information available during and after Ida. There was some criticism, however.

Bonano, for instance, disputed that a tornado or something close to it knocked the transmission tower down near Avondale, sending power lines into the Mississippi River. He said there is video of it rocking in the wind during the storm, and said it has been in deplorable condition for years.

The tower, he said, "was a bucket of rust from the very top to the very bottom, and that is the reason it collapsed.
Even before Hurricane Ida, the actor Wendell Pierce and residents of the Pontchartrain Park subdivision where he spent his formative years had been pushing plans to build an independent solar power grid and community center for the historic New Orleans neighborhood.

The storm, which left southeast Louisiana without commercial power for a prolonged period, exposed the vulnerability of the region's electricity infrastructure. It also showed how a lingering power outage threatens elderly residents in particular, with 12 of Ida's 28 deaths in Louisiana attributed to excessive heat in areas without air conditioning.

Though Pierce was far away at the time, shooting a third season of the Jack Ryan television series in Athens, Greece, he was acutely aware of the Aug. 29 storm's threat as he made arrangements to evacuate his 96-year-old father, Amos, from Pontchartrain Park. A decorated Army veteran, the elder Pierce made the 12-hour road trip from his home to Houston with two caregivers - only to find that the Hyatt House Hotel room Wendell Pierce had booked and paid for had been given away.

Pierce's fear and exasperation was clear from his all-caps "EMERGENCY" tweet in the wee hours of Aug. 29, seeking help finding his father an alternative place to stay as the hotel manager threatened to call security if they didn't leave. Pierce said the hotel subsequently made amends.

He said the ordeal gave him a new sense of urgency for the Pontchartrain Park project, the subject of meetings with neighborhood leaders shortly before the storm. He said they got backing from Mayor LaToya Cantrell's office to buy some public land for the project, and that both JP Morgan Chase bank and Entergy are weighing supporting the project.

"What Ida has done is highlight even more how important this should be and how this kind of forward thinking should be the norm and not an outlier or part of some zeitgeist," Pierce said in a phone interview from Athens. Having a community center with its own source of power could have been an alternative to evacuation, Pierce argues.

Gretchen Bradford, president of the Pontchartrain Park Neighborhood Association, agrees. "Had that already been in place, we would have been a community with the lights on after Ida came through," she said.

Pontchartrain Park has had experience with storms. Built in the 1950s as a neighborhood of about 1,000 homes targeted primarily at African-American veterans of World War II, it was a local symbol of the burgeoning Black middle class. In 2005, however, Hurricane Katrina and the federal levee failures put it under more than 20 feet of water.

Pierce recounted in a 2016 memoir how much the neighborhood had meant to him growing up and how determined he was to rebuild his parents' home. His ambitions grew in New Orleans' post-Katrina revitalization, and he set plans not only to rebuild 125 houses there but to make them state-of-the-art sustainable and energy-efficient homes, with geothermal and solar power sources and water catchment and abatement features.

He formed the non-profit Pontchartrain Park Community Development Corp. at the end of 2007 to take advantage of plans by the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority to contract developers who were prepared to revitalize the neighborhood. But those ambitions faltered over the years for lack of financing and other shortcomings, which led to lawsuits with former partners. The project's entanglement with First NBC Bank, which collapsed under the weight of a $1 billion fraud in 2017, also stalled its progress.

Brenda Breaux, executive director of the redevelopment authority, which is still in a legal dispute with Pontchartrain Park Community Development and has taken over dozens of its original development sites, said she doesn't doubt Pierce's sincerity.

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"They really cared about the community, but I believe the project was just a little over the development team's head," she said. "It's hard to do a project like that unless you're hands on and on the ground."

Entergy and others blasted by Black, Latina-owned news outlets for failing to support them When Donald Rouse Sr. apologized on WBOK radio earlier this month for attending the protest that led to a riot at the U.S. Capitol, a light bu

Still, she said she supports the idea of the community center and the independent solar grid in principle.

"I am a believer that once the community gets behind a project and finds a need and desire to get it done, it'll get done," Breaux said. "They can learn lessons from the original project, that to implement a project of this nature you have to have the right people committed and dollars behind it."

Pierce doesn't concede he was in over his head. He points to other successful affordable and mixed-use housing projects he's developed in California, in Baltimore and elsewhere.

+18 First New Orleans neighborhood designed for Black homeowners recognized as historic district Evelyn Martin, 84, now needs a wooden cane as she waters the flowers in front of the house that she and her husband Darchie Martin bought more

He said his local models for the new project are the New Orleans Jewish Community Center in Uptown, which offers a wide variety of community attractions such as education, a swimming pool and fitness center. For the solar component, he points to the St. Peter Apartments in Mid-City, which was developed by local non-profit SBP USA, formerly the St. Bernard Project.

Zack Rosenberg, who co-founded SBP, said the 50-unit St. Peter Apartments development set out to make a point about sustainability. "We wanted to disprove the notion that energy efficiency, resilience and affordability couldn't all come together," he said.

Designed by the Eskew Dumez Ripple architectural firm, the $7.4 million St. Peter Apartments has a community solar and battery system that aims to make the building the first in Louisiana to generate all of its own electricity. The current battery technology is limited to eight hours of power after sunny periods, less if cloudy.

During Hurricane Ida, St. Peter residents had about eight hours of electricity when the rest of the city had none from Entergy.

Elizabeth Egle, SBP's chief development officer, said SBP staff were able to migrate from offices next door to the communal space at St. Peter to carry on working during the blackout. Furthermore, she said, the residents have had several months since the building opened in 2020 with no Entergy bills to pay.

Rosenberg said Entergy, which has been a major source of investment for the nonprofit SBP since its inception 13 years ago, funded the solar project at St. Peter Apartments.

What's in it for the utility?

"I think it is kind of a social experiment to see how predictable is customer's behavior when you give them this kind of ownership," he said. "I think also they want to get the data." Companies such as Entergy, he said, see the writing on the wall and know that the old way of providing power is changing.

The story has been updated to reflect that the issue with the Hyatt House Hotel has been resolved.
MINNEAPOLIS  A man who escaped death row in Louisiana in 2012 after he was exonerated by DNA evidence for a murder he didnt commit has died of COVID-19.

Damon Thibodeauxs death earlier this month was so unfair, according to a Minneapolis attorney who worked to free Thibodeaux after 16 years behind bars, including 15 on death row, after he was convicted in the 1996 death of his 14-year-old step-cousin.

Im struggling to make peace with it, but you cant," said Steve Kaplan, the now-retired lawyer who helped clear Thibodeaux and assisted him in moving to Minnesota to restart his life.

Read Thibodeaux's obituary that ran in The Times-Picayune.

Thibodeaux, who eventually settled with his family in Texas, was a long-haul trucker who landed in Jacksonville, Florida hospital with the coronavirus in early August. That was a few days after getting his first vaccine shot against the virus. After three weeks in and out of intensive care, the 47-year-old Thibodeaux was expecting to come home.

Bro, Im ready to get out of this place and come home, he told his younger brother, David Thibodeaux, on the evening of Sept. 2. A few hours later, David's phone rang again with a doctor asking for permission to stop resuscitation on Damon after his lungs had collapsed and his heart had stopped, the Star Tribune reported.

My heart sunk, David said in an interview with the newspaper last week. I wasnt just being asked to let my brother go. Youre asking me let my best friend go.

+8 Former Death Row inmate Damon Thibodeaux must prove innocence for compensation, judge rules Damon Thibodeaux spent 15 years on Louisiana's Death Row, for killing a teenager in Bridge City, before Jefferson Parish's district attorney c

Growing up, the brothers endured abuse from their mothers ex-husband. Damon also was sexually abused by the man and later by another relative, a neighbor and eventually his grandfather. We shared a lot of hardships together, David said.

The Innocence Project mourns the loss of Damon Thibodeaux, an incredibly kind and gentle person, who spent 16 years wrongly imprisoned in Louisiana. He was the 142nd person exonerated from death row and was never compensated for his lost freedom. https://t.co/WxxBQjlGsv  The Innocence Project (@innocence) September 9, 2021

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Damon Thibodeaux was a 22-year-old deckhand on a Mississippi River barge in July 1996 when his 14-year-old step-cousin went missing while Thibodeaux was at her familys apartment. After the girls body was discovered along the river, Thibodeaux was subjected to a grueling interrogation that pushed him to confess to a crime he didnt commit. A year later he was sentenced to die.

Kaplan and others from the Minneapolis law firm Fredrikson and Byron helped prove Thibodeauxs innocence, noting that his confession didnt match the physical evidence, that witness statements were inconsistent and that DNA tests showed no connection between him and the murder. The district attorneys own expert concluded that Thibodeaux had falsely confessed to the crime

The conviction was overturned and he was set free in September 2012.

+9 Jefferson Parish sheriff asks federal judge to toss out former death row inmate's lawsuit The Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office has asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Damon Thibodeaux, the former Marrero resident wh

The lawyers who worked on his release said that rather than be angry and bitter about his path, Thibodeaux carried an easy smile along with optimism, kindness and grace.

He had an impact on everyone who had a privilege of knowing him, Kaplan said.

Read the BuzzFeed profile about Thibodeaux, who became a vocal advocate against wrongful convictions.
A man shot his girlfriend to death inside her Metairie home and fled to Mississippi where he was arrested earlier this week, according to the Jefferson Parish Sheriffs Office.

Investigators accuse John Pearson, 62, of fatally shooting 56-year-old Janell Ferrara at her place in the 1500 block of North Upland Avenue on Monday night.

Deputies discovered the slain woman after receiving a call from a family friend asking that they check on her because she had reason to fear for Ferraras safety, Sheriffs Office Capt. Jason Rivarde said Wednesday. Rivarde didnt elaborate, but he said deputies went to the home and found her dead.

JPSO opens homicide investigation after finding body in Metairie apartment, suspect taken into custody The body of a deceased female was found in a Metairie apartment Monday afternoon and a suspect has been taken into custody, the Jefferson Pari

An autopsy later revealed that Ferrara had died from a bullet wound to the chest, said Mark Bone, a spokesperson for the Jefferson Parish Coroner's Office.

Later Monday, members of the Mississippi Highway Patrol stopped Pearson driving through Pike County, just north of the Louisiana state line, Rivarde said. Pearson allegedly confessed to shooting and killing Ferrara, and he was booked into the Pike County jail as a fugitive from Jefferson Parish.

Deputies do not believe Monday was the first episode of domestic violence at Ferraras home, though none of the prior occasions had been reported to the Sheriffs Office, Rivarde said.

In Louisiana, the rate at which men kill women has been well above the national average for years, according to experts.

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Pearson remained in Pike Countys custody on Wednesday and faces a count of second-degree murder whenever he is transferred to Jefferson Parishs jail in Gretna, Rivarde added. [Update, Sept. 16, 2021: Pearson has been transferred to Jefferson Parish's jail, and his bail was set at $550,000.]

He would receive mandatory life imprisonment if convicted of murdering Ferrara.

It is unclear whether Pearson has hired an attorney, and attempts to contact Ferraras family on Wednesday were unsuccessful. The couple had been dating since at least July, a Facebook page under Pearsons name noted.

A GoFundMe.com page ostensibly set up by Ferrara's daughter-in-law to raise money for her funeral expenses says her survivors include four children and several grandchildren. During her free time, Ferrara would help feed homeless people and pray with them, an inscription on the page said.

The inscription added, She was such a loving and caring person (who) would give you her last.

+3 Metairie gas station killing could again test state's self-defense law: 'It's sad and horrible' It had been five days since Hurricane Ida disrupted power and led to hours long gas lines throughout southeast Louisiana, and 36-year-old Dway
Thousands of students returned to classrooms Monday and Tuesday across parts of the metro New Orleans area, more than two weeks after Hurricane Ida blew across southeast Louisiana and left schools and countless other buildings damaged and without power.

But while school officials are happy to mark another milestone as area struggles to return to its pre-Ida routine, they're also grappling with a problem: How to make up the time that students lost due to the hurricane.

Public schools in St. Tammany, St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes have reopened for the most part. Public schools in New Orleans will begin reopening Wednesday. And schools in Jefferson Parish will resume starting Sept. 20.

But in each of those districts, students will have to make up lost time. And it could be even more profound in St. Charles and St. John the Baptist parishes, where schools sustained greater damage and reopening timelines are much less clear.

Louisiana law dictates that students must receive at least 360 minutes of instructional time per day, as well as 177 days of instruction. But the state can waive days missed in times of crisis, including in a natural disaster certified by the state superintendent of education and approved by the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education."

After the devastation caused by Ida, school leaders expected that the state would waive the missed days. But state Education Superintendent Cade Brumley said in an interview last week that it was too early to waive the days, noting that students had already missed days due to the pandemic and that he wanted to prioritize in-person learning as much as possible. It is unclear if he has a deadline to waive the days.

Without the state waiver, schools will be left to decide how they will make up the missed days.

In St. Tammany Parish, students missed nine days. District spokesperson Meredith Mendez said 4.5 storm days were built into the district's calendar and 11 minutes will be added to each school day to make up the remaining 4.5 days. Adjustments to school calendars went into effect on Tuesday.

Brant Osborn, president of the St. Tammany Federation of Teachers, said that union members chose that option over others that included removing teacher in-service days, changing half days to full days and other tweaks.

The additional minutes would likely look different on each campus, he said. For example, high schools might shave off time allotted for students to change classes rather than have a later dismissal time.

Overall, teachers and administrators were adamant that scheduled holidays be left intact. Weve got to stop disrupting our teachers and our communities, he said.

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But with more than 10 weeks left in the 2021 hurricane season, the potential for missing more days remains a possibility. And teachers have raised concerns that adding 11 minutes to the school day only serves to fulfill a legal standard, rather than help students, he said.

We certainly believe that theres no replacing in-person instruction for children, Osborn said. We just feel attempts to magically make up two weeks of instructional time is just a fool's errand. Tacking 11 minutes or however many minutes is not truly replacing what cannot be replaced.

Osborn said local and state teachers union representatives met on Monday and planned to push Gov. John Bel Edwards to waive the missed days after the Louisiana Department of Education and the state Board of Education have declined to do so.

We could potentially lose more days, Osborn said. We need him to do the right thing.

Jefferson Parish public schools will reopen over a two-week period starting Sept. 20, though schools in Grand Isle and Lafitte, which were particularly battered by Ida, will remain closed indefinitely. The days missed due to Hurricane Ida exceeded the cushion of additional instructional minutes in the school calendar.

Our goal is to ensure children receive the benefits of a complete academic year, said Paris Vinnett, a spokesperson for Jefferson Parish schools. We will be in touch with families soon about our academic calendar as we continue to evaluate options to make up the days missed due to Hurricane Ida.

Taslin Alfonzo, a spokesperson for NOLA Public Schools, said that each school in the charter network sets its own calendar to meet the states instructional requirements and that the ways schools will make up instructional minutes will vary.

In the St. Bernard Parish, schools Superintendent Doris Voitier has proposed making up the missed days by using some professional development days that had been on the calendar and having class instead on those days, said Lexi Pritchard, a school district spokesperson. Regular holidays, including Thanksgiving and Christmas, would remain the same, she said. The proposal will come before the School Board at its next meeting.

We all just wanted a normal year but this is not a normal year, Osborn said.

Editor's note: This story was updated on Sept. 15 to reflect new information from St. Bernard Parish public schools.
As the opioid crisis spiraled in 2015, Dr. Adrian Dexter Talbot allegedly signed off on prescriptions to 81 different patients in a single day  most of them for pain medication with a "high potential for abuse."

Most general practitioners like Talbot are only able to see about 20 patients a day, according to a 2018 survey of American physicians by the Physicians Foundation.

A federal grand jury in New Orleans recently indicted Talbot, 55, on seven counts of illegal dispensation of controlled substances "not for a legitimate medical purpose." The indictment claims he illegally prescribed over a million doses of oxycodone, morphine and other opioids and defrauded health care benefit programs of $5.1 million from February 2015 to July 2018.

According to court documents, on that day in July 2015, Talbot signed his first prescription at the Alexandria Medical Center in Pineville at 8:53 a.m. At 4:21 p.m., he wrote a prescription for the last of the 66 patients he saw there that day. But over that same seven-hour span, eight of his 15 patients were billed for in-person office visits with him at his private primary care practice in Slidell, 200 miles away.

Prosecutors say Talbot pre-authorized opioid prescriptions for patients he didn't even examine, a federal offense.

According to the court documents, Talbot "largely stopped appearing onsite" at his Slidell office for a year and a half, instead ordering the unlicensed practitioners he employed there to receive and treat patients on his behalf.

On Jan. 5, 2015, according to the documents, Talbot's private practice, Medex Clinical Consultants Professional LLC, stopped accepting Medicare benefits, requesting that patients pay between $160 and $240 per visit in cash instead.

Otherwise, Medex allegedly began to accept Medicaid, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana and other private insurance, eventually collecting $5.1 million in fraudulent billings from then, prosecutors said.

Medex also kept unusual business hours, according to the documents, with patients visiting the clinic before 5 a.m., open doors at 7 a.m. and often closing before noon. Patients would allegedly leave as a group with prescriptions in-hand.

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From February 2015 to August 2016, Talbot signed 14,153 prescriptions for controlled substances at Medex, despite working full-time in Pineville, according to prosecutors.

In August of 2016, Talbot supposedly took a leave of absence from his position in Pineville and shortly after hired another physician who, according to court documents, started to work at Medex pre-signing prescriptions, sometimes blank.

Prosecutors say Talbot was unlicensed by Nov. 30, 2017, the year that prescription opioid-involved deaths peaked in the U.S. at 17,000, though he continued to write prescriptions for at least six more months.

In 2014, Talbot made an unsuccessful bid for St. Tammany coroner. One of two candidates endorsed by the St. Tammany Republican Parish Executive Committee, he placed third in a four-candidate race.

In addition to being a doctor, Talbot is a Navy veteran and holds a law degree.

The indictment says Talbot and his co-conspirators continued to prescribe addictive medication to their patients, ignoring "pleas and warnings from individuals family members and friends about individuals conditions or drug abuse; and self-reporting by individuals suggesting their medication regimens were too strong or self-reporting abuse of alcohol and drugs."

Talbot was officially charged with one count each of conspiracy to unlawfully distribute and dispense controlled substances, maintaining a drug-involved premises and conspiracy to commit health care fraud, as well as four counts of unlawfully distributing and dispensing controlled substances.

Efforts to reach Talbot for comment were unsuccessful.

If convicted, Talbot would face up to 10 years in prison for conspiracy to commit health care fraud and up to 20 years each for all other counts.
Parking restrictions in New Orleans have been lifted as torrential rains continue from Tropical Depression Nicholas.

Residents can park on the neutral ground but they should not block intersections, streetcar tracks, sidewalks or bike paths. The restrictions are lifted at least until noon Thursday, officials said.

Tropical Depression Nicholas could drop up to 10 inches of rain on metro New Orleans through Friday, hurricane forecasters said. The increased rain chances will stick around into early next week.

Flash flood warning for New Orleans East, north shore

On the north shore, street flooding has been reported as of 8:30 a.m., but St. Tammany Parish spokesman Michael Vinsanau described it as minor. He did not say how many roads were flooded or how deep the water was.

A flash flood warning is in effect for St. Tammany Parish, Washington Parish and part of New Orleans East until 1:15 p.m.

As of 11 a.m., forecasters said thunderstorms were producing heavy rainfall and water was covering multiple roads. Between 2 inches and 5.5 inches of rain have fallen, they said.

Another 1 to 3 inches of rain are possible in the warned area, which includes:

New Orleans

Slidell

Bogalusa

Covington

Franklinton

Pearl River

Abita Springs

Varnado

Madisonville

Folsom

Sun

Bush

Enon

Lacombe

Mount Herman

Pearlington

Angie

Slidell Airport

Interstate 10 in Louisiana between mile markers 261 and 272

Interstate 12 between mile markers 53 and 84

Interstate 59 in Louisiana between mile markers 1 and 11

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Flash flood watch in effect

A flash flood watch is in effect for much of south Louisiana until Thursday morning.

A watch means conditions are favorable for flooding. It does not mean flooding will occur, but it is possible. A warning is issued when flash flooding is imminent or occurring.

Officials warned that debris from Hurricane Ida could block storm drains, so flooding could occur more easily than usual.

Residents should check and clear their catch basins and gutters, officials said, and stay off the roads when a round of heavy rainfall is moving through.

Can't see radar below? See live weather updates here.

Staff writers Sara Pagones and Emma Discher contributed to this story.

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After Hurricane Ida, Bridget McDowell tarped the damaged roof of her raised brick house in the University City neighborhood of Kenner, emptied her fridge and dried her wet clothes.

But as Tropical Storm Nicholas lashed south Louisiana with rain on Tuesday, water dripped into the house again. She raced home to supervise her brother-in-law as he nailed down tarps. There wasnt enough time to wait for the rain to pass.

Everything was cleaned and washed, and then this happens, said McDowell. Whats the next storm?

Much of south Louisiana wondered the same as Nicholas drenched a state devastated by Hurricane Ida. While nowhere near the strength of Ida, Tropical Storm Nicholas complicated south Louisianas fragile recovery on Tuesday by delaying repair work, grounding linemen and dumping water on leaky roofs.

+2 Corps' Blue Roof program off to a slow start, but officials promise pace will pick up Temporary tarps fluttered on roofs across southeast Louisiana on Sunday, makeshift patches for the holes left by Hurricane Ida two weeks ago.

Nicholas made landfall as a hurricane in Texas early Tuesday before weakening. It is expected to produce additional rainfall amounts of 5 to 10 inches across portions of southern and central Louisiana, and along the Mississippi and Alabama coast and western Florida panhandle through early Friday. Storm totals of 20 inches are also possible from southern Louisiana to the far western Florida panhandle, said Stacy Stewart, a senior hurricane specialist with the National Hurricane Center.

By Wednesday morning, Nicholas is forecast to weaken further to a tropical depression, with winds of only 30 mph, and continue to weaken with sustained winds of only 25 mph by mid-day Thursday, when it will still be half way between Lake Charles and Lafayette. It will then turn north and dissipate early Friday before reaching Alexandria.

FEMA deadline for applications and critical needs after Hurricane Ida extended The deadline for residents who suffered damage or need emergency assistance after Hurricane Ida to apply for FEMA aid has been extended, accor

For many people in south Louisiana, the storm was another headache on top of two weeks of power and gas outages, heat advisories and rotting garbage. On Aug. 29-30, Ida bowled over the state, damaging up to 80,000 roofs and knocking the power out for 902,000 Entergy customers.

Now Nicholas could complicate restoring power to the 84,000 customers who remain without electricity.

Entergy typically asks customers to pay for hurricane damage. Could that change after Ida? After New Orleans was left in the dark for days following Hurricane Ida, City Council members are now searching for ways to force Entergy, rat

Were currently working to maintain any communicated restoration times, but the weather could play a part in that, said Brandon Scardigli, a spokesman for the utility.

Some linemen returned to their homes in Texas to help with repair work there, but Scardigli said the utility minimized the impact of their loss by holding onto other out-of-state linemen longer than originally planned.

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And so far, Nicholas itself has caused relatively little damage to the grid. About 12,000 Entergy customers in Louisiana lost power on Tuesday, but the number of outages dropped to 5,000 over the course of the day.

With the storm expected to continue drenching the state with rain, many homeowners were far more concerned about their roofs.

The governments program for emergency tarps, Operation Blue Roof, is off to a slow start. As of Saturday, only a little over 100 of the heavy-duty roof covers were in place, out of requests from 50,000 homes.

+7 Demand for roofers, repair work soars after Hurricane Ida strikes Louisiana: 'Its sunup to sundown' Yusuf Hasan leaned against his truck and wrung the sweat out of a red handkerchief on Monday during a break from nailing shingles into a damag

Instead, many residents have sought help from roofers -- to varying degrees of success -- or have done the job themselves. In the first days after Ida, tarps were hard to find, although they have since become more available. One Kenner man said he simply unwrapped the same blue tarp he used after Hurricane Katrina.

In the Covington Country Club neighborhood in St. Tammany, Sarah Cottrell said she felt desperate in the days after a water oak sliced off the front of her home during Ida.

After dodging shady, out-of-state contractors, she found a reputable roofer who installed the tarp on Labor Day.

Until we got the tarp on, we were so stressed with the whole thing. Were one of the lucky ones," she said.

But not everyones luck held during the first major day of rain from Nicholas. As her brother-in-law clambered over her roof, McDowell rattled off the estimates she's received for a permanent repair, ranging from $5,400 to $19,000. She was frustrated that she has yet to hear back from Operation Blue Roof.

A few blocks down West Louisiana State Drive, homeowner Demetris Robinson felt the same way. She caught the rainwater dripping into her kitchen with a big silver gumbo pot as family friend Robert Tuckson affixed a tarp for the second time since Hurricane Ida. The first one didnt hold, so Tuckson, 61, did the latest job in the rain. Inside, Robinson's flip-flops slapped against the water collecting on her tile floors.

Robinson, a 55-year-old bus driver for St. Charles Parish schools, said she was upset with the government and her insurance company alike. She is staying at a friends house because she worries the mold on her walls will make her sick. But her 36-year-old son and 17-year-old grandson are sleeping in the house because no hotel will allow their dog.

When it rained Sunday, the water didnt come in here. But today, Nicholas must be blowing it in from Texas, she said. Ive gotta get it fixed up. Cant nobody live like this here.

Staff writers Mark Schleifstein, Sara Pagones and Faimon Roberts contributed to this story.
As Tropical Storm Nicholas drenched the north shore Wednesday, parts of St. Tammany Parish saw minor street flooding, exacerbated in some cases by piles of debris from Hurricane Ida.

Contractors have begun picking up the debris piles that began sprouting across the parish in the days after the hurricane's Aug. 29 landfall, and officials say that they are pleased with the progress that's being made.

But now, the piles of vegetation, shingles, debris from homes and flood-ruined appliances are getting a thorough soaking from bands of rain spawned by Tropical Storm Nicholas, which was forecast to dump as much as 20 inches across the southern part of the state over several days.

"We are asking folks to check catch basins around their property to assure that they are clear," Slidell Mayor Greg Cromer said Tuesday. "The biggest concern is more debris getting into the system and creating blockages."

Gause Boulevard in Slidell had some flooding early Wednesday that Cromer attributed to a "little bit of both" rain and debris.

And Covington Mayor Mark Johnson also noted some street flooding Wednesday that he said was caused by debris that public works crews later removed.

Across St. Tammany, contractors are facing huge piles of debris lining roads and driveways. Ida brought fierce winds that took down trees and utility poles stripped shingles from roofs and pushed a storm surge that flooded structures in coastal areas.

Slidell's debris contractor, Coastal Environmental Services of Louisiana, is focusing on major local thoroughfares, and then will move to all residential streets, city engineer Blaine Clancy said Tuesday.

As of last week, 25,000 cubic yards had been removed from Slidell, according to Cromer, who did not yet have numbers for this week.

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"I believe it is going pretty well, maybe not as fast as folks would like, but overall pretty well," Cromer said.

The city hopes to have all the debris picked up within 30 days so that FEMA will cover the entire cost, although Cromer said Tropical Storm Nicholas might result in an extension.

In unincorporated St. Tammany, DRC Emergency Services, the parish's debris contractor, had picked up 45,000 cubic yards of debris as of Monday, parish government spokesperson Michael Vinsanau said. Vinsanau said the goal is to finish collecting debris by Sept. 28.

The contractor is determining the schedule but has been told what areas have significant needs based on information from parish engineering and public works, whose personnel have driven parish roads to assess debris piles, Vinsanau said. He could not provide further details.

In the city of Covington, 18,000 cubic yards of an estimated 200,000 cubic yards had been picked up as of Monday, Johnson said, and the contractor, Ceres Environmental Services, is focusing on places where debris piles are creating narrow passages on streets.

In Mandeville, which is also using Ceres, the contractor's crews had picked up 23,432 cubic yards as of Monday, Mayor Clay Madden said. The city has been carved into zones for pickup, but there is not set schedule.

The goal is to have all debris removed in four to six weeks, Madden said.

"We have added trucks every day since staring with 12 teams last Tuesday (Sept. 7). We are now at about 25," Madden said. "If they have not been to an area yet, they will be there soon. But there is no set schedule."
The city of New Orleans collected $466,671 through a special French Quarter sales tax in the first six months of the year, even though the tax expired at the end of 2020, according to records obtained by The Lens. Now it appears the city wont be able to use a dime.

There is absolutely no way we can ever spend this money, City Hall analyst Eric Smith said. And its unfortunate that it was collected by businesses and remitted to the city.

The tax, sometimes known as quarter for the Quarter, was a 0.25% sales tax applied to French Quarter businesses from 2016 until it expired last December. The tax was levied by the French Quarter Economic Development District  a state-created agency governed by the New Orleans City Council  and collected by the city on its behalf. The tax was used exclusively to fund Louisiana State Police patrols in the Vieux Carre and surrounding area.

French Quarter residents voted to reinstate the tax through an April ballot measure that authorized the tax to begin on July 1. But due to a series of disagreements between the city and the French Quarter Management District  the state-created board that was supposed to manage the tax revenue under the language in the ballot initiative  officially sanctioned collections wont happen until October.

In the interim, it appears that some French Quarter businesses have continued to erroneously collect the tax from customers and remit the money to the city.

This is a matter of extreme concern for the French Quarter Business Association, Executive Director Brittany Mulla McGovern said during a Monday meeting of the French Quarter Management District.

McGovern, who also sits on the board, said the issue came across her radar in August when the city hand-delivered an invoice to one French Quarter business indicating that it owed proceeds from the expired tax.

We reached out to the finance department and they assured us this was a segregated case of a business being invoiced for an expired tax, McGovern said.

While the invoice may have been an isolated incident, some businesses have continued to collect the tax. McGovern argued that the city is to blame for failing to notify businesses that the tax was expiring and for continuing to list the tax on a form filled out by businesses when they remit taxes.

To the best of our knowledge, the City of New Orleans never notified businesses within the FQEDD boundaries to cease collection, McGovern told The Lens in August.

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In response to those concerns, Mayor LaToya Cantrells spokesperson Beau Tidwell said the city had, in fact, notified businesses. But the notification he pointed to was a news release issued on June 30, six months after the tax expired. The news release wasnt about the expiration of the previous tax; it was about the delayed collection of the new one.

Smith said that initially, there was some confusion in December about whether the responsibility to inform businesses fell to the city or the FQEDD.

I think thats kind of where the miscommunication originated from, Smith said.

Its unclear what will happen to the funds now. The money cannot simply be returned to the businesses, Smith said.

The problem is that if a business collects a tax, they are then legally obligated to remit it to the city because otherwise businesses could just decide to collect whatever they want, he said.

He said that customers could apply for refunds if they had itemized receipts. But given the small amount, that may be unlikely. The tax only added a quarter to a $100 bill.

Obviously it would be very difficult for customers to get a refund, Smith said.

He said for now, the city is segregating the funds to make sure they arent spent. Smith said he wasnt entirely clear on what will eventually happen to the funds, but said that they might eventually go to the state as unclaimed property.
If you applied for FEMA assistance following Hurricane Ida but received a letter saying you don't qualify or your application was still under consideration, you can appeal.

Here's everything you need to know before appealing the decision, according to FEMA:

FEMA deadline for applications and critical needs after Hurricane Ida extended The deadline for residents who suffered damage or need emergency assistance after Hurricane Ida to apply for FEMA aid has been extended, accor

You have 60 days to contest the decision

If you believe you were denied aid in error, you have 60 days from the date on the determination letter you received to submit an appeal.

Thoroughly read through the letter

Before you can contest FEMA's decision, you need to understand why they denied your application. Generally, FEMA denies applications because information was missing, so gaining approval may be as simple as including additional details about yourself and your primary residence.

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Include substantial evidence with your appeal

It's not enough for you to write that you believe your claim was denied in error and request reconsideration, FEMA says. The appeal must be compelling for FEMA to re-evaluate distributing aid. Additional documentation is usually beneficial to those petitioning for appeals. Make sure to include: A copy of the determination letter you received Any information FEMA specifies in the determination letter Insurance letters: "Your insurance company might give you just a fraction of what you need to repair your home, not enough to help you get into another place, or not enough to replace certain belongings," FEMA says. Because the government won't pay for something insurance is already covering, they need proof of what money you're receiving from other sources. Proof of occupancy: In order for FEMA to grant assistance, they have to know the property you're appealing for is your primary residence. Past utility bills, your driver's license, school documents, etc. can all be used to prove that. Proof of ownership: "Mortgage or insurance documents; tax receipts or a deed; receipts for major repairs or improvements dating as far back as 2016; a mobile home park letter or a court document," are acceptable forms of documentation, FEMA lists.



If any of the documentation you need to include in your appeal was lost or destroyed during the natural disaster, visit https://www.usa.gov/replace-vital-documents for information on how to replace vital documents.

Once all the steps above have been completed, sign and date your letter then mail, fax or upload it to FEMA.

Mail: FEMA National Processing Service Center, P.O. Box 10055, Hyattsville, MD 20782-8055

Fax: 800-827-8112, Attention: FEMA

Upload: www.DisasterAssistance.gov

After you've fully submitted your appeal letter, FEMA says you might receive a call or letter asking for additional details or they could schedule another inspection. A decision should be reached 90 days after your appeal is received.

Thursday, Oct. 28. is the deadline to apply for FEMA disaster assistance. Questions can be directed to the FEMA Helpline at 800-621-3362 (TTY 800-462-7585).
Gary Gensler, the Securities and Exchange Commission chair, will testify before the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday, after five months on the job. Based on his prepared remarks, hell make the case for additional resources to achieve a more expansive agenda than many of his predecessors at the commission.

Since his confirmation, Mr. Genslers public statements have generated much debate, many headlines and more than a few market movements, the DealBook newsletter reports. Heres what to expect on Tuesday on some hot-button issues:

Mr. Gensler wants to freshen up the rules. To promote efficiency and competition, hes considering structural issues, like whether there is too much concentration among market makers, and conflicts of interest, like those arising from payment for order flow. Speeding up transaction settlements, which now take about two business days, is also a goal he notes in his remarks, and one that Republican senators want him to pursue, a committee aide said.

When it comes to cryptocurrencies, buyers beware. Mr. Gensler will say that the new digital currency markets resemble a time before securities laws: He wants more investor protection in crypto finance, issuance, trading and lending.

Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, who has been outspoken about regulatory gaps in the crypto industry, will follow up on those concerns, an aide said. Senator Cynthia Lummis, Republican of Wyoming, will also press Mr. Gensler for regulation, but with an emphasis that reflects her support of the crypto industry. We must have a balanced legal framework for digital assets that enables innovation and protects consumers, she told DealBook in a statement.
You clearly care about your cat. I say: Why not keep her? PETA, for one, says that cats can live happy lives indoors. You have your doubts about how she (and you) will fare if shes kept in the house. So explore the options available to you. You can get her to do less damage indoors by the use of scratching posts, by keeping her claws trimmed and by various forms of training. If you want her to spend time outside, you can try to accustom her to a harness and see if you can train her to walk on a leash. If you have the space, you can create an enclosed catio. And if you feel you must let her out alone, you can at least equip her with something like a neoprene CatBib or a rufflike Birdsbesafe collar, devices that seem to reduce bird predation; a bell might help, too. There are many threats to the bird population  not least habitat loss related to poor land management, industrial agriculture and, of course, climate change. Keeping our cuddly carnivores from roaming outdoors is only part of the solution, but this one is right in our laps.

While visiting my hometown, a disturbing scene between a relatives husband and their very young daughter repeatedly unfolded before my eyes. The daughter had a slight cold and did not want to take the over-the-counter medicine that her father was trying to administer, so he laid her down on the kitchen counter (in front of the entire family) and proceeded to jam the medicine into her mouth using an oral syringe. The child was clearly distressed and tried to fight off her father, who would not relent until she took the medicine. Another relative offered to take the child upstairs to calm her down so that she would take the medicine. The childs mother sharply responded, Hes handling it. This same scene played out again a few hours later.

I had never witnessed anything like this in my family and was completely shocked. My other relative told me that the father verbally bullies his daughter when she wont eat her meals, pressuring her to eat, after which the defenseless child sometimes vomits. Food that is left over from dinner routinely shows up in her lunch the next day and apparently is not eaten.

During this same visit, the childs father shared with members of our family some examples of aggressive parenting that he endured from his own parents, and its clear that he is passing along this legacy. Even more disturbing is that the childs mother, who did not grow up in an aggressive household, is going along with it. There are other examples of what they may consider tough love that Ive heard about that demonstrate a lack of empathy and sensitivity, and which seem unnecessary and just plain mean.

Im deeply concerned about the well-being of the child, who is an intelligent, sweet little girl. Ive discussed this with the other relative whose advice and offers to help are summarily rejected. Should I leverage my relationship with the mother, with whom I am very close, and discuss this with her? It feels wrong to do and say nothing. Name Withheld
Batiste, a former gang member, was the subject of a 2017 profile in The Wall Street Journal. Ive been a drug dealer, Ive been a thug, a hustler, Batiste said. Around the time of his death, hed been working in his community to prevent more gang violence. He was 54. Los Angeles suffered a 28 percent jump in murders from 2019 to 2020, according to The Marshall Project. This year is likely to be worse.

In Portland, Ore., a couple of weeks ago, there were nine separate shootings in the course of just 16 hours. Nobody was killed, but two people were badly injured.

Portland suffered 16 homicides in 2016, 25 in 2017, 26 in 2018, 35 in 2019 and 57 in 2020. As of Sept. 1, with 62 homicides and 830 shootings, the city has smashed previous records. Victims have been disproportionately Black. In 2020, 145 police officers either resigned or retired from the Portland Police Bureau.

In the Brooklyn neighborhood of East New York last month, Wayne Washington, 25, was killed after being shot multiple times in the chest, and a 19-year-old woman sustained a bullet injury in her torso. Several hours later, a burst of gunfire in the same neighborhood resulted in the deaths of two more men and the injury of three others.

East New York, home of the 75th Precinct, was once one of New Yorks most violent neighborhoods, registering more than 100 homicides in a year. By 2018, the rate had come down nearly to zero, a fact I celebrated in a column called Joe Biden: Be Proud of Your Crime Bill. That was the 1994 bill that intended to fund 100,000 additional cops, built more prisons, demanded tougher sentences and imposed a federal ban on assault weapons.

For all of its shortcomings (and there were plenty), the bill, I wrote, moved America in the right direction: of more policing and tougher enforcement and a powerful refusal to continue defining criminal deviancy down in the face of those who said we just had to take it.

Rereading that column feels like opening a time capsule from a bygone era, when American cities were generally safe. Today, you can drive down just about any street in a liberal neighborhood and see lawn signs or posters proclaiming that Black Lives Matter, sometimes alongside a picture of George Floyd.
Even with boosters, though, the United States, Britain, European nations and others could satisfy their own needs and still have an estimated 1.2 billion excess doses by the end of the year. The United States, for its part, has either donated or pledged about 600 million doses to other countries, which the Biden administration is quick to point out exceeds any other countrys commitment. But only 115 million of those doses have actually been donated, or about 1 percent of the 11 billion doses the world needs.

Were patting ourselves on the back for doing the bare minimum and doing more than any other country, but thats not a great mark, Matthew Rose, the head of U.S. policy at the Health Global Access Project, told The Washington Post. If everyones failing, then were all failing together. Were just the head of the people failing.

Covax has also suffered from administrative and logistical problems. In Chad, for example, the program delivered 100,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in June, but five weeks later only 6,000 of them had been administered. Like many countries, Chad cannot move Pfizer doses outside major cities because of demanding storage requirements.

The vaccine pileup illustrates one of the most serious but largely unrecognized problems facing the immunization program as it tries to recover from months of missteps and disappointments: difficulty getting doses from airport tarmacs into peoples arms, Mueller and Rebecca Robbins reported for The Times last month.

It hasnt helped that bureaucratic barriers imposed by Covaxs leadership have held up the disbursement of $220 million for countries to buy freezers. Nor has it helped that the Biden administration is funding its donation of doses by diverting hundreds of millions of dollars promised for vaccination drives in poorer nations. That has left countries with even fewer resources to transport doses to clinics, train people to administer shots and persuade people to get them.

What to watch for

To vaccinate the global population quickly, Biden and other leaders of rich countries will have to take these four key steps, argues Seth Berkley, the chief executive of the nonprofit organization that leads Covax:

Honor promises to donate doses now: Of the 600 million doses pledged to Covax so far, only 100 million have been delivered. More is needed, he says, and soon.

Enforce transparency: Covax has agreements with vaccine manufacturers for more than four billion doses, but it has often faced delays in getting them  potentially because manufacturers are giving preferential treatment to countries that have signed their own deals.

Make global vaccine access the first priority: Countries with pending orders for doses that they do not need should allow Covax to take their place in line.

Provide financial and technical support: Strengthening national health systems in lower-income countries to get shots into arms will not only help end the pandemic sooner but also leave in place systems that can be used to guard against future global health threats.

As the global supply of vaccines swells to meet demand over the coming months, Udayakumar, the Duke doctor, believes the fourth step may prove the toughest. Were nowhere near having the capacity in most low- and middle-income countries to be able to ramp up vaccinations at scale, he said. Thats not an excuse to keep supply away, but it should be a sign that we need to do more in terms of building capacity, so that every country is ready to ramp up vaccination as the supply is available.

Do you have a point of view we missed? Email us at debatable@nytimes.com. Please note your name, age and location in your response, which may be included in the next newsletter.
Kristin and Matt Collins, a couple from Annapolis, Md., were standing in line at the Richard Rodgers Theater on the reopening night of Hamilton with two extra tickets to give to anyone who wanted them.

A few feet away, Chris Graham and Addie Trivers, two musical theater students, were standing watching all the opening-night excitement, wishing they could afford tickets for the show inside.

Then Collins approached the two college juniors and asked if they might want to see Hamilton tonight. Yes, in fact, they did.

Either hes telling the truth or were being kidnapped, said Trivers, who used to go from theater to theater asking for cheap tickets before the pandemic, and either way Im going with him.
About six months ago, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, the creator of the play Lackawanna Blues, asked a friend to open a vacant theater for him.

I just needed that  to sit in the seats, to walk on the stage, Santiago-Hudson said in an interview this week. For the past 50 or so years, Ive had some time every year in the theater: to see a play, to be in a play, to direct a play, to write a play. All of a sudden that was taken away.

On Tuesday, Santiago-Hudson got to return to theater in a big way: Lackawanna Blues  which he wrote and directed, and in which he plays every part  began previews on Broadway, in a Manhattan Theater Club production at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater on West 47th Street.

The play, which was first presented Off Broadway in 2001, and adapted into a television movie in 2005, is a reminiscence of Santiago-Hudsons youth near Buffalo, and is centered on the character of Nanny, who ran a boardinghouse and imparted strength and morality to generations around her.
The red velvet seats at the Brooks Atkinson Theater on West 47th Street were covered by tech tables of computers, cables and consoles operated by designers, directors and stage managers. An audience was not due until the first preview on Friday night.

But the anticipation was nevertheless high for a dress rehearsal of Six, the British musical dreamed up by two college students that imagines the wives of Henry VIII as pop stars.

In one of the more poignant examples of the pandemics toll on the theater, the musicals opening night turned out to be its closing night instead: The show had been scheduled to open March 12, 2020, the day Broadway shut down.

Now Six will find out if the loss of 18 months has cost the show any momentum; its original opening had been buoyed by advance sales, multiple productions, a hugely popular soundtrack and fans who had been following the show since its 2017 premiere at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Recalls in California date back more than a century, to a suite of reforms passed from 1910 to 1913 under Gov. Hiram Johnson, a Republican and progressive crusader. They were the capstone of a yearslong effort to curb the political power of the Southern Pacific railroad, which all but owned the states government and economy, controlling politicians, judges and regulators.

Mr. Johnsons reforms broke the hold, overhauling the states election system and, through a constitutional amendment passed by voters in 1911, instituting the system of referendums, ballot initiatives and the recall. Kevin Starr, a California historian who died in 2017, called this the very re-creation of the political and social order of California.

It is often pointed out that Mr. Johnsons reforms  tools that were explicitly created to curb the influence of big business on Californias politics  have now become a major corporate weapon. This is particularly true of initiatives, which can be put on the ballot with a few million dollars worth of clipboard-holding workers gathering signatures from registered voters.

One recent example was Proposition 22, a $200 million initiative by the ride-sharing companies Uber and Lyft to prevent their drivers from being classified as employees.

That is the bigger problem here, said Jim Newton, a historian and lecturer on public policy at the University of California, Los Angeles, who has written biographies of the governors Earl Warren and Jerry Brown.

Its not whether Gavin Newsom gets 51 percent or we have Gov. Larry Elder. Thats important, but the general premise that the initiative, referendum and recall are intended to curb the influence of powerful special interests has been tipped entirely on its head and it has now become the tool of special interests.

Erwin Chemerinsky, a constitutional law expert and the dean of the School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley, argued that the states recall process is unconstitutional because the two-step nature of the process  with voters deciding whether to recall the sitting governor and then, separately, choosing a replacement  makes it possible for a new governor to take office with less popular support than the old one.
LOS ANGELES  Campaigning together on Monday, President Biden and Gov. Gavin Newsom celebrated California, the countrys most diverse state, as a potent example of multiracial democracy in action.

On the other side of the aisle, issues of race and diversity are similarly at the core of the message being put before voters by Larry Elder, the Republican radio host who is the leading contender to replace Mr. Newsom.

His message is that the United States long ago vanquished racism.

Mr. Elders choice of a campaign stop on Monday in Monterey Park, a city in eastern Los Angeles County that is predominantly Asian American and has a sizable Latino population, seemed intended to celebrate diversity. But Mr. Elder, who is Black, also used the visit to argue that systemic racism, which he has called a lie, does not exist in America anymore.

No matter what language we speak, what color we share, even what political stripe we brag about, Betty Chu, the former mayor of Monterey Park, told Mr. Elders supporters, If its an R, a D, or decline to state, the city long stood for anti-hate and bringing people together.
Besides this effort to recall Gov. Newsom, only one other attempted recall of a California governor, Gray Davis, has ever reached an election. And California is the only place where a recall of a governor has made the ballot twice. So how does the process work?

A recall petition must be signed by enough registered voters to equal 12 percent of the turnout in the last election for governor. The organizers do not need to give a reason for the recall, but they often do. The petition must include at least 1 percent of the last vote for the office in at least five counties. Proponents have 160 days to gather their signatures.

The signatures must then be examined and verified by the California secretary of state. If the petitions meet the threshold  1,495,709 valid signatures in this case  voters who signed have 30 business days to change their minds.
Although Mr. Newsoms critics had started the recall because they opposed his stances on the death penalty and immigration, it was the politicization of the pandemic that propelled it onto the ballot as Californians became impatient with shutdowns of businesses and classrooms. In polls, Californians said no issue was more pressing than the virus.

As a health care worker, it was important to me to have a governor who follows science, said Marc Marino, 26, who was dressed in blue scrubs as he dropped off his ballot in Irvine.

The Associated Press called the race for Mr. Newsom, who had won in a 62 percent landslide in 2018, less than an hour after the polls closed on Tuesday. About 66 percent of the eight million ballots counted by 10 p.m. Pacific time said the governor should stay in office.

It appears that we are enjoying an overwhelmingly no vote tonight here in the state of California, but no is not the only thing that was expressed tonight, Mr. Newsom told reporters late Tuesday.

We said yes to science. We said yes to vaccines. We said yes to ending this pandemic. We said yes to peoples right to vote without fear of fake fraud and voter suppression. We said yes to womens fundamental constitutional right to decide for herself what she does with her body, her fate, her future. We said yes to diversity.
WASHINGTON  The Justice Department has opened an investigation into allegations of unconstitutional abuses of prisoners in Georgia, a sweeping civil rights inquiry that could force the state to carry out a federally mandated overhaul.

The department also separately limited whether and how federal law enforcement officers can use tactics that have been widely criticized for their role in the deaths of Black people at the hands of the local police, including neck restraints like chokeholds and unannounced searches for evidence.

The moves, announced on Tuesday, broadly address issues of violence in law enforcement and incarceration that have become a rallying point for criminal justice advocates and led to protests and civil unrest around the country.

The Georgia investigation was prompted by documentation of violence in prisons across the state. During a riot last year at Ware State Prison that played out on social media, hundreds of inmates took over the building, set fires and took guards hostage, resulting in damage and myriad injuries.
And after her grandmother went downstairs to try to understand what Ms. Agins was talking about and saw the body? Well, Ms. Agins explained that shed actually captured the murder on film. Her grandmother, terrified, took the camera away.

I didnt see that camera for, like, two or three months, Ms. Agins said. But for her, it was a defining moment: a realization that news photography could provide evidence and tell important stories in Black, working-class neighborhoods like her own.

Ms. Agins, 68, is now one of the longest-serving staff photographers at The New York Times, having started in 1989. Her body of work is set to be honored this fall at the Photoville Festival in New York. The retrospective, created in partnership with Ms. Aginss colleagues at The Times, will reflect on an immense body of work  and acknowledge the fact that, as one of the first Black photographers at The Times, she served as an emissary for the paper in a way that few Black journalists of previous generations had the opportunity to do. Much like pioneers such as Don Hogan Charles, the first Black photographer hired by The Times, Ms. Agins has spent much of her career documenting Black stories and offering readers a glimpse into Black American life in a way they had never been granted before.

I like historic storytelling, because our history sometimes disappears, she said. We forget about people unless theyre getting shot down or hurt. I want to bring people into the forefront before any of that stuff happens.
Jaap van Zweden, the New York Philharmonics hard-charging music director, announced on Wednesday that he would leave his post at the end of the 2023-24 season, saying that the pandemic had made him rethink his life and priorities.

Van Zweden, 60, said in an interview that the upheaval of the pandemic had prompted him to reconsider his relationship with the orchestra, which he has led since 2018, as well as with his family, which he rarely got to see during his globe-trotting days before the Covid crisis. He said he felt it would be the right moment to move on, with the orchestra set to return to the newly renovated David Geffen Hall next fall, a year and a half ahead of schedule.

It is not out of frustration, its not out of anger, its not out of a difficult situation, he said. Its just out of freedom.

His announcement comes as the Philharmonic faces a series of challenges that have only grown more complicated as it tries to recover from the pandemic: The orchestra is homeless this season, playing at venues around the city while its longtime home is under construction, and hopes to make a triumphal return to a transformed hall next season.
Letterman proved to be a key figure in Macdonalds career, a champion of the stand-ups work (the talk-show host said no one was funnier) who booked the comic on his shows final week. Macdonald, breaking from his trademark acerbic style, ended on a surprisingly moving tribute, displaying an emotional side that usually only lurked under the surface of his comedy.

In a column from 2017, I argued that what distinguished Macdonalds comedy was his sensitivity to language, his peculiarly poetic brand of plain talk. He made stylish turns of phrase and folksy flourishes seem conversational and offhand. A lover of Bob Dylan, Macdonald was also a sponge for influences, borrowing and repurposing figures of speech or unusual words to create funny-sounding sentences.

But describing him as merely a master of joke writing misses his quickness, wryly deadpan delivery and, most of all, a unique level of commitment. He did not bail out of jokes and never pandered. You see this in his Bob Saget roast: the conviction to push through despite the confusion of the response. He pleased the crowd without being a crowd-pleaser. And no one had a nimbler and more assured sarcastic voice, which he used to find humor in ambiguity. There was a wonderfully odd moment on David Spades talk show a few years ago when Macdonald told Jay Leno he was maybe the best talk-show host ever, and no one, including Leno, seemed to be able to tell if he was being sincere.

Theres a lot of fun to be had in this liminal space between earnestness and just kidding. One of Macdonalds most impressive feats is writing an entire memoir that remains there. Its one of the greatest comedian memoirs but also a pointedly frustrating mix of fact and fiction, cliche and originality. Its very funny, sometimes tedious, occasionally wise. The title, Based on a True Story, isnt just a gag. Its rooted in his faith that, as he puts it, there is no way of telling a true story. I mean a really true one, because of memory. Its just no good.

Just because you cant tell a really true one doesnt mean that art cant get closer to the truth. In an interview with New York magazine, Macdonald balked at the trend toward confessional art, saying he thought art was supposed to be about concealment. That was revealing.

The fact that he struggled with cancer for a decade was something he certainly didnt advertise in his work. His death came as a shock to many. But clues were everywhere. Death has been among his favorite subjects in recent years. In a great viral moment, he delivered one of the earliest and best comedy club sets about the coronavirus. It was at the Improv in Los Angeles in March 2020 right before venues were shutting down. Its funny that we all now know how were going to die, he said. Its just a matter of what order.
Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous nights highlights that lets you sleep  and lets us get paid to watch comedy. Here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.

A Late-Night Legend

The comedian Norm Macdonald died on Tuesday, and a few late-night hosts caught the news in time to honor the frequent guest and former Saturday Night Live cast member.

Seth Meyers called the loss of Macdonald tragic, saying, I do not think that Norm would want to hear anything sentimental. Still, Meyers shared some of his favorite Macdonald quips and what he had learned from watching him anchor Weekend Update.
Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, a lack of centralized, national data on schooling has made it difficult for parents, educators, policymakers and researchers to make decisions and analyze trends.

On Wednesday, a team at Brown University led by Emily Oster, an economist and author, is launching the Covid-19 School Data Hub, a site that includes data from about 56,000 schools across 31 states. It is one of the most comprehensive efforts yet to document how schools operated during the pandemic, and, eventually, the researchers hope, measure the impact on children and the education system itself.

The sites data will show when school buildings were open, closed or operating in hybrid mode. In 11 states, the hub can tally the number of students who participated in each mode of learning. It also includes counts of coronavirus cases discovered in schools in 30 states.

In the coming months, Professor Oster said, her team hopes to add data on student achievement and school enrollment to the site, tracking whether students who left local schools last year returned. In the future, researchers may be able to answer if and how school closures affected high school graduation rates, crime, obesity and mental health needs, she noted.
On Monday, an international group of scientists, which included the departing F.D.A. officials, decried the push for boosters. In their review, published in The Lancet, the scientists analyzed dozens of studies and concluded that the world would be better served by using vaccine doses to protect the billions of people around the world who remain unvaccinated.

Our primary goal here in this pandemic was, first of all, to avoid, to end all preventable deaths, said Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, chief scientist at the World Health Organization and a co-author of The Lancet review. And since we have the tools to do that very effectively, we should be using it to prevent deaths around the world.

To prevent the virus from morphing into even more dangerous forms than the Delta variant  and perhaps into one that evades the immune response entirely  the more urgent need, experts said, is to protect the unvaccinated, both in the United States and elsewhere.

The W.H.O. has asked world leaders to refrain from rolling out boosters at least till the end of the year, with the goal of immunizing 40 percent of the global population. But some high-income countries have already begun offering boosters to their residents, and others may follow their lead.

British scientists on Tuesday recommended giving third doses to adults over 50 and other medically vulnerable people in that country. France, Germany, Denmark and Spain are also considering boosters for older adults or have already begun administering them. Israel has authorized boosters for everyone over age 12 and is already contemplating fourth doses for its population.

In the new study, the Israeli team collected data on the effect of booster shots, based on the health records of more than 1.1 million people over age 60. At least 12 days after the booster, rates of infection were elevenfold lower and of severe disease nearly twentyfold lower in those who received a booster compared with those who had received only two doses, the researchers found.
Were you required to receive certain vaccinations, such as those for protection against chickenpox or measles, before attending school or summer camp? Do you believe it is important for schools to require vaccinations like these to keep all students safe? Or do you think it should be up to individual families to decide?

In Los Angeles Mandates Vaccines for Students 12 and Older, Dana Goldstein writes about the school districts decision to require coronavirus vaccines and how families have reacted:

Los Angeles is the first major school district in the United States to mandate coronavirus vaccines for students 12 and older who are attending class in person. With the Delta variant ripping across the country, the districts Board of Education voted, 6-0, to pass the measure on Thursday afternoon. The Los Angeles Unified School District is the second largest in the nation, and the mandate would eventually apply to more than 460,000 students, including some enrolled at independent charter schools located in district buildings. The interim superintendent, Megan Reilly, said at Thursdays board meeting that student vaccination was one way to ensure that the districts classrooms would be able to remain open. Los Angeles had some of the countrys most extended school closures last year. Speaking about a 12th-grade athlete whom she met during a vaccination drive, Ms. Reilly said, We owe this child his senior year. Los Angeles already has a strict vaccine mandate for teachers and staff members, and the new student mandate will further increase the safety of the classroom. But it is also likely to be more divisive, with far-reaching educational repercussions. According to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, 58 percent of 12- to 18-year-olds living within the districts boundaries have already received at least one dose of a vaccine. But polls show that many parents are hesitant to vaccinate their children against the coronavirus, raising the question of how many families will keep their children home to learn online or transfer them to schools that do not require the shots. Leaving the classroom again could be debilitating for some students. When virtual learning was widespread last academic year, millions of children fell behind academically; the impact was largest on low-income students and students of color.

Ms. Goldstein goes on to write that not everyone is in support of the vaccine mandates:

Vaccine hesitancy in Los Angeles exists across a broad range of demographic and ideological groups, from affluent, largely white, liberal parents who oppose a range of mainstream childhood vaccination practices; to conservative activists who have specifically targeted the coronavirus vaccines; to low-income Black and Hispanic families who are wary of the medical establishment.

The article continues:

Some parents, however, are likely to oppose any mandate because no coronavirus vaccine for children ages 12 to 15 has received full government approval. The Food and Drug Administration has authorized the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on an emergency basis for that age group and could potentially grant full approval this year. (No vaccine has been authorized in the United States for children younger than 12.) Some public health experts and parents have raised concerns about a rare side effect of that vaccine, a heart condition called myocarditis that is known to disproportionately affect young men. Angelica Ramos, 29, a mother of three public school students in the Baldwin Hills neighborhood of South Los Angeles, said she would either enroll her children in a charter school or home-school before vaccinating them. While she takes the pandemic seriously and supports masking, she said, she is concerned about side effects and said most of the parents she knew felt similarly. It shouldnt be mandatory, she said. It should be our decision.

Students, read the entire article, then tell us:

What is your reaction to the decision made by the Los Angeles Unified School District? Do you believe it is an important step in keeping students and teachers safe? Or do you think parents and caregivers should be the ones to make decisions about whether students receive vaccinations?

Do you think more schools should have vaccine mandates? Would you want your school district to enact a mandate for students to attend in person? Why or why not?

According to the article, All 50 states mandate vaccines for school attendance, such as those that protect against polio, measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox. If that is the case, why do you think there is such resistance to requiring the coronavirus vaccine?

Los Angeles has chosen to require vaccinations, while providing a remote option for families that refuse them. Other districts, like New York City, have reopened schools for in-person learning without requiring vaccinations, but only offer limited online schooling for students with medical issues. Do you think one of these approaches is better than the other? If so, which one and why? What other options do you think schools should consider to keep students safe this school year?

Schools arent the only institutions that have started to require vaccines. President Biden recently moved to mandate vaccines for health care workers, federal contractors and a vast majority of federal workers, and to mandate that all companies with more than 100 workers require vaccinations or weekly testing. Supporters of this plan say vaccine mandates encourage more people to get vaccinated, in turn protecting the most vulnerable among us, including people with disabilities and children too young to be vaccinated. Opponents argue that it is government overreach and that individuals should be able to make decisions for themselves without risk of losing their jobs. What is your reaction to vaccine mandates across the public and private sectors? What are the benefits and limitations of requiring vaccinations? Are all arguments for and against such mandates equal? If not, which should we weigh more heavily?

Learn more about Student Opinion here and find all of our questions in this column. Teachers, see how you can incorporate this feature into your classroom routine here.

Students 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.
When the lawyer, activist, author and educator Pauli Murray died in 1985 at the age of 75, no obituary or commemoration could contain all of her pathbreaking accomplishments. A radical and brilliant legal strategist, Murray was named a deputy attorney general in California  the first Black person in that office  in 1946, just a year after passing the bar there. Murray was an organizer of sit-ins and participated in bus protests as far back as the 1940s, and co-founded the National Organization for Women. Murray was also the first Black woman to be ordained an Episcopal priest. In 2012, she was sainted.

Murray has been saluted in legal, academic and gender-studies circles, and in the L.G.B.T.Q. community. But her overarching impact on American life in the 20th and now 21st centuries has not been broadly acknowledged: the thinking and writing that paved the way for Brown v. Board of Education; the consideration of intersectionality (she helped popularize the term Jane Crow); the enviable social circle, as she was a buddy of Langston Hughes and a pen pal of Eleanor Roosevelt, and worked on her first memoir alongside James Baldwin at the MacDowell Colony in the first year it allowed Black artists.

Murray was devoted to feminism and the rights of women even as, it turned out, she privately battled lifelong gender identity issues. She should be a household name on par with Gloria Steinem or Ruth Bader Ginsburg, both of whom cited her work often. Instead Murray is an insiders civil rights icon.

Now a documentary, My Name Is Pauli Murray, aims to introduce Murray to the masses. Made by the same Academy Award-nominated filmmakers behind the surprise hit RBG, it uses Murrays own voice and words as narration, drawn from interviews, oral histories and the prolific writing  books, poems and a collection of argumentative, impassioned and romantic letters  that Murray meticulously filed away with an eye toward her legacy. And the film arrives at a moment when the tenacious activism of people of color, especially women, is being re-contextualized and newly acknowledged, at the same time that many of the battles they fought are still raging.
Covid News: F.D.A. Publishes First Analysis of Pfizer Booster Shot Application Israeli researchers report that a third dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine can prevent infections and severe illness in adults over 60, at least for a short time. The pope urges even the hesitant to get vaccinated.

Federal regulators publish the first analysis of Pfizers booster shot application. Image Preparing a syringe with the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine at a clinic at the Reading Area Community College in Reading, Pa., this week. Credit... Matt Rourke/Associated Press The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday offered the first public look at Pfizers application for a booster coronavirus shot, two days before an outside advisory committee of experts is scheduled to meet to recommend whether or not the agency should approve the companys request. It also comes amid significant disagreement about the need for boosters between career scientists at the agency and top Biden health officials, who have already started planning a broad booster campaign for this fall. In a 23-page document reviewing the companys application, regulators examined safety and immune response data on roughly 300 adults who received a booster shot of Pfizer-BioNTechs vaccine six months after their second dose, finding an increased immune response in study participants, even as they said that coronavirus vaccines were holding up powerfully against severe forms of Covid-19. There were no serious safety concerns associated with the booster injection, the regulators reported. Pfizer said in a separate filing that one month after a third injection, levels of neutralizing antibodies against the Delta variant in a subgroup of trial volunteers were between five and seven times higher, roughly, than they were a month after the second dose. The company also reiterated its findings that the effectiveness of its vaccine against symptomatic disease fell from about 96 percent to about 84 percent by six months after the second shot, although it held steady against severe disease. Pfizer argued in its filing that ebbing of the vaccines potency was the dominant reason for breakthrough infections among vaccinated people in Israel, which has relied almost exclusively on the Pfizer vaccine and has vaccinated its population faster than the United States. But the F.D.A. regulators wrote that while waning immunity is one potential factor in breakthrough infections, other variables, including the Delta variant, may also have contributed to the cases. In an interview, Pfizer officials acknowledged that the companys booster study was quite small. But they said that the data they have delivered meets the F.D.A.s criteria for justifying third shots for people 16 and up. Pfizer has another, much bigger booster study underway, with results expected this fall. The F.D.A.s analysis noted that Pfizer provided data on immune response against the Delta variant, by far the dominant variant in the U.S., in only two dozen people. Understanding the effectiveness of boosters against variants would likely be critical to the F.D.A.s review, the document suggested. Available data should support the effectiveness of the booster dose, particularly against currently circulating variants, regulators wrote. The analysis also suggested that regulators are cautiously weighing studies from Israel, which top Biden administration officials have said were key to their decision to recommend starting a booster campaign this month. Israel is already providing booster shots to most of its population. While observational studies can enable understanding of real-world effectiveness, there are known and unknown biases that can affect their reliability, the regulators wrote. Studies in the United States may most accurately represent vaccine effectiveness in the U.S. population, they added. Noah Weiland and

New study of booster shots fans a debate over extra doses. Image Getting a booster shot of the coronavirus vaccine last month in Jerusalem. Data from an Israeli study showed that a booster can enhance protection for a few weeks in older adults. Credit... Maya Alleruzzo/Associated Press Wading into an acrimonious debate over booster doses, researchers in Israel reported on Wednesday that a third dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine can prevent both infections and severe illness in adults older than 60 for at least 12 days. The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, is the latest salvo in the conflict over whether booster doses are needed for healthy adults and whether they should be given out, as the Biden administration plans to do, when so much of the world remains unvaccinated. Several independent scientists said the cumulative data so far suggest that only older adults will need boosters  and maybe not even them. Vaccination remains powerfully protective against severe illness and hospitalization in the vast majority of people in all of the studies published so far, experts said. But the vaccines do seem less potent against infections in people of all ages, particularly those exposed to the highly contagious Delta variant. What the Israeli data show is that a booster can enhance protection for a few weeks in older adults  a result that is unsurprising, experts said, and does not indicate long-term benefit. What I would predict will happen is that the immune response to that booster will go up, and then it will contract again, said Marion Pepper, an immunologist at the University of Washington in Seattle. But is that three- to four-month window what were trying to accomplish? Federal health officials  including Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, President Bidens top medical adviser on the pandemic  have justified plans to distribute booster shots by pointing to emerging evidence from Israel and other countries suggesting that immunity from vaccination wanes over time. The idea has sent some Americans trying to get booster shots before they are formally authorized, a step the F.D.A. may take as soon as Friday. But even among government scientists, the idea has been met with skepticism and anger. Two scientists who lead the F.D.A.s vaccine branch said they would leave the agency this fall, in part because of their unhappiness over the administrations push for booster doses before federal researchers could review the evidence.

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Officials connect 16 Covid cases to New Yorks Electric Zoo music festival. Image The crowd at Randalls Island for the group Borgeous at the Electric Zoo music festival on Sept. 5. Credit... Krista Schlueter for The New York Times Health officials are investigating a cluster of at least 16 Covid cases linked to an electronic music festival earlier this month on Randalls Island in New York City and urging everyone who attended the event to get tested. The citys Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said in a statement on Wednesday that the cases were connected to Electric Zoo, a three-day music festival that started Sept. 3. The department also identified eight people who may have attended the event while they were contagious. Anyone who attended this festival should get tested immediately, regardless of whether or not they have been vaccinated, Dr. Dave A. Chokshi, New York Citys health commissioner, said in the statement. Electric Zoos organizers did not immediately respond to a request for comment. On Aug. 19, the festival announced that attendees would need to show proof of at least one vaccination or a negative Covid-19 test taken within 72 hours of the event. Masks were encouraged but not required. New York City is grappling with a late-summer surge fueled by the Delta variant. The city reported a seven-day average of 1,489 new cases daily on Tuesday, despite the fact that 61 percent of its eligible residents are fully vaccinated. News of the cluster comes as the concert industry faces a reckoning over how to rebound safely amid the highly contagious Delta variant. After being shut down for more than a year, the industrys comeback started promisingly. Restrictions were being eased and fans were snapping up tickets to events. But as the spread of the Delta variant accelerated, concerns mounted over safety. Artists including Stevie Nicks and Fall Out Boy canceled shows. For those moving forward with concerts or festivals, a loose consensus took shape that fans should be required to provide proof of vaccination, or at least a negative test. But anecdotal reports suggest that the rigor of vaccine checks can be lacking, and the question of who bears responsibility for setting and enforcing those rules  especially when governments in major markets like Texas and Florida oppose such mandates  remains a matter of debate.

The White House offers a call to Nicki Minaj to discuss vaccine safety. Video transcript Back bars 0:00 / 1:36 - 0:00 transcript White House Offers to Call Nicki Minaj to Discuss Covid Vaccine The White House offered Nicki Minaj a call with a doctor to answer questions about the safety of the Covid-19 vaccine, Jen Psaki, the press secretary said, after the rapper questioned its efficacy on Twitter this week. We engage all the time with people who have big public platforms or profiles, some of them we talk about, some of them are here. Some of them you dont even know about because theyre just looking for questions to be answered. We offered a call with Nicki Minaj and one of our doctors to answer questions she had about the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine. This is pretty standard, and something we do all the time. It was a very early-stage call at a staff level, staff to staff, and we werent even at the point of discussing or were not even at the point of discussing, I should say at this point, the mechanisms or the format or anything along those lines. It was simply an offer to have a conversation. Reporter: What kind of responsibility. do you think someone like Nicki Minaj has, someone with a really big platform when it comes to talking about the vaccine? Well, our hope is that anyone who has a big platform is going to project accurate information about the effectiveness of the vaccine, the safety of the vaccine and the availability of the vaccine  at the same time  and both can be true. We also recognize that people have questions out there. They have questions they want to have answered by their doctors. We have doctors who can answer questions. I would say that if we believed that everybody who had skepticism about the vaccine wasnt someone we should engage with or talk to, we wouldnt have made the progress weve made. I mean, remember, back in December, only 33 percent of the American people were open to getting vaccinated. Now, more than 75 percent have had at least one shot. So part of our strategy and our objective from the beginning has been engaging with people who have questions to help answer their questions. The White House offered Nicki Minaj a call with a doctor to answer questions about the safety of the Covid-19 vaccine, Jen Psaki, the press secretary said, after the rapper questioned its efficacy on Twitter this week. Credit Credit... Jamie Mccarthy/Getty Images After the rapper Nicki Minaj questioned the efficacy of the Covid-19 vaccine in a Twitter post this week, the White House confirmed on Wednesday that it had offered her a call with a doctor to answer questions about the safety of the vaccine. Ms. Minajs comments drew widespread attention after she said she would not attend the Met Gala on Monday because she had yet to receive the vaccine, which was required for attendees. As we have with others, we offered a call with Nicki Minaj and one of our doctors to answer questions she has about the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine, a White House official said in a statement on Wednesday night. Ms. Minaj appeared to believe that she was going to visit the White House. She said on Twitter on Wednesday that she would be dressed in all pink like Legally Blonde so they know I mean business. Ill ask questions on behalf of the ppl who have been made fun of for simply being human, she added. Asked about the possibility of dialogue between Ms. Minaj and the White House, Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, told reporters on Thursday that officials had proposed a very early stage call that amounted to an offer to have a conversation about the safety of the vaccine. If we believed that everybody who had skepticism about the vaccine wasnt someone we should engage with or talk to, we wouldnt have made the progress weve made, Ms. Psaki said. Ms. Psaki said she was unsure whether the call would take place. On Monday, Ms. Minaj asserted that her cousins friend in Trinidad and Tobago became impotent after receiving the vaccine, a claim that nations minister of health, Terrence Deyalsingh, rejected. There has been no such reported either side effect or adverse event, he said in a news conference online. And what was sad about this is that it wasted our time yesterday, trying to track down, because we take all these claims seriously, whether its on social media or mainstream media. Alyssa Lukpat, Zolan Kanno-Youngs and

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The pope urges everyone to get a Covid vaccine. Video The pope said that he didnt know how to explain why people dont trust the vaccines, adding that it was ironic that a cardinal who was not vaccinated had been hospitalized with the virus. Credit Credit... Pool photo by Tiziana Fabi Pope Francis on Wednesday urged people to get vaccinated against Covid-19, adding that it was ironic that a cardinal who was not vaccinated had been hospitalized with the virus. The pope, who has said that getting the vaccine is an act of love, made the comments to reporters on his plane. He seemed to be referring to an American cardinal, Raymond Burke, who spread vaccine misinformation and then was treated for Covid-19 at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. Even in the College of Cardinals, Francis said, there are some anti-vaxxers, and one of them, poor man, is in hospital with the virus. But life is ironic. He said he didnt know how to explain why people dont trust the vaccines. Humanity has a history of friendship with vaccines, he said. As children, we got them for measles, for other things, for polio. All the children were vaccinated, and no one said anything. Then this happened. Francis added that everyone in the Vatican, except for a small group, was inoculated against the virus.

L.A. County will require proof of vaccination at drinking establishments. Image Patrons in the Tiki-Ti bar when it reopened on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, in July. Beginning next month, Los Angeles County is going to require proof of vaccination in bars, clubs and other establishments that serve alcohol. Credit... Damian Dovarganes/Associated Press Los Angeles County next month will require proof of coronavirus vaccination to enter bars, nightclubs and other drinking establishments, as it joins the list of places putting pressure on people to get vaccinated, the county authorities said. The county will require customers and employees at such establishments, which also include wineries, breweries and lounges, to show proof that they have at least one dose of the vaccine starting on Oct. 7 and both doses by Nov. 4. The move was announced on Wednesday by Dr. Barbara Ferrer, the director of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, at a meeting of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. This is a reasonable path forward that could position us to be better able to break the cycle of the surges, Dr. Ferrer said. The requirement also extends to outdoor mega events, where attendees and employees starting on Oct. 7 must show either proof of a vaccine or of a negative Covid test within the past three days, the authorities said. Restaurants will not be included in this mandate, although the county recommends that restaurants follow it anyway. It wasnt clear why restaurants were omitted. The county already requires people to wear masks indoors, regardless of vaccination status. County authorities did not specify how they would ask people to prove they were vaccinated. In New York, which last month became the first U.S. city to require proof of at least one dose for a variety of activities, workers and customers can either show their paper vaccination card or present evidence using one of two apps: NYC Covid Safe, issued by the city, or Excelsior Pass, issued by New York State. In France, as of Aug. 1, anyone without a health pass showing they have been vaccinated or recently tested negative will not be admitted to restaurants, cafes or movie theaters, and they will not be able to travel long distances by train. The Italian government announced in July that it would require people to show proof of vaccination or a recent negative test in order to participate in certain public activities, including indoor dining, visiting museums and attending shows. The move in Los Angeles County comes as debate is heating up over how far governments should  or can  go in circumscribing the life of the unvaccinated. That debate has intensified after many areas, including Los Angeles County, saw a wave of new coronavirus infections fueled by the Delta variant. The seven-day average of new cases in the county has decreased slightly after reaching a peak of 3,477 on Aug. 18, according to a New York Times database. Of the county residents eligible for a vaccine, 58 percent are fully vaccinated. How Frances Vaccine Pass Is Working So Far Leontine Gallois Reporting from Paris How Frances Vaccine Pass Is Working So Far Leontine Gallois Reporting from Paris Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York Times France this summer began requiring patrons to show proof of vaccination to eat at restaurants or visit other public spaces  similar to rules that New York City started to enforce on Monday. Heres a look at the French system  How Frances Vaccine Pass Is Working So Far Leontine Gallois Reporting from Paris Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York Times There have been weekly protests, some quite large, but many people have decided that showing the pass sanitaire is worth it to return to Frances famed cafe life. Diners need to show the pass even if they are eating outside; in New York, showing proof is only for indoors. How Frances Vaccine Pass Is Working So Far Leontine Gallois Reporting from Paris Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York Times Entering restaurants takes longer, but many people dont mind. Showing that Im vaccinated doesnt bother me at all, said Camila Chaves, drinking wine on a Paris terrace. I dont go to bars any less. On the contrary, I waited too long for them not to go and enjoy. How Frances Vaccine Pass Is Working So Far Leontine Gallois Reporting from Paris Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York Times Scanning passes means more work. It takes time, on top of everything else we have to do, said Kyllian Borie, 25, a waiter. Still he said he takes the rules seriously; authorities have carried out spot checks, with the threat of fines and closures for non-compliance. How Frances Vaccine Pass Is Working So Far Leontine Gallois Reporting from Paris Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York Times Fears that the health passes could deeply affect the economy have so far not materialized. Government figures suggest household consumption in August  including spending at restaurants  is just 1.5 percent lower than the end of 2019. How Frances Vaccine Pass Is Working So Far Leontine Gallois Reporting from Paris Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York Times In France, virus cases rose this summer as lockdowns lifted and the Delta variant spread, but Arnaud Fontanet, an epidemiologist who advises the government, said measures like the pass sanitaire helped contain the virus. Cases declined in recent weeks. Catch up on the latest coronavirus news: Schools in New York City fully reopen after 18 months of pandemic restrictions.

The likelihood of disruptions tempers the elation of the first day back in N.Y.C. public schools. Copy story link Sep. 13, 2021











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FEMA agrees to cover Covid-19 costs for New York City public hospitals. Image Behind Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan, refrigeration units being used as makeshift morgues in March 2020 during the initial Covid-19 surge in New York City. Credit... Eduardo Munoz/Reuters After months of delay, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has agreed to reimburse New York Citys public hospital system almost $1 billion for its expenses treating patients during the citys brutal first wave of Covid-19 in 2020. Senator Chuck Schumer, the majority leader, and Representative Ritchie Torres, both of whom represent New York, announced the news Wednesday outside of Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx, one of the citys 11 public hospitals. The hospital is in Mr. Torress congressional district. Mayor Bill de Blasio, also in attendance, praised the work the public hospital system has done during the pandemic, calling the system the tip of the spear. Nearly 3,000 patients died of Covid-19 in the systems hospitals between March and September of 2020, according to state data. He added, What I saw from all of you was extraordinary courage, strength, resiliency, incredible commitment. In October 2020, the system, known as NYC Health + Hospitals, requested roughly $900 million from FEMA to cover costs related to hiring extra staff and expanding its capacity to treat coronavirus patients. FEMA had initially agreed to reimburse only $260 million, less than one-third of the request, arguing that the remainder consisted of costs that were not necessarily related to the virus. But the public hospital system, backed by the lawmakers, maintained that it was impossible to separate specific Covid-related expenses at a time when the system was swamped by the disease. Mr. Torress office said Wednesday that after the lawmakers got involved, FEMA relented and agreed to send the system an additional $620 million. In a June letter to FEMA, the head of NYC Health + Hospitals, Dr. Mitchell Katz, wrote that the system had spent about $2 billion in its response to Covid-19, and that it needed more reimbursement immediately to provide critically needed cash flow to our safety net system. The reimbursement will cover staffing, equipment and patient care efforts that were necessary during the surge of Covid-19 cases, according to Mr. Torress office. FEMA did not immediately respond to a request for comment. At the Wednesday announcement, Dr. Katz thanked Mr. Schumer and Mr. Torres for proving that the federal government can work. We were short on supplies, he said, recalling the worst days of the first Covid wave. We were short on staffing, and the mayor never questioned whether or not we would get fully reimbursed. He always said, Mitch, do what you need to do.

North and Central America are driving a hemispheric coronavirus surge, the W.H.O. says. Image A Covid-19 patient being prepared for a hospital transfer in Pointe-a-Pitre, Guadeloupe. Credit... Carla Bernhardt/Agence France-Presse  Getty Images While the spread of new coronavirus cases is steady or slowing in much of the world, it is accelerating in the Western Hemisphere, where new case reports rose by 20 percent in the past week, the World Health Organization warned on Wednesday. North America, where new case reports are up by one-third, is the chief driver of the new infections. New cases doubled in the Canadian province of Alberta, where hospitals are experiencing a critical staffing shortage, Dr. Carissa F. Etienne, the director of the Pan American Health Organization, a division of the W.H.O., said at a news conference. And with new cases in the United States reaching levels not seen since January, Dr. Etienne said, hospital capacity in many Southern U.S. states remains worryingly low. Several Central American countries are also experiencing infection surges, including Costa Rica, Guatemala and Belize. The spread of the virus has slowed somewhat in the Caribbean, but there are exceptions, including Jamaica, where new case reports are at their highest of the pandemic. By contrast, in most of South America, which was very hard hit earlier in the year, reports of new infections and Covid-19 deaths are declining. The organizations experts are not sure why, though they dismissed speculation that a decline in testing might be responsible. Its important to note that this drop in South America is not an effect of laboratory testing, said Dr. Sylvain Aldighieri, P.A.H.O.s incident manager for Covid-19. Laboratory vigilance has been maintained. Dr. Aldighieri said a number of factors could be at work in South America, including strict social distancing measures and reduced mobility in some countries. The change of season may also play a role, he added, noting that the epidemiological curves for influenza between 2014 and 2019 in South America have a similar behavior to Covid-19 between 2020 and 2021. Although the highly infectious Delta variant is becoming predominant in the Caribbean, it has yet to make significant inroads in South America, Dr. Aldighieri said. W.H.O. officials called on national governments to pay more attention to how the pandemic affects children, both directly and indirectly. At the beginning of the pandemic, the virus was having a disproportionate impact on our elderly, Dr. Etienne said, and as a result, too many children and young people still dont think theyre at risk. We must change that. The strains that the pandemic has placed on health services also mean that many young people are not getting annual checkups, routine vaccinations and other services, including reproductive health services. That is helping to fuel one of the largest jumps in teenage pregnancy that weve seen in more than a decade, Dr. Etienne said. And the closing of schools because of the pandemic has triggered the worst educational crisis we have ever seen in this region, she added.

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Biden meets with executives to push vaccine mandates. Image Its about saving lives  thats what this is all about, President Biden said of vaccine mandates at a meeting with business leaders on Wednesday. Credit... Doug Mills/The New York Times President Biden met on Wednesday with top executives from Microsoft, the Walt Disney Company, Kaiser Permanente and other companies that have endorsed vaccine mandates, days after he announced a federal effort to require employees of large companies to be vaccinated against the coronavirus or be tested regularly. The administration sought to use the meeting to show that vaccine mandates are good for the economy while spotlighting employers that have mandates for workers or have praised Mr. Bidens order. The meeting was meant to rally more business support for mandates. Its about saving lives  thats what this is all about, said Mr. Biden, who was flanked by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Jeffrey D. Zients, the White House pandemic coordinator. Vaccinations mean fewer infections, hospitalizations and deaths, and in turn it means a stronger economy, he added. One of the invitees to the meeting, Tim Boyle, the chief executive of Columbia Sportswear, said in an interview on Wednesday that his company had drafted a policy mandating vaccines months ago. But it had held off carrying it out until Mr. Biden announced last week that he was directing the Labor Department to issue an emergency safety declaration that would effectively function as a vaccine mandate for tens of millions of workers. Columbia Sportswear told its workers that it will put a vaccine requirement in place next week. Mr. Boyle said Columbia was concerned that by acting alone it would risk losing as many as half of its workers in distribution centers and retail stores. Mr. Bidens order, he said, reduced the risk that workers who dont want to get vaccinated would quit to work elsewhere. Theres much less opportunity for people to go somewhere they dont need to be vaccinated, he said. Mr. Boyle said vaccinations had divided Columbias work force. Managers in its Portland, Ore., headquarters have largely embraced the shots, he said, but retail and warehouse workers throughout the country have been more reluctant. He said that hesitancy had hurt the company, with infections and the threat of infection forcing closures and cleanings of locations. Those operations are predicated on people working together closely, he said. Having unvaccinated workers is highly disruptive. Several of the business leaders who met with Mr. Biden have installed mandates already, for at least part of their work force, including Disney, Walgreens and Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia. Jim Tankersley and

The U.S. makes coronavirus vaccinations mandatory for new immigrants. Image A vaccination center in New York in April. Credit... Brittainy Newman for The New York Times Beginning Oct. 1, new immigrants to the United States must be fully vaccinated against Covid-19, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said in a news release on Tuesday. People seeking to become lawful permanent residents  or green card holders  have permission to live in the United States and eventually seek citizenship. Applicants for permanent residency must undergo a medical examination. The Covid vaccine joins a list of others that applicants must have, including inoculations against measles, mumps, rubella, polio, and hepatitis A and B, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Some people may be exempt from the new rules, including those who are too young to be vaccinated and those who have medical conditions that make the shots dangerous for them. About 54 percent of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated against Covid-19, and some people have begun to get booster shots. The new requirement for those seeking permanent U.S. residency is in line with President Bidens new vaccine mandates for federal workers and contractors. The Pentagon has announced that active-duty military personnel also must be vaccinated. Mr. Biden has rolled back several Trump-era immigration rules, including a ban on legal immigration that Donald J. Trump implemented at the beginning of the pandemic.

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The E.U. adopts a new strategy to counter future pandemics. Video transcript Back bars 0:00 / 0:57 - 0:00 transcript E.U. Promises 200 Million Vaccine Doses to Low-Income Nations Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, pledged to donate 200 million extra doses of the coronavirus vaccine to middle- and low-income countries by mid-2022. When I stood here in front of you 12 months ago, I did not know when or even if we could have a safe and effective vaccine against Covid-19. But today, against all critics, Europe is among the world leaders. More than 70 percent of our adult population is fully vaccinated. This is one of the great geopolitical issues in our time. Team Europe is investing $1 billion euro to ramp up mRNA production capacity with Africa. We have already committed to share 250 million doses of vaccine. I can announce today that the commission will add a new donation of another 200 million doses until the middle of next year. This is an investment in solidarity, and it is an investment also in global health. Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, pledged to donate 200 million extra doses of the coronavirus vaccine to middle- and low-income countries by mid-2022. Credit Credit... Julien Warnand/EPA, via Shutterstock The European Union announced on Wednesday the creation of a new biomedical authority designed to better respond to future pandemics, as it seeks to avoid repeating the mistakes that plagued its early response to the coronavirus. Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, the blocs executive arm, also pledged to donate 200 million extra coronavirus vaccine doses to middle- and low-income countries by mid-2022, in addition to 250 million already promised by the end of the year. In her annual speech on the state of the union, Ms. von der Leyen described vaccination discrepancies as one of the greatest geopolitical issues facing nations. The scale of injustice and the level of urgency are obvious, Ms. von der Leyen told lawmakers at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, in eastern France, acknowledging that the bloc and other rich nations had fallen short on their promises. But the blocs pledges on vaccine donations have so far rung hollow: E.U. member countries had only donated 18 million doses as of early September, a fraction of the 200 million promised. Covax, the global vaccine-sharing program, of which the European Union is a part, last week slashed its forecast for doses available this year, in part because rich countries continued to hold most of the worlds doses. Still, Ms. von der Leyens speech served as a reset for the European Commission after early missteps in vaccine procurement that took a more positive turn in recent months. While most developing countries have yet to administer a single dose of a coronavirus vaccine, including in the European Unions immediate neighborhood, more than 70 percent of adults across the bloc have been fully vaccinated. We delivered, she said, although she conceded that the bloc faced wide discrepancies domestically, as several Eastern European countries have been lagging behind. Ms. von der Leyens confident tone on Wednesday came in great contrast with her speech last year, when new Covid-19 cases were picking up across the bloc and coronavirus vaccines were months away. When I stood here in front of you a year ago, I didnt know when and if we could have a safe and effective vaccine against the pandemic, she said. The European Commission, which negotiated for vaccines on behalf of member countries, was heavily criticized for the sluggish beginning of its vaccination program. The commission signed its first deal on behalf of member nations months after the United States, hampering vaccine deliveries and, later, inoculation campaigns. Yet the rollout gained speed in recent months, and many E.U. countries have now overtaken other rich nations like the Britain, Israel and the United States. Some have started administering booster shots to millions of older and vulnerable residents, even though the World Health Organization has called on the richest nations to delay boosters until the end of the year, to allow more doses to go to poorer countries. To help the bloc be better prepared for future health crises, Ms. von der Leyen said that the new agency  known as the Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority, or HERA  would aim to make sure that no virus will ever turn a local epidemic again into a global pandemic. It is set to receive 50 billion euros (about $59 billion) in funding by 2027 and will function alongside the E.U.s existing health agencies, the European Center for Disease Control and the European Medicines Agency. But its exact role remains unclear, as E.U. members each run their own health policies. The pandemic brought to light the limits of the European Center for Disease Control, which is in charge of coordinating individual nations pandemic response plans but has had limited powers in enforcing or modifying states actions. Still, many welcomed the creation of the new agency, highlighting a need for more coordination at an E.U. level. Veronique Trillet-Lenoir, an oncologist and a lawmaker in the European Parliament, said the agency could reinforce solidarity among the blocs member countries, something it lacked in the early stages of the pandemic. What the coronavirus pandemic has shown is that the 27 member states have fared much better all together, Ms. Trillet-Lenoir said, and that no European country would have done better on its own. Elian Peltier and

Back to school in the Bronx: How one principal welcomed her students back. Image Hundreds of children and parents showed up in August for a back-to-school carnival at Public School 5 in the South Bronx, part of an effort to welcome students back to in-person learning. Credit... James Estrin/The New York Times The last 18 months have been exceptionally difficult for Public School 5 in the South Bronx, which serves low-income Black and Latino elementary- and middle-school students in a neighborhood that has been ravaged by the coronavirus. Last year, about 80 percent of the schools roughly 600 students chose to learn remotely. But Danielle Keane, the schools principal, believed her students needed to be back in classrooms this fall. And she knew she couldnt just hope that her families would suddenly feel comfortable sending their children back. So over the summer, she set out to make P.S. 5 a place that people wanted to be. There were comedy nights for families, along with literacy classes for parents still learning English, an outdoor movie night in the park adjacent to the school and a carnival that was wildly successful. On Monday, nearly 90 percent of students on Ms. Keanes register returned to classrooms, a higher percentage than the citywide average of just over 82 percent. The school felt as vibrant as Ms. Keane hoped it would. What a beautiful day, she said. But its only a first step toward achieving something like a normal school year. Ms. Keanes work is being put to the test this week, as New Yorks school system, the nations largest, fully reopens for the first time since March 2020  with no remote learning option. Theres so much the schools teachers dont know about what the hundreds of children who were remote last year have been through. The academic and mental health challenges that will reveal themselves in the coming days and weeks may be enormous.

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To shore up his standing, Britains prime minister doubles down on vaccination. Image Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain spoke to reporters in London on Tuesday about his governments coronavirus plans. Credit... Pool photo by Dan Kitwood When Prime Minister Boris Johnson fumbled his initial response to the coronavirus pandemic, his political fortunes faltered. Then when Britains vaccine rollout proved surprisingly effective, his standing rebounded. Now, with his popularity waning again  this time over tax policy  Mr. Johnson is hoping that the shots will turn things around for him a second time. He is placing his faith in a redoubled vaccine campaign, including initial shots for children 12 to 15 and boosters for anyone over 50, to protect Britains health service from being overwhelmed by a winter surge, and to spare him from having to order lockdowns that would depress the economy and infuriate a noisy caucus of his own lawmakers. If a major winter surge does develop, Mr. Johnson could reinstitute a mask mandate, introduce vaccine passports, and urge workers to stay home if possible, under what the government calls its Plan B. Full lockdowns would be a last resort. Were now in a situation where so many of the population have some degree of immunity, smaller changes in the way were asking people to behave can have a bigger impact, Mr. Johnson said at a news conference on Tuesday. For a leader who often seems to defy political gravity, the risks are high. Poll ratings are slipping for Mr. Johnsons Conservative Party, and some of the new voters he attracted in the 2019 election might be drifting away. His premiership currently doesnt seem to have delivered on the things that these voters want, said Matthew Goodwin, professor of politics at Kent University. The vaccine bounce helped him the first time around, Mr. Goodwin said, and if the booster plan  which will be a massive story in British politics  goes well and hes able to say the rollout is going to plan, that will potentially help him. Stephen Castle and

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LONDON  Britains High Court agreed on Wednesday to intervene in a sexual assault lawsuit against Prince Andrew, clearing the way for him to answer a legal claim in the United States that he sexually abused a minor while a guest of Jeffrey Epstein.

Andrew, the second son of Queen Elizabeth II, has denied the allegations, and his American lawyer contended on Monday that the lawsuit, brought by Virginia Giuffre, was baseless, nonviable and potentially unlawful. The lawyer, Andrew B. Brettler, also argued that legal papers had not been properly served on his client in Britain.

The High Court, which said it was responding to information provided by Ms. Giuffres lawyers, agreed to serve the papers on Andrew if the two parties did not work out a way to do so. Andrew has been visiting the queen at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, making that process more complicated.

The allegations against Andrew, 61, known as the Duke of York, have led to his exile from official duties and have cast a shadow over the royal family. Royal watchers said the family was bracing itself for damaging disclosures in both the Giuffre lawsuit and a forthcoming trial of Mr. Epsteins longtime companion, Ghislaine Maxwell.
The mention of Attica may have been deliberate: Monday was the 50th anniversary of the blood bath that ended the four-day uprising at that state-run maximum security prison 350 miles from New York City. The armed assault by state troopers and prison guards left 43 people dead, including 10 guards and civilian prison workers who had been held hostage by prisoners for four days.

Attica gave life to the modern prisoners rights movement even as it faded from public consciousness. It has become little more than a footnote from a time when the nation was divided by the Vietnam War and emotionally scarred from the assassinations and civil unrest of the 1960s. Later generations watching Al Pacinos Attica! Attica! rant in the 1975 bank-robbery movie Dog Day Afternoon might wonder why that word energized the crowd.

In the immediate aftermath of the assault to retake the prison, New York officials lied to the public and the press. Officials wrongly blamed the inmates for killing the hostages, saying the prisoners had slit their throats. Autopsies showed the victims had been shot. Only the guards had had guns.

Attica, built in the 1930s, was overcrowded in 1971, with more than 2,200 inmates. Elements of daily life that might seem inconsequential to outsiders had fanned tensions: inmates were limited to a single shower a week and a single roll of toilet paper a month. They received only mail written in English because that was the only language prison censors could read. Letters in other languages were routinely thrown in the trash.

The head count in state prisons, which exploded in the 1980s, has fallen in recent years. The state now has just over 32,000 inmates, about half as many as in 1999, when the prison population peaked. Last week, Attica had 1,635 inmates.
New York Citys notorious Rikers Island jail complex has long had a reputation for brutal conditions, but in recent months the situation inside has spun out of control.

Ten people incarcerated at Rikers have died this year, at least five by suicide  the largest death toll at the jail in years. Gangs and other detainees are ushering other incarcerated people to and from their dorms. Relatives of those imprisoned there fear for their loved ones lives.

My kid gets to go to court, said Penny Wilkinson, the mother of Nicholas Caballero, 25, who is being held on the island as he awaits trial on assault and grand larceny charges. I dont want to see my child die in jail.

The vast majority of people being held on Rikers have not been tried and are presumed innocent.

Here are answers to some of the questions about what is driving the problems at the facility:

When did the crisis start?

Rikers has long been characterized by dysfunction and violence, from its opening in 1935 to the culture of brutality and corruption that led to a sweeping federal investigation into the facility a decade ago.
SAO PAULO, Brazil  For weeks, President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil has been urging his supporters to take to the streets. So on Sept. 7, Brazils Independence Day, I was half expecting to see mobs of armed people in yellow-and-green jerseys, some of them wearing furry hats and horns, storming the Supreme Court building  our very own imitation of the Capitol riot.

Fortunately, that was not what happened. (The crowds eventually went home, and no one tried to sit in the Supreme Court justices chairs.) But Brazilians were not spared chaos and consternation.

For Mr. Bolsonaro, it was a show of force. In the morning, addressing a crowd of around 400,000 people in Brasilia, he said he intended to use the size of the crowd as an ultimatum for everyone in the three branches of government. In the afternoon, at a demonstration in Sao Paulo of 125,000 people, the president called the elections coming in 2022 a farce and said that he will no longer abide by rulings from one of the Supreme Court justices. Im letting the scoundrels know, he bellowed, Ill never be imprisoned!

It seems to be part of a plan. By picking a fight in particular with the Supreme Court  which has opened several investigations of him and his allies, including about his role in a potentially corrupt vaccine procurement scheme and his efforts to discredit Brazils voting system  Mr. Bolsonaro is attempting to sow the seeds of an institutional crisis, with a view to retaining power. On Sept. 9 he tried to back down a little, saying in a written statement that he never intended to attack any branch of government. But his actions are plain: He is effectively threatening a coup.
The American economy has come a long way. It was only 18 months ago when the coronavirus pandemic struck in full force, igniting a devastating recession. But as the recent wave of infections and hospitalizations from the highly contagious Delta variant of the virus makes clear, the pandemic is not over. Nor is the economic fallout.

This is clear in the performance of the nations biggest cities, which were hit hardest by the pandemic. The health care system of New York City was overwhelmed early on as the virus ravaged its densely populated neighborhoods. To contain the virus, businesses were shut down, immediately idling one-fifth of workers in the city. Big cities that lost at least one-sixth of their jobs virtually overnight include Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami, Philadelphia and San Francisco.

These cities have worked hard to piece their economies back together, and early this year as the vaccines were rolled out there was much optimism that like the rest of the nation, they would recover quickly. In New York, Broadways lights are back on, restaurants and museums reopened, the Yankees played the Red Sox, and the city regained almost half the jobs it had lost. The mega-financial institutions, media companies and consulting firms that employ tens of thousands of workers in the city prepared to welcome them back to their skyscraper office towers. For a few shining weeks, it seemed as if the nations big cities were going to make a fast comeback in early fall.

Unfortunately, thats not going to happen. The highly contagious Delta variant came on quickly this summer and is doing substantial economic damage. It has dashed many employers plans to get workers back in the office. Instead of returning after Labor Day, businesses are now hoping for next month or the month after. Some are looking at early 2022. Many of the nations downtowns will remain eerily quiet, dashing hope for restaurants, retailers and other small service businesses that cater to these commuters to hang on.
It felt great to be able to serve the city while also tending to my family and to my own health. But when Mayor Bill de Blasio abruptly announced this month that city workers had to return to the office full time starting this Monday, also the first day of classes for public schools, it felt like an invitation to quit.

Since I joined the agency in 2004, I have never seen morale so low and turnover so high. In the days since the mayors return-to-work announcement, frustration has evolved into fury. Employees feel disrespected, ignored and undervalued. I dont want to quit, but I also dont want to go back to my life before the pandemic, a life of too little sleep, too much responsibility and not enough time.

The mandate to return is forcing me to make what feels like an unnecessary choice between my career and my family, between my health and my duty to my colleagues and the city. It doesnt have to be this way.

I share the concerns of other city workers that the return to office is too sudden for parents scrambling for child care and too risky with the Delta variant surging and no in-office distancing requirements. But what really has me contemplating leaving after more than 15 years of city service is my dread of indefinitely going back to the office for eight hours a day, five days a week after experiencing the flexibility of remote work. After only a few days of being back in the office full time, Im already feeling a familiar sense of weariness and anxiety.

Proponents of a full return to office note that most city employees cannot work from home and are already back in person. Its right to acknowledge the sacrifices of frontline workers, but requiring a return to the office for all other workers does not help them. My daughters teachers are not safer because Im going into the office; indeed, I now pose a greater exposure risk to my children, who are too young to be vaccinated.
This is everyday life in New York Citys largest jail, despite Mayor Bill de Blasios vow to close it for good. The plan to replace Rikers  possibly delayed by the Covid pandemic  involves an $8.7 billion effort to rebuild three outdated detention facilities in Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan to make them more sanitary and secure. A jail is scheduled for construction in the Bronx. Jails in communities have numerous advantages over a centralized facility on a difficult-to-access island. Whatever critics from the left or right may exclaim, New York is not going to go without jail cells. But it can approach incarceration in a far more humane way.

Mr. de Blasio first promised in 2017 to close Rikers  the last time he visited the island. More than four years later and with only months remaining in his term, the situation is as dire as its ever been. In May, a report by a federal monitor described a pervasive level of disorder and chaos in the citys jail system; within three months, the monitor filed an update to say that the situation had worsened significantly, with regular violent attacks against both inmates and guards. The city has completely lost control, said Mary Lynne Werlwas, the director of the Prisoners Rights Project at the Legal Aid Society.

On Tuesday, Mr. de Blasio announced a plan to address the immediate staffing crisis by shifting more corrections officers from the courts to Rikers and threatening to suspend those who skip work without an excuse. He also called on judges to release as many as 250 people serving less than a year for nonviolent crimes  even though he has the power to release them himself.

These are all stopgaps that fail to address the underlying problem: New York, like the rest of the country, locks up far too many people for no good reason. Mr. de Blasio likes to point out that the citys jail population is roughly half the size it was when he took office, but its still much too big: close to 6,000 people at the moment. Taxpayers are charged nearly half a million dollars per year to incarcerate each of these people  the vast majority of whom havent even had a trial yet. Others are locked up on technical parole violations, like forgetting to check in with their supervisor. This is an absurd expense, especially when some evidence shows that pretrial detention for even a few days makes someone more likely to commit a crime, not less.

This number could be significantly lower if Mr. de Blasio and other politicians had not gotten cold feet about New Yorks bail reform law, which passed in 2019, eliminating cash bail for most misdemeanor and nonviolent felony arrests. It was a long-overdue fix meant to keep people from being locked up simply for being poor. But the law was rolled back even before it could have an effect, thanks to a relentless scaremongering campaign by the police, prosecutors and some lawmakers who exploited a few high-profile crimes  a well-worn tactic to block any efforts to make the criminal justice system fairer and more effective. But bail reforms opponents ignore the basic facts: Crime in New York City is still far lower than it was in 1991, when the citys daily jail population was more than triple what it is today.
Dr. Slovic offered a hypothetical situation to illustrate how our feelings dont always line up with the onslaught of modern facts: We are likely to be quite upset if we hear about two Covid cases at our childs school, but we probably wont be doubly as upset if we hear that there are four cases. As Daniel Kahneman explained in his book, Thinking, Fast and Slow, the amount of concern is not adequately sensitive to the probability of harm.

Since we have been dealing with the virus for 18 months, we may no longer react the way we typically do when we hear more bad news. In these scenarios, some parents will overestimate the risk to their children, Dr. Peters said. But others will experience a phenomenon called psychic numbing, which Delia OHara of the American Psychological Association described as the indifference that sets in when we are confronted with overwhelming calamity. Psychic numbing sounds much more poetic than dead inside, and I appreciate that Im not the only one who feels this way, because I no longer trust my emotions to guide me properly.

As parents hurtle into the fall, not knowing when a vaccine might be available to our younger kids, how do we cope with uncertainty and get past our numbness? There is no magic solution that will fix our sense of unease  we are in a pandemic still, its normal to feel uneasy. But having at least some sense of control about the choices we are making is key, Dr. Slovic said. One way to take back that control is to listen to the experts who you feel are really knowledgeable and you can trust, whether they are local or national, he said. You should follow their advice and hope for the best. In our case, that means sending our kids back to school in their masks, and crossing our fingers.

Another way to bring back a measure of control over the risk in your life is to try to think ahead of time about what your values are, and to game out moments where multiple values might be in conflict, Dr. Peters said. The example she gave was a family gathering: You might deeply value your children seeing extended family members, but you also do not want your unvaccinated kids to get exposed to Covid. Thinking about these trade-offs early may seem more of an emotional and cognitive burden, and it is, but you will be steadier in the long run if you think about it ahead of time, she said.

Something I find personally soothing is reminding myself that I cant iron out the danger for my children in every situation. Part of maturing is learning to assess risk, and even though it can be painful to watch your kid bound out into the dangerous world, its the only way they can grow.

After some discussion, my husband and I did allow our older daughter to go on the play date with that new friend this summer. We felt comfortable with the Covid risk at that point, and our daughter was beyond excited to go to her friends house. About 10 minutes into the play date, we got a call from the father of the house. The kids had been jumping off the top bunk, and my daughter cut her head on a ceiling fan.

Though she bled profusely, she was ultimately fine, and she learned the hard way that jumping off the top bunk is a truly idiotic idea. While we warned her about Covid safety, we didnt think to talk to her about hurling her body from a great height. She had to experience that risk alone.
The cross is not a flag to wave, but the pure source of a new way of living.

POPE FRANCIS, whose remarks during a visit to Slovakia rejected the use of the cross and other religious symbols as political tools.
In a sign of improving weather and fire conditions in much of California, all but five of the states 20 national forests will reopen late Wednesday after they were closed to all visitors for 15 days.

The forests are set to reopen at 11:59 p.m. Wednesday, two days earlier than planned, the Pacific Southwest Region of the U.S. Forest Service said in a statement. Regional Forester Jennifer Eberlien said some factors are more favorable now.

We are constantly evaluating weather and fire conditions in California, as well as regional and national firefighting resources available to us so that we can ensure the safety of the public and our firefighters, she said.

Over the past two weeks, including the long Labor Day weekend, hiking, picnicking and camping on Forest Service land  which includes parts of the popular Pacific Coast Trail  were banned. The Pacific Coast Trail Association had advised hikers to leave the trail in late August.
COSTA MESA, Calif.  About 10 minutes before the polls closed, supporters of Larry Elder, the leading Republican candidate, began streaming into a hotel ballroom in Orange County, sipping wine and whiskey sours. The band played The Girl From Ipanema and the stage was ringed by red-white-and-blue bunting, as attendees waited for Mr. Elder.

Just after polls closed at 8 p.m., Fred Whitaker, the chairman of the Orange County Republican Party, warned the crowd  inaccurately, it turned out  that it was likely to be a long night, because early results were likely to favor the Democrats. Enjoy the food, he said. Enjoy the drink.

And then they prayed.

Pastor Jack Hibbs of Calvary Chapel in Chino Hills thanked God for creating California. We pray, we ask of you, to grant victory, he said.

Later, after The Associated Press called the race for Gov. Gavin Newsom, Mr. Elder spoke to the crowd and conceded.
But what the governor can do with that mandate is unclear. The recall campaign was long and divisive, political experts say, and the states problems increasingly resist simple solutions. Many more straightforward challenges were met last year with a massive state surplus and a flood of pandemic aid from the Biden administration.

Now  although Mr. Newsom has the advantage of a unified base, a Democratic supermajority in the Legislature and the states attention  what remains are issues that require far more than money.

These are problems that take time, said Jerry Brown, who governed the state for two eight-year stints in the 1970s and again from 2010 to 2018. Reducing carbon emissions. Reversing the gross inequalities. Being able to keep the crime rate down. Dealing with so many people who have so little that their lives and families are disintegrating.

The recall, Mr. Brown said, was sound and fury signifying very little  an expensive blip that in a couple of weeks will be not much more than a footnote. But, he said, its down now to the bread and butter issues. And theyre the same old issues that have been around for a long time in modern California.
Mohamed Noor, a former Minneapolis police officer who in 2017 killed a woman who had called for help at her home, had his third-degree murder conviction thrown out by the Minnesota Supreme Court on Wednesday, an abrupt reversal in a case that drew international attention.

Mr. Noor, who is currently serving a 12-and-a-half-year prison sentence for killing Justine Ruszczyk, will be resentenced on the less severe count of second-degree manslaughter.

The conviction of Mr. Noor, the first in decades for a Minnesota officer in an on-duty fatal shooting, was held up at the time as a rare example of a police officer who was punished for a serious crime committed in the line of duty. The decision to overturn it was seen as a setback for activists who have pushed for significant changes to policing and underscored the difficulties of prosecuting and convicting police officers for on-duty shootings.

The 28-page opinion by Minnesotas highest court focused on the details of the depraved-mind murder statute on which Mr. Noor was convicted, and whether his actions could fit the definition of that crime if he was targeting a single person. Jurors acquitted Mr. Noor of a more serious second-degree murder charge. Second-degree manslaughter, the conviction for which Mr. Noor will be resentenced, can carry a sentence of up to 10 years in prison or as little as a fine.
Alex Murdaugh, a prominent South Carolina lawyer who is at the center of multiple investigations after his wife and son were shot and killed at the familys home in June, plans to turn himself in on Thursday on charges that he staged his own assassination, even as he continued to deny any involvement in the killing of his family.

One of Mr. Murdaughs lawyers, Jim Griffin, said Mr. Murdaugh faces charges including conspiracy to commit insurance fraud and lying to the police in connection with a Sept. 4 incident, in which Mr. Murdaugh admitted asking a client to shoot him so that his other son could collect on a $10 million insurance policy.

The stunning turn came on the same day that authorities in South Carolina announced they had opened an investigation into the 2018 death of a housekeeper at Mr. Murdaughs home.

The death of the housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield, 57, was attributed in court documents to a trip and fall accident, but Angela Topper, the coroner in Hampton County, S.C., said the death was never reported to her office and no autopsy was conducted.
I support the desire to recall him. You know, thats a constitutional right that, you know, people are exercising, and so, I just dont support him being recalled. I dont see Elder or any of the other ones as viable candidates or leadership for the state. I think that Gavin Newsom has failed our state so immensely. I have four children, and the last two years have been atrocious with the schools and just the lockdowns and the homeless and the taxes, its too much. Go, Larry! Personally, I think that we need change in California. You know, Ive been born and raised here, and the state has been in decline for the last five or so years, you know, and its getting worse and worse and we really need some change in California. Its always important to vote, no matter what, to exercise your rights. But today is particularly important because Im not sure that everybody understands the consequences for not voting. If we recall Governor Newsom, who knows who we end up with, and the options, in my opinion, are not looking very good. I just think there is no reason for the recall. I think the job hes doing is the best job that he could do, regardless of political affiliation. I think hes, hes handling the business he needs to handle for the people. Weve made a mess of our beautiful state. Larry Elder seems to have all the issues, whats going on, what needs to be addressed, and I wish him the best today, I pray he gets in, and like I said, Im a Democrat and Gavin needs to go. Sorry, I voted him in. He needs to go.
President Biden will virtually convene on Friday some of the leaders of the nations most responsible for climate change, urging them to do more to slash greenhouse gas emissions ahead of a critical United Nations summit in November.

Mr. Biden also will urge other countries to sign onto a global goal of reducing methane, the main component of natural gas and an extremely powerful greenhouse gas, a White House official said, speaking to reporters on a background call on the condition of anonymity.

Countries that sign on to the global methane pledge hammered out by the United States and Europe would agree to work together to reduce global methane emissions by at least 30 percent by 2030, according to European and United States climate negotiators who were not authorized to discuss details of the plan publicly.

Were trying to get people to join into a global effort to try to cope with methane, John Kerry, Mr. Bidens climate change envoy, said in an interview over the weekend, adding, Its hugely destructive. It accelerates the rate of global damage.
The last time the issue surfaced, in August 2019, Congress and President Donald J. Trump suspended the debt limit through July 31 of this year. On Aug. 2, Treasury reset the debt limit to $28.4 trillion, and the government crashed through it days later, less than seven months into President Bidens term.

Second, a debt ceiling increase will almost certainly need at least the acquiescence of Senate Republicans to overcome a filibuster and move to a vote. Mr. McConnell would like Democrats to add a debt ceiling increase to the social policy bill, which is being drafted under budget rules that would allow it to pass with 51 Senate votes.

But Democrats said weeks ago that they would not do that. Given the difficulty in reaching near-unanimous Democratic agreement on the measure  and a series of procedural obstacles they would have to clear  it would most likely be impossible to get it to the House and Senate floors in time to avoid a default.

Democrats say that they helped Mr. Trump and Republican leaders deal with the debt limit, and that fairness dictates bipartisanship now, especially on such a consequential matter. Hence, the shame campaign.

If Senator McConnell and Senate Republicans choose to default to avoid paying debts they helped rack up under President Trump, it will devastate the economy and irreparably discredit our countrys financial standing, their party and themselves, Justin Goodman, a spokesman for Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader, said on Wednesday. Senator McConnell will go down as the first person in history to force a default, and every single American will know the Senate Republicans are to blame.

Mr. McConnell is not the Democrats only target; they say other Senate Republicans, such as Mitt Romney of Utah, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, understand what is at stake. Democratic leaders are likely to attach a debt ceiling increase to an emergency spending bill that includes funding for Hurricane Ida reconstruction, wildfire management and Afghan refugee resettlement; they will then dare Republican senators from Louisiana, Idaho and Montana and other interested lawmakers to vote no later than this month.

Bidens 2022 Budget The 2022 fiscal year for the federal government begins on October 1, and President Biden has revealed what hed like to spend, starting then. But any spending requires approval from both chambers of Congress. Heres what the plan includes: Ambitious total spending: President Biden would like the federal government to spend $6 trillion in the 2022 fiscal year, and for total spending to rise to $8.2 trillion by 2031. That would take the United States to its highest sustained levels of federal spending since World War II, while running deficits above $1.3 trillion through the next decade. Infrastructure plan: The budget outlines the presidents desired first year of investment in his American Jobs Plan, which seeks to fund improvements to roads, bridges, public transit and more with a total of $2.3 trillion over eight years. Families plan: The budget also addresses the other major spending proposal Biden has already rolled out, his American Families Plan, aimed at bolstering the United States social safety net by expanding access to education, reducing the cost of child care and supporting women in the work force. Mandatory programs: As usual, mandatory spending on programs like Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare make up a significant portion of the proposed budget. They are growing as Americas population ages. Discretionary spending: Funding for the individual budgets of the agencies and programs under the executive branch would reach around $1.5 trillion in 2022, a 16 percent increase from the previous budget. How Biden would pay for it: The president would largely fund his agenda by raising taxes on corporations and high earners, which would begin to shrink budget deficits in the 2030s. Administration officials have said tax increases would fully offset the jobs and families plans over the course of 15 years, which the budget request backs up. In the meantime, the budget deficit would remain above $1.3 trillion each year.



Reputation aside, Mr. McConnell has lost before. In 2015, the Senate voted over his adamant opposition to curtail the federal governments post-Sept. 11 surveillance of U.S. phone records. He vowed this year to oppose a Senate organizing resolution to give Democrats control of the chamber unless the new majority promised to protect the legislative filibuster. Then he blinked.
Were going to figure it out, he added.

There are various reasons the United States has struggled to identify who, and what, is responsible for the episodes. Officials have considered that intelligence services from multiple countries could be involved, each with varying motives and equipment causing the illnesses, according to some U.S. officials.

Officials stress that the possibility of multiple adversaries remains only a theory, and that intelligence officials have yet to draw hard conclusions.

But Cold War-era surveillance technology developed by the Soviet Union proliferated to other countries, each of which has equipment that could prompt symptoms similar to previous attacks.

In at least some of the Havana syndrome cases, the technology was used by the G.R.U., Russias military intelligence agency, to eavesdrop but not to deliberately injure, according to some American officials. But other later episodes look more like deliberate attacks by the G.R.U., these officials said.

In other cases Russian intelligence may not be involved at all, beyond having shared the technology. Some intelligence agencies may have used faulty or badly calibrated microwave-based surveillance technology and inadvertently injured the American officials they were spying on.

The first batch of cases occurred at the American Embassy in Havana in 2016 and 2017. The next group occurred at diplomatic outposts in China, a country where it would have been difficult for Russian intelligence to operate, according to officials briefed on the intelligence.

Since then, officials have tracked cases in Europe and Asia.

Representative Adam B. Schiff, Democrat of California and the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said in an interview this summer that multiple countries could be involved and that it was critical not to dismiss various explanations.
Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen is pressing Representative Richard Neal, the Democratic chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, to include the Biden administrations full proposal for bolstering the Internal Revenue Service in its $3.5 trillion spending package, arguing that more resources and greater powers to catch tax evaders are crucial for reducing the tax gap.

In a letter to Mr. Neal, Ms. Yellen urged lawmakers not to water down a central piece of the proposal, which would give the Internal Revenue Service visibility into the financial accounts of taxpayers through more robust reporting requirements. Treasury officials say that will enable the agency to better crack down on rich people and companies who are not paying what they owe.

Legislation released by House Democrats earlier this week included the $80 billion in additional funding for the I.R.S. that the Biden administration had proposed to help expand staffing and enforcement capacity. However, a separate proposal to enact an information reporting regime was absent from the bill.

As you consider specific policy choices in designing an information reporting regime, it is important to ensure that the reporting regime is sufficiently comprehensive, so that tax evaders are not able to structure financial accounts to avoid it, Ms. Yellen wrote. Any suggestion that instead this reporting regime will be used to target enforcement efforts on ordinary Americans is wholly misguided.
The generals calls with the Chinese and others in October and January, Colonel Butler said, were in keeping with these duties and responsibilities conveying reassurance in order to maintain strategic stability.

The colonel did not address the specifics of the conversations, which, according to the book, also included assurances that the United States was not collapsing.

Things may look unsteady, he told Gen. Li Zuocheng of China on Jan. 8, two days after Mr. Trumps supporters stormed the Capitol to try to stop the certification of his election loss, in the second of two calls. But thats the nature of democracy, General Li. We are 100 percent steady. Everythings fine. But democracy can be sloppy sometimes.

Despite those assurances, the book asserts that General Milley was so concerned about Mr. Trump that he convened a meeting with top commanders later that day to remind them of the procedures for launching a nuclear weapon and that he needed to be involved in such decisions.

The Pentagon press secretary, John F. Kirby, said on Wednesday that there was nothing wrong with the request, saying it was completely appropriate for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as the senior military adviser to the president, to want to see the protocols reviewed. He added that I see nothing in what Ive read that would cause any concern.
But election experts still expressed worries about the amount of personal information being requested and the security risks, both to voters and to the electoral process, that could come with such a transfer of information. Such risks have grown increasingly common in partisan election reviews around the country.

Thats a really bad idea to have private information floating around in a Senate caucus, said Marian K. Schneider, an elections lawyer for the A.C.L.U. of Pennsylvania. And its really not clear how the data is going to be used, whos going to be looking at it, who can have access, how its going to be secured. And its unclear to me why they even need the personally identifying information.

Republicans in several states have pursued similar reviews  misleadingly labeled audits to suggest an authoritative nonpartisan investigation  in the name of protecting election integrity. The reviews have often centered on baseless claims and debunked conspiracy theories about the presidential contest, spurred in part by the falsehoods promoted by former President Donald J. Trump and his allies.

President Biden won Pennsylvania by more than 80,000 votes, and the results have been reaffirmed by the states Department of State.

The entirety of our proceedings today, issuing subpoenas, is based upon such a noncredible foundation, said Anthony H. Williams, a Democratic state senator who represents an area near Philadelphia. He added that it was very troubling and, in fact, leads us to darker days in this country, such as when hearings like these, during the McCarthy era, were held, where voices were silenced and liberties were denied, being bullied by the power of the government.

State Senator Jake Corman, the top Republican in the chamber, who approved the review last month, portrayed the investigation as merely trying to inform future legislation and lashed back at Democrats, asking what they were scared of.

All were doing is seeking facts, seeking information, so that we can make better public policy, Mr. Corman said.
The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday offered the first public look at Pfizers application for a booster coronavirus shot, two days before an outside advisory committee of experts is scheduled to meet to recommend whether or not the agency should approve the companys request.

It also comes amid significant disagreement about the need for boosters between career scientists at the agency and top Biden health officials, who have already started planning a broad booster campaign for this fall.

In a 23-page document reviewing the companys application, regulators examined safety and immune response data on roughly 300 adults who received a booster shot of Pfizer-BioNTechs vaccine six months after their second dose, finding an increased immune response in study participants, even as they said that coronavirus vaccines were holding up powerfully against severe forms of Covid-19. There were no serious safety concerns associated with the booster injection, the regulators reported.

Pfizer said in a separate filing that one month after a third injection, levels of neutralizing antibodies against the Delta variant in a subgroup of trial volunteers were between five and seven times higher, roughly, than they were a month after the second dose. The company also reiterated its findings that the effectiveness of its vaccine against symptomatic disease fell from about 96 percent to about 84 percent by six months after the second shot, although it held steady against severe disease.
The city of Philadelphia has agreed to pay $2 million to a young Black mother after police officers smashed the windows of the sport utility vehicle she was in, yanked her out and beat her after she inadvertently found herself in a police barricade last fall, the womans lawyers said on Tuesday.

The encounter happened as the woman, Rickia Young, was in the presence of her toddler and the 16-year-old son of a family friend who were also in the vehicle, said Kevin Mincey, one of Ms. Youngs lawyers.

Its life-changing money for Rickia and her family, Mr. Mincey said of the settlement in an interview. But what she went through was equally life-changing.

Image Rickia Young was bruised and her face was bloodied during an encounter with the Philadelphia police in October during which she was pulled from her sport utility vehicle, her lawyers said. Credit... Rickia Young, via Associated Press

The episode occurred on Oct. 27, 2020, amid protests in the aftermath of the fatal shooting of Walter Wallace Jr., a 27-year-old Black man who the police said was armed with a knife.
Vaccines for staff  and students?

Over the last few months, teachers have been the focus of vaccine mandates.

President Biden last week called on states to require vaccines for school staff, and he mandated vaccines for federal educators. Nine states, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., already have vaccine mandates in place.

But other states and districts do not seem to be rushing to adopt mandates. A survey of 100 large urban districts found that just one quarter require teacher vaccinations. Schools have other mitigation policies in place: 89 are requiring students to wear masks, according to the survey, conducted by the Center on Reinventing Public Education at the University of Washington. And 94 offer a remote option to families not ready for an in-person return to school.

Now, there are signs that more pressure may be put on students to get vaccines.

Last week, Los Angeles, the nations second-largest district, announced that it would mandate vaccinations for students 12 and older who are attending class in person, in addition to requiring teachers and staff members to be vaccinated.
Hundreds of thousands of people traveled to Americas national parks this summer, breaking a record at Yellowstone as the authorities relaxed domestic travel restrictions during the coronavirus pandemic.

Yellowstone National Park, which is mostly in Wyoming, set a record in August when the park hosted 921,844 recreation visits, park officials said this week. That number of visitors increased 12 percent from August 2019 and 4.5 percent from August 2020, as the pandemic drove more tourists to the park.

Park officials said that before this year, Yellowstones busiest August was in 2017, when more than 915,000 visits were recorded, many coinciding with the solar eclipse that year.

Yellowstone also hit a milestone in July, when it received the most recreational visits of any month in Yellowstones history  the first time visitation exceeded one million visits in a single month, according to the park.
Sam McRae was recently on a second date with a woman hed met online. Over lunch at a Mexican restaurant, the Atlanta-based attorney could feel the date going off the rails. When the woman asked where Mr. McRaes brother lived, he gave her a detailed account of his familys dynamics. When she inquired about his job, he unloaded about how the pandemic tanked his business.

I totally dumped every thought and worry I have had over the past year onto this poor woman, he said.

Even though he could see his dates eyes glaze over, he couldnt stop monopolizing the conversation. I didnt let her get a word in, he said. I cut her off and told her about my entire mental health history dating back to childhood.

Although they agreed to go on a third date the following weekend, she contacted him a day or two later to say she didnt see the relationship going anywhere. He didnt go out with the woman again, though he did apologize to her for being a bad date.

I realized I needed to talk to a therapist to unleash my inner worries in a safe environment, rather than inflict them on my Bumble dates, Mr. McRae said.

Oversharing  exclusively talking about personal matters and neglecting to volley the conversation back and forth  with someone you meet for the first time can be awkward and even damaging, said Debra Fine, author of The Fine Art of Small Talk. It can also lead to remorse and compounded stress as you stare at the ceiling at 4 a.m., kicking yourself for torpedoing your date.

You can put yourself in a number of compromising situations when you share just too much information, said etiquette expert Elaine Swann. Spilling sensitive details about your finances, bad-mouthing family members, bashing colleagues  these things can affect your dates perception of you permanently.

As singles slowly return to dating its exciting to be arranging drinks, dinners and cafe meet-ups again. Its tempting to be totally transparent in conversations, but being too loose-lipped can leave you feeling self-conscious about the first impression you made.

Sharing too much information can also provoke some people, especially if theyre not expecting to approach a sensitive topic on a date. Sometimes we go through battles and crises that can be a trigger for someone else, Ms. Swann said. She encouraged us to be mindful of what we share about our lives as you get to know someone new.

It can feel tricky to toe the line between being authentic in conversation (How are you doing? Im hanging in there, but barely.) without giving too many intimate details that overwhelm another person, said Phoenix Jackson, a licensed marriage and family therapist based in Oakland, Calif. But holding back becomes harder when one is chronically stressed, as, say, during a global pandemic.

Part of the problem is that were mostly exhausted, and its just harder to filter in that state, Ms. Jackson said.

Self-control depletion  also known as ego depletion  occurs when you expend your mental resources managing one behavior, which leaves you with less willpower to monitor subsequent behaviors, according to a 2015 study in the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology. When were not stressed, its easier to handle our impulses and keep our emotions in check. However, when your brain works overtime handling emotional strain, you might find yourself saying more about yourself than the other person wants to hear, as Mr. McRae experienced.

If youre grieving, experiencing setbacks at work or are overwhelmed by other significant stressors, that could definitely deplete your resources and make it more likely that you engage in oversharing, said Ginette Blackhart, a psychology professor at East Tennessee State University who has studied self-control depletion.

Even if you arent stellar at exercising restraint now, it doesnt mean youre forever doomed to terrible first dates. Studies show that you can increase self-control with practice, Dr. Blackhart said. The more you train yourself to be mindful with the things you say and do, the easier itll be to stop oversharing  at least until you get to know the person.

___

How to stop oversharing

Give yourself a time restriction

Talk for a few minutes  roughly the time it takes take a few bites of an appetizer or enjoy a sip or two of wine  then pose a question to the other person, said Ms. Fine. This will help you avoid dominating the discourse. Whether youre oversharing or just stating your opinion about the New York Jets, if you go on for more than three to four minutes, you have become a monopolizer, she said.

Reflect before writing or speaking

Before you divulge information with the person sitting across the table, Ms. Swann recommended asking yourself: Is this something I really want to share with the world? She said we can prevent embarrassing social slip-ups by going into social situations prepared with topics to talk about  and some to avoid.

___

How to recover from oversharing

Make it right

When you find yourself opening the floodgates with a date, Ms. Fine recommended saying something like, Oh dear, I have no idea why I blurted that out. Forgive me. The key is to acknowledge youve overshared and throw the conversation ball back, she said.

Lighten the mood

Give a warm smile or make a joke. Do something that indicates that you understand that theyre not just there to be overshared with, Ms. Jackson said. As a guideline, Ms. Jackson said we should aim to share three positive things  how you learned to knit a scarf, how you mastered a TikTok dance routine, how you finally streamed Citizen Kane  for every negative one. This will help keep the discussion from becoming too gloomy.

Bridge the conversation or change the subject

Once youve recovered your composure, its up to the oversharer to restore balance, said Ms. Fine. She recommended saying something like, Well, Ive told you a lot about whats happening in my family. Fill me in on whats happening with yours. You can also change the subject altogether, she said. Say, So anyway, what have you been watching?

___

How to handle someone oversharing to you

Shift the conversation

If someone you just met is making you uncomfortable, Ms. Fine recommended saying something like, Hearing about medical procedures isnt really my thing. What else has been going on with you lately? She also suggested disclosing something about yourself like, You know, Ive had a hard time during the pandemic too. Then go ahead and talk about yourself for a few minutes.

Politely excuse yourself

Perhaps you meet someone at a mixer and, after an initial spark, the conversation starts to fizzle. Its always OK to end your conversation with someone, Ms. Fine said. The key is to first acknowledge what youve heard  Wow, your roommate sounds like a real piece of work or You clearly have some passionate opinions about Phase Four of the M.C.U.  and then give a quick few words explaining why you have to leave.

Extend compassion to yourself and others

After fumbling his date, Mr. McRae realized he needed to take a break from the dating scene and focus on himself. He reached out to old law-school friends and started getting together with them for drinks on Friday afternoons.

Hes confident that having a robust support system will make it easier to for him to connect with someone in the future. I feel like I can start looking to date again and not see this one person as, Oh, they have to be everything to me right now because I have all these human needs of connection.

In the meantime, he said, we should all cut ourselves some slack if we overshare on a date, and practice a little patience with those who overshare with us.

Be gentle with yourself, and, as much as you can, everyone else who you encounter, Ms. Jackson said, because you just never know whats going on with another person.
SEOUL  The Rev. Cho Yong-gi, the charismatic founder of one of the worlds largest megachurches, whose preaching of can-do positive thinking helped fuel the explosive growth of Christianity in a once-war-ravaged South Korea, died on Tuesday at a hospital in Seoul. He was 85.

Mr. Cho, an emeritus pastor at the Yoido Full Gospel Church, had been hospitalized for more than a year after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage, the church said in a statement confirming his death.

The church, which once claimed a congregation of more than 800,000 worshipers, has shrunk since Mr. Cho retired a decade ago amid scandals, accused by elders of embezzling church funds and other transgressions.

But it is still the largest church in South Korea. More than 570,000 people attend services at the main building on Yoido Island, in the Han River, which bisects Seoul, as well as at five sanctuaries scattered around that capital city. Separately, hundreds of smaller churches affiliated with Yoido Full Gospel operate in South Korea and around the world.
The comments by Mr. Tang, Hong Kongs top security official, came after the citys corrections department announced this month that it had conducted a surprise search at a womens prison. The search found that six women had prohibited articles, officials said. Local news media reported that one of the women was a prominent pro-democracy activist. Aspects of the report were later confirmed by Woo Ying-ming, the head of the corrections department, in an interview with The South China Morning Post.

Prison officials had received intelligence in recent days that some people there had attempted to build up forces and incited others to participate, according to a department news release. It did not release further information.

Mr. Tang later mentioned the hair clips and chocolates. At an unrelated news conference, he said those items were part of the tactics some prisoners and their allies were using to undermine national security. Others, he said, included the 612 Humanitarian Relief Funds practice of sending letters to detained protesters, urging them to continue fighting. Still others, he added, used their identities  as clergy or local politicians, for example  as excuses to visit prisoners and then help them disseminate information.

His comments have since been echoed by other officials.

In his interview with The South China Morning Post, Mr. Woo said guards had been given the task of producing daily reports on certain influential figures within the prison system. This is how groups begin, like terrorist groups recruiting followers, Mr. Woo said of the support some of the detainees have, adding that the influence was subliminal.
SEOUL  North Korea launched two ballistic missiles off its east coast on Wednesday, the countrys first ballistic missile test in six months and a violation of multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions that ban North Korea from conducting such tests.

Hours after the missiles were launched, South Korea announced that its president, Moon Jae-in, had just attended the test of the countrys first submarine-launched ballistic missile, making South Korea the seventh country in the world to operate S.L.B.M.s, after the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and India.

The missile tests by both Koreas on the same day dramatically highlighted the intensifying arms race on the Korean Peninsula as nuclear disarmament talks between Washington and North Korea remained stalled. They also underscored the growing concern over regional stability, with Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga of Japan calling the North Korean missile launch outrageous and a threat to peace.

In its announcement, South Korea revealed that it had successfully developed a supersonic cruise missile and a long-range air-to-land missile to be mounted on the KF-21, a South Korean supersonic fighter jet, and that it had developed a ballistic missile powerful enough to penetrate North Koreas underground wartime bunkers.
Senaka Perera, the head of the Committee for Protecting Rights of Prisoners advocacy group, said Mr. Ratwatte broke into the Welikada Prison while intoxicated on Sept. 6 and then into the Anuradhapura prison on Sept. 12, which coincided with the national day of prisoners, a commemoration meant to raise awareness of the welfare of inmates.

Gajen Ponnambalam, a member of Parliament from the Tamil National Peoples Front who also made the accusation, said Tamil political prisoners were vulnerable because they are held under a law that allows long-term detention without trial or conviction. Human rights activists have expressed concern that prisoners held under the law, called the Prevention of Terrorism Act, are often targets of harassment, abuse and revenge attacks.

To have the Minister who is supposed to look after their affairs threaten to kill them cant possibly make their trauma any worse! Mr. Ponnambalam said on Twitter.

Sri Lankas civil war ended in 2009 when the government of Mahinda Rajapaksa ruthlessly crushed the Tamil Tigers, a separatist group that championed the cause of the minorities but often resorted to violent attacks and mass-casualty bombings. The countrys road to reconciliation since has been turbulent.

A coalition government that came to power in 2015 promised accountability for the crimes committed during the last stretch of the war and to address the grievances of the minority Tamil population. But activists say much of the already-slow progress was reversed by the return to power of the Rajapaksa family in 2019  former President Mahinda Rajapaksa became prime minister and his wartime defense minister brother, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, was elected president. Under their rule, the government is accused of pursuing politics that continue to alienate minorities.

Since taking power, Mr. Rajapaksa has pardoned several officials accused of committing war crimes during the final years of the conflict and has called some of the accountability promises political victimization of security officers.

In March, the U.N. human rights body passed a resolution that strengthened work toward collecting evidence on crimes during the war, a process that Ms. Bachelet said had begun.
Mr. Raabs American counterpart, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, has also come under political pressure over his handling of Afghanistan. Several Republicans have demanded his resignation, and he faced tough questioning from Republicans in testimony before Congress this week.

But Mr. Blinken has something that Mr. Raab does not  a close relationship with his boss. Mr. Blinken has been a longtime foreign policy adviser to President Biden, while Mr. Raab challenged Mr. Johnson for the leadership of the Conservative Party in 2019. His elevation to the Cabinet was mostly a reward for his Brexit credentials, which made him popular with that wing of the party.

He was a natural fall guy when the prime minister decided someone had to carry the can for the governments muddled and ineffectual response to the Afghan crisis, said Peter Westmacott, a former British ambassador to the United States.

While it was Mr. Raab who took the fall on Wednesday, his travails were a setback for Mr. Johnson as well. For a prime minister eager to showcase a new Global Britain, Afghanistan was a humbling episode. Mr. Biden, officials said, did not consult Mr. Johnson in advance about the timing or logistics of the evacuation, even though Britain was the second-largest contributor of troops to the war among NATO members, after the United States.

Britain found itself scrambling to organize flights for its diplomats, aid workers and Afghan allies. Critics of Mr. Johnson, including in his own party, questioned why Britain did not work with other NATO members to mitigate the chaos that erupted after Mr. Biden announced the Aug. 31 withdrawal.

We boast about Global Britain, but where is Global Britain on the streets of Kabul? Mr. Johnsons predecessor, Theresa May, said in a biting address in Parliament last month. What does it say about NATO if we are entirely dependent on a unilateral decision taken by the United States?

American officials countered that all NATO members were consulted and had signed up to the withdrawal, a position echoed by the alliances secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg. But feelings toward Mr. Biden remain raw among some in the Johnson government and in the Conservative-leaning press.
Mr. Aragones said he wanted to explore the possibility of creating legislation in Spain that would legalize such a vote. What is important is there is a political will to get to an agreement, he said.

The issue of an amnesty may also be a thorny one. Such a deal would include Carles Puigdemont, the former Catalan leader who fled Spain to escape charges. He did not receive a pardon this year because he remains a fugitive, Spain said.

But Mr. Aragones said only an amnesty deal could turn the page on the conflict.

While Catalan separatists have failed for years to garner significant international support for their cause, most notably at the level of the European Union in Brussels, separatism has also dominated the political agenda elsewhere in Europe.

On Monday, Nicola Sturgeon, the leader of Scotland, called on the British government to allow Scotland to hold another independence referendum by the end of 2023, following the one in 2014 in which Scots rejected splitting off.

Much as in Scotland, there are not just divisions in Catalonia over whether independence should be pursued but also between the parties seeking independence. The issue has also shown the divide between residents of Catalonias capital and tourism hub, Barcelona, and smaller towns that have helped separatists keep control of the regional parliament since 2015.

Mr. Aragones represents the left-wing Esquerra Republicana party, which leapfrogged Together for Catalonia  the more hard-line separatist party of the former Catalan leader Mr. Puigdemont  in the last regional elections to become the largest separatist force in Catalonia.

Those tensions surfaced again in the run-up to Wednesdays meeting. Mr. Aragones rejected Together for Catalonias nominees to the Catalan delegation, because two of them were not in the regional government, but were former prisoners who had been pardoned on the sedition charges.
MOSCOW  In an undisclosed location outside Russia, five people have been meeting regularly for months to plot out how to deliver an improbable blow to President Vladimir V. Putin in this weekends Russian election.

The five are allies of the imprisoned opposition leader Aleksei A. Navalny, all of them exiled because of the threat of lengthy jail sentences. Their strategy is to use the parliamentary election that runs from Friday to Sunday to undermine Mr. Putins ruling United Russia party  even though the authorities have barred just about all Navalny backers and other well-known opposition figures from getting on the ballot.

The idea, which Mr. Navalny calls smart voting, is to coalesce opposition-minded voters around one particular candidate running against United Russia in each of the countrys 225 electoral districts. That candidate could be a liberal, a nationalist or a Stalinist. Before Russians go to the polls, they can punch their address into the Navalny smartphone app, which then responds with the names of the candidates they should vote for  whether or not voters agree with those persons views.

We want as many non-Kremlin-approved politicians as possible to end up in Parliaments, including regional ones, Ruslan Shaveddinov, one of the Navalny allies working on the smart voting push, said in a telephone interview. This, at any rate, creates turbulence in the system, which is very, very important to us.
ROME  Pope Francis weighed in on Wednesday on a debate roiling the Roman Catholic Church in the United States, where conservative bishops are pushing for guidelines that would deny communion to politicians, like President Biden, who support abortion rights.

I have never refused the eucharist to anyone, Francis said, though he added that he did not know of any instance when such a politician had come to him for communion.

Bishops, the pope said, should be pastors, not politicians.

It was the closest the pope has come to addressing the issue head-on, although the Vatican in June warned conservative U.S. bishops to drop their push to deny communion to Mr. Biden, who is only the second Roman Catholic to be president.

On Wednesday, Francis left little doubt about his view.

If we look at the history of the church, we will see that every time the bishops have not managed a problem as pastors, they have taken a political stance on a political problem, he told reporters on his plane as he returned from a four-day trip to Hungary and Slovakia. He cited a history of atrocities committed in the name of the faith when the church became involved in politics.
BRUSSELS  As Europeans try to lock in gains made by inoculation campaigns, the European Union on Wednesday pledged to reinforce its preparedness for future health crises and to increase coronavirus vaccine donations to low- and middle-income countries.

In her annual speech on the state of the European Union, Ursula von der Leyen, president of the blocs executive arm, the European Commission, lauded the success in vaccinating its citizens after a shaky start. But she called global vaccinations the blocs most urgent priority, warning that wide discrepancies between rich and developing nations could lead to a pandemic of the unvaccinated.

With less than 1 percent of global doses administered in low-income countries, the scale of injustice and the level of urgency are obvious, Ms. von der Leyen said in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, eastern France, on Wednesday.

In a wide-ranging speech, Ms. von der Leyen addressed issues including the climate emergency, the crisis in Afghanistan, economic recovery and technological competition, praising the European Unions successes during the pandemic while acknowledging its inconsistencies and imperfections.
Fox News is the big loser in Republican power grab that sought to boot California governor Gavin Newsom from office.

Rupert Murdochs pride and joy gave excessive airtime to conservative firebrand & talk show host Larry Elder, which sucked the oxygen from other GOP hopefuls in the recall race.

Elder appeared 52 times in prime time on Fox, according to a report by Media Matters. No other GOP competitor appeared more than eight times.

Newsoms recall was a long-shot in the Golden State in which Democrats outnumber Republicans by two-to-one.

But there were a good number of voters disenchanted with the governors policies on homelessness, COVID-19, wildfires, crime and his decision to dine at the swanky French Laundry during lockdown.

They never would have voted for Trump wannabe Elder but may have voted to oust Newsom in favor of a more moderate GOP candidate like ex-San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer, a former executive at NCG Porter Novelli.

Nearly two-thirds of voters supported keeping Newsom in Sacramento.

Fox-powered Elder topped the list of potential replacements, grabbing 46.9 percent of the tally. Real estate agent Kevin Paffrath, a self-described 51/49 percent Democrat-Republican, took second at 9.8 percent, and Faulconer came in third with 8.6 percent.

Newsom owes Fox. At the very least, he should invite Rupe to dinner at a restaurant that is not the French Laundry.



How about a sit-down at In-N-Out Burger?

Bospar leads the way for PR firms dealing with the fallout of the Texas abortion ban, which may trigger a flight of young PR talent from the state.

The San Francisco technology shop is offering its six Austin employees, which account for 10 percent of its total workforce, relocation money if they feel the need to exit the Lonestar Star due to its restrictive new law.

Curtis Sparrer, principal at Bospar, told ODwyers the firm is willing to spend $10K per person and paid time off to leave Texas under what he calls a relocation or evacuation program.

He expects the effort will help Bospar attract and retain talent in Texas.

Bospar announced its plan Sept. 9, a day ahead of a similar plan by Salesforce.

Sparrer hopes other PR firms will follow his agencys lead in order to keep the abortion ban front and center in the national debate.

Hill+Knowlton Strategies, Real Chemistry, Edelman, Weber Shandwick, BCW and FleishmanHillard are among major firms that have multiple offices in Texas.

The ball is in their court.

Congress has debated and attacked social media but has failed miserably to address the role that platforms play in fostering political polarization.

Its time for Joe Biden to step in, according to a report issued this month by the NYU|Stern Center for Business and Human Rights, which faults Congress for being unable to overcome the very sort of dysfunction that is one of the consequences of extreme political division and distrust.

Biden needs to tackle polarization in a serious, deliberate way.

The Report criticizes the president for oversimplifying a very serious problem when he makes flippant remarks such as saying Facebook is killing people by spreading misinformation about COVID-19 vaccinations.

NYU|Stern calls on the president to make one or more speeches and appoint a bipartisan blue-ribbon commission to press messaging that the malign effects of online polarization will trigger future versions of the Jan. 6 Capitol Hill riot.

Presidential leadership can begin to break the logjam in Congress and create a path to reform, according to the Report.

Time is running out, Joe.
THE schools immunisatin programme will commence in all schools in Offaly and nationwide from September 27.

The HSE has called on parents to continue to protect their children from preventable diseases such as measles, whooping cough, meningitis and HPV amongst others, as the programme commences.

Dr Lucy Jessop, Director of Public Health, HSE National Immunisation Office explains: Schools will be sending home immunisation consent packs for both first year students and Junior Infants. We would ask parents to keep an eye out for these and urge them to return these completed to the school, consenting to vaccination of their child. A parent or legal guardian can sign the consent form. Vaccination is vitally important to protect children from preventable diseases such as measles, whooping cough and meningitis amongst others.

If a parent or guardian has consented for their child to receive 4 in 1, MMR, HPV, Tdap or MenACWY since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic but didnt get their child vaccinated due to restrictions or having to self-isolate / cocoon, they can still be vaccinated. They can contact the school team to arrange an appointment. Contact details are available on the HSE website.

No interval is needed between getting the COVID-19 vaccine and a school vaccine. We would like to assure parents that it is completely safe for your child to receive these vaccinations close together or even on the same day. continues Dr Lucy Jessop.

Primary School - 4 in 1 and MMR vaccine

When a child is in Junior Infants, they will be offered two vaccines: the 4 in 1 booster to protect against diphtheria, polio, tetanus and whooping cough (pertussis); and a second dose of the MMR vaccine to protect against measles, mumps and rubella. Learn more about the 4 in 1 and MMR school programme here.

Second Level School - HPV, Tdap and MenACWY vaccines

All students entering first year of secondary school will be offered a tetanus, low dose diphtheria and low dose pertussis (whooping cough), (Tdap) non live booster vaccine and a booster dose of the Meningococcal ACWY (MenACWY) non live vaccine which protect teenagers from life-threatening meningococcal group A, C, W and Y infection. The HPV (Human Papillomavirus) non live vaccine will also be offered. The HPV vaccine protects against almost all cases of cervical cancer, 7 out of 10 vaginal and 5 out of 10 vulval cancer, 9 out of 10 HPV related anal cancers and 9 out of 10 cases of genital warts. Two doses of the HPV vaccine are given usually given at 0 and 6 months.

School vaccines are normally given in schools by HSE school vaccination teams. The HSE school vaccination programme may need to be done in a different venue or may be delayed because of COVID-19. The HSE will try to keep these changes to a minimum.

In Ireland, all the recommended vaccines given in the school's immunisation programme are free.
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While probing the cases related to other parallel telephone exchanges, the investigative agencies learned about this parallel telephone exchange operating in Mettupalayam, inside an Ayurvedic dispensary.

In yet another incident that shows the established network of Islamic terrorism in Kerala, a parallel telephone exchange operated by one Hussain has been raided in the Palakkad district. Hussain was using his Ayurvedic dispensary shop, named keerthi as a cover for this anti-national activity.

Earlier, similar telephone exchanges were unearthed in Bangalore and Calicut, where the investigative agencies had found connections with ISI and Islamic fundamentalist organisations.

While probing the cases related to other parallel telephone exchanges, the investigative agencies learned about this parallel telephone exchange operating in Mettupalayam, inside an Ayurvedic dispensary.

Earlier, parallel telephone exchanges were mostly found in Kashmir. But after the abrogation of Article 370 and the union government tightening the security, the Islamic fundamentalists have shifted their base to Kerala.

Ibrahim from Kerala Arrested for running a parallel telephone exchange in Bengaluru

Bengaluru central crime branch has arrested Malappuram (Kerala) native Ibrahim Pullattil (36) and his companion for running a parallel telephone exchange illegally in the city. This facility was used to connect foreign calls with the local people without connecting to the authorised telephone exchange.

During the search, 30 sim-box devices capable of handling 960 SIM cards were found.

The investigating agency is probing the terror angle since there is a high probability of using this facility for terrorism-related activities.
Two representatives from the national centre for disease control in New Delhi and the Imphal-based regional office of the Union health ministry arrived in Mizoram, and are camping in Mamit locality.

Guwahati: Unlike other States of northeast Bharat, Mizoram continues to report the visible number of novel coronavirus infections, which compelled the centre to send a team of experts to study and access the Covid-19 crisis in the Myanmar-Bangladesh bordering state, where the partial lockdown continues in Aizawl till 18 September.

The hilly state with a population of around 12 lakhs has 13,366 active cases, with 1,502 individuals reportedly infected on Tuesday. Shockingly, over 300 children have also been infected that worry both the government in Aizawl and New Delhi. To date, Mizoram has recorded 72,883 positive cases, where 59,273 patients have already recovered. Casualty has gone up to 244.

According to the government sources, the Aizawl district has registered the highest number of cases (879), followed by Champhai (144) and Siaha (101). The authority has tested over 9.74 lakh people, and its recovery rate rests at 81.32%. Altogether, 6.64 lakh people were vaccinated, where 3 lakh have received both doses.

Pu Zoramthanga led the Mizoram government continues the partial lockdown in Aizawl municipal area till Friday. All the places of worship and community halls are allowed to reopen only in corona-free localities outside the capital city with some restrictions. Schools and colleges remain closed in the Aizawl locality, whereas the other parts of Mizoram are allowed to go for physical classes.

Meanwhile, two representatives from the national centre for disease control in New Delhi and the Imphal-based regional office of the Union health ministry arrived in Mizoram, and they are camping in Mamit locality. Their recommendations seem to be important for the authority to take subsequent steps to contain the virus spread.

Tourism conference concluded: The two-day tourism conference with the cultural ministers of the north-eastern States successfully concluded in the city on Tuesday. Organized by the Union tourism ministry, the conference was inaugurated by DoNER minister G. Kishan Reddy, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, Union ministers Arjun Ram Meghwal and Ajay Bhatt were also present.

Addressing the second days session, Union tourism secretary Arvind Singh stated that the conference was successful in apprising the

participants of the several projects and initiatives being undertaken by the centre for the development of the region. He informed about several unique initiatives for the region. The deliberations on the second day were focused on the progress of various projects sanctioned under the Swadesh Darshan and PRASHAD scheme.

While discussing the topic, Union tourism additional director general Rupinder Brar declared that the ministry has already sanctioned 16 projects for the region. She further added that the ministry is giving special emphasis on developing infrastructure, ground capacity and skills in the region.
Moti Ram was involved in several major terrorist attacks against security forces, especially the attack near the Tadmetla village in 2010, in which seventy-six security personnel were martyred.

The dreaded Left-wing terrorist Motiram, a member of PLGA-1, one of the most powerful battalions of Maoists, has been arrested from Bijapur in operation conducted by the security forces. According to the information received, on Sunday (September 12), a joint team of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Special Task Force (STF) and district police nabbed Moti Ram between Patelpara and Golgunda villages of Bijapur district.

Left-wing terrorist Motiram and his Maoist accomplices attacked security personnel near the Tadmetla village in 2010. Seventy-six security personnel were martyred in this attack. Apart from this, there is strong evidence of his involvement in the 2017 Burkapal Naxalite attack, in which 25 CRPF personnel were martyred. Moti Ram, a resident of the Naimed area of Bijapur district, was involved in several major terrorist attacks in the southern region of the Bastar division. Security agencies are considering his arrest as a big success. The Chhattisgarh government had also placed a bounty of 8 lakh on Maoist terrorist Motiram, synonymous with terror in these areas, for almost 11 years.

Motiram, an active participant in many Maoist terrorist activities, worked with the infamous Maoist Madavi Hidma. It is to be known that the PLGA battalion number one, of which Motiram is a member, is headed by Madavi Hidma. With his arrest, such speculations are being made that information about the whereabouts of Madavi Hidma, the main conspirator of the recent Bijapur attack, can also be extracted. Along with this, important information can also be obtained about one of the most powerful Maoists in the Bastar division, PLGA Battalion No. One.

It should be noted that on April 6, 2010, Naxalites ambushed a battalion of security personnel in Tadmetla village of Sukma district. In this sudden attack, 75 CRPF personnel and one district force jawan were martyred. CRPF personnel patrolling near Tadmetla village, about five km away from Chintalnar camp, had entered the forest under the guise of terrorists. The Maoists who were already hiding there opened fire on the trapped jawans. The encounter, which started at around six in the morning, lasted only an hour. It was the same attack, after which a fraction of students and teachers of the Left group of Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi celebrated the killing of soldiers.

It is believed that when a dreaded terrorist involved in this attack has been arrested, after interrogating him, the security forces can conduct more similar operations. It should be noted that in recent days, the security forces have been conducting a vigorous campaign against the Maoists. Along with this, the continuous surrender from Maoist organizations in the Bastar division has brought these already weakened Left extremists on the back foot.
Two of the arrested had reportedly 'received training in Pakistan' in a module supported by fugitive Don Dawood Ibrahim's brother Anees Ibrahim.

New Delhi: The Taliban takeover in Afghanistan has boosted terror elements in the region, and some of these notorious guys were going active.

One such Pakistani spy agency, ISI-controlled module, was busted by the Delhi police.

Delhi police on central agencies inputs and coordinating with cops from other states, including ATS from poll-bound and communally sensitive Uttar Pradesh, busted the Pak-orchestrated module and arrested six of them.

The arrested persons have been identified as Jaan Mohammad Shaikh (47 years old) of Mumbai, Osama (22) of Delhi, Moolchand alias Lala (47) of Raebareli, Zeeshan Qamar (28) of Prayagraj, Mohammad Abu Bakar (23) of Bahraich and Mohammad Amir Javed (31) of Lucknow.

The operation spanned states such as Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, besides the Special Cell in Delhi police.

Sameer was picked from Kota in Rajasthan when he was travelling in a train from Mumbai.

"During a raid in the morning, a terrorist from Maharashtra was arrested in Rajasthan's Kota. Three were arrested with the help of the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) while two others were nabbed in the national capital," Neeraj Thakur, Special SP of Special Cell, Delhi Police, told a press conference.

He said, "It appeared a very effectively planned and organised module controlled from across the border. These terrorists were divided into two teams. One team was asked to keep RDX and other ammunition in safe custody to be used in the future." The other team was assigned to organise funding through Hawala operations.

Two of the arrested had reportedly 'received training in Pakistan' in a module supported by fugitive Don Dawood Ibrahim's brother Anees Ibrahim.

Thakur said these two individuals had travelled to Muscat in April and were then taken to Pakistan.

"On preliminary investigation, it has been found that about 15 Bengali (Bangla) speaking individuals were also part of the training exercise," he said, adding that further information is yet to be ascertained.

"The Special Cell of Delhi police had received inputs from a central agency that a Pakistan-abetted and sponsored group of entities is planning to execute serial IED blasts in India. For this, the group has got multiple IEDs arranged from sources across the border."

The terrorists were planning something big before the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. Also, they were planning to carry out targeted killings and IED blasts in various parts of the country during the upcoming festival season, especially during Navratri and at Ram Leela gatherings.

The police recovered two hand grenades, two improvised explosive devices (IEDs), a kilogram of RDX, and a pistol of Italian made.

Interrogation revealed that two of the accused  Osama and Qamar  had travelled to Muscat, from where they were ferried to Pakistan on a ship and a boat.

"In Pakistan, they were kept at a farmhouse at Gwadar, a port city on the southwestern coast of Balochistan region. 15 days training was imparted in firearms," the senior police official said.

Qamar and Osama were probably trained at a camp in Thatta, Pakistan's Sindh province.

Considering the gravity of the situation and the stakes involved, separate operations were launched, and multiple teams were parked in Mumbai, Lucknow, Prayagraj and Rae-Bareilly.

The police said, based on the interrogation, this module had received sophisticated RDX-based IEDs, grenades, pistols, and cartridges from a sleeper cell operative, and these were sent to UP for safe concealment.

Sheikh and Moolchand, the "underworld components" of the module, acting at the behest of Pakistan's Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI), were tasked to ensure the transportation of arms and explosives and even funding through hawala channels.
Dear Savvy Senior,

Can you tell me what I need to do to replace a variety of important documents? Our house burned down a few months ago, and we lost everything including our home property deed, car titles, old tax returns, Social Security, Medicare and Covid vaccine cards, birth certificates, marriage license and passports.

Stressed Seniors

Dear Stressed,

Im very sorry for your loss, but youll be relieved to know that replacing important documents that are destroyed, lost or stolen is pretty easy once you know where to turn. Here are the replacement resources for each document you mentioned.

Birth certificates: If you were born in the United States, contact the vital records office in the state where you were born (see CDC.gov/nchs/w2w/index.htm for contact information). This office will give you specific instructions on what you need to do to order a certified copy and what it will cost you  usually between $10 and $30.

Car titles: Most states offer replacements through a local department of motor vehicles office. Youll need to complete a replacement title application form and pay the application fee, which varies by state. Youll also need to show ID and proof that you own the car, such as your vehicle registration or your license-plate number and VIN (vehicle identification number). To get an application, go to DMV.org, pick your state, and print it or fill it out on the site.

Property deed: To access your house deed, contact your county clerks office, where deeds are usually recorded  you may be charged a small fee to get a copy.

Marriage certificate: Contact the vital records office of the state you were married in to order a copy (see CDC.gov/nchs/w2w/index.htm). Youll need to provide full names for you and your spouse, the date of your wedding, and the city or town where the wedding was performed. Fees range from $10 to $30.

Social Security cards: In most states (except in Alabama, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, Oklahoma and West Virginia), you can request a replacement Social Security card online for free at SSA.gov/myaccount.

If you live in a state that the online service is not available, youll need to fill out form SS-5 (see SSA.gov/forms/ss-5.pdf to print a copy) and take it in or mail it to your nearby Social Security office along with a number of evidence documents that are listed on this form. For more information or to locate the Social Security office that serves your area, call 800-772-1213 or see SSA.gov/locator.

Medicare cards: If you are enrolled in original Medicare, you can replace a lost or damaged Medicare card by calling Medicare at 800-633-4227, or by logging into your

MyMedicare.gov account. If, however, you get Medicare health or drug benefits from a Medicare Advantage Plan, such as an HMO, PPO, or PDP, youll need to call your plan to get your card replaced.

COVID-19 vaccination card: Your first step is to go back to your vaccination site and see if theyll give you a replacement. Bring an ID and try to recall the date you were vaccinated. If thats not feasible, contact your state health department immunization information system (see CDC.gov/vaccines/programs/iis/contacts-locate-records.html) where you should be able to print out a replacement sheet.

Tax returns: To get copies of old tax returns start with your tax preparer, who usually keeps copies of your returns on file. You can also get copies of federal returns directly from the Internal Revenue Service. Youll need to fill out and mail in IRS form 4506. To download this form IRS.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f4506.pdf or call 800-829-3676 and ask them to mail you a copy. The cost is $43 for each return requested.

Passports: You can apply for a replacement passport at a Passport Application Acceptance Facility. Many post offices, public libraries and local government offices serve as such facilities. You can search for the nearest authorized facility at iafdb.travel.state.gov. The fee is $145.

Send your senior questions to: Savvy Senior, P.O. Box 5443, Norman, OK 73070, or visit SavvySenior.org. Jim Miller is a contributor to the NBC Today show and author of The Savvy Senior book.
September 18, 2008 offered a spectacularly beautiful sunrise, although at that moment I was tucked down in the brush while patiently waiting out the intense scrutiny of a large doe nearby.

I had bumped into the doe and her pair of fawns in the predawn darkness, right next to the ladder-stand I was planning to be in. Such can happen in the deer woods, and as the darkness paled away into light, I watched the doe stomping her foot on the ground as she bobbed her head in an effort to make out what had almost tripped over her. Fortunately, the wind was in my favor, and due to the thick brush, the suspicious doe couldnt ascertain matters.

Finally, the doe snorted and departed with her fawns in tow, and I was able to quietly climb the ladder just a few feet away. Once I was in position, I broke open the vintage single-shot shotgun in my lap and slipped in a maroon, sausage-sized deer slug.

The 12-gauge shotgun I was using is an Ithaca Model 66 Super Single that my mother and I had purchased together for my fathers birthday many years earlier. It is nothing fancy, but it is a durable and dependably accurate piece which features a lever like those found on lever-action repeaters, for breaking the gun open.

Designed specifically for shooting deer slugs, the Model 66's front sight is a highly visible orange plastic affair that has a fine chisel point for acute shot placement. The buckhorn rear sight is affixed right next to the very back of the 22-inch barrel, offering a marvelous sight-radius.

Even though it is a smoothbore, the old Ithaca can readily keep all of its shots near the center of an 8-inch paper plate at 100 yards, which aint bad for a punkin-ball-slinger and open sights.

I harvested one of my largest whitetail bucks using that old Ithaca way back when, so it has some additional history which speaks for itself.

Shotguns, whether rifled or smoothbore, can be quite fickle about what flavor (brand) of slugs they prefer to digest. This becomes readily apparent at the 100-yard mark, and the notable difference is usually related more to the elevation factor. The slug groups will also become tighter at longer range as well, when the shotgun finds a particular brand of slugs it likes.

Smoothbore shotguns readily showed a strong presence in the deer hunting arena in the former shotgun-only zone. This was primarily due to the fact most whitetail deer are harvested at ranges rarely exceeding the 100-yard mark. There was also the price factor to consider, as you can buy a 5-pack of foster-type slugs for smoothbores for the cost of only a single, sabot-type slug for the rifled-barreled versions.

A 12-gauge smoothbore, for instance, using a full-bore-sized, one-ounce lead slug, can deliver enough energy out to 50 yards, as well as create a large wound channel that would make an elephant gun blush. I know professional bear hunting guides who prefer a smoothbore, 12-gauge shotgun stoked with heavy, foster-type slugs for following up wounded bears in heavy, up-close and personal cover (been there and done that myself).

Deer slugs for smoothbore shotguns today are also vastly improved over what we had to deal with years back. An example of this is Federals Truball foster-type slug that features a small plastic ball that snugly fits in the hollow base of the slug and keeps everything centered as it exits the barrel. This means more consistent accuracy at the longer ranges.

In the old, non-finicky Ithaca, the Federal Truball proved to be my favorite flavor, and needless to say, this is the combination I was using for that opening morning of the first-ever, early doe-season in the Thumb area.

An important tool for this type of doe hunting is a good binocular for carefully assessing the deer before shooting. The first thing in order when glassing a deer is to be sure no antlers are sprouting from the head during an antlerless-only season, as well as to be sure the deer is indeed a doe and not a button-buck.

Although button-bucks are legal per antlerless regulations, and also very tender to eat, they sure dont offer much venison, and obtaining some substantial prime venison was my primary objective.

About an hour after daybreak, I spotted several deer headed my way, all of them bucks, and the darkest one was a real standout mature brute. The big one eventually separated from the rest and bedded down about 60 yards from my position. Glassing him over with my binocular was a pure delight, and that is when I picked up motion coming towards me from an opposite angle to the bedded buck.

This was a single deer that, according to my glassing efforts, had no antlers or bumps on its head, and the long-nose profile and large size clued me in that it was a full-grown doe, even though no fawns were with it.

I watched as it approached an apple tree nearby, and it began plucking and eating apples from the branches. This allowed me to further assess the deer, and I decided it was a keeper provided it offered me an on-the-platter shot. I didnt want a blood-tracking job involving the immense cornfield nearby.

A flock of low-flying geese passed overhead singing that very special chorus which always accents an outdoor experience. A fox squirrel was also investigating my presence in its tree, and I could hear its toenails digging into the bark as it eased down ever closer to the top of my head. Then, the full-grown doe decided it had had enough apples and ambled out from under the tree on an angle that would bring it to within 35 yards from my ladder-stand. I slowly eased the old Ithaca into my shoulder and quietly cocked its hammer back.

I prefer a high shoulder shot to anchor a deer on the spot. A hit there not only breaks the top of the shoulder, it also causes trauma to the upper portion of the lungs and impacts the spine to a degree as well. When this shot is properly accomplished, the deer automatically drops and death is near instantaneous. I refer to this as surgical shot placement, and I knew from long experience that the old Ithaca was up to the task.

The doe eased in front of me and came to a stop fully broadside to nibble at the ground. When the pinpoint of the orange sight rested on the exact spot, I touched the trigger, and the doe dropped straight down as she emitted a loud blat, and hardly twitched a bit. The loud blast from a 12-gauge from only a couple feet away wasnt the squirrels cup of tea, either, as it took up flying by leaping from tree to tree after launching itself from just above my hat.

The large buck had jumped up from his bed, and instead of departing, actually stalked in closer to see what all of the ruckus was about. He literally kept me treed for half an hour because I didnt want him wising up to my whereabouts, especially the ladder-stand location per future use.

Eventually, the buck moved off and I was able to climb down and tag and admire my prize. She turned out to be a very plump year-and-a-half-old doe that hadnt had any fawns and offered prime venison. For a fact, folks, using an old shotgun with some family history made that new experience all the better.

A few years ago, I gave the old Ithaca to my youngest son, Joe, and despite now being in the Limited Firearms Zone, he still prefers to use his grandfathers shotgun for deer hunting. Im sure some nostalgia is involved, but Joe knows for a fact that the old Ithaca offers a very dependable and profound nature in being a deer-getter.

In my opinion, a sad fact with todays Michigan deer hunters is that a majority dont even purchase an antlerless deer tag. It relates to a holdover sacred cow concept placed on does in the early to mid-20th century to increase deer numbers, with a bucks only rule, which certainly isnt needed today.

Only 41% of deer hunters purchased an antlerless license in 2019, and only 35% did so in 2020 (probably because combo tags could be used for does). Only 2% of deer hunters purchase three or more doe tags a year.

Personally, I am truly looking forward to the September 18 and 19 early antlerless deer season, and it is an outdoor pastime that I much enjoy.

And yep, folks, putting prime venison in the freezer is definitely a bonus!

Email Tom Lounsbury at tlounsburyoutdoors@gmail.com
BAGHDAD (AP)  Iraq is taking measures to close loopholes and conduct fair elections despite attempts to compromise the upcoming polls, the head of Iraqs electoral commission said.

Judge Jaleel Adnan Khalaf, chairman of the Iraqi Independent High Electoral Commission overseeing the election on Oct. 10, told The Associated Press in an interview this week that it has identified and thwarted attempts of voter fraud.

What we hear here and there is that citizens are selling their voter cards, he said, referring to a way for candidates to essentially buy votes. The commission has set strict regulations and strict rules.

Next months vote is being held a year before the elections were due, in line with a promise made by Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi when he assumed office in 2020. He is seeking to appease anti-government protesters who rose up in October 2019 in Baghdad and Iraq's south.

Tens of thousands of Iraqi youth took to the streets to decry rampant corruption, poor services and unemployment. Hundreds died as security forces used live ammunition and tear gas to disperse crowds. The protests dwindled following restrictive measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

The elections are also being held under a new reformed electoral law that divides Iraq into 83 constituencies, instead of 18, which theoretically allows more independents to participate.

Khalaf said the commission has been receiving complaints as Election Day nears, including incidents of parties using weapons to intimidate voters in addition to the selling of voter cards.

The legitimacy and transparency of the election has been questioned with incidents of violence against activists and independent candidates on the rise, including a string of targeted killings in the months leading to the polls. The death of Karbala-based activist Ehab al-Wazni inspired many to declare a boycott of the election.

Despite Khalafs reassurances, Iraqis remain highly disillusioned and many are not convinced the political establishment can produce a fair vote.

Concerns are also mounting internally within the commission. One official said they were aware that members of the Popular Mobilization Forces, a state-sanctioned militia umbrella group, will vote along with the general public on Oct. 10 and not on Oct. 8, the day designated for members of the armed forces. The militia group has not provided information to the commission about their fighters, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

The United Nations expanded its electoral assistance to the commission to help promote electoral integrity in the eyes of the public. The 2018 election was marked by severe voter apathy, with only 44% of registered voters participating. There will also be 130 international experts monitoring the poll, along with 600 support staff.

There are 24 million registered voters, Khalaf said, with 3,449 candidates running in the election for 329 parliament seats. Khalaf said the commission will fulfil its legal obligation to announce the results of the election within 24 hours of polls closing.

The introduction of biometric voting cards is one way the commission hopes it can clamp down on voter fraud. Electronic verification devices will also be used to identify voters and evade double voting, which has occurred in past elections.

Khalaf said 17 million Iraqis have been issued biometric cards, but 5 million will still use the old electronic voter cards, which only contain biographic data.

Measures are also being taken to avoid the mistakes of the 2018 election, the results of which were widely disputed. A German firm, Hensoldt, was also tasked with auditing the machines and software that will be used to count and compile votes. An audit of the machines was never conducted in the last election.
WARSAW, Poland (AP)  Poland's most powerful politician says the country's future is in the European Union and that there will be no Polexit, but that Poland at the same time wishes to remain a sovereign country.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who is the head of the governing conservative Law and Justice party and Poland's chief policy maker, made his comments in an interview with state news agency PAP that was published Wednesday.

It seemed to be a reaction to some harsh comments last week about the 27-member bloc from some key members of his party which led many opposition politicians to accuse Poland's leadership of seeking to take the country out of the EU.

Some political observers in Poland, where support for EU membership is very high, also fear that harsh comments about the EU could put Poland on a path to leaving the bloc by accident.

Donald Tusk, leader of the Civic Platform main opposition party, said last week that catastrophes like Brexit often happen not because they were planned but because people didn't plan a wise alternative.

But Kaczynski told PAP that Poland won't follow Britain's example and won't leave the EU.

There will be no Polexit. Its a propaganda invention that has been used many times against us, said Kaczynski, who is also a deputy prime minister. We unequivocally see the future of Poland in the European Union.

His insistence on Poland's EU membership, but with sovereign powers, was reinforced by a similarly-worded special resolution that the ruling party's leaders adopted just hours later.

Last week, two high-ranking Law and Justice officials made strong comments about the EU after the bloc moved to punish Poland financially for actions that increase the governing partys control over the judiciary. Brussels says they violate the rule of law.

Ryszard Terlecki, the party's deputy leader, said that if things don't go the way Poland likes, we will have to search for drastic solutions.

"The British showed that the dictatorship of the Brussels bureaucracy did not suit them and turned around and left, he said.

Marek Suski, another leading party member, said that Poland will fight the Brussels occupier just as it fought the Nazis and Soviets in the past.

Suski added: Brussels sends us overlords who are supposed to bring Poland to order, to put us on our knees, so that we might be a German state, and not a proud state of free Poles.

Tusk, the opposition leader, said last week that such rhetoric, comparing ... the European Union to the Soviet Union or the Nazi occupation, such words are not without effect."

"They do not go unpunished. They are ruinous for our reputation in Europe, added Tusk, a former leader of the European Council.

Poland accuses the EU of infringing on its sovereignty by opposing changes to the countrys judicial system introduced by the government.

Kaczynski argued that rule of law is an area of responsibility for the member states alone, and cannot be the subject of the type of interference that is currently occurring.

In his opinion, member states aren't being treated equally, which goes against the bloc's principles.

We want to be in the (European) Union, but at the same time we want to remain a sovereign state, he said. We want what was agreed in the treaties to be very strictly observed.

The EU, however, argues that because the bloc's legal order is integrated, it is essential to protect the independence of courts in each member state.

Wednesday's statements from Poland came on the day European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen made a State of the European Union speech in European Parliament, setting ambitious goals for the bloc's future.
One of the largest COVID-19 testing labs in Michigan, Orchard Laboratories, has been overwhelmed with calls from companies in the state needing help navigating the new rules regarding vaccination testing that were outlined by President Biden in his mandate on Sept. 9.

"Companies are scrambling to navigate the new rules and we are here to help," said Sami Ahmad, co-founder and president of Orchard Laboratories, in a press release. "As a high-quality laboratory, we can help companies logistically implement testing for COVID-19 and arrange vaccination and testing programs to comply with the new mandate."

Biden's mandate has directed the U.S. Labor Department to require all businesses with 100 or more employees to have workers vaccinated or be tested weekly for the virus. This means a lot of COVID-19 tests will need to be done, and Orchard Laboratories will be one of the main organizations in the state to complete the tests.

Prior to the presidential announcement, Orchard Laboratories saw a 25% increase in demand for tests in the last month.

Additionally, soon after the pandemic started, Orchard Laboratories was the first private laboratory in Michigan to provide rapid testing for COVID-19 with state-of-the-art equipment using the Emergency Use Authorization protocol for the ThermoFisher TaqPath Covid 19 assay, according to Ahmad.

Since then, the company has been open seven days-a-week, added new technology, and continues to receive samples from throughout the state from residential nursing homes, doctors' offices, urgent cares, municipalities, schools and hospitals.

"Same day or next day COVID-19 test results are important because the issue is that's the only way companies are going to know if they have to keep people home from work or quarantine them," Ahmad said. "And, as you know, with all the staffing shortages that are already there, timeliness becomes more and more important."

The increased need for tests is likely to continue as guidelines for the mandate are released. Questions such as how companies that are required to test their employees should report their findings, and how will all of these tests be funded, are yet to be answered, according to Ahmad.

"A lot of the confusion we're seeing from companies is because there hasn't been any specific guidelines presented yet," Ahmad said. "The mandate was presented during President Biden's speech, but there are no details yet on how it's supposed to be implemented. So, the stance we've been taking when companies call us is to assure those corporations that as soon as those guidelines are released, they have a partner that will help them."

The 24-hour lab, with more than 300 employees, has the capacity to conduct 10,000 COVID-19 tests a day. Ahmad thinks the demand for that amount of tests is there, as the delta variant continues to spread.

"In the beginning of the pandemic, we were doing around that 10,000 sample a day number. It slowed down, but I think, unfortunately, it's going to ramp back up," he said.

In the future, Ahmad hopes there will be some federal money allocated to corporations required to conduct weekly tests to offset costs, because it's going to be expensive.
ALMA, Mich. (AP)  Officials in a mid-Michigan city granted a request to house migrant boys in a former nursing home, rejecting the recommendation of the planning commission and upsetting opponents who had criticized the proposal during tense summer meetings.

The Alma City Commission voted, 4-2, Tuesday night to approve a zoning change sought by Bethany Christian Services. The meeting was held in the high school to accommodate a crowd of 120 people.

We believe that Alma is a compassionate and welcoming community, and we look forward to providing life-saving services for vulnerable children and youth here, said Krista Stevens of Grand Rapids-based Bethany.

Bethany wants to use a former nursing home to provide housing for up to 40 days or until a sponsor can be found. The boys, ages 12 to 17, crossed the U.S. border without parents or guardians and do not have legal status in this country.

Alma, population 9,400, is 50 miles north of Lansing and probably best known as the home of Alma College.

The Alma Planning Commission had recommended that the zoning change be rejected. Members said opposition in the community made it difficult to determine if certain conditions could be met to justify the rezoning.

But city Commissioner Roger Allman said safety issues raised by critics could not be backed up with facts.

He and two other commissioners visited a Bethany refugee assessment center in Grand Rapids and found it very professional and reassuring.

I think this will be a good thing for Alma, Allman said.

The state Department of Civil Rights had warned Alma against making decisions based on fears, stereotypes and unfounded assumptions."
Midland County added 69 new COVID-19 cases between Tuesday, Sept. 14 and Wednesday, Sept. 15.

COVID-19 numbers reported from Sept. 14-15

Midland County: 69 cases were added; pandemic total is 7,747 cases, 736 probable, 103 deaths and three probable deaths.

Bay County: 69 cases were added; pandemic total stands at 11,481 cases, 755 probable, 351 deaths and 16 probable deaths.

Gladwin County: 22 cases were added; pandemic total stands at 2,164 cases, 433 probable, 58 deaths and four probable deaths.

Isabella County: 72 cases were added; pandemic total stands at 6,080 cases, 1,051 probable, 98 deaths and five probable deaths.

Saginaw County: 189 cases and four deaths were added; pandemic total stands at 22,099 cases, 1,600 probable, 626 deaths and 21 probable deaths.

The state added 6,604 cases and 44 deaths between Tuesday and Wednesday. Overall, Michigan is at 983,109 cases and 20,597 deaths.

Recovered

According to the Midland County Health Department website, which was updated Sept. 13, 7,368 Midland County individuals have recovered from COVID. The state reported that as of Sept. 10, a total of 896,206 persons have recovered.

Testing

Midland Countys seven-day rolling positivity rate on Sept. 13 was listed at 7.9%, and Gladwin County's was listed at 11.1%. Our 12-county region is listed at 11.4% and Michigan is at 9.6%.

MidMichigan Health statistics

As of Sept. 13, MidMichigan Medical Center in Midland was listed as having a 87% bed occupancy, with 25 COVID patients and three in the ICU. MidMichigan Medical Center in Gladwin was listed as having a 15% bed occupancy, with no COVID patients and none in the ICU.

Both medical centers reported having at least 15-30 days worth of personal protection equipment (N95, surgical masks, gowns, gloves and eye protection) on hand.

Schools

Below is a report provided by Midland Public Schools on the presence of COVID-19 in local schools; the format of the report was recently modified, omitting the number of students/staff currently in quarantine. The Daily News doesn't have readily available access to reports from Bullock Creek, Meridian or Freeland school systems.

As of Tuesday, Sept. 14, MPS reported 100 staff/students are close contacts to an individual who was confirmed COVID-19 positive and 23 staff/students are currently tested positive for the virus. Schools with one or more staff/student confirmed positive for COVID-19 as of Monday include Dow High (2), Midland High (2), Jefferson Middle (1), Northeast Middle (3), Adams Elementary (7), Central Park Elementary (1), Plymouth Elementary (2), Siebert Elementary (2), Woodcrest Elementary (1) and Carpenter Pre-Elementary (2).

Midland County vaccinations

The Michigan COVID-19 Vaccine Dashboard lists Midland's completed vaccine rate is 65%. Currently, the vaccines are not authorized to be given to those under age 12.

Midland County Health Department is hosting a weekly walk-in vaccination clinic from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. every Tuesday on the second floor of the Midland County Services Building, 220 W. Ellsworth St., Midland.

Future COVID-19 vaccine clinics in Midland County are listed at www.co.midland.mi.us/HealthDepartment/COVIDVaccineInformation.aspx. Those with questions may call 989-832-6380 or email MCDPH@co.midland.mi.us.
CCARHUACC LICAPA, Peru (AP)  Leila Ccaico walked slowly to the front of her class in a rural village in the Andes. Reluctantly, she faced her classmates, obeyed her teachers orders and started to sing softly in Quechua.

This is the first year that the sixth grader has been taking reading and writing lessons in the Indigenous language she learned from her parents, one that has survived despite centuries of laws and discrimination that discouraged its use.

Halting efforts to revive and promote the language hit the spotlight last month when Perus newly appointed prime minister surprised the nation by delivering a speech in Quechua to Congress for the first time in Perus history.

Translation into Spanish was unavailable, angering politicians who couldnt understand the speech  a fact that illustrated Quechuas status as a second-class language in the South American country.

But the incident also raised hopes among Quechua speakers that Perus new government, led by a rural schoolteacher from an Indigenous region, will give their language more visibility and increase funding for bilingual education in villages where children are often reluctant to speak the ancient tongue.

I feel strange speaking Quechua; it(s embarrassing said 11-year-old Ccaico, whose name is pronounced something like Hai-Ko in English.

Talking in Spanish, she said that children who speak Quechua at her school get bullied, and added that parents in her village dont want children to learn the tongue because they think it will not help children when they move to the cities for work.

Ccaico, whose parents are alpaca herders, said she stopped speaking Quechua fluently at the age of 6. She said she she was visiting a city and started to speak in Quechua, but her older sister told her to stop because passersby would make fun of them.

Its a situation commonly faced by Quechua speakers in South America, even though the language is used by an estimated 10 million people in the region  largely in Peru,. Ecuador and Bolivia, all of which have made it an official language in recent decades.

Five hundred years ago, Quechua was the lingua franca of the Inca Empire, which stretched from what is now southern Colombia to central Chile.

But the languages status began to decline following the Spanish conquest of Peru. Though Spanish authorities initially tolerated Quechua, they banned it following an Indigenous rebellion in 1781.

In 1975, a nationalist military government turned Quechua into an official language in Peru, along with Spanish. But legal recognition did not stop discrimination against Quechua speakers, who come mostly from poor and rural areas.

During the conflict between Perus government and the Shining Path guerrilla group in the 1980s and 1990s, some Indigenous people were tortured by the military and accused of being rebel collaborators merely for speaking Quechua, a truth commission found.

Thousands of Quechua speaking women were enrolled in forced sterilization campaigns in Peru during the 1990-2000 government of Alberto Fujimori and were denied medical attention in their native language.

We have suffered for 500 years. We walked slowly through hills and snowy peaks to arrive here in Congress, and have our voice heard Prime Minister Guido Bellido said during his Quechua language speech on Aug 26.

Bellido, a native Quechua speaker who is also fluent in Spanish, was attending his confirmation hearing after being named prime minister by Pedro Castillo, the nations newly elected president.

Three minutes after starting, Bellido was ordered to stop his speech by congressional president Maria Alva, who told him to immediately translate what he had said. Translators were not available despite Quechua's official status.

Its time to change. Its time for all of our countrys residents to look at each other as equals, without discrimination Bellido told the chamber in Quechua.

Later, as the lawmakers debated his nomination, he  seemingly casually  pulled out a small bag of coca leaves, dipped his facemask and began to chew a few. The practice is common among Indigenous people across the Andes who use the herb as a tonic  but previously unheard of in the legislative chambers.

Leila Ccaicos mother, Maribel Licapa said she watched the speech and agreed with the prime minister that more needs to be done to accommodate non-Spanish speakers.

Licapa said that she was barred from speaking her native language when she worked at a plantation on Peru's coast and as a cleaner in the homes of wealthy families closer to her village. You have to speak in Spanish. I don't understand, one employer told her.

For 500 years Spanish has been imposed in a way that reflects the racist and classist values of Peruvian society said Carmen Cazorla, an anthropologist who teaches Quechua at the Catholic University of Peru. This society underappreciates those who speak Indigenous languages and some even suspect that speakers of these languages are using them to offend others Cazorla said.

Cazorla is directing a bilingual project at Leila Ccaicos school, where children are taught to collect medicinal plants and jot down their Quechua names. Leila said that it was the first time that she had heard positive comments about Quechua at school.

Our teacher told us that Quechua was a very good language, and that we should speak it as well as we speak Spanish because otherwise it will disappear Ccaico said.

Despite the difficulties Quechua faces, it has made advances. Perus government-owned television channel has broadcast a daily news show in Quechua since 2016, and dozens of folkloric bands are producing videos in the Indigenous tongue. Some rock bands have also experimented with songs in Quechua.

Currently, more than 1.2 million children receive bilingual education in Spanish and Indigenous languages across Peru  a nation of about 32 million people  and new Education Minister Juan Cadillo says the government aims to increase the number of bilingual teachers in public schools from 54,000 to around 60,000 next year.

Ccaicos school began to teach Quechua for the first time in April, when bilingual teacher Alicia Cisneros was transferred to the village.

Cisneros, 50, comes to class wearing a brown bowler hat with a red flower  a style common among Indigenous women in the region  to show pride in her heritage.

The teacher said that shes been asked to take the hat off at banks, at a restaurant, at a university in Perus capital and at the Ministry of Education. I resisted and did not take it off she said. There are moments when you will be trampled on because of your origin. But you need to have guts and resist.
WASHINGTON (AP)  The Biden administration is releasing nearly $200 million in military aid to Egypt but will hold back millions more over human rights concerns, the State Department said Tuesday in an announcement quickly criticized by rights groups and some lawmakers.

The department said Secretary of State Antony Blinken would withhold $130 million of $300 million in military financing for Egypt due to the concerns. It said he would allow the rest go through to preserve U.S.-Egypt security engagement that Washington believes is critical to Mideast stability.

The $170 million to be released will be sent using authority the administration has to waive human rights conditions placed on the assistance by Congress. Under federal law, the secretary of state must certify that Egypt is meeting those conditions or issue a waiver for the aid to be sent.

The department said Blinken was unable to certify compliance but added that continued engagement with Egypt is a critical U.S. national security interest. The decision was criticized by human rights groups and some lawmakers as an indication the Biden administration is reneging on pledges to put human rights at the center of its foreign policy.

Because we are continuing to discuss our serious concerns about human rights in Egypt, the secretary of state will not certify that the government of Egypt is taking sustained and effective steps related to the legislative human rights-related conditions" on the aid, the department said.

Nonetheless it said the administration would provide the majority of the assistance for border security, nonproliferation and counterterrorism programs while withholding the remaining $130 million. The withheld amount will be released if the government of Egypt affirmatively addresses specific human-rights related conditions, the department said.

Anticipating criticism of the announcement, which was previewed to some lawmakers on Monday, the State Department said the administration's human rights concerns about Egypt, which remains in the throes of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisis harsh crackdown on dissent, are significant.

But, it said maintaining positive ties with Sisis government is important and noted that new Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett had visited Egypt just on Monday. Egypt is one of just two Arab nations to have gone to war with Israel to have signed a peace treaty with the Jewish state.

Our bilateral relationship with Egypt will be stronger, and Americas interests will be better served, through continued U.S. engagement to advance our national security interests, including addressing our human rights concerns, the State Department said.

Under Sissi, Egypt has seen the heaviest crackdown on dissent in its modern history. Officials have targeted not only Islamist political opponents but also pro-democracy activists, journalists and online critics. Lengthy pretrial detentions have become a common practice to keep the governments critics behind bars for as long as possible.

Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, a strong supporter of President Joe Biden who has repeatedly called for human rights conditions to be attached and enforced for foreign aid, lamented the decision. He called it a big missed opportunity to stand up strongly and unequivocally for human rights.

Continuing our security relationship with Egypt, with only minor changes, sends the wrong message, Murphy said in a statement. This was a chance to send a strong message about Americas commitment to human rights and democracy, with little cost to our security, and we fell short.

A group of 19 human rights groups, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Freedom House, also decried the decision, calling it a terrible blow to its stated commitment to human rights and to the rule of law.

This administration has repeatedly vowed to put human rights at the center of its foreign policy and specifically its relationship with Egypt, they said. This decision, however, is a betrayal of these commitments.
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP)  Banana bread was served at a recent birthday party at Melfort Old Peoples home, where a group of residents mustered a raspy happy birthday tune.

Just a week after arriving at the facility, Rodrick Bhatare, in his 90s, said he felt a bittersweet moment at the celebration for a 103-year-old fellow resident.

I havent been this happy in a very long time, he said. I just wished I was doing it with my family. Hard-hit by the pandemic, his family could no longer provide for him, he said.

The economic ravages of COVID-19 are forcing some families in Zimbabwe to abandon the age-old tradition of taking care of older people.

Some roam the streets. The lucky ones end up at facilities for older people once widely viewed by many Zimbabweans as un-African and against the social bonds that have held extended families together for generations.

Rarely talked about, older people are silent victims of the pandemic, said Priscilla Gavi, executive director of HelpAge Zimbabwe.

Parents or elderly relatives have become an extra strain in this pandemic so although it goes against our culture, many people are finding old peoples homes as the only option, Gavi said.

Zimbabwe's care homes have experienced a 60% increase in admissions since the COVID-19 pandemic erupted in March 2020, and most of the country's more than 170 facilities for older people are full, she said.

COVID-19 has increased the risk of abuse and neglect of older people across Africa and around the world, according to a report by HelpAge International.

In addition to being one of the groups most at risk of severe illness and death from COVID-19, older people are chronically neglected in response and recovery efforts, especially in lower-income countries, according to the report, Bearing the Brunt.

For the older people in care institutions, the experience is both a saving grace and a source of anguish.

Bhatare said that after he retired from work as a quarry miner about two decades ago all was well as he alternately stayed with his two daughters and other relatives.

He was living with a married niece and four of her children when COVID-19 hit and their income from selling goods on the street dropped. Food in the home became scarce, tensions rose, and to survive Bhatare began foraging for meals on the streets until concerned neighbors alerted HelpAge, which found him a place in the Melfort home, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) east of Harare, the capital.

My daughters are married but they are also struggling. I had become a strain to everybody, he said.

Zimbabwes economy was already battered before the pandemic and now more than 80% of urban households are struggling to buy basic food supplies, while large numbers of rural families are also sinking into hunger, according to the World Food Program.

People age 70 and above make up less than 3% of Zimbabwes population of about 15 million and often became casualties of belt-tightening.

They are not bringing in any income in an environment where even young children are working to contribute towards household incomes. The elderly are becoming the sacrificial lambs. COVID-19 has really knocked them down, said Phillip Pasirayi, a sociologist and director of the Center for Community Development in Zimbabwe.

Feeling abandoned by their families can be a shock for many older people at care facilities, he said.

It doesnt really resonate with what we are accustomed to as Africans. You want to spend your last days surrounded by family. That is the tradition, Pasirayi said.

When they are forced into old peoples homes, many go into depression, into dementia  they are confused that their children or relatives have abandoned them, said Daniel Francis, the administrator at Melfort Old Peoples home.

Some families resort to tricks to remove their older relatives, he said.

With the pandemic, some people take an elderly relative to a faraway place. They buy them a drink at the shops, tell them We are coming back, and they go for good. Elderly persons are being dumped and they are forgotten, Francis said. Police take such people to the social welfare department.

The social welfare department doesnt have a home so they come to us, said Francis, whose facility has a capacity for 40 resident. But in the pandemic it limits numbers to 22 to allow more physical distance between residents.

The care homes that don't charge their residents, and are funded by charities and churches, are under strain.

The Melfort home would find it difficult to return to full capacity, he said, as its donations have dropped by more than 60% in the pandemic, he said.

Times are even tougher at the Society for the Destitute Aged's care home in Harares Highfield township. Princess Diana opened an accommodation wing amid much fanfare in 1993. But today paint is peeling off the walls, ceilings are falling in and bees have taken over the out-of-service 200-liter (53-gallon) water heater.

The home has no vehicle so when a resident needs medical care, manager Emilia Mukaratirwa must risk crowded public taxis or, when money permits, hire a small car to rush a retiree to a hospital.

The whole place needs a makeover, but for now just getting bread is like Christmas. Thats how desperately we need help, Mukaratirwa said.

Despite the disappointment of not being with family, Bhatare at the Melfort Old Peoples home is adjusting to his new reality.

These strangers have become my family, they treat me well," he said. "I still love my real family but I dont want to be a burden to them.

___

Follow APs pandemic coverage at:

https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic

https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine

https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak
The following list includes recent reports from the Midland County Sheriffs Office and the Midland Police Department. Compiled by reporter Andrew Mullin.

Wednesday, Sept. 8

11:38 p.m.  A deputy was dispatched to a Greendale Township location regarding a suspicious situation. The complainant advised they heard a loud bang and observed an unknown person walking in the area. The deputy checked the area, and everything appeared normal. The unknown person was not located.

11:29 p.m.  A deputy responded to DNR State Land in Jerome Township after a 27-year-old Midland male requested deputy assistance with wildlife. The 27-year-old male was subsequently arrested on a Saginaw County warrant. The man was turned over to Saginaw County authorities without incident.

9:41 p.m.  A deputy was dispatched to a be on the lookout for a vehicle reported as driving all over the roadway and going off the roadway. A deputy located the vehicle on a Jasper Township roadway after the vehicle struck a mailbox. The 74-year-old Saginaw male was having a medical emergency and was transported to MidMichigan Medical Center by EMS. The male had a revoked driver's license, and a report will be sent to the Midland County Prosecuting Attorneys Office for review.

9:24 p.m.  Officers responded to a vehicle crash on North Saginaw Road.

3:33 p.m.  A deputy recovered a boat seat on a Jerome Township highway that was lost by a 59-year-old Oakland County male. The deputy returned the seat to its owner.

1:32 p.m.  Officers responded to a two-vehicle crash on Joe Mann Boulevard.

1:22 p.m.  Animal Control Deputy was dispatched to Edenville Township reference two horses running loose off North Lake Sanford Road. Prior to arrival, the owners were located and recovered the loose horses.

1:04 p.m.  A 20-year-old Lee Township male thought a 21-year-old male was recording him while they were at their trailer park office. The 20-year-old advised they did not speak, and he walked away from the male. He was told the 21-year-old male can record in public. Contact was made with the other male, who stated he wasn't recording him and will reach out to him tomorrow.

12:53 p.m.  Officers responded to a malicious destruction of property On West Nelson Street.

11:48 a.m.  Officers responded to a case of disorderly conduct on Village West Drive.

10:59 a.m.  A Sanford businessman called the sheriff's office about a flood cleanup assignment. He discovered numerous abandon vehicles on the property and had questions concerning how to clean the property.

10:55 a.m.  A 24-year-old Gladwin County male was cited for driving with a suspended license following a traffic stop in Warren Township. A report is being sent to the prosecutor's office.

9:47 a.m.  A deputy, the Coleman Community Schools student resource officer, assisted the school parent liaison with a wellbeing check on an absent student. The school staff requested assistance with their truancy investigation after an enrolled student failed to come to school the first two weeks. The deputy and school staff member contacted the student's mother, a 45-year-old Coleman female. The deputy provided the female with a list of resources to help her with parenting issues. The truancy issue was addressed with the child's mother.

8:44 a.m.  A 31-year-old female called central dispatch because a male refused to leave her trailer. Once she called, the male left. The female only knew the male's first name and advised she found him sleeping in his car and offered him a place to stay for a few days. She noticed the male trying to steal her marijuana and wanted him gone. The male left and no further assistance was needed.
Director of Content and Operations

Spencer McKee is OutThere Colorado's Director of Content and Operations. In his spare time, Spencer loves to hike, rock climb, and trail run. He's on a mission to summit all 58 of Colorado's fourteeners and has already climbed more than half.
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Global carrier FedEx Express has announced the launch of its Small Business Grant Competition in Europe.

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The competition offers a total grant pool of nearly 250,000 (US$345,500) to European small businesses to help them grow and achieve their ambitions. For the first time, the competition will be run as a single pan-European contest, open to small businesses from 16 countries.

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The competition is open to for-profit small businesses with 50 employees or fewer across the following European countries: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and the UK.

A total of 15 finalists will be selected to compete for the grand prize of 50,000 (US$70,000) or one of the three Judges Choice Awards: Digital Excellence, Sustainability Champion, and Innovation Mastermind (15,000 (US$21,000) each). In addition to the finalists competing for one of the four prizes awarded by the jury, the non-finalist companies take part in the public voting phase and can win the Peoples Choice Award in their country, leading to 15 additional winners who will receive 10,000 (US$14,000) each.

Helena Jansson, senior vice president, finance international, FedEx Express, and Small Business Grant Contest jury member, said, Running a small business is tough at the best of times, but the last 18 months have really pushed SMEs to adapt to survive. Through the Small Business Grant Competition, we want to get behind our small businesses, help them achieve their dreams, and write the next chapter of their story.

To participate, companies do not have to be a current customer or have an active shipment account with FedEx Express. The competition entry period is open from September 15 to October 20, 2021. The 15 finalists will be announced on November 17, 2021, and public voting for the Peoples Choice Awards will be opened. All winners will be announced on January 26, 2022.

Established in the USA in 2012, the FedEx Small Business Grant Competition continues to expand year over year around the world. In Europe, the competition was first launched in 2016 in three countries, building to five countries by 2019. It is the first time the competition has been opened to 16 European countries.

To find out more and apply, click here.
Technology solutions provider Pitney Bowes has released the US data from its latest Parcel Shipping Index, ahead of the launch of the global index later this month.

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Now in its sixth year, the industry report paints the clearest picture yet of the pivotal influence the pandemic has had on the US shipping and logistics industry.

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The Index reveals US parcel volume grew 37% year-on-year, reaching 20 billion, up from 15 billion in 2019. In 2020, around 640 parcels were shipped per second, compared with 466 in 2019. Between 2015 and 2020, US parcel volume doubled from 10 billion to 20 billion.

Looking ahead, Pitney Bowes forecasts US parcel volume will nearly double by 2026, reaching 32-39 billion, with a 10% CAGR from 2021-2025.

Jason Dies, executive vice president and president, Sending Technology Solutions, Pitney Bowes, said, Every year, the Pitney Bowes Shipping Index offers unrivalled industry insight. For the US, the Index for 2020 reveals record volumes and extraordinary growth to mark a year like no other. A 37% increase in parcel volume year-over-year compares with an average growth of 10% over the past five years. 20 billion parcels represent an average of 61 parcels generated per US citizen. Going forward, accelerated investment in infrastructure, technology and digital capabilities will help carriers address surging demand, deliver at scale and cope with the unpredictable.

The rise in e-commerce had a huge impact on 2020s monumental parcel shipping volumes. BOXpoll by Pitney Bowes, the consumer survey on current events, culture and e-commerce logistics, found 41% of consumers continue to shop online more today than they did before the pandemic, underscoring the record growth of e-commerce over the past 17 months.

The pandemic had an enormous impact on the growth of e-commerce, driving the most significant shift from in-store to online shopping ever experienced, said Dies. And as we head into this years holiday season, consumer preferences for online shopping show no signs of slowing down.

Data for the remaining 12 countries in the Index  Canada, Brazil, Germany, UK, France, Italy, Norway, Sweden, China, Japan, Australia and India  will be released shortly and will include a forecast of how shipping is expected to grow in the coming years.

The Pitney Bowes Parcel Shipping Index measures parcel volume and spend for business-to-business, business-to-consumer, consumer-to-business and consumer consigned shipments with weight up to 31.5kg (70 lb) across Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Norway, Sweden, the UK and the USA.

Key takeaways from the Index are:

Carrier revenue

Reached US$171bn  a 29% increase year-on-year

UPS generated the highest carrier revenue with US$60bn, FedEx generated US$58bn, USPS reached US$33bn while combined revenue from others was US$2bn.

USPS generated a 40% increase in parcel revenue growth year-over-year, FedEx 26% growth and UPS 15% growth

Carrier market share

By revenue, UPS had the highest parcel market share (35%, down from 39% in 2019), followed by FedEx (34%, down from 35%), USPS (19%, up from 18%) and Amazon Logistics (10%, up from 6%)

By volume, USPS had the highest market share (38%, the same as in 2019), followed by UPS (24%, down from 30%), Amazon Logistics (21%, up from 13%) and FedEx (16%, down from 18%)

USPS shipped 7.6 billion parcels in 2020, up from 5.7 billion in 2019; UPS shipped 4.9 billion parcels in 2020, up from 4.4 billion; and FedEx shipped 3.3 billion, up from 2.7 billion

Amazon Logistics
Photo: (Photo : Carlos Alvarez/Getty Images)

A friend of Denise Richards has spoken up to defend the actress after Sami Sheen, her 17-year-old daughter with Charlie Sheen, said she lived in an abusive home.

The source told Us Weekly that Richards is like any divorced parent who has a "rebellious teenage daughter." All the celebrity mother wants is to co-parent with her ex-husband so that Sami and her younger sister, Lola, could have boundaries.

The friend said that Richards has no illusions that she could be a friend to the girls at this stage in her daughters' lives. She has to set standard rules in their household because she doesn't want Sami and Lola to be out all night.

Read Also: Julia Roberts' Teen Daughter, Hazel, Makes Cannes Red Carpet Debut

However, Sami shared in a now-deleted TikTok video that she felt trapped in an abusive home and decided to move out of Richards' house to live with Charlie. Sami also shared that she dropped out of school in the said video, but she is happier because she's no longer in the "hell house."

'Sami is Amazing'

Jeff Ballard, who represents Charlie, confirmed that Sami now lives with her dad and that the 17-year-old is doing fantastic with their father. Richard's friend said that Charlie doesn't support his ex-wife's parenting style as he is more of a "good time dad" whose rules aren't set in stone.

"This is why Sami went to live with her dad," the friend said.

In 2020, Richards said on her show, "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills," that she does not want her girls to grow up with daddy issues, so she never badmouthed her ex-husband. She has also supported the fact that Charlie has to be in their daughters' lives.

Lola, 16, is still living with Richards, but she occasionally stays over at Charlie's with Sami, especially if their mom has to be at work on the set. According to the friend, Richards is sad about Sami's choice to stay away from her mother.

Charlie and Richards met on the set of "Good Advice" in 2000, but they started dating when the actress guest-starred on "Spin City," Charlie's sitcom from 2001. A year later, the pair married and welcomed their daughters until Richards filed for divorce in 2005, while the actor had a relapse for alcohol and drug abuse.

In 2018, Richards remarried Aaron Phypers after years of being together. They share a daughter, Eloise, who was born in 2011. The mom revealed to People that Eloise is a special needs child.

On the other hand, Charlie has an older child, Cassandra, 36, and young twin boys, Max and Bob, from previous relationships. He is believed to be currently dating actress Julia Stambler.

Once the Highest-Paid Actor

Charlie Sheen was one of the highest-paid actors on television and was known for his highly-popular TV series, "Two and A Half Men." However, in 2011, the actor squandered his good fortune after his public meltdown and revealed that he was also HIV-positive.

The actor reflected on that public rant in February 2021, telling E! News that he regrets how he behaved. He admitted that he acted like a juvenile after calling the show's creator, Chuck Lorre, several names and made anti-Semitic references to his co-workers.

Charlie said that the "residual effects" of his drug habit prompted him to engage in self-destructive behavior. The actor said he's been learning and reprocessing his life after having five kids and two divorces.

Related Article: Britney Spears Rants about Dad and Sister, Jamie Lynn Responds With Message of Peace
Photo: (Photo : RODRIGO BUENDIA/AFP via Getty Images)

An Irish-American New York woman did not expect to discover that five of her younger siblings live so close to her until she took a DNA test. Caryn McCabe, 63, a retired teacher from Massapequa Park, tried the test after her son wanted to learn about his Irish roots.

McCabe, who knew she was adopted since she was a little girl, said that all she wanted was to learn about her heritage from the tool provided by 23andMe, a private DNA testing company. However, she gathered more information than just her Irish background because the results identified a first cousin who also lives in Massapequa Park.

23andMe provides a tool that allows users to link a relative, and McCabe, for some reason, decided to select this service. However, the New York woman didn't try to contact the cousin on the database because she "didn't want to rock the boat" and upset people who may not even be aware that she exists.

Read Also: Heartbroken Childless Couple Return Adopted Daughter as Birth Parents Changed Minds

Instead, it was the cousin, Ellen Connolly, 53, who got in touch with McCabe because she wanted to know who she was. Connolly figured she was just another cousin in their large family.

Confirming the Bloodline

John Kearns, 55, also took a DNA Test and received a text message informing him that he has another sister in Massapequa Park. After McCabe's contact with Connolly, Kearns reached out to her next, and they agreed to meet up in person along with Kearns' four sisters, Eileen, Denise, Tricia, and Kathleen. Three of them actually live so close to McCabe's community.

According to Kearns, their parents, Jane McMahon and John Kearn Sr., never told them about having a child outside of wedlock in the 1950s. The siblings believed that their parents had to keep McCabe's identity a secret and then give her up for adoption because their strict Irish Catholic families might have pressured them.

In 2020, McCabe finally saw her pre-adoption birth certificate after the state of New York passed a law allowing adopted children above 18 years old to get a copy of the original document. It showed that McMahon was listed as her mother, but her birth father was not named.

Paths May Have Crossed Before

However, after placing her for adoption, her birth parents eventually got married and had five other kids as they raised a family in Little Neck, Queens. While this was going on, McCabe grew up with her adoptive family in Breezy Point, Queens.

When McCabe was older, she decided to move to Massapequa Park, not knowing that some of her real siblings also did the same. Their paths might have crossed paths before, and they had no idea they were related by blood.

The siblings said that their mother is still alive but battling dementia, so she could not relay the real story behind McCabe's adoption. Their father, on the other hand, passed away long before their reunion.

Soon, the sisters and their brother, along with McCabe's other adopted sister, are planning to go on a trip to Ireland to visit their mother's family.

Related Article: Pennsylvania Parents Adopted Their Son's Best Friend Who Was In Foster Care
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Fidelity Bank Ghana has been adjudged the Bancassurance Leader of the Year at the recently held Ghana Insurance Awards in Accra for its outstanding leadership in delivering exceptional bancassurance products and services to its customers and stakeholders.



The Ghana Insurance Awards is a platform that honours top class performance, professionalism, and innovation across the Ghanaian insurance industry in order to promote the growth of the industry through progressive competition, innovation, and adherence to the highest professional standards.



Fidelitys bancassurance products are underwritten by one of the global leaders in insurance, Prudential Life Ghana. Through its partnership with Prudential Life Ghana, Fidelity Bank has been able to offer its customers innovative bancassurance products with the aim of ensuring that every customer, regardless of their financial need has access to quality insurance products.



The partnership also delivers tailor made solutions that appeal to diverse customers while also incorporating technological innovations that are in line with Fidelitys digital transformation agenda to provide added value and convenience to customers.

Commenting on the award, Mr. Julian Opuni, Managing Director (MD) of Fidelity Bank Ghana, said, We are honoured to be recognized as the leader in bancassurance. This award is a testament of our resolve to go beyond our core banking products and services to offer innovative products to our customers as we strive to meet their holistic financial needs.



I urge the general public, if they have not done so already, to sign on to our bouquet of bancassurance products including the Fidelity Ultimate Premier Farewell Plan, Fidelity Ultimate Classic Farewell Plan, Fidelity Life Plan, Fidelity Education Support Plan, Fidelity Ultimate Hospital Cash Plan and Fidelity Platinum Endowment Plan to secure their future, Mr. Opuni added.



 We are happy to have a strong partnership with Prudential Life Insurance Ghana. Indeed, the strength of our partnership with Prudential has contributed to this achievement. We are also forever grateful for our customers whose loyalty and continued support is the foundation of the Fidelity success story, he stated. He dedicated the award to all customers, employees, and other stakeholders for believing with the Bank.



The Ghana Insurance Awards is not the only awarding body to recognize Fidelitys demonstrated achievements across the banking sector. In fact, in 2021, Fidelity Bank Ghana has received both local and international recognition for its accomplishments, innovation and commitment to its customers. Key amongst those honors are the following awards: Best Treasury & Cash Management Bank in Ghana Award from Global Finance Magazine; Agency Banking Bank of the Year Award from Instinct Business Finance Innovation; Best Banking Initiative for Young Entrepreneurs Award from World Economic Magazine Inc.; Best CSR Initiative - Ghana 2021 Award from International Finance Magazine; Indigenous Banking Brand of the Year Award at the Marketing World Awards and the Most Security and Safety Conscious Company of the Year Award from the Health, Environment, Safety and Security (HESS) Awards.



Fidelity Bank has grown from strength to strength in becoming a world-class financial institution and they confirm that they will continue to partner with relevant institutions and stakeholders to provide their cherished customers with exceptional financial services. In fact, Fidelity is committed to collaboration because it understands that success is a team effort and by working together with its loyal customers and stakeholders, the bank has been able to record remarkable achievements.

About Fidelity Bank Ghana.



In a little over a decade, Fidelity Bank Ghana has grown from a discount house to a Tier-1 Bank and is now the largest privately-owned Ghanaian Bank in Ghana. The bank currently serves its approximately 2 million customers in 75 branches across Ghana and is a leader in the digital banking revolution. The bank has two subsidiaries, Fidelity Asia Bank Limited, which is a wholly owned subsidiary in Malaysia and Fidelity Securities Limited, an asset management firm. In a short period of time, Fidelity Bank has become a household name in Ghana by adopting a customer-centric culture and delivering consistently on the promise of making a difference in the lives of all stakeholders.











Source: Peacefmonline.com/ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The Greater Accra Regional Minister, Henry Quartey, has tasked participating students from the Greater Accra Region in the ongoing West African Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) to make the region proud by setting enviable records in the examination.



He reminded students that Ghana had last year produced 11 out of the 12 overall best students within the sub-region, with all of the students coming from the region.



I will therefore throw a challenge to you that in 2021, we should have more overall students in West Africa coming from Ghana and more from Greater Accra, he said.



The minister made the remarks when he addressed students during a visit to his Alma matter, Osu Presbyterian Senior High School (SHS) prior to students starting their examination paper on Monday.



He was accompanied by a team from the Regional Directorate of the Ghana Education Service (GES) headed by the Regional Director, Monica Ankrah, who also visited the Ebenezer SHS.



Mr. Quartey appealed to students to not make waste of tireless efforts of teachers and the investment made by government into the Free SHS initiative that sought to make secondary education accessible for all Ghanaians.



He, therefore, anticipated that students would abide by all rules governing the examination and would have prepared feverishly to write an examination that would help them gain admission into any tertiary institution of their choice to pursue their dreams.



He expressed his appreciation to teachers for providing education to children while navigating the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic.



The need to make Greater Accra Work is a collective responsibility. Let our efforts to create a disciplined society start with you (students)- a generation that would leave school proud as disciplined students determined to survive irrespective of where they find themselves.



In fact, it would be very distressing to hear that after investing so much in your education, the end result is poor performance in the final examination. I do not wish that for any of you, he said.



He further appealed to supervisors and invigilators to conduct the examination in a manner that would be conducive for students, adding that I entreat you to observe all the COVID-19 safety protocols to protect yourselves from any infection during the period.



The Regional Director of GES, for her part, advised students to comport themselves and not to over-celebrate and vandalise school properties after writing their examination.



They should stay calm and go home after exams and not cause mayhem on school compound. They shouldnt forget that where ever you go you will come back to your school for your certificate, she said.













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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Students of the University of Cape Coast, with the business idea of developing an insect farm that will breed the black soldier fly for farmers who are engaged in livestock production, won the Second Edition of "Africa's Biggest Idea Challenge" held at the University of Cape Coast on Friday 10th September 2021.



Students presented a variety of interesting business proposals in areas such as ICT, packaging, fashion, food and beverages, agriculture and events planning.



Speaking at the ceremony, Mr Joe Ghartey, the Special Guest of Honour, applauded all the contestants and said they were all winners. He recounted his days as a student entrepreneur and told the gathering that he is still an entrepreneur.



He noted that Government had several initiatives for the private sector and he hoped the private sector would take advantage of the initiatives. Hon Ghartey states that in his view, the answer for the creation of employment for the teeming unemployed youth was in the private sector and not the public sector.



He wished all participants well and said he was so impressed by the program that he was offering to sponsor the next event in 2022. Joe Ghartey surprised the best female entrepreneur with an unexpected monetary award.

Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman/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 National Road Safety Authority has exercised its enforcement mandate and directed six Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to cease any acts or omissions that directly or indirectly permit the unlawful use of tricycles for fare-paying passenger services.



The Authority has, following that, threatened it would not hesitate to seek an enforcement order if they fail to carry out the required remedy within a month of the directive.



According to the Authority, Regulation 128 of the Road Traffic Regulations, 2012 (L.I.2180) prohibits tricycles for fare-paying passengers.



Despite the unambiguous position of Regulation 128, there is evidence to confirm that the MMDAs herein are acting contrary to the law by permitting the use of tricycles for fare-paying passenger services by issuing stickers at a fee or approving terminals for the purpose.



The Authority considers this action by the Assemblies as a threat to road safety. It explains that the make and construction of tricycles do not meet the specifications for passenger-carrying vehicles as provided by Regulation 127 of L.I. 2180.



In a letter signed by the Director-General of the Authority, Ing. (Mrs.) May Obiri-Yeboah, and copied to some six Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies, the Authority argues that the bodywork and construction of tricycles make them unsafe or unsuitable for the conveyance of passengers.



The tricycle has open sides and is without seatbelts for both the driver and passengers.



The recipients are New Juaben Municipal Assembly, Asokore Mampong Municipal Assembly and Berekum Municipal Assembly.



The rest are Tafo Municipal Assembly, Bongo Municipal Assembly and Bawku Municipal Assembly.



According to the Authority, it is vested with the public duty to reduce road traffic crashes and casualties by issuing compliance notices or directives, where it appears to the Authority that an undertaking within the road environment constitutes a road safety threat.



The emergence and use of motorcycles and tricycles appear to threaten the considerable gains made in improving the national road safety situation.



Motorcycle and Tricycle-related deaths and injuries have increased by 87% over the last five years, it reveals.









Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Efforts to develop Ghanas Integrated Aluminium Industry (IAI) has received a major boost following the successful selection of a strategic partner that will partner the Ghana Integrated Aluminium Development Corporation (GIADEC) to develop one of four projects being executed under the IAI value chain.



President Akufo-Addo who witnessed the signing of the agreements between the two parties at a brief event held in Accra noted that the IAI remains an integral part of his governments industrialization agenda. The President stressed that his government would ensure that the implementation of the IAI, which would involve mining, refining and smelting are carried out in a responsible manner.



We believe that mining can be and must be done in a responsible manner. Government through its regulatory agencies will act to protect our environment at all times he said.



The President, who also launched GIADECs four-project agenda for the Integrated Aluminium Industry, further commended the Corporation for working assiduously to select Rocksure International as its partner after a transparent, competitive and rigorous investor engagement process; adding that his government will continue to create the enabling environment needed to attract more investors to venture into the industry.



President Akufo-Addo was particularly excited that Rocksure International is a wholly-owned Ghanaian company and stressed that the decision further demonstrates his commitment to the promotion of local content and local participation.



The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources Mr. Samuel Abu Jinapor speaking at the event pledged the support of the Ministry in ensuring that governments vision of a fully operational and globally competitive IAI is realized.



Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Integrated Aluminium Development Corporation, Mr. Michael Ansah on his part emphasized that the agreement would culminate in a joint venture partnership between GIADEC and its new partner Rocksure International to build a mine at Nyinahin-Mpasaaso and a refinery solution.



The project, also referred to as Project 2, according to him is one of the four (4) projects GIADEC is currently executing. He touched on the other three projects which include; the expansion of existing mine at Awaso and building of a refinery as Project 1; the development of a mine at Kyebi, a second mine at Nyinahin-Mpasaaso and building of a refinery as Project 3 and the modernization and expansion of the VALCO smelter as Project 4.



Mr. Ansah stressed that Rocksure International will, first, undertake a Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) to validate and define the bauxite reserves leading to the construction of a mine and a refinery solution. According to him, the lifetime of the mine is estimated to span over six decades and create over 1,000 direct and indirect jobs.



He reiterated that the four projects will be private sector-led and will be executed in partnership with key strategic investors and will require a six-billion-dollar investment.



The real impact of an Integrated Aluminium Industry, according to Mr. Ansah, will be felt at the downstream sector where demand for aluminium and aluminium related products are expected to rise especially with the establishment of various car manufacturing plants in the country. This value-addition drive will not only result in a thriving local economy but will significantly cut down on the importation of aluminium and aluminium products, he added.



Also present at the event were Members of Parliament for the proposed mining areas and representatives of some government institutions, board members of GIADEC, traditional leaders from communities where the mines and refineries will be situated and other stakeholders.





Source: Peacefmonline.com/ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Ghana is hosting an Extraordinary ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) Summit on Thursday, September 16, 2021 to deliberate on the coup detat in Guinea.



About 13 Heads of State are expected to attend the Thursday meeting.



Ghana's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Ms Shirley Ayorkor Botchway, at a press briefing on Wednesday, said that Guinea and Mali would not be attending the Summit since the focal point of discussion would be on the political unrest in the two countries.



The Liberian President, George Weah, arrived in Accra on Wednesday morning for the Summit.



Road traffic disruption



The Police has announced that parts of the Liberation and Independence roads in Accra will experience a temporary disruption of traffic flow on Thursday.



The roadblock is to facilitate the transportation of Heads of States and Governments of who will participate in the extraordinary session.



Areas to be affected include; the Kotoka International Airport, Opebia, Akuafo Roundabout, Afrikiko, Ako-Adjei interchange, National Theatre, Ridge Roundabout, and finally Kempinski Hotel.













Source: graphiconline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The Ghana Police Service has apologized to journalists after some were mistreated during the prosecution of the Head Pastor of Glorious Word Power Ministries, Rev. Isaac Owusu Bempah.



Rev. Isaac Owusu Bempah and two other people from his church were arrested for issuing death threats at fetish priestess turned Evangelist, Patricia Oduro Koranteng, popularly called Nana Agradaa.



They were said to have brandished guns in videos and circulated them on social media.



The Pastor and the two suspects were arraigned before Accra Circuit Court on Monday, September 13, 2021 but the journalists assigned to cover the court case were assaulted and refused entry into the courtroom.



In a statement signed by Acting Director-General of Public Affairs of the Police Service, ACP Kwesi Ofori and read on Peace FM's ''Kokrokoo'', the Police said; ''A team is currently studying the footage of the alleged assault of some of the journalists to identify the alleged perpetrators for immediate prosecution.''



''We apologize unreservedly for this inconvenience and wish to give the assurance that journalist will be fully protected and allowed to do their work at all times including subsequent coverage of this case'', the Police assured.





Full statement

Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Property and goods of more than 1,000 traders have been destroyed in a fire that gutted the Akyem Oda Central Market last Monday night.



Most of the stalls and stores, including a storey building, were burnt to ashes but no casualties were recorded.



It took personnel of the Ghana National Fire Service from five districts and five fire engines, assisted by a detachment of the military from the Jungle Warfare School at Achiase and the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), to bring the fire under control after eight hours.



The immediate cause of the fire is not yet known.



The market is one of the biggest in the Eastern Region, and the magnitude of the disaster is the second in 18 years at the place, with a similar case recorded on September 13, 2003.



Officials said the structure would be demolished and reconstructed given the damage caused by the fire.



Damaged items



Property destroyed in the fire included cash, textiles and clothing, electronic products and electrical appliances, cosmetics, industrial machines, household wares, building materials and food items.



The Member of Parliament (MP) for Oda, Mr Alexander Akwasi Acquah; the Chief Executive of the Birim Central Municipal Assembly, Ms Victoria Adu, and the Krontihene of Akyem Kotoku Traditional Area, Obrempong Gyamfi Saforo Kyereh, have since inspected the extent of damage and sympathised with the victims of the disaster.



Mr Akwasi Acquah yesterday expressed concern that the fire disaster had compounded a difficult situation as officials were yet to rehabilitate people rendered homeless at Oda after a rainstorm destroyed their buildings in April this year.



He appealed to the government, non-governmental organisations and individuals to support the disaster victims with cash and logistics to help restore their livelihoods.



Appeal



Obrempong Kyereh appealed to the banks to grant soft loans to the traders who had lost their capital in the fire to enable them to return to business.



He further urged the government to help in rebuilding the damaged market, saying it was the only source of employment for the traders.



The Eastern Regional Chief Fire Officer, Ms Jennifer Naa Yarley Quaye, expressed concern about the lack of access to the market, saying all the routes had been blocked by the traders and that it impeded their effort in some way.



She said her outfit would train fire wardens to educate the traders on the prevention of fire disasters.



She advised the people to take fire safety measures seriously in every aspect of their lives.









Source: graphiconline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, Right Rev. Prof. Joseph Obiri Yeboah Mante has waded into the #FixTheCountry trend on social media, telling campaigners who take delight to unwarrantedly attack government to fix their attitude.



According to him, Ghanaians should learn to desist from engaging in unnecessary lamentation and learn to change their attitudes to make the environment they find themselves better since government cannot do it alone.

Some Ghanaians have expressed their disappointment in the government and have channeled their anger and frustrations on their social media handles.



While some are demanding better Ghana and developmental projects, others have been making unachievable requests from government, with some subtly calling for change of government.



However, Rt. Rev. Mante who appears to have observed the trend is advising the social media commentators to learn to fix their mouth and get job doing to change Ghana.



According to him, it is easy for people to sit on social media and make unnecessary lamentation when they have no idea how things work.



Martin Luther King Junior once said anyone who is not committed to something is not fit to live. It is always easier to sit on the fence and talk and criticise. These days there is social media and people will just turn to social media. They are just sitting there, they wont work saying fix the country, fix the church, fix the family but the only thing they will not fix is their mouth, Rt. Rev. Mante said when speaking at the 38th Annual Delegates Conference of the Presbyterian Church.



The Presbyterian Moderator called for what he term as hybrid system of governance which is fusing both capitalism and socialism in order to bring the citizens onboard in governing the country. I will tell you something. Seriously I will tell you this. There are different ways of organsing a country. One is the socialist system and the other is the capitalist system. In the socialist system, they give all the authority to government and government alone must fix it. In the capitalist system, every individual have their own authority to do their thing. In a third world like Africa, the best system for us is to have the hybrid, a bit of this and a bit of that. So no government can fix the country alone, it will not happen, people must get up and work and stop being lazy and work.



Whilst taking on the youth on their attitude, Rev. Mante did not mince words in telling government to invest the taxes of citizens in developing the nation. He advised Ghanaians to take their destiny into their hands and desist from thinking that there is a political party which can help make the country better.



On the other hand, government cannot sit there and take our taxes and chop the money, they must use the money to fix the country better. We need the hybrid, we need both but one thing I dont want it to happen is for young men and women in this country to sit and think that there is a government somewhere, there is a party somewhere they can come and fix everything, it is not true. It is a lie.



We must fix wherever we are, we must fix our environment and get job doing and yet having said that in the other hand, if you are taking purse of the whole country like you are taking our income tax. Use it to make the country better. We need both.



We need people who will fix their mind and the heart, people who will fix their attitude, we need government too that will help fix the country and when the two come together Ghana will become a better place and I pray that it shall be so, he explained.



He was of the view that Ghanaians will continue to suffer when all they do is to sit on social media and lament over everything without getting involve in the development of the country, saying And somebody must blow the whistle that we need to change stop lamenting. We will continue to suffer if we dont stop unnecessary lamentation. Too many complain will make you sick.

Source: Daily Guide









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Emirates, the Premier Partner and Official Airline of Expo 2020 Dubai has launched its latest initiative under a global campaign to promote destination Dubai to people from all walks of life this winter season.



The airlines Early Bird Expo 2020 Dubai deal, launched this week across its global markets, will enable customers to save up to 20% on fares to Dubai when they book their flights early.



Adnan Kazim, Emirates Chief Commercial Officer said: Dubai truly has something for everyone and this winter, as our home city hosts Expo 2020, the excitement and range of attractions for visitors will ratchet up, including various once-in-a-lifetime experiences.



He added: As Dubais home airline, Emirates is launching a series of initiatives to make it even more compelling for travellers to plan their visit and experience Dubai. Last month, we announced that well give a free Expo Day Pass to every Emirates customer travelling to Dubai during the Expo period, and we introduced an innovative mile a minute offer for our Skywards members. Today we are launching an early booking discount on flights to Dubai across all our markets. In the coming weeks, we plan to roll out offers tailored for families, a special Expo edition of our popular My Emirates Pass product, a celebratory offer for the UAEs 50th jubilee anniversary and more, so stay tuned.



Whether exploring Dubai solo, as a family, or reconnecting with family and friends, there has never been a better time to visit Dubai than this winter season. Emirates current special promotions include:



Early bird discount: This special offer is valid on any return tickets booked to Dubai as the final destination for travel dates between 26 September 2021 and 31 March 2022. It is applicable to bookings made from 6  27 September, 2021 via Emirates.com, through Emirates call centre or retail outlets, or via a travel agent. The offer applies to Emirates Business and Economy base fares; on Saver, Flex, Flex+ fare brands.*



Free Emirates Expo Day Pass: Emirates customers visiting and travelling through Dubai anytime during the much-awaited Expo 2020 mega event, will be eligible to receive a free Emirates Expo Day Pass for every flight ticket booked with the airline. For more information on this promotion, please visit the dedicated offer page.



Earn a mile a minute in Dubai: Emirates customers can earn 1 Skywards Mile for every 1 minute spent in Dubai between 01 October 2021 and 31 March 2022. Existing and new Emirates Skywards members who sign up for the program before 31 March 2022, can avail the offer on Emirates.com, and will earn up to 5,000 Miles. The offer is applicable on all Emirates flight tickets purchased between 01 August 2021 and 31 March 2022, for travel during Expo 2020 Dubai. Emiratesmarketed, flydubaioperated flights with an Emirates (EK) flight number are also included in the offer.



Extra Baggage allowance: During this offer period, passengers from Ghana will be able to enjoy extra baggage allowance of one additional piece of luggage to and from Dubai.



As international borders reopen and travel restrictions ease, Emirates has resumed passenger services to over 120 destinations and currently operates 7 weekly passenger flights from Accra to Dubai.

Source: Peacefmonline.com/ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The general secretary of the opposition National Democratic Congress, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, is poised to challenge the incumbent national chairman of the NDC, Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, for the chairmanship in the NDCs 2022 national executive elections.



Asiedu Nketiah was first elected general secretary of the NDC in November 2005 and has since then won all elections for the position.



Ofosu-Ampofo, on the other hand, was elected national chairman at the NDCs ninth delegates congress, held at the Fantasy Dome of the Trade Fair Centre in Accra in November 2018. His main rivals for the post were Dan Abodakpi, Betty Mould Iddrisu, Alhaji Huudu Yahaya and Danny Annang.



Sources within the top echelons of the NDC who are familiar with the latest internal developments say that Asiedu Nketiahs ambition is causing disquiet among the party rank and file.



Some political analysts believe that although Asiedu Nketiah would almost certainly be retained if he ran for NDC general secretary, his wish to move up is likely to be resisted fiercely, with Ofosu-Ampofo determined to hold on to the chairmanship.



Mahamas choice

John Dramani Mahama, the NDCs flagbearer in the 2012, 2016 and 2020 elections and the presumed leader of the party again, going in to Election 2024, reportedly has the support of both Asiedu Nketiah and Ofosu-Ampofo.



However, Mahama, according to sources in the NDC top leadership, prefers Ofosu-Ampofo to Asiedu Nketiah for the partys national chairmanship.



Race for the executive

Under the NDC constitution, the party is required to elect national executives two years before every general election.



It is therefore expected that the NDC will next hold an national delegates congress to elect a national executive in November 2022.



Campaign activities for the internal elections will gather momentum from October onwards. All eyes will be on the top job of national chairman.



Profile of Ofosu-Ampofo

Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo was born on 1 March 1962. He is a former Member of Parliament as well as district chief executive for Fanteakwa North in the Eastern Region.



He previously served as the regional minister for the Eastern Region and national organiser of the National Democratic Congress.



Ofosu-Ampofo was also the minister of local government and rural development.



Asiedu Nketiah

Johnson Kwadwo Asiedu Nketiah, also known as General Mosquito, was born on 24 December 1956 at Seikwa, in the Brong-Ahafo Region, to the family of Kwaku Asiedu.



He gained admission to the School of Administration (now the Business School) at the University of Ghana, where he completed his education in 1986.



He also trained in petty trading and engaged in akpeteshie distilling and palm wine tapping, running a drinking bar owned by his uncle.



He is a former banker and MP and a trained teacher.



Asiedu Nketiahs political career began in 1989 when he was elected to represent Seikwa in the first Wenchi District Assembly. He was also elected to the consultative assembly which drafted the 1992 constitution.



He first stood for election as MP for Wenchi West in 1992 and served as the local MP for 12 years.



During his time in Parliament, he served on several committees, such as those in charge of appointments, finance and public accounts. He was chairman of the committee on mines and energy, as well as the Minority spokesman on food, agriculture and cocoa affairs.



From 1997 to 2001, he served as a deputy minister of food and agriculture with special responsibility for crops. At the NDC delegates congress in December 2005, he won almost 80% of the votes to become the third general secretary of the party.



He was re-elected as NDC general secretary at the congress that took place in January 2010, securing 93% of the vote.

Source: asaaseradio.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The TESCON President of the Wisconsin International University College, Prince Amadu Anuwar-Sadat was adjudged the Influential TESCON President" and "Outstanding Student Politician of the Year at the 2nd National Academy of Students' Achievement Awards (NASAAG) awards at the GNAT Hall in Accra on 11th September, 2021.



The President & Board Chairman of NASAAG, Mr. Riffath Yakub Abubakar, while giving his welcome address intimated that the event gives them the opportunity to bring together all Tertiary Students in the country to celebrate and award the most hardworking and deserving students and other stakeholders for their immense contributions and sacrifices towards education, entrepreneurship and leadership in the country.



The event attracted a lot of dignitaries, particularly those in the educational, business and political sector who graced the occasion.



In an interview with peacefmonline.com, the self-effacing and well composed Prince Sadat said I am indeed humbled and dignified to receive this double honours. I wish to dedicate this award to all the people in my life whose continuous support and prayers made this happen. A special mention must be made of Dr. Joseph Siaw Agyepong (Executive Chairman of the Jospong Group of Companies); my bosses, Hon. Ken Ofori-Atta (Minister for Finance), Alhaji Abubakar Abdul-Rahman (ALHAJI SHORT), for they have always given me the room to realize my full potential. Number 16, (Mr. William Ofori-Atta, Mr. Kwabena Marfo, Mr. Nuhu B. Mahama, Ahmed Bening, Nana Agyemang Daakyehene, Abraham Mensah Acquah, Ernie Mcninson and Awudu Kanton) I cannot love you less. To my TESCON Executives and members, Wisconsin University, GUPS, NUGS, PUSAG, Kwame Raj, Oscar Jonas, Steve Carlos, Paul Adu-Gyamfi, and Hamza Sisse, you have supported me every step of this journey and I thank you all. To the Upper West region, the Reality Team and the entire NPP, God bless you all. I cannot thank all my friends and family enough; I love you all dearly. You have all shown me enough love and support. To the numerous people who voted for me; may God bless you abundantly and replenish your effort in a million-fold.



Prince A. A. Sadat is a student of the Law Faculty of the Wisconsin International University College Ghana offering a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B) degree. He is currently a Senior Research Assistant at the Campaign Fund Raising Office of H. E. the President (Number 16) and also a Press & Media Aide to Alhaji Short (former Member of the Council of State). Prince Sadat is also the TESCON President for Wisconsin University and the Chief Justice for the Ghana Union of Professional Students. He has previously worked for corporate giants like Vodafone Ghana, Fidelity Bank Limited, Glico Life Insurance Company Limited; and has over ten (10) years of work experience in corporate Ghana.



He has also worked as Personal Assistant to some of the finest politicians in the country. And his contributions towards the 2016 and 2020 victory of the NPP and H. E. Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo cannot be overemphasized. He is a prolific writer with over 100 publications on social and political issues of national interest to his name; and has received several awards both in the corporate space and in politics as well.



Other noted awardees for the night includes Alhaji Dr. Sheikh Osmanu Nuhu Sharubutu (Century Award in Promotion of Peace & Unity), Hon. Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum (Politician in Youth Education Development), Rev. Fr. Prof. Anthony Afful-Broni (Industrious Principal/Vice Chancellor of the Year), Dr. Daniel Mckorley(Students/Youth Supportive Entrepreneur/Philanthropist of the Year), Berlinda Addardeya.k.aBerla Mundi (Students/Youth Role Model in Media of the Year), Alswell Annan (National Youth/Student Ambassador of the Year) among others.



Indeed, it was a memorable occasion that provided the opportunity to the students to interact and socialize among themselves.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









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The embattled General Secretary of the Peoples National Convention (PNC) Janet Nabla, has petitioned the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service to investigate two leading members of the party over alleged financial malfeasance and stealing.



According to her, the flagbearer in the 2020 elections, David Apasera and National Chairman, Moses Dani Baah should be made to answer questions over the stealing allegations.



Following the removal from office of Messrs David Asibi Apasera and Moses Dani Baah as Leader and Chairman of PNC respectively by the National Executive Committee (NEC) on grounds of misconduct and financial malfeasance on 7th day of September 2021, I petition your august institution on behalf of the party to investigate the two on the following financial malfeasance and stealing, according a petition filed at the CID on Tuesday, September 14, 2021 by Janet Nabla.



The petition further alleged that an amount of GHC1.7 million raised to fund the partys activities for the 2020 General Elections was withdrawn and spent by Mr. Apasera and Mr. Dani Baah without the knowledge of the General Secretary of the party, saying that it is a clear violation of Article 49(b)(8) of the party constitution.



An amount of GHC1.7 million was raised to fund the December 7, 2020 elections. The entire amount was withdrawn from the bank and cause to be spent by the leader and the chairman without the knowledge of the General Secretary who by Article 53 of the constitution is in charge of daily operations of the party and no proper account had been rendered.



This act was in clear violation of Article 49(b)(8) where they are instructed to call for NEC meeting to deliberate on issues concerning elections, fundraising, management of funds for the national elections both for the presidential and parliamentary candidates including strategizing and executing the campaigns for both the Presidential candidate and the Parliamentary candidates of the party.



An amount of GHC1,500,000 was raised to pay party offices rent across the country. This amount was deposited in the partys account where Mr. Apasera and Mr. Dani Baah have withdrawn the amount without the knowledge of the Secretary and have not used the money for the intended purpose, the petition stated.



Recently, David Apasera sued some 18 members of his party over his removal on September 7, 2021.



He explained that his removal which was reportedly carried out by a National Executive Committee that did not form the mandatory quorum needed for convening such a meeting, saying that the procedure of convening the NEC meeting was blatantly ignored.



The meeting comprised 9 Regional Chairmen and the First Vice-Chair of the PNC.

Source: Daily Guide









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General Secretary of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr. John Boadu, has hit back at Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr. Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, describing him as the very "epitome of failure", following the latter's earlier scathing attack on his (Boadu's) party leadership credentials.



The NPP stalwart accused Mr Ofosu Ampofo of failing to undertake simple calculation of electoral figures when he was Director of Elections of the party during the 2016 General Elections.



Who Are You To Insult Mahama?



The NDC Chair fired the first salvo when he labelled Mr Boadu as incompetent, and one who has no moral right to criticize former President John Mahama, because he (Boadu) failed to protect the NPP's majority seats in Parliament during the 2020 elections.



What I want to tell the NPP General Secretary John Boadu whos suddenly had a penchant for wearing suits and addressing press conferences and insulting ex-President Mahama is that he was elected General Secretary when the NPP had 169 seats in Parliament. He has failed woefully to protect the 169 seats and it has today dropped to 137 seats.



"If we are talking about competency and who is able to manage, John Boadu should not come and compare himself to Mr Mahama, he told a gathering in Kumasi during Mr Mahamas 'Thank You' tour of the region.



He stressed, We went to the polls together and we are all witnesses to the logistics that the NPP deployed. We know the huge sums of monies the NPP spent during the elections and we also know all the things they shared to win votes.



"If you are a General Secretary and you are given all these things and you lose most of the seats you had and the NPP is using force to declare themselves the Majority in Parliament. How dare John Boadu to insult Mahama? I think that he has performed so abysmally that if it were to be the NDC, he would not have been given the chance or platform to be addressing press conference in the name of the party.



You Think You're Better Than Me?



But in an sharp rebuttal during an interview with Kwabena Kwakye on Oman Fm's Boiling Point, John Boadu described the NDC capo as a total failure who could not get simple arithmetic right and even put up a national collation centre together for his party when he was director of elections.



"You put up such an abysmal performance when you were director of elections for the your party, you further led your party to lose the 2020 general elections and yet you think you are better than me?" he rhetorically asked.



Epitome of Failure!



To him, Ofosu Ampofo can only be lucky in a party like the NDC where such things are allowed to happen, adding that he (John Boadu) will continue to speak and work for his party to secure another victory for them in the break-the-8-agenda.



"Look, i'm proud of myself as General Secretary who polled a whooping 1.5 million votes to secure victory for my party's candidate and further clinched another five hundred thousand (500,000) for my candidate Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo Addo to retain his seat as president of this country.



"If there is any body who is failing, then i think you must check again and look no further than your self since you are an epitome of failure," he added.



"Confused" History Lovers



The NPP General Secretary has in recent times held series of press conferences attacking Mr Mahama and his utterances on the economy. His latest media encounter was held last week where he launched a savage attack on the economic performance of the Mahama administration.



Former President Mahama and Seth Terkper are on public record as being the worse duo to have ever been in charge of the Ghanaian economy at the same time. This pair is a dangerous pair, yet in their public forum on 6th September 2021, they sought to create the impression that they had the best of times running this Ghanaian economy.



Unfortunately for them, the facts shows otherwise. Much as John Mahama seek his re-election on a campaign platform of going back to the IMF, he attempts to confuse history by painting a rosy picture. He said he is somebody who loves history but he confuses history by attempting to paint a rosy picture of his disastrous management of the Ghanaian economy between 2012 and 2016, Mr Boadu said the press briefing.

Source: Isaac Kwame Owusu/Peacefmonline/[email protected]









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Petro Itozya Magoti, an assistant secretary at the Chama Chama Mapinduzi party (CCM), got married to his heart-throb, Joyce, and he took to Instagram to praise her while promising to love her till the very end.



In what was dubbed "the National Wedding", Magoti and Joyce walked down the aisle in an exquisite ceremony that was attended by top Tanzania's officials and celebrities.



The politician celebrated his new marriage, adding that he was lucky to love and be loved.



Their wedding comes three months after their engagement.



Read Full Story .... lindaikejisblog.com >>> :

















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Written by Meagan Drillinger

Sep 15, 2021

Steamboat Springs, Colorado is home to some epic hiking, ranging from easy strolls down nature trails to challenging full-day climbs to some of the highest elevation points in the state.

The area is home to six mountain peaks within the Park Range and overlooks the Yampa Valley. The range includes Mount Werner, Sunshine Peak, Storm Peak, Thunderhead Peak, Pioneer Ride, and Christie Peak. Throughout the mountains and valleys are hundreds of miles of hiking trails through lush evergreen forests and across vast, wildflower-strewn meadows. Gaze out over the Continental Divide, or peer down some of the most dramatic waterfalls youve ever seen.

The Northern Colorado string of Rocky Mountains is right here in Steamboat Springs, home to the Medicine Bow and Routt National Forests  2.9 million acres of protected land. You will not be deprived of fantastic hiking when you visit Steamboat Springs. Lace up your boots and get ready to hit more than 80 maintained trails in the region, whether you're a pro at the backcountry or are simply out for an afternoon walk with the family.

Check out our list of the best hiking spots in Steamboat Springs.

Note: Some businesses may be temporarily closed due to recent global health and safety issues.
Simone Lombardo raised to 1.2 million and Andrea Ricci three-bet to 4 million with 16 million behind. Lombardo carefully counted his remaining stack and then moved all-in for Ricci to call with the inferior stack size.

Andrea Ricci:

Simone Lombardo:

It seemed all but over on the flop as Ricci needed running cards to a straight or flush. He got one of them on the turn and the rail shouted for the four of diamonds. Sure enough, the fell on the river and Ricci's rail exploded. Both Italian contenders hugged while the chips were counted and Lombardo was left with around 5 million.

Lombardo was still all smiles when he sat back down and Ricci then jammed the button, Lombardo called it off.

Simone Lombardo:

Andrea Ricci:

The flop gave Lombardo the nut straight and gutshot straight flush draw. Suddenly, Ricci picked up outs on the turn and the magical river completed a miracle runout to eliminate Lombardo in back-to-back hands. He takes home 146,004 while Ricci has earned the WSOP Circuit gold ring and top prize of 236,489.

A recap of today's action is to follow.
The 2021 World Series of Poker International Circuit at the King's Resort in Rozvadov has come to a thrilling conclusion. Out of a field of 912 entries, nine players battled for the gold circuit ring and biggest slice of the 1,342,920 prize pool. After a roller coaster heads-up duel, Andrea Ricci defeated fellow countryman Simone Lombardo to claim his first gold ring and top prize of 236,489.

Ricci already came close to earn his maiden victory on the WSOP Circuit in Europe's biggest poker arena a few weeks ago. In a field of 320 entries, the Italian finished as the runner-up in Event #7 660 No Limit Hold'em - Fiftystack for 22,934. His opponent back then, Karol Bogusz from Poland, also made the money in the 1,700 Main Event as well and finished in 36th place.

On top of that, Ricci comes fresh off a triumph in the IPO888poker San Marino, where he came out on top of a1,497 entry strong field to claim the top prize of 125,535. His biggest cash until now came back in 2018 when the Italian emerged victorious in the 560 Premiere Million Main Event in Nova Gorica, Slovenia, for 230,000. Ricci has now topped that by a few thousand Euros.

Runner-up Lombardo put up a fierce fight in heads-up and all but sealed the victory only to see his hopes crushed in dramatic fashion. Aliaksandr Shylko repeated his fourth place finish in this very event in 2019 and the final table also featured the 2019 EPT Sochi Main Event winner Uri Gilboa, who finished in sixth place.

Final Result WSOPC 1,700 Main Event at King's Resort

Position Winner Country Prize in Euros) 1 Andrea Ricci Italy 236,489 2 Simone Lombardo Italy 146,004 3 Vincent De Neve Germany 104,359 4 Aliaksandr Shylko Belarus 79,943 5 Mourad Tounnouti Netherlands 63,334 6 Uri Gilboa Israel 49,329 7 Mr. Bond Germany 35,943 8 Ahmad Achegsei Germany 24,565 9 Sami Karli Germany 19,459

The nine finalists and tenth-place finisher Mihai Stinca also received an entry to the 2021 WSOP Europe 10,300 Main Event as well, which is currently scheduled to take place early in December. Through various live poker events, the King's Resort has now already awarded 172 entries for the pinnacle event of the upcoming festival.

Ricci Races to Heads-Up in Dominating Fashion

The nine-handed final table started with a bang as Sami Karli was eliminated by Andrea Ricci during the first few hands. He had started the final day second in chips and flopped trips nines while Ricci had already nailed a full house with pocket deuces. The turn and river bricked and the Italian soared into a commanding lead.

Ahmad Achegsei was then eliminated by Simone Lombardo when a dominated pair found no help before Ricci flopped best to knock out King's regular "Mr. Bond". The short stacks were fighting for their survival and Uri Gilboa as well as Mourad Tounnouti were the next to depart, leaving Ricci and Lombardo at the top of the leaderboard with four contenders remaining.

Ricci also sent Aliaksandr Shylko to the rail when the Belorussian was caught with a triple barrel bluff. Three-handed play lasted for a while but Vincent De Neve then jammed at the wrong time into Lombardo to set up an all-Italian heads-up battle for the gold ring.

Long Heads-Up Duel Ends in Dramatic Fashion

For most of the final table, Ricci dominated at the top of the leaderboard. There were some setbacks along the way but he never really surrendered the top spot until the heads-up stage, which started nearly even in chips. Ricci fell behind and then doubled to pull well ahead of Lombardo with the chance to wrap it up twice only for his fellow countryman to survive, too.

Lombardo got there with ace-trey suited versus pocket eights to claim back the lead and both then clashed in a typical coin flip with pocket eights versus ace-queen. An eight on the flop all but sealed the victory for Lombardo but Ricci found a miracle escape thanks to running diamonds.

In the very next hand, Ricci jammed jack-six suited into queen-ten and Lombardo nailed the nut straight and gutshot straight flush draw. With just the blank middle pair by then, Ricci needed more magic and indeed spiked perfect-perfect for an unlikely full house to seal the triumph in extraordinary fashion.

That wraps up the PokerNews coverage for this event but the next live poker event is just around the corner with the partypoker MILLIONS North Cyprus from September 16 to 27.
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U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson during a heated hearing Monday told Secretary of State Antony Blinken to resign in the wake of the American exodus from Afghanistan.

As a grateful father of an Afghanistan veteran, I especially see your actions as indefensible, the South Carolina Republican said, as Blinken looked on. Wilson continued: Your bizarre abandoning of Bagram Airfield led directly to 13 Marines murdered in Kabul. You should resign.

Blinken did not respond to the congressmans directive but thanked him for earlier remarks in support of State Department employees.

Wilsons Monday comments were a face-to-face extension of sentiments he expressed at the end of August; at the time, he called for the resignations of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris as well as the firing of Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.

The Biden administrations unconditional surrender in Afghanistan has put the U.S. back to where we were before Sept. 11, 2001, susceptible to murderous attacks, Wilson said in a statement Aug. 31.

Wilson has also suggested Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, should be fired.

The U.S. departure from Afghanistan and the Talibans swift seizure of power after two decades of war has become a political flash point, with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle promising probes.

In American history, Wilson said during the House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, American families have never been at greater risk of attack at home than today.

A little more than half of U.S. adults believe the decision to withdraw from Afghanistan was the right one, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted Aug. 23-29. The same survey, conducted before the withdrawal wrapped, found 69% of the public believes the U.S. mostly failed in achieving its goals there.

Blinken was scheduled to testify before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday morning.
A new Mexican restaurant in downtown Charleston will welcome diners Sept. 24.

Maya, a new offering from the Indigo Road Hospitality Group, will open in the former Macintosh space at 579 King St.

Chef Brett Riley will offer classic and reimagined Mexican dishes with hints of coastal influence.

Among the offerings will be corn salads, tacos and quesadillas as well as cocktails, wine and beer.

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The interior and patio are inspired by the Mexican coastline where the jungle meets the sea.

Hours will be 5-10:30 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday with extended hours until 2 a.m. on the weekends.

A special late night menu and weekend brunch are expected to be added in the coming weeks.
The S.C. Court of Appeals has upheld a jury's six-figure award to a truck driver who was hurt in a 2012 accident at the Port of Charleston.

Curtis Mills won a $616,710 verdict against the State Ports Authority following a 2018 trial in Charleston County. The award was later reduced to $300,000  the maximum allowed against government agencies in South Carolina.

The appeals court affirmed the jury's award in a Sept. 15 order that also denied the SPA's request for a new trial. The three-judge panel said the maritime agency failed in the original trial to raise an issue over whether Mills shared some of the blame for the accident. That means the judges could not consider that argument as part of the SPA's appeal.

The judges also ruled the jury's verdict was not excessive and the original court was correct when it denied the ports authority's request for a new trial.

A spokeswoman for the SPA could not immediately be reached for comment.

Ladson Howell, the lawyer who represented Mills, has been critical of the SPA in the past. When the trucker's lawsuit was filed in 2014, he said "there is a pattern for negligent operators or trainers or supervisors or a combination of all three" at the port.

Following the appeals court decision, Howell said he is "cautiously optimistic that the court system will help make the port a safer place for its workers."

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Court records show Mills was injured when a SPA employee at the Wando Welch Terminal in Mount Pleasant was using equipment designed to move cargo containers off a chassis attached to the back of truck.

The employee picked up a container that was still hitched to the chassis of Mills truck, according to court documents. The lawsuit alleged the employee lifted the vehicle, container and chassis between 6 and 8 feet off the ground then started shaking the container until it broke loose, causing the truck and chassis to fall to the ground.

One of the SPA's lawyers said during the initial trial that evidence showed some of the locking pins on Mills chassis were still engaged when the container was being lifted. Truck drivers are supposed to make sure all of the pins are disengaged. Mills testified that he disengaged the pins after entering the terminal.

However, the pins can sometimes jostle back into the engaged position as a driver makes his or her way through the terminal, and a witness testified during the initial trial that the safest procedure is to double-check that the pins are disengaged right before the container is to be removed.
COLUMBIA  The debate over what students are  or aren't  learning about U.S. history and America's founding ideals will ramp up next year in the Statehouse as lawmakers seek to expunge what they consider lessons of division.

Opponents of what's broadly dubbed "critical race theory" want to keep it and The New York Times' "1619 Project" out of K-12 public classrooms, arguing they indoctrinate students to both hate the country and people who don't look like them.

Others contend the national movement by Republicans is about perpetuating a whitewashed view of history driven by a misunderstanding of an academic theory developed in the 1970s and '80s for examining systemic racism in America.

The controversial theory will be among topics of a private meeting Wednesday in Charleston by a couple dozen activists planning for next year's efforts, according to emails provided to The Post and Courier. The organizer, Brett Barry with the American Heritage Association, did not return multiple phone and email messages.

Those invited to address the group include House Speaker Jay Lucas, who declined to talk about the event and has said nothing publicly, nor has he sponsored any bills, about critical race theory. Unlike many in his caucus, the Hartsville Republican also has not signed on to legislation proposing what sixth- through 12th-grade history lessons must include.

Retired Marine Maj. Gen. James Livingston, who plans to attend, said he wants to ensure the next generation of leaders recognizes that, while America has faults and ugly history, "there is no other country with the opportunities we have here."

He continued, "They need to be told that. They're not getting a fair shake about what their country represents," said Livingston, who is a Medal of Honor recipient from the Vietnam War. "This element of picking and choosing who we are historically is very bothersome to me.  I want them to know all our history. I don't want a selection. Put it out there. Learn from it."

A budget ban

South Carolina education leaders insist no school or district is using "critical race theory" in its curricula, and those words do not exist in the state's social studies standards.

"The critical race theory ideology has no place in South Carolina schools and classrooms," state schools Superintendent Molly Spearman wrote in June. "The South Carolina Department of Education has no current or proposed standards that include CRT concepts and will not be adopting any CRT standards nor applying for or accepting any funding that requires or incentivizes the adoption of these concepts in our classrooms."

Still, legislators say they're getting complaints that some teachers are using the concepts in their lessons.

The concerns are what drove a group of GOP senators to insert a clause in the state budget that bars the theory's use in both K-12 classrooms and in any training of district employees.

While never mentioning either, the eight-point list of banned concepts is aimed at critical race theory and the "1619 Project," an award-winning New York Times initiative that reframes American history with slavery and the contributions of Black Americans at the center. Published in 2019, the 400th anniversary of what's believed to be the first arrival of African enslaved people, the project also created materials for schools to use.

Amid criticism, including from historians, the Times last year clarified its interpretation that the American Revolution was fought to protect slavery. But the newspaper has repeatedly defended the project and supported its lead writer, Nikole Hannah-Jones, who in July joined the faculty of Howard University, a historically Black school in Washington, D.C.

"It's revisionist history," said Sen. Chip Campsen, R-Isle of Palms, a co-sponsor of the budget amendment. While humans are never perfect, he said, "we've made tremendous progress, more so than any other nation on Earth. So why are we teaching children to hate their county as opposed to love it and make it better?"

The one-year budget law that took effect July 1 was adopted on a voice vote with little discussion. The list, which mirrors GOP legislation in other states, includes bans on teaching that one race or gender is inherently superior to another; that people are inherently racist or sexist because of their race; and that traits such as a hard-work ethic were created as tools of oppression.

"Because it doesn't use the buzz words 'critical race theory,' it's difficult to be opposed to it when you look at the principles prohibited from being taught," Campsen said. "Until the last few years, it was widely held that those precepts are things we should never teach in America."

There have been a few instances of "missteps" by individual teachers, but nothing widespread, said Ryan Brown, spokesman for the state Department of Education. It usually involves teachers pulling resources from a website they shouldn't use, he said.

"It'll have something tied to the notion that America is inherently racist. We need to avoid telling White children or Black children that somehow, something someone did a hundred years ago, they're to blame for," Brown said, adding that most complaints about critical race theory are unfounded. "There are people who don't want their children taught about the Holocaust or Jim Crow, and that's not CRT. We're not going to not teach the Holocaust."

Spearman is meeting with legislative leaders to develop a policy that can more comprehensively prohibit CRT from entering classrooms while still allowing educators to fairly and accurately teach South Carolina standards without fear of penalty. The rigorously vetted standards, rated "good" by the conservative Fordham Institute, already contain the important people, places and events throughout history that have made our nation what it is today, her office said.

The legislation will be prefiled ahead of the legislative session that resumes in January.

Historical imbalances

Hollis France, chairwoman of the College of Charlestons political science department, said it is impossible to encourage a critical, comparative or interdisciplinary approach in the classroom these days without addressing the history of race  and that students expect it, even demand it.

"A lot of those legislators have misunderstood what is the purpose of critical race theory and the 1619 Project, which is putting at the center the experiences  of people of color in the United States.

People of color, particularly African Americans, have been dehumanized by oppressive systems that favor those in power. Power imbalances are visible everywhere today, and they often originate with the founding of the country and the drafting of its governing documents, she said.

Students today  such as Frances own daughter, who is a senior in a public high school  want to confront such disproportionality.

"Politicians can try to legislate (certain restrictions), but young people are seeing it, writing about it and talking about it," France said.

These young folks, and many young folks coming up today, you would be amazed in terms of their critical and analytical thinking. For them to come into the classroom and not hear me talking about structural oppression, I would look like a fool.

The Charleston County School District, concerned with students' academic struggles linked, in part, to de facto racial segregation, recently created a cultural competency team in an effort to encourage staff diversity and intercultural awareness.

To do so, the district is training teachers and fostering conversations about implicit bias, race and racial disparities.

Cultural competency is not the same as critical race theory, district officials have said.

The latter examines how racism is embedded in the fabric of society and therefore influences legal, social, economic and cultural decisions and actions. The former seeks to raise awareness of behavioral and cultural differences between races, thereby fostering sympathy and understanding.

The district has no intention to introduce critical race theory in its classrooms or veer away from prescribed curricula and statewide education standards, officials have said.

"Im not sure why people are so terrified of the subject (of critical race theory), said Marguerite Archie Hudson, a political science professor at the College of Charleston and former California legislator.

The issues considered within the rubric of CRT are foundational and can be found embedded in the U.S. Constitution itself, Archie-Hudson said.

"What ... do they think the three-fifths compromise is? Dred Scott? Plessy? she said, referring to institutionalized examples of explicit racism found in the Constitution and in landmark Supreme Court cases.

The laws of segregation were built on the notion of racial hierarchies, and that Black people were inferior to White people, she said. It is therefore reasonable and necessary to have students consider this history and question who the Constitution was meant to protect  and how that protection has changed over time, Archie-Hudson said.

Consider the history of lynching, she said, adding there are questions that need to be addressed: Whos guilty? Perhaps the system itself? Who controlled the system? What responsibility do they bear? She sees the legislative debates as part of an effort by those in power to retain control, even as the demographics of the country change.
CAMDEN  A South Carolina school district inside one of the states first coronavirus hot spots was singled out by Gov. Henry McMaster for its ability to stay open through the pandemic while avoiding mask mandates.

I would say this is one of the model districts for our state and possibly even the nation in using all the tools that are available without being obtrusive or invading privacy, McMaster said Sept. 15 at Camden Elementary School during a roundtable with Kershaw County School District officials and nurses.

The 10,873-student district 30 miles east of Columbia never suspended face-to-face operations, and was an early adopter of the data-tracking dashboards now in place across most of the states school systems.

We track our data every day, multiple times a day, Kershaw County Superintendent Shane Robbins said. One of the things that I have consistently shared with my team is facts over fear, and we want to make decisions based on the data.

Some of South Carolina's first confirmed cases of coronavirus were found in the county in March 2020, and Robbins' district was among the first to request a stockpile of personal protective equipment from a $10 million statewide purchasing plan.

Many of the procedures used in 2020 are still in place.

In elementary schools, grades are split for lunch: Half go to cafeterias and sit 3 feet apart, while the rest eat in their classrooms.

At Lugoff-Elgin Middle School, Principal Eugene Cameron uses a yardstick to ensure all desks are 3 feet apart.

The district became the first in South Carolina to install a thermal imaging system, spending $75,000 through federal aid and its own budget to set the devices up in all 20 of its schools last summer.

Theyre using all the tools and in combination, it has produced a tremendous result, McMaster said.

As of Sept. 14, the district had 574 students who have either tested positive or are in quarantine  down from a high of 1,563 on Aug. 20.

Officials said aggressive contact tracing, social distancing and other measures have kept positivity rates among students in quarantine below 1 percent.

We know they need to be in school. They learn better in school, said Elizabeth Starling, the districts head nurse. She said officials at times have used surveillance footage from buses to determine close contacts if a student tests positive.

School board trustee Todd McDonald said the district has looked for ways to stay nimble while committing itself to keeping classrooms open.

We have all these things in place to say, Were willing to move and change at a moments notice, not only in our district but in specific areas of our county, he said.

McMaster has refused calls by a growing number of lawmakers, teacher advocacy groups and public health officials to issue a statewide mask mandate in schools  and lawmakers in the budget made such a move illegal under the threat of pulling aid from districts.

Even so, several have voted to do so as a firewall against rising COVID numbers that threaten to shutter schools. Charleston County, Richland One and Lexington Two school districts all have face- covering requirements in place.

McMaster said the successes in Kershaw County suggest mask mandates arent the cure-all some believe.

The parents are the ones that need to make that decision. What has been done here has demonstrated that you do not need to force people to do things to get great progress, he said.
COLUMBIA  Masks are required again throughout unincorporated Richland County in businesses, restaurants, schools and day cares.

The rule takes effect Sept. 15 after an emergency vote by Richland County Council on Sept. 14.

The county joins Columbia and the Lexington County cities of West Columbia and Cayce in returning to mask requirements. Forest Acres also passed a mask requirement effective Sept. 15, and the town of Blythewood expects to vote on one soon, Mayor Bryan Franklin said.

Richland School District One has maintained a mask requirement for students, employees and visitors while the S.C. Supreme Court decides a mask case brought by the Richland Two School District.

Richland County's mandate mimics language from Columbia's order in requiring masks in schools, written to emphasize that city and county fire officials will enforce mask-wearing and not school administrators, teachers or other employees.

The state Supreme Court shot down a school mask requirement passed by Columbia leaders in August as conflicting with a state budget amendment that says money state lawmakers budgeted for the current year can't be used to enact, enforce or announce mask mandates.

Violating the county ordinance by not wearing a mask in commercial establishments is a civil violation and carries a possible $25 fine. Employers who don't require employees to wear a mask could face a $100 fine.

Parents of children who refuse to wear a mask could be warned or cited with a $25 fine.

"I want us to take this very seriously," County Councilwoman Gretchen Barron said before the vote. "As we think about doing what is right, lets think about the young people; lets think about our children."

In Richland County, 52 percent of eligible residents are fully vaccinated. State health officials classify the county as having a high rate of the virus, with 1,000 new cases per 100,000 people during the two-week period ending Sept. 12.

County leaders are considering a vaccine requirement for the some 2,500 people employed by the local government and whether there should be mandatory testing for those who refuse the vaccine.

The county's first responders and utility workers received $5,000 stipends as hazard pay for working with the public throughout the pandemic. Other employees who worked in person during the pandemic received $2,500 and county officials will consider another level of bonuses for those who worked partially remote.

The extra money was paid from the county's federal relief dollars.

The council voted 8-2 to require masks. Councilmen Bill Malinowski and Joe Walker voted against the rule after both first tried to defer the vote and then asked that it include an exception for those who had already been vaccinated, a request that was voted down.

Walker said those who have followed public health guidance and received the vaccine shouldn't be punished with the "taxation that really should be borne by those who are refusing the treatment."

Barron and County Council Chairman Paul Livingston said that vaccinated people can still spread the virus and that masks protect children not yet eligible to receive the shot.

State health officials have recommended that everyone wear masks inside schools, regardless of their vaccination status.
GEORGETOWN  At a time of major redevelopment of Georgetown's historic downtown, the office of South Carolina's oldest newspaper will soon be demolished to construct a 56-room boutique hotel along the city's harborwalk.

Lachicotte Company real estate agent Christy Whitlock confirmed Sept. 15 that Winyah Hospitality LLC recently purchased 615 Front St. for $1.17 million, nearly 10 percent above tax appraised value, according to county records.

The office is home to Georgetown Times, owned by the parent company of The Post and Courier in Charleston. The newspaper will plan to move over the next few months, company executives said.

"The Georgetown Times is very important to our company, and we plan to find a new location within the city of Georgetown," said P.J. Browning, publisher of The Post and Courier in Charleston and president of the Evening Post Industries newspaper division.

Winyah Hospitality LLC was established in 2017 just days before Georgetown City Council approved a resolution in November 2017 supporting a developer incentive package totaling $2.25 million over 10 years, though it was later dropped.

Winyah Hospitality LLC consists of Whitlock, Benjamin Zeigler and Joe Keenan, the firm's managing member and principal project developer. Keenan is a principal with Palmetto Commercial Properties out of Charleston and Zeigler is a Florence bond attorney and board chairman for the Belle W. Baruch Foundation, owner of Hobcaw Barony in Georgetown County.

Plans for the hotel have been scaled back as the pandemic delayed completion of the sale. The original idea called for an 85-room hotel, costing $15 million and employing 15 workers.

But Keenan said these amounts have since changed due to the pandemic. He did not release new development costs, employment figures, or a timeline for construction.

The sale comes at the same time as a $25 million project, including luxury apartments and an open market, is being planned in the city's old electric department building less than 2 miles away. City officials, residents and developers are trying to make the state's third-oldest city more inviting to tourists driving between Charleston and Myrtle Beach.

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The Georgetown Times purchased the building in 1981, according to property records.

Evening Post Industries, the Georgetown Times' owner, "has deep roots in Georgetown so we spent significant time and resources thinking about the type of use that would best activate this end of Front Street," said Ron Owens, the company's chief investment officer and director of real estate.

"Ultimately, we thought Georgetown would benefit from a high quality waterfront hotel and entered into discussions with several groups," Owens said. "EPI determined that Joe Keenan and Winyah Hospitality would deliver a great project and had the resources to see this through. We couldnt be happier with our selection."

Evening Post Industries will retain ownership of the Harborwalk Marina and adjacent property, he said.

"We really believe this will be great project for the City of Georgetown," Owens said.

Georgetown Mayor Brendon Barber welcomed the new investment.

Having an anchor hotel in the main business historical district is going to be a plus, he said.

Georgetown Business Association Jack McManus said the hotel could be an attraction.

"It's another anchor that will help fill a gap for tourists, friends and family that are coming into town to stay, and (they will) be right on the water and right downtown," McManus said.
SIMPSONVILLE  After months of contention, rezoning for a townhome development proposed off downtown Simpsonville's Northeast Main Street received final approval Sept. 14 with a unanimous vote from City Council.

No one spoke in opposition during public comments, the meeting was largely empty and council discussion was minimal. It was a marked contrast to the three previous meetings where the development was discussed, during which dozens of residents, some bearing signs, rallied against the development, saying it would negatively impact traffic, cause storm water runoff issues and adversely affect local wildlife.

Council approved a first reading of the rezoning last month after developers Ford Elliot and Josh Howard of Blackstream, LLC met with residents who opposed the plan and agreed to several concessions in response to their concerns.

The two developers reduced the number of units on the 9-acre tract from 48 to 40, agreed to add more greenspace, put a larger buffer between the townhomes and the existing neighborhoods, and included more robust runoff management features.

Residents had pushed back on a right-in, right-out design for the development's only entrance onto Northeast Main, a plan that also concerned city staff. Elliot and Jordan both said that decision rested with the state Department of Transportation, which mandated the format. Both said they would work with the agency to find an alternative but City Planner Jon Derby said an alternative design could not be agreed upon.

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Despite continued plans for a right-in, right-out entrance, Councilwoman Sherry Roche said ahead of the Sept. 14 vote that she appreciated the developers' willingness to meet with neighbors and change plans accordingly.

While no dissenters spoke out against the rezoning some are still against the construction of the 40 townhomes, including Tammy Dantin, one of the first residents to voice opposition to the project.

She said she and other neighbors are exploring legal options and have plans to challenge the rezoning in court.

The development, which is called The Haven, is set to include roughly six units per acre, with each townhome selling for about $300,000. About two acres of the property directly next to Northeast Main Street are a commercial outparcel, though Elliott and Howard said the plan for the retail portion of the project is still in the early stages.
GREENVILLE  Hundreds of business leaders gathered at Fluor Field on Sept. 14 to recognize the successes of the city's chamber of commerce and its members over the past year.

The 132nd annual meeting of the Greenville Chamber of Commerce, one of the largest business gatherings in the state, was branded as a welcome back celebration. During opening remarks, WYFF's Jane Robelot DeCarvalho reflected back to the chamber's previous annual meeting in February 2020. At that point, she joked, the main concerns revolved around a potential snowstorm.

"When the pandemic shutdown businesses and organizations in March of 2020, the chamber's role changed," chamber President Carlos Phillips said.

A promotional video and additional remarks from Phillips outlined the accomplishments of the chamber in 2020. It issued a survey to businesses at the start of the pandemic to learn more about the support needed, created a COVID resources webpage to provide up-to-date information, launched a virtual seminar series and pushed for state legislation.

In November 2020, the Greenville chamber received a 5-Star accreditation for its practices by the United States Chamber of Commerce. Of the 7,000 chambers in the nation, only 200 are accredited and about 130 have a 5-Star rating.

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The chamber and event sponsors also handed out several annual awards on Sept. 14.

The Small Business of the Year Award went to High Spirits Hospitality, a business that has grown from a small bartending company to the parent of four related brand companies: Liquid Catering, The Old Cigar Warehouse, Bravo1 Protection and High Spirit Events.

Paveway Express Ltd. Co. won the Minority Business of the Year Award. The shipping and trucking company started with one truck and driver, and now has a fleet of more than 20 trucks and almost 50 staffers.

Individual award recipients were:
Kingstree, SC (29556)

Today

Thunderstorms likely this evening. Then a chance of scattered thunderstorms overnight. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 69F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%..

Tonight

Thunderstorms likely this evening. Then a chance of scattered thunderstorms overnight. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 69F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%.
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Charleston plans to increase its visibility and support to the city's growing Latino community, officials said on Sept. 15 at a celebration marking the start of National Hispanic Heritage Month.

The celebration with Mayor John Tecklenburg, the city's Latinx Advisory Council and the Latino jazz band Caja de Cuerdas was the first of several planned events.

Among the city's goals are to improve bilingual communication and build trust within the Hispanic community. To that end, all speeches at the event were translated into Spanish.

The Latinx council was launched in spring 2020. It has expanded to 36 community members from the original 20.

Through the council, we've expanded our bilingual communications, the mayor said. Don't get me wrong, we got a ways to go.

Between 2010 and 2020, the state's the Hispanic population grew by 117,156, to 352,838. The councils goal was to increase communication with the states growing Latino population.

Tecklenburg said the city needed to work to build better trust with the community, especially regarding public safety and policing. He hoped hosting events for the Hispanic community and increasing support of Latino businesses could help.

Richard Garcia, a member of the council, agreed that it was going to take time to develop trust, recognizing the lack of bilingual resources available to the Hispanic community.

This is a big elephant, Garcia said. "We're going to take each bite one bite at a time, and we want to do it right.  Hopefully, next year we'll get together again on Sept. 15, we'll see the progress, we will see the information provided in Spanish.

Currently, the majority of the city's website is untranslated, creating a communication barrier for Spanish speakers who do not understand English.

The county has worked to increase bilingual communication for weather emergencies during the Atlantic hurricane season. Ingrid Ginn, a Latina county 911 dispatch operator, translates all emergency notices into Spanish for the departments conferences. The city hopes to increase bilingual resources for weather emergencies, Tecklenburg said.

Sharon Rivera-Dublin, another member of the council, said she thought it was important to have a council composed of Hispanic community members to help cultivate these changes.

It's encouraging for people like me to be a part of this and be able to embrace our community and tell them Charleston County is here and Latinos definitely are going to be supported, she said.

The council, partnering with government departments and local businesses across the county, will host educational and recreational events related to Hispanic Heritage this month, such as movie nights and music celebrations. The list of events can be found on the Office of Cultural Affairs online calendar.
Charleston, SC (29403)

Today

Scattered thunderstorms early, then mainly cloudy overnight with thunderstorms likely. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 73F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

Scattered thunderstorms early, then mainly cloudy overnight with thunderstorms likely. Potential for heavy rainfall. Low 73F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%.
HAMPTON  Alex Murdaugh, the prominent attorney whose wife and son were slain over the summer, unsuccessfully sought to orchestrate his own murder over Labor Day weekend as part of a scheme to fraudulently collect on a $10 million life insurance policy, state investigators say.

The State Law Enforcement Division arrested 61-year-old Curtis Edward Smith on Sept. 14 in connection with the staged shooting, set up along a rural Hampton County road. Smith is a former law client of Murdaugh's who later became his personal drug dealer, according to new statements from Murdaugh's legal team.

Murdaugh, who has been receiving treatment for an opioid addiction at an out-of-state rehab facility, plans to surrender to authorities in Hampton County on Thursday to face a warrant for his arrest on a charge of conspiracy to commit insurance fraud, his attorneys said in a Sept. 15 statement. He is expected to have a bond hearing there at 4 p.m.

Smith's arrest  the first in six separate investigations SLED has launched since June in connection with the Murdaugh family  represents yet another dramatic turn in a twisted Southern saga of wealth, power and bloodshed that has drawn international attention to South Carolina.

Smith, 61, is charged with assisted suicide, assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature, pointing and presenting a firearm, insurance fraud and conspiracy to commit insurance fraud. He was transferred to the Hampton County jail on Sept. 15 after spending the night in the neighboring Colleton County detention center, authorities said.

Murdaugh, 53, admitted in a statement to state investigators Sept. 13 that he asked Smith to kill him so he could collect a life insurance policy worth approximately $10 million to help his son, according to arrest warrant affidavits. The documents describe Murdaugh as a co-defendant in the alleged conspiracy.

In an interview the morning of Sept. 15 with NBCs Craig Melvin, Columbia attorney Dick Harpootlian acknowledged for the first time that Murdaugh embezzled money from the family law firm, writing checks to drug dealers to support an opioid habit. Melvin said Murdaugh came clean to his lawyers about the failed plot to end his life when they met with him Sept. 13 at an out-of-state detox center.

He was in a dark, dark, dark place and wanted to help his remaining son, Buster, with the insurance money, Harpootlian said. "It was an attempt on his part to do something to protect his child."

Murdaugh asked Smith to shoot him because he mistakenly believed his insurance company wouldn't pay out if his death was ruled a suicide, his attorneys said Sept. 15. Murdaugh apparently wasn't aware that in South Carolina suicide is covered by life insurance policies after two years.

A plot gone awry

The shooting occurred Sept. 4, one day after Murdaugh resigned from his family's law firm amid embezzlement allegations.

That Saturday, Smith followed Murdaugh to rural Old Salkehatchie Road, where he shot the attorney as he stood in the roadway, the affidavits state. Smith then drove to an unknown location, where he disposed of the gun, the documents state.

Murdaugh survived the shooting and was airlifted to a Savannah hospital. He was treated there for a head wound, leaving for rehab two days later, saying he was battling personal issues that had worsened since the unsolved June killings of his son Paul, 22, and wife Maggie, 52.

Murdaugh reportedly provided Smith with the gun he used in the suicide attempt, the affidavits state. Smith confirmed to investigators after his arrest he was present during the shooting and got rid of the gun, authorities said.

Smith has also been charged with distribution of methamphetamine and possession of marijuana, SLED spokesman Tommy Crosby said, indicating additional charges are expected in the case.

A judge set Smith's bail at $5,000 on one drug count and gave him a personal recognizance bond on the other Sept. 15. He was later transferred to Hampton County for a bond hearing on the remaining counts, authorities said.

Jim Griffin, another attorney for Alex Murdaugh, said Smith was his clients main drug supplier. Griffin said the pair first met a little more than a decade ago when Murdaugh represented Smith in a workers compensation case. Court records indicate Murdaugh represented Smith in a speeding case in Colleton County in 2013 and in a personal injury civil case the previous year.

In his interview with SLED on Sept. 13, Murdaugh identified Mr. Smith as his primary source for unlawful opioids, Griffin said.

Griffin said he has seen reports that Murdaugh paid Smith to shoot him, but thats not the case.

Alex did not report to SLED that he paid Mr. Smith to shoot him, Griffin said. Mr. Smith willingly shot him without pay.

No one answered the door the afternoon of Sept. 15 at the modest mobile home where Smith lives in a sparsely populated area off a series of country roads in Colleton County.

State records indicate Smith operates an eponymous trucking company, but further details about the business could not immediately be determined.

'He did not murder them'

Smith's arrest came a day after SLED opened a criminal investigation into Murdaugh in connection with money missing from the legal practice his great-grandfather founded, the Peters, Murdaugh, Parker, Eltzroth and Detrick law firm in Hampton. The firm has not disclosed an amount, but one unidentified member told The New York Times the missing money totaled in the millions.

In the NBC interview, Melvin pressed Harpootlian on whether Murdaugh's lies in connection with the staged shooting should call into question what he has told investigators about the June 7 killings of his wife and son. Murdaugh told authorities he found their bodies at the family's hunting lodge in Colleton County, a sprawling property known as Moselle. They were found near dog kennels on the property, shot with two different guns.

Harpootlian said he doesn't think Murdaugh knows who killed them or why.

He is totally distraught about their deaths," Harpootlian said. "He did not murder them.

Harpootlian said he and Griffin are looking into another person who is possibly culpable in the killings and they hope to know more later in the week. He indicated "the motive was personal" but declined to to say more.

Griffin also stressed that Murdaugh doesnt know who killed his wife and son, but he said recent developments in the case do offer new leads for SLED agents to follow.

Certainly, Alex is unaware of anyone who had a motive to kill, Paul, Maggie or him for that matter, Griffin said. It does open up a lot of doors for SLED to investigate different motives that maybe they werent aware of previously.

From the outset, the reported Sept. 4 attempt on Murdaugh's life puzzled investigators and armchair detectives alike.

Murdaugh called 911 that day and reported he had been shot. Griffin initially said that Murdaugh was inspecting a flat tire on his late wife's Mercedes-Benz when a truck turned around and a gunman opened fire on the attorney, wounding him in the head.

Griffin indicated Sept. 15 he did not know the full story of the Labor Day weekend shooting until the past few days.

Alex had not been honest with SLED, his family members or anybody, Griffin said. Im not going to comment on our direct conversations. He had not been honest with anybody that the shooting was at his request.

SLED described the head wound as "superficial," but Griffin has maintained it was a significant injury that fractured Murdaugh's skull, caused hemorrhaging, and left entry and exit wounds. He was still hospitalized when he released a statement indicating he was quitting the law firm and entering rehab. The embezzlement allegations surfaced soon after.

The S.C. Supreme Court suspended Alex Murdaugh's law license two days later.

Randy Murdaugh, his brother and former colleague, said in a statement at the time he was shocked to learn of his brothers drug addiction and stealing of money.

Other open cases

The ongoing revelations have marked a stunning turn of fortunes for a family whose name was synonymous with power and prestige in Hampton County.

Three generations of Murdaughs served as the regions top prosecutor, an office they collectively held for more than eight decades. Alex Murdaugh previously worked part-time for the 14th Circuit Solicitors Office, which was once run by his father, grandfather and great-grandfather. Now, he finds himself under intense scrutiny by law enforcement.

Six state investigations have been launched into incidents related to the Murdaugh family since the June. Those include the double-homicide, the Labor Day weekend shooting and the embezzlement allegations. But there's more.

At the time of the killings, Paul Murdaugh was awaiting trial on boating under the influence charges stemming from a 2019 crash in Beaufort County that killed 19-year-old Mallory Beach, a passenger in the boat. A state grand jury was empaneled earlier this year to investigate how officers investigated the boat crash after records highlighted missteps by law enforcement and questions surfaced about a possible attempt to shift blame away from Paul Murdaugh.

In addition, SLED has opened an investigation into the unsolved death of 19-year-old Stephen Smith, whose body was found with blunt force head trauma on a Hampton County road in July 2015. The agency has said information gathered as part of the Murdaugh double-murder case prompted the new probe.

On Sept. 15, SLED announced it had opened yet another probe, this one looking into the 2018 death of Alex Murdaugh's former housekeeper and the handling of a wrongful death settlement for her estate.

Gloria Satterfield, 57, reportedly died in a trip-and-fall accident at the family's Hampton home, but the county coroner said her office was never notified. Satterfield's sons filed a lawsuit Sept. 15 against Murdaugh and others involved in the case, saying they never saw any of the $505,000 settlement.

Olivia Diaz contributed to this report from Charleston.
Charleston police are about sick of this.

On April 5, somebody opened fire in a Beaufain Street apartment, seriously wounding two people. Three weeks later, two men were shot in a King Street strip club parking lot. One of them died at the scene.

Two people were shot and killed on Johns Island in July, and a week later five more were gunned down near Hanover Street. And, on Aug. 31, a man started shooting at the Bridgeview Village Apartments, killing one person and wounding another.

Know what all these shootings have in common, besides untenable amounts of bloodshed?

Every one of the suspects had prior illegal gun charges. In fact, a couple of the shooters were out on bail awaiting trial on their last, still-pending charges of gun violence.

There seems to be somewhat of a revolving door, says Charleston police Lt. Matt Stanley. We see the same people over and over again. Its discouraging.

Police Chief Luther Reynolds is beyond discouraged  hes furious. Reynolds says one of the big problems is that South Carolina has no escalating charges for illegally carrying a gun. The second offense  or the seventh, the chief says  carries the same penalty as the first.

If you steal a candy bar, and then you steal another one, theres a greater penalty, Reynolds says.

But it doesnt work that way here, because the state Legislature doesnt believe that, in parlance, enhancement should apply to gun laws. Cops say, in part, thats because politicians fear police will roust folks for nothing more than getting caught hauling their guns to the range.

Legislators seriously overestimate how much free time cops have.

State Sen. Sandy Senn has proposed legislation that would tack five years onto the sentence of anyone who commits a crime while out on bail, which would make repeat offenders more accountable and give the courts a way to revoke their bond. Lawmakers ignored the idea.

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Which was a bad move.

It is absurd that simple possession of drugs and other minor offenses have graduated penalties, but illegally possessing a gun does not, says 9th Circuit Solicitor Scarlett Wilson. If someone is hell-bent on continually illegally possessing firearms, death and destruction are on their way. Such repeat offenders are a real threat to public safety and are much more dangerous than those who mean well and want protection.

The state needs to make that clear, especially since the Legislature saw fit to enact an open carry gun law that many people dont even understand ... and that makes the polices job even more dangerous.

Last week, an off-duty officer was assaulted by a woman he asked to mask up in the aquarium. He was injured, but it could've been worse. She was illegally carrying a loaded .38 in her purse.

But Reynolds says people like that arent the real problem. The real problems are the violent repeat offenders turned loose every day. If I could take, say, 30-40 of these guys off the street, violent crime drops 80%.

Violent crime has risen, perhaps in part because fewer frequent fliers are detained these days, due to either the coronavirus or jail overcrowding. It doesn't help that their chronically illegal gunplay doesn't lead to more serious offenses.

Wilson says the answer to all these gun woes is two-fold.

We need to identify, educate and divert the people who have made a mistake due to their ignorance of law or who have armed themselves due to a genuine fear for their safety. We need to help those folks become legal gun owners if they want to be, she says. Then, we need to identify and appropriately punish those who continually abuse the law ... people who possess stolen guns and use guns for intimidation and violence.

Charleston police Capt. Andre Jenkins says if the law doesn't change, officers will just keep arresting the same guys. We cant do anything if we dont have any type of enhancement, he says.

The police have met with judges and arent trying to pass the buck. Reynolds says his officers have to build good cases, prosecutors have to prosecute ... and judges need to get generous with jail time.

Were not trying to keep some of these people in prison, Reynolds says. But we should. Thats one thing all reasonable people can agree on.

Hes right. Its time the state did something to make cops jobs easier, and less dangerous, instead of spinning that revolving door.

On Monday, Reynolds was notified that a man his officers arrested last month for killing a man at a West Ashley bar  with a gun he was carrying illegally  had just been released from jail.

There arent many questions here; surveillance cameras recorded the shooting. But pending trial, the guy is free. You dont want to know what the chief says about that.

Suffice to say, the cops are about sick of this  and we should be, too.
Officials said there was no threat to Guam from a recently launched missile in North Korea.

Based on available data, there was no indication the recent launch posed an immediate threat to Guam or the Marianas, stated Homeland Security Advisor, Major General (GU) Esther Aguigui. Our office, along with our local, military and federal partners, will continue to monitor the events surrounding our region.

The Offices of Guam Homeland Security and Civil Defense stated that they continue, in conjunction with the Mariana Regional Fusion Center, federal and military partners, to monitor events surrounding the region including reports of the recent launch of an unidentified projectile off the east coast of the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea today.

According to a Reuters article, North Koreas test today ratchets up regional tensions just days after testing a cruise missile with possible nuclear capabilities.

Pyongyang has been steadily developing its weapons program amid a standoff over talks aimed at dismantling its nuclear and ballistic missile arsenals in return for U.S. sanctions relief, Reuters reports. The negotiations, initiated between former U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in 2018, stalled in 2019.

"North Korea fired two unidentified ballistic missiles from its central inland region toward the east coast, and intelligence authorities of South Korea and the United States are conducting detailed analysis for further information," South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in a statement.

The missiles were flew 497 miles to a maximum altitude of 37 miles, the JCS reported.
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Bob Woodward has written a new book, in which he makes the sensational allegation that Gen. Mark Milley conspired with counterparts in China against then-president Donald Trump. This is from todays Washington Post:

In the books account, Milley went so far as to pledge he would alert his counterpart in the event of a U.S. attack, stressing the rapport theyd established through a backchannel. General Li, you and I have known each other for now five years. If were going to attack, Im going to call you ahead of time. Its not going to be a surprise. Believing that China could lash out if it felt at risk from an unpredictable and vengeful American president, Milley took action. The same day, he called the admiral overseeing the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, the military unit responsible for Asia and the Pacific region, and recommended postponing the military exercises, according to the book. The admiral complied. Milley also summoned senior officers to review the procedures for launching nuclear weapons, saying the president alone could give the order  but, crucially, that he, Milley, also had to be involved. Looking each in the eye, Milley asked the officers to affirm that they had understood, the authors write, in what he considered an oath.

If this account is true, Milleys conduct, while perhaps not rising to the constitutional level of treason, is about the worst of which any military man could be accused. It would certainly require termination, and there likely is a provision of the federal code under which criminal charges could be brought.

But is it true? I havent seen any comment by Milley on Woodwards allegations, but Ric Grenell is skeptical:

Bob Woodward has become the Michael Wolff of Washington, DC. Its hard to believe anything the two of them write. Trump isnt a war starter and I dont believe Milley thought he was. https://t.co/4KAX8vLQi1  Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) September 14, 2021



Grenell is right that Woodwards track record is poor. Remember his purported deathbed interview of Bill Casey?

Still, Milley has done nothing to merit a vote of confidence, and as noted above, I havent seen that he has even denied Woodwards charge. I am highly skeptical that Milley could have done anything so shameful, but investigation is warranted.
Iran seems to be accelerating the pace of its nuclear program in the age of Biden. According to the report flagged by the Times of Israel, Iran could have enough enriched uranium for a nuke in a month. Posted online as The IAEAs Iran NPT Safeguards Report and published under the auspices of the Institute for Science and International Security, the September 9 report is written by David Albright, Sarah Burkhard, and Andrea Stricker. Albright is a formidable expert in the field who knows what he is talking about.

Albright et al. warn: Overall, the IAEAs latest report shows Irans rapidly advancing nuclear activities and steps to limit IAEA monitoring, while inspectors have a diminishing ability to detect Iranian diversion of assets to undeclared facilities. The IAEA is sounding an alarm to the international community accordingly. They conclude:

Under the present circumstances, any re-establishment of the JCPOA will be under a very dark cloud, signaling that the United States and the E3 favor temporary nuclear limits on Irans nuclear program more than preventing the erosion of IAEA inspections or insisting on Tehran providing the necessary cooperation for the IAEA to determine if Irans safeguards declaration is correct and complete. World leaders, in essence, would choose convenience rather than doing the difficult but critical work to determine if Irans nuclear program is peaceful.

Coincidentally, IDF Lt. Col. (res.) Dr. Raphael Ofek has just published a lengthy report titled Irans Nuclear Program: Where Is It Going? Ofeks column-length executive summary concludes:

The ambitions of Biden and the EU countries to reach an agreement with Iran are puzzling. The Iranian regime is essentially a criminal gang that seeks to take over its entire environment through violence. The words of those in charge in Tehran cannot be trusted, because they use lies and deceptions as weapons. Does it make sense to do business with these people?

That is of course a rhetorical question. Ofek is himself an expert in the field of nuclear physics and technology who served as a senior analyst in the Israeli intelligence community. He too knows what hes talking about. His 80-page report is embedded at the bottom of the executive summary linked and quoted above.
An unfunny thing happened on the way to the recall election featuring California Governor Gavin Newsom. Newsom prevailed. With 65 percent of the vote in, Newsom has won 64.2 percent of the vote in favor of his retention.

Newsoms 64.2 percent is nearly a mirror image of Joe Bidens 63.48 percent share of the California vote against Donald Trump in the 2020 election. Newsom and his allies turned the No vote into a vote in favor of Donald Trump.

They might have done this by turning No or Larry Elder into Donald Trump. Elder won going away against the field on who would replace Newsom in the event of his ouster. He pulled down 46.6 percent of the vote with 65 percent of the vote tabulated. If Newsom had gone down, Larry Elder would have stepped in.

I would say that Elder might have a future in state politics, but the vote cast on the second part of the ballot looks to be substantially less than half the total cast on the retention question at the top of the ballot. As of this morning, 9 million votes have been tabulated on the retention question. Only 3.73 million votes have been tabulated on the successor question.

Victor Davis Hanson framed the recall election as a choice between Gavin Newsom, who embodies the woke, old-boy privilege of the Bay Area, and an alternative direction. Newsom is the epitome of the virtue-signaling elite who patronize the poor and drive out the despised middle class. The exodus of the middle class will continue.

Newsoms victory puts him in a strong position as he enters the final year of his first term. California is not so lucky. The prospects for California continue to dim. See, for example, John Meroneys Spectator column Life in LA is murder.

I wish we could detach from the problem California represents. However, as Michael Anton argues in his Claremont Review essay Right flight, the problem of California is also a problem for the rest of us.
The Minnesota Supreme Court has reversed former Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noors conviction for third-degree murder in the case of Justine Ruszczyk or Justine Damond as I referred to her in my reporting. The reversal came in a unanimous opinion written by Chief Justice Lorie Gildea. It is a good opinion that persuades me on an issue I have changed my mind about a few times. The Courts ruling leaves Noors second-degree manslaughter conviction undisturbed, but he will need to be resentenced on that conviction alone. I have embedded the Courts opinion below. Right or wrong, the Court is the last word on the issue of statutory construction presented.

I think that the Courts opinion in the Noor case should also result in the reversal of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvins conviction of third-degree murder in the George Floyd case. I wrote about this repeatedly in my reporting and commentary on the Chauvin trial. Chauvin, however, still has to contend with his second-degree murder and manslaughter convictions, and the reversal of the third-degree charge alone would not affect his sentence. The Courts ruling in the Noor case nevertheless vindicates Chauvin trial judge Peter Cahills pretrial dismissal of the third-degree murder charge, which was reinstated at trial on the order of the Minnesota Court of Appeals.

State v. Noor by Scott Johnson on Scribd
Scott has provided video of the exchanges between Sec. Antony Blinken and several Republican Senators yesterday during a hearing on the Afghanistan fiasco. He has done a great service to those of us unwilling to watch Blinken in full.

All of the clips Scott presented are worth watching. In this post, I want to focus on Sen. Rob Portmans comments (the video is below). Portman presented the best data made available to him by the government regarding the evacuation. Blinken did not dispute Portmans numbers.

The numbers are rough estimates in some cases because our government hasnt been able to provide better information. Even so, its fair at this juncture to base our assessment of the evacuation on the data Portman presented.

According to Portman, the U.S. evacuated only 705 of the 18,000 applicants for special immigrant visas (SIV). Its estimated that we evacuated only 30,000 of the 60,000 Afghans deemed to be at risk as a result of our withdrawal.

Furthermore, an estimated three-quarters of the people we evacuated fit within none of the following categories: U.S. citizen, green card holder, SIV applicant, P1 or P2 visa holder. Thus, we failed miserably at getting out the people who deserved to be evacuated, while evacuating huge numbers of people with no recognizable claim to the privilege of being rescued at the risk of American service members lives, or even with a plausible claim to being at risk.

I assume the vast majority of these non-deserving evacuees wish to contribute positively to America. Many of them probably will. But those who cant, and their children, will become disillusioned and some, in their disillusionment, may become threats to our security. In addition, its possible that some evacuees already pose a threat.

The Biden administration promises to vet the evacuees. However, that promise is all but meaningless because, as Mark Krikorian has pointed out, theres no way reliably to vet these people.

The only reliable vetting was through the SIV program, under which Afghans who proved their loyalty to the U.S. by risking their lives to help counter the Taliban became eligible to enter America. But the Biden administration showed little interest in moving that process along until its friends at the Washington Post complained in late June. By then it was too late to move the process anywhere close to where it should have been.

Thanks to Bidens ass-backwards way of leaving Afghanistan, the evacuation was too chaotic to enable us to avoid the shockingly poor results Portman cited in his comments to Blinken. The consequences will be dire for many we left behind in Afghanistan. We can only hope they wont be dire here in America.


Kto szuka: Nordea Bank Abp SA Oddzia w Polsce Stanowisko: Capital and Risk Analyst Numer referencyjny: 700 Lokalizacja: Warszawa mazowieckie

Wymagania stawiane pracownikowi:

We are now looking for a Capital and Risk Analyst within Regulatory Reporting unit. You will work with various types of risk reporting for Nordea Group and its subsidiaries. Your focus will be on analysis and reporting the development of risk exposure amounts (REA), the capital base and the leverage ratio in accordance with Basel III regulation. This is an opportunity for you to join a fast-paced and dynamic field of critical importance in the international finance industry. You will get exposure to a broad spectrum of risk types as well as the opportunity to work with passionate and collaborative colleagues at Nordea.

We offer working with skilled international teams in a bright, modern office, youll provide invaluable support to our Nordic business areas. The pace is quick, the atmosphere lively and collaborative.

There are plenty of opportunities for you to learn and grow as you build your career with us. Will you help us lead the way in becoming the best bank we can be?

At Nordea, we see that the world is changing fast  and we want to be one step ahead of the curve. Thats why were deeply committed to providing the financial solutions of tomorrow to our customers. Were creating an agile environment where we experiment and grow together  and we need your ideas and unique background. With us, youll be in good company with a chance to make your mark on something bigger.



About this opportunity



Welcome to the Capital control team. We add value by delivering reports to supervisory authorities through efficient processes meeting regulatory requirements, as well as to support analysis work related to risk and capital.



What youll be doing:

Performing analysis of the development of risk exposures amounts (REA), capital consumption over broad range of portfolios and risk types and capital frameworks.

Communicating and presenting developments in risk exposure amounts (REA), the capital base to an internal stakeholders in the various portfolios in a clear and concise way.

Driving continuous improvements in your processes and in the unit.

Ensure adequate risk controls within your process and continuous to development of these controls.

Youll join an international & very dynamic environment where there are unlimited development opportunities, both in your carrier and on a personal level. Welcome to a global team with high commitment and positive atmosphere with the ambition to become even better in supplying essential deliveries for Nordea. The role is based in Warsaw.



Who you are



Collaboration. Ownership. Passion. Courage. These are the values that guide us in being at our best  and that we imagine you share with us.



To build a successful career with us, youll work well with others and always act with the customers needs in mind. You love learning and trying new things, and youre excited about bringing your ideas to the table. Youre honest and dependable, willing to speak up even when its difficult, and committed to empowering others. Youre passionate about doing a great job.



To succeed in this role, we believe that you have:

Creative Thinking: can think creatively, has a questioning mind-set, proposes new ways of working and strives for constant improvement in current processes

Flexibility & Reliability: can take on unstructured assignments, discerns what is important, develops appropriate action plans and demonstrates ownership

Drive & Motivation: can successfully handle multiple tasks, persists in the face of adversity, and takes both initiative and accountability for improving his/her own performance

Judgement: Displays good judgement, thinks ahead, anticipates questions and prioritises work tasks appropriately

Your experience and background:

An academic degree in finance, mathematics, statistics, engineering or similar.

2-5 years relevant work experience

Fluency in English is required

Strong Excel Skills

Basic knowledge of VBA, SAS or SQL

Strong analytical skills and attention to details

If this sounds like you, get in touch!

Firma oferuje:

Next steps

Submit your application no later than 30/09/2021 .

At Nordea, we know that an inclusive workplace is a sustainable workplace. We deeply believe that our diverse backgrounds, experiences, characteristics and traits make us better at serving customers and communities. So please come as you are.



Please include permit for processing personal data in CV as following:



In accordance with art. 6 (1) a and b. Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation) hereinafter GDPR. I agree to have: my personal data, education and employment history proceeded for the purposes of current and future recruitment processes in Nordea Bank Abp.



The administrator of your personal data is: Nordea Bank Abp operating in Poland through its Branch, address: Aleja Edwarda Rydza Smiglego 20, 93-281 odz. Your personal data will be processed for the recruitment processes in Nordea Bank Abp. You have a right to access your personal data, right to rectify and right to delete. Disclosing the personal data in the scope specified by the provisions of Polish Labour Code from 26 June 1974 and executive acts are mandatory. Providing personal data is necessary to conduct the recruitment processes. The request for the deletion of your personal data means resignation from further participation in recruitment processes and causes the immediate removal of your application. Detailed information concerning processing of your personal data can be found at:



We reserve the right to reply only to selected applications.

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Policy Alert, a data-driven non-governmental organisation, has launched a campaign to demand transparency and expose corruption in Nigerias extractive sector.

The campaign, tagged #WetinWeGain2, is aimed at putting citizens at the centre of beneficial ownership in the sector. It is also aimed at contract transparency reforms in Nigeria.

It is a follow-on project to #WetinWeGain, which was implemented between 2019 and 2020 in partnership with Publish What You Pay (PWYP-UK), a civil society organisation advocating financial transparency in the extractive industry, the officials of Policy Alert said on Monday in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, during a training organised for reporters.

The campaign will focus on mining in Cross River, and oil and gas in Akwa Ibom, Rivers and Delta states, which are all within Nigerias South-south region.

The project lead, Mfon Gabriel, said Nigerias situation is a paradox of plenty in which huge resource wealth has failed to translate into economic wellbeing and sustainable development.

He said the secrecy of contracts and company ownership in Nigerias extractives sector have wreaked havoc on revenues and undermine the ability of citizens to demand accountability from government and companies.

The country, for instance, earned N24.1 trillion from the oil and gas industry between 2015 and 2019, representing 60.25 per cent of the combined budget figure during the period, yet it ranked 161 out of 189 in the 2020 Human Development Report, and recently overtook India as the worlds poverty capital.

Natural resource wealth comes with inherent incentive for capture, corruption and rent-seeking behaviour.

To worsen matters, citizens are often not involved in the production process or the computation of natural resource receipts, Mr Gabriel said.

The campaign, according to him, would complement the efforts of other initiatives like the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) and Open Government Partnership (OGP) in improving availability of fiscal data on the extractive sector.

Mr Gabriel further said that beneficial ownership disclosure, which exposes conflict of interests among the political class, derives from the need to trace people who hide their identities behind corporate structures to defraud the country.

While the constitution and other laws guiding business in the extractive sectors in Nigeria are publicly available and accessible, the specific contracts entered into by the government with companies, as well as associated licenses and permits, are shrouded in secrecy.

The practice of hiding extractive contract details in Nigeria has, over the years, stolen from citizens the power to ensure that the best deals which most benefit development(s) are attained and that they are effectively implemented.

It has also encouraged massive corruption in the sector, he added.

The campaign is expected to reduce fiscal leakages, increase revenues from the federal government, and ensure more democratic and citizen-responsive management of natural resources in the country.
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Over 40 book clubs and at least 700 delegates are expected in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, this Thursday, for the maiden National Conference of Network of Book Clubs and Reading promoters in Nigeria.

Thousands of people are also expected to join the conference via a video network application, Zoom, the Chairman, Local Organizing Committee, Ekong Sampson said Tuesday at a press conference in Uyo.

Mr Sampson said the city was ready to host Nigeria.

A total of about 700 delegates are expected at the conference, with many among them coming from outside Akwa Ibom. Thousands are also expected to join via zoom. It will feature presentations by over 40 book clubs in the country, Mr Sampson, a lawyer and an author, said.

The conference which is taking place from 16 to 18 September, 2021 at Watbridge Hotels & Suites, Uyo, would be chaired by Assam Assam, SAN, a former Nigerias Ambassador to the Russian Federation and Belarus.

Mr Sampson, who described the event as a book fiesta, said Uyo is expected to be officially declared as Nigerias Book Clubs city.

The Book Fiesta will feature reviews, keynote speeches, tours, presentations by various clubs, spoken word, festschrifts, drama, cultural variety, Mbuk Nnyin  Our Stories, local delicacies, he said.

Felicia Etim, a Library Science professor and Librarian, Federal University, Otuoke, is the Keynote Speaker while professors Joe Ushie and Des Wilson from the University of Uyo and other authors will make presentations at the event.

The event will be hosted by Uyo Book Club, a literary club established five years ago which has given birth to two other reading clubs, Raffia City Book Club in Ikot Ekpene and Oil-city Book Club in Eket, all in Akwa Ibom State.
When Inibe Alupe graduated from Niger Delta University in 2008, he looked forward to a job in an office after undergoing the one-year compulsory national youth service.

Over 12 years after, Mr Alupe still has no white-collar job. He has since returned to his native Ogbia in Bayelsa State, a riverine community, to do what knew how to do while growing up: fishing.

I left school in 2008 and served Nigeria, but since then I have no reasonable source of income, he told PREMIUM TIMES.

An increasing number of young educated Nigerians are taking up fish farming, mainly as a result of lack of white or blue-collar jobs, and their presence is an indicator of the sectors potential to attract skilled manpower capable of driving growth in the industry.

So far, that is where the good news ends. For a country with vast inland water bodies and coastline measuring over 800 km, Nigerias fishing industry is significantly underperforming.

Nigerias household fish consumption stood at 13.3 kg/capita/year, significantly lower than the worlds average of 20.3 kg/capita/year, according to the United Nations food agency, FAO.

Beyond the problem of poverty that stops many from affording needed sea food, the country suffers a major fish supply-demand gap problem.

A 2016 National Bureau of Statistics report estimated Nigerias annual fish demand at 3.32 million metric tonnes, with local production at 1.12 million metric tonnes. That year, Nigeria spent N125 billion (US$625 million) on fish imports.

Why sector underperforms

A key reason for Nigerias inability to turn around the fishing industry is that the sector has been neglected by the government for decades, leaving the sector and its operators without necessary policies, tools, credit and skills.

About 80 per cent of locally produced fish come from small-scale operations, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO.

There are other factors like environmental pollution that destroys fish stocks and reduces the catch, and theft by foreign fishing syndicates.

In this part of the country, there is a disconnect between the government and the governed, said Nalaguo Alagoa, a former lecturer in the Department of Fisheries Science and Allied Aquacultures at the Rivers State University of Science and Technology.

I am sorry to mention countries but there are a lot of what appear to be Japanese and Chinese vessels that come to fish in our waters. There are others too who fish in our waters, because the vessels dont fly the Nigerian flag. They catch a lot of fish which they take to Lagos to be delivered as imported. We take them over as imports so we do not always import fish from outside most of the time, we are importing our own fish from within our territory! he said.

Old-fashioned, ineffective

Most of Nigerias fish production occurs in the coastal states in the south where people fish from natural water bodies  creeks, mangroves, lakes, ponds, rivers, and rivulets.

But the obsolete methods of these workers show the limitations that have affected growth in the sector.

In Bayelsa and Rivers State, for instance, most farmers still use nets, hooks and hand-powered canoes, and other tools considered outdated and ineffective. This leaves them struggling to increase the catch.

Farmers who spoke to PREMIUM TIMES said they struggled to buy big fishing nets that cost between as low as N30,000 and as high as N200,000, needed to increase the catch.

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To catch a fish worth N6,000, a fisherman using a net has to spend a night on the water, they said.

Our nets are not strong enough to catch big fishes. When fishing, we go in pairs because we need one person to paddle the canoe and the other person to throw the net, said Mr Alupe.

Sinebe Ogbara, another fisherman in Famgbe in Yenagoa LGA of Bayelsa State, said since members of their local fishermen association cannot afford modern fishing equipment, they go fishing in turns to allow each member a fair catch.

Another fisherman, Station Winfred, said most fishermen lack modern fishing skills and credit support, hence their operations are at the subsistence level.

Some operators manage to raise their operations through personal efforts, but still dont receive government support.

Emmanuel Akarasei, 71, belongs to Gods Time Fish Farmers Cooperatives but said he has not benefited from the Bayelsa State Government support programmes even though the group is officially registered.

He bought his own speed boat engine in October 2020 when he could no longer cope with the stress of paddling a canoe. The engine cost N120, 000 and it took Mr Emmanuel two years to save up the money.

Akro Iniessien has been fishing for 69 years in Oloibiri, the oil-rich community where oil prospecting began in Nigeria. She single-handedly built her fishing business. She said she has never benefited from the Third National Fadama Development Project or the Bayelsa State Agricultural Development Programme.

These two schemes are funded by the Bayelsa State Government and Federal Government in collaboration with the World Bank.

They came here, they made inquiries and made promises to us but nothing happened, she said. The great-grandmother started fishing at the age of six in Oloibiri with her mother.

Emma Atamuno, a native of Rivers State, said members of the group of fishermen he belongs to aspire to practice industrial fishing but are constrained by the use of canoes and hooks.

According to him, the association of about 50 fishermen employs young men from the community and neighbouring areas. The younger members practise while the older ones supervise and provide technical support and advice.

The group is yet to get any meaningful support from the Rivers State Government, he said.

Asked if he pays taxes, he said no. They have failed. They have a conscience so they cannot come here and demand tax, they are not justified.

See that building there (pointing in the direction of a faraway building), that is where the ADP people stay. We no dey see them sef, we no fit carry our problems to go there. Maybe na like once in a year dem dey come, he said in Pidgin English.

Agbere is a community in Sagbama Local Government Area of Bayelsa State. On arrival at the waterfront, our reporter met Jonathan Hamo, a fisherman for many years. Mr Hamo told PREMIUM TIMES that he only received support from the government once in 2006.

The support came in the form of a fibre canoe, a speed boat, and assorted fishing nets from the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). Fifteen years later, the fibre boat is grounded but the speed boat is still functioning. Mr Hamo said no government official had inspected any of the fishing tools for over 14 years now.

Aside from the NDDC, Mr Hamo is a beneficiary of the Fadama 3 Project and said he has attended many training programmes on fish production and the value chain.

I benefited from the Fadama 3 Project, and the NDDC Programme. The NDDC gave me these items some 15 years ago, but they only came for inspection twice and that was all. I have not seen them since that administration left, he said.

When officials of the Fadama 3 Project visited Agbere and other communities in Sagbama LGA for a training exercise, they shared N1,000 as stipend to farmers who attended. Farmers like Mr Akarasei got no further incentives after the training.

Before the training, each of them had paid N3,000 in the expectation of receiving materials that would aid their fishing activities. But they all left disappointed.

READ ALSO:

In Rivers State, the Vice Chairman of Fishermen Association in Idanga-ama, Emma Atamuno, said the group wrote letters to the state government and River Basin Development Authority for support. The State Ministry of Agriculture later sent them forms to fill in 2019 but nothing came from it.

The head office of NDDC is in Idanga-ama but that has not made its officials notice the fish farmers, Mr Atanumo said.

Oil spillage and illegal

Oil pollution has also affected fishing in the Niger Delta. Besides destroying aquatic lives, oil pollution also makes fishing boats and nets to age faster, locals said.

Innocent Birah, a fisherman in Rivers State, was making a new net when PREMIUM TIMES arrived at his home in Port Harcourt. Mr Birah has been a fisherman for 24 years but has been struggling with water pollution. His fishing nets usually lasted for four years but oil in the water now damages the nets within a few months, he said.

Mr Birah, like others, said he was tired of unfulfilled promises from the government on the issue of pollution or providing an alternative for the fishermen.

The oil in water is a major problem. The water makes the fishes run, even the ones we catch are almost losing their taste. The oil changes the colour of the nets from white to black and reduces the lifespan of the net, he said.

The spokesperson for the FADAMA project in Rivers State, Friday Obiarije, explained why its programme does not support artisanal fishermen. He said the reason is to discourage the traditional farming system.

Mr Obiarije said the project encourages fish farmers to form associations to benefit from its programmes, under which fish farming tools were distributed to farmers in Rivers State. The programme wants farmers to quit artisanal fishing and begin fish farming, he stressed.

If they leave the waters, they can start fish ponds, and even grow what we need. What we are doing is to take their attention from that system of fishing which is not profitable, he said.
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Suspected bandits have abducted the Emir of Bungudu in Zamfara State, Hassan Atto, while he was on his way to Abuja.

A relative of the victim, Ibrahim Bello, confirmed the abduction to PREMIUM TIMES Tuesday evening.

Yes, its true. He was kidnapped on the Kaduna-Abuja road immediately after Olam Farm, Mr. Bello said.

He, however, did not give details of the abduction.

Mr Atto was the Secretary to the Government of Zamfara State during Governor Abdulaziz Yaris tenure before he was turbaned the Emir of Bungudu.

This story will be updated as soon as we gather more information on the incident.
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At least six soldiers of the Nigerian Army have been confirmed injured during an encounter with members of Islamic State of West Africa (ISWAP).

Sources familiar with the situation said the army troops were on clearance patrol on Wednesday morning around Burimari village of Ngazai Local Government of Borno State when the soldiers were injured.

The six soldiers were subsequently transferred to Forward Operation Base in Gajiran town.

The attack comes less than a week after armed bandits attacked a military base in in Zamfara State, leaving security personnel killed, others wounded.

At least 12 personnel were confirmed dead while three were wounded in the attack at Forward Operation Base in Mutumji, Dansadau Local Government of Zamfara State.

The attack also come comes even as hundreds of members of the terrorists group have repented and handed over themselves and families to the authorities.

Boko Haram and ISWAP have terrorised the North-east zone and Lake Chad region for over a decade.

ALSO READ: One killed as bandits engage Nigerien soldiers in gun duel

Aside from insurgency in the North-east, other parts of the country are also suffering one form of insecurity or the other.

The North-central and North-west states are battling banditry while the South-east and South-south are battling attacks by ESN members.

President Muhammadu Buhari had promised on several occasions to tackle the rising security challenges in the country though there has been no significant improvement.
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The Nigerian government says it will lift the ban on Twitter in a few days.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, said this while answering questions from State House journalists at the end of Wednesdays cabinet meeting chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Mr Mohammed said progress is being made in talks with the social media giant.

I think even Twitter itself two days ago gave what I will call a progress report on our talks with them, and I think if I want to quote them rightly it has been productive and quite respectful.

And as to the qualifying word for when or how soon, I want to assure you that the time that Twitter operation has been suspended, between the time it has been suspended, and when it will be restored is by far, much, much shorter.

That I can assure you that it is by far in other words, if the operation has been suspended for about 100 days now, I can tell that were just actually talking about a few, just a few more days now, he said.

Nigeria suspended the operations of Twitter on June 4, two days after the microblogging site took down a controversial tweet by Mr Buhari.

The government cited persistent use of the platform for activities that are capable of undermining Nigerias corporate existence, as reason for the ban that took effect almost immediately.

The government also directed broadcasters to suspend patronage of the platform. It described its further use by the broadcast stations as unpatriotic.

Media and human rights advocates condemned the directive of the broadcast regulator, calling it illegal and an attack on press freedom, but major broadcast stations stayed off Twitter to comply with the order.

In August, the Nigerian government said the temporary ban on Twitter may be lifted soon with Mr Mohammed saying talks were still ongoing and many agreements had been reached with Twitter.

The ban on Twitter has been condemned by many Nigerians, civic groups and the international community.

The international community said the governments ban of Twitter portrays Nigeria in a bad light before its citizens, potential investors and business owners.

More than 100 days after the ban, activists insisted the ban was undemocratic, but authorities said it was to protect the corporate existence of the country.

Opposition leaders and civil society organisations have also criticised the government for the ban and some rights groups have sued the Nigerian government at the ECOWAS Court.

PREMIUM TIMES reported how the ECOWAS court, in an interim order, restrained the government and its agents from unlawfully imposing sanctions or doing anything whatsoever to harass, intimidate, arrest or prosecute Twitter and/or any other social media service provider(s), media houses, radio and television broadcast stations, the plaintiffs and other Nigerians who are Twitter users, pending the hearing and determination of this suit.
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The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, has said the refusal of the separatist movements in the southern part of the country to accommodate dissenting opinions makes them the same as the Boko Haram and ISWAP terrorists.

He stated this on Wednesday in his address to welcome members of the House back from their nine weeks recess.

The lawmakers had proceeded on recess on July 15 after considering some major bills including the Electoral Amendment Bill and Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).

President Muhammadu Buhari has since signed the PIB into law.

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) advocates the secession of the Igbo-populated South-east zone while in the South-west zone, Sunday Adeyemo aka Sunday Igboho, is leading agitation for a Yoruba nation.

IPOB recently gave a sit-at-home order every Monday in the South-east. The order has been enforced partly through violence, forcing the people of the region to comply.

On Tuesday, the group also gave a sit-at-home order in honour of its members killed on September 14, 2017, when men of the Nigerian Army invaded the home of Nnamdi Kanu, its leader.

The order has been condemned by several people, including the state governors from the region.

Path of destruction

Mr Gbajabiamila said given time and space, the separatist movements in the south will drag Nigeria towards the path of destruction.

According to him, the groups are posing new threats to the national security of Nigeria.

Thus far, we have rightly focused our national security concerns on the machinations of extremist insurgents who seek to remake our world in the image of their discredited theocracy and bandits who maraud and terrorise whole regions for profit, the speaker said.

We must now add to these concerns an emerging threat that presents the same clear and present danger. In the South of Nigeria, East and West, miscreants and criminals masquerading as separationist activists have emerged to wreak havoc, take lives and commit economic sabotage against fellow Nigerians and against the state.

These people, in their inclination for devastating violence against fellow citizens, their appetite for the destruction of private property, their disruption of academic activities, commerce, and industry, their propensity for defiling institutions of the state, society and community, their refusal to engage in debate, or to consider the possibility of dissenting opinions and alternative viewpoints, are no different from Boko Haram and ISWAP. Given space and time, they will take our nation down the same path of destruction.

Mr Gbajabiamila also asked the media to desist from using the number of bills sponsored as metrics for measuring the performance of a lawmaker.

He described the practice as uninspired journalism, noting that there are other mandates for lawmakers aside from bills and motions.

Mr Gbajabiamila urged his colleagues to brace themselves for more work as the House is due to commence the implementation of the recommendations of the security summit.

The lawmakers held a security summit in May and the report of the special committee was subsequently adopted before the House embarked on holiday in July.
The United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) says school attacks and student abduction in parts of Nigeria have instilled fear among communities stopping at least one million children from returning to school.

In a statement issued on Wednesday in Abuja, UNICEF said there have been 20 attacks on schools this year, leading to the abduction of 1,436 children, 16 deaths and more than 200 children missing.

As more than 37 million Nigerian children start the new school year this month, at least one million are being left behind; afraid to return to school due to insecurity.

Learners are being cut off from their education and other vital benefits schools provide, as families and communities remain fearful of sending children back to their classrooms.

This is due to the spate of school attacks and student abductions in Nigeria over the last several months and the current climate of insecurity.

So far this year, there have been 20 attacks on schools in Nigeria, with 1,436 children abducted and 16 children dead. More than 200 children are still missing, the statement read in part.

It quoted Peter Hawkins, the UNICEF Representative in Nigeria, calling for an end to insecurity as it increases the risk of children never stepping into a classroom.

Mr Hawkins also called on the Federal Government to make its priority of providing a safe space for children to benefit from education clear by addressing insecurity.

For the most vulnerable children, including children affected by conflict, girl children, and children with disabilities, their risk of never stepping into a classroom in their lifetime is skyrocketing.

We need to end this insecurity and make our priorities clear, that Nigerian children can and must be allowed to benefit from an education in a safe space.

A childs first day of school should be an exciting event for parents and children, a landmark moment in their young lives, signaling new learning and new friends that will impact their futures.

This moment is being stolen from around a million Nigerian children this year, as insecurity threatens their safety and education, Mr Hawkins said.

The UN official said that it was unacceptable for communities to be worried to send their children to school for fear of being abducted from an environment that should be a safe space for them.

He also called for an end to the spate of insecurity to enable children to return to their normal lives and benefit from being at school.

Pandemic

Mr Hawkins said that UNICEF and partners around the world were set to join a global digital freeze on Sept. 16, to protest childrens inability to access the classroom due to COVID-19 restrictions.

He said that as part of the protest, social media platforms would be frozen to draw attention to the number of children at risk of missing out on an education.

UNICEF estimates that a return to school has been delayed for an estimated 140 million children globally due to COVID-19.

For an estimated eight million of these students, the wait for their first day of in-person learning has been over a year and counting, as they live in places where schools have been closed throughout the pandemic.

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In Nigeria, education was delayed for many children due to COVID-19 restrictions in 2020, along with the additional challenge of school closures due to prevailing insecurity across the country.

The first day of school is a landmark moment in a childs life, setting them off on a life-changing path of personal learning and growth, Mr Hawkins said.

He said that while countries worldwide, including Nigeria, are taking some actions to provide remote learning, many students are not being reached.

He listed the contributing factors to lack of reachability to include poor access to technology, poor learning environment, pressure to do household chores or being forced to work.

The country representative said studies show that positive school experiences are a predictor of childrens future social, emotional and educational outcomes.

He said that children who fall behind in learning during the early years are, therefore, likely to stay behind for the remaining time they spend in school adding that this gap widens over the years.

The number of years of education a child receives also directly affects their future earnings. Every hour a child spends in the classroom is precious.

It is an opportunity to expand their horizons, maximise their potential and build their countrys future.

With each passing moment, countless amounts of opportunity are lost. We must put our childrens future first.

We can and must tackle insecurity, stop attacks on education, and keep schools open. The clock is ticking for our young students. Mr Hawkins said.

He said that unless mitigation measures are implemented, the World Bank estimates a loss of $10 trillion US dollars in earnings over time for the present generation of students globally.

Mr Hawkins said that based on evidence, the cost of addressing learning gaps is lower and more effective when tackled early and investments in education, support economic recovery, growth, and prosperity.

UNICEF urged governments to reopen schools for in-person learning as soon as possible and provide a comprehensive recovery response for students.

Priorities

Together with the World Bank and UNESCO, UNICEF called on governments to focus on three key priorities for recovery in schools.

These priorities include targeted programmes aimed at bringing all children and youth back to school, effective remedial learning, and support for teachers. (NAN)
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The Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) has submitted an interim report on the Air Force aircraft, King Air 350, that crashed killing then chief of army staff, Ibrahim Attahiru, and 10 others.

Details of the report have yet to be made public.

Presenting the report to the Chief of Air Staff, Isyaka Amao, on Wednesday, the Chief Executive Officer of AIB, Akin Olateru, said the report contained 27 findings and eight recommendations for immediate implementation.

PREMIUM TIMES had reported how an air force aircraft conveying Mr Attahiru and other senior officers of the army crashed around Kaduna airport. About five of the occupants were army generals.

Although the statement, jointly signed by Edward Gabkwet, the air force spokesperson, and his AIB counterpart, Tunji Oketunbi, did not contain the details of the recommendations, the statement said the report is organised into three sections.

The submitted report is organized into three sections namely; the information obtained in the course of the investigation; analysis of data collected in view of the Boards Terms of Reference; and the conclusion, which covers the initial findings and immediate recommendations, it read.

The statement also said the final report will contain more detailed information.

Read the full joint statement below.

ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION BUREAU SUBMITS INTERIM REPORT ON AIRCRAFT ACCIDENT INVOLVING NIGERIAN AIR FORCE KING AIR-350 AIRCRAFT TO THE CHIEF OF AIR STAFF

Following the unfortunate incident involving a Nigerian Air Force (NAF) King Air -350 aircraft at the vicinity of Kaduna Civil Airport on 21 May 2021, the Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Oladayo Amao directed that a joint investigative body consisting of experienced NAF safety officers and the Accident Investigative Bureau (AIB) be constituted to investigate the circumstances surrounding the air crash. After about three months of painstaking joint investigation, the Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer of AIB, Engr Akin Olateru FNSE, today 15 September 2021 submitted an interim report on the sad incident to the Chief of Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Amao, at his office at NAF Headquarters, Abuja.

The submitted report is organized into three sections namely; the information obtained in the course of the investigation; analysis of data collected in view of the Boards Terms of Reference; and the conclusion, which covers the initial findings and immediate recommendations. It should be noted that at this interim stage, a total of 27 initial findings and 8 immediate safety recommendations were made for the convening authority as well as other aviation related agencies for immediate implementation. It is expected that the final report will contain the flight data recorder readout, the reviewed operators and service providers standard operating procedures as well as other detailed analysis.

While receiving the report, the CAS reiterated the main essence of activating the joint investigative clause contained in the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed between the NAF and the AIB on 1 July, 2020. According to him, the successful collaboration is a clear indication of the potency of collaboration in aircraft accident investigation, which must be encouraged. Air Marshal Amao also noted that such collaborative efforts make accident investigations more transparent and open while also stating that the outcome of the investigation is not necessarily aimed at punitive measures but essentially at generally improving safety in the aviation industry.

On his part, the Chief Executive Officer of AIB, Engr Akin Olateru stated that the joint investigation with the NAF was its first direct involvement in military air crash investigation in Nigeria and second investigation outside its mandate having also assisted Sao Tome and Principe in the past. He also stated that copies of the report, with the endorsement of the CAS, will also be submitted to the Hon. Minister of Aviation and Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) to ensure that the recommendations addressed to aviation agencies are implemented. The Commissioner also stated that although the accident involved a military aircraft and crew, it happened at a civil airport adding that the involvement of AIB in the investigation by the Nigerian Air Force would help in closing the gaps on the civil aviation side.

(Signed)

Edward Gabkwet

Air Commodore

Director of Public

Relations and Information

(Signed)

Tunji Oketunbi

General Manager

{Public Affairs)

Accident Investigation Bureau
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Much of the global investment in clean energy will need to go into Africa. However, instead of prioritising efforts to redirect global capital to our nations, efforts are currently underway to limit the development of gas projects in Africa, violating the principles of equity and justice enshrined in global agreements, according to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

He made this submission while speaking during a virtual conference themed: Climate, Conflict, and Demography in Africa jointly hosted by the International Crisis Group, the Royal African Society, and African Confidential publications earlier today.

In the past, Mr Osinbajo had at different forums, raised the issue of financing of gas projects in developing countries, like Nigeria, advocating for a just transition and more effective engagements towards the target of Net-Zero Emission by 2050.

At a meeting held earlier in February with the British Member of Parliament and COP26 President-Designate, Alok Sharma, Mr Osinbajo restated Nigerias support and commitment to the Climate Change agreement but cited the planned restrictions on financing of gas projects in African countries as a potential setback.

Also, in March this year, at a meeting with a delegation from the European Union (EU) led by its Executive Vice President, Valdis Dombrovskis, the VP reaffirmed Nigerias commitment to the global green energy initiative but called for a just transition to zero-emission.

Speaking at the virtual event Tuesday, Mr Osinbajo explained the necessity of gas in developing nations, because the role of gas as a bridge fuel, to increase the share of renewable energy in the energy mix, and rapidly transition away from firewood-based cooking fuel to natural gas-based cooking, yields both environmental and health benefits.

The vice president emphasized that despite Africas contribution to climate change being negligible, we continue to be the most adversely impacted by climate change, so much so that public resources that could help modernise the energy mix has to be redirected towards adaptation spending.

But worse, we are being compelled to make disproportionately huge sacrifices as the wealthier countries continue full speed on defunding gas projects and insisting that gas projects must be defunded as an important component of the drive towards net-zero emissions by 2030.

Regarding the amount of investments required in clean electricity  generation and grid storage infrastructure, Mr Osinbajo stated that to get the world on track for net-zero emissions by 2050, it will cost more than $1.6 trillion per year by 2030. This is over four times more than what was invested in these sectors in 2020. In regions like Africa, installed electricity capacity will need to double by 2030 and increase at least five-fold by 2050, he said.

Giving reasons for his argument against defunding gas projects, Mr Osinbajo said, our first obligation will always be to ensure the wellbeing of our people, through access to development services including electricity, healthcare, education, safe jobs, and a safe environment, including access to clean cooking fuels.

We must prioritize solutions that align with development and climate agendas, this is absolutely important. The global climate conversation can only be equitable and inclusive by putting all people in all geographies at the heart of the endeavor to save the planet.

READ ALSO:

In the same vein, the VP mentioned the need to recognise and plan for growing energy demand; its increase will be critical for driving growth, jobs and economy-wide progress, and delivering healthcare and education services. Efforts are already underway in my country, Nigeria, and in several countries across the continent to transition to large shares of clean energy sources to do so.

In attendance at the virtual event were the Minister of Environment for Ghana, Kwaku Afriyie, who represented the President of Ghana; Chairperson of the Royal African Society, Arunma Oteh; and Patrick Smith, Publisher of African Confidential, and the event was moderated by Bola Mosuro.

Laolu Akande

Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media & Publicity
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The Akwa Ibom House of Assembly has passed a bill banning open grazing of livestock in the state.

The bill provides for the establishment of ranches in the state.

It was passed during plenary on Tuesday after the Joint House Committees on Agriculture and Natural Resources and Lands and Housing presented its report on the bill to the House.

The Chairman of the Committee, Asuquo Udo while presenting the report said the passage of the bill into law would promote international best practices in livestock administration, regulation and control in the state.

Cattle Dealers Association, Arewa, Igbo and Yoruba communities and others in the state made their inputs to the bill during a public hearing on it, before it was passed by the House.

The Speaker of the House, Aniekan Bassey directed the Clerk of the House, Mandu Umoren to transmit a copy of the bill to Governor Udom Emmanuel for his assent.

When it is assented to by Mr Emmanuel, Akwa Ibom would become the eighth southern state to enact a law against open grazing of cattle.

Rivers, Bayelsa, Oyo, Ekiti, Abia, Lagos and Enugu states have enacted similar laws in their states.

Southern governors in Nigeria had reached a resolution on July 5, 2021, in Lagos for member states to enact legislation against open grazing of cattle in their states on or before September 1.

Only five states were able to meet the deadline.

The 17 southern governors would be meeting this Thursday in Enugu, for a third time this year.
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Vice-Chancellor of the University of Benin (UNIBEN), Lilian Salami, has announced the immediate closure of the University, following the protest that rocked the institution on Tuesday.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that students of the institution blocked the ever-busy Benin-Lagos Expressway and the Ekheuan Road over a N20,000 late registration fee imposed by the school authority.

NAN reported that the students said the late registration of N20,000 was unacceptable, especially because of the unfavourable economic situation in the country.

In a statement issued by the Registrar of the institution, Ademola Bobola, the vice-chancellor, Mrs Salami ordered all students to vacate their hostels and the university premises not later than noon on Wednesday.

The Vice-Chancellor has reviewed the agitation by a section of the students body on Tuesday.

After due consultation and in the overall interest of the general students body, the Vice-Chancellor has, on behalf of the Senate, approved the closure of the University with immediate effect.

This is based on security reports to avoid the students action being hijacked by hoodlums; and thereby prevent any form of breakdown of law and order within and outside the campuses of the University, She said.

NAN reported that the university had resumed for the 2020/2021 academic session on Wednesday.

(NAN)
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The Ford Foundation and MacArthur Foundation have announced the launch of the Nigeria Youth Futures Fund (NYFF), a new $5 million fund that will support and strengthen the youth leadership ecosystem in Nigeria.

In close partnership with LEAP Africa, who will be managing the fund, NYFF will build on momentum in the region inspired by the youth-led #EndSARS movement.

Young people under the age of 30 comprise more than 70 percent of Nigerias population, with projections that this figure will continue to grow over the next few decades.

Given the significant number of youth, researchers have suggested that the future progress of Nigeria is based upon the extent to which young people are educated, skilled, healthy, and active in civic and political processes, including their involvement in the formation of long-term development strategies.

Were excited about this launch because over the last decade, several analyses have shown that there is likely to be a great return on investment in youth across the economic, social, political, and technological domains of Nigerias development, said Dabesaki Mac-Ikemenjima, Program Officer in the Office of West Africa, Ford Foundation. I believe that the fund is a critical part of efforts to empower youth, enhance their leadership capabilities, expand opportunities for them to be engaged in national development, and facilitate a proactive and constructive relationship between the youth and governments across Nigeria.

NYFF is a five-year collaborative fund seeded by $3 million from the Ford Foundation and $2 million from the MacArthur Foundation to facilitate young peoples leadership and civic engagement in Nigeria, with the goal of raising $15 million from additional partners and other foundations.

Todays youth embody the hope and promise of a thriving Nigeria that will lead the African continent for generations to come, said Kole Shettima, MacArthur Foundation On Nigeria program Co-Director and Director of the Nigeria office. There is no better time to invest in the civic engagement and participation of our young people, and the Nigeria Youth Futures Fund will sustain their work locally and amplify their voices in the halls of power.

Building on the momentum gained from the youth-led #EndSARS protests against police brutality in 2020 and social movements over the last decade, NYFF will:

 Convene an Imaginative Futures Working Group of young people ages 35 and below at strategy efforts;

 Support hubs of innovation to advance the development of ideas including economic, civic, and social enterprises by and for young people;

 Create a fund that will provide small- to medium-sized action grants for young activists and anchor organizations at national and sub-national levels; and

 Enable young people to take advantage of social and economic opportunities provided by governments and international agencies through an online portal.

Leadership, Effectiveness, Accountability & Professionalism (LEAP) Africa, which will manage and operate the fund, is a youth-focused leadership development nonprofit with a mission to inspire, empower, and equip a new cadre of leaders with skills and tools for personal, organizational, and community transformation. Its youth interventions bridge gaps in effective leadership, education, employability, and entrepreneurship, and awaken civic participation in citizens to demand good governance and creatively address social issues across the continent.

Young people hold a world of promise and it is strategically imperative that a country like Nigeria has leaders ensuring the delivery or actualization of this promise. Our role in youth development is creating platforms, opportunities, and room to ensure that young people and their agencies are well supported. Amidst the numerous challenges that the Nigeria youth ecosystem has facedespecially in the wake of the pandemic, we remain committed to advancing the inclusion of youth voice, abilities, and agency, said Femi Taiwo, Executive

Director of LEAP Africa.

We are leveraging our 19 years of experience working with Nigerian youth and our multi-sectoral convening power, to build a stronger and more resilient youth ecosystem that will decisively contribute to the long-term development plans of Nigeria.

It is important for young people to realise they have a powerful voice. As a vibrant group, youth have the power to unite, harness their potentials, and stir positive change, said Sarah Egbo, Policy Support Lead, Gender Mobile Initiative. The Nigeria Youth Futures Fund comes at an opportune time for young people because in order to hone the skills and knowledge of young people for effective participation, decision-making, and co-creation of knowledge in diverse spaces, there is a need for nuanced capacity building sessions and interventions aimed at fortifying young leaders for sustainable development.

To kick off the engagement of youth, NYFF will launch an online competition to encourage young people to design the logo for the new Nigeria Youth Futures Fund.
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Some workers were on Wednesday prevented from getting to their offices as the Edo State Government began enforcement of the no vaccination card, no access to its facilities rules.

The new rule is to check the increasing rates of COVID-19 infection and related deaths in the state.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) correspondent in Benin, who visited the state secretariat and the Government House, reported that police constabularies were drafted to enforce the policy.

A civil servant in the state, John Osagioduwa, said he was not aware of the directive.

According to him, the proper thing was for the government to issue a circular to various Ministries, Departments and Agencies to inform civil servants of the directive.

Mr Osagioduwa said although he was vaccinated, he didnt come with the vaccination card and had to go home and come back to work on Thursday.

A construction company worker, Felix Omende, said it would not benefit the government to chase away all the people from work.

So, how can you save lives with drugs alone without food? When palliatives were being shared, the prominent once looted them to their houses and we the poor were left suffering and dying, he argued.

A former media aide to Governor Godwin Obaseki, Crusoe Osagie, who was also barred, said he forgot his vaccination card at home.

The governors directives have taken effect from today, and I am just coming to the office but forgot my vaccination card, I have been refused entry because I forgot my card at home.

I am going home to get my card to access Government House.

The enforcement and restrictions have started with government offices and institutions today.

And if workers go back home to get their cards and come back to work late or not at all, I am sure there will be concessions for them by their directors.

Its not compulsory to be vaccinated, but they need the vaccination card to access government offices, Mr Osagie said.

Commenting on the exercise, the Head of COVID-19 Enforcement Team in Edo, Yusuf Haruna, said the enforcement showed governments commitment to the protection of lives in the state.

The Edo State Governments action is in violation of a restraining order from a Federal High Court, Port Harcourt.

(NAN)
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The House of Representatives has resolved to investigate the alleged killing of four persons by men of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) in Oyo State.

Sequel to a motion moved by Muraina Ajibola (PDP, Oyo) on Wednesday, the House mandated its Committee on Customs to conduct the investigation.

A similar resolution was moved in May, over the killing of five in Iseyin, Oyo State by men of the Nigeria Customs Service.

At the time, the House resolved that the committee on customs should summon the Controller General of Customs, Hameed Ali.

Moving the motion on the latest killings, Mr Ajibola said the attacks happened on the 16 July in Igangan, Igboora, Ayete, Tapa and other communities in Ibarapa area of the state.

According to the lawmaker, the attackers dressed in Nigeria Customs Service and Nigeria Army Uniforms, drove on high speed into the communities in a convoy of two Toyota Hilux and one Toyota Sienna bus, and without any provocation from the residents shot sporadically in built-up areas, killed Muritala Ajasa, the Amotekun Commandant in Ibarapa Central Local Government Area, at Igbo-Ora.

He added that two persons were killed in Igangan and one in Ayete area.

Mr Ajibola expressed dismay with the justification given by the spokesperson of the Nigeria Customs Service, Theophilus Duniya, that the deceased were rice smugglers.

He argued that the communities are over 200km away from the closest border post.

In his motion, Mr Ajibola also drew the attention of the lawmakers to the spate of killings by the men of NCS in the process of chasing smugglers.

Consequently, the lawmakers gave the committee three weeks to conduct the investigation and report back to the House.

When the motion was put to question by Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila, the ayes had it.
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Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State has said he has no apologies for describing President Muhammadu Buhari as a man with a good heart and father to him.

Mr Umahi said this on Wednesday while receiving the former Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ali Modu Sheriff, at the Government House, Abakiliki.

Mr Sheriff was in the state to consult with the governor over his ambition to run for the National Chairmanship of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Mr Umahi said he had no regret for his comment, notwithstanding the backlash from the public.

When one person has a good heart and the rest of us do not and are not patriotic, no development can take place.

You can see that my executive council members melted their hearts into mine, which made us have good hearts and achieve a lot, the governor said.

He appealed to Nigerians to continue to support Mr Buhari, saying that he (Buhari) is conscious of his integrity, which stands him out.

I thank you (Sheriff) for informing us of your decision to contest the APC national chairmanship but the president, who is the leader of the party, has a role to play.

He is the only one that can take a decision but if it is thrown open, you are my choice.

The president can say in the interest of the party, let another person be there, we will obey him, Mr Umahi said.

He commended Mr Sheriff for his role in stabilising PDP, adding that his mind left the party the moment Mr Sheriff was unceremoniously removed.

In his speech, Mr Sheriff said he decided to inform Mr Umahi of his decision to contest the APC national chairmanship because he (the governor) is a political Iroko in the South-east.

You are very influential in APC and your fellow governors and leaders across the country rate you highly for your infrastructure strides, among other achievements, he said.

He called on Nigerians to stop zoning the presidential seat, saying the best candidate that would deliver the good should be considered and supported.

It is however, not the time to talk about the next president because an incumbent is still in office and should be supported to accomplish his goals, Mr Sheriff, a former governor of Borno, said.

(NAN)
The Chairman of Trademore Estate, Phase 3 Residents Association, Adewale Adenaike, on Tuesday said none of the residents of the estate died as a result of the recent flooding.

The estate, located off Umaru Musa Yaradua Expressway (formerly Airport Road), witnessed yet another flood between late Sunday night and Monday morning, leading to the death of at least three persons and the destruction of properties worth billions of naira.

Altogether, about 166 houses were affected by the flood, which many of the old residents described as the worst in 12 years.

Mr Adenaike told PREMIUM TIMES that all the bodies recovered so far were swept into the estate by the flood.

As far as I know today, when the NEMA people came, they confirmed that they had picked up seven bodies all together.

We didnt lose any residents, all the people who died are not from here. They are visitors. The guy who was in the Rover came to buy things in the estate. So, he is not a member of this estate and the other bodies came with the flash flood, they are not really resident, he said.

The residents on Tuesday morning identified one of the dead victims as a top official of the State Security Service (SSS).

This newspaper could however not verify the information as of the time of filing this report because the agency spokesperson, Peter Ifunanya, did not respond to calls or text messages to his mobile telephone.

Justin Uwazuruonye, Head of National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Abuja Operations Office, in an interview with PREMIUM TIMES, said only four persons died in the flood incident.

He said the agency only evacuated one while the other three were located by the families of the victims as the search for more bodies continued.

Im not aware of that, officially FEMA and police are aware of four, we (NEMA) are also aware of four, he said

We were the ones that evacuated one from the vehicle. The other three bodies were from the families. We only told them to report officially to the police if somebody is missing or dead somewhere, in case they see any dead body along the drainage system down to those villages.

As I speak with you this evening, we dont have any official information indicating that the number of casualties has risen to seven.

We were there today, we are just coming from there. It is today we were able to recover the vehicle of the last body we evacuated yesterday, he said.

Mr Uwazuruonye dismissed speculations that three additional bodies were evacuated from the scenes of the havoc.

As the search continued, PREMIUM TIMES during a visit to the estate on Tuesday noticed that business activities had picked up despite the ruins in their surroundings occasioned by the flood.

Some of the residents, mostly those that live around Imo Street, one of the most affected parts of the estate, were busy cleaning their properties.

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The police station in the estate, which was deserted on Monday as a result of the water level, was open to the public.

An officer who pleaded anonymity because he was not authorised to speak told PREMIUM TIMES that the station lost quite a number of vital documents.

Officials from the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), led by its Vice-Chairman, Lawrence Onuchukwu, also visited the scenes of flooding and pledged support for the residents.
The Nigerian government has introduced COVID-19 vaccination exercise to worship centres across the country.

The Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Faisal Shuaib, who disclosed this during a meeting with the leaders of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in Abuja on Tuesday, said it was part of the efforts to increase vaccination coverage against the virus in the country.

Mr Shauib said the move is to ensure that members of the religious communities who have not had access to the COVID-19 vaccine are allowed to be vaccinated at their worship places.

I am glad to inform you that from this second phase of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, we have introduced Sunday vaccination.

I must say that feedback from the field is very encouraging and I sincerely thank all Christian leaders who have given the vaccination team access to their churches and their members to receive COVID-19 vaccine during Sunday services, he said.

Support

Mr Shuaib said the Christian leaders across the country have been formidable pillars of support in all primary health care interventions and also in the elimination of the polio virus.

Suffice to say that the Christian community contributed immensely to our achieving wild poliovirus certification last year and indeed our sustaining the countrys polio-free status for over a year now.

I am aware that in the states and LGAs, representatives of the Christian Association of Nigeria are strong and committed members of the Task Forces on Immunization, he said.

He explained that arrangements have been made for corporate vaccination of eligible staff of Government Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs), Private/corporate organisations, including faith-based organisation, their family members, dependants, and retirees to be vaccinated at their convenience.

Speaking at the briefing, the minister of state for health, Olorunnimbe Mamora, urged Christian leaders to mobilise their members for vaccination.

He noted that the only way Nigerians can reciprocate the efforts of the government in securing the health of the populace was to access the vaccines provided.

The highly dreaded delta variants are here with us, hence we must mobilise our congregation to quickly take the vaccines so that the government can get more, he said.

Speaking on behalf of the Christian leaders, the Executive Director, Nigeria Inter Faith Action Association, Sunday Onuorah, appealed to Christian leaders to partner with the government in promoting the vaccination campaign.

He said faith leaders were in a position to address misinformation while enhancing public health impact.

We are here because we know that faith leaders have the capacity and authority to effect a change of mind and drive acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines, he said.

Nigerias vaccination campaign

As of Monday, over 1.6 million eligible persons have been fully vaccinated against the rampaging coronavirus.

Mr Shuaib said 1,692,315 persons have received two doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines, as approved by the World Health Organisation(WHO).

He also said, 4,052,756 eligible Nigerians have received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccines.

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This is made up of 2,645,020 persons with the first dose of AstraZeneca vaccine and 1,407,736 persons with first dose of moderna vaccine.
The Rivers State government has urged the Supreme Court to set aside the Court of Appeals 10 September ruling ordering it and the Federal Inland Revenue (FIRS) to maintain status quo on the issue of Value Added Tax (VAT) collection, the subject matter of a pending appeal.

It also urged the apex court to disband the panel of the Court which gave the interim order, and order another one to be constituted to hear the case.

The three-member panel of the Court of Appeal which issued the order being challenged at the Supreme Court by the Rivers State government was headed by Haruna Tsammani.

Miffed by the order, the Rivers State government, through its Attorney-General, approached the Supreme Court to seek an order nullifying the decision of the Court of Appeal and the reassignment of the appeal to a new panel.

Grounds of appeal

The Rivers State government filed 10 grounds of appeal in its notice of appeal shared with journalists on Tuesday.

It maintained that the three-man panel of Justices of the Court of Appeal led by Mr Tsammani, had in their ruling, erred in law when they relied on the provisions of Section 6(6) of the 1999 Constitution and the inherent jurisdiction of the appellate court, to order all the parties to maintain status quo on the VAT dispute.

The Rivers State government also said the Court of Appeal lacked the powers to restore the parties to the position they were before the judgement of the Federal High Court in Port Harcourt in suit marked FHC/PH/CS/149/2020.

The Federal High Court judgement which favoured VAT collection by Rivers State government was delivered on 9August

The learned Justices of the Court of Appeal, in relying on the inherent jurisdiction of the court to make the order on the subject matter of this appeal, failed to appreciate that the inherent jurisdiction of court cannot be applied in contravention of statutory provisions.

The learned Justices of the Court of Appeal failed to appreciate the nature of inherent jurisdiction and that it cannot be invoked to circumvent the clear provisions of statute as it was done with regards to Order 6 Rule 1 of the Court of Appeal Rules 2016 in this case.

It argued that the appellate court panel failed to take into account a decision of the Supreme Court in SHUGABA V. UNION BANK (1999) to the effect that no court has an inherent jurisdiction (except in extreme circumstances) to set aside the exercise of discretion of another court with regards to order made in respect of application for stay of execution.

It added that the Court of Appeal panel erred in law when they wrongly assumed jurisdiction to entertain on oral application that counsel of the FIRS made for maintenance of status quo by parties in the dispute, inspite of the fact that condition precedent for the invocation of inherent jurisdiction of the appellate court was not fulfilled by the 1st respondent (FIRS).

According to the state government, the appellate court, by proceeding to make far-reaching decision, based on the oral application by FIRS, denied it fair hearing.

It said the panel, by relying on the oral application to order the maintenance of status quo, which effectively operated as a stay of execution and as a injunction against the declaratory orders of the Federal High Court, occasioned miscarriage of justice, to its prejudice.

It urged the Supreme Court to order that the FIRS appeal against the High Court judgement that stripped the federal governments tax collection agency of the right to collect VAT in the state, be heard by a fresh panel.

In the appeal filed on behalf of Rivers State by Emmanuel Ukala, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), the Attorney General of the Federation, was listed as a respondent in the appeal.

Backstory

The Federal High Court in Port Harcourt, had in a recent landmark judgment, held that it was unconstitutional for the FIRS to collect VAT and personal income tax in Rivers State.

Besides that, the court ruled that Rivers State government, and not the agent of the Federal Government  the FIRS  was authorised by the Nigerian Constitution to collect personal income tax in the state, PREMIUM TIMES had reported.

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Buoyed by the court order, both Governor Wike of Rivers State and Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State, had signed into law bills authorising the state governments to collect VAT, a move being resisted by the FIRS.

But the FIRS had filed an appeal against the Federal High Court judgement.

The appeal led to the 10 September order of the Court of Appeal asking parties to the case to maintain status quo.

In giving reasons for the order, the appellate court explained that the order was to preserve the Res (subject matter) of the appeal before it.

It also said all the parties that had submitted themselves to the courts jurisdiction, to refrain from taking any action to give effect to the judgement of the Federal High Court, which authorised the Rivers State government to collect VAT revenue, instead of the FIRS.

Lagos State which was not part of the case from the Federal High Court had applied to be joined in the appeal.

The joinder application was adjourned till 16 September for hearing.
The Edo State government on Tuesday said it would commence the enforcement of its no vaccination card, no entry into all state government owned facilities, as from Wednesday (today).

The government said the measure was aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus pandemic in the state.

This is coming in spite of the order of a federal high court in Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital, which barred the state from the implementation of the policy.

The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, Osamwonyi Irowa, who disclosed this at the daily press briefing on the virus, however, said that anybody who wanted access into any state government offices, must have his or her card to show the enforcers.

If you have to enter the state secretariat you must have your vaccination card, we are going to implement this in all the key areas to ensure that we dont have persons being infected because the other person is being difficult, he said.

The commissioner said the first phase is targeted at state government facilities, noting that access to government locations across the state would be based on the vaccination cards.

Those that cannot provide their COVID-19 vaccination card may have to excuse us and be working from home pending when a decision will be reached. As a state, we are doing everything possible to make sure people dont get infected.

We are appealing to our people to get vaccinated because that is the most suitable way of preventing the severity of the disease when you have it and also avoiding death. The enforcement team will commence work tomorrow (today)as a way to help us reduce the number of cases and deaths we are recording daily, he said.

In his contribution, the head of the states COVID-19 regulation enforcement team, Yusuf Haruna, said the state government had trained 20 special teams that would be spread across the state to commence the enforcement.

As we all know, the government has the responsibility to protect the lives and properties of its citizens. In view of this, we have trained 20 special teams that will be spread across the 18 Local Government Areas of the state.

They will commence this enforcement from the 15th of September, 2021. What we expect our people to do is that while going to work they should go with their vaccination cards. The government is not forcing anybody but the government has the responsibility to tell you not to spread the virus.

What we are going to do tomorrow is to grant those who have the authentic vaccination card access to their working places and those without can go back and work from home and the government will know how to deal with all of that, Mr Haruna said.

He added that the 20 special teams will be saddled with the responsibility of scanning and confirming the authenticity of these vaccination cards and also ask those who dont have it to go and work from home. This is the directive of the state government and this will be enforced to the letter.

Earlier, the head of the states Coronavirus Case Management, Ebomwonyi Osagie, said the state had recorded a total of three deaths within the last 24 hours.

So far, a total of 467 samples were collected, with a total of 1,034 confirmed cases, 638 active cases and 31 new cases, he said.

Court order

The Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt had on 31 August granted an exparte order restraining the Governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki, from enforcing the order mandating all residents of the state to get vaccinated for Covid-19.

Mr Obaseki had prior to the court order warned that any resident who failed to get vaccinated would not be allowed access to worship centres, banks and other public places in the state.

A coalition of civil societies in the state had earlier staged a protest round the state before approaching the court to file an action.

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Election observer group, Yiaga Africa, has called on the National Assembly to hasten the consideration and passage of the Electoral Amendment Bill and the constitution review.

The group also called for immediate legislative actions that will address nagging security challenges and revamp the economy.

This was contained in a statement sent to PREMIUM TIMES and signed by the Director of Programmes, Cynthia Mbamalu.

While the group welcomed the lawmakers and commended their efforts at ensuring the peace and socioeconomic well-being of Nigerians, it noted that there is still so much to be done, as prevailing realities consistently threaten nations collective peace, security, development and national unity.

As the National Assembly resumes, we note that a lot of work is still required in reforming our electoral process and amending the nations constitution.

While we appreciate the gains thus far in reforming the nations electoral processwe implore the National Assembly to, as a matter of priority, conclude the process of harmonising this bill and transmit the same to the President for assent.

We also implore that the harmonisation of this bill reflects only collective resolutions that are geared towards improving the conduct of elections in Nigeria, particularly as it relates to election administration, technology deployment for elections, inclusion and campaign finance regulations, part of the statement read.

The group added that Nigeria risks losing any meaningful mileage in its quest for national unity and democratic consolidation if a new electoral framework is not concluded and tested before the general elections.

In the same vein, the lawmakers were asked to immediately conclude the process of amending the Constitution.

We particularly call on the National Assembly to consider the key issues in this Constitution review process which include the: Federal Structure of governance/Power Devolution, Increased women representation and vulnerable group participation in government, as well as Local Government Administration/Autonomy and Electoral Reforms.

We, therefore, urge that this Constitution review process also features as a top priority for the National Assembly and truly reflects the wishes and desires of Nigerians.

Yiaga Africa remains committed to supporting the work of the National Assembly in carrying out its legislative mandate to the benefit of all Nigerians. We join other civil society organizations and Nigerian citizens in solidarity as we demand a new Electoral Act and consistently strive to protect our democracy for our common good.

Members of the National Assembly resumed from its annual recess on Tuesday and many lawmakers are optimistic that issues of urgent national importance like insecurity, electoral reform, constitution review as well as 2022 budget, will be addressed in the next few months.
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The wife of the Governor of Kano State, Hafsat Ganduje, has flown to London to attend the graduation of one of her sons.

Mrs Ganduje made the trip after ignoring an invitation by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) over her alleged involvement in a land fraud scandal.

She was invited by the anti-graft agency last Thursday over a petition by her eldest son, Abdulazeez, PREMIUM TIMES reported earlier.

Mr Gandujes media aide, Abubakar Ibrahim, on Tuesday announced the London trip.

Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje OFR, The First Lady, Prof. Hafsat Abdullahi Umar Ganduje and Family attended the Graduation of the Youngest Son to the Family, Muhammad Abdullahi Umar Ganduje who graduated from the Regents University London as BA. (Hons). Global Management (Enterprise & Innovation). Today, Tuesday. 14/9/2021, the official said.

Mr Ibrahim also posted on Facebook the photos of members of the Ganduje family attending the graduation ceremony.

EFCC INVESTIGATION

Mrs Ganduje was invited to report last Thursday at the Abuja headquarters of the EFCC.

Her son, Abdulazeez, had dragged her to the EFCC, sources familiar with the matter said, suggesting a pattern of corruptly using family access to power for private enrichment.

The governor himself had previously been involved in a corruption-related scandal. He has struggled to untangle himself from the public perception that he is a corrupt public servant since 2018 when Daily Nigerian online newspaper published a series of videos that showed him collecting money from a government contractor.

According to sources who saw Abdulazeezs petition, he reported that he was approached by a property developer to help facilitate the acquisition of some plots of land in Kano with some hundreds of thousands of US dollars and at least N35 million as facilitation commission.

PREMIUM TIMES further learnt that Abdulazeez said he paid the sum in dollars to his mother, Mrs Ganduje.

But three months later, (the property developer) discovered that the plots of land he wanted and had paid the First Family for had been allocated to other buyers and he then requested to be refunded, one source added.

Asked to comment on the matter, a spokesperson for Kano State Government, Mohammed Garba, said, I am not aware.

EFCCs spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren, did not comment on the matter when contacted on Monday.

But insiders said Mrs Ganduje could be arrested if she refuses to report for questioning. Unlike her husband who by virtue of his office enjoys immunity from arrest and prosecution, Mrs Ganduje enjoys no such constitutional immunity.
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At least 114 of the 240 correctional service inmates who escaped from one of the facilities in Kabba, Kogi State, have been recaptured, Francis Enobore, spokesperson of the service has said.

In a statement on Tuesday, Mr Enobore said the recapture followed a directive from the Controller General of the correctional service, Haliru Nababa, who was on ground to make sure the escapees were apprehended.

PREMIUM TIMES had on Saturday reported how armed men attacked the prison facility in Kabba, Kogi, North-central Nigeria, killing two officials and freeing many inmates.

The attack occurred about five months after a total of 1,844 prisoners were freed when gunmen suspected to be members of the outlawed Indigenous People Of Biafra (IPOB) attacked a correctional facility in Owerri, Imo State.

The group had been blamed for previous attacks on security officers and facilities in the South-east and South-south regions.

It also came less than a year after hoodlums took advantage of the #EndSARS protests that rocked the country in October 2020 and broke into three Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) facilities in Edo and Ondo states.

A similar attempt was however foiled in Lagos State.

At least 2,051 inmates escaped after the jailbreaks in Edo and Ondo states while some of the inmates voluntarily returned and turned themselves in.

At least a dozen of security agents in charge of these facilities were killed during the attacks combined together.

Return or be prosecuted after recapture

Mr Enobore, in the statement, attributed the success to the collaborative efforts of sister security agencies.

He further urged the remaining escapees to voluntarily return in 24 hours or risk prosecution after arrest.

He reminded them that there will be no hiding place for them since their photographs and biometrics were all over the place.

Following the swift intervention of the controller-general, 114 escapees have been recaptured.

The controller-general, who personally led a team to the custodial centre for on-the-spot assessment, directed immediate search party response team to go after the escapees.

This was even as security has been beefed up through the deployment of additional armed squad personnel to fortify the facility, he said.

He also assured the public of their safety, adding that all hands were on deck to make sure not a single inmate remains in the larger society.
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The police spokesperson in Kaduna State, Mohammed Jajige, has confirmed the kidnapping of the Emir of Bungudu, Alhassan Atto, and many other travellers on Tuesday along the Kaduna-Abuja road.

Mr Jalige said the incident occurred at about 3 p.m. around Dutse village. He said the police recovered four vehicles from the scene but do not know the number of people abducted by the bandits.

Available information indicates that the Emir of Bungudu, Zamfara State, His Royal Highness (HRH) Alhaji Hassan Atto is among the people abducted to an unknown destination. Meanwhile reinforcement team have since been dispatched while coordinated effort is being carried out with a view to rescuing the victims unhurt, the statement said.

An eyewitness had narrated to a Daily Nigerian newspaper reporter how the incident happened.

The kidnappers hid in the shelterbelt of eucalyptus trees at about three points along the road. Those at the middle first opened the fire on the convoy, before those in front started firing sporadically, the eyewitness said.

Read the police statement

Today 14th September, 2021 at about 1510hrs, the Kaduna Police Command received a tragic report of an attack and kidnapping incident around Dutse Village along Kaduna-Abuja road where an unspecified number of people were suspected to have been kidnapped while two others sustained varying degree of injuries and currently receiving medical treatment.

The information has it that the commuters were intercepted by the bandits who shot berserkly, resulting in the aforesaid circumstance. However, Operatives of the Command were dispatched to restore normalcy in the area of which an officer paid the supreme price.

During the course of preliminary investigation of the scene, four vehicles were recovered from the scene while the exact number of persons kidnapped is yet to be ascertained. Equally, available information indicates that the Emir of Bungudu, Zamfara state His Royal Highness (HRH) Alhaji Hassan Atto is among the people abducted to an unknown destination. Meanwhile, reinforcement team have since been dispatched while coordinated effort is being carried out with a view to rescuing the victims unhurt.

The Kaduna-Abuja road has been safe lately if not for this unfortunate incident. Thus, the Commissioner of Police Kaduna Command, CP Mudassiru Abdullahi psc (+) is calling on the citizens plying the road not be deterred by this setback as the Command is rejigging the security deployment to strengthen the existing structure aimed at forestalling reoccurrence.
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The Minister of Police Affairs, Mohammed Dingyadi, has said President Muhammadu Buhari will have the final say on the extradition request against the erstwhile commander of the Police Intelligence Response Team (IRT), Abba Kyari.

Mr Dingyadi stated this on Tuesday when he featured on Politics Today a programme on Channels Television.

A US court had declared Mr Kyari wanted over allegations of complicity in the $1.1million bribe fraud committed by Ramon Abbas aka Hushpuppi.

This led to his suspension by the Police Service Commission (PSC) from office as a deputy commissioner of police and head of the IRT.

Mr Kyaris suspension was based on the recommendation of Inspector General of Police, Usma Alkali.

The police chief recommended the suspension as a temporary measure to allow the force investigate Mr Kyaris relationship with Mr Abbas.

PREMIUM TIMES had reported last week that the police committee had concluded its investigation and submitted its findings to the IGP.

Due Diligence

Speaking on the show, the minister revealed that the federal government will ensure that the right thing is done because of its international nature.

He said the police have tried to be transparent on the matter, adding that the report was also submitted to the attorney general of the federation.

The issue of Abba Kyari has become a public domain and I think by now everybody has heard that the police in their very wisdom, in their usual way of becoming transparent and fair to all have set up a committee to investigate all these allegations.

We have also reported that the committee has submitted the report to the Inspector General of Police (IGP).

We have also submitted this report and recommendations to the Attorney-General of the Federation for a legal opinion, thereafter, we will take it to Mr President for final consideration.

So, you can see that even though this matter is a local matter here, it has some international connotations, he said.

We have to do some due diligence to ensure that we do the right thing. We have to do some consultations with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Justice before a final decision will be taken.

What is important is that Nigerians should know that the police management is up and doing and they have done what they are supposed to do. I hope people will wait and see what actions will be taken on this matter.
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved N38.4 billion for the completion of some inherited road projects in five states of the federation.

Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, made this known when he briefed State House correspondents at the end of the Council meeting, presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday in Abuja.

According to him, the benefiting states include Benue, Bayelsa, Anambra, Imo and Nasarawa.

He added that all the affected projects were inherited from previous administrations.

They are not new projects, they are projects that we inherited and we are trying to complete. So essentially they relate to cost revision because of the ages of the contracts and the prices of goods that have changed.

The first one was the contract for a 13.5km spur of road from Onitsha-Owerri road through Okija-Ihembosi-For Ugbor to Ezinifite in Nnewi South Local Government Area of Anambra.

That contract was awarded in 2011 but wasnt funded until this administration came in so the contractor is asking us to revise the contract by a review of N488, 980, 891 and an additional completion period of six months and the council approved that review of price and the extended completion period, he said.

The minister said the second contract was that of the completion of a 20km road in Bayelsa.

The second one is the 20 kilometer dualization of Yenagoa road junction to Kolo and Otuoke and Bayelsa Palm in Bayelsa State.

That contract was awarded in Dec. 2014 on the eve of the tenure of the last administration and it couldnt even take off because of militancy issues at the time and also very limited budget provisions.

It is one of the contracts that we have since activated with the Sukuk Bond.

So, the dualisation is progressing but there is some additional work that needs to be done.

There are also results of further investigations that support a revision of the contract by N7.947 billion and this was approved by the council, he said.

Mr Fashola said the third contract was for the completion of a road linking Nasarawa and Benue states.

The third one is the 74 kilometer Nasarawa to Loko Road  that is the road that was awarded, I believe, in 2006, so its 15 years today, 74 km and it has not been completed.

This road links the Loko-Oweto Bridge, which we inherited and which we have completed and that Loko-Oweto Bridge links Nasarawa to Benue, across the River Benue and also connects to the Oweto to Oshogbedo Road, which we also inherited, which we have completed.

The complete lane from Otukpo to Nasarawa ought to be facilitated by this 74km road. The contractor has struggled with just about five kilometers of it since 2006, and a small bridge.

So, what weve proposed was that instead of going through the long process of termination and all of that, we proposed and Council agreed that the contractor who finished the bridge and the contractor who finished the road, because they were all awarded to different contractors before we came, should join this contractor and take up the remainder.

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So, weve limited the contractor who was originally awarded this road to just 10.8, thats all he will do.

So, weve awarded 42 kilometers to the contractor who did the Oshogbedo-Oweto Road and weve then awarded 21km, which is the part joining the bridge directly, to the contractor who completed the bridge.

So, all of these totaling a revised project sum of about N30 billion, shared amongst the three contractors, he said.

The minister noted that the completion of the road would also save travel time for its users, especially those travelling from Otukpo in Benue to Abuja.

What is instructive is that once we finish this last part of the road, although it is being used now, it is not tarred, commuters are using it because it cuts off three hours from the journey from Otukpo to Abuja.

Motorists dont have to go through Lafia, if you climb the Oweto Bridge across the River Benue, land in Nassarawa, youll be landing around Keffi.

So, its cutting off 103 from that journey from Otukpo to Abuja, which is about three hours. It used to be six hours plus.

This is strategic also for providing prosperity, lifting people out of poverty because if the saying that time is money is true, everybody who saves three hours has three hours extra productivity and also consumes three hours less fuel and travel time and so on.

So, Council approved this memo and we hope that sometime next year we can complete that linkage.

But as you know, those of you who went with me, commuters are already using the road in spite of that path not being complete, he said.

Also addressing the correspondents on the outcome of the meeting, the Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu, disclosed that the Council approved N10.7 million as augmentation for the completion of Middle Rima Valley Irrigation Project in Sokoto State.

The Federal Ministry of Water Resources presented a memo to council for the revised total cost of phase II of the construction of middle river valley irrigation project.

That is the completion of the middle Rima valley irrigation project in Goronyo, Sokoto State.

This contract was started in 1999 by the military administration then, first phase was completed, comprising 873 hectares.

The phase II was started in 2007 and that is what we have been struggling to complete. It is also an inherited project.

The total scope of the phase II is 404,333 hectares out of which about 80 per cent of the work has been done.

So, this memo is seeking a revised cost of the project, with an augmentation of about N10.7 million so that well be able to finish the project, hopefully before the expiration of this administration in 2023, he said.

According to Mr Adamu, the project has a potential of generating employment for almost 50, 000 people as well as enhancing food production.

Its expected to provide, by the time its completely finished, a production of 39,000 tons of rice, 195,000 tons of vegetables per annum and it will generate employment for not less than 47,000 people and their families.

So, Council graciously approved this memo with an additional completion period of about 24 months.

Like I said, our target is to try to complete this project by 2023. This is in line with what weve been doing since the inception of this administration in my ministry; to complete ongoing, inherited and abandoned projects, he stated.

The minister said out of the governments target of completing the 116 inherited projects, 34 had so far been completed.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Council meeting was preceded by the swearing-in of three National Commissioners of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Those sworn-in include Baba Bila representing the North-east, Sani Adam, North-central and Abdullahi Abdu, representing North-west zone.

(NAN)
The Attorney-General of Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami, has written to the 36 state governors asking them to grant access to federal governments stamp duty recovery agents in their respective domains.

This was contained in a statement issued by Mr Malamis spokesperson, Umar Gwandu, on Wednesday.

According to the statement, the AGF in his letters to the governors, cited section 111 of the Stamp Duty Act as granting his office an exclusive power to recover any outstanding payment or remittances related to stamp duty.

Pursuant to Mr Presidents approval and directives, I also wish to request Your Excellency to direct the state ministries, departments, agencies, and regulatory institutions of financial sector to engage and grant access to the appointed recovery agents for the purpose of the audit and recovery of stamp duty to ensure that all established liabilities are remitted as appropriate, the statement quoted part of Mr Malamis letter.

This came days after media reports of a suit filed by the state governors at the Supreme Court, accusing the federal government of failing to remit N176 billion proceeds of stamp duty 2015 to 2020.

They urged the apex court in the suit to order the federal government to refund the money collected as stamp duties on individual persons transactions within their respective states for the six-year period.

They also asked the court to declare them as the sole authorities entitled to administer and collect stamp duties on all transactions involving individuals within their respective states.

No reference was made to the governors suit in the statement issued by Mr Malamis office on Wednesday.

No recovery for 2016 to 2020 yet

The statement by Mr Malamis office alluded to ongoing recoveries by agents being conducted for the federal ministries, departments, agencies and financial institutions.

At this stage liabilities are being established, and no actual recovery has been made, the statement added.

This appears to be Mr Malamis veiled answer to the claim by the governors in their Supreme Court suit that about N176 billion proceeds of stamp duty for 2015 to 2020 had yet to be remitted.

It added that Mr Malami with his letter to the governors was activating the powers given his office by section 111 of the Stamp Duty Act to conduct the audit and recovery of back years stamp duty in collaboration with stakeholders.

It also stated that the federal government had set up an Inter-Ministerial Committee on Audit and Recovery of Back years Stamp Duties from January 15, 2016 to June 30, 2020.

Members of the committee, according to the statement, were drawn from the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice in collaboration with relevant agencies including the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Office of the Accountant General of the Federation, Ministry of Finance, Central Bank of Nigeria, Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Allocation Commission, among others.

The statement added that the AGF organised a meeting with attorneys-general of states on similar powers they have with respect of stamp duty of ministries, departments, agencies and financial institutions in their respective states.

It said the meeting was to provide a comprehensive overview of the process and to proper understanding the task.

Mr Malamis letter and the governors suit on stamp duty proceeds come amid ongoing legal battle between Rivers State and the federal government over revenues from Value Added Tax (VAT).

Since obtaining a judgment of the Federal High Court in Port Harcourt affirming Rivers State government the power to collect VAT instead of the federal government, Governor Nyesom Wike and his Lagos State counterpart, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, have passed state laws to that effect.

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Ogun, Akwa Ibom and Edo states are equally considering similar measures.
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Nigerias two dominant political parties have argued over President Muhammadu Buharis request for approval to borrow $4 billion and 710 million to fund the deficit in the 2021 budget.

PREMIUM TIMES reported Mr Buhari making the request in a letter addressed to the National Assembly on Tuesday, as many Nigerians struggle to survive the countrys biting economic situation.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in reaction to the development, cautioned the NASS against approving the request, saying it could set the countrys debt profile skyrocketing without a feasible repayment plan.

With the approval to borrow $8.3 billion and 490 million loans by its legislative body barely two months ago, Nigerias debt profile risks reaching over N40 trillion.

More alarming is that the debts that APC is hanging on Nigerians are for nebulous projects whose scopes, utilities, locations and contractors are largely vague; a development that validates apprehensions of a huge swindle on our nation at the expense of innocent Nigerians, including generation yet unborn.

Our party holds it as an act of wickedness that individuals who know that they will be leaving office in less than two years will be accumulating debts instead of seeking ways to reduce the liability they have brought upon our nation.

The APC knows it will not be around after May 29, 2023. That is why it is pushing our nation into a deeper economic quagmire with foreign loans, which are largely diverted to the personal pockets of their corrupt leaders, the opposition PDP said in a statement signed by its spokesperson, Kola Ologbondiyan, on Tuesday.

Response

But responding to the PDPs criticism, the All Progressives Congress (APC) on Wednesday, said the loans are for the good of the country and well-being of the citizenry.

The ruling party also accused the opposition party of looting foreign loans obtained during its 16 years rule rather than spending on infrastructure and economic growth as, according to it, Mr Buhari-led government is doing.

It was in PDPs era that loans to fund power generation, purchase arms and ammunition to fight a raging insurgency were misappropriated and diverted to fund PDP activities; and the borrowed money ultimately found its way to the pockets of cronies, friends and family members of administration officials. Nigeria is still servicing a $460 million loan taken from China to fund a phoney Abuja Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) contract awarded in August 2010.

Nigerians should also reflect and recall that the PDP had in its 16 years of misrule pushed the country into a dark ditch of insolvency, and a period in which most state governments could not pay workers salaries, not even the minimum wage, or settle contractors bills and cater for patients in hospitals, to name a few, the APC interim National Secretary, John Akpanudoedehe, said.

Before relinquishing power in 2015 after 16 years, the PDP left the national debts at about N12 trillion, a figure that has now jumped to N33.1 trillion as of March 2021.
Former governor of Rivers State, Peter Odili has been placed on the watch list of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has said.

The NIS revealed this on Wednesday in response to a suit filed by Mr Odili in a Federal High Court, Abuja, challenging the seizure of his international passport by the service.

When the matter was called on Wednesday, counsel to the service, Jimoh Adamu, informed the court that he had just filed a counter affidavit to oppose the former governors suit.

Mr Adamu sought an adjournment to enable him put his house in order.

Mr Odilis counsel, Ifedayo Adedipe, did not oppose the request for the adjournment.

The court then adjourned the matter to September 28 for hearing.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that the former governor is challenging the seizure of his passport at the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport, Abuja.

In the fundamental rights enforcement suit, Mr Odili claimed his international passport with number B50031305 was seized from him on June 20 by operatives of the service.

Mr Odili prayed the court to compel the NIS to release the passport to him.

He also prayed for an order of perpetual injunction against the service from further harassing, embarrassing, intimidating or interfering with his fundamental right to freedom of movement.

The former governor also demanded a written apology for the embarrassment caused him by the service.

Digging in

In a counter affidavit, the service justified the seizure of Mr Odilis passport and faulted his claims.

The applicants passport was seized because he is on the services (NIS) watch list as requested by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC).

It is the governments policy that streamlines the security agencies present at the point of entry/exit from the country.

The respondents (NIS and its Comptroller-General) are the lead agency for the above stated function.

All security agencies collaborate by submitting a list of any person on the watch list to the respondents.

By virtue of Section 31 of the Immigration Act 2015, the respondents are empowered to prevent the departure from Nigeria where there is a request to arrest such a person in the public interest as requested in the instant case by the EFCC.

By the above section of the Immigration Act, the respondents are empowered to seize the applicants international passport because he was watch-listed, sequel to the EFCC request, it said.

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The NIS argued that Mr Odilis suit was premature as he allegedly failed to meet the condition precedent to the filing of such suits.

This action is premature and incompetent as the applicant failed to serve pre-action notice on the service as condition precedent before filing this suit against the respondents.

The failure to serve pre-action notice robs this honourable court of jurisdiction.

The applicant is not entitled to the reliefs sought and the suit should be dismissed with substantial cost for failure to comply with condition precedent, the service said.

Mr Odili, a two-term former governor of Rivers State between 1999 and 2007, had been accused by the EFCC of misappropriating public funds to a tune of N100 billion while he was governor.

A Federal High Court, Port Harcourt, in 2007, restrained the EFCC from taking any further step against Mr Odili.

(NAN)
Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq has urged the police to deploy more officers to the state against the backdrop of an influx of people displaced from neighbouring states to Kwara.

According to a statement from his spokesperson, Rafiu Ajakaye, Mr AbdulRazaq made this appeal in Ilorin on Wednesday when the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Alkali, paid him a courtesy visit in his office.

The governor said the state needs between 8,000 and 10,000 police officers but now has only about 3,000 officers.

Our challenges are enormous. Being a relatively safe state, security agencies tend to be comfortable with Kwara and that explains why they often take out forces from Kwara to bolster security elsewhere.

For example, the Army has taken out most of their men to Northeast and we are making efforts to get them back. For the police, our need requirement is about 8,000-10,000 men but we have only about 3,000 now.

Many officers of the two mobile squadrons here have been moved out. I am saying this because we definitely need more men on ground here, Mr AbdulRazaq said.

The recent ban on grazing by Southern Governors and some security issues in our neighbouring states have resulted in influx of internally displaced persons to Kwara. In many parts of some of our villages, the communities are outnumbered by those that are coming in.

This is a state of harmony and people are welcome but this (influx) is clearly overstretching the manpower of the Nigeria Police which is the primary agency for internal security. From Kwara North to Kwara South, it is an enormous task for them, so we definitely need and seek more hands.

Mr AbdulRazaq also called for improved collaboration among security agencies in the state.

The governor thanked the police authorities for siting two institutions in Kwara  the Police School in Ballah and the Intelligence School in Share.

But we are saddened by the relocation of Police Public Relations School that was here in Ilorin before. We hope you will look into that again and return it.

Mr AbdulRazaq also commended the police and other security agencies for making the state relatively safe for economic activities.

We appreciate your efforts for keeping this state safe. Now we have peace and people are coming to live in Kwara State. Now we have four airlines coming to the state and the economy of the state is booming, hotels are often filled and rent (in houses) are going up, the Governor said.

This points to better security, and I commend the security agencies for what they do to keep us safe. Now, people see Kwara as a safe haven and they are coming here to settle. The security issue is kept to the barest minimum by the police and other security agencies.

In his remarks, Mr Alkali said he was in the state to meet with officers and men of the Nigeria Police in Kwara command and inspect the Nigeria Police Intelligence School which is under construction in Share, Ifelodun local government area.

I am here on a one-day visit to appreciate and give words of encouragement to our officers and men in Kwara, as well as tell them what my administration has come to do, he said.

The government of President Muhammadu Buhari is doing its best efforts to meet our needs. The police reform is also being pursued.

Our pension, which is one of the bane of retired police officers, is also being looked at. We have one of our most important institutions in Kwara, which is our intelligence school which ought to have taken off since in Share. My mission is to get it take off immediately.

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Mr Alkali said his administration is adopting intelligence gathering and ICT to check crimes and criminalities in the country.

I have a mission and vision of policing through intelligence and proactive means of policing. Policing is key, ICT is key and training is key. With the three, you can sit down and police the whole state, he said.

It is our intention to do manpower development in the art of intelligence gathering so that we will be able to police the country not manually but through e-policing. We can do a lot with proactive policing instead of being reactive. We are asking for more support from your administration to ensure that the school take off.

We are ready and willing under this administration to make the condition of service more conducive for our officers and men to better serve the people, he said.

Mr Alkali was accompanied on the visit by AIG Zone 8, Ede Ayuba; AIG Intelligence, Abu Sanni; Kwara CP, Tuesday Assayomo; and Force Public Relations Officer, Frank Mba.
the renewal of NBETs license should be done with a view to winding down NBET over a defined period. Thus, new license conditions should include obligations for NBET to publicly audit its books to ascertain the true financial position of the company, activation of PPAs and GSAs that are yet to be activated, re-negotiation of some of the PPAs and GSAs it currently managesso as to allow for an orderly winding up process of NBET

The Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET) is one of the licensees of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC). NBET was founded in July 2011 and was issued its operational trading license in November 2011. The term of the licence is for ten (10) years and would expire by November, unless renewed by the NERC. In accordance with its licensing procedure, the NERC has commenced the stakeholder engagement on the application for the renewal of of NBETs licence.

NBETs Objective in a Transitional Electricity Market

NBET is 100 per cent owned by the Federal Government. From the companys website, NBET was established as part of the roadmap for power sector reform towards the full implementation of the Electric Power Sector Reform Act (EPSRA). According to Wikipedia, NBET is the manager and administrator of the electricity pool in the Nigerian electricity supply industry (NESI). NBETs mandate is to engage in the purchase of electrical power and ancillary services from both independent power producers (IPP) and successor generation companies (GenCos) under long term power purchase agreements (PPA), and the resale of electric power to successor electricity distribution companies (DisCos) and eligible customers under vesting contracts.

NBET was designed as an interim or transitional structure in the power sector to provide assurance of payment to GenCos, as well as to provide assurance of the supply of electric power to DisCos, post-privatisation of the nascent electricity market. In fulfilment of this objective of providing assurance of payment to GenCos, NBET was capitalised by the Federal Government with the sum of US$750 million by 2013. NBETs capitalisation came from the proceeds from the sale of Egbin Power Station, and proceeds from a $500 million Eurobond issued in 2013. NBET was also backed by a Partial Risk Guarantee (PRG) from the World Bank.

A Review of NBET License Terms and Conditions

As stated, NBETs operating license is for 10 years, unless renewed by the NERC. A review of NBETs license terms brings to the fore some key conditions which NBET should operate under license.

Condition 2 (5) of NBETs license states that, The Licensee shall at all times have at its disposal financial, technical and managerial resources and capabilities sufficient to allow the Licensee to fully discharge its obligations in respect of the volume of the trading business undertaken by it Condition 4 of the license imposes certain financial requirements on NBET:

The Licensee shall maintain at all times capital adequacy and net worth of 7.5% of its Annual Volume of Electricity Traded (kWh/year) in Naira. The Licensee shall at the end of every year demonstrate his credit worthiness, duly certified by an auditor, to the satisfaction of the Commission. All trading transaction shall be undertaken through proper payment security mechanism enforced by the Commission.

In the absence of any publicly available audited financial statement to ascertain its true financial health, NBET may likely have a negative capitalisation. The totality of NBETs liabilities is in excess of N1.5 trillion, namely the N701 billion and a further N600 billion provided to NBET by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) through the Federal Ministry of Finance, under the Payment Assurance Guarantee (PAG) scheme

Any pertinent review of NBETs performance under its license over the last ten years should be to ascertain if the above conditions of its license were either met or breached, and/or continues to be breached. In other words, does NBET have the financial capacity and resources as a going-concern to carry on the business of purchasing bulk electricity from GenCos under firm payment terms for resale to DisCos and eligible customers?

The answer is perhaps negative.

In reality, NBET was never capitalised and had no equity capital to back up its financial obligations under the PPAs. The Egbin sales proceeds was not remitted to the company. The $350 million Eurobond proceeds earmarked for NBETs capitalisation was given back to the Debt Management Office (DMO) by NBET without being depleted. To date, the bulk energy traders sources of funding to meet its payment obligations to GenCos and gas suppliers are limited to the insufficient monthly market remittances from DisCos for the sale of energy, and intervention loans from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), guaranteed by the Federal Ministry of Finance. In its 10-year history, save for a few months after the CBN intervention loan, NBET has never settled the invoices of GenCos for energy purchased 100 per cent. In addition, NBET has also not been able to collect market revenues from DisCos in full, despite having executed firm vesting contracts with DisCos. It also has not been able to enforce all DisCos to post their three (3) months Letters of Credit (L/C) to backstop their purchase of electricity, as required by the market rules. Furthermore, for DisCos who have posted their L/Cs, NBET cannot draw down on the L/Cs to make whole any shortfall payment to GenCos.

In the absence of any publicly available audited financial statement to ascertain its true financial health, NBET may likely have a negative capitalisation. The totality of NBETs liabilities is in excess of N1.5 trillion, namely the N701 billion and a further N600 billion provided to it by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) through the Federal Ministry of Finance, under the Payment Assurance Guarantee (PAG) scheme, and other market shortfall payments to GenCos and their gas suppliers.

NBETs Challenges

The NBET structure was an important one in the overall market design of the NESI. NBETs shortcomings are an indication that the market design of the Nigerian power sector market hasnt worked and needs a huge re-tweak.

There are a number of issues that affect NBETs abilities to effectively meet its obligations, as envisaged in its license and terms of establishment. First is the design of NBET as a trading company. In reality, it is simply, or has evolved into a settlement organisation, to pay the invoices of GenCos for electric power generated and dispatched against payment receipts from DisCos. This is a deviation from its priorities, being the management and administration of the financial flows for the physical supplies on the network, and operation of a competitive market that encourages efficient value discovery for commodity and capacity, as stated on its website. Besides, NBET makes no spread in the so called trading of electricity. Thus, it is neither incentivised to trade efficiently nor be financially sustainable outside of budgetary allocations from the Federal Government.

Secondly, NBET seems to have be relegated to the settlement of energy invoices of GenCos and their gas producers (for thermal GenCos), while the task of settlement of ancillary services and transmission invoices is delegated to the market operator (MO). In other words, there are two settlement organisations in an electricity market that is both financially illiquid and barely able to generate, dispatch and retail 5GW of electricity! In our view, the settlement functions of NBET and the MO are a very expensive duplication of roles in the power sector. Both roles can be carried out by a single entity.

Alternatively, NBET could evolve into a proper wholesale electricity trading company or electricity trading exchange, similar to the India Electricity Exchange (IEX) or Power Exchange India (PXIL). But for this to happen, NERC would have to reign in the excesses of some badly operated and recalcitrant DisCos that have no compulsion to provide reliable electricity supply services to their customers.

A major objective for establishing NBET as a credit worthy and bankable counter-party to enter into PPAs with GenCos, was to incentivise the private sector to invest in new generation capacity. Indeed, NBETs mission statement on its website is to be an efficient & effective catalyst for investment into the Nigeria electricity market by ensuring transparency & guaranteeing payment, while its vision statement is to create a financially viable electricity market. The creation of NBET led to the development of the 450 MW Azura IPP in Edo State. It also led to the restoration of installed generation capacity by some of the PHCN successor GenCos. In 2016, NBET initialed PPAs with 14 on-grid solar IPP developers, with a total capacity of over 1000 MW. Unfortunately, the development of the solar IPPs eventually did not proceed as the execution of the PPAs is still pending. Today, NBETs ability to catalyse investments into the power sector is doubtful.

However, NBETs mission and achievements in attracting investments into new generation capacity has to be juxtaposed with NBETs inability to activate PPAs and firm gas supply agreements (GSAs) with successor GenCos, more than seven years after the privatisation of these GenCos. The case of the NIPP GenCos is even more embarrassing to the Federal Government and NBET, as none of the NIPP GenCos have PPAs with NBET.

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To Renew or Not to Renew?

In our view, the renewal of NBETs licence is academic. While NBETs contracts, obligations and liabilities with GenCos can be novated to DisCos, NBET is still quite necessary to manage the liabilities and obligations under the PPAs with GenCos and the vesting contracts with DisCos. Besides, novating NBETs contracts to DisCos now would be a catastrophic event to both DisCos and GenCos. Save for renewing NBETs license, there are no immediate alternatives that wont be further catastrophic to the power sector.

However, the renewal of NBETs licence should be done with a view to winding down NBET over a defined period. Thus, new license conditions should include obligations for NBET to publicly audit its books to ascertain the true financial position of the company, activation of PPAs and GSAs that are yet to be activated, re-negotiation of some of the PPAs and GSAs it currently manages, activating the novation process in condition 5 of its license, so as to allow for an orderly winding up process of NBET and novation of its contracts and legacy debts to DisCos, and developing bilateral contracts between GenCos and DisCos. The NERC seem to be thinking in this direction. There is also the need to look at merging the market settlement functions of NBET and the MO into a single entity.

Alternatively, NBET could evolve into a proper wholesale electricity trading company or electricity trading exchange, similar to the India Electricity Exchange (IEX) or Power Exchange India (PXIL). But for this to happen, NERC would have to reign in the excesses of some badly operated and recalcitrant DisCos that have no compulsion to provide reliable electricity supply services to their customers. Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) is one of such DisCos. Despite the abundance of generation and transmission capacity within its network and a well-built distribution network, BEDC rations electricity supply to its residential and commercial customers for only seven hours daily, preferring to adopt a discriminatory approach to providing increased hours of electricity supply to some of its customers. Citizens of Kabul in Afghanistan enjoy more reliable supply of electricity than BEDC customers. Luckily, there is a huge market for eligible customers that NBET can participate in, even though NERC again would need to make changes to the extant Eligible Customer (EC) regulations and perhaps the MYTO tariff methodology to allow NBET participate as an Exchange in the EC market.

Should NBET chose to transform into an electricity exchange, it must be prepared to make significant investments in IT infrastructure and human capital, and also be adequately capitalised to support its exchange functions. Electricity is traded as a commodity. The operations of the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE), now known as the Nigerian Exchange Group (NGX) after its demutualisation, is a good case study for the NBET team to look at.

Odion Omonfoman is an energy consultant and the CEO of New Hampshire Capital Ltd. He can be reached on orionomon@outlook.com
For a man who teaches in the United States, there is no doubt that he has registered a lasting place for Africans in Africa and even in the Western world. Asantes intellectual activities promote, rather than demote, the African image in places where they have suffered grandstanding and monumental shaming. There is no place in the world where the influence of Asantes work has not spread to.

Em hotep nefer weret!

I have listened to his lectures. I have served on committees with him. I have read his books. I have adopted many of his ideas reworked into Black liberationist thoughts. He has taught me as much as I have taught his works and ideas in classes for over forty years. I have reviewed his books. I have evaluated his manuscripts for publishers. I have gone to Temple University on multiple occasions, the last time to give a lecture on the construction of words to his graduate class. I have been asked to endorse the use of his name for two major prizes named after him. When I heard that he wanted to criticise the emerging concept of decoloniality, I did not mind that the venue was in Pretoria, South Africa, far away from my base in Austin, United States. His fans awaited him in Pretoria, and the hall was packed full. The lecture was provocative.

Molefi, the brave Asante

He does not call colour red as blue

A brave deity

Who says it as it is

Who does not call a bad thing a good thing.

The knowledgeable one

One that sees everything

He understands the dawn and the sunset

The priest of wisdom.

*

Ive been to many strange homes,

But none like Nubia, the home of Asante

Where nature is beautifully alive.

Ive tasted the milk of other lands,

None matches that of mother Africa,

The Black Egypt

Where Molefi was born bright.

*

The great philosopher came;

Saw the future in Africa

He took her and showed her the part of life

Gave her everything needed to forge on;

Blessed is Mother Africa,

With great heritage and culture

Blessed is Molefi,

For keeping the culture, as the name bares.

A super communicator, passion comes with his words, as if the Yemoja, the preeminent goddess of the sea, comes out of the Atlantic Ocean in Bahia to deliver a message from Orunmila, the god of divination. Energy defines his engagement, like Sango, the god of thunder and lightning, issuing majestic commands. Conclusions must be revisited, and Asante turns into that powerful god of the crossroads, Esu, whose name must not be called in vain. The past lives in him, the living Pharaoh in the Black World. In another era, Asante would have been transformed into a god and venerated. There are no two people like him. Divide a city into two: One half belongs to Molefi and the other half to Asante!

Conversations around African knowledge productions and the audacity to lay claim to them without being intimidated by the imposing frame of the Western epistemic system would have generally been impossible without the irrevocable commitment of some dedicated persons. Africa was confronted with the demanding tasks of challenging the webs of misconception and the desperate identity assassination that the imperialists dragged them to in the prelude to and aftermath of colonialism. This identity shaming, it must be emphasised, was considered a strategy for which the people would not only be conquered in all dimensions  politically, culturally, socially, economically, and maybe philosophically  but would also be the foundational justification for the subjection of the people to the deprecatory experience they faced during the period of colonisation.

Africans were innocent, ignorant of the possible dangers inherent in being conquered by the imperialists, and not prescient enough to foresee what their future would look like with the history of the European expansionism dotting their evolutionary process. The damage was done, and colonial engagements within the 100 years when it held the continent by the jugular shattered, damaged, and trashed all the progress that the Black people had made before the colonisers invaded them. This damage was more debilitating for reasons that are not unconnected to the fact that even when the victims of colonisation, Africans, this time around, were dragged to the ground of dishonour, they were practically unaware that the colonially erected institutions left in the wake of colonial imperialism would carry the mark of disrespect, and continue to serve as the agency to sustain the molestation and prostitution of the African image.

After years of anger, the motivation to challenge the age-long calumny overtook a generation of Africans, to which Asante belongs. They began to counter Western fiction with facts, challenge European biases with catharsis, and, more importantly, correct wrong notions with sound knowledge. In the group of African intellectuals who embraced this call to duty is Asante, providing solid and unwavering academic insights that replaced ignorance with knowledge, changing the revisionist information with verifiable information, and substituting jaundiced views with relatively objective perspectives about Africa and Africans.

Asante became an intimidating posture in the academic wave of resistance that is tagged Afrocentrism. The movement began in the mid-21st century as a potent force erected to counter the existing derogation of Africans by the West, eventually becoming an interdisciplinary thing in the long run.

Molefi Kete Asante has published widely, and his body of works has changed the narratives of the African and black people for good. Central to his academic engagement is promoting African/black interests to repudiate the damaging misconceptions and assassinations of the African image and identity. In his recent publication in 2020, with the scholarly work titled The Afrocentric Pan Africanist Vision, this prolific scholar discusses the vision of the people about what they have in the contemporary time.

Dubbed as among the most prolific African-American scholars of all time, this intellectual figure has cracked the knot that was considered impossible and made landmark accomplishments in academic waves, where his sound contributions enthuse the occupants of the imagined centre. There is an infinite possibility, Asante argues, what Africa and Africans represent if they function effectively without hindrance. That many black people do not exude the expected confidence to challenge established biases in the academic, political, or economic systems is a condition facilitated by the colonisers watertight efforts to keep them eternally repressed in their deplorable conditions.

It cannot be contested that Africa has contributed meaningfully to the human race and had made impressive landmarks in many areas before the ascension of the European power. Underestimating the continent continues because they have refused to stand up for themselves and make impressive development in areas where they have all been badmouthed. But then there is Asante, who persistently challenges this negative view of black people, from Lagos to New York, not with emotions this time around but with educative works and insights that set the records straight that had been wrongly stated in the first place. We must credit people like Asante for setting the pace and raising the bar and for the effective wave of resistance in all fields.

Molefi Kete Asante has published widely, and his body of works has changed the narratives of the African and black people for good. Central to his academic engagement is promoting African/black interests to repudiate the damaging misconceptions and assassinations of the African image and identity. In his recent publication in 2020, with the scholarly work titled The Afrocentric Pan Africanist Vision, this prolific scholar discusses the vision of the people about what they have in the contemporary time. He argues that the current situation of the people does not in any way represent who they are, and being victims of the history of colonisation does not in any way have the possibility of running them aground forever. For Asante, the Pan-Africanist vision is shaped by the accumulated experiences that the people have been challenged by in recent or distant times. In other words, the determination to make Africa distinct from the rest of the world is informed by the awareness that they would continue to face predatory temptations by the civilisations that have attained technological and economic transformation, if they did not solidify themselves and begin to put in place the needed transformative energies.

It is essential to picture an African future reflective of their true self and capable of accommodating other civilisations without sacrificing their African identity in the process. This means that such a future holds the potential to transform the continent nearly in all conceivable ways. There would be a level of economic self-reliance and technological transformation, which would align with their ideological and philosophical principles, without necessarily taking away their political beliefs, freedom, and identity. This vision means that the continent would be expediently independent of all the vested interests that have fleeced the continent for ages under different guises. They were considered less technologically advanced, so they were suppressed by the European imperialists and lost nearly all their resources to external civilisations that came to encroach on them for generations. In essence, Asante, in The Afrocentric Pan Africanist Vision, talks about the importance of having this vision and emphasises more the need to prepare for creating a civilisation that can birth and sustain this system. Africa deserves freedom, not only of any political imposition that comes from all civilisations who believe that their economic development should be an automatic ticket for abusing Africa but also of the socioeconomic entanglement they have helplessly found themselves in the recent years.

A very devoted observer of Asantes academic engagements would notice that not only does he appear to create a breathtaking relationship between his work, but he also makes them appear like an academic work in series. One would be marveled by the close relationship between the work identified above and the one he produced some five years preceding it. In his work, The African Pyramids of Knowledge, this preeminent scholar of inestimable intellectual capacity is unequivocally direct about the fecundity of Africa in knowledge production and value creation. To be candid, there would be no reliable vision for a continent that does not have good intellectual resources on which they can depend for the transformation of themselves and the dislocation of baseless narratives created to keep them under perpetual repression. The knowledge base of the people is used in the management of their society, and this accounts for the enhancement of the identity, despite centuries-long pillaging and deprecatory encounters with the external civilisations. In this work, Asante argues that contrary to the assumption that blacks were devoid of critical thinking and are strange bedfellows to productive engagement, numerous historical and cultural accomplishments are evident in their greatness, even till contemporary times.

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Meanwhile, one year before that, in 2014, this same intellectual giant premiered the book titled The History of Africa, which gives sufficient information about the past experiences of Africa and Africans. It is nearly impossible to talk about the African knowledge pyramid without knowing about the peoples history. This indicates that the book written by the sage in 2015 on Africas knowledge production and systems is backed by the history, foundation, and past events of the people across all aspects of human endeavour. The History of Africa serves to place in perspective the past experiences and records of the people. For example, the book talks about how the people organised themselves into different political groups using systems that favoured and worked for them in the political domain. The decision to organise a political strategy is informed by the knowledge that they demanded very organised structures to enhance their collective progress. If they did not have a robust template for the political system across the continent, the possibility of arranging themselves would not only be slim; it would also be very hard. Asantes book explains this aspect of human history that they lived before the ascension of Europeans, Arabs, and even during their post-settlement in the continent.

More than it addressed their political past, the book, The History of Africa, also concentrates on African cultural and religious systems. There seems to be unending ill-conceived generalisations that many civilisations have made concerning Africans, including but not limited to the assumption that the African people were not intellectually evolved to build cultural traditions that are vibrant enough for contemporary times. It would have come as a surprise for people who do not understand the deep-seated connections between colonialism and these narratives. Still, people who understand the underlying Eurocentric agenda from such a position know that it was an attempt to rubbish the continent and justify the corresponding political overtake they later introduced. As much as we understand that such a position lacks a strong background, there would be no way of challenging the impression if individuals do not make necessary and befitting efforts to counter these positions. However, there is no need to panic because people like Asante continue to fumigate the lies against Africans for centuries with facts and figures about their past that can be confirmed by research and replicable scholarship. Essentially, The History of Africa addresses nearly all the aspects of the life of the people and how they did evolve as other peoples of the world did in their various cultural and political experiences.

Asantes academic contributions do not exclusively centre on Afrocentrism. He also has many works that address different yet intellectually complementing themes. For one, this scholar has written essentially on race issues and discussed how the concept had generated more than necessary controversies in the academic world. His writings on race have developed to an edition-by-edition engagement where the idea of racism is looked at from different angles, all of which add to the contemporary understanding of the politics and motivations behind the division of the world along racial lines.

Titled Erasing Racism: The Social Survival of American Nation, the 2009 edition addresses racism and how it has polarised the American society beyond imagination and repair. The American society, it seems, is founded on a philosophy of othering, where those who do not come from America or do not express their ideological beliefs are considered less critical, if not less human. To the extent that the society has institutionalised a master-subordinate relationship among their people, they have continued to place themselves beyond others, even unconsciously. Therefore, the book states the different dimensions that racism has taken in American society and how the oppressed groups have made substantial efforts to adapt and protect themselves in the process.

It cannot be emphasised enough how this philosopher has motivated people who decide to retrace their steps to discover their true African identity. Asante has shown pride in the continent of Africa through his academic involvement and in the various sociopolitical groups he belongs. When academics talk about his greatness, they do not over bloat his importance; when they mention his contributions, they merely state the values he represents.

The book, which comes as a recommendation to the international community, instigates more questions than it appears to answer. Asante argues that African-Americans are overwhelmed and are gradually losing themselves to the carnage of racism. Their identity, cultural traditions, history, and social system are victims of persistent verbal abuse, so much that they do not understand how and where they can begin to challenge the racist prejudices that have faced them from time immemorial. That is the level at which they have degenerated in recent history. Eradicating racism begins with accepting that society has been lopsidedly arranged across racial lines from a distant time. This would put people in the right frame of mind to understand how the white race, the privileged ones in the American society, have enjoyed a series of benefits, advantages, and privileges to the detriment of some other people in the society, specifically, and the world, generally. In this awareness and acceptance, they would begin to correct the age-long anomaly consciously. Without following this systematic path, it would be difficult to talk about putting an end to racism, which has overtaken American society.

In 1971, Asante published a book that seemed to clarify the justification of the same theme covered in the above work. Titled How to Talk to People of Other Races, the book brings up the issue of plural identities and cultural diversities that exist in human engagements. There is the general impression that people would be different in their racial and cultural disposition, though this does not mean that they would not have reasons to depend on one another or forge a strong network of alliances. However, this dependence would be determined by peoples communication when dealing with individuals from different cultural backgrounds. Therefore, the language of communicating with individuals of different races must be respectful. In other words, talk, which is personified as the form of exchanges between people of different races, must be such that the integrity of some people is not threatened or their identity molested. How to Talk to People of Other Races shows that the responsibility of submerging racism stands on the agreement to stem its tide by the people who are important, as far as the need to forge a common bond is concerned.

Additionally, it would come as no surprise that this man of inestimable intellectual brilliance is duly recognised far and wide in the world for his outstanding contributions to knowledge production. Apart from being awarded professorate honours in different academic environments, namely, Zhejiang University (2007-2010) and the University of South Africa (2009-present), he has also bagged for himself honours that befit the intellectual greatness he represents. The protruding accolade for which he has been associated reflects the assumption that his contributions do not in any way go without making a substantial impact.

For a man who teaches in the United States, there is no doubt that he has registered a lasting place for Africans in Africa and even in the Western world. Asantes intellectual activities promote, rather than demote, the African image in places where they have suffered grandstanding and monumental shaming. There is no place in the world where the influence of Asantes work has not spread to. Asantes works have served as points of reference and motivation for drawing different academic strategies for upholding the African image across different African countries. Evidently, the recognition he has attracted over time is long overdue.

Beyond the activism in academics, Asante has participated in different involvements that have to do with redeeming Africas dented image and restoring its identity in all fora. He once served as the coordinator of diaspora intellectuals, Pan African Scientific Council, African Union, in 2009, where he promoted quality and excellence that skyrocketed the values of the associations. Interestingly, Asante founded an academic institute, the National Afrocentric Institute, in 1989, and its creation became an instant success across the board. All these establishments he created or where he serves as a member, witness immediate transformation because he is conscious about their advancement. He is also a driving force paving the way for them through his intellectual productions.

It cannot be emphasised enough how this philosopher has motivated people who decide to retrace their steps to discover their true African identity. Asante has shown pride in the continent of Africa through his academic involvement and in the various sociopolitical groups he belongs. When academics talk about his greatness, they do not over bloat his importance; when they mention his contributions, they merely state the values he represents. Asante has already won for himself a beautiful place in the knowledge production about the African people. He has expanded the African-American academic engagement magically and retrieved for them the lost image of their ancestors.

Rather than be fazed by the intimidation of others who have considered themselves the general standard for knowledge artistry, Asante has mastered the way to popularise his ideas through the agency of academic engagement. The redefinition of African literature, culture, and history speak for him in decibel that cannot be fully consumed in the annals of history. From political science to historical scholarship, scientific engagements, and professional researches, Asante has roared deeply, and his voice has spread to places one cannot readily predict. He is a dedicated human to the cause and actions he believes in. There has been no time when he backed down from the ideological convictions he is identified with. In the academic industry, he is recognised for the outstanding efforts he makes to advance the collective aspirations and goals of the people.

Asante

The immortal man

Born before our black eyes,

The magical writer,

Touching the marrows of men,

Forever may you live.

No one hears the death of a hoe

You will not die

No one hears the death of cloths

You will stay till the worlds end

No one hears the death of the land

You are covered.

Asante

The man of the people

Who grants rights as privileges

The kind, humble and gentle-hearted

Who sits among the living skeletons

The hero of our people,

May all your wishes be accepted by the gods.

Ase!

Please join us for a conversation with is an American professor and philosopher, Molefi Kete Asante.

Sunday, September 19.

5:00 PM Nigeria

4:00 PM GMT

11:00 AM Austin CST

Register and Watch.

Join via Zoom.

Watch on Facebook.

Watch on YouTube.

Toyin Falola, a professor of History and University Distinguished Teaching Professor, is Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities at The University of Texas at Austin.
The reactions from the states that stands to benefit from the current court ruling and the move by FIRS to amend the Constitution by including VAT in the exclusive list and making tax legislation an exclusive preserve of the Federal Government, without addressing the fundamental question of fiscal federalism is a call for fiscal anarchy.

Background

The Federal High Court, Port Harcourt Division, recently delivered a judgement in the case between the Attorney General for Rivers State and Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) & Attorney General of the Federation, stating that the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) lacks the power to impose and collect taxes that are not listed under Items 58 and 59 of Part I of the Second Schedule of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) (the Constitution)

We should recall that in October 2019, the Federal High Court, Lagos Division, in the Registered Trustees of Hotel Owners and Managers Association of Lagos v. A. G. Federation & Others, while considering the validity of the Hotel Occupancy and Restaurants Consumption Law of Lagos State, upheld the powers of the Lagos State Government to charge and collect consumption tax from hotels, restaurants and event centres within the State. The Court held that based on the Constitution and the Taxes and Levies (Approved List for Collection) Act, the power to impose consumption tax was a residual power within the exclusive competence of States. It restrained the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) from imposing value added tax (VAT) on goods and services consumed in hotels, restaurants and event centres, as this was already covered by the Lagos State Law.

The court proceeded to declare sections 1,2,4,5 and 12 of the VAT Act as being inconsistent with section 4(2),(4) (a) & (b), (7)(a) & (b) of the Constitution and consequently unconstitutional and invalid. The court granted perpetual injunction against FIRS from collecting VAT from hotels, restaurants and event centres in Lagos State.

The constitutionality of VAT has always been an issue that keeps recurring and there are other cases that can be cited to support or oppose the current status quo including, Chukwuka Ukala v FIRS & A.G. Federation. A supreme court judgement in EKO Hotel vs Attorney General of Lagos State made some pronouncements on covering the field in support of the VAT Act and this has been referred to by some others in making their case for caution on the basis of judicial precedence. This article will discuss the current issue with a view to making recommendations that may promote fiscal federalism and enhance the ease of doing business.

The Evolution of VAT in Nigeria

VAT is a consumption tax that has been embraced and adopted by many nations across the globe because it is difficult to evade and relatively easy to administer. It was introduced through the VAT Decree No 102 of 1993 to replace sales tax operated under Decree No.7 of 1986, which was administered by States and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and has since addressed the administrative issues around the logistical challenge for companies with operations across the various States, who were hitherto subjected to different sales tax regimes across the country. The tax remained 5 per cent until it was increased to 7.5 per cent through the Finance Act of 2020.

Although VAT is centrally administered by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), it has always been largely for the benefits of the states in Nigeria. The VAT pool is shared with 15 per cent going to the Federal Government; 50 per cent to states; and 35 per cent to local governments (with a net of 4 per cent as cost of collection by the FIRS). The percentage of the cost of collection remains an issue which the states have raised at the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meetings, but which continues to be neglected with impunity. The distribution of VAT amongst states and local governments recognises the principle of derivation and twenty per cent (20%) of the pool is shared on this basis.

About 30 states account for less than 20 per cent of VAT collection, while Lagos and Rivers States, currently in the eye of the storm, are estimated to account for over 70 per cent of the VAT pool in Nigeria, with Lagos as a standalone contributing about 55 per cent due to the high concentration of economic activities in the State as a result of its strategic importance as the commercial capital of Nigeria, making a huge contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of our country.

The above analysis has always led to the call for equity and fairness in the distribution of the proceeds from VAT. The neglect of this call largely led to the introduction of Sales Tax by Lagos State Government, which was later amended to Hotel Occupancy and Restaurants Consumption Law of Lagos State.

As a nation, we should always provide platforms to discuss and address challenges facing our federation. The call to accord Special Status to Lagos has been neglected and the current move by Lagos State to enact its VAT Law on the back of the victory of Rivers State in the Federal High Court of Lagos, which declared the VAT Act as unconstitutional, may provide an opportunity to approach the issue of fiscal federalism in a holistic manner.

The Impact of the Judgement on States and the Federal Government

With Rivers and now Lagos taking steps by enacting laws to implement VAT collection in their respective States, about 30 states in Nigeria may experience challenges in meeting their financial obligations, as the federation account could lose revenue from VAT amidst a general dwindling federal revenue. The loss may be extended further if other taxes covered in the court ruling are assigned to states for collection.

In general, there is an urgent need for a review of the cost of collection of various taxes and levies by FIRS, the Nigeria Customs Services and other revenue generating agencies, with a view to reducing them across board. Available data and comparable evidence all over the world show that the percentage of cost of collection in Nigeria is on the high side.

In fact, the Federal Government, which currently takes 15 per cent of the VAT pool may not be impacted negatively, given that the FCT generates the second-highest VAT (after Lagos), in addition to import and non-import foreign VAT. Although Rivers and Lagos States, in their respective laws, try to force importers to pay VAT before clearing their goods from the ports, it remains to be seen how this will be implemented, as the Nigerian Ports Authority has refused to cooperate with the States currently collecting wharf landing fees and may frustrate any effort by States to collect VAT at our ports.

The current altercation calls for the strengthening of fiscal federalism. The Federal Government should take the lead role in redistributing resources in a fair and equitable manner to reduce the constant friction in the allocation of revenue. In our federation, as typical with all others, a fiscally balanced federation is desirable, so that no part is left behind for being poorer than the others.

Canada, Mexico, Australia, among others, utilise one form of equalisation fund or the other to support States with lower capacity to raise revenue. Belgium has the national solidarity intervention to support the regions where the average per capital yield of personal income tax, falls below average. Germany, as a federation, has taxation exclusively under the federal government and the parliament passed a state law to ensure that every state gets its fair share in a just and equitable manner.

Cost of Revenue Collection: A Case Study of VAT

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A total of N171.76 billion was taken as cost of collection by FIRS, at a rate of 4 per cent, between the 2013 and 2017 fiscal years, out of the N4.3 trillion generated as VAT. A total of N146 billion, representing 85 per cent of the N171.76 billion cost of collection, was borne by the States. Nigerias cost of collecting VAT at 4 per cent is four times higher than the international cost of collection, which is benchmarked at 1 per cent. Findings have shown that the average cost of collection for comparable countries have declined steadily and currently hovers around 1 per cent, while that of Nigeria has been stagnant to the benefit of FIRS. It is quite interesting to note that VAT is very efficient to collect through the introduction of technology, a fact which should noticeably reduce the cost of collection. Therefore, there is a need for caution by FIRS in its current pushback, as some may argue that the huge benefits it derives from cost of collection at 4 per cent may be an impediment to its objectivity.

Empirical data suggests that VAT is an easier tax to collect than other taxes, such as income tax, CGT, excise duties, etc. This means the cost of VAT collection should in fact be less than the average cost of total tax collection. It is a known fact that government (including states), their Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), the Nigerian Customs Service, and oil and gas companies act as VAT collection agents, accounting for over 40 per cent of VAT collected, yet the 4 per cent is still applied to this portion. We should also not forget that VAT is based on self-assessment, with only 3 per cent of VATable entities accounting for 97 per cent of VAT revenue in Nigeria, according to a recent International Monetary Fund (IMF) report. The call for the reduction of the cost of collection to 1 per cent or even less, should be implemented now.

In general, there is an urgent need for a review of the cost of collection of various taxes and levies by FIRS, the Nigeria Customs Services and other revenue generating agencies, with a view to reducing them across board. Available data and comparable evidence all over the world show that the percentage of cost of collection in Nigeria is on the high side. In addition, as the revenue increases due to the deployment of technology to enhance efficiency, the cost of collection should be reviewed downwards.

Ease of Doing Business

VAT is typically levied on the supply of goods and services which are driven by business activities; therefore, it is trite that some states may contribute more to the VAT collection than others, depending on their levels of economic activities. There are also potential administrative issues around the logistical challenge for companies with operations across the various states, who would then be required to file different VAT returns for each of these states. The potential administrative challenges will be a drawback on the little gains made on enhancing the ease of doing business and eliminating the incidence of multiple taxation, as goods and services move across state borders in our country. Adequate consideration should be given to how the input and output VAT offset mechanism would work where the input tax is incurred and paid in a different state from where the output tax is charged and collected.

Recommendations

The reactions from the states that stands to benefit from the current court ruling and the move by FIRS to amend the Constitution by including VAT in the exclusive list and making tax legislation an exclusive preserve of the Federal Government, without addressing the fundamental question of fiscal federalism is a call for fiscal anarchy.

At this critical time in the evolution of our federation being shaped by the judiciary, lies the need for pragmatic leadership. All stakeholders should be consulted with a view to providing a win-win solution at this time.

Allocation should be done solely among states. The sharing ratio between states and local governments can be agreed and enforced by laws passed by States Houses of Assembly. This particular recommendation is very important due to the lopsided distribution of local governments to the disadvantage of some states

Some of the recommendations that should be considered to push the boundaries in finding solutions include:

The utilisation of platforms like the National Economic Council (NEC), chaired by the Vice President, the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) and Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) for engagements for the benefit of all stakeholders;

The current 20 per cent derivation in VAT distribution should be increased to between 30 per cent to 40 per cent to make the VAT distribution more reflective of the contribution being made by states;

Allocation should be done solely among states. The sharing ratio between states and local governments can be agreed and enforced by laws passed by States Houses of Assembly. This particular recommendation is very important due to the lopsided distribution of local governments to the disadvantage of some states;

The FIRS and Attorney-General of the Federation should be advised to take necessary steps to withdraw all litigations which are impeding the implementation of Hotel Occupancy and Restaurants Consumption Laws enacted by some states. This will improve collections of this class of tax by states, thereby enhancing their internally generated revenues (IGRs). In addition, entities that are subject to this category of tax should be exempted from paying VAT;

The cost of collection, which stands at 4 per cent should be reduced to 1 per cent, with the gain of 3 per cent made available to all states;

The current 15 per cent shared by the Federal Government should be surrendered entirely to the pool, since VAT remains a consumption tax;

A mechanism should be established to ensure that states that prohibit alcohol and allied products are not allowed to benefit from VAT on the same;

VAT collected on infrastructure contracts being executed by State Governments should be made to be VAT exempt. This will allow the savings made by the exemption to be re-invested on infrastructure by the respective states.

The above recommendations are not exhaustive, but will go a long way in addressing the issues being raised by states that are being shortchanged by the current arrangement, while providing a platform to support states that may end up holding the short end of the stick from the current crisis. As we engage, I will advise that rushing to amend the Constitution, as being proposed by FIRS, is not an option that will promote fiscal federalism. We need to tread with caution.

Akinyemi Ashade is a chartered Accountant and former Commissioner for Finance in Lagos State.
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Still physically active and mentally sound, one cannot but appreciate the Grace of the Lord in the lives of these Daddies to whom I am eternally grateful for their positive influence in mine and other lives by themselves and through their offspring. They are simply admirable.

Egbon mi gidi mo ni (he is an original senior). That was my mothers retort as I teased her once again that it seemed she was related to everyone in Ijebu-Jesa.

Walking the streets with her was a childhood ordeal I hated to experience and loved to avoid. She would stop to greet this Buoda mi and that Anti mi, all of whom you were also obliged to prostrate for. Back at home, I would quarrelsomely challenge her to explain how it was possible for her to be related to all those we had met, while threatening not to follow her out again.

By the time I graduated from secondary school, I was convinced I had met all my mums numerous Ijebu-Jesa brothers, sisters, uncles and what have you. Then came my effort to get admitted into the Federal School of Arts and Science, Ondo (FSASON) in 1979 and the news suddenly got my mother elated. Egbon mi kan wa nibe, laa ba ke ranolowo (I have a brother there; go and meet him to assist you). That was the moment I teased her for the umpteenth time about having so many relatives.

But within me, this was one prostration I was prepared do several times over. Having worked for a year as a laboratory attendant at Ijebu-Jesa Grammar School in the 1978/79 session, while simultaneously schooling to retake my West African School Certificate Exam (WASCE), I was eager to further my education.

The newly unveiled Uncle of Layoonu Hannah Arogundade was the then Venerable J.O.K Olowokure, the Archdeacon of All Saints Anglican Church, Ogbonkowo, Ondo, who was glad to meet one of the sons of his aburo. He wasted no time in accompanying me to the office of the Principal of FSASON and I was soon to become a FSASONite, as we the students of the higher school fancifully called ourselves.

The Olowokures were extremely accommodating and the weekends during my educational sojourn in Ondo were mostly spent in their vast church compound, even if I must confess that the regular Sunday afternoon lunch of pounded yam was a crucial motivational factor for the food loving me.

The living room pictorial decorations of the Venerable informed of the existence of an identical twin brother, but when Professor Taiwo Olowokure finally came around and I saw him for the first time, the semblance was more striking than the pictures had revealed. On a few occasions, some Church members would meet the Professor downstairs and launch into narratives about church affairs to someone whose life revolved around academics at the University of Maiduguri. He would wait for the Archdeacon to descend the stairs before informing the bewildered Church members to redirect their issues to the appropriate person.

As an educationist who had been a school principal, Venerable Jacob Olabode Kehinde Olowokure brought managerial and intellectual aptitude to bear on the management of church affairs in the archdeaconry. His moving on from there to become the pioneer Bishop of Ikare/Akoko Diocese was not a surprise to close observers and the Diocese rapidly expanded under his dynamic leadership.

Perhaps it was the educationist in him that made him to constantly inquire after my academic progress. Although I had taken the JAMB exam for the second time, I was somehow more interested in completing my A levels for a direct entry into the university. This particularly became the case when I scored 249 in the JAMB exam and therefore missed my preferred discipline of study, Economics, which had 251 or 253 as its cut-off point. But Daddy Olowokure would not accept that for an excuse, arguing that I was putting faith in an uncertain future. He therefore ordered me to pursue admission for my second choice, so as not to enter the University at a old age. I did and that was how I end up studying Psychology at Great Ife. I owe him a depth of gratitude for this and the moral and spiritual support he later offered when I ventured into the turbulence of students unionism. When I became president of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), he exclaimed that he didnt know he harboured a troublesome boy in Ondo and promptly nicknamed me Olarenwaju Idiagbon, since the military junta we fought then was the Buhari/Idiagbon regime and Idiagbon was considered the real hardliner.

It wasnt until I travelled to Maiduguri for a meeting of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, as part of the Lagos NUJ delegation around 1989, that I was privileged to visit the other twin in his domain. As with his twin brother in Ondo and later Ikare, the Olowokure premises on the campus of UNIMAID was revealing of the familys accommodating nature. The residence was a lively beehive that constantly bubbled with the presence of scores of relations (blood and non-blood) for whom Professor was simply Baba.

Back at home, after a long educational and episcopal journey within Nigeria and abroad, the Olowokure twins, the oldest living in Nigeria, have stuck together like Siameses; occupying the same family compound, dining together, worshipping together and daily adorning the same apparel, sometimes making the choice of dress through what can best be described as telepathic communication.

An amiable duo, the retired Bishop has since nicknamed the retired Professor Baba JABU because the later taught for a while at the Joseph Ayo Babalola University (JABU), Ikeji-Arakeji, Osun State, even after returning from Maiduguri; while the retired Professor has retaliated by nicknaming the retired Bishop, Baba Ijebu. At times it is the frequent exchange of Baba JABU pele o and Baba Ijebu pele o that you will witness if you happen to be in their presence. And Im willing to bet that they would have traded happy birthday Baba JABU, happy birthday Baba Ijebu as they wake up to mark their 92nd anniversary on the morning of born September 10, having been born on that day in 1929.

Still physically active and mentally sound, one cannot but appreciate the Grace of the Lord in the lives of these Daddies to whom I am eternally grateful for their positive influence in mine and other lives by themselves and through their offspring. They are simply admirable.

Happy birthday to Bishop and Professor Olowokure.

Lanre Arogundade, journalist, media trainer and member of the Editorial Board of Premium Times is the Executive Director of International Press Centre (IPC), Lagos-Nigeria.
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Jarigbe Jarigbe has been sworn in as the senator representing Cross River North senatorial district after a long legal tussle with another contender for the seat, Steven Odey.

The senator took his oath of office at the start of plenary on Tuesday.

The swearing-in was performed by the Clerk of the Senate, Ibrahim El-Ladan.

Mr Jarigbe replaces Steven Odey, who was sacked by an Appeal Court in Calabar, in July.

The Appeal Tribunal sitting in Calabar had declared the former as Senator-elect in the December 5, 2020 Cross River North Senatorial District by-election.

The three-man tribunal, headed by Justice Chioma Iheme-Nwosu, dismissed an earlier ruling by the Election Petition Tribunal which declared Senator Stephen Odey winner of that election.

The Court had ruled that the tribunal erred by passing a judgement where it had no jurisdiction.

It dismissed preliminary objections stating that considering the facts and circumstances, judgment was best served by considering the merit of the appeal.

Mr Jarigbe will occupy the seat of the late senator for the district, Rose Oko, who died in March 2020.
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Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited, a subsidiary of ExxonMobil, said it has contributed N67.5 billion to the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) in the past 19 years.

The Manager, Media and Communications in Mobil, Ogechukwu Udeagha, stated this in an interactive session with reporters in Uyo, on Tuesday.

Our affiliate companies total statutory contributions, since 2001 to June 2020, to the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), is N67,547,369,066,  Mr Udegha said.

He said that ExxonMobil affiliates have contributed significant value to the Nigerian economy.

Our operations account for a substantial portion of the countrys crude oil production volumes. In the last 10 years alone, our affiliates contributed over $130 billion in revenues to the federal government.

This comprises direct taxes and royalties, plus the NNPC share of profits from ExxonMobil affiliates operated ventures, Mr Udeagha said.

He added that the company had earmarked N600 million for the building of an Intensive Care unit (ICU) in Eket, which is already ongoing.

Mr Udeagha also said the company has not shirked in its corporate social responsibility as evident in some of its social investments in the areas of its operations, describing as an irony the fact that the people of the region were asking the OICs to do the work that NDDC is supposed to do.

70 per cent of our staff live and work here in the state and we pay about N7 billion to the state government through PAYE and of course the 13 per cent derivation.

You can, therefore, realise the impact we are making on the states economy. We are closely linked with the state government and its important that we work together, he said.

On the alleged sacking of contract staff, he said the multinational company does not have any business with third parties.

We keep our contractors obligations and by law, we cannot sack contract staff because they are not our staff. They are not under our purview.

We didnt sack any contract staff or employees, Mr Udeagha said.

(NAN)
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The police in Ebonyi State have confirmed that three family members were found dead in their home.

The incident, which is being investigated by the police, happened in Ngwongwo community, Ishiagu, Ivo Local Government Area of the state, the police spokesperson in the state, Loveth Odah, said on Tuesday.

Ms Odah, a deputy superintendent of police, said the divisional police officer in the area evacuated the bodies to the hospital where they were confirmed dead by a medical doctor.

The deceased have been identified as Chinonso Udigwe, Ikedi Okorie and Emperor Kalu.

A truck driver, said to have been found in a separate room, was critically ill and was rushed to the hospital, according to the police.

The victims were taken to the hospital; on getting to the general hospital in the area, the three persons were confirmed dead while the truck driver was still unconscious.

Their remains have been deposited in a mortuary for autopsy while a sample from a pot of soup, a can of malt and generator set found in the apartment have been taken for forensic analyses, Ms Odah said.

The mysterious deaths have shocked the residents of Ngwongwo community who are calling on the police to thoroughly investigate the incident.

Ms Odah said the commissioner of police in the state has ordered an investigation into the incident.

(NAN)
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Yiaga Africa, a civil society organisation, said on Wednesday in Awka that it would deploy 548 observers to the November 6 governorship election in Anambra.

Election Programme Manager at Yiaga, Paul James, disclosed this at a programme to train leaders of civil society organisations in Anambra on two schemes  Watching the Vote (WTV) and Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT).

Mr James said Yiaga Africa would use the WTV to observe pre-election activities which would involve the deployment of 25 long-term observers to the 21 local government areas of the state.

He said the observers would track and report on governments response to COVID-19 pandemic, activities of INEC, the National Orientation Agency (NOA) and those of political parties.

According to him, the observers will also track and report activities of security agencies, the involvement of women, youths, and persons with disabilities as well as report early warning signals of electoral violence.

Yiaga Africas WTV will deploy 548 observers to polling units to observe and report on opening of polling units, accreditation, voting, counting process and posting of results on Election Day.

We will also have 27 mobile observers who will use their phones to send coded text message of observation reports to Yiagas WTV data centre in Awka.

For additional oversight, WTV will also deploy 21 observers to monitor result collation process at local government areas collation centres and two observers to the central collation centre.

WTV aims to provide timely and accurate information about the election processes to voters and to stakeholders, Mr James said.

He added that through its PVT method, Yiaga Africa would leverage on statistics and technology for the observation of the process of voting, counting and tallying of results.

According to him, the PVT allows Yiaga Africas WTV to deter and expose fraud, present an accurate and comprehensive assessment of the Election Day processes.

The Anambra coordinator of Not too Young to Run, a civil society group, Nonso Orakwe, said the pre-election engagement was critical to ensuring free, fair and credible election.

This engagement has shown us that there is the need for civil society organisations to work together, especially in the area of voter education to ensure high participation in the electoral process, Mr Orakwe said.

(NAN)
A cleric, Sunday Onuoha, on Wednesday, called on the people in Nigeria South-east to eschew violence and embrace peace.

Mr Onuoha, who is a board member, Global Peace Foundation (GPF), gave the advice in a statement he made available to reporters in Abuja.

It is said that when brothers fight to death, a stranger inherits their property.

I make reference to this insightful adage in view of the agony we have all witnessed over the years; the pain and trauma that many people have gone through, and the various ways the lives and property of our people in the south-eastern part of Nigeria have been negatively impacted.

The very essence of our human existence has been threatened by a perpetuation of injury, violation and scarring of our land; and we appear to be a people at war.

It is painful to see these levels of broken or fragmented relationships everywhere, as it is leading us on a path of self-destruction.

I therefore call for forgiveness and an attempt at reconciliation by all persons.

If this does not happen  and happen fast  we shall all pay heavily for it and our children will not forgive us! The time to act is NOW, said Mr Onuoha, who is a bishop.

Mr Onuoha stressed the need for dialogue and reconciliation between the government and non-state actors to check the increasing security challenges in the region.

Each group, both government and non-state actors, claiming to be acting on behalf of our people and defending our welfare  key players  must be brought to the dialogue table.

Let us begin by forgiving one another first. At the dialogue table, may we all relinquish all moral indignation, give up the desire for retaliation and focus on the urgent need to regenerate our relationships, he said.

According to him, As we break the kolanut of peace, signifying our mindset is tuned to allow peace to reign, may this cognitive process give us a fuller understanding and recognition of what hurts the other, and together agree on how to address our individual differences.

We can do it, knowing fully well that there is no government that wants to manage an unstable, ungovernable society.

In a family we all quarrel. Even the tongue and teeth sometimes have misunderstandings.

The leaders of IPOB must see the pain on the faces of our people and be willing to forgive anyone they feel have offended them.

The state actors should also look for a way of forgiving the agitators and treat everyone as members of the same family who have their ways of expressing themselves in protest to perceived injustice.

I plead with all parties, in Gods name, to halt the trampling of rights immediately, and take steps to heal our land. Blessings and prayers as always, for the land of our birth, the cleric said.

(NAN)

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The Lagos State government says it will continue to seal up tank farms and petrol stations contravening its physical planning permit laws, which are being reopened by the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR).

The Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Idris Salako, said this at a news briefing on Tuesday in reaction to the reopening of some tank farms it had sealed up by officials of the DPR.

The commissioner accused the DPR of usurping the powers of the state government to regulate development and town planning in the state.

Mr Salako said dozens of contravening petrol depots, filling and gas stations the state government sealed up were wrongly unsealed by the DPR in various parts of the state.

He said that several of the facilities were wrongly sited without building planning permits, with some of them using fake approvals to carry out various illegal activities that compromised safety.

According to him, the activities of petrol tankers have destroyed livelihoods in Ijegun Egba, Satellite Town, and other communities, in addition to truck accidents claiming innocent lives daily, due to recklessness of the petroleum marketers.

Mr Salako noted that tank farms and other operators failed to adhere to safety standards, and were as well not giving back their host communities as agreed about 18 months ago.

He said the DPR had failed to obey a subsisting Supreme Court judgment granting the state powers to regulate development permits, protect the environment and residents.

Mr Salako said that 18 months back, the DPR requested for three months to comply with agreements from a stakeholders meeting, but were yet to do so, thereby compounding environmental degradation and jeopardising residents safety.

He said the state government was not competing to regulate the downstream sector and had done its part to provide infrastructure to support the agreement for tank farms already in operation to coexist with the host communities.

According to him, every time the ministry or its agencies seal erring petroleum filling stations, tank farms or gas stations, the DPR usually goes out of its jurisdiction to unseal the facilities.

We will not surrender the mandate of this ministry to any federal agency, he said.

Mr Salako highlighted the functions of the ministry and its agencies, adding that it had both supervisory and technical roles in executing its mandate.

He said the ministry was ready to dialogue with all the stakeholders toward ensuring progress, harmony and synergy.

While fielding questions from journalists, he re-emphasised that the state government would always go back to re-seal any of the facilities reopened by the DPR.

We will continue to re-seal anyone reopened by the DPR, he said.

He enumerated the benefits of the ongoing Ibeju-Lekki Master Plan, adding that it could cater for the petroleum marketers.

The commissioner urged the operators to seize the opportunity of relocating to the area.

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Warning shots

Reacting to the allegations, DPR Lagos Zonal Controller, Ayorinde Cardoso, told NAN that the agency did not act outside its jurisdiction, citing various laws on the Exclusive List.

Mr Cardoso insisted that the DPR was operating in line with the Petroleum Act of 1969, which predates any new law not binding on the agency.

According to him, the DPR usually collaborates with the relevant agencies, and did the same with the Lagos State Governments agencies for requisite permits and approvals before issuing licences.

He said the DPR was ready for synergy, but advised agencies of the state government to work together to stop duplicating roles of sealing tank farms and petrol depots frequently to achieve their revenue collection drives.

Let them re-seal, we will keep on unsealing, he said.

He declined comments on allegations by residents of new container terminals being cited in Satellite Town, saying it was out of his jurisdiction.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that members of Satellite Town Forum (STF) also protested at the briefing over the activities of tank farms in their area.

Carrying placards with various inscriptions, the residents said the building of a fire station by the state government could not avert disaster in the area.

The spokesperson for the forum, Governor Imitini, accused the DPR of being behind their suffering by bringing tank farms to the area delineated as residential area in the 70s.

Mr Imitini said that apart from the tank farms, the Nigerian Navy has an armoury in the area and any accident would be disastrous.

We are ready to go into war with the DPR also, he said.

(NAN)
LONDON, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The global demand for lithium mining is driven by the metal's high performance, thermal resistance, and lightweight properties, making it the ideal for spacecraft, submarines, or safety equipment. Lithium finds widespread application in dehumidification, cooling, and air regeneration, which is largely required in hospitals and commercial complexes. Analysts predict, use of lithium for various purposes such as car batteries to aluminium products will drive the mining activities.

According to Fairfield Market Research, the global lithium mining market is expected to surge at a CAGR of 26.3% from 2020 to 2025. The global market is estimated to be worth US$1,630.30 Mn by 2025 from US$829.73 Mn in 2019.

For more insights into the Market, Get a Sample Copy of Lithium Mining Market: https://www.fairfieldmarketresearch.com/report/lithium-mining-market/request-sample

Lithium Mining Market Primary Beneficiary of Consumer Shift Towards Electric Vehicles

Rampant air pollution across emerging economies has accelerated the shift towards electric vehicles (EV) and lithium mining stands to gain handsomely as the metal is a key component in the production of lithium-ion batteries. Lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide are essential for battery cathode production. Although the cost of lithium hydroxide is steeper than lithium carbonate, it is likely to witness greater demand as a result of its use in Li-ion batteries. As per data from Fairfield Market Research, the price of lithium has plummeted 89% in the decade from 2010 to 2020. This saving will directly be passed onto consumers with lowering the prices of EVs, which is expected to boost the demand by several notches.

Complex Extraction Process and Pollutants Released in Waterbodies Spark Debate About Lithium Mining

Lithium is only found in compounds and is highly reactive to most elements, making extraction a water-intensive process. Almost 500,000 gallons of water are needed to produce only one tonne of lithium. This is made worse by the emission of borax, potassium, and manganese released into local water supplies after the extraction. Several indigenous communities have expressed their concern about water shortages and threats to their livelihoods posed by lithium extraction activity. All these factors have raised heated debates about the sustainability of lithium mining, posing challenges to growth in the global lithium mining market.

Do You Have Any Query Or Specific Requirement? Request Customization of Report: https://www.fairfieldmarketresearch.com/report/lithium-mining-market/request-customization

Lithium Triangle in Latin America Holds Promise of Lucrative Outcomes

Asia Pacific region dominated the global lithium mining market during the assessment period with Australia accounting for 50% of production in 2019. High economic growth coupled with tropical climates are the perfect recipe for the unprecedented demand for air conditioning across Asian countries. Even though APAC has an outsized influence in lithium production, the lithium triangle of Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile is brimming with potential in the medium term. Bolivia is home to the world's largest salt flat that is estimated to hold 50% of global lithium, yet the country has not exploited it to the fullest.

Business Merging With Geopolitics in Global Lithium Mining Market as Asian Companies Expand

Large companies profiled in the report about the global lithium mining market are Albemarle Corporation, SQM S.A., Ganfeng Lithium Co., Ltd., Tianqi Lithium, Mineral Resources, Lithium Americas Corp., Livent, and Orocobre Limited Pty Ltd. Asian companies are aggressively investing in South American ones to maximize their profitability and tap lithium reserves as soon as they are discovered. For e.g.  Tianqi Lithium owns 24% of SQM  Chile's biggest lithium producer. Such business decisions made in the global lithium mining market are undoubtedly expected to have political ramifications on the global economy.

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MOSCOW, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF, Russia's sovereign wealth fund) announces the real world data of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Belarus on the Russian Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine confirming its high efficacy during the vaccination campaign in the country.

The Russian vaccine has demonstrated 97.2% efficacy against coronavirus in Belarus. The efficacy of Sputnik V was measured based on data from more than 860,000 people vaccinated between January and July 2021.

The data from the Ministry of Health also confirms high safety of Sputnik V:

No severe adverse events associated with vaccination;

No deaths related to the vaccination;

Belarus was the first foreign country to register Sputnik V and use it for vaccination of the population.

RDIF and partners have facilitated the technology transfer to localize the production of Sputnik V by Belarus's Belmedpreparaty company, which is successfully manufacturing Sputnik V. In April 2021 the vaccine produced in Belarus was authorized by the Ministry of Health.

In April 2021 the single-dose Sputnik Light vaccine (the first component of Sputnik V based on human adenovirus serotype 26) was also registered in Belarus.

Sputnik V has a number of key advantages:

Efficacy of Sputnik V is 97.6% based on the analysis of data on the coronavirus infection rate among those in Russia vaccinated with both components of Sputnik V from December 5, 2020 to March 31, 2021 ;

The Sputnik V vaccine is based on a proven and well-studied platform of human adenoviral vectors, which cause the common cold and have been around for thousands of years.

Sputnik V has pioneered the use of heterogeneous boosting (two different vectors for the two shots in a course of vaccination among COVID vaccines). This approach provides for immunity with a longer duration than vaccines using the same delivery mechanism for both shots.

The safety, efficacy and lack of negative long-term effects of adenoviral vaccines have been proven by more than 250 clinical studies over two decades.

There are no strong allergies caused by Sputnik V.

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 2.1 tn and covering 95% of the regions of the Russian Federation. RDIF portfolio companies employ more than 800,000 people and generate revenues which equate to more than 6% of Russia's GDP. RDIF has established joint strategic partnerships with leading international co-investors from more than 18 countries that total more than $40 bn. Further information can be found at www.rdif.ru

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1140939/Russian_Direct_Investment_Fund_Logo.jpg

Related Links

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SOURCE The Russian Direct Invest Fund (RDIF)
"Hospitals are places of hope and healing," said Sohail. Tweet this

Orange Nasso Hospital

Akkar Governmental Hospital

Siblin Governmental Hospital

Dar Assalam Hospital

Al Hamshari Hospital

Der Al Saleeb Hospital

Al Makassed Hospital

Dar Al Ajaza Hospital

Al Tabbaneh Polyclinic

Ankoun Polyclinic

Al Nahda Polyclinic

According to Elizabeth Sohail, program manager at Baitulmaal, a significant number of patients at these facilities struggle with chronic illnesses as well as acute diseases such as COVID-19.

"Hospitals are places of hope and healing," said Sohail. "It's just not right that people suffer or even die because a hospital runs out of oxygen or other medical supplies."

Approximately 33 percent of Lebanese households do not have access to healthcare, and more than half are unable to obtain medicine, according to a UN study by the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia. Eighty-two percent of the Lebanese population has fallen into poverty since 2019  one of the sharpest declines in modern times.

The Lebanese currency has depreciated by more than 90 percent, and food prices have surged 557 percent according to the World Food Programme. The World Bank recently declared that the country is "likely to rank in the top 10, possibly top three, most severe crisis episodes globally since the mid-nineteenth century."

Baitulmaal was on the ground in Lebanon shortly after the August 4, 2020, explosion, helping to clear debris, feed the hungry and help the homeless. Since then, Baitulmaal began reconstructing homes and buildings and provided over 2 million meals to impoverished families in Lebanon. In addition to this $1.1 million medical shipment, Baitulmaal previously sent $1.2 million in medical supplies and hard-to-find medications to hospitals in Beirut.

Baitulmaal is an international humanitarian aid organization that provides lifesaving, life-sustaining and life-enriching aid to people in need around the world. With headquarters in Dallas, the charity has offices in Kenya, Somalia, Jordan and Pakistan.

Media Contact:

John M. Janney, APR

[email protected]

(972) 823-0136

Photos available at https://baitulmaal.org/1-1-million-medical-shipment-distributed-in-lebanon/

SOURCE Baitulmaal, Inc.

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In addition to around 60,000 booths on its virtual exhibition that offers flexibility for 26,000 exhibitors and buyers around the world to look for business opportunities through the Canton Fair online, this year's Canton Fair also brings back its physical exhibition area covering approximately 400,000 square meters, which will be participated by 7,500 companies.

The 130th Canton Fair also sees an increasing amount of quality and boutique products and companies. Its 11,700 brand booths represented by more than 2,200 companies account for 61 percent of total physical booths.

130th Canton Fair seeks innovation for international trade

The 130th Canton Fair is embracing China's dual circulation strategy amid emerging domestic demand by connecting representatives, agencies, franchises, and branches of multinational companies, large-scale foreign businesses and cross-border e-commerce companies in China, as well as domestic buyers, with businesses at the Canton Fair both online and offline.

Through online-to-offline engagement on its platform, the Fair is also building capabilities for businesses that have strong competencies in product and technology innovation, value-added empowerment and market potential to join its showcases, encouraging them to seek business transformation through new technologies and market channels so that they can reach out to both domestic and international markets.

To provide the world with new opportunities brought by the development of China, the 130th Canton Fair will also mark the opening of the first Pearl River International Trade Forum. The Forum will add value to Canton Fair, creating dialogues for policy makers, businesses and academia to discuss current affairs in international trade.

130th edition contributes to green development

According to Chu Shijia, Director General of China Foreign Trade Centre, the Fair sees many innovative and green products with cutting-edge technologies, materials, craftmanship and energy sources applied for the Canton Fair Export Product Design Awards (CF Awards) that have reflected companies' green transformation. While promoting businesses, the Canton Fair is also contributing to sustainable industrial development, which echoes China's long-term goal of carbon peak and neutrality.

The 130th Canton Fair will further promote China's green industry by showcasing more than 150,000 low-carbon, environmentally-friendly and energy-saving products from over 70 leading companies across energy sectors including wind, solar and biomass.

Visit https://www.cantonfair.org.cn/en for more information.

SOURCE Canton Fair

Related Links

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WebDoctor is a leading health technology business and telehealth platform which enables engagement and collaboration between healthcare practitioners and their patients. Since its establishment in 2013, the company has processed over three million bookings to GP's, pharmacies and other health-related clinics and has registered almost ten per cent of the Irish population as patients on its platform. In response to Covid-19, the year on year increase in GP appointments has risen from 68,000 in 2020 to 125,000 in the current year.

WebDoctor was originally founded when brothers Oisin and Howard Kim and co-founder Martin Commins helped a family friend, Dr Sylvester Mooney, transform his medical clinic's business. Today WebDoctor enables doctors to conduct their day-to-day operations virtually and to automate their booking and payment processes; and patients can attend virtual consultations at a lower cost than in-person appointments.

The demand for telehealth during Covid has skyrocketed with WebDoctor itself experiencing a 75% increase in revenue from 2019 to 2020. VentureWave Capital's team will work alongside WebDoctor executives, including newly appointed CEO David Crimmins, to drive the company's post-pandemic growth and its expansion into new markets. CEO David Crimmins, formerly of ResMed, the global leader in connected medical devices, has previously launched and marketed products internationally, with P&L responsibility for multimillion euro budgets. VentureWave Capital Chairman and Managing Partner, Alan Foy, will join WebDoctor's board of directors.

WebDoctor is consistent with the objectives of VentureWave Capital to deliver social outcomes in its investment mandate. These include reduced cost and easier accessibility for patients, support for healthcare professionals seeking flexible work arrangements and reduced carbon emissions through fewer journeys to and energy costs at GPs' clinics.

Alan Foy, Chairman and Managing Partner VentureWave Capital, said: "We are excited to invest in WebDoctor - a successful, scaling Irish health technology business with a really strong team of promoters and entrepreneurs. WebDoctor is a great example of an Irish company with an excellent market opportunity, proven team and exemplary technology / product platform. We look forward to supporting the team in their future scaling. We are confident the team will drive new opportunities to make an impact on the next phase of their successful journey".

Kieran McLoughlin, VentureWave Capital Managing Partner said: "Our Global and Irish investors are committed to backing great companies that generate both financial and social returns. Together with David and the WebDoctor team, we have set significant Impact goals for the next 10 years including serving 15 million patients and supporting 500 healthcare professionals seeking flexible work. WebDoctor's business is aligned with our fundamental objective of generating profit with a purpose."

David Crimmins, CEO, WebDoctor stated: "VentureWave Capital's investment comes at a pivotal time for WebDoctor, enabling us to meet the exponential growth of the telehealth market and operate on an international scale. This is an exciting time for the company as we look to build upon our success working with partners in Ireland, the UK, Germany, Australia by driving the business internationally."

Noel McSweeney, Chairman, WebDoctor said: "Against the backdrop of Covid-19 the team has been working on the strategic development of the business and the investment by VentureWave Capital is a clear recognition of our potential as we look towards a positive future."

SOURCE WebDoctor
SAN RAMON, Calif., Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Accela , the leading provider of cloud-based solutions for state and local government, today announced its full agenda for its upcoming annual conference and training event, Accelerate . Completely virtual this year, Accelarate will take place from October 4-6, 2021, and registration for the event is free.

This year's theme, Our Path Forward, focuses on how government agencies can adapt to an increasingly complex and accelerating landscape of challenges, and imagine and navigate new paths with greater agility and adaptability. During the 3-day conference, state and local government leaders and industry changemakers can hear from Accela executives and product experts, industry thought leaders; engage with peers on new opportunities and partnerships; and gain insight into the cloud solutions and connected tech strategies that will help government agencies revitalize communities, improve service delivery and business performance, and create better resident and employee experiences.

"This past year has asked more of state, county and local governments than ever before, and our public sector leaders are facing a critical inflection point on how to best move forward," said Accela CEO Gary Kovacs. "We're excited to welcome so many of our customers to Accelarate, as this year represents such an important moment in their digital transformations. It also serves as an opportunity for governments around the globe to explore the technologies and strategies that are empowering agencies to continue being resilient and ready to meet challenges head-on."

Kovacs will kick off the event at the first general session with a keynote that celebrates the resiliency of government agencies; Amin Toufani, CEO of T Labs, Founder of Adaptability.org, and Finance & Economics Chair at Singularity University, will speak on "Adaptive Governance: Future-Ready Agencies in Times of Accelerating Change" underscoring the importance of unlearning, keys to navigating disruption, and trends that are disrupting agencies at an exponential rate; and Dr. Robert Blaine, Senior Executive & Director at National League of Cities and former Chief Administrative Officer, City of Jackson MS, will highlight real-world efforts using data to prioritize pressing challenges, best leverage funds, and deliver equitable outcomes in his keynote titled "Creating Impact, Change and Opportunity in Your Community."

Nearly 70 breakout sessions will also be offered throughout the event, giving attendees the chance to learn from colleagues, technology partners, and Accela staff how Accela's market-leading Civic Platform and Civic Applications SaaS solutions can create new efficiencies. These workshops span six tracks: Administration and Implementation, Civic Platform, Civic Applications, Tools to Navigate Our Path Forward, Ask the Experts, and the Value of the Cloud. Throughout the sessions, attendees can gain insights from Accela customers who improved processes, enhanced the citizen experience, and demonstrated efficiencies from cross-agency collaboration.

Beyond keynote and breakout sessions, the Accela Experience Center will welcome attendees to learn and see first-hand from Accela experts. Federal recovery funds (like those from the American Rescue Plan) are offering even more opportunities for governments to invest in SaaS solutions like Accela's that can improve critical community services.

Accelerate will also offer networking opportunities with more than 1,500 city managers, CIOs, building officials, licensing managers, IT directors, planners, code enforcement managers, and govtech influencers. Additionally, the recipients of Accela's Trendsetter Awards , which recognize innovative government agencies and individuals harnessing new technologies and digital strategies to deliver excellence in their communities, will be announced on the last day of the event.

To learn more about Accelarate and register for the virtual event, please visit this link .

What: Accelarate 2021: Our Path Forward

When: October 4-6, 2021

Where: Register for the virtual event here

Agenda:

Accelerate, Accela's annual conference and training event, will feature informative and engaging presentations by Accela leadership, technology and industry experts, customers, and guest speakers.

Conference General Session Day 1 (October 5):

Keynote address from Accela CEO Gary Kovacs on "Our Path Forward"

on "Our Path Forward" Amin Toufani , CEO of T Labs, Founder of Adaptability.org, and Finance & Economics Chair at Singularity University , will speak on "Adaptive Governance: Future-Ready Agencies in Times of Accelerating Change"

, will speak on "Adaptive Governance: Future-Ready Agencies in Times of Accelerating Change" Troy Coggiola , Accela's Chief Product Officer, will share thoughts on "Empowering a Return to Better Than Norm"

will share thoughts on "Empowering a Return to Better Than Norm" Accela Product Management VPs Amber D'Ottavio and Cathy Grossi will present on "Leveraging Accela to Pave Your Community's Path Forward"

Conference General Session Day 2 (October 6):

Renato Mascardo , Accela's Chief Technology Officer, will discuss the "Building Blocks to a More Connected Government"

will discuss the "Building Blocks to a More Connected Government" Tom Nieto , Accela's COO, will join Title Sponsor, CSG Forte who will present on "Speed to Revenue Via an Improved Payment Ecosystem"

will join Title Sponsor, who will present on "Speed to Revenue Via an Improved Payment Ecosystem" Dr. Robert Blaine , Senior Executive & Director at National League of Cities and former Chief Administrative Officer, City of Jackson MS , will highlight efforts using data-based insights and showcase real-world projects in a session titled "Creating Impact, Change and Opportunity in Your Community"

will highlight efforts using data-based insights and showcase real-world projects in a session titled "Creating Impact, Change and Opportunity in Your Community" A panel featuring Dr. Robert Blaine of NLC, Katya Abazajian , Fellow at the Beeck Center for Social Impact at Georgetown University , and Cathy Grossi , Accela VP of Product Management, to discuss the role of data and technology in ensuring equitable outcomes

Sponsors:

Accela is pleased to recognize CSG Forte as its Accelarate 2021 title sponsor; CSG Forte enables organizations to grow their businesses quickly and scale payments smarter with a unified payments platform. Additionally, Accela thanks its Platinum sponsors Microsoft , Symbium , and Velosimo , and welcomes nearly two dozen Gold, Silver, and Bronze level partner sponsors as well. Sponsors will host virtual booths as part of Accelarate's digital Partner Pavilion , open to all attendees throughout the conference.

Accelerate follows another year of continued business momentum for Accela, especially as its existing customers increasingly migrate to the cloud. Nearly 65 percent of Accela Civic Platform customers are already on SaaS, and more than 200 data center customers have migrated to Accela's SaaS solutions. In total, Accela delivers leading cloud-based solutions to 80% of the top 100 U.S. cities and strengthens communities for more than 275 million citizens globally.

About Accela

Accela provides market-leading cloud solutions that empower the most innovative state and local governments around the world to build thriving communities, grow businesses, and protect citizens. More than 275 million citizens globally benefit from Accela's solutions, which are powered by Azure, for permitting, licensing, code enforcement, and service request management. Accela's fast-to-implement Civic Applications, built on its robust and extensible Civic Platform, help agencies address specific needs today, while ensuring they are prepared for any emerging or complex challenges in the future. The company was recently recognized as a 2021 Microsoft US Partner Award winner for its innovative SaaS solutions to help governments respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, and was named as one of the Largest East Bay Tech Employers by San Francisco Business Times. Accela is headquartered in San Ramon, California, with additional offices around the world. For more information, visit www.accela.com .

Contact: Holly Langbein, (916) 769-2199, [email protected]

SOURCE Accela

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www.accela.com


PHOENIX, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Advisor Group, the nation's largest network of independent wealth management firms, today announced the appointment of Clayton Chandler as Chief Security, Privacy and Data Officer. In this role, Mr. Chandler will be responsible for developing a comprehensive and proactive strategy around cybersecurity and data privacy to drive business decisions and protect value creation on behalf of Advisor Group and its affiliated financial advisors.

Mr. Chandler will oversee all aspects of data privacy and security for Advisor Group and its six affiliated subsidiary firms: FSC Securities, Royal Alliance Associates, SagePoint Financial, Securities America, Triad Advisors and Woodbury Financial Services. He will also lead the Internet Security and Privacy subcommittee of the Advisor Group Board's Risk Committee, and will report directly to Chief Technology Officer Ed Obuchowski.

Mr. Obuchowski said, "Ensuring the privacy and security of data collection, protection and usage represents one of the most significant responsibilities we have as a trusted partner of our thousands of affiliated financial advisors and the clients they serve. Bringing on an executive of Clayton's caliber will enable us to enhance our best-in-class cybersecurity programs and further support our ongoing investment in technology-enabled tools and solutions that position our advisors for future success."

Most recently, Mr. Chandler served as Chief Information Security Officer, Global Head of Cyber Security and Americas Head of Technology Security with Credit Suisse. Earlier, he worked at the National Security Agency as Technical Director for High Performance Data Analysis and at Los Alamos National Laboratory as a research scientist. Mr. Chandler earned a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, a Master of Science in Mathematics and Statistics, and a Ph. D. in Computational Analysis and Modeling from Louisiana Tech University.

Mr. Chandler said, "Bad actors continue to find new ways to target the sensitive data that is the lifeblood of financial services firms' day-to-day operations. Advisor Group's dedication to continuous improvement of its business processes and technology give it a leg up in protecting this vital resource against cyber-attacks. I look forward to helping the company navigate the continually-changing data security landscape in order to provide the strongest possible protections to advisors and their clients. I am honored to join this extraordinary leadership team."

Jamie Price, Advisor Group's President and CEO, concluded, "The safe and secure operation of our technology and data infrastructure is always one of our top priorities. By having the best people continually evaluating our cybersecurity posture for potential vulnerabilities, we can help our financial advisors to confidently and securely serve their clients' needs. We welcome Clayton to the Advisor Group family and look forward to leveraging his expertise and strategic vision for the benefit of our advisors."

About Advisor Group

Advisor Group, Inc. is the nation's largest network of independent wealth management firms, serving approximately 10,100 financial professionals and overseeing over $475 billion in client assets. The firm is mission-driven to support the strategic role that advisors can play in the lives of their clients. Cultivating a spirit of entrepreneurship and independence, Advisor Group champions the enduring value of financial professionals and is committed to being in their corner every step of the way. For more information visit https://www.advisorgroup.com.

Securities and investment advisory services are offered through the firms: FSC Securities Corporation, Royal Alliance Associates, Inc., SagePoint Financial, Inc., Triad Advisors, LLC, and Woodbury Financial Services, Inc., broker-dealers, registered investment advisers, and members of FINRA and SIPC. Securities are offered through Securities America, Inc., a broker-dealer and member of FINRA and SIPC. Advisory services are offered through Arbor Point Advisors, LLC, Ladenburg Thalmann Asset Management, Inc., Securities America Advisors, Inc., and Triad Hybrid Solutions, LLC, registered investment advisers. Advisory programs offered by FSC Securities Corporation, Royal Alliance Associates, Inc., SagePoint Financial, Inc., and Woodbury Financial Services, Inc., are sponsored by VISION2020 Wealth Management Corp., an affiliated registered investment adviser. Advisor Group, Inc. is an affiliate of these firms. 20 E. Thomas Rd., Ste. 2000, Phoenix, AZ, 85012. 866.481.0379.

Media Inquiries

Joseph Kuo / Chris Clemens

Haven Tower Group

[email protected] or [email protected]

424 317 4851 or 424 317 4854

SOURCE Advisor Group
ALEXANDRIA, Va. and NORTH CONWAY, N.H., Sept. 13, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Affinity Empowering, Inc., a leading provider of the most sophisticated and secure occupational, behavioral, and direct-to-consumer health services, today announced that The Children's Path in North Conway, N.H. has been enrolled in Operation Expanded Testing (OET) and has begun providing no-cost COVID-19 tests to its students and teachers, marking the first official testing under OET in New Hampshire.

The Children's Path is a pre-school program that encourages child learning through the Montessori education method with an outdoor specific curriculum. The school enrolled in OET to provide an important layer of COVID-19 protection for those students whose parents have consented to testing. The surveillance COVID-19 testing began on Wednesday, September 8 and will occur weekly on Tuesdays.

"The Children's Path remains committed to maintaining our in-person learning environment. When the opportunity arose to offer free COVID-19 testing to our students and teachers, we recognized that this could only help us in honoring that commitment," said Melissa Jerome, Owner and Director of The Children's Path. "We appreciate the availability of Operation Expanded Testing for our community."

"We commend The Children's Path for enrolling into Operation Expanded Testing and setting an example for COVID-19 safety in the state of New Hampshire," said Anne Haslerud, Vice President of Recruitment and Enrollment at Affinity Empowering. "Surveillance testing  with the gold standard PCR detection method  is an important measure to help stay safe and have peace of mind during this difficult time."

About Operation Expanded Testing

Operation Expanded Testing (OET) is a federally funded program to provide no-cost, "click and go" COVID-19 surveillance testing to congregate settings, including K-12 schools, Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCUs), summer school programs, correctional facilities, homeless shelters, and select, non-profit community centers. COVID-19 surveillance testing is recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for the safe reopening of schools.

Affinity Empowering offers the OET program to these institutions in 26 Northeast and Southern states and additional territories on behalf of Eurofins Clinical. Affinity and Eurofins are coordinating OET program implementation in agreement with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in coordination with the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD).

Affinity and Eurofins use PCR testing, the gold standard for accurate detection of COVID-19, and a pooled system to expedite the delivery of results. Individuals submit two samples, collected from the tip of the nose for minimal invasiveness, to avoid requiring a re-test in the event of a positive pool. Through its proprietary Assure integrated technology platform, Affinity delivers COVID-19 test results with an average turnaround time of 24 hours.

Unlike other federal programs to fund COVID-19 testing, OET has no upfront costs nor paperwork. Interested eligible parties can simply visit Affinity's OET website and click the "Enroll Today" button and provide some basic information. Affinity will then provide the resources and training necessary to establish a COVID-19 testing program at your institution. For questions or additional information, visit the website or contact Affinity's 24/7 customer service staff directly (email: [email protected], phone: 1-844-631-0469).

About Affinity Empowering

Affinity Empowering is a leading occupational health, population, and disease management life sciences organization that specializes in providing technology-based solutions and support for overall health and wellness endeavors. In addition to providing occupational health, mental health, and cutting edge, wrap around substance use support, the company also has become a major provider of COVID-19 testing. Its Return to Normalcy program provides COVID-19 consultation, support, and conducts thousands of onsite and at home testing options to safely screen, monitor, and test populations. It currently supports numerous business partners in various fields, ranging from government contracts, universities, top Fortune 100 companies, and major film and television production companies.

For more information, please visit https://www.affinitytesting.com

Media Contacts:

David Melamed

Russo Partners, LLC

(212) 845-4225

[email protected]

SOURCE Affinity Empowering, Inc.

Related Links

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MILLBURN, N.J., Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- American Jewish Committee (AJC) applauds the preliminary determination by the New Jersey Department of Treasury's Division of Investment that Ben & Jerry's and its parent company, Unilever, have engaged in a boycott of Israel. Under New Jersey's 2016 law on Boycott, Divest, Sanction (BDS), state pension funds must divest from investments in any business that engages in boycotts of Israel.

Ben & Jerry's announced in July that it would end stop selling its ice cream in the West Bank. AJC supported a letter signed by Ben & Jerry's franchisees in the United States calling on the company to "re-examine and withdraw" its decision.

AJC, the leading global Jewish advocacy organization, has long fought BDS efforts as a simplistic, wrong-headed response to a complex situation which singles out Israel for condemnation.

"The BDS movement does nothing to advance the cause of Israeli-Palestinian peace," said Rabbi David Levy, Director of AJC New Jersey. "By putting Unilever, Ben & Jerry's parent company, on notice, the Division of Investment has taken the first step in New Jersey's recognition that the company is violating New Jersey law."

Unilever has 90 days to respond to the New Jersey Treasury Department's Division of Investment letter. "We hope Unilever is inspired to reverse Ben & Jerry's misguided decision," Levy added.

SOURCE American Jewish Committee

Related Links

http://www.ajc.org


CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- MIT Sloan School of Management announced today that Andy Sun will be joining the faculty as Associate Professor (tenured) of Operations Research and Statistics and the inaugural Iberdrola-Avangrid Professor of Electric Power Systems on January 1, 2022.

Prof. Sun will also serve as a faculty lead for the electric power system focus area and as a member of the steering committee of the MIT Energy Initiative's (MITEI's) new Future Energy Systems Center , which will launch on October 1, 2021. The Future Energy Systems Center is an industry research consortium providing insights on how best to navigate the energy transition based on multi-sectoral analyses of emerging technologies, changing policies and evolving economics.



Prof. Sun's research focuses on developing optimization algorithms for large-scale power systems, in particular, to help with the integration of renewable energy resources into large electric power systems. He also studies the planning and operations of power grids and other infrastructure, such as electrified transportation systems, alternative fuel systems and battery supply chains.

Prof. Sun holds an MS in Media Arts and Sciences and a PhD in Operations Research from MIT. He currently serves as an Associate Professor at the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology .

"I'm excited to be returning to MIT," said Prof. Sun. "I look forward to working with students in the areas of optimization and energy systems, as well as leading the collaborative, interdisciplinary efforts of MITEI's new Future Energy Systems Center."

Prof. Sun will develop and teach a new course at MIT Sloan on energy systems modeling and optimization.

"We are delighted that Prof. Andy Sun will be joining the faculty of the MIT Sloan School. It is always rewarding to see our graduates excel and come back to MIT," said Michael Cusumano , the SMR Distinguished Professor of Management and Deputy Dean at MIT Sloan. "Andy has established himself as a global expert on modeling the electric power grid. His skills are essential both to make sure communities have adequate power on a day-to-day basis and to ensure that we are generating and distributing energy in a sustainable way."

"We at the MIT Energy Initiative are thrilled that Prof. Sun is returning to his alma mater, and we are deeply grateful to Iberdrola and Avangrid for creating the Iberdrola-Avangrid Professorship that is enabling this," said Robert Armstrong , Chevron Professor of Chemical Engineering and Director of MITEI. "Andy's work on core optimization problems for electric power system operations, infrastructure, and regulation, and his collaboration with major utilities and system operators, make him a natural leader in the energy transition. His research, teaching and leadership are just what the world needs to help address the climate crisis."

Multinational electric utility company Iberdrola and its U.S. affiliate Avangrid are funding this newly endowed chair. Iberdrola, headquartered in Bilbao, Spain, is one of the world's largest producers of wind power and supplies energy to nearly 100 million people around the world. Avangrid, headquartered in Orange, Connecticut, with approximately $39 billion in assets and operations in 24 U.S. states, serves more than 3.3 million utility customers in New York and New England and is one of the largest producers of wind power in the country.

"MIT and Iberdrola share the same commitment to tackle one of the world's great challenges: the transition towards a sustainable energy model," said Iberdrola Chief Innovation and Sustainability Officer Agustin Delgado. "We are pleased to continue this collaboration with Prof. Sun. Research and education are critical to the advancement of technologies and policies that will contribute to the electrification of the economy and the fight against climate change."

"This professorship deepens Avangrid and Iberdrola's support of the visionary minds at the MIT Energy Initiative at a critical moment of the clean energy transition," said Avangrid Chief Executive Officer Dennis V. Arriola. "We are proud to support the work of Prof. Sun and his team at MIT, whose research into large-scale systems optimization is well-aligned with the critical goal of decarbonizing the energy infrastructure in the U.S."

Prof. Sun added, "Integrating renewable energy sources into the power grid is very difficult. Renewable energy resources are very different from traditional energy sourcesand at the same time, the power grid is highly complicated and interconnected. I look forward to tackling these timely and important challenges in my new roles at MIT."

For further information, contact:

Patricia Favreau or Jennifer Grady Burgos

Associate Director of Media Relations Assistant Director of Media Relations

617-253-3492 781-690-3675

[email protected] [email protected]

SOURCE MIT Sloan School of Management

Related Links

http://www.mitsloan.mit.edu


ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy (AGDA) and American Jewish Committee (AJC) hosted a virtual session to mark the first anniversary of the signing of the Abraham Accords, as part of an educational cooperation that aims to explore the multidimensional components of emerging Emirati-Israeli relations.

The cooperation between AGDA and AJC includes five webinars, where the two organizations will engage the next generation of American, Israeli, and Emirati leaders in political, economic, scientific, and diplomatic discussions, about the future of Israeli-Arab engagement in the Middle East. The sessions will include conversations about innovation, young leadership, conflict resolution, and food security.

Monday's inaugural program, "The Abraham Accords and the Future of Emirati-Israeli-American Relations," highlighted the challenges and opportunities to expanding trilateral ties. The need to work on further measures to promote robust UAE-Israel-U.S. engagement in the Middle East, while maximizing the Accords' benefits for the entire region, was a centerpiece of the speakers' presentations and discussion.

His Excellency Bernardino Leon, Director General of AGDA, moderated the discussion among His Excellency Khalifa Shaheen Almarar, UAE Minister of State; Alon Ushpiz, Director-General of Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs; and Jason Isaacson, AJC Chief Policy and Political Affairs Officer.

The session was also attended by Shaima Gargash, Deputy Chief of the UAE Embassy in Washington, D.C, who said in her remarks: "The UAE joined the Abraham Accords as part of its renewed focus on de-escalation, dialogue, and diplomacy to advance peace, prosperity, and coexistence in the world's most turbulent neighborhood."

His Excellency Nickolay Mladenov, Research and Analysis Director at AGDA and former UN Coordinator of the Middle East Peace Process, also addressed the session. "As both countries, the UAE and Israel, together with the United States of America, are making the first baby steps of what is going to be a wonderful relationship that will have historic significance for the whole region and the world," he said.

His Excellency Bernardino Leon, Director General of AGDA, said: "This virtual session is hosted as part of ADGA's sustained efforts to equip our current and future diplomats with insight on contemporary regional and international issues that impact the UAE's policy agenda."

Leon added: "The Abraham Accords have brought together two of the world's most dynamic and advanced countries, to collaborate on opportunities that help enhance growth across numerous fields in the region. Such a partnership allows them to push for deeper regional integration and extend the impact to other Accord partners, especially now that the UAE and Israeli officials can use open and direct channels to address issues quickly."

His Excellency Khalifa Shaheen Almarar, UAE Minister of State, said: "The Abraham Accords with Israel were signed with the objective that diplomacy and improved communication would promote greater stability and prosperity and cooperation in our region. Today, one year later, those shared goals have been realized and we are building a brighter future together and expanding opportunities for our people."

"At the first anniversary of the Accords, we have achieved more than $675 million in bilateral trade between the UAE and Israel, hundreds of thousands of tourists, and more than 58 agreements and MoUs in economic cooperation, health, water and food security, climate change, science and technology, and energy," he added.

"The peace Accords are the product of the bravery of Emirati, Bahraini, U.S., and Israeli leaders who chose to bring a brighter future and prosperity to the citizens of the region. The peace agreements embody the paradigm shift in the entire Middle East. The cooperation between our countries will pave the way towards tangible achievements to the peoples and the region in economy, health, tourism, but also in stability and tranquillity," stressed His Excellency Alon Ushpiz, Director-General of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Jason Isaacson, AJC Chief Policy and Political Affairs Officer, declared that "The Abraham Accords placed the Middle East on a new trajectory. While challenges to security and prosperity remain, the region has forged a powerful new tool to confront them  the tool of cooperation."

During the one-hour session, the panelists emphasized that promoting people-to-people engagement and business cooperation are key to establishing comprehensive and enduring peace in the region. By building long-term relationships, based on mutual benefits and shared values, the Abraham Accords can create a brighter future for all peoples of the Middle East.

The panelists pointed out that the one-year milestone is a celebration of diplomacy and highlighted that building understanding and common interests from the ground up, through people-to-people connection, mutual economic benefits, and direct channels to address regional conflict and challenges effectively, are crucial.

AJC, the leading global Jewish advocacy organization, has been visiting the region since 1994, and opened earlier this year AJC Abu Dhabi: The Sidney Lerner Center for Arab-Jewish Understanding. Ambassador Marc Sievers is the office's inaugural director.

The Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy, based in Abu Dhabi, is the principal training center for Emiratis pursuing a career in diplomacy and continuing education for UAE diplomats.

SOURCE American Jewish Committee

Related Links

http://www.ajc.org


CHICAGO, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- In response to the recent announcement that the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists (AANA) has changed its name to the "American Association of Nurse Anesthesiology," the American Osteopathic Association reiterates the deep concerns expressed in our May 28, 2021 statement opposing the American Academy of Physician Assistants' title change.

Efforts by non-physician clinicians to obfuscate their credentials through title misappropriation serve to mislead the public regarding their education, training and qualifications. The AOA calls for truth in advertising, intellectual honesty and transparency through the use of consistent and clearly discernible professional designations for all healthcare professionals so that patients can clearly understand the qualifications and roles of their providers.

"Anesthesiology" is a discipline and specialty within the House of Medicine practiced by "Anesthesiologists," denoting physician-level of care and thus, are terms which should be reserved for physicians.

We encourage and call for organized, collaborative discussions among stakeholder organizations in the Physician, Nursing and Physician Assistant communities to find common ground on these important topics that are in the best interest of patients. Such discussions have begun and have occurred between the AOA and some organizations, and we welcome others to join these important conversations.

The American Osteopathic Association (AOA), which proudly represents its professional family of more than 168,000 osteopathic physicians (DOs) and medical students nationwide, remains committed to the physician-led, team-based model of care.

A physician-led team ensures that professionals who have earned the right to practice medicine through completion of medical school and accredited residency/fellowship training in their chosen specialty/subspecialty and who have achieved board certification in their chosen specialty/subspecialty are adequately and uniquely prepared to be licensed to practice medicine. Only DOs and MDs can be licensed to practice medicine. "Physician-led" should not mean "physician-optional."

The AOA and the DOs and osteopathic medical students whom we serve value the important contributions made to our healthcare system by our non-physician colleagues. Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs), Physician Assistants (PAs) and others have worked tirelessly alongside physicians to care for patients prior to and throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, often under suboptimal and emergency conditions that put their own health and safety at risk. Osteopathic physicians have gladly worked side by side with non-physician clinicians; we commend their selfless service.

Non-physician clinicians, including CRNAs and PAs, are an integral part of physician-led healthcare teams. Healthy discussions and collaboration regarding safe and appropriate skill set substitution, roles and responsibilities are in order, and we welcome them. However, non-physician clinicians' use of misleading professional titles, such as "Nurse Anesthesiologist" and "Doctor" in a clinical setting by non-physicians imply to patients that a physician (DO or MD) is caring for them. Although such efforts may serve to advance the professional standing of non-physicians, it is done so at the expense of clear and transparent communication with our shared patients.

There are important and substantive differences between the education and training requirements for physicians and non-physician clinicians. Physicians across the United States, osteopathic (DO) and allopathic (MD) alike, must meet rigorous requirements for education, postdoctoral training and testing and then practice in supervised environments that afford progressively greater autonomy before ultimately becoming eligible to treat patients on their own through licensure competency assessment and rigorous board certification standards. These requirements ensure that all patients are treated safely and with the same standards of care.

A Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist's (CRNA) training requires a minimum of a two-year master's degree1 following their bachelor's degree. In stark contrast to physicians, no postgraduate training is required. Anesthesiologists complete a four-year medical school curriculum, followed by four years of supervised residency training2. Anesthesiologists also sit for rigorous board certification examinations to demonstrate their knowledge and competence in this complex medical specialty. These steps confirm the physician commitment to the public interest and patient safety.

The AANA's new name, the American Association of Nurse Anesthesiology, creates confusion between the CRNA credentials and those of physicians practicing anesthesiology, commonly known as "anesthesiologists."

Over the past several years, individual CRNAs and their state chapters have begun a push to re-brand themselves as anesthesiologists through title misappropriation rather than through education and training. After the AANA adopted a position statement in 2018 to allow CRNAs to use the descriptor "nurse anesthesiologist," the Florida Board of Nursing agreed to allow John McDonough, a Florida CRNA and professor of nursing at the University of North Florida, to use the "nurse anesthesiologist" title in 2019. In the same year, the New Hampshire Board of Nursing decided to allow CRNAs to call themselves "nurse anesthesiologists." However, the state Supreme Court rejected the change earlier this year. In addition, in 2020, the Idaho Board of Nursing adopted a position statement in support of the "nurse anesthesiologist" descriptor for CRNAs. A group calling itself the "Committee for Proper Recognition for CRNAs" maintains a website ( nurseanesthesiologistinfo.com ) dedicated to these and similar efforts to misinform the public regarding CRNA credentials. These title-change efforts have not been accompanied by any corresponding change in educational or training requirements.

The AOA reaffirms that all patients deserve access to high-quality, physician-led medical care. The House of Medicine needs to collectively support the practice of medicine and work to ensure physician leadership remains integral to patient care. We are calling on our peers in the healthcare community to join together with policymakers to support policies that recognize the importance of the physician-led team-based model, ensuring that physicians, the only professionals with comprehensive medical education and training that are eligible for licensure to practice medicine, are appropriately distinguished from non-physicians and are adequately involved in the care of this nation's sick and injured.

1 https://www.aana.com/membership/become-a-crna/crna-fact-sheet

2 https://www.asahq.org/education-and-career/career-resources/anesthesia-as-a-career

About the AOA

The American Osteopathic Association (AOA) represents more than 168,000 osteopathic physicians (DOs) and osteopathic medical students; promotes public health; encourages and funds scientific research; serves as the primary certifying body for DOs; and is the accrediting agency for colleges of osteopathic medicine. To learn more about DOs and the osteopathic philosophy of medicine, visit www.osteopathic.org.

SOURCE American Osteopathic Association

Related Links

www.osteopathic.org


NEW YORK and ANNAPOLIS, Md., Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Bloomberg and Accredited Standards Committee X9 Inc. (X9) announced the publication of an American National Standard titled ASC X9.145-2021, "Financial Instrument Global Identifier (FIGI)," enabling transparency and consistency throughout the trade lifecycle and across institutions, including market participants, third-party data providers, exchanges and regulators. The standard is now available for download.

The FIGI is an open data standard that provides guidelines for identifying and creating context-specific data models of financial instruments. The standard covers financial instruments globally and across asset classes, including common stock, derivatives, corporate and government bonds, as well as those that previously lacked standard identifiers, such as crypto assets and loans. Using a semantically meaningless primary key as the identifier, it is supported by descriptive metadata that describes the financial instrument, including specific context such as an exchange or national jurisdiction where appropriate.

ANSI/X9's approval and publication of the X9.145 FIGI standard will create further alignment across worldwide standards organizations. FIGI was originally adopted as a formal standard in 2014 by the Object Management Group, an international, open membership, not-for-profit technology standards consortium, and FIGI was accepted by the Brazilian Association of Technical Standards (ABNT) in July 2020.

"In today's highly interconnected environment, identifiers for financial products have continued to multiply, requiring tools like FIGI that can link these systems together, and that utilize metadata to provide further granularity for asset class management and identification," said Steven Meizanis, Global Head of Symbology and LEI Services at Bloomberg. "FIGI serves as a non-changing, unique identifier that provides broad coverage of global financial instruments without performance and cost restraints. The use of FIGI as a national standard by the U.S. market  a key player in the global economy  signals another step closer to secure cross-border interoperability among financial markets worldwide."

"Accredited Standards Committee (ASC) X9 is pleased that we could work with Bloomberg and our broader community to develop an industry standard for the FIGI identifier. As the standards development organization for the financial services industry in the United States, it's part of our mission to support emerging technologies," said X9 Executive Director Steve Stevens.

The X9.145 FIGI standard is the first X9 data standard incorporating the MIT Open Source License, in which the data created and identified within the standard will be available to the public. FIGI IDs are available free of charge with no material impediments to their use. The codes can be used for research, trading and database mapping. Bloomberg, as the Registration Authority and Certified Provider, will continuously build, update and administer the FIGI to ensure accuracy and effectiveness.

OpenFIGI is based on Bloomberg's Open Symbology, released in 2009. In 2014, Object Management Group  the international, open membership, non-profit technology standards consortium  voted unanimously to adopt it as a standard methodology for the identification of financial instruments across asset classes. The consortium also nominated Bloomberg to be the Registration Authority and a Certified Provider for the standard. Most recently, Kaiko, a market data provider in the blockchain-based digital assets industry, was approved as Certified Provider of FIGI for crypto assets. For more information, please visit OpenFIGI.com.

About the Accredited Standards Committee X9

The Accredited Standards Committee X9 Inc. is a non-profit organization accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) to develop and maintain national and  through ISO  international standards for the financial services industry. The subjects of X9's standards include: data security; retail, mobile and business payments; corporate treasury functions; block chain technology; processing of electronic legal orders issued to financial institutions; tracking of financial transactions and instruments; financial transaction messaging (ISO 8583 and 20022); quantum computing; PKI; checks; cloud; data breach notification and more. X9 acts as the U.S. Technical Advisory Group (TAG) for ISO TC68 (Financial), TC321 (ECommerce) and TC322 (Sustainable Finance) and performs the secretariat functions for ISO TC68. Please visit our website (x9.org) for more information.

About Bloomberg

Bloomberg, the global business and financial information and news leader, gives influential decision makers a critical edge by connecting them to a dynamic network of information, people and ideas. The company's strength  delivering data, news and analytics through innovative technology, quickly and accurately  is at the core of the Bloomberg Terminal. Bloomberg's enterprise solutions build on the company's core strength: leveraging technology to allow customers to access, integrate, distribute and manage data and information across organizations more efficiently and effectively. For more information, visit www.bloomberg.com or request a demo.

SOURCE Bloomberg

Related Links

http://www.bloomberg.com


TAMPA, Fla., Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Avantha Technologies, a leading provider of business processing solutions for SMBs, announced today that it has completed the rebranding process including, among others, a new name, brand logo and website. The rebrand reflects the Company's strategic direction and plans for creating new and separate identities in the market for its distinct Business Process Management and IT staffing businesses.

HelioNext offers services to small-to-medium sized businesses in the US healthcare and mortgage industries. As part of the new strategy to grow the core BPO business, the Company will be generating new business pipelines with updated services and technology products, including the addition of Digital, Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Business Intelligence teams to make it a one-stop shop for techno-functional solutions. The Company will continue to future-proof and ensure operational excellence for client businesses using data and technology.

"Adding more steps to our value ladder, our objective is to ensure that our customers become part of the digital transformation journey that the industry is faced with," said Paul-Bernard Poupon, HelioNext's Managing Director. "HelioNext represents this change: a new dawn, a new beginning."

"We will keep helping our clients reimagine their business processes using technology and evolve to the next level and scale their businesses," said Manu Bhandari, HelioNext's Chief Executive Officer. "As we move forward, HelioNext signifies the new sun, and the 'Reimagine. Evolve.' tagline encompasses our solutions."

"We view every problem through the lens of people, data and automation," said Maximilian Poupon, HelioNext's Head of Digital Products. "We are committed to making digital the heart of our company."

About HelioNext

With over 15 years of industry experience, HelioNext is a leading global provider of business processing and techno functional consulting solutions to small and medium enterprises in the Healthcare, Mortgage and LPO domains in the US. We firmly believe that the backbone of the healthcare and financial services industry lies with SMEs, and we aim to become the partner of choice for business process evolution in SMBs. Our focus is on unlocking back office transformation for our clients, building digital products and expanding client offerings with our new blended service model.

Visit www.helionext.com to explore the new website, brand and services.

SOURCE HelioNext
SHENZHEN, China, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Benks, taking pride in their dedication in creating premium and innovative digital accessories for 13 years, announced the release of their timely response towards the incoming new iPhone. Benks strives to redefine your experience of using Apple products.

Featuring the classic design, durable and premium materials and comprehensive protection to bear up against the potential drops and scratches. While at the same time, Benks takes qualified patents and certification into account equally.

As a digital accessory company which closely works with Apple for years, many of their products are authorized by Apple MFI and MagSafe. In addition, Benks is one of the only four brands certified to use Accessory Glass 2 by Corning for producing iPhone screen protectors.

King Kong Corning Screen Protector

New iPhone official release event intrigues Apple users and Benks is certainly geared up with King Kong Corning screen protector for iPhone 13. The screen protector features for premium glass material, strengthened production process by adopting imported materials and machines, and meticulous tests before shipping to the customers. This time, they specially designed the attractive packaging and patented install-kit for new iPhone 13 release.

Screen Protector: link, image at here, Corning certification at here, priced at $34.99 .

Kevlar Aramid Fiber Magnetic Protective Case

With the case crafted with Kevlar military material, which is usually used for bullet-proof vest, the frame on the edges uses incomparably shock-resistant material from Bayer, Germany. Inside the protective case, Benks uses high density fiber lining imported from Japan to absorb the impact force. All these safeguarding features fully factor in potential damage and offer the maximum protection for your iPhone 13. Alloy button design on the side for your best hand sensation and satisfying aesthetic perception. Built-in magnetic core is MFM officially certified and it has strong magnetic adsorption. Benks respects the user experience and devotes significant efforts to bringing the highest quality to the customers.

Protective Case: link , image at here, priced at $45.99 .

Crystal Clear Protective Case

Assured with the same treatment process as Apple product, Benks crystal clear protective case ultimately presents your new iPhone 13. Incomparably elastic edges for effective shock absorption and anti-oxidation material doesn't discolor easily. Alloy button design allows for great touch sensitivity.

Protective Case: link , image at here , priced at $15.99 .

Magnetic 2-in-1 Wireless Charging Stand

Benks magnetic 2-in-1 wireless charging stand combines the 15W fast charging with the convenience of hands-free phone holder. Use silicone materials for powerful scratch resistance and electroplated glossy stainless steel is resistant to oxidation. Two devices could be charged at the same time. Work as both a charger and phone holder for you to live-stream, read articles or watch movies. The angle adjustment is for you to find your most comfortable posture. Moreover, it has multiple safety protections to filter out potential hazards.

Protective Case: link, image at here, priced at $46.98 .

About Benks

With the joint mission of "Leave the thinking to us," a professional and passionate team has been united starting 2008. Over the years, we have immersed ourselves into exploring the needs of customers through observant eyes and close communication.

Benks concept is "fill up your life with power Benks." We want you to be powered by our classy, minimalist and innovative products anytime and anywhere.

For business inquiries, please contact: [email protected] / [email protected]

Related Links

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SOURCE Benks

Related Links

www.benks.com


Over the past several years, Blue Line Aviation has experienced unprecedented growth, and it has reached an inflection point that requires additional executive leadership. The accelerated pilot program is one of a kind, taking students from zero experience to fully certified, professional pilots in just under six months.

Mr. Laviano brings to Blue Line Aviation years of experience as a flight instructor and several decades of experience developing groups into focused, high-performing teams. That knowledge of the flight industry combined with his leadership experience made him the perfect candidate for the position.

In the course of his career, Mr. Laviano has worked in two Fortune 500 companies. Through that experience, he gained business and IT skills he will also bring to Blue Line Aviation. This includes software development, business development, and general management skills, all of which will support Blue Line Aviation in its continued growth.

"We are truly blessed to have an environment where such amazing and qualified people want to be on the team. A seasoned executive, Rich shares our vision of excellence and growth for the future," Trey Walters, CEO, commented about the new addition to the team.

While bringing on Mr. Laviano to the team as the new president, Blue Line Aviation is also opening a new facility to help with that growth. "Blueline's new facility at Johnston County Regional Airport will enable us to focus more on our students, build a better learning environment and help our students be completely immersed in their training and education," said Mr. Laviano.

The addition of Mr. Laviano as the Blue Line Aviation president will bring entrepreneurial management to the company while also adding stability during this period of unprecedented growth. He hopes to create a culture of operational excellence as the company pushes toward its full potential in the industry.

About Blue Line Aviation

Blue Line Aviation is located at 2200 Gateway Centre Blvd #208, in Morrisville, North Carolina and was established in 1995. As one of only a few flight schools in the world to provide quality flight training programs at an accelerated pace. In less than six months, students can go from no experience to fully confident and certified pilots, fully prepared for a career in aviation. For more inquiries and additional information, please visit our website (http://bluelineaviation.com), find us on social media, or contact Ashley Darling, our Sales and Marketing Director, at (919) 578-3713 ext. 305.

Press Contact:

Ashley Darling

919-578-3713 ext. 305

https://www.bluelineaviationllc.com/

SOURCE Blue Line Aviation
NEW YORK, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- BrainPOP , the online educational solution that makes rigorous learning experiences accessible and engaging for all students, today announced the appointment of Kavita Vora as chief people officer. Vora joins BrainPOP from Splice, a digital music creation platform, where she held the same position.

"I am excited to welcome a like-minded colleague who will lead us in this next stage of our people-first approach to growth," said Maya Kadar Kovalsky, BrainPOP board member and outgoing chief culture officer. "Kavita brings the right blend of expertise and passion to sustain and scale BrainPOP's unique culture, which is rooted in curiosity, collaboration, and generosity of spirit."

"Every technology venture I have worked with has a mission based on empowerment, learning, creation, and unlocking opportunities. That's why I immediately connected with BrainPOP's mission to empower kids to shape the world around them and within them," said Vora. "My sister is a New York City public school teacher, and I know firsthand how much BrainPOP resonates with her students. I look forward to partnering with this amazing team to reach and inspire even more students, teachers, and parents."

Vora has extensive experience recruiting, developing, and engaging high-performing teams, and creating engaging work cultures. During her tenure as chief people officer at Splice, the company more than tripled in size. Prior to that, she led the People Teams at Jopwell, a startup committed to workforce diversity and inclusion, and MakerBot, the market leader in the consumer 3D printing space. Vora previously held HR and finance leadership roles at Hewlett Packard and Johnson & Johnson. She is also the founder and principal of Kaia Ventures, serving as an active angel investor and board advisor. She holds an MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, and a bachelors in finance and philosophy from The College of New Jersey.

Since its founding in 1999 by Dr. Avraham Kadar, BrainPOP has been continuously innovating to prepare students to become the leaders of tomorrow. Over the last twenty years, BrainPOP has reached more than 300 million learners worldwide. From the beginning, the BrainPOP approach engaged kids' curiosity through short animated movies that make complicated ideas simple and clear, helping them experience the sudden burst of understanding that Dr. Kadar called a "brain pop." Today, schools and districts nationwide utilize BrainPOP to raise academic achievement and strengthen students' critical, computational, and creative thinking skills.

About BrainPOP

BrainPOP is an online educational solution that makes rigorous learning experiences accessible and engaging for all students. Proven to raise academic achievement, it has been a trusted resource to more than six million educators and has engaged the hearts and challenged the minds of over 300 million learners worldwide. 70% of K-8 U.S. schools turned to BrainPOP as a go-to resource during remote learning, and nine out of 10 educators would recommend it to a friend or colleague. BrainPOP provides endless opportunities for kids to take agency over their learning through playful, knowledge-building content and learner-driven projects that strengthen critical, computational, and creative thinking across the entire curriculum. The company is committed to empowering kids to succeed and thrive in the classroom and beyond.

SOURCE BrainPOP

Related Links

https://www.brainpop.com


LONDON, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The construction of the second cruise pier at Port Zante in St Kitts is now complete and ready for operation. The multi-million-dollar project was financed via various local and international sources, of which US$5 million came from the country's Citizenship by Investment (CBI) Programme.

According to Tuffida Stewart, the Acting Chief Executive Officer of the St Christopher Air and Sea Ports Authority (SCASPA), the new addition will result in the nation accommodating three Oasis Class vessels, which are the largest afloat today. This feat signals another milestone of the Team Unity administration's prosperity agenda.

Hosting the world's largest cruise vessels is particularly important as tourism authorities expect a significant uptick in cruise arrivals in St Kitts and Nevis in the years ahead. The 55,000-population islands welcomed an astonishing one million cruise passengers before the start of the pandemic, an accomplished held for two consecutive years. The small but ambitious Caribbean country now has the marquee status of larger cruise destinations in the region.

The news comes after the island implemented robust health and safety protocols to welcome the arrival of the Celebrity Equinox on September 14th, including the establishment of a "bubble" system at the port to prevent COVID-19 spread. "Tourism industries around the world suffered significant losses and the face of travel changed," said Racquel Brown, CEO of the St Kitts Tourism Authority.

"However, we have made significant strides; this industry is resilient and has the power to sustain livelihoods. [On] this momentous occasion, we continue our progressive journey to rebuild tourism safely in a manner that allows us to continue our tradition as a marquee port and reap economic benefits for all."

Established in 1984, the legislated CBI programme allows certain individuals and families worldwide to obtain citizenship of St Kitts and Nevis in return for an investment. Though applicants are not required to take language or culture examinations, they do, however, need to pass all due diligence checks before being considered. The most affordable and direct routes to St Kitts and Nevis' citizenship via CBI is the Sustainable Growth Fund, created by Prime Minister Timothy Harris.

[email protected]

www.csglobalpartners.com



SOURCE CS Global Partners
TORONTO, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Co-founders Dani Kagan and Victoria Marshman have been leaders in the entrepreneurial space since they founded the renowned MOGUL Awards back in 2016. Since then, they have built a network of thousands of entrepreneurs through programming, mentorship, mastermind groups, events, and resources.

Introducing the Back To Business Challenge where entrepreneurs from diverse industries will participate in a 5-day workshop series. Free for all entrepreneurs, the entire City MOGULS entrepreneurial community will be completing the challenge live starting September 20th, 2021. Each day is dedicated to instilling Kagan and Marshman's framework for success, motivation, and the daily practices that it takes to become a successful entrepreneur.

Throughout the 5 days, entrepreneurs are challenged to participate in live daily sessions to gain strategies and tangible tools for success as they transition from summer holidays to regular business routines. Each day is dedicated to what City MOGULS has found to be the secret recipe for entrepreneurial growth and success:

Day 1: Setting Your Priorities Straight  Get clear on your business intentions

Day 2: Get Intentional  Take ownership of your priorities & lead with intention for the rest of 2021

Day 3: Get Advice  featuring expert MOGUL Mentors: Jian Magen , Yossi Fisher , Laura Brailsford , Sabine Schleese, and Francis Desrochers

, , , Sabine Schleese, and Day 4: Take Action  Stephanie Rourke Jackson shares her philosophy on having courageous conversations and how to take action

shares her philosophy on having courageous conversations and how to take action Day 5: Celebrate  Declare your intentions and get ready to crush the rest of 2021

"We launched the Back To Business workshop series because we understand how overwhelming it can be to get back on track with business goals and priorities, especially now. Our mission is to provide the best connections, support, and education to the entrepreneurial community," says Kagan.

"This series is an opportunity for entrepreneurs to get back on track with our proven success formula, get connected with a network of entrepreneurs and mentors who will provide them with confidence, guidance, and tangible action steps to grow and scale their business. This challenge will foster a sense of community that will translate into future collaborations and support long after the series concludes," shared Marshman.

Entrepreneurs who are up to the challenge and are ready to commit to growth for the rest of 2021, and beyond, can sign up for free and participate in the challenge here: City MOGULS  Back to Business Challenge

Early stage entrepreneurs who are looking to extend their professional network, scale their businesses, and create impactful change through their business can join the City MOGULS community as a MOGUL Member. Members have the opportunity to work with a MOGUL Mentor, join a MOGUL Crew mastermind cohort, and attend monthly virtual hangouts. Plus gain access to a library of resources and past virtual workshops, and much more.

MOGUL Membership is closing on October 1st at 11:59 EDT and will not open again until early 2022. Apply to be a MOGUL Member here: https://citymoguls.com/register/

About City MOGULS

Kindred spirits of over 10 years, Victoria and Dani met on the University of Toronto dance team. Quickly establishing themselves as a powerful duo, Dani and Victoria had a vision to celebrate entrepreneurship in a unique way and give back to local charities. Their hope was to bring the entrepreneurial community together to connect and celebrate one another. Fast forward to 2016, they put on the first-ever MOGUL Awards (formerly the City MOGULS Runway Show), celebrating Canada's top entrepreneurs in a runway show for Canadian charities. When 2020 brought the world new challenges, the duo shifted their focus and used their passion to create a year-round community, providing programming, mentorship, resources and events to aspiring business leaders online. Today, with a network of thousands of entrepreneurs and growing, what started as one event has now blossomed into a thriving, supportive, and empowered community of entrepreneurs and leaders.

Crafted with Craftly.AI  AI Powered Copywriter

About City Moguls

City MOGULS is a growing network that celebrates, educates, and connects innovative entrepreneurs to inspire great leaders. Through unique programming and resources such as Webinars, Workshops, #MOGULCrews, and MOGUL Mentorship, MOGUL Grant, and MOGUL Membership, City MOGULS connects entrepreneurs to grow their minds and networks to build empowered communities.

Press Contact:

Victoria Marshman

416-627-1435

SOURCE City MOGULS
NEW YORK, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The national nonprofit Delivering Good announced today that the Ralph Lauren Corporation will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award, honoring the company's philanthropic leadership and sustained support for important causes over decades. The Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented at the nonprofit's annual fundraising celebration on Wednesday, November 3 in New York City. In addition, Delivering Good announced that SAP will be the recipient of its inaugural Innovation Award, recognizing their creative and inventive leadership in support of the organization's mission.

Delivering Good will honor Ralph Lauren Corporation at November 3, 2021 gala in New York City. Delivering Good will honor SAP at November 3, 2021 gala in New York City.

"Ralph Lauren has been an extraordinary example of leadership and generosity across the retail industry and the world, and SAP has delivered market leading software solutions to the world's largest enterprises as well as Delivering Good," said Andrea Weiss, Chair of Delivering Good. "The efforts of both these companies make them an inspiration to so many of us. We are very excited to celebrate both of these brands and all the great people behind them!"

Ken Downing, Chief Creative Officer at Triple Five Group Ltd., is the event chair and the evening's host; he is also a member of the Delivering Good Board of Directors. "The theme for An Evening of Delivering Good will celebrate the positive force of families, whether they are born or chosen, and the good it creates in our world," said Downing. "Regardless of where you are in life, most people still need some sort of family as a foundation for their dreams. The greatest impact Delivering Good has is often through our local community partners and the families they serve," he said.

Ralph Lauren is being recognized for the many philanthropic endeavors they have supported through the years. It empowers and gives back to its communities through employee volunteerism and by supporting various causes including cancer care and prevention, advancing on social issues and protecting the environment.

"It is humbling to receive this Lifetime Achievement Award on behalf of the Company," said David Lauren, Chief Branding and Innovation Officer & Vice Chairman of the Board. "At Ralph Lauren, our purpose is to inspire the dream of a better life, and our teams are always striving to reflect this purpose and our values in the work that we do across the communities around us and the causes we support. We are proud to be a longstanding partner of Delivering Good and support them in their mission to positively impact the lives of families and individuals."

Philanthropy is a core part of Ralph Lauren. The company aims to create a more equitable world and positively impact the lives of people in its workforce and communities. Since 2012, Ralph Lauren has also been a champion of Delivering Good, donating new apparel and accessories to people in need throughout the United States.

SAP is being honored with the Innovation Award, recognizing forward-thinking companies and individuals that provide creative and innovative leadership in support of the mission of Delivering Good.

As a market leader in enterprise application software, SAP helps companies of all sizes and in all industries run at their best: 77% of the world's transaction revenue touches an SAP system. The company has developed a technology platform that can match Delivering Good's 800+ local community partners with companies and organizations that want to make a charitable impact across the US and Canada. SAP Corporate Social Responsibility focuses on three strategic program pillars: building digital skills, accelerating nonprofits and social enterprises, and connecting employees with purpose.

In addition to the Lifetime Achievement and Innovation Awards, Delivering Good will also honor the recipients of its Vanguard Award and Impact Award at this year's annual celebration. These awards will be announced shortly. "An Evening of Delivering Good" is being designed to offer program opportunities for people who want to participate virtually, while also providing a sit-down dinner and program to a live audience. For reservation and sponsorship information about the evening, please visit DGevening.org , or email [email protected].

About Delivering Good

Delivering Good is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides people impacted by poverty and tragedy with new merchandise donated by retailers and manufacturers. Since 1985, Delivering Good has distributed over $2 billion of new clothing, home goods, toys, furniture, books and other consumer products through its network of more than 800 community partners, offering hope, dignity and self-esteem to at-risk children, families and individuals. By uniting retailers, manufacturers, foundations and individuals, Delivering Good strives to help create a more equitable world where children, adults and families facing economic, medical, social and environmental challenges have useful items needed to overcome adversity and achieve their full potential. For more information about Delivering Good, please visit Delivering-Good.org or follow @DeliveringGood on Facebook , Instagram , Twitter and LinkedIn .

Media Contact:

Peter Paris

646.362.9091

[email protected]

SOURCE Delivering Good
Dodge is first among 32 brands industry-wide,* and for the second straight year claims the top spot among mass-market brands, according to the J.D. Power 2021 Automotive Performance Execution and Layout (APEAL) Study.

Dodge is the first domestic brand to capture the No. 1 ranking two years in a row among mass-market brands, while Ram reprises its second-place performance from 2020.

The latest mass-market results mark the third consecutive year Dodge and Ram have outperformed their direct competitors in the prestigious study. Their No. 1-2 ranking last year reversed their finish order in 2019.

In addition, the latest APEAL study names the 2021 Ram 1500 as the best vehicle in the large light-duty pickup category. It denotes the second straight year the Ram 1500 has crowned that list.

The news comes hard on the heels of the brands' continuing success in the most recent J.D. Power Initial Quality Study (IQS). Ram and Dodge finished No. 1-2 overall, echoing their 2020 surge when Dodge became the first domestic brand to top the industry, and Ram tied for third.

"I said last year that we would keep the throttle wide open, and these various results demonstrate our continuing resolve to do so," said Mark Champine, Stellantis Head of Customer Experience, North America. "We remain on a mission to do better for our customers, and we know we have more work to do."

APEAL rates the emotional bond between customers and model-year 2021 vehicles. This is determined from customer feedback about vehicle attributes from seating comfort to throttle response during the first three months of ownership.

The feedback is then aggregated on an overall 1,000-point APEAL index.

In the latest study, Dodge and Ram are separated by one point with scores of 882 and 881, respectively  the same margin that divided them last year. Each brand improved by 10 points over their performances in the 2020 study  four better than the industry average, which posted a six-point gain, from 842 to 848.

Further, the Dodge Charger sedan, Dodge Durango SUV, Ram 2500/3500 heavy-duty pickup and Jeep Gladiator pickup placed second in their respective segments.

Jeep jumped three spots into a tie for eighth in this year's IQS results, giving Stellantis three brands in the first quartile. Such performance is consistent with the mindset instilled by the company's new Customer Experience organization, formerly known simply as Quality.

The new organization has a mandate that is more intense.

"Ours is a journey that never ends," Champine says. "Because you can always do better."

*Tied with Premium Brand

J.D. Power

J.D. Power is a global leader in consumer insights, advisory services and data and analytics. A pioneer in the use of big data, artificial intelligence (AI) and algorithmic modeling capabilities to understand consumer behavior, J.D. Power has been delivering incisive industry intelligence on customer interactions with brands and products for more than 50 years. The world's leading businesses across major industries rely on J.D. Power to guide their customer-facing strategies. J.D. Power has offices in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. To learn more about the company's business offerings, visit JDPower.com/business. The J.D. Power auto shopping tool can be found at JDPower.com.

Stellantis

Stellantis (NYSE: STLA) is one of the world's leading automakers and a mobility provider, guided by a clear vision to offer freedom of movement with distinctive, affordable and reliable mobility solutions. In addition to the Group's rich heritage and broad geographic presence, its greatest strengths lie in its sustainable performance, depth of experience and the wide-ranging talents of employees working around the globe. Stellantis will leverage its broad and iconic brand portfolio, which was founded by visionaries who infused the brands with passion and a competitive spirit that speaks to employees and customers alike. Stellantis aspires to become the greatest, not the biggest, while creating added value for all stakeholders, as well as the communities in which it operates.

Follow company news and video on:

Company blog: http://blog.stellantisnorthamerica.com

Media website: http://media.stellantisnorthamerica.com

Company website: www.stellantis.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/Stellantis

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StellantisNA

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stellantisna

Twitter: @StellantisNA

YouTube: http://youtube.com/StellantisNA

SOURCE Stellantis
LONDON, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Established Titles, a company dedicated to the preservation of the Scottish woodlands by offering unique gift ideas, has won the "Best Green Business Award in Scotland" for 2021. The felicitation ceremony will be held at the Palm Jumeirah  Waldorf Astoria in early 2022 in Dubai.

The Global Brand Awards is an annual event held by Global Brands Magazine (GBM), an international publication headquartered in the UK. The award aims to recognise global brands achieving excellence in performance across a broad range of sectors while keeping its readers updated on news in the branding world. Established Titles was evaluated based on customer service, satisfaction, strategic relationships, new business development and conservation efforts.

Commenting on Established Titles winning the awards, Shiv Kumar (CEO) of Global Brands magazine said, "Established Titles is a charming brand that brings us back to our roots with its selection of traditional titles from the woodlands of Scotland. Their firm commitment to excellence in customer service and a green business model of planting a tree for every order caught our eye when nominating for this award."

Commenting on winning the award, a company representative said, "We find this to be a very encouraging honour to indicate we are on the right path. We will continue to work towards a greener future and raise awareness about this issue in a fun and engaging way."

About Established Titles

Established Titles was set up to preserve the woodlands in Scotland while making a unique gift for those looking for something different. It was started by Katerina, who had fallen in love with the breath-taking sights of the countryside on trips she made during her time studying Law at the University of Durham, and subsequently living in the medieval city of York.

Having stumbled across the Scottish custom of landowners being referred to as Lairds (Scots for Lord or Lady), she combined this trivia with the idea of selling 1 square foot plots of land to create nature reserves for the preservation of woodlands in Scotland - to create Established Title's most wondrous gift offering for those looking for something special. They allow people to purchase small souvenir plots of land so that they may fashion themselves as Lords and Ladies of Scotland. They issue a beautiful, personalised certificate with a unique plot number which shows the exact location of their land. In return for every order they plant a tree with their charity partners such as One Tree Planted and Trees for the Future to help global afforestation efforts.

Established Titles welcomes all good men and women to join them in becoming a Lord or Lady and help save the woodlands of Scotland.

About Global Brands Magazine (England)

Global Brands Magazine (GBM) has been at the forefront, bringing news, views and opinions on brands shaping the future of their industry. The UK-based magazine provides its readers with the latest news and information on 'best-in-class brands across the globe. Each year, GBM develops a series of awards for companies that stand out, having a unique vision, exceptional service, innovative solutions and consumer-centric products among their industry leaders.

About Global Brand Awards

Global Brand Awards honours brands for their excellence in performance and rewards companies across different sectors for the quality of their services. The Brand Awards highlight the accomplishments of organisations that have performed remarkably well in finance, education, hospitality, automotive, lifestyle, education, real estate, technology, and more. Global Brand Awards recognise vital players who progress towards excellence by providing a platform to acknowledge their efforts. In addition, GBM strives to create awareness concerning the significance of such organisations and rewards them for their notable efforts with the ultimate global recognition.

SOURCE Global Brands Publications Limited
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- ExtendaTouch, the innovative digital platform for caregivers to connect with each other, today announced a partnership with the Organization for Autism Research (OAR). Under the terms of the agreement, OAR will provide outreach for their stakeholders to access a free caregiver account at ExtendaTouch. The agreement will provide additional opportunities for families impacted by autism to support one another and widely disseminate information.

"ExtendaTouch provides a pathway for more families with autistic children and adults to collaborate who have similar experiences across multiple non-profit and for-profit organizations. By opening opportunities for more collaboration and support, ExtendaTouch is expanding our combined resources. We want to encourage our stakeholders to have access to this service and benefit from working together," said Mike Maloney, Executive Director of OAR.

ExtendaTouch solves the problem of inefficiencies in an ad-hoc support system in the marketplace for caregivers. The Company specializes in matching the needs of caregivers with peer-to-peer support. Family and professional caregivers have enormous amounts of knowledge and experience. ExtendaTouch is the go-to organization for caregivers who are often overwhelmed, isolated, and lonely.

"We are providing a centralized platform for caregivers across the autism spectrum to work together to find individual solutions to shared issues, promote opportunities for those on the spectrum, call for an end to the stigmatization, and support legislation to promote equality. The broad coalition will provide caregivers combined strength and a path to achieve common missions by working together. It's the reason we created ExtendaTouch. Our goal is to help caregivers connect with each other to safely share information and enhance their efforts to protect and provide what is needed for the individuals they love and support," said Andy Cramer, Founder of ExtendaTouch.

ExtendaTouch is a caregiver support network with a platform that enables fast, private, personal connections between caregivers. Contact is opt-in, and profiles are anonymous, allowing the caregivers to discuss sensitive topics, including self-care, without fear of stigma.

About ExtendaTouch

ExtendaTouch is a tech company that has developed a unique platform for relevantly matching caregivers. Their vision is to relieve overwhelmed family and paid caregivers worldwide and produce better outcomes for those needing chronic or occasional care. Headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, ExtendaTouch is free and can be accessed at www.extendatouch.com. For press inquiries contact: [email protected]

About OAR

OAR is a national non-profit located in Arlington, Virginia, whose singular focus is on applied research and its resource materials' quality and practical value. The studies they fund and the information resources they provide have meaning in the day-to-day lives of persons with autism and their families. They fund pilot studies on education, parent and teacher training, communication, self-care, social skills, employment, behavior, and adult and community issues. In pursuing its efforts to change lives, its ultimate focus is quality of life. For press inquiries, contact: [email protected]

Contact:

Andy Cramer,

ExtendaTouch

Phone: 415 847-4988

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE ExtendaTouch

Related Links

https://extendatouch.com


In August, French Toast held fun-filled events at Young Leaders Elementary in The Bronx, NY and Urban Community School in Cleveland, OH to kick start the school year by bringing joy and giving back to thousands of students and educators. Showcasing its "We Dare to Care" commitment to supporting school communities, the brand has donated more than $2 million worth of uniforms nationally since the pandemic began, most recently donating $20 thousand worth of uniforms to children in the DC area through Delivering Good ( delivering-good.org ).

"We are proud to continue delivering school uniform options to our consumers that are not only high-quality but also accessible to all, and we do this because we're a brand that truly cares," says French Toast CEO Richard Sutton. "We know kids want to come to school feeling comfortable in clothes that make them feel good and boost their confidence  that's what makes them shine. The #B2STogether campaign is one that helps us capture the magic of the excitement when a child returns."

#B2STogether Sweepstakes Details + How to Participate:

The sweepstakes will run through September 30; details to participate can be found below.

For Parents/Students :

To enter, follow @FrenchToastSchool on Instagram

on Instagram Post a video, poem, artwork, song, essay, etc. to Instagram (parents can enter for their kids)

Use # B2STogether and tag @FrenchToastSchool in your post

B2STogether and tag @FrenchToastSchool in your post Winners will be randomly selected; grand prizes include Jetson Hoverboards, Scooters, apparel from Carhartt, French Toast and adidas

There will be 30 grand prize winners and 50 runners-up prizes of $100 French Toast gift cards.

For Teachers:

Win a $100 (Visa) gift card to help purchase school supplies for the classroom

(Visa) gift card to help purchase school supplies for the classroom To enter, teachers must include their name, address, school, and email, and will have the option to include up to 140 characters about why going back to school this year means more than ever. 20 winners will be chosen.

About French Toast :

Since 1985, French Toast, the nation's leading school uniform brand, has been dedicated to the students it outfits, the communities it serves and its school, and retail partners. Schoolwear is not just part of our business, it's our entire business. French Toast is a family run and owned company committed to creating schoolwear that makes all students feel as comfortable and confident on the outside as they do on the insideit's schoolwear made for all kids to shine. Every French Toast garment is designed to last beyond the school year and offered at an accessible price.

We offer a wide selection of schoolwear from classic polos, pants and skirts in a variety of fits from toddler to adult. An adaptive line for kids with disabilities or clothing sensitivities will be available as part of the 2022 collection. French Toast's school uniform program supplies thousands of schools nationwide with a customized buying experience, logo decoration and direct-to-home shipping. You can also find French Toast at leading retail partners such as Amazon, Kohl's and Costco.

Since 2020, French Toast has donated more than $2 million worth of uniforms nationally and continues to support education-related causes.

For more information about becoming a FrenchToast retailer or partner school, go to www.frenchtoast.com .

SOURCE French Toast
ATLANTA, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- In honor of the second week of Environmental Awareness Month this September, Georgia Power is highlighting its efforts around protecting sensitives species such as the gopher tortoise, which is Georgia's state reptile and considered a keystone species.

"Georgia Power's management practices on company lands and power line corridors contribute significantly to conservation efforts designed both to enhance tortoise populations and prevent the need for a federal listing of the tortoise," said Jim Ozier, environmental biologist for Georgia Power.

At Georgia Power our projects work towards conservation, restoration and awareness, so that future generations will have a prosperous, healthy and beautiful place to call home.

There are four major conservation areas the company is highlighting as a part of Environmental Awareness Month. Last week, the company featured its land management practices, including maintaining and operating over 100,000 acres of land, 60,000 acres of water and more than 15 lake properties. The remaining focus areas are: Sensitive Species, Waterways and Habitats.

Week 2: We Protect Sensitive Species

Gopher Tortoise: The gopher tortoise is a burrowing land turtle that occurs over much of Georgia's coastal plain but is a candidate for federal listing because of serious declines and continuing significant threats. Designated Georgia's state reptile in 1989, the gopher tortoise is one of the oldest living species native to Georgia. The gopher tortoise belongs to a group of land tortoises that originated in North America 60 million years ago and is considered a keystone species of longleaf pine forests. Its burrows and presence support hundreds of species.

Georgia Power is a participant in the multi-state Candidate Conservation Agreement for the Gopher Tortoise  Eastern Population as well as Georgia's Gopher Tortoise Conservation Initiative partnership.

Gopher Tortoise Conservation Initiative partnership. Tortoises on the company's land near Plants Hatch and Vogtle contribute to sustainable landscape population goals that include neighboring public conservation lands. The longleaf pine forests where the tortoises thrive have given way to tree plantations, development and other land uses, therefore beneficial management of the gopher tortoise habitat includes prescribed burning and longleaf pine planting.

Additionally, Plant Vogtle has served as a release site for several tortoises that the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR) needed to relocate from sites that were to be destroyed.

MEDIA NOTE : For additional insights from subject matter experts around the company's Natural Resource Management, conservation, recreation and other initiatives, please contact Georgia Power Media Relations.

About Georgia Power

Georgia Power is the largest electric subsidiary of Southern Company (NYSE: SO), America's premier energy company. Value, Reliability, Customer Service and Stewardship are the cornerstones of the company's promise to 2.6 million customers in all but four of Georgia's 159 counties. Committed to delivering clean, safe, reliable and affordable energy at rates below the national average, Georgia Power maintains a diverse, innovative generation mix that includes nuclear, coal and natural gas, as well as renewables such as solar, hydroelectric and wind. Georgia Power focuses on delivering world-class service to its customers every day and the company is recognized by J.D. Power as an industry leader in customer satisfaction. For more information, visit www.GeorgiaPower.com and connect with the company on Facebook (Facebook.com/GeorgiaPower), Twitter (Twitter.com/GeorgiaPower) and Instagram (Instagram.com/ga_power).

SOURCE Georgia Power

Related Links

http://www.georgiapower.com


VENTURA, Calif. and PITTSFIELD, Mass., Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Green Flower is proud to announce Berkshire Roots and its CEO James Winokur are joining the inaugural GF Institute Steering Committee as Founding Members.

GF Institute (GFI) is launching the first three standardized certificate programs designed to prepare cannabis professionals with the fundamental, functional knowledge necessary to be successful in the fast-growing industry. Powered by Green Flower's expansive library of educational cannabis content and guided by the insight and expertise of more than 30 of the industry's leading employers, these programs are designed to inspire professionalism in employees, credibility with consumers and patients, as well as a greater sense of equity and social responsibility to cannabis.

"GF Institute brings much needed standards in education and training to the cannabis industry. We are proud to be working with GF Institute, alongside our Founding Member peers, to design a genuine solution to a real industry need," said Winokur. "The credential program we have designed provides the basis of a thorough recruitment and onboarding plan. The Certificates will help our employees, whatever their background, to experience high-quality, consistent training in order to execute their roles professionally and competently."

The first GF Institute Cannabis Credentials, available today, are comprised of 3 separate certificate programs, each designed to meet equip learners with skills required to meet the specific needs and expectations of high-demand positions that already exist in the industry:

Dispensary Associate Certificate (DAC)

Cultivation Technician Certificate (CTC)

Manufacturing Agent Certificate (MAC)

"The cannabis industry's rapid growth in recent years puts a spotlight on the clear need for the creation of real, meaningful, research-tested standards like what GFI will provide for this workforce," said Gil Christie, the inaugural chairman of GF Institute. "Berkshire Roots' presence as a true leader and innovator in our field provides the Green Flower Institute with a much-needed perspective as we work with the ANSI National Accreditation Board to standardize the industry like never before."

Because much of the recruited talent to the fast-growing cannabis industry has little to no pre-existing, formalized cannabis experience or knowledge, cannabis employers are often left to train new employees from scratch. The rapid, consistent pace of change in the cannabis industry also leaves many employers without the bandwidth or expertise required to develop their own industry-adopted programs with the necessary level of scientific rigor and educational depth for success.

As a result, the cannabis industry collectively faces a host of painful and costly business problems stemming from a lack of training, including: high turnover, poor customer service, unsafe products, costly compliance mistakes, and other barriers to profitability. With the creation of GF Institute, the cannabis industry will build a truly skilled and talented workforce through standardized education, and credential holders will proudly be able to demonstrate their professionalism, knowledge, and credibility to their co-workers, customers, and patients.

"Berkshire Roots has a long history of supporting organizations within our communities, across Massachusetts, and beyond," said Winokur. "GF Institute's mission to promote professionalism, credibility, and equity through education reinforces the work our team is doing on a daily basis with worthy groups, nonprofits, and community organizations."

On successful completion of a credential, each individual learner is automatically granted membership to GF Institute. GFI will offer its members exclusive access to continuing education content, networking and career development opportunities, and more.

Cannabis executives or brand representatives interested in learning more about either GF Institute or the certificate programs, including a full list of Steering Committee members, should visit www.gfinstitute.org to download the full program documentation and submit an application.

About Green Flower:

Founded in 2014, Green Flower is the industry leader in cannabis education, empowering thousands of consumers, regulators, and professionals with the knowledge they need to succeed in the emerging cannabis industry today.

Green Flower's content and technology platform powers the cannabis programs of top universities and colleges across the country, provides customized learning and compliance solutions for cannabis businesses of all sizes, and equips individuals with the skills and credentials necessary to make an impact in the modern cannabis industry.

About Berkshire Roots:

Berkshire Roots is one of Massachusetts leading cannabis cultivation, manufacturing and dispensary operators providing craft-grown cannabis from Berkshire County, the highest elevation in the state. The company's team members in retail, cultivation, extraction lab and infused products are considered amongst the best in the state. Berkshire Roots branded products are sold in its own dispensaries and in select stores around the state. Its dispensaries offer a variety of curated products from other Massachusetts producers. Berkshire Roots is committed to using our voice to end racial injustice within our community and at the national level through its diversity training, hiring practices and donations to like-minded organizations.

For more information visit BerkshireRoots.com

[email protected]

Contact: Adam Summers

e: [email protected] p: 708.223.2336



SOURCE Green Flower
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Glassdoor , the worldwide leader on insights about jobs and companies, today announced that through its parent company it has completed the acquisition of Fishbowl . Fishbowl is a fast-growing social network used by more than one million professionals1 engaging in candid conversations about anything career, industry and workplace-related. Financial terms are not being disclosed.

With more than 55 million unique users each month2, Glassdoor is on a mission to help people everywhere find a job and company they love by increasing workplace transparency. Glassdoor, founded in 2008, offers millions of ratings, reviews, salary reports and other workplace insights, shared by employees, to help job seekers better understand what it's really like to work at a company. With Fishbowl's focus on building meaningful connections and more personal conversations for working professionals, the two platforms are highly complementary and help people get the information they need to make more informed career decisions.

As the world of work continues to evolve, the acquisition of Fishbowl comes at an especially challenging time for workers. A new Glassdoor survey 3 of U.S. employees conducted by The Harris Poll reveals that 48% of employees have felt isolated from coworkers during the COVID-19 pandemic, and 42% of employees have felt their career stall due to the lack of in-person connection. In addition, nearly half (45%) of employees expect to work hybrid or full-time remotely going forward. To help meet the changing needs of today's working professionals, Fishbowl by Glassdoor will deliver even more workplace transparency, empowering professionals to have candid conversations, connect with one another, build communities and gain helpful insights to advance their careers.

"The world of work is dramatically changing and so are workers' needs. Glassdoor and Fishbowl provide a look inside the ongoing transformation and what's crystal clear is that workers need more information, more connection and more community, no matter where they're located. With this acquisition, we're giving job seekers and employees an unmatched real-time look into the employee experience across companies and industries," said Christian Sutherland-Wong, Glassdoor Chief Executive Officer. "We've been impressed by Fishbowl's incredible product, team and growth and are excited to help expand the community even faster. We proudly welcome Fishbowl employees to the Glassdoor family and look forward to the future together."

"More than ever, professionals are seeking communities to have valuable career conversations and get more information from people beyond those they already know. No one brings transparency to the workplace better than Glassdoor, and with Fishbowl's platform for real-time professional conversations the opportunity together is incredibly powerful," said Matt Sunbulli, Fishbowl Chief Executive Officer. "We're excited to have Glassdoor's support to power Fishbowl's growth."

Launched in 2016 by co-founders Matt Sunbulli and Loren Appin, Fishbowl has more than 18 million conversations, comments and direct messages in thousands of bowls4 where professionals can discuss career, industry and workplace-related topics. Before posting or commenting on Fishbowl, people have the option to choose how to represent themselves  by job title only, by the company they work for, or with their full name, title and company.

Starting today, employees and job seekers on Glassdoor will see relevant Fishbowl conversations from people working in related companies and industries. This integration comes as more than two-thirds (69%) of employees wish they were able to learn more about the team they would be working with when deciding to accept a job, and 64% of employees wish they had a way to ask questions of industry peers around the country, according to the Glassdoor survey. Job seekers and employees can experience more by clicking on these Fishbowl conversations and visiting Fishbowl to see full conversations and explore company feeds, industry and special interest bowls. Viewing these conversations will require a Fishbowl account .

FULL SURVEY RESULTS, VIDEO, IMAGES + INTERVIEWS: Images of Fishbowl by Glassdoor and the new product integrations are available upon request. Check out a video on how to dive into the Fishbowl by Glassdoor product. Plus, see full Glassdoor survey data on employee sentiment related to the new world of work and evolving workforce needs. For more information email [email protected] .

About Glassdoor

Glassdoor combines millions of workplace reviews and insights, paired with the latest jobs, to help people everywhere find a job and company they love. As a result, Glassdoor helps employers hire truly informed candidates at scale through effective recruiting solutions like employer branding and employee insights products. Launched in 2008, Glassdoor now has more than 95 million reviews and insights, shared by employees, for more than 1.7 million companies around the world. Glassdoor is a subsidiary of Recruit Holdings, a leading global technology company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. For more information, visit www.glassdoor.com .

About Fishbowl

Fishbowl is on a mission to help professionals and companies get ahead by enabling helpful and constructive conversations. Launched in 2016, Fishbowl is currently accessible through its mobile app available on iOS and Android devices and is free for all users. For more information or to download the app, visit www.fishbowlapp.com .

1 Fishbowl Internal Data, CQ2'21

2 Google Analytics, Unique users represents peak monthly unique users in CQ2'21

3 Survey Methodology: This survey was conducted online within the United States by The Harris Poll on behalf of Glassdoor between August 12-16, 2021 among 1,058 adults ages 18+ who are employed full-time, part-time or self-employed. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. For complete survey methodology, including weighting variables and subgroup sample sizes, please contact [email protected].

4 Fishbowl Internal Data, August 2021

SOURCE Glassdoor

Related Links

http://www.glassdoor.com


FACTS AT A GLANCE Edition: 2; Released: September 2021 Executive Pool: 802 Companies: 547 - Players covered include QIAGEN GmbH; Quidel Corporation; F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd.; BGI; Primerdesign Ltd.; Abbott Laboratories; Co-Diagnostics, Inc.(USA); Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc.; AlphaBiolabs Ltd. and Others. Coverage: All major geographies and key segments Segments: Product (RT-PCR Assay Kits, Immunoassay Test Strips/Cassettes, Other Products); Specimen Type (Nasopharyngeal Swab, Oropharyngeal Swab, Nasal Swab, Other Specimen Types); End-Use (Hospitals, Diagnostic Centers, Other End-Uses) Geographies: World; United States; Canada; Japan; China; Europe (France; Germany; Italy; United Kingdom; Spain; Russia; and Rest of Europe); Asia-Pacific (Australia; India; South Korea; and Rest of Asia-Pacific); Latin America (Argentina; Brazil; Mexico; and Rest of Latin America); Middle East (Iran; Israel; Saudi Arabia; United Arab Emirates; and Rest of Middle East); and Africa.

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 COVID-19 Testing Market to Shrink to US$10.4 Billion by the Year 2026

COVID-19 testing has emerged as a large market in a span of few months owing to the large-scale testing across the world. However, with vaccines being launched across the world, the COVID-19 testing market is expected to slowdown in 2021, and decline rapidly in the near future as the global population starts getting vaccinated. The major testing types include RT-PCR tests, rapid antigen tests, and rapid antibody tests. Growth in the global is primarily being driven by rising incidence of COVID-19 infection and the pressing need for effective and fast testing. Announced as pandemic by the WHO, the rapid spread of the virus across countries has prompted governments to rely on massive testing, which created strong demand for COVID-19 test kits. The market for these tests is further bolstered by unavailability of an effective treatment hitherto, driving people to consider diagnostic testing as a solution to curtail the pandemic. In addition, the requirement of effective detection kits for vulnerable population, including aging people and individuals with the compromised immune system, is propelling the market. On the other hand, short supply of test kits and other components, such as RT-PCR instruments, virus control samples, and swabs, are expected to limit the market growth.

Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the global market for COVID-19 Testing estimated at US$19.3 Billion in the year 2020, is projected to decline to revised size of US$10.4 Billion by 2026, declining at a CAGR of -11.8% over the analysis period. RT-PCR Assay Kits, one of the segments analyzed in the report, is projected to record a -12.4% CAGR and shrink to US$5.5 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 Immunoassay Test Strips/Cassettes segment is readjusted to a revised -10.3% CAGR for the next 7-year period. RT-PCR is the most popular diagnostic technique in the market as it is reliable, sensitive and relatively quick, offering results within 3-4 hours. It is designed to detect the presence of viral RNA in patient samples by capturing as well as amplifying specific segments of the generic material of the virus, mainly the Spike protein, envelop or N protein. The immunoassay segment is growing rapidly, due to rising acceptance of rapid immunoassay tests. The market is likely to receive a notable contribution from the point-of-care (POC) segment. These tests are easy to access and eliminate the requirement of skilled professionals.

The U.S. Market is Estimated at $5.2 Billion in 2021, While China is Forecast to Dwindle to $246.2 Million by 2026

The COVID-19 Testing market in the U.S. is estimated at US$5.2 Billion in the year 2021. China, the world`s second largest economy, is forecast to shrink to US$246.2 Million by the year 2026 trailing a negative CAGR of -30.1% over the analysis period. Among the other noteworthy geographic markets are Japan and Canada, each forecast to record negative CAGR of -10.7% and -9.8% respectively over the analysis period. Within Europe, Germany is forecast to decline at approximately -9.4% CAGR. The US is a key market and growth is driven by increasing cases of DELTA variant cases, technological advances, rising healthcare spending and presence of leading providers of COVID-19 testing kits. The US has emerged as the worst-hit nation globally, holding the highest number of confirmed cases of COVID-19. The crisis has prompted the US government to allocate huge funding to medical research units for expediting the development of new diagnostic tests and pushing up the testing capacity. Growth in the European market is attributable to continuous spread of the virus across several countries, which is poised to create strong demand for kits.

Nasopharyngeal Swab Segment to Contract to $4.1 Billion by 2026

Nasopharyngeal swabs are the preferred specimen option, with clinicians considering oropharyngeal swabs in case of unavailability of nasal swabs. The use of nasopharyngeal along with oropharyngeal swabs for testing maximizes test sensitivity while limiting resource usage. In the global Nasopharyngeal Swab (Specimen Type) segment, USA, Canada, Japan, China and Europe accounting for a combined market size of US$5.9 Billion in the year 2020 will shrink to US$2.2 Billion by the close of the analysis period. Led by countries such as Australia, India, and South Korea, the market in Asia-Pacific is forecast to reach US$752.7 Million by the year 2026. More

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SOURCE Global Industry Analysts, Inc.

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WASHINGTON, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- This Hispanic Heritage Month, SCORE, mentors to America's small businesses, is highlighting new resources to support Hispanic entrepreneurs, and offering volunteer opportunities for experienced Hispanic business owners.

A renovated centralized educational hub called SCORE for Hispanic Entrepreneurs offers personalized support and resources including:

This Hispanic Heritage Month, SCORE, mentors to America's small businesses, is highlighting new resources to support Hispanic entrepreneurs. Tweet this Hispanic-owned small businesses have grown 34% and contributed $500B to the U.S. economy over the last 10 years -- and show no signs of slowing down.

Educational content specially designed to support Hispanic entrepreneurs

Live webinars and original online workshops

Free, remote, expert business mentoring

Inspiring stories of Hispanic entrepreneurs who achieved their dreams

Entrepreneurs can access a Spanish-language version of the website at www.score.org/score-en-espanol.The website is easy to search and navigate, with hundreds of relevant resources for business owners.

Supporting Hispanic-Owned Businesses

Over the past 10 years, Hispanic-owned small businesses have grown 34% and contributed $500B to the U.S. economy, with no signs of slowing down.

SCORE's original survey data from The Megaphone of Main Street: The Impact of Covid-19, Impact on Hispanic-owned Small Businesses showed that Hispanic-owned businesses face unique barriers to success. In particular, they were significantly more likely to seek  but less likely to receive  outside funding from both public and private sources.

Leny Fralicker, owner of Elderberry Elixir of Fort Myers, Fla., was inspired to handcraft organic elderberry syrup to improve her son's respiratory condition. She created a fresh, clean version of elderberry syrup to support and strengthen the immune system. Fralicker worked with her SCORE mentor to streamline operations, hire a CPA, acquire permits and license a commercial kitchen.

Fralicker says her mentor, Mila Mukelova, "has been a profound encouragement to me. She has one of the most uplifting and inspiring personalities. There has not been one Zoom meeting that I leave without feeling motivated do better and achieve more... During the lows of running my small business, I have felt like I have someone who believes in me."

Volunteering With SCORE

SCORE is actively recruiting talented and experienced entrepreneurs and executives to become mentors, workshop presenters or subject matter experts. Volunteers come from a diverse variety of personal and professional backgrounds  but, they share a passion for lifelong learning, giving back to others and enriching their local communities.

SCORE's Hispanic Volunteer Committee is eager to welcome new volunteers who are passionate about supporting local entrepreneurs. A monthly networking call connects Hispanic volunteers across the nation, allowing them to share best business practices, deepen relationships and amplify their professional reputations.

Last year, SCORE volunteers collectively donated 3,980,987 hours of service to helping small business owners succeed.

SCORE Mentor Juan Carlos Gamarra of SCORE Cleveland said: "After watching my mother and other close family members trying to establish small businesses multiple times without success, I became driven to help. SCORE provides an important service for people who otherwise might have to face very tough challenges on their own."

Click here to learn more about volunteering with SCORE.

About SCORE

Since 1964, SCORE has helped 11 million entrepreneurs to start or grow a business. SCORE's 10,000 volunteers provide free mentoring, workshops and educational services to 1,500+ communities nationwide, creating 45,027 new businesses and 74,535 non-owner jobs in 2020 alone. Visit SCORE at www.score.org. Follow @SCOREMentors on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Funded [in part] through a Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Contact Information

Betsy Dougert

Vice President, External Relations

SCORE

800-634-0245

[email protected]

SOURCE SCORE

Related Links

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CLARE, Mich., Sept. 14, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Advanced Battery Concepts introduces HOME EMERGENCY ENERGY STORAGE to address the growing need by homeowners and small commercial businesses for safe, reliable, and cost-effective emergency power. The system, called "HEES" by company officials, relies on the innovative and patented GreenSeal batteries invented by Advanced Battery Concepts.

HEES Logo HEES Product

The company's focus in developing the Home Emergency Energy Storage system was "to employ an environmentally-friendly process using ethically sourced materials to provide homeowners with a safe, reliable, quiet and touch-free back-up power solution", according to the project mission statement.

Advanced Battery Concepts founder and CEO, Edward Shaffer, said "We accomplished this in a relatively short period of time thanks to our entire team and through utilization of our low volume production line designed specifically to supply batteries for the micro-grid energy storage market." ABC was assisted in assessing and analyzing the energy marketplace by members of the University of Michigan's Ross Business School "MAP" program. The Multidisciplinary Action Projects ("MAP") provided fresh perspectives on focused, in-depth analysis of the U.S. energy storage market. This data in conjunction with the 12-year development conducted by ABC which led to the invention of their unique bipolar battery and their state-of-the-art production facility in Clare, Michigan brought forth today's HEES roll-out.

The U.S. market for residential backup power, in 2021, represents a $1.3 billion opportunity shared among three categories: generators, fuel cells and battery systems -- the fastest growing segment, according to the University of Michigan study. In addition, market trends indicated an increasing demand for environmentally friendly technologies (e.g., battery-based and fuel-cell based) and a rise in "smart homes" and "smart home technology" further driving additional demand.

The Advanced Battery Concepts' HOME EMERGENCY ENERGY STORAGE system satisfies common customer needs including safety, reliability, cost, ease of installation, customer maintenance-free and self-sufficiency. The latter, "self-sufficiency", is a stated anxiety over power loss as identified by rural and suburban homeowners in recent studies.

The HEES system requires about eight square feet of interior space preferably located near the main circuit box. Once installed by a trained and certified HEES electrician, the system is always "ON". Storage is downstream from an in-bound electric inverter that helps maintain power storage until needed. When grid power is lost, the HEES system automatically delivers electricity to the household, office, or business, usually until grid power is restored. The system can provide up to 6kW and draws upon a storage reserve of 18 kWh to power critical loads. Run times can be up to two full days.

The HOME EMERGENCY ENERGY STORAGE system's batteries carry a manufacturer's warranty for 10 years. ABC's patented GreenSeal batteries' feature "bipolar construction", a unique approach that enables much greater production efficiencies with less environmental impacts than traditional storage batteries. Furthermore, GreenSeal batteries weigh less, provide superior lifecycle performance, charge faster and last longer other lead storage batteries.

The nuances of GreenSeal battery technology is not subtle. Not only does it deliver the numerous benefits to the consumer as an integral part of ABC's Home Emergency Energy Storage system but also to the manufacturer.

The manufacturing process itself exemplifies Advanced Battery Concepts' commitment "to employ an environmentally-friendly process using ethically sourced materials", as stated in the early stages of this projects' mission.

"Our automated facility in Clare, Michigan is like no other battery plant," said Michael Everett, ABC's Chief Operating Officer. "This is not the traditional battery plant. It doesn't look or smell like a battery factory. It is truly an assembly line where battery components are molded, snapped together, stacked, filled and sealed in a rather compact linear process," he added.

GreenSeal battery technology is not only the architecture and physical characteristics of the proprietary battery invention but includes a full complement of GreenSeal manufacturing processes that enable the reliable and efficient production of Advanced Battery Concepts patented bipolar batteries. "Our GreenSeal battery manufacturing facility in Clare Michigan is an advanced proving ground for robust scale manufacturing processes that efficiently enables continuous production of our batteries. Trending towards a zero emissions plant and adapting simple and effective industrial technologies, GreenSeal manufacturing is reliable, precise, clean and minimizes environmental impact of a lead acid plant to levels unattainable in traditional manufacturing plants. Low investment capital, smaller footprint, much reduced power consumption and significantly improved EH&S considerations are the hallmark of a GreenSeal factory," according to Mr. Everett.

With Advanced Battery Concepts' sustainability and recyclability commitments as fundamental components of their GreenSeal batteries and their Home Emergency Energy Storage system, the next step according to their CEO, Ed Shaffer is commercialization. "We recognized a growing need for safe and reliable backup power. We have that. We are taking the same measured and responsible steps we relied on during product development for the roll-out into the market. We will establish distribution within an initially limited geographic area so as to verify the functions and features of this unique energy storage solution. We have invested our time and resources to come this far. Early adopters of our HEES product will be very satisfied to have us as their backup," Shaffer stated.

About Advanced Battery Concepts:

As a global leader in bi-polar battery invention and manufacturing, the company has developed an extensive portfolio of patents and trade secrets, benefitting its licensees and other customers, termed GreenSeal Technology. This technology delivers improved battery performance at lower production costs for traditional lead-acid batteries while also enabling application to other advanced chemistries.

In the near future, Advanced Battery Concepts will look to change the energy storage industry again with its announcement of EverGreenSeal to greatly enhance battery technology, safety, increased sustainability, and production on a world-wide scale.

SOURCE Advanced Battery Concepts

Related Links

http://www.advancedbatteryconcepts.com


NEW YORK, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- According to new research study on "Hot Melt Glue Gun Market to 2028  Global Analysis and Forecast  by Gun Type and Application," the hot melt glue gun market was valued at US$ 477.64 million in 2020 and is projected to reach US$ 715.13 million by 2028; it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5.2% from 2021 to 2028. Advantages of hot melt glue guns over solvent-based adhesives or other fasteners in industrial applications are contributing to the market growth; however, the availability of other superior glue dispense tools or systems is impeding the market growth.

In 2020, Asia Pacific held the largest share of the global hot melt glue gun market, followed by North America. The growth of the hot melt glue gun market in Asia Pacific is mainly attributed to the rising adoption of these guns in packaging, electronics, construction, and automotive industries in countries such as China, Japan, and India. For instance, the food packaging industry has experienced tremendous growth in APAC in the past few years. Hot glue guns are used in folding boxes, trays, wraparounds, and other types of special shelf-ready packaging. They are also used in deep freeze packaging. The growing need for sustainable packaging solutions, along with the rising e-commerce industry, has further enhanced the demand for corrugated packaging solutions, which is supporting the hot melt glue gun market growth. The growing adoption in the disposable hygiene products (DHP) industry is another significant factor driving the hot melt glue gun market in APAC. The hot melt glue gun is used in making DHP products such as nappies, diapers, toilet paper, wipes, sanitary protection, kitchen towels, paper tableware, cotton pads, and buds. The rising consumer awareness regarding personal hygiene and well-being is expected to boost the sales of hot melt glue guns in the region.

Get Exclusive Sample Pages of Hot Melt Glue Gun Market - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis with Strategic Insights at https://www.theinsightpartners.com/sample/TIPRE00022626/

Advantages Over Solvent-Based Adhesives or Other Fasteners in Industrial Applications

Hot glue guns are portable adhesive dispensing devices that use and dispense hot melt adhesives. Hot melt thermoplastics were invented in the 1940s in the form of tubular sticks as an upgrade and improvement over water-based adhesives, which deteriorate when exposed to humidity. Hot glue guns are used to dispense industrial hot glue, which dries rapidly and strongly, minimizing the time taken for the completion of a product. Hot melt glue also has the advantage of not losing any thickness when drying. This makes it extremely useful in business projects such as woodworking. There are numerous varieties of industrial hot melt glue guns available to meet the needs of diverse industries. Hot melt adhesives can even be applied by dipping or spraying. Hot melt adhesives dispensed by the hot glue gun use water-based technology, in which water is utilized as a diluting medium and is intended to be absorbed by the substrate, thereby lowering volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions. Furthermore, since hot melt technology forms a quick bond, it is used in highly automated manufacturing processes such as packing, assembly, bookbinding, converting, and footwear. However, solvent-based adhesives are subjected to regulatory restrictions on solvent emissions, waste disposal, and manufacturing vapor levels. Many solvent solutions are combustible, requiring safety and health-management procedures. The advantages of hot melt glue guns over solvent-based adhesives or other fasteners in industrial applications are projected to propel the growth of the hot melt glue gun market.

Hot Melt Glue Gun Market: Segmental Overview

Based on gun type, the hot melt glue gun market is segmented into corded, cordless, and hybrid. The corded segment captured the largest share in the global market in 2020, and it is estimated to maintain its dominance during the forecast period. Corded guns are specifically designed to work for both heavy and light industrial applications. Most of the corded guns are compatible with hot melt sticks, hot melt slugs/cartridges, or even pellets; thus, they are preferred for use in vast applications, ranging from packaging to crafts and DIYs. They can be used by both industrial and retail customers. Corded hot melt glue guns are less expensive compared to cordless glue guns, and they are available in all sizes such as mini, generic, and big. Continuous upgrade in product specifications and technical features is expected to support the growth of the corded segment during the forecast period.

In terms of application, the global hot melt glue gun market is segmented into packaging, construction, automotive, furniture, footwear, electronics, and others. The packaging industry is among the major consumers of hot melt adhesives as they are used in manufacturing containers, carton side seam & closures, cups, tubes, bags, labels, specialty envelopes, films, disposables (non-woven), foil laminates, and corrugated boards. Hot glue guns are used to dispense hot glue in a precise manner. Depending on the packaging type, the settings of the hot melt glue gun such as temperature, power, amount, or speed of glue to be dispensed, can also be changed. Thus, convenience, easy operation, less time, and compact nature of hot melt glue guns are expected the drive their demand during the forecast period.

Download Sample PDF Brochure of Hot Melt Glue Gun Market Growth Research Report at https://www.theinsightpartners.com/sample/TIPRE00022626/

Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Hot Melt Glue Gun Market

In 2020, the hot glue gun market experienced moderate growth as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, followed by a minor decline in demand. The market is being disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic because of the slowdown of raw material production, supply chain instability, hampered trade movements, decrease in construction demand, and reduced demand for new projects. However, the demand for medical equipment, hygiene products, and food packaging has risen, owing to an increase in number of COVID-19 cases and the need for healthcare and quarantine buildings/units, which will positively impact the hot glue gun market. In addition, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has drastically altered the growth status of the hot melt glue gun market. The outbreak has distorted operational efficiency and disrupted the value chains due to the sudden shutdown of national and international boundaries, creating revenue loss and damage. The disturbed value chain has negatively impacted the raw material supply. However, as the economies are planning to revive their operations, the demand for hot melt glue guns is expected to rise globally in the coming months.

The impact of the pandemic on the hot melt glue gun market may vary depending on the industry. COVID-19 has had a greater impact on rapidly rising sectors such as medical, hygiene products, food packaging, and even construction in the majority of developing and developed nations around the world. Producers are expanding their production sites to capitalize on the low manufacturing rates and the COVID-19 outbreak. Due to the extreme halts in operations in the automobile industry, there will be a major decline in demand in the short term. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, European automakers had been forced to shut down their factories. Renault, PSA, and Flat Chrysler had to halt the production at their European plants to deal with the outbreak. Furthermore, as a result of factory shutdowns, the demand for hot glue guns has significantly decreased in Europe. However, the growing demand for hygiene products, food packaging, and electronics from APAC and North America has compensated for that loss. Hence, COVID-19 has had a nominal impact on the overall hot melt glue gun market.

Hot Melt Glue Gun Market: Competition Landscape and Key Developments

Ratiobond Klebesysteme Gmbh, Ellsworth Adhesives, 3M, Arkema, Deluxe Packaging, Ad Tech, Buehnen, Infinity Bond Adhesives, Surebonder, and Steinel are among the key companies operating in the hot melt glue gun market. The major players in the hot melt glue gun market are focused on strategies such as mergers and acquisitions and research and development to increase the geographical presence and consumer base globally.

Order a Copy of Hot Melt Glue Gun Market Shares, Strategies and Forecasts 2021-2028 Research Report at https://www.theinsightpartners.com/buy/TIPRE00022626/

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DALLAS, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Brainvire excitedly shared their latest achievement that they have entered the Inc. Magazine list of the fastest-growing companies in America. They have surpassed over 7 million competitors and successfully marked their position on the list.

It was an immensely tough battle for the digital enabler to enter and win this during a crucial pandemic situation. As per the Inc. Magazine, one of the significant reasons Brainvire was listed in this category was their consistent efforts to help businesses survive the odds with digital solutions.

In the last two years, they have showcased their caliber of designing and implementing high-end customized digital solutions for SMEs and large-scale enterprises.

Chintan Shah, the CEO, Brainvire, stated, "The pandemic was a tough phase internally as well as externally. All we did was to help thriving businesses with the best suitable digital solution for their enterprise. Brainers' immeasurable efforts are one of the reasons we could gain this recognition."

They have thrived across industry verticals, from preset template design applications to empower SMEs to a customized project management tool for media magnates. Alongside their technical expertise, they have a strong vision and foresight that preps businesses for the future. Hence, with Brainvire's collaboration, companies tend to offer tailored and appealing customer experiences.

One of the significant reasons for their win is their agile development approach, which has inspired their developers to craft business-friendly solutions suitable for different industries. Brainvire is also a proud Odoo Gold Partner, Adobe Commerce Partner, Magento Partner, Microsoft Gold Partner, Salesforce Partner, SAP Gold Partner, and AWS Partner.

Their aptitude created new job opportunities, and they hired employees from remote areas and spread a light of happiness.

Brainvire's state-of-the-pioneer digital solutions met distinct business requirements and led them to profitability and new opportunities.

About Brainvire

Brainvire is one of the world's fastest growing IT consulting firms, with a mission to create a difference in society through technology. Brainvire offers exclusive consultancy services such as Business Intelligence, Digital Marketing, Cloud ERP, CRM for E-commerce, etc., for diverse industry verticals while keeping customer satisfaction as its top priority. Over 2 decades, Brainvire has built a consulting team of 1500+ people and served 2000+ customers worldwide.

It has earned accolades such as 'Company of the Year,' 'Top IT Services Firm,' 'Top Mobile App Developers,' and 'Best eCommerce Development Companies' by various platforms.

Contact:

Name: Chintan Shah

Email: [email protected]

Number: +1 631 897 7276

SOURCE Brainvire Infotech Inc
SANTA MONICA, Calif., Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Inspire, a technology enabled clean energy company, announced that it has officially completed its acquisition agreement with Shell New Energies US LLC (Shell), a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell plc. As part of Shell, Inspire intends to accelerate its mission by scaling its offering of clean energy access to homes in the U.S.

"I couldn't be more excited to embark on this next chapter of Inspire's growth and innovation as part of Shell's Renewables and Energy Solutions portfolio," said Patrick Maloney, Founder & CEO of Inspire. "The planet is at a critical juncture and significant climate action is necessary. I am confident that, together with Shell, we will make the kind of impact needed to help mitigate the carbon emissions associated with the energy consumption of our customers."

Moving forward Inspire will be a wholly owned subsidiary of Shell and will retain its brand identity.

About Inspire

Inspire is a mission-driven, technology enabled clean energy company that subscribes people to a world where energy from renewable sources is a better choice for their home and the environment. With Inspire, members receive access to clean energy and peace of mind from a predictable price for their home's electricity supply. Founded in 2014, Inspire has made it easy for hundreds of thousands of people to support clean energy, and join the fight against climate change. Inspire, a certified B Corp, is a privately held company with headquarters in Santa Monica, CA and Philadelphia, PA.

About Royal Dutch Shell plc

Royal Dutch Shell plc is incorporated in England and Wales, has its headquarters in The Hague and is listed on the London, Amsterdam, and New York stock exchanges. Shell companies have operations in more than 70 countries and territories with businesses including oil and gas exploration and production; production and marketing of liquefied natural gas and gas to liquids; manufacturing, marketing and shipping of oil products and chemicals and renewable energy projects. For further information, visit www.shell.com .

Media Inquiries

Suzanne Seymour: [email protected]

Simone Schmidt: [email protected]

SOURCE Inspire

Related Links

inspirecleanenergy.com


Abyss received the grant to conduct feasibility testing and transform their space borne robotic inspection and intervention project into a next-gen technology that can be used in future NASA missions to the Moon and beyond.

Grants are part of a $150 million program announced last year to help local SMEs join the US government's public-private Moon to Mars space exploration program.

Abyss Solutions uses advanced robotics, intelligent algorithms, data analytics, and machine learning to revolutionise critical infrastructure management for the oil and gas, water, transport, maritime and defence industries.

Abyss is set to develop a preliminary design and prototype robotic sensor and intervention manipulator to undertake asset inspection and repairs for spaceborne operations.

"The project aims to apply Abyss' market-leading expertise in robotic inspection to the challenges of space to develop high value technology and services to the space industry," said Dr Lashika Medagoda, Abyss Head of R&D. "The project will produce valuable commercial insights, with plans for a launched demonstrator mission to show sustained commercial application."

"The Australian space sector's rapid expansion is driven by the intersection of research and industry," said Dr Xiaofeng Wu, University of Sydney's lead researcher and space engineering expert. "Through highly technical projects such as this, Australia can prove its worth as a valuable contributor to the global space effort."

Abyss CCO Masood Naqshbandi said Abyss was "thrilled to play a part in NASA's grand ambition to establish a sustainable presence on the Moon for missions to Mars."

"As ex-Sydney Uni, we're also looking forward to collaborating with the School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering and the Australian Centre for Field Robotics," he continued.

"We've always thought our pioneering technologies and products for the energy, infrastructure and marine industries had a clear application in space," he adds. "This is a brilliant opportunity to demonstrate it."

www.abysssolutions.com.au

For more media information, please contact Masood Naqshbandi on +1 832 425 3474 or [email protected].

SOURCE Abyss Solutions
Invisible Fence of South Carolina - Greater Columbia has been an authorized, full-service dealership of genuine Invisible Fence products and services since 1995. With the addition of the Invisible Fence of the Upstate dealership, Invisible Fence of South Carolina - Greater Columbia will now serve a total of 13,000 satisfied customers.

"We're so excited to expand our direct service in the Upstate region. We'll be able to extend our customer service hours and offer new and innovative solutions while providing the same high-level of attention customers have come to expect," said Ed Hoyt, Director of Invisible Fence Brand.

Acquiring Invisible Fence of the Upstate is the company's 13th acquisition of the year. The company just recently acquired Invisible Fence of Southern Pennsylvania and now has over 240 authorized dealers. Invisible Fence has the largest support network for pet containment in the US and Canada.

"The team from the Upstate dealership is passionate about working hard so owners can enjoy their pets more and worry less. With their passion and drive, we know they'll be a great asset to help us keep dogs and cats safe at home," said Hoyt.

Invisible Fence offers the most premier dog fence on the market including professional installation, Perfect Start Plus Training and exclusive Boundary Plus Technology. Highly recommended by veterinarians, dog trainers, animal behaviorists and other pet experts, Invisible Fence offers pet fences that can be customized for clients' unique needs.

Growing dealerships allows Invisible Fence to continue to support and be involved in their communities. Local animal shelter donations, adoption events and the Project Breathe Program are among some of the ways Invisible Fence of South Carolina - Greater Columbia will continue to contribute to local pet wellness.

For additional information or questions, customers can call 1-800-578-3647, visit InvisibleFence.com, and follow Invisible Fence of South Carolina - Greater Columbia on Facebook.

About Invisible Fence Brand

Invisible Fence pioneered the pet containment industry in 1973, making it their mission to provide safe boundaries inside and outside of the home. The Radio Systems Corporation owned company predominantly sells pet containment, avoidance and access solutions across the U.S. and Canada. In addition to offering award-winning products like Boundary Plus Technology, Authorized Dealers provide professional installation, Perfect Start Plus Training and integrated solutions that have protected more than three million pets to date. Invisible Fence also founded the Project Breathe Program in 2006, donating more than 32,000 pet oxygen masks to fire departments and first responders. For more information on Invisible Fence or to find a local dealer, visit InvisibleFence.com or follow the company on Facebook.

Contact: Courtney Gross

Email: [email protected]

Phone: (270) 217-7981

SOURCE Invisible Fence Brand

Related Links

https://www.invisiblefence.com/


WASHINGTON, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Goulston & Storrs, an Am Law 200 firm, is pleased to announce that Jennifer Jones has joined its Washington, D.C. office as a director in the firm's Real Estate Group. She brings 18 years of experience in sophisticated global real estate transactions to the firm. Prior to joining Goulston & Storrs, she was a shareholder at an Am Law 100 firm.

Jones' practice is focused on real estate matters including leasing, licensing, acquisitions and dispositions, development, management, and operations for retail, office, industrial, multifamily, and mixed-use properties. She represents developers, private equity investment firms, joint venture partners, property management companies, insurance companies, REITs, and co-working companies.

"We are very excited to have Jen join our D.C. office. Attracting and retaining the most talented industry leaders is an ongoing priority for our firm, and Jen is an ideal fit for our leading real estate practice. She will be part of an elite client service team and her broad expertise handling complex real estate deals will be a tremendous asset to our clients," said Bill Dillon, Co-Managing Director of Goulston & Storrs.

"I am thrilled to be joining one of the largest and most highly acclaimed real estate practices in the country," said Jones. "The depth and sophistication of Goulston & Storrs' real estate practice are as impressive as the collegial and collaborative culture that defines the firm. I look forward to working with the firm's world-class real estate team to service my clients at the highest levels."

Before becoming a lawyer, Jones was a commercial real estate property manager and consultant, experiences which inform her work as a strategic legal advisor.

She received her J.D. from Loyola University Chicago School of Law in 2003, her M.A. from George Washington University in 1999, and her B.A., cum laude, from Michigan State University in 1994.

About Goulston & Storrs

Collaboration is not just a pillar of our strategy; it is the key to our competitive advantage and approach to clients, community, and each other. At Goulston & Storrs, we practice law with excellence and integrity. We are a place where mutual respect and collaboration drive open discussion, transparency, creativity and optimal results for our clients. We are committed to being a diverse and inclusive workplace where sophisticated business is conducted with genuine camaraderie. To learn more about us, visit www.goulstonstorrs.com.

Contact:

Liz Sobe Amy Blumenthal Director of Strategic Growth Blumenthal & Associates PR Goulston & Storrs PC (617) 879-1511 (617) 574-0556 [email protected] [email protected]



SOURCE Goulston & Storrs PC

Related Links

https://www.goulstonstorrs.com


WASHINGTON, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Marshall Project , a nonprofit news organization covering the U.S. criminal justice system, will receive the National Press Club Journalism Institute's 2021 Neil and Susan Sheehan Award for Investigative Journalism.

Through award-winning journalism, The Marshall Project has revealed fundamental flaws within the criminal justice system and engages millions of people whose lives have been ensnared in it . Recent accolades for its work include the 2021 Pulitzer Prize in the National Reporting category for " Mauled: When Police Dogs Are Weapons ," and the 2021 Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting and a Harry Frank Guggenheim Award for Excellence in Criminal Justice for coverage on the Mississippi prison system .

The Marshall Project partners with national and local media outlets to reach diverse audiences and produces deeply researched narratives with resource-strapped newsrooms. Its work informs criminal justice experts, policymakers, elected officials, and other journalists.

"The Marshall Project's ability to humanize the issue of criminal justice reform is unmatched, as is its commitment to reporting on prisons, policing, mental health, and racial and economic inequities," said Angela Greiling Keane, president of the National Press Club Journalism Institute and managing editor, states at POLITICO. "While we're recognizing The Marshall Project for its recent work, it has been producing impactful journalism since its founding in 2015, setting the standard for covering criminal justice."

Each year, the Neil and Susan Sheehan Award for Investigative Journalism recognizes work that best reflects the Sheehans' extraordinary commitment to the principle that a vibrant democracy depends on an informed citizenry and a free press. The award promotes the practice of investigative journalism exemplifying compassion, courage, and integrity.

"All of us at The Marshall Project are honored and delighted to receive this award named for the Sheehans, models of great investigative journalism," said Susan Chira , editor-in-chief of The Marshall Project. "In this year of pandemic and racial reckoning, our entire team pulled together to highlight abuses in the criminal justice system. We are grateful for this recognition of our work."

The Institute will confer the 2021 Sheehan Award during the virtual portion of its annual Fourth Estate Award Gala on Oct. 20 . This virtual celebration also will recognize the John Aubuchon Press Freedom Award honorees: Haze Fan, a Chinese citizen who has been detained in Beijing while working for Bloomberg, and Danny Fenster, the managing editor of Frontier Myanmar who has been jailed in Myanmar since May 24.

Following the virtual event, an in-person gala will honor NBC News' Lester Holt with the National Press Club's signature Fourth Estate Award.

The event is a fundraiser for the Journalism Institute, the nonprofit affiliate of the National Press Club. Financial support for the Sheehan Award is provided by a generous endowment from long-time friends of the Sheehans who wish to remain anonymous. Neil Sheehan is the author of "A Bright Shining Lie," which won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction in 1989. Susan Sheehan is the author of eight works of nonfiction. In 1983, she received a Pulitzer Prize for "Is There No Place on Earth For Me?"

The Sheehan Award was given in 2020 to Ed Yong , the staff writer at The Atlantic who has shaped our collective understanding of the coronavirus and its impact; in 2019 to Julie K. Brown , the Miami Herald journalist who gave voice to Jeffrey Epstein's long-ignored victims and prompted a legal re-examination of Epstein's predatory behavior and the culture that enabled it; and in 2018 to New York Times reporters Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey for their reporting on Harvey Weinstein, which elevated the #MeToo movement.

For information on Fourth Estate sponsorship opportunities or to purchase tickets, please click here or contact Julie Moos, Executive Director of the National Press Club Journalism Institute at [email protected].

The National Press Club Journalism Institute promotes an engaged global citizenry through an independent and free press, and equips journalists with skills and standards to inform the public in ways that inspire civic engagement. The National Press Club, the world's leading professional organization for journalists, represents more than 3,000 reporters, editors and professional communicators worldwide.

Contact: Julie Moos, executive director, [email protected]

SOURCE National Press Club

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LONDON, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Kamikoto, a prestigious Japanese knife brand, has won the "Best Japanese Steel Knives, Japan" for 2021. The felicitation ceremony will be held at the Palm Jumeirah  Waldorf Astoria in early 2022 in Dubai.

The Global Brand Awards is an annual event held by Global Brands Magazine (GBM), an international publication headquartered in the UK. The award aims to recognise global brands achieving excellence in performance across a broad range of sectors while keeping its readers updated on the branding world's key trends.

Commenting on Kamikoto winning the awards, Shiv Kumar (CEO) of Global Brands magazine said, "Not only are their knives sharp, but Kamikoto's brand is certainly a formidable one to dice with. Whilst competitors have cut corners of their game despite the odds stacked against them."

Commenting on winning the award, Tsuyoshi Inagaki (Customer Relationship Manager) said, "We are deeply honoured and humbled to receive this award. We will continue to strive to meet the requirements of our clientele and ensure we don't compromise on the rigorous quality standards."

About Kamikoto

Kamikoto handcrafts knives from Japanese steel. Each Kamikoto knife is handcrafted with precise attention and care, employing traditional skills handed down by expert knifemakers through the centuries. Kamikoto is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, and sources its steel from select and carefully chosen steel mills on Honshu  island of Japan, from the prefectures of Niigata , Ibaraki and Kanagawa , among others. Kamikoto knives are solemn blades made for a lifetime, crafted for chefs and knife enthusiasts. Kamikoto is the #1 choice of some of the best chefs in the world working in Michelin star restaurants worldwide.

Each Kamikoto knife goes through a rigorous 19-step process that takes several years from start to finish to complete. With more than 100 years of experience between them, our expert bladesmiths handcraft knives using traditional techniques perfected over generations of knifesmiths, polishing and sharpening our blades to an excruciatingly fine edge. Each blade is inspected individually before it leaves our workshop, ensuring that every Kamikoto knife stays true to the legacy of crafting single-bevel Japanese steel knives of exceptional quality. Kamikoto knives are a study in skill; you feel the spirit of the craft in every piece.

Kamikoto appreciates that a good product is incomplete without excellent service. Our work does not end with the craftsmanship of a flawless blade. Understanding and anticipating a client's needs is integral to the Japanese spirit of omotenashi, or the philosophy of selfless hospitality. Kamikoto's goal is to respond to clients' needs clearly and quickly, delivering the same high quality in Kamikoto  service as is found in Kamikoto  products; and to strive to see things from our client's perspective as well as from our own.

"While the world around us has moved to less exacting production techniques, Kamikoto  has stayed true to its original values based on craftsmanship and quality."

About Global Brands Magazine (England)

Global Brands Magazine (GBM) has been at the forefront, bringing news, views and opinions on brands shaping the future of their industry. The UK-based magazine provides its readers with the latest news and information on 'best-in-class brands across the globe. Each year, GBM develops a series of awards for companies that stood out, having a unique vision, exceptional service, innovative solutions and consumer-centric products among their industry leaders.

About Global Brand Awards

Global Brand Awards honours brands for their excellence in performance and rewards companies across different sectors for the quality of their services. The Brand Awards highlight the accomplishments of organisations that have performed remarkably well in finance, education, hospitality, automotive, lifestyle, education, real estate, technology, and more. Global Brand Awards recognise vital players who progress towards excellence by providing a platform to acknowledge their efforts. In addition, GBM strives to create awareness concerning the significance of such organisations and rewards them for their notable efforts with the ultimate global recognition.

SOURCE Global Brands Publications Limited
"The Wiseman Bourbon is an artful balance of soft wheat and spicy high-rye that provides a smooth but complex bourbon designed to drink neat, on the rocks or in a cocktail," said John Rhea, Kentucky Owl Master Blender. "The product leads with a beautiful caramel flavor and aroma followed by notes of allspice, citrus fruit and a nudge of oak."

This is the first Kentucky Owl release under Rhea, who began in June. Rhea previously served as Four Roses Distillery's chief operating officer, where his responsibilities included quality control, maturation, evaluation and product blending. He was inducted into the Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame in 2016 and served as chair of the Kentucky Distillers' Association board of directors.

"The Wiseman is the beginning of the next chapter for Kentucky Owl and Stoli Group," said Damian McKinney, Global CEO of Stoli Group. "As a family of exceptional brands, we are continuing to evolve, innovate and grow across all segments of the spirits market."

Stoli Group, the leading global ultra-premium spirits and wine company, purchased Kentucky Owl in 2017. Originally founded by C.M. Dedman in 1879, the Kentucky Owl Bardstown distillery went dark during the Prohibition era and remained dormant until a descendent revived the brand in 2014. Since then, the company's small batch releases have sold out quickly and received rave reviews.

The Wiseman Bourbon (90.8 proof/45.4% ABV, $60/750mL) is the latest addition to the Kentucky Owl portfolio, with its last blended bourbon, Confiscated, released in 2019. The Wiseman will soon be available through a limited number of fine retailers across the distillery's national distribution footprint.

Click here for high-resolution photos.

About Kentucky Owl:

Founded in 1879 by C.M. Dedman, Kentucky Owl offers an artfully blended line of craft bourbons and ryes, each bottled at barrel proof for the truest expression of whiskey. Kentucky Owl is for those who appreciate high quality, attention to detail, craftsmanship and authentic heritage. For more information, visit kentuckyowlbourbon.com.

About Stoli Group

Stoli Group was established in 2013 and is responsible for the production, management, and distribution of SPI's global spirits portfolio. Mainly known for the Stolichnaya Vodka brand, Stoli Group has expanded its portfolio in recent years to appeal to premium on-premise and more sophisticated global consumers. Signature brands are: Stoli Vodka, Elit Vodka, Bayou Rum, Kentucky Owl, Villa One, Gator Bite Rum Liquers, Cenote Tequila, and Se Busca Mezcal. With a presence across a network of more than 176 markets, Stoli Group works with a passionate team of 200 distributors around the world. Headquartered in Luxembourg, Stoli has production facilities in Spain, Italy, Argentina, and the United States some of which are steeped in history dating back to the early part of the last century. For more information, visit stoli-group.com .

Contact: Tracy Green

[email protected]

(502) 614-5994

Or Sallie Greco

[email protected]

(502) 614-5998

Estes Public Relations

More on Facebook | Twitter

SOURCE Stoli Group

Related Links

https://stoli-group.com


SPARK is a sustainable, global energy hub in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province. The mega project, which spans over 50 square kilometres, is a manufacturing, service center and logistics hub for the energy sectors and is an integral part of the Saudi Vision 2030. SPARK will create significant employment, further diversify the economy, and attract additional foreign investment into the Kingdom.

Mr. Mohammed Y. Al-Qahtani, Chairman of SPARK, summarised the significance of the agreement: "We are so proud to give investors another reason to do business at SPARK. Hutchison Ports is a world class ports and terminal operator, and the step we take together today will give SPARK's investors ease of access to local and global markets. Furthermore, the logistic hubs will also serve the eastern region and its industrial cities. It will also help us fulfil our IKTVA promise to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the world by giving local manufacturers the physical infrastructure they need."

Group Managing Director of Hutchison Ports, Mr. Eric Ip, added: "Saudi Arabia is an important market and we are very excited to participate in this ambitious, game-changing mega project. As the world's leading port group, we will leverage our logistics expertise to create value and competitiveness for the tenants of SPARK."

Commenting at the ceremony, Mr. Saif Al Qahtani, SPARK President and CEO said: "Our partnership with Hutchison Ports marks an important milestone in the ongoing development of SPARK. The dry port and logistics zone will be the key to unlocking the potential of our strategic location in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia, a region which is known for its unmatched oil and gas resources. We are tremendously excited to work with Hutchison Ports to help connect our investors to the world, allowing them to operate efficiently and save on transport times and costs."

SPARK's first phase is divided into a number of clusters: logistics zone, industrial hub, business district, digital hub, and residential and commercial areas. The dedicated three-square-kilometre dry port and logistics zone will include warehouses and storage facilities, a bonded area and on-site customs clearance.

Notes to the Editor:

Hutchison Ports is the ports and related services division of CK Hutchison Holdings Limited. Hutchison Ports is the world's leading port investor, developer and operator with a network of port operations in 52 ports spanning 26 countries throughout Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, the Americas and Australasia. Over the years, Hutchison Ports has expanded into other logistics and transportation-related businesses, including cruise ship terminals, distribution centres, rail services and ship repair facilities.

In 2020, Hutchison Ports handled a combined throughput of 83.7 million TEU.

For more information, please visit www.hutchisonports.com.

About King Salman Energy Park (SPARK)

King Salman Energy Park (SPARK) is a fully integrated industrial ecosystem. SPARK spans an area of 50 square kilometres and is being developed with a vision to become the leading gateway to the regional energy sector, providing a complete spectrum of solutions to support business growth in the Kingdom. SPARK is also the first and only industrial city in the world to achieve silver LEED certification.

SPARK offers infrastructure at international standards for global investors in the oil and gas, refining, petrochemical, power and water production and treatment industries.

Execution is planned over three phases. SPARK has completed 80% of its first phase, which consists of infrastructure, roads, utilities and real estate assets established across 14 square kilometres; phase one is set to be completed in 2021. This is in addition to a dedicated three-square kilometres dry port and logistics zone.

www.spark-ksa.com

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1626778/SPARK_Hutchison_Ports_1.jpg

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1626779/SPARK_Hutchison_Ports_2.jpg

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1626942/SPARK_Hutchison_Ports_3.jpg

SOURCE King Salman Energy Park (SPARK); Hutchison Ports
"Our research indicates this may be the largest student housing portfolio delivered in terms of beds and valuation at one time in the U.S., and perhaps globally," said Landmark President and CEO Wes Rogers. "Our vertically integrated development, construction and leasing team has done a remarkable job of delivering high-quality, well-located products for students across America. These projects were delivered on time and on budget despite challenges presented by the global pandemic, and that is a credit to our team."

Rogers added that Landmark's full portfolio is in a strong position. "Overall, and especially in top markets, the student housing market is proving resilient to COVID-19 as an asset class."

The company, which executed a large recapitalization of several assets with Blackstone in mid-August, also recently acquired a three-property portfolio in Athens totaling 867 beds in partnership with Silverpeak. The properties  Archer on North, The Redland, and Woodsong Village  were built in 1984, 1988 and 2001, respectively. All are well located within close-proximity to campus and are all 100 percent occupied for the 2021-2022 academic-year.

"We will continue to seek well-located assets that we can acquire below replacement cost in target markets," said Rogers. "Each of these properties has been well maintained, and we look forward to deploying our management expertise to generate significant efficiency and return in the years ahead."

The purchase highlights the significant strength of the student rental market in Athens. According to Axiometrics, all off-campus student housing properties in Athens have a weighted occupancy of

98.3 percent, with a projected average occupancy through 2024 of 98.7 percent.

About Landmark Properties

Ranked as the nation's most active student housing developer and top student housing contractor, Landmark Properties is a vertically integrated developer and owner-operator with over $7.7 billion of assets under management. Landmark's current portfolio includes more than 80 student housing properties across the country and over 51,400 beds, including over $2.3 billion in assets currently under construction. For additional information, visit www.landmarkproperties.com.

SOURCE Landmark Properties

Related Links

http://www.landmarkproperties.com


ATLANTA, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- LYNX Franchising, a multi-brand franchise platform with a complementary collection of B2B essential services, recently announced that they have partnered with Outdoor Living Brands, a leading franchisor in the outdoor residential services sector. LYNX Franchising is a portfolio company of MidOcean Partners , a leading private equity firm with an excellent track record investing in successful, growth-focused franchise businesses. The investment in Outdoor Living Brands is a formational element of a diversification strategy by LYNX to expand their offerings beyond commercial services into residential home services.

"We are thrilled to invest in Outdoor Living Brands, as it is a leading franchise company with an excellent track record investing in successful residential services businesses," said LYNX Franchising CEO Russ Reynolds. "Outdoor Living Brands will serve as the residential home services platform and leadership team within the LYNX organization, expanding our offerings and providing a foundation upon which to add additional residential services to our portfolio."

LYNX operates three leading franchise systems that provide commercial services including JAN-PRO , FRSTeam , and Intelligent Office . JAN-PRO is a commercial cleaning franchise system and one of the world's largest players in that sector. Intelligent Office offers professionally staffed, office space and services for entrepreneurs, small businesses, and corporate clients. FRSTeam provides restoration of fabrics, electronics and household contents, helping families and businesses recover from disasters such as smoke, fire, water, and mold. Collectively, these three brands have grown to nearly $700M in system revenues with franchisees across the United States, Canada and a growing number of international markets.

"We are excited about what this partnership means for our future. Our primary mission will be to continue to drive the strong growth of the Archadeck, Outdoor Lighting Perspectives, and Conserva Irrigation franchise systems," said Outdoor Living Brands CEO, Chris Grandpre. "In addition, Outdoor Living Brands will continue to look for opportunities to develop and incubate new franchise concepts in a 'greenfield' approach as we have accomplished with Mosquito Squad and Conserva Irrigation. In addition, together with LYNX and MidOcean, we are already exploring acquisition opportunities that align with our strategic focus on home services. We appreciate having Boxwood Partners advise us through this process to help position Outdoor Living Brands for continued growth as part of the LYNX organization."

Chris Grandpre will step out of the CEO role to join the LYNX Franchising board of directors. Scott Zide, President and COO of Outdoor Living Brands, will continue to lead the brands in partnership with the LYNX executive team. Zide has been a key part of every strategic decision that Outdoor Living Brands has made since the company was formed in 2008 and as a former franchisee, he has made it a priority to bring the voice of the franchisee into every decision.

"We are thrilled to be joining the LYNX Franchising team and are confident that our combined experiences in franchising will help us support the continued growth and success of our existing franchisees, as well as create new opportunities for Outdoor Living Brands to invest in additional residential services franchise concepts," said Zide.

Together, LYNX Franchising and Outdoor Living Brands' mission is to help people realize their dreams of business ownership through service industry franchising. The company is committed to continually innovating a reliable, best in class mentoring, and support framework to help its franchises and associates grow and prosper. The company is dedicated to providing its franchises a professional environment of integrity, trust, and mutual respect that nurtures strong, lasting, and mutual relationships within its network of owners and associates.

About Outdoor Living Brands

Outdoor Living Brands is the market-leading franchisor of premium residential and commercial outdoor living services with three established national brands including, Archadeck, Outdoor Lighting Perspectives and Conserva Irrigation. The company's core franchise service offerings focus on designing and building outdoor living environments, providing architectural landscape lighting and holiday lighting services, and offering water-efficient irrigation system design, installation, repair and maintenance services. Each of its businesses are positioned within growing, non-fad industries where the service needs to be performed locally, protecting franchisees from the risk of the transaction moving online or offshore.

About LYNX Franchising

LYNX Franchising is a leading multi-brand franchise platform focused on B2B services offering commercial cleaning, fabrics and electronics restoration, and virtual office service and space solutions through its three brands: JAN-PRO, FRSTeam, and Intelligent Office. The Company's geographic reach and over 8,000 franchised and company-owned locations creates a national platform that is recognized as one of the leading franchisors in the industry. LYNX Franchising is headquartered in Alpharetta, Georgia. For more information, please visit www.lynxfranchising.com.

Contact: Cody O'Hara, (859) 547-7010, [email protected]

SOURCE LYNX Franchising
PLAYA DEL CARMEN, Mexico, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Playa del Carmen's Mahekal Beach Resort continues to add to its impressive industry distinctions after begin recognized as the No. 5 Resort in Mexico and one of the "Top 100 Hotels in the World" (no. 76) as voted by Travel + Leisure readers globally for the magazine's annual World's Best Awards.

"We couldn't be more proud of earning such a coveted accolade; it is an honor to continue being recognized by our loyal guests for the uniqueness of the resort and the genuine, one-of-a-kind, guest-oriented service associates this beloved property has become known for," said Lamont Meek, Co-Owner and General Manager of Mahekal Beach Resort. "Although it has been a challenging year for the travel and hospitality industry, we want to celebrate this achievement and our team's commitment to consistently delivering authentic yet magical moments."

Known as one of the most sought-after awards in the travel industry, Travel + Leisure's prestigious survey allows readers across the world to define excellence in hospitality and tourism, ranking properties on various characteristics including accommodations, location, service, food and value. The list of World's Best Awards winners is available digitally at www.travelandleisure.com/worlds-best and will also appear within the October 2021 issue of Travel + Leisure magazine.

This recognition accompanies additional accolades the authentic beachfront resort has received over the years, including placement within Conde Nast Traveler's "Top 20 resorts in eastern Mexico," Successful Meetings Pinnacle Awards, Luxury Travel Guide Awards, inclusion within Robb Report Mexico's "Best of the Best," and many more.

Nestled between the dense Riviera Maya jungle and Playa del Carmen's longest stretch of beach, lies Mahekal Beach Resort, located on the largest and most ecological piece of land, totaling roughly 18 acres. This "Tulum style" resort is the only property of its kind in Rivera Maya - unlike other high-rise, corridor hotels, elevators are not found at Mahekal, and the buildings are not much taller than the palm trees surrounding them. Hand-laid, hidden stone pathways lead to 196 private, palapa-style bungalows, all steps from the sweeping, sandy beach, complete with open-air terraces, crochet hammocks, personal plunge pools or outdoor moon showers. This authentic, raw-luxe retreat embodies a Swiss Family Robinson feel with high-end finishes and touches of Mayan culture. Greeted with crisp Caribbean scents, lush vegetation and colorful bougainvillea, Mahekal offers a memorable, magical escape with on-property amenities including four sparkling swimming pools, a seaside hot tub, a Mayan-inspired Revive Spa and fitness center, Dive Center, as well as five restaurants and bars. The ultimate coastal experience is complete with a carefree, bohemian atmosphere, the look and feel of Mexico's traditional past with thrilling adventures nearby.

For more information on Mahekal Beach Resort, visit www.mahekalbeachresort.com or call toll-free 1(877) 235 4452. To engage with the resort socially, visit Facebook.com/mahekalbeachresort or find us on Twitter at @MahekalPlaya or on Instagram at @mahekal_beach_resort.

For More Media Information:

Anna Peterson

The Zimmerman Agency

850.668.2222/ [email protected]

SOURCE Mahekal Beach Resort

Related Links

https://www.mahekalbeachresort.com


www.spendedge.com/report/management-consulting-services-sourcing-and-procurement-intelligence-report

Frequently Asked Questions:

What are the major market threats for Management Consulting Services Market?

The pressure from substitutes and a moderate level of threat from new entrants has resulted in the moderate bargaining power of suppliers.

Who are the top players in the market?

IBM Corp., Boston Consulting Group Inc., Gartner Inc., Bain & Co. Inc., and BDO International Ltd are some of the major market participants.

What are the pricing models followed by buyers?

Fixed pricing model, and time and material pricing models are some of the widely adopted pricing models in commercial vehicle cabin procurement.

What will be incremental spend in Management Consulting Services?

The procurement market will register an incremental spend of about USD 83.78 Billion, during 2020-2024.

What is the expected price change in Management Consulting Services procurement?

During the forecast period, the price for Management Consulting Services procurement will increase by 2%-4%.

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Key Insights Provided in the Management Consulting Services Research Report:

What are the changes expected in the price forecast report?

Is my Management Consulting Services TCO (total cost of ownership) favorable?

Is my Management Consulting Services TCO (total cost of ownership) favorable?

Which pricing models offer the most rewarding opportunities?

Key trends and drivers in this market

Table of Content

Executive Summary

Market Insights

Category Pricing Insights

Cost-saving Opportunities

Best Practices

Category Ecosystem

Category Management Strategy

Category Management Enablers

Suppliers Selection

Suppliers under Coverage

US Market Insights

Category scope

Appendix

About SpendEdge:

SpendEdge shares your passion for driving sourcing and procurement excellence. We are the preferred procurement market intelligence partner for 120+ Fortune 500 firms and other leading companies across numerous industries. Our strength lies in delivering robust, real-time procurement market intelligence reports and solutions.

To know more: https://www.spendedge.com/request-for-demo

Contacts:

SpendEdge

Anirban Choudhury

Marketing Manager

Ph No: +1 (872) 206-9340

https://www.spendedge.com/contact-us

SOURCE SpendEdge

Related Links

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"Mitsubishi Motors' participation in the Rebelle Rally is first and foremost about our partnership with Record the Journey and supporting Rachael Ridenour and the charity she founded to help military veterans," said Mark Chaffin, Chief Operating Officer, Mitsubishi Motors North America, Inc. (MMNA). "This year, in addition to supporting two veterans who honorably served, we're breaking ground with Mason and Erin competing with Sammy to raise awareness for PTSD and the potentially life-saving work that trained service dogs do. We couldn't be more proud to see the three of them in their 2022 Outlander, and celebrating one of Mitsubishi Motors' most significant Dakar wins."

MMNA and RTJ have broken new ground at the Rebelle each year and are poised to do it again. Starting in 2019  when the brand first partnered with RTJ as part of MMNA's "Small Batch  Big Impact" social-good program  Team RTJ finished second in the Rebelle's CUV class with the event's first ever adaptive athlete  U.S. Air Force veteran Karah Behrend  at the wheel of a Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross.

In 2020, MMNA and RTJ marked another first for the Rebelle, competing in a Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, the first plug-in hybrid electric vehicle ever to complete the grueling multi-day event. This year, MMNA and RTJ will again make history in the wilds of Nevada and Southern California, when Sammy will become the first four-footed Rebelle.

"Record the Journey couldn't be more grateful for the support that Mitsubishi Motors and our other partners have provided to enable military veterans to have this life-changing  and life-affirming  experience," said retired U.S. Army Sergeant Major and RTJ Founder Ridenour. "And this year is particularly important, as Sammy joins Mason and Erin to bring focus to PTSD and the important role that service dogs play for our returning heroes."

MMNA recently shared a rendering of the vehicle that will carry Erin, Mason and Sammy through the 2021 Rebelle Rally October 7-16. The Outlander's special paint scheme pays tribute to a history-making Dakar Rally win twenty years ago, when Jutta Kleinschmidt drove a Mitsubishi Pajero to victory in 2001, becoming the only woman ever to win the world-famous Dakar. This was only one of Mitsubishi's 12 overall wins in the world's most rugged motorsport competition, and the first of seven in a row.

In addition to honoring the 20th anniversary of Kleinschmidt's momentous win, MMNA is also celebrating the brand's 40th anniversary in the United States this year.

Alongside Mitsubishi Motors North America, Ally Financial, Inc., BFGoodrich Tires, Nextbase Dash Cams and Vision Wheel are partnering with Team RTJ this year, and Skout's Honor Pet Supply Co. is providing special support to Sammy.

About Mitsubishi Motors North America, Inc.

Through a network of approximately 330 dealer partners across the United States, Mitsubishi Motors North America, Inc., (MMNA) is responsible for the sales, marketing and customer service of Mitsubishi Motors vehicles in the U.S. MMNA was the top-ranked Japanese brand in the J.D. Power 2021 Initial Quality Study. In its Environmental Targets 2030, MMNA's parent company Mitsubishi Motors Corporation has set a goal of a 40 percent reduction in the CO2 emissions of its new cars by 2030 through leveraging EVs  with PHEVs as the centerpiece  to help create a sustainable society.

With headquarters in Franklin, Tennessee, and corporate operations in California, Georgia, Michigan, New Jersey, Texas, Florida and Virginia, MMNA directly and indirectly employs more than 8,000 people across the United States.

For more information on Mitsubishi vehicles, please contact the Mitsubishi Motors News Bureau at 615- 257-2698 or visit media.mitsubishicars.com.

Contacts

Jeremy Barnes

Senior Director, Communications and Events

[email protected]

Mobile: 714-296-1402

Lauren Ryan

Manager, Communications and Events

[email protected]

Mobile: 404-862-8286

SOURCE Mitsubishi Motors North America, Inc.
WASHINGTON, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The following is a statement from NASA Administrator Bill Nelson on National Aerospace Week, hosted by Aerospace Industries Sept. 13-17. This week recognizes innovations from aerospace manufacturers, suppliers, and workforce.

"As we mark the 11th anniversary of National Aerospace Week, the Biden-Harris Administration and NASA commemorate the U.S. aerospace and defense community's innovative history and recognizes the industry's role to build back better.

"The story of the U.S. aerospace and defense industry is one of overcoming what was once thought to be impossible, from aircraft that connect the world to the technological breakthroughs that allow Americans to explore the heavens. The partnership between government and industry makes these achievements possible and creates a relentless spirit of American ingenuity.

"Today, technologies once developed in NASA's facilities are used in every U.S. aircraft  commercial and military  and every air traffic control facility, to keep the crowded skies safe. Today, technologies developed to power America to the Moon under Apollo are used by industries across the world to help make spaceflight more accessible. Today, the technology spinoffs we enjoy each day can be attributed to our investment in aerospace and defense. And soon NASA and its partners will return astronauts to the Moon including the first woman and first person of color under Artemis. These missions will help prepare America for humanity's next giant leap  sending astronauts to explore Mars, and the nation will again reap the benefits of our investment in aerospace.

"In an era where nations are striving to invest more than us, the greatest secret in our playbook that can outcompete anyone or any country is the American worker. The crown jewel of the U.S. aerospace and defense industry is our unmatched workforce, made up of more than two million American workers. These are jobs that let Americans do more than get by, they help our workers get ahead with salaries and benefits more than 40% higher than the national average. When we invest in this industry, we create good-paying jobs and build back better, growing an economy from the bottom up and from the middle out.

"This highly skilled workforce demonstrates America leads not by the example of our power, but by the power of our example. The aerospace industry is confronting the growing threat of climate change. Right now, NASA is partnering with industry, academia, and other federal agencies through the Sustainable Flight National Partnership to meet the aviation community's aggressive international carbon reduction goals. The iconic centerpiece of this partnership will be a full-scale technology demonstrator X-plane built to test an ultra-efficient aerodynamic design and possibly other new technologies. Technological ingenuity and environmental sustainability are not mutually exclusive. They're vital to America's future.

"The Biden-Harris Administration, NASA, and the aerospace and defense industry also share a commitment to preparing tomorrow's workforce today. Students have returned to classrooms and college campuses across America. Together, we are making sure a quality education  especially a STEM education  is accessible for all students.

"The future is going to be determined by the best minds in the world, by those who break through new barriers. It has never been a good bet to bet against America. The aerospace and defense industry proves that. Nothing is beyond our capacity when we are unified. We are working again. We are dreaming again. We are discovering again."

For information about NASA's missions, discoveries, and activities, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov

SOURCE NASA

Related Links

http://www.nasa.gov


"Kidney disease affects an estimated 37 million adults, but 90% are unaware they have it because it's a silent killer with no symptoms during the early stages of the disease," said Kevin Longino, NKF Chief Executive Officer and a kidney transplant patient. "Most people are also unaware of the link between the five risk factors and kidney disease, so the first step to preventing kidney disease is understanding your risk and speaking with your doctor about getting tested. Having kidney disease also puts you at greater risk of developing life-threatening complications from COVID-19 , so learning your level of kidney health is extremely important."

Actor, activist, producer, and entrepreneur Wilmer Valderrama has led the awareness efforts as a national spokesperson with a thought-provoking social media campaign and broadcast PSAs available in both English and Spanish focusing on the 1 in 3 American adults at risk for kidney disease. For the last two years, Valderrama also participated in NKF's Kidney Patient Summits (held virtually due to the pandemic) that brings hundreds of kidney advocates together each year to meet with their congressional delegations and advocate for action on legislation that affects the lives of those with kidney disease. Patient advocates consistently emphasize the importance of preventing and treating kidney disease given its impact on people of color.

"Given the significant burden of this illness, it's troubling to me that more adults in the U.S. are not aware of kidney disease," said Wilmer Valderrama. "That's why I'm proud to lend my voice to promote awareness and early detection of kidney disease, especially in traditionally underserved communities."

During NKF events Valderrama shared his personal connection to these diseases revealing that several of his close family members have both diabetes and high blood pressure, two of the most common risk factors for developing kidney disease. Having high blood sugar from diabetes can cause damage inside your kidneys, so it's important to control your glucose levels. Having uncontrolled high blood pressure over time can cause arteries around the kidneys to narrow, weaken or harden. These damaged arteries are not able to deliver enough blood to the kidney tissue, which can cause kidney disease.

"Kidney disease is a public health crisis that could affect everyone at some point in their lives," said Dr. Sylvia E. Rosas, NKF President-elect and a nephrologist and epidemiologist at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston Ma. "Everyone needs to know if they're the 33% of U.S. adults at risk for developing kidney disease, particularly if they are dealing with any of the five risk factors and the unique challenges present for each of those diseases. Take the simple, one-minute quiz at MinuteForYourKidneys.org to help promote kidney health in your family."

Heart disease can directly affect your chances of getting kidney disease because the heart and kidneys work together to keep you healthy and alive. The heart pumps blood filled with oxygen through all parts of your body, including the kidneys. Not maintaining a healthy bodyweight can also put you at greater risk for diabetes, kidney disease, heart disease, and a host of other problems. And lastly, a family history of kidney disease can raise your chances of getting the disease.

"Approximately 785,000 Americans have kidney failure and need dialysis or a kidney transplant to survive," added Dr. Rosas. "We must urgently transform understanding risk into taking actions to help millions of Americans who have any of the five risk factors. Patients should also ask their doctors about two simple tests to diagnose kidney disease: a specific urine test, called uACR, and a calculated blood test, called eGFR."

People of Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian American, or Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander are all at increased risk for developing kidney disease. Blacks or African Americans are 13 percent of the U.S. population but represent 35 percent of those with kidney failure. Hispanics or Latinos are 1.3 times as likely as non-Hispanics/Latinos to develop kidney failure. To help address these disparities, NKF is focusing on addressing the social determinants of health which contribute to the disproportionate risk of kidney disease in communities of color and eliminating racial and ethnic disparities in critical areas such as access to transplantation and home dialysis.

The "Are You the 33%?" campaign urges everyone with a risk factor to learn more by taking a simple, one-minute online quiz at MinuteForYourKidneys.org. The campaign microsite is available in both English and Spanish at MinuteForYourKidneys.org.

Join the conversation on social media by using the hashtag #MinuteForYourKidneys.

Kidney Disease Facts

In the United States, 37 million adults are estimated to have chronic kidney disease (CKD)and approximately 90 percent don't know they have it. 1 in 3 adults in the U.S. is at risk for chronic kidney disease. Risk factors for kidney disease include: diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, and family history. People who are Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian American, or Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander are at increased risk for developing the disease. Black or African American people are almost 4 times more likely than Whites to have kidney failure. Hispanic or Latino people are 1.3 times more likely than non-Hispanic or non-Latino people to have kidney failure.

Approximately 785,000 Americans have irreversible kidney failure and need dialysis or a kidney transplant to survive. More than 550,000 of these patients receive dialysis to replace kidney function and 230,000 live with a transplant. Nearly 100,000 Americans are on the waitlist for a kidney transplant right now. Depending on where a patient lives, the average wait time for a kidney transplant can be upwards of three to seven years.

About National Kidney Foundation

The National Kidney Foundation (NKF) is the largest, most comprehensive, and longstanding patient-centric organization dedicated to the awareness, prevention, and treatment of kidney disease in the U.S. For more information about NKF, visit www.kidney.org.

Facebook.com

Twitter: @NKF

www.kidney.org

SOURCE National Kidney Foundation

Related Links

http://www.kidney.org


FACTS AT A GLANCE Edition: 16; Released: April 2021 Executive Pool: 774 Companies: 854 - Players covered include ACEITES LA MASiA; BETIS Products LLC; Borges Branded Foods SLU; Carbonell; Deoleo SA; GALLO; Grup Pons; Grupo Ybarra Alimentacion SL; Jaencoop Grupo; Maeva Group (Mozambique); Minerva SA; Mueloliva y Minerva SL; PT Sari Agrotama Persada; Sovena Group and Others. Coverage: All major geographies and key segments Segments: Product (Processed Olive Oil, and Virgin Olive Oil); Application (Food & Beverage, Personal Care, and Pharmaceutical) Geographies: World; United States; Canada; Japan; China; Europe (France; Germany; Italy; United Kingdom; Spain; Russia; and Rest of Europe); Asia-Pacific (Australia; India; South Korea; and Rest of Asia-Pacific); Latin America (Argentina; Brazil; Mexico; and Rest of Latin America); Middle East (Iran; Israel; Saudi Arabia; United Arab Emirates; and Rest of Middle East); and Africa.

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ABSTRACT-



Global Olive Oil Market to Reach $13.4 Billion by 2026

Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the global market for Olive Oil estimated at US$11.2 Billion in the year 2020, is projected to reach a revised size of US$13.4 Billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 2.9% over the analysis period. Processed Olive Oil, one of the segments analyzed in the report, is projected to record a 3.1% CAGR and reach US$8.4 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 Virgin Olive Oil segment is readjusted to a revised 2.7% CAGR for the next 7-year period.

The U.S. Market is Estimated at $3.1 Billion in 2021, While China is Forecast to Reach $2.7 Billion by 2026

The Olive Oil market in the U.S. is estimated at US$3.1 Billion in the year 2021. China, the world`s second largest economy, is forecast to reach a projected market size of US$2.7 Billion by the year 2026 trailing a CAGR of 5.4% over the analysis period. Among the other noteworthy geographic markets are Japan and Canada, each forecast to grow at 0.8% and 2.2% respectively over the analysis period. Within Europe, Germany is forecast to grow at approximately 1.4% CAGR. More

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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.

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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

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SOURCE Global Industry Analysts, Inc.

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Highlight intervals are summarized below. Additional results are provided in Table 2.

Hole No. From

(m) To (m) Interval

(m)* Au (g/t) Zone NFGC-21-145 39.00 41.50 2.50 21.29 Keats Main NFGC-21-170 101.55 106.40 4.85 31.80 Keats Main NFGC-21-184 140.25 143.25 3.00 36.52 Keats Main NFGC-21-250 170.75 177.80 7.05 32.65 Keats Main NFGC-21-251 227.00 229.00 2.00 137.49 Keats Main NFGC-21-257 229.50 232.55 3.05 24.12 Keats Main NFGC-21-310 279.25 281.45 2.20 104.59 Keats Main

* Note that the true width of the mineralization is uncertain, but host structures are interpreted to be steeply dipping implying true widths in the range of 85% to 95% of reported intercepts. Intervals are calculated at a 1 g/t Au cut-off grade and minimum width of 2m; grades have not been capped in the averaging.

The interval of 104.59 g/t Au over 2.20m in NFGC-21-310 is the furthest south drill interval reported to date along the south-westerly plunging core dilatational zone extending drill definition of this zone (see Figures 1 and 2).

in NFGC-21-310 is the furthest south drill interval reported to date along the south-westerly plunging core dilatational zone extending drill definition of this zone (see Figures 1 and 2). Recent intercept highlights of 31.80 g/t Au over 4.85m in NFGC-21-170 and 36.52 g/t Au over 3.00m in NFGC-21-184 up dip of the core dilatational zone within the Keats fault demonstrate strong vertical continuity of the Keats Main Zone to surface.

in NFGC-21-170 and 36.52 g/t Au over in NFGC-21-184 up dip of the core dilatational zone within the Keats fault demonstrate strong vertical continuity of the Keats Main Zone to surface. The Keats high-grade zone vertical profile now exceeds 200m up dip of the core dilatational zone and is open to surface and along strike to the northeast and southwest.

up dip of the core dilatational zone and is open to surface and along strike to the northeast and southwest. Drill hole NFGC-21-257 intersected a new zone of high-grade gold mineralization in the hanging wall of the Keats fault near surface; the interval graded 9.18g/t Au over 2.70m .

. Future exploration at Keats will continue to expand the Keats Main zone along strike and down plunge but also focus on targeting specific zones in both the hanging wall and foot wall of the Keats fault.

Denis Laviolette, President of New Found, stated: "The high-grade zones along the Appleton Fault continue to see significant expansion. Today's announcement demonstrates further continuity of high-grade gold mineralization at Keats including between the core dilatational zone and surface; a vertical distance of 200m. Last week we announced that we doubled the drilled depth of the high-grade Lotto vein system with strong vertical continuity, and we are now seeing similar vertical continuity at Keats above the plunging dilation zone. We are pleased to see high-grade zones that start at surface and extend for these distances along strike and to depth, remaining open in all directions for further expansion. The addition of a new hanging wall zone at Keats near surface adds to the growing list of discoveries made this past year along the Appleton Fault. These discoveries continue to support our belief in the high potential for additional discoveries along approximately 7.8km of strike on the Appleton Fault, within a prospective corridor of approximately 500m on each side of the Appleton Fault."

Drill-hole Details

Hole No. From

(m) To (m) Interval

(m)* Au (g/t) Zone NFGC-21-92 176.00 178.00 2.00 1.92 Keats South NFGC-21-120** 9.65 21.70 12.05 12.65 Keats Main Including 9.65 13.25 3.60 35.76 And** 22.90 25.00 2.10 1.33 And** 28.20 33.00 4.80 1.98 And** 36.00 38.00 2.00 2.66 And** 40.30 46.00 5.70 5.16 And 95.00 98.00 3.00 1.69 Keats FW NFGC-21-140 95.50 103.45 7.95 3.59 Keats Main Including 100.15 102.45 2.30 9.69 And 164.25 166.60 2.35 1.01 Keats FW NFGC-21-145 39.00 41.50 2.50 21.29 Keats Main And 81.00 83.35 2.35 13.04 Keats FW NFGC-21-148A 233.50 256.35 22.85 1.15 Keats Main NFGC-21-149 48.05 53.60 5.55 2.46 Keats Main And 62.55 67.35 4.80 9.22 And 72.80 77.45 4.65 1.82 NFGC-21-163 73.80 85.40 11.60 4.92 Keats Main Including 77.65 80.65 3.00 13.30 And 154.00 156.75 2.75 1.40 Keats FW NFGC-21-164 247.80 250.00 2.20 1.37 Keats Main And 261.00 263.00 2.00 1.23 And 267.45 270.00 2.55 1.65 And 272.30 277.20 4.90 1.77 NFGC-21-170 70.00 72.70 2.70 1.96 Keats Main And 90.70 93.00 2.30 1.02 And 101.55 106.40 4.85 31.80 NFGC-21-173 115.60 117.80 2.20 1.39 Keats Main And 126.90 128.95 2.05 4.09 NFGC-21-174 273.60 277.05 3.45 1.79 Keats Main And 300.00 306.00 6.00 1.57 And 340.90 343.00 2.10 1.85 Keats FW NFGC-21-184 140.25 143.25 3.00 36.52 Keats Main And 151.30 154.00 2.70 1.02 NFGC-21-188A NSV Keats Main NFGC-21-194 NSV Keats North NFGC-21-198 141.85 144.30 2.45 1.03 Keats Main And 154.50 156.55 2.05 4.23 NFGC-21-200 NSV Keats Main NFGC-21-203 157.35 162.15 4.80 2.71 Keats Main Including 157.35 159.90 2.55 4.14 And 173.50 176.00 2.50 1.08 And 242.60 245.65 3.05 1.12 Keats FW NFGC-21-212 71.60 74.75 3.15 2.64 Keats Main And 90.00 92.65 2.65 1.77 NFGC-21-222 242.00 245.70 3.70 1.20 Keats Main And 260.00 262.85 2.85 1.33 And 290.95 293.20 2.25 1.19 And 334.95 337.00 2.05 1.51 NFGC-21-223 21.00 23.65 2.65 1.05 Keats Main And 88.40 90.60 2.20 1.23 Keats FW NFGC-21-227 42.30 44.30 2.00 1.71 Keats Main NFGC-21-229 NSV Keats Main NFGC-21-236 48.75 51.05 2.30 2.28 Keats Main And 61.65 64.00 2.35 1.91 NFGC-21-247 43.55 45.90 2.35 1.01 Keats Main And 51.35 62.00 10.65 3.37 Including 52.85 55.05 2.20 10.10 And 64.40 66.50 2.10 1.46 And 77.00 79.60 2.60 1.31 And 83.55 85.55 2.00 1.30 And 90.65 93.00 2.35 1.05 Keats FW And 160.00 162.05 2.05 2.02 NFGC-21-250 170.75 177.80 7.05 32.65 Keats Main Including 171.60 175.90 4.30 52.36 And 183.05 188.80 5.75 2.01 NFGC-21-251 227.00 229.00 2.00 137.49 Keats Main NFGC-21-257 62.30 65.00 2.70 9.18 Keats HW And 229.50 236.00 6.50 16.04 Keats Main Including 229.50 232.55 3.05 24.12 NFGC-21-283 235.40 237.55 2.15 1.05 Keats Main And 239.30 246.85 7.55 1.21 And 253.40 255.45 2.05 1.08 And 268.55 270.95 2.40 1.10 And 272.35 274.55 2.20 6.96 NFGC-21-310 279.25 281.45 2.20 104.59 Keats Main

Table 2: Summary of results reported in this release

* Note that the true width of the mineralization is uncertain, but host structures are interpreted to be steeply dipping implying true widths in the range of 85% to 95% of reported intercepts. Intervals are calculated at a 1 g/t Au cut-off grade and minimum width of 2m, grades have not been capped in the averaging. ** Results released on July 5, 2021, from NFGC-21-120 updated with additional secondary zone results.

Hole No. Azimuth

() Dip () Length

(m) UTM E UTM N NFGC-21-92 300 -45 346 657836 5427049 NFGC-21-120 300 -45 109 658228 5427529 NFGC-21-140 300 -45 182 658159 5427410 NFGC-21-145 300 -45 209 658117 5427435 NFGC-21-148A 300 -45 333 658182 5427224 NFGC-21-149 300 -45 141 658158 5427455 NFGC-21-163 300 -45 233 658092 5427392 NFGC-21-164 300 -45 288 658204 5427216 NFGC-21-170 300 -45 171 658114 5427379 NFGC-21-173 300 -45 188 658135 5427367 NFGC-21-174 300 -45 366 658205 5427215 NFGC-21-184 300 -45 196 658157 5427354 NFGC-21-188A 300 -45 269 658292 5427337 NFGC-21-194 300 -45 365 658587 5427560 NFGC-21-198 300 -45 227 658164 5427343 NFGC-21-200 297 -55 395 658170 5427203 NFGC-21-203 300 -45 314 658144 5427333 NFGC-21-212 298.5 -45.5 194 658126 5427401 NFGC-21-222 297 -55 350 658133 5427195 NFGC-21-223 299 -45.5 112 658241 5427551 NFGC-21-227 299 -45.5 146 658253 5427545 NFGC-21-229 297 -55.5 356 658130 5427165 NFGC-21-236 299 -45.5 251 658130 5427457 NFGC-21-247 299 -45.5 182 658147 5427476 NFGC-21-250 298 -46 205 658207 5427368 NFGC-21-251 118 -75 334 657951 5427310 NFGC-21-257 118 -78 346 657951 5427310 NFGC-21-283 300 -45 392 658148 5427216 NFGC-21-310 300 -45 386 658112 5427179

Table 3: Details of drill holes reported in this release

Queensway 200,000m Drill Program Update

Approximately 44 percent of the 200,000 meters have been drilled to date with approximately 20,000 meters of core pending assay results. Nine core rigs are currently operating, with a tenth scheduled to start in Q3 2021.

Sampling, Sub-sampling and Laboratory

True widths of the intercepts reported in this press release have yet to be determined but are estimated to be 85% to 95% of reported core lengths. Infill veining in secondary structures with multiple orientations crosscutting the primary host structures are commonly observed in drill core which could result in additional variability in true width. Assays are uncut, and calculated intervals are reported over a minimum length of 2 meters using a lower cut-off of 1.0 g/t Au. All HQ split core assays reported were obtained by either complete sample metallic screen/fire assay or standard 30-gram fire-assaying with ICP finish at ALS Minerals in Vancouver, British Columbia, or by entire sample screened metallic screen fire assay at Eastern Analytical in Springdale, Newfoundland. The complete sample metallic screen assay method is selected by the geologist when samples contain coarse gold or any samples displaying gold initial fire assay values greater than 1.0 g/t Au. Drill program design, Quality Assurance/Quality Control and interpretation of results is performed by qualified persons employing a Quality Assurance/Quality Control program consistent with National Instrument 43-101 and industry best practices. Standards and blanks are included with every 20 samples for Quality Assurance/Quality Control purposes by the Company as well as the lab. Approximately 5% of sample pulps are sent to secondary laboratories for check assays.

Qualified Person

The technical content disclosed in this press release was reviewed and approved by Greg Matheson, P. Geo., Chief Operating Officer, and a Qualified Person as defined under National Instrument 43-101. Mr. Matheson consents to the publication of this news release dated Sept 15, 2021, by New Found. Mr. Matheson certifies that this news release fairly and accurately represents the information for which he is responsible.

About New Found Gold Corp.

New Found holds a 100% interest in the Queensway Project, located 15 km west of Gander, Newfoundland, and just 18 km from Gander International Airport. The project is intersected by the Trans-Canada Highway and has logging roads crosscutting the project, high voltage electric power lines running through the project area, and easy access to a highly skilled workforce. The Company is currently undertaking a 200,000m drill program at Queensway. Nine rigs are currently in operation at Queensway with the drill count planned to increase to ten rigs in Q3 2021. With a current working capital balance of approximately $111 million, New Found is well funded for this program.

Please see the Company's website at www.newfoundgold.ca and the Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com.

Acknowledgements

New Found acknowledges the financial support of the Junior Exploration Assistance Program, Department of Natural Resources, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Contact



To contact the Company, please visit the Company's website, www.newfoundgold.ca and make your request through our investor inquiry form. Our management has a pledge to be in touch with any investor inquiries within 24 hours.



New Found Gold Corp.

Per: "Craig Roberts"

Craig Roberts, P.Eng., Chief Executive Officer

Email: [email protected]

Phone: (604) 562 9664

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.

Forward-Looking Statement Cautions

This press release contains certain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation, relating to further exploration and drilling on the Company's Queensway gold project in Newfoundland, interpretation of results of the drilling program and funding of the drilling program. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts; they are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects," "plans," "anticipates," "believes," "intends," "estimates," "projects," "aims," "potential," "goal," "objective," "prospective," and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will," "would," "may," "can," "could" or "should" occur, or are those statements, which, by their nature, refer to future events. The Company cautions that forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made, and they involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Consequently, there can be no assurances that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Except to the extent required by applicable securities laws and the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements if management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change. Factors that could cause future results to differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements include risks associated with possible accidents and other risks associated with mineral exploration operations, the risk that the Company will encounter unanticipated geological factors, the possibility that the Company may not be able to secure permitting and other governmental clearances necessary to carry out the Company's exploration plans, the risk that the Company will not be able to raise sufficient funds to carry out its business plans, and the risk of political uncertainties and regulatory or legal changes that might interfere with the Company's business and prospects. The reader is urged to refer to the Company's Annual Information Form and Management's discussion and Analysis, publicly available through the Canadian Securities Administrators' System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval (SEDAR) at www.sedar.com for a more complete discussion of such risk factors and their potential effects.

SOURCE New Found Gold Corp.

Related Links

https://newfoundgold.ca/


NewBeauty Nominated For Three FOLIO: Eddie & Ozzie Awards Tweet this

"NewBeauty's mission is to help readers make confident beauty choices, and that mission has always been strongly rooted in safety," says Steffanie Attenberg, Chief Brand Officer. "COVID-19 magnified the importance of patient education, and NewBeauty is uniquely positioned as the definitive source when it comes to providing patients with the information needed to help make educated decisions with positive outcomes."

"There are several industry leaders who put tremendous time, effort and resources toward supporting doctors and patients during the pandemic," says Mike Glaicar, Chief Revenue Officer. "We identified the organizations that we felt were creating the most impact, and we are very proud to have Allergan Aesthetics, Mentor, SkinCeuticals, and The Aesthetics Society help to support the initiative."

Finalists for the FOLIO: Eddie & Ozzie Awards will be announced October 14 at the Metropolitan Pavilion in New York.

NewBeauty's Fall Issue will be on newsstands nationwide October 5, 2021. For up-to-date information and the latest beauty and aesthetic industry developments visit newbeauty.com.

ABOUT NEWBEAUTY:

NewBeauty is the authority on beauty and the trusted resource for the most affluent and influential beauty consumer. The only magazine dedicated 100% to beauty with more than 5x the beauty edit of any other magazine, NewBeauty dives deep to provide valuable information, founded in research and vetted by experts, empowering women to make better beauty decisions. NewBeauty is published by SANDOW, a leader in innovation and design that delivers powerful products and services to a highly selective audience.

Contact:

Elizabeth Ritter, Executive Editor

[email protected]

SOURCE NewBeauty

Related Links

https://www.newbeauty.com


Dr. Bodolosky's story is one of persistence, bravery, determination, and relentless dedication to caring for animals, and the American people. During her time in Veterinary School at Ohio State University, Dr. Bodolosky was activated and pulled from the Army Reserve to serve her country in what is famously known as Operation Desert Shield/Storm. Shortyl after, Dr. Bodolosky would marry her husband Jack and return to the Ohio University Veterinary School where she graduated in 1993.

Purchasing the practice in 2001, Dr. Bodolosky inherited the oldest and only animal hospital who is a member of the AAHA in all of Sullivan County. Originally founded in 1953 by WWII Army Veteran Dr. Stanley Glick, the AHSC has proudly served the Sullivan County community for 68 years. Rising to the occasion to exceed expectations, Dr. Bodolosky and her husband Jack began to pour everything into turning the Animal Hospital of Sullivan County into what it is today a nationally recognized animal hospital that consistently sets the bar for excellent service, groundbreaking innovation, and compassionate care.

As true warriors for serving others, Dr. Bodolosky and her husband Jack continue to seek cutting-edge ways to give back to the community. In 2014, they launched Companion Animal Foundation aka Warrior Companion, a non-profit dedicated to providing pet insurance for service animals owned by Veterans and First Responders.

Through proof of concept, dedication to the craft, and unwavering commitment to serving the community; Dr. Barbara Bodolosky's purpose-driven vision has come to fruition as she celebrates 20 years in business with the Animal Hospital of Sullivan County.

To learn more about the Animal Hospital of Sullivan County, please visit: https://www.ahofsc.com/

About Animal Hospital of Sullivan County

The Animal Hospital of Sullivan County is an AAHA Accredited Animal Hospital (American Animal Hospital Association) based in Ferndale, New York. Founded in 1953 by Dr. Stanley Glick, a WWII Army veteran, the Animal Hospital of Sullivan County has proudly served the pet owners and animals of Sullivan County for nearly 68 years. Currently owned by Dr. Barbara Bodolosky, a female army veteran with over 30 years of experience in the veterinary field, the Animal Hospital of Sullivan County has rapidly become the trusted provider for all pet health and wellness, diagnostic, surgical, emergency, nutrition, and grief needs across the county. As the only AAHA animal hospital in the area, Dr. Barbara Bodolosky and the Animal Hospital of Sullivan County seek to create a lasting impact on their community through gentle care and unparalleled service.

Press Contact:

Dr. Barbara Bodolosky

8452926711

https://www.ahofsc.com/

SOURCE Animal Hospital of Sullivan County
CRANBURY, N.J., Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Palatin Technologies, Inc. (NYSE American: PTN), a specialized biopharmaceutical company developing first-in-class medicines based on molecules that modulate the activity of the melanocortin peptide receptor systems, today announced a featured speaker presentation and two poster presentations at the upcoming TIDES USA hybrid conference in Boston, Massachusetts on September 20-23, 2021.

"We are excited to continue our partnership with TIDES to continue informing the peptide world about our robust pipeline of melanocortin agonists as possible treatments for inflammatory conditions," said Carl Spana, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Palatin. "The gut, as well as the eye, offer multiple unique opportunities for melanocortins to promote resolution of inflammation."

Dr. Spana is a featured speaker and will discuss the Company's broad expertise in melanocortin peptides, including its development programs for inflammation. The poster presentations by John Dodd, Ph.D., Senior Vice President of Preclinical Research, demonstrates the possible utility of melanocortins in inflammation, and presents animal disease model data specific to colon inflammation.

TIDES USA is conducting a hybrid live and digital event with presentations across multiple drug development functional groups from development through commercialization for oligos, peptides, mRNA and genome editing products.

Presentation and Poster details are:

Featured Speaker presentation entitled "Development of Melanocortin-based Peptide Therapeutics: Vyleesi (FDA Approved) and Next Generation of Novel Peptides That Resolve Inflammation" will be presented on September 21, 2021 , by Dr. Spana.

, by Dr. Spana. Two poster presentations by Dr. Dodd, provide an overview of the exciting potential utility of melanocortin agonists for the treatment of inflammatory diseases, with the second poster providing specific data in an inflammatory disease rat model. The posters are titled:

Probing the Role of the Melanocortin Receptor Agonists in Experimental Immune-Mediated Diseases



Effect of the Melanocortin Receptor Agonist PL8177 on DSS-Induced Colitis in Rats and a Toxicologic Assessment of PL8177 in Beagle Dogs

Both poster presentations will be available on the TIDES USA conference website for registered attendees and will be available on Palatin's website today at www.palatin.com.

About Melanocortins and Inflammation

The melanocortin receptor ("MCr") system has effects on food intake, metabolism, sexual function, inflammation, and immune system responses. There are five melanocortin receptors, MC1r through MC5r. Modulation of these receptors, through use of receptor-specific agonists, which activate receptor function, or receptor-specific antagonists, which block receptor function, can have significant pharmacological effects.

Many tissues and immune cells located in the eye express melanocortin receptors, empowering our opportunity to directly activate natural pathways to resolve disease inflammation.

About Palatin

Palatin is a biopharmaceutical company developing first-in-class medicines based on molecules that modulate the activity of the melanocortin and natriuretic peptide receptor systems, with targeted, receptor-specific product candidates for the treatment of diseases with significant unmet medical need and commercial potential. Palatin's strategy is to develop products and then form marketing collaborations with industry leaders to maximize their commercial potential. For additional information regarding Palatin, please visit Palatin's website at www.palatin.com.

Forward-looking Statements

Statements in this press release that are not historical facts, including statements about future expectations of Palatin, such as statements about clinical trial plans and potential results for peptides under development to resolve inflammation and inflammatory diseases, are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Palatin intends that such forward-looking statements be subject to the safe harbors created thereby. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause Palatin's actual results to be materially different from its historical results or from any results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Palatin's actual results may differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements for reasons including, but not limited to, results of clinical trials, regulatory actions by the FDA and other regulatory and the need for regulatory approvals, Palatin's ability to fund development of its technology and establish and successfully complete clinical trials, the length of time and cost required to complete clinical trials and submit applications for regulatory approvals, products developed by competing pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, commercial acceptance of Palatin's products, and other factors discussed in Palatin's periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Palatin is not responsible for updating for events that occur after the date of this press release.

SOURCE Palatin Technologies, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.palatin.com


VENTURA, Calf. and PASADENA, Calif., Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Green Flower announces an exciting new chapter in the history of cannabis education, with leading California cannabis employer Papa & Barkley , as well as its Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer Guy Rocourt, set to join GF Institute (GFI) , to promote the revolutionary new approach for how cannabis brands approach workforce development.

"A leading California cannabis wellness company, Papa & Barkley's consumer wellness and lifestyle products make them an ideal choice and unique fit as a Green Flower Institute Founding Member," said Max Simon, CEO and Co-Founder of Green Flower. "GFI will address many of the issues in the cannabis workforce and help employers like Papa & Barkley train and develop their employees in the necessary skills, knowledge, and credibility they need to succeed."

The GF Institute is overseen by an independent Steering Committee, composed of 30+ leading cannabis employers who approve the curricula for each job role, champion education and professional development, support social equity and community initiatives, and are committed to raising the overall knowledge and quality of professionals in our industry.

"GF Institute provides the cannabis industry with an educational framework that promotes professionalism, credibility, and equity through standardized credentials. GFI's efforts champion education as well as professional career development and support a community of individuals focused on creating a sustainable cannabis industry with equitable growth opportunities for the future," said Rocourt.

GFI is launching with 3 credentials: Dispensary Associate Certificate, Cultivation Technician Certificate, and Manufacturing Agent Certificate, to focus on the largest sectors of people growth in the industry. Each credential is 15 hours long, 100% online, and consisting of 2 units with exams at the end of each unit.

"Standardized processes are an important component of quality assurance and delivering the optimal product. As the cannabis industry continues to expand and evolve, Papa & Barkley will continue to refine and optimize our processes to deliver the best possible employee experience. GF Institute's standardized certificate program ensures consistent delivery of crucial cannabis knowledge and will be a welcome complement to our current training environment," Rocourt continued.

On successful completion of a credential, an individual is automatically granted membership to GFI. The post-graduate GF Institute community will offer its members exclusive access to continuing education content, networking and career development opportunities, and more. Additional credentials and benefits will be released in 2022 and beyond.

"The 3 pillars of GFI are: Professionalism. Credibility. Equity. As we see in other industries that have successfully incorporated this model for branding education as a positive, equalizing force that promotes career development and prioritizes employee engagement from day one of their journey, well-trained people bring professionalism, industry-adopted credentials bring credibility, and equity in cannabis as an industry is all about making sure this education reaches and impacts the people who need it most," said Gil Christie, GF Institute Chairman.

To encourage industry-wide adoption, GF Institute invites every Licensed Cannabis Operator across the United States to join this historic push to bring credibility, equity, and professionalism to our industry and become Founding Members of GFI.

For more information on GF Institute or the GFI Cannabis Credential program, please visit the GF Institute website , where visitors can download the complete program documentation, review course syllabi and find answers to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).

About Green Flower:

Founded in 2014, Green Flower is the industry leader in cannabis education, empowering thousands of consumers, regulators, and professionals with the knowledge they need to succeed in the emerging cannabis industry today.

Green Flower's content and technology platform powers the cannabis programs of top universities and colleges across the country, provides customized learning and compliance solutions for cannabis businesses of all sizes, and equips individuals with the skills and credentials necessary to make an impact in the modern cannabis industry.

Contact:

Adam Summers

e: [email protected]

p: 708.223.2336

SOURCE Green Flower
CHICAGO, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the new market research report "Polyimide Films and Tapes Market by Application (Flexible Printed Circuits, Specialty Fabricated Products, Pressure-Sensitive Tapes, Motors/Generators, Wires & Cables), End-Use Industry (Electronics, Automotive), and Region  Global Forecast to 2026", published by MarketsandMarkets, the Polyimide Films And Tapes Market is estimated to be USD 1.6 billion in 2021 and is projected to reach USD 2.4 billion by 2026, at a CAGR of 8.5% from 2021 to 2026. Increasing demand from flexible displays and optoelectronics industries are one of the key factors driving the growth of this market.

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Flexible printed circuits is the leading application segment of the polyimide films and tapes market

Based on application, the flexible printed circuits segment is projected to grow at the highest CAGR from 2021 to 2026. Flexible printed circuits are widely used in automotive and electronics industries. Polyimide films and tapes are also the most preferred insulating material due to their low dielectric constant. The demand for flexible printed circuits is high as circuits have to be bent once or a few times during the package assembly or because they undergo continuous flexing as and when required. Manufacturing companies prefer polyimide films and tapes as a base material instead of Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) and Polyethylene Naphthalate (PEN) films mainly due to their advantages, which include high processing temperature range and unrestricted solderability. Flexible printed circuits are widely used in industries, such as aerospace, electronics, and medical.

Electronics is projected to be the fastest-growing end-use industry segment of the polyimide films market

Based on end-use industry, the electronics segment is anticipated to grow at the highest CAGR from 2021 to 2026. Polyimide films and tapes provide excellent electrical insulation properties under harsh conditions, such as high-temperature ranges and exposure to aggressive chemicals. They are increasingly being used by component manufacturers and equipment designers due to their design flexibility. As a result, the electronics industry is the largest consumer of polyimide films and tapes globally.

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Asia Pacific regional segment accounted for the largest share in the polyimide films and tapes market

The polyimide films and tapes market in the Asia Pacific region is accounted for the largest share in 2020. China, India, Japan, and South Korea are key countries contributing to the high demand for polyimide films in this region. Innovation, price deflation, and rising household incomes, especially in emerging Asian markets, have resulted in the high demand for consumer electronic products, thereby contributing to the growth of the polyimide films and tapes market in this region.

The key players in the polyimide films and tapes market include E. I. DuPont de Nemours and Company (US), PI Advanced Material Co., Ltd. (South Korea), Ube Industries Ltd.(Japan), Taimide Tech. Inc. (Taiwan), 3M Company (US), Kaneka Corporation (Japan), Kolon Industries Inc. (South Korea), Arakawa Chemicals Industries Inc. (Japan), Shinmax Technology Ltd. (Taiwan), and FLEXcon Company, Inc. (US).

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Related Reports:

Colorless Polyimide Films Market by Application (Flexible Displays, Flexible Printed Circuit Boards, Flexible Solar Cells, Lighting Equipment), End-Use Industry (Electronics, Solar Energy, Medical), and Region

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/colorless-polyimide-films-market-16252223.html

Electronic Films Market by Film Type (Non-Conductive and Conductive), Material Type (Polymer, ITO on Glass, ITO on Pet, and Metal Mesh), Application (Electronic Display, PCB, and Semiconductors), and Region

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/electronic-film-market-94537987.html





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Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model  GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. MarketsandMarkets now coming up with 1,500 MicroQuadrants (Positioning top players across leaders, emerging companies, innovators, strategic players) annually in high growth emerging segments. MarketsandMarkets is determined to benefit more than 10,000 companies this year for their revenue planning and help them take their innovations/disruptions early to the market by providing them research ahead of the curve.

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SOURCE MarketsandMarkets
VICTORIA, Seychelles, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- PrimeXBT, an award-winning multi-currency trading platform offering forex, cryptocurrency, stock indices, commodities, and more under one roof, has announced the listing of seven of the largest assets in the crypto market today.

PrimeXBT Adds ADA, DOGE, DOT, LINK, SOL, UNI, And XRP

In response to regular customer feedback and general market demand, PrimeXBT has announced the listing of seven trending crypto assets, highlighting the advanced trading platform's client-focused approach.

The list of assets includes Cardano, Polkadot, Solana, XRP, Chainlink, Dogecoin, and Uniswap. All assets are available via a USD trading pair, with select assets also available trading against BTC.

The list of popular digital assets also joins the likes of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin, as well as traditional markets consisting of stock indices, forex currencies, commodities, metals, and much more. A full list of trading conditions and fees can be found on the PrimeXBT website .

"PrimeXBT believes that introducing additional assets allows margin traders and Covesting strategy managers to better diversify their portfolios and achieve higher returns", shared a PrimeXBT spokesman.

The new assets being listed adds even more advantages for PrimeXBT traders to go along with sophisticated trading features, such as the ability to access both traditional and crypto markets from a single account, personalized service with dedicated account managers, the highest level of asset protection, advanced order types, built-in charting tools and the Covesting copy trading module. Constantly adding new features and updates  such as news assets, currency options and an updated user interface  makes the PrimeXBT ecosystem a complete and powerful trading experience under one roof.

The next major development in the PrimeXBT roadmap is the release of the Covesting Yield Accounts , scheduled for release within several weeks. More information will be revealed through the company's official blog.

About PrimeXBT

PrimeXBT is a multi-award-winning fintech company established in 2018 which offers a Cryptocurrency, FX, Indices, and Commodities synthetic contract trading infrastructure. The platform provides access to a wide range of trading tools while maintaining security, liquidity and enabling a safe and efficient trading environment for everyone. PrimeXBT also offers the Covesting copy-trading module, which allows users to browse through hundreds of trading strategies provided by other traders, and automatically copy their trading activity.

To learn more, visit https://primexbt.com .

Follow PrimeXBT on Facebook and Twitter .

SOURCE PrimeXBT
PITTSBURGH and RALEIGH, N.C., Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Quest Analytics LLC, a leading provider of modular banking CRM software and Vertical IQ, a premier provider of Industry Intelligence, jointly announce the recent integrated deployment of IQProspects, a sales management solution with Vertical IQ at Community Bank.

Building on core strengths, Community Bank looked to create a sales and service culture which builds full relationships with its customers. A more effective sales management process designed to improve operational efficiencies in the near and long-term was desired. "Having Industry Intelligence to help business bankers adequately prepare for prospect and client calls and meetings is very important. We take pride in doing more to understand our clients' businesses, which ensures we deliver the financial solutions they need and deliver them the way they want them" said John Montgomery, President & CEO, Community Bank.

"After deploying IQProspects, our banking CRM solution with its seamless integration to Vertical IQ, Community Bank's commercial bankers are now able to easily research and track prospects, manage pipelines and automate workflows" said Karl Keller, President of Quest Analytics. Community Bank's business development and relationship management officers can easily connect and retrieve Vertical IQ's wealth of industry specific information.

By working together, Community Bank gained an enhanced user experience as they research and prepare for relationship management calls and meetings. One Commercial Relationship Officer stated that while preparing for a prospect call "having easy access to Industry Intelligence provided me with engaging questions I would have never thought of asking a prospect." All key meetings/activities/pipelines are tracked within IQProspects.

Bobby Martin, Co-Founder and President, at Vertical IQ, said, "We are excited to enable Community Bank's team to quickly get the information they need right at their fingertips. The integration with Quest Analytics software supports a single sign-on launch from their IQProspects module into the Vertical IQ platform to help our joint customers win, grow, and retain more business."

Quest Analytics helps banks and credit unions automate all aspects of customer contact management: from tellers and personal bankers in the branches, commercial and ag lenders out in the field, to Customer Service Representatives in the call center. Quest combines daily analytics, easy to use software and relationship building skills training to enhance a bank's sales and service culture towards sustainability.

About CB Financial Services, Inc.

CB Financial Services, Inc. is the bank holding company for Community Bank, a Pennsylvania-chartered commercial bank. Community Bank operates its branch network in southwestern Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio. Community Bank offers a broad array of retail and commercial lending and deposit services and provides commercial and personal insurance brokerage services through Exchange Underwriters, Inc., its wholly owned subsidiary. For more information about CB Financial Services, Inc., and Community Bank, visit our website at www.communitybank.tv.



About Quest Analytics

Quest Analytics is a financial services technology and training company specializing in helping community banks and credit unions grow quickly and profitably. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Quest Analytics has enhanced the sales and service culture at financial institutions since 2001.

About Vertical IQ

Headquartered in Raleigh, N.C., Vertical IQ is a nationally recognized leader in Industry Intelligence. Whether they're pitching a local brewery or a national biotech, successful sales, marketing, and customer success teams use Vertical IQ to better understand a prospect's or customer's business challenges before, during, and after meetings. Covering more than 530 distinct industries, 3,400 local economies, and more than 90 percent of the U.S. economy, Vertical IQ equips users with the confidence and credibility to make memorable first impressions and sustain enduring relationships. Learn more about how Readiness Wins at VerticalIQ.com.

SOURCE Vertical IQ

Related Links

http://verticaliq.com/


Agustin Fernandez III, chief executive officer, Rational Vaccines stated, "Kerstin has pioneered the development of numerous vaccines and has been supporting our clinical development for the last two years. She knows firsthand the potential our therapeutic and prophylactic vaccines hold. With Luis moving up to chair our Clinical Advisory Board and the accelerated path for RVX201 in the UK, Rational Vaccines is very fortunate and honored to have Kerstin assume this crucial leadership position. Kerstin's breadth of expertise will be essential in helping us fulfill our core mission of helping patients suffering from herpes and herpes-related diseases and eradicating the virus globally."

"My passion is helping advance new treatments to fight infectious diseases such as HSV and I'm thrilled to take the next step in my career with Rational Vaccines and to be a part of the growth of such a transformative company. Herpes remains an incurable infection with potential devastating consequences and tremendous unmet medical need. I look forward to helping bring new preventive and therapeutic options to patients who so desperately need them," said Dr. Westritschnig.

Dr. Westritschnig is specialized in clinical immunology and has more than 20 years' experience in R&D, including 15 years in vaccine development. Her areas of expertise are vaccines, infectious disease, immuno-oncology, and biologics. She has served as the medical lead for design and conduct of approximately 20 clinical vaccine studies from Phase I to IV in eight infectious disease indications. She also played an integral role in the successful new drug or marketing applications, as well as marketing approvals by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and/or European Medicines Agency (EMA) for IXIARO (Japanese encephalitis vaccine) and Qarziba (dinutuximab beta), a GD2-antibody for the treatment of neuroblastoma. She comes to Rational Vaccines from Apeiron Biologics AG where she was CMO. Previously, she served as senior vice president and member of the Executive Committee of Valneva SE (formerly Intercell AG) where she oversaw all medical and scientific aspects of clinical development. Widely published, Dr. Westritschnig is board certified in clinical immunology. She received her medical degree from the University of Vienna, Faculty of Medicine, Vienna, Austria.

Rational Vaccines also announced that it has named Dr. Luis Rios-Nogales as chairman of the Company's Clinical Advisory Board.

"Luis and I have had this succession plan for quite some time. He has been an amazing partner and mentor to me. His steadfast focus has been on advancing our lead candidates, which have shown great promise in humans, into randomized controlled trials. Now that we have been granted accelerated status in the UK, I can fully support his vision of forming and leading our Clinical Advisory Board," added Mr. Fernandez.

Prior to joining Rational Vaccines, Dr. Rios-Nogales served as head of global development operations at Takeda Vaccines. He has more than 30 years of experience, with increasing senior roles in clinical, medical affairs, global marketing, regional medical office, commercial, and general management at Sanofi, GlaxoSmithKline, and Astra Zeneca. Previously, Dr. Rios-Nogales was senior vice president of medical surgery at Boston Scientific Corporation. He has made a significant impact on the prevention and treatment of stroke, hypertension, atrial fibrillation, congestive heart failure, and venous thromboembolic disease, through his active participation in large scale clinical projects. Notably, he was the global project lead for the landmark Heart Outcomes Prevention Evaluation (HOPE) study, under the leadership of Professor Salim Yusuf of McMaster University. Dr. Rios-Nogales earned his MD and PhD from Ludwigs-Maximilian University in Munich, Germany, and completed his residency at the Karl Eberhard University in Tubingen, Germany. He also holds an MBA from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

About Rational Vaccines

Rational Vaccines is revolutionizing the treatment, prevention, and diagnosis of herpes and herpes-related diseases with its rationally engineered, live-attenuated viral immunotherapeutic and prophylactic vaccine candidates. Led by a team of world-renowned scientists, the Company is headquartered in Woburn, MA with locations in Miami, FL and Oxford, UK. For more information, please visit www.rationalvaccines.com.

SOURCE Rational Vaccines

Related Links

https://rationalvaccines.com


JOHANNESBURG, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Haldor Topse and Sasol have expanded collaboration to jointly license and develop their technologies for sustainable liquid fuels and chemicals production through Fischer-Tropsch (FT) technology.

Sasol and Topse currently offer integrated end-to-end solutions to produce synthetic fuels and chemicals. Topse's SynCOR and Sasol's Low Temperature Fischer-TropschTM technologies have been licensed into Gas-to-Liquid (GTL) ventures, most recently Uzbekistan GTL, which is in the final stages of construction.

Building on this solid technology and operational foundation, Sasol and Topse now offer integrated end-to-end solutions to produce sustainable fuels and chemicals, specifically Power-to-Fuels or e-Fuels, utilising sustainable carbon sources or CO 2 , green hydrogen and renewable energy.

"We need to make cleaner alternatives for the future transportation fuels. This new initiative builds on an already successful partnership with Sasol, and we are excited, that we are now taking it to the next level by offering our technologies together in an integrated way as a single point license for the production of sustainable synthetic fuels," says Fei Chen, SVP Clean Fuels & Chemicals Technology, Haldor Topse.

Marius Brand, Executive Vice President for Sasol 2.0 Transformation added: "Sasol and Haldor Topse's technology relationship spans more than two decades, through which a number of world first technologies were deployed, world-scale units were built and successfully operated. We believe this platform provides a solid foundation to offer solutions to the world and drive towards a sustainable future, specifically for the hard to abate sectors, such as the aviation industry. This technology collaboration is a key element supporting our purpose to innovate for a better world. Our partnership and Sasol's undisputed leadership in FT technology, positions us well to grow a low carbon products business globally, harnessing renewable resources to produce sustainable fuels and chemicals."

In addition, new technologies are being developed, such as Topse's electrified reforming platform (e-Reforming and e-Reverse Water Gas Shift), solid oxide electrolysis and Sasol's next generation FT catalyst to further maximise desired product yields, enhance carbon and hydrogen conversion efficiency, ultimately helping to eliminate fuel and chemical greenhouse gas emissions.

This gives potential customers access to an integrated solution across the entire value chain, from renewable feed sources to liquid fuels. As single-point licensor, Sasol and Topse will offer customers all the necessary technology licenses for complete sustainable fuels solutions. This also includes basic engineering, catalyst, hardware and specialised technical support to ensure a bankable and successful project.

Issued by:

Matebello Motloung, Manager: Group Media Relations

Direct telephone: +27 (0) 10 344 9256; Mobile: +27 (0) 82 773 9457

[email protected]

About Sasol:

Sasol is a global integrated chemicals and energy company. We harness our knowledge and experience to integrate sophisticated technologies and process into our world-scale operating facilities. We safely and sustainably source, produce and market a range of high-value product streams in 30 countries, creating superior value for our customers, shareholders and other stakeholders.

About Sasol's Information Privacy Policy:

We wish to inform you about the processing of your Personal Information by Sasol South Africa Limited and your rights under applicable data protection law, as interpreted and included in Sasol Information Privacy Policy.

Within our company, only Sasol Group Media Relations will receive your Personal Information to fulfil the purpose of maintaining the relationship with the receiver in his/her capacity as a member of the media. You have the right to request for the correction or deletion of your Personal Information stored by us at address: Sasol Place, 50 Katherine Street, Sandton in Johannesburg. You also have a right to restrict the processing of your Information. To exercise your privacy rights or find out more about Information Privacy Policy, kindly contact our Privacy Office on: [email protected]

SOURCE Sasol Limited
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- In an appearance at MINExpo International 2021, Las Vegas, Khalid Al-Mudaifer, Vice-Minister of Mining Affairs for the Saudi Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources, outlined the unique opportunities for investors, explorers, miners and service providers to get into a dynamic sector that is at the heart of the Kingdom's rapidly evolving industrial economy.

"Saudi Arabia is very much open for business. We have a demonstrable track record of success with our international partners, offering a best-in-class experience benchmarked against global standards," said Al-Mudaifer. "Additionally, the government continues to support the development of mining through major infrastructure transformation, including roads, rail, ports and electricity networks. Now is the time for international organizations to be part of the mining sector's exponential growth in the Kingdom."

As well as hearing directly from the Vice-Minister, attendees were given deeper insight into the experiences of operating in the mining sector, with Willem Jacobs, Chief Operating Officer, Africa and Middle East, Barrick, saying: "We enjoy an excellent working relationship with the Saudi government, and we find the country easy to work in. The biggest challenge for a miner is access to infrastructure. Saudi is blessed with good infrastructure; it has excellent roads, airports, railway, and port structures. The country is well positioned for export markets to the east and west. We find it very easy to reach export markets from where we are."

The Vice-Minister was joined by Musaed Al-Daood, Deputy Minister for Mining Development, as well as Hall Delano Roosevelt, President & CEO U.S.-Saudi Business Council.

In addition to informing MINExpo attendees of Saudi Arabia's value proposition as a world-class mining destination, the delegation participated in high-level bilateral meetings with companies interested in doing business and investing in the Kingdom's mining sector.

Finally, Vice-Minister Al-Mudaifer announced details of the inaugural Future Minerals Summit (FMS), the first-ever event to offer a "one-stop-shop" for investors, miners and other industry stakeholders interested in learning more about the mining potential of the Middle East, Central Asia, and North and East Africa.

Planned for January 11 to 13, 2022, in Riyadh, FMS will welcome attendees from around the world, including governments, investors, and mining majors and corporates. The Summit program is being built around four pillars:

Defining a New Mining Hub  Showcasing opportunities across the Middle East , Central Asia , and North and East Africa

, , and North and Lands of Opportunity  Outlining partnership opportunities across integrated value chains

Reimagining Mining  Shining a spotlight on innovations that will support mining in the future

Mining's Contribution to Society  Highlighting the industry's vital role in producing the inputs needed to create a circular carbon future, as well as attracting the workforce of the future

In addition to the Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources, FMS has been endorsed by the Ministry of Investment, Public Investment Fund and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

For more information, visit www.futuremineralssummit.com.

Mining Ecosystem and Infrastructure

Saudi Vision 2030 singled out mining to grow to become the third pillar of the country's industrial growth, which led to the development of a comprehensive Mining and Mining Industries Development Strategy, which has identified nearly 40 initiatives, most of which already are up and running.

Saudi Arabia's legal and regulatory framework for mining is being transformed and is now designed to ensure efficient and transparent licensing; simplify doing business; and support a dynamic, sustainable mining industry.

Based on global best practice, a completely revised Mining Investment Law was issued late last year, and now supports a clear and transparent process for license applications and approvals

The new "Ta-adin" web-based platform offers a single point of access for mining license applications, issuance and information

New incentives have been implemented, including the provision of co-funding up to 75 percent of investment, a five-year royalty holiday for miners, discounts on royalties for local downstream production and support for Saudization costs

The Kingdom already has attracted significant amounts of domestic and international investment in mining commodities like gold, phosphate and aluminum.

To a degree, this prior success has been based on a variety of "baked in" advantages for prospective investors, such as:

High domestic demand for mineral outputs

Geographic placement in a key part of the world and proximity to end-user markets in major geographies, including MENA, Asia and Europe

and Safety and security, as ranked by the World Economic Forum's security index

Continuous progress in "ease of doing business," with the World Bank placing Saudi Arabia in the top 10 in terms of an improving business climate

in the top 10 in terms of an improving business climate Strong infrastructure, including roads, rail, ports and electricity networks, and significant investments in water utilization and infrastructure

Geology

The Arabian Shield is estimated to contain $1.3 trillion worth of potential mineral value, across numerous commodities, many of which are critical to the technologies that will drive a sustainable future, and which are in high demand.

The recently launched National Geological Database provides online access to 80 years' worth of national records of geological, geophysical and geochemical information, including thousands of detailed reports on mining targets and prospects.

Also recently announced, a major Regional Geological Survey Program (supported with government investment of more than half a trillion dollars) is now under way and will conduct geophysical and geochemical surveys and create detailed mapping of nearly 700,000 square kilometers of the Arabian Shield.

Sustainability

The Kingdom has launched the Mining Sector Sustainability Assurance Initiative, which aims to create a sector that is focused on balancing economic value and environmental protection.

The country's new mining law ensures that sustainable practices are a foremost priority for new mining operators as they apply for licenses.

TWEETS

The Arabian shield is an untapped land of opportunity, with an estimated mineral value of $1.3 trillion of minerals that will power a sustainable future #KSAMining #MINE21 Saudi Arabia's legal and regulatory framework for mining ensures efficiency, transparency and promotes ease of business, supporting a sustainable mining industry #KSAMining #MINE21 The mining sector in KSA offers international partners a best-in-class experience, benchmarked against global standards #KSAMining #MINE21 Sustainability is central to the KSA mining sector, demonstrated by its principles and sustainability assurance initiative #KSAMining #MINE21

SOURCE The Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources (MIM)
DUBAI, UAE, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- SealPath, a leading provider of information protection and control solutions, has recently highlighted how its revolutionary data-centric security approach can help enterprises in Saudi Arabia meet National Cybersecurity Authority (NCA) compliance with ease and confidence.

With the ambition to become a global hub for technology and innovation, Saudi Arabia launched Vision 2030, a national transformation strategy that aims to diversify its economy from being oil-reliant to a digitally empowered one.

As digital technologies increasingly permeate across all aspects of the Kingdom's economy, it has also made it a more attractive target for threat actors. This intensified the nation's commitment to boosting cybersecurity readiness and enabling a secure environment for data and digital operations across all industries. As a result, Saudi Arabia established the NCA to develop and implement the Essential Cybersecurity Controls (ECC) and Critical Systems Cybersecurity Controls (CSCC).

The objective of the ECC and CSCC is to establish cybersecurity best practices at a national level, covering critical infrastructure, high priority sectors and government services. These security protocols were developed following a comprehensive study of various national and international cybersecurity standards.

SealPath's feature-rich solutions empower enterprises to have full visibility and control over their data wherever it may be throughout its lifecycle. With one click, SealPath allows data access to be restricted, in real-time, even if this data is outside the organization's network. Furthermore, once integrated with any corporate security infrastructure, SealPath's protection automation technologies can help foster a culture of cybersecurity awareness throughout the organization.

"Saudi Arabia is among the leading nations in the Middle East when it comes to digital transformation and innovation," said Syed Almas Azam, Regional Director  Middle East, SealPath. "In line with this, the Kingdom has taken major steps to strengthen its strategies to keep cyber threats at bay. The NCA's security mandates do not only ensure data protection for individual organizations but also help prevent any national security incident. SealPath's security innovations travel with the data, allowing organizations to keep it under control even when it is outside their perimeters. We promise to enable local enterprises to achieve the strongest possible protection for their data, ensuring that they are well-equipped to fulfil the necessary measures stipulated in the ECC and CSCC."

Attesting to the capabilities of SealPath's cutting edge data protection tools, leading regional cybersecurity VAD Credence Security's Managing Director, Garreth Scott said, "Data is the lifeblood of any organization. As regional governments and enterprises continue to embrace the digital age, they are realizing that protecting this vital asset is paramount. We are proud to be SealPath's distribution partner in the region and we strongly believe that their world-class data protection offerings are exactly what organizations need to bolster their security postures and remain compliant with stringent industry regulations such as the NCA ECC and CSCC."

ABOUT CREDENCE SECURITY:

Established in 1999, Credence Security, a PAN-EMEA speciality Value-added Distributor, is a leader in Cybersecurity, Forensics, Governance, Risk and Compliance. With headquarters in Dubai and regional offices in Johannesburg, London, Nairobi, and Hyderabad. We are a pure-play provider of security and forensics solutions, to both public and private sector enterprises across Europe, Middle East, Africa and India, through a select network of specialist resellers.

Unlike most other distributors, we take a consultative 'value-add' solution approach, we collaborate with our partners and their customers to understand their needs, both from a technology and business perspective, and then work very closely with our partners to deliver tailor made solutions. Working closely with globally recognized, award winning vendors including AccessData, an Exterro company, HumanFirewall, Entrust, Netskope, Oxygen Forensics, SealPath, ZecOps and ZeroFox, Credence Security delivers best-in-class, Cybersecurity & Forensics technologies and solutions that protect organizations against advanced persistent threats, malicious adversaries and internal malpractice.

For more information about Credence Security, visit credencesecurity.com or follow them on social media at:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/CredenceSecure

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/credence-security

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CredenceSec

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCn4O73EKgUE-1BbMZS95yzQ

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/credencesecurity/

ABOUT SEALPATH

SealPath is an enterprise digital rights management solution, The most user-friendly and flexible EDRM leader. SealPath helps organizations to protect sensitive documents both on the network and on customers' or partners' networks, in the cloud or on a mobile device. Its a persistent encryption that accompanies the files and emails wherever they travel. It controls who accesses the data, when and with what permission.

For more information about SealPath, visit www.sealpath.com.

SOURCE Credence Security

Related Links

https://credencesecurity.com/


SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The global shipping container market size is expected to reach USD 15.83 billion by 2028, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc., expanding at a CAGR of 12.0% from 2020 to 2028. The market is expected to be driven by maritime trade, expanding penetration of the e-commerce industry, digitization in shipping container space, and increasing demand for specialized shipping containers by the department of defense.

Key Insights & Findings:

By product, ISO containers generated a revenue of USD 6.28 billion in 2020. Extensive adoption of ISO containers for international trade mainly accounted for a higher share of the ISO container product segment in the market

Reefer container segment is expected to register the fastest CAGR of 12.5% in terms of revenue from 2020 to 2028 owing to increasing demand for temperature-controlled transportation for shipping pharmaceutical, food, and agricultural products

Industrial transport led the application segment with a share of 56.6% by revenue in the global shipping containers market in 2020. Extensive use of shipping containers for transportation of industrial raw materials and manufactured goods such as metals, minerals, oil and gases, chemicals, ores, slags, machinery, tools, etc. attributed to the high share of the industrial transport segment in 2020

The Asia Pacific region dominated the market with more than 68.1% share of the global revenue in 2020. Presence of countries such as China and India having a large manufacturing base coupled with robust agricultural exports mainly contributed to the high share of Asia Pacific in the global market

The market is highly fragmented with the presence of large- and medium-sized international companies as well as small-sized domestic players

Read 166 page market research report with TOC on "Shipping Container Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Product (ISO, Non-standard), By Type (Dry, Reefer, Tank), By Size (20', 40', High Cube), By Flooring, By Application, By Region, And Segment Forecasts, 2020 - 2028", by Grand View Research

20' and 40' are the most popular sizes of shipping containers as of 2021. Although based on application shipping containers are often manufactured in a variety of sizes such as 8', 10', 48', 53', and others. Their increasing demand for transportation of a variety of goods such as food, pharmaceutical, automotive components, and agricultural products is expected to support industry growth.

Trade agreements promote trade among the nations and favorably impact the demand for shipping containers. In November 2020, members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and five regional partners signed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which is one of the largest free trade agreements in the world. Moreover, recently concluded multiple trade agreements including NAFTA, EVFTA, EUUK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA), and others are likely to fuel the growth of the market.

The significant developments in commercial vessels and innovation of efficient and better cargo ships equipped with advanced technology such as navigation systems, advanced sensors, and other components are accelerating the demand for cargo transportation through ships, which is further fueling the growth of the market.

The global e-commerce industry witnessed an exponential surge in the last few years, besides, the rising penetration of smartphones and the internet, especially in developing regions is anticipated to fuel the growth of the e-commerce industry further. The growth of the transportation industry on account of growing online retails is expected to benefit the shipping containers market.

Grand View Research has segmented the global shipping container market report based on product, type, size, flooring, application, and region:

Shipping Container Product Outlook (Volume, Thousand Units; Revenue, USD Thousand, 2017 - 2028)

ISO Containers



Non-standardized Containers

Shipping Container Type Outlook (Volume, Thousand Units; Revenue, USD Thousand, 2017 - 2028)

Dry Containers



Reefer Containers



Tank Containers



Others

Shipping Container Size Outlook (Volume, Thousand Units; Revenue, USD Thousand, 2017 - 2028)

20' Containers



40' Containers



High Cube Containers



Others

Shipping Container Flooring Outlook (Volume, Thousand Units; Revenue, USD Thousand, 2017 - 2028)

Wood



Bamboo



Metal



Vinyl



Others

Shipping Container Application Outlook (Volume, Thousand Units; Revenue, USD Thousand, 2017 - 2028)

Consumer Goods Transport



Industrial Transport



Food Transport



Others

Shipping Container Regional Outlook (Volume, Thousand Units; Revenue, USD Thousand, 2017 - 2028)

North America



U.S.





Canada





Mexico



Europe



Germany





U.K.





France





Italy





Spain



Asia Pacific



China





India





Japan





Australia



Central & South America



Brazil





MEA





UAE

List of Key Players of the Shipping Container Market

Bertschi AG

BNH Gas Tanks

Bulkhaul Limited

Danteco Industries BV

NewPort Tank

A.P. Moller - Maersk

China International Marine Containers (Group) Ltd

COSCO SHIPPING Development Co., Ltd.

CXIC Group

Singamas Container Holdings Limited

TLS Offshore Containers/TLS Special Containers

W&K Containers, Inc.

Thurston Group Limited

OEG

Sea Box, Inc.

IWES LTD.

Norcomp Nordic AB

Browse through Grand View Research's coverage of the Global Plastics, Polymers & Resins Industry:

North America Chemical Tanker Shipping MarketNorth America's chemical tanker shipping market size was valued at USD 259.2 billion in 2016. The increase in North American chemical export coupled with rising demand for plastic feedstock is projected to spur the growth during the forecast period.

in 2016. The increase in North American chemical export coupled with rising demand for plastic feedstock is projected to spur the growth during the forecast period. U.S. Cold Chain Packaging MarketThe U.S. cold chain packaging market size was valued at USD 3.04 billion in 2017 and is expected to register a CAGR of 14.1% from 2018 to 2025.

in 2017 and is expected to register a CAGR of 14.1% from 2018 to 2025. Chemical Tanker Shipping MarketThe global chemical tanker shipping market size was valued at USD 2,072.6 billion in 2016. The high concentration of chemical production and increasing demand across the globe is mostly responsible for market growth.

Gain access to Grand View Compass, our BI enabled intuitive market research database of 10,000+ reports

About Grand View Research

Grand View Research, U.S.-based market research and consulting company, provides syndicated as well as customized research reports and consulting services. Registered in California and headquartered in San Francisco, the company comprises over 425 analysts and consultants, adding more than 1200 market research reports to its vast database each year. These reports offer in-depth analysis on 46 industries across 25 major countries worldwide. With the help of an interactive market intelligence platform, Grand View Research helps Fortune 500 companies and renowned academic institutes understand the global and regional business environment and gauge the opportunities that lie ahead.

Contact:

Sherry James

Corporate Sales Specialist, USA

Grand View Research, Inc.

Phone: 1-415-349-0058

Toll Free: 1-888-202-9519

Email: [email protected]

Web: https://www.grandviewresearch.com

Follow Us: LinkedIn | Twitter

SOURCE Grand View Research, Inc.
IRVINE, Calif., Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Sunwest Bank, a privately held, entrepreneurial business bank serving the Western United States, is pleased to welcome Chad Neubecker as its new Executive Vice President, Director of Real Estate Lending. In this role, Mr. Neubecker is responsible for leading the commercial real estate lending teams focusing on real estate investors, developers, private equity firms, and REITs located in the Bank's branch footprint of California, Arizona, Utah, and Idaho.

Chad Neubecker

"We are thrilled to welcome Chad Neubecker to the Sunwest team," said Eric Hovde, CEO of Sunwest Bank. "Chad's wealth of experience, real estate knowledge and deep relationships across the Western U.S. will allow us to further bolster our position and reputation in the industry."

Mr. Neubecker will oversee financing for office, industrial, retail, multi-family, and self-storage, in addition to Sunwest Bank's specialty financing lines, including hotel and manufactured housing. He will also oversee ongoing expansion efforts into markets outside the Bank's current branch footprint.

Prior to joining Sunwest, Mr. Neubecker spent over 25 years expanding the lending platforms across the Western United States for Bank of America, Wachovia, BOK Financial, and most recently as a Director with Citibank. During his tenure, he has provided over $12 billion in real estate financing to investors, developers, private equity firms, and REITs.

Mr. Neubecker holds a Master's Degree in Business from Eastern Michigan University and a Bachelor's Degree in Finance from Central Michigan University. He also holds his FINRA Series 7 and 66.

"I'm excited to join the Sunwest Bank team and continue to expand its real estate lending portfolio," said Chad Neubecker, EVP, Director of Real Estate Lending. "I look forward to working with the Bank's communities and provide local entrepreneurs and real estate professionals with the resources to grow their business."

To learn more about Sunwest Bank, visit https://www.sunwestbank.com/.

About Sunwest Bank

Founded in 1969, Sunwest Bank is a privately held commercial bank with more than $2.0 Billion in assets. Headquartered in Irvine, CA, with operations in California, Arizona, Idaho, and Utah; Sunwest is an entrepreneurial business bank with a long tradition of providing excellent service to entrepreneurs, privately held corporations, family offices, small-medium sized business and real estate developers throughout the Western United States. Sunwest Bank is a Member FDIC and Equal Housing Lender.

Media Contact:

Heather Tidwell

949-777-1333

[email protected]

SOURCE Sunwest Bank

Related Links

https://www.sunwestbank.com/


In line with Telemis' existing international expansion strategy to ensure business continuity with customers at a local level, Stephane Ketelaer, CEO of Telemis, said: "We are happy to be able to count on A.Medical as a solid partner in Latvia. This newly signed agreement extends our joint presence in Latvia and contributes to offering the highest quality medical software to diagnose and treat Latvian patients. We have known A.Medical as a reliable service company and one that does not hesitate to go with the newest technologies while helping medical institutions."

"Our company is well established in the sale of modalities throughout Latvia in the hospital environment," said Igors Palkovs, Chief Executive Officer, A.Medical. "We have known Telemis for more than 5 years and have seen the evolution of their solutions. We are pleased to have signed a partnership agreement to represent Telemis throughout Latvia. Our aim is to develop the business in the region and to provide local support to Telemis customers."

Based in the capital city Riga, Telemis SIA supports the installed base it already has, developing new business in the country and neighbouring countries. A.Medical represents Telemis in Latvia, supporting established software and maintenance contracts, responding to calls for tender, and developing new business. Together the two companies have already signed a 5-year Telemis software and maintenance contract with Daugavpils Regional Hospital in south-eastern Latvia to replace its old PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication System) solution.

Pleased with the recent contract and the news of Telemis' partnership with A.Medical, Gregory Semjonos, General Manager, Daugavpils Regional Hospital, said: "We acquired the Telemis PACS as a replacement for the AGFA PACS. Due to the good performance and our satisfaction with the solution, it was decided to extend the contract and collaboration for the next 5 years. As director of Daugavpils, I am happy to work with a scalable solution. I would also like to thank Telemis for its partnership with A.Medical, allowing us to benefit from local and efficient support. I believe that the Telemis solution gives our doctors all the tools to work in the best possible conditions."

About Telemis:

https://publitekltd.sharepoint.com/:b:/s/PublitekFTP/EbNRRMK6rsBBhD1LmsZ9ibMB2zHnQKUgEkKvoEwhWL1wzg?e=bBXgPr

Contact Details:

North America

Telephone: +1 703 436 9376

Email: [email protected]

Photo- https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1612305/Telemis.jpg

SOURCE Telemis
NEW YORK, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices (BHHS) New England/Westchester/New York Properties, one of the nation's largest real estate brokerages, is pleased to announce that top-producing Manhattan-based agent Marilyn Wexler has joined the firm's New York office at 590 Madison Avenue.

"Marilyn (Wexler) is one of the most respected agents in our industry, and it's a privilege to welcome her to Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices," said Diane Ramirez, Chief Strategy Officer of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices (BHHS) NY Properties. "She is a skilled and knowledgeable real estate professional with a firm grasp of the New York market. We have full confidence that she will play an integral role in widening our reach here."

With more than 20 years' experience selling luxury properties with Douglas Elliman in Manhattan, Wexler has consistently been singled-out for her expertise and professionalism. She has been the recipient of numerous awards, including Douglas Elliman's prestigious Chairman's Circle and President's Circle recognitions.

Wexler is extremely well-versed in the intricacies of Manhattan's luxury market and its various neighborhoods, having lived in the City all of her adult life while raising her two sons there. As someone who has personally purchased and sold a number of properties in the area for her family, Wexler has a deep understanding of what's involved in buying and selling co-ops and condominiums reiterating that purchasing a home is one of the most important decisions in a person's lifetime.

"I have always been a staunch advocate for my clients, knowing full-well what it means to go through the home-buying and selling process in New York," said Wexler. "It's why I was so drawn to Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices. This brand is synonymous with excellence  recognized worldwide for putting its clients first. That attention to detail and level of dedication are what I strive for daily."

Wexler's real estate transactions span a wide range, from studio apartments to penthouses valued at more than $10 million. The bulk of her business stems from loyal clients and referrals  a testament to her sterling reputation. Her industry knowledge, professionalism, and marketing proficiency have enabled her to bring some of the most complicated deals to fruition.

Prior to embarking on a career in real estate, Wexler was an account executive in advertising and sales promotion, experience that was applied in another key role at Douglas Elliman as Director of Marketing for a year-long project to promote two new high-rise condominiums at West Bay Club in Southwest Florida.

"Marilyn is a deeply admired professional and a truly fantastic addition to our team," added Candace Adams, President and CEO of BHHS New England/Westchester/New York Properties. "I look forward to watching her soar with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices."

About Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices New York Properties/New England Properties/Westchester Properties

Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices New York Properties/New England Properties/Westchester Properties is a leading real estate brokerage firm with more than 1,800 sales professionals in Connecticut, Rhode Island, Manhattan and Westchester County, NY. Selectively chosen by Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices and HomeServices of America; the global reach, financial strength and fresh brand make the brokerage the premiere real estate firm in the Northeast. For more information, visit www.bhhsNEproperties.com, www.bhhsNYproperties.com or www.bhhsWestchester.com.

About Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices

Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices is among the few organizations entrusted to use the world-renowned Berkshire Hathaway name, bringing to the global residential real estate market a definitive mark of trust, integrity, stability and longevity. The network's parent company is HomeServices of America, Inc., the nation's largest, full-service residential brokerage firm as measured by transactions, and an affiliate of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. The Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices global network has more than 50,000 affiliated independent sales associates and 1,500 offices throughout the U.S. and abroad, generating nearly US$120 billion in closed transactions in 2020. For additional information, visit www.berkshirehathawayhs.com.

MEDIA CONTACTS:

Israel Kreps / [email protected]

786.374.3434

Caroline Underwood / [email protected]

305.588.7108

Amy Gotzler / [email protected]

646-269-5543

SOURCE Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices New York Properties
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Abarca, a pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) that is disrupting the industry with a new approach to technology and business practices, today announced that Triple-S Management Corporation (NYSE: GTS) renewed its contract for PBM services on behalf of its managed care subsidiary, Triple-S Salud. This three-year agreement applies to the company's Medicare Advantage, Commercial, and Federal Employees Health Benefit Program (FEHBP) lines of business.

"Abarca and Triple-S have been working together for nearly a decade to deliver a better healthcare experience for members," said Jason Borschow, president and CEO at Abarca. "Through our ongoing collaboration, we have developed innovative clinical solutions, and expanded medication access through our home delivery program. We appreciate Triple-S' confidence in us and look forward to continuing this journey."

Triple-S first selected Abarca in 2012 to provide services for the plan's Medicare Advantage programs. In 2018, Triple-S expanded the agreement to include Commercial and Medicare lines of business. Under the terms of this renewal, Abarca will continue to perform these functions for three years.

"Since day one, Abarca has been a dedicated and collaborative partner for Triple-S," said Madeline Hernandez-Urquiza, President, Triple-S Salud and Triple-S Advantage. "We share the goal of improving access to care and generating better healthcare outcomes in Puerto Rico."

As part of this new agreement, Abarca will implement a new medication reconciliation post-discharge program that will help ensure members are on safe, efficient treatment regimens after being discharged from the hospital. Abarca's clinicians will contact eligible beneficiaries to reconcile the medications they have been prescribed post-discharge with those they took before being admitted to the hospital. This will minimize discrepancies that place patients at risk for adverse drug events or non-compliance.

Triple-S Management Corporation is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association.

To learn more about Abarca's PBM services, visit abarcahealth.com.

About Abarca

Abarca is igniting a revolution in healthcare. It started by redefining pharmacy benefits, but this is just the beginning. It is built on the belief that there is a better way for people and companies to work together, connect with each other, and make healthcare awesome for everyone. With smarter technology and a straightforward approach to business, Abarca provides a much better experience and higher value for payers and consumers. For nearly a decade, they have challenged many industry conventions and trampled on a few. So, call them a PBM for discussion purposes, but they are unlike any other company out there. Join the revolution at abarcahealth.com.

SOURCE Abarca
CHICAGO, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- In-depth analysis and data-driven insights on the impact of COVID-19 included in this Vietnam data center market report.

Vietnam data center market size is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 8.18% during the period 20202026. Vietnam data center market research report includes market size in terms of area, investment, power capacity, and colocation revenues. Get insights on 21 existing and 3 upcoming facilities spread across 4 cities, including Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, and other cities (including Binh Duong Province and Da Nang).

Key Highlights Offered in the Report:

Vietnam is one of the emerging data center markets within Southeast Asia , with the COVID-19 pandemic and resultant acceleration of digitalization, data localization requirements, government initiatives, low start-up costs, and global connectivity expected to boost the market in the coming years. Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City are the two major locations for data center development. Hanoi has 12 unique third-party data center facilities accounting for around 60% of the existing power capacity. The country's Law on Cybersecurity (LCS), introduced in 2019, requires data of Vietnamese users to be stored in Vietnam itself by local and offshore service providers. Considering the population of Vietnam , the data localization requirements are expected to boost the data center market in the country. Major data center service providers include NTT Global Data Centers, VNTT, FPT Telecom, CMC Telecommunication Infrastructure Corporation (CMC Telecom), Viettel, Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT), and Telehouse Vietnam that operate data centers in the country. Vietnam has over 110 SEZs, including those set up to encourage data center investments. For example, Viettel IDC cloud system is in Hoa Lac High-tech Industrial Park. In addition, VNPT's Thang Long Data Center is located in Thang Long Industrial Park. Vietnam is aiming to generate around 30% of its electricity via renewable sources and reduce its Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions by 8% by 2030. By 2045, renewable energy is expected to contribute to over 50% of the overall capacity. Data center operators in Vietnam are increasingly investing in efficient data center operations.

Key Offerings:

Market Size & Forecast by Area, Power Capacity, Investment, and Colocation Revenue | 2020-2026

Impact of COVID-19 on Data Center Market

Snapshot of existing and upcoming third-party facilities in Vietnam

Facilities Covered (Existing): 25



Facilities Identified (Upcoming): 2



Coverage: 3 cities



Existing vs. Upcoming (Data Center Area)



Existing vs. Upcoming (IT Load Capacity)

Data center colocation market in Vietnam

Market Revenue & Forecast (2020-2026)



Retail Colocation Pricing



Wholesale Colocation Pricing

Market Dynamics  Leading trends, growth drivers, restraints, and investment opportunities

Market Segmentation  A detailed analysis by IT infrastructure, electrical infrastructure, mechanical infrastructure, general construction, and tier standard

Key Market Participants  List of 12 IT infrastructure providers, 8 construction service providers, 18 support infrastructure providers, and 8 data center investors

Get your sample today! https://www.arizton.com/market-reports/vietnam-data-center-market-investment-analysis

Vietnam Data Center Market  Segmentation

The adoption of advanced technologies such as cloud, IoT, Big Data, and artificial intelligence by enterprises will lead to higher adoption of high-performance computing infrastructure during the forecast period. Telecommunication providers, retail and e-commerce, manufacturing, and professional services are the top demand generators in the Vietnam data center market, increasing the demand for servers and promoting procurement of high-performance infrastructure solutions.

FPT Telecom's Ho Chi Minh City data center facility is installed with two UPS systems with 1,250 kVA power capacity. In addition, FPT Telecom's Fornix data center facility in Hanoi is equipped with 2N redundancy of 1,500 kVA UPS system.

In Vietnam , data centers will include both air and water-based cooling systems with N+1 redundancy. Certain data center facilities are installing chillers with a redundancy of N+1, whereas large facilities are being powered by water-based cooling techniques.

Market Segmentation by IT Infrastructure

Servers

Storage Systems

Network Infrastructure

Market Segmentation by Electrical Infrastructure

UPS Systems

Generators

Transfer, Switches & Switchgears

Rack PDUs

Other Electrical Infrastructure

Market Segmentation by Mechanical Infrastructure

Cooling Systems

Rack Cabinets

Other Mechanical Infrastructure

Market Segmentation by General Construction

Building Development

Installation & Commissioning Services

Building Design

Physical Security

Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM)

Market Segmentation by Tier Standard

Tier I & Tier II

Tier III

Tier IV

Vietnam Data Center Market  Dynamics

As part of Industry 4.0 and increased digitalization in the country, Vietnamese government and enterprises are investing heavily on IoT and big data. In May 2021, Kerlink partnered with Vietnamese IoT startup, Cloud Energy, to develop new solutions for IoT services in rural areas around Ho Chi Minh City and collaborating on smart-building and energy-management projects. In April 2021, SonKim Land Corporation, Qualcomm Technologies, and Infinite Computer Solutions collaborated to provide comprehensive Internet of Things (IoT) solutions to the 9 Stellars Project, creating a luxury smart city, in Vietnam. In 2020, SAS, the US software analytics firm, partnered with local partner TMA Solutions to provide artificial intelligence (AI) and data analytics solutions to Vietnam's enterprises. Vietnam's software outsourcing services are also booming. According to the Ministry of Information and Communications, in 2018, Vietnam exported around $3.5 billion worth software to other countries. Viettel is involved in the process of developing a platform using NB-IoT technology-related services for its customers. Viettel has deployed around 1,000 NB-IoT stations to cover the entire Ho Chi Minh City, followed by Hanoi city that has deployed around 500 NB-IoT broadcasting stations.

Key Drivers and Trends fueling Market Growth:

Cloud Adoption is Driving Data Center Demand

Rise in Submarine Cable Investment

COVID-19 Impact on Vietnam Data Centers

Rise in 5G Network Connectivity

Vietnam Data Center Market - Existing Vs. Upcoming Data Centers

Existing Facilities in the region (White Floor Area and Power Capacity)

Hanoi

Ho Chi Minh City

Other Cities

List of Upcoming Facilities in the region (White Floor Area and Power Capacity)

Get your sample today! https://www.arizton.com/market-reports/vietnam-data-center-market-investment-analysis

Key Market Participants

IT Infrastructure Providers

Cisco Systems

Dell Technologies

Fujitsu

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)

Huawei Technologies

Hitachi Vantara

IBM

Internet Initiative Japan (IIJ)

Juniper Networks

NEC Vietnam (NEC)

NetApp

Oracle

Construction Constructors & Sub-Contractors

Aurecon

Archetype Group

AWP Architects

Apave

Delta Group

GreenViet

Sato Kogyo

Universal Smart Data Center Technology (USDC Technology)

Support Infrastructure Providers

ABB

Cummins

Caterpillar

Climaveneta Climate Technologies (Mitsubishi Electric)

Cyber Power Systems

Delta Electronics

Eaton

Fuji Electric

HITEC Power Protection

KOHLER

Legrand

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation

Rittal

Schneider Electric

Siemens

STULZ

Trane Technologies ( Ingersoll Rand )

Vertiv Group

Data Center Investors

CMC Telecommunication Infrastructure Corporation (CMC Telecom)

FPT Telecom

Global Data Service (GDS)

NTT Global Data Centers

Telehouse

VNTT

Viettel IDC

Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT)

Explore our data center knowledge base profile to know more about the industry.

Read some of the top-selling reports:

About Arizton:

Arizton Advisory and Intelligence is an innovation and quality-driven firm, which offers cutting-edge research solutions to clients across the world. We excel in providing comprehensive market intelligence reports and advisory and consulting services.

We offer comprehensive market research reports on industries such as consumer goods & retail technology, automotive and mobility, smart tech, healthcare, and life sciences, industrial machinery, chemicals and materials, IT and media, logistics and packaging. These reports contain detailed industry analysis, market size, share, growth drivers, and trend forecasts.

Arizton comprises a team of exuberant and well-experienced analysts who have mastered in generating incisive reports. Our specialist analysts possess exemplary skills in market research. We train our team in advanced research practices, techniques, and ethics to outperform in fabricating impregnable research reports.

Mail: [email protected]

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SOURCE Arizton Advisory & Intelligence
UAM is a subcategory of advanced air mobility (AAM) that focuses on how advanced aircraft operate in and around cities. Today, Volocopter is developing its electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft to provide commercial transportation services for passengers and goods  100% electric and emission-free in flight. This mobility service will be positioned to support existing transport options, introduce new local employment opportunities, and provide point-to-point connections at costs similar to taxi fares.

"Our partnership with Urban Movement Labs is a great entryway into the US with our innovative UAM services," says Christian Bauer, Volocopter CCO. "By leading the conversation about urban air mobility with broad stakeholders in Los Angeles, Volocopter can strategically identify and address how our services can benefit cities in the country. More importantly, we are also gaining real insights into living transportation ecosystems in the US to build the best complimentary service to other modes of transportation for our future passengers."

"Volocopter is one of the promising urban air mobility options for adding new layers of connectivity and travel options for Angelenos," said Clint Harper, Urban Air Mobility Fellow with Urban Movement Labs. "Their partnership with Urban Movement Labs shows that they are interested in learning how they can improve the mobility experience of Angelenos through a shared vision. Partnerships like this are an important step in launching this innovative industry with community in mind. We are excited to share this journey with UAM trailblazers like Volocopter."

"We are executing a community-first strategy to engage with community-based organizations and inform a policy framework that will guide the development of UAM infrastructure in the City of Los Angeles," said Sam Morrissey, Executive Director at Urban Movement Labs. "Through our partnership with Volocopter we can explore specific pilot projects to advance a future UAM network that reflects what we hear from Angelenos and establishes standards for future UAM operation."

Volocopter's family of aircraft for UAM services include the VoloCity air taxi for short intracity routes, the VoloDrone for heavy-lift goods transport, and the VoloConnect for longer routes between suburban communities and downtown. The company is also developing physical and digital infrastructures ( VoloPort and VoloIQ ) to complement its multipurpose aircraft portfolio and create scalable urban air mobility ecosystems in cities. Volocopter will launch its UAM services in the next 2-3 years after achieving final certification from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). Concurrent certification from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will allow Volocopter to bring its services to the US shortly after.

The partnership between Volocopter and Urban Movement Labs will provide lessons to inform a policy framework that envisions UAM as a safe, sustainable, and equitable multi-modal transportation component in Los Angeles.

As the only eVTOL industrial player to hold two strategic EASA certification approvals to design and produce aircraft in-house, Volocopter brings leadership in certification, ten years of experience, and over 1,000 test flights to the table. The company most recently demonstrated its progress at the EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, where Volocopter conducted the first public flight of a crewed eVTOL in the US.

About Volocopter

Volocopter is building the world's first sustainable and scalable urban air mobility business to bring affordable air taxi services for goods and people to megacities worldwide. Volocopter cooperates with partners in infrastructure, operations, and air traffic management to build the ecosystem necessary to 'Bring Urban Air Mobility to Life'. Volocopter has 400 employees in offices in Bruchsal, Munich, and Singapore. The company has raised a total of 322 million in equity form investors including Daimler, DB Schenker, BlackRock, and Intel Capital. www.volocopter.com

About Urban Movement Labs

Urban Movement Labs is a first-of-its-kind mobility-innovation organization that links government, businesses, and community members to modern technology solutions to help solve transportation challenges in the City of Los Angeles. With the support of Los Angeles' Mayor's Office, Urban Movement Labs aims to make Los Angeles the model city for safe, sustainable, equitable, and efficient movement of people and goods and replicate these learnings around the world. https://www.urbanmovementlabs.com

SOURCE Volocopter GmbH

Related Links

http://www.volocopter.com


VANCOUVER, BC, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - Wildpack Beverage Inc. (TSXV: CANS) ("Wildpack" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has appointed Sara Coyle, MBA, BSc. to its board of directors effective as of September 15, 2021.

Mrs. Coyle is a Managing Director in Rothschild & Co's Chicago office and has over 15 years of investment banking experience with a significant concentration in the packaging space. Mrs. Coyle joined Rothschild & Co from UBS, where she was a Managing Director in the Global Industrials Group, focusing on Packaging and Industrial Distribution. Her transaction experience includes M&A, equity and debt financings for a broad variety of Paper & Packaging, Distribution, Chemical, Building Products and Aerospace & Defense companies. Prior to UBS, Mrs. Coyle was at Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Citibank. Sara began her career consulting for four years at Accenture and earned her MBA from the Yale School of Management and a Bachelor of Science (BSc.) in Mechanical Engineering (summa cum laude) from Cornell University.

Jeffrey Mason, Chair of the Board, stated: "Our board continues to grow its richness in experience and skill set diversity, mirroring our accelerating enterprise growth across multiple geographies. Sara is an important part of that mix, along with her passion for both the banking and packaging business side. Wildpack and the board welcomes Sara who has hit the ground running, by now chairing our M&A/Finance committee."

Mitch Barnard, Chief Executive Officer, added "Wildpack is continuing to attract top level talent at all levels of its business. Sara provides depth to our Board in Mergers and Acquisitions as well as crucial experience in managing a growth firm in the packaging sector. We are fortunate to have her, and I look forward to her ongoing support as we continue to execute on our strategic plan."

Per: "Mitch Barnard"

Mitch Barnard

Chief Executive Officer and Director

Advisors

Stifel GMP is acting as financial advisor to Wildpack Beverage, Inc., Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP is acting as its legal advisor, Oakhill Financial Inc and RB Milestone Group LLC (RBMG) are acting as its investor relations advisors.

Visit our investor website at:

www.investor.wildpackbev.com

About Wildpack

Wildpack Beverage Inc. is an innovative manufacturer operating in the co-packing space providing aluminum can filling, decoration and brokering for middle-market beverage brands. Wildpack operates five facilities in Baltimore MD, Marietta GA, Longmont CO, Las Vegas NV, and Sacramento CA, and is advancing our strategic plan to build, in the near term, a network of 10 or more facilities across the USA to best serve the middle-market beverage segment. Wildpack commenced trading on May 19, 2021 on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "CANS.V".

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.

SOURCE Wildpack Beverage Inc.
CROWN POINT, Ind., Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Wittenberg Village of Crown Point, IN announced today the addition of Caspar.AI technology to a number of its Hearthstone Assisted Living apartments. Caspar, AI, a Redwood City, California high-tech firm, brings patented, human-centered, artificial intelligence technology to the senior living community setting.

"We are pleased to add Caspar.AI features to our Hearthstone apartments" said Wittenberg Village Executive Director Amy Maurice, "Voice command will be a big benefit for residents with mobility challenges; and the ability of Caspar.AI to detect potential resident falls or incidents  without the use of wearable devices - will bring peace of mind to our residents' families."

In addition to voice command convenience for residents, the Caspar.AI system will provide Lutheran Home Hearthstone residents with features that will enhance quality of life:

Daily wellness and sleep quality reports

Voice command to call team members for assistance if needed.

Daily communication to family members through the Circle of Care feature

Said Joe Anderson, Vice President of Sales for Caspar, AI: "Our focus at Caspar is to make life easier for residents in assisted living apartments. We also provide team members with daily data reports to enhance their resident programming. There is also a feature which allows family members of residents to connect through their own smart device to check on a resident's health  We call that feature 'How's Mom?'

Wittenberg Village is owned and operated by Lutheran Life Communities of Arlington Heights, Illinois.

SOURCE Wittenberg Village
With his artistic talent and generous spirit, Britto is sure to bring color and vision to Inspiration4 events in the coming weeks. Britto's support will include:

Sketching blank coloring pages for the Inspiration4 crew to bring to life in space. The crew's art pages will be auctioned off to benefit St. Jude after the space mission;

Designing a t-shirt that will be unveiled at an event benefitting St. Jude after the Inspiration4 crew returns from space;

Finishing an original art piece live during a private dinner surrounded by vintage planes in a hangar in Cape Canaveral, Florida , on Sept. 14 to be auctioned off on CharityBuzz;

, on to be auctioned off on CharityBuzz; Hosting a virtual art party with a member of the Inspiration4 crew and a lucky auction winner.

In honor of Inspiration4, Britto will also donate a portion of the sale from two original art NFTs, a type of digital asset designed to show ownership of a unique virtual item, that will be auctioned to support St. Jude.

Britto's longtime commitment to supporting St. Jude traces back more than three decades. His artwork greets patients and families right as they step through the front doors of St. Jude, and his designs are featured on a variety of items with proceeds benefiting St. Jude. Because of supporters like Britto, families never receive a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing or food  because all a family should worry about is helping their child live.

Born in Brazil, Britto discovered his passion for art as a young child. Now living in Miami, his art is recognized globally. Described as "the most licensed artist in history," Britto is the founder of the Happy Art Movement, a "visual language of love, hope and happiness" that raises support for St. Jude and puts smiles on the faces of patients.

"It brings me great joy knowing my work is helping St. Jude Children's Research Hospital find cures to end childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases," said Britto. "Anything I can do to help kids realize their dreams  I am all in."

Supporters can bid online on Inspiration4-themed auction packages launching from now to December, including an invitation to Britto's virtual art party, a fighter jet experience, items sent to space with the Inspiration4 crew, and more.

About Inspiration4

Inspiration4 is the world's first all-civilian mission to space scheduled on Sept. 15. Commander Jared Isaacman selected St. Jude Children's Research Hospital as its beneficiary and committed $100 million to St. Jude to inspire others to raise an additional $100 million to accelerate research on devastating childhood diseases and save children all over the world. Isaacman donated two seats to St. Jude, one of which will be occupied by 29-year-old Hayley Arceneaux, pediatric cancer survivor and physician assistant at St. Jude. Arceneaux will represent the pillar of Hope. The four crew members, including Isaacman and Arceneaux, will board the Falcon 9 launch vehicle at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida and orbit the Earth for multiple days on the Dragon spacecraft, before they return to Earth with a smooth water landing.

About St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is leading the way the world understands, treats and defeats childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases. Its purpose is clear: Finding cures. Saving children. It is the only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center devoted solely to children. Treatments invented at St. Jude have helped push the overall childhood cancer survival rate from 20 percent to more than 80 percent since the hospital opened more than 50 years ago. St. Jude won't stop until no child dies from cancer. St. Jude freely shares the discoveries it makes, and every child saved at St. Jude means doctors and scientists worldwide can use that knowledge to save thousands more children. Families never receive a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing or food  because all a family should worry about is helping their child live. Visit St. Jude Inspire to discover powerful St. Jude stories of hope, strength, love and kindness. Join the St. Jude mission by visiting stjude.org, liking St. Jude on Facebook, following St. Jude on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok, and subscribing to its YouTube channel.

SOURCE ALSAC/St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

Related Links

http://www.stjude.org


LONDON, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading HR tech expert Josh Bersin recently joined Applaud HR for a webinar to discuss the changing work tech landscape. Here are some of his key points that HR leaders can takeaway about Employee Experience and the now of work.

Employee Experience (EX) really matters right now.

Since as far back as the 2008 recession, companies have been going through a mass digital transformation to support the changing world of work. But the pandemic was responsible for accelerating this even further as businesses had to adapt to accommodate remote workers, hybrid workers, and office workers along with ensuring that all HR tech worked across a multitude of devices.

Added to that, as we move out of the pandemic, the job market is becoming increasingly tumultuous; according to the US Labor Department in April alone, 4m employees left their jobs .[1] Now, companies not only need to keep employees motivated, productive, happy and engaged - there's added pressure not to lose existing employees and hire more simultaneously.

Josh Bersin explained: "It's no longer just a 'good idea' to be nice to your employees, it's a business continuity issue. If you can't hire during a growing economy then you can't grow [as a business] and your competitors are probably taking market-share away from you."

Business Transformation.

Not only are companies competing with each other for talent. Employees have realised that they have additional options, gig-work or project work and, one of the key tools that companies have in their arsenal to retain and attract the best people is EX.

Companies like Applaud are helping businesses leverage the opportunity to improve EX because they are focused on making work easier and better for the employee, whilst improving engagement and internal mobility all through the vehicle of consumer-grade technology. The message back from employees is loud and clear, this is what they want.

There are many facets to EX, and technology is just one of them. The Applaud product is particularly interesting at this junction because it enables organizations to deliver the technology experiences employees need without forcing them to go through a period of change. The backend systems that employees and managers have learned to use remain in place, workforce experience layers like Applaud sit over the top and upgrade the entire experience. Okta has found that the average company has 70 employee applications [2] and for the most part, these are necessary tools. It's not realistic to trade them all in for one overarching system (ignoring the huge disruption and lengthy implementation this would cause) but, there is another option, and that option is a workforce experience layer such as Applaud.

Listening is the most important strategy.

EX is a microcosm examination of Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

Imagine that career progression, self-fulfillment, and employee engagement are at the top of the pyramid, then employees can't be expected to reach that level of thinking if businesses can't get past the basic needs at the bottom of the pyramid, for example working computers, easy access to payslips, knowing where to go to log annual leave, etc. HR departments must simplify the bottom so we can reach the top.

Solutions should be designed to work for employees and then stay in a constant state of design so that they are always being iterated for the current needs of employees. HR tools have existed forever, but most of the core HCM systems that dominate the market today were never meant to be design tools and don't have agility at their core.

The best strategy for designing and iterating is listening-based - a continuous response model. Giving employees the opportunity to feedback and integrating that feedback quickly (e.g. in the form of opening a ticket on their behalf) is in some cases more important than ease of use.

Defining (EXP) by Layer.

It is fundamentally hard to change software. Therefore, a lot of the backend transactional systems are not going to disappear overnight. They're baked in and that counts for a lot. What Applaud is doing is acting as a layer that sits over the top of these systems and underneath the productivity layer (containing comms tools such as Slack, Zoom, Workplace, etc). Back in 2019, Josh Bersin wrote that it was unlikely that every HR app that has been built to serve a specific function would become an end-to-end platform covering all bases and that it would be helpful to have a layer that sits over the top.

Applaud is one of the more sophisticated implementations of this - giving users the option to connect to their existing systems (e.g. an onboarding system), grab a template from the template library to implement that onboarding journey in a best practice way, whilst connecting up with any other relevant systems that need to be a part of that journey (e.g. payroll). All of which can be done with built-in search and discovery and security, voice or chat tools, case management , knowledge management, surveys, and feedback so that HR departments will always be providing a beautiful, connected experience for the employee that constantly evolves.

This simultaneously solves a problem that is occurring in HR depts right now around 'where do we build the EX?'. The big opening that employee experience platforms such asApplaud provides is that you're no longer dependent on developers to design the EX in a tool built for developers.

"What is really cool about Applaud is that it's designed to be an easy-to-use creator platform. So you can, (not as an IT engineer, but really as an HR person) build workflows for various use-cases that work on top of any existing HR applications." - Josh Bersin, How has the work tech landscape changed Webinar , 2021.

Business outcomes improve as EX matures.

Good practices around EX can drive significant impact for business, people, and innovation in an organization. Through platforms like Applaud , HR will be free of dealing with technical issues that come part and parcel with HR tools, and free up HR to work with employees and managers to support them in their roles in a meaningful way.

Rachel James

[email protected]

[1] Preliminary Source: Labor Department

[2] Okta

SOURCE Applaud HR
ROCHESTER, N.Y., Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- AeroSafe Global, leading provider of cold chain solutions for the safe, sustainable delivery and effective use of biopharmaceuticals across the supply chain, today announced that Rick Lozano has joined the company as Chief Commercial Officer. Lozano, a seasoned pharmaceutical distribution sales executive, brings more than 20 years of experience to this new role where he will drive new sales and organic account expansion. Lozano will work closely with AeroSafe Global's Chief Digital Officer, Scott Whyte, as the company continues on a path of rapid growth and innovation.

Most recently Lozano was a Senior Vice President with AmerisourceBergen, one of the nation's top pharmaceutical distributors. As head of the company's Specialty Physician Services, Lozano helped drive strategic direction of the unit to generate new business and renewal growth. He initially joined AmerisourceBergen in 2012 and held various leadership roles across its ION and Strategic Global Sourcing divisions before his tenure with the Specialty Physician Services team. Prior to joining AmerisourceBergen, Lozano held a variety of roles with pharmaceutical manufacturers including Dendreon Corporation, AMAG Pharmaceuticals and Johnson & Johnson.

Jay McHarg, CEO of AeroSafe Global, said, "We are very excited to have Rick join our team. He brings a wealth of industry experience to the role and a passion for the work that we do to protect the integrity of medications during transit. With his penchant for relationship building, proven track record of commercial results, and interest in emerging digital technologies for a green supply chain, I am certain that Rick will be a strong contributor to our already impressive growth trajectory."

Lozano will work alongside AeroSafe Global Chief Digital Officer, Scott Whyte, who joined the company in late 2020 after working in provider, payer and pharmaceutical technology. Whyte's experience spans 25 years, including senior leadership positions at ClearDATA, CommonSpirit and Phoenix Children's Hospital. Today he is leading the development and execution of AeroSafe's forthcoming control tower platform, sustainability customer portal and digital engagement offerings.

"I am delighted to join a company with the passion, innovation and experience to make a true difference in the lives of patients. From the COVID vaccine to maintenance medications people take every day to feel their best, AeroSafe is committed to fortifying the cold chain so that no inferior product ever reaches a patient," offered Lozano. He added that, "With the maturing of personalized medicine, emergence of the digital supply chain and renewed focus on corporate ESG initiatives, there are countless applications for AeroSafe's solutions which deliver benefits for the patient, the provider and the planet."

About AeroSafe Global

AeroSafe Global helps biopharmaceutical manufacturers improve patient lives by owning the safe, efficient delivery of temperature-sensitive therapeutics from pandemic vaccines to immunotherapies and the medicines people rely on daily. With patented cold chain technology, an intelligent logistics platform and focus on enhancing environmental sustainability through a re-use model, the company embeds innovation into every phase of the supply chain journey for 100% certainty. For additional information, please visit www.aerosafeglobal.com.

Media Contact:

Jennifer Crowley

[email protected]

585-504-1769

SOURCE AeroSafe Global

Related Links

https://www.aerosafeglobal.com/


HOUSTON and NEW YORK, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Allied Industrial Partners LLC ("AIP"), an industrial-focused middle market private equity firm, together with its affiliates, today announced that it has partnered with American Corporate Partners ("ACP"), a national nonprofit organization focused on helping veterans and active-duty military spouses find their next careers through one-on-one mentoring, networking and online career advice.

The free program is open to those who have served 180 days on active duty since 2001, including National Guardsmen and Reservists. This includes those with service-connected disabilities, and ACP also welcomes applications from active-duty spouses and those whose service members were severely wounded or killed in action.

Several senior level executives from AIP will serve as mentors, including members of AIP's investment team, portfolio company partners, and extensive operating partner network. These mentors will be matched in one-on-one, year-long mentorships with veterans located throughout the United States. AIP also will make a financial contribution to ACP in support of its efforts.

"I had the fortunate experience of participating in the ACP program when I returned from a tour in Afghanistan in 2011," said Bradford Rossi, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at AIP. "ACP was incredibly helpful with my transition from active duty and had a positive impact on my development as a leader and investor. I am pleased that our organization is in a position to give back and serve as a corporate partner. The extended AIP team is excited to participate in this important initiative."

"ACP is a unique program that connects the corporate world to the veteran community to improve the transition from military to civilian life. As veterans transition out of the military, the need for guidance and advice on career issues is very real, and we look forward to a long-standing relationship between ACP and AIP," said ACP Founder and Chairman Sid Goodfriend.

"We have deep respect for our military veterans and the mission of ACP," said Philip Wright, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at AIP. "We are thrilled to be partnering with ACP and consider it an honor to be working with veterans and their families  all of whom have made tremendous sacrifices for our country."

In offering this unique program, ACP's objectives are to:

Assist service men and women in transition from the armed services to private enterprise

Provide veterans the opportunity to evaluate and enhance their civilian career path

Develop and strengthen the network of veterans and corporate leaders in the private sector

Provide veterans with opportunities to leverage their military skills and leadership experiences in their civilian careers

AIP joins a growing list of ACP corporate partners including many Fortune 500 companies. In addition to working with ACP, AIP and its respective portfolio companies have partnered with Hire Military and NextOp Veterans to assist with veteran recruiting across the AIP portfolio.

About Allied Industrial Partners

Founded in 2019, Allied Industrial Partners LLC ("AIP") is a middle market private equity firm that thematically invests in high-growth companies within various industrial subsectors, including industrial rentals, manufacturing, distribution, environmental services and critical infrastructure. AIP seeks to partner with experienced management teams that can benefit from its operational enhancement capabilities and its active, hands-on involvement which allows AIP to execute on buy and build strategies. For more information, visit www.alliedindustrialpartners.com .

About American Corporate Partners

American Corporate Partners ("ACP") is a national nonprofit organization focused on helping returning veterans and active-duty spouses find their next careers through one-on-one mentoring, networking and online career advice. With more than one million veterans expected to transition from the armed forces to civilian life over the next five years, ACP engages the American people in a unique volunteer opportunity to provide career guidance to returning military as they transition back into civilian life. For more information, visit www.acp-usa.org.

Media Contacts:

For ACP:

Jane DelGiorno, Vice President - External Relations

703-967-6784

[email protected]

or

Amy Meehan, Vice President - External Relations

703-489-7159

[email protected]

For AIP:

Lambert & Co.

Jennifer Hurson

845-507-0571

[email protected]

or

Caroline Luz

203-656-2829

[email protected]

SOURCE Allied Industrial Partners

Related Links

https://alliedindustrialpartners.com


"We are excited that people with ALS may soon have another treatment option that will help make ALS livable," said Calaneet Balas, president and CEO of The ALS Association. "We are further encouraged that the FDA appears to have finally heard the loud and clear message from the ALS community that people with ALS are willing to accept greater risk to try potential treatments. We thank everyone who advocated and shared their voice with the FDA and urge the agency to approve AMX0035 swiftly."

In September of 2020, The ALS Association and I AM ALS submitted over 50,000 signatures to the FDA calling on the agency to approve AMX0035. In subsequent months, the Association held multiple meetings with FDA officials, including a public We Can't Wait Action Meeting in May of 2021, so members of the ALS community could speak directly to FDA officials.

"The ALS community has been united in this effort and we expect the FDA to act quickly," said Larry Falivena, who is living with ALS and is a member of the Association's Board of Trustees. "Given the promise that AMX0035 shows in slowing progression and its safety record, the community should not have to wait several more years for another clinical trial. Thousands of us who could have been helped will have passed from this devastating disease."

The ALS Association's funding for AMX0035 was supported through donations received through the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. In June of 2016, the Association provided Amylyx with a $750,000 grant for a clinical trial pilot, and in July of 2016, the Association provided the Northeast ALS Consortium (NEALS) with a $1.46 million grant to help pay for the phase 2 clinical trial of AMX0035. The Association has also provided regulatory, medical, and research counsel to help expedite the progress of AMX0035.

"The Ice Bucket Challenge led to new ALS genes being discovered, greater access to care services for people with ALS and their families, and in AMX0035, a very promising new treatment that could make a difference for thousands of people with ALS," said Balas. "We continue to see the impact of the millions of people around the world who took the Challenge in the summer of 2014 and we are forever grateful to the people with ALS and families who started it. They truly changed the trajectory of ALS forever."

Following Amylyx's submission of its NDA for AMX0035, the FDA will determine whether to grant approval of the drug or require additional study, a process that could take several months. According to the company, Amylyx has also filed for approval of AMX0035 in Canada and will seek approval in the European Union by the end of the year.

Read more information about AMX0035 and the Association's support of its approval.

As a standard provision in philanthropic support for drug development, the grants to Amylyx and for the clinical trial of AMX0035 included repayment provisions allowing the Association to recover up to 150 percent of its support, or up to $3.3 million. Any funds received will be reinvested into ongoing global research into treatments and cures.

About ALS

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that afflicts approximately 16,000 people in the United States and a comparable number of patients in Europe. Approximately 5,000 new cases of ALS are diagnosed each year in the United States. The average life expectancy of an ALS patient is approximately three to five years after diagnosis and only approximately 10 percent of patients survive for more than 10 years. Death is usually due to respiratory failure because of diminished strength in the skeletal muscles responsible for breathing. Few treatment options exist for these patients, resulting in a high unmet need for new therapies to address functional deficits and disease progression.

About The ALS Association

The ALS Association is the largest private funder of ALS research in the world. The Association funds global research collaborations, provides assistance for people with ALS and their families through our nationwide network of chapters and certified clinical care centers, and advocates for better public policies for people with ALS. The ALS Association builds hope and enhances quality of life while urgently searching for new treatments and a cure. For more information about The ALS Association, visit our website at www.als.org.

SOURCE The ALS Association

Related Links

http://www.alsa.org


CHICAGO, Sept. 14, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Alternative electric supplier Star Energy Partners LLC will pay a $300,000 settlement for alleged misleading marketing practices and agreed to stop pitching its products or enrolling customers in Illinois for two years. The Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) approved the settlement, which was negotiated by consumer advocates, including utility watchdog Citizens Utility Board (CUB).

Star Energy also agreed to a reengagement plan that requires the supplier to submit its marketing plan, policies and procedures to the ICC before reentering the market, CUB said Tuesday.

Of the $300,000, $275,000 will be refunded to Star Energy's current and former residential customers enrolled between May 1, 2018 and October 25, 2018. The refund amount per customer will be determined on a per kWh basis, multiplying the eligible customer's usage during the period by the per kWh refund amount. As part of the agreement, the company will hire a settlement administrator to ensure the refund checks are issued to customers in a timely manner.

Current and former customers who have questions about the settlement should call the company at 1-855-427-7827.

The remaining $25,000 will be directed to the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, which provides assistance to consumers struggling to afford their energy bills.

"We hope this settlement gives some relief to customers who signed up with the supplier under false pretenses," CUB General Counsel Julie Soderna said.

Testimony in the case led ICC investigators to believe that Star used the ComEd utility name and logo in a deceptive manner and failed to properly train its agents.

"At CUB, we have heard a lot of sad stories from people on tight incomes, some of whom end up paying double, even triple, what they should have to keep the lights on," Soderna said. "Victories like this motivate us to hold suppliers accountable for unethical sales tactics. We look forward to working with the ICC, Attorney General Kwame Raoul and other advocates to continue to protect consumers from scams."

Under a similar settlement earlier this year, Great American Power paid $325,000 after allegedly failing to comply with state regulations governing alternative suppliers. The supplier also agreed to stop marketing its products and enrolling customers in Illinois for five years. Since 2015, Illinois electricity consumers have lost nearly $1.5 billion to alternative suppliers.

CUB is Illinois' leading nonprofit utility watchdog. Created by the Illinois Legislature, CUB opened its doors in 1984 to represent the interests of residential and small-business utility customers. Since then, it has saved consumers more than $20 billion by helping block rate hikes, secure refunds, and fight for clean, low-cost energy. For more information, call CUB's Consumer Hotline, 1-800-669-5556, or visit its award-winning website, www.CitizensUtilityBoard.org.

SOURCE Citizens Utility Board

Related Links

http://www.citizensutilityboard.org


DALLAS, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Alternet Systems, Inc. (USOTC: ALYI) ("ALYI") is a small, early stage company out to make a big name for itself with a differentiated and comprehensive strategy for the electric vehicle (EV) market. The company recently announced a $2 million 2021 revenue target anticipated from sales of its first electric motorcycles as the company pursues over $200 billion in overall EV market opportunities.

While big name companies race with each other to introduce electric cars and trucks into a market saturated with existing combustion engine powered cars and trucks, ALYI faces less competition as it introduces a different kind of electric vehicle into a significantly less saturated and much larger market.

ALYI's entry into the electric vehicle market is through the introduction of electric motorcycles in Africa with plans to expand globally into additional less developed economic markets.

Africa has one of the world's lowest per capita transportation ratios in the world at about 44 vehicles per 1,000 inhabitants. The global average is 180 vehicles per 1,000 inhabitants. The U.S. has over 800 vehicles per 1,000 inhabitants.

Less Saturated:

So, while big name companies race with each other to replace 800 combustion engine vehicles per 1,000 inhabitants with an electric alternative, ALYI, relatively unopposed, is otherwise positioned to increase the number of vehicles per 1,000 inhabitants from 44 to 100 or 200 or more.

Much Larger:

The number of automobiles sold globally per year is currently about the same as the number of motorized 2 and 3 wheeled vehicles. Reports on the number of automobiles and motorized 2 and 3 wheeled vehicles varies based on the specific variables of different analysts, but it's safe to say from 60 to 70 million of each are sold annually. A larger percentage of the overall annual auto sales are in the U.S. while only a fraction of the motorized two and 3 wheeled vehicle sales are in the U.S. (more on the U.S. motorcycle market later). With the global population just under 8 billion, where only 1.2 billion of the population lives within developed economies, and that developed population number is forecasted to remain flat while the less developed population continues to grow, it's unlikely the demand for automobiles can keep up with the demand for more affordable two and three wheeled vehicles.

The American And Global Motorcycle Market Dichotomy:

It can be difficult for Americans to easily recognize the global opportunity for electric motorcycles because they live in an automobile dominated environment where two wheeled transportation is more of a hobby than a means of transportation. Unlike many cities in Europe, let alone Asia, Africa and South America, Americans, in general, don't commute to work on a scooter. Out of sight, out of mind, let alone not in my garage, or more precisely, in the hallway outside my apartment. Americans, for the most part, just don't get the motorcycle market.

An American EV Brand Name For EV Sales Into Developing Economies:

As an early stage company with a high growth strategy, ALYI will have to access investment capital. The U.S. has the most liquid investment market in the world with the highest market capitalization. Accordingly, we believe it is important for us to help America better understand the motorcycle market. We want our strategy to sell electric motorcycles into the developing economic regions of the world to appeal to American investors. We want to be a recognized American Brand Name for EV sales into the world's developing economies.

Branding And The Battery:

ALYI has over two years now of continuous electric motorcycle research and development. The long story made short, at risk of being over simplified - it's all about the battery.

Current battery technology can make a motorcycle go fast and carry a lot of weight, but only for a limited distance. A battery technology breakthrough that can carry a motorcycle for a longer distance, given the limited capacity of a motorcycle to house a lager battery, is not on the immediate horizon. In the interim, existing technology has to be creatively integrated with available market opportunity.

A market exists for lightweight, short commute electric motorcycles or scooters to serve the urban/commuter market. Such a solution is feasible with existing battery technology. As discussed above, while this is a very large global market opportunity, it is not a U.S. market opportunity.

The U.S. has an almost non-existent urban motorcycle market. The U.S. motorcycle market is driven by enthusiasts that choose motorcycles for the joy of riding, not the affordability of riding. U.S. motorcycle enthusiasts are looking to ride the open road over considerable distances. They are selecting bikes for adrenalin pumping speed, or eye-catching style and design. A larger bike that can deliver speed and style can also house a larger battery that can facilitate longer cruising ranges.

One Bike For Branding And One Bike For Selling:

So, ALYI is developing a limited-edition electric motorcycle as part of its branding strategy in America, and also developing a mass production, lightweight motorcycle designed and priced appropriately for selling into the developing economic urban environment.

ALYI's Retro Revolt Electric Motorcycle based on the classic BMW R71 WWII Era Motorcycle will be available soon in North America. The Retro Revolt Electric Motorcycle is a product straight out of ALYI's research and development initiative managed by MODUS Applied Innovations with battery design assistance from iQSTEL (IQST).

In conjunction with a pilot started earlier this year in Africa, ALYI is coordinating the design and production of a variety of lightweight urban commuting motorcycles with multiple manufacturers to go into commercial service later this year in Africa.

ALYI is branding itself as an Electric Vehicle (EV) contender in the U.S. while concentrating its EV sales efforts in Africa and the larger overall global developing economic market sector.

$2 Million 2021 Sales Target:

ALYI recently announced a 2021 $2 Million Target for revenue generated from the sales of its first electric motorcycles as the company pursues over $200 billion in overall market opportunities.

Beyond Electric Motorcycles:

Yes, ALYI is entering the EV market with electric motorcycles, but ALYI's vision and business plan is much larger.

ALYI is building an entire Electric Vehicle (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.

This press release today is the first in a series of planned releases to provide shareholders and interested investors with more detail behind individual components of ALYI's overall EV Ecosystem Business Strategy.

ALYI has designed its EV Ecosystem solution to include democratized participation. ALYI has partnered with ReovltTOKEN to finance ALYI's growth by offering participation in the EV ecosystem through the sale of Revolt Tokens.

To learn more about RevoltTOKEN and how to participate in ALYI's electric vehicle ecosystem through the purchase of Revolt Tokens, visit https://rvlttoken.com/.

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

[email protected]

+1-800-713-0297

SOURCE Alternet Systems, Inc.
SOUTHFIELD, Mich., Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Maynards, a world leader in industrial auctions since 1902, is pleased to announce the continuation of a series of secured party sales of the assets from another complete JD Norman plant in Germany. JD Norman, a major OEM and Tier one supplier of automotive powertrain and components, shut down in 2020 after more than 20 years of providing complete assembled components to major automotive companies including Mercedes Benz, Audi, Ford, VW, Fiat and Kia.

Complete Closure of a Major Tier One Automotive Component & Power Train Manufacturing Group SAMAG WBM 2 - 800.4 CNC 4-Spindle Deep Drilling Machine

Items to be sold include complete manufacturing lines used for automotive powertrain and engine components. This major sale is currently underway and will end September 29th with an Online auction sale. This sale is being managed by Maynards in conjunction with a global team of automotive asset specialists of Robert Levy Associates and Gordon Brothers.

Over 1,000 Late Model Assets From Premium Brand Names such as Samag, Heller, Heckert and others including:

150+ CNC Machines

Deep Drilling Machines

Leak Testing Machines

Washing, Grinding, Cracking, Deburring and Honing Machines

Robots

Cranes

Quality Assurance Equipment

Toolroom Equipment

Factory Vehicles

Storage Equipment

For full details, contact Andreas Matuszczak at [email protected] or visit us at www.maynards.com www.rlevyinc.com/current-sales/ or www.gordonbrothers.com

"This sale of top-quality automotive powertrain manufacturing technology represents a remarkable opportunity for our customers in the automotive industry in Europe and across the world," said Robert Levy, President of Robert Levy Associates. "Beyond that," he added, "this auction is important because many of the assets, which were formerly used for machining automotive engine parts, can be easily adapted to service a wide range of applications in a variety of industries."

Maynards expertise in consistently delivering the highest returns to customers in the equipment and machinery industry spans over a century. www.maynards.com

Robert Levy Associates specializes in crafting and executing successful bespoke monetization solutions maximizing returns for industrial assets globally, for over 40 years. www.rlevyinc.com

Gordon Brothers has helped lenders, operating companies, advisors and investors move forward through change since 1903. www.gordonbrothers.com

Contact:

[email protected]

248.569.9781

SOURCE Maynards Industries

Related Links

http://www.maynards.com


LOS ANGELES, Sept. 14, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The African American Voter Registration, Education and Participation Project (AAVREP) is continuing its promise to rally and educate Black voters on voting "No" on the Recall election until the Recall election deadline of 8 p.m. To help with its efforts, the Black Lives Matter PAC is supporting AAVREP to stop the opportunity of a Right Wing California.

Senator Sydney Kamlager and Dr. Melina Abdullah of Black Lives Matter Los Angeles at AAVREP's Black Labor Day event. | Photo credit: Charles Keyes, African American Voter Registration, Education and Participation Project

"As President Biden implored last night, we must send the nation a message that democracy will not be undermined in California," said African Americans Against The Right Wing Recall Co-Chairs Assemblymember Mike Gipson and State Senator Sydney Kamlager.

In an effort to inform Black voters and increase voter turnout, in August AAVREP launched the "Stop the Right Wing Recall" campaign with and Assemblymember Gipson and Senator Kamlager leading as co-chairs. The campaign validators include community members, Black elected officials and celebrities as Black voter turnout is critical to this Recall because Governor Newsom cannot avoid being recalled without 90 percent of Black voters voting "No."

"We are translating protests to elections, to advocacy that creates lasting change, said Senior Advisor to Black Lives Matter PAC Angela Angel. We must not leave any Black voters or people who vote on issues in support of Black communities behind. With the critical work toward reimagining public safety and transforming system inequities on the line, we cannot be complacent and we cannot sit out. We must engage and vote against this Recall. Black Lives Matter PAC is proud to be shoulder to shoulder with a trusted on the ground partner in California."

Black Californians are poised to make a major impact in the Recall election, and AAVREP and Black Lives Matter PAC are working to protect a Democratic California. Governor Newsom's challenge for the Recall was to make sure his supporters not only vote "No" but were aware of the Recall and mail in their ballots on or before Election Day, Sept. 14.

About African American Voter Registration, Education and Participation Project (AAVREP)

AAVREP is one of the largest organized efforts to register African American and urban voters in the country. For more than 20 years, AAVREP has registered more than 400,000 voters and regularly mobilized nearly 375,000 households via telephone and door-to-door canvassing. AAVREP focuses on highlighting the importance of the African American vote utilizing culturally competent education and outreach strategies.

For more information contact:

Shawna Charles

IXG PR

310.689.4310

[email protected]

SOURCE The African American Voter Registration, Education and Participation Project
Latest investment values high-growth supply chain technology leader at $500 million, provides capital for continued expansion in supply chain visibility and orchestration technology

PLEASANTON, Calif., Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Blume Global, a leading provider of supply chain execution and visibility technology, today announced it has raised new equity from London-based Bridgepoint Group. This investment will further the company's effort to bring its truly innovative and transformational supply chain digitization to the industry. This latest funding values Blume Global at $500 million, and Bridgepoint joins funds managed by affiliates of Apollo Global Management and EQT as equity investors in the company.

Launched in 2018, Blume Global provides a cloud-first, intelligent operating platform that orchestrates global supply chain processes through a digital map of the supply chain world for thousands of customers. By digitizing and transforming supply chains around the world, enabling shippers (buyers and suppliers), logistics service providers and carriers to work together on a common data driven platform to reduce waste and inefficiencies through visibility, automation and optimization.

In 2021, Blume Global has continued its high-growth trajectory, with more than 100% annual bookings growth YTD. The company has added more than 100 employees since January in the United States, Hong Kong, Europe and India. With this new equity capital, the company expects to make additional investments in R&D and go-to-market functions, positioning Blume to continue creating a truly transformative and sustainable platform for global supply chains.

"When we launched Blume Global in 2018, we saw an opportunity to build a cloud-based digital operating platform for global supply chains that leverages modern technologies and machine learning to optimize and automate operations," said Pervinder Johar, CEO, Blume Global. "Since then, we have only seen increased demand for a supply chain transparency and orchestration platform like ours. We are thrilled by this new investment from Bridgepoint Group to help fund our continued growth."

Rohit Dhote, Managing Director at Bridgepoint Credit, commented: "Solving supply chain complexity and providing visibility into the movement of goods has never been more business critical. Blume Global is at the forefront of enabling multi-modal supply chains through its leading, cloud-based order management, TMS and real-time visibility solutions. We're excited to partner with Blume Global, its management team, Apollo and EQT to support the company through its next stage of growth."

Blume Global's mission to reduce $1 trillion of waste from global supply chains, lower carbon emissions and democratize technology for millions of small to medium businesses that make global supply chains work is resonating in the industry. There are more than 10,000 companies on Blume Global's platform, including some of the largest shippers, ocean carriers, railroads and global freight forwarders.

Justin Korval, Partner at Apollo, said, "Blume Global provides companies with business-critical supply chain and logistics solutions playing an important role in creating a more sustainable global supply chain. We're pleased to support Pervinder and the Blume Global team as they continue to scale the business and welcome additional blue-chip investors like Bridgepoint."

In the transaction, J.P. Morgan Securities LLC served as the sole placement agent and Cooley LLP as legal counsel to Blume Global. Sidley Austin LLP was legal counsel to Bridgepoint, and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP was legal counsel to the Apollo Funds.

About Blume Global

The supply chain technology provider Blume Global aims to remove $1 trillion of waste from the global supply chain, making logistics processes more agile, dependable and sustainable with innovative logistics execution and visibility solutions. Blume's digital platform goes beyond the transportation management status quo, empowering users to quickly predict the impact of disruptions and react in real time before minor issues become major problems. With one of the most extensive networks among logistics technology providers, Blume Global's direct connectivity to the ocean, air, rail, parcel, LTL and truckload carriers combines with Blume Global's solutions and 27 years of industry data to give customers the intelligence needed to maximize transportation spend, improve customer service and reduce carbon emissions.

About Bridgepoint

Bridgepoint Group PLC is the world's leading quoted private assets growth investor focused on the middle-market with 27 billion AUM and a local presence in the US, Europe and China. We specialize in private equity and private credit and invest internationally in six principal sectors  Business Services, Consumer, Financial Services, Medtech & Pharma, Advanced Industrials and Tech & Media.

About Apollo

Apollo is a high-growth, global alternative asset manager. We seek to provide our clients excess return at every point along the risk-reward spectrum from investment grade to private equity with a focus on three business strategies: yield, hybrid and opportunistic. Through our investment activity across our fully integrated platform, we serve the retirement income and financial return needs of our clients, and we offer innovative capital solutions to businesses. Our patient, creative, knowledgeable approach to investing aligns our clients, businesses we invest in, our employees and the communities we impact, to expand opportunity and achieve positive outcomes. As of June 30, 2021, Apollo had approximately $472 billion assets under management. To learn more, please visit www.apollo.com.

Contact:

Jon Ross

[email protected]

SOURCE Blume Global
LONDON, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Boston Consulting Group (BCG), one of the world's leading management consulting firms, has named Matthias Tauber to head its combined "Europe, Middle East, South America, Africa" units starting January 2022.

Boston Consulting Group Announces Matthias Tauber As Head of the Firms Europe, Middle East, South America, Africa Region

Matthias will lead more than 10,000 employees across nearly 50 offices within the region, which today represents around 40% of BCG's global business. It has seen strong growth over the past years, driven especially by an expansion of the firm's digital transformation, AI, and climate services. Matthias, 42, who was raised in Italy and educated in Austria and France, joined BCG in 2003 and was appointed Managing Director and Partner in 2012. For the past three years, he has been responsible for BCG's business unit Germany & Austria (G&A) and Central & Eastern Europe (CEE).

"I've been fortunate to work with Matthias over almost two decades and had the opportunity to see his dedication and inspiration making a difference for our clients and our teams. He has led the business in G&A and CEE to new levels of innovation, growth, and market share," said Christoph Schweizer, who will become BCG CEO effective October 1, 2021. "Thanks to Matthias' initiatives, the connectivity between markets like Germany, France, the United Kingdom, or South Africa has strengthened, and we see an incredible amount of collaboration in the region. I'm very much looking forward to working with Matthias in his new role." Matthias will join Sharon Marcil and Neeraj Aggarwal, who respectively chair BCG in North America and Asia Pacific, as BCG regional leaders.

Matthias' appointment builds on the three successful years as head of BCG for G&A and CEE where he grew the firm's digital business to 40% of revenue and expanded new business areas, including Climate and Risk & Compliance in the region. Under Matthias' leadership, BCG launched the "Climate Conference" in Berlin with one of Germany's leading news magazines, bringing together European business leaders to discuss their role in combatting climate change. He also drove BCG's diversity efforts and increased the diversity of the firm's leadership, with more than 30% of management roles in his area now held by women. He initiated the "BCG Diversity Council" for G&A and is co-head of the jury for "Germany's Most Influential Women in Business."

From 2013 to 2019, Matthias was part of the firm's Industrial Goods Global Leadership team. He holds a degree in civil engineering from the Vienna University of Technology and a Master of Business Administration from INSEAD University in Fontainebleau and Singapore.

"Every CEO I talk with has an overflowing inbox of strategic opportunities and challenges, from the need to work on their climate agendas, to digitally transforming their businesses, to dealing with supply-chain challenges, and to safely bringing workers back to offices and production facilities," said Matthias. "Our role as a strategic consulting partner to our clients has never been more critical to their future prospects, and I'm excited to lead that response across this region."

In his new role Matthias will succeed Christoph Schweizer, who previously led the CEMA (Central Europe, Middle East, and Affiliates) region and has been elected as BCG's new Global CEO (effective October 1, 2021), and Hubi Meinecke, who previously led BCG's WESA (Western Europe, South America, and Africa) region. Over the coming weeks, Christoph and Matthias will work together with the group of Managing Directors and Partners in G&A and CEE to select and appoint a new head for this business unit.

Earlier this year, BCG announced global sales of $8.6 billion for 2020, with underlying revenue growth of 8% at constant exchange rates.

For more information, please contact Brian Bannister at [email protected] or +44 7733 886145.

Photo of Matthias Tauber: https://bcg01.egnyte.com/dl/aS08rhGO5C/?

About Boston Consulting Group

Boston Consulting Group partners with leaders in business and society to tackle their most important challenges and capture their greatest opportunities. BCG was the pioneer in business strategy when it was founded in 1963. Today, we work closely with clients to embrace a transformational approach aimed at benefiting all stakeholdersempowering organizations to grow, build sustainable competitive advantage, and drive positive societal impact.

Our diverse, global teams bring deep industry and functional expertise and a range of perspectives that question the status quo and spark change. BCG delivers solutions through leading-edge management consulting, technology and design, and corporate and digital ventures. We work in a uniquely collaborative model across the firm and throughout all levels of the client organization, fueled by the goal of helping our clients thrive and enabling them to make the world a better place.

SOURCE Boston Consulting Group (BCG)

Related Links

www.bcg.com


Contractors for the broadband and business services division of the diversified telecommunications and technology services company finished work on the two-year-plus, five phase multi-million-dollar Gulf Coast project late last month, overcoming weather delays, permitting requirements and sensitive environmental issues.

The complex project, which placed conduit and fiber optic cable underground and underneath or around several bodies of water, including the Pascagoula River, Biloxi Back Bay and Fort Bayou, spans the counties of Hancock, Harrison and Jackson in Mississippi and Mobile in Alabama, along county roads and U.S. Highway 90 in both states.

C Spire officials said completion of the route is the third major fiber long haul project covering the Mississippi and Alabama Gulf Coasts, adding to major routes already existing along U.S. Highways 98 and 45. The latest route also provides fiber backbone to the company's cell sites and resilience and redundancy for the network.

"Not only are we connecting our legacy fiber network in Mississippi, which we're using to launch new ultra-fast internet access for consumers in Biloxi, Gulfport and Ocean Springs, but it also helps us expand our reach into Alabama in Mobile and Baldwin counties and Mobile Bay," said C Spire Chief Network Officer Alan Jones.

Combined with its recent acquisition of Harbor Communications and its completion of the long-haul fiber route, C Spire is uniquely positioned to avoid service interruptions and serve the myriad of voice and data needs of consumers and businesses along the Mississippi and Alabama Gulf Coasts using highly reliable fiber optic infrastructure, Jones added.

"C Spire now can deliver low-latency, secure and highly-reliable services from Pearlington to Perdido  that's a huge lift to the economic growth potential of this region," said Ben Moncrief, managing director of Alabama and senior vice president of Strategic Relations for C Spire, noting that symmetric speeds solve real-world challenges associated with interactive learning, remote work and telehealth applications. "Along with C Spire's other long-haul builds in West Alabama, this new fiber will help to alleviate Alabama's painful lack of accessible long-haul and middle-mile fiber infrastructure."

C Spire is expanding its ultra-fast broadband internet services to consumers and businesses in Alabama as part of an overall $1 billion investment announced earlier this year to speed the development and deployment of fiber broadband and network enhancements across its three-state footprint.

Alabama ranks 38th nationally in broadband access and state leaders have made access to fast, reliable and affordable internet for rural areas a priority through state funding and creation of the Alabama Rural Broadband Coalition, a group of community, business and government leaders dedicated to job creation, economic development and business growth.

Local business and community economic development leaders praised C Spire's continued fiber expansion in Alabama. "High-speed Internet and specifically fiber-based broadband is critical to business operations as well as their employees, with more of them working from home," said David Rodgers, vice president of economic development for the Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce. "Reaching into Mobile and expanding our infrastructure is an important asset in the Mobile Area Chamber's economic development efforts. This project also has an important job-creation component and is helping bridge the digital divide for the businesses and people in our area."

About C Spire

C Spire is a diversified telecommunications and technology services company that provides world-class, customer-inspired wireless communications, 1 Gigabit consumer Internet access as well as a full suite of dedicated Internet, wireless, IP Voice, data, cloud and managed services for businesses. This news release and other announcements are available at www.cspire.com/news. For more information about C Spire, visit www.cspire.com or follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/cspire or Twitter at www.twitter.com/cspire.

SOURCE C Spire

Related Links

http://www.cspire.com


VENTURA, Calif. and SANTA ROSA, Calif., Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Green Flower and GF Institute are proud to announce CannaCraft and its CEO Jim Hourigan are partnering with the Institute to bring new standards of professionalism, credibility, and equity to the cannabis industry through a new education and workforce development initiative.

Powered by Green Flower's content catalog containing thousands of hours of educational cannabis content, the GF Institute cannabis credentials represent a revolutionary approach to how employers handle onboarding and subject matter competency for every employee.

The first three certificate programs available for licensing beginning today -- the Manufacturing Agent Certificate, the Dispensary Associate Certificate, and the Cultivation Technician Certificate -- were designed specifically to promote and help employees develop a fundamental, functional level of knowledge in specific plant-touching verticals and positions that are in high demand today.

"The cannabis industry's rapid growth in recent years puts a spotlight on the clear need for the creation of real, meaningful, research-tested standards like what GFI will provide for this workforce," said Gil Christie, the inaugural chairman of GF Institute. "CannaCraft's presence as a true leader and innovator in our field provides the Green Flower Institute with a much-needed perspective as we work with the ANSI National Accreditation Board (ANAB) to standardize the industry like never before."

While any Licensed Cannabis Operating company who adopts the certificates for their own team members by the end of the 2021 will be offered the opportunity to join CannaCraft and other leading cannabis employers as Founding Members, Steering Committee members like CannaCraft CEO Jim Hourigan actually provide input, guidance, oversight, and ultimately approval for these industry-first professional certificates.

"GF Institute's Standardized Certificate program provides credible cannabis knowledge that can be applied across any level and skill-set. CannaCraft realizes the value of investing and engaging our employees so that they have the individual ability to scale as CannaCraft and the cannabis industry scales," said CannaCraft CEO Jim Hourigan. "As one of the largest vertically integrated cannabis companies in the country, we are uniquely positioned to make meaningful, positive changes towards improving cannabis education, and that includes utilizing and endorsing GF Institute and their Standardized Certificate program and the academic institutions they partner with."

GF Institute's new credential programs each contain two modules designed to help employees meet the daily needs and expectations of each position. Learners who successfully complete the certificate program will receive:

Automatic enrollment into the GF Institute post-graduate community

A digital, downloadable certificate officially noting their program completion

Digital badges to display their accomplishment on LinkedIn

Physical enamel pins that signify expertise and inspire confidence with consumers

Additional benefits

"Built on the four pillars of quality, science, accessibility and community, CannaCraft strives to be an organization that invests in our employees, and one that grows, manufactures and sells quality products that consumers can trust and that has been done safely and professionally since 2014," continued Hourigan.

"GFI addresses some of the most pressing challenges in the cannabis workforce, helping leading employers like CannaCraft train and develop their employees in the necessary skills, knowledge, and credibility they need to succeed," said Max Simon, CEO and Co-Founder of Green Flower. "As a community-oriented company providing recreational and medical products, CannaCraft's commitment to cultivating health and happiness through cannabis shines through -- making them an ideal Green Flower Institute Founding Member."

GF Institute is accepting Founding Member applications beginning today, September 15. Any organization that elects to partner with GF Institute and roll out the credentials to their own employees by the end of the year will receive exclusive, limited edition Founding Member physical pins to emphasize their leadership both with their own employees and with the public.

Brand representatives, cannabis executives, and other industry leaders interested in learning more information should visit www.gfinstitute.org to request the program documentation and complete a membership application.

About Green Flower:

Founded in 2014, Green Flower is the industry leader in cannabis education, empowering thousands of consumers, regulators, and professionals with the knowledge they need to succeed in the emerging cannabis industry today.

Green Flower's content and technology platform powers the cannabis programs of top universities and colleges across the country, provides customized learning and compliance solutions for cannabis businesses of all sizes, and equips individuals with the skills and credentials necessary to make an impact in the modern cannabis industry.

About CannaCraft:

CannaCraft is a vertically-integrated organization, founded in 2014 with the mission to produce safe and effective cannabis products. With over 200 employees, the company currently manufactures and distributes AbsoluteXtracts, Care By Design, Care By Design Hemp, Lagunitas Hi-Fi Hops, Farmer & The Felon, Gem + Jane, Satori, and Loud + Clear from their licensed facilities in Santa Rosa, California. CannaCraft's product portfolio boasts hundreds of products, in unique applications including vape cartridges, drops, topicals, gel capsules, packaged flower, infused chocolates and gummies, and more. For more information about CannaCraft, please visit www.cannacraft.com .

Contact: Adam Summers

e: [email protected] p: 708.223.2336

SOURCE Green Flower
THE WOODLANDS, Texas, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- CAS Group (City & Sea Group LLC), a trusted engineering, urban planning, and construction management/program management firm, is pleased to announce that it has received Woman-Owned Small Business (WOSB) federal contract program certification from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA).

CAS Group was recently certified as a Woman-Owned Small Business with the US Small Business Administration. CAS Group has been supporting Federal projects for years including the conduct of a coastal flood study for a US Embassy compound in East Timor. View of the Gansevoort Peninsula under construction. CAS Group performed coastal engineering services for this new park along New York City's Hudson River.

"At CAS Group, we work hard to distinguish ourselves as sharp, agile, diligent, collaborative consultants. For more than 11 years, we have been committed to deliver sound solutions for complex planning, design, and construction projects. The WOSB Certification will strengthen CAS Group's ability to market our services  and our passion for excellence  to projects funded by the Federal government and may even bring tax breaks to our partners in the private sector," says Jennifer Lindbom, President and Founder. "We seek to be the consultant of choice based on the quality of our services. At the same time, we recognize that the WOSB certification can raise our profile and help level the playing field in a marketplace of large AEC firms."

The SBA offers women-owned businesses valuable resources, including helping small business owners and disadvantaged groups navigate the complex federal contracting programs. "The certification is one more way that CAS Group is able to prove the integrity and credibility of the firm that stems from the robust and thorough application process," says Ms. Lindbom.

Each year the U.S. government aims to award at least five percent of its contract funds to women-owned small businesses. The certification by the WOSB allows CAS Group to stand out among the pool of applicants and also qualifies the firm for government set-asides.

"CAS Group's project portfolio already includes both domestic and international federal projects. We performed coastal flood modeling for the US Embassy in East Timor and conducted value engineering for navigational improvements on the lower Columbia River on the border of Oregon and Washington for the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). In addition  and many moons ago  I launched my career in planning as a US Peace Corps Volunteer in the Philippines. CAS Group may be a small organization in a sea of large multinational AEC companies, but we have proven that no project is too big or too small for CAS Group and there is great value we can bring to the mission of our national agencies."

In 2010, Jennifer Lindbom founded CAS Group with a vision to provide excellence in urban planning, coastal & marine engineering projects, and infrastructure delivery ranging from ports to LNG marine terminals, transportation to waterfront development, power plants to industrial facilities, disaster recovery to coastal protection systems. Over the last 11 years, the firm has been an integral part of the delivery of over $2 billion worth of projects and involved in the development of an additional $4 billion.

ABOUT CAS GROUP

CAS Group is a trusted engineering, urban planning, and construction management / program management firm providing responsive solutions, strategic guidance, and proven tactics to successfully move projects from concept to completion across the US and worldwide. CAS Group is a registered engineering company in TX and FL. The firm is a woman-owned small business certified with the cities of Houston and New York; port authorities of Houston and NY/NJ; states of TX, NY, CA, FL, LA, and MD; and is a WOSB with the federal government. The firm recently received confirmation of its service mark for CAS Group. President and Founder Jennifer Lindbom, AICP, was serves on the Board of the American Planning Association's Houston Section. Learn more at https://casgroupllc.com

Contact:

Nataly Blumberg

516-859-6665

[email protected]

SOURCE CAS Group LLC
WASHINGTON, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The CFP Board Center for Financial Planning ("Center") today released a Guide to Careers in Financial Planning to provide students, career changers and financial services professionals with guidance on beginning and sustaining a successful and rewarding career in financial planning.

The new guide is based on research the Center commissioned from a team of academic scholars and industry experts. The research captured the workforce development practices of a broad variety of financial services companies as they recruit, train and develop the next generation of financial planning professionals. Informed by interviews with 77 company executives, talent recruiters and financial planners across 42 companies, the guide introduces readers to the financial planning profession and:

Identifies typical career tracks in financial planning and different entry points into the profession.

Explores the types of companies that employ financial planners, from small to large.

Highlights the personal and professional benefits of a career in financial planning.

Includes details on where to find financial planning careers, including questions to ask in a job interview.

"One of the Center's priority initiatives is to cultivate a quality workforce of diverse financial planners to ensure the profession can meet increasing and evolving financial planning needs of the American public," said CFP Board CEO Kevin R. Keller, CAE. "The new Career Guide outlines entry points and career paths in financial planning and provides practical guidance for students and career changers interested in getting started. We hope it helps inspire new entrants, especially those from underrepresented populations, to develop action plans to pursue a career in this highly fulfilling profession."

The Center is grateful for the generous contributions of the guide's Signature Sponsor, BNY Mellon Pershing; additional support provided by The Ensemble Practice; guide's Supporting Sponsors, Merrill Lynch and Facet Wealth; and Center's Founding Sponsors Northwestern Mutual, Envestnet and Charles Schwab Foundation, in partnership with Schwab Advisor Services.

"Financial planning has evolved into a dynamic career path for new talent entering the field  as recent university graduates or as career changers. With so much strong potential out there, it can be challenging for financial advisory firms to match top talent with the firm culture and career path suited to help them thrive," said Christina Townsend, Managing Director and Head of Relationship Management, Consulting and Platform Strategy for Wealth Solutions at BNY Mellon's Pershing, "We have a real opportunity to increase awareness of the financial planning profession, and the different career paths available. We're excited to support CFP Board in developing this valuable guide that introduces younger professionals and career changers pursuing new opportunities to match their strengths and interests."

The Guide to Careers in Financial Planning can be accessed on CFP Board's website. For information on available career opportunities and internships in financial planning, visit the CFP Board Career Center, the premier job website in financial planning that is free to job seekers.

ABOUT CFP BOARD

Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. is a professional body for personal financial planners in the U.S. CFP Board sets standards for financial planning and administers the prestigious CFP certification  one of the most respected certifications in financial services  so that the public has access to and benefits from competent and ethical financial planning. CFP Board, along with its Center for Financial Planning, is committed to increasing the public's awareness of CFP certification and access to a diverse, ethical and competent financial planning workforce. Widely recognized by firms as the standard for financial planning, CFP certification is held by more than 90,000 people in the United States.

ABOUT THE CFP BOARD CENTER FOR FINANCIAL PLANNING

The CFP Board Center for Financial Planning seeks to create a more diverse and sustainable financial planning profession so that every American has access to competent and ethical financial planning advice. The Center brings together CFP professionals, firms, educators, researchers and experts to address profession-wide challenges in the areas of diversity and workforce development, and to build an academic home that offers opportunities for conducting and publishing new research that adds to the financial planning body of knowledge.

ABOUT BNY MELLON'S PERSHING

BNY Mellon's Pershing is a leading provider of clearing and custody services. We are uniquely positioned to help complex financial services firms transform their businesses, drive growth, maximize efficiency, and manage risk and regulation.

Wealth management and institutional firms outsource to us for trading and settlement services, investment solutions, bank and brokerage custody, middle and back office support, data insights, and business consulting.

Pershing brings together high-touch service, an open digital platform and the BNY Mellon enterprise to deliver a differentiated experience for every client.

Pershing LLC (member FINRA, NYSE, SIPC) is a BNY Mellon company. With offices around the world, Pershing has over $2 trillion in client assets and millions of investor accounts. Pershing affiliates include Albridge Solutions, Inc. and Lockwood Advisors, Inc., an investment adviser registered in the United States under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. Additional information is available on pershing.com, or follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter @Pershing.

SOURCE Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.cfp.net


Innovation, the most pressing task

Sci-tech innovation is the most pressing task and efforts must be accelerated to achieve breakthroughs in key and core technologies, Xi stressed during Monday's visit to a chemical company to learn about the consumption and development of China's coal industry.

The coal chemical industry, as a sector with huge potential and good prospects, must be transformed into a high-end, diversified and low-carbon industry, Xi said.

Coal is so far the primary energy consumption in China. Given the situation, Xi said a green and low-carbon development path for the industry is essential to the country's mission to realize carbon neutrality by 2060. He emphasized the importance of sci-tech innovation to transform the traditional industry into a high-end, diversified and low-carbon one.

Ecological conservation, a balance between humans and nature

The Loess Plateau, once famous for its endless highlands of yellow earth from land erosion on the banks of Yellow River, now has been changing colors with local people's tireless afforestation efforts.

Among them, Gaoxigou Village is known as a model of ecological conservation. During his trip to the village, Xi affirmed villagers' efforts while stressing the need to integrate ecological governance with the development of distinctive local businesses.

We must firmly implement the concept of "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets" and explore a way to attain coordinated development between ecology and economy, and harmony between humans and nature, the Chinese president said.

Education, fundamental to national rejuvenation

Xi gave further explanation to the fundamental role of education when paying a visit to a middle school in Suide on Tuesday.

According to him, the aim of education is to improve people's overall quality so as to raise the national degree of social civilization, achieve cultural confidence and enhance the national creative vitality.

He stressed the importance of reform in the education sector and called for efforts to cultivate young people who are equipped with moral grounding, intellectual and physical ability, and aesthetic sensibility that can contribute to the society.

Meanwhile, the Chinese president also urged to strengthen the primary role of schools in education, noting that the quality of education should be improved in an all-round way while easing students' burden of excessive homework and off-campus tutoring.

Folk arts, an invaluable asset of the Chinese nation

While touring an exhibition hall for local intangible cultural heritage in Suide, Xi expressed appreciation for the local efforts to protect and inherit traditional culture.

Noting that Suide is one of the important origins of the Loess Culture, with abundant resources of intangible cultural heritage and traditional folk arts, Xi highlighted the importance of protecting folk arts as they are invaluable assets of the Chinese nation, and are vital to sustaining historical legacy and building a socialist country with great cultural strength.

He called for a creative transformation and development of the traditional culture so as to better link it to modern life to meet people's ever-growing needs for a better life.

https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-09-16/China-highlights-innovation-for-high-quality-development-in-Shaanxi-13AdqnXt6Fi/index.html

SOURCE CGTN

Related Links

www.cgtn.com


With more than 80 medical centers in 12 states, ChenMed offers a full range of primary care services to seniors, from preventive care to diagnostic services and management of chronic diseases. The medical centers, located in underserved communities, are led by caring, expert doctors who coordinate all aspects of their patients' care.

Dr. Kistler is a joy to work with. We look forward to serving his patients at our Dedicated West Broad medical center.

"As we acquire more primary practices in the Columbus area with Medicare Advantage panels, we will continue to increase the number of seniors to whom we provide access to our affordable, VIP-care," said Paul Hicks, M.D., chief medical officer for the Dedicated Columbus market. "Dr. Kistler is a joy to work with. He knows and loves his patients, and they love him right back. We look forward to serving them at our Dedicated West Broad medical center."



ChenMed operates three Dedicated Senior Medical Centers, in partnership with Ohio Health, in the greater Columbus area. The centers are located in the Morse Road, West Broad and Whitehall neighborhoods. Elsewhere in Ohio, there are six additional Dedicated Senior Medical Centers located in Cincinnati and Cleveland.

"I'm extremely impressed by the VIP treatment Dedicated provides seniors and by all the services that cater to patients, such as free transportation and an on-site medication dispensary," noted Dr. Kistler. "Dedicated also provides its doctors with a fantastic work-life balance, something I'm looking forward to enjoying after all the years in private practice on my own."

About ChenMed

ChenMed, headquartered in Miami, is a privately owned medical, management and technology company that brings concierge-style medicine  and better health outcomes  to the neediest populations. Physician-led, ChenMed is a provider of choice for some 20 Medicare Advantage health insurance plans. Operating more than 80 primary care medical practices for diverse populations of seniors, ChenMed results include up to 75 percent drops in emergency room visits and 30 to 50 percent reductions of inpatient hospital admissions. In addition, this high-touch primary care is shown to reduce coronavirus deaths by 40 percent, according to a study published in American Journal of Preventive Cardiology. A Fortune 2020 "Change the World" company, ChenMed brands include Chen Senior Medical Center, Dedicated Senior Medical Center and JenCare Senior Medical Center.

SOURCE ChenMed

Related Links

http://ChenMed.com


DOVER, Del., Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- On September 22-23, 2021, management from Chesapeake Utilities Corporation (NYSE:CPK) (the "Company") will participate in the Sidoti & Company 2021 Fall Virtual Small Cap Conference. The Company will virtually join members of investment firms in a series of one-on-one meetings as scheduled through Sidoti & Company. Additionally, the Company is scheduled to make an investor presentation at the conference on Thursday, September 23, 2021 from 1:45 PM to 2:15 PM ET. A copy of the presentation will be made available prior to the conference in the "Investors" section of the Company's website, sub-section "Events and Presentations" (www.chpk.com).

About Chesapeake Utilities Corporation

Chesapeake Utilities Corporation is a diversified energy company engaged in natural gas transmission and distribution; electricity generation and distribution; propane gas distribution; mobile compressed natural gas (CNG) utility services and solutions; and other businesses. Information about Chesapeake Utilities Corporation's businesses is available at www.chpk.com and on the Annual Report Microsite at cpkannualreport.com.

Please note that Chesapeake Utilities Corporation has no affiliation with Chesapeake Energy, an oil and natural gas exploration company headquartered in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

For more information, contact:

Alex Whitelam

Head of Investor Relations

[email protected]

215-872-2507

SOURCE Chesapeake Utilities Corporation

Related Links

http://www.chpk.com


LAS VEGAS, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- MJ Unpacked , the first cannabis CPG trade event designed to both drive commerce and integrate access to capital, announces today Christie Hefner, Dan Aykroyd, and Jim Belushi to keynote MJ Unpacked's Las Vegas conference.

MJ Unpacked MJ Unpacked

"We are thrilled to have Ms. Hefner, Mr. Aykroyd and Mr. Belushi on our stage imparting their expertise and experience in building iconic brands  they embody them!" said Kim Jage, Co-Founder & Chief Marketing Officer at MJ Unpacked. "As we prepare for a national and more traditional CPG market, cannabis brands that intend to be household names will benefit from their incredible experience. Every one of our speakers is an all-star and each session covers specific needs of brands and retailers in the space today."

MJ Unpacked premieres October 21 - 22 in Las Vegas 9 am - 5 pm, at The South Seas Convention Center at Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino. The one of a kind event places passionate cannabis retailers and THC CPG brands and investors at the center of it all, with unparalleled and much needed opportunities to connect and collaborate.

"This is a very exciting moment for the cannabis industry as it comes into its own, driven by the momentum of legalization, the on trend focus on health and wellness, and the growing appreciation of the power of brands," said Hefner. "This conference provides a special opportunity for leaders to both share ideas and build relationships."

Christie Hefner is a strategic advisor to Belushi's Farm and a director of Fyllo. She served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Playboy Enterprises for twenty years, making her the longest serving female CEO of a publicly traded company. Christie is widely credited with repositioning the company from its legacy domestic magazine business to a global, multi-media, brand driven company. She leveraged the Playboy brand name to grow a $1 billion enterprise, with 80% of the sales to women. Christie's named to the Fortune Most Powerful Women in the World list.

Christie is joined by Dan Aykroyd, founder of multi-award winning Crystal Head Vodka and Jim Belushi, proprietor of Belushi's Farm, home to The Blues Brothers and Captain Jack's ("The Smell of SNL") lines of cannabis. Both celebrities star in the acclaimed series GROWING BELUSHI on The Discovery Channel. The address will take place in the form of a fireside chat, where the leaders will discuss iconic brands, global platforms and brand authenticity.

Additional conference programming includes How Independent Retailers Can Compete in a Land of Giants, Creating a Positive Impact in Your Community, Success Strategies for Attracting & Retaining Loyal Patrons, The Future of Cannabis Consumption, and more, along with industry leaders Steve DeAngelo (Founder, Last Prisoner Project, Harborside), Javan Bunch (Operating Partner, Overton Capital), Katrina Yolen (Chief Marketing Officer, Acreage Holdings), Seun Adedeji (Chief Executive Officer, Elev8), Jennifer Drake (Co-Chief Operating Officer, Ayr Wellness), Sally Vander Veer (Co-Founder & CEO, Medicine Man), Rabbi James Kahn (Executive Director, Liberty Cannabis Cares, Holistic Industries), Jake Bullock (Co-Founder & CEO, CANN), and other notable leaders. For a full list of conference programming, please visit: https://mjunpacked.com/conference

MJ Unpacked Features

 Over 100 THC CPG brands and hot products

 Twelve conference sessions that address retail and brand pain points and panel discussions among industry leaders

 Investor pitches for companies looking for capital

 Exclusive mixers for brands and retailers

 The Blues Brothers live concert feat. The Sacred Hearts and Las Vegas musical icon Jerry Lopez, benefiting the Last Prisoner Project

Participants will be free to learn from fellow professionals, explore expansion opportunities and prepare to be competitive in a national market.

Register for MJ Unpacked Now

Attendance to MJ Unpacked is exclusive to cannabis retail and brand executives with the title manager and above and accredited investors. There are a limited number of exhibit spaces available for ancillary companies. MJ Unpacked is free for retailers (dispensary license holders and their managing teams).

To register for MJ Unpacked and for a participating list of brands, retailers and investors, please visit: https://mjunpackedregister.com

Free for retailers

$249.00 (through Sept. 30th ) All Inclusive Advanced Registration for brand executives and accredited investors

About MJ Unpacked

All it takes is a spark. Premiering October 21 & 22 2021, MJ Unpacked is the first cannabis event of its kind that places passionate cannabis retailers and THC CPG brands at the center of it all, with unique opportunities to connect, collaborate and access capital. In a newly imagined format, executives are free to learn from fellow professionals, explore expansion opportunities and prepare to be competitive in a national market. MJ Unpacked is produced by Jage Media, Inc. For more information, please visit: https://mjunpacked.com .

About Jage Media

Founded by George Jage, former president of MJBizDaily/MJBizCon and CEO of Dope Media, and Kim Jage, former EVP & CMO of World Tea Media, Jage Media launched in early 2020 with a veteran team of cannabis investors, including: BDSA; CanopyBoulder; Keneh Ventures; Panther Opportunity Fund; and cannabis industry veterans Jay and Diane Czarkowski, co-founders of Canna Advisors, through their Trailhead fund. The company is poised to fill the critical gap where brands and retailers convene to drive the future of the industry, capture the next stage of market growth and deliver a true return on investment and objectives. https://www.jagemedia.com

Media Contact:

Zoe Wilder

[email protected]

310-972-0197

SOURCE MJ Unpacked

Related Links

https://mjunpacked.com


The donation includes 7,000 Clorox TurboPro Handheld Electrostatic Sprayers which are specially engineered to disinfect large spaces quickly and easily. In addition, hundreds of truckloads of CloroxPro disinfectants are being deployed across multiple impacted states, including ready-to-use bleach products that clean, kill and control mold and mildew. Convoy of Hope trucks have already started picking up and delivering the products to areas that have been impacted by Ida and others anticipating destruction from impending storms.

"We feel for the communities devastated by hurricanes like Ida and are honored to help get our disinfecting products to the people who need them most right now, whether for their homes, small businesses, schools, or healthcare facilities," said Chris Tucker, Vice President and General Manager for CloroxPro. "Convoy of Hope is providing a truly valuable service in getting these products to impacted communities as quickly and efficiently as possible."

For those who are in need of resources, you can visit Convoy of Hope's website at www.convoyofhope.org.

"Clorox is a great example of a caring corporation that is doing all they can to bring help to people in need," said Hal Donaldson, President and CEO of Convoy of Hope.

The Clorox Company is also partnering with its major disaster partner American Red Cross to support hurricane relief efforts through product and cash donations.

About CloroxPro

The Clorox Company (NYSE: CLX) is a leading multinational manufacturer and marketer of consumer and professional products with some of the most trusted and recognized consumer brand names, including its namesake bleach and cleaning products. Building on a century-long legacy in cleaning and disinfecting, CloroxPro offers some of the industrys most recognized and trusted brand names for commercial cleaning, including its Clorox Healthcare products for healthcare facilities. From comprehensive surface disinfection to advanced technologies, CloroxPro is committed to meeting the demands of industry professionals and commercial facilities such as offices, schools, athletic facilities and hospitals. For more information, visit www.CloroxPro.com and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

CLX-B

About Convoy of Hope

Convoy of Hope is a faith-based organization with a driving passion to feed the world. With a long history as an early responder in times of natural disasters, Convoy of Hope has been a Four Star Charity as recognized by Charity Navigator since 2002. Convoy of Hope has served more than 160 million people since it was founded in 1994. For more information, please visit www.convoyofhope.org.

SOURCE CloroxPro
"Virginia has the highest concentration of tech talent in the U.S. and thousands of tech companies have made Fairfax County home, so we are delighted to join this incredible and growing business hub," shared Jan Pawli, Cloudpermit's CEO . "We are proud to have our North American Headquarters in Reston as it is a fantastic opportunity for Cloudpermit to expand and help even more local governments digitalize development processes."

The Virginia Economic Development Partnership and the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority were involved in Cloudpermit's decision to establish its North American Headquarters in Fairfax County, Virginia.

"We are proud to welcome Cloudpermit to Fairfax County and Northern Virginia for its continental headquarters," said Victor Hoskins, President and CEO of the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority. "A company like Cloudpermit has many options for a North American base. Choosing Fairfax County is an important vote of confidence in our business climate, our assets for company success and the kind of talent it can find here  whether the company is from the U.S. or another country."

Close to 500 local governments across Europe and North America prioritize efficiency and simplicity by adopting digital and cloud-based development and permitting processes with Cloudpermit.

"Virginia is a leader in tech jobs, and we're happy to announce it has brought another company to the Commonwealth as Cloudpermit, a global leader in e-permitting software, has chosen to establish its U.S. headquarters here," said Governor Northam. "Virginia's continued growth in the software sector creates jobs, spurs innovation, and supports our booming economy. Virginia and Fairfax County have a diverse roster of international companies, and we are pleased to welcome Cloudpermit to their new home in Virginia."

Cloudpermit has just under 10 employees working out of its Reston office and is planning to double its team by the end of this year.

"Our decision to select Virginia for our North American Headquarters was easy after meeting with Governor Northam and delegation this spring in Germany," Pawli explained. "The personal involvement from key leaders in Virginia and learning how other businesses are thriving in Fairfax County from the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority gave us the confidence we needed to choose Reston as the base for our growing team."

Cloudpermit will join other successful businesses in Fairfax County and help establish more communities as easy places to build for builders, citizens, and businesses alike.

"We welcome Cloudpermit to Fairfax County and are excited to see the company join Virginia's rapidly expanding software sector," said Secretary of Commerce and Trade Brian Ball. "This is an ideal location for the company to expand into U.S. markets, and the company's decision demonstrates our strength as a software industry leader. We look forward to building a strong partnership with Cloudpermit."

About Cloudpermit: Cloudpermit empowers local governments with simple and online development processes. It takes users from application to approval and encourages collaboration among government staff, applicants, homeowners, builders, designers, third-party agencies, and all those involved in each permit. The cloud-based software was created for, and with, North American local governments to help communities thrive.

Cloudpermit Contacts:

Anna Rolnicki

Head of Marketing, North America

289-208-0930

[email protected]

Carly Thackray

Marketing and Communications Manager, North America

437-882-0292

[email protected]

SOURCE Cloudpermit Inc

Related Links

www.cloudpermit.com


SINGAPORE, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Coinllectibles, metaverse blockchain company and a fully owned subsidiary of Cosmos Group Holdings Inc. (OTC: COSG), is pleased to announce that it plans to roll out Fusion NFTs for the upcoming film "Chungking Mansions" by Phoenix Waters Productions. Last month, Coinllectibles made an announcement that it plans to acquire the movie production company and intends to expand into media related collectible items such as movie memorabilia.

"Chungking Mansions" by renowned producer Bizhan Tong is set to be Hong Kong's biggest zombie film in history. The film tells the story of a group of people from across the globe who must climb the iconic Chungking Mansions building amidst a zombie outbreak in Hong Kong.

The movie will feature an international cast and the production team is in talks with Japanese action star Rina Takeda, Korean actress and fashion icon Go Joonhee, and Hong Kong actress Wiyona Yeung. Singaporean actors Desmond Tan and Rebecca Lim, who are both represented by The Celebrity Agency from Mediacorp in Singapore, are also in discussions to join the sprawling international cast. Filming is scheduled to start next Spring.

Go Joonhee would play a high-profile model attending the launch of a new fashion campaign when the outbreak occurs. Wiyona Yeung plays a wellness guru caught up in the chaos that ensues. Kevin Leslie plays a British backpacker seeking his girlfriend. Desmond Tan would play a hustler helping an American locate his family while Rebecca Lim is in talks to play a blade master and right-hand woman of the man behind the outbreak. Rina Takeda would be cast as a Special Agent from Japan seeking those responsible.

Tong promises 2 fresh twists to the genre, "Chungking Mansions contributes to the evolving tapestry of zombie lore while paying tribute to the socially charged narratives of George A. Romero, bringing it closer in tone to Jordan Peele's Get Out and Us."

Rina Takeda's action roles include Karate Girl and Attack on Titan. Go Joonhee starred in hit Kdrama series She Was Pretty and supernatural thriller Possessed. Desmond Tan starred in Derek and All Is Well. Award-winning actress Rebecca Lim's roles include The Lead and The Bridge. Kevin Leslie stars in suspense thriller Lockdown to be released later this year. Wiyona Yeung stars in We Are Legends and Sinister Beings.

Yeung is currently collaborating with Tong on Hong Kong crime series Forensic Psychologist, "Wiyona is one of the most talented performers I've had the privilege of collaborating with," adds Tong. "Ever since we started working together on Forensic Psychologist, I've been keen to find further opportunities to showcase her talent. Chungking Mansions is the ideal platform for an immensely exciting international cast to perform alongside each other, and I'm both excited and humbled to work with such great artists whom I admire deeply.

Commenting on the company's plans to roll out its Fusion NFTs for the movie, Chai Kok Young, Chief Technology Officer at Coinllectibles said, "We are very excited at the prospect of minting movie collectibles and memorabilia. We believe that many movie fans would like the possibility of acquiring Fusion NFTs representing ownership in the physical collectible items from the movie. We will also be working with the Dogecoin and Tronix communities to accept DOGE and TRX as payment for the Fusion NFTs. All these will make Chungking Mansions a truly unique production that embraces blockchain and will add to the excitement surrounding one of Hong Kong's iconic movies. We look forward to releasing more news closer to the filming as well as movie launch date."

Chungking Mansions is produced by Phoenix Waters Productions in co-production with AMM Global, and is one of several Films, Series, and Variety shows they have partnered on to produce in Hong Kong for local and international audiences. Upcoming productions include Forensic Psychologist, a Cantonese remake of Richard Linklater's Tape with original writer Stephen Belber involved, Asia's 1st NFT drama series Crypto Keepers, and Hong Kong's first major superhero drama series Evos. Tong's latest feature Lockdown, an international thriller shot in multiple countries including the UK and Hong Kong is set for release later this year.

To keep up to date on the upcoming Fusion NFT projects, please visit www.Coinllectibles.Art or join the CoinllectiblesTM Community at https://t.me/Coinllectibles.

About Cosmos Group Holdings Inc.

Cosmos Group Holdings Inc. (OTC: COSG) was formerly a television network and multimedia information and distribution company focused on serving the homeland security and emergency preparedness industry. The group's future will focus in the development of blockchain NFT technologies and platforms to facilitate the global trading of arts and collectibles.

About Coinllectibles 

Coinllectibles is an ACT (Arts and Collectibles Technology) company, which is redefining how the world thinks about art and collectible ownership in the digital age.

Their minted curated Fusion NFTs, capture all the rights and independent valuation and ownership of physical arts and collectibles securely underpinned by smart contracts stored on the blockchain.

Coinllectibles Fusion NFTs bridge the physical and virtual dimensions of the arts and collectibles market, providing a pleasurable, transparent, and frictionless experience to customers from all walks of life.

Website: www.coinllectibles.art

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Coinllectibles

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coinllectibles/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/coinllectibles

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/coinllectibles

Telegram: https://t.me/Coinllectibles

About Coinllectibles  Fusion NFT

Coinllectibles prides the Fusion NFT as the industry "Gold Standard". Being a Gold Standard, a Fusion NFT contains the following on the Inter Planetary File System (IPFS)  (1) a sale and purchase agreement reflecting the purchase, by the person minting the Fusion NFT, of the underlying asset at a fair value with all rights and restrictions clearly detailed, (2) bailment terms governing the rights to possession whilst the underlying asset remains with Coinllectibles, (3) a transfer deed reflecting the transfer of the ownership of the underlying asset (together with all rights and restrictions) by the transferor to the holder of the Fusion NFT, (4) ownership title deed written into the description of the Fusion NFT and (5) the unequivocal identification file of the underlying asset, whose ownership is reflected in the title deed represented by the Fusion NFT.

Contact: Ms Rachel Lim, Director of Sales and Marketing, +852-28398100, [email protected]

SOURCE Cosmos Group Holdings Inc.
BATON ROUGE, La., Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- In the aftermath of Hurricane Ida's destruction, Community Coffee Company will donate 10% of retail sales proceeds, up to $250,000, from the sale of Community coffee products from Sept. 13, 2021, through Oct. 28, 2021, to support The Salvation Army's Hurricane Ida relief efforts in Louisiana.

Salvation Army staff and volunteers are on the ground across South Louisiana, supporting communities with food, water and relief supplies. With mobile feeding units and field kitchens, The Salvation Army has served hundreds of thousands of meals to those impacted since Ida made landfall on Aug. 29.

"Our state has a long road ahead, but we know our communities are strong and are already coming together to support each other," said Community Coffee Company President and CEO David Belanger. "It's inspiring how Louisianans lock arms and take care of one another when disaster hits. We are proud to call Louisiana home."

"Hurricane Ida's impact is no match for the people in the State of Louisiana, and we're humbled to serve these resilient communities during a time of need," said William Trueblood, emergency disaster services director for The Salvation Army Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi Division. "Our work is just getting started as we provide essential items to the public, and gifts like the one from Community Coffee help us lift up these communities with comfort."

In addition to giving back to The Salvation Army, Community Coffee Company is supporting employees, customers and communities impacted by the storm. In the first week following Hurricane Ida's landfall, the company served more than 70,000 cups of fresh coffee to first responders, frontline utility workers and displaced residents. Mobile cafes are serving communities as rebuilding efforts continue.

More information about Community Coffee Company's hurricane relief efforts is available at https://www.communitycoffee.com/relief.

About Community Coffee Company

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, which recently received a 2021 Convenience Store News Best New Products Award: Ready to Drink Coffee Drink for Espresso + Cream, 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

https://www.communitycoffee.com


CHICAGO, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Courvoisier Cognac, the most awarded cognac house*, announces the launch of its global philanthropic platform Foundation 1828. Maison Courvoisier was founded by Felix Courvoisier in 1828, who created a house that was welcoming to all and believed in supporting the close-knit collective of artisans in its hometown of Jarnac, France. Through both global programming and regional, grassroots efforts, Courvoisier's platform will aim to keep that same spirit of entrepreneurship thriving through meaningful financial and educational support that empowers small business owners and entrepreneurs in underserved populations across the globe.

"Entrepreneurs come in many different forms, from all walks of life and varying income levels. Courvoisier recognizes the importance of nurturing that drive, passion and creativity in these individuals around the globe  especially for those who may have the odds stacked against them," said Jon Potter, Managing Director of Maison Courvoisier. "Foundation 1828 is designed to unify our mission and make a lasting impact by assessing the critical needs of underserved communities in our key global markets to build authentic programming that will provide long-lasting benefits to entrepreneurs for years to come."

Though Courvoisier has supported entrepreneurs throughout its history, the brand's first formal initiative under Foundation 1828 took the form of a $1 million financial commitment over five years to aid Black and minority small business owners and entrepreneurs in the U.S. facing hardships as a result of the pandemic. Additionally, Courvoisier forged a multi-year partnership with National Urban League, a historic civil rights organization dedicated to economic empowerment, equality and social justice. The partnership with National Urban League aims to equip the Black business community with critical resources  from educational programs and mentorship opportunities to financial support  exemplifying the very mission of Foundation 1828.

Continuing the successful collaboration launched in 2020, Courvoisier will sponsor a virtual session as part of the Small Business Matters Entrepreneurship Day during the upcoming National Urban League Conference taking place on Thursday, September 30, 2021, allowing the brand to interact directly with entrepreneurs in underserved communities. As part of this year's programming and the brand's overall financial pledge, Courvoisier will award $200,000 in monetary grants and provide critical educational support to Black entrepreneurs and small business owners.

This year's virtual session entitled Marketing Your Business in the New Normal with Courvoisier Cognac includes:

Virtual Pitch Competition: Three pre-selected Black small business finalists from National Urban League's membership will have the opportunity to receive significant grants of $75,000 , $50,000 , and $25,000 by pitching their business plan to a panel of judges.

Three pre-selected Black small business finalists from National Urban League's membership will have the opportunity to receive , , by pitching their business plan to a panel of judges. Educational Marketing Panel Discussion: As many small businesses are still struggling to successfully rebuild as a result of the impact of COVID-19, Maison Courvoisier will host an intimate, educational conversation on this topic. Led by Courvoisier Curators Chris Roy ( Los Angeles ), Kwabena "K. Botchey" ( Atlanta ), and Brooke Mackie ( Chicago ), and moderated by Klassi Duncan, Vice President, Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation - Urban League of Louisiana , the panelists will provide marketing strategies and social media guidance to help minority small business owners and entrepreneurs re-engage with their audiences as they navigate an ever-changing landscape.

Courvoisier's session will take place virtually during the Small Business Matters Networking Reception from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. EST. Entrepreneurs, small business owners and interested participants over the age of 21 who want to attend must register in advance to receive a Drizly discount code for Courvoisier product delivery (where legal) and customized cocktail recipes. To register, click here.

Through Foundation 1828, Courvoisier will continue to champion aspiring entrepreneurs worldwide. The unique programs launched in the U.S. in partnership with National Urban League serve as the first of many impactful efforts from Maison Courvoisier. For more information about Courvoisier's collaboration with National Urban League and the brand's support of Black-owned businesses in the U.S., please visit: www.courvoisier.com/us/collaborations/nationalurbanleague/.

For additional Foundation 1828 updates, be sure to follow @CourvoisierUSA and @NatUrbanLeague across all social media platforms.

About Courvoisier Cognac

The House of Courvoisier was founded by Felix Courvoisier in 1828 in Jarnac. Courvoisier is the Most Awarded Cognac House* and has several expressions, which appeal to a variety of Cognac preferences and lifestyles, including VS, VSOP, XO, and the ultimate expression of the House, L'Essence de Courvoisier. Based on its founding principles of community and entrepreneurship, Courvoisier continues to value its relationships with local artisans and winegrowers to produce its high quality, award-winning Cognac portfolio.

* Based on 20 top spirits competitions since 2019

About Beam Suntory

As a world leader in premium spirits, Beam Suntory inspires human connections. Consumers from all corners of the globe call for the company's brands, including the iconic Jim Beam and Maker's Mark bourbon brands, Suntory whisky Kakubin and Courvoisier cognac, as well as world renowned premium brands including Knob Creek, Basil Hayden's and Legent bourbon; Yamazaki, Hakushu, Hibiki and Toki Japanese whisky; Teacher's, Laphroaig and Bowmore Scotch whisky; Canadian Club whisky; Hornitos and Sauza tequila; EFFEN, Haku and Pinnacle vodka; Sipsmith and Roku gin; and On The Rocks Premium Cocktails.

Beam Suntory was created in 2014 by combining the world leader in bourbon and the pioneer in Japanese whisky to form a new company with a deep heritage, passion for quality, innovative spirit and vision of Growing for Good. Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, Beam Suntory is a subsidiary of Suntory Holdings Limited of Japan. For more information on Beam Suntory, its brands, and its commitment to social responsibility, please visit www.beamsuntory.com and www.drinksmart.com.

About National Urban League

The National Urban League is a historic civil rights organization dedicated to economic empowerment in order to elevate the standard of living in historically underserved urban communities. The National Urban League spearheads the efforts of its 91 local affiliates through the development of programs, public policy research and advocacy, providing direct services that impact and improve the lives of more than 2 million people annually nationwide. Visit www.nul.org and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram: @NatUrbanLeague.

Courvoisier Cognac, 40% alc./vol. Courvoisier Import Company, Chicago, IL USA,

Courvoisier is a trademark of Courvoisier S.A.S. 2021 Courvoisier S.A.S.

https://www.courvoisier.com/us/courvoisier-awards

Please enjoy responsibly.

SOURCE Courvoisier Cognac
DETROIT, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Current Dealers' CEO William McCoy released a video on the company's YouTube channel highlighting his test drive this month of the U.S. electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure. Piloting the company's newest fleet vehicle, a 2022 Chevrolet Bolt EUV, McCoy made the 560+ mile trip from Detroit, Michigan to Washington, D.C. to learn firsthand how EV range, charging station locations, and vehicle charging times affect consumers.

Current Dealers' EV Test Drive Across the US 2022 Chevrolet Bolt EUV

Current Dealers is a Detroit-based business delivering turnkey electric-vehicle charging solutions on behalf of businesses, governments, and consumers. The company is currently contracted with municipalities across the country to bring current the EV infrastructure needed for an all-electric mobility future.

"We learned a lot from this experience  driving our newest EV fleet vehicle from Detroit to Washington, D.C.," said William McCoy, CEO, Current Dealers. "It was important for me to make the trip because when we're explaining to our customers the important new applications of different EV charging solutions serving the U.S. market, that we have real world knowledge to help them choose the best one to meet their needs."

On the company's 12-hour test drive, McCoy's team monitored EV charging opportunities in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. For example, at an Electrify America charger located in an Ohio highway rest stop, 150kW-350kW EV charging was available for the company's 2022 Chevrolet Bolt EUV.

Lessons learned on the Current Dealers EV charging Infrastructure test drive include:

EV range matters. Drivers can expect to see a 15% reduction in their vehicle's range with interstate highway driving at an average 70 MPH.

Planning EV charging routes is important. There are still infrastructure holes along America's roads and highways, so using a free app from providers like EVgo, Electrify America, ChargePoint, or Tesla can help plan the best route.

EV charging times can impact long-distance travel times. EV vehicles have common charging ranges from 50kW to 150kW. With an average 250-mile driving range, drivers can expect to charge 80% in about an hour  something that can reduced in vehicles with faster charging rates.

The availability of public charging outlets in the U.S. has more than doubled since 2018, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Current Dealers works with cities, auto retailers, and green conscious companies to supply, install, and service EV charging stations. In the company's first two years of business, Current Dealers has helped 100s clients prepare for the upcoming all-electric future in the U.S.

Current Dealers offers companies a simple three step process, including a site assessment, EV charger installation, and ongoing service. The assessment includes a comprehensive site plan, identification of permits needed, visual mockups of installed chargers, and a total cost breakdown. Installations are completed by licensed electricians who are certified in EV chargers and knowledgeable about EV charging capabilities. The company also provides all of the warranties, maintenance, and upgrades needed to support EV products in the long-term.

YouTube: https://youtu.be/GfKYfdyEkNY

www.currentdealers.com

Contact:

William McCoy

3139983033

[email protected]

SOURCE Current Dealers

Related Links

http://www.currentdealers.com


BOULDER, Colo., Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Netrust Philippines Corporation, a leading provider of cybersecurity services, is partnering with IDmission to provide enhanced security solutions to its customers in the Philippines and the wider ASEAN region. This past year, the pandemic quickly established digital transformation and remote work as the new norm in many organizations, calling for a greater focus on cybersecurity due to the increased exposure to cyber risk .

"In this age of digital transformation, it is imperative for leaders to put a digital-first approach to stay competitive," says Ms. Jennifer Tongco, CEO of Netrust Philippines Corporation. "As such, we in Netrust, whose main focus is on securing Identities, are thrilled with our partnership with IDmission, a leader in the eKYC and identity proofing space. This partnership will complete our Identity portfolio and allow us to provide the best technology for a seamless customer onboarding journey. Our partnership will provide that competitive edge for our clients to serve their own customers in the most efficient and secure manner."

A global leader in biometric technology, IDmission helps verify and authenticate identity through standards compliant security, passive liveness biometrics, AI, and industry expertise -- creating a frictionless end-to-end encrypted identity verification process.

By partnering with IDmission, Netrust takes its mission of protecting its customers' digital identities, applications, and data to the next level. With the rise in sophisticated cyberattacks, new and advanced detection mechanisms are required to meet the threat. Using biometric identifiers, IDmission's biometric identity verification system not only improves security, but also speeds up the verification process and deters cybercriminals.

"IDmission has been serving customers in the Asia Pacific for a few years." says IDmission CEO Ashim Banerjee, "The Netrust partnership is a big step in the direction of providing new and existing customers better access to state-of-the-art identity technology and local support."

About Netrust Philippines Corporation

Netrust Philippines Corporation is an associate company of Netrust Pte Ltd (Singapore), Asia's first public Certification Authority (CA) and the only Accredited CA in Singapore. Netrust provides individuals, businesses and government organizations with a complete online identification and security infrastructure to enable secure electronic transactions. Netrust delivers a wide range of innovative cybersecurity solutions that address the increasing threat of data breach.

About IDmission

IDmission, a global leader in biometric and AI technology, provides end to end digital transformations for applications relying on ID and identity verifications. We offer an effortless customer journey using standards compliant security, passive liveness biometrics, AI, and our industry expertise to complete complex applications in numerous markets.

Media Contact

Angie Schmuck

[email protected]

SOURCE IDmission

Related Links

www.idmission.com


WASHINGTON, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- On Thursday, September 16, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) -- the nation's largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization  in partnership with more than 40 U.S. and international groups, plans to hold a news conference outside The Capital Hilton in Washington, D.C., to announce a worldwide boycott of Hilton Worldwide (NYSE: HLT) over that corporation's refusal to end an agreement to license the construction of a Hampton Hotel on the site of a bulldozed mosque in the Uyghur region of China.

#BoycottHilton #HiltonHurtsUyghurs #GenocideHotel #SaveUyghur

At the news conference, representatives of Uyghur groups and some of the 40 other organizations that are co-sponsoring the boycott plan to speak.

WHAT: CAIR Press Conference in D.C. to Announce Worldwide Boycott of Hilton Over Plan for Hotel on Site of Bulldozed Mosque in China

WHEN: Thursday, September 16, 11:30 a.m. ET

WHERE: Outside The Capital Hilton, 1001 16th St NW, Washington, DC 20036

CONTACT: CAIR Government Affairs Director Robert McCaw, 202-742-6448, [email protected]; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, [email protected]

LIVESTREAM: https://www.facebook.com/CAIRNational

Also at the news conference, CAIR plans to announce the launch of a new web portal designed to monitor and combat global Islamophobia.

On September 8, the coalition delivered a letter to Hilton headquarters in Virginia giving the corporation one week to end the agreement to license the construction of a Hampton Hotel on the site of a bulldozed mosque in the Uyghur region of China or face a global boycott.

Video: CAIR, Coalition Partners Give Hilton One Week to Cancel Hotel on Bulldozed Uyghur Mosque in China or Face Global Boycott

https://youtu.be/4bGX6KZjj4c

CAIR's mission is to enhance understanding of Islam, protect civil rights, promote justice, and empower American Muslims.

Become a Fan of CAIR on Facebook

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Subscribe to CAIR's Email List

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Subscribe to CAIR's YouTube Channel

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Follow CAIR on Instagram

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Donate to CAIR

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If you would like join CAIR's media list, please sign up

here: https://action.cair.com/a/newsletters -- For more information, email: [email protected], CC [email protected]

CONTACT: CAIR Government Affairs Director Robert McCaw, 202-742-6448, [email protected]; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, [email protected]

SOURCE Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)

Related Links

http://www.cair.com


BOSTON, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, a pre-competitive collaboration hosted by the Digital Medicine Society (DiMe) published data reporting the current state of research related to digital clinical measures and sources of funding. This systematic review, published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR), identifies critical gaps in academic research related to digital clinical measures while adoption of digital health continues to soar.

In the U.S. today, over half of the population utilizes digital health tracking tools (DeSilva et al.) and investment in digital health innovation has skyrocketed, hitting nearly $15 billion USD for the first half of 2021 alone (Krasniansky, Zweig, & Evans). Yet concerns about the security of these products, the risk of introducing new inequities and bias into healthcare, and privacy issues remain unaddressed.

These new data published today reveal that in the last two years, out of 295 of research studies published on digital clinical measures, there was only one academic publication reporting cybersecurity research, one study examining data rights and governance, and zero publications reporting research into the ethical implications of remote patient monitoring tools.

"We rely on academic researchers to be the arbiters of new digital health products and ensure that this field, which is advancing so rapidly, is worthy of public trust," says Jennifer Goldsack, CEO of DiMe. "Outside of collaborations such as The Playbook that yielded this research, academic institutions are one of the few places that convene the interdisciplinary experts needed to bridge the growing chasm between the promised benefits of these measures and their potential risks. We found substantial research activity examining the underlying performance of digital measurement products -- verification of the sensors, analytical validation of the algorithms, and clinical validation, otherwise known as 'V3'. Now it's time to expand focus -- and funding -- to address the paucity of research addressing ethics, data rights, and cybersecurity."

This new research indicates that government agencies and independent foundations are funding most of the academic research studies related to digital clinical measures, with industry funding of these studies lagging behind.

"Realizing the incredible potential of these technologies starts with funding academic research," says Jessilyn Dunn, co-author and head of Big Ideas Lab at Duke University. "This paper confirms our hunch. The academic research we need most is not happening in part because there is not enough funding to support these new, essential fields of study. With more funding we will see more research, which is imperative to continue advancing the field of digital medicine."

About the Digital Medicine Society: The Digital Medicine Society (DiMe) is the professional society serving the digital medicine community, driving scientific progress and broad acceptance of digital medicine to enhance public health. At DiMe, our commitment to fully integrating experts from all of the disciplines comprising digital medicine is unwavering. From regulators to white-hat hackers, ethicists to engineers, and clinicians to citizen scientists, we are proud to welcome all experts committed to ensuring that digital medicine realizes its full potential to improve human health. Join us !

Media Contact: Jamie Gray, [email protected] , 310.699.3163

References:

DeSilva, J., Prensky-Pomeranz, R., & Zweig, M. (n.d.). Digital Health Consumer Adoption Report 2020. Rock Health. Retrieved September 14, 2021, from https://rockhealth.com/reports/digital-health-consumer-adoption-report-2020/.

Krasniansky, A., Zweig, M., & Evans, B. (n.d.). H1 2021 digital HEALTH Funding: Another BLOCKBUSTER Year...In six months. Retrieved September 14, 2021, from https://rockhealth.com/reports/h1-2021-digital-health-funding-another-blockbuster-year-in-six-months/

SOURCE Digital Medicine Society (DiMe)

Related Links

http://dimesociety.org


DOWNERS GROVE, Ill., Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Dover (NYSE: DOV) today announced that it has completed the acquisition of The Espy Corporation ("Espy"), which will become part of the Microwave Products Group (MPG) within Dover's Engineered Products segment.

Espy designs and manufactures advanced electronic radio frequency sensor systems used to detect, record, analyze and geolocate signals. Located outside of Austin, TX, Espy offers complete signal intelligence systems with integrated software that is sold globally. Espy's proprietary machine learning and real-time geolocation technology, together with its software interface, greatly reduce the time needed to identify and process signals of interest while providing high accuracy on the origin of the signal.

The acquisition of Espy further positions MPG to capitalize on long-term growth trends in signal intelligence as demand for radio frequency detection and spectrum analysis grows globally with increased penetration and sophistication of radio communications. The acquisition also enables MPG to offer an enhanced set of advanced radio frequency signal solutions to various end-markets primarily within the defense industry, while further solidifying MPG's technological leadership in radio frequency applications.

MPG's President, Ron Ruppersburg, stated, "We're excited to add Espy to the MPG team, as their expertise in collecting and analyzing signal data fits very well with our core focus on hardware to protect and condition signals. The complementary product offerings and customer bases between these businesses will create significant opportunities for cross-selling and co-development of our advanced market-leading products allowing our customers to maintain their advantages in the field."

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

About Dover:

Dover is a diversified global manufacturer and solutions provider with annual revenue of approximately $7 billion. We deliver innovative equipment and components, consumable supplies, aftermarket parts, software and digital solutions, and support services through five operating segments: Engineered Products, Fueling Solutions, Imaging & Identification, Pumps & Process Solutions and Refrigeration & Food Equipment. Dover combines global scale with operational agility to lead the markets we serve. Recognized for our entrepreneurial approach for over 65 years, our team of over 24,000 employees takes an ownership mindset, collaborating with customers to redefine what's possible. Headquartered in Downers Grove, Illinois, Dover trades on the New York Stock Exchange under "DOV." Additional information is available at dovercorporation.com.

Forward Looking Statements:

This press release contains "forward-looking" statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended. All statements in this document other than statements of historical fact are statements that are, or could be deemed, "forward-looking" statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to numerous important risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors, some of which are beyond the Company's control. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations include, among other things, the impacts of COVID-19, or other future pandemics, on the global economy and on our customers, suppliers, employees, business and cash flows, other general economic conditions and conditions in the particular markets in which we operate, changes in customer demand and capital spending, competitive factors and pricing pressures, our ability to develop and launch new products in a cost-effective manner, and our ability to realize synergies from newly acquired businesses. For details on the risks and uncertainties that could cause our results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements that may be contained herein, we refer you to the documents we file with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020, and any subsequently filed Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current Reports on Form 8-K. These documents are available from the SEC, and on our website, www.dovercorporation.com. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Investor Contact: Media Contact: Andrey Galiuk Adrian Sakowicz Vice President  Corporate Development Vice President  Communications and Investor Relations (630) 743-5039 (630) 743-5131 [email protected] [email protected]



SOURCE Dover

Related Links

http://www.dovercorporation.com


STOCKHOLM, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- XNK Therapeutics AB ("XNK") today announced that Dr. David Berglund and Dr. Stephen Wooding are proposed to be appointed members of the Board of Directors. The decision will be taken at an extra general meeting on October 4, and a notice will be sent out separately.

"We are incredibly pleased to be able attract such dedicated life science professionals as David and Stephen to the board. They will definitely add valuable knowledge to XNK.", said Lena Degling Wikingsson, Chairman of the Board.

Dr. Berglund, M.D., Ph.D., M.B.A., is an Associate Professor of Immunology at Uppsala University that has published more than 40 peer-reviewed articles in areas ranging from transplant immunology and oncology to transfusion medicine and biomaterials. David also received clinical training in transplant and reconstructive plastic surgery at Uppsala University Hospital and Karolinska University Hospital in Sweden.

He has worked with drug development for more than ten years focusing on strategic leadership questions of both early- and late-stage pharmaceutical companies. David holds an M.B.A. from NYU Stern School of Business with specializations in Corporate Finance and Leadership & Change Management.

Dr. Wooding, MB;BS, BSc,FFPM, MBA, has made a long career in taking innovative science through the drug development process to benefit patients. He has spent nearly three decades at Johnson & Johnson's pharmaceutical division Janssen. He started within R&D and finally took up a leadership role at the commercial/R&D interface as a member of Janssen's global senior leadership team.

He qualified in medicine at St Bartholomew's Hospital, London, UK, and after six years in the NHS joined the pharmaceutical industry, initially in R&D, then broadening his experience to take on commercial roles and ultimately help shape a market access function. Dr. Wooding is currently Principal at Edipol Pharmaceutical Consulting Ltd, including supporting two start-ups as Chief Scientific Officer.

"I'm delighted to be nominated to the board of XNK Therapeutics. Built on a foundation of world-leading NK cell research at the Karolinska Institute, the company is uniquely positioned to deliver transformative cell-based therapies to multiple areas of significant unmet need. It is with great excitement that I will join the company at this important stage of development.", said Dr. Berglund.

"It is an honor to be asked to join the board of XNK," said Dr. Wooding. "The company is patient focused and determined to use great science to bring benefit to patients. I look forward to contribute to that mission."

Gunnar Mattsson, who has been a director of XNK since 2012, is proposed to be elected as new chairman of the board at the extra general meeting. The current chairman, Lena Degling Wikingsson, will remain on the board as a member.

For more information, please contact:

Johan Liwing, CEO, XNK Therapeutics

Tel: +46 706 70 36 75

E-mail: [email protected]

About XNK Therapeutics AB

XNK Therapeutics is a clinical stage, immunotherapy company focusing its efforts on preventing and treating cancer by developing novel NK cell-based therapies. The company has established a leadership position in the clinical development and manufacture of autologous NK cell-based products using its proprietary technology platform. The company's platform technology and leading investigational drug candidate have ideal properties for targeting cancers, including settings where allogeneic cell products are not readily applicable. It is foreseen that the product will bring a critical component to tomorrow's cancer treatment strategies. XNK Therapeutics is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. For more info, please visit www.xnktherapeutics.com.

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/xnk-therapeutics-ab/r/dr--david-berglund-and-dr--stephen-wooding-nominated-as-new-board-members-at-xnk-therapeutics,c3415098

The following files are available for download:

SOURCE XNK Therapeutics AB
BOGOTA, Colombia, Sept. 14, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Ecopetrol S.A. (BVC: ECOPETROL;NYSE: EC) reports that it was notified through Resolution 01613 dated September 10, 2021, that the National Environmental Licensing Authority (ANLA), had fined Ecopetrol S.A. in the sum of COP $3,667,409,150.

This sanction originated from works carried out in the CPO09 Exploratory Drilling Area project located in the municipality of Acacias, Meta Department, because ANLA considered that a bridge was not contemplated in the environmental license and that locations were built at a shorter distance to the preservation areas of the Cano Lejia and Cano NN water resources.

Ecopetrol S.A, abides by and respects the decisions of ANLA. However, the company's actions have always been framed in compliance with current legal regulations, so it will make use of the appropriate legal resources in order to obtain the revocation of this decision.

Ecopetrol is the largest company in Colombia and one of the main integrated energy companies in the American continent, with more than 17,000 employees. In Colombia, it accounts for more than 60% of hydrocarbon production, and most of the hydrocarbon transportation, logistics, and refining systems, and has leading positions in petrochemicals and gas distribution. With the acquisition of 51.4% of ISA's shares, it participates in energy transmission, management of real-time systems (XM) and the Concesion Costera Barranquilla - Cartagena. At the international level, Ecopetrol focuses on strategic basins on the American continent, with E&P operations in the United States (the Permian basin and the Gulf of Mexico), Brazil and Mexico, and through ISA and its subsidiaries it has leading positions in the transmission business in Brazil, Chile, Peru and Bolivia, in road concessions in Chile, and in telecommunications. This press release contains statements relating to business prospects, estimates of operating and financial results, and Ecopetrol's growth prospects. All are projections, and therefore are based solely on management's expectations of the company's future and its continuous access to capital to finance its sales plan. Achieving these estimates in the future depends on its performance under given market conditions, regulations, competition, the performance of the Colombian economy and industry, and other factors; therefore, they are subject to change without prior notice.

This release contains statements that may be considered forward looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the U.S. Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934. All forward-looking statements, whether made in this release or in future filings or press releases or orally, address matters that involve risks and uncertainties, including in respect of Ecopetrol's prospects for growth and its ongoing access to capital to fund Ecopetrol's business plan, among others. Consequently, changes in the following factors, among others, could cause actual results to differ materially from those included in the forward-looking statements: market prices of oil & gas, our exploration and production activities, market conditions, applicable regulations, the exchange rate, Ecopetrol's competitiveness and the performance of Colombia's economy and industry, to mention a few. We do not intend, and do not assume any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

For further details, please contact:

Head of Capital Markets

Tatiana Uribe Benninghoff

Phone : +571-234-5190

Email : [email protected]

Media Engagement (Colombia)

Jorge Mauricio Tellez

Phone : + 571-234-4329

Email : [email protected]

SOURCE Ecopetrol S.A.

Related Links

http://www.ecopetrol.com.co


RICHMOND, Va., Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- In 2019, Proctor360 founders Ganga and Kranthi Bathula raised a little over 80 thousand dollars with Regulation Crowdfunding to turn their radical concept for remote exam monitoring into a reality. Now, just a bit over two years later, they're taking the company they've grown to the next level with a new offering on the Netcapital funding portal.



Proctor360 is an EdTech company that develops technology and services for remote proctoring, which involves the monitoring of online exam sessions to prevent cheating. While that submarket within E-Learning was already growing prior to COVID-19, since the pandemic the demand has increased significantly (and is projected to reach $1.34 billion by 2027). Schools, colleges, professional certification organizations, and training programs around the world have adopted remote proctoring services in order to move their exams online.



CEO Ganga Bathula commented, "Since that first seed round, we completed production of Version 1 of our patent pending 360-degree testing headset and developed our own software solution for remote exam monitoring. When the pandemic forced the closure of testing centers nationwide, we saw an opportunity to expand our cloud-based software into a SaaS proctoring solution that allows testing centers to proctor exams remotely. These milestones enabled us to acquire our first customers and start generating revenue."



The company now offers a flexible array of remote proctoring services and they've acquired several customers that include online schools, traditional college test centers, professional certification organizations, and a Fortune 100 company whose employee certification tests include content that is governed by national security laws. That last one is by virtue of how they've leveraged their existing software in the cloud and created a siloed version that meets the requirements for Export-Controlled Information.



According to the founders, this new investment offering is all about accelerating growth. "We've managed to achieve a great deal with very little investor backing so far," said CTO and Co-founder, Kranthi Bathula. "It's always been important to us that we remain lean and efficient. Now that we've reached the market and developed real traction, it's time to build out our sales operations and increase our headset production so that we can grow faster and capture market share."



The time could be right for investors to identify early stage companies in the E-Learning market. According to analysis by Global Market Insights, E-Learning is projected to reach a total market value of $1 trillion by 2027. For companies that develop unique and scalable solutions in EdTech, there is a lot of opportunity for the foreseeable future.



The Regulation Crowdfunding offering for Proctor360 Inc. is active now on the Netcapital funding portal at https://netcapital.com/companies/proctor360-inc.



Photos:

https://www.prlog.org/12885454



Press release distributed by PRLog

SOURCE Proctor360 Inc.
OrderSolutions is the nation's #1 restaurant call center that specializes in centralizing and streamlining phone orders for some of the world's most iconic restaurant brands. Restaurant call centers allow brands to handle drastic swings in their order volume and eliminate abandoned/missed orders. It has been the perfect solution for brands to adapt to the off-premise focus and manage the staffing shortage. OrderSolutions provides a large number of off-premise order takers to assist with call-in orders while the in-store staff can focus on serving guests on site. Restaurant call centers such as OrderSolutions have a particular focus on not only handling all of these additional off-premise orders, but increasing the size of the orders by expertly up-selling and suggesting additional menu items to customers.

Nick Tubis, Co-Founder of OrderSolutions, commented, "We have recently conducted a national survey of restaurant executives, and results show that many restaurants are missing up to 50% of their phone orders due to staffing challenges. The average check size of the typical fast-casual restaurant is approximately $45 and many national chains are missing thousands of these orders a day, leading to millions of dollars in lost revenue across their brands."

Restaurants such as Del Taco, Chick-Fil-A, Denny's, Famous Dave's, and City BBQ have been gaining significant market share by shifting their focus to off-premise services. Whether this be drive thru, pick-up, or delivery orders, these brands have skyrocketed during this challenging time. However, the widespread issue of hiring and retaining staff members makes it difficult to shift towards this off-premise focus, as oftentimes there is not enough staff to answer all of the call-in orders and serve the in-store customers. Restaurant call centers much like OrderSolutions are the key to making an easy transition to the off-premise focus.

This powerhouse relationship between EJT Holdings, OrderSolutions, and Starbucks provides a glimpse of the massive, off-premise future that the restaurant industry will adapt to.

TSD Global/OrderSolutions Media Contact:

Nick Tubis

Co-founder, CMO TSD Global/OrderSolutions

858-342-4069

[email protected]

SOURCE OrderSolutions

Related Links

https://www.ordersolutions.com/


"The US and international community must not underestimate this consequence and legitimate fear many Ethiopians have." Tweet this

"The TPLF has a very long history of media manipulation and human rights abuses, requiring CNN and other independent media to validate and disclose sources. This kind of reporting is having a devastating impact on the 112 million Ethiopians at a time when the nation could spiral into further conflict, putting the entire stability of the Horn of Africa at risk."

Fighting broke out between the TPLF and Ethiopian government forces in November 2020 when TPLF attacked one of the federal military bases in Tigray.

Since the start of the Tigray conflict, there have been numerous massacres or war crimes committed by the TPLF terrorist regime in Mai Kadra Amhara (2020), Galikoma in the Afar region (2021), Agamsa Amhara (2021), TPLF shelling of Debre Tabor (2021), and massacres in Chena Village, Dabat in Ethiopia's Amhara region (2021).

These incidents are reminiscent of TPLF's history although many media sources fail to inform audiences of this fact when reporting on the current Tigray conflict.

Throughout its 27-year oppressive rule, the TPLF regime incited ethnic conflict. Its goal was to break up the Ethiopian population by ethnic identity while controlling the nation's resources for the benefit of a single ethnic minority groupthe Tigray populationcomprising 4 percent of the population.

"The TPLF is designated as a terrorist group by the Ethiopian Parliament and is fighting to get its money and power back. Similar to another terrorist group, the Taliban, the TPLF will revert back to its autocratic rule if it regains power. The US and international community must not underestimate this consequence and legitimate fear many Ethiopians have," said Tafari.

The EACC is urging US policymakers to foster peace and democracy in Ethiopia consistent with its longstanding commitment to spread democracy and human rights throughout the world.

Ethiopian American Civic Council: Is one the largest Ethiopian American diaspora community in the United States with approximately 750,000 members in all 50 states. The EACC represents all of the nearly 90 Ethiopian ethnic groups. The EACC is a US-based, 501(c) 4, nonprofit organization.

SOURCE Ethiopian American Civic Council (EACC)
MANCHESTER, England, PRINCETON, N.J. and VIENNA, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- F2G Ltd, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on rare life-threatening fungal diseases with a high unmet medical need, today announces the appointment of Camilla Soenderby as a Non-Executive Director to its Board of Directors with immediate effect.

Camilla Soenderby is a seasoned biopharma executive with 20 years of international leadership experience from senior strategic and operational roles spanning C-level, global, regional, and country level for leading biopharma companies in the EU, US and Asia. She has a proven track record of developing and growing businesses and has successfully led worldwide cross functional teams to drive portfolio strategy and commercialisation of therapies to treat rare diseases, oncology and specialty conditions.

Patrick Vink, Chairman of F2G Ltd, said: "On behalf of the whole board I am very pleased to welcome Camilla to F2G. She has an impressive track record in building and commercialising global brands. Her experience complements the management team's expertise as we advance our lead product, olorofim, towards commercialisation."

Camila Soenderby, Non-Executive Director of F2G, said: "I am very excited to join F2G and to bring my experience to support the commercialisation of such an important product like olorofim, a first-in-class, oral agent for the treatment of severe fungal infections including invasive pulmonary aspergillosis and Valley Fever. This has enormous potential to treat patients with these rare life-threatening infections and addresses a high unmet medical need."

Francesco Maria Lavino, CEO of F2G Ltd, added: "Camilla's experience and successful track record in rare diseases will be invaluable as we look to maximise the potential of olorofim. We are focused on accelerating the development of our lead asset and are targeting an NDA filing in 2022. This is an exciting time for F2G as we drive the business to the next phase of growth."

Most recently, Camilla was Chief Patient Value & Product Strategy Officer at Takeda, where she led the establishment of a global function (following the acquisition of Shire) that comprised Global Commercial Strategy, Global Market Access & Pricing, Global Commercial Excellence, and Global Patient Advocacy, overseeing a portfolio of global brands with more than USD 12 billion in product sales and a large pipeline working in close partnership with R&D. Prior to the acquisition, Camilla worked as SVP, Head of Global Product Strategy for Shire, having previously held positions of increasing responsibility at Roche Pharma, Abbott (now AbbVie) and Schering Plough. Camilla began her career as a management consultant at McKinsey & Co. focused on the biopharmaceutical and medical devices industries.

About Olorofim / Clinical trial

The Phase 2b study for olorofim (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03583164) is a global open-label study in patients who have limited treatment options for difficult-to-treat invasive fungal mold infections such as azole-resistant aspergillosis, scedosporiosis, lomentosporiosis, and other rare mold infections.

About F2G

F2G is a world-leading biotech company focused on the discovery and development of novel therapies to treat life-threatening invasive fungal infections. F2G has discovered and developed a completely new class of antifungal agents called the orotomides. The orotomides selectively target fungal dihydroorotate dehydrogenase (DHODH), a key enzyme in the de novo pyrimidine biosynthesis pathway. This is a completely different mechanism from that of the currently marketed antifungal agents and gives the orotomides fungicidal activity against a broad range of rare and resistant fungal mold infections. Olorofim (formerly, F901318) is F2G's leading candidate from this class and is in a Phase 2b open-label study focusing on rare and resistant invasive fungal infections such as aspergillosis (including azole-resistant strains), scedosporiosis (including lomentosporiosis). Olorofim has received orphan drug status from the European Medicines Agency for the treatment of invasive aspergillosis and invasive scedosporiosis. Olorofim has received orphan drug status from the US FDA for the treatment of coccidioidomycosis, lomentosporiosis/scedosporiosis, and invasive aspergillosis. Olorofim has been granted Qualified Infectious Disease Product (QIDP) designation for invasive aspergillosis, invasive scedosporiosis, invasive lomentosporiosis, coccidioidomycosis, invasive disease due to Scopulariopsis species, and invasive fusariosis. www.f2g.com

SOURCE F2G
Dr. Angel was joined by leadership representatives from those partners in a formal ribbon cutting ceremony. In addition to Factor Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer Christopher Rohde, Ph.D., Gregory Fiore, M.D., Co-Founder and CEO of Exacis Biotherapeutics Inc., and Howard Federoff, M.D., Ph.D., CEO of Brooklyn ImmunoTherapeutics, Inc. (NYSE American: BTX) helped dedicate the new facility.

"We are excited to announce this major step forward," said Dr. Fiore. "Securing a dedicated GMP manufacturing capacity within the Factor facility allows us to produce our unique and high-quality cells on our own timeline as we progress toward the clinic."

"The new mRNA cleanroom facility is an important part of our planned R&D operations, and of strategic advantage as we share the space with Factor Bioscience, from which we have in-licensed critical mRNA gene editing technology," said Dr. Federoff.

About Factor Bioscience

Founded in 2011, Factor Bioscience develops technologies for engineering cells to advance the study and treatment of disease. Factor Bioscience is privately held and is headquartered in Cambridge, MA. For more information, visit www.factorbio.com.

Media Contact:

Allen Mireles

[email protected]

SOURCE Factor Bioscience

Related Links

http://www.factorbio.com


Disparities in health insurance literacythe ability to find and evaluate information related to coverage, select the coverage best suited to one's circumstances and use the plan knowledgeably once enrolleddisproportionately affect Hispanic and Latinx communities, impairing their ability to navigate the healthcare system. Building on FAIR Health's prior grant-funded efforts to advance health insurance literacy among these communities, the FH LAUNCH Espanol initiative will promote FH Consumer Classroom. This free mobile app educates users on health insurance and healthcare quality through an award-winning educational platform comprising articles, videos and a glossary, as well as key resources and interactive games to support learning. The user-friendly app also links to FAIR Health's nationally recognized FH  Medical and Dental Cost Lookup Tools, which enable consumers to estimate the typical costs of medical and dental procedures.

Available on the Apple App Store and Google Play, FH Consumer Classroom provides easy access to the educational materials also found on FAIR Health's consumer website, fairhealthconsumer.org, and is available in Spanish and English. The launch will occur just after the September 15 start of Hispanic Heritage Month.

To develop the initiative's English- and Spanish-language educational, classroom-themed campaign, FAIR Health will utilize culturally relevant messaging and diverse channelsincluding digital-, organizational- and community-based outreach. The campaign will target young adults, who often lack experience with health insurance when they age out of their parents' health plans, along with formerly incarcerated individuals reentering society.

Campaign messaging, which will be featured on social media ads and posts, and on promotional and educational materials, will include language like: "If learning about health insurance seems like an impossible assignment. Download this App." and "If finding dental costs requires an intensive course. Download this App."

FAIR Health President Robin Gelburd said, "We thank The New York Community Trust, an early and steadfast champion of FAIR Health's consumer-facing work, for its generous support of this critically important initiative. The new grant will advance FAIR Health's efforts to reach Hispanic and Latinx communities with a culturally sensitive educational campaign in English and Spanish to advance health insurance understanding and consumer empowerment."



Irfan Hasan, Deputy Vice President for Grants at The Trust, said: "The New York Community Trust is proud to support FAIR Health's efforts to broaden health insurance literacy among Hispanic and Latinx populations, and enhance their ability to make informed decisions about their care and coverage."

Follow us on Twitter @FAIRHealth

About FAIR Health

FAIR Health is a national, independent nonprofit organization that qualifies as a public charity under section 501(c)(3) of the federal tax code. It is dedicated to bringing transparency to healthcare costs and health insurance information through data products, consumer resources and health systems research support. FAIR Health possesses the nation's largest collection of private healthcare claims data, which includes over 34 billion claim records and is growing at a rate of over 2 billion claim records a year. FAIR Health licenses its privately billed data and data productsincluding benchmark modules, data visualizations, custom analytics and market indicesto commercial insurers and self-insurers, employers, providers, hospitals and healthcare systems, government agencies, researchers and others. Certified by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) as a national Qualified Entity, FAIR Health also receives data representing the experience of all individuals enrolled in traditional Medicare Parts A, B and D; FAIR Health includes among the private claims data in its database, data on Medicare Advantage enrollees. FAIR Health can produce insightful analytic reports and data products based on combined Medicare and commercial claims data for government, providers, payors and other authorized users. FAIR Health's systems for processing and storing protected health information have earned HITRUST CSF certification and achieved AICPA SOC 2 compliance by meeting the rigorous data security requirements of these standards. As a testament to the reliability and objectivity of FAIR Health data, the data have been incorporated in statutes and regulations around the country and designated as the official, neutral data source for a variety of state health programs, including workers' compensation and personal injury protection (PIP) programs. FAIR Health data serve as an official reference point in support of certain state balance billing laws that protect consumers against bills for surprise out-of-network and emergency services. FAIR Health also uses its database to power a free consumer website available in English and Spanish, which enables consumers to estimate and plan for their healthcare expenditures and offers a rich educational platform on health insurance. An English/Spanish mobile app offers the same educational platform in a concise format and links to the cost estimation tools. The website has been honored by the White House Summit on Smart Disclosure, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), URAC, the eHealthcare Leadership Awards, appPicker, Employee Benefit News and Kiplinger's Personal Finance. FAIR Health also is named a top resource for patients in Dr. Marty Makary's book The Price We Pay: What Broke American Health Careand How to Fix It and Dr. Elisabeth Rosenthal's book An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back. For more information on FAIR Health, visit fairhealth.org.

Contact:

Rachel Kent

Senior Director, Marketing, Outreach and Communications

FAIR Health

646-396-0795

[email protected]

SOURCE FAIR Health

Related Links

www.fairhealth.org


WASHINGTON, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Washington Post Executive Editor Sally Buzbee and Los Angeles Times Executive Editor Kevin Merida have become the newest members of the Fallen Journalists Memorial (FJM) Foundation's Board of Advisors, the Foundation announced today.

The Fallen Journalists Memorial Foundation supports the construction of America's first memorial on federal land dedicated to press freedom and to the journalists who've given their lives in service to it. Mr. Merida and Ms. Buzbee, both recognized stewards of journalism and a free press, join a dedicated Board of Advisors comprised of prominent leaders from across the journalism community.

"We are thrilled to have Sally's and Kevin's expertise and support as we work to bring this vital project to life," said Barbara Cochran, president of the Fallen Journalists Memorial Foundation. "It is more important than ever that we ensure the commitment to a free press and the sacrifices of journalists, photojournalists, editors and more are honored through a permanent memorial in our nation's capital."

"Sally and Kevin complement an already distinguished group of leaders in the journalism community that serve on our advisory board," said Foundation Chairman David Dreier, "We look forward to benefitting from their influence and insights as we work to create a Memorial that will commemorate America's commitment to press freedom and to those who died advancing it around the world."

The Fallen Journalists Memorial Foundation Board of Advisors also includes The New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet and The Wall Street Journal editor in chief Matt Murray, among other distinguished leaders in journalism.

A longtime journalist and news executive, Sally Buzbee took the helm as The Washington Post's executive editor in May 2021, succeeding fellow FJM Board of Advisors member Marty Baron to lead the news organization. She previously served as executive editor and senior vice president for the Associated Press where she started as a reporter in 1988. Ms. Buzbee has overseen newsrooms across the globe covering consequential stories, from conflict in the Middle East to U.S. presidential elections.

"Throughout my career, I have seen firsthand the sacrifices journalists make to bring critical information to the public," said Ms. Buzbee. "I am proud to support the Fallen Journalists Memorial Foundation as it works to commemorate America's commitment to a free press."

Kevin Merida is an award-winning journalist and author who was named executive editor of the Los Angeles Times in June 2021. Prior to joining the L.A. Times, Mr. Merida served as a senior vice president at ESPN, where he was editor in chief of The Undefeated, the company's multimedia platform that explores the intersection of race, culture and sports. Over his two-decade career at The Washington Post he served as a reporter and editor, most recently as a managing editor overseeing news and features coverage.

"I am honored to work alongside such an esteemed group of journalists to create a place that celebrates the importance of press freedom and memorializes our colleagues who've died while doing their jobs," remarked Mr. Merida. "The freedom of the press, and its role in our democracy, is not something that we can take for granted. This memorial will also help educate current and future generations about the values our work defends."

Learn more about the Fallen Journalists Memorial and how to support this work at www.fallenjournalists.org and follow us at @FJMemorial.

About Fallen Journalists Memorial Foundation

The Fallen Journalists Memorial (FJM) Foundation was authorized by Congress in December 2020 to build a memorial on federal land in Washington, DC to commemorate America's commitment to a free press by honoring journalists who have sacrificed their lives in service to that cause. The Foundation is led by former U.S. Representative David Dreier and former news executive and journalism professor Barbara Cochran. The Foundation is supported by numerous leaders from all segments of the journalism community who serve on its Board of Advisors, including editors and publishers, news anchors, and photojournalists.

Contact:

Kylie Munnelly

The Levinson Group

[email protected]

202.848.1034

SOURCE National Press Club Journalism Institute; Fallen Journalists Memorial Foundation

Related Links

https://www.fallenjournalists.org/


CHICAGO, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Feeding America announced today that MealConnect, its food donation platform, has facilitated 3 billion pounds of food rescued since its launch in 2014. In addition, the free-to-use app has expanded to become more mobile friendly and will now enable agricultural producers, as well as food businesses anywhere in the country, to donate their nutritious, unsold product and produce to local nonprofits.

Feeding America developed MealConnect as a solution for the nation's charitable food system, allowing network member food banks to coordinate and receive donations from their local food businesses and grocers. Any restaurant, caterer, local grocery chain, hotel, independent food distribution company, ag producer, and other community food business can use the no-cost platform to donate surplus meals  making MealConnect the only food rescue technology available nationwide. MealConnect serves more than 10,700 nonprofits that benefit from the program's rescued food.

"As a network of 200 food banks and 60,000 food pantries, serving every county, parish and borough in the United States, Feeding America is uniquely positioned to connect businesses that have extra food to people in need of assistance," said Katie Fitzgerald, Chief Operating Officer at Feeding America. "We've reached this remarkable milestone in rescuing more than 3 billion pounds of food through MealConnect, which will continue to grow as the platform's technology evolves. Our hope is that even more grocers, food companies, and ag producers will adopt the MealConnect platform which makes it easy to provide food to millions of Americans facing hunger."

MealConnect has expanded to include a new national produce marketplace and matching system. This system digitally connects the food bank network with growers allowing for produce sharing in a more targeted and efficient manner. Sourcing excess produce early means less product goes to waste as it can be sent to where it can do the greatest good in the shortest amount of time.

The General Mills Foundation's investments in MealConnect since 2017 have been a catalyst for the platform's growth. MealConnect's Logistics function was co-created with General Mills, helping to reroute rejected or damaged, but perfectly safe, product for donation at food banks. In 2020, the General Mills Foundation gave an additional $2 million to build upon and expand the platform to meet the growing need created by the pandemic.

"For the past five years, General Mills has played an instrumental role in the development of MealConnect," said Mary Jane Melendez, Chief Sustainability and Global Impact Officer, General Mills. "While our role goes well beyond financial support, our strategic philanthropic investment in MealConnect has enabled national scaling and rapid growth of this impactful solution  turning the country's surplus food into nourishing meals for people facing hunger in our communities coast to coast."

In addition, Feeding America, in partnership with Slalom, a global consulting firm focused on strategy, technology, and business transformation, is embarking on a multi-year transformation to leverage the power of data and technology in the fight against hunger and food insecurity. MealConnect's new national produce marketplace and matching system is one of the first successes of this endeavor.

"Slalom believes in fueling growth and innovation, and building a better future, both core tenets that are aligned with our commitment to creating innovative solutions to the world's biggest challenges, including food insecurity," said Brian Turner, President, Slalom US Markets. "Our partnership with Feeding America is focused on helping solve for hunger at a scale that can only be achieved and enhanced through the use of data and technology to drive accessibility and adoption, which we're already seeing from this evolution of MealConnect."

Product donations made through MealConnect are tax-deductible. Food businesses interested in donating can visit https://mealconnect.org/ to donate today. The MealConnect app is also available for free download in both the iOS App and Google Play stores.

Contact

Zuani Villarreal

Feeding America

312.641.6532

About Feeding America

Feeding America is the largest hunger-relief organization in the Unites States. Through a network of 200 food banks and 60,000 food pantries and meal programs, we provide meals to more than 40 million people each year. Feeding America also supports programs that prevent food waste and improve food security among the people we serve; educates the public about the problem of hunger; and advocates for legislation that protects people from going hungry.

SOURCE Feeding America
WILMINGTON, N.C., Sept. 14, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- President Biden announced Sept. 9 new federal COVID-19 legislature, a six-pronged plan, with the first prong directly aimed to dramatically change how U.S. employers respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. The plan requires employers with 100 or more employees, Medicare and Medicaid-participating healthcare facilities, and the executive branch of the federal government, including contractors who do business with the federal government, to ensure all of their workers are vaccinated against COVID-19, or submit to weekly testing. Suddenly faced with direct responsibility in ensuring unvaccinated workers become vaccinated, employers are scrambling to avoid penalties of $14,000 per violation.

CastleBranchs Real Vaccination ID COVID-19 Vaccine and Waiver Cards

While vaccine mandates were previously a subjective determination of each individual employer, the new federal mandate creates high stakes for some of the nation's largest employers, including the higher education sector that employs more than 4 million individuals, as well as Medicare and Medicaid-participating healthcare facilities that employ more than 17 million. Employers are suddenly tasked with burden of proof. The administrative burdens and legal risks of handling hundreds or even thousands of employees' sensitive medical data are enormous, but failure to provide proof of workers' vaccination or weekly diagnostic testing can result in massive financial penalties. One U.S.-based infectious disease screening company, CastleBranch, is working to mitigate each employer's risk of these steep fines and penalties by providing a comprehensive solution for managing the new federal vaccine mandate.

"We have tracked vaccines for businesses, institutes of higher education, and medical facilities for 25 years. It's what we do," said Brett Martin, CEO of CastleBranch. "For anyone who is inexperienced in vaccine tracking, this is complex, treacherous territory. We take the burden of that complexity off of employers, freeing them from the legal, logistical, and liability dangers of collecting sensitive medical documents from employees, verifying their authenticity, and creating a locked-tight audit trail."

While CastleBranch has collected, reviewed, and safely stored proof of vaccinations for decades, 18 months ago the company launched an essential tool kit for businesses to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. This essential tool kit, made up of solutions called CB COVID-19 Compliance and RealVaccinationID.com, comprehensively addresses the challenges and risks employers face with implementing, managing and tracking a vaccine mandate and COVID-19 diagnostic testing.

RealVaccinationID.com provides digital and physical proof of an individual's COVID-19 vaccination or waiver status and creates a secure and confidential audit trail while CB COVID-19 Compliance provides diagnostic test tracking, as well as temperature and symptom monitoring, isolation and quarantine processes, and contact tracing solutions. CastleBranch maintains strict compliance with state and federal privacy regulations.

The essential tool kit was inspired and guided by some of the world's leading epidemiologists and pandemic disease policy experts. It's also been endorsed by both the Organization for Associate Degree Nursing (OADN) and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), the nation's two largest nursing healthcare associations, representing more than 80 percent of nursing education in the country.

For more information, visit RealVaccinationID.com.

About CastleBranch:

Located in Wilmington, N.C., CastleBranch is an infectious disease screening and compliance management company serving over 17,700 healthcare programs, tens of millions of individuals, and tens of thousands of employers, schools and healthcare facilities nationwide by verifying identity, tracking over 35 million medical documents, and helping individuals transition to and through professional life. CastleBranch has 25 years of experience, employs over 500 team members and has a long track record of providing innovative solutions for complex problems.

SOURCE CastleBranch

Related Links

www.castlebranch.com


CHICAGO, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Flexpoint Ford, a private equity investment firm specializing in the financial services and healthcare industries, announced today the final closing of its second asset investment fund, Flexpoint Asset Opportunity Fund II, L.P. ("Asset Fund II"), at $825 Million.

Asset Fund II will build on the strategy established in the predecessor fund, Flexpoint Special Assets Fund, L.P. ("Asset Fund I"), leveraging the firm's focus and expertise in financial services private equity to invest in opportunistic asset-driven investments across financial services subsectors and assets. Asset Fund II will seek to construct a portfolio of diversified financial assets and structured investments.

"We are delighted with the success of the fundraising for Asset Fund II," said Don Edwards, Chief Executive Officer of Flexpoint Ford. Noting that over 90% of Asset Fund II's commitments came from existing investors in what was a limited fundraising process, he added, "We are very fortunate to have the support of many of the leading limited partners in the investment community. We attribute this support to the outstanding investment returns of our prior funds and, importantly, the consistent execution of Flexpoint's strategy."

Kirkland & Ellis LLP served as legal counsel for Asset Fund II. Flexpoint Ford did not use a placement agent.

About Flexpoint Ford

Flexpoint Ford is a private equity investment firm that has approximately $5.4 billion of assets under management and specializes in privately negotiated investments in the financial services and healthcare industries. Since the firm's formation in 2005, Flexpoint Ford has completed investments across a broad range of investment sizes, structures and asset classes. Flexpoint Ford is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, with additional offices in New York, New York. For more information about Flexpoint Ford, please visit www.flexpointford.com.

Media Contact:

Hallie Erlich

Prosek Partners

646-818-9094

[email protected]

SOURCE Flexpoint Ford

Related Links

https://www.flexpointford.com


VENTURA, Calif. and NORTH LAS VEGAS, Nev., Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Green Flower and newly-introduced partnership organization, GF Institute (GFI), are proud to announce that Flower One and its President and CEO Kellen O'Keefe are joining the inaugural Steering Committee to provide guidance, insight, and subject matter expertise as the industry welcomes a revolutionary new chapter in cannabis workforce development.

"The cannabis industry's exponential growth makes the establishment of true, powerful, research-tested standards like what GFI will provide even more important," said Gil Christie, GF Institute Chairman. "Flower One's scope, scale, and decades of experience in our field provide the GFI Steering Committee partner a critically-important perspective as we work with the ANSI National Accreditation Board (ANAB), the largest accreditation agency in the Western hemisphere, to standardize the industry like never before."

Change is a constant force in cannabis, and employers often struggle to execute on business imperatives because they're trying to do too many things at the same time and ultimately feel like their ability to focus is spread too thin in terms of their operational bandwidth. In fact, many cannabis employers try to go-it-alone on training programs entirely, struggling to produce training programs with the rigor and depth required to really understand and be prepared for such a fast-growing industry.

As a result, the cannabis industry collectively faces a host of painful and costly issues that all stem from a lack of training and focus on the onboarding experience. Problems like high turnover rates, poor customer service, unsafe or inconsistent products, costly compliance mistakes, and many other potential roadblocks to profitability can be solved with the introduction of a standardized cannabis education curriculum and onboarding program.

GF Institute is launching with 3 credentials, available today, focused on the largest sectors of people growth in the industry:

Cultivation Technician Certificate (CTC)

Dispensary Associate Certificate (DAC)

Manufacturing Agent Certificate (MAC)

"GF Institute's credential program offers operators in the industry an unprecedented resource to secure, retain and develop critical talent in key positions," said Kellen O'Keefe, Flower One's President & CEO. "The Steering Committee's approach to developing cannabis education adds crucial elements of transparency and consistency to cannabis workforce development."

The GF Institute's standardized credential program is overseen by an independent Steering Committee and advisory board, composed of more than 30 leading cannabis employers. The Steering Committee collectively: approves the curricular for each job role, champion education and professional development, support social equity and community initiatives, and represent brands that are committed to raising the overall knowledge and quality of professionals in the cannabis industry.

Each participant who successfully completes a GF Institute Cannabis Certificate course will automatically become members of the GF Institute's post-graduate community. GFI members will have exclusive access to continuing education programs, networking, career development opportunities, and more. To signify their accomplishment, those who complete the program will also receive a digital certificate of achievement, as well as digital pins that will enable certificate-holding cannabis professionals to post their credentials on LinkedIn.

GF Institute is now accepting applications for "Founding Member" companies who believe that proper training and investing in their workforce is a priority. Interested parties can find more information, including a complete guide to the certificate program, a full list of Steering Committee members, and individual program syllabus with course descriptions, on the GFI website.

About Green Flower:

Founded in 2014, Green Flower is the industry leader in cannabis education, empowering thousands of consumers, regulators, and professionals with the knowledge they need to succeed in the emerging cannabis industry today.

Green Flower's content and technology platform powers the cannabis programs of top universities and colleges across the country, provides customized learning and compliance solutions for cannabis businesses of all sizes, and equips individuals with the skills and credentials necessary to make an impact in the modern cannabis industry.

About Flower One Holdings Inc.:

Flower One is the largest cannabis cultivator, producer, and full-service brand fulfillment partner in the state of Nevada. By combining more than 20 years of greenhouse operational excellence with best-in-class cannabis operators, Flower One offers consistent, reliable, and scalable fulfillment to a growing number of industry-leading cannabis brands (Cookies, Kiva, Old Pal, Heavy Hitters, Lift Ticket's, The Clear, HUXTON, and Flower One's leading in-house brand, NLVO, and more). Flower One currently produces a wide range of products from flower, full-spectrum oils, and distillates to finished consumer packaged goods, including a variety of: pre-rolls, concentrates, edibles, topicals, and more for top-performing brands in cannabis. Flower One's Nevada footprint includes the Company's flagship facility, a 400,000 square-foot high-tech greenhouse and 55,000 square-foot production facility, as well as a second site with a 25,000 square-foot indoor cultivation facility and commercial kitchen. Flower One has built an industry-leading team passionate about sharing cannabis with the world.

The Company's common shares are traded on the Canadian Securities Exchange under the Company's symbol "FONE", in the United States on the OTCQX Best Market under the symbol "FLOOF" and on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the symbol "F11". For more information, visit: https://flowerone.com.

Contact: Adam Summers

e: [email protected] p: 708.223.2336

SOURCE Green Flower

Related Links

http://www.green-flower.com


WAKE FOREST, N.C., Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Inc. magazine recently revealed that Zippy Shell is No. 1149 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 are incredibly proud to be featured on the Inc 5000 list for the 6th time in the last 7 years," says Mark Kuhns, CEO of Zippy Shell and 1-800-PACK-RAT. "Our continuous growth is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our entire team and the commitment from our investors.



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."



For more information, contact: Sarah Saulnier at 919-488-3636 ext 1012 or [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/.



About Zippy Shell



Zippy Shell is one of the fastest-growing moving and storage companies in the U.S. With many locations across the nation, Zippy Shell provides a complete suite of services from self-pack, storage, to cross-country moving. In 2018 Zippy Shell merged with 1-800-PACK-RAT, a leader in moving and storage solutions, headquartered in Wake Forest, NC. Zippy Shell is made up of a strong team and board members who have established themselves as leaders in the moving and storage industries. For more information, visit www.zippyshell.com.



Photo(s):

https://www.prlog.org/12885512



Press release distributed by PRLog



SOURCE Zippy Shell Incorporated
LONDON, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- France is the second most complex jurisdiction in which to do business, according to the Global Business Complexity Index (GBCI), a report by the leading professional services firm, TMF Group. From EMEA, France is joined by Poland near the top of the rankings, as the tenth least business friendly country in which to operate.

The study analyses rules, regulations, tax rates, penalties and compliance issues across 77 jurisdictions, which account for 92% of the world's total GDP and 95% of net global FDI flows. In total, 292 indicators are tracked annually, offering data on key aspects of doing business, including incorporation timelines, payroll and benefits requirements, and compliance procedures.

France's second place is driven by complexities in accounting and tax processes, its heavily employee-centric HR regulations, and local language requirements for accounts reporting. In addition, France has been one of the first jurisdictions to put the EU SAF-T (an electronic exchange for accounting data) in place. Despite the introduction of "Business France"  a website to assist foreign companies to remain compliant with French accounting standards  businesses may still struggle due to the constant changes to those standards. HR and payroll is also heavily regulated, and employment litigation outcomes are usually in favour of employees. Firing an underperforming worker can take up to 12 weeks, as opposed to one week in Ireland, for instance.

Poland, ranked 34th most complex country in 2020, is now the tenth least business friendly country to operate in globally. Reasons can be found in an always evolving legislative scenario, which leaves business little time to react and implement changes in accordance with new laws. In addition, despite the government has adopted electronic signatures, Polish authorities don't accept many international signature providers, and instead require signatures from specific local providers, adding to complexity in the jurisdiction.

The report finds that EMEA is still a region where countries such as the Netherlands and the Republic of Ireland represent very attractive locations for multinational organisations, ranking 70th and 74th respectively for business complexity of the 77 researched. Both offer stable and fair regulatory environments, advanced, digitalised and competitive tax regimes, and educated, highly skilled and service-oriented workforces.

In the mid-range of EMEA rankings, countries such as South Africa and UAE require that businesses only register with one tax authority during the incorporation process. The average length of time to set up a company is also between two and three weeks, meaning that incorporation is relatively straightforward in these jurisdictions.

More generally, EMEA, together with the APAC, is a region characterised by strong state intervention to invest in digitalisation, to ease processes and to reduce the burden of bureaucracy. EMEA has also recorded some advancements with more progressive HR benefits, such as childcare assistance and housing or social care contributions: these are now mandated by law for permanent employees in many EMEA jurisdictions.

Juraj Gerzeni, Head of EMEA Management at TMF Group commented: "2021 has been a difficult year due to the pandemic but it has been a positive surprise to note how companies and local governments have been coping with the challenges. The region is marked by different approaches, but resilience is the common factor. It is very good to see how countries such as France are willing to go through a series of overhauls to foster the appetite of international investors."

Top and bottom ten

1. Brazil











68. Mauritius 2. France











69. El Salvador 3. Mexico











70. The Netherlands 4. Colombia











71. United States 5. Turkey











72. British Virgin Islands 6. Indonesia











73. Curacao 7. Argentina











74. Republic of Ireland 8. Bolivia











75. Cayman Islands 9. Costa Rica











76. Hong Kong 10. Poland











77. Denmark

For further information, please contact:

Giampaolo Arghittu, Global External Communications Manager, TMF Group

[email protected]

T: +44 7983314989

Daniel Resendes, External Communication Executive, TMF Group

[email protected]

T: +55 11 9 97892 3227

About TMF Group

TMF Group is a leading provider of critical administrative services, helping clients invest and operate safely around the world. Our 9,100 experts and 120 offices in 85 jurisdictions worldwide serve corporates, financial institutions, asset managers, private clients and family offices, providing the combination of accounting, tax, payroll, fund administration, compliance and entity management services essential to global business success.

We work with 60% of the Fortune Global 500 and FTSE 100, and almost half the top 300 private equity firms, covering sectors as diverse as capital markets, private equity, real estate, pharmaceuticals, energy and technology.



TMF Group  we make a complex world simple.

www.tmf-group.com

SOURCE TMF Group

Related Links

http://www.tmf-group.com


WICHITA, Kan., Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading fast-casual restaurant concept Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers announced today it has experienced significant development nationwide throughout the second and third quarters of 2021, including the opening of its first restaurants in New Jersey and Wisconsin. With these new locations, the rapidly-growing brand now has a presence in 34 states and is slated to continue expanding its footprint with a strong pipeline fueled by continued franchise development success. In addition to these milestone restaurant openings, Freddy's has announced the recent signing of five development deals with new and existing franchisees to bring 30 units to key target markets across the U.S., including Texas, Louisiana, Indiana, North Dakota and the greater Chicagoland region.

The Freddy's franchisees spearheading this development and their growth plans include:

In the Northern Chicago area, the existing franchise group AC MEHR & Associates has agreed to develop eight units across the Shaumburg, Arlington Heights , Lake Zurich , Crystal Lake , and Wheaton areas.

area, the existing franchise group AC MEHR & Associates has agreed to develop units across the Shaumburg, , , , and areas. M&M Custard will join those efforts in solidifying Freddy's presence in Chicago with their recent signing to develop 12 locations in the Southern Chicago & Northern Indiana areas , specifically in Naperville , Aurora , Bolingbrook , Orland Park , and Joliet .

with their recent signing to develop , specifically in , , , , and . New franchise group T-5 Enterprise, LLC, owned by Scott Turnbow , will mark their start with the brand with the development of one restaurant in Sweetwater, TX .

, will mark their start with the brand with the development of . Crispy Patty LLC, also a new franchise group to the system, has agreed to develop four units across Louisiana in markets such as Shreveport , Bossier City , and Alexandria .

in markets such as , , and . BOTL LLC has joined the Freddy's network as a new franchise group and plans to develop their five units throughout North Dakota in cities including Fargo , Grand Fork, Minot , and Bismark.

"The recent openings and new development agreements show the continued excitement and interest that operators have in the Freddy's franchise opportunity. We're very excited to welcome these new restaurants and franchisees to the Freddy's family and look forward to further expansion," said Andrew Thengvall, CDO of Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers.

In addition to Freddy's continued franchise development, the brand's debut in New Jersey and Wisconsin in early August was a tremendous success. Since opening, both new restaurants have experienced continued high traffic and popularity within the community, demonstrating the excitement of Guests welcoming the brand into their hometown. The Linden restaurant is owned and operated by Ethan Coleman, the New Jersey Steakburgers LLC franchise owner. He intends to develop dozens of Freddy's restaurants in markets across Northern New Jersey over the next several years. The Appleton Freddy's is owned and operated by brothers Chad and Nick Sternitzky, who plan to develop eight additional Freddy's restaurants throughout the state, targeting areas like Madison and Green Bay.

"The success our New Jersey and Wisconsin franchise owners have experienced since opening is a true testament to the coast to coast acceptance of our brand, and we look forward to welcoming new candidates looking to bring a one-of-a-kind fast casual concept to their community," added Thengvall.

Freddy's has experienced a continuous surge in franchise development, opening more than a dozen new restaurants in the first half of 2021 alone, including locations in Boise, ID, Memphis, TN, and Pensacola, FL, and the brand is expected to open 30 more before the end of the year. Franchise opportunities remain in areas across the U.S., including the Northeast, Upper Midwest, California, Florida, Oregon, and Washington and large metro areas such as Pittsburgh and many of its surrounding markets.

For more information about development opportunities, contact Mary Coots, Director of Franchise Development, at [email protected] or 316-719-7854, or visit https://freddysfranchising.com.

About Freddy's

Co-founded in 2002 by Scott Redler and Bill, Randy and Freddy Simon, Freddy's opened its first location in Wichita, Kansas, offering a unique combination of cooked-to-order Steakburgers seasoned with Freddy's Famous Steakburger & Fry Seasoning, Vienna Beef hot dogs, shoestring fries paired with Freddy's Famous Fry Sauce and frozen custard that is freshly churned throughout the day. The brand was acquired by private equity firm Thompson Street Capital Partners in March of 2021. Today, Freddy's has grown to more than 400 locations that serve 34 states across the nation from California to Pennsylvania, Virginia, down the East Coast states to Florida. Freddy's has been named No. 1 on Forbes Best Franchises to Buy, The 2021 Restaurant Business 10 Fastest Growing Chains in the U.S. List, Entrepreneur's 2021 Franchise 500 top 100, Franchise Times magazine's 2020 Fast & Serious top 40 and many other nationwide and local industry awards. For more on Freddy's, visit the Newsroom and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for the latest news.

Lucy Kaneb | Account Executive

[email protected]

954.893.9150

SOURCE Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers

Related Links

http://www.freddysusa.com


DUBLIN, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "AR in Agriculture Market Analysis and Forecast, 2020-2026" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The AR in agriculture market is expected to reach $4.43 million by 2026, with a CAGR of 37.4% during the forecast period 2021-2026

High growth in the market is expected to be driven by the growing demand for precision agriculture and smart farming methods, which will further increase the demand for other digital technologies along with augmented reality.

Market by Product: Analysis and Forecast: The segment gives a brief overview of the product portfolio of different companies and the market presence of different products existing in the market. For instance, 21 potential AR smart glasses and head mounted displays were identified, which are commercially available in the extended reality and immersive reality market along with their prices. However, these products are developed focusing on applications other than agriculture.

Market by Application: Analysis and Forecast: The segment gives a brief overview of the market status of different applications of the product and key players offering products in those applications. The indoor farming application led the market in terms of application in 2020. However, outdoor farming applications have greater potential as they generate more revenue in comparison to indoor farming. The outdoor farming application segment is led by livestock monitoring applications. It is currently one of the most lucrative applications as well as the most promising segments. It is also expected to register the highest CAGR among other applications during the forecast period.

In the current situation, it can be concluded that AR technologies are currently at a very early stage of adoption and are yet to be properly developed for agricultural practices. However, the majority of their deployment is in manufacturing sectors such as automobiles, aviation machinery, and other related industries. Basic industries such as agriculture are still very far from getting completely digitized as a very small number of farms globally have deployed digital technologies into their operations.

Impact of COVID-19 on AR in Agriculture Market

AR in agriculture market is at a growing stage, and there are no commercial products or solutions currently available in the market. Thus, the market may not get impacted by changing economic scenarios in the short term, considering COVID-19 is a short-term event. Thus, it can be concluded that COVID-19 had a neutral impact on AR in agriculture market.

Market Segmentation

AR in Agriculture Market by Applications

The AR in agriculture market by application is majorly driven by indoor applications, such as vertical farming, hydroponics, aquaponics, and cannabis farming. As the population across the globe is increasing exponentially, the total supply of food must be increased; otherwise, food shortage could lead to serious socio-political issues.

There are many indoor farming techniques such as vertical farming, aquaponics, hydroponics, and terrace farming. These farming techniques offer a wide range of benefits over commercial farming techniques. One of the primary advantages of these techniques is the ability to grow a wide range of products throughout the year, which was missing in conventional farming.

AR in Agriculture Market by Solutions

The AR in agriculture market by solution is dominated by the software segment, followed by the hardware segment. The augmented reality software is the most common method to deploy AR platforms. Majorly, the market is driven by handheld and mobile AR applications and web AR applications.

The software segment has a huge influence from handheld and mobile devices applications. The handheld and mobile devices applications are very commonly used as they are very easy to deploy and do not require huge capital investments.

AR in Agriculture Market by Region

North America is the leading region in agricultural technologies in terms of market adoption and development. North American countries are far ahead of the different regions, looking to implement various digital technologies beyond conventional farm machinery and services for efficient crop production.

The region is one of the largest markets for the entire immersive reality ecosystem leading the world in terms of development due to the presence of market-leading AR development companies such as Microsoft and Google. It is also one of the leading consumer electronics markets, which has helped shape a positive consumer outlook toward mobile devices and other electronics, including wearable devices such as AR smart glasses.

It is also home to some of the largest agricultural original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), such as John Deere, AGCO, and Massey Ferguson. John Deere and Massey Ferguson have launched AR applications for their consumers to experience their products in real life without needing a physical machine.

Key Questions Answered in the Report

What is the expected AR in agriculture market size during the forecast period 2021-2026?

What is the expected future scenario and revenue generated by the different applications and product types?

What is the expected future scenario and revenue generated by the application segments for which AR products are offered, including indoor and outdoor farming applications?

Which region is the largest market for the AR in agriculture market?

What are the expected future scenario and the revenue generated by different regions and countries in the AR in agriculture market, such as North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific and Japan , China , U.K., Rest-of-the-World?

, , and , , U.K., Rest-of-the-World? How are the adoption scenario, related opportunities, and challenges impacting the AR in agriculture market?

What are the business dynamics of AR in agriculture, and what is their role in the market, including market drivers, restraints, and opportunities?

How much revenue each of the segments is expected to record during the forecast period along with the growth percentage?

Market Report Coverage - AR in Agriculture

Market Segmentation

Application: Outdoor Farming (Precision Agriculture and Smart Farming, Livestock Monitoring, Simulated Training, and Weather Tracking and Forecasting) and Indoor Farming

Solution: Hardware, Software, and Service

Market Growth Drivers

AR Adoption in the Midst of Digitization

Growing Necessity to Increase Efficiency in Farm Operations

Increased Demand for Spatial Computing Applications

Market Challenges

Limited Focus on Agriculture Applications

Health and Safety Issues Related to Immersive Reality

Technology Related Challenges

Lack of Standardization

Market Opportunities

Growth in Adoption of Precision Farming and Smart Farming Methods

Growing Demand for Mobile-Based AR and VR Platforms

Key Companies Profiled

Augmenta

Grow Glide

EON Reality

Think Digital

Nedap N.V.

Plant Vision

Visual Logic, LLC

Rams Creative Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

Queppelin Technology Solutions Private Limited

Visartech Inc.

VSight UAB

Infosys Limited

Trimble Inc.

Microsoft Corporation

Alphabet Inc.

Vuzix Corporation

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/qblqk

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



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NEW YORK, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- According to Research Report Published by Zion Market Research, the global beer market, which was estimated at approximately 551 (USD Billion) in 2019 and is predicted to accrue earnings worth nearly 780 USD Billion by 2026, is set to record a CAGR of nearly 6% over 2020-2026. The report offers valuation and analysis of Beer market on a global as well as regional level. The study offers a comprehensive assessment of the industry competition, limitations, sales estimates, avenues, current & emerging trends, and industry-validated market data. The report offers historical data from 2017 to 2019 along with a forecast from 2020 to 2026 based on value (USD Billion).

Beer is usually prepared through use of four basic constituents including malted cereal grains, yeast, hops, and water that undergo fermentation over a specific timespan. With reduction in alcoholic content of beer, there is going to be huge product demand as consumers prefer beer having low alcohol content. For instance, beer contains alcohol proportion ranging from 3% to 6% in terms of volume. While, alcohol-free beers possesses lesser than or equal to 0.5% of alcohol by volume. Apparently, modern industrial methods of producing beer have replaced conventional practices that have led to massive changes in the beer composition.

Get free Sample of this Research Report with TOC  https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/sample/beer-market

Market Growth Dynamics

Swift urbanization along with altering customer trends will favorably leverage the market trends. Introduction of new technologies for improving yield and quality of the beer will proliferate the expansion of beer industry over the forecast timeline. Growing health concerns along with surge in the proportion of obesity and rise in the lifestyle-related disorders will propel the demand for light beer kinds. With beer forming a part of the culture in some of the western countries and beer festivals becoming social traditions, the market for beer is likely to accelerate over the forecasting period.

Furthermore, easy availability of beer at affordable costs will prop up the business growth over the forecast timeline. With consumers becoming more aware about the benefits derived due to beer intake, the market for beer is likely to witness an enlarged growth over the forecast timeline. Nevertheless, oscillating raw material costs along with huge import duties levied on beer will pose a challenge to the expansion of the beer industry over the ensuing timespan.

Request for Customization on this Report - https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/custom/761

Asia Pacific Market to Expand At Swift Rate Over 2020-2026

The expansion of the industry in Asia Pacific over the forecast timeline is due to large-scale setting up of microbreweries in the countries of Asia. In addition to this, massive alcoholic drink intake along with beer consumption in countries like China and India will promulgate the market growth in the zone over the forecasting timespan.

Key participants leveraging the business landscape are Modelo, Anheuser-Busch InBev, Diageo, SABMiller, Heineken, Molson Coors, Carlsberg, Boston Beer, China Resources Enterprise, Tsingtao Brewery, Oettinger, and Yanjing Beer.

Inquire before Purchase of this Research Report - https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/inquiry/beer-market

This report segments the global beer market as follows:

Global Beer Market: Product Segment Analysis

Light Beer

Strong Beer

Global Beer Market: Production Segment Analysis

Micro-Breweries

Macro Breweries

Global Beer Market: Category Segment Analysis

Premium

Super Premium

Normal

By Region

North America

The U.S.

Canada

Europe

France

The UK

Spain

Germany

Italy

Rest of Europe

Asia Pacific

China

Japan

India

South Korea

Southeast Asia

Rest of Asia Pacific

Latin America

Brazil

Mexico

Rest of Latin America

Middle East & Africa

GCC

South Africa

Rest of Middle East & Africa

Browse Other Related Research Reports

Home Beer Brewing Machine Market - https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/report/home-beer-brewing-machine-market

Fruit Beer Market - https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/report/fruit-beer-market

Ginger Beer Market - https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/report/ginger-beer-market

Alcoholic Beverages Market - https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/report/alcoholic-beverages-market

Craft Beer Market - https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/report/craft-beer-market

About Us:

Zion Market Research is an obligated company. We create futuristic, cutting edge, informative reports ranging from industry reports, company reports to country reports. We provide our clients not only with market statistics unveiled by avowed private publishers and public organizations but also with vogue and newest industry reports along with pre-eminent and niche company profiles. Our database of market research reports comprises a wide variety of reports from cardinal industries. Our database is been updated constantly in order to fulfill our clients with prompt and direct online access to our database. Keeping in mind the client's needs, we have included expert insights on global industries, products, and market trends in this database. Last but not the least, we make it our duty to ensure the success of clients connected to usafter allif you do well, a little of the light shines on us.

Contact Us:

Zion Market Research

244 Fifth Avenue, Suite N202

New York, 10001, United States

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US OFFICE NO +1-386-310-3803

Email: [email protected]

Website: https://www.zionmarketresearch.com

Blog - https://thefoodbeveragenews.com/

SOURCE Zion Market Research
NEW YORK, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- As per the findings of Zion Market Research study, digital health industry gathered revenue about US$ 96.2 billion in 2020 and is slated to earn revenue of approximately US$ 201.9 billion by 2028. The digital health market is projected to register highest gains of approximately 15.2% in 2021-2028. With reputed firms in life sciences, retail, and technology sectors trying to enter digital health business along with many start-up firms, it is likely that digital health market is predicted to gain traction over years ahead.

In addition to this, these firms are trying to generate value for healthcare activities through use of technology for addressing specific issues pertaining to management & delivery of healthcare solutions, thereby driving market trends. Apart from this, digital health solutions have huge potential for enhancing patient care along with reducing escalating costs. Additionally, massive use of machine learning, AI, data analytics, and deep learning in digital healthcare activities will boost growth of digital health industry over ensuing years. Moreover, digital health systems can help country save billions of dollars spent on healthcare. For instance, the U.S. healthcare system costs can be reduced to large extent through utility of digital health technologies as the later can improve drug research processes & wellness of patients, determine right patient, enhance operational efficacy, improve disease screening, offer remote patient support, and optimize financial model.

Get free Sample of this Research Report with TOC - https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/sample/digital-health-market

Moreover, outbreak of COVID pandemic and need for digital interventions for enhancing favorable health outcomes in diabetics, COVID patients, and asthma candidates will promulgate expansion of digital health industry during forecast timeline. In addition to this, customers want those healthcare services that they can access from remote locations and also assist them in taking care of themselves as well as their loves ones in their households along with assisting them in dealing with healthcare tools. This is only possible due to digital health solutions. With new digital technologies enhancing outcomes, minimizing costs, and improving experience of patient & service provider, market for digital health is set to register optimum gains over forecast timeline.

Digitization of Healthcare Data & Easy Availability of Data Accessing Apps to Drive Market Growth

Swift digitization of healthcare data and easy availing of apps that can access healthcare data from anywhere across globe through use of smartphones, tablets, and laptops will drive digital health market growth. In addition to this, introduction of network facility and internet penetration across globe along with launching of 5G network in Europe and North America will result in a large increment of market size. Apart from this, government focus on prevention of disease & well-being of patient through early disease diagnosis, launching of digital & interoperable healthcare tools by various governments, and need for increasing customer engagement with digital health tools will drive growth of digital health market across globe. For instance, India and Chile have launched mobile health applications referred as ReMiND and AccuHealth. Reportedly, ReMind has helped in improving health performance of community workers along with bringing improvement in health outcomes of mothers and infants in rural areas of countries such as India. Moreover, use of AI, remote monitoring, nutritional & psychological aid, and bringing behavioral change in patients through use of AccuHealth has enhanced quality of life of subjects affected due to chronic diseases in countries such as Chile.

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Additionally, use of national health information technology tools in countries such as Holland, Estonia, and Australia has helped patients garner immense healthcare information due to secured & interoperable exchange of information among service providers. Furthermore, digital health apps have also enhanced customer engagement and best example of this is use of gamified e-therapy app known as SPARX in New Zealand. The app has helped in enhancing emotional resilience of the country youths who suffered from depression by educating them on how to make use of insights gained from online games for handing or solving real-life problems.

North American Market to Hit Highest Growth Peak By 2028

Growth of digital health industry in North America over forecast timeline can be attributed to surge in healthcare costs along with massive penetration of digital devices such as smartphones, laptops, notebooks, think pads, and tablets in countries such as Canada and the U.S. In addition to this, a prominent increment in utility of telehealth services in the sub-continent will proliferate expansion of digital health market over upcoming years. Rapid spread of COVID pandemic across globe and its massive & devastating impact witnessed in countries such as the U.S. is likely to help digital health market establish a strong foothold in North America along with succoring regional market enter a new era of growth in forthcoming years.

Key players are making huge impact on growth of digital health market and creating ripples. Few of them are profiled in our report and include Philips Healthcare, AT&T Inc., Cerner Corp., Cisco Systems, Allscripts Healthcare Solutions Inc., Agfa-Gevaert N.V., GE Healthcare, McKesson Corp., Siemens Healthineers, and Qualcomm Inc.

Inquire before Purchase of this Research Report - https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/inquiry/digital-health-market

This review is based on a report by Zion Market Research, titled, "Global Digital Health Market - by Product Type [Healthcare Information Systems (Clinical Solutions and Non-Clinical Solutions) and Wearable Devices (Diagnostic & Monitoring Devices and Digital Therapeutic Devices)], by Component [Hardware, Software and Services] and by End User [B2B (Employers, Wellness Centers, Fitness Centers and Gyms) and B2C (Patients and Caregivers)] - Industry Perspective, Comprehensive Analysis and Forecast, 2021  2028."

This report segments the global digital health market as follows:

Global Digital Health Market: Product Type Segment Analysis

Healthcare Information Systems

Clinical Solutions

EHR/EMR

Clinical Decision Support System

Computerized Physician Order Entry

MHealth

Non-Clinical Solutions

Wearable Devices

Diagnostic & Monitoring Devices



Digital Therapeutic Devices

Global Digital Health Market: Component Segment Analysis

Hardware

Software

Service

Global Digital Health Market: Sales Channels Segment Analysis

Business-to-Business (B2B)

Employers



Wellness Centers



Fitness Centers



Gyms

Business-to-Consumers (B2C)

Patients



Caregivers

Global Digital Health Market: Regional Segment Analysis

North America

The U.S.

Europe

UK



France



Germany

Asia Pacific

China



Japan



India

Latin America

Brazil

Middle East and Africa

Browse Other Related Research Reports from Zion Market Research

Telemedicine Market - https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/report/telemedicine-market

https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/report/telemedicine-market mHealth Market - https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/report/mhealth-market

https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/report/mhealth-market mHealth Solutions Market - https://www.zionmarketresearch.com/report/mhealth-solutions-market

About Us:

Zion Market Research is an obligated company. We create futuristic, cutting edge, informative reports ranging from industry reports, company reports to country reports. We provide our clients not only with market statistics unveiled by avowed private publishers and public organizations but also with vogue and newest industry reports along with pre-eminent and niche company profiles. Our database of market research reports comprises a wide variety of reports from cardinal industries. Our database is been updated constantly in order to fulfill our clients with prompt and direct online access to our database. Keeping in mind the client's needs, we have included expert insights on global industries, products, and market trends in this database. Last but not the least, we make it our duty to ensure the success of clients connected to usafter allif you do well, a little of the light shines on us.

Contact Us:



Zion Market Research

244 Fifth Avenue, Suite N202

New York, 10001, United States

Tel: +49-322 210 92714

USA/Canada Toll-Free No 1-855-465-4651

US OFFICE NO +1-386-310-3803

Email: [email protected]

Website: https://www.zionmarketresearch.com

More Research Reports - https://www.syndicatemarketresearch.com/

SOURCE Zion Market Research
DUBLIN, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Ultrasound Systems Devices and Equipment Global Market Report 2021: COVID-19 Impact and Recovery to 2030" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global ultrasound systems devices and equipment market is expected to grow from $8.43 billion in 2020 to $9.35 billion in 2021 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.9%. The market is expected to reach $11.12 billion in 2025 at a CAGR of 4.4%.



Major players in the ultrasound devices and equipment market are GE Healthcare, Siemens Healthineers, Philips Healthcare, Mindray Medical International Ltd and Fujifilm Holdings Corporation.



The ultrasound devices and equipment market consists of sales of ultrasound devices and equipment and related services. Ultrasound systems are machines used to see internal body structures based on the ultrasound application. Ultrasound systems are used in applications such as radiology/general imaging, orthopedic, cardiology, obstetrics/gynecology, vascular, urology, and other applications (breast imaging, hematology, anesthesiology, and emergency care).



Introduction of the 3D/4D Ultrasound devices is the latest trend that is going to change the landscape of ultrasound devices and equipment market. The 3D/4D technology ultrasound device provides real time enhanced imaging of the internal anatomy/fetus, also enabling real-time volume imagining.

This technology can also help in performing complex surgeries. The 3D/4D ultrasound device would also feature improved image visualization power, shorten examination time and decrease strain injury during the surgery. For example, Toshiba's Aplio i900 Ultrasound machine makes use of the 3D/4D technology.



Safety and effectiveness of ultrasound system devices and equipment is heavily monitored and regulated across the world. In 2018, the Indian Government has decided to thoroughly monitor these devices as they are being imported to India without much registration protocols.

In order to ensure the efficiency & safety of ultrasound system devices and prevent the abuse of these devices for sex selection, the Drug Technical Advisory Board (DTAB) has included these devices in medical devices category and will now monitor and regulate import, manufacture, distribution and sale of these devices.

An additional permission to be taken from Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) is required by the manufacturers of ultrasound system devices. These stringent regulatory policies may impact the ultrasound system devices and equipment market in India, one of the fastest growing market.



Strict approvals and regulations by government bodies such as US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is hampering the growth of Ultrasound system devices and equipment market.

The manufacturers are required to comply several regulations in the form of device quality check, labeling, premarket approval, device investigation and reporting, apart from the regular registration process. Such excessive, strict and rigid regulations are restraining the market's growth.

Due to these stringent regulations, many manufacturers prefer to outsource the manufacturing to other countries where no such regulations are imposed. For example, FDA rejected the launch of EDAP TMS's latest High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) device stating safety concern.



Government and private funding in ultrasonic devices manufacturing companies is driving the growth for the ultrasound systems device and equipment market. The investments by private firms as well government would provide adequate capital for the ultrasonic device manufacturing companies to conduct research and development and develop innovative and advanced ultrasound devices. These funding's would not only encourage innovative devices but boost the market as well.



Key Topics Covered:



1. Executive Summary



2. Ultrasound Devices And Equipment Market Characteristics



3. Ultrasound Devices And Equipment Market Trends And Strategies



4. Impact Of COVID-19 on Ultrasound Devices And Equipment



5. Ultrasound Devices And Equipment Market Size And Growth

5.1. Global Ultrasound Devices And Equipment Historic Market, 2015-2020, $ Billion

5.1.1. Drivers of the Market

5.1.2. Restraints on The Market

5.2. Global Ultrasound Devices And Equipment Forecast Market, 2020-2025F, 2030F, $ Billion

5.2.1. Drivers of the Market

5.2.2. Restraints on the Market



6. Ultrasound Devices And Equipment Market Segmentation

6.1. Global Ultrasound Devices And Equipment Market, Segmentation By Type, Historic and Forecast, 2015-2020, 2020-2025F, 2030F, $ Billion

Diagnostic Ultrasound Systems

Therapeutic Ultrasound Systems

6.2. Global Ultrasound Devices And Equipment Market, Segmentation By End User, Historic and Forecast, 2015-2020, 2020-2025F, 2030F, $ Billion

Hospitals

Diagnostic Imaging & Surgical Centers

Ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs)

Clinics

6.3. Global Ultrasound Devices And Equipment Market, Segmentation By Type, Historic and Forecast, 2015-2020, 2020-2025F, 2030F, $ Billion

Cart/Trolley Based

Compact/Handheld Ultrasound Devices

6.4. Global Ultrasound Devices And Equipment Market, Segmentation By Product, Historic and Forecast, 2015-2020, 2020-2025F, 2030F, $ Billion

A-Mode

B-Mode or 2D Mode

C-Mode

M-Mode

Doppler Mode

Pulse Inversion Mode

Harmonic Mode

7. Ultrasound Devices And Equipment Market Regional And Country Analysis

7.1. Global Ultrasound Devices And Equipment Market, Split By Region, Historic and Forecast, 2015-2020, 2020-2025F, 2030F, $ Billion

7.2. Global Ultrasound Devices And Equipment Market, Split By Country, Historic and Forecast, 2015-2020, 2020-2025F, 2030F, $ Billion



Companies Mentioned

GE Healthcare

Siemens Healthineers

Philips Healthcare

Mindray Medical International Ltd

Fujifilm Holdings Corporation

Hitachi Ltd

Toshiba Corporation

Samsung Electronics

Canon Medical Systems

Hologic

Shantou Institute of Ultrasonic Instruments Co. Ltd

Analogic Corporation

Esaote S.p.A

Carestream

Chison Medical Imaging

Mobisante

Fukuda Denshi Co. Ltd

Echometrix

Butterfly Network

ProDiagnose

eXo Imaging

Teenyco

Canon Medical Systems

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/hzj6n1

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1904

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

SOURCE Research and Markets

Related Links

http://www.researchandmarkets.com


DUBLIN, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Vessel Sealing Devices Market" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The key factors driving the market growth include the rising number of surgeries across the globe, aging population, and technological advancements.



The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in several challenges such as logistical bottlenecks, low demand, decreased sales and marketing activities, and reduced sales. The key impact, however, was the cancellation or postponement of elective surgeries during the pandemic.

The number of surgeries performed is a key contributor to the market growth. In the U.S. increasing prevalence of chronic diseases and an aging population, are leading to increase in the number of surgical procedures performed every year. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, an estimated 75 million of the 328 million U.S. population, were aged 60 years and older in 2019. This implies that a significant number of American citizens are vulnerable to chronic and acute conditions, leading to an increased number of surgeries.



According to Definitive Healthcare, LLC, as of 2019, there were about 9,280 active ambulatory surgery centers in the U.S. This high number also contributes to market growth. In addition, ASCs enable large volumes of surgeries in a short period, which is expected to fuel the market growth during the forecast period.



The adoption of automated and robotic systems in surgery is another driver estimated to contribute to the market growth. In a study conducted by the University of Michigan, School of Medicine, it was found that from 2012 to 2018 the use of robotic technology in general surgery increased from 1.8% to 15.1%.

Market players are leveraging this trend to introduce new products, expand their regional presence, and increase their market share. Bolder Surgical, partnered with Intuitive Surgical to provide an exclusive licensing agreement to its energy-based vessel sealing and tissue stapling technologies for use in the latter's robotic-assisted surgery solutions.

In May 2021, Bowa Medical opened a new office in Cairo to control and support sales activities for Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, and the entire Middle East region.



Vessel Sealing Devices Market Report Highlights

Rising prevalence of chronic diseases is increasing the number of surgeries performed around the globe. This is one of the key contributing factors towards market growth

The application segment was dominated by laparoscopic surgery in 2020 owing to wider use of vessel sealing devices in these procedures, while the general surgery segment held a significant share. In June 2021 , for instance, Johnson and Johnson's Ethicon launched ENSEAL X1 Curved Jaw Tissue Sealer for use in colorectal, bariatric surgery, gynecological, and thoracic procedures

, for instance, Johnson and Johnson's Ethicon launched ENSEAL X1 Curved Jaw Tissue Sealer for use in colorectal, bariatric surgery, gynecological, and thoracic procedures The laparoscopic surgery segment, however, is also anticipated to grow the fastest due to rise in technological advancements and minimally invasive surgeries

The instruments segment held the largest revenue share in 2020 and is also expected to register the highest CAGR over the forecast period. Easy availability of instruments is one of the primary factors driving this segment

The hospitals and specialty clinics segment held the largest revenue share of 57.4% in 2020, as they are the primary point of care for treatment. Furthermore, hospitals and specialty clinics are known to offer superior care to their patients and treatment at these centers are generally reimbursed, which drives adoption

Vessel Sealing Devices Market Dynamics

Market driver analysis

Increasing number of surgeries

Rising Technological advancements

Increasing preference for minimally invasive surgeries

Market restraint analysis

High cost of vessel sealing devices

Companies Mentioned

Medtronic

Olympus Corporation

B. Braun Melsungen AG

Medical Devices Business Services, Inc. (Johnson & Johnson)

Erbe Elektromedizin GmbH

Bowa Medical

OmniGuide Holdings, Inc.

Intuitive Surgical

Bolder Surgical, LLC

KLS Martin Group

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/7yhbym

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



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SOURCE Research and Markets

Related Links

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"Hole 72 is our most easterly hole released to date and extends the mineralization 300m to the east from discovery hole 48," said Brad Langille, President and CEO. "We have redirected drills to El Favor East as we aim to include a portion of El Favor East in our upcoming initial Los Ricos North resource."

Table 1: Drill Hole Intersections

Hole ID Area / Vein From To Length1 Au Ag AuEq2 AgEq2



(m) (m) (m) (g/t) (g/t) (g/t) (g/t) LRGF-21-062 El Favor East 120.5 122.6 2.1 0.21 54.4 0.94 70.1

and 134.4 136.0 1.5 0.26 75.8 1.27 95.5 LRGF-21-063 El Favor 57.1 73.4 16.3 0.05 43.9 0.64 47.9

including 64.4 67.0 2.7 0.16 138.3 2.00 150.3 LRGF-21-064 El Favor East 69.7 70.6 0.9 0.31 232.6 3.41 255.4

and 146.1 148.8 2.7 0.07 50.0 0.74 55.6 LRGF-21-065 El Favor East 9.5 78.2 68.7 0.12 71.0 1.07 80.0

including 75.0 78.2 3.2 0.88 430.6 6.62 496.5 LRGF-21-066 El Favor East 49.4 157.4 108.0 0.16 47.0 0.78 58.9

including 107.6 123.7 16.1 0.65 152.6 2.68 201.2

including 116.3 118.4 2.1 4.08 737.9 13.92 1,043.9

including 116.9 117.8 0.8 9.05 1,595.5 30.33 2,274.4 LRGF-21-067 El Favor East3 50.4 128.5 73.7 0.26 66.0 1.14 85.8

including 52.3 53.9 1.6 5.10 316.3 9.32 698.8

including 68.0 70.5 2.5 1.32 514.7 8.19 613.9

including 69.1 70.5 1.5 2.12 843.0 13.36 1,002.1

and 116.5 125.1 8.6 0.15 66.9 1.05 78.5 LRGF-21-069 El Favor East4 76.0 139.8 58.8 0.28 90.1 1.48 110.9

including 101.7 106.4 4.8 1.71 423.0 7.35 551.4 LRGF-21-070 El Favor East5 62.2 118.0 48.1 0.28 83.3 1.39 104.5

including 102.5 105.5 3.0 1.79 219.3 4.71 353.2 LRGF-21-071 El Favor East6 95.8 143.0 43.7 0.17 56.1 0.92 69.1

including 99.2 100.1 0.9 2.34 833.7 13.45 1,009.0 LRGF-21-072 El Favor East 133.1 134.6 1.5 0.28 92.0 1.51 113.3

and 191.5 207.5 16.0 0.29 90.1 1.49 111.8

including 197.2 198.6 1.4 1.02 401.2 6.37 477.4

1. Not true width 2. AqEq converted using a silver to gold ratio of 75:1 at recoveries of 100% 3. Excludes 4.5m of historically mined void 4. Excludes 5.0m of historically mined void 5. Excludes 7.7m of historically mined void 6. Excludes 3.5m of historically mined void 7. Hole LRGF-21-068 is excluded as it did not intercept significant mineralization

The exploration team has been moving east of El Favor with drilling in 25m stepouts in the eastern end of El Favor, beginning with discovery hole 48, and continuing to intersect wide strong mineralization. This area is known as the El Favor East zone, and a mapping program has extended the presence of mineralization 900m to the east of hole 48 (El Favor East zone discovery hole), as shown in Figure 2. To date, 300m of El Favor East has been drilled showing the strong mineralization.



Three of the four major veins (Salomon, Guitarrillas and Los Chivos) appear to converge into a 100m wide zone at the western end of the El Favor deposit in the vicinity of the Hundido Pit at an elevation of 1300m. The wallrock in between the veins is strongly silicified, altered and mineralized. The merging of these veins continue to provide significant widths of good grade which could be potentially amenable to bulk mining.

The El Orito deposit (as presently defined) is located about 800 metres along strike to the west of the Hundido Pit (see Figure 3). Wide zones of precious and base metal mineralization were cut by drill holes at El Orito at elevations between 600 to 800m. Geological mapping, sampling and Induced Polarization ("IP") surveying programs in the area between El Orito and El Favor are underway.

Table 2: Drill Hole Locations

Hole ID Easting Northing Elevation Azimuth Dip Length LRGF-21-062 586086 2336779 1285 180 -45 218 LRGF-21-063 585006 2336494 1254 180 -45 382 LRGF-21-064 586057 2336776 1279 180 -45 202 LRGF-21-065 585953 2336750 1235 180 -45 249 LRGF-21-066 585935 2336800 1213 180 -45 264 LRGF-21-067 585874 2336806 1209 180 -45 311 LRGF-21-068 584986 2336464 1258 180 -45 429 LRGF-21-069 585983 2336800 1232 180 -45 308 LRGF-21-070 585958 2336795 1224 180 -45 246 LRGF-21-071 586005 2336815 1241 180 -45 304 LRGF-21-072 586128 2336795 1308 180 -45 391

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/decks/10437 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 ActLabs facility in Zacatecas, Mexico. ActLabs 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 1A2-50) and over limits greater than 10 grams per tonne are re-assayed using a gravimetric finish (Code 1A3-50). Silver and multi-element analysis is completed using total digestion (Code 1F2 Total Digestion ICP). Over limits greater than 100 grams per tonne silver are re-assayed using a gravimetric finish (Code 8-Ag FA-GRAV Ag).

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/


HARTFORD, Conn., Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Governor Ned Lamont today announced that more than 50 million pages of state government documents have been digitized through a public-private partnership with Scan-Optics, a data management company based in Manchester, as part of an ongoing initiative to modernize services and produce efficiencies within state government.

Governor Lamont said the elimination of paper documents and transferring them for electronic use is an important component of his administration's efforts to create efficiencies.

"Digitizing documents means that we can have the information we need at our fingertips and can work smarter in state government," Governor Lamont said. "That's the type of workplace I envision  one where we can work efficiently, collaboratively even when we're remote, and in a way that uses the most up-to-date technology available. These public-private partnerships help us get closer to that vision and attract the best and brightest employees. I am excited about what we've accomplished together so far and look forward to see what else we can streamline."

The State of Connecticut began its partnership with Scan-Optics in 2013 through the Department of Social Services and Access Health CT. Additional agencies joined the partnership under Governor Lamont's leadership starting in 2018, including the Department of Administrative Services, the Department of Children and Families, the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection, and the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.

Most notably, the company has supported the state's human resources centralization efforts by providing full-service solution to include document packing, pickup, and creating a logistics schedule to ensure there is no down-time in production. In conjunction with the human resources project team they reviewed documents and processed 10 million images for a total of 30,000 employee files in just under 12 months.

Department of Administrative Services Commissioner and Connecticut's Chief Operating Officer Josh Geballe said, "Partnerships like this are critical to our success and open doors for us to do the best, most collaborative work we can. Keeping paper files takes up space, costs money, wastes time, hinders coordination, and limits the ability for our staff to find what they need to do their job the way they need to in order to serve the people of Connecticut. I want to thank Scan-Optics for their partnership, and I applaud the work of our state agencies and HR team for these innovative achievements."

Jeff Mitchell, CEO of Scan-Optics, said, "We are thrilled to support Governor Lamont's vision of a more efficient state government. It is an honor for our company to be a partner with the state on these strategic initiatives that benefit the residents of Connecticut. We look forward to our continued partnership driving the modernization of state government."

Department of Social Services Commissioner Dr. Deidre Gifford said, "Employing this type of technology allows us to ensure our turnaround time for services like SNAP benefits are quickermeaning the technology can literally help put food on the table for our residents who need it most. That's what Governor Lamont's modernization efforts are prioritizing. The tremendous work Scan-Optics does ensures electronic distribution of workflow to our staff and results in streamlined eligibility determination for vital food, healthcare, financial and other assistance for up to one million Connecticut residents."

Department of Children and Families Commissioner Vannessa Dorantes said, "A landmark value of the Lamont administration has been to increase the efficiency of our workforce across the state. Our collaboration with Scan-Optics is yet another example of how modernizing our work results in staff having access to critical case information quickly, leading to a direct and positive impact on the children and families we serve."

Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Commissioner Katie Dykes said, "Governor Lamont has prioritized making sure state agencies are more efficient, and transparent, and that's what our partnership with Scan-Optics helps us achieve as we work to improve the customer service we provide. Increased digitization of records was something DEEP embarked upon back in 2019 with our 20 By 20 initiative, something that became even more important during the COVID-19 pandemic, which greatly impacted public access to records. With the help of Scan-Optics, DEEP completed Hazardous Waste Manifest and Oil & Chemical Spill bulk scanning efforts, and to date, DEEP has well over two million electronic documents accessible to the public through the DEEP Document Online Search Portal, a number that continues to grow."

James Michel, CEO of Access Health CT said, "Scan-Optics has been a trusted vendor of Access Health CT since our inception, and we're excited to continue our digitization efforts under Governor Lamont's leadership. The ability to eliminate manual scanning for verifying customer data helps make operations and the customer experience more efficient."

Media Contact:

Julie Nicholson,

CashmanKatz

860-430-2228

[email protected]

SOURCE Scan-Optics
LOS ANGELES, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Greater Los Angeles African American Chamber of Commerce (GLAAACC), the most influential organization advocating for growth, equity, and economic opportunity for Black-owned businesses in the nation's second largest city, has expressed its support for Angels Landing Partners, LLC's $1.6 billion Angeles Landing hotel development downtown L.A. in a letter sent to city planning officials.

GLAAACC Chairman Gene Hale wrote, "We have met with Angels Landing Partners, LLC and understand that their project will create a new and dynamic destination in the Bunker Hill area in downtown Los Angeles. The [Angels Landing] project will attract new residents, tourists, and business travelers by providing 535 new hotel rooms, many new retail shops, and restaurants. The project also has a variety of open spaces and terraces that will make for a unique and welcoming experience for all who patronize the project site and surrounding areas."

"What really has us excited," Chairman Hale wrote, "is Angels Landing Partners' firm commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion through their pledge to achieve 30% minority-owned and women-owned business procurement and equally high level of diversity in the workforce that will manage and operate their luxury hotels."

"These are economic and business development commitments not always made and kept by other prominent developers. We trust Angels Landing Partners, LLC to fully meet or exceed their ambitious and welcomed economic equity commitments," Mr. Hale's letter stated.

Chairman Hale wrote, "GLAAACC is confident Angels Landing can help super-charge L.A.'s COVID-19 economic recovery and help our city prepare to, once again, welcome visitors from throughout the world to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Summer Games. Projects like Angels Landing would demonstrate the strength and resiliency of our city and the tremendous draw it has for tourists, visitors, and business travelers."

"The city needs projects like Angels Landing to remain competitive with other cities vying for increased tourism and convention business. GLAAACC strongly supports the development of Angels Landing as an important new contributor to our city's tourism and convention industries, major drivers of economic activity for Los Angeles. GLAAACC stands solidly behind Angels Landing Partners, LLC and we hope the city approves their hotel development project without undue delay," Chairman Hale's letter concluded.

Victor MacFarlane, president and CEO, MacFarlane Partners and a managing member of Angels Landing Partners, LLC, said, "We are proud and gratified to have the strong support of the Greater Los Angeles African American Chamber of Commerce as we work collaboratively with L.A. city officials to secure the necessary entitlements for our Angels Landing hotel development on Bunker Hill. GLAAACC Chairman Gene Hale is a successful businessman. He's a business advocacy visionary who has worked tirelessly for the past three decades to widen opportunities for Black business owners that has enabled them to compete and win business in the city and county of Los Angeles, and other cities within the State of California, as well."

R. Donahue Peebles, president and CEO, The Peebles Corporation and a managing member of Angels Landing Partners, LLC  said, "We sincerely thank GLAAACC for its support of our Angels Landing luxury hotel project. Chairman Gene Hale knows we will stand behind our commitment to award 30% of the contracts for our Angels Landing project to minority-owned and women-owned businesses. That means hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts for products and services that Angels Landing will need that would flow to minority- and women-owned businesses. That's huge for Black-owned businesses that seek to grow. That's huge for Latino-owned businesses. That's huge for AAPI-owned businesses. And it's huge for Native American-owned businesses. We intend to work closely with Chairman Hale and GLAAACC to deliver on our commitment."

Angels Landing is comprised of two towers, each to be anchored by its own five-star hotel. The development will feature Angels Landing Plaza, an expansive, pedestrian-centered, transit-adjacent, modern urban park in the heart of downtown L.A.

According to an analysis prepared by BJH Advisors, LLC., more than 8,300 new jobs will be created during Angels Landing's project design and construction. The New York City-based firm's report estimates Angels Landing would additionally create more than 800 permanent jobs in downtown L.A. An estimated 500 jobs would be created by vendors in the L.A. County region providing good and services to the two luxury hotels.

In addition to new job creation, the BJH Advisors analysis projects Angels Landing would provide L.A.'s local economy a $1.6 billion boost and contribute $731 million to local worker's earnings during its construction. The project would generate as estimated 12 million in recurring tax revenues and $2.4 million annually in local property tax revenues, according to the report.

Angels Landing Plaza will frame the angular, multi-level Bunker Hill site as a publicly accessible, privately managed park amenity, establishing it as a vibrant, inviting, and treasured locale for L.A.'s downtown neighborhood residents, weekday commuters, nightlife seekers, tourists, and hotel guests.

SOURCE Angels Landing Partners, LLC
VENTURA, Calif. and REDWOOD VALLEY, Calif., Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Green Flower , GF Institute (GFI) , and Flow Cannabis Co. are proud to announce their partnership in the adoption and deployment of the cannabis industry's first professional credential program designed to equip cannabis employees with the fundamental, functional knowledge they need to be successful.

"Education is going to be a key component to the success of the emerging cannabis industry for the foreseeable future," says Annie Davis, VP of Marketing for Flow Cannabis Co., whose flagship brand is California's best-selling sungrown flower, Flow Kana. "Educating consumers is our No. 1 goal, but we also hope to see a greater understanding of this plant and its benefits across the public and private sectors, particularly from those in positions of power. GF Institute's accessible education model makes terrific strides toward those goals."

With standardized credentials and educational programs in place, GFI's vision for the application of these credentials will result in new levels of professionalism, credibility, and equity across the cannabis industry. By ensuring each and every employee who begins their cannabis career has the best possible onboarding experience and learns from a common body of knowledge developed by the industry's leading employers, cannabis brands can collectively build a truly skilled and talented workforce that provides better service to patients and customers; values safety and consistency in cannabis products; and promotes new levels of confidence, sustainability, and intrinsic "people" value throughout our industry.

"The cannabis industry's growth has been exponential in recent years, making the need that much more acute for the establishment of real, powerful, research-tested standards like what GFI provides for this workforce," said Gil Christie, the inaugural chairman of GF Institute. "Flow Cannabis Co. has a well-earned reputation as a standard-bearer for the emerging clean and sustainable cannabis movement, which affords them a unique and important presence as a GFI Founding Member."

GF Institute is also excited to announce that we are working with the ANSI National Accreditation Board (ANAB), the largest accreditation agency in the Western hemisphere, for both federal and international accreditation to provide a robust and sustainable corporate training solution created by the cannabis industry, for the cannabis industry. Designed for scalability and applicability to any plant-touching licensed cannabis operator, the first three certificates are targeted specifically to meet the needs of high-demand positions that exist in the industry today: Dispensary Associate Certificate (DAC), Cultivation Technician Certificate (CTC), and Manufacturing Agent Certificate (MAC). Together, these programs comprise the GF Institute credentials and are intended to help the industry collectively develop the cannabis workforce using a common body of knowledge, developed with best practices and subject matter expertise from the industry's leading employers.

"Having GF Institute's Standardized Certificate program set standards and norms that everyone can strive towards is ground-breaking for our industry," continued Davis. "We work hard to educate our customers about the benefits of sungrown cannabis, which offers robust THC levels and higher terpene content as well as greatly enhanced 'entourage effects.' We believe that sungrown cannabis offers the best experience you can have with this amazing plant and appreciate GFI's efforts to educate professionals and customers alike."

GF Institute is currently accepting new "Founding Member" applications from companies that believe properly training and equipping employees for success is a priority in this fast-changing industry. Interested parties can find more information, including complete program documentation and a list of all Steering Members who provided input for the program on the GF Institute website .

About Green Flower:

Founded in 2014, Green Flower is the industry leader in cannabis education, empowering thousands of consumers, regulators, and professionals with the knowledge they need to succeed in the emerging cannabis industry today.

Green Flower's content and technology platform powers the cannabis programs of top universities and colleges across the country, provides customized learning and compliance solutions for cannabis businesses of all sizes, and equips individuals with the skills and credentials necessary to make an impact in the modern cannabis industry.

About Flow Cannabis Co.

Formed with the 2015 launch of Flow Kana, its top-selling flagship brand of craft sungrown Emerald Triangle flower, Flow Cannabis Co. embodies the California Way, a tradition of legacy and artisanship not found anywhere else in the world. Headquartered in Mendocino County, the gateway to the world-renowned Emerald Triangle region, Flow Cannabis Co.'s 300-acre campus is on the site of California's first organic winery. The campus offers unrivaled scale and infrastructure, featuring a 170,000-square-foot processing and manufacturing facility; a 25,000-square-foot state-of-the-art extraction facility; California cannabis' only in-house full-service print shop; and seven loading docks. Establishing the first-ever Emerald Triangle supply chain and extending it across the state, Flow Cannabis Co. works with the best CPG brands in the industry to offer a wide range of services, including processing, co-packing, manufacturing, white-labeling, distribution, and crucial last-mile delivery. Flow Cannabis Co. also operates Hopland's Solar Living Center to help visitors better understand essential sustainability practices and methods via hands-on experiences. Supporting operational hubs, facilities, and campuses across the state  Flow Cannabis Co.'s goal is to be the most respected and trusted manufacturer, distributor and curator of sungrown, environmentally-friendly cannabis products, experiences, and services in the world.

Contact: Adam Summers

e: [email protected] p: 708.223.2336



SOURCE Green Flower
VENTURA, Calif. and SACRAMENTO, Calif., Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Newly founded GF Institute (GFI) and cannabis education leader Green Flower announced today that Natura and Natura's VP of Business Development Josh Schmidt are joining GFI as Founding Members of the inaugural Steering Committee.

GF Institute's mission is to build a truly skilled and talented workforce that promotes professionalism, credibility, and equity in cannabis. Formed specifically to develop and deploy standardized training and credentials, GFI is overseen by an independent Steering Committee, comprised of more than 30 leading cannabis employers who ultimately support, guide, design, and approve the program curricula.

"The GF Institute Standardized Credentials empower players all over the cannabis industry to innovate and develop new products. Standardized education initiatives in our industry primarily serve to free up operational bandwidth, which in turn enables managers to focus on core competencies and running their respective businesses, instead of coming up with training programs they build themselves completely from scratch," said Schmidt.

Because the industry has continued to see such sustained growth and demand for a protracted period of time, candidate and applicant pools are growing smaller and smaller as regional cannabis markets across the United States age and mature. This leaves many leading cannabis employers looking to recruit talent from other industries, even drawing interested applicants with little or absolutely no formalized cannabis knowledge from which to draw to meet the rigorous demands of their new career path. As a result, the cannabis industry continues to face a host of potentially costly problems that stem from a lack of training, including high turnover, poor customer service, unsafe or inconsistent products, costly compliance mistakes, or worse.

"The cannabis industry's rapid growth in recent years puts a spotlight on the clear need for the creation of real, meaningful, research-tested standards like what GFI will provide for our industry's workforce," said Gil Christie, the inaugural chairman of GF Institute. "Natura 's leadership and innovation in our field provides GFI with a unique perspective as we work every day to revolutionize how cannabis employers consider and approach workforce development like never before."

GF Institute offers three cannabis credential programs, available the industry as a whole for the first time today, each specifically purpose built to equip new cannabis professionals with the skills and functional cannabis knowledge required to be successful in some of the industry's highest-demand positions:

- Dispensary Associate Certificate (DAC)

- Cultivation Technician Certificate (CTC)

- Manufacturing Agent Certificate (MAC)

Each credential program takes 12-16 hours to complete, is available 100% online, and consists of 2 units with summative exams at the end of each unit. The first unit is cannabis health, safety, and compliance, modified slightly for each individual job role to cover specific on-the-job expectations, and covers everything brands need and want to satisfy mandatory training requirements in cannabis. The second unit is a skills-based training, designed to give new cannabis professionals a foundational level of knowledge and skill in each key area of the industry.

On successful completion of a credential, an individual is automatically granted membership to GF Institute, which will offer its members exclusive access to continuing education content, networking and career development opportunities, and more. Additional credentials and benefits applicable to other high-demand roles will continue to be developed and released in the future to ensure the cannabis credential program is always relevant and applicable to both employers and employees alike.

To encourage industry-wide adoption of the Certificates, GF Institute is inviting every Licensed Cannabis Operator across the United States to become a Founding Member by submitting an application before the deadline on December 31, 2021. Founding Members are granted access to deploy the certificates across their organization as an additional part of Green Flower's enterprise learning and development platform. Non-members must purchase each certificate program separately, so interested parties should submit applications to take advantage of this time-sensitive, limited opportunity offer.

For more information on GFI cannabis credentials or the standardized certificate courses, visit the GF Institute website where visitors will find additional materials available, including course syllabi and complete program documentation.

About Green Flower:

Founded in 2014, Green Flower is the industry leader in cannabis education, empowering thousands of consumers, regulators, and professionals with the knowledge they need to succeed in the emerging cannabis industry today.

Green Flower's content and technology platform powers the cannabis programs of top universities and colleges across the country, provides customized learning and compliance solutions for cannabis businesses of all sizes, and equips individuals with the skills and credentials necessary to make an impact in the modern cannabis industry.



Contact: Adam Summers

e: [email protected] p: 708.223.2336



SOURCE Green Flower
VENTURA, Calif., Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Green Flower is proud to announce that Parallel , a leading U.S. cannabis MSO, is joining GF Institute (GFI) as a Founding Member of the industry's first professional organization focused on workforce development. In addition, Tom Wilson, VP of Retail Sales at Parallel is joining as a GF Steering Committee Member.

"Through the creation and adoption of cannabis credentials aimed at empowering employees and improving their experiences, Green Flower is excited to welcome Parallel in the introduction of this marquee program," said Gil Christie, Green Flower President and Chairman of GF Institute. "Parallel's strong focus on internal employee development at all levels and their culture of continuous improvement aligns very closely with GF Institute's overall mission to promote professionalism, credibility, and equity in cannabis. This partnership will help Parallel make concrete progress toward its aspirations of being the cannabis industry's best employer by providing a sustainable work environment that emphasizes its ability to attract and retain high quality cannabis talent."

GF Institute brought leading industry experts and educational designers together in order to create the first three standardized credentials specifically designed for cannabis professionals. As a Steering Committee partner, Wilson and other cannabis leaders worked to guide, advise, and approve the curriculum as a whole to promote higher product standards, better customer experiences, and important consumer safeguards for one of the fastest-growing industries.

"While looking for the best cannabis industry education program, it was clear that Green Flower is the right partner for Parallel, as they share our employee-focus through continuous education and career development," said Tom Wilson, VP of Retail Sales at Parallel. "With over 70% of our new roles filled by internal employees, the GFI program helps to solidify Parallel's position as a premier leading expert in cannabinoids as well as ensure we continue building qualified cannabis leaders so we can consistently provide exceptional customer service in their pursuit of well-being."

The standardized certificates available for cannabis brands at launch are targeted at the three most prevalent, plant-touching roles in the industry today:

The Dispensary Associate Certificate (DAC)

The Cultivation Technician Certificate (CTC)

The Manufacturing Agent Certificate (MAC)

Any organization that adopts the GF Institute credentials before the end of 2021 will become Founding Members of GF Institute. Interested brands or executives may find more information and submit a membership application at www.gfinstitute.org.

About Green Flower:

Founded in 2014, Green Flower is the industry leader in cannabis education, empowering thousands of consumers, regulators, and professionals with the knowledge they need to succeed in the emerging cannabis industry today.

Green Flower's content and technology platform powers the cannabis programs of top universities and colleges across the country, provides customized learning and compliance solutions for cannabis businesses of all sizes, and equips individuals with the skills and credentials necessary to make an impact in the modern cannabis industry.

About Parallel:

Parallel is one of the largest privately-held, vertically integrated, multi-state cannabis companies in the United States with a mission to pioneer well-being and improve the quality of life through cannabinoids. Parallel has ongoing operations in four medical and adult-use markets under the retail brands of Surterra Wellness in Florida; New England Treatment Access (NETA) in Massachusetts; goodblend in Texas; and goodblend Pennsylvania. For more information visit www.liveparallel.com .

Contact: Adam Summers

e: [email protected] p: 708.223.2336

SOURCE Green Flower

Related Links

http://www.green-flower.com


NEW YORK, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Haute Pursuit, a luxury fashion shopping assistant that connects to your browser, announced its expansion into mobile with the release of Apple iOS15, on September 20.

Haute Pursuit identifies when a user is shopping and searches its database of online retailers for discounts of up to 80%. The extension is the first mobile shopping assistant that doesn't rely on discount codes or cashback, which both offer limited savings.

The iOS 15 update, which enables browser extensions, will change the landscape of mobile shopping. The Haute Pursuit browser extension eliminates the need to jump between apps and browser windows in an attempt to find the best price.

"I have spent over a decade shopping online sales and sharing deals," says Hayley Corwick, Haute Pursuit co-founder and the creator of the shopping blog, Madison Avenue Spy. "Haute Pursuit arms shoppers with the tools to feel confident about their purchases and the ability to harness this technology for mobile puts the power in the consumer's hands."

Haute Pursuit has relationships with over 30,000 online retailers who offer their merchandise at substantial discounts. After downloading the extension, users will automatically have the best deal delivered, right on their screen, as they shop.

"We have saved a substantial amount of money for thousands of beta users," said James LaPorte, co-founder of Haute Pursuit," Our number one request was to expand to mobile, and we're thrilled to be able to deliver Haute Pursuit to all iOS 15 devices at launch."

About Haute Pursuit

Haute Pursuit is a web and mobile browser extension that enables you to find the best price while you're shopping, automatically. The extension is available on Chrome, Firefox, and Safari.

Contact

[email protected]

www.hautepursuit.co

SOURCE Haute Pursuit

Related Links

https://www.hautepursuit.co/


LONDON, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The head of Dublin based start-up Coroflo has been named twice in the Business Worldwide Magazine 2021 CEO Awards.

The Awards seek to name and celebrate the most respected C-level executives across the globe, from a variety of different sectors. Instead of focusing on the company as a whole, here the emphasis is on the leaders at their helm, using their stories to inspire others to achieve similar successes. Rosanne Longmore won two categories: 'Growth Strategy CEO of the Year - Ireland' & 'Start-up CEO of the Year - Ireland'

Coroflo combines microtechnology and innovative medical research to improve the lives of mothers and babies. Coro measures breast milk volume so mothers can know exactly how much milk their baby is getting, addressing one of the main reasons women stop breastfeeding sooner than planned: concern regarding low supply.

Scientific research continues to show the significant benefits of breastfeeding. Studies show that breastfed babies have fewer infections and premature breastfed babies have a reduced rate of serious gastrointestinal complications, and there are many health benefits for mums too. The World Health Organization recommends that mothers breastfeed exclusively for 6 months, but globally less than 40% achieve this target.

Coro is a revolutionary product which solves the problem of understanding if babies are getting enough milk. The silicone nipple shield comes with an inbuilt microflow sensor, allowing mothers to wear it like a regular shield. As the baby feeds, the quantity of milk is measured and the data can be tracked on mum's phone via the app. Coro is the only product that can give accurate, precise, and real-time data.

Speaking to Business Worldwide Magazine, Longmore said there is much anticipation in the lead up to the product's official launch to the market in 2022: "We are proud of the support and accolades we've received so far, but for us the real goal is to get Coro into the hands of mothers who need it. We want to empower every woman who wishes to breastfeed to do so."

Detailed information on Coroflo and its revolutionary breastfeeding monitor, complete with explainer and instruction videos, and updated news, can be found on the company website https://www.coroflo.com/ .

An article on the company can be found on the Business Worldwide Magazine website: https://www.bwmonline.com/2021/08/15/coro-know-how-much-milk-your-baby-is-getting/

Further information on the individuals and companies which picked up titles in the CEO Awards 2021 can be found at https://www.bwmonline.com/ceo-awards-winners-2021/

About Business Worldwide Magazine



Business Worldwide Magazine is the leading source of business and dealmaker intelligence throughout the world. Our quarterly magazine and online news portal enables an established audience of corporate dealmakers to track the latest news, stories and developments affecting the international markets, corporate finance, business strategy and changes in legislation. This readership includes of CEO/CFO - Banks, Corporate Lawyers and Venture Capital/Private Equity Companies to name a few.

Contact

David Jones

Awards Department

E: [email protected]

W: http://www.bwmonline.com

SOURCE Business Worldwide Magazine
DUBLIN, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "High-End Synthetic Suede Market Report" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The high-end synthetic suede market is expected to reach $2,066.9 million by 2031, with a CAGR of 5.41% during the forecast period 2021-2031.

The high-end synthetic suede market is in a growing phase. The material gained prominence when ethical and environmental concerns were raised over the use of natural suede, which involves the slaughtering of animals. Since then, the use of synthetic suede has picked up, and most of the synthetic suede is being made using plastic recycled fibers; however, now, the use of bio-based materials has picked up.

High-End Synthetic Suede Industry Overview

Large-scale production of leather in the global leather industry has been a major cause of slaughtering of a number of animals such as cattle and calves, horses, and lamb, for utilizing their skin to generate leather. Moreover, leather is also largely toxic to the environment as well.

The leather tanneries that involve the use of chromium for the tanning process release poisonous metals as a waste. The continuous efforts of non-governmental organizations and environmental activists to extend knowledge about the potential hazards of leather have essentially led to the incorporation of innovative materials by the end users in their production process.

Synthetic suede is one such vital material that is made from the blends of polyester and the generation of which does not involve any form of unethical practices and toxins that might hamper the environment as well as hurt the sentiments of animal welfare associations.

Market Segmentation

High-End Synthetic Suede Market by Product

The high-end synthetic suede market has been segmented based on woven and non-woven products. Most of the key players operating in the high-end synthetic suede market are manufacturing non-woven materials. Non-woven synthetic suede is normally lighter and weaker compared with woven ones. Most of the non-woven materials are only used for single-use applications and are considered for the production of durable clothing.

High-End Synthetic Suede Market by Application

The high-end synthetic suede market has been segmented based on application automotive, fashion, furniture, and others. The demand for high-end synthetic suede across the automotive industry is rising on account of the high demand for lightweight materials to improve the fuel efficiencies of the vehicles. Various companies such as Fiat Chrysler, Daimler AG, and Porsche AG across the globe are actively adopting high-end synthetic suede in their production process.

High-End Synthetic Suede Market by Region

Europe is among the top leading regions in terms of high-end synthetic suede consumption. The country is a hub of numerous luxury vehicle manufacturers, which in turn contributes to the demand for high-end synthetic suede in the region.

Key Market Players and Competition Synopsis

The companies that are profiled in the report have been selected post undergoing in-depth interviews with experts and understanding details around companies such as product portfolios, annual revenues, market penetration, research and development initiatives, and domestic and international presence in the high-end synthetic suede market.

Key Questions Answered in the Report

For a new company looking to enter the market, which areas could it focus upon to stay ahead in the competition?

How do the existing market players function to improve their market positioning?

Which are the promising companies that have obtained financial support to develop their products and markets?

How does the supply chain function in the high-end synthetic suede market?

Which product segment is expected to witness the maximum demand growth in the high-end synthetic suede market during 2021-2031?

How should the strategies adopted by market players vary for different product segments based on the size of companies involved in each segment?

What are the key offerings of the prominent companies in the market for high-end synthetic suede?

What are the demand patterns of high-end synthetic suede across the application areas in different regions and countries during the period 2020-2031?

Market Dynamics

Market Growth Drivers

Rising Demand for High-End Synthetic Suede in Automotive Applications

Need for Replacement of Natural Suede Due to Environmental and Ethical Concerns

Rising Consumer Preferences for Synthetic Suede

Market Challenges

High Demand for Natural Leather

Issues Concerning the Use of Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) and Polyurethane (PU)

Market Opportunities

Opportunities Across Different End-User Industries

Growth of Emerging Economies

Companies Mentioned

American Silk Mills

Asahi Kasei Corporation

Ecolorica Microfiber SRL

Ji'an Sanling Microfiber Co., Ltd.

Kolon Industries, Inc.

Majilite Inc.

Nevotex AB

Rishabh Velveleen Ltd.

Seiren Co., Ltd.

Tapis Corp.

The Mitchell Group

Toray Industries, Inc.

WINIW International Co., Ltd.

Zhejiang Meisheng New Material Co., Ltd.

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/17b51t

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]

For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900

U.S. Fax: 646-607-1904

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

SOURCE Research and Markets

Related Links

http://www.researchandmarkets.com


CHICAGO, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Hightower, a $101 billion wealth management firm, has been honored in multiple categories of ThinkAdvisor's LUMINARIES Class of 2021, a new program that recognizes top-performing industry participants that are producing meaningful results in the areas that matter most to advisors.

For the category 'Dealmaking & Growth,' Hightower received three accolades: for the firm itself, for Chief Growth Officer Scott Holsopple and for Digital Storyboards, which the M&A team uses to prospect for new RIAs. The Hightower Center for Leadership (HTCL), a two-year education and training certificate program designed to empower and engage the next generation of Hightower advisory businesses leaders, was recognized for 'Thought Leadership for RIAs.'

The LUMINARIES program honors firms and individuals in the wealth management space that are driving the wealth, investment and retirement industry forward. Members of the Class of 2021 LUMINARIES were selected by a distinguished and diverse panel of judges from across the advice industry, as well as ThinkAdvisor's editorial team.

"I am elated to see Hightower and Scott Holsopple recognized among this prominent group of industry leaders in this year's LUMINARIES class of 2021," said Bob Oros, chairman and CEO of Hightower. "Our team's commitment to supporting advisor education has had a significant impact on organic growth for our advisory businesses. On the inorganic side, I couldn't be prouder of Scott Holsopple's leadership in driving acquisitions of high-quality RIAs for the firm. Congrats to our entire team!"

Mr. Holsopple oversees Hightower's M&A, Integration Management, Advisor Engagement and Marketing teams  with a key focus on M&A deals. Over the past 2.5 years, Hightower has nearly doubled its AUM, following 18 acquisitions and strong organic growth. In August of 2021, Hightower surpassed $100 billion in AUM. The firm now has 116 advisory businesses in 34 states and the District of Columbia.

The Hightower Center for Leadership is just one of the innovative programs that the firm has built out; others include an Organic Growth Series and a schedule of roundtables  all focused on the next generation of advisors and clients. Hightower believes investing in firms goes far beyond dollars and cents, and it has been actively engaged in creating programs for G2 (and sometimes G3!) to leverage.

"Hightower's ability to help advisors drive organic growth has played a key role in attracting new advisory businesses to the firm," said Scott Holsopple, Hightower chief growth officer. "It's an honor to be recognized as we continue to innovate new value-added services that help accelerate business development and client acquisition. Our deal-making success would not be possible without the collaboration with Hightower's executive team, advisor service professionals and the entire Hightower community."

Earlier this year, Aite Group awarded Hightower its 'Digital Wealth Management Impact Innovation Award' for Engage, Hightower's digital marketing platform for advisors; last week, both Mr. Holsopple and the Hightower Center for Leadership were awarded "Wealthies" at the wealthmanagement.com awards.

To see the full list of the 2021 LUMINARIES Class, visit: https://www.thinkadvisor.com/2021/08/16/meet-the-luminaries-class-of-2021/

About Hightower

Hightower is a wealth management firm that provides investment, financial and retirement planning services to individuals, foundations and family offices, as well as 401(k) consulting and cash management services to corporations. Hightower's capital solutions, operational support services, size and scale empower its vibrant community of independent-minded wealth advisors to grow their businesses and help their clients achieve their vision of "well-th. rebalanced." Based in Chicago with advisors across the U.S., the firm operates as a registered investment advisor (RIA). Learn more about Hightower's collaborative business model at www.hightoweradvisors.com.

Securities offered through Hightower Securities, LLC member FINRA/SIPC. Hightower Advisors, LLC is a SEC registered investment advisor.

Media Contact:

Patty Buchanan

JConnelly

(973) 567-9415

[email protected]

SOURCE Hightower

Related Links

http://www.hightoweradvisors.com


DENVER, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Caregivers hold down full-time jobs and juggle tasks to help aging parents that add another 20 hours or more each week into busy schedules. Add to these numbers, millions of adults who help parents and don't realize they are acting in the role of a "caregiver."

Being a Caregiver Takes a Personal Toll

Support Caring for Aging Parents Pamela D Wilson

Caregiving's toll on career, personal health, finances, family relationships, and marriage is significant and underreported. According to Pamela D Wilson, a national caregiving expert,

"Many caregivers keep going and wait to seek help until family care situations reach a crisis. Education for caregivers is lacking about the many considerations and importance of making a plan for the care of parents before options become limited by health and other constraints."

Caregiver Support is Lacking in the Workplace

This growing number of caregivers makes it challenging for human resource managers to identify and offer support programs for employees caring for aging parents. HR family care benefits typically focus on child care and related programs. Programs providing education and support for caring for aging parents are less common.

How Does Becoming a Caregiver Happen?

The phone rings at midnight. Adult children find themselves flying across the country to rush to the rescue of elderly parents experiencing a heart attack, stroke, or hip fracture.

In other cases, children helping out with errands or grocery shopping soon find themselves coordinating medical care and attending doctor appointments. The complexities of caring for elderly parents can feel overwhelming for caregivers who worry about what might happen next.

What Support Do Caregivers Need?

Caregivers burning the candle at both ends struggle to succeed at remaining employed and trying to help elderly parents. Busy caregivers lack time to identify trustworthy resources and information.

The needs of caregivers vary by the situation and focus on three primary concerns: who will provide care, where will care be provided, and who will pay for care. Secondarily navigating the healthcare system, managing hospitalizations, investigating care communities, in-home care support programs, and becoming aware of related services are other areas of beneficial support.

Wilson creates programs for family caregivers, groups, and corporations that address topics raised in employee surveys or other avenues of communication. Her down-to-earth style places audiences at ease when discussing very personal and emotional situations.

Pamela D Wilson Offers Unique Experience and Proven Advice for Caregivers

Wilson's experience providing direct care in the roles of geriatric care manager, medical and financial power of attorney, court-appointed guardian, trustee, and the personal representative of the estate for more than twenty years places her in a unique position as an advocate, eldercare consultant, and educator. She can discuss and respond to questions about all aspects of caregiving including family dynamics, care refusals by parents, care costs, care communities, medical concerns of the elderly, managing care providers, dementia, legal planning, and end of life care.

More about Wilson's online webinar courses, individual elder care consultations, caregiver speaking engagements on-site and virtual, and brand collaborations are on her website www.pameladwilson.com. Pamela may be contacted at +1 303-810-1816 or through the contact Me page on her website.

Media Contact:

Pamela Wilson

303-810-1816

[email protected]

SOURCE Pamela D Wilson, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.pameladwilson.com


https://en.sigep.it

RIMINI, Italy, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Sigep is evolving. A rebranding action for Italian Exhibition Group's exhibition that reflects the aspirations of Italian dessert-and-coffee foodservice supply chains around the world. Nowadays, product quality and new sales channels are encountering a widespread need for gratifying experiences, which Italian style dolce products intercept in the artisan gelato, pastry, chocolate, bakery and coffee event's five sectors.

A transformation already noted last March at the fully digital edition of Sigep Exp and now tangible, as the preview of the 2022 edition of IEG's exhibition (22-26 January, Rimini Expo Centre), at which the new logo and mission were presented, highlighted this morning.

Sigep becomes "The Dolce World Expo" in a world that demands more attention to taste and the Italian way of interpreting dolce. A more marked international attitude and new visual identity confirm its commitment as a business and constant professional growth platform. An evolution within a market that is showing positive signs. According to the NPD Group survey presented this morning by Foodservice Italia director Matteo Figura, two of Sigep's five sectors, artisan gelato and pastry, increased globally in the first half of 2021.

In fact, gelato consumption trend (compared to 2019) figures were: Italy +0.4%, Germany and Spain +0.7%, UK and USA +0.2%, Canada +1.2%, Japan +0.2%. In terms of 2021 pastry consumption, again compared to 2019: Italy -0.3%, Spain -0.2%, France +1.7%, Germany +1.3%, USA +0.1%, Canada +0.6%. In the Far East, China's consumption stood at +0.8%. Instead, coffee consumption figures, still suffering from a drop in custom from business and tourism, were: Italy -0.5%, Spain -0.4%, USA -0.5% Canada -0.9%, while China remained the same and Japan showed a +0.4% increase.

We never stopped believing that Sigep could offer a moment to restart and relaunch the dolce foodservice market in Italy and for Made in Italy. During these difficult months, our stakeholders and exhibitors have been exceptional motivators, said Italian Exhibition Group President, Lorenzo Cagnoni.

The time was ripe to update the Sigep logo with the classic features of Italian style. Sigep celebrates dolce with a deeply Italian spirit of warmth, closeness and creative flair. It unveils innovations and shares the tools to interpret market changes, said Corrado Peraboni, CEO of Italian Exhibition Group.

Today's meeting is also an opportunity to look at our export numbers and evaluate the restart as a driver of the Italian economy, said Carlo Ferro, President of ITA - Italian Trade Agency. In the first half of the year, exports grew by 24.2% on the previous year and by 4.1% on the first half of 2019, levels already higher than before Covid. This is true for all the show's supply chains, with January to May exports of gelato up by 33%, chocolate by 14.4%, coffee by 10.6% and pastry products by 17.6%.

The event will take place in total safety, thanks to adopting the #SAFEBUSINESS by IEG, GBAC STAR protocol, and with the asset of SAFE TRAVEL with IEG.

Italian Exhibition Group Press Contacts

Press Office Manager:

Marco Forcellini

[email protected]



International Press Office Coordinator:

Silvia Giorgi

[email protected]

+39-0541-744814

SOURCE Italian Exhibition Group
PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- A year after the signing of the Abraham Accordsa declaration recognizing the importance of strengthening peace around the worldleaders and clinicians from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) recently welcomed His Excellency Abdalla Shaheen, the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E) Consul General in New York, and Israel Nitzin, Israel Acting Consul General in New York, for a meeting to share knowledge and research with pediatric experts from CHOP, the U.A.E. and Israel. The cross-cultural exchange supported deep collaboration around opportunities to benefit pediatric healthcare globally.

"The interfaith and intercultural dialogue supported by the Abraham Accords has given Israel, the U.A.E. and the U.S. a unique opportunity to cooperate across many shared interests, including healthcare," said Madeline Bell, President and Chief Executive Officer at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. "CHOP is honored to be a part of these discussions to advance pediatric care and benefit our communities through shared knowledge and discovery. The collaborative spirit for peace and prosperity is truly applicable to our mission of improving children's healthcare worldwide."

Bell was joined at the meeting by Ruth Frey, MSN, Vice President of Global Strategy and Business Development at CHOP, Jack Rychik, MD, Associate Chief of Cardiology and Medical Director of the Fetal Heart Program at CHOP, and virtually by Efrat Bron-Harlev, MD, Chief Executive Officer, Schneider's Children's Hospital in Israel. Representatives from the Department of Health-Abu Dhabi and the Abu Dhabi Health Services Company (SEHA) also participated in the event.

"The exchange of training, best medical practices, innovation and research are the key elements to the proposed collaboration," said Dr. Rychik. "CHOP is pleased to establish partnerships with healthcare institutions in these countries, and we look forward to discussing how we can work closely together in the future."

During this trip, His Excellency Shaheen met with leadership from CHOP, as well as Penn Medicine, and visited Emirati patients who have turned to CHOP for world-class care. The dignitaries toured CHOP's Fetal Heart Program and the Garbose Family Special Delivery Unit, where they met Julie Moldenhauer, MD, Medical Director of the Garbose Family Special Delivery Unit and Director of Obstetrical Services in the Richard D. Wood Center for Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment at CHOP. Seeing both programs allowed the visitors to learn more about how CHOP provides world-class international patient care across the hospital. His Excellency Shaheen also met with an Emirati resident physician at CHOP.

"The U.A.E.'s relationship with CHOP is extensive, and the door for further collaboration is always open," said His Excellency Shaheen.

In April 2018, CHOP and the U.A.E. entered into a Medical Services Agreement to provide expert medical care for children in the U.A.E., formally documenting their long-standing alliance. CHOP is pursuing collaborative efforts as well with Israel, including one with Schneider Children's Hospital in Tel Aviv.

About Children's Hospital of Philadelphia: Children's Hospital of Philadelphia was founded in 1855 as the nation's first pediatric hospital. Through its long-standing commitment to providing exceptional patient care, training new generations of pediatric healthcare professionals, and pioneering major research initiatives, Children's Hospital has fostered many discoveries that have benefited children worldwide. Its pediatric research program is among the largest in the country. In addition, its unique family-centered care and public service programs have brought the 595-bed hospital recognition as a leading advocate for children and adolescents. For more information, visit http://www.chop.edu

Contact: Joey McCool Ryan

(267) 258-6735

[email protected]

SOURCE Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

Related Links

http://www.chop.edu


BANGALORE, India, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Industrial Automation Market is Segmented by Type (Computer Numerical Control (CNC) Routers, Machine Vision Systems, Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES), Plant Asset Management, Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), Programmable Logic Control Systems (PLC), Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA), Others), by Application (Automotive and Transportation, Chemical, Energy and Power System, Food, Environment and Building Technologies, Oil and Gas, Others). The report covers global opportunity analysis and industry forecasts from 2021 to 2027. It is published in Valuates Reports under Industrial Materials & Equipment Category.

The global Industrial Automation market size is projected to reach USD 212410 Million by 2027, from USD 130710 Million in 2020, at a CAGR of 6.7% during the forecast period 2021-2027.

Major Driving Factors

The increasing adoption of Industry 4.0 and the advent of 5G wireless technology is propelling the Industrial Automation market.

Need to eliminate human error and reduce cost is expected to drive the growth of the Industrial Automation market. These systems are effective in eliminating human error and thus improving the quality and homogeneity of the products delivered by using adaptive control and monitoring in various stages of industrial processes.

Although the initial investment in industrial automation systems may be significant, the technology's implementation will result in lower data analytics costs. Furthermore, the danger of machine failure and service outages is kept to a minimum thanks to this automatic data analysis. Thus the cost-saving feature is expected to drive the Industrial Automation market.

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TRENDS INFLUENCING THE GROWTH OF INDUSTRIAL AUTOMATION MARKET

Workers in a plant with an industrial automation system work fewer hours and spend more time on jobs with a high value-added. Employees are freed from having to conduct tiresome and routine tasks thanks to automation technology. These systems are effective in eliminating human error and thus improving the quality and homogeneity of the products delivered by using adaptive control and monitoring in various stages of industrial processes. Furthermore, using robots on production lines with hazardous working conditions for humans is safer. Such advantages are expected to increase the adoption and theory by driving the industrial automation market growth.

The increasing need for maintaining the industrial assets streamlines activities and improves plant asset capacities is expected to drive the industrial automation market. Plant Asset Management uses a combination of software, smart instrumentation, and Fieldbus communications to continuously monitor the critical plant assets, reducing the risk of failures while increasing equipment availability.

Government Initiatives and Supportive Policies are expected to drive the growth of the industrial automation market. For the digitization of their respective manufacturing sectors, governments in Europe and Asia-Pacific are pushing the adoption of industrial automation technologies and systems, this, in turn, is expected to drive the growth of the market.

Browse the Table of Contents and List of figures at: https://reports.valuates.com/reports/QYRE-Auto-3L6898/global-industrial-automation

INDUSTRIAL AUTOMATION MARKET SHARE ANALYSIS

The plant Asset Management (PAM) segment is expected to be the most lucrative segment during the forecast period. The rising deployment of PAM systems in process and discrete sectors to construct a comprehensive data repository connected to varied equipment deployed in these plants, from uptime performance to life cycle cost assessment, might be attributed to the rise of this segment.

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Major Players in the Global Industrial Automation Industry

ABB

Adept

Bosch

Emerson Electric

FANUC

General Electric

Honeywell

Kuka

Mitsubishi Electric

Rockwell

Schneider Electric

Toshiba

Voith

Yaskawa Electric

Yokogawa Electric

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SIMILAR REPORTS

- The global Industrial Controls and Factory Automation market size is projected to reach USD 208150 Million by 2027, from USD 128090 Million in 2020, at a CAGR of 7.2% during 2021-2027.

- The global Process Automation market size is projected to reach USD 12080 Million by 2027, from USD 6480 Million in 2020, at a CAGR of 9.2% during 2021-2027.

- The global SCADA market size is projected to reach USD 15710 Million by 2027, from USD 10230 Million in 2020, at a CAGR of 6.3% during 2021-2027

- The global Human Machine Interface (HMI) market size is projected to reach USD 5674.8 Million by 2027, from USD 3369.8 Million in 2020, at a CAGR of 7.6% during 2021-2027.

- The global Factory Automation market size is expected to reach USD 368,372.4 Million in 2025, from USD 190,882.2 Million in 2017 growing at a CAGR of 8.8% from 2018 to 2025.

- The global Industrial Services market size is projected to reach USD 32300 Million by 2027, from USD 23860 Million in 2020, at a CAGR of 4.4% during 2021-2027.

- The global Industrial Controls System market size is projected to reach USD 77990 Million by 2027, from USD 62430 Million in 2020, at a CAGR of 2.8% during 2021-2027.

- The global Industrial Control Systems Security market size is projected to reach USD 15120 Million by 2027, from USD 10560 Million in 2020, at a CAGR of 5.2% during 2021-2027.

- The global Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) market was valued at USD 12955.23 Million in 2020 and will reach USD 18923.18 Million by the end of 2027, growing at a CAGR of 5.71% during 2021-2027.

- In 2020, the global Distributed Control System (DCS) market size was USD 22140 Million and it is expected to reach USD 29470 Million by the end of 2027, with a CAGR of 4.1% during 2021-2027.

- The global Industrial Automation Service market size is projected to reach USD 55090 Million by 2027, from USD 33680 Million in 2020, at a CAGR of 7.2% during 2021-2027.

- The global Feeder Automation market size is projected to reach USD 3978.3 Million by 2027, from USD 2915.8 Million in 2020, at a CAGR of 4.1% during 2021-2027.

- The global industrial valves market size is expected to reach USD 93,664.9 Million in 2028, from USD 58,547.9 Million in 2020, growing at a CAGR of 6.0% from 2021 to 2028.

- In 2020, the global Industrial Ethernet Connectors market size was USD 633.5 Million and it is expected to reach USD 1078.6 Million by the end of 2027, with a CAGR of 7.9% during 2021-2027.

- The global Industrial Cyber Security Solutions and Services market size is projected to reach USD 19850 Million by 2027, from USD 13490 Million in 2020, at a CAGR of 5.2% during 2021-2027.

- Global Industrial Wastewater Treatment Service Market Size, Status and Forecast 2021-2027

- Industrial Management and Maintenance Service Market Report 2021-2027

To see the full list of related reports on the Industrial Automation

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BENGALURU, India, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Infosys (NSE: INFY) (BSE: INFY) (NYSE: INFY), a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting, today announced a strategic collaboration with SAP, a market leader in enterprise application software, to provide Business Process Transformation-as-a-Service to enterprises.

Through this collaboration, Infosys will leverage business process intelligence (BPI) from SAP to identify opportunities and obstacles in the transformation journey and create a roadmap for clients. Infosys' BPTaaS will augment the RISE with SAP offering to reduce complexity and time to benefit as well as accelerate value realization, helping clients reimagine the customer experience - all by leveraging Infosys' portfolio of Industry Cloud solutions which are a part of Infosys Cobalt.

During SAPPHIRE NOW 2021, Infosys was announced among three partners for BPI. As part of this collaboration, Infosys will put BPI at the center of its process transformation offerings, leverage its proven accelerators and methodologies, and its innovative use cases on Live Enterprise Suite to meet the process transformation requirements for clients on an ongoing basis.

With BPTaaS, businesses can benefit from in-depth process analysis during transformation and can benchmark against industry peers to identify potential areas for improvement. They can also improve process governance by gaining better visibility in operations and identifying instances of process deviations so that corrective actions can be initiated in time. Businesses can achieve this by opting for BPTaaS thereby, outsourcing their process transformation to experts who will continuously and incrementally improve the effectiveness of their processes, driving down cost, and delivering ever-increasing value to their stakeholders.

Dinesh Rao, Executive Vice President & Global Head of Enterprise Application Services, Infosys said, "As we navigate through Cloud, BPI becomes an essential component of the transformation journey for enterprises. We are delighted to work with SAP in bringing the best-in-class offering to clients for enhancing their process efficiencies. By harnessing our Cobalt portfolio, we look forward to improving the inefficient business processes that become an impediment to enterprises' transformation journey. Given our strong relationship with SAP, we will continue to deliver value and innovative solutions to our clients."

Rouven Morato, General Manager, Business Process Intelligence, SAP commented, "The value of BPI extends beyond IT and actually impacts how businesses operate. Our blended expertise with Infosys, will enable enterprises to accelerate their digitization journey and scale their businesses globally."

About Infosys

Infosys is a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting. We enable clients in more than 50 countries to navigate their digital transformation. With over four decades of experience in managing the systems and workings of global enterprises, we expertly steer our clients through their digital journey. We do it by enabling the enterprise with an AI-powered core that helps prioritize the execution of change. We also empower the business with agile digital at scale to deliver unprecedented levels of performance and customer delight. Our always-on learning agenda drives their continuous improvement through building and transferring digital skills, expertise, and ideas from our innovation ecosystem.

Visit www.infosys.com to see how Infosys (NSE: INFY) (BSE: INFY) (NYSE: INFY) can help your enterprise navigate your next.

Safe Harbor

Certain statements in this release concerning our future growth prospects, financial expectations and plans for navigating the COVID-19 impact on our employees, clients and stakeholders are forward-looking statements intended to qualify for the 'safe harbor' under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding COVID-19 and the effects of government and other measures seeking to contain its spread, risks related to an economic downturn or recession in India, the United States and other countries around the world, changes in political, business, and economic conditions, fluctuations in earnings, fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, our ability to manage growth, intense competition in IT services including those factors which may affect our cost advantage, wage increases in India, our ability to attract and retain highly skilled professionals, time and cost overruns on fixed-price, fixed-time frame contracts, client concentration, restrictions on immigration, industry segment concentration, our ability to manage our international operations, reduced demand for technology in our key focus areas, disruptions in telecommunication networks or system failures, our ability to successfully complete and integrate potential acquisitions, liability for damages on our service contracts, the success of the companies in which Infosys has made strategic investments, withdrawal or expiration of governmental fiscal incentives, political instability and regional conflicts, legal restrictions on raising capital or acquiring companies outside India, unauthorized use of our intellectual property and general economic conditions affecting our industry and the outcome of pending litigation and government investigation. Additional risks that could affect our future operating results are more fully described in our United States Securities and Exchange Commission filings including our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2021. These filings are available at www.sec.gov. Infosys may, from time to time, make additional written and oral forward-looking statements, including statements contained in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that may be made from time to time by or on behalf of the Company unless it is required by law.

SOURCE Infosys
DUBLIN, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Advanced Dermatology Drug Delivery Devices Market: Focus on Product Type, Volume Sold, Analysis and Forecast 2021-2030" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global advanced dermatology drug delivery devices market report highlights that the market was valued at $3,348.9 million in 2020 and is expected to reach $8,783.0 million by the end of 2030. The market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 10.52% during the forecast period from 2021 to 2030.

Key Questions Answered in the Global Advanced Dermatology Drug Delivery Devices Market Report

What is the volume sold for each of the key product types in the market?

What are some of the features of the products available in the market or in the pipeline?

What are the key regulations governing the global advanced dermatology drug delivery devices market?

What are the key technological developments expected to have a strong impact on the market in the coming years?

How has the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the growth of the global advanced dermatology drug delivery devices market?

Who are the leading players who held major share of the advanced dermatology drug delivery devices market in 2020?

How has the patent filing trend in the field of advanced dermatology drug delivery devices grown over the years?

What are the key factors that are expected to promote or restrain market growth?

What are the likely scenarios in which the global advanced dermatology drug delivery devices market can grow in the future?

What are the potential scenarios and effects of COVID-19 recovery for the advanced dermatology drug delivery devices market?

What is the most common sales channel, and how likely is it to dominate the market during the forecast period 2021-2030?

What is the current revenue contribution of different product types, and how is it expected to be modified during the forecast period?

What is the current revenue contribution of different end users, and how is it expected to be modified during the forecast period?

The use of drug delivery devices to administer drugs through the skin is not a new concept and has been done using needle-and-syringe combinations for decades. Advanced dermatology drug delivery devices are based on the concept of drug delivery with added features for reduced pain, enhanced medication adherence, consumer engagement, user-friendly design, and ease of administration. These devices include injectors, patches, airless dispensers and bottles, dermal pumps, valves, and add-on devices for safety and enhanced connectivity.

The market currently is dominated by needle-and-syringe combination products, which is almost universally disliked, accounts for a large chunk of the market. Most of the advanced drug delivery devices aim to capture some of that share with at least one of the features mentioned previously. The primary driving factors that are expected to boost the growth of the market include the push for connected devices, increasing number of business synergies among drug delivery device manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies leading to the launch of new combination products in the market, the growing focus on prescription/medication/patient adherence, and innovative technologies in drug delivery such as microneedle patches. The key effort to bridge the gap in demand for connected devices is to increase the awareness for such products in emerging countries.

Global Advanced Dermatology Drug Delivery Devices Market Drivers

Presently, the factors driving the growth of the market as per the global advanced dermatology drug delivery devices market report include the global push for connected devices, increasing number of business synergies with pharmaceutical companies, novel technologies in drug delivery, and growing focus on prescription adherence.

As technology continues to evolve, sensors and connectivity are becoming essential elements in drug delivery. Connected devices are expected to be increasingly used for customized disease management. The market acceptance for connected devices is growing, mainly fueled by the overall increase in the adoption of connected devices and patient monitoring amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Going forward, drug delivery devices are expected to comprise features that promote adherence. With evolving technologies, key players in the market are expected to integrate their offerings with connectivity features through apps. The growing focus on patient convenience is increasingly driving these technological advancements in the case of drug delivery.

Global Advanced Dermatology Drug Delivery Devices Market Challenges

The challenges that are restricting the growth of the market include stringent regulations and concerns around data privacy, and the lack of awareness of advanced dermatology drug delivery devices among a large section of the population in emerging countries.

The concept of connected healthcare is revolutionary. However, it also adds to data privacy concerns. Similar to all connected devices, networked medical devices are prone to security breaches. In terms of product launches, the market has registered a high rate of innovation during 2015-2020. In addition, the concept of connected medical devices is a relatively new concept and needs more time to gain acceptance among the masses, especially in emerging countries.

Global Advanced Dermatology Drug Delivery Devices Market Opportunities

Potential opportunities that are likely to boost the growth of the market include developing a customized apps marketplace for pharma companies, leveraging synergies to expand into emerging markets, and developing low-cost devices to improve sales in price-sensitive markets.

A number of synergies between the manufacturers of advanced dermatology drug delivery devices and third-party software developers/cloud-service providers are expected to act as a catalyst for the development of the customized apps marketplace. Emerging markets present lucrative opportunities for the growth in the adoption of advanced dermatology drug delivery devices. In addition, manufacturers of advanced dermatology drug delivery devices are expected to benefit by marketing similar low-cost devices specifically for low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) to maximize their profits.

Key Market Players and Competition Synopsis

Some of the key players operating in the market include AptarGroup, Inc., Becton, Dickinson and Company, Bespak, Credence MedSystems, Inc., E3D Elcam Drug Delivery Devices, Kindeva Drug Delivery L.P., Latch Medical, LTS Lohmann Therapie-Systeme AG, Medicsensors S.L, Midas Pharma GmbH, Nemera, Owen Mumford, Portal Instruments, Inc., Vaxxas Inc., and West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc.

The global advanced dermatology drug delivery devices market has witnessed several strategic and technological developments in the past few years undertaken by the different market players to attain their respective market shares in this emerging domain. Some of the strategies covered in this segment are funding activities, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), partnerships, alliances, and business expansion, regulatory and legal activities, and new offerings. The preferred strategy for companies has been business synergies followed by funding activities.

Key Topics Covered:

1 Product Definition

2 Scope of Research

3 Research Methodology

4 Industry Analysis

4.1 Technology Landscape

4.2 Supply Chain Analysis

4.3 Funding Scenario

4.4 Regulatory Framework and Government Initiatives

4.5 Patent Analysis

5 Impact of COVID-19 on Global Advanced Dermatology Drug Delivery Devices Market

5.1 Impact on Dermatology Practices

5.2 Impact on the Adoption of Advanced Dermatology Drug Delivery Devices

5.3 Impact on Market Size

5.4 Impact of COVID-19 on Global Advanced Dermatology Drug Delivery Devices Market

5.4.1 Short-Term Impact (2-4 Years)

5.4.2 Mid-Term Impact (5-10 Years)

5.4.3 Long-Term Impact (8-12 Years)

5.5 Entry Barriers and Opportunities

6 Competitive Landscape

6.1 Market Share Analysis

6.2 Key Strategies and Developments

6.2.1 Funding Activities

6.2.2 Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A)

6.2.3 Partnerships, Alliances, and Business Expansions

6.2.4 Regulatory and Legal Activities

6.2.5 New Offerings

6.3 Business Model Analysis

6.4 Pricing Analysis

7 Global Advanced Dermatology Drug Delivery Devices Market Scenario

7.1 Assumptions and Limitations

7.2 Key Findings and Opportunity Assessment

7.3 Global Advanced Dermatology Drug Delivery Devices Market Size and Forecast

7.3.1 Realistic Growth Scenario

7.3.2 Pessimistic/Conservative Growth Scenario

7.3.3 Optimistic Growth Scenario

7.4 Market Dynamics

7.4.1 Impact Analysis

7.4.2 Market Growth Promoting Factors

7.4.2.1 Global Preference for Connected Devices

7.4.2.2 Increasing Number of Business Synergies with Pharmaceutical Companies

7.4.2.3 Novel Technologies in Drug Delivery

7.4.2.4 Growing Focus on Prescription Adherence

7.4.3 Market Growth Restraining Factors

7.4.3.1 Stringent Regulations and Concerns Around Data Privacy

7.4.3.2 Lack of Awareness Among a Large Section of the Population in Emerging Countries

7.4.4 Market Growth Opportunities

7.4.4.1 Development of a Customized Apps Marketplace for Pharma Companies

7.4.4.2 Leveraging Synergies to Expand into Emerging Markets

7.4.4.3 Developing Low-Cost Devices to Improve Sales in Price-Sensitive Markets

8 Global Advanced Dermatology Drug Delivery Devices Market (by Product Type)

8.1 Opportunity Assessment

8.2 Growth Share Matrix

8.3 Hardware

9 Global Advanced Dermatology Drug Delivery Devices Market (by Sales Channel)

9.1 Opportunity Assessment

9.2 B2B Sales Channel

9.3 B2C Sales Channel

10 Global Advanced Dermatology Drug Delivery Devices Market (by End User)

10.1 Opportunity Assessment

10.2 Hospitals

10.3 Dermatology Practices

10.4 Home Use

11 Global Advanced Dermatology Drug Delivery Devices Market (by Region)

12 Company Profiles

12.1 AptarGroup, Inc.

12.1.1 Company Overview

12.1.2 Role of AptarGroup, Inc. in the Global Advanced Dermatology Drug Delivery Devices Market

12.1.3 Product Portfolio

12.1.3.1 Volume of Bottles Sold

12.1.3.1.1 Less than 50 ml

12.1.3.1.2 50ml-100ml

12.1.3.1.3 100ml-150ml

12.1.3.1.4 More than 150ml

12.1.4 Financials

12.1.5 Research and Development (R&D) Insights

12.1.6 Recent Developments

12.1.7 SWOT Analysis

12.2 Becton, Dickinson and Company

12.3 Bespak

12.4 Credence MedSystems, Inc.

12.5 E3D Elcam Drug Delivery Devices

12.6 Kindeva Drug Delivery L.P.

12.7 Latch Medical

12.8 LTS Lohmann Therapie-Systeme AG

12.9 Medicsensors S.L

12.10 Midas Pharma GmbH

12.11 Nemera

12.12 Owen Mumford

12.13 Portal Instruments, Inc.

12.14 Vaxxas Inc.

12.15 West Pharmaceutical Services, Inc.

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/6qxleg

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



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BANGALORE, India, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Intraocular Lens (IOL) Market is Segmented by Type (Non-foldable lenses, Foldable Intraocular Lens), by Application (Public hospitals, Private hospitals). The report covers global opportunity analysis and industry forecasts from 2021 to 2027. It is published in Valuates Reports under Vision Care Category.

In 2020, the global Intraocular Lens (IOL) market size was USD 3820 Million and it is expected to reach USD 5411.3 Million by the end of 2027, with a CAGR of 5.1% during the forecast period 2021-2027.

The major factor driving the growth of the intraocular lens market are:

The rapid growth of the geriatric population and associated eye disorders, rising prevalence of eye diseases and diabetes in the global population, technological advancements in intraocular lenses, and increasing government initiatives to control and treat blindness caused by cataracts are all factors driving the Intraocular Lens market.

The market's growth is aided by an increase in the usage of premium lenses, which provide benefits such as improved visual performance and reduced astigmatism.

Get your sample today: https://reports.valuates.com/request/sample/QYRE-Auto-16X2438/Global_Intraocular_Lens_IOL_Market

TRENDS INFLUENCING THE GROWTH OF THE INTRAOCULAR LENS MARKET

The increasing number of cataract surgery along with the rise in the geriatric population is expected to drive the growth of the Intraocular Lens market. Intraocular lenses (IOLs) are medical implants that are placed inside the eye to replace the natural lens when cataract surgery removes it. IOLs are also utilized in refractive lens exchange surgery, which is a type of vision correction surgery.

The cataract is a major concern worldwide, according to the World Health Organization, and is currently the primary cause of blindness. The global need for intraocular lenses has increased as the prevalence of cataracts has increased. According to the Vision Council, 76.2 percent of adults in the United States had vision correction surgery in 2015, and 22.1 percent of respondents stated that they needed vision correction. These elements contribute to the Intraocular Lens market's expansion.

Government initiatives to eliminate cataract are expected to further boost the intraocular lens market. For example, vision 2020 is one such global initiative launched by the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB), with the aim to eliminate the main causes of avoidable blindness from the world. Similarly, In 2011, the Lions Clubs International Foundation (LCIF), in collaboration with the People's Republic of China, launched a new phase of their SightFirst China Action (SFCA) campaign in China, with the goal of preventing blindness. Since its inception in 1997, the foundation has invested more than $30.8 Million in more than 5 Million cataract procedures and the upgrade of more than 300 eye care facilities. Furthermore, the Chinese government contributed almost $200 Million to their campaign.

However, unfavorable reimbursement scenarios for premium lens and postoperative complications such as refractive errors are expected to impede the market growth.

Browse the Table of Contents and List of figures at: https://reports.valuates.com/reports/QYRE-Auto-16X2438/covid-19-impact-on-global-intraocular-lens-iol

INTRAOCULAR LENS MARKET SHARE ANALYSIS

North America and Europe are the two largest markets, accounting for around 80% of the global market. The most common form is the foldable intraocular lens, which accounts for around 95% of the market. The most common uses are public and private hospitals.

Based on type, the Foldable intraocular lens has the highest percentage of sales by type, with more than 94% in 2019.

According to the application, the consumption ratio of private hospitals is the highest, reaching 67.28% in 2019.

Report Customization Request: https://reports.valuates.com/request/customisation/QYRE-Auto-16X2438/Global_Intraocular_Lens_IOL_Market

TOP COMPANIES IN THE INTRAOCULAR LENS MARKET:

Companies are focusing on surgical advancements for ophthalmic disorders at reasonable costs. Major manufacturers of intraocular lenses are investing in mergers and acquisitions, in order to expand revenue share and diversify product portfolios. Thus, the growing focus of companies in emerging countries and the gradual shift toward new technologies are offering significant growth opportunities for the players in the market.

The major players in the global Intraocular Lens (IOL) market include ALCON, AMO(Abbott), Bausch + Lomb, etc. The top 3 players occupy about 65% shares of the global market.

ALCON

AMO(Abbott)

Bausch + Lomb

HOYA

CARL Zeiss

Ophtec

Rayner

STAAR

Lenstec

HumanOptics

Biotech Visioncare

Omni Lens Pvt Ltd

Aurolab

SAV-IOL

Eagle Optics

SIFI Medtech

Physiol

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SIMILAR REPORTS

- The global Contact Lenses market size is projected to reach USD 12660 Million by 2026, from USD 9658.9 Million in 2019, at a CAGR of 4.6% during 2021-2026

- In 2020, the global Industrial Lenses market size was USD 556.6 Million and it is expected to reach USD 971.6 Million by the end of 2027, with a CAGR of 8.3% during 2021-2027.

- In 2020, the global UV Objective Lenses market size was USD 254.9 Million and it is expected to reach USD 409.5 Million by the end of 2027, with a CAGR of 7.0% during 2021-2027.

- In 2020, the global Single Vision Lenses market size was USD 6820.1 Million and it is expected to reach USD 6868.1 Million by the end of 2027, with a CAGR of 0.1% during 2021-2027.

- In 2020, the global Myopia Control Lenses (Children & Teenagers) market size was USD 547.5 Million and it is expected to reach USD 3050.1 Million by the end of 2027, with a CAGR of 27.8% during 2021-2027.

- In 2020, the global Opthalmic Lenses market size was USD 2473 Million and it is expected to reach USD 2584.1 Million by the end of 2027, with a CAGR of 0.6% during 2021-2027.

- In 2020, the global Telecentric Lenses market size was USD 108.5 Million and it is expected to reach USD 165.9 Million by the end of 2027, with a CAGR of 6.3% during 2021-2027.

- In 2020, the global Smart Contact Lenses market size was USD 272 Million and it is expected to reach USD 1130.6 Million by the end of 2027, with a CAGR of 24.0% during 2021-2027.

- Global Industrial Machine Vision Lenses Market Report 2021

- Global M12 Lenses (S-Mount Lenses) Market Report 2021

To see the full list of related reports on the Lens

ABOUT US:

Valuates offers in-depth market insights into various industries. Our extensive report repository is constantly updated to meet your changing industry analysis needs.

Our team of market analysts can help you select the best report covering your industry. We understand your niche region-specific requirements and that's why we offer customization of reports. With our customization in place, you can request for any particular information from a report that meets your market analysis needs.

To achieve a consistent view of the market, data is gathered from various primary and secondary sources, at each step, data triangulation methodologies are applied to reduce deviance and find a consistent view of the market. Each sample we share contains detail research methodology employed to generate the report, Please also reach to our sales team to get the complete list of our data sources

CONTACT US:

Valuates Reports

[email protected]

For U.S. Toll-Free Call +1-(315)-215-3225

For IST Call +91-8040957137

WhatsApp : +91 9945648335

Website: https://reports.valuates.com

Follow on Twitter - https://twitter.com/valuatesreports

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SOURCE Valuates Reports
NEW YORK, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Richmond & Finch, the Swedish fashion tech accessories brand, announced today the launch of its iPhone 13 Freedom case series and its Fall/Winter 2021 line-up of mobile phone accessories. The iPhone 13 Freedom cases bring high quality protection along with unique, expressive and fashionable prints to the new device. And the Fall/Winter line-up takes its cues from the wild jungle, delivering bold animal prints and statement designs to its iPhone and AirPod cases. All products will be available soon at www.richmondfinch.com/us.

Richmond & Finch iPhone 13 Case Richmond & Finch AirPod Case

Style and Protection for the iPhone 13

The Richmond & Finch Freedom case series brings unique fashion designs with military grade protection to iPhone 13 users. The dual layer design has a scratch resistant surface that is light and slim while offering supreme impact protection. Bezel edges protect the screen and camera lens, with all functions such as responsive buttons and cut-outs easily accessible at the bumper. The case has anti-microbial properties that eliminate 99% of bacteria.

Additional Features:

Comes in a wide range of fashionable prints

Military grade drop test (6.9)

Supports Wireless Charging

Compatible with 4G/5G

Scratch resistant

Responsive buttons

Anti-microbial product protection

Wrap-around protection

Fall/Winter 2021 Collection

The Richmond & Finch Fall/Winter 2021 collection of iPhone and AirPod cases draws its inspiration from the wild jungle with bold animal prints and statement designs. The new line brings a variety of colors including earthy leopard prints, deep greens, energetic amber glow red and Klein blue elements. The high-gloss finish gives the cases a luxurious feel and makes the patterns pop.

Available Products and Features:

Cases available for all iPhone 12 and 13 series phones

AirPod cases fit the Pro and regular AirPods

The Collection includes popgrips in collaboration with PopSocket and multifunctional stand and grips in collaboration with CLCKR.

Product line includes a new Richmond & Finch cross-body pouch with detachable strap that can hold a mobile phone, credit cards, AirPods and keys. Comes in a sporty, satin-finish nylon in black.

About Richmond & Finch

Richmond & Finch is a tech accessory brand from Sweden. We provide stylish, protective cases and mobile accessories, all designed to match current fashion trends. Our wide range of unique tech accessories are sold all over the world through retailers in over 50 countries.

Media Contact

Monica Rohleder

Strax Director of Public Relations

[email protected]

(847) 606-1973

Media kit available here.

SOURCE Richmond & Finch
As President and CEO, Jack will be responsible for the overall success of EMJ and the development of the company's strategic vision and goals. He will work closely with Burt Odom to establish and execute the strategic vision of the organization.

"Throughout his career, Jack has proven himself to be a strategic visionary and servant leader," said Burt Odom. "Jack has the perfect combination of knowledge, operational experience and integrity to lead EMJ forward and ensure its success for years to come."

Jack Bowen started his construction career in 1998 after graduating from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He joined EMJ Construction in 2005. With 22 years of construction experience, Jack has served in a variety of roles, from job site superintendent, vice president of construction, executive vice president of EMJ Construction Southeast, and President of EMJ Construction.

Burt Odom began his construction career in 1983 after graduating from Auburn University, where he served under EMJ founder, Edgar M. Jolley. During his 38 years of experience, he held various positions. Most notably, Burt served as the Executive Vice President of EMJ's Dallas office and the Chief Operating Officer before being appointed President of EMJ in 2010. In 2016, he became President and CEO.

"Burt's visionary and creative energy, strong work ethic, and hands-on approach have left an indelible mark on EMJ," said Jack Bowen. "He boldly led EMJ during a time of diversification and growth. I am excited to work with him as he continues to help guide and inspire the company for many years to come."

Jack was born and raised in Chattanooga, Tenn., where he lives with his wife and two children. Jack is active in his church, volunteers as a board member for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Chattanooga, and is on the UTC Alumni Board.

About EMJ Corporation

Since 1968, EMJ Construction has delivered billions of dollars in construction projects across the U.S. The corporation's history and experience are unique, but what elevates EMJ is the client experience.

With more than 53 years of diverse experience, thousands of partnerships across the country and numerous satisfied, repeat customers, EMJ challenges clients to expect moreone project at a time.

For more information or to learn more about EMJ's work, visit www.emjcorp.com or follow the company on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube or Instagram.

SOURCE EMJ Corporation

Related Links

http://www.emjcorp.com


"We're excited to work with another iconic Texas brand," said John McCullough, CEO of James Avery Artisan Jewelry. "H-E-B shares many of the same values and commitments as us, and we're excited to be offering our designs at locations where our customers already shop!"

To celebrate the opening, visitors from Sept. 15 through Sept. 25 may enter a drawing for a chance to win one of 60 James Avery gift cards valued at $50, $100 or $500.

"We are thrilled to welcome James Avery into select H-E-B stores across the state," said Winell Herron, H-E-B Group Vice President Public Affairs, Diversity and Environmental Affairs. "With our shared Hill Country beginnings, we look forward to continue serving Texans for generations to come."

In addition to the League City location, the James Avery will open the next store on Sept. 29 at the H-E-B in Portland, outside Corpus Christi, and on Oct. 13 in San Antonio, at the 211 and Potranco H-E-B.

Putting customer and associate safety first, the League City store is following recommended COVID-19 health protocols and guidelines implemented in all James Avery stores. Operating hours are Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. James Avery store Manager Paula Jenkins-Miller and her team are ready to welcome customers to shop in the new store or use Buy Online, Pickup in Store options at JamesAvery.com.

About James Avery Artisan Jewelry James Avery is a vertically integrated, family-owned company located in the heart of the Texas Hill Country. We offer finely crafted jewelry designs for men and women in sterling silver, 14K and 18K gold  designed by our own skilled artisans in Kerrville, Texas. We are a multi-channel retailer over 100 James Avery stores in five states. Our jewelry is also available in more than 220 Dillard's stores in Texas and 28 additional states, airport stores in Austin and Houston, Army and Air Force Exchange Service locations at Fort Hood and Fort Belvoir and nationwide through JamesAvery.com. James Avery crafts jewelry in Texas workshops in Comfort, Hondo and Kerrville using the finest materials sourced worldwide. For more information, visit JamesAvery.com or facebook.com/JamesAvery.

About the Drawings  Forty-eight $50 gift cards, six $100 gift cards and six $500 gift cards. Entries accepted Sept. 15 through Sept. 25. Hourly drawings on Sept. 18 and Sept. 25 between 11:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. during the Grand Opening Celebrations at the League City James Avery Artisan Jewelry store. Thirty James Avery gift cards will be awarded on each drawing day: twenty-four $50 gift cards, three $100 gift cards, and three $500 gift cards. No purchase necessary. Must be at least 13 years old to enter. Only one entry per person per day. Winners not eligible to win a subsequent gift card in the same promotion. Winners need not be present to win. Associates and immediate family members not eligible for this gift card promotion.



SOURCE James Avery Artisan Jewelry

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Kitchen Magic's product development team worked side-by-side with the design and manufacturing team at Amerock to collaborate on the best pieces to introduce in the Fall of 2021 for customer. Final selections were made by JT Norman, Product & Design Innovation Lead at Kitchen Magic.

"Customers simply love these collections as the pieces aren't simply functional, but make a fashion statement as well," remarked Norman. "Depending on what cabinet door style and color each is paired with, the pieces can be used to inject a homeowner's personality into the space, further customizing the most used room in the home."

Sleek new designs put a twist on the classic cup and bar pull styles. For example, the Cyprus Collection creates a personalized decora bowed bar-pull with character. The Ravino cup pull infuses a European designer look. The chrome and black finishes create a handsome esquire type feel.

Kitchen Magic's updated finishes coordinate seamlessly with current faucets and appliances of today. As trends evolve, champagne is the new brass, and complements a more traditional motif. Flat blacks and oil-rubbed bronze collections are the perfect companions for black stainless appliances. This innovative line enriches any kitchen remodel.

The new knob and pull collection is presently available at the firms complimentary in-home consultation & estimate service. The new hardware designs can also be viewed online on their website.

Kitchen Magic has teams of consultants across CT, DE, MA, NH, NJ, NY, PA and RI to help homeowners in these regions envision their upcoming projects. As the products and services launch this month, customers can expect the same top-notch quality with these additions as they've come to expect from Kitchen Magic's standout kitchen renovations.

To learn more, visit kitchenmagic.com or call 1-866-525-7999 for a free quote. For design ideas and more follow Kitchen Magic on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.

About Kitchen Magic

Kitchen Magic is a kitchen remodeling company with headquarters and manufacturing facilities located in Nazareth, PA. Kitchen Magic has been family-owned and operated since 1979. Using an exclusive cabinet refacing process, Kitchen Magic has transformed nearly 60,000 kitchens. Today, Kitchen Magic serves CT, DE, MA, NH, NJ, NY, PA and RI. Kitchen Magic is recognized by Qualified Remodeler as #1 in kitchen remodeling nationwide, an 11-time Angie's List Super Service Award winner, a Best of Houzz winner and an honored 8-time winner of The Morning Call's Top Workplace Award.

Media Contacts

Linda Fennessy

Public Relations

[email protected]

800.237.0799 x4155

SOURCE Kitchen Magic, Inc.

Related Links

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NEW YORK, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Latinas in Business Inc announced the change of role of Danay Escanaverino from Board Member to Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer, and the appointment of two new Board Members: Fatima Pearn and Jennifer Garcia. The new Directors will be sworn in during the October Executive Board Member meeting.

From left: Jennifer Garcia, Danay Escanaverino, Fatima Pearn

"Our Board of Directors is comprised of women who are leaders in their trade and communities. We are grateful that they have decided to join us in our mission," said Susana G Baumann, President and CEO of Latinas in Business Inc. "These new directors will add tremendous value to our organization by aiding to produce the strategic growth we need, while complementing the goals we have worked incredibly hard to accomplish."

Danay Escanaverino is the CEO of LunaSol Media, a digital agency she has owned for 9 years to help brands connect with Hispanic consumers online. She is also the Founder of LatinaMeetup, a free community that celebrates, elevates and connects Latina professionals in an effort to build Latina wealth and influence. Her goal is to help Hispanic entrepreneurs expand their reach through her expertise and services and specifically expand the Hispanic market and unite and support Hispanic businesses.

Fatima Pearn is a seasoned banking professional with more than 15 years of experience providing commercial lending, mortgages, lines of credit, leasing, business development. Her goal is to manage and develop an organization's Business Banking team by applying her vast management and banking experience to strategically drive growth initiatives.

Jennifer Garcia is the Chief Operating Officer at Latino Business Action Network (LBAN), responsible for the successful and scalable operations of the organization. She manages national strategic partnerships, lead sponsors, and oversees program operations. She works in tandem with the CEO to set the strategic vision, innovative programs for entrepreneurial economic growth, and access to capital.



Jennifer is also the Founder of Fluential Leadership, which provides business and leadership consulting services to small and medium-sized businesses. She is passionate about developing business leaders and empowering them with the tools to scale.

About Latinas in Business Inc

Latinas in Business Inc. is national non-profit 501(c)(3) membership organization that advocates for the economic empowerment of Latinas and other minority women entrepreneurs. Based in New Jersey, it provides branding, marketing, advertising and editorial services through a quality digital platform, digital marketing content, social media campaigns and educational and promotional events. Latinas in Business Inc. provides the space for over 1,900 Latina and other minority women-owned small business members to gain national exposure and marketing opportunities for the products and services they offer.

For media inquiries: Ashley Hayes, [email protected] or 848-238-6090

SOURCE Latinas in Business Inc.
"This my first harvest here at Vara has a very special feeling," says Laurent Gruet, now partner and sparkling winemaker at Vara Winery & Distillery in New Mexico. "It is truly a rebirth. It's joyous, exciting and fun! I get to do it with all of my previous experience, and with great friends and peers who hold the same high standards for quality as I do."

Laurent Gruet comes from generations of Methode Champenoise winemaking. Like his father Gilbert Gruet, quality is Laurent's top priority and it underscores his winemaking passion. After coming to the United States at 18 from France, not speaking a word of English, Laurent introduced Methode Champenoise to New Mexico receiving the highest accolades.

"I have to admit, it's tremendously gratifying to have the 2021 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition recognize me as their winner of the Sparkling Sweepstake Winemaker Award," continues Laurent. "It is certainly no coincidence that the wine entered, 2012 Gruet Blanc de Blancs, happens to be my favorite of the 12 vintages I have declared so far. It has me inspired to do even better with my new brand."

From Laurent's first 6 harvests in Bethon, France where the foundations of his experience were developed, to the 33 harvests he presided over at Gruet Winery with great success  he now joins the winemaking team at Vara, bringing his decades of experience to set the standard for their sparkling wine program. Laurent joins Bob and Louisa Lindquist, Drake McCarthy, Scott Feuille, and co-owners Doug Diefenthaler and Xavier Zamarripa in Vara's circle of artisans.

"In joining the Vara team as the sparkling winemaker and partner, it is a unique opportunity to fuse our collective passion for making wine," said Laurent Gruet. "Working with such a dynamic team allows us all to better ourselves and make the most exceptional wines. You have to believe you can do it - and we have the energy behind us. Stay tuned for what's coming next as we go back to basics and craft brand new wines."

ABOUT VARA WINES

Vara is an international family of Spanish and American wines and spirits celebrating the origins of the American wine experience thanks to the historical connection of Spain and New Mexico. Some wines have a story, we have a history. Visit www.varawines.com

This press release was issued through 24-7PressRelease.com. For further information, visit http://www.24-7pressrelease.com.

SOURCE Vara Winery & Distillery
In this newly created role, Psaropoulos will oversee all aspects of legal affairs for the company and its four brands, including corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions, litigation management, employment, contracts and negotiations, compliance, risk mitigation, and other general business legal issues.

Prior to joining Leaf Home in August, Psaropoulos served in various roles over his 15 years within Eaton Corporation, most recently as Senior Vice President & General Counsel of the company's global operations, where he had a history of recruiting and developing high-performing, diverse teams. He has also held the role of Equity Partner at Benesch Law, where he served on the firm's recruitment committee, and as a Judicial Clerk with the U.S. District Court, Northern District of Ohio.

"I am thrilled to be joining the team at Leaf Home, whose energy and drive is felt the moment you walk through the door," said Psaropoulos. "The company and its innovative business model are unmatched, and I'm looking forward to building a dynamic legal function for the organization, partnering with leadership in achieving our strategic growth and success targets."

Psaropoulos holds a Juris Doctor degree from Cleveland State University's Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, an MBA from John Carroll University, and a bachelor's degree in Economics from Ohio State University's Fisher College of Business. He is a dedicated member in both professional and community associations, currently serving as an officer with the American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association and a Trustee for the organization's charitable trust. In the past, he served as a national officer of the Federal Bar Association, a national advisory board member of the Cleveland State University Center for Cybersecurity & Privacy Protection, and as a Trustee for a non-profit organization, Youth Challenge.

About Leaf Home

Leaf Home is a leading technology-enabled provider of home solutions on a mission to transform home hassles into personal peace of mind. Leaf Home's experienced, dependable specialists provide end-to-end services directly to consumers through its core brands; LeafFilter Gutter Protection, Leaf Home Safety Solutions, Leaf Home Water Solutions, and Leaf Home Enhancements. With its corporate headquarters in Hudson, Ohio, Leaf Home delivers seamless, transformative home solutions for safer, easier, and more comfortable living every day. Live Comfortable. Live Safe. Live Happy. For more information, visit www.leafhome.com.

Contact: [email protected]

SOURCE Leaf Home

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SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- At the Lever Ascend conference, Lever, a leading Talent Acquisition Suite, announced plans for their latest feature, Candidate Fit and Intent Data. This data will help teams source, identify, and conduct outreach to candidates more efficiently and measure if applicants will be a good potential fit for a company. Additionally, Candidate Fit and Intent Data will increase retention and employee performance by finding candidates that fit the role and company, allowing recruiters to be confident in their sourcing and hire with success.

The Labor Department reported that job openings shot up by 800,000 to 10,900,000 on the last day of July [1]. With job openings soaring, companies are struggling to reduce their time to fill while retaining current talent. Using Candidate Fit and Intent Data, talent teams can go beyond a resume or profile to better understand what interests the candidate has, what skillsets they may possess, and ultimately, if they could be a good cultural fit.

"From hiring freezes and layoffs to high volume hiring, the pandemic has made it difficult for companies and people to mutually find the right match," said Barbara Bermes, Head of Product at Lever. "With Candidate Fit and Intent Data, we are supporting companies in understanding a person's interest and fit available online, so that companies can better determine a candidate's interest in a company and the likelihood of them being open to a conversation."

To find and source the right talent, talent acquisition teams have to determine if candidates are the right fit and how receptive they would be to a recruiter's outreach. Recruiters find this by going beyond what is listed on a candidate profile to understand their interests such as location, if a candidate has engaged with or is aware of the company, previous company's tenure, or being "open to jobs". Lever utilizes this proven tactic by recruiters to scale through scoring automation, garnering insights for recruiters with efficiency through the identification of the potential candidate-company fit.

Recruiters and hiring managers begin by building their ideal candidate profile within Lever, picking attributes including location, experience, and more, then define the interest attributes that answer questions including: is the candidate "open to jobs" on LinkedIn? Has the candidate visited my website or careers page? Do they follow my company on social media? Lever then makes recommendations based on the company's existing candidate database as well appropriate internal candidates selections that meet the criteria.

Over the next year, Lever will continue to provide current and new customers with enhanced innovations in remote hiring, diversity, equity, and inclusion, internal mobility, and talent analytics. For more on LeverTRM and the latest advances, see here .

[1] "Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary" September 2021. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/jolts.nr0.htm.

About Lever

Lever is a leading Talent Acquisition Suite that makes it easy for talent teams to reach their hiring goals and to connect companies with top talent. Lever is the only platform that provides all talent acquisition leaders with complete ATS and robust CRM capabilities in one product, LeverTRM. The Lever Hire and Lever Nurture features allow leaders to scale and grow their people pipeline, build authentic and long-lasting relationships, and source the right people to hire. Lever Analytics provides customized reports with data visualization, see offers completed and interview feedback, and more, to inform strategic decisions between hiring managers and executives alike.

Our platform also enables companies to hire with inclusivity in mind, helping eliminate any hiring bias. Lever supports the hiring needs of over 4,000 companies around the globe including the teams at Netflix, Atlassian, KPMG, and McGraw-Hill Education. For more information, visit https://www.lever.co .

SOURCE Lever

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The report looks at M&A insurance claims by industry, by region and by cause. Tweet this

Headline takeaways from the 2021 report include:

COVID has not led to the predicted surge in "buyer's remorse" claims, but has changed the M&A risk landscape fundamentally.

Claims are being made more quickly after policy inception. 57% of claim notifications were made in the first twelve months of the policy period in 2020, a significant increase compared to 48% of claims in 2019.

"Medium" ( $1m to $10m ) severity claims were our fastest growing type of notification in 2020, with the number of claims falling into this category almost doubling compared to 2019. We saw a slight fall in the number of "high" ( $10m plus) severity claims in 2020, but those that we did receive were for higher amounts.

Liberty GTS President Rowan Bamford commented: "Concern that partially completed M&A deals that were finalized during COVID, when business fundamentals changed rapidly, and due diligence was harder to undertake, might lead to increased numbers of claims has not yet materialized. However, the rapidly changing environment did disrupt underwriting norms, fundamentally changing the nature of some previously well-understood risks - travel, hotels and real estate, to name but three. We expect new COVID-related claims trends to emerge in the next few years as a result."

"The increasingly early notification of claims partly reflects the fact that many lawyers are beginning to carry out a post-deal review of the target business as a matter of course with the specific objective of identifying potential breaches for a possible claim. Claims processes for deals are now becoming "institutionalized", and we see the results, although most important for clients is the fact that our statistics show that claims made in the first year are the most likely to be paid."

Causes of claims

The briefing examined the commonest causes for claims and found some interesting trends:

Tax-related matters are the cause of one-third of pre-claim notifications in Europe and Asia-Pacific , but actual large tax losses remain rare.

and , but actual large tax losses remain rare. Accounting and financial issues make up 41% of "high" severity claims. Many of these involve stock control, or revenue recognition issues.

Cyber claims, claims relating to failed IT projects and claims around class-action wage disputes are all increasing in frequency.

A number of "high" severity claims have involved 'founder' sales, and some of these have involved suspected fraud. Overall, the most common type of fraud involves management fabricating revenue to boost the bottom line.

Liberty GTS President Rowan Bamford commented "It has been fascinating to study the industry-by-industry and region-by-region differences in M&A cover and claims. The results give us detail on exactly what really leads to claims in a whole variety of different scenarios."

"Of particular interest has been our analysis of the growth in cyber and IT-project claims, reflecting the critical importance of digital infrastructure to all types of business today."

"For clients there is comfort in the fact that notifications about tax matters on policies rarely proceed through into large claims, suggesting that although investigations occur regularly, most key tax issues and liabilities are being successfully picked up during underwriting due diligence."

"Using this research, our clients can take comfort from the fact that, not only do our underwriters work to understand exactly the risks dealmakers face, but that we share this information back to help our clients know where their due diligence time and energy can most usefully be spent. The ultimate comfort is, of course, the cover, and the knowledge that we paid out over $45m in claims to our clients in 2020."

About Liberty Mutual Insurance

At Liberty Mutual, we believe progress happens when people feel secure. By providing protection for the unexpected and delivering it with care, we help people embrace today and confidently pursue tomorrow.

In business since 1912, and headquartered in Boston, Liberty Mutual Insurance is the sixth largest global property and casualty insurer based on 2020 gross written premium. Liberty Mutual Insurance ranks 71st on the Fortune 100 list of largest corporations in the U.S. based on 2020 revenue. As of December 31, 2020, we had $43.8 billion in annual consolidated revenue.

Liberty Mutual Insurance employs over 45,000 people in 29 countries and economies around the world. We offer a wide range of insurance products and services, including personal automobile, homeowners, specialty lines, reinsurance, commercial multiple-peril, workers compensation, commercial automobile, general liability, surety, and commercial property.

About Liberty Global Transaction Solutions

Liberty Global Transaction Solutions (GTS) is one of the largest global M&A insurance teams in the industry. With more than 70 specialists, we have helped facilitate over 800 M&A deals a year on averagesuccessfully insuring thousands of transactions since our inception.

GTS offers specialized products and services to help facilitate M&A transactions for buyers and sellers, including Representations & Warranties (R&W)/Warranty & Indemnity (W&I) Insurance, Tax Liability Insurance and One-off policies created for individual contingent risks.

For more information, visit https://www.libertygts.com/.

The foregoing is not professional advice nor legal advice, is provided for information only, and is not a substitute for consulting with a professional.

Contacts:





US Media - Richard Angevine T: 617-833-0926

E: [email protected]



UK Media - Victoria Sisson T: +44 (0) 20 7618 9100 Luther M: + 44 (0) 07941 294872

E: [email protected]

SOURCE Liberty Mutual Insurance

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MCLEAN, Va., Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Logi Analytics , an insightsoftware company and the leading provider of embedded analytics solutions for software teams, partnered with United Way of the National Capital Area (United Way NCA) to host a month-long virtual hackathon. Participants, both existing and non-Logi users were given access to a large, anonymized dataset from United Way NCA's programs and to a virtual instance of Logi Compose r as their primary embedded analytics tool. Their task was to deliver a new analytics dashboard that provided insights into United Way NCA's dataset.

The solutions are live on the virtual Logi Composer tool and have also been showcased in short screencast videos.

"As a first-time user of Logi Composer, I was impressed by the intuitive, easy-to-use navigation of the product," said Yu Song, a full-time software engineer and United Way Hackathon participant. "I chose to participate in this Hackathon as it presented a new challenge for a good cause. The functionality of Logi Composer allowed me to build a much more comprehensive solution than anticipated."

"At United Way NCA, our Community Impact programs allows us to convene the best resources to address a focused set of community challenges such as providing meals to food-insecure students and families and assisting people to receive free financial and tax prep services and counseling," said Nedelka Phillips, Senior Vice President, Marketing and Fundraising, United Way NCA. "Logi Composer provided us a visual and interactive solution which helps communicate who benefits from the programs and in what way. Our Community Impact team is looking forward to digging into these visualizations for insights that may help guide our future programs."

The winners of the United Way NCA Hackathon are a team of Data Scientists from STCHealth comprised of four people: Sawyer Koops, Kaye Kleine, Jordan McKinney, and Roni Salman who received a $1,500 gift card for their accomplishment. Hackathon participant Yu Song also received a $500 gift card for his time and effort in building a solution as a first-time Logi user.

The STCHealth team developed a two-prong solution providing insight to the target population, supporting volunteer activity and financials and program outcomes/efficacy. United Way's Landing Dashboard is the starting point for exploration and descriptive analysis. It includes volume key performance indicators as well as visuals to stratify program participation, income/age/race across regions, and veteran/employment/justice system contact across the dataset. Clicking a program or region here provides users a link to a filtered view of the United Way NCA's Outcomes Dashboard. This dashboard provides the "so-what" analysis for United Way NCA's programs, with visuals representing target vs actual volumes, target completion percentages, and financial metrics.

"Embedded analytics can help organizations make better decisions and improve their ability to find information in the tools that are already at their disposal. Partnering with United Way NCA for this hackathon provides them the ability to derive meaningful insights from their programs," said Charles Caldwell, VP of product management at Logi Analytics.

To learn more about Logi Composer and Logi Analytics, visit www.logianalytics.com/

About Logi Analytics

Logi Analytics, an insightsoftware company, empowers the world's software teams with the most intuitive, developer-grade embedded analytics solutions, along with a group of dedicated people invested in your success. Logi leverages your existing tech stack so you can quickly build, manage and deploy your application. And because Logi supports unlimited customization and white-labeling, you have total control to make the application uniquely your own. Over 2,400 application teams have trusted Logi to help power their businesses with sophisticated analytics capabilities. Logi Analytics was recently awarded the 2020 "Best Business Intelligence Solution" Proddy award by Product School, in addition to being named a leader in Business Application Research Center's (BARC) BI & Analytics Survey 21 across several categories, including Operational BI, Embedded BI, and Cloud BI.

Logi Analytics is headquartered in McLean, Virginia, with offices in Ireland, England, Ukraine, and China. Learn more about what's possible with Logi at LogiAnalytics.com .

About insightsoftware

insightsoftware is a leading provider of financial reporting and enterprise performance management software. We enable the Office of the CFO to connect to and make sense of their enterprise data in real time so they can proactively drive greater financial intelligence across their organization, which is how best-in-class finance teams operate. Over 25,000 organizations worldwide rely on insightsoftware's portfolio of best-in-class reporting, analytics, budgeting, forecasting, consolidation, and tax solutions to provide them with increased productivity, visibility, accuracy, and compliance. Visit insightsoftware.com for more information.

Contact:

Alyssa Rinehart

BLASTmedia for Logi Analytics

[email protected]

317-806-1900

SOURCE Logi Analytics

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DENVER and MANCHESTER, England, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Matillion , a leading cloud data integration platform, today announced $150M in Series E funding, led by General Atlantic, a leading global growth equity firm, with participation from Battery Ventures, Sapphire Ventures, Scale Venture Partners, and Lightspeed Venture Partners. This funding marks Matillion's second triple-digit round of 2021, bringing the total amount raised to $310M at a valuation of $1.5B.

The average enterprise uses more than 1,080 different data sources in its analytics program. Even as cloud data platforms such as Snowflake, Amazon Redshift, and Databricks become central to modern data architectures, enterprises struggle to collect, synchronize and transform their data for analytics, AI and ML programs. Traditional and other methods are primitive and slow, relying heavily on hand-coding and placing the burden of enterprise data preparation on a few workers. This creates information gaps within the organization and limits critical insights. Matillion unlocks the data supply chain, accelerating time to value by delivering a data operating system that integrates and manages data at scale. This allows enterprise data teams to work together to source, enrich and share data, enabling the rapid and data-led decision-making required to compete and win in today's digital economy.

"Enterprises need to effectively close information gaps by rapidly transforming operational data into analytics-ready datasets that fuel business intelligence, AI, and ML innovation," said Matthew Scullion, CEO of Matillion. "With Matillion, large organizations are empowered with a data operating system that is purpose-built for the enterprise, enabling a broad spectrum of data users  from data scientists and engineers to marketers and business analysts  to make data useful."

Coming off of its Series D round in February, Matillion has delivered accelerated growth in 2021, including recognition by Snowflake as its FY2021 Technology Partner of the Year for Data Integration and by Databricks for an ISV Innovation Award, as well as the launch of its new product, Matillion ETL for Delta Lake on Databricks. The company also earned the Great Place to Work Certification , with 94% of its UK employees and 91% of its U.S. employees stating that Matillion is a great place to work.

"As organizations look for ways to harness data to make better business decisions, the market for cloud data integration and transformation is expanding," said Chris Caulkin, Managing Director and Head of Technology for EMEA at General Atlantic. "We believe that Matillion's low-code ETL platform simplifies the process of constructing data pipelines and preparing data for analysis, enabling citizen data scientists and data engineers alike to play a valuable role in extracting data-based insights. We look forward to supporting the team through its next phase of growth and expansion."

Hundreds of large enterprises including Western Union, FOX, Sony, Slack, National Grid, Peet's Coffee and Cisco use Matillion's cloud-native, low-code/no-code solutions to transform raw data into an analytics-ready asset, ready to power business intelligence, visualization, artificial intelligence, and machine learning projects.

"Global data teams are being tasked to support digital transformation journeys within their organizations and look to low-code, cloud native solutions to accelerate the delivery of business results," said Frederick Wright, US Director, UK Senior Manager, Enterprise Architect - Integration & Analytics at National Grid. "Matillion enables enterprises like ours to increase our usage of analytics and drive greater understanding within our business."

For further data transformation industry updates and perspectives, follow Matillion on Twitter @Matillion and LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/matillion-limited/ . Learn more about the success Matillion customers have achieved at https://www.matillion.com/resources/case-studies/ .

The transaction is subject to approval by the relevant competition authorities and further customary conditions.

About Matillion

Matillion makes the world's data useful with an easy-to-use cloud-native data integration and transformation platform. Optimized for modern enterprise data teams, only Matillion is built on native integrations to cloud data platforms such as Snowflake, Delta Lake on Databricks, Amazon Redshift, Google BigQuery, and Microsoft Azure Synapse to enable new levels of efficiency and productivity across any organization. Learn how Matillion delivers rapid returns on cloud investments for global enterprise customers at www.matillion.com .

About General Atlantic

General Atlantic is a leading global growth equity firm with more than four decades of experience providing capital and strategic support for over 400 growth companies throughout its history. Established in 1980 to partner with visionary entrepreneurs and deliver lasting impact, the firm combines a collaborative global approach, sector specific expertise, a long-term investment horizon and a deep understanding of growth drivers to partner with great entrepreneurs and management teams to scale innovative businesses around the world. General Atlantic currently has over $65 billion in assets under management as of March 31, 2021 and more than 175 investment professionals based in New York, Amsterdam, Beijing, Hong Kong, Jakarta, London, Mexico City, Mumbai, Munich, Palo Alto, Sao Paulo, Shanghai, Singapore and Stamford. For more information on General Atlantic, please visit the website: www.generalatlantic.com.

Media Contact:

Inkhouse Team

[email protected]

SOURCE Matillion
CHICAGO, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the new market research report "Microscopy Market by Product (Microscopes, Software, Accessories), Type (Optical Microscope (Stereo, Digital), Electron Microscope (SEM, TEM), AFM, STM), Application (Semiconductor, Life science), End User (Industrial, Research) - Global Forecast to 2026", published by MarketsandMarkets, the Microscopy Market is projected to reach USD 8.9 billion in 2026 from USD 6.5 billion in 2020, at CAGR of 5.6% during the forecast period.

Browse in-depth TOC on "Microscopy Market"

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The Market growth is driven largely by factors such as favorable funding scenario for R&D in microscopy, technological advancements in microscopes, and rising focus on nanotechnology and regenerative medicine. However, the high cost of the advanced microscopes is expected to restrain the growth of this market during the forecast period.

By product, the software segment is expected to witness above-average growth in the microscopy market during the forecast period. Software is expected to show the highest growth in the forecast period. The introduction of novel image acquisition software for microscopes is a recent trend in the market. Increasing research in life sciences and other application areas have resulted in the generation of a large amount of data, mainly due to advances in image quality. Present software can no longer handle these images, which indicates the potential opportunities offered in the area of software development. Recent key microscopy software launches include ZEISS ZEN Connect, Zeiss ZEN Core, ZEISS ZEN Intelleis software, and arivis Vision4D and patent-pending arivis inViewR.

By type, the optical microscopes accounted for the largest share of the microscopy market during the forecast period.

Based on type, the global microscope market is segmented into optical microscopes, electron microscopes, scanning probe microscopes, and other microscopes. In 2020, optical microscopes accounted for the largest share of the market, primarily due to the increasing applications of digital and confocal microscopes in the materials science, semiconductor, and life science industries and the increased focus on developing advanced digital microscopes. However, the electron microscopes segment is estimated to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. Growing life science and materials science research activities and the emergence of correlative light and electron microscopy are expected to drive the demand for electron microscopes in the coming years.

By application, the semiconductor applications segment is expected to account for the largest share of the microscopy market during the forecast period.

Based on applications, the microscope market is segmented into semiconductor, life science, materials science, and other applications. In 2020, semiconductor applications accounted for the largest share of the market. Microscopy is extensively used in the semiconductor industry for R&D, quality control, monitoring, process development, and failure analysis. This factor, along with the growing demand for miniature transistor chips, nanoelectronics, quantum dots, and optoelectronics, drives the demand for microscopes in the semiconductor industry. However, the materials science applications segment is expected to be the fastest-growing application segment during the forecast period. In recent years, research in materials science has increased significantly. This is expected to drive the adoption of microscopes as they are used in the structural and chemical analysis of materials, including polymers, metals, alloys, ceramics, and biomaterials.

By end-user, the industries settings segment is growing at the highest rate.

Based on end users, the microscopy market is segmented into industries, academic & research institutes, and other end users. In 2020, the industries segment accounted for the largest share of the market. It is also the fastest-growing segment. Light and electron microscopes are widely used in industries for identification and particle analysis, material characterization, process control, quality control, and failure analysis, which is a major factor driving market growth.

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North America dominated the global microscopy market in 2020

The microscope market is divided into five major regions Europe, North America, Asia Pacific, Latin America and the Middle East & Africa. North America accounted for the largest share of the global market, closely followed by Europe. Factors such as the significant R&D budgets, availability of advanced microscopy systems offered by market leaders, high and growing focus on nanotechnology, and the presence of a large number of major research institutes and universities in the region are driving the growth of the market in North America.

The major companies in the microscopy market include Carl Zeiss (Germany), Danaher Corporation (US), Thermo Fisher Scientific (US), Nikon (Japan), Bruker Corporation (US), Olympus (Japan), Oxford Instruments (UK), JEOL (Japan), and Hitachi High-Technologies (Japan), among others.

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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.

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The conference, which brings together top-tier oncology experts, will provide exclusive insights into the rapidly changing field of oncology. Attendees will benefit from fully interactive, in-person and virtual panel discussions around clinical pathways, remote patient monitoring, and precision oncology.

Herr's presentation will focus on how data and AI can be leveraged to build a people and patient centric healthcare continuum.

"It's an honor to host an elite panel of talent in a space as vital as oncology," said Mike Hennessy Jr., President and CEO of MJH Life Sciences. "We're thrilled to be among the many innovators working to improve all stakeholders' lives."

Herr will be joined by faculty from such renowned institutions as OneOncology, Texas Oncology, Optum, Intermountain Healthcare, United Healthcare, Moffitt Cancer Center, Emory Healthcare, Tennessee Oncology, City of Hope, Community Oncology Alliance, Association of Community Cancer Centers, US Oncology, Florida Cancer Specialists, Banner Aetna, Pontchartrain Cancer Center, Regional Cancer Care Associates, Quality Cancer Care Alliance, Minnesota Oncology, Northwest Medical Specialists, Cardinal Health, McKesson, Covance, Yale Cancer Center, West Cancer Center & Research Institute, Meharry Vanderbilt Alliance, Farragut Partners, and Frier Levitt, Highmark, Inc., and Anthem, Inc.

The event will begin on Thursday, September 23, 2021 and conclude on Friday, September 24, 2021, at the Omni Nashville Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee. For more information, click here.

About American Journal of Managed Care

The American Journal of Managed Care (AJMC) is a multimedia, peer-reviewed, MEDLINE-indexed journal that keeps industry leaders on the forefront of health policy by sharing digital research relevant to industry decision-makers. Other brands in the AJMC family include The American Journal of Accountable Care and Evidence-Based Oncology. These comprehensive multimedia brands bring together stakeholder views from payers, providers, policy makers and other industry leaders in managed care. AJMC is a brand of MJH Life Sciences , the largest privately held, independent, full-service medical media company in North America, dedicated to delivering trusted health care news across multiple channels.

Media Contact

Kristie Luff

+1-609-516-3722

[email protected]

SOURCE The American Journal of Managed Care (AJMC)

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States and businesses are looking to electrify delivery, maintenance, and public transportation fleets in the coming years to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and local pollution. The study evaluates potential charging needs from large-scale fleet electrification and calls for coordinated planning among utilities, fleet operators, and state and local governments to meet those needs.

"The electrification of fleets of vehicles, such as delivery vans and buses, offers a big bang for our buck in the fight to reduce emissions and decarbonize our transportation sector," said Brian Gemmell, Chief Clean Energy Development Officer at National Grid. "This study demonstrates why it's important that we work together with our communities, state, local, and business stakeholders to prepare for the electrification of medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, and why we need to start now to ensure the clean fleet transition progresses at the pace needed to meet decarbonization goals."

As businesses and local governments move to decarbonize, the transition toward electrification of commercial vehicle fleets is seen as a huge element of net-zero strategies. National Grid and Hitachi ABB Power Grids' study, "The Road to Transportation Decarbonization: Understanding Grid Impacts of Electric Fleets," was undertaken to understand the charging needs of electric medium- and heavy-duty vehicles (MHDVs), such as buses, package delivery vans, freight trucks, and others, and how electric fleets might impact the electricity grid.

"The shift toward electric vehicles is one of the most critical steps in the broader evolution toward a carbon-neutral energy system," said Anthony Allard, Executive VP and Head of North America for Hitachi ABB Power Grids. "Strong collaborations with key partners in the energy ecosystem, such as this study with National Grid, will help ensure that we are prepared to accelerate this transition and meet our sustainability goals, while maintaining the flexibility and resiliency of the grid."

Electrification of fleet vehicles is a significant opportunity to quickly reduce carbon emissions and provide other environmental benefits. In states like New York and Massachusetts, fleet vehicles like trucks and buses make up 3 to 4 percent of vehicles but around a quarter of on-road emissions. In addition, electrification provides access to clean public transportation, including in disadvantaged and environmental justice communities, and reduces local air pollution (such as particulates) and noise pollution.

National Grid and Hitachi ABB Power Grids focused the study on a major northeast metro region in the United States, seeking to understand how differences in fleet locations, use patterns, fleet sizes, and other factors impact fleet operators' charging needs. The study also explored how resulting electric demand could affect specific portions of the electric distribution and transmission system. The study identified more than 50 fleets operating in the metro area, analyzed their potential charging behavior and power needs, and mapped them to actual electric distribution lines and substations.

The study reveals that portions of the electric grid could eventually be overloaded by these large vehicles' charging needs if system upgrades or alternative solutions are not progressed in tandem with electric MHDV adoption. This is particularly true where vehicle fleets are "clustered" in certain areas (for instance, one distribution feeder might eventually support at least 10 electrified fleets and over 400 electric MHDVs).

Importantly, the study recommends that critical stakeholders  utilities, system operators, fleet operators and policymakers  act now to begin forecasting and planning for the medium- and long-term impacts of fleet electrification, and to develop least-cost, least-regrets solutions. The study suggests that solutions consider an "end-to-end" approach: transmission, distribution, and distributed resources, in addition to managed charging programs.

About National Grid

About National Grid: National Grid (NYSE: NGG) is an electricity, natural gas, and clean energy delivery company serving more than 20 million people through our networks in New York, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. National Grid is transforming our electricity and natural gas networks with smarter, cleaner, and more resilient energy solutions to meet the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

For more information, please visit our website, follow us on Twitter, watch us on YouTube, friend us on Facebook, and find our photos on Instagram.

SOURCE National Grid

Related Links

http://www.nationalgrid.com


DALLAS, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- To celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, Neiman Marcus Group ("NMG" or the "Company") is revealing new efforts to grow its Hispanic talent through workforce partnerships with Prospanica and McKinsey. This collaboration supports the organization's commitment to Environmental Social Governance and Belonging as part of the company's growth strategy. In addition, NMG is announcing in-store activation plans to celebrate Hispanic and Latino heritage all month long.

Neiman Marcus stores will curate dedicated displays of Hispanic and Latino-founded designers and brands, which will be featured in windows across 14 select locations throughout the U.S. Highlighted designers will include Gabriela Hearst, Carolina Herrera, Johanna Ortiz, Tata Harper, Manolo Blahnik, Oscar de la Renta, Narcisco Rodriquez, Paco Rabanne, and more. The displays were crafted using multicultural insights from NMG's Consumer Insights team and, as a result, will feature products across categories to emphasize a family-friendly setting, and showcase designer heritage and vibrant cultural prints to invoke creativity and inspiration.

On October 5, Neiman's will host a master class with Karla Martinez, Editor in Chief of Vogue Mexico and Vogue Latin America, at the Coral Gables store. The in-store activation and supporting media will highlight new trends, collections, and styling in partnership with Neiman Marcus style advisors.

Additionally, to coincide with Hispanic Heritage Month, the Boca Raton location also curated a pop-up art gallery highlighting 100% local Hispanic artists that will remain through October 10. Bergdorf Goodman will also spotlight Hispanic and Latino creatives weekly as part of their "Voices of Now" Instagram series, including model and influencer Genai Nakama, designer Johanna Ortiz, and designer Maria Cornejo.

"We have a long-standing history of supporting diverse designers and brands within our Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman assortments," said Geoffroy van Raemdonck, CEO, Neiman Marcus Group. "Our merchants constantly seek out new and exciting designers that we know our customers will love. We are thrilled to currently feature many Hispanic and Latino designers and brands across multiple categories."

A new partnership with Prospanica , a national Association of Hispanic MBAs and Business Professionals that advocates for the advancement of Hispanic professionals, will help NMG recruit the nation's top Hispanic and Latino talent. Having Prospanica as NMG's diversity champion will help guide the Company in further enabling this community to achieve its full economic, social, and educational potential through a variety of tactics. Later this month, the NMG talent acquisition team has plans to recruit and network with the nation's top Hispanic and Latino business professionals at Prospanica's Conference and Career Expo, while actively utilizing their job boards and list of candidates for open positions. The Company is also donating to the Prospanica Foundation Scholarship, which supports bright futures by providing academic scholarships to undergraduate and graduate students of Hispanic heritage.

According to the Latino Donor Collaborative's 2020 U.S. Latino GDP Report, the Hispanic demographic represents 74% of new workers in the United States. Chief People and Belonging Officer, Eric Severson, says, "We are proud to foster a workforce that outpaces the U.S. population in Hispanic and Latino representation. We now have a unique opportunity to recruit professionals from this thriving community across all levels of the organization and grow Hispanic and Latino representation in leadership roles."

NMG will also develop and promote talent from within the Company by piloting McKinsey's Connected Leader Academy this Fall. NMG participants will have the opportunity to network with top Hispanic talent from across the U.S. and strengthen the skills required to progress to leadership roles.

McKinsey Academy nominee and Senior Vice President of Customer Service Excellence and Integrated Retail, Tatiana Ferreira, adds, "NMG recognizes the significance of a diverse workforce and is showing its commitment to expanding this group of talent and developing its existing group. As a Latina woman and senior leader at NMG, I am extremely proud to represent our brand and my heritage by participating in this program that will help propel us forward."

Finally, all associates have been invited to celebrate the month during an exclusive chat with Uruguayan Designer and Creative Director Gabriela Hearst, where she will discuss her heritage and its influence on her design and fashion trends today. An exclusive interview with Hearst is also featured in Neiman Marcus' seasonal editorial publication, known as, 'The Book', found in the Neiman Marcus' Magazine ( www.neimanmarcus.com/editorial ) and via email and social media. 'The Book' has been available in-home to customers since August 30.

To read more about NMG's philanthropic work, visit The Heart of Neiman Marcus Foundation .

About The Neiman Marcus Group, LLC

Neiman Marcus Group is a relationship business. We lead with love in everything we do for our customers, associates, brand partners, and communities. Our strategy of integrated luxury retail is about creating long-term relationships. It's this connection that creates emotional and high lifetime value potential with everyone we serve. Through the expertise of our 9,000+ associates, we deliver across our three channels of in-store, eCommerce, and remote selling. Investments in data and technology allow us to scale a personalized luxury experience. Our brands include Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus Last Call, and Horchow. For more information, visit www.neimanmarcusgroup.com .

SOURCE Neiman Marcus Group

Related Links

http://www.neimanmarcusgroup.com


Daan De Wever, CEO Destiny: "We are excited to welcome ipvision to the Destiny family. Obviously, this will strengthen our position on the Danish market and in the Nordics in general. In addition to this, we onboard a company with great experience and competencies within professional communication and collaboration solutions for businesses  especially within the SME segment. Therefore, ipvision is a perfect match with the Destiny Group, reinforcing our position as an innovative, client-centric and market leading UCaaS provider for SMEs in Europe."

Even more innovative solutions for the Danish customers

From the ipvision point of view, joining the Destiny Group will enhance business opportunities and future proof the company for both customers and employees. Destiny recently acquired the Sweden-based company Telepo and exactly the Telepo platform is key in the solutions ipvision is providing for the company's customers in Denmark.

Kenneth Andreasen, CEO of ipvision: "Destiny has a strong track record of company integration that emphasizes future growth, based on innovation and the strongest UCaaS product portfolio in the market, which perfectly corresponds to our business ambitions. Furthermore, we see a match when it comes to values and focus on developing client-centric communication services for the cloud. At the same time, we join a group of companies which will give us access to state-of-the-art knowledge and technology and thereby develop our competencies and leverage our business potential."

About Destiny

Destiny, originally Belgian, is a European leader and innovator in secure cloud communications based on its powerful and secure mobile-first products and UCaaS. Destiny empowers +2 million business users to communicate, collaborate and provide excellent customer service. The company enables service providers, channel partners and end customers as well as 3rd party services to thrive in their cloud ecosystem. Destiny, with headquarters in Brussels, has 700 employees in 7 European countries and an expected annual turnover of close to 200 million in 2021.

More info: www.destiny.be

About ipvision

Founded in 2005 by Kenneth Andreasen and Peter Reich, ipvision offers professional communication and collaboration solutions for businesses. ipvision provides Internet connections, networks, mobile telephony and IP telephony, as well as unified communications and collaboration based on a hosted infrastructure. ipvision has status as MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) at TDC and Telenor, cooperates with 3 and offers mobile telephony on all of Denmark's mobile networks. ipvision ensures that companies' communication and cooperation with their customers have the best possible conditions. The focus is on the customers' customer service, security, efficiency, and flexibility towards their customers.

More info: www.ipvision.dk



Contact

Veerle Wijsgeer  PR Destiny

Email: [email protected]

Tel: +32495580797

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1624056/Destiny_ipvision.jpg

SOURCE Destiny
FACTS AT A GLANCE Edition: 7; Released: September 2021 Executive Pool: 2956 Companies: 22 - Players covered include Arysta LifeScience Corporation; BASF SE; Bayer CropScience AG; Certis Europe B.V.; Corteva Agriscience, A DowDupont Company; FMC Corporation; Isagro S.p.a.; Syngenta AG and Others. Coverage: All major geographies and key segments Segments: Type (Boscalid, Fluopyram, Penthiopyrad, Fluxapyroxad, Isofetamid, Other Types) Geographies: World; United States; Canada; Japan; China; Europe (France; Germany; Italy; United Kingdom; Spain; Russia; and Rest of Europe); Asia-Pacific (Australia; India; South Korea; and Rest of Asia-Pacific); Latin America (Argentina; Brazil; Mexico; and Rest of Latin America); Middle East (Iran; Israel; Saudi Arabia; United Arab Emirates; and Rest of Middle East); and Africa.

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ABSTRACT-



Global SDHI Fungicides Market to Reach US$3.4 Billion by the Year 2027

Succinate Dehydrogenase Inhibitor (SDHI) fungicides play a critical role in protecting plants from numerous fungal diseases and infections. SDHI fungicides that come with active ingredients like fluopyram, boscalid, penthiopyrad, and fluxapyroxad are growing as effective measures against various crop diseases like gray mold. Growth in the global market is set to be fueled by the emergence of advanced products for crop protection. The issue assumes greater significance as there has of late been an increasing demand for providing and ensuring food protection to ensure the safety of a fast growing global population and for increasing the productivity of arable land worldwide. Rising global development and urbanization have reduced the total volume of arable land globally, which again will propel the market's growth. SDIF fungicides have been effectively used to control turfgrass diseases and also in other resistance management initiatives. Increasing agricultural trade also has contributed to the growth of products for crop protection.

Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the global market for SDHI Fungicides estimated at US$2.2 Billion in the year 2020, is projected to reach a revised size of US$3.4 Billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 7.6% over the analysis period. Boscalid, one of the segments analyzed in the report, is projected to grow at a 6.2% CAGR to reach US$872.4 Million 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 Fluopyram segment is readjusted to a revised 8.8% CAGR for the next 7-year period. This segment currently accounts for a 20% share of the global SDHI Fungicides market. Boscalid, a new range of fungicide, is an odorless white crystalline solid mainly intended for use on food crops. Boscalid fungicide controls a diverse range of plant pathogens in broadacre and horticultural crops. Rising demand for high-quality fungicides from crop growers across the world is poised to inflate the demand for boscalid in the next few years. Fluopyram is a broad-spectrum fungicide formulated to suppress a broad array of deuteromycete and ascomycete diseases in many horticultures and arable crops. Rapidly changing lifestyle trends and health concerns associated with processed food are anticipated to steer the demand for farm produced fruits and vegetables over the coming years. The scenario in turn is expected to drive the market for fluopyram.

The U.S. Market is Estimated at $604.5 Million in 2021, While China is Forecast to Reach $392.5 Million by 2026

The SDHI Fungicides market in the U.S. is estimated at US$604.5 Million in the year 2021. The country currently accounts for a 26.1% share in the global market. China, the world's second largest economy, is forecast to reach an estimated market size of US$392.5 Million in the year 2026 trailing a CAGR of 8.2% through the analysis period. Among the other noteworthy geographic markets are Japan and Canada, each forecast to grow at 5.8% and 8.5% respectively over the analysis period. Within Europe, Germany is forecast to grow at approximately 6.7% CAGR while Rest of European market (as defined in the study) will reach US$422.7 Million by the end of the analysis period. Europe dominates the SDHI fungicides market as there have been growing concerns in Spain about the Botrytis cinerea. Gray Mold Decay has always been a major crop malady, particularly in some European nations, especially Spain. The disease causes pre and post-harvest decay in grapes, simultaneously affecting other unrelated components and crops. SDHI fungicide is applied post-harvest to tackle the situation. The US is also a major for SDHI fungicides due to an increasing food demand in the region and for crop security.

Penthiopyrad Segment to Reach $600.7 Million by 2026

Penthiopyrad is a carboxamide fungicide formulated to control a wide spectrum of diseases on a broad variety of corps. Penthiopyrad is intended for control of fungal diseases such as powdery mildew, botrytis, various scab diseases, rots, and blights. In the global Penthiopyrad segment, USA, Canada, Japan, China and Europe will drive the 8.3% CAGR estimated for this segment. These regional markets accounting for a combined market size of US$284.8 Million in the year 2020 will reach a projected size of US$498.9 Million 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$55.6 Million by the year 2026. More



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Director, Corporate Communications

Global Industry Analysts, Inc.

Phone: 1-408-528-9966

www.StrategyR.com

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JERUSALEM, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Ex Libris, a ProQuest company, is pleased to announce the launch of new research portal capabilities in the Ex Libris Esploro research information management solution. With Esploro, institutions can deploy a fully branded portal that enables researchers, funders, industry stakeholders, and the public to access publications, explore researchers' work, and find scholarly expertise. The new portal is in use by Esploro customers since September 2021.

Ex Libris Esploro Research Portal Ex Libris Esploro - research works by year

The Esploro-enabled research portal draws on the comprehensive data in the Esploro research information hub, which contains multiple types of scholarly information, such as publications, data sets, creative works, projects, and media mentions. The portal enables users to search for publications and researchers with relevant expertise; navigate between researcher profiles; and obtain a comprehensive view of a researcher's work, affiliations, achievements, and previously awarded grants.

Universities can customize the portal to display their brand and make the portal accessible from their website. Developed according to SEO guidelines, the portal framework allows for comprehensive indexing by search engines and Google Scholar.

Clare Thorpe, library services director at Southern Cross University Library, commented, "Southern Cross University Library partners with our researchers to showcase and enhance the discoverability of research undertaken at the University. Esploro brings together all of a researcher's outputs, from a range of diverse sources, and presents them in a compelling manner to demonstrate engagement and impact."

Nadav Doron, Ex Libris vice president of research solutions, said, "We are delighted that the new research portal is now available for all institutions, and we are thrilled to see it live at our Esploro customer sites. The portal is a steppingstone to increasing the discoverability of institutional research expertise, facilitating collaboration, and enhancing funding."

About Ex Libris

Ex Libris, a ProQuest company, is a leading provider of cloud-based SaaS solutions that enable institutions and users to create, manage, and share knowledge. Ex Libris develops creative solutions that increase library productivity, maximize the impact of research activities, enhance teaching and learning, and drive student mobile engagement. Ex Libris serves over 7,500 customers in 90 countries. For more information, see our website and join us on LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.

Media Contact

Roni Shandalov

+97226499100

[email protected]

SOURCE Ex Libris
PALO ALTO, Calif., Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- NEXT Insurance , the leading digital insurtech company transforming small business insurance, today announced its strategic rebrand which will integrate small business owners from across the country into every part of the company's business, culture and ethos. NEXT's new brand ambition is inspired by the company's mission to help entrepreneurs thrive and is reflected through new creative work, still photography, visual assets, a website refresh and a commercial campaign to embolden small businesses to "Get Going." Additionally, the company will devote $4 million over the next three years to small businesses.

"NEXT's commitment to small businesses is more than just a tagline on our website. It's deeply ingrained into our culture," said Melanie Chase, Chief Marketing Officer at NEXT . "Beyond our visual rebrand, we've commissioned small business owners across the U.S. to develop our company apparel and team gifts like sweatshirts, notebooks, sustainable tote bags and custom patches. We've engaged independent photographers and videographers to help capture real small businesses for new visual brand assets and have worked with independent musicians to create custom on hold music. Small businesses are more than just our customers - they make up our identity."

A key aspect of NEXT's latest brand is to elevate small businesses and demonstrate the company's support in helping them " Get Going ." To bring this to life, NEXT partnered with local black and female-owned small businesses, independent musicians and other small business owners for activations to support its strategic rebrand. For example, NEXT purchased its corporate apparel from Stuzo Clothing , a woman-owned gender neutral street wear brand in Los Angeles, and licensed its "on hold" music directly from independent musicians across the country. Customers who contact the company's call center will enjoy songs from independent musicians as well as an exclusive artist introduction to each song.

"NEXT's decision to not only use Stuzo as its corporate apparel supplier but to feature our branding directly on the sweatshirts says so much about the company's commitment to small businesses," said Stoney Michelli, founder of Stuzo Clothing. "Very few companies provide this level of support to the small business community and I am excited to have a role in NEXT's latest rebrand."

Between the ongoing struggle of the legacy insurance industry's one-size-fits-all coverage and the immediate impact COVID-19 had on small businesses, NEXT's rebrand came at a critical time for small business owners. To better align the brand to its company ethos, NEXT partnered with independent strategy and design company COLLINS to bring to life and shape its small business-focused mission through a reimagined brand strategy, visual identity, logo, communications and website . Additionally, NEXT worked with global creative company BUCK and sound design company Barking Owl to create an animated advertising campaign to launch the new brand.

"At COLLINS, we work to bring out the best in the companies we work with. This was easy to do with NEXT because the company is so tightly aligned to its mission of helping small businesses thrive," said Brian Collins, Chief Creative Officer at COLLINS. "We incorporated small businesses' ambitions into our strategy and every detail of the rebrand and addressed the challenges head-on of traditional business insurance and how NEXT is changing that."

Visit NEXT's YouTube page to watch the company's latest commercials.

About NEXT Insurance:

NEXT Insurance is transforming small business insurance with simple, digital and affordable coverage tailored to the self-employed. Trusted by 300K business owners, NEXT offers policies that are easy to buy in 10 minutes or less and provides 24/7 access to Live Certificates of Insurance, Additional Insured, and more, with no extra fees. Revolutionizing a historically complicated insurance industry, NEXT utilizes AI and machine learning to simplify the purchasing process and drive down costs by up to 30% compared to traditional policies. Founded in 2016, the company is headquartered in Palo Alto, has received a total of $881 million in venture capital funding, is rated "A- Excellent" by AM Best and has been recognized by Forbes Fintech 50, JMP Securities InsurTech 50 and Forbes Best StartUp Employers. For more information visit NextInsurance.com. Stay up to date on the latest with NEXT on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and our blog.

MEDIA CONTACT

Kerry Ogata

Head of Corporate Communications

301-717-4224

[email protected]

SOURCE NEXT Insurance

Related Links

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"It's simple really, being at the Mill gives me joy. From a very young age I formed a bond with the property, the people and processes that make the Mill special," said Mark Rinker, the newly minted owner of the Arva Flour Mill. "I have recently retired as VP Sales with a pharmacy automation company and the timing was just right. When I approached the Matthews family with our vision for the property and the business, we found alignment immediately in preserving the property and legacy for future generations to enjoy. Keeping the rich history and traditions of the Mill intact are as important to me as any commercial success," added Rinker.

The Rinker family will continue to work closely with the Matthews family who have owned and operated the Mill for the last 100 years. Though there was extensive interest from numerous developers and alternate use cases from as far as China, Vancouver and Toronto, the Matthews family is pleased the Mill remains in local hands and will continue to operate.

"We had a lot of interest from multiple parties all over the world who wanted to re-develop the land, but ultimately, Mark's vision to respect and continue the legacy of what our family has built over the last 100 years was most important to us," said Mike Matthews, former Mill Owner. "We're thrilled that the Mill will continue to operate and is in local hands. We'll be around to continue to support Mark and his family with whatever they need. We couldn't be happier with how things worked out," added Matthews.

Growth, Modernization and Respecting The Environment

The Arva Flour Mill customer base is steadfast, loyal and longstanding and many have been coming to the Mill for generations. Approximately 100 individual customers visit the site each day and the Mill also has a few select retail partners dotted throughout Southwestern Ontario including Remark Fresh Markets in London and Windsor. Rinker is set to continue to honour and serve those customers, increase retail distribution, build the brand and grow the operation, including an investment in updating equipment and new infrastructure for new products. "We want to continue to honour and serve the existing customers that have kept this mill going for many generations while looking into buildings and equipment to serve new markets," shared Rinker. "We'll invest immediately in some automation to begin to mill gluten free flours. This will be done in a separate building with new and dedicated equipment to prevent cross contamination. Expansion will allow for more people to be able to come onsite and experience the magic of this place without changing the mill or its important natural environment," said Rinker.

Rinker also has a vision to partner longterm with a winery and/or distillery onsite to increase foot traffic to the property as well as expand distribution of the Arva Mills flour and dried good items beyond the on-site store via specialty retailers and farm-to-table partners. "There's a strong artisan and craft food movement in North America and we plan to play an active role in it," said Rinker.

Rinker is also investigating additional use cases for the dam, including ways to have the hydroelectric power from the dam power the entire property with an eventual goal of a net carbon zero footprint, a goal he says is well within reach. "This property is part of a very special ecosystem and we are taking our responsibility to steward the land very seriously", said Rinker. "Providing approval from key stakeholders, the water mill turbine will be repurposed to pair with a generator to make our own electricity. The goal is to totally offset current hydro use and be a net zero carbon food producer," added Rinker.

SOURCE Arva Flour Mill
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. and COPENHAGEN, Denmark, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Novo Nordisk Foundation and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard announced today the launch of the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Genomic Mechanisms of Disease, an initiative that will accelerate efforts to mine genetic data for insights into disease mechanismsand eventually rationally designed treatments.

Based at the Broad Institute in Cambridge, MA, and supported by a grant of up to $47.5 million from the Foundation, the Center will generate systematic datasets that will help researchers around the world understand how human genetic variants affect risk for common complex diseases. All datasets will be shared freely with the research community. A key activity of the Center is to launch and facilitate close collaborations between the Broad Institute and researchers at Danish universities, with initial focus on understanding type 2 diabetes and obesity and mapping human gene regulation. The Center will align with existing international efforts, sharing data, methodology, and tools to contribute to the roadmap of the International Common Disease Alliance, and working in common cause with investigators from other large-scale efforts such as the Accelerating Medicines Partnership in Common Metabolic Diseases and the Impact of Genomic Variation on Function consortia.

The research collaboration of the Center aims to advance patient-centered research and precision medicine. The Center will establish an exchange program to provide opportunities for Danish scientists to study genomic technologies at the Broad Institute. In turn, these collaborations will catalyze and contribute to expanding biomedical research in Denmark.

"With its leading universities and hospitals, Boston is renowned as an international epicenter for biomedical research and innovationand the Broad Institute has earned a reputation of being a key nexus in this rich ecosystem," said Niels-Henrik von-Holstein-Rathlou, senior vice president, biomedicine and health sciences, the Novo Nordisk Foundation. "By establishing this new center with the Broad Institute, we seek to help drive global research in health for the benefit of many."

"Starting with our roots in the Human Genome Project, the Broad community has long believed that international collaboration is critical to advancing our knowledge of human disease and getting benefits more quickly to patients," said Todd Golub, director of the Broad Institute. "The Center for Genomic Mechanisms of Disease is a natural extension of our deep commitment to global collaborations but also our pursuit of foundational research."

The new center will be directed by Broad Institute associate member Kasper Lage, who has also played an important role in the planning and development of the initiative since it was conceived in 2019.

"As someone who is both a Dane and a long-time member of the Broad Institute community, I am thrilled at the launch of this exciting new Center," said Lage, who is also an associate professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School; director of bioinformatics of the Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Surgery; and lead scientist at the Institute for Biological Psychiatry, Mental Health Services, Capital Region of Denmark. "This collaborative initiative will give the next generation of Danish scientists the opportunity to benefit from the Broad's unique technology platforms as well as our expertise in genomic technologies, gene regulation, and data science. I am grateful for the tremendous vision of the Novo Nordisk Foundation for this new type of collaborative initiative and to everyone there who made this exciting partnership possible."

Research will be carried out at the Broad Institute and at Danish institutions, with exchange of scientists and dedicated training programmes for Danish researchers.

The Center will also help nourish and develop the next generation of talented researchers. According to Juleen R. Zierath, executive director of the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research at the University of Copenhagen, who will join the Steering Committee of the center at the Broad Institute, "We are thrilled by the possibility of Danish scientists training at this center, where they can access and learn from Broad's leading scientific capabilitiesimporting new technologies and skills that will lead to new advances in precision medicine."

Initially, the Novo Nordisk Foundation has committed itself for a five-year period (2021-2026), with the possibility of extending its support of the centre.

About the Novo Nordisk Foundation

The Novo Nordisk Foundation is an independent Danish foundation with corporate interests. It has two objectives: 1) to provide a stable basis for the commercial and research activities of the companies in the Novo Group; and 2) to support scientific, humanitarian and social causes.

The vision of the Foundation is to contribute significantly to research and development that improves the lives of people and the sustainability of society. Since 2010, the Foundation has donated more than DKK 30 billion (4 billion), primarily for research at public institutions and hospitals in Denmark and the other Nordic countries. Read more at www.novonordiskfonden.dk/en

About the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard

The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard was founded in 2003 to empower this generation of creative scientists to transform medicine with new genome-based knowledge. The Broad Institute seeks to describe the molecular components of life and their connections; discover the molecular basis of major human diseases; develop effective new approaches to diagnostics and therapeutics; and disseminate discoveries, tools, methods and data openly to the entire scientific community.

Founded by MIT, Harvard and its affiliated hospitals, and the visionary Los Angeles philanthropists Eli and Edythe L. Broad, the Broad Institute includes faculty, professional staff and students from throughout the MIT and Harvard biomedical research communities and beyond, with collaborations spanning over a hundred private and public institutions in more than 40 countries worldwide. For further information about the Broad Institute, go to www.broadinstitute.org.

SOURCE Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard

Related Links

http://www.broadinstitute.org


"Allowing our youth in Orange County to ride the OC Bus for free will encourage a new generation of riders to discover the convenience and benefits of public transportation," said OCTA Chairman Andrew Do, also Chairman of the Orange County Board of Supervisors. "This program is good for our community, for our schools, and for our economy."

Also important, giving more youth access to shared rides reduces traffic congestion, taking cars off local roads and improving air quality in the process.

OCTA is working with school districts across Orange County to distribute the passes, giving parents the chance to request the pass for their children.

"Providing free public transportation to students who use this service to travel to and from school will serve as a vital resource for our families," said Santa Ana Unified School District Superintendent Jerry Almendarez. "We know many of our students rely on OCTA each day to commute not only to our campuses, but also to their jobs and other activities. This program will help further meet a need of young people in our community."

Approvals were granted from Caltrans and the California Air Resources Board (CARB), which will fund the pass through grants made possible by the California Climate Investments program, a statewide initiative that puts billions of Cap-and-Trade dollars to work reducing greenhouse gas emissions, strengthening the economy, and improving public health and the environment  particularly in disadvantaged communities.

The Youth Ride Free program is part of a phased campaign to encourage riders to return to OC Bus as the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic recedes. The free pass runs through February, at which time data will be reviewed for potential next steps.

Information: www.OCBus.com/YouthRideFree.

About OCTA: The Orange County Transportation Authority is the county transportation planning commission, responsible for funding and implementing transit and capital projects for a balanced and sustainable transportation system that reflects the diverse travel needs of the county's 34 cities and 3.2 million residents. With the mission of keeping Orange County moving, this includes freeways and express lanes, bus and rail transit, rideshare, commuter rail, environmental programs and active transportation.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Eric Carpenter (714) 560-5697

Megan Abba (714) 560-5671

SOURCE Orange County Transportation Authority

Related Links

www.octa.net


PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Odessa, the global leader in asset finance software, today announced an investment from Thomas H. Lee Partners, L.P. ("THL"), a premier private equity firm that invests in growth companies.

Odessa's architecture and design approach set it apart from existing equipment leasing and auto finance technologies by unifying siloed business teams and stakeholders to create a single system of insights, orchestration, and extensibility. This enables asset finance organizations to remain nimble and innovative in how they go to market, manage operations, and deliver customer value. Odessa customers realize significant value, including streamlined business operations, significant increases in deal velocity, data-based business decisioning, and omnichannel customer service.

"As the leader in asset finance technology, Odessa is ideally positioned to drive further customer-focused innovation and to unlock additional market opportunities," said Ganesh Rao, Managing Director and Head of Financial Services at THL and Mark Bean, Director at THL. "We are confident that they have the vision and track record to disrupt and define the future of financial services technology, and we are excited to partner with them to support this growth trajectory."

"We are grateful for the support of our employees that has fueled our success for more than two decades, and we are humbled by the confidence our customers and investors have in Odessa  but our vision goes further still," said Madhu Natarajan, Co-Founder + CEO of Odessa. "There is an enormous opportunity to reimagine the way asset finance companies scale and adapt to disrupting market forces and changing consumer demand. We have the platform, technology, team, and investment partner to be the operating system that powers the modern enterprise."

In the last year alone, Odessa has been Great Place to Work certified; named to the Inc. 5000 List for the second year in a row; named a leader in technology work culture as the Timmy Award winner for Philadelphia; and named a leader on the Most Innovative Companies list by Monitor Daily.

The investment seeks to catalyze Odessa's growth initiatives and further accelerate the company's platform roadmap and geographic expansion, including through M&A opportunities. To learn more about Odessa's vision for the future of technology for financial services, read Madhu's blog.

Houlihan Lokey served as M&A advisor to Odessa, with O'Melveny & Myers serving as its legal counsel and KPMG serving as financial advisor. Kirkland & Ellis served as legal advisor to THL, with Raymond James serving as its financial advisor and Oliver Wyman serving as commercial advisor.

About Odessa

Odessa is a software company exclusively focused in the leasing industry, and the developers of the Odessa Platform. Headquartered in Philadelphia, USA, Odessa's leasing solutions and workforce of 1000+ power a diverse customer base of asset finance companies globally. Odessa provides a powerful, end-to-end, extensible solution for lease and loan origination and portfolio management. The Odessa Platform further provides rich feature sets including low-code development, test automation, reporting and business intelligence to ensure organizations can more effectively align business and IT objectives. Learn more at www.odessainc.com.

About THL

Thomas H. Lee Partners, L.P. ("THL") is a premier private equity firm investing in middle market growth companies exclusively in three sectors: Financial Services, Healthcare and Technology & Business Solutions. THL couples deep sector expertise with dedicated internal operating resources to transform and build great companies of lasting value in partnership with management. The Firm's domain expertise and resources help to build great companies with an aim to accelerate growth, improve operations and drive long-term sustainable value. Since 1974, THL has raised more than $30 billion of equity capital, invested in over 160 companies and completed more than 500 add-on acquisitions representing an aggregate enterprise value at acquisition of over $210 billion. THL invests in automation companies through its flagship private equity fund and a dedicated automation fund.

SOURCE Odessa

Related Links

https://www.odessainc.com/


GUANGZHOU, China, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Onion Global Limited ("Onion Global", the "Group" or the "Company") (NYSE: OG), a next-generation lifestyle brand platform that incubates, markets and distributes the world's fresh, fashionable and future brands to young people in China and across Asia, today announced that it presented at the TradeUP Autumn E-Commerce Investment Conference on September 15, 2021.

The representative shared business insights and outlined the Company's strong capabilities of brand management and omni-channel operations. "As a brand-new e-commerce platform in the new e-commerce era, Onion Global has achieved extraordinary results by offering a wide range of tailored services, having extensive and expanding marketing channels, together with market leading brand incubation capabilities. We cooperate with strategic brand partners and third-parties in operating their brands while also running our own in-house private label brands. We now have a total of 4,195 brands on our platform as of the end of June, up from 2,904 at the end of 2019. The rapid increase in the number of brands working with us speaks to our strong abilities in new brand incubation and brand management, underpinned by our in-depth consumer interest research, continuous brand R&D investment, and our deep cultivation of omni-channel operations in both key opinion consumers (KOCs) private traffic and the public domain traffic pools."

"One major advantage that differentiates Onion Global from the rest of the e-commerce platforms is our ability to tap into huge private domain traffic pools, which is especially important in the context of the new e-commerce era where data has now become more fragmented and diversified. As of the end of second quarter 2021, we have an extensive community of over 730,000 KOCs, who creates impressions within their respective social network influencing consumers in terms of fashion trends, life quality and purchase decisions", the representative continued. "By analyzing the vast depth of data that we possess on consumers' buying habits and preferences from our dynamic interaction with them, we have built a strong brand database with strong monetization capabilities."

"Furthermore, we have further accelerated business growth by leveraging our omni-channel marketing strategy. Our 2021 Beauty Carnival Shopping Festival in early September generated a spectacular result with a total GMV of over RMB222 million going through our omni-channels during the first three days. With the help of our 730,000+ KOCs promoting the brands on social media and interacting with their fans, the brands at the Festival reached hundreds of millions of users at an exponential speed." The representative added, "In addition, we have actively utilized big data in generating more revenue opportunities, through analyzing the consumption data we possess, we were able to develop private-label brands that precisely target the consumption needs of our users. As such, the total number of our private-label brands increased to 27, with GMV up 198% year-on-year during the first half of 2021. And of course, our impressive growth is underpinned by our effective supply chain network, where we handled up to 2.5 million parcels in the first half of this year, some of which have reached our customers within 24 hours at the earliest".

"Onion Global has now grown to become a brand management company with a complete brand matrix that integrates omni-channel marketing and distribution solutions. Moving forward, the Company will further develop its business by growing its strong brand database, improving its channels, sticking to the international expansion strategy, and further investing in technology and innovation", commented by the representative.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements. These statements are made under the "safe harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about the Company's beliefs and expectations, the Company's forecasts, general observation of the industry and business outlook, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties and a number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "may," "will," "expects," "anticipates," "target," "aim," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes," "potential," "estimates" "continue," "is/are likely to," or other similar statements. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in Onion Global's filings with the SEC. All information provided in this press release and in the attachments is as of the date of this press release, and Onion Global does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement, except as required under applicable law.

About Onion Global Limited

Onion Global Limited (NYSE: OG) is a next-generation lifestyle brand platform that incubates, markets and distributes the world's fresh, fashionable and future brands, which we refer to as "3F brands," to young people in China and across Asia. The Company's mission is to be the dream factory of lifestyle brands for young people. The Company's platform offering an integrated solution to develop, market and distribute new and inspiring branded products, thereby reshaping the lifestyle shopping and consumer culture in China. Onion Global Limited has been listed on New York Stock Exchange since May 2021.

For more information, please visit: http://ir.msyc.com/.

Investor Relations Contact

In China:

Onion Global Ltd.

Investor Relations

E-mail: [email protected]

Christensen

Mr. Eric Yuan

E-mail: [email protected]

Tel: +86-10-5900-1548

In United States:

Christensen

Ms. Linda Bergkamp

E-mail: [email protected]

Tel: +1-480-614-3004

SOURCE Onion Global Limited

Related Links

http://ir.msyc.com/


SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Orro, creators of the professional-grade top-of-the-line Orro Smart Living System, today announced the next evolution of their Hybrid Lighting solution extending Orro's automatic lighting, App Control and scene functionality to Lutron Caseta, Leviton, LIFX, TP Link and other SmartThings enabled products. Orro's smart switches already provide integrated control of popular smart home products from companies including Control4, Sonos, Nest, Ring, Ecobee, providing installers with a true human-centric lighting system that unifies the many smart home devices they're already installing.

"Orro's human-centric intelligence can now be applied to devices from Lutron Caseta, Leviton and more, providing a unified, powerful smart living experience for homeowners," said Patrick "PG" Gall, head of channel development, Orro. "In addition, this update allows professionals to easily integrate more lighting sources such as table and floor lamps, into Orro's smart living system, unifying the lighting that customers already have in their home."

Orro's Smart Living systems and products are specifically designed for use by professional installers, providing an industry-leading unified and powerful solution that meets the demand for advanced smart home systems at a mainstream price. The easy-to-install system, which replaces a standard light switch, unifies a smart home, automatically implementing perfect lighting, with recallable lighting scenes, room-to-room intercom and more. By unifying smart living experiences around a home's lighting control system, Orro provides professionals with a single smart home solution, accessible via touch or voice  without having to install and configure additional hardware.

To learn more about Orro features and solutions for professional home builders, electricians and installers, please visit: https://GetOrro.com/pro

Orro Smart Living System, features and functionality:

Install in place of any standard light switch

Designed for professional builders and installers

Control via Orro's integrated touchscreen, voice  or the Orro app

Vibrant color display with intuitive smartphone-like swipe and touch interaction

Integrated motion, sound and light sensors enable advanced automation and security

Works with existing light bulbs  make any light smart

"Works with Sonos" Certification

Nest Integration

Alexa Built-in Integration

Energy saving Eco Mode

Wellness functionality provides optimal light levels throughout the day

Control and access thermostats, door locks, doorbells, speakers and more

Modular and expandable

Upgradable to meet evolving standards and provide new functionality

All-encompassing unified smart home control

Easy Commissioning  setup the Orro system directly from a mobile phone

About Orro

Built to Meet the Rigors and Requirements of Professional Home Builders, Electricians and Installers, the Orro Smart Living System upgrades homes with a simple-to-use, unified smart home system providing Top-of-the-Line quality and features homeowners demand. With Orro, users get automated smart lighting, smart home controls, wellness-focused lighting schedules, home monitoring, and energy-saving features that seamlessly integrate with core smart and automation systems  creating a home that works for you. For more information, visit Orro on the web at: www.GetOrro.com

SOURCE Orro

Related Links

http://www.GetOrro.com


SAN DIEGO, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Pacific Western Bank today announced it has provided a $25 million debt facility to existing client, Truvian Sciences ("Truvian"), a healthcare company paving the way in the blood testing industry with its automated diagnostic system that provides lab-accurate results at point-of care. The company will utilize the facility to accelerate growth initiatives and to further advance the development of its automated benchtop blood testing system.

Based in San Diego, California, Truvian is dedicated to improving healthcare by offering convenient and affordable routine health testing that requires one small blood sample and delivers results in minutes. With the company's automated blood testing system, patients receive accurate health insights, allowing for informed healthcare decisions. Truvian's technology is on track to change the way blood testing is conducted, lowering patient cost and democratizing patient's healthcare data. The company was founded in 2015 and is backed by Domain Associates, GreatPoint Ventures and several other venture funds.

"We are proud to continue our partnership with Pacific Western Bank. They have been an important partner to Truvian from the very early stages of our development and have always understood the long-term potential of the product and business we are building," said Jeff Hawkins, President and CEO of Truvian.

"Pacific Western Bank is fortunate to continue our strong relationship with Truvian by providing additional debt capital on the heels of their $105 million Series C financing round," added Scott Foote, head of Pacific Western Bank's west life sciences practice. "Truvian's revolutionary blood testing system will make routine blood tests convenient, affordable and actionable for patients addressing a very large market."

About Pacific Western Bank

Pacific Western Bank is a commercial bank with over $34 billion in assets headquartered in Los Angeles, California, with an executive office in Denver, Colorado. The Bank has 70 full-service branches located in California, with one branch located in Durham, North Carolina, and one branch located in Denver, Colorado. We offer venture banking including a comprehensive suite of financial services focused on entrepreneurial and venture-backed businesses and their capital and private equity investors. We also offer Community Banking and National Lending services. To learn more about Pacific Western Bank, visit www.pacwest.com, or follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

About Truvian Sciences

Truvian is a healthcare company at the intersection of diagnostics and consumer technology. Its automated benchtop system is being developed to produce lab-accurate results for a full-suite of health tests using a small sample of blood. Powered by patented technologies and intelligent integration, Truvian's system delivers a convenient and affordable alternative to off-site labs, providing immediate insights to inform healthcare decisions. Truvian was founded by individuals with deep domain experience in healthcare, diagnostics and consumer technology. Today, the team has expanded to include top scientists, engineers, and healthcare business leaders each bringing specialized expertise to drive Truvian's mission of making routine health testing convenient, affordable and actionable. For more information, visit www.truvianhealth.com.

Media Contact

Kristen Mboijana | Pacific Western Bank | [email protected]

SOURCE Pacific Western Bank

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LOS ANGELES, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- With the back-to-school season and Fall upon us, Pacsun is continuing its dedication to youth and its contribution to STEM to the Future through dedicated programs under STEM to the Future's upcoming after-school program. With support of Pacsun through their three-year commitment, the organizations will lead the creative design program for Black and Lantinx youth in 4th - 7th grade.

"Fostering youth is a core value at Pacsun, and being able to partake in a school program and have an impact on kids' education and learning, alongside such a remarkable organization like STEM to the Future, is very inspiring for us," said Brie Olson, President of Pacsun.

"At STEM to the Future we believe Black and Latinx youth deserve the opportunity to reimagine and create a world they want and deserve. A world where people come before profits and a world where they can use their talents and passions to liberate themselves and their communities. The Bloom Initiative supports the youth as they develop their own brand that is informed by and meets the needs of their community." Jacob Adams, Founder and Executive Director STEM to the Future.

As part of the creative design program, Students will partake in a variety of creative design methods and practices including:

Identity and Design Methods: involving Color Theory Emotion, Mood Boards, and programs like Photoshop and Illustrator.

Community Research: Students will create surveys, collect, and analyze data from their community to learn more about unmet needs as well as ways in which the community is thriving.

Crowd Sourced Design-informed Design: Students will identify themes and trends from their community research and use that data to create a brand that raises awareness and addresses an unmet need in their community.

By the end of this year's program, Students will use graphic design, storytelling, and knowledge of sustainable fabrics to launch their own capsule through an immersive pop-up. The methods and practices prepare Students and guide them to create their own brand to raise awareness and address social justice issues that are impacting their communities.

A number of Los Angeles artists and designers will also support the students throughout the program as they witness how art can be a form of activism while learning things like sewing, graphic design, photography and curating exhibits.

Not only will STEM to the Future implement this program in Los Angeles, but they will also be training other educators across the country on this program. STEM to the Future looks to join, foster and grow the community of educators who are creating student-led learning experiences that are rooted in justice and freedom.

The after school program officially launches Wednesday, September 15th at St. Elmo Mid-City After School in LA and runs through September 2021 - May 2022. Each topic will be 6-8 weeks long, with Wednesday classes in person and Thursday classes on Zoom. After recently launching Pacsun's first full gender free brand Colour Range which includes a kids category, the brand stays committed to embracing positivity and inclusivity. The alignment with the STEM to the Future program is another unique way to showcase more of this go-forward initiative with the youth generation.

Learn more about Stem to the Future and their work at stemtothefuture.org and on Instagram @stemtothefuture .

SOURCE Pacsun
HOUSTON, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- PermitUsNow, a construction industry award winning permit expediting firm serving residential and commercial clients in Texas and across the US, today released 5 Things to Know About When to Pull a Building Permit after Home Damaged from Hurricane Nicholas. This general guide is designed to provide homeowners with practical tips to help when starting to make repairs or rebuilding their homes.

Helen Callier, President of PermitUsNow stays abreast of changes and works diligently with Plan Reviewers on behalf of residential clients at City of Houston Permitting Center We know the importance of being recognized as a trusted resource and PermitUsNow's branded fleet of trucks cross the state of Texas helping team members to serve residential and commercial clients from the Texas Gulf Coast to the Austin Hill Country to North Texas and to the Golden Triangle.

"We live in Houston and work across the Texas Gulf Coast; and it is important to us to help our neighbors to recover quickly after Hurricane Nicholas. We know that permitting is confusing to a lot of people and we're here to answer any questions." Moruf Jimoh, AAIA, Technical Manager of PermitUsNow

Moruf with other PermitUsNow team members are managing the 1.844PERMIT.4 company hotline to respond to homeowner inquiries. Also, homeowners along the Texas Gulf Coast can visit https://permitusnow.com/building-permit-expediting/ to review tips on when a building permit is required after incurring damage to residential property and when permits are not required.

In addition, we know from experience that contractors rush in to assist homeowners after hurricanes; and PermitUsNow encourages homeowners to verify if trade contractors are licensed to work in Texas. For electricians and mechanical (HVAC) contractors, homeowners can visit www.tdlr.texas.gov to check licenses and to minimize any chance of being exploited.

"Rebuilding a home damaged from a hurricane can be tough, but it is especially challenging while the pandemic continues; and homeowners are being squeezed financially. So, for us, providing simple tips on when a permit is required is one way we can help." Helen Callier, President of PermitUsNow

For years, PermitUsNow has provided permitting support to residential property owners after hurricanes. From Hurricane Harvey to Hurricane Ida in Louisiana; and now team members are standing in the gap to assist homeowners impacted by Hurricane Nicholas. Knowing when a building permit is required or when a permit is not required can help homeowners save time and money plus eliminate headaches when making home repairs.

About Permit Us Now

Founded in September 2016, PermitUsNow is the go-to one-stop building permitting firm that helps Architects, Contractors and Project Owners to save time and money plus start construction in a timely manner. PermitUsNow covers over 500 jurisdictions in Texas and has a national presence. PermitUsNow has offices in Houston, Dallas, and Austin, Texas and Jacksonville, FL. PermitUsNow manages permitting from design phase to close out for commercial, institutional, and residential projects with a team of recognized experts. PermitUsNow was also recently recognized by the Regional Hispanic Contractors Association with the LUNA Award in 2020; and by SubContractors USA in 2021 as Top Contractor of the Year.

Through its parent company, PermitUsNow is a certified minority and woman-owned business. Clients of PermitUsNow include H-E-B, JOERIS, Burns and McDonnell, United Airlines, Planet Fitness, and Brake Check.

Learn more on PermitUsNow, LLC, visit http://www.permitusnow.com or follow @permitusnow, on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Media Contact

Len Call

281-312-9981

[email protected]

SOURCE PermitUsNow

Related Links

http://www.permitusnow.com


NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Perspire Sauna Studio, the nation's fastest-growing infrared sauna studio franchise, announced today that it has signed over 50 franchise agreements. Perspire, which elevates the mind and body wellness of its guests through first-of-its-kind infrared lighting systems, currently has 19 studios open nationwide.

The recently signed franchise agreements will bring Perspire to several new markets including San Diego, Chicago, Denver, Phoenix, Des Moines, Colorado Springs, and Sarasota, FL, with three locations planned in San Diego, California and Scottsdale, Arizona, four locations planned in the Chicagoland area, and four locations planned in Southern Colorado. New locations are also planned in Santa Monica; Brentwood, California; McDonough, Georgia. Several new franchisees behind these deals have diverse backgrounds in wellness, franchising, media communications & consulting, and entrepreneurship.

To help the brand prosper as it grows rapidly, Perspire has hired Alexandria "Lex" Gascon to be the new VP of Marketing. Lex graduated from Arizona State University magna cum laude and has 13 years of experience in the fitness industry, which includes leading a domestic and international franchise marketing team. Most recently Lex led an emerging fitness brand through the COVID-19 pandemic, successfully opening 14 locations, doubling the number of total locations.

"This is a landmark day for us as we reach another significant milestone," said Lee Braun, CEO of Perspire Sauna Studio. "Seeing our footprint expand into several new states and prominent markets is surreal and proof that people are prioritizing their health and wellness now more than ever. We're thrilled to have such a talented marketing professional like Lex join the Perspire team to continue riding that wave."

Founded in 2010 in Costa Mesa, CA, Perspire began franchising in 2018 after operating 3 corporate studios in the Orange County area of California for 8 years. The brand's advanced sauna technology, along with its medical grade and high intensity red light therapy bar, are what set them apart in the industry. The experience has demonstrated the ability to improve sleep, boost immunity, burn calories, reduce inflammation, and simply offer a space for people to allow their minds and bodies to feel better.

With its simple, yet effective business model that includes low costs, minimal labor and pandemic proof services, Perspire is actively seeking new franchisees in the following states: California, Florida, Texas, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Although no special licensing, skills or training is required, ideal candidates have professional leadership or managerial experience with a passion for health and wellness.

To learn more about Perspire Sauna Studio and franchising opportunities, visit https://franchise.perspiresaunastudio.com/

About Perspire Sauna Studio:

Perspire Sauna Studio is the fastest-growing infrared sauna and color light therapy franchise in the U.S. The science-based, technology-driven, and wellness-seeking company provides guests a modern-day experience to a centuries-old practice, allowing their body and mind to feel more refreshed after each session. Co-owned by Lee Braun and Ken Arsenian, Perspire's goal is to expand to major markets throughout the U.S. to further instill their vision of making infrared wellness accessible to all.

Founded in 2010 and based in Southern California, Perspire currently offers franchise opportunities to qualifying entrepreneurs. For more information, please visit www.perspiresaunastudio.com, and follow the brand on social media @perspiresaunastudio. For franchising information, please contact cory@perspiresaunastudio.com.

Media contact:

Matt Igleski

Fishman Public Relations

847-945-1300 or [email protected]

SOURCE Perspire Sauna Studio

Related Links

https://www.perspiresaunastudio.com


"My promise to the reader is to hold nothing back and speak only the truth as I have seen it," said Peter Navarro. "History and the American people deserve no less."

In Trump Time is available for preorder now on Amazon: [Link to purchase]

For regular updates please visit: https://peternavarro.com/

Media Contact: [email protected]

About Peter Navarro

Peter Navarro holds a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University and was a professor emeritus of economics and public policy at the University of California-Irvine for more than 20 years. He served as Assistant to the President and Director of the Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy at the White House during the Trump Administration. He is the author of numerous books, including his China trilogy: The Coming China Wars (2006), Death By China (2011), and Crouching Tiger (2015). At the White House, Dr. Navarro advised President Trump on policies to increase economic growth, decrease trade deficits, and strengthen America's defense industrial base. He also helped increase foreign military sales to allied nations, and reformed conventional arms transfer and unmanned aerial systems policies.

SOURCE Peter Navarro

Related Links

www.peternavarro.com


PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Pew Charitable Trusts announced today the six pairs of researchers who will make up its 2021 class of Innovation Fund investigators.

These scientistsalumni of Pew's biomedical programs in the United States and Latin Americawill partner on interdisciplinary research to tackle some of the most pressing questions in human biology and disease. By combining their expertise in subjects ranging from microbiology to genetics and from immunology to developmental biology, these researchers will work to advance scientific discovery and improve human health.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the critical role innovative biomedical research plays in addressing global health problems," said Molly Irwin, vice president for research and science at The Pew Charitable Trusts. "Pew is proud to support the 2021 class of Innovation Fund investigators, who together will seek to answer some of the most pressing questions in health and science."

For more than 35 years, Pew has encouraged collaboration among its diverse community of biomedical scientists, culminating in the launch of the Innovation Fund in 2017. The fund's award criteria were developed to promote synergy among program alumni, motivating researchers to collaborate on new proposals. All alumni holding assistant professor positions or higher are eligible to apply for the award, which is supported by the Kathryn W. Davis Peace by Pieces Fund.

This year's Innovation Fund teams and research projects are:

Paola A. Haeger Soto, Ph.D., 2010 Pew Latin American fellow; Catholic University of the North, Chile

Adrian R. Krainer, Ph.D., 1992 Pew biomedical scholar; Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

Haeger Soto and Krainer will examine the mechanisms through which alcohol consumption during pregnancy leads to neurodevelopmental disabilities, such as fetal alcohol syndrome.

Deborah J. Lenschow, M.D., Ph.D., 2008 Pew biomedical scholar; Washington University in St. Louis

Gabrielle Kardon, Ph.D., 2006 Pew biomedical scholar; University of Utah

Lenschow and Kardon will study how the Chikungunya virus, a mosquito-borne pathogen that causes fever, rash, and arthritis in humans, leads to chronic and persistent symptoms even after infection subsides.

Coleen T. Murphy, Ph.D., 2006 Pew biomedical scholar; Princeton University

Roberto Ricardo Grau, Ph.D., 1994 Pew Latin American fellow; National University of Rosario, Argentina

Murphy and Grau will explore how beneficial bacteria in the gut influence age-related genes.

David R. Sherwood, Ph.D., 2007 Pew biomedical scholar; Duke University

Kenneth D. Poss, Ph.D., 2006 Pew biomedical scholar; Duke University

Sherwood and Poss will investigate the coordinated signaling events that take place within the body during tissue repair and regeneration.

Juan E. Ugalde, Ph.D., 2004 Pew Latin American fellow; University of San Martin, Argentina

Carlos O. Arregui, Ph.D., 1991 Pew Latin American fellow; University of San Martin, Argentina

Ugalde and Arregui will explore the role of bacterial outer membrane vesiclesspherical buds of the bacterial membrane that are enriched with enzymes and toxinsin delivering and introducing virulent factors to host cells.

Elcin Unal, Ph.D., 2014 Pew biomedical scholar; University of California, Berkeley

Gloria A. Brar, Ph.D., 2016 Pew biomedical scholar; University of California, Berkeley

Unal and Brar will investigate the stress response pathways in regulating cellular aging and longevity.

The Pew Charitable Trusts is driven by the power of knowledge to solve today's most challenging problems. Learn more at pewtrusts.org.

Contact:

Erin Davis

202-540-6677

[email protected]

SOURCE The Pew Charitable Trusts

Related Links

www.pewtrusts.org


The new report conducted by INFLUENCE|SG details how the unprecedented events of the past eighteen months  including a global pandemic, a movement for racial and social equity, a contentious U.S. presidential election and more  have altered millennials' willingness to address social issues. Researchers found that the social issues prompting civic action have become highly personal for millennials. As uncertainty and fear are keeping some away from civic participation, many others are devoting time to educating themselves about social issues they find relevant to their own lives. COVID-19, mental health, climate change, employment, healthcare and fair wages topped the list of issues that millennials care the most about.

"The pandemic has shifted the way in which millennials approach civic life in a profound manner," said Natalye Paquin, president and CEO of Points of Light. "The events of the past year have galvanized this generation to learn more about the issues, get involved in their local communities and take action to create a better world. Millennials also believe that companies should take a stand on social issues, meaning corporations need to spend time learning and getting involved in the important issues in our world."

The study revealed several key themes on the millennial perspective on civic life:

Millennials view social issues through a very personal lens. Whereas social issues used to be something they volunteered for to help other people, they now see themselves as among those affected.

A large segment of civically active millennials is comprised of white, married, Midwestern males, ages 35-40 who are earning more than $100,000 a year.

a year. Another large segment of civically active millennials is comprised of BIPOC females in the South, aged 25-29 who hold four-year degrees, but earn less than $50,000 a year at full-time jobs.

a year at full-time jobs. With few exceptions, "spent time learning more about the issue" was the number-one action millennials took to support social issues followed by "used social media" and "changed purchasing."

Almost 50% of millennials believe more in civic engagement now than before the pandemic, 69% are more likely to volunteer, and 85% think people should help their community and the world.

Millennials believe companies should be actively involved in social issues, and two-thirds visit corporate websites at least somewhat often to learn about their efforts. Black American males, especially, think companies should meet with consumers about the effects of their products and services.

The report also supports Points of Light's Civic Circle. The Civic Circle is a framework to help individuals understand that doing good comes in many forms and to connect them with opportunities to influence social issues. This framework also helps organizations  including businesses, nonprofits and government agencies  identify the pathways to involvement their employees can seek.

"Organizations will have to adopt new mindsets about their communications. Instead of sharing the latest need with a call to action, entities must realize they are reaching out to people who feel personally affected and want to learn more," the report states. "Rather than asking millennials to help you reach a goal, you'll need to ask millennials what they need and how you can work alongside each other to have the biggest impact."

On October 7, 2021 from 1:00-2:00 PM ET, Points of Light will host a special webinar to discuss key findings and the full report. Click here to register. You can view the full millennial civic engagement report here. You can also find more information on Points of Light here.

About Points of Light

Points of Light is a nonpartisan, global nonprofit organization that inspires, equips, and mobilizes millions of people to take action that changes the world. We envision a world in which every individual discovers the power to make a difference, creating healthy communities in vibrant, participatory societies. Through 177 affiliates across 38 countries, and in partnership with thousands of nonprofits and corporations, Points of Light engages 5 million volunteers in 16 million hours of service each year. We bring the power of people to bear where it's needed most. For more information, visit www.pointsoflight.org.

About INFLUENCE|SG

INFLUENCE|SG is an advisory firm focused on helping companies and causes bolster their social change initiatives by informing through research, guiding through strategy and connecting through new partnerships. We create and drive involvement in our clients' social change work. influencesg.com

Media Contacts:

Meghann Gibbons

[email protected]

404.731.2673



Noah Gardy

[email protected]

212.819.4817

SOURCE Points of Light

Related Links

https://www.pointsoflight.org


PHOENIX and SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- In response to the needs of older adults for more convenient ways to receive healthcare services, MMM, the leading and pioneering plan in the Medicare Advantage (MA) segment in Puerto Rico, announced the launch of its Virtual Appointment (Cita Virtual in Spanish), which is powered by the eVisit Enterprise Virtual Care Platform. This is the only virtual care service for Medicare Advantage plan members in Puerto Rico in which the automated system schedules a virtual visit with the patient's primary doctor, or if his/her own doctor is not available, it can guarantee an appointment with another provider in MMM's network.

In contrast to other MA plans, with Cita Virtual, access is easy, direct, and achieved through the MMM mobile application; there is no need to connect to another external application to request the service.

This innovative telehealth service, at no cost to members, allows them to get medical care through a remote video visit from the safety and comfort of their home, which is particularly convenient as the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic continue.

"Cita Virtual makes it easier to access care as it ensures that patients connect to their doctor via phone, computer, or tablet and use the video camera so they can see each other instantly. In addition to follow-up consultations and medical evaluations, members can get medical orders, for example, for lab tests, x-rays, or preventive or diagnostic tests, review clinical documents, and obtain electronic prescriptions for medications," explained Orlando Gonzalez, president of MMM.

An MMM member will be able to check the availability of his/her doctor and schedule future appointments. Once an appointment has been made with his/her doctor, the member can receive alerts or notifications to his/her email and/or cell phone about cancellations, confirmations, and provider delays. The eVisit platform supports the need for Spanish language for MMM and also provides technical support in Spanish as well.

Virtual Care, also known as telehealth or telemedicine, makes it easier for bedridden or home-bound patients, those without transportation, or who live in rural areas far from doctors' offices and hospitals to get medical care. This is also convenient for all who prefer to hold virtual consultations from home for common symptoms that do not require an in-person visit or an emergency room, such as sinusitis, allergies, respiratory conditions, sore throat, influenza or the common cold, nausea, vomiting, indigestion, and muscle pain or spasms, among others, according to MMM experts.

eVisit is a HIPAA-compliant platform and as with in-person visits with physicians and other providers, Cita Virtual guarantees the protection of the members' privileged and confidential health information, as established by HIPAA law.

eVisit is an end-to-end platform and the new Cita Virtual service facilitates the work of physicians by giving them the opportunity to perform various basic tasks for their greater convenience and in compliance with HIPAA regulations. Among these tasks are: scheduling appointments on the spot, instant messages, direct connectivity to the portal or application, attachment of documents, and electronic prescriptions.

"At MMM, we continue innovating and identifying options for our members to receive the best service and stay in optimal health. The COVID-19 pandemic, difficulties in coordinating transportation, or even patients' hesitance to go to the doctor's office, may keep some members from taking care of their conditions or illnesses. MMM Cita Virtual is an investment that exceeds $5 million. Developed by eVisit, MMM Cita Virtual aims to strengthen the relationship between doctors and patients, and lower healthcare costs," noted Gonzalez.

"eVisit is on a mission to simplify healthcare delivery to everyone, everywhere. In our early conversations with MMM, it was clear that simplifying the delivery of patient care was a crucial component for their organization. Naturally this led to a strong partnership and we are pleased to be the foundational and flexible technology for MMM's Cita Virtual offering," said Bret Larsen, Co-Founder and CEO, eVisit. "Given MMM's focus on a senior population, it was important that this offering be delivered via MMM's current application and in Spanish. Through our flexible architecture and superior integration layer, we were able to integrate the end-to-end virtual care experience of eVisit within their app, as well as launched Spanish language in our platform."

About MMM Healthcare, LLC

MMM Healthcare, LLC (MMM) is the leading and pioneer plan in the Medicare Advantage segment in Puerto Rico. On a national level, MMM, with its parent company, InnovaCare, is among the top ten Medicare Advantage plans by total membership. Focused on prevention and on the well-being of the Medicare and Medicaid beneficiary population, it has transformed the patients' experience with the implementation of specialized programs that encompass coordinated care for both physical and mental health. With a network of more than 10,000 healthcare providers and more than 12 offices around the Island, MMM has received multiple awards at the state and federal levels. For more information, visit: www.mmmpr.com. MMM Healthcare, LLC, complies with applicable Federal civil rights laws and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability, or sex.

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 .

eVisit Media Contact:

Mardi Larson: 612.384.4383

[email protected]

SOURCE eVisit

Related Links

https://evisit.com


NEW YORK, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- ARTXPUZZLES today announces the one-year anniversary celebration with the launch of ARTXARTISTS, a new online OVR gallery designed exclusively for ARTXPUZZLES, presenting curated exhibitions and artists' projects from all around the globe. ARTXPUZZLES initiative was originally conceived in September 2020 to support artists during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis through an online sale benefit of Collector Edition Jigsaw Puzzles and continues to expand the mission with new partnerships including ARTSY, Phillips Auction House and multiple art museum stores.

Verbier 3-D Foundation - The Halston Archive at Phillips Auction House, Women's Alzheimer's Movement Capsule Collection | Photo Credits: ARTXPUZZLES: PUZZLES WITH PURPOSE Artist Louise Lawler AXP Collector Edition, Spencer Tunick ARTXPUZZLES Collector Edition, Artist Idris Khan ARTXPUZZLES Collector Edition, ARTXPUZZLES: PUZZLES WITH PURPOSE | Photo Credits: ARTXPUZZLES

Organized by ARTXPUZZLES: PUZZLES WITH PURPOSE, this important one-year anniversary celebration takes an innovative approach with a new unique 3D experience. ARTXPUZZLES was created in 2020 in close collaboration with over 140 contemporary artists from across the globe supporting artist studios, existing wider artist relief efforts and causes of personal social and economic concern to participating artists. To that end, a percentage of all proceeds from sales of both artwork and AXP Collector Editions will directly benefit the artists' chosen charities.

Highlights of the launch of the ARTXPUZZLES Anniversary Celebration include:

ARTXARTISTS OVR GALLERY designed by a top European design firm presents a new and innovative virtual experience. The specially designed walk-through galleries platform ARTXARTISTS OVR Gallery will be live to collectors, contemporary art lovers and puzzle enthusiasts starting on September 21st.

ARTXPUZZLES announces Verbier 3-D Foundation Capsule Collection, Switzerland just in time for ARTBASEL. Curator Alexa Jeanne Kusber selection includes noted artist Natalie Ball whose proceeds support the Klamath Native American Community.

Halston Archive X Phillips Auction Two special ARTXPUZZLES Collector Editions auction lots supporting the Halston Archive Scholarship Fund, currently on view until Sep 16th at Phillips Auction House, NYC.

Highlighted Editions at ARTXPUZZLES: Idris Khan's campfire-scented Victorian cut wooden puzzle "The Old Tune"; Kay Rosen's "Big Talk"; and Marilyn Minter's "Wet Kiss." Also actor/artist Billy Zane's first painting, "Telemundo", created on the set of the film Titantic.

ARTXPUZZLES can now be found at important museum institutions stores such as MAD Museum, MCA Chicago, Dallas Art Museum, Brooklyn Museum, Westport MOCA, and Whitney Museum of Art.

Website: www.artxpuzzles.com

PR Contact:

Bradbury Albert

[email protected]

347-851-7065

SOURCE ARTXPUZZLES
NEW YORK, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- A new report by international human rights organization Equality Now reveals how rape laws across the Americas are insufficient, inconsistent, and not systematically enforced, and put women, adolescents, and girls at heightened risk of sexual violence.

Many rape survivors are prevented from accessing justice due to sex, gender, class and racial discrimination. The problem is exacerbated by harmful gender stereotypes that blame victims, normalize sexual violence, and fuel widespread underreporting of cases.

Rape laws across the Americas insufficient, inconsistent, and poorly enforced, putting women, girls and adolescents at heightened risk of sexual violence

Meanwhile, perpetrators escape punishment due to gaps in protection, loopholes in the law, shortfalls in implementation, and wholesale failure of the criminal justice system to adequately process cases of sexual violence.

Failure to Protect: How Discriminatory Sexual Violence Laws and Practices are Hurting Women, Girls and Adolescents in the Americas analyzes country specific rape laws and policies in 43 jurisdictions across North America, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean, and calls on governments to take urgent action to improve access to justice for survivors and end impunity for perpetrators.

In-depth analysis by Equality Now reveals that the majority of rape laws across the Americas fall short of international human rights standards and that there is a repeated failure to implement the laws and protocols that do exist to protect women and girls. Accordingly, survivors of sexual violence do not have adequate access to justice.

Critically, legal protection gaps across the region leave adolescent girls especially vulnerable to being preyed upon and subjected to discrimination.

One of the most common forms of this is estupro, a type of provision that is applied in circumstances where adults rape or sexually abuse adolescents above the legal age of consent through "deceit or seduction." This discriminatory law mislabels rape and results in penalties that are not commensurate with the severity of the crime and are far lower than are applicable for rape. Usually, such provisions are found in places where the definition of rape is based on the use of force, rather than lack of consent; both of these problems must also be addressed.

Estupro and similar provisions, rooted in outdated perceptions about chastity, morality, and female sexuality, were found in 17 out of the 43 jurisdictions analyzed in the report. Examples of estupro provisions include:

The penalty for raping someone under 14 and over 18 in Bolivia is 15-20 years, for adolescents 14-18 years old the penalty for estupro is three-six years.

is 15-20 years, for adolescents 14-18 years old the penalty for is three-six years. In Paraguay , there is no prison sentence for the rape of an adolescent 14-16 years old under the estupro laws, for children and adults rape carries a four-15 year sentence.

, there is no prison sentence for the rape of an adolescent 14-16 years old under the laws, for children and adults rape carries a four-15 year sentence. In the US state of Virginia , "carnal knowledge" of a child between the ages of 13-15 without the use of force is classified as a separate offense to rape, with a potential sentence of two-10 years imprisonment compared to five years to life.

In addition to discriminatory laws against adolescents, in-depth discussions carried out by researchers with survivors, activists, and lawyers identified the following barriers:

Limited definitions for rape that require proof of violence or struggle; Dearth of consent-based definitions of rape (only six out of 43 jurisdictions have comprehensive consent-based definitions); Failure to fully criminalize marital or intimate partner rape; Statutes of limitation which cut short the time by which rape cases may be filed; Failure to effectively implement sexual violence laws.

"Discriminatory rape laws not only impede women and girls' access to justice, but they reinforce harmful stereotypes about victims of sexual violence," says Barbara Jimenez-Santiago, Latin America and the Caribbean Representative at Equality Now and one of the primary authors of the report. "Governments across the Americas must act now to ensure that women, adolescents, and girls are not burdened by discriminatory laws."

The report calls on governments across the Americas to implement comprehensive and inclusive measures that effectively address sexual and gender-based violence, including:

Improve Protections in the Law: Including a clear definition of rape that is based on consent and not on the presence of force, and the removal of estupro and estupro -like provisions.

Including a clear definition of rape that is based on consent and not on the presence of force, and the removal of and -like provisions. Improve Access to Justice Under the Law: Including permitting minors to file complaints of sexual violence on their own authority; classify all sexual offenses as public offenses; and a holistic review of laws affecting women and girls, such as laws pertaining to child marriage and reproductive healthcare.

Including permitting minors to file complaints of sexual violence on their own authority; classify all sexual offenses as public offenses; and a holistic review of laws affecting women and girls, such as laws pertaining to child marriage and reproductive healthcare. Improve Implementation, Accountability and Accessibility to Justice: Including training criminal justice professionals on how to overcome gender stereotypes and deal with sexual violence cases, collecting disaggregated statistical data and allocating sufficient State resources to prevent and address sexual violence.

Including training criminal justice professionals on how to overcome gender stereotypes and deal with sexual violence cases, collecting disaggregated statistical data and allocating sufficient State resources to prevent and address sexual violence. Challenge Negative Stereotypes and Improve Public Understanding of Sexual Violence: Including age-appropriate sex and relationship education programs in schools, and public awareness campaigns to tackle victim-blaming and impunity for perpetrators.

For more details go to www.equalitynow.org/esvamericas, Facebook @equalitynoworg , and Twitter @equalitynow .

Media Contact:

Emma Stoskopf-Ehrlich

+1 (617) 308 0251

[email protected]

SOURCE Equality Now
MADISON, Wis., Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Retirement Income Strategies, a Wisconsin-based financial planning firm with locations in Brookfield, Evansville, Madison and Middleton, invites pre-retirees to attend a special event on tax-savvy retirement planning strategies with David McKnight, the author of four best-selling books including The Power of Zero. Those who attend the event will learn strategies that can potentially help reduce future taxes and will be served dinner, drinks and dessert. The event is Friday, Sept. 24, from 5 pm to 8 pm at The Morona Terrace, 1 John Nolan Drive, Madison, Wis., 53703. To register for the event, click here.

"Most financial professionals agree that taxes will eventually increase in the future which means pre-retirees must implement tax-smart strategies now to help protect their retirement savings," said Kristian Finfrock, founder and lead financial advisor at Retirement Income Strategies. "David's unique approach to educating investors on how to work toward a zero percent tax bracket and potentially eliminate tax rate risk from their retirement plan is exactly why we wanted to host him for our special event. There is a reason his book, The Power of Zero, has sold so many copies and we are excited to have him visit Madison and share his valuable knowledge with local residents."

The itinerary includes a cocktail hour, dinner, presentation and will end with McKnight signing books during the dessert course. The presentation will explore:

 Why taxes will likely be increasing

 Why tax-deferred accounts like 401(k)s and IRAs could be a huge liability in a rising tax environment

 Why investors should consider transferring money into a tax-free alternative while tax rates are historically low

 A step-by-step road map on how to work toward the zero percent tax bracket, potentially eliminating tax rate risk from the retirement picture

McKnight has helped thousands of Americans protect their life savings from risks like higher taxes so they can have more funds to secure their retirement. McKnight's book, The Power of Zero, has sold over 250,000 copies and after it was updated and released in 2018, it was the second most sold business book in the world. McKnight has shared his financial expertise with top national news outlets including Forbes, USA Today, New York Times, Fox Business, CNBC and more. He also mentors hundreds of financial advisors from across the country who specialize in the 'Power of Zero' retirement approach.

For more information about Retirement Income Strategies, click here to visit the firm's website.

ABOUT KRISTIAN FINFROCK/RETIREMENT INCOME STRATEGIES:

Kristian Finfrock is the founder of Retirement Income Strategies, a Wisconsin-based financial planning firm with locations in Madison, Brookfield, Evansville and Middleton. Finfrock, commonly referred to as the "Madison Money Guy," and his team of professionals provide retirement, wealth management, investment, tax and estate planning services. He hosts a weekly radio show "Retirement Income Strategies with The Madison Money Guy" that airs on WIBA 1310 AM, ESPN 100.5 FM, and WCLO 97.5 FM. For more information about Kristian Finfrock or Retirement Income Strategies, please visit www.madisonmoneyguy.com or call 608-208-1800.

Securities offered through Kalos Capital, Inc. and Investment Advisory Services offered through Kalos Management, Inc., both at 11525 Park Woods Circle, Alpharetta, GA 30005, (678) 356-1100. Kalos Capital, Inc. does not provide tax or legal advice. The opinions and views expressed here are for informational purposes only. Please consult with your tax and/or legal advisor for such guidance. Retirement Income Strategies is not an affiliate or subsidiary of Kalos Capital, Inc. or Kalos Management, Inc.

MEDIA CONTACT

Gina Traficant

AdvisorPR

[email protected]

(702) 685-7450

SOURCE Retirement Income Strategies

Related Links

http://madisonsfinancialplanner.com


"Aaron continues to consistently provide exceptional leadership and outcomes that are accelerating the digital transformation of our business," said Guy Meldrum, Chief Executive Officer at Reynolds. "All of us at Reynolds congratulate him on this well-deserved achievement."



Since joining Reynolds, Gwinner has led the organization's digital transformation. He and his team are driving business objectives through the innovative use of technology and data, including creating new capabilities that allow the company to operate a stronger, faster and simpler organization in the pursuit of its corporate purpose to build A Better Tomorrow.

"I am honored to be chosen as a Charlotte CIO of the Year and grateful for the team that has made this achievement possible," Aaron Gwinner said. "The acceleration of our digital transformation and ability to leverage technology to drive our business is a direct reflection of the amazing people in our teams and the support of our executive leadership. Thank you, CharlotteCIO, for this incredible recognition."

Notably, Gwinner's U.S. team continuously sets the bar for the global BAT Group. From spearheading a 38 percent decrease in printing rates, to moving 68 percent of the Company's data hosting to the cloud vs. on-premises data centers, these efforts are delivering both commercial benefits such as quicker infrastructure deployment, and environmental benefits that reduce Reynolds' carbon footprint.

Gwinner was recognized among 23 finalists representing leading technology professionals in the Charlotte, NC region. Finalists and winners are selected through an independent peer-review process, led by prior award recipients.

To learn more about Reynolds and it's a Better Tomorrow journey, visit www.reynoldsamerican.com.

To learn more about CharlotteCIO and the ORBIE Awards, visit https://charlottecio.org/awards/2021.

About Reynolds American Inc.

Reynolds American Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of the BAT Group, and the U.S. parent company of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company, Inc., American Snuff Company, LLC, R.J. Reynolds Vapor Company, Modoral Brands Inc., and Kentucky BioProcessing, Inc. To learn more about Reynolds American Inc. and its operating companies, please visit www.reynoldsamerican.com.

SOURCE Reynolds American Inc.

Related Links

www.reynoldsamerican.com


NEW YORK, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Sagewind Capital LLC ("Sagewind"), a New York-based private equity firm, announced today an investment in Federal Advisory Partners (the "Company"), a leading strategy consulting firm serving public and private sector organizations, and the federal healthcare market. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, Federal Advisory Partners has deep experience serving federal healthcare customers, including the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) and the Defense Health Agency (DHA). Founded in 2017, the company is a leader in revenue cycle management and is committed to supporting clients in their mission to efficiently provide exceptional healthcare to veterans and active-duty military.

Steven Lefkowitz, Managing Partner of Sagewind said, "Our investment in Federal Advisory Partners builds on our extensive experience investing in and supporting government services firms. Federal Advisory Partners has a strong track record of serving federal healthcare agencies and we are excited to partner with their exceptional team at this exciting time. We look forward to supporting Federal Advisory Partners as we aim to diversify and enhance the Company's capabilities and introduce its deep expertise to an entirely new customer set."

Tim Borchert, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Federal Advisory Partners, Andrew Patrick, Chief Operating Officer, and Chris Katkocin, Vice President, will continue to lead the Company. Mr. Borchert has over 20 years of industry experience working with community hospital systems and federal healthcare delivery networks. Mr. Patrick and Mr. Katkocin both have extensive experience working in federal healthcare and delivering client focused solutions.

Mr. Borchert said, "I am very proud of what Federal Advisory Partners has accomplished since we founded the company. We have earned the confidence of our clients and are grateful that they continue to entrust us with mission critical work. Sagewind has a history of successfully partnering with management teams in the government services sector to expand businesses and we are thrilled to collaborate with them to accelerate our growth by broadening our capabilities and entering new markets."

In connection with the transaction, Vice Admiral C. Forrest Faison III, the 38th Surgeon General of the United States Navy, has been appointed to Federal Advisory Partners' Board of Directors. Dr. Faison is a physician, longtime healthcare administrator, and senior military commander with extensive experience in healthcare innovation. He served nearly four decades in the United States Navy. As Surgeon General, he was chief of the Navy's Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, responsible for leading a global healthcare network of 63,000 medical personnel stationed around the world who provide high quality health care to more than 2.6 million people with an annual operating budget over nine billion dollars.

"I am excited to partner with Sagewind and the Federal Advisory Partners team, to continue identifying operational efficiencies that can improve the care we provide our nation's veterans and active-duty military," said Dr. Faison. "The Company is well positioned to have a real impact and I look forward to supporting management in accomplishing our shared vision to deliver meaningful outcomes for clients."

Federal Advisory Partners is Sagewind's 5th current platform in the government services sector. Sagewind has also invested in Axient (formed through the combination of QuantiTech, Systems Engineering Group, Millennium Engineering, and Dynamic Concepts), By Light, GCOM and Sigma Defense Systems.

Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP acted as Sagewind's legal counsel. Holland & Knight served as legal counsel and G Squared Capital Partners served as exclusive financial advisor to Federal Advisory Partners.

About Federal Advisory Partners

Federal Advisory Partners is a premier strategy, advisory, and analytics consulting firm to Federal Healthcare agencies with deep expertise in revenue cycle management. Founded in 2017 following a management-led buyout of a division of Altarum Institute, the company delivers a range of consulting services including project management, governance, strategic communications, education, training, change management, financial management, risk management, and business process management.

About Sagewind Capital LLC

Sagewind Capital LLC is a New York-based middle-market private equity firm that partners with exceptional management teams and focuses on significant capital appreciation by helping businesses grow organically and through strategic acquisitions. Sagewind invests across several industries, including government services, aerospace & defense, software, information technology, healthcare and business services. The firm is focused on long-term capital appreciation and has the flexibility to own businesses for extended periods.

Contact: Mark Semer / Grace Cartwright

Gasthalter & Co.

(212) 257-4170

[email protected]

SOURCE Sagewind Capital LLC
NEW YORK, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of The Boston Beer Company, Inc. ("Boston Beer" or the "Company") (NYSE: SAM). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at [email protected] or 888-476-6529, ext. 7980.

The investigation concerns whether Boston Beer and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices.

[Click here for information about joining the class action]

On July 22, 2021, Boston Beer reduced its full year 2021 guidance, advising that it expected earnings per share between $18.00 and $22.00, down from a prior range of $22.00 to $26.00. The Company cited softer-than-expected sales in the hard seltzer category and overall beer industry and also stated that it had "overestimated the growth of the hard seltzer category in the second quarter."

On this news, Boston Beer's stock price fell $246.54 per share, or 26%, to close at $701.00 per share on July 12, 2021.

Then, on September 8, 2021, Boston Beer announced that it was withdrawing its 2021 financial guidance issued on July 22, 2021 as a result of a decrease in demand for its hard seltzer products. The Company further disclosed that it expects to incur hard seltzer-related inventory write-offs, shortfall fees payable to third-party brewers, and other costs associated with the drop in demand during the remainder of fiscal year 2021.

On this news, Boston Beer's stock price fell $21.09 per share, or 3.77%, to close at $538.31 per share on September 8, 2021.

Pomerantz LLP, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Paris, and Tel Aviv, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, Pomerantz pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 85 years later, Pomerantz continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomlaw.com.

CONTACT:

Robert S. Willoughby

Pomerantz LLP

[email protected]

888-476-6529 ext. 7980

SOURCE Pomerantz LLP

Related Links

www.pomerantzlaw.com


SHENZHEN, China, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Eleven hundred meters long with One Avenue, Wongtee Center, Great China International Exchange Plaza and Central Walk Shopping Mall along the way - This is Shenzhen Festival Avenue, where people can walk northwards to the Civic Center and southwards to Shenzhen Convention & Exhibition Center easily.

Shenzhen Festival Avenue, a brand created under great efforts of the CPC committee and government of Futian District, organized by IDG ASIA Accelerator, with the support from Shenzhen International Investment& Promotion Association, was opened on November, 2020. Connecting large commercial complexes in the CBD of Futian, the avenue has promoted local night-time economy and the influence of surrounding business areas. In August, 2021, a street culture festival was launched on the avenue. It was a creative attempt to introduce street culture into a business district for the first time and became a massive hit of summer. The creation of the new festival has lit up the business district, highlighted Shenzhen's characteristics, and strengthened the city's soft power.

Empower New Business and Vitalize the District

From Fifth Avenue of New York to New Bond Street of London, from Ginza of Tokyo to Wangfujing Street of Beijing, every world-renowned business street has its own "culture". Taking "festival" as its highlight, Shenzhen Festival Avenue not only holds creative events on traditional festivals such as Spring Festival, Christmas and New Year, but also adopts the international way of "creating festivals" to vitalize the district.

From August 27 to 29, 2021, a "street culture festival" was held on the avenue. Full of "street stars", "street creativity" and "street interactions", the event was a feast of street culture. During the festival, people could experience various street elements such as live band performances by Losing Control and Wasted Laika, street DJ shows and hip-hop raps by Roc, JR Fog and Chen Xin the producer, dazzling skateboarding shows, as well as retro Disco music. Here citizens and tourists could take a good rest and enjoy the first carnival in early autumn.

The festival was an attempt to integrate "street culture" into a business district. Cultural activities of all kinds not only enriched the leisure time of citizens, but also improved the quality of their cultural life, contributing to an increase of strength and vitality of the city.

Embrace Different Art Forms and Strengthen the City's Soft Power

In an "image-is-everything" era, business districts with distinct characteristics can represent the prosperity of a city and showcase the city's image. In Shenzhen, a city that is open, innovative and inclusive, how to improve people's wellbeing and the city's public services is of great significance to strengthen the soft power of the city.

Shenzhen Festival Avenue positions itself as a place of art/ innovation/ vitality/ life, featuring the showcase of art in urban public spaces. It is dedicated to showing the glamour of the district and providing a platform for immersive experience of culture and art, so as to improve the cultural atmosphere of the district.

As the city's most popular government initiative for the public's benefit, Shenzhen Festival Avenue has five major exhibition areas, twelve themed months and 112 themed events throughout the year, making it an art scene that never ends. With both regular art exhibitions and themed events, the avenue serves as a free and permanent art experience platform, where citizens can know more about the street culture and art lovers show their talents. Since everybody can have access to and learn artistic skills here, the avenue is a source of momentum and creativity for Shenzhen culture, helping the city stand out in the cultural soft power competition.

SOURCE Shenzhen International Investment & Promotion Association (SZIIPA)
The initial set of selected firms will provide construction management services, with four of the five also providing skilled trades employees that are able to perform activities such as carpentry, millwork and painting. The firms are based in Northeast Ohio and are either minority-owned or female-owned. The companies joining the project are:

Adrian Maldonado & Associates

& Associates The AKA Team

Ozanne Construction Company, Inc.

R. L. Hill Management Services, Inc.

Regency Construction Services, Inc.

"We are excited to welcome these talented firms to the Building Our Future project and work together to create exceptional facilities that will further ignite innovation, creativity and collaboration," said John G. Morikis, Sherwin-Williams Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer. "We understand the impact these sites will have on our community. Since the beginning of this project, it has been our goal to involve local organizations, especially those that are minority owned and female owned, throughout the design and construction processes. We look forward to announcing the involvement of additional minority-owned, female-owned and small businesses as we move forward."

"Being part of the Building Our Future project represents a great opportunity to further develop our firm, while working on this once in a lifetime venture. We commend Sherwin-Williams for engaging with us early in the process and appreciate the deliberate approach used in qualifying and selecting the minority construction management firms," commented Adrian Maldonado, President of Adrian Maldonado and Associates.

Sherwin-Williams is committed to inclusion, diversity and equity and has extended this commitment to the Building Our Future project. Since announcing the project, the Company has worked proactively with community, city, county and state leaders, along with local organizations and trade partners to identify and create opportunities for minority-owned, female-owned and small businesses to participate.

Dominic Ozanne, President of Ozanne Construction Company, Inc. stated, "The level of community engagement by Sherwin-Williams and Welty | Gilbane with our firm has been outstanding. The project team was consistent in their approach, were transparent with us throughout the entire review process and worked tirelessly to ensure a positive and productive outcome."

Additionally, Sherwin-Williams has collaborated with the City of Cleveland, the City of Brecksville, Cuyahoga County, the State of Ohio and the Port Authority, to establish and publish requirements for inclusion, diversity and equity, community engagement and community participation related to the project. The Company is committed to meeting or exceeding those requirements and will regularly report on the project's progress.

"We couldn't be more excited to be part of this significant and impactful project. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to enhance our firm's experience with a project of this scope, which in turn will expand our firm's resume," commented Tari Rivera, President of Regency Construction Services, Inc.

Sherwin-Williams plans to invest a minimum of $600 million to build both the headquarters and R&D facilities. The new global headquarters will be approximately 1,000,000-square-feet in size. The new R&D center in Brecksville will be approximately 600,000-square-feet in size.

Combined, the two facilities will house more than 3,500 employees with room to accommodate future growth. Sherwin-Williams estimates it will add a minimum of 400 jobs at these facilities over time, an increase of 11 percent to the Company's current local workforce. Many of these jobs will include professional staff, engineers and chemists.

For ongoing updates on the Company's new global headquarters and new R&D center, please visit buildingourfuture.com.

Firms that are interested in working on the Building Our Future project should register at buildingourfuture.gilbaneco.com/.

ABOUT THE SHERWIN-WILLIAMS COMPANY

Founded in 1866, The Sherwin-Williams Company is a global leader in the manufacture, development, distribution, and sale of paint, coatings and related products to professional, industrial, commercial, and retail customers. The Company manufactures products under well-known brands such as Sherwin-Williams, Valspar, HGTV HOME by Sherwin-Williams, Dutch Boy, Krylon, Minwax, Thompson's Water Seal, Cabot and many more. With global headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio, Sherwin-Williams branded products are sold exclusively through a chain of more than 5,000 Company-operated stores and facilities, while the Company's other brands are sold through leading mass merchandisers, home centers, independent paint dealers, hardware stores, automotive retailers, and industrial distributors. The Sherwin-Williams Performance Coatings Group supplies a broad range of highly-engineered solutions for the construction, industrial, packaging and transportation markets in more than 120 countries around the world. Sherwin-Williams shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange (symbol: SHW). For more information, visit www.sherwin.com.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Julie Young

Vice President, Global Corporate Communications

Direct: 216.515.8849 - [email protected]

INVESTOR RELATIONS CONTACTS:

Jim Jaye

Senior Vice President, Investor Relations & Corporate Communications

Direct: 216.515.8682 - [email protected]

Eric Swanson

Vice President, Investor Relations

Direct: 216.566.2766 - [email protected]

SOURCE The Sherwin-Williams Company

Related Links

http://www.sherwin.com


Delivered as an invisible, non-sticky, non-greasy texture formulation, Advanced Scar Control offers long-lasting protection for optimal scar care. Formulated with silicones combined with complementary soothing ingredients, this protective technology is clinically proven to improve scar's overall appearance, reduce visible redness, soften and smooth scar texture, and reduce the intensity of visible scar discoloration.

Advanced Scar Control is specifically formulated for different types of scars and is appropriate for multiple skin types and tones. Additionally, it is an ideal complement to post-procedure scar care for procedures such as Mohs surgery, full-thickness excision, and scar revision surgery, among others.

Key ingredients include 95% silicones, a widely recognized ingredient in the medical community for scar care that helps retain skin's hydration and allows for versatile application as it can be used on the face and irregular skin of scar surfaces, 0.5% Allantoin to soothe and protect the skin, 2.0% fatty acids to help condition skin and improve the appearance of dryness and 1.0% ultralight silica to provide a non-sticky texture and smooth glide upon application.

In a 12-week clinical study subjects saw a significant improvement in new and recent scar redness, discoloration, raised texture, and rough texture. Participants saw an improvement in scar's appearance by up to 29%, a reduction in visible redness by up to 89%, softening and smoothing of scars by 23% and a reduction in the intensity of discoloration by 33%.2

"We are eager to introduce Advanced Scar Control to our product portfolio for our physicians and their patients," explains Stephanie Kramer, US General Manager of SkinCeuticals. "With the addition of Advanced Scar Control, we can now ensure that there is a clinically-tested, high quality post-procedure and post-surgery treatment that works hand in hand with our at-home offerings for the highest level of integrated skincare for our consumers."

"In my practice, I've seen that different attributes such as age, skin tone, hormones, and injury location can impact scar appearance. Regardless of these factors, a high-grade silicone treatment can help skin retain hydration to prevent scar formation and protect the wound from external factors," notes SkinCeuticals partner physician Dr. Catherine S. Chang. She continues, "That's why I'm so excited about Advanced Scar Control, which contains a high-concentration of silicone to deliver soothing protection to all scars, whether they come as a result of a cosmetic procedure or an unintended wound."

SkinCeuticals Advanced Scar Control is available for $110 at SkinCeuticals.com, as well as partner skincare professionals nationwide.

1 Source: 2020 Kline Professional Skincare: U.S. Market Analysis and Opportunities

2 Data on File, Protocol: 12-week clinical study on 30 male and female subjects ages 22-51 presenting with a scar <5 inches in size that developed over the previous 1-3 months on the face or body due to surgery, burns, or abrasions. Advanced Scar Control was applied daily as needed in conjunction with a sunscreen. Efficacy evaluations were conducted at baselines and at weeks 2, 4, 8, and 12.

ABOUT SKINCEUTICALS

Founded in Dallas, TX in 1997, SkinCeuticals discovers, develops and delivers an advanced line of scientifically backed cosmeceutical treatments. As leaders in antioxidant and sun protection technology, SkinCeuticals products have been shown to dramatically improve skin health by protecting skin from environmental damage and visibly improving skin clarity, tone, and texture to minimize the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. For more information, visit the brand on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, or at skinceuticals.com.

CONTACT

Laura Cummins at SkinCeuticals: (212) 984-4907 / [email protected]

SOURCE SkinCeuticals

Related Links

https://www.skinceuticals.com/


Online exchanges between Chinese and South Korean companies

On September 9, the Shandong-South Korea Economic and Trade Cooperation and Exchange Conference, co-sponsored by the Shandong Provincial Government and the Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, was held in Weihai, the Chinese city in closest proximity to South Korea across the Yellow Sea. At the conference, representatives from the two countries exchanged viewpoints on economic trade cooperation such as customs clearance facilitation, Sino-Korean trade, logistics routes and industrial parks. Discussions included elaborations on South Korea's customs clearance policies, Shandong's new measures for facilitating customs clearance, the framework for creating a Sino-South Korean logistics ecosystem, collaboration over logistics and other relevant topics.

More than 100 procurement firms in Shandong Province met virtually with Korean counterparts to engage in procurement negotiations on that day. Witnessed by Chinese and South Korean leaders and guests, KSICF officially opened during the conference.

KSICF solidifies relations between China and South Korea

In recent years, South Korea has become Weihai's largest trade market. In 2020, the port of Weihai ranked third among all ports in China in terms of the amount of foreign trade conducted with South Korea, with the number of economic and trade exchanges between the two sides constantly growing. Weihai seized strategic opportunities after the signing of the RCEP Agreement to increase cooperation with South Korea, as well as facilitate both logistics and customs clearance procedures.

The three-day KSICF is co-sponsored by Weihai Municipal People's Government and the Shandong Provincial Department of Commerce. With the tagline, loosely translated from the Chinese, of "Four ports connected, Sino-South Korea win-win", the 20,000-square meter event housed 600 international-standard booths. Leveraging the advantages and achievements of cooperation between the two countries, 307 Korean firms participated in the fair and other ancillary events in Weihai.

At the same time, in a move to heighten the importance of the role played by the fair, nine South Korean institutions were invited to jointly build a national theme hall, with representatives from eight of South Korea's administrative divisions, including Incheon and Busan, in attendance. In addition, Fortune Global 500 companies, among them Samsung, SK and LG, in concert with 14 key industry players including Asiana Airlines and Woori Bank, also joined the event to do business with more than 450 professional Chinese buyers.

SOURCE CRIOnline
SOMERVILLE, Mass., Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The successful "Stick it to COVID" vaccination campaign that swept the eastern part of the state is now moving into the Springfield region. As a partner with the state, Cataldo is hiring healthcare professionals as vaccinators for key sites that will pop up throughout the Springfield region. Experienced vaccinators can make up to $40 an hour while making a real difference to their local communities.

The "Stick it to COVID" campaign, first launched in January 2021, was an incredible demonstration of patriotism and dedication by the healthcare community. When we put the "all call" out, we expected a good response but nothing like the overwhelming response we actually gotover 5000 healthcare professionals responded saying they wanted to Stick it to COVID!" says Kevin Turner, COO of Cataldo, a state partner for COVID vaccination and testing efforts.

"Our launch in January was amazing! We on-boarded 1500 vaccination specialists in a little over 3 weeks," says Dinah Olanoff, a senior director with Cataldo. "Healthcare professionals wanted to contribute their skill and help beat this virus that has cost us all so much." She emphasizes that you don't have to have clinical experience to be on the vax team.

While Cataldo is looking for experienced clinicians like doctors, nurses, NPs, PAs, nursing and medical students, EMTs, and Paramedics, anyone interested in supporting the vaccination effort is welcome to apply for non-vaccinating roles. Licensed clinicians at the Vax 2 level, make $40 an hour. Those who are able to vaccinate under supervision, make $25 an hour, and administrative supporters earn $18 an hour. FT/PT and flexible schedules are available.

Join Cataldo as we continue to Stick it to COVID!

Come to the Cataldo live hiring event: La Quinta Hotel, Congress Street, Springfield

Wednesday September 22 from 12 to 4 pm | Thursday September 23 from 2  6 pm

Cataldo Ambulance Service continually distinguishes itself as a leader in EMS, providing routine and emergency medical transportation services, offering clinical education, and introducing the first mobile integrated health service line in Massachusetts. As the needs of the community and patients change, Cataldo continues to develop innovative programs designed to ensure the highest level of care is available throughout its service areas. Cataldo is a key partner with the state in providing COVID testing and vaccination resources.

SOURCE Cataldo Ambulance Service

Related Links

www.cataldoambulance.com


NEW YORK, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- NYU Langone Health, as the Clinical Science Core (CSC) for the National Institutes of Health's RECOVER Initiative, has, since the announcement of the beginning of its operations on June 10, convened more than 100 researchers from 35 institutions as well as patients to finalize the main study protocols for the adult, pediatric, and autopsy patient groups (cohorts). These protocols will now shape the research in the massive effort to better understand the long-term impact of COVID-19 on patients and the US population, and to develop new approaches to diagnosis and treatment.

Congress provided $1.15 billion in funding over four years for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to support research into the prolonged health consequences of infection with the pandemic virus, SARS-CoV-2, in December of 2020. As the CSC for the NIH grant, NYU Langone is charged with integrating the research activities of clinical sites around the country. The CSC is now in the process of making sub-awards to many of the research teams that helped to develop the protocols so they can start enrollment into the studies.

As of August 25, more than 39 million Americans had been infected with COVID-19, resulting in 648,000 deaths. For those that recovered from the initial illness, many continue to experience symptomsincluding fatigue, shortness of breath, "brain fog," sleep disorders, fevers, gastrointestinal symptoms, abnormal blood clotting, loss of taste or smell, anxiety, and depression. The condition is referred to as "post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2" (PASC) or as "Long COVID."

"The goal of the newly funded RECOVER studies, in adults, children and in pregnant women, is to fully understand the long-term consequences of COVID-19 and the pace and extent of recovery over time," says Stuart D. Katz, MD, director of NYU Langone's heart failure program and principal investigator for the RECOVER CSC. "We recognize the need to urgently begin nationwide enrollment for collection of the information needed to better understand and improve treatment for long COVID-19."

A central part of the RECOVER Initiative will be the creation of the SARS-CoV-2 Recovery Cohort, comprising multiple patient groups to be followed over time to track the long-term effects of infection in a diverse groups of people. The RECOVER initiative is anticipated to enroll tens of thousands of patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection from all 50 states, including adults, children and their caregivers, and pregnant women and their newborn infants. The study will also seek to enroll participants without SARS-CoV-2 infection to serve as a comparison group.

As of July 9, the NYU Langone CAS-led team finished the design of the main protocols. Enrolled patients will be observed for clinical signs and symptoms of PASC after acute COVID-19, and will be assessed for risk factors that may predict the severity and progression of their condition. Recruitment will be monitored to ensure that the people enrolled in the RECOVER study population match the diversity of the US population with COVID-19.

The study team expects to use the information collected from questionnaires, laboratory tests, and other specialized testing to define subtypes of PASC patients that will help clinicians in the future to tailor treatments for individual patients. The study will also evaluate the effect of pandemic-related stressors on long-term symptoms to better understand both the direct and indirect effects of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Pediatric Study

An important aspect of the RECOVER Initiative is the development of the pediatric main protocol for study of Long COVID in children. The pediatric study will enroll up to 20,000 "dyads," in which the impact of SARS-CoV-2 is tracked for both children and their parents or caregivers. PASC is less well studied in children than in adults, because nearly half of the initial infections with SARS-CoV-2 may be without symptoms.

"Prospective, longitudinal studies in the pediatric population are urgently needed to finally define the prevalence, risks, and etiology of the disease in children, and to give the field opportunities for better prevention and treatment," says Katz.

Thus, the pediatric study is designed to characterize the clinical course of Long COVID symptoms in children, adolescents and young adults less than 25 years of age with previous SARS-CoV-2 infections with and without a history of Long COVID, along with infants born in the context of maternal SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Designed to follow children over time, the long-term (longitudinal) design of the pediatric study will be especially important, because the impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection on child development may be slow to appear in children, potentially only becoming clear as they mature.

The CSC at NYU Langone is led by an interdisciplinary principal investigator team composed of senior faculty, including Dr. Katz; Leora Horwitz, MD, director of the Center for Healthcare Innovation and Delivery Science (co-principal investigator); and Andrea B. Troxel, ScD, director of the Division of Biostatistics (co-principal investigator) in the Department of Population Health.

Contact:

Gregory Williams

[email protected]

SOURCE NYU Langone Health

Related Links

http://www.med.nyu.edu


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Discover BizVibe's seller tools: https://www.bizvibe.com/sellers

About BizVibe

BizVibe has been conceptualized and built by a team based out of Toronto, Bangalore, and London. We are a branch of Infiniti Research and have dedicated units in all three locations. BizVibe helps buyers find the most relevant suppliers from around the world and helps sellers target prospects who need their products and/or services. For more information, please visit www.bizvibe.com and start for free today.

Contact

BizVibe

Jesse Maida

Email: [email protected]

+1 855-897-5880

Website: https://www.bizvibe.com/

SOURCE BizVibe

Related Links

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HOUSTON, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- A motion has been filed with the Texas Supreme Court by Six Flags Splashtown seeking to establish a Texas MDL concerning the litigation related to the kiddie pool chemical leak at the Hurricane Harbor Splashtown Spring location on July 17, 2021.

Based on several reports, a kiddie pool began to leak chemicals around 3 p.m., causing skin irritation, a burning sensation, and respiratory issues for visitors, many of them children. The park was evacuated and hazmat teams were called in to decontaminate park goers of the chemicals. The Harris County Fire Marshal's office described the leak as a hypochlorite solution (10-13% liquid bleach) and 35-percent sulfuric acid, which is reported to have the equivalent toxicity of battery acid. Many of the park goers were transported by ambulances to local hospitals for additional treatment, some in critical condition.

After investigating the incident, Six Flags Splashtown announced that the chemicals were leaked into the pool through a faulty water filtration system.

A lawsuit was first filed by Potts Law Firm, out of Houston, on July 19th for a mother and several of her children injured by the chemical leak. Since then, hundreds of lawsuits have also been filed in the Harris County District Court. National Managing Partner, Derek Potts, weighed in on the motion stating, "The magnitude of this case and number of people impacted by the chemical leak is evident from this filing by Six Flags."

Once the MDL Motion to Transfer is filed, the other parties have 20 days to respond. A decision will then be made by the Texas State MDL Panel on whether the MDL should be created and if so, which judge should be appointed to oversee it.

The lawsuit is regarding: Six Flags of Splashtown Litigation, MDL Docket Number 21-0779.

SOURCE Potts Law Firm

Related Links

www.potts-law.com


BERKELEY, Calif., Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Fifteen early-stage startups have joined the Batchery's 2021 Fall program for entrepreneurs. These founders join more than 150 companies that have graduated from the Batchery program in the last five years.

Each Batchery cohort spends 12 weeks moving through the three pillars of the Batchery's program:

High-touch mentorship from the Batchery's accomplished Investor Advisory community

Startup 101 - a collection of multi-class online courses that help founders build their businesses and jump-start their success.

A series of Batchery-hosted roundtables and service partnerships.

Batch 13 is the second group to come through the Batchery in 2021.These startups address challenges in a variety of spaces, including ed tech, fintech, IoT, NFTs and more. Batch 13 is:

24HourTruckFix - Dispatch and automation software for the transportation industry

- Dispatch and automation software for the transportation industry Clusiv - E-learning platform built for and by the blind and visually impaired

- E-learning platform built for and by the blind and visually impaired CounselHero - Intelligent, automated career counselors for students

- Intelligent, automated career counselors for students Cur8able - Disability fashion styling platform

- Disability fashion styling platform FilterHealth - Automated air filter management system with IoT

- Automated air filter management system with IoT keepwith - Networking advice and education

- Networking advice and education BUDDY - AI digital health app for seniors and their caregivers

- AI digital health app for seniors and their caregivers Mantis Robotics - Fenceless robots for manufacturing and warehouse automation

- Fenceless robots for manufacturing and warehouse automation NFT FM - Full-length music NFTs that supports artists directly

- Full-length music NFTs that supports artists directly Overcome the Barrier - Spanish language educational software and platform

- Spanish language educational software and platform QuantumCamp - Educational software to bring advanced math and science to K-12

- Educational software to bring advanced math and science to K-12 SteamChain - B2B payments for companies conducting international commerce

- B2B payments for companies conducting international commerce TruCard - Financial wellness through investing in digital assets

- Financial wellness through investing in digital assets Windscape ai - Smart control for wind turbines with AI and sensors

- Smart control for wind turbines with AI and sensors Zelite - Integrated platform for real estate investors in a mobile app

In addition to expert mentorship and course work, the Batchery provides financing to promising startups through its Angel Fund and the associated Investor Adviser Seed Fund ( www.iasv.co ). In this way, more than $600,000 was directed to founders in the most recent Batch in August and September this year.

"The Batchery was able to exceed our expectations in several ways," says Phillip Hansel, CEO of Ai-Ops , an IA-driven engineering platform to help users operate industrial processes. "First, with their time commitment to understanding our business and challenges. Second, by leveraging their own social capital to make solid connections for our business. Third, the Batchery folks maintained a positive attitude towards our success and our struggle to get to the next level."

With Batch 13, the Batchery is continuing to expand: the 15 companies represent the most startups in a single cohort to date. "Our capacity to provide real value to founders continues to grow," says Batchery Executive Director Peter Burghardt, "And the quality of this latest Batch is testimony to our success as the support network for a new generation of technology and product leaders."

The Batchery is a diverse community of well-connected and experienced angel investors. Our unique approach brings to startups deep expertise, a diverse network and just in time resources. The Batchery helps startups transform into thriving businesses.

SOURCE The Batchery

Related Links

https://www.batchery.com


GUANGZHOU, China, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- In the pavilion of the China Import and Export Fair in Guangzhou, an international event for SMEs worldwide is preparing for the opening. The exhibition has an area of 80 thousand square meters, with 2500 standard booths. SMEs from over 30 countries and regions will participate in this grand event.

On September 14th, the 17th China International Small and Medium Enterprises Fair (CISMEF) held a press conference in Guangzhou, China, to introduce preparations for the exhibition and invite international SMEs to participate. SMEs can share a new wave of China's development opportunities through this open cooperation and globalized exhibition.

According to the organizer, the 17th CISMEF will be held in Guangzhou, China, from September 16th to 19th. Against the backdrop of continuing international pandemic, this most substantial and influential international exhibition for SMEs in the Asia-Pacific region will provide broad business opportunities for international SMEs. Exhibitors expect to actively reach new customers and make preparations for market expansion through this win-win platform, CISMEF.

Hellenic Agora, a wine company from Greece, has constantly participated in CISMEF for many years. The co-founder of Hellenic Agora, Liakos Constanions, believes CISMEF is a very good exhibition, and it can give opportunities for the companies to meet new customers, including B2B customers and B2C customers. He suggests that all the companies need to be ready to have the best appearance and the best exposure in a professional way.

While empowering SMEs to accelerate their growth, the international circle of CISMEF is also expanding. The overseas exhibition area of this CISMEF is about 10 thousand square meters, which has attracted companies from over 30 countries (regions or organizations) to participate such as Thailand, Germany, Japan. These companies include some Fortune 500 companies such as SAP in Germany and Philips in the Netherlands.

Since 2004, CISMEF has been successfully held for 16 consecutive sessions. About 50 thousand companies have participated in it. The total number of visitors and buyers exceeds 3.72 million. It has received extensive attention and positive evaluation from governments, international organizations, and SMEs worldwide.

The most distinctive international feature of CISMEF is the co-hosted mechanism. Since 2005, CISMEF has been inviting 19 countries and international organizations to co-host the exhibition. This year, CISMEF will invite the United Nations Industrial Development Organization and Thailand Commerce Department as the co-hosts. The exhibition area of Thailand is about 1600 square meters and there are over 50 enterprises to participate, among Kasikornbank, Bangkok Bank, Charoen Pokphand Group and other well-known Thai enterprises.

The commercial counselor from the Commercial Section of the Royal Thai Consulate-General in Guangzhou says CISMEF is a platform for enterprises, particularly SMEs, to enter the Chinese market and promote their images. Through the exhibition, enterprises can build confidence among Chinese consumers and enhance their potential.

For more exhibition information, please visit the website http://www.cismef.com.cn/.

SOURCE China International Small and Medium Enterprises Fair

Related Links

http://www.cismef.com.cn/


VENTURA, Calif. and SEATTLE, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Cannabis education leader Green Flower announced the launch of a new workforce development initiative operating under the GF Institute (GFI) brand. Joining the inaugural ranks of GFI's independent Steering Committees, members like Evergreen Market CEO Shannon Vetto will provide relevant industry expertise, subject matter credibility, and ultimately program approval for the launch of its first three credential programs intended to better prepare and support cannabis professionals in some of the most in-demand positions that exist in the industry today.

The first three GF Institute Cannabis Credential programs are centered around three crucial job roles, with additional credential programs to be launched in the future:

- Dispensary Associate Certificate (DAC)

- Cultivation Technician Certificate (CTC)

- Manufacturing Agent Certificate (MAC)

"The explosive growth of the cannabis industry in recent years has highlighted the critical need for the establishment of real, meaningful, research-tested workforce standards like those provided by the GFI," said Gil Christie, the inaugural chairman of GF Institute. "Evergreen commitment to uplifting the people that make this field work positions them as a key presence on the GFI Steering Committee as we move toward federal and international accreditation that will standardize the industry like never before."

While the cannabis industry has experienced enormous growth in recent years, many cannabis brands are finding that much of the talent recruited to work in cannabis from other industries has little to know ready, formalized cannabis knowledge, which often leaves cannabis employers to train these employees completely from scratch. In a highly-regulated industry like cannabis, personnel and bandwidth constraints often require that leaders direct their focus elsewhere, leaving many employees brand new to the industry with a less-than-ideal onboarding experience.

As legal cannabis markets continue to grow in the coming years, these same issues affecting talent and recruitment programs nationwide will come into even sharper focus as labor pools come under even more strain to meet the demand for high-quality applicants. GF Institute's professional credential programs are designed to inspire professionalism from employees, credibility with consumers and patients, and generate added intrinsic stability and value through a commitment to social equity as its most basic mission objectives.

"The Evergreen Market is a showcase brand for the growers and producers of Washington State who have made a love and passion for cannabis their life's workit's this same love and passion that makes Evergreen Market an ideal GF Institute Founding Member," said Evergreen Market CEO Shannon Vetto. "GFI is a program developed specifically to address many of the cannabis workforce's most vexing issues and can be deployed in companies of any size or scale, helping employers better train and develop their employees with the necessary skills, knowledge, and credibility they need to succeed."

From the very beginning, Evergreen Market has been guided by three core principles: educate, celebrate, and elevate. These principles are the reason Evergreen Market retail locations are so welcoming, safe, and accessible for customers and patients. Their budtenders are not only knowledgeable about cannabis as a product, but also trained specifically to meet shoppers wherever they are at in their respective, individual cannabis journeys.

"Cannabis education is central to the Evergreen customer experience. We pride ourselves on our skilled, informed, and knowledgeable staff members who are able to successfully help consumers navigate the full spectrum of cannabis experiences available," continued Vetto. "Training team members is not an option for our company, it is a central pillar of our strategic success. There is a real need for the cannabis industry to prepare employees adequately and consistently for day-to-day challenges, to positively impact efficiencies wherever we can, and to improve overall performance. The GF Institute cannabis certificates are a critical piece of the solution to that growing demand."

GF Institute is now accepting membership applications from other licensed cannabis operators, executives, or brand representatives interested in joining the industry's leading brands and employers for this new chapter in cannabis education. Anyone interested in learning more about GF Institute, the credential programs, or other inaugural Steering Committee members, should visit www.gfinstitute.org where they can find additional details, including complete program documentation, a list of GFI members, as well as complete an online membership application.

About Green Flower:

Founded in 2014, Green Flower is the industry leader in cannabis education, empowering thousands of consumers, regulators, and professionals with the knowledge they need to succeed in the emerging cannabis industry today.

Green Flower's content and technology platform powers the cannabis programs of top universities and colleges across the country, provides customized learning and compliance solutions for cannabis businesses of all sizes, and equips individuals with the skills and credentials necessary to make an impact in the modern cannabis industry.

SOURCE Green Flower
NEW YORK, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Luxury Collection, part of Marriott International, announces their third collaboration with celebrated fashion designer and Global Explorer Margherita Maccapani Missoni, unveiling a limited-edition scarf inspired by her travels to The Luxury Collection's properties in India. A vibrant destination with endless discoveries, India is a kaleidoscope of craft and color, history and epicurean delights, and Margherita captures her transformative experience traveling throughout Goa and Delhi. The scarf, created exclusively for The Luxury Collection, is available for retail on The Luxury Collection Store beginning in September 2021. All proceeds will be donated to Collective Good Foundation to help advance their work to support pandemic relief in India.

Margherita Maccapani Missoni

The Margherita Maccapani Missoni x The Luxury Collection Scarf is inspired by the brilliant colors and hand-made textiles found in India's celebrated bazaars. With exploration in mind, the lightweight piece captures the movement and excitement of walking through the bustling streets of India and embraces on-the-go versatility, able to be styled as a scarf, sarong cover-up, wrap and more for the global traveler. The design specifically draws inspiration from Margherita's time spent with local Kolam artists in Goa as well as her discovery of colorful spices at the Khari Baoli in Delhi. A signature of Margherita's designs, the scarf's statement pattern weaves together bold primary colors with pops of green, aqua and pinks.

"During my travels in India, each of The Luxury Collection's hotels served as my home away from home and a jumping off point for me to discover the beauty of each city," said Margherita Missoni. "The hotels provided an authentic connection to the people, culture and history of the destination, affording me with endless inspiration - which I aimed to enliven through my design."

"Margherita's approach to travel and design perfectly captures the spirit of a Global Explorer and The Luxury Collection brand as we look to engage our curiosities and embark on a quest for discovery through travel," said Philipp Weghmann, Vice President & Global Brand Leader, The Luxury Collection. "She has a unique ability to translate her experiences into a piece that celebrates not only the look and feel, but also the emotion, of a place. We are thrilled to collaborate with her on a beautiful design to celebrate our captivating portfolio in India."

Margherita Maccapani Missoni x The Luxury Collection Limited-Edition Scarf will launch in September 2021 and will be available for purchase on www.luxurycollectionstore.com. The scarf will retail for $230, and all proceeds will be donated to Collective Good Foundation.

About The Luxury Collection Hotels & Resorts

The Luxury Collection, part of Marriott International, Inc., is comprised of world-renowned hotels and resorts offering unique, authentic experiences that evoke lasting, treasured memories. For the global explorer, The Luxury Collection offers a gateway to the world's most exciting and desirable destinations. Each hotel and resort is a unique and cherished expression of its location; a portal to the destination's indigenous charms and treasures. Originated in 1906 under the CIGA brand as a collection of Europe's most celebrated and iconic properties, today The Luxury Collection brand is a glittering ensemble of nearly 120 of the world's finest hotels and resorts in more than 35 countries and territories. All of these hotels, many of them centuries old, are internationally recognized as being among the world's finest. For more information and new openings, visit theluxurycollection.com or follow Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. The Luxury Collection is proud to participate in Marriott Bonvoy, the global travel program from Marriott International. The program offers members an extraordinary portfolio of global brands, exclusive experiences on Marriott Bonvoy Moments and unparalleled benefits including free nights and Elite status recognition. To enroll for free or for more information about the program, visit MarriottBonvoy.marriott.com.

About Margherita Maccapani Missoni

Granddaughter of Ottavio and Rosita Missoni, who founded her family's fashion house in 1953, Margherita Maccapani Missoni formerly worked as an ambassador for the house and design assistant to her mother Angela Missoni, the group Creative Director. While being the face of Missoni, Margherita studied philosophy at the University of Milan and afterwards at Columbia University in New York, where she lived until spring 2009. After returning to Italy to be involved at a new level in the family fashion house, in 2010, she became Missoni's accessories director. After a break during which she created her own children's wear line as well as working on several collaboration that spanned from suitcases to children's furniture, in 2018, she took the helm of M Missoni by becoming its Creative Director, role that she held until September 2021 when she exited the family company to pursue new career opportunities.

SOURCE Marriott International, Inc.

Related Links

www.marriott.com


WASHINGTON, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Chicken Council (NCC) today released its inaugural sustainability report. The report provides a comprehensive overview of U.S. chickens raised for meat, known as "broilers," and the industry's collective progress in its environmental, broiler welfare and social impact journey, as well as efforts to build a more sustainable food system.

The 2020 U.S. Broiler Chicken Industry Sustainability Report was submitted to the Scientific Group of the U.N. Food Systems Summit 2021, ahead of the U.N. Food Systems Summit to be held September 23 in New York City. Guided and inspired by the call to action in the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the report is also intended to complement the important work being done by the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Poultry & Eggs, which is developing a framework for collecting data to further innovation, drive improvements and support communication about the measured and verified sustainability of U.S. chicken.

Six essential industry topics are addressed in NCC's report, including: air, land and water; broiler health and welfare; employee safety and wellbeing; food and consumer safety; community support; and food security. The report features new broiler life cycle assessment (LCA) data commissioned by NCC. The Broiler Production System Life Cycle Assessment: 2020 Update reveals the broiler industry achieved significant improvements in key sustainability intensity metrics (environmental footprint per kilogram of bird) between 2010 and 2020:

Land use: down 13%

down 13% Greenhouse gas emissions (carbon footprint): down 18%

down 18% Water consumption: down 13%

down 13% Fossil resources use: down 22%

down 22% Particulate forming emissions: down 22%

"We are feeding more people and raising each bird with less environmental impact and resources. The Broiler Production System Life Cycle Assessment: 2020 Update confirms the U.S. chicken industry has made meaningful strides in minimizing our environmental impacts with the help of technological advancements and improved broiler welfare practices over the past decade," said Ashley Peterson, Ph.D., NCC senior vice president of scientific and regulatory affairs. "The LCA sets the groundwork for the broiler industry's next steps on the sustainability frontier and brings to light the exact areas in which we need to focus."

In addition to environmental data, the report highlights the voices and stories of NCC members, chicken farmers and industry stakeholders, to demonstrate their unique sustainability successes and commitments.

"The U.S. chicken industry is committed to environmentally and socially sustainable production practices to ensure a healthier planet. This report is the culmination of that commitment, but it is also the starting point for many more years of collective effort by the U.S. chicken industry to continuously improve and build a more sustainable food system," said Mike Brown, NCC president. "This past year, we faced COVID-19, extreme weather events, biosecurity issues and cybersecurity breaches. The U.S. chicken industry stood up to all of these challenges, and we remain even more committed to the sustainable production of America's No. 1 protein."

The report also features the U.S. chicken industry's collective accomplishments, including:

Decreasing broiler chicken on-farm mortality rates by 72% since 1925.

by 72% since 1925. Defining the essential elements of broiler chicken care with NCC's Welfare Guidelines.

with NCC's Welfare Guidelines. Donating more than $133 million and 22 million meals to local communities at the height of the pandemic in 2020.

at the height of the pandemic in 2020. Bolstering global food security with broiler exports totaling 7.4 billion pounds in 2020.

with broiler exports totaling 7.4 billion pounds in 2020. Providing Americans and people across the world - throughout all life stages - with affordable, nutritious protein .

- throughout all life stages - with . Achieving an 86% decline in Occupational Safety and Health Administration recordable injuries and illnesses in the poultry processing sector over the past 25 years.

"We take pride in how our chicken gets from farm to table, but we know that sustainability is a journey of collective successes and growth areas. It's on us as an industry to review our impact and areas of improvement so that we can direct our industry toward a more sustainable future," said Brown. "We invite all consumers to learn how the U.S. chicken industry is producing safe, nutritious and sustainable food. This new report is one resource to help shed light on the sustainable practices behind the food on their table."

View the 2020 U.S. Broiler Chicken Industry Sustainability Report here. For a snapshot of key report data, download this infographic.

About The National Chicken Council

The National Chicken Council is a non-profit trade association headquartered in Washington, D.C. that represents chicken producer-processors, the companies that produce and process chickens raised for meat. Member companies of the council account for more than 95 percent of the chicken sold in the United States. Find out more information at NationalChickenCouncil.org .

SOURCE National Chicken Council
BROOKVILLE, N.Y., Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Society of Presidential Descendants at Long Island University today announced the finalists for the coveted Biennial Presidential Leadership Book Award, a prestigious award recognizing the best books published about our nation's highest office, and the strategies that have shaped United States history and policies.

The Society will host a ceremonial dinner on October 23, 2021, with Master of Ceremonies Douglas Brinkley presiding. Dr. Brinkley is the Katherine Tsanoff Brown Chair in Humanities and professor of history at Rice University, and a nationally-acclaimed CNN presidential historian and contributing editor at Vanity Fair.

The three finalists for the award:

Susan Berfield, The Hour of Fate (Bloomsbury) about two of American history's most colossal characters  Theodore Roosevelt and J.P. Morgan  struggling for mastery in an era of social upheaval and rampant inequality.



Diana Preston, Eight Days at Yalta (Atlantic Monthly Press) discusses how Churchill, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Stalin  "The Big Three"  shaped the post-war world over an eight-day meeting in Yalta.

Ted Widmer, PhD, Lincoln on the Verge (Simon & Schuster) tells the dramatic story of America's greatest president discovering his own strength to save the Republic as a divided nation plunges into the deepest crisis in history.



The winner will be announced at the October 23 dinner.

"This prestigious book award, judged by a board of renowned historians and journalists, will underline the importance of our shared history and presidential legacies," said Tweed Roosevelt, great-grandson of Theodore Roosevelt, LIU professor, chairman of the Theodore Roosevelt Institute at Long Island University, and president of The Society of Presidential Descendants.

The Society of Presidential Descendants are all direct descendants of United States presidents who united to offer a contemporary educational platform that highlights the present-day relevance of historic presidential leadership. Their mission is to enable the public to better understand the leaders who have shaped the nation and encourage all Americans to exercise their civic rights.

Clifton Truman Daniel, grandson of the 33rd U.S. President Harry S. Truman and First Lady Bess Truman, stated that "civics education is an engine driving this country forward. As my grandfather said, 'Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better.'"

The partnership between The Society of Presidential Descendants and The Roosevelt School of Long Island University models how local institutions can advance civic-oriented public policy in the United States. Their educational programs will teach students, and all Americans, about the importance of their roles and responsibilities in the democratic process.

Lynda Johnson Robb, the daughter of the 36th U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson and his First Lady Lady Bird Johnson, commented, "In this time of polarization, I hope that this Society can encourage the study of our country's history and how its Presidents have influenced it. We look forward to having an impact on the dialogue of what unites us as a country."

The Roosevelt School prepares students for careers in international relations, diplomacy, leadership, service, and policy making at multinational corporations, foundations, think-tanks, non-profit organizations and governmental agencies around the globe. The School features the Global Service Institute, which inspires community service by connecting volunteers with non-profit organizations around the globe. It is also supported by the Steven S. Hornstein Center for Policy, Polling and Analysis, which conducts empirical research, independent polling and analysis to inform the public and policy makers about critical issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world.

"This biennial book award reflects the best works published about our country's leaders  from George Washington to Joseph Biden  and how our nation has advanced as a result of their leadership," said Long Island University President Kimberly R. Cline. "The Society of Presidential Descendants is influencing education to develop future world leaders."

About Long Island University

Long Island University, founded in 1926, continues to redefine higher education, with innovative programs and high quality and research. Recognized by Forbes for its emphasis on experiential learning and by the Brookings Institution for its "value added" to student outcomes, LIU offers nearly 250 degree programs, with a network of over 280,000 alumni across the globe. Visit liu.edu for more information.

SOURCE Long Island University

Related Links

www.liu.edu


PORTLAND, Ore., Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Thompson Duke Industrial, the leader in cannabis oil vaporizer device filling and capping equipment, has promoted Carson Hoffman to Supply Chain and Production Director. Thompson Duke created this new leadership position in response to company growth and increased demand for equipment. In his new role, Hoffman will manage several activities related to the company's overall operations, including vendor relationships, supply chain management and equipment production.

Thompson Duke Industrial Adds Supply Chain and Production Director to Growing Leadership Team

"We are experiencing tremendous growth, and are quickly evolving as a company to meet upcoming marketplace demands. Part of this process includes developing key internal roles like this one," said Mike Hogan, Managing Director at Thompson Duke Industrial. "We recognized Carson's talent and commitment early on, which ultimately led to us adding him to the leadership team. He truly embodies Thompson Duke's culture by putting clients first and ensuring that our products are of the utmost quality. His collaborative, positive and organized nature, plus the respect he's earned from our entire team, make him a great fit for this role."

As Supply Chain and Production Director, Hoffman will serve as one of the external faces of Thompson Duke Industrial as he fosters relationships with both new and existing vendors and suppliers. His key responsibilities include overseeing supply chain logistics, ongoing support of Thompson Duke's online store, management of the assembly team and monitoring the entire product development process.



Hoffman joined the Thompson Duke team in 2019 as an Assembly Technician and rapidly advanced to the management level. He most recently acted as Production Manager, and will additionally take on the Supply Chain Manager role in this new director-level position. Prior to joining the Thompson Duke team, Hoffman managed logistics and receiving for a large grocery chain.

"Thompson Duke has given me the opportunity to evolve from holding a job to building a career," said Hoffman. "I've learned so much about this organization and the industry, and I am grateful for the opportunity to take on new responsibilities and fill this emerging role as our company continues to grow."

To learn more about Thompson Duke Industrial's cannabis oil vaporizer device filling and capping equipment, visit ThompsonDukeIndustrial.com.

About Thompson Duke Industrial, LLC

Thompson Duke Industrial, LLC is an original equipment manufacturer, a member of the National Cannabis Industry Association and a wholly owned subsidiary of Portland Engineering, Inc. The company's Portland, Oregon operation designs, manufactures, and distributes a line of patented, cETLus Certified and GMP-ready filling machines specifically designed for filling cannabis oil vaporizer devices, along with mouthpiece fastening machines and process performance and reporting data systems. With over 1,200 filling machines deployed in the cannabis industry, Thompson Duke Industrial is the leader in cannabis oil vaporizer device filling and capping equipment. The complete line of filling and capping machinery enables cannabis processors to be more successful by increasing accuracy, consistency, efficiency and overall throughput of vaporizer device fulfillment operations. https://thompsondukeindustrial.com

Media Contact: Morgan Whitehouse, [email protected], 802-373-4686

SOURCE Thompson Duke Industrial

Related Links

https://thompsondukeindustrial.com


The partnership will begin September 15, 2021 with the introduction of two limited-edition watch designs, the T80 digital and Q analog. With the bold, artful and fashion-forward touch of Judith Leiber, the styles will be limited to 200 units each and feature over 900 hundred Swarovski crystals on the watch cases, dials and bracelets in playful color combinations that could only come from such a distinctive designer.

"We are proud to reinforce our partnership with Authentic Brands Group and to add a brand that is a true cultural icon in the fashion world," notes Tobias Reiss-Schmidt, CEO of Timex Group. "We look forward to combining our expertise in luxury watchmaking with the disruptive, pop-culture inspired designs that the Judith Leiber brand is so renowned for."

As part of this new partnership, Timex Group's creative designer Giorgio Galli has teamed up with Judith Leiber's creative director Dee Ocleppo Hilfiger to maintain the essence of the Judith Leiber brand while ensuring the watches and collections reflect the colorful aesthetic and contemporary luxury styling of the brand.

"We're so excited to design and release a collection with Timex. Watches are timeless, functional and the ultimate style accessory," said Dee Ocleppo Hilfiger. "Each watch has been transformed into wearable art through the impeccable craftsmanship, bold colors and iconic designs our audience loves and expects from Judith Leiber Couture."

Under this license agreement, Timex Group will be responsible for the production and worldwide distribution of Judith Leiber and Judith Leiber Couture-branded watches beginning in Spring 2022 at Judith Leiber boutiques, select authorized retailers and online.

More information on the collaboration can be found HERE.

###

About Timex Group

Timex Group designs, manufactures and markets innovative timepieces around the world. Timex Group is a privately-held company headquartered in Middlebury, Connecticut with multiple operating units and over 3,000 employees worldwide. As one of the largest watch makers in the world, Timex Group companies produce watches under a number of well-known brands, including Timex, adidas, Furla, Gc, Guess, Judith Leiber, Missoni, Nautica, Salvatore Ferragamo, Ted Baker, Versace and Versus.

Join Timex on social media: @timex

For more information, please visit http://timexgroup.com .

About Judith Leiber

Judith Leiber is a name synonymous with elegance, style and sophistication. For more than fifty years, Judith Leiber's incomparable evening bags and crystal minaudieres have been recognized worldwide for their meticulous attention to detail, flawless hand-craftsmanship and whimsical designs. Under the creative direction of Dee Ocleppo Hilfiger, the brand's co-owner, collaborator and global brand ambassador Judith Leiber, has expanded its global footprint and re-launched Judith Leiber jewelry. Judith Leiber is available in 105 points of sale across North America, Europe and the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

For more information, visit https://judithleiber.com/.

Follow Judith Leiber on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

About Authentic Brands Group

For more information, visit authenticbrands.com.

Follow ABG on Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.

Press Contacts

Timex

[email protected] | [email protected]

Authentic Brands Group, Owner of Judith Leiber

Scarlet Manzueta | [email protected]

SOURCE Timex

Related Links

https://timexgroup.com/


SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Tradewind Voyages has officially launched its Caribbean program with sales in North America. The world's largest tall ship, Golden Horizon, will make her inaugural voyage in the region from Barbados on 11 Nov., 2021. Safe Sailing protocols have also been implemented to ensure the wellbeing of guests and crew, which include a fully COVID vaccinated policy plus complimentary pre boarding antigen testing.

There are 21 departures offered between 11 Nov., 2021 and 31 March, 2022 all of which are round trips from Barbados. Each voyage is seven nights' duration including all meals and soft drinks.

Voyages on Golden Horizon for the 2021/22 Caribbean Collection include:

Undiscovered Caribbean : escape to some of the region's most unspoiled islands in search of hidden beaches and natural wonders. Spend a day sailing before venturing on to Charlotteville in Tobago , St George's in Grenada , Mayreau in the Grenadines , Kingstown in St Vincent and Soufriere Bay in St Lucia

escape to some of the region's most unspoiled islands in search of hidden beaches and natural wonders. Spend a day sailing before venturing on to Charlotteville in , in , Mayreau in the , in St Vincent and Soufriere Bay in Caribbean's Hidden Gems : enjoy a slower pace of life on this relaxed sailing around some of the Caribbean's best-kept secrets  Roseau in Dominica , Fort de France in Martinique and Port Elizabeth in Bequia, as well as Iles de Saintes in Guadeloupe

Hidden Gems enjoy a slower pace of life on this relaxed sailing around some of the best-kept secrets  in , Fort de in and Port Elizabeth in Bequia, as well as Iles de Saintes in Icons of the Caribbean : discover exquisite beaches, national parks and historical treasures on some of the favourite Caribbean islands: Barbados , Antigua and St Lucia . This voyage also stops at St Kitts , St Barts and Antigua .

Commenting on the launch, CEO Tradewind Voyages Alan McGrory said, "We are thrilled to offer our guests the opportunity to experience the smaller ports of call and to visit so many beautiful destinations in the Caribbean. We're also delighted to open up sales to travelers from North America for the first time, thanks to the appointment of Discover the World as our GSA. Once again, we thank our agent partners and their clients for their support and hope that our Safe Sailing policy will instil further confidence in booking with us. We look forward to welcoming everyone on board."

In addition to all guests and crew being double vaccinated, Safe Sailing protocols will also include testing and health screening, responsible social distancing and medical services with highly qualified staff.

Golden Horizon's design is based on France II, a legendary square-rigged tall ship built in 1913, and is inspired by Tea Clippers and Cape Horners. Boasting five bars, impressive spa facilities, three pools, a spectacular dining room with central skylight for top-notch dining and a high staff-to-guest ratio means that first-class service is guaranteed for everyone traveling with Tradewind Voyages. Its 140 cabins all offer ocean views.

For further queries on Tradewind Voyages please call Guest Services for Canada: 437 826 9600 or US: 480 405 8808 or email at [email protected].

SOURCE Tradewind Voyages
BENTONVILLE, Ark., Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Movista, Inc. Tree of Life Canada Inc., one of the largest distributors of specialty, fresh, seafood, and natural foods, announced a new initiative to better serve its employees while increasing their clients' revenue today. The well-respected Canadian food distributor announced a partnership with Movista, the leading retail execution and workforce management solution provider. With operations spanning the entire country, Tree of Life employs one of the largest specialty food sales forces in Canada, servicing nationally recognized brands and providing unmatched service and expertise.

"Our field teams are the living energy behind our mission to serve our clients. We have always been laser-focused on helping both our retailers and clients meet the needs of today's consumers. We believe with the right solution in the hands of our team, we will continue to execute at a high level and grow our clients' businesses," said Chris Powell, Senior Vice President, Customer Development at Tree of Life.

Tree of Life will leverage the Movista platform to drive revenue growth by empowering field sales teams with tools to identify growth opportunities within retailers' locations and act immediately. Tree of Life will leverage the full power of the workforce management solution including ordering, tasking, execution management, analytics, and reporting. The implementation of the enterprise-grade platform plays an integral role in the strategic direction of the company. This technology innovation represents a broader commitment to digital transformation and providing best-in-class employee and customer experiences.

"For more than 75 years, Tree of Life has been a trusted name within the industry. The positive reputation they hold is inspiring. We are more than honored to support their continued effort to serve their customers with the highest of standards. Together, we have the people and the technology to lead for another 75 years," said Movista's Chief Customer Officer, Eric Wilson.

About Tree of Life Inc.

Tree of Life Canada has been growing industry-leading brands for over 75 years and services segments of natural, organic, multicultural, specialty, and gourmet foods. Utilizing a retail sales team of over 140 individuals, with an additional 60 food service and culinary sales experts, Tree of Life Canada spans four sales offices and three distribution centers across Canada and reaches over 95% of where food is sold and served. With unparalleled category expertise as a flexible, full-service route to market, our passion for brands and for making a difference in the lives of all Canadians is at the heart of our mission of "Helping Canada Eat Well and Live Well." Tree of Life Canada ULC is a KeHE Company. For more information, visit www.treeoflife.ca.

About Movista

Movista is a global, cloud-based retail execution and workforce management solution, provider. As the world's first and only platform solution to enable collaboration between retailers, brands, service providers, and distributors, Movista streamlines work and delivers revenue gains to all retail stakeholders. For more information, visit www.movista.com.

SOURCE Movista

Related Links

movista.com


CHICAGO, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- In-depth analysis and data-driven insights on the impact of COVID-19 included in this global ultrapure water market report.

The ultrapure water market is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 7.78% during the period 20202026.

Key Highlights Offered in the Report:

The pharmaceutical segment dominated the market in Europe and accounted for 40.33% of the global market. Filtration segment accounted for majority share of the market in 2020 and is expected to grow with an 6.97% CAGR during the forecast period in terms of revenue. In terms of capacity consideration, large scale segment dominates the ultrapure water market in 2020 and is expected to add over USD 2.55 billion revenue during the forecast period. By application, washing fluid segment dominated the market with a share of 64.71% in 2020 in terms of revenue and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.45% during 2020-2026. APAC is largest market under the ultrapure water market with an expected incremental revenue of USD 2.27 billion with an absolute growth of 52.76% between 2020-2026. North America is the second largest market for ultrapure water, accounts for the share of 23.35% in 2020 in terms of revenue. The semiconductor segment dominated the market with a 37.18% market share in terms of revenue in 2020 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 8.55% between 2020 and 2026.

Key Offerings:

Market Size & Forecast by Revenue | 20202026

Market Dynamics  Leading trends, growth drivers, restraints, and investment opportunities

Market Segmentation  A detailed analysis by equipment, application, end-user, capacity consideration, and geography

Competitive Landscape  5 key vendors and 20 other vendors

Get your sample today! https://www.arizton.com/market-reports/ultrapure-water-market-size

Ultrapure Water Market  Segmentation

Based on equipment, the global ultrapure water market is segmented into filtration, ultraviolet, electro deionization, RO, and other equipment. The filtration segment accounted for a share of 34.90% in 2020 and is expected to witness an absolute growth of 49.83% in terms of revenue by the end of 2026.

Coal-fired power is the second-largest industry, and it is used as a process feed for the improvable of efficiency. The ultrapure water is used as the process feed in coal-fired power plants and gas turbine power generation companies.

The power generation segment accounted for a revenue share of 27.51% in 2020 and is expected to witness an absolute growth of 43.25% by the end of 2026. In the power generation industry, ultrapure water is frequently used on offshore oil rigs for turbine washing and cooling, for hydraulic fluids, power augmentation machinery, and boiler feed water.

Ultrapure Water Market by Equipment

Filtration

Reverse Osmosis

Ultraviolet

Electro Deionization

Others

Ultrapure Water Market by Application

Washing Fluid

Process Feed

Ultrapure Water Market by End-User

Semiconductor

Power Generation

Flat Panel Display

Pharmaceuticals

Others

Ultrapure Water Market by Capacity Consideration

Large Scale

Small Scale

Ultrapure Water Market  Dynamics

5G technology will help manage water infrastructure in the coming years. In the water industry, autonomous infrastructure operation, remote driving, and the use of data in real-time are expected to make impactful differences. Around 26 billion devices are expected to be connected by 2022, and for this to be feasible, 5G is a must. In 2020, the progress of 5G technology increased momentum on the global platform. However, it had been consolidated in some regions, and many countries have recently begun to move beyond the pilot testing phase, transitioning to the business model. The arrival of 5G brings several new business opportunities and added value services due to its low latency and ability to connect millions of devices in a small area. In the water industry, self-sufficient infrastructure operation, remote driving, and the use of data in real-time will make a difference during the forecast period. 5G will provide water professionals the ability to connect more parts of the business using collaborative communication platforms, information, data, and work sharing.

Key Drivers and Trends fueling Market Growth:

Evolving Microelectronics Market

Increasing Demand in Semiconductor Industry

Increasing Demand for Cleanroom Practices

Ultrapure Water Market  Geography

In 2020, APAC was the largest market for ultrapure water with a revenue share of 60.05% and was expected to retain its dominance during the forecast period. The market revenue is expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.32% and reach USD 6.56 billion by 2026. The growth is supported by increasing demand for ultrapure water in the semiconductor industry, especially in countries such as China, South Korea, and India. Furthermore, the rising installation of coal-fired power plants in the region is another factor driving the expansion of the ultrapure water market. The semiconductor industry is one of the largest consumers of ultrapure water, with APAC being the biggest market for semiconductors. The market is supported by China, Japan, South Korea, India, Taiwan, and Singapore. The reducing manufacturing and design costs and intense growth in the electronics industry are factors driving the semiconductor market in the region. In addition, new technological developments and the use of several technologically forward devices are other key factors driving the demand for the semiconductor market in the region.

Get your sample today! https://www.arizton.com/market-reports/ultrapure-water-market-size

Ultrapure Water Market by Geography

APAC

China



Japan



South Korea



Australia



India

North America

US



Canada

Europe

Germany



France



Italy



Spain



UK

Middle East & Africa

& South Africa



UAE

Latin America

Brazil



Mexico



Argentina

Major Vendors

General Electric

Pall Corporation

DuPont

Asahi Kasei Corporation

Pentair

Other Prominent Vendors

Nalco

SUEZ

Evoqua Water Technologies

Mar Cor

Organo Corporation

Ovivo

Veolia

Kurita Water Industries

Aqua-Chem

Reynolds Culligan

Ultra Pure Water Technologies

Pure Water Group

Merck

SpectraPure

Nancrede Engineering

RODI System Corporation

Biosan

Sartorius

Agape Water Solutions

Zhuhai Wangyang Water Treatment Equipment Company

Explore our consumer goods & retail technology profile to know more about the industry.

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SPRING GREEN, Wis., Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Taliesin Preservation and the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation are virtually unveiling a new plaque at the architect's 800-acre estate in the rural Driftless Hills near Spring Green, Wisconsin, celebrating the site's inclusion on the UNESCO World Heritage list. The virtual public streaming watch party will feature special guests, including Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers. UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) recognizes landmarks or sites for cultural, historical, or scientific relevance.

Courtesy of Taliesin Preservation

The public is invited to be a part of this free virtual event at noon CT on Taliesin Preservation's Facebook, YouTube, and at taliesinpreservation.org. We're pleased to bring this historic moment to the world in a virtual format and share it with all of Wright's fans today.

The inscription for Wright's works was announced in 2019, during the 43rd session of the World Heritage Committee. Wright's buildings are the first U.S. Modern Architecture to be included on the United Nations' list of the world's most significant cultural and natural sites, representing American design for the first time on a global stage. Taliesin was chosen to be a part of this honor as a great example of an organic connection to the surrounding landscape of the driftless region. The inscription is an honorary distinction that provides additional protection of the properties.

Taliesin Preservation produces innovative cultural and educational programming at Taliesin, Frank Lloyd Wright's 800-acre estate in the rural Driftless hills of Wisconsin. Taliesin has served as a living laboratory for over one hundred years, exploring and advancing organic principles in everyday life, where home, community, farm, the arts, education and the environment are deeply connected and work as an integrated whole.

The Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, based in Chicago, spearheaded the serial nomination of eight major works by Frank Lloyd Wright. The serial inscription also includes Unity Temple, the Frederick C. Robie House, Hollyhock House, Fallingwater, the Herbert and Katherine Jacobs House, Taliesin West and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and brings greater awareness to and appreciation of Frank Lloyd Wright's complete body of work.

Contact:

Aron Meudt-Thering

608-588-7900 ext. 221

[email protected]

Related Images

frank-lloyd-wrights-taliesin.jpg

Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin

Courtesy of Taliesin Preservation

SOURCE Taliesin Preservation
LONDON, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Pharmaceutical companies have reaped a windfall during the outbreak of COVID-19 and none more so than vaccine manufacturers as the world battles one wave after another. Vaccines are critical as they minimize the probability of infection, reduce the severity of illness in infected individuals, and lessen the transmissibility of those affected. The vaccine market is aided by a stringent regulatory environment that creates barriers to entry, preventing intense competition and allowing companies to thrive.

The global vaccines market was worth $33,572.5 Mn in 2020 and is expected to rise to US$54,684.8 Mn by 2025, witnessing a CAGR of 10.2% for the period.

For more insights into the Market, Get a Sample Copy of Vaccines Market: https://www.fairfieldmarketresearch.com/report/vaccines-market/request-sample

Fat Margins to Generate New Avenues for Growth in the Global Vaccines Market

Combination vaccines are high-margin products that should generate enormous profits for companies in near future. Combination vaccines deliver a higher efficiency and have a multi-pronged action, in contrast to a single shot, explaining their premium positioning in the vaccines market. Moreover, combination vaccines are playing a vital role in overcoming trypanophobia, aiding growth in the vaccines market.

mRNA Vaccines Receive Emergency Use Authorization by FDA to Tackle COVID-19

COVID-19 has resulted in unprecedented developments in the global vaccines market. mRNA vaccines were being researched for decades but received a shot in the arm with funding hastened and bureaucratic procedures simplified to tackle this pandemic. Comirnaty and Spikevax were the inaugural mRNA vaccines to receive emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration with the former being granted full approval recently.

In the emerging world, the Serum Institute of India has entered into an agreement with UNICEF to manufacture and supply the Oxford/ Astra-Zeneca vaccine for the COVAX initiative. This will facilitate 1.1 billion doses to be supplied to 100 countries, primarily in Africa, Latin America, and Asia.

High Mortality Rate Ensures That Pneumococcal Segment Will Dominate Vaccines Market

The World Health Organization states that pneumococcal diseases kill 500,000 adults above 70 and 320,000 children annually. As of 2019, 152 countries have either fully or partially incorporated pneumococcal conjugate vaccine in their infant vaccination programmes. The addition of PCV by Asian giants China, India, and Indonesia is poised to spike vaccine demand by 60 million doses in the next decade, boding well for companies in the vaccines market.

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Low Rates of Penetration Allow Shingles Segment to Grow Rapidly in Vaccines Market

The highest CAGR of 15.5% is predicted to be in the shingles vaccine segment, with 35% of U.S. citizens above 60 vaccinated in 2018, as per data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Presently, only 17 million have been administered a dose of Shingrix  a vaccine by GSK  even though it is recommended for 100 million people.

Multinationals Investing Huge Sums Make North America Key From Revenue Perspective

North America is the largest regional contributor to the vaccines market by revenue due to the U.S. and Canada. Nearly half of the revenue should be derived from this prosperous continent until 2025 because of the presence of large multinationals investing billions into R&D coupled with regulatory support provided by the FDA.

The need for vaccines is acutely felt in emerging economies and is likely to remain so throughout the forecast period. The two most populous nations  China and India  are both massive producers and consumers of vaccines. Furthermore, strong demand is anticipated in South and Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific.

Barriers to Entry Allow Incumbents to Reap Handsome Rewards in Global Vaccines Market

The vaccines market is oligopolistic in nature with Merck, GSK, Sanofi, and GSK accounting for 90% of value. However, 60% of the volume is produced by Sanofi, GSK, Haffkine, Bharat Biotech, and the Serum Institute of India. No single manufacturer dominates any region as each has different market dynamics.

Companies from emerging economies began manufacturing vaccines in the 1980s and have become a force to be reckoned with, contributing approx. 50% of UNICEF's vaccine procurement by volume and 30% by value. This has resulted in vaccine prices being lowered, directly benefiting low and middle-income countries.

Other companies profiled in this report on the vaccines market are Moderna, Novavax, and Sinopharm, CSL Limited (Seqirus), Emergent BioSolutions Inc., and Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation.

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WASHINGTON, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Kinnami Software Corporation today announced it won a U.S. Air Force Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) contract in partnership with West Virginia University (WVU). This Phase 2 STTR award, sponsored by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) under its AFWERX Agility Prime program, will fund technology development focused on improving operations and outcomes of Personnel Recovery (PR) and CSAR missions. This research is in collaboration with the U.S. Air Force 563rd Rescue Group (RQG), located at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona. The 563rd RQG directs the operations of one HC-130J Combat King, two HH-60G Pave Hawk, and three Guardian Angel squadrons in support of world-wide CSAR taskings. The award supports the continued development of Kinnami's resilient data platform, AmiShare, and WVU's research on robustness of navigation in challenging environments.

Kinnami Resilient Data Fabric

The ability to locate personnel quickly and accurately, and securely collect and share baseline biometrics and other tracking metrics, is critical for successful PR/CSAR operations. Kinnami's resilient data management platform, in combination with WVU positioning and navigation algorithms for unmanned drones, provides a new solution to increase PR/CSAR operational effectiveness in saving isolated personnel. Kinnami's platform can work in degraded communications environments and provides a secure means to share sensitive data, such as location and biometrics. The solution can securely provide data about the person being rescued in real-time to support mission operations more effectively.

"Partnerships like this help us field tomorrow's Air Force faster and smarter, and we're excited to be working with Kinnami and West Virginia University on this important research," said U.S. Air Force Col. Peter White, 563rd RQG commander. "As rescue Airmen, it's our job to save people who are experiencing one of the worst days of their lives. The ability to communicate in real-time with isolated personnel and various assets in contested and degraded environments could contribute to multiple strategic advantages for Air Force personnel recovery operations."

During PR/CSAR missions rescue teams need to be able to accurately locate personnel in harsh environments such as mountainous terrains or inclement weather. Network connectivity is often degraded in these environments; GPS may be degraded or denied, or adversaries may be blocking radio spectrum. Personnel may be injured or immobile and unable to communicate long range. Rescue mission teams need to collect biometrics and other tracking information securely and they want to share information about specific operations with other PR/CSAR operations in parallel. Additionally, rescue missions' assets, such as planes, helicopters, drones, Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOLs) aircraft, must communicate with each other and with the Personnel Rescue Coordination Center or other Command and Control agencies. Kinnami and WVU's combined technology intends to solve these complex problems.

"Kinnami's mission is to provide the resilient data fabric required to make the connected future possible and the autonomous future a reality. This is what the PR/CSAR missions need to advance their capabilities," said Sujeesh Krishnan, CEO of Kinnami Software. "Our hybrid resilient data fabric ensures the irrefutable data integrity and secure data transmissions even in degraded conditions that are required in critical CSAR missions."

"We're excited to be working with Kinnami and the 563rd RQG to advance our research on cooperative multi-agent localization," said Dr. Jason Gross, Associate Professor & Associate Chair for Research, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, of West Virginia University. "Our work is critical to improving outcomes for CSAR missions in difficult environments and we are eager to see this technology in action."

About Kinnami Software Corporation:

Kinnami provides a resilient data fabric that simplifies data availability, protection, and security for the complex distributed networks that are essential for making the connected future possible and an autonomous future a reality. Kinnami's software enables a unified data environment for trust, transparency, and newfound collaboration from edge devices to cloud. Customers achieve the irrefutable data integrity essential to distributed environmentsincluding unsecured or free-standing networks and autonomous operations. Kinnami was founded in 2015 by a team of data management and security experts, and has offices in Boston, Washington, Austin, TX, and London.

Media Contact:

Patricia Friar

512-656-3730

[email protected]

SOURCE Kinnami Software Corporation
FACTS AT A GLANCE Edition: 6; Released: September 2021 Executive Pool: 4783 Companies: 190 - Players covered include Bluefin Payment Systems; Carta Worldwide; Ciphercloud, Inc.; Discover Financial Services; First Data Corporation; Fiserv, Inc.; Futurex; Gemalto NV; Ingenico Epayments; IP Solutions International Pty Limited (IPSI); Liaison Technologies; MasterCard, Inc.; Merchant Link; Micro Focus International PLC; Protegrity USA, Inc.; Rambus, Inc.; Sequent Software, Inc.; Shift4 Company (POSitouch); Symantec Corporation; Thales E-Security, Inc.; Tokenex; VeriFone Systems, Inc.; Visa, Inc.; WEX, Inc.; Worldpay, LLC and Others. Coverage: All major geographies and key segments Segments: Component (Solutions, Services); Deployment (Cloud, On-Premise); Application (Payment Security, Compliance Management, User Authentication); Vertical (BFSI, Retail & eCommerce, IT & ITES, Healthcare, Government, Energy & Utilities, Other Verticals) Geographies: World; United States; Canada; Japan; China; Europe (France; Germany; Italy; United Kingdom; and Rest of Europe); Asia-Pacific; Rest of World.

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ABSTRACT-

Global Tokenization Market to Reach US$4.3 Billion by the Year 2026

The concept of tokenization focuses on converting the critical information into non-critical data, commonly termed as tokens, which can be used in internal systems or databases without exposing the information to the public. Tokenization protects sensitive information by replacing it with non-significant value holding the same format and length as the original one. Tokenization holds high relevance for organizations with critical information in internal systems, such as credit card data, social security numbers and medical information that demands enhanced protection and security levels. Growth in the global market is set to be driven by increasing focus on fraud prevention and payment security measures in the wake on COVID-19-induced accelerated shift towards online and contactless payments. The market is gaining from rising incident of credit card frauds and the pressing need for robust payment security that covers different components like tokenization-as-a-service and contactless payments. The market growth is also fueled by the need to comply with stringent regulations, improve fraud prevention and deliver enhanced experience to customers. Tokenization is poised to receive a major demand stimulus from increasing uptake of contactless payments as well as rising investments in cloud-based tokenization options.

Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the global market for Tokenization estimated at US$1.6 Billion in the year 2020, is projected to reach a revised size of US$4.3 Billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 18.4% over the analysis period. Solutions, one of the segments analyzed in the report, is projected to grow at a 19.6% CAGR to reach US$3.6 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 Services segment is readjusted to a revised 16% CAGR for the next 7-year period. This segment currently accounts for a 35.4% share of the global Tokenization market. The Solutions segment's growth is favored by increasing deployment of tokenization solutions across SMEs as an effective approach to mitigate the risk of identity theft and payment frauds. Companies operating in the industry are increasingly opting for tokenization solutions to comply with PCI DSS regulations.

The U.S. Market is Estimated at $697.9 Million in 2021, While China is Forecast to Reach $476.3 Million by 2026

The Tokenization market in the U.S. is estimated at US$697.9 Million in the year 2021. The country currently accounts for a 38.22% share in the global market. China, the world's second largest economy, is forecast to reach an estimated market size of US$476.3 Million in the year 2026 trailing a CAGR of 23.7% through the analysis period. Among the other noteworthy geographic markets are Japan and Canada, each forecast to grow at 15.4% and 17.5% respectively over the analysis period. Within Europe, Germany is forecast to grow at approximately 16.5% CAGR while Rest of European market (as defined in the study) will reach US$586.8 Million by the end of the analysis period. North America dominates market share on account of stringent regulations like CCPA coupled with rising incident of cyber-attacks, mainly related to payment frauds. Factors such as digital first credit cards and increasing uptake of contactless cards are creating strong demand for tokenization services and solutions. The regional market is also gaining from notable expansion of e-commerce along with extensive use of smartphones to make online payments and access several options like government services, online gaming and digital information. Growth in Asia-Pacific region is attributed to government efforts to deal with financial frauds as well as implementation of stringent regulations to improve cyber-security. More



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The snack line opens the door to a new tasty Italian experience by offering a healthy and wholesome solution. "Our R&D team has developed a product that can improve the health of the brain by boosting it with the right ingredients without sacrificing taste", says Veroni's R&D manager, Lorenzo Ferrara.

Since 2016, Veroni has brought American households premium charcuterie to enjoy. Their cured meats are produced in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna and then imported to the U.S. where they're locally sliced and packaged. From traditional salami, mortadella, Italian prosciutto, speck, and pancetta, Veroni's cold cuts are great for pretty much any time of the day. After the successful launch of the Enjoy AperiTime charcuterie trays that enrich the Italian Aperitivo experience, the latest extension of the brand's product offerings aims to be the perfect snack to quench cravings.

"Satisfying the taste of everyone is always a priority when we design a new line", says Emanuela Bigi Veroni' marketing manager. "Today, we are still the only imported Italian brand of charcuterie in the US that, besides offering high-quality products, wishes to introduce to US consumers the Italian tradition and the key concepts that are popular in Italy, like Aperitivo and snack time".

Rich in proteins and well-balanced, Veroni snacks are a genuine alternative to bring to the office or when you need a pick-me-up to power through your workout at the gym.

About Veroni

Founded in 1925, Veroni is an Italian, family-run cured meat producer that has been operating in the U.S. since 2016. The company guarantees product authenticity and high quality by importing 100% Italian-made salumi to the U.S., where they're locally sliced and packaged to preserve their flavors and aromas.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1624831/Veroni_New_School_Snack.jpg



SOURCE Veroni - www.veroni.com
OAKLAND, Calif., Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Vertosa , a science-first cannabis company that creates the most effective and reliable active ingredients for infused products, today announced its agreement with State B Cannabis Beverage Co. by Brujera Elixirs Inc . ("State B"), a leading Canadian beverage brand committed to bringing wellness, relief and elevation to the new and evolving cannabis user. As State B's exclusive U.S. emulsion partner, Vertosa will help the brand develop proprietary formulations for its CBD and THC-infused beverages. The announcement comes shortly after State B launched three new SKUs -- Resolve, Sparkle and Zing -- in California using Vertosa's water-stable cannabis emulsions.

Vertosa's patented and patent-pending emulsion offerings are eight times more bioavailable than conventional cannabis oils and offer a consistent user experience. Customizable based on application, ingredients and desired effect, Vertosa provides State B with effective and great-tasting water-stable solutions designed to take effect within 15 minutes. Vertosa's GMP-certified and third-party tested emulsions are one of the most stable, compatible and versatile suites of products available on the market.

"We tasked Vertosa with helping us develop our new line of wellness beverages featuring functional ingredients that allow consumers to reach a specific state of mind, and the R&D team certainly rose to the occasion," said Kelly Ann Woods, founder and Chief Executive Officer of State B. "Vertosa offers an incredible bioavailable emulsion for our beverages that helps us create delicious and consistent cannabis experiences for our customers. We're proud to partner with a team whose commitment to science and the cannabis industry is unparalleled, and look forward to working together as we seek to expand our product offering."

"We're thrilled to partner with State B as their exclusive U.S. emulsion provider and bring reimagined cannabis-infused beverages to California," said Ben Larson, Chief Executive Officer of Vertosa. "State B has found a niche in the market where the Functional and Better-For-You categories meet. Following the height of the pandemic, demand for healthy and natural beverages is at an all time high and we look forward to working with State B to further develop this growing product category."

State B beverages are formulated with varying ratios of THC and CBD combined with unique blends of nootropics, adaptogenic herbs, botanical extracts and terpenes to create targeted experiences.

Resolve Blackberry Calamansi | 6mg THC & 4mg CBD: Crafted with holy basil, schisandra berry, guayusa, blue spirulina and Linalool to encourage a creative, purposeful and productive mindset.

Crafted with holy basil, schisandra berry, guayusa, blue spirulina and Linalool to encourage a creative, purposeful and productive mindset. Sparkle Raspberry Yuzu | 5mg each THC & CBD: An infusion of ashwagandha, damiana, passionflower, hibiscus and Beta-Caryophyllene that enhances libido while increasing sociability and relaxation.

An infusion of ashwagandha, damiana, passionflower, hibiscus and Beta-Caryophyllene that enhances libido while increasing sociability and relaxation. Zing Passionfruit Lime | 10mg THC: An energizing and uplifting blend of bacopa, gingko, green tea, sea buckthorn berry, turmeric and Myrcene to improve memory, focus and alertness.

In the coming year, State B will be expanding its product portfolio with the launch of Eleve, a non-cannabinoid beverage offering. Utilizing Vertosa's state-of-the-art emulsions, State B's low-sugar, ready-to-drink beverages introduce a new kind of cannabis-infused beverage to the rapidly growing cannabis market.

Vertosa has partnered with renowned mainstream brands including Vita Coco EU and Pabst, and its aqueous solutions are third-party tested for solvents, heavy metals, fungicides, pesticides and microbes. For more information, please visit https://vertosa.com/ .

State B is a subsidiary of Brujera Elixirs, Inc., a house of brands that also includes Boozewitch (sober-curious elixirs), founded by award-winning master mixologist, certified distiller, herbalist and sommelier Kelly Ann Woods. To learn more, please visit https://statebelevate.com/ .

About Vertosa

Founded in 2018, Vertosa is a science-first cannabis company that creates the most effective and reliable active ingredients for infused products. Its patented and patent-pending emulsion systems are carefully designed for the specific needs of each customer, with pre-suspended aqueous solutions that create incredibly homogeneous and stable products while maximizing bioavailability, clarity and taste. Vertosa works closely with its lab partners and brands of all sizes throughout the manufacturing process to achieve target potency and accelerate products to market. Learn more at www.vertosa.com, and connect on LinkedIn and Instagram.

About Brujera Elixirs Inc.

Brujera Elixirs Inc. is an award-winning house of beverage brands that prioritizes philanthropy - proudly contributing a percentage of profits to Raven Trust Indigenous Legal Defence Fund. Brujera is a ceiling-smashing umbrella corporation comprised of three brands - with another in development. It is led by master formulator, mixologist, sommelier and award-winning businesswoman Kelly Ann Woods. Brujera initially introduced Boozewitch, a line of sober-curious mixers for cocktails and mocktails, and soon followed up with State B Essence Elixirs, a sophisticated fusion of cannabinoids, healing herbs, and FES flower essences.

SOURCE Vertosa

Related Links

https://vertosa.com/


AUSTIN, Texas, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- VORAGO Technologies (https://voragotech.com) today announced the first product in a new line of radiation-hardened protective devices, the VC91200, a superior latch-up monitor IC. Sample evaluation kits are now available for purchase.

"Latch-up due to the effects of radiation can result in catastrophic failure of devices in extreme environments. The ability to detect and prevent latch-up before it occurs is critical to the success and longevity of missions in space. We are proud to offer a fully integrated multi-channel latch-up solution that allows our customers to monitor and protect up to four devices at once."

 Dr. Hannah Moore, Sr. Manager, Product Management, VORAGO Technologies

Designed with VORAGO Technologies' patented HARDSIL Technology, the VC91200 was created as the ultimate space-grade protection device including rad-hardened registers with Triple Mode Redundancy (TMR) and Dual-Interlocked Storage Cells (DICE) on key register elements, with the ability to protect up to four devices at once with a single chip.

VORAGO's VC91200 includes the following features and benefits:

Latch-up current sensing of up to 4 devices

Over-voltage detection

Load-dump control

Extensive configuration setting options via GPIO, UART, I 2 C

C Digital timer watchdog functionality

Configurable for individual channels or universal shutdown



Configurable timeout period

Load supply range 12V

Power supplies 3.3V only or 3.3V/1.5V

Radiation-hardened with HARDSIL up to 200 krad (Si) TID

Single-event Latch-up (SEL) immunity for all ion LETs <= 110 MEVcm 2 (at 125C)

(at 125C) Soft Error Rate (SER) EDAC enabled: <1e -15 errors / bit-day

errors / bit-day Easy-to-design development kit, with exceptional support and service offerings available

To learn more or to request a datasheet, visit VORAGO's Product Page.

About VORAGO Technologies

VORAGO Technologies is a privately held, high technology company based in Austin, Texas with over 15 years of experience in providing radiation-hardened and extreme-temperature solutions for the Hi-rel marketplace. VORAGO's patented HARDSIL technology uses cost-effective high-volume manufacturing to harden any commercially designed semiconductor component for extreme environment operation, and has created a number of solutions throughout Aerospace, Defense and Industrial applications. VORAGO has been named as one of Inc.'s 5000 Fastest Growing Companies in the US, and honored in Austin's Fast 50 List for 2020. VORAGO Technologies opens up a new world of possibilities for your designs, no matter how hostile the environment. www.voragotech.com

Photo(s):

https://www.prlog.org/12885524

Press release distributed by PRLog

SOURCE VORAGO Technologies

Related Links

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SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- A new market study published by Global Industry Analysts Inc., (GIA) the premier market research company, today released its report titled "Steam Boiler Systems - Global Market Trajectory & Analytics". The report presents fresh perspectives on opportunities and challenges in a significantly transformed post COVID-19 marketplace.



FACTS AT A GLANCE

Edition: 6; Released: April 2021

Executive Pool: 14312

Companies: 46 - Players covered include Alfa Laval AB; Amec Foster Wheeler PLC; Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd.; Bosch Industriekessel GmbH; Byworth Boilers; Cleaver-Brooks, Inc.; Cochran Ltd.; Devotion Machineries Co., Ltd.; Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction Co., Ltd.; Forbes Marshall Pvt., Ltd.; Fulton Boiler Works, Inc.; General Electric Company; Hurst Boiler & Welding Co, Inc.; Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd.; Parker Boiler Company; RENTECH Boiler Systems, Inc.; Siemens AG; Thermax Global; Thermodyne Engineering System; Vapor Power International; Viessmann Ltd.; Zhengzhou Boiler (Group) Co., Ltd. and Others.

Coverage: All major geographies and key segments

Segments: Component (Boiler, Economizer, Superheater, Air Preheater, Feed Pump); End-Use (Power Generation, Oil & Gas, Chemical, Process Industry, Primary Metals); Type (Water Tube Boiler, Fire Tube Boiler)

Geographies: World; United States; Canada; Japan; China; Europe (France; Germany; Italy; United Kingdom; Spain; Russia; and Rest of Europe); Asia-Pacific (Australia; India; South Korea; and Rest of Asia-Pacific); Latin America (Argentina; Brazil; Mexico; and Rest of Latin America); Middle East (Iran; Israel; Saudi Arabia; United Arab Emirates; and Rest of Middle East); and Africa.



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ABSTRACT-



Global Steam Boiler Systems Market to Reach $21.8 Billion by 2026

Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the global market for Steam Boiler Systems estimated at US$18.5 Billion in the year 2020, is projected to reach a revised size of US$21.8 Billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 2.7% over the analysis period. Boiler, one of the segments analyzed in the report, is projected to record a 3.4% CAGR and reach US$10 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 Economizer segment is readjusted to a revised 2.8% CAGR for the next 7-year period.



The U.S. Market is Estimated at $5.1 Billion in 2021, While China is Forecast to Reach $4.3 Billion by 2026

The Steam Boiler Systems market in the U.S. is estimated at US$5.1 Billion in the year 2021. China, the world`s second largest economy, is forecast to reach a projected market size of US$4.3 Billion by the year 2026 trailing a CAGR of 5.1% over the analysis period. Among the other noteworthy geographic markets are Japan and Canada, each forecast to grow at 0.6% and 2% respectively over the analysis period. Within Europe, Germany is forecast to grow at approximately 1.2% CAGR.



Superheater Segment to Reach US$3.2 Billion by the year 2026

In the global Superheater segment, USA, Canada, Japan, China and Europe will drive the 1.8% CAGR estimated for this segment. These regional markets accounting for a combined market size of US$2.1 Billion in the year 2020 will reach a projected size of US$2.4 Billion by the close of the analysis period. China will remain among the fastest growing in this cluster of regional markets. More



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Chandigarh, Sep 15 : To combat stubble burning, the Punjab government under the Crop Residue Management scheme has provided 31,970 machines to farmers, primary agriculture cooperatives societies, panchayats and customer hiring centres, state Agriculture Sukhdev Singh Sidhu said on Wednesday.

He said the Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare Department has given approval to 10,297 applications till date for purchasing of 31,970 agri-machines or equipment to combat the menace of stubble burning.

According to Sidhu, the department has issued sanctions under five phases for purchasing the straw management machines with subsidies ranging from 50 to 80 per cent.

He said 76,626 straw management machines were given on subsidy to the farmers in the past three years.

Patiala, Sangrur, Barnala, Bathinda, Ferozepur, Muktsar Sahib, Tarn Taran, Moga and Mansa were identified as the hotspot districts, where most of the paddy stubble burning cases were reported in the past.

He said the state was also making all-out efforts to deploy a special task force for enforcement and regulatory measures in these districts so as to ensure the prevention of stubble burning incidents in the ensuing paddy harvesting season.

Under the Crop Residue Management scheme, the state government has focused on delivering state-of-the-art machines to farmers, including Super SMS, Super Seeder, Happy Seeder, Paddy Straw Chopper, Hydraulic Reversible Mould Board Plough and Zero Till Drill, for in-situ management.
Mumbai, Sep 15 : The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) and Mumbai Police have raided and begun grilling the family of the terror suspect Jaan Mohammed Shaikh who was arrested by the Special Cell of Delhi Police.

In a sensational operation by the Delhi Police, Shaikh, 47, alias 'Samir Kaalia' was nabbed on Tuesday along with five others. They are allegedly part of a Pakistan-backed terror module which included two trained by the ISI.

The family of Shaikh -- who is reportedly linked with the dreaded D-Company led by the fugitive mafia don Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar -- lives in a decrepit tenement in a slum of Sion area since the past many years.

He is married, his wife does odd jobs in the area and the couple have two daughters. But more details are not available with the ATS and police making enquiries in the vicinity to get more information on him.

Some locals recall him as a quiet driver, devoted to his family and a non-interfering type who kept mostly to himself.

The militant module exposed by the Delhi Police was allegedly planning to carry out blasts all over India particularly during the festive season and create disturbances ahead of the upcoming polls in different states.

Shaikh, who is believed to be close to Anees Ibrahim Kaskar, the younger sibling of the most wanted Dawood, was allegedly given the responsibility to deliver bombs, weapons and grenades to various groups in the country to carry out the terror hits.
Riyadh, Sep 15 : Saudi Arabias Ministry of Industry announced on Tuesday the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Pfizer Foundation to manufacture viral and genetic vaccines in the Kingdom.

The pact was inked on the sidelines of the first day of the Riyadh Global Medical Biotechnology Summit 2021 (RGMBS), which is being held under the auspices of Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman. Minister of the National Guard Prince Abdullah Bin Bandar inaugurated the virtual event, the Saudi Gazette reported.

The Ministry of Industry said that the tripartite MoU, which was signed between the Ministry of Industry, the King Abdullah International Medical Research Center (KAIMRC) and the Pfizer Foundation, aimed at building the foundations for the manufacture of viral and genetic vaccines in the Kingdom, as well as providing technical support for the establishment of the human cell platform.

The RGMBS is organized by KAIMRC at the Department of Health Affairs of the Ministry of National Guard in cooperation with the Health Sciences Faculty of King Saud University.

Several eminent international speakers who are pioneers and leaders of biotech companies at international levels are addressing the summit. The three-day event is discussing the role of biotechnology in developing medicines, vaccines, and cellular and genetic treatments.

The deliberations of the summit also include models and opportunities for developing biotechnologies, as well as industrial and academic collaborations and challenges that affect Saudi Arabia and the world.

KAIMRC, a subsidiary of the National Guard Health Affairs is a young and thriving organization that has evolved to accomplish immeasurable success in a short period of time, and its purpose is to transform lab results into products that improve the quality of life, while training skillful researchers within the healthcare community.
Panaji, Sep 15 : Two days after a video showed the absence of any entry protocol at the state's Patradevi road checkpost along the Goa-Maharashtra border on NH-17, the North Goa District Magistrate on Wednesday issued an order making checking of all vehicles, especially passenger buses, mandatory.

"It has been noted that Covid-19 protocol is not being followed at the Patradevi border checkpost. In this regard, in order to contain the spread of the said pandemic, the following measures are taken; compulsory checking of all vehicles specially bus passengers as per prevailing order of Section 144 of the CrPC, 1973," North Goa District Magistrate Ajit Roy said in his order.

Police and Transport department officials manning the inter-state road border have also been directed to note down details of all buses and passengers in a "register everyday", while also emphasising on "overall monitoring" of the checkpost.

Earlier this week, the Aam Aadmi Party circulated a video shot at the checkpost, which showed that buses were being allowed into the state without any checking for Covid negative or vaccination completion certificates, which are mandatory for entry into the state.

Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has repeatedly said that the state needs to be on alert in the wake of an increase in Covid cases in Maharashtra and Kerala.
Basseterre : , Sep 15 (IANS) St Kitts and Nevis Patriots defeated Guyana Amazon Warriors by seven wickets to enter the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) final where they will meet Saint Lucia Kings who beat defending champions Trinbago Knight Riders by 21 runs in the other semi-final.

The Patriots won the toss and elected to bowl.

Despite a bright start from the Amazon Warriors' openers Brandon King (27 off 17) and Chandrapaul Hemraj (27 off 24), wickets tumbled in the middle overs before a late burst from Shimron Hetmyer (45 off 20 balls) took his side to a substantial 178/9. Nicholas Pooran chipped in with 26 off 14 balls.

In their chase, the Patriots once again opted to open with Chris Gayle, and he laid the platform for a successful chase with 42 off 27 balls, lashing the ball into the stands on numerous occasions. Evin Lewis (77 off 39 balls) then took over to guide his side to a crushing victory.

Lewis hammered eight sixes and three fours.

St Kitts and Nevis Patriots reached their highest powerplay score of this year's CPL, with Gayle and Lewis bringing up 68-0 after the first six overs.

In the other semi-final, a high-scoring affair, Saint Lucia Kings eliminated defending champions Trinbago Knight Riders.

The Saint Lucia Kings won the toss and chose to bat. No. 3 batsman Mark Deyal (78 off 44 balls; 5x4s, 6x6s) got the side off to a flying start and they maintained a high intensity throughout the innings, as Tim David (38 not out off 17 balls) and David Wiese (34 off 21 balls) combined to cause carnage in the latter overs, taking the side to a mammoth 205/4 after their 20 overs. Both David and Wiese added unbeaten 75 runs in 5.4 overs.

Trinbago Knight Riders got off to a fast start in response but slowly unravelled amidst a growing run rate, as Wiese (5/39) took his second five wicket-haul of this year's CPL with his medium-pace to end their title defence as they finished on 184 all out.

Whoever wins the final, to be played on Wednesday night, will be the first-time champions.

Brief scores Semi-final 1: Saint Lucia Kings 205/4 (M Deyal 78, T David 38; S Narine 1/12, A Hosein 1/27) beat Trinbago Knight Riders 184 all out (S Narine 30, D Ramdin 29; D Wiese 5/39, Paul 2/21) by 21 runs.

Semi-final 2: Guyana Amazon Warriors 178-9 (S Hetmyer 45 not out, B King 27, C Hemraj 27; J Jaggesar 2/19, F Ahmed 2/22) lost to St Kitts and Nevis Patriots 181-3 (E Lewis 77 not out, C Gayle 42; O Smith 2/48, K Sinclair 1/31) by seven wickets.
New Delhi, Sep 15 : India witnessed a marginal spike in new Covid cases on Wednesday after a few days of continued decline in daily cases. In the last 24 hours, India registered 27,176 cases, pushing the total Covid-19 cases so far in the country to 3,33,16,755.

However, the daily Covid tally in the country remained below 30,000 for the last four days, according to the Union Health Ministry's report on Wednesday.

A total of 25,404 new cases were registered on Tuesday, 27,254 on Monday and 28,591 on Sunday.

With 284 new fatalities registered in the last 24 hours, the country's total Covid death toll increased to 4,43 497. The fatality rate has remained at 1.33 per cent for the last few days.

The number of active cases has also declined by 11,120 and the current active cases are 3,51,087, which is 1.5 per cent of the total Covid infection reported in the country since early 2020.

In the same time span, a total of 38,012 Covid-infected patients have recovered, pushing the country's total recoveries to 3,25,22,171. The Covid recovery rate rose to 97.62 per cent on Wednesday, as per the Ministry's data.

The weekly positivity rate was reported at 2 per cent, which is less than 3 per cent for the last 82 days, while the daily positivity rate was 1.69 per cent, which remained below 3 per cent for the last 16 days.

India has so far tested a total of 54.60 crore (54,60,55,796) Covid samples, out of which, 16,10,829 were conducted in the last 24 hours, according to the Union Health Ministry.

Till date, the country has administered over 75.89 crore (75,89,12,277) doses of Covid vaccines, out of which 61,15,690 jabs were given in the last 24 hours, the data showed.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Chennai, Sep 15 : Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, M.K. Stalin will take a final decision on the reopening of schools for children from 1 to 8 classes after taking expert opinion from the doctors and medical experts.

Tamil Nadu school education minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamaohi in a statement said that the state school education department will present a report on the reopening of classes for junior students. The report after proper studies conducted at the grassroots levels across the state will be presented to the Chief Minister on Wednesday.

The school education minister said that the education department has been closely monitoring the developments since the reopening of school classes for students of 9 to 12 on September 1.

He also said that more than 800 medical professionals from the Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK) are involved in the surveillance to ensure the safety of both students and teachers.

The Chief Minister, according to Public health department sources, is likely to give consent to reopen schools as the state has been frenetically inoculating its population and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has also announced that threat to children is not very high.
September 15 : Tillotama Shome, who won immense appreciation for her performance in the film Sir, reacted to a comment by a hater on Twitter. The talented actress wondered if the comment can be considered as an insult.

Taking to Twitter on Tuesday, Tillotama wrote, A hater on social media called me a flop actress who looks likes a maid. Now how is that even mildly insulting, given my situation!? Tillotama added the hashtag, Dignity of labour.

A hater on social media called me a "flop actress who looks likes a maid". Now how is that even mildly insulting, given my situation!? #dignityoflabour  Tillotama Shome (@TillotamaShome) September 14, 2021

Pooja Bhatt, who is quite vocal on social media, immediately came in her support and defended her. Poojas tweet read as, You are a star in the real sense..one whose light will illuminate the world through the work that you have done & the lives you have touched long after you have gone. Haters are akin to dark matter. They provide the gas & ensure the ones that provide light, remain bound.

You are a star in the real sense..one whose light will illuminate the world through the work that you have done & the lives you have touched long after you have gone. Haters are akin to dark matter. They provide the gas & ensure the ones that provide light,remain bound.  https://t.co/JgKzTVCqE1  Pooja Bhatt (@PoojaB1972) September 15, 2021

Tillotama was also supported by her fans. One user wrote, You are an amazing actor. I love how you always bring out the essence of the character with your nuanced performance. I believe people who don't know how to argue usually resort to attacks on someone's appearance. Another fan wrote, Ya. She is beautiful and pretty even hot as well!

This pathetic attempt at the insult just shows one of the many ways caste intersects with class in modern India. Loved the dignity of your character in Sir! Big fan, a Twitter user wrote. Tillotama reacted to the post and wrote, Exactly!

Tillotama won the Filmfare Award for Best Actress (Critics) for her praiseworthy performance in Sir at the 66th Filmfare Awards. She was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the 63rd Filmfare Awards for her role in A Death in the Gunj. The actor played Alice in Mira Nair's film, Monsoon Wedding, and was lauded her role as Deepa in Shadows of Time, directed by Florian Gallenberger. Tillotama played a nun in the Australian film, The Waiting City by Claire McCarthy.
New Delhi, Sep 15: Afghanistan, especially its social hue, in the last two decades has dramatically changed, something that the Taliban or even Pakistans Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) that played a key role in government formation in the country after the US troops withdrawal, may not have accounted for.

Foreign policy watchers told India Narrative that the young Afghans - typically those who are in their 20s and 30s-- are now used to a different life which has been free, democratic and open.

"For the Taliban, the biggest challenge is to gain acceptability of the people of Afghanistan, who are now used to their freedom and are quite conscious of their rights-men and women both," one of them said, adding that it may not be easy for the hardline government to manage them even in the medium term.

As the Taliban took control of Kabul, the prominent faces of the outfit including the that of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar and Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai among others had portrayed that the second innings of their regime would be a moderate and inclusive one. However, the relatively moderate faces of the Taliban have been conveniently sidelined. Essentially Taliban 2.0 is just a repeat of Taliban 1.0 which is austere and anti-modern. Paksitan's ultra-conservative Inter Services Intelligence which cut its teeth after former President Zia Ul Haq had instituionalised Islamisation of the military, played a seminal role in yanking back the Taliban into its ultra-orthodox roots. ISI chief Faiz Hameed camped in Kabul to form a "caretaker" government which had the terror tainted and criminalised Haqqani network at its core.

The UN blacklisted Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund-led government has already passed a diktat, asking women to stay at home.

Afghanistan traditionally known for its progressive thinking had granted equality to its women in 1964. Though under the Taliban rule in the 1990s, these rights were snatched away, they were restored in 2004.

"This is a turning point...sooner or later the country will break into a serious civil war...that apart men and women of the country are unlikely to accept the Taliban rule," the analyst pointed out.

Afghanistan and Afghan women changed over the past two decades, said Ramzia Abdekhil, a university student told Hurriyet Daily News.

"The Taliban should understand this: Today's Afghanistan is not like the one they ruled 20 years ago. Back then, they did whatever they wanted to do, and we kept silent. Not anymore, we'll not remain silent. We won't accept whatever they say, we won't wear burqas and sit at home," the newspaper quoted Adbekhil as saying.

Notably, women from across the country have been spearheading protests.

That apart, the world community is closely watching the developments in Afghanistan. Apart from China and Pakistan and a few others, the world community has not come forth in showing their willingness to work with the Taliban.

Several countries in the Middle East that gave immediate recognition to the Taliban last time have also maintained stoic silence.

Not just that. Several of them, including India have made a clear distinction between the people of the country and the Taliban regime.

"In today's context the Taliban's calculation may have gone wrong, we will have to carefully watch the situation that unfolds in the next few months," the analyst said.

(The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com)

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
New Delhi, Sep 15 : The Supreme Court on Wednesday questioned the sanctity of recommendations by panel headed by sitting top court judges for various tribunals, as the government has the last say on the matter.

The bench emphasized that it is distressing that names recommended by selection panel, which comprised of sitting top court judges and two senior bureaucrats, were not treated seriously.

The top court gave Centre two weeks, as the last opportunity, to make good the appointments and furnish reasons for names, which were rejected. "Make all appointments. We give you two weeks' time," said the bench.

The top court expressed its unhappiness to Attorney General (AG) K.K. Venugopal, representing the Centre, with the way the central government has made appointments to the tribunals.

A bench headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana, and comprising justices D.Y. Chandrachud and L. Nageswara Rao, told the AG it did not appreciate Centre's "cherry-picking" names for appointment after recommendations made by the Search-cum- Selection Committees (SCSC) headed by Supreme Court judges.

"We are very unhappy with what is going on," noted the chief justice, while questioning the Centre as to why recommendations made by SCSC were not accepted. The SCSC shortlists candidates for appointment and then sends it to the Centre for clearance.

The bench pointed out that the SCSC recommended nine judicial members and 10 technical members for National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) and the appointment letter issued showed "as if members were cherry picked and some were kept on waiting".

It said, "We cannot ignore selected candidates and go to waitlist. What type of selection and appointment is this?" The AG contended before the bench that the government has power not to accept the recommendation.

The chief justice responded that in a democracy one cannot say recommendations cannot be accepted, and added: "What is the sanctity of recommendations made by panel headed by sitting top court judges, if the government has the last say on the matter?"

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Patna, Sep 15 : After political setbacks within his party, Tej Pratap Yadav, the elder son of Lalu Prasad became a victim of cheating after an employee of his newly launched incense stick company took away Rs 71,650 on Tuesday.

Tej Pratap Yadav filed a written complaint in Sri Krishna Puri police station on Tuesday evening.

He alleged that Asish Ranjan, a marketing head of his L-R (Lalu-Rabri) Radha Krishna incense sticks company has taken away Rs 71,650. The said amount had to be deposited in the company's account but Ranjan fraudulently deposited it in his own personal account.

"After taking the money, Ashish Ranjan is missing from his house. He has fraudulently taken away Rs 71,650 which was expected to come to the company account," Tej Pratap Yadav said.

Tej Pratap Yadav had started a incense stick manufacturing unit in Patna's Danapur locality in the first week of July this year.

"We have received a complaint from Tej Pratap Yadav. The investigation is currently underway. The accused will be arrested soon," said SHO of SK Puri police station.
Hyderabad, Sep 15 : Actor Mumaith Khan on Wednesday appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for questioning in connection with a money laundering probe linked to drug case which had rocked Tollywood in 2017.

The actor, known for her item numbers in South Indian films, reached the ED office around 10 a.m. in response to the summons issued by the agency.

She is likely to be questioned by the ED sleuths about her suspected financial transactions and if she attended parties held at 'F' Club, which was once owned by actor Navdeep. The ED grilled Navdeep and a former general manager of the club on Monday.

Director Puri Jagannadh and actors Charmee Kaur, Rakul Preet Singh, Nandu, Daggubati Rana, Ravi Teja and Navdeep were other Tollywood personalities questioned. The agency also grilled Ravi Teja's driver and aide Srinivas. They were all grilled for 8-10 hours each.

Mumaith Khan is the seventh person from Telugu film industry to appear before the ED since it began questioning on August 31 in money laundering probe in connection with a high-end drugs racket busted by Telangana's prohibition and excise department.

Actor Ravi Teja and his driver and aide Srinivas had appeared before the ED officials on September 9. Navdeep is considered a close friend of Ravi Teja.

The questioning was believed to be around their suspicious financial transactions with those involved in drug case.

The ED had last month issued notices to about a dozen people connected to Tollywood as part of a money laundering probe linked to the case related to the smuggling of 'Class A' narcotic substances, including LSD and MDMA.

The ED officials also questioned prime accused Calvin Mascarenhas and two other accused Abdul Quddus and Abdul Wahed.

Actors Tanish and Tarun have also been summoned by the ED in connection the drugs racket which was busted with the arrest of drug peddlers in 2017.

The drugs racket was busted on July 2, 2017 when customs officials arrested Calvin Mascarenhas, a musician, and two others and seized drugs worth Rs 30 lakh from their possession.

They had reportedly told the investigators that they are supplying drugs to film celebrities, software engineers, and even students of some corporate schools. Mobile numbers of some Tollywood celebrities were allegedly found in their contact lists.

The excise department had constituted SIT for a comprehensive probe. A total of 12 cases were registered, 30 people were arrested while 62 individuals including 11 people connected with Tollywood were examined by the SIT under section 67 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act and section 161 of Criminal Procedure Code.

An American, a South African and a Netherlands national were among those arrested.

The SIT had collected blood, hair, nail and other samples from some of those who appeared before it for question and sent them for analysis.

The SIT filed chargesheet in eight out of 12 cases. It, however, gave clean chit to the film personalities who were questioned as part of the investigation.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
September 15 : Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor were spotted at the Mumbai airport on Wednesday morning. The couple was accompanied by their sons, Taimur Ali Khan and Jehangir Ali Khan.

While paparazzi clicked them at the airport, and several fan pages on social media have uploaded pictures of the Kapoor-Khan family, it is not known where the family is headed to. In the pictures, Kareena looked comfortable in a denim shirt teamed with a pair of light blue boyfriend jeans and white sneakers. Saif wore a black half-sleeved shirt, white pants, and brown shoes. While Jehangir was seen in a black onesie, Taimur wore a black T-shirt and beige pants.

Last month, the family visited the Maldives to ring in Saifs birthday. Kareena had shared mesmerising pictures of her surroundings in the island nation and of her family, too on social media.

Meanwhile, Kareena resumed shooting for her upcoming film Laal Singh Chaddha in Mumbai last week. The actors were spotted and clicked outside the set. The paparazzi captured the actors in their get-up for the film. While Aamir was seen sporting a turban, Kareena was in a blue hospital gown. The actors were led to their vanity van and were helped with umbrellas as it was raining and the placed was waterlogged.

On the work front, Kareena will be seen in Laal Singh Chaddha along with Aamir Khan. The film is an official remake of Tom Hanks Forrest Gump. Also starring Naga Chaitanya and Mona Singh, the film is scheduled for Christmas release this year. Kareena has turned into a producer and has signed a new film with Hansal Mehta, and will co-produce the venture with Ekta Kapoor. The Good Newwz actress has also released her book Kareena Kapoor Khan's Pregnancy Bible, after welcoming her second baby, Jeh in February this year.

Saif, on the other hand, will reportedly kickstart the shoot for the Vikram Vedha remake in Serbia next month. Saif and Hrithik Roshan will reprise the roles of R Madhan and Vijay Sethupathi, who played the lead in the original film. Saif was recently seen in Bhoot Police, which received a mixed response. The actor is also working on his magnum-opus Adipurush, where he plays the role of Ravana.
Mumbai, Sep 15 : Around 90 police stations in the city will soon get a trained 'Nirbhaya Squad' and a 'women's safety cell' as a plan to beef up policing after the heinous rape, brutalisation and murder of a 32-year-old woman in Sakinaka on September 10, police said.

Mumbai Police Commissioner Hemant Nagrale issued orders to the effect on Tuesday and the Mobile-5 vehicle of all police stations shall be named 'Nirbhaya Squad' (Fearless Squad).

Each squad will comprise a female officer of Sub-Inspector, Assistant Police Inspector rank, a woman constable, a male policeman and a driver, supervised by a woman Assistant Commissioner of Police or Police Inspector from each policing region.

The 'Nirbhaya Squad' members shall be given a specialised two-day training and the squad will conduct patrolling around the girls' hostels or orphanages, children's homes, and self-defence camps at schools, colleges plus install a Nirbhaya Box to take public complaints.

Soon after the Sakinaka incident, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray visited the state police headquarters and discussed safety measures for women with Director General Police (DGP) Sanjay Pandey, besides having meetings with Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and state Home Minister Dilip Walse-Patil.

Besides, the Nirbhaya Squads will collect intelligence of harassment of women or children in their jurisdictions and prepare a list of sexual offenders of the past five years to track their movements.

All police stations have been directed to identify vulnerable areas where women were targeted in the past and enhance patrolling, besides keeping eyes on secluded or crowded places.

All Additional Police Commissionerate will provide pen cameras or other advanced gadgets to the Nirbhaya Squad members so that footage and evidence collected can be used in cases of stalking, eve-teasing, harassment, molestation, etc.

The squads will keep a list of women senior citizens living alone, call on them during patrolling and try to resolve their issues.

Additionally, under an initiative called 'Saksham', counselling will be started at regional or zonal levels for minors and psychiatrists will counsel sexual assault victims, women and children in slums will be made aware of the POCSO Act, etc., to instill a fear of the law among the offenders.
Dakshina Kannada : , Sep 15 (IANS) Karnataka health department authorities breathed a sigh of relief as the suspected sample of Nipah virus sent to the National Institute of Virology (NIV) tested negative.

The District Health Officer (DHO) of Dakshina Kannada district Dr Kishore Kumar said on Wednesday that, the report of the suspected Nipah case has arrived and the youth has tested negative. He appealed to the public not to panic as the district administration has taken all precautions in this regard.

High alert was sounded across the bordering Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Karwar districts of Karnataka with Kerala following a sample of a person from Karwar, who worked in RT-PCR & Nipah kits manufacturing unit, sent for testing to NIV, Pune.

The man suspected to have contracted the Nipah virus approached the hospital in Manipal on Saturday. He was kept in an isolated ward at the Government Wenlock District hospital in Mangaluru. His family members were also isolated.

Though the doctors did not find any Nipah symptoms, the patient insisted that he is being affected by the virus. The authorities did not want to take any chances, and sent the sample for testing.

The person was affected with fever after he got drenched in rain in Goa. He also experienced headaches and faster heartbeats.

Thermal scanning is being made mandatory for all travellers from Kerala to ensure safety for those who enter the state on emergency purposes as entry is restricted for daily movement of people from Kerala. Strict vigil is kept at the borders. Hospitals and all doctors are informed to report if they come across any person with the symptoms of Nipah.
Mumbai, Sep 15 : Television actor Rajveer Singh who is seen as 'Neel' in the show 'Qurbaan Hua' has been inspired in terms of acting and personality by Bollywood star Ranbir Kapoor.

Moved by Ranbir Kapoor's acting skills, Rajveer Singh has always had an itch for sharing the screen with the superstar. In fact, if there's one person from the industry that he has always looked up to, that's been Ranbir Kapoor.

While revealing why he wants to share the screen with Ranbir Kapoor, Rajveer Singh said" "I have never seen an actor this versatile, his characters in his films come out so well when he acts. In fact, Ranbir Kapoor is that one person, who brings out the best in a character in terms of acting, presentation and everything. It almost feels like he wears the character in and out and that's something that has always fascinated me." "It would be my pleasure and great honour to share the screen with him if I ever get a chance. Not because he is a star, but the kind of detailing that he brings to his characters is something that I would like to follow closely, and I think every other actor who wants to polish his skills would do that," he adds.

Rajveer Singh might get his chance to act with Ranbir Kapoor in the near future, 'Neel's future seems to be a little messy as he has been accused of killing Vyas ji and hence has been arrested by the police. Now will 'Chahat' (Pratibha Ranta) and her kids be able to save him from the mess? 'Qurbaan Hua' airs on Zee TV.
Hyderabad, Sep 15 : Tata Lockheed Martin Aerostructures Limited (TLMAL) on Wednesday announced delivery of 150th C-130J Super Hercules empennage from its manufacturing facility located in Hyderabad.

TLMAL, a joint venture between Tata Advanced Systems Limited (TASL) and Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, was established in 2010 in alignment with the Indian Air Force's acquisition of its first six C-130J 30 Super Hercules airlifters.

The event to mark 150th delivery was held at TLMAL facility at Adibatla in Hyderabad and was attended by Telangana's minister for industries and information technology K. T. Rama Rao and senior officials from the state government and TLMAL.

TLMAL officials said it exemplifies the Make in India goals and has the distinction of being the single global source of C-130J empennage assemblies that are installed on all new Super Hercules aircraft produced in Marietta, Georgia, in the United States.

Empennage assemblies produced by TLMAL include the aircraft's horizontal and vertical stabilizers along with leading edges and tip assemblies.

The TLMAL team also previously manufactured sets of C-130J center wing box components and introduced a cutting-edge 4,700 square-meter metal-to-metal bonding facility in May 2018. TLMAL currently employs close to 700 people.

In April 2018, TLMAL increased the indigenization of C-130 manufacturing by transitioning the production of approximately 2,200 (of 2,500+) previously imported empennage components to Tata Sikorsky Aerospace Limited (TSAL), Lockheed Martin's second joint venture with TASL.

These components were previously manufactured by suppliers located outside of India. Currently, every empennage that is delivered around the world is built in Hyderabad and its components will be further indigenized from 85% to up to more than 95% by Q1 2022.

"The TASL - Lockheed Martin partnership is a true demonstration of collaborated workmanship in aerospace and defence manufacturing in India. The manufacturing and operational excellence achieved by the team through this decade-long partnership, has led India to become the only supplier of C-130J Super Hercules empennage, globally," said Sukaran Singh, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Tata Advanced Systems Limited.

TLMAL empennages are included in C-130Js that support critical worldwide search and rescue, peacekeeping, combat delivery, maritime patrol, special operations, aerial refueling, medevac and humanitarian response missions. TLMAL empennages are also included in the LM-100J - the commercial variant of the Super Hercules.

"Many people, thousands of hours and massive amounts of commitment helped the TLMAL team reach this milestone. Fueled by a strong partnership between Tata and Lockheed Martin, the TLMAL team puts its pride and energy into meeting and exceeding customer expectations with each and every C-130J empennage delivered. While C-130Js are flown by a multitude of operators around the world, each empennage is a product of India and reflects the 'Make in India' initiative. Our team has accomplished so much with these first 150 empennages and is ready to achieve even more with the next 150 empennages," said Kiran Dambala, Chief Operating Officer at TLMAL.

The C-130J Super Hercules is the proven standard in tactical airlift, providing a unique mix of versatility and performance to complete any mission, anytime, anywhere. It is the current variant of the C-130 Hercules and is the airlifter of choice for 26 operators in 22 nations.

The Indian Air Force operates a fleet of 12 C-130J-30s, exemplifying the airlifter's versatility by landing it on the highest landing strip in the world - Daulat Beg Oldi in northern India - to relying on the C-130 for regional military, peacekeeping, medevac, humanitarian relief and natural disaster support missions.
New Delhi, Sep 15 : Japanese women never seem to age, with their beauty rituals and anti-ageing skincare products, it seems as if they have discovered the secret to youthful-looking skin. In Japan, if you walk down the streets of Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka or Nagoya, beauty and wellness is very popular.

Global Beauty Secrets, draws inspiration from age-old beauty rituals, artefacts and ingredients from Japan. Recreated these by sourcing the very best from Japan and India, the brand worked closely with Kyoto-based Junko Sophie Kakizaki, who is a master of Ikebana flower arranging and tea ceremony. She is also an expert on Kimono culture and helped the brand emphasize a deeper, more personal and even spiritual level of Japanese beauty. Her insights were instrumental in helping to differentiate the products from large commercial brands. With a clear focus on curating products with organic and high-performance ingredients, the range is made using local processes inspired by Japanese culture.

Aishwarya Sawarna Nir, Founder of Global Beauty Secrets says, "Through this range, I wanted to create products that fully encapsulated the Japanese Beauty culture. It was important that we stay true and honest to our inspiration, right from the ingredients in the products to the packaging. Hence, I reached out to Kyoto-based artist and preserver of Kimono culture, Junko Sophie Kakizaki, who comes from a lineage of Samurai warriors. Her work and passion as an artist along with being an ambassador of Japanese culture resonated perfectly with me making sure we received maximum insight as we created a niche offering for our consumers. Depicting the wisdom of traditional methods of Japanese beauty with modern formulations for our Global Beauty Secrets customers." Junko Sophie Kakizaki, Kimono Culture Expert and Master of Ikebana and Chayou

adds, "When Aishwarya reached out to me I immediately felt a sense of sisterhood with her. The opportunity of getting to know Aishwarya was accidental, yet it seems like destiny. As I got to know more about her brand -- Global Beauty Secrets -- and her vision to revive and simplify ancient beauty rituals, I realized we share the same love and sense of mission for beauty and aesthetics. We believe that beauty is the supreme manifestation of our feminine spirits which becomes deeper with time and cultivation. So, when Aishwarya suggested to me that we create together a series called "Kyoto Beauty Secrets", I was simply delighted. This was the beginning of our very enjoyable and exciting journey together." Global Beauty Secrets -- Tashinami Box -- Products

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New Delhi, Sep 15 : The Taliban have confirmed confiscating more than $6.5 million and 18 gold bricks from the house of former Vice-President Amrullah Saleh and handed them over to the Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB), Pajhwok News reported.

Recently, Mullah Shahabuddin Delawar, a Taliban member, told TOLO news that they had found $1 million each in two different places of Presidential Palace.

A video went viral on social media, in which a person said: "This is the house of Amrullah Saleh when we came here, we found $105,000 and we handed them over to the Governor." The man said: "Today we found $6.2 million and nearly 18 gold bricks and we will hand them over to our leaders." The video clip shows several people counting and taking pictures of dollars bundles and gold bricks, the report said.

The location of Saleh's house was not specified in the video clip, but it shows it is in Panjsher province.

The Taliban launched attacks on the province about two weeks ago and gained control of the province on September 6.

On Monday, secretary of Zabihullah Mujahid, Mohammad Bilal Karimi said that he could not confirm the report about dollars and gold.

Karimi posted the video of dollars and gold on his twitter account, saying: "The Mujahideen of the Islamic Emirate have found more than $6 million and 18 gold bricks from the house of Ashraf Ghani's first deputy, Amrullah Saleh." However, a source in Da Afghanistan Bank also said that the money and gold had been handed over to the bank.

But an individual, who did not want to be named and described himself as a member of the anti-Taliban front in Panjsher, told Pajhwok that the report of recovery of money and gold from Amrullah Saleh's house was untrue, the report said.

On August 15, President Ashraf Ghani left the country unexpectedly on the day the Taliban took over Kabul and later he was accused of taking millions of dollars out of the country.
September 15 : The makers of Ishaan Khatters film Pippa have dropped the first look poster of the movie as the film goes on floors today.

RSVP and Roy Kapur Films have shared the first look of the film on its official social media handles. Pippa is a war film set during 1971 India-Pakistan war. Ishaan Khatter plays the lead role of real-life war veteran Brig Balram Singh Mehta. The team has kickstarted the first shoot schedule in Amritsar today.

The first look poster of the film feature Ishaan on top of a tank as RSVP Films wrote, Presenting the first look of @ishaankhatter as #BrigadierBalramSinghMehta in #Pippa, an untold story from the 1971 war! Shoot with the squad begins today!

The action-packed tank war film is based on the book The Burning Chaffees written by 1971 war hero Brig Balram Singh Mehta (retd) in 2015. The book about the valour and bravery of tank crews during the 1971 India-Pakistan war. After raising 13 Armoured Regiment in 1988, Brigadier Mehta took premature retirement from the Army.

Pippa is directed by Raja Krishna Menon and produced by Siddhartha Roy Kapur and Ronnie Screwvala. The music of the biopic is given by none other than AR Rahman.

On the first day of the shoot, Brigadier Balram Singh Mehta was invited by the producers to give the inaugural slate clap. The films unique title is taken from the Russian amphibious war tank called the PT-76, popularly known as Pippa. Besides Ishaan Khatter, Pippa stars Mrunal Thakur, Priyanshu Painyuli and Soni Razdan.

Talking about the film, director Raja Krishna Menon said in a statement, Im beyond excited to venture into the field with our amazing cast and crew. Weve all been prepping hard for this day, and I cannot wait to bring this incredible story of valour and liberty to the audiences.
New Delhi, Sep 15 : The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a telecom relief package with relaxation in terms of adjusted gross revenue (AGR) payment, sources said.

According to people in the know, the Cabinet has approved the moratorium of four years for AGR dues. The details are expected to be spelt out by Union Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw later in the afternoon.

The move will be most beneficial for the stress-ridden Vodafone Idea. Shares of Vodafone Idea surged over 2 per cent on hopes of the relief package, while those of Bharti Airtel soared over 5 per cent.

The government has been in talks with several stakeholders, including banks, for a package for the sector amid the concerns of a possible duopoly in the Indian telecom sector if Vodafone Idea shuts.

Earlier in the month, Vodafone Idea's former Chairman, Kumar Mangalam Birla met Union Communications Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.

During the meeting on September 1, Birla and Vaishnaw discussed about the health of the sector and the urgent need for government intervention.

On August 4, the board of Vodafone Idea accepted the request of Birla to step down as the Non-Executive Director and Non-Executive Chairman of the Board.

Days before Birla's resignation as the Chairman, it became public that he had written to the government that he is willing to hand over his stake in the debt-ridden company to government entities in a bid to keep the company operational.

In a letter to Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba on June 7, Birla said that, with a "sense of duty" towards 27 crore Indians connected with Vodafone Idea, he is willing to hand over his stake to public Sector Unit (PSU), a government entity or any domestic financial entity, or any other entity that the government may consider worthy of keeping the company as a going concern.

In the letter, Birla sought clarity on adjusted gross revenue (AGR), adequate moratorium on spectrum dues and floor pricing, adding that without immediate and active government support, VIL's operations will be at an "irretrievable point of collapse".
Thirty-one years after the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from Kashmir, the Nehru-Gandhi family has for the first time unambiguously spoken up for the community. In a Facebook post on Tuesday, Rahul Gandhi wrote in Hindi saying that the nation cannot forget the pain that the families had undergone.

He also posted a picture of a lighted earthen lamp with 'bow to the martyrdom of Kashmiri Pandits' written across. The day is observed by the Kashmiri Pandits (KP) as Martyr's Day in memory of Tikalal Taploo, a Hindu leader who was assassinated on this day in 1989 in Srinagar. Taploo was the state vice president of BJP and was associated with the RSS.

Rahul Gandhi's expression of solidarity with the Kashmiri Pandit community and the homage to a fallen BJP leader could well have come as a surprise to the community as also the BJP.

Rahul Gandhi's post is really more than recognising the pain of the Kashmiri Pandit families. It is being regarded as a smart move to counter the BJP on playing the Hindu card. Rahul, for some time now, has been describing himself as a Kashmiri Pandit and trying to identify himself with them -- a community which has faced the brunt of terrorism in Kashmir and was forced to flee the Valley in early Nineties.

In the past few weeks, Rahul Gandhi has visited Jammu and Kashmir twice. His first tour to Kashmir, after the abrogation of Article 370, was on August 10 when he prayed at one of the most revered temples for Kashmiri Pandits, Mata Kheer Bhawani.

A month later, he visited Mata Vaishno Devi temple in Jammu and met a Kashmiri Pandit delegation there where he said, "I am a Kashmiri Pandit. My family is Kashmiri Pandit". He said that the delegation of Kashmiri Pandits met him and said that the Congress party had implemented many welfare schemes for them but the BJP had done nothing. "I promise to my Kashmiri Pandit brothers that I will do something for them," Rahul Gandhi said this during his address to party workers.

While the Kashmiri Pandit community could be amused at these developments, the Congress leader could well be hoping that the community tag would help him in the upcoming elections in several states, particularly in Uttar Pradesh.

The Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls are crucial for both the Congress and the BJP. Since Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is handling the party in the state herself, a lot is at stake. In the caste-ridden politics of UP, 12-13 per cent of the Brahmin population can be crucial for electoral success. And this time all the political parties are trying to woo the Brahmins in the state.

For the Congress here, Rahul's Kashmiri Pandit caste card assertion is aimed at influencing the Brahmin community in the state to cut into the BJP's vote bank. Sources in the Congress said that the party is mulling changing its chief in UP and replacing the current one, who is from the OBC community, with a Brahmin leader.

It was at Pushkar Sarovar in Rajasthan in November 2018 that Rahul Gandhi had first declared himself a Datattreya Brahmin and a Kashmiri Pandit, his priest who carried out the rituals had informed.

By repeatedly highlighting his caste, Rahul Gandhi may be trying to woo constituencies, but the BJP has been quick in slamming him. It said that Rahul had "very conveniently" forgotten that the woes of the Kashmiri Pandit were because of the politics of appeasement of Congress and like-minded parties.

While the BJP, Congress or others tussle over caste-politics, the Kashmiri Pandit community is suddenly finding its political relevance. And Rahul Gandhi's repeated assertion of being a Kashmiri Pandit is being seen as a politically correct move. His electoral win in the Muslim majority Wayanad had painted him in a certain colour and the right wing has often called him 'anti-Hindu'. To counter this the Congress leader began frequenting temples and recently started highlighting his Kashmir Pandit connection.

(Deepika Bhan can be reached at deepika.b@ians.in)
Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 15 : With the cash spinning tourism industry in Kerala badly affected by the Covid pandemic, Kerala Tourism is reinventing itself through new products and one such product - Caravan Tourism was launched here on Wednesday by State Tourism Minister P.A. Mohammed Riyas.

"Like other successful tourism products of Kerala launched since 1990s, Caravan Tourism is also to be developed on PPP mode with private investors, tour operators and local communities being key stakeholders," said Riyas and added in the post-pandemic world, Caravan Tourism Policy will be promising the visitors safe, customized and closest-to-nature travel experience.

He said investment subsidy would be given to Caravan operators, the details of which would be announced soon.

"The policy envisages laying down the broad framework for the development and encouragement of Caravan Tourism in Kerala, predominantly in the private sector through incentivizing the purchase of caravans and for establishing caravan parks, chalking out the process and procedures for its operations and approvals", added Riyas.

The two major components of this activity are Tourism Caravans and Caravan Parks. While the first involves specially built vehicles for travel, leisure and stay, the Caravan Parks are designated places to park the vehicles and enable the visitors to spend a night or a day or station for an extended period to explore the destination.

Caravan Tourism will also promote Responsible Tourism activities for sustainable growth and for the benefit of the local communities, promote eco-friendly practices and market for local products.

V. Venu, additional Chief Secretary, Tourism said, Caravan Tourism imparts an added thrust to the State's inclusive approach of leveraging the tourism potential of the entire state by bringing to attention many an unexplored spot side-by-side the promotion of established destinations.

There will be two types of caravans. In one model, two guests shall be accommodated, while the other is for a family of four members.

The tourism caravans will have all the necessary facilities for a comfortable stay such as sofa-cum-bed, kitchenette with fridge and microwave oven, dining table, toilet cubicle, partition behind the driver, air-conditioner, internet connectivity, audio-video facilities, charging system and GPS.

Eco-friendliness being a major feature of Caravan Tourism, preferably Bharat Stage VI compliant vehicles will be pressed into service.

Assuring complete security of the guests, there will be IT-enabled real-time monitoring of caravans.

The caravan parks are to be developed in private sector, public sector or in the joint sector. The configuration of parks will vary from location to location, even though the fundamental attributes remain the same.

A caravan park will be a completely safe and secure zone offering hassle-free and stress-free environment to tourists, protected with necessary features like compound wall, adequate security and safety arrangements, patrolling and surveillance cameras. The Park authorities will maintain effective coordination with local authorities and medical establishments to attend to medical emergencies.

The minimum land required for a park will be 50 cents, with at least 5 parking bays. The park design should be compatible with its surroundings, causing the least possible disturbance to the site.

These parks would be strategically located open space for recreation, a forecourt, drive-in area and turning circles. The parks will have Tourist Facilitation Centres to inform the visitors of amenities and services available.
Hyderabad, Sep 15 : Even as the police are yet to nab the perpetrator of the rape and murder of a 6-year-old girl, Telangana minister K. Taraka Rama Rao's tweets on the issue have landed him in controversy inviting criticism from the BJP.

On September 12, the minister had tweeted that the culprit had been arrested only to retract on Tuesday.

"Would like to correct my tweet below. I was misinformed that he was arrested. Regret the erroneous statement "The perpetrator is absconding & @hydcitypolice has launched a massive manhunt for him

"Let's all make our best efforts to ensure he's nabbed & brought to justice quickly," said KTR's tweet on Tuesday.

Following the clarification by the minister on Wednesday, the state unit of the BJP came down heavily on Rao popularly known as KTR, and is the son of Telangana chief minister.

The state's home minister Mehmood Ali has also come under attack from the BJP. Telangana BJP chief spokesperson K. Krishna Saagar Rao said the tweets by minister K.T. Rama Rao were a pointer to the confusion prevailing in the TRS government. "The right hand doesn't seem to know what the left hand is doing," the BJP functionary said.

Krishna Saagar Rao was particularly scathing of the Telangana state Home Minister Mahmood Ali.

"Home Minister Mahmood Ali is missing in action, as always. There is no official media statement from him explaining the case to public. Neither did DGP Mahender Reddy explain to public the details of this heinous crime and progress of its investigation, so far." The BJP has also demanded for Mahmood Ali's resignation.

The 6-year-old child was sexually assaulted and murdered on September 9 allegedly by Raju who happens to be her neighbour in Saidabad.

The body of the girl, who was missing since 5 p.m. Thursday, was found in the house of her neighbor after midnight.

The horrific incident had triggered angry protests from the residents on Friday. They staged sit-in for seven hours on Champapet-Sagar Road, demanding immediate and harshest punishment to the guilty. Some of the protesters also demanded that the guilty be killed in an encounter.

Initially, the police sources had claimed that the accused was arrested from his native village in Yadadri Bhuvanagiri district.

However, a senior official clarified that the accused is still at large. The police commissioner said despite serious efforts, the accused remained at large.

Telangana Police have announced a reward of Rs ten lakh for information leading to the arrest of the accused.
New York, Sep 15 : Saliva test to detect Covid-19 performs better than the nasal and oral swab tests authorised by the US Food and Drug administration (FDA), according to a study.

The study by Rockefeller University conducted a direct head-to-head comparison of 162 individuals who received both the "DRUL" saliva test and a conventional swab test. DRUL caught all of the cases that the swabs identified as positive -- plus four positive cases that the swabs missed entirely.

"This research confirms that the test we developed is sensitive and safe," said Robert B. Darnell, Professor and head of the Laboratory of Molecular Neuro-Oncology.

"It is inexpensive, has provided excellent surveillance within the Rockefeller community, and has the potential to improve safety in communities as the pandemic drags on," Darnell added.

The study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, noted that the DRUL test offers several advantages. It is safe -- a test that could be taken at home and sent to the lab in a transport medium that kills virus on contact. It is efficient.

However, it is inexpensive, costing around $2 per test. (By comparison, Medicare is currently paying up to $100 for every commercial test conducted.) But, it was comfortable, providing a sample was a simple matter of spitting in a cup.

The data from this study, previously submitted to New York State as part of its approval process, showed that DRUL matches, and in most cases, outperforms the widely used tests against which it was benchmarked, the researchers said.

The researchers first assessed DRUL's limit of detection -- how many viral copies the test could catch per volume of fluid. The test succeeded in detecting a single viral particle in one microliter of saliva, a figure comparable to that of the most sensitive assays. The lab then ran 30 nasal swabs that had tested positive for Covid-19 through their novel testing platform. DRUL caught all 30.
Panaji, Sep 15 : Cornered by the opposition who have questioned the Goa government's claim of completing 100 per cent coverage of the first Covid vaccine dose, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Wednesday said Goa has in fact completed 102 per cent coverage of the first jab.

Sawant also cautioned opposition politicians against spreading untruths and discouraging people from vaccinating themselves.

"Altogether there are 11.66 lakh persons eligible for vaccination in Goa. Till date, we have been vaccinated 11.88 lakh. We have in fact covered 102 per cent vaccination of the first dose," Sawant told reporters here.

The Chief Minister also said that 5.2 lakh persons had availed of the second vaccination dose in the state.

The two per cent excess vaccination, Sawant said, was on account of the state government's policy to allow foreigners, migrant workers as well as tourists, to vaccinate themselves in the state free of cost.

"I feel bad that some politicians are blaming their own state. They should get people involved in the Tika Utsav. (Leader of Opposition) Digambar Kamat, Rohan Khaunte, Vijai Sardesai (both opposition politicians) should not lie. We want people to be involved in the (vaccination) programme.

"They should also encourage them. I request the opposition to come, join the vaccination efforts to save the lives of people," Sawant said, while adding that the state government would launch its Tika Utsav 3.2 initiative from September 16.

Following Sawant's claim on Wednesday of completing 102 per cent coverage of the first Covid vaccine, the Aam Aadmi Party has slammed Sawant, stating that Sawant's calculation was an election jumla.

"However much you try to claim @drpramodpsawant bab that it's 100% or as you say 102%, people of Goa know its a jumla. Your body language and fumbling of words says much more than what u want to hide," AAP Goa convenor Rahul Mahambre tweeted.
New Delhi, Sep 15 : Sri Lankan author Anuk Arudpragasam's novel "A Passage North" (Penguin India) that transports the reader from Colombo to the war-torn Northern Province and lays bare the imprints of an islands past and the unattainable distances between who we are and what we seek, has moved to the shortlist for The Booker Prize 2021.

It's a searing novel of longing, loss and the legacy of war, from the author of "The Story of a Brief Marriage".

"A Passage North" begins with a message from out of the blue: a telephone call informing the protagonist, Krishan, that his grandmother's caretaker, Rani, has died under unexpected circumstances - found at the bottom of a well in her village in the north, her neck broken by the fall.

The news arrives on the heels of an email from Anjum, an impassioned yet aloof activist Krishnan fell in love with years before while living in Delhi, stirring old memories and desires from a world he left behind.

As Krishan makes the long journey by train from Colombo into the devastated Northern Province for Rani's funeral, so begins an astonishing passage into the innermost reaches of a country.

At once a powerful meditation on absence and longing, as well as an unsparing account of the legacy of Sri Lanka's 30-year civil war, this procession to a pyre "at the end of the earth" lays bare the imprints of an island's past and the unattainable distances between who we are and what we seek.

Written with precision and grace, the masterful novel is an attempt to come to terms with life in the wake of devastation, and a poignant memorial for those lost and those still alive.

Anuk Arudpragasam was born in Colombo and moved to the United States at the age of 18, where he attended Stanford and Columbia Universities. His first novel, "The Story of a Brief Marriage", was translated into six languages, won the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature and was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize. He currently divides his time between Sri Lanka and India.
Lucknow, Sep 15 : The Samajwadi Party on Wednesday asked all its party leaders and workers to draw up a list of bureaucrats and police officials 'who have worked against law in the BJP regime' and have not shown suitable behaviour towards the public.

"These officials will be taken to task once the Samajwadi Party (SP) forms government in UP. None of those who have exceeded their brief or worked in political interests will be spared," said Akhilesh during a meeting in the party office here.

In every district, party leaders have been asked to prepare a list of civil and police officials who have targeted SP workers and the common people during the past four and a half years.

"The police have set up false cases against innocent people, SP workers have also been booked in criminal cases and the poor have been a victim of police atrocities. We are preparing a list," said a SP district president.

A senior party functionary said that it was important to teach such officials a lesson so that they do not behave in a similar manner in the future.

He said that it has been seen that people belonging to a particular community have especially been targeted by the police in villages and district headquarters.

"This was done only to please their political bosses and, in many cases, the police have gone beyond the boundaries of law," he added.

Sources in the party said that Akhilesh was particularly upset at those officers who had gone out of their way to malign his image and please the BJP chief minister.

"Some officials in the estate department had planted stories about Akhilesh having ripped off faucets from his official residence when he vacated it. He was called 'toti-chor' by the BJP leaders. This kind of behaviour by government officers is unpardonable," said a party leader.

The Samajwadi Party is apparently confident of forming a government in Uttar Pradesh in 2022 and is drawing up its plans for governance.
Hyderabad, Sep 15 : The Telangana High Court on Wednesday declined to transfer rebel YSRCP MP K Raghu Ramakrishna Raju's petitions for cancellation of bail given to Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy and MP V. Vijaya Sai Reddy in the quid pro quo case to any other court from the current CBI court.

Justice K. Lakshman dismissed Raju's petition seeking transfer of his pleas from the CBI court headed by the principal special judge to any other court.

He had also sought a stay on pronouncement of orders by the CBI court on his two petitions, which is scheduled on Wednesday.

The judge while dismissing Raju's plea, observed that there should be reasonable grounds for seeking transfer of a case from one court to the other. The court felt that the petitioner is seeking the transfer on imaginary grounds.

Raju while seeking the transfer of petitions had expressed his apprehensions citing the permission given by the trial court to Vijaya Sai Reddy to undertake foreign tours.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had opposed Raju's petition.

With the Telangana High Court dismissing Raju's plea, the CBI court is likely to pronounce its order on his petitions which was reserved on August 25.

The Narsapur MP has sought cancellation of the bail granted to Jagan in a disproportionate assets case, also called the quid pro quo case, registered by the CBI against him.

Raju filed the petition in April this year seeking cancellation of Jagan's bail on the ground of alleged violation of bail conditions.

Raju voiced the apprehension that Jagan Mohan Reddy may try to influence the witnesses in the case. He also cited Jagan's non-appearance before the trial court and seeking exemptions as violation of bail conditions.

Jagan, who became chief minister in May 2019, has been seeking exemptions from weekly court appearances citing his constitutional duties as the chief minister.

The allegations against Jagan relate to the period 2004-2009, when his father Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy was the chief minister of united Andhra Pradesh.

The CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) probed the allegations that Jagan Mohan Reddy, in criminal conspiracy with others, received bribes from various persons/companies in the guise of investments in his group companies as 'quid pro quo' for undue favours granted to them by the then Andhra Pradesh government.

Jagan Mohan Reddy was arrested in May 2012 in the DA case when he was an MP. In 2013, the special CBI court had granted conditional bail to Jagan, after he spent 16 months in jail.
New Delhi, Sep 15 : Post the implementation of the new excise policy, Delhi government will earn an extra revenue of Rs 3,500 crore in a year, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister announced on Wednesday.

"In comparison to the financial year 2019-2020, we will get Rs 10,000 crore in the wake of the new excise policy which will not only back Delhi Government's idea of coming up with this policy but will also prove our suspicion over the existence of a huge scale liquor mafia to be true," Sisodia said while addressing a press conference on Wednesday afternoon.

He said that liquor mafia operating in the capital have been badly hit since Delhi government changed the tax that used to be imposed on liquor into licence fee as 300 per cent of tax incentive was their source.

The government of NCT of Delhi recently introduced its new Excise Policy for the year 2021-2020 with the objective to achieve optimum revenue for the government alongside "eradicating the sale of spurious liquor or non-duty paid liquor in Delhi and transforming the consumer experience, besides simplifying the highly complex heavily regulated excise regime, ensuring ease of doing business in the overall trade and to not allow formation of any monopoly or cartel," an official affidavit stated.

The deputy chief minister further said that the government has planned to transform liquor experience in the union territory under which the liquor shops, commonly called 'thekas', will not have windows opening towards the road. It will be given a completely new-look wherein people could walk in and shop. The new shops will start operating from November 17.

Highlighting Delhi's problem of revenue, Sisodia said that due to the pandemic Delhi has been hit badly on the revenue front in comparison to other states. "While our GST collection fell by 23 per cent, VAT has dipped by 25 per cent, excise by 30 per cent, stamp duty by 16 per cent and motor vehicles by 19 per cent," he said while reiterating that the Central government's non-cooperation with Delhi has further led to the chaos.
Kochi, Sep 15 : Malayalam actor Jayasurya will cross a new milestone with his 100th film 'Sunny'. The actor announced on Wednesday that the film will release digitally on Amazon Prime Video.

Under the banner of Dreams N Beyond, the upcoming Amazon Original Movie is written and directed by Ranjith Sankar and stars Jayasurya in the lead role.

"'Sunny' is a riveting story of a musician who finds himself in an emotional crisis, and how a sudden turn of events and interactions with complete strangers help him rekindle hope and joy," says Jayasurya.

He adds: "This is my 100th film as an actor and I couldn't be more humbled to play yet another striking character. I have had a prolific partnership with Ranjith throughout, and this one is truly special." The film will release on Amazon Prime Video on September 23.

"Audiences love stories with an emotional quotient, and a film like 'Sunny' offers an assortment of simple human emotions making them fall in love with the character that the narrative solely focuses on," said Vijay Subramaniam, Director and Head, Content, Amazon Prime Video, India.

Produced by both Ranjith Sankar and Jayasurya, 'Sunny' is the duo's eight collaboration.

"'Sunny' is a film that's extremely close to my heart. The unique narrative focuses on one single character and I couldn't be happier to have an actor like Jayasurya to bring out this character so exceptionally well," says Ranjith Sankar.
New Delhi, Sep 15 : With people continuing to work remotely due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, doctors are seeing rising cases of new or worsening back, neck, and shoulder pain among young adults.

Sick scapula syndrome, also known as Scapular Dyskinesis, is the abnormal functionality/flexibility of the scapula (shoulder bone) inside the shoulder joint.

"Post the onset of WFH culture and lockdown amidst the pandemic, there has been a 20-25 per cent increase in cases of Sick Scapula Syndrome in young people aged 30-45 years," Dr Raghu Nagaraj, Senior Consultant, Orthopaedics and Bone and Joint Surgery, Fortis Hospital, Cunningham Road, Bengaluru, told IANS.

Usually, athletes have a higher prevalence of scapular dyskinesis of about 61 per cent as compared with non-athletes. However, the current work from home culture (WFH) with poor sitting posture or continued sitting for hours without break have led to such cases among common working people.

The most common symptoms are pain and difficulty moving the shoulder or arm.

"The number of cases of musculoskeletal issues either due to inactivity or over exercise have been seen throughout the lockdown. And the ones related to bad posture are being seen, especially now when offline physical sitting in offices has started and the posture changes that we had adapted our bodies to during work from home, need to be changed," Dr Shubhang Aggarwal, Orthopaedic and Robotic Joint Replacement Surgeon and Founder, NHS Hospital, Jalandhar, told IANS.

"The incidence of Sick scapula syndrome, especially in the IT professionals, reception and desk workers has surprisingly increased and need sharp observation to diagnose. Once suspected, aggressive behavioural modification with exercise can help," he added.

The shoulder joint is somewhat like a ball-and-socket joint and comprises three bones: the humerus (upper arm bone), the scapula (shoulder bone), and the clavicle (collarbone). The highest point of the humerus shapes the ball that sits inside the glenoid of the scapula.

While a mind-boggling arrangement of muscles and ligaments -- including the rotator cuff -- holds this ball-and-socket up, the scapula goes about as an anchor site for different muscles around the shoulder. The shoulder bone (acromion) likewise connects to the clavicle to make the acromioclavicular (AC) joint.

"In a work-from-home setting, poor posture at work and prolonged movement of muscles may strain the scapula or the adjoining areas. Being mindful about restoring good posture -- standing and sitting properly -- while performing everyday activities, warm up and cool down processes before and after exercises, respectively, and avoiding a range of motion when lifting, especially overhead may be of help," Dr Rajat Mahajan, Spine surgeon, Indian Spinal Injuries Centre, New Delhi, told IANS.

While sedentary work cannot be done away with, people must take adequate measures such as exercising daily, maintaining the right posture and taking breaks from their seats in between work. Getting up from the seat and walking while taking phone calls, not using the phone, will ease the issue. Opting for a chair that delivers both support and comfort can also be beneficial, the doctors advised.
Patna, Sep 15 : The Bhartiya Janata Party is not sure as to which faction of the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) it needs to support as conflicting signals are emanating from various sections from its Bihar unit.

After months of ignoring Chirag Paswan, the son of late Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, in favour of his uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras, a section of the BJP in Bihar seems to be reaching out to him in order to keep him in good humour.

Bihar Minister Neeraj Kumar Bablu calls Chirag Paswan "his own", while state party President Sanjay Jaiswal has described the Paras faction as the real LJP, after it got a berth in the Union government.

"Chirag Paswan ji is a part of the NDA and I think he will continue to be so," says Bablu, while Jaiswal, on the other hand, says Paras is a Union Minister and a part of the NDA.

He, however, does not directly attack Chirag Paswan, but says that the party is not about one individual.

Political experts say that the BJP does not want to totally alienate Chirag Paswan as his faction can take control of the party any time.

Senior journalist Manikant Thakur says that "the way Chirag was targeting Chief Minister Nitish Kumar before the Bihar Assembly elections, there was enough indication that the BJP was behind it. Nitish Kumar was dead against Chirag Paswan, due to which the BJP had to also toe that line under pressure, but the party always had a soft corner for him".

He said that under Nitish Kumar's pressure, the BJP may try to maintain distance from Chirag Paswan, but it knows that Ram Vilas Paswan's vote bank will remain with him only.

Thakur believes that in the event of JD-U breaking away from the NDA in future, the BJP can make a new plan with Chirag Paswan. It also believes that if Paras gets angry, the lure for a ministerial post can bring him along. In the event of uncle (Paras) and nephew (Chirag) getting united in future, the BJP may still like to go with them.

Even Jaiswal, in his statement, calls the LJP a part of the NDA and Chirag is an MP of the LJP.

Meanwhile, there is a tussle in the NDA over Chirag and Paras. JD-U spokesperson Abhishek Jha said that the BJP leadership has also said that those who do not like Nitish Kumar cannot be a part of the NDA. Nitish Kumar is the face of NDA in Bihar, he said.

The BJP is said to have played a major role in the split of the LJP in June, when five party MPs kicked out Chirag Paswan and replaced him with his uncle Paras as the president.

Next month, the Modi government recognised Paras faction as the real LJP and he was made Union Minister on the party quota. However, the Rajya Sabha seat that fell vacant due to the demise of Ram Vilas Paswan was denied to Chirag Paswan.
Kolkata, Sep 15 : Police arrested a 38-year-old man who allegedly killed his mother over her habit of going on short trips and buried her below the floor of his room for two years. The incident that happened at Hatudewan Pirtala Canal Crossing in East Burdwan district came to light when his estranged wife revealed the entire matter to the police on Tuesday.

According to the police the deceased woman, 58-year-old Sukran Bibi, used to stay with her younger son Sahidul Sheikh alias Nayan. On January 10, 2019 Sheikh, who is said to be short tempered, killed his mother because she wanted to go on a short trip. Sheikh hit her on her head with a blunt object and then strangled her.

"As there was no one there at the time of the murder he dug up the floor of his bedroom and buried her there. Everyday since then he used to burn incense sticks over the place where his mother was buried," a senior police officer of Burdwan police station said.

According to the local people no one had any clue about the missing Sukran Bibi. After she went missing the victim's elder son Kismat Ali had lodged a complaint at Burdwan police station but the police were clueless about the woman.

Recently, a dispute cropped up between Sheikh and his wife and she decided to move to her father's house at Bhatar in East Burdwan district. To resolve the problem, Ali went to meet Sheikh's wife on Tuesday and came to know about the incident. He immediately rushed to the police station and informed them.

Sheikh's wife, who got married to him six months after the incident, told the police that her husband used to physically torture her everyday and occasionally told her that as he had killed his mother and buried the body in the bedroom, he would kill and bury her similarly. Sheikh's wife said that she left her husband's house out of fear.

Though police arrested Sheikh on Tuesday night, they had to wait for the court's order before they could dig up the room to recover the body. On Wednesday, the police after getting the necessary permission, dug up the floor of the bedroom in front of a judicial magistrate and found some bones there. "The body parts have been sent to the laboratory for forensic tests and autopsy. Once the murder is established we will initiate legal action against the accused," the officer said.
Mumbai, Sep 15 : The chief of Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), Vineet Agrawal, said categorically on Wednesday that no recce has been done in Mumbai, nor any weapons or explosives have been found in the wake of the busting of a terror module by the Special Cell of Delhi Police on Tuesday.

"We keep getting terror alerts. But as far as this case is concerned, Mumbai and Maharashtra are safe," the ATS chief told mediapersons.

Agrawal's comments came a day after the Delhi Police nabbed six persons, including one Jaan Mohammed Shaikh (47) of Mumbai, in an anti-terror operation, sparking concerns in the country's commercial capital.

"Shaikh took a train from Mumbai Central for Hazrat Nizamuddin in Delhi on September 13. He was arrested by a Delhi Police team from Kota in Rajasthan on Tuesday," Agrawal told mediapersons.

He added that the Maharashtra ATS is coordinating with the Delhi Police in this regard and a team will leave from here for the national capital later on Wednesday to take the custody of Shaikh.
Chennai, Sep 15 : While the state government is mulling to reopen schools for junior classes, 16 senior students of two schools in Tiruppur have tested Covid-19 positive.

Officials of the Department of Health and Education said that eight boys of class 12 at Corporation Higher Secondary School in Tiruppur tested positive on Tuesday evening. Education department officials said that the school will be closed from Wednesday to Friday for disinfecting the classrooms and will be open from Monday only.

Health officials said that the students are asymptomatic and are under house isolation.

Health and Education department officials said that eight students of a private higher secondary school at Palladam, Tiruppur also tested positive. Officials said that a class 12 girl tested positive and after that school officials and health officials took the swab samples of 1,100 students.

The test reports indicated that seven students of classes 11 and 12 tested positive. Health officials said that the students were asymptomatic and are in home isolation.

The school, according to the Education department officials will be shut down for this week and disinfectants will be sprayed in the classrooms.

Deputy Director of Health Services, Tiruppur district, K. Jagadeesh Kumar said that any school where more than three Covid-19 cases are reported will be closed for sanitisation. The medical department of Tiruppur is collecting swab samples of school students and faculty in a random manner to check whether a spread has taken place.

Chief Educational Office of Tiruppur, B. Ramesh while speaking to IANS said, "The number of government school students who have tested Covid-19 positive is 11 in Tiruppur district now. Nine government school teachers and Block Educational officer of Medathukualam block have been tested positive." With the students of Tiruppur district reporting Covid positive cases, the decision of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister on reopening of schools for junior classes is likely to be delayed.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
Bhopal, Sep 15 : Even before the announcement of the dates for the by-elections scheduled to be held in three Assembly and one Lok Sabha constituency in Madhya Pradesh, the political fight between the BJP and the Congress has already intensified.

The BJP has ramped up its efforts for these by-elections with party leaders and MP ministers actively working in the areas going to the polls.

By-elections are being held in the three assembly constituencies of Raigaon in Satna district, Prithvipur in Niwari and Jobat in Alirajpur district. A by-election is also scheduled in the Khandwa Lok Sabha constituency.

Of the four by-elections, Jobat and Prithvipur were held by Congress MLAs while Raigaon was controlled by a BJP MLA and Khandwa too had a BJP MP. These four seats are lying vacant since the death of their representatives.

Apart from the party organisation in-charge, all BJP ministers have also been entrusted with responsibilities in the polls.

BJP State President Vishnu Datt Sharma has visited many areas while Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is trying to reach out to the voters under the 'Jan Darshan' programme.

Chouhan recently held 'Jan Darshan' programmes in several villages of Raigaon and Prithvipur assembly constituencies and assured the people that the BJP government will work even harder for the welfare of each section of the society. The Chief Minister promised that any complaints against any state government official will immediately be acted upon.

Vishnu Dutt Sharma believes that there is better coordination between the party and the state government due to which the various government initiatives are being successfully implemented with the hard work of the party workers. The state government has achieved huge success during the two phases of the Covid vaccination campaign which has been possible only due to the party workers.

On the other hand, the Congress has taken jibes at Chouhan's aggressive policies. Madhya Pradesh Congress spokesperson Ajay Singh Yadav said that Chouhan only believes in indulging in political drama. Chouhan engaged in political drama during the Jan Darshan programme and action was taken against the state officials to fool the general public, Yadav added.

"The Chief Minister has suspended state officials over irregularities in the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana in Prithvipur. If such strict action is taken against all officials there will no longer be any Chief Minister's Office (CMO) or Tehsildar left in the state. This is because there is not a single municipal corporation and panchayat in the state where corruption and misappropriation of funds has not taken place under the PM Awas Yojana." According to political analysts, the upcoming Assembly and Lok Sabha bypolls are quite significant in view of the state's politics. While these elections are crucial for the BJP, the Congress, too, has taken these elections seriously. The results of these by-elections will have a big impact on the 2024 Assembly elections.
Chandigarh, Sep 15 : Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Wednesday said no Akali Dal leader, especially former Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, had the moral right to speak on the crisis triggered by the farm laws, which they could easily have averted when they were part of the Central government and party to each of its "anti-people decisions".

In a hard-hitting response to Harsimrat Kaur's "irresponsible claims and baseless allegations" against him with reference to his statement on the impact of the prolonged farmers' stir in Punjab on the state's economy, he slammed the Akali leader, saying "her politically motivated remarks which were nothing but a cover-up of her and her party's failure to prevent the crisis that was of their own deliberate making".

Ridiculing the former Union minister's remarks that he was speaking the language of the BJP leadership, the Chief Minister said left to the ruling party at the Centre and in neighbouring Haryana, the farmers would not have even reached the Delhi borders to make their voice heard.

"I never asked the farmers to go to Delhi. They were forced to leave their homes and sit at the border of the national capital, facing the elements and even losing their lives, as a result of your coalition government's acts of commission and omission," he said, asking Harsimrat Kaur to "stop lying about her brazen complicity in the imposition of the farm laws on the farmers, not just of Punjab but the entire country".

Dubbing as "atrocious" Harsimrat Kaur's suggestion that the farmers should protest in Punjab while their fight was against the BJP-led government at the Centre, the Chief Minister quipped "it's like asking someone to go to the western front to fight an enemy that is standing at the eastern border".

"It was evident that the Akalis were trying to divert the farmers' attention from the Centre to the state, with an eye on the Assembly polls, unmindful of the harm this would cause to the state and to the farmers themselves," he added.

Taking a dig at Harsimrat Kaur's claim of being "surprised and pained" at his remarks, the Chief Minister said "either she was deliberately lying or was totally dumb and apathetic to the plight of the state and its people".

"It's a joke coming from the leader of a party that misruled Punjab for 10 years and brought the state to the brink of complete ruination," he quipped, asking Harsimrat Kaur "where her pain had disappeared for those 10 years when the SAD-BJP government was inflicting one injury after another on the people with their corrupt acts".

"The Akali leaders never did understand or can understand the suffering of Punjab's people, including its farmers," he added.
New Delhi, Sep 15 : As the Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved several reforms and relief measures for the telecom sector, Union Minister for Communications, Ashwini Vaishnaw said that these measures will change the entire framework of the Indian telecom sector.

Among several decisions, the Cabinet has approved a four-year moratorium on all dues by telecom operators including the adjusted gross revenue (AGR), however, those operators availing the moratorium will have to pay interest of "MCLR+2 per cent" and a change in the definition of AGR.

Post the change in definition all non-telecom revenue will not be calculated under AGR, prospectively.

The decisions came at a time when the sector is going through severe stress and is on the brink of duopoly with Vodafone Idea in a beleaguered state.

Vodafone Idea would be most benefited from the government decision on moratorium on dues.

Addressing the media post the Cabinet meeting, the minister said: "Today, 9 structural reforms and 5 process reforms in the telecom sector have been approved. These reforms will change the framework of the entire telecom sector." In another major move, the Cabinet has allowed 100 per cent FDI in telecom under the automatic route.

Further, spectrum user charges will be rationalized and there will be now an annual compounding of rates. Spectrum can now be surrendered and also shared by the telcos.

"In order to provide relief to the troubled telecom sector, the Union Cabinet agreed a moratorium on operators' payment of spectrum dues on Wednesday. This will give troubled telecom carriers like Vodafone Idea much-needed breathing room as they pay millions of crores of rupees in unprovisioned previous statutory dues," Sonam Chandwani, Managing Partner at KS Legal & Associates.

"The liability is postponed rather than totally written off. The banks association breathes a sigh of relief, as they owe large sums to Vodafone. Though it is unclear how Vodafone Idea will pay off the obligations, the extra time does help with stress management," she said.
Chennai, Sep 15 : A National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) aspirant, Soundharya. T was found dead at her house in Katpadi in Vellore district of Tamil Nadu on Wednesday. She had written the NEET on Sunday and told her friends that she had not performed well in the exam.

The police suspect that she took her life as she had not done well in the NEET examination. However, no suicide note has been recovered.

The death of Soundharya is the third suicide in the state due to pressure of the NEET exam after a 19-year-old student Dhanush was allegedly found hanging at his residence on Sunday morning, a few hours before the examination.

On Monday evening Kanimozhi, daughter of an advocate couple at Ariyalur district of Tamil Nadu, had taken her life after she feared that she had not fared well in the NEET.

Soundharya, who had topped her local government school in classes 10 and 12 was a bright student, according to her teachers and friends. However, she had told her classmates that the NEET exam which she wrote on Sunday was tough and that she expected not clearing the exam.

Police said that her parents, S. Tirunavakkarasu and T. Rukmani with whom she was living, were daily wage earners. They had left their home at Kathalapattu village near Katpadi in Vellore early on Wednesday morning.

Soundharya was alone at home after her parents left and when the neighbours called her at 10.30 a.m. she did not respond so they called the police and her parents. The police broke open the door of the house and found her body inside. The police have registered a case of unnatural death under Section 174.

The DMK government has been urging that the NEET exam be scrapped in the state and had pointed out that students from poor backgrounds were not able to crack the exam.

Chief Minister M.K. Stalin while moving a resolution in the Tamil Nadu Assembly against the NEET exam had said the students living in villages are not able to crack the examination as they were not getting proper training and the state did not want that.

The anti-NEET bill was passed unanimously in the House with the BJP legislators staging a walking out.
Ahmedabad, Sep 15 : Adani Transmission Ltd (ATL), Indias largest private sector power transmission company and part of the diversified Adani Group, has received the Letter of Intent (LoI) for the acquisition of MP Power Transmission Package-II Limited, incorporated by REC Power Development and Consultancy Ltd.

ATL won the project through the tariff-based competitive bidding (TBCB) process and received the LoI on September 14. ATL will build, own, operate and maintain the transmission project in the state of Madhya Pradesh for a period of 35 years.

The project, 'MP Power Transmission Package-II Limited', consists of approximately 850 ckt km of transmission lines and air insulated substations of various voltage levels (220kV and 132kV) in 18 districts of Madhya Pradesh.

With a capex of Rs 1,200 crore, ATL's execution of the project will strengthen the transmission system in Eastern Madhya Pradesh.

Anil Sardana, MD and CEO, Adani Transmission Ltd, said, "As the leader in building power transmission infrastructure in the private sector, we are accelerating our panIndia presence through the competitive bidding process and also setting industry benchmarks in sustainable best practices. This newest project will allow us to contribute significantly to the development of the transmission infrastructure in Madhya Pradesh." Winning this project consolidates ATL's position as India's largest operating private power transmission company and takes it closer to its target of setting up 20,000 ckt km of transmission lines by 2022.

The project will also allow the company to assist in growing measure the government of India's quest to achieve 'Power for All' by 2022.
New Delhi, Sep 15 : Even as the second Covid wave has started showing a declining trend, children in the national capital face the threat of other types of viral fever, including what is commonly being called "mysterious fever" but identified as scrub typhus.

One kid in premier children's hospital, the Chacha Nehru Bal Chikitsalya has tested positive for this.

The hospital's Medical Director, Dr B.L. Sherwal told IANS that they are observing a surge of patients this time. Noting that viral fever is common during September and October every year, he said that they generally examine 500-600 patients in the OPD every day, but now, over 1,800 patients are visiting the hospital on daily basis.

"The maximum number of cases are coming with viral flu. However, dengue cases are also on an increased trends compared to August," he said.

Sherwal said that one child with serious scrub typhus fever has been reported in the OPD. Asked about any link with Firozabad (UP) cases where many children died of fever, he said that they don't see any connection as dengue is a local phenomenon and the mosquito that spreads it cannot fly over a long distance.

The Chacha Nehru hospital has total 220 beds including 32 ICU beds which is completely packed with patients suffering such fever. An average of 50 to 60 children are being admitted in the hospital daily with dengue, viral and other types of fever.

Paediatric doctor at the hospital, Dr Mamta Jajoo, also said that their ICU is full this time with patients and on a daily basis, they see almost 2,000 patients in the OPD.

However, she added that not all patients need admission. "Around 50 are being admitted on daily basis and out of that, very few need ICU care".

"Like Covid, it is also a viral infection so all Covid protocols should be followed. Wash your kids hand frequently and use mask and avoid going in crowed places," she said.

About the reason behind sudden surge of fever, Jajoo said: "Scientifically nothing can be said at this stage but probably children were confined to homes during the lockdown, thereby leading to the weak immune system and now they are getting exposure outside which possibly is reason for the fever." Senior Consultant and Paediatrician, Dr Sarita Sharma says this is a seasonal flu, caused by a virus affecting the respiratory tract like RSV and influenza. "However, this is a post-monsoon season so other viral illnesses are also on the rise like dengue, gastroenteritis, typhoid, hepatitis causing diagnostic dilemmas".

She noted that there is no need to panic but it is advised to remain in touch with doctors so that timely intervention can be done, if required.
Noida, Sep 15 : Nearly 200 farmers from Gautam Budh Nagar district under the banner of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) staged a protest at the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL) office here on Wednesday.

Farmers said the UPPCL sent arbitrary electricity bills and if the farmers failed to pay, they are harassed unnecessarily. The farmers locked the door of the power discom office at Noida's sector 16 and continued their protest outside.

The farmers said they are fed up with illegal recovery by UPPCL officials. "These days a vigilance team visits the villages to check power theft. The vigilance team says they have come for inspection on the direction of UPPCL. They ask people in villages to pay them, otherwise they are charged for power theft," said a Gautam Budh Nagar based BKU leader, Subhas Chaudhari.

The farmers said several electricity transformers are defunct in the villages and when they ask the officials to replace them, the officials ask for a bribe. The agitating farmers also alleged that the power department officials cut the power supply for hours.

"We are fed up with arbitrary decisions of UPPCL and we will not call off this protest until we are assured that such things are not repeated in future," Chaudhari added.

Claiming that the villagers have taken legal power connections and that they pay electricity bills every month, the farmers alleged that UPPCL does not send proper bills to the consumers in the villages but later come to collect money.

Besides these, the farmers also alleged that UPPCL is denying electricity connections in the villages that are located along the Yamuna Expressway. "If UPPCL wants to stop power theft, then why does it not send monthly electricity bills in the villages? And when they do not send monthly bills, then why do they later ask people to pay hefty bills? There are several issues which need to be stopped immediately," said another local farmer, Suresh Awana.

The farmers reached the power company office at around noon and camped at the main gate. They brought with them their traditional hookahs and later also cooked food at the site.

The protesters finally vacated the spot at around 5.30 p.m.
Hyderabad, Sep 15 : A CBI court on Wednesday dismissed the petitions of rebel YSRCP MP K. Raghu Ramakrishna Raju for cancellation of bail given to Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy and MP V. Vijaya Sai Reddy in the quid pro quo case.

The court of the principal special judge pronounced the orders which were reserved on August 25.

Raju had filed the petitions in April this year seeking cancellation of bail of Jagan, as the Andhra Chief Minister is popularly known, and his close aide Vijaya Sai Reddy on the ground of alleged violation of bail conditions.

Raju, a member of Lok Sabha from Narsapur, also voiced the apprehension that Jagan may try to influence the witnesses in the case. He cited Jagan's non-appearance before the trial court and seeking exemptions as violations of bail conditions.

Jagan, who became Chief Minister in May 2019, has been seeking exemptions from weekly court appearances citing his constitutional duties.

Raju, in his petition, had also mentioned the appointment of accused IAS officer Y. Srilakshmi as a Special Chief Secretary and retired IAS officer and co accused M. Samuel as an advisor to the government.

The MP argued that since all the witnesses cited by the prosecution in the quid pro quo case have now become subjects of Jagan, he may influence them not to depose against him before the trial court.

However, Jagan and Vijaya Sai Reddy had submitted to the court that they did not violate any bail conditions. They claimed that Raju filed the petitions for political and personal gains.

In his counter-affidavit, the Chief Minister alleged that Raju is trying to use the court as a platform to settle personal scores. He described the MP as a dishonest man, who defrauded banks.

On Raju's allegation that he is influencing an coercing witnesses, he said the petitioner did not show a single instance.

Describing Raju's petition as an attempt to tarnish his reputation, Jagan claimed that the petitioner failed to make out a case for cancellation of bail.

Reacting to the CBI court verdict, the rebel MP said he would challenge it in a higher court.

"The CBI court dismissed the bail cancellation petition filed by me at last. I'll approach the upper court soon," he tweeted.

The CBI court pronounced its orders a few hours after the Telangana High Court declined to transfer's petitions to any other court.

Raju had also sought a stay on pronouncement of orders by the CBI court. The High Court, while dismissing Raju's plea, observed that there should be reasonable grounds for seeking transfer of a case from one court to the other, and felt that the petitioner is seeking the transfer on imaginary grounds.

Raju while seeking the transfer of petitions had expressed his apprehensions citing the permission given by the trial court to Vijaya Sai Reddy to undertake foreign tours.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had had opposed Raju's petition. It's counsel submitted to the court that judges deliver such reliefs to scores of individuals.

The allegations against Jagan relate to the period 2004-2009, when his father Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy was the Chief Minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh.

The CBI and the Enforcement Directorate probed the allegations that Jagan, in criminal conspiracy with others, received bribes from various persons/companies in the guise of investments in his group companies as 'quid pro quo' for undue favours granted to them by the then Andhra Pradesh government.

Jagan was arrested in May 2012 when he was an MP, and granted conditional bail by a special CBI court in 2013.
San Francisco, Sep 15 : Google-owned Fitbit has confirmed that the Sense and Versa 3 would get the "Snore and Noise Detect" feature.

According to 9To5Google, that microphone-powered feature is now beginning to roll out.

To enable, users can open the Fitbit app and visit the "Sleep" page. Users will see a "Check for snoring" card, with "Learn more" telling you about "Snore and Noise Detect".

There are two metrics being recorded -- Sound intensity and Snoring events.

The microphone on the Sense and Versa 3 will "sample, measure and collect information about the noise in the environment" once Fitbit detects the user is asleep, the report said.

This occurs "every few seconds," with snoring by other people in the room also counting, it added.

The company warns that this capability "impacts battery" and it recommends your device be charged at least 40 per cent before going to bed.

Users can always decide to stop using this feature. You can also delete your snore and noise data or your account at any time, the report said.
Srinagar, Sep 15 : A 25-member group of Kashmiri Pandits from different parts of the country concluded the two-day long trek and puja at the Harmukh-Gangabal holy site in Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday.

A group of 25 Kashmiri Pandits had started the uphill trek to the Gangabal Lake situated at the foot of the Harmukh peak after performing the traditional puja at the ancient Naranag temple in north Kashmir's Ganderbal district.

Situated 16,870 feet above the sea-level, the Harmukh Peak is believed to be the abode of Lord Shiva.

Since time immemorial, Kashmiri Pandits have been carrying the ashes of their departed souls for immersion in the Gangabal lake, which is locally believed to be the Ganges for the Kashmiri Pandits.

The annual Yatra to Harmukh and Gangabal was started four years back by Kashmiri Pandits as a re-assertion of their historical moorings.

Local Muslims have been helping the devotees to reach the Gangabal lake by acting as guides, besides lending horses to carry loads and infirm pilgrims.
Kohima, Sep 15 : With the ruling and opposition parties making hectic efforts for the past few months to form an all-party government in Nagaland, all the political parties will meet on Saturday to finalise the formation of the Nagaland United Government (NUG), sources said on Wednesday.

According to the political parties, the main aim of forming the NUG is to resolve the Naga political issue involving various outfits including the NSCN (IM).

As Nagaland is heading for an all-party government, the opposition Naga People's Front (NPF) is most likely to join the NUG headed by Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio.

NPF legislature party leader T.R. Zeliang said that a joint meeting of the ruling People's Democratic Alliance (PDA), NPF and Independent MLAs would be held on September 18 in Kohima to decide about the Nagaland United Government.

He said that he was optimistic that every aspect of the formation of the NUG would be finalised on Saturday and then formal letters would be given to the state assembly speaker and the governor to change the nomenclature from PDA government to NUG.

An all-party meeting comprising the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) headed by Rio, Bharatiya Janata Party, NPF and two Independent legislators was held on August 11. It agreed in principle to form an all-party government under the name of NUG.

"Our aim is very clear and transparent. We have come together to resolve the long awaited Naga political issue. We wish the Naga issue is settled before Christmas," Zeliang told the media.

Surprising the political circles in Nagaland and other northeastern states, the Centre on September 9 transferred Nagaland Governor Ravindra Narayan Ravi to Tamil Nadu. He was the government's interlocutor for the much-debated Naga peace talks, which are now in the last stages of finalisation.

Assam Governor Jagdish Mukhi has been given the additional charge as Nagaland Governor.

With the backing of the central leaders the BJP, an ally of the PDA government, in principle also supported the move for an all-party government.

The NPF, which is the single largest party in Nagaland with 25 MLAs, decided to join the proposed NUG government apparently for taking forward the Naga political issue between the Centre and Naga political groups.

Led by Rio, the NDPP with 20 members and the BJP with 12 MLAs are also the leading partners of the incumbent PDA government.

Two independent members are also supporting the government while one seat is lying vacant in the 60-member Assembly after the death of an MLA.

The latest political development comes after almost all parties in the northeastern state came together following the formation of the Core Committee on Naga Political Issue (CCoNPI) led by Rio (convener) on June 16.

Deputy Chief Minister and leader of the BJP legislature party Y. Patton said that his party is also keen to resolve the Naga political issue at the earliest.

Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee (NPCC) said that the decision of the opposition NPF to join the PDA government "on the pretext of Naga political issue to converge into an opposition-less government" was an insult to the people of the state as they fought the 2018 Assembly polls against the BJP.

The NPCC in a statement also alleged that the main purpose for the political matrimony between the NPF and PDA was to "raid the state exchequer and enjoy the perks of office while delaying the implementation of a Naga political solution".

The Central government has been separately holding peace talks with the Isak-Muivah faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (NSCN-IM) and eight other outfits which came together a few years ago under the banner of 'Naga National Political Groups' (NNPGs).

The NSCN-IM and other outfits entered into a ceasefire agreement with the government of India in 1997 and in the subsequent years and held a political dialogue since then.

The NSCN-IM, the dominant Naga group since August 1997, has held around 80 rounds of negotiations with the Centre.
Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 15 : Former IFS officer Venu Rajamony on Wednesday was appointed as Kerala's representative in Delhi to liaise with the various Union ministries.

The decision was taken at the weekly cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. The post comes with Cabinet Minister status, and Rajamony will have a full-fledged office at Delhi and adequate staff members to assist him.

Rajamony recently retired as the Indian Ambassador to the Netherlands, and had been in the post during Vijayan's visit there.

In Vijayan's first term (2016-21), this post was given to four-time Lok Sabha member A. Sampath, soon after he lost the 2019 Lok Sabha election, and it had created a furore in the state.

Incidentally, ahead of the April 6 Assembly elections, there was speculation in media that Rajamony might be given a Congress ticket, but as the buzz increased, he clearly said that he was not interested.
Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 15 : Superstar and Rajya Sabha member Suresh Gopi on Wednesday said he politely asked a Sub Inspector of the Kerala Police to salute him as he is a MP lawmaker.

The incident occurred near Thrissur when he was on a visit to the locality.

When the issue was picked up by the TV channels, Gopi told the media that he asked the SI to salute.

"I had reached the area for a visit and I saw this SI of Police sitting in his jeep, and he also saw me, but he remained seated. It was then I very politely went and told him that I am an MP and I can be given a salute and this is what happened," he said.

As the Kerala Police Association said they are not very pleased with the way a salute was asked, the superstar who has played quite a few policeman's roles in his film career, said: "This association is a political body and I don't have to look into that." " I have been an MP for a while now and in the past, I have had to face some protocol issues and hence I have confirmed with the Parliament Secretariat about the protocols. I addressed the police official as Sir and spoke to him in the most polite manner," he added.

Gopi was nominated to the Upper House in April 2016 and in between, contested two elections - the 2019 Lok Sabha election from Thrissur and the recent 2021 Assembly polls, from the Thrissur Assembly constituency - on a BJP ticket, but had to bite the dust both times.
San Francisco, Sep 15 : SpaceX, run by tech billionaire Elon Musk-run, is all set to launch into orbit its first all-civilian mission 'Inspiration4' on Thursday morning.

SpaceX's charity-driven mission, which will be commanded by tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman and three others, aims to launch at 8:02 p.m. EDT Wednesday (5.30 a.m. India time Thursday), the company stated on its website.

SpaceX is targeting a five-hour launch window aboard SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft from historic Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The crew will orbit the planet aboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon capsule every 90 minutes along a customised flight path. Upon conclusion of the three-day journey, Dragon and the Inspiration4 crew will re-enter Earth's atmosphere for a soft water landing off the coast of Florida.

Inspiration4 is commanded by 37-year-old Isaacman, who is founder and CEO of integrated payment processing company Shift4 Payments and a trained pilot.

He is joined by Medical Officer Haley Arceneaux, a physician assistant at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and paediatric cancer survivor, Mission Specialist Chris Sembroski, an Air Force veteran and aerospace data engineer, and Mission Pilot Dr. Sian Proctor, a geoscientist, entrepreneur, and trained pilot.

The mission is part of billionaire Issacman's ambitious fundraising goal to give hope to all kids with cancer and other life-threatening diseases.

During their multi-day journey in orbit, the Inspiration4 crew will conduct scientific research designed to advance human health on Earth and during future long-duration space flights, the company said.

Since the Dragon will not visit the International Space Station, unlike previous Crew Dragon missions, its docking port was removed and replaced with a dome window.

The window, inspired by the cupola on the International Space Station, will provide the crew with incredible views of Earth, according to the Inspiration4 team.

The Inspiration4 mission marks SpaceX's latest private astronaut mission.

The company's Ax-1 mission, also planned for the end of 2021, hosts a crew of four private astronauts paying $55 million each for an eight-day trip to the ISS.

In 2018, Musk also announced Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa will hitch a ride around the moon on SpaceX's new rocket system Starship, which is under development.
Islamabad, Sep 15 : The hasty withdrawal of the US and NATO forces from Afghanistan has sparked a debate in the US Congress, with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken going through a tough session answering some serious questions raised by the Congressmen.

Blinken stated that the US will look into its relationship with Pakistan and re-assess as to how it can be of use to ensure a better future for Afghanistan.

Blinken's statement came in response to multiple demands and questions over taking a harder and more strict approach towards Pakistan.

"Pakistan has a multiplicity of interests with some that are in conflict with ours," he said.

"It is one that is involved hedging its bets constantly about the future of Afghanistan, it is one that is involved in harboring members of the Taliban, it is one that's also involved in different points of cooperation with us on counterterrorism," Blinken added.

It was in this regard that Blinken confirmed before the House of Representatives' Foreign Affairs Committee that Washington would be re-assessing its relationship with Pakistan.

"This is one of the things we are going to be looking at in the days and weeks ahead... the role that Pakistan has played over the last 20 years, as also the role we would want to see it play in the coming years and what it will take for it to do that," he said.

Blinken also highlighted that Washington has called on Pakistan to deny legitimacy to the Taliban-led government in Afghanistan unless it doesn't meet the international demands and expectations, which include inclusive government and rights to women.

"What we have to look at is an instance that every country, to include Pakistan, make good on the expectations that the international community has of what is required of a Taliban-led government if it's to receive any legitimacy of any kind," he insisted.

"So Pakistan needs to line up with a broad majority of the international community in working toward those ends and in upholding these expectations," he added.

Various demands on taking a hardline stand on Pakistan were put forward, which included removal of its status as a major non-NATO ally, which gives it privileged access to the US weaponry.

It is pertinent to mention here that the US and other western countries are in a difficult position to balance out their position in the aftermath of the hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan, as the decision has sparked a debate in global quarters.

What has also now become a major debate is how to engage with the Taliban, especially when aid pledges are being made to prevent Afghanistan from a massive humanitarian crisis.
New Delhi, Sep 15 : Here's some big news for the fans of British rock band Coldplay and South Korean boy band BTS.

The two iconic music groups have come together for their first collaboration with a track titled 'My Universe' which is set for release on September 24.

The official Twitter handle of Coldplay made the big announcement on Monday with the tweet: "#MyUniverse// Coldplay X BTS//September 24th//Pre-order & pre-save now." BTS retweeted the post and wrote: "#Coldplay X #BTS - My Universe."
New Delhi, Sep 15 : Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday invited US defence companies to invest in India, asserting that there is a lot of scope for the American and Indian defence industries in co-production and co-development.

Speaking during the inaugural address at the 18th India-US Economic Summit on the theme 'Bouncing Back - Resilient Recovery Path Post Covid-19', Singh stated that the initiatives taken by the government have transformed India into a strong and reliable investment destination. The summit was organised by the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce through video conferencing.

He said India is now led by a stable and secure government which focuses on economic growth through a series of reforms. He added that robust domestic demand and availability of a talented young work force and innovation make India a major investment destination.

Singh called upon the industry leaders to focus on transfer of technology through joint ventures to realise the country's true potential in the defence sector. The foreign OEMs can set up manufacturing facilities individually or partner with Indian companies through a joint venture or technology agreement to capitalise on the 'Make in India' initiative, he added.

Singh exhorted them to begin the process of Research and Development with the young minds of the country which will increase the linkages among the industries and create an ecosystem through equal contribution from academia and research. He emphasised that there is a lot of scope for the American and Indian defence industries in co-production and co-development, adding that Indian industry can supply components to American industries.

Expressing confidence that American firms will find India a major investment destination for defence manufacturing, he assured the Industry that the government is open to new ideas to create a business-friendly environment in India and is committed to push all types of entrepreneurship and manufacturing in the defence sector.

"I am sure that the economic and strategic partnership between India & US will act as a springboard and the forum will act as a bridge to achieve this," he added.

Shedding light on the growing ties between India and the US, Singh said the Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership, 2+2 Dialogue, Quad Security Dialogue and agreements like Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA) and Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement (COMCASA) have taken the bilateral relations to greater heights.

He, however, emphasised that the relations are yet to realise their full potential, saying that several progressive policies have been put in place in the last two years that have given the defence sector an unexpected growth trajectory.The measures include setting up of Defence Industrial Corridors in Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu; increasing the FDI limit to 74 per cent through automatic route and 100 per cent through government route under certain circumstances; inclusion of 'Buy and Make' category in Defence Acquisition Procedure-2020 which provides a vendor with an economical workforce and India gets technology & trained manpower; draft Defence Production and Export Promotion Policy (DPEPP-2020) with provisions to incentivise foreign investment and notification of two positive indigenisation lists to increase business collaboration.

Singh highlighted that despite the COVID-19 situation, the country's economy is back on track due to the steps taken by the government. "India's GDP has shown a 'V' shaped growth curve in the last two years. Where the growth witnessed a contraction of 24 per cent last year, a jump of 20 per cent has been seen in the first quarter of this year. It is a reflection of the country's sound economic fundamentals," he said.

Singh added, "We are expecting double digit growth in FY-22 despite the challenge of COVID-19. But, the challenge will be to maintain a healthy growth rate of 7-8 per cent in the years after FY-22. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, we are preparing for dynamic growth much beyond FY-22." He added that major structural and procedural reforms in the last seven years have prepared India to take a quantum jump in terms of growth. Formulation of progressive and investor friendly tax policies, increased focus on ease of doing business, agriculture and labour reforms are some of the initiatives that have laid the foundation of a 'New India'.

He also lauded the Indian industry for fulfilling the requirement of masks, PPE kits, ventilators and working with the government to deal with the pandemic. He added that Industry is playing a significant role in the world's largest vaccination drive being undertaken in India.
Chandigarh, Sep 15 : Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has ordered high alert in the state following the arrest of four more members of an ISI-backed terrorist module involved in a bid to blow up an oil tanker with an IED tiffin bomb last month, making it the fourth case of a Pakistani terror module being busted in the state in the past 40 days.

Two Pakistan-based men, including a Pakistani intelligence officer, have also been identified and booked in the case, in which one person was arrested earlier, DGP Dinkar Gupta disclosed on Wednesday.

Taking serious note of the increased attempts by terror groups to disturb peace, the Chief Minister has directed the police to be on high alert, particularly in view of schools and educational institutions reopening, as well as the festival season and the Assembly polls ahead.

He has asked the DGP to ensure high level of security arrangements, especially in busy places, such as markets etc, as well as at sensitive installations across the state.

Giving details of the arrests, the DGP also identified International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF) chief Lakhbir Singh Rode, alias Baba, a native of Rode village in Moga district, who is currently based in Pakistan, and Pakistani intelligence official Qasim as being behind the terror module.

Those arrested on Tuesday have been identified as Rubal Singh, Vicky Bhutti, Malkeet Singh and Gurpreet Singh.

While Rubal, also wanted in a murder case of September 1, was picked up from Haryana's Ambala around 5 p.m., the other three were nabbed from their villages in Ajnala, and Amritsar. Their fifth accomplice, Gurmukh Brar, was arrested earlier by Kapurthala police, on August 20.

The DGP said Qasim, and Rode had promised to transfer over Rs 2 lakh to the terrorist module for carrying out the blast.

Investigations into the financial aspects are also being carried to unravel the money trail, he added.

Rubal and Vicky Bhutti were in touch with Qasim, who was working in close collaboration with Rode. Rode and Qasim had reportedly tasked the four members of a terrorist module to blast an oil tanker for causing maximum damage to people and property.

The terror attempt was made on August 8, when, at about 11.30 p.m., the Ajnala police received information that an oil tanker parked at Sharma Filling Station Ajnala, located on the Amritsar-Ajnala Road near Bhakha Tara Singh village had caught fire.
Lucknow, Sep 15 : In a major crackdown, the UP Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) on Wednesday arrested three more terror suspects after a tip-off from the central agencies.

Sources said that the ATS received information from the central agencies and Special Cell of the Delhi Police regarding multiple blasts being planned by terror suspects and explosives being also stored at various locations.

A joint team of the Intelligence Bureau and Delhi Police Special Cell are already interrogating the six terror suspects who were arrested on Tuesday and sent to police custody on Wednesday.

UP Additional Director General of Police Prashant Kumar told reporters that those arrested on Wednesday were highly radicalised and had dangerous plans of attack.

"Uttar Pradesh ATS on Tuesday raided four districts simultaneously and took six accused in the custody and out of these, three have been arrested other three are being questioned. The ATS team also recovered powerful IEDs with other weapons. The ones who are arrested are highly radicalised and their intentions were highly dangerous and if this IED had blasted, a lot of casualties might have been witnessed," he said.

The ADG said that the three would also be hand over to the Delhi Police for further investigations.

The terrorists were allegedly planning several blasts across the country, including Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, and Maharashtra, during Ganesh Chaturthi, as well as the upcoming Navratri, and Ram Lila.
New Delhi, Sep 15 : President Ram Nath Kovind will address the special session of Himachal Pradesh Assembly being organised on the occasion of golden jubilee of the hill state's statehood on Friday, an official statement sai.

The President, who is visiting the state from September 16 to 19, will also the valedictory ceremony of the Indian Audit and Accounts Service officer trainees of 2018 and 2019 batches at the National Academy of Audit and Accounts, Shimla on September 18, a Rashtrapati Bhavan communique said.
New Delhi, Sep 15 : The Chief of Army Staff of the Taliban, Fasihudin, has said that those who defend democracy in Afghanistan and oppose the Taliban will be suppressed.

He added that they will suppress all those who defend the gains of the past two decades under the name of specific ethnic groups or resistance in Afghanistan, Khaama News reported.

Those who defend democracy in Afghanistan and oppose the Taliban will be suppressed, he said.

Though he did not directly name any group, he probably alluded to the resistance front led by Ahmad Masoud in Panjshir province.

The front, which was finally defeated by the Taliban after 15 days, was created by former vice-president Amrullah Saleh and the son of the slain Ahmad Shah Masoud.

Fasihudin said these people are disturbing security and want bloodshed in Afghanistan, the report said.

Fasihudin, who was talking to a gathering in Kabul on Wednesday, said that consultations over creating an Afghan national army are going on to establish a potent army.

Fasihudin, who is also known as the conqueror of the northern province of Afghanistan, is considered one of the toughest military leaders of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
Kabul, Sep 15 : The Taliban leadership has rejected reports of having serious rifts and arguments within their leadership, leading to a heated confrontation between Mullah Baradar and another senior Taliban figure.

Terming the reports of a shoot-out between Baradar, the former head of the Taliban political office in Doha, and another senior Taliban figure, which 'resulted in the killing of Baradar', as fake news and a mere rumour, the Taliban stated that there is no truth in such reports.

Acting Foreign Minister Amir Muttaqi said at a press conference that there is no division in the Taliban ranks over distribution of power in the interim government. He highlighted that while there are no rifts within the elected interim government of the Taliban, changes would be made as per the need in the coming days, which he said would be done in accordance with the needs and requirements of the time.

The Taliban denial comes amid persistent rumours of internal division within the Taliban ranks over the selection of the leaders for various important ministries in the interim setup.

The rumours spread to such an extent that Taliban leader and Deputy Prime Minister of Afghanistan, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, had to issue a hand-written statement, stating that he had left for Kandahar and was fine.

However, the statement raised more questions over the sudden departure of Baradar to Kandahar, which prompted another voice message from the Taliban leader, rejecting the claims that he was injured or killed in a clash.

Baradar has not been seen in public for several days and was not part of the Taliban delegation that met in Kabul on September 12 with Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammad Bin Abdulrehman al-Thani, the first foreign dignitary to land in Kabul after the Taliban takeover.

It has been reported that Baradar and Khalil-ur-Rehman Haqqani, the Minister for Refugees and a prominent member of the Haqqani network, had a heated exchange of words over who played major role in the takeover of Afghanistan, during a meeting at the presidential palace in Kabul.

A senior Taliban member based in Qatar also confirmed the report of a brawl and a heated argument, reports suggested.

Sources said that Baradar was not satisfied with the selection and structure of the interim government, which led to the argument of claiming credit for the Taliban victory in Afghanistan.
New Delhi, Sep 15 : A China-based cyber-espionage threat actor has apparently breached the internal networks of at least 10 Indonesian government ministries and agencies, including the computers of Indonesias primary intelligence service, the Badan Intelijen Negara (BIN).

The revelation of this invasive cyber-espionage attempt comes at a time when the two countries are re-establishing diplomatic relations after nearly escalating into an armed confrontation a few years ago over maritime territory concerns.

The intrusion, discovered by Insikt Group, the threat research division of the US-based cyber security firm Recorded Future, has been linked to Mustang Panda, a Chinese threat actor known for its cyber-espionage campaigns targeting the Southeast Asian region.

Insikt researchers first discovered this campaign in April this year and notified the Indonesian authorities about the intrusions in June and then again in July.

Mustang Panda is known to have targeted governments and telcos in Southeast Asia. In March 2021, security firm McAfee had reported that Mustang Panda had allegedly targeted telecom companies in Southeast Asia, Europe and the US via a phishing site disguised as Huawei's careers page.

In June 2021, a Slovak security firm found a back door Trojan - which gives users remote control over a device - allegedly planted by Mustang Panda in the website of the Myanmar president's office.

Pratama Persadha, chairman of the Communication and Information System Security Research Centre (CISSREC), a Jakarta-based non profit organisation - who has profiled several cyber security threat actors, including Mustang Panda - said the group is largely made up of Chinese actors and it can be classified as a state- sponsored actor as it uses advanced persistent threats that require large resources. Its targets are mostly high-profile institutions.

Since 2013, when China made its Belt and Road Initiative public, cyber-espionage groups have often targeted countries where China planned to invest as part of this project. Currently, the second-largest investor in Indonesia, China has been cozying up to Indonesian provinces over the past two years to facilitate increased trade and further its implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative.

But these investments have not always been welcome, with some countries seeing them as a Trojan horse for their economies.

Since the hacked data has not been shared in the public domain till now, it can be said that the motive is not economy or popularity. This could be state-backed espionage with a larger hidden agenda. The countries need to strengthen their digital defences to prevent such type of cyber-attacks from China-based groups in order to safeguard their sovereignty.
Mumbai, Sep 15 : The Mumbai Police's Crime Branch on Wednesday filed a voluminous supplementary charge sheet in the pornography content case against businessman Raj Kundra, the husband of Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty.

Kundra, 45, was arrested on July 19 in the sensational case in which there are several other accused, and the charge sheet running into around 1,500 pages, has been lodged before a Mumbai magistrate court.

In April, the police had filed its first charge sheet in the case against nine persons originally accused, and after subsequent investigations, two more accused, including Kundra, were nabbed.

The police have contended that Raj Kundra - currently in judicial custody along with his company Viaan Enterprises' IT head Ryan Thorpe - were allegedly engaged in creating pornographic content which were published through some paid porn apps.

The alleged scam came to light early this year when the Malad police raided a bungalow at Madh Island where porn films were reportedly being shot leading to the arrest of the film-makers, the actors, and the technical staff.

The Mumbai Police have formed a special investigation team and filed multiple FIRs in the case after more complainants, including some television and film industry starlets came forward.
Gurugram, Sep 15 : To prevent water wastage, water conservation committees will be formed in the rural areas of all the four blocks (Farrukhnagar, Pataudi, Sohna and Gurugram) of Gurugram district. In these, 30 percent women's participation will be ensured.

For this initiative, Superintending Engineer, Irrigation and Water Resources Department, Gurugram, Dr Shiv Singh Rawat, held a review meeting on Wednesday at the district level with officials on the Atal Bhujal Yojana, a joint program of the Central Government, the World Bank and the State Government.

Rawat said that Jaipur Seva Foundation has been made District Implementation Partner (DIP) who will visit villages in coordination with ground water experts to strengthen the institutional framework of ground water management and capacity building through public participation.

He said the initiative will help to collect data about water sources like wells, ponds, lakes, rivers, streams. Water budget and water security plans have to be prepared at the village level.

"People will have to be made aware of the objectives and benefits of the scheme by visiting the 163 identified villages of Gurugram district," Rawat told IANS.

He said that the 'Atal Bhujal Yojana' is such a participatory groundwater management scheme which is related to groundwater and other government schemes related to agriculture such as 'Jalshakti Abhiyan, Mera Pani - Meri Virasat' Jal Jeevan Mission'.

"The main objective of the scheme is to ensure potable clean water to every person, farmers in rural areas to store sufficient amount of water for agriculture, rainwater harvesting, conservation and prevention of depleting water level," he said.

Rawat informed that Haryana has been divided into nine clusters to fulfil these objectives. Gurugram has been placed in the fifth cluster.

He instructed the officials that children of Nehru Yuva Kendra, Anganwadis, Asha workers, schools, colleges should be included in the program for awareness so that the awareness campaign can be accelerated. The issues and challenges related to the declining groundwater level and its quality were also discussed in the meeting.
New Delhi, Sep 15 : Delhi will start receiving its first fleet of 300 e-buses from January 2022 since the tender for the same has matured, a Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) official said on Wednesday.

"The first fleet of e-buses will start coming from January 2022," Ravinder Singh Minhas, Deputy Chief General Manager (Traffic and Public Relations) at DTC, told IANS.

In August 2020, Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot had said that the national capital will receive as many as 2,000 electric buses by the end of 2021. However, a few months ago, lack of infrastructure was cited as the reason behind the delay in the rollout of the first batch of this most commonly used mode of public transport.

Both the Delhi and Central governments are actively batting for greener and sustainable vehicles to prepare better for the future challenges of environmental problems caused due to climate change.

"At present, there are 3,700 low-floor buses (red and green) and nearly 4,000 cluster buses (orange and blue) running on Delhi roads while the city requires 15,000 more buses," another DTC official said on condition of anonymity, adding that in 2010, a tender was passed for the procurement of 11,000 premium (air-conditioned) buses which hasn't been processed till date due to administrative issues.

The DTC had floated a tender to purchase 1,000 buses in January 2021, which were intended to ply on the city roads by September.

However, following an allegation by BJP MLA Vijender Gupta of corruption in the annual maintenance contract (AMC) for procuring these buses, a three-member panel was formed by Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, who handed over the matter to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for preliminary enquiry.

The official said that in 2010, the then Delhi government had decided to divide the maintenance work of fleets between the DTC and private corporations.

"Since then, 50 per cent of DTC-controlled buses are being maintained by private players who can either look after the work on their own or assign it to their authorised agents, and the other half by the DTC.

"Both the arrangements before and after 2010 were good. They both have their own pros and cons. At the end of the day, proper management of fleets is all that matters," the official said.

On space for more vehicles in the national capital, he said, "There is sufficient space in Delhi. Nearly 12 million cars are registered here and if they can run, so can a few thousand more buses."
Bengaluru, Sep 15 : The Karnataka police investigating the flyover accident in which a speeding car killed two persons, suspect that the car driver may have consumed drugs.

The victims were tossed off the flyover to the surface road below. The incident has raised concerns in Silicon City as the incident has come close on the heels of another accident involving a car in which 7 persons were killed on the spot including the son of the Hosur MLA.

Preetam Kumar (30), a quality control manager and Kritika Raman (28), a team leader, died on the spot on Tuesday late night when they were hit by a car on an elevated expressway.

CCTV footage of the accident emerged and went viral on social media. Preliminary investigations suggested that the victims were hit from behind. However, CCTV footage showed that the car rammed into the victims who stood in the parking bay on the elevated flyover.

The CCTV footage also showed the victims pushing their two-wheeler towards the parking bay a few moments before the accident. Police say they had to push the vehicle as the petrol tank had become empty.

Additional Traffic Commissioner Dr Ravikanthe Gowda on Wednesday stated that the blood samples of the driver Nitesh P (22), an engineering student, have been sent for medical tests to ascertain whether he was under the influence of drugs or alcohol while driving. "Presently he is being treated at a private hospital as he suffered serious injuries on his ribs. The preliminary investigation suggests that rash and negligent driving of the car driver is the reason for the accident. The car was going at 100 kmph when it hit the victims," he stated.

The victims were known to each other for the last 6 to 8 years. They had taken their friend's vehicle for an outing. Preetam Kumar was from Bengaluru and Kritika Raman hailed from Tamil Nadu. The police have registered a case under Sections 279, 337, 304 A. Further investigation is on.
New Delhi, Sep 15 : Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) took two of the arrested alleged terrorists to Gwadar port, through sea routes, and then to Sindh to get them trained in making bombs, the Delhi Police's Special Cell found on Wednesday during the interrogation of the six terror suspects nabbed on Tuesday.

The Special Cell sleuths are now investigating how the two went to Pakistan, got trained, and returned to India.

Its probe has found that the two suspected terrorists -- Osama, resident of Delhi's Jamia Nagar, and Zeeshan Qamar, resident of UP's Prayagraj -- were imparted the training of making bombs and IEDs and committing arson with the help of items of daily use. They were also trained in handling and use of small firearms and AK-47s.

During the interrogation, it was revealed that Osama left for Muscat in April where he met Zeeshan who had also come from India for training in Pakistan.

They were joined by 15-16 Bengali-speaking people, suspected to be Bangladeshi nationals. They were divided into sub-groups and Zeeshan and Osama were placed in one group.

Over the next few days, after several short sea journeys, changing boats several times, they were taken to Jioni near Gwadar. There they were received by one Pakistani who took them to a farmhouse in Thatta in Sindh province.

There were three Pakistani nationals in the farmhouse. Two of these, Jabbar and Hamza imparted training to them. Both of them were from Pakistan Army as they wore military uniforms, according to the information obtained.

The training lasted for almost 15 days and thereafter, they were taken back to Muscat via the same route.

Earlier in the day, a Delhi court sent the six terrorists to 14 days police custody.

Apart from Osama and Zeeshan, the other four arrested accused terrorists have been identified as Jaan Mohammad Shaikh, resident of Mumbai, Moolchand, resident of UP's Rae Bareli, Mohd Abu Bakr, resident of UP's Bahraich and Mohd Amir Javed, resident of Lucknow.

The arrested persons were tasked separately to execute different aspects of the terror plan.

After the Delhi Police's Special Cell got a tip-off from central intelligence agencies about the conspiracy being hatched to carry out terror attacks in different parts of the country, it carried out a multi-pronged operation wherein several teams were stationed at Mumbai and Lucknow, Prayagraj, Rae Bareli, and Pratapgarh in UP simultaneously.

On September 14, on the basis of intelligence gathered through human as well as technical nodes, simultaneous raids were conducted in different states. Initially, underworld operative Sheikh was apprehended from near Rajasthan's Kota while he was on his way to Delhi, Osama was apprehended from Delhi's Okhla and Abu Bakr from Sarai Kale Khan, Zeeshan was apprehended from Prayagraj, Javed from Lucknow, and Moolchand from Rae Bareli. The operation in UP was done in close and successful coordination with officers of UP ATS.

Interrogation has revealed that this module had received sophisticated RDX-based IEDs, grenades, pistols and cartridges from a sleeper cell operative and these were sent to UP for safe concealment. A search is on for sleeper cell operatives who are still at large.

The probe also found that Sheikh, along with Moolchand, were tasked by Pakistan-based Anees Ibrahim, the brother of Dawood Ibrahim, to receive the weapons in Delhi, and hand them over to other terror operatives in Delhi and Mumbai and other parts of the country.

Subsequently, further deliveries of similar consignments of IEDs were to be done through the same channel.

The underworld component acting at the behest of the ISI was entrusted with two tasks that are the transportation of arms and explosives, and terror funding through Hawala channels.

The ISI trained terror component was tasked with reconnaissance of targets and planting of the IEDs.

Further nodes of this network are being identified, police said.
The Tibetan people, in the last few decades, have had to face differing situations and have had to comply with the bitter truth that the matter regarding Chinese illegal occupation of Tibet has still not been resolved.

The people have led the freedom struggle and are still fighting diligently for the cause of Tibet. The illegal annexation is an issue that undoubtedly saddens the Tibetans immensely, but there is yet another issue that has had no status update since it happened.

This specific matter is that of the abduction of the Eleventh Panchen Lama, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, in 1995 when he was just six years old by the Chinese Communist authorities.

The Panchen Lama holds the second highest position in Tibetan Buddhism after the Dalai Lama. The Chinese government, like their constant claims that Tibet was not occupied but was rather a part of their land always, has also denied any claims or accusations regarding them being the perpetrators behind the Panchen Lama's abduction.

It has been made through China's boisterous claims and their well-plotted deeds afterwards that they were behind this horrendous scheming regarding the true Panchen Lama. Their authoritarian nature of ruling is apparent for the world to see, but when it comes to the Tibetans, this very form of ruling has exceeded all levels of sanity and humanity.

In the year 1995 itself, China selected a boy named Gyaltsen Norbu and appointed him as the Panchen Lama in Tibet. This should have never happened since the Chinese government officially has no say in the matters of the spiritual hierarchy of Tibet.

The Communist government even went to great lengths to organise religious teachings and ceremonies led by the fake Panchen Lama and forced the Tibetans in Tibet to attend it.

China's well-calculated plans are clearly laid for the world to see and to appraise them in how thoughtful they are being to the Tibetans and in this case, how the selected Panchen Lama is being accepted and revered by the people of Tibet.

What the rest of the world doesn't see or hear about is the ways in which the Tibetans are forced to take part in these so-called religious teachings against their will and if they try to avoid it, they are severely punished, tortured and even jailed.

The Chinese fake Panchen Lama is being paraded around with an accompaniment of policemen and officials, clearly a publicity stunt. He is also supposed to be a member of the top Communist party advisory body, but a Chinese government official had revealed in the past how he holds no power as such despite having a position that big.

That is also China's way of publicising how the Panchen Lama is revered as a spiritual leader in Tibet and is given such a high post in the government. The truth about the current, Chinese appointed Panchen Lama is also a bit sad. He is kept under house arrest mostly in Beijing and is neither allowed to speak to anyone nor travel as per his will. He is guarded at all times by a set of policemen and officials and is kept under strict surveillance.

Many speculations and assumptions have been made since his appointment that he will hold significant power in the time that he'll remain as the Panchen Lama.

The Chinese government plans to make him the official face of Tibetan Buddhism in Tibet. They have cunningly led his visit to other Asian countries to spread his name and to gain support and popularity for his status as the Panchen Lama.

The Communist government being well aware of how Tibet and Tibetans are known for their religion, Buddhism has always eyed it and tried to cause as much destruction to it as possible. The attacks on religious institutions in Tibet and the damaging of thousands of religious relics have been saddening and yet they still continue and will continue in the future if not stood up against.

China wishes to gain power in the field of religious authority so that it can destroy Tibet's authenticity and rule over the people till the end of time.

It has been made clear to protests led worldwide by Tibetans about how they want the information regarding the real (abducted) Panchen Lama to be released and how they would never accept or follow the fake Panchen Lama enthroned by the Chinese government.

Gyaltsen Norbu has been called a "stooge of atheist Chinese Communist Party" by the Tibetans in exile. The Tibetan people's feelings about such enforcement have been clear from the beginning. The Communist party's lack of success in this endeavour led to them making statements about how the successor of the 14th Dalai Lama should also be reviewed and appointed with their permission.

Tibet's history makes it very clear how the Dalai Lamas and the Panchen Lamas are chosen through the predecessor's will. China has, however, come up with yet another boisterous claim as to how they should be the one who would have the power to choose the next Dalai Lama.

The US policy of the Tibet Policy and Support Act (TPSA) passed in December 2020 proved to be a ray of hope for the Tibetans since it mainly focused on how China would have no hand or say in the reincarnation of the next Dalai Lama. The issue regarding the 11th Panchen Lama's abduction was also stated in the content.

Recently, in April, the United Nations Commission on International Religious Freedom (UNCIRF) reiterated its call for the Chinese government to release Gedhun Choekyi Nyima. US representative James McGovern also rendered his support in this matter to advocate on behald of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima through the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission's Defending Freedoms Project.

Such international support regarding the Tibetan issues is a great step for the Tibetan in raising their freedom struggle further on the global platform. Tibetans in exile are able to protest openly against the authoritarian rule and the illegal occupation. The fellow Tibetans back in Tibet are unable to do so openly because of China's austere surveillance and brutal handlings.

Tibetans will, however, never support China's horrendous oppression and will fight even harder for justice. The Chinese Panchen Lama will never be accepted and the bout for the Gedhun Choekyi Nyima (real Panchen Lama) will go on till the truth about his status is revealed.

(Tenzin Choezom writes on Tibet issues. The views expressed are personal)
New Delhi, Sep 15 : The telecom industry has lauded the Union Cabinet's approval for reform and relief measures for the sector.

Cellular Operators Association of India Director General S.P. Kochhar said the measures show the government's intent for the much-needed structural reforms in the telecommunications sector, in scripting the success of Digital India, and in accelerating the journey to meet Digital India goals which will ultimately deliver ample benefit to the individual consumers.

"These steps would go a long way in relieving the financial stress the sector is facing, boosting investments, encouraging healthy competition and in offering choice to customers. The announcement is aligned with the telecom industry's long-standing asks," he said.

Bharti Airtel described the measures as path breaking policy and said that the reform package heralds a new dawn for the Indian telecom industry and will catalyse explosive growth of this vital sector.

Bharti Airtel Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal said: "We congratulate and thank the government, who under the decisive leadership of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has undertaken these seminal reforms to lift an industry that's at the core of his Digital India vision. The latest reforms ensure that the industry is able to invest fearlessly and support India's digital ambitions. We also compliment the Minister of Communications and the Finance Minister for their leadership and support." Bharti Airtel MD & CEO, India and South Asia, Gopal Vittal said that these fresh reforms will further boost efforts to invest in this exciting digital future and enable it to be one of the leading players in India's digital economy.

"More needs to be done, however, towards a sustainable tariff regime to ensure the industry gets a fair return. This will, in turn, allow it continue investing in new technologies and innovation to bring world-class services to customers," he said.

Reliance Jio noted that the package is a timely step towards strengthening India's telecom sector.

Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh D. Ambani said: "Telecom sector is one of the prime movers of the economy and the key enabler for making India a Digital Society, I welcome the Government of India's announcement of reforms and relief measures that will enable the industry to achieve the goals of Digital India. I thank Prime Minister for this bold initiative." Aditya Birla Group Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla was of the view that the measures will go a long in unshackling the telecom sector.

"These reforms demonstrate the government's firm commitment to ensuring healthy growth of the industry. The measures also reflect the decisiveness of the Prime Minister, the Telecom Minister, and the government to address long-standing issues. These reforms will bring alive the digital aspirations of 1.3 billion people and accelerate India's journey to be a digitally powered economy as envisaged by our Prime Minister," Birla said.

"We commend the resolve shown by the Government of India, under PM Modi's leadership, to find a comprehensive solution that would support a competitive and sustainable telecom sector in India," Vodafone Group CEO Nick Read said.

The Union Cabinet earlier in the day approved the much-anticipated relief and reform measures for the stressed telecom sector.

Among several decisions, the Cabinet has approved a four-year moratorium on all dues by telecom operators, including the adjusted gross revenue (AGR), however, those operators availing the moratorium will have to pay interest of "MCLR+2 per cent".

It has also approved the change in the AGR definition and now non-telecom revenue will not be calculated under AGR, prospectively.

In another major move, the Cabinet has allowed 100 per cent FDI in telecom under the automatic route.
New Delhi, Sep 15 : Making a dent in the Delhi government's 'Jahan Jhuggi Wahin Makaan' policy, the Central government has asked it to assign the under construction flats for DDA allotment instead, Delhi Urban Development Minister Satyendar Jain said on Wednesday.

"So far 9,104 houses of the total 47,511 are ready. However, now Delhi government will have to start the work from scratch, which will take even more time," said Jain while addressing a press meet.

The minister said that they had written to the Centre over the problem that this decision can cause and also held a meeting over the same.

"Even the DDA (Delhi Development Authority) was ready to take a few of these flats," Jain added.

The policy was announced by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for the construction of EWS flats for the in-situ rehabilitation of the people dwelling in slums. This construction was supposed to be carried out on the vacant land of the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB).

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader had also held a review meeting and directed the authorities to expeditiously allot the flats that have been constructed for the EWS and slum dwellers within 5 km of where their slums were located.
Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 15 : Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday said that another 17,681 people turned Covid positive after 97,070 samples were sent for testing in the past 24 hours, while the daily test positivity rate stood at 18.21 per cent.

Even as Covid cases continue to remain high, Vijayan said things are under control and by the end of this month, he expects all people above 18 will be given their first dose of vaccine.

"If we go at this pace, in a matter of 2 or 3 months, we expect to complete the vaccination drive for all people in the state. We have found out that there are some people who are not very keen to take their vaccine dose. This practice is not good and each and everyone should take it," he said.

He said as on date, 2.30 crore people by now have received their first dose while 92 lakh have taken both the doses.

Vijayan also said that the day saw 25,588 people turn negative taking the total number of active cases in the state to 1,90,750.

There were 208 Covid deaths, taking the death toll to 22,987.
Kabul, Sep 15 : As the world organisations start pooling in with humanitarian aid to prevent the foreseen major humanitarian crisis looming over Afghanistan, the Taliban leadership has said that aid supplies landing in the country should be handed over to them as they would hold the responsibility to provide for the poor, needy and the deserving.

The statement was made by the acting Foreign Minister of the Islamic Emirates of Afghanistan, Amir Muttaqi, who said that it is the responsibility of the Taliban-led government in the country to ensure provision of required relief to the deserving perons.

Muttaqi's statement has left the international community in another difficult situation as the Taliban push forward global legitimacy demand and call for engaging with the Taliban leadership.

Muttaqi also lashed out at the US for not responding to the help the Taliban gave them during their withdrawal, with severing of aid and freezing of assets.

"We helped the US until the evacuation of their last person. But unfortunately, the US, instead of thanking us, froze our assets," he said.

"We welcome the pledge of emergency aid funding committed to Afghanistan during yesterday's meeting hosted by the UN in Geneva," Muttaqi added, urging the international community to engage with the Taliban and ensure recognition of the Taliban-led government in Afghanistan.

Muttaqi also highlighted that reluctance to recognise the Taliban-led administration in Kabul could further damage the already suffering Afghan economy.

"We are willing to work with any country, including the US. But we will not allow anyone to dictate us," he said.

The call for global engagement by the Taliban comes after UN chief Antonio Guterres hosted a donor conference of the UN and stated that provision of humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan would be impossible without engaging with the Taliban.

The UN donor conference has pledged $1 billion in Afghanistan aid to prevent the country from collapsing due to economic and humanitarian crises.

But the concerns still pertain to the formal recognition of the Taliban-led administration and formal engagement with the Taliban to ensure the aid doesn't land in wrong hands.

The Taliban have demanded the international community to open formal relations with their leadership, highlighting that Afghanistan is open for foreign investments.

Muttaqi also stated that the reservations of western capitals regarding respect of human rights of women and others were "unfair and unjust", adding that the interim government will respect all human rights, including that of women.

And while the Taliban thanked countries like Qatar, Pakistan and Uzbekistan for their aid supplies, they have made it clear that any aid supplies for Afghanistan would have to be distributed through the interim government, a position that the western countries and others are not ready to accept.
Hyderabad, Sep 15 : Hyderabad police on Wednesday intensified search operations in the city to apprehend the accused in the rape and murder of a six-year-old girl.

Several teams comprising hundreds of policemen were engaged in search operations in the limits of three police commissionerates - Hyderabad, Cyberabad, and Rachakonda.

A day after announcing Rs 10 lakh reward for anyone providing information leading to arrest of the fugitive Pallakonda Raju, police released wanted posters with his pictures.

Police personnel were seen pasting posters on walls, buses and auto-rickshaws. Some were explaining to citizens about how the accused looks.

As Raju is said to a habitual drunkard, police were keeping a tight vigil around the liquor shops in the limits of all three police commissionerates.

Police have also taken up vehicle checking on the state borders to stop him from fleeing to neighbouring states.

The six-year-old was sexually assaulted and murdered on September 9 by her neighbour Raju in Singareni Colony of Saidabad area. The body of the girl was found in his house after midnight.

With pressure mounting on the state government over its alleged failure to track down the culprit nearly a week after the incident, Director General of Police M. Mahender Reddy was personally monitoring the case. He directed the Police Commissioners to intensify the search operation.

Personnel of the Commissioner's Task Force and the Special Operation Team (SOT) were also roped in for the massive search operations.

The accused was seen in CCTV footage in LB Nagar area a day after he committed the horrific crime. He reportedly consumed liquor in a permit room there, and police were specially focusing on the area and its surroundings. Earlier, he was also spotted in the old city area.

As the accused is likely to change his appearance to evade arrest, the police on Wednesday released few computer generated most probable disguised images.

Meanwhile, Telanana Home Minister Mohammed Mahmood Ali said that all efforts were made to apprehend Raju. He held a meeting with the Director General of Police, Hyderabad Police Commissioner Anjani Kumar, and other police officers to review the case.

Mahmood Ali told the officers that Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao is serious about the incident and instructed them to take speedy measures to trace out and arrest the accused. He directed the officers to ensure that the accused is apprehended as soon as possible and necessary action taken as per law.

He directed the officers to investigate the case from all angles, deploy special search teams and also give wide publicity by publishing the available photographs, video clips of the accused through print and electronic media.

After the meeting, the Home Minister stated that the Chief Minister felt very sad about the incident, expressed condolences to the bereaved family, and assured that the family will be provided all the help and support from the state government.

Mahmood Ali said that all necessary measures are being taken to see that the accused is arrested, investigation completed, and charge sheet filed as soon as possible. He said efforts will be made to ensure that accused gets stringent punishment as per law on lines of a similar case in Warangal - where the investigation was completed speedily and the accused was sentenced to death by the trial court in a very short period.
Hyderabad, Sep 15 : Actor-politician Pawan Kalyan on Wednesday called up the family of a six-year-old girl who was raped and murdered here last week.

The Jana Sena chief could not reach the house of the victim in Singareni Colony of Saidabad area due to utter chaos as hundreds of his fans gathered there to catch a glimpse of him.

At one stage, the actor stood on his car to wave at the crowd. The stampede-like situation reportedly led to damage of a car of a local resident.

Unable to reach the victim's house, Pawan called up her parents and consoled them.

Later, talking to reporters he said he would stand by the family till it gets justice.

The actor said the horrific incident has pained him and demanded immediate steps to catch the culprit and punish him.

Pawan said the victim's parents told him that though they identified their neighbour Pallakonda Raju as the suspect, prompt action was not taken and as a result, he is still at large.

The Jana Sena leader urged the government to extend all help to the family and do justice to them.

Finding fault with media for highlighting only a few incidents, he said this incident came to light through social media. He wanted all to rise above political affiliations to condemn such heinous incidents and police and government should take strong measures to prevent their recurrence.

The child was sexually assaulted and murdered on September 9 by her neighbour, and her body was eventually found in his house.

The horrific incident had triggered angry protest from residents, who demanded immediate and the harshest punishment to the guilty.

Despite the initial claims by police that accused was arrested from his native village in Yadadri Bhuvanagiri district, he remains still at large.

Hyderabad police on Tuesday announced a reward of Rs 10 lakh for any information leading to arrest of the accused.

The police also released a photograph of him.
New Delhi, Sep 15: South Korea based multinational company Seoul Semiconductor recently announced that it is keen to set up a research & development (R&D) facility in Haryana. Later the company is expected to start a manufacturing unit too.

After solely depending on imports until now, India has now embarked on an aggressive drive to position itself as a global chip manufacturing hub.

Semi conductor or a chip, as it is commonly known, is the most critical component required in any modern electronic gadget.

With the supply chain getting severely impacted since the outbreak of the Covid 19 pandemic, the Centre is now incentivising global manufacturers to set up their units here.

Sources said that there could be more South Korean and Taiwanese companies lining up to set up semiconductor manufacturing units in India.

Taiwan, which is the largest exporter of electronics and controls, enjoys more than 60 per cent share of the global market for semiconductors used in smartphones, vehicles and closed-circuit televisions, among other products.

Demand for semi-conductor or chip has been increasing over the years but in the last one year, it has surged like never before with the rise in usage of mobile phones and computers amid the pandemic. Besides, the growing Internet of Things (IoT) and the advent of 5G technology will also push demand.

According to Invest India-- the nodal body under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, facilitating fresh investment in the country, the country's semiconductor demand at present, is valued around $ 24 billion but by 2025, the market is expected to touch $ 100 billion.

"As India seeks to facilitate domestic semiconductor manufacturing over the next few years, Taiwan could play an instrumental role in India's ambitions by lending a helping hand and supplementing India's expertise," Taipei Times said in a recent report.

The report also noted that Taiwanese firms could benefit from partnering with successful Indian technology companies, as such cooperation could prevent operational hiccups. "Strategic cooperation is a win-win for India and Taiwan," it added.

Shakti Sinha, former bureaucrat and director at Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Policy Research and International Studies said that India must continue to deepen ties with Taiwan to strengthen its own economy back home.

"We must establish greater relations with Taiwan for our own mutual benefit and not as a policy of one-upmanship with China. Taiwan is a strong economy with great technological know-how, India can benefit from this, besides we must look at investments and a lot of it can come from Tapei," Sinha said.

(The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com) --indianarrative
New Delhi, Sep 15 : The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear the bail plea of wife of a close aide of gangster Vikas Dubey, killed in police encounter last year in Uttar Pradesh.

Senior advocate Vivek Tankha, representing the wife, contended that she was a minor on the date of incident and been in a detention home for the past one year.

A bench of Justices S. Abdul Nazeer and Krishna Murari agreed to examine the plea.

Tankha, assisted by advocate Sumeer Sodhi, contended before the bench his client was the wrong place and at the wrong time. He cited that she was married to Dubey's close aide only seven days prior to the incident of July 3.

It argued that she was not named in the FIR, which was registered in the incident, while her husband was named as accused in the FIR. The plea contended that the petitioner was admittedly a minor on the date of incident and got arrested solely because of the fact that her husband was named in the FIR.

It was contended that as per the order of the Juvenile Justice Board, the age of the petitioner on the date of incident was 16 years, 10 months, and 12 days.

Eight policemen were killed by Dubey and his gang members in Kanpur's Bikaru village on the intervening night of July 2-July 3. After this incident, police launched a massive search operation and several of Dubey's gang members were killed in separate encounters, which included the petitioner's husband.

On July 10, Vikas Dubey was killed when a police vehicle carrying him from Ujjain to Kanpur met with an accident and he allegedly tried to escape from the spot.
New Delhi, Sep 15: Kazakhstan is ready to develop business relations with the new government in Afghanistan. This was elucidated by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev at a time when the world is still figuring out how to deal with the Taliban government.

President Tokayev shared his views with a group of envoys who presented their credentials to him last week.

The President said that Kazakhstan wants Afghanistan to become a stable, sovereign, and a united nation that lives in peace with itself and with its neighbours.

Kazakh newspaper The Astana Times quoted Tokayev: "We are ready to establish constructive business contacts with the new authorities, first of all, to solve acute humanitarian problems faced by this country that has suffered for long".

The country has already put these views into action by allowing the UN peacekeeping mission to Kabul to relocate Kazakhstan, reports The Diplomat. The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), has temporarily shifted its staff to Kazakh capital Nur-Sultan in order to carry on with humanitarian work in the war-torn country.

Afghanistan, a landlocked country, does not share its borders with Kazakhstan yet the Kazakh leadership wants to improve its relations with the controversial, an almost pariah government for most of the world barring a handful of nations.

Addressing the issue over the image of the Taliban government, Tokayev said: "I hope the Taliban will prove that they are in fact more moderate and open to negotiations by forming a truly unified, inclusive, and representative national government". He added that in an age of international cooperation, Kabul should not be left behind.

Tokayev is also clear that any instability in its southern neighbour will impact the region in various ways. He had earlier mentioned that the country in its 30th year of independence this year has to strengthen itself against external threats.

The President underscored the importance of cooperation by stressing on how the pandemic has challenged humanity. Tokayev said: "The virus has shown how unprepared countries and the international community are for global emergencies", alluding to the fact that the international community cannot abandon Afghanistan.

(The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com) --indianarrative
New Delhi, Sep 15: Taro Kono-Japan's administrative reform minister, who managed the country's vaccination programme, looks to be headed for the top slot in both - the party as well as the country.

His candidature as the leader for the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), the ruling party, has been backed by none other than Japanese Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, the son of former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

In a report on the Japanese political scene, Nikkei Asia quoted Koizumi as saying: "It's clear who can be the leader to breathe new life into the party and to change both the LDP and Japan".

Speaking with India Narrative, Prof. Baladas Ghoshal-former chairman of the Centre for South and Southeast Asian Studies, JNU, says: "Kono's role in vaccine management has been greatly appreciated which makes him a front-runner for the position in the party and also for the Prime Minister's position".

However, Kono faces opposition from two other party colleagues-former internal affairs minister Sanae Takaichi and policy chief Fumio Kishida. The winner of the party's presidential race will succeed Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, who has announced his decision to not seek another term.

The LDP itself has various factions, not all of whom support Kono. For example, Takaichi has been promised support by none other than former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Ghoshal adds that much will depend on which Japanese politician has greater popularity with the voters in the general elections slated for this November. "Popularity with the electorate is an important factor for the candidates both from the LDP as well as the opposition", he adds.

The right wing is also on the rise in the country, partly due to China's assertion in the region and this will have a bearing on the elections.

Other electoral factors will be perception among the electorate about who will deal better with the coronavirus pandemic.

Even foreign policy and defence matters will influence the Japanese people in their choice of the Prime Minister, says Ghoshal.

(The content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com) --indianarrative
New Delhi, Sep 15 : The EU must swiftly legislate to further protect the rights of activists, journalists and politicians following the Pegasus spyware scandal, and the perpetrators of illegal tapping must be prosecuted, the blocs Justice Commissioner, Didier Reynders, has told the European Parliament, The Guardian reported.

Reynders told the MEPs that the European Commission "totally condemned" the alleged attempts by national security services to illegally access information on political opponents through their phones.

He said: "Any indication that such intrusion of privacy actually occurred needs to be thoroughly investigated and all responsible for a possible breach have to be brought to justice. This is, of course, the responsibility of each and every member state of the EU, and I expect that in the case of Pegasus, the competent authorities will thoroughly examine the allegations and restore trust," the report said.

Reynders said the EU's executive branch is closely following an investigation by Hungary's data protection authority into claims that that the far right government had been among those targeting journalists, media owners and opposition political figures with the invasive Pegasus spyware, the report said.

Reynders said: "Various reports have shown that certain national security services used the Pegasus spyware to have direct access to citizens, equipment, including political opponents and journalists.

"Let me say right at the start that the Commission totally condemns any illegal access to systems or any kind of illegal trapping or interception of community user communications. It's a crime in the whole of the European Union."
Kodagu : , Sep 15 (IANS) The Karnataka Health Department is worried over the Covid situation in the hilly Kodagu, known for wildlife, and scenic beauty and often called the "Scotland of Karnataka" as there is regular movement of people from the district to Bengaluru.

The Health Department has sounded a red alert in the district bordering Kerala, as 19 persons tested positive for Delta AY.4 variant. All precautionary measures have been initiated to contain the infection from spreading to other parts of the state.

The samples of 19 persons were sent to the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) in Bengaluru.

However, District Health Officer, Dr Venkatesh on Wednesday stated that all patients who tested positive for the Delta variant are being treated and safe. Their primary and secondary contacts are being traced and they will also be tested and quarantined, he said. From July till date, a total of 35 persons tested positive for the Delta variant.

In yet another case, 35 persons from the Madikeri Observation home tested positive for Covid. The Observation home has been sealed and swab samples collected from 12 staff members.

The state's positivity rate was 0.5 per cent last week, but with the cases of Covid increasing, it has gone up to 1.84 per cent.

Meanwhile, as many as 953 persons who have got the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine have tested positive this week. Kodagu District Commissioner Charulatha Somal has stated that they were tested as they showed symptoms of Corona infection and now all are recovering.

There are no incidents of persons who have taken two doses of vaccines infected with corona, she said, adding that people should take precautions.

In yet another incident, as many as 50 people tested positive from Bettageri village near Suntikoppa. As a result, two other surrounding villages were also sealed.

The Kodagu district shares borders with Kerala, where the Corona pandemic was rampant, and there was regular movement across state lines. However, the movement has been restricted now.

Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19)
New Delhi, Sep 15 : Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar on Wednesday called for setting up a new coalition of intermediate powers for better global governance.

Addressing a virtual session on "Future of Global Governance and Development Partnerships" at "Leads 2021" organised by FICCI, he said: "India has always been a votary of multilateral fora for global governance. Build new coalitions of intermediate powers for better global governance and rule of international law for better serving the global community." Noting that it is important to create a convergence of approach towards addressing global public goods, he said: "Global leadership has to show urgent and effective commitment backed by action for saving the planet." Rajiv Kumar said that the economic recovery is strengthening and this is the opportune moment for a change in the world order. He emphasised that a new world order will usher in if the global economy remains open and said a new world order will happen only if the openness that has made all successful in the post World War period is maintained.

Pointing that openness is under threat, he said: "We need to put our heads together to ensure a liberalised and multilateral order is put in place." Rajiv Kumar also urged the corporate sector to take the lead in setting the world order post the pandemic. "Governments world over have tried but so far the corporate world has not lent their shoulder to reshape the world order," he said.

Participating in the same session, Rajya Sabha member Vinay Sahasrabuddhe said that global governance and development partnerships should also take into consideration cultural and spiritual development partnerships with equal opportunities to promote sustainable pluralism.
New Delhi, Sep 15 : After Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) supremo Sharad Pawar's jibe at the Congress over the functioning of the party, another NCP leader has now said that being the biggest and oldest opposition party in the country, the Congress must rise to the occasion and save the nation.

NCP leader Majeed Memon said, "Sharad Pawar has appropriately compared the present Congress party to landless zamindars who are power intoxicated. Being the oldest and largest opposition party, it must rise to the occasion to save the nation." In a recent interview, Pawar had compared the Congress to the zamindars in the northern states, who continue to think that they are landlords and have the power to rule, but after the implementation of the Land Ceiling Act, they lost their huge lands making it difficult for them to even maintain their 'havelis'.

"Every morning, they get up looking at the land and boast that the land parcels used to be theirs. The Congress has a similar mindset. They should accept the reality," Pawar had said, pointing at the waning power of the Congress, the presence of which has been reduced to a handful of states.

He had also said that the Congress is the only party with pan-India presence to provide an alternative to the BJP, but it is failing to keep the opposition together.

Pawar's remarks evoked sharp criticism from the Congress, with the party's Maharashtra unit chief Nana Patole claiming that the party will form the government in 2024. He also attacked Pawar for 'betraying' the Congress .
Patna, Sep 15 : An ambulance - donated by BJP MP Rajiv Pratap Rudy for a local body - was seized in Bihar's Saran district on Wednesday after it was found ferrying a large consignment of "country-made" liquor and its driver arrested, police said.

The district police recovered 280 litres of the liquor from the vehicle at Shyam Chak area of Chapra city and arrested driver Rakesh Rai in this connection.

The ambulance was purchased by Rudy with his MPLAD funds and donated to Kotwapatti Rampur panchayat, headed by mukhiya Jay Prakash Singh. During interrogation, the driver said that he was transporting the liquor consignment on the direction of Singh.

"The liquor consignment was loaded at Telpa village in Saran district and the vehicle was on the way to Siwan for delivery. We have been investigating the case to find out who others are involved in the smuggling," said investigating officer R.C. Sharma.

Following the incident, Rudy went to the office of Saran District Magistrate in Chapra and gave a written complaint. He also clarified that he has no role in it.

"The ambulance was given to Kotwapatti Rampur Panchayat and a committee was governing this ambulance. The Panchayat committee comprises Mukhiya Jay Prakash Singh, Panchayat Secretary Arvind Prasad, driver Rakesh Rai and block health officer. These people are the actual operators of the ambulance," Rudy said.

"The ambulance was purchased in 2018-19 and handed over on April 20, 2020 to Kotwapatti Rampur Panchayat to cater to 22,000 people. The panchayat committee is responsible for its operation. As the ambulance was used in smuggling of liquor, they are responsible for it. I appeal to the district administration to conduct a thorough probe in this matter and take strong action against the accused," he added.

Rudy had faced criticism for keeping the ambulances unused during the second wave of coronavirus this year, and this was unearthed by former MP Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav.

After the incident, Pappu Yadav, in a tweet, said: "When I unearthed an ambulance during the second wave of corona I was sent to jail. Now, ambulances are being used for liquor smuggling. Chapra police seized an ambulance which was purchased from the MPLAD fund of Rajiv Pratap Rudy, who is the national spokesperson of BJP and MP of Saran district." "Ambulances may not be available for patients but it is surely available for liquor smuggling," he also tweeted.

Leader of Opposition in Assembly Tejashwi Yadav said: "Nitish Kumar may be claiming that the liquor ban is completely implemented in Bihar but the ground reality is completely different from it. Ambulances purchased under MP fund are being used for liquor smuggling in Chapra...."
New Delhi, Sep 15 : The milestone of vaccinating one crore-plus people in a single day in India was possible only because of the dedication and untiring efforts of the nursing personnel, President Ram Nath Kovind said on Wednesday.

"It was the unrelenting support provided by the nurses, which has helped us in fighting the Covid-19 pandemic. It is only because of their sustained efforts that we have achieved the distinction of vaccinating a sizeable portion of our population. The milestone of vaccinating one crore-plus people in a single day in India was possible only because of their dedication and untiring efforts," Kovind said on the occasion of presentation of the National Florence Nightingale Awards to the nursing personnel at a virtual ceremony.

Noting that one of the awardees lost her life while treating Covid-19 patients, he said, "The nation would always be indebted to her for this sacrifice." He stated that the services and sacrifice of the nurses cannot be evaluated in terms of any pecuniary benefit. Still, the government has acknowledged the contribution of nurses during the pandemic and has launched the 'Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package: Insurance Scheme for Health Workers Fighting COVID-19' to provide a comprehensive personal accident cover of Rs 50 lakh to all healthcare providers.

Pointing to the theme for the International Nurses Day 2021, 'Nurses: A Voice to Lead - A vision for future healthcare', the President said that it brings out the central role of nurses in healthcare delivery systems worldwide.

The government has launched the 'Midwifery Service Initiative' to create a new cadre of midwives. They would be called Nurse Practitioner Midwife (NPM), who would be equipped with the requisite knowledge and competencies. With the help of this initiative, health services would be able to reach the women of the last rung of the society, the President said.

He congratulated all the awardees and expressed hope that they would continue to heal the suffering people and enhance the prestige of this noble profession.
Chennai, Sep 15 : The fans of Rajinikanth have once again proved that they could go to any extent to celebrate the release of the superstar's movie.

On Wednesday, the fans of the star killed a goat and sprinkled its blood on the first look poster of Rajinikanth's new movie "Annaathe". The video of the incident has gone viral on social media.

V.M. Sudhakar, the president of All India Rajinikanth Rasigar Mandram (fans' association), in a statement strongly objected the 'irresponsible' act of the mega star's supporters.

"This is not only regrettable, but also condemnable. We request that nobody should indulge in such obnoxious act," Sudhakar said in the statement.

-- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text
Chennai, Sep 15 : With body of a 14-year-old boy being recovered from a village pond in Tamil Nadu's Thiruvallur district, five days since he went missing, police suspect that he was murdered by his mother's boyfriend.

The deceased has been identified as K. Dhanashekhar from Neduvarambakkam village near Sholavaram in Thiruvallur.

Main suspect Gopalakrishnan, 32 is absconding. Police said that Gopalakrishnan was having an illicit affair with the student's mother Durga, 31 and after coming to know of this, Dhanashekhar informed his father, Kamaraj, a daily wage labourer.

After the boy's revelation, police said that frequent fights took place between the boy's parents.

According to police, Dhanashekhar was taken from his maternal grandparent's place where he was staying on September 9 by Gopalakrishnan to a nearby pond under the pretext of teaching him swimming.

The boy's grandfather P. Govindaswamy informed the police after the boy did not return home that night and attempts to contact Gopalakrishnan went in vain.

On Tuesday the body of the boy surfaced in the temple pond and has been sent to Thiruvallur government hospital for a post-mortem examination.
Aizawl/Guwahati, Sep 15 : The Mizoram Police have sought information on the fake Indian documents which were found with 26 Myanmar nationals, who were arrested in Guwahati on Sunday while going to Delhi, officials said on Wednesday.

In all, 26 Delhi-bound Myanmarese nationals, including 10 women, were arrested on Sunday from a private lodge at Rehabari after they arrived in Guwahati from Mizoram.

Of the 26 Myanmarese nationals, seven are teenagers while the rest are aged between 20 and 28 years.

In a statement, the Assam Police had said the persons from Myanmar's Chin state were headed to Delhi to study Bible (theology). Forged Indian documents, including Aadhaar card, Voter ID etc., all reportdly made in Mizoram, were recovered from their possession.

Mizoram IGP (Headquarters), John Neihlaia, said the Mizoram Police are seeking information on the fake documents created in Mizoram.

"The Assam Police have claimed that the fake documents were made in Mizoram. Hence, we need the information. If these were actually prepared in Mizoram, we can find out the people who are engaged in such forgery activities," Neihlaia said.

He added: "We have previous experience that such fake IDs are made in Manipur, Bengaluru and Delhi. We have not found any fake IDs prepared in Mizoram before." Assam Police have registered a case at the Paltan bazar police station under the relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code, the Foreigners Act, and the Passport Act.

According to officials in Aizawl, around 11,500 Myanmarese nationals have taken refuge in 11 districts of Mizoram, whose six districts share unfenced borders with the neighbouring country, since the military coup there on February 1. Few of them have also crossed over to neighbouring Manipur.
Guwahati, Sep 15 : Acting on a lawyer's complaint, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has sought Action Taken Reports (ATRs), within four weeks, from Assam's Director General of Police on alleged "fake encounters" by the state police since May this year.

A senior police official on Wedesday said that the NHRC's Law Division, in a letter to Assam's Director General of Police Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta, sought the ATRs by October 14.

At least 24 accused have been killed and around 40 others injured since early May when police fired on them as the accused allegedly tried to escape from custody or during operations.

The NHRC's notice, a copy of which was given to the Assam Human Rights Commission (AHRC), comes after a complaint was filed by New Delhi-based lawyer Arif Jwadder about "police encounters to kill many accused persons since May".

The AHRC had, in July, taken suo moto cognisance of these "encounters" on the basis of media reports, and asked the Principal Secretary, Home and Political Department to conduct a probe to find out the facts and circumstances leading to the deaths and injuries of the accused in police firing while reportedly trying to escape from custody, or during raids and operations.

Jwadder had lodged the complaint with the NHRC in mid July, claiming that killing of people in "encounters' has risen in Assam since the BJP-led government under Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma assumed charge in May.

"All the slain and injured accused persons are not militants. As these people are not trained to use firearms, it is very unlikely that they could snatch the service revolvers or arms from the police personnel," the advocate said in his complaint.

According to the police, the first "encounter" between the security forces and "criminals" took place on May 23 when six cadres of the outlawed Dimasa National Liberation Army were gunned down in Karbi Anglong district. Two militants of the United Revolutionary People's Front were gunned down in the second encounter on June 20, also in the same district. On June 23, Bubu Konwar, wanted for several murders and crimes, was shot dead in Sivasagar district while on July 2, Kanwaldeep Singh Sindhu, a railway official turned criminal, was killed in Karbi Anglong district. Cattle smuggler Chaurangi Syni was also killed in Kokrajhar district that day.

Between July 3 and July 11, "encounters" with Assam Police claimed the lives of four "criminals" in Kamrup, Nagaon, Chirang, and Dibrugarh districts while between August 7 and August 23, Assam Police killed a drug peddler, four dacoits, and an arms smuggler in different districts.

Two suspected dacoits were killed on August 28 night in Goalpara district.
September 15 : Its Vicky Kaushal, who is the next Bollywood celebrity to appear on Discovery's adventure show Into The Wild With Bear Grylls. The makers of the show today announced that it is Vicky Kaushal, who is set to be on the next episode of the show along with Ajay Devgn.

Vicky will test his survival instincts along with Ajay in the new season of Discovery Networks' popular reality show Into the Wild with Bear Grylls. The actor will be seen exploring the wild with the world famous adventurer and survivalist Bear Grylls. Vicky will soon head to the Maldives for the shoot. It seems that Ajay Devgn is already in the island nation, as he had shared a picture with his son Yug from Maldives while celebrating his birthday.

The previous seasons that featured Akshay Kumar, Rajnikant, and Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi were overwhelmingly successful. This season, Ajay Devgn and Vicky Kaushal alongside Bear Grylls are set to take up the unprecedented challenges. The new season will first premiere on discovery+ app.

Into The Wild With Bear Grylls is a very popular reality show that showcases survival skills of the celebrities, who step into the wilderness with the British survivalist and adventurer Bear Grylls.

Meanwhile, on the work front, Vicky Kaushal was last seen in the horror film Bhoot  Part One: The Haunted Ship in 2020, produced by Karan Johar. The actor

has several interesting films lined up including Sardar Udham Singh, which will be his first collaboration with Shoojit Sircar. He will be seen playing Sam Manekshaw in Megha Gulzars directorial. Vicky has also collaborated with director Shashank Khaitan for Mr. Lele. He has also wrapped up a film with the Dhoom 3 director Vijay Krishna Acharya. The film also features Manushi Chillar. The actor was prepping for Aditya Dhars film Immortal Ashwatthama, which has been recently put on hold due to budget issues.
New Delhi, Sep 15 : The BJP on Wednesday urged the Election Commission of India (ECI) to deploy a minimum of 90 companies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) for the bypolls to three Assembly constituencies in West Bengal scheduled on September 30.

A BJP delegation submitted a memorandum to the poll panel demanding the deployment of at least 40 companies of CAPF in Bhabanipur from where Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is contesting, and at least 25 companies in each of the other two Assembly constituencies in Samserganj and Jangipur.

BJP national General Secretary Arun Singh, MPs Swapan Dasgupta and Locket Chatterjee, and party leaders Sanjay Mayukh, Om Pathak, Shishir Bajoria and Neeraj signed the memorandum.

"A CAPF deployment of only 15 companies per Assembly constituency has been sent, which is grossly inadequate, especially in Bhabanipur where unelected Chief Minister Banerjee is contesting for survival. The Trinamool Congress has deployed its entire strength of hooligans," the BJP memorandum said.

The BJP claimed that the Trinamool, its office-bearers, ministers and other senior functionaries are now preparing to abuse the state's resources in support of Banerjee.

The BJP also alleged that the officials who were shifted out by the Commission, either for completing three years in a post or for being found unfit for conducting free and fair polls, have been brought back in the three Constituencies by the Trinamool, demanding that they should be immediately transferred out of the Kolkata district.

"Hoardings, posters and banners with photos of Chief Minister Banerjee should immediately be removed from all government and municipal sites from the KMC area," the BJP demanded.

Citing Covid, the BJP urged the ECI that the presence of the agents of the candidates inside the polling booths should be restricted only to the national parties, while all other polling agents should be seated outside the booths.

"Firhad Hakim, a state minister and administrator of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), who is a close confidante and an undeclared election agent of Banerjee, should be debarred from participating in the poll process in any form and be relieved from his charge of KMC until the conclusion of the elections in Bhabanipur, an area falling within the limits of KMC," the BJP further demanded.
September 15 : Hrithik Roshan had shared a post on his Instagram handle this morning, wherein he was seen with his mother Pinky Roshan. Sharing the post, the War actor had captioned it as, On a lazy breakfast date with my mum. Its a good morning. Sunday feels on Wednesday are best. Now go give your mom a hug.

While his post garnered a huge number of likes, some fans were busy noticing the damp on the wall behind the actor.

While the Super 30 actor could be seen busy on his phone as Pinky Roshan preferred to take a look at the view from the balcony, some of the social media users attention went to a patch of dampness on the wall. Twitter users were pleasantly surprised that in the age of choreographed celebrity pictures, the superstar was unmindful about the damp on the wall, which is right in the middle of his candid photo with his mother.

Image Source: Instagram/hrithikroshan Hrithik Roshans fans are amused to see damped wall in his house, actor reacts

Whoever you are in life, seepage is the greatest leveller," wrote one Twitter user. "All Mumbaites saw the seepage...And felt good about their own houses. Mumbai is a great leveller," wrote another.

One user wrote on Instagram, Gaur se dekhie Hrithik Roshan ke ghar me silan (Look closely, theres a damp wall in Hrithik Roshans house). Hrithik was good enough to give an explanation to the user. Filhaal ghar bhi rent par hai. Apna ghar le raha hu bahut jald (Living in a rented apartment right now. I am getting my own house soon). The actor then added, Aur seelan nahi hoga toh seelan ko theek karne ka mazaa kaise aayega bhai? (If there is no dampness, how will we enjoy the process of fixing it?).

Last year, a leading daily had reported that Hrithik Roshan had rented an apartment in Juhu. It was also reported that the actor has bought several apartments and intends to merge them into a mansion. The apartments include a duplex penthouse and a single-storey home, which are located on the 14th, 15th, and 16th floors of a building in the Juhu-Versova Link Road.
New Delhi, Sep 15 : As many as 74 murders were committed by the Maoists while 27 were killed by the terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir and one in Tamil Nadu in 2020, revealed the latest data of the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB).

According to the data, out of the 74 cases of murder by the Maoists, 62 were reported from Chhattisgarh. Similarly, out of the 41 registered cases of loot by the Maoists in 2020, 39 were reported from Chhattisgarh.

A total of 533 cases were registered against Maoists in eight states in 2020, including 296 in Chhattisgarh, 133 in Jharkhand, and 32 in Maharashtra.

Also, of the 172 cases of attempt to murder registered against the Maoists in 2020, 139 were registered in Maharashtra.

Out of the 59 security personnel killed in Maoist violence last year, 55 died in Chhattisgrah alone, followed by three in Maharashtra and one in Jharkhand.

Meanwhile, terrorists killed 27 persons in Jammu and Kashmir in 2020, while one case was reported from Tamil Nadu. A total of 36 attempt to murder cases were reported from Jammu and Kashmir last year, along with one case of kidnapping.
New Delhi, Sep 15 : The Supreme Court on Wednesday said that one of the principal objects of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) is providing for revival of the corporate debtor, and liquidation should be the last resort.

A bench of Justices L. Nageswara Rao, B.R. Gavai and B.V. Nagarathna said: "It could thus be seen that one of the principal objects of the IBC is providing for revival of the corporate debtor and to make it a going concern. Every attempt has to be first made to revive the concern and make it a going concern, liquidation being the last resort." Referring to Section 12A of the IBC, the bench observed that under the provision, the adjudicating authority, the National Company Law Tribunal, is entitled to withdraw the application admitted under Section 7 or Section 9 or Section 10, on an application made by the applicant with the approval of 90 per cent voting share of the Committee of Creditors (CoC).

The court's stand came as it dismissed an appeal filed by a Chennai hotel's ex-employee, aggrieved by the resolution passed by the CoC for withdrawal of corporate insolvency resolution proceedings (CIRP) and challenging the order of the NCLT permitting withdrawal of such CIRP in respect of the corporate debtor (hotel).

In the judgment, the bench said: "It is not in dispute that the resolution of the CoC approving withdrawal of CIRP proceedings was supported by the requisite voting majority. The NCLT, after considering the resolution passed by the CoC in its 8th meeting held on May 25, 2021, has allowed the application filed by K.N. Rajakumar vide order dated June 4, 2021." Citing the NCLT's June 4 order, the bench said it could be seen that the corporate debtor has already settled the issue with the erstwhile financial creditors, who have resolved to withdraw the CIRP proceedings, and by virtue of withdrawal of CIRP proceedings, the corporate debtor now is a going concern.

The bench noted in pursuance of the assurance given before the NCLAT, an amount of Rs 18,50,000 was also paid to the ex-employee D. Ramjee towards arrears of salary by the corporate debtor.

In conclusion, the bench said: "We find that NCLT, vide order dated July 6, 2021, passed in the application filed by D. Ramjee, has rightly held that from the date of the order dated June 4, 2021, after the withdrawal of CIRP proceedings, the powers and management of the corporate debtor were handed over to the directors of the corporate debtor and from that date, resolution professional and CoC in relation to the corporate debtor had become functus officio."
Chennai, Sep 16 : The Madras High Court on Wednesday directed Tamil Nadu's Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Department to issue a public notification calling upon the encroachers of temple properties across the state to voluntarily surrender the lands within a stipulated period of time.

It directed the HR&CE Department to specifically mention in the notification that if the encroachers do not voluntarily surrender the temple properties within the time frame stipulated, criminal proceedings will be taken against them including under the Goondas Act.

Justice S. Subramanian, in the order, said: "The respondent (state government and HR&CE Department and DGP) shall not hesitate to invoke the Goondas Act against such professional land grabbers and persons involved in encroachment and illegal activities in respect of the temple properties at large for personal and unjust gains." He made it clear that action be initiated against the encroachers under the HR&CE Act or the Goondas Act as per the facts of the encroachment concerned.

The court also ordered the constitution of a special cell to retrieve the encroached temple properties.

Justice Subramanian said that only officers with impeccable integrity and devotion to duty be made part of the cell and their number be displayed prominently in all the temples in the state as well as on the notice boards of HR&CE Department offices. This, according to the court, is to ensure that people interested in protecting temple lands can lodge complaints.

Terming fraudulent and illegal encroachment of temple properties a crime against the society at large, he also added that misappropriation of temple funds was also an offence, and all such offenses must be registered and the offenders prosecuted by the state.

He said that the active or passive collaboration of HR&CE officials cannot be overruled and added that such dereliction of duty on the part of public officials is to be viewed seriously and all appropriate action in this regard have to be taken.

The court said that acts of "Fences eating the Crop" should be dealt with sternly. He also said that it was the duty of the courts also to protect and safeguard the properties of religious and charitable institutions from wrongful claims of misappropriation.

Advocate General R.Shanmugasundaram informed the court that HR&CE Department had obtained a order canceling the "Patta" (revenue document on land ownership) with respect to 9,474 acres of land.

He also said that the details of temple properties had also been uploaded by the HR&CE Department website and the Department had engaged 142 surveyors and 50 rover equipment to earmark the boundaries of temple lands.
New Delhi, Sep 16 : Soon Delhiites will not have to visit banks for the hypothecate process for vehicle loans, according to a Delhi government statement issued on Wednesday.

"Directions have been issued to ensure no physical documents will be received regarding hypothecation addition and termination after October 31. Further, we've also clarified that banks or lending institutions will have to submit all the documents and NOC digitally through OTP generated on Aadhaar linked mobile number, and hence do away with any requirement of a physical signature," said a statement quoting Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot, who convened a meeting with all the major banks offering vehicles loans on Wednesday.

"Delhi Transport has gone 'faceless' with an aim to increase transparency and once we have all the banks on board, the process of availing bank loans for vehicles in Delhi will be simpler than ever before," the minister added.

Having partnered with ICICI Bank to allow automatic termination since the launch of faceless services, the Transport Department has received the data of over 7,800 applicants who have loans on vehicles so far.

"From the beginning of November, any applicant who has availed for vehicle loans from any financial institution will not need to visit the bank to physically submit documents. Once the loans are added or paid off, the data will be directly transferred by the bank to the VAHAN database, which will enable the department to verify and approve the HPT service," an official communique stated.

Hypothecation services (HPT), including addition, continuation and termination of hypothecation on vehicle loans, are one of the most availed services of the Transport Department. Since the launch of faceless services on August 11, the national capital has received 7,111 applications for the same.
New Delhi, Sep 16 : Amid the reports of attack at the residence of BJP MP Arjun Singh near Kolkata, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has upgraded his security from Y plus category to Z category, a source in the security set up has said.

Singh has been provided the security cover by the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and Force's personnel have already taken charge of his security, the sources further said.

The BJP leader will be provided the security in West Bengal only, they added.

He was provided with Y plus security by the CISF security since March 2019.

An MP from Barrackpore parliamentary constituency, Singh has now been put under security cover of more than nine armed CISF security personnel at his house round the clock.

A squad of five armed commandos will provide security to the leader while travelling within the the state.

His residence in Jagatdal at Bengal's North 24 Parganas district was attacked by bombs second time within a week on September 14. However, in both the incidents no one was hurt.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Monday has taken over the case.

The BJP MP was not there in the House when the second bomb was hurled at his residence but his family members were there in the house.

Singh was a Trinamool Congress MLA and later just ahead of the Lok Sabha Poll in 2019, he joined BJP and won from the Barrackpore Parliamentary constituency.

The state BJP leaders have alleged that these were handiwork of the Trinamool Congress workers , however the TMC has denied the allegation.
One of our core values at First Onsite is providing a great employee experience. Tina will help us deliver that to our team members across all of our branches around the country. We are excited to have her on our leadership team, stated Jeff Johnson, Global CEO, First Onsite.

First Onsite Property Restoration (First Onsite), one of the largest and fastest-growing emergency response planning, mitigation, and reconstruction service providers for commercial enterprises in North America, congratulates Tina Ballard, SPHR on her new role as Senior Vice President of Human Resources. Ms. Ballard brings 20 years of HR leadership experience to First Onsite. One of our core values at First Onsite is providing a great employee experience. Tina will help us deliver that to our team members across all of our branches around the country. We are excited to have her on our leadership team, stated Jeff Johnson, Global CEO, First Onsite.

As the Senior Vice President of Human Resources, Tina is responsible for the overall leadership, execution, and strategic planning of human resources for First Onsite across North America and abroad. She will oversee the ongoing reorganization of the Human Resources Department, improving recruiting operations, expansion of the HR Business Partner network, and the introduction of resources to address People Development, Total Rewards (compensation & benefits), and Human Resources Technology. Im really excited to join First Onsite. The HR team will evolve to bring a higher level of support through a close working relationship with all relevant internal branches, regions, and corporate functions, while building a world-class HR function that supports our growth in the U.S., Canada and abroad., shared Tina Ballard. She most recently served as Head of Human Resources for Summit Materials; a $2B construction materials company with over 6,000 employees throughout the U.S. and Canada.

About First Onsite

First Onsite is one of the largest and fastest-growing emergency response planning, mitigation and reconstruction service providers for commercial enterprises in North America. First Onsite employs over 2,300 team members and operates from more than 90+ locations across the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico. With a culture focused on harnessing the human power of its team members and a commitment to doing whats right, the First Onsite team helps clients restore, rebuild and rise. First Onsite is a subsidiary of FirstService Corporation. For more information, go to firstonsite.com or follow @firstonsite on Twitter and LinkedIn.
2022 Honda Pilot Black Edition arrives at Santa Maria Honda dealership

Honda Santa Maria is dedicated to selling the latest Honda models to drivers in the Santa Maria region. As the 2022 model year Honda vehicles have gradually started arriving in the US markets over the past few months, many of these are making their way right here at Honda Santa Maria. One of these is the 2022 Honda Pilot Black Edition. This is a special edition trim of the new 2022 model year Pilot SUV.

The 2022 Honda Pilot is a three-row midsize SUV that is available in five different trim levels-

1. EX-L

2. SE (or Special Edition)

3. Touring

4. Elite

5. Black Edition

The EX-L, SE and Touring models have seating capacity of eight people, though second-row captain's chairs  which reduce capacity to seven  are optional on the Touring. The 2022 Honda Pilot comes with a standard 280 HP 3.5L V6 engine paired with a 9-speed automatic transmission. All trims of the new 2022 Honda Pilot come standard with a Honda Sensing suite of safety features that has features like the lane-keeping assist system, collision mitigation braking system, adaptive cruise control, and road departure mitigation system (RDM) made standard.

At the time of this writing, the dealership reports having over ten units of the different trim levels of the 2022 Honda Pilot in their inventory. This includes all the aforementioned trim levels. So, prospective customers in the Santa Maria area are urged to visit the dealerships online inventory and get their SUV home as soon as possible.

Interested shoppers are encouraged to contact the dealership online through their websites chat function, by calling (805)922-4600 or by visiting in-person at 1735 S Bradley Road, Santa Maria, California.
By delivering this family of COM-HPC modules in collaboration with ADLINK, we give these industries new choices for power efficient, high performance SystemReady design.

Summary:



ADLINKs unique 80-core Arm-based COM-HPC server type module sets a new standard ratio for edge performance to power. With up to 80 Arm v8.2 64-bit cores, up to 2.8GHz, and modest power demands at 175W TDP, users can reliably and predictably process compute-intensive workloads

The COM-HPC Ampere Altra is compliant with Arm SystemReady SR, ensuring out-of-the-box support from many standard operating systems, hypervisors, and software

ADLINK has built an ultra-silent liquid cooled tower system based on the COM-HPC Ampere Altra module and its carrier, called the AVA Developer Platform, with 32-core by default. The COM-HPC Ampere Altra module also powers the AVA-AP1, a ruggedized vehicle prototyping platform with 80-core by default, developed in collaboration between ADLINK, Arm, and Ampere

Both platforms host the Scalable Open Architecture for Embedded Edge (SOAFEE), a new software initiative and reference implementation launched today by Arm, providing a cloud-native environment for embedded edge development

ADLINK Technology Inc., a global leader in edge computing, introduces the COM-HPC Ampere Altra, the worlds first 80-core COM-HPC server type module that eliminates power-performance limitations. The new server type module targets edge platforms that reliably and predictably process the most compute intensive workloads, eliminating bottlenecks and restrictions typically caused by memory caches and system memory limits on edge devices. The COM-HPC Ampere Altra core is an Ampere Altra SoC (system on a chip) using the Arm Neoverse N1 architecture, providing premium performance within a relatively modest thermal envelope, lower TCO than x86 designs, and significantly lower power consumption.

The COM-HPC Ampere Altra delivers an unprecedented performance-power ratio of up to 80 Arm v8.2 64-bit cores running at up to 2.8GHz with only 175 watts. The COM-HPC Ampere Altra provides three PCIe Gen4 x16 lanes with a homogenous architecture and valuable compute power for demanding workloads, such as real-time/near real-time applications including autonomous driving, stationery and mobile robotics, medical imaging and robotic surgery, test and measurement, and video broadcasting. In addition, it is excellently suited as a native arm64 development and compilation system for lower power embedded arm64 designs.

Ampere Altra delivers the scalable power and performance necessary to drive a variety of use cases in the embedded development community from autonomous vehicles to medical instrumentation and industrial robotics, said Jeff Wittich, chief product officer of Ampere. By delivering this family of COM-HPC modules in collaboration with ADLINK, we give these industries new choices for power efficient, high performance SystemReady design. These can be applied whether in a vehicle or in the many edge devices out there that have had only x86 options to choose from in the past.

By teaming up with Ampere and Arm and using their Arm Neoverse N1-based Ampere Altra SoC, our high performance-per-watt COM-HPC Ampere Altra architecture allows our strategic partners and customers to process data intensive workloads at the edge without worrying about big upfront investments, hardware overheating, or ongoing maintenance costs, says Alex Wang, ADLINKs product manager of embedded boards and modules.

Ampere Altra is one of the first with Arm SystemReady SR certification; ADLINK is also working closely with Ampere and Arm to certify the COM-HPC Ampere Altra prototype system as a SystemReady SR device. COM-HPC Ampere Altra supports the open source edk2 as bootloader with UEFI. Existing customers can just download a stock aarch64 (arm64) ISO such as Ubuntu and install it through booting a live ISO directly on the target. The same convenience we have become used to by using x86 / amd64 target systems.

COM-HPC Ampere Altra key features:

Arm Neoverse N1-based architecture

Scalable, from 32 to 80 Arm v8.2 64-bit cores (60 to 175 watts)

768GB DDR4 with 6 individual memory channels for demanding workloads

64x PCIe Gen4 lanes

edk2 bootloader with TianoCore / UEFI

Arm SystemReady SR: ready to install stock aarch64 Ubuntu 20.04, Yocto Linux

Gigabit Ethernet support: 4x 10GbE and 1x GbE

SOAFEE-compliant

Hardware reference platforms with the COM-HPC Ampere Altra module at its core

Arm today announced the launch of the Scalable Open Architecture for Embedded Edge (SOAFEE) to accelerate the software-defined future of automotive. SOAFEEs reference hardware platforms are ADLINKs 32-core-default COM-HPC Ampere Altra-powered AVA Developer Platform which will be used by automakers to develop and test on Arm-based silicon, and the 80-core-default COM-HPC Ampere Altra-powered AVA-AP1 for in-vehicle prototyping. Automakers are moving their vehicles from hundreds of simultaneous discrete ECUs, collapsing their in-vehicle compute architecture into a smaller number of powerful domain controllers with computer per major class of function (such as ADAS, infotainment) at first, to eventually one computer running all functions, with mixed criticality on a single powerful Arm SoC.

ADLINK has found Ampere Altra to be the ideal solution for such a development platform for automakers to develop and test while waiting for their next generation IPs from silicon partners, said Joe Speed, Field CTO, ADLINK. The combination of SOAFEE, led by Arm, and ADLINKs COM-HPC Ampere Altra-powered reference platforms brings cloud technologies and best practices for CI/CD, virtualization, and security to the developers desk and vehicles.

Shipping of samples of the prototype system to key ecosystem partners is already in progress. ADLINK is taking pre-orders now. Find more information on the COM-HPC Ampere Altra module here and AVA Developer Platforms support pages here.

About ADLINK Technology

ADLINK Technology Inc. (TAIEX:6166) leads edge computing, the catalyst for a world powered by artificial intelligence. ADLINK manufactures edge hardware and develops edge software for embedded, distributed, and intelligent computing  from powering medical PCs in the intensive care unit to building the worlds first high-speed autonomous race car  more than 1600 customers around the world trust ADLINK for mission-critical success. ADLINK holds top-tier edge partnerships with Intel, NVIDIA, AWS, and SAS, and also participates on the Intel Board of Advisors, ROS 2 Technical Steering Committee and Autoware Foundation Board. ADLINK contributes to open source, robotics, autonomous, IoT and 5G standards initiatives across 24+ consortiums, driving innovation in manufacturing, telecommunications, healthcare, energy, defense, transportation and infotainment. For over 25 years, with 1800+ ADLINKers and 200+ partners, ADLINK enables the technologies of today and tomorrow, advancing technology and society around the world. Follow ADLINK Technology on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook or visit adlinktech.com.
Irene Price, a retired hospice nurse, has completed her new book One So True: a gripping story of lovers who meet while heading to their assignments in the Vietnam War. While their romance blossoms overseas, their future together is put in jeopardy when the chaos of war forces them apart.

Published by Page Publishing, Irene Prices enthralling tale follows Lorraine, a Red Cross nurse, and Tom, a Marine, who are both stationed in Vietnam during the war. Upon their meeting, there are instant sparks between them, and they quickly fall head-over-heels for each other. Their time in Vietnam is spent writing letters to one another and making promises to marry and start a life together the moment they return home. But that resolve is quickly put to the test after a miscommunication separates them just as theyre about to leave.

Readers who wish to experience this mesmerizing work can purchase One So True at bookstores everywhere, or online at the Apple iTunes Store, Amazon, Google Play, or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or media inquiries, contact Page Publishing at 866-315-2708.

About Page Publishing:

Page Publishing is a traditional, full-service publishing house that handles all the intricacies involved in publishing its authors books, including distribution in the worlds largest retail outlets and royalty generation. Page Publishing knows that authors need to be free to create, not mired in logistics like eBook conversion, establishing wholesale accounts, insurance, shipping, taxes, and so on. Pages accomplished writers and publishing professionals allow authors to leave behind these complex and time-consuming issues and focus on their passion: writing and creating. Learn more at http://www.pagepublishing.com.
Michael Kearns, an avid reader of history, mythology, science, science fiction, and fantasy who lives in Rochester Hills, Michigan, has completed his new book Dragon Lord Chronicles: Conspiracy of Kingdoms: a gripping and potent adventure that keeps the pages turning until its dramatic conclusion.

The dragon lord to the five kingdoms has been assassinated, throwing the kingdoms into turmoil.

After young dragon rider Alaric Smithson is relieved of duty, he enters to vie for the position of dragon lord. With his reluctant companion, the seer Cassandra Youngblood, they uncover a conspiracy that could disrupt the Spring Council of the five kingdoms and bring about war.

Together with Alarics father, Adric Smithson, captain of the Palace Guard, and Princess Kari, Cassandras mentor, they race against time to expose the conspirators to prevent the war that is about to be thrust upon them.

Published by Page Publishing, Michael Kearnss engrossing book is a superb choice for any avid fantasy fiction reader.

Readers who wish to experience this engaging work can purchase Dragon Lord Chronicles: Conspiracy of Kingdoms at bookstores everywhere, or online at the Apple iTunes Store, Amazon, Google Play, or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or media inquiries, contact Page Publishing at 866-315-2708.

About Page Publishing:

Page Publishing is a traditional, full-service publishing house that handles all the intricacies involved in publishing its authors books, including distribution in the worlds largest retail outlets and royalty generation. Page Publishing understands that authors should be free to create, not mired in logistics like eBook conversion, establishing wholesale accounts, insurance, shipping, taxes, and so on. Pages accomplished writers and publishing professionals allow authors to leave behind these complex and time-consuming issues and focus on their passion: writing and creating. Learn more at http://www.pagepublishing.com.
A Battle to Walk in Heaven: A Story of Faith Based on True Life Happenings: a gripping tale of unexpected evil and what one man must do to save a soul. A Battle to Walk in Heaven: A Story of Faith Based on True Life Happenings is the creation of published author Blake L. Hillmann.

Hillman shares, Some stories simply need to be written down, like this one for example.

If we were to sit down for a cup of coffee and I started sharing this story with you, soon, your mind would be wonderingwondering why your thoughts keep picturing an ornate wooden wall clock with an animated little bird comically piping up every so often.

But if I hand you this story when we sit down for our coffee, you may open the tale and become intrigued. So much so that you decide to stay for a while. In fact, to compliment your coffee, you order a slice of pie with discussion.

This is a story of a battle between good and evil, heaven and hell. This is one account told of what took place when the powers behind these two worlds collided upon one earthbound soul. And for those who believe, there is seen a glimpse of what is yet to come.

May peace be with you.

Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Blake L. Hillmanns new book is a thought-provoking story of one mans battle against the evils that seek to subvert a life of faith.

Hillmanns tale is one of dangerous temptations and the salvation of grace that will leave readers on the edge of their seats.

View a synopsis of A Battle to Walk in Heaven: A Story of Faith Based on True Life Happenings on YouTube.

Consumers can purchase A Battle to Walk in Heaven: A Story of Faith Based on True Life Happenings at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or inquiries about A Battle to Walk in Heaven: A Story of Faith Based on True Life Happenings, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919.
Cooper Smith, a student at Youngstown State University, participated in the Ohio Department of Development's Ohio Export Internship Program, working at BriskHeat in Columbus, Ohio. The YSU program, in conjunction with the OEIP through the Ohio Department of Development, has been nothing short of fantastic for BriskHeat. Were a proud supporter of the program.

BriskHeat, a leading provider of surface and immersion heating products, controllers, and insulators, has partnered with the Ohio Department of Development on its Ohio Export Internship Program (OEIP) and Youngstown State University (YSU) to bring a student intern on board.

Cooper Smith, a senior majoring in Marketing Management, was matched with BriskHeat through the program. Smith has been working with Craig Wilson, BriskHeats Senior Marketing Manager, on global business initiatives since June of this year.

My experience at BriskHeat has been extremely valuable in helping me gain real-world, hands-on experience and knowledge, said Smith. I'm grateful to YSU and the Ohio Department of Development for offering this program to upcoming graduates like myself. I am very grateful to BriskHeat and my supervisors for helping me advance my career. The skills the program and internship helped me gain will certainly set me apart from other job seekers upon graduation."

Cooper has done such a great job that weve extended his internship through the end of the year, said Wilson. We plan to extend an offer for Cooper to join the company full-time when he graduates in May 2022. The YSU program, in conjunction with the OEIP through the Ohio Department of Development, has been nothing short of fantastic for BriskHeat. Were a proud supporter of the program.

Last month, Smith and other YSU cohort students were honored with a Certificate of Completion by Williamson College of Business Administration at YSU.

The program, created by the Ohio Department of Development and offered at YSU, The Ohio State University, Cleveland State University, and the University of Dayton, matches students with an Ohio company for full-time paid summer internships to work on projects ranging from market research to international business plans. To learn more, visit eip.development.ohio.gov.

In the seven years that YSU has hosted the program, 75 students have completed the program, 14 have received full-time job offers, and 13 have passed the Certified Global Business Professional exam. Each year, students are formed into teams to complete real-life company projects with Ohio Small Business Development Centers (SBDC) Export Assistance Network clients.

About BriskHeat

Since 1949, BriskHeat has provided a full range of surface and immersion heating solutions used for freeze protection, condensation prevention, flow/viscosity control, vacuum bake-out, composite curing, and temperature process control. BriskHeats primary manufacturing facilities and headquarters are in Columbus, Ohio. BriskHeat has a worldwide sales network including sales offices in Taiwan, China, and Germany, as well as a manufacturing facility in Vietnam. In 2017, BriskHeat was named to the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private companies in America. In 2021, BriskHeat became part of NIBE Industrier AB, a global group of manufacturing companies with over 15,000 employees worldwide. Follow BriskHeat on Twitter (@BriskHeat), on Facebook or on LinkedIn.


Inc. 5000 Recognizes Floyd Lee Locums For Floyd Lee Locums, the stakes of 2020 couldnt have been higher. Patients, clinicians, and healthcare facilities across our country were looking for direction and support in unprecedented times as the care industry faced crippling changes.

Inc. magazine revealed that Floyd Lee Locums is No. 925 on its annual Inc. 5000 list, the most prestigious ranking of the nations fastest-growing private companies. The company is the highest-ranking healthcare staffing agency on the list and in the top 5 of all those based in Charleston. The list represents a unique look at the most successful companies within Americas most dynamic segmentits independent small businesses.

Having founded the company four years ago, its humbling to be recognized by the Inc. 5000 in our first year of eligibility, said Floyd Lee Locums CEO Natasha Lee. As a healthcare staffing firm, dedicated to supporting clinicians and healthcare facilities nationwide, we recognize how challenging the pandemic has been for everyone. I am proud of how our team has handled the past 18 months, truly living by our motto: By connecting clinicians to purposeful work, we impact lives.

For Floyd Lee Locums, the stakes of 2020 couldnt have been higher. Patients, clinicians, and healthcare facilities across our country were looking for direction and support in unprecedented times as the care industry faced crippling changes. While other companies and staffing agencies were cutting pay and/or staff internally, Floyd Lee Locums was building their workforce and executive team. Where others took away benefits or furloughed employees, this agency created a model that had consultants available to hospitals 24/7 through weekends and holidays. This dedication to the healthcare industry is reflected in the financial results recognized by the Inc. 5000 list.

According to Inc. magazine, 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 the unprecedented challenges of 2020. 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.

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.

Intuit, Zappos, Under Armour, Microsoft, Patagonia, and many other well-known names gained their first national exposure as honorees on the Inc. 5000. 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 also being featured in the September issue of Inc.

About Floyd Lee Locums

Floyd Lee Locums provides an elite concierge experience to Physicians, Dentists and advanced practice healthcare clinicians in hospitals and healthcare facilities nationwide. Named the 2020 and 2021 Best Staffing Firm to Temp For by Staffing Industry Analysts (SIA), their hands-on approach to delivering best-in-class service, personalized career solutions, and coverage that positively impacts patient outcomes is setting a new standard in the locums industry. http://www.floydleelocums.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.
"There are thousands of successful franchise companies operating in North America, but many of those companies do not offer a solid investment opportunity for the actual franchise owners."

CompuChilds Entrepreneurial STEAM-focused childrens education franchise has bagged several prestigious awards and acknowledgements this year. Firstly, Mirror Review listed CompuChild among "The 10 Reputable Education Franchises to look for in 2021." Secondly, the franchise made it to the Franchise Gators Top Emerging Franchise List, and thirdly, it won the "Top Franchise Business Review for 2021.

Mirror Review recognized CompuChilds potential in enhancing childrens understanding of STEM and STEAM, along with financial awareness, communication, and ethics. These skills combined help develop an entrepreneurial mindset from an early age which is critical to thriving in the rapidly changing modern work and business environment. Talking about its Entrepreneurial STEAM focus, a senior representative of CompuChild said, While the concepts of STEM grounds a childs understanding of technological ideas, the interwoven elements of the arts enable a child to nurture their senses of empathy and ethics so that they can apply their technical skills and innovations for the social good and be responsible citizens. CompuChilds unique take on entrepreneurial education has been received with critical acclaim.

Franchise Gators recognition cements CompuChilds credibility as one of the leading childrens education franchise opportunities. After reviewing hundreds of Franchise Disclosure Documents (FDDs), Franchise Gator looked at unit growth, financials, turnover, awards, and recognized CompuChild as one of the fastest-growing franchises of the year. Not only did CompuChild make Franchise Gator's Top 100 and Fastest-Growing Franchises list, but it was also ranked as the number 35 franchise on the Top Emerging list. Talking about the list, a spokesperson of Franchise Gator said, Weve made this list because were aware that there are many people who are looking for franchising opportunities. We wanted to present them with a list of companies who, according to the information we gathered and their most recent FDDs, look like they are putting all of the right pieces in place.

Building on its achievements, CompuChild was also named a Top Franchise for 2021 by Franchise Business Review (FBR), a leading market research firm serving the franchise sector. FBR performs independent surveys of franchisee satisfaction and provides the only ranking for franchise companies that is based solely on actual franchisee satisfaction and performance. In recognition of the award, FBR acknowledged that the franchises that made this year's list stepped up to provide exceptional support and leadership to lead franchisees through tremendous challenges during the pandemic. Each companys franchisees were surveyed on critical benchmark questions about their experience and satisfaction regarding critical areas of their franchise systems, including training, support, operations, franchisor/franchisee relations, and financial opportunity. There are thousands of successful franchise companies operating in North America, but many of those companies do not offer a solid investment opportunity for the actual franchise owners, said Eric Stites, CEO of Franchise Business Review. As an independent research firm, we rate the franchise companies in the marketplace today and identify those with the highest levels of satisfaction and performance among their franchisees in order to educate potential buyers and help them choose which franchise to invest in. The companies on this years list are the top performing brands in the key areas critical to their franchisees success. Quality and franchisee satisfaction have been the hallmark of CompuChild and the franchise has been enlisted in this prestigious annual Best of the Best list of FBR a total of 12 times as of the year 2021.

CompuChilds team offers an extensive range of comprehensive curricula and teaching guidelines on extremely relevant topics that are often ignored in the traditional education system. While STEM and STEAM are important components of the program, the overarching focus is on entrepreneurship through technology, financial awareness, communication and ethics. CompuChild believes that a child becomes a self-learner once you kindle their interest in learning. All of CompuChilds programs involve multisensory learning through model building, collaboration, presentation and interactive questioning.

Not only does CompuChild have a unique focus and extensive curricula, it is one of the least expensive franchises in childrens education. These franchises can be operated at a low cost since the franchisor trains its franchisees to run their business in a cost-effective manner. CompuChilds franchisees operate on a capital-light business model. From facility selection to software choice, equipment purchases, and even scheduling, are planned meticulously to ensure a low-cost operation. Each course has been purposely designed to be taught in various settings, enabling the franchisees to leverage multiple channels at once. A franchisee could offer enrichment programs at pre-schools, afterschool centers, elementary schools, summer camps, birthday parties and even on-line, providing complete freedom and flexibility for the business owner.

CompuChild uses social media and other digital technologies to train franchisees, reach out to parents and students, advertising, enrollment, and constant internal communication. Talking about this low-cost high-profit franchise opportunity, a senior spokesperson of CompuChild stated, CompuChild's fee for a standard territory is less than $15k, which includes a 16-hour online training that helps franchisees to get started. These low-cost franchises provide a capital-light business model to start and run a successful Entrepreneurial STEAM franchise with liquid cash under $30k.

About COMPUCHILD

The CompuChild franchise offers Entrepreneurial STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) focused enrichment programs for children primarily at the pre-kindergarten and elementary school level in the United States and Canada. With its relentless emphasis on entrepreneurial education, low cost, and regular training for its franchisees, CompuChild strives to be the best childrens education franchise.

CompuChild's enrichment programs help kindle the spirit of constant learning, innovation, critical thinking, and collaboration for the social good at a very young age.
What has been most impressive about the winners is their ability to articulate their business value and partnership potential to the Constellation Academy of Judges who are answering one important question, Would I recommend their offering to my company?.

Constellation Research, Inc. today announced the winners of its inaugural event, The Pitch, a new competition for enterprise startups hosted by Constellation Research to identify the next big player in innovation. The winners were announced at the companys two-day virtual event on September 13 and 14.

To kick off the competition, over 100 enterprise startups from around the world were evaluated. Preliminary qualified applicants submitted 7-minute pitch videos of their latest ideas. The Constellation Academy judges determined finalists in six different categories and invited these companies to a closed room event to be grilled for 90 minutes. Of the 25 finalists, three winners were chosen per category for their innovative solutions, high growth in stakeholder wealth, and transformative business models.

The Pitch applicants represented countries from around the world, including the United States, Canada, Switzerland, Australia, and Israel. The participating startups were diversified between Seed (28%), Pre-Series A (8%), Series A (36%) and Series B (36%) companies.

While all the finalists deserve a look by enterprise tech decision makers, noted R Ray Wang, chairman and founder of Constellation Research. What has been most impressive about the winners is their ability to articulate their business value and partnership potential to the Constellation Academy of Judges who are answering one important question, Would I recommend their offering to my company?.

The Pitch 2021 Winners

Core Tech Infrastructure and Platforms

First place  Horizon3.ai

Second place  Anapaya

Third place  Levyl, Inc

Customer Experience and Commerce

First place  InfluencerActive, Inc.

Second place  Vertical Solutions, Inc. (VSI)

Third place  Centriqe Inc.

Data to Decisions and AI

First place  Varada

Second place  Pratexo

Third place  Delorean Artifical Intelligence, LLC

Fintech

First place  Railz Financial Technologies

Second place  FourQ

Third place  Medici

Future of Work & Employee Experience

First place  Auditoria.AI

Second place  Compa

Third place  Roots Automation

Healthtech

First place  SkedgeAlert, Inc.

Second place  KA Imaging

Third place  mynurse.ai

The Pitch was held as a virtual event this year, but Constellation plans to hold the event in a hybrid format in years to come. For more information, visit https://www.constellationr.com/events/thepitch2021.

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ABOUT CONSTELLATION RESEARCH

Constellation Research is a technology research and advisory firm based in Silicon Valley. We deliver strategic guidance to companies seeking to transform their businesses through the early adoption of disruptive technology. Our analysts draw on their experiences as practitioners to deliver pragmatic advice to CXOs leading digital transformation within their organizations. Clients include board of directors, C-suite executives, line-of-business leaders, and IT visionaries who are not afraid to challenge the status quo. Our mission is to conduct research on emerging technologies, identify and validate trends, and empower our clients to succeed in the digital economy. Constellation Research also hosts DisrupTV, a show hosted by our founder R Ray Wang, which features disruptive leaders and reaches 40k+ viewers each week.
Change the way you travel with Copolo We are thrilled to help travelers access the best travel options worldwide. By partnering with CHOOOSE, we can make a meaningful difference while allowing travelers the opportunity to offset the carbon emissions produced from their journey.

Copolo valiantly enters the US travel market as an online travel agency acting as a simple one-stop site for travelers to plan and book their trip including airline tickets, hotel reservations, car rentals, and more. In an effort to counterbalance the environmental impact of travel, travelers who book using Copolos site have the option to offset the carbon emissions produced from their trip. By partnering with CHOOOSE, a climate-focused technology company in Oslo, Norway, consumers can easily manage and offset carbon emissions created by their travels.

Inspired by Marco Polo, the world-famous writer, traveler, and explorer, the name Copolo serves as a symbol of the companys mission. By working toward small changes collaboratively, the goal is to start building a better tomorrow by offering more sustainable travel solutions.

We are thrilled to help travelers access the best travel options worldwide, says Hideo Hatano, Executive Officer / H.I.S. Co., Ltd. We will continue investing in the most sophisticated systems to maintain our pursuit of excellence and building a better tomorrow. By partnering with CHOOOSE, we can make a meaningful difference while allowing travelers the opportunity to offset the carbon emissions produced from their journey.

With the cutting-edge technology used on Copolos booking platform, travelers who offset their journey will receive a certificate recognizing that their travel footprint has been climate compensated. Copolo will also provide a post-purchase experience to empower its travelers to claim, track, and engage with the impact they create, allowing for complete transparency.

"We are delighted to team up with Copolo to build travel back better together by enabling global travelers to offset their carbon footprint as an integrated part of the customer journey. Furthermore, developing innovative climate solutions in partnership with Copolo will help scale climate action globally, and their commitment will be a solid contribution to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, says Andreas Slettvoll, CEO and Founder of CHOOOSE.

In future phases of Copolo, more travel styles will be available for booking and continued innovations will be developed toward providing the most holistic OTA experience on the market. For more information, please visit http://www.copolo.com.

About Copolo

Copolo is changing the way people travel by making carbon offsetting available for all of its travelers. As a new online travel provider in the US market, they aim to create more opportunities for people to make a difference with their purchases. A division of H.I.S. Co., Ltd., Copolo is part of one of the most established and innovative travel companies worldwide. H.I.S. Group is based in Tokyo, Japan and has 333 branches in 62 countries across the globe. They have been active in the US for over 30 years, with offices in New York, Texas, Michigan, Nevada, California, and Hawaii. H.I.S. Group/Copolo become the first Japanese travel company to incorporate a seamless climate solution as an integrated part of its platform.

About CHOOOSE

CHOOOSE is a leader in technology-based climate action based in Oslo, Norway. CHOOOSE builds digital tools so everyone, anywhere, can easily integrate climate action into everyday life and business. Together with its ecosystem of industry partners and individual supporters, the CHOOOSE platform is accelerating access and adoption of climate solutions across a range of key technologies  from nature-based solutions to carbon removal to Sustainable Aviation Fuel. Learn more at http://www.chooose.today.
Costilla County joins the Rocky Mountain E-Purchasing System Costilla County invites all potential vendors to register online.

Costilla County has officially joined the Rocky Mountain E-Purchasing System, one of bidnet directs regional e-procurement solutions, providing vendors throughout Colorado and Wyoming easy online access to its upcoming solicitations. Costilla County invites all vendors to register online at http://www.bidnetdirect.com/colorado.

The regional purchasing group connects local governments with vendors looking to do business with public agencies. On the Rocky Mountain E-Purchasing System, vendors seeking business with nearly 320 participating agencies can register online to gain access to a single point of entry for opportunities throughout Colorado and Wyoming. By posting upcoming bids and RFPs on the Rocky Mountain E-Purchasing System, Costilla County ensures an entire community of vendors can view their solicitation, download documents, and receive notification of addenda. The vendors self-register and ensure their contact information is up to date.

Because we arent the only local government posting and distributing bids, the Rocky Mountain E-Purchasing System provides Costilla County more vendor competition, which we hope will help cut costs, said Ben Doon, County Administrator, when asked why their organization decided to join the Rocky Mountain E-Purchasing System. We also like that it can help our current vendors expand their business opportunities.

The Costilla County invites all local vendors to visit http://www.bidnetdirect.com/colorado and register to receive access to its upcoming solicitations as well as the upcoming bids and RFPs from 318 other public agencies participating on the Rocky Mountain E-Purchasing System. Registered vendors have the option to upgrade their service to receive customized bid alerts, notification of term contract expiration, and notification of a real-time addendum.

About Costilla County:

Costilla County has a recorded history dating back to 1540, the year Coronado explored the Southwest. The area was originally settled as part of a Mexican Land Grant and it is home to the oldest town in Colorado, San Luis. Costilla County has two incorporated towns and several smaller communities. The towns of San Luis and Blanca are incorporated while Fort Garland is one of the countys larger towns though not incorporated. Chama, San Pedro, Los Fuertes, Garcia, Jaroso, San Francisco, San Acacio, and Mesita, are smaller communities, all of which were established shortly after the town of San Luis in 1851.

About bidnet direct:

bidnet direct, powered by mdf commerce, is a sourcing solution of regional purchasing groups available at no cost to local government agencies throughout the country. bidnet direct runs regional purchasing groups, including the Rocky Mountain E-Purchasing System, across all 50 states that are used by over 1,600 local governments. To learn more and have your government agency gain better transparency and efficiency in purchasing, please visit https://www.bidnetdirect.com/buyers
Providing clients with ASTM 4169 testing under our FDA regulated, cGMP quality systems enables CS Analytical to be a one stop provider for all routine and ancillary qualification requirements that the regulatory agencies have come to expect for all container and package systems.

CS Analytical Laboratory, the worlds only cGMP, FDA-registered and inspected contract laboratory exclusively designed and dedicated to container testing for the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device industries, is pleased to announce that it has expanded its service offering to include ASTM 4169 Standard Practice For Performance Testing Of Shipping Containers And Systems and other relevant ISTA (International Safe Transit Association) test procedures. CS Analytical has worked exclusively with Lansmont Corporation, the worlds largest provider of state-of-the-art measurement, testing and monitoring equipment. The suite of Lansmont equipment that has been acquired, installed, and qualified includes:



The Model 1800 Vibration Test System that features a 48 by 48 inch table, a rugged hydraulic actuator, a reliable hydraulic power supply, and Lansmonts TouchTest Vibration Controller that completely integrates the test hardware, operating controls, data analysis and reporting functions. The system can perform random vibration, Field-to-Lab simulations, resonance search and dwell, sine sweep and repetitive bounce tests all under closed loop computerized control.

The Lansmont PDT Drop Tester that features an electric hoist to raise and lower the drop leaf assembly and provides infinitely variable drop heights. The standard drop height range is 12 in. (30.5 cm) to 72 in. (183 cm). The system can handle test items weighing up to 177 lbs. (80 kg and is operated by a handheld controller and also includes an optional footswitch.

The Compression Squeezer is designed to evaluate box strength and perform distribution simulation compression tests. The system has a platen size that is 30 in. (76 cm) square with a maximum opening of 48 in. (122 cm) and a maximum force capability to 5000 lbs. (22.2 kN).

Commented CEO Brian Mulhall, Providing clients with ASTM 4169 testing under our FDA regulated, cGMP quality systems enables CS Analytical to be a one stop provider for all routine and ancillary qualification requirements that the regulatory agencies have come to expect for all container and package systems. Our team has a lot of experience with package distribution testing for pharma and medical device products that will surely benefit all of the clients.

Added Eric Joneson, Vice President of Technology for Lansmont Corporation,  We have a long history of working with Brian and his team at CS Analytical and we are excited to support them in this new service offering. The prevalence of distribution testing in the FDA regulated environment only continues to expand and we are always happy to see our instruments being used to ensure product integrity and safety for the end user patients.

For more than 50 years, Lansmont has been providing state of the art engineering services, manufacturing and test and measurement products specifically targeted to the package distribution testing marketplace. They are the leaders when it comes to developing, installing, qualifying and using complex systems specifically designed to test a wide variety of package systems withing the distribution lifecycle. Lansmont helps engineers design stronger, more durable products and packages that can survive the rigors of the real world by measuring hazards before putting products at risk.

As part of its dedicated Comprehensive and Complimentary Servicing offering, the ASTM 4169 Distribution testing capabilities, in conjunction with other unique CS Analytical serving offerings like USP 1207 integrity testing, enable CS Analytical to meet a wide variety of regulatory and client specific qualification requirements across of broad spectrum of container and package types.

About CS Analytical Laboratory

The worlds only cGMP, FDA-registered contract laboratory exclusively designed and dedicated to container testing for the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device industries, the CS Analytical Team includes world-leading experts and thought-leaders on FDA and EU regulatory expectations and USP and EP primary package testing requirements inclusive of container closure integrity (CCI) testing (CCIT). Test services include CCI method development, validation, and analysis, USP/EP/JP physical and physicochemical testing, and Comprehensive and Complementary services for all common or unique primary packaging components and systems inclusive of glass, plastic, elastomeric, and more. CS Analytical is the single source to ensure a regulated industry product-package system meets strict, complex, and ever-changing regulatory requirements.

About Lansmont Corporation

Headquartered in Monterey, California, Lansmont Corporation provides state-of-the-art technology to the worlds leading companies, government laboratories and educational institutions. Since 1971, engineers around the world have relied on Lansmont technology to discover product vulnerabilities and eliminate unknowns, and ultimately find the perfect balance between a products intended environment and its durability. In turn, Lansmont customers reduce damage and improve quality while supporting sustainability. Lansmont also maintains an office in Shanghai, China, offering strategically positioned regional Sales and Customer Support.


Decision Logic Reaches Key Cisco Cybersecurity Milestone Im incredibly proud of our long-standing partnership with Cisco, and this is further commitment to that partnership and to the customers who rely on us for the success and security of their restaurant concepts.

Decision Logic has reached a major benchmark in its ongoing partnership with Cisco.

The company, one of the nations leading providers of back-office management software for restaurants, has been certified as a Cisco Select Integrator in the United States. In reaching this key milestone in their cybersecurity journey, Decision Logic has proven that it has the personnel, specialization, and support infrastructure necessary to help clients make the most of their Cisco-supported products.

Cisco Digital Solutions Integrators (DSIs) are trusted DevOps advisors who customize Cisco APIs and deliver advanced services to provide customers with an unmatched digital experience.

This is something our team worked hard to achieve, said Mandi Wooledge, president and Chief Operating Officer of Decision Logic. Our customers deserve to know that, no matter their integrations or their operations, their data is protected with Decision Logic and Logic Shield. Im incredibly proud of our long-standing partnership with Cisco, and this is further commitment to that partnership and to the customers who rely on us for the success and security of their restaurant concepts.

The Logic Shield PCI compliance solution specifically benefits from this partnership. Decision Logic offers restaurants and retailers the Logic Shield as a boon to their cybersecurity and consumer data protection.

As a Cisco Meraki PCI Compliance partner, Decision Logic is able to take advantage of the best wireless and network security provider in the industry on behalf of customers. Cisco Meraki and Logic Shield provide an unmatched degree of protection to businesses, with Decision Logic adhering to a certification process that is notably difficult and requires intensive security knowledge and products and solutions that are up to date with the latest advancements in PCI protection.

Click here for more information on working with Decision Logic for a Cisco-backed approach to data security at your restaurant concept, one that identifies problems before they develop.

About Decision Logic

Designed for fast-growing restaurant concepts with multiple locations, Decision Logic is a back-office management platform built for restaurateurs by restaurateurs. The Decision Logic solution features labor scheduling, a mobile management app, sales reporting, PCI security, and more, plus an industry-leading inventory and ordering tool thats been proven to reduce inventory costs and address waste variance down to the ingredient level. Decision Logic currently serves more than 50 brands and over 2,000 locations, saving operators nearly $40 million in food labor costs every year. To learn more, visit decisionlogic.co.
No...I Wont Go There: When We Understand Who We Are in Christ We Will Not Allow Our Mind to Fulfill the Temptation to Sin: a potent statement dealing with temptation in the Christian life. No...I Wont Go There is the creation of published author Donald H. Ledbetter, who has served in several ministries over a dedicated sixty-year career. He carries three degrees: a Bachelor of Arts (1959), a Master of Divinity (1962), and a Doctor of Theology (1975).

Dr. Ledbetter shares, In this writing, we have considered how Jesus set the pattern for our early Christian faith in the Great Commission and how a spiritual battle can be expected as we learn to overcome the old sin nature. We learn that the baptism by the Holy Spirit occurs when the Holy Spirit immerses the new believer spiritually into the death of Jesus on the cross. As the new believer surrenders to the indwelling Christ, the filling of the Holy Spirit is experienced. However, when we sin against the Holy Spirit by lying to, grieving, or quenching Him, our fellowship with Jesus is broken and must be restored by confessing our sin. Because we have the power of the resurrected Christ living in us, we begin our new life in Christ from the position of victory, seated together with Jesus in heavenly places. Even though we have this position of victory, we are tempted by the old sin nature, but a way of escape is provided by our saying, No, I wont go there, to the temptation. Through this journey we learn to surrender our all to Jesus so He becomes our life as we live each day here on this earth. When we do this, Jesus lives His life through ours.

It is my earnest prayer this book will enable us to understand how much God loves us and who we have become in Christ. Because of who Christ is in us through the Holy Spirit, we have the authority to say no to the temptation of sin. When Jesus is our life we live with joy, peace, and victory in our hearts, whatever the circumstances of life may be.

Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Donald H. Ledbetter, Th.D.s new book is a thoughtful look into the authors teachings on living a godly life for Christ.

The author writes in hopes of encouraging and inspiring those who may not know what path to take to truly have Jesus within their life.

View a synopsis of No...I Wont Go There: When We Understand Who We Are in Christ We Will Not Allow Our Mind to Fulfill the Temptation to Sin on YouTube.

Consumers can purchase No...I Wont Go There: When We Understand Who We Are in Christ We Will Not Allow Our Mind to Fulfill the Temptation to Sin at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or inquiries about No...I Wont Go There: When We Understand Who We Are in Christ We Will Not Allow Our Mind to Fulfill the Temptation to Sin, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919.
DuPont has the expertise, technical capabilities and range of solutions to help our customers meet their toughest challenges, and our new COEs are perfect for inspiration and collaboration. said Kara Grasso, Global Strategy Director, Advanced Mobility, DuPont Mobility & Materials

DuPont Mobility & Materials is proud to announce the opening of three global Centers of Excellence (COE) to accelerate the development and testing of new applications for automotive electrification. Dedicated resources focused on vehicle electrification will allow fast application development to help validate new concepts in shorter timeframes versus complete programs. These COEs will enable DuPont experts to accelerate assessment of reliability, performance, cost optimization and time-to-market, as well as focus on drivers for consumer adoption such as fast charging and improved range and safety.

More than two thirds of the global vehicle market is expected to be electrified to some degree by 2030. OEMs and suppliers must rise to the challenge to provide more sustainable and advanced vehicle solutions that dont compromise on performance or safety, said Kara Grasso, Global Strategy Director, Advanced Mobility, DuPont Mobility & Materials. DuPont has the expertise, technical capabilities and range of solutions to help our customers meet their toughest challenges, and our new COEs are perfect for inspiration and collaboration.

DuPont COEs will focus on three key areas crucial to driving EV technology forward  battery safety, thermal management, and e-powertrain efficiency. Each COE will have dedicated personnel and equipment to accelerate the development and adoption of new technologies as follows:

Battery Safety  Geneva, Switzerland and Shanghai, China

Objectives: helping meet safety requirements while increasing energy density, fast-charging endurance, and cost optimization.

Thermal Management  Geneva and Freienbach, Switzerland

Objectives: improving fast-charging speed, cold-weather performance, and battery reliability  all at a controlled cost.

E-powertrain Efficiency  Geneva, Switzerland

Objectives: Optimizing power electronics, e-motor efficiency, and energy/packing density while maintaining reliability at the highest levels.

To meet growing demand in all regions, including the USA, there is global interaction between the COEs and other DuPont technical and R&D centers worldwide, including the new Innovation Center in Auburn Hills, Michigan. The COEs have pilot-scale capabilities and use the same methodologies as OEMs and Tiers including:



Processing equipment to make parts and prototypes (molding, extrusion, assembly)

Ideation enhanced by VR, 3D printing and machining capabilities

Application testing (electrical, safety, thermal, mechanical)

Module-scale performance testing

Analytical lab (tomography, thermal conductivity, electrical properties)

Advanced simulation tools for design and correlation analysis (CAE/CAD)

Scale-up pilot plant capability

The new COEs are open, and work is progressing in all key areas. We welcome our customers to dEVelop with DuPont and contact us to accelerate the conversation.

About DuPont Mobility & Materials

DuPont Mobility& Materials (M&M) delivers a broad range of technology-based products and solutions to the automotive, electronics, industrial, consumer, medical, photovoltaic and telecom markets. DuPont M&M partners with customers to drive innovation by utilizing its expertise and knowledge in polymer and materials science. DuPont M&M works with customers throughout the value chain to enable material systems solutions for demanding applications and environments. For additional information about DuPont Mobility & Materials, visit https://www.dupont.com/mobility.

About DuPont

DuPont (NYSE: DD) is a global innovation leader with technology-based materials and solutions that help transform industries and everyday life. Our employees apply diverse science and expertise to help customers advance their best ideas and deliver essential innovations in key markets including electronics, transportation, construction, water, healthcare, and worker safety. More information about the company, its businesses and solutions can be found at http://www.dupont.com. Investors can access information included on the Investor Relations section of the website at investors.dupont.com.

# # #

DuPont, the DuPont Oval Logo, and all trademarks and service marks denoted with ,  or  are owned by affiliates of DuPont de Nemours, Inc. unless otherwise noted.  2021 DuPont.

9/15/21
eCapital Corp. (eCapital), a leading alternative finance provider in North America to small and medium-sized businesses, today announced that it has named Amanda Rudd as SVP, director of business development for its Freight Factoring Division. Rudd brings more than 13 years of expertise providing accounts receivable financing to small and large trucking companies and freight brokers.

In this role, Rudd will be responsible for building a dynamic team of individuals across North America, focused on developing strategic partnerships and structuring of financing for transportation companies.

Rudd was previously senior group manager for a large freight factoring company and worked for Bibby Financial Services and Bibby Transportation Finance, which were both acquired by eCapital in 2020.

Amanda comes to eCapital with a wealth of transportation expertise, and we are thrilled to have her on the team, said James Poston, CPA, CMA, Chief Sales Officer of eCapital. I know she will be instrumental in driving our continued growth for the Freight Factoring Division.

About eCapital Corp.

eCapital Corp. is committed to supporting small and middle-market companies in the United States, Canada and the UK by accelerating their access to capital through alternative financing solutions like invoice factoring, factoring lines of credit and asset-based lending. Through its Commercial Finance and Freight Factoring divisions and its portfolio companies Advantedge Commercial Finance Ltd. and Gerber Finance, Inc., eCapital offers alternative finance solutions to a broad set of industries. Based in Miami, Florida, eCapital is an innovative leader in providing flexible, customized funding to businesses. For more information about eCapital, visit eCapital.com.
"We applaud Johns Hopkins Health System for its commitment to sustainability and powering its operations with renewable energy," said Ryan Warren, chief commercial officer of LevelTen Energy. "This deal proves that power purchase agreements are no longer limited to large technology companies."

Energix, a leading renewable energy project developer and long-term owner, today announced a power purchase agreement (PPA) with The Johns Hopkins Health System Corporation (JHHS), one of the driving forces in U.S education, research and clinical care excellence. The agreement, which involves the purchase of 13 megawatts of solar energy and was facilitated by LevelTen Energy, the leading provider of renewable transaction infrastructure, was entered into in connection with the construction of the Hollyfield II solar project, which became operational in July 2021.

The Hollyfield II project, located in King William County, Virginia, will produce enough electricity to power the equivalent of 1,600 homes annually, avoiding 18,743 tons of greenhouse gas emissions each year.

We applaud Johns Hopkins Health System for its commitment to sustainability and powering its operations with renewable energy, said Ryan Warren, chief commercial officer of LevelTen Energy. This deal proves that power purchase agreements are no longer limited to large technology companies; thanks to the LevelTen Energy Marketplace, organizations with lower energy demands can now quickly find a PPA that meets their needs.

Energixs Senior Vice President of Business Development Mr. Itamar Sarussi added, At Energix, we are committed to a better future on our planet. It is why we are especially honored to be able to provide clean energy to an important institution like Johns Hopkins Medicine, and we commend Johns Hopkins commitment to renewable energy. I also want to thank LevelTen Energy for their role in facilitating this transaction, allowing us to provide more critically needed clean energy.

This is Johns Hopkins Health Systems second investment in solar energy. In 2016, Johns Hopkins negotiated a 20-year lease with SolarCity for 13.6 megawatts of solar power. The resulting solar project comprises more than 40,000 solar panels across a 97-acre plot of land in Wye Mills, Maryland.

About LevelTen Energy

LevelTen Energy is the leading provider of renewable transaction infrastructure for the energy transition. LevelTen delivers the cloud-based software, centralized supply, automated analytics, and expertise required to accelerate clean energy transactions. The LevelTen Platform is the worlds largest online hub for renewable energy buyers, sellers, advisors, asset owners and financiers. The Platform includes the LevelTen Energy Marketplace, which delivers access to more than 4,000 power purchase agreement price offers spanning 21 countries in North America and Europe. It also includes the LevelTen Asset Marketplace, which brings together over 470 renewable energy project developers and owners, and delivers the online tools and expertise they need to buy, sell and finance assets quickly. Together, LevelTen and its partners share #OneGoal to accelerate the clean energy transition. Visit LevelTenEnergy.com to learn more.

About Energix Renewables

Energix is a leading utility-scale solar developers and long-term project owners. It is the subsidiary of Energix - Renewable Energies Ltd., a publicly traded Israeli corporation with numerous wind and solar projects in Israel, Poland and the U.S. Headquartered in Arlington, VA, Energix leverages its financial strength and extensive industry experience to build sustainable renewable energy projects that generate revenue for localities, deliver reliable electricity to customers, protect the environment, and provide financial security to its landowner partners. Energix has seven projects currently operating in Virginia with a total capacity of more than 170 MW, 500MW in construction/preconstruction, and more than 3GW in development.
Certification aligns with our core values of integrity, teamwork, excellence, and diversity. At Eriksen, we work to foster community across different languages and cultures, and we are proud to serve clients who acknowledge that diversity is key to business success!

Eriksen Translations Inc. (eriksen.com), a leading language service provider, is proud to announce that it has been recertified as a Woman-Owned Business Enterprise (WBE) by the Womens Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) and the New York City Department of Small Business Services.

WBENC CERTIFIED

Remaining independent and woman owned has guided Eriksen Translations trajectory since the companys founding in 1986. Eriksen first obtained WBENC certification in 2001 and quickly became a valuable partner to organizations seeking to build relationships with diverse suppliers. The company supports leaders in the financial services sector, delivering the multilingual solutions global companies need to service diverse client bases and support international workforces. Eriksen also partners with nonprofits, cultural institutions, creative firms, and other organizations that hold diversity and inclusion among their core values.

LANGUAGE SERVICES FOR THE PUBLIC SECTOR

Eriksen serves New York City and State agencies by providing language services to support New Yorkers with limited English proficiency. Both the City and State are committed to promoting equitable access to economic opportunities for minority- and women-owned businesses and eliminating barriers to their participation in contracting. Eriksen was first awarded certification by New York City in 2003, followed quickly by New York State certification in 2004. Today the company serves as a language partner to agencies including the NYC Mayors Office of Immigrant Affairs, the NYC Comptrollers Office, the NYC Commission on Human Rights, the NYC Department of Sanitation, and the NYS Department of Health.

INDEPENDENTLY WOMAN OWNED AND OPERATED

Im proud to remain 100% independently woman owned and operated, said Vigdis Eriksen, Founder and CEO of Eriksen Translations. Certification aligns with our core values of integrity, teamwork, excellence, and diversity. At Eriksen, we work to foster community across different languages and cultures, and we are proud to serve clients who acknowledge that diversity is key to business success!

WBENC CERTIFICATION

WBENC Certification is the most widely recognized and respected national certification for women-owned businesses in the U.S. Accepted as the standard by corporate America, WBENC certification validates that a business is at least 51% owned, controlled, operated, and managed by a woman or women. WBENC-certified WBEs also receive support from other female business owners and like-minded professionals, all of whom are dedicated to the growth and success of women-owned businesses.

NEW YORK CITY CERTIFICATION

The City of New York Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprise (M/WBE) Program expands opportunities for minority and women entrepreneurs to access government contracts and grow their businesses. Established through the enactment of Local Law 129 in 2005, the program strives to promote fairness and equity by enabling M/WBEs to improve their capacity, connect to opportunities, and positively contribute to the local economy.

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ABOUT ERIKSEN TRANSLATIONS INC.

Eriksen Translations delivers best-in-class multilingual services in 100+ languages. Founded in downtown Brooklyn in 1986, Eriksen supports clients worldwide with a full range of services, including translation, typesetting, web and multimedia localization, transcreation, transcription, voiceover and subtitling, live Zoom captioning, and interpreting. Eriksen is certified as a woman-owned business enterprise (WBE) by the Women's Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) and the City and State of New York. For more information, visit eriksen.com / @eriksentrans.
We will celebrate the evolution of the Garagiste Festival - and how it has amplified garagiste winemakers and the garagiste movement

The Garagiste Wine Festival, which launched in November 2011, returns to its birthplace of Paso Robles to celebrate its 10th anniversary with three days of events, including the tasting of wines from over 50 small production wineries from California; an exclusive seminar with Tablas Creek Vineyards Jason Haas on the past and future of Paso Robles wines, the popular Keep It Rockin After Party, and a special event at Atascaderos Pavilion on the Lake that recognizes 10 of the Paso OGs (Original Garagistes), along with Rare and Reserve pourings from 2021 festival winemakers. Tickets are on sale now at https://www.my805tix.com/e/10th-annual-paso-garagiste-wine-festival.

We are excited to return to Paso Robles and Atascadero with what we believe will be our best festival ever, said Doug Minnick, Garagiste Festival Co-founder. We will celebrate the evolution of the Garagiste Festival - and how it has amplified garagiste winemakers and the garagiste movement  as well as the evolution of our birthplace and touchstone, Paso Robles, through a special seminar with Jason Haas of Pasos Tablas Creek, the iconic winery that almost singlehandedly popularized Rhone varieties in America. But, most of all, we will celebrate reconnecting with our fantastic Garagiste Festival attendees as we introduce them to another exciting group of innovative, micro-production winemakers.

The Garagiste Festival is the nations first and only festival to showcase the wines of micro-production commercial garagiste* winemakers. Dubbed tasting nirvana, strange and wondrous, and one not to miss by the LA Times, the Garagiste Festival is renowned for its renegade spirit, passionate winemakers, handcrafted wines, rules-breaking, no snobs allowed ethos and just have fun approach. The Garagiste Festival features the wines of commercial garagiste winemakers across California, who make under 1500 cases annually. Since inception, the festivals, which include Solvang, Sonoma, Los Angeles and Paso Robles, have showcased over 450 different wineries and over 4,000 wines to over 12,000 wine lovers.

There's no doubting the last 18 months have been challenging for all of us. What has always been at the core of the Paso Robles wine region, and by virtue garagiste winemakers, is the ability to adapt and innovate, said Stewart McLennan, Garagiste Festival Co-founder. It's going to be truly special to have the opportunity to celebrate and enjoy Paso and its garagistes once again.

At this years festival, we will explore what is next for Paso wine, pay tribute to our OGs, who are proof that renegade winemaking dreams can turn into big success  all while showcasing over 50+ winemakers whose wines demonstrate that not even a pandemic can keep garagistes from producing some of the best and most innovative wines our industry has to offer, concluded McLennan.

The Garagiste Festival 2021 Line-Up

The Paso Robles Garagiste Festival gathers together undiscovered artisan garagiste winemakers who are making some of the best, most exciting, handcrafted small-lot wines in the world - all in one location. You'll never find their wines in supermarkets - and you'll never find them all in one place like this. Discover the biggest "small" thing happening in the world of wine through three days of exciting events:

Rare and Reserve plus 10 OGs! Friday November 12th - 6:30-9:30pm

Tenth Anniversary festivities kick off Friday evening with Rare and Reserve  No Repeats at the charming Pavilion on the Lake, in Atascadero. The tasting features over 30 of the rarest wines and barrel samples the 2021 Paso Garagistes have to offer (wines that will not be poured at the Grand Tasting) - - along with a Spanish-themed buffet from Trumpet Vine Catering. The event will also feature a tribute to 10 of the festivals Original Garagistes - wineries who poured at the early years of the Festivals who have gone on to even larger success - including special tastings of their signature wines.

Tasting Seminar - The Past and Future of Paso Robles: In Depth with Jason Haas* November 13th - 11:00am-12:30pm -- Paso Robles Event Center

Saturday begins with an exclusive tasting seminar with Jason Haas, second generation proprietor of pioneering Tablas Creek Vineyard, which was founded in 1989 by the Perrin and Haas families in what would become the Paso Robles Adelaida District. In addition to their delicious wines, Tablas Creek is renowned for importing 19 different grape varieties into the United States and making them available to the broader community through their grapevine nursery. In this seminar, Jason will take attendees through Tablas Creeks journey from an idea between friends to the search for the perfect spot to create its famous grapevine nursery, vineyard, and winery. He will also share his insights into what the future of the Paso Robles wine region holds. The seminar will include tastings of some of Tablas Creeks rarest varietal bottlings, as well as the new vintage of the Esprit de Tablas.

*Only available with VIP Ticket or Weekend Pass

The Main Event  The Grand Tasting - Saturday November 13th  2:00pm  5:00pm, Paso Robles Event Center

Discover your favorite (and new favorite!) small production wineries from among the over 50 winemakers who will be pouring over 200 different wines. The day includes unlimited tastes, complimentary cheese and charcuterie, artisan food samples and a souvenir Stolzle crystal wine glass.

Keep it Rockin After Party |- November 13th, 5:30-8:30pm - Paso Robles Event Center

Mingle with the winemakers, grab a cold brew and rock out with live music.

Covid Update: The Garagiste Festival has adapted its protocols to foster a safe environment that will not detract from the festivals signature attendee camaraderie and one-on-one interaction with the winemakers (winemakers, not tasting room personnel, always pour at The Garagiste Festival). This includes using more outdoor space and greater table distancing, as well as adherence to the current county mandates. For more information and updates on festival Covid protocols, click here.

Participating Wineries include:

Alma Sol Winery, Arianna Wines*, Ascension Cellars, Bolt To Wines, Bushong Wine Company, Caliza Winery, Copia Vineyards, Demeter Family Cellars*, DeWitt Vineyard, Dilecta Wines, Dusty Nabor Wines, Etnyre Wines, Familia Hicks Wines*, Ferguson Family Wines, Gary Kramer Guitar Cellars, Greyscale Wines, Hayseed & Housdon Wines, Hoyt Family Winery, Kaleidos Wines, Kimsey Vineyard, Marins Vineyard, Mastro Scheidt Wines, MCV Wines, Ondule Wines, Powell Mountain Cellars, Quench + Temper, RF Wines, Seagrape Winery, Seven Oxen Wines, Torch Cellars, Two Moons Cellars and Volatus Winery.

*New to Paso Festival

Tickets: To preserve an intimate experience and one-on-one interaction with winemakers, tickets are very limited for the Garagiste Festivals and always sell out. Tickets are available at http://garagistefestival.com. For special discounts and updates on The Garagiste Festival in Paso Robles, Taste of Garagiste mini-tastings and other Garagiste Festival events and news, sign up for The Dirt at http://garagistefestival.com/sign-up/, or follow us on Twitter (@GaragisteFest) or Facebook (http://on.fb.me/1rgBC80).

Festival Sponsors include:

Travel Paso, Visit Atascadero, G3, ETS, Glenn Burdette, mWEBB Communications

Sponsor Hotels: For "Garagiste" weekend deals.

Adelaide Inn, La Quinta Inn & Suites, Paso Oaks Hotel

For sponsorship info, email info@garagistefestival.com.

About The Garagiste Wine Festival

The Garagiste Wine Festival (http://www.garagistefestival.com), named Best of the Fests for 2019 by Fest Forums and the Best Wine Festival in the US in 2018 in USA Todays 10Best Readers Choice Awards, is the first and only wine festival dedicated to the undiscovered and under-recognized American artisan garagiste micro-wineries who are making some of the best, most exciting, handcrafted small-lot production wines in the world. Founded by fellow garagistes Stewart McLennan and Douglas Minnick, the Garagiste Festivals are committed to discovering the best and most innovative limited-production winemakers and promoting and showcasing them to a broad audience of discerning wine consumers. In addition to its flagship annual festival in Paso Robles, CA, the Garagiste Festival line-up includes Garagiste Festival: Southern Exposure, featuring Santa Ynez Valley garagistes; the Garagiste Festival: Urban Exposure, in Los Angeles; the Garagiste Festival, Northern Exposure, in Sonoma; winemaker dinners, a newsletter, garagiste profiles and more.

In addition to being named the US Best Wine Festival, the Garagiste Festival was named one of the Top Nine Incredible Epicurean Vacations in the world by ABC News, one of the premier wine events of the year, by the LA Times and Best Festival by Sunset Magazines Best of the West. The festivals are produced by Garagiste Events, a non-profit dedicated to furthering the education of future winemakers and those training for employment within the wine industry. Proceeds from the festivals support the Garagiste Festival Scholarship fund of the California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo Wine and Viticulture Department.

*Garagiste (garage-east) is a term originally used in the Bordeaux region of France to denigrate renegade small-lot wine makers, sometimes working in their "garages" (anything considered not a chateau), who refused to follow the rules, and is now a full-fledged movement responsible for making some of the best wine in the world. The Garagiste Festivals were the first to shine a light on the American garagiste winemaker in 2011.

Media Contacts:

mWEBB Communications for The Garagiste Festivals

Melanie Webber, Melanie(at)mwebbcom(dot)com,949-307-1723

Elizabeth Johnson, Elizabeth(at)mwebbcom(dot)com, 213-713-4865
GeBBS is committed to helping our hospital clients improve their financial outcomes, so they can focus on providing better patient care.

GeBBS Healthcare Solutions, Inc.(ChrysCapital portfolio company), a leading provider of revenue-cycle management (RCM) solutions for healthcare providers and payers, announced today that it has again been named to Modern Healthcares Top 10 List of Largest Revenue-Cycle Management Companies.

This is the sixth time that GeBBS has been ranked on the list since its inaugural ranking in 2016. This year, the company climbed to the sixth spot.

We are honored to be ranked on the Modern Healthcare list for the 6th time, said Nitin Thakor, Founder and Executive Chairman of GeBBS Healthcare Solutions. GeBBS is committed to helping our hospital clients improve their financial outcomes, so they can focus on providing better patient care. I want to thank our incredible team for the hard work they do every day. This recognition speaks to their dedication and perseverance.

If not for the continued support of our growing customer base, we would not make this list once, let alone six times, explained Milind Godbole, CEO & Managing Director of GeBBS Healthcare Solutions. As a collective, we take immense pride in our role as a trusted partner to healthcare organizations and continuously reaffirm our commitment to serving our clients.

Modern Healthcares Largest Revenue Cycle Management Firms list recognizes the nations top revenue cycle management companies ranked by total number of contracts in 2020. The list includes 24 firms that have dedicated practice areas and staff to address the needs of the healthcare revenue cycle process. Participating companies report a breakdown of contracts between comprehensive revenue cycle and partial services.

About Modern Healthcare

Modern Healthcare is the industrys leading source of healthcare business and policy news, research, and information. We report on important healthcare events and trends, as they happen, through our weekly print magazine, websites, e-newsletters, mobile products, and events. Our readers use that information to make informed business decisions and lead their organizations to success. Its for this reason that Modern Healthcare magazine is ranked No. 1 in readership among healthcare executives and deemed a must-read by the whos who in healthcare. Modern Healthcare leads the market in editorial excellence and is honored to receive awards from ASBPE, ASHPE American Business Media, Trade Association and Business Publications International and the Association of Health Care Journalists, affirming Modern Healthcares status as the best source for healthcare business and policy news, research, and information.

About GeBBS

GeBBS Healthcare Solutions is a KLAS rated leading provider of Revenue Cycle Management (RCM) services and Risk Adjustment solutions. GeBBS innovative technology, combined with over 9,500-strong global workforce, helps clients improve financial performance, adhere to compliance, and enhance the patient experience. Headquartered in Los Angeles, CA, GeBBS has won numerous accolades for its medical coding outsourcing and medical billing outsourcing, including being ranked in Modern Healthcares Top 20 Largest RCM Firms, Black Book Market Researchs Top 20 RCM Outsourcing Services, and Inc. 5000s fastest growing private companies in the U.S. For more information, please visit http://www.gebbs.com

For more information contact:

Tyler Cowart

310-953-4444 ext. 214

tyler.cowart@gebbs.com
The new speakers and panels show that the symposium will move beyond abstract theory and hype for building well to share real-world data and case studies on what impact the wellness effect has on residential and commercial real estate

The nonprofit Global Wellness Institute (GWI), the leading research organization for the global wellness industry, today announced additional keynotes and panels confirmed for the first-ever Wellness Real Estate and Communities Symposium being held in person and virtually Tuesday, September 28, in NYC.

The new speakers and panels show that the symposium will move beyond abstract theory and hype for building well to share real-world data and case studies on what impact the wellness effect has on residential and commercial real estate. Leading executives in the real estate investment space, from Blackstone to Tishman Speyer, will discuss investor perceptions and the current landscape of wellness real estate (whats getting funded, how and where). Developers and owners of over a dozen very diverse global projects in the pipelinefrom AMAALA in Saudi Arabia to Tri Vananda in Thailandwill present the whys of their unique concepts and real numbers from their funding structure to pre-sales rates.

We know the pandemic has led more people to seek homes and communities that are purpose-built to deliver more physical, mental and social wellbeing, but what impact does a wellness focus really have on investment and sales? Whats the premium, the ROI? What makes a development successful, and what are the critical mistakes to avoid? What are the leading concepts in the global pipeline and the key trends to watch in the future? said Susie Ellis, GWI chairman and CEO. Experts will work to answer these key questions; we plan to get very real.

The symposium, a hybrid event with both in-person and virtual registration (on-demand viewing for global time zones), takes place from 8 AM4 PM, September 28, at etc.venues (601 Lexington Ave., NYC). In-person attendees are also invited to a VIP reception the evening before.

Registration is open, and space is limited.

View the agenda herewhich will continue to evolve.

Added to the lineup:

Investor Perceptions and Realities

The agenda will dive deep into the investment landscape and trends. Joanna Frank, President & CEO, Center for Active Design, will present new research on investor perceptions on health and wellbeing as a value driver in real estate. Frank will also lead a panel on investment realities in the space with Kevin Davis, Senior Managing Director of Capital Markets for JLLs Hotels and Hospitality Group; Eric Duchon, Global Head of Real Estate ESG, Blackstone; and Jonathan Flaherty, Tishman Speyers Global Head of Sustainability and Building Technology Innovation.

Developers on Projects in the Pipeline and Their Real Numbers

Video case studies and hard data (from how funded to operations and sales) on over a dozen projects and developers from around the globe will be shared, including presentations from Amrit Ocean Residences (US), GOCO Hospitality, Peninsula Papagayo (Costa Rica), Rancho Mission Viejo (US), Regenerative Communities from the Modern Elder Academy (US), Six Senses (global), Val de Vie Estate (South Africa), Watermark Retirement Communities (US) and more.

The global team behind Wellness Smart Villages will explore how wellness developments can regenerate rural communities. Craig Collins, CEO, Tavistock Development Company, will present on how Floridas Lake Nona became one of the sectors extraordinary success stories by taking a uniquely comprehensive approach to health and wellness. Alfredo Carvajal, Advisor, Grupo Espiritu, will present the financial realities of opening during the pandemic with a case study of Rancho La Puerta Residences experience.

Science and InnovationHow the Built Environment Actually Impacts Health

The human bottom line that drives the financial bottom line is the hard evidence about how wellness architecture, design and innovations actually impact health and wellbeing. Paul Scialla, CEO, Delos, will keynote on the science leading to a new urgency in his keynote: Now More than Ever: Wellness in the Built Environment. Rachel Hodgdon, President and CEO, International WELL Building Institute, will present new research on the impact of healthy building. Anjan Chatterjee, MD, Professor of Neurology, Psychology and Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania, will explore Neuroarchitecture, the Built Environment and Wellness while Steve Nygren, founder of pioneering wellness community Serenbe, will keynote on biophilic design as the foundation for wellness real estate. Abby Brody, founder and CEO, MYX, will show the eye-opening ways that wellness is disrupting spaces for education.

Identifying the Big Trends

Experts will discuss the most powerful trends in the wellness real estate/communities space, not just temporary shifts born of the pandemic but trends fueled by the big cultural, environmental and demographic shifts that will play out over decades. Beth McGroarty, VP, Research & Forecasting for the GWI, will lead a panel of top media predicting future directions for the marketfrom developments that blend home, work and wellness to a massive new value for nature to a shakeup in senior living to thinking beyond the billionaires.

About the Global Wellness Institute: The Global Wellness Institute (GWI), a nonprofit 501(c)(3), is considered the leading global research and educational resource for the global wellness industry and is known for introducing major industry initiatives and regional events that bring together leaders to chart the future. GWI positively impacts global health and wellness by educating public institutions, businesses and individuals on how they can work to prevent disease, reduce stress, and enhance the overall quality of life. Its mission is to empower wellness worldwide.
CEO World Awards by GLOBEE Winners of Grand GLOBEE CEO World Awards include Best Version Media, NewAge, Inc., P. F. Changs, Piano, and Tek Leaders Inc.

The Globee Awards organizer of the worlds premier business awards programs and business ranking lists has announced the Grand, Gold, Silver, and Bronze winners in the 9th Annual 2021 CEO World Awards.

The coveted annual CEO World Awards program encompasses the worlds best in leadership, innovation, organizational performance, new products and services, excellence studies, corporate social responsibility, and milestones from every major industry in the world. Organizations from all over the world are eligible to submit nominations including public and private, for-profit and non-profit, largest to smallest and new start-ups. This annual awards program celebrates the individuals and teams who set industry benchmarks for excellence.

Judges from a broad spectrum of industry voices from around the world participated and their average scores and inputs determined the 2021 award winners.

Winners of Grand GLOBEE CEO World Awards include Best Version Media, NewAge, Inc., P. F. Changs, Piano, and Tek Leaders Inc.

Winners of one or more Gold CEO World Awards include PRO Unlimited, NeuVector, Identiq, POWERHOME SOLAR, Makers Nutrition, CarParts.com, iboss, Best Version Media, LatinaMeetup, Globe Telecom Inc., Hilton Software, Endologix, Tasktop, Vivial, Globalization Partners, The Next Step Agency, QNET, Biye Biye, Crux Intelligence, Medical Marijuana, Inc., Your Best Place, LogicGate, NewAge, Inc., Bug Bite Thing, Agiloft, Centrilogic, Abu Dhabi Public Health Center  Department of Health, 7 Stage Advisors, HUNAR ONLINE LLP, CoinFlip, Earnin, Echo Global Logistics, Avaya, BroadbandTV Corp., Chargebacks911, SoftClouds LLC, 1903 Public Relations, The Coleman Group Inc., Swinerton Renewable Energy, Crawford & Company, Interim HealthCare Inc., ESECE Group, Zyter, Darktrace, PromoRepublic, Yellow Dog Creative, JC Legal, Kannaway, Keysight Technologies, PRIME LANDS, ASI Construction, ITRenew, P. F. Changs, SpendMend, UnityPoint Health Sioux City, Whatfix, Metal Industries Research and Development Centre, SUSE, International WELL Building Institute (IWBI), Pushpay, Innover, ABM Industries, Tek Leaders Inc, Piano, and Feniex.

CEO World Awards are an annual industry and peers recognition program honoring CEOs, executives, entrepreneurs, innovators and their management teams from organizations in every industry and of every size in Asia, Australia and New Zealand, Canada and the USA, Europe, Mexico, the Caribbean & Central and South America, Middle East and Africa. The Annual CEO World Awards is part of the Globee Awards recognition program.

For a complete list of the 2021 CEO World Award winners announced, visit https://globeeawards.com/ceo-world-awards/winners/

Stay posted and read success stories of organizations by subscribing to the Globee Newsletter: https://globeeawards.com/subscribe/

About the Globee Awards

Globee Awards are conferred in eleven programs and competition: the American Best in Business Awards, Business Excellence Awards (Best Employers), CEO World Awards, Communications Excellence Awards, Cyber Security Global Excellence Awards, Disruptor Company Awards, Golden Bridge Awards, International Best in Business Awards, IT World Awards, Sales, Marketing, & Service Excellence Awards, and Women World Awards. Learn more about the Globee Awards at https://globeeawards.com

All trademarks belong to their respective owners.
In an unconventional tale, sparkling with humor, A Star out of Jacob by Martha Carver Harris delivers a deeper examination of the intellectual context surrounding the era of Christs birth, and its impact on a fat, forlorn, middle-aged woman wrapped up in the secular concerns of today.

Faye is an American Sunday school teacher of Persian extraction, linked by ancestry to the ancient Magian elite priestly class from the Parthian Empire (ancient Persia) who followed a Star to Bethlehem. Faye has vivid, inexplicable dreams related to the Magis journey and a young girl named Fatemah. But she dismisses the dreams while throwing herself into shrill, modern-day causes like climate change and animal rights. Along the way, Faye meets Sebastian, an irresistible Jew with an End-of-World theory to explore. Together they attend lectures on microbiology, cosmology, ancient astrology, and the fine-tuning of the universe. A romance develops.

But a fatal illness interrupts Fayes mortal life and leads to an entirely new journey taking her back in time to First Century Palestine. There she learns about the intellectual ferment surrounding the era of Christs birth, and the belief that stars control human destiny. She discovers the Magis Zoroastrian beginnings, their exposure to Jewish Messianic prophecy and Greek philosophy, and their intense study of the stars. She meets Fatemah, whose dreams confirm the meaning of the Star over Bethlehem. She listens to the story of the Christ Child, the escape from Herod, and Fatemahs return to Judaea 30 years later. She contemplates Gods increasingly urgent battle against evil, as modern man gets further away from the Truth. She concludes that movements of the cosmos may parallel great events on earth and anticipates a terrifyingly imminent revelation.

Harriss knifelike character portrayals are both comical and delicately wrought, while her interweaving of ancient historical sources such as Josephus, Hipparchus, and the Dead Sea Scrolls lend weight and depth to a fascinating conclusion.

A Star out of Jacob received the following 5-star review on Amazon:

This well-researched novel probes deeply into the intellectual world of the first century classical world and also into aspects of contemporary thinking on a number of important scientific and religious issues. The author has crafted a complex narrative with engaging characters. I particularly appreciated the inclusion of adequate source notes and a solid bibliography for those who wish to learn more about the subjects addressed. Highly recommended.

A Star Out of Jacob

By Martha Carver Harris

ISBN: 9781480895713 (softcover); 9781480895690 (hardcover); 9781480895706 (electronic)

Available at the Archway Publishing Online Bookstore, Amazon and Barnes & Noble

About the author

Martha Carver Harris spent her career as a United States Foreign Service Officer. She served in U.S Embassies in Europe, South Asia, West Africa and the Middle East. A review of her first novel, The Gospel According to . . . A Fictional Story of the People Who Encountered Jesus is available on Kirkus Reviews. She is currently retired and resides in northern Virginia. To learn more, please visit http://www.marthacharris.net.

###

General Inquiries, Review Copies & Interview Requests:

LAVIDGE  Phoenix

Meghan Bowman

480-406-6597

mbowman@lavidge.com
Congratulations to all of the winners!

Xulon Press is thrilled to once again extend the opportunity to have Christian writers work recognized and rewarded. Besides the esteemed honor of being named the 2021 September Christian Writers Awards writing contest winner, the Grand Prize Winner will also receive an Elite Publishing Package (valued at $8,780) to publish a book with Xulon Press. Out of the several hundred outstanding entries received from around the world, three winners were chosen after careful deliberation.

The 2021 September Christian Writers Awards writing contest winners are:

Grand Prize Winner

They Think I Don't Hear Them by Kevin Horgan

2nd Place

River of Life by Bob Blundell

3rd Place

Tinker Bell by Kathy Webster

Congratulations to all of the winners!

Xulon Press would also like to extend a big thank you and congratulations to every talented author that participated in the 2021 September Christian Writers Awards writing contest. Xulon Press invites all faith-based writers to enter the next round of the Christian Writers Award writing contest which will take place in January 2022. Here you will have the opportunity to win a free Publishing Package from Xulon Press and become a published author--just like these names above!

Xulon Press, a division of Salem Media Group, is the worlds largest Christian self-publisher, with more than 20,000 titles published to date.

Media Contact: Xulon Press

Email: contest@xulonpress.com
We are honored to be recognized by the TMA and proud of our teams high caliber and commitment to providing our clients with quality legal services - David B. Kurzweil, co-chair of the firms global Restructuring & Bankruptcy Practice and co-chair of the Financial Institutions Practice.

A team of attorneys from global law firm Greenberg Traurig, LLP, led by Shareholder David B. Kurzweil, was announced a winner of the 2021 Mid-Size Company Turnaround/Transaction of the Year Award by The Turnaround Management Association (TMA).

The TMA annual awards program recognizes the most impactful turnarounds and transactions industry wide. The Turnaround and Transaction Awards are chosen based on a rigorous peer-review process by the Awards Committee, which is composed to represent the diversity of the TMA Membership and looks for well-defined, measurable outcomes.

In 2019, AAC Holdings, Inc., a healthcare company, retained Greenberg Traurig as counsel to advise the company regarding its options for effectuating a financial restructuring. As a result, AAC emerged from chapter 11 with a significantly improved balance sheet, reducing the companys secured debt and preserving its 2,500 employees. It is now in a position for growth as the first company to truly transform the treatment of substance abuse and meet the critical need for effective clinical care and treatment solutions.

The firms team consisted of Shareholders David B. Kurzweil in Atlanta and Nancy A. Peterman in Chicago; Alison Elko Franklin and John J. Dyer in Atlanta; Eric J. Howe in Minneapolis; Kenneth Zuckerbrot and Pallav Raghuvanshi in New York; and Associates Matthew A. Petrie and Victoria Bartlett in Atlanta and Danny Duerdoth in Chicago.

We are honored to be recognized by the TMA and proud of our teams high caliber and commitment to providing our clients with quality legal services, David B. Kurzweil, who is co-chair of the firms global Restructuring & Bankruptcy Practice and co-chair of the Financial Institutions Practice, said.

Award recipients will be recognized at The 2021 TMA Annual, Oct. 26-29, 2021 at the Grand Hyatt Nashville. According to their website, the TMA is the most professionally diverse organization in the corporate restructuring and corporate health space and has almost 10,000 members in 54 chapters worldwide. Members include turnaround practitioners, attorneys, accountants, advisors, liquidators, consultants, as well as academics, government employees, and members of the judiciary.

About Greenberg Traurigs Restructuring & Bankruptcy Practice: Greenberg Traurigs internationally recognized Restructuring & Bankruptcy Practice provides clients with deep insight and knowledge acquired over decades of advisory transaction and litigation experience. The team has a broad and diverse range of experience developing creative and effective solutions to the highly complex issues that arise in connection with in- and out-of-court reorganizations, restructurings, workouts, liquidations, and distressed acquisitions and sales. Using a multidisciplinary approach, the firms vast resources and invaluable business network, the team helps companies navigate challenging times and address the full range of issues that can arise in the course of their own restructurings or dealings with other companies in distress.

About Greenberg Traurig: Greenberg Traurig, LLP (GT) has approximately 2200 attorneys 40 locations in the United States, Latin America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. GT has been recognized for its philanthropic giving, diversity, and innovation, and is consistently among the largest firms in the U.S. on the Law360 400 and among the Top 20 on the Am Law Global 100. The firm is net carbon neutral with respect to its office energy usage and Mansfield Rule 3.0 Certified. Web: http://www.gtlaw.com
Health Scholars VR Leadership Team

Health Scholars, reimagining healthcare training with virtual reality (VR) simulation, has added three new experts to its leadership team: Holly Stewart has joined the company as Vice President of Sales, Andrea Harrop as Director of Customer Success, and Jonathan L. Epstein, MEMS, NRP, as Director of Product and Strategy.

These senior leaders will be responsible for accelerating the pace of growth and the rapid development of new VR training solutions that help to ensure providers in health systems and emergency medical services (EMS) have the clinical experience they need to be competent and confident in any situation.

"Despite the unexpected challenges of 2021, this has been another remarkable year for the entire Health Scholars team as we have swiftly adapted to meet the surging demand from leading health systems and EMS for competency-based clinical training that is immersive, convenient, and effective," said Health Scholars CEO Scott Johnson. "These new leaders are joining the company at a critical juncture where we will be executing our vision of setting a new training standard using VR while ensuring we continue to deliver real results for the healthcare community."

Holly Stewart brings over 28 years of healthcare experience to her new position, including working in all aspects of critical care, chronic pulmonary disease management and emergency medicine. Stewart started her career at Brathwaites Olivier Medical, Inc a distributor of respiratory and anesthesia products, and moved to Medtronic Canada selling monitors, defibrillators, and automated external defibrillators. She progressed into management where she was relocated to the United States. She left Medtronic to pursue larger management responsibility with Oridion Medical, focusing on improving recognition and treatment of respiratory compromise with capnography. Oridion was later acquired by Medtronic. She and her teams have assisted thousands of customers in implementing and adopting technology across the care continuum to improve the recognition, treatment and care of STEMI, stroke, sudden cardiac arrest, respiratory and sepsis patients.

With 14 years of experience under her belt, Andrea Harrop is no stranger to client success. Harrop has dedicated her career to the healthcare industry, bringing her extensive experience in consulting to Deloitte, Cumberland Consulting, naviHealth, and others to solve complex problems for payors, providers, and ancillary services throughout the care continuum. Andrea has worked closely with project teams as well as system executives to align vision with execution. Her focus is to ensure appropriate technology, processes, and communications while guiding teams through necessary change to achieve success. Andrea is Prosci certified and has overseen multiple Change Management efforts, including a global initiative across 4 countries.

Before joining Health Scholars, Jonathan Epstein was the Director of Product Management for Emergency Care that included EMS and the Emergency Care Safety Institute at Public Safety Group, a division of Jones & Bartlett Learning, and was the Senior Director of Science, Industry and Government Relations at the American Red Cross. He is an emeritus member of the American Red Cross Scientific Advisory Council, one of the countrys foremost independent panels on first aid, resuscitation, emergency preparedness and safety, and served for 15 years as executive director of the Northeast Emergency Medical Services, the nonprofit responsible for coordinating the EMS system for 49 cities northeast of Boston. Epstein will lead the product management of Health Scholars Resuscitation, periOperative and Obtstetric VR portfolio with a focus on further developing Health Scholars competency-based training and assessment model.

"The Health Scholars team brings together critical expertise and unparalleled dedication to delivering providers a meaningful training experience that improves patient outcomes," said Health Scholars President and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Brian Gillett. "We're thrilled we've been able to attract such talented executives as we continue to extend the reach of our VR training."

The executive leadership additions mark an important step for Health Scholars as it continues to expand and deliver the latest in resuscitation, periOperative and obstetric VR training to organizations across the country. Health Scholars develops its competency training with medical professional organizations including AAP and AORN and currently serves dozens of EMS agencies and health systems including UCLA, Cedars Sinai, Maimonides, Mount Sinai and New York City Health + Hospitals.

About Health Scholars

The best training isn't watched or read. It's experienced. At Health Scholars we're reimagining healthcare training with virtual reality (VR). Our mission is to ensure every provider has the clinical experience needed to be competent and confident in any situation by providing immersive, interactive, and on-demand VR performance training. As the only VR training developed in partnership with medical professional societies, we're setting a new training standard that improves quality of care. For more information, visit HealthScholars.com or follow us on LinkedIn.
Jill Lepore, Ph.D., award-winning Professor of American History at Harvard University and a staff writer at The New Yorker, will deliver this year's Dr. Frank Greene Lecture, an annual event that is part St. Francis College's Honors Program.

The lecture takes place on Friday, September 17 from 12:20 to 1:20 p.m. EDT at 180 Remsen Street in Brooklyn, NY. It is free and open to the public. Advance registration required to attend in person or to view the livestream: sfcfrankgreene21.eventbrite.com

This year's lecture also commemorates Constitution Day, which recognizes the formation and signing of the U.S. Constitution on September 17, 1787.

Dr. Lepore will join Freshman Honors Seminar students to discuss this year's Honors theme, "Seeking Truth in the Public Square." The focus will be Lepore's podcast, The Last Archive, which deals with how people understand truth and the history of doubt in American life.

"It's a privilege to welcome Dr. Lepore to SFC as this year's Frank Greene lecturer, as her voice is vital in any conversation about American politics and the arc of history that brings us to our present state," said Sara Rzeszutek, Ph.D., SFC Associate Professor of History and Director of the SFC Honors Program. "Her nuanced understanding of the sometimes contradictory 'progress' of our country since the 16th century will undoubtedly provide unique food for thought for all of us, particularly as we reflect on how ideas about truth and doubt have been shaped and reshaped in various political climates."

Among Dr. Lepore's many professional accomplishments include winning the Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thought in 2021 and the Anisfield-Wolf Award for the best non-fiction book on race in 2006. She has been a finalist for the National Book Award; the National Magazine Award; and, twice, for the Pulitzer Prize. Dr. Lepore has been contributing to The New Yorker since 2005, writing about American history, law, literature, and politics. She joined the Harvard History Department in 2003.

Founded in 2012, the Dr. Frank Greene Lecture honors Dr. Greene, an art historian who established and led the SFC Honors program for many years. Each year's lecture follows the theme of the first-year honors seminar with a noted guest lecturer on the topic.

All in-person lecture attendees must adhere to St. Francis College's COVID-19 vaccination policy. See more at sfc.edu/backtobk

ABOUT ST. FRANCIS COLLEGE

St. Francis College, for more than 160 years, has provided a diverse student body, from Brooklyn and around the world, an affordable private college education rooted in Franciscan values of inclusivity and respect of all people. Located in the heart of Brooklyn  minutes from Wall Street, world-class cultural institutions and leading entrepreneurial hubs  St. Francis College offers more than 70 undergraduate majors and five master's degree programs that inspire lifelong learning and prepare students for fulfilling careers in the 21st-century global economy.
The 1750 Smithy House is one of the structures that would be included in the World Heritage Designation. Credit: Discover Lehigh Valley

Robert J. Donchez, Mayor of the City of Bethlehem and Chair of the Bethlehem World Heritage Commission; Curtis H. Barnette, Vice-Chair of Bethlehem World Heritage Commission; and Charlene Donchez Mowers, President of the Bethlehem World Heritage Commission and Historic Bethlehem Museums & Sites, are pleased to announce that the U.S. Department of the Interior has authorized the Historic Moravian Bethlehem National Historic Landmark District to participate in a planned multi-country nomination to the World Heritage List of historic Moravian Church Settlements in Europe and North America.

With its intact core of original buildings on 14.7 acres in the heart of Bethlehem, this district preserves some of the most important structures and sites relating to the Moravians in the New World. Historic Moravian Bethlehems centuries-old architecture and town planning including 10 structures, several ruins and a cemetery are a reflection of a timeless community with ageless values of education, equality, industry, integrity and spirituality that have been part of this community since 1741.

Historic Moravian Bethlehem was added to the U.S. World Heritage Tentative List in 2017 as a potential extension to the 2015 inscription on the World Heritage List of the Moravian Church Settlement of Christiansfeld in Denmark. Bethlehem along with the German settlement of Hernnhut and with the proposed addition of Gracehill in Northern Ireland, UK, will develop a proposal to join Christiansfeld as a single World Heritage listing that represents the worldwide influence of the Moravian Church as manifest in a remarkable group of settlements. This would be the first multi-country cultural World Heritage nomination for the United States, whose current World Heritage sites include two cross-border natural sites with Canada.

The World Heritage List recognizes cultural and natural sites of universal importance. There are 1,154 sites in 167 countries that have signed the World Heritage Convention. Currently, there are 24 World Heritage Sites in the United States.

The National Park Service is responsible for implementing the World Heritage Convention on behalf of the Department of the Interior and in cooperation with the Department of State. The National Park Services Office of International Affairs will provide guidance on the development of the nomination and coordinate with the other participating countries.

The date of the actual submission of a nomination will depend on when the detailed documentation package is completed. The Department of the Interior will consult with the Federal Interagency Panel for World Heritage on the completed document before making a decision to submit it to the World Heritage Committee.

The final decision on inclusion on the World Heritage list will be made by the World Heritage Committee, composed of representatives from 21 nations elected from the members of the World Heritage Convention, and advised by the International Council on Monuments and Sites.

On September 14 and 15, representatives from Historic Moravian Bethlehem and from the historic Moravian communities of Herrnhut, Gracehill and Christiansfeld met in Bethlehem to work on the nomination.

On September 15 at 10:00 a.m. at Town Hall, there was an official meeting of this Transnational Working Group to sign a Voluntary Association Agreement.
Wearable devices collect continuous digital data remotely and passively, thus improving patient-centricity and reducing trial burden on patients.

Despite being one of the most active areas of clinical development, neurological disease drug trials have among the longest development timelines and highest failure rates in the industry. Imprecision in both disease diagnosis and symptom monitoring presents additional hurdles for clinical development.

Digital clinical measures enabled by wearables have great potential to transform and accelerate drug development in neuroscience. Digital assessments of function, as quantified from smart sensor data, can provide frequent, objective and precise measures of how patients function in their real lives. In particular, wearable devices collect continuous digital data remotely and passively, thus improving patient-centricity and reducing trial burden on patients.

Join Jamie Adams, Assistant Professor and Director, Movement Disorders Fellowship, Department of Neurology & Center for Health + Technology, University of Rochester; Christine Guo, Chief Scientific Officer, ActiGraph; and Ruben van Eijk, Assistant Professor, University Medical Center Utrecht, Department of Neurology, for a live webinar on Monday, October 4, 2021 at 12pm EST (5pm BST/UK) in which they will discuss recent research and findings on the use of wearable sensors and connected digital technologies in neurology.

For more information, or to register for this event, visit How Wearable Devices and Digital Clinical Measures Can Improve Neurology Trials.

ABOUT XTALKS

Xtalks, powered by Honeycomb Worldwide Inc., is a leading provider of educational webinars to the global life science, food and medical device community. Every year, thousands of industry practitioners (from life science, food and medical device companies, private & academic research institutions, healthcare centers, etc.) turn to Xtalks for access to quality content. Xtalks helps Life Science professionals stay current with industry developments, trends and regulations. Xtalks webinars also provide perspectives on key issues from top industry thought leaders and service providers.

To learn more about Xtalks visit http://xtalks.com

For information about hosting a webinar visit http://xtalks.com/why-host-a-webinar/


We are committed to supporting biopharma in scaling up and automating their R&D workflows. Bringing together industry leaders and learning from them about their daily operational challenges helps us to establish best practices and drive innovation in this highly exciting field.

Genedata, the leading provider of enterprise software solutions for biopharmaceutical R&D, today announced the successful conclusion of its inaugural annual Genedata Expressionist User Group Meeting, held on September 1314, 2021. During this two-day virtual event attended by more than 150 Genedata users worldwide, scientific experts from leading biopharma companies presented case studies on how Genedata Expressionist is used to streamline and automate complex mass spectrometry (MS)-based data analytical processes.

The overarching theme of the event was the digitalization of biopharma MS data workflows, from early-stage characterization to downstream quality control of biopharmaceuticals. During the meeting, Genedata Expressionist users described how using automated data analysis workflows to perform in-depth characterization of novel biotherapeutics delivers significant increases in project throughput and data quality.

Case studies detailing Multi-attribute Method (MAM) implementations across organizations demonstrated the increasing assimilation of this transformative approach, which delivers increased efficiency and productivity in the development of novel biotherapeutics. Since the emergence of MAM, Genedata has worked with many biopharmaceutical companies in establishing highly automated end-to-end MAM workflows from development to manufacturing.

An entire session was dedicated to the role of MS-based analysis in the development of cell and gene therapies, with Genedata partners showcasing characterization of adeno-associated virus (AAV) capsid proteins and automated analysis of oligonucleotide therapeutics.

A keynote presentation by John Schiel, Ph.D., from NIST drew together all these strands by describing how multi-attribute method approaches are making mass spectrometry a disruptive technology for the characterization of emerging biotherapeutic modalities employed in cell and gene therapies.

We are delighted about the rapidly growing adoption of Genedata Expressionist for digitalizing complex mass-spectrometry based analytical processes. said Othmar Pfannes, Ph.D., CEO of Genedata. We are committed to supporting biopharma in scaling up and automating their R&D workflows. Bringing together industry leaders and learning from them about their daily operational challenges helps us to establish best practices and drive innovation in this highly exciting field.

Editorial Note: The following topics were presented by the organizations attending the Genedata Expressionist User Meeting

Multi-attribute method approaches to biopharmaceutical characterization and monitoring session

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST): Mass Spectrometry as a Disruptive Technology for Emerging Biotherapeutic Modalities

Merck: Validation of LCMS Multi-Attribute Method Supporting Biopharma Process Characterization

Automation and digitalization session

Novartis: Automation of MS Analytics for Characterization of Biotherapeutics

Merck: High-Throughput Intact Mass Analysis Using Parameterization

Cell and gene therapy applications session

Biogen: Identification and Characterization of Adeno-Associated Virus Capsid Proteins by Mass Spectrometry

Roche: Semi-Automated Analysis of Oligonucleotide UV-LCMS Data for Process Development

Bayer: Software for Quality Control of Oligonucleotides by Mass Spectrometry

In-depth characterization of novel biopharmaceuticals session

Sanofi: High-Throughput and Format-Agnostic Mispairing Assay for Multispecific Antibodies Using Intact Mass Spectrometry

Merck: Identification of IgG2 Disulfide Isoforms by Non-Reduced Peptide Mapping Workflow

About Genedata

Genedata transforms data into intelligence with innovative software solutions that incorporate extensive biopharma R&D domain knowledge. Multinational biopharmaceutical organizations and cutting-edge biotechs around the globe rely on Genedata to digitalize and automate data-rich and complex R&D processes. From early discovery all the way to the clinic, Genedata solutions help maximize the ROI in R&D expenditure. Founded in 1997, Genedata is headquartered in Basel, Switzerland with additional offices in Boston, London, Munich, San Francisco, Singapore, and Tokyo.

http://www.genedata.com

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Helena Magloire

Genedata

Public Relations

pr@genedata.com

Disclaimer

The statements in this press release that relate to future plans, events or performance are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including risks associated with uncertainties related to contract cancellations, developing risks, competitive factors, uncertainties pertaining to customer orders, demand for products and services, development of markets for the Company's products and services. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. The Company undertakes no obligation to release publicly the result of any revisions to these forward-looking statements that may be made to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

All product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies.
DigitalArray The DigitalArray platform offers the efficiency and economies of scale of a fund platform, providing uncommon flexibility through an innovative structure which can accommodate virtually any type of regulated fund.

Investment management firm DigitalArray ISAC Ltd. (DigitalArray) today announced the inception of its DigitalArray fund platform, which enables select investment firms in the digital asset space to launch new funds quickly and inexpensively with the support of top service providers. DigitalArray also announced the launch of the initial fund on the platform, Alpha Sigma Capital (Offshore) ISA (Alpha Sigma).

Establishing the Bermuda entity with DigitalArray was an important step in providing access for our international limited partners and investments. We leverage best-of-breed infrastructure partners for our funds so we can focus on performance, said Enzo Villani, Chief Investment Officer and Managing Partner at Alpha Sigma Capital Fund, LP.

With the explosive growth in digital assets, we saw an opportunity to harness unique sources of outsized return from these markets. We created DigitalArray to enable investors to access these cutting-edge offerings with the institutional-quality support and infrastructure that had largely been lacking in this burgeoning niche within asset management, added DigitalArrays President, Lawrence Newhook.

The DigitalArray platform offers the efficiency and economies of scale of a fund platform, providing uncommon flexibility through an innovative structure which can accommodate virtually any type of regulated fund. This includes both open and closed-ended, SPVs, masters and feeders taxed as U.S. partnerships or corporations, as well as funds marketed towards institutional or ultra high net worth investors globally.

Many of the new digital asset managers have a knowledge base and networks in the crypto world but are unfamiliar with the structure, operations and regulations of the asset management industry. We realized that combining our teams deep expertise in running asset management businesses with the ability of these portfolio managers to extract extraordinary uncorrelated returns would create investment funds that would appeal to institutional investorspaving the way for the digital asset space to be taken to the next level, noted Nicole Biernat, Chief Operating Officer.

"Bermuda has been a pioneer in the fintech space and has been recognized internationally as one of the global leaders to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism. The Government of Bermuda set the stage for developing the Island's fintech sector in early 2018 with cutting edge digital asset legislation and has seen incredible success. It is only natural that funds looking to invest in this area are choosing Bermuda. We were delighted to work alongside the DigitalArray team in creating this unique solution," added Sarah Demerling, Partner at Walkers (Bermuda) Limited.

Today the Premier, the Hon. David Burt JP, MP said, We are very excited by the launch of the DigitalArray investment platform, which demonstrates the interconnectivity of Bermudas expanding fintech ecosystem, and the value of reducing friction and fostering integration of digital asset expertise into the traditional financial institutions.

The Government of Bermuda has remained focused on providing a clear risk management framework that enables firms like DigitalArray ISAC Ltd to be innovative and build the future of finance here in Bermuda.

The growth of Bermudas fintech sector is dependent upon the successful interplay between traditional financial institutions and digital asset business.

DigitalArray are a valued addition to the expanding network of companies driving innovation in Bermuda.

DigitalArray ISAC Ltd.

DigitalArray is a global asset management firm designed to provide institutional and ultra high net worth investors access to diverse sources of true alpha from the digital asset markets, including cryptocurrencies, blockchain technologies and defi markets. The core team consists of talent from blue chip firms across the investment industry, including Goldman Sachs and Point72 Asset Management. The company was founded in 2021 and is headquartered in Bermuda. DigitalArray does not conduct 'digital asset business activities' as such term is defined under Bermuda's Digital Asset Business Act 2018 ("DABA") that would require it to be licensed under DABA. DigitalArray has therefore not applied for and is not licensed under DABA. For more information, visit DigitalArray.io.

About Alpha Sigma Capital (Offshore) ISA

The Alpha Sigma Capital (Offshore) ISA fund is an incorporated segregated account of the DigitalArray ISAC Ltd. and is regulated by the Bermuda Monetary Authority as a Class B Professional Fund. The Fund is managed by Alpha Sigma Capital Advisors, LLC, a U.S.-based investment advisor, and provides investors with exposure to an array of digital assets and equity investments in digital asset companies. Alpha Sigma Capital Advisors was founded in 2020 by Enzo Villani.

Media Contact

media@digitalarray.io


Rebound, Return, Restore: an engaging exploration of salvation. Rebound, Return, Restore is the creation of published author Jeremiah Sinsheimer, a loving husband and father of five who is the senior pastor of Good News Christian Church in Westminster, Colorado.

Sinsheimer shares, Rebound, Return, Restore reveals one of the most beautiful stories of redemption. Most people feel like they have gone too far for God to redeem them. Yet one of the oldest stories in the Bible shows us that this is not the case.

If you feel like you could never bounce back from your past mistakes, like its too late to return to a right relationship with Christ, and He could never restore all that was lost, then this is the book for you! Dont be bound by your past and dont give up on your future. Come back to a place of hope found in Christ.

This book helps you to return to a place of peace and hope in Christ and empowers you to live a life that is no longer hindered by your mistakes or failures.

Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Jeremiah Sinsheimers new book encourages readers that, no matter what, Jesus is always there waiting.

Sinsheimer shares an encouraging and positive outlook on active faith and the importance of continually seeking and trusting in Christ.

View a synopsis of Rebound, Return, Restore on YouTube.

Consumers can purchase Rebound, Return, Restore at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or inquiries about Rebound, Return, Restore, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919.
JIS Distribution LLC. Purchases Principal Assets of Erie Tool & Supply Co.

JIS Distribution LLC. is pleased to announce that it has acquired the principal assets of Erie Tool & Supply Co. of Toledo, Ohio. This acquisition allows JIS to build its reputation as the largest, most technically advanced industrial distributor in Ohio as together, Erie Tool & Supply Co. and JIS have over 150 years of distribution experience. JIS is excited to get to know the Erie Tool & Supply Co. family and intends to work hard to support their customers and goals.

Erie Tool & Supply Co. has served northwest Ohio and southeastern Michigan industrial customers for over 85 years, and the companys focus on cutting tools, abrasives, cutting fluids and inventory management systems is a natural fit with JISs areas of expertise, as well as its professional values. Erie Tool has been in my family for 65 years and I am pleased that we are selling to another family business whose standards of integrity match our own. I am confident that JIS will expand upon the products and services we offer, while keeping the paramount focus on service to our industry. These commonalities will effect a smooth transition, said Robert Seeman, president of Erie Tool. JIS will be opening a new branch in the Toledo area, using the Erie Tool facility, employing local employees, including all of the former Erie Tool staff and stocking products. Using this facility to hold inventory will better support JIS consignment customers in the Toledo area as well as supporting the Erie Tool customer base.

One of the ways JIS differentiates itself from other distributors is by being the only industrial distributor that shares space with a manufacturing company. By applying over 150 years of expertise gained from being co-located with manufacturing experts, JIS helps customers shorten set-up times, reduce cycle times, reduce tooling costs, increase production and optimize speed in their manufacturing processes.

This acquisition allows us to expand geographically and strengthen our relationships with our Northwestern Ohio customers. explains JIS General Manager, Matt Schron. Our JIS Guarantee is to keep you running, while being your Partner in Productivity.

JIS is excited to get to know the Erie Tool & Supply Co. family, and work hard to support their businesses and goals.

About JIS

JIS, Division of Jergens, Inc., is Ohios largest, most technical industrial distributor of metalworking products, representing over 300 of the top manufacturers. The companys website offers online ordering capabilities to customers nationwide. JIS is a division of Jergens, Inc., leading manufacturer of standard tooling components, fasteners, hoist rings, vises, and other workholding equipment.

About Erie Tool & Supply Co.

Erie Tool & Supply Co. has been serving customers for over 80 years in Western Ohio. They have a technically experienced staff and strive to provide the best quality, service, competitive pricing, and performance products to enhance tool life and reduce cycle time.
My Grandad has four bronze stars and thousands of classified WW2 documents at the CIA that my Dad and I were unable to acquire through multiple FOIA requests. What is so secret about covert operations that happened seventy-five years ago that they cannot be revealed today?

Growing up in one of Americas most respected and historically-significant families  his father is the late Senator John W. Warner III (R-VA), former Secretary of the Navy and Chairman of the Armed Services Committee (KBE); his mother is Catherine Mellon, banking heiress and daughter of philanthropist and highly decorated US Army Major Paul Mellon (OSS, KBE)  John W. Warner IV developed an insatiable quest to discover and disclose hidden truths behind world events. He spent four decades intensely researching military technology history and had extensive conversations with his father, other high-ranking military personnel, and grandfather Paul Mellon to inform his historical novel series.

In Lion, Tiger, Bear (Amazon Books; $9.99) the much-anticipated sequel to his debut 3-part historical novel Little Anton (Amazon Books; $29.95), Warner cleverly combines primary source material and archival military reports with fictional and satirical elements to create a riveting narrative, revealing the shocking hidden history of super-advanced technology and covert schemes of the German military during the WWII North African campaign, and beyond, into Iraq. Paul Mellons personal friend and fellow Office of Strategic Services (OSS) psychologist Carl Jungs concept of synchronicity is clearly evident and well described in the book's suspenseful narrativea feast of wartime indelicacies and potent metaphysical concepts.

In Lion, Tiger, Bear, the rash and brash heroine Lady Bea is back and more determined than ever as the irreverent pilot and MI6 operative (British Secret Intelligence Service). Her specialized teams mission is to locate a purported secret German mining operation, airbase, and Ahnenerbe SS archaeology dig in Iraq that is supplying the German Wunderwaffes atomic ordinance, free energy, and antigravity programs which rely on mysterious ancient knowledge and materials.

John W. Warner IV, Military Historian, Uncovers Occult Evidence

A dedicated military historian and conspiracy researcher, Warner describes occult (above Top Secret) WWII activity, including the German placement of concrete bunkers, fortifications, and radio towers above underground telluric energy Ley Lines to boost their power, and Germanys hidden war weaponry projects, including chemical lasers, atomic weapons, antigravity experiments, and rocket works for Himmlers SS, under the overall auspices of SS General Hans Kammler. Warner also cites evidence regarding the mysterious 1942 Battle of Los Angeles, and the odd, intelligence-gathering plasma drone Foo-Fighters documented in official U.S., British, Russian, and German military files, which caused electrical malfunctions among all combatants aircraft and ships embroiled in the conflict. Many challenging aspects of the story are true to life, documented, and nearly unbelievable: truth is sometimes stranger than fiction.

Readers will relish the mix of Warners rich historical details and boundless imagination as he describes scenes such as the genuine 1942 Oval Office meeting between Winston Churchill, General George Marshall, and President Roosevelt, where they devise a global strategy to defeat the powerful Axis forces and try to understand the shocking appearance of UFO-like Celestial Devices and Foo-Fighters on many battlefronts, their cosmic agendas unknown.

In this unconventional book, the zany duo of Lady Bea Sunderland and her childhood friend Alice Drummond continue their feminist fight for equal status, with Bea first at the helm of a massive German Tiger Tank and then a super-powered airship, while Alice advises, taunts, and navigates. Just as WWII saw women in new roles as mechanics, ferry pilots, intelligence operatives, codebreakers, doctors, nurses, scientists, Warners books are a celebration of these women and the Divine Feminine  the ascendance of womens natural, spiritual and inclusive leadership.

In his Authors Note, Warner shares his disclosure mission born of his familys political history:

My Grandfather Paul Mellon told me he worked with his boss Wild Bill Donovan on many super-classified aspects of the war, and it is known today that Donovan was intimately familiar with President Franklin Roosevelts secret UFO File. It is my personal belief arising from my intimate conversations with Paul that he and other OSS officers were there with General Patton when his 3rd Army liberated Pilzen in Czechoslovakia on May 5, 1945; they were great friends, Grandad told me, and he loved serving under the great General. My Grandad has four bronze stars and thousands of classified WW2 documents at the CIA that my Dad and I were unable to acquire through multiple FOIA requests. What is so secret about covert operations that happened seventy-five years ago that cannot be revealed today?

All author profits go to wounded veteran charities.

About the Author

John W. Warner IV is an author and historian with a passion for hidden history, revisionist historical narratives, vintage cars, and the unsung heroes of WWII. All profits from his books go to wounded veteran charities.

Warner has been a skeptic about historical records, including textbooks, for over thirty yearsa perspective that has been well-honed. His father, 5-term US Senator John W. Warner III (R-VA), was also Secretary of the Navy and Chairman of the Armed Services Committee (KBE) during the Vietnam War. His mother, Catherine Mellon, daughter of philanthropist and four-star US Army Major Paul Mellon (OSS, KBE), was an activist who protested that war. She taught John to question authority, think independently, and speak his mind. Thanks to his family and his own persistence, Warner has been behind the scenes with some of the most powerful and influential people in US and global history.

When hes not doing research, Warner is also a true "gear head," having spent most of his adult life quenching a thirst for knowledge about race carsfirst as a professional Grand Am and American Le Mans Series racing driver (a "middle of the pack man" behind the wheel of a Corvette GT1 and a Porsche GT3R), and later researching the history of the sport for his NASCAR DVD series and his Little Anton book series. He started writing during a two-year-long rehabilitation from a racing accident: his long recovery gave him time to go deep into research. That research continues and is bringing forth astonishing and disturbing truths, which he posts regularly on his website. For more information visit JohnWWarnerIVAuthor.com.
Keiser University continues its climb as one of nation's top universities in providing social mobility to students.

Keiser University was once again named one of the best colleges and universities in the country in providing social mobility to its students according to U.S. News and World Reports 2022 Best Colleges ranking. Keiser earned the No. 5 spot in the Top Performers in Social Mobility subcategory and was the No. 1 rated university in Florida for the grouping.

We are very pleased to earn such high marks in social mobility for a third year in a row, said Arthur Keiser, Ph.D., Chancellor of Keiser University. Keiser University is dedicated to providing access and opportunity to a diverse population of students and were pleased to include this goal in our commitment to student success.

The Top Performers in Social Mobility subcategory ranks colleges and universities on their ability to graduate economically disadvantaged students. This is the third year U.S. News has included a ranking for social mobility which is computed by aggregating two ranking factors that measure graduation rates of Pell-awarded students.

Keiser University has continued its climb as one of the best schools in the country for economically disadvantaged students, earning a top spot on the Social Mobility ranking in each of the three years since U.S. News first published the list. In 2020, Keiser took the No. 34 overall spot and in 2021 Keiser ranked No. 11 in the category.

For the 2022 edition, Keiser earned the highest marks in Social Mobility among 14 Florida public and private colleges and universities that earned a spot on the list.

In addition to its spot on the social mobility ranking, Keiser earned a top 400 rating among all schools in the National Universities category. This is only the third year Keiser has been listed in the National University category which includes schools that are mostly research-oriented and offer a full range of undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral programs. Keiser moved from the Regional Universities grouping in 2020 as a result of its Carnegie Classification as a Doctoral/Professional University.

The 2022 US News & World Report rankings assesses more than 1,400 U.S. bachelors degree-granting institutions on 17 metrics and places the largest emphasis on a college's ability to retain and graduate its students. Other factors include class size, undergraduate academic reputation, and how much a school spends per student on instruction and other related educational expenses.

"As the fifth best university in the country for social mobility, we are honored to continue delivering education that helps our students create positive outcomes in their lives, said Keiser. This ranking further reinforces our commitment to providing our students with an education that leads to career success.

Keiser University enrolls more than 20,000 students at 21 campuses throughout Florida, internationally, and online. For nearly half a century, Keiser University continues to address the talent needs of Florida. Most of Keisers academic degrees are in industries identified as emerging or critically needed and address job growth in Floridas targeted industries.

About Keiser University:

Keiser University is a private, independent, non-profit university serving nearly 20,000 students at 21 Florida campuses, online, and two international sites. Co-founded in 1977 by Chancellor Arthur Keiser, Ph.D., and Evelyn Keiser, Keiser University currently offers more than 100 degrees from associates to the doctoral level. Keiser University is a member of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities and was ranked No. 5 in the U.S. in Social Mobility by U.S. News and World Reports in 2022. Keiser University is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges as a level VI institution. For more information, visit http://www.keiseruniversity.edu.
When it comes to protecting lives, material failure is just not an option. Our team is proud to ensure precision manufacture of the highest quality trasparent armor solutions.

Lumetrics, a manufacturer of precision non-contact thickness measurement and non-contact optical inspection systems, today announced a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract with the Army Research Lab (ARL) to ensure the quality development of transparent armor (TA) products, such as ballistic and blast-resistant glass.

TA products protect active-duty personnel, so manufacturing quality, consistent material composition, and material longevity are critical. The goals of this SBIR program are to assess the manufacturing quality of new TA windows, predict the failure of existing TA, and extend the service life of TA.

Lumetrics role in the project is to advance their multispectral low-coherence measurement interferometer (MS-LCI) by combining it with machine vision and a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor which will detect and predict material degradation and delamination. Advanced integrated solid-state multi-wavelength light sources will increase the sensitivity and robustness of the MS-LCI technology. Real-time simulations of TA materials will also shed light on root cause failure and possible remediation methods.

The highly tuned sensing technology will provide new approaches to predict TA failure, test TA manufacturing processes, and ultimately create new manufacturing methods that increase TAs longevity.

"We are fully committed to the mission-critical goals of this SBIR partnership with ARL," said John Hart, President and CEO of Lumetrics. When it comes to protecting lives, material failure is just not an option. Our team is proud to ensure precision manufacture of the highest quality transparent armor solutions.

Federal, state, and local officials and industry leaders commend the SBIR award and provide their full support of the project:

Senator Charles Schumer said, This award is a win-win-win allowing Lumetrics to grow in Rochester, through a project with the Army, and to perfect their cutting-edge technology, that will ensure the transparent armor and bullet-proof glass that protects our armed forces is safe and reliable. Lumetrics and its world-class workforce is another example of Rochesters leading optics industry that continues to develop innovative breakthroughs to push the frontiers of optics technology.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, chair of the Armed Services Personnel Subcommittee, stated, Lumetrics conducts innovative research that will go towards protecting our service members. This formative partnership with the Army Research Lab will help Lumetrics develop its groundbreaking technology in assessing the quality of transparent armor and allow it to continue to be an asset to Rochester, New York, and the entire nation.

Congressman Joe Morelle voiced his support, saying, Lumetrics is a leader in innovative, state-of-the-art technology that is transforming the way we protect the brave men and women of our armed forces. As a member of the House Armed Services Committee, Im so pleased that this significant award will help bolster transparent armor products and better protect the U.S. Army. I congratulate Lumetrics on this recognition of the important work they do, and I look forward to their continued growth and success.

Tom Battley, executive director of New York Photonics and the Rochester Regional Photonics Cluster, sees the partnership as a natural fit. It makes good sense that the DoD has selected Lumetrics as their metrology partner for transparent armor, he said. I can see plenty of other opportunities for using Lumetrics innovative technology for measuring other transparent / translucent components such as conformal and freeform windows. Congratulations to John Hart and his team!

SBIR programs support scientific excellence and stimulate technological innovations through this highly competitive investment program. Lumetrics two-year contract begins this month and ends in July 2023.

About Lumetrics

Lumetrics is the leading designer and manufacturer of precision thickness metrology equipment with total solution engineering expertise dedicated to the medical, glass, ophthalmic, automotive, food packaging, and coatings industries. Lumetrics expert engineers design custom metrology fixtures and data analysis packages for on-line or at-line thickness measurement applications. World-renown for the OptiGauge non-contact measurement system, Lumetrics also provides wavefront analysis of intraocular lenses, contact lenses, and laser beams across industry, government, and private research centers. With scalable Lumetrics technology, labs, R&D centers, and production lines realize improved yield, reduced costs, higher quality, and meet regulatory compliance requirements. Headquartered in Rochester, NY, Lumetrics has sales and support locations across Europe, Asia, and the Americas. For more information visit http://www.lumetrics.com.
Martello Technologies Group Inc., (Martello or the Company) (TSXV: MTLO), a leading developer of enterprise digital experience monitoring (DEM) solutions, announced the launch of Vantage DX, a new single platform DEM suite designed to optimize the work from anywhere Microsoft 365 and Teams user experience.

Vantage DX provides industry-leading Microsoft 365 and Teams user experience monitoring and analytics capabilities, allowing IT teams to rapidly prioritize and resolve performance issues impacting the user experience, and proactively optimize future performance. It speeds problem resolution with a unique data correlation engine that transforms monitoring data into Microsoft 365 and Teams performance insights. Vantage DX offers leading-edge monitoring and analytics capabilities in a single platform:

PRIORITIZE



Microsoft Teams Call Quality Analytics  Provides immediate insight into Microsoft Teams problems in an organization, going beyond the Microsoft Call Quality Dashboard (CQD) to provide data and alerts on every Microsoft Teams call, no matter where the user is located.

Proactive Microsoft 365 User Experience Monitoring Offers additional performance data for Microsoft Teams and every Microsoft 365 workload, providing alerts for performance issues before users even notice a problem.

RESOLVE

Microsoft Active Network Path Analysis  Helps IT teams to determine who owns any latency issues affecting Microsoft 365 and Teams services. Monitor and visualize the entire network path from the users to the Microsoft Global Network.

Microsoft 365 and Teams Advanced Troubleshooting - Find the root cause of Microsoft 365 and Teams service disruptions in seconds by correlating Martello Vantage DX insights with an organizations existing monitoring tools such as SolarWinds, SCOM, Nagios, Splunk and Cisco.

OPTIMIZE

Microsoft 365 and Teams Performance Reporting (SLA/OLA) - Design and track performance over time with SLA/OLA reports that highlight root cause for every degradation.

Microsoft 365 ITSM Incident Workflows - Empower IT Service Management teams to get full visibility of Microsoft 365 end-to-end service delivery and incidents.

Commenting on Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) research commissioned by Martello in August 2021, EMA Research Director Valerie OConnell said, Its no surprise that 82% of IT leaders view Microsoft 365 as mission critical or high importance, or that 21% state an outage has critical impact to the degree that business productivity grinds to a halt. What is almost shocking is that only 10% report having proactive or end-end views of these critical applications. That gap becomes even more pronounced when it comes to performance management of Microsoft Teams. The hybrid workplace has increased reliance on these capabilities for almost all enterprises, with 82% reporting usage at least doubling, if not more. Martello takes direct aim at this management gap.

Reliable Microsoft 365 and Teams user experiences have become more important than ever in todays modern workplace, said John Proctor, President and CEO of Martello. However, IT teams and MSPs struggle to understand how well these cloud services are being delivered to users working from a variety of locations. Vantage DX is a leading solution for Microsoft 365 and Teams digital experience monitoring, with a complete set of monitoring and analytics capabilities in a single platform designed with Microsoft expertise, to keep Microsoft 365 users productive no matter where they are located.

Vantage DX is offered with controlled availability in September, with general availability expected in October. Book a demo.

Related Resources



About Martello Technologies Group

Martello Technologies Group Inc. (TSXV: MTLO) is a technology company that provides digital experience monitoring (DEM) solutions. The companys products provide monitoring and analytics on the performance and user experience of critical cloud business applications, while giving IT teams and service providers control and visibility of their entire IT infrastructure. Martellos software products include unified communications performance analytics, Microsoft 365 end user experience monitoring and IT service monitoring and analytics. Martello is a public company headquartered in Ottawa, Canada with employees in Europe, North America and the Asia Pacific region. Learn more at http://www.martellotech.com

This press release does not constitute an offer of the securities of the Company for sale in the United States. The securities of the Company have not been registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, (the 1933 Act) as amended, and may not be offered or sold within the United States absent registration or an exemption from registration under the 1933 Act.

Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSXV) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking information can be identified by words such as:anticipate, intend, plan, goal, seek, believe, project, estimate, expect, strategy, future, likely, may, should, will and similar references to future periods. Examples of forward-looking information contained in this news release include, among others, statements with respect to Vantage DX being generally available In October 2021.

Forward-looking information is neither historical fact nor assurance of future performance. Instead, they are based only on our current beliefs, expectations and assumptions regarding the future of our business, future plans and strategies, projections, anticipated events and trends, the economy and other future conditions. Because forward-looking information relates to the future, they are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict and many of which are outside of our control. Our actual results and financial condition may differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking information. Therefore, you should not rely on any forward-looking information. Important factors that could cause our actual results and financial condition to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking information include, among others, the following:

continued volatility in the capital or credit markets;

our ability to maintain our current credit rating and the impact on our funding costs and competitive position if we do not do so;

changes in customer demand;

disruptions to our technology network including computer systems and software, as well as natural events such as severe weather, fires, floods and earthquakes or man-made or other disruptions of our operating systems, structures or equipment;

delayed purchase timelines and disruptions to customer budgets, as well as Martellos ability to maintain business continuity as a result of COVID-19;

and other risks disclosed in the Companys filings with Canadian Securities Regulators, including the Companys annual information form for the year ended March 31, 2020 dated December 24, 2020, which is available on the Companys profile on SEDAR at http://www.sedar.com.

Any forward-looking information in this news release is based only on information currently available to us and speaks only as of the date on which it is made. Except as required by applicable securities laws, we undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking information, whether written or oral, that may be made from time to time, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise.

-end-
Mercer Global Advisors Inc. (Mercer Advisors), a national Registered Investment Adviser (RIA) firm, today announced that the firm has won multiple awards in the prestigious wealthmanagement.com Industry Awards Program for 2021.

A judging panel of industry experts and luminaries recognized Mercer Advisors in the Family Office  Thought Leadership category for the 2030 Sustainable Growth and Development corporate initiative (Mercer 2030). Mercer 2030 is a company-wide program created to fulfill the mission of becoming a sustainable organization while contributing positively to the communities it serves.

In addition, Mercer Advisors senior executive, Karen Lee, was named the RIA Firm Leader  CMO of the Year for her previous role as Chief Marketing Officer. Lee has subsequently transitioned to a new role as Chief Business Solutions Officer for Mercer Advisors launching new businesses, and former Conde Nast executive, Gary Foodim, has recently joined as the firms new CMO, replacing Lee.

Karen Lee joined Mercer Advisors as Chief Marketing Officer in 2018, responsible for leading the firms marketing, branding, and organic growth efforts, resulting in the firms expansion from approximately $12 billion to approximately $32 billion in assets during her tenure. Lee has also served as the executive sponsor for Mercer Advisors womens initiative, InvestHERS, a comprehensive program designed to attract women into the financial services industry, as well as to better serve the unique financial planning needs of women investors. In 2019, InvestHERs was also recognized as the winning initiative in the wealthmanagement.com Industry Awards Program Family Office category.

This industry recognition is a tremendous honor and I want to thank the great marketing team at Mercer Advisors for their seamless execution of an ambitious marketing plan to become one of the industrys leading, national RIA firms, said Lee. This years caliber of Finalists shows the breadth and depth of talent in the RIA industry and it is truly an incredible accomplishment to be considered with them.

Mercer 2030 is new corporate program focused on furthering the firms commitment to being an industry leader in its commitment to sustainability and diversity, equity, and inclusion. The Mercer 2030 initiative builds on the firms legacy programs and is based on United Nations Sustainable Growth and Development (UNSDG) framework. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was adopted by all United Nations member states as a blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, and consists of 17 Sustainable Development Goals which are a call to action to positively transform the world.

As part of the ambitious agenda for the United Nations Sustainable Growth and Development (UNSGD) framework, Mercer Advisors has identified 4 specific UNSDG goals that the company and its employees will focus on that align with its values as a firm and its commitment to providing the highest level of client service. These include Innovation and Responsible Growth; Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI); Sustainable Environment; and Gender Equity.

We are extremely honored to be recognized as a multiple winner in this years wealthmangement.com Industry Awards, said Dave Welling, CEO of Mercer Advisors, also a previous winner in the wealthmangement.com Industry Awards Program as RIA CEO of the Year in 2019. These awards are a testament to the forward-looking and team-oriented culture of the entire Mercer Advisors team and our clients. It is gratifying to know that the commitment to becoming a sustainable organization is providing dividends beyond becoming good corporate citizens, but also to have a meaningful impact on the critical issues facing our world today. We are also very proud of Karens accomplishments as CMO and are fortunate to have her on our Senior Leadership Team.

About Mercer Advisors

Established in 1985, Mercer Global Advisors Inc. (Mercer Advisors) is a full-service wealth management firm that specializes in providing investment advice, financial and estate planning, and taxes, and corporate trustee and trust administration services. It is one of the largest Registered Investment Advisers and financial planning firms in the U.S. with over $31 billion in client assets. Headquartered in Denver, Mercer Advisors is privately held, has approximately 570 employees, and operates nationally across the country with 60 locations. Mercer Advisors, Inc. is a parent company of Mercer Global Advisors Inc. (RIA), majority owned by both Oak Hill Capital and Genstar Capital. Mercer Global Advisors has a related insurance agency. Mercer Advisors Insurance Services, LLC (MAIS) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Mercer Advisors Inc. Employees of Mercer Global Advisors serve as officers of MAIS. For Mercer Global Advisors clients who wish to purchase insurance products, MAIS has entered into a non-exclusive referral agreement with Strategic Partner(s). More information about MAIS and our Strategic Partners may be found in our Form ADV 2A. Visit us at http://www.merceradvisors.com.

Mercer Global Advisors Inc. is registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission and delivers all investment-related services. Mercer Advisors Inc. is the parent company of Mercer Global Advisors Inc. and is not involved with investment services.

Mercer Advisors is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice to clients. All estate planning documentation preparation and other legal advice is provided through its affiliation with Advanced Services Law Group, Inc.

Data as of July 31, 2021. AUM includes affiliates and wholly owned subsidiaries announced to date.

A panel of independent judges made up of top names in the industry and led by WealthManagement.com Editor-in-Chief David Armstrong determined the 2021 Wealthmanagement.com Industry Award winners. The best in each category were selected based on quantitative measures of their initiativessuch as scope, scale, adoption and feature setalong with qualitative measures, such as innovation, creativity and new methods of delivery. The awards expanded in 2021 to recognize product and service providers who are pioneering innovation in new and emerging technologies, as well as progressive companies that are advancing diversity, equity and inclusion in the financial services industry.

Neither rankings and/or recognitions by unaffiliated rating services, publications, media, or other organizations, should be construed by a client or prospective client as a guarantee that he/she will experience a certain level of results if Mercer Advisors is engaged, or continues to be engaged, to provide investment advisory services. Rankings published by magazines, and others, generally base their selections exclusively on information prepared and/or submitted by the recognized adviser. Rankings are generally limited to participating advisers (see participation criteria/methodology). Unless expressly indicated to the contrary, Mercer Advisors did not pay a fee to be included on any such ranking. No ranking or recognition should be construed as a current or past endorsement of Mercer Advisors by any of its clients.
By increasingly implementing digital tools, these banks will be able to better achieve sustainable outcomes and better serve their customers.

Mobiquity, a digital consultancy that designs and delivers innovative digital products and services for the world's leading brands, released today results of the firms new Global Benchmark for Sustainable Banking Report. The report explores how banking executives view sustainability in their practices and the barriers they need to overcome to achieve more sustainable behaviors. Mobiquity surveyed 400 banking executives at challenger and traditional banks across the US, UK, Germany and the Netherlands to understand the importance of scaling sustainability initiatives and the impact digital tools have on delivering greener outcomes.

According to Mobiquitys findings, many bank executives and board members are aware of the need to implement sustainable initiatives. In fact, 98% of banking executives in the US view sustainability as an important part of their business strategy. This is higher than executives in the UK (78%) and the Netherlands (91%), even though both countries are often more outspoken about their commitment to sustainability than the US. While the importance of sustainability is widely recognized, less than half of banking executives in the US (43%), UK (45%), Germany (40%) and the Netherlands (36%) are planning or implementing sustainable measures as part of their business strategy. This indicates that there may be a need for guidance from third parties when it comes to implementing sustainable initiatives.

Although there is a high level of awareness, the challenges of putting sustainable initiatives into practice has become a barrier. In the US, 37% of those surveyed believe that the biggest challenge to adopting sustainable initiatives is shifting cultural legacies that are hindering progress. To address these challenges and work toward a sustainable future, banks will need to leverage digital technologies to support the goal of reducing the carbon footprint of their organizations and, ultimately, becoming net-zero.

Even though consumers have increasingly adopted digital banking and its self-serve and branch-less culture, traditional banks are behind when it comes to implementing technology to kick-start these sustainable behaviors. In fact, 54% of traditional banks are encouraging remote working among employees to reduce customer and staff travel as their main sustainability initiative while 55% of challenger banks are using digital solutions to create sustainable outcomes. With consumers increasingly looking for sustainable alternatives, these traditional banks will need to do more to remain competitive as challengers continue to provide greener alternatives and tools, such as tracking the carbon footprint of purchases.

The need to scale sustainability initiatives has been accelerated over the course of the pandemic across all industries due to changing customer expectations and increasing social pressure for eco-consciousness, said Ruby Walia, Senior Advisor for Digital Banking at Mobiquity. Even though bank executives recognize their role in creating more sustainable organizations, we found friction between saying and doing across all banks surveyed. By increasingly implementing digital tools, these banks will be able to better achieve sustainable outcomes and better serve their customers.

Additional key findings include:



US banking executives have high digital sustainability awareness - 93% of US banking executives say they are are aware of how digital transformation can be used to drive sustainable outcomes, compared to the Netherlands (80%), UK (72%) and Germany (42%)

Challenger bank executives are more concerned with sustainability - In the US and UK, sustainability was the top concern at board level for challenger banks, while it was the lowest concern for traditional banks

In the US, challenger banks are taking action - 60% of executives at challenger banks in the US indicate they are taking steps to foster sustainable behaviors and outcomes compared to 48% of traditional banks

Barriers to sustainability differ for US banking executives - 42% of challenger banking executives believe the main barrier to adopting sustainable behaviors is that cultural legacies need to be shifted. While 33% of traditional banking executives believe that little knowledge of the market and how to drive sustainability as well as the lack of universally recognized regulation and enforcement are the main challenges

The full Global Benchmark for Sustainable Banking Report is available here. If you are interested in learning more about how Mobiquity is quickly transforming companies digital strategies, see here: https://www.mobiquity.com/our-work

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About Mobiquity

Mobiquity is a digital consultancy that partners with the world's leading brands to design and deliver compelling digital products and services for their customers. Its approach balances human needs with usefully applied technology, unbound creativity with research and analytics, and agile development with strict engineering and security standards. Mobiquity's end-to-end services consider every dimension of a digital business from marketing to IT, providing strategy, experience design, product engineering, cloud services and analytics. Mobiquity has extensive experience in creating new greenfield digital banks and new labels for our Fintech and incumbent banking clients. Based on this experience, we have set up and defined general designs, frameworks, workflows and building blocks that accelerate the setup of a new bank, ensure a short time to market and make use of proven best practices.

To learn more, visit https://www.mobiquity.com.
Memphis recipients' 2021 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 Memphis, Tennessee-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. Our list recognizes consultants who primarily work with mid-to-large sized employers, as well as brokers who work with small businesses.

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 group of insurance consultants who have demonstrated a wide range of experience, as well as positive employer feedback on service and quality. The industry has been dependent on referrals and existing relationships instead of data-driven outcomes for too long. With Mployer Advisor, we celebrate this distinguished group of brokers and consultants.

Memphis is a competitive job market in the U.S. Southeast that employs more than 610,000 people. Offering industry-leading, competitive employee benefits is a critical factor in hiring and engaging top talent for employers in Tennessee. Finding and partnering with a highly rated insurance consultant is imperative to retaining talent in any market.

The recipients of the 2021 Top Employee Benefits Consultant Awards serving Memphis employers are as follows:



CanopyNation

Lockton

Group Benefits LLC, An Alera Group Company

USI Insurance Services

Insurance Consulting Group, Inc.

Lipscomb & Pitts 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 consultants serving Memphis-based employers, 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
Raleigh recipients' 2021 award badge We are proud to honor this group of insurance consultants who have demonstrated a wide range of experience, as well as positive employer feedback on service and quality.

Mployer Advisor, the leading independent platform for employers to research, review and evaluate insurance brokers, is pleased to announce the Raleigh, North Carolina-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. Our list recognizes consultants who primarily work with mid-to-large sized employers, as well as brokers who work with small businesses.

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 group of insurance consultants who have demonstrated a wide range of experience, as well as positive employer feedback on service and quality. The industry has been dependent on referrals and existing relationships instead of data-driven outcomes for too long. With Mployer Advisor, we celebrate this distinguished group of brokers and consultants.

Raleigh is a competitive job market in the U.S. South, employing more than 700,000 people with one of the lowest unemployment rates in the county. Offering industry-leading, competitive employee benefits is a critical factor in hiring and engaging top talent for employers in North Carolina. Finding and partnering with a highly rated insurance consultant is imperative to retaining talent in any market.

The recipients of the 2021 Top Employee Benefits Consultant Awards serving Raleighs employers are as follows:



Gallagher Insurance, Risk Management & Consulting

HUB International

Scott Insurance

JRW Associates

The Sorin Group

McGriff

USI Insurance Services

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 serving Raleigh-based employers, 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
2021 ADAS Guide: Features & Packages by Manufacturer Automakers will often place the majority of their ADAS offerings into a single package with a proprietary name. With the 2021 ADAS Guide, we wanted to provide a more detailed look at what safety packages and features are currently on the market.

AutoVision News, an industry resource publication focused on advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), vehicle perception technology, and the latest trends in autonomous driving, has announced the release of its 2021 ADAS Guide. Starting with Acura and concluding with Volvo, the guide provides an in-depth look at what leading OEMs offer today when it comes to advanced safety features. The guide examines the propriety names manufacturers use for bundling ADAS technologies, what features they deem most important and are currently expanding on, what sensors they use, and how they approach advanced safety technology overall.

"While it's essential for the industry to address customer confusion around ADAS technologies, we believe it's also vital for those working in automotive to have a clearer picture of what OEMs offer right now for advanced safety technology," said Carl Anthony, Managing Editor of AutoVision News. "With the 2021 ADAS Guide, we wanted to provide a more detailed look at what safety packages and features are currently on the market."

Some of today's most well-known ADAS innovations, like GM's Super Cruise, Ford's Co-Pilot360, Mercedes-Benz's DISTRONIC, and Audi's Traffic Light Information, are covered at length with direct input from the manufacturer. Popular safety packages, such as Acura Watch, Mazda i-ACTIVSENSE, Nissan Safety Shield 360, Subaru EyeSight, and Toyota Safety Sense, are broken down and explained feature by feature.

"Automakers will often place the majority of their ADAS offerings into a single package with a proprietary name," Anthony said. "We wanted to create something where the individual features of those packages, and how they function, could be found in one place."

To celebrate the return of AutoSens this week to the Autoworld Museum in Brussels, Belgium, the 2021 ADAS Guide will be offered at a discounted rate of $29 USD (normally a $99 value). The guide is provided as a PDF download, compatible with laptops and mobile devices. Automakers are organized alphabetically, while important system names are bolded for easier reading. A free preview of the guide is available here.

About AutoVision News

AutoVision News supports engineers, scientists, and vehicle perception technology managers through a comprehensive content hub of news, analysis, reports, industry updates, white papers, and more. We see a need for collaboration and information sharing as ADAS technologies expand and evolve. By meeting the information needs of these and others, AutoVision News helps readers stay in touch with the global developments across all technical disciplines of vehicle perception.
Exterior of the Inside the Illegal Wildlife Trade "Inspiring the next generation to become conservation ambassadors is a vital component to putting an end to the illegal wildlife trade in the future. We take pride at Oakland Zoo in being an educational resource for wildlife conservation to the public", says Nik Dehejia, CEO at Oakland Zoo.

Oakland Zoo launched 2021 with Taking Action Against the Illegal Wildlife Trade, a multi-platform campaign, to advocate for the end of this disastrous, widespread industry. This campaign is at the heart of the Conservation Society of California's mission. In addition to this initiative, the Zoo is hosting an 'End the Trade' Day this Saturday, September 18, inviting guests to relinquish wildlife-based souvenirs they possess either while traveling abroad or through family generations, and learn about the best ways to join the Zoo in Taking Action For Wildlife and to #endthetrade.

Combatting the wildlife trade not only protects animals and their species  many of which are on the brink of extinction  but it also protects people from zoonotic diseases* worldwide.

"Inspiring the next generation to become conservation ambassadors is a vital component to putting an end to the illegal wildlife trade in the future. We take pride at Oakland Zoo in being an educational resource for wildlife conservation to the public", says Nik Dehejia, CEO at Oakland Zoo.

At the 'End The Trade Day' event, the Zoo will accept any wildlife-based items containing tusks, horns, bones, furs, turtle shells, reptilian skins, exotic feathers, and coral from guests. These animal products can appear as jewelry, souvenirs, hair accessories, fashion accessories (purses, belts, clothing), carvings, instruments, and more.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife  who are participating in the Zoos event - will use the animal products for training wildlife enforcement and K9 units, DNA sequencing and geolocating, and their reference database, preventing future wildlife crimes.

"People who choose to let go of these items are Taking Action for Wildlife directly. Their efforts offer hope that our society is moving towards a humane and sustainable future", says Amy Gotliffe, Vice President of Conservation at Oakland Zoo.

Aside from relinquishing wildlife trade items, guests can enjoy activities throughout the Zoo during the 'End the Trade Day' event. Children are given the opportunity to become honorary 'Wildlife Science Investigators' as they complete their #endthetrade investigation.

As the Zoo heads into its Centennial year, it will continue to find impactful ways to make a difference in the lives of the animals that call the Zoo home and to wildlife globally.

"Oakland Zoo, an AZA-accredited facility, is a leader in conservation which is underscored by their commitment to combat wildlife trafficking. I applaud their efforts to bring awareness to this important issue and provide members of their community with an actionable way to protect elephants and other endangered species from the illegal trade of wildlife", says Dan Ashe, President, and CEO, of the Association of Zoos and Aquarium.

For more information on the Oakland Zoo's 'Taking Action Against the Illegal Wildlife Trade' campaign, please go to: oaklandzoo.org/endthetrade

*A zoonotic disease is a disease that can transmit from animals to people or, more specifically, a disease that generally exists in animals but that can infect humans.

End the Trade Day  Event Drop-off Details:

Two ways to drop-off your items:

10:00am to 3:00pm at the Illegal Wildlife Trade Exhibit in the Zoo (Zoo admission ticket required)

Drop-off items at the Illegal Wildlife Exhibit in the African Savanna. Talk with California Department of Fish and Wildlife wardens and other conservation organization about the work that they do.

Bring the kids for onsite activities and the chance to become an honorary Junior Wildlife Conservation Investigator as you "investigate" at activity tables throughout the zoo. Visit the Rainforest for solutions to #EndTheTrade as we stop the demand for these products.

2:00pm to 7:00pm at the Snow Building on Zoo grounds (Drive-up & Drop-off only, No Zoo admission ticket required)

Simply drop-off items at the Snow Building. Drive-up & drop-off or stay around to talk with CDFW wardens and learn more about CSI (Conservation Science Investigation).

Surrendering items is anonymous, no forms, no questions asked.

Contact:

Isabella Linares

Oakland Zoo

ilinares@oaklandzoo.org

Office: 510-632-9525 ext. 239

Erin Harrison

Oakland Zoo

eharrison@oaklandzoo.org

Office: 510-632-9525 ext. 120

###

ABOUT OAKLAND ZOO AND THE CONSERVATION SOCIETY OF CALIFORNIA:

Oakland Zoo, home to more than 850 native and exotic animals, is managed by the Conservation Society of California (CSC); a non-profit organization leading an informed and inspired community to take action for wildlife locally and globally. With over 25 conservation partners and projects worldwide, the CSC is committed to conservation-based education and saving species and their habitats in the wild. Oakland Zoo is dedicated to the humane treatment of animals and is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), the national organization that sets the highest standards for animal welfare for zoos and aquariums.
Curtis Brunton has been named Senior Vice President, Business Development Officer for River City Bank. He is responsible for business development and CRE lending throughout the western United States. Now that we have begun to expand into new markets in Texas and other western states, we are excited to welcome a proven performer like Curtis to our team.

River City Bank announces the addition of Curtis Brunton as Senior Vice President, Business Development Officer. Brunton, who is based in Austin, TX, will be responsible for developing new business, with a focus on originating commercial real estate (CRE) loans throughout Texas and specific states in the western U.S. He brings more than 22 years of experience in loan origination and new business development, having most recently opened the San Francisco office for Morgan Stanleys commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) group in 2017.

Our team at River City Bank has experienced tremendous success in recent years, said Dan Franklin, Director of Commercial Real Estate for River City Bank. Now that we have begun to expand into new markets in Texas and other western states, we are excited to welcome a proven performer like Curtis to our team. We look forward to his business development efforts in growing markets such as Austin, which will serve as his home base.

TWEET THIS: People on the Move: @RiverCityBank expands CRE lending in #Texas with the announcement of Curtis Brunton as SVP, Business Development Officer based in Austin. He will oversee new business development and CRE lending in Texas and other western U.S. states. #commercialbanking

River City Bank has a track record of success in the California market, particularly when it comes to commercial real estate lending, said Curtis Brunton, SVP, Business Development Officer at River City Bank. I am excited to extend those practices into new markets in Texas and other states in the West.

As a CRE loan originator with Morgan Stanley based in San Francisco, Brunton focused on commercial lending throughout the western United States through mortgage banking clients and direct borrowers. Before opening that office with Morgan Stanley in 2017, he spent a total of 15 years with PGIM Real Estate Finance and two years as a Managing Director at Redwood Trust.

Brunton graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from University of Arizona.

For more information about River City Bank, visit RiverCityBank.com.

About River City Bank

Named one of Sacramento Business Journals 50 Fastest Growing Companies for each of the past five years, River City Bank is the Sacramento regions premier business bank with assets of almost $3.4 billion. River City Bank offers a comprehensive suite of banking services, including loans, deposits and cash management tools to the business, consumer and commercial real estate sectors. With tailored, executive-level service, an investment grade rating from S&P Global Ratings, and a Superior financial rating from the nations leading independent bank-rating firm, Bauer Financial, River City Bank redefines the banking experience and every touch point that surrounds it. River City Bank is the largest, independent, locally-owned bank in the Sacramento region with offices in the San Francisco Bay Area and a presence in Southern California. For additional information, please visit RiverCityBank.com or call (916) 567-2600. Member FDIC. Equal Housing Lender.
Roland DGA's new VersaUV LEC2 S-Series UV flatbed printers, such as the LEC2-640S model above, allow users to print vibrant graphics directly onto a vast array of rigid and flexible substrates. "Our VersaUV LEC2 S-Series printers will appeal to signmakers, personalization houses, industrial printers, and packaging experts looking for differentiated profit opportunities, shorter time-to-market capability, and cost savings,  Jay Roberts, Roland DGA UV Printer Product Manager

Wide-format imaging leader Roland DGA has announced the launch of its new VersaUV LEC2 S-Series printers, advanced UV flatbeds uniquely designed to maximize direct-to-object printing options for users and deliver unsurpassed graphic results. Available in two flatbed sizes (64-inch and 30 inch widths), the LEC2 S-Series printers offer print providers and manufacturers the best of both worlds  direct to product customization, plus direct printing on flexible and rigid materials that allows for an extensive range of merchandising, packaging, sign, and display application opportunities.

The LEC2 S-Series printers are ideal for users seeking an on-demand customization printing solution that complements their current capabilities for increased productivity and profitability. They combine superb imaging with outstanding versatility and production, allowing users to quickly turn around traditional print jobs and customize a vast array of products and merchandise with vibrant, detailed graphics.

The LEC2 S-Series offers machine options that reflect the products and types of media users want to print on. In addition to the available 64-inch and 30-inch widths, Roland DG offers two different carriage sizes and four different bed sizes to choose from, including a full-sized model that prints on full-boards. All LEC2 S-Series printers boast up to 7.87 inches of height clearance and are sturdy enough to support up to 2,373 pounds. This makes the LEC2 S-Series unbeatable for wide range of range of applications, including product personalization, package prototyping and short runs, tradeshow and retail signage, POP displays, interior decor, and printing onto panels, sheets, tables and heavy boards.

Our VersaUV LEC2 S-Series printers will appeal to signmakers, personalization houses, industrial printers, and packaging experts looking for differentiated profit opportunities, shorter time-to-market capability, and cost savings, said Roland DGAs UV Printer Product Manager, Jay Roberts. Theyre perfect for existing users of Roland DG LEF benchtop UV printers, or as an upgrade for existing roll-to-toll printer users, businesses looking to enter the world of UV printing, or operations with more industrial scale requirements. The versatility of configurations enables a range of exciting applications that offer increased profit margins and new business opportunities  both critical to success in todays competitive print market.

Each LEC2 S-Series model is built to take full advantage of Roland DGs specially formulated, GREENGUARD Gold certified, wide-gamut ECO-UV inks. Users can choose from eight different ink configurations to suit their specific quality, media and finishing needs, including dual CMYK for increased productivity, or CMYK with optional Red, Orange, White, Gloss and Primer. White and Gloss specialty inks make it easy to incorporate stunning dimensional and textural effects directly onto a vast array of substrates and objects, while the onboard Primer allows for improved adhesion and media compatibility.

A True Rich Color preset within the bundled VersaWorks 6 RIP software works hand-in-glove with the new Orange and Red ECO-UV 5 ink options to widen the color gamut, open up new creative opportunities, and increase color-matching accuracy. In addition to the new Orange and Red process colors, specific Pantone and DIC colors can now be achieved, making the reproduction of specific company brand colors easier than ever.

LEC2 S-Series printers are equipped with cutting-edge features that optimize overall image quality, performance and ease of use. For maximum productivity, LEC2 S-Series flatbeds offer an intuitive Distance Print Mode that maximizes print consistency on objects that are flat, irregular or curved. Smooth, trouble-free operation is further ensured by a Reverse Blow setting that removes material from the bed for clean, efficient production.

Every LEC2 S-Series printer also has several advanced safety features. A separate control tower with touch panel controls allows for the creation of a safe operator area. An emergency stop perimeter around the base (and on the side of the device) safeguards those operating the printer, even in the busiest of production environments. In addition, each model is equipped with a signal beacon with variable alerts that clearly highlights the printer status.

The VersaWorks 6 software that comes standard with LEC2 S-Series devices is Roland DGs most powerful and intuitive RIP to date. It boasts a Harlequin RIP dual core engine with 64-bit native processing for enhanced speed and file handling, a simple drag-and-drop interface, nesting, cropping and tiling features, a special Color Plate Generation function that allows you to automatically generate White, Gloss, and Primer layers directly in the RIP, variable data printing, and much more.

For more information on the new VersaUV LEC2 S-Series UV flatbed printers, visit https://www.rolanddga.com/LEC2S. To learn more about Roland DGA Corporation, or the complete Roland DGA product line, visit https://www.rolanddga.com.

About Roland DGA Corporation

Roland DGA Corporation serves North and South America as the marketing, sales, distribution and service arm for Roland DG Corporation. Founded in 1981 and listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, Roland DG of Hamamatsu, Japan is a worldwide leader in wide-format inkjet printers for the sign, apparel, textile, personalization and vehicle graphics markets; engravers for awards, giftware and ADA signage; photo impact printers for direct part marking; and 3D printers and CNC milling machines for the dental CAD/CAM, rapid prototyping, part manufacturing and medical industries.
Its important for us to show appreciation to our partners and customers because without them, we wouldnt be where we are today, said Boak.

Boak & Sons, Inc., a residential and commercial exterior contracting company in Youngstown, Ohio, is well known in the area for hosting the Annual Steak Fry. This event is held to thank customers, partners, and employees for their hard work throughout the year. On average, over 200 people from 50 different companies attend the event, but last year, the event was limited to Boak employees due to COVID-19. This year, Sam Boak has announced that on October 7th, the company will once again open its doors to those outside the organization.

Steaks for the event are supplied and cooked by Rachels Restaurant, who has catered for Boak & Sons events for many years, such as their annual Christmas party. The choice steaks are grilled right outside the Boak & Sons warehouse and served with other delicious side dishes and deserts from the caterer.

We cannot wait to welcome our customers and partners back to the Annual Steak Fry this year, said Boak. Last year was hard to confine the event to just our employees, but safety always comes first. We will still be following CDC Guidelines for COVID-19 precautions by recommending masks and keeping everyone at safe distances, but it will be great to see everyone again. Its important for us to show appreciation to our partners and customers because without them, we wouldnt be where we are today.

Sam Boak is especially grateful for the partners who supported his company through the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown. During that time, Boak made the decision to limit the company to emergency repairs only in order to keep his employees and customers safe during the unprecedented pandemic.

The shutdown was hard on all of us, said Boak. But our customers and partners showed extreme loyalty and patience, and for that we will be forever grateful.

The Annual Steak Fry is also open to the employees of Boak & Sons, giving them the opportunity to meet and mingle with their coworkers and meet the suppliers of the materials they work with every day.

For more information about Boak & Sons, Inc. and their services in roofing, gutters, insulation, sheet metal and siding, visit http://www.boakandsons.com or call 330-793-5646.

About Boak & Sons:

Boak & Sons, Inc. was founded by Sam Boak in 1974 as an insulation contractor. With the high energy costs of the 70's, Boak & Sons expanded early on into the roofing business. They offered economical roof installations through cutting edge technology and equipment, allowing customers to recoup even more in energy savings. Today, Boak & Sons is a residential and commercial contractor for roofing, insulation, sheet metal, siding, and gutters. Based in Youngstown, Ohio, the company serves customers in surrounding areas from Cleveland, Akron, and Canton to Cranberry and Pittsburgh. For more information on Boak & Sons, visit their website at: https://www.boakandsons.com/
Sarah Rose, who has a Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology and a Master of Science in Early Childhood Special Education, with a focus on sensory and behavior, has completed her new book Running for Love": a sporty romance that infuses brain science and the authors interesting knowledge about the body.

Rose writes, As the gun fired, Jules exploded from the blocks and down the track, running over every hurdle life had set in front of her. It was funny that her life was playing out as a metaphor as she worked

on reclaiming herself and attempted to go after what would make her happy. At thirty-four, Jules Turnage never dreamed that shed be competing in track and field at the college level again while attending graduate school, and she definitely didnt expect to experience her hormones to rage through her bloodstream. Jules thought shed be settled down by now; however, life hadnt exactly gone as she

had planned, starting when her grandma began showing signs of Alzheimers.

Published by Page Publishing, Sarah Roses titillating work details how Juless new environment has her being touched, touching, and watching beautiful bodies everywhere she turns. That, in combination with her intentional man drought, is causing her mind to shift into nympho-drive.

Jules must attempt to keep her loins in check as she journeys to discover which of her three agile men is meant to be her forever man. This book is set in the infamous Whiteaker neighborhood in rainy Track Town USA, also known as Eugene, Oregon, where lifestyle choices create a lively continuum of cultural diversity and the best people watching ever.

Jules and best friend, Erin, adore their routine hangouts with constant analyzing of life and what she wants, as she works on healing her internal scars and attempts to calm all her nervous energy. She has anticipated grad school to be a challenge. It is her quest for love and Olympic gold that both sneaks up on her. Grab hold of your handlebars and jump on for one fantastic ride as you join Jules for her most epic year.

Readers who wish to experience this romantic book can purchase Running for Love" at bookstores everywhere, or online at the Apple iTunes Store, Amazon, Google Play, or Barnes and Noble.

For additional information or media inquiries, contact Page Publishing at 866-315-2708.

About Page Publishing:

Page Publishing is a traditional, full-service publishing house that handles all the intricacies involved

in publishing its authors books, including distribution in the worlds largest retail outlets and royalty

generation. Page Publishing knows that authors need to be free to create, not mired in logistics like

eBook conversion, establishing wholesale accounts, insurance, shipping, taxes, and so on. Pages

accomplished writers and publishing professionals allow authors to leave behind these complex and

time-consuming issues and focus on their passion: writing and creating. Learn more at

http://www.pagepublishing.com.
In another industry first, Siemon, a leading global network infrastructure specialist, demonstrated operation of 10BASE-T1L Single-Pair Ethernet (SPE) over 400 meters of TERA balanced twisted pair copper cabling at the BICSI Fall Conference in Las Vegas, NV. For a detailed video overview of Siemons SPE demonstration, visit: http://www.siemon.com/SPE

Siemons fully shielded TERA SPE solution is the first 23 AWG balanced twisted-pair copper cabling system proven to support 10BASE-T1L over distances of up to 400 m (1,300 ft) for Operational Technology (OT) and 10 Mb/s enterprise IT applications. This is a milestone step in confirming SPEs ability to bring Ethernet network compatibility, including operation over a standardized, non-proprietary cabling infrastructure, to a wide range of OT devices operating at 10Mb/s or less such as sensors, actuators, and relays commonly used in building automation and industrial applications.

In Siemons demonstration, SPE was deployed to administer a basic access control system consisting of magnetic door locks responding to inputs from localized inputs like card readers and remotely managed control functions. Since SPE-enabled end-device and system development is in the pre-market stage, media conversion boards supplied by Analog Devices, Inc. were used in the evaluation to convert controller and end device 10BASE T TCP/IP output signals to 10BASE T1L. SPE system operation was successfully demonstrated over 400 meters of a one-pair channel constructed from Siemon category 7A cable and four Siemon TERA connectors. All Siemon connectors, cords, and cables in the SPE channel are commercially available with an installed base of millions of connections.

Its easy to specify new TERA permanent links that are capable of supporting both future IT and OT device connections over 400-meter distances, says John Siemon, CTO and Vice President of Operations. Because the Siemon TERA SPE cabling system is fully-shielded, it has the advantage of supporting up to four unique SPE applications and controllers over a single 4-pair standards compliant structured cabling channel  an ability thats referred to as cable sharing. Cable sharing saves material cost and more efficiently utilizes pathway space compared to deploying four SPE applications over four individual one-pair cables.

To learn more about Single-Pair Ethernet, visit Siemons SPE resource site at http://www.siemon.com/SPE. In addition to a detailed video demonstration, visitors can download multiple Technical Briefs covering strategies and topologies to support future proof and flexible SPE applications in both new and retrofit installations, as well as TERA system information and product specifications.

Siemon will be showcasing 10BASE-T1L operation over TERA SPE cabling at the upcoming InfoComm 2021, to be held October 19-23 in Orlando, FL. Please visit booth # 2021 for live product and system demonstrations. To learn more about attending InfoComm, visit https://www.infocommshow.org/

About Siemon

Established in 1903, Siemon is an industry leader specializing in the design and manufacture of high quality, high performance IT infrastructure solutions and services for Data Centers, LANs and Intelligent Buildings. Headquartered in Connecticut, USA, with global sales, technical and logistics expertise spanning 150 countries, Siemon offers the most comprehensive suites of copper and optical fiber cabling systems, racks, cable management, and Intelligent Infrastructure Management solutions. With more than 400 patents specific to structured cabling, Siemon Labs invests heavily in R&D and the development of Industry Standards, underlining the companys long-standing commitment to its customers and the industry. Through an ongoing commitment to waste and energy reduction, Siemons environmental sustainability benchmarks are unparalleled in the industry, including 179% global carbon negativity and zero-landfill status.
SPAN Digital This is an exciting time for SPAN. We are committed to hiring local, talented professionals who embody the SPAN spirit and desire to develop creative software solutions for our clients." - Chris Lyon, CEO, SPAN Digital Past News Releases RSS Ingrid Olivier Vorster Joins SPAN...

SPAN Digital, a global technical strategy and software engineering firm, today announced that it will continue its global expansion with the opening of a new business office in Guadalajara, Mexico. Yohans Mendoza, SPAN's Director of Technology and Operations, is spearheading the effort for the company.

Mendoza, who is originally from Mexico, has established a presence for SPAN in Guadalajara and expects to start recruiting immediately to hire several dozen Mexico-based engineers and technologists for the office scheduled to open later this year.

Mendoza has more than 20 years of experience in software engineering and development with start-ups and major corporations. He graduated from the University of Texas at El Paso in 2000 with a Master of Science degree in computer science.

One of the challenges in Mexico has always been the migration of local talent to other countries in search of better opportunities,'' said Mendoza. I have always had a goal of being able to get back to my home country in a position to expand those opportunities and bring visibility to the great talent within Mexico. I am excited about building a software engineering team in support of the companys strategic expansion and what that means for our Silicon Valley-based and global customersand Mexico.

SPAN Digital CEO, Chris Lyon, added, This is an exciting time for SPAN. Yohans broad experience and familiarity with this new market will be instrumental as we continue our global growth and establish our presence in Mexico. We are committed to hiring local, talented professionals who embody the SPAN spirit and desire to develop creative software solutions for our clients.

About SPAN Digital

SPAN Digital is a best-in-class technical strategy and software engineering firm that helps both major global brands and scaling start-ups make their digital visions a reality. SPAN, based in San Francisco, California and Cape Town, South Africa, partners with technology leadership and in-house development teams to create SaaS solutions that enable software engineering teams to be more productive and build the digital products enterprises need to stay competitive. https://www.spandigital.com
The newly launched SWR will work to create a global standard on sustainability in the wine industry. Building on regional sustainability certifications, the SWR will develop a consensus on what sustainability means, how it is implemented and measured.

They will raise awareness around sustainability issues and develop best practices to address them. From droughts, to flooding, raising temperatures and wildfires. Social pressures around workers rights and diversity, the wine industry, like many others, has significant issues that need addressing.

There are many innovative programs and projects to make vineyards and wineries more environmentally friendly and social just. Our goal is to bring them together to generate the clarity, cohesion, and collaboration necessary for the wine sector to establish itself as a leader on the world sustainability stage notes Richard Bampfield MW, the roundtables initial chair

The organization is well-positioned to achieve its goals, as its 49 founding members are major players, from all corners of the industry. We invite everyone in the wine community to join us, Bampfield added, noting that the SRW will be open to general membership in 2022.

A global problem, a global solution. Its common sense. As a trained economist, I firmly believe climate change must be combated with practical, implementable, and measurable global sustainability standards. With some of the best minds and leaders in the wine industry working together via the Sustainable Wine Roundtable, we can win the battle.

-- Co-owner Domaine Bousquet, Anne Bousquet

Two factors that attracted Domaine Bousquet to the SWR are: no greenwashing as members must demonstrate continuous improvement themselves, and the membership reflects the diversity of the industry, from leading brands to small producers to distributors and retailers. That diversity means the proposals will be refined by all the major sectors in the industry for a unified approach and workability in the real world.

The UK-based SWR is launching with 49 founding members:: Ahold Delhaize, Alko, Alliance Wine, Amfori, Amorim Cork, BLB Vignobles, British Glass, BSI, Catena Institute of Wine, Chateau Leoube, Cloudy Bay, Concha y Toro, Conseil Interprofessional du Vin de Bordeaux (CIVB), Diversity in Food and Beverage, Domaine Bousquet, Dr. Loosen, Enotria & Coe, Equalitas, Famille Perrin, Fish Friendly Farming, Food Alliance, Grupo Avinea, Hochschule Geisenheim University, International Wineries for Climate Action, JancisRobinson.com, Journeys End Vineyards, Lidl GB, Napa Green, New York Wine & Grape Foundation, North South Wines, Preferred by Nature, Ramon Bilbao, Schenk Group, Ste Michelle Wine Estates, Sustainable Agriculture Network, Sustainable Winegrowing Australia, Sustainable Winegrowing British Columbia, Systembolaget, The Co-op UK, The Fairtrade Foundation, The Porto Protocol, The Wine Society, Treasury Wine Estates, Vingruppen, Vintage Wine Estates, Waitrose & Partners, Whole Foods Market, Wines of South Africa, WWF South Africa.

Domaine Bousquet is Argentinas largest producer and exporter of certified organic wines, selling over 250,000 cases annually in the U.S. alone. Organically farmed since its founding, the Argentine winery released its first vintage in 2005. Currently transitioning to biodynamic production, its sustainably produced portfolio also offers USDA Certified Organic as well as vegan options. The winery is deeply involved in its Andean Uco Valley community, helping locals get an education and promoting from within the company.

Domaine Bousquet, owned and run by husband-and-wife team Labid al Ameri and Anne Bousquet, has made a name for itself in the organic category in a relatively short period, beginning with the 2005 release of the winerys first vintage. The 672-acre estate in Gualtallary, a sub-zone of Tupungato in Mendozas Uco Valley, is now Argentinas largest producer and exporter of certified organic wines. Vineyards planted in virgin terrain, starting in the late 1990s, lie at a dizzying altitude of 4,000 feet. True to its owners European heritage, the wines are crafted with a French winemaking sensibility.
Syntax, the leading multi-cloud and multi-ERP managed cloud provider for mission-critical applications, today announced a lineup of five Oracle technology events in the ERP, Cloud and Security space. During the live webinars, attendees will hear from Syntax and industry experts about how to use the cloud as a path to data transformation, how to plan for a successful year-end, and how to prepare for a successful 2022.

Upcoming Technology Events:

September 16, 2021

Unlocking More Value from Business Data with JD Edwards EnterpriseOne and Amazon Web Services

Digital transformation has accelerated the migration of ERP systems such as JD Edwards EnterpriseOne to cloud platforms like Amazon Web Services (AWS) to achieve scalability, high availability, economical and flexible data storage solutions, security, and dependable disaster recovery. During this virtual event, users will learn:



How JD Edwards EnterpriseOne has matured for operating in the cloud

Using Amazon Web Services to unlock the full potential of your business data

Dispelling the myths of data transformation  using modern analytics and analysis tools for real business impact

JD Edwards and AWS  using the cloud as a path to data transformation

September 23, 2021

JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Managed Application Security

In this webinar, Syntax and Q Software experts will focus on how to simplify the ongoing administration of ERP security for JD Edwards EnterpriseOne, review the entire ERP Security Lifecycle, and discuss where organizations can improve their audit and compliance, lower risk, and increase value:



Review the components of JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Application Security and the ERP Application Security Lifecycle

Differentiate the periodic and ongoing administrative activities which should occur to maintain EnterpriseOne Application Security

Review barriers to automating and simplifying security and moving to a JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Managed Application Security Service

September 30, 2021

Migrating IBM I (AS400) to the Cloud

As the backbone of numerous core business systems, the IBM I (AS400) has proven its value as a reliable and secure data processing and workload-optimized application system. As IBM continues to modernize this system, the thousands of companies running it are looking for opportunities to host in the cloud rather than on-premises. In this webinar, Syntax will discuss the benefits and considerations for migrating your IBM I (AS400) workloads to the cloud, including:



Best practices to migrate IBM I infrastructure to the Cloud

Achieving simplified IT operations

How to reduce total cost of ownership with cloud hosting

Increased flexibility and scalability in compute, storage, software, and back-up

Enhanced disaster recovery and high availability

October 7, 2021

2022 State of Oracle E-Business Suite: Optimization and Migration Strategies to Improve Enterprise Capabilities

There are several major dates coming up for both E-Business Suite and Oracle Database that customers must be aware of and act on. In this webinar, Syntax will discuss what you need to do to keep the lights on and review several key focus areas that are most concerning for Oracle customers for 2022 including license optimization, cloud migration options, integration strategies, multi-cloud management, and security:



Understand how Oracles Lifetime Support and Error Correction Policies impact your E-Business Suite application and what you need to do to stay supported

Discuss key areas to focus on during year-end to improve the health and performance of your E-Business Suite environment

Learn how to review your footprint to optimize Oracle licensing and support spend -- and how to proactively be prepared for an Oracle audit

Get an overview of integration technologies customers are using with E-Business Suite and how you can wrangle connectivity to other SaaS applications and reporting solutions

October 14, 2021

JD Edwards Payroll: Year-End Process for U.S. Companies

In this webinar, Syntax will discuss JD Edwards Payroll, the year-end process, and what needs to be done to have a successful transition from one year to the next. Experts will specifically discuss the latest changes for the 2021 W-2 process:



Payroll history integrity reports  Tax and Pay Types, Deductions, Benefits, and Accruals (PDBA)

Whats new for the 2021 W-2 process

Affordable Care Act (ACA) reporting

New legislation impacting JD Edwards Payroll and the year-end process

A separate webinar focusing on the impact and process for Canadian companies will be hosted on October 27, 2021. Registration for the event can be found here.

To learn more about Syntaxs upcoming events, visit https://www.syntax.com/events/.

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About Syntax

Syntax provides comprehensive technology solutions to businesses of all sizes with over 800 customers trusting Syntax with their IT services and ERP needs. Syntax is a leading Managed Cloud Provider for Mission Critical Enterprise Applications. Syntax has undisputed strength to implement and manage ERP deployments (SAP, Oracle) in a secure, resilient, private, public or hybrid cloud. With strong technical and functional consulting services, and world-class monitoring and automation, Syntax serves corporations globally across a diverse range of industries and markets. Syntax has offices worldwide, and partners with SAP, Oracle, AWS, Microsoft, IBM, HPE, and other global technology leaders.
Two brands known for innovative thinking and creative ideas, The Dali and Dunn&Co. coming together seems a fateful pairing.

Dunn&Co., one of the Southeasts leading branding, advertising and production companies, today announced that The Dali Museum located in St. Petersburg, Florida, will join its client roster.

The agency will kick off the relationship by assisting The Dali in projects such as market assessment, audience demographic research, and the creation and execution of media related to the Museums special exhibitions, educational programs and fundraising events.

Two brands known for innovative thinking and creative ideas, The Dali and Dunn&Co. coming together seems a fateful pairing, said Troy Dunn, President and Chief Creative Officer. Its a partnership Ive long wanted to be engaged in, so were thrilled to start providing them the exceptional creative and strategic horsepower enjoyed by our other clients.

Were excited to work with a Tampa Bay company that has their finger on the pulse of national marketing trends and emerging digital media, said Beth Bell, Dali Museum Marketing Director. Dunn&Cos strategic approach to building and executing integrated media campaigns aligns well with our targeted marketing strategy.

Dunn&Co. is regularly recognized for its award-winning work including integrated campaigns, TV broadcast, digital/web, print, outdoor, radio, video, brand identity and events.

About Dunn&Co.

Dunn&Co. (http://www.dunn-co.com) is a branding, advertising and marketing communications firm with offices in Tampa and the United Kingdom. They provide award-winning creative solutions for clients worldwide, including GE Healthcare, Tampa Bay Lightning, Trivago, Baxter Healthcare, Checkers, Grow Financial, State of Florida, Abbvie, Smokey Bones, Ashley Furniture, The Florida Aquarium, Cru Hospitality, World of Beer, Sabal Trust, Arrmaz and Connectwise.

About The Dali Museum

The Dali Museum, located in the heart of picturesque downtown St. Petersburg, Florida, is home to an unparalleled collection of over 2,400 Salvador Dali works, including nearly 300 oil paintings, watercolors and drawings, as well as more than 2,100 prints, photographs, posters, textiles, sculptures and objets dart. The Museums nonprofit mission, to care for and share its collection locally and internationally, is grounded by a commitment to education and sustained by a culture of philanthropy.

The Dali is recognized internationally by the Michelin Guide with a three-star rating; has been deemed one of the top buildings to see in your lifetime by AOL Travel News; and named one of the ten most interesting museums in the world by Architectural Digest. The building itself is a work of art, including a geodesic glass bubble, nicknamed The Enigma, featuring 1,062 triangular glass panels, a fitting tribute to Salvador Dalis legacy of innovation and transformation. The Dali Museum is located at One Dali Boulevard, St. Petersburg, Florida, 33701. For more information visit TheDali.org.
Finding the cheapest car insurance rate can be easily done by shopping around. By comparing car insurance rates twice per year, policyholders can find out if their current providers offer the cheapest rate, or if its time to look for other providers. said Russell Rabichev, Marketing Director

Compare-autoinsurance.org has launched a new blog post that presents how to properly compare car insurance quotes and why it is important.

For more info and free car insurance quotes, visit https://compare-autoinsurance.org/why-drivers-should-compare-car-insurance-quotes/

Not everyone is excited when it comes to comparing car insurance quotes, but by doing this task drivers can save a lot of money. Although insurers look at similar factors when it comes to setting rates, they use different algorithms. The same driver can get two completely different premiums from two different insurers. To find the cheapest rates, drivers should compare multiple car insurance quotes from different car insurance companies.

To properly compare car insurance quotes, drivers should do the following:



Gather information. Drivers will need to fill in personal information such as the address, date of birth, occupation, driver's license, and marital status of everyone they want included on the policy. They will also need to complete vehicle information like make, model, year, mileage, VIN, and data about their driving history in the last five years such as claims, violations, and tickets. If the drivers had completed driving courses, they should mention them. Furthermore, they will have to add the current or previous insurers name for anyone on the policy or in the household.

Choose the right coverage levels. Liability auto insurance protects policyholders from the worst-case scenario by providing a cushion between their assets and the amount theyre on the hook for. Liability coverage has three parts: bodily injury liability, total bodily injury liability, and physical damage liability. For a 100/300/100 limits option, the insurer will reimburse up to $100,000 for bodily injuries per person the policyholder injures in a crash, up to $300,000 total for all bodily injuries caused by the policyholder in a crash, and up to $100,000 for any damage to a property caused by the policyholder. In some states, the policyholders will be required to get personal injury protection (PIP), medical payments coverage (medpay), or uninsured/underinsured motorist coverages.

Decide if full coverage is needed. Besides liability coverage, full coverage contains additional policies like comprehensive and collision coverages. Collision pays for damage to a policyholder's vehicle in an at-fault accident, damage to a vehicle that hits objects like a pole or a fence, damage to a policyholder's vehicle that was caused by another driver. Comprehensive coverage pays for car theft, damage caused by weather like tornadoes, hailstorms, or hurricanes, fire, floods, explosions, falling objects, animal collisions, and vandalism.

Collect as many quotes as possible and compare them. Drivers should compare quotes from at least two or three insurers. When comparing quotes drivers should also include offers from smaller local or regional insurers. To properly compare quotes, drivers should make sure that when they compare quotes that each quote contains the same levels of liability, the same deductibles for full coverage, the same drivers and cars, and the same discounts they are eligible for.

For additional info, money-saving tips and free car insurance quotes, visit https://compare-autoinsurance.org/

Compare-autoinsurance.org is an online provider of life, home, health, and auto insurance quotes. This website is unique because it does not simply stick to one kind of insurance provider, but brings the clients the best deals from many different online insurance carriers. In this way, clients have access to offers from multiple carriers all in one place: this website. On this site, customers have access to quotes for insurance plans from various agencies, such as local or nationwide agencies, brand name insurance companies, etc.
Cuong Le, D.O. CEO Paul Singh stated, We are pleased to have Dr. Le join our team of accomplished physicians in Centreville. This well-established location has a long history of serving the community and we are happy to continue to grow the team to meet patient demand.

U.S Dermatology Partners is pleased to welcome Dermatologist Dr. Cuong Le to their Centreville, Virginia location.

Dr. Cuong Le graduated from Christopher Newport University with a BS in Cellular and Molecular Biology and Neuroscience. He earned his osteopathic medical degree from Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine in Blacksburg, VA. He graduated with honors and was a member of the osteopathic medical honor society, Sigma Sigma Phi. He completed his transitional year internship at Firelands Regional Medical Center in Sandusky, OH, and then completed his dermatology residency at Hackensack University Medical Center  Palisades in North Bergen, NJ.

Dr. Le is a member of the American Academy of Dermatology and the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery. He has published journal articles in peer-reviewed journals as well as international journals. He continues to stay current with new guidelines in dermatology to provide the most up-to-date evidence-based medicine.

Dr. Le treats both adult and pediatric patients for medical, surgical, and cosmetic dermatology. He enjoys performing full-body checks and skin cancer screenings, treating conditions such as acne, eczema, psoriasis, cyst excisions, and performing cosmetic procedures (Botox, fillers, lasers), and more! Dr. Le has extensive training in treating patients of all races and concerns specific to skin of color patients. He has a passion for helping patients look and feel good about themselves. He believes in patient education and making sure patients understand their diagnosis and treatment plans. Dr. Le provides a safe space for members of the LGBTQ community.

Dr. Le joins Neeraja Mattay, M.D., Imran Aslam, M.D., Kassahun Bilcha, M.D., and Michael Yablonsky, M.D.

U.S. Dermatology Partners Chief Executive Officer Paul Singh stated, We are pleased to have Dr. Le join our team of accomplished physicians in Centreville. This well-established location has a long history of serving their community and we are happy to continue to grow the team to meet patient demand.

Dr. Le is now accepting new patients at our Centreville, Virginia office. To schedule an appointment, call 703-222-2773.

About U.S. Dermatology Partners

As one of the largest dermatology practices in the country, U.S. Dermatology Partners patients not only have access to general medical, surgical, and cosmetic skin treatments through its coordinated care network but also benefit from the practices strong dermatology subspecialty thought leaders and medical advisory board. To be the best partner to its patients, U.S. Dermatology Partners is fervently focused on providing the highest level of patient-first care, and its team, therefore, includes recognized national leaders in areas such as clinical research, psoriasis, and Mohs Surgery. To learn more, visit usdermatologypartners.com.
Process Payroll With Year-To Date Feature, Midyear with ezPaycheck When utilizing the latest ezPaycheck payroll software mid-year, small to midsize trucking companies spend less time worrying about processing payroll and filing payroll taxes to spend more time generating revenue.

The trucking industry has grown tremendously and Halfpricesoft.com has accommodated this growth by updating ezPaycheck to handle payroll, in-house for less. Trucking companies across the US can now process payroll mid-year in the following ways: hourly-pay, salary, mileage, bonus, commission, tips and pay-by-load for employees, contractors and drivers. The software can also easily handle per diem and other reimbursements.

When utilizing the latest ezPaycheck payroll software mid-year, small to midsize trucking companies spend less time worrying about processing payroll and filing payroll taxes to spend more time generating revenue, said Dr. Ge, the Founder of Halfpricesoft.com.

ezPaycheck software is designed to automate paycheck processes to reduce the time spent on running payroll. The softwares graphical interface leads users step-by-step through setting up employee information, importing data, calculating payroll - including calculation of federal, state and local taxes; deductions for Medicare, insurance and 401(k) plans; and printing paychecks. Potential customers can download and try this software with no obligation and no cost at https://www.halfpricesoft.com/index.asp

Trucking businesses get the following features when switching to ezPaycheck payroll software, mid-year:



Supports multiple differential pay rates such as: hourly, salary, night shift, by piece, by load, or by mileage rates for employees

Supports multiple accounts at no additional charge

Supports network access for 2-10 users

Supports daily, weekly, biweekly, semimonthly and monthly payroll periods. Features report functions, print functions, and pay stub functions

Prints miscellaneous checks as well as payroll calculation checks

Prints payroll checks on blank computer checks or preprinted checks

Automatically calculates federal withholding tax, social security, Medicare tax and employer unemployment taxes

Includes built-in tax tables for all 50 states and the District of Columbia

Creates and maintains payroll for multiple companies, and does it simultaneously

Prints Tax Forms 940, 941, W2 and W3 (Please note: Copy A preprinted forms required for printing W2 and W3).

Supports network access. (Additional cost)

Now for a limited time, customers can get 2021 version for only $79.00 (regularly $109 per calendar year). Start the no obligation 30-day test drive today at https://www.halfpricesoft.com/index.asp.

Halfpricesoft.com is a leading provider of small business software, including online and desktop payroll software, online employee attendance tracking software, accounting software, in-house business and personal check printing software, W2, software, 1099 software, Accounting software, 1095 form software and ezACH direct deposit software. Software from halfpricesoft.com is trusted by thousands of customers and will help small Business owners simplify payroll processing and streamline business management.
USOSM President and CEO Richard Hall praises new partner's dedication to patient care and clinical excellence. We always strive to provide our patients with the highest quality care possible. Thats why we decided to partner with USOSM.

U.S. Oral Surgery Management (USOSM)  a specialty management services company that exclusively serves premier oral and maxillofacial surgeons  is pleased to announce a partnership with Hilton Head Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery, which has locations in Hilton Head and Bluffton, South Carolina.

The Hilton Head Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery team is led by Dr. Brian Low, an exceptionally skilled, experienced and compassionate oral and maxillofacial surgeon. His team is well known in the Hilton Head and Bluffton communities for their dedication to patient care and clinical excellence, values that we look for in all of our partner practices, said Richard Hall, USOSM president and CEO.

As its new partner, USOSM will provide Hilton Head Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery with business support, such as operational services, best practices and additional resources. Like all of USOSMs partner practices, Hilton Head Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery will retain complete clinical autonomy, keeping its focus on patient care.

Hilton Head Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery believes a better life starts with a beautiful smile. Brian Low, DMD, FACOMS, is a board-certified oral and maxillofacial surgeon, who is an expert at a wide range of oral and maxillofacial surgery services, including wisdom teeth removal, dental implants, eliminating facial pain, treating oral cancer, orthognathic surgery and more. In addition, Dr. Low and his team provide several cosmetic treatments to help enhance appearance and reduce the signs of aging.

Dr. Low is certified in CPR and in advanced cardiac life support and is a board-certified diplomate of the American Board of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. He is a fellow of the American College of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, and a member of the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, International Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, American College of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, American Dental Association and South Carolina Society of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons.

We always strive to provide our patients with the highest quality care possible. Thats why we decided to partner with USOSM, noted Dr. Low. They bring finely-tuned business expertise and other resources that will help us provide more efficient, better care for our patients.

Headquartered in Irving, Texas, USOSM has partner practices spanning 16 states. They are Texas, Colorado, Georgia, Tennessee, Minnesota, Alabama, Oklahoma, Louisiana, South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Arizona, California and Oregon. A shared services organization, USOSM collaborates with premier oral and maxillofacial surgeons to offer a partnership solution for continued and accelerated practice success. USOSM provides operational, marketing and administrative support services, reinvests resources, and applies best practices to improve clinical and financial performance and produce steadier, more profitable growth for all. For more information, visit https://www.usosm.com/.
With U.S. President Joe Biden announcing mandatory COVID-19 vaccines for employees at larger companies last week, businesses may soon face another hurdle in the coming monthsdeciding whether to require vaccine boosters as initial shot efficacy begins to wane.

Nearly half of Americans (45%) think employers should require workers to receive a COVID-19 vaccine booster shot when the time comes. This is according to a new survey from The Harris Poll, commissioned by Express Employment Professionals.

Thirty-five percent do not believe it should be a requirement, but rather a recommendation. The remaining 20% of those polled said businesses should stay out of it completely, neither advocating for or against the booster shot.

Groups more likely to agree with the booster mandate at work include men (49%), those with a household income of at least $100K (53%) and college graduates or higher education (57%).

Notably, older adults, age 65+, are more likely than younger adults to favor the requirement (57%), while those ages 18-34 are most likely to say employers should recommend, but not require, the booster (40%).

In another recent survey from The Harris Poll, the vast majority of Americans who are already vaccinated (82%) say they are likely to get a coronavirus booster shot. But, a little over half of the respondents added the need for booster shots has impacted their confidence in the vaccine they already received.

Express franchise owners across the nation say initial vaccines were already required by some clients in industries such as food manufacturing/packing, hospitality and senior living communities. One franchisee added that multiple local businesses have mask mandates in place, but with the tremendous labor shortage, clients stand to lose several employees by requiring any COVID-19 shot.

Furthermore, the Express franchisees do not anticipate COVID-19 booster vaccine mandates by businesses any time soon for reasons such as employee hesitancy to first and second shots, uncertainty about the efficacy of the boosters and worries about exacerbating the worker shortage.

Health officials recommend booster shots 8 months after receiving one of the mRNA vaccines. The Biden administration announced last month that these would be available the week of September 20, pending clearance from the Federal Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Survey Methodology

The survey was conducted online within the United States by The Harris Poll on behalf of Express Employment Professionals between Aug. 31  Sept. 2, 2021, among 2,000 U.S. adults ages 18+ in the U.S. Data was weighted where necessary bring it into line with actual proportions in the population.

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If you would like to arrange for an interview with Bill Stoller to discuss this topic, please contact Sheena (Karami) Hollander, Director of Corporate Communications and PR, at (405) 717-5966.

About Bill Stoller

William H. "Bill" Stoller is chairman and chief executive officer of Express Employment Professionals. Headquartered in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, the international staffing company has more than 830 franchises in the U.S., Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. Since inception, Express has put more than 9 million people to work worldwide.

About Express Employment Professionals

At Express Employment Professionals, were in the business of people. From job seekers to client companies, Express helps people thrive and businesses grow. Our international network of franchises offers localized staffing solutions to the communities they serve across the U.S., Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, employing 526,000 people globally in 2020. For more information, visit http://www.ExpressPros.com.
Mercy Center will be available at the fundraiser to share its mission and vision with the community. We are extremely excited to connect with the Asbury Park community through this amazing outreach opportunity and will have a table onsite at the event," said Guadagno.

Mercy Center, an Asbury Park-based nonprofit, has been named as a beneficiary for the Wishlist Foundations Sea.Hear.Now Festival pre-party fundraising event. The pre-party event will be held on Friday, September 17 at Johnny + Junes at the Berkeley Oceanfront Hotel in Asbury Park, featuring performances by Jack West and other local musicians. The fan fundraiser will also support Pearl Jams Vitalogy Foundation and other spotlight charities.

We are so grateful to the Wishlist Foundation for selecting Mercy Center as its designated nonprofit this year, said Kim Guadagno, Executive Director of Mercy Center. We are extremely excited to connect with the Asbury Park community through this amazing outreach opportunity and will have a table onsite at the event. Anyone interested should stop by to learn more about Mercy Center and see how, together, we can bring a voice to our neighbors in need.

A longtime advocate for the city of Asbury Park, Mercy Center has been serving the city by the sea since 1986 through 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.

One of my favorite things about Wishlist is that we focus on local organizations in the towns where we fundraise, said Laura Trafton, Chief Executive Officer of Wishlist Foundation. We know Pearl Jam fan donations will be utilized towards real grassroots change. We learned about Mercy Center from Maria Barba-Clinch, and we absolutely love all the different approaches they take to support the Asbury Park community.

It is important to us that we support our community, said Barba-Clinch and her husband, Danny Clinch, Photographer, Director, Owner of the Transparent Gallery, and Sea.Hear.Now Partner and Promoter. We were drawn to Mercy Center for its dedication in offering crisis help for families in Asbury Park. The importance of Sisters Academy of NJ for young girls cannot be overstated as an integral component in creating healthy confident future community citizens. We all rise when we help each other.

Inspired by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame legends music, philanthropy and activism, Pearl Jam fans volunteering with Wishlist Foundation have been fundraising in their honor for the past 17 years. We are incredibly grateful for the decade-plus years of support and inspiration from the Wishlist Foundation's pre-parties, states Mike McCready, lead guitarist of Pearl Jam. I think our fans are very proactive in terms of fundraising for events before our shows. They do it of their own volition and they take care of each other and their communities. It always blows me away.

Open to the public, attendees of the pre-party fundraiser can make donations to receive band and fan inspired merchandise and enter raffles for chances to win fan-donated band collectibles. Silent and live auctions will feature donated autographed Pearl Jam posters and other rare memorabilia. More information on the fan-run Wishlist Foundation fundraisers can be found at wishlistfoundation.org.

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.

About Wishlist Foundation

Conceived in 2004 and officially organized in 2006, Wishlist Foundation has remained a 100 percent volunteer organization run by fans, raising over 1.5 million dollars for charitable organizations in the arenas of health and chronic illness, environmental causes, arts and education and social change. A pioneer in fan-based viral activism and leader in the Pearl Jam fan community, Wishlist Foundation sponsored events are the go-to destination for thousands of both diehard and new fans of the band across the globe to gather before Pearl Jam and other related concerts, forge new friendships, all while uniting behind causes important to both the fans and band. Wishlist Foundation is fan-run and not affiliated with Pearl Jam, Ten Club LLC, Pearl Jams Vitalogy Foundation, its management or any of its related entities.
Dave has done great things for the state of Ohio and will now be able to help us support other governmental agencies around the world.

Woolpert has hired David Blackstone as a geospatial program director in the firms government solutions market. Blackstone served as Ohios geospatial information officer (GIO), was the executive director of the Ohio Geographically Referenced Information Program for the last four years and prior to that, spent 27 years as the GIS manager for the Ohio Department of Transportation.

At OGRIP, Blackstone was responsible for Ohios statewide geospatial organization, successfully fostering collaboration and coordination at all levels of government, academia and the private sector. At ODOT, he directed statewide transportation information management, including GIS, mapping and roadway inventory operations. Blackstone was part of the first statewide mapping efforts in 2006 through the Ohio Statewide Imagery Program and has continued to elevate the states mapping and geospatial capabilities throughout his career.

Dave has been collaborating for years with the U.S. Geological Survey for its 3D Elevation Program on behalf of Ohio, and the resolution and scale of the data being procured is enough to make other states envious, Woolpert Vice President and Market Director Brian Stevens said. He also has been intimately involved with the development of the Ohio Location Based Response System, working throughout the state with county governments on the collection of spatially accurate street centerlines to reduce data redundancies and support emergency dispatch and first responders. He has done great things for the state of Ohio and will now be able to help us support other governmental agencies around the world.

Blackstone said in his role at Woolpert, he will help state agencies reap the vast and diverse benefits of geospatial data. He said mobile lidar data, for example, creates asset inventories for transportation agencies to support operations and maintenance, as well as infrastructure planning, design and construction. This data supports electric vehicles by providing non-linear elevation mapping to determine how far that vehicle can travel before recharging specific to that region. It also will be essential for smart technologies, like autonomous vehicles.

Some state agencies are still using legacy data collections and sending staff out into the field with clipboards, while the amount of assets these agencies have to manage continues to grow, Blackstone said. These data provide immense value to multiple, if not all, governmental departments and can be managed and maintained off-premises through cloud-based solutions to minimize ownership costs. This enables states and counties to improve services and keep pace with technology, while staying on budget.

Stevens said Blackstone, who has worked with Woolpert for decades on multiple geospatial projects, knows firsthand what issues are faced by these agencies and what solutions will work.

Its invaluable to have someone who has been on the other side of the table for most of his career come work for us in this capacity, Stevens said. Dave is well respected as a leader and an innovator. We know what he has done and what he can do, and we are very excited he is now on our side of the table.

Blackstone said when he thought about leaving state service, Woolpert was at the top of the list.

Many projects go sideways at some point, but Woolpert never points fingers and is always focused on the solution. Thiscombined with partnerships with A-list companies like Google, Esri and Planetmade me want to be part of this innovative firm, Blackstone said. Even more importantly, everyone I have dealt with at Woolpert has been professional and excited about the work and the company. Ive always been impressed with the culture here and how employee-centered Woolpert is, and this has just grown since I was hired. Im amazed by the resources available and the people who have reached out to me. Im very happy to be here.

About Woolpert

Woolpert is the premier architecture, engineering, geospatial (AEG) and strategic consulting firm, with a vision to become one of the best companies in the world. We innovate within and across markets to effectively serve public, private and government clients worldwide. Woolpert is an ENR Top 150 Global Design Firm, recently earned its sixth-straight Great Place to Work certification and actively nurtures a culture of growth, inclusion, diversity and respect. Founded in 1911 in Dayton, Ohio, Woolpert has been Americas fastest-growing AEG firm since 2015. The firm has over 1,600 employees and 57 offices on four continents. For more, visit woolpert.com.
Trackunit x ZTR coming together By combining ZTR IIoT and Trackunit resources and offerings, were better equipped to serve the needs of the customers now and in the future, says ZTR President and CEO Sam Hassan.

Trackunit and the Industrial IoT division of ZTR are uniting to better serve the growing demands of the construction industry. Putting customer needs first, the two telematics leaders are combining their considerable resources to accelerate innovation and drive digital transformation  with collaboration and service at the center of their strategy.

We see the industry at a pivotal turning point when it comes to digitilization of their business and equipment  and customers are looking for a trusted partner, says Soeren Brogaard, CEO of Trackunit.

ZTR President & CEO Sam Hassan, agrees, By combining ZTR IIoT and Trackunit resources and offerings, were better equipped to serve the needs of the customers now and in the future.

Strengthening our core focus

As a new combined entity, Trackunit and the ZTR IIoT division will extend their core focus to accelerate the digital journey in construction, Hassan continues.

By coming together with Trackunit, we will be able to operate on a global scale to provide an expanded offering to OEMs, rental companies, and contractors with greater efficiency and depth, he says.

Together, we are strengthening our core focus on enabling the ecosystem of construction. By combining our businesses, were elevating our technology and increasing the value customers will be able to extract from their data, adds Soeren Brogaard.

Over the past few years, the realm of IoT and telematics possibilities has evolved from simple track and trace technology into highly actionable insights that create massive value for key stakeholders.

After the transaction closes the combined entity of Trackunnit and ZTR will specialize in creating offerings that enhance utilization, increase fleet availability, improve safety and reduce equipment loss as major value drivers. In addition, both companies will help customers in collecting data and translating it into actionable insights  enabling customers to build smarter and more resilient machines. Furthermore, the combined entity are dedicated to helping improve daily operations for customers with increased operator safety, machine health and business optimizations.

Our promise to the industry is based on collaboration. With a purpose as determined and noble as eliminating downtime, we know that working with our customers to apply new digital tools, is absolutely necessary. We strive to solve real problems, building everything for scale, while showing compassion for our customers, partners, competitors, and the industry at large, says Soeren Brogaard.

Best of both worlds

At their cores, both Trackunit and ZTR are in business to build solutions that propel the construction industry forward. Trackunit recently attracted a strategic investment from the British private equity company Hg to accelerate the company expansion, while ZTR has been transforming its business, and predicts growth through rising demand.. Both Trackunit and ZTR have recently taken their first steps into, and secured traction in, the APAC region. Both businesses are ready to start the next chapter  one company focused on uniting the industry and shape it to become the most useful, effective and efficient in the world. In essence, the timing couldnt be better.

"Were focused on delivering our existing customer commitments and creating a smooth integration. This is all about bringing people, competence, and great technology together to create a bigger impact," says Soeren Brogaard.

A shift in the market

The construction industry is growing rapidly. It is experiencing accelerated investment in IoT capabilities with construction now one of the top five industries for investment growth. As a result, data proliferation is expected to grow exponentially as penetration of connected equipment continues beyond 2025 and machine-level data grows. Given these developments, Trackunit and ZTR IIoT are teaming up to better help their customers meet the changes that come with the increasing digitalization of the construction industry.

ZTR and Trackunit together represent an incredible next step that will enable us to become a truly global player in the market. Im excited to roll up my sleeves and take an active part in the executive team. I look forward to venturing out on this shared mission - one in which I have no doubt Soeren Brogaard will capably lead," says Sam Hassan.

About Trackunit ApS

Trackunit is the leading SaaS-based IoT solution and machine insights provider to the global construction equipment industry. Trackunit collects and analyzes machine data in real-time to deliver actionable, proactive and predictive information, empowering customers with data-driven foresight.

Trackunit promises to lead the technology engagement to help eliminate downtime. The ambition of this mission is not only to recover from budget and schedule overruns, but also to re-establish the reputation of the industry for innovation and leadership.

From operator safety and machine health to business optimization, Trackunits industry-leading telematics software, hardware and fleet management services benefit the everyday operations of the customers worldwide. Trackunit services its customers directly from its headquarters in Denmark, Chicago, IL and Singapore, as well as through subsidiaries in Sweden, Norway, France, Holland, Germany, UK, Australia and Japan. Visit Trackunit.com to learn more.

About ZTR

ZTR is a global technology company that develops solutions for the compact construction industry. Known as a pioneer in the development industrial Internet of Things (IoT) technology, the telematics provider delivers products and services that allow companies to remotely monitor and manage mobile as well as fixed assets.

Leading the industry in response to the need for richer machine data, greater uptime, and better insights, ZTR has designed new solutions that help Rental Companies, OEMs and end-users work together to operate smarter and easier. By listening and collaborating with its customers, ZTR takes on big industry challenges and opens pathways toward the continued digitalization of the construction sector.

ZTR Telematics Solutions easily integrate with industrial machinery and the business systems customers use every day so they can use the data to make decisions and react in real-time. With more than 450,000 telematics-enabled assets under contract, ZTR integrates with 150+ industrial Original Equipment Manufacturers, and many top rental houses worldwide.

The Rail division of ZTR will continue to operate independently. There will be no impact to its organization structure, customers or business operations as a result of this announcement. For more information visit http://www.ztr.com
The University of Nebraska Press, which is celebrating its 80th anniversary this year, is launching a new LGBTQ+ book series, Zero Street Fiction. Zero Street will focus on literary fiction and short story collections with commercial appeal written by LGBTQ+ authors and featuring LGBTQ+ characters and/or themes. The series will be edited by Timothy Schaffert, a professor of creative writing at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and S.J. Sindu, a professor of creative writing at the University of Toronto-Scarborough who holds an M.A. from UNL.

The series, Schaffert said, is particularly interested in BIPOC authors, trans authors, and queer authors over 50, its editors but intend to publish LGBTQ+ authors at all stages of their careers. The two scholars, who are also both critically-acclaimed novelists, will work on building the Zero Street list with Courtney Ochsner, an associate acquisitions editor at the press. There will be one or two releases in the series annually, and Schaffert anticipates acquiring Zero Street's debut title within the year, as a call for submissions has just been announced.

Schaffert says that he was inspired to launch Zero Street Books in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the University of Nebraska offering a course on homosexuality by an openly gay scholar. UNL was the nations first public institution of higher education to do so; in 1970, Louis Crompton, an English professor, offered an interdisciplinary course, called "Proseminar in Homophile Studies."

"It likely was the first course of its kind offered as part of a US university's regular course catalog, as opposed to part of special programming or experimental curriculum," Schaffert noted. "It was fully approved by the university, with a syllabus that covered literature, psychology, sociology, and other fields."

The series name, Zero Street, refers to Allen Ginsbergs nickname for Lincolns O Street, in a poem he composed in 1966 while traveling to Nebraska for an on-campus reading.

University of Nebraska titles are distributed to the trade by Longleaf Services.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.  Madison Hodges has a heart for public service and the gift of leadership.

As a senior in Purdue Universitys College of Engineering and Honors College, she is already well established in local environmental and sustainability circles. In addition, she is a talented student, already having received numerous academic honors.

Its no surprise that as a result of her accomplishments, Hodges has been selected as a 2021 Udall scholar.

The scholarship, provided by the Udall Foundation, recognizes college sophomores and juniors for leadership, public service and commitment to issues related to the environment or American Indian nations.

It provides up to $7,000 for the scholars junior or senior year, connects them to a rich network of leaders in their fields of study and develops their skills with a five-day national conference. Hodges is one of 55 scholars among 416 candidates at 187 colleges and universities to receive with the scholarship. She is Purdues sixth Udall scholar since 2013.

Hodges, of Greenwood, Indiana, is charting a future of public service. She is pursuing a degree in environmental and ecological engineering and a minor in environmental politics and policy. She hopes to make a societal difference as an environmental engineer (She speaks about the benefits of the honor and her plans in this video interview).

Since becoming a Udall scholar, I have had the opportunity to connect with a network of dedicated and forward-thinking public servants, Hodges said. Speaking with like-minded students and hearing advice from scholar alumni has given me the confidence to pursue my dreams.

After completing her undergraduate studies, Hodges plans to pursue an MS in environmental studies, focused on policy, resiliency and adaptation. Her aspirations are to lead cities toward a low-carbon society through climate adaptation and resilience planning.

I think I best fit at the city level. I want to help cities develop and implement climate action plans, Hodges said. Were going to have to change our habits and mitigate the effects of climate change but we also need to adapt to the changes that are already happening.

Her efforts to advocate for environmental sustainability have included roles that bridge Purdue and the city of West Lafayette, including service in 2020-21 as the Go Greener Commissions professional client/mentor to a senior design team in Environmental and Ecological Engineering, which is a standalone academic unit in the College of Engineering. She also worked with the Purdue Student Sustainability Council to divert food waste from trash to the citys biodigester, where it would be converted to green electricity.

Madison has shown true initiative while helping to organize the food waste collection program, said Ben Anderson, West Lafayettes street commissioner. She has contacted all parties involved, convinced house managers and chefs to participate in the program, helped to educate and motivate students to sort their waste and prevent contamination. She has been instrumental in helping to develop and implement the food waste program.

Hodges has been the recipient of several awards honoring her achievements in engineering including the Environmental Engineering Outstanding Sophomore, the Gaylord Nelson Award, the Industrial Roundtable Scholarship and the Raytheon Scholarship.

I strongly believe Madison will be incredibly effective as a public servant in building resilient, sustainable communities, said Lindsey Payne, assistant professor of practice in Environmental and Ecological Engineering.

Purdue students can apply for the Udall scholarship through Purdues National and International Scholarships Office, which supports all Purdue students in applying for prestigious scholarships. Students interested in such awards are encouraged to contact NISO by email at niso@purdue.edu, or to visit its website at www.purdue.edu/niso.

About Purdue University

Purdue University is a top public research institution developing practical solutions to todays toughest challenges. Ranked in each of the last four years as one of the 10 Most Innovative universities in the United States by U.S. News & World Report, Purdue delivers world-changing research and out-of-this-world discovery. Committed to hands-on and online, real-world learning, Purdue offers a transformative education to all. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue has frozen tuition and most fees at 2012-13 levels, enabling more students than ever to graduate debt-free. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap at https://purdue.edu/.

Writer: Leslie Valiant, lvaliant@purdue.edu

Media contact: Amy Patterson Neubert, 765-412-0864, apatterson@purdue.edu
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.  Growing up in the Republic of Colombia as the daughter of a woman passionate about learning English and her father, an army officer, Marjorie Ramos-Salcedo witnessed firsthand the agony  mental as much as physical  of war. It led her to study English and psychology and become an officer of the Colombian Navy, supporting the mental health of the men and women who were risking their lives, their minds, their families and their health to protect their homeland.

I contributed by applying the science of psychology and working in programs to prevent mental illness such as addictions and post-traumatic stress disorder, said Ramos-Salcedo, a Purdue University Global graduate student. Sometimes I was the only psychologist (as regarded in Colombian culture) in an entire region, and I was also taking care of the mental health of the civilians living in those regions. I worked for the navy for more than 10 years with passion and vocation and with the highest standards for my best practice in psychology.

In 2018, Ramos-Salcedo retired from the navy and a year later decided to pursue a masters degree in psychology. She chose Purdue Global, a decision she described as one of the most rewarding experiences I have ever had.

To complement her academics, Ramos-Salcedo joined Purdue Globals chapter of Psi Chi, the international honor society in psychology. Now, she is the recipient of a Psi Chi graduate scholarship based on her Psi Chi activity, personal qualities consistent with Psi Chis mission, financial need and academic excellence. Psi Chi was founded in 1929 with a mission to encourage excellence in scholarship and advance the science of psychology.

I used to feel so isolated as a psychologist and with little support, Ramos-Salcedo said. Building a community of psychologists has been a great gain for me.

Ramos-Salcedo has been active on the executive board of Purdue Globals Psi Chi chapter, currently serving as president. She has collaborated with the charitable chair to manage chapter fundraisers that have made donations to Wounded Warriors, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, Autism Speaks, the Child Mind Institute, The Trevor Project and Alcoholics Anonymous. Ramos-Salcedo also organizes events and guest speakers, chairs the newsletter committee and contributes to social media undertakings. Previously, she served as chapter treasurer.

Being part of the executive board has been a learning experience for me and an opportunity to develop another type of leadership  taught by Dr. Gabrielle Blackman and supported by the spirit of the PG Psi Chi executive board  than the one I learned as an officer in the navy, Ramos-Salcedo said. It is very difficult to give orders that people have to follow, whether they like it or not in the military life, and to convince people to work as volunteers as a learning experience and also to contribute to the science of psychology.

I like the idea that Psi Chi is international because I definitely feel that I am included in something that is bigger than me. My opinions are heard no matter that I am a woman, I am Latin, I live in Colombia, no matter my color. I have felt tremendous support even though English is not my first language.

Psi Chi graduate scholarships help defray the direct educational costs of Psi Chi students attending graduate school. Ramos-Salcedo is one of 12 recipients for 2021-22.

I can always count on Marjorie to take the initiative and bring opportunities to our chapter and members, said Gabrielle Blackman, a member of the Purdue Global College of Social and Behavioral Sciences faculty and the faculty advisor for Psi Chi. She is a true leader and role model. It is great to see Marjories hard work, leadership and success recognized by Psi Chi.

Ramos-Salcedo, who runs a small private practice in Colombia, is completing her practicum at Pathways Mental Health Services, an outpatient clinic based in Washington.

I have experience working with diverse populations with different cultural backgrounds than mine, Ramos-Salcedo said. I like to find the common factors that we have, including being human, gender factors if it is the case, biology, brain structure. I try to learn more about their own cultural situations, which are definitely different than mine.

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 serves 34,000 students (as of April 2021), most of whom earn their degree online. 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: Tom Schott, 765-427-1721, tschott@purdue.edu

Sources: Marjorie Ramos-Salcedo

Gabrielle Blackman
TRIAL FOR FORMER TNA STAR LIKELY PUSHED BACK AGAIN

Court records indicate that the a motion hearing is slated for 10/12 regarding the trial for former WWE developmental and Impact Wrestling star Trenesha Daniyall Biggers aka Rhaka Khan before the 409th District Court in El Paso, Texas on charges of interference with child custody and "aggravated kidnapping facilitate."

The trial, which has been pushed back multiple times, is still listed as commencing on Friday 9/24/21 at 8 AM, but one would think the motion means that date will be postponed. The trial has already been pushed back several times, likely due to the slowdown in the court system brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Biggers was indicted on the charges in August 2019, leading to her being listed as one of El Pasos most wanted fugitives after failing to appear in court. There are two court instances where her no-shows led to her bail being revoked. She was finally arraigned in December 2019. Biggers is being represented by a public defender.

In the State of Texas, interference with child custody is when someone "takes or retains a child when that person knows that the taking or detention of the child violates a judgment or order." It is considered a state jail felony and can be punishable by up to two years in prison.

Biggers last wrestled in 2011 for the now-defunct Lucha Libre USA promotion, which aired on MTV. Biggers was part of the 2005 WWE Diva Search and was signed to a developemental contract after failing to make it past the top 25 contestants in the search. She was sent to Deep South Wrestling but was released in May 2006. She worked for a number of independent promotions and in Japan before signing with Impact Wrestling in 2008, departing that promotion in 2009. She worked for Lucha Libre USA in 2010 and 2011.

Biggers released the following videos in the wake of her arrest:

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The hastily executed withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan has created a rapidly unfolding refugee crisis. Americas public schools and non-profits, while seemingly far removed from the havoc abroad, have an essential role to play in helping to resettle thousands of Afghan allies and their families in communities, but only if careful and intentional preparations are made now.

The U.S. and its allies evacuated more than 123,000 individuals. Among them were thousands of U.S. citizens and foreign nationals, but most were Afghan civilians who aided the American war effort and their families. Ultimately, officials from the White House anticipate admitting about 95,000 of those Afghans to the U.S. This is the right decision by the Biden administration. The lives of these Afghans were in danger because of their role in supporting Americas military and diplomatic efforts as interpreters, cultural advisers, and translators. We have an obligation to help them find safety outside of the retaliatory reaches of the Taliban.

However, the lack of planning evident in the withdrawal is also apparent in the refugee resettlement. Evacuees were sent to U.S. and NATO bases that scrambled to set up tents to accommodate the unexpected arrivals. There, evacuees sit in fenced-in enclosures while awaiting the security checks that will permit them to fly to the United States. They will then undergo additional health and security screenings before eventually being settled in communities.

Among these will be thousands of children who will soon arrive at schools that have not anticipated, much less planned for, how to serve these children. The lack of planning by the administration means we do not have a sense of the total number of children or their ages, much less which communities they will eventually be resettled in.

We know that these children will be among the most vulnerable students that schools are asked to serve this year. They will have just undergone severe trauma, having to abruptly leave the only home and country they have ever known. Most will have limited English language skills. They will need intensive academic support as well as physical health and mental health services.

Three actions are needed to help support these children. First, the Biden administration should create a cross-agency task force to better coordinate existing fragmented services and programs. At a minimum, this should involve the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the U.S. Department of Education. Among the first tasks should be the coordination of placements so that Governors, state school chiefs, and superintendents can begin preparing now.

Second, the administration is belatedly asking Congress to provide $6.4 billion in emergency funding to help with the resettlement. While details are scarce, it seems that most of these funds are earmarked to support the overseas housing and processing of these refugees rather than helping communities, including public schools, offset the costs they will face.

Instead, Congress should use this moment to modernize and increase support for existing refugee assistance programs. For example, the Refugee School Impact Program still relies on an antiquated model that estimates costs based on the number of students served in the prior fiscal year, not the anticipated number in the current school year. Additional, targeted funding for schools is also reasonable given the needs of the children they are expected to serve.

Finally, the existing refugee resettlement system relies on a network of heroic non-profits, like the International Rescue Committee and Lutheran Family Services, that help families secure housing, find jobs, and enroll in training programs. They are also at risk of being overwhelmed and need additional support to help with the local coordination so critical for both the refugees and the community itself.

The U.S. government bears much of the responsibility for the unfolding refugee crisis. Schools must have the resources and support they need to help Afghan families resettle and adjust to their new homes. These families put their lives on the line to advance American interests in Afghanistan. Lets honor that sacrifice by helping them rebuild their lives here in the U.S.
A key group of Democratic senators, including centrist Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), introduced a new voting rights bill on Tuesday that would expand access to the ballot for millions of Americans, ban partisan gerrymandering, and crack down on dark money groups. Its expected to receive a vote in the Senate as soon as next week, setting up a showdown with Republicans who intend to block it and a reckoning within the Democratic caucus over whether to reform the filibuster to pass it.
Ever wonder why were losing the War on Poverty, launched nearly 60 years ago by President Lyndon B. Johnson? Ask Abraham Maslow.

What happens to man's desires when there is plenty of bread and when his belly is chronically filled? the famed psychologist asked in his seminal 1943 paper first outlining what would become known as Maslows hierarchy of needs. In that paper, Maslow categorized five core human needs, each to be fulfilled before the next can be actualized.

First, there are physiological needs (food and water), followed by safety needs (order, low crime), then love and belonging (friendship and family), esteem (self-respect, respect from others and achievement), and finally, self-actualization. Maslow described self-actualization as the individual doing what he is fitted for. The musician, he explained, must make music, just as the artist must paint. What man can be, he must be.

Using Maslows framework, we can better evaluate government welfare and education programs. The War on Poverty hasnt been lost due to a lack of spending (over $30 trillion) on what has swelled to 89 means-tested welfare programs. Its been lost because federal welfare spending undermines something closely aligned to the higher order aspirations of Maslows hierarchy.

When Johnson launched his war in 1964, the original goal was to give our fellow citizens a fair chance to develop their own capacities. In other words, to have the physiological needs satisfied in order to climb the hierarchy toward greater fulfillment and happiness. Ironically, Johnsons efforts and the welfare state have focused exclusively on physical needs but have undermined higher-order human needs. For example, the need for love, affection and belongingness is fulfilled primarily within families. It thrives in the strong emotional bonds between wives and husbands and between parents and children.

Regrettably, the growth of the welfare state has coincided with the collapse of the family in low-income communities. When the War on Poverty began, 7% of American children were born outside marriage. Today the number is 41%  and the welfare state has clearly contributed to this decline. Welfare has too often served as a substitute for fathers and husbands, displacing them from the home and limiting their role in society. Even worse, most welfare programs actively impose financial penalties on low-income parents if they marry.

The same is true for the need for self-respect and accomplishment. This need is most typically fulfilled through work. Yet we see a continuing decline in labor force participation among working-age adults. This decline is most pronounced among middle-educated, non-married men. As the welfare state has displaced these men from their traditional roles as husbands and breadwinners, their commitment to work has declined. Thus, the welfare state has doubly impoverished them, depriving them of both marriage and work. It should be no surprise that the opioid crisis occurred predominantly among this group.

Thus, the War on Poverty has harmed the nation with respect to higher-order human need. Yet the Biden administration seeks to double down on this approach. It is aggressively pursuing the largest expansion in mean-tested welfare in U.S. history.

Doubling down on failure is particularly true in the realm of education. When Lyndon Johnson launched the Great Society, he said that one-third of the War on Poverty would be fought in the classrooms of America. So, in 1965, Johnson signed into law Head Start (a federal early education program for low-income children), the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (the largest law governing K-12 education with massive spending for lower-income school districts), and the Higher Education Act (creating the first broadly available college subsidies).

More than $2 trillion has been spent since that time just on the K-12 programs. In higher education, Americans now owe $1.7 trillion in outstanding student loan debt cumulatively, the vast majority of which is on the taxpayer balance sheet.

Massive federal spending has not improved education outcomes for low-income students, nor catapulted us past our mediocre international standing. And it has only inflated the cost of college without increasing the percentage of low-income Americans who hold bachelors degrees. As economist Richard Vedder explains, around 12% of recent college graduates were from families in the bottom quartile of the income distribution in 1970, a figure which is slightly lower today.

Yet the massive and ineffective education spending of the War on Poverty pales in comparison to what the Biden administration has planned. His misnamed American Families Plan would spend $225 billion on a new federal childcare program that preferences center-based care over family and in-home provider care. It would also spend an astounding $200 billion on free universal preschool for all 3-year-old and 4-year-old children.

In addition to this likely driving up the cost of preschool broadly, its unlikely to benefit participating children. The bulk of the scientifically rigorous evaluations of preschool programs yield consistently negative findings: any benefits fade out over time.

In higher education, the plan is a massive liberal wish list. It includes items like $109 billion for free community college, when more than half of students in community colleges already do not pay any part of their tuition or fees under existing federal aid.

Indeed, there are few aspects of family life that this plan doesnt try to replace with government services. The plan would also further expand free school meals to non-poor students, would send billions to K-12 schools for teacher training, and would create a massive federal paid family leave program.

These programs may address some basic, material needs, but they do not address  and even undermine  the higher-order needs that cannot be met by the state; those that can only be provided in any meaningful way by families and civil society.

Economist Thomas Sowell once said , It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong. The American Families Plan would do just that, making those basic needs more expensive, distantly provided, and ultimately, placing them in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.

Lindsey M. Burke is the director of the Center for Education Policy and the Mark A. Kolokotrones Fellow in Education at The Heritage Foundation.
Last week, President Biden announced a series of measures intended to further combat the spread of COVID-19. The most controversial is what has become known as the vaccine mandate. Under this, federal employees and contractors, as well as health care workers at hospitals that receive federal funds, will have to receive the vaccine. Employees at companies with more than 100 workers will have a choice between receiving the vaccine and undergoing weekly testing.

To be upfront: This is not a piece about the wisdom of such a mandate, nor is it about the legality of the mandate. This is solely concerned with the political effects of the order. These impacts are difficult to identify with certainty at this point  after all, we are over a year out from the midterm elections. Perhaps this will be a boon to Democrats. The storyline on how that plays out would be straightforward: The mandate helps to end to the pandemic; people feel grateful to the Democrats and president; the economy finally surges ahead; and Democrats enjoy success in the midterms.

But theres another potential storyline, which is grimmer for the Democrats. There are two components to it: an activation story, and a defection story.

The activation part is straightforward. I think the federal mandate will prove to be generally popular, perhaps even by a significant margin. But that isnt the entire story when reviewing public opinion polling. Different issues affect different groups differently. For example, various gun control measures often poll well, yet politicians typically shy away from them. Part of it is that these measures have a history of faring worse at the ballot box, as people seem to like them more in the abstract than they do in reality. But part of it is that gun owners simply care about the issue more, generally speaking, than non-gun owners. That isnt to say there arent some non-gun owners who care deeply about the issue, but the people who own guns and stand to lose them are generally threatened more directly by the prospect of bans than non-gun owners are by the lack of one.

The vaccine mandate is similar. To be sure, there are probably lots of people who will be excited about and strongly approve of the presidents measure. But the excitement about someone else hypothetically getting a vaccine to protect others from getting sick is unlikely to be offset by the anger that those who feel coerced into getting a vaccine are likely to feel. Remember, from the point of view of a person who does not want to be vaccinated, this represents an unwanted injection of a chemical into their body. That sort of perceived assault on body integrity will be a very powerful motivator in voting, and they are unlikely to vote for the party that forced it. Medical decisions are deeply personal ones that people feel very strongly about, regardless of the underlying merits of their beliefs.

The second problem is that the vaccine mandates create cross-cutting pressures in a way that threaten the Democratic coalition. Remember, the unvaccinated are disproportionately Hispanic and African American, two key groups in the Democratic coalition. Today, Democrats rely on winning around 90% of the African American vote and 70% of the Hispanic vote for their majorities.

If one looks at the crosstabs of the Politico/Morning Consult poll of public opinion on vaccinations, opinion among blacks against the mandates is probably stronger than Democrats would like. Even with the partisan cue of President Biden in the question, 20% of blacks oppose the mandate vaccinations for large employers, 18% oppose mandates for federal contractors, and 18% oppose mandates for health care workers. Among Hispanics, those numbers are higher (although Democrats depend less on astronomical vote shares among this group).

The claim here isnt that the mandates are likely to turn this election singlehandedly into a GOP wave like the one in 2010. These differential effects, should they manifest, are likely to be quite modest. But in heavily contested House and Senate races, small margins matter. There is a genuine risk for Democrats that Bidens executive orders move the needle away from them next year.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom will remain in office after overwhelmingly defeating the recall effort aimed at ousting him.

The landslide finish is a welcome relief for Democrats after a jittery summer in which a series of misleading polls predicted the race as a dead heat, prompting Newsom and his team of analysts to sound the alarms and enlist national Democratic help and resources.

In the final days, President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris stumped with Newsom, while former President Obama cut a television ad. Obama deemed the election a matter of life and death  the difference between protecting kids from COVID or putting them at risk, helping Californians recover or taking them backward.

The decisive victory is giving Newsom and other prominent Democrats new ammunition for projecting his pandemic strategy to the national level. Celebrating the big win Tuesday night, they warned Republicans that running to the right, especially on issues related to the pandemic, may help win GOP primaries but could spell certain defeat in general elections, especially in blue or purple states and districts.

Radio talk show host Larry Elder, the top vote-getter to replace Newsom had the recall succeeded, had little competition from the GOP field of candidates vying for a chance at governor, racking up 38% support in the latest poll. But the black Republican who has made a career as a combative provocateur served as an easy foil for Newsom, who assailed his pledge to overturn all statewide mask and vaccine mandates on his first day in office.

Media outlets called the race earlier than expected, shortly after 9 p.m. on the West Coast. By midnight, with 66% of precincts reporting, the victory had widened to nearly 30 percentage points  64.8% voted to keep Newsom while 35.2% voted to replace him. Election experts warned the margin will likely narrow but remain substantial as more votes are tallied in the days ahead. California election law requires voters to turn in or have ballots postmarked by Election Day, but there are seven additional days for county officials to receive them.

A clearly relieved Newsom appeared before supporters after media outlets began calling the race for him. The first-term governor twice said he was humbled by the experience, as well as grateful for the outpouring of support. He said the resounding victory amounted to a rejection of Trumpism, which described as alive and well in the GOP.

I want to focus on what we said yes to, he told supporters and reporters gathered in the courtyard of the John L. Burton Democratic Headquarters in Sacramento. We said yes to science. We said yes to vaccines. We said yes to ending this pandemic. We said yes to peoples right to vote without fear of fraud or voter suppression. We said yes to womens fundamental, constitutional right to decide what she does with her own body.

Whether voters galvanized behind Newsoms leadership or against Elders right-wing views is difficult to discern. David Axelrod, the former chief political strategist for Obama, argued that the results were more a warning sign for Republicans than necessarily a sign of a great encouragement for Democrats considering the state is solidly blue.

Speaking about next years midterms, he warned of historical barriers for sitting first-term incumbent presidents and expected Republican advantages in key states and districts after redistricting. Democrats really start from behind in House races, he said on CNN after the cable network called the election for Newsom. So much depends on the course this virus takes, the course the economy takes.

Leading up to Election Day, Elder echoed some of the same claims of fraud Trump has raised about the recall in recent days. But after the overwhelming vote in the governors favor, he readily conceded to Newsom while vowing to keep the movement alive. On Tuesday, Elder told a local radio station that he planned on running against Newsom again in the regular gubernatorial election next year.

Lets be gracious in defeat, Elder said at an Orange County gathering of supporters. We may have lost the battle, but we are going to win the war.

Perhaps the greatest irony of the recall effort is that what sparked it nine months ago  some of the most aggressive COVID measures in the nation  ultimately ended up helping Newsom stave off defeat as the contagious new delta variant stoked new worries about vaccine breakthrough infections and cases in children. GOP consultant Rob Stutzman predicted the turn of events in the elections final stretch. He had served as deputy chief of staff to Arnold Schwarzenegger, who won the last California recall in 2003, successfully replacing then-Democratic Gov. Gray Davis.

Newsom in recent weeks became the first governor to require statewide masking in schools, and vaccines for state workers, beating Biden to the punch on his federal worker mandate.

Of course, the recall also projected what Californians would and would not tolerate in pandemic measures. From the beginning of this year, it was clear most frustrated parents wanted public schools and most businesses open, with a majority of residents putting up with or fully backing widespread mask rules and embracing vaccination or testing rules for teachers.

Newsom at times struggled to thread that needle, especially as it related to school reopenings. Earlier this year, he pushed back on COVID-related demands from teacher unions, one of his biggest allies and financial contributors.

Even though Newsom earns high marks in recent polls for his handling of the pandemic, he and Biden, campaigning together on Monday, spent little time highlighting his overall record as governor. Instead, the pair lambasted Elder as a Trump clone who is wildly out of step with the majority of the states liberal voters when it comes to abortion, the minimum wage, paid maternity leave, racial-equality measures, among many issues.

Elder, who has never held public office, had high name recognition among Republicans from his role as a talk show host and Fox News contributor. The right-wing rabble-rouser shook up the race with his late entry in early July, quickly vaulting past former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, a pro-choice centrist, as well as businessman and perennial candidate John Cox, Assemblyman Kevin Kiley and former Olympian-turned-reality-star Caitlyn Jenner.

Hitting Newsom for some of the most aggressive COVID lockdown policies in the nation, Elder blasted him for spikes in crime, rising homelessness, sky-high cost of living and housing prices, as well as declining school standards and for failing to curb the recent spate of devastating wildfires.

Elders successful showing vis a vis his fellow challengers ultimately carried a mixed signal. Without the global star power of someone like Schwarzenegger, perhaps no Republican can win in a state where registered Democrats outnumber them 2-1, but a more centrist candidate would have done less to mobilize Democrats against them.

There are plenty of lessons for Newsom and fellow Democrats as well, top political analysts across the state warn.

Many veteran political observers argue Newsom suffered from largely self-inflicted wounds, costing Democrats money and political capital thats increasingly in short supply. While Biden remains popular in California, his approval rating nationwide is five points underwater since the chaotic and deadly Afghanistan withdrawal, according to the RealClearPolitics average of polls.

Newsom and recall opponents raised and spent some $80 million to fight his removal  nearly five times as much as all his opponents spent combined. The campaign war chest included $5.5 million from the Democratic Governors Association, $3 million from Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and more than $7.6 million from public employee unions.

And the governor harnessed the trappings of his office  as well as taxpayer dollars  to benefit his campaign. He delivered a March state of the state speech at an empty Dodger Stadium, meant as a solemn reminder of COVID deaths but mocked as a public display of his own strict lockdown policies. He used part of a $76 billion state budget surplus on vaccine lottery winnings and $600 in pandemic stimulus checks that landed in the final weeks before the election.

Some of the anger Newsom stirred with his pandemic policies was deeply personal  as well as avoidable. In addition to his notorious attendance at a dinner party at the elite French Laundry restaurant while warning all California residents against such gatherings, Newsom tried to empathize with parents about the difficulty of learning on Zoom calls while shuttering public schools last year. The problem? His own kids were attending private schools already offering in-person instruction.

To many, Newsom came across as elitist, egomaniacal and hypocritical  and his lengthy internet monologues about the pandemic, his eagerness to suspend usual procedures and laws, his boasts about how well the state was managing the disease, and the evident unfairness of some of his decrees  grated on many Californians, wrote Dan Waters, a CalMatters columnist and 60-year veteran of California newspapers.

Newsom now swears hes learned his lesson the hard way. But with the experience in the rearview mirror and a regular reelection contest next year, hell likely never face such a threat again and sail on to another full term. In addition, Democrats in the state legislature are determined to make it tougher for recall proponents to trigger such elections.

Will Newsom change his leadership in style or substance or view the results as a vindication? California offers no shortage of monumental challenges that will provide those answers very soon.
Good morning, its Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021. The Gulf Coast has been slammed by another hurricane, the 19th named storm to make landfall in the U.S. in the past year. Meanwhile, Bob Woodward has again pulled back the curtain on the waning days of a faltering U.S. presidency (this time with a co-author), and its not a flattering portrait of either Donald Trump or his enemies within the federal government.

The big political news of the day, which I assume youve already heard, is that Gavin Newsom has survived his recall election -- and then some. Although many votes have yet to be counted, Californias incumbent governor won in a landslide. We have solid coverage of it on our front page, and Ill provide some bullet-point explanations of my own in a moment.

First, Id point you to our front page, which aggregates, as it does each day, columns and stories spanning the political spectrum. We also offer a complement of original material from RCP reporters and contributors, including the following:

* * *

Humbled Newsom Defeats Recall in Landslide. Susan Crabtree has the story, along with analysis.

Democratic and GOP Governors Welcome Afghan Refugees. Lou Cannon has this roundup.

Deep Politics of Vaccine Mandates. Charles Lipson considers the tradeoffs demanded by mandates, which exemplify a dispute that has been at the heart of American politics for over a century.

I Caught COVID, and Thats Okay. RealClearScience editor Ross Pomeroy relates his experience with a breakthrough infection.

American Families Plan Undermines Families, Self-Fulfillment. Lindsey M. Burke and Robert Rector view the human infrastructure spending plan through the lens of Maslows hierarchy of needs.

Student Loan Repayment Freeze Benefits Well-Off Borrowers. At RealClearPolicy, Beth Akers and Olivia Shaw explain how the COVID-related moratorium is helping those who least need the help.

Northeast PA Reflects Need for Regional Collaboration. Also at RCPolicy, Teri Ooms highlights local governments inability to work together for the good of their constituents.

Venezuela Is an Inconvenient Truth for the Fed. RealClearMarkets editor John Tamny points out that money is a consequence of production, not a gift from central banks.

Cancel Culture Is Ideological, Not Generational. At RealClears American Civics portal, Samuel J. Abrams highlights a recent surveys surprising finding.

* * *

Initially, the news about the Gavin Newsom recall effort seemed surprising. Neither he nor anyone in his administration had been accused of a scandal; his job approval ratings were relatively high; and no prominent Democrat in this solidly blue state wanted to challenge him. But the signatures were gathered, and an election was scheduled. Then, this summer, a series of polls suggested that Newsom was in trouble. So why did he win overwhelmingly on Tuesday? Here are six reasons:

--Those polls were wrong. The race was simply never that close. And in a state where government coffers are flush with cash, the survey findings didnt really add up.

--Nonetheless, those polls did serve to galvanize Democrats. This turned out to be a good thing for Newsom, as Joe Biden, Barack Obama, and Kamala Harris awoke from their slumber to campaign for the governor.

--Californias electorate has changed since Gray Davis, another Democratic governor, was recalled in 2003. Its younger, less white, and has a far lower percentage of Republicans.

--Unlike Gray Davis, Newsom had no apostate Democrat on the recall ballot. Also unlike Davis, Newsom did not face a formidable Republican superstar, a la Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Republican who emerged from the crowded field was right-wing talk show host Larry Elder -- precisely the kind of conservative who hasnt been able to win statewide in California in two generations. Elders rise as the top challenger made it much easier for Democrats to ignore any shortcomings in Newsoms record and instead focus their fire on defeating Trumps clone.

--The French Laundry caper didnt really bother most Californians as much as it bothered conservative commentators -- and wasnt that bad anyway. Although there were many infuriating examples of other elected Democrats hypocrisy during the lockdown, Newsoms expensive dinner at an exclusive Napa restaurant was a sin of atmospherics, not policy, in that it didnt actually violate any of his existing executive orders.

--Some commentators believed that the real problem with the French Laundry episode was that it showed how cozy he was with rich lobbyists.

--Although the fat-cat connection genuinely bothered both populists and progressives, Newsom used all that money he raised from them (some $80 million) wisely: His campaign saturated the airwaves with effective political ads. In other words, although much has changed in the Golden State since Gov. Ronald Reagan was battling with Democratic Assembly Speaker Jesse Unruh, one truism still reigns supreme: Unruhs dictum that money is the mothers milk of politics.

Carl M. Cannon

Washington Bureau chief, RealClearPolitics

@CarlCannon (Twitter)

ccannon@realclearpolitics.com
Ashley Zukerman is the second actor to portray Dan Brown's book character, Robert Langdon, on the Peacock series The Lost Symbol, premiering Thursday.

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Tom Hanks played Langdon in the film adaptations of The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons and Inferno, but Zukerman says the series offers a new origin story.

"That's who he's going to become," Zukerman, 37, told UPI in a Zoom interview. "This show will explain how he's going to become that person."

The Lost Symbol was Brown's third Langdon book after Angels & Demons and The Da Vinci Code. Inferno and Origin followed.

Landon is a symbologist at Harvard University. Because of his study of religious iconography, Langdon finds himself solving clues in historical artifacts.

"This is absolutely his first adventure," Zukerman said. "In our story, he's a young history professor who just gets pulled into something because his mentor is abducted."

Fans will recognize Zukerman from shows like The Pacific, Designated Survivor, Manhattan and Succession. This summer, Zukerman starred in Netflix's Fear Street trilogy, which he filmed prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and The Lost Symbol.

Zukerman said The Lost Symbol series gives him a chance to show how Langdon got involved in solving historical clues. Langdon visits Washington, D.C., to find clues in Freemason artifacts when his mentor, Peter Solomon (Eddie Izzard), is kidnapped.

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"We're just very lucky that it hadn't been made into a film because it's so perfect as an origin story," Zukerman said.

Zukerman said the story of The Lost Symbol, first published in 2009, establishes "little details about his rigidity, about his hubris, his arrogance, his inability to feel, his attachment to knowledge and to facts."

Each episode of The Lost Symbol finds Langdon explaining history to partners in his quest. Those partners include Solomon's daughter, Katherine (Valorie Curry).

Zukerman said each script motivates him to research the subjects Langdon is discussing. Because the clues of The Lost Symbol revolve around the Freemasons, he drew upon books like A Brief History of Secret Societies by David Barrett and Tales from Ovid by Ted Hughes.

"I obviously don't know as much as [Langdon] does," Zukerman said. "But I do need that confidence to be able to know that much or that feeling to know more than the person you're talking to."

When The Lost Symbol begins, Langdon is presenting a lecture about the origin of symbols such as the swastika and Unite or Die. Langdon shows his class how the swastika began as a Sanskrit symbol before it was the Nazi emblem.

Zukerman said Langdon's understanding of the evolution of symbols will apply to the Freemason symbols he discovers.

"This is someone who understands how meaning moves through time," Zukerman said. "The meaning changed constantly and it was constantly adopted by different organizations."

The clues lead Langdon to texts in ancient languages, too. One scene in which Langdon reads a Hebrew passage made Zukerman recall his own childhood.

Zukerman said he grew up hearing his parents speak Hebrew, though he never learned it until now. Zukerman's father, Moshe, an Israeli, met his wife, Ingrid, in Israel, though Ingrid is Peruvian.

The Zukermans had their children in the United States and moved to Australia to raise them. Ashley Zukerman filmed The Lost Symbol in Toronto, doubling for the District of Columbia.

COVID-19 safety protocols required the actor to quarantine upon his arrival in Toronto. He said he spent those 14 days consulting with his mother on the Hebrew portions of The Lost Symbol.

"I enjoyed translating half a Bible page, with my mom back in Australia, into Hebrew," Zukerman said. "I did spend two or three weeks learning the Hebrew that I'd need for those episodes."

New episodes of The Lost Symbol premiere Thursdays on Peacock.
By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 09/14/2021



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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.

couple Hannah Godwin and Dylan Barbour have revealed when they are looking to tie the knot and get married.Hannah and Dylan got engaged on a beach in Sayulita, Mexico in June 2019, and their proposal aired on 's sixth-season finale in September of that year.The couple initially decided on an early 2020 wedding, but their planning got derailed due to the global outbreak of coronavirus -- and now more than two years have passed."[The date has been] pushed back a bit. We've been eyeing 2023 so we'll see how it goes," Hannah, 26, told Us Weekly during New York Fashion Week on Saturday.Dylan said last month he and Hannah hope to wed in Spring 2023 because they don't want to exchange vows in the winter, and Hannah shared how they've already hired a wedding planner and would like to find a venue in California since the West Coast has captured their hearts."We're loving being engaged," the model and social-media influencer gushed to the magazine this past weekend."We are excited to, like, start the next chapter whenever that is though. We are getting eager for it."But Hannah and the Vizer app co-founder are still looking for the perfect place to have their wedding."We've been kind of working on that a little bit. I think that, like, [the] vibe that we've been saying from the very beginning, we're still thinking of anything that feels outdoor, European-ish," Hannah revealed."I don't know where that's going to be, but that's the vibe at least we're aiming towards."Hannah also confirmed she and Dylan don't want to get married on television for ABC cameras and viewers."For our wedding, we'd just want it to be personal, like, as close-knit as we possibly can. We want to just keep it personal and small," Hannah explained.Hannah said she believes the wedding will be "more enjoyable" the more intimate it is."And we won't have to be greeting people the whole time essentially," she added. "It's going to be nice I think just to have everybody -- like for it to be a memory for everybody and not just like us. We want to really enjoy it."In the meantime, the couple don't seem to appreciate criticism about their delayed wedding or doubts about their future as a couple.Not only do Hannah and Dylan claim they're very much in love, but they also share a mortgage in San Diego and just decorated their beautiful home with a tropical-style backyard."I'm trying to think how to put it in words but like I didn't realize that like if you really truly care about somebody, it doesn't feel like effort whenever you're helping them out or supporting them," Hannah said.Hannah told Us how she and Dylan "love" being each other's support system and rock."We just are each other's No. 1 biggest fan and it's really cool. It's really cool," Hannah gushed.Prior to meeting on , Hannah competed for Colton Underwood 's heart on The Bachelor's 23rd season and Dylan appeared on The Bachelorette's fifteenth season starring Hannah Brown During 's sixth season, Dylan called Hannah the love of his life and had no doubts in his mind that she was his person.Dylan basically fell in love with Hannah during the first week of Paradise, but Hannah was a little terrified of investing her heart into a man after her breakup with Colton.Dylan, however, never gave up on their potential, even when Blake Horstmann was trying to charm her.After Hannah worked through "a few obstacles" inside of herself, she accepted Dylan's marriage proposal.At the reunion portion of the show, Dylan said getting engaged to Hannah was "the best decision" he's ever made."We talk all the time, like, 'How did this all work out for us?' But for some reason, it did. He's my person and I have a different kind of love for him that I knew existed, and that's really special," Hannah shared in Summer 2019.Hannah also revealed at the time they had met each other's families and she'd be moving from Birmingham, AL, to California in order to be closer to Dylan and his job.Interested in more The Bachelor news? Join our The Bachelor Facebook Group
Stars and comedians, such as Adam Sandler, Sarah Silverman and David Letterman, paid tribute to Norm Macdonald on social media following his death.

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Macdonald died on Tuesday at the age of 61 following a private battle with cancer, his manager Marc Gurvitz confirmed.

Macdonald was best known as the host of Weekend Update on Saturday Night Live from 1993 to 1998. He also starred in films Billy Madison, Dirty Work, Deuce Bigelow, Screwed and voiced Lucky the Dog in the Dr. Dolittle series of films.

He additionally had a sitcom titled Norm that lasted three seasons, his podcast Norm Macdonald Live and a Netflix talk show that ran for one season in 2018.

"Every one of us loved Norm. Some of the hardest laughs of my life with this man. Most fearless funny original guy we knew. An incredible dad. A great friend. A legend. Love u pal," Sandler said on Twitter, alongside a photo of himself with Norm on the set of Billy Madison.

"Norm was in a comedy genre of his own. No one like him on this planet. Please do yourself a favor and watch his stuff. He was one of a kind of all time," Silverman said on Twitter.

"In every important way, in the world of stand-up, Norm was the best. An opinion shared by me and all peers. Always up to something, never certain, until his matter-of-fact delivery leveled you," Letterman said on Twitter.

"I was always delighted by his bizarre mind and earnest gaze. (I'm trying to avoid using the phrase, 'twinkle in his eyes'). He was a lifetime Cy Young winner in comedy. Gone, but impossible to forget," Letterman continued.

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"You were unmistakably intelligent -- your comedy and the way you cared so much about words and sentences and storytelling was like no one else. Just brilliant," Molly Shannon said in a lengthy post on Instagram, alongside an SNL cast photo including herself and Macdonald.

"You were one of a kind with a twinkle in your eyes. And a lot of people don't know this but Norm was a math genius. Great father and friend, old time elegance.....love ya baby," Shannon continued.

"I am absolutely devastated about Norm Macdonald. Norm had the most unique comedic voice I have ever encountered and he was so relentlessly and uncompromisingly funny. I will never laugh that hard again. I'm so sad for all of us today," Conan O'Brien said on Twitter.

"Norm, I didn't just like you. I love you. You didn't just make me laugh. You made me cry with laughter. I'm still crying today. But when I think of you, my tears run down my face with all the memories of all the laughter and all the joys that you brought to all of us," Rob Schneider said on Twitter, alongside photos of himself with Macdonald, Sandler, David Spade and Tim Meadows.

"Oh [expletive]. I was a huge fan of Norm Macdonald and I essentially ripped off his delivery when I first started acting. I would stay up specifically to watch him on talk shows. He was the funniest guest of all time. We lost a comedy giant today. One of the all time greats. RIP," Seth Rogen said on Twitter.

"Devastated. Met Norm in Ottawa when he was in my audience at 17 years old. Been close friends for decades. We have lost a comedic genius. No other voice in comedy has been as uniquely prolific, brazen, dark, hilarious, and heartfelt. Love you forever, Norm," Bob Saget said on Twitter alongside a selfie he took with Macdonald.
The UGA Tango club, also know as Athens Tangueros to signify the club is open to the Athens community beyond the university, met on Monday n
Brattleboro, VT (05301)

Today

Partly cloudy skies this evening. Increasing clouds with periods of showers late. Low 58F. SSE winds at 10 to 15 mph, decreasing to less than 5 mph. Chance of rain 50%..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies this evening. Increasing clouds with periods of showers late. Low 58F. SSE winds at 10 to 15 mph, decreasing to less than 5 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
WASHINGTON (AP)  Nearly 3 million consumers took advantage of a special six-month period to sign up for subsidized health insurance coverage made more affordable by the COVID-19 relief law, President Joe Biden said Wednesday.

He called that number encouraging and urged Congress to keep the trend going by extending the more generous financial assistance, currently available only through the end of next year.

Thats 2.8 million families who will have more security, more breathing room, and more money in their pocket if an illness or accident hits home, Biden said in a statement. Altogether, 12.2 million Americans are actively enrolled in coverage under the Affordable Care Act  an all-time high.

That's an increase of about 20% since the end of last year.

Biden had ordered the HealthCare.gov marketplace to reopen Feb. 15 for six months, through Aug. 15, to give uninsured people another opportunity to sign up for coverage for themselves and their families during the pandemic. New census numbers show that about 28 million people were uninsured last year, but the steep coverage losses that many feared were averted as about 9 in 10 Americans retained private or public coverage.

HealthCare.gov plans became significantly cheaper this April due to enhanced subsidies in the COVID-19 relief law. All the while, coverage through Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program has also been growing, reaching more than 82 million people.

The Obama-era Affordable Care Act, enacted in 2010, is aimed at increasing health coverage by offering subsidized private insurance nationwide for people who do not get health care benefits from their employer. The law also expanded Medicaid for low-income adults, and most states have taken advantage of that option.

Together, the two components cover about 27 million people, according to the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation.

Biden said Wednesday that the subsidies in his COVID-19 relief law have helped trim premiums by about $67 a month for people who were already enrolled in ACA plans, and that 4 in 10 new customers during the special sign-up window found coverage for $10 a month or less.

Out-of-pocket expenses have also dropped, he said, with the median, or midpoint, deductible slashed 90%. That makes a difference because it means people pay less when they actually go to use their health insurance at the doctor's office or the hospital.

The key takeaway is that when you make coverage affordable, people will buy it, Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said in an interview. There was an upward bump in enrollment in April, when the increased financial aid became available.

The more people are educated about their options, the more likely they are to enroll in coverage, said Brooks-LaSure, whose agency runs HealthCare.gov.

Biden, who was vice president when the heath overhaul became law, wants to move the United States to coverage for all by building on existing programs.

His $3.5 trillion domestic agenda bill calls for making permanent the richer subsidies for HealthCare.gov plans and provides a workaround to help more than 2 million low-income uninsured people denied coverage in a dozen states that have failed to expand Medicaid.

The legislation, which faces uncertain prospects, would also free Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices, plowing expected savings back to provide dental, vision and hearing coverage for older people. The bill also calls for a pivot to long-term care services in the home, and an expansion of maternal health coverage for low-income women.

The law survived a decade of Republican efforts to repeal it or get the Supreme Court to strike it down. Obamacare was one of former President Donald Trump's top targets, but it has now has joined Medicare, Medicaid, and Children's Health Insurance as a permanent component of government programs providing coverage to nearly 145 million people.

The regular annual sign-up season for HealthCare.gov plans is set to again Nov. 1. It won't be the low-key affair that it was the Trump years, when the government kept the website running smoothly but didn't do much to promote enrollment. Brooks-LaSure said her agency is planning a big push this fall, with about $80 million allocated among some 1,500 local groups to help consumers enroll.

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Associated Press writer Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar contributed to this report
Dreamstime photo

MONTVILLE  A 60-year-old convicted serial bank robber has been sentenced to more than four years in prison for robbing another bank after being released from prison, the U.S. Attorneys Office said.

Anthony Hall, 60, of Montville, was sentenced Tuesday in New Haven to 52 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for robbing a Norwich bank while he was on supervised release for a prior federal robbery conviction, according to a press release.
BIDDEFORD, Maine (AP)  A landlord who'd previously tried to evict a tenant was shot to death on the porch of the apartment house, and the tenant fled to New Hampshire where he was arrested, officials said Wednesday.

Randal J. Hennessy, 30, of Biddeford, was arrested without incident Tuesday in Durham, New Hampshire, by the U.S. Marshals Maine Violent Offender Task Force, officials said. He was being detained Wednesday as a fugitive from justice at the Strafford County Jail. It was unclear if he had an attorney.
TORRINGTON  Democrat Jeremy Kincaid was defeated in Tuesdays primary in his attempt to be included on the Election Day ballot in November for a seat on the Board of Education.

Kincaid petitioned for the primary in August after he was not endorsed by the Democratic Town Committee at its July caucus. He ran against incumbent school board members Ed Corey and Ellen Hoehne and Travis Tanuis, who is making his first run for a seat on the school board.

Hoehne won with 232 votes, followed by Tanuis with 211 votes and Corey with 203 votes. Kincaid received 115 votes.

Democratic Town Committee chairman Paul Summers was pleased that his partys endorsed slate is running. Were really happy, he said. We have some great candidates, and were glad people came out and voted.

The voter turnout, Summers said, was about 5 percent.

Thats my guess, he said. It was weird, because normally voting is busy in the morning, but today people voted more in the afternoon and evening. You never know what a low turnout will do, so we appreciate the people who voted for our candidates.

Corey said, It always feels good to have the support of rank-and-file Democrats, and Im excited to go forward with the same team Ive been working with for the last few months. Im really jazzed, and Im looking forward to November.

Kincaid said the low voter turnout should send a message to the Democratic Town Committee.

It was a historically low turnout tonight, and thats got to give the party some pause, he said. They have work to do if theyre giong to win the mayorship and all the boards and the City Council seats.

Kincaid was also disappointed with the committee.

From the beginning, I dont think the town committee treated me very well, he said. To not even call me back when I wanted to have a debate; we could have done one, with all four of us. I dont understand that.

His work as a substitute teacher in the Torrington public schools, he said, should have been considered an asset. I thought it was a good strength of mine to have someone in class, every day, running on the ticket, but I think the powers that be (on the Board of Education) dont want people that question things too much, he said. They want yes people, and the town committee is willing to give them that.

Goshen primary

Goshen Democrats also held a primary election for two seats on the Planning & Zoning Commission. Incumbent member Cynthia Barrett, who petitioned for the primary after she was not endorsed by the town committee, was the winner.

Barret ran against Leya Edison and Jeremiah Foster, and received 142 votes; Foster received 66 votes, and Edison received 39.

I feel wonderful that the Democrats in Goshen were able to participate in the primary process, Barrett said. All 608 registered Democrats in Goshen were given the opportunity to cast their vote for their choice, and thats what its all about.

Im humbled by the vote, she said. Im very thankful.

Edison was disappointed, but said she would continue to work for Goshen. This is about adding more voices to the voices that we have, and trying to help Goshen move forward, she said. If (Barrett) is who the people chose, thats who the people chose.

Edison, who is chairman of the Democractic Town Committee, said shes turning her focus to Election Day. Im going to make a plan and follow through, and see what the people think, when we campaign door to door, she said.
Auto component maker Sansera Engineering Limited's initial public offer (IPO) on Tuesday was subscribed by 53 per cent. Being the first day of the Sansera Engineering IPO, the company has been making clear attempts to go public and enhance its visibility and brand image in the market.

According to NSE's data, on its first day of subscription, it received around 64,18,1880 shares against 1,21,09z166 shares on offer (OFS). Furthermore, the category reserved for the qualified institutional buyers (QIBs) was subscribed by 29 per cent followed by the non-institutional investors and the retail individual investors by 7 per cent and 87 per cent respectively.

Meanwhile, the company informed that it has collected Rs 382 crore from anchor investors. The fundraise came a day before its 5,135,162 equity shares to anchor investors opened for subscription. The company has now secured a large sum from its anchor investors which include the Government of Singapore, Monetary Authority of Singapore, Nomura, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Axis Mutual Fund (MF), ICICI Prudential MF, SBI Life Insurance Co Ltd, Max Life Insurance Company and Kuber India Fund.

All you need to know about the Sansera Engineering IPO

Sansera Engineering IPO opened its subscription on September 14, Tuesday and will conclude on September 16, Thursday. The IPO has set its price band at Rs 734-744 per equity share and looks forward to raising around Rs 1,283 crore. The IPO constituted around 17,244,328 equity shares put up by its promoters and investors.

The company looks forward to improving its brand image and provide liquidation to shareholders based on the listing of the equity shares.

Earlier in 2018, the company filed its IPO papers with SEBI and also got clearance to float its public issue, however, it was not done at the time.

The Bengaluru-based company, Sansera Engineering is involved in the manufacturing of complex and critical precision engineering components across automotive and non-automotive sectors. It also had a wide range of precision forged and machine components within the automotive sector. The company further manufactures for several other sectors including aerospace, off-road, agriculture, engineering, etc.

Meanwhile, the company's current revenue turnover stands at Rs 1,572 crore, while its profits stood at Rs 110 crore.

(With PTI inputs, Image: Unsplash/Pixabay)
After actor Ajay Devgn who is currently shooting for the upcoming episode of Into The Wild With Bear Grylls, the makers are in for a new surprise for fans. Actor Vicky Kaushal is all set to test his survival instincts along with Ajay Devgn in the new season of Discovery Networks' Into the Wild with Bear Grylls. The two actors could be seen exploring the wild with the world-famous adventurer and survivalist Bear Grylls in the Maldives.

For the unversed, the two stars are currently shooting for the upcoming episode in the Maldives. Following the overwhelming success of the previous seasons comprising of actor Akshay Kumar, South Indian superstar Rajinikanth and honourable Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the indomitable and fierce Ajay Devgn & Vicky Kaushal alongside Bear Grylls are all set to expect the unexpected whilst embarking on unprecedented challenges.

Vicky Kaushal to feature in Into The Wild With Bear Grylls

The upcoming episode is set to first premier on the discovery+ app. Ajay Devgns fitness levels and survival skills will be put to test as he ventures into the wild. Last year, Akshay Kumar had shot the episode in the famous Bandipur National Reserve, Karnataka, which is known to harbour the second-highest tiger population in India. Even superstar Rajinikanth had shot in the Bandipur forest, marking his first television presence after 40 years.

The show Into The Wild With Bear Grylls is a survival skills reality show that involves celebrities venturing into the wilderness with the famous British survivalist and adventurer. The format of the show is quite similar to that of Grylls international show for NBC and National Geographic called Running Wild with Bear Grylls, which has hosted actors Channing Tatum, Ben Stiller, and Michelle Rodriguez, and former US president Barack Obama.

Meanwhile, on the professional front, Vicky was last seen in Bhoot  Part One: The Haunted Ship (2020). He has biographical films Sardar Udham Singh and Sam Bahadur in his kitty. According to various media reports, one of his highly anticipated films The Immortal Ashwatthama, directed by Aditya Dhar has been shelved. It is reportedly believed that the film was shelved because of some financial crunch faced by the producer Ronnie Screwvala.

IMAGE: Instagram/@Vickykaushal09/@Beargrylls/PTI:
In a shocking development, reports suggested that 50-year-old Afghanistan-origin Indian national Bansri Lal Arendeh was abducted from Kabul on Tuesday. Speaking to Republic TV, Indian World Forum president Puneet Singh Chandok claimed that Arendeh was kidnapped while he was on the way to his shop in the 11th police district of Afghanistan's capital. Moreover, he asserted that the Indian's staff member was also abducted and "mercilessly beaten" but managed to escape.

Mentioning that the local authorities have hinted at the involvement of an extortion gang, he added that his family is yet to receive any ransom call. As per sources, the Ministry of External Affairs is closely monitoring the situation and is ascertaining more information about the incident. It is believed that the abducted man's family resides in Faridabad, Haryana.

"It is an unfortunate case. Bansri Lal Arendeh, a 50-year-old Indian national who holds an Indian passport was abducted yesterday at around 8 am in the morning when he was on the way to his shop. He is into the business of pharmaceutical products. And as per his family members and community members in Kabul, the local officials are investigating the matter and multiple raids are happening over there to locate him. But unfortunately, there has been no success till now," Indian World Forum president Puneet Singh Chandok observed.

Notably, India has already evacuated over 800 individuals from the war-torn country as a part of 'Operation Devi Shakti'. The safety, security and early return of Indian nationals stranded in Afghanistan featured in the meeting between India's Ambassador to Qatar Deepak Mittal and the Taliban Political Office head Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai on August 31. As per the MEA, Stanekzai assured that India's concerns will be positively addressed.

Apprising @MEAIndia - 50-yr old Bansuri Lal Allende was abducted by 5 people at gun point in Karte Parwan area in Kabul where he has a medicine godown

I had a phone call with representative of Hindu Sikh families in Kabul who told me minorities are worried abt their life & safety pic.twitter.com/f9MTdIsmqg  Manjinder Singh Sirsa (@mssirsa) September 15, 2021

The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan

After the Taliban stormed into Kabul on August 15, Afghanistan president Ashraf Ghani resigned and fled the country with his associates. Since then, several persons have lost their lives in the chaos at the Hamid Karzai International Airport with thousands of people desperately trying to flee the country. This includes the death of at least 169 Afghans, 11 US Marines, a US Navy sailor, and a US Army soldier in a suicide bombing at the Abbey Gate of the Kabul airport on August 26. This led to US airstrikes on terrorists belonging to ISIS-K which claimed responsibility for this attack.

On August 31, the Taliban gained control of the Kabul airport after the last batch of US troops left Afghanistan. Though the Taliban promised to form an "inclusive" government to run Afghanistan, it announced a 33-member caretaker Cabinet on Tuesday which neither has women nor mainstream politicians from previous regimes. While Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund, the chief of the Taliban's Rehbari Shura, is the new Prime Minister, he has two deputies in Mullah Baradar and Mawlavi Hanafi. Another terrorist Sirajuddin Haqqani is the Interior Minister whereas Taliban founder Mullah Omar's son Mullah Yaqoob has been named the Defence Minister.
Noida, Sep 14 (PTI) The Board of the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA) on Tuesday gave its go ahead to Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) for conducting studies for high-speed metro rail links from Noida International Airport to Delhi.

These metro rail connecting projects are in two parts -- one between the airport in Jewar and Greater Noida and the other from Greater Noida to Delhi, according to details that emerged from the 71st Board meeting of YEIDA.

"The board has given its approval to the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) to prepare a detailed project report (DPR) for metro rail connectivity between Knowledge Park in Greater Noida to Noida International Airport in Jewar," YEIDA said in an official statement.

"The board also gave its go ahead for issuing a work order in order to conduct a feasibility study for metro rail connectivity between Greater Noida and New Delhi," the statement read.

YEIDA Additional CEO and Airport project in-charge Shailendra Bhatia said both the studies are to be conducted by the DMRC for which an agreement had already been signed and the Board gave its approval on Tuesday.

"One link will be between the airport in Jewar and Knowledge Park 2 metro station in Greater Noida over a distance of some 35 km. The other will be from Knowledge Park 2 to Shivaji Metro station in Delhi," Bhatia told PTI.

During the meeting, the Board was also apprised of the developments related to Greenfield airport being developed by Yamuna International Airport Private Limited, a 100 per cent subsidiary of the Switzerland-headquartered Zurich International Airport AG, the YEIDA, which functions under the UP government, said.

The feasibility study and the DPR prepared by property consultant CBRE India on the proposed Heritage City was also put before the Board and it was told that the final report incorporating all suggestions would be placed before it soon, the YEIDA, which manages land along the 165-km-long Yamuna Expressway, said.

The YEIDA informed its Board that it generated a revenue of Rs 670.22 crore from April 1 to August 30 this year, double the amount over the corresponding period in 2020, according to the statement.

However, the expenses incurred by the YEIDA, which also includes paying of past dues, stood at Rs 1,099.93 crore during the period, it added.

The YEIDA informed its Board that it would soon be bringing schemes for residential plots, commercial kiosks, petrol pumps, hotels, etc in its sectors like 16, 17, 18, 20, 22D, 29 and 32. PTI KIS AAR AAR

(Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by www.republicworld.com)
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar slammed reports stating Quad as a grouping with limited agenda. Ahead of the Quad summit announced by US President Joe Biden on Sunday, EAM Jaishankar stated that the Quad has a broad and substantive agenda. He made his comments while speaking to a US-based academician Ashley Tellis about the Indian Ocean and its impact on regional security. Talking about the motive of the group, he said that all the kinds of political reflections are expressed in Quad and its agenda is extended to multiple domains for broader cooperation.

Further, indirectly slamming the comments made by the Chinese government regarding the agenda of the Quad, he said, "And to make it in a sense to give it a sharp edge and a very limited agenda partly is gamesmanship of critics. But it partly also headlines kind of attitude and not a full understanding of really what is happening because as we see later on in the month. I think Quad has an increasing agenda and a substantive agenda in multiple spheres of activities."

He further added that there are other plurilateral in the Indo-Pacific region which means more than two arrangements with Australia and Japan also with France, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives.

China on Quad formation

After US President Joe Biden announced about hosting the first-ever Quad Summit on September 24, the Chinese government hit out at its formation and that the group is "close, exclusive, and targeted small circles... unpopular and have no way out." Earlier, China termed Quad as an "Asian Nato" which was also criticized by EAM Jaishankar at the 2+2 ministerial meeting.

Quad Meeting

US President Joe Biden on Monday announced hosting the first in-person Quad meeting later this month. Furthermore, it will be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, and Japanese premier Yoshihide Suga. According to the statement of White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, the Quad Summit will be focused on deepening ties and enhancing practical cooperation in areas such as fighting the COVID pandemic. Earlier, in March, a virtual summit took place. Meanwhile, India has also confirmed of PM Modi travelling to the United States for the summit.

(With inputs from ANI)

(Image: ANI/AP)
Exercising the Right of Reply in response to preposterous statements made by Pakistan and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Kashmir, India asserted that Pakistan is habituated to misusing platforms to propagate its false and malicious propaganda against the former. The response by the country's First Secretary, Pawan Badhe, came to the fore during the General Debate by the High Commissioner at the 48th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC).

'OIC held hostage by Pakistan'

Referring to comments on Jammu & Kashmir by Khalil Hashmi, the permanent representative of India to the UN in Geneva, Pawan Badhe claimed that OIC or Pakistan had no locus standi to comment on India's 'internal affairs'.

"We once again regret and reject reference made by the OIC to the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir which is an integral part of India. The OIC has no locus standi to comment on the internal affairs of India. OIC has helplessly allowed itself to be held hostage by Pakistan," India stated with conviction while exercising Right of Reply at the UNHRC.

OIC is a collective of nearly Muslim-dominated 49 countries with a 1.8 billion populace. It states that the association is the 'collective voice of the Muslim world'. It works to 'safeguard interests of the Muslim world in the spirit of international peace and harmony'.

It is pertinent to note that PM Imran Khan-led State had attempted to raise Kashmir's issue at the interactive dialogue even during the 47th session of the UNHRC. India's First Secretary to the UN called out then shunned Pakistan for engaging in hypocrisy and not respecting their global position by indulging in baseless allegations.

"The Council is aware of Pakistans attempts to divert the Councils attention from serious human rights violations being perpetrated by its Government, including in the territories occupied by it," India asserted at the 48th UNHRC session.

'India doesn't need lessons from a failed state like Pakistan'

Bringing to light salient features of Indian democracy, First Secretary Badhe said that the country is not only "the world's largest democracy but a robustly vibrant one and it does not need lessons from a failed state like Pakistan." Also, the terrorism spewing out of the borders of Pakistan did not seem to evade Badhe's address, he said that PM Imran Khan-led regime is globally categorised to have encouraged terror plotting and training.

India at the 48th Session of the Human Rights Council said, "Pakistan is a country that has been globally recognised as a country openly supporting, training, financing and arming terrorists including UN proscribed terrorists, as a matter of State policy."

"Relevant multilateral institutions have been raising serious concerns on its (Pakistan's) failure to stop terror financing and lack of effective actions against terror entities," India's Secretary further said.

(Image: PTI / AP)
A day after the Delhi Police Special Cell busted a Pakistan-based terror module, the Anti-Terror Squad of Maharasthra in a press briefing on Wednesday confirmed that one of the six men arrested in the matter- Jaan Mohammad Sheikh alias 'Sameer' belonged to the Dharavi area of Mumbai. Speaking to the reporters, Additional Director General of the Anti-Terror Squad of Maharasthra, Vineet Agarwal asserted that Sameer has a record as old as 20 years of association with Pakistan-based D-Company, run by gangster-terrorist Dawood Ibrahim who lives in Karachi.

'Team being sent to Delhi to interrogate Jaan'

Narrating the events leading to Jaan Mohammad Sheikh's arrest, the ADG said, "On 9th, he (Sameer) decided to go to Delhi, and on the next day he even transferred the money for the ticket, but his ticket was not getting confirmed." Vineet Agarwal added, "On 13th, he took a waiting ticket in Golden Temple Express train and boarded the train for Nizamuddin from Mumbai Central in the evening"

In Kota, Sameer was arrested by the Delhi Police Special Cell, further informed the ADG, adding that no explosives or weapons were recovered at the time of his arrest. Making it clear that all relevant information in relation to the module as well as those arrested, including Sameer is with the Delhi Police Special Cell, Vineet Agarwal added that a team from Maharashtra is being sent to Delhi on Wednesday to interrogate Jaan. He also added that information in relation to his will be sought from the Delhi Police.

Terror module busted

The Delhi Police's Special Cell on Tuesday busted a Pakistan-organised terror module with the arrest of six men, including two Pak-ISI trained terrorists, officials said. The terrorists were allegedly planning several blasts across the country, including Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, during the upcoming festivals of Ganesh Chaturthi, Navratri and Ramleela, they said. Police said that Pakistan-based Anees Ibrahim, who is the brother of Dawood Ibrahim, was connected with the underworld operatives to execute the terror plan. Interrogation has revealed that the Pakistan terror module was being operated through two components via underworld and the Pak-ISI trained terror module, they said.

The accused, identified as Jaan Mohammad Sheikh (47) alias 'Sameer', Osama (22), Moolchand (47), Zeeshan Qamar (28), Mohd Abu Bakar (23) and Mohd Amir Javed (31), were arrested, following raids in Delhi and parts of Uttar Pradesh, police said. Among the arrested, Osama and Qamar are Pakistan-trained terror operatives working under the instructions of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). They were tasked to conduct the reconnaissance of different suitable locations in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh for placing IEDs, police said
On Wednesday, the Mumbai Police Crime Branch detained a travel agent who booked a train ticket for the arrested terrorist Jaan Mohammed Shaikh. After the major terror plot was busted by the Delhi Police Special Cell and other state police departments, the Mumbai Police too started their investigation. According to sources, the travel agent named Ajgar has been detained and his interrogation is going on. Moreover, Ajgar had booked a train ticket for Jaan Mohammed Shaikh who travelled from Mumbai Central to Delhi on September 13.

In addition, sources further revealed that Ajgar and Jaan Mohammed Shaikh are residents of Dharavi in Mumbai. The ticket was booked by Ajgar based on the instructions of Shaikh and both accused know each other. Meanwhile, Maharashtra Home Minister Dilip Walse Patil has called for a meeting. The meeting will be attended by Maharashtra ATS Chief, DGP Sanjay Pandey and Mumbai Police Commissioner Hemant Nagrale.

I've called a meeting (regarding arrest of the accused terrorist from the State by the Delhi Police Special Cell y'day). Maharashtra ATS Chief, DGP Sanjay Pandey & Mumbai Police Commissioner Hemant Nagrale will be present at meeting: Maharashtra Home Minister Dilip Walse Patil pic.twitter.com/iEoPwZjd5u  ANI (@ANI) September 15, 2021

Major terror plot busted in 3-state operation; Six arrested

In a massive operation, the Delhi Police's Special Cell on Tuesday busted a Pakistan-organised terror module with the arrest of six men, including two Pak-ISI trained terrorists, officials said. The terrorists were allegedly planning several blasts across the country, including Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, during the upcoming festivals of Ganesh Chaturthi, Navratri and Ramleela, they said. Police said that Pakistan-based Anees Ibrahim, who is the brother of Dawood Ibrahim, was connected with the underworld operatives to execute the terror plan. Interrogation has revealed that the Pakistan terror module was being operated through two components via underworld and the Pak-ISI trained terror module, they said.

The accused, identified as Jaan Mohammad Sheikh (47) alias 'Sameer', Osama (22), Moolchand (47), Zeeshan Qamar (28), Mohd Abu Bakar (23) and Mohd Amir Javed (31), were arrested, following raids in Delhi and parts of Uttar Pradesh, police said. Among the arrested, Osama and Qamar are Pakistan-trained terror operatives working under the instructions of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). They were tasked to conduct the reconnaissance of different suitable locations in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh for placing IEDs, police said.

(Image credits: Republic)
A Delhi Court sent 4 terror suspects to 14-day police custody in connection with the Pakistan-Dawood terror plot on Wednesday. Two other terrorists, who have been arrested in the case, are expected to be produced before the court today. The multi-state ISI terror module was busted by the Delhi Police Special Cell with two other state police departments. Six terrorists, 1 from Delhi, 1 from Maharashtra and 4 from Uttar Pradesh were arrested by the police forces on Tuesday.

As per sources, blasts had been planned in 3 cities, with the whole operation being coordinated by Dawood Ibrahim's brother- Anees Ibrahim. Two arrested terrorists named Osama and Zeeshan had been trained in Pakistan and were working under the instructions of the ISI to operate the terror plot. They had been tasked with conducting a reconnaissance of different suitable locations in Delhi and UP for placing IEDs for the blast, police has revealed.

Details of Dawood-terror plot

According to the Delhi Police Special Cell, the motive of the terrorists was to conduct serial blasts and targeted killings in Delhi, UP, Maharashtra, and other states in India. The scale of the operation was evident from the fact that it involved the arrest of persons from three major states in the country.

As per Delhi Police Special CP Neeraj Thakur, there were two components of the operation - one was the safe delivery of IEDs to the terrorists hiding in India, and the second was planting the explosives in major cities during the ongoing festive season. The arrested persons were tasked separately to execute different aspects of the terror plan. The terror operation was closely coordinated from the other side of the border.

A live bomb was recovered from the Prayagraj district of Uttar Pradesh. The Special cell also recovered explosives and firearms, apart from a live IED, in the multi-state operation. Delhi Police has revealed that underworld operative Sameer, a close associate of Anees Ibrahim, was tasked by Pak-based underworld operatives to ensure the smooth delivery of IEDs, sophisticated weapons, and grenades to different entities across India.
In a significant development in the Pakistan-Dawood terror plot, security forces on Wednesday conducted anti-terror operations in Punjab in connection to the case. As per sources, another angle related to the terror module has emerged from the border state of Punjab. Security forces have received intelligence that Punjab locals were allegedly involved in the multi-state terror operation. They are currently being probed in the case. Another angle that is being investigated is the dropping and smuggling of consignments across the porous border state via drones. IEDs allegedly for the blasts were dropped via drones in Punjab, police sources have told Republic TV.

Earlier today, a Delhi court sent 4 terror suspects to 14-day police custody in connection with the Pakistan-Dawood terror plot. Two remaining terrorists, who have been arrested in the case, are expected to be produced before the court today. The multi-state ISI terror module was busted by the Delhi Police Special Cell with two other state police departments. Six terrorists, 1 from Delhi, 1 from Maharashtra and 4 from Uttar Pradesh were arrested by the police forces on Tuesday.

Two other accused in the case, Jeshan Qamar and Amir Javed will be produced in court in the afternoon: Delhi Police Special Cell  ANI (@ANI) September 15, 2021

Details of Dawood-terror plot

According to the Delhi Police Special Cell, the motive of the terrorists was to conduct serial blasts and targeted killings in Delhi, UP, Maharashtra, and other states in India. The scale of the operation was evident from the fact that it involved the arrest of persons from three major states in the country.

As per Delhi Police Special CP Neeraj Thakur, there were two components of the operation - one was the safe delivery of IEDs to the terrorists hiding in India, and the second was planting the explosives in major cities during the ongoing festive season. The arrested persons were tasked separately to execute different aspects of the terror plan. The terror operation was closely coordinated from the other side of the border.

A live bomb was recovered from the Prayagraj district of Uttar Pradesh. The Special cell also recovered explosives and firearms, apart from a live IED, in the multi-state operation. Delhi Police has revealed that underworld operative Sameer, a close associate of Anees Ibrahim, was tasked by Pak-based underworld operatives to ensure the smooth delivery of IEDs, sophisticated weapons, and grenades to different entities across India.
New Delhi, Sep 14 (PTI) In a massive operation, the Delhi Police's Special Cell on Tuesday busted a Pakistan-organised terror module with the arrest of six men, including two Pak-ISI trained terrorists, officials said.

The terrorists were allegedly planning several blasts across the country, including Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, during the upcoming festivals of Ganesh Chaturthi, Navratri and Ramleela, they said.

Police said that Pakistan-based Anees Ibrahim, who is brother of Dawood Ibrahim, was connected with the underworld operatives to execute the terror plan.

Interrogation has revealed that Pakistan terror module was being operated through two components -- via underworld and the Pak-ISI trained terror module, they said.

The accused, identified as Jaan Mohammad Sheikh (47) alias 'Sameer', Osama (22), Moolchand (47), Zeeshan Qamar (28), Mohd Abu Bakar (23) and Mohd Amir Javed (31), were arrested, following raids in Delhi and parts of Uttar Pradesh, police said.

Among the arrested, Osama and Qamar are Pakistan-trained terror operatives working under the instructions of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). They were tasked to conduct the reconnaissance of different suitable locations in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh for placing IEDs, police said.

Addressing the press conference here, Special Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Neeraj Kumar Thakur said, "In a multi-state operation, we have arrested six persons, including two Pakistan-trained terrorists. Two among them, Osama and Qamar had gone to Pakistan for training this year, following which they returned to India." Police said they got inputs from central agencies that a Pak-abetted and sponsored group of entities is planning to execute serial IED blasts in India.

"With the help of human and technical surveillance, it was found that the network was spread across various states. On Tuesday, we conducted raids simultaneously in different states and initially, the first accused, Sheikh, was apprehended from near Kota in Rajasthan while he was on a train on the way to Delhi," Thakur said.

Later, Osama was nabbed from Delhi's Okhla and Bakar from Sarai Kale Khan, while Qamar was apprehended from Allahabad, Javed from Lucknow and Moolchand from Rae Bareilly in close coordination with the UP Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) team, the officer said.

"The arrest of the four accused has exposed the nexus of the Pakistan's ISI-sponsored and trained terror modules with underworld operatives and averted a slew of serial blasts and targeted killings in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and other states in India," said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Pramod Singh Kushwah.

Explosives and firearms were recovered from Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh in a multi-state operation, he added.

Police said that the arrested men were tasked separately to execute different aspects of the terror plan.

The underworld operative Sameer, a close contact of Anees Ibrahim, was tasked by a Pak-based person connected with the underworld operatives hiding in Pakistan to ensure smooth delivery of improvised explosive devices (IED), sophisticated weapons and grenades to different entities in India.

"Anees was acting on the behest of Pak-ISI and the underworld component was entrusted with two tasks, including transportation of arms and explosives and terror-funding, through hawala channels," said Kushwah.

Interrogation revealed that Osama had left for Muscat on April 22 by Salaam Air flight from Lucknow and after reaching there, he met Qamar, who had also come from India to join the training, said the senior police officer.

From Muscat, the duo was then taken via sea route to Jioni town near Gwadar port in Pakistan, from where they were taken to a farmhouse in Thatta in Pakistan, he said.

"They lived with three Pakistani nationals in the farmhouse. Two of them -- Jabbar and Hamza -- gave them training, who they claimed are from Pakistan Army as they wore military uniforms," Kushwah said.

"The two men were given 15 days training in making bombs, IEDs and committing arson with the help of items of daily use. They were also trained in handling and using firearms and AK-47," he said.

Interrogation has also revealed that after reaching Muscat, they were also joined by 15-16 Bengali-speaking people suspected to be from Bangladesh, who were later divided into sub-groups, while Osama and Qamar were placed in one group for training, police said.

Several sophisticated RDX-based IEDs, grenades, pistols and cartridges were transported from Pakistan via the underworld connect and these were sent to Uttar Pradesh for safe concealment. Sheikh, along with Moolchand, was tasked to hand it over to terror operatives in Delhi, Mumbai and other parts of the country, they said.

Explosives and IEDs were to be used in heavy footfall areas during the upcoming festivities or at large gatherings, while it is suspected that the imported pistols and ammunition transported via Pakistan were to be used for the targeted killings, police said.

All the accused will be produced before a Delhi court on Wednesday and police will seek their 14 days custody for further investigation, they said. PTI AMP KJ

(Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by www.republicworld.com)
Mumbai, Sep 14 (PTI) Mumbai police and Maharashtra ATS officials on Tuesday questioned the family members of terror suspect Jaan Mohammad Shaikh, arrested for allegedly being part of a Pakistan-organised module, and searched his home here, police said.

Earlier in the day, the Delhi Police's Special Cell busted a Pakistan-organised terror module with the arrest of six men, including two Pak- ISI trained terrorists, officials said.

Shaikh (47) alias 'Sameer Kalia', whose family stays at Sion in Central Mumbai, is among those arrested by the Special Cell and allegedly has underworld links.

As his arrest became public, personnel from the Mumbai crime branch and local police rushed to his residence and questioned his family members, who stay in a room in a slum in Sion, they said.

Shaikh had been staying in the house with his family members since the last few years, police said.

He is married and has two daughters, they said, quoting local residents.

Police made enquiries about his background with the family members and neighbours, an official said.

They also searched the house to get more information about Shaikh's activities, he said.

The family members were asked about how he was came into contact with the module, the official said.

Later, a team of the Maharashtra ATS also reached Shaikh's residence and gathered details about his family background and carried out verification, he said.

A large number of mediapersons had assembled outside Shaikh's residence. Police personnel were deployed in the area to maintain order and avoid any untoward incident.

Speaking to mediapersons, Shaikh's neighbours said they were shocked to hear about his connection with the terror module.

One of them said Shaikh was known as a "family man" who never got into any argument with residents of the area.

He was a driver by profession and his wife does some household job, a woman resident said.

Shaikh owns the house and had been residing there since years, she said, adding he lost his parents a decade ago.

One of his daughters studies in college, the woman said.

According to the Delhi Police, the terrorists were allegedly planning several blasts across the country during the upcoming festivals. They were arrested following raids in Delhi and parts of Uttar Pradesh.

The Delhi police said the arrested men were tasked separately to execute different aspects of the terror plan.

Shaikh, an underworld operative and close contact of Anees Ibrahim, who is brother of Dawood Ibrahim, was tasked by a Pak-based person connected with underworld operatives hiding in Pakistan, to ensure smooth delivery of improvised explosive devices (IED), sophisticated weapons and grenades to different entities in India, they said. PTI DC RSY RSY

(Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by www.republicworld.com)
Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis reacted to the arrest of six Pakistan-backed terrorists in the country calling it a serious matter of concern for the nation's security. Condemning the Pakistan-Dawood terror plot, the Maharashtra LoP expressed shock over the arrest of a terrorist from Mumbai, stating that the country should not allow a terror attack to take place on its soil. A multi-state ISI terror module was busted by the Delhi Police Special Cell with two other state police departments on Tuesday.

Speaking to the media, Devendra Fadnavis said, "This is a very serious matter. The way in which terrorists are being caught in the country and in Mumbai raises an alarm. The way in which these terrorists have infiltrated the country and are in hiding in different parts, such people need to be nabbed. We can not allow a terror attack to take place."

Arrested terrorists send to 14-day police custody

All arrested terrorists have been sent to Delhi Police Special Cell's custody for 14 days by a Delhi court on Wednesday. Six terrorists, one from Delhi, one from Maharashtra and four from Uttar Pradesh, were arrested by the police forces on Tuesday. As per sources, blasts had been planned in three cities, with the whole operation being coordinated by Dawood Ibrahim's brother  Anees Ibrahim. Two arrested terrorists named Osama and Zeeshan had been trained in Pakistan and were working under the instructions of the ISI to operate the terror plot.

Pakistan Terror Plot

According to the Delhi Police Special Cell, the motive of the terrorists was to conduct serial blasts and targeted killings in Delhi, UP, Maharashtra, and other states in India. Delhi Police Special CP Neeraj Thakur has revealed there were two components of the operation  one was the safe delivery of IEDs to the terrorists hiding in India, and the second was planting the explosives in major cities during the ongoing festive season. The arrested persons were tasked separately to execute different aspects of the terror plan. The terror operation was closely coordinated from the other side of the border.

The Special Cell also recovered explosives and firearms, apart from a live IED, in the multi-state operation. Delhi Police has revealed that underworld operative Sameer, a close associate of Anees Ibrahim, was tasked by Pak-based underworld operatives to ensure the smooth delivery of IEDs, sophisticated weapons, and grenades to different entities across India.

(Image: PTI)
Taunting the Centre over its refusal to file an affidavit regarding Pegasus snooping, Shiv Sena on Wednesday, claimed that the Modi govt was playing 'hide and seek' on the issue. Pointing out that the Opposition had sought a Parliamentary debate on the alleged snooping, Sena via its mouthpiece Saamana, slammed the Centre's denial in both the House and the Supreme Court. Claiming that the Opposition was as worried as the Centre about national security, Sena urged the Centre to clarify if Pegasus was used to spy on political opponents, journalists or not.

Sena: Centre playing 'hide-and-seek'

Sena's censure comes a day after Centre refused to file a detailed affidavit on the pleas, stating that it will issue a report to the SC after a committee of experts probe into the allegations. Moreover, the SC bench of CJI NV Ramana, Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli said that it will pass an interim order in two and three days which will concern mainly regarding the constitution of the committee to probe the allegations. The Centre has refuted all allegations of any spying via Israeli spyware Pegasus, but did not hold a debate in the Parliament on the allegations.

The Centre has told SC it has nothing to hide and that is why it has on its own said it will constitute a panel of domain experts. The Centre added that whether a particular software was used or not is not a matter for public discussion. Report of the committee of domain experts will be made available to SC, said Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to the apex court. The court is hearing as many as 12 pleas, including the one filed by the Editors Guild of India, seeking an independent probe into the matter.

A report by sixteen media houses claimed that 300 verified Indian mobile telephone numbers were allegedly spied upon using Israeli surveillance technology firm Pegasus - which only has 36 vetted governments as its clients. As per a 'leaked' database, numbers of those allegedly spied upon include over 40 journalists, three major opposition figures, one constitutional authority, two serving cabinet ministers, current and former heads, and officials of security organizations and businessmen. The target also includes the eight activists currently accused of the Bhima Koregaon case. The report claimed that the leaked numbers mainly belong to ten countries - India, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Morocco, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. Supreme Court is hearing a bunch of pleas seeking an SC-monitored probe into the allegations.
New Delhi, Sep 14 (PTI) In an apparent reference to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's 'abba jaan' remarks, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said what kind of a Yogi propagates hate.

The Uttar Pradesh chief minister's office hit back at Gandhi, saying in a tweet, "If bulldozing the empire of criminals and miscreants is hate, then this hatred will continue unabated." Earlier, taking to Twitter, Gandhi posted, "Jo nafrat kare, woh yogi kaisa! (What kind of a Yogi propagates hate)." After the Uttar Pradesh chief minister's office attacked Gandhi, Congress' chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala tweeted, "One does not become a yogi merely by disguising himself as a sage. Harmony, virtue and goodwill should be reflected in his statements, personality and behaviour." Addressing a programme in Kushinagar on Sunday, Adityanath had alleged that people did not get rations before 2017 like they do now.

"Because then, people who say 'abba jaan' used to digest the rations. The rations of Kushinagar used to go to Nepal and Bangladesh. Today, if anybody tries to swallow the rations meant for poor people, he will land in jail," the chief minister had said.

'Abba jaan' is the Urdu term for father.

In a Facebook post, Gandhi also recalled the horrific Hathras incident, which took place a year ago.

"The wait for justice continues. Daughter of Hathras, daughter of the country," Gandhi said. The horrific Hathras incident took place a year ago in which a young Dalit woman was allegedly raped by four men. The woman died on September 29 at Delhi's Safdarjung Hospital during treatment. PTI ASK KJ KJ

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Engineers' Day is commemorated in India on September 15, the birthday of Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya. M Visvesvaraya made a great contribution to engineering and education. He is regarded as one of India's greatest nation-builders, having played a key role in the construction of dams, reservoirs, and hydropower projects. As chief engineer, M Visvesvaraya oversaw the construction of various architectural marvels, including the Krishna Raja Sagar dam in Karnataka and the Hyderabad flood control system.

In 1955, he was awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest honour. For his efforts to the public good, King George V honoured him as a Knight Commander of the British Indian Empire (KCIE). In India, Sri Lanka, and Tanzania, his birthday, September 15, is commemorated as Engineers' Day.

Happy Engineers Day: Engineers Day quotes and Engineers Day wish for husband

Engineers enjoy figuring out how to solve issues. They will make their own issues if there are no challenges readily available. Happy Engineers' Day!

Engineers are critical to the advancement of our society. Engineer's Day is today, Happy Engineers' Day!

As an engineer, you have the ability to create anything with your mind and ingenuity... I'd like to wish you a very happy Engineer's Day.

Engineers are the only ones who have the ability to do the impossible because they employ science to develop something new... I wish you a happy Engineer's Day!

Warm regards on Engineer's Day to you for pouring your heart and soul into your job, for inventing such unique products, and for surprising us on a daily basis.

Science and engineers have made life so much easier for us, and on Engineer's Day, I'd like to thank you for being such an outstanding engineer. Happy Engineers' Day!

Engineers are the ones who bring technology into our lives to make things easier, more comfortable, and more enjoyable, and today is the day to thank them. Happy Engineers' Day!

Without engineers in our life, we would have lived in a very different world. Engineers always surprise us with their innovative products that bring spice to our daily lives. Happy Engineers' Day!

They are truly magicians because of their imagination and innovation... They imagine and build what we consider to be impossible and unreal... Engineer's Day is today, Happy Engineers' Day!

Wishing all those bright brains who are continuously investigating opportunities to develop something new for a better life a very happy Engineer's Day. We are proud of you for all the hard effort you put into your studies and your dedication to creating something unique.

Engineers Day funny memes

A number of posts are being seen online on today's occasions. Prominent political figures are sharing their appreciation and praise for the engineers of the country. Brands have been promoting their products and services with social media posts linking engineers and their businesses. Netizens have also been sharing jokes and memes on the occasion.

Happy Engineers Day to all the Last minute genius! #EngineersDay pic.twitter.com/P2a9uLXJpD  Jenish Panara (@JPanara_3) September 15, 2021

To all the All Rounders out there...

Happy #EngineersDay : pic.twitter.com/70OSSBmIHQ  Varad Ralegaonkar (@varadr_tistic) September 15, 2021

Engineers after investing their money on Xerox shop in front of engineering college#EngineersDay pic.twitter.com/NXLr3B6jQZ  Pankaj Gautam (@Tea_holicc) September 15, 2021

#EngineersDay with out single meme of aaj bhoat scope wala day hai meme face be like pic.twitter.com/6P6pI8xkWn  Vedant Purnapatre (@_Recluse___) September 15, 2021

(IMAGE: SHUTTERSTOCK)
American Tech giant Apple on Monday released emergency security updates for its iPhones iPads, Apple Watches and Mac computers. With the urgent update, the company looked at closing its products vulnerability to invasive spyware. Security researchers had earlier uncovered a flaw in the companys software that allowed highly invasive spyware from Israels NSO Group to infect anyone of its products easily.

Apple emergency security update came after the developers found spyware called Pegasus, easily infecting the product software. According to international reports, Apples security team worked around the clock to come up with a security update for Apple device after researchers at Citizen Lab, a cybersecurity watchdog organization at the University of Toronto found the spyware infection. The researchers first discovered the Pegasus spyware on a Saudi activists iPhone.

Apple iPhone security update

The Apple emergency update came after the Pegasus spyware was found in an iPhone. According to reports, Pegasus uses a method to infect Apple devices without victims knowledge. Known as a zero-click remote exploit, the problematic surveillance system allows governments, mercenaries and criminals to secretly break into someones device and breach data. The NSO spywares presence in iPhone suggests that more than 1.65 billion Apple products have been vulnerable to spyware worldwide. However, the company now claims that the apple emergency update has fixed the problem and the devices are now safe to use.

Pegasus snoop row in India

Earlier, the Israeli spyware had risen to attention when reports had surfaced claiming that 300 verified Indian mobile telephone numbers were allegedly spied upon using the surveillance technology. As per a 'leaked' database, numbers of those allegedly spied upon using the Pegasus spyware include over 40 journalists, three major opposition figures, one constitutional authority, two serving cabinet ministers, current and former heads, and officials of security organizations and businessmen. The target also includes the eight activists. The report claimed that the leaked numbers mainly belong to ten countries - India, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Morocco, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. Supreme Court is now set to hear a bunch of pleas seeking an SC-monitored probe into the allegations.

Image: SHUTTERSTOCK
The latest analysis of climate change unveiled by watchdog Climate Action Tracker (CAT) on September 14 revealed that none of the G20 countries have a proper plan to meet the 2015 Paris Agreement aim, as per a CNN report. The analysis, that observed policies of 36 countries along with European Union members, said that the negligent list of countries includes even the world's largest economies. The 2015 Paris accord was agreed upon by 190 countries to limit the Earth's warming to a maximum of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

The analysis by CAT stated that the countries observed makeup 80% of the world's total carbon emissions but a developing country like the Gambia was the only one in the "1.5 compatible" category. Although, there might be other developing countries that were not analyzed, but are in alignment with the accord, said CNN's report. CAT revealed that six countries, including the UK, are in the "nearly sufficient" category as its policies do not completely meet the benchmark but can get aligned with little improvements.

Meanwhile, policies of the U.S, Japan and other European Union countries were insufficient to meet the 1.5-degree threshold. This is still an improvement for the U.S as it earlier was put in the "critically-insufficient" category under Donald Trump's presidency and has been upgraded to "almost sufficient", said CNN.

Countries like India, Saudi Arabia and Turkey too are in a bad light as they also missed the July 31 deadline to submit their respective and mandatory emissions-cutting pledges technically called Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). As per Climate Analytics CEO and CAT partner Bill Hare, countries like Australia, Brazil, Indonesia Mexico, New Zealand, Russia, Singapore, Switzerland and Vietnam are the most concerning. They submitted the same or even less ambitious 2030 targets than those they did in 2015, he said.

90% coal must be abandoned to achieve half the goal

An earlier study published in the journal Nature had suggested that 60% of unextracted natural gas and oil and nearly 90% of coal must be abandoned in order to achieve even half the possibility of fulfilling the agreement. The study also estimated that global gas and oil production must decline by three% every year till 2050 and the extraction-production process must have crossed its peak phase now or by the next decade. However, the boycott estimates after 2050 might reduce as we move towards 2100, said the study.

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Egyptian scientists say the fossil of a four-legged prehistoric whale, unearthed over a decade ago in the countrys Western Desert, is that of a previously unknown species. The creature, an ancestor of the modern-day whale, is believed to have lived 43 million years ago.

The prehistoric whale, known as semi-aquatic because it lived both on land and sea, sported features of an accomplished hunter, the teams leading paleontologist, Hesham Sallam, told The Associated Press  features that make it stand out among other whale fossils.

The fossil was first found by a team of Egyptian environmentalists in 2008 in an area that was covered by seas in prehistoric times, but researchers only published their findings confirming a new species last month.

Sallam said that his team did not start examining the fossil until 2017 because he wanted to assemble the best and the most talented Egyptian paleontologists for the study.

This is the first time in the history of Egyptian vertebrate paleontology to have an Egyptian team leading a documentation of a new genus and species of four-legged whale, said Sallam.

The fossil sheds light on the evolution of whales from herbivore land mammals into carnivorous species that today live exclusively in water. The transition took place over roughly 10 million years, according to an article published on the discovery in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Egypts Western Desert region is already known for the so-called Whale Valley, or Wadi Al-Hitan, a tourist attraction and the countrys only natural World Heritage site that contains fossil remains of another type of prehistoric whales.

The newly discovered creature belongs to the family of Protecetids, extinct semi-aquatic whales that lived from 59 to 34 million years ago, Sallam said. It would have walked on land but also hunted in the water.

This is yet another new species of early whales from the time when they retained four functional limbs, said Jonathan Geisler, an expert on the evolutionary history of mammals with New York Institute of Technology.

He said that the location of the discovery in Egypt is also a clue as to when and how they spread around the globe. Geisler was not involved in the find.

The oldest fossil whales are about 50 million years old and are believed to have originated in modern-day Pakistan and India. However, scientists have not been able to reach a conclusive answer as to when whales moved out of their point of origin to all the worlds oceans.

This new species by itself cannot answer that question, but when viewed in the context of other fossil discoveries, suggests that this dispersal occurred 43 million years ago, said Geisler, adding the new find could possibly serve as a link between Indo-Pakistan and North American regions.

The fossil whale has been been named Phiomicetus Anubis, after the god of death in ancient Egypt.

We chose the name Anubis because it had a strong and deadly bite, said Sallam, professor of paleontology at Mansoura University in Egypt. It could kill any creature it crossed paths with.

The new species stands out for its elongated skull and snout that suggest it was an efficient carnivore capable of grasping and chewing its prey, he said. It was about 3 meters (9 feet long) and weighed around 600 kilograms, according to researchers. It is also believed to have had sharp hearing and sense of smell.

The discovery followed a four-year collaboration between Egyptian paleontologists and U.S-based scientists, Sallam added.

His team has previously made headlines worldwide with their 2018 discovery of Mansourasaurus, a new species of long-necked herbivorous dinosaurs that lived in the Nile Delta province of Mansoura.

Image: AP
Research revealed that some of the warm-blooded animals are shapeshifting such as getting larger beaks, legs and ears to better cope up with climate change and enhance regulation of body temperature as the planet continues to grow hotter. The findings of the study published in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution revealed how climate change is impacting animals along with humans. As per ANI, bird researcher Sara Ryding of Deakin University in Australia in the research said, "A lot of the time when climate change is discussed in mainstream media, people are asking 'can humans overcome this?', or 'what technology can solve this?'"

"It's high time we recognised that animals also have to adapt to these changes, but this is occurring over a far shorter timescale than would have occurred through most of the evolutionary time," added Ryding.

"The climate change that we have created is heaping a whole lot of pressure on them, and while some species will adapt, others will not," continued Ryding.

Ryding notes complex phenomenon of climate change

The bird researchers also noted the complexity of climate change and how it is a multifaceted phenomenon that took place over a gradual period of time. Therefore, Ryding said that it is challenging to pinpoint just one cause for the shapeshifting among the warm-blooded animals. However, notably, these changes occurred in the animals across wide geographical regions and also among a diverse array of species. The only factor that remains common in all the incidents is climate change.

Particularly, shapeshifting has been reported among birds, Australian species of parrots. Since 1871, there is a 4 to 10 per cent increase in the bill size which also coincides with the summer temperature each year. Other changes have been reported in mammalian species including an increase in tail length in wood mice and leg size increase in masked shrews.

"The increases in appendage size we see so far are quite small -- less than 10 per cent -- so the changes are unlikely to be immediately noticeable," said Ryding.

"However, prominent appendages such as ears are predicted to increase -- so we might end up with a live-action Dumbo in the not-so-distant future," added Ryding.

(With ANI inputs)

IMAGE: Unsplash/Representative


The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has once again created a buzz on the internet by sharing a few stunning pictures of Nebulae. The US space agency often takes to social media to mesmerise users with their amazing as well as insightful posts. Sharing a descriptive post, the US space agency wrote how stars are "just like us." "Stars: they're just like us! (Composed of hydrogen, helium, and carbon.) Nebulae are breathtakingly beautiful star-forming clouds of gas and dust. Pictured here (left to right) are four of the most famous known nebulae images captured by the Spitzer Space Telescope: the Eagle Nebula (which contains the Pillars of Creation), the Omega Nebula, the Trifid Nebula, and the Lagoon Nebula [sic]," they posted.

"Nebulae exist in interstellar space - the space between the stars. The closest known nebula to Earth contains the remnants of a dying star  possibly like our Sun, called the Helix Nebula. At approximately 700 light-years away, even if you could travel at the speed of light, it would still take you 700 years to get there! [sic], they posted sharing further information. It should be noted here that the post is doing rounds on social media platforms since it was shared on Wednesday morning. As of now, it has garnered more than 9.93 lakh views on Instagram. The post has also accumulated a number of comments from people. Reacting to the post, one of the users wrote, "This is absolutely stunning." "Satisfying. This is my reason to keep going [sic]," wrote another. "I believe we are made from the stars and our destiny is among them, dear @nasa, you will make that possible with your efforts [sic]," expressed a third.

Have a look at the post here:

Here are some reactions by users:

NASA shared a post on white dwarf stars

It is pertinent to mention that recently, NASA had shared another post that had created quite a buzz on social media. The US space agency had shared a post on white dwarf stars on September 7. Sharing two stunning pictures, NASA asked, "Could dying stars hold the secret to looking younger? New evidence from Hubble suggests that white dwarf stars could continue to burn hydrogen in the final stages of their lives, causing them to appear more youthful than they actually are! This discovery is big news, as it could change how astronomers measure the ages of star clusters, which contain the oldest known stars in the universe," they explained sharing the post.

Image: Twitter/@nasa
Tech mogul Elon Musk, via his recent tweet, revealed that his satellite broadband company 'Starlink' will extend its services to Mars. Musk informed about this idea while replying to a user's tweet last week, as per reports by The Science Times. Currently, the broadband internet provider is undergoing public beta testing in parts of the US and Canada.

Starlink will strengthen Starship's communication

Musk's idea came to light when a user asked if Starlink will be deployed between Earth and Mars to strengthen communication for Starship. Starship is SpaceX's ambitious project that is being touted as the vehicle that will ferry cargo and crew to the red planet and back in the coming years. In response to the user's tweet, Musk amplified the excitement with one word, "yeah".

Is starlink going to be deployed between earth and Mars to@improve communication for starship?  EV-HQ (@EVHQ2) September 11, 2021

Citing SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell's interview with TIME, The Science Times reported that the company has serious plans to deploy its Starlink broadband satellite constellation system between Earth and Mars. She reportedly emphasised that strong communication will be extremely crucial on the red planet, however, she stated that just the constellation won't do the job.

Current status of Starlink

The company is currently providing services in parts of the US and Canada and has plans to enter India by the end of 2021. Musk, in a November 2020 tweet had written that Starlink will try to expand in the Indian market by mid-2021 as soon as they get the regulatory approval. As an attempt, SpaceX vice president for Satellite Government Affairs, Patricia Cooper even engaged with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on a roadmap to Promote Broadband Connectivity and Enhanced Broadband Speed where it emphasised that the Indian government must work on updating policies for the establishment of satellite-based broadband technology in India.

Cooper had listed consideration of updated rules, policies, and regulations for Starlinks launch along with actions recommended for TRAI to avail fast broadband services from Starlink. The company has over 800 operational satellites that are providing the internet and the company aims to take the number to 12,000. Upon large-scale deployment, customers will be able to avail internet speeds of 100 Mbps or more even in rural and underserved areas around the world.

(IMAGE: @ESAOPERATIONS/@SPACEX/TWITTER)
Speaking at the 48th Human Rights Council (OHCHR) on Monday, UN Human Rights Commissioner Michelle Bachelet noted the reports of vigorous violations of human rights in Tigray and Ethiopia. The Human Rights Commission Chief mentioned that "multiple severe reports of alleged gross violations of human rights, humanitarian and refugee law," were observed from the Horn of Africa.

"Civilian suffering is widespread and impunity is pervasive," Michelle Bachelet, UNHCR Commissioner.

In the last few months, "mass detention, killings, systematic looting, and sexual violence" have created "an atmosphere of fear and an erosion of living conditions that resulted in the forced displacement of the Tigrayan civilian population," she said. She also indicated that the reports implicated the involvement of Government Forces and their allies in allegations of human rights violation. The reports were studied after a joint investigation into the matter conducted through fieldwork by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR) and the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC).

The solution to the conflict in #Tigray [in #Ethiopia] can only be found through a political process and dialogue  I call on all parties to immediately end hostilities without preconditions and negotiate a lasting ceasefire.



- @mbachelet to #HRC48 pic.twitter.com/memEgjasjh  UN Human Rights Council (@UN_HRC) September 13, 2021

Joint investigation reports suggest human rights violation and sexual assault in Tigray

Even though the full range of information collected is being analysed, the preliminary report suggested that the documented cases comprised majorly of multiple allegations of human rights violation, Bachelet asserted. Adding details about the type of violations observed since the war broke out between Tigray and Ethiopia, followed by a prolonged period of famine, Ms. Bachelet notified, "(the reports) included attacks on civilians, extrajudicial killings, torture and enforced disappearances." Highlighting the alarming rates of sexual violence against women and children, UNHCR Chief mentioned, "sexual and gender-based violence is also included gang rapes, sex lies torture and ethnically targeted sexual violence."

Violations practiced by all parties

According to the investigation reports, participation of government forces in human rights violations was maximum. On September 13, Daniel Bekele, Chief Commissioner of the EHRC said that alleged violations included attacks on civilians, civilian objects and other protected persons. Additionally, investigation reports also suggested that Addis Ababa frequently indulged in arbitrary mass detention of people of Tigrayan ethnicity. "Incitement to hatred and discrimination were also documented targetting people of Tigrayan ethnicity." There were also reports of widespread attacks on journalists and the state-ordered suspension of media outlet licenses and shutdowns of internet and telecommunications in Tigray.

Owing to the war and natural calamities, approximately 76,000 people have been displaced in Afar so far. Another 2,00,000 were estimated in the Amahara region. Most recently, about 200 individuals were killed and 88 others, including children and women, were injured. There were also reports of recruitment of children into conflict forces, outrightly violating international laws.

UNHRC Chief recommends cease-fire to avoid national division

Although the Ethiopian government refused to acknowledge the UNHRC and EHRC-backed joint investigation report, UNHCR Chief Bachelet recommended the Government to enter into a cease-fire with the Tigrayan Forces to avoid national division. She also urged lawmakers to acknowledge the joint investigation reports that will be issued on November 1, 2021. Meanwhile, Attorney General of Ethiopia, Gedion Timothewos Hessebon reiterated Ethiopia's stand on the credible allegation of severe human rights violation. He regretted the African Human and People's Rights Commission's decision to opt for unilateral investigation turning down Ethiopia's invitation. This would have ensured easy recognition of the reports. However, at OHCHR Ms. Bachelet asserted that all parties must immediately end hostilities and negotiate a lasting ceasefire to avoid the risk of tearing apart Ethiopia will be torn apart.

With Inputs from ANI

Image: AP
A week after staging a coup d'etat, military leaders in Guinea have commenced a week-long consultation with political, religious and business leaders that they say will lead to the formation of a transitional government. On September 5, an unverified video surfaced online which showed nine unnamed soldiers surrounding the countrys President Alpha Conde hours after heavy gunfire was heard near the presidential palace. However later, the defence ministry said the coup attempts were thwarted by the National Guards. Notably, the head of Guineas special forces, Colonel Mamady Doumbouya, also appeared in the broadcast announcing the takeover.

According to Al Jazeera, the dialogue is expected to lay out the framework of a promised government of unity that would lead the west African country back to constitutional order. Additionally, it is also expected to set a timeline and the leader for the transitional administration. The ongoing discussions would not be limited to political groups but would extend to the regional government, religious groups, diplomatic missions, civil society groups and business organisations. It is worth mentioning that the soldiers have announced a new moniker for them- The National Committee of Gathering and Development.

Guinea's President criticised for authoritarian rule

President Conde has faced mounting criticism since he assumed the third term in office, saying the two-term limit did not apply to him because of a constitutional referendum he had put forth. He was re-elected, but the decision called for violent demonstrations on the streets. The Opposition told the media that dozens were killed.

Conde, who is 83, could remain in power until 2030 if he wins again in 2025. He first came to power in 2010 in the country's first democratic election since independence from France in 1958. While few observed his presidency as a fresh start, others claim that Guinea is mired by decades of corrupt, authoritarian rule. Opponents say he failed to improve Guineans' history, most of whom live in poverty despite the country's vast mineral riches. In 2011, he narrowly survived an assassination attempt after gunmen surrounded his residence overnight and pounded his bedroom with rockets. The rock-propelled grenade landed inside the compound while one of his security officers was killed.

Image: AP
The Interior Ministry of Libya announced on Tuesday that it had apprehended nearly 109 Europe-bound illegal migrants in the western city of Zliten, around 160 kilometres east of Tripoli, the Capital city. According to the ministry, the undocumented immigrants are comprised of 16 women and two children who are from the Eritrea and Sudan background.

The ministry further stated that the illegal migrants were subjected to legal actions. As per Xinhua, Since the 2011 unrest that ousted Muammar Gaddafi and drove the nation into instability and disarray, Libya has become a chosen departure point for illegal immigrants seeking to traverse the Mediterranean and reach European ports. Illegal immigrants who are caught at sea or apprehended by Libyan officials are housed in overcrowded detention facilities around the nation.

An earlier apprehension of Migrants in Libya

In the month of June, through a tweet, the UN refugee organisation UNCHR reported that a huge number of refugees and immigrants sailing by several vessels on the Mediterranean Sea were rescued and repatriated to Libya. More than 1,000 immigrants were retrieved in five different actions, according to the organisation. Prior to the handling the immigrants to the Libyan government, the UNHCR and the International Rescue Committee gave them food, water, as well as medication.

 Record number in returns of refugees and migrants to Libya today.



Over 1,000 persons were returned in 2 operations in Zawiya and 3 others in Tripoli.



UNHCR & IRC have provided medical aid, food and water to all survivors before being taken to detention by the authorities. pic.twitter.com/Z1bUKMWf9r  UNHCR Libya (@UNHCRLibya) June 12, 2021

More on Migrants in Libya

As per DW news, millions of immigrants depart Libya every year towards Europe in small, wooden boats as well as inflatable rubber vessels. Many refugees and migrants perish throughout the voyage. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), approximately 10,000 immigrants have been saved so far and were taken back to Libya in 2021.

IOM further stated at least 180 immigrants crossing from Libya have perished this year, with hundreds more still missing. IOM also reports that Human traffickers take advantage of many refugees leaving Libya, facilitating their trips in return for money. Smugglers are accused of torturing and abusing refugees.

According to DW news, several of the immigrants who start their journey in the sea from Libya are from Sub-Saharan Africa. Immigrants may be escaping war, terrorist attacks, autocratic regimes, or other factors, such as a desire to improve their economic prospects in Europe.

Recent developments in Libya

The United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, and France embassies called on "all Libyan actors" on Sunday, September 12 in an attempt to create a peaceful democratic administration in the war-torn country. The embassies hope to organise a legislative and presidential election on December 24, which is set to take place this year. The country will conduct elections for the first time in a decade in order to create a stable administration. The polls in Libya will be conducted by the Libyan High National Election Commission (HNEC), with the help of the western embassies.

(Image: AP/ Representative Image)
At least 11 people were killed in the massive suicide attack that shook the Somali capital Mogadishu on September 14. The incident took place in a restaurant in Mogadishu's Wadajir district. Among the deceased were civilians and soldiers, police and witnesses told Al Jazeera. The attack was claimed by Al Qaeda-backed armed rebel group Al-Shabaab.

Talking to Anadolu Agency police officer Dadir Hassan told that the bomber targeted a busy shop near the head military base in Mogadishu. Six members of the security forces and three civilians were killed on the spot after the attack, another police officer Mohamed Ali told a reputed news agency. He also informed that an investigation has been launched into the matter to ascertain all possible causes of the blast, however, primary shreds of evidence hinted that it was a lone suicide bomber attack. The attack also injured 16 others in the area.

The attack comes at the time of the Somali Upper house elections and the Lower House elections scheduled to be held sometime soon. As per reports, the explosion claimed by Al-Shabab was aimed to shake the Somali Federal Government. The armed group has been instrumental in fighting to overthrow Somalia's Federal Government for a long time.

Somali Prime Minister consoles death of the civilians and soldiers

Somali Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble condemned the attack on the civilians and soldiers. Dubbing the act as "barbaric and indiscriminate," he said that the Al-Shabab terrorist is "thirsty for bloodshed." He also asserted that the acts of rebel organisations are forcing Somalia to take steps against terrorism. Lastly, he extended his condolences to the families of the deceased.

Who is Al-Shabab?

According to US Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), Al-Shabab is a "young" Islamist Group in Somalia. Also known as the Harakat al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen (HSM), the militant group has "different objectives, though al-Shabab as a whole continues to pursue its broad aim of establishing an Islamic state in Somalia," CFR says. The rogue agency 'once held sway over the capital of Mogadishu and large portions of the Somali countryside,' but in recent years an African Union-led (AU) military campaign has pushed it back from major population centres.

This is a piece of breaking news, more details will be added soon.

Image: AP
China on Wednesday concluded a United Nations peacekeeping drill in central Queshan County, joined by troops from Mongolia, Pakistan and Thailand.

Around 1,000 troops participated in a 10-day field exercise at the Queshan peacekeeping operation training base, China's military said.

Drills included armed escorts, security patrols, construction of temporary bases, civilian protection and counter-terrorism operations.

Troops used only Chinese weapons, equipment and facilities during the exercises that were designed based on real case scenarios.

A counter-terrorism drill illustrated a terrorist vehicle driving towards a UN base with explosives while attackers shot at peacekeepers and threw Molotov cocktails.

The drill was based on an incident where a Chinese peacekeeping base in Mali came under attack.

Senior peacekeeping official, Senior Colonel Lu Jianxin on Tuesday said the drill was the first time China has hosted a multinational peacekeeping field training exercise, and is aimed at promoting coordination between UN peacekeeping troops among neighboring countries.

The exercise also serves to mark the People's Republic of China's 50th anniversary of being recognized by the United Nations as the sole representative of the country, Lu said, referring to the UN decision to expel Taiwan.

The drills came at a time of prolonged tensions with India over disputed borders and uncertainty over Afghanistan's security after US and foreign forces withdrew from the country in August.

Pakistan is a longtime ally with China, while China in recent years has been courting Thailand through investment and military cooperation.

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In a bid to avert a 'humanitarian disaster' in Afghanistan, the European Union (EU) has decided to provide additional assistance of USD 118 million to the country. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stated that the humanitarian aid to the war-torn nation will be stepped up to avert the risk of a possible famine. A 'new and wider Afghan support package' has been announced by the European Union for the same.

Ursula von der Leyen's statement comes shortly after European Unions foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said that the commission had no option but to engage with the Taliban. "The Afghan crisis is not over. To have any chance of influencing events, we have no other option but to engage with the Taliban," Josep Borrell told the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

The foreign policy chief however asserted that engaging with the Taliban did not mean that the EU had recognized their government in Afghanistan. Josep Borrell asserted that engagement is a priority for the EU to continue protecting as many people as possible.

We stand by the Afghan people.



We must do everything to avert the real risk of a major famine and humanitarian disaster.



This is why we will increase again humanitarian aid for Afghanistan by 100 million euro - part of a new, wider Afghan Support Package#SOTEU pic.twitter.com/UHUvo08YmG  Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) September 15, 2021

EU to step up Afghan assistance

Previously, the European Union had announced that it would step up its financial aid to Afghanistan. As per the European Commission, the body has provided USD 67 million in humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan in 2021. Shortly after the takeover, EU spokesman Balazs Ujvari said that apart from the USD 67 million assistance, the commission had also provided money for Afghan refugees in neighbouring countries such as Uzbekistan and Iran- a collective allocation of 22 million euros.

Subsequently, von der Leyen proposed that an increase in the humanitarian support for Afghans, from the EU's budget from over 50 million euros to over 200 million euros. She also stated she would propose an increase in the USD 67 million humanitarian aid which the Commission had allocated in 2021.

At todays @G7 Leaders call, I will announce an increase in the humanitarian support for Afghans, in and around the country, from #EU budget from over 50m to over 200m.



This humanitarian aid will come on top of Member States' contributions to help the people of Afghanistan.  Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) August 24, 2021

It is important to mention that the EU has set certain conditions for establishing humanitarian aid and diplomatic ties with the Taliban after the terror group forcibly took control over the nation. The conditions include special respect for human rights, particularly women's rights.

(With Agency Inputs)
The Greece government has decided to launch a probe into the private plane crash that killed two Israeli citizens on September 13, Monday. As per reports, one among the two deceased was an important prosecution witness in the corruption trial of the Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The single-engine craft that carried the former senior Israeli official and his wife descended mid-air and finally crashed off the coast of Samos Island.

On Tuesday, the Air Accident Investigation and Aviation Board of Greece opened an investigation into the crash of Haim Geron and his wife, Esther. Both the victims were identified by the Israeli Ministry and were working together with the Greek government to hand over the bodies of the deceased to their families. As identified, Haim Geron was a senior minister in Communication with the Netanyahu government.

The single-engine Cessna 182 crash

On Sunday, the single-engine private plane took flight from Haifa, Israel, on September 13. They were scheduled to land at Aristarchos International Airport. However, they made an unsuccessful landing near Samos Island in Greece's Aegean Sea. Witnesses told AMNA News Agency that both the passengers died on the spot after the plane plunged from mid-air.

European Union Border Protection Agency, Frontex, and Greek Coast Guard personnel conducted a joint operation to retrieve the bodies. The Coast Guards divers recovered the bodies several hours after the crash. The former minister was said to be visiting the Island along with his wife on the plane. The plane lost communication with the Samos control tower minutes before its landing, PTI reported quoting Greece Civil Aviation Authority.

Geron, one among the 300 listed witnesses in Netanyahu case

As per reports, Haim Geron was one of the 300 listed witnesses of the prosecution in Benjamin Netanyahu's corruption trial. The former Israeli Prime Minister has been indicted for breach of trust, accepting bribes and fraud, Associated Press reported. Following this, he was required to give up all ministerial portfolios except the seat of Prime Minister. However, he has repeatedly denied such accusations and mocked the size of witnesses against him.

With inputs from AP and PTI

Image: AP (representative)
Pope Francis on Tuesday spent the third day of his apostolic visit in the East of Slovakia. Pope Francis met Roma in a gesture of inclusion for the socially excluded minority group suffering discrimination, marginalisation and poverty, according to The Associated Press. The Lunik IX settlement in the eastern city of Kosice, which the Pope visited, is home to the countrys Roma residents.

Pope Francis meets Roma

Pope Francis on Tuesday urged Slovakias Roma to integrate better into the mainstream. Francis said that Slovakias Roma had been subject to "prejudice and harsh judgments, discriminatory stereotypes, defamatory words and gestures" and misunderstandings on the part of the Catholic Church, according to AP. Francis urged the residents to overcome their own prejudices, obstacles and mistrust of the Slovaks for future generations. He urged them to integrate so that their children can have a brighter future.

Pointing out to the children, Pope told the crowd, "their great dreams must not collide with barriers that we have erected. They deserve a well-integrated and free life". He asserted that decisions need to be taken in order to promote, educate the children and give them the opportunity they desire. Francis visit to the Lunik IX settlement in the eastern city of Kosice brought in Slovak police and soldiers. The cops were fencing along the main route into the neighbourhood. Pope Francis is on a four-day visit to Slovakia and Hungary, in a first major outing after his intestinal surgery in July.

According to The Associated Press, Roma has long suffered racism and discrimination in Slovakia and they continue to face hurdles in employment and education. Some Slovaks blame the Roma for crime and Roma distrusting state institutions. Reportedly, during Pope Francis visit, more security presence was witnessed than at any of Francis other stops so that Slovaks could keep the Lunik residents behind the fence.

Image: AP

Inputs from AP
The Russian-developed Sputnik V vaccine demonstrated 97.2% efficiency against COVID, Russia's Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) informed on Wednesday. Sputnik V revealed these groundbreaking numbers during a vaccination campaign drive held in Belarus. Belarus is among the first countries to register Sputnik V and use it for vaccination drives.

BREAKING: Sputnik V demonstrates 97.2% efficacy and high safety profile against COVID during the vaccination campaign in Belarus.



The efficacy of Sputnik V was measured based on data from more than 860,000 people vaccinated between January and July 2021.https://t.co/p0XIYXInJO  Sputnik V (@sputnikvaccine) September 15, 2021

RDIF confirms Sputnik's high efficiency

Based on data covering over 8,60,000 inoculated patients between January and July, the RDIF maintained that Sputnik V showed 97.2% efficiency against COVID in Belarus. The RDIF also maintained that patients who have been vaccinated with the Sputnik vaccine showed no signs of adverse effects after inoculations and neither were any deaths recorded. The RDIF and partners have facilitated the technology transfer to localise the production of Sputnik V by Belaruss Belmedpreparaty company, which is also responsible for manufacturing Sputnik V. In April 2021, the vaccine produced in Belarus was authorised by the Ministry of Health. In April 2021 the single-dose Sputnik Light vaccine (the first component of Sputnik V based on human adenovirus serotype 26) was also registered in Belarus.

Russian Prez Vladimir Putin self-isolates; Kremlin clarifies

Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced that he has entered self-isolation for the "whole day" after he came in contact with people who had contracted the Coronavirus. The news was confirmed by Presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov in Kremlin on Tuesday, September 14. Following the announcement, Putin also decided to postpone his visit to Tajikistan as several people in close entourage fell ill.

During a daily media address in Kremlin, Presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told the reporters that Putin has decided to remain under self-isolation even though he tested negative for the virus. Asserting that the President is "absolutely healthy," Peskov added that he had come in contact with someone who was infected with the virus, the Associated Press reported. However, he remained silent when asked about the President's primary contacts or how long Putin would remain under self-isolation.

As per reports, Russian President Putin has been completely vaccinated with Russia's Sputnik V. However, he was due for his third dose, the booster shot that has been initiated in Russia owing to the waning effect of the vaccines. Nevertheless, Putin was hardly ever seen wearing a mask in public. Also, his government has never really imposed strict COVID-related measures to curb the skyrocketing cases observed in Russia currently.

Image: AP/PTI
The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on September 14 opened its 76th session with the new president Abdulla Shahid and UN chief Antonio Guterres urging the member states to remain united in the face of the challenging year that witnessed climate crisis, conflicts, and the COVID-19 pandemic. The president of the 76th UNGA session said, It has been a tragic and challenging year, but this is a new session.

He added, We can fall back on the comfort and predictability of systems and procedures, of the United Nations machinery that fills our days, or we can choose to push forward and turn the page. We can choose to write a new chapter."

"Let us choose the latter; let us dare to dream and let us dare to hope, to embrace the presidency of hope," said Shahid.

Its my first day as President of the UN General Assembly. Let us dare to dream and embrace the #PresidencyOfHope. Hope is what drives us not to give up, even when the odds seem high. #UNGA #UNGA76 pic.twitter.com/3Yz4ZFCRZp  UN GA President (@UN_PGA) September 14, 2021

While addressing the upcoming challenges, Shahid noted that there are hundreds of millions across the globe who fell ill or died with billions suffering due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He said that reports have emerged almost every day that ignited the worlds collective anxiety about climate change, natural disasters, conflicts and instability. Laying emphasis on the relevance of UNGA today after 76 years, Shahid said, The narrative must change, and we must be the initiator for that change; the General Assembly must play a part of this.

Embraced hope as the theme of my presidency

In his first remarks to the UNGA, Shahid also announced that he has embraced hope as the theme of my Presidency. I am not naive, nor do I say this just to use nice-sounding words. Hope is what this moment in time calls for. the president for 76th UNGA session said that even though the COVID-19 pandemic has engulfed the world in an unprecedented crisis, the world witnessed incredible acts of kindness and compassion, acts that reaffirmed our common humanity and collective strength as 'nations united.' This is the narrative we must tell."

On #RecoveringFromCOVID19, vaccinating the world is my top focus. We simply must close the gap to vaccine access. With this in mind, I will be holding a high-level thematic debate on vaccine equity with leading experts and world leaders.  Abdulla Shahid (@abdulla_shahid) September 14, 2021

On #RebuildingSustainably from the pandemic  I will work to ensure that the socio-economic recovery is forward thinking. That it is bluer, greener, and more resilient. Targeted interventions for countries in special situations will be necessary.  Abdulla Shahid (@abdulla_shahid) September 14, 2021

He then went on to list the five rays of hope that would mould the 76th session of the UN General Assembly and stressed that vaccinating the world against COVID-19 is the topmost priority. Meanwhile, at the closing of the 75th UNGA, Guterres said, By any measure, this has been the most challenging period facing the world since the Second World War. however, the UN chief noted that the international community can overcome all the challenges by working as one.

I wish @abdulla_shahid of the Maldives all the best in his new role as @UN_PGA of the 76th #UNGA session.



I look forward to working closely together during this extraordinary moment in time, so we can live up to the great promise and potential of the @UN. pic.twitter.com/RVBeWigAn7  Antonio Guterres (@antonioguterres) September 15, 2021

IMAGE: AP/Twitter
The leader of the militant Hezbollah group said Monday the first tanker carrying Iranian fuel to Lebanon has arrived in a Syrian port and the diesel will be shipped to Lebanon by tanker trucks later this week.

The arrival of the tanker comes nearly a month after Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said the group will start bringing fuel from Iran in an attempt to ease a crippling fuel crisis that Lebanon has been experiencing for months.

The delivery, organized by the Iran-backed group, violates U.S. sanctions imposed on Tehran after former President Donald Trump pulled America out of a nuclear deal between Iran and world powers three years ago.

The arrival of the Iranian tanker carrying fuel destined for Lebanon comes days after a new government was formed ending a 13-month deadlock. Lebanon's new Prime Minister Najib Mikati has not commented on the deal to import fuel from Iran.

Nasrallah said in a televised speech Monday night the group chose to have the tanker dock in a Syrian port to avoid embarrassing the Lebanese state and risking sanctions on Lebanon.

Syria, also under U.S. sanctions, has been mostly relying on oil supplies from its strong ally Iran, which sent thousands of Iran-backed fighters, including Hezbollah members, to back President Bashar Assads forces in the 10-year conflict there.

Nasrallah said the tanker arrived in the Syrian port of Banias early Sunday and the process of unloading the fuel began the same day. He added that the Syrian government has mobilized dozens of tanker trucks to transport the diesel to the eastern Lebanese town of Baalbek by Thursday.

Nasrallah said three other tankers carrying diesel and one carrying gasoline will arrive in the coming weeks.

He said diesel will be donated for a period of one month to institutions including public hospitals, nursing homes, orphanages, water stations and the Lebanese Red Cross. Nasrallah added that others who will get fuel at low prices are private hospitals, medicine and serum factories, bakeries and cooperatives that sell food products.

Nasrallah said Hezbollah will be supplying gas stations linked to the group around the country. We are not competing (with the state) but we want to add the flow of fuel to the market, he said.

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The militants of the Islamic State (IS) killed three people, including two Iraqi army officers in the provinces of Diyala and Salahuddin, on Tuesday. According to a report by a Chinese news agency, Xinhua, commander of an army battalion, Lieutenant Colonel Jassim al-Shimmary, was killed in the eastern province of Diyala. While speaking about the deadly attack, Major Alaa al-Saadi from the provincial police told Xinhua that the incident happened when a roadside bomb planted by IS militants detonated near his military vehicle outside the town of Jalawlaa. In a separate incident, a group of militants opened fire on a civilian truck and ended with the driver's killing on the spot.

According to Major Alaa al-Saadi, the militants targeted the truck driver outside the town of Wajihiyah near the provincial capital Baquba, some 65 km northeast of Baghdad. Further, he said that the Iraqi soldiers averted two major attacks on military positions in two villages located about 40 km northeast of Baquba. He maintained that the attackers were successful in fleeing from the encounter site. Luckily, no one was injured in the incident, added Major. Earlier on September 13, an army officer was killed by the militants who broke into his house and opened fire on him. Colonel Mohammed al-Bazi told Xinhua that the army officer was targeted in a village south of the provincial capital Tikrit.

IS attacks intensified against Iraqi forces in recent months

It is worth mentioning that the anti-Iraqi soldier movement has been intensified by the ISIS militants in the past 5-6 months, leaving many soldiers dead and several severely injured. According to the media reports, they usually target those areas earlier in the control of militant outfits. On September 12, Sunday, the IS militant organisation targeted at least three Iraqi soldiers in Iraq's eastern province of Diyala. According to a local tribal fighter, Mohammed al-Obaidi, the war between two groups started in the evening, some 60 km north of the provincial capital Baquba. Meanwhile, six IS militants were killed in a drone attack by Iraqi soldiers in Iraq's Kirkuk province on Sunday. The fierce clash erupted earlier on the day when Daesh militants launched an attack on the federal police in Kirkuk province. In response, Iraq security forces sent a drone on a reconnaissance mission to the scene, and conducted three airstrikes on IS positions, said Iraqi Joint Operations Command in an official statement.

Image: AP
On Wednesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi asked for international assistance in recovering stolen assets, claiming that billions of dollars had been taken and smuggled out of the war-ravaged country. Al-Kadhimi made his remarks during the International Conference for the Recovery of Stolen Funds, being held in Baghdad, with Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit in attendance, reported Xinhua news.

During the event, the Iraqi Prime Minister urged nations to assist Iraq in recovering its funds, stating that the country is fully open to collaborating with all countries in this regard. Al-Kadhimi stated that fighting corruption and recovering stolen and smuggled monies outside Iraq is a top priority for his government, noting that corruption laid the ground for the creation of the terrorist Islamic State (IS) in Iraq.

Meanwhile, Aboul-Gheit described the meeting as a vital opportunity to combat corruption, emphasising that fighting corruption necessitates ongoing collaboration. Few Arab justice ministers, chiefs of Arab financial and legal authorities, and representatives of Arab groups and organisations involved in the fight against corruption attended the International Conference for the Recovery of Stolen Funds. In an arduous attempt to balance Iraq's relations with important stakeholders in the area, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi addressed various bilateral issues and explored methods to strengthen ties with Iran during his visit to Tehran on Sunday, 12, according to The Associated Press (AP).

Iraq on course to improve its ties with neighbouring countries

It is worth mentioning that at a conference sponsored by Iraq last month, Arab heads of state and senior officials from the region, including archenemies Iran and Saudi Arabia, met for the first time. The conference attempted to de-escalate tensions in the Middle East and highlighted the Arab country's new role as a mediator. Emmanuel Macron, the French president, also attended the Baghdad meeting, describing it as a big boost for Iraq's government, reported AP. Notably, Iraq had been mostly neglected by Arab leaders for decades due to security concerns arising from back-to-back wars and domestic strife, with rebels often attacking its airport with rockets.

(With agency inputs)

Image: AP
Floods triggered by seasonal torrential rains in Sudan have killed more than 80 people and damaged or destroyed some 35,000 homes since July, a senior police official said Monday.

Flooding has killed 84 people and injured another 67 since the start of the rainy season, said police Brig. Gen. Abdul-Jalil Abdul-Rahim, spokesman for Sudans National Council for Civil Defense.

Fourteen of Sudan's 18 provinces have been affected by the rains, which have demolished more than 8,000 houses and damaged at least another 27,000, Abdul-Rahim said. The eastern provinces of River Nile and al-Qadarif were hardest hit, he said.

Abdul-Rahim said people who lost their houses have been taken to shelters close to their neighborhoods, where they have been receiving humanitarian aid from local non-governmental organizations.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has said that 102,000 people have been affected by the rains across the country. Between Sept. 4-6, over 61,000 people, including 35,000 South Sudanese refugees, were affected by the flooding in 53 villages in the White Nile provinces Aj-Jabalain district, the U.N. said.

The U.N. complained that the flood response in some affected areas has been delayed despite the rising number of people affected.

The Sudan Humanitarian Fund, a multi-donor fund run by the U.N.s humanitarian affairs office, has allocated $7.7 million to 14 NGOs in 15 provinces for swift humanitarian response, according to a statement released by UNOCHA on Thursday. Another $7 million has been allocated to four U.N. agencies for the procurement of emergency stocks.

Last year, Sudanese authorities declared the country a natural disaster area and imposed a three-month state of emergency across the country after flooding and heavy rain killed around 100 people and inundated over 100,000 houses.

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Peshawar, Sep 15 (PTI) Seven Pakistani soldiers and five terrorists were killed in a gun battle in Pakistan's restive Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) province bordering Afghanistan on Wednesday, the military said.

Based on a tip-off, the soldiers launched a cordon and search operation in the tribal district of South Waziristan near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

Exchange of fire began near a private compound, where the seven soldiers were killed. The forces neutralised all the five militants in hiding, according to a statement by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).

Chief Minister, KPK, Mehmud Khan expressed grief over the killed soldiers. The entire nation stands behind the armed forces in the war against terror, he said.

With Taliban taking control of neighbouring Afghanistan, incidents of terror have increased in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces.

In July, at least 13 people, including nine Chinese, were killed in a terrorist attack in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The bus carrying Chinese engineers and workers to the site of the under-construction Dasu Dam exploded on July 14. The bus fell into a deep ravine after the explosion in the Upper Kohistan district. PTI AYZ IND AKJ IND

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Hundreds of Pakistani journalists rallied outside parliament Monday to reject a proposed law that critics say would further curtail media freedom if passed.

The protest in the capital of Islamabad, also attended by senior opposition leaders and civil society members, asked the government to refrain from passing the black law." The legislation envisages the establishment of a new regulatory body called the Pakistan Media Development Authority.

We reject PMDA. It is aimed at stifling the voice of media," said Nasir Zaidi, a prominent leader of Pakistani journalists.

Another journalists union leader, Afzal Butt, vowed to continue protesting the proposed law, which he said Khan's government was using to try and silence the media.

Shahbaz Sharif, the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, vowed that opposition parties would do their best to block the legislation when the bill is moved into the National Assembly.

Critics say the proposed law would grant sweeping unchecked powers to the government-controlled regulator by setting up special media tribunals with the power to impose heavy fines on media organizations and journalists who violate a so-called code of conduct or publish content it deems to be fake news.

The legislation was introduced by the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan in May. Since then, the government has not been able to move it through parliament because of opposition from the owners of news organizations and journalist unions.

Although Pakistan insists it supports freedom of speech, critics say the space for media freedom has shrunk in the Islamic nation, where incidents of attacks on journalists have increased since Khan's government came into power in 2018.

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On Wednesday, the first passenger flight from Iran landed in the Afghan capital Kabul since the Taliban took control, according to Sputnik, quoting a Kabul airport source. The source also disclosed that 14 individuals were on board the Iranian plane. The Taliban stated on Monday that while domestic flights had resumed in Afghanistan, international flights would take "a little bit of work" due to extensive damage to the Kabul airport.

Last week, the Taliban proclaimed the formation of a caretaker government in Kabul. The US military departure from Afghanistan was concluded on August 31. It marked the end of the US military presence in Afghanistan, which had lasted over two decades.

Qatar claimed it collaborated with Turkey to assist Kabul airport

On September 9, around 100 passengers boarded the first civilian flight from Kabul since the US-led evacuation ended in Doha, Qatar, which claimed it collaborated with Turkey to assist repair equipment at Kabul's airport that had been damaged during the withdrawal of foreign forces.

Passengers were transported from Tehran to Kabul on a charter return flight, according to the semiofficial Fars News Agency. It was also reported that a second flight from the northeastern city of Mashhad had departed for Kabul. Mahan Air's Airbus fleet was used for the flights. In mid-August, Iran suspended flights to Afghanistan.

Tehran has remained a vocal opponent of the Taliban, calling for the creation of a government that represents all Afghan factions.

Iran and Afghanistan have a border that stretches about 945 kilometres. Over the last four decades, Iran has reportedly hosted 800,000 registered Afghan refugees and more than two million unregistered Afghans.

Taliban declared Afghanistan's interim government last week

On August 31, the United States completed its military withdrawal from Afghanistan, ending a nearly two-decade engagement in the country. The Taliban declared the make-up of Afghanistan's interim government last week. After the Taliban took control of Kabul, on August 15, internationally recognised Afghan President Ashraf Ghani resigned and departed the country for the United Arab Emirates. Thousands of Afghans have fled the country as a result of the Taliban's control of power, fearing retaliation.

(With inputs from agencies)

(Image: AP)
New Zealand said the first shipment of 250,000 Pfizer coronavirus vaccines purchased from Denmark arrived in Auckland on Wednesday. The government announced last week that it struck a deal with Denmark to buy half a million doses to try and keep its COVID-19 vaccination program running at full speed.

A similar deal with Spain for extra vaccines was also reached. COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins told reporters in Wellington there was now "nothing holding back" the country's rollout of shots. New Zealand was slow to get its vaccination program running but has seen the demand spike since an outbreak of the delta variant in Auckland last month.

Officials said 14 local infections were recorded on Wednesday, all in Auckland. Hipkins said over 70% of New Zealand's population over 12 years old have received their first dose, and 36% are fully vaccinated.

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Haitis Prime Minister Ariel Henry has been banned from leaving the country amid the ongoing investigation into his alleged involvement in the assassination of President Jovenel Moise. As per BBC report, a prosecutor seeking charges against Haiti PM while Henry has also been directed to explain his links with the main suspect of Moises assassination, Joseph Felix Badio. Reportedly, the records have revealed that Henry and Badio exchanged multiple phone calls hours after Moises assassination, stated prosecutors.

Moise was assassinated on July 7, who was shot dead after the gunmen stormed his private residence in Haitis capital, Port-au-Prince. His unprecedented death unleashed a new political crisis that was further intensified as a massive earthquake had struck the southern part of the country at least a month ago. On September 13, Henry sent a letter purportedly sacking the chief Prosecutor, Bedford Claude and accused him of a serious administrative offence. Later, the Haiti PM even nominated Claudes replacement.

However, on Tuesday, Claude reportedly appeared to remain in his post as he asked the judge investigating Moises assassination to charge Henry over his suspected involvement in the incident. BBC cited sources with the knowledge of Haiti, saying that it was not the Prime Ministers remit to dismiss the prosecutor. Meanwhile, Claude is under extra police protection after Haitis justice minister ordered the same following a number of reported threats.

Henry, the 71-year-old neurosurgeon, became Haitis principal leader in July, two weeks after Moise was assassinated in his home. As per The Associated Press, in his request to the judge to charge Henry in his alleged involvement in Moises death, Claude wrote, There are enough compromising elements...to prosecute Henry and ask for his outright indictment.

Further, the Haitian newspaper Le Nouvelliste stated Claude had also asked the immigration official to prevent the countrys Prime Minister from leaving the country because of the gravity of the facts that have emerged only recently. Even though Henrey has not directly reacted to the allegations, when the reports emerged of his phone call with the main suspect last week, Henry said that he would not be distracted from his mission. Haiti PM also noted that the real culprits would be tracked down and punished.

Image: AP
JERUSALEM (AP)  Ida Nudel, one of the most prominent activists to campaign for the right of Jews to leave the Soviet Union in the 1970s and '80s, died in Israel on Tuesday, Israeli media reported. She was 90.

Nudel was born in the Soviet Union in 1931 and came to prominence in the 1970s as a leading activist for the rights of jailed Soviet Jews, and as a refusenik  one of thousands banned from leaving the country at the time.

Nudel sought permission to leave for 16 years, but Soviet authorities denied her an exit visa on the grounds that she may have heard state secrets while working as an accountant at a state institution. Her sister and family were allowed to emigrate to Israel in 1971, leaving her behind.

She spent four years in Siberian exile for hanging a poster on her Moscow balcony in 1978 that said KGB, Give Me My Visa. After she was released in 1982, she was banned from living in major Soviet cities.

Her cause was championed by American actress Jane Fonda, and her story was fictionalized in the 1987 Italian film Mosca Addio (Farewell Moscow), starring Liv Ullman.

In 1987, she was allowed to move to Israel, where she was greeted by thousands on the tarmac and welcomed by Israeli leaders.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett called Nudel a symbol of the struggle for immigration from the Soviet Union and a role model of a Jewish heroine.

Yuli Edelstein, an Israeli lawmaker and fellow former refusenik, on Twitter called her one of the great icons of the struggle for the right to immigrate to Israel from the Soviet Union.

Unfortunately, in recent years I accompany more and more of my brothers and sisters, Prisoners of Zion, in their final journey, he said.

(Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by www.republicworld.com)
On Wednesday, the Ministry of Defence announced that an Indian military contingent took part in the 6th edition of the SCO 'Peaceful Mission' 2021, which is being held at Orenburg in Russia, in an attempt to build closer ties among SCO member states. According to a statement by the Defence Ministry, the joint counter-terrorism exercise 'Peaceful Mission' is a Multilateral Exercise that takes place twice a year as part of military diplomacy between members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

The Indian military contingent, which consists of a 200-strong all-arms combined force, including 38 members of the Indian Air Force, is taking part in the exercise Peaceful Mission-2021, said the release. It further stated that the Indian contingent participated in the exercise with two IL-76 aircraft and the troops also received training under the supervision of South Western Command before their departure.

Apart from fostering close relations between SCO member states, the 6th edition of exercise Peaceful Mission, conducted from September 13 to 25, also intends to strengthen military leaders' ability to command multi-national military contingents. The exercise will allow the Armed Forces of the SCO nations to share best practices and also chance to practise counter-terrorism operations in an urban setting in a multinational and collaborative environment. Exercise Peaceful Mission 2021 is being termed as a watershed moment in military-to-military engagements and worldwide counter-terrorism cooperation. Professional engagement, mutual understanding of exercises and procedures, the establishment of collaborative command & control structures, and the eradication of terrorist threats are all part of the exercise's scope, stated the defence ministry release.

PM Modi to attend SCO meet virtually

It should be noted here that Pakistan, China, and India have previously participated in international military exercises. However, India did not send troops to the SCO military drill last year, which included both China and Pakistan. In 2017, India and Pakistan were admitted as full members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. While, China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan were among the group's original members. On Thursday, September 16, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will join the SCO conference virtually, which is being held in Tajikistan's Dushanbe. The high-level summit will also include the heads of state of seven additional neighbouring countries. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the SCO and India will be attending for the fourth time as a full member of the organisation.

(With ANI inputs)

Image: ANI
WARSAW, Poland (AP)  Warsaw's Jewish community buried an unidentified Holocaust victim on Tuesday whose remains were discovered this summer in a building that was within the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II.

We are here as the family for a person we don't know, Poland's chief rabbi, Michael Schudrich, said as the bones, wrapped in white cloth, lay on a wooden cart and community members gathered together.

Four men pulled the cart to the grave, where the bones were buried with soil from Israel, and Jewish leaders recited Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead.

The ceremony took place in Warsaw's Jewish Cemetery, one of the largest Jewish cemeteries in Europe in a city that was a leading center of Jewish life until the Holocaust.

Leszlaw Piszewski, the president of the Union of Jewish Religious Communities in Poland, said the burial was a very emotional event for him, all the more so coming on the eve of Yom Kippur, one of the most sacred days in the Jewish calendar.

After nearly 80 years this unknown person got his dignity back, Piszewski said. This is very important. This is the only thing that we can do for the unknown victim."

The remains were discovered due to a water break in a building in Muranow, a Warsaw district that was largely Jewish before the war and was the site of the Warsaw Ghetto during the German wartime occupation of Poland.

Marek Slusarz, a man who lives and runs a community nonprofit foundation in the building, discovered the human bones when he was searching in the basement for the source of a water break. When he and a plumber found them, he alerted police and the Jewish community.

It is believed that the remains belonged to a Jew who was in hiding when the German forces crushed the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943 by razing the area to the ground.

The area was rebuilt after the war on top of the wartime rubble.

Slusarz said that despite the tragedy, it was a source of satisfaction for him to have a role in the victim receiving a dignified burial. Not Jewish himself, he said he hoped such events would inspire younger generations in Poland to preserve the memory of the centuries of Jewish and non-Jewish co-existence in Poland.

A representative from the Israeli Embassy laid a wreath and Wojciech Kolarski, secretary of state in the office of President Andrzej Duda, also paid his respects at the funeral.

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A military aircraft struck two cars on the Syrian-Iraqi border on the night between 14 and 15 September, Sputnik reported citing a source in Iraqi militia. As per the source, the attack was inflicted by the US Air Force, which led to military intervention in the Syrian civil war three years ago. As of now, it is not clear how many people were affected by the strike or who was in the cars. Notably, aerial strikes or the use of UAVs are a common tactic used by the Americans to target potential threats, specifically in the middle east and central Asia.

What is happening in Iraq?

Under the Presidency of Barack Obama in 2011, the US withdrew its troops from the middle eastern country but reinstated them again in 2014. Last year, the troop levels were reduced to 2,500 after withdrawals based on then President Trumps orders. However, the killing of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani and Iraqi militia leader in January 2020, have rekindled calls for an increased withdrawal.

Amidst rising friction between Baghdad and Washington, assaults have seen a spike. In March, a similar attack, which involved 10 rockets hitting a base in western Iraq led to the killing of at least one American contractor. Meanwhile, in late February, Washington ordered strikes against Iran-aligned militia targets along the Iraq-Syria border. Again in June, the American military confirmed that it targeted operational and weapons storage facilities at two locations in Syria and one location in Iraq.

Syrian Civil War

Syrian Bashar Hafez Al-Assad triggered a bloody civil war in 2011 after he tried to suppress opposition to his authoritarian rule, which now extends to 21 years. While armed fighting has now ended, government and militias continue to engage in a war of nerves and occasional assaults. With the coronavirus contagion wreaking havoc, the Syrian economy has plunged manifold with roughly 80 per cent of the population living under the poverty line. The pandemic has posed a tough situation for countries all across the globe, however, for Syria, it has been a major challenge with its economy and health care sector crippling due to the decade-long war-like situation.

Representative Image: AP


Amid reports of a split in the Taliban, Republic Media Network on Wednesday received information that 'Deputy Prime Minister of Afghanistan' Mullah Baradar has communicated with the United States. As per sources, Mullah Baradar has told the Joe Biden-led administration that in the situation, when the Pakistan-backed Haqqanis are playing an instrumental role in Afghanistan as well as the Taliban government, the implementation of the Doha Charter is impossible.

Mullah Baradar's rebellion against Pakistan-backed Haqqanis

Sources had earlier in the day informed the network that Mullah Ghani Baradar has rebelled against the inclusion of the members of the Pakistan-based terror outfit- the Haqqanis - in the government. As part of the rebellion, Mullah Ghani Baradar has also not been attending meetings, which obviously have in attendance Sirajuddin Haqqani, the interior Minister of the country and Minister for Refugees Khalil ur-Rahman Haqqani.

There are reports in the international media that there was an argument between Mullah Baradar and the Haqqanis last week. Mullah Baradar reportedly believed that the emphasis should be placed on diplomacy carried out by people like him, while the Haqqanis and their backers said that it was achieved through fighting. This led to an exchange of 'strong words' between the leaders while their supporters engaged in the brawl. Thereafter, Mullah Baradar disappeared from the sight of the public.

Taliban announces govt

The split in the Taliban has been reported weeks after the announcement of the government of the Islamic Emirates of Afghanistan. Mullah Baradar, the co-founder of the insurgent group, and the negotiator from the side of the Taliban in Doha, was first seen as the most probable Prime Ministerial/Presidential face after the fall of Kabul on August 15, but when the government was formed, it was not him but Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund who was declared the Prime Minister. Mullah Baradar was instead chosen as one of his deputies alongside Mawlavi Hanafi. Also included in the cabinet were Sirajuddin Haqqani and Khalil ur-Rahman Haqqani of the Pakistan-backed terror outfit, the Haqqani network.

Reportedly, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar was right from the beginning upset with this power structure of the Taliban government where Prime Minister Mullah Hasan Akhund and Haqqanis, namely Sirajuddin Haqqani and Khalil ur-Rahman Haqqani-have a major role to play in the cabinet.
Not even ten days since the government formation in Afghanistan, cracks have already emerged in the cabinet of the Taliban. Sources on Wednesday informed Republic Media Network that Deputy Prime Minister and co-founder of the insurgent group Mullah Ghani Baradar has rebelled against the inclusion of the members of the Pakistan-based terror outfit- the Haqqanis - in the government. As part of the rebellion, Mullah Ghani Baradar has also not been attending meetings, which obviously have in attendance Sirajuddin Haqqani, the interior Minister of the country and Minister for Refugees Khalil ur-Rahman Haqqani.

Split in Taliban?

There are reports in the international media that there was an argument between Mullah Baradar and the Haqqanis last week. Mullah Baradar reportedly believed that the emphasis should be placed on diplomacy carried out by people like him, while the Haqqanis and their backers said that it was achieved through fighting. This led to an exchange of 'strong words' between the leaders while their supporters engaged in the brawl.

Thereafter, Mullah Baradar disappeared from the sight of the public, and while some media houses claimed that he was in Kandahar, others even reported that he had been killed, injured or defeated by the Taliban.

Taliban announces govt

The split in the Taliban has been reported weeks after the announcement of the government of the Islamic Emirates of Afghanistan. Mullah Baradar, the co-founder of the insurgent group, and the negotiator from the side of the Taliban in Doha, was first seen as the most probable Prime Ministerial/Presidential face after the fall of Kabul on August 15, but when the government was formed, it was not him but Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund who was declared the Prime Minister. Mullah Baradar was instead chosen as one of his deputies alongside Mawlavi Hanafi. Also included in the cabinet were Sirajuddin Haqqani and Khalil ur-Rahman Haqqani of the Pakistan-backed terror outfit, the Haqqani network.

Reportedly, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar was right from the beginning upset with this power structure of the Taliban government where Prime Minister Mullah Hasan Akhund and Haqqanis, namely Sirajuddin Haqqani and Khalil ur-Rahman Haqqani-have a major role to play in the cabinet.
In a bid to stop the Chinese government from capturing the land of Nepal, the current Nepal government led by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has formed a committee to probe into the issue. Despite the Chinese government's claims of being Nepal's biggest allies, China's encroachment upon Nepali land in the Humla district has escalated concern among the Nepal government. The previous regime of Nepal had discarded all the claims of land capture, and the former Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli had confirmed that China was not involved in the encroachment act.

However, the claims of the former PM seem to be of lesser value as Beijing has been involved in a boundary dispute with neighbouring Nepal for more than a year. Because of the increasing tension on the border, the Nepal government has now appointed five members to look into the ongoing border dispute. The newly formed five-member committee will closely examine the border issue and will study the problem related to the Nepal-China border in the Humla district.

As per the reports, the locals of the Humla district have been requesting the government to stop China's territorial advancement. Moreover, Beijing has secretly built structures in the Humla district and has also stopped Nepal civilians from entering the area. Earlier, a member of the Karnali Provincial Assembly, Jeevan Bahadur Shahi, had claimed that pillars numbered 9, 10, 11, 12, 5 (1), 6 (1), 7 (1), and 8 (1) were damaged in the Humla district, which borders China. He also stated that Pillar 12 was replaced by the Chinese military, and as a result, a large piece of Nepal's land had fallen into the hands of Chinese forces.

It is pertinent to mention here that the land dispute between Nepal and China first emerged in August last year, when a local village council president, Vishnu Bahadur Lama, visited near the China-Nepal border. The local authority noted that China had illegally constructed a building nearly 2 km inside Nepal's territory. Later, Humla's Assistant Chief District Officer (CDO), Dalbahadur Hamal, also conducted an investigation and found China's encroachment into the territory of Nepal.

Image: ANI/AP

With Inputs from ANI
Just three days after testing long-range projectiles, Kim Jong-un led North Korea fired two ballistic missiles towards the eastern sea, Associated Press reported citing South Koreas Joint Chiefs of Staff General Won In-choul. Both the missiles, according to the General, were fired on Wednesday afternoon (local time) from the Centre of Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and landed in waters. The same was confirmed by Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, who remarked that the projectiles landed outside its Exclusive Economic Zone. However, he asserted that the missiles jeopardised regional security and that his country was prepared for any "contingencies".

The firings threaten the peace and safety of Japan and the region and are absolutely outrageous, Suga said. The government of Japan is determined to further step up our vigilance and surveillance to be prepared for any contingencies, Suga was quoted as saying by AP.

Instructions by the Prime Minister in Response to the Missile Launch by North Korea (12:42)https://t.co/p6vNsrrodL  PM's Office of Japan (@JPN_PMO) September 15, 2021

In recent months, tensions have risen in the Korean Peninsula with Pyongyang irked by the growing Seoul-Tokyo-Washington alliance. It is imperative to note that soon after the projectiles landed in the sea, both South Korean and American intelligence agents started a full-fledged analysis into the launch. Meanwhile, Won confirmed that his country has also fuelled surveillance against the North.

North Korea tests ballistic missiles threatening Japan

North Korea on Sunday, 12 September, test-fired a new type of long-range cruise missile over the weekend that was launched off approximately 932 miles for over two hours, then hit its targets in North Korean airspace before plunging into the territorial waters, Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Sunday. The efficiency and practicality of the weapon system operation were confirmed to be excellent, the report stated, adding that the new type of missile range, if accurate, would have the capability to hit as far as Tokyo.

The new missile launch comes as North Korea seeks to expand its military capabilities amid the stalemate in nuclear negotiations with the United States, according to the reports. It travelled for 7,580 seconds, along the oval and pattern-8 flight orbits, the KCNA reported. Japans Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato reportedly said that Japan was worried about the missile launch and was working in collaboration with the US and South Korea to monitor the event.

This activity highlights [North Koreas] continuing focus on developing its military program and the threats that poses to its neighbours and the international community, the US Indo-Pacific command said in a statement, adding that the missile test posed threats to the neighbourhood countries.

(Image: AP)

(With inputs from AP)
Qatar has denied taking responsibility for Kabul Airport without clear agreements with parties involved including the Taliban. Qatar, along with Turkey has been leading operations to resume functionality and security of Afghanistans main international airport. The partially obliterated airport restarted operations earlier this month with the airport director, Abdul Hadi Hamadani confirming that it would resume international operations soon.

On Tuesday, Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said that his country will not take responsibility for the airport if the issue is not clearly discussed. However, negotiations were ongoing between Qatar and the Taliban. His remarks came two days after his visit to Kabul, where he held high level discussions with the newly formed Taliban government, as reported by Al Jazeera.

Notably, Qatars capital Doha houses the Talibans headquarters and the gulf state is expected to play a pivotal role in shaping Afghanistans future course. Since the fall of Kabul, several flights operated by Qatars flag carrier have ferried diplomats, aid and foreign passport holders in and out of Afghanistan. It is to mention that the Taliban has objected to any foreign military presence at the airport but asked Turkey to handle its logistics.

Al Thani meets the Taliban leaders

Qatar Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani met Taliban leaders, including the acting prime minister of the restored Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund, in Kabul on 12 September. The Qatar delegation also met former Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah, the previous Afghan governments chief negotiator in peace talks with the Taliban

Taliban spokesperson Suhail Shaheen confirmed Al Thani's meeting with the interim government on social media. In his tweet, he mentioned that the leadership of the Islamic Emirate thanked the government of Qatar for supporting the Afghan people in their critical time. He informed that Al Thani congratulated the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan leadership and all the Afghan people on the victory. Taliban captured Afghanistan on 15 August, after months of military blitz and raids across 34 provinces of the Central Asian country.

(Image: AP)

(With inputs from AP)
Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced to remain under self-isolation for the "whole day" after he contacted people with Coronavirus infection from his inner circle. The news was confirmed by Presidential spokesperon Dmitry Peskov in Kremlin on Tuesday, September 14. Following the announcement, Putin also decided to postpone his visit to Tajikistan because several people in close entourage fell ill.

During a daily media address in Kremlin, Presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told the reporters that Putin has decided to remain under self-isolation even though he tested negative for the virus. Asserting that the President is "absolutely healthy," Peskov added that he had come in contact with someone who was infected with the virus, the Associated Press reported. However, he remained silent when asked about the President's primary contacts or how long would Putin remain under self-isolation.

COVID-Positive Person fell ill three days after taking a booster shot

On Monday, September 13, President Putin held a videoconference with the United Russian Party lawmakers when he informed that several people in his "immediate circle" were infected. Among the people who tested positive were also his staff members, Mr. Putin mentioned. Referring to the booster shot, he added, they contacted with the virus even after getting "revaccinated." Adding further details about his close contact person, Putin said that "his antibody titer decreased and he got revaccinated, but it appears it was a bit late..."

"Three days after the vaccination he fell ill. We will see how Sputnik V really works," Putin said in a statement.

Russia COVID count

As per reports, Putin has been completely vaccinated with Russia's Sputnik V. However, he was due for his third dose, the booster shot that has been initiated in Russia owing to the waning effect of the vaccines. Nevertheless, Putin was hardly ever seen wearing a mask in public. Also, his government has never really imposed strict COVID-related measures to curb the skyrocketing cases observed in Russia currently. As of September 13, about 17,861 cases were reported with 712 COVID-related deaths. On the vaccination front, Russia has displayed a significant slug despite the raging amount of infections. As of Friday, only 27% of the population was completely vaccinated, while only 32% received their first jabs.

With inputs from AP

Image: AP/PIXABAY
Taiwan on Tuesday hailed the ally countries for defending and standing in solidarity with the island and Lithuania against the Chinese belligerence in a video statement issued by the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) on September 14. Taiwans Foreign Ministry made an official announcement regarding opening a representative office in Lithuania with the name "Taiwan" despite Beijings "One China" policy, a move widely backed by allies and partner countries including Washington but condemned by Chinas Foreign office.

It takes the courage of one's convictions to strive for the greater good. We thank @SenatorMenendez for choosing to #StandWithTaiwan & state #US support of #Lithuania while meeting @GLandsbergis. No freedom- & democracy-loving country is alone when facing authoritarianism! https://t.co/McDpW6gvcP   Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ROC (Taiwan)  (@MOFA_Taiwan) September 15, 2021

Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) on Tuesday called countries worldwide to stand 'shoulder to shoulder' for Lithuania and Taiwan in the face of Chinese pressure. The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China is an international cross-party group of legislators from the globe working towards reforms on how democratic countries approach China to ensure free, open, and rules-based international order. IPAC on Tuesday revealed in an official statement on its website that it had asked the European chapter of the Formosa Club to send messages to the EU and NATO on August 25 to support Taipei and Lithuania, asserting the two nations had the right to do what 15 other European nations had already done by establishing an office in Taipei.

The only way to stop a bully [China] is to stand up to it, IPAC said in an official statement.

An official statement was made in a video launching a global call in favour of Taiwan, as it featured IPAC members from twelve legislatures across Europe, Japan, and Australia addressing the international community. The legislators call on democratic states to stand ready to provide assistance to the Lithuanian government should it be subject to further punitive measures from Beijing, they said in the video footage via Twitter. Global legislators derided Chinas oppressive tactics on Taiwan as it slapped trade sanctions and threats against Lithuania.

Video included some of the legislators from countries worldwide who were targeted by the Chinese government in recent months with sanctions. It included German Green Party MEP Reinhard Butikofer, Chair of the European Parliaments China delegation; former UK Conservative Party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith MP; Lithuanian MP Dovile Sakaliene and EPP MEP Miriam Lexman. Others in the footage included French En Marche Senator Andre Gattolin, Japanese Representative Shiori Yamao and Australian Senator Kimberley Kitching.

By bullying Lithuania, Beijing hopes to send a warning to democracies across the world, Irish Senator Malcolm Byrne asserted in the video.

Meanwhile, Reinhard Butikofer MEP stressed that if Lithuania was punished by Beijing, its democratic allies across the world must be ready to assist.

"Taiwan has a vital role to play in the international community, and all states have the right to establish relations with Taiwan as they see fit, said Representative Shiori Yamao.

IPAC stated in an official statement, that the Chinese government has blocked Lithuanian exports, while the Party-States official media has been threatening that Lithuania will pay the price for its actions.

Lithuania 'facing retribution' from Beijing

IPAC derided the PRC for retaliatory sanctions against Lithuania saying that the country was facing retribution for unilaterally pulling out of the "Cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European Country's (17+1)" initiative. IPAC members also lambasted Beijing for ethnic minority human rights violations in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and for recalling its ambassador from Vilnius after it set up its representative office bearing the name of Taiwan" and not Taipei." In the official statement released on September 14, IPAC informed that it coordinated parliamentary activities urging governments to support the inclusion of Taiwan at the World Health Assembly, and a global call for solidarity with Australian wine producers hit by politically motivated Chinese government trade sanctions, adding that it will lend full support to Taiwan.

(Image: AP)
On Wednesday, the media report said that the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in New York has launched an international campaign to promote Taiwan's bid to participate in UN activities, mechanisms, and meetings as a vital partner in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. The effort was announced before the United Nations General Assembly's 76th session, which began on September 14. According to Taiwan Today, quoting the country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), the programme highlights Taiwan's contributions to global economic recovery and sustainable development to assist equip the world for a prosperous post-COVID-19 age.

TECO will hold conference in New York on September 16

The website Give Taiwan A Voice is the most recent government initiative soliciting international support for Taiwan's aspiration to join the United Nations system. On September 16, the TECO in New York will hold a conference called "Road to a More Resilient Future: Sustainable Support for Syrian Refugees" to reaffirm the government's commitment to giving humanitarian aid to refugees displaced by Middle Eastern wars.

A Chinese military plane came into Taiwan's Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) on Saturday. According to the Ministry of National Defense, a Shaanxi Y-8 anti-submarine warfare jet of the People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) entered the southwest corner of Taiwan's ADIZ (MND). Taiwan responded by dispatching planes, broadcasting radio warnings, and deploying air defence missile systems to track down the PLAAF plane.

Except on September 2, China has dispatched a mix of spotter planes, fighter jets and bombers into the zone every day this month. Beijing has increased its grey-zone tactics by sending planes into Taiwan's ADIZ on a regular basis since mid-September last year, with the majority of incidents occurring in the zone's southwest corner and usually consisting of one to three slow-flying turboprop planes.

China has warned that "Taiwanese independence" will result in war

Despite the fact that the two sides have been ruled separately for more than seven decades, Beijing claims full sovereignty over Taiwan, a democracy with almost 24 million inhabitants located off the southern coast of mainland China. Taipei, on the other hand, has resisted Chinese aggression by strengthening strategic connections with democracies, especially the United States, which Beijing has consistently opposed. China has warned that "Taiwanese independence" will result in war.

(Inputs from ANI)

(Image: Unsplash/ AP)
Deborah Lyons, the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres Special Representative for Afghanistan on September 15 met with Siraj Haqqani, the Taliban-led governments interior minister of Afghanistan. According to an official statement by the UN on Wednesday, Lyons and Haqqani met in Kabul on Wednesday with the UN official stressing the absolute necessity for all UN & humanitarian personnel in Afghanistan to be able to work without intimidation or obstruction to deliver vital aid & conduct work for Afghan people. She earlier met with Taliban officials in Qatar where she held talks with Talibans Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai & international partners on urgent humanitarian needs.

UN envoy @DeborahLyonsUN & the USG UN Safety+Security today met Siraj Haqqani, stressing absolute necessity for all UN & humanitarian personnel in #Afghanistan to be able to work without intimidation or obstruction to deliver vital aid & conduct work for Afghan people. (1/2) pic.twitter.com/hPFfgi4hH7  UNAMA News (@UNAMAnews) September 15, 2021

Meanwhile, the UN office in Kabul also said that during the meeting, they discussed the importance of humanitarian assistance and respect for the rights of women and girls along with the formation of a coalition government. The statement, shared on Twitter, further added, Meeting also addressed requirement of mutual trust in collective efforts to improve the challenging situation in #Afghanistan, not least in restarting the economy, ensuring civil servants & health workers are paid, as well as medicines & food reaching those most in need.

UN stated, They also discussed the importance of an inclusive government, to enhance Afghanistans ability to respond to the daunting economic & development challenges & to ensure the delivery of much needed humanitarian assistance with international support.

Guterres announced $20 mn from UN CERF

Earlier, on September 13, the UN Secretary-General announced a $20 million allocation from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (UN CERF) to support the humanitarian operations in Afghanistan after the Taliban control. He also called on the members to help and boost humanitarian access, including the airbridge with Kabul and other hubs in Afghanistan. The UN Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) established an airbridge from Islamabad into Kandahar, Mazar and Herat, with operations up and running since the end of August.

Today, United Nations Secretary-General @antonioguterres announced a $20 million allocation from @UNCERF to get life-saving humanitarian aid to the people of #Afghanistan. pic.twitter.com/YO3GTCEUJk  Martin Griffiths (@UNReliefChief) September 13, 2021

Guterres also said that the people of Afghanistan are facing a humanitarian calamity and convened a high-level Ministerial Meeting on the Humanitarian Situation in Afghanistan on Monday. According to the statement by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) published on Monday, the meeting highlighted the crucial needs in the war-ravaged nation. It also underscored the urgent funding support and actions" which are required by global partners to support the Afghan nationals especially "at the time of need."

IMAGE: unama.unmissions.org
UN's chief envoy for Sudan appealed for greater international assistance to help in maintaining peace in the Darfur region of the country and sought additional resources for the UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS) to properly proceed with its mandate. According to Xinhua, the UN Secretary-General's special envoy for Sudan and head of UNITAMS Volker Perthes stated that UNITAMS has refocused its attempts on the prioritised areas which are identified by the UN Security Council, which include peace negotiations, cease-fire supervising, and assistance for the government strategy for protecting the civilians.

General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the head of Sudan's Sovereignty Council, implemented a number of orders on June 30 that formed the Permanent Cease-Fire Committee for Sudan's Darfur region, along with sector-specific committees for the five Darfur states. According to these regulations and the Juba Peace Agreement, the UNITAMS would act as the chair of these committees.

UN envoy opinion on the implementation of peace in Darfur

As a result, UNITAMS has officially started to initiate the Permanent Cease-fire Committee, beginning with a technical consultation process in Khartoum on September 5 and 6 that managed to bring together all members of the committee ranging from the military, armed groups, and other relevant parties to discuss tangible modes for incorporating a constructive cease-fire process.

Perthes also stated that the parties have made it clear to UNITAMS that they anticipate technical and financial help from the global community to carry out the security procedures. He went on to say that if UN member states wanted security and stability in Darfur, then they should not be afraid to make resources accessible. He even stressed that Sudan must also take accountability for starting to execute security arrangements and must change in order to garner international backing.

He further cautioned particularly stating about the civilian safety that the Permanent Cease-Fire Committee's objectives are great but somewhat mislaid. On the other hand, Perthes explained that although the committee's role and purpose are clear cut in the contribution of Darfur's stability such as Surveillance, reporting, and attempting to negotiate and reconcile are all part of the process yet, they will not provide physical protection.

As a result, the current return of intercommunal violence in Sudan's Darfur region emphasises the importance of bolstering Sudanese authorities and activating the Joint Security Keeping Forces. He also said that the Permanent Cease-Fire Committee cannot be a replacement for these troops and their duty of safeguarding.

(Image: AP/ Twitter/ @volkerperthes)
On Tuesday, the United Nations urged countries that have promised to give USD 1.2 billion in aid to Afghanistan to transfer the funds as soon as possible so that victims can receive food, medical care, and protection. On Tuesday, Stephane Dujarric, a spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said that the humanitarian relief promised at a high-level summit in Geneva on Monday includes financing for the Afghan flash appeal and regional response to ANI. "We emphasised that pledges must be disbursed quickly so that the United Nations and humanitarian partners, such as national and international non-governmental organisations (NGOs), can quickly turn funds into food, health care, and protection for Afghan children, women, and men in need," said Dujarric. He further stated that the UN and its partners continue to deliver aid to millions of Afghans in need and several relief missions made it to Maimana and Jalalabad by road from Mazar-i-Sharif.

According to the spokesperson, a convoy carrying UNHCR aid arrived in Nangarhar, the second convoy of relief supplies to enter Afghanistan through the Torkham Border Crossing since August 15. The World Food Programme (WFP) continues to supply a month's worth of food to previously identified needy families. The WFP is also distributing food and other essential supplies at crucial border locations in Pakistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan to avoid supply chain disruptions, according to Dujarric. Meanwhile, the WFP has stated that the return of humanitarian flights to Kabul following the Taliban's takeover is a watershed moment in the crisis. More than 90% of families are struggling for food, and with winter approaching, aid agencies have been "pushing hard to meet massive needs before it's too late," stated WFP spokesperson Tomson Phiri.

Afghanistan's business sector urges US to release its frozen assets

Since the reinstatement of the air link to Kabul on September 12, the WFP-led Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) has undertaken three cargo flights, bringing in medical supplies on behalf of the World Health Organization (WHO). Meanwhile, on Monday, September 13, Afghanistan's business sector warned that the country would face an economic catastrophe following the Taliban's takeover and urged the United States to release its frozen assets. Private sector representatives condemned the freeze of Afghanistan's reserve by the US as a violation of humanitarian law. They urged the United Nations to defend the rights of Afghans and the work it is doing to attract humanitarian aid to the country, as reported by Tolo News.

(With agency inputs)

Image: AP/ANI
The Government of Uzbekistan has delivered humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan so as to support Afghan citizens and help them cope with the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak, and avert a humanitarian catastrophe or food insecurity, according to the Uzbek Foreign Ministry. As per Xinhua, the ministry further stated that the relief was delivered in a ceremony held in the Afghan border town of Hairaton. The relief includes groceries, other basic commodities, medication, clothes, as well as footwear.

According to the Uzbek Foreign Ministry's press service, the Taliban's official representative of the interim Afghanistan government, Zabihullah Mujahid had conveyed utmost appreciation to President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev on behalf of Afghan citizens for the considerable attention, assistance, and togetherness shown in these hard times for the nation. Mirziyoyev announced earlier this month that his government was open for talks with the Taliban in Afghanistan and that they had been in regular touch.

Uzbekistan provides humanitarian aid to Afghanistan

As per the Morning Express website, the Uzbek Foreign Ministry stated on Tuesday that a train of 25 wagons carrying essentials that include foodstuffs, other essential goods, medicines, clothing and footwear, will be dispatched to Afghanistan as part of the humanitarian aid to the war-ravaged country. The foreign ministry further stated that the essentials were handed over in the presence of officials from the Afghanistan interim government and was provided by Tora Babalov, the governor of the Uzbek city of Suraksondario, and Ismatoullah Arghachev, the special spokesperson of Uzbekistan in Afghanistan.

The Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid also stated that the Uzbek government was the first one to react to the Afghan citizens' appeal for assistance. Further, the Morning Express reports that after the transfer ceremony, authorities from Uzbekistan and Afghanistan met to explore ways to strengthen diplomatic ties between the two nations.

According to Ariana News, the 1,300-ton of shipment contained food, medication, and clothing. The supplies will be delivered to Afghans who are in need across the nation. On Monday, the World Health Organization (WHO) provided the war-torn Afghanistan with medical essentials and other supplies.

Uzbekistan action on Afghanistan crisis

When the Taliban seized power over the war-torn land of Afghanistan in August, hundreds of Afghans waited anxiously to flee the country, that has been in complete chaos ever since the extremist group took over. During that period, Uzbekistan had declared that its border would be totally obstructed by Afghan refugees. According to CNN, the Uzbek-Afghan border was closed, and no land entries were permitted at the Termez checkpoint.

Yet, on the other hand, as per Human Rights Watch reports, Uzbekistan has assisted Western forces in evacuating millions of at-risk Afghans by enabling aircraft to refuel and individuals to travel to other protected countries. Dozens of Afghan pilots and their family members are being temporarily housed in Uzbekistan after fleeing Afghanistan. These were significant contributions to the evacuation operation.

Image: Pixabay/ AP
Cuba on Monday issued its most detailed report to date from prominent local scientists criticizing allegations that U.S. and Canadian diplomats were subject to mysterious attacks while posted on the island and developed health issues.

The report by the 20-member panel from Cuba's Academy of Sciences questioned whether the variety of reported symptoms could even be referred to as a single syndrome and said that some of the proposed explanations violated basic laws of physics.

But they acknowledged  and expressed frustration  that they have not been able to examine much of the evidence cited by U.S. researchers.

More than two dozen U.S. and a dozen Canadian embassy workers in Havana reported falling ill in 2016 and 2017, leading U.S. officials at one point to assert they had been victims of sonic attacks and prompting a shutdown of most U.S. Embassy operations, which continue to this day.

Canada too sharply reduced its diplomatic personnel in Havana in 2017.

But researchers in both countries have been unable to agree on what might have caused the illnesses, even as similar cases have since been reported in Germany, Austria, Russia and China  and recently even in Washington.

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris last month briefly delayed a trip to Vietnam after at least two cases were reported there.

Some  but not all  of those affected report hearing a loud piercing sound and feeling intense pressure in the face. Pain, nausea, and dizziness sometimes follow.

While administration officials have speculated that Russia may be involved  a suggestion Moscow has denied  scientists arent yet certain about who might have been behind any attacks  or if the incidents were actually attacks.

The Cuban report noted that U.S. scientists themselves has dismissed many of the suggested explanations said that many of the illnesses may have been due to preexisting conditions or to problems that occur normally in any population.

A report released in December by a U.S. National Academy of Sciences committee found that directed, pulsed radio frequency energy appears to be the most plausible explanation for the illnesses among American diplomats in Cuba and China.

That study did not name a source for the energy and did not say it came as the result of an attack.

The Cuban document called that conclusion puzzling because the report cites no direct evidence for the involvement of (radio frequency) in the events in Havana or elsewise.

No known form of energy can selectively cause brain damage (with laser-like precision) under the conditions described for the alleged incidents in Havana, it said.

The report said the only explanation so far that cannot be dismissed is the possibility of psychological suggestion leading to symptoms.

The authors included neuroscientists, physicists. psychologists and otorhinologists.

(Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by www.republicworld.com)
The United Kingdom expert advisory panel on Tuesday recommended that a booster dose of a COVID-19 vaccine should be offered to people aged above 50, frontline healthcare workers, people with underlying health conditions, adult carers. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has advised that booster vaccines be given to those more at risk from serious disease and people who were vaccinated during Phase 1 of the vaccine programme. The panel recommended that people should receive a booster shot six months after they received their second dose of vaccine.

Britain's expert panel has recommended booster shots for adults aged 50 years or above, frontline health and social workers, those living in residential care homes for older adults. The JCVI has also advised booster dose for all those aged 16 to 49 years with underlying health conditions, adult carers and adult household contacts of immunosuppressed individuals. The JCVI has recommended that the booster vaccine dose should be offered six months after receiving the second dose of the COVID vaccine.

JCVI recommends booster shots for ages 50 and above

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has updated its advice on the #COVID19 vaccine booster programme to maintain a high level of protection through the coming winter.



Read more about the JCVI's advice: https://t.co/kaUt5P1rwW pic.twitter.com/LtJxhKxmUg  Public Health England (@PHE_uk) September 14, 2021

In its advisory, JCVI noted that people vaccinated early during Phase 1 would have received their second dose about 6 months ago. The JCVI advised that after September 1, it would be an appropriate time for them to receive a booster shot. The JCVI advised a preference for the "Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for the booster programme, regardless of which vaccine brand someone received for their primary doses". It said that recommendation has been offered based on the data from the COV-BOOST trial indicates that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine provides a strong booster response and is well tolerated as a third dose.

As an alternative, the JCVI has advised that a half dose of the Moderna vaccine can be offered, with the AstraZeneca vaccine to be offered as an alternative where patients including those with allergies are unable to receive an mRNA vaccine. Professor Wei Shen Lim, Chair of COVID-19 Immunisation for the JCVI, noted that the UK COVID-19 vaccination programme has successfully protected people against hospitalisation and death. He further added that in order to prolong the protection, the expert panel has advised offering booster shots to people.

"The JCVI is advising that a booster dose be offered to the more vulnerable, to maximise individual protection ahead of an unpredictable winter. Most of these people will also be eligible for the annual flu vaccine and we strongly advise them to take up this offer as well", said Wei Shen Lim in the statement.

Image: Pixabay
Headteachers of the United Kingdom schools have been threatened to face legal action if they participate actively in the COVID immunisation campaign. Pressure group Lawyers for Liberty cautioned that if parents' complaints are ignored, school employees may be held responsible for the vaccination of children. According to BBC, vaccinations for 12- to 15-year-olds will be administered by health professionals rather than school personnel in UK schools.

Moreover, millions of people over the age of 12 have got the vaccination in nations that are currently provided it to teens. Regardless of the fact that vaccinations are provided in school settings, it is commonly assumed that school employees will have no part in the immunisation campaign.

The letter that circulated in UK schools

As per BBC, a letter from Lawyers for Liberty has been broadly distributed to schools which states, "exercising their parental responsibility during the decision-making process". The letter reads that when a parent informs the schools that their kid will not be vaccinated or does not grant permission, then that choice must be honoured with no additional implications for the kid, particularly direct or indirect discrimination or pressure. It went on to say that if they failed to do so, this may lead to legal action being taken against the teachers as well as the school.

Experts opinion on legal action over COVID jabs

According to a BBC report, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, Geoff Barton informed that most of his colleagues have been getting letters from several pressure groups frightening schools and colleges telling legal actions will be taken against them if they participate in any Covid-vaccination campaign. He further expressed that this is highly unhelpful, and they request that whoever is participating in this letter must refrain from putting pressure on schools and universities.

Paul Whiteman, the general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers stated that immediate clarity on the vaccination campaign was required. He further said that it is important that the administration must clarify that the vaccination procedure will be handled and monitored fully by authorised medical experts, not school personals. He went on to say that if parents have queries regarding critical issues like consent, those should be answered by the medical professionals, otherwise, headteachers will be forced into an untenable situation in which they have to address issues for which they have no solutions.

Each year, as part of national NHS-run immunisation campaigns, students in various schools undergo vaccinations against various diseases with the agreement of their parents, guardians, and caregivers. Sajid Javid, the health secretary of the United Kingdom, stated that the decision to vaccinate to COVID-19 disease was based on professional advice from the country's leading researchers and vaccine specialists. He further said that he has agreed to the Chief Medical Officers' suggestion to increase immunisation to those aged 12 to 15, safeguarding young people against COVID-19, decreasing the infection in schools, and protecting students in school.

(Image: Unsplash/ Representative Image)
Washington, Sep 14 (AP) Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday sought to parry bipartisan congressional criticism of the Biden administration's Afghanistan withdrawal, as new intelligence estimates warned that al-Qaeda could soon again use Afghan soil to plot attacks on the United States.

Blinken had mixed results in attempting to face down a second day of tough congressional questioning, this time from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. As a day earlier before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, he was assailed by Democratic and Republican lawmakers alike over the administration's preparation for and handling of the pullout.

Even lawmakers sympathetic to President Joe Biden's decision to end America's longest-running war by withdrawing from Afghanistan after 20 years expressed disappointment and concern about the large number of Americans, green card holders and at-risk Afghans left behind in the chaotic and hasty evacuation from Kabul.

And, as Blinken testified just three days after the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that led to the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, intelligence officials presented a bleak assessment that al-Qaeda could begin to use Afghan territory to threaten America within one to two years.

The execution of the U.S. withdrawal was clearly and fatally flawed, said committee chairman Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., who has been generally supportive of Biden's foreign policy but has taken issue with several of its aspects, including Afghanistan.

This committee expects to receive a full explanation of this administration's decisions on Afghanistan since coming into office last January, he said. There has to be accountability. The withdrawal was a dismal failure, said Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho, the top Republican on the committee. He and virtually all of his Republican colleagues accused the administration of ineptitude that has cost the United States international credibility, led to a deadly attack on U.S. troops and Afghan civilians at the Kabul airport and left many in the lurch.

There's not enough lipstick in the world to put on this pig to make it look any different than what it actually is, Risch said.

Much as he did on Monday at the often contentious hearing in the House, Blinken tried to deflect the criticism and maintained the administration had done the best it could under extremely trying and chaotic circumstances.

Blinken again blamed the Trump administration for its February 2020 peace deal with the Taliban that he said had tied Biden's hands, as well as the quick and unexpected collapse of the Afghan government and security forces that led to the Taliban takeover on Aug. 15.

Even the most pessimistic assessments did not predict that government forces in Kabul would collapse while U.S. forces remained, he said. They were focused on what would happen after the United States withdrew, from September onward. Blinken said the administration would hold the Taliban, which hosted and protected Osama bin Laden and top members of his al-Qaeda network as they plotted the 9/11 strikes, to their promises not to allow Afghanistan to be used again as a base for terrorist attacks.

But as he spoke, U.S. intelligence officials said al-Qaeda may be only 12 to 24 months from reconstituting itself in Afghanistan to pose a significant threat to the United States.

Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier, who leads the Defense Intelligence Agency, gave that estimate while speaking at the Intelligence & National Security Summit. Meanwhile, David Cohen, deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency, said the U.S. already had detected some of the indications of some potential movement of al-Qaeda to Afghanistan.

Experts have long said the Taliban still maintains ties to al-Qaeda, which took sanctuary in Afghanistan prior to 9/11. Although Blinken was not asked directly about the intelligence assessments, he said the Taliban had not fully severed its links with the group.

Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, a vehement opponent of numerous Biden policies, called the withdrawal the worst foreign policy catastrophe in a generation and accused the administration of being naive in hoping the Taliban live up to their promises of moderation. They don't want to be welcomed into the community of civilized nations, he said.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., demanded to know how intelligence about the collapse of the Afghan government had been so wrong. He suggested not only that the wrong people were in charge of assessing the situation but that the policy had been incoherent and left the U.S. vulnerable to rivals.

This was a failure of policy and planning," said Rubio, another frequent critic of Biden's. I think China and Russia and Iran, they look at this botched withdrawal and what they see as incompetence that they think they might be able to exploit. The State Department has come under heavy criticism from both sides for not doing enough and not acting quickly enough to get people out of the country after the Taliban took control of Kabul, cementing its hold on the country before the completion of the U.S. withdrawal on Aug. 30.

Blinken defended the withdrawal and the end of America's longest-running war as the right thing to do" after 20 years. And, he noted that despite severe difficulties the U.S. and its allies had managed to evacuate some 124,000 people.

The evacuation was an extraordinary effort  under the most difficult conditions imaginable  by our diplomats, military, and intelligence professionals, he said.

Even some Democrats, though, were unswayed.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the only woman on the committee, who has long fought for the U.S. to protect the advances made by Afghan women and girls, lamented the current situation and said presidents and lawmakers of both parties shared the blame for the situation.

Let's stop with the hypocrisy of who's to blame, there are a lot of people to blame and we all share in it," she said, her voice rising as she took a pointed dig at former President Donald Trump and his second Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who negotiated the 2020 peace deal with the Taliban separate from the Afghan government with no assurance that minority rights would be respected.

I want to know where the outrage was when they were giving away the rights of women and girls, Shaheen said.

In response, Blinken said he would soon be appointing a senior official to oversee U.S. policy toward Afghan women and girls. (AP) AMS

(Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by www.republicworld.com)
Biden administrations decision to administer the coronavirus vaccine third booster shots this month was broadly based on the unpublished data from Israels vaccination campaign that claims the vaccines immune response against the severe COVID-19 infection wanes with time. At least two individuals familiar with the development told Politico that the report, which will be made public this week, listed several reasons for rolling out the third coronavirus vaccine booster shot, majorly citing the Pfizer vaccines preventive ability fading with time. Shots protection against mild and moderate COVID-19 disease and its ability to minimize symptoms in case of severe disease and hospitalization is waning over time, sources reportedly said.

Israel commenced Pfizers third booster shot for adults aged over 60 in July but has now expanded it among people aged 30. But the efficacy of the booster dose in preventing the COVID-19 infection has widely been contested since then. Biden administration has long relied on data from Israel, Politico reported, adding that White House, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accessed Israels upcoming report and decided to administer a booster dose campaign that kick starts this fall. CDC had earlier published a similar report, stating that the COVID-19 vaccines effectiveness against the infection has been declining among the elderly, the more vulnerable population, as several instances of breakthrough infections emerged.

FDA examining Israels report

As the White House and top health officials announced in mid-August that they plan to administer the booster shot among the elderly population from September 20, it sparked controversy. Questions were raised about the data that backed the decision. Now, three other senior administration officials also confirmed with Politico that the FDA has been examining Israels report that may have influenced the Biden administration's view about inoculating the population with the third booster shot. US top infectious diseases expert Dr Anthony Fauci meanwhile told the broadcaster that the Israeli data might "be enough to impress", as he added that he would be surprised if the US data didn't turn out to be ultimately similar.

In an anti-booster shot stance, the World Health Organization (WHO) earlier reminded at a briefing that several poor countries lagged behind in their vaccination goals while the wealthier nations prepared to administer the third shot. Director-General of the World Health Organization, Dr Adhanom Ghebreyesus asked the developed nations to temporarily suspend their booster plans, saying that there was no evidence that proved an additional shot of the COVID-19 vaccine would work against the emerging variants. Developed countries have administered about 100 doses of coronavirus vaccines for every 100 people on average, while low-income countries have provided only about 1.5 doses per 100 people, the WHO chief said, stressing that inoculating the otherwise healthy population with a booster jab would further delay WHO's targets. Tedros called for a moratorium on boosters until at least the end of September.

IMAGE: AP
Washington, Sep 15 (PTI) The role of Pakistan in enabling the Taliban is a victory for the hardliners in the countrys government, a top American lawmaker has said, asserting that the unfolding developments in Afghanistan and the role being played by Islamabad in Kabul are not sending a good message to India.

Republican Senator Marco Rubio, during a Congressional hearing on Afghanistan on Thursday, said multiple US administrations were guilty of ignoring Pakistans role in helping the Taliban to regroup, as other US senators expressed concern over the double dealing of Islamabad.

India  I know that there was an announcement today there'll be a meeting of the Quad fairly soon, which is a good development, except that the Indo-Pacific region, if you are India, you're looking at this and saying, If the United States allowed Pakistan to unravel their standing," he said.

Because the Pakistani role in all this - and I think multiple administrations are guilty of ignoring it. The Pakistani role in enabling the Taliban is ultimately a victory for those pro-Taliban hardliners in the Pakistani government, Rubio told Blinken.

US President Joe Biden would host the first in-person Quad summit on September 24 in Washington which will be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of Australia Scott Morrison and Japanese premier Yoshihide Suga.

The four leaders would discuss promoting a free and open Indo-Pacific, addressing the climate crisis and deepening their ties and advancing practical cooperation on areas like combatting COVID-19, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said on Monday.

They (Indians) have to be looking at this and saying if the United States could have, you know, a third-rate power like Pakistan unravel its aims, what chance do they have of confronting China? So, I think this leaves us in a terrible situation, Rubio said during the Congressional hearing on Afghanistan convened by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

He said that all these years, while the Taliban was suffering casualties, they enjoyed safe haven in Pakistan.

They were able to go there to rest, to refit, to train, to recruit. And so, in summary, even before the withdrawal, we had a terrible status quo. The security forces, a small number of US forces, you know, continued to die, he said.

Senator Mike Rounds said Pakistan was considering the Taliban government as a partner to counter India.

Rounds said the Iranian president has openly called this an American military defeat and is considering working with the Taliban.

In his remarks, Senator Robert Menendez, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, spoke about the double-dealing by Pakistan and providing a safe haven to the Taliban.

Senator James Risch told Blinken that the United States must understand Pakistan's role in this entire matter.

Blinken on Monday told angry US lawmakers that the US will look at the role Pakistan played in the last 20 years after the lawmakers expressed outrage over Pakistans "duplicitous" part in Afghanistan post 9/11 and demanded that Washington reassess its relationship with Islamabad.

The US lawmakers also urged the Biden administration to reassess Pakistans status as a major non-NATO ally.

The Taliban seized power in Afghanistan on August 15, two weeks before the US was set to complete its troop withdrawal. PTI LKJ MRJ MRJ

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Hundreds and thousands of people have been left in complete darkness after Tropical storm Nicholas battered Louisiana, Houston, and Texas. The storm brought along over 30.5 centimetres of rain creating a potential threat of flash floods in the areas. As per reports, Hurricane Nicholas struck the coast of Texas, crashing onto land along the Matagorda Peninsula. Along with 60m per hour winds, the hurricane swamped the areas with torrential rains in the Deep South. According to the US Weather Department, the storm's centre was just 15 miles southwest of Houston.

Citizens suffer massive plight due to power outages

On September 14, more than 4,50,000 homes remained in pitch darkness after Hurricane Nicholas uprooted power poles during its movement across Houston. According to the CenterPoint Energy report, by Tuesday morning power was quickly restored in many districts, however, devastations due to intensified wind gusts made it difficult for over 3,500 power restoration crews to work. As per the latest updates, about 1,00,000 homes still remained without electricity supply in Texas and Houston.

As reports by ABC 13, residents of the southern, central and eastern areas were mostly impacted by the stormy weather. The wind damage was maximum in Brazoria and Galveston Counties in Texas. "The wind damage was more than expected," CenterPoint VP Brad Tutunjian told the news channel. Several trees fell on electric poles across Houston, elongating the power restoration time. Meanwhile, citizens called on the power department for their slow progress.

Alerted by the forecasts, schools in the Texas Gulf Coast area called off online classes on Monday. Additionally, Houston schools also decided to halt classes until the situation was restored. The potential threats also forced COVID-19 vaccination camps to remain shut in Houston's Corpus Christi area. The weather department further warned about two or three follow-up tornadoes in upper Texas and Southwest Louisiana coast, the Associated Press reported.

Louisiana suffers the major blow this hurricane season

Hurricane Nicholas disrupted life and business in Louisiana that was slowly making its way to normalcy after a deadly flood caused due to Hurricane Ida slammed the southern state of the United States from August 26 to September 4. The disaster caused 66 direct deaths and 43 indirect ones. As of Tuesday, about 95,000 residents remained without power, the news agency reported quoting a utility tracking site poweroutrage.us.

(With inputs from AP)

(Image: AP)
US Department of Justice has penalized three hackers for hire working for a company in the UAE for the benefit of Abu Dhabi. As a part of the legal settlement in the US, all three suspects would have to pay a sum of $1.68m. All three, the US Department of Justice said, provided zero clicks computer hacking services to the UAE Company that could compromise a device without any action by target.

Cybercrime in the US has seen a dramatic surge in the last few months with millions affected just two months ago after Miami based Kaseya Technologies was compromised by a Russian hackers group. However, unlike the aforementioned, this hacking was to aid the Emirati administration keep a vigil, according to Al Jazeera. Later in a statement, Acting Assistant Attorney General Mark Lesko called for the prosecution of the suspects-Marc Aier, Ryan Adams and Daniel Gerikcke- and added that they were warned by the law enforcement.

Hackers-for-hire and those who otherwise support such activities in violation of US law should fully expect to be prosecuted for their criminal conduct. Left unregulated, the proliferation of offensive cyber capabilities undermines privacy and security worldwide, he asserted.

The Kaseya Attack

On July 2, a computing network management tool by Kesaya, a Florida based IT Firm was targeted into a fresh series of cyber-attacks. Kaseya describes itself as a leading provider of IT and security management services to small- and medium-sized businesses, meaning an attack would make them targets going into the Independence Day holiday weekend in the United States. "We are in the process of investigating the root cause of the incident with an abundance of caution but we recommend that you immediately shut down your VSA server until you receive further notice from us," Kaseya said in a message shared on social media. " Later, hackers suspected to be behind ransomware attack on Kaseya demanded US$70 million to restore data they are holding, according to a posting on a dark website. The demand was posted on a blog typically used by the REvil cybercrime gang, a group of Russia-based hackers counted amongst the worlds most prolific extortionists.

Representative Image: Unsplash
The United States on Tuesday recorded a significant spike in COVID-related fatalities across several states--particularly in Massachusetts and Florida-- as the country's overall immunizations spiralled towards a drop to the lowest level in several months, especially in West Virginia and Kentucky, where the Delta variant held its grip. While overall, the United States reported an average of roughly 167,600 cases per day which suggested a dip from the latest peak, as many as 42 states account for the total infections and deaths.

Massachusetts recorded a sudden surge in COVID-related fatalities on Tuesday, adding 24 deaths from the virus into CDC data, the highest single-day death count since early April. According to the data published by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, the state's COVID hospitalizations spiked to 700 for the first time since mid-April. COVID cases in Massachusetts have been ticking up, and more deaths are being reported than in several months due to the highly contagious delta variant, the DPH data suggested. This has put the focus back on prevention and mask mandate.

Additionally, the confirmed cases of the COVID climbed by 1,453, with a seven-day average of cases now at 1,362 from 177 apparently two months ago. The hospitalizations rate, meanwhile, shot to the highest ever as 172 COVID-19 patients were rushed to the Intensive Care Units, and 88 were intubated, as per the DPH report. Newscasters reported of the 716 COVID patients in hospitals, 202 are fully vaccinated, and at least 3,919 from the total were breakthrough infections.

Florida records 49,254 cumulative COVID deaths

In Florida, meanwhile, more COVID related fatalities than ever before were reported as the state has one of the highest unvaccinated populations. The seven-day average of COVID-relate fatalities stood at 25, with 49,254 cumulative deaths as of September 13, according to US CDC data. Coronavirus-related deaths in children more than doubled in the past six weeks, data shows.

100,600 Americans are currently hospitalized with Covid, according to a seven-day average of data from the Department of Health and Human Services. Early on in the pandemic, its almost as if the virus ignored kids. It just made the older people sick, said Dr. Kenneth Alexander with Nemours Childrens Hospital told Florida's broadcaster WFTV, adding that the states pediatric coronavirus deaths have risen at a rapid rate causing concerns. In just 6 weeks, the pediatric death toll rose was 17, implying 17 children have died after contracting COVID-19, which is a "bolt out of the blue," Alexander said in televised remarks.

Earlier last month, an analysis of Johns Hopkins University data raised alarm over the worst death tally being recorded since December in at least 43 states from predominantly delta variant, labelling it a deadlier phase. About 5,400 Americans died in the Pearl Harbor and 9/11 attacks combined, but in just August the COVID-19 fatalities totaled to 7,225, the USA Todays analysis of National Centers for Health Statistics data had stated, outlining that the deaths among younger people had risen drastically and there were much lesser people aged in the 50s or above among 1 of every 6 deaths.
Viral video and audio of the meeting are edited fabrications, ruling party says.

A screen shot of Hun Sen making a surprise appearance in a Zoom meeting with activists and former lawmakers of the Cambodia National Rescue Party, which his government banned four years ago, Sept. 9, 2021.

Cambodias ruling party has denied that prime minister Hun Sen crashed a meeting of his political rivals from the countrys banned opposition party, saying that viral video and audio of meeting was edited to appear real, RFA has learned.

In video and audio of the alleged incident shared widely on social media, Hun Sen appears, surprising a Zoom meeting of about 15 Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) activists and former lawmakers on Sept. 9, and tells them to stop spreading anti-government messages.

A spokesman for the Cambodian People's Party (CPP) denied that Hun Sen had interrupted the meeting, saying that the audio and video clips were an elaborate fabrication in a report by Voice of Democracy (VOD), a Cambodian independent media outlet started by the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR) and operated by the Cambodian Center for Independent Media (CCIM).

These are all exaggerations. Its made as if its real, but it is not, VOD quoted spokesperson Sok Eysan as saying.

[Theyre] exaggerating [to suggest] that the winner who has power in hand with the peoples support across the country, turned to negotiate with those who ran out of the country. It never happened, he said, adding that the CNRP was already dead and would never be revived.

Former CNRP lawmaker Long Ry, who lives in exile in Massachusetts, confirmed to RFAs Khmer Service that Hun Sen had interrupted the meeting

In video footage of the alleged incident obtained by RFA, while Long Ry is speaking, Hun Sens face appears suddenly to interrupt.

In VODs account of a 12-minute audio clip of the alleged incident, Hun Sen accuses the CNRP of making false reports about his death, and then launches into criticism of the CNRPs co-founder and Acting President Sam Rainsy, who has been living in exile in Paris, but has vowed to return to Cambodia to oppose Hun Sen politically.

Hun Sen then tells the meeting that he has been secretly watching them all along, the report said.

I have been listening and have entered to listen many times already. Even last night, you, Long Ry, had a meeting with Mu Sochua to strengthen forces in Bangkok and the Philippines. I received that too, Hun Sens voice says, referring to the CNRPs vice president, who lives in exile in the U.S.

Nowadays, you all want to return to the country. Nowadays, you all want to reunite, VOD quoted the voice of Hun Sen as saying.

Long Ry told RFA that Hun Sen was able to join the Zoom meeting because one of his team members shared the meetings link or password with others so that they could listen. He said he would be happy to invite Hun Sen to future meetings to discuss national issues.

But morally, when people sneak a peak into our affairs, we are not happy. For example, when someone furtively watches naked people taking a shower, thats bad, said Long Ry.

In politics, I think we should employ honest and straightforward methods, and not take advantages of others by secretly sneaking into their affairs, he said.

Cambodias Supreme Court dissolved the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) in November 2017 over an alleged plot to overthrow the government.

The move came amid a wider crackdown by Hun Sen on the countrys political opposition, independent media, and NGOs that paved the way for his CPP to win all 125 seats in parliament in the countrys July 2018 elections.

Reported by RFAs Khmer Service. Translated by Sok Ry Sum. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
Complainant Zhou Xiaoxuan says she will appeal, because the court didn't review the available video footage.

Zhou Xiaoxuan, a CCTV intern who filed a sexual harassment case against her boss, is shown in a file photo.

A Beijing court has ruled against the complainant in a landmark #MeToo sexual harassment case, saying there isn't enough evidence to support Zhou Xiaoxuan's claims against state broadcaster CCTV anchor Zhu Jun.

The lawsuit brought by former CCTV intern Zhou Xiaoxuan against former TV host Zhu Jun stalled in December 2020 after the defendant failed to show up, before being dismissed by a court in Beijing's Haidian district on Wednesday due to "insufficient evidence."

On Sept. 14, 2021, the Haidian District People's Court in Beijing held a hearing ... and pronounced judgment in accordance with the law to hear a case brought by plaintiff Zhou XX against Defendant Zhu," the court said in a statement.

It said the plaintiff and defendant had both brought evidence and undergone cross-examination.

"The [court] found that the evidence submitted by the plaintiff Zhou was insufficient to prove the claim of sexual harassment against Zhu. The lawsuit was rejected in the first instance," it said.

Before the hearing started, Zhou spoke to supporters outside the court building.

"We came together here today because we feel the same way about this," she said in comments reported by the Free Chinese Feminists Twitter account.

"It has been an honor to experience the frustration of the past three years, and this painful defeat, along with all of you," she said. "This is as important as a victory."

But after the verdict, she said she felt exhausted and disappointed.

I dont know if I still have the courage to keep going at this for another three years, so I dont know if this is goodbye," she said.

But Zhou vowed in a later statement to appeal the court's decision.

"We will definitely appeal, because this case didnt look at any of the core factual material, the surveillance footage," she said.

Account of harassment

Zhou, who is now 28, went viral on Chinese social media in 2018 after she wrote a long account of her alleged sexual harassment by Zhu in a dressing room during her internship at state-run CCTV in 2014.

Zhou accused Zhu, who presented the CCTV New Year TV gala for two decades until the allegations surfaced, of groping her and forcibly kissing her during a conversation about a potential career at the state broadcaster. She said in her online account that the assault only ended because a guest came into the room.

Zhu has denied the allegations, and has filed a defamation lawsuit against Zhou over the allegations.

When she posted her account to social media platform Sina Weibo in 2018, Zhou cited the #MeToo hashtag campaign as her "guiding light."

She reported the incident to the police, who began looking at security footage, but later dropped the case amid concerns that it would "harm the positive image" of the TV personality and CCTV in the eyes of the public. The original post was later deleted.

Zhou told RFA affiliate Wainao/WhyNot in an interview earlier this year that pro-government trolls had been targeting her and other women who spoke out using the #MeToo hashtag, claiming that they were being used by "foreign forces" to cause trouble in China.

"It just shuts you up instantly," she said. "Then they blame you for hyping everything, and hint that your relations with men are too close and say youre delusional."

"Behind [men like] Zhu Jun is a powerful society, which protects men, avoids talking about sexual violence, and deliberately suppresses victims," Zhou said. "If you confront this, it will be completely detrimental to you, structurally and culturally."

Reprisals from the Party

Women who campaign for human rights in China face reprisals from the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that can also include enforced disappearances, arbitrary detention, sexual abuse, and torture, the Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) network said in a 2019 report.

The CCP has targeted civil organizations including the Beijing Yirenping Center, a public health and anti-discrimination NGO, the Weizhiming Womens Center in Hangzhou, which had run campaigns against gender discrimination, violence against women and sexual harassment, and the Beijing Zhongze Womens Legal Counseling Service Center.

While the #MeToo movement sparked a conversation in 2018, mainly online, about sexual harassment in China, it also led to some backlash and widespread censorship, including the closure of the Sina Weibo and Tencent WeChat accounts of the group Feminist Voices, the report said.

Chinese feminists have said that, while #MeToo swelled the ranks of online activists, who have a range of social media tools at their fingertips, the CCP is increasingly using armies of pro-government trolls to stage an online backlash.

The torrent of online abuse from government-backed anti-feminists is also dividing the feminist movement, with individuals left feeling isolated and confused by the onslaught.



Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
The company has taken prepayments from thousands of ordinary families for properties not yet built.

Police form a barrier as hundreds of investors protest outside the Shenzhen Evergrande headquarters in Shenzhen, Sept. 13, 2021.

Protesters have been gathering outside the offices of Chinese property giant Evergrande in recent days to demand their money back, as the company struggles to repay debts of more than U.S.$300 billion amid a liquidity crisis.

Chanting "Pay us back! Pay us back!", dozens of protesters gathered outside the company's headquarters in the southern city of Shenzhen on Wednesday, after the company warned it may not be able to service its debts, and offered property and parking spaces in a bid to stave off creditors' demands.

They refused to disperse despite a strong police presence, with some shouting for Evergrande founder Xu Jiayin to pay them back.

Investors also gathered outside Evergrande offices in the eastern province of Jiangsu on Wednesday morning, with protests also reported in neighboring Anhui, and the central province of Hubei.

Hong Kong-listed Evergrande has taken money from prepaying customers to built more than one million housing units, many of them first-time buyers who have put everything they have into a bid to get on the property ladder.

In a statement on Monday, it denied widespread speculation that it is about to undergo bankruptcy proceedings and restructuring, saying it has "resumed production," and would guarantee the delivery of buildings under construction.

Then, the company admitted on Tuesday it is under "tremendous pressure" and may not be able to meet its liabilities.

Beijing-based rights activist Hu Jia said Evergrande's creditors include thousands, possibly tens of thousands of ordinary people who can ill afford to lose their investments.

He predicted a crackdown on the protests by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP), regardless of Evergrande's eventual fate.

"All discussion of this topic is under surveillance on [social media], and they will find the leaders, organizers and advocates on WeChat and QQ," he said. "They will break the movement by calling some of them inciters."

"They know how these protests are initiated, what state they are in, how much support they command, and how to fragment and pacify them," he said. "It's all part of [the CCP's] housekeeping skillset."

He said the CCP was unlikely to allow the situation to get out of hand.

"A real estate crisis would trigger a financial crisis, then an economic crisis, and then a social and political crisis," Hu said. "So I believe the CCP will take a very hard line while this is still just a real estate crisis."

Evergrande Group headquarters in Shenzhen, in an undated photo. AFP What the CCP wants

An industry insider surnamed Xu agreed, but didn't think it would lead to a good outcome for ordinary investors and homebuyers.

"The millions of ordinary people are no better than ants; they don't think about them," she said. "What matters is what the CCP thinks, and what it wants to happen, and that's what will happen."

"If Evergrande doesn't win the backing of the CCP, they're toast," Xu said.

Hu said it would be hard for the government to decide whether or not to bail out Evergrande, however.

"If they bail them out, will they then bail out all the other real estate companies as well?" he said. "If they don't, it could lead to social instability."

Beijing-based current affairs commentator Ji Feng said he expects the government to act decisively to solve part of the crisis, then hope that the rest of the protests will turn into long-running petitions, most of which will be unsuccessful.

"The vast majority of [petitions] end in failure, by their own accounts," Ji said. "How many people ever get compensated?"

"If there is a little bit of money left over, they might give you some, but if not, then forget it! The CCP isn't going to pay up [out of its own coffers] because it's in financial difficulties itself," he said.

Industry insiders told RFA that around 800 Evergrande construction projects have been suspended since the crisis became known.

Local authorities in the southern city of Foshan suspended mortgage registrations for at least nine Evergrande projects in the area, sparking fears that other local governments across China could follow suit.

"If they stop registering mortgages for their real estate, then anyone buying one of their homes won't be able to get a mortgage," an industry insider surnamed Li told RFA. "Then they won't be able to sell it on, either."

"So far, this situation has only happened in Foshan, but once it becomes known, it could prompt similar notices for Evergrande properties in other parts of the country," he said. "That would cause a huge amount of trouble [for the government]."

Foshan officials confirmed to RFA this week that Li's account was accurate, saying that such a notice had indeed been issued.

Earlier bailout

Evergrande's liquidity crisis follows its rapid expansion into 280 Chinese cities since its founding in the early 1990s.

In September 2020, Evergrande requested a bailout from the Guangdong provincial government, then tried to dispose of assets in the following year in a bid to service its massive debt burden.

Ratings agency Fitch said in a note on Wednesday that the government would likely take some kind of action to protect investors' interests.

"An Evergrande default could damage consumer confidence if it were to affect households' deposits for homes that have not yet been completed, but we assume the government would act to protect households' interests, making this outcome unlikely," the note said.

Fu Linghui, a spokesperson for China's State Statistics Bureau, said on Wednesday that the government is carefully watching the situation in the real estate sector.

"The real estate sector has been generally stable since the start of the year, as governments across the country started to follow the principles of non-speculation," Fu said.

"All aspects of real estate regulation have been stepped up to curb 'unreasonable demand' in the market, and gradually return demand to normal levels. The market continues to improve, and the real estate sector is expected to remain stable."

Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
A Hong Kong court on jailed nine former opposition lawmakers and democracy activists for up to 10 months after they pleaded guilty to charges linked to "illegal assembly" in connection with a banned vigil marking the anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen massacre last year.



District Court judge Amanda Woodcock handed down jail terms of 10 months apiece to rights lawyer Albert Ho, activist Figo Chan and former lawmaker Andrew Wan, sentences of eight months to Labour Party chairman Steven Kwok and district councilor Chiu Yan-loi, and six-month prison terms to former lawmakers Cyd Ho, Leung Kwok-hung, Eddie Chu and Yeung Sum.



District councilor Cheung Man-kwong, Democratic Party activist Mak Hoi-wah and Tiananmen vigil organizer Leung Kwok-wah were given suspended sentences.



Chiu told RFA before the sentencing hearing that he was prepared to go to jail.



"All of us defendants are psychologically prepared to go to prison," Chiu said. "But we also want Hongkongers not to lose hope, and not to forget about , 1989."



"We hope they will protect our memories [of that event], in different places and in different ways, and hold onto hope," he said.



Members of the League of Social Democrats turned out to support the defendants outside the court.



Spokesperson Chan Po-ying said that the vigil organizers, the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Democratic Patriotic Movements of China, had been in existence for 32 years before it was accused of "subversion" under the national security law.



"I think we are in a new normal now, in which they will be settling old scores, one after another," Chan said.



"They will carry on suppressing any civil organizations that keep going, and continue to target pro-democracy activists and groups."



Tang allegations condemned

Passing sentence, Judge Woodcock said the defendants had "wrongly and arrogantly" believed their cause was more important than a public health crisis, given that the government had cited the COVID-19 pandemic as a reason for banning the vigil.



Albert Ho, Figo Chan, Cyd Ho, Leung Kwok-hung and Yeung Sum are already serving other sentences, and the new sentences will run concurrently with those sentences, she ruled.



Meanwhile, a Paris-based press freedom group called on Hong Kong's security chief to reconsider his accusations against a professional journalists' association after he said it was "infiltrating" schools to recruit young people as journalists.



"[Reporters Without Borders] RSF calls on #HongKong Secretary for Security Chris Tang to reconsider his accusations against @HKJA_Official," Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said via its Twitter account, in support of the Hong Kong Journalists' Association (HKJA).



Tang had made the allegations in an interview with the Ta Kung Pao, a Hong Kong newspaper backed by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP).



"In an interview ... with @TakungNews, Tang groundlessly stated that the journalists association was 'infiltrating schools'," RSF tweeted.



The HKJA also called on Tang to "verify the facts before making remark, to avoid misleading the public."



"The HKJA finds it deeply regrettable that some senior government officials ignored the truth and made false judgements," the association said in a statement on its website.



The exchange comes amid growing fears that Tang's comments are a signal that the HKJA is under strong political pressure to disband, a fate that has already befallen a number of other civil society groups in Hong Kong following denunciations by Chinese officials, or by the CCP-backed media.



Support groups disband

The denunciations usually focus on accusations that a given organization has done something that could be in breach of a draconian national security law imposed on Hong Kong by the CCP from , 2020.



Several organizations, including protest march organizers the Civil Human Rights Front, the Professional Teachers' Union and Wall-fare, a prison support group for those in custody because of the 2019 protest movement, have already disbanded following denunciations in the CCP-backed media.



HKJA said it has 60 student reporter members out of a total membership of 486, but declined to say which media organizations they work for, citing privacy laws.



HKJA chairman Ronson Chan told RFA that the group used to take part in some activities in schools.



"Both the [now abolished] Liberal Studies syllabus and the syllabus for Chinese studies once included discussion of the media, newswriting, reporting and media theory, morals and ethics," Chan said.



"They would have HKJA members give lectures in schools, mostly to talk about what it's like to be a journalist, and to educate them about the media, so that students from different backgrounds could experience it," he said.



"There was never any political element to it, nor any political views expressed," Chan said.



Chan told government broadcaster RTHK on that the group wouldn't give up without a fight.



"We will not dissolve easily and we will do our best to discharge our duty until the last moment," he said.



Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
The Indonesian government has been under immense domestic pressure to protect national interests.

The Indonesian Navy patrol boat KRI Bontang (907) pictured at a naval base in Banyuwangi, in Indonesias East Java province on April 26, 2021. The boat is currently sailing close to a Chinese survey vessel north of Natuna, ship-tracking data show.

Indonesia has dispatched one of its naval ships close to a Chinese survey vessel that is operating in its exclusive economic zone, BenarNews has learnt.

The U.S. aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, passed as close as 50 nautical miles to the same Chinese vessel, the Haiyang Dizhi 10, on Saturday, and broadcast its location as it did so during a sail through the southern part of the South China Sea.

On Monday, the Indonesian navy deployed the KRI Bontang (907) to the same area, ship tracking records show, suggesting it was closely following the Chinese vessels movement, close to an important oil and gas field. Both vessels were still in the area on Wednesday. The Haiyang Dizhi has been operating there since late August, about 90 nautical miles north of Indonesias Natuna Islands.

The Indonesian navy and the Maritime Security Agency, also known as Bakamla, were not available for comment on Wednesday but the tracking records analysed by BenarNews show the Indonesian ship has been tailing the Haiyang Dizhi 10, and was at one point just 1.7 nautical miles away from the Chinese ship.

The KRI Bontang (907) is essentially a replenishment-at-sea tanker but it is equipped with weapon systems including cannons and machine guns.

The choice of the supply ship may be intentional, says Sunaryo, a maritime affairs expert at the University of Indonesia.

"We are facing a dilemma. If we deploy warships, it will be seen as aggressive, but (the non-military) Bakamla doesn't have many large ships."

The Chinese survey ship Haiyang Dizhi 10 on a visit to Pakistan for hydrocarbon research and geological mapping in February 2019. Credit: Pakistan Navy Flexible but firm

On Tuesday, a Bakamla spokesman when asked told BenarNews,, an RFA-affiliated online news service, that there had been no violation of shipping rules by the Haiyang Dizhi.

Wisnu Pramandita said the Chinese survey ship had its AIS [automatic identification system] on and could be monitored.

It was probably a normal passage, he said.

The seemingly evasive reply is not unexpected, says Richard Heydarian, a regional affairs analyst. Indonesia, and some other countries in the region, have been leading a flexible approach when dealing with China.

They prioritize diplomatic tools and avoid confrontational language in order to not jeopardize the relationship with China, but also try to be firm when needed to protect national interests, Heydarian said.

The same approach was witnessed in January 2020 when Indonesias strong but restrained and diplomatic response helped repel dozens of Chinese ships fishing illegally in the same North Natuna area, according to Heydarian.

However, Indonesia may be facing a greater challenge this time.

Apart from the survey ship, Kompas newspaper quoted local fishermen as saying that they sighted at least six Chinese vessels, including a 7,500-ton destroyer  the Kunming (172)  in the North Natuna Sea on Monday.

A regular presence

Bakamlas Secretary Suprianto Irawan was quoted in Indonesian media as saying that there has been a regular presence of Chinese coastguard ships around the Tuna Block where the Haiyang Dizhi 10 is operating, an important oil and gas field in the Indonesian EEZ.

Although Indonesia does not regard itself as a party to the territorial disputes in the South China Sea, the northern part of the Natuna Sea overlaps with the so-called nine-dash line that China uses to demarcate its sweeping claims in the South China Sea  a position not recognized by international law.

Since Aug. 31, the Chinese vessel has been conducting a survey near the semi-submersible oil rig Noble Clyde Boudreaux, which was commissioned to drill two wells there until mid-November, energy industry media reported.

Chinese ships have been accused of harassing neighboring countries oil exploration activities but China always insists they are operating within Chinas jurisdiction.

The Indonesian government has been under immense domestic pressure to protect national interests, and the public urge action.

"As an archipelagic state, we have designated sea lanes for continuous passage of foreign ships, but we must not take our EEZ for granted. If we don't do anything, our claims could be undermined, warned maritime expert Sunaryo from the University of Indonesia.

This is happening in the Natuna with foreign ships in our EEZ. Some parties are taking advantage of lax security there."

A countrys EEZ extends 200 nautical miles beyond its coastlines and provides it certain resource rights to the waters there  hence the sensitivity of a foreign nation conducting a survey in such an area.

But Bakamla officials have been saying that they have very limited resources and are poorly equipped with just 10 ships and no aircraft.

Ahmad Syamsudin in Jakarta contributed to this report by BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service.
A man uses his phone as he sits along the Taedong river in Pyongyang, North Korea, September 12, 2018

North Korean agents are going undercover as phone brokers to entrap citizens attempting to contact overseas relatives for money to cope with a worsening food shortage and an economy devastated by the coronavirus pandemic, sources in the country told RFA.

Phone brokers charge money for using Chinese cell phones to tap the mobile network in China to provide a channel for North Koreans who have escaped the country to send money and information to their families back home.

But since the start of the coronavirus pandemic in January 2020, Pyongyang has been cracking down on its citizens contact with people outside the country, especially in the border regions, where Chinese cellular networks are accessible.

The crackdown coincided with the closure of the Sino-Korean border and the suspension of all trade to stop the spread of the virus into North Korea, a move that devastated the North Korean economy and caused shortages of food, medicine and industrial inputs.

RFA reported last month that the dire food situation made escapees families and the phone brokers themselves desperate enough to assume the heightened risk of using that method to move money.

Now families in North Korea trying to contact overseas relatives must also be careful when working with a broker, because some could actually be police.

As the refugees families resume their connection with overseas family members and the number of telephone brokers continues to increase, law enforcement is using a mean method of contacting North Korean refugees families by disguising security agents or police officers as phone brokers, a law enforcement source from the city of Hoeryong in the northeastern province of North Hamgyong told RFA.

But now that the residents are aware of the authorities cunning and mean strategy, the families are extremely careful not to speak to unknown brokers, said the source, who requested anonymity for security reasons.

The source said that at the beginning of the pandemic, most families of escapees cut off contact with them because the government had stepped up surveillance and punishments.

They were enduring economic hardship with all their might, but they are no longer able to. So more and more of them are trying to contact their overseas relatives again, saying that dying of hunger is no better than dying from harsh punishment, the source told RFAs Korean Service.

Law enforcement is telling the residents that they will be sent to political prison camps immediately if they discover any contact with their family outside the country, but if they voluntarily confess that theyve been in contact, they will be treated leniently, the source said.

A resident of nearby Musan county said police were mixing threats and ruses to catch residents trying to reach their relatives overseas.

They visit the families of escapees and trick them into giving them detailed information, saying they will help them connect with their loved ones, said the second source, who requested anonymity to speak freely.

The State Security Department and the Police Department are telling refugees families to immediately alert the authorities if they receive any contact from overseas, or else they and the rest of the family will be arrested as political criminals, the second source said.

Even so, residents who are in desperate need of help from their escapee relatives are able to use certain words, numbers or special expressions as code to verify who is a real broker and who is a police officer faking it, said the second source.

The second source said that despite all the threats from law enforcement, most families with relatives abroad find ways to keep in touch with the outside world.

The threats presented by the living difficulties happening here right now far outweigh any threats of surveillance by the State Security Department.

The Database Center for North Korean Human Rights, which interviewed 414 North Koreans in the South, reported that 47 percent of them were in constant contact with their families in the North in 2018. Of those, about 93 percent said they called their families on the phone.

In the same survey, 62 percent said they had sent money to North Korea. Based on their answers, the center estimated that refugees in the South who send money to North Korea do it about twice per year, sending around 2.7 million South Korean won (U.S. $2,260) each time.

Each time they had to pay an average broker fee of almost 30 percent.

According to South Koreas Ministry of Unification, more than 33,000 North Koreans have settled in South Korea since 1998, though only 229 entered the South last year during the coronavirus pandemic.

Reported by Jeong Yon Park for RFAs Korean Service. Translated by Jinha Shin. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
Residents and monks say the move will cause Laos to lose its image and identity.

Buddhist statues face the rising sun at the That Luang Stupa in Vientiane, capital of Laos, in a file photo.

A real estate companys plan to build a 100-meter-tall Buddha statue in a Chinese special economic zone in the Lao capital has prompted opposition from monks and citizens who see it as cultural encroachment from their giant neighbor.

The opponents complaint about the proposed statue highlights stylistic differences between two major schools of Buddhism: The statue to be erected is a Mahayana-style, Chinese Buddha wearing a long frock and standing, rather than a Theravada-style Lao Buddha sitting in a meditative pose.

If they built it in the Chinese style, it will draw a lot of negative reactions from the public, said a resident of the capital Vientiane, who declined to give his name. With a Chinese-style Buddha, Laos will lose its image and its identity. The Buddha statue should be Lao because its in Laos.

China's Wan Feng Shanghai Real Estate Company plans to build the Buddha in the That Luang Marsh Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Vientiane to attract domestic and foreign tourists, according to Lao and Chinese state-run media.

Lao state media first reported in November 2016 that company owner Wan Feng planned to invest U.S. $80 million to build a water theme park, including a giant Buddha statue, at the SEZ as a tourist attraction. The real estate developer has had a 99-year lease on the 365-hectare SEZ since 2012, the media reports said.

The SEZ is meant to be a model for economic zone development in Laos and to attract foreign investment to the small landlocked country of roughly 7 million people, according to Lao state media. China is the largest foreign investor in Laos, with a stock of U.S. $16 billion in investments and ambitious plans to expand.

When completed, the SEZ will include apartment buildings, offices, public parks and green spaces, a lake, a hospital, an education center, restaurants, a sporting complex, a shopping mall, hotels, a temple, and banks.

People admire a replica of the Mahayana-style, Chinese Buddha statue that the Wan Feng Shanghai Real Estate Company wants to build in the That Luang Marsh Special Economic Zone in Vientiane, capital of Laos, in an undated photo. Credit: Vientiane's Special Economic Zone Promotion and Management Office

The government should take public opinion into consideration before allowing the building of the proposed Buddha, another capital resident told RFA.

They should build a Lao Buddha, or if they want to build it as a symbol of the cooperation between two countries, then they can build two Buddha statues  a Chinese one and a Lao one side by side, he said.

They cant just build only the Chinese one. Laos will lose its image or face.

A Lao Buddhist monk in Vientiane said, Personally, I dont want to see a Chinese Buddha statue in the SEZ in the heart of the capital Vientiane.

Laotians in other areas of the country also have weighed in on the issue.

A resident of Luang Prabang province said the statue should be built in the authentic ancient Lao style.

Lao identity should be preserved, he said. Its not appropriate to build a Chinese-style Buddha. I dont understand why they want to build a Chinese Buddha.

Many monks in the higher levels of the Lao Buddhist community say that its not appropriate to build a Buddha statue like this in the country, the local said. They should build a Lao Buddha who is sitting in a meditative pose.

When a national steering committee for the statues construction met on Aug. 31, Lao Deputy Prime Minister Kikeo Khaykhamphithoun said the project should promote Lao culture, history, tradition, religion, architecture, and business, including tourism in the SEZ, according to the Special Economic Zone Promotion and Management Office in Vientiane.

After the meeting, the deputy prime minister and other meeting participants visited the location where the Buddha will be built and looked at a model of the planned statue.

An official at Vientianes Information, Culture and Tourism Department said that he could not comment on the project because no one there attended the meeting

An employee at the That Luang Marsh SEZ said that managers there were discussing the issue.

In November 2020, RFA reported that a Chinese company installed Chinese red lanterns and balloons on utility poles that the company helped build in Vientiane, but it later took them down after many Lao residents complained.

Reported and translated by RFAs Lao Service. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
Four years after company executives were jailed, investors say they still have not received back any of their money.

Four years after hundreds of Laotians staged a protest demanding repayment of money they lost in a pyramid scheme, many of those who were defrauded say they have little hope of recovering their investments, even though government officials have begun selling off the firms assets to repay them.

More than 200,000 Laotians invested over U.S. $100 million in the PS Agriculture and Industry Promotion Import-Export Company of Laos. The company, registered as an agricultural firm in 2012 to produce purified drinking water and noodles, run a rice mill, and farm organic chickens and vegetables, promised to pay investors up to 4.8-percent interest a month if it generated a profit. Executives claimed it never reported a profit, however.

After the fraudulent scheme was uncovered and its executives were arrested, hundreds of investors staged a protest in the Lao capital Vientiane on Sept. 11, 2017, calling for the return of their deposits. More than 30,000 investors have filed statements of loss with the police.

On the fourth anniversary of the protest, one former investor, who requested anonymity as did others who spoke to RFA, said he had not heard anything about the return of their money.

I dont think well get anything back because its been so quiet, he said. It might be because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The investor, who lives in Vientiane, said he had invested 100 million kip (U.S. $10,260), but received no interest payments because the company claimed that it wasnt making a profit.

Another investor in Luang Prabang province told RFA that he had filled out all the necessary forms in 2018 to get back his 8 million-kip investment, but hasnt received anything yet.

Its been quiet since then. Ive received nothing. Ive lost all hope of getting my money back, he said.

Im urging the authorities to find a resolution that will pay money back to all investors, he said. Why havent we been informed of any progress?

An investor in Borikhamxay province who along with his daughter invested 10 million kip in the company in 2016, said the protest to demand the moneys return was in vain.

Now, Ive lost all hope of getting any money back, he said. Im still waiting though; I dont know whats going on with the authorities at the upper levels. Are they still working on this?

The Prime Ministers Office has set up a special task force committee comprised of officials from the National Bank of Laos, Economic Police Department, Ministry of Industry and Commerce, and the Finance Ministry, to handle reimbursements, said an official in Vientianes Industry and Trade Department.

The committee is working on collecting the assets of both the company and its executives, but I cant tell you right now when it will be able to pay any money back to investors, said the official who declined to be named in order to speak freely.

The process is that the committee will sell the assets, then pay the money back, he said, adding that the committee has already sold some of PSs assets, including 100 hectares of land, equipment, cows and horses, and the personal property of the two co-presidents, Por Her and Souknaly Thepsimuang. Their personal assets included necklaces, bracelets, and cars.

The committee has not disclosed the value of the sold assets, however.

The Vientiane Peoples Court sentenced Por and Souknaly to 15 years in jail each on Nov. 21, 2018, and fined them 2.8 billion kip for committing fraud, money laundering, campaigning against the state, causing social disorder, possessing weapons, and participating in in illegal wildlife and human organs trade.

The pair were detained in September 2017 after investors protested at the companys headquarters in the capital.

The court also handed down prison sentences of from 2.5 to 10 years for the same crimes to 10 other PS executives and fined them between 5 million and 700 million kip.

Reported and translated by RFAs Lao Service. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
Observers say that more detentions are expected as the junta faces growing resistance to its rule.

Authorities in Myanmar have arrested over seven dozen journalists since the junta seized control of the country more than seven months ago, and the number is rising as political tensions reach a new high with the shadow National Unity Governments (NUG) declaration of war on the regime last week.

As of Tuesday, the military had arrested 87 journalists since its Feb. 1 coup detat and had only released 14 as part of a June 30 general amnesty that saw 200 detainees freed from detention across the country.

Since the coup, security forces have killed 1,089 civilians and arrested at least 6,477, according to the Bangkok-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)mostly during crackdowns on anti-junta protests.

The junta says it had to unseat Aung San Suu Kyis National League for Democracy (NLD) government because the party engineered a landslide victory in Myanmars November 2020 election through widespread voter fraud. It has yet to present evidence of its claims and public unrest is at an all-time high.

Last week, the NUG declared a nationwide state of emergency and called for open rebellion against junta rule, prompting an escalation of attacks on military targets by various allied pro-democracy Peoples Defense Force (PDF) militias and ethnic armed groups.

The declaration came weeks after the NUG announced plans for a D-Day operation to purge the country of the junta through a popular uprising supported by the PDF militias, formed to protect the public from the military.

Throughout its rule, the military has repeatedly vowed to clamp down on the media, including on July 12, when Deputy Information Minister Major Gen. Zaw Min Tun accused journalists of tricking the public.

These media outlets are a danger to the people and traitors to the State, as they are broadcasting fake news and incorrect opinions, he said at the time.

Zaw Min Tun called the independent media only less treacherous than the groups they are working with, suggesting they were aligned with the NUG and were working to destroy the State and the economy, but providing no proof of his allegations.

In the two months since, authorities have continued to target journalists for their work, with at least two believed taken into custody in the past two weeks alone.

Over the weekend, family members of former RFA Myanmar Service reporter Thuzar said she went missing on Sept. 1 and was likely detained.

The freelancer had been in hiding since police raided her Yangon home in March after she reported on anti-coup protests and the difficulties facing government employees that take part in a nationwide Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) opposing the junta.

She knows her family members would be worried sick if she didnt contact them, her husband Ye Ko told RFA, saying he is convinced that Thuzar was arrested and had already contacted a lawyer to represent her.

We know the authorities have been arresting journalists, but journalists will cover the news, no matter who the government is.

Days after Thuzar went missing, authorities arrested Hmu Ein Zaw, a former journalist and current humanitarian worker, together with his wife, sources said.

Meanwhile, authorities have filed an additional charge under Article 17(1) of the Unlawful Association Act against veteran journalists Sithu Aung Myint and Htet Htet Khine. The pair were already facing charges for committing an offense against the State under Section 505(A) of the Penal Code following their arrest on Aug. 16.

No letup in arrests

Veteran journalist Myint Kyaw told RFA that the release of journalists in the June 30 amnesty should not be taken to mean that the junta has stopped targeting the media.

Many people assumed that journalists were no longer being arrested after the release, but by early August they were being detained again, he said.

This shows that the authorities have not relaxed their policies concerning journalists. In fact, I think they are targeting journalists even more to discourage coverage of the situation in the country. Reporters need to be even more cautious these days.

Myint Kyaw noted that there had been an internet blackout in western Myanmars Rakhine State after the NUG declared war on the junta last week and suggested that such a tactic could be extended to other regions as well.

Court attorney Khin Maung Myint, who has been helping arrested journalists, told RFA that a recent addendum to the Counter-terrorism Law which designates groups like the PDF, NUG and Parliaments Pyidaungsu Hluttaw Committee of Representatives (CRPH) as terrorist organizations has led to the detention of even more reporters.

The new additions in the law enable the authorities to punish anyone who is involved with groups designated as terrorist organizations, so when journalists interview members of the NUG, CRPH and PDF, they are accused of supporting or propagating for these organizations, he said.

They are simply targeting journalists for providing news to the people.

Paris-based Reporters without Borders (RSF) ranked Myanmar 140th out of 180 countries in the 2021 edition of its annual World Press Freedom Index and singled out junta chief Snr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing as among the worlds 37 worst leaders in terms of media crackdowns. The country has fallen in position every year since it was ranked 131st in 2017.

Reported by RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated Ye Kaung Myint Maung. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
Language rights have become a particular focus for Tibetan national identity in recent years, with teachers subject to arrest by Chinese police.

Dza Wonpo township in Sichuan's Kardze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture is shown in an undated photo.

More than a hundred Tibetans detained by Chinese police in Sichuans Kardze prefecture since August have been denied proper food, clothing, and medical care, leaving many in poor health, Tibetan sources say.

At least 121 residents of Dza Wonpo township in Kardzes Sershul (in Chinese, Shiqu) county have been arrested during the last three weeks amid a crackdown by authorities on language rights and possession of banned images of Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, sources said.

Many were members of a local group promoting the use of the Tibetan language, now being replaced under government orders by Chinese as the sole medium for classroom instruction in local schools, a Tibetan living in exile told RFA, citing local sources.

Although there are many groups that work toward the preservation of the Tibetan language, the Chinese authorities are mainly focused this time on one of these groups, called the Association for the Preservation of the Tibetan Language, RFAs source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The Chinese government is now significantly reducing ethnic Tibetans access to education in their own language, the source said, adding, And this has led Tibetans to resist these attempts, and we are therefore seeing many language rights activists suppressed and arrested.

Tibetans arrested in the recent clampdown are being denied proper food and clothing in detention, leaving many in an unhealthy condition, the source said.

They are also being interrogated every day and are being given political re-education sessions in the prison, he said.

One of those detained, a woman named Kardon who was arrested for allegedly contacting Tibetans living in exile, was denied medical attention after she suffered a sudden illness," he said.

"Local authorities are not providing her with the medical registration form she needs to receive treatment."

Citing contacts in the region, RFAs source identified eighteen of the Tibetans now detained in the Dza Wonpo crackdown as Soepa, Lobsang Choezin, Pendo, Pelkyab, Tsangpa, Choe Lhamo, Kardon, Loden Chunglam, Tenzin Losel, Losher, Choechok, Gaden, Sherab, Jampel, Dolo, Choepa, Sonam Galek, and Tamdin Norbu.

Already tightly restricted following widespread protests in Tibetan regions in 2008, Dza Wonpo monastery drew increased police scrutiny in 2012 when monks refused to hoist Chinese national flags on the monasterys roofs, sources told RFA in earlier reports.

Language rights have become a particular focus for Tibetan efforts to assert national identity in recent years, with informally organized language courses in the monasteries and towns deemed illegal associations and teachers subject to detention and arrest, sources say.

Reported by Sangyal Kunchok for RFAs Tibetan Service. Translated by Tenzin Dickyi. Written in English by Richard Finney.
The policy of the Communist Party and the government is to exhaust peoples resources, says a health expert from Hanoi.

Vietnams citizens bearing the brunt of a surge in the number of COVID-19 virus infections in the Southeast Asian country have called on the government to provide assistance to those who have lost jobs amid the health pandemic, at the same time criticizing calls by leaders for residents to contribute money to a national coronavirus fund.

Large areas of Vietnam are under lockdown as the nation of nearly 99 million people struggles with a rising number of coronavirus cases. On Wednesday, the country reported a total 645,640 confirmed COVID-19 cases, including nearly 10,600 news ones, and 16,186 deaths, with 250 new fatalities.

On Tuesday, the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor (VGCL) proposed using part of the 89 trillion dong (U.S. 3.9 billion) from the countrys Unemployment Insurance Fund to help workers affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Many workers have been hit hard by the fourth wave of the pandemic, made worse by the presence of the highly contagious Delta variant, with factory and company closures forcing them out of work. The ongoing crisis has also exposed the governments lack of preparedness to handle one of the most serious public health disasters in contemporary times.

More than two million workers in Vietnam have lost their jobs, have had to take leave without pay, or have taken rotational leave since the current surge began in late April, according to the VGCL.

Vietnams Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs must approve the VGCLs request before any money from the Unemployment Insurance Fund can be released.

The governments previous relief packages, including one worth 26 trillion dong had been hard to implement and [was] less effective than expected, the VGCL said without elaborating.

Provinces and major cities like Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City have implemented their own relief policies, though locals report that the support they have received has not been enough to meet their basic needs.

Some young Vietnamese who have lost parents amid the coronavirus surge in Vietnams largest city have found themselves orphaned with no one to provide for them.

About 1,500 students in Ho Chi Minh City have lost their parents to the COVID-19 virus since late April, the municipalitys Department of Education and Training reported on Tuesday.

Of that number, more than 490 are elementary school pupils, 580 are secondary school students, and the remainder are high school students, all from various area of the city, though most live in three districts.

Authorities will provide payments of 540,000 dong a month to children over four years old, while children under four will receive 900,000 dong a month. They all will receive medical insurance, less tuition payments, until they are 16 years old. Other social support will be provided until they reach 22 years of age.

Authorities are calling for donations so that each orphan can receive a higher amount of 3 million-5 million dong per month plus basic necessities.

Exhausting peoples resources

Meanwhile, citizens and health professionals alike are up in arms about the central governments handling of the National COVID-19 Vaccine Fund, which has received donations totaling about 8.7 billion dong, and about its call for ordinary people to contribute money.

This is a fund of kindness, solidarity, faith, and from heart to heart to together overcome adversities and let Vietnam triumph over the COVID-19 pandemic, said Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh in a video message to the Vietnamese people. Let us once again write the history of the glorious victory of the nation  winning the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Vietnam has one of the lowest coronavirus vaccination rates in the world.

The government has withdrawn about 373 billion dong to purchase vaccines, while the remainder has been deposited at four big commercial banks and at the State Bank of Vietnam where it can earn 3.3 percent interest annually for a three-month term and 3 percent annually for a one-month term, according to the management board of the National COVID-19 Fund.

As of Sept. 10, nearly 30 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine had been administered, and about 4.5 million people had been fully vaccinated. But many remain unvaccinated because of the ongoing shortage of doses.

Vietnams finance and health ministries on Sept. 8 proposed using part of the fund for vaccine research and clinical trials of domestic vaccines, drawing criticism from Vietnamese citizens and health experts.

A call from the government for officials, civil servants, employees, and workers nationwide to contribute a days salary to the countrys efforts to deal with the virus raised their ire another notch. Even overseas Vietnamese have been encouraged to donate money to the fund.

The [Communist] Party and the governments policy is to rely on the peoples resources  in other words, to exhaust peoples resources, said a health expert from Hanoi, who requested anonymity so he could speak freely.

People now are unemployed and need the governments support, so how can they contribute their salary? he asked, adding that top officials, including the prime minister, president, general secretary of the Communist Party, and government ministers should be contributing money from their salaries.

They shouldnt call on laborers, as that would be hard on the people and it sounds objectionable. Do they want to get the last coins in people's pockets? the health expert asked.

Using money from the fund to support vaccine research and depositing it in banks to earn interest are not in line with the original purpose of the fund, he said.

We have money, but are short of vaccines. This is a misuse of the fund. the health expert said.

Empty vials of the Sinopharm COVID-19 coronavirus vaccine sit on a table at a vaccination center in Vietnam's capital Hanoi, Sept. 10, 2021. Credit: AFP

Lack of transparency

While officials have disclosed donation amounts and how money from the fund has been used, they have remained mum on how much interest the remaining money in the bank is generating, he said.

It means there is a lack of transparency in the funds disbursement, the health expert added.

The Vietnamese government established the National COVID-19 Vaccine Fund in late May to receive, manage, and collect voluntary in-kind and monetary donations to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

The fund also receives contributions from other sources so the government can purchase, import, research, produce, and administer COVID-19 vaccines.

A worker named Thi, who in 2009 left her home in Tay Ninh province for Ho Chi Minh City to earn a living, told RFA that she had to return to the province when her company closed amid the coronavirus pandemic.

She said she was aware that the government has called for contributions to purchase vaccines, but did not know it had deposited some of the national funds in banks or had used the money to conduct vaccine research.

I was not even allowed to receive the 1.5 million dong from the governments recent relief package because the head of my residential area said that the relief money was to be used for vaccine purchases, Thi told RFA.

Depositing the money in banks to get interest is unacceptable, she said. Its also their fault if there are no vaccines to buy.

Ngo Tri Long, former rector of the Ministry of Finances Price and Market Research Institute, said that Vietnams top leaders have been actively seeking vaccine supplies but received an insufficient amount to cover the population.

There are practically no vaccines to buy now, he said.

Vuong Dinh Hue, chairman of the National Assembly, traveled to Austria, Belgium, and Finland earlier this month to try to get the countries to provide Vietnam with COVID-19 vaccines and medicine to treat those infected with the virus.

Foreign Affairs Minister Bui Thanh Son has also been assigned to find vaccine supplies to buy, Ngo said.

The need for more vaccines amid new virus outbreaks in the United States and other countries has further limited vaccine supplies for nations like Vietnam, he said.

The Vietnamese government was negligent with its strategy against the pandemic, Ngo said.

Now that they have realized the significance of vaccines, there are no vaccines to buy, he added.

Though China gave Vietnam some of its Sinopharm vaccines, citizens throughout the country have expressed concern, fearing the doses might produce hidden side effects, Ngo said. But others had to accept the shots because they otherwise could not have resumed working.

The U.S. government has delivered 5 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to Vietnam amid the fourth wave of the virus.

Reported by RFAs Vietnamese Service. Translated by Anna Vu. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
QAPSHAGHAI, Kazakhstan -- A court in Kazakhstan has approved a request for early release filed by jailed activist Almat Zhumaghulov, whom rights organizations in the Central Asian nation have recognized as a political prisoner.

Zhumaghulov's lawyer, Aidyn Tabyldiev, told RFE/RL that the Qapshaghai City Court in the southern region of Almaty agreed on September 15 to release Zhumaghulov on parole.

The court, which had rejected several previous parole requests by Zhumaghulov, did not say why it had granted parole this time.

Tabyldiev said his client had been diagnosed with a herniated disc, while Zhumgahulovs family members have said his condition due to an ulcer has worsened in recent months.

Zhumaghulov was sentenced to eight years in prison in December 2018 after he and two other defendants were found guilty of planning a "holy war" because they were spreading the ideas of the banned Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK) opposition movement.

Zhumaghulov pleaded not guilty, calling the case against him and his co-defendants politically motivated.

The DVK was founded by Mukhtar Ablyazov, an outspoken critic of the Kazakh government who has been residing in France for several years.

Ablyazov has been organizing unsanctioned anti-government rallies in Kazakhstan via the Internet while in exile.
Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya has called on French President Emmanuel Macron to take "decisive action in solving the Belarus crisis."

Speaking in Paris on September 15, the first day of a four-day trip to France to bolster support for her movement, Tsikhanouskaya said, "democratic countries have to be firm and principled."

Tsikhanouskaya was the main opposition candidate in the disputed August 2020 presidential election, which handed longtime leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka a sixth term. The opposition and the West have refused to recognize the results and called for a new, independently monitored vote.

Crisis In Belarus Read our ongoing coverage as Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka ramps up pressure on NGOs and independent media as part of a brutal crackdown against protesters and the opposition following an August 2020 election widely considered fraudulent.

Following the election, mass protests broke out against the alleged fraud, and the demonstrations were met by a brutal crackdown from the Lukashenka government. Fearing for the safety of her family, Tsikhanouskaya left Belarus and currently lives in Lithuania.

The Vyasna human rights center says there are currently 671 political prisoners in Belarus.

"Belarusians need new energy and fuel to go forward," Tsikhanouskaya told journalists. "We do not have the right to lose momentum."

Tsikhanouskaya was not scheduled to meet with Macron during the visit, but she did hold talks with French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian.

Le Drian said after the meeting that he wanted to send a "strong message of solidarity" and promised France would continue its efforts to find a political solution to the Belarus conflict.

Earlier, Tsikhanouskaya emphasized the continued need for international support.

"This support of world leaders helped the people in Belarus to believe they are not alone in their fight for freedom and democracy," she said. "However, the repressions have not stopped for one day in Belarus since last year."

She urged the West to continue and strengthen a policy of "nonrecognition of Lukashenka" and repeated her position that the "only solution" to the standoff in her country was new elections. She added that France could be a part of a "mediation platform" to facilitate another vote.

Tsikhanouskaya met on September 14 with Austrian Minister for EU Affairs Karoline Edtstadler in Vilnius.

"Austria supports civil society in Belarus," Edtstadler wrote on Twitter. "We are definitely on the side of democracy and Justice."

With reporting by AFP
Bulgarian President Rumen Radev has officially set the country's third parliamentary elections of 2021 for November 14, the same day voters will cast ballots in a presidential election.

The presidential press office said in a statement on September 15 that Radev will dissolve parliament and name an interim government on September 16.

The move was expected as Radev had indicated he favored saving time and money by holding the votes at the same time.

Bulgaria held parliamentary elections on April 4 and July 11. But no party in the divided legislature managed to put together a majority coalition needed to form a cabinet after either vote.

Bulgaria's National Assembly on September 2 scheduled the country's next presidential election to take place on November 14. Radev has said that he will run for a second term. So far, he is the only official candidate in the presidential race.

Two parties -- the Bulgarian Socialist Party and There Is Such A People -- have stated that they will support Radev's candidacy for a second term, rather than fielding their own candidates for the post.
Welcome back to the China In Eurasia briefing, an RFE/RL newsletter tracking Chinas resurgent influence from Eastern Europe to Central Asia.

Well be doing things a little bit differently this week. This is a special edition of the newsletter that is focused on September 16s Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit and all of the plotlines to watch. In order to not miss a beat, Ive assembled a special all-star group of experts who follow the region closely.

Im RFE/RL correspondent Reid Standish and heres what to follow at the SCO summit.

Beijing's Leadership Gets Put To The Test At The SCO

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) has taken on many forms in its 20 years, but the bloc now grapples with its greatest test in how it can respond to the situation in Afghanistan.

Finding Perspective: The SCO -- a Eurasian security bloc that consists of China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan -- has long faced questions over its relevance and been criticized as a hollow talk shop with little practical follow-through.

That reputation will be difficult to shed, especially as both Chinas Xi Jinping and Russias Vladimir Putin will not attend the Dushanbe summit in person. Although that may have less to do with the SCO than other factors, as Xi has not left China in more than 600 days and Putin is in self-isolation after COVID cases were detected in his entourage. Both leaders will be attending virtually.

But as Luca Anceschi, a professor of Eurasian Studies at the University of Glasgow, told me, just because the SCO is a talk shop doesnt mean its irrelevant, especially because the Talibans takeover in Afghanistan has created new opportunities for Beijing to allow its own regional order to emerge.

This view is shared by Charles Dunst, an associate with Eurasia Group's Global Macro team, who says that while the SCO is far from being a catchall for Chinese leadership, it can continue to grow in the future.

The Afghanistan crisis has the potential to breathe more life into the SCO, said Dunst. But the fact that the group operates on consensus will probably prevent it from making a significant difference there.

Why It Matters: The bloc has long focused on what it calls the three evils of separatism, extremism, and terrorism -- areas where its largely authoritarian members have tended to see eye to eye.

Moving forward, those talks will only become more relevant as China becomes even more preoccupied with terrorist threats coming from Afghanistan.

As Niva Yau, a researcher at the OSCE Academy in Kyrgyzstan, put it, the SCO isnt the only arrow that Chinese policymakers have in their quiver.

The organization has its limits, especially with key differences over Afghanistan between rivals India and Pakistan, as well between Tajikistan and the Taliban.

But it can still make headway on issues like drug trafficking, refugees, and terrorism in Afghanistan, according to Yau, and agreement on these are the most likely deliverables for a joint statement to materialize from the summit in Tajikistan.

Pulling back, the SCO also fits into Beijing's future ambitions.

There is this long-term idea that once there is more consensus about things like security and trade, that the region will then bound together around Beijing and see China as the best provider for these matters, Yau told me.

Read More

 For a wider look at how the situation in Afghanistan shakes up Beijings security calculations in the region, check out this article from Radio Mashaal, RFE/RLs Pakistani service, and myself.

 My colleagues Bruce Pannier and Muhammad Tahir have a new episode of the Majlis podcast focused on how the Central Asian states have accommodated Beijing over its Xinjiang policies.

 For a more detailed look at the upcoming summit, read this breakdown that I did about the SCOs interesting history and Afghanistan taking center stage.

Expert Corner: Who Rules The Supercontinent?

Readers asked: Is China now the leader of Eurasia?

To find out more, I asked Peter Frankopan, a historian and professor of global history at Oxford who wrote the best-selling books Silk Roads and New Silk Roads. Peter was kind enough to offer an extended contribution for this special edition of the newsletter:

The tumultuous developments of recent years have helped feed assumptions about U.S. decline on the one hand and of the continued rise of China on the other.

"Certainly, the chaotic leadership of President Donald Trump, the existential problems of the European Union (including Brexit), and the shambolic withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan seem to suggest the sun is setting on an Age of the West.

"This is often conflated with ideas about power vacuums, about regional and global leadership roles, and about how China will steer unwitting states, not only in Central and South Asia, but elsewhere, too, into its arms through a combination of sweet incentives, access to markets, and the poison pill of debt-trap diplomacy.

"Those who know what they are talking about try to keep a safe distance from the hype, the smoke, and the mirrors that have a nasty habit of confirming biases, fanning fears, and shifting narratives from reality into the imagination. The Belt and Road Initiative, for example, has been highly visible but extremely problematic, with many projects failing to deliver their promised fruits.

"There is no question that China plays an important -- even a central role -- in what is happening and will happen in Eurasia, because of the size of its population, its economy, and its role within global supply chains. That is a seismic change from the world of two decades ago.

"But then again, as we mark 30 years since the fall of the Soviet Union, it is not just China that has been on the move. The world has been changing and will continue to do so.

"That process is not plain sailing for anyone -- though as a boring historian will tell you, it might be worth looking to the past from time to time to figure out what happens when the wheels of history go through the kind of rapid acceleration that has marked the first 21 years of the 21st century.

Do you have a question about Chinas growing footprint in Eurasia? Send it to me at StandishR@rferl.org or reply directly to this e-mail and Ill get it answered by leading experts and policymakers.

Three More Stories From The SCO

1. Tajikistans Diplomatic Dance

One of the more intriguing storylines to watch is Tajikistans hostile relationship with the Taliban and how this could be a wrench in Chinas plans to reach an agreement on Afghanistan.

The Holdout: As my colleague Bruce Pannier explained in a recent blog post, Tajikistan is strongly opposed to the Taliban and there will be no Afghan delegation at the summit, despite the country being an official observer of the SCO.

Dushanbes position is driven by Emomali Rahmon, Tajikistans authoritarian president, who has called for a more inclusive Afghan government and is positioning himself as a regional protector of ethnic Tajiks, which make up about one-third of Afghanistan.

My colleagues in Dushanbe at RFE/RLs Tajik Service told me that the local Afghan Embassy had asked to participate in the summit but was rebuffed. There are also unconfirmed reports that Amrullah Saleh, the ousted vice president of Afghanistan, could also attend, but that would be a dramatic development.

A key move to watch, says Edward Lemon, an expert on Central Asia at Texas A&M University, is how much Beijing and Moscow are willing to lean on Tajikistan over the Taliban and how far Dushanbe is willing to bend

This policy is obviously out of sync with the other Central Asian countries and Tajikistan's main external partners: Russia and China, said Lemon. I don't doubt that the Russian and Chinese sides will raise this. And it will be interesting if we see Dushanbe moderate its tone.

2. Bringing Iran Into the Fold

Beyond the attention being put on Afghanistan, full membership in the group for Iran is said to be on the table at the upcoming summit, with recently elected Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi slated to attend.

A New Member: Iran had faced resistance toward full SCO membership in the past and is currently an observer in the bloc, but as Nicole Grajewski, a fellow at Harvards Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, explained to me, Tehrans appeal as a member and the SCOs own values have shifted.

[Tehran] has substantial experience in dealing with narco-trafficking and refugee flows from Afghanistan, which in many ways elevates the importance of Iran in regional security, she said.

Beyond that, ties have continued to warm between China and Iran, with the two countries signing a 25-year cooperation deal in March.

If Irans application for the SCO is approved, it will likely indicate the organizations attempt to project its identity as a more comprehensive regional security organization, Grajewski said.

3. The Kremlin Is Ready To Flex

While much attention has been paid to how the Talibans takeover is an opening for China, it is also a moment for Russia to bolster itself across the region.

The Big Guns: Moscow still views Central Asia as part of its sphere of influence and the Kremlin has long feared spillover from Afghanistan destabilizing its neighbors.

In recent weeks, Russia has stepped up its military cooperation and held several exercises with the Central Asian countries through the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a Moscow-led military bloc that does not include China.

But as Raffaello Pantucci, a senior associate fellow at London's Royal United Services Institute, sees it, its still an open question whether this is Russias way of showing its influence over China, or whether it is in fact a demonstration by Moscow of the value it can offer to Beijing in helping stabilize their shared Eurasian backyard.

It has been interesting to see the degree to which China is keen to coordinate with Russia and let them take the lead, he said.

Across The Supercontinent

The Xinjiang Picket: Police in Almaty, Kazakhstan, have dismantled tents set up by protesters in front of the Chinese Consulate as part of an overnight protest over the disappearance of their relatives in Xinjiang, RFE/RLs Kazakh Service reported.

Bidding War: Three foreign companies (one British, one Turkish, and one Chinese) have all expressed interest in getting the contract to build a thermal power plant in Bishkek, RFE/RLs Kyrgyz Service reported.

Stonewalled: Michelle Bachelet, the United Nations rights chief, said that her attempts to gain access to Xinjiang to investigate the treatment of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities have not succeeded.

Breaking Ground: Construction of the first Chinese vaccine factory in Europe, set to produce Sinopharm, began in Belgrade, RFE/RLs Balkan Service reported.

A Growing Footprint: A new study from the Center for the Study of Democracy finds a connection between an influx of Chinese capital into a country and a negative impact on its environment and the quality of governance. Read my interview with one of the reports authors.

One Thing To Watch

Taiwan is sending a delegation to Central and Eastern Europe to bolster ties as it seeks to take advantage of growing disenchantment in the region toward mainland China.

The 65-member delegation will visit the Czech Republic, Lithuania, and Slovakia in October. The trip comes on the heels of a deepening spat between Beijing and Vilnius over the Baltic country opening a diplomatic trade office in Taiwan.

Taiwan has long-standing relations with the region that have been boosted during the pandemic as many Central and Eastern European countries have donated vaccines to Taipei.

Thats all from me for now. Dont 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 inbox on Wednesdays twice a month.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen says the bloc will maintain pressure on members Poland and Hungary to uphold democratic values, including possible legal actions and funding cuts.

She said during a speech in Brussels on September 15 that actions by Warsaw and Budapest that harshly restrict migration, discriminate against women and LGBT people, restrict the media, or constrain the independence of the judiciary are antithetical to the basic values of the 27-member bloc.

"These values are now enshrined in European treaties," von der Leyen said. "This is what we all signed up to when we became part of this union as free and sovereign countries. We are determined to defend these values."

The bloc has long been at odds with the nationalist and euroskeptic governments in Hungary and Poland.

The two countries are among nine member states whose national spending plans have not yet been approved by the European Commission, a step that is necessary to unlock billions of euros earmarked to help restart economic growth stalled by the coronavirus pandemic.

Von der Leyen also repeated support for a proposal to tie access to EU funds to respect for the rule of law.

"We will do whatever we can to protect the EU budget," she said, adding that the commission would be sending out warnings under the new mechanism to member states in the near future.

Speaking in Warsaw the same day, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, head of the ruling Law and Justice party, said that Poland's future was inside the EU, but that it must remain a "sovereign country."

Based on reporting by Reuters and AP
The Hungarian government has issued rating guidelines to broadcasters that would place some films featuring homosexuality or gender issues under the same restrictions as violent horror films.

Under the regulations issued on September 15 by the Media Council of the National Media and Infocommunications Authority (NMHH), films that have LGBT topics or gender issues as a "defining feature" would be "not recommended" for people under the age of 18.

"General gestures expressing tenderness, like a kiss on the cheeks, a hug, holding hands while walking, or a kiss cannot be considered problematic unless they are portrayed for their own sake or constitute a central element of the program," the guidelines state.

Films prominently featuring such themes would have the same rating as films such as the Saw slasher series or The Exorcist.

The new guidelines come in the wake of the adoption in June of a law banning the "display and promotion of homosexuality" to children under 18.

The law was modeled on the controversial "gay propaganda" law adopted by Russia in 2013. That law has been sharply criticized by Human Rights Watch as having "increasedsocial hostility" toward gays in Russia and as "a classic example of political homophobia."

The Hungarian law has also been criticized by rights groups, the United States, and the European Union.

The government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban, which has backed a strongly conservative social agenda, has said the legislation is needed to protect the "right of children to their gender identity received at birth."

Amnesty International's Budapest office issued a statement in June saying the law "will expose people already facing a hostile environment to even greater discrimination."

With reporting by Reuters, 24.hu, and AFP
Two more Kazakh activists have been sentenced to "restricted freedom," a parole-like sentence, for having links to the banned Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK) movement amid an ongoing crackdown on supporters of the opposition group and the associated Koshe (Street) party.

On September 15, a court in the southern city of Shymkent sentenced Lazzat Dosmambetova to 30 months of restricted freedom and barred her from involvement in public activities for five years after finding her guilty of the "creation of a branch of a banned group and taking part in its operations."

Dosmambetova rejected the charges as politically motivated and said she will appeal the court's decision.

The day before, a court in Nur-Sultan, the capital, sentenced activist Altyn Lesbaeva to two years of restricted freedom after convicting her of having links to the DVK and the Koshe party and propagating their ideas.

Lesbaeva was also barred from taking part in public activities for three years. She refused to admit guilt and vowed to appeal the ruling as well.

Many activists across the Central Asian country have been handed lengthy prison terms or parole-like "restricted freedom" sentences in recent years for their involvement in the activities of the DVK and Koshe, as well as for taking part in the rallies organized by the two groups.

DVK is led by Mukhtar Ablyazov, the fugitive former head of Kazakhstan's BTA Bank and an outspoken critic of the government. The authorities labeled the DVK extremist and banned the group in March 2018.

Human rights groups have said Kazakhstan's law on public gatherings contradicts international standards, as it requires preliminary permission from the authorities to hold rallies and envisions prosecution for organizing and participating in unsanctioned rallies, even though the constitution guarantees citizens the right of free assembly.
NUR-SULTAN -- Kazakhstan's lower chamber of parliament, the Mazhilis, has approved the first reading of a bill that would allow the blocking of social networks and messaging apps if their owners fail to establish local offices in the Central Asian country.

According to a bill amending the law on the protection of children's rights, which was approved in its initial reading on September 15, foreign social networks and messaging services would be obliged to register in Kazakhstan and set up local offices to receive permission to operate in the country.

The bill still faces two further readings in parliament, and then must be approved by the legislature's upper chamber, the Senate, before it is signed into law by President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev.

Companies affected will have six months to register in Kazakhstan and open local offices once the bill becomes law.

The bill was initiated by Mazhilis lawmakers Aidos Sary and Dinara Zakieva, who also proposed allowing regulators to block websites without a court ruling.

The leadership of the tightly controlled former Soviet republic has been concerned over anti-government rallies in recent years organized via Facebook and other social networks by the leader of the banned Democratic Choice Of Kazakhstan movement, Mukhtar Ablyazov, who lives in the European Union.

International human rights groups have said that Kazakhstan frequently blocks or restricts assessment to social networks. Freedom House in its annual report on the level of the Internet freedom in the world, defined Kazakhstan as a "not free" country.
ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- Human rights activists in Kazakhstan have launched a campaign to collect signatures for a petition demanding that President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev release jailed dissident poet Aron Atabek, who has been behind bars since 2007 and is said to be in failing health.

Bakhytzhan Toreghozhina, a leading member of the Almaty-based human rights group Ar, Rukh, Khaq (Dignity, Spirit, Truth), told RFE/RL that the signatures will be collected for five days and then will be sent to Toqaev, who has the authority to pardon inmates.

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The 68-year-old poet, who was sentenced to 18 years in prison after being convicted of helping organize protests that resulted in the death of a police officer, is said to be suffering from heart disease, diabetes, and arthritis.

Atabek has maintained his innocence. He rejected a 2012 government pardon offer that would have required him to admit guilt.

"The president of the republic may, at his own discretion, pardon a convict or a person who has served the sentence," the petition says. "We ask you to exercise this right and have mercy on Aron Yedigeev (Atabek)."

Within hours of its posting on Facebook on September 15, the petition had dozens of signatures.

Kazakh authorities have shown little, if any, tolerance toward criticism, whether it comes from the independent press, activists, or political opponents.

Human rights groups in Kazakhstan have said that Atabek has been constantly tortured in prison, with guards intentionally splashing water with high concentrations of chlorine on the floor of his cell to damage his health.

For years, domestic and international rights organizations have demanded the Kazakh government release Atabek.

Last month, a picture of Atabek, taken by human rights activists who visited the dissident poet in prison, caused a public outcry. The poet looked exhausted and ill.

Atabek was transferred to solitary confinement in December 2012 and spent two years there after an article he wrote critical of then-President Nursultan Nazarbaev and his government was smuggled out of prison and published online.

Atabek and his relatives said in 2014 that prison guards had broken his leg, which the authorities denied.
PRISTINA -- The first case at a special court investigating alleged atrocities by ethnic Albanian separatists during the 1998-99 Kosovo War has begun in the Netherlands, with prosecutors saying they have irrefutable evidence of a former rebel commander's guilt in murdering and torturing suspected collaborators.

Salih Mustafa, a commander in the Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK), faces charges of murder, torture, cruel treatment, and arbitrary detention allegedly committed in April 1999 against prisoners held in the village of Zllash, east of the capital, Pristina.

Prosecutors said in their opening statement that Mustafa and his men "brutalized and tortured" fellow ethnic Kosovar Albanians whom they accused of collaborating with Serbs in Zllash.

"These were not enemies of Kosovo. They were not spies," senior prosecutor Jack Smith told the court. "Their only crime was to have political views that differed from the [UCK] and its senior leaders."

Smith stressed that his team wasn't targeting the UCK, Kosovo, or its people, nor their struggle for independence.

"Nothing, nothing could be further from the truth," he told the court.

The 49-year-old Mustafa, who reiterated his plea of not guilty, was arrested last year while working as an adviser at Kosovo's Defense Ministry.

The case is the first to go to trial at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers, which was established in The Hague in 2015 to probe allegations that members of the UCK committed war crimes and crimes against humanity during the war between ethnic Albanian rebels and Serbian forces.

The EU-backed court operates under Kosovar law but is based in the Netherlands to shield witnesses from intimidation.

At the September 15 session, the presiding judge read out the indictment to Mustafa, who was asked whether he wished to confirm his earlier not plea of not guilty.

"Yes, I am not guilty of any of the counts brought here before me by this Gestapo office," Mustafa, dressed in a black hoodie and track pants, told the court, referring to the the secret police of Nazi Germany.

Presiding judge Mappie Veldt-Foglia warned him that the court would "not allow the use of disrespectful language" at future hearings.

The court has said in statement that several hearings are scheduled during September and October, during which the prosecution intends to call 16 witnesses.

Among the other defendants facing trial are former Kosovar President Hashim Thaci; Kadri Veseli, a former speaker of parliament and leader of the Democratic Party of Kosovo; Rexhep Selimi, a Kosovar lawmaker; and Jakup Krasniqi, another former speaker of parliament.

They have been detained in The Hague since November 2020 and have pleaded not guilty to charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, nearly a decade after a 78-day NATO air campaign drove Serbian troops out and an international peacekeeping force moved in.

The conflict left more than 10,000 people dead -- most of them ethnic Albanians from Kosovo. More than 1,600 people remain unaccounted for.

Kosovo, which has a largely ethnic Albanian population, is recognized by many Western states but not Serbia or its allies Russia and China.

With reporting by AFP and AP
A group of bipartisan lawmakers is seeking to undo U.S. President Joe Bidens decision to waive sanctions on the Russian-owned operator of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline in a last-ditch effort to stop it from pumping gas to Europe.



An amendment introduced on September 14 by Representatives Michael McCaul (Republican-Texas), Marcy Kaptur (Democrat-Ohio), and about eight other lawmakers orders the president to impose sanctions on any entity responsible for the planning, construction, or operation of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. It also authorizes new mandatory sanctions to foreign entities and individuals responsible for the planning, construction, and operation of Nord Stream 2.



Completed just last week after Biden waived mandatory congressional sanctions in May, the Baltic Sea pipeline will bring Russian gas directly to Germany, bypassing land routes through Ukraine, Belarus, and other countries. However, it must first receive certification, a process that can take several months, holding out hope for some lawmakers that it can be stopped.

Critics say Nord Stream 2 is designed to deprive Ukraine of lucrative transit fees and will further strengthen Russias influence over Europes energy industry.



Ukraine and Poland vehemently oppose the project on the grounds that it is a national security threat, while Germany has steadfastly supported it. The U.S. Congress has sided with Kyiv and Warsaw, imposing two rounds of mandatory sanctions to stop its completion.

However, the Biden administration, in an attempt to improve frayed ties with Germany, agreed to waive the sanctions in exchange for commitments from Berlin to invest in Ukraines energy industry and push the Kremlin to continue to export some gas through the country.



The amendment sponsored by McCaul and Kaptur was submitted to defense funding legislation under consideration by the House Rules Committee.



The legislation, known as the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), has been used the past two years to impose sanctions on Nord Stream 2, delaying its completion by more than a year.



The Rules Committee has a meeting scheduled for September 20 to decide whether to include the Nord Stream 2 amendment in the NDAA. Lawmakers have the option to defer to the House Foreign Affairs Committee as it did last year when similar legislation was proposed.



There is overwhelming bipartisan support in the U.S. House of Representatives for reimposing sanctions. Democrats allied with Biden hope to stop the amendment from being added to the bill by either committee.
The investigative journalism group Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) says it has halted its operations in Russia to shield its journalists from an ongoing government crackdown on independent media in the country.

The OCCRP said on September 15 that most of its Russian partners cooperating with it had been labeled as "foreign agents" or "undesirable" organizations, putting them at risk, given the current conditions.

It added that it had proposed its employees in Russia move to other countries, while those who stayed received severance payments and assistance in finding new jobs.

"We will not stop reporting on the kleptocracy but increasingly there is little gained from being there and great risks to the freedom of employees. We will work with journalists outside," OCCRP co-founder and editor Drew Sullivan tweeted.

"We thank the dedicated journalists who sought hard to tell the real truth and to counter the murderous misinformation machine that is the Russian government. They are true heroes. The people of that great country deserve more," another tweet said.

The OCCRP is a noncommercial organization that unites more than 50 independent media outlets across the world and publishes more than 100 investigative reports each year.

Critics have said Russia's law on "foreign agents," initially adopted in 2012 and amended several times since, is being used by the authorities against independent voices, especially in recent months with parliamentary elections approaching and the ruling, Kremlin-backed United Russia party slumping in opinion polls.

The law requires nongovernmental organizations that are deemed to be receiving foreign assistance and engaged in political activity to be registered and to identify themselves as "foreign agents," as well as to submit to audits.

Organizations designated as "foreign agents" also have to carry out tedious administrative procedures, including clearly indicating their status to the public.

In July, the Council of Europe's Venice Commission, which is composed of independent experts in the field of constitutional law, called on Russia to reject aspects of the "foreign agents" laws, saying they had a "significant chilling effect...on the free exercise of the civil and political rights which are vital for an effective democracy."

Russia has said the laws and new amendments are designed to increase transparency and enhance national security, but the Venice Commission said in its report that the results will be the exact opposite.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and several of its Russian-language news sites, including its flagship Russian-language television channel, Current Time, are on the "foreign agents" registry.

RFE/RL has not labeled its content, resulting in the Justice Ministry imposing tens of millions of dollars in fines. RFE/RL has appealed to the European Court of Human Rights and has also moved to shift some of its employees and operations out of Moscow to Kyiv and elsewhere.

RFE/RL President Jamie Fly has said that Russia is attempting to fine RFE/RL's Moscow bureau out of existence with the penalties.
"The funny thing is that I have never traveled abroad, and I don't have a passport," said Tatyana Rumyantseva, a paramedic, a council member in the Novgorod region town of Okulovka, and a candidate from the liberal Yabloko party for the regional legislature in elections on September 17-19. "I don't know any foreigners."

Nonetheless, Russian election authorities have designated her "affiliated with a foreign agent" under an April law that compels such people to devote 15 percent of the area of their campaign materials, such as posters, to a state-mandated announcement of the fact. Rumyantseva earned the designation because she heads the local branch of the Alliance of Doctors, a professional organization that was branded a "foreign agent" by the government earlier this year.

"I take it as a sort of stamp of quality," she told RFE/RL. "In our country it turns out that if you think for yourself or act against the will of the authorities, you are an 'enemy of the people.'"

As Russians head for the polls to vote for the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, and in local elections like the one in Rumyantseva's region, she is one of the few people deemed "foreign agents" or targeted with other designations who have managed to get on the ballot in a vote that Kremlin critics say is the most restricted in Putin's 22 years as president or prime minister.

In one way, the current campaign is similar to those that preceded it. The use of repression to manipulate elections and try to secure the results the Kremlin seeks is nothing new -- and government opponents say the tactics of repression have grown steadily more intense since the mass protests following the disputed 2011 Duma elections and the 2012 election that saw Putin return to the presidency for an unprecedented third term after a stint as prime minister.

But the current campaign is markedly different, says rights activist Grigory Okhotin, a co-founder of the OVD-Info monitoring service, which reports on the activities of law enforcement agencies. "The main change, in my view, has been that previous repressions were aimed at suppressing protests and restraining civic political activity," he said. "Since January or February, they have moved on to the destruction of active civil society."

The beginning of the year marked the return to Russia of opposition leader Aleksei Navalny, following treatment in Germany for a nerve-agent poisoning he claims was carried out by Russian security agents at Putin's behest. Navalny was arrested and subsequently sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison on a parole violation charge that he denounces as absurd. Thousands of Russians were detained during nationwide protests calling for his release, and later his Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) and his network of regional offices were shut down as "extremist" organizations.

"They began with the FBK," Okhotin said. "It had been under pressure since February 2017 with a bunch of administrative detentions and constant searches, seizures of equipment, and so on. But now [the authorities] simply said, 'Guys, you are outside the law.' We haven't seen that before."

Not Elections, But A Referendum On Putin

The main vehicle for the government's election-season repression has been a complex of vaguely worded and unpredictably enforced laws on "foreign agents," "undesirable organizations," and "extremism."

"We've seen the emergence of a sort of mechanism for criminalizing dissent, civic activism, and freedom of speech," Moscow-based political analyst Kirill Rogov said of the laws.

The elections come as the ruling United Russia party is polling at historic lows, in part due its support of a massively unpopular pension reform and a package of hundreds of constitutional amendments that, among other things, allow Putin to seek two more six-year stints as president after his current term ends in 2024.

Many analysts believe the Kremlin is focused on the Duma vote largely because it could affect what will happen in 2024 and afterward. "These aren't elections," said Oleg Stepanov, a former head of Navalny's Moscow office who was barred from the elections for his alleged "extremist" activity.

"It's a referendum," he said, on Putin and the United Russia-based system that has dominated the country for so long.

In order to keep Putin's options open and provide as firm a basis of support as possible for whatever decision he makes -- to run for reelection, to anoint a successor, to rule from a position other than the presidency -- the Kremlin seems determined to preserve United Russia's constitutional majority of two-thirds in the 450-seat Duma, whatever it takes.

The entire campaign this year has been carried out under the shadow of the "foreign agent" legislation, which has been used to stymie monitoring groups and the media, to disqualify prominent opposition candidates, to drive opposition leaders to flee the country, and to restrict opposition candidates' access to volunteers and fundraising. And, OVD-Info's Okhotin says, to instill fear throughout the country -- fear that anyone could be deemed a "foreign agent" or "affiliated with a foreign agent" at any moment.

"I see on Facebook and Twitter and so on that people are afraid even to mention the FBK or Smart Voting," Okhotin said, referring to a Navalny election strategy aimed at consolidating the opposition vote to effectively defeat candidates from the ruling United Russia party that has come under harsh attack from the authorities. "All you have to do is crack down on a few to make everyone else very afraid."

'Dialogue With Society Is Pointless'

Economist and political analyst Vladislav Inozemtsev agrees that Navalny's return to Russia marked a watershed after which it became clear that "the Kremlin has concluded that dialogue with society is pointless, and that what is needed are fake parties and the repression of all those who are unwilling to play in games with these fakes."

A telling example of the nexus of repression and fakery in the current campaign can be found in a Facebook post by opposition politician Ilya Yashin from September 9. Although the fairly well-known Yashin has been barred from running in the elections because of his alleged "involvement with extremist activities," a candidate named Aleksei Yashin is running for the Duma in Moscow, using only his surname "Yashin" in campaign materials and espousing a platform of positions similar to those long held by Ilya Yashin.

"United Russia needs this fake Yashin to siphon off part of the protest vote," Yashin wrote. "They want voters who support me but who aren't following the news closely to vote for a familiar last name instead of for the candidate supported by Smart Voting."

The first laws of the "foreign agent" type were passed in 2012, but for the first few years they were mostly used to prosecute people for social-media posts or, famously, for playing Pokemon in a Russian Orthodox church.

'From Restraint To Destruction'

Now, dozens of NGOs have been declared "foreign agents," leading many of them to shut down completely. There are more than 40 entries on the list of "foreign agent" media, including all of RFE/RL's Russian-language outlets and some of the Russian media sphere's most prominent investigative-journalism outfits, as well as several individuals.

"We are seeing a systematic, targeted policy to combat dissent, exert pressure, and to carry out repressions and political reprisals against critics of the authorities," said Nikolai Bondarenko, a Communist Party lawmaker in the Saratov region who is seeking a Duma seat despite repeated efforts to disqualify him. "They are doing this out of weakness, not from strength. They are afraid of defeat in the elections."

"A cornered dog -- and the authorities are currently in exactly that position -- has no other choice but to bite," he concluded.

In previous elections, if the Kremlin did not want someone to participate in an election, the Justice Ministry simply declined to register their party, activist Okhotin says. If a media outlet needed to be silenced, a business dispute could be arranged.

Now, however, whole segments of the political and civic landscape are being eliminated for the long term, he says.

"The destruction of FBK, of Open Russia, of Open Russia's media outlets, of Komanda 29, and so on," he said, listing some of the most prominent independent organizations that have been shut down this year. "Instead of the administrative detentions of candidates that we saw in 2019, we now have criminal cases and the blocking of would-be candidates through criminal prosecutions. This trend from restraint to destruction is not aimed at 'the party of Navalny'...but at all of Russia, the entire society -- civil, political, and journalistic."

Death Threats And Other Obstacles

Earlier this year, 12 opposition candidates for the city council in the Novosibirsk suburb of Berdsk were disqualified for "extremist" connections with Navalny's organizations. Only 19-year-old Darya Artamonova, born in Putin's first presidential term, was one of the few opposition candidates allowed to run.

Although she has faced death threats and other hurdles during the campaign, she is convinced she is doing the right thing. "I have lived almost 20 years under [Putin] and I see that things are only getting worse," she told RFE/RL. "We are being pushed into dictatorship -- repressions against journalists, against politicians, against civic activists. It is horrible and every day it gets worse."

"But I'm not afraid to run in the elections," she added. "Maybe I'm too young to have a developed instinct for self-preservation. I am sure that I am doing the right thing -- so I am not afraid."

RFE/RL's Russian Service contributed this report
MOSCOW -- Moscow police have detained four activists and a reporter over a brief protest in support of jailed opposition leader Aleksei Navalny held on Red Square.

Sergei Lukashov, Svetlana Lukashova, Sergei Rednikov, and Ilya Yermakov were detained on September 15, seconds after they unfolded a large banner saying "Free Navalny! Putin, go to jail," and chanting "Free Aleksei Navalny!"

Yevgeny Yevsyukov, who recorded the protest on video, was also detained. The OVD-Info human rights group said police confiscated Yevsyukov's journalist ID and beat Yermakov.

An ambulance was called to treat Yermakov, it said.

The protest was held as Russia prepares for elections on September 17-19.

In response to opposition efforts to loosen the hold of the ruling, Kremlin-backed United Russia party, the authorities have unleashed a sweeping crackdown against Navalny's allies and supporters, as well as the independent media, in recent months.

Navalny, who is Putin's most vocal domestic critic, is serving a 2 1/2-year jail sentence for parole violations for a conviction he says was trumped-up. His foundation has been designated an "extremist" organization.

His jailing has strained Moscow's relations with the West, which has demanded that he be freed and has criticized the "extremist" label.
Imprisoned Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny has been included in Time magazine's annual list of "the 100 most influential people of 2021."

Navalny was included in the "Icons" section of the list with such luminaries as British Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, American pop star Britney Spears, Iranian lawyer and rights activist Nasrin Sotoudeh, and Korean-American poet Cathy Park Hong.

The essay about Navalny in the magazine was written by chess grandmaster and exiled Russian opposition figure Garry Kasparov, who lauded Navalny for doing "the unimaginable this year" by returning to Russia in January after undergoing medical treatment in Germany for a life-threatening nerve-agent poisoning that he says was carried out by Russian security agents at the behest of authoritarian President Vladimir Putin.

Upon his arrival at the airport, Navalny was arrested. Weeks later he was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for a parole violation, an act he describes as retribution for his prominent opposition political activity.

"Navalny now sits in one of Russia's worst prisons, his life in the hands of a dictator who all evidence says already tried to kill him once for exposing the grotesque corruption of his regime," Kasparov wrote. "Navalny saw no alternative to risking everything to make a difference in his country."

Kasparov called Navalny "a single man without fear."

Putin, who was not included in this year's list of most influential people, was named Time magazine's Person of the Year in 2007.

"He's not a good guy, but he's done extraordinary things," Time managing editor Richard Stengel said at the time. "He's a new tsar of Russia, and he's dangerous in the sense that he doesn't care about civil liberties."

After imprisoning Navalny, the government declared his Anti-Corruption Foundation and his network of regional offices to be "extremist organizations."

Many activists associated with the organizations were barred from participating in the September 17-19 elections to the State Duma, the lower house of Russia's parliament. Many senior Navalny colleagues were forced to flee the country under threat of criminal prosecution.

Navalny has said his treatment in prison amounts to torture, as guards wake him every hour during the night because he has been designated a "flight risk."

With reporting by Reuters
The Smart Voting system created by jailed Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny has heavily backed Communist Party candidates to oust their Kremlin-backed opponents as Russians prepare to vote for a new lower house of parliament.

Smart Voting, an idea that Navalny came up with in 2018, is an online strategy designed to promote candidates that have the best chance to defeat those from United Russia, the Kremlin-linked ruling party.

It doesn't, however, promote any particular opposition party or candidates.

Russians vote on September 17-19 for a new State Duma, along with legislatures in 39 regions, and nine regional governors.

The Smart Voting list, published by Navalny's associates on September 15, recommends 137 Communist Party nominees, 48 candidates from the A Just Russia party, 20 Liberal Democrats, and 10 from the liberal Yabloko party. A handful of candidates for other parties are also recommended.

Few genuine Kremlin critics have been allowed to run in the elections, seen as a key part of President Vladimir Putin's efforts to further cement his hold on power heading into the next presidential balloting, scheduled for 2024.

"Russia is holding elections to the State Duma from Sept. 17-19. United Russia will try to stay in power for another five years," Navalny's YouTube channel said in a video accompanying the recommendations.

"We can prevent this with the help of Smart Voting, a strategy that allows you to combine the voters' ballots against United Russia," it said.

Navalny's team has implemented the Smart Voting system twice in regional elections over the past two years -- with largely successful results. In 2019, it helped opposition candidates win 20 of 45 seats on the Moscow City Duma, while in regional elections last year United Russia lost its majority in legislatures in the cities of Novosibirsk, Tambov, and Tomsk.

In the past, the strategy has been promoted mainly through e-mail and websites. This year, Navalny's team rolled out a downloadable app to help guide voters.

Navalny is hoping to build on those successes and the declining popularity of United Russia amid the Kremlin's flagging efforts to deal with an economy hit by the coronavirus pandemic and years of ongoing international sanctions.

In response to opposition efforts to loosen United Russia's hold, authorities have unleashed a sweeping crackdown against Navalnys allies and supporters, as well as the independent media, in recent months.

Navalny, who is Putin's most vocal domestic critic, is serving a 2 1/2-year jail sentence for parole violations on a conviction he says was trumped-up. His foundation has been designated as an "extremist" organization.

His jailing has strained Moscow's relations with the West, which has demanded that he be freed.

Meanwhile, security officials have broken up -- sometimes violently -- rallies and demonstrations in support of Navalny.

The Moscow directorate of the Supreme Court's judicial department said earlier this month that almost 7,000 people were convicted and sentenced in the first half of this year alone for violations of the law on public gatherings in the Russian capital.

About 90 percent of those cases ended up with convictions. Of those convicted, 1-in-5 were handed jail sentences.
Out of the deep blue: Buyers at Christies will have a chance to bid for Rolex Experimental Deep Sea Special N1 Developed as a prototype for perfecting the Rolex diving watch concept, this Rolex Deep Sea Special N1 was attached to the hull of Auguste Piccards bathyscaphe Trieste for the inaugural deep-sea trial to a depth of 3,150 meters in the Mediterranean...

Lucara unveils 1,175-ct rough diamond in New York  report Lucara Diamond and manufacturer HB Antwerp unveiled a 1,175-carat diamond in New York City in a bid to attract investors. Reuters reports that the stone recovered at the Karowe mine, in Botswana last June would be on display for a week at the Whitby...

Asset-backed cryptocurrency gains momentum in China Diamonds have not been a favourite with Chinese investors in the past because they tend to lose their resale value. But thanks to the emergence of cryptocurrency, this attitude towards diamonds as an unviable investment vehicle has changed.

BlueRock boosts H1 output, grade at Karevleei as loss narrows BlueRock Diamonds has recorded a 79% increase in carats produced at Kareevlei Diamond Mine in South Africa to 8,949 carats in the six months to June 2021 compared to 4,981 carats, a year earlier.
Sudha Reddy, wife of billionaire Megha Krishna Reddy at Met Gala 2021

New Delhi: Hyderabad-based philanthropist Sudha Reddy represented India at Met Gala 2021 and made also made her debut in very renowned Falguni Shane Peacock gowns that were magnificently inspired by the colors of the American Flag, and to reflect this year 2021's theme - "American Independence."

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Guests at the biggest fashion night were not supposed to wear a piece with a homeland label, but they paid their genuine tribute to the creativity of the American Style with a mix of wildness and elegance. Everyone at the Gala loved the way she carried her outfit. Her sparkly eyes, her shiny and rusty nails, and her hair accessories made her look more flawless.





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Calling it a masterpiece of Indian craftsmanship, Sudha on her social media gave a glimpse of the Falguni and Shane Peacock piece to her fans and other fashion idols. It was reported that she was the only Indian at Met Gala 2021.









Just a day ahead of her red carpet appearance at the Met Gala, Sudha Reddy revealed the designer she choose: "Can't wait to share this masterpiece of Indian craftsmanship with the world," she wrote, tagging Falguni And Shane Peacock.

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Her luxurious military-inspired elegant couture by the ace Indian designers featured a bright gold sculptured gown that came with a dramatic 4-meter metallic train and sported colors of the American flag. Styled by Ise White, Sudha's gown grabbed the limelight for its 3D embellishments of Swarovski crystals, sequins, and bugle beads embellished on the sartorial train.


A man accused of breaking into a Del Cerro home and holding two women at knifepoint, killing one of them, pleaded guilty Friday to murder and sex-crime charges.

As a condition of his plea, Eduardo Jose Torres, 21, agreed to be sentenced later to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

San Diego Superior Court Judge Michael Smyth scheduled the sentencing hearing for Aug. 4.

It took a while on Friday for Torres to commit to changing his original plea of not guilty to charges including murder, assault and torture. In the morning, when the judge tried to go over the details with the defendant in open court, Torres balked.

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At one point, he told the judge: No, your honor, I cannot go on.

The judge ordered the attorneys and the defendant to return to court in the afternoon. Thats when Torres lawyer, Deputy Public Defender Peter Will, said his client was ready to proceed.

The break-in happened the night of June 12, 2016, when Torres entered a house on Mill Peak Road.

The homeowner was asleep in bed when he was awakened by a loud noise, likely the sound of a sliding-glass door breaking.

Around the same time, neighbors knocked on the homeowners door to tell him they had just chased away an intruder. The homeowner opened the door to his neighbors and became locked out of his house.

Torres, who was inside the home, gathered the two women  the homeowners 74-year-old mother, Ut Nguyen, and a 50-year-old woman who was visiting from out of town  into a bedroom. Torres then forced the younger woman to commit a sex act on him.

He stabbed Nguyen in the neck as SWAT officers stormed the bedroom, according to testimony a previous hearing.

On Friday, Torres pleaded guilty to two felony charges and admitted several allegations including torture and use of a deadly weapon.

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Because of special-circumstance allegations, such as murder during the commission of a burglary, Torres could have faced the death penalty if his case had gone to trial.

dana.littlefield@sduniontribune.com

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Twitter: @danalittlefield


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NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei confirmed on Tuesday, September 14, via a tweet that he will be staying in the International Space Station until March 2022 for an approximately 353-day mission. This gives him a recording-breaking spaceflight after NASA astronaut Scott Kelly who stayed on the space station for 340 days.

Vande Hei said in a video clip that the mission extension excites him as an astronaut who is an explorer at heart. He added that he is looking forward to understanding how humans could stay in space for almost a year.

Longest Spaceflight for an American

Space.com reported that the announcement of the mission extension comes three weeks after the delayed spacewalk due to a medical issue. It was later revealed that the delay was because of the pinched nerve in the neck of Vande Hei, who was supposed to join the spacewalk at that time.

The spacewalk resumed, but Vande Hei was replaced by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide. Vande Hei supported the crew on the spacewalk from inside the ISS.

Vande Hei explains in the video that he sees the mission extension as a way for scientists to understand how the body can withstand long spaceflights, which is crucial for future space missions that involve visiting deep-space destinations, such as Mars.

According to NASA, astronauts typically would only stay for about six and a half months in space, but a roundtrip to the Red Planet would likely take two years. The space agency's Administrator Bill Nelson wrote a congratulatory tweet to Vande Hei for his extended mission, thanking him for his dedication and research that will prepare Artemis missions to the Moon and Mars.

ALSO READ: Soyuz MS-18 Upcoming Launch to ISS Mark 60 Years of Human Spaceflight [WATCH]





Filming the First Movie in Space

Vande Hei said that the mission extension was no surprise that he even knew about it before his last-minute launch in April. His family has also prepared for this as it is something they have been expecting. He noted that he meditated every day and talked to his family to manage the effects of isolation that come with long-duration spaceflight.

According to Space News, Russian cosmonaut Pyotr Dubrov will stay another six months on the space station like Vande Hei. The two of them and Oleg Novitsky were launched to the ISS via Soyuz MS-18 on April 9 and would have returned together this October after the replacement crew aboard the Soyuz MS-19 arrived.

But things have changed, which now extends their mission aboard the space station. The mission extension is possible because Roscosmos is sending director Klim Shipenko and actress Yulia Pereslid to the ISS and cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov to the space station.

They will spend approximately two weeks filming scenes for a movie before returning to Earth with Novitsky on board the MS-18. Shkaplerov will remain on the ISS for six months along with Vande Hei and Dubrov and return to Earth on March 2022.

Although there is no exact date yet of their return, Vande Hei expected his mission to last for 353 days in space, a record-breaking feat for an American astronaut.



RELATED ARTICLE: NASA Calls Off Spacewalk Outside ISS Due to Minor Medical Issue of One of the Astronauts

Check out more news and information on Space on Science Times.
Good morning, Bay Area. Its Wednesday, Sept. 15, and we do not have a new governor. Also, Californias COVID situation is improving. Heres what you need to know to start your day.

Gov. Gavin Newsom survived the effort to oust him from office as voters decisively rejected the California recall. Newsom was only the second governor in California history to face a recall election, and the first to hold on to the office.

Perhaps the biggest question as the dust settles: What will California Republicans do now? Newsom is up for re-election in November 2022 and Californias primary is next June. Columnist Joe Garofoli looks at what the future may hold.

 See how the voting broke down by county in our interactive map.

 Heres how Californians voted on Question 2.

Coronavirus updates

Peter DaSilva/Peter DaSilva

Sometimes coronavirus tests can come back positive long after a person is no longer contagious.

This can be particularly confusing and concerning for many Bay Area parents of unvaccinated school-age children. Pediatricians say they can be anxious to retest their children even after isolation periods end  but should resist that urge.

Read more from Annie Vainshtein, who talked to experts about the reasons why.

 California is now the only state to exit the CDCs high COVID transmission category.

 In an opinion piece in The Chronicle, UCSF emergency medicine doctors Jeanne Noble and Maria Raven argue that California needs a statewide vaccine mandate.

Around the Bay

Gabrielle Lurie/The Chronicle

 Evictions on the rise: Data shows eviction notices have started creeping back up in San Francisco, with notices for one particular reason increasing substantially. Also: S.F.s supervisors grill the citys Department of Building Inspection over corruption.

 End of an era: Mills College will merge with a private Boston university and become gender inclusive, the Oakland school announced Tuesday.

 A second safe parking site? San Francisco wants to open a new secure site for 150 homeless individuals to park RVs and cars in Candlestick Point State Recreation Area.

 Postponed again: S.F. building officials have delayed enforcement for a second time in the illegal apartment merger case involving Alison Collins and her husband.

 Still vacant: A home in the Mission District burned six years ago, but remain empty and is deteriorating despite interest in purchasing it. Heres why.

 BART death: A woman tethered to her dog was dragged and killed after a BART train departed the Powell Street station. The woman was on the platform while her dog was on the train.

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.

 Rain this weekend? Heavy rains expected in the Pacific Northwest might bring some precipitation to the North Bay.

A cocktail made for San Franciscans

John Storey/Special to the Chronicle

If youve ever wondered what its like to sip the essence of San Francisco from a glass, look no further than the citys newest trend: coastal martinis.

Some of the citys bartenders have drawn from the unique flora of the city  bay laurel, Douglas fir, sea beans and even the famous fog itself  to create distinct cocktails. And while briny martinis are nothing new, these martinis offer more subtlety.

Like a wine that conveys the distinct flavors of the site where it was grown, these drinks aim to express a sense of place, writes Chronicle wine critic Esther Mobley. Heres where to get the best coastal martinis.

Also:

 The Bay Areas hottest new bars to visit right now.

 California is close to permanently legalizing takeout cocktails and parklet drinking.

Bay Briefing is written by Kellie Hwang and Anna Buchmann and sent to readers email inboxes on weekday mornings. Sign up for the newsletter here, and contact the writers at anna.buchmann@sfchronicle.com and kellie.hwang@sfchronicle.com.
A federal appeals court revived a labor-backed California law Wednesday that prohibits employers from requiring employees to arbitrate workplace disputes instead of taking them to state regulatory agencies or the courts.

The law, AB51, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, was scheduled to go into effect in January 2020 but was blocked in most of its applications by U.S. District Judge Kimberly Mueller of Sacramento, who said it conflicted with a 95-year-old federal law allowing employers to enforce arbitration contracts and prohibiting states from interfering with them. Gov. Jerry Brown had cited the same rationale for vetoing similar legislation in 2015 and 2018.

But the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said Wednesday the federal law did not allow employers to require current or prospective employees to agree to arbitration as a condition of keeping their jobs. In a 2-1 ruling, the court struck down provisions of AB51 that imposed criminal penalties on employers for requiring arbitration but upheld the laws central feature, a ban on mandatory arbitration as a condition of employment.

The California law is consistent with the premise of the 1926 Federal Arbitration Act that arbitration is a matter of contract and agreements to arbitrate must be voluntary and consensual, said the majority opinion by Carlos Lucero, a judge from the federal appeals court in Denver temporarily assigned to the Ninth Circuit.

Judge William Fletcher joined Luceros opinion. In dissent, Judge Sandra Ikuta derided the California law as a legislative gimmick and said it placed an illegal burden on employers offering arbitration agreements as a condition of employment.

The state law had taken effect in 2020 for transportation employees in California, because the Federal Arbitration Act does not apply to them. Wednesdays ruling, if it stands, will apply AB51 to all categories of workers.

Arbitration is widely used by employers, and opposed by labor unions, to resolve disputes over wages and working conditions. It is quicker and less expensive than filing complaints with the state Labor Department or suing in court, but it is also more secretive, and arbitrators rulings are extremely difficult to overturn on appeal. The procedure also requires cases to be arbitrated individually, as opposed to class-action suits on behalf of many employees.

The U.S. Supreme Court has applied the federal arbitration law broadly and rejected attempts by several other states to limit workplace arbitration. In a 2017 ruling striking down Kentuckys proposed restrictions on the procedure, the court said states have no authority to selectively find arbitration contracts invalid because improperly formed.

But the appeals court said Wednesday that contracts must be voluntary to be valid, so California can allow job applicants and employees to refuse to consent to arbitration without being penalized.

Congress  did not intend to preempt state laws requiring that agreements to arbitrate be voluntary, Lucero said.

Ikuta disagreed. The Federal Arbitration Act preempts laws that ... burden the formation of arbitration agreements, even when employees enter them because of unequal bargaining power, she said.

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 ruling is a victory for workers, said attorney Cliff Palefsky, who filed arguments for the California Employment Lawyers Association, which represents employees. The state law does not invalidate arbitration agreements, he said, but if someone says, I dont want to sign, they cant be terminated or disciplined.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which led business organizations suing to overturn the law, will appeal the ruling, said Daryl Joseffer, its senior vice president and chief counsel.

Research shows arbitration is more efficient and less costly for everyone, he said. Workers and consumers win more money, more often and more quickly through arbitration than litigation. Expensive lawsuits can take years to resolve.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @BobEgelko
Courtesy of San Francisco Police Department

A 12-year-old San Francisco middle schooler was located hours after city officials pleaded for the publics help in locating him.

The boy, whom police identified as Bedelu Sam Rhodes, was located by BART police at the 16th and Mission BART station at around 7 a.m. Wednesday, according to San Francisco police.
Hearst Newspapers, the owner of The Chronicle, told employees Tuesday that COVID-19 vaccinations will soon be required for all employees.

The email announcement by President of Hearst Newspapers Jeff Johnson said the policy would be effective Nov. 12, to give employees who are not yet fully vaccinated time to get the shots. Johnson also said that, effective immediately, all new employees in the newspaper division would need to provide vaccination proof before their hiring.

The public facing nature of our business and the strong interaction we have with the public, advertisers and each other make our collective well-being our highest priority, Johnson wrote. He said close to 90% of employees in the newspaper division had already provided proof of vaccination.

The requirement would apply to employees working remotely as well. Most Chronicle employees are currently working remotely.

Our decision to require vaccination was driven by the desire to create the safest work environment possible during the pandemic, said Chronicle publisher Bill Nagel. He added that more than 95% of Chronicle employees were already fully vaccinated. Newspaper distributors and carriers work as independent contractors and are not part of the requirement, Nagel said.

Hearst Newspapers is a division of Hearst. Headquartered in New York City, Hearst is a diversified media, information and services company that owns newspapers, magazines, television channels and business information and ratings companies.

Along with The Chronicle, The Houston Chronicle, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and others are also part of Hearst Newspapers.

Nagel said each division within Hearst has a slightly different policy depending on business needs.

On Monday Hearst President and CEO Steven Swartz told employees in an email that the company would institute a vaccine requirement for employees and guests going into the offices of any of the companys wholly owned U.S. businesses.

Your group and local leadership teams will let you know how and when this vaccine requirement is being implemented in your business, Swartz wrote.

The announcement came after President Joe Biden said last week that his administrations Department of Labor would soon be requiring employees of companies with 100 or more workers to get the shots or submit to weekly testing. Vaccines also will be required for most federal workers without a testing opt-out.

We will, of course, be studying President Bidens recent announcement about requirements under federal OSHA regulations and complying with them, Swartz wrote in his message to employees.

Legal guidance from the Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission previously supported the ability of companies to require vaccinations as a condition of employment.

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.

Employees can request exemptions for medical reasons or sincerely held religious beliefs and companies are still navigating what those mean and how to handle them.

In his note Johnson said employees with questions about those exemptions should contact their human resources department.

As companies navigate those somewhat uncharted waters, some, including United Airlines, have put employees who request exemption on temporary leave while they figure out safety rules for unvaccinated workers.

Many companies in the Bay Area have already begun to require vaccinations for anyone who wishes to return to an in-person work setting like an office, or travel on behalf of a company.

Earlier this year companies including Facebook and Google began to require the shots for anyone returning to an office, and smaller companies have also taken the step.

Chase DiFeliciantonio is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: chase.difeliciantonio@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ChaseDiFelice
Against the wishes of students and alumnae groups, historic Mills College, one of just 37 womens colleges remaining in the country, will merge with a private Boston university and become gender inclusive, the Oakland school announced Tuesday.

The move came after a judge lifted an order that had temporarily blocked the school from cementing the change.

Mills, a safe harbor for womens education since 1852, and the first single-gender college in the country to explicitly welcome transgender students, will grant its final degrees in June.

Remaining students will graduate with a degree from Mills College at Northeastern University, the college announced.

This is a big leap for Mills and an exceptional opportunity for our entire community, Mills President Elizabeth Hillman said in a statement. She noted that Northeastern has agreed to fund an institute on the Oakland campus to carry on the Mills legacy of advancing womens leadership and empowering BIPOC and first-generation students.

Mills is a rare private college that holds a unique place in the Bay Area and in higher education, with more than half of undergraduates identifying as people of color and half as LGBTQ. Mills enrolls 600 undergraduates. Its graduate program of 350 students has long enrolled men.

In March, Hillman announced that Mills was in such dire financial trouble that it would shut down in 2023. Three months later, on June 17, the president revealed that the college was in talks with Northeastern University, which has six campuses across the country, including in San Francisco and San Jose, as well as in London and Canada.

The closure announcement had already triggered protests by hundreds of students and alumnae, who hired financial analysts to refute Mills claims of poverty. Two trustees also sued Mills on June 7 in Alameda County Superior Court on grounds that the college had failed to take sufficient action to save itself.

The plaintiffs  trustee and alumnae association president Viji Nakka-Cammauf and then-trustee Tara Singh, also an alumnae association leader  won a temporary restraining order that blocked the merger, at least for a short time, so Nakka-Cammauf could examine Mills financials in more detail. Singhs term as a trustee had expired.

Gabrielle Lurie / The Chronicle

Judge Stephen Pulido lifted the order on Monday, and the trustees took swift action Tuesday.

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.

Alumnae reacted with disappointment.

Many alumnae and those in the Mills community are disheartened that the trustees decided to forgo their fiduciary duties by blindly voting to approve this merger without a full and clear picture of Mills financial situation or a finalized term sheet as it relates to the deal, said Alexa Pagonas, vice president of the Alumnae Association of Mills College.

Pagonas said Nakka-Cammauf would continue working to protect Mills legacy.

Katie Sanborn, chair of the college trustees, said that was the point of joining with Northeastern.

The board sees the merger as a positive step forward that will enable the legacy of Mills to endure, she said.

Nanette Asimov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: nasimov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @NanetteAsimov
Owners of several small businesses recently vandalized in San Francisco welcomed the news of a program launched by the city Wednesday that offers some financial relief to businesses like theirs hit by vandalism and burglary during the pandemic.

The new Storefront Vandalism Relief Grant Program program provides up to $2,000 in financial assistance to small businesses that have been damaged by vandalism or burglary since July 1 of last year. With $1 million in funding, the program aims to help more than 500 small businesses with gross revenues of less than $8 million, according to a news release.

During the pandemic, weve seen a surge in burglaries and vandalism in every neighborhood targeting small businesses already struggling with unprecedented economic challenges, said Supervisor Gordon Mar, who developed the program with Mayor London Breed and the Office of Economic and Workforce Development.

Across San Francisco, small businesses are seeing rampant increases in vandalism and commercial theft, The Chronicle reported. Burglaries in the city have increased by 62% so far this year, even though overall crime is down by 31%.

One application has already come in from Alice Kim, owner of Joes Ice Cream in the Richmond District, who got a call from Supervisor Connie Chans office to let her know about the grant. Last week, someone smashed the shops front window in an attempted burglary, Kim said, and almost got in before being stopped by the shops next door neighbor  a comic book store owner who was up late.

He chased the perpetrator away and called the police, Kim said, adding that it was the third time in three years that the shops front window had been smashed. She said her neighbors shop also has been broken into twice in the last year.

Kim, who has owned the shop since 2012, said she has asked the landlord if he would consider installing security gates because break-ins are happening so often. Replacing the windows will cost the shop at least $900, she added.

I know its going to look ugly, and I dont want the neighborhood to look like its a high crime area, but our (other) next-door neighbor already installed one, she said. Its going to look like the new normal.

Hearing about the grant gave her some relief  its better than nothing, she said. But she added it wont get rid of the worry she feels on her daily walks to the store in the morning, during which she braces herself for some sort of unfortunate surprise: a broken window, an altercation, a damaged parklet.

My anxiety is still there, she said. Whenever I walk to the store I just have to take a deep breath, every time, before I face it.

Sona Pehlivanian, owner and operator of Franks Floral Shop, which was burglarized, trashed and burned last week, said she hadnt heard about the grant program but would be looking into it. The program offers up to $2,000 in financial relief, a small fraction of the some $200,000 that Pehlivanian said she will have to come up with if she wants to rebuild the shop that she has owned for 35 years.

But still, she said, anything helps. She recently found out the walk-in refrigerator alone will cost around $22,000.

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 a desperate time like this, all these little pieces  $2,000 from here, $5,000 from there, it adds up to something, she said. I can never discount that.

The shop, which has been a Sunset District staple for more than 95 years, has already received more than $45,000 in funds from a GoFundMe after it was ransacked and burned on Sept. 5. The perpetrator has not been found, and her insurance has so far only offered $9,400, she told The Chronicle last week.

This is such a dilemma that Im in, she said, referring to the cost and time it will take to rebuild the shop. But there is such kindness and compassion out there for me...I am shocked. Its just such a positive thing, that...how could I not rebuild?

Someone on her GoFundMe donated $5,000, and someone even sent her money from Alaska. A florist from Antioch who was in a similar situation called her to walk her through what the future might hold. Calls come in all the time, she said  some from people who want to order flowers, others from people who just want to share their sorrow.

One day you have a job and the next day, after 35 years of business, you have nowhere to go, she said. Im very sad. Heartbroken.

Annie Vainshtein is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: avainshtein@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @annievain
Saturday marked the grand opening of Lee Thomas first restaurant. He got up at 6 a.m. to bake blueberry corn muffins. He then moved on to barbecuing 46 pounds of tri-tip, pork butt and sausages. And he did it all barefoot, cooking out of his San Leandro home.

Thomas is the first home cook to get the green light from Alameda County to legally serve food from his house. (Berkeley, which has its own health department, granted some permits earlier.) That made the debut a cause for a major celebration, with San Leandro politicians and advocates for the home cook movement crowded around for a ribbon cutting.

A California law allowing these so-called microenterprise home kitchen operations went into effect in 2019, but it was up to each individual county to opt in and create its own permitting process. Thomas, a former San Leandro City Council member, worked closely alongside Oakland advocacy nonprofit Cook Alliance for the past three years to get the law passed and lobby local jurisdictions to enact it.

The issue gained mainstream attention during the pandemic, when many laid-off chefs felt they had no other option but to serve food out of their homes to make a living. Neighbors complained about some, resulting in health inspectors shutting down high-profile pop-ups like Broke Ass Cooks in Alameda County.

Kristen Murakoshi/Special to The Chronicle

Now, Thomas is among eight permitted home restaurant operators in Alameda County, which has received 23 applications thus far, according to Jackie Greenwood of the Alameda County Department of Environmental Health.

On Saturday, Thomas got a taste of his dream of turning his home into a weekend restaurant. He was blasting Motown tunes while slicing smoked tri-tip in his snug kitchen, outfitted with yellow countertops, boxes of cereal and magnets all over the fridge. He tended to sweet corn and garlicky Filipino sausages over charcoal and filled serving trays with pulled pork butt, smoked over applewood chips. People loaded up paper plates with food and spread out across the backyard.

Thomas started his barbecue business, GrilleeQ, three years ago, when he first became aware of the proposed state law. With a full-time job Monday through Friday, GrilleeQ was conceived as a weekend operation allowing Thomas to share his passion for barbecue. He launched GrilleeQ similar to a caterer, taking his grills to clients backyards to cook there.

Kristen Murakoshi/Special to The Chronicle

When the pandemic hit, he heard from clients who could no longer find meat at grocery stores and wanted to eat. So Thomas pivoted, selling customized meals for anyone who could pick them up from his house. He wants to eventually host diners for sit-down meals on a regular basis; he may even apply for an alcohol license.

The process started with submitting an application. Thomas filed his on June 25, the second possible day. He had to answer questions about how to properly handle, store and dispose of food; submit a sample menu; and review program rules, such as needing to prepare and sell food on the same day. Basically, he needed to prove he could prepare food with the same safety precautions as a traditional restaurant.

For Thomas, who had been practicing for years, this step was easy, but not all home cooks might be accustomed to making sure their chicken hits an internal temperature of 165 degrees. They might not typically keep their nails filed and unpolished, or ensure that pets stay out of the kitchen when theyre cooking.

About a month later, health inspectors arrived. They checked Thomas hot water pressure, refrigerator, dishwasher and bathroom to make sure everything was operational and clean. They quizzed him on basic food safety measures such as handwashing and ensured he had meat thermometers. The whole ordeal went remarkably smoothly, Thomas said.

I went to bed at 2 a.m. just to make sure my kitchen was in the most pristine condition, he said. I was down to the baseboards. I just didnt know what to expect.

Kristen Murakoshi/Special to The Chronicle

Thomas immediately received paperwork allowing him to legally open his home restaurant, although his official permit still hasnt come in the mail. Altogether, Thomas estimates the startup cost for launching a home restaurant in Alameda County is about $1,500. The permit costs $696. Operators also need to complete food manager certification, about $150 with online training, and spend money on ingredients, to-go boxes and potentially other kitchen tools.

Its that speed and fairly low startup cost that prompted Alameda County to opt in to the law in the first place.

Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more.

During committee meetings over the past two years, supervisors noted there was already a robust underground food economy in cities like Oakland, where you can easily find vendors selling tamales out of home garages. Advocates say legalizing these operations allows people who dont have many financial resources to launch a business at a reasonable cost, particularly compared to the hundreds of thousands needed for a traditional brick-and-mortar restaurant. According to Cook Alliance, 84% of cooks in the informal food economy are women and 48% are of African, Hispanic or multiracial descent.

While some Bay Area residents have expressed concerns about living near a home restaurant, Thomas neighbor Jane Wilcox said she doesnt see any downside.

I have to laugh when people get up in arms about parking, she said, comparing her current suburban neighborhood to previously living in San Francisco. Im excited to see more people doing it to have more options for eating.

Kristen Murakoshi / Special to The Chronicle

Thomas plans to keep his full-time job in the Oakland Unified School District, and make GrilleeQ a regular weekend restaurant remains complicated. Hes still taking frequent preorders for takeout and has a few catering gigs that require travel in the coming months  and hes just one person.

But now that hes seen what it takes to get permitted, he wants to help other home cooks navigate the process and potentially fundraise to sponsor would-be applicants who cant afford it.

Im fortunate to do this as my passion for barbecue, but I also realize this bill has the possibility to make great change for people who are struggling, he said. Im going to continue working for Cook Alliance to help people of color, women and minorities get their foot in the door without having to live in fear.

Janelle Bitker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: janelle.bitker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @janellebitker
San Francisco and its surrounds ooze with aroma. Traverse the 7-by-7 and you may detect wild fennel, the fragrant coastal scrub, the cool taste of fresh morning fog. With salty ocean to its west and the earthy sweetness of redwood forests to its north, ours is a flavorful, aromatic city.

These smells and tastes have not been lost on the citys bartenders. Over the last few years, a wave of local bars and restaurants has introduced drinks  in particular, martinis  that summon the unique flora of the Bay Area and the Northern California coastline. For some of these concoctions, creators have harvested bay laurel, Douglas fir, sea beans and even the San Francisco fog itself. Others incorporate briny-tasting spirits to evoke a distinctly oceanic mood. Im coining a name for this trendy drink: the coastal martini.

In a sense, briny martinis are nothing new. People have been pouring olive brine into their cocktail glasses to make dirty martinis for a long time. But where dirty martinis are pungent and sometimes overwhelmingly salty, the current crop of coastal martinis are emphatically subtle, quiet even  much like the experience of smelling the native greenery when youre on a hike through Muir Woods or taking the Dipsea Trail to Stinson Beach.

Apart from being delicious, these coastal riffs on the martini are interesting because they invoke a concept commonly bandied about in the sphere of wine but rarely ascribed to cocktails: terroir. Like a wine that conveys the distinct flavors of the site where it was grown, these drinks aim to express a sense of place.

Nick Otto/Special to The Chronicle

And theres no better medium for that than the martini, that glorious blank slate of a cocktail, which is itself native to San Francisco, supposedly invented here in the Gold Rush era.

To Drew Record, operating partner of Chezchez, a new bar in the Mission, the idea is obvious. Were here in San Francisco, and the reason why so many of us have these savory, sea-forward martinis is that were surrounded by water on three sides, he says. You cant see the water in the Mission, but you can feel it in the air.

When Record started brainstorming possibilities for the Chezchez menu, the first thing he jotted down in his notes was coastal martini. What he ended up with isnt actually a martini at all, but something that more closely resembles a classic cocktail called a Bamboo. Its a mix of Sherry, blanc vermouth and aquavit, and it tastes extremely coastal.

The manzanilla Sherry has a saline note that Record describes as seafoam. The Routon blanc vermouth recalls sage and thyme, with a sort of walking-through-the-Marin Headlands quality, he says. Tied together with the fresh, cleansing Svol aquavit, a lemon twist and a meaty green olive stuffed with a roasted almond, its a savory masterpiece.

Esther Mobley / The Chronicle

His counterparts at other local bars interpret martini more literally. At the Missions True Laurel, bar director Nicolas Torres offers what he calls the Laurel Martini, which at its core is a fifty-fifty ratio of gin (a blend of Fords and Botanist) and vermouth (Dolin and Berto), with a touch of quinquina, an aperitif made from a bitter bark.

What makes the Laurel Martini distinctly San Franciscan is the herb tincture added at the end, made with California laurel, which Torres forages in the Oakland hills and Mount Tam. (Another True Laurel cocktail incorporates redwood tips.) Where the Chezchez Coastal Martini is nutty and mellow, the Laurel Martini is bracing, the sort of drink that wakes you up like a jolt of cold ocean air.

Then theres the intensely oceanic Pearl Martini, served at the restaurant Pearl 6101. Its primary component is the Automatic Sea Gin from Oakland Spirits Co., which is distilled with nori, bay laurel, sage and lemongrass. The gin gets mixed with that briny manzanilla Sherry. Taking the saltiness up an additional notch are the garnishes of cocktail onion  the standard topper in a Gibson, a classic martini variation  and sea bean. The seaside vibe feels fitting for the restaurants Outer Richmond location, just a few blocks east of Lands End. (The restaurant Rich Table actually had a cocktail called Lands End on its menu for many years, featuring Leopold Bros. Alpine Herbal Liqueur, St. George Terroir Gin and a Douglas fir sprig for garnish.)

Nader Khouri/Special to The Chronicle 2018

These drinks are a symptom of the larger trend toward embracing salty, marine flavors at local bars, which have been going gaga for tinned fish like anchovies and sardines. I havent yet found a local bar thats actually putting anchovies in martinis (though Chezchez does put one in its Bloody Mary), but the idea is in circulation. Chronicle contributor Omar Mamoon had the brilliant idea last year to create what he coined a gildatini, topped with a gilda pintxo, a traditional Basque skewer of olive, anchovy and pickled piparra pepper.

Mamoons recipe was a more elaborate version of the anchovy-topped gin martini that New York Times food writer Melissa Clark posted on her Instagram account in 2020, generating impassioned responses.

Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more.

If the idea of throwing a tiny fish into your cocktail is too much for you, you can still make a Bay Area coastal martini for yourself at home quite easily. The best base, to my palate, is the Terroir Gin from St. George Spirits in Alameda, which in addition to the standard gin ingredient of juniper incorporates Douglas fir, coastal sage, wild fennel and bay laurel. Master distiller Lance Winters and his team forage all of those ingredients from regional farms, he says. In fact, they get big crops of Douglas fir from ranchers who are clearing the needles from the understory of older tree growths as part of their fire management protocol.

Omar Mamoon/The Chronicle 2020

Even if you dont have seafoam-forward manzanilla or thyme-redolent vermouth on hand, a cold coupe of Terroir Gin will conjure the Bay Area landscape all on its own. Add whatever garnish feels appropriate to you  a rosemary sprig, an olive, a tiny fish  and youve got yourself a coastal martini.

Or you can take Winters advice and head to Tomales Bay to complete the full experience.

Theres nothing I like more than going to Hog Island, getting a couple dozen oysters and having a Terroir martini, he says. Im at the base of Mount Tam, with an oyster harvested from the base of Mount Tam, with a drink that tastes like Mount Tam.
People who test positive for the coronavirus can continue to do so long after they are no longer contagious, especially if they are not vaccinated  a pandemic wrinkle magnified during the delta surge that has created some confusion and concern for parents of unvaccinated school-age children who have returned to Bay Area classrooms.

When an initial test comes back positive, federal and California health guidelines recommend staying home and isolating for 10 days. In cases involving schoolchildren, officials communicate with families on next steps to determine when the child is allowed to return to the classroom  but a subsequent negative test is not among the requirements.

Policies posted online for large districts in the Bay Area, including San Francisco Unified and Oakland Unified, are in line with that guidance.

Still, Bay Area pediatricians and infectious disease experts say theyre seeing many parents who are anxious to retest their children even after isolation periods. Adding to the concern, some children continue to test positive for weeks, or even months, after the isolation period ends.

But health professionals stress that the phenomenon isnt something parents should worry about.

Early in the pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended subsequent negative tests as a condition for ending isolation after a person tests positive. However, with tests then in short supply and scientific evidence indicating that people rarely remain infectious after 10 days, the CDC revised its recommendations last summer and no longer advises post-isolation testing.

We made a mistake a year ago by using testing criteria to come out of isolation, said UC Berkeley infectious disease expert John Swartzberg. We havent been doing it for a long time now because it just created problems and confusion, and didnt help from a public health standpoint.

After a child or adult first tests positive, they can continue to do so for at least two to three weeks, particularly if they are using a PCR lab test, which is highly sensitive and can detect remnants of the virus genetic material, said Stanford pediatric emergency medicine doctor Zahra Ghazi-Askar.

Weve known for a while that if you use the most sensitive test, you can find small pieces of the virus for a long time, said UCSF pediatrics professor Theodore Ruel. But for the tail end of that, it doesnt usually represent enough virus that it could spread to someone else.

Experts say the delta variant also may help explain why people can keep testing positive for weeks. People who are infected with delta tend to have more virus in their secretions than those infected from previous variants, and we also know that the virus remains present in larger numbers for longer periods of time, Swartzberg added.

The effect is much greater for those who are not vaccinated against COVID-19, he added. Vaccinated people who get infected are thought to initially carry quite a lot of virus, but the level drops to low levels rapidly soon thereafter, he said. By contrast, those who are unvaccinated can have high viral loads  and therefore can be more infectious  during the 10-day period compared with vaccinated people.

Unvaccinated people may also have remnants of the virus in their bodies for longer than 10 days, which is why they may test positive for longer periods of time, though they are not shedding enough virus to infect anyone. That may be part of the reason why children under 12, who are not yet eligible for vaccinations, may test positive for longer periods of time, experts say.

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.

Ruel also said that, even with delta, theres no clear evidence indicating that children shed the virus for a longer period of time. And so far, case numbers arent raising concern among experts.

Our pediatric surge was just the same as it was in the winter, said Ruel. Its just because weve blunted all the adult numbers that it looks like a lot of cases.

Pediatric experts say that parents should continue to follow CDC and county guidelines and protocol when a child tests positive, and resist the urge to retest their children after a positive test, since the results are likely only to create further confusion.

While prolonged positive tests may not prevent a childs return to the classroom, they may affect other scenarios  for example, travel or other activities may require a negative test. In such cases, experts say, not much can be done.

I dont see any way around that other than, you have to follow the protocol, said Ruel. But thats true for adults, too. If youre a COVID recoverer, its going to be hard for you to travel for the next few months.

Annie Vainshtein is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: avainshtein@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @annievain
DECATUR, Ga. (AP)  Employees in the Decatur school system in suburban Atlanta have until the end of October to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

The move could set up a showdown with Gov. Brian Kemp, who issued an executive order in May that he says bans government entities from mandating vaccines. The issue hasn't been tested in court, though.

Decatur Superintendent Maggie Fehman issued the employee mandate on her own authority. The Decatur district, with about 1,000 employees, is the first district in Georgia known to take such a step. She said staffers who obtain an exemption would have to take a daily COVID-19 test at work, a pharmacy or somewhere else. Home tests will not be accepted.

Decatur, home to many U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Emory University employees, also has been discussing requiring students 12 and up to get inoculated, but is still considering whether to take that step.

For students, this is a much bigger issue, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Fehman told school board members on Tuesday.

The sprawling Los Angeles school district has mandated that its students get vaccinated, as well as a smaller California district.

School board approval would be needed to require vaccination for the district's 5,700 students.

Employees and students are currently required to wear masks in Decatur schools. Infection rates are relatively low, with the district reporting 20 COVID-19 cases among students and employees last week.

Some parents are supporting the requirement.

I think a vaccine mandate is just going to make it that much more likely we can all finish the year with as many days as possible in the classroom, parent Peter Isbister told WAGA-TV.

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.

Kavia Kreitel, who has three children enrolled in Decatur, said its only responsible for teachers to be required to get inoculated.

I work in health care, Kreitel said. I have had three doses of this vaccine and it is completely safe, and I think its whats going to get us out of this.

Others are opposed, though. Parent Anna Hinson told school board members it would override parental authority and take away from students' ability to think for themselves.

With a mandate, you would be telling the kids you teach that no matter how curious, self-directed, self-aware and autonomous they are in their growth process, there will always be an authoritative power that is ready to squash the direction of their growth and independence if it does not conform, she said.
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP)  A court set up in The Hague to prosecute crimes from Kosovo's 1998-99 war for independence from Serbia opened its first trial Wednesday, with prosecutors saying they have irrefutable evidence that a former rebel commander is guilty of charges including murder and torture of suspected collaborators.

Salih Mustafa was arrested a year ago in Kosovo and sent to the Netherlands to stand trial at the European Union-backed Kosovo Specialist Chambers, a branch of the country's legal system set up specifically to deal with allegations of war crimes committed as ethnic Albanian rebels united in the Kosovo Liberation Army fought a bloody conflict to break away from Serbia in 1998-99.

The lead prosecutor, American lawyer Jack Smith, stressed at the start of the trial that his team wasn't targeting the KLA, Kosovo or its people or their struggle for independence, as he said opponents of the court claim.

Nothing, nothing could be further from the truth, he told the court.

Prosecutors plan to call 16 witnesses to support their case. The first is expected to testify next week. Defense lawyers didn't make an opening statement Wednesday.

Mustafa is charged with the war crimes of arbitrary detention, cruel treatment, the torture of at least six people and the murder of one person at a detention compound in Zllash, Kosovo, in April 1999. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The victims were accused by KLA fighters of collaborating with Serbs or not supporting the KLA, according to his indictment.

To be accused of being a so-called collaborator during the war was grave, and often deadly, prosecution lawyer Cezary Michalczuk said.

Mustafa wore a red T-shirt in court and listened to a simultaneous translation of proceedings through headphones that he held over his left ear.

He left the court after the prosecution's opening statement, angering lawyers for victims.

We do perceive this as a clear disregard and disrespect for victims," attorney Anni Pues said.

The trial is the first to start at the Hague-based court that was established six years ago following a 2011 report by the Council of Europe, a human rights body, that included allegations that KLA fighters trafficked human organs taken from prisoners and killed Serbs and fellow ethnic Albanians they considered collaborators.

Pues said victims that she represents in court have been waiting more than two decades for accountability for crimes committed by KLA fighters, who are widely considered heroes in their home country.

And they all hope to finally see some justice done, she said. None of the wounds inflicted in 1999 have healed.

The court says that, so far, nine victims have registered to take part in the trial.

Among other former rebel commanders in custody awaiting trial are former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci, who resigned from office last year to defend himself against war crimes charges in The Hague.

Most of the people who died in the Kosovo war were ethnic Albanians. A 78-day NATO air campaign against Serbian troops ended the fighting.

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.

Several Serbs have been prosecuted at a former U.N. war crimes tribunal for their roles in atrocities in the Kosovo war.

Smith said: I can say with conviction that war crimes on one side do not justify war crimes on the other side.

Mustafa is charged with personal involvement in arbitrary detention, cruel treatment and torture and with command responsibility for the murder. He also is charged with involvement in all four crimes as a member of a joint criminal enterprise. Michalczuk showed several photos of Mustafa dressed in military fatigues and a red beret.

He said that victims held at the detention center Mustafa ran were forced to sleep on the filthy floor of a barn and given insufficient food, water and medical treatment for injuries sustained in brutal beatings.

We submit the evidence will leave no doubt whatsoever that these crimes occurred, and that the accused was responsible for them, Michalczuk told the court.

Smith told judges that witnesses in Kosovo war crimes cases face a climate of intimidation.

He said the trials that will be held in the Hague courtroom are an opportunity "for Kosovo to put the issues of this war behind it once and for all, an opportunity for victims to have their voices heard and heard in a setting where they can speak the truth without fear of retribution or intimidation.
Jungho Kim/Special to The Chronicle

Many peoples needs could have been helped with the over $250 million wasted on this cynical Republican power play. The anti-democratic proclivities of a political party without a platform speaks to the need for a new party that can be competitive with the Democrats but not rest upon xenophobia, homophobia, white supremacy and a host of other divisive tenets. I think of the GOP as the party advocating for government to get out of the boardroom and instead loiter in the bedroom, more focused on regulating the most intimate private conduct of citizens.

The recall process must be reformed. It is utterly anti-democratic to have a process where an incumbent could get 50% of the votes minus one, then lose to someone with 25% or less of the vote. Regular elections are the appropriate time to assess the performance of an incumbent. Recall elections should be reserved for incumbents with criminal behavior, gross malfeasance, medical or psychiatric conditions impeding performance of the gubernatorial responsibilities, or gross misconduct. A process resembling impeachment could take the place of recalls. I have already voted no on the cynical attempted GOP power grab and encourage others opposing GOP anti-democratic efforts to do likewise.
SACRAMENTO  Critics of Gov. Gavin Newsom spent more than a year trying to recall him. Between administrative expenses for the state and campaign expenditures by the candidates, the cost of the election totaled around $400 million.

And in the end, none of it may amount to much of anything.

Newsoms landslide victory on Tuesday night  with a margin that could ultimately be in line with the 2018 governors race  means he is unlikely to face significant political fallout from the effort to remove him from office. For Californias Democratic leaders, it largely appears to be a signal to get back to business as usual.

We dont need a new mandate. We have the mandate. He has a mandate, state Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, said following a campaign rally for Newsom in Oakland on Saturday, as public polls already showed the governor headed for a massive win. We just want to keep building on what weve been doing.

The governor, who has resisted reflecting publicly on lessons from one of the greatest threats his career ever faced, struck a more modest tone Wednesday during a visit to a school in Oakland. Newsom said he did not feel vindicated by the election results, but rather enlivened and energized to serve people who are counting on effective government to keep them safe and healthy.

Now Playing: California Gov. Gavin Newsom visits students at Melrose Leadership Academy in Oakland a day after surviving the recall election. Video: Stephen Lam

He was not, however, a man who appeared to emerge from the experience transformed by the dissatisfaction with his leadership that fueled the recall effort. Newsom sounded ready, if anything, to double down on his current approach.

It sharpens your focus about time, he said. Things that you may have looked at on the rise and said, over the next two, three years, we want to get this done, you start looking at very differently and saying, well, whats possible in the next two to three months?

There are nevertheless a few warning signs for Newsom as he looks ahead to the last year of his first term.

While Democratic voters rallied around the governor during the final weeks of the campaign, largely because of his pandemic response, polling during the summer hinted at low enthusiasm in his base. He has also consistently received poor marks in public polls for his handling of some other key issues, like homelessness.

And a poll released last week found that a majority of voters view Newsom as someone who believes he is above his own rules  a lasting consequence of pandemic-era scandals like his attendance at a November birthday dinner for his political adviser at the French Laundry in the Napa Valley, in violation of the states social distancing guidelines at the time.

Recall backers have tried to spin the outcome as a moral victory, one that damaged Newsoms viability as a candidate in the long run and forced him to pay attention to the complaints of a significant minority of the state.

This recall was a legitimization of the fact that hes not fit for office, said Anne Hyde Dunsmore, campaign manager for Rescue California, one of the groups behind the effort. Hes no longer the partys golden boy.

That remains to be seen. With the next gubernatorial election just 14 months away, his re-election campaign will begin almost immediately, putting Newsoms agenda under the microscope once again.

People are still hurting as California continues to climb out of the pandemic, said Democratic political consultant Robin Swanson. The governor definitely has unfinished business and hopefully he can spend the next year doing that.

Rob Stutzman, a Republican consultant who served as communications director for former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, said Newsom should put his head down and focus on showing people some improvement on the issues where he received the most criticism during the campaign, such as homelessness, crime and housing prices.

Stephen Lam/The Chronicle

Though some of those problems long predate Newsom, the frustration that many Californians feel about the direction of the state inevitably reflects back on him because he is the person in charge, Stutzman said. If voter ambivalence carries into next year, it could make Newsom a weak top of the ticket to drive Democratic turnout in an election where scores of congressional and legislative races are on the line.

Thats the vulnerability that he presents, Stutzman said. Hed be well served to be humble.

Newsom and his allies have been anything but humble as they repeatedly pointed to the budget that the state adopted this summer as evidence that California is on the right track. A record surplus allowed the governor to pursue new multibillion-dollar programs, including converting hotels and motels into homeless housing and expanding health care access to undocumented immigrants age 50 and older, and to send stimulus checks to a majority of California households.

Pressure to build on that progressive vision of governance will likely only grow after Tuesdays results. Several organizations that opposed the recall put out statements immediately after Newsom won calling for him to go further in his commitments to environmental protections and racial equity.

But the governor seems content for now to continue working on plans that were already in place, allowing the groundwork he has laid to come to fruition.

As the campaign drew to a close, legislative leaders also suggested nothing would shift about their relationship with the governor or their agenda next year  which will likely prioritize pandemic response, homelessness, affordable housing and wildfire management  even if Newsom defeated the recall in a blowout.

Were going to move full steam ahead either way, Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, said last week following the end of the legislative session, which left hundreds of bills on the governors desk to sign.

In fact, the lasting consequence of the Newsom recall may be that it becomes harder for a sequel in the future.

Stephen Lam/The Chronicle

Assembly Member Marc Berman, a Democrat from Palo Alto who chairs the Assembly elections committee, said he has heard a lot of interest from both colleagues and constituents about changing the recall rules in California, including regular emails to his office complaining that the process is insane.

Some ideas have already been floated, including raising the number of signatures required to qualify for the ballot, holding a runoff between the top two replacement candidates or having the lieutenant governor take over if a governor is recalled. A recent poll found that a majority of voters support many of those ideas, though Californians would overwhelmingly like to maintain some sort of recall process.

Berman said he doesnt favor any particular change yet, but he wants to evaluate them this fall and review what other states with recall processes do, so that legislators can unify behind a proposal next year that they could potentially place on the November 2022 ballot.

Lets make this process more democratic, he said. How did we end up with a system where somebody who receives 15% of the vote could be governor of California? That just cuts every democratic value that we have.

Alexei Koseff is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: alexei.koseff@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @akoseff
WASHINGTON  Democrats escaped an existential crisis in Tuesdays recall election, with Gov. Gavin Newsom comfortably cruising to victory  as would be expected in the overwhelmingly blue state of California.

For Republicans, it wasnt just losing that will cause self-reflection, but also who claimed the most support among Newsoms would-be replacements: Conservative talk show host Larry Elder decisively lapped a field of moderate GOP contenders with more established political credentials.

Democrats started gloating before the sun had even risen in California on Wednesday that the outcome portends good things for their 2022 election prospects. But the reality is that it may reinforce just how strong the brand of former President Donald Trump remains in the Republican Party  even in a state like California.

One thing was agreed upon across party lines as the dust settled: The results were a drubbing.

Now Playing: California Gov. Gavin Newsom visits students at Melrose Leadership Academy in Oakland a day after surviving the recall election. Video: Stephen Lam

Newsom kicked our ass last night. The Democratic machine kicked the Republican machines ass, said Doug Ose, a businessman and former Republican congressman who pulled out of the recall election after suffering a heart attack.

Ose, who endorsed Assembly Member Kevin Kiley, R-Rocklin, after leaving the race, gave Newsom credit for winning but also lamented that Republicans rallied behind a flawed candidate in Elder.

I just think that substance matters in politics. I get the flash and the bling and all that stuff, but substance matters, Ose said. Both sides of the aisle right now suffer from a lack of substance, and I dont think that serves California well. ... Im very discouraged about the direction were headed.

But the Republican electorate disagreed with Ose, fully embracing Elder. Though close to half of voters skipped the ballot question about replacement candidates, among those who did, around 47% chose Elder in incomplete results. Among total ballots, Elders share of the vote was closer to 26%. Moderate candidates with supposed crossover appeal attracted few voters; former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer got just 8.6% of the replacement vote and less than 5% support from the total electorate.

Democrats point to the Trumpification of the Republican Party as evidence they will win midterm elections in California and elsewhere.

President Biden on Wednesday released a statement declaring Newsoms victory his own, pointing to voters validation of the governors pandemic control policies.

This vote is a resounding win for the approach that he and I share to beating the pandemic: strong vaccine requirements, strong steps to reopen schools safely and strong plans to distribute real medicines  not fake treatments  to help those who get sick, Biden said.

Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney of New York, who chairs the Democrats House campaign arm, touted favorable outcomes in swing districts in California in a call with reporters Wednesday morning, though ballots are still being counted and are expected to edge toward Republicans with more in-person results. Maloney said the outcome foreshadows Democratic wins in the midterms next year.

You couldnt have had a better mouthpiece for the Trump brand than Larry Elder in that election, and he got his ass kicked, Maloney said. That should send a chill down the spine of Kevin McCarthy, who thinks he can do this toxic Trump stuff without the Trump turnout that papered over how bad that message is for voters in swing districts.

But McCarthy, a Bakersfield Republican who leads his party in the House, may also be evidence of how enduring the Trump brand is, even in swing districts. Mark DiCamillo, director of the Berkeley IGS Poll, said its a misconception that Californias blue politics means Republicans in the state are different from the national party. Partisan politics and name identification remain some of the most important voter influences in statewide elections there, and similar dynamics could play out for swing seats next year.

Kevin McCarthy resides in one of the strongest Republican regions in California, which is the San Joaquin Valley, DiCamillo said. It defies the California image, but it doesnt defy his constituency.

McCarthy declined to comment.

Still, some California Republicans were not ready to accept Trumps hold on their party. The Faulconer campaign circulated a memo from polling firm WPAi, which touts conservative endorsements on its website from Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Utah Sen. Mike Lee, arguing that Elder not only drove Democratic turnout to Newsom but also depressed Republican turnout.

Elder, meanwhile, pledged to remain a player in the state.

I have now become a political force here in California in general, and particularly within the Republican Party, and Im not going to leave the stage, he told KMJ radio in Fresno on Tuesday.

Doug Heye, a Republican strategist who worked for former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, said its a fallacy to draw any national conclusions from the recall race, saying Republicans are still favored to flip the House next year. He also argued Elder won the Republican vote because of his media coverage, which also helped Newsom frame the race.

If all of the Republican candidates received equal media time, we might be having a different conversation, Heye said.

Elder was by far the dominant candidate on Fox News, which speaks to a predominantly Republican audience. According to Matt Gertz, a senior fellow at the liberal Media Matters for America group, Larry Elder had 24 interviews on Fox News  17 of them in prime time  between announcing his candidacy and election day, while among three of his top rivals, there was just one appearance.

But both DiCamillo and fellow pollster Mark Baldassare of the Public Policy Institute of California said the overwhelming predictor of votes in the recall was existing party leanings. They agreed that there are sparingly few actual swing voters left in California.

People are so set in their ways right now, Baldassare said. Things that were said and done in the recall, at the end of the day, made very little difference in terms of peoples choices at the ballot. ... The most recognizable conservative figure on the replacement ballot who was most associated with the politics of the Republican Party over the last four years was the one who by far gained favor.

Tal Kopan is The San Francisco Chronicles Washington correspondent. Email: tal.kopan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @talkopan
Republicans had a generational chance to win a governors race in California on Tuesday  and they blew it.

It would have been their first chance to occupy the governors mansion since 2006, when Arnold Schwarzenegger  elected during the recall of Democrat Gray Davis in 2003  won a second term. Voters elected Republican Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner that year, too, and no one from the party has won statewide office here since.

A recall election held in mid-September, off the regular election calendar, was the best chance for the California GOP to catch Democrats napping or uninterested. As recently as late July, polls showed likely voters were split on recalling Newsom.

Ultimately  after California taxpayers spent $276 million to hold Tuesdays election  that proved to be a mirage.

Which leaves a big question: Now what do California Republicans do? Their future looks largely bleak, except for a few bright spots.

There are twice as many Democratic voters in California. GOP lawmakers are in a superminority in the Legislature and the base of the party is dominated by acolytes of Donald Trump in a state where Trump is loathed by nearly two-thirds of voters.

Newsom raised more than the field of recall candidates combined and even Trump thought so little of their chances that he didnt weigh in until hours before the polls closed.

Republicans again failed to capture moderate voters who are frustrated by the states failure to do better on myriad issues including homelessness, the high cost of living, underperforming public schools, wildfires and crime. Larry Elder, the leading Republican replacement candidate, declined to participate in any debates, where he could have found a broader audience.

There is little time for Republicans to sulk. Theyre going to have to start campaigning again almost immediately, as Newsom is up for re-election in November 2022 and Californias primary is next June. The next big question will be if any big-name GOP candidates run for governor next year  or for Senate against Alex Padilla, the incumbent Democrat.

If none does, that could hurt the GOP more. Without a compelling race at the top of the ticket in 2022, the party may struggle to get voters excited about down-ballot elections at a time when several swing House races in Orange County and the Central Valley will be up for grabs.

It is a wake-up call to the Republican Party, said Danvy Le, a professor of political science at Cal State East Bay. The California Republican Party needs to understand that you cannot win in a blue state if you are going to take these polarizing positions.

Salgu Wissmath / Special to The Chronicle

Most notably, the Republicans didnt accurately read the room on the most important issue to Californians: the pandemic. Its candidates blasted Newsoms mask and vaccine mandates, with Elder promising to overturn mask requirements before I have my first cup of tea.

A Public Policy Institute of California survey this month found that 78% of likely voters thought the state government had done at least a good job on COVID-19. Thats a big increase from January, when only 36% felt that way.

If Elder is the best the state GOP can offer, hes way out of the California mainstream on most issues. Sure, hes a popular talk radio host, with 1 million weekly radio listeners nationwide and 979,000 Twitter followers. But he was a mediocre candidate because he never stopped being a conservative talk radio host.

Look no further than Elders repeated contention that structural racism is not a problem in America or his musing in July during an interview about reparations that, in fact, slaveholders may deserve redress for the loss of their human property.

Republican consultant Matt Rexroad, who was unaffiliated with any campaign, was unsure whether Elder, who entered the race July 12, was truly interested in running for office or was trying to build his radio audience.

We may have lost the battle, but we will win the war, Elder told supporters Tuesday night in Costa Mesa after the race was called. We are forcing them now to pay attention to the things they should have paid attention to two years ago.

Elder has become a political force because his conservative views tapped into the core of a state party that largely supports Trump. But the recall race  much like the 2018 governors contest, which saw conservative San Diego businessman John Cox win only 38% of the vote to Newsoms 62%  shows that Trumpism has a hard ceiling in California. It is not enough to win.

Roughly one-third of California voters are no-party preferences or other. That is who the California GOP needs to really embrace, and try to appeal to, if you want to win in a blue state, Le said.

The top Republicans in the race rightfully made Newsoms record the focus of the recall, but were unable to offer a compelling vision of what theyd do differently.

Given its stained brand after four years of a chaotic presidency, Californias Republican Party would be better advised to spend its time and treasure developing a message that might actually attract a majority of voters  a platform of compelling ideas, not a French Laundry list of grievances, wrote former Republican Assembly Member Jim Cunneen, who represented Silicon Valley from 1994 to 2000.

Some Republicans like Rexroad refused to call the recall a failure. He said it galvanized the party faithful and helped the GOP build its statewide infrastructure in advance of next years midterm elections.

Rexroad said candidates like former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer and Placer County Assembly Member Kevin Kiley built name identification and broadened their fundraising bases, which could help them run for statewide office next year.

Others say the recall served its purpose by calling attention to major problems that Newsom  and the Democrats who dominate state government  have overlooked or exacerbated.

Recall organizer Anne Dunsmore said nobody would have believed her a year ago if she had predicted that Newsom would feel so threatened by the deafening roar of recall supporters that President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Barack Obama and three other former presidential candidates (Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders) would either travel to California to campaign to save his job or cut a commercial on his behalf.

Weve only just begun, Dunsmore said. We are not going away.

But if they hope to win statewide elections, theyre going to have to convince more than their fellow Republicans to join them.

Joe Garofoli is The San Francisco Chronicles senior political writer. Email: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @joegarofoli
SACRAMENTO  Many Californians appear to have followed the advice of Gov. Gavin Newsom in Tuesdays election, not only voting against the recall, which failed by a wide margin, but leaving blank the second question on the ballot: who would replace him if he were ousted.

With more than 8.7 million votes counted, conservative radio host Larry Elder was on track to be voters top choice on that second question, trailed distantly by Kevin Paffrath, a YouTube star, and former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer.

Though it didnt matter in this election, Elders popularity could make him a top GOP challenger in the governors race in November 2022, and it signals the strength of the partys far-right base, even in a state where roughly two-thirds of voters disapprove of Donald Trump.

Elder was leading the field of 46 replacement candidates with nearly 46% of the vote, a decisive and likely insurmountable edge. The outcome was of little surprise given that polls had showed Elder was the Republican leader in the contest for weeks.

But of the voters whose ballots had been counted as of about 10 p.m. Tuesday, nearly half had skipped the second question about who should replace Newsom.

Before the polls closed, Elder had warned, without citing evidence, that the election would be rigged in Newsoms favor, an echo of the pro-Trump Stop the Steal claim.

On Monday night, a website funded by Elders campaign made an unsubstantiated allegation that statistical analyses used to detect fraud in elections held in 3rd-world nations (such as Russia, Venezuela, and Iran) have detected fraud in California resulting in Governor Gavin Newsom being reinstated as governor.

Elders campaign apparently erased that page Tuesday afternoon. Around 10 p.m., he conceded the race while also claiming a moral victory, suggesting his campaign had required Newsom to focus more on issues like homelessness and wildfire prevention.

We recognize that we lost the battle, but we are certainly going to win the war, he said during a party at a hotel in Orange County. We are forcing them now to pay attention to the things they should have paid attention to two years ago.

Scott Strazzante/San Francisco Chronicle

Elder ended his speech by hinting that he might run for public office again: As a former radio host, let me just say this: Stay tuned!

The 45 other candidates vying to replace Newsom on the second ballot question were far behind Elder. Final results might not be clear for weeks as elections officials work to tabulate mail-in votes that arrived through election day.

Democrat Paffrath was in second place on the replacement question, with about 10% of the vote. He was followed by Republican Faulconer, with less than 9%, and Democrat Brandon Ross, a physician and attorney, with 6%.

A host of other Republican challengers trailed far behind, including businessman John Cox, whom Newsom defeated in the 2018 race for governor, with less than 5% of votes, and state Assembly Member Kevin Kiley, with about 3%. Former Olympian and reality TV star Caitlyn Jenner had received about 1% of votes.

Californias recall ballot had two questions: Should Gov. Gavin Newsom be removed, and who should replace him?

Under Californias recall law, a replacement candidate can become governor with a plurality of votes. If a majority of voters favor recall, then the top vote-getter among the replacements wins, even if the total share of the electorate is well below a majority.

Tuesdays outcome owed in part to the lack of a well-known Democratic replacement on the ballot. It also suggested that Newsoms strategy  telling voters to skip the second question  reached many people as they tried to decide from the large pack of replacement candidates.

Vote NO on the recall and leave the second question blank, Newsoms campaign website instructed voters.

Elder entered the recall contest just days before the July 16 filing deadline and barely squeaked onto the ballot, winning a lawsuit against the Secretary of States Office over a filing dispute. He quickly surged in the polls.

Through his nationally syndicated radio show and books, he had strong name recognition and support from his million-plus broadcast listeners.

Elder said he decided to run so conservatives would have a viable contender on the ballot and to push California to confront crime, its homelessness crisis and an untenable cost of living.

Republicans are tired of losing, Elder told The Chronicle when he launched his campaign. We need somebody who can explain all these things in ways that the average person can understand.

The race became animated by Elders hard-line views on a host of issues: He opposes abortion rights and the minimum wage and has vowed to repeal vaccine and mask mandates.

He also came under scrutiny for comments he made about women. He has defended hiring discrimination against pregnant women, has said women should tolerate some crude language and behavior from men in the workplace, and has asserted that sexual harassment doesnt hold women back in their careers.

During the campaign, a former fiancee and longtime radio producer, political activist Alexandra Datig, said Elder waved a gun at her during a heated argument in 2015, while he was high on marijuana.

Elder denied the allegation, saying he never brandished a gun at anyone. He accused the media and his opponent of engaging in the politics of personal destruction.

Newsom seized on Elders rise in the final weeks of the campaign. He called Elder to the right of Trump and suggested Elders stance on COVID-19 would put lives at risk amid a fourth surge in cases that has overwhelmed some hospitals.

The governor got help from high-profile Democrats in spreading that message. During a campaign rally with Newsom on the eve of the recall, President Biden called Elder the clone of Trump.

Dustin Gardiner is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dustin.gardiner@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dustingardiner
Voters conclusively chose not to recall California Gov. Gavin Newsom in the recall election yesterday  meaning he will stay in office  but if he hadnt, almost every single California county would have voted to replace him with Larry Elder, the conservative radio host.

Except for possibly San Francisco.

Early results show that Kevin Paffrath has received the most votes among San Franciscans for who should replace Newsom if the governor was recalled. Paffrath is a real estate broker, landlord, finance YouTuber and one of the few democratic challengers in the recall.

In San Francisco, Paffrath has won about 21% of the votes on question two  which asked voters who should replace the governor should he be recalled  with 81% of votes counted. Elder is following closely behind with 20%. These numbers are as of 11:00 a.m. on Sept. 15, with about 81% of votes accounted according to CNN.

Elder still may still get the most replacement votes in the end. In the 2020 election, Trump gained about one percentage point from ballots counted after election day.

Paffrath is second to Larry Elder in the replacement vote results for every Bay Area county except for San Francisco and Solano. There, he is in third after Elder, who leads over the second place challenger  Brandon Ross, a moderate democrat  by 37 percentage points. Paffrath has received only 7% of the votes on question two in Solano.

Elder is leading Praffath by 31 percentage points in Napa, and less than 19 percentage points in the remaining Bay Area counties.

Paffraths campaign suggested that voters  whether or not they vote to recall the governor  vote Paffrath on the replacement vote. Governor Newsoms campaign, on the other hand, told voters to leave question two blank.

Paffrath considers himself moderate  a financial conservative and social liberal  according to his campaign website.

On social media, Paffrath blamed Elders extremism for alienating moderates who might have otherwise voted Newsom out.

Well Larry, ya fd up. Ya gave Newsom an out and made him win. Dont do it again in 22, Paffrath tweeted as the election results rolled in. Let the moderates fight Newsom on policy so he burns to the ground and then we can fight next time. Get out of the way in the 22 primaries; or well just repeat this result.

Danielle Echeverria is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: danielle.echeverria@sfchronicle.com @DanielleEchev
James Tensuan/The Chronicle

Sonoma County District Attorney Jill Ravitch overwhelmingly turned back a recall election brought on by a disgruntled developer who did not like her handling of the Tubbs Fire aftermath.

With all precincts reporting, Ravitch defeated the recall with 79.9% of the vote as opposed to 20.05% favoring the recall, according to the latest available data from the Sonoma County Registrar of Voters. A total of 126,669 votes were cast.
San Francisco wants to open a secure parking site at Candlestick Point State Recreation Area with 150 spots for unhoused people living in RVs and cars to support a growing contingent of people sleeping in vehicles.

Board of Supervisors President Shamann Walton introduced the plan, co-sponsored by Mayor London Breed, at Tuesdays Board meeting in the wake of neighborhood complaints about people living in vehicles on the streets.

The concerns that residents have will not be solved overnight, nor were they created overnight, he said during the meeting. Our office is working overtime to address these concerns and provide services for people who are unhoused. We are working on compassionate, successful ways to provide housing and support our unhoused population.

It would be the citys second safe parking site  where homeless individuals can park vehicles and receive services  but much larger than the temporary one that closed earlier this year. The first was created at Balboa Upper Yard with 29 parking spaces from December 2019 to March 2021, also in response to complaints about trailers and vans parked on the streets.

Walton said the proposed site was prompted by neighborhood concerns about trash as well as supervisors conversations over the past year about opening more safe parking sites. The sites, which aim to make life better for people living on the streets and get them long-term help, is yet another example of San Francisco trying anything and everything to address its exploding homeless population without adequate affordable housing options.

The targeted Candlestick site is a roughly 3,000-square-foot space known as the boat launch parking at the state park. Community members recommended the site because its private, remote and has been closed for many years, Walton said. The proposed site will be fenced off by the citys homeless department and include a guard booth, toilets and shower trailers, electrical poles for lights, pet and picnic areas and 15 parking stalls for staff. Residents will also receive case management to help them find housing.

The city estimates it will take $5 million to set up the program, $2 million to run it for the rest of this fiscal year, until the end of June 2022, and $4 million for operations and services in the second year.

The need is evident. Walton said people sleeping in their vehicles accounted for two-thirds of the increase of homeless individuals in the city from 2017 to 2019.

In August 2021, the city counted 1,088 inhabited vehicles, with 677 in his district, he said.

The more than 150 vehicles parked around Candlestick Point State Park and neighboring areas have prompted concerns about inhumane conditions for people living in cars and effects on the neighborhood, including trash on the streets and waste dumped into the Bay. The city and community organizations, which met for 19 months to come up with a fix, proposed the safe parking site, but not all residents back it.

Walton said that while state park staff and multiple city departments have placed unhoused people living in vehicle encampments into housing and shelter, theres still an immense need that cant be addressed unless there is an alternative location for unhoused people to go.

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 city will pursue a sub-lease with the state for the property. Walton said he hopes to have the site up and running after community outreach.

Steven Currier, who was co-chair of the Balboa Upper Yard safe parking programs community working group, said the six-month outreach process before the site opened was at times very volatile, very vulgar. He judged the site a success, leading to a safer and cleaner neighborhood and services for people in need.

Data from the citys homelessness department shows only a fraction of people who lived at the site during the year got permanent housing. Of the 75 people who stayed at Balboa Upper Yard, 11 exited to housing.

That site closed so that affordable housing could be developed on the property.

Mallory Moench is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mallory.moench@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @mallorymoench
The death of a woman on a BART platform, tethered to her dog inside a departing train, has raised questions about the transit systems policies surrounding pets and service animals.

Amy Adams, a 41-year-old San Francisco resident, was dragged to death Monday afternoon at the Powell Street Station when she boarded a train with her dog tethered to her waist, then stepped off the train at the last second, according to BART officials. The departing train dragged her down the platform then onto the tracks, killing her.

The horrific incident occurred at about 3:16 p.m. Monday as a Dublin/Pleasanton train was leaving Powell station. Its shocked many in the Bay Area, including BART officials, who wonder if it could have been prevented by enforcing existing policies restricting pets on BART trains.

BART officials do not believe Adams dog was a service animal. A dead guinea pig was also found in the BART tunnel near the womans body.

Regular BART riders know that, at least pre-pandemic, peoples pets, from tiny Chihuahuas to pit bulls were a relatively common sight on BART trains and in stations  mostly outside of carriers.

BART allows service animals trained to work with a persons disability, including guide dogs and signal dogs, as long as theyre on leashes or harnesses, as required by the Americans with Disabilities Act and hewing to the Federal Transit Administrations requirements.

Service animals are working animals, not pets, the policy states. The work or task a dog has been trained to provide must be directly related to the persons disability. Pets or animals providing comfort or emotional support are required to ride inside crates, carriers or cages.

BART officials, including some directors, said theyre waiting to learn the details of what happened at Powell Street Station before considering any new policies or stepping up enforcement of the uncrated pet bans.

But at least one director, Debora Allen, of Clayton, wants better enforcement  at the fare gate, inside stations and aboard trains.

Allen said shes looked into the issue in the past and was told that a vague definition of what constitutes a service animal dissuades some police officers from strictly enforcing the policy.

BART spokesperson Alicia Trost said BART employees, including police officers, are restricted to asking whether a dog is a service animal required because of a disability and what work or task the dog has been trained to perform. They are not allowed to ask someone for proof of disability, documentation of the dogs service-animal status or a demonstration that the dog has assistive skills.

Anytime you make it difficult to define in the field, police are not going to push the issue, Allen said, adding that she plans to seek a state legislator willing to propose a law creating a database of registered service animals.

BART police officers do enforce the dog policy, said Keith Garcia, president of the BART Police Officers Association, but are limited by the questions they can ask and the limited number of officers.

Were going to continue to enforce the policy and we can ask certain questions, Garcia said. In reality, (station) agents arent doing that, though, and we dont have enough officers to be on every fare gate.

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.

San Franciscos two BART directors said its too early and perhaps unnecessary to talk about stepping up enforcement of dog rules on BART.

Were not sure if what happened had anything to do with our dog policy, said Janice Li, who noted that there have been conflicting reports on whether or not the dog was a service animal. Im hesitant to create a policy unless we know it could help.

Director Bevan Dufty, whose district includes the Powell Street Station, agreed.

I am loath to delve into something that may or may not be a factor in this tragic accident, he said.

I think its unfair for me to start picking into pieces what should be done before we know what happened. Im not yet willing to start questioning things.

Because of the unusual circumstances of the death, the National Transportation Safety Board has sent a pair of investigators to look into the accident along with BART officials and state regulators. A preliminary report is expected within 30 days.

Michael Cabanatuan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com Twitter @ctuan
Robot-car company Waymo is subleasing a corporate office in San Franciscos Financial District  ironically from Uber, once its fierce rival in the race to develop driverless vehicles.

Waymo, which is the autonomous-driving unit of Google parent Alphabet, will occupy more than 48,000 square feet at 555 Market St., the onetime Chevron headquarters. Mountain View-based Waymo plans to house hundreds of employees at the location starting early next year.

Its one of the citys largest office leases during the pandemic, which has seen minimal business expansion and office vacancy rise above 20%.

Waymo in late August became the first company to offer robot-taxi rides to the public in San Francisco. The free transport in self-driving Jaguar I-Pace cars, which includes backup drivers behind the wheel, is available to locals who apply to be selected for a test program.

Were growing our team in San Francisco and were excited to expand into this new beautiful space right on Market Street as we build and deploy the Waymo Driver to support both cars and trucking, Boris Sofman, Waymo head of trucking and perception, said in a statement. This new space will allow us to support not only our growing operations in San Francisco but also globally.

Waymo is using a hybrid approach to its return to the office over the coming months, with various employees working part time at home, others geo-flexible and others in the office full time.

Ride-hailing company Uber, which long occupied four big offices along Market Street, had already said that it would sublease those spaces as it moves to a new 1 million square foot headquarters in Mission Bay.

Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes

Waymo and Uber have a tortuous history. Uber has now bowed out of developing its own robot cars after pouring billions into the effort. In 2017, Waymo sued Uber, claiming it hired a key Waymo engineer as a ruse to steal self-driving trade secrets. A year later, after four days of a packed courthouse trial, the blockbuster case was settled when Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi expressed regret about its actions and agreed to pay Waymo $245 million in Uber stock.

Carolyn Said is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: csaid@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @csaid
SFPD

LATEST Sept. 15, 9:30 a.m. San Francisco Supervisor Aaron Peskin shared on Twitter that the the 12-year-old boy, Bedelu "Sam" Rhodes, who was reported missing has been found.

The San Francisco Police Department didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Frank's Floral Shop, an 87-year-old flower store at 19th and Irving, was burgled then set ablaze on the night of Sept. 6, its owner told SFGATE. The alleged burglar took only $8.

Sona Pehlivanian has owned Frank's Floral Shop since 1987 or 1988. She can't quite remember because her original business license was destroyed in the fire, which burned much of the historic business.

At the time of the shop's opening, Pehlivanian was a single mom raising a young son.

"With [my customers'] support and trust, they gave me a peace of mind, a good job, allowed me to build a secure place for me and my son," she told SFGATE by phone Wednesday.

The San Francisco Police Department said it is investigating the fire, which has been deemed suspicious. The investigation remains open and ongoing. SFPD said the business had been locked and secured at its time of closing. No arrests have been made.

Frank's Floral Shop began as a flower stand on 19th and Irving before Frank took over a brick-and-mortar shop at 1821 Irving St. He, his wife and his children lived upstairs, Pehlivanian said.

Pehlivanian is not yet sure whether she's going to rebuild.

"I'm caught now in the middle. It's a painful experience both ways," she said. "For me to reopen, rebuild, the landlord has to fix the place, but how long will that take?"

The outpouring of community support is overwhelming, including a recent GoFundMe that has raised more than $40,000, Pehlivian said.

"This guy not only burned my heart, he burned so many people's hearts," she said.

Anyone with information about the burglary or fire is asked to call the SFPD Tip Line at 1-415-575-4444 or Text a Tip to TIP411 and start the text message with SFPD. Tipsters may remain anonymous.
NEW YORK (AP)  In the nearly 10 years it took for Jessica Chastain to get made a film about the Christian televangelist Tammy Faye Messner, she studied many of the kinds of things you'd expect  the hours of television footage, Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbatos 2000 documentary. But one of the most revelatory sources was a largely forgotten WB reality show from 2002.

By then, Messner had fallen from the heights of her televangelist fame after scandals brought down the multimillion-dollar ministry she and her longtime husband, Jim Bakker, built with the PTL ("Praise the Lord") Network. So there she was on The Surreal Life" alongside D-list celebrities like Vanilla Ice and adult film star Ron Jeremy, living in a Hollywood Hills mansion for two weeks.

Youre thinking: What is this? I know they put her in there because they thought it would create a lot of drama. But it was a beautiful thing to watch," says Chastain. You saw her consistently being who she was, not judging anyone, but ministering to them.

To Chastain, what stood out was Messner's steadiness of faith. As much as the highly coiffed, heavily made-up televangelist's appearance fluctuated over the years, Messner  whose finest moment may have been a 1985 show talking to gay minister and AIDS activist Steve Pieters about HIV  preached God's love to everyone. Even Vanilla Ice. He later wrote a song about her.

She just loved everyone, and she loved without judgment and she believed everyone was deserving of Gods grace, Chastain said in a recent interview. Now I wasnt baptized. But I think thats supposed to be what Christianity is about.

In The Eyes of Tammy Faye, directed by Michael Showalter, which Searchlight Pictures releases in theaters Friday, Chastain gives perhaps the most ambitious performance of her career so far. For the widely admired actor of The Tree of Life, Zero Dark Thirty" and The Help, it's the first time she's tackled a decades-spanning biopic with all the transformational trappings  the make-up, the prosthetics, the accent. It's a big swing, one Chastain was hungry for.

There were a number of reasons I wanted to do it, says Chastain, who acquired the rights to adapt the documentary in 2012. But number one was it was the scariest because its the most far-reaching.

It was during the press tour for 2012's Zero Dark Thirty that Chastain first caught the RuPaul-narrated doc on TV. At the time, it seemed like the furthest thing from her CIA operative in Kathryn Bigelow's film. The documentary, while reveling in the kitsch of the Bakkers, sought to celebrate the much-parodied Messner, who died in 2007 at the age of 65.

At its most popular, The PTL Club, their flagship program, reached as many as 13 million households. Constant appeals for donations from viewers helped swell their ministry, including Heritage USA, a Disney-style theme park and resort in South Carolina.

But sex and financial scandal toppled their empire. Bakker (played by Andrew Garfield in the film) used ministry funds to pay a woman who said Bakker sexually assaulted her. (Bakker denied it.) He was convicted in 1989 of raising pledges with false promises while also steering millions to pay for the couple's lavish lifestyle.

Messner, who filed for divorce while Bakker was imprisoned, was never indicted. But she took more lumps in public opinion. She was mocked on Saturday Night Live. Chastain recognized a complicated woman who was treated unfairly.

I knew it was important for me in terms of gender, in terms of righting a wrong that I felt the media had done to her," Chastain says. We all had a collective memory that wasnt accurate, including myself."

The Eyes of Tammy Faye" is the most dramatic film yet for Showalter, the comedian of The State who has developed a second career as a filmmaker. But his movies  Wet Hot American Summer, My Name Is Doris, The Big Sick"  have also often blended surreal with painfully real.

I really like characters that are out of step with the world, says Showalter. I think Tammy Faye is really compelling in that way. She was this sort of laughing stock but time has been really generous toward her. Weve been able to look back and realize there was a much more authentic person there than we gave her credit for.

The film spans three decades and some very drastic fluctuations in period style. That made it a particular challenge to make-up department head Linda Dowds, not just in charting Messner's physical evolution, but keeping the extravagant looks from being too over-the-top.

We were looking for the subtleties and looking for the less-is-more  even though theres a lot of more, says Dowds.

There are some characters that use make-up as a mask," Dowds adds. "For Tammy, she said you dont have to be dowdy to be a Christian. She never quite understood why people made fun of her look. She said: 'This is me. This is what makes me happy. Whenever I feel a bit down, I just put more on."

The performance, flamboyant and empathetic, has immediately put Chastain into the Academy Awards conversation. She has twice before been nominated but never won. But it's also extended a spiritual journey for Chastain, one that included Terence Malick's cosmic existential wonder The Tree of Life. The religious passages, Madonna paintings and Bach that Malick fed her, she considers a spiritual and faith-based course on love that I really had never had in my life.

And it's clear that Chastain feels a particular protective bond with Messner, a relentlessly upbeat, ultimately good-hearted woman who made her way in an overwhelmingly male-controlled, crassly commercial media world. Part naive dupe, part undeserving victim, part guilty collaborator in her downfall.

What Chastain perhaps most admires and connects with in Messner is her earnestness  she is who she is. That attitude is similar to how Chastain, who grew up humbly in Sacramento, California, has tried to navigate the movie industry. She's been a vocal advocate for women, including in making the upcoming The 355," a female-led ensemble spy thriller. Chastain helped get it made when she noticed the lack of any action film like it. As with Tammy Faye, she's a producer on it.

"Tammy Faye kind of approached everything with: Lets have a good time. I think perhaps thats how I try to approach things, too. I mean, listen, Im always up for a fight," Chastain says, laughing. I just know everything is possible. Maybe were looking at it from a wrong angle. It may not be possible with an old formula or an old set of rules. So lets do something else and make it possible. I never see a wall or a door."

___

Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP
ATLANTA (AP)  A former cast member on the reality television show Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta has been sentenced to more than 17 years in federal prison for conspiracy and wire fraud related to a Ponzi scheme and related charges involving a fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program loan application.

U.S. District Judge Mark H. Cohen sentenced Maurice Fayne, also known as Arkansas Mo, to 17 and a half years behind bars and five years of supervised release. Fayne, 38, of Dacula, Georgia, also was ordered to pay restitution of nearly $4.5 million to the victims.

Fayne pleaded guilty to the charges on May 11. Those also included charges of bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution involving a loan application for the Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP.

Fayne planned to use the PPP program as a cover for his long-running Ponzi scheme, said Acting U.S. Attorney Kurt R. Erskine in a news release Wednesday. The funds the program supplies serve as a lifeline to many businesses desperately trying to stay afloat during the pandemic, and unfortunately his fraud helped deplete those precious dollars.

Erskine said from March 2013 through May 2020, Fayne ran a multistate Ponzi scheme that defrauded more than 20 people who invested in his trucking business. Instead of using investors' money to operate the business, he used the funds to pay personal debts and expenses and to fund an extravagant lifestyle, Erskine said.

During the scheme, Fayne spent more than $5 million at a casino in Oklahoma, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia said.

In April 2020, Fayne submitted a $3.7 million loan application to United Community Bank, falsely claiming that his trucking business had 107 employees and an average monthly payroll of $1.4 million.

Prosecutors said that instead of using the money to retain workers and other business expenses, Fayne used the loan to cover expenses including $40,000 in past-due child support, $50,000 for restitution owed in a previous fraud case, $85,000 for custom-made jewelry, $136,000 to lease a Rolls-Royce and $907,000 to start a new business in Arkansas.

Fayne appeared on season 8 of VH1s Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta as the love interest of longtime cast member Karlie Redd.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

The Bay Area overwhelmingly opposed the Gavin Newsom recall, with San Francisco, Marin and Alameda counties all rejecting the recall at a rate of more than 80%.

But while almost every county in the Bay Area is currently reporting more than 70% of voters opposed to the recall, one Bay Area county flirted with the idea of a recall more than any other: Solano County.
Reality television star and former Olympian Caitlyn Jenner secured just a tiny sliver of the replacement vote in the Gavin Newsom recall election, according to preliminary voting results.

Jenner's face-plant is especially notable given that she was one of the candidates with the most substantial name recognition in not just California, but the nation.

Californians voted to keep Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday, with 63.9% of ballots cast in favor of his staying in office. CNN estimates 70% of votes have been counted.

Jenner, a Republican, secured just 1.1% of the vote on question two, per preliminary results, getting beat out by eight different candidates  four of whom are mostly anonymous Democrats  of the 46 individuals running in the recall election. Those she trailed are Larry Elder, Kevin Paffrath, Kevin Faulconer, John Cox, Kevin Kiley, Jacqueline McGowan, Patrick Kilpatrick and Holly Baade.

When taking into consideration the fact that almost half of California voters left question two blank, Jenner received just .6% of the vote of everyone who cast ballots in the recall election

Speaking to reporters after polls closed, Jenner called the results "a shame."

"I can't believe that this many people actually voted to keep him in office," Jenner said. "It's a shame, honestly, it's a shame. You kind of get the government you deserve."

SFGATE sat down with Jenner one-on-one in August during a visit to a Log Cabin Republicans meeting in San Francisco, and she answered questions regarding wildfires and homelessness.

Wildfires, she said, are a big, big issue. ... I personally take the fires really seriously.

She said global warming is not causing the fires, an arguments scientists dispute widely. What is causing them, in Jenners opinion? Too much fuel.

She called for greater forest management and more controlled burns so theres less fuel in these areas where they can stop these fires.

On the subject of homelessness, an issue Jenner once said could be resolved by placing homeless people in big open fields, Jenner had some ideas.

The aforementioned comment, which she made in late June, was spoken a long time ago, she said, assuring me she has since switched gears.

She recommended buying every homeless person an RV: For a billion dollars, how many RVs could you buy everybody? You could house everyone in an RV for a billion dollars.

We have to find a solution because with the homeless, there's mental issues, there's, you know, veterans, there's obviously drug issues, she said, noting she saw a man shoot up on the street earlier that day.

She said it comes down to law enforcement.

We have laws on the books right now about drugs on the streets of San Francisco or any city in this state. You get caught doing that and youre going to jail, she said. But now its open season, just like stealing.

Its legal to steal in this city, she continued. You know, as long as you dont take too much.
The now-unsuccessful Gavin Newsom recall election is expected to cost the state of California and its taxpayers a pretty penny, likely to the tune of more than $300 million.

The final estimate issued by the California Secretary of State in July was $276 million, with all California counties estimated to have spent $243.6 million and the California Secretary of State allotted $32.4 million. An initial estimate, released about a month prior, had priced the election to be about $60 million cheaper.

In an interview with ABC News, California Secretary of State Shirley Weber said that the state had already spent that $276 million sum as of Election Day, and will likely blow past that in the days to come.

"The budget committee and the state Assembly acknowledges that it can go higher," Weber told the outlet. "We could see $300 million or more spent on this election."

It is unclear where the increased expenditures are coming from, though Weber largely attributed the sky-high costs to the century-old recall system, according to ABC News.

If the recall campaign had started in 2022 and this election were rolled up with other state and federal elections, it would have cost $90.6 million, according to the Secretary of State's July estimate.

The cost of the recall was one talking point in pro-Newsom advertising in the months leading up to the election, with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. bringing up the recall "costing taxpayers millions" in a July spot for Newsom.

This also does not take into account how much individual recall candidates and Newsom have spent on campaigning. Newsom and other anti-recall supporters raised approximately $72 million as of early September, which the Los Angeles Times estimates was double that of pro-recall forces.
LATEST, Sept. 15, 6:45 a.m. With 100% of precincts reporting at least some results, Gavin Newsom has avoided being recalled by a 63.9% to 36.1% margin.

The numbers from the California Secretary of State show a clear divide in the state: coastal counties, the Bay Area and nearly all of Southern California voted to keep Newsom. Central California and most of the rural Northern California counties voted to oust him.

Republican Larry Elder was the top candidate to replace Newsom, but he only received a paltry 2,373,551 votes. That was good for 46% of the votes for a replacement candidate, followed by Democrat YouTuber Kevin Paffrath (9.8%) and former San Diego mayor Kevin L. Faulconer (8.6%).

You can check out full results here. They were last updated around 3 a.m.

Ashley Landis/AP

Sept. 14, 9:50 p.m. Vote counting has slowed a bit in the Gavin Newsom recall election as counties move from counting early arriving mail ballots to Election Day ballots.

As of 9:50 p.m., "no" on the recall led "yes" 66.6% to 33.4%. The final margin will tighten as more Election Day votes  which are expected to be more anti-Newsom  are reported.

Sept. 14, 8:55 p.m. Gavin Newsom has survived the 2021 California gubernatorial recall election, the Associated Press and several television networks project.

As of 8:55 p.m., "no" on the recall led "yes" 67.1% to 32.9% with 60% of the vote in, according to network estimates. The margin is likely to tighten as the first votes counted were early arriving mail ballots, which tend to skew Democratic. Remaining Election Day votes will yield more "yes" votes, but not enough to erase Newsom's lead.

Elections analyst Ryan Matsumoto estimates that given Newsom's margins on early mail-ins, the final result could end up being the landslide the polls predicted at 20 percentage points or more.

Sept. 14, 8:20 p.m. The first batch of results in the Gavin Newsom recall election were released shortly after polls closed at 8 p.m., and it was very good news for the governor.

Results from counties across the state  which can be viewed on the California Secretary of State's website here  were so good for the governor that Dave Wasserman, editor of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, called the race in the governor's favor just 13 minutes in.

Going into election night, Newsom had a very large polling lead.

"No" led "yes" by 15 percentage points on the FiveThirtyEight polling average, with Newsom even seeing leads as large as 20 percentage points in some polls. Conservative radio host Larry Elder has dominated replacement candidates, and is the overwhelming favorite to become governor if Newsom is recalled.

Polls from the summer showed a closer race, but Newsom and his team were able to increase Democratic enthusiasm and engagement in the race's final weeks.

It may take weeks before results are finalized. Most of the state's largest counties will report early arriving mail-in ballots first, and Election Day votes later. Some counties will not even begin counting Election Day votes until Wednesday. For more on the counting process, read SFGATE's story from Monday here.
Carolyn Kaster/AP

Only 13.3% of San Franciscans voted to recall California Governor Gavin Newsom in the Tuesday election, according to preliminary election results released by the city's Department of Elections.

Newsom avoided being recalled on Tuesday night in a landslide statewide, with 63.9% voting "no" to recall the governor as of 8 a.m. Wednesday morning. The election results will be certified by October 22. CNN estimates that 70% of votes in San Francisco have been counted thus far.
- Info: Find the latest information on travel to the Islands from the Hawaii government's COVID-19 travel site.

- Testing: Get details on Hawaiis pre-travel testing program.

- Form: Fill out the health form needed to visit Hawaii.

Hawaii sounded the alarm bells last month around a surging pandemic, and Gov. David Ige urged tourists to stay away through the end of October.

"It's not a good time to travel to the islands," Ige said at an Aug. 23 press conference, adding that a lockdown could be on the table if the number of COVID cases continued to rise. "We know the visitors that choose to come to the islands will not have the typical kind of holiday they expect to get when they visit Hawaii."

While Ige told people to stay home, the state didn't take the extreme step of banning travel. Currently, Hawaii and its resorts, beaches and destinations all remain open on all the major islands including Oahu, Kauai, Maui, Hawaii (the Big Island), Molokai and Lanai.

Caleb Jones/AP

Should you go to Hawaii right now?

Many travelers have already heeded the governor's call, and the state has seen a decline in the number of travelers.

For those who are still making a decision, SFGATE recently spoke with a medical ethicist about whether or not to travel to Hawaii.

The ethics of travel depend on who is making the decision and about what, Barbara Koenig, a medical anthropologist and registered nurse who recently retired as director of the UCSF Bioethics Program, told SFGATE. For instance, some may need to travel to Hawaii, especially in the case of loved ones who are ill.

The bottom line: If you do go to Hawaii, it is best to be vaccinated and to avoid places and activities that could send you to an overburdened hospital system.

Caleb Jones/AP

Who can go to Hawaii?

Any traveler who is fully vaccinated against COVID-19 in the United States or its U.S. Territories can enter Hawaii without fulfilling the 10-day quarantine requirement. Proof of vaccination will be asked for at the airport upon arriving in Hawaii. Travelers who were fully vaccinated in Hawaii and are returning from a trip will be expedited through processing after uploading their vaccination status digitally.

Any traveler who is not fully vaccinated is required to take a pre-travel test to bypass the 10-day quarantine requirement. The 10-day quarantine is required and enforced for all visitors who do not meet these vaccination or testing requirements.

Visit the Hawaii COVID-19 travel website for more information.

Caleb Jones/AP

What steps must I take to enter the state?

There are a few important steps that are required to enter.

1. Travelers must fill out the Hawaii Safe Travel program application form.

2. A negative COVID-19 test result or a vaccination record document must be uploaded to the Safe Travel portal to obtain a QR code, a barcode that can be scanned and will significantly reduce processing time at the airport upon arrival. All travelers who wish to submit a negative test must take a Nucleic Acid Amplification Test (NAAT) that is certified from a Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendment (CLIA) lab. This type of test is done by swabbing the nose or mouth or collecting saliva.

For travelers uploading their full vaccination status, the documentation must be validated by any of the three Digital Health Pass Partners: CommonPass, AZOVA or CLEAR.

More information can be found on the State of Hawaii's COVID-19 portal.

What are the rules once I get there?

The rules that apply to travelers are similar to rules in other states. Masks are required indoors. When interacting with others outdoors, it is recommended you wear a mask.

There are also limitations on the number of people who gather together. Across the state, no more than 10 people should gather indoors, and no more than 25 outdoors.

Kent Nishimura/2020 Los Angeles Times

What do I need to know about specific islands?

Recently, Oahu and Maui announced they are requiring proof of vaccination for entry to restaurants, bars and other indoor activities. The order began on Sept. 13. Children under 12, who are ineligible for vaccines, are exempt. Other islands have yet to announce such a mandate.

Each county has specific mask compliance orders. Read up on the county mandates for Kauai, Honolulu, Oahu, Maui and Hawaii.

What are the COVID numbers?

The numbers show that severity of the pandemic has decreased since Aug. 23 when Ige asked travelers to not visit. The statewide test positivity rate (percentage of people who test positive for the virus of all of individuals who are tested) was 7% on Sept. 13 compared to 9% on Aug. 23, according to John Hopkins University's COVID tracker. An average of 606 cases are being reported daily across the past seven days, compared to 711 daily cases nearly four weeks ago. Of the total population, 66% are fully vaccinated.

The state's website shows numbers on the county level.
PRAGUE (AP)  Two firefighters were killed in a gas explosion that leveled a family house in southeast Czech Republic, officials said on Wednesday.

The head of the regional government, Radim Holis, also said two other firefighters were injured. The regional rescue service said a total of four people were injured in the explosion that occurred in the town of Korycany shortly after noon.
Four young adults from Minnesota have been found dead in an abandoned SUV in a Wisconsin cornfield, police said, a quadruple homicide case that has more questions than answers now and has left families shattered.

The victims, friends from the Twin Cities area, were probably driven to the small town of Sheridan, Wis., where they were found on Sunday, Dunn County Sheriff Kevin Bygd said at a Tuesday news conference. Autopsies performed Monday found that all died of gunshot wounds, police said.

"Obviously we've had homicides in the last several years," Bygd told reporters, "but something of this magnitude . . . this is a first."

Three victims from St. Paul were identified as Jasmine Christine Sturm, 30; Matthew Isiah Pettus, 26; and Loyace Foreman III. The fourth was Nitosha Lee Flug-Presley, 30, of Stillwater, Minn.

Sturm, Pettus' half sister, was in a relationship with Foreman, and was close friends with Flug-Presley.

Days later, police are still grappling with a case in which few details are known.

"This is a coldblooded tragedy," Damone Presley, the father of Flug-Presley, told The Washington Post. "They killed my daughter."

The Wisconsin sheriff's office said there was "a high degree of certainty" that the suspect or suspects were no longer in the area, located about 70 miles outside St. Paul, Minn. Police believe those involved had no connection to the Sheridan area "other than perhaps randomly driving out of the Twin Cities," Bygd said.

"We do not know a motive yet," he said, calling it "a mystery." "Everybody's a suspect at this point."

Jessica Foreman, the mother of Loyace Foreman III, told The Post she last spoke to her son on Thursday about an annual family trip to an apple orchard. Foreman said her only son was "a devoted father" to his two children, ages 7 and 13, and "a protective big brother and the best uncle ever." He was also "an immensely talented artist."

"He was in love and looking forward to a future with Jasmine Sturm," she said in a text message.

Presley described Flug-Presley as a doting mother of two children, ages 4 and 10.

He said she had asked if he could watch one of her children while she went out with friends on Saturday night. Presley last spoke to Flug-Presley around 8:30 or 9 p.m. Saturday, when she called to ask if he was on his way. She left before he arrived, he said. He said she and her friends had planned to go to Shamrocks, a bar and restaurant in St. Paul where Sturm and Pettus worked, and at least one other bar that night.

But she never came home, he said. Text messages went unread and calls were going straight to voice mail. He grew worried when he couldn't get in touch with his daughter the next day, and the family contacted authorities. Relatives of the other victims also became concerned, noting it wasn't like them not to return messages.

At 2:18 p.m. Sunday, the Dunn County Sheriff's Office received a 911 call from a farmer in the area about "people in a vehicle that were not moving," Bygd said. About 12 minutes later, authorities found a black SUV with Minnesota license plates parked in a field of tall cornstalks.

Presley said he was notified early Monday that four bodies had been found in an abandoned vehicle in Wisconsin.

"I was bewildered because she doesn't know anybody in Wisconsin. The first thing I said was, 'Wisconsin? Are you sure?' " he told The Post. "That's when we started assuming that something tragic had happened to her."

Bygd said the four people were probably killed less than 24 hours before the vehicle was found, but authorities remain uncertain of the exact time.

A second dark-colored SUV may have been traveling with the black SUV that was found with the victims inside, police said in a news release. The abandoned SUV was captured on surveillance video at a gas station at around noon on Sunday, two hours before it was discovered in the cornfield, according to the Star Tribune.

The Dunn County Sheriff's Office is being assisted in the investigation by several state agencies, including the Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation, the Wisconsin State Patrol and the Wisconsin Department of Justice's crime lab. Investigators are reviewing security footage and traffic cameras for any information to help piece together the quadruple homicide case.

"Our hearts go out to the family and friends of these victims," Bygd said. "I wish we could release more details of our investigation, but we have to balance the public's desire to know the details with running the risk of harming our investigation."

At Shamrocks, friends are mourning the loss of the group, including their co-workers, Sturm and Pettus. Mike Runyon, co-owner of the bar and restaurant, told The Post that the business was processing "the loss of these two people we dealt with on a daily basis." He remembered Sturm, who was also an office assistant at a law firm, as an adoring mother.

"We are at a loss for words and are still in a state of shock over what's happened," he said. "It's just a very somber moment. We're grieving with the families."

Presley is pleading for anyone who knows anything about the death of his daughter and her three friends in the "heinous, deliberate crime" to come forward.

"Sometimes innocent people pay a penalty, but the innocence of my daughter and the other three individuals who were killed should not be overlooked," he said. "There was no need to take my daughter's life - no reason at all."
MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP)  Two agencies in New Hampshire are working on resettlement plans for Afghan refugees.

The refugees are currently being screened at military bases before they arrive in New Hampshire.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP)  Overwhelmed by a surge in COVID-19 patients, Alaskas largest hospital on Tuesday implemented crisis standards of care, prioritizing resources and treatments to those patients who have the potential to benefit the most.

While we are doing our utmost, we are no longer able to provide the standard of care to each and every patient who needs our help, Dr. Kristen Solana Walkinshaw, chief of staff at Providence Alaska Medical Center, wrote in a letter addressed to Alaskans and distributed Tuesday.

The acuity and number of patients now exceeds our resources and our ability to staff beds with skilled caregivers, like nurses and respiratory therapists. We have been forced within our hospital to implement crisis standards of care, Walkinshaw wrote.

Alaska, like other places, has seen a surge in coronavirus cases driven by the highly contagious delta variant. State health officials said Tuesday there were 691 new cases and six recent deaths, all Anchorage men ranging in age from 50s to 70s. A woman in her 60s from out-of-state also recently died in Juneau, the department said.

Health officials said statewide that there are 202 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are hospitalized, and nine additional patients are under investigation. Officials said 33 of these people are on ventilators.

The percentage of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19 is 17.5%, the state reported.

At Providence, more than 30% of the adult patients that are hospitalized have tested positive. This also comes at a normally busier time of the year for Alaska hospitals.

Walkinshaw noted that the states COVID-19 dashboard, which is routinely updated with numbers related to the virus, isnt equipped or designed to demonstrate the intricacies of providing medical care during this unprecedented time.

At Providence, one of only three hospitals in a city of about 300,000 residents, officials have developed and enacted procedures to ration medical care and treatments, including dialysis and specialized ventilatory support.

The emergency room is overflowing at Providence, and she said patients wait for hours in their cars to see a doctor for emergency care.

Walkinshaw noted that what happens at the Anchorage hospitals affects the entire state since specialty care can often only be provided in the states largest city.

Unfortunately, we are unable to continue to meet this need; we no longer have the staff, the space, or the beds, Walkinshaw wrote. Due to this scarcity, we are unable to provide lifesaving care to everyone who needs it.

That has left patients across the state sitting in local hospitals since Providence cant accept them for transfer.

If you or your loved one need specialty care at Providence, such as a cardiologist, trauma surgeon, or a neurosurgeon, we sadly may not have room now. There are no more staffed beds left, she wrote.

Walkinshaw said they expect an increase in COVID-19 cases in the next two to four weeks, causing an already stressful situation to possibly "rapidly progress to a catastrophe, she said.

She said the single most important thing people can do is to get vaccinated. Alaska was the first state to open vaccinations to all residents. As of Monday, 56.5% of eligible Alaskans have been vaccinated.

Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy, a Republican who has recovered from COVID-19 and been vaccinated, said employees at Alaska hospitals are working long hours, some have left their jobs and there are capacity concerns.

Dunleavy, who never imposed a statewide mask mandate, has faced criticism in the past from some who say he hasnt come out forcefully enough in support of vaccination.

I urge, and I hope you guys print this, I strongly urge folks to get a vaccine, strongly urge them to do that, he told reporters Tuesday.

Walkinshaw also asked that everyone wear masks, even if they are vaccinated and avoid unmasked activities. She also urged people who are sick or have been exposed to get tested and asked people to avoid potentially dangers activities and situations that may increase the need for emergency services of medical care.

Unfortunately, if you are seriously injured, it is possible that there will not be a bed available at our trauma center to save your life," Walkinshaw wrote.

___

Associated Press journalist Becky Bohrer contributed to this report from Juneau, Alaska.
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STANFORD, Calif. (AP)  An alleged San Francisco Bay Area serial killer was convicted Tuesday of the murder of the daughter of former Stanford University athletic director Chuck Taylor nearly 50 years ago.

A San Mateo County jury took about an hour to convict John Getreu of strangling Janet Taylor, 21, who was last seen hitchhiking on the western edge of the Stanford campus on March 24, 1974. Her body was discovered on the side of a road by a truck driver.
PHOENIX (AP)  The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors on Wednesday selected a sitting member of the Arizona House to replace a state senator who resigned after being charged with child molestation.

The board chose Rep. Raquel Teran from a list of three candidates vetted by a citizen's panel to replace former Sen. Tony Navarrete, who resigned after he was charged and has denied the allegations. Supervisor Steve Gallardo announced the decision on Navarette's replacement in a tweet.

Teran was serving her second term in the House representing District 30 in west Phoenix and Glendale. She is currently chair of the Arizona Democratic Party.

State law requires a replacement to come from the same party as the person they replace. Normally, local Democratic Party officials would vet candidates and recommend a list of three choices to county supervisors. But there were too few elected precinct committeemen in the district so a citizens committee was named to consider applicants.

A similar committee will now be needed to fill Teran's House seat.

Senate Democrats issued a statement praising the selection, calling Teran a dedicated and passionate champion not only for her own constituents but for all Arizonans.

Navarrete resigned on Aug. 11 amid increasing bipartisan pressure. He was arrested days earlier by Phoenix police after a now-16-year-old boy came forward and said Navarrete had molested him starting when he was 12 or 13 years old and continuing until he was 15.

Navarrete faces multiple charges of sexual conduct with a minor and a child molestation charge and was released on $50,000 bond.

In his resignation statement, Navarrete adamantly denied the allegations and said he needs to focus his time and energy on his defense.

Navarrete has pleaded not guilty and faces a Jan. 13 trial.
PHOENIX (AP)  Arizona on Wednesday reported 2,432 additional confirmed COVID-19 cases and 29 deaths, increasing the states totals to 1,055.919 cases and 19,333 deaths.

Virus-related hospitalizations remained over 2,000, with 2,077 COVID-19 patients occupying hospital beds as of Tuesday, the state's coronavirus dashboard reported.

According to Johns Hopkins University data, the seven-day rolling average of daily new cases dropped over the past two weeks, going from 2,944.9 new cases per day on Aug. 30 to 2,671 on Monday. The rolling average of daily deaths rose from 24.8 to 35.9 during same period.

In other developments

 Flagstaff-based Northern Arizona Healthcare is the latest major hospital chain operating in Arizona to require that its employees be vaccinated against COVID-19.

Northern Arizona Health Care said Monday its workers must be fully vaccinated by Dec. 1 unless they obtain medical or religious exemptions.

 The Tucson City Council is considering whether to require unvaccinated employees to undergo weekly testing and wear masks.

Officials said they were discussing those steps in the wake of state Attorney General Mark Brnovich's declaration that the city's vaccination mandate for its workers violates state law.
WASHINGTON (AP)  President Joe Biden announced Wednesday that the United States is forming a new Indo-Pacific security alliance with Britain and Australia that will allow for greater sharing of defense capabilities  including helping equip Australia with nuclear-powered submarines. It's a move that could deepen a growing chasm in U.S.-China relations.

Biden made the announcement alongside British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who joined him by video to unveil the new alliance, which will be called AUKUS (pronounced AWK-us). The three announced they would quickly turn their attention to developing nuclear-powered submarines for Australia.

"We all recognize the imperative of ensuring peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific over the long term," said Biden, who said the new alliance reflects a broader trend of key European partners playing a role in the Indo-Pacific. We need to be able to address both the current strategic environment in the region and how it may evolve.

None of the leaders mentioned China in their remarks. But the new security alliance is likely to be seen as a provocative move by Beijing, which has repeatedly lashed out at Biden as hes sought to refocus U.S. foreign policy on the Pacific in the early going of his presidency.

Before the announcement, a senior administration official sought to play down the idea that the alliance was meant to serve as a deterrent against China in the region. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to preview the announcement, said the alliances creation was not aimed at any one country, and is about a larger effort to sustain engagement and deterrence in the Indo-Pacific by the three nations.

Johnson said the alliance would allow the three English-speaking maritime democracies to strengthen their bonds and sharpen their focus on an increasingly complicated part of the world.

We will have a new opportunity to reinforce Britains place at the leading edge of science and technology, strengthening our national expertise, and perhaps most significant, the U.K., Australia and the U.S. will be joined even more closely together, " Johnson said.

The three countries have agreed to share information in areas including artificial intelligence, cyber and underwater defense capabilities.

But plans to support Australia acquiring nuclear-powered submarines are certain to catch Beijing's attention. To date, the only country that the United States has shared nuclear propulsion technology with is Britain. Morrison said Australia is not seeking to develop a nuclear weapons program and information sharing would be limited to helping it develop a submarine fleet.

The Australian prime minister said plans for the nuclear-powered submarines would be developed over the next 18 months and the vessels would be built in Adelaide, Australia.

Australia had announced in 2016 that French company DCNS had beat out bidders from Japan and Germany to build the next generation of submarines in Australias largest-ever defense contract.

Top French officials made clear they were unhappy with the deal, which undercuts the DCNS deal.

The American choice to exclude a European ally and partner such as France from a structuring partnership with Australia, at a time when we are facing unprecedented challenges in the Indo-Pacific region, whether in terms of our values or in terms of respect for multilateralism based on the rule of law, shows a lack of coherence that France can only note and regret, French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and defense minister Florence Parly said in a joint statement.

Morrison said the three countries had always seen through a similar lens, but, as the world becomes more complex, to meet these new challenges, to help deliver the security and stability our region needs, we must now take our partnership to a new level.

Matt Pottinger, who served as deputy national security adviser in the Trump administration, said that equipping Australia with nuclear-powered submarines was a significant step that would help the U.S. and its allies on the military and diplomatic fronts.

Underwater warfare capabilities have been Beijings "Achilles' heel, Pottinger said. A nuclear-powered submarine fleet would allow Australia to conduct longer patrols, giving the new alliance a stronger presence in the region.

When you have a strong military, it provides a backdrop of deterrence that gives countries the confidence to resist bullying, said Pottinger, who is now a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. Part of the problem right now is that Beijing has gotten rather arrogant and its been less willing to engage productively in diplomacy.

The announcement of the new security alliance comes as the U.S.-China relationship has deteriorated. Beijing has taken exception to Biden administration officials repeatedly calling out China over human rights abuses in Xianjing province, the crackdown on democracy activists in Hong Kong, and cybersecurity breaches originating from China, as well as Beijings handling of the coronavirus pandemic and what the White House has labeled as coercive and unfair trade practices.

Even as White House officials have repeatedly spoken out about China, administration officials say they want to work with Beijing on areas of common interest, including curbing the pandemic and climate change.

Biden spoke by phone with Chinas President Xi Jinping last week amid growing frustration on the American side that high-level engagement between the two leaders top advisers has been largely unfruitful.

After the 90-minute phone call, official Xinhua News Agency reported that Xi expressed concerns that U.S. government policy toward China has caused serious difficulties in relations.

Asked Tuesday about media reports that Xi had declined to commit to meet with him in person, the U.S. president said it was untrue. Biden did not speak in specific terms about the new AUKUS alliance during last week's call with the Chinese leader, according to the senior administration official.

The U.S. and Australia, along with India and Japan, are members of a strategic dialogue known as the Quad. Biden is set to host fellow Quad leaders at the White House next week.

Biden has sought to rally allies to speak with a more unified voice on China and has tried to send the message that he would take a radically different approach to China than former President Donald Trump, who placed trade and economic issues above all else in the U.S.-China relationship.

In June, at Biden's urging, Group of Seven nations called on China to respect human rights in Hong Kong and Xinjiang province and to permit a full probe into the origins of COVID-19. While the allies broadly agreed to work toward competing against China, there was less unity on how adversarial a public position the group should take.
BEIJING (AP)  One of Chinas biggest real estate developers is struggling to avoid defaulting on billions of dollars of debt, prompting concern about a broader economic fallout and protests by buyers of unfinished apartments.

Evergrande Group appears likely to be unable to repay all of the 572 billion yuan ($89 billion) it owes banks and other bondholders, financial rating agencies say. That might jolt financial markets, but analysts say Beijing is likely to step in to prevent wider damage if Evergrande cant manage an orderly resolution of its debts.

In the unlikely event that a default unsettles the broader property market, significantly disrupting sales and investment, this could have farther-reaching macroeconomic effects, said Fitch Ratings analysts in a report Wednesday.

Evergrande ran into a cash crunch after its borrowing to build apartments, office towers and shopping malls collided with pressure from the ruling Communist Party to reduce corporate debt loads that are seen as a threat to the economy.

Beijing has made reducing financial risk a priority since 2018. In 2014, authorities allowed the first corporate bond default since the 1949 communist revolution. Defaults have gradually been allowed to increase in hopes of forcing borrowers and investors to be more disciplined.

Despite that, total corporate, government and household debt rose from the equivalent of 270% of annual economic output in 2018 to nearly 300% last year, unusually high for a middle-income country. Economists say a financial crisis is unlikely but debt could drag on economic growth by diverting money from consumption and investment.

Evergrande's struggle has prompted warnings abroad that a broader financial squeeze on real estate  an industry that propelled China's explosive 1998-2008 boom  could lead to trouble for banks and an abrupt and politically dangerous collapse in economic growth.

The government has yet to say what it might do about Evergrande, one of China's biggest private sector conglomerates, but financial analysts say Beijing is likely to intervene, especially to protect households that bought unfinished apartments.

An outright default might dent consumer confidence if homebuyers suffer losses, but we assume the government would act to protect households interests, making this outcome unlikely, Fitch analysts said.

President Xi Jinping is promoting a common prosperity initiative to spread Chinas wealth more broadly and narrow its politically volatile gap between a wealthy elite and the poor majority. So regulators may favor homebuyers at the expense of banks and other investors in Evergrande debt.

Headquartered in the southern city of Shenzhen, near Hong Kong, Evergrande has sold assets to pay down debt since regulators in August 2020 tightened controls on financing for Chinas 12 biggest developers.

The companies were told to limit debt relative to three red lines  cash on hand, the value of their assets and equity in their businesses. Banks are required to limit real estate lending to 40% of their total under rules that took effect in January.

In addition to bondholders, the company owes 667 billion yuan ($103 billion) to construction companies and other business creditors.

Its share price in Hong Kong plunged 34% to an all-time low on Wednesday. It has fallen 50% over the past month.

Evergrande reported a $1.6 billion profit for the first half of 2021. In a statement Tuesday, it said it has hired outside experts in debt restructuring. On Monday, the company denied it would apply for a corporate restructuring under China's bankruptcy law.

A financial information service, REDD, reported last week, citing unidentified sources, that Evergrande would suspend interest payments on loans to two banks. The company has yet to confirm that.

As of June 30, Evergrande had 240 billion yuan ($37.3 billion) of debt due within a year, down 28.5% from the end of 2020 but nearly triple its cash holdings of 86.8 billion yuan ($13.5 billion), according to a company financial report.

On Sunday, about 100 people who invested in Evergrande debt through wealth management products sold by banks crowded into its Shenzhen headquarters to demand repayment.

The company said those investors can choose to be repaid in property, cash in installments or a claim to payments on residential units, according to the business magazine Caixin.

It is difficult for Evergrande to make 40 billion yuan ($6.2 billion) of repayments at once for the wealth management products, the head of Evergrandes wealth management unit, Du Liang, was quoted as saying.

On Friday, apartment buyers who complain Evergrande suspended construction protested at its headquarters, according to Hong Kong news reports. The company also faces lawsuits by construction contractors that say it has delayed paying them.

Evergrande also sank money into launching its own electric vehicle brand, a priority in the ruling partys technology plans. It said this week it was making no progress in selling stakes to outside investors.

Other major Chinese developers do not appear to be facing the same cash crunch. But other companies are struggling with debt.

Huarong Asset Management Co., Ltd., the biggest of a group of state-owned companies created to help resolve bad loans held by state banks, reported in August that it lost 102.9 billion yuan ($15.9 billion) last year.

Huarong's debts stood at $162.3 billion in mid-2020, according to financial information company Capital IQ. However, Huarong said it had no plans to restructure after receiving a capital injection in August from state-owned companies.
DOVER, Del. (AP)  A committee charged with representing tens of thousands of alleged victims of child sex abuse in the Boy Scouts of America bankruptcy asked the judge on Wednesday to terminate the BSAs exclusive rights to file a reorganization plan, so that it can file its own.

The committees court filing came hours after attorneys for the Boy Scouts filed a fifth version of a proposed bankruptcy plan, which contains settlements the committee describes as grossly unfair.

The committee asserted that it is the only party in the case that can propose a plan that treats abuse survivors fairly and equitably and not sell out or leave them short.

More than 18 months into the chapter 11 cases, the debtors fifth effort at a plan is just as inadequate and flawed as the first four, the committee's attorneys wrote.

The committee, joined by attorneys for several insurance companies, also asked the judge to postpone a key hearing, scheduled for next Tuesday, for at least three weeks to allow parties to review and file objections to the BSAs new plan. The hearing was intended for the judge to consider the adequacy of a disclosure statement outlining a reorganization plan the Boy Scouts filed in July. That plan was superseded by the plan filed Tuesday, which includes substantial changes and additions.

Despite making material modifications to the plan ..., the debtors still wish to go forward with the disclosure statement hearing on September 21, committee attorneys wrote. This timeline is wholly inappropriate.

The judge quickly entered an order indicating that the postponement request will be heard next Tuesday at the time originally set aside for the disclosure statement hearing.

Two of the major changes in the BSAs new plan are settlement agreements involving one of the organizations major insurers, The Hartford, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly known as the Mormon church.

The Hartford has agreed to pay $787 million into a fund to be established for abuse claimants. The Mormon church, the largest single sponsor of Scout troops before ending its partnership with the BSA early last year, has agreed to contribute $250 million.

In exchange for the payments, both entities would be released from any further liability involving child sex abuse claims filed by men who said they were molested decades ago by scoutmasters and others.

The new plan, for the first time, provides details on proposed cash and property contributions totaling $500 million into the fund from local Boy Scouts councils, which run day-to-day operations for the BSA.

The proposed contributions range from $11,492 in cash by the Rocky Mountain council in Colorado to property valued at more than $13 million from California's Orange County council. The Rocky Mountain councils contribution represents a little more than 1% of its listed net assets. Orange County's contribution represents about 29.5% of its net assets.

The Michigan Crossroads council, which faces the most abuse claims of any council, 1,736, proposes to contribute a little less than $8 million in cash and property, about 18% of its net assets. The Greater New York council, which ranks second with 1,600 abuse claims, would contribute $9 million in cash, or roughly 43% of its net assets.

In return for combined contributions totaling up to $820 million, and the assignment of certain insurance rights into the fund, the local councils and national Boy Scouts organization would be released from further liability for abuse claims.

The official committee believes the local councils have the financial ability to contribute "several multiples" of what they are offering.

The BSAs fifth plan includes settlements with local councils that leave them with billions of dollars of cash and property in excess of their current need to fulfill their mission of Scouting, committee attorneys wrote.

The BSAs new plan also includes provisions under which churches, civic groups and other sponsors of local Boy Scout troops could be released from liability for sexual abuse claims.

A chartered sponsoring organization could get a full release from liability in exchange for assigning its insurance rights and making a significant cash contribution to the fund. An assignment of insurance rights, without a financial contribution, would result in a limited release from liability. A sponsoring organization could also refuse to participate and keep its insurance rights, but it would receive no protection from future litigation involving abuse claims.

The official committee contends that the chartered organizations are being offered a get-out-of-jail-free card in exchange for transferring their interests in the shared-insurance policies that were purchased by the Boy Scouts.

The Boy Scouts, based in Irving, Texas, sought bankruptcy protection in February 2020, bidding to halt hundreds of individual lawsuits and create a fund for thousands of men who say they were sexually abused as children. Although the organization was facing 275 lawsuits at the time, it's now facing some 82,500 sexual abuse claims in the bankruptcy case.
SAN DIEGO (AP)  A California Republican congressman said Wednesday that he has helped a San Diego area couple who are both in their 80s and are U.S. citizens get out of Afghanistan after they were repeatedly blocked by the Taliban.

Rep. Darrell Issa said in a statement that the couple was on their way home to San Diego County. His office said their names are not being released at the request of the family because their Afghan relatives remain in the country and may be at risk.

This is a cause for celebration and the result of almost countless hours of work under very difficult conditions, Issa said in a statement.

Issa's office said the couple tried repeatedly over multiple weeks to get through Taliban checkpoints but were harassed and intimidated, blocking their efforts to board a plane home. The couples granddaughter, Zuhal, contacted the Issa district office, to request help. Issa's office said it was also withholding her last name for the same reason it is not identifying her grandparents.

Issa did not give details on how the couple left the country.

Issa has helped dozens of others, including six families who live in the San Diego suburb of El Cajon who had trouble boarding their flights last month amid the chaotic evacuation of Afghans, Americans and others as the Taliban seized power and the last American troops left the country.

One family who has students enrolled in the Cajon Valley Union School District remains stuck in Afghanistan, desperate to leave. El Cajon, east of San Diego, has a large refugee population.

The families had traveled to Afghanistan in the spring and earlier this summer to visit their relatives. Many are U.S. permanent residents who came to the United States on a special visa for Afghans who worked for the U.S. government during the war. Some are U.S. citizens, including many of their children.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Congress this week that about 100 U.S. citizens remain in the country and want to leave. Rescue groups and lawmakers believe the number could be higher.
DETROIT (AP)  Provocative pro-Palestinian protests outside a Jewish synagogue in Michigan are protected by the Constitution's First Amendment, a federal court appeals said Wednesday.

The court declined to stop the demonstrations or set restrictions in Ann Arbor. The protests have occurred on a weekly basis since 2003, with people holding signs that say Jewish Power Corrupts, Stop Funding Israel and End the Palestinian Holocaust.

Members of Beth Israel Congregation, including some Holocaust survivors, said the protests have interfered with their Saturday worship and caused emotional distress.

But the congregants have not alleged that the protesters ever blocked them from using their synagogue or that the protests were even audible from inside the building, Judge Jeffrey Sutton said.

He said a proposed remedy  a 1,000-foot (305-meter) buffer and limits on signs  would likely violate the First Amendment.

The key obstacle is the robust protections that the First Amendment affords to nonviolent protests on matters of public concern, Sutton said in summarizing the case.

He was joined by Judge David McKeague. Judge Eric Clay agreed with the result but on different grounds.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a brief in support of the activists, saying the protests are entitled to protection even if offensive, upsetting and distasteful.

If public officials and courts have discretion to suppress speech they dont like, then none of us truly enjoys the freedom of speech, Dan Korobkin of the ACLU said.

___

Follow Ed White at http://twitter.com/edwritez
LONDON (AP)  The European Union's top official outlined ambitious plans to help beef up the bloc's chipmaking capability in the face of intensifying global competition for semiconductors.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen unveiled the European Chips Act on Wednesday to provide official support for the bloc's chip ecosystem so that the continent can stand on its own when it comes to producing the vital technology.

Semiconductors are the tiny microchips that act as the brains for everything from smartphones to cars, and an extended shortage has highlighted the importance of chipmakers, most of which are based in Asia, to global supply chains. Automakers have been among the hardest hit by the shortage, which has slowed or halted production.

While global demand has exploded (for chips), Europes share across the entire value chain, from design to manufacturing capacity has shrunk," von der Leyen said in a self styled State of the European Union address to the bloc's parliament in Strasbourg. We depend on state-of-the-art chips manufactured in Asia."

Europe's Chips Act will link research, design and testing, and coordinate EU and national investment, she said.

The aim is to jointly create a state-of-the-art European chip ecosystem, including production," which will ensure a secure supply of chips, she said. She didn't specify whether financial support would be given.

The U.S. has also been stepping up efforts to bolster the industry, and lawmakers approved a bill earlier this year with the goal of boosting domestic semiconductor production, part of a wider rivalry with China over trade and technology.

Von der Leyen said chipmaking is also important for Europe's tech sovereignty" - the idea that the EU should be more self-sufficient and rely less on U.S. or Chinese tech.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP)  The former owner of a Richmond assisted living facility pleaded guilty Wednesday to health care fraud after spending more than $800,000 meant for residents care on travel, gambling expenses and personal debts, federal prosecutors said.

Mable Jones, 78, owned and operated Jones & Jones, an assisted living facility for elderly and incapacitated adults, according to court documents. As a representative payee for residents who were legally incapable of managing their own funds, she regularly received state and federal benefit payments on their behalf.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP)  The Charlotte division of the FBI says it is launching a campaign across North Carolina to raise awareness about federal hate crimes and to encourage people to report them.

A news release from the agency on Monday says the campaign is part of a nationwide effort coordinated through FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C. The national campaign includes billboards, social media, gas station pump ads, and radio, television, and bus advertisements.
MENOMONIE, Wis. (AP)  Investigators were reviewing bridge and highway cameras to try to figure out who killed four Minnesota residents whose bodies were found in an SUV abandoned in a Wisconsin cornfield.

Family members say the two men and two women had been together at a bar Saturday night St. Paul, Minnesota. A farmer discovered the bodies Sunday in his Dunn County cornfield, about 60 miles (97 kilometers) to the east, on Sunday. All four had suffered gunshot wounds, authorities said.
MIAMI (AP)  A South Florida man claiming to be a film financier was sentenced Tuesday to 13 years in prison for running a scheme to steal over $60 million from investors and producers seeking financing for movies and Broadway shows.

Benjamin Forrest McConley, 39, was sentenced in Miami federal court, according to court records. Besides serving prison time, he must also pay restitution. He pleaded guilty in 2019 to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
MILWAUKEE (AP)  First lady Jill Biden visited a Milwaukee elementary school Wednesday to talk with parents and educators about the return to in-person learning and to promote direct federal funds for COVID-19 safety protocols.

We cant know what the future holds, but we know what we owe our children, Biden said. We owe them a promise that well do all that we can to keep their schools open, and as safe as possible.
PARIS (AP)  Emergency workers rescued or evacuated hundreds of people in southern France as flash flooding abruptly turned roads and fields into rivers and lakes.

No casualties have been reported, but new heavy rainfall threatened the area Wednesday. Local authorities said the rains caused significant damage to homes and infrastructure across towns and villages between Nimes and Montpellier.

A man who had been believed swept down the Rhony River was found safe after he had taken refuge nearby, the local administration for the Gard region tweeted Wednesday.

One person was hit by lightning but survived, and a supermarket roof collapsed under the pounding water, according to the regional emergency service.

People evacuated from a campground described on BFM television that they watched waters surge toward their campers. About 800 firefighters were mobilized to rescue people via helicopter and other means.

Schools across the region and a major highway and other roads were closed Wednesday as cleanup work started in some towns.

The flooding comes after a season of extreme weather that saw devastating wildfires near the French Riviera and around the Mediterranean, record-breaking flooding in Germany and Belgium and droughts or heat waves in other areas around the world. Scientists say such events are expected but happen more frequently now as the planet is warming because of human-caused climate change.

The government will declare the floods a natural catastrophe to free up aid and insurance payments, government spokesman Gabriel Attal said Wednesday. He promised help for residents and others who suffered damages to heal the wounds of this flood.
FLAT ROCK, Mich. (AP)  Ford Motor Co. will send $500 checks to every household that was evacuated from a southeastern Michigan city because of a gasoline leak from the automakers plant into the communitys sewer system, representatives said Tuesday.

The checks would total $600,000 for 1,200 displaced households, The Detroit News reported.
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP)  Former Alabama gubernatorial candidate Tim James said Wednesday that he is considering challenging fellow Republican Gov. Kay Ivey in next years governors race.

James, the son of former Gov. Fob James, said he will decide by the end of the year. Taking on a well-funded incumbent is typically an uphill battle in a primary, but his entry into the race could thwart the governors hopes of having only minimal opposition in 2022.

Staking out far-right political territory, the 59-year-old toll road developer has defended peoples decisions to decline the COVID-19 vaccine and on Wednesday called transgender acceptance, critical race theory and yoga in gym class part of a beast with three heads threatening children in public schools.

I dont have to tell you that many problems exist today in America, but they are pale compared to what this nation will look like if we lose this cultural war and America becomes a secular godless nation flowing to and fro in the wind with no plumb line, no principles, James said.

He criticized newly passed Alabama legislation that allowed students to do yoga in schools. They took prayer out of schools and then they put in this Trojan horse called yoga, he said, noting its ties to Hinduism. The elder James had fought legal battles a governor over school prayer.

Iveys campaign zeroed in on his yoga comments when asked about James' possible entry into the race.

We appreciate his unwavering commitment to the important fight on yoga. As for Governor Ivey, she doesnt do any yoga, Iveys campaign joked in a statement.

Ivey this spring signed legislation reversing a decades-old ban on yoga in public schools. The legislation had a number of restrictions and forbids religious teachings with yoga and saying the greeting namaste.

Rep. Jeremy Grey, the sponsor of the legislation, has said the exercises can boost physical and mental and the bill is written to forbid teaching religion.

Alabama Superintendent of Education Eric Mackey has said critical race theory is not taught in public schools.

James largely declined to comment on Ivey on Wednesday, saying that was a subject for another day. In July, he criticized Iveys comments saying unvaccinated people were to blame for a spike in COVID-19 case. James said Iveys comment was off base.

James ran for governor in 2002 and 2010, when he narrowly missed making the GOP runoff, finishing about 200 votes behind the eventual winner, Robert Bentley, who was elected governor that year.

Look, Ive lost. It didnt kill me. But I think if we do it, I think Ill win it, James replied when asked about the difficulty of taking on an incumbent.

Stacy Lee George, a correctional officer and former Morgan County commissioner is running against Ivey. State Auditor Jim Zeigler has said he is also considering a run.

Fob James turned 87 Wednesday. Tim James said his parents now live in Miami. His mother Bobbie James is in a nursing facility there, and his father lives in a nearby independent-living apartment in order to stay with her. James said his father is doing well.

He watches FOX News, just stays on top of everything. He loved Trump, he said.
MADISON, Wis. (AP)  A Republican attorney who worked in former President Donald Trumps administration and falsely claimed the 2020 election was stolen in Wisconsin appears to have been hired to help with the taxpayer-funded investigation into how the election was run.

Andrew Kloster was listed as the author of a letter signed by lead investigator Michael Gableman, a former Wisconsin Supreme Court justice, sent in an email to county election clerks this week. Gableman has a budget of nearly $680,000 to hire whomever he wants to assist with the investigation, which was ordered by Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos.

Gableman and Kloster did not immediately return messages Tuesday or Wednesday asking about Klosters role in the investigation.

Kloster worked as an observer for the Wisconsin Republican Party on election night and was accused of yelling at election workers and police in Green Bay, a claim he disputes.

Klosters name showed up as the author of a pdf attachment to an email sent Monday to election clerks and signed by Gableman. That email, sent under the name john delta, asked clerks to retain election data, which state and federal law already requires them to do.

Clerks told The Associated Press that the email raised security concerns because it had an attachment and came from a Gmail address rather than a state government account. It was flagged as junk mail in at least eight counties.

Shortly after being contacted for comment Tuesday, Kloster deleted nearly all of the tweets on his Twitter account, where he describes himself as an ecumenical rightist.

Gablemans investigation has already drawn bipartisan criticism and news of Klosters involvement was likely to increase skepticism about the legitimacy and fairness of the probe.

Gableman has not announced the names of anyone he has hired for the investigation or submitted any invoices for expenses. Vos has said the probe would be independent and resolve any questions about whether anything irregular or illegal occurred in the election.

Republicans have questioned numerous aspects of the 2020 election, but produced no evidence of widespread fraud. President Joe Bidens win over Trump by just under 21,000 votes has also withstood recounts in Milwaukee and Dane counties and numerous state and federal lawsuits filed by Trump and his supporters. To date, only two people out of 3.3 million votes cast have been charged with election fraud.

Kloster, who has deep conservative roots, has been outspoken proponent of Trump's false claim that the election was stolen from him.

Gableman also told Trump supporters in November that he thought the election had been stolen. After he was hired as special counsel, Gableman said he was committed to conducting an evidence-based investigation that will thoroughly examine the election and ensure that people are confident their vote counts.

Kloster is active with the Federalist Society. A biography on its website says that he has a long tenure in the conservative legal movement, at the Scalia Law School, the Heritage Foundation, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, and elsewhere.

Kloster served in the Trump administration as deputy general counsel at the Office of Personnel Management and associate director of the White House Office of Presidential Personnel. In January, just before Trump left office, Kloster was appointed to the Council of the Administrative Conference of the United States.

After his work observing the election in Wisconsin, Kloster submitted an affidavit making unsubstantiated claims about wrongdoing in Brown County and in April published a blog post where he said, without evidence, the 2020 presidential election was stolen, fair and square. No use complaining.

Amaad Rivera-Wagner, who works as a community liaison in Green Bay Mayor Eric Genrich's office, described a confrontation with Kloster on election night in an email he sent to the citys attorney in mid-November.

Rivera-Wagner said Kloster verbally accosted him, screamed at election workers who were counting ballots, accused Rivera-Wagner of not working for the city and yelled at police.

I then turned to him and said Sir, I work for the city and I am talking to Green Bay Police Officers, I need you stop following us, according to Rivera-Wagners email. I asked the police to ask him to stop following us.

Other poll workers gave similar accounts in sworn affidavits.

In his statement, Kloster gives a different version of events, saying Green Bay police were called after he was asking questions of county election officials.

At some point, I was surrounded by City of Green Bay police and was prevented from observing, Kloster wrote.

Vos, who hired Gableman to run the investigation, did not immediately return a message Wednesday asking about the apparent hiring of Kloster. Vos consulted with Trump about the probe, promising to give the former president regular updates.

Separately, Republicans have authorized an investigation by the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau, which is expected to be done this fall. A handful of Republicans, including the Assembly elections committee chairwoman, are pushing for a broader review similar to the much-derided effort in Arizona led by Cyber Ninjas, a small cybersecurity firm based in Florida picked to lead the review.
MEXICO CITY (AP)  Gunmen who briefly abducted 23 migrants from a Mexican hotel had been planning to demand ransom from their relatives living in the United States, prosecutors said Wednesday.

It was not clear why the armed gang that abducted a total of 39 people from a hotel early Tuesday later released them all, though the prosecutors office in the northern state of San Luis Potosi said it was because the abductors knew they were being sought by authorities.

The office said the migrants among those abducted included Cubans, Haitians and Venezuelans.

Cuban migrants have often been kidnapped for ransom by criminal gangs in Mexico, because they frequently have well-established relatives in the United States who can pay thousands of dollars for their family members' release. But the practice may now be extending to other nationalities.

Prosecutors said police are investigating the 16 Mexicans also snatched from the hotel in the city of Matehuala where the migrants were staying, to see if any were involved in migrant smuggling. The office said that "the possibility may exist they were informants, or may have been the ones taking them (the migrants) north.

Gunmen travelling in three vehicles pulled up to the hotel before dawn Tuesday intending to abduct the migrants and force them to hand over telephone numbers of relatives living in the United States, prosecutors said.

The Mexicans were found on a road near a convenience store late Tuesday, and the migrants were found in a nearby hamlet. All are now safe.

Costlier migrant smuggling operations often put up their clients in small hotels as they move them north. Organized crime gangs traditionally charge a tax for each migrant moved through their territory. If that tax is not paid or a rival smuggling group sees an opportunity, such abductions can occur.

Rival gangs also sometimes simply hijack groups of migrants from other traffickers.
The U.S. Treasury Department issued a report Wednesday that detailed the high price and low wages for child care, a problem that makes it harder for parents to work and one that the Biden administration aims to fix with its budget proposal.

Vice President Kamala Harris and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen presented the findings in remarks that drew on personal experiences. Harris recalled spending weekdays with Regina Shelton, who ran a childcare center from her home while the vice president's mother was in the lab researching breast cancer.

She became a second mother to my sister and me, Harris said. My mother often said that, but for Miss Shelton, she would not have been able to do the work that she did.

Yellen recalled posting a classified advertisement for a babysitter when she was returning to work 40 years ago as an economics professor after having given birth. Yellen and her husband, the economist George Akerlof, decided to pay wages above the market rate in order to receive better care.

Its a completely rational reason to pay someone more, especially if the job is some of the most intimate work there is, which is caring for children, Yellen said. Our hypothesis proved correct, at least in our own home.

But Yellen emphasized that her experience is far from normal in the United States. The Treasury report draws attention to a troubling paradox in child care: It costs families too much money, yet the sector's workers receive chronically low pay that undermines the quality of care.

Child care is a textbook case of a broken market, Yellen said.

An average family with just one child under 5 would need to devote 13% of their income for child care. That's more than an average family spends on food and the report concludes that it's an unaffordable sum.

Child care workers earn an average of $24,230. More than 15% of the industry's workers live below the poverty line in 41 states and half need public assistance. As a result, the sector has high levels of turnover with 26% to 40% leaving their job each year. Nor is their much room to give among child care centers that tend to operate on profits of 1% or less.

The result is stressed parents, lower levels of women holding jobs and widening levels of inequality.

The Biden administration says it can resolve these problems through a substantial increase in investment in young children. It would cap child care expenses at 7% of a family's income. Universal pre-school for 3 and 4-year-olds would be provided. Families with children under 13 could receive dependent care tax credits of $4,000 per child or $8,000 for two or more children.

The government would also fund child care centers to ensure workers can receive a living wage.

Another key element would be the expanded child tax credit, which is providing families with children under the age of 6 with $300 a month per child and $250 monthly for older children.

But some lawmakers are hesitant to provide the comparatively robust benefits being proposed by the administration.

The president's plan would remove work requirements for families receiving the child tax credit, something that West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a key Democratic vote for passage, opposes.

Tax credits are based around people that have tax liabilities," Manchin told a reporter for Insider, a news outlet. Im even willing to go as long as they have a W-2 and showing theyre working.
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP)  Minnesota House Democrats voted Tuesday night to expel Rep. John Thompson from their caucus following allegations of domestic violence and questions about his residency.

Rep. Thompsons actions, credible reports of abuse and misconduct, and his failure to take responsibility remain unacceptable for a member of the Minnesota House, House Speaker Melissa Hortman and Majority Leader Ryan Winkler said in a joint statement.
HART, Mich. (AP)  A human jawbone with more than a dozen teeth has been discovered in Silver Lake in Michigan's northern Lower Peninsula.

It looks very old, maybe even ancient, Oceana County Sheriff Craig Mast told MLive.com.
NEW ORLEANS (AP)  Tropical Depression Nicholas hovered over Louisiana on Wednesday, raining on a region struggling to recover from Hurricane Ida and deluging coastal Mississippi, Alabama and northwest Florida.

Flash flood warnings were in effect Wednesday evening in parts of south Alabama and northwest Florida. And the National Weather Service said heavy rains were likely to last until Nicholas dissipates over Louisiana some time Friday. In Louisiana, the rainfall complicated an already difficult recovery at homes ripped open by Ida on Aug. 29. Thousands remain without power in Texas and Louisiana.

I'm not sure at this point what it looks like, said Edith Anthony, whose home in LaPlace, a New Orleans suburb between Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River, suffered roof damage while getting about 2 to 3 feet (0.6 to 0.9 meters) of floodwater two weeks ago.

They still don't have electricity, and couldn't arrange for a tarp to cover the roof before Nicholas blew in. She and her husband were staying in a Mobile, Alabama, hotel, preparing to return this weekend to take a look at what's left of their home.

Nicholas was centered Wednesday afternoon about 75 miles (125 kilometers) south of Alexandria, Louisiana, creeping eastward at 2 mph (4 kph). It was forecast to dump as much as 6 inches (15 centimeters) of rain from southeast Louisiana into the Florida Panhandle through Friday, with 10 inches (25 centimeters) possible in isolated areas.

Life-threatening flash flooding impacts, especially in urban areas, remain a possibility in these areas, forecasters said. The weather service reported that as much as 5 inches (13 centimeters) had fallen in Alabama's Baldwin County and in northwest Florida as of Wednesday afternoon. News outlets reported flooded roads in Baldwin County and around Pensacola, Florida.

Nicholas dumped as much as 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain on parts of Texas  and the weather service was checking reports of nearly 14 inches (35 centimeters) of rain in Galveston  after making landfall as a Category 1 hurricane, the 14th named storm of the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season. Houston reported more than 6 inches (15 centimeters). Parts of Louisiana received more than 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain from the storm.

In Louisiana, the flash flood danger was expected to end Thursday, but the rain is forecast to linger for days.

We're going to be in a wet weather pattern well into next week," said meteorologist Christopher Brannan at the National Weather Service. He said Nicholas, now a tropical depression, would likely stall over southwest Louisiana while it dissipates into a a remnant low pressure system.

More than 112,000 electricity customers were still without power Wednesday morning in Texas, including 75,000 in the Houston area. At its peak, more than half a million homes and businesses were without power in Texas.

In Louisiana on Wednesday, 72,000 were still without power more than two weeks after Ida. Power had largely been restored in New Orleans, where the entire city had been blacked out by the storm. But problems remained, including piles of debris and smelly garbage that officials were struggling to collect. Ida exacerbated an existing labor shortage that had slowed collection even before the storm. City officials announced Wednesday that they had opened a site where residents could take bagged household garbage and dispose of it free of charge.

Jerry Nappi, a spokesperson for Entergy Louisiana, said the utility company, which serves much of the state, did not expect Nicholas to lengthen restoration times.

Joe Ticheli, manager and CEO of South Louisiana Electric Cooperative Association, said the rain from Nicholas hadnt affected their operations. The cooperative serves about 21,000 customers across five parishes including parts of the hard-hit Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes.

As of late Tuesday, he said power has been restored to about 80% of its customers with the remaining 20% mostly in the hardest-hit parts of southern Terrebonne parish. However, he noted, that the destruction in those areas is so catastrophic that even when power is restored houses and businesses wont be able to receive it.

The worst of the weather largely spared the city of Lake Charles in southwest Louisiana  hit last year by hurricanes Laura and Delta  where city crews scoured the drainage system to keep it free from debris during Nicholas. Mayor Nic Hunter said he's been worried about how his people are coping.

With what people have gone through over the last 16 months here in Lake Charles, they are very, understandably, despondent, emotional. Any time we have even a hint of a weather event approaching, people get scared, he said.

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Associated Press reporters Jay Reeves, in Pointe-aux-Chenes, Louisiana, and Juan A. Lozano in Surfside Beach, Texas, contributed to this report.
BETTENDORF, Iowa (AP)  A man accused of suffocating his brother to death was charged Tuesday with attempted murder.

An arrest affidavit alleges Todd Alan Laing Sr. of Bettendorf, Iowa, put his hands over his brother's mouth on Nov. 11, expecting and intending to cause his death, the Quad-City Times reported.

The attack was witnessed by a family member, and Laing admitted to others that he had put his hands over his brothers mouth, according to the affidavit.

Scott County First Assistant Attorney Amy DeVine said Laing wasnt charged with murder because those charges require the perpetrator to have had malice aforethought and state prosecutors didnt feel they could prove such malice. A charge of attempted murder doesnt have the same requirement.

Prosecutors also couldnt charge Laing with voluntary manslaughter because that requires some sort of instigator that would cause a reasonable person to react violently, and that didnt occur in Laings case, DeVine said. Prosecutors didnt want to charge him with anything less because the killing was done on purpose, she said.

Attempted murder is a felony punishable by up to 25 years in prison.
Gov. Ned Lamont said Tuesday he wants the states mask mandate in public schools to extend past Sept. 30 when his pandemic-related powers are due to expire.

Legislative leaders from both parties and the Lamont administration in a meeting later Tuesday discussed the possibility of a 120-day extension of his powers. That would coincide with start of regular legislative session in February 2022.

I just think it should continue a little bit longer, Lamont said of the school mask mandate after an unrelated event in Hartford Tuesday morning. Weve got not just delta, but mu. Weve got flu season. The flu is coming up from the southern states. I think well know a lot more in six weeks.

Lamont did not say whether he would extend the statewide K-12 mask order for six weeks, or some other length of time, or leave it open-ended. He also did not say what COVID-19 infection benchmarks he and his public health people would like to see before allowing school systems to make their own decisions about mask requirements.

Increase in COVID-19 cases among children

The governors comments came as the American Academy of Pediatrics warned that national COVID-19 cases among children have increased exponentially in recent weeks. Connecticut data shows the bump locally has been small.

Overall, the data provided by AAP showed that nationwide, there were nearly 500,000 new COVID-19 cases among children over a two-week period ending on Sept. 9  the highest number of new cases involving children in a two-week span since the start of the pandemic and a sizable jump from previous weeks.

Nationally, the number of cases among children increased by 28.9 percent from the previous two weeks, according to AAP.

In Connecticut during the same period, there were roughly 2,100 new cases of COVID-19 for those up to age 19. This represented an increase of about 70 cases compared to two weeks prior, a 3.5 percent increase, data shows.

In the past two weeks, about 25 percent of the new cases in Connecticut were reported among children.

Experts in Connecticut have acknowledged that cases are swelling among children in other parts of the country, but the trend is not as dramatic in Connecticut.

Its delta, we are seeing many more pediatric hospitalizations, cases and deaths. Connecticut is probably still doing OK, but across the country, its way up as compared to last year, Dr. Ulysses Wu, chief epidemiologist for Hartford HealthCare said ahead of the start of the school year.

The most recent statistics from the state show that 386 students in K-12 have tested positive for COVID-19 since the start of the school year. All but 20 were unvaccinated.

None of our kids 12 and under are vaccinated. Thats no different school district by school district. I think thats why it was important that we have a mandate to keep kids safe and keep kids in school, Lamont said Tuesday. Look whats going on in Georgia. Theyre not in the classroom. Theyre quarantining.

The governor had indicated in recent weeks that he wanted to keep the school mask mandate in place past the end of this month, given kids under the age of 12 are still not able to get vaccinated against COVID-19 and with the highly contagious delta variant and other coronavirus variants circulating. Tuesday marked his strongest statement about continuing the order.

Education groups back mask order

The states largest teachers union on Tuesday said it was in support of continuing the universal mask mandate and called on state leadership to make that happen.

It certainly is something Im comfortable with, said Kate Dias, the president of the Connecticut Education Association. Universal masking is a first line of defense in preventing the spread of COVID in our school system, particularly as large swaths of grade-school students arent yet eligible for vaccination.

Dias added that mask compliance, too, has been relatively smooth at the local level.

We havent heard a lot of kickback  the students are fairly compliant, she said. Theres recognition on the part of our members that this is an important public health action. They communicate that with their students as well.

Fran Rabinowitz, executive director of the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents, likewise said students have taken to masks just fine.

I have not heard of a case of noncompliance, to be honest with you, said Rabinowitz. The superintendents have commented on how resilient children are, how they just see it as part of their outfit for school so to speak.

I would advocate for the mask mandate to continue. I dont believe were out of the woods yet, and its certainly one of the best mitigating strategies that we have, she said, and added: The easiest way to do it is the continuation of the executive order that is in place right now.

If the mandate were to expire without state action, decisions about masks in K-12 schools would likely fall to local authorities.

We support following guidelines that have been developed at the state level, and we are certain that most parents, teachers and others do as well, said Bob Rader, the executive director of the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education.

Once hopefully the numbers go down with inoculations being available to those under 12, that is a time that we should again look at whether or not the mask mandate should remain in effect, said Rader. Ninety days seems like a reasonable amount of time, especially since we dont know exactly when the inoculations will be available for children.

Vote to extend Lamonts emergency powers

The school mask mandate is one of about 10 executive orders the governor wants to extend past Sept. 30. The list also includes vaccine mandates for state employees, school staff and long-term care workers.

Lawmakers will convene the week of Sept. 27 to vote on whether to continue the governors powers. An extension would be the sixth time lawmakers have pushed his powers beyond a scheduled end date.

I dont believe we are under a state of emergency that rises to the level of a broad designation of power, Republican House leader Vincent Candelora of Branford said. We should follow our neighboring states like Massachusetts and limit the scope of authority that the governor would have.

The Democratic leaders in the Senate and House said Tuesday they both support an extension but for how long is still being negotiated.

The General Assembly could also codify individual orders into law, which, Lamont said Tuesday, is likely to happen for some declarations even if his powers are extended.

House Speaker Matt Ritter, D-Hartford, said its likely that the governor will issue two new orders before the end of the year regarding booster shots for certain adults and vaccines for children under 12, once approved  major milestones in the COVID battle that necessitate the flexibility and freedoms provided to the governor under an emergency declaration.

Why does he need executive power to do that? Weve set up a lot of different ways to get vaccines that violate state statute, Ritter said, adding that statutes have been overriden and relaxed to allow for vaccine clinics in areas such as parking lots that otherwise wouldnt be allowed.

The top six state lawmakers have the authority, under a new law passed during the 2021 legislative session, to reject any of the governors executive orders within 72 hours of issuance. Going forward, Ritter said he and Looney have promised the four other lawmakers to hold a vote any time a member objects to one of Lamonts orders.

Lamont said Tuesday he welcomes legislative input on the states pandemic response but that its too time consuming to have the General Assembly weigh in on every decision even as the Delta-driven surge appears to be subsiding in Connecticut.

Going forward, if I needed a new executive order as regards to booster shoots for people over age of 65 and how we implement that, Ill propose an executive order, itll go to the legislative leaders and theyll have 72 hours to vote up or down, Lamont said. But I need them to be able to make a decision on a timely basis.

On Tuesday, the state reported 1,050 new COVID-19 cases since Monday out of 24, 923 tests for a daily positivity rate of 4.2 percent. An additional 11 patients were hospitalized overnight for a total of 388. Of those, 72% are not fully vaccinated, according to state data.

Staff writers Nick Rondinone and Cayla Bamberger contributed to this report.

julia.bergman@hearstmediact.com
VISALIA, Calif. (RNS)  Its billed as the largest Catholic parish in the United States and its being constructed about 200 miles north of Los Angeles, in whats often referred to as the heart of Californias dairy industry.

With an estimated $18.5 million price tag, St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church will seat 3,200 people, will encompass approximately 33,000 square feet and is expected to open in spring 2022. The church is being built in Visalia, a city in Tulare County, and Catholic leaders there are hailing it as the largest U.S. parish in terms of seating capacity.

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This content is written and produced by Religion News Service and distributed by The Associated Press. RNS and AP partner on some religion news content. RNS is solely responsible for this story.

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The new church  financed by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fresno and private donations  will feature 9-foot-tall stained glass windows in its sanctuary, a baptismal font at the parish entrance, Stations of the Cross with 14 devotional posts and an octagon-shaped dome highlighted in antique gold featuring murals of the four Evangelists.

The church, which will reflect California-mission inspired architecture, will also showcase a 48-foot-high devotional painting on canvas depicting portraits of archangels hovering above as saints kneel and worship the Holy Trinity. The painting will pay homage to the region with images of citrus trees, cattle and green pastures that are synonymous with the agricultural Central Valley.

St. Charles Borromeo will be able to fit more people than the Christ Cathedral  formerly the Crystal Cathedral, Robert H. Schullers megachurch taken over by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange in 2012  which can seat 2,248 congregants. And while St. Matthew Catholic Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, may have more than 11,000 registered families, it seats about 2,100 people. The National Shrine in Washington, D.C., seats 3,500 but is not considered a parish church.

To the Rev. Alex Chavez, pastor of Good Shepherd Catholic Parish in Visalia, the new church is a sign of divine providence, especially amid the pandemic when everything is dull and depressing, here in this little part of California were building this behemoth.

Its the best-kept secret in the nation  little Visalia building the largest parish church in modern U.S. history, Chavez said.

Visalia, a city with just over 140,000 people, is wedged between Fresno and Bakersfield in the San Joaquin Valley  a region where, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures, Latinos are the majority in six of its eight counties. The city has experienced population growth over the last decade, with the number of residents increasing from 124,442 in 2010 to 141,384 in 2020, census figures show.

While it may seem jarring for such a massive church to be located in a county where, as a 2017 Visalia Times Delta headline noted, theres nearly more cows than people, Chavez said the large-scale parish  which has been years in the making  is necessary to address the Catholic population boom in a region where, like much of the world, there is a dire shortage of priests.

Theres been an uneven growth of Catholics in the U.S. over the last 40 years as Western and Southern states experienced a boom in the Catholic population, said Jonathon Wiggins, director of parish surveys at the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate.

In 1980, 16% of all Catholics were in the West, and by 2019, that rose to 27%, Wiggins said.

The growth is apparent in the Diocese of Fresno where the number of Catholics, between 1980 and 2019, rose from about 307,000 to 972,000.

Meanwhile, the number of active priests in the diocese has decreased from 90 to 67 in the same time period, Wiggins said. In 1980, the ratio of Catholics to active priests was 3,411-to-1. By 2019, the ratio was 14,511-to-1.

In places like the West and the South, youre seeing these bigger churches because you have a lot of Catholics there, Wiggins said. You have fewer priests than you did 40 years ago, while you are getting more Catholics, so you need bigger venues.

What youre seeing in California is quite a large growth, he added.

To serve Visalias growing congregations with fewer priests, the citys three churches were consolidated in 2016 into whats known as Good Shepherd Catholic Parish. A small congregation in nearby Goshen is also part of this umbrella.

Before the pandemic, Chavez  a former engineer who grew up in nearby Porterville  and two other priests would travel from church to church to celebrate 11 Masses in English and Spanish over the weekend. Now, in the wake of COVID-19, Chavez and one other priest host a total of five weekend Mass services on Sundays at a parish hall behind the construction of the new church.

We were running around like a chicken without our head, said Chavez, noting the pandemic has allowed them to consolidate Masses in one location at the parish hall.

The consolidation of parishes is happening all around the country, said Scott Thumma, a Hartford Seminary sociologist of religion. The lack of priests is a big reason why, but it also varies by regions, with their own growth or declining rates.

While Western and Southern states have seen a rise in Catholics, some churches in the East and Midwest have experienced dwindling attendance. Thumma said dioceses in those regions may look at a churchs deferred maintenance and necessary repairs and decide it makes more sense to consolidate.

The Archdiocese of Chicago this May announced a number of parishes would consolidate amid financial struggles, declining attendance and a shortage of priests. Years earlier, in 2014, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York announced the merging of 112 parishes into 55 new parishes as it experienced similar circumstances.

The idea for a new and bigger church in the region emerged about two decades ago, Chavez said, when then-Bishop John Thomas Steinbock envisioned a geographically central place to gather for celebrations but the dioceses mother church, St. Johns Cathedral, could only seat 450 people.

Plans for the church began taking shape in 2008, when, according to The Business Journal, the diocese obtained a conditional use permit from the city to build a church, parish hall, school and other buildings on a 17-acre parcel. The parish hall  where congregants currently gather for Sunday Mass  was built, but construction of the church was stalled due to lack of funds. Efforts to build the church resumed in 2017 but suffered a number of delays during the pandemic.

Once St. Charles Borromeo is completed, all Sunday Masses in Visalia and major diocesan celebrations, such as priest ordinations, will be held there. Baptisms, funerals, weddings, confessions and daily Masses will continue to be hosted at the neighborhood parishes. Thats how we keep them going through the week, Chavez said.

Across Visalia, construction of the church is the talk of the town, Chavez said. But early on, there was some resistance. Some congregants, Chavez said, feared they would lose the identity of their neighborhood church and wanted to keep Sunday Mass at the parish where generations of family had attended. St. Marys Catholic Church, for example, is more than 150 years old.

They want to hold on to what theyre used to, the neighborhood church, and thats where the resistance is, Chavez said. Thats where the difficulty is, letting go.

But Chavez said it just wouldnt be feasible to continue the weekend services at each individual church. One or two of the parishes would be without a pastor, he said.

Henry Medina, deacon and director of administration of Good Shepherd Catholic Parish, recognizes that parishioners will be transitioning from their smaller community churches to a megachurch thats not necessarily in their neighborhood. Its also an opportunity to unite the areas Catholics, he said.

The new church, Medina said, will be a place where parishioners who are Latino, Portuguese, white, Vietnamese and Filipino as well as farmworkers, farmers, and professionals could gather under one roof.

You start to see, now, the blending of all the different cultures, he said. All these parishes now come under a new identity and what they had in the past is now historic.

Added Chavez: Now all the Catholics in the city of Visalia are under one roof united under one God.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP)  The Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners was created and maintained for the discriminatory purpose of denying Black residents their right to control the police department, a lawsuit filed Tuesday contends.

Gwen Grant, president and CEO of the Urban League of Greater Kansas City, also alleged in her lawsuit that the police board violated taxpayer rights under the Hancock Amendment, a citizens' initiative approved by voters in 1980 that limits state revenues and local taxes, KCUR-FM reported.
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP)  Two lawyers are demanding the removal of two courthouse murals in Columbia that show a white man pointing a gun at a Native American man, shirtless Black men chained by their ankles, and white men being hanged and whipped.

Gary Oxenhandler and Rusty Antel say the artwork in the Boone County Courthouse, which was painted by Sidney Larson in 1994, has been personally and professionally upsetting, The Columbia Missourian reported Tuesday.

County commissioners are seeking public input on the lawyers' request, which comes as communities around the country reconsider historical statues and murals in the context of present day values.

Were looking at the issue of whether or not they should be removed, and if so, what should be done with them? And what would be replaced? Or what would be replaced in their absence? said Presiding Boone County Commissioner Dan Atwill.

Antel said he and Oxenhandler received about 70 responses from other lawyers in the county who support removing the murals. He said the murals depict extrajudicial punishment that is not allowed today and can intimidate people who visit the courthouse and may already be afraid of the court system.

For people who are there in criminal cases, who typically are people of color and have public defenders, (when) theres just a whole mistrust of the entire system, this just makes it worse  it just amplifies it. Weve heard a lot from the public defenders, that, indeed, their clients are really bothered by it, said Antel.

The murals depict multiple scenes from Columbias history, including when Southern guerrillas burned property and terrorized and murdered Union loyalists in 1864, according to an accompanying plaque. Another scene shows a white man being punished for stealing a cow.

Three shirtless Black men also are shown chained by their ankles as they carry a plank. The plaque adjacent to the mural reads, Freed slave John B. Lange became a successful entrepreneur. A plank road to Providence is constructed.

Not everyone wants the murals removed. Boone County Bar Association member Bill Powell sent a letter urging that the paintings remain.

If people in the courthouse fail in their job to produce justice, things can go terribly, terribly wrong. Thats what I believe Sid Larson was portraying, by choosing to include the images that are being objected to, Powell said.
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP)  Lawyers for two Palestinians who were captured after escaping from an Israeli prison last week said Wednesday their clients were badly beaten during their arrest, with the most well-known of the prisoners suffering a broken jaw and two broken ribs while in handcuffs.

Six Palestinian prisoners, five of whom have been accused of deadly attacks against Israelis, tunneled out of a maximum-security prison in northern Israel on Sept. 6 in the first mass prison break in decades. Four were recaptured around five days later, apparently while hiding outdoors.

The escape from Gilboa prison in northern Israel exposed a series of security mishaps and was hailed by Palestinians as a show of defiance against Israels half-century occupation of territories they want for a future state. Two of the prisoners are still at large.

Lawyers were able to meet with the recaptured prisoners for the first time late Tuesday and early Wednesday, providing the first opportunity to hear of the escape from the prisoners themselves, rather than Israeli officials and media reports.

A veteran Israeli human rights lawyer representing Zakaria Zubeidi, a well-known militant accused of deadly attacks during the 2000-2005 uprising against Israel, said the security personnel who arrested him handcuffed him and then asked his name.

He said Zakaria, and then he was beaten very badly, Avigdor Feldman told The Associated Press. He said Zubeidi was taken to a hospital where he was given painkillers for the fractures in his jaw and two ribs. Feldman said there were no further abuses during days of interrogation.

A lawyer for Mohammed Aradeh, who was captured along with Zubeidi, said his client was beaten during his arrest before being taken to a nearby police station, where he was stripped naked and subjected to hours of interrogation. The lawyer, Khaled Mahajneh, told the local Al-Jarmaq news outlet that his client has a visible head wound and has been continuously interrogated since then with little sleep.

He doesn't even know what day it is, Mahajneh said.

Israeli police declined to comment. The Shin Bet internal security service, which is currently holding the recaptured prisoners, did not respond to requests for comment.

Israeli security forces have been accused of torturing high-profile prisoners in the past, most recently in 2019 after a deadly bombing in the West Bank. The Shin Bet said at the time that interrogations are carried out in accordance with the law. A 1999 Supreme Court ruling forbids torture, but rights groups say it still occurs and that perpetrators are rarely held accountable.

Lawyers for the escapees described a far less sophisticated plot than initially suspected, saying their clients had no plan for what to do once they tunneled out of the prison.

They said the escapees did not seek help from local Arab residents to avoid getting them into trouble with authorities and were not given any outside assistance. Instead, they kept to rural areas and tried to live off the land, eating wild fruit and waiting for things to settle down.

They didnt have any intention to commit any kind of terrorist attack, Feldman said.

The lawyer for Mahmoud Aradeh, another recaptured prisoner, said his client was the architect of the escape and that work on the tunnel began last December.

The six prisoners went to a mosque in a nearby village after the escape and then split into three groups, the lawyer, Raslan Mahajneh told Palestine TV. He said they tried to enter the occupied West Bank but were unable to because of the heavy Israeli security presence along the frontier.

He said his client was being interrogated for up to eight hours a day but was not tortured or deprived of sleep.

Aradeh and Zubeidi grew exhausted after they were unable to find water, leading to their arrest, Aradeh's lawyer said. The two were found hiding in a truck parking lot in the Arab town of Umm al-Ghanam. The other two were arrested hours earlier in the nearby Arab city of Nazareth.

Israeli media have reported that local residents tipped off police, leading to the capture of the four prisoners. But the lawyers for the Aradehs disputed that, saying security forces stumbled on them by chance. The Aradehs are cousins. It was not clear if their lawyers are also related.

Palestinians have celebrated the escape and held demonstrations in support of the prisoners. Taking part in attacks against the Israeli military or even civilians is a source of pride for many Palestinians, who view it as legitimate resistance to military occupation.

Israel considers it terrorism and typically hands down heavy sentences, even in cases where attacks are thwarted or unsuccessful. Four of the six escaped prisoners, including the Aradehs, were serving life sentences after being convicted on terrorism charges by Israeli military courts, which most Palestinians view as biased and illegitimate. All were members of the Islamic Jihad militant group except for Zubeidi, who is affiliated with the secular Fatah movement.

Feldman said Zubeidi, who is awaiting trial on terrorism charges dating back to the height of the uprising, was only invited to take part in the escape two days before it happened and did not expect it to succeed.

He was amazed at how easy it was to escape, he said.
CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. (AP)  A Suffolk County police officer was arrested for allegedly not responding to several emergency calls last year but filing paperwork saying he did, authorities said Wednesday.

Suffolk County District Attorney Timothy Sini said Matthew Drury, 34, of Lake Grove, New York, faces charges including falsifying business records; offering a false instrument for filing, and official misconduct.
CAIRO (AP)  Libyas interim prime minister arrived in Cairo on Wednesday for talks on future ties between the two African neighbors, an Egyptian official said.

Libyan Premier Abdul Hamid Dbeibah was greeted at the Cairo airport by his Egyptian counterpart, Mustafa Madbouly, according to Nader Saad, an Egyptian government spokesman.

Dbeibah heads Libya's delegation in talks on the so-called Egyptian-Libyan Joint Higher Committee, which focuses on trade and other cooperation. The visit comes less than five months after Madbouly became the most senior Egyptian official to visit Libya since the oil-rich country plunged into chaos in 2011.

Before flying out, Dbeibah held talks with the U.S. State Departments counselor, Derek Chollet, and the U.S. ambassador to Libya, Richard Norland, in the Libyan capital. Chollet and Norland were in Libya to push for stability and prepare for December elections, according to the U.S. Embassy.

The State Department said the two U.S. officials emphasized the urgent need for Libyan leaders to ensure agreement on an electoral framework for national elections on December 24 and also underscored U.S. support for full implementation" of the cease-fire agreement, including the withdrawal of all foreign fighters, mercenaries, and forces from Libya.

Dbeibah's visit to Cairo came less than five months after Madbouly became the most senior Egyptian official to visit Libya since the oil-rich country plunged into chaos following the 2011 uprising that ousted and later killed Libya's longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

Dbeibah, a powerful businessman from the western Libyan city of Misrata, has yet to meet with Gen. Khalifa Hifter, commander of the self-styled Libyan forces in the country's east. Such a meeting would be a breakthrough in efforts to ease growing tensions between the interim government and Hifters forces.

Egypt sees the chaos in neighboring Libya as a threat to its stability, with militants using the Libyan desert as a safe haven for launching attacks on Egypt. Tens of thousands of Egyptians have sought work in Libya over the years, although the number has declined since 2011.

U.N.-sponsored peace talks last year ended fighting between Libyan rivals and drew a political roadmap that would lead the chaos-wrecked country to December elections.
PORTLAND, Maine (AP)  Two of the top ranking Democratic members of the Maine Senate have tested positive for COVID-19 despite being fully vaccinated.

Maine Senate President Troy Jackson tested positive for coronavirus, becoming the highest-ranking official in state government to contract the virus. Senate Major Leader Eloise Vitelli also said she had received a positive test.

Jackson said he is isolating after testing positive in Augusta. He said he is not experiencing symptoms but decided to undergo a rapid test after learning a close contact had the virus.

While breakthrough COVID-19 infections are far more rare, we know that they are possible. More and more breakthrough infections continue to be reported all across the state and country due to the highly contagious delta variant, Jackson, D-Allagash, said Tuesday evening in a statement.

Jackson said he was grateful to be vaccinated since vaccines have proven to be effective in preventing severe symptoms and hospitalizations. Vitelli, of Arrowsic, said she was experiencing only mild symptoms on Wednesday.

I wanted to share my positive test results with the public for the sake of transparency, but also as a reminder that we must continue to use every tool in our toolbox to protect ourselves and each other, Vitelli said.

The lawmakers are two of several state lawmakers to test positive. U.S. Sen. Angus King of Maine also experienced a breakthrough infection and has since recovered.

In other pandemic news in Maine:

THE NUMBERS

New cases of the coronavirus in Maine have risen by nearly 70% from two weeks ago. The number of deaths is growing, too.

The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in Maine has risen over the past two weeks from 262 new cases per day on Aug. 30 to 444 new cases per day on Sept. 13. The seven-day rolling average of daily deaths in Maine has also risen over the past two weeks from about one death per day to about four in the same period.

The AP is using data collected by Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering to measure outbreak caseloads and deaths across the United States.

Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Nirav Shah said the high daily caseloads are unlikely to abate in the short term.

Based on every epidemiological metric we're seeing, we anticipate seeing high numbers for the next week and perhaps even longer than that, Shah said.

Maine CDC reported another 778 infections and seven deaths on Wednesday. That brings the total number of deaths in Maine to nearly 82,000 and the number of deaths to 976.

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SCHOOL IMMUNIZATION RATES

Maine health officials said Wednesday that 76% of school staff members in the state were fully vaccinated against coronavirus.

Maine CDC reported that 73% of the states total eligible population is fully vaccinated against coronavirus. Rates vary around the state, however. The rate in Cumberland County, the states most populous county, is more than 85%, while in more rural Somerset County its less than 60%.

That divide also appears to be true of school staff members. The rate was close to 90% in Cumberland but closer to 60% in more rural Waldo County.

The Maine Department of Health and Human Services has launched the monthly public reporting system about vaccination rates in school staff to try to support immunization efforts in schools.

By publishing these vaccination rates each month, we hope to boost school staff vaccination even further, curb the spread of COVID-19, and equip school leaders with information to make the best decisions for their communities," health department Commissioner Jeanne Lambrew said.

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YOUNGER VICTIMS

COVID-19 infections are skewing younger. Roughly half of infections announced on Tuesday involved people 19 and younger, the Sun Journal reported.

Dr. Gretchen Pianka, a pediatrician, said she and other physicians at Central Maine Pediatrics in Lewiston are seeing more COVID-19 cases among children since the school year started. They're also seeing other types of respiratory viruses, she said.

A Maine CDC report published Tuesday indicated that, as of Sept. 6, nearly 30% of all COVID-19 cases in Maine were among people younger than 25, and 17.5% were among individuals 18 years and younger.
GREENBELT, Md. (AP)  A man described by U.S. authorities as the world's most prolific purveyor of child pornography at the time of his arrest in Ireland was sentenced on Wednesday to 27 years in federal prison.

Eric Eoin Marques, 36, created and operated computer servers on the dark web that enabled users to anonymously access millions of illicit images and videos, many depicting the rape and torture of infants and toddlers. Law enforcement had never seen many of those images before finding them on Marques' servers, according to prosecutors.

U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang told Marques that his crimes were the equivalent of those of a drug kingpin.

This crime was truly despicable, Chuang said.

Prior to learning his sentence, Marques apologized to the victims and asked for mercy from the court.

I have destroyed my reputation and my family's reputation. Please give me a second chance, he told Chuang.

The judge agreed to recommend that the federal Bureau of Prisons give Marques credit for eight years he has served in custody both in Ireland and the U.S. since his 2013 arrest. The judge also ordered him to pay restitution of $87,000 to victims of the child pornography that he helped distribute.

The original version of the plea agreement between Marques and prosecutors called for a prison sentence of 15 to 21 years.

Chuang rejected that deal during a hearing in May, calling it too flawed and saying he was inclined to give Marques a longer sentence than 15 to 21 years.

The revised agreement recommended a prison sentence between 21 and 27 years, but Chuang wasn't bound by those terms.

Prosecutors recommended a 27-year sentence followed by lifetime supervision after his release, a requirement that Chuang also imposed.

Justice Department prosecutor Ralph Paradiso said Marques created an online community for sexual predators to anonymously abuse and exploit children and share the horrific images that they created.

They all got together and they sexually exploited children, he said. They reveled in that sexual exploitation.

Defense attorneys requested a 21-year sentence for Marques, a dual citizen of the U.S. and Ireland. Marques can return to Ireland after he completes his prison sentence.

There is no one in this courtroom who is not repulsed by what happened in this case, said assistant federal public defender Brendan Hurson, one of Marques' lawyers. He will not do this again, and he is remorseful for what he has done.

The original plea deal wouldnt have given Marques credit for the time he spent in custody while fighting extradition after his 2013 arrest in Dublin. But Chuang criticized that provision. The judge said in May that he cant tell the Federal Bureau of Prisons to refrain from counting those years when Marques likely was entitled to get credit for that time.

Marques pleaded guilty in February 2020 to creating and operating a web hosting service called Freedom Hosting on the darknet between 2008 and 2013. The darknet is part of the internet but hosted within an encrypted network. It is accessible only through anonymity-providing tools.

Investigators found what appeared to be more than 8.5 million images and videos of child pornography on the Freedom Hosting server, according to a court filing that accompanied Marques guilty plea.

Marques was living in Ireland at the time of the offenses. He was extradited to Maryland in March 2019. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to advertise child pornography.

In an April court filing, a prosecutor said a government witness was prepared to testify that investigators had identified Marques as the largest purveyor of child pornography in the world and that he had made approximately $3.6 million in U.S. currency from his servers.

Marques lawyers say he made money from his legitimate web-hosting services, not Freedom Hosting.

Acting U.S. Attorney Jonathan Lenzner said Marques caused unspeakable damage" to children.

This is the first case that I'm aware of where we went to the seeds of the trade, the main engine driving so much of the illegal child pornography trade globally," he said.

Chuang told Marques that he hopes he reads the written statements submitted by his victims.

It is heartbreaking to see what has happened to these individuals," the judge said.
NEW YORK (AP)  An Australian man who pleaded guilty to securities fraud for cheating investors in his cryptocurrency fund of over $50 million was sentenced to over seven years in prison Wednesday by a judge who questioned the sincerity of his apology.

U.S. District Judge Valerie E. Caproni in Manhattan imposed the 7 1/2-year sentence Wednesday on Stefan He Qin, 24, who told her he was absolutely heartbroken as he read letters from victims about the pain hed caused investors, including family members, friends and business associates.

Now I feel ashamed to even look them in the eye and tell them I am sorry, but I must, he told the judge.

Authorities said the fraud occurred from 2017 to 2020 as Qin operated the fund, called Virgil Sigma.

Caproni noted that there was a charm to Qin, but she also said that a victim of his Ponzi scheme had warned her not to be taken in by his charm. She said that if his contrition were sincere, he'd never be in a courtroom again.

But if hes charming me the way he charmed his victims; hes a real danger because he thinks his needs are more important than everyone elses, she added.

She said he deserved a measure of leniency, though, because he had cooperated with authorities as they tried to identify where money from investors went.

U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said Qin promised his investors safety, but investors soon discovered that his strategies werent much more than a disguised means for him to embezzle and make unauthorized investments with client funds

She said in a release that he doubled down on his scheme when he was faced with redemption requests.

"Qins brazen and wide-ranging scheme left his beleaguered investors in the lurch for over $54 million, and he has now been handed the appropriately lengthy sentence of over seven years in federal prison, she said.

Qin pleaded guilty in February, admitting he carried out the fraud when he owned and controlled two Manhattan-based cryptocurrency investment funds, Virgil Sigma and VQR.

Qin, who was ordered to forfeit $54.7 million, told Caproni that he had learned through his crime that success, money and fame were not what was important in life.

I know now that the world is not a video game, he said. I deserve the punishment that Im going to receive today. I will spend the rest of my life trying to make up for the pain Ive caused. I am so, so, so sorry.

He was ordered to report to prison Dec. 15.
STOCKHOLM (AP)  A Swedish court has sentenced a 47-year-old man to three years in prison for spying for Russia by handing over confidential information on the Swedish truck and bus maker Scania to a Russian diplomat in return for money over several years.

The man, identified as Kristian Dimitrievski, had been charged with delivering sensitive corporate information to his handlers about Scania but also about the Chinese-owned Swedish car manufacturer Volvo Cars. The Goteborg District Court acquitted him of that latter charge in its verdict on Wednesday.

Dimitrievski, a civil engineer living in Sweden's second city of Goteborg who worked between 2016-2019 as a consultant first with Volvo Cars and later with Scania, denied the charges. His nationality was not specified in court papers.

The court verdict said that in 2016 Dimitrievski got in touch with a Russian embassy official and the two began to meet with some regularity until the man was arrested at a meeting with the Russian diplomat at a restaurant in central Stockholm in 2019.

The district court has concluded that the man copied secret information from both Volvo and Scania ... that he then handed over to the Russian embassy official, and that he was fully aware that the information he provided would benefit Russia, the court said in a statement.

The Swedish court said that for a suspect to be convicted of espionage it is required to be proven that Swedens security can be damaged if the information provided benefits foreign powers.

The district court has ruled that this is the case with regard to the information ... from Scania, while it has not been proven that this is the case with regard to the information from Volvo, the court said.

Prosecutors had said earlier that the mans actions put Swedens security at risk, and demanded a lengthy sentence. In Sweden, the maximum penalty is for espionage is six years.
LANSING, Mich. (AP)  A Michigan lawmaker was stripped of his committee assignments after a female legislator said they had a volatile personal relationship that included domestic abuse and threats.

Rep. Mari Manoogian, a Birmingham Democrat in her second term, issued a statement Wednesday, a day after third-term Republican Rep. Steve Marino of Macomb County's Harrison Township was removed from two panels, including one he chaired, for unknown reasons.

"The unfortunate reality is that many people in our society have experienced domestic abuse, which often comes from someone we would never expect, Manoogian, 29, said. None of us are immune to a volatile relationship, regardless of our career. It can happen right here in our legislature, where abuse of power and threats to ruin a colleagues reputation, as well as threats of public shaming, can be used to intimidate fellow members of the legislature. I am asking for privacy as I take steps to ensure my safety while I continue to represent my district and do the work of the people.

She did not specify what Marino, 32, allegedly did, nor whether the alleged abuse and threats were physical, verbal or written. A message seeking comment was left for Marino.

Republican House Speaker Jason Wentworth, who disciplined Marino, said state police were investigating.

I will always prioritize the safety of state legislators and those who are serving their community at the state Capitol. Once I learned of this situation, I took immediate action. Going forward, the House is honoring Rep. Manoogians request for privacy while others look into the allegations," he said.

State police spokeswoman Shanon Banner said the agency received a complaint late Tuesday. She declined further comment because the investigation was in the very early stages.

House Democratic Leader Donna Lasinski backed Manoogian and said her caucus will not tolerate any threats of abuse, retribution and public embarrassment that are used to intimidate women.

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Follow David Eggert at https://twitter.com/DavidEggert00
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP)  A Minnesota judge has rejected a request by concerned parents to force a statewide mask mandate in all schools.

Ramsey County District Judge Thomas Gilligan said the court was gravely concerned about the risks of COVID-19 for Minnesota children, but said in his ruling late Tuesday that the court lacks the legal authority to order Gov. Tim Walz to issue the directive that the parents sought.

The longshot legal challenge was unique in that it sought to force the governor to declare a peacetime state of emergency and follow it with a mandate, Minnesota Public Radio reported. In other states, governors who've tried to prevent school districts from requiring mask use have been blocked by courts.

Each Minnesota school district is implementing its own policy. Some require masks for all grades or among the age groups where vaccination isnt yet authorized, but others have made face coverings optional.

A lawyer for the plaintiffs, Parents Advocating for Safe Schools, said the case might not be over.

We knew this would be a difficult case, especially at the trial court level, but its an extremely important one, attorney Marshall Tanick said. And we are examining a number of alternatives, including the possibility of an accelerated or expedited appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court due to the urgency of this matter.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP)  About 1,200 evacuees from Afghanistan are expected to settle in Missouri as part of the first group arriving in the U.S., according to U.S. State Department data.

The data obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press detailed how a first group of 37,000 Afghanistan evacuees will be resettled across the country after they fled from their country when the U.S. ended its long war there and withdrew last month.
DAGSBORO, Del. (AP)  A Georgetown man has been charged with murder in the death of a man who went missing a decade ago, Delaware State Police said.

John Wisniewski of Dagsboro was reported missing in February 2011. Over the next 10 years, investigators continued to look into his disappearance, and Delaware State Police said in January new leads emerged in the case. The leads indicated that Michael Ellingsen fatally shot Wisniewski in January 2011 and buried him on the Dagsboro property where they were both living at the time, police said.
BERLIN (AP)  Pope Francis has rejected the resignation of the archbishop of Hamburg, who offered to step down in March after a report faulted him for his handling of sexual abuse allegations in his previous diocese.

The papal nuncio's office in Berlin said in a statement Wednesday that the pontiff made his decision after two envoys traveled to Cologne in June to look into possible mistakes by senior church officials there in handling past sexual abuse cases. Stefan Hesse, Hamburg's archbishop since 2015, previously served in several senior roles in the Cologne archdiocese.

Hesse's resignation offer followed the release of a report commissioned by his counterpart in Cologne which found 75 cases in which high-ranking officials neglected their duties in such cases. They were criticized, for example, for failing to follow up on or report cases of abuse, not sanctioning perpetrators or not caring for victims.

Hesse was faulted for 11 cases of neglecting his duty. At the end of March, Francis granted him a time out of unspecified length.

The nuncio's office said that the Vatican found personal procedural errors on Hesse's part but an investigation didn't show that they were committed with the intention of covering up cases of sexual abuse.

The fundamental problem consisted, in the wider context of the administration of the archdiocese, in the lack of attentiveness and sensitivity toward those affected by abuse, it added.

The statement said Francis rejected Hesse's resignation and asked him to stay on in view of the fact that the archbishop recognizes with humility the mistakes he made in the past and had offered to quit.

The influential German lay group ZdK, or Central Committee of German Catholics, sharply criticized the Vatican's reasoning. It is a slap in the face for people affected by sexual violence when no personal consequences result from these wrong decisions, said the group's vice president, Karin Kortmann.

Hesse conceded in March that he had made mistakes in the past, and said he very much regretted if he caused new suffering to victims or their relatives through my action or omission.

I never participated in cover-ups, he said. I am nevertheless prepared to carry my part of the responsibility for the failure of the system.

In a statement Wednesday addressed to Catholics in his archdiocese, Hesse acknowledged that it won't necessarily be easy to resume my service.

I will do everything in my power to do justice to this challenge, he wrote. There will have to be a new beginning.

Hesse said it was important for him to reach out to those are perplexed by the pope's decision, question it and/or struggle with it.

Revelations about past sexual abuse have dogged the church in Germany and elsewhere for years.

The archbishop of Cologne, Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, was cleared of wrongdoing by the report that faulted Hesse, but remains under pressure for his handling of the issue. He has refused to step aside.

In June, Francis swiftly rejected an offer from Cardinal Reinhard Marx, one of Germany's most prominent clerics and a close adviser of the pope, to resign as archbishop of Munich and Freising over the church's mishandling of abuse cases. But he said a process of reform was necessary and that every bishop must take responsibility for the catastrophe of the crisis.

Marx himself hasn't been implicated in any reports on abuse so far, but he said all members of the hierarchy shared blame for the failures.
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP)  The City Council in Portland, Oregon, has scrapped a plan to boycott Texas businesses because of a new law that prohibits most abortions there, deciding Wednesday to instead set aside $200,000 to fund reproductive care.

The liberal Pacific Northwest city made headlines earlier this month when Mayor Ted Wheeler announced plans to ban city business with the Lone Star State. However the proposal was abandoned due to concerns that it could be punitive to Texans who, are in fact, the most affected by the abortion law.

Ive heard some suggest that this (law) has no bearing on our local community ... I could not disagree more, Wheeler said during a meeting Wednesday. If this Texas law, restricting the rights of women, is allowed to stand then it will spread to other states  it will jeopardize Roe v. Wade and it will impact our constituents here in the city of Portland."

The boycott would have banned the purchase of goods and services by Portland from Texas and bar city employee travel until the legislation is reversed or overturned.

The boycott threat drew the ire of Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who described Portland on Twitter as a dumpster fire and called its leaders depraved in response.

The new plan to fund reproductive services passed 4-1 on Wednesday. Commissioner Mingus Mapps cast the only no vote, saying he was genuinely mystified by what the City Council was trying to accomplish by allocating the $200,000 to fund reproductive care.

Our city is overwhelmed by multiple crises, this council should focus on solving those, said Mapps, who opposed Texass new anti-abortion law. We have a gun violence crisis. We have a homelessness crisis. We have a trash crisis. And we have a pandemic.

The announcement of a possible ban by Portland on doing business with Texas appeared to have come long before the actual policy making, as officials scrambled to nail down how such a boycott would work or could impact Oregon's largest city.

Spokesperson Heather Hafer said the city had purchased slightly less than $35 million in goods and services from Texas in the past five years.

During Labor Day, city officials met with reproductive health care providers and advocates to discuss the boycott. Wheeler said advocates disagreed with some elements of of the ban and suggested alternatives.

As a result, the measure approved by the Council sets aside $200,000 for organizations that deliver programs and services related to reproductive healthcare. The resolution does not specify where these organizations should be located, but the city is expected to pick the groups and finalize the grant money during the fall.

The resolution also directs the Council to send a letter to the Oregon Congressional delegation urging them to pass the Womens Health Protection Act.

Will what we do today fundamentally change the mindset of Texas legislators? Probably not," Portland City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty said. But what it will do is send a very strong message, to the people of Texas, that we dont abandon them just because unfortunately they have the leadership that they have.

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Sara Cline 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.
LUCKNOW, India (AP)  Infections following monsoon rains have led to a fever outbreak in Indias northern Uttar Pradesh state, killing at least 114 people in the past three weeks, health officials said Wednesday.

The states Health Minister Jai Pratap Singh told The Associated Press that most cases were caused by dengue, a seasonal viral infection spread by mosquitoes, followed by leptospirosis, scrub typhus, and malaria.

Leptospirosis and scrub typhus are bacterial infections, while malaria is a mosquito-borne disease caused by a parasite. They typically spike after the rainy season in India.

Singh said the dengue cases were due to a virulent strain called "D2, which has been detected in some of the state's districts in a sample survey carried out by a team of the Indian Council of Medical Research.

This is a different strain as compared to the regular strain of dengue and there is a need to be careful, he said.

Dengue, also called the breakbone fever for the severe pain it causes, isnt always fatal, but severe cases may require hospitalization. It can lead to internal bleeding, liver enlargement, circulatory shutdown and death.

Prevention efforts targeted at destroying mosquito-breeding sites, like removing trash or old tires and other objects containing standing water, are still the best ways to curb the spread of the disease, according to health experts.

Utkarsh Singh, a senior health official in Uttar Pradesh states Firozabad, said the districts main hospital has recorded more than 1,200 cases of fever linked to the outbreak since Aug. 30, prompting authorities to use hospital facilities that were reserved for COVID-19 cases. He said patients, most of them children, were suffering from high body temperature and bouts of shivering.

We do not have enough beds to keep them. We are forced to accommodate three to four children on one bed, said Singh.

The health system in Lucknow, the state capital, is also buckling as a surge in cases has put pressure on hospitals there.

The city has so far reported over 1,500 cases of fever linked to the outbreak after authorities started conducting door-to-door surveillance last week.

The viral fever has spread like a wildfire across the state," said Mehtab Alam of the Raza Husain Memorial Charitable Society, a non-profit health care organization.

Authorities are scrambling resources to control the outbreak.

Ved Vrat Singh, the states top health official, said makeshift clinics equipped with malaria kits are being set up in villages where people had been reported sick. He said mosquito control vehicles are also being deployed to fumigate areas at risk and people have been advised not to allow stagnation of water.

Uttar Pradesh, Indias most populous state, often figures disproportionately among the post-monsoon infection fatalities in the country because of the weak health system.

Thousands of people suffer from dengue, encephalitis, malaria, typhoid, and other mosquito-borne diseases each year during the summer monsoon.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP)  Qatar resumed its distribution of aid to Gaza on Wednesday for the first time since the May war between Israel and the territory's militant Hamas rulers, this time through a new mechanism that does not involve suitcases full of cash.

The Hamas-run government's official news agency said the money is being disbursed through supermarkets, money exchange shops and other retail stores in a process that will continue over the coming days. The U.N. has said the funding amounts to $40 million.
NAMPA, Idaho (AP)  Roughly 400 Afghan refugees will resettle in Idaho over the next fiscal year, officials with the International Rescue Committee in Boise said on Tuesday.

About 50,000 Afghans are expected to be admitted to the United States under a program called Operation Allies Welcome." The group will include translators, drivers and others who helped the U.S. military during the 20-year war and who feared reprisals from the Taliban after they quickly seized power last month.

Julianne Donnelly Tzul, the executive director of the Boise organization, spoke at a panel Tuesday about the state's role in resettling Afghans, the Idaho Press reported. Most of the Afghan nationals will come in under humanitarian parole, which is like a visa that allows someone enter the country if they have been determined to be in danger and have undergone extensive vetting.

"The process of deciding how many people come to Idaho and every other local area in the U.S. is a very deliberate one, its a careful one, its a collaborative one. Its not unilateral, Tzul said. We are not just handed a number.

Tzul said the process involves communication with schools, medical systems, local governments and law enforcement. Idahos governor, State Police and congressional delegation are invited to a formal quarterly meeting to discuss who might come and the impact on local systems, she said.

Tzul and others on the community panel touched on the same topics that Idaho Gov. Brad Little and the Idaho congressional delegation addressed in a letter sent to President Joe Biden on Friday. Little and the congressmen said they expect the government to uphold the most stringent vetting standards.

Idaho has a long history of helping those who face persecution and life-threatening circumstances due to their religious beliefs, ethnicity, or other political affiliations, they wrote. With that said, the State of Idaho will not tolerate a change to the vetting process in order to expedite the resettlement of refugees.

Idaho Office for Refugees Communications Specialist Holly Beech said her office has full confidence in the thorough screening and vetting process thats in place and has been working for decades.

Nawid Mousa, a civil engineer and former refugee from Afghanistan, said the incoming refugees risked their lives for the United States and should be welcomed with open arms. Mousa said he has faith in the system and local governments taking the right measures to process and vet people.

This country was based on people coming and looking for freedom, Mousa said. We need to not have the intention to somehow bar them from coming in."
Jenna Little/AP

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP)  A California county has paid $11 million to a man who spent two decades in prison after being wrongly convicted of killing his girlfriend in 1998.

The payment settles a federal lawsuit filed by Horace Roberts accusing Riverside County and its sheriff's department of manufacturing the murder case against him, the Riverside Press-Enterprise reported Tuesday.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP)  A Florida woman who vanished while on a nomadic cross-country trip in a converted camper van with her boyfriend is the subject of a nationwide search while authorities labeled him Wednesday as a person of interest in her disappearance.

Investigators say Gabrielle Gabby Petito, 22, was last in contact with her family in late August when the couple was visiting Wyoming's Grand Teton National Park. Much of their trip was documented on social media accounts that abruptly ceased.

The boyfriend, Brian Laundrie, returned to their Florida home in her 2012 white Ford Transit van on Sept. 1  10 days before Petitos family reported her missing  according to police in the Gulf Coast town of North Port. That van has since been impounded by investigators and processed for clues.

Laundrie has not cooperated with police and is now considered a person of interest in the case, North Port police said. He has not been charged with any crime; the FBI and the Suffolk County Police Department in New York are assisting in the investigation.

We are pleading with anyone, including Brian, to share information with us on her whereabouts in the past few weeks," North Port police Chief Todd Garrison said in a statement Wednesday. The lack of information from Brian is hindering this investigation. The answers will eventually come out.

An attorney for the Laundrie family, Steve Bertolino of New York, said in an email Wednesday that the family is remaining in the background" as the search continues and will have no further comment.

In my experience, intimate partners are often the first person law enforcement focuses their attention on in cases like this and the warning that any statement made will be used against you is true, regardless of whether my client had anything to do with Ms. Petitos disappearance. As such, on the advice of counsel Mr. Laundrie is not speaking on this matter, Bertolino said.

Petito and Laundrie were childhood sweethearts in Suffolk County but moved from Blue Point, New York, in 2019 to live with his parents in North Port, which is about 34 miles (54 kilometers) south of Sarasota. They set out on their journey in July from New York, saying on social media accounts they intended to reach Oregon by Halloween.

An eight-minute YouTube video titled Van Life: Beginning our Van Life Journey features scenes from the couples trip.

Gabby Petito, never goes outside, she says while walking with Brian along a beach. The video, set to music, has nearly 450,000 views: Sunsets. Gabby driving the white van. Gabby running along the beach. Gabby preparing food. Other images show the couple sharing kisses, flipping backward on swings and cartwheeling on the beach.

I love the van, she says near the end of the video as the camera pans to the white Ford parked in the Utah desert.

The entry is the only one posted on their YouTube channel, Nomadic Statik.

Thank you so much for watching, and we hope you tag along on our journey wherever the van takes us! they wrote.

Yet there are signs something was seriously wrong.

Police in the southern Utah tourist town of Moab responded to a call about a possible domestic violence incident that officers say was more of a mental health crisis involving the couple on Aug. 12. The officers said in a police report no significant injuries were observed.

One witness called 911 and said he saw Laundrie and Petito fighting over a phone, according to the police report. When Laundrie got back into the van, Petito hit him in the arm before trying to climb through the drivers side window.

Officers said they pulled the van over near the entrance to Arches National Park and saw Petito crying uncontrollably in the passenger seat. She told officers that she was struggling with her mental health.

At no point in my investigation did Gabrielle stop crying, breathing heavily, or compose a sentence without needing to wipe away tears, wipe her nose, or rub her knees with her hands, Officer Daniel Robbins said in his report.

Laundrie reportedly told Robbins that emotional tension had been building between him and Petito and that they were arguing more frequently because they had been traveling together for four to five months.

Laundrie said that when the two of them began arguing in town, he had attempted to separate from Petito so they could calm down. Laundrie said he got into the van but Petito was afraid he would leave without her, so she went to slap him and he pushed her away to avoid the blow, according to the police report.

Officers recommended that the couple spend the night apart but didnt file any charges after investigating.

It's not clear what happened next.

Questions about what Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Park officials are doing with the case were forwarded to National Park Service headquarters in Washington, with spokeswoman Cynthia Hernandez saying in an emailed statement that that the agency is coordinating with other law enforcement agencies about Petitos whereabouts.

Petito is white, 5-foot-5 (1.6 meters) and about 110 pounds (50 kilograms), with blonde hair and blue eyes, police said. She has several tattoos including one on a forearm that reads, let it be.

Petito's family said in a statement that they need answers from Laundrie, including when he last saw her and why he left Gabby all alone and drove her van to Florida.

These are critical questions that require immediate answers, the statement said.

_____

Associated Press writers Frieda Frisaro in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Sophia Eppolito in Salt Lake City; and Mead Gruver in Cheyenne, Wyoming contributed to this story.
ANAMOSA, Iowa (AP)  A second inmate received a life sentence Wednesday for the beating deaths of two Iowa prison workers during a failed escape attempt in March.

Michael Dutcher, 28, pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Anamosa State Penitentiary correctional officer Robert McFarland and nurse Lorena Schulte. He also pleaded guilty to kidnapping another prison worker during the failed escape and to attempted murder for the beating of an inmate who tried to stop the attack.

Judge Fae Hoover-Grinde sentenced Dutcher to serve back-to-back life sentences plus another 50 years behind bars, in what she called an attempt to provide solace to the victims' families. She told Dutcher, whose trial had been scheduled to start next week, that she couldn't imagine a worse crime.

Hoover-Grinde last month sentenced inmate Thomas Woodard to life in prison for his role in the attacks. Both inmates had been serving time at the Anamosa prison for armed robbery convictions.

Investigators say the inmates got into the prison infirmary by claiming they were performing maintenance work, then accessed a break room where they used a handheld power saw to try to cut through the bars on a window. They used hammers to beat 50-year-old Schulte and 46-year-old McFarland to death and to seriously injure inmate McKinley Roby.

The pair, who also held prison dental assistant Lorie Matthes as a hostage, had accessed the tools from a prison work program. Matthes was able to be freed, and the pair was arrested soon afterward.

Matthes, a 29-year employee of the Iowa Department of Corrections, recalled in a victim impact statement how Dutcher grabbed her out of a hallway and forced her into the break room. She said the attack altered her life physically, emotionally and mentally," explaining that she suffered broken ribs and other injuries and she still struggles with the mental harm.

The evilness that took place that day will never be forgotten, she said.

Schulte's sisters and parents described her as a doting aunt and loyal daughter who had looked forward to spending time with family and traveling during retirement.

My sister was a good person, Isabel Schulte told Dutcher. I hate you and I hate your friend.

Roby told Dutcher that he will suffer lifelong scars and trauma from the attack.

May you rot in hell and your soul go to hell for the lives you took and the pain and suffering you caused, he said.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP)  A Sri Lankan minister in charge of prisons submitted his resignation on Wednesday following a public outcry after he allegedly threatened to kill two ethnic minority prisoners.

Lohan Ratwatte, state minister of Prison Management and Prisoners Rehabilitation, was accused of entering a prison in Anuradhapura north of Colombo on Sunday and threatening to kill two Tamil prisoners. He was also accused of forcibly entering another prison in Colombo with his friends.

Ratwatte tendered his resignation to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Wednesday and acknowledged his responsibility for both incidents, the presidents office said in a statement. Rajapaksa accepted his resignation, it said.

Tamil minority lawmaker Gajen Ponnambalam said Ratwatte summoned Tamil prisoners after going to the prison in Anuradhapura. He got two of them to kneel in front of him and pointed his personal firearm at them and threatened to kill them on the spot, Ponnambalam tweeted.

Ratwatte is a member of the Sinhalese ethnic majority.

Tamil lawmakers asked the government to sack the minster and arrest him.

Separately, local newspapers reported that a government minister forcibly entered the Welikada prison in Colombo to allow a group of friends to visit the gallows.

The newspapers did not identify the minister, but the presidents office said Ratwatte acknowledged responsibility for the incidents at both prisons.

It was not immediately possible to obtain a comment from Ratwatte.

Amnesty Internationals Asia-Pacific Director Yamini Mishra called for an inquiry on the incident, saying there must be a prompt, impartial and effective inquiry and the Minister must be held to account for his actions."

Sri Lankan prisons are highly congested, with more than 32,000 inmates crowded into facilities with a capacity of 11,000.

A dozen inmates were killed and 100 others injured last November during a riot by inmates at a prison on the outskirt of Colombo.

Tamil rebels fought to create a separate state during a 26-year civil war but were defeated by government troops in 2009.

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This story has been corrected to show the minister is a state minister, not a Cabinet Minister.
CONCORD, N.H. (AP)  New Hampshire plans to join other states in challenging the Biden administrations new vaccine mandate in court, Republican Gov. Chris Sununu said Wednesday.

President Joe Biden announced a sweeping vaccine mandate last week that covers more than 100 million Americans, including executive branch employees and workers at businesses with more than 100 people on the payroll. Sununu said no lawsuits have been drafted yet, but hes ready to sign on when that happens.

I can promise you this: We will be ready for the legal challenges that are likely to come, and New Hampshire will participate one way or another, he said. We need folks to get vaccinated, theres just no question about that. But this whole, with a sweep of a pen, were going to force it on 100 million Americans. ... This was not the right approach.

In other coronavirus-related developments:

___

HOSPITAL STAFFING

New Hampshire is working to bolster its health care work force to meet the latest surge in COVID-19 patients.

State officials recently traveled to Kentucky to learn from overwhelmed hospitals there. Lori Shibinette, commissioner of the Department of Health and Human Services, said staffing shortages were a significant factor.

Health care workers were not leaving their employers; they were leaving the industry, she said. Were seeing the same thing in New Hampshire; our health care workforce is getting burned out.

Hospital capacity isnt just about available beds, she said. Currently, about 85% of New Hampshires hospital beds are considered fully staffed, and that number has been steadily moving downward, Sununu said.

In response, the state will continue issuing 120-day temporary licenses for out of state health care workers who come to New Hampshire. It also will begin issuing student nursing licenses to those in the final year of their programs and to retirees whose licenses have lapsed in the past three years.

Other solutions will require legislation, Sununu said, including extending the length of temporary licenses beyond 120 days and broadening the scope of work that can be performed by other health care professionals.

___

THE NUMBERS

More than 113,000 people have tested positive for the virus in New Hampshire, including 549 cases announced Wednesday. The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in New Hampshire has risen over the past two weeks from 300 on Aug. 30 to 433 on Sept. 13.

Four new deaths were announced, bringing the total to 1,452.

Since the end of January, only 3% of the total infections have been among fully vaccinated people, said Dr. Benjamin Chan, state epidemiologist.

Among the 756,000 residents who are fully vaccinated, fewer than 2,000 have tested positive, Sununu said. About 140 have been hospitalized, and 20 have died, he said.

The state announced 13 new outbreaks Wednesday at nursing homes, assisted living facilities and correctional facilities. Unlike last year, the new outbreaks generally have spread to 10 or fewer people, Shibinette said.
POINT COMFORT, Texas (AP)  A Texas plastics company has agreed to pay nearly $3 million in civil penalties for violating the Clean Air Act, the U.S. Department of Justice announced.

Formosa Plastics Corp. also agreed to improve its risk management program at its petrochemical plant in Point Comfort.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency began investigating Formosa after a series of fires, explosions and accidental releases at the plant in Point Comfort, a city on the Gulf Coast about 105 miles (170 kilometers) southwest of Houston.

Workers suffered burns and inhaled chlorine as a result of those accidents, which happened from 2013 to 2016, the DOJ said.

Formosa repeatedly failed to comply with the chemical accident prevention provisions of the Clean Air Act at the Point Comfort plant, repeatedly placing their workers, neighbors and the environment in danger, said Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim of the Justice Departments Environment and Natural Resources Division.

The company said it has added a team of health and safety professionals to help ensure similar accidents don't happen in the future. Formosa has also increased staffing in its process safety management department, according to Ken Mounger, executive vice president.

"We believe that these actions, along with other steps, have greatly improved our overall process safety and risk management programs, he said.

In 2019, Formosa agreed to pay $50 million to settle a lawsuit brought by Texas residents over allegations that the company spilled tons of pellets into waterways near the Gulf of Mexico.
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP)  One of three people shot in separate incidents in a North Carolina city has died, police said Wednesday.

Winston-Salem police said Charles Edward Anderson Jr., 27, died at a local hospital after he was shot on Tuesday, the Winston-Salem Journal reported.
WARREN, R.I. (AP)  In a unanimous vote, the Warren town council decided to revoke the liquor license of a social club after its president fatally shot another member, wounded a man and then killed himself earlier this month.

The council voted 5-0 on Tuesday evening after hearing testimony from police, the son of one of the victims and others, the Providence Journal reported.
WASHINGTON (AP)  As tens of thousands of Afghan refugees fleeing the Taliban arrive in the U.S., a handful of former Trump administration officials are working to turn Republicans against them.

The former officials are writing position papers, appearing on conservative television outlets and meeting privately with GOP lawmakers  all in an effort to turn the collapse of Afghanistan into another opportunity to push a hard-line immigration agenda.

It is a collaboration based on mutual conviction, said Stephen Miller, the architect of President Donald Trumps most conservative immigration policies and among those engaged on the issue. My emphasis has been in talking to members of Congress to build support for opposing the Biden administration's overall refugee plans."

The approach isnt embraced by all Republican leaders, with some calling it mean-spirited and at odds with Christian teachings that are important to the white evangelicals who play a critical role in the partys base. The strategy relies on tactics that were commonplace during Trumps tenure and that turned off many voters, including racist tropes, fear-mongering and false allegations.

And the hard-liners pay little heed to the human reality unfolding in Afghanistan, where those who worked with Americans during the war and many others are desperate to flee for fear they could be killed by the new Taliban regime.

But the Republicans pushing the issue are betting they can open a new front in the culture wars they have been fighting since President Joe Biden's election by combining the anti-immigrant sentiment that helped fuel Trumps political rise with widespread dissatisfaction with the Afghan withdrawal. That, they hope, could keep GOP voters motivated heading into next years midterms, when control of Congress is at stake.

From a political standpoint, cultural issues are the most important issues that are on the mind of the American people, said Russ Vought, Trumps former budget chief and president of the Center for Renewing America, a nonprofit group that has been working on building opposition to Afghan refugee settlement in the U.S. along with other hot-button issues, like critical race theory, which considers American history through the lens of racism.

His group is working, he said, to kind of punch through this unanimity that has existed that the withdrawal was chaotic, but that Afghan refugees deserve to come to the U.S.

Officials insist that every Afghan headed for the country is subject to extensive vetting that includes thorough biometric and biographic screenings conducted by intelligence, law enforcement and counterterrorism personnel. At a pair of hearings this week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said those rigorous security checks begin in transit countries before refugees arrive in the U.S. and continue at U.S. military bases before anyone is resettled. Checks then continue as refugees await further processing.

But Trump and his allies, who worked to sharply curtail refugee admissions while they were in office, insist the refugees pose a threat.

Who are all of the people coming into our Country? Trump asked in a recent statement. How many terrorists are among them?

With the U.S. confronting a host of challenges, it's unclear whether voters will consider immigration a leading priority next year. It was a key motivator for voters in the 2018 midterm elections, with 4 in 10 Republicans identifying it as the top issue facing the country, according to AP VoteCast data. But it became far less salient two years later, when only 3% of 2020 voters  including 5% of Republicans  named it as the No. 1 issue facing the country amid the COVID-19 pandemic and related economic woes.

When it comes to refugees, 68% of Americans say they support the U.S. taking in those fleeing Afghanistan after security screening, according to a Washington Post/ABC News poll in late August and early September. That includes a majority  56%  of Republicans.

The party's leaders are far from united. Dozens of Republican lawmakers and their offices have been working tirelessly to try to help Afghans flee the country. And some, like Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., have admonished those in his party who have suggested the Afghans pose a security risk.

Some of the skepticism voiced by the right has been exacerbated by the Biden administration's refusal to date to provide an accounting of exactly who was able to leave Afghanistan during the U.S.'s chaotic evacuation campaign from Kabul's airport.

The administration has so far requested funding from Congress to help resettle 65,000 Afghans in the United States by the end of this month and 95,000 by September 2022. On Wednesday, officials began notifying governors and state refugee coordinators across the country about how many from the first wave of evacuees are slated to be resettled in their states.

But officials have said they are still working to compile the breakdown of how many of those people hold Special Immigrant Visas designed to help interpreters and others who worked in some capacity for the U.S. or NATO; how many hold other visas or have applied for them; how many are considered other Afghans at risk, like journalists and human rights workers; and how many fall into other categories, including those who may simply have been able to enter the airport and board flights.

The organization War Time Allies estimates as many as 20,000 special visa applicants remain in the country, not counting their families.

Ken Cuccinelli, who served as Trump's acting deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and is now a senior fellow at the Center for Renewing America, says he doesn't believe it's feasible that the refugees have faced sufficient review, given the time frame, number of people fleeing, and other challenges.

Its unachievable as a simple administrative matter, he said of the process. While Cuccinelli, like Miller, believes that SIVs should be allowed to come to the U.S., he argues that the other refugees should be resettled in the region, closer to home.

The "mass importation of potentially hundreds of thousands of people who do not share American cultural, political, or ideological commonalities poses serious risks to both national security and broader social cohesion," he wrote in a recent position paper on the groups website that cites Pew Research Center polling on beliefs about Sharia law and suicide bombings.

Other former administration officials strongly disagree with such inflammatory language.

Some of the people whove always been immigration hard-liners are seeing this wrongly as an opportunity ahead of the midterms to, lack a better term, stoke fear of, I dont want these people in my country, said Alyssa Farah, a former Pentagon press secretary who also served as White House communications director under Trump.

Farah said she has been working to politely shift Republican sentiment away from arguments that she sees as both factually false and politically questionable. The Republican Party, she noted, includes a majority of veterans  many of whom worked closely alongside Afghans on the ground and have led the push to help their former colleagues escape  as well as evangelical Christians, who have historically welcomed refugees more broadly with open arms.

It's totally misreading public sentiment to think that Republicans should not be for relocating Afghan refugees" and those "who served along side the U.S.," she said. The Christian community is there. The veterans community is for it.

___ Associated Press writers Hannah Fingerhut in Washington, Julie Watson in San Diego and Ellen Knickmeyer in Oklahoma City contributed to this report.
UNITED NATIONS (AP)  Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday ordered the immediate repatriation of the entire U.N. peacekeeping contingent from Gabon serving in the Central African Republic following credible reports of sexual abuse by some of its 450 members and past allegations.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the U.N. chief made the decision after what we feel is a demonstrated failure to respond effectively to a history of allegations and sexual exploitations in the Central African Republic by the Gabonese, which include a failure to conduct timely and effective investigations and to report on sanctions for substantiated allegations.

He said misconduct allegations against Gabonese military personnel date back to 2015. With new reports, the U.N. has received a total of 32 allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse concerning 81 alleged perpetrators from Gabon, six of which have been substantiated in investigations, he said.

All allegations involve military contingent members deployed or formerly deployed in the peacekeeping mission in CAR, known as MINUSCA, Dujarric said.

The United Nations has long been in the spotlight over allegations of child rape and other sexual abuses by its peacekeepers, especially those based in Central African Republic and Congo.

Figures released in March 2020 showed a significant rise in allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation in U.N peacekeeping and political missions, with allegations against civilian personnel nearly doubling, demonstrating again that sexual misconduct spans the entire U.N. system.

Dujarric said that under a 2016 U.N. Security Council resolution, the secretary-general has the authority to replace an entire military unit in cases of evidence of credible, widespread and systemic sexual exploitation, abuse, or failure to take action on these allegations or to hold perpetrators accountable."

He said Gabon has been informed of the decision to send home its contingent in MINUSCA, the only peacekeeping operation the West African nation was participating in.

Dujarric said the United Nations is working with the CAR government and other contingents in the country to pick up and fill the void that will be left immediately with the departure of the Gabon troops, and will then need to find replacements in the long term.
LIBREVILLE, Gabon (AP)  The United Nations is withdrawing 450 Gabonese peacekeepers from its mission in Central African Republic following allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse, Gabons government said Wednesday.

Following the numerous cases of allegations of exploitation and sexual abuse being processed, the United Nations today decided to withdraw the Gabonese contingent from MINUSCA, the statement said, referring to the mission there.
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP)  Federal prosecutors are not objecting to a delay in the fall trial of five men accused of planning to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

The government said it wouldn't be harmed by a postponement, noting that it hasn't made significant payments for travel by witnesses or their lodging.
CLEVELAND (AP)  County jail guards in southern Ohio failed to heed cries of help from a man suffering from acute drug withdrawal symptoms, who died after trying to kill himself inside an isolation cell, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court in Columbus.

The lawsuit was filed Tuesday by Cara Gibson, the wife of David Tommy Gibson, who died at a Columbus hospital in September 2019 two days after he was found unconscious by corrections officers in an isolation cell at the Gallia County Jail.

Gallia County Administrator Melissa Clark declined to comment about the lawsuit on Wednesday.

Gibson was booked into the jail on Sept. 8, 2019, after being arrested on a domestic violence charge. Gibson complained constantly to jail staff and other inmates his feelings of despair, depression, and pain, the lawsuit said.

Gibson tested positive for methamphetamine and suboxone, an addiction treatment drug, while at the jail and made two requests to meet with a nurse that were ignored, the lawsuit said.

He was finally evaluated on Sept. 13 and told a nurse he had suicidal thoughts, was anxious and depressed. The nurse prescribed drugs to help ease his withdrawal symptoms and recommended that Gibson be placed in an isolation cell, the lawsuit said.

According to the lawsuit, Gibson begged loudly to be taken out of the isolation cell and that corrections officers closed a solid metal door that covered the bars to avoid hearing his screams. Inmates asked officers to check on Gibson when the screams stopped. A corrections officer found him unconscious.

Gibson was pronounced dead two days later at a Columbus hospital.

It is the second lawsuit filed against Champlin and Gallia County in the last 15 months following an inmate death.

Amanda Carpenter sued Champlin and the county in June 2020 alleging that deputies and corrections officers showed deliberate indifference to the medical condition of Mark Simms, her ex-husband and daughter's father.

An autopsy showed Simms, 36, died of a heart attack at the jail in December 2018. Interviews of jail personnel by state investigators said Simms was placed in isolation after inmates complained about him vomiting throughout the day. Simms collapsed and fell unconscious as his grandmother waited at the jail to take him to a hospital after posting his bail.

That lawsuit is pending.

The jail and Gallia County Sheriff's Office began drawing scrutiny in late September 2019 when four male inmates overpowered two female corrections officers and escaped. All four were caught the next day in North Carolina.

The Associated Press reported in October 2019 there had been three other escapes from either the jail or an inmate transport vehicle in the previous 13 months.

A report by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction written after a December 2018 inspection said the jail was at double its capacity of 21 inmates and had failed to comply with 77 state standards. Previous inspections cited many of the same problems.

Champlin said problems at the jail in the basement of the county courthouse had existed for years.

County commissioners are planning to build a new 120-bed jail next to the courthouse.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP)  Early prison release for a woman following an outcry over disparate sentences has come amid a renewed push for a statewide sentencing database in Ohio.

At issue is an attempt to give judges more information about similar cases to allow more uniform sentences across Ohio.

A former school secretary in the Cleveland suburb of Maple Heights was granted judicial release Monday by a judge who in August sentenced her to 18 months in prison for stealing $42,000 from the citys school district.

Cuyahoga County Judge Rick Bell converted Karla Hopkins original Aug. 3 sentence to 43 days in jail, which equals the amount of time she previously served. Hopkins, 51, must get a job, not gamble and repay the $42,000 as well as the cost of a state audit.

Hopkins sentence drew attention when it was compared with that of Debbie Bosworth, a former Chagrin Falls village clerk who was sentenced to probation on Aug. 2 by a different Cuyahoga County judge for stealing nearly $240,000 over a 20-year period. Hopkins is Black, and Bosworth is white.

Leaders of Black faith organizations, labor groups, current and former judges and social activists highlighted the two sentences as justification for changes to the state's sentencing process.

Are we satisfied with a system that would allow for two extremely different results like this? Ohio Supreme Court Justice Michael Donnelly, a proponent of a statewide sentencing database currently under construction, said last month.

Bell said he told Hopkins' attorneys at her August sentencing he would consider and give judicial release if a plan for her release was in place.

The plan includes counseling, an agreement to pay monthly restitution, to get a job and maintain employment, to abstain from gambling and to attend Gamblers Anonymous meetings.

It was the right thing to do, and it was what I intended to do all along, Bell said of giving Hopkins early release. Bell said he himself maintains his own sentencing database to try to avoid such disparities. A message was left with Hopkins' attorney.

The Ohio Criminal Sentencing Commission is spearheading the database project. Judges who participate can can enter multiple factors into the database, such as the number of victims in a crime or whether restitution was paid, and then draft a sentence by comparing it to those given in similar cases statewide.

Judges in seven counties are piloting the database, including Cuyahoga, Franklin, and Lake, with judges in an additional six counties, including Hamilton and Summit, signing on for eventual participation. The majority of state judges have yet to sign on.

On Tuesday, Ohio Supreme Court Justice Jennifer Brunner, running for the court's chief justice seat next year, said completion of the database would be a top priority if elected. Such a database should include everything from data on similar crimes to information on defendants' race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and if known, ethnic background and religion, Brunner said.

We dont just want anecdotal examples, said Brunner, a Democrat. We want data on pretrial and sentencing practices that will relate to demographic characteristics of Ohioans in the states criminal justice system.

A variety of methods should be used to figure out what is happening in courtrooms, Justice Sharon Kennedy, a Republican also running for chief justice, said in a statement. That includes the sentencing database, along with figures already collected by criminal justice partners and information in judges' master-sentencing entries. She did not define what she meant by criminal justice partners and didn't respond to a follow-up question about it.

My commitment to every Ohioan is that I will use all resources to achieve these goals, Kennedy said.

Current GOP Chief Justice Maureen OConnor cant run again because of age limits; she turned 70 this month, the age after which judges may not run. O'Connor is also an advocate of the sentencing database.

___

Associated Press Writer Mark Gillispie in Cleveland contributed to this report.
SANAA, Yemen (AP)  Yemens southern separatists on Wednesday resorted to emergency measures in a bid to put down growing protests over dire living conditions in areas under their control.

Aydarous al-Zubaidi, the head of the separatists Southern Transitional Council, declared a state of emergency across Yemen's southern provinces, including the port city of Aden. The city serves an interim capital for the internationally recognized government of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.

Al-Zubaidi, in a speech to the STC's supporters late Wednesday, said the emergency measures go into effect immediately.

Protests erupted earlier this week in Aden and other southern areas amid unprecedented drop in the value of the local currency, the Rial, making it difficult for most of Yemenis to afford basic needs including food.

Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in Aden and other cities, in some cases clashing with forces loyal to the STC.

Protesters briefly blocked major roads and streets in Aden. Forces used tear gas and batons to disperse the protesters, security officials said. At least two protesters were wounded in Aden and five others in Mukalla, Yemens fifth-largest city, they said.

The officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media.

The secessionist council is at odds with Hadis government. The two sides clashed in 2019 and 2020, adding fresh chaos in a country already embroiled in the yearslong conflict.

The STC is backed by the United Arab Emirates. It still believes in the restoration of an independent southern Yemen, which existed from 1967-1990.

Yemen has been convulsed by civil war since 2014 when Iran-backed Houthi rebels took control of the capital of Sanaa and much of the northern part of the country, forcing Hadis government to flee to the south, then to Saudi Arabia.

A Saudi-led coalition entered the war in March 2015, backed by the United States, to try restore Hadi to power, and threw its support behind his internationally backed government. Despite a relentless air campaign and ground fighting, the war has deteriorated largely into a stalemate and spawned the worlds worst humanitarian crisis.

In recent months, conditions have deteriorated further, with the Yemeni Rial losing 36% of its value in July, compared to the same time last year, according to the U.N. humanitarian agency, OCHA.

Tens of thousands of Yemenis live in famine-like conditions. More than 20.1 million of the countrys some 30 million people need some form of humanitarian aid, according to the U.N.
The chicken sandwich craze continues  and now Ike's Love & Sandwiches is getting in on the game.

But rather than producing its own chicken sandwiches, the San Francisco-founded chain is investing in the growing (and, um, interestingly-named) chicken sandwich restaurant Bangin' Buns. Based out of Southern California, the group specializes in Nashville-style hot chicken, with its signature plate featuring two sliders stuffed with spicy tenders, slaw, pickles and "bangin' sauce," all served up on hoagie-style French rolls.

Ike's Love & Sandwiches founder Ike Shehadeh has been running "personal development" courses for restaurant owners and said he first encountered the Bangin' Buns group during a restaurant business panel at the start of the pandemic. But Shehadeh said what caught his attention with the four young owners of Bangin' Buns was their drive in starting their hot chicken sandwich business, much like when Ike himself was first starting out.

"One of the things that impressed me the most about these guys  they were kids, one of them was 18 when they started [three years ago]  and they went out and did it anyway, no matter what, even though it's 'silly' to open up a sandwich shop," Shehadeh told SFGATE. "I know, because when I said I was going to open up a sandwich shop 14 years ago, people were like, 'That's a stupid idea. Why would you open the sandwich shop?' like it's not prestigious or anything, right? So that's a big part ... and a testament to [the fact] they went out and did it, now here they are, and they're getting the help."

Courtesy Bangin' Buns

Shehadeh said the young entrepreneurs had one restaurant open and had reached out to talk about expansion and perhaps having Ike's (the company) become an investor. Shehadeh said he initially told them they didn't need investors and gave them the advice to figure out the parts of the business they love; by the time the group was moving on to opening its third location, they had figured out the business part wasn't for them.

"The parts that they love, which is the parts [that] me, personally, and they have in common is they love the development of food, selling great food, they love feeding people and they love the interactions with their fans  and that's what they wanted to focus on," Shehadeh said. "Running restaurants didn't really inspire them, but the other aspects of the restaurant, the customer-facing part did inspire them. And so that's when we said, well, we could help with the running the restaurant part."

Already, Ike's has ambitious ideas for Bangin' Buns. Along with testing a new vegetarian-friendly hot chicken sandwich option to add to the menu, the company also announced plans to expand to a total of 18 shops in Arizona, Southern California and (of course) Northern California by the end of 2022. Bangin' Buns is also expected to join the franchising game by 2023 (in case you were looking to open up your very own hot chicken sandwich spot).

Exactly where Bangin' Buns will land in the Bay Area is still in the works, but Shehadeh shared they're planning for spots in Ike's-friendly territory: San Francisco is at the top of that list, with Shehadeh naming the Castro, Mission, Marina and the Sunset as possibilities. They're also hoping to bring some Bangin' Buns locations to Oakland, San Jose and Palo Alto, if they can, he added.

Editor's note: This story was updated at 10:15 a.m., Sept. 15, to remove information about Ike's Love & Sandwiches following a franchise model for expansion. They do not currently franchise their stores.
The still shows Ishaan as Brigadier Balram Singh Mehta. The still also bears the tagline: "1971: A Nation Comes of Age".

Mumbai, Sep 15 (IANS) Actor Ishaan Khattar has commenced shooting for the first schedule of his upcoming war film 'Pippa' in Amritsar on Wednesday. The makers have also revealed the first look of the film.

Director Raja Krishna Menon said: "I'm beyond excited to venture into the field with our amazing cast and crew. We've all been prepping hard for this day, and I cannot wait to bring this incredible story of valour and liberty to the audiences."

To commemorate the inaugural shoot, Brigadier Mehta himself was invited by the production houses to provide the inaugural slate clap as filming commenced.

Producer Ronnie Screwvala (RSVP) said: "Kicking off the schedule on such a positive note ensures a steady momentum throughout the course of the production. We're raring to go with a brilliant ensemble cast and filmmaker Raja Krishna Menon, who has a savvy eye for war films."

Producer Siddharth Roy Kapur (Roy Kapur Films) added: "From the time I first heard this amazing story of the bravery and resilience of a family on the frontlines of a just war, I knew it had to be told."

Roy Kapur also shared that "the team is excited to hit the floors today and we hope to bring our audiences a very special cinematic experience in theatres next year."

Based on 'The Burning Chaffees' written by Brigadier Balram Singh Mehta and scored by Oscar-winning composer A.R. Rahman, 'Pippa' is a heroic tank battle film that underscores the bravery of Brigadier Mehta, a veteran of the 45th Cavalry tank squadron, who, along with his siblings, fought on the eastern front during the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971, which led to the liberation of India's neighbour Bangladesh.

Produced by RSVP and Roy Kapur Films, 'Pippa' also stars Mrunal Thakur, Priyanshu Painyuli and Soni Razdan.

--IANS

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The Ambassador in a talk in Rome talked about the implications of a terrorist organization taking power by force and forming an Islamist Radical Emirate Caretaker cabinet.

"Masoud is a sign of Afghanistan's political and social continuity, has we have seen in the recent days how people from all over Afghanistan, from different ethnic groups gathered in Panjshir to continue to fight against domestic tyranny and foreign interference in Afghanistan", the Ambassador said.

"Let me tell you, in the next following days, weeks, months and even years, this struggle shall solidify and continue. In fact, the demonstration of the brave Afghan women and men in the past few days in Kabul, Herat, Badakhshan, and other part of the country are early signs of a national struggle and uprising in Afghanistan. Though in response, the Taliban killed, wiped, detained, and punished women, men, and our journalists, but they must understand that they cannot win with force and guns; they can win with their so called new strategic communication; and surely they cannot win by being supported by those states, intelligence services, and organizations that support them," he added.

Based on the last UNSC resolution, external legitimacy can be attained by the Taliban if they form an inclusive government (which they have not), Zekriya said.

"Be held accountable to stand by their commitments of upholding human rights, including of children, women and minorities (which they have totally obliterated)", he added.

"Prohibit, Afghanistan's territory for being used by terrorist organisations and their affiliates to threaten or attack any country or to shelter or train terrorist to plan or finance terrorism (This of course, stems from a sense of Naivety that a terrorist organization, where 17 out of 33 of its cabinet members are on the UN Sanction List and/or on the US Black List, with the assumption of power and possession of a political space, can change its political religious ideology and discourse)," he added.

"Contrary to our American friends' use of this famous slogan that Americas Long War Has Ended, let me say to you, that the World's Most Complex War-War Against Global Terrorism Has Just Began," Zekriya said.

Laying out future premises, Zekriya said that today's Struggle is the West against the Taliban and their terrorist affiliates and those states that either sponsor terrorism and/or have ill interests in Afghanistan.

The so called false and bombastic claim to victory by the Taliban against US, EU, and NATO, questions our US, EU and NATO partner's strength, credibility, and utility in the upcoming future conflicts around the world, he said.

Terrorist Organizations given political and physical space, in this case Taliban overseeing the state structure, having access to money, military weapons, and controlling the territory of Afghanistan, shall embolden other terrorist groups to overthrow other legitimate states, especially those in North Africa, the Ambassador warned.

The Ambassador warned that the so-called victory by the Taliban, shall lead to Home Grown Terrorism around the world.

In addition, states that house and espouse terrorist organizations by wanting to deflect their own domestic problems, specifically shift terrorist niches from their territory, will support the creation of terrorist client states.

He predicted that Afghanistan once again will become the center of illegal drug production and trade, terror financing, money laundering, and human trafficking being run by a state cartel known as the Taliban as it was witnessed in the late 90s.

Diplomatic Recognition of a State ran by terrorist figures being on UN Sanction list and US Blacklist, will embolden the terror groups that the world's political and national interests shall supersede principles of democracy and human rights.

At this time the international community should not back off from their principled approach, he added.

"As you may remember, first it was said that no one will engage and recognize any group that takes power by force. Then, it was reiterated that the Emirate System is unacceptable. Thereafter, it was explicitly indicated that the formation of an inclusive government is a must. Lastly, it was said that Human Rights violations are intolerable.

Now that every condition sat by the international community has been obliterated by the Taliban and tolerated by all of us, this must stop," Zekriya said.

--IANS

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The argument between the group's co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar and a cabinet member happened at the presidential palace, the report said.

New Delhi, Sep 15 (IANS) A major row broke out between leaders of the Taliban over the make-up of the group's new government in Afghanistan last week, BBC reported.

There have been unconfirmed reports of disagreements within the Taliban's leadership since Baradar disappeared from public view in recent days.

One Taliban source told BBC Pashto that Baradar and Khalil ur-Rahman Haqqani - the minister for refugees and a prominent figure within the militant Haqqani network - had exchanged strong words, as their followers brawled with each other nearby.

The Taliban sources told the BBC that Baradar had left Kabul and travelled to the city of Kandahar following the row.

A senior Taliban member based in Qatar and a person connected to those involved also confirmed that an argument had taken place late last week, the report said.

The sources said the argument had broken out because Baradar, the new deputy prime minister, was unhappy about the structure of their interim government.

It has been said that the row stemmed from divisions over who in the Taliban should take credit for their victory in Afghanistan.

Baradar reportedly believes that the emphasis should be placed on diplomacy carried out by people like him, while members of the Haqqani group - which is run by one of the most senior Taliban figures - and their backers say it was achieved through fighting.

Meanwhile, the powerful Haqqani network is associated with some of the most violent attacks that have occurred in Afghanistan against Afghan forces and their Western allies in recent years. The group is designated by the US as a terrorist organisation.

Its leader, Sirajuddin Haqqani, is the interior minister in the new government.

Rumours about a fallout have been spreading since late last week, when Baradar - one of the best-known faces of the Taliban - disappeared from public view. There was speculation on social media that he might have died.

Sources told the BBC that Mr Baradar was expected to return to Kabul and might appear on camera to deny that any argument had happened.

Speculation remains over the Taliban's supreme commander, Hibatullah Akhundzada, who has never been seen in public. He is in charge of the Taliban's political, military and religious affairs.

--IANS

san/rs
Also reported were 23 new imported cases, including 13 in Yunnan, four in Guangdong, two in Shanghai, and one each in Tianjin, Zhejiang, Fujian and Henan.

Beijing, Sep 15 (IANS) The Chinese mainland on Tuesday reported 50 new locally transmitted Covid-19 cases, all in Fujian Province, the National Health Commission said in its daily report on Wednesday.

One new suspected case arriving from outside the mainland was reported on Tuesday in Shanghai, and no new deaths related to Covid-19 were reported, the commission said.

A total of 8,701 imported cases had been reported on the mainland by the end of Tuesday. Among them, 8,105 had been discharged from hospitals following recovery, and 596 remained hospitalized. No deaths had been reported among the imported cases, the Xinhua news agency reported.

The total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases on the mainland reached 95,413 by Tuesday, including 837 patients still receiving treatment, four of whom were in severe conditions.

A total of 89,940 patients had been discharged from hospitals following recovery on the mainland, and 4,636 had died as a result of the virus.

There was one suspected Covid-19 case on the mainland on Tuesday.

A total of 16 asymptomatic cases were newly reported, 15 of whom arrived from outside the mainland and one was a local case. There were a total of 386 asymptomatic cases, of whom 360 were imported, under medical observation as of Tuesday.

By the end of Tuesday, 12,148 confirmed Covid-19 cases, including 213 deaths, had been reported in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), while 63 cases had been reported in the Macao SAR, and 16,098 cases, including 839 deaths, had been reported in Taiwan.

A total of 11,854 Covid-19 patients in the Hong Kong SAR had been discharged from hospitals following recovery, while 63 had been discharged in the Macao SAR, and 13,742 had been discharged in Taiwan.

--IANS

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This was possible after the revision of the railway service agreement between Nepal and India on July 9, breaking the monopoly of Indian containers after a hiatus of 17 years.

Kathmandu, Sep 15 (IANS) Two months after the revision of the Nepal-India Railway Service Agreement, a private sector cargo train arrived in Nepal from India on Wednesday for the first time.

The cargo train arrived in Birgunj, a bordering town in Nepal, on Wednesday morning. The one-rack cargo train of Hind Terminal Pvt Ltd arrived at the Birgunj-based dry port at 10:00 am, according to the Nepal Intermodal Transport Development Committee.

The revision of the 17-year-old railway service agreement has removed the bottlenecks that Nepal has been facing for long, particularly in the import and export of goods through the Indian Railways freight services.

According to the revised text of the Letter of Exchange, all authorised private container train operators (Indian as well as Nepali) will be able to utilise the Indian Railways network to carry freight containers for Nepal's imports or exports, ending the monopoly of the Indian government-owned Container Corporation of India (CONCOR).

The agreement allows India's Railways freight services to bring goods to and take goods from other border points besides Raxaul/Birgunj.

The Executive Director of the Committee, Ashish Gajurel, said that the train carrying 90 containers of food products from Haldiya arrived at the dry port on Wednesday. Gajurel shared that the Hind Terminal Pvt Ltd would import cargo twice a week while other four companies have also shown their interest in cargo transportation.

The number of cargo companies for transportation might be increased as the private sector managed cargo trains are allowed for the same.

The railway service agreement signed between Nepal and India in 2004 had established the monopoly of the Container Corporation of India, a sister organisation of Indian Railways.

As Nepal and India are planning to extend more cross-border railway networks, experts and officials said this agreement has opened new vistas of cooperation in Nepal-India trade and transit sectors.

With this agreement, Indian private operators can transport Nepal-bound cargo from Visakhapatnam and Kolkata ports as well as more ports allowing Nepal to use Indian sea ports closer to major customs points of western and far-western Nepal for third-country trade, as per the Transit Treaty between Nepal and India. At present, rail cargo can be transported only on the Kolkata-Raxaul/Birgunj route.

Another major takeaway of the revised railway service agreement is that all kinds of wagons that can carry freight on Indian Railways network within India can also carry freight to and from Nepal. Earlier this facility was limited to only certain kinds of wagons.

The liberalisation will particularly reduce transportation costs for automobiles which are carried over special wagons that were not listed in the railway service agreement of 2004, as they did not exist back then, according to the officials.

--IANS

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He will also lead the Indian delegation while the External Affairs Minister DR S. Jaishankar will be representing India at Dushanbe, the Ministry for External Affairs stated here on Wednesday.

New Delhi, Sep 15 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be addressing the plenary session of 21st meeting of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)Council of Heads of State on September 17, 2021 at Dushanbe in Tajikisatan via video link.

The SCO Summit's meeting will be chaired by the Tajikistan President Emomali Rahmon and will be attended by the leaders of the SCO Member States, Observer States, Secretary General of the SCO, Executive Director of the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS), President of Turkmenistan and other invited guests.

For the first time, the SCO Summit is being held in a hybrid format and the fourth Summit that India will participate as a full-fledged member of SCO.

This Summit assumes significance as the organization is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year and the the leaders are expected to review the organization's activities over the past two decades and discuss the state and prospects of future cooperation, the MEA said, adding that topical issues of regional and international importance are also expected to be discussed.

The 20th Summit of SCO Council of Heads of State was held on November 10, 2020 via video conference and was chaired by the Russian President wherein PM Modi led the Indian delegation.

Other SCO Member States were represented by their Presidents, while India and Pakistan were represented at the level of Prime Minister. Other participants were Secretary General of the SCO Secretariat, Executive Director of the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure, the Presidents of the four Observers (Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran, Mongolia) of the SCO.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), or Shanghai Pact, is a Eurasian political, economic, and security alliance, the creation of which was announced on June 15, 2001 in Shanghai, China by the leaders of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, formally establishing the organization, was signed in June 2002 and entered into force on September 19, 2003.

The original five members, with the exclusion of Uzbekistan, were previously members of the Shanghai Five group, founded on April 26, 1996. Since then, the organization has expanded its membership to eight states when India and Pakistan joined SCO as full members on June 9, 2017 at a summit in Astana, Kazakhstan.

The Heads of State Council (HSC) is the supreme decision-making body in the SCO, it meets once a year and adopts decisions and guidelines on all important matters of the organisation. Military exercises are also regularly conducted among members to promote cooperation and coordination against terrorism and other external threats, and to maintain regional peace and stability.

--IANS

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New Delhi, Sep 15 (IANS) O.P. Jindal Global University has announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Regional Delegation in New Delhi to build awareness and develop new academic programmes in Humanitarian Action and International Humanitarian Law (IHL).

This MoU will strengthen cooperation in the area of promotion, awareness raising, development, teaching and research in the fields of humanitarian studies and International Humanitarian Law (IHL).

The main purpose of the MoU is to further deepen the understanding of Humanitarian Studies and issues pertaining to IHL through research, knowledge exchange and curriculum development. Most importantly, through the MoU, ICRC and JGU will seek to establish interdisciplinary joint degree programmes in international Humanitarian Action and International Humanitarian Law. Apart from academic exchanges, the MoU also enhances internship opportunities for students of JGU and professional development opportunities such as faculty and personnel exchanges between both institutions. It is to be noted that there are several degree programmes dedicated to the theory and praxis of Humanitarian Action and IHL, but these are mainly concentrated in Europe and the United States. Through the MoU, both institutions seek to develop unique programmes of excellence, based in the Global South, that draw on the core strengths of both institutions i.e., praxis and academic research. The ICRC will share its global experience in the promotion of Humanitarian Studies and IHL as well as lend its technical expertise in the development of the academic and research programmes through the MoU.

Dr. Yahya Alibi, Head of Regional Delegation, ICRC, said on the occasion, "The birth of the ICRC took place in the battlefields of the 19th Century in the context of conflict and its main objective was to protect and assist the victims of armed conflict especially on the battlefield. The founders of the ICRC had this vision that the best protection is not only to assist and protect but it is also to build a consensus. The ICRC has always been extensively engaged in promotion of humanitarian law in academic circles. However, there is need for expanding such programmes in the global south. One of my responsibilities is to initiate such a programme with renowned institutions which are well-established and respected in the field of international law.

"The ICRC is committed to promote education in the field of humanitarian studies. This opportunity to work closely with O.P. Jindal Global University is a unique opportunity for ICRC to utilize our experience and encourage academic institutions to engage in humanitarian studies because today's students are tomorrow's policy-makers. If they are sensitized in these areas, there decision-making will be well-informed by knowledge and learning."

Prof. (Dr.) C. Raj Kumar, the Founding Vice Chancellor of O.P. Jindal Global University said, "It's a very momentous occasion for us to announce this collaboration. The ICRC's effort to partner with JGU will give enormous opportunities for developing a number of activities and initiatives, including learning outcomes. At a time when issues relating to conflict, peace and security are at the forefront of bilateral and multilateral engagement of countries in the region and beyond, the need for understanding and appreciating the importance of international law is critical.

"The degree programmes that are being launched are only one facet of the more wide-ranging collaborations we intend to establish which would include conferences, lectures, webinars, seminars and internship opportunities. It will also include research projects and joint research initiatives, collaborative endeavors with other institutions in South-Asia and beyond."

In order to realize the objectives of the MoU in the short-term, JGU and ICRC will now partner in convening a series of events including lecture series, roundtables, conferences and webinars on mutually agreed upon topics. These may include issues of climate change, natural disasters, maritime safety and security and the link between sustainable humanitarian initiatives and development. Within India, once the pandemic situation improves, the ICRC and JGU will also convene an annual conference to discuss contemporary humanitarian issues and challenges.

Earlier, Prof. Dabiru Sridhar Patnaik, Registrar, O.P. Jindal University welcomed the ICRC delegation and said, "Through this partnership we envisage to build capacity and to contribute to humanitarian studies and develop professionals who can specialize in this area. This multi-dimensional collaboration is not limited to joint activities but to also possibly initiate and develop a Master of Arts programme in Humanitarian Action and Policy in collaboration with the ICRC and also a Master of Laws in International Humanitarian Law. The strengths of ICRC and JGU blend to achieve these objectives."

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), established in 1863 is a neutral, independent, humanitarian organisation whose mandate is to protect and assist victims of armed conflict and other situations of violence. Its mandate stems from the Geneva Conventions of 1949, their additional protocols of 1977 and the Statutes of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. The ICRC has an exclusively humanitarian mission is to protect the lives and dignity and respond to needs of people living in fragile contexts.

Alongside it also works with states and a wide range of actors, sharing its field experience and evidence-based knowledge to identify the emerging humanitarian policy trends and to find solutions to address these growing challenges of the 21st Century. The Regional Delegation of the ICRC in New Delhi covers India, Nepal, Bhutan and the Maldives. It promotes humanitarian law and values and relevant international norms and standards with government agencies, the armed and security forces, academic institutions and civil society groups across the region.

O.P. Jindal Global (Institution of Eminence Deemed to be University) (JGU) is a non-profit global university established in 2009 by the Government of Haryana and entitled by the University Grants Commission (UGC). The university received the then highest grade 'A' of the National Accreditation and Assessment Council (NAAC). The Ministry of Education, Government of India recognized JGU as an 'Institution of Eminence' (IOE) in 2020. This makes JGU one of only ten private universities in India to be awarded this status.

JGU was ranked amongst the top 750 Universities in the world by the prestigious QS World University Rankings 2022. JGU has once again been ranked as the Number 1 Private University in India by the QS World University Rankings 2022. In addition, Jindal Global Law School (JGLS) entered the Top 100 Law Schools of the World in the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2021 released in March.

JGLS, established in 2009, is now ranked as the Number 1 law school in India and South Asia, Number 8 in the entire BRICS region and Number 76 in the world. JGLS is also the only Indian law school to feature in the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2021.

--IANS

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According to the police, the Court granted remand of all the six suspects including Zeeshan Qamar and Mohd Amir Javed who were arrested on Tuesday by the Special Cell of Delhi Police.

New Delhi, Sep 15 (IANS) A Delhi Court has sent six suspects, accused of planning terrorist attacks in Maharashtra, Delhi, and Uttar Pradesh during the forthcoming festival season, to a fourteen-day police custody, an official said here on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, the Delhi Police had said that they have busted a Pakistan-based terror module and arrested six persons, including two people -- Zeeshan and Javed -- who were trained in Pakistan.

Furnishing details of a multistate operation, a Delhi Police Special Cell official, said that they had received input from the central agencies that a conspiracy was being hatched to conduct terror strikes in major cities of the country.

Keeping in view this serious input, the Special Cell of Delhi Police had constituted a team under the supervision of DCP Pramod Khushwaha and ACPs Hridya Bhushan and Lalit Joshi.

"After analyzing human and technical inputs, we realized that it was a very big network that was spread in different states. And on Tuesday morning we concluded this operation by conducting multiple raids in different states," Special Commissioner of Police, Special Cell, Neeraj Thakur said in a press briefing yesterday.

Thakur said that it looked like the terror operation was closely coordinated across the border. with the whole operation being coordinated by Dawood Ibrahim's brother - Anees Ibrahim.

The first person named Sameer, hailing from Maharashtra was arrested from Kota while he was traveling in a train while two other were held in the national capital. From more human and technical inputs, the Special Cell in close cooperation with the Uttar Pradesh Anti Terrorist Squad (UP-ATS) conducted raids in the state and arrested three more people.

Giving more details, Thakur said of the six arrested, two were taken to Pakistan via Muscat where they were trained to use explosives and firearms, including AK-47. "The training continued for 15 days after which they returned to Muscat. They revealed that during their training in Pakistan, there were also 14-15 Bangla speaking persons in their group," the special cell official had said.

He said the module was divided into two teams.

"One team was given to underworld which was being coordinated by Dawood Ibrahim's brother, Anees Ibrahim. Their task was to get the arms to enter India from across the border and keep them concealed. The second team was asked to arrange funds via Hawala," the Special Cell official said.

The Special Cell informed that one person out of the six arrested was given the task to identify locations in major cities of the country where they could carry out the terror attacks during the forthcoming festival season.

--IANS

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Former EISS Super chief executive Alex Hutchison has blamed a calculated smear campaign for his decision to resign from the $6 billion fund following reports of reckless spending on corporate parties and questionable sponsorship deals.

The Age and Sydney Morning Herald last week revealed EISS Super had extensive sponsorship deals with links to senior managers family members, including deals with two Maroubra surf life-saving clubs, neighbouring Mr Hutchisons personal residence.

Mr Hutchison resigned abruptly after the reports also revealed the fund had spent more than $75,000 sending one senior staff member to the US for training and hosted extravagant staff Christmas parties at Sydneys Museum of Contemporary Art.

Former EISS Super chief executive Alex Hutchison has broken his silence to blame a calculated smear campaign for his resignation. Credit:Janie Brrett

Mr Hutchison has not been available for an interview but hired strategic communications firm Agenda Cs Parnell Palme McGuinness, who is also a columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, to release a statement on his behalf, which highlighted his achievements and outlined his decisions for leaving his role.
The Australian arm of one of the worlds biggest and most prestigious accounting firms, KPMG, has been fined $613,000 by the US accounting watchdog, after a review found widespread cheating by staff on training tests over a four-year period.

In a decision published overnight, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) revealed that more than 1,100 staff including 250 auditors at KPMGs Australian offices shared answers to pass mandatory training courses on professional independence, auditing and accounting, including tests to maintain accounting licences.

KPMG avoided larger sanctions from the US accounting watchdog due to its cooperation. Credit:Getty

From at least 2016 until early 2020, KPMG Australia violated PCAOB rules and quality control standards related to integrity and personnel management by failing to establish appropriate policies and procedures for administering and monitoring training tests, including tests designed to help the firms audit professionals satisfy the requirements for maintaining their accounting licenses, the PCAOB ruling says.

All up, PCAOB estimates about 12 per cent of KPMGs Australian staff members were involved in sharing answers to help colleagues pass the tests.
Major Australian employers that have announced COVID-19 vaccine mandates for staff are preparing to review medical exemptions on a case-by-case basis but will offer little flexibility to workers who refuse the jab for other reasons.

Some of the countrys largest companies including Qantas and Telstra have confirmed coronavirus vaccines will be compulsory for some frontline staff and are now in conversations with their workforce about the rollout of these rules.

Vaccination is key. Credit: Getty

Companies such as Telstra and SPC have confirmed to The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age that they will be working with employees who have a medical exemption for vaccination. Since COVID first hit weve worked closely with the more vulnerable members of our frontline teams who couldnt continue their roles due to an increased risk of contracting COVID, Telstras group executive of transformation, communications and people Alex Badenoch said.

Weve been able to move each of these team members out of harms way and into suitable alternative roles, or by making adjustments to their regular roles. We expect to be able to do the same here for those people with genuine medical issues  whether the adjustments are on a temporary or permanent basis, she said.
Chinas government is assembling a group of accounting and legal experts to examine the finances of China Evergrande Group, a potential precursor to a restructuring of the worlds most indebted developer.

Regulators in Evergrandes home province of Guangdong dispatched a team last month from King & Wood Mallesons, a law firm whose specialties include restructuring, two people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be identified discussing private information. At the urging of Beijing, provincial officials are also sending additional financial advisers and accountants to assess the developer, one of the people said.

The move adds to signs that Chinese authorities are laying the groundwork for what could be one of the countrys biggest debt restructurings. While senior leaders in Beijing have yet to indicate whether they would allow Evergrande creditors to suffer major losses, bondholders are pricing in slim odds of a rescue. Guangdong officials have turned down at least one bailout request from billionaire Evergrande founder Hui Ka Yan, who owns a controlling stake, one person familiar with the matter said.

Evergrande said on Tuesday that the company hired its own advisers, Houlihan Lokey and Admiralty Harbour Capital, to assess the groups capital structure and reach an optimal solution for all stakeholders. The disclosure came in an exchange filing outlining the dire state of the companys finances, with Evergrande warning that it faces tremendous liquidity strains.

The financial stability of property giant China Evergrande is increasingly in doubt, and this has enormous consequences - not only for the Chinese economy, but also for suppliers, such as Australian iron ore miners. Credit:Bloomberg

The companys shares fell 12% in Hong Kong, extending this years drop to 80% and closing at the lowest level since November 2014. Evergrandes 8.25% dollar bond due 2022 dropped about US5.5 cents to US27 cents, pricing in a high likelihood of default, according to Bloomberg-compiled prices.

Pressure is building on Hui and Chinese authorities to find a resolution to a months-long crisis that has intensified markedly in recent days. The developer is falling behind on commitments to suppliers, retail investors and homebuyers, raising the spectre of social unrest after a spate of protests at Evergrande offices across China. Protesters gathered at the companys Shenzhen headquarters for at least the third straight day on Tuesday, braving the rain to demand repayment on overdue wealth-management products.

The extent of the losses facing investors will depend in part on whether Chinese authorities and state-run banks take steps to limit the fallout. Evergrande, which has about $US300 billion of liabilities, has emerged as the biggest test yet of President Xi Jinpings willingness to let over indebted companies fail as he tries to wring the excesses out of Chinas $54 trillion financial system.

Without state intervention, the risk is that Evergrande enters a downward spiral. The developer said in its statement on Tuesday that property sales will drop in the normally buoyant month of September because of waning confidence among homebuyers, who often need to give the company large down payments for properties that may take years to complete.

Evergrande said it hasnt made material progress on plans to sell stakes in its electric-car and property services units, adding that the planned disposal of its Hong Kong headquarters building hasnt been completed as expected. Asset sales had been one of the most important pillars of Evergrandes plan to escape its cash crunch.

Guangdongs government has encouraged Evergrandes major banks to set up a creditor committee, a move that would allow lenders to take over major decisions including asset disposals, two people familiar with the matter said. The banks are reluctant to do so before getting a clear nod from national regulators, the people said.

Chinas Financial Stability and Development Committee, the nations top financial regulator, gave its blessing to an Evergrande plan last month to renegotiate payment deadlines with banks and other creditors on a piecemeal basis, a person familiar with the matter told Bloomberg last week. Its unclear whether recent developments, such as the investor protests, have caused Beijing to reconsider.

Evergrande, which denied rumours late Monday that it would file for bankruptcy, said on Tuesday that Houlihan Lokey and Admiralty Harbour Capital would explore all feasible solutions to ease the current liquidity issue.

Bloomberg
An Australian bitcoin mogul has agreed to extradition to the United States from Bermuda to face criminal charges over alleged breaches of US banking and money laundering laws, while working at cryptocurrency trading house BitMEX.

Lawyers for Sydney-born Gregory Dwyer told a Bermudan magistrates court yesterday that his client had agreed to the extradition request made by US authorities, Bermudan newspaper The Royal Gazette reports.

Greg Dwyer and Arthur Hayes Credit:Mark Stehle, Business Insider

Mr Dwyer, who grew up in Gordon on Sydneys north shore and graduated from the prestigious boys school St Ignatius Riverview, will remain in Bermuda on bail until a local magistrate agrees to the extradition request.

US authorities made the extradition request after the Department of Justice was unable to negotiate Mr Dwyers surrender, The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald can reveal.
A lot has changed since then and Tsiolkas has now been named as a finalist for the big prize, which is given every three years to a Victorian author whose body of published work has made an outstanding contribution to Australian literature and to cultural and intellectual life.

Christos Tsiolkas says the big change since the success of his novel Dead Europe is that he now writes fulltime. Credit:Eddie Jim

But Garner wasnt the only big winner that night. Christos Tsiolkas took home the $30,000 prize for best writing by a writer under the age of 40 for his fourth novel, Dead Europe. On the night he said he had worked on the book for seven years and with typical understatement said he felt a certain happiness that people are responding to it.

Its nearly 15 years since the Melbourne Prize for Literature was first presented. Helen Garner was the inaugural winner of what was then the richest prize for writing in Australia, worth $60,000.

If Tsiolkas award was given as recognition of the talent of a young writer and encouragement for the future works, then the judges got it right. He followed Dead Europe with one of the definitive novels about life in contemporary Australia, The Slap, and subsequently Barracuda, Damascus, and a short-story collection, Merciless Gods. His latest novel, 7, will be published in November.

The biggest change for Tsiolkas since 2016 is that he now writes full time. I was still working at the vet clinic then, which I loved. But after Dead Europe I was able to focus on the craft of being a writer. I feel Ive been much more confident as a writer and part of that is realising that it is work - not that I dont love it. Writing is an apprenticeship without an end.

His most recent novel, Damascus, about the early Christians, had taken up a large chunk of my years, he said, and 7 was a bit more playful, and he had worked largely from instinct.

I started it in quarantine and was trying to write 1500 words a day as an exercise. But it came out in a big flow. Its actually about writing.

This year, the organisers of the triennial prize that in other years acknowledges music and sculpture are introducing a new category, the $20,000 professional development award, which will go to a published author to help fund their career. And a $15,000 prize will again go to the writer of an essay of a maximum 10,000 words that has outstanding originality, literary merit and creative freshness.

Winners will be announced online on November 10. The winner of the $3000 peoples choice award will be announced on November 11.
The story of race in Australia is actually very complicated, says Marc Fennell. We have First Nations history, weve got white Australian history, then weve got wave upon wave of migration. And then mixed race kids.

Fennell is himself a mixed race kid (Irish/Indian-Singaporean, if you were wondering) who, growing up, never felt like he really belonged in this country. Hes also an experienced journalist, presenter and podcaster, making him the perfect person to host the three-part documentary, The School That Tried To End Racism.

Marc Fennell presents the three-part documentary The School That Tried To End Racism. Credit:ABC

Its based on a UK series of the same name, and both employ a program developed in the US and used in schools to expose  and more importantly explore and explain  racial bias and the way it operates. For the longest time the best thinking around race was: lets pretend it doesnt exist. We are all the same, Fennell says. But the reality is that isnt true. It might feel good in the moment to say I dont see colour but it doesnt move anything forward. It doesnt solve any of these clear issues that we have  and there are a bunch of statistics in the first episode, and mountains of studies that have been done over the years  about the levels of racism that people of colour experience.

Fennell says the program deliberately targets pre-teen kids  the ones in this series are between nine and 12  for two reasons. The research shows  and I can speak from personal experience  that by the age of 12 many kids have already experienced racism, both very blatant and super-subtle. Research also shows that prejudices and biases tend to really solidify around adolescence. So if you can give them a toolkit, teach them how to talk about it and how to navigate those moments before they enter adolescence, you can actually break that cycle before it beds in.
I was shocked to hear Health Services Union boss Gerard Hayes launching a defence this week of the 10 per cent of the residential aged-care workforce who remain unvaccinated. As of this Friday, national cabinet has mandated that unvaccinated staff will not be allowed to enter an aged-care facility. Despite the three-month lead-up to this deadline, Hayes estimates 24,000 of the 276,000 workforce are yet to be vaccinated. Pressuring them to meet the deadline, he claims, is disrespectful.

As a nurse working on the COVID vaccine rollout, I am well aware of what has been done to help staff get their jab. Firstly, all, regardless of age, have been offered priority access to the Pfizer vaccine, thereby removing any hesitancy with AstraZeneca. Casuals have received an $80 reimbursement per dose, with $185 a day post-vax if they feel unwell but have used up leave entitlements.

Michele Neil, a nurse working on the vaccination rollout, says aged-care workers have had ample warning to get vaccinated.

I know the union is promoting vaccination, and that it is not requesting the removal of a deadline but to have it deferred for a month, given chronic staff shortages and problems with the vaccine rollout. But aged-care workers have had plenty of time.

I cannot think of any other sector of the workforce that has received more encouragement to get vaccinated.
PACKER BELOW DECK Illustration: John Shakespeare Credit: Is James Packer feeling the squeeze? Its been 15 days since the sun set on the Euro summer, but James Packer is packing away the toys - for good. The embattled casino magnate, who turned 54 last week, has put his 108-metre giga yacht IJE on the market with a price tag of $280 million. Britains exclusive Burgess super yacht brokers have effusively spruiked the largest yacht that Italian shipbuilders Benedetti have constructed, boasting of the timeless sculptural exterior from sought-after designers Redman Whiteley Dixon and a relaxed beach house-style interior of the ultimate world-cruising family yacht. Ultra-luxe specifications for the giga yacht that sleeps 22 guests in 11 cabins include a gym, cinema and nightclub. Plus a generous pool and the sun lounge on the bridge deck aft which has a fire pit as its focus.

Under the hood, theres a Rolls-Royce engine with a range of 6500 nautical miles and a dynamic positioning system presumably powerful enough to propel a rocket to Mars. Loading It was only last month CBD saw Hamish Douglass, the Sydney-based chairman of Magellan Financial Group, on board the yacht when moored in St Tropez. At the time we speculated Packer might need to call on Douglass if he was forced to make some divestments. And last month it was the venue where Robert De Niro declared his love for a mystery woman, as the Daily Mail noted, sharing a kiss aboard the boat in the sun. Readers might find it curious the boat is up for sale, given the starring role that the boat named after his three children - Indigo, Jackson and Emmanuelle - has played in Packers life since he took delivery in 2019.

So is Packer looking for some extra funds? Its worth noting the businessman remains Crown Resorts largest shareholder with a stake of 37 per cent - worth $3.05bn. But Packer has been without his main source of income - dividends from Crown - for more than 18 months - and the casino wont be paying a dividend in the current half year because that is a condition of the new loan agreement. In good news, Packers $50 million San Cabo Lucas hacienda is due for completion next year, where he is expected to spend most of his time. It was while aboard the IJE Packer dialled in from the boats boardroom to front Patricia Bergins inquiry into Crown Resorts suitability to hold a casino licence in NSW. The yacht was in a coral-filled bay not far from Tahitis capital Papeete. And then there were the travails in building the thing. As revealed by the Herald, cost blowouts pushed the final cost to about the $200 million mark, resulting in Packers former Minister for Fun, Matthew Csidei, being ousted from Packers inner-sanctum - and the payroll of Packers private company CPH - wounding a friendship stretching back to schooldays. But if the IJE achieves its sale price north of $280 million, that could be a tidy profit. Meanwhile, theres plenty on the boil inside the casino operator.
All affected residents and staff across the facilities are being tested, he said.

The spokesman said the doctor wore a surgical mask during all visits to the homes.

Three close contacts of the infectious doctor have returned negative results. Credit:Kate Geraghty

A Nepean Blue Mountains Local Health District spokesman said the fully vaccinated doctor attended SummitCare Penrith, Anglicare Newmarch House and Mountainview Aged Care Penrith.

A doctor infected with COVID-19 has visited three aged care facilities in Sydneys west while potentially infectious.

Residents are being monitored closely by the care team at the facility, general practitioners and the [local health districts] clinical response team.

The residential aged care facilities are notifying residents and their families.

NSWs Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said, appropriate public health action had taken place and affected patients contacted.

Newmarch in Penrith is in lockdown after the doctor, who tested positive on Tuesday, visited three residents at the facility over three days.

A spokesman for Anglicare, which runs the nursing home, said all three residents had so far returned negative COVID-19 tests. More test results are expected on Wednesday.
Several of the countrys most influential education and human rights stakeholders will join a roundtable discussion about sex and consent education in schools, which is being led by activist Chanel Contos in a final bid to push for reform before the end of the year.

The online event on Thursday will gather the most high-profile group of government representatives, curriculum authorities and activists from a cross-section of jurisdictions to meet specifically about the issue since Ms Contos began her Teach Us Consent campaign in February by publishing thousands of young peoples testimonies about sexual assault. It will be closed to the media.

Chanel Contos said it was important to launch a final push for sex education reform before ACARA finalised the national curriculum. Credit:Liliana Zaharia

The roundtable will be attended by federal Minister for Womens Safety Anne Ruston, chief executive of the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) David de Carvalho, Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins, National Childrens Commissioner Anne Holland. Representatives from the federal Education Minister and the Minister for Womens offices will also attend.

Delegates will split into small groups where they will hear directly from a young person who has experienced sexual assault, but focus on the curriculum in their discussions. Ms Contos said it would be the last opportunity to put her petition in front of national authority ACARA before the curriculum for the next five years was finalised and submitted to the nations various education ministers.
Two men accused of helping import almost three tonnes of illegal drugs into Australia have been extradited from Dubai to Sydney, completing an eight-year investigation into an international crime syndicate.

The investigation ended when Benjamin Neil Pitt, 38, and Matthew John Battah, 36, were transferred from a Dubai jail to Sydney airport under the watchful gaze of NSW Police on Wednesday night.

One of the two men, aged 36 and 38, charged over their alleged involvement in importing 2.8 tonnes of ice. Credit:NSW Police

The men landed in Sydney about 10.30pm on Wednesday and were charged over their alleged involvement in importing 2.8 tonnes of ice, with an estimated street value of $150 million, on multiple occasions between 2013 and 2014.

They are facing three counts of conspiracy to import a commercial quantity of a border-controlled drug, conspiracy to traffic a commercial quantity of a controlled drug, and conspiracy to deal in proceeds of crime.
Almost two dozen Sydney mayors from across the political divide have joined forces to campaign against a shake-up of developer levies, arguing it threatens their ability to build new community facilities and will force them to raise rates.

Five of the mayors, including the City of Sydneys Clover Moore and Willoughbys Gail Giles-Gidney, will meet Planning Minister Rob Stokes on Friday and demand the government abandon the proposed changes.

Councils such as Woollahra, which manages Murray Rose Pool, fear the changes will deprive them of funding. Credit:James Alcock

While the majority are controlled by Labor or independents, the 23 councils which have signed up to the campaign include Liberal-dominated local governments such as Woollahra and Hawkesbury.

The councils argue that the government is attempting to take up to half of the money they raise through developer contributions, which is used to help pay for playgrounds, sports fields and other facilities.
Five students from a Brisbane high school have been ordered to isolate after they met with students from a school at the centre of the Sunnybank coronavirus cluster in the citys south.

Queensland Health ordered the families of the five Runcorn State High School students to isolate and get COVID-19 tests on Tuesday after being told the children gathered with students from St Thomas More College.

Runcorn State High School on Brisbanes southside. Credit:Google Maps

Exactly when and where the students met had not been released by health authorities.

A Queensland Health spokeswoman said media reports that the students were at a house party were incorrect.
Long queues formed at Ballarat testing sites on Tuesday after two popular restaurants and a Big W were listed as tier-1 exposure sites. Ballarat mayor Daniel Moloney said on Wednesday that another testing site would soon be set up to cater for continued high demand in coming days. When people saw those locations on the exposure site list everyone was fairly resigned to the fact that it will get worse before it gets better, Cr Moloney said. Ballarat will return to the same lockdown restrictions as metropolitan Melbourne. Credit:Penny Stephens Professor Sutton said the lockdown gave Ballarat the best chance of opening up again in the shortest time possible.

Shepparton has shown us the way: that you can control even the Delta variant, even with dozens and dozens of cases, he said. Loading Mr Andrews said Shepparton shows you that a community can be locked down, can stick together, can be supported and deliver fundamental control of an outbreak. We know, and were very confident, thats exactly what can happen in the Ballarat community. Sheppartons tough lockdown will ease from 11.59pm on Wednesday, with new restrictions to match the rest of regional Victoria.

Victoria records two deaths, 423 cases Two men, one aged in his 40s and another in his 70s, have died with COVID-19 in Victoria. Mr Andrews said the man aged in his 40s was from Whittlesea, while the other man, aged in his 70s, was from the Wyndham area. We extend our deepest sympathies and condolences, Mr Andrews said.

The state recorded 423 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, 149 of them had been linked to current outbreaks. The number of new cases was 22 fewer than Tuesday, and 50 fewer than Monday. However, Professor Sutton warned that case numbers in the state hadnt yet peaked and that modelling suggested they would likely increase. Premier Daniel Andrews, Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton and COVID-19 response commander Jeroen Weimar on Wednesday. Credit: Eddie Jim The risk of it [daily new cases] getting to 1000 is real, so we have to press on with vaccinations at the fastest possible rate for that reason alone, he said.

Almost 77,000 vaccines were administered in Victoria on Tuesday, including 36,615 at state-run hubs, while 42,694 COVID-19 tests were processed. There are now 4038 active cases in the state. More cases added to Melbourne construction site outbreak A further 10 cases have been added to the cases out of an outbreak from a Box Hill construction site. COVID-19 response commander Jeroen Weimar said a total of 146 cases have now been linked to the worksite.

Another five cases have been linked to the Fitzroy Community School, whose principal has been accused of telling parents that their children could still come to school in lockdown. That outbreak is now at 38 cases in total, Mr Weimar said, and 76 primary close contacts. Opening up now is dangerous: Andrews Mr Andrews said with half of the state not yet fully vaccinated, it would be irresponsible and dangerous to completely open up.

Mr Andrews said on Wednesday that 68.3 per cent of Victorians have had their first dose, but fewer than 50 per cent had received two doses. He repeated his intention to outline a road map for the state on Sunday. Were not yet at 50 per cent double dose... the notion of opening up now is not only irresponsible, it is dangerous, Mr Andrews said. The Premier said the state should hit the target of 70 per cent of people receiving one dose of a vaccine by Thursday and that he could announce a minor easing of restrictions before Sunday.

Im not over-selling this. Its modest. The notion of extra time and extra distance to be able to travel from home for exercise, if we can go further than that with some social interactions as well ... well get those announcements as soon as possible, he said. Loading The government committed weeks ago to increasing the travel limit from five kilometres to 10 kilometres and the exercise time limit from two to three hours when the 70 per cent first-dose target was hit. This was initially forecast to be September 23. Victoria Police warns protesters over Saturday demonstration Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton warned protesters planning to attend an anti-lockdown rally in Melbournes CBD on Saturday that officers would arrest and fine those not complying with COVID-19 directions.

Mr Patton also announced plans to halt the citys public transport network between 8am and 2pm on Saturday to prevent people from travelling to the city for the rally. It is an illegal gathering, and well be doing everything we can to prevent that gathering, he said. Mr Patton, said there will be more than 2000 police patrolling Melbournes CBD on Saturday, making it one of the biggest operations in decades. Protesters were sprayed with capsicum spray during Melbournes anti-lockdown rally in August. Credit:Justin McManus This will be one of our largest operations weve conducted, I think, since the World Economic Forum many years ago, he said.

Small outdoor gatherings on the horizon Professor Catherine Bennett, chair of epidemiology at Deakin University, has supported allowing two households to meet outdoors ahead of AFL grand final day. The chance to meet outdoors in a park, have a picnic, or just to sit there ... and read a book. There is space, weve got the weather, it is a fundamentally safe activity if you do the right thing, Professor Bennett told The Age on Wednesday. Socially distanced picnics were held in the St Kilda sunshine last October. Credit:Darrian Traynor Professor Bennett said two households can meet safely if they maintained physical distance and wore masks. She said people must remember that bringing households together, brings exposures together. For example, one household might only be going to the supermarket, while another household consists of people having to go into work.

She said this small reward could assist continued co-operation from the public with the rules in the long term. Professor Nancy Baxter, clinical epidemiologist and head of Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, predicted the government would grant low-risk outdoor freedoms to maintain public acceptance of lockdowns and offer a signal of hope. Professor Baxter said the Victorian community was understandably anxious to loosen public-health rules, but waiting even a few weeks  when vaccination rates improved  could decrease the risk of cases spiking as restrictions eased. It could mean we have a much better Christmas and avoid putting pressure on the health system, she said.

National vaccine mandate for healthcare workers coming: Andrews Mr Andrews said national cabinet was likely to confirm that healthcare workers would be subject to mandatory vaccinations. NSW, Queensland and Western Australia have already announced compulsory vaccinations for the sector and aged care workers are already required to get fully vaccinated in order to work. Earlier on Wednesday, St Vincents Health announced it would require its staff in three states, including Victoria, to get the vaccine.

Chief executive Toby Hall said though 70 per cent of its staff nationally were fully vaccinated, the outbreaks in Victoria and NSW was confirmation that a mandatory policy was the right move. The mandate will apply to all staff, volunteers and contractors to be vaccinated across its 16 public and private hospitals across Victoria, NSW and Queensland. St Vincents Healths vaccination policy will apply to all staff who fall outside these existing mandates. We see it as a complementary and logical step in the process of keeping our sites as safe as possible as Australia learns to live with COVID-19 long-term, Mr Hall said. Mr Hall said only a very small number of employees may be resistant or have specific sensitivities to the mandate.

The Australian Medical Association has been pushing for a nationally consistent compulsory vaccination for all frontline medical staff. Loading Weve said plans to reopen Australia will be a disaster unless our health sector is ready and that will mean having a fully protected medical workforce, AMA president Dr Omar Khorshid has said previously. Aged care workers are already subjected to a vaccine mandate. Racing Victoria first sporting body to mandate COVID-19 jabs
Unless a persons religion is actually relevant to their role or their needs, faith-based organisations should treat all their employees and the people who rely on their services fairly and without discrimination, Ms Brown said. Everyone deserves to live, work and study with dignity and respect, no matter who they are or whom they love. The promised legislation follows an investigation last month by The Age that highlighted how religious schools were lawfully discriminating against LGBTQ+ teachers through school policies, employment contracts and hiring practices, including by sacking teachers who had come out as gay. Under current law, people can also be sacked due to their marital status or gender identity. The issue was particularly prevalent in evangelical schools, many of which are in outer suburban and regional areas, employing tens of thousands of people and educating hundreds of thousands of children in Australia. They are often majority publicly funded. Everyone deserves to live, work and study with dignity and respect, no matter who they are or whom they love. Anna Brown, Equality Australia

Ms Symes said the reforms would narrow the exceptions to anti-discrimination legislation so that any discrimination would need to be reasonable and an inherent requirement of the job. For example, a school couldnt refuse to hire a gay or transgender person because of their identity but might be able to prevent that person being a religious studies teacher because of their religious belief. The Victorian bill would also mean no faith-based organisations could discriminate when delivering government-funded services such as counselling or homelessness support, or hiring out community facilities. Equality Australia is pressing the government to simplify the bill so that it would apply to any service provided by a faith-based organisation to the public, regardless of whether it was government-funded. Ms Symes said she was open to making changes to the bill before it was tabled subject to public consultation. We could be convinced to extend it, we just havent consulted on that particular element of reform. I certainly wouldnt have a closed mind to revisiting that down the track, she said.

Ms Symes said the government was confident it had the numbers in both houses of Parliament to pass the legislation this year, but was braced for strong opposition from some religious groups. I am a little concerned that there will be some backlash predominantly from misinformation that may come about, Ms Symes said. I would hope that the vast majority of Victorians would be very welcoming of this legislation. John Pendergast formerly worked as a teacher at a conservative Christian school and welcomed the proposed changes. Credit:Penny Stephens A gay former teacher at the Christian Flinders College, John Pendergast, said he wanted to see how any new laws would work in practice, but said it was an awesome move and about time. Mr Pendergast came out to his former school in 2016 but found out later that the school sought legal advice about how to deal with his disclosure. He left the school as a result and is no longer a teacher.

I think its wonderful that others will now be free to be themselves, he said. Ms Symes said the reforms would bring Victoria in line with Tasmania, which has similar legislation and the strongest protections for LGBTQ+ staff in religious schools in Australia. But the Victorian legislation could clash with a federal government proposal to introduce its contentious Religious Discrimination Bill to Parliament later this year. Both the federal and Victorian bills are expected to be tabled in October. Loading The federal bill is the third draft of legislation first flagged in 2017 to appease conservative Coalition MPs during the marriage equality debate, and opponents fear it could extend the right to discriminate.

Its new provisions are unclear, but the second draft strengthened the ability of doctors and other health professionals to refuse treatment to patients on religious grounds. Under the so-called Israel Folau clause, the bill also would have stopped large employers from acting against employees who made discriminatory statements outside the course of their employment as long as they were statements of belief, or good faith expressions of their religion. Aspects of the law would have over-ridden existing federal and state anti-discrimination legislation. It remains unclear if the next version of the federal bill will include the specific override of state laws earlier proposed and possibly make the Victorian changes ineffective. Teacher Steph Lentz was sacked by her Christian school after she came out as gay. Credit:Kate Geraghty Ms Symes told The Age her legislation was the right thing to do irrespective of what the Morrison government is planning.

We dont know yet, so I guess I will wait, wait and see and hope that it (the federal bill) doesnt undermine the work that were doing, she said. Ms Symes said the bill had unanimous support in state cabinet, including among MPs of faith. Independent Education Union Victoria and Tasmania secretary Deb James said the changes would be a major boost for the rights of education staff and improve the lives of countless dedicated workers. The IEU has been campaigning for over a decade to give workers in faith-based schools the same rights and protections as other workers, Ms James said. Steph Lentz, who was last year sacked from her job at Covenant Christian College in Sydney when she came out as gay, said the proposed changes to Victorian law were an important step in the direction of fairness. They serve as an acknowledgment that people of all sexualities and genders have a place in faith communities, and go some way to ensuring that LGBTQIA+ students and staff in faith-based schools feel safe and are treated with respect.
The preselection battle for the safe Labor federal seat of Fowler would be contentious at the best of times but it may be seen as especially bruising now that Sydney has been unintentionally split almost on ethnic lines by COVID-19.

Former NSW premier-turned-Senator Kristina Keneally threw her hat into the ring to be chosen as candidate for the south-west Sydney electorate at the next election after she lost a factional battle and was allocated the almost unwinnable third spot on the ALP NSW Senate ticket.

It is never a great look when party heavies foist a high-profile candidate on a local seat for reasons of political expediency but on this occasion it may aggravate the resentment felt in the 12 hotspot areas of the NSW governments lockdowns.

Ms Keneally will seek the seat ahead of another plausible candidate, Tu Le, a Vietnamese Australian community lawyer with close ties to the area who was being groomed for the job.

Ms Keneally is not responsible for the lockdowns, but Ms Tu says that Ms Keneally, who has lived for several years on exclusive Scotland Island on Sydneys northern beaches, has little understanding of local issues. That said, Ms Keneally is a strong advocate for fairness and accountability in government and would undoubtedly work hard to be a vocal and impactful local member.
Education Minister Alan Tudge has called on the federal government to formally endorse the international definition of anti-Semitism amid a rise of violence and threats toward Australian Jews on university campuses and in the community.

More than 40 nations and hundreds of local governments, sporting organisations, institutions and universities around the world have adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliances working definition of anti-Semitism.

Education Minister Alan Tudge wants the federal government to endorse an international defintion of anti-Semitism. Credit:

The IHRA - an intergovernmental body made up of 31 member countries - defines anti-Semitism as a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of anti-Semitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.

The non-legally binding definition is also supported by 11 contemporary examples of anti-Semitism designed as a resource to help educate people as to what anti-Semitism is, and what is legitimate criticism of Israel.
Thousands of unvaccinated NSW Health workers face being stood down or redeployed unless they get a jab by the end of the month, with one-in-eight yet to receive their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Healths 140,000-strong workforce has been given the deadline to receive at least one jab, despite being able to access a vaccine since February when the first phases of the federal rollout began.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian at Wednesdays COVID-19 press conference, her second appearance this week, even though she had indicated they would stop as of last Friday. Credit:Janie Barrett

An email sent on Tuesday to Western Sydney Local Health District staff, covering hotspot hospitals such as Westmead and Blacktown, said almost 2000 district staff members had not received a single inoculation.

Eighty-eight per cent of all clinical staff in the states public health system has received the first dose and 81 per cent are fully vaccinated, as the September 30 deadline for health workers looms and the workforce faces its most difficult period in the pandemic.
When January 23 ticks over next year, it will mark a major milestone for Gladys Berejiklian. The first female NSW premier to be elected in her own right will notch up five years in the job. Berejiklian already has the title of the second longest serving Liberal premier, only eclipsed by Robert Askin who was in power for a decade.

Five years will give Berejiklian perks that come with being a long-serving premier. The car, the driver, an office and staff. (Over the years, Nick Greiner and Bob Carr have each cost the taxpayer as much as $400,000 a year).

Shes back: Premier Gladys Berejiklian at Wednesdays COVID-19 press conference, her second appearance this week, even though she had indicated they would stop as of last Friday. Credit:Janie Barrett

To stop his one-time opponent Kristina Keneally from receiving those sweeteners after her 15 months as Labor premier, the Liberals Barry OFarrell, once in the job, introduced rules that a premier must be in power for five years before receiving any taxpayer-funded fringe benefits.

There is no entitlement for short-term premiers, OFarrell declared in 2011. After years in opposition, OFarrell might have thought hed easily clock up five years. That wasnt to be. He managed three before falling on his sword at the corruption watchdog over a vintage bottle of wine.
At least 55 Queensland politicians have indicated their support for the Palaszczuk governments voluntary euthanasia bill, easily surpassing the 47 votes needed to ensure the historic legislation passes on Thursday.

MPs from both major parties were given a rare conscience vote, with a number of Labor and LNP members set to vote contrary to the majority of their colleagues. Treasurer Cameron Dick revealed he would support the bill but would do so with a troubled conscience.

Queensland Labor MP for Logan Linus Power was one of three party members who said they would not support their governments voluntary assisted dying bill on Wednesday. Credit:Matt Dennien

Near the end of two days of at-times emotional debate in the Queensland Parliament and speeches from 87 of the 93 elected representatives, Mr Dick said he accepted there was strong community support for the law and would reflect this in his vote.

At the same time, I have formed the view that this change entrenches a profound and irreversible transformation in how our society regards the preciousness and sanctity of human life, he said, going on to cite comments by former prime minister Paul Keating amid debate on the Victorian bill in 2017 that opposition was not about religion.
London: Britains Foreign Secretary has been demoted over his handling of the Afghanistan evacuation crisis and replaced in the prestigious post by one of Australias top allies.

Dominic Raab, who remained on holiday in the Greek islands as the Taliban swept into Kabul, was the biggest casualty of a cabinet reshuffle Prime Minister Boris Johnson hopes will reset his flagging government.

Dominic Raab has been demoted following controversy over the Afghanistan evacuation. Credit:Bloomberg

Raab will be replaced as the third most senior minister by Liz Truss, whose post-Brexit work as International Trade Secretary has seen her popularity surge with Tory voters to the extent she is now seen as a potential future alternative to Johnson.

Truss was in charge of negotiating a new free trade agreement between Australia and the United Kingdom and stared down a push by protectionist forces within her party to water down the agreement.
PHILIPSBURG:--- On the 8th of September 2020, we had a historic opening of the parliamentary year we are closing today. Tomorrow the opening ritual will take place again like is customary throughout the Kingdom of the Netherlands. There is one big difference though, the opening of the parliamentary year in the Netherlands with the Crown Speech is followed by the presentation of the budget of the Kingdom government, one of the many abnormalities our constitutional system engenders. Our budget is as with so many things to reach this parliamenton its way.

According to our constitution, the governor will tomorrow present the governments statement, in other words, His Excellency the Governor will be presenting to the parliament and the people, the National Alliance/United People Party plans for the coming parliamentary year.

While during last years presentation by the governor, the emphasis of that presentation was understandably on the Corona pandemic that had engulfed us by then, slowly but surely we come face to face with the reality that there is no way forward by going back to pre-covid. Today is the new normal!

HE Governor Holiday stated in his 2020 message that we should come together to turn this crisis into a common purpose.

Governments agenda was dominated by the response measures to the outbreak of the pandemic. I present you some sound bites of his excellencys speech on behalf of the government of St. Maarten.

 Government is committed to working with social partners, businesses, and labor unions to realize their priorities.

 The National Development Vision 2030 and the development goals are their guiding principles.

 Community consultation to obtain input from the various partners for the development vision is a critical part of the preparation process.

 A focus on a targeted approach towards those without a second tier of pension and those with a partial AOV.

 Reduce dependence on fossil fuel, pursue an energy policy anchored on solar energy and reduce the electrical bill.

 Introduce public financial management reform.

It was also clear that this government puts a lot of emphasis on and hope in the Trust Fund-funded, World Bank-managed Dutch hurricane Irma assistance.

Digitalization!

New Hospital!

Airport!

And the list goes on.

Still, this funding remains a source of much debate and the government continues to lament the slow pace and the bureaucracy, without taking its share of the blame for the delays caused in some of the same major projects due to its own internal wrangling. But rather they paint the program black, hiding behind previous administrations.

Projects such as the airport, hospital were highlighted as major investments, yet both these projects were unnecessarily delayed during the past parliamentary year by the current administration.

What I do know is that had this government picked up where the UD-lead government had left off (ousted, if you wish), we would have been years further with the financial improvement plan, the proposed tax plan, the national health insurance (universal coverage) and the economic recovery plan presented by that government.

Granted, like the rest of the world, St. Maarten was not spared the onslaught of a pandemic that still has the world in its grip. It is therefore understandable that on a kingdom level, relations have been and are expected to be dominated by the covid crisis.

At the closing of the 20/21 parliamentary year, I rhetorically asked 2 questions:

What will we hear on behalf of the government of SXM? What will the government present to the people of St. Maarten?

And the second question: How effective was the parliament? What did parliament do?

I stated then and that statement remains just as valid today: Without a clear vision of the government, parliament will be, yes expressions of the individual members and factions, their feelings, their sentiments, and their criticism, but the fact is that our accomplishments as a parliament are tied very much to the course established by the government and the coalition members supporting that government.

The few initiative laws that have passed through parliament, primarily initiated by me are with the government and they will decide the successful implementation. To mention these, the timeshare law and the ban on plastic bags etc.

Without a clear governments position, a clear governments vision, a clear governments path, the parliament of St. Maarten might get some satisfaction in presenting motions in parliament, in posing questions, but if you look at it from a countrys perspective, how much has been accomplished?

A lot has happened since the opening of the parliamentary year that we are closing today.

It is now evident that we need to focus on our short and medium-term future, if not with the Covid 19 pandemic foremost on our mind, then surely its aftermath. This virus and its effects on our economies, our health, our communities are going to be with us for a long time.

We dont know how long the vaccines will protect the vaccinated. We dont know if boosters will become the norm.

The proverbial elephant in the room is the lack of cohesion in this administration where major matters are concerned.

Today, some of the ministers stand proudly for a photo op, but at the same time criticize the Netherlands, the World Bank, and even our own NRPB.

We complain at IPKO about the management of the Trust Fund, conveniently forgetting the role of this administration, that came in on an anti-Dutch agenda, but was faced with no other option than to accept what was.

Dont be fooled by the caretakers status of the Dutch government. Dont be fooled by the political impasse in the Netherlands. The agreement brokered by the St. Maarten government is a long-term agreement and we might as well man up to that. Stop holding out to the people that this is a temporary situation. It is not!

The Governor also implored during his 20/21 presentation to work together, to plan together. But how can parliament work or even contribute meaningfully to the debate, if the government and its support in parliament conveniently schedule meetings, conveniently answer questions, and prefer meetings behind closed doors mostly.

Last year stood in the context of the covid 19 pandemic. The government needed the space to take responsible decisions and I for one pretty much gave them that space, balancing that with my constitutional duty to represent the people.

But where is the social dialogue the governor spoke so passionately about? Dialogue with business, civil society and parliament. The entire population should not and can not be held hostage for changes of ministers and delay in appointment of ministers.

Taxes: how long have factions, including my own not implored this government to discuss the tax regime and tax administration of St. Maarten. I presented proposals for consideration and that was more than one year ago. We heard nothing. Now we have the country package that says one thing; CFT that says another thing; the ministry of TEATT has its own solution by means of a transaction tax. In comes the FAD of the IMF with its report, now making its rounds in the halls of government and parliament awaits.

There is nothing original in the Country Package of St. Maarten. Because when we should have been at the table, we were here flexing our muscles and trying to uphold the anti-Dutch agenda. After all, was that not the motivation for the fall of the Leona Marlin cabinet? The country package is now one size fits for the 3 Caribbean countries, with one or 2 lines here and there, because of the differences due to e.g the French side; the fact that Aruba has its own central bank, and so forth.

St. Maarten Country package is a copy-paste, because of our stonewalling.

In June I wrote to the honorable PM regarding this, as it was clear for the blind to see that no way could we manage the things as prescribed in the first implementation agenda within the timeframes presented.

I heard an interesting remark from the Minister of Finance of Curacao during an interview he had with a journalist in the Netherlands recently. That remark was and I paraphrase that now the parliaments will have to approve the implementation agendas and they will get 14 days to do so. Another onslaught on the creativity that the parliament should be demonstrating.

Is that how the governments of the 3 countries ensured that the parliaments will have some say in the COHO story when these implementation agendas are based on the country package? Taking the position of once it is not against our laws and our autonomy is a cheap cop-out.

COHO in my opinion is an agreed to form of higher supervision, I hope the version that the governments, including ours, agreed to will prove me wrong on this point.

So much time has been spent on the topic of decolonization, without presenting a clear understanding of what it is that we want. Letters and motions back and forth between those who should be collaborating, namely the government and its coalition.

The Kingdom of the Netherlands is in a very peculiar position vis-a-vis the United Nations. On one level, the Netherlands is reporting on behalf of the Kingdom in the presence of the other countries for whom it is also reporting, and on the other hand the other countries (or at least St. Maarten) are complaining the Netherlands (read the Kingdom) to a body of the UN.

I think that this administration wants political independence from the Kingdom, but lacks the gumption to call it that. A full measure of self-government within the current constellation is a new charter, that no way the UN or any other body can force upon the other parties in the Kingdom.

Furthermore, Knops has reported to the second chamber that in executing a Second Chamber motion of former MP van Raak and others, the countries including St. Maarten agreed to establish a workgroup, that will get started shortly. And this workgroup will address or at least investigate the filling in of the responsibilities of the countries individually and of the Kingdom collectively.

In fact, in IPKO, just a few weeks ago, the parliaments, including St. Maarten decided to do exactly that. Yet, our esteemed parliament engages with the very UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination that the government of St. Maarten sits alongside the Netherlands and reports to. And we wonder why we are confusing ourselves and others. I had to learn from a colleagues letter to the Prime Minister that our President of Parliament engaged with the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. Whose mandate was this?

The government is approaching this wrongly and divisively and the only ones to suffer are the people who are relying on the government to know what fights to pick and when to pick their fights.

It is this same government that sits in IPKO and professes that they want to better the relationships within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. So what exactly is it that the government wants OUT of this relationship.

IPKO declaration: The delegations have jointly identified three action points: - The Kingdom of the Netherlands is a party to the Charter of the United Nations. The countries of the Kingdom are not individual. As a result, Caribbean countries are restricted in their access to UN climate finance. The Kingdom Government is asked to bring the political structure within the Kingdom to the attention of the UN.

The Governor implored during his 20/21 presentation to work together, to plan together. 8 months ago, I requested a meeting of the Constitutional and Decolonization committee of this parliament to discuss this matter. 8 months!

Our minister of Justice came out guns blazing ( no pun intended) to clean up the immigration situation. And then it went quiet. But what is our unemployment today? How does that number relate to requests for foreign work permits? How is that synchronization going? A Meeting with the VSA and Justice ministers on Immigration and foreign work permits was requested 4 months ago.

Health: who can forget the elaborate presentation here in parliament by Ethegrity. They were poised to solve our mental issues. Never heard anything else. Today we hear government is busy with its mental health policy; updating the one that was there and there is a project with The World Bank for the Mental Health Foundation. Where is the urgency for this, when so many of our people face mental issues due to a myriad of reasons? We have no proper facility and many family members are left to fend for themselves due to the high demand for care.

ENERGY: His Excellency said last year that the governments energy policy is premised on solar energy. I guess the energy policy that was there was either tweaked or discarded without any policy initiatives having been undertaken. Is this a priority in accordance with the implementation agenda(s)?

I would need another meeting for GEBE. Will this too play out until the first one bites the dust? Do we have to be nudged before resolute action is undertaken? New corporate governance rules are urgently needed.

Electoral Reform: I am still awaiting a meeting of the committee for electoral reform to be called, one I requested 11 months ago.

Universal Health coverage: asked for a meeting 4 months ago. What am I expected to do? Go on a rant on radio, TV, and social media?

Tomorrow the governor will deliver the governments statement to parliament for this new parliamentary year. But that will not be worth the paper it is written on, if not aligned with the country package and implementation agenda. Ideally, this statement should have been accompanied by the budget.

The people should hold us responsible for supervising the government. The people should hold us responsible for not contributing to the debate. Which motions of parliament has the government executed? No wonder some members of parliament are taking over the role of government.

DOES THE GOVERNING COALITION SPEAK? When I see its motions and hear its members speak, I need to ask: DOES THIS COALITION SPEAK?. Do you speak to one another?

Are we going to play the same tune with waste management? And beat up on the world bank and previous governments for what we face now.

Our Social security woes and the National Health Insurance. Remember that? Now we are doing a piecemeal, but what is the larger picture going forward?

Budget right: much excitement for the amendments by members of parliament. But the budget is not yet ratified. Mid-September!!

We need indexes along with the plans of approach that are in the making by the government. Thats the first thing we should have agreed to, to be performed. Social progress index, governance index, and rule of law index. What is our current state in these areas, objectively established?

Our countries are not the same on every level, such as social progress, integration, cohesion, immigration. So we should not accept a blanket solution. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a big thing in the Netherlands. We should make them that here too. And move from the abstract that the implementation agendas are, to concrete goals, such as those against poverty, for housing, small businesses, women, elderly, youth, the environment, climate change, which is a real and present danger. Such collaboration presents an opportunity for us.

In closing, I hope these topics are reflected by the government in its presentation. I await with much anticipation, the degree of realism in the plans of government in relation to:

 The country package

 The implementation agenda

 The country budget

 The kingdom charter/decolonization efforts/relationship with the Netherlands.
POND ISLAND:--- Last week proved to be momentous for country Sint Maarten as the University of St. Martin (USM) welcomed its first-ever doctoral researcher. On 6 September, Lysanne Charles became the first person to commence her doctoral studies on the island while being hosted by the university. A local sociologist and civil servant, Charles research will be centered on climate change policy and governance in Sint Maarten, Saba, St. Eustatius. She will be studying the importance of community engagement and participation in the development of policies that will support the islands and their people to becoming more resilient during the intensification of hurricanes, drought, and coastal erosion.

Climate policy and governance are one of four areas covered by the programme Island(er)s at the Helm, which was kicked-off in September by USM, the Royal Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV), TU Delft, University of the Virgin Islands (UVI) and the University of Amsterdam. The programme was awarded 3.5 million by the Netherlands Research Council (NWO) for research into the co-creation of sustainable solutions to climate change challenges across the Caribbean part of the Dutch Kingdom. The five-year enterprise headed by former USM President Dr. Francio Guadeloupe and Leiden University Professor Dr. Corinne Hofman, Island(er)s at the Helm will use archaeology, cultural anthropology, engineering, and political science to advance practical answers for problems related to water, shelter, and food.

Also commencing their journey to earning their doctorates with Island(er)s at the Helm is visual artist Sharelly Emanuelson in Curacao and archaeologist Harold Kelly in Aruba. While Emanuelson will conduct multi-sited fieldwork related to the coloniality of disaster on all six islands of the Dutch Kingdom, Kelly will be looking into long-term evidence for social adaptation to climatic changes in Aruba, Bonaire, and Sint Maarten. Alongside Lysanne Charles, Emanuelson and Kelly constitute the first cohort of Ph.D. candidates of the Transatlantic research programme. Charles will be employed by UVI in partnership with USM for a period of four years to complete her research and will submit her doctoral requirements to the University of Amsterdam.

I am pleased to have been selected to conduct research on governance strategies and climate change policies as a part of the Island(er)s at the Helm programme and I am excited to be based at the University of St. Martin. The issues of security around water, food, shelter, and energy are critical to the well-being of populations on small islands such as St. Maarten, Saba, and St. Eustatius, and I look forward to conducting research and engaging with the diverse communities in all three places. As a daughter of the region, I am proud and happy to be attached to a Caribbean institution; academically, it feels good to come home and to have come full circle, having completed my undergrad in the US and my graduate studies in the Netherlands. Having worked with and for vulnerable groups in the past I am eager to see what role research can play in supporting the development of sustainable policies and strategies for our own survival and advancement, said Lysanne Charles.

For this Ph.D. position, Charles had to undergo rigorous evaluation by the Kingdoms highest scientific authorities and compete with other highly qualified candidates. USM President Dr. Antonio Carmona Baez, who will serve as Lysanne Charles supervisor, highlighted the importance of having a local person studying policy development.

If political science is the study of power relations and we are conscious that knowledge is power, the findings of one local Ph.D. student in this field will become extremely valuable. What we are doing here is placing knowledge in the hands of the people of the islands to help shape our destiny. Ms. Charles has set out to engage the community in the development of just, equitable and sustainable policy solutions related to climate change, said Carmona in written statements to the press. Before joining USM, Dr. Carmona published research on development theories, sustainable energy policies, and decolonial thought in the Caribbean and the Netherlands.

Island(er)s at the Helm is one of three research initiatives USM is co-hosting with other institutions in the region like the University of Curacao and the University of Aruba. The other two include Food Security and Economic Diversification, and Upholding Human Rights During the Pandemic, which looks at the impact of COVID-19 policies on vulnerable families in Curacao, Aruba, and Sint Maarten. In partnership with the University of the Virgin Islands and TU Delft, USM will host an additional Ph.D. researcher in architecture in January 2022.
PHILIPSBURG:--- The Committee of Public Health, Social Development, and Labor, of Parliament, will meet on September 15, 2021.

The Committee meeting, which was adjourned on September 2, 2021, will continue on Wednesday at 14.00 hrs. in the General Assembly Chamber of the House at Wilhelminastraat #1 in Philipsburg. The Minister of Public Health, Social Development, and Labor will be in attendance.

The agenda point is:

1. Food assistance program and community outreach initiatives (IS/646/2020-2021 dated May 10, 2021)

This agenda point was requested by MP S.A. Wescot-Williams.

Due to measures taken to mitigate the coronavirus (COVID-19), the House of Parliament is only allowing persons with an appointment to enter the Parliament building.

The parliamentary sessions will be carried live on St. Maarten Cable TV Channel 115, via SXM GOV radio FM 107.9, via Pearl Radio FM 98.1, the audio via the internet www.sxmparliament.org, and www.pearlfmradio.sx
PHILIPSBURG:_--- Kemilla Carty was awarded the President of Parliament Award 2021.

A young person is annually awarded the President of Parliament Award for exemplary behavior, leadership skills as well as contribution to the community.

Ms. Carty was nominated for being an outstanding citizen with a passion to work for and give back to her community.

Her nomination was submitted by Ms. Stephania Decembre who described Ms. Carty as a kindhearted person that loves to help others and in giving back to her community.

An active member of the Sint Maarten South Omega Leos club since November 2019, Ms. Carty currently holds the position of Club Secretary for the Leonistic year 2020-2021 and also serves as the current Leo District Secretary of District 60B.

These positions have helped her to open up and excel in her skills.

Ms. Carty is known to take great advantage of meaningful opportunities that arise which allows her to grow as a professional and continue to serve her country.

This years President of Parliament Award 2021 was presented by the Hon. President of Parliament, Mr. Rolando Brison. The presentation to Ms. Kamilla Carty took place directly after the Solemn Public meeting marking the opening of the new Parliamentary Year 2021-2022.

In her acceptance speech, Ms. Carty expressed words of gratitude for being presented with the 2021 President of Parliament Award.

In her closing remarks, she encouraged everyone to try and help someone in any way you can, no matter how small or big your contribution is, youre aiding in the improvement of someones life.

Each year a youth is awarded the President of Parliament Award for demonstrating leadership skills, being a role model as well as contributing to the community.

The Parliament of Sint Maarten encourages the public to submit their nominees when the nomination process is announced for the President of Parliament Award 2022.
PHILIPSBURG:--- On Tuesday 14th September, Member of Parliament Ludmila Duncan sent a letter to the Prime Minister requesting information on and seeking support regarding the possibility of St. Maarten joining the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) as an associate member. This is the worst economic and health crisis our people have faced so far, however, it is also the perfect time for St. Maarten to seek out new and impactful relationships and partnerships, especially within the region. The OECS would be the perfect place to start, stated the MP.

The Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) is an international inter-governmental organization dedicated to promoting economic integration and trade cooperation among its member states in the Eastern Caribbean. The OECS comprises eleven member states with Guadeloupe being the latest to join as an associate member in 2019.

By becoming an associate member of this economic union and adopting the organizations common approach to health, education, trade, the environment, and energy, we would be able to receive some much needed technical assistance, knowledge, and a variety of resources to grow critical sectors. Right now St. Maarten needs to seriously develop a local agriculture industry, revitalize our tourism industry and create new public assistance programs for those in need, noted Duncan.

In her letter to Government, the MP asked a number of questions including whether the Government was open to engaging with the OECS by sending a mission to discuss possible membership. Duncan also inquired about the cost and feasibility of membership at this time as well as any information on what the process would entail. Duncan also informed the Government that she has already started to build relationships with OECS leadership and other key persons within the region.

In 2017, 30 young entrepreneurs from eight OECS member states (Antigua and Barbuda, the Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts, and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent, and the Grenadines, and Martinique) were issued awards for their innovative businesses via the OECS Youth Empowerment Strategy. There are so many development programs and projects for the youth, entrepreneurs, farmers, policymakers and more, that will come with membership. I also believe that we will finally begin to strategically reposition St. Maarten in the region as a force to be reckoned with, in addition to opening up an array of new social and economic opportunities for our people, Duncan added.

I believe that it is time to seek OECS membership and begin to engage our brothers and sisters within the region as we rebuild our countrys economy and create new ways to further St. Maartens development, concluded the MP.
Addressing the Internet Of Things (IoT) and challenges in device design using a comprehensive approach

As the number of connected devices increases worldwide, the ways that they are being used, designed, and tested have also expanded. The rise of connected devices is demanding engineers to harness the power of the internet of things, which is expected to hit 28 billion by 2025. A comprehensive approach to device design is needed more than ever to address the challenges that this rapid growth will bring. Why engineers should be using IoT technology in product design The demand for devices designed to use the Internet of Things (IoT) technology is increasing as more industries are finding expanded ways to put them into use. Industries such as healthcare, automobiles, and agriculture are becoming more dependent on cloud capabilities and are therefore in need of new devices able to connect to it. Due to this rise in demand, an increasing amount of devices are delivering a multitude of benefits both to consumers and companies. However, this new wave of products has led to a growing list of challenges for engineers as they are forced to address IoT tech in regards to connectivity, regulations, longevity, and security. Ways to use IoT in the development process Engineers are facing these new challenges along with the normal pressure of deadlines and test considerations. By approaching all of these issues from a comprehensive point-of-view, the solutions become clearer and new device capabilities can be born. Lets look at the challenges individually as well as possible solutions for them. Improving connectivity IoT enables data to be transferred between infrastructure, the cloud, and devices, making the process smooth Because IoT is based around connection, its no surprise that the primary challenge for engineers to overcome is the improvement of connectivity between devices. IoT enables data to be transferred between infrastructure, the cloud, and devices, so making this process as smooth as possible is crucial. The main challenges involved with connectivity have to do with development and product testing while meeting industry standards and best practices. Additionally, many companies lack the necessary equipment and technology to develop new IoT devices, which makes it difficult to create scalable prototypes and test new products. Suggested solutions To address the issue of not having the expertise and necessary tools for testing, we suggest outsourcing the prototyping and evaluation process instead of attempting to tackle this in-house. By doing this, youre able to free up resources that would otherwise be needed for expensive equipment and qualified staff. Helping comply with regulations When working with devices that are connected across the world, there is a complex web of regulations and conformance standards that can lead to challenges for engineers. The necessity of complying with these regulations while also pushing to meet deadlines can be burdensome and lead to an increase in production time and expenses. Failure to comply with global and regional laws, as well as system and carrier requirements, can lead to fines and costly setbacks. This type of failure can destroy a companys reputation on top of causing financial losses, often leading to the loss of business. Suggested solutions By testing the IoT device design and components early, engineers can address any pre-compliance issues that may arise. During the early stages of development, we suggest using scalable and automated test systems readily available in the marketplace. Improved communication with other devices New challenges arise as new devices hit the market and existing technologies are redesigned to offer a better experience In the rapidly growing number of connected devices, new challenges will arise as new devices hit the market and existing technologies are redesigned to offer a better user experience. This rapid growth in devices will lead to congested networks leading to the necessity of devices being able to function in the midst of increased traffic and interference. Failure to do this will lead to delayed responses which could prove to be fatal. Suggested solutions The best solution for this issue is found in the evaluation process and supporting test methods that the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) published in the American National Standard for Evaluation of Wireless Coexistence (ANSI). This process addresses the interconnectivity issues present in radio frequency environments. The outlined process involves defining the environment and evaluating the wireless performance of the equipment through thorough testing. An in-depth version can be found in its entirety online. Increasing the longevity of devices IoT devices are being used in vital industries such as healthcare and automotive so battery life and power consumption are two challenges that engineers must take seriously. A failure in this area could potentially lead to loss of life or safety concerns on the road. As new firmware and software are being designed to address these factors, engineers must be implementing them into IoT devices with the ability to be continually updated. Suggested solutions Longevity should be addressed in all aspects of the design process and tested thoroughly using a wide range of currents. By doing this, an engineer can simulate consumer applications to best predict performance. Security Security and privacy are concerns with any technology, but with the use of IoT in medical devices, its paramount Security has been a controversial issue for IoT since its inception. Security and privacy are concerns with any technology, but with the widespread use of IoT in medical devices, smart home appliances, and access control and surveillance, its paramount. For example, medical devices may store information about health parameters, medications, and prescriber information. In some cases, these devices may be controlled by an app, such as a smart pacemaker, to prevent heart arrhythmias. Naturally, a security issue in these devices could be devastating. Another example of dangerous security concern is with surveillance cameras and access control, such as for home or business security systems. These intelligent door locking systems contain locks, lock access controllers, and associated devices that communicate with each other. Suspicious activities are flagged with alerts and notifications, but if a hacker gains access, it can lead to real-world, physical danger. Security design points Here are some key points for security design: Physical security: IoT devices may be in external, isolated locations that are vulnerable to attack from not only hackers but by human contact. Embedding security protection on every IoT device is expensive, but its important for general security and data safety. Security of data exchange: Data protection is also important because data gets transmitted from IoT devices to the gateway, then onto the cloud. With surveillance and access control information or sensitive medical information, and encryption is vital to protecting data from a breach. Cloud storage security: Similar to data exchange, the information stored in medical devices, surveillance and access control systems, and some smart appliances with payment features, must be protected. This includes encryption and device authentication through access control, which can police what resources can be accessed and used. Update: Security vulnerabilities will always occur, so the key to addressing them is having a plan to address errors and release patches. Customers should also have options to secure devices quickly and effectively. Suggested solutions Engineers can include security and protection into IoT devices with early and perpetual testing throughout the design process. Most security breaches occur at endpoints or during updates, giving engineers a starting point for how to address them. Creating more secure devices Ensuring the security of connected devices should be of supreme importance for engineers as these devices are vulnerable to security breaches. The ultimate security of devices goes beyond the scope of engineering as the network and enterprise levels must also be secure to protect against potential threats. However, engineers play a role in this protection as well and should consider device security in the design process. Suggested solutions On a device level, engineers can help protect IoT devices from vulnerabilities by implementing early testing and continuing it throughout the design process. Most security transgressions occur at endpoints so this continual testing can, and should, create barriers to breaches. Regulations and compliance For IoT engineers, the complex web of regulations and compliance standards present new challenges Regulations and compliance surrounding data and technology are nothing new, but for IoT engineers, the complex web of regulations and compliance standards present new challenges. Engineers are already addressing obstacles in security and connectivity, all while meeting deadlines, and working around regulations adds time and expense to the process. Unfortunately, a failure to comply with global, regional, or local laws can lead to setbacks and fines. In addition to time lost in production and possible fines, the damage to a companys reputation can lead to even more losses. Suggested solutions Compliance should be considered early and often in the design process. In the early stages of development, the IoT device or components can be tested to address and compliance issues. If possible, use a scalable and automated test system. The comprehensive solution As we stare at an uncertain future full of possibilities, its clear to see that new challenges will continue to be presented as technology evolves and new innovative devices are designed by engineers. By addressing these issues early and often, solutions can be implemented and problems prevented before they even have a chance to occur thanks to sound engineering and solid design.
NEW HAVEN  Soon after Avelo Airlines begins flying from Tweed New Haven Regional Airport to four Florida cities in early November, it will add a fifth destination  Palm Beach  the airline announced Wednesday.

Beginning Dec. 16, daily flights to Palm Beach International Airport will join a roster of Avelo Tweed destinations that also includes Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers and Tampa.

In addition, Avelo, the first airline to offer nonstop flights between Tweed and Florida, will increase the frequency of flights to Fort Myers and Tampa over the peak holiday season, the airline announced.

As with the other destinations, introductory fares from New Haven to Palm Beach will begin at $59. All Avelo flights can be booked at AveloAir.com.

Avelo will initiate service from Tweed  its first East Coast base  to Florida with flights to and from Orlando on Nov. 3, with Fort Lauderdale also beginning later that week.

Getting from Connecticut to one of the worlds most coveted oceanfront resorts is now more convenient than ever, said Avelo Chairman and CEO Andrew Levy.

The addition of Palm Beach to Avelos portfolio of five sun-soaked Florida destinations demonstrates our commitment to providing Connecticut with the choice and convenience its residents want, Levy said.

Were very excited to add yet another nonstop destination to Tweed-New Haven and to build upon our existing partnership with Avelo Airlines, said Sean Scanlon, executive director of the Tweed New Haven Airport Authority.

Avelo and our long-time operator, Avports, are already hiring local residents for new jobs at the airport in support of this increased activity, Scanlon said. Together, were turning Tweed New Haven into a more vibrant and sustainable airport, one that is already growing over one hundred new jobs and will serve as an economic driver for our region for years to come.

The Palm Beach flight, Flight XP345, will depart Tweed at 7 a.m., arriving at Palm Beach International at 10:10 a.m.

The return flight, Flight XP346, will depart Palm Beach at 10:50 a.m. and arrive in New Haven at 1:40 p.m.

Avelo also will increase the frequency of its flights between Tweed to Fort Myers from three days per week to daily from Dec. 16 through Jan. 4, 2022, the airline said. Avelos service between New Haven and Fort Myers begins Nov. 11.

Avelo also will increase the frequency of its flights between Tweed and Tampa from four days per week to daily from Dec. 16 through Jan. 4, 2022. Avelos scheduled service between New Haven and Tampa begins Nov. 8.

In addition to Fort Myers, Palm Beach and Tampa, Avelo will serve Fort Lauderdale and Orlando.

Avelo will operate single-class, 147-awR Boeing 737-700 Next Gen aircraft at Tweed. The airline has touted Tweed as a simpler, easier travel experience compared to other airports Connecticut residents use, without the long lines and long walks found at other airports.

Avelo became the nations first new scheduled airline in nearly 15 years when it began service from its initial base at Hollywood Burbank Airport near Los Angeles on April 28, 2021. It currently serves 10 destinations across the western U.S.

The start of its service will mark the first time Tweed has served more than two destinations at a time since the airports mid-1990s peak, when it offered United service to Chicago, United Express service Washington, D.C., USAir Express service to Philadelphia and Continental Express service to Newark.

Airport and local officials have said that Tweeds expansion will create 1,000 new construction jobs and 175 permanent jobs. Avelo is currently hiring more than 100 New Haven-based employees, Levy said.

Avelo has agreed to pay for $1.2 million in improvements to Tweeds existing terminal as part of an agreement between Tweed, Avelo and airport manager Avports LLC. Thats in addition to $2.8 million that Avports will provide for additional upgrades to the current terminal and airport infrastructure in advance of the start of Avelos service.

Tweed and Avports officials also announced plans for a project eventually totaling more than $100 million to lengthen Tweeds existing runway by 1,035 feet to clear the way for more direct flights to more destinations and build a new, carbon-neutral, 74,000-square-foot terminal  roughly three times the size of the existing terminal  with four gates, expandable to six gates, on the East Haven side of the airport.

A new entrance to the airport, which straddles the New Haven-East Haven border, would be off Proto Drive in East Haven, with an approach along Hemingway Avenue.

Avports, under a proposed new 43-year contract with Tweed  which leases the airport from the city  would front the money for the project, eliminating the need for existing state and city subsidies, which currently total $1.8 million per year. A proposed 43-year lease extension currently is pending before the Board of Alders.

mark.zaretsky@hearstmediact.com
For those ringing bells on behalf of the Salvation Army this holiday season, a merrier sound is the tinkle of quarters or other spare change cascading into red kettles as shoppers exit with purchases in hand.

Better yet is the whisper of dollar bills wafting down  and given a continuing shortage of coins for some retailers, those whispers could be far more frequent as the calendar flips to November.

The U.S. Coin Task Force convened in July 2020 to address a scarcity of coins in the early stretch of the COVID-19 pandemic, led by representatives of the Federal Reserve, the U.S. Department of the Treasury and retail trade groups.

More than a year later in Connecticut and nationally, however, some stores are still coming up short on occasion for sufficient coins to make change on purchases, with managers scribbling warning signs to post at entrances and checkout lanes alongside mask advisories and hiring notices.

The task forces takeaway? The problem is a circulation issue rather than an outright shortage, with a far larger-than-normal percentage of $48.5 billion in coin sitting dormant in home drawers and piggy banks. While the U.S. Mint was forced to cut back on coin production at the outset of the pandemic, by the end of 2020 it had produced more coins than the previous year.

But the Federal Reserve estimates that cash made up 19 percent of U.S. payment transactions last year, down from 26 percent the prior two years, basing its conclusions on the results from spending diaries by more than 1,500 people who logged their transactions.

Small businesses have been affected the most, according to the task force which has a website online at getcoinmoving.org for any updates.

The task force continues to urge shoppers to spend coins where possible, and for businesses not to horde their quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies to increase coin circulation. It acknowledges the particular difficulties for small businesses who may deal with larger numbers of customers using cash rather than payments cards.

At a Petco store on Connecticut Avenue in Norwalk where signs are posted noting the limited supply of coins, cashiers are suggesting that customers use an existing philanthropic program by rounding up  their cash purchase to the nearest dollar, with the difference donated to a local animal shelter. A Petco spokesperson said Wednesday that the program has been in place for a few years.

Not all stores are running into difficulties. A Stop & Shop spokesperson indicated it is not coming up short in making change, with the supermarket chain the largest operating in Connecticut.

The coin shortage has not been a huge issue with use due to the pandemic pushing most customers to order through our app, online order, curbside pickup, etc., stated Robert Guerrieri, owner of Upper Crust Bagel on Sound Beach Avenue in Old Greenwich. The large majority of our customers pay with credit cards.

But other chains have felt the pinch, including a Walgreens pharmacy in Newtown, which had signs posted this week asking customers to pay with plastic if possible.

Gov. Ned Lamont is scheduled to attend a kickoff ceremony on Thursday in Hartford for the Salvation Armys annual fundraising push. Salvation Army spokesperson Laura Krueger noted the nonprofit has been expanding its channels for donation, including through virtual red kettles in her words and other crowdfunding initiatives.

Many make donations at The Salvation Armys Red Kettles with change, Krueger said Wednesday. Because of the pandemic, we had fewer kettles out and fewer volunteers. However, we started the fundraising season early in mid-September. NFC readers were added to the kettles a couple of years ago, making touchless donating possible.

Alex.Soule@scni.com; 203-842-2545; @casoulman
Wings Army

Wings Army , brand of the Maso en Expansion holding company, achieved for the fourth consecutive time, the recognition of the National Buffalo Wing Festival , a figure of "world of wings", to its participating sauces, this time in the category of BBQ.

The Mexican franchise in a cobranding with the sweet enchilado Pelon Pelo Rico, obtained the trophy that was presented at the Buffalo Bills football field, the scene of the contest that brought together the 20 most outstanding brands in this food industry.
DANBURY  A political newcomer who says her conservative values stem from her immigrant parents work ethic, her Christian faith, and her love of the Constitution is running to represent Connecticuts Fifth Congressional District.

I dont have experience in elected office, but I am dealing with children, I am dealing with the elderly, and I am dealing with the people in my community, said Michelle Botelho, 51, a mother of two college-age kids, who has worked as a paralegal and a tutor in Danbury public schools. Dealing with people is my political experience.

Botelho, who describes herself as an America First advocate, is the second Republican to challenge two-term Democrat Jahana Hayes. Republican George Logan, a former two-term state senator from Ansonia, announced he was running for Connecticuts most competitive congressional seat in July.

A spokesperson for Hayes campaign on Tuesday said until a single GOP candidate emerges from the primary, the Republicans are racing against themselves.

Candidates announcing does not change the trajectory of Congresswoman Hayes work, said campaign manager Barbara Ellis.

Logans campaign did not return a request for comment on Tuesday.

Botelho and a local Republican leader conceded on Tuesday that while it was important to get an early start against a candidate like Hayes who has a national profile, it will be hard to generate much Republican support for Botelho over the next six weeks, when the focus here and across the 5th District is on municipal elections, such as Danburys mayoral race.

Yet Botelho said she felt it was important to get the word out now that she doesnt want to be just another Republican in Congress that shies away from issues.

I want to be a voice for people who feel they are not being heard  because thats how I feel, Botelho said. Unfortunately, the Republicans in Congress right now dont want to rock the boat. I have no issue doing that.

Botelho said she would fight big government, invest in the military and border patrol, promote fiscal conservatism, and bring back more manufacturing jobs to America.

On Tuesday Botelho said she wasnt sure how to assess her chances in a Republican primary against a former elected leader such as Logan, or in a general election contest with Hayes, the 2016 national Teacher of the Year, who already has $1.2 million her reelection campaign for 2022.

All I know is I want to do right by the Fifth District and I want to do right by my community, because people want a voice, Botelho said. Right now I have a lot of people on my side who are willing to volunteer, and although I dont have the money Jahana Hayes has, I am willing to do the footwork.

It remains to be seen how successfully a political newcomer will be able to get the word out to voters in a district that reaches as far north as the Massachusetts border and as far east as New Britain.

In Botelhos own city, where she has lived for 21 years, Republican Party chairman Michael Safranek says he doesnt recognize her name.

I dont know her, but right now I am 110 percent focused on the municipal elections in six weeks, Safranek said on Tuesday.

Botelho, whose parents emigrated to the United States from Italy, said she was as qualified as any incumbent to run for a seat in Washington, D.C.

If you look at our state government and our federal government, the experience (politicians) have is not really holding its own, Botelho said. My experience is being with people and knowing their needs and wants.

rryser@newstimes.com 203-731-3342
Younger generations seem to have a knack for disrupting the status quo, and life insurance may be next on the list. As Generation Z and millennial workers challenge the concept of a traditional career and drive an increase in freelancing, the role of workplace group life insurance in long-term financial plans is likely to change.

Freelancers understand that they need to take 100% responsibility for their finances, says Jessica Lepore, founder of Surevested, a New York-based life insurance agency. Its not all packaged like if you were to work for a corporation.

LESS RELIANCE ON GROUP LIFE POLICIES

Many people in their 40s and 50s depend on life insurance provided through an employer, says Grant Dunn, vice president of financial services at Lakenan, an insurance brokerage in St. Louis. But younger generations prefer to look for coverage outside the workplace, he says. Last year, life insurance application activity grew more than twice as fast for Americans 44 and younger compared to those 45-59, according to MIB Group, an information-sharing service for insurers.

Theyre going more to outside markets rather than just trusting what they have through their employer, because they know that their employer is going to change a lot in the next 30 years, Dunn says.

Younger workers typically do not stay at jobs as long as older workers, the most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows. In January 2020, median job tenure was 2.8 years for workers 25 to 34 years old, compared to 9.9 years for workers 55 to 64.

Workers cant always convert group life to an individual policy to avoid losing coverage when they leave a job. What I would suggest to millennials that plan on job-hopping around is just get it outside of your employer so you dont have to worry about it, Dunn says. This is perhaps even more necessary for long-term freelancers, who do not have an employer to provide coverage.

Plus, basic group life insurance may be free to employees, but it often tops out at one or two times a workers annual salary. Thats typically not enough to provide a financial safety net, Dunn says.

HOW LIFE INSURANCE PLANNING DIFFERS FOR FREELANCERS

A simple way to estimate how much life insurance you need is to multiply your income by the number of years your beneficiaries will need financial support. This calculation can be tricky for freelancers with unpredictable incomes, but they can follow the lead of workers in commission-based jobs like real estate, where monthly income may not be consistent, Dunn says.

He suggests looking at what you earn on average, as well as what people at your skill level in the industry make over time. Once you estimate your annual salary, you can figure out how much your life insurance policy would need to cover if you die.

If youre unsure of your future needs, Lepore recommends getting a policy that allows you to adjust coverage over time, such as a term life policy you can convert to permanent coverage later.

The best thing to ever do is get at least one policy going, Lepore says, because that can confirm your eligibility at a later time in your life if you decide you need more coverage.

CHANGES TO HOW AMERICANS SHOP FOR LIFE INSURANCE

Traditionally, getting life insurance can take several weeks and often requires a medical exam. With all the technology today, the younger generation cant wrap their minds around it taking 45 days to get a policy in force, Dunn says.

Some insurers have already responded to this issue by using big data algorithms to process applications online in minutes. So if youre looking for fast coverage, these products may be your best bet. However, whether you shop online or not, the type of life insurance you buy should align with your overall coverage goals.

Permanent policies, such as whole life, generally stay in force until you die and include an investment account. You can withdraw or borrow against the policys cash value while youre still alive. The growing popularity of digital investments can make traditional whole life policies less enticing as investment opportunities to the younger generations, Dunn says. If you just want your life insurance to cover your death and not act as an investment vehicle, you may want to consider term life insurance. Term life covers you for a set number of years, does not have an investment component, tends to be less expensive than permanent policies and is typically sufficient for most people.

______________________________

This article was provided to The Associated Press by the personal finance website NerdWallet. Georgia Rose is a writer at NerdWallet. Email: grose@nerdwallet.com.

RELATED LINK:

NerdWallet: How Much Life Insurance Do I Need?
CUSTER CITY, S.D. (AP)  Looking down a hillside dotted with large stumps and nearly devoid of trees, a pair of retired U.S. Forest Service employees lamented logging policies they helped craft to deal with two harbingers of climate change -- pine beetles and wildfires.

Timber production dramatically ramped up two decades ago in the Black Hills National Forest along the South Dakota-Wyoming border, as beetles ravaged huge expanses of forest and worries grew over wildfires.

The beetles left, but the loggers havent  and they're now felling trees at twice the rate government scientists say is sustainable. That means the Black Hills forests are shrinking, with fewer and smaller trees.

Timber sales from federal forests nationwide more than doubled over the past 20 years, according to government data. In Washington, D.C., Republicans and Democrats alike have pushed more aggressive thinning of stands to reduce vegetation that fuels wildfires.

But critics of federal forest management say that in their fervor to do something about climate change, officials are allowing the removal of too many older trees that can actually better withstand fire.

In the Black Hills, stands of century-old ponderosa pines were thinned over the past two decades, then thinned again. In some areas, most of the remaining older and larger trees are being cut, leaving hillsides almost bare.

Eventually youre not going to have any big trees on the whole forest, said Dave Mertz, who worked as a government natural resources officer overseeing Black Hills logging until retiring in 2017. The timber industry is pulling the strings now. The Forest Service has lost its way.

DIRE PREDICTIONS

Across the western U.S., more trees have been dying as climate change dramatically alters the landscape and leaves forests more susceptible. Wildfires, insects and disease are the top killers, researchers say.

A sweeping government review of forest health surveys since 1993 found that the rate of trees dying increased this century and outpaced new growth in all eight states examined  Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. Timber harvested from Forest Service lands over the past two decades also increased.

In the Black Hills, those two trends have collided. With more trees being logged and even more killed by beetles and fires in recent years, government scientists say the forest cant grow fast enough to keep up.

The timber industry and allies in Congress are pushing back against that conclusion. Timber company representatives predict dire economic consequences if forest managers sharply reduce harvest levels. And they say wildfires and beetle outbreaks would get worse.

One of the region's seven mills closed in March, eliminating 120 jobs in Hill City, South Dakota. Owner Neiman Enterprises said a recent slowdown in timber sales meant it wouldn't have enough logs.

"These companies arent tech startups. They are multi-generational family companies that want to be there for the long term. said Ben Wudtke, director of the Black Hills Forest Resource Association of saw mills and logging companies.

FIGHTING FIRE

To counter growing havoc from western wildfires, Biden's administration wants to double the forest acreage thinned or treated with prescribed burns to 6 million acres (2.4 million hectares) annually  bigger than New Hampshire.

One method to reduce fire risk is to remove dense stands of small trees and thick underbrush that accumulated for decades as wildfires  a natural part of the landscape  were suppressed.

Its expensive, labor-intensive work, and theres little market value in small trees. When sworn in this summer, Forest Service Chief Randy Moore said combating climate change will require making it worthwhile to harvest smaller trees, such as using the vegetation as biomass to generate electricity.

It doesnt pay for itself and we dont have markets that seem to be increasing quickly enough," he said.

The service's former deputy chief, Jim Furnish, criticized the agency as too focused on timber production and too slow to react to climate change, to the detriment of the forest.

There are signs of change under President Joe Biden, including the administrations move last month to end large-scale commercial logging of old-growth trees in Alaskas Tongass National Forest.

But other projects that include old-growth removal are pending, including in Montana's Kootenai National Forest along the Canada border, the Kaibab National Forest just north of the Grand Canyon in Arizona and Idaho's Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest.

The Forest Services approach to date has been to attack this as a management problem: We need to cut more trees,' Furnish told The Associated Press. You cant cut your way out of this problem.

Moore, the agency's chief, acknowledged the warming planet was forcing changes, but said he hoped to find a sweet spot between the environment and industry  while removing enough vegetation to reduce wildfire risk. In the Black Hills, officials said they would consider the latest science alongside economic impacts as they seek to make logging sustainable.

We need the industry to help us, Moore said, referring to climate change. Its not really about timber sales or cutting large trees.

BEAT TO HELL

The Black Hills played an outsized role in the early formation of the nation's timber policies. In the 1890s, excessive logging to feed demand for timbers for a nearby gold mine helped spur creation of the national forest system. The first regulated logging sales in forest service history took place there in 1899.

When artist and environmentalist Mary Zimmerman bought property within the Black Hills in 1988, neighboring public lands where that first timber sale took place had regrown so successfully that huge branches overhead were like a cathedral.

The site was thinned in 1990, removing some big trees but leaving many. It was thinned more in 2016. Then logging crews returned last year and took out the remaining big trees. Cattle now graze the area.

Its just beat to hell, said Zimmerman.

Her account was confirmed by Blaine Cook, forest management scientist for the Black Hills for more than two decades until his 2019 retirement.

EARLY WARNINGS

Cook said his monitoring began to show last decade that the forests growth rate wasnt keeping up with aggressive logging that was a response to the pine beetle outbreak that began in 1998. The high harvest rate continued after the outbreak peaked in 2012 and even after it ended in 2017.

Cook said his warnings that the forest was being damaged were rejected by superiors who faced political pressure to provide a steady supply of logs to sawmills in South Dakota and Wyoming.

Disagreement within the agency over whether there was too much logging culminated in a report this April by scientists from the forest services research branch that was unequivocal: Black Hills logging needs to be cut back by at least half, possibly more, to be sustainable.

The problem is that the forest changed but logging rates have not, said Mike Battaglia, one of the lead authors.

In the late 90's, you had twice as much volume of trees in the forest, he said. To take out the same amount now, you're taking too much."

Forest industry representatives criticized the governments multi-year study for including only parts of the forest, saying that created an incomplete picture of how many trees are available to harvest.

They estimated up to 80% of the regions timber industry jobs would be lost if the forest service reduced logging to recommended levels. If that happens, they said the agency would have difficulty finding companies willing to do less profitable thinning work for wildfire protection.

You have to have somebody around to do it," said the forest industry's Wudtke. It's really critical that we keep these companies going."

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Follow Matthew Brown on Twitter: @MatthewBrownAP

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Read more of APs climate coverage at http://www.apnews.com/Climate

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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.
MIAMI (AP)  A former University of Miami professor, his wife and his sister are facing federal charges related to purchasing genetic sequencing equipment from U.S. manufacturers and illegally shipping it to Iran, prosecutors said.

Mohammad Faghihi, 52, his wife Farzeneh Modarresi, 53, and his sister Faezeh Faghihi, 50, made their initial appearances Tuesday in Miami federal court, according to court records. All three are charged with conspiring to commit an offense against the United States and conspiring to commit money laundering, as well as several other charges.
MADISON, Wis. (AP)  Longtime lobbyist Bill McCoshen said Wednesday he will not seek the Republican nomination for Wisconsin governor.

McCoshen said he's spent the past 15 months traveling the state and meeting with citizens, business owners and politicians to gauge their interest in his candidacy and was encouraged by the support he received.

McCoshen said both time and money are needed to run the type of issue oriented, grassroots campaign needed to win.

While I'm confident we could have raised the money, the reality is we lost too much precious time trying to close on the sale of our primary business, McCoshen tweeted.

McCoshen, 56, recently sold his company, Capitol Consultants, for more than $1 million to Michael Best Strategies, the lobbying division of the Milwaukee law firm, Michael Best & Friedrich. McCoshen will join the firm as a consultant.

Former Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, 46, last week launched her campaign to try to become the first female governor in state history. She is the best-known Republican to officially get into the race against Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, who is seeking a second term in 2022.

State Rep. John Macco, of Green Bay, and 2018 U.S. Senate candidate Kevin Nicholson, a former Marine, are also considering jumping into the race for the GOP nomination.

The race is a top priority for Republicans who control the Wisconsin Legislature but have been blocked by Evers who has vetoed GOP bills to make absentee voting more difficult, restricted access to abortions and prohibited enforcement of any future federal gun control laws.

The Republican primary is Aug. 9, 2022.
Its still too early to end Gov. Ned Lamonts emergency powers, though it seems a lifetime since the legislature first granted him sweeping authority to fight the pandemic. Four people still die every day on average from COVID-19 in Connecticut, and hundreds remain hospitalized. The positivity rate is up. There are chilling signs of COVID spreading among children and of an even more transmissible variant popping up.

The governors emergency powers end this month. Unless the legislature extends them another three or more months, hell be unable to:

Continue requiring that all possible K-12 schoolteachers and early-childhood staff get vaccinated. Why does this matter? Because kids now represent 29 percent of all COVID cases nationwide.

Continue requiring that all possible workers in nursing homes and adult day care centers get vaccinated. Why is this important? Because nearly 3,000 nursing home residents in Connecticut have died from COVID-19.

Continue requiring that all possible state employees get vaccinated. Why bother? Because the coronavirus is sweeping through state prisons, among other places. At least 4,700 offenders have tested positive, and 43 staff are recovering from it.

Continue requiring masks in public K-12 schools. Why make kids mask up? Because 25,000 Connecticut children have gotten infected. The number of children hospitalized in the U.S. with COVID-19 hit a record high of more than 1,900 cases this past month. And yes, studies prove that masks do protect.

In the 18 months since Lamont began issuing emergency executive orders, hes never abused his authority. Also, legislative leaders have the power to reject any of his pandemic-related orders. Its doubtful the legislature could have passed such life-saving rules quickly, if at all. Plus, legislators have been happy to let the governor take the heat from fringe groups that dont believe in science.

Now 82 percent of Connecticut residents 12 and up are fully vaccinated  compared with Floridas 63 percent vaccination rate. In the Sunshine State, deaths are at their highest levels ever  350 a day on average  in no small part because Floridas Gov. Ron DeSantis wont allow the sort of vaccine and mask requirements that Connecticut has.

Republican legislators argue that Gov. Lamonts emergency powers are no longer needed. If only that were true.

There were 327 people hospitalized with coronavirus in Connecticut as of Monday, and 72 of them were not fully vaccinated. Imagine how that number would rise if the governors vaccine mandates werent in place. (See Florida, above.)

Its true that the governor has had these extraordinary powers a long time, since March 2020. At that time, only 4,291 people worldwide had lost their lives from COVID-19. A year and a half later, 1,000 times that number have died from the disease  4.6 million people.

Today, the delta variant is now the threat, accounting for 99 percent of Connecticuts cases. But the mu variant is on the rise. Connecticut has had 73 mu cases as of Sept. 5. Connecticut has one of the nations highest rates of the mu variant, says Hartford Healthcare.

Its too soon to relax our guard, and its doubtful the legislature could keep in place the policies that are protecting most of us from COVID. Give the governor another three months at least, please.
Amazon wants to hire 125,000 delivery and warehouse workers and said Tuesday that it is paying new hires an average of $18 an hour in a tight job market as more people shop online.

Competition for hourly workers has become fierce, and many companies are offering higher pay, sign-on bonuses and other incentives. Last week, package delivery company UPS promised to handout job offers in 30 minutes after candidates apply for many of the 100,000 holiday workers it plans to hire.

In an interview early Tuesday, Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen told CNBC that the national grocery chain has 20,000 positions it is struggling to fill.

Were aggressively hiring anywhere we can, McMullen said. One of the biggest constraints we have right now is finding talented people.

Amazons starting pay is still $15 per hour, but with labor markets growing so tight in regions of the country, the company said new hires could make as much as $22.50 an hour. Its also paying sign-on bonuses of $3,000 in some places.

In Greater Hazleton, where around 2,000 people work at Amazons Humboldt Industrial Park warehouse, the company is looking to boost its workforce by nearly 20%.

There are roughly 375 spots were hiring for, said Steve Kelly, regional public relations representative for Amazon, via phone. All are no experience necessary, he said, adding that they were mainly picking, packing and sorting positions, as well as a handful of administrative jobs.

When it began paying at least $15 an hour in 2018, Amazon was one of the first major companies to do so. But others have caught up. Target and Best Buy pay $15 an hour, too. Costco pays $16 an hour. Now, Amazon is finding it has to offer more.

Our average starting wage is now around $18, Kelly said. The company also provides full-time employees comprehensive benefits from day one, including health, vision and dental insurance, a 401(k) with a 50% company match and up to 20 weeks of paid parental leave.

Last week, it said it would pay the full college tuition for hourly workers starting in January. Workers will be eligible 90 days after theyve started work. Amazon said itll fund tuition at hundreds of partnering schools, but didnt name them.

We expect 25,000 employees in Pennsylvania to be eligible for the college program, Kelly said.

Amazons delivery service partners  the folks who bring packages to your door  also plan to hire more than 50,000 people across the nation. The current local delivery workforce in the region is already several hundred strong.

Companies are having a difficult time finding workers even though the number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits reach pandemic lows. Rising infections with the arrival of the delta variant appear partially to blame.

Americas employers added just 235,000 jobs in August, a surprisingly weak gain after two months of robust hiring and the clearest sign to date that the delta variants spread has discouraged economic activity, and potentially job seekers.

More people have shifted from stores to online shopping over the past year during the pandemic, and retailers have adjusted hiring to accommodate those patterns. Amazon, which is now the nations second-largest private employer, hired 500,000 people last year alone.

To keep up with the surge in online ordering, Amazon said that it has opened more than 250 new warehouses, airport hubs and other delivery facilities this year. It plans to open another 100 this month alone.

The company said most of its job openings are in 18 states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas and Washington.

John Medeiros, city editor, contributed to this report.
Published: 15 September 2021

Turnover in industry grew by 16.5 per cent in July

According to Statistics Finland, working day adjusted turnover in industry (TOL BCD) increased in July by 16.5 per cent year-on-year. Turnover grew in almost all main industries. The development was partly due to the exceptional situation caused by the coronavirus one year earlier. Among the main industries, turnover growth was strongest in electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply, up by 44.5 per cent from one year back. The growth in the industry was in part affected by risen prices of electricity. Seasonally adjusted turnover in industry (TOL BCD) grew by 2.3 per cent in July compared with June.

Annual change in working day adjusted turnover in manufacturing (BCD), % (TOL 2008)

In July, turnover in the forest industry went up by 28.7 per cent and in the chemical industry by 20.1 per cent. Turnover in mining and quarrying was 11.4 per cent higher and turnover in the metal industry 11.2 per cent higher than one year earlier. Turnover in the textile, clothing and leather industry grew by 10.9 per cent and in the food industry by 5.2 per cent. Turnover decreased only in the electrical and electronics industry, by 8.6 per cent from twelve months earlier.

Annual change in working day adjusted turnover in manufacturing by industry, July 2021, % (TOL 2008)

Export turnover grew in July in nearly all main industries

Export turnover grew most in the industry of mining and quarrying, by 32.9 per cent from one year ago. In the forest industry, export turnover was 29.4 per cent higher and in the chemical industry 23.7 per cent higher than one year earlier. Export turnover in the textile, clothing and leather industry grew by 15.8 per cent, in the metal industry by 6.7 per cent and in the food industry by 3.4 per cent. Export turnover decreased only in the electrical and electronics industry, by 13.6 per cent from twelve months earlier.

Annual change in working day adjusted export turnover and domestic turnover in manufacturing by industry, July 2021, % (TOL 2008)

Domestic turnover increased most in the forest industry, by 26.7 per cent from one year earlier. In the metal industry, domestic turnover was 16.8 per cent higher and in the electrical and electronics industry 16.7 per cent higher than one year previously. Domestic turnover in the chemical industry grew by 14.2 per cent. Domestic turnover in the textile, clothing and leather industry grew by 7.5 per cent and in the food industry by 5.2 per cent. Domestic turnover decreased only in the industry of mining and quarrying, by 3.2 per cent from one year ago.

Trend series of turnover, export turnover and domestic turnover in manufacturing (BC), 1/2007 to 7/2021, % (TOL 2008)

The index of turnover in industry describes enterprises whose main industry is manufacturing. The calculation of the indices is based on the Tax Administrations self-assessed tax data which are supplemented with data obtained with Statistics Finlands sales inquiry. The monthly turnovers of manufacturing enterprises can vary considerably, especially in the metal industries. The variation is mainly due to invoicing practices. The final invoice for major machinery deliveries and projects may be recorded in the sales of one month, even if the delivery had required the work of several months or years.

The factors caused by the variation in the number of weekdays are taken into account in adjustment for working days. This means taking into consideration the lengths of months, different weekdays and holidays. In addition, seasonal variation is eliminated from seasonally adjusted series, on account of which it makes sense to compare observations of two successive months as well.

The data for the latest month are preliminary and are released at a delay of around six weeks. The data may become significantly revised particularly on more detailed industry levels in coming months. Revisions to the data may be particularly significant on the more accurate industry levels of export turnover and domestic turnover.

Source: Index of turnover in industry 2021, July, Statistics Finland

Inquiries: Jussi Haavisto 029 551 3341, Heli Suonio 029 551 2481, myynti.teollisuus@stat.fi

Head of Department in charge: Katri Kaaja

Publication in pdf-format (331.3 kB)

Updated 15.9.2021

Referencing instructions: Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Index of turnover in industry [e-publication].

ISSN=1798-596X. July 2021. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 21.9.2021].

Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/tlv/2021/07/tlv_2021_07_2021-09-15_tie_001_en.html
President Klaus Iohannis signed, on Wednesday, the decree to decorate the battle flag of the Tudor Vladimirescu National Military College.

According to the Presidential Administration, on the occasion of the 140th anniversary of the establishment, as sign of "high appreciation for the important contribution had to the development of military education, as well as to the promotion of the image of the Romanian Army through the results obtained nationally and internationally," the head of state granted the National Order For Merit in the rank of Knight, with peace markings, for servicemen, to the battle flag of the Tudor Vladimirescu National Military College, Agerpres.ro informs.
Senate President Anca Dragu announces that she has sent to the Constitutional Court a point of view regarding the existence of a legal conflict of constitutional nature between the Government and the Parliament, agerpres report.

One day ago, Anca Dragu stated that she would send to the Constitutional Court two points of view - one of the relevant Committee, adopted by the Standing Bureau, and another in her personal name - regarding the Government's notification to the Court on the existence of a Government-Parliament legal conflict in the case of the censure motion.

"In this point of view, signed by me, as President of the Romanian Senate, I show that there are no reasons to consider the existence of a legal conflict of constitutional nature. It is in fact a conflict of a political nature that the Government wants to transform into a conflict of constitutional nature. We also show in this point of view sent to the Court that this is rather a request which cannot be admissible by the Constitutional Court. It is about a series of criticisms related to the initiation and submission of the censure motion. The censure motion is a constitutional legal instrument available to parliamentarians, an instrument of control over the activity of the Government, and we show, as such, that there is no blockage of the activity of the two institutions on the basis of a legal conflict of a constitutional nature. I repeat: it is a political conflict, rather, which at the level of the Government is intended to be turned into a legal conflict of a constitutional nature," Dragu said in a press statement held at the Parliament Palace.
Marin Anton, former PNL (National Liberal Party) Deputy, was sentenced, on Wednesday, by the Bucharest Court, to five years in prison with execution, being accused of receiving a bribe of 5.3 million euros from the representative of an Italian company for awarding a contract for the construction of the new terminal at Otopeni Airport, in 2009, agerpres reports.

Also, the Court decided to seize from Marin Anton the amount of 22,760,654 lei.

In the same case, Mihai Adrian Ionescu, former Deputy General Manager of the Highway Coordination and Monitoring Directorate within the National Company For Motorways and Roads of Romania SA and former advisor to the Minister of Transport, received a 3-year suspended prison sentence for being complicit in a bribery scheme.The former General Manager is obliged to perform unpaid work for the benefit of the community, at ADP - Sector 2 Bucharest or at ADP - Sector 6, for a period of 100 days.The decision is not final and can be appealed.
Local authorities from Romania and the Republic of Moldova will meet in Sibiu, between September 16 and 19, to discuss the establishment of a Board aimed at developing the collaboration.

Prime Minister Florin Citu and Minister of Labor Raluca Turcan are among the guests at the meeting organized by the Association of Romanian Communes (ACoR), in partnership with the Sibiu County Council and the Sibiu City Hall.

The participants will be signing a declaration of intent regarding the establishment of the Board of the Local Authorities of Romania and the Republic of Moldova (CALRRM), and they will also approve an action plan to complete the setting up and registration process of CALRRM and discuss an initial draft statute.

Moreover, they will analyze the problems faced by the administrative-territorial units in Romania and the Republic of Moldova and the current situation and directions aimed at boosting the process of establishing twinning schemes between local authorities in the two states.

The agenda also includes the analysis of ways to promote the rights and interests of local authorities in the Republic of Moldova within European institutions, the support and promotion of the participation, as observer, of a delegation of local authorities from across the Prut in the proceedings of the European Committee of the Regions, as well as the identification of concrete methods to support them, which will contribute to improving their administrative capacity, Agerpres.ro confirms.

At the same time, debates are scheduled on how to transpose the acquis communautaire into the legislation of the Republic of Moldova by using Romania's experience and identifying sources of funding for actions to support local authorities across the Prut.

Identifying externally funded projects to support the joint initiatives of CALRRM members, especially in the field of training of public administration staff in the Republic of Moldova, the need for a strategy and an action plan to develop cooperation between local authorities and debating ways for the participation of the representatives of the two countries' Governments in the sessions of the General Assembly of CALRRM will also be addressed.
The Romanian state will compensate the electricity bills for approximately 13 million Romanians who have a monthly consumption between 30 kWh and 200 kWh, Minister of Energy Virgil Popescu said on Wednesday in a briefing at the end of the Government meeting.

"I presented today in the Government in first reading the draft emergency ordinance for subsidizing the Romanians' electricity and gas bills," he specified.

The minister showed that the difference between the lowest market price, 64 bani per kWh including all taxes, and the average, 82 bani per kWh will be subsidized, Agerpres.ro informs.

"This difference of 18 bani per kWh will be fully subsidized from the state budget. Almost 13 million Romanians will benefit from this measure," Popescu added.
The Government took notice of the actualization of the General Policy Recommendation on preventing and combating antisemitism, issued by the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) of the Council of Europe, and hails this demarche, according to deputy Alexandru Muraru, special representative of the Executive for the Promotion of Memory Policies, Combating Antisemitism and Xenophobia.

"The ECRI conclusions regarding the rise of antisemitism and antisemitic in the online environment in Europe are profoundly concerning. The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance of the Council of Europe correctly notes the recent increasing trends in the number of physical attacks with antisemitic nature in many member-states of the Council of Europe and phenomena such as denying or distorting the Holocaust or the spread of hate speech, especially in the context of the COVID-19 crisis. In the past year, Romania also registered antisemitic incidents, both online as well as offline, committed by political extremists and urged mainly by the public speech of representatives of an extremist political party present in the Romanian Parliament. In this context, the commitment of the Government to combat antisemitism, both on the national level and on the international level, including by implementation of the measures recommended by ECRI, remains firm," says Alexandru Muraru in a release sent on Wednesday to AGERPRES.

He showed that the first category of recommendations of the ECRI for the intensification of the fight against antisemitism places emphasis on institutional policies and coordination, emphasizing that, as special representative of the Government for the Promotion of Memory Policies, Combating Antisemitism and Xenophobia, he grants particular attention to these aspects and, especially, the need to ensure coordination between the institutions and structures specialized in combating antisemitism.

"Another pillar of recommendations of the ECRI regards the formation of a professional category with a role in preventing and combating antisemitism, improving data collection about antisemitic incidents and a better education on antisemitism and Holocaust in schools. These recommendations reconfirm the viability and importance of implementing the National Strategy regarding the prevention and combating of antisemitism, xenophobia, radicalization and hate speech, document adopted by the Government in May, this year, as well as the Action Plan associated to the Strategy, which will be implemented in the next three years (2021-2023)," adds Muraru, Agerpres.ro informs.

He indicates the fact that in what regards the protection of members of Jewish communities and victims of antisemitic incidents, ECRI recommends increasing the interaction and level of relations with security structures. In this context, Alexandru Muraru mentions that, in the future, it is essential that the Romanian Police and Prosecutor's Offices treat the cases of antisemitic attacks seriously, and the legislation in force be applied quickly by the authorities.

The representative of the Government hails the emphasis placed by ECRI on the recommendation to use the working definition of antisemitism of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, for a better understanding and identifying the expressions of antisemitism.

"The working definition of antisemitism of IHRA was adopted during the Romanian presidency of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, and Romania was one of the first countries that adopted on a national level this definition and the only country that adopted a law to combat antisemitism inspired by this definition. Thus, having in view the progress made in the past 15 years in the legislative and institutional domain, Romania acquired the status of regional model in what regards assuming the past and combating denial and distortion," Alexandru Muraru concludes.
Nelu Tataru, honorary adviser to Prime Minister Florin Citu and former Minister of Health, said that people vaccinated against COVID-19 should not suffer because of non-immunised people, agerpres reports.

"I think that the restrictions we have are sufficient, but they must be respected, and their implementation must be verified (...). I am a supporter of the fact that the person who has been vaccinated, the one who has complied with certain conditions, the one who at one point assumed the so-called risks of vaccination and now cannot benefit from a cultural activity or any other benefit should not have to suffer, in the context in which others restrict this," Nelu Tataru said on Wednesday, upon leaving the Ministry of Health.

He noted that the issue of Intensive Care medical staff needs to be assessed to see to what extent exchanges can be provided.In his view, the increase in the number of COVID-19 cases is "an alarm signal" that should lead to decisions and assumptions.Nelu Tataru mentioned that a possible introduction of the obligation to vaccinate or test for COVID-19 the employees in schools and hospitals should be discussed at the level of the Government and the Committee for Emergency Situations.
Prime Minister Florin Citu said, on Wednesday, that an ordinance aimed at subsidizing energy and gas prices was discussed in first lecture, among other topics, in the Government sitting.

"It's about subsidizing the prices for energy and gas. I had a very good talk in the Government session today. I mandated the Ministry of Labor, the Ministry of Energy and Ministry of Finance come up with a final form. I would like the form be completed, as well as the scheme with solutions to compensate non-household clients. Until now, I have spoken about household clients. I would also like to talk about non-household clients, especially SMEs. The Ministry of Labor must be involved, because it implies compensating household consumers and we are thinking of how to do this as simply as possible," showed the Prime Minister, during a press conference at the Victoria Government Palace.

He said that the topic of capping the gas price was also approached, Agerpres.ro informs.

"Also in the Government sitting today, we had discussions on capping the price for gas. I introduced this topic into debate in the Government. Mr. Minister, together with the Competition Council, will also discuss with the European Commission. There are several options we're considering, but we wanted to have this option as well. We are looking for the best solutions for this period in which gas and energy prices have gone up, for household and non-household consumers, especially until March 31," Citu also said.
Prime Minister Florin Citu said on Wednesday that he has "never" considered resigning from office, reiterating that he is not "irresponsible" to leave Romania without a government with winter approaching.

The head of the Executive was asked if it would be a solution for him, to solve the current political crisis, to stand down from the Government's helm.

"Never. I am not an irresponsible person. To plunge Romania into chaos, to leave Romania without a Government on the eve of winter, when we already have, as you see, so many problems - the fourth wave (of the COVID-19 pandemic), we have the energy price, the discussion on the minimum wage will follow, the budget for next year. To plunge Romania into chaos - I am not irresponsible, I will not do this. I see the Dragnea method being adopted by other colleagues, but it will never be adopted by me," premier Citu told a press conference at Victoria Palace of Government.

Asked if, in his opinion, a one-on-one discussion with the head of state is necessary, as the PNL leader, Ludovic Orban, stated, the prime minister replied: "The president decides if he wants to have a discussion and with whom to have a discussion", Agerpres.ro informs.

"I said and, you see, every time the solution was a very simple one: a Minister of Justice as soon as possible, who does his job and does not obstruct the government act. That was not the solution. Very well. There was another solution to withdraw the motion. This did not happen either. We will see, after that, what the solutions on the table are in the future," said Florin Citu.

National Liberal Party (PNL) leader Ludovic Orban said on Wednesday that President Klaus Iohannis can solve the political crisis today, with all the tools at his disposal and the constitutional obligation to get involved.
On Wednesday, President Klaus Iohannis handed over the battle flag to the "Dr. Carol Davila" Central Military Emergency University Hospital in a ceremony that took place at the Ministry of National Defence, in which context he asked the healthcare units to act promptly during the 4th wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, agerpres reports.

"Today, the role of the Central Military Hospital remains a fundamental one, continuing the military tradition and ensuring high quality medical services. The exceptional mobilization in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as your involvement in the vaccination campaign proves once again your exemplary capacity to guarantee the protection and defend our citizens. The COVID-19 pandemic is not over, however, and I urge both you and the other healthcare units directly involved to act promptly in this fourth wave. We already know what are the measures that must be taken at the level of the hospitals and I am certain that you will make every effort to save the lives of our fellow human beings," said President Iohannis on the occasion the 190th anniversary of the "Dr. Carol Davila" Central Military Emergency University Hospital.

President Iohannis said the best weapon against COVID-19 remains vaccination."Immunizing as many people as possible, taking precautions and compliance with health measures are the solutions to overcome this new complicated period from an epidemiological point of view," Iohannis said.He underscored that the Central Military Emergency University Hospital "Dr. Carol Davila" is a "pole of excellence of Romanian military medicine.""The values of the Romanian Army, patriotism, spirit of sacrifice, honour and courage are the foundation on which the Central Military Hospital has built its evolution. These are values passed down from generation to generation, so that the care for patients, professionalism and dedication of those who work here and represent a standard of good practice for other hospitals as well. Your unit is where military clothing takes on a second valence guided by Hippocrates' oath of selflessness and unremitting struggle to save lives," Iohannis said.He said he had given the battle flag to the healthcare unit as a token of "appreciation and recognition for the difficult but noble activity.""I am convinced that you will continue to do things just as well and responsibly, continuing the belief of the forerunners and fulfilling with honour the mission entrusted to you," said Iohannis, who appreciated the professionalism of the medical staff.The head of state handed the battle flag to the commander of the hospital, General Major Florentina Ionita Radu.The ceremony at the Ministry of National Defence was attended by the President of the Senate, Anca Dragu, Prime Minister Florin Citu, ministers of his Cabinet, the head of SIE (the Foreign Intelligence Service), Gabriel Vlase, the President of CNCAV (National Committee for the Coordination of Vaccination Activities against COVID-19), Valeriu Gheorghita.In July, President Klaus Iohannis signed the decree on awarding the Battle Flag to the "Dr. Carol Davila" Central Military Emergency University Hospital.
The President of the Senate, Anca Dragu, said that she filed a challenge with the Constitutional Court on a legal conflict of a constitutional nature between the Government of Romania and the Prime Minister of Romania, on the one hand, and the Romanian Parliament, on the other, agerpres report.

"I ask the Constitutional Court to establish the existence of a legal conflict of a constitutional nature between the Romanian Government and the Prime Minister, on the one hand, and the Romanian Parliament, on the other hand, arising from the violation of the constitutional provisions regarding the obligation to have Parliament's approval in the case of a cabinet reshuffle that follows a change in the political composition of the Government. Moreover, I also ask that the Prime Minister be obliged to come up with proposals of ministers and send them to Parliament to give its approval on the new composition of the Government," Dragu told a press statement at the Parliament Palace.
Nelu Tataru, honorary adviser to Prime Minister Florin Citu and former Minister of Health, said he would discuss with the prime minister on Wednesday a possible mandatory vaccination or testing for COVID-19 of hospital staff, agerpres reports.

"At the moment, the discussions are about the obligation of some vaccinations or some tests, but the decisions will be made in the next period (...), we are thinking about everything that means state structures, everything that means hospital, everything that means schools,", Nelu Tataru said on Wednesday at the exit from the Ministry of Health.

He stated that immunization or mandatory testing will not be required until an assessment has been provided which he has requested on the number of employees in the medical system who have been vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2 or who have been infected with this virus.Nelu Tataru said he had spoken with interim Health Minister Cseke Attila, two state secretaries in the ministry and Senate Health Committee Vice President Laszlo Attila, on the current situation in the context of wave 4 of the pandemic.He said there was a 1,500-bed resilience plan for intensive care. Nelu Tataru believes that a zonal and regional location of this number of beds is necessary, in the context in which the evolution of the number of COVID-19 cases differs in the country.Tataru mentioned that he raised the issue of human health resources, which after a year and a half is still in the forefront in the fight against SARS-CoV-2.Nelu Tataru specified that all hospitals "will satisfy COVID and non-COVID pathology" and that the principle applies that the chronic patient must not lack medical assistance.
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The Italian government discovered and blocked a Chinese firm that had secretly and illegally purchased Alpi Aviation, an Italian firm that produced military UAVs. Italian law requires the government to be notified before a defense firm is sold to someone outside Italy. The Chinese kept the deal quiet by disguising the purchase as a domestic transaction. The Chinese realized their new acquisition would be of little use if it remained in Italy and planned to quietly shut down the Alpi operations in Italy and move them to China.

While China dominates the consumer and commercial quadcopter UAV market, there are segments of the military market where they are behind and trying to obtain that tech any way they can. Alpi developed and introduced the Strix-C UAV in 2007. This small, lightweight UAV has been used in Afghanistan and to provide security for Italian and NATO bases elsewhere. Strix-C is an 8.65 kg (19 pound) UAV made of composites and is carried broken down in a backpack. It can be assembled in eight minutes and launched by throwing it. It lands via a small parachute, which is repacked and returned to a compartment on the Strix-C for the next missions. Strix-C will automatically begin carrying out a pre-programmed mission or be controlled by a handheld device that sends commands and receives real-time video of what the UAV is seeing. Alpi also works with larger Italian defense firms, making the sale a huge security breach. This is the latest effort by China and Russia to use secret acquisitions to obtain needed military tech. There have been a number of these deals undone recently and it keeps happening because they are fearful of losing their trade relationships with a major economic power that tends to get its way and is immune to criticism.

Earlier in 2021 Norway blocked British firm Rolls-Royce from selling Bergen Engines, a Norwegian firm Rolls Royce bought in the 1990s. Rolls-Royce kept Bergen Engines in Norway, where it was a major producer of maritime engines. A Norwegian court backed the ban of the sale that would provide Rolls-Royce with $178 million of the $2.7 billion it was seeking to obtain by selling off assets to help it survive the covid19 recession that had reduced its sales and threatened the entire firm.

The Bergen Engine was to be sold to TMH Group, a Russian controlled holding company based in Switzerland. Why did the Russians want this Norwegian firm? Bergin Engine had sales of $333 million in 2019 and is a major supplier of naval engines to Norway and other NATO nations. While Norway has a law that blocks such national security sales, that law cannot block the sale indefinitely and the best solution is to arrange a sale to a Norwegian or other NATO country firm.

Russia has been seeking to purchase Western marine engine manufacturers to make up for what it lost when it went to war with Ukraine in 2014. That deprived Russia of its major source of maritime and helicopter engines that had long come from Ukraine based firms. This began during the Cold War when Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union but became independent after 1991 when the Soviet Union fell apart.

At the same time the Bergen Engine sale was blocked, Ukraine ended Chinese majority ownership of Motor Sich, a major and profitable Ukrainian defense manufacturer of aircraft jet engines and gas turbine engines for helicopters and ships. Ukraine will, in effect, nationalize Motor Sich. While this annoys China, it will also please the United States, a major ally and supporter of Ukraine in its fight against Russian invaders. The Americans had recently sanctioned the Chinese firms that were buying a majority interest in Motor Sich. The Americans feared that control of Motor Sich would enable China to solve its problems with developing and manufacturing high-performance jet, helicopter and marine gas turbine engines.

Back in 2019 China went forward with its efforts to buy this majority stake in Motor Sich. Many Ukrainians felt China would take advantage of their corrupt government and industry officials associated with firms like Motor Sich to get better deals. These were often at the expense of Ukraine but very lucrative for the corrupt Ukrainians involved. Many Ukrainians, and Americans, realized how China operated in deals like this. If China obtained a major, or majority, stake in Motor Sich they could, and probably would, steal all the technology and manufacturing secrets and eventually move Motor Sich production to China. Initially they would hire some Ukrainian tech experts to help the Chinese manufacturing operation to get up to speed, but Motor Sich in Ukraine would become a branch of the main operation in China. Eventually the Ukrainian branch would be renamed to something Chinese and Motor Sich would disappear. Most Ukrainians want to keep Motor Sich Ukrainian and not plundered by the Chinese. Norway saw Russia attempting to do the same thing to Bergen Engines and other European countries are scrutinizing Chinese investments more carefully and frequently. Its not just illegal acquisitions that are a problem, the Chinese financial system in general is a problem with a growing number of Chinese financial institutions experiencing lower credit ratings and sharp declines in the value of bonds denominated in yuan (the Chinese currency).
In the West Bank there was praise for six Palestinian terrorists who escaped from the high-security Gilboa Prison on the 6 th . The prison is in northeast Israel, south of the Golan Heights and six kilometers from the West Bank border fence. The escaped prisoners had some outside help and a cell phone was found during the initial search for the prisoners. Cell phones are forbidden in the prison and a cell phone jamming system was installed. There were complaints that the jammer did not work in all areas of the prison but nothing was done. There was a similar escape effort in 2014, which was discovered before any prisoners got out. The current escape was accomplished by digging a 22 meter (70 foot) long tunnel from the six man cell to just outside prison. The escape took place shortly after one AM on the 6 th . The final part of the plan was to complete the tunnel by digging an exit, which came up within full view of one of the manned guard towers, which was unmanned. Some of the guards on duty inside the prison were asleep and it was later discovered that guards dozing off after midnight was a known problem that was never tended to.

The six prisoners were first spotted at 1:30 AM by an Arab Israeli driver who saw six men running through a field near a town seven kilometers from the prison. He called in the incident and the local police logged it. The prison staff had not yet discovered the escape and did not do so until about 2 AM. Meanwhile the prisoners reached the nearest town which, like most of northern Israel, had a majority Israeli Arab population. There the prisoners discovered that their cellphone connection did not know how Israeli Arabs regarded Islamic terrorists, and had improvised, telling the prisoners that the Israeli Arabs in the area supported the Palestinian cause.

This misunderstanding was a surprise to Palestinians and soon led to criticism of Israeli Arabs who refused to help the escapees get to the West Bank. Four of the six were recaptured within six days because Israeli Arabs reported the activities of the escaped terrorists and refused escapee requests for assistance. That lack of support was a major disappointment to the Palestinian government and Islamic terror groups that long insisted that Arab citizens of Israel supported the destruction of Israel. Some of the Israeli Arab informants were identified and sent death threats by their disappointed Palestinian and Islamic terrorist critics. The only aid the escapees apparently received was at a local mosque in a town seven kilometers from the prison. At the mosque they spent an hour getting cleaned up, changing clothes and decided to split up into three pairs and seek separate routes out of Israel. One of the prisoners is believed to have reached the West Bank; his partner was thought to still be on the Israeli side of the border.

The Syrian Shuffle

If Islamic terrorists remain in northwest Syria (Idlib province), while ISIL is active in eastern Syria and Iranians near the Israeli border, the Syrian civil war will not be over. The only ones who cannot walk away from this are the Assads, Turkey and Israel. Syria has been at war with Israel from the beginning. Modern Syria was created in 1946 and Israel in 1948. Israel would like to make peace with Syria but will settle for a quiet border. Russia depicts itself as an old (since the 1950s) Syrian ally and interested only in peace and prosperity for Syria. That leaves Iran as the real interloper and troublemaker. Dealing with Iran has been a headache for Turkey and Russia for centuries, while the Arabs have several thousand years of bad memories created by Irans predecessor state of Persia. In other words, Iran is difficult to deal with, something everyone can agree on. That is a common problem, not an incentive to violently gang up on Iran. Yet there is an unofficial anti-Iran coalition in Syria, with Israel, Russia, Turkey and the Assad Syrian government as active members. Israel is doing most of the fighting and hurting Iran in a major way. Russia, Turkey and Syria sympathize with Iran but do little beyond that and Iran does not like this sort of thing because it is straight out of the ancient Iranian playbook.

September 13, 2021: The Israeli and Egyptian leaders met in at an Egyptian tourist resort in southern Sinai to discuss what could be done to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and other issues of mutual interest.

September 12, 2021: In the south (Gaza) Israel carried out air strikes against Hamas targets for the second time in 24 hours. Targets included underground weapon storage sites, a training camp and one of the growing number of new tunnels. This was retaliation for two Hamas rocket attacks. Iron Dome intercepted one rocket that was headed for a populated area while the other unguided rockets did not threaten any populated area and were ignored. Israel no longer accepts the Hamas excuse that such attacks are often from smaller Islamic terror groups in Gaza that Hamas cannot control. There is lots of evidence that the Hamas security forces regularly crack down on any other Islamic terror group that fires on Israel without permission. Even groups like Islamic Jihad, which often have independent sources of income, must obey Hamas or be destroyed.

Renewed violence from Gaza was no surprise because a month ago Iran-backed Hamas told Egypt, the mediator of ceasefire talks with Israel, that peace with Israel was 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. Egypt reported back to Hamas that the Israelis were not backing off and would continue escalating their attacks. Egypt is not intimidated by Iranian threats either, which is a big disappointment to Iran.

September 10, 2021: In the West Bank a Palestinian man attempted to stab a policeman but was shot and wounded before he could do so. He was arrested and taken to a hospital for treatment but died a short time later. The entire incident was recorded by a nearby security camera.

September 9, 2021: Turkey and Egypt announced they intend to restore diplomatic ties before the end of 2021. However, a major issue remains unresolved. Egypt adamantly opposes Turkeys involvement in Libya. The two nations broke formal relations in 2013. Turkey and Egypt began discussing normalizing diplomatic relations in May. Egypt is demanding that Turkey drop its support for the Moslem Brotherhood, which the Turks are seriously considering if that is the price of making peace with Egypt.

The Moslem Brotherhood was founded in Egypt in 1928 as a political movement stressing clean government and the use of Islamic law. That has not worked out. In mid-2012 Egyptian election officials declared Islamic Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Mursi the new president. Before president Mursi could do much, the Moslem Brotherhood radicals got violent in their demands that Egypt be ruled with Sharia (Islamic) law. That was what Saudi Arabia has used for decades but Sharia was very unpopular with most Egyptian voters. By 2014 angry voters had forced Mursi out and new elections put a former general (Sisi) into power. The Moslem Brotherhood once more became the enemy, except in Turkey, where a Moslem Brotherhood-like government had ruled Turkey since 2000 and had not had any problems with radicals. But Turkish voters were getting tired of their increasingly corrupt and inept Islamic government that seems to have declared just about everyone an enemy of Turkey.

Every time a moderate Moslem Brotherhood government gains power it fails because the radicals, there is always a radical faction, demand that an Islamic religious dictatorship be installed and this always triggers popular resistance. Some of those Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood radicals went rogue in 1987 and eventually established themselves in Gaza as Hamas. In 2005 Hamas took over Gaza and turned it into a sanctuary for all many of Islamic terror groups including, by 2014, ISIL. That led to Egypt treating Hamas as an enemy, not oppressed Palestinian freedom fighters. The Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood hurt its reputation in the early 1990s when radical factions, frustrated at their inability to achieve peaceful reforms in Egypt, turned to terrorism and were defeated after a bloody terrorism campaign aimed at the economy and especially foreign tourists, failed. Tourism accounts for 11 percent of the GDP and provides jobs (directly or indirectly) for 12 percent of the Egyptian workforce. Turkey could use the need for better relations with Egypt as an excuse to declare the Moslem Brotherhood an enemy, on paper at least. Turkish and Egyptian diplomatic officials are trying to find mutually acceptable lies to make this work for everyone. The Egyptian economy is growing again, after the 2020 covid19 recession slowed things down. Since early 2021 GDP has been growing at a rate of over seven percent. Turkey has to keep this in mind.

September 6, 2021: In the northeast (south of Golan Heights and six kilometers from the West Bank) six convicted Palestinian terrorists escaped from the high-security Gilboa Prison. Built in 2004 as part of national prison system, it was soon converted to high-security prison for the most dangerous Palestinian terrorists serving long sentences after being convicted of major crimes, often multiple murders. Many of the inmates had skills and some were leaders of terrorist groups.

September 4, 2021: In Egypt a court case resulted in 31 more Egyptians being identified as supporters of the outlawed, since 2014, Moslem Brotherhood. This court ruling puts the 31 at risk of arrest and prosecution if they are identified as involved in violence against the government. If the 31 keep the peace for five years, they can be removed from the list of active Moslem Brotherhood supporters.

September 2, 2021: In southern Syria (Damascus) an Israeli airstrike on a weapons-development and modification facility used by Syria was destroyed. Israeli warplanes over Lebanon fired several air-to-ground missiles that Syrian SAMs (Surface to Air) sought to intercept. The interception efforts largely fail and in this case one of the Syrian SAMs kept going until it self-destructed off the Israeli coast near Tel Aviv. Israeli radars did not detect this wayward SAM but civilians in central Israel reported hearing the SAM exploding in the air. Some of the debris was found in or near Tel Aviv.

Since 2016 Israeli forces, mainly the air force, have used over 5,000 missiles to hit about a thousand targets in Syria. During this period Syria fired about 900 SAMs (Surface to Air Missiles) at Israeli aircraft or missiles. Only one of these missiles damaged an Israeli F-16 and that was in 2018 because the pilot did not, as he was trained to do, carry out evasive maneuvers when his missile warning system alerted him to the threat. The pilot tried to complete his mission first and then evade. The F-16 was damaged and crashed in northern Israel. The pilot safely ejected. This incident demonstrated that the Syrian Air Defense systems could be dangerous if a pilot did not pay attention. As a result, more attacks (firing long range missiles) were carried out from Israel, Lebanon or Jordan, with missiles launched near the border. With new air-to-ground missiles Israeli aircraft were still able to hit anywhere in Syria. The Syrian SAMs did shoot down a Russian surveillance aircraft off the coast that year. The Syrians were aiming for Israeli warplanes but the Israeli countermeasures worked and the Syrian SAM turned to the next available target, which was the Russian aircraft off the coast.

Syrian air defenses use the SA-5/S-200 SAM (Surface to Air Missile) system as their primary weapon against Israeli attacks. The SA-5 is a 1960s Russian design that has been updated and Syria received the latest S-200 version of the missile in 2010. Each seven-ton S-200 missile has a range of 300 kilometers but Israel has apparently developed effective countermeasures. Sometimes S-200s fail and do not self-destruct when it has not found a target. Most of these targetless missiles would land in Syria or Lebanon if they did not self-destruct. A few have come across the Israeli border. Most were spotted and shot down by Israeli missile defense systems.

In Egypt the army discovered another smuggling tunnel from Gaza. Soldiers pumped noxious gas into the tunnel to drive out any Gazans still in it before troops went in and used explosives to destroy the tunnel. In this case three people in the tunnel did not leave and died from the fumes. Since Egypt banned the tunnels in 2015, as part of the campaign to keep Gaza-based Islamic terror groups out of Egypt, over 3,000 tunnels have been destroyed. This was a major blow to Islamic terror groups in Gaza as well as the Gaza economy in general.

September 1, 2021: Citing Iranian attacks on shipping in or near the Persian Gulf, International shipowners associations agreed to reduce and redraw the HRA (High Risk Area) off Somalia from most of the East African coast and deep into the Indian Ocean to a smaller area encompassing the EEZs (Exclusive Economic Zones) off Somalia and Yemen and the approaches to the Persian Gulf. EEZs extend 380 kilometers off the coast and the new HRA found that this is where the piracy risk remains, closer to Yemen than to Somalia. The international piracy patrol already had more ships watching the Yemeni Coast and Persian Gulf entrance, where Islamic terrorist groups have turned to piracy but have so far been more of a threat than successful. The threat near the Persian Gulf entrance has been increased by Iran, which tried using some of its commandos to seize a ship, but the crew carried out their anti-piracy safety drill before the Iranians could board. The crew reached their fortified safe space and disabled the engines. The Iranians tried to get the engines going but failed and fled before help arrived and killed or captured any of them. The crew heard the pirates speaking and realized they were Iranians. As usual, Iran denied any involvement. The recent missile and mine attacks were disproportionately directed at Israeli-owned ships. Groups staging an attack to make it appear like someone else did it is an ancient practice referred to as false flag attacks. Like many other criminal activities, rapid technology developments have made it more difficult to make these successfully.

August 24, 2021: In the north (Golan Heights) across the border in Syria (Daraa province) weeks of attacks on a rebel enclave ended when the rebels agreed to leave the area and be moved north to Idlib province. At least thats the plan Russia is trying to make happen. The rebels dont trust the Assad forces but the Russians have Syrian mercenaries and Moslem Russian troops to assist negotiations and reassure the rebels. Russian troops will also supervise the surrender and movement of rebels and civilian supporters to another area, apparently Idlib province in the northwest. The alternative was more artillery and airstrikes and the deaths of civilian supporters as well as armed rebels. The Syrians and Russians have been working to gain the support of the largely Sunni and Druze civilian population along the border in (from west to east); Quneitra, Daraa and Suwayda provinces. This is a joint effort to block Iranian efforts to gain the support of the border population. Total population of these provinces in 2011 was 1.4 million but only about 20 percent of that was on or near the border. After the 2011 Civil War began much of the Sunni population fled. How much remains on the border is unclear but is apparently at least 100,000. Only Queneitra and Daraa border Israel. Israel has occupied most of Queneitra province since the 1967 War and the Israeli controlled area is mostly the Golan Heights. This is the high ground overlooking northern Israel and the Syrians made a major, desperate and ultimately failed effort in the 1973 War to retake Golan. Control of the Daraa border with Israel was sought by Iranian forces but Russian and Syrian troops blocked many of the Iranian efforts.

August 20, 2021: In central Syria (Homs province) and further south near the capital (Damascus) Israeli airstrikes hit several Iranian targets. At least four Iranian mercenaries were killed in Damascus. There were a lot of people in the Damascus region, including foreign reporters, who got out their cell phones and took videos of action. This involved Israeli air-to-ground missiles hitting their targets while Syrian anti-aircraft missiles were launched but not hitting anything. Russia later reported the air defense systems they provided to Syria had again destroyed most of the Israeli missiles.
OSLO, Norway, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Photocure ASA (OSE: PHO), the Bladder Cancer Company, announces a clinical data presentation and highlights from the 2021 American Urological Association Annual Congress (AUA2021), which was held virtually September 10-13, 2021. During the program, new results from a study using Blue Light Cystoscopy (BLC) with Cysview in the surveillance setting were reported in a podium presentation, and separately, BLC with Cysview was discussed in an Expert Presentation on Surgical Techniques.

The American Urological Association (AUA) meeting is one of largest international meetings in the urology calendar. This year's event included an innovative, evidence-based, quality program for urologists and urologic health care professionals worldwide.

Podium Presentation

Title: UTILITY OF BLUE LIGHT FLEXIBLE CYSTOSCOPY FOR BLADDER CANCER SURVEILLANCE AFTER INTRAVESICAL THERAPY

Presenter: Sanam Ladi Seyedian, M.D., University of Southern California

Session and Date: PD-63: Bladder: Cancer Non-Invasive III: Sept. 13, 2021

Results were provided by two high-volume treatment facilities that perform Blue Light Flexible Cystoscopy (BLFC) and are participants in the Blue Light Cystoscopy with Cysview Registry. In this study, data was captured from 277 office based BLFC examinations in 136 patients who received intravesical BCG or chemotherapy, as part of standard of care treatment for non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC).

From these examinations, a total of 52 office-based biopsies were taken, of which 23 (44%) were confirmed as malignant. BLFC identified all 23 malignancies, demonstrating 100% sensitivity for cancer detection in this cohort, whereas analysis by cytology identified only 3 of the 23 confirmed malignancies. Additionally, from the 277 total examinations, 23 (8%) were White Light Cystoscopy (WLC) normal and BLFC abnormal. Of these 23 discordant results, 16 had office-based biopsies and cancer was confirmed in 9 cases (56%), which would have been missed by WLC alone.

The study authors concluded that office-based BLFC helps improve early detection of recurrence in cases with normal WLC and can aid in surveillance of patients receiving intravesical therapy, enhance performance of office-based biopsy and increase early detection of BCG unresponsive disease.

"The results from this study show that use of Blue Light Cystoscopy with Cysview for patient surveillance improved the ability to detect recurrent disease in this high-risk, recently-treated patient cohort, which can significantly impact future treatment decisions," said Dr. Sia Daneshmand, one of the study authors. "Early detection of recurrent or residual cancer during initial treatment is essential for properly risk-stratifying all bladder cancer patients, and confirming response to treatment on follow-up and can have a major impact on subsequent treatment pathways and patient outcomes. As a result, Blue Light Cystoscopy can be an important tool throughout the continuum of care for patients diagnosed with bladder cancer."Dr. Sia Daneshmand, M.D., is a Professor of Urology with Clinical Scholar designation and serves as director of clinical research as well as the urologic oncology (SUO) fellowship director at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles.

Abstract Link: https://www.auajournals.org/doi/abs/10.1097/JU.0000000000002107.03

Expert Presentation

Title: ADVANCES IN ENDOSCOPIC TREATMENT OF BLADDER TUMORS

Presenter: Yair Lotan, M.D., UT Southwestern Medical Center

Session and Date: Plenary Session: Surgical Techniques: Sept. 10, 2021

In this presentation, Dr. Lotan emphasized the importance of BLC with Cysview in accurately detecting NMIBC, stratifying bladder tumors, and helping to perform a complete TURBT in the operating room. He also provided an expert perspective on how biopsy and fulguration in the surveillance setting can positively impact patient outcomes using BLC with Cysview in the office-based setting.

Dr. Lotan is a Professor of the Department of Urology at UT Southwestern and Jane and John Justin Distinguished Chair in Urology, In Honor of Claus G. Roehrborn, M.D. He is Vice chair of Clinical Affairs and chief of urologic oncology.

"The study results presented at this year's AUA meeting as well as the discussion on BLC in the Surgical Techniques presentation underscores how critically important it is for patients to receive the proper bladder cancer care whether they are having tumor resection in the hospital or follow-up procedures" said Geoffrey Coy, Vice President and General Manager of North American Operations at Photocure. "These new study results also highlight the range of opportunities made possible by Blue Light Cystoscopy for urologists, and the benefits to patients, especially when including flexible Blue Light Cystoscopy in the office setting as part of the continuum of care. We remain focused on expanding the availability of the procedure so that more physicians and patients have access to this important solution."

Note to editors: All trademarks mentioned in this release are protected by law and are registered trademarks of Photocure ASA

About Bladder Cancer

Bladder cancer ranks as the seventh most common cancer worldwide with 1 720 000 prevalent cases (5-year prevalence rate)1a, 573 000 new cases and more than 200 000 deaths annually in 2020.1b

Approx. 75% of all bladder cancer cases occur in men.1 It has a high recurrence rate with an average of 61% in year one and 78% over five years.2 Bladder cancer has the highest lifetime treatment costs per patient of all cancers.3

Bladder cancer is a costly, potentially progressive disease for which patients have to undergo multiple cystoscopies due to the high risk of recurrence. There is an urgent need to improve both the diagnosis and the management of bladder cancer for the benefit of patients and healthcare systems alike.

Bladder cancer is classified into two types, non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) and muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC), depending on the depth of invasion in the bladder wall. NMIBC remains in the inner layer of cells lining the bladder. These cancers are the most common (75%) of all BC cases and include the subtypes Ta, carcinoma in situ (CIS) and T1 lesions. In MIBC the cancer has grown into deeper layers of the bladder wall. These cancers, including subtypes T2, T3, and T4, are more likely to spread and are harder to treat.4

1 Globocan. a) 5-year prevalence / b) incidence/mortality by population. Available at: https://gco.iarc.fr/today, accessed [April 2021].2 Babjuk M, et al. Eur Urol. 2019; 76(5): 639-6573 Sievert KD et al. World J Urol 2009;27:2953004 Bladder Cancer. American Cancer Society. https://www.cancer.org/cancer/bladder-cancer.html

About Hexvix/Cysview (hexaminolevulinate HCl)

Hexvix/Cysview is a drug that preferentially accumulates in cancer cells in the bladder making them glow bright pink during Blue Light Cystoscopy (BLC). BLC with Hexvix/Cysview improves the detection of tumors and leads to more complete resection, fewer residual tumors and better management decisions.

Cysview is the tradename in the U.S. and Canada, Hexvix is the tradename in all other markets. Photocure is commercializing Cysview/Hexvix directly in the U.S. and Europe and has strategic partnerships for the commercialization of Hexvix/Cysview in China, Canada, Chile, Australia, and New Zealand. Please refer to https://photocure.com/partnering-with-photocure/our-partners/ for further information on our commercial partners.

About Photocure ASA

Photocure: The Bladder Cancer Company delivers transformative solutions to improve the lives of bladder cancer patients. Our unique technology, making cancer cells glow bright pink, has led to better health outcomes for patients worldwide. Photocure is headquartered in Oslo, Norway and listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange (OSE: PHO). For more information, please visit us at www.photocure.com, www.hexvix.com, www.cysview.com.

For further information, please contact:

Dan SchneiderPresident and CEOPhotocure ASAEmail: ds@photocure.com

Erik DahlCFOPhotocure ASATel: +4745055000Email: ed@photocure.com

David MoskowitzHead of Investor RelationsTel: +1 202 280 0888Email: david.moskowitz@photocure.com

Media and IR enquiries:

Geir BjrloCorporate Communications (Norway)Tel: +47 91540000Email: geir.bjorlo@corpcom.no

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/photocure/r/presentations-of-blue-light-flexible-cystoscopy-study-results-and-bladder-cancer-surgical-techniques,c3414940

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View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/presentations-of-blue-light-flexible-cystoscopy-study-results-and-bladder-cancer-surgical-techniques-featured-at-aua-2021-301377209.html

SOURCE Photocure
TICKERS: LWD

Source: Maurice Jackson for Streetwise Reports (9/15/21)

Joining us is Morgan Lekstrom, the CEO of Lakewood Exploration, which is on track to become the next pure silver play in the US. In this interview, Mr. Lekstrom discusses the latest update on the pending NI43-101 on the flagship Silver Strand, along with current exploration successes and new additions to the property bank, both in the prolific Hamilton District of Nevada, which are the Eliza Silver Project and Silverton Silver Mine, and we will conclude with pending catalysts.



Maurice Jackson: Joining us for conversation is Morgan Lekstrom, the president of Lakewood Exploration Inc. (LWD:CSE). Glad to have you join us today, as Lakewood Exploration has been busy on several fronts in its resolve to become the next pure silver play in the United States. Sir, I understand you have several updates for us regarding the release of the 43-101 on the flagship Silver Strand, along with exploration successes, portfolio expansion, and pending catalysts. Before we begin, Mr. Lekstrom, please introduce us to Lakewood Exploration and the opportunity the company presents to shareholders.

Morgan Lekstrom: Lakewood Exploration was listed on the stock exchange, the Canadian securities exchange four months ago. We're a newly formed silver company with what we call a triple-pronged approach, where we look to have a large exploration payoff, near-term production potential, and meaningful acquisitions. We have three assets in the United States, one in Idaho in the prolific Silver Valley, two in Nevada, in the Silver Alley, which are all high-grade, past-producing mines. We have a very tightly held share structure with just under 50 million shares out and only 37.6 of them on the market right now. A lot of room to grow as a company and large exploration payoff for shareholders.

Maurice Jackson: Mr. Lekstrom, let's get right to it. Take us to Idaho, to the flagship Silver Strand, where Lakewood exploration has a pending NI 43-101. Lakewood has just provided the market with some important updates. What can you share with us?

Morgan Lekstrom: Lakewood Exploration is very exciting about Silver Strand. We just finished the 43-101 and in the filing process, and we are looking forward to moving into exploration. Our plans right now are being enacted. We're actively in our existing underground. It was always called a historic underground, but we're actively in there. Finished rehabilitation and now we're moving into mining the Silver Strand for creating an exploration cutting. We're looking to get in there, drove right from the underground and from surface. Still planning and drilling to 2,700 meters. That in conjunction with the 43-101, in conjunction with what we're looking at for our drill program and our surface programs, it's leading for pretty exciting times at Silver Strand.

Maurice Jackson: Speaking of that drill program, you're going underground and near-surface. Talk to us about the method first. Are you going underground first or near-surface?

Morgan Lekstrom: We're working on getting into our underground. We have a mining crew in there right now creating that new drill bay, a more strategic drill location for hitting the ore body at deeper depths and at better angles. We're looking at mobilizing that drill crew in there in September, by the end of the summer, and just waiting and looking at strategic targets for the surface program as well.

Maurice Jackson: Now, I realized the labs are backed up and you're just beginning. But do you have any anticipation of when the market may receive the next set of assay results?

Morgan Lekstrom: I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Maurice Jackson: We'll read into that one just as it is, sir.

Morgan Lekstrom: Exactly.

Maurice Jackson: All right. Leaving Idaho, let's visit Nevada, where Lakewood Exploration is looking to further extend its footprint in two project acquisitions. Sir, what can you share with us?

Morgan Lekstrom: Lakewood Exploration is working on two transformative acquisitions which are the Eliza Silver Project and the Silverton Mine. I think we've touched on them before, Maurice, around Eliza and Silverton, Eliza being that prolific Hamilton historic area, 1860-1870 mine, 40 million ounces out of the area. Very high-grade. One of the mines on our claim block had 5,600 to 18,500 thousand grams per tonne silver, mineralization across surface, had no modern exploration done. We're coming up with exploration plans there right now.

Lakewood has hired a separate geologist for this work so that we're keeping focused on all three assets in the right way. Silverton being up in Nevada as well. These are all in that Tonopah to Ely area. A lot of prolific mine around there. Round Mountain is one of them. The Silverton mine itself exhibits the same infrared ASTER signatures as Round Mountain. We have some very good geology work that was preliminarily done to the transaction, as well as this is a past-producing silver mine of 933 grams a ton in the 1930s. Again, similar geology to Eliza. There's an ability there to utilize the exploration techniques, as well as having a large exploration payoff between the two for our shareholders.

Maurice Jackson: It sounds like a lot of blue sky potential there, sir. When will the transaction become finalized?

Morgan Lekstrom: We're looking at doing that most likely this week.

Maurice Jackson: Talking about full speed ahead.

Morgan Lekstrom: We are. Like I said four months ago, where we were to where we are now, it's pretty transformative.

Maurice Jackson: Now, once the transaction has been consummated, how will you leverage the intellectual capital that is onsite for both projects?

Morgan Lekstrom: Im glad you brought that up. I'm heading down to Nevada with the gentlemen that we transacted with Dave Forest, and we're going to be putting in our boots on the ground with a geologist that we just hired. We're going to get that tribal knowledge transfer right away. We're going to make sure we have a concrete plan. I have that geologist already starting.

He's already heading down there right now to put boots on the ground and get his feet wet down there, or as they say in Nevada, keep your feet dry, and come up with that methodical plan, utilizing that knowledge in the background. We want to make sure that when we are coming up with drill targets, that they're utilizing these old existing mines. There's uniform mineralization in that old California mine. We're able to see maybe a little more info than what just a standard exploration project allows us.

Maurice Jackson: Now, before we leave the property bank, multilayered question, what is the next unanswered question for Lakewood Exploration? When can we expect a response, and what will determine success?

Morgan Lekstrom: The real catalyst will be getting underground at Silver Strand and getting modern exploration going on Eliza and Silverton. We're well on our way to doing both. I need to highlight that four months ago, we vended in Silver Strand and we were able to take that from having almost a very bare-bones plan to re-opening our underground, starting to blast as of today, and putting an underground drill program and a surface program together within four months is pretty impressive for the team. A true demonstration of our geological and business acumen.

Maurice Jackson: Switching gears, let's look at some numbers. Sir, please provide us the capital structure for Lakewood Exploration.

Morgan Lekstrom: With vending in Eliza and Silverton, we're at 37.4 million shares outstanding. We have 2.7 million options, 7.8 million warrants, and then fully diluted sets us right around 44.9 million shares. Tightly held about. 42% insider held right now. A lot of room to grow. As we grow these assets, as we grow our share structure, there's a lot of value to be seen there for shareholders.

Maurice Jackson: Before we close, Mr. Lekstrom, what would you like to say to shareholders?

Morgan Lekstrom: Stay tuned. We feel there are some real exciting times are happening in silver space and Lakewood Exploration portfolio expansion with key assets in two of most prolific silver states and silver places to mine in the world, in Nevada and Idaho is exciting. We are looking forward to getting the results out as we get them, but also coming up with these plans for Nevada. Stay tuned to what we're doing.

Maurice Jackson: Last question, what did I forget to ask?

Morgan Lekstrom: I think you covered it.

Maurice Jackson: Mr. Lekstrom, for someone that wants to learn more about Lakewood Exploration, please share the contact details.

Morgan Lekstrom: www.lakewoodexploration.com

Maurice Jackson: Mr. Lekstrom, it's been a pleasure to speak with you. Wishing you and Lakewood Exploration the absolute best, sir.

And as a reminder, I am a licensed representative to buy and sell precious metals through Miles Franklin Precious Metals Investments, where we have several options to expand your precious metals portfolio, from physical delivery of gold, silver, platinum, palladium, and rhodium, to offshore depositories, and precious metals IRAs. Give me a call at 855.505.1900 or you may email: [email protected]. Finally, please subscribe to www.provenandprobable.com, where we provide: Mining Insights and Bullion Sales, subscription is free.

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Disclosures:

1) Maurice Jackson: I, or members of my immediate household or family, own securities of the following companies mentioned in this article: Lakewood Exploration Inc. I personally am, or members of my immediate household or family are, paid by the following companies mentioned in this article: Lakewood Exploration Inc. My company has a financial relationship with the following companies referred to in this article: Lakewood Exploration Inc. Proven and Probable disclosures are below.

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A B-2 Spirit from the 131st Bomb Wing flies over Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., Feb. 25, 2018. (Mary-Dale Amison/U.S. Air Nation)

One of the U.S. militarys most high-tech stealth bombers was damaged after making an emergency landing early Tuesday at Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., according to an Air Force spokeswoman.

The B-2 Spirit was damaged on a runway in the incident at approximately 12:30 a.m., Jennifer Greene, a spokeswoman for the Air Force Global Strike Command, told Kansas City television station KMBC.

The bomber landed after an "in-flight malfunction" on a routine training mission, Greene said, according to the station.

The Federal Aviation Administration temporarily restricted flights around the air base to provide a safe environment for an accident investigation, the station reported.

"There were no personnel injuries and no fire associated with the landing," Greene told the TV station. "The incident is under investigation and more information will be provided as it becomes available."

The B-2s, which each cost more than a billion dollars when they entered service in the late 1990s, can carry conventional or nuclear weapons.

The aircrafts maker, Northrop Grumman, calls the bomber a key component of the nations long-range strike arsenal, and one of the most survivable aircraft in the world.

The bombers unique stealth characteristics allow it to penetrate the most sophisticated enemy defenses. It has seen action in Iraq, Afghanistan, Serbia and Libya, the company states on its website.

A B-2 Spirit from the 131st Bomb Wing returns to Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., Feb. 25, 2018. (Mary-Dale Amison/U.S. Air Nation)

There are just 20 of the two-pilot aircraft on active duty, according to an Air Force factsheet.

A B-2 crashed in February 2008 at the end of a four-month Guam deployment with the 509th Bomb Wing out of Whiteman. The crash was caused by bad computer data, according to an Air Force investigation report released four months later.

Three U.S. B-2s from the 509th deployed last month to Keflavik Air Base, Iceland, for a bomber task force mission, the Air Force announced on Aug. 25.
The entrance to Fort Bragg is shown in this undated file photo. (Logan Mock-Bunting/Getty Images)

FORT BRAGG, N.C. (Tribune News Service)  Fayetteville and Cumberland County residents weighed in Tuesday on the process to rename Fort Bragg, with suggestions to keep the name, rename it after Braxton Bragg's cousin or consider naming it after a woman.

Camp Bragg was established in 1918 as a field artillery installation and named after North Carolina native Braxton Bragg, an artillery officer known for his role in the 1847 Battle of Buena Vista, Mexico, said Linda Carnes-McNaughton, Fort Bragg's curator and archaeologist.

He later served as a Confederate general.

Braxton Bragg is associated with slavery and being a traitor for fighting against the Union Army, said retired Maj. Gen. Rodney Anderson, who served at Fort Bragg for 14 years of his 33-year Army career including serving as a deputy commander for the 18th Airborne Corps.

"It has taken us 100 years to recognize that there is a pain associated with a war that was fought to keep people of color  Black people  enslaved," Anderson said.

Anderson, who is Black, said that brings him "a level of pain" because Braxton Bragg is not who he would think of when choosing to honor someone in the military.

Col. Scott Pence, Fort Bragg's garrison commander, reiterated that the decision to rename Fort Bragg was not made by its commanders, installation management command, Department of Defense, city, county or state officials.

The decision, Pence said, was mandated by Congress.

Fayetteville Mayor Pro Tem Kathy Jensen, who helped coordinate Tuesday's town hall meeting, said residents' voices on the renaming matters.

"Fort Bragg could have made this decision to select a new name without community input, but the military leaders believe that your input is very important," Jensen said.

Vikki Andrews, an Army veteran and former chairwoman of the Cumberland County Democratic Party, is one of the residents who provided a suggestion.

Andrews asked officials to consider naming Fort Bragg after Dr. Mary Walker.

Walker is the only woman to receive the Medal of Honor, Andrews said.

"She worked for the Union Army, but she also cared for Confederate soldiers," Andrews said.

Walker wasn't the only woman whose name was suggested.

Retired Army and Fort Bragg veteran Gerard Falls, who is now dean of students at Capitol Encore Academy in Fayetteville, recommended the names of two women.

Falls recommended Harriet Tubman or Eleanor Roosevelt.

Tubman, Falls said, commanded troops in the Combahee River Raid, leading 150 Black Union soldiers to help free more than 700 enslaved people.

Roosevelt, he said, was a humanitarian, first lady and civil rights leader who advocated for racial integration in the military and worked to serve refugees during World War II.

"My priority with the renaming of Fort Bragg ... is that we identify candidates for the honor  if it is going to be a person  who have a local connection to the region, are diverse in background and identity and have dedicated their lives to advancing liberty and justice for all and a more perfect union," he said.

Grilley Mitchell, president of the Cumberland County Veterans Council, said he was not speaking on behalf of all veterans, but he did speak on behalf of veterans he has spoken to who were unable to make the meeting.

"We want a name that everyone would be proud of," Mitchell said. "We want a name that we all agree upon."

Mitchell said based on conversations he's had with other veterans, renaming the installation after Edward S. Bragg would lessen the economic impact and have little impact on those who have served at Fort Bragg or were born at Fort Bragg.

Edward S. Bragg was a Union general and a cousin to Braxton Bragg.

"That's a decision that also belongs to the men and women who have served this nation as well as their family members, because they paid the price to have that choice, to make that decision and most of all, I don't think that we will find a name that everyone is going to be happy with," Mitchell said.

Other community members who commented online during the town hall meeting or were at the town hall meeting raised concerns about costs associated with the name change and how it would impact local businesses that use Bragg in their name, such as Fort Bragg Credit Union or Fort Bragg Harley Davidson.

Fort Bragg military spouse Emily Sussman said she understands "the cultural injury that comes from honoring Confederate soldiers," but said she understands renaming Fort Bragg could cost millions.

She asked how spending that money could be justified when it could be used to serve Fayetteville and the military community.

Sussman said she is also concerned about the local small businesses and streets with Bragg in their names.

"How will we handle a disconnect of cohesion that may come from places changing names?" she asked.

Anderson said he thinks the economic impact on small businesses and municipal locations is an important consideration.

Carnes-McNaughton said officials recognize that changing a name won't delete history.

However, renaming provides an opportunity for a new, inclusive conversation that leads to history all can embrace, she said.

Pence said that at another meeting an individual said local businesses put Fort Bragg in their names to be associated with the soldiers but didn't necessarily want to be associated with Braxton Bragg.

"The local businesses will need to be reimbursed," Pence said, though not being able to guarantee where the funds would come from.

The national naming commission is tasked with estimating the total costs associated with renaming all the installations that have been identified to be renamed.

The national renaming commission and federal government, Pence said, should have a vested interest in ensuring whatever installations will be renamed is something that has community support.

In response to Sussman's question about whether a name change will disrupt the cohesion of the community, Pence questioned whether the current name creates cohesion or division.

For years, he said, people in the Army didn't know about Braxton Bragg because he wasn't used as "an inspiring story to motivate or inspire others."

"Regardless of his Confederate service, in his last role as a general, he was not a good general," Pence said. "It's hard to paint him as a good general, except for his campaigns in the Mexican-American War."

Responding to an online question about whether birth certificates would need to be changed, too, Carnes-McNaughton said she does not think birth certificates would change, but that that is a question for the office of vital statistics.

Pence encouraged other residents who did not participate in Tuesday's town hall to visit www.thenamingcommission.gov and the Fort Bragg garrison commander's Facebook page, where a survey is pinned to the top of the page for residents to provide suggestions and thoughts about renaming Fort Bragg.

Pence said the name change doesn't have to be after a person and could be named after a virtue or value like Fort Freedom or Fort Liberty.

The next step in the process, he said, is for a diverse panel of local community leaders to forward top suggestions to the national renaming commission.

Though changes won't go into effect until 2023, the renaming commission is expected to provide an updated report to Congress later this month.

Pence said that is why officials are seeking local input now.

"Could it be a name that brings us together? That's what we're looking for now," Pence said.

rriley@fayobserver.com

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Buy Photo Tokyo reported another 1,052 new coronavirus infections on Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021. (Akifumi Ishikawa/Stars and Stripes)

TOKYO  New coronavirus cases in Japans capital city are continuing to drop to levels not seen since the runup to the fifth and highest wave of infections, which peaked a month ago.

Tokyo reported 1,052 newly infected people Wednesday, according to public broadcaster NHK. For 24 consecutive days, new case numbers have fallen below those a week prior, according to metropolitan government data.

Tokyo and other major Japanese cities are under a state of emergency aimed at stemming the virus spread by limiting business hours and curtailing alcohol sales at restaurants and bars, among other measures. The emergency ends Sept. 30.

U.S. Army Japan has experienced 22 new cases of COVID-19, the coronavirus respiratory disease, since Sept. 8, according to a news release Wednesday.

One individual was tested by Japanese authorities upon arrival in Japan, and three more recent arrivals turned up positive while in restricted movement, the release said. Four became ill and 12 were discovered through contact tracing. Two tested positive before leaving Japan on international travel.

Also Wednesday, two Defense Department schools at Kadena Air Base on Okinawa resumed classes with the end of contact tracing linked to several coronavirus cases over the weekend.

Four classes at the middle school and eight at the high school were canceled Monday and Tuesday, according to messages from their principals posted late Tuesday on the Marine Corps Community Services, School Liaison Officer Facebook page.

More than seven people tested positive at six on-base schools, according to messages sent to parents Sunday. Four of those schools canceled classes, citing ongoing contact tracing and quarantine requirements.

Okinawa prefecture, where Kadena and most of the III Marine Expeditionary Force are located, had another 255 people turn up positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday, according to the prefectural Department of Public Health and Medical Care.

Japan on Tuesday reported 6,255 new cases and 65 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. Nearly 52% of Japans population, or 65.2 million people, are fully vaccinated.

Stars and Stripes reporter Mari Higa contributed to this report.
Japanese officials collected samples of treated wastewater at Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, Okinawa on July 19, 2021. (U.S. Marine Corps)

CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa  Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki called for an on-site investigation after high levels of toxins were found in wastewater flowing last month from a Marine base on the island.

Ginowan city said it sampled water just outside Marine Corps Air Station Futenmas fence line on Aug. 26, approximately two hours after the Marines began dumping treated wastewater into the public system.

The water had combined concentrations of PFOS and PFOA more than 13 times higher than Japans safety target, Ginowan city wrote in results published to the city website Friday.

With regard to the test results from Ginowan city, we would like to continue to request the U.S. military for on-site investigations on the base, Tamaki told reporters on Friday. He did not comment further.

A spokesman for Marine Corps Installations Pacific did not respond to an email from Stars and Stripes seeking comment on Monday.

The Marine Corps released an unknown amount of treated wastewater into the public system at about 9:30 a.m. Aug. 26. The water came from underground tanks and contained spilled firefighting foam that included contaminants PFOS and PFOA.

The synthetic compounds are found in the foam, aircraft grease, water-repellant materials and fluorine chemicals. They have been known to cause tumors, increases in body and organ weight and death in animals.

The Marine Corps said it treated the water prior to its release to a point its toxic levels were 20 times below a provisional threshold set by Japan. Tamaki at the time said he was caught off guard by the release and demanded it stop.

Two hours after the discharge began, Ginowans Sewage Facility Division took wastewater samples from a manhole in the Isa area, where MCAS Futenmas wastewater meets the public system, according to the city website.

The sample showed a PFOS concentration of 0.63 micrograms per liter and a combined concentration of PFOS and PFOA of 0.67 micrograms per liter, the city said. Japans safety threshold for drinking water is 0.05 micrograms per liter.

The results were highly unexpected and greatly different from the PFAS concentration value of treated water observed during an onsite visit to the base treatment facility on July 13, the website said. This is highly regrettable, and we are currently considering future measures.

The city said it also discovered 0.069 micrograms of perfluorohexane sulfonate, or PFHxS. The synthetic compound is in the same family of perfluorochemicals as PFOS and PFOA, according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information.

Discharged wastewater eventually reaches the ocean, according to the agency responsible for the islands water quality.

A Ginowan city official requested questions in writing from Stars and Stripes on Monday but had not responded by Wednesday.

The Ginowan waterworks and sewage bureau asked the Marines to incinerate treated water that contains PFOS and other pollutants rather than discharge it into the wastewater system, according to the website.

They took samples that do not include treated wastewater and plan to release those results soon.

Okinawa prefecture also took water samples from the same site and expects results back next week, a spokeswoman from their Sewage System Division told Stars and Stripes by phone on Monday.

Regarding the recent water release, we are fully aware of the concerns of local citizens, including the citizens of Ginowan city, an Okinawa Defense Bureau spokesman said by phone on Tuesday. However, the Ministry of Defense would like to refrain from commenting on the investigation conducted by the local government.
Colasa Pichardo, center, blows a kiss toward the casket of her daughter, Sgt. Johanny Rosario Pichardo, a U.S. Marine who was among 13 service members killed in a suicide bombing in Afghanistan, during a public wake in her hometown of Lawrence, Mass., Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2021. (David Goldman/AP)

LAWRENCE, Mass.  A Marine from Massachusetts who was killed last month in a suicide bombing in Afghanistan was given a hero's farewell Tuesday in a public wake and burial attended by hundreds.

The flag-draped casket of Sgt. Johanny Rosario Pichardo was carried by her fellow Marines into Veterans Memorial Stadium in her hometown of Lawrence while hundreds of people lined up to pay their respects.

The 25 year-old was among 13 U.S. service members who died in the Aug. 26 bombing at the Kabul airport, where people were being evacuated amid the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. A dozen other U.S. service members and 169 Afghans were also killed.

Rosario Pichardo's family watched solemnly as the casket entered the stadium. Her mother, dressed in white, blew a kiss while other family members held their hands over their hearts and Marines in attendance saluted.

Mourners pay their respects to Sgt. Johanny Rosario Pichardo, a U.S. Marine who was among 13 service members killed in a suicide bombing in Afghanistan, during a public wake in her hometown of Lawrence, Mass., Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2021. (David Goldman/AP) The casket of Sgt. Johanny Rosario Pichardo, a U.S. Marine who was among 13 service members killed in a suicide bombing in Afghanistan, is carried into Veterans Memorial Stadium for a public wake in her hometown of Lawrence, Mass., Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2021. (David Goldman/AP) Law enforcement members salute the casket of Sgt. Johanny Rosario Pichardo, a U.S. Marine who was among 13 service members killed in a suicide bombing in Afghanistan, during a public wake at Veterans Memorial Stadium in her hometown of Lawrence, Mass., Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2021. (David Goldman/AP) A mourner bows his head during a public wake for Sgt. Johanny Rosario Pichardo, a U.S. Marine who was among 13 service members killed in a suicide bombing in Afghanistan, at Veterans Memorial Stadium in her hometown of Lawrence, Mass., Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2021. (David Goldman/AP)

Gov. Charlie Baker related how fellow volunteers at a local church food pantry had nicknamed Rosario Pichardo "Marine" because of her lifelong ambition to become one.

"It's often said a hero is someone who puts all others before themselves," he said. "As a Marine, as an auntie, as a social worker, as a servant, over and over again, her life exemplified what it means to be truly heroic."

Lawrence Mayor Kendrys Vasquez led the crowd in loudly chanting her name. "We will not forget you," he said. "Thank you, Johanny. You are home now."

Capt. Pascal DeMeo, Rosario Pichardo's commanding officer, said the work screening women and children at the airport helped save some 124,000 lives in America's largest airlift operation.

Before the bomb detonated, he said, Rosario Pichardo had been trying to help two Afghan women who were getting crushed by in a pack of people at the gates of the Kabul airport. Her final words were, "They need me, sir."

Rosario Pichardo's younger brother, Erick, remembered her as the backbone of their family. When their mom or other elders couldn't do something that was needed, she somehow found a way, he said.

"Everything from here on out will be done for her," Erick Rosario said. "We're proud of her, and now it's time to make her proud."

Rosario Pichardo joined the Marines in 2015 and served with the Naval Amphibious Force, Task Force 51/5th Marine Expeditionary Brigade.

On Monday, Boston Cardinal Sean O'Malley presided over a private funeral Mass. After Tuesday's wake, she was laid to rest at Bellevue Cemetery in Lawrence, in a section reserved for veterans.
(Northern Beaches Police Area Command, Australia / Facebook)

CANBERRA, Australia  A 64-year-old fugitive walked into a Sydney police station to give himself up almost 30 years after he used a hacksaw blade and bolt cutters to escape from prison, police said on Wednesday.

Darko Desic decided to go back to prison because Sydney's COVID-19 lockdown made him jobless and homeless, media reported.

Desic surrendered at Dee Why Police Station at Sydney's fashionable northern beaches on Sunday morning and was denied bail when he appeared in a downtown court on Tuesday charged with escaping from lawful custody in 1992, a police statement said. The charge carries a potential seven-year prison sentence.

Sydney's lockdown, which began in June, had cost Desic his cash-in-hand work as a laborer and handyman, unnamed police sources told Sydney's The Daily Telegraph and Australian Broadcasting Corp.

"He slept on the beach on Saturday night and said: 'Stuff it, I'll go back to prison where there's a roof over my head,'" a source told the newspaper.

Desic was 35 when he escaped from a century-old prison in Grafton, 390 miles north of Sydney, over the night of July 31-Aug. 1, 1992.

Police allege he used tools including a hacksaw blade and bolt cutters to cut through his cell window bars and a perimeter fence.

He had served 13 months of a three-and-a-half-year sentence for growing marijuana.

Born in the former Yugoslavia, Desic told police he escaped because he thought he would be deported once he had served his sentence, the newspaper reported. He feared he would be punished for failing to do his compulsory military service in his former country, which has since broken into several nations.

It's not immediately clear to which country he could be deported. He is not an Australian citizen. The newspaper said immigration officials gave up looking for him and in 2008 granted him residency in Australia.

Desic told police that he had spent his entire time at large at Sydney's northern beaches in the suburb of Avalon, and according to the newspaper, had never come to the attention of police in that time.

Desic maintained a low profile but was once mentioned on "Australia's Most Wanted," a true crime TV program that ran for a decade until 1999, after someone reported seeing him at Nowra, 120 miles south of Sydney.
Ricky Franklin and his wife, Caylenn Franklin, center, are comforted by Anglea Jackson on Aug. 6 in West Memphis, Ark. The Franklins' 11-year-old daughter, Jordyn, died of COVID. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post)

At a certain point, it was no longer a matter of if the United States would reach the gruesome milestone of 1 in 500 people dying of COVID-19, but a matter of when. A year? Maybe 15 months? The answer: 19 months.

Given the mortality rate from COVID and our nation's population size, "we're kind of where we predicted we would be with completely uncontrolled spread of infection," said Jeffrey Klausner, clinical professor of medicine, population and public health sciences at the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine. "Remember at the very beginning, which we don't hear about anymore, it was all about flatten the curve."

The idea, he said, was to prevent "the humanitarian disaster" that occurred in New York City, where ambulance sirens were a constant as hospitals were overwhelmed and mortuaries needed mobile units to handle the additional dead.

The goal of testing, mask-wearing, keeping six feet apart and limiting gatherings was to slow the spread of the highly infectious virus until a vaccine could stamp it out. The vaccines came but not enough people have been immunized, and the triumph of science waned as mass death and disease remain. The result: As the nation's covid death toll exceeded 663,000 this week, it meant roughly 1 in every 500 Americans had succumbed to the disease caused by the coronavirus.

While COVID's death toll overwhelms the imagination, even more stunning is the deadly efficiency with which it has targeted Black, Latino, and American Indian and Alaska Native people in their 30s, 40s and 50s.

Death at a younger age represents more lost years of life. Lost potential. Lost scholarship. Lost mentorship. Lost earnings. Lost love.

Neighborhoods decimated. Families destroyed.

"So often when we think about the majority of the country who have lost people to COVID-19, we think about the elders that have been lost, not necessarily younger people," said Abigail Echo-Hawk, executive vice president at the Seattle Indian Health Board and director of the Urban Indian Health Institute. "Unfortunately, this is not my reality nor that of the Native community. I lost cousins and fathers and tribal leaders. People that were so integral to building up our community, which has already been struggling for centuries against all these things that created the perfect environment for COVID-19 to kill us."

Six of Echo-Hawk's friends and relatives  all under 55  have died of COVID.

"This is trauma. This is generational impact that we must have an intentional focus on. The scars are there," said Marcella Nunez-Smith, chair of President Joe Biden's COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force and associate dean for health equity research at Yale University. "We can't think that we're going to test and vaccinate our way out of this deep pain and hurt."

The pandemic has brought into stark relief centuries of entwining social, environmental, economic and political factors that erode the health and shorten the lives of people of color, putting them at higher risk of the chronic conditions that leave immune systems vulnerable to the coronavirus. Many of those same factors fuel the misinformation, mistrust and fear that leave too many unprotected.

Take the suggestion that people talk to their doctor about which symptoms warrant testing or a trip to the hospital as well as the safety of vaccines. Seems simple. It's not.

Many people don't have a physician they see regularly due in part to significant provider shortages in communities of color. If they do have a doctor, it can cost too much money for a visit even if insured. There are language barriers for those who don't speak English fluently and fear of deportation among undocumented immigrants.

"Some of the issues at hand are structural issues, things that are built into the fabric of society," said Enrique Neblett Jr., a University of Michigan professor who studies racism and health.

Essential workers who cannot avoid the virus in their jobs because they do not have the luxury of working from home. People living in multigenerational homes with several adult wage-earners, sharing housing because their pay is so low. Even the fight to be counted among the COVID casualties  some states and hospitals, Echo-Hawk said, don't have "even a box to check to say you are American Indian or Alaskan Native."

It can be difficult to tackle the structural issues influencing the unequal burden of the pandemic while dealing with the day-to-day stress and worry it ignites, which, Neblett said, is why attention must focus on both long-term solutions and "what do we do now? It's not just that simple as, 'Oh, you just put on your mask, and we'll all be good.' It's more complicated than that."

The exacting toll of the last year and a half  COVID's stranglehold on communities of color and George Floyd's murder  forced the country to interrogate the genealogy of American racism and its effect on health and well-being.

"This is an instance where we finally named it and talked about structural racism as a contributing factor in ways that we haven't with other health disorders," Neblett said.

But the nation's attention span can be short. Polls show there was a sharp rise in concern about discrimination against Black Americans by police following Floyd's murder, including among White Americans. That concern has eroded some since 2020, though it does remain higher than years past.

"This mistaken understanding that people have, almost this sort of impatience like, 'Oh, we see racism. Let's just fix that,' that's the thing that gives me hives," Nunez-Smith said. "This is about generational investments and fundamental changes in ways of being. We didn't get here overnight."
Lt. Henry Donald Mitchell developed a passion for aviation long before he piloted P-38 Lighting aircraft in World War II. He was a flight instructor known to show off his daredevil flying skills to his family in Northwest Arkansas. Mitchell applied his talent and love for aviation in response to his countrys call to serve, becoming a member of the 48th Fighter Squadron, 14th Fighter Group of the Army Air Corps.

On July 8, 1944, while on a mission over Vienna, Austria, his squadron engaged with enemy aircraft. While the flight leader heard Lt. Mitchell radio that he was all right, he never returned and was declared missing in action.

On this National POW/MIA Recognition Day, for the first time in 77 years, Mitchell is not listed as MIA thanks to the relentless pursuit by his brother Bob, members of the Arkansas congressional delegation, international representatives and the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) to bring him home.

The DPAA is responsible for finding, identifying and accounting for American service members missing in action. Today, more than 80,000 Department of Defense personnel remain unaccounted for, including 72,000 World War II servicemembers.

The work of the DPAA touches every corner of the United States and brings hope to families missing someone they love. Our never-ending commitment to accounting for those who served in our nations uniform remains a priority.

Increased challenges to locating our fallen heroes in remote or deep-water locations demonstrate the need for innovative technologies. However, limited resources hinder the agencys ability to incorporate new strategies and implement state-of-the-art advancements. Thats why we must do more to help the agency successfully accomplish its mission.

One way we can make a difference is by creating a nonprofit foundation that will enable the agency to assist in recovery operations, support public-private partnerships, conduct research, and develop additional groundbreaking methods to search for and identify our heroes.

Weve experienced success with similar congressionally-supported nonprofits on advancing DOD medicine. I look forward to introducing legislation that expands DPAAs capabilities in the same manner. This will enable us to harness the expertise of world-class researchers and other experts so we can ultimately bring closure to more families.

DPAA personnel will continue looking for those missing in action and providing answers to families waiting, sometimes for decades, to hear their loved one has been found. Bob Mitchell was one such case, but thankfully that very call came last month.

Im tickled to death, the younger Mitchell told an Arkansas news outlet in the days after the DPAA positively identified the remains of his brother who was found at the site of a downed P-38 Lightning in Austria. Bob spent more than two decades working to bring his brother home.

I never gave up, and thats the secret to a lot of things, he told my staff.

Bob has been a relentless advocate for his big brother and I am honored to have played a role in his homecoming.

This week, Lt. Mitchell was finally laid to rest in the Fayetteville National Cemetery with full military honors.

There are many more families waiting and hoping for the same opportunity. This National POW/MIA Recognition Day, lets remember them and renew our countrys commitment to bring our heroes home.

John Boozman, a Republican, is Arkansas senior U.S. senator.
The world watched as the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan, some say erasing 20 years of work and sacrifice. Most Americans are feeling a range of emotions, but the news is even harder for veterans. Many veterans are asking themselves, Was it worth it? Was all of my sacrifice wasted? These veterans carry the weight, the scars of more than 2,300 Americans killed and 20,000 wounded in a 20-year war that cost the U.S. an estimated $2.26 trillion, and now veterans are grappling with the unavoidable feeling that all their blood, sweat and tears were for naught.

For veterans who are struggling right now  whether dealing with depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury, or simply having a hard time watching the events in Afghanistan unfold  they should know there is help.

Since October 2001, more than 775,000 U.S. troops were deployed to Afghanistan. Early evidence suggests that the number suffering from psychological injuries from these deployments is far greater than the number suffering from the physical injuries. Prolonged exposure to combat-related stress, often over multiple tours, takes a serious toll. We may not see the damage, but it is there.

According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, PTSD afflicts up to 1 in 5 veterans who deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, and as many as 1 in 3 Vietnam veterans have struggled with PTSD in their lifetimes. As many as 500,000 U.S. troops who served in Afghanistan and Iraq have been diagnosed with PTSD. These figures suggest that psychological trauma is a staggering burden on active-duty troops, veterans and society.

Because the medical community did not understand the science of PTSD until recently, past treatments varied from heavy drugs to hospitalization to simply telling patients to try to put their experiences behind them. But today, clinicians increasingly rely on emerging therapies along with psychotherapy and medication in a holistic treatment approach.

In 2017, the VA and Department of Defense developed clinical practice guidelines for the treatment of PTSD. The guidelines recommend using individualized treatments called trauma-focused psychotherapy. The most common therapies for combat veterans are:

Prolonged Exposure Therapy

Veterans suffering from PTSD often try to avoid anything that reminds them of their prior trauma because these stimuli cause an emotional and/or physical reaction. Unfortunately, this avoidance only reinforces their fear. In PE therapy, patients are repeatedly exposed to the stimuli in a safe way, and eventually modify or reduce their fear response. This helps veterans to manage their condition and lead a more normal life.

Cognitive Processing Therapy

After a trauma, its common to have repeated negative thoughts and get stuck on the traumatic event. CPT helps the patient learn to identify and change these thought patterns. In CPT, the therapist helps the patient identify their stuck points and use cognitive restructuring to create a more accurate and balanced interpretation of the traumatic event. This therapy helps patients to get past recurring thoughts, such as self-blame, shame and hindsight.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing

People with PTSD react negatively to the memory of their traumas because the brain has not adequately processed the experience. EMDR can help them process these upsetting memories and separate the memory from thoughts and feelings experienced at the time. The patient focuses on specific sounds or movements while they talk about the traumatic event with a therapist. This helps the brain work through the traumatic memories and resolve the associated distress. Over time, they change how they react to memories of their traumatic event.

Beyond these therapies, we have seen great success in some emerging treatments, including mindfulness and meditation and art-and-craft therapy.

Mindfulness and meditation

Many therapists and patients have found that adding mindfulness and meditation to traditional therapy can be beneficial for veterans with PTSD. Mindfulness means focusing attention on sensory perceptions and bodily sensations and includes meditation, yoga, breathing exercises, and tai chi. Mindfulness has been shown to lower heart rate and blood pressure, and it has been an effective way for people in all walks of life to deal with stress.

Craft therapy

Craft therapy shows promise as an adjunct treatment for PTSD. Craft therapy helps veterans take their minds off events that may have led to their illness. Engaging in craft activities has been shown to address cognitive, neurological and sensory-motor needs by focusing the brain on performance skills. Veterans who are engaged in craft groups report a greater sense of pride and purpose and have opportunities to develop a sense of camaraderie. An organization that is near and dear to my heart, Help Heal Veterans, has known this for quite some time. In fact, for 50 years Heal Vets has been providing craft therapy to active-duty military and veterans.

What is truly impressive to me as a physician, however, is what those who have used craft therapy kits have to say:

 94% said the kits helped them have a more positive outlook on life.

 81% said the kits helped improve their relationships with family and friends.

 89% said our kits helped relieve their pain. On average, there was a 63% drop in pain scale when using craft therapy kits.

 78% of respondents who had a physical injury or wound said our kits helped with their condition.

 98% said the kits took their mind off of problems.

 97% of respondents with behavioral health issues (PTSD, depression, anxiety) said the kits helped them feel better.

 75% of respondents with history of TBI said our kits helped them.

Because PTSD is such a heterogeneous disorder, any treatment plan should be individualized, and one must consider current life stressors and comorbid conditions such as chronic pain, substance abuse and traumatic brain injury.

As a former naval medical officer who specializes in traumatic brain injury, I can attest that there is no one-size-fits-all approach. But using a combination of traditional and emerging therapies can provide much needed support for our wounded troops and veterans. We need to embrace these therapies.

Keith Stuessi served in the U.S. Navy for 23 years as a family practice/sports medicine physician and retired as a captain. His last tour was as medical director of the Concussion Care Clinic at Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton, Calif. He now serves on the Board of Directors of Help Heal Veterans, which provides free therapeutic arts-and-craft kits to U.S. veterans and active duty military personnel.
Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Koreas leader Kim Jong Un attends a ceremony at Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum in Hanoi, Vietnam, on March 2, 2019. Kim Yo Jong on Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021, ripped South Korea for proceeding with military exercises with the United States she claimed are an invasion rehearsal and warned that the North will speed up its efforts to strengthen its pre-emptive strike capabilities. (Jorge Silva, Pool via AP)

SEOUL, South Korea  The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Wednesday criticized South Korea's president and threatened a "complete destruction" of bilateral relations after both of the countries tested ballistic missiles hours apart.

The launches of missiles underscored a return of tensions between the rivals at a time when talks aimed at stripping North Korea of its nuclear program are stalled.

Kim's sister, Kim Yo Jong, criticized South Korean President Moon Jae-in for comments he made while observing his country's missile tests, including its first of a submarine-launched ballistic missile. Moon said South Korea's growing missile capabilities will serve as a "sure deterrence" against North Korean provocations.

The tests came hours after the South Korean and Japanese militaries said North Korea had fired two ballistic missiles into the sea.

In a statement carried by state media, Kim berated Moon for describing North Korean weapons demonstrations as a provocation, and warned of a "complete destruction" of bilateral relations if he continues with what she described as slander of North Korea.

She said North Korea is developing its military capabilities for self-defense without targeting a specific country, and that South Korea is also increasing its military capabilities. North Korea has often accused the South of hypocrisy for introducing modern weapons while calling for talks on easing tensions between the divided countries.

"If the president joins in the slander and detraction (against us), this will be followed by counter actions, and the North-South relations will be pushed toward a complete destruction," she said. "We do not want that."

The South Korean and Japanese militaries said the two short-range ballistic missiles fired by North Korea flew 800 kilometers (500 miles) before landing in the sea inside Japan's exclusive economic zone  a worrying development even though they did not reach Japanese territorial waters. The last time a North Korean missile landed inside that zone was in October 2019.

The launches came two days after North Korea said it fired a newly developed cruise missile, its first known missile test in six months.

Hours after the latest North Korean launches, South Korea reported its first test of a submarine-launched ballistic missile. As Moon and other top officials looked on, the missile flew from a submarine and hit a designated target, Moon's office said. It did not say how far the weapon flew.

Experts say North Korea is building up its weapons systems to apply pressure on the United States in the hopes of winning relief from economic sanctions aimed at forcing the North to abandon its nuclear arsenal. U.S.-led talks on the issue have been stalled for more than two years.

"North Korea is trying to communicate a message that things will not go as Washington wishes, if it doesn't accept the North's demands," said Moon Seong Mook, an analyst with the Seoul-based Korea Research Institute for National Strategy. He said North Korea may think it has an opportunity now to win concessions from U.S. President Joe Biden's administration while it is embroiled in a domestic debate following the chaotic pullout from Afghanistan.

Observers say Moon's government, which has been actively pursuing reconciliation with North Korea, may have taken action to appear tougher in response to criticism that it's too soft on the North.

The rival nations are still technically in a state of war since the 1950-53 Korean War, which pitted the North and ally China against the South and U.S.-led U.N. forces, ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said the launches "threaten the peace and safety of Japan and the region and are absolutely outrageous."

The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said the North Korean test "highlights the destabilizing impact of (North Korea's) illicit weapons program" though it said it didn't pose an immediate threat to the U.S.

The North Korean launches represent a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions that bar North Korea from engaging in any ballistic missile activity. But the council typically doesn't impose new sanctions when the North launches short-range missiles, like Wednesday's.

Wednesday's tests came as Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was in Seoul for meetings with Moon and other senior officials to discuss North Korea and other issues.

It's unusual for North Korea to make provocative launches when China, its last major ally and biggest aid provider, is engaged in a major diplomatic event. But some experts say North Korea may have used the timing to draw extra attention.

Kim Dong-yub, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, said Wednesday's tests appeared to be of an improved version of a short-range missile it tested in March. He said the weapon is likely modeled on Russia's Iskander missiles, which are designed to fly at relatively low altitudes, making them harder to be intercepted by missile defense systems.

The international community wants North Korea to abandon its nuclear program and has long used a combination of the threat of sanctions and the promise of economic help to try to influence the North. But negotiations have stalled since 2019, when then-U.S. President Donald Trump's administration rejected the North's demand for major sanctions relief in exchange for dismantling an aging nuclear facility.

Kim Jong Un's government has so far rejected the Biden administration's overtures for dialogue, demanding that Washington abandon what it calls "hostile" policies first. But North Korea has maintained its self-imposed moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests, a sign that it may not want to completely scuttle the possibility of reopening the talks.

In 2017, North Korea claimed to have acquired the ability to strike the American mainland with nuclear weapons after conducting three intercontinental ballistic missile tests and its most powerful nuclear test. In recent years, it has also performed a series of underwater-launched missile tests in what experts say is a worrying development because such weapons are difficult to detect and would provide North Korea with retaliatory strike capability.

South Korea, which doesn't have nuclear weapons, is under the protection of the U.S. "nuclear umbrella," which guarantees a devastating American response in the event of an attack on its ally. But South Korea has been accelerating efforts to build up its conventional arms, including developing more powerful missiles.

Experts say South Korea's military advancements are aimed at improving its capacity for preemptive strikes and destroying key North Korean facilities and bunkers.

Separate from the submarine-launched missile, South Korea also tested a missile from an aircraft.

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Associated Press writer Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.
This image from the Korean Central News Agency shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and other officials observing a missile test in September 2017. (KCNA)

CAMP HUMPHREYS, South Korea  The two Koreas fired ballistic missiles in separate tests Wednesday as officials from neighboring countries held meetings to discuss tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

North Korea fired two ballistic missiles into the sea off its eastern coast in the afternoon, according to the South Korean military.

South Koreas Joint Chiefs of Staff confirmed those launches to Stars and Stripes and said the missiles flew about 500 miles at a maximum altitude of 37 miles.

Our military tightened surveillance and security, [maintained] their readiness posture, and the [South Koreans] and the U.S. are working closely together, a JSC spokesperson said in a text message on the customary condition of anonymity.

Meanwhile, South Korea announced it had succeeded in test-firing a submarine-launched ballistic missile, according to the Agency for Defense Development.

It is now one of a handful of nations to successfully develop an SLBM after the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and India. North Korea also claims to have successfully test-fired one.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in was expected to meet Wednesday with the National Security Council about the North Korean missile test, according to a statement from the presidential Blue House.

The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said the missiles did not pose an immediate threat to U.S. personnel or territory, or to our allies.

The missile launch highlights the destabilizing impact of [North Koreas] illicit weapons program, a statement from the command added.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga told reporters the missiles landed in the sea outside of his countrys exclusive economic zone. He called the launches outrageous actions that threaten peace and security in the region.

The United Nations Security Council expressly forbids North Korea from testing ballistic missiles, which are powered by rockets and fly in a high arch.

The launches come days after Pyongyang said it fired long-range cruise missiles that flew 932 miles for over two hours on Saturday and Sunday. The missiles range, if accurate, would be enough to reach Tokyo.

Jet-powered cruise missiles fly at lower altitudes and are harder to detect than ballistic missiles.

The launches happened amid a trilateral meeting in Tokyo, where the U.S. envoy for North Korea was meeting with his counterparts from South Korea and Japan. Also Wednesday, South Korean Foreign Affairs Minister Chung Eui-yong and his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, discussed North Korea and their countries ties.

Prior to the weekend cruise-missile tests, the North's last known launch was in March. It fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea.

In January, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un urged the ruling Workers Party to develop longer-range intercontinental ballistic missiles, as well as other nuclear military weaponry.

Stars and Stripes reporters Yoo Kyong Chang and Hana Kusumoto contributed to this report.
Taiwanese armored units conduct a live-fire drill to deter a coastal landing force during the Han Guang exercise held on the island of Penghu county, Taiwan, Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021. (Military News Agency via AP)

JIADONG, Taiwan  The F-16 screeched across the sky Wednesday before landing on a highway cut through pineapple fields in southwestern Taiwan to refuel quickly and take off again.

The Taiwanese military exercise envisioned a Chinese attack taking out the island's main airfields, necessitating the use of rural roads as runways to carry on the fight.

War is not imminent, but as China has grown increasingly assertive in both the East China and South China Seas, Taiwan is stepping up its defense. Across the region, the United States and its allies are deepening military cooperation and strategizing over an effective response.

China, which claims Taiwan as part of its territory, flies fighter jets toward Taiwan on a regular basis in an effort to warn and intimidate the island's air force. Last month, Chinese fighter jets, anti-submarine aircraft and combat ships conducted joint assault drills near Taiwan with China saying the exercise was necessary to safeguard its sovereignty.

U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced a meeting next week with key regional players that form the so-called "Quad"  India, Australia and Japan together with the U.S.  for in-person talks the White House said are meant to show the administration's commitment to "promoting a free and open Indo-Pacific."

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian slammed the U.S. for "forming exclusive cliques" after the meeting was announced and countered that China was a "firm defender of regional peace and stability."

"China's development is a growing force for peace in the world and a boon to the prosperity and development of the region," he said. "The countries concerned should abandon the outdated zero-sum mentality and narrow-minded geopolitical thinking."

Japan, a U.S. ally that hosts the U.S. Navy's 7th Fleet, has long moved cautiously with regard to China, an important trading partner. But it has recently become less reserved in the face of Beijing's growing military activity and broad territorial claims in the western Pacific, including to a group of islands near Taiwan that Japan controls.

Masahisa Sato, a senior lawmaker of the governing Liberal Democratic Party and an expert on defense, told a recent forum on security in Asia that right now the U.S.-Japan alliance is focused largely on a response to a possible conflict stemming from the Korean Peninsula, and it needs to be broadened to consider what to do if there is a Chinese attack on Taiwan.

He noted that the Sakishima island group, which includes some of Okinawa's remote islands, "is right next to Taiwan and is part of a same theater."

"We should consider a Taiwan contingency as nearly equal to a Japan contingency," Sato said.

All three candidates running on Sept. 29 to become Japan's new leader are proposing hawkish policies toward China, though still acknowledging its importance as a trading partner.

Taro Kono, the minister in charge of vaccinations who is seen as a front runner, has said he will seek to establish a regional framework that adds to Japan's alliance with the United States in countering China's growing military activity.

In a joint statement after they met in April, outgoing Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and Biden said they "recognize the importance of deterrence to maintain peace and stability in the region" and added that they "oppose any unilateral attempts to change the status quo in the East China Sea" and reiterated their "objections to China's unlawful maritime claims and activities in the South China Sea."

Underscoring its concerns, Japan's Defense Ministry added a new section on Taiwan in its annual report released in July, saying the situation requires a "sense of crisis." It says China's military capability has become far greater than that of Taiwan and that Japan must pay attention to further increases on both sides.

Suga announced he will not run in the Sept. 29 Liberal Democratic Party leadership vote, which chooses a new party leader who will become Japan's next prime minister.

Taiwan has stepped up purchases from the U.S. of weapons including missiles and aircraft over the past two years.

Taiwan's defense ministry submitted a budget of $16.8 billion for the next year, a modest increase from last year's $16.2 billion. Some of the funds would purchase 66 F-16V fighter jets, according to the semiofficial Central News Agency.

Many believe, however, that despite the bellicose rhetoric and drills like the Han Guang exercise on Wednesday, as well as the Chinese posturing, that open conflict is not on the horizon.

"This is a type of gray zone tactic  military intimidation," said Ou Xifu, a researcher at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research in Taiwan. "This shouldn't lead to war."

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Wu reported from Taipei and Yamaguchi from Tokyo. Associated Press researcher Yu Bing contributed to this report from Beijing.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, left, poses with his South Korean counterpart Chung Eui-yong for a photograph before their meeting at the Foreign Ministry in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021. The foreign ministers met Wednesday for talks expected to focus on North Korea and other regional security issues, two days after North Korea claimed to have tested a newly developed cruise missile. (Kim Seung-doo/Yonhap/AP)

SEOUL, South Korea  The foreign ministers of South Korea and China met Wednesday for talks expected to focus on North Korea and other regional security issues, two days after North Korea claimed to have tested a newly developed cruise missile.

North Korea said Monday it had successfully tested the missile twice over the weekend that it said hit targets 930 miles away, a range that is enough to strike all of Japan including U.S. military bases there. It was North Korea's first weapons launch in six months and came amid a stalemate in its nuclear diplomacy with the United States.

On Wednesday, South Korean Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong was expected to ask China to play a more active role in persuading North Korea to return to the nuclear negotiations during a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Seoul.

While there are questions about China's influence on North Korea, Beijing is still North Korea's last major ally and aid benefactor. More than 90% of North Korea's trade goes through China, though bilateral trade volume has nosedived since North Korea closed its international borders early last year at the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

During Wednesday's talks, some observers say Wang would also seek to strengthen ties with South Korea to try to prevent it from titling too much toward the United States amid intense rivalry between the world's two biggest economies. They say China worry about a U.S. plan to recalibrate its foreign policy toward growing challenges posed by China and Russia following its troops' withdrawal from Afghanistan.

South Korea has been struggling to strike a balance between the United States and China. It's a key traditional U.S. ally where about 28,500 American troops are deployed to deter potential aggression from North Korea. But its export-driven economy heavily relies on China, its biggest trading partner.

North Korea's cruise missile launch isn't a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions that bar North Korea from conducting ballistic missile tests. Some experts say North Korea might have chosen a cruise missile, not a ballistic one, not to put its ally China, a veto-wielding U.N. Security Council member, into a difficult situation.

Experts say North Korea wants greater support from China as its struggling economy has been further slammed by the pandemic-related border shutdowns, U.S.-led sanctions and natural disasters.

Wang has also recently traveled to Singapore, Cambodia and Vietnam.
Then Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab speaks during a press conference at the Presidential Palace in Baabda, east of Beirut, Lebanon, Jan. 21, 2020. The state-run National News Agency reported Thursday, Aug 26, 2021, that a Lebanese judge leading the investigation into last year's massive explosion at Beirut's port issued a subpoena for Diab, the country's caretaker prime minister, after he failed to show up for questioning. (Bilal Hussein/AP)

BEIRUT  Lebanon's former prime minister left the country for the United States on Tuesday, his advisor said, despite a subpoena from the judge investigating last year's devastating explosion at Beirut port.

Hassan Diab was the country's prime minister when the explosion happened on Aug. 4, 2020. He resigned after the blast that killed over 200 people and injured over 6,000, leaving large parts of the city devastated.

Diab was caretaker prime minister until last week, when Najib Mikati successfully formed a new government, ending months of political haggling.

As caretaker prime minister, Diab was summoned by investigative judge Tarek Bitar on accusations of intentional killing and negligence. Diab declined to be interrogated as a defendant, saying he had given his testimony in the case. Diab holds that the judges investigating the case have violated Lebanese laws that require that as a senior government official he can only be summoned after the parliament approves.

When Diab failed to show up last month for investigation, Bitar issued a subpoena and the new date for questioning was set for next Monday.

On Tuesday, Bitar issued a new subpoena to include his home address after he stepped down from the premiership.

"He has nothing new to say," said Laila Hatoum, Diab's advisor. "He considers that he has nothing to do with all that until the parliament decides the course of action."

Hatoum said Diab left for a pre-planned trip to visit his children who are studying in the United States. He has not seen them since he took office, she said.

Hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate, a highly explosive material used in fertilizers that had been improperly stored in the port for years, exploded on Aug. 4, 2020. The probe shows that most government officials knew of the dangerous material stored at the port.

Diab told The Associated Press in an interview last year that he was being singled out and charged while others knew more.
An Afghan man inspects the damage of the Ahmadi family house in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Monday, Sept. 13, 2021. Zemerai Ahmadi, the Afghan man who was killed in a U.S. drone strike last month was an enthusiastic and beloved longtime employee at an American humanitarian organization, his colleagues say. (Bernat Armangue/AP)

KABUL, Afghanistan  The Afghan man who was killed in a U.S. drone strike last month was an enthusiastic and beloved longtime employee at an American humanitarian organization, his colleagues say, painting a stark contrast to the Pentagon's claims that he was an Islamic State group militant about to carry out an attack on American troops.

Signs have been mounting that the U.S. military may have targeted the wrong man in the Aug. 29 strike in Kabul, with devastating consequences, killing seven children and two other adults from his family. The Pentagon says it is further investigating the strike, but it has no way to do so on the ground in Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover, severely limiting its ability to gather evidence.

Accounts from the family, documents from colleagues seen by The Associated Press, and the scene at the family home  where Zemerai Ahmadi's car was struck by a Hellfire missile just as he pulled into the driveway  all seem to sharply contradict the accounts by the U.S. military. Instead, they paint the picture of a family that had worked for Americans and were trying to gain visas to the United States, fearing for their lives under the Taliban.

At the home, the mangled, incinerated Toyota Corolla remains in the driveway. But there are no signs of large secondary blasts the Pentagon said were caused by explosives hidden in the car trunk. In the tightly cramped, walled compound, the house is undamaged except for broken glass, even a badly built wooden balcony remains in place. A brick wall immediately adjacent to the car stands intact. Trees and foliage close to the car are not burned or torn.

The family wants the United States to hear their side of the story and see the facts on the ground.

Amal Ahmadi, 32, holds a picture of his slain brother Zemerai Ahmadi at the family house in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Monday, Sept. 13, 2021. (Bernat Armangue/AP)

"We just want that they come here. See what they did. Talk to us. Give us the proof," Emal Ahmadi, Zemerai's younger brother, said of the U.S. military. Near tears, he opened a photo on his phone of his 3-year-old daughter, Malika, in her favorite dress. Another photo showed her charred remains after she was killed in the strike.

On Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken acknowledged he did not know if the man targeted in the strike was an IS operative or an aid worker. "I don't know because we're reviewing it," he said at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.

The strike was carried out in the final days of the U.S. presence in Afghanistan, as American troops were carrying out evacuations at Kabul's airport. Only days earlier, an IS suicide bombers at the airport killed 169 Afghans and 13 U.S. servicemembers.

The Pentagon says the strike prevented another IS attack at the airport. Officials said the U.S. military had been observing the car for hours as it drove and saw people loading explosives into the back. Days after amid reports of the children killed, Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called it a "righteous strike," and said "at least one of the people that were killed was an ISIS facilitator," using an acronym for the Islamic State group.

The U.S. acknowledged reports of civilian casualties and said they may have been caused by secondary explosions. The family said when the 37-year-old Zemerai, alone in his car, pulled up to the house, he honked his horn. His 11-year-old son ran out, and Zemerai let the boy get in and drive the car into the driveway. The other kids ran out to watch, and the missile incinerated the car, killing seven children and an adult son and nephew of Zemerai.

"That was my last memory, the sound of his horn," said another of Zemerai's brothers, Romal Ahmadi, who was inside the house at the time. His three children, aged two to seven, were killed.

Zemerai worked for 15 years for Nutrition & Education International, a California-based non-profit aimed at countering malnutrition in Afghanistan. Romal also worked briefly for NEI.

Only days before the strike, Zemerai and Romal applied for special visas to the U.S. for those who had worked with U.S. companies. His brother, Emal and the nephew who was killed, Ahmad Naser Haideri, had also applied for special visas because of their work for the U.S. military.

The Ahmadi family pray on Monday, Sept. 13, 2021, at the cemetery next to the graves of family members killed by a US drone strike, in Kabul, Afghanistan. (Bernat Armangue/AP)

Emal provided the AP with documents including their visa applications, letters of recommendation and even a medal Haideri had received for his service with a special U.S. trained elite special force. Haideri also had a letter of reference from the U.S.-based Multi Country Security Solutions Group, where he worked as a contractor, calling him "an important part of our commitment to provide the best faithful service to the U.S. Special Forces."

"He was an excellent employee," the firm's president, Timothy Williams, who wrote the letter of reference, told the AP. "I'm not going to change from that just because of the incident that happened. I'm going to stand behind my guys."

Zemerai's colleagues at NEI described him as a talented worker who worked his way up from a handyman to a skilled engineer and an essential employee.

Last year, when the company was unable to pay employees at full salary because of the coronavirus pandemic, employees were given the opportunity to leave their positions for better paying work elsewhere.

But Ahmadi declined, saying, "I am NEI. From beginning to end, until we accomplish our goal," the company's founder and president, Steven Kwon, told the AP.

Colleagues recalled him as a doting father and enthusiastic dancer who kept an optimistic spirit amid the chaos of his surroundings and was quick to comfort those around him with a joke. He had grown up poor in Kabul and maintained "such a heart for the poor," said a co-worker who asked to be identified only as Sonia for safety reasons.

"He was definitely the best of us. Absolutely," she said.

He also always supported the company's efforts to hire more women and create women's programs, which is one of many reasons that colleagues said the suggestion that he was connected to any sort of extremism seems preposterous to them.

"Everything we're hearing about him is just so disturbing and so absurd because he had such love for his people," said Sonia. "How would he overnight turn around and start wanting to kill his own people. It makes absolutely no sense at all whatsoever."

It seems unlikely the U.S. will send anyone to the Ahmadi home to investigate. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said he's "not aware of any option that would put investigators on the ground in Kabul." The U.S. Central Command said it would rely on "other means," without elaborating but apparently meaning surveillance video and intercepts that led to the strike.

The family, grieving and furious, still wants refuge in the United States. On top of their already existing worries over their past work with the U.S., they now fear the new Taliban rulers will suspect them of being IS. The Islamic State group is a violent rival of the Taliban.

"The U.S. has accused us. They haven't cleared our name and they won't even talk to us, and now the suspicion is on us," Emal said. "We are angry, but we don't know what to do. For our safety we would go to America, but it must be all our families, not just me."

Much to their dismay, Ahmadi's colleagues say they haven't been contacted by anyone from the Biden administration about what happened.

"Just talk to us because our teams are now terrified," Sonia said. "I mean, in addition to being afraid of the Taliban and ISIS, they're now even more afraid of the U.S. government."

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Tucker reported from Washington. Associated Press Writer Lolita Baldor contributed to this report from Washington.
Army Gen. Austin S. Miller, the last general to command U.S. forces during the war in Afghanistan, speaks to journalists in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Tuesday, June 29, 2021. (Ahmad Seir/AP photo)

Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee castigated President Joe Bidens decision to pull U.S. forces from Afghanistan and the chaotic withdrawal that followed after a closed hearing Tuesday with the last general to lead Americas longest war.

Army Gen. Austin Scott Miller testified during the classified hearing Tuesday afternoon that he had advised against withdrawing all U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, the top Republican on the committee. Inhofe told reporters that Miller delivered his recommendations to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Army Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Marine Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, his direct supervisor and commander of U.S. Central Command. Inhofes comments confirmed previous reports about Millers recommendations.

Miller never met directly with Biden to provide his advice, Inhofe said during a short news briefing held along with eight other Republican members of the committee. The senators declined to provide any other specifics from the session with Miller, citing its secretive nature. Instead, they took turns admonishing Biden and his administration for their handling of the Afghanistan pullout.

What weve seen in Afghanistan has been nothing short of a disaster, Inhofe said. Youve heard everybody say it over and over again. Were having a hard time finding words to properly describe it.

Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., attempted to make such a description, saying the withdrawal was chaotic. It was a blunder. It was disgraceful.

Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., placed the blame fully on Biden and his advisers, calling the Afghanistan pullout the worst foreign policy debacle in decades and decades.

Millers closed hearing was the first of several planned sessions that the Senate Armed Services Committee has scheduled to examine the Afghanistan withdrawal, committee officials announced last week. Austin, McKenzie and Milley are scheduled to appear before the committee in a public hearing on Sept. 28. They are expected to face tough questioning from Democrats and Republicans.

Miller commanded U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan from September 2018 until he turned over responsibility for U.S. operations to his boss, McKenzie in July, about seven weeks before all American troops left the country. He was not in Afghanistan when the Taliban launched a lightning offensive that allowed the group by Aug. 15 to take control of the vast majority of the country, including its capital Kabul.

Despite leading the last leg of Americas longest war, Miller  a longtime veteran of secretive special operations units  never briefed reporters at the Pentagon nor appeared publicly for an oversight hearing on Capitol Hill during his tenure. John Kirby, the Pentagons top spokesman, said Monday that Senate Armed Services Committee officials had asked for the classified briefing. Inhofe said Tuesday that a public hearing with Miller had not been scheduled.

Miller was previously said to have disagreed with Bidens decision in April to pull all U.S. troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11. Biden was adamant about ending the almost 20-year war and eventually moved his deadline for American troops to leave Afghanistan up to Aug. 31.

As American forces drew down, the Taliban began its offensive in August to retake dozens of districts across the country. In many regions, it did so with little resistance, as the U.S.-trained Afghan security forces largely surrendered. On Aug. 15, the Taliban took control of Kabul as U.S.-backed President Ashraf Ghani fled his country.

With American troops confined to Kabuls international airport, the U.S. led a roughly two-week effort to evacuate Americans, foreign nationals from partner countries and U.S.-allied and at-risk Afghans from the Taliban-controlled country. But, the exit was chaotic, as Afghans flocked by the thousands to the airports heavily guarded gates.

On Aug. 26, a suicide bomber from the Islamic State groups Afghan affiliate blew himself up outside a gate, killing 13 American service members, wounding nearly two dozen more, and killing and maiming hundreds in the crowd of people hoping to enter the airfield.

Biden and his administration have defended their handling of the withdrawal, even as some Americans and Afghan partners were left behind after Aug. 31. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday told senators that the evacuation was an extraordinary effort under the most difficult conditions imaginable.

Our diplomats, our military, our intelligence professionals  worked around the clock to get American citizens, Afghans who have helped U.S. citizens and our allies and partners, and at-risk Afghans onto planes out of the country, off to the United States or to other locations, Blinken told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. In the end, we completed one of the biggest airlifts in history, with 124,000 people evacuated to safety.

Republicans were not the only senators on Tuesday critical of the withdrawal. During the hearing with Blinken, Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., called the effort clearly and fatally flawed.

I supported the decision to eventually withdraw our military from Afghanistan, said Menendez, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. I have long maintained, however, that how the United States left mattered. Doing the right thing in the wrong way can end up being the wrong thing.

Corey Dickstein
A towering crane straddles remains of the shipwrecked cargo vessel Golden Ray in the waters off St. Simons Island, Ga., on Sunday, Sept. 5, 2021. The South Korean freighter overturned on Sept. 8, 2019, shortly after leaving the Port of Brunswick. (Terry Dickson/The Brunswick News via AP)

SAVANNAH, Ga.  A top officer's errors in calculating the stability of a cargo ship loaded with nearly 4,200 automobiles likely caused the giant vessel to overturn along the Georgia coast, U.S. investigators said in a report Tuesday.

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board issued a 57-page report on the capsizing of the South Korean freighter Golden Ray, which is still being removed in pieces from the water off St. Simons Island two years later.

The ship's crew was rescued safely following the wreck on Sept. 8, 2019. But the ship, measuring 656 feet, was deemed a total loss as was its cargo of new automobiles. The NTSB reported the combined losses totaled more than $204 million.

The NTSB reiterated a Coast Guard expert's findings from a public hearing last year that the Golden Ray didn't have enough water in its ballast tanks, used to add weight at the bottom of a vessel, to offset that of the vehicles in its cargo decks above. That left the ship's center of gravity too high.

The Golden Ray's instability caused it to lean sharply during a starboard turn soon after the ship left the Port of Brunswick, about 70 miles south of Savannah. A pilot's door that had been left open on a lower deck allowed seawater to flood the ship, the NTSB report said, cutting off the escape route for some crew members who later had to be rescued from the engine room.

Investigators concluded the unstable loading likely resulted from errors by the ship's chief officer, who reported directly to the captain. The report said the chief officer wasn't properly trained to use the ship's computer that uses loading data to calculate its stability.

"The chief officer made errors with the ballast tank level data entry into the shipboard stability calculation computer," the NTSB report said, "which led to his incorrect determination of the vessel's stability."

As a result, the Golden Ray left the Port of Brunswick lacking 1,492 metric tons of ballast that it would have needed to meet international safety standards for stability, the report said.

The NTSB said G-Marine Service Co., the ship's operator and a subsidiary of South Korea-based shipping company Hyundai Glovis, has increased training for its officers on calculating ship stability since the Golden Ray capsized.

Demolition of the Golden Ray began in November, with crews using a towering crane to straddle the shipwreck. The crane's winch and pulley system was attached to 400 feet of anchor chain used to tear through the ship's hull like a dull sawblade.

That method was used to carve the shipwreck into eight giant chunks. The work was slow and sometimes messy. A large fire engulfed the vessel's remains in May as workers used torches to cut into the hull. And oil gushed from the wreck in late July, fouling roughly 2.5 miles of beach and marsh grasses.

Roughly half of the wreck has been transported by barge to a scrapyard in Louisiana. Though the heavy lifting is ending, the remaining cleanup work is expected to take months. Cutaway sections of the ship docked in Georgia must be broken down further before they can be carried away by barge.

Meanwhile, mangled cars and other debris that fell from the wreck as it was being cut apart must be fished from the water before a large mesh containment barrier surrounding the site can be removed.

The NTSB investigates highway, railroad, aircraft and maritime crashes, but it has no regulatory authority.
Afghan refugees are seated as they are being processed inside Hangar 5 at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2021. (Olivier Douliery/Pool via AP) (Olivier Douliery)

RICHMOND, Va.  Six people who recently traveled to the United States after fleeing the Taliban in Afghanistan have been diagnosed with measles, officials said Tuesday.

The cases in Virginia and Wisconsin are being reported four days after the U.S. halted in-bound flights of Afghan evacuees following the discovery of a few cases of measles among new arrivals.

The Virginia Department of Health initially said Friday that three people who arrived from Afghanistan had been diagnosed with the measles in northern Virginia. The agency said it was informing people who risked possible exposure at places that included Dulles International Airport and two local hospitals.

The agency updated its count of measles cases to five in a news release Tuesday. Health officials said they were working to notify people potentially exposed at an unidentified Richmond hospital as well as Fort Pickett, an Army National Guard base southwest of Richmond that is providing temporary housing to recently arrived evacuees.

Virginia is reporting its measles cases in the wake of the U.S. government halting U.S.-bound flights of Afghan evacuees Friday. The decision was made by U.S. Customs and Border Protection on the recommendation of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

One case was confirmed Sept. 5 at Fort McCoy, an Army base in western Wisconsin that is temporarily housing 8,000 people as they prepare to settle throughout the country.

Cheryl Phillips, a spokeswoman for a task force overseeing the refugees at Fort McCoy, said one person showed symptoms Sept. 4 after arriving at the base earlier that day.

The person was placed in isolation and others who were potentially exposed were quarantined and given measles vaccinations, Phillips said.

Measles is a highly contagious disease that can be spread through coughing, sneezing and contact with droplets from the nose, mouth or throat. Most Americans are vaccinated against it as children.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the halt stemmed from the discovery of measles among four Afghans who had arrived in the United States.

The development had American officials overseas Friday removing from planes Afghan families who already had struggled through a grueling, dangerous escape to safety after Kabul fell to the Taliban on Aug. 15. Afghans faced Taliban checkpoints and crushing crowds to enter the Kabul airport. A suicide attack at an airport gate killed 169 Afghans and 13 U.S. military members.

A government document viewed by The Associated Press said the halt would "severely impact" operations at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, one of the biggest transit sites. It also said U.S.-bound flights would stop from the U.S. al-Udeid base in Qatar.

Many thousands of Afghan evacuees airlifted out of Kabul are still en route to new homes in the United States. Some face relocation for further screening in Kosovo.
President Joe Biden, listens from the East Room of the White House in Washington, on Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021, as he is joined virtually by Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, not seen, as he speaks about a national security initiative. (Andrew Harnik/AP)

WASHINGTON  President Joe Biden announced Wednesday that the United States is forming a new Indo-Pacific security alliance with Britain and Australia that will allow for greater sharing of defense capabilities  including helping equip Australia with nuclear-powered submarines. Its a move that could deepen a growing chasm in U.S.-China relations.

Biden made the announcement alongside British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who joined him by video to unveil the new alliance, which will be called AUKUS (pronounced AWK-us). The three announced they would quickly turn their attention to developing nuclear-powered submarines for Australia.

We all recognize the imperative of ensuring peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific over the long term, said Biden, who said the new alliance reflects a broader trend of key European partners playing a role in the Indo-Pacific. We need to be able to address both the current strategic environment in the region and how it may evolve.

None of the leaders mentioned China in their remarks. But the new security alliance is likely to be seen as a provocative move by Beijing, which has repeatedly lashed out at Biden as hes sought to refocus U.S. foreign policy on the Pacific in the early going of his presidency.

Before the announcement, a senior administration official sought to play down the idea that the alliance was meant to serve as a deterrent against China in the region. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to preview the announcement, said the alliances creation was not aimed at any one country, and is about a larger effort to sustain engagement and deterrence in the Indo-Pacific by the three nations.

Johnson said the alliance would allow the three English-speaking maritime democracies to strengthen their bonds and sharpen their focus on an increasingly complicated part of the world.

We will have a new opportunity to reinforce Britains place at the leading edge of science and technology, strengthening our national expertise, and perhaps most significant, the U.K., Australia and the U.S. will be joined even more closely together,  Johnson said.

The three countries have agreed to share information in areas including artificial intelligence, cyber and underwater defense capabilities.

But plans to support Australia acquiring nuclear-powered submarines are certain to catch Beijings attention. To date, the only country that the United States has shared nuclear propulsion technology with is Britain. Morrison said Australia is not seeking to develop a nuclear weapons program and information sharing would be limited to helping it develop a submarine fleet.

The Australian prime minister said plans for the nuclear-powered submarines would be developed over the next 18 months and the vessels would be built in Adelaide, Australia.

Australia had announced in 2016 that French company DCNS had beat out bidders from Japan and Germany to build the next generation of submarines in Australias largest-ever defense contract.

Top French officials made clear they were unhappy with the deal, which undercuts the DCNS deal.

The American choice to exclude a European ally and partner such as France from a structuring partnership with Australia, at a time when we are facing unprecedented challenges in the Indo-Pacific region, whether in terms of our values or in terms of respect for multilateralism based on the rule of law, shows a lack of coherence that France can only note and regret, French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and defense minister Florence Parly said in a joint statement.

Morrison said the three countries had always seen through a similar lens, but, as the world becomes more complex, to meet these new challenges, to help deliver the security and stability our region needs, we must now take our partnership to a new level.

Matt Pottinger, who served as deputy national security adviser in the Trump administration, said that equipping Australia with nuclear-powered submarines was a significant step that would help the U.S. and its allies on the military and diplomatic fronts.

Underwater warfare capabilities have been Beijings Achilles heel, Pottinger said. A nuclear-powered submarine fleet would allow Australia to conduct longer patrols, giving the new alliance a stronger presence in the region.

When you have a strong military, it provides a backdrop of deterrence that gives countries the confidence to resist bullying, said Pottinger, who is now a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. Part of the problem right now is that Beijing has gotten rather arrogant and its been less willing to engage productively in diplomacy.

The announcement of the new security alliance comes as the U.S.-China relationship has deteriorated. Beijing has taken exception to Biden administration officials repeatedly calling out China over human rights abuses in Xianjing province, the crackdown on democracy activists in Hong Kong, and cybersecurity breaches originating from China, as well as Beijings handling of the coronavirus pandemic and what the White House has labeled as coercive and unfair trade practices.

Even as White House officials have repeatedly spoken out about China, administration officials say they want to work with Beijing on areas of common interest, including curbing the pandemic and climate change.

Biden spoke by phone with Chinas President Xi Jinping last week amid growing frustration on the American side that high-level engagement between the two leaders top advisers has been largely unfruitful.

After the 90-minute phone call, official Xinhua News Agency reported that Xi expressed concerns that U.S. government policy toward China has caused serious difficulties in relations.

Asked Tuesday about media reports that Xi had declined to commit to meet with him in person, the U.S. president said it was untrue. Biden did not speak in specific terms about the new AUKUS alliance during last weeks call with the Chinese leader, according to the senior administration official.

The U.S. and Australia, along with India and Japan, are members of a strategic dialogue known as the Quad. Biden is set to host fellow Quad leaders at the White House next week.

Biden has sought to rally allies to speak with a more unified voice on China and has tried to send the message that he would take a radically different approach to China than former President Donald Trump, who placed trade and economic issues above all else in the U.S.-China relationship.

In June, at Bidens urging, Group of Seven nations called on China to respect human rights in Hong Kong and Xinjiang province and to permit a full probe into the origins of COVID-19. While the allies broadly agreed to work toward competing against China, there was less unity on how adversarial a public position the group should take.
A UH-72 Lakota helicopter conducts training for rescue missions in Hammond, La. (National Guard)

The day after Hurricane Ida made landfall was hazy and windy and far from ideal flying conditions, said Chief Warrant Officer 3 Gabriel Ruiz. But he knew he and his crew had to get their UH-72 Lakota helicopter in the air to begin looking for people in need of help.

The crew flew across southeast Louisiana for the day, but only conducted one rescue in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida  a couple stranded at a marina.

The only way we can tell its a marina is because of the awnings and the boat slip. Aside from that, you couldnt tell what was ground or water because everything was flooded, said Ruiz, an instructor pilot with the Louisiana National Guard based out of Hammond, La. His crew is part of the Guards Detachment 1, D Company, 2nd Battalion, 151st Aviation Regiment.

Hurricane Ida made landfall on Aug. 29 as a Category 4 storm at Port Fourchon, about 100 miles south of New Orleans. While there was flooding across the state, the majority of damage came from winds that reached up to 150 mph in some locations.

The Louisiana Guard called on all troops available  those who were not already serving overseas or other domestic missions and not part of the first-responder community  to deploy in support of recovery efforts, said Maj. Gen. Lee W. Hopkins, the Louisiana Guards assistant adjutant general.

They staged about 5,000 troops prior to Idas arrival.

The crew of a UH-72 Lakota helicopter assigned to the Louisiana National Guards 2nd Batalltion, 151st Aviation Regiment fly around southeast Louisiana near Grand Isle to look for people in need of rescue following Hurricane Ida, which made landfall Aug. 29. They rescued two people stranded near Lafitte. (National Guard)

We took the pre-storm time to get all of our trucks loaded, we got our convoys lined up, and we were fully prepared prior to the storm coming in and we hunkered down. Once the storm passed, we immediately pushed those convoys out, he said.

More than two weeks later, the state still has more than 5,000 Guard members activated for recovery efforts. Another 2,500 Guard members from 14 states also remain on duty alongside about 400 active-duty troops.

During the initial days after the storm, the state focused on search and rescue efforts. In total, the Louisiana National Guard rescued 397 people and 65 pets, with the majority of rescues conducted by high-water vehicles and boats.

On the day Ruiz, his co-pilot and the two other crew members searched for stranded people, another aircraft alerted them that a man and woman were stuck north of Grand Isle, on the porch of a small building.

The stranded woman was wearing a bright green shirt, which allowed the crew of the medevac helicopter to spot the couple, Ruiz said. The winds were so strong, he said they had to abort the rescue twice before successfully lowering the medic down to help the couple.

It was nerve wracking just because the winds were so strong and it was so gusty, Ruiz said about how he and the co-pilot fought with the helicopters controls to remain steady.

After getting the woman onto the roof, then secured and hoisted into the aircraft, they flew back to Hammond Northshore Regional Airport and dropped her off.

This lady, when I turned around, she was praying hard, Ruiz said.

They returned to rescue the man. The crew got him onboard and learned he had a pet with him  a bearded dragon lizard in a little box.

In the flooding of 2016, Ruiz said he rescued all breeds of dogs, but this was his first lizard.

For somebody who has already been through a very bad experience, it just doesnt end there. Now the rescue itself might be a pretty unique experience, because we're going to put you on the seat, youll be raised up. You have probably never flown, he said.

The crew of a UH-72 Lakota helicopter assigned to the Louisiana National Guards 2nd Batalltion, 151st Aviation Regiment fly throughout southeast Louisiana near Grand Isle to look for people in need of rescue following Hurricane Ida, which made landfall Aug. 29. They rescued two people stranded near Lafitte. (National Guard)

This week, the Louisiana Guard staged support further west as the state braced for another bout of heavy rains and possible flooding from Tropical Storm Nicholas. The storm made landfall in southeast Texas on Monday as a Category 1 storm and downgraded along its slow path into Louisiana, where residents remain under flood risk.

Weve been doing this for a while, so weve gotten quite used to it, Lt. Col. Chris Spurlock, commander of the Louisiana Guards 527th Engineer Battalion, said of planning and conducting storm recovery missions. Once we get those initial assessments, whether its flooding, high-water rescue operations, lily pad operations, whatever the need is for the [Louisiana National Guard], were here to support.

As of Wednesday afternoon, the Guard had not received any rescue missions as a result of Nicholas, but the storm has left more residents in the dark. Nearly 50,000 Louisiana residents remain without power from Hurricane Ida and another 17,000 lost power from Nicholas, according to Entergy, the states electricity provider.

Hopkins said he anticipated the Guard to remain activated for storm recovery until power is restored. Entergy said it could take until Sept. 29 in some areas.

Once power and water return to most communities, the Guard can scale down its food and supply distribution, Hopkins said.

This could go as long, with a smaller force, of another month or two months, he said.

In the last two weeks, Guard troops have assessed 3,900 miles of road with about 2,358 miles cleared, according the Louisiana National Guard. Theyve cleared 31,339 cubic yards of debris in 162 municipalities.

Other troops have worked security missions in 14 parishes and deployed trucks and trailers filled with food and water. Within the first week, more than 1.8 million meals were distributed.

But storm recovery isnt the only mission for the Louisiana Guard. Throughout the storms, troops have continued to support 27 coronavirus testing sites, 17 vaccination sites and seven open food banks.

Rose Thayer
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby speaks during a news briefing at the Pentagon on Monday, Sept. 13, 2021. (Susan Walsh/AP)

U.S. Central Command has launched a formal inquiry into the Aug. 29 drone strike in Kabul that military leaders said destroyed a car loaded with explosives and driven by an Islamic State terrorist, the Pentagons top spokesman said Wednesday.

CENTCOM recently opened a high-level 15-6 command investigation and a civilian casualty assessment into that strike, said John Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman. The probes come amid allegations the strike in the waning days of U.S. involvement in the Afghanistan war actually killed a local worker for a U.S.-based aid company and up to 10 nearby civilians, according to The New York Times.

They will take into account all the available intelligence reporting, they'll take into account video footage, subject matter expert analysis, interviews and, quite frankly, they'll also factor in subsequent media reporting, Kirby told reporters at the Pentagon.

He said it was unlikely investigators would be able to travel to Kabul for the investigation.

The Reaper drone strike was the last known airstrike launched by American forces in Afghanistan before the final U.S. troops pulled out of Kabul just before midnight Aug. 31. Defense officials in announcing the strike Aug. 29 said it had disrupted an imminent suicide attack against Hamid Karzai International Airport. The U.S. military used the Kabul airfield to lead an about two-week effort to evacuate Americans and their allies, including Afghans, from the country after the Taliban takeover Aug. 15.

The drone strike came just days after a suicide bomber with ISIS-K -- Afghanistans ISIS affiliate -- blew himself up just outside the airport, killing 13 American service members, wounding nearly two dozen more and killing and maiming hundreds of Afghans crowded around the airfields gates. U.S. officials at that time were on high alert about the potential for another terrorist attack on the airport and warned publicly such an assault was likely imminent.

A CENTCOM statement just after the strike claimed it caused secondary explosions, indicating explosives were inside. It later acknowledged as many as 10 civilians might have been accidentally killed in the attack and promised an investigation. Nonetheless, Army Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on Sept. 1 called the incident a righteous strike that prevented further attack.

But a New York Times investigation of the drone strike, which included video analysis and interviews with local Afghans near the strike site, cast doubt on the Pentagon assessment. The Times investigation published Friday said talks with neighbors and relatives showed the vehicles driver was not an ISIS affiliate, but instead a 43-year-old man who had worked since 2006 for the California-based aid organization, Nutrition and Education International.

Kirby said Monday that the Pentagon still believed the strike stopped a terrorist attack. He declined to comment further on Wednesday about the investigation or intelligence that led to the drone strike.

He said he could not answer specific questions about what led U.S. military officials to conduct the strike on the vehicle it hit.

I can't speak to that at this time, Kirby said. I'm going to let CENTCOM complete their work and then let them speak to what they find as a result of that. I think that's the best course right now.
Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, speaks during an observance ceremony at the Pentagon in Washington, Saturday, Sept. 11, 2021. Milley's spokesman said in a written statement released on Wednesday, Sept. 15, that Milley acted within his authourity when he made phone calls to his Chinese counterpart in the final months of Donald Trumps presidency. (Alex Brandon/AP)

WASHINGTON  The top U.S. military officer on Wednesday defended the phone calls he made to his Chinese counterpart in the turbulent final months of Donald Trump's presidency, saying the conversations were intended to convey "reassurance" to the Chinese military and were in line with his responsibilities as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Some in Congress accused Gen. Mark Milley of having overstepped his authority and urged President Joe Biden to fire him, but Biden indicated Wednesday he stands behind Milley.

"I have great confidence in Gen. Milley," Biden said when asked by a reporter whether Milley had done the right thing.

In a written statement, Milley's spokesman, Col. Dave Butler, said Milley acted within his authority as the most senior uniformed adviser to the president and to the secretary of defense.

"His calls with the Chinese and others in October and January were in keeping with these duties and responsibilities conveying reassurance in order to maintain strategic stability," Butler said. "All calls from the chairman to his counterparts, including those reported, are staffed, coordinated and communicated with the Department of Defense and the interagency."

The Milley phone calls were described in excerpts from the forthcoming book "Peril" by Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa. The book says Milley told Gen. Li Zuocheng of the People's Liberation Army that he would warn his counterpart in the event of a U.S. attack.

Milley was appointed chairman of the Joint Chiefs in 2019 by Trump and kept on by Biden. In that position Milley does not command any troops but rather is an adviser to the president and to the secretary of defense. John Kirby, spokesman for Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, said Austin has "complete and utter trust and confidence in Gen. Milley."

The book by Woodward and Costa reported that Milley, fearful of Trump's actions in his final weeks as president, twice called his Chinese counterpart to assure him that the United States was not going to attack China. One call took place on Oct. 30, 2020, four days before the election that Trump lost. The second call was on Jan. 8, 2021, less than two weeks before Biden's inauguration and just two days after the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by supporters of Trump.

The Associated Press obtained a copy of the book. Details from the book, which is set to be released next week, were first reported by The Washington Post on Tuesday.

"General Li, I want to assure you that the American government is stable and everything is going to be okay," Milley told him in the first call, according to the book. "We are not going to attack or conduct any kinetic operations against you."

"If we're going to attack, I'm going to call you ahead of time. It's not going to be a surprise," Milley reportedly said.

In his statement Wednesday, Milley's spokesman did not directly address this aspect of the call but said Milley regularly communicates with his counterparts across the globe, including in China and Russia, to reduce tensions, provide clarity and avoid "unintended consequences or conflict."

Milley spoke with a number of other military leaders around the world after the Jan. 6 riot, including from the United Kingdom, Russia and Pakistan. A readout of those calls in January referred to "several" other counterparts that he spoke to with similar messages of reassurance that the U.S. government was strong and in control.

The second call was meant to placate Chinese fears about the events of Jan. 6. But the book reports that Li wasn't as easily assuaged, even after Milley promised him: "We are 100 percent steady. Everything's fine. But democracy can be sloppy sometimes."

On Tuesday, Trump said Milley should be tried for treason if it was true that he had promised Li that he would warn him in the event of a U.S. attack. In a follow-up statement Wednesday, Trump called Milley "a complete nutjob" and said he "never told me about calls being made to China."

"He put our Country in a very dangerous position but President Xi knows better, and would've called me," Trump added.

Milley believed the president suffered a mental decline after the election, agreeing with a view shared by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in a phone call they had Jan. 8, according to officials. Milley also asked senior officers to swear an "oath" that Milley had to be involved if Trump gave an order to launch nuclear weapons, according to the book.

In the statement Wednesday, Milley's spokesman said Milley had conferred with the senior officers about nuclear weapons protocols "to remind uniformed leaders in the Pentagon of the long-established and robust procedures in light of media reporting on the subject." Butler, the spokesman, appeared to be referring to news reports of the Jan. 8 Milley-Pelosi phone call. Butler did not address whether Milley had insisted he be part of the nuclear weapons procedures.

Pelosi had previously said she spoke to Milley that day about "available precautions" to prevent Trump from initiating military action or ordering a nuclear launch, and she told colleagues she was given unspecified assurances that there were longstanding safeguards in place.

Milley, according to the book, called the admiral overseeing the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, the military unit responsible for Asia and the Pacific region, and recommended postponing upcoming military exercises.

It's not clear what, if any, military exercises were actually postponed. But defense officials said it is more likely that the military postponed a planned operation, such as a freedom of navigation transit by a U.S. Navy ship in the Pacific region. The defense officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.

In response to the book, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., sent Biden a letter Tuesday urging him to fire Milley, saying the general worked to "actively undermine the sitting Commander in Chief."

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, called the report "deeply concerning," telling reporters at the Capitol, "I think the first step is for General Milley to answer the question as to what exactly he said."

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said he had no concerns that Milley might have exceeded his authority, telling reporters that Democratic lawmakers "were circumspect in our language but many of us made it clear that we were counting on him to avoid the disaster which we knew could happen at any moment."

Associated Press writers Hillel Italie in New York and Lisa Mascaro and Lolita C. Baldor contributed to this report.
Personnel at Camp Lemonnier's post office prepare for the holiday rush of mail Dec. 12, 2019. A temporary increase to U.S. Postal Service shipping rates from Oct. 3, 2021, to Dec. 26, 2021, for the peak holiday period, will affect service members and others outside the U.S. who have military or diplomatic mailing addresses. (Marquis Whitehead/U.S. Navy)

Service members overseas will have to pay more to mail packages to the U.S. starting next month when the U.S. Postal Service hikes rates for the peak end-of-year holiday period, a USPS spokeswoman said.

The price increases, which go into effect on Oct. 3 and run through Dec. 26, will affect all domestic U.S. mail, including anything sent to military or diplomatic postal addresses overseas, spokeswoman Kim Frum told Stars and Stripes in an email Tuesday.

The temporary price increase means anyone who ships packages using the USPS flat-rate priority mail service will have to pay 75 cents more for the white box the goods are mailed in.

Packages sent from Germany or Djibouti in East Africa to Colorado by non-flat-rate priority mail will cost between 75 cents and $5 more for shipping, depending on the weight of the package. The same parcel service between Camp Humphreys in Korea and Ohio will cost between 25 cents and $2.50 more, according to information on the USPS website.

The postal service calculates shipping rates using a system of zones. The zone for a package sent from Germany to Colorado is not the same as for one sent in the other direction, but the shipping price appears to be, according to a calculation done by Stars and Stripes using information on the USPS website.

Rates for shipping via priority mail cubic, which is based on a parcel's dimensions rather than its weight, and first class package service will increase by between 25 and 75 cents for all zones.

The Pirate Ship mailing service, which ships through the USPS but gives individuals and small businesses a discounted commercial rate usually reserved for organizations that mail at least 500,000 items a year, said it will be launching a new service on Oct. 3 to offset the temporary USPS price rises.

Prices are not going up for mail sent to recipients outside the U.S. who dont have military or diplomatic postal addresses, Frum said.

All parcels sent from military addresses overseas still require a customs form to be completed online.

U.S. Army Europe said in a brief statement that it was aware of the looming price increases and planned to communicate the changes to the Army community.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., has pledged to hold up all of President Joe Bidens nominations to the State Department and the Pentagon unless the top official at both departments resign in the wake of the chaotic U.S. exit from Afghanistan.

Hawley called on Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan to take responsibility for the administrations Afghanistan policy, which involved a disorderly evacuation from Kabul last month and the deaths of 13 American service members, including a Marine from Missouri.

Instead of planning for the worst, they planned for the best, Hawley said Tuesday. And now, there must be accountability.

Hawleys legislative threat to block the nominations is mostly symbolic and comes as he attempts to position himself as a leading critic of the White House. Because Democrats control the Senate, Hawley can effectively only delay Bidens nominations, but his move will force Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., to go through procedural hurdles on the Senate floor, rather than move quickly with a pro forma vote that is more common for nominees to lower-profile posts.

Hawleys efforts would undermine U.S. national security and its interests, Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told CNN.

There is no chance that the threat will work in forcing the secretaries to resign, said Eric Schickler, a politics professor at the University of California, Berkeley. But Republicans have [made] Democrats choose between staffing the executive branch and spending time on legislation.

Hawley, who is seen as a potential contender for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, has backed President Donald Trumps false claims of fraud in the 2020 election and objected against certifying Bidens win on Jan. 6 - the same day a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol. In a statement on Wednesday, he accused Democrats of playing politics.

A fellow Republican senator, Ted Cruz of Texas, has recently held up dozens of State Department nominations. In June, Hawley unsuccessfully attempted to block the confirmation of Kiran Ahuja to lead the federal personnel agency, citing her past emphasis on the concept of systemic racism known as critical race theory that has become a lightning rod for conservatives.

Because Republicans have already been putting holds on Bidens nominees, the added impact of Hawleys promise could be minimal, Schickler said. But the cumulative impact of the repeated Republican holds sucks up precious legislative time, he added.

Although there is overwhelming support for Bidens decision to end the Afghan war, some Republicans are hoping to keep the pullout in the headlines. Americans disapprove, by a 2-1 margin, of how the evacuation was carried out, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Blinken faced tough questioning about Afghanistan in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday, with Republican lawmakers accusing him of failing to heed intelligence signs, misleading the public about what to expect as American troops were leaving Afghanistan and contributing to the failure of the long U.S. mission there.
The 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Regiment (Facebook)

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (Tribune News Service)  At Oakwood Cemetery in Syracuse, 10 Black soldiers who fought in the Civil War have laid at rest in unmarked graves for almost a century. Now, a group of local historians are finding ways to honor those veterans.

Next Saturday, Sept. 25, a public ceremony will pay tribute to those 10 soldiers. The event will pay special attention to one veteran in particular, James Jameson, who served in the famous 54th Massachusetts Regiment, one of the first units of Black soldiers raised to fight for the Union.

The regiments story was depicted in the 1989 Academy Award-winning film Glory, starring Morgan Freeman, Denzel Washington, and Matthew Broderick. Its final scene showed the regiments heroic, but doomed, charge at Fort Wagner, S.C., near Charleston, on July 18, 1863. Nearly half the soldiers were killed, wounded, or went missing in the attack.

Their courage and bravery proved to Northern politicians and generals that Black soldiers could fight and more should be enlisted.

James Jameson served in Company H of that regiment.

He was born near the old train station at Vanderbilt Square on East Washington Street in Syracuse in 1837.

His father, Jim, was a porter, his mother a cook. His parents died when he was young and he and his sister, Henrietta, would be adopted by a family named Leonard.

At the age of 11, Jameson ran away and learned the barber trade, returning to Syracuse five years later to open his own shop.

On Jan. 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation, which stated that Black men would be accepted into the Army and Navy.

Jameson learned that Massachusetts Governor John Andrew, an ardent abolitionist, urged the formation of a Black regiment.

Jameson heard his plea and travelled to Readville, Mass., to join. He enlisted on April 29, 1863.

His military record said he was five-foot, four-inches tall, had brown eyes, black hair, and a light complexion. He received a $50 bounty for joining.

In a months time, the 54th set sail for South Carolina.

Following the attack at Fort Wagner, the regiment fought battles in South Carolina and Florida.

Jameson survived the war and was discharged on Aug. 20, 1865.

He returned to Syracuse and started up his barber shop again, cutting hair in the city continuously for 61 years, taking just two years off to serve in the 54th.

In an Aug. 9, 1916, Post-Standard article, Jameson, who had just turned 80 years old, was declared to be the Oldest Barber in Syracuse. The story only carried a passing reference to his service in what would become one of the most famous Civil War regiments in American history.

In the years before his death in 1924, Jameson took an active role in how he would be remembered.

He asked the Root Post, the Grand Army of the Republic, to take charge of his funeral and to be laid to rest with an American flag as a shroud.

On June 13, 1907, Jameson presented a photograph of himself, and a 12-foot wooden chain carved by another soldier to Commander James W. Armstrong at a G.A.R. meeting when he made his request.

It did seem pathetic, one veteran told the Syracuse Herald of the incident. But the old man showed a feeling of loyalty to his country that made us all feel proud of him, and when he passes away, we shall see to it that he is buried with all the honors due a deceased comrade.

In 1924, James Jameson was buried at Oakwood Cemetery, but without a headstone.

The reason why soldiers did not receive a marker varies case by case.

In most instances, it would fall on the family left behind to ensure a soldier had a marker for their grave.

For Jameson, the executor of his estate was the undertaker, which proves that he had no family to act on his wishes or provide him with a proper marker.

Almost 100 years later, the Historic Oakwood Cemetery Preservation Association has stepped in to fix that.

Sue Greenhagen and David Haas of the organization have been looking for ways to bring the historic cemetery and the local community closer together.

What can we do to invite people in? Haas said the group asked. How can we let people know the history of the cemetery?

A part of the effort was starting a Black History Trail at the cemetery, which included 10 Black Civil War soldiers buried there with a proper headstone.

Beginning in January, and starting with James Jameson, Greenhagen began looking into how to acquire a stone.

It was a frustrating process. They received little help from Veterans Affairs. Then Haas had an idea.

In 2019, he started a social media campaign from his Instagram account @SyracuseHistory to raise funds for a headstone for Syracuse soldier Thomas Butler, who died while fighting the forces of Pancho Villa in 1916.

The money was raised in less than two hours. If it worked for Butler, it would also work for James Jameson.

We can fund this ourselves, Haas said. We can sell t-shirts and if we have extra money, we can do more soldiers.

Word spread and they sold 250 shirts.

It shows people want to do something, Haas said. It felt good.

In the meantime, the VA came through and sent four markers for Black soldiers buried at Oakwood.

Haas says they will use some of the funds raised for the ceremony on Sept. 25. and to install the stone.

The National and Black National anthems will be performed by Dashe Roberts, a representative from the Syracuse mayors office will speak, Sue Greenhagen will tell the story of James Jameson, activist Nitch Jones will speak, and there will be a gun salute and wreath ceremony.

The ceremony will be the start of what Haas calls a continuous project to provide headstones for the nine other Black soldiers, and 80 total Civil War soldiers in Oakwood.

This will take a long time, Haas said.

2021 Advance Local Media LLC.

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(Tribune News Service)  Riverside County in California has paid $11 million to a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and former Temecula man who spent 20 years in prison for the murder of his girlfriend before he was exonerated by DNA evidence in 2018.

Attorneys for Horace Roberts, now 63 and living in South Carolina, signed a settlement agreement with the county on May 25 to end a federal lawsuit filed by Roberts on Sept. 28, 2020. The county treasurer cut a check to Roberts and his attorneys on July 6.

The settlement did not cover Roberts' attorneys' fees or any liens associated with the lawsuit.

Attorneys for Roberts declined to comment, and Roberts could not be reached for comment. Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Roberts alleged in his lawsuit that Riverside County sheriff's investigators framed him for the April 14, 1998, murder of his 32-year-old girlfriend and co-worker, Terry Cheek, by suppressing evidence from prosecutors and falsifying police reports. And they essentially ignored all the evidence that pointed to the real killers.

Prior to his arrest and his life being upended, Roberts was a 40-year-old father of two and working in a supervisory capacity at Quest Diagnostics in San Juan Capistrano, where he was employed for a decade and where he met Cheek. Roberts also served 8 1/2 years in the Marine Corps and was honorably discharged in 1987, according to his lawsuit.

DNA evidence obtained by the California Innocence Project helped link Cheek's estranged husband, Googie Harris Sr., his son, Googie Jr., and Joaquin Leal, Cheek's nephew by marriage, to her murder.

Declared factually innocent

Roberts was released from Avenal State Prison on Oct. 3, 2018, after a Riverside County Superior Court judge declared him factually innocent. Harris Sr. and Leal were subsequently arrested and charged with Cheek's murder. Harris Jr. was arrested and charged more than a year later, in December 2019.

California Innocence Project attorneys said Harris Sr.'s jealousy over Roberts' involvement with his estranged wife was the motive behind the killing. They said the three suspects fabricated evidence to frame Roberts, and even went so far as to attend parole hearings demanding Roberts stay locked up.

But according to Roberts' lawsuit, that is only half the story. While the California Innocence Project maintained that Roberts' conviction was not due to police or prosecutor misconduct, Roberts' lawsuit alleged that the murder investigation was tainted by falsified police reports and suppressed evidence pointing to the real killers. No physical evidence found at the crime scene linked Roberts to Cheek's murder.

Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin said in 2018 that evidence against Roberts at the time of Cheek's murder included the location of Roberts' truck, found abandoned on Interstate 15 about a mile-and-a-half from where Cheek's body was dumped; Cheek's purse, found at Roberts' home; and Roberts not being truthful with the police about his whereabouts.

Evidence allegedly suppressed

The lawsuit said Cheek had left her purse at the Temecula home she shared with Roberts, but sheriff's investigators wrote a false report saying members of Cheek's family told them she had her purse with her the night she was last seen alive  witness statements that never existed.

"Throughout their investigation, defendants suppressed the physical, eyewitness, and documentary evidence they obtained implicating Harris Sr. and his family members from state prosecutors, plaintiff, and his criminal defense attorneys. In so doing, the defendants let the real killers run free and instead focused on framing an innocent man," according to the lawsuit.

Cheek left her home for work the night of April 14, 1998, and was never seen alive again. Four days later, on April 18, her body was found by three fishermen, dumped on a rocky embankment at Corona Lake, off Temescal Canyon Road. A length of black-and-orange rope and a men's Lorus wristwatch was found near her body. She had been strangled.

The black-and-orange rope found at the crime scene was the same kind of rope used by Harris Sr. for a dog run at his home, said an attorney for Roberts.

Tire tracks found near Cheek's body that arced back to Temescal Canyon Road did not match those of Roberts' truck, which Roberts had been letting Cheek drive, according to the lawsuit.

Multiple witnesses, according to the lawsuit, told investigators that the wristwatch found at the crime scene did not belong to Roberts. Investigators, however, noted in a report that Roberts' wrist was the exact same size as the Lorus watch owner.

DNA lifted from the watch matched Harris Jr., leading to his 2019 arrest. The technology for such DNA testing was not available at the time of the killing, and when the California Innocence Project brought its findings to Hestrin, he reopened the murder investigation, ultimately leading to Roberts' exoneration and the arrest of the three suspects.

Investigators, according to the lawsuit, also had evidence from multiple witnesses that Cheek was in a volatile relationship with Harris Sr., and court records showed that Harris Sr. was abusive, threatening and had surveilled Cheek on several occasions.

During an October 2018 press conference, Hestrin called Roberts' conviction and imprisonment a "tragedy" and offered a public apology.

Harris Sr. and Leal will next appear in Riverside Superior Court on Oct. 22 for a pretrial hearing. Under a plea agreement with prosecutors, Harris Jr. pleaded guilty on Feb. 7, 2020, to accessory to murder after the fact and will be sentenced on Feb. 15, 2022, said John Hall, spokesman for the Riverside County District Attorney's Office.

(c)2021 the San Bernardino County Sun (San Bernardino, Calif.)

Visit the San Bernardino County Sun (San Bernardino, Calif.) at www.sbsun.com

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(Wikicommons)
A Russian court has decided not to hear a request from Paul Whelan, a U.S. Marine veteran in prison on espionage charges, to be transferred to the United States. (Facebook/Free Paul Whelan)

A top Russian court declined to hear a U.S. Marine veteran's petition to be turned over to his home country to serve the remainder of his prison term for an espionage conviction.

The Supreme Court for Russias Mordovia region referred the case of Paul Whelan back to the Justice Ministry for consideration, according to a statement issued Tuesday.

The court simply washed its hands of this, stood aside and refused to make a decision, Vladimir Zherebenkov, one of Whelans attorneys, told the Russian news agency RIA Novosti.

Whelan was charged in December 2018 with espionage. After being convicted, he was sentenced to 16 years in prison in May 2020. Whelan's family has repeatedly said that he was in Moscow to attend a wedding and was set up by a person he had befriended.

The U.S. has criticized Moscows handling of the case, which it says is based on trumped-up charges.

The Russian Justice Ministry said Tuesday that it has not yet received a petition from Whelan, his attorneys or U.S. authorities, according to the Russian outlet MK.ru. Nor has it received a copy of the courts decision.

The ministry said a review of the case could start once a formal request is made.

Whelan, who worked as a security director for a U.S. auto parts company, has denied being a spy.

news@stripes.com
Vietnam Veteran Jerry Mooney talks about his cruise books and how they "represent my life in Vietnam from 1966 through 1975 with the exception of 1970-1973 when I was back in the U.S." Mooney was stationed at Kirtland Air Force Base from 1970-1973. (Nicole Maxwell, Alamogordo Daily/TNS)

ALAMOGORDO, N.M. (Tribune News Service)  Alamogordo resident Jerry Mooney, a U.S. Navy veteran who served in Vietnam, said meeting a Holloman Air Force Base psychiatrist in an unofficial manner helped him reconcile the experience.

Mooney was stationed in Vietnam between 1966 and 1975. In 1965, he was assigned to the Airborne Early Warning Squadron on the west coast of Vietnam. The Squadron operated out of what is now Tan Son Nhat International Airport.

"I was an E-6. I had been in training command as an instructor for three years or so," Mooney said. "I was assigned a small detachment with four aircraft and we were initially assigned to the USS Hornet. We had the honor and pleasure of recovering the first Apollo (unmanned) spaceship."

In 1966, Mooney was re-assigned to the USS Bon Homme Richard, where he was named chief petty officer.

"I was the maintenance chief of the detachment responsible for four early warning aircraft," Mooney said. "They were the early, early warning aircraft that preceded all of the beautiful things that are in the sky now that have tremendous reach. We were the initial ones."

Some of the equipment Mooney and his detachment used back then were radar, Sony tape recorders and "as many radios as I could cram into an airplane so we could stay in constant communication with more than one airplane," Mooney said.

This detachment was the first to launch and the last to recover airplanes on the aircraft carrier. Mooney and the detachment were stationed at Yankee Station off the Pacific Ocean off the coast of North Vietnam and north of the Vietnamese demilitarization zone, or DMZ. The DMZ was a strip of land separating North Vietnam from South Vietnam. It was considered to be demilitarized, Mooney said.

The USS Bon Homme Richard had a record for shooting down and destroying more MiG aircraft during its six- or seven-month deployment than all the MiG aircraft that had been destroyed prior to Mooney's detachment's deployment there, Mooney said.

"We essentially ended the air war in North Vietnam," Mooney said. "We did it with F-8 Crusaders, A-7 (Corsairs) and predominately (Douglas) A-4 (Skyhawks).

"Our ships came in to port and our families were there but as we sailed into San Francisco as we passed under the Golden Gate Bridge, there were people on the bridge who were throwing buckets of blood on the flight deck," Mooney said.

Mooney said his return home was difficult. In 1969, he moved to Florida to go to school. The next year Mooney was stationed at Kirtland Air Force Base where he considered taking courses at the University of New Mexico.

"I was told I couldn't wear my uniform on campus," Mooney said. "The Vietnam veteran was not honored."

Mooney, like many other, sought help to reintegrate into U.S. society with the help of organizations such as Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) or the American Legion.

"I went to a couple of meetings of the VFW and other than seeing guys sit around a bar and drink, I have nothing against drinking, I drank then, but I thought, this isn't the answer, I'm not getting my answers I need here," Mooney said.

Ten years later, Mooney was stationed at Holloman Air Force Base, where he met hospital administrator and psychiatrist Lt. Col. John Rennabahm.

"He became a good friend," Mooney said. "We never met officially because there was a stigma that gets attached to a military record if you have to talk to a psychiatrist. They say it isn't there. John did something that was really great: he made it informal."

Mooney said he and three others  all prisoners of war  formed a therapy group.

"He talked to us about experiences and he let us talk about our experiences without being judgmental," Mooney said. "While we all had different levels of experience, we could all relate to each other and it wasn't sympathy, but we empathized with each other."

He said that empathy should be extended to veterans of all wars including those who served in Afghanistan. Mooney said he sees "similarities" between veterans of the Vietnam War and veterans who served in the Middle East.

"The veterans that came back from Vietnam were ignored, criticized and quite often just poorly treated by not only the (U.S. Veterans Administration), but they were poorly treated by their neighbors," Mooney said. "The ones who were wounded, had limbs blown off and things like that. They wanted them hid. They didn't even want to see 'em."

Wounded Warrior program offers resources

Resources are available for veterans through the Air Force Wounded Warrior Program at Holloman Air Force Base.

Michelle Colburn is the Recovery Care Coordinator for the Air Force Wounded Warrior Program where she helps facilitate, monitor and ensure access to care and resources for seriously or very seriously wounded, ill and inured Airmen and their families or caregivers.

"My goal is to ensure that those servicemembers and their families have support and resources they need to be prepared for the future," Colburn said.

The Air Force Wounded Warrior program offers support programs such as the In-Transition Program, Military OneSource, the Real Warriors Campaign and more.

To qualify for the Air Force Wounded Warrior Program you must be:

 Very seriously, or seriously wounded, ill, or injured on the Casualty Morning Report or by a Department of Defense medical authority.

 Airmen with highly complex medical conditions that are service related or were sustained in the line of duty and confirmed by a DOD medical authority (examples: tick-borne illnesses, cancer, invisible wounds [PTSD/TBI], chemical exposure, etc.). Final approval authority is AFPC/DPFW.

 Airmen diagnosed with service-related or in the line of duty PTSD, TBI, or MST, verified by DOD medical authority and are under consideration or referral for MEB.

 Purple Heart recipients.

 Air Reserve Components (ARC) who were retained for more than 6 months on Title 10 medical orders or returned to Title 10 orders for deployment-related conditions.

For more information about the Air Force Wounded Warrior Program call (800) 581-9437 or visit the Air Force Wounded Warrior website at www.woundedwarrior.af.mil.

nmaxwell@alamogordonews.com

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Pfc. Royal L. Waltz, 20, of Cambria was accounted for in May 2019 but the announcement was delayed until after a recent briefing of relatives. (Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency)

HANFORD, Calif. (Tribune News Service)  A Hanford man initially marked as "missing" and later "killed in action" in World War II is set to return home to a hero's burial this month.

Pfc. Royal Lawrence Waltz was killed on the opening day of the Battle of Tarawa, on Nov. 20, 1943. His remains were recovered by the non-profit group History Flight in 2019 and subsequently identified through DNA testing utilizing the DNA of his niece, Patricia Verheul.

Waltz was born in Hanford on Feb. 8, 1923, and attended Hanford High School until his family moved to Cambria, where he enlisted.

He is survived by his nephews, Peter John Hanse, David Royal Hanse, Donald Waltz Hanse all of Hanford, his niece Carolyn Waltz Taylor of Fort Collins, Colorado and niece Patricia Hanse Verheul of Scotts Valley, Calif., plus numerous nieces and great nieces. His other nephew, Vernon Waltz, is deceased.

A funeral service has been planned the morning of Sep. 27 by his nieces and nephews at First Methodist Church of Hanford. He will then be escorted with full military honors to Grangeville Cemetery to be laid to rest near his mother, siblings and other family.

(c)2021 The Hanford Sentinel, Calif.

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There are 14 new community cases of Covid-19 today, reported by the Ministry of Health.

There are three historical cases which are in managed isolation. More than 62,000 vaccines were administered in NZ yesterday.

Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins and Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield are providing an update on the current Covid-19 outbreak and the vaccine rollout.

Tune into the livestream above.

Cases Number of new community cases 14 Number of new cases identified at the border 3 historical cases Location of new cases Auckland Location of community cases (total) Auckland 966 (441 of whom have recovered); Wellington 17 (15 of whom have recovered) Number of community cases (total) 983 (in current community outbreak) Cases infectious in the community Three (19%) of yesterdays 15 cases have exposure events Cases in isolation throughout the period they were infectious 13 (81%) of yesterdays 15 cases Cases epidemiologically linked 14 of todays cases Cases to be epidemiologically linked 0 of todays cases Cases epidemiologically linked (total) 947 (in current cluster) (8 in past 14 days unlinked) Number of sub-clusters Nine epidemiologically linked subclusters. The three largest subclusters are the Mangere church group: 381; and Birkdale social network cluster: 77; secondary community transmission associated with the Mangere church group 164.

And nine epidemiologically unlinked subclusters. Cases in hospital 20 (total): North Shore (3); Middlemore (11); Auckland (6) Cases in ICU or HDU Four Confirmed cases (total) 3,981 since pandemic began Historical cases, since 1 Jan 2021 (total) 147 out of 1,807 since 1 Jan 2021 Contacts* Number of active contacts being managed (total): 970 Percentage who have received an outbound call from contact tracers (to confirm testing and isolation requirements) 95% Percentage with at least one test result 90% Locations of interest Locations of interest (total) 135 (as at 10am 11 September) Tests Number of tests (total) 3,173,328 Number of tests total (last 24 hours) 15,105 Tests in Auckland (last 24 hours) 10,150 Tests rolling average (last 7 days) 13,009 Testing centres in Auckland 23 Wastewater Wastewater detections One unexpected detection from Snells Beach (from 7 September, delay due to logistical issue), additional testing underway. COVID-19 vaccine update Vaccines administered to date (total) 4,444,065; 1st doses: 2,937,591; 2nd doses: 1,506,474 Vaccines administered yesterday (total) 62,155; 1st doses: 39,437; 2nd doses: 22,718 Maori 1st doses: 274,022; 2nd doses: 131,725 Pacific Peoples 1st doses: 177,483; 2nd doses: 90,957 NZ COVID-19 tracer Registered users (total) 3,218,225 Poster scans (total) 358,863,106 Manual diary entries (total) 16,294,101 Poster scans in 24 hours to midday yesterday 2,338,860



* There are now 996 contacts under active management. This is a change from reporting total contacts across the whole outbreak. The number of contacts under active management has fallen considerably over the past two weeks, as the majority of the contacts had exposures more than 18 days ago and have been closed.



Historical cases identified at the border

Arrival date From Via Positive test day/reason Managed isolation/quarantine location 8 September India Serbia & Montenegro Day 0 / routine Christchurch 8 September India Serbia & Montenegro Day 3 / routine Christchurch 9 September USA Direct flight Day 0 / routine Christchurch



Testing reminder

Thank you to everyone in Auckland who has come forward to be tested, says a Ministry of Health spokesperson.



We saw an increase in testing in Auckland yesterday  with 10,341 swabs taken yesterday, up from 7,057 the day before.



We are continuing to remind people across Auckland to get tested if you have symptoms, or if you have no symptoms but are invited to be tested, especially if you live in and around Mt Eden, Massey, Favona, Otara, Papatoetoe, Mangere and Manurewa.
Please - not another study.

That's the call from coastal shipping proponents who say money allocated by the Transport Agency needs to go on getting another ship up and running immediately.

Thirty million dollars over three years has been set aside for domestic shipping, but exactly what that would be spent on and when, remained unclear.

Maritime Union national secretary Craig Harrison has long called for the return of domestic-flagged vessels, running routes up and down the coast.

"So we know there is one company in particular that is quite interested, there could be another, but we know they're actively looking at it and, if they had the support, they could do it.

"And they're talking just a matter of weeks or months to bring another vessel onto the coast."

He says the support required would be a law change, to prevent international ships being able to carry domestic freight loads.

Steve Chapman, the former head of Pacifica Shipping which is the firm running New Zealand's only coastal ship, says that was because for years, international companies had undercut any chance of local coastal shippers having a fair go.

"They've got empty space, say, going Auckland to Tauranga through to Lyttleton and they'll cut a spot rate that a dedicated coastal operator, in all probability, could not compete with."

However, he says that's changing.

"That ability of theirs to take cargo and take up some of the strain on the domestic supply chain is dissipated because they can get more money, more revenue, on other routes.

"I'm afraid to say the New Zealand trade lane pales in insignificance compared to the two big trade lanes out of Asia... and the New Zealand public are paying for it."

Harrison also says international lines would probably prefer only one or two ports of call and it would make it easier to manage the Covid-19 virus.

"Rather than going around multiple ports, picking up a few containers here and there, I'm sure some of these shipping companies would be quite happy to, for instance, go to a particular port pick up all their cargo and then leave.

"And also, the impact of Covid-19, you know clearing vessels, have they got Covid yes or no... so there's an element of protecting New Zealand as well if we can limit the amount of time these ships are hopping around the ports, then that's another factor that should be considered."

He's encouraged by the investment confirmation from Waka Kotahi, and hopes it would result in action and not just more talk.

"It will unlock the potential of our regional ports and also help the major issue of moving containers out of Auckland into the regions where they're needed for exports.

"So there's a win-win for everyone, we just need to get on with it ... for $30 million we just hope it's not another study."

Both agree coastal shipping would not seek to replace road or rail, and would have to work in unison with the other transport modes.

"Traditionally, it's been the two legged stool ... road and rail and coastal shipping forever been ignored. Coastal shipping needs now to come and play its part but it needs central government policy settings to allow it to do so," says Chapman.

He says $30m was a good start, but would like to see further investment over the coming years.

"Five to 10 years ago, $30m would have bought you a brand new build in the 1100-1500 TEU mark. However, the effect of Covid-19 has seen charter rates and the new building of ships overseas just go skyrocketing so $30m wouldn't get you as much as it would have, maybe even just two years ago."

Previous studies have highlighted the benefits an effective coastal shipping route would have for resilience and when it comes to cutting transport emissions.

Foreign-flagged ships currently carry about 80 percent of New Zealand's total coastal container freight task.

-RNZ/Emma Hatton.
Click the image above to view slideshow

In the less-than-luxurious surroundings of a Defence Force Hercules, and in the face of some ugly weather, police reinforcements from around the country flew in to support the mahi on Auckland's southern boundary.

The chartered C-130 Hercules left Whenuapai, Auckland, on Friday morning and flew to Dunedin, picking up staff there, at Christchurch and Woodbourne Military Camp, Blenheim, as it headed back north.

A scheduled stop at Wellington was called off because of the weather, meaning district and Royal New Zealand Police College staff were bussed to join the flight at Ohakea airbase for the final hop to Hamilton.

The flight and the 32 reinforcements arrived in Hamilton on Friday afternoon to support enforcement efforts at the Waikato/Tamaki Makaurau checkpoints.

Staff from Bay of Plenty and Central Districts have already been helping at the border, taking the total of out-of-district staff to 45.

Fridays arrivals were welcomed to Hamilton by Waikato District Commander Superintendent Bruce Bird.

Its the right thing to do, he says. It was great to see them arrive. I know the current staff working on the borders appreciate the ability to take some time off, now theres extra staff to take over.

These staff are the first of three rotations into Waikato to provide relief for checkpoint staff and ensure Level 4 enforcement of Tamaki Makauraus southern boundary continues safely.

They are accommodated in Alert Level 2 Waikato and work on the Alert Level 2 side of the boundary.

Were grateful to these officers from around the country for aiding us during a very busy time for the Upper North districts, says Bruce.

Our colleagues in Tamaki Makaurau have a big job ahead, with Alert Level 4 enforcement still a big focus for them as well as the checkpoints which are playing a major role as part of the reassurance we provide to communities on both sides of the boundary.

Waiting to board the Hercules, Constable Analupe Halaleva, from Road Policing in Dunedin, and Senior Constable Karren Bye, from Mosgiel, were both appreciating the chance to help.

Were looking forward to giving other districts a hand when they need it most  looks like they have been working some long hours in tough winter conditions, says Karren.

Analupe agrees. I like the fact that we are giving some hard-working colleagues a chance to have a break.

Senior Constable Kyle Abbott, from Tasman District, had a birthday to remember as he worked his first shift on the boundary. This is something Police do; we help each other out  where and when we are needed, he says.

Constables Summer Pritchard and Sarah Stichbury, from Whanganui, and Jake Bone, from Marton, loving the weather at the Orams Road checkpoint.

It might be called Operation Romeo, but the work is anything but romantic.

Police staff - including Central Districts relievers - working on Friday night at Orams Road on the Waikato-Counties border had to contend with some wild weather including a mini tornado which knocked over nearly every road cone for at least 2km along the motorway.

Standing them up again took a long time but thankfully Police staff had help from NZDF personnel working at the checkpoint.

Shortly after this, some unruly farm animals tested the shepherding ability of the staff there, with around 40 cattle trying to decamp from a paddock on to Mercer Ferry Road.

Police staff managed to herd them on to Orams Road and the cattle were corralled back to their own property by Police and NZDF staff and the farmer.

According to witnesses, without our people present it could have been a scene of udder chaos.

-Police Ten One Magazine.
Produced by Micah, a Tauranga-based filmmaker, it was co-directed by him and Andrei Talili.

Produced by Micah, a Tauranga-based filmmaker, it was co-directed by him and Andrei Talili.

Taiao explores how and why we use Aotearoas natural environment the way we do, presenting a snapshot of the times we live in without spoken word. The documentary has a G rating.

Taiao explores how and why we use Aotearoas natural environment the way we do, presenting a snapshot of the times we live in without spoken word. The documentary has a G rating.

Although there is no spoken word, the documentary has been released online to coincide with Maori language Week.

The catalyst for Micah's film was finding himself stuck in an urban jungle in Chicago during last years pandemic.

I was definitely craving to be back in nature, says Micah.

Its a very different place there compared to New Zealand.

He was studying towards his second degree - a Bachelor in Fine Arts in Film Making, graduating in May soon after the pandemic started.

I stayed in Chicago the whole time, returning to New Zealand as soon as the managed isolation facilities started popping up towards the end of October, he says.

I spent that time in Christchurch. I could look outside and see all the greenery, but I could only experience it by watching nature documentaries and other non-verbal films.

So that prompted the desire to go out into nature and capture what I thought was really special about Tauranga.

His first degree was right out of Otumoetai College, at the NZ Broadcasting School in Christchurch.

It was a two-year degree, and we learned all the practicalities of making film and television. At the end of that degree we get an internship to finish off our studies.

Film producer and director Micah Winiata. Photo: John Borren.

He spent his internship on a television set in Auckland, graduating with a Bachelor in Broadcasting and Communications.

I was on Shortland Street as a third AD during 2017 and 2018, gaining experience.

Inspired by the global non-verbal films Baraka and Koyaanisqatsi, which allowed him to envision seeing New Zealand through a Maori lens, Micah says Taiao is a non-verbal documentary experience that explores how we, as a multicultural people, use New Zealands natural environment.

The film compares the wonders of our taiao, our nature, and the advent of man, says Micah. Communicating the consequences of our industries and our reckoning with colonisation non-verbally allows us to glimpse a sustainable, equitable future, while acknowledging an unsustainable present.

Underscoring the tone of Taiao is a whakatauki or proverb: Whatungarongaro te tangata, toitu te whenua  as people disappear from sight, the land remains.

When I was in managed isolation, I read one of my dads books - a little book of proverbs. A lot of those proverbs have this key sematic wisdom which relates to making films and making art. So I could really grab onto that idea when I was making the film.

Taiao was selected and commissioned through the Someday Stories Series Five, a sustainability-focused web series by New Zealands emerging filmmakers.

Micah had previously been a contestant in the junior Outlook for Someday film challenge.

They knew me already, he says. I had been on their radar for the last few years. I decided to apply, and I was really appreciative of seeing their alumni or graduates from the challenge come through the emerging filmmaker series.

He already has some serious film making behind him, directing and producing his first feature Faint of Heart in 2018. He was one of the Someday Challenge 2017 winners with his documentary Te Ara Whakamua at the age of 19. The documentary also won a NZ Film Commission Film-making Achievement Award.

For this latest film, I reconnected with some of my film alumni who I was really good friends with, says Micah. I signed everyone on to work with them again and reconnect our friendship after four years of not seeing each other.

Taiao is being released to the public online today Wednesday September 15 via Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Vimeo.

Please follow @kapongapictures @outlookforsomeday on social media for updates and anticipated Tauranga-based film screenings.

Taiao and the other short films in the Someday Stories Series 5 are supported by NZ On Air, Te Mangai Paho, the New Zealand Film Commission and Film Bay of Plenty.
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China's New Urban Maintenance And Construction Tax Law In Force

by Mary Swire, Tax-News.com, Hong Kong

15 September 2021

China's Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation have issued a statement announcing tax relief from the Urban Maintenance and Construction Tax.

A new law to govern the tax became effective from September 1, 2021.

The levy  a surcharge levied on top of VAT and excise duties on the domestic supply of goods  continues to feature rates of seven percent for suppliers based in cities, five percent for those based in towns, and one percent for other localities.

In Announcement No. 27 of 2021, released on August 24, 2021, Chinese authorities announced a number of concessions, including:
EU To Table A Digital Tax Proposal In October

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

15 September 2021

The European Commission has committed to tabling a proposal for a digital tax in October, whether or not an international agreement surfaces from OECD-led talks on new international tax rules for the world's largest firms.

The pledge was made after members of the European Parliament said the Commission had reneged on promises made in return for lawmakers' support for the EU Budget.

In December 2020, to secure support from EU lawmakers for its Multiannual Financial Framework for 2021-27, the Commission agreed a binding timetable for the proposal and implementation of new tax levies (new "own resources") to fund the EU.

Specifically, EU authorities committed to table proposals in June 2021 for three tax changes: expansion of the Emissions Trading Scheme, a carbon border adjustment mechanism, and a new digital levy. These would be introduced from 2023, it was proposed.

Following meetings with representatives from the US Government and following the release of the OECD's blueprint for reform of international tax rules, the EU earlier confirmed that it had shelved discussions on a new digital levy, to allow the Commission "to focus on ensuring support for the implementation of the framework outlined on July 1 by the OECD." The OECD has said it intends to finalize its work on developing its two-pillar plan by October.

According to a new statement released by the European Parliament, MEPs have expressed their displeasure at the decision, with some telling Commissioner for Budget Johannes Hahn that the Commission is "in breach of the 2020 Interinstitutional Agreement".

According to the EU Parliament statement, "a large majority of MEPs [on the Parliament's Committee on Budgets] found that the Commission is in breach of the Interinstitutional Agreement of December 2020, which contains a legally binding roadmap towards the introduction of new own resources, according to which the Commission must put forward, by June 2021, a proposal to introduce three new own resources: a carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM), a digital levy and an own resource based on a reviewed Emissions Trading System (ETS)."

The Chair of the Committee on Budgets Johan Van Overtveldt said: "Parliament was disappointed when the Commission failed to present legislative proposals for new Own Resources in the first half of the year. The digital levy in the meantime has been put on ice because of the OECD negotiations and under some not too subtle pressure from the United States." Budget MEPs said without new own resources there will not be sufficient funds to repay the borrowing for the new "NextGenerationEU" recovery plan, without increasing national contributions to the EU budget or, at worst, cutting future EU budgets.

According to the statement, in a debate with Members of Parliament's Committee on Budgets, the EU Commissioner for Budget Johannes Hahn said the Commission had put on hold its work on a new digital levy as a new Own Resource for the Union budget (and as a consequence delayed the package including two other new Own Resources) in the aftermath of a long-awaited agreement on OECD/G20 level on the reform of international taxation in July. Commissioner Hahn reportedly promised MEPs that "after the G20 meeting in October we will make a proposal no matter if there is an agreement or not." He confirmed that the whole package of three new Own Resources is needed in order to generate sufficient funds.
Unlocking Nature's Pharmacy: From local lore to laboratory

Armed with records detailing how to make a love potion from the roots of tormentil and tales of the broadleaf plantain given healing properties by St. Patrick himself, what can a group of Trinity researchers at the NatPro Centre learn about the therapeutic benefits of plants and herbs from the written records of school children growing up in 1930s Ireland?

When: Thursday, 23 September; 19:30 - 20:30 IST

The general public are aware of the threat to the worlds rainforests, the reduction of biodiversity and the potential disappearance of undiscovered medicines and natural molecules. This same threat to biodiversity applies in Ireland, particularly to our boglands and upland hill communities, which constitute an enormous natural national resource and heritage.

These ancient, rich and fertile landscapes are sole custodians of a varied and unique biodiversity that has accumulated over many millions of years, as species evolved in these distinct environments. Compellingly, a number of these plants have historic documented use in Irish Traditional Medicine for a variety of preventative and therapeutic indications.

Scientists from the NatPro Centre for Natural Products Research, based in the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, at Trinity College are working extensively on identifying the potential therapeutic uses of native bog plants across Ireland. Further, they are collaborating on a European Innovation Partnership (EIP) initiative with Teagasc and a group of hill farmers in the Comeragh mountain region of Co. Waterford. There is anecdotal and documented evidence that several plants native to the region have various preventative and therapeutic uses in traditional medicines.

Recent Irish research highlighted that bog plants might be a source of undiscovered medicines and natural molecules. The opportunity presents itself in the project, to apply modern scientific approaches to ancient traditions and transform the outcomes into future scientific practice by exploring the Comeragh Mountain plants' fertile uncharted territory.

Join Peter OConnell and Isa Woulfe for a talk about their research to celebrate European Researchers Night 2021.
Why it matters: Prices for rare earth metals have surged over the past twelve months. This development will likely impact the prices of electronics for end-users in the coming months. Meanwhile, the US and China have been pointing fingers at each other, with no diplomatic solution in sight.

Over the past year, we've seen a string of news about supply shortages for everything from capacitors, $1 display driver chips to the advanced silicon found in phones, tablets, PC components, and car infotainment and driver assistance systems. Even if the tech industry were somehow able to crank more of these components, they'd still have to deal with a shortage of shipping containers.

Nikkei Asia reports, the crisis is far from over. Manufacturers of electronic components are now facing a new challenge as prices for rare-earth metals have surged over the past year and are expected to rise even further in the coming months.

The primary reason for the price hike is the smoldering trade war between China and the US, which never seems to end. Now that's affecting shipments of some of the crucial ingredients needed to make all manner of electronic products.

The lithium used in batteries, nuclear energy, and spacecraft equipment has seen the most significant price increase150 percent compared to September 2020. The second-largest increase was observed for holmium, which has more than doubled over the past twelve months.

Holmium is used to make magnets and special alloys for sensors and actuators. Neodymium and praseodymium are also used to make strong magnets found in speakers, motors, wind turbines, and more. These two metals have also seen an increase in price of over 73 percent year-over-year.

Prices of copper, tin, aluminum, cobalt, copper, and terbium oxide have also seen increased costs from anywhere between 37 to 82 percent. Manufacturers use these in chip packaging, mounting, and connecting electronic components on printed circuit boards, mechanical parts, metal casings, and more.

For most people, the behind-the-scenes process of sourcing these materials and transforming them into electronic devices, electric cars, and other products has been invisible and uninteresting. Now that it threatens to increase the prices we'll pay for various electronic goods, the ugly complexities of the global supply chain are bubbling to the surface.

It certainly doesn't help that governments have decided to electrify everything and set aggressive green goals at a time when the electronics and automotive industries can barely keep up. Demand for everything is at an all-time high, and experts have conflicting views on when supply will catch up with it.

Year US production (metric tons) China production (metric tons) Rest of the World (metric tons) US share of global output China share of global output 1985 13,428 8,500 17,157 34% 21% 1990 22,713 16,480 20,917 38% 27% 1995 22,200 48,000 9,700 28% 60% 2000 5,000 73,000 5,500 6% 87% 2005 0 119,000 3,000 0% 98% 2010 0 120,000 11,000 0% 92% 2015 5,900 105,000 19,100 5% 81% 2020 38,000 140,000 62,000 16% 58%

Some believe that China is the culprit, as the country controls 55 percent of global production capacity and no less than 85 percent of the refining output for rare earth metals. In June, the Biden administration decried tighter export controls imposed by the Beijing government, calling them a "capricious enforcement of Chinese customs."

One of the proposed solutions to this problem is to build more US rare earth capacity and reduce the reliance on China for critical raw materials. Perhaps ironically, Chinese rare earth mining giant Shenghe Resources owns a minority stake in MP Minerals. This US company operates the recently re-opened Mountain Pass mine in Californiathe supposed buffer against fluctuating prices for rare earth materials coming out of China.

In trying to build more rare earth capacity, the US government has offered millions in grants for mining companies to expand their operations. However, most of the concentrates obtained through mining in the USsome 50,000 tonnes per yearstill have to be sent to China for final processing.

Meanwhile, several Chinese suppliers that have contracts with Apple, Amazon, Dell, Facebook, Logitech, and Sennheiser have seen their gross margins shrink below the industry average of 20 percent. So far, they've been able to absorb the shock, but soon enough, they'll have to pass the costs to their customers, which will translate into higher prices for everything with electronics and batteries in it.

As of writing, there is only one consumer-facing company that adjusted its prices. During an earnings call, Sonos said it would raise prices between $10 to $100 depending on the product starting this month. Whether or not this will turn into a trend, only time will tell.
Why it matters: Most people know Instagram can have a negative impact on mental health, especially for teenage girls with body image issues. Even Facebook knows this, as shown by internal research it has carried out over the last three years that it kept secret.

Leaked Facebook documents obtained by the Wall Street Journal show that the social network has spent the last few years examining the effects Instagram has on younger users' mental health. The company has long insisted that social media can positively impact users' state of mind, but its own research appears to contradict those statements.

"We make body image issues worse for one in three teen girls," reads a slide from one internal presentation in 2019. "Thirty-two per cent of teen girls said that when they felt bad about their bodies, Instagram made them feel worse," researchers said in another presentation from March 2020.

"Teens blame Instagram for increases in the rate of anxiety and depression. This reaction was unprompted and consistent across all groups."

The results of a study of teens who had suicidal thoughts found that 13% of British users and 6% of American users could trace their issues back to Instagram. Elsewhere, more than 40% of Instagram users who reported feeling "unattractive" said the feeling began on the app. About a quarter of the teens who reported feeling "not good enough" said the issues started on Instagram.

"Aspects of Instagram exacerbate each other to create a perfect storm," the researchers said.

Studies showing the detrimental effects Instagram has on younger people's mental health have been around for years, but Facebook has played down any link. In March, CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who was reportedly informed of the findings last year, said that social media was more likely to have a positive impact on mental wellbeing.

Defending plans to launch an Instagram for under 13s, Zuckerberg told a congressional committee "I believe the answer is 'yes,'" when asked if the company had researched the app's effect on children.

Senators in August asked Facebook to send its internal findings that showed the impact Instagram has on youth mental health. It sent a six-page letter that did not include any company research.

Facebook recently rolled out the ability to hide the Like count on its platform and Instagram after experimenting with the option for several years. It's hoped that the move will ease the pressure on those people, particularly younger users, who equate social media popularity with self-worth.

Instagram's head of public policy, Karina Newton, responded to the Wall Street Journal report in a blog post. Newton said the story "focuses on a limited set of findings and casts them in a negative light."

"We're exploring ways to prompt them to look at different topics if they're repeatedly looking at this type of content," Newton added. "We're cautiously optimistic that these nudges will help point people towards content that inspires and uplifts them, and to a larger extent, will shift the part of Instagram's culture that focuses on how people look."
In context: For years, when Apple revealed a new A-series chipset, it would call it "the fastest we've ever made" and proceed to compare it with its predecessor. Every new SoC would see incredible performance gains that would look good during keynotes and manifest through both benchmarks and a lot of satisfied iPhone users. This year, however, the equation has changed to "frankly, the competition is still playing catch up with our chips."

On the surface, the A15 Bionic in the new iPhones is an impressive bit of kit, with over 15 billion transistors etched using TSMC's 5 nm process node. The CPU configuration has remained largely the same as that inside the A14 chipset, with two new high-performance FireStorm CPU cores paired with four IceStorm energy-efficient cores. Apple didn't offer a performance comparison with the A14 and instead chose to highlight the fact that its new A15 chipset provides a 50 percent faster CPU performance when compared to the competition.

The new iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro are both powered by an A15 chipset, but they have a small yet important difference: the GPU in the iPhone 13 Pro has one extra core for a total of five cores and support for a variable refresh rate. That said, the iPhone 13 is no slouch either, with Apple claiming 30 percent faster graphics performancewhen compared to the competition. We're starting to see a pattern here.

Apple has kept the same Neural Engine with a 16-core configuration, but now it can squeeze more performance out of it15.8 trillion operations per second, to be precise. The company again avoided a comparison with the NPU in the A14, which is capable of 11 trillion operations per second in machine learning tasks.

Other details are not clear at this point. For example, Apple said it integrated new video encoding and decoding capabilities into the A15 design but didn't mention what those were, exactly. Many speculate that since the A14 already supports AV1 decoding, the A15 may well be able to accelerate AV1 encoding tasks.

Apple won't say, but future A-series chipsets will bring smaller improvements that no longer warrant a comparison with their predecessors. In the case of the M1 SoC, it made sense for the Cupertino giant to make performance claims against Intel processors in the same class. With the A15 Bionic, the company is now drawing comparisons to flagship chipsets from competitors like Qualcomm, Samsung, and MediaTek.

There are three reasons for this behavior. The first is that A14 and A15 chipsets have a large enough lead over the competition that Apple can easily make that a selling point instead of the usual "our fastest yet" claim. This is why the company's tune this year was, "frankly, the competition is still playing catch up to our chips. Not just from last year, but from two years ago."

The second reason is related to diminishing performance gains expected with upcoming process nodes. For reference, TSMC says its N4 node will offer a lot more logic density, but the overall improvements will be a balancing act between up to a 15 percent speed gain and up to a 30 percent gain in energy efficiency. That means the A16 Bionic will probably be a more modest upgrade over the A15 or even the A14 Bionic.

Finally, Apple has been dealing with an exodus of talent that may have delayed plans for a more significant architecture upgrade. The most notable is the departure of chip designer Gerard Williams, who left Apple to co-found Nuvia with two Apple veterans. He was followed by several Apple engineers, and earlier this year, his company was snapped by Qualcomm for $1.4 billion.

As you'd expect, Apple wasn't too happy about this development and dragged Williams into court for allegedly using the former's trade secrets to boost his new venture. But the company has other things to worry aboutits senior engineers keep leaving to form their own companies. As reported by Dylan Patel over at SemiAnalysis, some of them have joined a mysterious new startup called Rivos, which is working on a high-performance RISC-V CPU design, likely the first of its kind.

What this amounts to in the end is more competition in the custom silicon race, which is bound to gradually erode Apple's leadership in performance per watt. Things are about to get interesting, so watch this space.
In a nutshell: SpaceXs first all-civilian spaceflight is scheduled to launch this evening from Kennedy Space Centers Launch Complex 39A in Florida. The four civilians aboard the Dragon spacecraft will hitch a ride to space via a SpaceX Falcon 9 reusable rocket, and will spend three days in orbit before splashing down at one of several possible landing sites off the coast of Florida.

The flight is being chartered by billionaire Jared Isaacman, who earlier this year donated two of the four seats to St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. The hospital provides care to children and young adults battling cancer and other catastrophic diseases, free of charge.

St. Jude put one of the seats up as a prize in a sweepstakes, and awarded the other to a frontline worker at its hospital, 29-year-old Hayley Arceneaux. With the flight, the bone cancer survivor will become the youngest American in space.

The crew will launch into an orbit of about 575 kilometers - that's higher than any humans have gone since the Hubble servicing missions. For reference, the International Space Station is in an orbit of around 408 kilometers and Hubble itself sits at about 540 kilometers up.

During their time in orbit, the crew will go around Earth about 15 times per day. More importantly, they'll conduct scientific research that could help advance human health here on Earth and during future long-duration spaceflights.

The launch window is set to open at 8:02 p.m. Eastern and will remain open for five hours. SpaceXs webcast will start roughly four hours before launch and can be viewed over on YouTube. In the meantime, you can check out an hour-long question and answer session with the Inspiration4 crew above.
(Photo : Pexels/Pixabay) TikTok changes

TikTok announced that it would implement a new tactic that can help explain to its young users the negative effects of social media on one's mental health.

The new feature will be added to the platform's Safety Center under the name "Well-Being Guide." It will dive into several topics such as eating disorders, anxiety, depression, and more. There will also be expanded search interventions and viewing screens on searchers that can be triggering for users.

TikTok's Touch on Mental Health

The new well-being guide is developed in partnership with Crisis Text Line, International Association for Suicide Prevention, Samaritans of Singapore, Live For Tomorrow, and Samaritans UK, according to TechCrunch.

The guide will also encourage users to consider how it might impact them to share their stories and struggles about mental health on a platform where it may go viral.

TikTok wants users to share their experiences and interact with other users on the platform that are going through the same thing.

Also Read: 5 Ways Social Media Benefits a Person's Mental Health

The social media platform also added a short generic memo about the impact of eating disorders. It is under the topics section of the app's Safety Center.

The memo was developed together with the National Eating Disorder Association or NEDA, which collaborates with social media platforms to prohibit ads that promote unhealthy weight loss.

In the past, TikTok would direct users to several help hotlines when trigger words or phrases popped up. Now, the platform will share contents from other creators to help those who are in need.

Also, if a user searches a phrase or word that might be alarming, the content will be blurred out, and it will ask the user to opt-in to see the search results, according to NewsBreak.

The changes made by TikTok came after a 2019 study that shows that even three hours spent on a social media platform can already have negative effects on a person's mental health.

Social Media Platforms Make Changes

As TikTok unveiled its changes, its social media competitor Instagram received backlash after The Wall Street Journal unveiled documents from Facebook showing that it did its own research on the harm that Instagram poses for young girls.

Similar to TikTok, more than 40% of Instagram users are 22 years old or younger. In the United States alone, 22 million teenagers log in every day to the platform.

In the article by The Wall Street Journal, one 19-year-old user said that after searching for workout ideas, her explore page was filled with pictures on how to lose weight. Some posts even encouraged fasting.

The director for the eating disorders program at John Hopkins Hospital, Angela Guarda, said that her patients usually say that they learned about dangerous weight loss tips through social media.

As TikTok launches with its advice sharing feature, it shows that social media can also be a positive resource. It allows people who are dealing with issues to learn from others who went through the same experience.

Despite the influence of social media, it still boils down to users of the platform. Social media sites encourage people to think twice before they post as they don't know how to influence others.

Even after Facebook hid the number of likes on Instagram, employees stated that it did not improve the users' overall well-being, according to BBC.

Although the revelations about the negative effects of social media on mental health are nothing new, they create a renewed pressure for powerful platforms to look for ways to support their users.

Related Article: Effects of Social Media on Mental Health

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Sophie Webster

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
SpaceX's Inspiration4 mission is set to launch on September 15. Inspiration4 is the first all-civilian launch of the Elon Musk-owned space company.

The Inspiration4 crew will be launching from Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. They will free-fly around the planet for around three days before heading back down to Earth.

SpaceX Inspiration4 Launch: Where and How to Watch

SpaceX's Inspiration4 mission will be a historic one as it is an all-civilian flight and will not include any astronauts in its crew. If you want to witness such a historic event, you can watch the launch of the Inspiration 4 mission online.

According to a report by Space, SpaceX's YouTube channel will have a launch webcast on Wednesday, the launch date of the Inspiration4, at 3:45 p.m. EDT (7:45 p.m. GMT). Space will also provide a stream of the launch, which will be courtesy of SpaceX.

"The five-hour launch window at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida opens at 8:02 p.m. EDT (0002 GMT on Thursday, Sept. 16)," per the report by Space.

What You Need to Know About the Inspiration4 Launch

The all-civilian crew of SpaceX's Inspiration4 mission will board the Crew Dragon spacecraft that will be launched to space by the Falcon 9 rocket.

Included in the spaceflight are certain objects that will be used during the three-day free-fly around Earth. Among these items is a ukelele, a Fisher Apollo 11 50th Anniversary Space Pen, and an NFT of a performance by the band Kings of Leon.

Related Article: SpaceX's Inspiration4 to Fly NFTs, Ukulele, Time Magazine to Space and Auction it on Earth

The Inspiration4 mission will be launching from Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Inspiration4's All-Civilian Crew

The Inspiration4's all-civilian crew is composed of four members. Billionaire and Shift4 Payments founder Jared Issacman is one of the four crew members of the mission and is considered as the mission's commander.

According to a separate report by Space, "Isaacman didn't want just another billionaire spaceflight on the books, he wanted the mission to really mean something, so he led a campaign to raise money and awareness for childhood cancer research."

Because of that, the Inspiration4 mission has now become an effort to raise $200 million for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

St. Jude's has its own representative on the flight, and her name is Haley Arceneaux. She works as a physician's assistant in the hospital and is actually a childhood bone cancer survivor. She is the medical officer of the flight.

The third crew member of Inspiration4 is Sian Proctor, who is the mission's pilot. She works at South Mountain Community College in Arizona as a geosciences professor. The fourth crew member is Chris Sembroski, an Air Force veteran who won his seat after making a donation to St. Jude's and his sweepstakes entry was randomly chosen.

Also Read: SpaceX Inspiration4 Mission to Use iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch for Spaceflight Health Studies

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Isabella James

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Walmart has clarified that it is not accepting Litecoin as payment through its digital stores. The company has also said that a news release claiming that they are accepting Litecoin is fake.

The fake news release was reported on by different news sites and even posted on Globe Newswire as well as Litecoin's verified Twitter accounts. These have since been deleted.

Due to the fake Walmart news release, the price of Litecoin went up for a period of time before it fell back to its original price.

Walmart is not Accepting Litecoin as Payment

Walmart has issued a clarification that it is not accepting Litecoin as payment in any of its digital stores after a fake news release circulated online. The fake news release stated that the company will be accepting Litecoin on its ecommerce platforms beginning October 1.

According to a report by the BBC, the fake news release was reported on by a number of news sites and even posted on Globe Newswire, which is "a service widely used to distribute press material from companies."

Per the report, the verified Twitter account of Litecoin also posted a tweet linking to the fake news release. That tweet, as well as the post on Globe Newswire, have since been deleted.

The report also quoted a statement by Globe Newswire that said that a fake user account was used to create the news release that was eventually confirmed to be false.

Litecoin Foundation posted another tweet that reads, "The Litecoin Foundation has not entered into a partnership with Walmart."

While Walmart may not be accepting Litecoin as payment, the company may not be a stranger to cryptocurrencies. A Tech Times report from last year stated that rumors swirled around the internet that Walmart was releasing its own cryptocurrency called "WalmartCoin."

Litecoin Prices Go Up Over Fake News Release

Despite the news release claiming that Walmart will start accepting Litecoin, ending up being fake, prices of the cryptocurrency went up over it.

According to the BBC report, "the price of Litecoin jumped from about 125 per token to close to 170, before falling back near its original price, at about 128."

When converted to US Dollars, the price of Litecoin went from around $172 to $235 over the fake Walmart news release.

What is Litecoin?

Litecoin is one of the many cryptocurrency options available in the market.

On its official website, Litecoin defines itself as "a peer-to-peer Internet currency that enables instant, near-zero cost payments to anyone in the world." It is a decentralized global payment network that is open source.

Related Article: NFT vs Cryptocurrency: Are They the Same Thing?

The Litecoin blockchain, according to the website, "is capable of handling higher transaction volume than its counterpart - Bitcoin."

Wallet encryption is also an important aspect of Litecoin as it keeps your wallet and the coins in it secure.

Also Read: Is Coinbase a Sustainable Tech Enterprise in an Over-Inflated Market?

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Isabella James

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Apple got slapped with a fine for allegedly violating Singapore's strict pandemic rulings.

The company was fined $1,000 for purportedly holding a workplace event at a company store in Orchard Road, Singapore, which occurred last June 18, reports The Straits Times.

Over 50 members of the store's staff gathered at an event to celebrate the final day of another employee at the store, according to the Singapore Tourism Board (STB).

A social gathering of this size is strictly prohibited under the city state's pandemic regulations.

As per the COVID-19 Temporary Measures Control Order Regulations of 2020, any and all businesses who are permitted to operate aren't allowed to hold social events with their employees.

First-time offenders can expect fines of up to $10,000 should they get caught, a jail term of as much as 6 months, or even both.

Repeat offenders can be fined for up to $20,000, serve a 6-month jail sentence, or both. As for why Apple was only fined a minuscule $1,000, though, there's not much detail concerning it.

Singapore has largely reopened its financial and commercial districts since the first half of 2020, which might have led some people to believe that all is well within the state.

However, the government has been reporting rising COVID-19 cases yet again, which is forcing authorities to not rule out re-tightening restrictions, reports Bloomberg.

Read also: Apple Wants To Rely On Frequent COVID Tests for Employees As Vaccine Requirement Is Still Pending

Apple's Handling of the Pandemic So Far

Apple has strangely not been as enthusiastic about COVID-19 measures compared to its Big Tech counterparts, which has led its top brass to reconsider much of their plans concerning their workforce.

For instance, the tech giant has had to push back a return to office until January 2022, as per a memo sent back in August. This was mainly due to the increasing cases of the extremely transmissible Delta variant.

However, Apple store branches in select cities have notably reopened their doors to customers.

As such, Apple is now planning a work-from-home system for their employees for next month.

Initially, the company hoped to have their workforce return to their offices by September, with a few employees expected to report in person for at least three out of five days a week.

Apple CEO Tim Cook noted that the company still needed to have their workers talk to each other face-to-face, believing it remains essential to the company's goals. This is despite remote work proving effective for Apple as a whole.

Still, it's worth noting that Apple, unlike other tech companies such as Facebook, Google, and Microsoft, are still holding off on implementing vaccine mandates. Their three industry counterparts have already required proof of vaccination for their employees, with Google being the first major tech company to do so, reports NBC News.

In place of the vaccine mandates, Apple has previously said they'll rely on frequent COVID testing instead, with tests being administered as often as twice a week.

Related: Apple Asks Employees for 'Voluntary' Vaccination Status Report | No Mandate Given

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Written by RJ Pierce

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
NASA awarded rival firms SpaceX and Blue Origin contracts to develop the moon lander systems for upcoming Artemis missions.

The contracts that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA, gave out to five space companies are worth a total of $146 million.

NASA, SpaceX, and Blue Origin

It turns out that NASA has decided to award a separate lunar lander contract to two firms, Blue Origin and Dynetics, that previously opposed the decision of the space agency to exclusively award the Human Landing System or HLS project to SpaceX.

It is worth noting that the latest set of contracts is different from the HLS contract that was solely awarded to the space firm of Elon Musk, SpaceX, last April.

Both Blue Origin and Dynetics, which are part of the latest contracts, protested the NASA HLS contract.

But it was only Blue Origin, the space firm of the Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, that went on to bring NASA to the federal court due to the HLS contract, which is currently still ongoing.

Due to the lawsuit that Blue Origin filed, the lunar lander project between NASA and SpaceX has been delayed until November.

NASA Awards SpaceX, Blue Origin Moon Lander Contract

To be precise, the contract with Blue Origin is to the tune of $26.5 million, while Lockheed Martin was awarded a whopping $35.2 million.

Northrop Grumman was also granted a $34.8 million contract, according to Yahoo News.

Meanwhile, SpaceX got the lowest contract price of $9.4 million. On the other hand, Dynetics was able to grab the most expensive award of $35.2 million.

However, two of the companies that likewise submitted their proposals to NASA did not receive any contracts from the space agency's Artemis program, such as Cook & Chevalier Enterprises and Nebula Starlines.

As per TechCrunch, the contracts that NASA awarded are under its NextSTEP-2 or Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships.

The objective of the contracts awarded to five firms is to specifically "engage with potential commercial partners for concept studies, sustaining HLS concept of operations, development, and risk reduction activities."

As such, SpaceX, Blue Origin, and the other space exploration firms will work with NASA to develop the design concept of the lunar lander that will be used to land astronauts on the moon again after 50 years.

Not just that, the said firms will also look into the performance and safety factors of the moon lander.

Read Also: NASA GOES-U Mission: Elon Musk's SpaceX Wins Contract; Falcon Heavy Rocket to Fly in April 2024

NASA's Artemis 2020 Program

The Artemis program of the United States space agency is not limited to bringing humans back to the moon 50 years after the Apollo mission.

NASA also seeks to make a travel routine to the moon in the future under the program that was established in 2020. Not to mention that the space agency further plans to travel humans to other planets like Mars.

Related Article: NASA, SpaceX Mars Missions Should Only Last Less Than 4 Years: New Radiation Study Says Longer Stay Would Be Dangerous

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Written by Teejay Boris

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Event round-up: The Workplace For The Future  How Can Cloud Support The Changing Needs Of The Digital Workforce Beyond Covid-19?

How Can Cloud Support The Changing Needs Of The Digital Workforce Beyond Covid-19? Catch up on our panel event below

In September, techUKs Cloud Computing Programme joined forces with the Skills, talent and diversity programme to host the online event, The Workplace For The Future  How Can Cloud Support The Changing Needs Of The Digital Workforce Beyond Covid-19?

Speakers included:

Mark Shiel, Director  HR Transformation & Technology, PwC

Tom Boggis, Founding Partner, BBG Real Estate

Caroline Gladwin, Executive Solution Director, HCM, Oracle

Saurabh Sharma, Director and Head  Product Management  Digital Workplace Services, HCL Technologies

The event sought to answer three core questions:

What workplace changes are we expecting to see over the coming months in the UK, how much will this be shaped by COVID or accelerate long-term trends in the workforce? How can cloud support the digital workforce of the future that will need to have the skills to utilize and understand cloud for remote working. As we move towards a process of refinement of cloud services, what questions should businesses be asking their CSPs to make sure cloud suits their workforce?

This conversation focussed on those working in hybrid environments, but acknowledged that different models of hybrid working is shaped by business need and industry.

You can watch the presentation and speaker Q&A here:

Due to the number of questions send by attendees speakers kindly agreed to answer those that did not get answered in the session below:

How important do you think is investment in Smart Building technology to this fluid workplace such as leveraging occupancy and experience data from user return to work? is the investment worth it and is this expected to be an area of focus mid/long term?

Saurabh: Bringing employees back to work requires a collaborative approach into redesigning the physical office. Not only do employees need to get the vaccination and continue with COVID testing after any substantial travel, they need to be convinced their office cubicle is as safe as their home workspace. For that reason, investing in smart building technologies such as HCL SafeSense, a precision focused solution for cautious reopening becomes business critical. The solution has various specialized offerings for occupancy management, social distancing, Body temperature screening, contactless workplace, face mask detection among others to bring back essential employees back to work with safely and security. As we move ahead in the next normal, investing in such a solution will be a major focus for enterprise thinking of bring back employees. With these solution, the workplace will become more user-centric than ever before

Tom: It is worth looking at investing in Smart Building tech for several of key reasons. Being able to monitor people coming in and out of buildings and travelling around would inform efficiencies and help identify where pinch points are eg at lifts, WCs lobbies etc and could assist in routing traffic to combat Covid and flu etc spreading.

We are in also a climate crisis and one of the big downsides of buildings being partially empty is the wastage of energy in light, heating and cooling underused space and ensuing carbon emissions. Being able to monitor occupancy and control the services in a building accordingly will be very positive in reducing emissions. Greener buildings are also proving more popular with tenants and investors so there is a financial benefit to this too.

Reason for travel has changed for many roles - i.e. client meetings in Govt are now 99% virtual, does the team really think this is going to change is the longer term?

Caroline: I believe that most roles will settle into a combination of in person and virtual interactions. I think it is widely recognised that there is value early in a relationship to have a degree of face to face to build rapport, but that many meetings that were traditionally held face to face can effectively be run virtually. This improves productivity, reduces deadtime spent travelling and helps employees with their worklife balance. Face to face also helps with team dynamics, motivation and shared experiences so will always play an important role I believe.

Tom: Yes this will change in the longer term and for Government roles too, as certain Departments are encouraging staff to come back to the office. Whilst the WFH over the last 18 months has been successful, a lot of aspects of working have not. Tasks take longer, problem solving is less effective and many key interactions are lost. A lot of firms have survived on existing business/contacts but new business has suffered because people have not been meeting and discussing ideas. In addition, the less positive impact of WFH on training, cohesiveness, staff moral etc are well documented.

Saurabh: With offices slowly starting to open for select groups, organizations may not find it too hard to ask employees to take work trips in the near future. The eventual scale of the comeback of business travel isnt clear at the moment. For example, conferences and industry events going back to live and even hybrid formats soon. Competition and growth objectives along with the perception of face-to-face interactions value addition to our work is bound to eventually give business travel a boost. A long term change we see happening is the reevaluation of travel situations where they can be replaced by widely adopted tech platforms and/or are not deemed essential for the bottom line.

How have you found training employees in the use of cloud skills?

Caroline: Given that Oracle is a technology company, this has been less of a challenge for us, although strengthening our skills to sell virtually has been a business imperative. In companies that have a range of capabilities, I have seen really innovative uses of different techniques including short training videos, hands on sessions, colleague playback or show and tell type sessions  no one size fits all though so often its about managers working with their team and finding what works for each person

Saurabh: Adoption of new technologies by businesses and their workforces saw an unprecedented acceleration since the pandemic started. The peculiarities of the pandemic made the transition to cloud an imperative to achieve business continuity. However, both the employees and businesses have realized the benefits of virtual collaboration platforms and other cloud tools and technologies to efficiently manage task and improve productivity and performance. This uptrend has made training, upskilling and adoption quite imperative since employees can gauge their alignment of these skills with their individual and organizational goals, becoming digitally dexterous. Needless to say, cloud platforms and infrastructure are quickly becoming the foundation on which the future of work is being built.

Work-life integration has become key over the last 18 months. How is cloud supporting this?

Caroline: So much that this encompasses, danger is that technology allows work to impinge too much on life and you lose the balance, so it takes a degree of personal responsibility  but technology can also allow people a lot of flexibility  when to work, where to work, how to work and the ability to get help 24*7 through digital assistants that is equally available to all. So technology can be used to encourage equality and make everyone feel they have equal access to help, opportunities, learning and support.

Saurabh: Cloud technology has freed our workforces from the geographical constraints of a physical workplace. By establishing a constant access to your work regardless of your environment, workers have enjoyed the safety of their homes and have new experiences with the work from anywhere trend. Our workforces have had more time to spend with their loved ones, as well as manage their professional expectations with the cloud platforms supporting their organization. There are conversations around the work-life balance getting trickier with this change, however, that can be avoided by creating work policies around exceptions for working beyond hours and other performance indicators tailored to remote working.

If you are interested in learning more about techUKs Cloud Computing work, or get involved in future webinars, please do not hesitate to reach out.

Laura Foster Laura is techUKs Programme Manager for Technology and Innovation. She supports the application and expansion of emerging technologies across business, including Geospatial Data, Quantum Computing, AR/VR/XR and Edge technologies. Before joining techUK, Laura worked internationally in London, Singapore and across the United States as a conference researcher and producer covering enterprise adoption of emerging technologies. This included being part of the strategic team at London Tech Week. Laura has a degree in History (BA Hons) from Durham University, focussing on regional social history. Outside of work she loves reading, travelling and supporting rugby team St. Helens, where she is from. Email: [email protected] LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/lauraalicefoster Read lessmore

Sue Daley Sue leads techUK's Technology and Innovation work. This includes work programmes on cloud, data protection, data analytics, AI, digital ethics, Digital Identity and Internet of Things as well as emerging and transformative technologies and innovation policy. She has been recognised as one of the most influential people in UK tech by Computer Weekly's UKtech50 Longlist and in 2021 was inducted into the Computer Weekly Most Influential Women in UK Tech Hall of Fame. A key influencer in driving forward the data agenda in the UK Sue is co-chair of the UK government's National Data Strategy Forum. As well as being recognised in the UK's Big Data 100 and the Global Top 100 Data Visionaries for 2020 Sue has also been shortlisted for the Milton Keynes Women Leaders Awards and was a judge for the Loebner Prize in AI. In addition to being a regular industry speaker on issues including AI ethics, data protection and cyber security, Sue was recently a judge for the UK Tech 50 and is a regular judge of the annual UK Cloud Awards. Prior to joining techUK in January 2015 Sue was responsible for Symantec's Government Relations in the UK and Ireland. She has spoken at events including the UK-China Internet Forum in Beijing, UN IGF and European RSA on issues ranging from data usage and privacy, cloud computing and online child safety. Before joining Symantec, Sue was senior policy advisor at the Confederation of British Industry (CBI). Sue has an BA degree on History and American Studies from Leeds University and a Masters Degree on International Relations and Diplomacy from the University of Birmingham. Sue is a keen sportswoman and in 2016 achieved a lifelong ambition to swim the English Channel. Email: [email protected] Phone: 020 7331 2055 Twitter: @ChannelSwimSue Read lessmore

Zoe Brockbank Zoe is a Programme Assistant, supporting techUK's work across Policy, Technology and Innovation. The team makes the tech case to government and policymakers in Westminster, Whitehall, Brussels and across the UK on the most pressing issues affecting this sector and supports the Technology and Innovation team in the application and expansion of emerging technologies across business, including Geospatial Data, Quantum Computing, AR/VR/XR and Edge technologies. Before joining techUK, Zoe worked as a Business Development and Membership Coordinator at London First and prior to that Zoe worked in Partnerships at a number of Forex and CFD brokerage firms including Think Markets, ETX Capital and Central Markets. Zoe has a degree (BA Hons) from the University of Westminster and in her spare time, Zoe enjoys travelling, painting, keeping fit and socialising with friends. Email: [email protected] Phone: 020 7331 2174 Website: www.techuk.org,www.techuk.org,www.techuk.org,www.techuk.org Read lessmore

Nimmi Patel Nimmi Patel is the Policy Manager for Skills, Talent and Diversity at techUK. She works on all things skills policy, focusing on upskilling and retrain. She is committed to embedding diversity in the UK tech pipeline from classroom to boardroom working with partners such as the Tech Talent Charter and the WISE Campaign. Nimmi also leads techUKs immigration work, collaborating with techUK members and stakeholders to create an environment that attracts the best talent to the UK. Prior to joining the team, she worked for the UK Labour Party and New Zealand Labour Party and holds a BA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from the University of Manchester and is currently studying MA Strategic Communications at Kings College London. Email: [email protected] Phone: 07805744520 Twitter: @nimmiptl Website: www.techuk.org LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nimmi-patel-b0920214a/ Read lessmore

Antony Walker Antony Walker is deputy CEO of techUK, which he played a lead role in launching in November 2013. Antony is a member of the senior leadership team and has overall responsibility for techUKs policy work. Prior to his appointment in July 2012 Antony was chief executive of the Broadband Stakeholder Group (BSG), the UKs independent advisory group on broadband policy. Antony was closely involved in the development of broadband policy development in the UK since the BSG was established in 2001 and authored several major reports to government. He also led the development of the UKs world leading Open Internet Code of Practice that addresses the issue of net neutrality in the UK. Prior to setting up the BSG, Antony spent six years working in Brussels for the American Chamber of Commerce following and writing about telecoms issues and as a consultant working on EU social affairs and environmental issues. Antony is a graduate of Aberdeen University and KU Leuven and is also a Policy Fellow Alumni of the Centre for Science and Policy at Cambridge University. Email: [email protected] Phone: 07780603065 Twitter: @techUKdepCEO Website: www.techuk.org/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/antonywalker/ Read lessmore
Infobip: The impact of COVID-19: an acceleration of digital communications

On 23 March 2020, the most significant set of restrictions on British life in living memory were set in place as Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered people to stay in their homes. Mr Johnson announced a nationwide lockdown in an effort to curb the coronavirus outbreak and warned that the police would be called in to enforce it. Businesses were ordered to close as part of the measures, office workers were instructed to work from home, and routine operations were cancelled by the NHS. Face to face was replaced with pixel to pixel, and the country had to adapt to a new normal that was anything but normal.

When something as large, multifaceted, and complex as a pandemic comes along, the only way to ensure public safety is to get the right message at the right time to the right audiences. The reliable delivery of critical information from trustworthy sources is a daunting task: public and government health organisations needed to provide information quickly and at scale. In many ways, this was our biggest challenge since the second world war  but unlike in those years in the early 1940s, we had incredible advances in technology on our side.

The strategies to communicate to the public were far-reaching and nuanced: this pandemic affected everyone, of all ages, in all parts of the country. As well as TV broadcasts, public service announcements on television, NHS notifications printed in newspapers, leaflets, Government websites and information provided by certain phone numbers, the UK also enlisted the reach that comes with newer, digital forms of communications.

To provide quick and trustworthy on-demand information related to COVID-19, Infobip and WhatsApp worked together to help healthcare organisations in the UK and around the world build simple, self-service chatbots.

Government health organisations such as Public Health England , as well as in France, Russia, Qatar, Pakistan, UAE, the Indian State Governments of Kerala, Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Delhi, and Nigeria, made best use of this technology by making these chatbots easily accessible over a publicly available number.

Contact with the chatbot was initiated by anyone looking for information related COVID-19 by entering the number in their contact list and sending Hi to that number. This started a dialogue with the WhatsApp chatbot, over which users could choose from a list of topics. As well as being easily accessible and simple to use, chatbots operated 24/7 to provide critical information in an instant. WhatsApp only gives green badges to verified senders, and this ensured that the public received healthcare information from an official health organisation.

Since these chatbots used WhatsApp as a delivery media, information was expanded to include educational videos on how to properly wash hands, locations for getting tested, contact information for local health providers, and links to further resources. If further assistance was required, chatbots could transfer the conversation to an agent for detailed answers to more complex queries.

We are now a long way from March 2020  and sadly the threat of infection still looms large over our daily lives. The Coronavirus pandemic will likely change the way we communicate forever. It has never been more crucial to adopt an effective strategy that allows for Government bodies to communicate directly with the public, over channels that are effective and immediate.

Getting accurate and reliable information to the public remains a challenge  but if the industry continues to work with government health organisations, it is a challenge we are committed to facing head on.

About this author

This guest blog was written by Nikhil Shoorji, VP, Managing Director Europe, Infobip.

To know more about Infobip, please visit their LinkedIn and Twitter.

To read more from #techUKSmarterState Week check out our landing page here.

You can also follow the campaign on techUK's Twitter and LinkedIn - #techUKSmarterState.
James Finn writes for The Advocate as a Report For America corps member. Email him at JFinn@theadvocate.com or follow him on Twitter @RJamesFinn.

To learn more about Report for America and to support our journalism, please click here.
More than two-thirds of Baton Rouge residents believe weather in the parish is becoming more extreme, although theyre split down ideological lines on whether or not climate change is driving the storms, according to a recent survey conducted for a foundation that aims to improve the quality of life in the capital region.

That divide between self-identified conservatives and liberals translated into the level of support from either group for government proposals to fight climate change like offering alternatives to driving, shifting tax incentives to renewable energy and building electric vehicle charging stations.

The Baton Rouge Area Foundation has commissioned LSU's Public Policy Research Lab each year since 2008 for a "CityStats" survey asking parish residents to opine on a broad range of local and national issues. The first set of data from the 2021 survey was released in August. Along with climate change, the second set included questions on government flood insurance subsidies, transportation and universal pre-K and child care.

Pollsters conducted live interviews with 549 residents of East Baton Rouge, 83 via landline, 422 via cellphone and 44 who responded online through a text message link. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.2 percentage points. Results were weighted by age, race and gender to more closely resemble the demographic breakdowns of the most recently available census data.

Would you pay $10 a month to clean litter, drainage? Most in Baton Rouge say 'yes,' survey says A recent survey found that a majority of East Baton Rouge Parish residents support a new fee to keep parish waterways clear of litter, which c

Climate change created the starkest divide between liberal and conservative residents.

Extreme weather has plagued the parish since 2016, when a storm dropped more than 20 inches of rain on some parts of southeast Louisiana, flooding thousands of homes. Louisiana has since seen record hurricane seasons, an ice storm, flooding that destroyed more than 1,000 homes in the parish in May and the landfall of Hurricane Ida in late August as a strong Category 4 storm.

Sixty-seven percent of residents said they think the weather is becoming more extreme  although 84% of Democrats and 40% of Republicans hold that belief.

Only 26% of residents who said weather is becoming more extreme solely blamed climate change for it. Thirty-two percent said climate change in conjunction with natural variations is driving the shift, and 5% blamed only natural variations.

The remaining 37% didnt know or didnt answer, according to the survey.

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

The survey was conducted from late June to early August  prior to Hurricane Idas landfall.

Of Democrats, 71% want more action on climate change while only 13% of Republicans want the same. Seventy-six percent of Democrats said climate change is an important issue to them compared to only 17% of Republicans. The parishs youngest residents that were surveyed placed the highest emphasis on the issue, with 86% of people between the ages of 18 to 29 calling climate change important or somewhat important to them.

In total, 55% of the 549 East Baton Rouge Parish residents surveyed said climate change is an important issue to them.

The vast majority of studies, scientific organizations and climate scientists agree that the world is warming, mainly due to rising levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The increase in temperature is largely driven by human activity such as deforestation, the raising of livestock and the burning of coal, oil and natural gas.

Despite the divide over the importance of climate change, a majority of residents from either end of the ideological spectrum voiced support for shifting tax incentives to encourage job growth in the renewable energy sector and reducing greenhouse gases by improving bike, walk and mass transit options. Seventy-three percent of residents said they support shifting tax incentives, and 77% of residents said they support improving alternatives to automobile transportation.

There was also broad support for the state and federal government to fund the creation of a passenger rail service between Baton Rouge and New Orleans.

More than half the respondents also said they would likely buy an electric vehicle in the next 10 years, including 84% of 18- to 29-year-olds. The parishs poorest residents, those who reported making under $25,000, were the least likely to say they would buy an electric vehicle this decade.

Prior to Hurricane Ida knocking out power to a vast majority of the parish, residents were split  48% opposed and 46% in support  over paying an additional fee to reduce power outages. Nearly 60% of those who reported making less than $25,000 said they support the additional fee, the highest of any economic group. Those who reported making $100,000 or more were the least likely to support the fee at 40%.

Support for new spending was also lacking on the topic of child care. A vast majority of respondents said they support money going to low and middle income families for pre-K and child care, although 58% oppose raising property taxes to do so. More than 80% of respondents said they support efforts in Congress to fund access to early child care education, a tenet of the Democrats $3.5 trillion infrastructure plan.
Its been 15 days since the sun set on this years Euro summer, but James Packer appears to be packing away the toys for good. The embattled casino magnate, who turned 54 last week, has quietly tipped his 108-metre gigayacht IJE on the market with a price tag just shy of $300 million.

Britains ultra-exclusive Burgess superyacht brokers posted an advertisement appearing overnight that was effusive in spruiking the largest yacht that Italian shipbuilders Benedetti have constructed.

With a timeless sculptural exterior from the board of sought-after designers Redman Whiteley Dixon and a relaxed beach house-style interior by Benetti, she was built as the ultimate world-cruising family yacht for a very experienced owner and delivered in 2019, the advertisement reads. Ultra-luxe specifications for the gigayacht that sleeps 22 guests in 11 cabins include an on-board gym, cinema and night club. Outside, the main deck aft has a generous pool and open air dining with lounge and bar and the sun lounge on the bridge deck aft has a firepit as its focus.

Ready to launch: James Packers $200 million runabout while under construction in Italy. Credit:Giuliano Sargentini/Benetti

Under the hood, theres a Rolls-Royce engine with a range of 6500 nautical miles and a dynamic positioning system presumably powerful enough to propel a rocket to Mars.
NSW has reported 1259 new local coronavirus cases on Wednesday, as Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced 80 per cent of people aged 16 and over in the state had now received their first dose of vaccine.

Were up to 47.5 per cent of our adult population completely vaccinated, and its that number were looking to, to allow us freedoms at 70 per cent double dose, Ms Berejiklian said.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian at a Covid-19 briefing at Qudos Arena, Homebush in Sydney. Credit:Janie Barrett

The 9pm to 5am curfew in place in 12 local government areas across Sydneys west and south-west will lift tonight.

The Premier said the decision came on the advice of police and health authorities.
Academics spend their lives pursuing critical inquiry and pride themselves on demolishing erroneous arguments. Consequently, managing and governing a university is often likened to herding cats.

Academics should be ornery and opinionated, and there would be something wrong with a university where they kept quiet and went along with everything proposed by management.

Murdoch University was investigated by TEQSA over breaches to English literacy standards required of foreign students. Credit:Aja Styles

For centuries, universities kept to their traditions as small unworldly communities of self-governing scholars. Then they went through phases of high growth and expansion, funded first by governments and then through fees.

In 1950, the University of Melbourne had fewer than 9000 students and total income of around 700,000. In 2020, it had 52,000 students, total income of $2.6 billion and total assets of nearly $9.5 billion.
The states coroner is investigating the cause of death of a COVID-19-positive Melbourne man in his 20s widely reported to be among the youngest Australians to succumb to the virus.

The man, who lived in Craigieburn, a coronavirus hotspot in Melbournes northern suburbs, died at home overnight on Tuesday.

Premier Daniel Andrews, Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton and COVID-19 response commander Jeroen Weimar on Wednesday. Credit: Eddie Jim

A post-mortem found he was carrying coronavirus, but it is believed the man had other serious health conditions, including heart and lung issues, prior to his death.

At a press conference on Wednesday, Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton addressed media reports that there had been confusion over the mans cause of death, amid claims from a family member he suffered a heart attack before he died.
The duplicate, cast in bronze from the original mould by Melbourne artist Ms Pamela Irving, has been anchored in place by 30-centimetre bolts.

Melbournes version of Lassie Come Home unfolded yesterday in the City Square with the unveiling of a replica of the stolen sculpture Larry La Trobe.

After the unveiling, Ms Irving said that when she heard Larry had been stolen about a year ago she was initially amused because she thought it was a joke and he would be returned. As the time went on I was pretty devastated, Ms Irving said.

Unlike the other great Melbourne art heist, the Picasso theft, the artist has not heard anything about Larrys fate. I know a lot of people in art circles and I have not heard any whispers, she said.

The mythological little mutt was loosely based on Ms Irvings dog, Lucy, and her uncle, Larry.

I have done a lot of mythological animals and I just thought to put a dog in the City Square was a good thing.

It relates to all the stories about Australia, the poetry, the books and so on... The Drovers Dog and The Dog on the Tucker Box. My work is a bit off-beat, whimsical, funky kind of stuff anyway.
Melbournes sixth coronavirus lockdown could be eased on Thursday to allow small outdoor gatherings and a slight relaxation of restrictions after government ministers and public-health officials met to decide how to mark the states latest vaccination milestone.

Victoria is expected to hit its 70 per cent first-dose vaccine target one week ahead of schedule on Thursday. That number was cited by Premier Daniel Andrews as the point at which he would announce some modest changes to restrictions.

Premier Daniel Andrews speaking to reporters on Wednesday. Credit:Eddie Jim

After a day in which Victoria recorded 423 new cases but also surpassed the goal of 1 million jabs within five weeks, Chief Health Officer Brett Suttons public-health team met senior ministers on Wednesday night to discuss potential changes to be announced on Thursday.

Professor Sutton said Melbournes case numbers seemed to have stabilised in the past few days, but the risk of it getting to 1000 [per day] is real.
Lawyers for Australias medical regulator have written to former Liberal MP Craig Kelly claiming he has breached their copyright and demanding the United Australia Party and Mr Kelly stop distributing information on COVID-19 vaccines, which the TGA said could be misleading.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration lawyers allege the United Australia Party leader breached copyright by taking select extracts from the regulators adverse event notifications database, which were then distributed to the public through text messages.

United Australia Party MP Craig Kelly has distributed misleading information on COVID-19 vaccines, the TGA says. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Lawyers for the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) have written to United Australia Party leader, Mr Craig Kelly MP, alleging it has breached copyright and demanding that it stop distributing incomplete extracts of adverse event reports relating to COVID-19 vaccines, which the TGA believes could be seriously misleading, the medical regulator said in a statement.

But Mr Kelly hit back at the regulator, saying it was wasting taxpayer dollars on a frivolous copyright allegation and he would be seeking legal advice over the matter.
Industry Minister Christian Porter could be forced to repay anonymous donations for his legal fees or declare the donors identities after the Prime Minister requested advice over whether he breached ministerial standards by accepting payments through a blind trust.

Mr Porter has faced intense criticism for accepting an undisclosed sum of money through a blind trust to help fund his defamation case against the ABC and its reporter Louise Milligan, with Labor and the Greens demanding he find out and declare who helped finance it.

Industry Minister Christian Porter has faced intense criticism for accepting an undisclosed sum of money through a blind trust. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

A spokesman for Scott Morrison said the Prime Minister was taking this matter seriously and had discussed it with Mr Porter on Wednesday and was now seeking formal advice.

The Prime Minister is seeking advice from his department on any implications for the Ministerial Standards and any actions the Minister must take to ensure that he meets the standards, the spokesman said.
Kabul: Friction between pragmatists and ideologues in the Taliban leadership has intensified since the group formed a hard-line cabinet to govern Afghanistan last week.

The cabinet is more in line with the Talibans harsh rule in the 1990s than their recent promises of inclusiveness, said two Afghans familiar with the power struggle.

The wrangling has taken place behind the scenes, but rumours quickly began circulating about a recent violent confrontation between the two camps at the presidential palace, including claims that the leader of the pragmatic faction, Abdul Ghani Baradar, was killed.

Taliban fighters take control of Afghan presidential palace in Kabul, Afghanistan on August 15. Credit:AP

The rumours reached such intensity that an audio recording and handwritten statement, both purportedly by Baradar himself, denied he had been killed. The Pashto-language letter had a stamp from the office of Baradar, who has served as the chief negotiator during talks between the Taliban and the United States.
Singapore: An Australian company is under fire over the proposed sale of a mine in the troubled south-east Asian nation of Myanmar to an outfit with alleged links to the military junta.

Perth-based Myanmar Metals, whose shareholders include prominent miner and Rich Lister Mark Creasy, has announced plans to offload its 51 per cent stake of the Bawdwin mine in north-east Shan state near Myanmars border with China, having outlined problems financing the project following a coup in the country in February.

The Bawdwin project was once run by Herbert Hoover, who went on to become US President.

But Myanmar Metals $US30 million ($A40.9 million) sale is being challenged by civil society groups, who have lodged a complaint with the Australian National Contact Point (AusNCP), an Australian government agency which gauges multinationals adherence to OECD guidelines for business conduct.

One of the worlds leading silver, lead and zinc mine deposits, the mine is forecast to generate $US2.9 billion over the next 13 years once it is operational. Activists fear its profits will end up in the hands of a military regime whose bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters and opponents of its takeover has left more than 1000 dead.
Port-au-Prince: The criminal investigation into the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise took a surreal turn when the Caribbean island-nations top prosecutor asked the investigative judge to charge Prime Minister Ariel Henry in connection with the July 7 slaying.

Chief Prosecutor Bedford Claude made the request in a two-page order to Judge Garry Orelien. He asked the judge to bar Henry from leaving the country.

A portrait of late Haitian President Jovenel Moise at his memorial service in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Credit:AP

There is just one problem. Claude had already been fired  by the PM  when he sent the request, according to a memo from the Prime Ministers office.

In the letter dated Monday, Henry told the prosecutor that he had been discharged for serious administrative infractions.
Washington: Olympic gold medallist Simone Biles has told Congress through tears that the FBI and gymnastics officials turned a blind eye to USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassars sexual abuse of her and hundreds of other women.

Biles told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, local time, that enough is enough as she and three other US gymnasts spoke in stark emotional terms about the lasting toll Nassars crimes have taken on their lives.

US Olympic gymnast Simone Biles testifies before Congress. Credit:AP

The 2016 Olympic champion and a five-time world champion  widely considered to be the greatest gymnast of all time  said that she can imagine no place that I would be less comfortable right now than sitting here in front of you. She declared herself a survivor of sexual abuse.

I blame Larry Nassar and I also blame an entire system that enabled and perpetrated his abuse, Biles said. She said USA Gymnastics and the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee knew that I was abused by their official team doctor long before I was ever made aware of their knowledge.
Manhattan Theatre Club celebrated its grand return to live performances last night at the Samuel J. Friedman, where Ruben Santiago-Hudson performed the first preview of his solo play, Lackawanna Blues. The official opening night will be September 28.

Guests included actors Brian Stokes Mitchell and S. Epatha Merkerson, as well as State Senator Brad Hoylman and Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney. The group celebrated the occasion with a ribbon-cutting ceremony outside the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre.

Junior Mack and Ruben Santiago-Hudson appear onstage for the first preview of Lackawanna Blues on Broadway.

( Lia Chang)

Written, performed, and directed by Tony Award winner Ruben Santiago-Hudson, with original music by Bill Sims Jr. performed on stage by Grammy Award-nominated blues guitarist Junior Mack, Lackawanna Blues tells the true story of a big-hearted woman who runs a boarding house outside Buffalo  and who was instrumental in Santiago-Hudson's childhood. The actor-director portrays over 20 vibrant characters over the course of this theatrical tribute with music.

The creative team for Ruben Santiago-Hudson's Lackawanna Blues includes Michael Carnahan (scenic design), Karen Perry (costume design), Jen Schriever (lighting design), and Darron L West (sound design).

Nanny's Band (Ayode Maakheru on vocals/guitar, Booker King on bass, Barry Harrison on drums, Matthew Skoller on harmonica) performs outside the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre for the first preview of Lackawanna Blues.

( Lia Chang)

Lackawanna Blues appeared off-Broadway at the Public Theatre in 2001, earning Obie Awards for both Ruben Santiago-Hudson and Bill Sims Jr. According to TheaterMania's review, "The piece shines with the incandescence of a mammoth sun."
Fifty years ago, Ted Neeley landed a role that would change his life. A few years before that, the same thing happened to Yvonne Elliman. Both were practically kids when they became attached to Jesus Christ Superstar, and now, five decades later, they display a youthful vigor when talking about the iconic project.

Elliman was singing in London when Andrew Lloyd Webber discovered her and subsequently hired her to sing the role of Mary Magdalene on the concept album he and Tim Rice were putting together. She subsequently played the role on a concert tour, on Broadway, on screen, and, decades later, in Italy.

Neeley was in a rock band when he was dragged to an open call for Hair. The show's director, Tom O'Horgan, hired him and invited him to later audition for the Broadway premiere of Superstar, where Neeley landed the role of the Jesus understudy. After playing Jesus on film for Norman Jewison (opposite Ellliman), it became the character for which Neeley was synonymous. He's played Jesus on stage more than 5,500 times, and has plans to continue this fall in Italy.

Before that, he and Elliman will share the stage in Superstars in Concert, on September 17 and 18 at the Regent Theater in Arlington, Massachusetts, and will host a screening of the Jesus Christ Superstar film there on September 19. Here's what they have to say about the concert, and the divine nature of this iconic show.

These conversations have been condensed and edited for clarity.

Concert promotional image provided by the production



I hear this concert is years in the making.

Ted Neeley: This is something that Yvonne and I have wanted to do for such a long time.

Yvonne Elliman: We've been wanting to do this for years. It's the third time we've booked this thing, and we're finally gonna get there.

Ted: If it weren't for the pandemic, we wouldn't have been able to put it together.

What can people expect?

Ted: Songs that everybody will recognize from our careers. I did Hair, Tommy, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Sgt. Pepper. Yvonne was in Saturday Night Fever and Superstar and has traveled all over the world, so we sing from each one of those. And we want the fans to sing along with us as much as possible.

Yvonne: I'm sorry that people have to wear masks  they can sing in their masks but we won't hear them too well. But that's one of the great things about a live show. You get to mix it up with the audience.

Ted: And then we're screening the Jesus Christ Superstar film on Sunday. We have a brand-new digital remaster, and the visuals and sound ... it looks like it was just completed yesterday.

Yvonne Elliman in Jesus Christ Superstar on Broadway

( Martha Swope/New York Public Library for the Performing Arts)

It's the 50th anniversary of Jesus Christ Superstar on Broadway in a couple weeks. How did you land your roles?

Yvonne: I was singing at the Pheasantry in London. One night, the owner told me I had to go on in place of Jon Hendricks of Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross, who didn't show up. Andrew Lloyd Webber had come that night to see him to potentially play Pontius Pilate on the album. I went up and played my ass off. I did "Where Have All the Flowers Gone," "Can't Find My Way Home," everything I knew. I was sweaty and happy because I had done all these great songs and Andrew ran up to me and said, "You're my Mary Magdalene!" And I was like "Yeah!" I didn't know who it was. I thought it was Mary the mother. He mentioned that he was making a record and I wanted to do it because all I wanted was to see my voice in the grooves on the vinyl. That was the biggest thing I could shoot for at the time.

I went down to his flat and listened to the beautiful song ("I Don't Know How to Love Him") and I thought "That's a funny song for a mother to sing to her son." And Andrew said "Darling, she's not the mother," and I was like "Oh. That's different then." I sang the song in one take and boom, that was it. I had to audition for the Broadway show, and the movie, too. There were women who were chomping at the bit for that role. Since I had done it on the record, they were like, "Oh, that fits." So they gave me the role.

Ted: I was in a screaming rock-and-roll band from Texas, and we were playing in Hollywood. There was a group of actors who would follow us, and one night, they invited me to go to an audition for Hair with them the next day. We get to the theater and it was packed with people  it was one of those auditions where you don't have to be in the union. The guys I was with made an arrangement to get me on the stage without my knowing it. I was halfway out the door when they called my number and they picked me up, threw me on the stage, and ran out. They asked me to sing a rock-and-roll song, so I sang Stevie Wonder's version of "For Once in My Life," and then they asked to sing a ballad, so I sang Tony Bennett's version of the same song. None of my actor friends got hired, but they hired me.

Hair was directed by Tom O'Horgan, who called me to audition again when he was hired to do Jesus Christ Superstar. I listened to the album and I auditioned for Judas, singing "Heaven on Their Minds." Tom told me it was great and to come back the next day and sing "the other guy." So I came back and sang "Gethsemane." They asked me to be the understudy for Jesus and eventually I got to perform, and I've been singing it for the rest of my life. All by accident.

Tell me one story you remember from the experience of doing the show either on stage or screen.

Ted: Every single performance was protested by people calling it sacrilegious. They would try to keep us from going in the stage door. Eventually, I would start inviting them to come watch the show as my guest, wait for me after, and tell me what it was they didn't like about it, because they hadn't seen our show. They hated the title, or they'd say, "Jesus didn't sing!" and I'd always want to say, "Were you there?" But I didn't, because I was afraid I'd get punched in the mouth. The people brave enough to cross the threshold into that den of iniquity would wait in the lobby and tell me how much they loved it. The protesters became our promoters.

Yvonne: When I was doing "Can We Start Again Please" for the film, they put me on a mountain and I was way far away, and the arms were out here. Norman Jewison came all the way over to me and said, "We can go this close. You don't have to do all that stuff." So I toned it down a bit. It was a great experience. Four months in Israel.

Ted, you've done the show thousands of times; Yvonne, you've not done it thousands of times, but a lot. Do you get tired of it? How do you keep it fresh?



Yvonne: I'm not tired of it now, but I was for a while back then. They only signed me for six months on Broadway because they knew I was a wandering soul. I did one song on my second album called "I Don't Know How to Love Him Blues," where I was totally rebelling. I purged myself a little bit, but now I'm just grateful.

Ted: I never once done a show where I've said "Oh god." Especially when I sing "Gethsemane." And believe it or not, and I can't believe it myself, the notes are still there. I have no problem whatsoever. But every time I have had the pleasure of singing that song is like the first time. You can feel the power of the audience coming up and holding you.

Yvonne: The fans are fans forever. It's incredible how much they love it. This project is gonna live way longer than I am.

Ted: When we did screenings of the film before the pandemic, I would always sit in the audience, and the minute it starts, everybody goes nuts. They come wearing costumes. They're dancing and singing. It's a magnificent celebration five decades later.
The 5 Best Road Trip Destinations from Houston, TX

Houston is the perfect starting point for an amazing road trip. You can set off in any direction and find awesome places to visit. Where you go will depend on whether you want to escape the hustle and bustle for some relaxation, or maybe you are looking for a fun day out for the family.

Read on for the best destinations.

Considerations

Before you set off for a road trip, you need to have a vehicle. If you have been thinking about trading up, then you should consider EchoPark Automotive, which is a used car dealership in Houston. They have a huge range of vehicles, some of which are perfect for a road trip, so be sure to check them out if you are in the market for a new vehicle. On to the destinations!

The Nasa Center

The Houston space center is only a thirty-minute drive from Houston, and it is open year-round. You can explore the facility and take a look behind the scenes, as the Nasa center is still a hub for much of Americas space exploration programmes. There are lots of exhibits to see, and by all accounts, it is a great day out all round.

College Station, TX

College Station is a university town in northwest Houston, and it is roughly a ninety-minute drive from Houston itself. There are many sights to see, including the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum, which is worth the journey in itself. College Station also has many beautiful parks and a great local winery and breweries to visit.

Galveston, TX

Galveston is roughly an hour away, and it is a popular destination for locals. Galveston Island is designed to be a place of rest and relaxation. The pier has all the classic rides and food stalls you need to make the most out of your beach day. There is also several amusement parks and waterparks to visit too.

Texas City, TX

Texas City is less than an hour away from Houston, it sits along the western edge of Galveston Bay, and it is a great place to visit if you want something a little off the beaten track. It has far less tourism than Galveston, so it is much quieter. It is perfect for a stroll, a picnic, or a spot of fishing.

Brenham, TX

Brenham is just under ninety minutes away; it is located about halfway between Houston and Austin. There are two things that Brenham is associated with, and that is bluebonnets and ice cream. The Blue Bell Creamery has become an American institution, and you can tour the famous creamery and even sample their product! In addition, the town itself is full of quaint shops and historical buildings, making it great for exploring.

In Conclusion

Road trips are a great American tradition, and Houston acts as a great starting point for a lot of amazing trips. If you are looking for destinations, this list is a great starting point and full of must-visit locations.
Photo: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images

After a number of notable names didnt show up to the 2021 Met Gala  including Lady Gaga, Kylie Jenner, Katy Perry, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Bella Hadid  there was some speculation that their absence may have had something to do with the events COVID-vaccine mandate. By now, Im sure you heard that Nicki Minaj confirmed she didnt attend the Met Gala because she didnt want to get vaccinated for the event. (She also espoused conspiracy theories and other misinformation about the vaccine, which the health minister of Trinidad & Tobago, Minajs native country, recently had to address and dispel.) Well, at least one celebrity would like to excuse herself from the anti-vaxx narrative: model Bella Hadid.

On Wednesday, Hadid posted a picture of herself getting what appears to be the COVID-19 vaccine. For anyone concerned, she wrote on her Instagram Story over the picture, which is actually a screenshot of a picture. Clearly an intentional move since it shows the photo was taken at precisely 5:37 p.m. on August 6. To which I say  August?! Bella! Where the hell have you been, loca? The vaccine has been accessible to us plebes for months. Surely, you had an opportunity to get vaccinated sooner, no? Also, I find it funny she had someone take a picture. For proof? Posterity? Insta-story content on a slower day? Vaccine selfies were very much a thing among celebrities and regular people alike. But still, why bring someone with you, have them take a picture, and then sit on it for a month, making what is arguably an already-overdue vaccine seem even later? Help me understand, Bella!

Perhaps she waited until August because she was taking her cue from Dua Lipa. (Dua Lipa is dating Hadids younger brother, Anwar, and neither of them went to the Met Gala either.) At the end of June 2021, Dua Lipa told Vanity Fair she was committed to getting vaccinated and was waiting her turn for the coronavirus vaccine. (The vaccine had been available to all U.S. adults since April 19, though maybe she gave the interview before then?) Anwar, however, said he would absolutely not get the vaccine back in December 2020. He later clarified in an Instagram story that hes not anti-vax and wants to continue to learn about the many ways I can protect myself and others. Its unclear whether either have gotten vaccinated since.

Of course, Bella Hadid is not responsible for the actions of her siblings  colorful pasta cabinets included. So, good on her for getting vaccinated. Fingers crossed that other celebrities and the 46 percent of America who is still unvaccinated will follow suit.
Batavia, NY (14020)

Today

Cloudy skies with periods of rain late. Low 64F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

Cloudy skies with periods of rain late. Low 64F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 70%.
A security guard opens the door to the Whole Women's Health Clinic in Fort Worth, Texas, on Sept. 1, 2021. (LM Otero/AP Photo)

24 Democratic Attorneys General Back Bidens Attempt to Block Texas Abortion Law

Nearly half of the attorneys general in the United States are backing President Joe Bidens attempt to block a new anti-abortion law in Texas on Sept. 15.

The 24 attorneys general, all Democrats, said the new law is in direct contravention of nearly a half-century of Supreme Court precedent and has banned nearly all pre-viability abortions within its borders.

The law bans most abortions by requiring doctors to test for a fetal heartbeat before carrying out the termination of an unborn child. If a heartbeat is detected, the doctor is barred from doing an abortion unless he or she deems the situation to be a medical emergency.

The measure blocks state officials from enforcing it. Instead, private citizens can sue doctors or people who allegedly aid in illegal abortions if they believe one has occurred.

The two dozen attorneys general, led by Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, say (pdf) that they have a responsibility to protect clinicians who work in their states and are licensed in other states and to ensure each state abides by constitutional obligations, because reducing access to abortion in one state can lead to people seeking the procedure in other states, which could burden health care systems and result in limited access for those other states own residents.

They cited a story from a Texas publication that alleged that this was already happening in New Mexico because of the Texas law.

In addition, the officials in the filing expressed concern about people in their states who may be subject to lawsuits for providing support to family or friends who get an abortion in Texas and residents who temporarily reside in Texas, such as students, who want to get an abortion there.

Amici States have a significant interest in protecting our residents from vexatious and costly litigation, particularly when such litigation is predicated on nothing more than their involvement in constitutionally protected activity, the attorneys general wrote.

Every Democratic attorney general, except for Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, signed onto the amicus brief.

Miller needs the approval of the governor to join out-of-state cases, under a 2019 agreement with Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds. Miller recommended signing on to the brief but Reynolds declined, a spokeswoman told The Epoch Times in an email.

The brief came in support of the Department of Justice, which filed a lawsuit last week seeking to block the Texas law because officials argue its unconstitutional under Supreme Court rulings such as Roe v. Wade.

Complicating the matter, though, is the Supreme Court deciding earlier this month to not immediately stop the law from taking effect. In a narrow 54 ruling, the majority said abortion providers in a separate lawsuit hadnt met the burden to do so in their bid for a preliminary injunction.

The Department of Justice also asked the Supreme Court on Sept. 14 to block the law until the court makes a final decision on it.

Abortion providers say approximately 85 to 90 percent of abortions arent allowed to be carried out under the law, which the Republican-controlled Texas legislature approved before it was signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott.

Republican attorneys general havent yet weighed in on the case, USA v. Texas, which is being defended by Texas Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Americas Oldest WWII Vet Celebrates 112th BirthdayAdvises: Serve God and Be Nice to People

The oldest known WWII veteran, Lawrence Brooks, was honored at his home with a Jeep parade, cake, and performances from the lovely Victory Belles vocal trio, as well as local New Orleans musicians earlier this week.

Sitting on his porch outside, the New Orleans native celebrated his 112th birthday with well-wishers on Sept. 12amidst recovery efforts in the wake of Hurricane Ida.

For the bash, organized by the the National WWII Museum, Brooks was treated to cake, a glamorous performance by the museums Victory Belles vocal trio, and a Jeep parade, courtesy of Kajun Outcast Jeep Club and Northshore Wrangler Association.

(Courtesy of The National WWII Museum)

(Courtesy of The National WWII Museum)

Offering words of wisdom, Brooks advised others to serve God and be nice to people, NBC reported.

Also playing was the Lawrence Brooks Birthday Band, an assembly of local New Orleans musicians, presented by the Bucktown All-Stars.

Marking the occasion, the City of New Orleans issued an official proclamation recognizing Brookss milestone 112th birthdaywhich makes him the oldest known veteran of the Second World War.

(Courtesy of The National WWII Museum)

Among his well-wishers was Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards, who appeared in a photo with the vet, which he posted on Twitter, along with a message:

Happy 112th birthday to Mr. Lawrence Brooks, Americas oldest living World War II veteran and a proud Louisianan. Mr. Brooks, the entire state of Louisiana thanks you for your service and we all wish you a joyous birthday. #lagov

Born Sept. 12, 1909, Brooks served in the Army from 1940 to 1945 in the predominantly black 91st Engineer Battalion, stationed in New Guinea and then the Philippines, the museum stated.

After the war, Brooks returned home to New Orleans and worked as a forklift operator and married Leona B. Brooks, who died in 2005 in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. He had five children and now has 13 grandchildren and 22 great-grandchildren.

(Courtesy of The National WWII Museum)

(Courtesy of The National WWII Museum)

Last year, Mr. Brooks received more than 21,000 cards from all over the U.S. and abroad wishing him a happy 111th birthday, stated the museum.

Mr. Brooks birthday is a significant reminder of those who have served and continue to dedicate their lives to our freedom. they added. The National WWII Museums ongoing educational mission is to tell the story of the American experience in the war that changed the world so that all generations will understand the price of freedom and be inspired by what they learn.

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
Attorney Hired Man to Kill Him Months After Wife, Son Murdered: Police

A high-profile attorney in South Carolina hired another man to shoot him for a life insurance payout months after his wife and son were killed, authorities said in court documents.

Curtis Edward Smith, 61, conspired with Alex Murdaugh, 53, in the plan, South Carolinas Law Enforcement Division said.

On Sept. 4, Mr. Murdaugh provided Mr. Smith with a firearm and directed Mr. Smith to shoot him in the head for the purpose of causing Mr. Murdaughs death and allowing for the payment of a stated death benefit to a beneficiary of the insured, Mr. Murdaugh, an affidavit in the case against Smith stated.

Smith followed Murdaugh to Old Salkehatchie Road in Varnville and shot Murdaugh as he stood in the road, authorities said.

After the shooting, Smith drove somewhere and disposed of the firearm.

But Murdaugh survived the shooting and was taken to a hospital for treatment.

Murdaugh admitted this week to investigators that he was involved in the scheme, which was aimed at delivering his son $10 million from a life insurance policy, according to court documents. Smith admitted to being present during the shooting and disposing of the firearm afterwards.

Smith was taken into custody and charged with assisted suicide, assault and battery of a high aggravated nature, pointing and presenting a firearm, insurance fraud, conspiracy to commit insurance fraud, distribution of methamphetamine, and possession of marijuana.

His case will be prosecuted by the South Carolina Attorney Generals Office.

Murdaugh has not yet been charged, according to court records. The Law Enforcement Division did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

On September 4, it became clear Alex believed that ending his life was his only option. Today, he knows thats not true. For the last 20 years, there have been many people feeding his addiction to opioids. During that time, these individuals took advantage of his addiction and his ability to pay substantial funds for illegal drugs. One of those individuals took advantage of his mental illness and agreed to take Alexs life, by shooting him in the head, lawyers for Murdaugh told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement.

Fortunately, Alex was not killed by the gunshot wound. Alex is fully cooperating with SLED in their investigations into his shooting, opioid use and the search to find the person or people responsible for the murder of his wife and son. Alex is not without fault but he is just one of many whose life has been devastated by opioid addiction, they added.

It wasnt clear if Smith had retained an attorney.

Curtis Edward Smith is seen in a booking photograph on Sept. 14, 2021. (Colleton County Detention Center via AP)

Court records show that Murdaugh represented Smith in several legal cases.

Murdaughs wife and one of his sons were found shot dead near their home in June. Their murders have not been solved as of yet. The son had been awaiting trial on a charge related to a boating accident that left a teenage girl dead in 2019. Murdaugh told investigators he discovered the bodies after returning home.

After he was struck on Sept. 4, Murdaugh said he was resigning from the legal firm Peters, Murdaugh, Parker, Eltzroth, and Detrick (PMPED) and entering rehab.

The murders of my wife and son have caused an incredibly difficult time in my life. I have made a lot of decisions that I truly regret, he said in a statement distributed by his lawyers.

Soon after, PMPED alleged Murdaugh had misappropriated funds. That led to the South Carolina Supreme Court suspending the mans law license.

The Law Enforcement Division opened an investigation into the allegations on Sept. 13.

Its the fifth probe into the Murdaugh family; no arrests have been made in any of them. Solicitor Duffie Stone turned the probe into the murder of Maggie Murdaugh, 52, and her son Paul Murdaugh, 22, to the South Carolina Attorney Generals Office last month.

I continue to urge the public to be patient and let this investigation take its course. Investigative decisions we make throughout this case and any potentially related case must ultimately withstand the scrutiny of the criminal justice process, Law Enforcement Division Chief Mark Keel said in a statement.

Three members of the Murdaugh family remain at PMPED, which was started by Murdaughs great-grandfather.

One of them, Randolph Murdaugh IV, told Bluffton Today that he was stunned by what had unfolded.

I was shocked, just as the rest of my PMPED family, to learn of my brother, Alexs, drug addiction and stealing of money. I love my law firm family and also love Alex as my brother, he said. While I will support him in his recovery, I do not support, condone, or excuse his conduct in stealing by manipulating his most trusted relationships. I will continue to pursue my clients interests with the highest degree of honesty and integrity, as I always have.
Farmer inspects a dead Barley crop on his farm in Parkes, Australia, on Oct. 25, 2006. (Ian Waldie/Getty Images)

Australian Farmers Set to Achieve Record $73 Billion Season

Australian agricultural producers are expecting a record-breaking harvest this season due to a perfect combination of price increases and higher production volumes.

The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) upgraded its 2021-22 financial year agriculture forecast to $73 billion (the U.S.$53.5 billion).

It will be the first time Australias gross agriculture value surpassed $70 billion if realised.

Agriculture Minister David Littleproud said he was confident that the sector would be able to hit the $70 billion mark at the very least.

We had a cracking year last year but this year were going to set new records, Littleproud told the ABC. Were for the first time going to get over 70 billion.

An aerial view of fields of Canola crops near the town of Harden, south-west of Sydney, Australia, on Sept. 15, 2020. (AAP Image/Mick Tsikas)

ABARES notes that the sector will greatly benefit from a remarkable combination of events of favourable domestic seasonal conditions and unfavourable overseas conditions.

Domestically, Australian farmers have enjoyed widespread favourable growing weather conditions leading to near-record high harvest volumes. Meanwhile, key international competitors have suffered from poor growing seasons that have led to higher grain prices.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, ABARES executive director Jared Greenville told the ABC. Australian farmers operate in one of the worlds most variable climates, so we cannot expect the good seasons to keep coming. The same can be said for high world prices.

The value for most of Australias top export commodities is expected to grow despite the ongoing politically motivated trade war by the Chinese Communist Party.

However, the wine industry will continue to struggle from Chinese tariffs, with its export value expected to drop 13 percent.

Forecast price changes for Australias top 10 agricultural exports, 202122. (Department of Agriculture, Water, and the Environment, 2021)

Challenges Still Remain

ABARES noted that the sector faced three main challenges to realising a record year, including ongoing labour shortages, the threat of mice populations, and commodity price risks.

Labour shortages will particularly affect horticulture, meaning Australians are likely to see higher fruit and vegetable prices. Littleproud called it the biggest constraint to the growth of the sector.

To help farmers with this issue, the government announced an agriculture visa on Aug. 23, aimed at Pacific Islanders and Southeast Asian workers, including a pathway to permanent residency.

The agriculture visa delivers what so many primary producers are crying out for, Deputy Prime Minister Joyce said in a joint statement. It will give regional Australia the workers they need to get produce to plate in Australia, as well as our export markets.

Fruit picker harvests oranges on a farm near Leeton, NSW, Australia, on Oct. 1, 2020. (AAP Image/Lukas Coch)

While the mice plague still is expected to cause serious problems in the affected areas of Australia, ABARES said it would not significantly affect national production.

While mouse numbers are unlikely to impact the harvest, they may affect grain stored on-site, Littleproud said. Bulk handlers are already upping their storage make sure that we can get as much crop to the market as possible.

ABARES also said that current high international freight costs will particularly affect exporters of cotton, pulse, and horticulture goods.

The possibility of further deteriorating trade relationships with economic partners was also noted.

While agricultural exporters are proving adept at diversifying into new markets or taking advantages of changes in trade flows, this does come with transition costs and lower prices as has been seen for barley, ABARES said.

However, the agriculture minister said this was a year to be proud of as the agriculture sector navigated through the uncertainty of a pandemic.

Australians backed our farmers during the tough years of drought; we are now seeing those very farmers help the Australian community and Australian economy through and beyond the pandemic, Littleproud said.
Veteran Norman Lewis, 102, beside the newly restored Spitfire at the Potteries Museum And Art Gallery in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, UK, on Sept. 13, 2021. (Jacob King/PA)

Battle of Britain: Restored Spitfire Unveiled

A Spitfire donated to Stoke-on-Trent by the RAF in 1972 is set to go back on public display in a new glass-fronted 5.4 million ($7.5 million) gallery as an anythings possible symbol of hope.

The aircrafts official unveiling in a 3,800 sq ft (350 square meter) extension to the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery on Wednesday, being attended by the great-nephew of the Spitfires designer Reginald Mitchell, follows a multi-year restoration programme and coincides with Battle of Britain Day.

The dedicated Spitfire Gallery, making the illuminated aircraft visible from the street at night, opens to the public on Saturday and will be used to promote engineering as a career to young people, as well as allowing visitors to learn about the history of the aircraft and more than 20 others designed by Staffordshire-born Mitchell.

The Mark XVI Spitfire in the Potteries Museum And Art Gallery in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, UK, on Sept. 13, 2021. (Jacob King/PA)

The Mark XVI Spitfire, built at Castle Bromwich, Birmingham, in May 1945, saw service in Germany shortly after the Second World War ended and last flew in 1952, when it was damaged during take-off at RAF Middle Wallop in Hampshire.

It was then used as a gate guardian at RAF bases before being donated to Stoke-on-Trent in honour of RJ Mitchell, initially going on display in a large greenhouse-type structure on the citys Bethesda Street.

Speaking before the unveiling of the plane and its new surroundings, including numerous displays detailing the aircrafts engine and history, Mitchells great-nephew Julian Mitchell told the PA news agency he could remember being taken as a small child to the previous ceremony in June 1972.

Mitchell, whose great-uncle died aged 42 in 1937, said: I am delighted that it has come back restored to how it was when I first saw it.

The plane means a lot to the people of Stoke-on-Trent. I think it means a lot to the people of the country, and its a symbol of hope, the Spitfire.

Predicting that the aircraft and its gallery would inspire visitors to think about the possibilities in engineering, Mitchell added: Theres a massive skills gap in engineering and we need to do something to plug that gap.

We want people to see how their future could be in engineering, and also at the same time tell the story of Reginald Mitchell the local boy, educated locally, born locally, apprenticed locally, who then went on to create the most beautiful aircraft that ever was built, that ever flew, and helped save the country in its hours of greatest peril.

He said of the Spitfire, which has shortened clipped wings and had an engine tuned for lower altitudes: Its been situated looking out, so that as you drive down Broad Street, you can see between the buildings and youll be able to see it, particularly at night when it will be lit up.

It is here, as a symbol of hope, of inspiration, and really something that says to anyone who drives past anythings possible.

Mitchell added that the Spitfire had endured more than any other aircraftwith the sight of one in flight a wonder to behold and the sound of the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine unmistakable.

Ahead of the official unveiling, Second World War veteran Norman Lewis, aged 102, was given a sneak preview of the restored Spitfire, which he described as a wonderful sight.

Lewis, from Meir, Stoke-on-Trent, was captured in June 1940 in France while serving with the Royal Engineers.

After chatting with Mitchell, the centenarian told PA he had spent five years as a prisoner of the Germans, before escaping and returning home via Odessa, Turkey, Egypt, Italy, and Gibraltar.

He told PA: I covered 10,000 miles in three months and I arrived home on April the 1st 1945. Some good news was, when I got to Egypt, they told me Id got five years back-pay to pick up, which was wonderful.

Stoke-on-Trents Spitfire spent three years in a workshop at an airfield in Kent, where it was restored, before being transported back to north Staffordshire in June, with a crane lifting it into its new home.

The exhibition has been funded through a successful bid for 210,000 ($290,000) from a joint funding pot run by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport in partnership with the Wolfson Foundation.

Further funding totalling 47,000 ($65,000) was also raised with help from Operation Spitfire, The Friends of the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, and through visitors donations.

By Matthew Cooper
Families evacuated from Kabul, Afghanistan, walk through the terminal before boarding a bus after they arrived at Washington Dulles International Airport, in Chantilly, Va., on Sept. 2, 2021. (Jose Luis Magana/AP Photo)

Biden Administration Details Plan to Relocate Afghan Refugees Across the Country

In a special briefing Tuesday, the Biden administration detailed its plan and efforts to relocate and settle Afghan refugees across the country in the near future.

The teleconference was held by the spokesperson office of the Department of State.

The Department of State works with nine resettlement agencies and their networks of more than 200 local affiliates across the country to resettle Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) recipients through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program and Reception and Placement Services, one senior official said during the briefing.

Non-SIV holders, such as SIV applicants and other vulnerable Afghans who have entered as parolees, are transferred to one of eight domestic military installations for additional immigration processing and medical screenings before theyre resettled, the official continued.

Afghans granted parole will receive State Department-funded assistance through these resettlement agencies via the Afghan Placement and Assistance Program, the APA. Through the APA Program, individuals will be placed in communities across the country to begin to rebuild their lives, the official added.

The Department of State reported that more than 124,000 individuals had been evacuated from Afghanistan, including 6,000 American citizens.

On Sept. 3, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said nearly 40,000 people had arrived in the United States, about 20 percent of them are American citizens or permanent residents.

Tens of thousands of Afghan refugees are still being processed in overseas bases such as in the Gulf area and Europe. Its unclear how many more will come to the United States in the coming months.

During Tuesdays teleconference, a senior official said that a core tenet of the settlement program is family unification.

As with traditional refugee and SIV resettlement, placement of individuals will prioritize reunification with U.S.-based family and friends and will consider the needs and characteristics of each case, the official said.

Other factors in determining where Afghans will be relocated include reasonable housing, job opportunities, and community capacity, the official added.

An Afghan woman and her month-old son are seen outside the new temporary camp for migrants and refugees, on the island of Lesbos in Greece, on Sept. 21, 2020. (Yara Nardi/Reuters)

Between October 2001 and August 2021, over 97,000 Afghan refugees and SIV recipients have settled in the United States, U.S. News reported, citing data from the State Department.

According to the data, over 80 percent of Afghan refugee and SIV recipients were resettled in 10 states since 2001. The 10 states are California, Texas, Virginia, Washington, Maryland, New York, Georgia, Arizona, Colorado, and Missouri. California alone admitted 31,695 Afghan refugees, almost one-third of the total.

During the teleconference, officials said HHS would provide vaccines, short-term emergency health insurance, and time-limited cash and medical assistance to refugees and all other eligible populations, among other services.

HHS has requested additional funding to support these new arrivals from Afghanistan, the official added.

In August, President Joe Biden authorized an extra $500 million for relocating Afghan refugees, including applicants for SIVs.

Last week, the Biden administration requested Congress to provide $6.4 billion in the fiscal year 2022 to support processing Afghan refugees, provide resources for new and future Afghan arrivals, and for other humanitarian needs.
President Joe Biden speaks with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark A. Milley (L) after addressing a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on April 28, 2021. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Biden Stands by Milley After Reports of Secret Phone Calls With Chinese General

President Joe Biden is standing by Gen. Mark Milley, the top military officer in the United States, following reports that Milley secretly called a Chinese general during former President Donald Trumps administration and promised to tip off the communist country regarding any potential U.S. attack.

Several anonymously sourced reports alleged Milley called Gen. Li Zuocheng of the Peoples Liberation Army once in 2020 and another time in January to assure him that the United States wouldnt attack the Chinese Communist Party and if they were poised to attack, he would alert his counterpart.

While Republicans described the actions of Milley as treasonous if they indeed took place, Biden is backing the Trump appointee.

I have great confidence in General Milley, Biden told reporters in Washington on Sept. 15.

His brief comment, which didnt touch on the veracity of the allegations, came after White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters separately that the president was standing by the general even if the calls did happen.

Psaki said Biden believes Milley is patriotic and that his fidelity to our Constitution is unquestionable. She claimed the context of when the calls allegedly took place was important, accusing Trump of fomenting an insurrection, referring to Jan. 6, and that there was broad concern about many members of his national security team in the wake of the U.S. Capitol breach.

Its the obligation of every chairman of the joint chiefs to follow constitutional order to prevent unlawful military action, she also said.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby also signaled the Department of Defenses backing of Milley, saying Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin hasnt asked Milley to change how he operates at all.

He has full trust and confidence in Chairman Milley and the job hes doing, he told reporters at the Pentagon.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCOS), which Milley chairs, said in a statement that Milley regularly talks with counterparts around the world, including counterparts in China and Russia.

His calls with the Chinese and others in October and January were in keeping with these duties and responsibilities conveying reassurance in order to maintain strategic stability. All calls from the Chairman to his counterparts, including those reported, are staffed, coordinated and communicated with the Department of Defense and the interagency, a spokesman for the group said.

Chinas Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) Gen. Li Zuocheng (L) and US Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley (C) review an honor guard during a welcome ceremony at the Bayi Building in Beijing on Aug. 16, 2016. (Mark Schiefelbein/AFP via Getty Images)

General Milley continues to act and advise within his authority in the lawful tradition of civilian control of the military and his oath to the Constitution, the spokesman added.

But top Republicans assert that what Milley did constituted treason and that he should be ousted and possibly face charges.

If it is actually true, which is hard to believe, that he would have called China and done these things and was willing to advise them of an attack or in advance of an attack, thats treason, Trump said in a phone call with Newsmax.

The former president in a written statement said the reporting was inaccurate and that he never thought of attacking China.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) on Fox News said Milley, if he made the calls, was basically ignoring the Constitution, deciding hes going to call a potential adversary and an enemy of the United States, and collude with them and tell them that if Im ever ordered to do something, Im going to tell you about it first.'

I dont care what you think of President Trump, the Chairman of the JCOS working to subvert the military chain of command and collude with China is exactly what we do not accept from military leaders in our country. He should be court-martialed if true, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) added in a statement.

Sens. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) and Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), and Reps. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio), Jody Hice (R-Ga.), and Guy Reschenthaler (R-Pa.) were among the other Republicans calling for Milley, who is slated to testify to Congress later this month, to resign or be fired if the allegations are true.

Its plain and simple: If Milleys alleged traitorous behavior is true, he must resign or be fired immediately, Reschenthaler wrote on Twitter.
President Joe Biden speaks during a tour of the Flatirons campus of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Arvanda, Colo., on Sept. 14, 2021. (Evan Vucci/AP Photo)

Biden to Meet With Top Executives on COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate for Private Businesses

President Joe Biden on Wednesday will meet with executives from Walgreens, The Walt Disney Company, and Microsoft to discuss his administrations recently announced COVID-19 vaccine mandate for private businesses.

Brad Smith, president of Microsoft, Bob Chapek, CEO of Walt Disney, Tim Boyle, president and CEO of Columbia Sportswear, and Roz Brewer, CEO of Walgreens Boots Alliance are among the business leaders who are scheduled to be at the meeting, according to a White House official.

Biden last week said businesses would have to impose vaccination requirements or face fines of up to $13,600 per violation.

The order is going to come through the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), White House officials have said.

An OSHA spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email that the agency is developing the rule, which will require all employers with 100 or more employees to ensure their workforce is fully vaccinated or require any workers who remain unvaccinated to produce a negative test result on at least a weekly basis before coming to work.

Boyle told news outlets in Portland, Oregon, where the company is based, that he was pleased with the pending mandate.

If the company is going to be back to a normal operating condition, if our country and the globe are going to back to the normal operating conditions, we need to get many, many more people vaccinated, he told KGW-TV.

The Business Roundtable, which says it represents hundreds of companies, also praised the mandate.

Business Roundtable welcomes the Biden Administrations continued vigilance in the fight against COVID, Josh Bolten, president and CEO of Business Roundtable, said in a statement.

Bob Chapek, a Walt Disney Company executive, is seen in Orlando, Fla., on Aug. 28, 2019. (Gerardo Mora/Getty Images)

Other attendees set to attend the Eisenhower Executive Office Building meeting are Greg Adams, chair and CEO of Kaiser Permanente; Madeline Bell, president and CEO of Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia; William Tate IV, president of Louisiana State University; and Molly Moon Neitzel, founder and CEO of Molly Moons Homemade Ice Cream.

All the leaders slated to be in Washington with Biden have imposed or are planning to impose COVID-19 vaccine requirements.

The White House official said that Biden will discuss how the executives are putting into place the requirements and that the event will also serve as a rallying cry for more businesses across the country to step up and institute similar measures.

Biden told reporters at the White House after returning from a trip out west on Tuesday that he believed most people support his mandates, which include a requirement for federal workers to get vaccinated, but that theres always going to be a small percentage who say no.'

The mandates have faced some pushback, including a challenge in court.

The federal government cannot force people to get the COVID-19 vaccine. The Biden Administration is once again flouting our laws and precedents to push their radical agenda, Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, a Republican, said in a statement after filing a lawsuit against Bidens orders.
This still image obtained Sept. 10, 2012, from IntelCenter shows Ayman al-Zawahiri speaking from an undisclosed location in an al-Qaeda's as-Sahab video released Sept. 10, 2012. (IntelCenter/AFP via Getty Images)

Bin Ladens Former Right-Hand Man Has Resurfaced. Does It Matter?

News Analysis

A recently released video suggests that al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri may still be alive.

Some national security experts have downplayed that development due to Zawahiris apparent lack of charisma and leadership abilities; others have pointed out that al-Qaeda has flourishedeven garnering U.S. support in some conflictsover the past decade under Osama bin Ladens former chief lieutenant.

Following bin Ladens death in 2011, many celebrated the occasion as a win on two fronts: Not only did the United States bring bin Laden to justice, it also delivered al-Qaeda to the seemingly less effective Zawahiri.

A Rand Corporation analysis from Sept. 11, 2001, explains that line of thinking, positing that U.S. officials have made Zawahiri a low priority due to his ineptitude.

The U.S. government has been relatively blase about al-Qaeda since Zawahiri took over in 2011, analysts Colin P. Clarke and Asfandyar Mir wrote for Rand in 2020. Some terrorism analysts even claim a living Zawahiri has done more harm to al-Qaeda than a dead one ever could.

Similar sentiments were expressed following the Sept. 11 release of a video featuring Zawahiria video that disproves reports from 2020 that the al-Qaeda chief was dead.

I bet you a large sum of money that Zawahiris outdated recording has been watched and engaged by more Jihadism watchers than by jihadis and sympathizers, said journalist Hassan I. Hassan, who inaccurately reported Zawahiris death in November 2020.

Takeaways from al-Qaedas al-Sahab release today:  Zawahiri is still deadly boring, Middle East Institute senior fellow Charles Lister wrote. Beyond that, not much else of noteAQC remains peripheral to AQ globally.

But despite Zawahiris seeming lack of charisma, others have argued that he has been an effective killer with the blood of thousandsincluding the victims of 9/11on his hands. In their analysis for Rand in September 2020, Clarke and Mir also explained how the 70-year-old Egyptian helped al-Qaeda survive throughout the past decade, as the United States focused on other groups such as ISIS.

Zawahiri, for example, is averse to state-buildinga stance that shielded al-Qaeda and provided the group with relative respite as the Islamic State became a more immediate target of U.S. counterterrorism efforts, they wrote. As U.S. strikes against the Islamic State intensified, the cohesion of al-Qaedas affiliates and its allies improved.

Not only has Zawahiris relatively low profile helped al-Qaeda evade destruction, but the United States has even lent help to so-called moderate Zawahiri loyalists in Syria and Yemen.

In Syria, the Obama administration funneled arms starting in 2012 to al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra in support of the failed attempt to oust the countrys president, Bashar al-Assad.

That support prompted then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to ponder during a 2012 interview with a CBS News reporter: We know al-QaedaZawahiriis supporting the opposition in Syria. Are we supporting al-Qaeda in Syria?

A Somali security soldier points his weapon at a poster bearing a photo of al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri during an anti-al-Shabab rally in Mogadishu, Somalia, on Feb. 23, 2014. (Abdifitah Hashi Nor/AFP via Getty Images)

A 2015 article in Foreign Affairsthe publication of the Council on Foreign Relationsmade the case for why the United States should back al-Qaeda.

The instability in the Middle East following the Arab revolutions and the meteoric rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) require that Washington rethink its policy toward al-Qaeda, particularly its targeting of Zawahiri, the Foreign Affairs article Accepting al-Qaeda reads. Destabilizing al-Qaeda at this time may in fact work against U.S. efforts to defeat ISIS.

However, AntiWar.com editorial director Scott Horton argues that support for Zawahiri loyalists is treasonous, and has contributed toward the continued instability in the region.

Many of these same [Zawahiri loyalists] had helped the Sunni-based insurgency kill 4,000 out of the 4,500 U.S. troops who died in Iraq War II, Horton wrote in his 2021 book Enough Already: Time to End the War on Terrorism.

Horton also dismissed the argument that al-Qaeda is preferable to ISIS.

Tell that to the survivors of the thousands of American civilian and military victims murdered by these terrorists in the last 30 years, he wrote.

Horton noted that U.S. support for al-Qaeda fighters continues to this day because the country is selling weapons to Saudi Arabia, which, in turn, is arming al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in the ongoing Yemeni civil war.

In a very real sense, Presidents Obama and Trump [and now Biden] have again put the U.S. Army, Air Force, Navy, and special operations forces at war in the service of al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, Horton wrote in Enough Already.

Officials are speculating where Zawahiri may be now.

George McMillan, a security contractor who worked on intelligence and surveillance issues in Afghanistan, told The Epoch Times that Zawahiri is likely hiding in western Pakistanan assessment shared by many national security experts. McMillan explained that Pakistans intelligence agency, ISI, has long provided refuge to jihadists in an attempt to court them as allies against India.

Zawahiri probably still plays a figurehead role in that, McMillan said.

In recent weeks, Zawahiri may have slipped into Afghanistan in the wake of the United States withdrawal, according to former CIA Acting Director Michael Morrell.

We think so, which means that the Taliban is harboring Zawahiri today, Morrell said on Sept. 12 in response to a question on CBSs Face the Nation.

The Taliban is harboring al-Qaeda today. And I think thats a very important point.

Horton said he thinks its disingenuous that U.S. officials are lamenting the Talibans tolerance of al-Qaeda veterans when they still support Zawahiri loyalists in Yemen.

I dont [want to] hear about safe havens [in Afghanistan] from people who back al-Qaeda terrorists in Yemen and Syria, Horton told The Epoch Times in a July interview.

The FBI has had Zawahiri on its most-wanted list since he was indicted for his alleged role in the Aug. 7, 1998, bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Nairobi, Kenyaoffering up to $25 million for information that leads to the terrorist leaders apprehension.

The FBI declined to comment when contacted by The Epoch Times about Zawahiris apparent reemergence.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks as he greets staff members of the U.S. Embassy in the Egyptian capital Cairo on May 26, 2021. (Alex brandon/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

Blinken Says US Doesnt Know Who Was Killed in Kabul Drone Strike, Review Forthcoming

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sept. 14 that he doesnt know at this stage whether a U.S. drone strike in Kabul, Afghanistan, in August killed a suspected member of the ISIS-K terrorist group or an Afghan aid worker and his family.

The guy the Biden administration droned, was he an aid worker or an ISIS-K operative? Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) asked Blinken during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on the Afghanistan withdrawal.

The Kentucky senator was referring to a report by The New York Times that the drone mistakenly struck a car driven by Zemari Ahmadi, a 43-year-old worker for Nutrition and Education International, a California-based aid group.

The administration is, of course, reviewing that strike. Im sure that a full assessment will be forthcoming, Blinken said.

So you dont know if it was an aid worker or an ISIS-K operative? Paul asked.

I dont know because were reviewing it, Blinken said.

The exchange comes after Capt. Bill Urban, a Central Command (CENTCOM) spokesperson, confirmed on Aug. 29, a day after the strike, that the United States is investigating reports of civilian casualties from the strike.

Urban said at the time that while the U.S.-led counterterrorism drone attack disrupted an imminent ISIS-K threat to Kabuls international airport, we would be deeply saddened by any potential loss of innocent life.

The Pentagon said in an earlier statement that the drone strike had killed two high-profile ISIS-K terrorist group members and wounded another.

In a Sept. 14 statement, Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said that the department works very hard to avoid civilian casualties, stating that we would be deeply saddened by any loss of innocent life.

Youd think youd kind of know before you off somebody with a predator drone, whether hes an aid worker or hes an ISIS-K operative, Paul said on Sept. 14, probing Blinken further on the issue.

The Aug. 28 drone strike came shortly after an attack on Kabuls international airport that killed 13 U.S. service members and more than 100 Afghans. ISIS-K, an ISIS affiliate, claimed responsibility for the Aug. 26 attack, bragging about a suicide bomber managing to penetrate all the security fortifications put in place by U.S. troops and the Taliban terrorist group.

Founded in 2015, ISIS-K is a sworn enemy of the Taliban and the United States. Zabiullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban, said the terrorist group is probing the attacks.

Taliban involvement in the attack on the Kabul airport also hasnt been ruled out by the United States. Kirby said on Aug. 27 that U.S. officials were unsure if the Taliban was involved.
A Boeing 737 MAX 8 sits outside the hangar during a media tour of the Boeing 737 MAX at the Boeing plant in Renton, Washington on Dec. 8, 2015. (Matt Mills McKnight/Reuters)

Boeing Delivers 22 Jets in August, 737 MAX White Tails Nearly Gone

SEATTLE/PARISBoeing Co. delivered 22 airplanes in August amid revived domestic travel and won orders for seven 787s in a respite for a program hobbled by industrial defects and a halt in deliveries.

The closely watched monthly snapshot comes as Boeing tries to recoup billions of dollars in lost sales from the coronavirus pandemic, and move beyond a safety scandal caused by two fatal 737 MAX crashes.

Of the 22 jetliners delivered last month, 14 were 737 MAX passenger jets and two were P-8 maritime patrol aircraft.

The remaining six jets were widebodies, including three KC-46 tankers for the U.S. Air Force.

For the year to date, Boeing has delivered 206 aircraft.

European rival Airbus delivered 40 jets in August to reach 384 since the start of the year.

Through August, Boeing had delivered 169 of its best-selling 737 MAX jets since that aircraft returned to service in late 2020 following a nearly two-year safety ban.

Crucially, Boeing has virtually eliminated a stockpile of up to 200 unwanted jets known in the industry as white tails, left by the MAX crisis, according to industry sources.

But it is grappling with structural defects in its bigger 787, which have caused it to cut production and halt deliveries.

Boeing nonetheless struck an optimistic note with higher industry forecasts on Tuesday, citing a recovery in domestic markets, although international travel remains depressed and coronavirus variants pose potentially new risks.

A Boeing logo is seen at the companys facility in Everett, Wash., on Jan. 21, 2020. (Lindsey Wasson/Reuters)

Boeing said it received orders for 53 aircraft in August, including 35 MAX and 18 widebody aircraft.

Those include 11 777 freightersone for FedEx Corp and 10 more from a buyer or buyers Boeing declined to identify.

Total orders for August, after cancellations and conversions, stood at 23.

That brings orders for the year so far to 683 or 280 after cancellations, ahead of Airbus net total of 132.

Indian Deal

Industry sources said Boeing is close to winning an order for some 70100 737 MAX jets from Indias Akasa, a budget startup founded by billionaire Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, pending separate talks on a long-term engine service deal.

But it remains in a dispute with Irish budget airline Ryanair, one of its biggest customers, over the pricing of a potential order for up to 250 MAX jets as demand for new airliners picks up in Europe.

Ryanair says it is not prepared to bow to Boeings pricing demands amid uncertainty over COVID-19 trends and suspended talks last week.

Market sources say Boeing has signalled more confidence on prices after securing orders from United Airlines and others, and after finding homes for all but 20 of the white tails.

European sources accuse Boeing of slashing prices aggressively to win deals, a charge it denies.

Asked on Tuesday about supplies of MAX jets, Stephen Jones, chief executive of Flair Airlines, told Reuters in Montreal, I think it has tightened up quite a lot. The airline secured MAX jets at what he called a great price in March.

By Eric M. Johnson and Tim Hepher
Flags of the Union Jack and European Union are seen ahead of the meeting of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, in Brussels, Belgium, on 9, 2020. (Olivier Hoslet/Pool via Reuters)

Britain Delays Post-Brexit Import Trade Controls Again

LONDONBritain has delayed the implementation of some post-Brexit import controls for a second time, saying it would phase in checks through next year rather than impose them now when industry supply chains are under strain.

Britain left the European Unions single market at the beginning of 2021 and the immediate introduction of checks on British goods going to Europe has hit sales hard.

The logistics industry had warned that introducing import checks on goods coming to Britain would compound problems stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic and a shortage of truck drivers, in the run up to Christmas.

Having already delayed their introduction by six months from April 1, the government has now pushed the need for full customs declarations and controls back to Jan. 1, 2022. Safety and security declarations will be required from July 1 next year.

Industry sources in the logistics and customs sector have said the governments infrastructure was not ready to conduct the full checks by Oct. 1.

While the move will be welcomed by some in the logistics industry, the food and drink trade body attacked the government for the late announcement. New checks on food products had been due to come into force in 17 days.

The repeated failure to implement full UK border controls on EU imports since Jan. 1, 2021, undermines trust and confidence among businesses, Ian Wright, head of the Food and Drink Federation, said. Worse, it actually helps the UKs competitors.

The industry argues that while European producers can still sell to Britain without the extra cost and hassle of a full customs border, British producers face the reverse. First-half sales of food and drink to Germany, Spain, and Italy were all down by around half compared with 2019, it says.

The government said it had introduced a new pragmatic timetable to give companies time to recover from the pandemic.

British businesses, and customers, have complained in recent months that a shortage of workers in logistics, driving, and warehouses has led to long delays in deliveries, with some supermarkets and restaurants struggling to stock a full range.

Businesses will now have more time to prepare for these controls which will be phased in throughout 2022, Brexit minister David Frost said.

Britain opted for a full customs border, with checks on goods and lengthy paperwork, due to the nature of the divorce it agreed with Brussels, choosing full autonomy over its regulatory affairs as opposed to a closer alignment with the bloc.

By Kate Holton
Budapest and Paris: The Contrast Between Civilization and Barbarism

Commentary

Pope Francis went recently to Hungary for a few hours to preach the eternal sacred truths of political correctness. Of course, these truths may change in time, indeed they are certain to do so, but their sacrosanctity will remain. After all, the sacred must move with the times.

I also went to Hungary recently for a short trip, rather longer than that of the Pope, the shortness of whose visit was widely interpreted as political disapproval. I went to Hungary from, and returned to, Paris rather than Rome. I must say that, superficially, Paris seems a far more authoritarian place than Budapest. For example, there is more political propaganda within a short distance of my flat in Paris, extolling the virtues of official, and one might almost say militant, laicity, than I saw in Hungary.

I do not want to nail my colors too firmly to the mast, however; I know neither enough Hungarian nor enough of Hungary to be able to refute altogether the bad that is said of its current, and seemingly future, prime minister, Victor Orban. He is certainly courageous, denying and disobeying the sacred political orthodoxies of his, and our, time; but long experience has taught me not to admire too much, or put my faith in, politicians of whatever stripe. Even when they start out well, politicians are apt to end badly, and most do not even start well. The fact is that we must have politicians in the same way as we must have pest-control: We can do without neither.

All I can say is that Budapest is at the moment one of the most pleasant of all cities to be in.

One contrast between Paris and Budapest struck me very forcefully. Of course, the circumstances of the two cities are different and circumstances alter cases; nevertheless, the contrast is instructive. It is that between civilization and barbarism, and in one respect it is not Paris that is on the side of civilization.

In Budapest, great efforts are being made to restore the city to its Austro-Hungarian or Habsburg magnificence. The remnants of the Soviet era in the center of the city are being demolished and replaced by exact replicas of what was there before (Budapest, of course, was one of the most bombarded capitals of World War II). Modernist architects, who had a brief chance to erect their orthodox monstrosities after the downfall of communism, the leaders of the time believing superstitiously that modernity and modernist architecture were the same thing, have been excluded from the reconstruction.

Given the almost totalitarian conformity of modernist architects, the decision to produce replicas has required a certain democratic fortitude on the part of the authorities, for such a policy is bound to be met with the contempt of those architects and architectural critics who decry the inability of the public to understand the glories of modernism and its successor offshoots. But the fact is (or probably is, one cannot be absolutely dogmatic) that the decision to restore the city rather than build anew will be blessed thankfully by the inhabitants of Budapest a hundred years hence. Moreover, it seems to me likely that those who took the decision were thinking in precisely these terms, in other words in the terms of civilization itself. It is the modernists and their acolytes who are the barbarians.

I turn now to Paris. The present mayor, Anne Hidalgo, who has just announced her intention of running for the presidency as the socialist candidate, is uglifying the city at a horrifying rate. She was elected mayor of Paris, receiving less than 15 per cent of the votes of eligible voters in the first round of the election, when voters express their real preferences, and like many a megalomanic politician thought that election by legitimate means conferred upon her the right to treat her jurisdiction as a potter treats his clay.

It must be said that post-war building has not been kind to Paris as an aesthetic experience: Practically everywhere a modernist building has been erected it has ruined its immediate surroundings.

The great achievement of the modernists is to have invented a style of architecture that can be improved only by demolition (though architects are usually able to take their revenge by building something even worse). So-called rehabilitation or restoration of modernist buildings is a waste of time and money. Here, then, is a challenge for those who like challenges: Find me five buildings constructed in Paris from 1945 to 2015 that are a positive adornment to the city.

But the present mayor has done more to render Paris ugly than anyone else in living memory, apart from Georges Pompidou, perhaps, who permitted the construction of the Tour Montparnasse, the most hated building in Paris and truly a masterpiece of monstrosity. If you want to understand the concept of the banality of evil (not applicable, incidentally, to Adolf Eichmann, to whom it was first applied), take a look at the Tour Montparnasse.

Hidalgo is filling the city with concrete barriers to protect the bicycle lanes, which willsupposedlysave the world from Chinese and other pollution. In addition to the concrete barriers are hideous yellow and white plastic bollards that cannot maintain their upright position for long and are soon both filthy and damaged. They are of such hideousness that they could turn Versailles or the Louvre into a slum-dwelling almost immediately. There are plans for hundreds of kilometers of concrete barriers in Paris.

Like all dim but ruthless ideologues, the environmentalists look at the world through the distorting lens of their simplistic ideas. They do not see with their eyes, but with their intentions (always of the best, of course). When they look at Hidalgos horrible mess, which has done far more damage to the physical fabric of Paris than the Nazi Occupation ever did, they see not the horrible mess, but the supposedly lower levels of CO2 in the air. Visual beauty is nothing to them by comparison with their exalted self-righteousness.

It is true that the concrete barriers could easily be removed, though probably only at considerable expense. But the fact that they were put there in the first place, and did not arouse furious opposition, is testimony to a decline in attachment to civilized values, at least as far as material surroundings are concernedunlike Budapest, where those values have returned.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
Newsom Wins California Recall Election; Elder Concedes

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has defeated a recall bid seeking to oust him from office, with his chief rival, Republican candidate Larry Elder, conceding defeat.

Elder told a crowd of supporters on Sept. 14 that we may have lost the battle, but we are going to win the war, suggesting that his first campaign may not be his last.

Unofficial results of the gubernatorial recall election as of 2:55 a.m. on Sept. 15 showed Newsom was likely to remain governor of California. About 63.9 percent of people were counted as voting no in the election, according to the California Secretary of States Office, while 36.1 percent voted yes, with all precincts partially reporting.

Newsom gave a victory speech on Sept. 14, saying that when Californians voted no on the recall, they were saying yes to his administrations goals.

We said yes to all those things that we hold dear as Californians, and, I would argue, as Americanseconomic justice, social justice, racial justice, environmental justice, our values, Newsom said in his speech. All of those things were on the ballot this evening.

Elder received the most votes, at 46.9 percent, among candidates who would have replaced Newsom if he was recalled.

In the 2018 gubernatorial election, Newsom was elected by the widest margin in an election race since 1950. Since his time in office, Newsom has faced criticism for his decisions to close prisons, suspend the death penalty, enforce vaccine mandates, and enforce COVID-19 statewide restrictions.

The grassroots effort to recall the governor began in 2020, more than a year before the recall petition cleared on June 23, and state officials confirmed there were over 1,495,709 signatures, the amount required to hold a special recall election.

In previous interviews with The Epoch Times, recall organizers attributed the impetus of the recall campaign to the governors decisions regarding COVID-19 state-mandated shutdowns and restrictions.

At the height of the pandemic in November of last year, Newsom was heavily criticized for attending a party at the famed French Laundry restaurant in Napa without wearing a mask and with visitors from multiple householdsdespite telling state residents to stay home and avoid holiday gatherings.

Following the French Laundry incident, county registrar offices reported an increase of recall petition signatures by 596,721.

As the pandemic continued, California continued to release unemployment funds to residents whose jobs were lost due to the pandemic. As those eligible received additional funds, it was discovered more than $31 billion in state Employment Development Dept. funds were claimed by scammers, including prison inmates.

Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks to reporters at AltaMed Urgent Care in Santa Ana, Calif., on March 25, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Amid the recall process, Newsom also faced critics who opposed his decision to allow 76,000 state inmates, including violent criminals and repeat felons, to exit prison earlier than their release date through the help of Proposition 57, which allows inmates to receive credits for good behavior.

Recently, California announced the mandate of vaccines for health care workers and school personnel. In health care workspaces, workers are required to receive the vaccine by Sept. 30. Workers who refuse to receive the vaccine and fail to obtain a religious or medical exemption will be out of a job come Oct. 1.

The last time a governor was recalled in the state was in 2003, when Gray Davis was in office. Arnold Schwarzenegger succeeded Davis after 55 percent of state voters voted yes on the recall.

On Sept. 13, President Joe Biden visited Long Beach to promote Newsoms campaign, calling GOP candidate Elder a clone of Donald Trump.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Larry Elder speaks to supporters during a rally in Westminster, Calif., on Sept. 4, 2021. (Ringo Chiu/AFP via Getty Images)

Elderan Epoch Times contributor and host of Larry Elder for The Epoch Times on EpochTVhad said if elected governor, he would immediately move to end mask and vaccine mandates. He also said he would suspend the California Environmental Quality Act, noting its effect on the cost of new housing being built and other construction projects.

This article has been updated with information about Elder conceding.
A man load .223 bullets into an AR-15 assault rifle at FT3 tactical shooting range in Stanton, Calif., on May 3, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Californians Literally Dodge a Bullet on DA BillFor Now

Commentary

At the last minute, a horrible, pro-crime bill was recently put on inactive status by its co-author, state Sen. Josh Newman (D-Fullerton). Assembly Bill 759 was introduced by Newman and Assemblyman Kevin McCarty (D-West Sacramento). It earlier had passed the full Assembly and three Senate committees.

It would have moved the elections for county district attorney, sheriff, and assessor from the years governors are elected, such as 2022, to the presidential election years, such as 2024. Current incumbents would receive extended six-year terms, lasting until 2024 instead of to 2022.

McCarty explained the rationale: AB 759 increases political participation in countywide elections that have the most impact on daily lives of California residents. This bill is not an attempt to attack the systemit will ensure that the greatest number of voters weigh in on these positions, which is good for representative democracy.

The opposition was led by district attorneys (DAs) and sheriffs themselves. Its a political power grab by legislators in Sacramento as they are specifically trying to target district attorneys who are in favor of personal accountability and public safety, said San Bernardino County District Attorney Jason Anderson.

Its true voters tend to turn out in greater numbers during presidential elections. Theres vast national attention. And even though Democratic presidential candidates now win by two-thirds margins over their Republican rivals in California, people still like to vote for their national leader.

But AB 759 would have led to the election of more radical DAs, such as San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin and George Gascon, the current DA of Los Angeles Countyand, weirdly, DA of San Francisco from 2011-19.

These radicals have turned loose convicted criminals and refused to prosecute the perpetrators of supposedly petty crimes, such as shoplifting. The results:

San Francisco

SFist in August: San Francisco saw just 14 gun homicides in 2019, then 15 in 2020, but by the end of July 2021, already 21 in a year that has five more months to go.

And in October, the city will begin a highly unconventional (though not unprecedented) solution. The Examiner reports on a pilot program to begin then that will essentially offer high-risk individuals $300 a month to not shoot anyone, or be shot themselves.

KGO in May: Neighbors near San Franciscos Palace of Fine Arts say car thefts right now may be worse than theyve ever been. Reported crimes are up in other tourist spots, too  Every single day, more and more car break-ins, says Neil Kay, who lives in the area.

We checked Larceny theft cases in April at other tourist spots like Lombard Street and the section of San Francisco near the late Cliff House  The 111 cases are actually more than double of what we saw during that same time in 2019.

Los Angeles

Los Angeles Magazine in July: There were more than 350 murders in L.A. last year, a 38 percent increase from 2019.

And the trend appears to be continuing. The LAPD reports that in the first 24 weeks of 2021, reports of shots fired were up 48 percent. The number of people wounded by gun violence was up 50 percent. And homicides were up 26 percent. Los Angeles is on track to record 437 murders this year, the most since 2006.

Both cities have become globally notorious for being populated with thousands of homeless people, who sometimes defecate in public on the city streets.

The solution for these problems has been known for a long time. Its called the Broken Window Theory, which posits broken windows in an areaand such other things as graffiti-covered buildings and the homeless not being taken care of off the streetssend signals to criminals that crime will not be punished. Conversely, if the windows are repaired, the graffiti removed and the homeless given proper carethen criminals know they will be prosecuted, too.

Rudy Giuliani implemented the theory when he was the mayor of New York City in the 1990s. The policy turned one of the most crime-ridden cities in America into one of the safest. The policy was continued by Mayor Michael Bloomberg in the 2000s. Unfortunately, it was discontinued by the current mayor, Bill de Blasio, who fortunately will be leaving office after the November election.

His likely replacement, Brooklyn President Eric Adams, is a retired policemen who supports both police reform as a member of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care, and tough enforcement of the laws to reduce crime. As Boudin and Gascon do not understand, the two goals are not contradictory.

Although minorities need to be assured there will be no racialized police harassment, they also need to be sure their streets are safe. The spikes in crime are not occurring in the gated communities of the wealthy liberals who support Boudin, Gascon, Newman and McCarty.

California needs real reformers like Adams, not radical, leftist ideologues like Gascon and Boudin.

Although AB 759 is dead for now, it will be coming back. Next year is an election year, so it could have been toxic for some seats. The mid-term elections are also generally tough for the party in power in the White House.

McCarty has won his recent elections with 70 percent of the votes, so his seat is safe. Newman is not up for reelection until 2024. But he was recalled in 2018 before being elected again in 2020.

So AB 759 likely will be put on the back burner until 2023. In the California Legislature, even the worst legislation eventually comes back like a bad penny.
Conservative MP Kenny Chiu rises during question period in the House of Commons on April 13, 2021. (The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld)

Candidates Standing Up for Rights in China Targeted During Election Campaign

Poll shows Canadians 10 times more likely to vote for a party that has a strong stance on China

Election candidates who have taken positions against the Chinese regimes human rights infractions and interference operations are finding themselves targets of efforts to rob them of votes, such as smear campaigns, candidates and activists say.

Conservative candidate Kenny Chiu, who is seeking re-election in the B.C. riding of StevestonRichmond East, says he has been a target of misinformation against him in previous election campaigns, but this year it has been exceptional.



A man enters an advance polling station in Ottawa on Sept. 10, 2021, ahead of the federal election on Sept. 20. (The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld)

Its nothing compared to what Ive seenits multi-dimensional, Chiu told The Epoch Times, referring to social media posts, radio commentaries, and online articles in pro-Beijing media that portray him negatively.

Gloria Fung, president of Canada-Hong Kong Link, says theres a well-orchestrated campaign to smear and slander candidates who are vocal about the human rights abuses committed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

This kind of direct interference is very, very obvious and has become more and more aggressive, Fung said in an interview.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service said in a report in July that it has seen persistent and advanced state-sponsored activity targeting elections in Canada for many years and continues to see a rise in its frequency and sophistication. In a rare public address in February, CSIS head David Vigneault singled out China and Russia as hostile foreign governments engaged in activities that directly target Canadas national security.

A poll by Nanos released in September ahead of the Sept. 20 federal election shows that 63 percent of Canadians want the government to be more forceful in its relations with China. It adds that Canadians are 10 times more likely than less likely to vote for a federal party if it had a stronger stance against China (45 percent more likely, 4 percent less likely).

OToole Targeted

The online articles and posts arent only directed at candidates. Chinese state-owned media have also published hostile reports against the Conservative Party and leader Erin OToole, who has taken a strong position against the CCP.

The Conservative Partys platform features a detailed plan on dealing with the Chinese regime, including fighting foreign interference and upholding human rights in China. The platform makes a point of saying that the plan is directed at the Chinese communist regime and that the Conservatives support the people of China.

In a Twitter post sharing an editorial on the Conservatives, Chinese state-owned Global Times denounced the partys platform as catering to Canadas toxic anti-China atmosphere and said that it shows them at wits end.

Conservative Leader Erin OToole speaks to the media in Quebec City on Aug. 18, 2021. (The Canadian Press/Ryan Remiorz)

Richard Lee, a spokesperson of the Toronto-based Chinese community organization Canadian Platform in Advocacy for Community Awareness (CPACA), says the CCP is concerned about a possible Conservative government.

The CCP is attacking OToole because of his policies on the CCP, he said through a translator.

Misinformation Campaign

As an MP, Chiu introduced Bill C-282, a private members bill that seeks to compel those working on behalf of foreign entities to register as foreign agents in order to increase transparency.

The United States and Australia already have similar legislation. Shortly before Australias version of the legislation came into effect in 2017, two former cabinet ministers and a former premier resigned their posts with organizations that have strong links to the CCP.

The poll by Nanos shows that a strong majority of Canadians strongly support (68 percent) or support (20 percent) the establishment of a foreign agent registration act.

Chiu says that his bill was meant to combat foreign interference but that it is being deliberately misrepresented to mislead those in the Chinese community to believe its against their interests.

All it takes is for someone to read the bill that I tabled, and they would realize what its about. But its being twisted, he said.

One such Chinese article seen by The Epoch Times contains a headline saying the bill is meant to suppress the Chinese community. Referring to Chius supportive vote in Parliament to recognize Chinas persecution of Uyghur Muslims as genocide and his demand for Magnitsky sanctions on officials responsible for rights violations in Hong Kong, the article goes on to say that Chiu voted to support the Xinjiang Uyghur bill condemning China and demanded sanctions on Chinese and Hong Kong government officials.

The article urges more people to share the post if they care about the well-being of the Chinese community.

Police arrest protesters taking part in a pro-democracy demonstration in Hong Kong on July 1, 2020. (Bilong Song/The Epoch Times)

Chiu says the misinformation campaign against him is having an impact, noting that some people who used to volunteer for his campaign in previous elections havent joined this year and instead are supporting his Liberal opponent, Parm Bains.

The Epoch Times approached Bainss campaign for comments but didnt hear back.

Chiu also says some of his supporters feel restricted in defending him online against the smear campaign because they have family ties in China and are concerned about their safety.

What I want is just for the information being circulated to be true, he said. Its costing me a lot of distraction, and its sidetracking my attention. I would have hoped that people could judge me on policy and what Ive done as a member of Parliament.

Chiu says he doesnt know who is behind the misinformation campaign against him but says it should be investigated.

The attacks give the impression that they are co-ordinated, and the timing is just working perfectly, he said.

Chiu, who was among the MPs sanctioned by the CCP in retaliation for Canadas sanctions against Chinese officials involved in persecuting Uyghurs, says the CCP tries to brainwash the Chinese people to believe that the Party, the country, and the race are all the same thing, and if you criticize the Party, youre criticizing the country itself.

He said there has also been a push in Canada to portray anyone who criticizes the CCP as fanning the flames of hate against Asians.

I cant disagree with that more, said Chiu, who immigrated to Canada from Hong Kong in 1989.

The more people of colour, Canadians from Chinese heritage, speak up against racism and speak up against the Chinese Communist Partys influence in Canada, the mistreatment of Falun Gong practitioners, genocidal actions against Uyghurs and Turkic Muslims,  the more the Canadian public will realize that the Chinese communities stand behind these Canadian core values.

Issues of the Chinese Nationals

Canada-Hong Kong Links Fung says the federal government as well as Elections Canada need to be cognizant of such smear campaigns during elections.

She adds that besides Chiu, there are other Canadian politicians who have been targeted for their stance on the CCP, including NDP candidate Jenny Kwan, who has been outspoken in calling for democracy in Hong Kong.

There has been a very well-orchestrated social media campaign to smear and slander candidates who are vocal [against CCPs rights violations], Fung said.

Kwan is seeking re-election in Vancouver East.

NDP MP Jenny Kwan asks a question during question period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on May 25, 2018. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press)

A statement provided to The Epoch Times by her campaign office states that Kwans campaign manager, Gabriel Yiu, objects to Fred Kwok, an organizer in Vancouvers Chinese community, having hosted a free lunch promoting the Liberal candidate for Vancouver East, saying that it undermined the integrity of the election process.

The Epoch Times reached out to the Liberal campaign for comment but didnt receive a response.

Kwok paid $1,500 for the Aug. 29 lunch, which, on top of previous political donations he had made, caused him to exceed Elections Canadas $1,650 limit. In an interview, he said he was ignorant of the rules and is now pursuing registration as a third party, defined by Elections Canada as a person or group wanting to participate in or influence elections.

In an invitation to the Aug. 29 event on Chinese social media platform WeChat seen by The Epoch Times, Kwok says everyone is invited to the free lunch and that if the Liberal candidate, Josh Vander Vies, wins, it would mean that at least some more MPs are paying attention to issues of the Chinese nationals.

The statement from Kwans campaign says that her campaign manager is unsure what Kwok means when referring to issues of the Chinese nationals, and whether he is making references to Kwans stance on Chinas human right abuses and suppression of freedom. The statement adds that Kwans position is consistent with her position on human rights, whether in Canada or elsewhere.

Kwok has been an executive with a number of Chinese organizations in Vancouver, including the Chinese Benevolent Association of Vancouver (CBA), which takes positions aligned with Beijing. This has included running ads in Chinese newspapers denouncing pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong.

He told The Epoch Times that he organized the event so that the Chinese community can bring attention to issues that concern the community such as racism, and he wanted the community to get involved in the election and know the different candidates. He added that people take my word and spin it out of context and rejected the claim that he was promoting the Liberal candidate.

Kwok said that he doesnt care about what positions the candidates have when it comes to the Chinese regime and that he is mainly concerned about the local businesses in Chinatown.

When asked why his CBA organization is weighing in on the situation in Hong Kong if he is mainly preoccupied with local issues, he said, It is what it is, and I dont go on to keep explaining, so I just decline to answer any more questions.

Influence Campaigns

CPACAs Lee says its very clear that in recent years the CCP has significantly increased its influence operations within the Chinese community in Canada. This includes the Chinese Consulates control of candidates during elections and the regimes control of overseas Chinese media, he says.

Lee says he has observed that in this campaign, candidates from the Chinese community who are known to have links to the Chinese Consulate arent as outspoken on their position on China as before, as the Canadian public is more vigilant given the CCPs hostile acts against Canada, including the detention of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor. But he says behind the scenes, the candidates make their views known in platforms that are more private.

A man holds a sign bearing photographs of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, who have been detained in China, in Vancouver on Jan. 21, 2020. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press)

While the candidates arent talking about their positions and support for Beijing publicly, you can see them expressing their views on social media or other private groups where they are repeating the CCPs talking points, such as asking for the release of [Huawei executive] Meng Wanzhou and repeating Beijings position on Hong Kong and Xinjiang,  he said.

At the same time, Lee says, influence operations are on full display on social media to discourage votes for politicians and parties that go against CCPs interests.

They are using these social media posts to influence the Chinese community.

With reporting by Limin Zhou
Travelers make their way to the gates at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport in Detroit, Mich., on June 12, 2021. (Seth Herald/Reuters)

CDC Advises Against Travel to Afghanistan, Other Countries Over COVID-19

WashingtonThe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Monday warned against travel to Afghanistan, Albania, Serbia, Belize, Lithuania, and four other destinations because of COVID-19 concerns.

The CDC raised its travel recommendations to Level 4: Very High for nine destinations, telling Americans they should avoid travel to the locations. The destinations also include Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Slovenia, and Mauritius.

CDC raised its warning ratings to Level 3 for Australia, Romania, and Ethiopia, while lowering Brazil from Level 4 to Level 3.

The U.S. State Department also hiked its parallel Level 4: Do Not Travel advisories for most of the countries named by CDC on Monday. On Aug. 31, the State Department raised Afghanistan to Level 4: Do Not Travel.

By David Shepardson
Chicago Lawmakers to Permit Anonymous Complaints Against Police Officers

CHICAGOFor the first time in 40 years, any anonymous complaint filed against Chicago police officers will trigger an automatic preliminary investigation.

Its one of the top accountability measures approved as part of the new contract between the City of Chicago and the citys police union. The contract was approved by the Chicago City Council on Aug. 14 by a 408 vote.

Under the new contract, if the preliminary investigation of an anonymous complaint finds objective evidence and is certified, a full-fledged investigation will begin, which could lead to one of four findings: sustained, not sustained, exonerated, or unfounded.

Disciplinary actions against officers will only be recommended if the finding is sustained. Such findings account for about 38 percent of all of the investigations concluded between 2016 and 2020 by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA), according to an annual report.

In 2020, COPAthe main investigative body of complaints against police in Chicagorecorded 3,504 complaints against officers, a 45 percent increase from 2016. Half of the complaints in 2020 were about improper search or seizure; 25 percent alleged excessive force.

As a disciplinary protection in the new contract, police officers will have the right to request arbitration before any anonymous complaints against them turn into a full investigation. If the arbitrator decides a complaint lacks objective evidence, the case will be closed and erased from the officers record.

Prior to the new contract, anonymous complaints were only permitted for criminal, secondary employment, and medical role abuse allegations.

In total, an unprecedented number of 36 accountability measures are included in the new contract.

Never in the City of Chicago has that happened before, said James Franczek, a private attorney who represented the city in the contract negotiations, at the Sept. 7 Workforce Development Committee hearing.

On the financial side, the new contract affords officers an incremental pay increase totaling 20 percent over eight years, including a 10.5 percent retroactive pay raise between July 2017 to December 2021 and another 9.5 percent raise between 2022 and 2025.

For patrol police officers, those who have been on the job for more than a year, their annual pay increases to $76,124 in 2021; for those who have been on the job for more than 25 years, annual pay increases to $106,571 in 2021. Chicago patrol officers, numbering about 9,000, are the backbone of the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) Lodge No. 7.

The total retroactive pay raise through the end of 2021 will cost Chicago taxpayers around $377 million, according to Rose Tibayan, director of public affairs at the Office of Budget and Management, in an email to The Epoch Times. The total pay raise in 2022 will cost around $165 million.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the police union FOP board reached a tentative contract agreement in July, almost four years after the last contract expired on June 30, 2017, under former Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

A major sticking point in the negotiations had been the citys desire to strip away more disciplinary protections in exchange for a raise in pay, Chicago FOP President John Catanzara said in a previous interview.
Students study outdoors at a countryside primary school on May 22, 2007 in Huxian County of Shaanxi Province, China. Class is held outdoors for safety due to the schoolhouse being in danger of collapsing. In some rural areas of China, education still faces a lack of funding, good teachers, and stable facilities. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images)

Chinas Implementation of Double Reduction Indicates Political Infighting: Analyst

On July 24, the General Office of the Central Committee of the CCP and the General Office of the State Council jointly issued the Opinions on Improving and Reducing the Burden of Students Homework and Off-campus Training in Compulsory Education (Opinions), which was effective immediately.

The Opinions explicitly put forward the double reduction policy, that is, reducing the students burdens of homework and off-campus training. The Opinions stated that no public financing of subject-based training institutions is allowed, no new subject-based training institution is approved, and existing subject-based training institutions at the compulsory education stage should register as non-profit.

After the double reduction struck down Chinas education and training industry, the biggest concern for millions of Chinese parents and teachers was where to sent students for after school programs.

After school programs, or subject-based training institutions, are what Chinese parents typically rely on to prepare students for entrance exams for high schools and higher education.

A Chinese analyst explained to The Epoch Times that the policy was not new, but when the regime publicized its regulations on the industry again, it showed the determination of current leader Xi Jinpings political struggle with Jiang Zemin, former leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

The Opinions came as a shock as indicated by the market value of the three listed education and training giants, TAL, Gotu, and EDU immediately falling by 50 percent; the well established JUREN announcing bankruptcy; and the popular English learning program for adults, Wall Street English, being on the verge of bankruptcy.

More small and medium-sized education and training institutions are suffering from the unpredictable. According to Chinese media reports on Sept. 2, more than 160,000 education and training companies have had their licences cancelled or revoked as of Sept. 1, an increase of nearly 30 percent year-on-year.

A student (L) has her body temperature checked before entering a school to sit the National College Entrance Examination (NCEE), known as Gaokao, in Nanjing, in Chinas eastern Jiangsu province on July 7, 2020. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

A Dead End for the After School Programs

To many Chinese parents, their concern only comes to one thing: Can the students go to the after school programs?

Richard Zhang (anonymous) is a manager of a municipal education bureau in China. He said, Its very unlikely. The authority is serious this time.

Zhang said the policy did not immediately stop subject-based training; however, It mainly cuts off the connection between the subject-based training industry and the capital.

He said, From a long-term perspective, if the double reduction policy is really implemented, the current training institutions wont survive the rigid regulation on non-profit, and the strict restriction on time and content for supplementary lessons.

According to the double reduction policy, all subject-based training institutions must be registered as non-profit; offline classes can only be done after the normal working day, no later than 8:30 p.m., online classes should end by 9:00 p.m., and no classes are allowed on national statutory holidays, weekends, or during winter and summer breaks. The training content also strictly prohibits advanced training.

The Chinese online posts tend to believe the policy will force parents to seek private tutors, which would increase the financial burden for parents.

Zhang agreed that private tutors could be the alternative, however, he also argues, Tutoring may become only suitable for a very small number of people. The vast majority of families should not have this financial burden, because they simply cannot afford it.

He explained that the tutoring market mostly hires school teachers or faculty from subject-based training institutions. The strict regulations will cut down the number of teachers available and time allowed for supplementary lessons. Its likely the tutoring fees may rise to a level that ordinary families cannot afford, he added.

On Aug. 18, the famous Tutor Center of East China Normal University announced its closing of businesses related to tutoring in reaction to the policy.

Demand Exists, Supply Is Cut Off

Zhang indicated that the double reduction policy is not new. The implementation actually relies on the local Party committee and local government. The Education Bureau has very little control.

He said that the latest notice issued by the Education Bureau for the autumn semester had its priority on epidemic prevention, deepening the study of Party history, and the introduction of ideological thinking into the classroom. There was not much action or publicity on the double reduction, Zhang added.

On June 15, the Ministry of Education established an off-campus education and training supervision department responsible for promoting the implementation of the double reduction policy. But Zhang doubts the effect of this supervisory department.

According to an article in the Journal of the Chinese Society of Education in 2020, the author posits that theoretically, the educational administrative department possesses the executive power, but does not have the actual capacity for law enforcement. The local governments management of education and training institutions actually relies on the public security, industry and commerce, market supervision, and health departments to enforce the law.

Zhang said that the Education Bureau would not have the manpower to supervise and implement these policies; more importantly, it does not have the power and confidence to enforce the law.

He said, The power and interest related to most of the capital and large institutions forbid the Education Bureau from implementing the policy.

Zhang also said, It looks like Xi Jinping is serious this time. But, the specific work depends on the local governments.

In Zhangs view, the double reduction is more like a supply-side reform by Xi.

The central government engages in top level design. Hasnt it talked about supply side reforms? Double reduction is just that. Double reduction may not eliminate the demand for supplementary classes, but will likely eliminate the supply of those classes. After this hit, most Chinese students may not have any supplementary classes.

Political Infighting Behind Double Reduction

Judging from relevant rules and background of the double reduction, it is not Xis new policy, but rather a revisit to his failed policy.

According to the Opinions, the Double Reduction policy includes eight sections and a total of 30 instructions; only article 13, Approval of institutions must be assessed with stringent measure, is new.

The rest of the directives mostly reiterate various policies and decrees issued by the Ministry of Education since 2016.

In addition, there are four directives, Articles 27-30, that specifically demand the Partys strong leadership to supervise and implement the policy in various departments.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping (L) and Chinas former party leader Jiang Zemin (R) attend the closing of the 19th Communist Party Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on October 24, 2017. (WANG ZHAO/AFP via Getty Images)

It is also worth noting that the double reduction policy is not from the education system, but is directly led by Xi Jinping and promulgated by the two central offices of the CCP.

When Xi presided over the 19th meeting of the central committee on May 21, he deliberated and approved the double reduction policy. On July 24, the two central offices issued the Opinions.

The Economic Daily, a Party newspaper under the State Council, revealed the signal behind Xis policy in an Aug. 1 report, titled, Double Reduction Signals De-industrialization of Education.

Former Party chief Jiang Zemin started the industrialization of education in the 1990s, as a result of his money-based governing.

Jiangs crony, Chen Zhili, promoted the industrialization of education when she was the Minister of Education between 1998 and 2003, which directly led to chaos and corruption in Chinas education sector. Since then, education has become a new financial burden for the Chinese people.

Xis Battle To Industrialize Education

The main characteristic of Jiangs industrialization of education is that it turned education from a public imperative to profit-maker. Education has become a business with the goal of making money.

The fact that Xi mentioned students burdens can be traced back to the National Education Conference on Sept. 10, 2018 when he said, The most prominent problem in education is that primary and secondary school students work too hard and are tired  off-campus training institutions must be supervised by law  to reverse utilitarian tendency in education.

On Dec. 28, 2018, nine departments, including the ministries of education and public security, issued The 30 measures to reduce the burden of primary and secondary school students to local governments. The 30 measures are similar to those in the current double reduction policy.

Initially, Xis demand only temporarily affected the off-campus training institutions. The subsequent reshuffle in the market accelerated the growth of the education and training industry. For example, TAL Education Group stock plummeted to its lowest point in October 2018, but excelled and reached its historical high in February 2021. The market value of the company rose by nearly four times in 16 months, reaching nearly $350 billion, according to the Chinese finance report.

The Chinese media claimed the failure of the measures forced the regime to adopt the most stringent policy.

Commentator Tang Ao expressed a different view on this.

He said that Xi declared his war earlier than 2018 and that off-campus training institutions were not his only target.

Tang said: As early as 2016, Xi had his first try; it wasnt successful. He raised the level and intensity of his shots in 2018, and rectified the education industry for the second time. The double reduction now is actually the third time that Xi has taken action in his battle for the industrialization of education.

On Nov. 7, 2016, Xis authorities revised Private Education Promotion Law (Law) through the Ministry of Education, which specifically defines a non-profit nature for private schools.

Article 19 of the revision stipulates: No for-profit private schools for compulsory education, and The organizers of non-profit private schools shall not obtain school-running profits.

The revised Law also deletes the distinction between private off-campus training institutions and private schools that were in the old Law. In fact, off-campus training institutions are also included within the jurisdiction of the education sector.

Jiang Zemin passed the old Law in the last year of his term. The law did not clarify the relationship between educational institutions and profitability, and was regarded by Chinese legal circles as a gray area for legal justification.

Tang said, Forbidding the subject-based training institutions to be listed is to reach one goal only, that is, non-profit.

Tang further explained that Xi failed his tests in 2016 and 2018, which forced him into a corner.

The fundamental purpose of double reduction is surely to strengthen the Partys ideological control over the people and education. But at the same time, Xi may also want to eliminate the remaining influence of Jiang Zemin by denying Jiangs industrialization of education. This is why Xi continued the actions he started in 2016. Tang said.

Based on the fact that the CCP has been governed by corrupt officials from its foundation, people wonder if Xi will return a clean and rectified education system to people.

Tang said, Theres no way to undo the damage caused by the industrialization of education. It has affected not just education or one generation.

He believes that private schools will be Xis next target.

According to a report in state-run media Xinhua, there are 186,700 private schools nationwide, accounting for more than one-third of the total number of schools in the country, and teaching close to one-fifth of all students in 2020.
Construction site of an Evergrande housing complex in Beijing on Sept. 13, 2021. (Greg Baker/AFP)

Chinas New Home Prices See Slowest Growth in 8 Months

Data on Sept. 15 showed Chinas home-price growth eased to an 8-month low, as property investment in August rose at the slowest pace in 18 months.

Average new home prices in 70 major Chinese cities grew 0.2 percent last month after rising 0.3 percent in July, according to Reuters calculations based on data released by the National Bureau of Statistics.

New home prices rose 4.2 percent in August from a year earlier, versus a 4.6 percent increase in July.

Chinese authorities moved to curb the property industry in the past year, including tightening home-purchase rules and capping banks lending.

The countrys second-largest property developer China Evergrande Group, is also struggling with cash flow and possible default for failing to sell assets fast enough to balance its $300 billion debts.

Tao Ray, a former scholar from Harvard University, told The Epoch Times on he expects that Chinese authorities will intervene in the market to curb the overall decline in home prices.

People will see Chinas real estate enter a priceless stage, where house prices do not fall, but the growth rate slows down with market turnover falls, he said.

Luo Ya and Reuters contributed to this report.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping (L) and General Fang Fenghui, chief of the general staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, wait to meet General Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on August 17, 2017. (Andy Wong/AFP via Getty Images)

Chinas Xi Solidifies Grip on Military With New Generals: Analysts

Chinese leader Xi Jinping promoted five military officers to the rank of general earlier this month, bringing the total number of generals he has raised to 58.

Experts believe that the promotions simultaneously serve the purposes of solidifying Xis personal power over the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) and extending the Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) influence in Central Asia.

Notably, Xis promotion of Wang Haijiang to the position of commander of the Western Theater Command mere months after Wangs appointment as commander of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region has raised questions regarding Xis trust of top military brass throughout the PLA.

Consolidating Power

Kevin McCauley, an independent China analyst who previously worked for the U.S. Department of Defense for 26 years, said that Xi has consistently used his political power to promote generals loyal to him.

Since coming to power Xi has promoted officers loyal to him and used corruption charges against those he felt were not loyal, McCauley told The Epoch Times. Xis removal of officers, and promotions of those he trusts, cemented his control over the military and opened the way for the major reforms to the PLA he has pushed through.

The Chinese leader has increasingly engaged in efforts to wipe out rivals within the CCP and PLA, and the purge does not appear to be ending. Just this month, Chinese state-owned media promoted a new struggle to encourage adherence to and the strengthening of Xis leadership over the nation.

Occupying a central place in these purges has been the leadership of Western Theater Command (WTC), a military region created in 2016 which oversees restive regions such as Xinjiang and Tibet, as well as important borders with Afghanistan, Bhutan, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia and Tajikistan.

Wang is the third general to be named commander of the WTC in just nine months.

Zhang Xudong was assigned to the post in December of 2020 and was replaced Xu Qiling in June, who was subsequently replaced by Wang in August.

Both Zhang and Xu disappeared after being replaced, exacerbating fears that Xis purge of military officers perceived as being insufficiently loyal was still in full swing.

McCauley said that the promotion of strictly loyal officers was a key method by which Xi maintained control of the PLA and CCP. Because of this, he believes that Wang will either toe the line or face a similar fate to his predecessors.

Xi has clearly promoted officers he feels he can trust and has the obedience of the PLA, McCauley said. He has similarly strengthened his position within the CCP.

External and internal policies related to the WTC are determined within the Central Military Commission and Party, McCauley said. Wang will execute those policies or be removed.

Frank Lehberger, a senior fellow at the India-based Usanas Foundation who spent twenty years in Tibet doing field research, agreed, saying that Xi was wholly focused on weeding out political enemies in the PLA.

Xi is now fully concentrating on defeating internal enemies who could manage to block his lofty ambitions, Lehberger told The Epoch Times.

Lehberger explained that Xi was doubling down on remaking the CCP and PLA in his own image, and that his restructuring of the military and purge of generals was largely aimed at overcoming his predecessor Hu Jintaos reliance on the whims of a military largely shaped by Hus own predecessor, Jiang Zemin.

In 2013, Xi was confronted with a PLA that was shaped by Jiang Zemin, who was State-President of China, CCP general secretary and Central Military Committee (CMC) chairman in one person from 1992 to 2002, Lehberger said.

Determined not to become the next CMC chairman in-name-only, Xi started to systematically dismantle Jiangs PLA, Lehberger added.

Lehberger said that the very structure of the new Theater Commands created in 2016 assisted Xi in this endeavor by breaking up the old organizational power bases of a military that still largely reveres the contributions of Jiang.

To this end, Lehberger believes that one key goal of Xis military reforms was actually to prevent anyone inside the PLA from gaining enough power to threaten him politically.

An Expeditionary PLA

Xis accumulation of power does not end in China, however. His efforts to appoint generals personally loyal to him and to modernize the PLA into a modern expeditionary force capable of projecting CCP ambitions globally are now contributing to a security situation in Central Asia that could reshape the international order, analysts say.

The CCP clearly wants to develop an expeditionary military capability and are developing the theoretical foundation, as well as military equipment to support a greater overseas military presence, McCauley said.

Right now, the CCPs influence campaigns combined with the Belt and Road Initiative to gain influence appear to be succeeding in the Asia-Pacific region, Middle East, and Africa, McCauley added.

Perhaps nowhere is this shifting of influence more evident than in Afghanistan, where the newly resurgent Taliban recently declared China to be its main partner.

Experts previously claimed that the CCP would effectively bribe the Taliban for access to lucrative infrastructure projects and mineral rights, but the security situation across the region of Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India presents a more complex problem than mere economic coercion might suggest.

Specifically, though it is expected that the CCP could leverage its economic clout with the Taliban to mitigate the development of new terrorist cells in Afghanistan, the Taliban may pursue the development of such cells in Pakistan or India. Such cells would prove fruitful for Islamists seeking to strike at India, though would ironically create a thorn in the side of the CCP.

Beijing clearly wants to foster friendly relations with the Taliban and will offer economic development aid not only to gain access to Afghanistans mineral wealth, but also to influence the Taliban not to support terrorist groups within the PRC [Peoples Republic of China], McCauley said.

Taliban support of insurgent groups in India could raise tensions in the region, McCauley added. These developments could lead to another crisis between Pakistan and India.

The emboldened and American-armed Taliban could now be tempted to strengthen fundamentalist currents in Pakistan and gain control over the government plus the army with its nuclear arsenal, Lehberger said. The Chinese have no way of preventing the Taliban from doing all that inside Pakistan.

Thus, though the burgeoning relationship between the CCP, Pakistan, and Taliban has been described as a new new axis of collaborators, the reality of the situation is more precarious, and the return of Al-Qaeda fighters to Afghanistan may ultimately threaten Chinese ambitions in the region.

To this end, both McCauley and Lehberger believed that the possibility of unrest and terrorism in Central Asia remained a threat to the CCP, but that neither that threat nor the increased presence of U.S.-allied militaries in the Indo-Pacific was adequately deterring Xi from leveraging the CCP and PLA from carrying out his ambitions.

The U.S. and its allies need to develop a coherent strategic program to counter CCP propaganda and influence campaigns, as well as the CCPs use of economic development programs to expand its overseas influence, McCauley said.

The US and its allies should pay more attention to strengthen relations with Central Asian countries and weaken the PRCs and Russias influence in this area, he added.

Lehberger said, The international community should simply not cooperate with China and scrutinize their intentions much more closely.
Zhou Xiaoxuan, also known by her online name Xianzi, arrives at a court for a sexual harassment case involving a Chinese state TV host, in Beijing, China, on Sept. 14, 2021. (Tingshu Wang/Reuters)

Chinese Court Rules Against #MeToo Plaintiff

BEIJINGA Beijing court late on Tuesday ruled against the plaintiff in a high-profile Chinese sexual harassment case, saying there was insufficient evidence to support her claims.

Zhou Xiaoxuan, 28, in a series of social media posts in 2018 accused television personality Zhu Jun at state broadcaster CCTV of groping and forcibly kissing her in 2014 when she was an intern working for him, allegations he denies.

Zhous accusation quickly went viral and she sued Zhu for damages three years ago, although the first hearing of the case was not held until December 2020 behind closed doors. The second hearing on Tuesday was also held behind closed doors.

The Haidian Peoples Court said in a judgement which only identified Zhou and Zhu by their surnames that the evidence submitted was insufficient to prove sexual harassment.

It was unclear if Zhu was present in the court on Tuesday. A lawyer for Zhu could not be reached.

A police line is set up near a court where Zhou Xiaoxuan, also known by her online name Xianzi, attends a court session for a sexual harassment case involving a Chinese state TV host, in Beijing, China, on Sept. 14, 2021. (Tingshu Wang/Reuters)

Zhou told a small group of supporters after the courts decision that after three years of pushing her case she felt exhausted and disappointed on hearing the verdict. In her view, she said, she had not been given a chance to give a proper account of what happened.

I dont know if I still have the courage to stick to it for another three years, so I dont know if this time will be a farewell.

Later in a statement, though, Zhou said her team would appeal the verdict.

We will definitely appeal, because in this case we didnt look at any of the core facts at all, that is all of the surveillance videos.

Chinas #MeToo movement took off in 2018 when a college student in Beijing publicly accused her professor of sexual harassment. It spread to NGOs, media, and other industries.
A woman walks past a large display at a plastic surgery clinic in Beijing on July 15, 2021. (Wang Zhao/AFP)

Chinese State Media Slam Medical Beauty Ads for False Propaganda

Chinas state-run Peoples Daily urged an imperative and urgent regulation on cosmetic surgery advertising, after Beijing launched a widespread campaign targeting industries including technology and celebrity fan culture.

On Sept. 14, the regime mouthpiece criticized Chinas beauty industry for what it called misleading consumers aesthetic tastes and values, and driving the pursuit of good looks as a shortcut to success.

In recent years, demand for plastic surgery or medical aesthetic treatment has boomed in China. Inspired by elements of foreign culture, such as Japans manga comics and South Koreas K-Pop, young adults in China now tend to seek V-shaped jawlines, wider eyes, and higher noses.

The newspaper warned the clinics had crossed the regulatory redline for spreading false claims, which failed to caution people about potential risks behind the treatment.

Medical beauty advertisements are overwhelmingly pervasive, it said.

Yet the spate of a wide-ranging regulatory overhaul has raised investors concerns over the sectors that might come under scrutiny next and how long it will last.

China released a five-year plan on Aug. 11 to tighten social control, claiming laws will be strengthened for key fields such as technology, culture, and public health, to meet peoples demands for a good life.

Earlier this month, Shanghais market regulator fined the Chinese unit of Canada Goose Holdings Inc. 450,000 yuan ($70,000) for false advertising in June.

Reuters contributed to this report.
Chinese Warships Go Into US Economic Zone

Chinese warships have entered Americas exclusive economic zone. Chinese state-run media are calling it a countermeasure against the United States.

A Chinese ship rams into a Japanese ship after coast guard ships from both countries had a confrontation over disputed territory.

Wikipedia is banning a group of article editors from mainland China. The users reportedly threatened to doxx and report Hong Kong users over political disagreements.

A Chinese man says he learned about Hong Kongs fight for freedom through foreign social media. But after he voiced his support online, something went wrong.

A college graduate from Hong Kong tells NTD her story after fleeing to the United States to avoid the Chinese Communist Partys oppression.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel for more first-hand news from China.

For more news and videos, please visit our website and Twitter.
Clyde Prestowitz: How Communist China Entrapped Americas Elite, from Washington to Wall Street

Nearly 20 years after China was admitted to the World Trade Organization, China has not become more democratic or free. And Western capital has ultimately only strengthened Chinas communist regime.

We were fooling ourselves, says Clyde Prestowitz.

Prestowitz was a leader in the first U.S. trade mission to China in 1982, and hes served as an adviser to four presidents, both Republican and Democrat. He is the author of The World Turned Upside Down: America, China, and the Struggle for Global Leadership.

By investing in Chinese companies with intimate ties to the Chinese regime, companies in the free world have inadvertently strengthened this anti-free speech, anti-liberty, anti-soul Communist Party, Prestowitz says. Its about fundamental human values.

Jan Jekielek: Clyde Prestowitz, its such a pleasure to have you on American Thought Leaders.

Clyde Prestowitz: Thank you, good to be here.

Mr. Jekielek: Well, Ive just had such a, frankly, wonderful and educational time reading your book.

Mr. Prestowitz: Oh, great.

Mr. Jekielek: A lot of what Ive been reading in there is highly applicable to what were seeing happening in the world as we speak. Before we go into all the details of your book, I wanted to talk a little bit about current events because, again, I feel like youre going to have a very interesting vantage point on a few points.

First of all, the Chinese seem interested in Afghanistan right now as the U.S. has withdrawn. Were hearing that theyre thinking about running Bagram Air Base. Were hearing that the Taliban is saying that Chinas going to fund them. Aside from, I suppose, the propaganda victory here, what is the significance?

Mr. Prestowitz: Its a mixed bag for China. There is a propaganda victory here, and they are milking it for that. But lets not forget that all of this program that theyve had to redo, the Uyghurs in Xinjiang, arises out of their fear of Islamic nationalism.

I think that theres some nervousness in Beijing about the Americans now being out of Afghanistan. That opens it up for the Taliban and other similar types in the Muslim community to make trouble for China. So on the surface, they are playing it as a great defeat for America and a positive result for China. But internally, I dont think that they believe that.

Mr. Jekielek: Fascinating. So what do you expect they will do at this point? Because right now, its just all basically rumors and statements.

Mr. Prestowitz: Actually, I dont think that theyre going to do a lot. I wouldnt be surprised if theres some announcement of a belt and road project, and China will put up $50 billion or something like that. But itll be a long time before you see the $50 billion.

Its not just China involved here; Russia is involved here and, of course, Pakistan. And Pakistan has an internally contradictory role. On the one hand, they have propagated or given refuge to the Taliban.

But on the other hand, Pakistan itself is divided and they dont want to lose control. So it actually creates a lot of complications. Aside from the propaganda piece of it, which is going to disappear quickly, I dont see that theres any great gain for China. It could complicate Chinas life.

Mr. Jekielek: Interesting. Lets jump to another headline, which Im sure youre very aware of. Ill read it to you: Beijing Demands the US Fulfill its Wishlist in Exchange for Cooperation on Climate Change.

Mr. Prestowitz: Right, right. This is so interesting, isnt it? China is the biggest emitter globally, double Americas emissions, and China is saying, Well, we cant do anything about that unless you Americans talk more nicely to us and respond to our ridiculous requests or demands from you.

This is a revelation, I think an unwitting revelation, by China of its true self. Effectively, its not honest. Effectively, it doesnt care about emissions. What it cares about is maintaining the power of the Chinese Communist Party. It has revealed that in that kind of reaction.

Mr. Jekielek: What comes through in your book, to me, probably a central point, is how important the supremacy of the Party is to the leadership, and frankly, to anything anyone ever does there, right?

Mr. Prestowitz: Right. Its important for people in the West to try to get a grasp of the extent and intent of the Chinese Communist Party. We say Chinese Communist Party, but in this context, we could say a communist party or we could say a Leninist party because actually, the Chinese Communist Party doesnt exhort so much communism, but it is purely Leninist.

Whats the difference? The point here is that Lenin established a model for governing in which complete power is concentrated in the hands of very few people who are the party. The characteristic of a Leninist party is one that it seeks to control everything very narrowly, in very few hands.

And secondly, its paranoiac. Its constantly looking because it, itself, is suspicious because it knows that it, itself, would cheat and scratch and bite and kick. It assumes everybody else does, too. Its always looking around for some small deviation that it has to stamp out in order to maintain its power and control. So its a paranoiac party.

That means that it has to survey constantly whats going on in every element of the society, be it medicine or arts or engineering or whatever it is. The party has to know whats going on and surveil that and be sure that theres no threat to the party there.

You see that in what is developing in China with surveillance using artificial intelligence to track people and social scores and so forth. That grows out of this paranoia of the party. Imagine that the president of the United States named, appointed, every governor of every state, every mayor of every city, every CEO of every major corporation.

Imagine that the army, the United States Army, is not the United States Army, but its the Democratic Party Army or the Republican Party Army. Thats very important because when people talk about the PLA, Peoples Liberation Army, most people in the West think this is a Chinese army. It is not. The army is an arm of the Party.

The army does not defend the country. It defends the party. Imagine that the president of the United States has his own army, and he names every important person in the country. Thats what Xi Jinping does.

We talk about the president of the United States being the most powerful man in the world. Hes not, not by a long shot. Xi Jinping is. Its absolutely critical for people in the West to understand that. Because of that concentration of power, what it means is that the holder of the power, in this case, we think Xi Jinping or the Politburo, the few top leaders of the Chinese Communist Party, have a program.

They have a complete strategy. Theyre thinking about,  what is our technology strategy? What is our military strategy? What is our welfare strategy? They have a completely coordinated strategy across the board, and nothing is being left to chance.

This is so alien to the West, and particularly to the individualistic United States, that its very hard for us to grasp. But if we dont grasp that, we cant adequately respond to the challenge that China poses.

Mr. Jekielek: Something that you mentioned, which is even less intuitive, or that may be the least intuitive, I would argue, is this idea that Xi plays a central role in choosing the CEOs of all the major corporations. Is that really true?

Mr. Prestowitz: Well, think about it. One-third of the Chinese GDP is generated by state-owned corporations. The heads of the state-owned corporations are directly named by the Party. So already, hes naming at least one-third of the major CEOs.

Mr. Jekielek: Those are the massive companies.

Mr. Prestowitz: Yes, right. Those are the huge state-owned things. Theyre spread all over the world. I mean, the Port of Piraeus in Greece, several of the ports in Australia, are run or owned by state-owned Chinese corporations.

Half of the pipelines in Australia are run and owned by state-owned Chinese corporations. These are very, very big and important operators.

The Chinese businessman whos probably most well known is Jack Ma of Alibaba. Now, I give him credit. He is an entrepreneur, and he did start Alibaba, and he built the company. He wasnt named by the Party.

But Jack got to the point where he thought that he could criticize the Party. He thought that he could be critical of the regulatory system that was being imposed, and Xi Jinping just cut his legs off, and cut them off at the knees. And Jack is now donating something like $15.5 billion to help the social equalization of the Chinese economy.

Even when the Party doesnt directly name the head of a corporation, the head of that corporation, whoever it is, is subordinate to the Party.

More important even than that is this: lets take an American corporation. Everybody knows Apple. Many people have iPhones or they have some Apple product, right? Now, in America, we call Apple an American company, and it technically is because its incorporated in America.

But think about it this way. In Washington, D.C., Tim Cook is a very powerful player. He spends millions of dollars in Washington on lobbyists, lawyers, advertising, you name it. He has power in Washington. He has instant entree. If he wants to talk to President Biden, he picks up the phone and he talks. If he wants to see a Senator or a Congressman, he gets that meeting. He makes big donations.

Apple, the corporation, makes political donations. He is a powerful force in Washington. In China, hes on his knees. He kowtows, just like all the other Chinese. He has no political influence at all in China.

To give you what this means, in 2015, the FBI in the United States was investigating a case. In order to solve the case, they needed to be able to open an Apple iPhone. They asked Apple to help them. And Apple said, No way. We are not opening anything for you. FBI, go jump in a lake. The FBI said, Okay, well take you to court. They began court proceedings against Apple.

Now, as it turned out, the FBI found an independent technologist who helped them open the phone, and so they dropped the cases. But Apple absolutely refused to cooperate with the U.S. government and the FBI.

Okay, fast-forward to 2019, and kids are demonstrating in Hong Kong against the imposition of the communist system in Hong Kong. Apple has, in its App Store, an app called Hong Kong Map Live, which if you have the app means that you can look at Hong Kong in real time.

What the kids were doing was they were looking at Hong Kong in real time and they were saying, Okay, the police are over there. Well demonstrate over here. Well, that just drove Beijing crazy. The China Peoples Daily, the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, began writing very strong editorials against this app.

Within two days, that app was out of the App Store. That gives you an idea of the relative [power]. In America, Tim Cook would not have taken the app out of the App Store, but in China, he takes it out.

Everything that Apple makes is made in China. Given that, in China, Tim and his team have virtually no power. Given that everything they make is in China and given how dependent they are on the Chinese infrastructure, we need realistically to recognize that Apple is a Chinese company. Its not an American company.

Apple will respond more quickly to what Xi Jinping wants than what Joe Biden wants. Xi Jinping is much more powerful vis-a-vis Apple than Joe Biden. Many other American companies, General Electric, FedEx, you name it, are all kowtowing. They have to kowtow to the Chinese Communist Party. They effectively have become captives of the Chinese Communist Party.

Mr. Jekielek: Thats very interesting, but theres also this element of the market for Apple. I dont want to rag on Apple here because there are plenty of corporations, as you mentioned, that are pretty much in exactly the same position. Essentially, Beijing has the power to turn off the market. That is an incredible power, right?

Mr. Prestowitz: Well, it does have the power to turn off the market. Its not a complete power, but we have seen that when China is upset with some American or some foreign company, it finds ways to push that company into more difficult waters. All the companies CEOs know that. Theres a thing in China called the death of a thousand cuts. No single cut will kill you, but after a while, they accumulate.

Whats important again for a Western audience to grasp is the informality of the power. If the U.S. government doesnt want Apple or doesnt want General Motors to do something, the government cant just pick up the phone and say, Tim, I want you to stop doing that. The U.S. government doesnt have the power to do that. It has to issue an order. It has to be a formal order. Then the company can decide to accept that or not accept it.

Mr. Jekielek: Or go to court.

Mr. Prestowitz: Or go to court, right. In America, the company can win in court. Well, in China, you dont go to court against the government, against the Chinese Communist Party. You cant win. What it means is that the government doesnt have to issue an order.

It can just lift its eyebrows and say, Well, you know, we have an inspection coming up next month. Who knows what might come out of an inspection? And so youre always under the potential of some informal wound that you dont know is coming if you dont shape up and respond in the desired way.

Mr. Jekielek: And follow the Party line.

Mr. Prestowitz: Follow the Party line.

Mr. Jekielek: Lets use that, right?

Mr. Prestowitz: Exactly, yes, right.

Mr. Jekielek: I cant help but think about this recent editorial actually written by George Soros criticizing BlackRock. At this very interesting time in history, when theres a lot of talk of decoupling, BlackRock is investing billions as we speak, and pushing everyone to do more, right? George Soros is coming out criticizing this. I thought that was fascinating.

Mr. Prestowitz: Really fascinating. It reflects Soros unique background. Soros grew up in Hungary under the Nazis and then got out before the communists could take them, but he knows what communism is.

Normally, you think of George Soros as a pirate on Wall Street. He broke the British pound. And obviously, hes made a lot of money. He has been a backer of liberal Democratic Party kinds of causes, but he knows who the communists are.

He knows what the [Chinese] Communist Party is. Effectively what he was saying was, Listen, Larry Fink of BlackRock, you may be a smart financial operator, but you have a blind spot. You think that this Chinese financial market is a financial market like the European or the American financial market. Its not, says George Soros.

You can lose a lot of money in that market, not necessarily because of market forces, but because of Communist Party forces. Its not just Wall Street, but its American CEOs, American political leaders, American journalists who dont grasp the true significance of the fact that China is not a Western-style market economy, and it never will be.

Mr. Jekielek: Theres also this question of trying to withdraw your investment.

Mr. Prestowitz: Exactly, try to take your money out of China. Exactly right. This is something that I get apoplectic about sometimes. I keep reading these articles about how the RMB, the Chinese yuan, is going to replace the dollar as the worlds main reserve currency.

Im thinking: but wait a minute, what are the requirements of a reserve currency? Well, you have to be able to move the money. You cannot move the money in China. Its just a fundamental contradiction.

If the Chinese Communist Party were to allow free movement of money into and out of China, it would lose control. It cannot lose control. Its a Communist Party. Its not going to allow free movement of money and its not going to become a reserve currency.

Mr. Jekielek: Well, but its kind of positioning this new digital yuan, right?

Mr. Prestowitz: Right.

Mr. Jekielek: Many people Ive spoken with think that this is going to be their play.

Mr. Prestowitz: They are trying.  They do, obviously, a lot of trade. And most of their trade is done, actually, in dollars. What they want to do is to shift so that if theyre selling something from China to El Salvador or whoever it happens to be, that the payment is not in dollars, but in RMB. They want to make it RMB. Having a digital RMB will facilitate all that.

Mr. Jekielek: Which then they can tie to their social credit structure.

Mr. Prestowitz: They can tie it to their social credit structure. Exactly, right. But you get back to the fundamental point: okay, you can make your payments in some currency, but what are you holding your reserves in? If youre holding your reserves in a circumstance in which the reserves cant be moved. It cant be activated; you dont have reserves. Thats the fundamental conundrum or contradiction of the [Chinese] Communist Party notion of reserve currency.

Mr. Jekielek: Clyde, this is actually really fascinating. It reminds me of something that I learned reading your book, which I wasnt fully aware of. That was that Hank Paulson, when he was working as the head of the Asian division of Goldman Sachs, had a foray into China in the 1990s, and what he did with the state-owned enterprises. Its sort of unclear to me whether he was fully aware of what he was doing, even. Maybe tell me a little bit about this.

Mr. Prestowitz: I think that Hank suffered, and still suffers, from the illusion that China wants to become and is becoming a market economy.

What Hank did for the Chinese wasat that time, Zhu Rongji was the main guider of the Chinese economy. And Zhus problem was that China had decided to go onto the capitalist road or use more market forces.

They had all of these state-owned enterprises. The state-owned enterprises, we think of them as corporations, but they had schools and hospitals and cafeterias. They were like a whole community. And Zhu was trying to clean them up.

His strategy was to just close down the ones that were the worst or unnecessary, but on the other hand, to rebuild and redo and make stronger those that were considered necessary and had great longer-term potential.

Think of it. Heres Zhu Rongji, and hes the top Chinese economy guy, but China has never had a real market economy. Theres not a lot of people there who know how to run it. Particularly, how do you finance it?

I mean, theyd just been taking the money out of the government account and giving it to the state-owned enterprises. So how do you really get money into these things?

Hank shows up. And Hank says, Ah, no problem at all. Well do a public offering. Well write up some shares for state-owned enterprise number one. Well just take that to New York, and well float it on the New York market. Investors will buy the shares, so youll have the money. Well, the Chinese just love Hank. They just love Hank. They paid him well.

Its all built on finding a way to take American money and put it into state-owned enterprises to rejuvenate state-owned enterprises. I mean state-owned, not private enterprises, but state-owned enterprises that are going to stay state-owned enterprises in China.

And, of course, Hank gets rewarded and Zhu Rongji got rewarded and the Chinese economy gets rewarded. George Soros is saying, You know what? Maybe the American investor is not going to get rewarded.

Mr. Jekielek: Weve seen that also with these recent IPOs that basically got cut off at the feet.

Mr. Prestowitz: Yes, they just cut them off. Right, exactly. What Xi has done in the last couple of months is really remarkable in terms of really sending [a message]. You couldnt send a more direct, louder signal to the global investor world about what the reality of China is than what Xi has done in the last several months.

Yet, Larry Fink is taking a billion dollars to put into investment in China. Go figure. Xi isnt kidding. Hes not hiding anything.

Mr. Jekielek: Theres been a lot of discussion, especially in recent years, about the role of ideology in decision-making in America and all over the world. Something that really comes through in your book is how the idea of free trade, against all semblance of reality or signals, became a quasi-religion to the whole of the U.S. government, and certainly Wall Street. Could argue conveniently so.

Mr. Prestowitz: Well, in the wake ofyou have to go back a little bit in history. Realize that the global economy was reinvented in 1948. So go past, back beyond 1948. If you look at the global economy, lets say after World War I, we had the Roaring Twenties and the New York Stock Exchange crash in 1929.

Then in 1930, the U.S. Congress passed and President Hoover signed a bill called the Smoot-Hawley Tariff, which dramatically increased American tariffs on certain imports from the rest of the world. That was immediately followed by the Great Depression.

Many people, many economists and many business leaders, felt that the tariff had, if not caused the Depression, greatly contributed to the Depression.

Then, because the Depression had contributed to the outbreak of World War II, they blamed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff not just for the Depression, but for the war.

In 1944, as it became clearer that the Allies were going to win the war, then the question became, okay, what do we do after the war? Right now, were all running wartime economies, but were not going to do that after the war, so what are we going to do?

That gave rise to whats known as the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944, at which economic leaders from all the countries, the major countries, sat down to think through how are we going to set up the global economy post-war?

Part of that was to say, Were going to have fixed exchange rates. The dollar will be the major currency, and the dollar will be valued at 35 ounces of gold. All other currencies will be tied to the dollar. Were going to have free trade, so were going to get rid of tariffs. And were getting rid of trade barriers of various kinds so that we can have a truly open world economy.

Now, that coincided with what I call the mathematization of economics because economists increasingly thought of themselves and wanted to think of themselves as a hard discipline.

I mean, politics is a soft discipline. You can say anything and get a PhD in political science. But if you get a PhD in chemistry or physics, you have to know the math. You have to be able to crunch the equations.

The economists wanted to be able to say, Hey, were just like the physics and the chemistry guys. We crunch the equations. Economics became very mathematical. But the problem was and is that, ultimately, economics is not about physical or chemical laws. There are no laws in economics.

It ultimately is about human behavior. Human behavior often can be anticipated; there are tendencies and trends, but theyre not laws. They change sometimes.

What has been happening, in my view, is that economists, in their efforts to make themselves scientific, have ignored the realities of the political, business, and technological world as it impacts economics.

 For most of our history, the United States had been protectionist and mercantilist, just like China is today or like Japan was back in the 1970s and 1980s. We had been the same way. Thats how we got rich.

But we moved away from that and we said, No, we are going to have free trade, open markets, free trade. Thats what we tried to do.

As time has progressed, what we have found is that on the one hand, there have been a lot of positive elements of free trade. We and other countries have profited from a lot of the free-trade policies, but particularly the United States has been a victim of, some people say, cheating.

I dont like to use the word cheating. Other countries have pursued mercantilist policies. Lets take a country like Korea.

Korea protected its domestic market and subsidized its exports. It has become a powerful economy based on that policy. But Korea could only do that because the United States accepted that Korean products would be dumped, sold below cost, in the American market.

This was sold to Americans because, hey, youre a consumer. Youre getting all these cheap products. You buy your shirts and everythingyour shirts and your shoes are cheap. You should be happy.

Yes, yes, thats right, the shoemakers will lose their jobs, and the guys who make suits will lose their jobs, but they can get other jobs. The continuation of this imbalance in trade policy, in my view, has worked and is working to undermine the longer-term productivity and innovation of the U.S. economy.

Mr. Jekielek: Its very interesting. You made the case in the book that prior to 1989, when the West was in the Cold War with the Soviet Union, there was also always this case that was being made for free trade, even when it was clearly not beneficial, when the other party was cheating or not following the rules.

Because you could say, We need them as an ally. The Pentagon people would come and would make that case if anyone ever talked about anything protectionist. But then after 1989, of course, the specter of communism wasnt looming, but the same policies were maintained, nonetheless.

Mr. Prestowitz: Yes, yes. And there was another element in the post-1989 world, which was there was a conviction that free-trade liberal political countries that this was the end.

Francis Fukuyama wrote a book famously called The End of History. In the book, what he effectively said was, Yes, from here on out, its obvious that liberal democratic politics and free-market economics are the future for everybody.

Some people said, Yes, but wait a minute. Heres China, and its an authoritarian country with a planned or semi-planned economy.

The response from the elite, from the American economics, political, diplomatic foreign policy elite was: dont worry, theyre going to become like us. Bill Clinton ran in 1992 on a slogan: no dictators from Baghdad to Beijing.

But as soon as Bill became president, that changed, and we started talking about positive engagement with China. We began negotiating with China about opening our market and enabling American investment in China and transfer of technology to China.

George W. Bush, when he became president, said that free trade plants the seeds of democracy. Wherever it goes, free trade plants the seeds of democracy. We need to promote more free trade with China because, inevitably, that will make China become more democratic.

Every president. I mean, George H.W. and Ronald Reagan. I worked for Ronald Reagan; I worked for George H.W. Bush. I knew them pretty well.

They were both in this notion that the future is democracy and free trade, and thats where Chinas going to go. Bill Clinton, W., Obama. It wasnt until you get to Trump that people began to say, Wait a minute. Maybe its not working.

There was this just overwhelming confidence having won the Cold War. America had emerged as the only superpower. It was just this incredible confidence that we knew where the future was going to go.

There was a dinner in 1997 or 98 here in D.C., and George H.W. Bush was no longer president, but he was at the dinner, and Zhu Rongji was at the dinner. And Zhu at that time was wrestling with this problem he had of how do I reorganize the state-owned enterprises?

That whole reorganization that China was doing had been presented in the U.S. by the U.S. press as doing away with the state-owned enterprises and making China really a completely free-market capitalist economy. Bush had it in his head that thats what Zhu Rongji was doing. And so Bush said to Zhu, How are you doing with getting rid of all the state-owned enterprises?

Zhu, very honestly and forthrightly said, No, no, no, Mr. President, were not getting rid of the state-owned enterprises. Were reorganizing them. And Bush looked at him, winked his eyes, and said, Ah, we know what youre doing. So Bush firmly believed that Zhu was doing what Bush thought he was doing, even when Zhu said, Im not.

That was the level of conviction that was held by the American foreign policy establishment about what the future was going to look like. This establishment has been completely wrong. As George Soros just pointed out in the case of Larry Fink, its still completely wrong.

Mr. Jekielek: You could also argue, for many people, it was very conveniently wrong.

Mr. Prestowitz: For many people, conveniently wrong. Absolutely, yes, yes. You could argue that.

Mr. Jekielek: America, as you say, was convinced that it would reshape China, the Chinese regime perhaps, in its own image, but you say, Well, actually it was America that was reshaped somehow.

Mr. Prestowitz: What was happening was that the American assumptions about how China was really organized, and theyre making assumptions about the Chinese intent, were completely wrong. But the Americans didnt know it.

The Americans had a view, and it became the view of the establishment. When I say the establishment, Democrat and Republican, the Council on Foreign Relations, Foreign Affairs Magazine, The New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, they all reported the same way. Whether they were Republican or Democrat, whether they were liberal or conservative, they all were fixed on this view, this concept of what the future was going to look like.

They were all convinced that it was going to become a liberal, free-market, democratic world. Globalization, of course, became a watchword. Yes, China is not quite there yet, but it will be.

In my view, what we have seen and are beginning to realize, although not entirely, is that we were fooling ourselves. Bob Zoellick, former U.S. trade representative, former deputy secretary of state, and former head of the World Bank, famously preached the notion that we want China to be a responsible stakeholder in the liberal, global rules-based order.

That encompasses a lot of assumptions. Was there, in fact, a liberal, global, rules-based order? What rules? Many countries were manipulating their currencies. We didnt do anything about it. Where were the rules? Who was enforcing the rules? Or to turn it around, liberal rules-based orderwe attacked Iraq. We just decided that we didnt like what Iraq was doing. We attack Iraq and occupy the place. We go to Afghanistan. Whats liberal about that? Whats rules-based about that?

The reality that we were living was very much at odds with the reality that we carried in our heads or that our intellectual establishment carried in its head. Were now going through a readjustment.

Its now obvious that China is not going to become like us. Its obvious that the Chinese are not aiming to become part of our rules-based order.

Theyre going to become part of their own order. Theyre setting up their own order with the belt and road program. Theyre setting up their own order with different alliances. Theyre snuggling up with the Russians.

Look at Latin America. The Panama Canal, of course, is a critical waterway globally, particularly for America. The Panama Canal was built by Americans. We tend to think of the Panama Canal as an American thing.

But if you look at Panama and you look at investment in Panama, you will find that virtually everything except the canal in Panama is owned by China. If you look at Brazil or Portugal or Greece or Hungary, you find the same phenomenon.

China is building its own order. Its not that they want to become part of our order or we want them to become part of it. They dont want anything to do with our order.

Mr. Jekielek: But they pretend that they do.

Mr. Prestowitz: Well, they try to make use of the order that we have created. I mean, theyre in the UN, and we created the UN. But what they do is that they try to find ways to operate and manipulate in the UN to block where we want to go or to push the UN in directions that China wants to go. You cant complain about that. All the countries are in the UN want the best deal they can get.

The Chinese happen to be very good at figuring out how to control these kinds of organizations and staff them.

Think about this. Biden has proposed that Rahm Emanuel become the U.S. ambassador to Japan, right? Now, hell have to be approved by Congress, by the Senate, but thats the appointment. Im sure itll go through. Probably Rahm will become ambassador to Japan.

Does Rahm speak Japanese? No. Has Rahm ever lived or worked abroad? No. Has Rahm ever been an ambassador anywhere? No. What does Rahm actually know about Japan? Not much. Why are we sending Rahm to Japan? Well, hes close to the president and this will reassure the Japanese that the president will listen to what Rahm says.

But wait a minute. Why do we want our ambassador to be the reporter of what the Japanese are telling him to the president? Shouldnt the ambassador be the guy who listens to what the Japanese are saying and tells the president what he thinks is good for America?

Now, whos the Chinese ambassador to Japan? Ive forgotten his name, but he majored in Japanese in university. Hes lived in Japan for something like 25 years. Hes held many positions in China and in Japan, in dealing with the two countries.

This guy, the Chinese guy, knows Japan. He knows how to play in Japan. He can go on Japanese television and speak in Japanese to the audience. He can talk on Japanese talk shows in Japanese.

Rahm cant do any of that. Why are we sending Rahm to Japan? Because we dont get it. The same thing is trueI could go on and on. But we have handicapped ourselves by not studying objectively the reality of the situations that we get into. Why did we spend 20 years in Afghanistan, for pitys sake? We totally misread Afghanistan. We keep doing this to ourselves.

Mr. Jekielek: We talk about the Chinese Communist Party. You actually mentioned something that I think is very, very important, in a very astute way. Im going to read it back to you and get you to comment for me.

It says: The fundamental threat, to be clear, is not the people of China. Taiwan and Hong Kong demonstrate not only that Chinese people can operate democratic governments, but that when they are able to speak freely, they prefer them. The threat is the Chinese Communist Party and its ambition and ability to create a global authoritarian order. Theres a lot in this line.

Mr. Prestowitz: Yes, but its true. I think particularly looking at Hong Kong today, you can see dramatically the essence of the conflict. These kids organized the celebration of the commemoration of Tiananmen Square demonstrations in 1989. In Hong Kong, of course, that date has been memorialized every year since.

Well, now some of the students who organized those commemorations are being put in jail. Theres not going to be any more commemorations. The records of those commemorations are being erased. The Chinese Communist Party doesnt want anybody to know about that or to refer to that. They just want to get it out of history and make it a non-event.

Whats so fascinating to me is that, actually, these young people, and not just young people, but people like Martin Lee and Jimmy Lai in Hong Kong, lived in Hong Kong all their lives. Lets remember, Hong Kong has never actually been democratic. It was a British colony. It had a rule of law because the Brits imposed British law. It had free speech because the Brits supported free speech. It had a kind of a legislature, but it was the queen who ruled Hong Kong, not the citizens of Hong Kong.

Yet, these citizens of Hong Kong imbibed enough understanding and knowledge of freedom and liberty and democracy that theyre fighting for it. Jimmy Lai, my good friend, is in jail now because hes fighting for it.

But we know that if we go to Taiwan, Taiwan wasnt always a democracy. When Chiang Kai-shek went to Taiwan from the mainland in 1949, he imposed a dictatorship, but it evolved into a real democracy.

We know that theres nothing in the Chinese genes that is anti-democratic or anti-free speech or anti-free markets. Its not in the Chinese genes; its in the communist genes. I think that is an absolutely crucial distinction.

Our battle is not with the Chinese people. Its with the Chinese Communist Party. We dont want the Chinese Communist Party to be able to get into the position of using things that we say about China as evidence of prejudice or evidence of wanting to humiliate China. We always have to be careful to walk the line that we have nothing against the Chinese people. We have nothing against Chinese traditions. Our concern is the Chinese Communist Party.

Mr. Jekielek: Right, and how many times have we heard the CCP representatives say, Youre hurting the feelings of the Chinese.

Mr. Prestowitz: Yes, 1.4 billion Chinese people, youre hurting their feelings. Its so amazing that party leaders presumably think that you might believe that all 1.4 billion people are totally adopting exactly the same line.

Just as we have people like Hank Paulson, who has, in my view, a twisted perspective, the Chinese also have a lot of twisted perspectives. If youre an important or a significant player in the Chinese Communist Party, your perspective, your understanding, of what America is all about is probably pretty messed up.

Mr. Jekielek: Clyde, before we get into your prescription, you mentioned something earlierand Im not sure even if this was on camera or notthat Xi is kind of a true believer. You also talked about how the CCP is not exactly communist, but its Leninist. In some ways, its not communist anymore. In some ways, it very much is.

Mr. Prestowitz: Yes. You can look at the Chinese Communist Party, and you can say, Look, its not really a communist party. You cannot say its not a Leninist party. It is definitely a Leninist party. But even if you say its not a communist party, I think you have to be careful because I listen carefully to what Xi Jinping says and I read extensively what he and the major Party releases are saying.

I am amazed at the extent to which it seems to me Xi Jinping really certainly has read Marx and he certainly has imbibed a lot of Marx. To a much greater extent than people in the West are cognizant of, hes a true believer. I really think that he is a true believer in the fundamental elements of Marxism.

When he talks about things unseen in a hundred years, hes doing what the communists famously do, as the correlation of the balance of forces and looking at social evolution of different countries and how thats creating conflict and resolution. Its very Marxist stuff.

If youre a Western policymaker, an analyst, itd be wise to brush up on your Marx because Xi reads that stuff. Whether he totally believes it, Im not sure, but he certainly has read it, and he uses it.

Mr. Jekielek: Xi Jinping thought, as its called, is being introduced to replace other schools of thought.

Mr. Prestowitz: Im waiting for that little red book of Xi Jinping. Remember that people famously carried the Little Red Book of Mao Zedong? Im waiting for Xi Jinpings little red book.

Mr. Jekielek: It also reminds me: you list, and this I think is very apt, Xis Document Number 9 from 2013, which lays out exactly what.

Mr. Prestowitz: It does, it spells out what the Chinese Communist Party is for and against, particularly what its against. Think of what we in America learn early in our education, of all men are created equal with certain inalienable rights.

Document Number 9 says theres no such thing as universal values. We dont believe in universal values. I mean, the document doesnt say: all men are not created with certainbut it says: we dont believe in universal values. That universal value, throw it away. We dont believe in that.

It goes on to say that it does not accept as advisable or viable Western constitutional democracy. It further makes the point that speech unedited by the Party is not acceptable. So forget free speech. Whatever you say has to be edited by the Party.

Document Number 9 particularly talks about doctrine. It talks about the need for the Party to stand solidly for its doctrine and to inculcate that into the people. Now, can you imagine a Republican or Democratic candidate for president in America or for president in France or chancellor in Germany or prime minister talk about inculcating the doctrine? But thats what Xi is doing. Unless we recognize that, were just not going to be able to properly respond.

Mr. Jekielek: Weve just started on our final foray here. It seems like everybody agrees that China is an issue for the West. They recognize, at least to some extent, that the system is fundamentally different. Maybe not as different as we were just discussing, but they realize that.

There are these different approaches, all the way from constructive competition, I forget what the exact term you used was, to the full decoupling on the other end. Give us a bit of a flavor of them. Ive recently been reading books that Im just encouraging people to read. I hope people do read yours.

Mr. Prestowitz: Thank you.

Mr. Jekielek: Give us a sense of where youre going.

Mr. Prestowitz: Probably the most important point is that it is now widely recognized that China is not going to become a stakeholder in the Western rules-based order. The huge shift here is that everybody pretty much understands we did get it wrong in the last 20, 30 yearsthat Chinas not going where we thought it was going to go.

Having acknowledged that, then you get a shakeup. There are those who say, Okay, its not going to be the way we thought it was, but were really coupled. And decoupling is just going to be terribly expensive. I mean, heres Apple. Everything they make, they make in China. We have to tell them they have to come back and make everything in America? Its just hugely expensive.

In one important element of our free-world society, there is an attempt to satisfice and say, Okay, we have to recognize that theyre not going to be like we thought they were going to be. Theyre not going to become like us. But we have a lot invested here, and were still making a lot of money there. Lets try to finesse this so that we avoid the worst negative impacts, but we hold on to the good part here.

The way I interpret, the way I personally see this is: lets put some sanctions on what theyre doing in Xinjiang to the Uyghurs, where theyre putting Uyghurs in concentration camps and trying to turn them into Han Chinese. Well put sanctions on that.

Companies importing stuff from Xinjiang; well stop that. But were not going to stop Apple from sending iPhones from China over here. Thats what I call the satisfice direction.

Then there are others who say, Yes, okay, Chinas not going to act the way we anticipated, but so what? Actually, when we were a young country developing, we were mercantilist, too. We were just like them. Why are we complaining about them? Thats another element here which militates against taking any significant change in how were dealing with China.

Then you have another element, like Larry Fink, particularly Wall Street, Hank Paulson, who are saying, No, no. Theyre going to become like us. Let it go. Its a market, and we know how to do markets. Lets make money, without much thought about the moral implications of all of this.

Then there are others who are saying, Really, theres a fundamental conflict here, and we need to decouple as much as possible. Ideally, completely decoupling. Maybe there are some things we cant decouple, but we need to decouple a lot.

My own sense of where its going is that increasingly, its going to be difficult to satisfice because if you object to genocide in Xinjiang, but wait a minute, Tim Cook is making a lot of iPhones in China, and hes paying taxes to the Chinese government. What hes doing in China is strengthening the ability of Beijing to commit genocide in Xinjiang. Why are we only embargoing exports from Xinjiang? Its not consistent.

I like to compare what I call the two Apples. Theres Apple iPhone and theres Apple Daily, which just closed yesterday in Hong Kong. It was owned and run by Jimmy Lai. Jimmy was a strong opponent of the Chinese Communist Party, and a strong supporter of free speech in Hong Kong and globally. Jimmys in jail today because he believes in free speech.

And Tim Cook just sold $750 billion, almost a billion dollars, $750 million of stock options that he had been awarded by Apple. I talk about the two Apples.

Jimmy Lai is 72 years old. Hes probably going to die in a Chinese jail. How many iPhones are worth Jimmys life? Tell me, Tim Cook. Can you tell me how many iPhones would make up enough to offset Jimmys life?

Well, he cant. Because, ultimately, the division here is moral. Ultimately, the division is not material. The fundamental difference is moral. Its about whats right and wrong. Its very simple.

Xi Jinping is now taking measures to impose greater control and greater oversight of individuals in China to control them more. The more a free-world entity invests in China and helps to strengthen this anti-free speech, anti-liberty, anti-soul Communist Party, the more its not about money. Its about fundamental human values.

I think that increasingly, corporations, major corporations, are going to find it very difficult to justify making money at the expense of human values. Its not going to happen overnight, but Im optimistic that thats the direction its going to go.

There are some other things we need to keep in mind. China has been growing, of course, economically, very rapidly. It probably today is the biggest economy in the world. Depends on how you count, but its a huge economy.

But its aging rapidly. Its workforce is already shrinking. Its population is going to shrink dramatically. Today, there are 1.4 billion Chinese. By the end of the century, its going to be down to about 700 million. So about half of todays present population at the end of the century.

Chinas environment is horribly polluted. Youre just in a black cloud everywhere you go in China. And China is going to run out of water. The Yellow River doesnt run about half the year anymore.

Theyre building dams like crazy in the Himalayas to try to capture the flow of the Himalayas. That is going to cause enormous conflict with India and Pakistan, other countries that depend on the flow from the Himalayas.

Looking at over the longer term, I think that China has a lot of huge challenges. We in the free world should not despair, but we need to get our act together, and we need to get our act together in intelligent ways that do not oppress the Chinese people, but that preserve our values and that, frankly, preserve our wealth and our productivity.

If Joe Biden called me and said, Clyde, what should I do? I would say: first of all, really do a lot of forgetting about China. Youre not going to be able to change what China wants to do or tries to do. Theres the whole thing of John Kerry going to China to try to make some deal on emissions.

Forget it. The Chinese are not going to change their emissions to satisfy John Kerry, so dont send him.

Lets focus on what we can do. That means that we need to get manufacturing back here. Today, China accounts for about 30 percent of global manufacturing, and we account for about 15 percent.

Thats the reverse of where things were in 1990. Thats not healthy for our economic welfare, for our defense welfare. We need to be a much more robust manufacturer.

Rather than encouraging, in any way, Larry Fink to put a billion dollars of American money in China, lets find ways to force Larry Fink to put a billion dollars of American money in America. There are lots of things that can be done.

The semiconductor industrywe need to think of semiconductors as the oil of the 21st century. Its the key. If theres a single key industry, its the semiconductor industry. Think about this. In 1990, about one-third of all the worlds semiconductors were made in America. Today, its 13 percent.

You may say that its cheaper to make them overseas. No, its not. This is the crazy thing. Semiconductors are not labor-intensive. The labor costs in a semiconductor are maybe 1 percent of the whole product. Its not labor-intensive. Its capital-intensive; its technology-intensive. Were supposed to be a country of rich capital. How is it that this all got moved abroad?

The answer is that if youre a semiconductor company, like, lets say, Intel or Texas Instruments, the government of Singapore has a thing called the Economic Development Board (EDB). The job of the Economic Development Board in Singapore is to attract investment and production in Singapore.

The EDB, I know these guys well, will go to TI in Dallas and say, TI, we know you guys probably need to invest in a new plant. Why dont you come to Singapore? And TI will say, Why should we go to Singapore?

Well, the plants going to cost about $12 billion, but you know what? We could put up about 6 billion of that. The land will be free. No taxes for 20 years, utilities at half cost. Huh. TI says, Well, that sounds pretty good, right? Now, if you decide to put a semiconductor plant in America, do you get free land? No. Do you get no taxes? No. Do you get the utilities at half price? No.

The crazy thing is that when you throw in the whole mix, its cheaper to make the semiconductor in Singapore or South Korea or Taiwan, but theres no good reason for that. Theres no good economic reason for that. Its policy. Well, we can change the policy.

If there were one thing I could do, I hope that the new secretary of commerce is going to recognize that she needs to spark the revitalization of American industry, particularly high-tech manufacturing, and it needs to be done in America.

Theres another element here thats very important, which is that economists and other business analysts will constantly talk about how its less expensive to make these things in China or someplace else. But when they do that, they typically are not including the total cost. People talk about the global supply chain.

In the case of, lets say, your iPhone, if you have one, there are chips in that iPhone. Between the time that somebody decides to make that iPhone and it winds up in your pocket, some of those chips are going to cross the Pacific three or four times in airplanes.

Now, airplanes and ships generate about 14 percent of total global greenhouse gases. Theyre the worst kind of greenhouse gases. They have a huge negative impact on global warming.

The cost of that is not picked up anywhere. Its not in the economists model. Its not in the accounting books. Its a huge cost to the global economy, to global welfare. Its not included.

We should be throwing on a border carbon tax. If youre going to send those chips back and forth, every time they come into the United States, you have to pay a tax, a carbon emissions tax on those chips. You know what? Pretty soon, those chips would be made in America.

What we need is to think comprehensively, not just about the immediate materials costs, but the total cost and the total implications. When you shut down something like an auto plant or a semiconductor factory, obviously, workers have to find other jobs. Then you say, Lets make cars in America. Oh, we cant because we dont know how. We need to re-skill. We need to stop the loss, the drain, on the skills.

In my view, we need to make America the leading manufacturing country and the leading technology country. We need to do that with our allies. Its not just about America. Its about the EU, its about Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, and Australia. We need to pull the free world together.

Lets take the case of Australia. The Chinese are unhappy with Australia because the Aussie prime minister called for an independent investigation of the origin of COVID in Wuhan, and the Chinese dont like that.

So what did they do? China, to take a slap at Australia, stopped buying coal. They stopped buying Aussie wine. They stopped buying some of the iron ore. Theyve stopped sending students, and theyre restricting tourism to Australia. Theyre slapping the Aussies around.

Basically, theyve sent Australia a letter of 14 points, where theyve said, Carefully consider, sit down and really think about these 14 points that we want you guys to respond to.

Now, Aussie wine is really good. The free world should have a consortium. Whenever China decides to slap somebody around, the free world together, we ought to be buying the Aussie wine. We and the EU and the Japanese ought to be buying that Aussie wine to offset the impact of this slap that the Chinese are taking at Australia.

The same should be true more comprehensively across the board. There needs to be a coordinated offset to the disciplinary measures that China is likely to take economically against countries that are not shaping up the way China would like them to shape up. But you can only do that if youre strong and relatively independent in your own economy.

As long as youre dependent, youre vulnerable to coercion. Coercion is Chinas way of operating. So we need to make ourselves independent of coercion.

Mr. Jekielek: Clyde Prestowitz, its such a pleasure to have you on.

Mr. Prestowitz: Thank you. Its been my pleasure, too.

Mr. Jekielek: Hello, everyone. We have some exciting news. This week, Im heading to Orange County, California, and Ill be hosting a live American Thought Leaders interview with John Moorlach, a former California state senator, and well discuss California after the recall. Id love to meet some of you in person this Friday at the fundraiser. Itll be an intimate gathering of American Thought Leaders fans.

There will be a VIP reception at 5:30 p.m., and doors open for dinner and the live interview at 6 p.m. Well be at the Pacific Club at Newport Beach, and youll find more details about the event and how you can buy tickets in the description below. And for folks who cant make it this time, dont worry. This wont be the last live event. Well have more live events soon.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

California After the Recall: A Live, In-Person American Thought Leaders Event

Join Jan Jekielek in Orange County for a three-course dinner and live interview with former California State Senator John Moorlach. When: Friday, Sept. 17, 2021

Where: The Pacific Club

4110 MacArthur Blvd, Newport Beach, CA 92660 Doors Open: 6:30 PM | Dinner 7:00 PM | Program 7:30 PM

VIP Reception: 5:30 PM Dresscode: Business Casual You can register below: GENERAL ADMISSION $150 Buy tickets here or call 949-940-8848 VIP $300 Buy tickets here or call 949-940-8848

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Orange County Fairgrounds Board to Circumvent Gun Show Ban

The Orange County Fair and Event Centers board of directors is remaining stagnant against California Senate Bill 264, which would specifically ban gun shows occurring on the property, saying their fairground site is being unfairly targeted in the bill.

During a Sept. 13 board meeting, the directors sought to send a letter to the governors office asking him to veto the bill, as well as to consider preapproving a 2022 rental contract with the Crossroads of the West Gun Show that would allow the show to continue on for 2022.

The fact of the matter is that SB 264 originally started out as something that would ban gun shows from all state properties. It had been further amended to only exclude gun shows at the Orange County Fair and Events Center, Board Chair Natalie Rubalcava-Garcia said.

Rubalcava-Garcia also said that if the fairgrounds lose the gun show, theyll lose nearly $1 million in revenue, which is something they cant afford.

We are a fairgrounds that generates revenue, and are pretty self-sustaining, so it would create a gap in the budget, she said. And I do think that it is the boards duty as the governing body who was appointed by the governor to send a respectful letter, just letting him know the economic impact so that we can have it on the record.

The first draft of the letter asked the governor to veto the bill, something that there were disagreements with among the directors, who said the board isnt supposed to take political positions.

The 32nd District Agricultural Association Board of Directors opposes SB 264 and respectfully requests you to veto the bill, the draft reads. The 32nd DAA Board of Directors has historically approved the type of events held at the OC Fair & Event Center in response to the needs and interests of the surrounding community. In 2020 the Board of Directors voted 5 to 1 to allow gun shows to continue operating at the OC Fair & Event Center as long as they are legal in the state of California.

The letter goes on to state that Sen. Dave Min, who authored the bill, never consulted with the board to see if there were nonlegislative options to address his concerns.

Director Robert Ruiz echoed that the OCFEC was being singled out with the bill.

I was under the impression when the bill was first introduced, that this was going to be a statewide thing. So I figured, okay, its a big state-wide thing, he said. But then the bill was amended and now were the only ones that are going to be affected by this. Im just having a hard time understanding that. Again, Im for gun safety, but getting rid of this gun show doesnt address the issue that we have with guns.

Min said in a letter sent to the board of directors that there is precedent for gun shows being banned from singular fairgrounds, such as Del Mar and Cow Palace.

But Rubalcava-Garcia said the boards of those fairgrounds had voted themselves to ban gun shows, which is a completely different situation.

This legislation is not law until the governor signs it, she said. So that is why the board, as appointed gubernatorial members of the 32nd DAA, are really the ones who are here to help govern. The other thing I also want to highlight is, if this isnt good for the entire state, how come its good for the 32nd DAA? Those are really the issues I think that the board needs to keep in mind as were discussing and reviewing the letter that were proposing we send to the governor.

Ash Alvandi, Mins chief of staff, read a statement from Min at the meeting arguing that the board should be careful about entering into a bad faith contract, or they could be held personally liable.

The boards job is not to respond to local concerns or to act as a political body, but rather to act simply as a fiscal steward of the 32nd Agricultural Association. This is why Senate Bill 264 was necessary in the first place, because the board correctly noted that they could not make a political decision here. For the board to weigh in with Governor Newsom would be directly contrary to his past statements, as well as the clear guidelines for the boards governance, Alvandi read from Mins statement.

What the board would be doing if it preapproved a long-term contract at a special meeting called immediately after SB 264 passed out of the state legislature would appear to be clearly a bad faith contract intended to evade or thwart the purpose of this legislation. As such, I believe that any such contract that were to be preapproved at this time and in this matter could be avoided for being contrary to public policy.

Let me be clear, if the board does engage in such action, I will explore all options to invalidate all contracts that it proves in this manner, including through litigation or through new legislation. Moreover, me and my advisers believe that if the board is found to have entered into these contracts in bad faith, that members of the board who voted for such a measure may potentially be held personally liable.

After more discussion on the matter about the exact way to go about both the letter and the contract, the board voted to table both items for the next meeting, on Sept. 23.
Residents queue to undergo nucleic acid tests for the COVID-19 coronavirus in Xiamen, in China's eastern Fujian Province on Sept. 14, 2021. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

COVID-19 Outbreak in Southeast China Quickly Worsens, Spreading to Famous Tourist Site

The COVID-19 epidemic in Chinas southeast province Fujian has quickly spread to many other places, including the major port city Xiamen where the famous tourist island Gulangyu is located. The island and many indoor venues have been shut down. Local authorities reported 32 new infections in one day on Sept. 14.

Since Sept. 10, local clusters of epidemics have occurred successively in Putian, Quanzhou, and Xiamen of Fujian Province. As of Sept. 13, a total of 123 cases of infection had been reported, with 33 people in Xiamens handicraft factory infected. At present, the Chinese communist regime has announced two high-risk areas in mainland China, including Fengting town in Putian city and Xinmin town in Xiamen, both of which are located in Fujian Province.

The Xiamen local authorities issued several public notices on the evening of Sept. 13, forbidding people from leaving Xiamen starting from midnight. According to the notices, if people really needed to leave the city, they would need to have a green health code plus a 48-hour nucleic acid test certificate. In addition, all indoor businesses have been suspended, including chess and card rooms, theaters, internet cafes, karaoke halls, bars, billiards halls, museums, libraries, fitness clubs, training institutions, and other indoor venues.

The outbreak has affected tourist attractions in Xiamen, especially Gulangyu, which is only 1.24 miles away from the First Medical College of Xiamen Universitywhere there are confirmed cases.

On Sept. 14, a staff member of a travel company in Gulangyu told the Chinese language Epoch Times that due to this round of COVID-19 outbreak, joint tickets are suspended and Gulangyus indoor exhibition halls are closing down. She also said that people are trying not to come to Xiamen at this time. The epidemic situation is still escalating. Today there are 32 new cases. If you come here, your health code will turn into a red code, and you cant leave, she warned.

Meanwhile, an employee of the Gulangyu Sea Recreation Project said that they might not need to go to work tomorrow due to closure. If you havent arrived at Xiamen yet, dont come. If you do, you wont be allowed to leave. The tourist spots are shutting down, he emphasized.

According to mainland Chinese media, the owners of Gulangyus homestays complained that 90 percent of reservations have been canceled in the past few days. The Epoch Times obtained video footage of residents in Xiamen lined up to take the COVID-19 nucleic acid test on Sept. 14, as required by the authorities.

A Xiamen resident surnamed Chen told The Epoch Times, Recently, the outbreak in Xiamen has been severe. Now all schools are closed, and students are undergoing nucleic acid tests.

Another local resident surnamed Shen said, The local COVID-19 epidemic is very serious again, and many communities are being locked down. I am very worried about it, and I have just gone into the mountainsliving in the countryside.

Meanwhile, hospitals have been shut down in Xiamen. Local residents suspect there are unreported cases spreading in hospitals that are concealed by the regime.

On Sept. 13, Xiamen officially announced that a 48-year-old man, who is on the service staff at the First Affiliated Hospital of Xiamen University, was infected with COVID-19. The Epoch Times contacted the hospital and was told that the hospital had stopped all medical consultations since Sept. 13. However, after nucleic acid testing was conducted in the hospital, no new cases have been announced. According to local media, Xiamen Jimei Street Community Health Service Center also announced closing all departments from Sept. 14, citing epidemic prevention and control.

Some netizens suspect a cover-up by authorities saying, Why is it only spreading in factories but not in hospitals?

Luo Ya contributed to the report.
A Sikorsky CH-148 Cyclone flies around HMCS Halifax as the frigate leaves the harbour in Halifax on Jan. 1, 2021, to start a six-month deployment in the Mediterranean Sea to assist in NATO counter-terrorism patrols and related activities throughout the region. (The Canadian Press/Andrew Vaughan)

Defence Policys Much-Needed Revamp Unlikely to Take Place Post Election, Says Expert

Liberal governments Strong, Secure, Engaged policy is due for review, update: Defence research institute

News Analysis

Canada only thinks about revamping its defence policy when theres a catastrophe, and its basically a non-issue in federal elections, says a political studies professor. He adds that the status quo likely wont change, despite its shortcomings, following the election.

James Fergusson, who is also deputy director of the Centre for Defence and Security Studies at the University of Manitoba, told The Epoch Times that the Liberals long-term Strong, Secure, Engaged (SSE) defence policy, introduced in 2017, was outdated from the moment it was released.

The rise of China and the resurgence of Russia are two primary threats to North Americans, he said. The world has changed.

SSE also lacks details on North American defence modernization, projected to be a costly undertaking that needs to be tackled soon, Fergusson says.

The Conference of Defence Associations Institute (CDAI), a registered charity that conducts research and education on defence and security policy, holds a similar view that SSE is due for a review and update.

It lacks a broader analysis extending into national security and foreign policy, the CDAI said in an election campaign primer on defence policy.

The institute pointed out that it takes years or decades to build defence capabilities and that future governments will have their options limited by the current policy.

Fergusson added that no re-elected government has ever gone back to undertake an overall defence policy review, and that a newly elected minority government is unlikely to change things much.

In addition, the governments financial position has significantly weakened from fighting the pandemic and supporting the economy, and defence spending tends to be among the leading candidates for cutbacks.

No matter which party is elected, the question becomes to what extent under the current economic situation relative to the impact of COVID-19  and debt and deficit problems  theyre going to start pushing things off to the future, simply because of a money problem, Fergusson said.

Cyber Crime

The political parties campaign platforms tend to lump cyber crime in with defence and public safety responsibilities as it relates to hacks and foreign interference, even though cyber falls under the domain of public safety.

Canada has been the victim of communist Chinas state-backed cyberattacks on multiple occasions. The feds believe the attacks aim to steal intellectual property and large amounts of personally identifiable information.

Global Affairs, National Defence, and Public Security said in a joint statement on July 19 that they were confident Chinas Ministry of State Security was responsible for the hacking of Microsoft exchange servers in early March.

Fergusson says cyber is a much bigger threat for the United States than it is for Canada but suggests that Canada consider how to deal with the problem through better coordination between its different government departments.

Maybe what we need is to think about  how to improve relations between the different bureaucratic levels, to break out of our silos, to think about what we need to do in cybersecurity.  Those all make sense to me, he said.

The probability is its not reality. Its not going to change, Fergusson said, however.

Canadas Communications Security Establishment (CSE), which focuses on cyber operations as one of the countrys key security and intelligence organizations, says Russia, China, and Iran are very likely responsible for most foreign state-sponsored cyberattacks against democratic processes worldwide.

We judge it very likely that Canadian voters will encounter some form of foreign cyber interference (i.e., cyber threat activity by foreign actors or online foreign influence) ahead of, and during, the next federal election, the CSE said in its July 2021 update.

Conservatives Most Comprehensive

The platform of the Conservatives, under leader Erin OToole who served 12 years in the military, provides the most detailed strategies for addressing a number of areas of defence and national security.

Some of the Conservatives initiatives include defending Arctic sovereignty, protecting against cyberattacks, modernizing NORAD, and taking aim at disinformation and foreign interference. Canada is a Pacific nation and the Conservatives would have it take a tougher approach against Chinas aggression in the Indo-Pacific.

One of Canadas national defence challenges has been military procurementfighter jets, in particular. The Conservatives are the only party to address procurement bottlenecks. They aim to streamline the process and take politics out of procurement to expedite acquisition of equipment needed by the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), with a priority on fighter jets.

The incumbent Liberals championed SSE and reiterated that they will ensure the military has the resources it needs to deal with a host of threats including environmental ones. They did not address procurement specifically as it relates to defence. Like the NDP and Greens, they discussed the issue in their campaign platform only in terms of green initiatives.

The NDP touched on national defence on page 109 of its 115-page platform and prioritized a multilateral approach to peacekeeping around the world. The New Democrats also added the Indigenous dimension to green factors as a guide for procurement decisions.

The Peoples Party of Canada doesnt specifically address national defence and security in its platform. Like the other parties, it touches on veterans issues such as recognizing their unique sacrifices, supporting them, and providing for a fair disability pension.

The Greens want to re-tool the military to prioritize disaster preparedness, while maintaining combat readiness. They also want to engage with a more diverse set of international partners and centre defence policy on disarmament.

Party leaders should be expected to provide comprehensive positions on national defence issues, said the Conference of Defence Associations (CDA) and the CDAI in an Aug. 23 statement.

Canadians deserve to be informed of the threats we face as a nation and what commitments we have made to our allies, according to the statement.

The two organizations called on the parties to debate and explore issues of defence policy, resources for national defence, Canada-U.S. collaboration on North American territorial defence, NORAD modernization, and sexual misconduct within the CAF.
Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) speaks to media after the Senate voted to acquit President Donald Trump on two articles of impeachment, at the Capitol in Washington on Feb. 5, 2020. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

Democratic Amnesty for 8 Million Illegals in Budget is Unprecedented and Dangerous: FAIR

Senate Democrats are trying to convince the Senate parliamentariana nonpartisan figure who arbitrates disagreements over Senate rulesto allow them to include about eight million green cards into the $3.5 trillion budget resolution.

The blessing of the current parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, will be necessary because of the peculiar track Democrats are using to pass the budget.

Specifically, they are using the reconciliation process, a parliamentary procedure added to the Senates rule in the early 1970s. The process allows some types of budget bills to pass through the deliberative upper chamber with only a simple majority, bypassing filibuster by opponents altogether. Ultimately, what is allowed under this process is up to MacDonough, whose job it is to protect the rights of both parties.

At a press conference Wednesday, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) explained that the Senate Judiciary Committee believe[s] immigration is a critical element in reconciliation.

How many years have we all complained that the immigration system in America is broken and needs to be fixed? he asked, adding that the last comprehensive immigration reform to come from Congress was passed 35 years ago and signed by President Ronald Reagan.

Durbin then presaged the challenge that Democrats will have in convincing the parliamentarian. He said, this immigration package does have a cost associated with it.

Under the standing rules of the reconciliation process, provisions in reconciliation bills must have an impact on the federal governments spending and revenues that is more than merely incidental. Durbin also notes that staffers from relevant committees have already met with the parliamentarian, hoping to convince MacDonough that the immigration provision is legally allowed under the reconciliation processs rules.

If more and more people become legal permanent residents, they qualify for some government programs, Durbin conceded. But, he contended, economists agree that for every dollar paid out through a government program to a legal permanent resident, ten dollars is returned to the economy.

As to whether MacDonough will be likely to support the measure, Durbin admitted that he was uncertain, noting that the decision is entirely within her hands at this point.

Democrats must have the full support of the parliamentarian, who can unilaterally shoot down the measure on her own authority.

Parliamentarian Has Strict Track Record on Budget Reconciliation

In that capacity, MacDonough has not been shy to kill priorities by both parties that she considered to be outside the scope of reconciliation.

For example, in 2017 Republicans tried to add a provision to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Actpassed through the reconciliation processthat would have repealed restrictions on churches, charitable foundations, and universities that forbade such nonprofits from becoming politically involved or endorsing candidates.

After Democrats took back the majority, MacDonough also put restrictions on what they were permitted to do as well. In February, the parliamentarian ruled against including a $15 minimum wage in a CCP virus (Chinese Communist Party virus) relief package proposed by President Joe Biden.

In both cases, the majority party tried to convince MacDonough that the provisions were budget-related to little avail. Now, Democrats are trying to get the parliamentarians blessing for a similarly expansive provision: one that would allow up to eight million illegal aliens to receive green cards, putting them on a path to citizenship.

Included under this provision would be so-called Dreamersa group of people who entered the United States illegally as children and were granted amnesty under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) a controversial executive order signed by President Barack Obamaagricultural laborers, and other essential workers, among others.

This target of a path to citizenship for eight million illegal aliens falls short of the presidents more ambitious targets on the campaign trail.

Then-candidate Biden was asked during an October presidential debate about the Obama Administrations track record. On the 2008 and 2012 campaign trails, comprehensive immigration reform was a key Obama-Biden priority, but the administration failed to bring these promised changes about.

Biden explained that he and former President Obama made a mistake  we took too long to get it right.

Biden then made his ambitious promise, saying that within his first 100 days he would send to the United States Congress a pathway to citizenship for over 11 million undocumented people. He continued those so-called Dreamers  [are] going to be immediately certified again to be able to stay in this country and put on a path to citizenship.

While one of Bidens main priorities on the campaign traila path to citizenship for and continued protection of Dreamerswould be included in the provision if accepted by the parliamentarian, it would still fall far short of this 11 million amnesty goal.

Amnesty Effort Unprecedented and Dangerous: FAIR

Preston Huennekens, the Government Relations Manager at the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), criticized this most recent amnesty effort.

FAIR is a nonpartisan organization that describes its mission as seeking out solutions that help reduce the negative impact of uncontrolled immigration on the nations security, economy, workforce, education, healthcare, and environment.

Huennekens began, The effort by House and Senate Democrats to use the budget reconciliation process to amnesty millions of illegal aliens is unprecedented and dangerous.

He then listed concerns that he and the organizations have about the move. First, he said that Granting amnesty to millions of illegal aliens will exacerbate our raging border crisis and deeply harm our nation for decades.

Currently, the southern border is experiencing unprecedented levels of immigration. Republicans have blamed this on Bidens relaxed attitude towards the border. In a letter (pdf) to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis accused the Biden Administration of refus[ing] to fulfill their responsibility to enforce immigration laws enacted by Congress.

Huennekens also warned that allowing the provision in the reconciliation bill would set a terrible precedent and an opportunity for the party in power to get around the traditional legislative process to enact unpopular special interest priorities unrelated to spending or revenue.

This move, he said, is clearly merely incidental to the goals of the $3.5 trillion infrastructure package, thus falling outside the purview of the reconciliation process. Rather, it is drafted with the single goal of amnestying illegal aliens.

Huennekens concluded: This has nothing to do with spending or the Federal budget. It is a naked attempt by Democrats to pass legislation that is politically and practically impossible outside of the budget reconciliation process.
An activist speaks outside the Supreme Court in protest against the new Texas abortion law in Washington on Sept. 2, 2021. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

DOJ Asks Judge to Block Texas From Enforcing New Abortion Law

The Department of Justice (DOJ) late on Tuesday submitted an emergency motion seeking to block a new abortion law in the state of Texas that makes the procedure illegal if a fetal heartbeat is detectable.

The filing, submitted to the U.S. District Court in Austin, Texas, comes just days after the department filed a lawsuit against the state over SB8, which went into effect on Sept. 1. The DOJ argued on Tuesday that the measure was passed to prevent women from exercising their constitutional rights.

This attempt to shield a plainly unconstitutional law from review cannot stand. The United States seeks a temporary restraining order or a preliminary injunction enjoining the enforcement of S.B. 8, the DOJ said in their motion.

Under the new Texas law, people are authorized to bring lawsuits against doctors who perform illegal abortions and anyone suspected of assisting a pregnant person obtain an abortion. Plaintiffs who succeed may be awarded at least $10,000.

This relief is necessary to protect the constitutional rights of women in Texas and the sovereign interest of the United States, the department added in a statement.

Officials with the department wrote that it is also necessary to protect federal agencies, employees, and contractors whose lawful actions S.B. 8 purports to prohibit.

The United States has the authority and responsibility to ensure that Texas cannot insulate itself from judicial review for its constitutional violations and to protect the important federal interests that S.B. 8 impair, the departments motion states.

Last week, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that the department had filed a lawsuit against the state seeking to block the new law.

Government attorneys in the lawsuit, obtained by The Epoch Times, argue that the newly enacted law runs counter to previous Supreme Court rulings, including Roe v. Wade, which found that access to abortion is a constitutional right.

The act is clearly unconstitutional under longstanding Supreme Court precedent, Attorney General Merrick Garland said during a news conference in Washington announcing the suit. Those precedents hold in the words of Planned Parenthood v. Casey, Regardless of whether exceptions are made for particular circumstances, a State may not prohibit any woman from making the ultimate decision to terminate her pregnancy before viability.

Following the DOJs lawsuit last week, Texas Gov. Greg Abbotts press secretary Renae Eze said, The most precious freedom is life itself.

Texas passed a law that ensures that the life of every child with a heartbeat will be spared from the ravages of abortion. Unfortunately, President Biden and his administration are more interested in changing the national narrative from their disastrous Afghanistan evacuation and reckless open border policies instead of protecting the innocent unborn. We are confident that the courts will uphold and protect that right to life, Eze said.

It isnt yet clear when the judge might rule on the departments emergency motion request.

Representatives for Abbotts office didnt immediately respond to a request for comment.

Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.
(LR) People's Party Leader Maxime Bernier, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole, and Green Leader Annamie Paul. (The Canadian Press/ Edited by The Epoch Times)

Election Campaign Day 32: Liberals Defend Indoor Rally, Tories Court New Voters

As the federal election campaign continues in its final week, a Liberal indoor rally, a Tory effort to appeal to a new generation of voters, and an NDP pledge to end for-profit long-term care were among the highlights of the day.

Liberals

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau reiterated a commitment to deliver better universal, public health care if re-elected, at a campaign stop in Halifax, Nova Scotia on Sept. 15.

His party plans to hire at least 7,500 family doctors and nurses, and clear health system wait lists made worse during the pandemic. The plan also includes improving mental health services and requiring mandatory vaccination for travellers.

Trudeau was asked by a reporter to comment on whether a Liberal rally that saw 400 people gather indoors in Brampton, Ont., the previous day, was sending the right message to Canadians during the pandemic.

We followed all public health guidelines around capacity, around people in the room, he replied.

He added that since almost 80 percent of Canadians are vaccinated, it means for those people being able to come back to doing the things we love, is more and more of a possibility.

When pressed on how he could tell who was vaccinated in the room, Trudeau repeated that the event followed all public health guidelines.

Conservatives

Conservative Party Leader Erin OToole sought to appeal to new voters who may be considering a vote for the party for the first time as he campaigned in Quebec on Sept.15.

Were not your dads Conservative Party anymore, he said at a campaign event in Saguenay, Quebec.

From the first day of my leadership, my priority has been to build a Conservative movement where every Canadian can feel at home: inclusive, diverse, forward-looking, progressive, worker-friendly, he said.

OToole also took aim at Trudeau for calling a federal election during the pandemic and for holding the indoor rally in Brampton, saying it was held in contempt of common sense and social distancing guidelines.

NDP

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh reaffirmed his pledge to end private, for-profit long-term care during a campaign stop in Essex, Ontario on Sept. 15.

According to the partys fiscal plan, the NDP will end for-profit care by investing $10 billion to improve long-term care homes, including increasing wages and benefits for workers.

He criticized Trudeau and OToole for voting to keep profit in this sector when he proposed a motion in Parliament in March to remove it.

Peoples Party

While campaigning in Sarnia, Ontario Sept. 15, PPC Leader Maxime Bernier encouraged attendees to vote for his party on election day, characterizing the PPC as a defender of civil liberties amid pandemic health measures.

Thats the beginning of a big fight. And I can tell you, they told us, only two weeks to flatten the curve, but Im telling you now, we have six days to flatten the lies, he said.

In his next stop in Inwood, Ont., Bernier said residents there just wanted to live their lives without Big Brother constantly telling them what they can and cannot do.

Green Party

Speaking to supporters and media in Kitchener, Ontario on Sept. 15, Green Party Leader Annamie Paul stressed her partys support for climate change measures, social safety nets, and indigenous reconciliation.

She emphasized the Greens track record on cross-party collaboration and said that when Green candidates get elected, they stay elected.

We do what we say were going to do. We collaborate with other parties. We know how to play nice, she said.
FDA Says Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccines Still Effective, Boosters May Not Be Needed

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday said that agency-authorized COVID-19 vaccines currently provide protection against death and severe disease and may not require additional boosters, coming after vaccine maker Pfizer submitted data saying that its vaccines efficacy is eroding over time.

In findings released online, the FDA analyzed data submitted by Pfizer as part of their request to authorize a booster shot, or a third dose, of the vaccine to individuals aged 16 and older in the United States. The agency did not make a definitive statement on whether to support booster shots at this time, adding that regulators have not reviewed the available data.

There are many potentially relevant studies, but FDA has not independently reviewed or verified the underlying data or their conclusions, the FDA wrote (pdf) in a 23-page document published online. Some of these studies, including data from the vaccination program in Israel, will be summarized during the September 17, 2021 [Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee] meeting.

Some studies, they said, have indeed shown the Pfizer mRNA vaccine has waning efficacy against the Delta variant or symptomatic infection. However, other studies have not, the FDA said.

Overall, data indicate that currently U.S.-licensed or authorized COVID-19 vaccines still afford protection against severe COVID-19 disease and death in the United States, FDA researchers wrote.

Biden administration officials late last month said in a news conference that they are aiming for a Sept. 20 rollout for boosters, although they cautioned that their plan is contingent on whether the doses are approved by the FDA. A panel of outside observers will review the FDAs report on Friday and will analyze the Pfizer analysis and other information to determine whether boosters are needed for the general population.

If the panel recommends boosters, the FDA could distribute the doses within a few days.

In August, the FDA fully approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for people aged 16 and older. Vaccines made by Moderna, which uses mRNA technology like Pfizer, and Johnson & Johnson are still being distributed under the agencys emergency use authorization.

During its presentation to the FDA, which was uploaded on the agencys website, Pfizer argued that data from the United States and Israel suggests its mRNA vaccine efficacy is dropping over time, warranting the need for boosters.

Real-world data from Israel and the United States suggest that rates of breakthrough infections are rising faster in individuals who were vaccinated earlier in the vaccination campaigns compared to those who have been vaccinated more recently, Pfizer said.

For its conclusion, the German-based pharmaceutical giant cited a study from healthcare giant Kaiser Permanente that suggested protection against COVID-19 infection dropped from 88 percent in the first month of getting the second dose to 47 percent after five months of inoculation.

Earlier this week, a study that included two departing FDA officials said they do not recommend booster shots and said that possible side effects from them could outweigh the benefits.

Even if boosting were eventually shown to decrease the medium-term risk of serious disease, current vaccine supplies could save more lives if used in previously unvaccinated populations, the authors wrote.

Pfizer has not responded yet to a request for comment.
Representative Devin Nunes, a Republican from California and ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, speaks during the House Intelligence Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on Nov. 21, 2019. (Andrew Harrer/AFP via Getty Images)

Federal Court Reinstates Rep. Devin Nunes Defamation Lawsuit Against Journalist

A federal court on Wednesday reinstated a defamation lawsuit that was filed by Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) over a magazine story about his relatives, coming months after a lower court rejected it.

The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that a lower court incorrectly sided with Ryan Lizza in Nunes defamation suit. Lizza wrote a 2018 article for Esquire that alleged Nunes family members moved their farming operations to Iowa and employed illegal aliens.

After Nunes filed the lawsuit against Lizza and Esquire publisher Hearst Magazine Media, the journalist posted a link to his story on Twitter in November 2019. By doing so, the appeals court argued that he essentially republished it even after the lawsuit was filed. Lizza joined Politico in August 2019 as its chief Washington correspondent and still is employed there.

The complaint here adequately alleges that Lizza intended to reach and actually reached a new audience by publishing a tweet about Nunes and a link to the article, Judge Steven Colloton wrote in an opinion (pdf). He was joined by Judges Lavenski Smith and Ralph Erickson.

The judge noted that Lizza tweeted the article in November 2019 after Nunes filed this lawsuit and denied the articles implication, adding that pleaded facts are suggestive enough to render it plausible that Lizza, at that point, engaged in the purposeful avoidance of the truth.'

And the ruling added that based on the articles presentation of facts, we think the complaint plausibly alleges that a reasonable reader could draw the implication that Representative Nunes conspired to hide the farms use of undocumented labor, further stating that the article also contains allegations about the supposed conspiracy to hide the farms move.

Such a claim, Colloton added in the ruling, could be politically damaging to a Member of Congress like Nunes, who has publicly expressed support for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.

In August 2020, Judge C.J. Williams dismissed Nunes lawsuit and said he failed to provide evidence that Lizzas article contained false and defamatory statements about him.

The article is written in a first-person perspective and includes numerous instances of Lizzas subjective mental impressions. This weighs against the statements being reasonably construed as statements of fact as opposed to Lizzas characterizations or opinions, the judge wrote.

Nunes is seeking $75 million in compensation for defamation and $2.5 million in punitive damages.

Nunes also filed a lawsuit against Twitter last year alleging defamation and negligence for two anonymous parody accounts.

The Epoch Times has reached out to Lizzas lawyers for comment.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Former U.S. Attorney Bill McSwain made public his run for governor on Sept. 13, 2021, on West Chester Courthouse steps. His wife Stephanie (2nd left ) and four children joined him. (Lily Sun/The Epoch Times)

Former US Attorney Bill McSwain Declares Bid for Governor of Pennsylvania

Former U.S. Attorney Bill McSwain announced his candidacy for governor of Pennsylvania at a press conference on the steps of Chester County Courthouse on Monday.

Several dozen supporters joined the event along with his wife Stephanie and their four children. McSwain becomes the 8th Republican candidate who has declared to run for Pennsylvania governor.

I am a fighter, a fighter for conservative values that lift people up and enable our communities to thrive, McSwain told the crowd.

As governor, I promise to protect you from any threats in the federal government, including any attempts to impose socialism or to limit our freedoms.

McSwain is a former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, appointed by then-President Donald Trump. He was responsible for the public safety of the nearly 6 million residents of the district.

McSwain, also a former officer with the U.S. Marines, describes himself as a tough-on-crime candidate who will do whatever is necessary to ensure a safer, freer, and more prosperous Pennsylvania.

I oppose Philadelphias dangerous sanctuary city policies. I put rioters, looters, and arsonists in jail who tried to destroy Philadelphia last summer, he said.

People who torched police cars and threw Molotov cocktails in front of City Hall are not heroes; they are criminals to be prosecuted, he said. I put violent criminals and corrupt public officials in jail.

One of the speakers, Terri OConnor, shared how McSwain came to her aid after her husband, Philadelphia police officer Cpl. James OConnor was shot and killed in the line of duty.

On March 13 of 2020, Cpl. OConnor, who was with a SWAT unit, was shot and killed as he entered a property while serving a murder warrant. Nine guns and a large quantity of drugs were later found on the property.

Terri OConnor shared how Bill McSwain came to her aid after her husband, Philadelphia police officer Cpl. James OConnor, was shot and killed in the line of duty on March 13, 2020. (Lily Sun/The Epoch Times)

Terri OConnor told The Epoch Times that McSwain took her husbands case out of the Philadelphia district attorneys office and pursued the death penalty against the murderers.

So they [the killers] are not going anywhere now. There are no chances for any back door deals, anything behind the scenes, she said.

She was thankful for McSwains efforts which means her husbands killer will never be allowed back on the streets.

If you do something criminal, you should be locked up and stay in jail. My husbands murderers should have never been out of jail. They had multiple cases and they were let go and let out. And my husbands not here now because of that, she said.

McSwain stressed that he supports the police and upholds the rule of law.

We will never cut police funding. We will stand up for the law-abiding people in the community. And when it comes to public safety, our priority will be protecting the people, not coddling the criminals, he said.

Bill McSwain beside the Ten Commandments plaque hanging on the Chester County Courthouse. He mentioned during his speech that he served as lead counsel in the Chester County, PA Ten Commandments case, in which he defeated several atheist groups who wanted to remove the plaque from the courthouses facade in 2003. (Lily Sun/The Epoch Times)

McSwain also recognized police officer Bill Cahill who stood in the crowd.

Theres actually a hero in our midst, he said while pointing at Cahill who works for the Coatesville Police Department. About a week ago, Cahill was stabbed multiple times by a suspect during a police investigation.

As governor, McSwain said his priorities would be strengthening the economy, reducing crime, promoting school choice and pro-family policies, and keeping elections secure.

We will make it easy to vote but hard to cheat, McSwain said. Now, I know that election fraud exists because I actually prosecuted it and convicted ballot-stuffing election officials in Philadelphia while I was U.S. attorney.

The former federal prosecutor added that he would put parents before teachers unions.

McSwain has reportedly asked President Trump for his endorsement, but its unclear if or when hell get it for the 2022 election.

Democratic Governor Tom Wolf was re-elected in 2018 and is not allowed to run for reelection in 2022 due to term limits.

In a public statement, issued the same day McSwain announced his run, Wolf accused Pennsylvania Republicans of spreading election conspiracy theories.

There were no irregularities, no conspiracies, and no fraud that occurred, Wolf said.

In addition to McSwain, seven more Republicans have put their hand up for the Republican primarys nomination: former congressman Lou Barletta, Montgomery County Commissioner Joe Gale, former Corry Mayor Jason Monn, vice chairman of the American Conservative Union Charlie Gerow, Pittsburgh attorney Jason Richey, retired UPS security and public affairs executive John Ventre, and cardiothoracic surgeon Nche Zama.

To date, nobody from the Democratic Party has announced they will run for governor but State Attorney General Josh Shapiro has expressed an interest in running for the position.

May Lin contributed to this report.
This combination of photos provided by the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office in Minnesota on June 3, 2020, shows Derek Chauvin, from left, J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao. (Hennepin County Sheriff's Office via AP)

Four Ex-Police Officers Plead Not Guilty to Violating George Floyds Civil Rights

Four former police officers pleaded not guilty to the charges of violating Gorge Floyds civil rights in a federal court Tuesday.

In May, a federal grand jury indicted Derek Chauvin, Thomas Lane, J. Kueng, and Tou Thao for depriving George Floyds rights protected by the Constitution and laws.

Chauvin was charged with violating Floyds right to be free from unreasonable seizure and unreasonable force. Thao and Kueng were charged with violating Floyds right to be free from unreasonable seizure by not intervening to stop Chauvin when he knelt on Floyds neck. All four former officers were charged with failure to provide medical care to Floyd.

All four men appeared at the hearing remotely. Chauvin was in a room in the states maximum-security prison. The other three men, who are free on bond, appeared remotely alongside their attorneys.

According to Insider, Chauvin has been held at the Minnesota Correctional Facility at Oak Park Heights.

The three defendants wanted their cases to be severed from Chauvins.

Fox29 reported that Thaos attorney, Bob Paule, said his client is concerned the two rookie officers, Kueng and Lane, would blame the two senior officers, Thao and Chauvin. Lanes attorney, Earl Gray, said his clients case should be severed from Chauvins because it would be unfair that every single jury pool member will know Chauvin has been convicted on state murder charges.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Tony Leung said he would take oral arguments on that motion.

No trial date was set in Tuesdays hearing.

The federal case is a civil rights violation case, not a murder case.

Chauvin was sentenced to 22 1/2 years in prison for second-degree murder in a state court in June. His attorney sought a new trial but was denied by a judge.

Chauvin knelt on Floyds neck and back for nine minutes and 29 seconds. Floyd complained that he couldnt breathe and eventually stopped breathing. He was rushed by ambulance to a hospital where he was soon pronounced dead.

Floyds death sparked protests and riots across the country. More than 1,000 buildings were burned or otherwise damaged in Minneapolis alone during the unrest.

The grand jury also indicted Chauvin in a separate case stemming from a 2017 incident where he allegedly pinned a 14-year-old boy during an arrest. Court documents alleged that Chauvin hit the boy with his flashlight, grabbed him by the throat, and hit him again, the Star Tribune reported.

The other three former police officers will face their aiding and abetting murder and aiding and abetting manslaughter charges in a state court next March.

Zachary Stieber and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Zamire Kimball and an aquaintance exit the Orange County Central Justice Center after his charges were dismissed, in Santa Ana, Calif., on Sept. 18, 2020. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Four Seasons Hotel Sues Insurers Over COVID-19 Coverage Denial

LOS ANGELESThe owners of the Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills are suing members of Chubb and other insurance groups for allegedly breaching a contract by not compensating the plaintiffs for millions of dollars in business losses incurred during the coronavirus pandemic.

Burton Way Hotels LLC brought the lawsuit Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court, naming multiple insurance companies as defendants, including Ace American Insurance Co., which is part of the Chubb group. Other of the named insurers are members of such groups as Alliance Global Risks U.S., the Arch Capital Group, the Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. group, and the Lloyds of London insurance market.

The suit seeks unspecified damages and a judges declaration that the losses are covered under the hotels policy with the insurers.

A Chubb group representative declined to comment on the lawsuit, saying, As a matter of policy, we do not comment on legal matters.

The Four Seasons, located on Doheny Drive, is a five-star hotel and is the crown jewel in the Four Seasons portfolio of properties, opening in 1987 and obtaining an international reputation associated with the highest level of service and luxury, the suit states. The hotel employs hundreds of individuals and has several restaurants, numerous amenities, and more than 250 rooms.

In March 2020, the hotel had to suspend or reduce operations of on-site restaurants, bars, banquet halls, conference rooms, spas, and other amenities, plus operate at reduced guest capacity for intermittent periods, the suit states. Government orders also required the hotel to curtail business operations, the suit states.

Simply put, the Four Seasons Beverly Hills could not function at its full capacity, the suit states. As a result, Burton Way has suffered substantial financial losses, including lost profits and lost business opportunities.

To date, Burton Way has incurred more than $25 million in losses, the suit states.

The hotels management company bought property insurance policies from the insurers that provided broad, all-risk coverage, including coverage for economic losses resulting from direct physical loss or damage to property, the suit states.

The insurers have known for more than a decade that they and their insureds face a substantial risk of loss from viruses and pandemics and often have included an exclusion in their policies to limit or bar coverage for such losses, the suit states. Yet, the Insurers elected not to include any of these exclusions in the policies they sold to the Four Seasons.

The hotel sought coverage for the losses, but the insurance companies have thus far wrongfully withheld the policy benefits to which [the hotel] is entitled, the suit states.

There is no basis for the Insurers to withhold policy benefits, the suit states. In selling all-risk insurance, the insurers promised to provide broad coverage for financial losses unless an exclusion clearly and conspicuously applied as a bar to coverage.

The hotels losses attributable to the presence of COVID-19 fall squarely within the coverage afforded by the policies purchased from the insurers, the suit alleges.
A medical worker holds a placard reading: "No at closing of the Beaujon Hospital," during a protest gathering outside the Health Ministry, in Paris on Sept. 14, 2021. (Francois Mori/AP Photo)

France Fears Medical Staff Shortages as 300,000 Unvaccinated by Sept. 15 Deadline

French people working in the medical sector are required to be vaccinated against the CCP virus or risk a suspension from their jobs without pay under President Emmanuel Macrons new vaccine mandate that went into effect on Sept. 15.

Two months ago, Macron ordered hospital staff, ambulance technicians, nursing home workers, doctors, fire brigade members, and people caring for the elderly or infirm in their homessome 2.6 million employees in total, to get a COVID-19 vaccine by Sept. 15, though hundreds of thousands havent yet complied with the new rule.

According to the countrys health authority, 300,000 French employees active in the medical field arent vaccinated and some hospitals fear staff shortages will add to their challenges, The Associated Press reported. It isnt clear if those workers will be fired immediately as a top court has forbidden staff to be laid off outright.

Health care workers who have received only one dose of a vaccine will have to take a COVID-19 test every three days until they have completed their second doseOct. 15 is the deadline for both vaccines to be administered.

As of Sept. 7, about 84 percent of staff in care homes and health care facilities had received two vaccine shots, according to the French government.

Firms and employers are subjected to penalties if they fail to comply with Macrons order and receive fines of $160 (135 euros) that can climb to $4,430 (3,750 euros) after being fined three times in one month, Les Dernieres Nouvelles dAlsace reported. The penalties can also be accompanied by six months in prison.

Its Not Ethical

Emmanuel Chignon managed to keep his nursing care home in western France running through the worst of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic, but now hes confronting a new crisis: staff who would rather quit than comply with a government mandate that they be vaccinated.

We feel like were living through a third wave, but this time its a human resources wave, Chignon said Sept. 14 at the nursing home he runs in Bordeaux, southwest of Paris.

Chignon explained that Macrons new rules will leave him short of staff to care for residents: six or seven staff hadnt had their shots by the time the mandate took effect, so would have to be removed from the work schedules.

Hospital workers gather in protest of the health pass outside the CHU (University Hospital) Pellegrin where the health pass is mandatory in Bordeaux, France, on Aug. 9, 2021. (Philippe Lopez/AFP via Getty Images)

Vanessa Perotti, a health care worker at Hopital Beaujon in Clichy, a working-class Paris suburb, is also among workers who decided not to get vaccinated and instead quit her job in the medical field.

Im disgusted. In any case, theres nothing I can do. I just have to accept it, she told Reuters during a union-led protest.

Im not going to force myself to get injected with something just to work, said Perotti. Maybe its harmful, maybe its not, but I dont want anyone to impose it on me. Its not ethical, were free to do what we want with our bodies.

No Health Pass

The vaccine mandate and Frances health pass system prompted massive protests for nine consecutive weekends, with another demonstration on Sept. 15 in Paris.

The French Ministry of Interior said that 120,000 people joined the latest nationwide protests, France24 reported. Last week, about 140,000 demonstrated.

Leader of French nationalist party Les Patriotes (The Patriots) Florian Philippot (C) leads the march during a demonstration against Frances COVID-19 health pass in Paris on Sept. 11, 2021. (Thomas Samson/AFP via Getty Images)

The vaccine passport, which is dubbed a health pass by the government, is required by people to enter restaurants, clubs, and a number of other public places. While some media outlets have attempted to characterize the demonstrations as anti-vaccine, many protesters have said theyre against vaccine passports and mandates, not the vaccines themselves.

Whether were vaccinated or not, were against making it compulsory, a nursing assistant in her 50s, who wished to remain anonymous, told AFP.

Vaccine passports have been flagged by a variety of organizations, including civil liberties groups, as creating a two-tier society of vaccinated and unvaccinated.

Jack Phillips and Reuters contributed to this report.

From NTD News
Giving At-Risk and Homeless Students a Second Chance

Some high schoolers are forced into homelessness or may be at high risk of ending up on the streets because of negligent parents, abusive households, and family drug or alcohol problems. Furthermore, the ones who stay home are often lacking basic needsfood, clothing, and money for school supplies.

It seems nearly impossible that affluent places like Huntington Beach Union High School and Newport Mesa Unified School Districts could have these kinds of problems, but for Robyne Wood, its a fact she experiences firsthand every day.

Woods nonprofit, Robynes Nest, supports drug and alcohol free high school students in the Huntington Beach and Newport Mesa school districts who want to be productive members of society, but who dont have the family resources to do so.

They want a good life, said Wood, 49, who left her home in the D.C. suburbs when she was 17 and can relate to what these children are going through. They want to change their circumstances and I did too.

Robynes Nest offers food pantries, a mental health counseling program, monetary assistance, job and resume training, life skills trainingincluding personal wellness, physical wellness, hygiene, and personal financeand transitional housing, among other services. Wood and another case worker are the only full time employees; the rest are all volunteers.

This is our time to give back and change the future, Wood said.

Photos of children who have transitioned out of the program hand at Robynes Nest in Huntington Beach, Calif., on Aug. 24, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Since it was founded seven school years ago, Robynes Nest has assisted 125 students and currently works with approximately 46 people in school or who have recently graduated and need help landing on their feet.

We try to take away all the barriers so they can focus on school, Wood said. Once high school is done, we try to do a balance of working on themselves, as well as trying to move forward, with schooling or a job.

Wood found one of her students, Zane Alexander Dagget, when he was 16, recently kicked out of an abusive home where both his parents were doing drugs. Dagget had been in and out of Child Protective Services, was associating with the wrong people, and had no positive role model in his life.

I didnt really do much in school after fifth grade. I kind of just gave up and started doing my own thing, Dagget said. I started going down a not so bright path, hanging out with a lot of bad people, doing a lot of unnecessary things I shouldnt have been doing.

Wood quickly found a family for Dagget to live with and secured him a construction job. She helped him get into the Job Corps, a Department of Labor Program that provides education and job training for 16 to 24-year-olds. Dagget completed 160 units to get his diploma, and within a year he was out and signed up for the Marine Corps, something he had always dreamed about.

Now 22, Dagget is about to finish his enlistment, is married, paid off his car, and is ready to buy a home in Kansas, where hell work in chemical and biohazard cleanup. Dagget said meeting Robyne changed his life.

After I met Robyne, it was a big turning point in my life because there was someone there that gave a damn about what I wanted for once, Dagget said.

The three most important aspects of Robynes nest, according to Wood, are housing, mental health and life skills. Finding a safe place to live is one of those pressures she hopes to alleviate for children who are also trying to navigate the stress of high school.

Im very protective of them because theyve already been through so much, Wood said.

Robyne Wood works out of Robynes Nest in Huntington Beach, Calif., on Aug. 24, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Robynes Nest, with the help of volunteers, first places students in transitional housing, meant to support them for up to 24 months.

Before COVID-19, a couple of families would support a handful of students at their homes. And in 2017, a supporter let Robynes Nest rent out their extra house at a reduced rate. When the pandemic hit, the host family program stopped, and only four kids have been left in transitional homes. The rest have found their own places, some of their rent subsidized by Robynes Nest.

Licensed psychologists organize weekly virtual and in-person mental health therapy sessions with students at a reduced rate to help address past trauma and abuse. Wood stipulates that students must attend those sessions to remain in the program.

Life skills classes help Robynes Nest students live on their own for the first time in their lives. They dont know how to clean their apartments, budget, and cook. Personal finance is of utmost importance to Wood, because Robynes Nest doesnt allow students to get assistance from federal programs like electronic benefits transfers and Section 8 housing vouchers, with the exception of Medi-Cal, which students use until they can afford their own private insurance.

The food pantry area of Robynes Nest in Huntington Beach, Calif., on Aug. 24, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

She believes her experience of living on her own in high school, and past jobs ranging from accounting, insurance, retail, payroll management, and now a mother of two, has prepared her for running Robynes Nest.

The life skills classes have been successful, and Robynes Nest is planning on branching out to teaching students and adults not in the program about how to lead a successful life. Those courses would not be free, and the profit realized from that enterprise will go to funding the organization.

Wood will continue to focus on the Huntington Beach Union High School and Newport Mesa Unified School Districts, opting to focus on giving quality help to these local kids rather than adding more populous districts.

She gives a second chance to all these kids, Dagget said. I could have gone to prison and no one would have ever thought of me. She gives everyone a second wind and she doesnt look at you like a scumbag. She looks at you like a kid who was failed by their own parents.
GOP Senators Urge Biden Administration to Designate the Taliban as Terrorist Organization

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), a military veteran and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, along with a number of her Republican colleagues, is urging Secretary of State Antony Blinken to take into full consideration the Talibans violent actions since seizing complete control of Afghanistan in August and have the United States officially designate the group as a terrorist organization.

We believe the Taliban easily meets all three criteria and urge you to consider designating the Taliban as a foreign terrorist organization and treating them as such to the maximum extent of the law, the Republican senators wrote in a letter.

Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, the three criteria for making the terrorist designation are that the group in question is a foreign organization; that the group engages in or is capable of engaging in terrorist activity; and that said terrorist activity threatens the security of the United States.

Given their history of supporting terror attacks on the United States, their brutal style of governance, their continued display of atrocities against Americans and our allies, and now, their enhanced military capability, the current version of the Taliban government presents a significant threat to the United States. Further, the Taliban display the will and the means to attack Americans and American interests, the letter reads.

During the Senate Foreign Relations Committees first hearing on the military withdrawal of the United States from Afghanistan, Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) asked Blinken if the Biden administration believes that the Taliban is a terrorist organization.

Its designated under one of the designations, and any engagement that we have will be purely for the purposes of advancing our interests, Blinken said, but didnt confirm if the Biden administration considers the group to be a terrorist organization.

Blinken told the committee that the administration will look very closely at the Talibans actions to determine what actions it should take with them in providing aid.

So simply put, the nature of the relationship that the Taliban would have with us or most other countries around the world will depend entirely on its conduct and action, specifically with regard to freedom of travel, as well as to making good on its counterterrorism commitments, upholding basic rights of the Afghan people, not engaging in reprisals, etc., he said.

Blinken told the committee that the Biden administration initiated a resolution through the U.N. Security Council, setting out the expectations that the Taliban has to meet in order to keep a working relationship with the United States and to not face harsh actions.

Taliban terrorists take control of the Afghan presidential palace after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Aug. 15, 2021. (Zabi Karimi/AP Photo)

A resolution adopted by the U.N. Security Council at the end of August states that the Taliban must allow all foreign citizens safe passage out of Afghanistan and not interfere with humanitarian aid from reaching its people.

Republican lawmakers have argued that the Afghan Taliban has already violated basic standards of conduct as outlined by the Security Council resolution and by the Immigration and Nationality Act and that the Biden administration should send a stronger message and implement harsher consequences on the terrorist group.

Since reestablishing control of Afghanistan, the Taliban resumed the same murderous and oppressive habits that characterized their leadership tenure prior to the arrival of U.S. forces in 2001.  Most concerning to us is that among those beaten and chased by Taliban forces were American citizens and their families still living in Afghanistan, the letter reads.

U.S. State Department officials didnt immediately respond to a request to comment.

During an interview on Sept. 13, Sen. James Risch (R-Idaho) said the Biden administration is sending the wrong message to the Talibana message of weakness.

One of these things that [are] always overlooked is the fact that how you message and how you communicate with the enemy is really important. In the last administration, when a plan was put on the table, there [were] very clear communications to the Taliban. If they didnt meet those commitments to reduce violence, etc., there were going to be dire consequences. They believed that, Risch told Fox News.

In this particular instance, this administration went out of its way, time and again, to telegraph to them that they werent going to push back, starting with the withdrawal of air cover, abandoning Bagram Air Force Base. By the time this happened, the Taliban were convinced they could run right over the country, which they did.
Household Income of Americans Fell in 2020 for First Time Since 2011: Census Bureau

The household income of Americans fell last year as COVID-19-related lockdowns wreaked havoc on the economy, according to new figures from the Census Bureau.

The median household income was $67,521 in 2020, a decrease of 2.9 percent from the 2019 median of $69,560 and the first significant decline since 2011, the agency said in its findings published on Sept. 14 (pdf).

Household income includes money from wages or salaries, Social Security, public assistance or welfare payments, interest from savings or bonds, dividend from investments, veterans payments, or unemployment and workmens compensation, as well as other sources.

Between 2019 and 2020, the real median earnings of all workers decreased by 1.2 percent to $41,535 from $42,065, while the real median earnings of full-time, year-round workers increased 6.9 percent from their 2019 estimate.

However, the total number of those who worked full-time, year-round, declined by 13.7 million between 2019 and 2020, signifying the largest year-to-year decline in the number of full-time, year-round workers since 1967.

The total number of people with earnings decreased by about 3 million.

Meanwhile, the official poverty rate rose from a 60-year low, to 11.4 percent from 10.5 percent in 2019, the first increase in poverty after five consecutive annual declines.

While the thresholds for meeting the official definition of poverty vary in size and composition, the weighted average poverty threshold for a family of four in 2020 was $26,496.

There were 37.2 million people in poverty last year, 3.3 million more than in 2019, signaling the massive economic strains the lockdowns placed on tens of millions of people who were left without work, particularly in marginalized communities.

However, government programs designed to help assist low-income families, such as stimulus checks and $600 weekly unemployment benefits, appear to have somewhat softened the blow.

The Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM), which includes many government assistance programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), school lunches, housing assistance, stimulus payments, and refundable tax credits, declined by 2.6 percent to a rate of 9.1 percent, the lowest level since it began being measured in 2009.

I think this really shows the importance of the social safety net, said Liana Fox, chief of the poverty statistics branch in the Social, Economic, and Housing Statistics Division at the Census Bureau. When we see differences in trends with the official poverty rate and the SPM  thats really the impact of our tax system, thats the impact of our non-cash benefits.

Elsewhere, the Census Bureau found that the share of Americans without health insurance was at 8.6 percent last year, amounting to 28 million people. For people with health insurance coverage, 66.5 percent are on private insurance and 34.8 percent are on public plans.

The report comes shortly after more than 7 million Americans lost their pandemic unemployment benefits on Labor Day, including Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC)the $300 weekly bonus checks, as well as assistance for those who are normally ineligible for unemployment insuranceleaving them with smaller payouts or nothing at all.

The Biden administration said it has no plans to reevaluate or extend the unemployment benefits, the White House said.

While some advocates of the move, including businesses and lawmakers, hope that the reduction in benefits will lead to a rise in job applications, opponents fear obstacles such as securing child care and lingering fears surrounding COVID-19 may still hamper such efforts.

President Joe Biden and other Democrats are currently pushing for more investments into programs such as The American Families Plan, which aims to help families cover basic expenses, and extend key tax cuts to the plan that benefit lower- and middle-income workers and families, such as the Child Tax Credit.

Reuters contributed to this report.
Imagine 2,300 Years of Musical Instruments Under One Roof!

My work as a composer has taken me with some regularity to New York City, and each time Ive had a bucket list of things Ive either always wanted to do or wanted to do again during my free time there. One of those do agains has been to visit the huge Metropolitan Museum of Art at 1000 Fifth Ave., on the east side of the Great Lawn in Central Park.

Over the years, especially when my time was limited, upon entering the museum, I always made a beeline up the grand staircase to the second floor and hung a left, straight to the wing housing great European masterworks of painting. That includes the biggest collection of French art to be found outside of Paris. Many of those famous paintings I had seen only on coffee mugs and coasters. I can happily sit on a bench for a good while, just absorbing one great painting before forcing myself to move on to another.

Thus, it took me a few visits to stumble upon a little-advertised wing of the museum and discover, to my utter delight, the historic musical instrument collection. When I meet people who have visited The Met on their trips to the Big Apple, no one seems to know about this wing. Like me, theyve completely missed it. Yet anyone might enjoy this menagerie of 5,000 instruments, dating from 300 B.C., but musicians and music lovers may find it thrilling!

I say menagerie of instruments because some of them look like they came straight out of a Dr. Seuss book. Bathed in mysterious lighting and haunting silence are displayed all manner of bizarre experimental instruments that became largely obsolete, like the ones called the serpent and the sea dragon. You will also see the forerunners and earliest models of our modern standard instruments, including the priceless, oldest-known piano in existence (1720) and the Francesca violin by Antonio Stradivari (1694).

Meet Some Instruments

The serpent, a distant forerunner of the tuba, is thought to have been invented by a priest named Edme Guillaume in 1590 in Auxerre, France, in order to support the singing of chant in churches that could not afford an organ. It managed to survive a good while and even appear in a score or two by composers like Mozart and Wagner before largely dying out. We would call it a hybrid, because it has the mouthpiece of a brass instrument but is made of wood and has keys and holes on the tubing, like a woodwind.

European bass brasswind, known as the serpent, circa 1820. Purchase through the Robert Alonzo Lehman Bequest, 2012; Metropolitan Museum of Art. (Public Domain)

There are still aficionados and players of the instrument.

As a stepping stone from the serpent to the modern tuba, the ophicleide was invented in 1817 in France. The name also means serpent, and it was essentially an improved serpent made of brass, with keys instead of holes, and in various sizes and pitch ranges. It rather gives the appearance of a saxophone (which is a reed instrument) but with a brass mouthpiece. It so happens that one of the makers (but not an inventor) of the ophicleide was Adolphe Sax, who later invented the saxophone. I wonder where he got the idea.

The exotic sea dragon in The Met, quite largemeasuring four and a half feet long and eight inches wideis essentially a bassoon, but little is actually known about it. Being rather lacking in producing a pleasing musical sound, its primary historical appearance was believed to be as a prop in Baroque Italian stage plays that depicted Hades or the underworld.

This sea dragon, 17th century, and one other are the only known instruments of their kind to survive. Its only known use was as a visual and audio stage prop. The Crosby Brown Collection of Musical Instruments, 1889. Metropolitan Museum of Art. (Public Domain)

The glass harmonica will fascinate anyone who has ever produced a tone on a wine goblet by rubbing a moistened finger around the rim. In 1761, the prodigious Benjamin Franklin invented this instrument based upon that principle. He mounted a series of crystal bowls nested in increasing size, each tuned to a pitch of the scale, on a horizontal axle, with the bottom edges of the bowls dipping into a trough of water. By spinning the bowls by means of a handle or foot pedal to keep them constantly wet, the fingers can touch the edges of the bowls to play haunting, ethereal melodies and chords.

Glass harmonica, 18th century. The Crosby Brown Collection of Musical Instruments, 1889; Metropolitan Museum of Art. (Public Domain)

The instrument was used in chamber music and operas by Mozart, Beethoven, Donizetti, and notably by Camille Saint-Saens in the Aquarium movement of Carnival of the Animals. That part is played today on the glockenspiel, but you can also hear it played on the glass harmonica.

There are really too many fantastic instruments to discuss in detail here, but they include a Dizzie Gillespie trumpet (1959) with the bell bent upward, like his. There is a French horn made entirely of ceramic, as pretty as a teapot with blue flowers on white (French, late 18th century), and a Slovakian combination walking stick and flute (1820).

Ceramic hunting horn, late 18th or early 19th century. The Crosby Brown Collection of Musical Instruments, 1889; Metropolitan Museum of Art. (Public Domain)

There are all manner of Asian and world instruments, like the Da Tongjiao, a Chinese trumpet (late 19th century), and there are various instruments that combine two instruments into one, like a combination flugelhorn with cornet in C (Italy, 1890).

Da Tongjiao, a brass Chinese trumpet, 19th century. The Crosby Brown Collection of Musical Instruments, 1889; Metropolitan Museum of Art. (Public Domain)

As much as we hear about music history, usually in terms of the musical style itself, it would seem appropriate also to remember that there is a long history of the development of musical instruments, too. Some of them were creative acts in themselves, born of a person imagining a whole new sound or tone color and experimenting with ways to produce it.

While a good deal of mass production can be involved in manufacturing todays standard instruments, with only a few still made one at a time by hand, most of the instruments Ive mentioned were one-of-a-kind models, both in production and design. Even if they were a standard kind of wind, string, or keyboard instrument in sound, they were often uniquely decorated and are now admired as works of art in themselves.

To see other exotic and beautiful instruments, visit The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Israeli medical personnel tend to COVID-19 patients inside an isolation ward at the Ziv Medical Centre in the city of Safed in northern Israel on Aug. 12, 2021. (Jalaa Marey/AFP via Getty Images)

Israel Sees Record-High Daily Infections, Hints at Fourth Vaccine Dose

Highly vaccinated Israel recorded the highest number of daily CCP virus infections per capita this week as the countrys health ministry announced that on average, more than 10,700 new COVID-19 cases are being reported each day.

Health Ministry Director-General Nachman Ash said during a video call on Sept. 14 that the new figures are a record that did not exist in the previous waves, The Times of Israel reported.

A week ago we were in a clear downward trendin recent days weve been seeing that decline stop, and the virus reproduction number is [again] above 1, Ash said. Values above 1 indicate that the number of cases is increasing, while below 1 means its shrinking.

Although positive cases are on the rise again, people who fell seriously ill from COVID-19, the disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, declined compared to the numbers of previous weeks. Ash noted that on average, people who fell seriously ill increased daily by around 70 to 80 new patients.

Israel, which has mainly used the Pfizer Inc.-BioNTech vaccine, has so far fully inoculated about 5.56 million people, or 61.45 percent, according to data by Johns Hopkins University & Medicine.

Last week, Ash said the number of people who have not received any vaccine dose yet has fallen to less than one million. Israel has a population of 9.3 million people.

The country began offering COVID-19 booster shots to children as young as 12 on Aug. 29, and Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said a campaign that began in July among seniors has slowed a rise in severe illness caused by the Delta variant. Currently, about 2.7 million Israelis have accepted the booster vaccine.

Israeli children undergo COVID-19 antibody testing in the coastal city of Netanya on Aug. 22, 2021. (Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images)

On Sept. 12, Ash said while speaking during an interview with Radio 103FMthe country is working towards ensuring it will have enough COVID-19 vaccines for a potential second round of booster doses, although a recent study from several top scientists at the World Health Organization (WHO) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) found that the general population doesnt need a booster dose.

Vaccines fade over time, and after six months, they significantly decline while people become infected even after two vaccines, Ash said, answering a question on the possibility of a fourth COVID-19 vaccine dose. We dont know when the vaccine will be approved, I very much hope it will not be within half a year like this, but the third vaccine will last longer. We are starting to prepare so that we have stockpiles of vaccines if necessary, he continued.

The WHO urged countries earlier this month to hold off on giving COVID-19 booster shots through September so poorer nations can provide citizens with their first dose of the vaccine.

Salman Zarka, the director of Ziv Medical Center in Safed who joined Ash during the Sept. 14 meeting, said that 50 percent of confirmed cases on Sept. 13 were among children, adding that the country is working on the assumption that it will possibly in the future need to deal with a fifth CCP virus wave.

Israel reported a total of 32 deaths on Sept. 15, according to Johns Hopkins. The death toll since the start of the CCP virus pandemic reached 7,438.

From NTD News
Japan's Ground Self-Defense Forces (JGSDF) soldiers arrive for a live-fire exercise at JGSDF's training grounds in the East Fuji Maneuver Area on May 22, 2021 in Gotemba, Shizuoka, Japan. (Akio Kon - Pool/Getty Images)

Japan Holds Large-Scale Drills for 1st Time Since 1993 Amid Chinese Assertiveness

Japan has started a nationwide full-scale military drill on Wednesday for the first time in nearly 30 years as it aims to enforce its capabilities to defend remote islands amid Chinas assertive actions in the Indo-Pacific.

In order to respond effectively to various situations, including attacks on the islands, it is essential that the necessary forces are deployed quickly and extensively, depending on the situation, said Nobuo Kishi, the countrys minister of defense, Tokyo-based news agency Kyodo News reported.

In an increasingly uncertain security environment, the focus of our work will be on operational readiness, the official added.

The Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (GSDF) announced that the military exercise will involve all units and will be carried out until mid-to-late November. The drills will include around 100,000 personnel, 20,000 vehicles, and 120 aircraft, the network reported.

A total of 12,000 military members and nearly 4,000 vehicles from two GSDF divisions based on Hokkaido, a Japanese prefecture, and the Tohoku region, as well as a brigade in the Shikoku region, will start an expeditionary mission in southwestern Japan next week.

JGSDFs latest drill is the first large-scale military exercise since 1993when all units of the JGSDF, the largest of the three warfare branches in Japan, participated in a military exercise about two years after the Cold War ended.

In May, dozens of Japanese, American, and French troops held the first-ever joint drills by the three allies on Japanese soil as they sought to step up military ties amid Chinas growing assertiveness.

Japans Ground Self-Defense Forces (JGSDF) soldiers participate in a live-fire exercise at JGSDFs training grounds in the East Fuji Maneuver Area, in Gotemba, Shizuoka, Japan, on May 22, 2021. (Akio Kon  Pool/Getty Images)

Taiwan Annual Drills Reach Peak

Also on Sept. 15, Taiwanese fighter jets landed on a makeshift runway on a highway strip overseen by President Tsai Ing-wen as annual drills reached their peak, skills that would be needed in the event China attacks and targets Taiwans vulnerable air bases.

Tsai, re-elected by a landslide last year on a pledge to stand up to China, has made modernizing Taiwans mainly U.S.-equipped military a priority, turning it into a porcupine, both highly mobile and hard to attack.

Three fightersan F-16, French-made Mirage, and a Ching-kuo Indigenous Defence Fighterplus an E-2 Hawkeye early-warning aircraft landed in rural southern Pingtung county on a highway strip specially designed to be straight and flat for rapid conversion from a road into a runway.

Such splendid combat skills and rapid and real actions come from solid everyday training and also demonstrate the confidence of the Republic of China Air Force in defending its airspace, Tsai wrote on Facebook, referencing Taiwans formal name.

President Tsai Ing-wen attends a Taiwanese Air Force fighter jets take-off and landing drill, as part of the annual Han Kuang drill, in Pingtung, Taiwan, on Sept. 15, 2021. (Taiwan Military News Agency/Handout via Reuters)

Taiwanese Air Force fighter jets park on a highway that is converted as a runway during the take-off and landing drill as part of the annual Han Kuang drill in Pingtung, Taiwan, on Sept. 15, 2021. (Taiwan Military News Agency/Handout via Reuters)

Taiwan has five emergency highway runways across the island which can be pressed into service in the event a Chinese attack takes out air force bases, meaning the air force will still be able to operate.

The military exercises in Japan and Taiwan come as senior envoys from Japan, the United States, and South Korea met in Tokyo on Tuesday to discuss North Koreas missile and nuclear development a day after Pyongyang tested a new long-range cruise missile.

The communist country over the weekend successfully test-fired a new missile capable of hitting targets 930 miles away. Analysts said the missile could be North Koreas first such weapon with nuclear capabilities.

Richard Fisher, a senior fellow at the International Assessment and Strategy Center (IASC), told The Epoch Times in an email on Sept. 13 that it is very likely China and Iran supported the development and manufacturing of the missile.

Anders Corr and Reuters contributed to this report.

From NTD News
Johnson Replaces Foreign Secretary in UK Cabinet Reshuffle

Elizabeth Truss has replaced Dominic Raab and become the new British foreign secretary in a government reshuffle to form a strong and united Cabinet on Wednesday.

The former international trade secretarycommonly known as Liz Trusshas championed the cabinet popularity contest for months as the woman responsible for negotiating continuity and new trade deals around the world to keep post-Brexit Britain in business.

Truss will remain in her other job as the minister for women and equalities, and Anne-Marie Trevelyan will fill Truss previous job as the secretary for international trade.

Raab, who came under heavy criticism last month for taking a holiday during Taliban advancement in Afghanistan, is now the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice. He also got the title of Deputy Prime Minister, formalising a role he performed as the first secretary of state when he stood in for Boris Johnson while the Prime Minister was in hospital with the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.

Former Justice Secretary Robert Buckland no longer holds any cabinet roles.

The change in the Foreign Office could also point to a shift in the Johnson governments China policy, according to Sophia Gaston, director at think tank British Foreign Policy Group, who called Truss a proper China hawk in a Twitter post shortly after the appointment.

Gaston said she believes the new role may be a more comfortable fit for Truss, in which she can hold the Chinese regime to account and play a larger role in coordinating diplomatic efforts with British allies.

During Raabs tenure as the foreign secretary, The Chinese regime imposed the national security law on Hong Kong, breaching the Sino-British Joint Declaration and resulting in a mass exodus from the former British colony.

The communist regime also sanctioned five British parliamentarians, who had been vocal on the regimes treatment of Uyghur people in Xinjiang, which a number of legislaturesincluding the UKs House of Commonshave declared genocide and crimes against humanity.

The Foreign Office under Raab has taken a tougher stance on China and Russia than the previous governments, sanctioning a number of individuals and entities and offered a tailored programme welcoming Hongkongers into the UK, but critics have disproved the governments ambiguous China policy, saying much more should be done to hold human rights abusers to account and to protect the UKs national security against Chinese infiltration.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak, Health Secretary Sajid Javid, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, and Transport Secretary Grant Shapps will remain in their roles, so will Home Secretary Priti Patel, contrary to speculations.

Stephen Barclay has replaced Michael Gove as the chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster and minister for the cabinet office while Gove becomes the new secretary of state for housing, communities, and local government.

Downing Street said the senior Tory will take on cross-government responsibility for levelling up, referring to Johnsons campaign promise to invest and build in rural and coastal areas and level up across the UK.

Gove will retain his ministerial responsibility for the Union and elections, No. 10 said on Twitter.

Former Housing, Communities, and Local Government Secretary Robert Jenrick has been sacked by the prime minister.

Widely unpopular Gavin Williamson lost his job as the Education Secretary, which is now filled by former vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi, who led a CCP virus vaccination programme that was boasted as one of the main achievements of the Johnson government.

Conservative Party Co-chair Amanda Milling was also ousted, just weeks before the Conservative conference.

Oliver Dowden replaced Milling, with his previous jobsecretary of state for digital, culture, media, and sportfilled by former health department minister Nadine Dorries.

PA contributed to this report.
LA City Council Tentatively Approves Law Prohibiting Protests at Private Homes

LOS ANGELESThe Los Angeles City Council tentatively approved an ordinance today that would prohibit protests within 300 feet of the targets residence, a policy developed after activists protesting the citys COVID-19 vaccine mandate showed up at two council members homes late last month.

The ordinance received 12 yes votes, with Councilwoman Nithya Raman and Councilman Mike Bonin casting dissenting votes. The ordinance required unanimous approval on its first reading, and will be held until next week, when it will require 12 yes votes to pass.

Ordinances typically require a simple majority upon the second reading, but this ordinance includes an urgency clause to go into effect immediately upon publication. When urgency clauses are included, the ordinance requires approval from three-fourths of the city council.

The motion to request the ordinance was introduced by Council President Nury Martinez and Councilman Mitch OFarrell on Aug. 31.

Speaking from City Hall on Monday during an unrelated news conference, Mayor Eric Garcetti similarly said that he thinks its important to protect the rights of private citizens, including neighbors of public officials and people who live with public officials. He added that some of the darkest chapters in U.S. history involve people targeting private homes.

Protesters with Sunrise Movement Los Angeles, Black Lives Matter-Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Tenants Union, Peoples City Council, Street Watch Los Angeles, Ktown For All, and J-Town Action demonstrated against the ordinance outside Martinezs house by banging pots and pans and speaking through bullhorns early Tuesday. It appeared some of the protesters, who were standing on the sidewalk in front of Martinezs driveway, were in violation of the citys current laws, which prohibit targeted demonstrations focused upon and at or about a private residence that take place within 100 feet of the address.

On Aug. 28, an anti-vaccine mandate protester at a Santa Monica rally shared the addresses of council members and encouraged people to go to their homes if they voted yes on an ordinance to require at least partial proof of vaccination before entering most indoor public spaces in the city.

We have one week to stop the [vaccination] passports  if its unanimous, weve lost. Sharpen your knives, get your guns, get your food now, the protester said while holding a sign with council members home addresses.

 We find out who voted yes and you show up at their house. We need to intimidate these people.

After the rally, protesters, including gubernatorial recall candidate David Alexander Bramante, showed up at the homes of Martinez and OFarrell.

I had a group of folks show up at my doorstep, banging on my door, banging on my windows, harassing my neighbors, screaming obscenities into my daughters bedroom, and yelling into bullhorns asking me to come out and threatening my life, Martinez said before the vote.

Members, quite frankly, Im done with the entire thing. Im done with the threats  I am prepared to put an end to this.

Martinez said people who want to protest elected officials should go to their offices, not their homes.

No staffers, no family members of ours should be subjected to this kind of treatment. My address and my home is not a public place for you to come and protest, she said.

Raman cast the sole dissenting vote on the motion to develop the ordinance, saying the city should focus on enforcing its existing law instead of adding an ordinance that will likely have the exact same problems in its design and its enforcement.

Bonin voted for the motion to request the ordinance but expressed concerns, saying that the city needs to focus on the enforcement of existing laws.

Neither Raman nor Bonin spoke before casting their dissenting votes Tuesday.

Several people called into the council meeting to oppose the ordinance, calling it a violation of First Amendment rights. Ricci Sergienko of the Peoples City Council said he would sue the city if the ordinance takes effect.

The draft ordinance states that a person who is aggrieved by violators of the ordinance can sue for damages. The violator may also face a civil penalty of up to $1,000 per violation.
Republican conservative radio show host Larry Elder speaks to supporters after losing the California gubernatorial recall election, in Costa Mesa, Calif., on Sept. 14, 2021. (Ashley Landis/AP Photo)

Larry Elder Concedes California Recall Race as Newsom Prevails

The top Republican candidate in Californias recall race conceded late Tuesday as unofficial results showed Gov. Gavin Newsom staved off the effort to remove him from office.

Larry Elder, 69, garnered nearly half the votes from voters who chose to replace Newsom but some 64 percent of Californians who cast ballots opted not to remove the governor.

Newsom, 53, would have been replaced if a simple majority voted in favor of the recall. Elder, as the top vote-getter among those running to succeed the Democrat, would have replaced him.

Lets be gracious in defeat. And by the way, we may have lost the battle, but we are going to win the war, Elder told a crowd in Costa Mesa after the results indicated Newsom prevailed.

Newsom, in his first term, trumpeted the results after weeks of anxiety for him and his fellow Democrats.

It appears we are enjoying an overwhelmingly no vote tonight here in the state of California, the governor told reporters in Sacramento.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks after the polls close on the recall election, at the California Democratic Party headquarters in Sacramento, Calif., on Sept. 14, 2021. (Fred Greaves/Reuters)

Elder and other gubernatorial candidates had criticized Newsom for imposing harsh restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic and for the rise in crime and homelessness the state has seen under his watch.

Newsom attempted to tie Republicans running to replace him to former President Donald Trump.

Another California gubernatorial race will take place next year. The matchup could pit Elder versus Newsom again.

Stay tuned, Elder told supporters, referring to himself as a former radio host.

Elder has hosted radio and television shows for years, including one on EpochTV.

Elder would have been Californias first black governor if he were elected.

The governor received support from former President Barack Obama and President Joe Biden, while Elder didnt see much support from national Republicans. The California Republican Party declined to endorse a candidate in the election.

California GOP Chairwoman Jessica Millan Patterson said after results came in that Newsom was rescued by two presidents, radical left-wing Washington, D.C. politicians, and campaign spending in excess of $50 million.

She said that Newsom and his allies can no longer ignore the millions of CaliforniansDemocrat, Republican, and Decline to Statewho voted yes and recognize that state government has failed to deliver on its core responsibilities.

But Jaime Harrison, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said the vote was a win for the bold agenda put forth by President Biden, Governor Newsom, and Democrats in Congress.

Governor Newsom provides the smart, capable, and focused leadership necessary to keep Californians safe and build the states economy back better amid the COVID-19 pandemic. He has a strong record of delivering for the people of California and I look forward to watching him continue that critical work as governor, Harrison added.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing to discuss the ongoing federal response to COVID-19 in Washington on May 11, 2021. (Greg Nash/Pool/Getty Images)

Lawmakers Unveil Bipartisan Bill to Freeze Funding for Gain-of-Function Research

Bipartisan lawmakers on Friday unveiled a bill that seeks to freeze taxpayer-funding for gain-of-function research for a period of five years.

The legislation, called the Pausing Enhanced Pandemic Pathogen Research Act, was introduced by Reps. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), Buddy Carter (R-Ga.), and Henry Cuellar (D-Texas).

According to a press release from the lawmakers, the bill is in response to a recent report by The Intercept, which indicated that the United States had funded gain-of-function research at Chinas Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) that many believe may have led to the ongoing CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic.

Infectious disease expert and NIAID Director Dr. Anthony Fauci has come under intense scrutiny following the release of the documents by the news outlet, which detailed the use of federal money by the U.S.-based health organization, EcoHealth Alliance, to fund bat coronavirus research at the WIV.

Critics say the documents show Fauci misled Congress when he repeatedly asserted the National Institutes of Health (NIH) never funded controversial gain-of-function research at the WIV.

We knew the dangers of gain-of-function research, but the National Institute of Health and Dr. Fauci continued to fund it in America and overseas, Carter said in a statement. This is something we never should have allowed without proper oversight and safety protocols.

Evidence continues to mount that COVID-19 originated from the Wuhan Institute of Virology with research funded by U.S. taxpayers. We must double down on our efforts to prevent irresponsible research and protect our communities from future pandemics. Our bill will prevent taxpayer funds from being used to conduct gain-of-function research until we can ensure proper safety standards are put in place, Carter added.

Security personnel keep watch outside the Wuhan Institute of Virology during the visit by the World Health Organization (WHO) team tasked with investigating the origins of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, on Feb. 3, 2021. (Thomas Peter/Reuters)

Gallagher, in similar remarks, said that overwhelming evidence suggests that this very research may have caused a deadly pandemic that upended the world.

While we continue to investigate the origins of COVID-19, the U.S. shouldat a minimumhalt all funding for this dangerous research until we understand the role it played in this pandemic. Im proud to support Rep. Carters legislation that does just that, the Republican lawmaker said in a statement.

Lawmaker Cuellar highlighted the impact the pandemic has had on the economy, and on educational and public health well-being.

Gain-of-function research has been directly linked to the spark of the coronavirus pandemic. The Pausing Enhanced Pandemic Pathogen Research Act is the best path forward to ensure that we avoid U.S. taxpayer funds from falling into the wrong hands, he said.

Last week, Gallagher called on Fauci to resign, saying that the recently released documents show he lied about U.S. support for gain-of-function research.

These documents are a smoking gun that indicate he not only failed to be forthcoming, but that he also lied to the American people about his organizations support for this risky research, he said in a statement.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki signaled on Thursday the Biden administrations continued support of Fauci.
Q&A: Judge Blocks NY Vaccine Mandate for Health Workers; Milley Allegedly Promised to Alert China

A federal judge granted an emergency injunction that blocks New York from enforcing a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for health care workers. This comes as vaccine mandates go into effect in New York City. Also, one of the vaccine manufacturers, Pfizer, plans to ask regulators for COVID-19 vaccine authorization for young children in October. And in other news, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley allegedly promised his counterpart in the Chinese military that he would warn China if the United States was preparing a military strike against China. The accusation comes from an upcoming book by Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Robert Costa.

In this live Q&A with Crossroads host Joshua Philipp, well discuss these stories and others, and answer questions from the audience.

Were being heavily censored by Big Tech. Our solution? Create our own independent platform free of censorship.

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Man Proposes Adoption to Stepdaughters on Wedding Day: Blood Could Not Make Us Any Closer

On his wedding day, a besotted groom from Detroit, Michigan, delivered vows to not one but three special ladies in his life. Moments before tying the knot, he turned to his brides two young daughters, whom he has known for years, and surprised them with a life-changing question: Can I adopt you?

Dontez Williams, 33, married 26-year-old Myshella Burton on Aug. 13. The newlywed told The Epoch Times that his wifes girlsAbigail, 9, and Natalie, 8knew he was the one for their mom even before she did, upon meeting him seven years ago.

His plan to propose adoption was only finalized the day before the wedding.

Dontez Williams with Abigail and Natalie. (Courtesy of Dontez Williams)

We did rehearsal the day before, Dontez explained. I pulled our officiant to the side and I told her, Hey, I want to write some vows for my daughters. And she said, Does anybody know about this?'

Its a surprise, Dontez replied.

Having written vows for his Detroit-native wife in advance, Dontez, who was originally from Cleveland wrote his proposal to the girls on the morning of the wedding day. At the altar, Abigail and Natalie were stunned when their stepdad flipped the script.

They were looking like, We didnt rehearse this, whats going on?' Dontez recalled. My wife, she didnt know what was going on.  Everybody was emotional, crying, and it was a lot of love in the room.

Dontez proposing adoption to his daughters. (Courtesy of Dontez Williams)

In footage of the moving moment shared on Instagramas parts one and twoAbigail and Natalie are seen visibly emotional as Dontez works through tears to make his speech. Although they are not biologically mine, blood could not make us any closer, he captioned the touching post.

In an excerpt from Dontezs adoption proposal, he addresses the girls:

When I first came into your lives the very first day, you both enjoyed my company so much that you told me you loved me. From that moment, I felt I was destined to be there for you both.  You both help me become a better version of me. I know you both look at me as a father figure, and you both call me Dad, but I want to make it official and ask: Can I adopt you?

(Courtesy of Dontez Williams)

The girls emotional response, said Dontez, brought the trio closer. The soon-to-be legal father is grateful that his videos have touched peoples hearts and received such positivity.

A mental health case manager at Starfish Family Services for kids aged 6 to 18, Dontez met Myshella, who works in obstetrics at a birthing center, on the dating website Plenty of Fish and went on their first date in 2015. They got engaged in 2018 when Dontez set up his perfect proposal with the help of friends at Detroits Metro Beach, with rose petals, candles, and a romantic dinner.

However, before asking Myshella to marry him, Dontez asked the girls permission. They were happy; they said yes, he told The Epoch Times.

Dontez also revealed that the kids were really excited about the wedding and began counting days to it.

Dontez Williams with Myshella Burton. (Courtesy of Dontez Williams)

Dontez says he was raised by his mother yet his father was present in his life, so he raised him too. With 13 brothers and sisters on his fathers side, Dontez also grew up with an uncle and cousins around the same age and thinks of himself as always having been family-oriented.

As for the girls, Dontez says Abigail was smitten with him from the get-go, her eyes lighting up at their second meeting on her second birthday. Meanwhile, Natalie was more standoffish. But once Natalie did get close to me, she became more of a Daddys girl, Dontez reflected. She became the one that wrapped me around her finger.

Over the years, Dontez has built a strong bond with the girls. With their biological father out of the picture since 2015, Abigail and Natalie started calling Dontez Dad, and the loving Dontez adopted his role with gusto.

Owing to their differences, Dontez has learned how to parent his soon-to-be daughters differently but concedes that he can be a soft touch. The girls will share more feminine concerns with their mom, while hes the one who fields the gift requests.

Theyre always asking me, he joked. But I do feel like I want to be protective.  If someones messing with them, they come to me.

In the months and weeks leading up to the wedding, Myshella started sharing videos with her fiance of children asking their stepparents to adopt them, unknowingly lending support to his secret plan. But as Abigail and Natalie were younger, Dontez was determined that he would be the one to do the asking.

When the girls said yes, their family was truly complete. I felt like it was destiny, he said.

Watch the touching video:

(Courtesy of Dontez Williams)

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Mayor Calls for Ohio School Board to Resign Over Child Pornography Material

The mayor of Hudson, Ohio, said he is asking all five school board members to resign or face potential criminal charges over high school course material that was described as child pornography by a local judge.

It has come to my attention that your educators are distributing essentially what is child pornography in the classroom, Mayor Craig Shubert told the Hudson City Schools board, which oversees Hudson High School, according to video footage. Ive spoken to a judge this evening. Shes already confirmed that. So Im going to give you a simple choice: You either choose to resign from this board of education or you will be charged.

The incident stemmed from parents saying their children received an inappropriate writing prompt assignment found inside the book, 642 Things to Write About, in a liberal arts class.

According to Amazon reviews of the book, several of the writing prompts include describing sex or similar topics, while others warned that it isnt meant for younger writers or students. Another prompt asked students to drink a beer and describe how it tastes or how to commit a murder, reports said.

Do not sexualize our kids! The raw filth that snuck past the gatekeeping functions of this board of ed. in 642 Reasons was disgusting, parent Morris Norman said at the Hudson board meeting, reported News5.

I asked my daughter if she had been reading a book with inappropriate stuff in it and she said yes, Monica Havens, a mother of a student who saw the book, told the Akron Beacon Journal.

During the meeting on Monday, Principal Brian Wilch apologized and said teachers overlooked several writing prompts among the 642 in the book that are not appropriate for our high school audience. However, he contended that at no time were any of these inappropriate prompts selected or discussed, but still they were there and they were viewable, and you cant unsee them, reported the Akron Beacon Journal.

But parents, including Norman, said they werent convinced.

The students were told not to take the book home. Why? So their parents couldnt see it, said Norman.

A parent found that book in their childs backpack, said Amanda Kocher, vice-chair of Moms for Liberty Summit County, according to the station.

Another parent said that while the book is problematic, parents dont know what teachers are telling students.

We dont know whats going on in those classrooms. We dont know the curriculum. We dont know what is being said to our kids, Eric Durker, the parent, said during the meeting. One way to remedy the problem is by placing cameras in all classrooms.

Its not clear whether the school board or staff could be held criminally liable for curriculum, said an attorney with the Ohio School Boards Association.

Weve never heard of criminal charges [filed against a school board] for curriculum, said Ralph Lusher, the lawyer, to the Beacon Journal.

The Epoch Times has contacted the Hudson High School for comment.
Mexico to Give Away El Chapo Safehouse in Lottery

CULIACAN, MexicoThe house former drug kingpin Joaquin El Chapo Guzman fled in 2014 when Mexican marines had him surrounded underwent some changes recently as the Mexican government prepared to give it away in a national lottery.

The surveillance cameras that covered every angle of the modest homes exterior were removed. And the hole under a bathtub that Guzman had slipped through to reach a network of tunnels was covered with a concrete slab.

The Associated Press was given access to the property in a quiet Culiacan neighborhood ahead of the lottery. In recent weeks, Mexicos Institute to Return Stolen Goods to the People, known by its initials as INDEP, gave it a fresh coat of white paint inside and out and tiled over the spot in the bathroom where the tub and tunnel entry point had been.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has been talking up the lottery of seized properties, but gave no mention to the history of this particular house. An expansive home in one of Mexico Citys swankiest neighborhoods and a private box at the famed Azteca Stadium have garnered more attention.

One of the properties that was interconnected by tunnels in the drainage system which the infamous drug kingpin Joaquin Guzman Loera known as El Chapo used to evade authorities through an escape hatch in Culiacan, Mexico. Mexicos lottery is giving away this property on Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021. (Adriana Gomez/AP Photo)

INDEPs website lists it only as Casa en Culiacan. Its about 2,800 square feet and located, perhaps appropriately, in a neighborhood called Libertad, or Freedom. The government values the two-bedroom home at $183,000.

The house had been abandoned for years and the marines did some damage when they searched it, so repairs were necessary.

Guzman escaped that time through the tunnels, but his freedom lasted only days. On Feb. 22, 2014, the marines descended again, this time in a condo on the coast in Mazatlan.

By that time, Guzman already had a reputation for daring escapes. He had slipped out of one of Mexicos maximum-security prisons in 2001, allegedly in a laundry cart.

In July 2015, less than a year and half after his capture in Mazatlan, Guzman slipped through a tunnel dug up to the drain in his cells shower and rode a motorcycle on tracks laid through a tunnel to escape another maxium-security Mexican prison.

The marines captured him again six months later in Los Mochis, Sinaloa, where he had been holed up in another unremarkable home.

Guzman was extradited to the United States, tried, convicted and sentenced to life in prison in July 2019.

INDEP officials, who declined to be identified because they were not authorized to speak, said they were surprised the house was getting attention. It is not luxurious. There is no swimming pool, none of the ostentation that characterizes other narco properties in Sinaloa.

People nearby said they didnt know who their neighbor was.

We never knew anything, we never knew who lived there, we never saw anyone, said one neighbor, who quickly cut off the conversation. Many locals arent interested in speaking of Guzman or even saying his name in a place where the Sinaloa cartel remains powerful.

The house was well located for its previous purposes. There is a neighbor only on one side. On the other is a subterranean storm sewer  Culiacan built hundreds of kilometers of them to deal with torrential rains  which is where the bathroom tunnel connected to make Guzmans escape possible. A school is across the street.

On the morning of Feb. 17, 2014, the neighborhood was suddenly filled with the marines grey trucks. They blocked traffic. There was no doubt they were interested in the seemingly unremarkable house.

But they didnt find Guzman there. In fact, during his U.S. trial, a witness testified that Guzman was not in any of the five houses marines searched, despite reports to the contrary at the time.

Five days later, the marines caught up to Guzman 125 miles to the south in Mazatlan, where he was staying with his wife Emma Coronel and their twin daughters.

INDEP tried to auction off the home last year. It started the bidding at about $130,000. There were no takers.

Now, Lopez Obrador is giving it away as part of the lottery, with the drawing scheduled for Wednesday, the day before Mexico celebrates its Independence Day. Its the first time Mexicos national lottery is giving away property. The proceeds are to go to Mexicos Olympic athletes.

This raffle is very important and I call on all the people, those who can help buying a ticket, or two or three, Lopez Obrador said at his daily news conference last week.

In downtown Mexico City, lottery ticket vendors said sales have been good.

Jorge Lopez said hes been selling 100 to 120 of the $12 tickets daily since last week. Right now, its selling very well. He said the value of the 22 prizes, many well above that of the Culiacan house, is drawing attention. Some people ask about who the properties previous owners were, but not many, he said.

Back in Culiacan, across town near the center, Ignacio Mariscal said he supports the lottery. Those houses didnt serve anyone; those people had them, Mariscal said. I see it as perfectly fine. Its to help people in need.

By Andres Villarreal
Militia Leader Gets 53 Years in Minnesota Mosque Bombing

ST. PAUL, Minn.The leader of an Illinois anti-government militia group who authorities say masterminded the 2017 bombing of a Minnesota mosque was sentenced Monday to 53 years in prison.

Emily Claire Hari, who was previously known as Michael Hari and recently said he is transgender, faced a mandatory minimum of 30 years for the attack on Dar al-Farooq Islamic Center in Bloomington. Defense attorneys asked for the minimum, but prosecutors sought life, saying Hari hasnt taken responsibility for the attack.

No one was hurt in the bombing, but more than a dozen members of the mosque community gave victim impact statements Monday about the trauma it left behind. U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank said evidence clearly showed Haris intent was to scare, intimidate, and terrorize individuals of Muslim faith.

Diversity is the strength of this country, Frank said. Anyone who doesnt understand that doesnt understand the constitutional promise of this country that brings a lot of people here.

Anything less than 636 months would (be) disrespect to the law, the judge added.

Frank said he was prepared to recommend Hari go to a womens prison, but said the Bureau of Prisons would decide.

Hari was convicted in December on five counts, including damaging property because of its religious character and obstructing the free exercise of religious beliefs.

Members of the mosque asked the judge on Monday to impose a life sentence, describing their shock and terror at the attack. Some were afraid to pray there afterward and have not returned. Mothers were scared to bring their kids to the mosque, which also serves as a charter school and community center.

I felt really scared because I was going to start school in the same building soon and we lived like six blocks away from the mosque, said Idris Yusuf, who was 9 when the bombing happened. I was scared because if these people could do this to our mosque, whats stopping them from coming to Muslim peoples homes too?

Afterward, community members said they saw 53 years as justice for an attack that has rattled worshippers for more than four years.

Several men were gathered at Dar al-Farooq for early morning prayers on Aug. 5, 2017, when a pipe bomb was thrown through the window of an imams office. A seven-month investigation led authorities to Clarence, Illinois, a rural community about 120 miles south of Chicago, where Hari and co-defendants Michael McWhorter and Joe Morris lived.

Authorities say Hari, 50, led a group called the White Rabbits that included McWhorter, Morris, and others and that Hari came up with the plan to attack the mosque. Prosecutors said at trial that Hari was motivated by hatred for Muslims, citing excerpts from Haris manifesto known as The White Rabbit Handbook.

It wasnt initially clear how the White Rabbits became aware of Dar al-Farooq, but the mosque was in headlines in the years before the attack: Some young people from Minnesota who traveled to Syria to join the ISIS terrorist group had worshipped there.

Prosecutors asked for several sentencing enhancements, arguing the bombing was a hate crime led by Hari.

Hari, McWhorter, and Morris were also charged in a failed November 2017 attack on an abortion clinic in Champaign, Illinois. Plea agreements for McWhorter and Morris say the men participated in an armed home invasion in Indiana, and the armed robberies or attempted armed robberies of two Walmart stores in Illinois.
A man reads a book as he queues at a COVID-19 vaccination centre in Melbourne, Australia, on Sept. 1, 2021. (William West/AFP via Getty Images)

New South Wales in Australia on Track to Hit 80 Percent Single-Dose Target

New South Wales (NSW) is likely to achieve 80 percent first-dose COVID-19 vaccination coverage in people 16 and older on Wednesday as authorities try to stem the spread of the virus in the Illawarra.

Some 79.5 percent of the over-16 population in NSW had come forward to get at least one jab by Tuesday, and 47.5 percent were fully vaccinated.

Under the NSW governments roadmap, vaccinated people will be released from lockdown when the state reaches 70 percent double-dose coverage. this is expected to occur in about a month.

More changes will then be triggered at 80 percent, including international travel and large events.

Meanwhile, Australian Defence Force personnel have joined NSW Police in the Illawarra region to help with COVID-19 welfare and compliance checks as cases of the virus increase.

Soldiers are already helping police patrol 12 Sydney local government areas considered hotspots.

Health authorities became concerned in the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District after it recorded 53 cases in the 24 hours to 8 p.m. on Saturday, 27 cases the next day and 17 more on Monday.

The coastal area includes the states third-largest city of Wollongong.

Southern Region Commander Assistant Commissioner Joe Cassar has welcomed the arrival of troops in the Illawarra.

Our officers and ADF personnel will be making daily visits and checking in on those who are self-isolating and making sure theyre okay during lockdown, he said on Wednesday.

I ask everyone across our region to continue complying with the Public Health Orders and do everything you can to help us prevent further spread of the Delta variant.

Some suburbs in Sydneys west and southwest remain under heightened restrictions despite having some of the highest vaccination rates in the country.

Schofields, Marsden Park, The Ponds and Toongabbie are among the suburbs to have at least 90 percent of residents vaccinated.

Because their council areas are still labelled hotspots, residents in those suburbs are subject to an overnight curfew. Unlike other NSW residents, they can only picnic with persons from their households.

The future of southwest and western Sydney will be debated during a two-hour economic recovery summit hosted by the NSW opposition on Wednesday.

Around 20 speakers from industry groups, arts organisations, business groups, social services organisations and unions are slated to address the virtual summit.

Labor says its looking for positive ideas to get the region booming again once lockdown ends, and it wants to bridge the gap between the west and the rest of Sydney.

Meanwhile, a nursing home in western Sydney that was on the scene of a COVID-19 catastrophe last year has been locked down after another virus scare.

Newmarch House, where 19 residents died from COVID-19 last year, is locked down and residents are confined to their rooms after an infectious doctor reportedly visited three times last week.

NSW reported 1127 more locally acquired cases and two more deaths on Tuesday.

There are 1253 patients in the states hospitals, including 231 in intensive care.

NSW Healths Jeremy McAnulty on Tuesday said it was too early to know if case numbers were flattening after the state recorded its lowest daily total in almost two weeks.

Were seeing  that cases havent been increasing as fast as they have been, but that may be an effect of the weekend, he said.

Well look to see whats happening throughout the rest of this week to know how were going.
The Nigerian Correctional Services facility that was attacked by gunmen is seen in Imo State, Nigeria, on April 5, 2021. (David Dosunmu/Handout via Reuters)

Nigerian Forces Recapture 114 From Mass Jailbreak

ABUJAA total of 114 of the 266 inmates who escaped from a Nigerian prison on Sunday have been recaptured, the prison service said on Tuesday.

Heavily armed gunmen raided the medium-security jail at Kabba in south-central Nigeria late on Sunday, blowing up the perimeter fence and freeing almost everyone, but killing a soldier and a police officer, authorities said.

The attackers fought a gun battle with guards in what was the second major jailbreak in Nigeria this year.

Following the attack  and the swift intervention of the controller general of corrections  a total of 114 escapees have been recaptured, a spokesman said.

Nigeria is struggling with security problems across its vast territory, including armed robberies by criminal gangs, an Islamic insurgency in the northeast, and a spate of mass abductions from schools in the northwest.

Twenty-eight out of the 294 inmates at Kabba did not escape, the interior ministry said, meaning 266 had got away. The prison service had initially put the number of fugitives at 240.

The spokesman said extra armed guards had been deployed to beef up security at the prison, and urged the remaining escapees to turn in themselves within the next 24 hours.

The prison service said the Kabba jail was established in 2008 with a capacity for 200 inmates. At the time of the attack, there were 224 pre-trial detainees and 70 convicted offenders inside.

By Camillus Eboh
Thousands of participants take part in a memorial vigil in Victoria Park on June 4, 2020 in Hong Kong, China to honor the victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. (Sung Pi-lung/The Epoch Times)

9 Hong Kong Activists Sentenced to Jail Over 2020 Tiananmen Vigil

Six- and 10-month jail terms

Nine Hong Kong pro-democracy activists were given jail sentences ranging from six to 10 months on Sept. 15 after pleading guilty to participating in a candlelight vigil in 2020 to commemorate the Tiananmen Square massacre.

Another three people received suspended sentences for the same charge of having participated in the unauthorized assembly in the citys Victoria Park on June 4, 2020.

The normally annual event was banned in 2020 and 2021 by Hong Kong police, who cited concerns about the spread of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.

Despite this, thousands of locals defied the ban and gathered for the 2020 vigil to commemorate the events of June 3 and 4, 1989, which saw potentially hundreds or even thousands of innocent lives lost after the CCP ordered its troops to open fire on pro-democracy activists at Tiananmen Square in Beijing.

On Sept. 9, the 12 pro-democracy activists pleaded guilty to having participated in the 2020 vigil. Seven of them were given an additional charge of having incited others to join the event.

Activists participate in a candlelit remembrance in Victoria Park in Hong Kong on June 4, 2020. (Isaac Lawrence/AFP via Getty Images)

The defendants ignored and belittled a genuine public health crisis, District Court Judge Amanda Woodcock said on Sept. 15, Reuters reported.

They wrongly and arrogantly believed their common purpose was more important than protecting the community or the publics right to protection from a serious health risk.

She said that while she was aware of the June 4 event, there were other alternatives and creative options to consider, such as an interactive online vigil that organizers could have considered, the Hong Kong Free Press reported.

I consider a deterrent and punitive sentence appropriate, she said.

Amnesty Internationals Asia-Pacific Director Yamini Mishra condemned the sentencing of the 12 Hongkongers as another outrageous attack on the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly.

She said in a statement that the 12 had committed no internationally recognizable crime.

There may be worse to come for the organizers of the vigilsome of whom are also facing more serious, yet no less spurious, national security charges, she said.

Despite the Chinese and Hong Kong authorities relentless attempts to erase history by jailing people who peacefully light a candle for the victims of the Tiananmen crackdown, the continued support for the June Fourth movement in Hong Kong and around the world shows that this atrocity will never be forgotten.

Hong Kongs candlelight vigil is renowned for being the only large-scale public gathering on Chinese soil to commemorate the Tiananmen Square massacre, and its traditionally the largest vigil of its kind in the world.

Sentences

The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China has organized the annual vigil since 1990.

Albert Ho, its former vice chairman, was dealt a total of 10 months in jailsix months for attending the vigil, and 10 months for incitement.

Participants hold candles as they take part in a memorial vigil in Victoria Park in Hong Kong, on June 4, 2020. (Anthony Kwan/Getty Images)

Two othersFigo Chan, former leader of the Civil Human Rights Front, and Andrew Wan, a former lawmaker in the Democratic Partyreceived similar sentences.

Both Ho and Chan are already serving 18 months related to other cases related to other assemblies in 2019 and will serve the new sentences concurrently.

Other former lawmakers, including Eddie Chu, Yeung Sum, Leung Kwok-hung, and Cyd Ho, were sentenced to six months in jail over the participation charge.

Kwok Wing-kin, the chairman of the Labour Party, and Chiu Yan-loy, a former district councilor and a former standing committee member of the Hong Kong Alliance, were both sentenced to four months for participation and eight months for incitement, for a total of eight months.

Pro-democracy activist Cheung Man-kwong leaves the court after his sentence was suspended, in Hong Kong on Sept. 15, 2021. (Tyrone Siu/Reuters)

Three former standing committee members of the Hong Kong Alliance received suspended sentences. Cheung Man-Kwong and Mak Hoi-wah received four months for participation and eight months for incitement. Each will serve a total of eight months in jail, suspended for 18 months. Leung Kwok-wah received four months, suspended for 12 months, for having participated.

Last week, police arrested four key members of the Hong Kong Alliance under the draconian national security law imposed by Beijing in 2020.

Police accuse the Hong Kong Alliance of being an agent of foreign forces, which it denies.

The 12 who were dealt sentences on Sept. 15 were among a total of 26 activists charged in connection with the candlelight vigil in 2020. Nathan Law and Sunny Cheung fled the city before they were summoned to court in September 2020.

Other prominent young activists, Joshua Wong, Lester Shum, Tiffany Yuen, and Janelle Leung, were given jail terms in April after they pleaded guilty to unlawful assembly charges. In May, Wong was sentenced to an additional 10 months in jail.

Another eight defendants who face charges will face trial in November. They have pleaded not guilty.

Frank Fang contributed to this report.
Missiles are seen launched during a military drill in North Korea, in this photo supplied by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on May 10, 2019. (KCNA via Reuters)

North Korea Fires Ballistic Missiles Into Waters Between Japan and Korean Peninsula

North Korea launched two ballistic missiles into waters off its eastern coast on Sept. 15, South Koreas Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) has confirmed.

The JCS said the missiles were launched from central North Korea and that South Korea, along with U.S. intelligence authorities, is currently analyzing more details about the launches.

Japans coast guard said it believes the two missiles were launched five minutes apart, at 12:38 p.m. and 12:43 p.m. local time (11:38 p.m. and 11:43 p.m. EST) and that they landed outside its exclusive economic zone in the waters between Japan and the Korean Peninsula, CNN reported.

The coast guard confirmed that no ships or aircraft were damaged by the missiles.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga called the firings absolutely outrageous and said they threaten the peace and safety of Japan and the region.

The government of Japan is determined to further step up our vigilance and surveillance to be prepared for any contingencies, Suga said.

The firings come just two days after North Korea had claimed to have tested a newly developed missile, the first time it has resumed weapons tests in six months. In a multi-day operation, North Korea tested a long-range cruise missile capable of hitting targets 930 miles away, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

The Academy of National Defense Science conducts long-range cruise missile tests in North Korea, as pictured in this combination of undated photos supplied by North Koreas Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Sept. 13, 2021. (KCNA via Reuters)

Officials and scientists of the Academy of National Defense Science, who took part in the testing of the cruise missiles launched on Sept. 11 and Sept. 12, declared the operation a success, reported the KCNA.

The missile, labeled a strategic weapon of great significance, had been in development for two years.

U.N. Security Council (UNSC) resolutions have barred North Korea from testing ballistic missiles, and the country has been heavily sanctioned over its missile and nuclear weapons programs.

The testing of cruise missiles isnt explicitly banned under the UNSC. However, ballistic missiles are considered to be more threatening because they can be armed with either conventional or nuclear bombs.

North Korea has ignored offers from President Joe Bidens administration to resume negotiations to abandon its nuclear program.

Some experts believe North Koreas recent tests suggest it may be pushing to bolster its weapons arsenal amid the deadlock in nuclear diplomacy between Pyongyang and Washington.

The Associated Press and Lorenz Duchamps contributed to this report.
The Academy of National Defense Science conducts long-range cruise missile tests in North Korea, as pictured in this combination of undated photos supplied by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Sept. 13, 2021. (KCNA via Reuters)

North Korean Cruise Missile Likely Assisted by China and Iran: Expert

North Korea announced on Sept. 13 the successful test of a new cruise missile that raised significant questions among military experts. One commented to The Epoch Times that China and Iran likely supported the development and manufacture of the missile.

As China has assisted North Korean ballistic missiles and has an advanced long-range land attack cruise missile (LACM) production base, it is very likely that China has enabled North Koreas new long-range LACM, wrote Richard Fisher, a senior fellow at the International Assessment and Strategy Center (IASC), in an email on Sept. 13.

There is also a good chance that Iran provided LACM technology to Pyongyang, Fisher wrote. Pyongyang is the capital of North Korea.

Two days after the LACM test, North Korea tested two ballistic missiles, which is a violation of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions. The same day, on Sept. 15, South Korea tested its first submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM). Ballistic missiles typically raise more concern in the United States, as they can reach the continental U.S. without additional forward deployment on ships and submarines. However, the LACMs bear closer inspection both because they are regionally significant, and because of the likely involvement of China or Iran in their proliferation to North Korea.

In 1999 to 2001, according to former Ukrainian lawmaker Hrihory Omelchenko, the Ukraine exported 6 Russian KH-55 LACMs to China and 6 KH-55s to Iran. Irans Soumar LACM looks very similar to the KH-55, Fisher wrote in the email.

Irans press representative at the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The sales occurred between 1999 and 2001, according to Omelchenko, in Associated Press reporting from 2005. He then stated that the KH-55 is nuclear capable, and was originally designed for Russian Tupalev long-range bombers. The KH-55 has a range of 1,864 miles, can carry a 200-kiloton nuclear warhead, and is air-launched.

While the North Korean LACM test on Sept. 13 reached 932 miles, according to North Korean state media, which would put Japan and Taiwan under threat, a 1,864-mile range would extend that threat to Taiwan and part of the Philippines, including Manila. North Korea is also known as the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK).

Fisher noted that Given that LACMs are far less expensive to produce than ballistic missiles, it is surprising that North Korea has not developed them sooner.

If China and North Korea prioritized nuclear targeting of the continental United States first, this might explain the initial focus on ballistic missiles, which can carry larger payloads, including relatively primitive nuclear weapons.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and wife Ri Sol Ju, and Chinese leader Xi Jinping and wife Peng Liyuan meet, as Kim Jong Un paid an unofficial visit to Beijing, China, in this undated photo released by North Koreas Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang, on March 28, 2018. (KCNA/via Reuters)

Cruise missiles can be launched from a diversity of platforms, including not only air, but submarines and from launchers hidden in shipping containers. This would give North Korea several additional ways to deliver nuclear weapons to the continental United States, if they can be miniaturized to fit within cruise missiles. Fitting them for submarine launch would also require modifications.

North Koreas LACM requires some modification to the air intake to make it compatible with submarine launch but that can be expected soon, wrote Fisher. But as is, the North Korean LACM can be stored and fired from a shipping container, making it a potential global military and terror threat.

Dr. Jeffrey Lewis at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies stated on Twitter that an intermediate-range land-attack cruise missile is a pretty serious capability for North Korea. This is another system that is designed to fly under missile defense radars or around them.

Military aerospace expert Thomas Newdick reported on Sept. 13 that the new North Korean cruise missile tail section had a similarity to the KH-55, and that the term strategic, used by North Korea to describe the missile, usually denotes a nuclear capability.

Ankit Panda, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, noted on Twitter that this would be the first cruise missile system in North Korea with a strategic role.

The United States Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM) released a statement: We are aware of reports of DPRK cruise missile launches. We will continue to monitor the situation and are consulting closely with our allies and partners. This activity highlights DPRKs continuing focus on developing its military program and the threats that pose to its neighbors and the international community. The U.S. commitment to the defense of the Republic of Korea [South Korea] and Japan remains ironclad.

In response to the Sept. 13 cruise missile test, Japan and South Korea said they were coordinating with each other and the United States. Japans chief cabinet secretary said his administration was concerned by the reported North Korean missile launch. South Korea said it was analyzing the new military threat.

The Biden administrations special representative on North Korea said on Tuesday that The United States has no hostile intent toward the country. He said that Washington wanted the DPRK to respond positively to our multiple offers to meet without preconditions.

Japans prime minister called the Sept. 15 ballistic missile tests by North Korea a threat to peace and outrageous.
Now Theyre Going for McClintock

Commentary

Ive known Rep. Tom McClintock for 34 years, since I first came out to California to write editorials for the Orange County Register. He started out himself as an editorial writer. Then he was elected to the state Assembly back in 1982. After that, a stint in the state Senate until he was term-limited. Then, he was elected to the U.S. Congress in 2008.

Democrats are eager to kick him out of office as part of keeping control of the House. The Sacramento Bee profiled a just-announced opponent, Dr. Kermit Jones, who said he wants to end career politicians.

I think what sets me apart is real life experience, having served people in multiple ways, and being able to bring tangible things to people, he said. When people want people to advocate for them, sometimes they want people that are actually on the ground as opposed to part of the machinery in the federal government.

If theres anyone in Congress whos not part of the machinery, its McClintock. Always a maverick, whether in Sacramento or Washington, he has long opposed massive waste by government, especially when advanced by such Republican executives as Govs. Pete Wilson and Arnold Schwarzenegger and President Trump.

I interviewed McClintock during the negotiations for the state budget for 2007-08. Schwarzenegger had insisted he would not sign a budget that for the first time broke the $100 billion threshold for the general fund. The Democrats offered $101 billion. Unacceptable! Too high! Schwarzenegger said. How about $102 billion? Yeah, $1 billion higher. (Final number: $102.5 billion).

The hits just keep coming, McClintock said.

The career politician jibe is just another canard. Sure, some politicians have stayed way too long, such as Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

But a few politicians, such as McClintock, are just getting to know the system and should stay to keep attacking itto finally start chopping at the waste, fraud, and abuse. A back-bencher has no chance of doing that.

The jibe was thrown last year at state Sen. John Moorlach, when I was his press secretary. He had been Orange County treasurer/tax collector, then supervisor, finally heading to the Capitol for six years. His inexperienced opponent charged him with being a career politician, and misguided voters agreed.

Gone was the expertise of the only CPA in the Legislature. I guess if the real job is being an arsonistburning through billions of the taxpayers simoleonsa firefighter isnt welcomed.

According to the Bee, Jones said he supports stricter term limits and would return to his work practicing medicine and law after a period of time in office, if elected.

But the Supreme Court has ruled only Congress can set its own term limits, which it never will do. And although I supported the state term limit law, Proposition 140 from 1990, that was a mistake. It was modified with Proposition 28 in 2012, which now sets the limit at 12 years total in either house of the Legislature.

The problem is there are no limits on the permanent bureaucracy that runs the governmentthe many thousands of functionaries burrowed into the dozens of state agencies. They can serve for 30 years or even more, learning every way to manipulate the system, while taking advantage of the naivete of the term-limited legislators.

It used to be strong legislative leaders, such as Senate Majority Leader Bill Lockyer and evenyeslongtime Assembly Leader Willie Brown who could tame not only the Legislature, but the bureaucracy. I doubt the problems with the Employment Development Department would have gone on this long if those gentlemen still were in power.

Instead, both men were forced to play musical political chairs. Brown became mayor of San Francisco, where he mentored Gov. Gavin Newsom and Vice President Kamala Harris. And Lockyer became first state attorney general, then treasurer.

Lockyer is a charming and competent fellow who used to meet with us on the Register editorial board, even though we agreed on little. He had a sense of limits. And he certainly would have been better than any of the majority leaders who have followed.

California voters also made a mistake by never promoting McClintock to state office. He twice lost close races for controller. He planned to closely audit every state department, and many local governments. By now, he would have saved taxpayers many billions.

And he might have been elected governor during the 2003 recall. But he lost to Schwarzenegger, who swiped McClintocks small-government planks for his campaignthen betrayed every one of them once in office.

It was a lost opportunity. Gov. McClintock would have directly attacked the state unfunded liabilities that now amount to $1 trillion. And he would have revived the Republican Party from its doldrums after the tax-increasing Pete Wilson governorship ended in 1999.

In 14 months well again see what voters have in store for McClintocks future, and ours.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
U.S. Olympic gymnast McKayla Maroney testifies during a Senate Judiciary hearing about the Inspector General's report on the FBI handling of the Larry Nassar investigation of sexual abuse of Olympic gymnasts, on Capitol Hill, in Washington on Sept. 15, 2021. (Saul Loeb/Pool via Reuters)

Olympians Criticize FBIs Handling of Larry Nassar Probe

Watchdog found FBI botched investigation into sexual predator

Olympic gymnasts testifying before Congress in Washington on Sept. 15 criticized how FBI agents dealt with allegations against Larry Nassar, a Team USA doctor who was later convicted of sexually assaulting some of the girls he was tasked with treating.

Not only did the FBI not report my abuse, but when they eventually documented my report 17 months later, they made entirely false claims about what I said, McKayla Maroney, one of the gymnasts, said in her opening statement.

The survivors of Larry Nassar have a right to know why their well-being was placed in jeopardy by these individuals who chose not to do their jobs, added Maggie Nichols, another gymnast.

The Department of Justices watchdog, Inspector General Michael Horowitz, concluded in July that the FBI mishandled allegations against Nassar.

Senior officials in the bureau failed to respond to the claims with the urgency that the allegations required and did not take steps to try to mitigate the ongoing threat posed by Nassar, Horowitzs report said.

Additionally, when the FBIs handling of the matter came under scrutiny in 2017 and 2018, officials declined to take responsibility, instead offering incomplete and inaccurate information to make it appear that they had been diligent in responding to the sexual abuse allegations.

Maroney said she was shocked when she read the report.

They chose to lie about what I said and protect a serial child molester rather than protect not only me but countless others, she told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Maroney recounted being given a sleeping pill by Nassar in 2015 in Tokyo and lying naked, unable to move, while he molested her for hours.

FBI Director Christopher Wray speaks during a Senate Judiciary hearing about the Inspector Generals report on the FBI handling of the Larry Nassar investigation of sexual abuse of Olympic gymnasts, in Washington on Sept. 15, 2021. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

She told the story to an FBI agent, who she said didnt respond for a period of time before asking, Is that all?

Those words in itself was one of the worst moments of this entire process for me. To have my abuse be minimized and disregarded by the people who are supposed to protect me, just to feel like my abuse was not enough, she said.

The gymnasts expressed disbelief that the FBI agents who, according to the inspector general, made false statements and botched the probe into Nassar have faced no recourse.

The FBI hasnt challenged the inspector generals report. The bureau said in a statement after its release that the actions and inactions of certain FBI employees described in the report are inexcusable and a discredit to this organization, adding that the bureau has taken affirmative steps to ensure and has confirmed that those responsible for the misconduct and breach of trust no longer work FBI matters.

Horowitz and FBI Director Christopher Wray told the panel that criminal referrals of FBI officials were made to government prosecutors and that the prosecutors declined to prosecute the officials.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the committees chairman, called the decision outrageous and said the Department of Justice refused to explain to him the reasoning behind the nonprosecution.

Wray said changes have been made at the FBI in light of what happened, including making agents who are handling similar cases document allegations that are reported to them.

Wray apologized to the gymnasts who testified and said he was especially sorry that there were people at the FBI who had their own chance to stop this monster  and failed, adding that we are doing everything in our power to make sure it never happens again.
Sailors from the USS Somerset practice their formation marching at the 20th Anniversary remembrance of the 9/11 terrorist attacks at the Flight 93 National Memorial on Sept. 11, 2021, in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. (Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)

Pennsylvanians Commemorate 20th Anniversary of 9/11 Terror Attacks

Pennsylvanians across the state came together on Saturday at various ceremonies to commemorate those lives lost during the 9/11 terror attacks 20 years ago.

One such observance was held at the Washington Memorial Chapel in Valley Forge National Historical Park. This remembrance service paid tribute to Louis J. Nacke II, who is laid to rest in the chapels cemetery.

Nacke, a director for a distribution center for Kay-Bee Toys, was onboard United Airlines Flight 93 when it was hijacked. He, along with other passengers, confronted the hijackers before the aircraft crashed in an empty field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

Forty passengers and crew members died, as did the four hijackers.

The civilians kept the plane from being used as a weapon against the White House or the U.S. Capitol.

Throughout the ceremony, the chapels carillon tolled its bourdon bell for two minutes to commemorate the moments each hijacked plane struck the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and when Flight 93 fatally crashed: 8:46 a.m. (South Tower); 9:03 a.m. (North Tower); 9:37 a.m. (Pentagon); 9:59 a.m. (South Tower Collapse); 10:03 a.m. (Flight 93); 10:28 a.m. (North Tower Collapse).

An observance was held at the Washington Memorial Chapel in Valley Forge National Historical Park, Pa, on Sept. 11, 2021. Flight 93 hero Louis J. Nacke II is laid to rest in the Chapels cemetery. (Frank Liang/The Epoch Times)

After the service, prayers were said for both 9/11 victims and those who died recently in Afghanistan.

The ceremony was to give people an opportunity to grieve and to remember that sad day, and continue to remember, pray for the souls of those who died, their families, and a nation that continues to mourn after those horrible events, said Father Tommy Thompson, rector of the Washington Memorial Chapel.

Every year when we remember this, it invites us not to take for granted the freedoms and liberty that we have, Father Thompson told The Epoch Times. Its enabled us to see each other better than we did before and to love one another, and to hold the things that matter close to us.

Later that day, RightForBucks, an organization advocating for the prosperity, liberty, and safety of the people of Bucks County, held a special event at the Cactus Grill in Pipersville, Pennsylvania. They honored 9/11 with speeches, dinner, and band performances.

David Christian, veteran, co-founder of Vietnam Veterans of America, gives a speech at the RightForBucks 9/11 event, on Sept. 11, 2021. (William Huang/The Epoch Times)

David Christian, veteran, co-founder of Vietnam Veterans of America, said terrorism couldnt scare him because hes an American. He called for Americans to go shoulder to shoulder during hard times.

After 9/11, the whole Congress came together. The whole Congress stood under one flag. They carried one flag. They said the Pledge of Allegiance together. They sang God Bless America together, Christian told The Epoch Times.

We werent Democrats and Republicans after 9/11. We were Americans. Were Americans today. Were Americans tomorrow, and Americans will come together. So, I will bleed for you, my brother, and you will bleed for me in defending this nation and defending these freedoms, he said.

Also at the event was Charles Strange who is the Goldstar father of Michael Strange, a member of SEAL Team Six that carried out the mission to kill Osama Bin Laden on May 2, 2011. Several months later Michael was killed in Afghanistan along with 37 other men, including other members of SEAL Team Six, when the Taliban shot down their Chinook helicopter.

I lost a piece of my heart when my son died in the Middle East, Strange told The Epoch Times. What these terrorists did from the Middle East is frightening.

He was thankful for the countrys military, police, and first responders.

Imagine how bad it would be without them, Strange said. We take each others back, we help each other just like my son and the men  Thank God, we got these young men and women [who] still join up for our military.

Rick Saccone, former State House of Representatives in Pennsylvania, said that commemorating 9/11 is also seen by many as a moment that brings the country together, regardless of political party or philosophy.

When we think about days like 9/11, hopefully, itll be a bridge for us to say once again, lets put aside all our political differences for a moment and remember what brings us together, said Saccone who is a retired U.S. Air Force officer, and candidate for Lt. Gov. of Pennsylvania.

Our common ground is were Americans, we should believe in those basic freedoms as basic constitutional rights. And lets go back to that. Lets start that conversation again, he said.

Saccone said commemorating 9/11 is important and it must be taught to our children and grandchildren so they understand its significance.

We have to keep that alive because, for them, they have no memory of it, he added.

Frank Liang Follow
A nurse is handed a dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine before administering it to a college student during a City of Long Beach Public Health Covid-19 mobile vaccination clinic at the California State University Long Beach (CSULB) campus in Long Beach, Calif., on Aug. 11, 2021 (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)

Pfizer Says COVID-19 Vaccine Efficacy Weakens Over Time

Pfizer recently stated that data from Israel and the United States suggests that its COVID-19 vaccine efficacy drops over time and claimed that booster doses are effective at dealing with new virus variants.

Federal health officials announced two weeks ago a target date of Sept. 20 to try to roll out booster shots for the general public, although a recent study from several top scientists at the World Health Organization (WHO) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) found that the general population doesnt need a booster dose.

Real-world data from Israel and the United States suggest that rates of breakthrough infections are rising faster in individuals who were vaccinated earlier in the vaccination campaigns compared to those who have been vaccinated more recently, Pfizer stated during its presentation this week, which was posted on the FDA website.

And the evidence from the studies indicates that the observed decrease of vaccine effectiveness against COVID-19 infections is primarily due to waning of vaccine immune responses over time rather than a result of the Delta variant escaping vaccine protection, according to Pfizer.

Based on its data, Pfizer claimed that booster doses should be given to all people aged 16 and older six months after theyve received their second dose of the mRNA vaccine.

The pharmaceutical giant, which partnered with BioNTech to develop its vaccine, cited a study from health care company Kaiser Permanente that suggested protection against COVID-19 infection dropped from 88 percent in the first month after receiving the second dose to 47 percent after five months.

The company is attempting to make an argument ahead of a crucial FDA meeting scheduled for Sept. 17, where a panel is slated to debate and vote on whether to recommend booster shots, or a third dose of the vaccine.

But in a study published by The Lancet on Sept. 13, two senior FDA vaccine reviewers who are expected to leave the agency soon and more than a dozen top researchers argued that booster shots arent needed for the general population. They argued that potential side-effects from the extra doses could outweigh the benefits, stating that such a phenomenon would actually increase vaccine hesitance.

Current evidence does not  appear to show a need for boosting in the general population, in which efficacy against severe disease remains high, the study reads. Even if boosting were eventually shown to decrease the medium-term risk of serious disease, current vaccine supplies could save more lives if used in previously unvaccinated populations.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus issued a sharply worded statement earlier this month calling on wealthier nations, including the United States, to place a moratorium on booster shots until the end of 2021. Because companies are ramping up production of the extra vaccine doses, it deprives poorer nations of initial vaccines, he argued at a news conference.

I will not stay silent when companies and countries that control the global supply of vaccines think the worlds poor should be satisfied with leftovers, Ghebreyesus told a news conference on Sept. 8. Because manufacturers have prioritized or been legally obliged to fulfill bilateral deals with rich countries willing to pay top dollar, low-income countries have been deprived of the tools to protect their people.

COVID-19 is the disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.
President of the Police Superintendents Association Paul Griffiths speaking at the Police Superintendents' Association Conference in Stratford-upon-Avon, on Sept. 9, 2019. (Jacob King/PA)

Police Chiefs Association Set to Pull out of Pay Review System

The head of a group of high-ranking police officers has accused the government of failing the service as he laid out plans to withdraw from a pay review system and take legal action over pensions.

Paul Griffiths, president of the Police Superintendents Association, told members on Tuesday that the organisation will withdraw from the pay review system and there are plans to mount a challenge against it.

He told members he was staggered and saddened to report that the PSA will take legal action against the government over changes to police pensions.

Beginning his keynote speech, Griffiths accused the government of failing officers and staff, despite claims that the police service is valued.

Under current plans, NHS staff will receive a 3 percent pay increase, and firefighters and local government workers will get 1.5 percent, while police officers who earn more than 24,000 ($33,000)will get nothing.

Griffiths said: We hear that colleagues in the NHS, local authorities, and fire service are to receive an uplift, something we applaud. Yet that leaves the police as clear outliers for reasons we cannot fathom.

No-one enters policing to get rich. It is a vocation and a career that provides challenge and demands sacrifice like no othersomething clearly demonstrated amidst the pandemic.

However, with very few employment rights, it is essential that police officers have fair and transparent processes in place to determine their pay, and that they have a clear voice within this.

The government direction on public service pay has overridden these processes, making decisions around pay in advance of the evidence it requests from stakeholders right across the service.

Normally, the independent Police Remuneration Review Body (PRRB) gathers information from various groups including those representing officers as well as the Home Office, before recommending what pay levels the government should set.

However this year, amid fears over spending during the pandemic, the PRRB was not allowed to give recommendations.

The Police Federation, which represents more than 130,000 officers from the rank of constable to chief inspector, has already announced it will withdraw from the process, with chairman John Apter branding the system inherently unfair.

Griffiths said: Currently, we have no procedural justice when it comes to pay and police officers are not being heard.

It is for this reason that I can announce today that the Police Superintendents Association is withdrawing from the PRRB process.

We no longer see the value of our involvement, which has no bearing whatsoever on the decisions made regarding pay.

We are in liaison with other staff associations over options to challenge what we see as a clear violation of the agreed independent process.

He also outlined plans for the PSA to take legal action against the government over changes to pensions which it says leave thousands of officers needing to work longer to receive less.

The association will also back employment tribunals in support of female officers who work part-time on the basis of potential future sex discrimination due to the changes.

Home Secretary Priti Patel, who would normally attend the event in Stratford-upon-Avon in person, instead sent a pre-recorded video message, saying she needed to be in London to vote in Parliament.

She said: The pandemic deepened the disparity between public and private sector wagesmany private sector workers lost jobs or saw their wages seriously reduced.

This meant the Chancellor could not justify an across-the-board pay increase for public sector workers.

He asked the advice of the pay review bodies, proposing to raise pay in the NHS but pause pay rises elsewhere in order to protect jobs.

This pandemic is something we have never experienced beforea truly seismic event which has affected many sectors and employers across the entire economy.

It has meant even tougher choices than usual. None of us wanted to be in this situation.

Speaking at the conference earlier on Tuesday, Britains most senior police officer, Dame Cressida Dick, said officers, who do not have industrial rights, need a pay review system in which they can have confidence.

The Metropolitan Police Commissioner told delegates: For all the police officers who continue to put themselves in harms way, who have served the public loyally and steadfastly throughout the pandemic, who have been injured assaulted or abused.

All the police officers who wake up each day or get ready each night to protect people, to save lives, to prevent crime, to tackle perpetrators, not knowing what the day will hold, and for their familiesfor all of you, I do believe police deserve a pay rise.

And they deserve a fair system for calculating it. One in which people who cannot withdraw labour or work to rule can have confidence.

Shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds, who attended the conference, called the pay freeze shameful.

By Margaret Davis
Queensland Bill Proposes Lifting Age of Criminal Responsibility to 14

A new bill will go before the Queensland state parliament on Wednesday proposing to lift the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14 years of age.

The new legislation will bring the Australian states standard in line with the United Nations recommended age for prosecution.

Michael Berkman, Greens member of Parliament will introduce the private members bill, according to News.com.au.

Queenslands laws, which imprison children as young as 10, are out of line with international jurisdictions, theyre in breach of our human rights obligations and theyre not even keeping the community safe, Berkman told NCA NewsWire.

Medical evidence shows 10-13 year-olds dont have the neurodevelopmental capacity to control impulses, or foresee and understand consequences, so criminalising them like adults doesnt work.

Early contact with the criminal legal system actually increases a childs likelihood of reoffending. We need to invest in solutions that work, not more prison cells, he said.

The move has the support of former Australian Federal Police (AFP) Commissioner Mick Palmer, who said the current age of responsibility unfairly targets children of lower socio-economic groups.

Palmer is against sending children to prison, saying, In my experience, all that ever does is pretty well ensure theyre going to come back into prison again, and probably commit more severe crimes.

But the Queensland Labor government, under state Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, does not support the bill.

Queensland Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman this week said there were no plans to raise the age of criminal responsibility in Queensland.

The position of Queensland Labor is at odds with their federal counterparts, with shadow spokeswoman for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney telling NCA NewsWire, While we havent determined what the suitable age is, federal Labor believes that 10 is too young.
Leader of the Opposition David Crisafulli directs questions to the Premier during Question Time at Parliament House in Brisbane, Australia, on Sept. 14, 2021. (AAP Image/Albert Perez)

Queensland Opposition Leader to Vote Against Euthanasia

Queenslands Liberal National Party leader will vote against legalising euthanasia laws saying there are no guarantees terminally ill patients will have access to high-quality palliative care.

Crisafulli had been non-committal on his position leading up to parliamentary debates, which began Sept. 14 around the prospective laws.

Under Queenslands Voluntary Assisted Dying (VAD) Bill, those with a disease, illness, or medical condition that is advanced, progressive, or terminal can seek to be euthanised. The state parliament is currently debating the laws, with all MPs given a conscience vote.

Crisafulli said that without adequate palliative care, Queensland could not give a free choice for patients to choose between better healthcare or ending their lives.

I believe the intention of the bill is to offer choice, but the reality is that it offers choice on a sliding scale that is in proportion to the size of your bank account or where you live, he told Parliament.

Queensland Parliament House in downtown Brisbane, Australia, on Oct. 19, 2013 (Wikimedia Commons CC)

But most importantly, it breaks a fundamental tenet of our society  that human life is sacrosanct, he added. While my heart hurts for people facing great pain and terminal illness, I cant assist them to die via flawed legislation.

I cant support something that offers the assistance of the state to terminate their life, the same state that does not give them the option of specialist palliative care in the same time frame.

Deputy Opposition leader David Janetzki opposed the bill while moving 54 amendments to improve safeguards and reporting processes.

Nick Dametto, member for Hinchinbrook and representing the Katters Australian Party (KAP), said he would oppose the bill fearing people could be coerced into euthanasia, warning of the possibility of family members out there more interested in making sure mum and dad pass away quickly so as not to spend their inheritance.

I will be sticking with my morals, he told Parliament.

Euthanasia medication being prepared for consumption (Go Gentle Australia/Screenshot)

Health Minister Yvette DAth said the government would invest $250 million per year in palliative care by 2025-26 to ensure people had true choice.

Deputy Premier Steven Miles said there would be guidelines to protect medical practitioners deemed to be conscientious objectors from taking part in the euthanasia scheme.

Several parliamentarians recounted personal stories of loved ones who passed away, saying euthanasia could have offered them a way out of suffering.

Peter Kurti, director of the Culture, Prosperity and Civil Society program at the Centre for Independent Studies, welcomed the opposition leaders decision to oppose the Bill.

Crisafullis principal objection appears to be that inadequate provision of palliative care services makes euthanasia a more attractive option for people suffering from a terminal illness, he told The Epoch Times, noting that palliative care was only available to patients for the last three months of their expected life, compared to euthanasia, which was available for the last 12 months of a patients expected life.

The lesson here is that if we devoted resources to improving earlier access to palliative care for all Australians, euthanasia might lose its appeal, he added.

The debate continues.
Samples of rare earth minerals from left: Cerium oxide, bastnaesite, neodymium oxide and lanthanum carbonate at Molycorp's Mountain Pass Rare Earth facility in Mountain Pass, Calif., on June 29, 2015. (David Becker/Reuters)

Rare Earth Metal Prices Poised for More Gains: Analysts

Rare earth metal prices have risen sharply over the past year while the growing adoption of new technologies such as electric vehicles is likely to send costs even higher, according to analysts.

In the 12 months through September, the price of lithium carbonateused in batteries, mobile devices, and spacecraftsurged 150 percent; the price of holmium oxideused in magnets and sensorsrose 109.4 percent; and the price of praseodymium-neodymium oxideused in magnets, motors, and wind turbinesjumped 73.7 percent, according to Shanghai Metals Markets (SMM) data cited by Nikkei Asia.

Demand for new energy vehicles and wind power has continued to increase this year, boosting demand for rare earth, SMM analysts wrote in a recent note, predicting that demand for rare earth functional materials, especially rare earth magnetic materials, will grow significantly, driven by the push to decarbonize economies.

The Biden administration in February ordered a review of key domestic supply chains, including of critical minerals and materials, with a June report (pdf) noting that demand for rare earths is set to skyrocket.

Demand for many of these metals is projected to surge over the next two decades, particularly as the world moves to eliminate net carbon emissions by 2050. For example, global demand for lithium and graphite, two of the most important materials for electric vehicle batteries, is estimated to grow by more than 4,000 percent by 2040 in a scenario where the world achieves its climate goals, with graphite projected to grow nearly 2,500 percent, the report said.

The U.S. Interior Department will lead a task force to identify sites in the United States where the 17 rare earth metals used in products ranging from cellphones to electric vehicles could be produced and processed, according to the report.

Analysts say the drive to adopt new technologies is likely to pressure prices going forward.

Future electric vehicles will also consume more rare earth materials, including praseodymium and neodymium and others, Hou Jinchen, an analyst with SMM, told Nikkei Asia. There will still be fluctuations, but generally the higher price of all kinds of basic key materials could become a new normal for the future.

The global rare earth metals market was valued at around $8.1 billion in 2018, according to Zion Market Research, which estimated in October 2020 that the market is set to grow to around $14.4 billion by 2025.

Rare earths play a vital role in many industries including consumer electronics, green technologies, medical tools, and defense. These critical minerals are also key to the production of weapon guidance systems, jet engines, sonar devices, and laser weapons. The elements are abundant and easy to mine; theyre called rare because theyre difficult to separate and refine into a usable form.

In the 1980s, the United States was the world leader in the production of these elements, and almost all U.S. production was coming from a mine operated near Mountain Pass, California, which was closed in the 1990s. The site was reopened in 2013 after China restricted supplies.

In recent decades, China has gradually become the dominant power in both the mining and the refining of these elements. In 2020, China was estimated to control about 55 percent of global rare earth mining capacity and 85 percent of rare earth refining, according to the Biden administrations supply chain report.

Alice Sun and Emel Akan contributed to this report.
A satellite image shows Tropical Storm Nicholas in the Gulf of Mexico, on Sept. 12, 2021. (NOAA/Handout via Reuters)

High-Risk Flash Flood Alert Issued for Southwest Louisiana Amid Tropical Depression Nicholas

The National Weather Service on Sept. 15 warned that Southwest Louisiana faces a high risk of flash flooding from Tropical Depression Nicholas.

Such high risk warnings, the most dire and severe type of warnings, are rarely issued anywhere in the United States.

Rain from the storm will move over the area through Wednesday and showers are expected to produce high rainfall rates and significant rainfall totals of around 5 to 10 inches, with locally higher amounts possible, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Wednesday morning.

Some of the locations that are expected to experience flash flooding include Ville Platte, Marksville, Bunkie, Mamou, Glenmora, Cheneyville, Turkey Creek, Cottonport, Pine Prairie, Mansura, Lecompte, Hessmer, Evergreen, Bayou Chicot, Chicot State Park, Indian Lake, Whiteville, Echo, Reddell, and Poland.

Turn around, dont drown when encountering flooded roads. Most flood deaths occur in vehicles. Be especially cautious at night when it is harder to recognize the dangers of flooding, the agency warned.

On Tuesday, the NHC warned that widespread minor to isolated moderate river flooding is expected across portions of the upper Texas Gulf Coast and southern Louisiana and Mississippi.

Life-threatening flash flooding impacts, especially in urban areas, are possible across these regions, the NHC said.

Isolated storm totals of 20 inches were possible from southern Louisiana to the far western Florida Panhandle, it added.

Life-threatening flash floods are also expected for other parts of the Deep South, the NHC said in Tuesdays bulletin.

Large parts of southern Louisiana are still dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Ida, while tens of thousands of people remain without power. Louisianas death toll from Hurricane Ida stands at 26 after health officials last week reported 11 additional deaths in New Orleans.

On Monday, President Joe Biden approved Gov. John Bel Edwardss request for a federal emergency declaration for Tropical Storm Nicholas, allowing Louisiana to mobilize federal resources the state already has in place as well as to request additional resources if needed.

A flash flood watch also currently remains in place for New Orleans too, with Avondale, Marrero, Metairie, Harvey, Timberlane, Belle Chasse, Chalmette, East New Orleans, Hahnville, Jefferson, Gretna, Harahan, Westwego, Bridge City, Elmwood, River Ridge, Waggaman, Estelle, and Woodmere all expected to experience flash flooding.

Nicholas made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane on Monday in Texas but was downgraded to a tropical storm early Tuesday morning.

Reuters contributed to this report.
U.S. Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) questions witnesses at a House Judiciary Committee hearing on police brutality and racial profiling in Washington on June 10, 2020. (Greg Nash-Pool/Getty Images)

Rep. Buck Calls on US Universities to Shut Down CCP Propaganda Machines

Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) is hoping to dismantle the Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) influence on American academic institutions through Beijing-funded Confucius Institutes.

The Colorado Republican this week submitted an amendment (pdf) to the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), a massive defense bill that authorizes spending levels for defense, seeking to bar the use of funds from the legislation to provide grants to any academic institution that receives funding from the Chinese Communist Party, the Chinese Government or its affiliates, or hosts a Confucius Institute.

In an exclusive interview with The Epoch Times, Buck described Confucius Institutes as an avenue for the Chinese government to spread propaganda on U.S. campuses.

The propaganda is misleading and untruthful, he added. We as a government should not be funding institutions of higher education that are using and allowing Chinese propaganda to be spread.

Billed as Chinese language and culture programs, Beijing-funded Confucius Institutes have drawn heightened criticism in the United States over their role in promoting CCP propaganda and stifling academic freedoms on American college campuses. The State Department during the Trump administration designated the Confucius Institute U.S. Center as a foreign mission in recognition of its role as a propaganda agent of the Chinese regime.

Trump administration officials and lawmakers have also piled pressure on universities to disassociate from the institutes, resulting in dozens of closures across the country. There are currently 36 Confucius Institutes in the United States, down from more than 100 in 2017, according to the National Association of Scholars.

My hope is that the universities will shut down the propaganda machines of one of our adversaries, Buck said.

The measure was one of four NDAA amendments submitted by Buck to the House Rules Committee due for consideration on Sept. 20, before the bill moves to the House floor.

The congressman, in another proposed amendment, is pushing for a ban on Chinese-owned video-sharing app TikTok from being downloaded onto U.S. government devices.

The threat is that the Chinese Communist Party  can use TikTok to gather sensitive information about Americans, Buck said.

The Trump administration attempted to ban TikTok in August 2020, saying that the app could be used by the CCP to spy on Americans, but the order was never enforced as the result of several court orders. President Joe Biden revoked the ban in June, instead directing the Commerce Department to a review of apps with ties to the Chinese regime for national security risks. TikTok, owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, has denied allegations that the app poses an espionage risk.

Buck also wants Congress to take a stronger stance against the CCPs sweeping human rights abuses in the Xinjiang region, where more than a million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities are detained in a network of internment camps.

The current version of the Houses NDAA condemns the CCPs actions in Xinjiang, but doesnt label it as genocide. Buck is hoping to change this.

The term genocide is used in a particular way in international law and is condemned in a particular way in international law, he said.

Its important that the United Nations and our allies of the world understand that the United States Congress believes that the Chinese government is committing genocide.

The U.S. government and several other Western legislatures have recognized the CCPs campaign in Xinjiang as genocide.

The congressman called on the House to adopt the amendments, saying that Congress should send a very strong message to China.

We will not tolerate their military activities around the world. We are aware of their activities, were concerned about those activities, and we are not going to turn a blind eye, he added. Its very important in this NDAA that we send a message that Congress is absolutely resolute in recognizing the threat from China.
Test tubes are seen in front of a displayed Pfizer logo in this illustration photo taken on May 21, 2021. (Dado Ruvic/Illustration/Reuters)

Roll Up, Roll Up: Premier Announces Super Pfizer Weekend Vaccination Push

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has announced a Super Pfizer Weekend in a bid to increase vaccine coverage as the rollout in her state lags behind the rest of Australia.

The expanded vaccine rollout comes as more Pfizer supplies arrive, with about 38 percent of Queenslanders currently fully vaccinated and around 57 percent with one dose.

Queensland and Western Australia both currently have strict COVID-19 border measures in place, and both have the lowest vaccination rates in the country.

Palaszczuk hopes the super weekend for vaccinations will boost vaccinations, with all 80 state-run vaccination hubs accepting walk-ins on Saturday and Sunday.

Last week, we put 146,182 doses into the strong arms of Queenslanders, 189,450 Pfizer doses arrived on Monday: Lets use the lot, she told Queensland Parliament on Wednesday.

Like they say at the EkkaRoll up, roll up, roll up to the vaccination clinic, roll up to your GP, roll up to your pharmacy, roll up your sleeves and take your best shot.

Other states have to fight just to get a taste of freedom; we have to fight to hold on to ours, she said.

While half of Australias population is currently locked down under extreme COVID-19 measures in New South Wales, Victoria, and the ACT, Queensland has fared relatively better with less severe outbreaks.

Although there have been outbreaks of the Delta variant of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus, the state has not needed prolonged lockdowns to suppress the spread.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is seen during a press conference at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre in Brisbane, Australia, on Aug. 11, 2021. (AAP Image/Darren England)

Now that the Commonwealth has secured more Pfizer supplies, Palaszcuk said that state vaccination hubs would begin offering that vaccine to people aged over 60 this weekend.

Until now, that age group has only been offered Vaxzervia, formerly known as AstraZeneca. Vaxzervia is how the vaccine is known in European countries and in Canada.

Palaszczuk said offering people a choice of vaccines will help lift vaccine coverage.

They said to me loud and clear they want to have a choice of vaccines well, I say lets give it to them, she said.

Queensland Opposition Leader David Crisafulli said poor vaccine coverage was due to the premiers own hesitancy about the Vaxzevria jab.

Queensland LNP member for Broadwater David Crisafulli speaks to the media as he arrives for a party room meeting at Parliament House in Brisbane, Australia, on June 15, 2020. (AAP Image/Dan Peled)

When Palaszczuk first became eligible for that vaccine, she delayed, saying she needed to get her flu shot first.

The premier was then forced to delay a second time after she was bitten by her dog and needed a tetanus jab.

She then needed to be fully vaccinated before she travelled to Tokyo in late July to make a pitch to support Brisbanes 2032 Olympics bid.

However, by then, it was too late for her to get AstraZeneca, so she got the Pfizer vaccine instead.

Crisafulli said Queenslanders looked to Palaszczuk for leadership on getting a vaccine and had seen her hesitancy.

If the leader of your state is effectively finding excuses not to get vaccinated when her time is up, I would suggest to you that the everyday Queenslander says, well, maybe she knows something that we dont, he said.

Well, the truth is, she doesnt; its (AstraZeneca / Vaxzevria) safe.

Meanwhile, Crisafulli refused to comment on Chief Health Officer Jeannette Youngs warning earlier this year that people under the age of 18 could die if they had the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Queensland recorded no new virus cases after more than 15,800 tests in the 24 hours to 6.30 a.m. on Wednesday.

AAP contributed to this report.
Activists protest outside the house of US Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in Chevy Chase Maryland, on Sept. 13, 2021. (Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images)

Senators Denounce Abortion Protest Outside Kavanaughs Home

Democrat and Republican lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday denounced the protest outside the home of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

A liberal pro-abortion group demonstrated outside Kavanaughs home on Monday in response to a Supreme Court decision declining to take up a significant abortion restriction in Texas.

This protest looks like another blatant attempt to intimidate the judiciary and anyone who disagrees with the radical agenda pushed by partisan advocates, Sen Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said in opening remarks during a committee hearing on Sept. 14.

Grassley said that the leader of the group, ShutDownDC, recently pleaded no contest to criminal trespass charges and was told to stay away from the wife of Sen. John Hawley (R-Mo.).

These groups do it for partisan purposes they want to bully judges into ruling in line with their liberal agenda, Grassley added.

We all know you have to have a tough mental hyde to be in this business, but its absolutely unacceptable from my point of view, to involve any major public figures family or their home, or to involve yourself in criminal trespass in the name of political freedom of speech, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said. There are proper venues to express yourself and I dont believe a persons home or their family should be fair game.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) speaks in Washington on Oct. 15, 2020. (Susan Walsh/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) also criticized the protest.

You can state your opinion of any one of us at the ballot box, you can write letters, but to try to intimidate family or anything like that is wrong, Leahy said.

ShutDownDC responded to the criticism with a statement posted on its website which described the event outside Kavanaughs home as an energetic home demonstration. The group said they took the protest to Kavanaughs doorstep because the justices have been working remotely.

The truth is, if Durbin, Leahy and the Democratic majority in the US Senate did their jobs, we wouldnt need to go to Brett Kavanaughs house. Congress should pass federal legislation protecting reproductive freedom for everyone in this country, the group said. So today our message to Durbin, Leahy and their buddies in the Senate Democratic Caucus is, SHUT UP AND PASS SOME LAWS.

Chief Justice John Roberts early last year issued a pointed statement condemning a speech by then-Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who appeared to intimidate Kavanaugh and Justice Neil Gorsuch, in remarks at a protest outside the Supreme Court.

You have unleashed the whirlwind and you will pay the price. You wont know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions, Schumer said.

In a rare rebuke issue shortly after, Roberts condemned Schumers rhetoric.

Justices know that criticism comes with the territory, but threatening statements of this sort from the highest levels of government are not only inappropriate, they are dangerous. All members of the court will continue to do their job, without fear or favor, from whatever quarter, Roberts said.
Employees from Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula (L to R) Christy Kinkade, Elisabeth Sims, and Raynald Adams at a protest in Monterey, Calif. on Sept. 12, 2021. (Courtesy Patriot Freedom Fighters)

Some California Hospital Workers Plan to Defy Sept. 30 Vaccine Deadline

More than 70 employees at a hospital in Monterey, California, have decided to defy a state mandate requiring health workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19 by Sept. 30.

Elisabeth Sims, a registered nurse at Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula (CHOMP), told The Epoch Times the group of nurses and other medical professionals are planning to fight the states mandate, as well as the hospitals policy that also sets a Sept. 30 deadline for all staff to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

Were just a group of medical professionals that are not going to be coerced into putting something into our bodies that ultimately doesnt really work based on science, Sims said.

The group, called the Patriot Freedom Fighters, staged a protest in downtown Monterey on Sept. 12. CHOMP employees were among the more than 150 people who attended the demonstration, she said.

People dont want the vaccine, and people are not going to be coerced into it, said Sims.

The Sept. 30 deadline is based on a California Department of Public Health (CDPH) order signed by CDPH Director Tomas Aragon on Aug. 5, though the state seal and California Governor Gavin Newsoms name appear in the letterhead.

CHOMP President and CEO Dr. Steven Packer could not be reached for comment.

Monica Sciuto, assistant communications director at CHOMP did not respond directly to questions from The Epoch Times, and instead shared a series of recent press releases.

Starting October 1, only vaccinated individuals will be permitted to work at all of our hospitals. Only those with a valid authorized religious or medical exemption may decline the vaccine. Our hospitals must test those with the rare exemption twice weekly, one release stated.

California is the first in the nation to mandate all health care workers statewide be vaccinated against COVID-19. Every hospital in Monterey County and their health care systems stand behind this mandate, the release also stated.

Sadly, the media release states COVID-19 hospitalizations and case rates in Monterey County continue to increase in unvaccinated patients who have contracted the more contagious Delta variant.

But thats not the case according to some staff members.

Health care workers, family, and supporters protest against vaccine mandates in Monterey, Calif. on Sept. 12, 2021. (Courtesy Patriot Freedom Fighters)

Three of Six COVID-19 Patients Vaccinated

As of Sept. 9, three out of six patients receiving COVID-19 treatment at the hospital had been vaccinated, Sims said.

How can you say that the unvaccinated are spreading it when youre not testing the vaccinated for COVID, and when we have seen historically that vaccinated people get COVID just the same and spread it just the same as the unvaccinated, especially in a work environment? she asked.

Currently, unvaccinated nurses at CHOMP must wear N95 respirator masks and submit to PCR tests twice weekly, while vaccinated nurses wear basic surgical masks and dont have to be tested, said Sims, who has worked as a nurse in California for five years.

Everyone who has submitted a religious exemption has been declined, she said.

Sims is pregnant and is scheduled to go on maternity leave on Sept. 28. Though she had been given a deferral for the vaccination because of her pregnancy, the hospital recently revoked it, she said.

She predicted many nurses will either be fired or suspended if they refuse to comply with the vaccine mandates.

Theres about to be a whole lot of staff shortages, she said. Thats for sure.

I dont think its just going to stop with this one vaccine. We know that for a fact, because Pfizer has already come out with the boosters, Sims said.

According to The Hill, the Biden administration has said it aims to start administering COVID-19 booster shots with Pfizers vaccine beginning Sept. 20.

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, White House health officials said in a statement last month.

Sims said the group has consulted an attorney and is considering legal action.

Health care workers, family, and supporters protest against vaccine mandates in Monterey, Calif. on Sept. 12, 2021. (Courtesy Patriot Freedom Fighters)

Nurse Hospitalized With COVID-19

Amy Landry, who is still recovering from a severe case of COVID-19 from early January, told The Epoch Times she doesnt want to get the vaccine because she already has antibodies and natural immunity.

Landry said it would be futile to request a medical exemption for a CHOMP doctor because they are not writing exemptions. And, even if they were, the hospital is not accepting any medical exemptions.

Theres no way she could get one, she said. My doctor said, Absolutely not. I would have to go totally out of my hospital system that I work at to find another doctor to do that.

Her request for a religious exemption was also denied.

The people  on these review boards to review the medical exemptions or religious exemptions were not unbiased. They all worked for the hospital. So how is that an independent review board? Its not, she said.

Doctors arent prescribing drugs such as ivermectin or hydroxychloroquine, and nor are they writing medical exemptions, because they are afraid of repercussions, she said.

I think it comes down to money. They want to keep their jobs and they want to keep their medical licenses, and theyre probably being essentially coerced into not doing itnot prescribing. Its very hard to find a doctor that will even listen to you, Landry said.

Landry came down with COVID-19 symptoms about five days after working a double shift on New Years Eve without an N95 respirator mask. She was working on the hospitals COVID-19 floor, and one of her patients had a severe case and was placed on high-flow oxygen, she said.

At the time, the hospital was rationing N95 masks, Landry said.

They hid the N95 masks. We had to go to the nursing office to get them  but you couldnt get one unless your patient [met] specific criteria, she said. They told me that I didnt need to wear an N95. Well, I knew I did, but I couldnt get one. They would not give me one. They said this patient, according to our infectious disease doctor, did not require me to have an N95, so I took care of him for the whole night.

She had also cared for the patient two days prior.

On Jan. 8, Landry was herself admitted to the hospital.

I was right next door to the man that I took care of, that I know gave me COVID and I heard him die, she said. You can hear people when theyre struggling to breathe.

While she was in the hospital, Landry was treated with Remdesivir.

When she was released, she was on oxygen for five months. I couldnt walk up my stairs for two of the five months. I now have an autoimmune disease, she said.

Landry believes Remdesivir, which is used to treat Ebola patients, made her COVID symptoms worse. She is what the medical profession has called a long-hauler, because shes taken months to recover.

I believe that we have treatments out there that have been proven to work and were not making them accessible to people, Landry said. Ivermectin, even just zinc, vitamins and minerals, and hydroxychloroquine  are very cheap medications that areor were at one pointeasily accessible.

Landry accused politicians and the mainstream medias of pushing the idea that unvaccinated people are dumb.

Theres a narrative out there that people who dont want the vaccine are unintelligent. They are very intelligent people, and I would venture to say probably more intelligent at times than the ones  getting this vaccine, and were being shown as the dumb ones, she said.

That is so wrong because were doing so much research, Landry said. And, its getting harder to find the research. If you go on Google, it is almost impossible.

Landry is frustrated with hospital policies that put stars of the badges of vaccinated employees, while their unvaccinated co-workers are forced to wear N95 masks.

Where were the N95 masks when we needed them? she said.

Patients have noticed some nurses have stars and others have masks and have asked why, she said. A few have complained about unvaccinated staff, Landry said.

But, ultimately, the N95 masks have become a way for those opposed to getting the vaccine to identify each other and unite, she said.

Health care workers, family, and supporters protest against vaccine mandates in Monterey, Calif. on Sept. 12, 2021. (Courtesy Patriot Freedom Fighters)

Heroes and Villains

Raynald Adams, who works in the CHOMP laboratory processing specimen samples, told The Epoch Times, We get as many if not more fully vaccinated patients with the Delta strain as we get unvaccinated patients.

Based on what hes seen in the hospital lab, Adams said there are more Pfizer-vaccinated patients who got the Delta variant than those who got the Moderna vaccine.

It doesnt make sense that all health workers were considered heroes for working through the pandemic, but now some are seen as villains and are faced with being fired because we dont want to take a vaccine, he said.

Adams said he had been dealing with the stigma of the missing star on his badge for years because he received a religious exemption for the flu shot, and the stigma has only gotten worse since the COVID-19 vaccine was mandated.

Ive been feeling that pressure for over eight years, he said.

Adams said his religious exemption has been revoked for the COVID vaccine.

He said he is also displeased with President Joe Bidens insinuation on Sept. 9. that 80 million unvaccinated Americans are to blame for the lingering pandemic.

Biden said, Weve been patient, but our patience is wearing thin, and your refusal has cost all of us.

Biden also claimed that unvaccinated people are crowding our hospitals.

Were in a tough stretch, he said. This is not about freedom or personal choice.

Adams disagrees.

He contends the mandate violates his constitutional right to religious freedom and to choose whether he gets the vaccine or not. And, as a combat veteran who has fought for this country, Abrams said he doesnt appreciate Biden trying to label him a terrorist for not submitting to a coercion.

It is so far out of the picture and is so insulting, he said.

Nursing Shortages

Christy Kinkade, a clinical educator and ER nurse who has worked at CHOMP for 15 years, attended the protest.

There was a lot of really positive energy, and it brought together people from really diverse backgrounds, she told The Epoch Times. We did not have just health care workers there. We had educators there. We had people in private businesses that are being mandated. We had folks just coming out to support the group. It was really great.

The way CHOMP is handling the vaccine mandate, especially in the middle of a nursing and staffing shortage, is going to hurt the community, more than help it, Kinkade said.

The folks that theyre forcing out are really, really important for the hospital to function, and for the hospital to serve this community, she said.

Kinkade believes everyone has the right to make their own decision on the vaccine, and she has been denied a religious exemption.

All of us have been here the last year-and-a-half, she said. Weve been serving through the whole pandemic. Weve been working long shifts, weve been taking care of the community, and now I feel like were being punished for our own choices.

Comirnaty Confusion

CHOMPs media release claims that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) fully approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for people 16 and older.

However, critics say the fully-approved Comirnaty vaccine is not yet available in the United States, and drug regulators have extended emergency use authorization for existing doses of the vaccine.

The Biden administration also claimed that Comirnaty is a breakthrough vaccine that has been fully approved by the FDA.

Meanwhile, Dr. Robert Malone, who was involved in key research in the field of mRNA vaccines, has accused Pfizer and BioNTech of playing a bureaucratic kind of shell game, the likes of which I havent seen before.

Once again, the mainstream media has lied to you, Malone said on Steve Bannons War Room on Aug. 24. The press has just actually not done their work and figured out whats going on here.

Sims agrees.

Much of what the mainstream concocts is a false reality disregarding any unbiased or true peer review science-based evidence or even logical thinking and is undeniably backed by big pharma and the corrupt entities we hear so much about, making decisions for us these days. Follow the money! said Sims.

Sims said the Biden administration intends to undermine those unvaccinated who want to wait to take the vaccine until all the clinical trials are completed, which she acknowledged could take years.

According to Montage Health, the non-profit group that runs CHOMP, the hospital has more than 2,500 employees, 432 medical staff, and 390 volunteers.
Southern California Forest Closures Extended Through Sept. 22

LOS ANGELESAngeles National Forest officials announced Wednesday that the ongoing forest-wide emergency closure order for the Angeles, Cleveland, and San Bernardino National Forests has been extended until midnight on Sept. 22.

Although the regional order issued on Aug. 31 that closed public access to all national forests in California through Sept. 17 will be rescinded, Southern California forests will remain closed, officials said.

Due to ongoing high fire danger and active wildfires across the West, the Southern California national forests will remain closed for another week to better provide for public and firefighter safety, forest service officials said.

Moreover, conditions on the forest have prompted Angeles forest fire managers to increase the fire danger level from Extreme to Critical, officials added.

The increase in the fire danger will require restricting access to the national forest for non-essential activities.

Through this order we hope to minimize the likelihood that visitors could become entrapped during an emergency and decrease the potential for new fire starts at a time of extremely limited firefighting resources, the statement said.

Severe and persistent drought due to hot and dry weather led to rapid growth and increasingly unpredictable fire behavior across Northern California this summer, with no relief expected until late fall.

Meanwhile, Southern California remains in drought conditions and the National Interagency Fire Center predicts that above-normal significant fire potential will continue across the region into October as very dry conditions are expected to continue along with the start of the Santa Ana wind season.

Once our resources return from fighting Northern California fires, well be able to re-evaluate fire danger conditions for reopening the forest, said Robert Garcia, the Angeles National Forest fire chief.

Currently, there are 11 large uncontained fires burning on National Forest System lands statewide, and more than 15,000 personnel, 303 crews, and 1,113 engines are committed to fighting fires in California.

The new closure order is intended to reduce the likelihood of a new fire starting over the next week.
A general view of the Channel 4 offices on Horseferry Road in London on Jan 22, 2017. (Lewis Whyld/PA)

Standing Still Not an Option for Channel 4, UK Culture Secretary Warns

Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden will warn that standing still is not an option for Channel 4 following a UK government consultation into the privatisation of the broadcaster.

In a speech to the Royal Television Society Convention on Wednesday, Dowden is expected to outline how the channel could continue to thrive even if it is sold.

The government has been consulting on plans to privatise the channel, which could be sold off to a private buyer.

At present, the channel, which was founded in 1982, is owned by the UK government and receives its funding from advertising.

Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden leaves Downing Street after the governments weekly Cabinet meeting, in London on Sept. 14, 2021. (Victoria Jones/PA)

In his speech, Dowden will say Channel 4 is one of this countrys greatest assets.

One clear way of making sure our British broadcasters thrive is putting them in the right financial position to compete and succeed for decades to comeno matter what the future of broadcasting holds.

Right now, Channel 4 is in a stable position. But I think too many people are fixated on Channel 4s current situation. Im much more concerned with its long-term future.

I believe that if Channel 4 wants to grow then at some point soon it will need cash. Without it, Channel 4 wont have the money to invest in technology and programming, and it wont be able to compete with the streaming giants.

He will say the money can either be raised on the back of the taxpayer or it can come from private investment.

The government can unlock that much-needed investment and can do so while protecting the parts of Channel 4 that none of us want to lose, he will add.

The consultation into the ownership of Channel 4 closed on Tuesday.

Dowden also praised Channel 4s coverage of the Paralympics and its broadcast of Emma Raducanus U.S. Open victory for providing national moments.

A Channel 4 with a protected remit and deeper pockets could bring us many, many more in the future, he will add.

If people disagree, then this is my challenge to them: please tell me how theyd intend to protect Channel 4 and the wider creative industries in a fairer, more sustainable way.

Because standing still is not an option. In fact, it would be an act of self-harm.

On Tuesday Channel 4 warned there is no evidence privatisation will benefit UK audiences or the economy and may instead cause them harm.

In a statement, Channel 4 said, Having considered all the available analysis extremely carefully, we have concluded there is no evidence that the irreversible transfer of Channel 4 from the British public into private commercial hands will be of benefit to either British audiences of the UK economy, and may indeed cause them harm.

The channel said, the evidence suggests that continued public ownership of Channel 4 would create the right conditions not only to overcome the audience and competitive challenges the government has rightly identified, but also to ensure that public service broadcasting in the UK continues to thrive.

It also raised concerns that moving Channel 4 into private ownership could result in reduced diversity and quality of content for UK viewers.

By Tom Horton
Syracuse University Defends Professors Controversial 9/11 Comments

Syracuse University, with a record of censoring offensive speech, is defending a professors social media posts about the 9/11 terrorist attacks that many found offensive.

In a Twitter thread that is now private, Jenn M. Jackson wrote that Americans have to be more honest about the nature of the horrific events of Sept. 11, 2001. It was an attack on the heteropatriarchal capitalistic systems that America relies upon to wrangle other countries into passivity, she claimed. It was an attack on the systems many white Americans fight to protect.

Jackson, who uses the pronouns she/they, is an assistant professor of political science whose area of research is black politics with a focus on group threat, gender and sexuality, political behavior, and social movements, according to her biography on the universitys website.

White Americans might not have really felt true fear before 9/11 because they never felt what it meant to be accessible, vulnerable, and on the receiving side of military violence at home, another post read. But, white Americans experiences are not a stand-in for America.'

Jacksons remarks triggered widespread anger on social media, with many accusing her of racism and legitimizing terrorism. Broadcast journalist Megyn Kelly, a Syracuse graduate with a degree in political science, called out Jackson and referred the professors remarks to the university, you ok with this?

In response to the criticism, Syracuse Chancellor Kent Syverud and Dean David Van Slyke issued a joint statement, saying that Jackson has the right to free speech, however uncomfortable it may make anyone feel.

Some have asked the University to condemn the professors comments and others have demanded the professors dismissal. Neither of those actions will happen, the officials added. Speech can be offensive, hurtful, or provocative.

The statement comes a year after Syracuse suspended chemistry professor Jon Zubieta for using the terms Wuhan flu and Chinese Communist Party virus in his syllabus notes to describe the novel coronavirus, which first emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan and became a global pandemic because of the Chinese communist regimes coverup of the outbreaks.

Zubieta, who has been teaching chemistry at Syracuse for 30 years, was placed on leave after some students from China expressed being offended by his descriptors of the virus. The university reinstated Zubieta this March under an agreement that he would retire in 2023.

My intention was to mock the euphemistic conventions of PC culture rather than the Chinese people or their great heritage and traditions, Zubieta said in a statement released by Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), a non-profit group focusing on First Amendment rights on college campuses. The actions of the university in placing me under suspension and in practice seemingly supporting the accusations of racism and sinophobia are deeply disturbing.

According to FIRE, which had advocated for Zubietas return, the history of Syracuse punishing Zubieta and other faculty members for potentially offensive speech has made it harder for the university to defend Jackson on the ground of freedom of expression.

Just as that statement offers valuable lessons for other institutions, so too does its genesis offer caution about the importance of consistency, Adam Steinbaugh, director of FIREs Individual Rights Defense Program, said in a news release.

Time will tell whether Syracuses praiseworthy embrace of freedom of expression is sincere, he said.
Taliban Seeks Mining Cooperation With South Korea, China Upset

Afghanistans newly ensconced Taliban regime has been looking to China for major economic support, but the Talibans lithium-mining invitation to South Korea has displeased the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). To keep Beijing happy, the Taliban offered it copper mining rights.

Enduring 20 years of war, Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries in the world. According to the World Bank, Afghanistans gross domestic product (GDP) in 2020 was $19.8 billion (compared to the United States $20.93 trillion), and its GDP per capita was only $508.8 (compared to United States $63,543.6). Former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani revealed last year that 90 percent of Afghanistans population was living on less than $2 a day.

On Sept. 7, the Taliban established a new government and urgently sought to rebuild Afghanistan. According to NetEase News, a Chinese state-owned media, the Taliban have repeatedly praised the CCP and called it a great neighbor, seeking immediate investments from the CCP that would help to rebuild Afghanistan.

According to the 2017-2018 Minerals Yearbook of Afghanistan (pdf) issued by the U.S. Geological Survey and U.S. Department of the Interior, Afghanistan sits on rich bauxite, copper, iron, lithium, and rare earth deposits. However, the report said that most of these mineral resources had not been developed due to Afghanistans deteriorating security, political instability, and lack of infrastructure.

In 2010, U.S. military officials and geologists estimated that Afghanistan sits on $1 trillion worth of mineral deposits. According to the surveys conducted by Afghanistans own Ministry of Mines and Petroleum in 2017, its mineral resources may be worth as high as $3 trillion, which is more than enough to compensate for the cost of war.

In an interview with Yonhap News Agency on Aug. 23, the Taliban suggested that its newly established government seeks to develop strong ties with South Korea and enable economic exchanges. It stated that Afghanistan has mineral resources such as lithium, and since South Korea leads in the electronics manufacturing industry, they believe that both parties can mutually benefit.

This statement from the Taliban dissatisfied the CCP. NetEase News called the Talibans statement an act of bad faith, suggesting that it showed goodwill to China on the surface but is secretly handing its mineral deposits over to South Korea.

Lithium is the main element of lithium-ion batteries, a critical component of smartphones, laptops, and electric vehicles. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), with the global transition to clean energy, by 2040, the demand for lithium under its sustainable development scenario will increase by 40 percent.

On Sept. 13, Gao Fengyi, a political commentator living in Japan, told The Epoch Times that he thinks the CCP aims to seize all minerals in Afghanistan. However, after the Taliban invited South Korea to mine the lithium deposits, the Chinese state-owned media immediately called it a treacherous move, indicating that there may already be an agreement between the CCP and the Taliban.

Gao suggested that the Taliban regime wishes to gain global recognition, and developing relations with South Korea, an ally of the United States, could be beneficial. On the other hand, it does not want to be hostile toward the United States and hopes to advance its economy through cooperation with South Korea.

Taliban Handing Copper Mining Rights to the CCP

On Sept. 8, Global Times, a Chinese state-owned newspaper, reported that the Taliban was preparing to give the CCP its copper mining rights. Copper is an essential element for electric wiring, electronic products, motors, and many other products manufactured in China. Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid said at a press conference on Sept. 6 that the CCP is its most important partner, reiterating its support for the CCPs Belt and Road Initiative. It also hopes that Beijing will help rebuild the war-torn country, in exchange, allowing the CCP to mine its copper deposits.

NetEase News once called the Taliban treacherous for seeking to work with South Korea, then suddenly reversed its tone. On Sept. 12, it praised the Taliban for delivering an enormous gift in good faith to the CCP and said it has resolved Chinas urgent need [for minerals].

The CCP already had mining operations in Afghanistan previously. In May 2008, China Metallurgical Group, a Chinese state-owned enterprise, bought the exploration lease on the massive deposit for the Mes Aynak copper mine near Kabul for $2.898 billion. However, the project was stalled for more than a decade due to security concerns in the region.

The Mes Aynak copper mine is located in the central-eastern part of Afghanistan. According to Sina News, a Chinese state-owned media, the mines ore volume amounts to 705 million tons, with an average copper content of 1.56 percent and a copper metal content of 11 million tons. It is an extra-large scale copper deposit.

Analysis: Criminal Regimes Using One Another

In an Epoch Times interview on Sept. 13, Yang Si, a political commentator with a dual Ph.D. from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the University of Tokyo, said the Talibans problem is that it wishes to rid itself of the image of terrorism. It knows that a country cannot always be killing its civilians, and it needs international acceptance.

When it comes to the relationship between the Taliban and the CCP, Yang believes they are both criminal regimes, using each other. Yang said that the Taliban knew very well that the CCP was supporting it purely due to its vast mineral resources.

Gangs have no trust in one another; they are always on guard against the other. The Taliban is afraid of the CCPs aggression onto its territories and resources, so it kept a hidden hand, playing a game of balance. At the same time, the CCP is worried that the Taliban might betray it by supporting Xinjiang Uyghurs. The Taliban and the CCP differ in their religious beliefs. As neighboring countries, they have both conflicts and interests, Yang said.

Yang suggested that the Taliban is hoping for immediate support from the CCP, but it doesnt want to be controlled. Thus, on the one hand, it hands over copper-mining rights to China; on the other hand, it seeks cooperation with South Korea for its well-established technology.

Winnie Han Follow Winnie Han is currently engaged in reporting Chinese news for The Epoch Times.
Frank Fishwick holding one of his grandchildren in a file photo. (Lancashire Police/PA)

Teenager Charged Over Fatal Attack on 86-Year-Old Army Veteran

A teenager has been been charged with the manslaughter of an Army veteran who was assaulted outside his own home.

Frank Fishwick, 86, was found with a facial injury after police were called to The Paddock in Preston, Lancashire, on Friday afternoon.

The pensioner, who served with the Royal Engineers, was taken to hospital but died on Saturday morning.

Fishwick had earlier gone outside to speak to a group of youths who were congregating in a stairway near his home and was then punched in the face, said Lancashire Police.

A post-mortem examination found the cause of death to be bleeding as a result of fractures to the nose.

Mohammed Al Aaraj, 19, of Sheffield Drive, Preston, has been charged with manslaughter and will appear before the citys magistrates on Tuesday.

Detective Chief Inspector Mark Haworth-Oates said: First and foremost our thoughts remain with Fishwicks family, who continue to be looked after by specialist officers.

Our inquiries are very much ongoing and we have now charged a man in relation to this incident. However, we are continuing to ask witnesses to come forward.

If you saw the incident or have any information about who was involved and what happened, please let us know. Similarly, if you have any dashcam, CCTV or mobile phone footage showing what happened, please tell us.

Anybody with information should contact 101, quoting log 879 of Sept. 10.

Relatives of Fishwick, who worked at Leyland Motors, described him as an adored father and grandfather who will be sadly missed by family and friends.

By Kim Pilling
Texas Hospital Faces Closure Over COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate: CEO

The chief executive of a hospital in Texas warned that his facility faces closure after President Joe Bidens announcement last week that most healthcare workers get the COVID-19 vaccine.

If the mandate goes through, Brownfield Regional Medical Center CEO Jerry Jasper said that 20 percent of my, probably 20 to 25 percent of my staff will have to go away if thats the case, reported KCBD. Losing those workers, he said, would likely cause his hospital to shut down, and losing Medicare and Medicaid money isnt an option either.

A White House stipulates that healthcare workers who work at hospitals and facilities that receive either Medicaid or Medicare funds will have to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

Its huge in our rural community as all the other rural communities. We all have high poverty levels and stuff like that, so a lot of Medicaid usage in our communities and stuff like that, Jasper remarked to the station.

Another local hospital executive said that the mandate echoed Jaspers sentiments.

Well, it would be devastating for the community, frankly. We have a large percentage of our revenue that comes from Medicare, Medicaid, and those kinds of products, Larry Gray, the CEO of the Seminole Hospital District, told the station.

While Gray said he encourages vaccines, mandates dont work.

I think the mandate is just a terrible message because if the vaccinations are working, why do you have to mandate people to get the vaccines? Gray asked. What happens to individual choice and medical decisions between the patient and their doctor, which is all of the things that were trying to support.

Other than mandates for healthcare workers, Biden also announced he would direct the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration to enforce a rule against companies with 100 or more workers that employees either get the vaccine or submit to weekly COVID-19 testing. Federal workers and contractors will also have to get the vaccine, he said.

In Upstate New York, a regional hospitals executive said that the facility will have to at least temporarily close down its maternity unit and will not be able to deliver babies due to a mandate that was handed down by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Lewis County Health System Chief Executive Officer Gerald Cayer said that six employees who were employed in the unit resigned, according to local media reports.

If we can pause the service and now focus on recruiting nurses who are vaccinated, we will be able to reengage in delivering babies here in Lewis County, Cayer said at a news conference on Sept. 10.
Three former U.S. intelligence and military officials have admitted to providing hacking and intelligence-gathering systems to the United Arab Emirates. (axonite/Pixabay)

Three Former US Officials Admit to Providing Hacking Technology to UAE

Three former U.S. intelligence and military officials have agreed to pay $1.7 million to the U.S. government and admitted to providing hacking technology to the United Arab Emirates, the Department of Justice announced on Tuesday.

Marc Baier, Ryan Adams, and Daniel Gericke made the admission as part of a first-of-its-kind deferred prosecution agreement, under which they are also to pay $1.68 million, cooperate with the Justice Departments investigation, cut ties with UAE intelligence and give up their security clearances. The Justice Department agreed to drop the prosecution if the three men comply with the terms for three years.

Lawyers for Adams and Gericke did not immediately return messages seeking comment, and a lawyer for Baier declined to comment.

Baier, Adams, and Gericke worked at a UAE-based company that carried out hacks on behalf of the foreign government, according to court documents. The trio provided their employer with hacking and spying systems used to break into computers in the U.S. and around the world, prosecutors say.

In a letter earlier this year, the CIA warned about an uptick in the number of former officers who have disclosed sensitive information about CIA activities, personnel, and tradecraft. The UAE case appears to fit into this pattern. One of the examples listed was working for state-sponsored intelligence-related companies in non-fraternization countries.

The DOJ accuses the three men of computer fraud and violating export control laws by providing defense services without the required license. Baier, Adams, and Gericke did not dispute any of the allegations as part of the deal with prosecutors.

This is a loud statement that the Justice Department takes such cases seriously, said Bobby Chesney, a professor at the University of Texas School of Law who specializes in national security issues.

The three men left a U.S.-based company that was operating in the UAE to join an Emirati company that would give them significant increases in their salaries, according to court documents.

Hackers-for-hire and those who otherwise support such activities in violation of U.S. law should fully expect to be prosecuted for their criminal conduct, Mark Lesko, acting assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Departments national security division, said in a statement.

The charging documents dont name the companies involved, but Lori Stroud, a former National Security Agency employee, said she worked with the three men in the UAE at U.S.-based CyberPoint and then for UAE-based DarkMatter. She quit DarkMatter when she realized the company was hacking U.S. citizens. Stroud said she assisted the FBI in its investigation.

This is progress, Stroud said.

DarkMatters founder and CEO, Faisal al-Bannai, told The Associated Press in 2018 that his company has close business ties to the Emirati government and has hired former CIA and NSA analysts. He denied the firm was engaged in hacking.

Between 2016 and 2019, Baier, Adams, and Gericke bought exploits to break into computers and mobile devices from companies around the world, including those based in the U.S., the Justice Department says. The purchases included one so-called zero-click exploitwhich can break into mobile devices without any user interaction. Baier bought the exploit from an unnamed U.S. company in 2016.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
People clash with police as they gather in Clapham Common, London, after the Reclaim These Streets vigil for Sarah Everard was officially cancelled, on March 13, 2021. (Victoria Jones/PA)

Top British Police Chief Condemns Public Figures Who Rush to Judge Social Media Clips

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick has hit out at those who rush to judgment after viewing controversial clips of officers posted on social media.

Speaking at the Police Superintendents Association (PSA) annual conference on Tuesday, she singled out public figures who should understand the dangers of jumping to erroneous conclusions.

Dame Cressida said the coronavirus pandemic will be one of the defining moments in the history of policing, with memories of the bravery, the calmness, the determination of officers remembered for years in the same way as during the Second World War or counter-terrorism in the wake of 9/11.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick speas outside the Old Bailey in central London after Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens pleaded guilty to the murder of Sarah Everard, in UK, on July 9, 2021. (Ian West/PA)

But she said the period has also seen a rise in aggression against officers and a failure to give them the benefit of the doubt over incidents that draw attention on social media.

Dame Cressida told the PSA conference: In recent months, far too regularly, we have seen quick judgment of the actions of individual officers based on a viral clip, or a section of footage showing part of an incident, or second-hand information before the full situation can possibly be known.

Rushing to such judgments is dangerous. It undermines the legitimacy of policing and it makes officers feel they need to think twice, or maybe not even volunteer for the role.

She went on: This is particularly undermining when it comes from people in public lifepeople who ought to understand some at least of the complexity, and the dangers of jumping to erroneous conclusions.

Members of the crowd shine lights from their phones at the vigil for Sarah Everard in Clapham Common, London, on March 13, 2021. (Victoria Jones/PA)

The Metropolitan Police faced fierce criticism for their handling of a vigil in memory of murdered marketing executive Sarah Everard in south London in March, including from Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey, who called for Dame Cressida to resign.

But watchdog Her Majestys Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services exonerated the force over its actions, saying there was no evidence of heavy handedness and that condemnation of the Mets actions within hours of the vigil was unwarranted and undermined confidence in policing.

Dame Cressida added: We are living in an age of immediacy, an age of outrage. A time when everyone has to have an opinion straight away about whether something is good or bad, right or wrong.

Sometimescall me old-fashionedthings need more time. We have to establish the facts.

By Margaret Davis
A U.S. Air Force member receives a COVID-19 vaccine at Osan Air Base, Republic of Korea, on Dec. 29, 2020. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Betty R. Chevalier via Getty Images)

US Army Sets Deadlines for COVID-19 Vaccines, Threatens Disciplinary Action

The U.S. Army has announced deadlines for COVID-19 vaccines for all its service members, threatening suspensions for those who dont have a pending exemption request and fail to comply.

In a Sept. 14 statement, the Army announced that all active-duty troops must be fully vaccinated by Dec. 15 and that all other service membersNational Guard and Reserve membershave until June 30, 2022, to get the vaccine.

The announcement comes after Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced mandatory shots on Aug. 9 and said in an Aug. 24 memorandum that all military departments must start implementing COVID-19 vaccination requirements for all of their service members. Prior to Aug. 24, vaccines had been optional in the armed forces.

In its statement, the Army said soldiers who refuse the vaccine will first be counseled by their chain of command and medical providers. If they continue to defy the mandate, there may be administrative or non-judicial punishmentto include relief of duties or discharge.

Soldiers can seek an exemption from receiving the vaccine if they have a legitimate medical, religious, or administrative reason. Those who have pending exemption requests will not be subject to adverse actions until the exemption is fully processed.

Commanders will request a General Officer Memorandum of Reprimand be initiated for any Soldier who refuses to be vaccinated and does not have a pending or approved exemption request. Such reprimands can be career-ending, the statement reads.

Soldiers who have survived a previous COVID-19 infection are not automatically exempt from full vaccination and should consult their primary care managers.

Soldiers who have questions about the COVID-19 vaccines safety, effectiveness, and possible side effects should discuss them with their health care provider, the statement reads.

U.S. Army Surgeon General Lt. Gen. R. Scott Dingle said in a statement that being fully vaccinated is quite literally a matter of life and death for our Soldiers, their families, and the communities in which we live.

Case counts and deaths continue to be concerning as the Delta variant spreads, which makes protecting the force through mandatory vaccination a health and readiness priority for the total Army, Dingle said.

Other service branches have previously announced deadlines for their troops.

The U.S. Air Force announced on Sept. 3 that all active-duty service members must be fully vaccinated by Nov. 2. Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve members face a deadline of Dec. 2.

The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps announced on Sept. 1 deadlines of Nov. 28 and Dec. 28 for active-duty service members and reserve members, respectively.

One congressman, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), said in July that some members of the U.S. military told him they would quit if the COVID-19 vaccine were to be mandated.
Geoffrey Nice gives the opening address on the first day of hearings at the Uyghur Tribunal, a panel of UK-based lawyers and rights experts investigating alleged abuses against Uyghurs in China, in London on June 4, 2021. (Tolga Akmen/AFP via Getty Images)

Uyghur Tribunal Wraps Up 2nd Hearing; Genocide Verdict Expected in December

The final hearings of a tribunal set up to assess whether the Chinese regime is committing genocide in Xinjiang against Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities concluded in London on Sept. 13, with a nonbinding verdict expected in December.

The Uyghur Tribunal, which ran from Sept. 10 to 13 in London, was chaired by prominent British lawyer Geoffrey Nice and came after an initial set of hearings in June that saw witnesses recount their experiences of torture and abuse in the regions sprawling network of detention camps.

The nine-member tribunal, made up of academics, business people, and lawyers, doesnt have the backing of the UK government or the power to prosecute, but organizers hope the independent assessment will push the international community to take action against the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for its treatment of Uyghurs, the majority of whom practice Islam.

The tribunals decision will not have legal weight, but moral weight, expert witness Andrew Khoo said on Sept. 13.

Nine witnesses and 28 experts testified in this months hearings, including former detainee Erbakit Otarbay, who said she and other inmates were physically abused during her 98 days in a detention camp in Xinjiang.

Her account echoes that of many former Uyghur detainees. Firsthand accounts described to The Epoch Times have revealed attempts by authorities to strip Uyghur detainees of their culture and languageas the Party did to the Chinese and the Tibetans during the Cultural Revolutionforcing them to denounce their faith and pledge loyalty to the CCP and its leader. If detainees failed to follow orders, they would be subject to several forms of torture as punishment.

CCP officials say the mass detentions among the Uyghur population are part of measures to crack down on terrorism, religious extremism, and separatism in the country. They have referred to extremist threats in order to justify strict surveillance and clampdown on Uyghurs and other ethnic minority groups in the Xinjiang region.

Uyghurs in the region are being detained for reasons such as contacting friends or relatives abroad, traveling to a foreign country, growing beards, or attending religious gatherings, Uyghurs who have family members in the camps have told The Epoch Times.

Its estimated that at least 1 million Uyghurs are being held in the regions network of mass internment camps.

Ethnic Kazakh Gulzire Alwuqanqizi also testified, recounting how she was forced to take pills, undergo medical checks, had blood samples taken, and was injected with unknown substances. Since then, she is no longer fertile, she told the tribunal.

Every time I went to [a new] camp they drew blood. There was no logic to it. Sometimes they would take blood from me, or not, or a group of students. It didnt make sense, she told the panel. How dare they break our humanity and our dignity.

The London tribunal, funded by the World Uyghur Congress and individual donations, is the latest attempt to hold the CCP to account for its treatment of Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang region.

The United States has declared that Beijings policies against Uyghurs and other groups amount to genocide and crimes against humanity. China denies the accusations of genocide and forced labor in the region.

The Uyghur Tribunal is expected to announce in December whether China is committing genocide or crimes against humanity, Radio Free Asia reported.
An Elections Canada volunteer tapes up signs at a polling station in Toronto on Oct. 19, 2015. (The Canadian Press/Aaron Vincent Elkaim)

Voter Apathy Stems From Evolving Trends, Lack of Trust: Pundits

With less than a week to go before election day, recent Ipsos survey results raise concerns over voter apathy and low voter turnout, showing that over 35 percent of Canadian voters dont like any of the parties and that 13 percent are completely undecided as to which candidate they will vote for.

Hamish Telford, an associate professor of political science at the University of the Fraser Valley, says theres a variety of long-term trends that leave voters less enthusiastic today compared to in the past.

The fractionalization of the party system is representative to a certain extent of that dissatisfaction, Telford told The Epoch Times.

People dont join parties like they used to, and so they dont have the same membership that they used to. Members tend to be olderyoung people dont join the parties at all.

It may also be harder these days for voters who are disillusioned with the party theyve traditionally supported to gravitate to another choice, he said.

Now we tend to view people with different political opinions as evil and about to destroy the country. So theres a change in perception and tone, rather than people moving further apart on ideas. And its funnywe are arguing over smaller policy differences, but we are further worlds apart.

As for the leaders debates, Telford doubts they gave voters cause to become more engaged.

The answers were shallow, and of course they were shallow because [the leaders] werent given enough time to expound on the answers, he said.

I have shown [the 1984 and 1988] debates to my students and they were incredulous. Like, You guys actually watched that? Would anybody watch this? And you had at that time three very learned men standing on a stage for three hours expounding on policies.

The culture since then wouldnt allow for it. Political leaders arent trained to do that, and citizens arent trained to sit through that kind of exercise anymore.

Wanda Krause, a political scientist and assistant professor at the School of Leadership Studies at Royal Roads University in B.C., believes the Liberals have disappointed some Canadians by their slow progress on some issues, such as clean drinking water for indigenous communities.

Canadians really want to see change. They really want to see their issues put forward and taken seriously. But yet at the same time, some dont know who else to vote for, so theres a bit of disaffection there, Krause said in an interview.

According to the Ipsos survey released Sept. 9, 30 percent of Canadians overall are unsure which party has the best plan for Canadas post-COVID future, while the vast majority (78 percent) of undecided voters feel the same, believing theyre all the same.

In addition, the survey noted that undecided voters often end up being non-voters come election day, as they could be among the hardest to motivate.

When they hear the different platforms of our potential leaders and current leader, they seem to be not as different as they were perhaps before. Its, Who am I going to vote for then if theres not that big of a difference? And yet theres so much going on in Canadians lives that theyre not giving that much time to reading about the different platforms either, said Krause.

Malcolm Bird, a political scientist at the University of Winnipeg, believes one reason for voter discontent is that criticism has usurped respect for government in general, for reasons that may not be fair.

I dont think people really understand that being in government is not easy, he said. You have to make really hard choices. Youve got limited resources, youve got everybody complaining, youre under unbelievable time and information and external pressures.

A lack of trust also plays a role, says Krause, noting that on some of the issues, voters may not be convinced that leaders running for election will keep their promises.

What are leaders saying theyre going to do and is it convincing? Are there real solutions being put out, not just politically correct [ones] or lip service? she says.

Are they walking their talk? I think there is a bit of a crisis here, not in terms of caring or engagement, but rather in trust. Canadians are asking more, Are leaders fulfilling their promises? Many Canadians are feeling that our leaders are not. And Im not sure if Canadians also feel theyre being listened to.
A vial of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine is seen in Los Angeles, Calif., on Aug. 23, 2021. (Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images)

White Floating Contaminants Found in Pfizer Vaccine in Several Japanese Cities: Officials

Foreign matter has been discovered in five unused vials of Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine near Tokyo, Japan, and one vial in Osaka Prefecture, officials said on Tuesday.

The vials containing white floating matter belong to the same Pfizer vaccine lot, said the cities of Sagamihara, and Kamakura, and Sakai, according to the Kyodo News agency. They requested that Pfizer should review the substances in the vials.

Officials told Kyodo that contaminants were found in several sites in Sagamihara, one site in Kamakura, and one site in Sakai this week. The Pfizer lot number was identified by the officials as FF5357.

They said that the Pfizer doses containing foreign matter were not used.

Pfizer officials Japan said in a news conference Wednesday that the matter is likely ingredients that havent fully dissolved, reported the Mainichi Daily News. It didnt affect the quality or safety of the vaccine, the firm said. The Epoch Times has contacted the company for comment.

Several weeks ago, the Japanese Health Ministry suspended 1.63 million doses of Modernas COVID-19 vaccine due to contamination. Weeks later, government officials in early September confirmed that three people died after receiving a shot from the since-suspended batches of Modernas vaccine, which uses similar mRNA technology as Pfizers.

An investigation later revealed that stainless steel particulates had contaminated the Moderna doses. The two firms traced it back to a production site in Spain.

Stainless steel is routinely used in heart valves, joint replacements, and metal sutures and staples. As such, it is not expected that injection of the particles identified in these lots in Japan would result in increased medical risk, the companies said in their statement.

The rare presence of stainless steel particles in the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine does not pose an undue risk to patient safety and it does not adversely affect the benefit/risk profile of the product, Takeda Pharmaceutical said in a joint statement with Moderna in late August. Takeda, a Moderna partner, distributes the vaccine in Japan.

Moderna and Takeda, meanwhile, said they would recall several batches of their vaccine due to the contaminants. Its unclear if Pfizer will initiate a recall.

About 500,000 people have received shots from the three suspended Moderna batches, Taro Kono, Japans minister in charge of the vaccination campaign, told reporters on Friday. Moderna said it cannot confirm how many doses were distributed from the batches.

COVID-19 is the disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.

Reuters contributed to this report.
The "Wikipedia" logo is seen on a tablet screen in Paris, France on Dec. 4, 2012. (Lionel Bonaventure/AFP via Getty Images)

Wikimedia Bans 7 Mainland Chinese Users Over Infiltration and Security Risk

The Wikimedia Foundation, a U.S. nonprofit that hosts Wikipedia, has banned seven mainland Chinese users from its websites and revoked administrator access for 12 others, in a case that was described by its vice president as unprecedented in scope and nature.

Maggie Dennis, the Wikimedias vice president of community resilience and sustainability, announced the penalty in an email on Sept. 13 to Wikimedia members. She said the foundation made the decision after long and deep investigations into some members of the Wikimedians of Mainland China (WMC) user group.

Dennis did not provide detailed explanations over what the 19 users had done, but only said that there was a security risk with infiltration concerns. For the 12 users who had administrator access, she appeared to suggest that they had engaged in or were connected to election canvassing.

We have also reached out to a number of other editors with explanations around canvassing guidelines and doxing policies and requests to modify their behaviors, Dennis wrote. We need to make sure that the [Wikipedia] community can hold fair elections, without canvassing or fraud.

Wikipedia holds elections to choose experienced editors to become administrators, who are granted technical abilities to perform tasks such as blocking users, deleting a page, and protecting pages from further editing. As a result, the administrator role has become a coveted position as there have been editing wars breaking out on Wikipedia over its content.

The ban could be related to threats that Chinese Wikipedia users directed against members of Wikimedia Community User Group Hong Kong (WMHKG), in an editing war over Hong Kong protest events.

In July, Hong Kong Free Press (HKFP) disclosed that mainland Chinese Wikipedia users were discussing on Chinese social media about reporting their Hong Kong peers to the citys national security police. A screenshot of the discussion obtained by the Hong Kong outlet showed a user with the name Walter Grassroot.

Walter Grassroot was one of the seven users banned, according to a Wikipedia page.

According to HKFP, Walter Grassroot is a man living in Chinas coastal Jiangsu Province, who shares Beijings views on Hong Kong and Taiwan. He also took down many news links from the now-defunct Apple Daily on Wikipedia in July.

Beijing sees pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong as rioters and views Taiwan as a part of its territory. Apple Dailyknown for publishing articles supportive of Hong Kong protesters and critical of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)saw its executives arrested and assets frozen in June after a national security investigation was announced targeting the media firm.

WMHKG is recognized by the Wikimedia Foundation, while the WMC is not. All versions of Wikipedia have been banned in China since April 2019.

Dennis said some users were physically harmed because of such infiltration.

Another form of infiltration involved not only people deliberately seeking to ingratiate themselves with their communities in order to obtain access and advance an agenda contrary to open knowledge goals, but also individuals who have become vulnerable to exploitation and harm by external groups because they are already trusted insiders, she said.

Dennis wrote that she will host an office hour in the coming weeks to discuss infiltration and other issues, including how to prevent community capture in future elections.

The foundation will host a public session in the next few weeks to address these issues as well as to discuss how it can approach future elections to avoid community capture, Dennis said. We need to make sure that the community can hold fair elections, without canvassing or fraud.

We hope to connect with the international Chinese language community in the near future to talk about approaches to elections that avoid the risk of project capture and ensure that people are and feel safe contributing to the Chinese language Wikipedia, she added.

The WMC issued a statement slamming Wikimedia as having been instigated by certain individuals within the Chinese Wiki community. It added that the foundations decision was unfounded.

The Wikimedia Foundation did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Worlds Biggest Battery In California Overheats, Shuts Down

An overheating incident at the worlds biggest grid battery in California on Sept. 4 forced three quarters of the station to power down until further notice.

South of San Francisco, the largest-of-its-kind Moss Landing energy storage facility recently grew from 300 to 400 megawatts (MW), with the ability to output for four hours.

But after a limited number of modules reached operationally unsafe temperatures on Sept. 4, safety mechanisms triggered sprinklers that targeted the affected modules, resulting in the facilitys primary 300-MW section to shut off entirely.

The overheating came as the state experienced a sweltering 100 degrees Fahrenheit heatwave over the Labor Day weekend.

The North County Fire Protection District of Monterey County was called to the scene as a precaution. No injuries were sustained.

The newly built 100-MW portion of the power station located in a separate building remained functional.

On Sept. 7, Vistro, the owner, and battery manufacturer LG Energy Solution began investigations into the root cause of the incident.

The teams are in the early stages of this investigation and expect that it will take some time to fully assess the extent of the damage before developing a plan to safely repair and return the battery system to operation, Vistro said in a media statement.

Difficulties in managing battery fires mean that big battery facilities require obsequious temperature monitoring and management.

This was illustrated last month in Australia after firefighters were unable to control a fire at the countrys largest grid battery, which burnt for close to four days.

A fire at the Victoria Big Battery in Moorabool near Melbourne in Victoria, Australia, on July 30, 2021. (Fire Rescue Victoria)

Local fire authorities said at the time that the nature of the fire meant it was extremely difficult to extinguish using conventional methods.

They are difficult to fight because you cant put water on the megapacks  all that does is extend the length of time that the fire burns for, the spokesman said. The recommended process is you cool everything around it so the fire cant spread, and you let it burn out.

The 400 MW capacity of the Moss Landing grid battery is part of state efforts to meet the energy storage legislation AB 2514 passed in 2013, which requires utilities to build 1,325 MW of operational energy storage capacity by 2024.

The states transition toward greater renewable energy capacity had previously led Californias energy officials to ask for additional power capacity due to reliability concerns for the months of July and August.

California is using all available tools to increase electricity reliability this summer, officials said, citing unprecedented heat events, which are occurring throughout the West in combination with drought conditions that reduce hydroelectric capacity.
I have been in education since 1994. I am old enough to remember when there was an opening for a teacher position and a school district would have hundreds of applicants. Teaching candidates would interview several times before being hired. Some folks would take a job as a teachers aide to get the inside track to a potential teaching job the following year. There were by far more candidates than jobs. That is no longer the case. There is a teacher shortage.

There is also a school bus driver shortage. Every district in Madison County is experiencing a dire need for bus drivers. Some districts run their own busses while others contract out with professional companies. All are experiencing difficulty in finding people to drive busses.

Bus drivers, like teachers, must have a large amount of patience. I remember two bus drivers that I had as a student many years ago. The first one was Alice and the second one was Nancy. Alice had more patience than Nancy, but both were good at their job. I learned valuable lessons from both.

Living in the rural part of the county, I started riding the school bus at the age of four. We had half-day kindergarten back then. We were picked up later in the morning and rode together as a group of young first-year students. There were maybe 12 kids on the bus at the most. Riding the bus to kindergarten, my classmates and I would sing songs, eagerly waiting to arrive at the school in Moro. We would jump off the bus upon arrival and run to Miss. Butlers classroom. We would line up at the end of the day and walk to the bus, ready to go home.

The bus ride home was much different. The older kids were on the bus. It was loud and disorderly. Kids would argue about matters that they deemed important, such as which tractor brand was better, John Deere, International or Allis Chalmers. Some days the argument was about trucks, Ford, Chevy or Dodge. Cuss words were used fluently and frequently. Windows were lowered to the officially marked black line to help cool the bus on hot days. Many real world lessons were learned on the bus ride home.

Once in awhile, the occasional slap fight would break out. This would always lead to a scolding from Alice. If the horseplay did not cease, the bus would be pulled over to the side of the road and a silence would soon engulf the yellow vehicle. The students who were having the disagreement would quickly notice the silence and the halt of the bus. They would then both face front and tell the driver that they were just playing around, hoping that this would get the bus rolling again and they would avoid any further punishment. Alice was patient and rarely reported anything to her supervisors or the school administrators.

Nancy was more strict than Alice. She was not one to pull the bus over very often. She would ask students to stop behaving poorly as she looked up from the road into the slightly angled, long oval mirror above her head. She could see what was going on and expected it to stop if it was not appropriate school bus behavior. If it did not stop, she would have a piece of paper waiting in her hand the next day to give to the students who had misbehaved the day before. This piece of paper was a bus referral and it meant that the student would have to stop by the office and discuss the previous infraction with a school administrator. Some would not be allowed to ride the bus for a few days, while others were back the next day with a warning.

Nancy was in charge and consistent. Every Friday, as she was dropping us off at school, she would sayx, Have a great day. Its Friday! Most days, while loading the bus for the ride home from school, one or more of the riders would grow impatient and yell, Lets roll, Nance. Nancy would smile and start the engine and proceed to drive north to our homes.

I hope that this article will serve to show my appreciation for the bus drivers that played a huge role in getting me and my classmates to and from school every day and show other folks how important it is to have good bus drivers transporting our students to and from school each day. Teachers, secretaries, counselors, custodians and administrators all play a vital role in educating our students. Bus drivers, however, are the interlocking piece that links home and school. Many times the start of a school day is pushed in a positive direction by a pleasant greeting as the student steps up onto the bus.

If you, or someone you know, are looking for a career that will have a lifelong impact on the future of our society in a very meaningful way, please consider becoming a school bus driver. The need is currently critical. There are financial incentives for new bus drivers. Training will be provided. Please contact your local school district office or the Madison County Regional Office of Education to find out more about the opportunities to become a school bus driver. By the way, the school buses are air-conditioned now, so there should be no need to monitor the official black line on the window violation.

Robert W. Werden is the Madison County Regional Superintendent of Schools. He is in his 26th year as an educator. He is a former Director of the Madison County Career and Technical Education System. He can be reached at www.roe41.org
BELGRADE, Serbia (AP)  Serbia kicked off a new national holiday on Wednesday with a display of military power and calls for all ethnic Serbs in the Balkans to unite under one flag, triggering unease among its neighbors decades after similar calls led to the bloody wars of the 1990s.

Serbs were told to display thousands of red, blue and white national flags wherever they live in the region or the world to mark The Day of Serb Unity, Freedom and the National Flag.

Opening the full day of celebrations, populist President Aleksandar Vucic inspected military hardware displayed in a Belgrade park, praising the army's readiness to respond to outside threats.

He said that the army is five times stronger than only a few years ago, and announced new military purchases.

Later Wednesday, Vucic spoke at a rally in downtown Belgrade  where nationalist sentiment flew high  attended by government members, Bosnian Serb officials and tens of thousands of his supporters.

Vucic, a former ultranationalist who advocated expansion of Serbia's borders at the expense of its neighbors, said the new holiday is not meant to threaten anyone or change established borders in the Balkans.

The Serbian flag is threatening someone, and they expect us to apologize?" Vucic asked. My answer is: Never again. We will carry our flag with pride anywhere in the world."

Also speaking at the rally was the Bosnian Serb separatist leader, Milorad Dodik.

Our country is not Bosnia-Herzegovina, it is Serbia,'' he said to strong applause from the crowd.

The muscle-flexing by Serbian officials as well as their calls for the creation of the Serb World, or political unification of an estimated 1.3 million ethnic Serbs living in Bosnia, Montenegro, Kosovo and Croatia with Serbia, have triggered worries in neighboring countries.

In the 1990s, Serb forces with financial and political support from Belgrade led bloody campaigns in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo with the goal of forming a Greater Serbia. The campaign unsuccessfully tried to redraw the internal borders of the former Yugoslavia and create a single Serb state.

Denis Becirovic, a lawmaker in the Bosnian parliament, said that Vucic is restoring the Greater Serbia project by supporting secessionist policies of Bosnian Serbs.

Sadly, the expansionist forces in Serbia have a potential to again ignite the whole region, Becirovic said. The West has to stop the Greater Serbia demon before its too late.

Croatian President Zoran Milanovic said he couldnt believe that Serbs have nothing more important or smarter to do than create holidays which infringe on the internal affairs of neighboring states.

Serbias Interior Minister Aleksandar Vulin, the most vocal supporter of the Serb World, was quick to respond.

There is nothing more important than the preservation of the Serb identity, he said.

The new national holiday coincides with a key Serbian and French victory in 1918 against the Central Powers in the Balkan theater of operations during World War I.
UNITED NATIONS (AP)  The Security Council is divided over the mandate of the U.N. political mission in Libya, less than four months before the country is scheduled to hold critical presidential and parliamentary elections. The vote seeks to reunite the divided oil-rich North African nation after a decade of turmoil.

The dispute, voiced by the United States and Russia, led the council to adopt an extension of the current mandate, which was due to expire on Wednesday, until Sept. 30 to try to resolve the differences.

At issue is a dispute over recommendations in a strategic review of the mission, known as UNSMIL, including to have its chief relocate from Geneva to Libyas capital, Tripoli.

Diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity because discussions have been private, said that Russia was also concerned about proposed language calling for the withdrawal of mercenaries, foreign fighters and foreign forces as demanded in the October 2020 cease-fire agreement between rival Libyan governments in the countrys east and west.

Libya has been wracked by chaos since a NATO-backed uprising toppled longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011 and split the country between a U.N.-supported government in the capital, Tripoli, and rival authorities loyal to commander Khalifa Hifter in the east. Each have been backed by different armed groups and foreign governments.

Hifter launched a military offensive in 2019 to capture the capital, a campaign backed by Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Russia and France. But his march on Tripoli ultimately failed in June 2020, after Turkey sent troops to support the Libyan government, which also had the backing of Qatar and Italy. This paved the way for the October cease-fire agreement and a transitional government charged with leading the country to elections on Dec. 24.

Last week, the U.N. special representative for Libya, Jan Kubis, warned that failure to hold the December vote could renew division and conflict and thwart efforts to unite the country. Aborting the drive for elections will for many be a signal that violence is the only path to power in the country, he said.

The country and its people need a full clarity that the elections are going to happen on Dec. 24, Kubis said. The existing uncertainty creates a fertile ground for spoilers and skeptics to manipulate the situation against the political transition, feeding in the existing tensions in relations between diverse Libyan institutions and authorities.

Russias U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told the council after the vote that Moscow supports the U.N.s central role in restoring peace to Libya and we are focused on finding mutually acceptable solutions to the remaining outstanding questions for the future functioning of the mission.

He said the resolution gives the 15-member council the opportunity to find a common denominator over the work of the U.N.'s mission in Libya, saying its main aim now must be to help the Libyan people" stick to the timetable for the elections.

Richard Mills, the U.S. deputy ambassador, expressed disappointment at the councils inability to agree on a new mandate for the mission, which he said has a vitally important role in helping Libya achieve peace and stability."
Construction worker in Patong killed, drowned after pinned under fallen storm drain section

PHUKET: A 40-year-old construction worker was killed after a concrete storm drain section fell and trapped him under water at the site of a flood protection project on Phra Metta Rd near Patong Hospital yesterday (Sept 14).

patongaccidentsdeathconstructionweather

By Eakkapop Thongtub

Wednesday 15 September 2021, 11:41AM

The section of Phra Metta Rd has been closed to traffic. Photo: Patong Police

The section of Phra Metta Rd has been closed to traffic. Photo: Patong Police

The section of Phra Metta Rd has been closed to traffic. Photo: Patong Police

The section of Phra Metta Rd has been closed to traffic. Photo: Patong Police

An ambulance waits to take Mr Mahanas body to Patong Hospital. Photo: PR Phuket

Phuket Vice Governor Vikrom Jakthee was soon at the scene. Photo: PR Phuket

A woman looks on as the rescue effort continues. Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub

Mr Mahana was trapped under one of the sections of storm drain that fell. Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub

Mr Mahana was trapped under one of the sections of storm drain that fell. Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub

The crane as it lifts one of the sections of storm drain. Photo: PR Phuket

Mr Mahana was trapped under one of the sections of storm drain that fell. Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub

Mr Mahana was trapped under one of the sections of storm drain that fell. Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub

Rescue workers from Kusoldharm Patong station and Patong Police were called to the scene at about 3pm.

Also soon to arrive at the scene were Phuket Vice Governor Vikrom Jakthee, Patong Mayor Chalermsak Maneesri, Patong Police Chief Col Sujin Nilabodi and officers from the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM).

The man, so far named by officials as Mr Mahana, age given as 35-40 years old, was working in the excavated area below storm drain when two sections fell, officials reported.

No explanation was given as to why Mr Mahana was working in the danger area or what support was in place to prevent the sections of storm drain from falling.

Mr Mahana was trapped under one of the sections, He was pinned under water that was some 1.2 metres deep.

Fellow workers rushed to help him, but were unable to lift the storm drain section enough to free him.

It took about an hour for a crane to be safely positioned in order to lift the fallen storm drain section and recover Mr Mahanas body, officials reported.

Mr Mahana was working on a project under the control of the Public Works and Town Planning and Country Planning Department (DPT). The project is to install large storm drains to prevent flooding in the central area of Patong. The project contract is for 120 days, from July 25 to Nov 21.

The traffic division of Patong Police have closed the section of Phra Metta Rd where the accident happened for fear that more ground may give way at the site.

Drivers can make a U-turn in front of Patong Hospital and the Porn Karnfaifa shop.

Patong Municipality and Patong Police had placed barriers and signs at the site to warn motorists that the section of road is closed.

Rat-U-Thit 200 Pi Rd has now been designated a two-way road from the Sai Namyen Intersection to the Jungceylon shopping mall.
Government plan to entice rich expats

BANGKOK: The cabinet has greenlighted an economic stimulus and investment promotion package aimed at attracting wealthy foreigners and highly skilled professionals from overseas to help revive the economy post-COVID-19.

CoronavirusCOVID-19tourism

By Bangkok Post

Wednesday 15 September 2021, 09:45AM

Photo: Somchai Poomlard

Benefits in the package include a 10-year Thai visa for not only approved special visitors but also their spouses and children, said government spokesman Thanakorn Wangboonkongchana yesterday (Sept 14), reports the Bangkok Post.

The package also includes automatic work permits, the same rates of income tax as Thai citizens, tax exemption for income earned abroad, and ownership of properties and land, he said.

Mr Thanakorn said that the right to choose to pay a fixed rate of income tax at 17% within the package is being offered but only to foreign experts contributing to the development of the governments flagship Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) scheme.

The government expects to attract more than a million qualified people to Thailand in the next five years, beginning next year, he said.

The government also expects these foreigners to spend on average a million baht per person per year while staying and working in Thailand, or about a trillion baht in the next five years in total, Mr Thanakorn said.

About B800bn is also expected from the money invested by about 90,000 foreigners as required in the application forms for these long-term visas, he said.

Another B270bn is also expected to be derived from taxes paid by these foreigners: B180bn from income tax, B70bn from value-added tax and B22bn from taxes related to their investments, he said.

The government has four targeted groups for this long-term visa scheme with the first group being wealthy global citizens who travel frequently and have assets in several countries, he said.

To obtain a long-term Thai visa, this group would be required to invest at least US$500,000 (B16.5mn) in Thai government bonds in the form of foreign direct investment (FDI) or in real estate, he said.

The minimum income required for this group is US$80,000 per year for the past two years, while the required minimum value of assets owned is US$1mn and the minimum health insurance coverage required is US$100,000, he said.

The second target group are wealthy pensioners who are at least 50 years of age with sufficient pensions to cover their costs of living in Thailand, he said.

The people in this group are required to invest at least US$250,000 in Thai government bonds in the FDI format or in real estate, he said, adding that the minimum income required for the group is US$40,000 per person per year.

The minimum health insurance package required for this group is also US$100,000 coverage per person, he said.

The third group are the so-called work-from-Thailand professionals who are interested in living in Thailand while working remotely for their employers in other countries, he said.

The people in this third group are expected to be digital nomads and employees of large organisations who are close to retirement, he said.

The fourth and last group of foreigners expected to be interested in this long-term visa programme are highly skilled professionals who may want to come to Thailand to either work as experts in the governments target industries, Mr Thanakorn said.

Highly skilled professionals who would work as university lecturers teaching subjects related to industries of importance are also within this group, he said.

They are required to have at least five years of work experience, earn at least US$40,000 per year and hold a health insurance policy with a coverage value of US$100,000, he said.

The Board of Investment of Thailand has been assigned to set up a new centre to specifically serve this long-term visa programme, Mr Thanakorn added.
Governor unveils new COVID plan, assures no hospital bed shortage

PHUKET: Phuket Governor Narong Woonciew has announced a new plan that hopes to curtail the spread of new COVID infections across the island within the next two weeks. He also claims that Phuket is not experiencing any shortage of hospital beds, but at the same time has launched a new service to determine whether people in the community who test positive for the virus actually need to occupy a hospital bed.

Wednesday 15 September 2021, 03:52PM

Phuket Governor Narong Woonciew announcing the new plan last night (Sept 14). Photo: PR Phuket

Governor Narong unveiled the plan last night (Sept 14) following a meeting with Pitakpol Boonyamalik, Inspector General of the Ministry of Public Health District 11 office, responsible for the seven Upper Southern Thailand provinces, including Phuket.

Joining the meeting were Phuket Provincial Public Health Office (PPHO) Chief Kusak Kukiattikoon and Vachira Phuket Hospital Director Chalermpong Sukontapol.

Now is a crucial time for Phuket to contain the epidemic, but from the implementation of various measures, both medical and health measures and social measures, the number of [new] infected people is expected to decline accordingly, Governor Narong said.

We have expanded the establishment of Community Isolation centres in various subdistricts in all three districts [Kathu, Thalang and Muang Districts] to support green patients, of which there are not less than 1,000 people [sic], and [we have] added beds at field hospitals and made more beds available in hospitals for yellow and red patients, Governor Narong said.

Now the concerns about insufficient patient beds are gone, he said.

The assurance comes as the PPHOs COVID-19 daily situation report for the island as of yesterday reported that of the 2,542 beds available for COVID patients across Phuket, 2,285 were already occupied by COVID patients  leaving only 257, or 10.11%, still available.

Dr Pitakpol Boonyamalik, Inspector General of the Ministry of Public Health, Health District 11, noted that the rate of spread of infections in upper southern area is very fast, more than 1,000 people a day in Southern Thailand.

Phuket has had more than 200 new cases a day for several weeks, Dr Pitakpol admitted.

However, he added, Although there have been many new infected cases, more than 85% have been asymptomatic or green patients.

The patients in the red group with severe symptoms have been very few, and the mortality rate has been very low, because most people in Phuket have received two doses of vaccine and are in the middle of the third booster dose, he said.

Phuket so far has suffered 40 deaths attributed to COVID-19 since Apr 3. Of those, 19 deaths have occurred in the past two weeks.

NEW PLAN

The new plan unveiled to curtail the spread of infections is a three-pronged strategy.

The first goal is to identify people infected with COVID-19 still at large in the community by continuing the proactive screening campaign by testing entire areas with antigen test kits (ATKs), Dr Pitakpol said.

If patients [sic] are found, in case of mild symptoms we will administer medicine immediately, but if the symptoms are severe, they will be taken to hospital, he said.

Health District 11 officers working in Nakhon Sri Thammarat, Surat Thani and Phang Nga will be brought in to help with the mass testing of communities, he added.

Dr Pitakpol made no mention of people identified as infected being required to enter forced quarantine.

However, he explained that the second prong in the fight against the spread of COVID-19 on the island was the opening of the Aunjai Clinic, not on Komararphat Rd in Phuket Town as inspected by Governor Narong on Monday, but at the conference hall at the still-incomplete Phuket Provincial Hall complex on the south side of Phuket Town.

The Aunjai Clinic is to give advice on COVID problems for those who are worried, who need medicine and is the first clinic to accept COVID patients to alleviate the concerns of the people of Phuket, especially those who tested themselves by ATK and tested positive, to come for a repeat examination before entering the next treatment process [sic], Dr Phithakphon said.

The third prong was to control the spread of large clusters of infections, Dr Pitakpol said,

The Department of Disease Control has sent a team to take action in this matter and to prevent the spread of outbreaks in new clusters, which is a large group and includes factories, fresh markets, dense communities etc, by using Bubble and Seal [lockdown isolation] to prevent the spread of infections from repeating again, he noted.

AUNJAI CLINIC

Following Dr Pitakpols announcement that the Aunjai Clinic  with aunjai in Thai meaning peace of mind  will open at the still-incomplete Phuket Provincial Hall complex on Tha Kraeng Rd, Phuket officials last night published a notice announcing that the clinic will open at the newly chosen site today (Sept 15).

The announcement came just 24 hours after Phuket officials reported Governor Narong inspecting a building on Komaraphat Rd near Vachira Phuket Hospital that was touted as to serve as the Aunjai Clinic venue.

The latest announcement last night made no mention of whether or not the site on Komaraphat Rd will serve as another Aunjai Clinic or not.

The aim of the Aunjai Clinic is to provide advice on COVID-19 problems and refer patients to reduce stress and build confidence among patients, the announcement read.

In the announcement, Governor Natong Woonciew noted that the clinic provides a convenient place for patients infected with COVID-19 who do not know who to turn to consult if they find themselves infected.

Aunjai Clinic will be another place which the province [provincial government] has set up to be the first centre to take care of people who are sick with COVID, especially those who buy equipment to detect infection by themselves, Governor Narong said.

These people, when tested and found themselves infected, do not know what to do The clinic will have staff to give advice, check symptoms, and even check x-rays of the lungs and administer medication for those with light symptoms, he continued.

[Staff at the clinic] will consider the treatment and referral as to where the patient should be sent for treatment, at a hospital, field hospital, Community Isolation centre or return to recover at home, Governor Narong added.

For more information about the Aunjai Clinic, people were advised to call the clinic on Tel: 076-254188 through 076-254207 (20 lines). The lines are open 24 hours a day.

It was not explained why such a clinic would be needed unless people in the community who knew they had tested positive for COVID-19 were not presenting themselves to local health officials.

Phuket officials have yet to publicly recognise that people who had tested positive for COVID-19 may not be reporting themselves to avoid being ordered to enter forced quarantine at a Community Isolation centre or other COVID detainment facility.

Of note, the most recent announcements above coinciding with the opening of the Aunjai Clinic are now opening the door for local health officials to allow people suffering light symptoms or no symptoms of infection at all to self-quarantine at home  a policy announced by PPHO Chief Kusak last week.
Phuket study confirms subdermal injections using less vaccine more effective as boost jabs

PHUKET: Phuket health officials will use only 20% of the standard vaccine dose of AstraZeneca for the third-dose booster shots and will administer the vaccine doses as subdermal injections, not intramuscular injections, to boost the recipients immunity.

COVID-19VaccineCoronavirushealth

By Eakkapop Thongtub

Wednesday 15 September 2021, 06:51PM

The announcement was made at Vachira Phuket Hospital this afternoon (Sept 15). Photo: PR Phuket

The move follows a study conducted by medical officers at Vachira Phuket Hospital, hospital director Dr Chalermpong Sukontapol explained at a press conference at the hospital this afternoon (Sept 15).

Joining the conference were the hospitals Epidemiologist, Dr Withita Jaeng-iam, along with DEPA Phuket office Manager Pracha Asawathira and Phuket Tourist Association President Bhummikitti Ruktaengam.

The team led by Dr Withita and Dr Suphalak Laongpetch initiated this research to find an alternative way to provide the third dose of vaccine in Phuket, and Thailand, Dr Chalermpong said.

Dr Withita explained, In this research, we had 242 participants who were 18-60 years old and we divided them into two groups. For the first group, of 120 participants, we injected 0.5ml of vaccine into their muscle [Intramuscular], which is normal for COVID-19 vaccine injection.

For another 122 participants, we injected 0.1ml of vaccine under their skin [subcutaneous], she said.

The study found that participants who received the subcutaneous injection with 0.1ml of vaccine developed a slightly higher rate of immunity than the other group of participants, Dr Withita explained.

Participants who received subcutaneous injections had approximately 17,662.3 AU/ml, while participants who received intramuscular injections had 17,214.1 AU/ml. Both groups had a higher rate of immunity than the minimum threshold or 840 AU/ml.

Additionally, participants who received subcutaneous injections had less side effects than the other group. Seventy of them had a fever or headache, while the number went up to 98 in the other group, she said.

The subcutaneous injection causes more irritation and redness at the injected area, it is not worrying, she added.

We will start providing the third dose of vaccine by subcutaneous injection to 200,000 people who received two doses of Sinovac, Dr Withita said.

To return to normal life, the third dose of vaccine is very necessary, and in the situation that we have limited doses of vaccine, the subcutaneous injection using less amount of vaccine helps us achieve that goal faster, she said.

This may be an important method to solve shortages of vaccine doses in many countries while the Delta variant is spreading, Dr Withita concluded.
Rawai sea gypsy village lockdown order finally issued

PHUKET: The Phuket Governor has issued an order mandating that the sea gyspy village in Rawai be placed under lockdown, effective today (Sept 15) through Sept 28.

COVID-19Coronavirushealth

By The Phuket News

Wednesday 15 September 2021, 10:14AM

The area has been sealed off. Image: PR Phuket

The notice to lock down the Rawai sea gypsy village was posted late yesterday. Image: PR Phuket

The notice to lock down the Rawai sea gypsy village was posted late yesterday. Image: PR Phuket

Governor Narong Woonciew issued the order, titled Phuket Province Order No. 5444/2564, yesterday (Sept 14).

The order was posted publicly by provincial officials yesterday afternoon. Rawai Municipality itself posted the order publicly at 4:08pm.

Of note, throughout the order the sea gypsies are referred to as New Thais.

Under the order no people are to enter or leave the area except vehicles for transporting goods, consumables, cooking gas, fuel, medical equipment, rescue vehicles, ambulances, medical emergency vehicles, vehicles used for government missions and vehicles carrying parcels and printed materials.

Checkpoints have been set up at the entrance of the community near Rawai Pier and at Soi Mukdee, which enters the village from Soi Laem Ka Yai.

Permission to enter or leave the village wil be at the discretion of the communicable disease control officers at the checkpoints.

Rawai Municipality together with the Phuket Provincial Public Health Office and Muang Phuket District Office are to organise personnel to conduct testing for COVID-19 according to proactive screening measures using ATK (antigen test kits) or RT-PCR tests, the order noted.

Rawai Municipality is to provide all the equipment and materials necessary for screening and cleaning checkpoints, and for spraying disinfectant for COVID-19 in public places and roads, and to provide care and assistance including food, drinking water and other things necessary for the livelihood of residents in the community, the order added.

The lockdown coming into effect today follows Rawai Mayor Aroon Solos announcing last week that the village will be placed under enforced isolation.

Mayor Aroons announcement came nearly two weeks after mass testing at the village which was immediately followed by mass sanitisation of public areas throughout the community.

Officials have yet to publicly report the number of infections in the sea gypsy community in Rawai necessitating a lockdown.

They have also yet to explain why it has taken weeks to act on any outbreak there.
Ukrainian woman killed as ice delivery pickup wipes out

PHUKET: A Ukrainian woman was killed and three other people were injured after an ice delivery truck spun out of control on Thepkrasattri Rd this morning (Sept 15). The truck, a converted pickup truck with a cold box fitted on the back, crossed the central reservation and ploughed head-on into oncoming traffic on the other side of the road.

accidentsdeathtransportpolice

By Eakkapop Thongtub

Wednesday 15 September 2021, 04:52PM

CCTV footage showed that at slower speeds the ice delivery pickup had ample time to avoid colliding with a white pickup that had just completed a U-turn. Image: CCTV / Eakkapop Thongtub

CCTV footage showed that at slower speeds the ice delivery pickup had ample time to avoid colliding with a white pickup that had just completed a U-turn. Image: CCTV / Eakkapop Thongtub

One of the survivors on the ground at the scene of teh accident this morning (Sept 15). Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub

The scene of the accident this morning (Sept 15). Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub

The ice delivery pickup after it collides head-on with the Isuzu pickup. Image: CCTV / Eakkapop Thongtub

The ice delivery pickup seen as it flies into oncoming traffic. Image: CCTV / Eakkapop Thongtub

The scene of the accident this morning (Sept 15). Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub

The scene of the accident this morning (Sept 15). Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub

Lt Chanita Boonyanuwat of the Thalang Police was called to the scene, on the southbound lanes of Thepkrasattri Rd in front of Wat Tha Ruea, in Srisoonthorn, just before 7:30am.

Police together with Kusoldharm rescue workers arrived to find a calamity of an accident scene.

The ice delivery truck, a Phuket-registered white Toyota Revo pickup truck, with massive damage to its front was tipped over on its side, resting on the boot of a car parked by the side of the road.

Another pickup truck, an Isuzu pickup without special modifications registered in Nakhon Sri Thammarat, was facing backwards into traffic also with heavy damage to its front and damage to its rear.

The Ukrainian woman, identified by her Thai drivers licence as a 30-year-old resident of Chalong, was dead by the side of the road. Her crumpled Phuket-registered Honda Click motorbike was lying nearby.

The ice truck driver, Theerawat Saehor, 30, and his passenger Arun Klinsom, 20, had suffered minor injuries to their legs.

The driver of the Isuzu pickup truck, Kitsadee Chueibuakaew, 27, was suffering chest pains from the head-on collision.

Rescue workers administered first aid to all three of the injured survivors of the accident, then transported them and the body of the Ukrainian woman to Thalang Hospital.

Theerawat told police that it was raining while he was driving on the northbound lane of the road. He overtook another pickup truck, a manoeuvre that saw him lose control of the ice delivery truck he was driving.

The ice delivery truck went across the central reservation and hit the Isuzu pickup truck and the motorbike the Ukrainian woman was riding.

CCTV footage showed that the ice delivery truck was travelling at speed on the wet road and had swerved to avoid colliding with a white pickup truck that had just made a U-turn.

The CCTV footage showed that at slower speeds the ice delivery truck would have had ample time to avoid any collision with the white pickup that had just completed the U-turn.

The three vehicles were taken to the Thalang Police, Lt Chanita confirmed.

At this stage, police have not decided what charges the driver [Theerawat] will face, as we have to wait for him and his passenger, and the driver of the other pickup truck driver, to be discharged from hospital first so we can question them, she said.

I have already asked the medical staff to conduct an alcohol test of the driver, she added.
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QCGN to Fitzgibbon: Bill 96 will have detrimental effect on business

Joel Goldenberg / By Joel Goldenberg The Suburban QCGN president Marlene Jennings

Quebecs proposed expanded language law, Bill 96, will have a detrimental effect on businesses in the province, QCGN president Marlene Jennings wrote in an open letter to reinstated Economy and Innovation Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon.

Throughout your tenure as a member of the National Assembly and as a minister, you have demonstrated your commitment to promoting innovation and to creating a positive business climate, Jennings wrote. It is in this context that we are writing to share our concerns about the negative impact Bill 96 An Act respecting French, the official and common language of Quebec will have on doing business in Quebec and ask you to speak up on behalf of all Quebecers.

An analysis enclosed in the letter from Jennings argues that, as Bill 96 places new restrictions on the use of languages other than French and [adds] compliance requirements for businesses, potential problems include:

 Significantly increasing the amount of red-tape and administrative costs faced by small and medium sized businesses already suffering from the economic effects of the pandemic.

 Restricting the ability of employers to require knowledge of a language other than French for hiring and promotion, which could have a detrimental impact on their capacity to compete in markets outside Quebec.

 Making it harder for businesses to make and enforce contracts due to the need to provide court documents in French, which will lead to delays in accessing justice and discourage businesses from investing in Quebec.

 Severely impacting the ability of Quebec to attract, recruit and retain world-class talent because of limitations on access to English schools and to government services in English.

 An increased risk for Quebec enterprises in the face of strengthened and unsupervised search powers provided to the Office Quebecois de la Langue Francaise, and the new and strengthened penalties associated with non-compliance with the Charter of the French Language.

The QCGNs letter also points to Bill 96s pre-emptive use of Section 33 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and the elevation of the Charter of the French Language above the provisions of the Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms.

In effect, businesses  like all legal persons  will have no judicial recourse to challenge the application of the Charter of the French Language as amended by Bill 96)  in cases where they feel their rights have been violated.
NEW YORK (AP)  For Tennessee Williams, Rome was a longtime love affair, the capitol of my heart with its skies of stainless blue and cathedral domes bathed in golden light.

At times, he worried about how Romans felt in return.

Honored worldwide as a playwright, Williams also wrote dozens of short stories. A rarely seen piece, The Summer Woman, set in Italy, appears this week in the fall issue of the literary quarterly The Strand Magazine.

The Summer Woman was written in the early 1950s and tells of an American academic, the remarkably young head of the English department at an important Southern university, who frequently visits Rome and hopes to reunite with an Italian lover whom he had met on the street and had financially supported in hopes of keeping her off the street.

"There in Europe, mostly in Italy, he had his other life, the existence that his heart longed for: Bohemian, sensual, not at all academic, not in the least reserved," Williams writes. He had not found this other life through any powerful and vast genius for it. It had been handed to him by someone else, a Roman girl named Rosa. She had taken him by his cold, nervous fingers and led him into that country and made him quickly at home there.

A native of Mississippi who set A Streetcar Named Desire and other plays in the American South, Williams identified strongly with Italy, seeing it as an escape from the condemnation  and his own unshakeable sense of guilt  he confronted in the U.S. as a gay man. He lived in Italy off and on for several years after World War II and often wrote about the passions and clashes between Americans and Italians, whether in the play The Rose Tattoo," the novel The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone or the short story Man Bring This Up Road.

Robert Bray, founding director of the Tennessee Williams Annual Review, noted that Williams' attachment to Rome became highly personal: His partner Frank Merlo was of Sicilian descent, and he formed a close friendship with Italian actress Anna Magnini, who starred in the film version of The Rose Tattoo. Bray said Williams was enamored of the sexuality exuded by young Italian men and the easier relationship between men than back at home in the more constrained U.S.

But The Summer Woman is a snapshot of a country still recovering from the war and no longer welcoming to Americans. The protagonist remembers once hearing friendly shouts of Hi, Joe, but this time is greeted with calls of coco, a slur referring to a biological weapon  coccobacillus  that Americans were rumored to have used in the war against North Korea. He wonders what happened to the people who seemed sweeter than in other countries.

This is a dimension of Williams that I think most readers havent had much knowledge about, says Strand managing editor Andrew Gulli. We think of Tennessee Williams as the chronicler of faded grandeur, angst, and weakness, but his travels and interactions show what a versatile observer he was of how American foreign policy was viewed around the world.

On a draft manuscript for The Summer Woman, Williams had another working title: The Marshall Plan," referring to the massive aid program which the U.S. set up for European countries. In a 1948 letter to New York Times theater critic Brooks Atkinson, Williams worried about the dire living conditions of the Italians and expressed concerns that could have easily applied to contemporary Afghanistan.

It honestly looks as if seventy percent of the Italian population are mendicants and prostitutes, families are living in the roofless shells of buildings in the bombed cities such as Naples, he wrote to Atkinson.

I feel that if we had made real sacrificial efforts to relieve the distress of Europe the Communists would have no appeal. As it is, the people in their real dire circumstances, bewildered by the vacillating and make-shift puppet governments headed by weak and blandly opportunistic figures, rooted in no defined party or policy or philosophy, are a natural and easy prey to extremists.

____

https://strandmag.com
EDWARDSVILLE  An Alton man has been charged with battery after a Madison County deputy was stuck by a needle while searching the suspect.

Tanner S. Unterbrink, 26, of Alton, was charged Monday with aggravated battery, a Class 2 felony, and reckless conduct, a Class A misdemeanor.

The case was presented by the Madison County Sheriffs Department.

According to court documents, on Sept. 11 a sheriffs deputy was searching Unterbrink when the deputy pierced his finger with the needle. The charges stem from Unterbrinks knowingly exposing the deputy to the danger posed by the needle.

Bail was set at $50,000.

Other battery, assault or weapons-related charges filed Sept. 13 by the Madison County States Attorneys Office include:

 Joshua E. Conklin, 21, listed as homeless out of Granite City, was charged with aggravated battery, a Class 2 felony. The case was presented by the Granite City Police Department. On Sept. 12 Conklin allegedly injured a Granite City police officer during a struggle. Bail was set at $50,000.

 Benjamin L. Meyer, 32, of Staunton, was charged with aggravated domestic battery, a Class 2 felony. The case was presented by the Madison County Sheriffs Department. On Sept. 11 Meyer allegedly strangled a household or family member. Bail was set at $15,000.

 Robert C. Nemeth III, 36, of Granite City, was charged with aggravated battery, a Class 3 felony. The case was presented by the Madison County Sheriffs Department. On Sept. 12 Nemeth allegedly pushed a senior citizen to the floor. No bail was noted.

 Larry M. Jordan, 42, of Granite City, was charged with aggravated assault, a Class 4 felony. The case was presented by the Granite City Police Department. On Sept. 10 Jordan allegedly drove a vehicle at anther person, forcing the victim to jump out of the way. Bail was set at $30,000.

 Jerome Dinwiddie, 67, of Granite City, was charged with unlawful possession of weapons by a felon, a Class 2 felony. The case was presented by the Granite City Police Department. On Sept. 12 Dinwiddie allegedly was found to be in possession of a Charter Arms .38 special snub-nose revolver. It was noted he has a prior conviction for burglary out of St. Louis County. Bail was set at $40,000.

 Jamal R. Foster, 49, of St. Louis, was charged with unlawful possession of weapons by a felon, a Class 3 felony. The case was presented by the Edwardsville Police Department. On Sept. 10 Foster allegedly was found to be in possession of a Colt Commander .45 semi-automatic handgun. It was noted he has a prior conviction for theft out of St. Louis in 2012. Bail was set at $15,000.

 Victoria G. Payton, 28, of Collinsville, was charged with aggravated unlawful use of weapons, a Class 4 felony. The case was presented by the Collinsville Police Department. On Sept. 10 Payton allegedly was found to be in possession of a handgun without a valid Firearm Owners Identification Card or concealed carry permit. Bail was set at $25,000.

 Jamone T. Bester, 31, of Collinsville, was charged with aggravated unlawful use of weapons, a Class 4 felony. The case was presented by the Collinsville Police Department. On Sept. 10 Bester allegedly was found to be in possession of a Smith & Wesson MMP 9 mm handgun in a vehicle without a Firearm Owners Identification Card or concealed carry permit. Bail was set at $50,000.

 Jhaelon J. Hardin, 19, of Swansea, was charged with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, a Class 4 felony. The case was presented by the Granite City Police Department. On Sept. 11 Hardin was found to be carrying in a motor vehicle a .40 caliber Glock handgun without a valid Firearm Owners Identification Card or concealed carry permit. Bail was set at $40,000.
WASHINGTON (AP)  Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday sought to parry bipartisan congressional criticism of the Biden administrations Afghanistan withdrawal, as new intelligence estimates warned that al-Qaida could soon again use Afghan soil to plot attacks on the United States.

Blinken had mixed results in attempting to face down a second day of tough congressional questioning, this time from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. As a day earlier before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, he was assailed by Democratic and Republican lawmakers alike over the administrations preparation for and handling of the pullout.

Even lawmakers sympathetic to President Joe Bidens decision to end Americas longest-running war by withdrawing from Afghanistan after 20 years expressed disappointment and concern about the large number of Americans, green card holders and at-risk Afghans left behind in the chaotic and hasty evacuation from Kabul.

And, as Blinken testified just three days after the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that led to the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, intelligence officials presented a bleak assessment that al-Qaida could begin to use Afghan territory to threaten America within one to two years.

The execution of the U.S. withdrawal was clearly and fatally flawed, said committee chairman Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., who has been generally supportive of Bidens foreign policy but has taken issue with several of its aspects, including Afghanistan.

This committee expects to receive a full explanation of this administrations decisions on Afghanistan since coming into office last January, he said. There has to be accountability.

The withdrawal was a dismal failure, said Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho, the top Republican on the committee. He and virtually all of his Republican colleagues accused the administration of ineptitude that has cost the United States international credibility, led to a deadly attack on U.S. troops and Afghan civilians at the Kabul airport and left many in the lurch.

Theres not enough lipstick in the world to put on this pig to make it look any different than what it actually is, Risch said.

Much as he did on Monday at the often contentious hearing in the House, Blinken tried to deflect the criticism and maintained the administration had done the best it could under extremely trying and chaotic circumstances.

Blinken again blamed the Trump administration for its February 2020 peace deal with the Taliban that he said had tied Bidens hands, as well as the quick and unexpected collapse of the Afghan government and security forces that led to the Taliban takeover on Aug. 15.

Even the most pessimistic assessments did not predict that government forces in Kabul would collapse while U.S. forces remained, he said. They were focused on what would happen after the United States withdrew, from September onward.

Blinken said the administration would hold the Taliban, which hosted and protected Osama bin Laden and top members of his al-Qaida network as they plotted the 9/11 strikes, to their promises not to allow Afghanistan to be used again as a base for terrorist attacks.

But as he spoke, U.S. intelligence officials said al-Qaida may be only 12 to 24 months from reconstituting itself in Afghanistan to pose a significant threat to the United States.

Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier, who leads the Defense Intelligence Agency, gave that estimate while speaking at the Intelligence & National Security Summit. Meanwhile, David Cohen, deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency, said the U.S. already had detected some of the indications of some potential movement of al-Qaida to Afghanistan.

Experts have long said the Taliban still maintains ties to al-Qaida, which took sanctuary in Afghanistan prior to 9/11. Although Blinken was not asked directly about the intelligence assessments, he said the Taliban had not fully severed its links with the group.

Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, a vehement opponent of numerous Biden policies, called the withdrawal the worst foreign policy catastrophe in a generation and accused the administration of being naive in hoping the Taliban live up to their promises of moderation. They dont want to be welcomed into the community of civilized nations, he said.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., demanded to know how intelligence about the collapse of the Afghan government had been so wrong. He suggested not only that the wrong people were in charge of assessing the situation but that the policy had been incoherent and left the U.S. vulnerable to rivals.

This was a failure of policy and planning," said Rubio, another frequent critic of Biden's. I think China and Russia and Iran, they look at this botched withdrawal and what they see as incompetence that they think they might be able to exploit.

The State Department has come under heavy criticism from both sides for not doing enough and not acting quickly enough to get people out of the country after the Taliban took control of Kabul, cementing its hold on the country before the completion of the U.S. withdrawal on Aug. 30.

Blinken defended the withdrawal and the end of America's longest-running war as the right thing to do" after 20 years. And, he noted that despite severe difficulties the U.S. and its allies had managed to evacuate some 124,000 people.

The evacuation was an extraordinary effort  under the most difficult conditions imaginable  by our diplomats, military, and intelligence professionals, he said.

Even some Democrats, though, were unswayed.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the only woman on the committee, who has long fought for the U.S. to protect the advances made by Afghan women and girls, lamented the current situation and said presidents and lawmakers of both parties shared the blame for the situation.

Lets stop with the hypocrisy of whos to blame, there are a lot of people to blame and we all share in it," she said, her voice rising as she took a pointed dig at former President Donald Trump and his second Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who negotiated the 2020 peace deal with the Taliban separate from the Afghan government with no assurance that minority rights would be respected.

I want to know where the outrage was when they were giving away the rights of women and girls, Shaheen said.

In response, Blinken said he would soon be appointing a senior official to oversee U.S. policy toward Afghan women and girls.

___

Associated Press writer Nomaan Merchant contributed to this report.
NECOCLI, Colombia (AP)  Every day, at least 500 migrants from around the world sail out of Necocli, a small town on Colombias Caribbean coast, across the Gulf of Uraba to the village of Acandi, to start a week-long trek through the jungle that takes them into Panama  the next stop on the long road to the United States.

About one quarter of them are children, according to Panamanian officials, and often still in arms.

While trekking through the lawless jungle known as the Darien Gap, migrants face the risks of being swept away by rivers, assaulted by armed groups or getting lost in the rainforest. Yet thousands of families are making the journey, hoping for a new life.

We we want God to help us prosper said Jackie Charles, a Haitian who was boarding a boat in Necocli. Our country is in crisis and we need to support our family.

The Darien Gap has long been used by migrants from Cuba and Haiti, who find it almost impossible to fly to Mexico or the U.S. due to visa restrictions. Migrants from African and Asian countries, facing similar problems, have also made the trek after first reaching South America.

Most of those passing through the Darien now are Haitians who had been living in Brazil and Chile and left when the pandemic left them with little or no work.

Necocli has became a major bottleneck on the route north. Boat companies struggle to keep up with demand even as governments have limited the numbers. The Pan-American Highway ends here, only to resurface in Yaviza, on the Panamanian side of the Darien.

Colombias Institute for Family Welfare has set up a tent in Necocli to help families arriving with children. Kids are weighed and measured to check for malnutrition. Diapers and baby formula are provided. But in the jungle none of that help is available.

According to Panamas National Immigration Service, 45,000 migrants crossed the Darien Gap in the first seven months of this year and registered with authorities, including 12,000 children.

Doctors Without Borders, which runs a small clinic in the Panamanian village of Bajo Chiquito, says that children who make it through the jungle often suffer from diarrhea and respiratory infections.

Ronald, a Haitian migrant in Necocli, said that his wife, who is six months pregnant and had been to the town's hospital for help with back pains. We realize it's dangerous Ronald said blending Spanish and Portuguese, which he had learned in Brazil. But we are going because we want a better life.

He refused to provide his last name because he feared deportation from Colombia, which he entered illegally at the Ecuador border.

Jorge Tobon, Necoclis mayor, said that respiratory and gastrointestinal problems are the most common reasons that pregnant migrants seek help at the local hospital.

In August, Panama and Colombia agreed to limit the number of migrants crossing through the Darien. Only 500 migrants are allowed to leave Necocli each day on the boats. But many more are arriving each day in the small town, where approximately 14,000 migrants are currently stranded, according to the municipal government.

Tickets on boats leaving Necocli are sold out through the last week of September. ;Migrants wander around the port daily, hoping they can get a ticket, or a spot on a boat that is reserved for tourists, who also travel to beach hotels in Acandi and the nearby village of Capurgana.

We came from Chile. We have been waiting here for two months and still havent been able to get a ticket said Mali, a Haitian who was at the port. Mali, who also refused to provide her last name, said her family had budgeted $1,600 for the journey to the United States, but had already spent more than $2,000 due to the costs of being stranded in Necocli.

Relatives in the United States could send her money, but because she is undocumented in Colombia, there are few ways to withdraw cash from banks or money transfer companies.

Because we dont have any papers, we need Colombian residents to do that for us Mali explained. And they ask for commissions that range from 20 to 50%.
LONDON (AP)  Chinas ambassador to Britain has been barred from Parliament and told he could not enter the building for a talk he was scheduled to give on Wednesday.

Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle said Tuesday it was not appropriate for the Chinese ambassador, Zheng Zeguang, to enter Parliament because China imposed sanctions against seven British parliamentarians over their criticism of Beijings human rights record.

Zheng was due to attend a reception in the House of Commons organized by a cross-party parliamentary group on China.

John McFall, Hoyles counterpart in the upper chamber, the House of Lords, agreed that the scheduled meeting should take place elsewhere, considering the current sanctions against members.

China imposed sanctions on seven British politicians in March, including senior Conservative lawmakers Iain Duncan Smith and Tom Tugendhat, who have spoken out against Chinas treatment of its Uyghur minority in the far-west Xinjiang region.

The move came shortly after Britain, the U.S., Canada and the European Union sanctioned Chinese officials over Xinjiang.

The sanctioned parliamentarians welcomed the ban, saying allowing Zheng in the Parliament building would have been an insult.

The Chinese Embassy in the U.K. condemned the move and said it will harm the interests of both countries.

The despicable and cowardly action of certain individuals of the U.K. Parliament to obstruct normal exchanges and co-operation between China and the U.K. for personal political gains is against the wishes and harmful to the interests of the peoples of both countries," the embassy said in a statement.
In the ghastly rubble of Ground Zero's fallen towers 20 years ago, Hour Zero arrived, a chance to start anew.

World affairs reordered abruptly on that morning of blue skies, black ash, fire and death.

In Iran, chants of death to America quickly gave way to candlelight vigils to mourn the American dead. Vladimir Putin weighed in with substantive help as the U.S. prepared to go to war in Russia's region of influence.

Libyas Moammar Gadhafi, a murderous dictator with a poetic streak, spoke of the human duty" to be with Americans after "these horrifying and awesome events, which are bound to awaken human conscience.

From the first terrible moments, America's longstanding allies were joined by longtime enemies in that singularly galvanizing instant. No nation with global standing was cheering the stateless terrorists. How rare is that?

Too rare to last, it turned out.

Civilizations have their allegories for rebirth in times of devastation. A global favorite is that of the phoenix, a magical and magnificent bird, rising from ashes. In the hellscape of Germany at the end of World War II, the concept of Hour Zero, or Stunde Null, offered the opportunity to start anew.

For the U.S., the zero hour of Sept. 11, 2001, meant a chance to reshape its place in the post-Cold War world from a high perch of influence and goodwill. This was only a decade after the Soviet Union's collapse left America with both the moral authority and the military and financial muscle to be unquestionably the lone superpower.

Those advantages were soon squandered. Instead of a new order, 9/11 fueled 20 years of war abroad. In the U.S., it gave rise to the angry, aggrieved, self-proclaimed patriot, and heightened surveillance and suspicion in the name of common defense.

It opened an era of deference to the armed forces as lawmakers pulled back on oversight as presidents gave primacy to the military over law enforcement in counterterrorism. It sparked anti-immigrant sentiment, primarily directed at Muslim countries, that lingers today.

What most nations agreed was a war of necessity in Afghanistan was followed two years later by a war of choice as the U.S. invaded Iraq on false claims that Saddam Hussein was hiding weapons of mass destruction.

Thus opened the deep, deadly mineshaft of forever wars." Convulsions ran through the Middle East and U.S. foreign policy  long a force for ballast  gave way to a head-snapping change from Bush to Obama to Trump. Trust in America's leadership and reliability waned.

Other parts of the world were not immune. Far-right populist movements coursed through Europe. Britain voted to break away from the European Union. China steadily ascended in the global pecking order.

Now, President Joe Biden is trying to restore trust, but there is no easy path. He is ending war, but what comes next?

In Afghanistan in August, the Taliban seized control with menacing swiftness as the Afghan government and security forces that the U.S. and its allies had spent two decades trying to build collapsed. No steady hand was evident from the U.S. in the disorganized evacuation of Afghans desperately trying to flee the country.

In the United States, the 2001 attacks had set loose a bloodlust cry for revenge. A swath of American society embraced the binary outlook articulated by Bush  Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists"  and has never let go of it.

Factionalism hardened, in school board fights, on Facebook posts, and in national politics, so that opposing views were treated as propaganda from mortal enemies. The concept of enemy also evolved, to include immigrants as well as terrorists.

The patriot under threat became a personal and political identity. Trump would harness it to help him win the presidency.

For the U.S., the presidencies since Bushs wars have been marked by an effort to pull back the military from the conflicts of the Middle East and Central Asia.

The perception of a U.S. retreat has allowed Russia and China to gain influence in the regions and left U.S. allies struggling to understand Washingtons place in the world. The notion that 9/11 would create an enduring unity of interest to combat terrorism collided with rising nationalism and a U.S. president, Trump, who spoke disdainfully of the NATO allies that in 2001 had rallied to Americas cause.

To be sure, the succession of U.S. presidents since 9/11 scored important achievements in shoring up security, and so far U.S. territory has remained safe from more international terrorism anywhere on the scale of that Sept. 11.

Globally, U.S.-led forces weakened al-Qaida, which has failed to launch a major attack on the West since 2005. The Iraq invasion rid the world of a murderous dictator in Saddam.

Yet deadly chaos soon followed his overthrow. The Bush administration, in its nation-building haste, had failed to plan for keeping order, leaving Islamist extremists and rival militias to fight for dominance.

Today, the legacies of 9/11 ripple both in obvious and unusual ways.

Most directly, millions of people in the U.S. and Europe go about their public business under the constant gaze of security cameras while other surveillance tools scoop up private communications. The government layered post-9/11 bureaucracies on to law enforcement to support the expansive security apparatus.

Militarization is more evident now, from large cities to small towns that now own military vehicles and weapons that seem well out of proportion to any terrorist threat. Government offices have become fortifications; airports a security maze.

But as profound an event as 9/11 was, its effect on how the world has been ordered was temporary and largely undone by domestic political forces, a global economic downturn and now a lethal pandemic.

The awakening of human conscience predicted by Gadhafi didnt last. Gadhafi didnt last.

Osama bin Laden has been dead for a decade. Saddam was hanged in 2006. The forever wars now are over or ending. The days of Russia tactically enabling the U.S., and China not standing in the way, petered out.

Only the phoenix lasts.

___

Rising reported from Bangkok; Knickmeyer and Woodward from Washington. AP National Security Writer Robert Burns contributed to this report.
EDWARDSVILLE  Theft and retail theft charges were filed in several cases Tuesday by the Madison County States Attorneys Office.

Lloyd A. Kinder, 72, of Golden Eagle, was charged Sept. 14 with theft over $500, a Class 3 felony.

The case was presented by the Wood River Police Department.

According to court documents, on July 30 Kinder allegedly took an iPhone 12 valued at more than $500 from another person. Bail was set at $20,000.

Other felony charges filed Sept. 14 include:

 Rachel L. Reutzel, 49, of Granite City, was charged with theft over $500, a Class 3 felony. The case was presented by the Madison County Sheriffs Department. On Sept. 12 Reutzel allegedly took clothing, a mirror and a remote-control car all valued at more than $500 from another person. Bail was set at $20,000.

 Katherine R. Noel, 39, of Wood River, was charged with retail theft over $300, a Class 3 felony. The case was presented by the Wood River Police Department. On July 28 Noel allegedly took a power washer valued in excess of $300 from the Wood River Walmart, 610 Wesley Drive. Bail was set at $20,000.

 Michael G. Adams, 53, of Troy, was charged with retail theft over $300, a Class 3 felony. The case was presented by the Collinsville Police Department. On Sept. 13 Adams allegedly took rechargeable batteries, a cordless drill, a bike lock, dog bones, male enhancement products and other merchandise valued in excess of $300. Bail was set at $30,000.

 Cody L. Wright, 26, of Wood River, was charged with forgery, a Class 4 felony. The case was presented by the Wood River Police Department. On April 27 Wright allegedly attempted to pass a bad check for $8,000. Bail was set at $10,000.

 Lamar D. Jones, 27, of East St. Louis, was charged with aggravated fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer, a Class 4 felony. The case was presented by the Illinois State Police. On Sept. 10 Jones allegedly was driving a 2012 Chevrolet Cruze when he attempted to flee from an Illinois state trooper, reaching speeds in excess of 21 miles above the posted speed limit. Bail was set at $20,000.
WASHINGTON (AP)  A House committee dealt an ominous if tentative blow Wednesday to President Joe Bidens huge social and environment package, derailing a money-saving plan to let Medicare negotiate the price it pays for prescription drugs.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee vote to drop the proposal from its piece of Biden's signature 10-year, $3.5 trillion spending plan was not necessarily fatal. The separate House Ways and Means Committee kept it alive by approving nearly identical drug-pricing language.

Even so, the provision's rejection by one committee underscores the clout that moderates looking to curb new spending  or any small group of Democrats  have as Biden and party leaders try pushing the entire package through the narrowly divided Congress.

Facing unanimous Republican opposition, Democrats will be able to lose just three House votes and none in the 50-50 Senate to send the overall measure to Biden. That's a precarious margin for what will be an enormous bill laced with numerous politically sensitive initiatives on spending and taxes.

The committees' votes on pharmaceutical drugs came as Biden held face-to-face meetings with two moderate Democratic senators who've said the overall size of the $3.5 trillion proposal is too big. The separate sessions with Sens. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia underscored a stepped-up White House drive to avoid Democratic defections.

The Energy and Commerce vote on the drug-pricing language was 29-29, with three moderate Democrats joining Republicans to oppose it: Reps. Scott Peters of California, Kathleen Rice of New York and Kurt Schrader of Oregon. Tie votes in Congress are usually insufficient to keep legislative provisions alive.

Henry Connelly, a spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said lowering drug costs will remain a cornerstone of the partys push for the overall bill, Bidens top domestic priority.

Democrats are counting on the drug-pricing provisions to pay for a modest but significant part of their $3.5 trillion plan to bolster the safety net, address climate change and fund other programs. Proponents say it could save $600 billion over the coming decade.

The legislation would authorize Medicare to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies, using lower prices paid in other economically advanced countries as a yardstick. The savings produced would be used to expand Medicare coverage by adding dental, vision and hearing benefits.

The Energy and Commerce vote showed real concerns with Speaker Pelosis extreme drug pricing plan, Debra DeShong, top spokesperson for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, said in a statement. The industry says the drug negotiation plan would lead to price controls that reduce investment in research into promising new cures and treatments.

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., a leading champion of the drug-pricing effort, said there was no excuse for Democrats to bow to the extremely greedy and powerful pharmaceutical industry. The American people will not accept surrender, he added.

Biden's talks with Sinema and Manchin came as centrists' unrest over the overall bill's cost has prompted a delicate hunt by party leaders for a topline figure that moderate and progressive lawmakers can endorse.

Today's meeting was productive, and Kyrsten is continuing to work in good faith with her colleagues and President Biden as this legislation develops," said Sinema spokesman John Labombard said. His assessment was a positive sign in a process that has seen the partys progressives and moderates stake out conflicting demands.

Biden and Democratic leaders endorsed the $3.5 trillion figure, but in recent days have been more cautious about its ultimate size. The enormous package faces unanimous opposition from Republicans, who say its proposals are wasteful and would wound the economy.

The measure would push utilities to produce cleaner energy, expand Medicare coverage, create new child care and family leave programs and provide free pre-kindergarten and community college.

There would be a slew of tax breaks to help families cope with the costs of health care and raising children. Much of it would be paid for by boosting taxes on the wealthy and corporations.

By Wednesday evening, all 13 House committees with pieces of the overall social and environment bill had completed their work, meeting a goal set by Democratic leaders.

House Budget Committee Chairman John Yarmuth, D-Ky., said in an interview Tuesday that his panel would be ready next week to combine all 13 sections and send the overall bill to the full House. That might be delayed as lawmakers wait for the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office to produce a cost estimate for the legislation, Yarmuth said.

The Senate has yet to produce its own legislation, but leaders and other senators have been in talks with the House. Differences remain over taxes, health programs and other issues.

Democratic leaders would love to send completed legislation to Biden for his signature in the coming weeks, but many think resolving the policy and political complications the party faces will take much longer. White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Wednesday that they expect Congress to move the legislation before an international climate conference in November.

Manchin has been an especially outspoken critic of the overall bill. Hes called for a pause on the legislation, and said Sunday that he could not support $3.5 trillion, suggesting instead a topline figure in the $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion range.

Progressives, who initially demanded a $6 trillion plan, have said cutting the package to Manchins range would be unacceptable.

The House Ways and Means Committee approved its part of the overall bill 24-19, with moderate Florida Rep. Stephanie Murphy the only Democratic voting no. She cited spending and tax provisions that give me pause" but expressed optimism about supporting a final version.

That panel's revenue package includes $2.1 trillion in higher taxes, mostly on the rich and corporations. It also claims savings from its drug-pricing language, stronger IRS tax enforcement and an assertion that the legislation itself would spark economic growth.

Democrats ridiculed that claim when Republicans used it to claim past GOP tax cuts would be paid for.

Democrats would raise the top income tax rate rise back to 39.6% on individuals earning more than $400,000, or $450,000 for couples. There would be a 3% surtax on wealthier Americans with adjusted gross income beyond $5 million a year.

The proposal would lift the corporate tax rate from 21% to 26.5% on companies annual income over $5 million.

___

Associated Press reporters Zeke Miller, Jonathan Lemire, Lisa Mascaro, Marcy Gordon and Alexandra Jaffe contributed to this report.
LEBANON  McKendree University is launching its Clear Path tuition initiative for Madison County and 33 others in Southern Illinois for students entering the Fall 2022 semester.

Clear Path will ensure residents from those counties will pay no more than $15,000 in tuition and fees to attend McKendree University. The Clear Path initiative grants students the opportunity to receive the personalized experience provided by a private institution at the price of a public school.
On Wednesday, the Illinois Department of Transportation announced multiple projects in the Metro East area are either underway or set to begin soon and extend into 2022. The new projects are part of the bipartisan Rebuilding Illinois program.

The Metro East will have six projects representing a total investment of $89.1 million, aimed at improving safety, mobility and quality of life while sustaining and creating good-paying jobs throughout the region.

"With the Rebuild Illinois capital plan, we are restoring and transforming Illinoiss aging infrastructure," said Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, in a statement. "Rebuild Illinois is not only about investing in infrastructure but about investing in people and communities as well. In the coming months, IDOT will undertake projects that will ultimately create safer roads and bridges and provide jobs in the Metro East and across the entire state."

Three of the six projects are planned to be completed this year and the remainder are set to be completed in 2022.

 Interstate 70 resurfacing and bridge painting from Interstate 55/70 to east of Interstate 55/70/270 as well as I-55/70 from east of Illinois 159 to north of Interstate 270 began in February and is anticipated to be completed later this fall. Single-lane closures are in place on I-55/70, I-55, I-70 and I-270.

 Poplar Street Bridge approach improvements, including pavement patching, concrete overlay, deck repairs and bridge joint replacements, began late fall 2020 and is anticipated to be completed this fall. Closure of the outside lanes of I-55/64, along with closures of the ramps that provide access from Piggott and Tudor avenues to I-55/64, will be necessary for one to six months.

 Illinois 111/3 resurfacing and patching from Alby Street to Broadway in Alton began this summer and is anticipated to be completed next summer. Single-lane closures on Illinois 111/3 will be required.

 Illinois 3 resurfacing from north of Monsanto Avenue to south of Ruby Street in Cahokia began this summer and anticipated to be completed next summer. Single-lane closures on Illinois 3 will be required.

 I-270 at Illinois 111 interchange reconstruction begins in spring 2022 and is anticipated to be completed in late fall 2022. Single-lane closures on I-270 and Illinois 111 will be required.

 Illinois 157 resurfacing from State Street in East St. Louis to Petroff Drive began this spring and is anticipated to be completed this fall. Single-lane closures on Illinois 157 will be required.

"Rebuild Illinois continues to make life-changing impacts in every corner of the state, every neighborhood, town and city, the Metro East included," said Illinois Transportation Secretary Omer Osman in a statement. "As always, please pardon our dust while we rebuild Illinois: Be patient, slow down and pay extra attention driving in and around any work zone."

"It is exciting to see the investment in the Metro East from the Rebuild Illinois funds that the governor has committed to our area. There are six major projects that will enhance our transportation system and flow of traffic throughout our area. All of this is in addition to other funds being used for programs throughout in various communities throughout the state and the Metro East," said Fairview Heights Mayor Mark Kupsky, who also serves as president of the Southwestern Illinois Council of Mayors.

Over the next six years, IDOT is planning to improve more than 3,535 miles of highway and 9 million square feet of bridge deck as part of the Rebuild Illinois capital program, which is investing $33.2 billion into all modes of transportation. Accomplishments through Year Two of Rebuild Illinois included approximately $5.2 billion of improvements statewide on 3,020 miles of highway, 270 bridges and 428 additional safety improvements.
ISLAMABAD (AP)  Pakistan's military raided a militant hideout in the country's restive northwestern region bordering Afghanistan, triggering a shootout that killed seven soldiers and five insurgents, the military said Wednesday.

The Pakistani Taliban released a statement claiming responsibility for the incident and saying they had ambushed the troops. The militant group  which is separate from the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan  has been fighting the Pakistani government for several years.

A statement from the military said the overnight raid took place in the district of South Waziristan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, a former tribal region that was a haven for militants from both sides of the border until 2017, when the Pakistani army declared it had cleared the region of insurgents following several operations.

The military provided no further details on the overnight raid and only said a search operation was still in progress.

Pakistan's national security adviser Moeed Yusuf confirmed the attack, telling reporters at a press conference on Wednesday that he hoped the new Taliban government in Afghanistan would not allow any militant group, including the Pakistani Taliban  known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP  to use the Afghan soil for attacks against Pakistan or any other country.

Yusuf said militants along the border were exploiting the fluid situation in Afghanistan to target Pakistani troops. We made it very clear (to the Afghan Taliban) that we won't accept any terrorism from Afghan soil," he said.

Pakistans Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed condemned the latest attack. He paid tribute to the martyred soldiers and pledged that the Pakistani military operations against terrorists would continue in South Waziristan.

Despite the military's claim that the region had been cleared of militants, South Waziristan still sees sporadic attacks, mainly targeting Pakistani security forces. Pakistan has blamed the country's outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan for most of the attacks.

Pakistan and Afghanistan share a 2,400-kilometer (1,500-mile) long border that is internationally recognized and known as the Durand Line. It was drawn in the 19th century, when the British dominated South Asia. Afghanistan has never recognized the boundary.

Before the Taliban took power in Afghanistan in a blitz campaign that overrun most of the country in less than a week and seized the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Aug. 15, the two neighboring countries regularly traded accusations, blaming the other of turning a blind eye to militants operating along the porous frontier.

Since the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan, there have been mounting concerns that this would embolden the Pakistani Taliban to stage more attacks and threaten the government in Islamabad.

A few years ago, Islamabad started building a fence along the border, insisting it seeks to prevent cross-border attacks. The authorities say the fence is 90% complete.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP)  The state of Utah didn't do enough to make sure a remote highway was safe before a tour bus crashed, killing four people from China and injuring two dozen more in 2019, family and survivors said in a lawsuit filed Tuesday.

The lawsuit alleges state transportation officials failed to post warning signs, had a road design that left little room for error and included no rumble strip to warn drivers they were getting close to the edge.

More than a dozen people were thrown from the bus after the driver drifted off the road and overcorrected when he steered back, sending the bus into a rollover. All 30 people on board were hurt.

The lawsuit said the unpaved shoulder was too deep and soft, requiring the driver to steer harder to get back onto the road after passing through a too-narrow buffer zone. It had been repaved the day before, creating a dangerous contrast with the rough shoulder, the lawsuit said.

The Utah Department of Transportation declined to comment on the case filed against it and several contractors, citing its policy on pending litigation. The National Transportation Safety Board previously found highway design, signage and other characteristics were not factors in the crash.

Four people in their 60s died in the crash and several more suffered serious injuries. The group of older adults from China was on a seven-day tour operated by America Shengjia Inc., a tour bus company based in Ontario, California. The tour started in Los Angeles and was set to end in Salt Lake City.

The company is facing at least four lawsuits in federal court in California brought by surviving passengers and family members of those killed, alleging wrongful death, negligence and infliction of emotional distress.

The Utah lawsuit seeks unspecified damages to make up for lost wages, medical bills and emotional suffering. It was first reported by KUTV in Salt Lake City.

The bus crashed a few miles from Bryce Canyon National Park, which is known for its intricately shaped red-rock spires called hoodoos.

The NTSB investigation found a lack of safety standards for bus roofs and windows contributed to the death and injury toll. Its final report, released in June, also cited inconsistent seat belt use and recommended a lane-departure warning system for commercial buses.

The report ruled out driver problems like intoxication or speeding. An earlier report had found the bus had problems starting earlier in the day, but further examination found no mechanical issues or other malfunctions, it said.

The driver had told investigators the road felt slippery, and it was newly paved at the time, but tests showed normal friction, the report found.

__

Associated Press writer Andrew Dalton in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
EDWARDSVILLE  Granite City and East Alton men were charged Tuesday with possession of cannabis and psilocybin.

Jacob T. Epperson, 21, of Granite City, and Hunter A. Voegele, 22, of East Alton, were each charged with unlawful possession of cannabis with intent to deliver, Class X felonies, and unlawful possession of psilocybin with intent to deliver, Class 1 felonies.

The cases were presented by the Metropolitan Enforcement Group of Southwestern Illinois.

According to court documents, on Sept. 13 the two allegedly were found to be in possession of more than 5,000 grams of cannabis and more than 50 grams of psilocybin with intent to deliver.

Bail was set at $200,000 each.

Other drug-related felony charges filed Sept. 14 by the Madison County States Attorneys Office include:

 Dalton A. Bandy, 24, of Fairview Heights, was charged with unlawful possession of methamphetamine and theft over $500, both Class 3 felonies. The case was presented by the Collinsville Police Department. On Sept. 14 Bandy allegedly was found to be in possession of less than five grams of methamphetamine, and took 116 wooden pallets valued in excess of $500 from Rural King, 9525 Collinsville Road. Bail was set at $30,000.

 Matthew S. Holmes, 36, of Granite City, was charged with unlawful possession of methamphetamine, a Class 3 felony, and aggravated fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer, a Class 4 felony. The case was presented by the Granite City Police Department. On Sept. 14 Holmes allegedly was found to be in possession of less than five grams of methamphetamine. He also is accused of driving a 2005 Ford Mustang when he attempted to flee a Granite City police officer, disobeying two or more traffic control devices. Bail was set at $30,000.

 Tamala B. Myers, 41, of Collinsville, was charged with unlawful possession of methamphetamine, a Class 3 felony. The case was presented by the Madison County Sheriffs Department. On Sept. 14 Myers allegedly was found to be in possession of less than five grams of methamphetamine. Bail was set at $30,000.

 Jerad D. Gettings, 31, of Edwardsville, was charged with unlawful possession of methamphetamine, a Class 3 felony. The case was presented by the Roxana Police Department. On July 11 Gettings allegedly was found to be in possession of less than five grams of methamphetamine. Bail was set at $30,000.

 Jacob A. Young-Delatte, 31, listed as homeless out of Granite City, was charged with unlawful possession of methamphetamine, a Class 3 felony. The case was presented by the Granite City Police Department. On Sept. 13 Young-Delatte allegedly was found to be in possession of less than five grams of methamphetamine. Bail was set at $30,000.

 Christopher J. Anderson, 30, of was charged with unlawful possession of a controlled substance and aggravated fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer, both Class 4 felonies. The case was presented by the Madison County Sheriffs Department. On Sept. 13 Anderson allegedly was found to be in possession of less than 15 grams of cocaine. He also is accused of driving a 2008 Yamaha when he fled from a sheriffs deputy, reaching speeds in excess of 21 miles per hour over the posted speed limit. Bail was set at $20,000.

 Jason M. Higdon, 37, of Wood River, was charged with unlawful possession of a controlled substance, a Class 4 felony. The case was presented by the Roxana Police Department. On April 6 Higdon was found to be in possession of less than 15 grams of buprenorphine. Bail was set at $20,000.

 Maylynn T. Holloway, 28, of South Roxana, was charged with unlawful possession of a controlled substance, a Class 4 felony. The case was presented by the Roxana Police Department. On July 13 Holloway allegedly was found to be in possession of less than 15 grams of fentanyl. Bail was set at $20,000.

 Ashly L Rexford, 36, of Wood River, was charged with unlawful possession of a controlled substance, a Class 4 felony. The case was presented by the Bethalto Police Department. On May 12 Rexford allegedly was found to be in possession of less than 15 grams of fentanyl. Bail was set at $20,000.
WASHINGTON (AP)  Federal officials have cleared the way for construction of a dump in West Texas that could hold spent nuclear fuel for up to 40 years.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission granted a license to Interim Storage Partners LLC to build and run a facility that could take up to 5,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel rods from power plants and 231 million tons of other radioactive waste.

The decision puts the federal agency on a collision course with state officials in Texas, where opposition to nuclear waste storage has been building for years.

Last week, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill that purports to prohibit the storage or transportation of high-level nuclear waste such as spent fuel rods through the state.

Texas will not become America's nuclear waste dumping ground, Abbott tweeted on Tuesday.

Environmental groups including the Sierra Club have filed federal lawsuits to block the project, arguing that the discovery of groundwater under the site makes it unsafe to store radioactive waste there.

Interim Storage Partners plan to build the facility next to an existing dump site in Andrews County for low-level waste such as protective clothing and other material that has been exposed to radioactivity. The company plans to expand the interim facility in seven phases to take up to 40,000 tons of high-level waste, which would be stored in sealed containers. Each expansion would require NRC review and approval.

The company is a joint venture of Waste Control Specialists LLC, which was started by the late Dallas billionaire investor Harold Simmons and later bought by private equity firm J.F. Lehman & Co., and Orano USA. Waste Control Specialists applied for the license in 2015.

The Andrews County site is about 350 miles (563.27 kilometers) west of Dallas, near the Texas-New Mexico state line.

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and the states congressional delegation are fighting a proposal by Holtec International to build a similar temporary nuclear waste facility in Lea County. They say technical analysis of the site has been inadequate.

New Mexico officials fear that the waste will be stranded in their state because the federal government has failed over a period of decades to find a permanent disposal site. Instead, highly radioactive waste is piling up at dozens of reactors around the country.

In 2006, the NRC approved a proposal for a temporary dump for spent fuel in Utah, but the facility was never built.

Going back to the 1980s, the Energy Department and Congress approved building a permanent, deep underground burial site in southern Nevada. State officials fought the project for years, however, and Congress eliminated funding for it in 2011 while Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, was Senate majority leader.
Michael Baute, director of regenerative energy and land management for Silicon Ranch, provides details of his company's plans to build a solar array along Route 184 just west of Boombridge Road in North Stonington during a site walk in late March. A proposal to construct 28,890 solar panels on 47 acres of the 157-acre forestland was rejected last week by members of the Connecticut Siting Council following a 3-3 vote. Jason Vallee, The Westerly Sun
Westerly, RI (02891)

Today

Cloudy with showers. Low near 65F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

Cloudy with showers. Low near 65F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%.
Almost two months ago, the Government dropped its 'work from home' guidance. Yet the anticipated flood back to the office has so far fallen flat.

Many businesses are encouraging staff to continue remote working and others have shut their offices entirely.

And amid all the closures and changing guidance - and a growing army of freelancers and consultants already working from home - a lucrative market has emerged: pay-as-you-go office spaces.

Office life: With many businesses encouraging staff to continue remote working and others having shut their offices entirely, a lucrative market has emerged: pay-as-you-go office spaces

Tens of thousands of people have signed up to these networks, having grown weary of working from home.

Co-working spaces up and down the country say membership numbers have exploded, many doubling or even tripling since before the pandemic.

Young people appear to be leading the charge, sometimes paying fees of more than 100 a month to escape from their cramped flatshares.

But it puts them in the ludicrous position of effectively paying to go to work, either because their employer has shut their office for good or because restrictions have left them unable to go in when they please.

Nick Donnelly, who runs the national co-working network WorkClub, has seen user numbers almost triple from pre-pandemic levels. Most of the demand spilled in after May when indoor venues were allowed to reopen.

He says: 'It's individual workers who are coming to us and asking for a place to work.

'The average age of our users is between 28 and 36. I think they just want an alternative.'

WorkClub is one of the more affordable co-working spaces, with rates starting at 9 a day alongside the option of cheaper monthly memberships.

It's worth 90 to escape the flat Magazine writer Emily Webber missed being around other people at work Magazine writer Emily Webber pays about 90 a month out of her own pocket for a co-working space after her employer unexpectedly shut her office. The 24-year-old, from West London, pays for membership of the Allbright Women's Network in the capital, which gives her access to a workplace and regular events. She credits the network with helping to remotivate her after she struggled to adjust to working from the bedroom in her flat. 'An office is one of those things you don't appreciate until it's gone,' says Emily. 'I missed being around others at work, hearing them on the phone and getting to know new people. 'It gives me the motivation to get properly dressed and made-up and leave the house for the day.' Emily started a new job during lockdown and had expected to begin working in the office once restrictions eased. But earlier this year her employer informed staff the office was shutting.

It works with a range of venues which advertise themselves on their app. Users may pay more for perks such as bottomless tea and coffee or more space, while basic spaces offer just a desk and wifi.

Tony Heyden, who manages Fruitworks in Canterbury and London, says his membership has also doubled since before the pandemic and demand is now so strong there is a waiting list for those hoping to sign up.

Poll Where do you prefer to work? Home The office A mix of office and home Where do you prefer to work? Home 61 votes

The office 27 votes

A mix of office and home 50 votes Now share your opinion





He says: 'The age range of our members has crept up and we've noticed there are a lot more women using our spaces than before the pandemic.

'Our members used to be mainly tech companies but now we see people from all backgrounds  including a seamstress who brings in her sewing kit.'

Subscriptions to Fruitworks begin at 60 a month, which allows members to spend one day a week in the office. It costs 80 a month to spend three days a week in the office and 125 a month for access to space five days a week.

Included in the membership is guaranteed office space, free tea and coffee, use of the printing and photocopying machines and discounts to local businesses.

Huckletree, which offers 'residential desks' for as much as 300 a month, tells a similar story. It saw a 250 per cent increase in the number of people accessing its deals between April-August 2020 and the same period in 2021.

WeWork was hit by the sudden decline in demand from companies for office space. Now WeWork on Demand' allows workers to get out the kitchen and book office space for a minimum of 45 a day  or 15 an hour for a meeting room  across five UK cities

The sudden surge in demand for flexible workspaces has encouraged global leader WeWork to alter its offerings to keep up.

Last month the company launched 'WeWork on Demand', which allows workers to book office space for a minimum of 45 a day  or 15 an hour for a meeting room  across five UK cities.

But there are concerns that employees are having to pay for an office space which they could reasonably expect their employer to provide.

This is especially worrying as those most likely to prefer working outside the home are younger workers on lower salaries.

Workplace expert and social historian Dr Eliza Filby says: 'It seems unfair employees are paying sometimes more than double their phone bill to access a workplace.

'Companies have an obligation to provide the conditions and equipment through which people can operate and work.

'If somebody feels they cannot work at home, employers should either be helping to pay for their office space or paying them more so they can afford a nicer home.

'It's a big grey area, though, as HR can say 'well, it's your choice'. Danielle Parsons, employment partner at Irwin Mitchell, says there could be a rise in legal disputes over where employees intend to work.

'Younger workers in particular may be renting accommodation in small flats which were never designed for remote working.

'Many employees do want to 'return to normal' and go back to office working, so this type of dispute could yet become a feature of employment law.'
Back at the start of this year, I initiated an 18,000 investment Isa transfer from Barclays Smart Investor to Fundsmith.

It is now August and the transfer has not been completed.

I have raised complaints with both Barclays and Fundsmith, but neither party seems to be taking the matter seriously nor making any real attempt to resolve it.

Passing the buck: Neither Fundsmith nor Barclays offered any meaningful help to the reader whose 18,000 nest egg they'd managed to lose

My Barclays Isa now shows a zero balance and it claims to have transferred the funds. However, Fundsmith says it has not received the payment.

The last time I spoke to Barclays, the customer services agent said they had a massive backlog of complaints to deal with.

I am an 83-year-old woman who has been trying to cope with a husband whose advancing dementia has led to hospitalisation.

N.M, Bexleyheath.

Tony Hazell replies: This turned out to be such a simple issue that you really have to wonder what is going on with the customer services departments that could not get to the bottom of it.

Barclays says it received the documentation for the transfers on March 12 and sent a cheque on April 29.

Astonishing isnt it that taking six weeks for a simple transfer is deemed acceptable? Are investment firms and banks still doing everything by paper and abacus?

Fundsmith then confirmed receipt on May 27 (so thats another four weeks).

However, it still could not complete the transfer as the cheque was in the wrong name and there was some missing paperwork. You really couldnt make this up could you?

Now, if you or I received a cheque with the wrong name on it, we might phone or send an email.

But Fundsmith wrote and Barclays says it didnt get the letter.

Your transfer has finally been completed and Barclays has added 2,263.05 for lost investment growth on the Fundsmith fund rounding it up to 2,500 as a goodwill payment.

I asked Fundsmith to check the figures and they do agree with them. Fundsmith has also given you 350 compensation.

A spokesman says: We wholeheartedly apologise to Mrs M for this very frustrating situation and for not ensuring that her transfer and subsequent complaint were dealt with properly.

You have YOUR say Every week Money Mail receives hundreds of your letters and emails about our stories. Here are some about the car park scammers targeting motorists: Part of the problem is that car park operators have been replacing machines that take cash with those which will only accept cards. Soon there will be no machines taking cash. P. Y., Bury St Edmunds. Not everyone is bad. I remember parking one evening in the pouring rain. I could barely read the instructions on the meter, let alone follow them. But a kind stranger helped me work out what I had to do. W. S., Southampton. I always pay with my mobile through Google Pay nowadays. Ive not used cash or a card for over a year. It means I dont have to worry about my card getting swallowed or having to phone my bank if I lose it. M. A., email. Always trust your instincts with these kind of people. If someone looks suspicious, they probably are. Ask for an ID card to make sure they are genuine. If they decline then youll know not to trust them. B. W., Cardiff.

Vodafone won't refund my 1,000 pay as you go credit

I have built up an outstanding credit balance with Vodafone on pay as you go for 954.85.

Its my fault for not checking my bank statement properly!

My grandson rang Vodafone on my behalf.

It confirmed my outstanding balance and cancelled the 40 monthly subscription which I do not recall either asking for or agreeing to.

The call centre said the refund would be in my bank account within seven to ten days.

Four months and six more phone calls later I am still waiting for the refund. On our penultimate call we were asked to take 26 sheets of bank statement printouts showing all the 40 monthly payments to our local branch.

That was on May 16 but I am still waiting.

S.B., Banbury.

Tony Hazell replies: Well, it took a little time for me to get a response from Vodafone and even then the company didnt say very much.

So I really still have no idea why you were asked to take 26 pages of bank statements to a branch when Vodafone would have known from its systems that you were almost 1,000 in credit.

Its almost as though someone was deliberately messing you around, wasnt it? A spokesman says: We apologise to Mr B for the delay in refunding his credit  we can now confirm we have processed a full refund, plus offered an additional sum for the inconvenience caused.

Actually you are a woman, but this, too, seems to have escaped Vodafone.

Straight to the point Argos is refusing to refund me for an uncomfortable office chair simply because I unpacked it. How are you supposed to know if it will be suitable if you cant try it out first? C. C., Fareham. The retailer has contacted you to apologise and promised to reinstate the 60 worth of Nectar points that you used when you returned the chair. In circumstances like this it says that staff should use discretion  which did not happen. *** I had a very traumatic experience at Butlins, Minehead, in June when I got stuck on a waterslide. But I had no problems when I visited the same holiday resort 35 years ago and was given a mat for the slide. Butlins has not admitted fault. R. W., Solihull. Butlins apologised and says mats are not required on this slide, as per the manufacturers recommendations. More than 2,000 swimmers enjoyed the pool on the day you got stuck and Butlins says there were no other issues reported. *** My daughter twice ordered a takeaway through Uber Eats after the first was cancelled. It turned out that the kitchen was closed but two payments of 44.80 were still taken. One amount was refunded but then taken again when she booked an Uber taxi. J. M., via email. Uber Eats has apologised for your daughters poor experience and has now refunded the charges. It says it will ensure this doesnt happen again. Neo Energy took almost 209 from my account and the same amount in July. This is despite it stating that my monthly cost would be around 87. R. W., Norwich. Neo Energy says an incorrect direct debit was set up which has now been deleted. It has refunded you 155.44 plus a credit note of 40 as goodwill.

Post Office's 290 Mastercard mix-up

Earlier this year I went to my local Post Office in Stirling, Scotland, to pay my 86-year-old mothers Mastercard bill. I am her registered carer and have power of attorney to allow me to handle her affairs.

I handed over 290.04 in cash and the member of staff stamped the credit card receipt and told me it had gone through.

However Mastercard did not receive the money. I raised this with the Post Office but it told me it does not accept Mastercard payments and does not have my mothers cash.

We now have to pay the bill again and the Post Office is saying the matter is now closed. Can you help?

E.P., via email.

Tony Hazell replies: The Post Office told me there was no evidence that the money was not returned.

It confirmed Mastercard payments are not accepted and suggested this was explained to you and the cash handed back. You strenuously deny this.

However as a gesture of goodwill it has now offered to give you the 290.04 that mysteriously disappeared, without it accepting any liability.

A spokesman for the Post Office says: In line with our investigation into Mrs Ps complaint, we found no evidence to suggest that the cash was not returned to her in-branch, as there was no surplus in the end-of-day branch accounts.

However, in respect of Mrs Ps experience and as a goodwill gesture to resolve the matter fully, Post Office Ltd has provided Mrs P with a payout letter to the value of 290.04.

It now considers this matter to be closed.
FTSE 100 distribution firm Bunzl bounced into the blue-chip risers after unveiling two additions to its business.

One is McCue Corp, a Boston firm that sells safety bollards, queuing barriers and corner guards found in supermarkets.

The firm has operations in the US states of Massachusetts, Texas and California, as well as in the UK and other markets.

Shopping spree: FTSE 100 distribution firm Bunzl has bought Boston-based McCue Corp and Australian medical supplier MedShop

The second is Medshop, a medical supplies firm focused on Australia, which sells everything from stethoscopes to hand sanitiser. The group has operations in Melbourne as well as Singapore.

Bunzl completed the purchase of Medshop this month, with the McCue acquisition expected to be finalised later this year.

While the prices were not revealed, analysts at Peel Hunt calculated it splashed out 256million, taking its acquisition spend to 390million this year.

Bunzl boss Frank van Zanten said McCue represented an exciting expansion of the firms safety operations, while Medshop will allow it to target an expanded customer base in Australia. Shares rose 1.4 per cent, or 26p, to 2603p.

Stock Watch - Portmeirion Portmeirion, the maker of Royal Worcester porcelain, climbed sharply after it reported a record set of half-year results. For the six months to the end of June, the Stoke-on-Trent-based pottery firm posted a profit of 1.5million. That swung from a 2.7million loss a year ago, while company revenues increased by 35 per cent to a record 43.1million. The potter flagged up strong growth in its key South Korean market, adding that it also expects to resume dividend payments this year. Portmeirions shares jumped 9.7 per cent, or 60p, to 680p on the back of the news.

The FTSE 100 was down 0.5 per cent, or 34.37 points, at 7034.06, while the FTSE 250 dipped 0.4 per cent, or 88.47 points, to 23,687.26.

Miners weighed on the blue-chip index as sharp cuts to steel production in China sent iron ore prices to their lowest level in 10 months.

China is attempting to curb greenhouse gas emissions from the steel industry, one of its biggest polluters.

The drop spooked analysts at Barclays, who downgraded their rating on BHP, sending the shares down 2.6 per cent, or 54.5p, to 2026p.

The bank also trimmed target prices for Anglo American, which slipped 3.1 per cent, or 96.5p, to 2996.5p, Rio Tinto, sending it 2 per cent, or 108p, lower to 5179p, and FTSE 250 digger Ferrexpo, which slumped 9.4 per cent, or 35.8p to 343.6p.

Oil prices continued to rise as Hurricane Nicholas slammed into the US Gulf coast mere weeks after Hurricane Ida, meaning production in the area is likely to suffer disruption.

Brent crude rose towards $74 a barrel, but BP slipped 0.8 per cent, or 2.3p, to 300p and rival Shell dipped 0.4 per cent, or 5.4p, to 1451.2p.

Ticket booking app Trainline expects to return to profitability in 2022 as sales recover from the pandemic amid a surge in staycation trips in the UK.

Sales for the six months to August 31 stood at 1billion, up from 358million in the same period a year ago. Despite the positive update, the shares were down 2.6 per cent, or 9.8p, at 368.2p.

Kape Technologies, a privacy software firm controlled by Cypriot-Israeli gambling tycoon Teddy Sagi, jumped 14.3 per cent, or 50.5p, to 404p after a deal to acquire virtual private network outfit Express VPN for 676million.

The company has tapped investors for 258million to help fund the purchase. Payments firm Equals Group was up 8.8 per cent, or 5p, at 62p after a record performance so far in its third quarter.

Silver Bullet, a digital marketing and data specialist, was also lifted 2.8 per cent, or 7p, to 259.5p after securing a contract with Irish broadcaster RTE.

Audio recording firm Focusrite hit a bad note as it warned of supply constraints due to a global shortage of semiconductors and other components as well as significantly higher shipping costs. Shares fell 2.3 per cent, or 40p, to 1675p.

Printer ink maker Xaar slid 13.8 per cent, or 31.4p, to 195.6p after a disappointing result. For the six months to June 30, it slumped to a 2.1million loss from a 1.3million profit in the same period last year.

Electric meter maker Smart Metering Systems also tumbled 13.7 per cent, or 140p, to 884p after completing a discounted fundraising to support its growing pipeline of orders.

The group raised 175million by placing 19.4m new shares at 900p each, a 12 per cent discount to its Monday closing price.
Scottish energy supplier SSE has come under pressure to break up its business from activist investor Elliott Management.

The hedge fund has taken a stake in the Perth firm and is leaning on management to split its renewable energy arm from its electricity business.

The intervention makes SSE the second FTSE 100 firm in Elliotts crosshairs, as it targets pharma giant Glaxosmithkline and its boss Emma Walmsley.

Pressure: Elliott Management has taken a stake in energy giant SSE and is leaning on management to split its renewable energy arm from its electricity business

Elliott has been the driving force behind several shake-ups at blue-chip firms and is also calling for change at drugs giant GSK.

In 2019, the fund was a key voice in a successful campaign for Premier Inn owner Whitbread to split off cafe chain Costa Coffee, which was sold to Coca-Cola for 3.9billion.

The fund also tussled with mining giant BHP in 2017, pressuring it to demerge its US petroleum assets and scrap its dual listing in London and Australia.

It is now moving its main listing to Sydney.

Breaking up SSE is right out of the funds playbook, with Elliott having pushed Portugals EDP-Energias de Portugal to sell part of its electricity distribution business and put proceeds into renewables.

SSE has reorganised its business in recent years to focus on green energy, with the company planning to treble its renewable output by 2030.

The group also sold its 33 per cent stake in gas firm SGN for 203million last month to fund its growth plans.
Irish firm Tullow Oil doubled its profits for the first half of the year on the same time last year, a trading update shows.

The London-listed company made a gross profit of 232 million ($321 million) in the six months to 30 June, compared to 118 million ($164 million) during the same period in 2020.

It said the gains had been driven by a number of cost-cutting measures, with one being the reduction of non-payroll administration costs including outsourcing, information systems expenses and office rent.

Irish firm Tullow Oil doubled its profits for the first half of the year on the same time last year, a trading update shows

The London-listed company, which has been operating in Africa since 1986, said profit after tax came in at $93 million for the six months to 30 June, from a loss of $1.33 billion last year due to impairment charges.

Looking ahead, it has raised the lower end of its 2021 production target to reflect increased output from its Simba field in Central Africa, while it deferred the planned maintenance shutdown of the Jubilee plant in Ghana into 2022.

It now expects 2021 output of between 58,000-61,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) compared with its previous forecast of 55,000-61,000 boepd.

Commenting on the results Chief Executive Officer Rahul Dhir said: 'Strong operational performance in the first half of the year and a transformational debt refinancing have put Tullow on a firm footing to deliver our Business Plan.

'Our West Africa production assets have performed well, and we are narrowing production guidance for 2021 to the upper end of the range.

'In Kenya, the revised development plan creates a robust project that has the potential to deliver material value to the Government of Kenya and other stakeholders.'

Dhir added that the firm is committed to being Net Zero by 2030 with 'an emphasis on responsible operations' to minimise its environmental impact.

Along with its results, Tullow Oil announced on Wednesday that it's finance chief Les Wood will step down by the end of March.

The company, focused in Africa and South America, said the search process to find a new chief financial officer is expected to conclude in the first quarter of 2022.
Microsoft has announced the biggest ever share buyback scheme, worth over 43billion.

The software giants move comes after another buyback worth 29billion just two years ago.

It is already worth 1.65trillion, making it the worlds second most valuable company after tech firm Apple.

Shares buyback: Microsoft is already worth 1.65trillion, making it the worlds second most valuable company after tech firm Apple

Microsoft also lifted its quarterly dividend by 11pc to 62 cents (45p). It is sitting on a cash pile of more than 90billion and its latest buyback comes after some US politicians proposed a tax raid on payouts.

Democrat members of the Senate have said a 2 per cent tax on stock buybacks could fund President Joe Bidens 2.5trillion infrastructure package.

Microsoft, which was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in 1975, is best known for its Windows computer operating systems and Office software.

Under its current boss Satya Nadella it has focused on growing businesses such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence and video gaming.

Its cloud services remotely store vast troves of data for multinational companies, while also offering software such as Office over the internet  preventing the need for it to be installed on individual machines.
Plumbing tycoon Charlie Mullins is looking to sell a large chunk of his empire for millions.

The London-born businessman wants to retain some of his 90 per cent stake in Pimlico Plumbers, the Mail understands. His oldest son Scott, who is chief executive, owns the rest.

A deal could value Pimlico at up to 100million, and help fund expansion, with Mullins keen to push into Dubai.

Cashing in: Pimlico Plumbers founder Charlie Mullins (pictured) reportedly has a 90% stake in the firm. His oldest son Scott, who is chief executive, owns the rest

Suitors are believed to include Neigborly, a US home services company owned by private equity firm KKR, with several other private equity firms thought to be in the running. Mullins, 68, founded Pimlico Plumbers in 1978.

The son of a factory worker father and a cleaner mother, he left school with no qualifications, and claims to have been up to his elbows in other peoples lavatories since the age of 12.

His plumbers work for an hourly rate of 120 during the day, but are known for their professionalism.

Pimlicos reputation has been furthered by Mullins personality  he was vocal about leaving the EU, in his Bollocks to Brexit campaign.
Rishi Sunak last night rolled out the red carpet for Arm to return to the London stock market amid growing doubts about the British chip makers 30billion takeover.

The Chancellor said he wanted to make the City an incredibly attractive place for companies to list whether it is Arm or anyone else.

His comments came as owner Softbank tries to sell Arm for 30billion to US giant Nvidia. However, the deal has become bogged down by regulatory probes, prompting calls for Softbank to consider a UK listing if the takeover falls through.

Charm offensive: Chancellor Rishi Sunak (pictured) said he wanted to make the City 'an incredibly attractive place' for companies to list 'whether it is Arm or anyone else'

City grandee Ken Costa, the former UBS and Lazard banker, said a London float was a credible alternative worth considering.

This Cambridge-based company should not be allowed to fall into the hands of a single competitor, whether Nvidia or anyone else, he wrote in the Financial Times.Asked about this suggestion, Sunak declined to discuss the Nvidia deal in detail but said the Government was moving heaven and earth to tempt more technology companies to list in the UK.

Sunak hails private equity 'investment' The Chancellor has welcomed the controversial wave of private equity takeovers sweeping Britain. Businesses from Morrisons to Ultra Electronics and John Laing have been besieged by foreign firms, prompting calls for the Government to step in. Rishi Sunak said: I think weve always been an economy that benefits from investment and I would view it as a sign of confidence in the UK economy. If international investors, whoever they are, are keen to invest their capital in the UK, that is good news for our economy. This is a very attractive place globally to invest right now and thats what we need because we want to help drive the recovery and create jobs. His comments come despite concerns about the huge debts involved in many private equity takeovers, as well as their ruthless tactics to slash jobs and create profits.

Sunak said: In general, I want to make this a really attractive place for companies to list.

That is why I engaged Jonathan Hill to do a review of listing rules.

'Theres a suite of things we are doing on the listing side and, whether it is Arm or anyone else, I want to make sure this is an incredibly attractive place for companies to raise capital.

Arm was Britains biggest listed technology company before it was bought by Softbank for 24billion in 2016.

If the firm returned with a value of 30billion, it would rank alongside Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group and Vodafone among the countrys biggest public companies.

Nvidia launched its bid for Arm last September but has since admitted that the process is taking longer than expected.

In the UK, the Competition and Markets Authority is calling for an in-depth probe, while the EU is gearing up to investigate the deal and regulators in China are yet to even formally start looking at it.

Nvidia has said it will walk away if the deal isnt sealed by September 2022.

Concerns about the bid are based on Arms position as a neutral supplier of chip designs to customers around the world.

This approach led Arm to be dubbed the Switzerland of semiconductors, with its designs to be used in a plethora of devices around the world.

But critics fear this neutrality will be put at risk by Nvidias takeover  a suggestion the US firm strongly denies.
North Korea fired a pair of ballistic missiles off its east coast on Wednesday, South Koreas military said, ratcheting up regional tensions just days after testing a cruise missile with possible nuclear capabilities.

Pyongyang has been steadily developing its weapons programme amid a standoff over talks aimed at dismantling its nuclear and ballistic missile arsenals in return for U.S. sanctions relief. The negotiations, initiated between former U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in 2018, have stalled since 2019.

North Korea fired two unidentified ballistic missiles from its central inland region toward the east coast, and intelligence authorities of South Korea and the United States are conducting detailed analysis for further information, South Koreas Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in a statement.

The missiles were fired just after 12:30 p.m. (0330 GMT), flying 800 km (497 miles) to a maximum altitude of 60 km (37 miles), the JCS reported.

South Koreas military has raised its level of surveillance, and is maintaining a full readiness posture in close cooperation with the United States, the JCS added.

The U.S. militarys Indo-Pacific Command said North Koreas missile launches did not pose an immediate threat to U.S. personnel, territory, or allies, but highlight the destabilising impact of its illicit weapons programme.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga called the missile launch outrageous, and strongly condemned the action as a threat to peace and security of the region.

Japans Coast Guard said the missiles landed outside its exclusive economic zone.

Both Suga and South Korean President Moon Jae-in would convene sessions of their national security councils to discuss the launches, according to their offices.

FLURRY OF DIPLOMACY

The ballistic missile tests are North Koreas first since March this year and a further breach of U.N. sanctions.

In November 2017, North Korea tested an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the entire United States and declared it had become a nuclear power. It has since focused mainly on testing shorter range missile and rockets.

Analysts say shorter range missiles are designed to play a major role in the event of a war by evading missile defenses to strike targets in South Korea or Japan.

North Korea this year declared it is seeking to miniaturise nuclear warheads, which could potentially be fitted to tactical missiles.

Despite its self-imposed pandemic lockdown, North Korea continues to prioritise military modernisation, said Leif-Eric Easley, international studies professor at Ewha Womans University in Seoul.

The latest launch came as foreign ministers of South Korea and China held talks in Seoul amid concerns over North Koreas recent cruise missile test and the stalled denuclearisation negotiations between Pyongyang and Washington.

North Korea said it successfully tested a new long-range cruise missile last weekend, calling it a strategic weapon of great significance. Analysts say that weapon could be the countrys first cruise missile with a nuclear capability.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, when asked about the earlier cruise missile tests, said all parties should work to promote peace and stability on the Korean peninsula.

Not only North Korea but other countries are carrying out military activity, he told reporters. All of us should make efforts in a way that helps resume dialogue.

In a meeting with Wang on Wednesday, Moon asked for Chinas support to restart dialogue, saying North Korea has not been responding to offers from South Korea and the United States for talks or engagement such as humanitarian aid, Moons spokesperson said.

The nuclear envoys of South Korea, Japan, and the United States were meeting in Tokyo this week as well.

U.S. envoy for North Korea, Sung Kim, said on Tuesday the United States has no hostile intent towards Pyongyang and hopes it responds positively to offers for talks on its weapons programmes.

Kim was due to meet with his Japanese counterpart for a bilateral meeting on Wednesday.

SOURCE: REUTERS
ALBANY - The Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (ACPHS) has opened the first-ever Stack Family Center for Biopharmaceutical Education and Training (CBET) in the state.

ACPHS President Greg Dewey marked the centers opening Tuesday morning as he cut a ceremonial ribbon alongside donors and a slate of elected officials.

Dewey and his friend David Stack, an alum and chief executive officer of Pacira Biosciences - who devised an opioid-free painkiller - conceived the idea about three years ago and have been working toward its opening since then.

Elected officials and college personnel alike hailed the $4.5 million initiative as the seedling that could potentially make the Capital Region an innovative biopharma hub. The center and its new Borisenok Family Foundation Lab were created to enhance the industry and eliminate barriers hampering its growth.

This is more than just advancing the college. This is something that will benefit society as a whole, that we are advancing the dream of precision medicine, the dream that you can tailor drugs to individuals needs and Im very excited, Dewey said.

The multi-floor building houses classrooms, labs and offices for tech titans such as IBM. The CBET was created with several goals in mind: to improve biomanufacturing processes and make products cost-effective, to convert research into commercial products and to strengthen the workforce.

Sign up for The Knick  Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter.

Dewey explained one of the obstacles hindering the biopharma sector from evolving is the current lack of tech-skilled workers. He hopes CBET will serve as a pipeline for students to gain exposure to biopharma opportunities and give those already in the field a chance to improve their skills.

The center will recruit about 30 to 40 new students a year and will offer training courses to approximately 200 others who are already working in pharmaceuticals or a similar role.

Dewey said its ideal location at the Albany NanoTech Complex alongside SUNY Polytechnic Institute exemplifies the nexus of academia and industry. Its Albany location also keeps professionals in Boston and New York City within reach, and it may entice some to co-locate to the Capital Region, thus building out the local work force.

Pharmacy has changed. Its more than licking and sticking and counting by fives and saving lives, New York Assemblyman John Macdonald III said. Its about using the skills learned through that college of pharmacy thats critical and going to make a huge impact going forward.
Will Waldron/Times Union

Fuel cell maker Plug Power is expanding its presence in Europe with a new 70,000-square-foot operations and research center in the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia that will employ 60 people by mid-2022.

Plug Power CEO Andy Marsh announced the plans in a meeting in Washington, D.C. with Andreas Pinkwart, the economic, energy and innovation minister for North Rhine-Westphalia. Plug Power has had a presence in Europe for more than a decade. The new German office, located in the Dusseldorf area, will become Plug's European headquarters.
This column expresses the views of the author, separate from those of the Times Union.

SCHENECTADY  I'll start with a warning for those who find stunted potential depressing: Your day could be thrown off course by the following statistics from the Schenectady City School District.

Only 12 percent of fifth graders in the district tested as proficient in math, while a mere 20 percent of eighth graders achieved that standard in English Language Arts, according to the most recent state data. At the high school, meanwhile, almost a third of students fail to graduate on time.

I could keep going with more numbers, but suffice to say that measures of academic performance in the district are generally below state averages, and are in many cases well below their suburban counterparts.

That's not offered to embarrass or cast aspersions on Schenectady schools, which include hardworking kids and dedicated teachers. Like other urban districts, it is dealing with problems and hardships not of its own making.

Heck, I don't even put much stock in standardized test scores. They don't define a district, in part because they miss much of what's most important  whether a school fires the imaginations of its students; makes them feel nurtured and respected; or gives them the resiliency and independence needed for growth.

Still, the grim stats do show why some parents in the city might like another option for their children, and why they might feel Schenectady's traditional public schools might not be their preference.

In other words, some parents might welcome Destine Preparatory Charter School, which hopes to open its doors next year for about 104 students in kindergarten and first grade. The school, as proposed by founder Re'Shawn Rogers, wants to add a grade each year for four years until it serves 390 students through grade five.

If approved by the SUNY Charter Schools Institute, Destine Prep would offer poorer Schenectady parents a modicum of choice. It wouldn't equal the array enjoyed by wealthier families, who of course can afford private options or pick their home based on the local elementary, but it would be something.

Choice is good. Right?

Not in the minds of two prominent opponents of the school, state Assembly members Phil Steck of Latham and Angelo Santabarbara of Rotterdam. The Democrats are denouncing the proposed charter, casting it as a threat to existing schools.

In a joint statement, the lawmakers said Schenectady has "the most diverse school board in the history of the city" and expressed confidence it "will ensure a fair and equitable education for all students so that Schenectady will once again be a leader among all public schools in the nation, as it was years ago."

Well, yes  that kind of dramatic progress would be welcomed, surely. But generations of children have seen similar promises unfulfilled, to their lasting detriment.

The Steck-Santabarbara statement also says Destine Prep would place an unfair burden on "students striving for success in public school"  huh?  and declares that "charter schools are an idea that did not pan out."

That's debatable, at best. While there is variability in performance, some research suggests charter schools can have a remarkably positive effect on students.

A Stanford University study, for example, found that students attending New York charter schools demonstrated growth equal to an additional 34 days of learning in reading and 63 more days of learning in math in just one year. The researchers also found that lower-income Black and Hispanic students did significantly better than their counterparts in public schools.

Those findings are based on tests, which as I said are not the be-all. A better measurement of value, I think, is parent response. Many charters have waiting lists longer than the Hudson River, and polls suggest that Black and Hispanic families, in particular, strongly support them.

Teachers unions oppose charter schools, though, which explains why most Democratic politicians do, too. This is one area where party orthodoxy can seem terribly out of touch with a segment of the electorate, an example of adult vested interests blocking progress for children.

Not that charter schools are perfect. They have flaws, certainly, and aren't the best option for every child. We could debate how they're funded. Still, they're often better than the status quo.

In a conversation, Steck called the charter school movement a misguided attempt to impose free-market principles on education. A lawmaker's job, he argued, is to strengthen the existing system and provide the best possible public schools.

For sure! But charter schools are public schools, funded with taxpayer money. And unlike their counterparts in nearly every city in the state, including Albany and Troy, Schenectady parents haven't had a charter option since the K-4 International Charter School closed in 2008.

Why shouldn't Schenectady families have a choice enjoyed by parents in other New York cities? Why should low-income parents be left with schools that aren't meeting the needs of their children?

What's fair and equitable about that?

cchurchill@timesunion.com  518-454-5442  @chris_churchill
Jimmys Egg chain opens in Guilderland

Almost six years after the Oklahoma-based chain Jimmys Egg opened its first Capital Region location, in Clifton Park, a second is serving, in a strip plaza at 1800 Western Ave., in Guilderland.

Items from the breakfast and lunch menus are available at all times. Fun fact: Jimmys Egg serves 7.5 million eggs annually.

Founded in Oklahoma City in 1980, the chain now has about 70 locations in eight states, most in the heartland; the only in New York are the Capital Region restaurants.

The Clifton Park Jimmys Egg is at 5 Clifton Country Road. Hours for Clifton Park are 6 a.m. to 2 p.m.; for Guilderland, 6:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Both are open daily, and online ordering is available via jimmysegg.com for pickup and delivery.

California wine dinner at Dukes Chophouse

Dukes Chophouse at Rivers Casino (1 Rush St., Schenectady) will host a dinner featuring five courses of food paired with five California wines, scheduled for 6 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 7.

Courses include roasted beets with burrata, scallops with quinoa-apple salad, chicken with wild rice, herb-crusted beef tenderloin with mushroom ragout and apple crisp with salted caramel gelato. Wines will be sourced from Cakebread Cellars, its Two Creeks sublabel and Domaine Carneros.
In this biweekly Farmers Market Spotlight, we feature a food item thats available at a Capital Region farmers market, but usually not supermarkets, and offer tips on how to cook with it.

Spotlight: Turkish eggplant

What is it: These shiny, fire-orange globes streaked with green appear the furthest thing from the familiar purple eggplant. At first glance, the Turkish eggplant is easy to mistake for persimmon  a fruit we can expect later this fall  but slice one open and the difference is clear in its vivid color and many seeds. Sometimes known as Ethiopian eggplant, Gilo, scarlet eggplant or mock tomato, the Turkish eggplant is an heirloom variety that originated in Africa. Distinct from the highly bred Asian purple eggplant, its seeds were brought by enslaved Africans to North and South America.

What to do with it: Use Turkish eggplant in any recipe that calls for eggplant, like baba ganoush or eggplant Parm, but there are a few things to know. The more plain and brightly orange the eggplant, the riper it is, but mature seeds can be bitter, so go for orange orbs streaked green. They can be grilled, sauteed, stewed, roasted and pickled or hollowed, stuffed and baked. Slice them thinly, drizzle with olive oil and sea salt to roast and add to summer salads; cut ripe Turkish eggplants in wedges to show off the bright inner flesh, and roast on a single tray with onion, fennel, peaches and dill. Make a fall buddha bowl over basmati rice or Greek yogurt with lemon juice, torn fresh herbs, pine nuts and crunchy seeds.

Where to find it: While still rare to find in supermarkets, growing interest in West African regional cuisine has increased the likelihood that youll come across Turkish eggplants in specialty food stores and farmers markets. Currently in season, youll find these scarlet Turkish eggplants grown by Buhrmaster Farms at the Schenectady Greenmarket, Saratoga Farmers Market and the Town of Colonie Farmers Market at The Crossings.

Price: $3.50 per pint, $5 per quart.
Find out whats new in the regional dining scene with this ongoing list of the latest notable new places to eat and drink in the Catskills and Hudson Valley this year. For more tips on how to make the most of your weekends, sign up for our Weekending newsletter.

Know a place to add or recommend? Email us at hudsonvalley@timesunion.com for consideration.

Recently opened places to eat and drink

Zinnias Dinette  Columbia County

1843 NY-23, Craryville, NY 12521; (518) 325-0342; zinniasdinette.com

Driving distance: 45 min from Albany; 55 min from Kingston; 2 hr 15 min from NYC

Amy Lawton

Zinnias Dinette is a New England fish fry with Hudson Valley flair. They serve baskets of fried clams, scallops, and fresh fish, as well as seasonal veggies and big salads (and some buttermilk fried chicken, if fish isnt your thing). Located in the former Dutch Treats spot, the diner-style interiors have been revamped to pop with bright primary colors and theres a big outdoor space. They offer soft serve ice cream and take out. Owner Amy Lawton describes it as the big hug people have been needing for the last year. Open Friday to Monday: 11:00 a.m.  9:00 p.m.

 Tyler Wetherall

The Hudson House & Distillery  Ulster County

1835 Route 9W, West Park, NY 12493; (845) 834-6007; thehudsonhouseny.com

Driving distance: 1 hr 15 min from Albany; 15 min from Kingston; 1 hr 50 min from NYC

Hudson House

Charles Ferri and partner Paul Seres are putting the finishing touches on a years-long transformation of an old Catholic monastery into Hudson House  a craft distillery, events venue and boutique hotel with restaurant dining and a rooftop bar overlooking the Hudson River in West Park, Ulster County. The distillery and tasting room had its soft opening in August. Hudson Houses Black Creek whiskey, bourbon and rye  which they have been contract distilling and aging  is available to thirsty visitors, along with beer made in collaboration with Mill House Brewing and Hudson House rose, red and white made with the team at Millbrook Winery. The spirits will eventually be available in stores, but for now, are on-site only.

 Kathleen Willcox

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The River Pavilion at Hutton Brickyards  Ulster County

200 North St. Kingston, NY 12401; (845) 213-4742; huttonbrickyards.com

Driving distance: 1 hr 10 min from Albany; local to Kingston; 2 hr 15 min from NYC

Jane Beiles

Located on the banks of the Hudson River at the Hutton Brickyards in Kingston is the open-air River Pavilion, a riverfront restaurant piloted by executive chef Dan Silverman, previously of Balthazar and Minetta Tavern in New York City. The pavilion, open daily, features dishes made using locally sourced ingredients and prepared in wood-fired ovens and grills, like steelhead trout grilled on cedar planks and wood-roasted chicken from Snowdance Farm in Livingston Manor. Open Wednesday - Monday at 5 p.m., with nightly drink specials, including a special daily punch, for happy hour from 5  7 p.m. Restaurant service in colder months will eventually move to Cordts Mansion on the 73-acre Hutton Brickyards property.

 Nadine Cafaro
As the train pulls up, you may wonder if youve accidentally arrived in Shangri-La instead of the vibrant village of Cold Spring. Nestled in a bowl of natural beauty, this small hamlet attracts hikers and window shoppers alike with its Hudson Highlands State Park trails and bucolic mountains surrounding boutique-filled Main Street.

Across the Hudson River is the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and while Cold Spring was once an important artillery center, it now deals in friendlier goods on a sliver of a Main Street that rises from the river. The Metro-North Hudson Line drops passengers off in the center of the village, making a car unnecessary  a big reason why its become a popular day trip destination.

The train runs about 2 hours from Albany, and about 1.5 hours from New York City. To make the most of your time, get an early start.

The charm of downtown feels straight out of a movie set, with arresting architecture, interesting shops selling antiques, gifts, and vintage clothes and a smattering of great restaurant options. There's no wrong way to see Cold Spring  spend an unexpected day exploring off the beaten path, or hit all the places below that have become beloved hotspots for good reason.

Take a (long) hike

The most important decision youll make all day is which hike you will embark on. Breakneck Ridge and Bull Hill (Mt. Taurus) are the two most popular, and for good reason: both have beautiful views and are easily accessible without a car. Make use of the mornings relative lack of crowds and knock off one of these steep-but-rewarding climbs early.

The entrance to Breakneck Ridge is on the West Side of Route 9D, but on weekends, the train stops at the trailhead. Dont be fooled by the hikes relatively short mileage. Although its only 3.2 miles, this well-loved trail is considered one of the most strenuous hikes in the Hudson Valley. The rock scramble often requires literally climbing over rock ledges with your hands and feet. Of course, thats part of the fun for weekend warriors seeking adventure.

For more of a traditional hike, Bull Hill (Mt. Taurus) offers a few different length trails that are more moderate yet good workouts. The Bull Hill Short Loop is a three-hour, 4.3-mile stretch that starts at the parking lot at Little Stony Point, a short walk from Main Street.

Grab a pastry or pretzel knot stuffed with hummus or jalapenos and Gruyere from Cold Spring Coffeeshop (92 Main St.), fill up your water bottle and and lace-up those hiking boots  the first hour of the Bull Hill hike is a pulse-quickening steep incline that will make you feel the burn. But right before your possible breaking point, some beautiful viewpoints will encourage you to continue onwards, eventually to be rewarded by a more level path.

By the third hour, the trail slopes downward, passing by the ruins of the old Cornish Estate, once the early 1900s home of businessman Edward Cornish and his wife, and a charming bridge, before becoming more of a paved road that gently lets you off where you began. Pro tip: You could skip the summit of Mt. Taurus and take the easier 1.8 mile walk to the estate instead, or ascend to Mt. Taurus from this approach.

Iced tea and lunch on the porch

Meredith Craig de Pietro

By this time, you are most likely starving and thirsty, having finished your water reserves long ago. Trek back to Main Street, where there are almost an overwhelming amount of great restaurant options for such a small village.

Youll definitely want to try your luck scoring one of the charming front porch tables at Hudson Hils (129-131 Main St.), a breakfast and lunch spot with delicious fresh fare all sourced locally and organically. Replenish with an unsweetened iced tea and a meat or veggie burger (black bean and quinoa) with a side of curly fries, or indulge in breakfast all day and order a short stack of pancakes or gravlax and eggs made with house-cured salmon. Either way, take some time to rest your legs and relax on the porch.

Shop the block of boutiques

@coldspringgeneral

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Once youve satiated your appetite, stroll down Main Street where adorable shops line the corridor down to the river. A stop in the Cold Spring Antiques Center (77 Main St.) is a must for anyone on the hunt for interesting oddities, records or vintage finds in this landmarked 19th-century bank with multiple vendors.

Sandwiched between the many antique shops are more modern stores. The Country Goose ( 115 Main St.) is just as adorable as it sounds with toys, kitchen goods and British wares  just try to leave without stocking up on hostess gifts like whimsical bowls or melamine plates. For more inspiration, head to the Cold Spring General Store (66 Main St.) which has loads of locally made gifts and pantry items.

A good bookstore is a boon to any small town, and Split Rock Books (97 Main St.) offers up inspiration for your next read. Then scout out a new vintage coat for fall at the well-curated DamnAged Vintage (109 Main St.).

To get to what is billed as The Worlds Best Ice Cream Shop, youll need to pass through an underground tunnel under the Metro-North tracks. From here, its a short walk to Moo Moos Creamery (32 West St.), a popular destination that feels like a hidden gem. The flavors change daily, but there are so many options that it can be difficult to choose. Freshly churned blueberry; fig; honey cinnamon walnut; and shortbread cookie are all solid choices. Enjoy the scoop right on their porch, or sit on a bench overlooking the river and admire the regal Storm King mountain rising above you.

nancykennedy/Getty Images/iStockphoto

A depot drink

After ice cream, stroll over to the bandstand, a gazebo at the rivers edge that seems straight out of a Norman Rockwell painting and often hosts live music on Sunday nights. Otherwise, walk the path along the river to soak up the natural vista before you leave. For those used to a bustling waterfront, youll be amazed at the quietness here where you can listen to birdsong, water lapping the rocks, or just get lost in your own thoughts.

While youre waiting for your train to depart, take a seat on the patio at Cold Spring Depot (1 Depot Sq.), which served as a train depot until 1954, and choose from a wide selection of beer while keeping an eye on the tracks.

Its hard to overemphasize how much charm the town has and how gorgeous the natural surroundings are in Cold Spring. The hamlet doesnt offer much in terms of nightlife, but its relaxed vibe may entice you to linger, giving yourself enough time to fully recharge before heading home to reality.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP)  Republicans in the Pennsylvania Senate prepared Wednesday to test how far they can go in pursuing what the GOP calls a forensic investigation of last years presidential election, as Democrats accused them of helping perpetuate the big lie of baseless claims that former President Donald Trump was cheated out of victory.

The Republican-controlled Senate Intergovernmental Operations Committee held a party-line vote to issue a subpoena for detailed state election records, including the names of who voted in last year's presidential election, their birth date, address, driver's license number, and the last four digits of their Social Security number.

Pennsylvania law prohibits the public release of a voters drivers license number and Social Security number, and Senate Democrats said they will go to court within days to contend that the demand violates the separation of powers and the authority of lawmakers.

Its not clear whether Democratic Gov. Tom Wolfs administration will provide the information or can be forced to produce it, even by court order. The Senate subpoena gives a deadline of Oct. 1.

The majority of the information being requested is already available to the public, said Attorney General Josh Shapiro, a Democrat.

But, Shapiro said in a statement, "voters private and sensitive information is also being requested. We will do everything within our power to protect Pennsylvanians personal data.

Democratic lawmakers warned that sensitive information on voters could fall into the hands of Trump allies still intent on overturning the election, likening it to the Arizona Senate GOP's widely discredited and partisan election audit that critics say is a fruitless search for fraud to legitimize Trumps baseless conspiracy theories.

Republicans insist the undertaking has nothing to do with Trump or trying to overturn last years presidential election, but rather is about fixing problems in the state's elections.

During debate in the committee hearing, Democrats questioned who will have access to such sensitive information and why Republicans wanted it.

Because there have been questions regarding the validity of people who have ... voted, whether or not they exist, said the committee chairperson, Sen. Cris Dush, R-Jefferson. Again, were not responding to proven allegations. We are investigating the allegations to determine whether or not they are factual.

Asked about those allegations, Dush said he had heard of sworn affidavits of people visiting addresses that were listed for a voter and found only a condemned building. Dush could give no other details.

Under questioning by Democrats, Dush suggested that the information will be given to a yet-to-be hired contractor so that lawmakers can create legislation which will prevent that from happening in future elections.

The states voter registration system contains all the voter data points mentioned in the subpoena or are available by link with the state Department of Transportation, said a spokesperson for Wolfs Department of State, which oversees how counties administer elections in Pennsylvania.

Dush said the Department of State has previously given that information to third-party contractors, but the Department of State spokesperson, Wanda Murren, said nobody at the agency knows of a time that happened.

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The idea of election audits or investigations have been propelled by Trumps most ardent supporters in battleground states where he lost. Still, even as Senate Republicans voted Wednesday to issue the subpoena, Trumps allies rained down criticism that Senate Republicans are not going far enough and must get ahold of ballots, as was done in Arizona.

Republicans also want to know by what method each person voted, whether in-person or by mail, absentee or provisional ballot, as well as information on when each registered voter last cast a ballot.

The subpoena also seeks voters records for last Mays primary, all changes to voter records from May 31, 2020, to May 31, 2021, and records of communication between state election officials and county election officials during the same period.

In a statement, Wolf, a Democrat, accused Republicans of undermining democracy, capitulating to Trumps conspiracy theories and perpetuating lies that led to the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

Senate Republicans would rather cater to the fringe elements of their party who still are perpetuating the Big Lie rather than focus on issues that affect Pennsylvanians lives," Wolf said.

Democrats have sharply criticized it, saying the Republicans sham audit, or fraudit, is a stunt to erode the legitimacy of President Joe Bidens victory and an extension of a national campaign to attack voting rights. Biden beat Trump in Pennsylvania by more than 80,000 votes, according to certified results.

___

Follow Marc Levy on Twitter at https://www.twitter.com/timelywriter.
ALBANY  When John Zoccoli is seated before a canvas on the easel, within reach of oil paint and a brush, he can become so immersed that time blurs and he reaches a meditative state.

When I get in that flow, it feels like Im in a different mental place, Zoccoli said on Saturday at his downtown luxury apartment and studio. Its almost like I see a light and I can tap into that source of power and share it with others. It gives me purpose.

It is through this creative act that Zoccoli moves beyond the 25 years he spent incarcerated in nine different maximum-security prisons across New York state and finds redemption for the 1995 robbery and murder on Long Island for which he was convicted.

He paints in an ethereal style with spiritual motifs, ancient monoliths and dreamlike landscapes, a mashup of surrealism and symbolism, with influences ranging from Salvador Dali to M.C. Escher.

Zoccoli's paintings sell for as much as $2,500 and will be featured in an exhibit with 40 of his works. The show opens Oct. 16 at Collar City Mushrooms in Troy, in conjunction with Bliss Arts. The opening will feature live music by Kenyatta Hughes, poetry by Jose Perez and fungi-themed appetizers.

Zoccoli is considered a major success story of Rehabilitation Through the Arts, or RTA, a prison-based program that helps break the cycle of incarceration by helping people in prison develop life skills through the arts.

John is an extraordinarily talented visual artist and he embodies the valuable work of RTA, which restores human dignity to the participants and boosts morale in the facilities, said RTAs director of operations Charles Moore, who was formerly incarcerated.

Founded in 1996 in Sing Sing prison, RTA operates in six prisons, four for men and two for women. There is a rigorous application process and about 240 prisoners are involved each year. With the help of 40 teaching artists, RTA members choose from a variety of workshops and stage Shakespeare plays, Broadway musicals, original dramas, poetry readings, dance recitals, art exhibits and concerts.

Many RTA members also earn a masters degree of professional studies while at Sing Sing from New York Theological Seminary. Zoccoli did.

We know that art has the power to change lives, Moore said. It was a big part of Johns transformation and hes one of hundreds of successful alumni.

Compared to the national recidivism rate of about 60 percent among formerly incarcerated people, less than 5 percent of RTA members who complete the program return to prison.

Zoccoli was released on parole in June 2020 due to exemplary behavior after serving more than 24 years of his 25-to-life sentence. He works full-time as a project manager for Complete Contracting Inc., of Albany, owned by Jason Gavioli. The two met while incarcerated at Green Haven prison.

Zoccoli, 44, was born in Detroit and moved to Florida at 12, after his parents divorced. He bounced around between his mother and father and attended 14 different schools in multiple cities. He was raised mostly by his father, an itinerant painting contractor, around Fort Lauderdale. He has two stepsisters.

He started running with a bad crowd. I was trying to fit in and impress people. I thought I could get respect and attention by hanging around with thugs, Zoccoli said. I lost my moral compass. I idolized these gangsters and then I got trapped and was too scared to say I wanted out.

On Oct. 10, 1995, Zoccoli, then 19, and four other Florida men were driving a stolen truck bound for New York. The truck broke down, the men carjacked 39-year-old Kleber Cabezaras van and kidnapped the driver from his driveway in Levittown, Nassau County. They forced him at gunpoint to withdraw about $220 from an ATM machine and shot him several times.

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Its hard to talk about, Zoccoli said, pausing to brush back tears and compose himself. There was no reason for him to die. I live with that every day. Thats my cross. I was part of taking a life and I try to live in a way that atones for that.

In addition to a masters degree, Zoccoli earned a bachelors degree through Bard Colleges prison program and served as a peer mentor in prisons. He participated for several years with the Puppies Behind Bars program and trained nine Labrador retrievers as service dogs for wounded war veterans and first responders.

As an artist, Zoccoli is mostly self-taught, aside from a few art workshops he took behind bars. With his square jaw, baggy eyes, muscular physique and flat intonation, Zoccoli bears a passing resemblance to Sylvester Stallone.

His redemption story has been featured in national media, including on the "PBS NewsHour" with Judy Woodruff.

I met Zoccoli recently at an unveiling of his commissioned painting at the Center for Law and Justice in Albany. The organization helps formerly incarcerated people with re-entry into the community. With the help of a microgrant funded by the Steve McKee Foundation and administered by the center, Zoccoli created Reaching for a Change, which depicts the trauma of incarceration and the process of transformation.

Im trying to live a life of purpose and to show that formerly incarcerated people can accomplish good things, he said. I want to be successful to prove that I was worth taking a chance on with parole.

Hes written a memoir, titled Johnny Landed on his Feet: A Guide to Becoming Your Golden Self.

Its about believing in yourself and reinventing your life, he said.

Paul Grondahl is director of the New York State Writers Institute at the University at Albany and a former Times Union reporter. He can be reached at grondahlpaul@gmail.com
LOS ANGELES (AP)  A Los Angeles jury began deliberating Tuesday in the lengthy murder trial of New York real estate heir Robert Durst after a prosecutor described him as a narcissistic psychopath" who needs to be held accountable.

Deputy District Attorney John Lewin told jurors in Los Angeles County Superior Court that Durst, a multimillionaire, had lived a privileged life in which he played by his own rules and only cared about himself. Lewin said he didn't kill for pleasure but to resolve problems when backed into a corner.

Bob Durst is not crazy. Hes not some nut job serial killer who goes around killing for the thrill of it," Lewin said. Dont let this narcissistic psychopath get away with what hes done.

Durst, 78, who was hunched in a wheelchair in a light blue sportscoat, has pleaded not guilty to a first-degree murder charge in the point-blank shooting of Susan Berman, his confidante.

Jurors deliberated about three hours before recessing for the day. They began hearing evidence in March 2020 before taking a 14-month break during the pandemic. The case resumed in May.

Prosecutors say Durst killed Berman in December 2000 at her home as she planned to speak with police about a phony alibi she provided for him when his wife vanished in New York in 1982.

Lewin said Berman was killed because she was a witness. Prosecutors presented evidence of Kathie Durst's presumed killing to provide his motive and also introduced evidence from a Galveston, Texas, trial where he was acquitted of murder in the shooting death of a neighbor.

Durst had gone into hiding in Texas in late 2000 to avoid what he believed were imminent charges in New York when authorities reopened the investigation into his wife's disappearance. He testified that Morris Black pulled a gun on him in Durst's apartment and was shot in the head during a struggle for the weapon.

The defense challenged the strength of the evidence presented by prosecutors, arguing there was no evidence of Kathie Durst's death and generally a lack of forensic and direct evidence in the case.

They said prosecutors failed to prove that Berman impersonated Kathie Durst to call in sick at the medical school she attended the day after her husband last saw her. The call made it appear she was still alive after Robert Durst had seen her.

"Everythings been this theory but with no meat to the bone, no evidence, defense attorney David Chesnoff said. You know that what Im telling you is real.

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Kathie Durst has never been found and no one has been charged in her disappearance.

Durst faces a life sentence if he's convicted.

The defense claimed that prosecutors beat up a sick, old, defenseless man during nine days of brutal cross-examination in which Durst admitted lying under oath and made numerous damning admissions.

Among other things, Durst testified he didnt kill Kathie Durst or Berman, but said he would lie if he had.

I just hope when this is over, you let Mr. Durst be in a hospital of his choosing to live out whatever time he has left, Chesnoff said.

Lewin countered that Durst was only old and feeble because he had been able to live a full life  unlike his victims.

He's up here, hes old and hes sick. He got to live to be old, Lewin said. Kathie never made it to 30. Susan Berman, his close friend, horribly executed. Morris Black murdered and then dismembered. ... Hes lucky to have gotten to live to be 78 to have the health issues he does. Because his victims and their families dont have that same peace of mind."
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP)  The former leader of a Kansas City-area charitable organization said the newest member of the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners served on its board for one year, contrary to a report that raised questions about the biographical information she provided before she was appointed to the board.

Dawn Cramer, who was named to the board by Missouri Gov. Mike Parson last month, said in a biography released at the time that she had served on the boards of the Heartland Foundation and the KC Shepherd's Center.
LAKE GEORGE  In 2019, a seventh-grade science teacher who accidentally shot and killed his wife fought to stay out of jail. Now, hes fighting to keep his teaching certification.



Eric Rosenbrock, who was sentenced to five years probation in the death of his wife, Ashley, will have to face a state Education Department hearing to determine his right to teach in New York, said David Taffany, the attorney who represented him when he pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide in the November 2018 shooting.

And while he awaits the hearing, it appears Rosenbrock continues to work for the district.

While the districts interim superintendent, all of its Board of Education members and the head of the local teachers union, will not speak about Rosenbrocks status at the district, two parents in the district and a retired teacher, all of whom agreed to speak on condition of anonymity, said hes back helping out, but not teaching.

One parent said he is signing in students who work remotely during the pandemic.

Rosenbrock's work in the district appears to have caused no outward signs of controversy. One parent who spoke to the Times Union said he was fine with it, while another admitted shes not so sure.



Rosenbrock, who shot his wife in the torso in November 2018 while cleaning a loaded 9mm semi-automatic pistol, had been paid by the district throughout his arrest, indictment on second-degree manslaughter charges and now probation after his guilty plea on Sept. 23, 2019.



The New York State Teachers Retirement System has indicated that Rosenbrock had no interruption in his service to the district in the time between the shooting and June 2021. The retirement system, however, does not have any reports on service beyond that date and cant say if Rosenbrock is being paid now.



Seethroughny.org indicates that the district paid him $63,034 in 2019, the year the criminal case was resolved in Saratoga County court.

As reported by The Post-Star in a September 2020 article, the district agreed to pay Rosenbrock while on leave and that "he may be assigned work, which will be structured and provided by the districts superintendent of schools or designee' as long as the work takes place off site."



It is unclear what jobs he's held in the district. The district's then-superintendent, Lynne Rutnik, would never address his status. Rutnik left the school district over the summer to take a job with the Schenectady school district.

On Tuesday, the Times Union called the high school office, asking to be connected to Rosenbrock. After being put on hold, the receptionist said he wasnt in the room that she thought he would be and took a message. He did not call back.



The state Department of Education website indicates Rosenbrock is still certified to teach science in grades 7-12. It also indicates that "upon receiving notification of conviction from a district attorney, the Commissioner of Education must begin proceedings against the convicted individual." And that "the determination may result in additional action taken against the individual related to his or her license or certification."

State education officials would not "confirm or deny the existence of an investigation" into Rosenbrock's license as a means to "protect the fairness and integrity of our processes."



However, in a written statement, officials said, "we take all allegations of misconduct against educators extremely seriously."

"Part 83 of the commissioner's regulations authorizes the Education Department to investigate allegations of lack of good moral character lodged against certified educators. An educator facing charges in accordance with Part 83 is afforded the opportunity for a full due process hearing. At issue when the Department initiates a Part 83 proceeding is whether the certified educator has the good moral character to retain the certificate they hold."

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Douglas Gerhardt, who has practiced education law for 25 years, said "good moral character" is not defined by the law and therefore remains fuzzy.

"It's not clear what it is," Gerhardt said. "Someone gets a DWI. Is that a question of moral character? If it's a single DWI with no accident, no one injured, generally speaking, in case law, the answer is no. Someone has a repetitive, four or five DWIs, that becomes a moral character question."

He also said that the process at the Education Department can be initiated by the school district itself and that a teacher can lose his or her certification either permanently or temporarily, depending on what the Education Department decides.

When asked if there are teachers in the state system who have felony convictions, he said he couldn't say because if a teacher is found to have "good moral character" the decision is not disclosed "because it would have a negative impact on the person."



Rosenbrock, who lives in Corinth, is in his second year of a five-year probation sentence. The plea agreement allowed him to avoid up to 15 years in prison for an indictment on a charge of second-degree manslaughter. The felony complaint against Rosenbrock stated he was "aware of and consciously disregarded a substantial and unjustifiable risk that his action may cause the death of an individual in gross deviation from the standard of conduct a reasonable person would observe in a situation."

A brochure from the New York City Bar Association notes that state law makes it illegal to deny a job or fire someone from an existing job based solely on a criminal record unless "there is a direct relationship between your past conviction(s) and the job you want; or hiring you would involve an unreasonable risk to property or to the safety of others."

Rosenbrock always said the shooting, which took place at the family's home, was an accident, saying the gun discharged while he assembled the weapon to prepare for a hunting trip. Ashley Rosenbrock, the mother of his three children, was taken to Saratoga Hospital where she was pronounced dead.



Rosenbrock's in-laws supported him throughout the case. However, Judge James Murphy III said that Rosenbrock was negligent when he cleaned a loaded gun inside of his home while watching television.



"There are far more reasonable ways of cleaning a firearm: outside the house where no one is present, away from people," Murphy said. "These are common-sense things to think about, but for some reason at the time that was not going through your head. So unfortunately, you appear here today in this very strange circumstance, having not intended the consequences, but being held responsible for the conduct."



This was the second death to strike the Rosenbrock home. In January 2013, the couples 1-year-old baby Vivienne Rosenbrock died of sepsis pneumonia. A scholarship in her name is awarded to a Lake George high school senior each spring.
TROY  Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin spent 12 hours Sunday blocked from using Twitter, perhaps his favorite platform for commenting on politics, after posting a tweet that insulted a CNN journalist.

McLaughlin appeared back on the messaging platform Sunday at 9:51 p.m. with an attack against Twitter for suspending his account for the first time. And it mentioned former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, one of the Rensselaer County Republican's favorite targets over the years.

In the original tweet, McLaughlin insulted Brian Stelter of CNN, in part calling him an "insipid, wet-lipped moron."

"Back after my 1st suspension from the censoring fascists at @Twitter," McLaughlin wrote Sunday. "Apparently they monitor liberal loser journalists like @brianstelter. If you criticize that babbling idiot you get suspended. Oops. I guess I did it again. Here was my tweet. Ive said way worse about Cuomo."

McLaughlin is engaged in his first re-election campaign facing Democratic challenger Gwen Wright of Schodack. Wright had her own observations about McLaughlin.

"It's just part and parcel of his personality, of who he is," Wright said Tuesday regarding the 12-hour suspension.

"Rensselaer County clearly needs to have civility brought back to county government. He is exactly what civility is not," Wright said.

McLaughlin did not respond to a request for comment through Richard Crist, the county director of operations and McLaughlin campaign leader. Crist issued a statement that went after Wright and brought Cuomo into the fray.

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Steves opponent apparently supports silencing free speech, which should concern all residents of Rensselaer County who value their freedoms and constitutional rights. As a top aide in the Cuomo administration, Steves opponent never once spoke out against Cuomo during a blizzard of accusations and reports about Cuomos conduct, and never once expressed concern about that administrations obvious lack of civility, Crist said.

What occurred yesterday with Steves personal account was at worst an attempt to silence an opinion and at best a mistake by Twitter. In no way did the thoughts expressed in the tweet rise to a level that would require silencing, and we believe Twitter recognized this and removed the so-called ban on the account so quickly, Crist continued.

McLaughlin and Wright are each seeking a four-year term as county executive.
NISKAYUNA  School leaders voted Tuesday to appoint a veteran educator as interim superintendent.

The Board of Education unanimously approved Juliette Pennyman to serve as interim superintendent from Oct. 6 to March 1, 2022.

The move comes as the school district is in the early stages of a confidential search to find a new leader to succeed Cosimo Tangorra, who in July caught many people off guard when he announced he was leaving Niskayuna after a six-year stint to lead the New Hartford school district in Oneida County.

The terms of the contract agreement with Pennyman call for her to be paid $700 a day, with no health insurance or benefits.

Shes currently employed as an assistant superintendent in the Reading, Pa., school system, according to her online Linkedin account.

Pennyman was the chief of schools in Rochester for two years beginning in August 2012.

Pennyman, who holds a doctoral degree in education and organizational leadership from the University of Pennyslvania, has also worked as a school principal in Philadelphia and an assistant principal in the Kansas City schools.

Pennyman, whose experience in schools has included a focus on equity and diversity, fiscal policy, social-emotional learning and coalition building, stated she hopes to build on "Niskayuna's 'commitment to excellence.'"

Board President Kimberly Tull said in a statement that "we are pleased to have someone of Dr. Pennymans caliber coming to lead our school district at this time of transition and that her experience will help the district continue moving forward.

With the help of the Capital Region BOCES, board members interviewed several candidates for the interim post.

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The board also on Tuesday appointed Joseph Natale as the interim director of business and finance.

Over the course of a five-decade career, Natale has worked in many local school districts, including Voorheesville, Berne-Knox-Westerlo, Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk and Amsterdam.

He'll start in Niskayuna on Oct. 14 earning $690 daily.
An estimated 2,600 Los Angeles Police Department employees are citing religious objections to try to get out of the required COVID-19 vaccination. In Washington state, thousands of state workers are seeking similar exemptions.

And in Arkansas, a hospital has been swamped with so many such requests from employees that it is apparently calling their bluff.

Religious objections, once used sparingly around the country to get exempted from various required vaccines, are becoming a much more widely used loophole against the COVID-19 shot.

And it is only likely to grow following President Joe Biden's sweeping new vaccine mandates covering more than 100 million Americans, including executive branch employees and workers at businesses with more than 100 people on the payroll.

The administration acknowledges that a small minority of Americans will use  and some may seek to exploit  religious exemptions. But it said it believes even marginal improvements in vaccination rates will save lives.

It is not clear how many federal employees have asked for a religious exemption, though union officials say there will be many requests. The Labor Department has said an accommodation can be denied if it causes an undue burden on the employer.

In the states, mask and vaccine requirements vary, but most offer exemptions for certain medical conditions or religious or philosophical objections. The use of such exemptions, particularly by parents on behalf of their schoolchildren, has been growing over the past decade.

The allowance was enshrined in the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964, which says employers must make reasonable accommodations for employees who object to work requirements because of sincerely held religious beliefs.

A religious belief does not have to be recognized by an organized religion, and it can be new, unusual or seem illogical or unreasonable to others, according to rules laid out by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. But it can't be founded solely on political or social ideas.

That puts employers in the position of determining what is a legitimate religious belief and what is a dodge.

Many major religious denominations have no objections to the COVID-19 vaccines. But the rollout has prompted heated debates because of the longtime role that cell lines derived from fetal tissue have played, directly or indirectly, in the research and development of various vaccines and medicines.

Roman Catholic leaders in New Orleans and St. Louis went so far as to call Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 shot morally compromised." J&J has stressed that there is no fetal tissue in its vaccine.

Moreover, the Vaticans doctrine office has said it is morally acceptable for Catholics to receive COVID-19 vaccines that are based on research that used cells derived from aborted fetuses. Pope Francis himself has said it would be suicide not to get the shot, and he has been fully vaccinated with the Pfizer formula.

In New York, state lawmakers have attempted to make the vaccine mandatory for medical workers, with no religious exemptions. On Tuesday, a federal judge blocked the state from enforcing the rule to give a group of workers time to argue that it is illegal because it lacks the opt-out.

Andrew Kurtyko, a registered nurse, is among those who want a religious exemption to not take the vaccine, and he is preparing to leave New York for Florida with his 18-year-old daughter if necessary.

Kurtyko said the draconian vaccine requirements in the U.S. remind him of communist Poland where he grew up before he and his family immigrated to the United States in 1991. He is a Catholic who believes fetal stem cells were experimented with in making the vaccine. He called Pope Francis guidance to get vaccinated his own opinion."

My parents came to this country for better living and crossed the ocean, said Kurtyko. The least I can do is fight for myself and my family is to go to a different state where religious exemptions are still being honored.. . . Our rights are being trampled."

Across the U.S., public officials, doctors and community leaders have been trying to help people circumvent COVID-19 mask and vaccine requirements.

In Tulsa, Oklahoma, pastor Jackson Lahmeyer is offering a "religious exemption form on his churchs website for download, along with links for suggested donations to the church. The 29-year-old is running for the U.S. Senate as a Republican.

Anyone interested can get the form signed by a religious leader, or Lahmeyer can sign it himself if the person joins the church and donates. He said more than 35,000 people downloaded the form in just three days.

Were not anti-vaxxers. Were just pro-freedom, Lahmeyer said. A lot of these people who have signed ... have already taken the vaccine. They just dont think its right that somebody else should be forced or lose their job.

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But obtaining a religious exemption is not as simple as producing a signed form. Measles outbreaks in schools over the past decade prompted some states to change their policies. Some now require an actual signed affidavit from a religious leader, instead of an online form. California got rid of nonmedical exemptions in 2015.

Some employers are taking a hard line. United Airlines told employees last week that those who obtain religious exemptions will be put on unpaid leave until new coronavirus testing procedures are in place.

In Los Angeles, Police Chief Michel Moore said he is waiting for guidance from the city personnel department on how to handle exemption requests. The city has mandated that municipal employees get vaccinated by Oct. 5 unless they are granted a medical or religious exemption. A group of LAPD employees is suing over the policy.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti had a warning for those seeking exemptions: We will not tolerate the abuse of these exemptions by those who simply dont want to get vaccinated. To anyone thinking about filing a disingenuous exemption request, I strongly urge that you reconsider.

In Washington state, approximately 60,000 state employees are subject to a mandate issued by Gov. Jay Inslee that they be fully vaccinated by Oct. 18 or lose their job, unless they obtain a medical or religious exemption and receive an accommodation that allows them to remain employees.

As of Tuesday, more than 3,800 workers had requested religious exemptions. So far, 737 have been approved, but officials stressed that an exemption does not guarantee continued employment.

Once the exemption is approved, each agency has to evaluate whether the employee can still do the job with an accommodation while ensuring a safe workplace. Seven accommodations so far have been granted.

Inslee spokeswoman Tara Lee said the process "may help distinguish between a sincerely held personal belief and a sincerely held religious belief.

In Arkansas, about 5% of the staff at the privately run Conway Regional Health System has requested religious or medical exemptions.

The hospital responded by sending employees a form that lists a multitude of common medicines  including Tylenol, Pepto-Bismol, Preparation H and Tums  that it said were developed or tested using fetal cell lines.

The form asks people to sign it and attest that my sincerely held religious belief is consistent and true and I do not use or will not use any of the listed medications.

In a statement, Conway Regional Health President and CEO Matt Troup said: "Staff who are sincere ... should have no hesitancy with agreeing to the list of medicines listed.

___

Associated Press writers Zeke Miller, Carla K. Johnson, Ricardo Alonzo-Zaldivar Sean Murphy, Stefanie Dazio, Brady McCombs and Rachel La Corte contributed to this report.
BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP)  Vermont on Tuesday became the latest state to sue some of the country's top fossil fuel companies by alleging they misled the public about the impact their products have on climate change.

The state wants the companies to tell consumers that the use of fossil fuel products harms the environment, Vermont Attorney General T.J. Donovan said after the lawsuit was filed in Vermont Superior Court in Burlington.

The warnings could be similar to those noting the danger of tobacco products or food products that include nutritional and calorie information, he said.

Donovan, speaking outside the Chittenden County courthouse in downtown Burlington where the lawsuit was filed, said they are not trying to prevent the companies from selling their products in the state and that Vermonters will continue to be able to use fossil fuels.

What we are saying is that Vermonters have the right to know," Donovan said. Give Vermonters accurate information. Put a label on the product and let Vermonters decide.

The suit names ExxonMobil Corporation, Shell Oil Company, Sunoco LP, CITGO Petroleum Corporation and other corporations.

In a Tuesday email, Casey Norton, a spokesperson for ExxonMobil, said the suit was baseless and without merit and they look forward to defending the company in court.

Legal proceedings like this waste millions of dollars of taxpayer money and do nothing to advance meaningful actions that reduce the risks of climate change," he said.

Citgo declined to comment on pending litigation. The other two companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Vermont lawsuit seeks to prevent the defendants from engaging in what the suit alleges to be further unfair or deceptive acts and practices.

They have known for decades that the Earths climate has been changing because of emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases, and that the fossil fuels they sell are the primary source of those emissions, the lawsuit said.

Despite that knowledge, the companies have continued to sell their products in Vermont without informing consumers of the effect those products have on their environment, the suit said.

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They market fossil fuel products to Vermont consumers by advertising that use of their products is supposedly better for the environment than other products, while staying silent in the ads about the continuing, significant contributions their products actually make to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change,'' the suit said.

A recent report from the U.N.-appointed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said global warming is already accelerating sea level rise and worsening extremes such as heat waves, droughts, floods and storms.

The Vermont lawsuit was filed under the Vermont Consumer Protection Act, alleging the companies misled the public about their actions, not for any alleged environmental damage.

The Center for Climate Integrity says Vermont is the sixth state to file a lawsuit against major oil and gas companies related to their alleged role in climate change. The District of Columbia has also filed a similar suit.

___

This story has been corrected to show that Vermont is the sixth state to file a similar lawsuit, not the seventh state.
For four Trump years we had a bull-in-a-china-shop foreign policy. An ignoramus thinking himself a genius  a deadly combination. Donald Trumps America First policy was so idiotically executed it vastly harmed us.

Few Americans paid close enough attention, so he skated through it, like everything, with no comeuppance. Not even his disgraceful Northern Syria betrayal seemed to register.

Then comes President Joe Biden  an experienced, knowledgeable, conscientious, decent, sane man  whom I hugely supported  and he blows it, bigly, regarding Afghanistan. There is no cosmic justice. Life is unfair.

Why couldnt this debacle have come on Trumps watch? After all, it was he who negotiated the deal with the Taliban, for America to leave (in exchange for nothing) even more quickly (in May). Hence Republicans Biden bashing is really rich. As if the monster they worship would have done things better. The worst epithet for Bidens Afghan fiasco is Trumpian.

He says it was time to end this war. In fact, it wasnt even really a war. For Afghans it was, but not for us. We had long since stopped treating it so. We were now merely providing a little help  indeed, utterly piddling compared with other continuing overseas commitments  tens of thousands of troops in Germany, Japan, South Korea, etc. Yet in contrast to those, our cheap little Afghan efforts were paying huge dividends  in quality of life for millions of Afghans (especially women and girls) and, importantly for us, avoiding a humiliating defeat. Pulling that plug made no sense.

So we have unnecessarily incurred that humiliating defeat. And to boot, we did it with vivid, shameful pictures displayed to the world.

Biden says quitting Afghanistan lets us focus on the bigger China problem. Couldnt we do both?

Actually, our Afghan debacle worsens the China problem. Now China is on a soapbox, jeering, See? We told you America is a feckless, declining nation. While European allies, who worked with us in Afghanistan, feel betrayed. Biden had proclaimed, America is back. He might as well have said, Trump is back.

In todays world, everything is connected to everything. We should not imagine the Afghan denouement will have no effects beyond its borders. Thats a dicey neighborhood. All the fallout from this disaster cannot yet be foreseen, but it isnt likely to be good.

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Already in one way the world has been made more dangerous. Islamic extremists everywhere are thrilled and energized by what they deem their triumph. Defeating an infidel superpower. Thinking, If the Taliban can do it, why not us?

Biden vaunts the achievement of evacuating 124,000 from Afghanistan in just a few weeks. Those who did it despite the chaos do deserve kudos. But the time constraint was Bidens own doing. Even if you think leaving Afghanistan was right, surely doing it in such a rush was not. And once the Taliban takeover changed the picture, why no course correction?

Left behind are hundreds of U.S. citizens, an untold number of green card holders (legal, permanent U.S. residents)  and tens of thousands of Afghans, many of whom should have qualified for special expedited visas, for people who worked with us and are now consequently in the Talibans gunsights. Bureaucratic obstacles kept myriads from completing that paperwork. A sadly familiar story. But Biden should have knocked some heads together to get these people out before his self-imposed deadline. Now its too late.

This unfortunately reprises our shabby abandonment of legions of Iraqis, in similar circumstances, not so long ago. Such callous irresponsibility toward people who trusted in us is a profound moral stain. I believe in an America better than that. But that faith is faltering.

Frank S. Robinson of Albany is the author of The Case for Rational Optimism. He blogs at rationaloptimist.wordpress.com.
ALBANY  In 2014, when Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo put forth a proposed constitutional amendment reforming New Yorks redistricting process, some good-government groups predicted the plan would instead result in partisan gridlock.

On Wednesday, that prediction began to bear out: Facing a deadline to release a single proposed map reshaping New Yorks congressional and state legislative district lines for the next decade, a 10-member bipartisan panel said they could not. Instead, Democratic commissioners proposed one plan, Republicans another.

If the gridlock continues in the coming months, it could well empower Democrats who control both houses of the state Legislature  for the first time in decades  to redraw the lines themselves, the very scenario the 2014 constitutional amendment was supposed to remedy. When the Legislature has been allowed to draw its own lines, that has invited gerrymandering, the practice of drawing district lines to give advantage to one party based on voter enrollment and other factors.

Democrats nationally have complained of Republicans gerrymandering of legislative districts. Yet in New York, where Democrats now hold the state Senate after decades of Republican control, the Democrats see the opportunity for partisan gain that could play a decisive role in 2022s battle to retain control of Congress.

New York Republicans complained about the outcome on Wednesday, although for decades the party had remained quiet about its own state Senate majority drawing their chambers district lines. In 2018, Democrats took firm control of the state Senate, putting state government under one-party control.

Like everything else under Democratic control in New York, this process is a political sham built on a foundation of lies and hypocrisy, state Republican Party Chair Nick Langworthy said. Democrats have no interest in negotiating in good faith as evidenced by their partys leader (Gov.) Kathy Hochuls comments she intends to gerrymander Democrats into power. They are going to stonewall and drag this process out hoping New Yorkers arent paying attention so partisan legislators can draw their own maps. We intend to employ every legal and political tool in our arsenal to stop them and ensure New Yorkers are fairly represented.

While Republicans sounded out, leading state Democrats were far quieter about the developments on Wednesday.

The redistricting commission has four appointees of Democrats in the state Legislature and four appointees of legislative Republicans. There are two at-large members  selected by the other eight members of the commission  although one of the independents leans Republican, and the other towards Democrats. Indeed, the sides deadlocked 5-5 on the maps, the scenario some good-government groups feared in 2014.

Those groups wanted an independently appointed commission, rather than a process dictated by partisan appointees of the Legislature. Proponents of Cuomos plan argued a bipartisan process could at least take redistricting out of the hands of the majorities in Assembly and Senate.

Because of the commissions technical difficulties, it was difficult to immediately review the parties competing plans on Wednesday afternoon.

During the redistricting process, there's been speculation that Democrats would attempt to tilt the GOP-leaning district of outspoken Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik toward Democrats. But the Democrats' map appears to leave Stefanik's district largely intact.

Based on comments made by commissioners at a hearing in New York City, the GOP and Democratic plans varied dramatically.

Charles Nesbitt, a Republican appointee to the commission, said that the Democrats' plans had population deviations between districts reaching 10 percent."

Deviation of that sort has been used in gerrymandering for years, Nesbitt said.

In a statement, Nesbitt, along with three other Republican commissioners and at-large member Ross Brady  an official in the GOP-aligned Conservative Party  released a statement slamming the Democrats proposal.

This commission created by the New Yorkers in 2014 was to put aside partisan difference, working independently as one commission to develop a consensus map, they said. We agreed to do so and today our colleagues appointed by the majority members of the Legislature turned their backs on that commitment refusing to confer and come to common ground.

The Democrats proposed maps violate the redistricting rules as set forth in the United States Constitution as well as the New York state Constitution, they wrote, presaging possible litigation filed by Republicans.

The commission, which will now embark on 14 public hearings around the state to solicit input on the plans, faces tight deadlines.

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In order to formally pass a commission plan, which would then go to the Legislature, seven of the 10 commissioners must vote in favor, including at least one Democrat and one Republican appointed by each of the four legislative leaders. The deadline for such a plan to be passed is Jan. 1.

If the seven votes are not reached by the 10-member commission, the competing Republican and Democratic plans would likely both go to the Legislature for consideration, but would not be binding, according to Jeffrey M. Wice, a redistricting expert and professor at New York Law School.

In the case of a deadlock, the "Legislature can use plans submitted by the commission, but theyre not required to choose a commission plan, Wice said.

For the Legislature to draw their own maps under the 2014 constitutional amendment, two-thirds of each house would have to vote in favor, according Wice. That would definitely be possible: Democrats have two-thirds supermajorities in both the Senate and Assembly.

Further complicating the situation is that the Democrat-controlled Legislature has put forth a new statewide constitutional amendment, to be voted upon Nov. 2, which would make it easier for Democrats to draw their own lines. If that passes, only 60 percent of each chamber would need to vote in favor of legislative plans.

While the 10 commissioners have at times worked in a bipartisan fashion since convening last fall  Democrats and Republicans unified in demands to gain long-delayed funding for its operation  the seeds of gridlock have also been apparent. For instance, at one point last year, the commission deadlocked 5-5 over the appointment of their chairperson.

For decades, the drawing of districts has been done by longstanding majority parties in both chambers. Republicans ruling the state Senate drew oddly shaped districts favoring Republicans that helped a party with a declining share of New York's voter registration retain a toehold of power. Democrats ruling the Assembly drew districts favoring their own Democratic members.

But in 2010, former New York City Mayor Ed Koch led an effort to reform the redistricting process and Senate Republicans  desperate to win back a majority the party lost in 2008  signed Koch's independent redistricting pledge. Cuomo, running for a first term in office, vowed to veto district lines that were not drawn by an independent panel.

But after Senate Republicans won back a narrow majority in the 2010 elections, they soon backed away from their pledge. In 2012, Cuomo agreed to allow Republicans to draw their own district lines one final time, but Republicans agreed to pass a constitutional amendment creating a bipartisan redistricting process. Voters passed the constitutional referendum in 2014.

The situation has now shifted again because Democrats, aided by voter enthusiasm opposing the presidency of Republican President Donald J. Trump, resoundingly won back the majority in 2018  and gained a supermajority in 2020.
Irene White spends her three minutes addressing the Titusville School Board talking about the effects of masks on children. Whites son, Ezekiel, took his own life last year. She wants the district to be aware of the mental health concerns the COVID-19 pandemic has had on students.
A judge has sentenced a second inmate to life in prison for the beating deaths of two workers at an Iowa prison during a failed escape attempt in March
A Maine man has been charged with threatening interstate communication in connection to anti-Semitic death threats posted on social media through an anonymous Twitter account
A man charged with criminal homicide in the death of a woman whose body was found in his sport utility vehicle in northeastern Pennsylvania three years ago is arguing that her death was self-defense
Alaska's largest hospital is implementing crisis standards of care, or prioritizing resources and treatments to those patients who have the potential to benefit the most
Los Angeles Countys board of supervisors voted unanimously on Wednesday to phase out oil and gas drilling and ban new drill sites in the unincorporated areas of the county
September 15, 2021





Tesla's autopilot has been in the news a lot lately, but not for its safety features. Several lawsuits have been filed against Tesla, claiming that the company is neglecting to warn drivers of their risks when using the autopilot function. Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP, of New York City, New York says, the plaintiffs allege that Tesla should provide warnings similar to those found on airplanes before takeoff, such as "It's your responsibility to keep your hands on the steering wheel at all times while using this feature."







Furthermore, many people believe that Elon Musk's statements about how safe it is for drivers to leave their hands off the steering wheel are misleading and deceptive. One man even died after his Model X crashed into a highway barrier because he was reportedly watching a movie at the time of the collision. Tesla has produced this product under the assumption that drivers will pay attention to their surroundings, which they can't always do.

Today, autopilot functions are still in beta testing and not yet perfect. Until the company develops a more foolproof way for drivers to focus on driving while using autopilot mode, many will continue to push for stricter warnings about how dangerous it is to use the system without paying full attention. In addition, people have also been asking if Tesla will compensate them after being injured in an accident caused by its autopilot feature. One man who was traveling 70 mph when his Model X crashed into a highway barrier made a strong case against Tesla's reckless marketing practices, saying, "It's just very bizarre that this would happen."

How does Tesla's Autopilot Work?

Tesla's autopilot system is pretty unique in that it doesn't solely rely on radar and cameras to sense its surroundings. It also can map out the surrounding landscape and use this data in conjunction with the camera and radar technology to perform certain functions such as changing lanes, slowing down when approaching curves or turns, and so on.

Tesla's autopilot system is not a normal car feature. It is an add-on that has to be purchased and requires specific installation in the car, which makes it similar to software or an app. Tesla does offer this add-on for both its Model S and X vehicles costing $39,000 for either model. According to Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP, this version of autopilot will allow the cars to drive themselves using four different sensors: ultrasonic sensors, optical cameras, radar, and GPS. A new update on April 11 stated that all new Teslas would come standard with Autopilot 2.0 hardware preinstalled inside the vehicle. The autopilot also requires drivers to keep their hands on the wheel.

Is Tesla Neglecting Its Responsibility?

Currently, Tesla has marketed autopilot as a feature that falls under the category of "helpful driver-assist technology," rather than a product that drivers can fully depend upon to do all of the work. At the same time, they take their eyes off of the road. The company even elevates its vehicles if drivers remove their hands from the steering wheel for more than a few moments. However, Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP, feels that the company's statements about the feature, such as Elon Musk's claim that drivers can "start reading books" while using autopilot mode, suggest that Tesla wants drivers to rely fully on their autopilot system. This is where things are getting controversial.

Is Tesla responsible for injuries caused by its Autopilot function?

The answer to this question depends upon how much information Tesla provided before selling their cars with autopilot technology installed. Suppose it was deemed that Tesla did not warn about the risks of using its self-driving technology in a normal setting. In that case, feels Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP, the company could be held accountable for damages resulting in accidents caused by their product being misused or misunderstood. This would be Tesla in a position similar to Toyota, which had to pay $1.6 billion in damages for concealing information about its cars' "sudden acceleration" problems.

What are some potential dangers associated with using Tesla's autopilot system?

Several risks could lead to accidents when using this technology, including the possibility of being lulled into a false sense of security by an over-simplified user interface or putting too much trust in a product that is still incomplete, not yet perfect.

Incidents involving Tesla's autopilot system

There have been several cases of injuries that have resulted from accidents caused by the Autopilot system, some more serious than others. In May of 2018, another accident occurred when a Tesla vehicle in autopilot mode crashed into a fire department truck in California. The most recent and widely publicized incident involving this technology involved two men who were both injured in an accident when their Tesla car crashed into the back of a stationary police car in Laguna Beach.

Another example of such an incident with a clear link to Tesla's autopilot is the infamous accident involving Joshua Brown, who died in May 2016 when his Model S hit a tractor-trailer. He was speeding at approximately 74 mph and failed to brake or swerve even after seeing the large white side of the truck perpendicular to his path and continued to drive under it (he most likely looked away from the road momentarily).

What makes Brown's case different from others is that he had previously released a video on YouTube (News - Alert) showing how effective Tesla's autopilot feature was at avoiding accidents, even though he didn't follow all of its limitations.

Final Thoughts

The ever-expanding world of technology is giving us more and more to worry about than ever before. The development of self-driving cars such as Tesla's autopilot may reduce the dangers we currently face when we get into our cars. Still, it also opens up the possibility for accidents caused by human error to happen even less frequently.

Until the time comes when every part of driving a car becomes automated, there will always be potential dangers involved in operating moving vehicles on public roads. One should always keep this in mind when getting behind the wheel and follow safety guidelines such as staying focused on driving.
[September 15, 2021] American Vanguard Announces Changes in Board of Directors

American Vanguard Corporation (NYSE: AVD) today announced that, after 15 years of service on its board of directors, Lawrence S. Clark has submitted his resignation effective on the close of business on Thursday, December 9, 2021. He will continue to serve on the board and committees through the next regular meeting of the board. To fill the vacancy that will be created by Mr. Clark's departure, the Company's board of directors has appointed Marisol Angelini to serve on the board effective after the close of business on Thursday, December 9, 2021. Ms. Angelini served through 2018 in positions of increasing responsibility over 22 years at The Coca-Cola Company, including in the capacity of VP Marketing in Brazil, GM and VP of Global Tea/Water Business and Chief Marketing Officer (of Mexico City and later of Central and Eastern Europe). Prior to that service, she was Brand Manager for Proctor & Gamble in Venezuela. Ms. Angelini currently sits on the board of Bush Brothers & Company (a privately-held food company) where she serves on the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee. She is also a member of the board of NACD (National Association of Corporate Directors), which is dedicated toward director education and best practices for public company boards. Eric Wintemute, Chairman and CEO of American Vanguard, stated, "We thank Larry for his 15 years of service with American Vanguard. His background in banking and M&A work has been exremely helpful to us in carrying out our strategy of growth through acquisition. He has also provided unfailing leadership in his role as chair of the Compensation Committee. We will miss him greatly." Mr. Wintemute continued, "We are very excited to welcome Marisol Angelini to our board. She is an accomplished business leader in the food and beverage industry with particular expertise in launching new brands. In addition, her linguistic fluency (English, Spanish and Portuguese) and international experience, especially in LATAM and Brazil, fit perfectly with our footprint. With this background, Marisol will be an invaluable resource for us in our global commercialization of precision application technology (such as SIMPAS), our carbon credit solutions (led by Ultimus) and our Green Solutions portfolio. We are also thankful to the Latino Corporate Directors Association, through whom we recruited Marisol, and add that her appointment is further demonstration of our commitment to diversity and inclusion on our board of directors."



About American Vanguard American Vanguard Corporation is a diversified specialty and agricultural products company that develops and markets products for crop protection and management, turf and ornamentals management and public and animal health. American Vanguard is included on the Russell 2000 and Russell 3000 Indexes and the Standard & Poor's Small Cap 600 Index. To learn more about American Vanguard, please reference the Company's web site at www.american-vanguard.com.

The Company, from time to time, may discuss forward-looking information. Except for the historical information contained in this release, all forward-looking statements are estimates by the Company's management and are subject to various risks and uncertainties that may cause results to differ from management's current expectations. Such factors include weather conditions, changes in regulatory policy, the coronavirus pandemic, and other risks as detailed from time-to-time in the Company's SEC (News - Alert) reports and filings. All forward-looking statements, if any, in this release represent the Company's judgment as of the date of this release. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005174/en/

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[September 15, 2021] Amerigroup and Mississippi Food Network to Launch First Food Rx Program through Children's of Mississippi and UMMC EversCare Food Pantry

A $25,000 donation from Amerigroup to the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) will help establish the state's first Food Rx program for children at Children's of Mississippi, the state's only dedicated children's hospital. Through this partnership with the Mississippi Food Network, Children's of Mississippi pediatricians and specialists will screen for food insecurity and prescribe fresh, nutritious foods that have been proven to improve children's development, mental health, educational performance and long-term health outcomes. Food prescriptions will then be picked up from the UMMC EversCare food pantry, which is housed at the Jackson Medical Mall and is a program of the UMMC John D. Bower School of Population Health. "Food insecurity is the most commonly reported unmet social need in the U.S. that impacts more than 42 million people and over 13 million children across our nation," said Tara Clark, who leads Amerigroup Mississippi. "Here in our home state of Mississippi, we have one of the worst hunger problems in America with almost one in four Mississippians not having enough to eat. Just in Jackson alone, 29 percent of children are food insecure. This puts their futures at risk, and that's why we are grateful to Mississippi Food Network, UMMC and Children's of Mississippi clinicians for joining us to launch the state's first pediatric Food Rx program to improve health and lives." In 2015, the American Academy of Pediatrics released a policy statement recommending that pediatricians screen all children for food insecurity. By making a food pharmacy available, Children's of Mississippi pediatricians and specialists can enhance health outcomes, by not only recommending food as medicine, but also helping families access the foods they need to follow through with doctor's orders. The UMMC EversCare food pantry will use Amerigroup funding and Mississippi Food Network support to stock the foods needed to help doctors and families fight childhood obesity, diabetes, malnutrition, chronic disease and more.



"Childhood food insecurity is associated with poor health status, developmental risks, mental health issues and poor educational outcomes, so it is critical that we intervene as early as we can," said Dr. Mary Taylor, Suzan B. Thames Chair, professor and chair of pediatrics. "In a state where we see some of our nation's highest rates of childhood obesity, diabetes and hypertension, we must do more to improve health behaviors and outcomes. Establishing our state's first pediatric Food Rx program, is a tremendous step in building better futures, and we can't thank Amerigroup and Mississippi Food Network enough for leading this initiative." Children's of Mississippi is the pediatric arm of UMMC. It includes the state's only dedicated children's hospital and offers pediatric clinics statewide. It offers access to more than 150 pediatricians and pediatric specialists who cover more than 30 medical specialties. Jackson-area clinicians who identify a patient's nutritional needs will customize food prescriptions that address health conditions. When families fill these prescriptions at the EversCare food pantry, they will also have the opportunity to learn more about Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or Women, Infants and Children (WIC), as well as community resources to assist with housing, utilities, transportation, education and employment.

The Mississippi Food Network has been feeding Mississippians since 1984 and distributes more than 1.5 million pounds of food to more than 150,000 individuals each month. The new pediatric food pharmacy will be located in the Jackson Medical Mall and will operate in tandem with the current EversCare food pantry. Also in the Jackson Medical Mall is the recently launched Amerigroup Community Wellness Center, which offers information about access to healthcare and free community resources. For more information, families can contact the EversCare Clinic, speak with their Children's of Mississippi clinicians or stop by the Amerigroup Community Wellness Center. ABOUT AMERIGROUP MISSISSIPPI Amerigroup has more than 29 years of experience coordinating care with state-sponsored programs through our affiliated plans. Together with our health plan affiliates, we serve 9.7 million members in state-sponsored programs across 25 markets. In 2020 we began partnering with numerous organizations across Mississippi, focused on expanding services and programs for important health issues like food insecurity, diabetes, childhood obesity, and employment skills. By developing these relationships, we listen and learn how we can best support the important work already being done-and together have an even greater impact in communities. We're excited to expand our work even further in 2021. For more information about Amerigroup Mississippi, visit www.amerigroupms.com. ABOUT CHILDREN'S OF MISSISSIPPI Children's of Mississippi, part of the University of Mississippi Medical Center, encompasses all of the pediatric services available at UMMC and at clinical sites throughout Mississippi. At the heart of these services is the state's only hospital devoted exclusively to the care and treatment of sick and injured children. The Children's of Mississippi network brings specialized clinical care for children to communities across the state, making it easier for families to get the treatment they need closer to home. ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI MEDICAL CENTER UMMC is the state's only academic medical center. Its education, research and health care missions share the objectives of improving the health of the state's population and eliminating health disparities. Located in Jackson, UMMC encompasses seven health science schools, including medicine, nursing, health related professions, dentistry, pharmacy, graduate studies and population health. The Medical Center's health care enterprise includes the state's only Level I trauma center, only children's hospital, and only organ and bone marrow transplant program. The Medical Center also is home to a Telehealth Center of Excellence, one of two in the nation. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005221/en/

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[September 15, 2021] Arch Insurance to Host Massachusetts Paid Family and Medical Leave Informational Webinar

Massachusetts employers are required to participate in a Paid (News - Alert) Family and Medical Leave (PFML) plan for their employees. Employers may opt out of the plan offered by the commonwealth and choose to participate in a similar plan from a private carrier, such as Arch Insurance. This Thursday, Arch Insurance will host an informational webinar for insurance brokers: Arch's Massachusetts PFML - An Introduction and Update. Join this webinar and gain the information needed to make informed decisions about this mandatory coverage. With tested knowledge in other statutory states, Arch Insurance is positioned to provide Massachusetts brokers with the tools and resources they need to support their clients. In this webinar, brokers will learn about Arch's private plan solution, the advantages of choosing Arch as your private plan administrator and next steps for moving into 2022. Any broker interested in Massachusetts PFML products and solutions is encouraged to attend our webinar. Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_UGsrVT4hTK-cn_MIDTY0LQ About Arch Insurance North America Arch Insurance North America, part of Arch Capital Group Ltd., includes Arch's insurance operations in the United States and Canada. Business in the U.S. is written by Arch Insurance Company, Arch Specialty Insurance Company, Arch Excess & Surplus Insurance Company and Arch Indemnity Insurance Company. Business in Canada is written by Arch Insurance Canada Ltd. About rch Capital Group Ltd.



Arch Capital Group Ltd., a publicly listed Bermuda exempted company with approximately $16.7 billion in capital at June 30, 2021, provides insurance, reinsurance and mortgage insurance on a worldwide basis through its wholly owned subsidiaries. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a "safe harbor" for forward-looking statements. This release or any other written or oral statements made by or on behalf of Arch Capital Group Ltd. and its subsidiaries may include forward-looking statements, which reflect our current views with respect to future events and financial performance. All statements other than statements of historical fact included in or incorporated by reference in this release are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements can generally be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "may," "will," "expect," "intend," "estimate," "anticipate," "believe" or "continue" or their negative or variations or similar terminology. Forward-looking statements involve our current assessment of risks and uncertainties. Actual events and results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in these statements. A non-exclusive list of the important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements includes the following: adverse general economic and market conditions; increased competition; pricing and policy term trends; fluctuations in the actions of rating agencies and our ability to maintain and improve our ratings; investment performance; the loss of key personnel; the adequacy of our loss reserves, severity and/or frequency of losses, greater than expected loss ratios and adverse development on claim and/or claim expense liabilities; greater frequency or severity of unpredictable natural and man-made catastrophic events; the impact of acts of terrorism and acts of war; changes in regulations and/or tax laws in the United States or elsewhere; our ability to successfully integrate, establish and maintain operating procedures as well as integrate the businesses we have acquired or may acquire into the existing operations; changes in accounting principles or policies; material differences between actual and expected assessments for guaranty funds and mandatory pooling arrangements; availability and cost to us of reinsurance to manage our gross and net exposures; the failure of others to meet their obligations to us; and other factors identified in our filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The foregoing review of important factors should not be construed as exhaustive and should be read in conjunction with other cautionary statements that are included herein or elsewhere. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to us or persons acting on our behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by these cautionary statements. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Source (News - Alert) - Arch Insurance North America Tag - arch-insurance View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005623/en/

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[September 15, 2021] Audax Private Debt Provides Financing to Support Searchlight Capital Partners' Investment in Care Advantage

Audax Private Debt announced that, as Administrative Agent and Sole Lead Arranger, it provided a unitranche credit facility to support the acquisition of Care Advantage (or the "Company") by Searchlight Capital Partners ("Searchlight"), a New York-based private equity firm. Founded in 1988 and based in Richmond, VA, Care Advantage offers in-home care services to patients across Virginia, Maryland, Washington D.C. and Delaware. The Company's personal care aides, certified nursing assistants, skilled nurses and therapists provide individuals and their families with the care they need from the comfort of their homes. "The Care Advantage team has done an outstanding job building the business and increasing its geographic footprint, and we believe the Searchlight team will bring the right mix of skills and experience to help the Company reach its next level of growth and expansion" said Peter Stern, Managing Director at Audax Private Debt. About Care Advantage Care Advantage is one of the leading home healthcare providers in the Mid-Atlantic. The Company specializes in quality "one-on-one" nursing care in the home and is a one-stop solution for home healthcare services. The Company provides a mix of Mdicaid and self-pay nursing and personal care services such as bathing, dressing, and companionship and also provides skilled services primarily by licensed nurses and therapists. Care Advantage has over thirty branch locations throughout Virginia, Maryland, Washington D.C. and Delaware.



For more information, please visit careadvantageinc.com. About Audax Private Debt

Based in New York, Audax Private Debt is a leading debt capital partner for North American middle market companies. Since its inception in 2000, Audax Private Debt has invested over $25 billion across more than 925 companies in support of over 260 private equity sponsors, and has raised over $19 billion in capital. The platform offers its clients a range of financing solutions, including first lien, stretch senior, unitranche, second lien and subordinated debt, as well as equity co-investments. With more than 40 investment professionals and over 140 total employees, Audax Private Debt provides financing certainty, add-on investment capability, and the experience and collaborative approach to partner with private equity firms and their portfolio companies. For more information, please visit www.audaxprivatedebt.com or follow us on LinkedIn (News - Alert). Audax Private Debt is an integral part of Audax Group, a leading alternative investment manager with offices in Boston, New York, and San Francisco. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005219/en/

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[September 15, 2021] AWE2022 Announces to Be Held in Shanghai, China in Next March

BEIJING, Sept. 15, 2021 /CNW/ -- On August 2, 2021, the Appliance & Electronics World Expo 2022 (AWE2022) was officially launched. The Organizing Committee of AWE announced that AWE2022 will be held from March 17 to 20, 2022 at Shanghai New International Expo Centre (SNIEC). After the official launch of AWE2022, the invitation and exhibition work is also carried out in an orderly way. AWE introduced that according to the first round of communication between AWE and exhibitors, the reservation rate of old exhibitors who participated in previous AWE reached more than 90% and more than 70% of enterprises required to expand their booths. Enterprises in related fields of home appliances and consumer electronics were enthusiastic about participating in AWE2022. Despite the postponement of the AWE2020 to 2021 and the venue change due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the world still witnessed a grand opening and perfect closing of the AWE2021. Among the three major global home appliances and consumer electronics expos, te AWE became the only one that restarted offline after the pandemic. The successful holding of the AWE2021 is not only crucial for higher confidence in the home appliances and consumer electronics industry but also leads to the technological development direction and the consumption trend of the industry in the post-pandemic era.



With an exhibition area of 150,000 square meters, the AWE2021 gathered more than 1,000 brand exhibitors and 350,000 visitors. The unprecedented scale made it the world's largest home appliances and consumer electronics expo in 2021. The AWE2022 is set to kick off as the impacts of the AWE2021 are still lingering around. It is reported that the number of exhibition halls in AWE2022 will be increased to 14, with a display area of more than 160,000 square meters. It is expected to attract more than 1200 enterprises exhibitors both at home and abroad and over 400,000 visitors. The AWE, with a global vision and international influence, is supported by the massive market of home appliances and consumer electronic products in China. It serves as the best stage for the globalization of Chinese enterprises and an important platform for the localization of international giants. The AWE2022 will continue opening up and strengthening international cooperation to create more and higher value for domestic and international exhibitors, enabling smart home solutions to benefit global consumers.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/awe2022-announces-to-be-held-in-shanghai-china-in-next-march-301377529.html SOURCE Appliance and Electronics World Expo

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[September 15, 2021] Bell Techlogix hires Kevin Miller Senior Vice President, Global Workplace Services

INDIANAPOLIS, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Bell Techlogix, a leading IT managed services and solutions company, announces Kevin Miller as Senior Vice President, Global Workplace Services. Miller, a 25-year veteran of the industry, will be responsible for continuing to build on the strategy and execution capabilities that have made Bell Techlogix an industry leader in delivering Workplace Services to the market. Bell Techlogix is focused on delivering automated, high-quality managed workplace services through its high-touch, client-centric approach. Bell Techlogix Workplace Services includes global service desk and deskside support offerings, workstation engineering, IT asset management, ServiceNow implementation/development/support, all supported through a world-class analytics/dashboarding capability. "I'm thrilled to join the Bell Techlogix team at an exciting time in their business development," said Miller. "Bell Techlogix is a highly regarded leader in the managed IT space with a tremendous opportunity to support businesses of all types with the latest technology, services, and support programs. I look forward to strengthening our continuum of professional and managed services offerings to ensure we meet and exceed our clients' expectations." "All of us at Bell Techlogix are pleased to have Kevin as part of our leadership team," said Ron Frankenfield, CEO for Bell Techlogix. "Kevin brigs exceptional industry expertise and talent to our team at a time when we are focused on expanding our market reach with new services, automation, and advanced analytics. His history of success in evolving service strategies and execution fits perfectly with our business direction and goals."



Miller has held several executive leadership positions at prominent services and technology firms. Before joining Bell Techlogix, Kevin led Service Excellence, Analytics and Automation efforts for organizations such as Kaiser Permanente, Compu Com, Pomeroy, and Unisys. Most recently, Kevin served as the Lead Principal for Resolution Optimization, Client Enablement and Service Management for Kaiser Permanente, one of the largest managed care companies in the United States. About Bell Techlogix:

Bell Techlogix, headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, provides transformational Next Generation Digital Workplace and Infrastructure Management solutions to large and mid-market enterprises, as well as the public sector. With services that build, integrate and support the next wave of operational transformation Bell Techlogix provides a true client partnership and an enhanced digital experience. Bell Techlogix provides a flexible approach that is globally capable but locally oriented that will systematically allow you to achieve growth, cost-savings and acceleration of your business. For more information on Bell Techlogix, please visit us on the web at www.belltechlogix.com, follow us on Twitter, like us on LinkedIn or Facebook. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bell-techlogix-hires-kevin-miller-senior-vice-president-global-workplace-services-301376817.html SOURCE Bell Techlogix

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[September 15, 2021] BlueRush Retains Skyline Corporate Communications Group to Provide Investor Relations Services

TORONTO, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - BlueRush Inc. ("BlueRush" or the "Company") (TSXV: BTV) (?OTCQB: BTVRF), an emerging personalized video Software as a Service (SaaS) company, is pleased to announce today that it has retained the services of Skyline Corporate Communications Group, LLC ("Skyline") to manage its investor relations and corporate communications activities within the financial community in the United States. Skyline, with offices in Boston and New York City, is an investor relations and corporate communications firm that provides strategic messaging and investor communications consulting services for public corporations. Skyline provides strategic assistance for companies in the financial markets and investment community by assisting them to effectively communicate their corporate message and competitive advantages. For further information regarding Skyline, please visit Skyline's website at www.skylineccg.com. Mr. Steve Taylor, CEO of BlueRush, commented: "Our recent operating activities, growth objectives, and expected corporate milestones prompted BlueRush to select Skyline as our investor relations representative. We are experiencing significant recent growth in subscription bookings, seeing a strong mix of results from new and existing customers, and generating strong sales momentum. BlueRush believes that Skyline's strong reputation, communications strategies, methodologies and standards are an excellent pairing for us as we enter into a growth phase for the company, and we want to have a skilled partner working closely with us when communicating our message to the investing public." Scott Powell, President & CEO of Skyline, commented: "We are very pleased to welcome SaaS company BlueRush to our compelling and growing base of diverse clients. BlueRush is entering an exciting development and expansion phase, and we are delighted to provide assistance in effectively and strategically communicating this message to its existing and prospective shareholder base, while broadening awareness of the company within the U.S. financial community." The fees incurred by BlueRush, in consideration for the services provided by Skyline, consist of cash cnsideration of US$6,500 per month, effective September 1, 2021, and each month thereafter during the twelve-month contract period.



BlueRush and Skyline act at arm's length, and Skyline has no present interest, directly or indirectly, in BlueRush or its securities. The fee paid by BlueRush to Skyline is for services only. The engagement of Skyline by BlueRush is subject to approval of the TSX Venture Exchange. About BlueRush

BlueRush develops and markets IndiVideo, a disruptive, award-winning interactive personalized video platform that drives return on investment throughout the customer lifecycle, from increased conversions to more engaging statements and customer care. IndiVideo enables BlueRush clients to capture knowledge and data from their customers' video interaction, creating new and compelling data driven customer insights. For more information visit:?http://www.bluerush.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. Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute "forward-looking information" as ??such term is defined in applicable Canadian securities legislation. The words "may", "would", "could", ???"should", "potential", "will", "seek", "intend", "plan", "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect" and ??similar expressions as they relate to the Company, including, without limitation, statements with respect to the Company's expectations for continued and future growth and Skyline's continued engagement, are intended to identify forward-looking ?information. All ?statements other than statements of historical fact may be forward-looking ?information. Such ?statements reflect the Company's current views and intentions with respect to ?future events, and ?current information available to the Company, and are subject to certain risks, ?uncertainties and ?assumptions. Material factors or assumptions were applied in providing forward-?looking information. ?Many factors could ?cause the actual results, performance or achievements that ?may be expressed or ?implied by such forward-looking ?information to vary from those described herein ?should one or more ?of these risks or uncertainties materialize. ?These factors include, without limitation: ?approval of the TSX Venture Exchange for BlueRush's engagement of Skyline; changes in law; the ?ability to implement business strategies and pursue ?business opportunities; state ?of the capital ?markets; the availability of funds and resources to pursue operations; ?a novel business ?model; ?dependence on key suppliers and local partners; competition; the outcome and cost of ?any ?litigation; ?the general impact of the COVID-19 pandemic; as well as general economic, market and ?business ??conditions, as well as those risk factors discussed or referred to in disclosure documents filed ?by the ?Company ?with the securities regulatory authorities in certain provinces of Canada and available ?at ?www.sedar.com. Should ?any factor affect the Company in an unexpected manner, or should ??assumptions underlying the forward-looking ?information prove incorrect, the actual results or events ??may differ materially from the results or events ?predicted. Any such forward-looking information is ??expressly qualified in its entirety by this cautionary ?statement. Moreover, the Company does not ??assume responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of such ?forward-looking information. The ??forward-looking information included in this press release is made as of the ?date of this press release ??and the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-?looking ??information, other than as required by applicable law. View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bluerush-retains-skyline-corporate-communications-group-to-provide-investor-relations-services-301377002.html SOURCE BlueRush Inc.

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[September 15, 2021] Brose to Showcase Future Mobility Tech and Discuss EV Design Solutions at Motor Bella 2021

AUBURN HILLS, Mich., Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Brose North America, a technological leader in mechatronics, is innovating at a rapid pace as the automotive industry ushers in an era of electrification. Join Brose as the company presents its vision for the future alongside its most advanced mobility solutions in a private garage at the auto-centric Motor Bella event, Sept. 21-22, 2021, taking place at the M1 Concourse. "The automotive industry is in a transformative period," said Wilm Uhlenbecker, president of Brose North America. "Development lead times are shrinking and suppliers are collaborating more than ever with automakers to create technologies we wouldn't have thought possible a few years ago. Brose North America is excited to bring its most advanced product innovations, designed to support next-generation mobility, to this important industry event." Power Dropgate Diversifying Brose's product portfolio is a power dropgate drive designed by teams in North America and Europe. This new offering leverages the company's side door drive technology, packaging its core functionality into a more compact, lighter weight system. Designed with pickup trucks in mind, the power dropgate drive simplifies loading and adds convenience by powering the opening of traditional tailgate configurations, split swing doors and expendable steps. The production-ready system is available as a whole system with a control unit and closure system. Seat capabilities for BEV and autonomous vehicles Drawing on its decades of mechatronics expertise, Brose is a leader in flexible interiors and multi-functional seating systems that adapt to dynamic driving scenarios. As the development of autonomous driving systems speeds and consumer demands are increasingly more focused on interior comfort and convenience, Brose's brushless motor innovation delivers an integrated electronics package designed in support of the rapid transition to future flexible interior seating fnctionality. This solution features best-in-class acoustics, reduced weight and improved in-seat packaging tailor-made to accommodate the BEV environment, and simplified wire harness and electronic control unit systems. Brushless motors are also a game changer to keep occupants safe in All Belts to Seat (ABTS) comfort seats. Brose's high power brushless motor is capable of quickly returning the occupant to a crash-optimized position to avoid submarining or high spinal compression.



Competence in thermal management Efficient and tailored temperature control solutions comprise Brose's thermal management product division. Brose applies its core expertise to its electric climate compressor, designed to provide air conditioning both for a vehicle's interior and the battery in hybrid and electric vehicles. The compressor, which can be used with vehicle electric systems from 48 V to 800 V and 5 cc to 55 cc for hybrid and electric drivetrains, can also be used as a heat pump. With a high-power density and availability in extreme conditions, this technology also helps maximize battery range.

Industry panel highlights Brose expertise As part of the AutoMobili-D Technology Showcase at Motor Bella, industry experts will discuss the rapidly changing automotive manufacturing environment as part of a panel titled, "EVolution at the Speed of Thought," which takes place at the M1 Concourse event center on Sept. 21, 10:45 a.m. Robert Heltsley, director of assembly technology and component engineering, will represent Brose on the panel and discuss how the company's rapid response approach is supporting the ever-increasing demands of an evolving industry. "Brose's approach shifted from sequential to simultaneous, leveraging automation and simulation to remain one step ahead," said Heltsley. "Through continuous improvement, we've successfully met our customers' demands to provide the advanced mobility solutions required for the vehicles of tomorrow as the industry works collectively toward a more sustainable future." To see Brose's advanced mobility solutions up close, register for now for access to the technology leader's private garage at Motor Bella, here. About Brose

Brose is the fourth-largest family-owned automotive supplier. Every second new car worldwide is equipped with at least one Brose product. The company's intelligent solutions for vehicle access and interiors provide greater comfort and flexibility. Innovative concepts for thermal management increase efficiency and contribute to environmental and climate protection. Brose's systems understanding enables new functions in all kinds of vehicles - whether on four or two wheels. Around 25,000 employees at 65 locations in 24 countries generated a turnover of 5.1 billion euros in 2020. About Brose North America

Brose has been a committed partner to the North American market since 1993. The mechatronics specialist now counts twelve locations across Canada, the United States and Mexico and employs approximately 6,000 people in the region. The entire range of Brose products is manufactured throughout the North American facilities, from door modules and seat systems to drives and electronics. About Motor Bella

The North American International Auto Show announced the show has been placed on pause for 2021. Instead, an auto-centric event, Motor Bella, will be held at M1 Concourse in Pontiac, Michigan in September 2021. This new event will bring next-generation mobility and exciting vehicle debuts to media, show-goers and the automotive enthusiasts' world in a never before experienced way while also addressing continued COVID-19 concerns about indoor events. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/brose-to-showcase-future-mobility-tech-and-discuss-ev-design-solutions-at-motor-bella-2021-301377374.html SOURCE Brose North America

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[September 15, 2021] Carvana Brings The New Way to Buy a Car to Fayetteville

Carvana (NYSE: CVNA), the leading e-commerce platform for buying and selling used cars, announced today it is now offering as-soon-as next-day touchless home delivery to Fayetteville area residents. Customers can shop more than 45,000 used cars for sale, secure auto financing or use the car loan calculator, purchase, trade in, and schedule as-soon-as-next-day vehicle delivery in as little as five minutes. Customers can also sell their current vehicle to Carvana and receive a real offer just as quickly, without even purchasing a vehicle. This press release fatures multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005237/en/



Carvana brings The New Way to Buy a Car to Fayetteville, offering as-soon-as-next-day vehicle delivery to area residents. (Photo: Business Wire)

Carvana can save customers valuable time and money, allowing them to skip the dealership and shop online from the comfort of home or on the go via their mobile device. Vehicles come with a seven-day return policy and this upgrade to the traditional test drive gives customers the time to ensure their vehicle fits their life, whether it's tailgating for a Razorbacks game or seeing how today's new car tech features fits the family's needs. Customers looking to trade in their vehicle, or sell a vehicle, can also skip the dealership by simply entering their VIN or license plate number on Carvana.com, answering a few questions, then Carvana can pick up the vehicle and bring them a check, as soon as the next day. Carvana pioneered online car buying, including its patented 360-degree virtual vehicle tour, where customers can view vehicles in high-definition, 360-degree photography, inside and out. Carvana vehicles have passed a rigorous 150-point inspection, have never been in a reported accident and have no frame damage. Features, imperfections and updated information about open safety recalls are listed on every car's vehicle description page. "Growing our footprint in Arkansas helps us bring The New Way to Buy a Car to even more customers looking for an easy, transparent car buying experience," said Ernie Garcia, Carvana founder and CEO. "We look forward to offering as-soon-as-next-day delivery of our national inventory to Fayetteville area residents." Carvana now offers as-soon-as next-day vehicle delivery to customers in 304 cities across the U.S. About Carvana (NYSE: CVNA) Founded in 2012 and based in Phoenix, Carvana's (NYSE: CVNA) mission is to change the way people buy and sell cars. By removing the traditional dealership infrastructure and replacing it with technology and exceptional customer service, Carvana offers consumers an intuitive and convenient online car buying, selling, and financing platform. Carvana.com enables consumers to quickly and easily shop more than 45,000 vehicles, finance, trade in or sell their current vehicle to Carvana, sign contracts, and schedule as-soon-as-next-day delivery or pickup at one of Carvana's patented, automated Car Vending Machines. Carvana is a Fortune 500 company, providing as-soon-as-next-day delivery to customers in over 300 U.S. markets. For further information on Carvana, please visit www.carvana.com, or connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or the Carvana Blog. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005237/en/

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[September 15, 2021] Constructor Raises $55M to Transform Search and Discovery Capabilities for Online Retailers

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Constructor , the leader in eCommerce search and product discovery solutions, today announced a $55M Series A funding round led by Silversmith Capital Partners on the heels of more than tripling its ARR year over year and partnering with leading retailers like Sephora and Backcountry. Constructor today announced a $55M Series A funding round led by Silversmith Capital Partners The round also includes a lineup of investors who are experts in the space, including: David Fraga, former President of InVision, who will be joining Constructor's board; Kevil Weil, former Head of Product at Twitter and Instagram; Jason Finger, founder of Seamless; Carl Sparks, former CEO of Travelocity; Robyn Peterson, CTO at CNN; Dave Heath, Founder of Bombas; Ryan Barretto, President at Sprout Social; Melody Hildebrandt, EVP Engineering and CISO at Fox; Zander Rafael, Co-Founder of Better.com; and Seth Shaw, CRO at Airtable. Also participating is the Cap Table Coalition , which expands opportunity for traditionally underrepresented investors. As part of the investment, Silversmith General Partner Sri Rao will also join the Constructor's Board of Directors. Online retailers have been playing catch-up to Amazon for years, while having to use commodity, one-size-fits-all software not built for ecommerce. As e-commerce continues to grow in importance  in 2020 alone, more than two billion people purchased goods and services online  personalized product discovery and search that's tailor-made for ecommerce and powered by artificial intelligence has become more and more critical to delivering a competitive customer experience. "Constructor is the only product discovery platform built from the ground up to learn from the actions of shoppers, without ever collecting personally identifiable iformation, to improve their discovery experience as they shop," said Eli Finkelshteyn, CEO and Founder of Constructor. "We're incredibly proud of the real, measurable wins every one of our retail customers have seen both in revenue and user experience after implementing Constructor, all while doing the right thing on privacy. We're already delivering the biggest lifts in the industry, but the most exciting part is how much better the discovery experience can get with this new investment."



"Poor search and discovery has been the industry standard for too long," said Finkelshteyn. "Retailers are tired of being promised AI they can't see and personalization that doesn't live up to its marketing hype, and which isn't actually useful to customers." "Constructor is our trusted product discovery partner for its unmatched results, analytics, and true partnership," said Venkatesh Ananthanarayanan, VP of Engineering at Backcountry.com. "Building search and discovery in-house today is expensive from the standpoint of both people management and infrastructure hosting. It's now abundantly clear eCommerce companies like ours get much better user experiences and ROI from using solutions like Constructor compared to reinventing the wheel in-house. Even more importantly, while competitors struggle to solve yesterday's search problems, leveraging Constructor enables us to build on top of it and create the truly unique, personalized, and differentiated experiences of tomorrow. Best of all, the service is easy to test, so we know for certain that Constructor is returning much more revenue to us than what we pay for the service."

Google pioneered personalized and contextualized search results and proved how important search is to users, but was never able to deliver the same experience for site search, sunsetting and shutting down their site search solution in 2017 and forcing its customers to switch to other solutions. Within the retail space, Amazon has held the upper hand, popularizing many of the product discovery experiences that customers have come to expect, but that other retailers have struggled to deliver. With Constructor's new funding, it plans to continue to change that dynamic by doubling down on pioneering new product discovery and search standards and making them available to the entire industry.



Constructor's AI-powered platform offers a complete set of discovery tools including search, autosuggest, browse, recommendations, and collections. Each tool collects data, learning in real-time from each query and user to optimize for customers hundreds of millions of times every day. Constructor is the only product discovery tool on the market that doesn't force you to blindly trust the AI. Customers have complete visibility into how Constructor algorithms rank products, all while giving customers full control over what their customers see for any query. "Constructor has built a search and discovery platform that is truly making a difference for enterprise retailers. They are providing customers with comprehensive and optimized search and discovery that is unmatched in the market," said Sri Rao, Constructor Board Member and General Partner of Silversmith Capital Partners. "We are excited to partner with the Constructor team as they continue to revolutionize search and discovery capabilities for retailers across all platforms." About Constructor

Constructor.io is the only search and product discovery platform tailor-made for enterprise ecommerce where conversions matter. Constructor's cloud-based solutions use artificial intelligence, natural language processing, machine learning-enhanced results ranking, and collaborative personalization to deliver powerful user experiences across all facets of product discovery -- from search to browse, recommendations, collections, and autosuggest. Constructor optimizes revenue before relevance and generates consistent 10x ROI lifts for its customers, which include some of the biggest brands in retail. Constructor was founded in 2015 by Eli Finkelshteyn, a former data scientist and search engineer at Shutterstock, Tumblr, and Backplane, and Dan McCormick, former CTO of Shutterstock. Constructor's customers include Backcountry, Sephora, Bonobos, American Eagle, Target Australia, and more. For more information on the company please visit: www.constructor.io About Silversmith Capital Partners

Founded in 2015, Silversmith Capital Partners is a Boston-based growth equity firm with $2.0 billion of capital under management. Silversmith's mission is to partner with and support the best entrepreneurs in growing, profitable technology and healthcare companies. Representative investments include ActiveCampaign, Appfire, Centauri Health Solutions, DistroKid, Impact, Iodine Software, LifeStance Health, Panalgo, Unily, Upperline Health, Validity, and Webflow. The partners have served on the boards of numerous successful growth companies including ABILITY Network, Archer Technologies, Dealer.com, Liazon, Liberty Dialysis, MedHOK, Passport Health, SurveyMonkey, and Wrike. For more information about Silversmith, please visit www.silversmith.com . Media Contact

Erin McDermott

Walker Sands for Constructor

constructor@walkersands.com

(831)251-1188 View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/constructor-raises-55m-to-transform-search-and-discovery-capabilities-for-online-retailers-301377366.html SOURCE Constructor

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[September 15, 2021] DaSTOR LLC Launches with Four Data Centers in the Mid-Atlantic Region

Through the acquisition of four data centers, DaSTOR LLC makes its debut, providing colocation, disaster recovery and hybrid cloud connectivity solutions that deliver 'scalable data environments' for Enterprise, Life Sciences, Manufacturing, and Government sectors. Founded through a series of strategic acquisitions of existing data center facilities in King of Prussia and Reading, Pennsylvania and Wilmington, Delaware, the owner-operated company was formed by Kevin Mulqueen. DaSTOR (pronounced 'daystore') is set to re-imagine digital infrastructure management with a focus on ecosystem development across key industry verticals. The company is founded by Kevin Mulqueen, former President of Colocation for Crown Castle, and is privately funded by Mulqueen and partners. "Prior to our conversations about the King of Prussia data center sites, I was negotiating to acquire two other facilities that, when combined with these two, enabled us to fulfill our vision for DaSTOR; a comprehensive, one-stop-shop solution for colocation, hybrid cloud connectivity, security, and disaster recovery," says Kevin Mulqueen, CEO of DaSTOR. "The opportunity to build a company and lead a team to transform existing facilities ino robust ecosystems, is truly exciting to me. Today we are thrilled to unveil DaSTOR and are planning to continue to make further acquisitions over the next 12 months."



DaSTOR's facilities include two data centers acquired from IPR Secure, a Tier III data center provider offering highly secure IT infrastructure and data center solutions in Wilmington, DE and Reading, PA; and two sites in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. One of the company's sites in King of Prussia is part of a larger business complex serving a variety of businesses across the Life Sciences sector. The other King of Prussia facility was acquired from Databridge Sites. All four sites bring with them an existing customer base across the healthcare, manufacturing, and government sectors. In addition, the Wilmington site is the only Tier III-rated facility in the state of Delaware. ??DaSTOR's facilities combine efficiency and resiliency for production environments and disaster recovery solutions. Locations are connected to key interconnection hubs including 401 N. Broad Street in Philadelphia, providing direct on-ramps to providers like Microsoft Azure, Sungard and Amazon Web Services (News - Alert) .

For more information, visit dastorllc.com. About DaSTOR DaSTOR provides enterprise-class data center solutions that leverage foundational infrastructure and interconnectivity to drive scalable, reliable digital services. Core services include colocation, public/private cloud connectivity, and disaster recovery solutions supported by high compliance standards and managed service capabilities. With DaSTOR, customers seamlessly connect to partners and clients for a more secure digital experience. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005281/en/

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[September 15, 2021] DreamBox Learning Announces Record Expansion into New School Districts

DreamBox Learning, the leading education technology provider that in 2006 pioneered intelligent adaptive learning, today announced new expansions and partnerships with school district customers, including Prince George's County Public Schools and East Baton Rouge Parish School System. The districts join DreamBox during a year of record growth and expansion into the K-12 English Language Arts market with the acquisitions of Reading Plus and Squiggle Park. DreamBox now delivers personalized and adaptive math and reading learning experiences to nearly 6 million students. As the only dual-discipline provider offering school districts solutions rated "Strong" by Johns Hopkins' EvidenceforESSA.org in both mathematics and reading, school districts are selecting DreamBox as a partner to provide educators and students evidence-based learning solutions. New and expanded district and state department of education partners now using DreamBox's math and/or reading solutions include: Beaufort County School District, S.C.

East Baton Rouge Parish School System, La.

Northside Independent School District, Texas

Prince George's County Public Schools, Md.

Seminole County Public Schools, Fla.

South Carolina Department of Education, S.C.

Wake County Public School System, N.C. "DreamBox Learning is the right choice to best support our teachers and serve the diverse needs of our students," said Dr. Sito Narcisse, Superintendent of East Baton Rouge Parish School System in Louisiana. "We have learned not all education technology is created equal, so we are excited to offer our teachers an evidence-based solution proven to increase student achievement. In addition to impressive adaptive learning technology and real-time predictive analytics, DreamBox also provides our teachers actionable professional development - a necessary resource as we adapt to another uncertain school year." The new partnerships come at a time when educators need to ascertain where students are in their learning and meet their needs regarless of their unique learning environments during the height of the pandemic. To support each student's return to another uncertain school year, DreamBox provides the right math or reading lesson at the right time, adapting to where students are and accelerating learning.



"As we navigate this important moment in education, we're delighted to support more students and educators than ever before with a dual-discipline offering that is proven-effective by independent third-party evaluations and instills both math and reading competence and confidence in students," said Jessie Woolley-Wilson, President and CEO of DreamBox Learning. "We've entered a new age of personalized learning. This school year more students have access to devices and broadband, educators are more comfortable and excited about using education technology, and district leaders are bending towards trusted brands with proven results." Independent research conducted by Harvard's Center for Education Policy Research shows that students who use DreamBox for just one hour a week improve their math scores by nearly 60% more than expected growth norms on benchmark and state tests. Furthermore, Reading Plus produces 2.0-2.5 years of proficiency grade-level reading gains for striving students when used with fidelity despite nationwide school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

While DreamBox adapts to meet students where they are to further learning, DreamBox's advanced data and analytics solutions, DreamBox Predictive Insights (DPI) and Lesson Recommendations, provide predictions about how students will perform on state tests as well as recommended math concepts and skills for each student that teachers can use for 1:1 or small group differentiation. These actionable insights are updated continually throughout the school year so that district administrators and teachers always have access to recent and relevant data without losing instructional time for additional testing. With a combination of these robust data and analytics solutions, the best-of-breed dual-discipline solution in the market, and value-added services, DreamBox is uniquely positioned to support more schools, educators, and students as the company radically changes the way the world learns. To learn more about DreamBox, visit https://www.dreambox.com/. About DreamBox Learning DreamBox Learning, founded in 2006 in Bellevue, Washington, is the only K-8 digital math program* powered by students, built by and for educators, and independently proven to positively impact student achievement. DreamBox dynamically adapts and differentiates in real time based not only on students' answers, but also on how they solve problems. Along with actionable reporting and tools that empower differentiation for all learners, DreamBox gives teachers content-specific professional development and provides administrators with insights about how all students are progressing. The company's pioneering platform has won more than 40 top education and technology industry awards and is used by nearly 6 million students in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and throughout Canada and Mexico. For more information, visit https://www.dreambox.com/. *DreamBox recently acquired Reading Plus and Squiggle Park, expanding the company's reach into the ELA market for students K-12. The combined programs offer school districts the only dual-discipline solution rated "Strong" by Johns Hopkins' EvidenceforESSA.org in both mathematics and reading. Read announcement here. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005129/en/

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[September 15, 2021] Global Fintech Platform Thunes Partners with M-Pesa Tanzania to Enable Instant Money Transfers to Bank Accounts in Kenya and Rwanda

SINGAPORE and TANZANIA, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Thunes, a global leader in cross-border payments, today announced the launch of a new service corridor for users of M-Pesa Tanzania, enabling Tanzanians to seamlessly move money from their M-Pesa mobile wallets directly to any bank account in Kenya and Rwanda. Thunes and M-Pesa Tanzania have been working together since 2018, with M-Pesa Tanzania using Thunes' cross-border payments network to enable remittances to most major e-wallets within East Africa. Thanks to this new collaboration, businesses and individuals in Tanzania can now send money quickly across borders, directly to all banks in Kenya and Uganda. "We are glad to be able to strengthen our partnership with M-Pesa, and jointly help millions of people in Africa access financial services and affordable international payments. We continue to see tremendous growth opportunities on te continent and are committed to building payments infrastructure that will benefit businesses and communities," said Sandra Yao, Senior Vice President, Africa, Thunes.



The growth trajectory of economic and trade activity in East Africa remains very strong. Data from the World Bank shows that trade between Tanzania and its neighbouring countries, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda, is worth approximately $896 million, with trade between Tanzania, Kenya and Rwanda at $635 million. Tanzania's economic growth continues to climb, with GDP reaching an all-time high of $62.41 billion in 2020. "This cooperation with Thunes broadens the reach across East African Markets for millions of Tanzanian-based businesses and individuals. More entrepreneurs and consumers connected to the M-Pesa platform will be able to benefit from the speed and convenience for payments beyond borders that the Thunes' network provides," said Epimack Mbeteni, M-Pesa Director from Vodacom Tanzania.

Thunes provides payment rails to mobile wallets, banks, and, in some cases, cash payouts in Africa. Thunes currently has over 50 intra-Africa corridors helping to facilitate faster, cheaper and more transparent transactions for the consumers, giving access to over 200 million mobile wallets in Africa. For more information, visit http://www.thunes.com/ Contact: Irina Chuchkina, +65-9775-5128, press@thunes.com SOURCE Thunes

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[September 15, 2021] ID.me Secures $100 Million from Fortress to Support Record Growth and Advance Vision to Build the Identity Layer of the Internet

MCLEAN, Va., Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- ID.me , the secure digital identity network with 60 million members, today announced it has secured $100 million in debt financing from funds managed by affiliates of Fortress Investment Group LLC ("Fortress") and $20 million in revolving credit. This follows the company's Series C round in March, securing $100 million in funding at a $1.5 billion valuation. The new financing will support ID.me's rapid growth along with the development of its secure digital identity network for all consumers. Over the past year, ID.me has expanded or entered into new partnerships with 6 federal agencies and 27 states. The company has grown its commercial partnerships to over 500, with travel and hospitality revenue climbing 420%. ID.me identity and group verification has enabled millions of people to gain access to everything from services like pandemic-related unemployment benefits to prescription medications and travel discounts. The company is quickly gaining additional momentum, including: Expanding the ID.me digital wallet by launching a COVID Vaccine ID verification solution. ID.me's Vaccine ID offers flexible verification options and securely digitized vaccine records for people to easily share with others as they choose.

verification solution. ID.me's Vaccine ID offers flexible verification options and securely digitized vaccine records for people to easily share with others as they choose. Adding almost 1,300 new employees since January 2021 and opening an office in Tampa, Florida , to support 500 team members.

, to support 500 team members. Naming three new executives:

Rajat Bahri as Chief Financial Officer, formerly the Chief Financial Officer of Wish, Jasper and Trimble.

as Chief Financial Officer, formerly the Chief Financial Officer of Wish, Jasper and Trimble.

Kevin Lyons as Chief People Officer, formerly the Chief People Officer of Brinks Home Security.

as Chief People Officer, formerly the Chief People Officer of Brinks Home Security.

Recognized authentication expert Alexei Czeskis as VP of Engineering, formerly an ngineering leader for Google's account security, authentication, and recovery team.

Winning two blanket purchase agreements with government agencies worth over $1 billion each.

each. Earning a spot in the 2021 Inc. 5000 list as one of the fastest-growing companies in America after experiencing three-year revenue growth of 324%. ID.me was also listed as one of the top 100 D.C. companies and top 4 security companies in the D.C., Maryland , and Virginia region.



Blake Hall , founder and CEO of ID.me. "Now, with this new financing, we can double down on our corporate vision to solve every digital citizen's biggest pain point -- the multiple password problem. We're passionate about enabling people to have one trusted login that securely verifies their identity, so they don't have to create a new password for every website they visit. Not only are we streamlining an inefficient process, but we're also giving individuals full control of their personal data, which is currently scooped up by data brokers. In short, we're creating the identity layer of the internet." Today, over 100,000 people across the U.S. are joining ID.me every day to secure and control their own digital identity and gain secure access to benefits and services. In partnership with Arizona Department of Economic Security (DES), ID.me saved the agency $40 billion in payouts on fraudulent Pandemic Unemployment Assistance claims.

"ID.me is a leader in the business of trust, and Blake Hall is a pioneer in the trusted identity market," said Andy Frank, Managing Director of Fortress. "We're big believers in the company's vision, leadership, and execution, which are driven by Blake's passion to use technology for good. We're excited to back Blake and ID.me as they continue to build the identity layer of the internet." To learn more about ID.me, visit https://www.id.me/ . About ID.me

ID.me simplifies how individuals prove and share their identity online. The ID.me secure digital identity network has 60 million members with over 100,000 new subscribers joining daily, as well as partnerships with 27 states, multiple federal agencies, and over 500 name brand retailers. The company provides identity proofing, authentication, and group affiliation verification for organizations across sectors. The company's technology meets the federal standards for consumer authentication and is approved as a NIST 800-63-3 IAL2 / AAL2 conformant credential service provider by the Kantara Initiative. ID.me 's Identity Gateway also has a Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) Moderate Authority to Operate (ATO). ID.me is the only provider with video chat and is committed to "No Identity Left Behind" to enable all people to have a secure digital identity. To learn more, visit https://www.ID.me/ View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/idme-secures-100-million-from-fortress-to-support-record-growth-and-advance-vision-to-build-the-identity-layer-of-the-internet-301377780.html SOURCE ID.me

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[September 15, 2021] Japan Ranks 12th in the World in Digital Quality of Life Index 2021

VILNIUS, Lithuania, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The third annual edition of the Digital Quality of Life Index (DQL) ranks Japan 12th among 110 countries. Covering 90% of the global population, the DQL study is conducted by the cybersecurity company Surfshark and evaluates countries based on a set of five fundamental digital wellbeing pillars. Japan excels in three, specifically internet affordability (6th), e-government (11th) and e-infrastructure (13th), but displays mediocre results in internet quality (31st), and e-security (32nd). Overall, Japan's DQL has decreased slightly compared to 2020, falling from 9th place to 12th. The country ranks 2nd in Eastern Asia behind South Korea. Mobile internet in South Korea is 3 times faster (144.03 Mbps) than in Japan (41.19 Mbps). On the other hand, people in neighboring South Korea have to work 2 times more (total of 66 min/month) to afford the cheapest broadband internet. Japan's DQL is around 30% better than the global average, but it still has room for improvement in specific areas. Compared to the United Kingdom, Japan has a similar GDP per capita, but e-security of both countries differs substantially  UK ranks 17th in the pillar, while Japan barely makes it to the top 40. Additionally, mobile internet stability in the country only ranks in 96th place and its affordability is low compared to broadband. "Digital opportunities have proved to be more important than ever during the COVID-19 crisis, stressing the importance fr every country to ensure fully remote operational capacities for their economies,"  explains Vytautas Kaziukonis, CEO of Surfshark. "That is why, for the third year in a row, we continue the Digital Quality of Life research, which provides a robust global outlook into how countries excel digitally. The index sets the basis for meaningful discussions about how digital advancement impacts a country's prosperity and where improvements can be made."



In an all-around picture, 6 out of 10 countries holding the highest scores are located in Europe, following last year's trend. Denmark ranks 1st in DQL for the second year in a row and is closely followed by South Korea. Finland ranks 3rd, while Israel and the U.S. round out the top five of 110 nations that were evaluated. The bottom 5 countries are Ethiopia, Cambodia, Cameroon, Guatemala, and Angola. Regionally, the U.S. stands out as a country with the highest digital quality of life in the Americas, while South Korea takes the leading position in Asia. Among countries in Africa, people in South Africa enjoy the highest quality of their digital lives whereas Australia leads in Oceania, outperforming New Zealand in various digital areas.

Other significant findings of the report include: Broadband is globally less affordable this year. Comparing countries included in both DQL20 and DQL21, people have to work 11% more (25 min more) to afford broadband internet in 2021. However, people have to work 29% less (28 min less) to afford mobile internet this year.

The world's worst internet is the least affordable. People in some countries, such as Nigeria , Cote D'Ivoire and Mali require approximately a week's worth of work to afford the internet.

, Cote D'Ivoire and require approximately a week's worth of work to afford the internet. Investing in electronic infrastructure and electronic government contributes to people's digital wellbeing the most. The 2021 DQL research examined a total population of more than 6.9 billion people in terms of five core pillars and 14 underpinning indicators that provide a comprehensive measure. The study is based on open-source information provided by the United Nations, the World Bank, Freedom House, the International Communications Union, and other sources. The final 2021 Digital Quality of Life report and an interactive country comparison tool can be found here: https://surfshark.com/dql2021 Surfshark, a Gold winner at 2021 Cybersecurity Excellence awards as a Most Innovative Security Service of the Year, is a privacy protection toolset developed to provide its users with the ability to control their online presence seamlessly. The core premise of Surfshark is to humanize online privacy protection and develop tools that protect users' privacy beyond the realm of a virtual private network. CONTACT: Paulius Udra

+370-645 26125

paulius@surfsharkpress.com SOURCE Surfshark

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[September 15, 2021] MedStack Raises $3.1M USD in an oversubscribed Pre-Series A round to fuel its growth momentum

TORONTO, Sept. 15, 2021 /CNW/ - MedStack, a Toronto-based healthcare security and privacy compliance automation company, today announced the closing of its latest round of funding, a $3.1 million USD oversubscribed round led by existing investors Blu Venture Investors (BVI) and TELUS Ventures, with participation from new investors York IE, Argonautic Ventures, Archangel Network of Funds, MFD Investments, and existing investor Donville- Kent Asset Management. MedStack is eliminating one of the biggest barriers currently impeding successful healthcare innovation by making it easier for digital health companies to quickly and affordably meet the comprehensive data security and privacy compliance requirements of the healthcare industry. MedStack is trusted by leading digital health companies across North America including Inkblot Therapy, Canada's fastest growing virtual mental health platform, Maple, Canada's largest telemedicine provider, 2020 On-Site, the largest on-site mobile vision provider in the United States, and Benekiva, an emerging US-based insuretech solution that is revolutionizing the way digital claims are processed. "Having MedStack as a partner has been absolutely instrumental to our success," says Luke Vigeant, President at Inkblot. "At Inkblot, we're committed to providing secure, affordable and effective digital counselling to individuals accessing our platform independently or through their company EAP ( Employee Assistance Program). With MedStack's understanding of the hurdles facing today's healthcare industry and ther unique, comprehensive approach to compliance, they've played a key role in helping us get quality mental health care to more people when they need it. MedStack is a must-have partner for anyone looking to build a secure and scalable digital health technology solution."



"The COVID-19 pandemic has elevated the awareness and importance of digital health innovation, establishing a permanent, new normal. We know that cloud-based digital health solutions are key to increasing healthcare capacity, but this is only possible after a foundation of transparency and trust has been established," says Balaji Gopalan, Co-Founder and CEO at MedStack. "MedStack makes this possible. If healthcare service organizations can trust digital health solution vendors to uphold their patient data protection obligations, we can enable better care outcomes for all involved." "We are excited to expand our partnership with MedStack and support their important mission of helping digital health technology solutions come to market in a secure and compliant manner," says Bikram Bakshi, partner at Washington, DC-based BVI. "BVI has been impressed with MedStack's team, and the momentum they have built with their fast growing customer base."

MedStack's offering sits at the intersection of cybersecurity and digital health, two rapidly growing industries that are attracting significant attention. The company was recognized as one of the Top 20 early-stage startups in Canada by the Canadian Innovation Exchange (CIX), as well as one of the Top 50 digital health disruptors by CB Insights and PwC. About Blu Venture Investors (BVI)

Founded in 2010, Blu Venture Investors focuses on early-stage cyber and enterprise software firms. Currently, the firm is invested in 35 cyber companies including ID.me, Cybrary, Huntress Labs, and ThreatQuotient. As an operator-led venture capital firm, Blu's partners bring hands-on expertise across a variety of industries and an investment perspective closely aligned with entrepreneurs.



About MedStack

Launched in 2015, MedStack is a cloud automation technology company built specifically for the needs of the digital health industry. Its standardized platform allows healthcare innovators to deliver ready-to-buy, compliant applications to market and scale their operations with ease. MedStack is emerging as the de facto standard for delivering industry requirements for digital health, with customer deployments in several countries around the world. The company is proudly based in Toronto, Canada. Related Links

https://medstack.co

https://www.bluventureinvestors.com/ SOURCE Medstack Co.

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[September 15, 2021] Metanoia received a new round of funding to fuel its launching into the growing 5G Market

TAIPEI, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Metanoia Communications Inc. (Metanoia), a leading manufacturer of high-speed xDSL/G. fast chipsets for the wireline broadband market is exciting to announce that it has raised a new round of funding to spearhead its 5G Strategy. "Our strategic decision to diversify into the 5G market has become a reality with the introduction of a new 5G product, MT3812, a 5G-NR RF chip", said Mr. Yeh, Metanoia Chairman of the Board. "This fresh new round of funding will benefit Metanoia to strengthen this important strategy." 5G solutions are rapidly moving beyond just providing indoor coverage within buildings or arenas to become the strategic enablers of outdoor network densification for Services Providers. Metanoia's first 5G product, MT3812, is a 2x2 5G-NR RF transceiver chip, targets the emerging 5G market. It will be becoming the key component in strengthening the Service Providers' 5G deployments. "This 5G-NR RF transceiver is our beachhead to address the growing market for 5G Remote Radio Units (RRUs), Small Cells and Customer Premises Equipment (CPEs)," said Didier Boivin, Metanoia Executive Vice President. "By launching a series of 5G chips, Metanoia aims to extend its leadership position in the Broadband Wireline markets to the new and burgeoning 5G market, with the goal of offering a complete portfolio of products that offers comprehnsive value to our customers."



"Metanoia has combined state of the art systems architecture and algorithm expertise to create complex system on chip (SOC) solutions. This new 5G-NR RF chip < MT3812 brings a high-quality solution for the booming 5G applications. As such, it is with our great pleasure to participate in this round of Metanoia's fund-raising together with National Development Fund and Elan Microelectronics Corporation (2458, TW)" said David Weng, General manager of Taiwania Capital. "New 5G products from Metanoia like MT3812 5G-NR RF transceiver brings customers the flexibility and cost-effectiveness needed to meet the market demands." Metanoia's MT3812 is a cost-effective Sub 6 GHz TDD 2x2 RF transceiver with tiny 9x9 mm QFN68 footprints, which supports 200 MHz Bandwidth in both Transmit and Receive modes. It is a highly integrated multi-band programmable and self-calibrated product supporting three of the most popular bands: n90: 2.5 GHz  3.0 GHz, n77: 3.3 GHz  4.2 GHz, and n79: 4.2 GHz  5.0 GHz. MT3812 is designed to interface with any I/Q baseband chip, with significant features such as high dynamic range on its low noise receive chains and high linearity on its low noise transmit chains.

MT3812 Customer Engineering Samples will be available around the end of October 2021, and Production Samples will be available at the end of Q1 in 2022. Metanoia will provide Hardware and Software Development Kits (HDK and SDK) to accelerate time to market for customers. Hardware and Software value-added services would also be offered to customers looking for specific support, including features, designs, tuning, or customization. Metanoia will also offer support to customers in implementing additional features like Digital Pre-Distortion / Crest Factor Reduction (DPD/CFR) as per the PA selected. With this approach, the same system board can be used along with different RF Front End, thereby enabling customers to quickly meet requirements in different markets without the time, effort, and cost of redesigning the whole system. About Metanoia Communications, Inc. Metanoia Communications, a subsidiary of Elan Microelectronics, was established in Hsinchu Science Park, Taiwan. Since its inception, Metanoia has been contributing to the development of several generations of semiconductor and software solutions for the wireline Broadband and the in-home networking markets, delivering to broadband manufacturers very high-speed PHY devices with reliable and superior performances. For more information about Metanoia, please visit our website at www.metanoia-comm.com. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/metanoia-received-a-new-round-of-funding-to-fuel-its-launching-into-the-growing-5g-market-301377215.html SOURCE Metanoia Communications Inc.

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[September 15, 2021] Michigan Based CTS to Join MetroNet

MetroNet, the nation's largest independently owned, 100 percent fiber-optic provider, today announced the acquisition of Southwest Michigan-based CTS (News - Alert) , a fiber-optic internet company serving Battle Creek, Kalamazoo, and several other Michigan communities. The move will allow MetroNet to expand the CTS ultra-high-speed fiber-optic network to reach more Michigan residential and business customers. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, however MetroNet plans to invest more than $100 million to expand fiber-optic network services to many surrounding communities and neighborhoods. "CTS shares our values and our desire to bring customer-focused, fiber-optic telecommunication services to homes and businesses throughout the communities we serve," said John Cinelli, MetroNet CEO. "The Great Lake State deserves access to a future-proofed network that provides reliable, high-speed service and expands economic development potential. By building on what CTS has already accomplished, we will bring that reality for the people and businesses that make up Michigan." "We are excited to become a part of the MetroNet family. This opportunity will bring significant investment in 100 percent fiber-optic infrastructure throughout Kalamazoo and Battle Creek," said Stacey Hamlin, CTS President and CEO. "Through this acquisition, MetroNet will support continued economic development for the communities we serve while supporting the values that guide us." CTS currently serves portions of Battle Creek, Kalamazoo, Portage, Texas Township and Climax in Michigan with Gigabit speed internet. This acquisition will allow MetroNet to leverage CTS' fiber-optic infrastructure to provide these additional areas of these markets with access to lightning-fast service directly to homes and businesses. CTS customerswill continue to benefit from Gigabit internet speeds with no data caps, full-featured fiber phone service and fiber IPTV (News - Alert) .



The two companies are expected to fully integrate under the MetroNet brand in the months to come, and plan to integrate all MetroNet product line features in 2022. About CTS:

Serving communications needs for over 100 years, CTS Telecom Inc. is a provider of voice, internet, and fiber-optic high-speed data services for residential and business customers throughout Southwest Michigan. CTS provides ultra-fast services to portions of Battle Creek, Kalamazoo, Portage, Texas Township and Climax, Michigan. CTS offers customers residential and business fiber-optic internet, business voice phone services, data transport, and business technology solutions. With symmetrical upload and download speeds up to 1 Gigabit, CTS provides customers across service areas with access to secure high-speed fiber-optic internet directly to homes and businesses across service areas. For more information, please visit gocts.com. 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 120 communities across Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, Texas, Wisconsin, and Missouri. 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. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005143/en/

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[September 15, 2021] Mobile Vet Care Catches Wind in the Windy City

CHICAGO, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Mobile veterinary startup, BetterVet , announced its latest launch into a new market today, with seasoned veterinarian Meredith Rives in Chicago, Illinois. Founded by industry-trailblazer Bruce Herzfelder, along with former president of the AVMA, Dr. John de Jong, BetterVet is a first of its kind, family-owned veterinary provider that delivers comprehensive mobile care to pets and pet parents across the nation. BetterVet provides an elevated vetcare experience by meeting the pet in the comfort of his or her own home while saving pet-parents the hassle of wrangling their anxious pet into a carrier and to the vet. Furthermore, they utilize a mobile app and website to provide easy appointment scheduling, virtual vet visits and telehealth communications, access to medical records and certificates, and an online pharmacy, all packaged within their mobile platform. BetterVet's nuanced and modern approach to veterinary medicine promotes a better vet care experience for pets and pet parents alike. Every BetterVet veterinarian is Fear Free Certified as a badge of their commitent to minimizing anxiety and stress for families and their loyal companions.



In pursuit of delivering the highest level of veterinary care, Dr. Meredith Rives in Chicago, Illinois, is thrilled to join a booming BetterVet network of top of the line veterinary providers. "Combining the convenience and ease of technology with excellent care is a winning formula for DVMs, staff, clients AND pets. I am looking forward to doing the work I love with the support of a fantastic team and an innovative company." BetterVet is excited to continue its nationwide expansion through the addition of Dr. Meredith Rives to a team of highly skilled veterinary professionals. Beginning September 28th, BetterVet will be offering customers a free first video consultation, and new clients in the Chicago area can use the promo code CHICAGO95 to receive a $95 discount off of an in-home appointment. To book, either download BetterVet's convenient mobile app, or visit BetterVet's Appointment page via bettervet.com .

About BetterVet

Founded in July, 2020, BetterVet is a truly mobile veterinary service delivering an easy and hassle-free healthcare experience for pets, pet parents and vet care providers. From telemedicine to in-home visits, BetterVet provides all the expert veterinary services you find in a brick-and-mortar practice but in the comfort of your own home, without the stress, anxiety, and inconvenience. BetterVet is currently available in the Greater Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Denver, Austin, Palm Beach and Broward areas, and will be launching soon in more cities across the US. To learn more about BetterVet and to experience better vet care in just a few taps, visit www.bettervet.com , or download the app on any mobile device. Related Links https://www.bettervet.com View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/mobile-vet-care-catches-wind-in-the-windy-city-301376630.html SOURCE BetterVet

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[September 15, 2021] NEA 2021: 26 Outstanding Organisations Recognised to Represent Malaysia at the ASEAN Energy Awards 2021

PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources (KeTSA), Malaysia, virtually announced the winners of the annual National Energy Awards (NEA) 2021 on September 11. The awards, in its fourth consecutive year, recognised a total of 32 local industry players with exceptional achievements in the fields of renewable energy (RE) and energy efficiency (EE), 26 of whom ranked in the top spots. Following a meticulous evaluation series, eight organisations were chosen as winners in the Best Practices in Energy Management category, six for Energy Efficient Buildings and 11 for Best Renewable Energy Projects. In addition, three special awards were granted for Best Practices in Energy Performance Contracting, Best Sustainable Practices by Institutions of Higher Learning and Best Sustainable Financing. The NEA acknowledges organisations from public and private sectors that are committed and have metamorphosed infrastructure and operations for higher energy efficiency to minimise carbon footprint. The first place winners of NEA 2021 will represent Malaysia at the ASEAN Energy Awards (AEA) 2021, Southeast Asia's highest award for excellence in the field of energy. The recipients of AEA 2021 will be announced on 15 September 2021 in conjunction with the 39th ASEAN Ministers on Energy Meeting (AMEM) to be held in Brunei Darussalam..



Datuk Seri Takiyuddin bin Hassan, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, said, "NEA was launched in 2018 as a strategic endeavour to recognise the achievements and best practices of local entities, in embracing sustainable energy initiatives as an effort to reduce the carbon footprints within the energy sector. NEA is instrumental in identifying the best energy efficiency (EE) practices and renewable energy (RE) initiatives by Malaysian establishments and organisations - only the best are selected as winners and to represent Malaysia at the ASEAN Energy Awards." In addition, the introduction of the Special Awards category for Institute of Higher Learning, Energy Performance Contracting or EPC projects, and Financial Institutions is to recognise industry players who have implemented or supported the country's RE and EE development agenda. This is to encourage greater involvement of other sectors and the nation in mainstreaming the sustainable energy development.

Accelerating sustainability and energy efficiency Over the past three years, 69 organisations have represented Malaysia at the ASEAN Energy Awards with more than 40 emerging as winners in various categories. "These achievements augur well with our aspirations to be the leader of sustainable energy in ASEAN," he added. With a steady rise in participation numbers since inception, the NEA is trekking a path to encourage research and development (R&D) efforts as well as innovation in the local technological environment. The NEA is well aligned with the nation's goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 and to spur the energy industry as a new economic sector. For more information on NEA 2021, please visit: www.nationalenergyawards.com.my. About National Energy Awards The NEA is an annual recognition commissioned by the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resource to acknowledge outstanding achievements and best practices in driving the country's sustainable energy agenda. The award was inaugurated in 2018 as part of the ministry's initiative to promote energy efficiency and renewable energy in Malaysia. SOURCE Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources

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[September 15, 2021] New ReliaQuest Study: Organizations are Prioritizing Cybersecurity Initiatives but are Dragged Down by Lack of Fundamentals

Open XDR-as-a-Service leader ReliaQuest, in partnership with Ponemon Research, announced publication of a survey report detailing the needs and priorities of cybersecurity leaders in the United States and United Kingdom. The report, "Making Security Possible and Achieving a Risk-oriented Security Posture," shows that organizations are prioritizing strategic security programs but missing the foundational capabilities they need to make meaningful changes to their security posture. Among the roadblocks to achieving a risk-oriented posture are ineffective security metrics, operational inefficiencies, and the lack of full visibility across their dynamic IT environment. "This research offers insights into the priorities of security leaders, the day-to-day struggles they face and their ambition to support the business through change," said Ashok Sankar, Vice President of Product and Solutions Marketing at ReliaQuest. "While it's positive to see more leaders engaging in strategic approaches to securing their organization, as they look to implement programs like Zero Trust - which can be a multi-year journey - it's important to keep their energy focused on the fundamentals of cybersecurity. Visibility, metrics and process aren't sexy, but they are the building blocks of a resilient security program." Sankar added: "As organizations seek to digitally transform their business and adapt to hybrid work, it's critical that security teams are not only aligned on goals, but also have the proper resources to drive resilient security operations, setting the enterprise up for long-term success." Key insights include: Security leaders are committed to a stronger risk-based security posture 57% of respondents are prioritizing securely migrating applications to the cloud.

Almost half (49%) of security leaders are enabling DevSecOps best practices.

48% of organizations surveyed are prioritizing implementing Zero Trust principles as part of their security stategy.



Security teams are not aligned on their security program or metrics The primary obstacle to implementing an IT security risk management program is a lack of standardized metrics to measure progress (64%), followed by the lack of a risk management strategy and decision-making structure (58%).

58% of respondents say that the lack of a well-defined security and risk management program is what makes their organization most vulnerable to attacks, but only 31% consider developing a risk-reduction program a top security priority.

Only a third (37%) of those surveyed believe that their teams are tracking the right security metrics and that it is easy to communicate them to business executives and board members.

Only about half (49%) rate developing business goal-oriented metrics as one of the top priorities for the next year. Security teams are inhibited by process and operational inefficiencies

31% of respondents report their security staff spends at least 3 hours a day manually administering and managing (optimization, writing rules, integrating) tools.

The majority (57%) of organizations have one staff member managing more than four tools in their organizations. Only 17% have one staff member assigned to manage a single tool.

52% agree that their team is spending too much time on data collection activities instead of threat detection and analysis. Poor enterprise-wide visibility is the main culprit behind risk exposure Only 13% say they have more than 75% visibility across all security tools, including on-premises and the cloud. 69% believe they have less than 50% visibility across all security tools, including on-premises and the cloud.

56% believe they could achieve better threat detection and response efficiency with better visibility by integrating and providing a singular view across tools.

60% state their top challenge in implementing effective threat detection is a lack of integrated visibility into cloud and on-premises sources.

Only about one-third (36%) say they are measuring visibility across the environment, including on-premises and the cloud. The full report is available to download here. Ponemon Research and ReliaQuest will host a webinar to review the findings in greater detail. To register for the online webinar, please visit this link here. Methodology More than 1,000 security leaders were surveyed in the United States (632) and United Kingdom (391) who are familiar with the organizations' security operations and strategy. Participants in this research are knowledgeable about their organizations' efforts in attaining a risk-oriented security posture. Most respondents are involved in implementing solutions (61 percent) followed by evaluating solutions (48 percent). The report presents the consolidated U.S. and U.K. research findings. About ReliaQuest ReliaQuest, the leader in Open XDR-as-a-Service, is the force multiplier for security operations teams. ReliaQuest GreyMatter is a cloud-native Open XDR platform that brings together telemetry from any security and business solution, whether on-premises or in one or multiple clouds, to unify detection, investigation, response, and resilience. ReliaQuest combines the power of technology and 24/7/365 security expertise to give organizations the visibility and coverage they require to make cybersecurity programs more effective. Hundreds of Fortune 1000 organizations trust ReliaQuest GreyMatter to operationalize security investments, ensuring teams focus on the right problems while closing visibility and capability gaps to proactively manage risk and accelerate initiatives for the business. ReliaQuest is a private company headquartered in Tampa, Fla., with multiple global locations. For more information, visit www.reliaquest.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005245/en/

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[September 15, 2021] Private AI Secures $3.15 Million Seed Round to Streamline Privacy Compliance for Enterprises

TORONTO, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Private AI , a developer of privacy-preserving machine learning and natural language processing tools, is pleased to announce that it has secured $3.15 million in seed funding to improve their product offering, expand the team, and accelerate their acquisition of domestic and international customers. The growth financing is led by Microsoft's venture fund M12 and Forum Ventures, following a sixfold revenue increase since January. Private AI's customer base now ranges from startups to multi-billion-dollar companies, including financial institutions and conversational AI companies. "Companies of all sizes are under pressure to comply with customer data governance regulations and to protect sensitive data. In parallel, business digitization is accelerating, and more customer data unlocks more insights and enhanced AI/ML model training capabilities," said M12 Principal Priyanka Mitra. "We're thrilled to support the world-class team at Private AI as they augment their customers' data redaction and pseudonymization capabilities, improving enterprise security posture without sacrificing business intelligence." Joining M12 and Forum Ventures in the $3.15 million heavily oversubscribed seed round is pre-seed investor Differential Ventures, along with new investors Shasta Ventures, Hyperplane Venture Capital, and Parliament Angels, a group of early Twilio employees. The startup has also garnered investments from Ajay Agrawal and Chris Hadfield. The new round brings Private AI's funding total to date to $3.45 million. "This round of funding will help us provide organizations and their developers with world-leading easy-to-integrate tools so they can excel in this post-GDPR world," says Patricia Thaine, CEO of Private AI. "Our partners at M12 and Forum Ventures both have deep expertise in B2B SaaS and developer-focused tools, and their investment and counsel will e key to fuelling our growth."



Private AI was started by Thaine, Pieter Luitjens (CTO), and Professor Gerald Penn (Chief Science Officer). Thaine and Luitjens hold Master's degrees in Computer Science and Engineering, respectively, from the University of Toronto. While experimenting with prototype browser extensions and apps, they realized how susceptible most software and data pipelines were to data leaks or breaches, and how difficult it was to implement adequate privacy safeguards within those workflows. Thus they built a tool to redact sensitive information from text. What distinguishes Private AI from similar offerings is how easily and securely the company's software can be implemented. It only takes three lines of code and operates as a black box. Customer tests have shown that Private AI's system outperforms those of Amazon and Google by significant margins, and are able to operate directly within their clients' workflows and infrastructure, which prevents sensitive data from ever being shared outside clients' systems. The company's state-of-the-art AI models are able to hit greater than 99% accuracy in identifying and redacting personal data across more than fifty different entities (ex. name, address, blood type, zodiac sign, credit card number, etc.) in seven different languages. The AI system performs particularly well on messy, real-world text, such as emails, chat messages and free-text fields in databases.

"Many software engineering teams don't have strong procedures or processes in place to identify and protect this data," says Thaine. "Instead, companies often rely on ineffective and outdated systems that don't work well on messy, real world data, or simply trust their employee onboarding paperwork commitments to protect them." But there's a growing interest in rectifying those gaps, particularly with the advent of more stringent data privacy legislation coming into effect around the world, including Bill C-11 in Canada and the CPRA in California. "From the very first meeting with Patricia, we had complete conviction in the team and their vision. They've built a best-in-class product that ensures enterprises can truly respect and abide by consumers' ever-growing privacy demands  in a cost-effective and simple way," said Jonah Midanik, Managing Partner at Forum Ventures. "We are proud to be on this journey with this team, alongside M12 and other top tier investors." To learn more about Private AI, visit https://www.private-ai.com . ABOUT PRIVATE AI: Private AI is developing privacy-preserving machine learning and natural language processing tools. The company envisions a future in which private, secure, and seamless data analysis enhances creative software development. Designed for developers, the company's software can be deployed in any workflowon-prem, web, or mobilewith just a few lines of code, so users can quickly add privacy protection to their data pipelines. To learn more, visit https://www.private-ai.com . MEDIA CONTACT: Lauren Gill, MAG PR at 318935@email4pr.com, 781-929-5620 View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/private-ai-secures-3-15-million-seed-round-to-streamline-privacy-compliance-for-enterprises-301377343.html SOURCE Private AI

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[September 15, 2021] ProMIS Neurosciences to Present at the Second Annual Undruggable Leaders Forum, September 15-16, 2021

TORONTO and CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Sept. 15, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ProMIS Neurosciences, Inc. (TSX: PMN) (OTCQB: ARFXF), a biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of antibody therapeutics targeting toxic oligomers implicated in the development of neurodegenerative diseases, announced today its participation in the Second Annual Undruggable Leaders Forum, a virtual event to be held on September 15-16.

ProMIS Chief Development Officer, Dr. Johanne Kaplan, will be presenting her talk entitled Selective Targeting of Misfolded Pathogenic Proteins in Neurodegenerative Diseases on Sept.16 at 12:40 PM, EST in the session "The Next Undruggable Leaders". Attendees will learn how ProMIS Neurosciences are using a computational modeling platform to generate monoclonal antibodies selectively targeting conformational epitopes on toxic oligomers of proteins implicated in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and Parkinson's disease.



Registered attendees can view the presentation live during the Conference; a recorded version for attendees will also be available to watch at their convenience. The following link can be used to learn more about the Conference and to register as an attendee: https://www.undruggableleaders.com/register/ About ProMIS Neurosciences

ProMIS Neurosciences, Inc. is a developent stage biotechnology company focused on discovering and developing antibody therapeutics selectively targeting toxic oligomers implicated in the development and progression of neurodegenerative diseases, in particular Alzheimers disease (AD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and Parkinsons disease (PD). The Companys proprietary target discovery engine is based on the use of two complementary techniques. The Company applies its thermodynamic, computational discovery platform -ProMIS and Collective Coordinates - to predict novel targets known as Disease Specific Epitopes on the molecular surface of misfolded proteins. Using this unique approach, the Company is developing novel antibody therapeutics for AD, ALS and PD. ProMIS is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, with offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts. ProMIS is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol PMN, and on the OTCQB Venture Market under the symbol ARFXF.



Visit us at www.promisneurosciences.com, follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn For Investor Relations please contact:

Alpine Equity Advisors

Nicholas Rigopulos, President

nick@alpineequityadv.com

Tel. 617 901-0785

The TSX has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This information release contains certain forward-looking information. Such information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those implied by statements herein, and therefore these statements should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results. All forward-looking statements are based on the Company's current beliefs as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to it as well as other factors. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. Due to risks and uncertainties, including the risks and uncertainties identified by the Company in its public securities filings, actual events may differ materially from current expectations. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.



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[September 15, 2021] Stem, Inc. Announces South America's First Virtual Power Plant and Completes First Smart Energy Storage Project in Chile

Stem, Inc. ("Stem" or "the Company") (NYSE: STEM), a global leader in artificial intelligence (AI)-driven energy storage services, and Copec, one of the largest energy companies in Central and South America, today announced the development of South America's first virtual power plant (VPP) as well as the completion of their first smart energy storage system in Chile. The companies will be working together with Chilquinta Energia S.A. ("Chilquinta"), a local energy supply service company. In July 2020, Stem and Copec announced a partnership to bring Stem's intelligent storage solutions to South America, marking the Company's entrance into this region. The partnership recently completed its first project, a smart energy storage solution for a lubricant manufacturing plant owned by Copec in the Valparaiso Region of Chile. In addition, Stem and Copec have partnered with Chilquinta to establish the first VPP, a network of decentralized behind-the-meter (BTM) power generating sites, in all of South America. For this project, Stem's Athena smart energy storage software has been customized to integrate utility and grid market data points that optimize energy storage assets in the Chilean market. This partnership also involves future collaboration to bring smart energy storage alongside mutual business activities in electric vehicle charging infrastructures and solar project developments. Stem's Athena allows this network of commercial and industrial (C&I) customer sites to deliver both resilience and backup power solutions by automatically aggregating and responding to spikes in electricity use and drawing on stored power to reduce electricity costs for customers. Athena also ensures continuous power and consistent operations to serve the utility's real-time needs, demonstrating the ability to dispatch all the sites when power is needed on the grid. Stem combines this electricity usage and deployment information with data from renewable generation forecasting and monitoring so the utility can effortlessly call upon the stored electricity for added stability during peak demand times. Athena is continuously collecting electricity usage data, creating a virtuous cycle of learning and deep insights to better inform its AI-driven algorithm. "The energy storage market in South America represents a significant growth opportunity for Stem and our partner Copec," said John Carrington, Chief Executive Officer at Stem. "We are proud to have completed our first project under this partnership - positioning Copec as a smart grid participant while driving energy cost reduction and enhancing the sustainability profile of their manufacturing facilities. At the same time, our VPP is set to demonstrate tremendous value to utilities in South America that can leverage distributed energy storage systems to stabilize the grid, similar to what Stem's Athena smart energy storage software is doing in other regions today. I am excited about our future in South America and the benefits we will bring to businesses, utilities, and energy customers." "Copec is focused on driving innovation and sustainability across the energy and mobility segments," added Mauricio de la Torre, New Energies Leader at Copec. "Through our partnership with Stem, we have begun to demonstrate the investment returns of smart energy storage and he tremendous potential for Copec to help Chile meet its ambitious climate goals."



Chile is among the most favorable markets for solar energy with one of the highest solar irradiances and potential for solar generation in the world. Chile has announced in recent years that it will not build new coal-fired power plants and will align with the National Energy Policy 2050, an ambitious set of climate change and renewable energy efficiency goals, for which Chile targets 70% renewable energy electricity by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2050. After hosting the UN Climate Change Conference in 2019, the country leads South America in sustainability strategies. Chile is projected to have a combined opportunity for energy storage nearing 1 GWh over the next decade, based on market estimates from Copec and its subsidiary, Terpel. About Stem, Inc.

Stem, Inc. (NYSE: STEM) provides solutions that address the challenges of today's dynamic energy market. By combining advanced energy storage solutions with Athena, a world-class AI-powered analytics platform, Stem enables customers and partners to optimize energy use by automatically switching between battery power, onsite generation and grid power. Stem's solutions help enterprise customers benefit from a clean, adaptive energy infrastructure and achieve a wide variety of goals, including expense reduction, resilience, sustainability, environmental and corporate responsibility and innovation. Stem also offers full support for solar partners interested in adding storage to standalone, community or commercial solar projects - both behind and in front of the meter. For more information, visit www.stem.com. About Copec Copec is one of the leading energy companies in Central and South America. It was founded in Chile in 1934 and today is also present in Colombia, Panama, Ecuador, Peru and the Dominican Republic (through Terpel) and in the southeast United States (through Mapco). With a robust network of over 3,000 fuel stations and over 1,200 convenience stores in the continent, the company also has leading presence in strategic sectors of the industry including aviation, electric generation, mining, fishing, and transport, among others. Always focused on customer service and innovation, Copec is also working to lead the change for a new era in mobility, energy and convenience, faithful to its promise to facilitate the life in movement. Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This press release, as well as other statements we make, contain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the federal securities laws, which include any statements that are not historical facts. Such statements often contain words such as "expect," "may," "can," "believe," "predict," "plan," "potential," "projected," "projections," "forecast," "estimate," "intend," "anticipate," "ambition," "goal," "target," "think," "should," "could," "would," "will," "hope," "see," "likely," and other similar words. Forward-looking statements address matters that are, to varying degrees, uncertain, such as the opportunity for business growth in South America; the expected benefits of our partnership with Copec; and expected resulting benefits to businesses, utilities and energy customers in South America. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based upon assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by Stem and its management, depend upon inherently uncertain factors and risks that may cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations, including our inability to achieve business growth in South America; our inability to recognize the anticipated benefits of our partnership with Copec, as well as related expected benefits to businesses, utilities and energy customers in South America; risks relating to the development and performance of our energy storage systems and software-enabled services; the risk that the global commitment to decarbonization may not materialize as we predict, or even if it does, that we might not be able to benefit therefrom; our inability to retain or upgrade current customers, further penetrate existing markets or expand into new markets; our inability to secure sufficient inventory from our suppliers to meet customer demand, and provide us with contracted quantities of equipment; supply chain failures or interruptions; manufacturing or delivery delays; disruptions in sales, production, service or other business activities; our inability to help reduce GHG emissions; our inability to seamlessly integrate and optimize energy resources; our inability to attract and retain qualified personnel; the risk that our business, financial condition and results of operations may be adversely affected by other political, economic, business and competitive factors; the effects of competition; and other risks and uncertainties set forth in the section entitled "Risk Factors" in the registration statement on Form S-1 filed with the SEC (News - Alert) on July 19, 2021, and our most recent Forms 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K filed with or furnished to the SEC. If one or more of these or other risks or uncertainties materialize (or the consequences of any such development changes), or should our underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual outcomes may vary materially from those reflected in our forward-looking statements. Statements in this press release are made as of the date hereof, and Stem disclaims any intention or obligation to update publicly or revise such statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005395/en/

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[September 15, 2021] Tigo Energy Partners with Advanced Solar to Grow the Solar Market in Texas

Tigo Energy, Inc., the solar industry's leading Flex MLPE (Module Level Power Electronics) supplier, today announced a partnership with Advanced Solar and Electric, among the largest solar energy providers in Southern Texas. Advanced Solar and Electric is currently the lead customer for a new solar offering from Tigo Energy that will help service the large and growing renewable energy market in Texas. Advanced Solar and Electric is an innovator in the residential energy field, with more than 4,000 satisfied customers in the South Texas area. Since 2017, the company has implemented a unique Power Generation Guaranty for homeowners. This guarantee takes the guesswork out of the process for homeowners and provides the peace of mind ad security for the first three years of system ownership. The service is made possible by the high-quality design, installation, and electrical work provided by the in-house team of expert solar professionals at Advanced Solar. As the only contractor in San Antonio that offers a warranty on installation and energy production, Advanced Solar strives to support installation value and success.



"Advanced Solar is the ideal type of partner for Tigo and our newest product families," said Jurgen Krehnke, chief commercial officer, at Tigo Energy. "The combination of high-quality workmanship, solar energy expertise, and unsurpassed customer service matches the value propositions of the forthcoming Tigo products as we enter this exciting market together." "Tigo Energy has always been an entrepreneurial company, and we are excited about this new set of products," said Don Dickey, founder and owner and chief operating officer, at Advanced Solar and Electric. "We are proud to be the first installer in the world to offer a new solution from Tigo to our customers in South Texas."

Tigo Energy is meeting with its installer customers and partners during the week of September 20, 2021, to deliver product and technical briefings about the Company's innovative new solar solution. To schedule a meeting to learn about the new product offering, please go to the Tigo Website. A formal product announcement is planned prior to the end of September 2021. About Tigo Energy Tigo Energy is the worldwide leader in Flex MLPE (Module Level Power Electronics) with innovative solutions that increase solar energy production, decrease operating costs, and significantly enhance safety of solar energy systems. The Tigo TS4 platform maximizes the benefit of solar and provides customers with the most scalable, versatile, and reliable MLPE solution available. Tigo was founded in Silicon Valley in 2007 to accelerate the adoption of solar energy worldwide. Tigo systems operate on seven continents and produce gigawatt hours of reliable, clean, affordable, and safe solar energy daily. With a global team, Tigo Energy is dedicated to making the best MLPE on earth so more people can enjoy the benefits of solar. Find us online at www.tigoenergy.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005228/en/

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[September 15, 2021] Vacasa Drops Its 2021 Fall Travel Survey & Trend Report

Can you be-leaf it? Fall is nearly here and, though it's typically a shoulder season for travel, 2020 demand for certain types of vacations-like camping and vacation rental beach getaways-remained strong. Vacasa, North America's leading vacation rental management platform, teamed up with Allison+Partners to survey* 1,000 Americans and see if that trend will hold steady for the 2021 season, as well as how, where and why people are planning autumn vacations. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005379/en/ Cadillac Mountain Overlook near Maine's Acadia National Park, one of Vacasa's most popular fall destinations. (Photo: Business Wire) Despite ongoing concern around the delta variant, findings show that people are still prioritizing vacations this fall-with safety top of mind. Sixty-two percent of respondents have already or are likely to receive the vaccine before traveling, and are favoring road trips and destinations with ample outdoor activities (leaf peeping, anyone?). That aligns with what Vacasa data raked in too, with nature-rich vacation spots like Outer Banks, North Carolina; Moab, Utah; and markets surrounding Acadia National Park in Maine, all among the most popular escapes for September and October. With that in mind, here's a snapsot of the findings harvested from Vacasa's 2021 Fall Travel Trends report, released today:



Work-cations are fully charged for fall: respondents who work remote or in a hybrid format are the most likely to plan to travel (75% and 71%, respectively).

Back to school means parents get a break too, right? While 48% of parents are planning to travel with their kids, a near-even 46% are planning a vacation with their spouse only.

More than half (53%) of travelers are planning to take a trip this season that was postponed from earlier in the year-however, it varies by generation. 71% of Gen Zers are planning makeup trips, while 63% of Boomers are making fresh travel plans.

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree: regardless of current travel plans, 41% of Americans would most likely travel for a family event (birthday, reunion, etc.), with 35% of consumers saying that a family reunion would most inspire them to travel-an increase from a similar survey fielded in summer 2021.

inspire them to travel-an increase from a similar survey fielded in summer 2021. Most people would prefer to stay grounded if they were to travel this fall too, with more than half of U.S. consumers favoring a road trip (53%), followed by a domestic trip within the U.S. (42%) and a camping trip (23%).

In relation to the COVID-19 pandemic, 32% of travelers say that new COVID-19 variants will factor into their upcoming travel plans, along with the number of restrictions in their desired destination (29%) and COVID-19 vaccine requirements (27%). *Allison+Partners Research + Insights surveyed 1,001 individuals over the age of 18 in the United States. The survey was fielded using the Qualtrics Insight Platform and panel was sourced from Lucid. Fielding was executed in August 2021. About Vacasa

Vacasa is the leading vacation rental management platform in North America, transforming the vacation rental experience by integrating purpose-built technology with expert local and national teams. Homeowners enjoy earning significant incremental income on one of their most valuable assets, delivered by Vacasa's unmatched technology that adjusts rates in real time to maximize revenue. Guests can relax comfortably in Vacasa's 30,000+ homes across more than 400 destinations in North America, Belize and Costa Rica, knowing that 24/7 support is just a phone call away. In addition to enabling guests to search, discover and book its properties on Vacasa.com and the Vacasa Guest App, Vacasa provides valuable, professionally managed inventory to top channel partners, including Airbnb, Booking.com and Vrbo. In Summer 2021, Vacasa entered into an agreement to become a publicly traded company through a business combination with TPG Pace Solutions (NYSE: TPGS), a special purpose acquisition company ("SPAC"). Interested parties should refer to the registration statement on Form S-4 filed by Vacasa, Inc. with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for important information regarding TPG Pace Solutions, Vacasa and the proposed business combination. For more information, visit https://www.vacasa.com/press. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005379/en/

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[September 14, 2021] INFODAS SDoT Security Gateway receives EU SECRET approval enabling digitization of EU Classified Information systems

COLOGNE, Germany, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The bi-directional SDoT Security Gateway received a general SECRET UE / EU SECRET approval from the Council of the European Union after an in-depth second nation evaluation. INFODAS is the only Cross Domain Solution (CDS) and Cybersecurity vendor in the world with a product portfolio that holds triple evaluations and approvals for EU, NATO and German SECRET. SDoT products cover any use-case from data center to deployable edge. As the flagship SDoT product, the bi-directional data guard controls exchange of structured and unstructured data to protect EU Classified Information (EUCI). The general EU SECRET approval makes it easy for EU institutions, bodies, offices or agencies and EU Member States to get communication and information systems (CIS) classified EU SECRET and below that require cross domain data exchanges accredited by a Security Accreditation Authority (SAA). In past, IT systems with classified information were physically separated from other government networks. The European Council's security rules for protecting EU classified information (EUCI) dating back to 2013 do not make clear reference to cross domain solutions but put emphasis cryptographic products and physical movement of classified data on electronic media devices. Given the fact that cross domain solution technology was in its infancy at the time EUCI regulations were written, this is no surprise. However, the EUCI reulation may now prevent end-to-end digitization of classified domains and requirements for rapid decision making among EU institutions and EU Member States. SDoT Cross Domain Solutions enable near real time classified data sharing as well as fusion between systems and people. They combine a protocol break with in-depth inspection, transformation and monitoring of data transfers, ensuring only correct and authorized information crosses systems at different security levels. Now an IT system classified EU / OCCAR / EC SECRET can directly interact with systems classified CONFIDENTIEL UE/EU CONFIDENTIAL, RESTREINT UE/EU RESTRICTED, OCCAR CONFIDENTIAL, OCCAR RESTRICTED, EC-CONFIDENTIAL and EC-COMMITTEES. Soon, the sneaker-net will be thing of the past.



All elements of the Secure Domain Transition (SDoT) Product Family meet the highest requirements for hardware and software security at the SECRET and below interoperability level (SABI). They are developed and manufactured in Germany with full supply chain transparency. They are available as 19" appliances or deployable sizes for vehicles. Other products include the SDoT Security Gateway Express optimized for near real-time, low latency filtering of structured data such as XML or JSON. Just like the SDoT Diode for unidirectional data transfer up to 9.1 Gbit/s, both products hold a general NATO, EU and German SECRET approvals. They are complemented by the SDoT Labelling Service for NATO STANAG 4774/8 compliant data classification with XML security labels that are cryptographically bound to any data object such as MS Office documents. For over 10 years SDoT products have been used in the toughest and mission critical environments around the world. "To maintain product approvals and increase customer value our team is constantly pushing the boundaries of the security architecture and functionality. We are looking forward to work with EU institutions and EU Member States to digitize mission critical domains and make EUCI data sharing easier", said Dr. Alexander Schellong, VP Global Business.

About INFODAS  connect more.be secure INFODAS is an independent, family owned business founded in 1974 in Germany. The company develops innovative cross domain solutions based on security-by-design principles and provides Cybersecurity, IT and AI consulting to government, defense and commercial clients. INFODAS SDoT product family cross domain solutions (SDoT Security Gateway, SDoT Software Data Diode, SDoT Labelling Service, PATCH.works) are approved up to German, EU, NATO SECRET and are listed in the NATO information assurance catalogue. For the past 10 years SDoT products have been used in the toughest and mission critical environments around the world. They are designed and manufactured in Germany following the security-by-design principle and supply chain transparency. Website

LinkedIn

Twitter Contact



INFODAS GmbH

Dr. Alexander Schellong

Tel. +49 (0)221 70912234

marketing@infodas.de SOURCE infodas GmbH

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[September 14, 2021] LG Innotek developed the world's strongest 'ECO Magnet'

The magnet minimizes the risk of vehicle production interruption by a shortage of heavy ra re-earth metals. It also lightens a vehicle's weight by reducing the size and increasing the output of motors.

The product can improve the driving power of smartphone cameras by 10% and secure high-definition image quality.

LG Innotek expects to strengthen the competitive edge of its products such as motors using the eco magnet. The company will expand the applications of this magnet to home appliances and flying cars. SEOUL, South Korea, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- LG Innotek announced on the 14th that it has developed the world's strongest 'eco magnet' in collaboration with the magnet company SGI (Sunglim Group Industry) Co. With this development, LG Innotek will be able to target the global magnet industry led by China and Japan. The eco magnet minimized the use of heavy rare-earth (HRE) metals that have high scarcity values. This magnet is an essential component for vehicle motors, smartphone cameras, audio speakers, and wind power generators. It is installed in products that require driving and provides power with its magnetic pushing and pulling force. This product significantly reduced the use of HRE metals, a key ingredient of magnets, by 60% compared to the previous product. This is especially good news since the industry is struggling to find alternatives of HRE metals due to their lack of supply, high price, and environmental pollution caused. LG Innotek's development of the eco magnet is particularly significant in that South Korea imports most of the HRE metals from China. The product has raised the magnetic performance for home appliances and vehicle steering motors to 14.8 kG (in kilogauss, magnet strength), which is the world's highest level. This beats the products of Japanese companies that have led the industry for nearly 40 years. The industry believes that the technical performance limit of ths magnet is 15kG. The magnetic performance of products commercialized so far is only 14.2 to 14.3 kG.



The advantage of the eco magnet is that it uses only 40% of the HRE metals compared to the previous one. This minimizes the risk of production interruption due to a lack of raw material supply. Automakers and vehicle components companies are showing interest in this magnet, because they have been struggling to reduce the proportion of HRE metals in their products. These companies are sensing the increasing risk of production interruption by a shortage of HRE metals supply. HRE metals can only be produced in certain countries, however the demands have soared recently due to the increase of electric vehicles. In addition, their supply is expected to get even tighter as these materials are becoming "weaponized" over diplomatic disputes.

Applying the eco magnet to a steering motor of a vehicle is advantageous for reducing the weight of the vehicle. The magnet reduces the size of the motor while increasing its output; the high magnetic power enables high motor output with a small size. This product is suitable for electric and hybrid vehicles that need weight reduction to improve mileage range (fuel economy of electric vehicles) due to an increase in battery weight. This magnet can also cut the cost of raw materials such as copper used in motors as it decreases the motor size. When the eco magnet is applied to a high-pixel smartphone camera, it produces clearer photos and videos by increasing the driving force of the actuator (the part that moves the lens to focus). As the specifications of smartphone cameras have enhanced, the size and weight of lenses have increased. And this now requires actuators to have stronger magnetic power. At the same time, as smartphones get slimmer, the demands for small but powerful magnets are increasing. The eco magnet generates a stronger magnetic force than other magnets of the same size. This can increase the driving power of an actuator by about 10% without an increase in size. Therefore, even if a lens becomes heavier, the actuator can move the lens as quickly and accurately as needed. The development of Eco-magnet is also significant in terms of sustainability since it minimized the use of HRE metals that cause pollution. HRE metals seriously pollute the environment by generating lots of radioactive materials, heavy metals, toxic gases, and acidic wastewater during production. Until now, Japan, with its cutting-edge technology, and China, with its price competitiveness, have dominated the magnet market. In particular, China is dominating the global market by deciding on the global supply of HRE metals. As a result, companies around the world such as automakers have been adversely affected by shortage of magnets with HRE metals when trade or diplomatic disputes arose. High prices and environmental pollution issues also need to be handled. To solve such problems, LG Innotek began developing the eco magnet with reduced HRE metals in 2017 and has been focusing on securing the best magnetic performance since 2019. To this end, LG Innotek also joined hands with SGI, which has an HRE metal reduction technology. HRE metals are an essential component to maintain magnetic force at high temperatures. Reducing these metals may decrease the durability of a magnet. Therefore, it was technically difficult to enhance the magnetic force while minimizing the use of HRE metals. By adding new compounds, the two companies have developed a coating liquid for the eco magnet that uses less HRE metals however produces the strongest magnetic force in various products and temperatures. In addition, the companies also secured a new magnet material optimized for the coating liquid. LG Innotek's eco magnet is made by applying this coating liquid to the magnet and heating the magnet to absorb the liquid evenly. LG Innotek knew that it could not catch up with Japanese competitors' technologies in a short period of time with the existing development method. To speed up the process, the company introduced a simulation technique using machine learning (a technology that a computer automatically determines and results in outputs by learning from data). Using this technique, the development period, which takes at least two years, has been halved. With the machine learning computer, LG Innotek has significantly reduced the number and time of experiments by automating the process of deriving optimal process conditions such as the ratio of HRE metals and heat treatment temperature. Previously, researchers had to repeat experiments hundreds of times, which made the development period long and incurred errors. LG Innotek plans to strengthen its competitive edge in the market by applying the eco magnet to the company's other products such as steering motors for vehicles and smartphone actuators. At the same time, LG Innotek plans promotions targeting global automakers, vehicle components manufacturers, and smartphone companies. And it will quickly expand the magnet's applications to air conditioners, refrigerators, drones, urban flying cars, and generators. In addition to solidify its technical leadership in magnet, the company has a plan to develop a 'non-rare-earth magnet' that does not contain rare-earth metals at all. CTO Minseok Kang said, "It is meaningful that LG Innotek supplies the new product with the best performance and quality by developing its core materials in a short period of time using innovative technology. We will continue to provide differentiated values to customers with the eco magnet." For more information about LG Innotek, please refer to the website: www.lginnotek.com SOURCE LG Innotek

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[September 14, 2021] THAIGROOVE is back better and bolder

A virtual multi-brand showroom experience offering great creations to the world. BANGKOK, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- With COVID-19 in its second year, global businesses and trades have gone virtual. Even with the pandemic, Thailand, one of the world's best sources of great products and impressive brands, is open for business and offering creative products. The Department of International Trade Promotion (DITP), under the Ministry of Commerce, launched THAIGROOVE.COM in 2020. It's a virtual showroom that connects buyers from around the globe with the very best Thai brands and creators. Building on its success, THAIGROOVE 2021 now offers more brands of creative products on one seamless trading platform. Mr. Nantapong Chiralerspong, Deputy Director-General, said: "The future of trade is virtual and a well-designed trade experience is key. We've taken THAIGROOVE.COM to another level, showcasing close to 200 leading Thai lifestyle creators offering the latest collections of products. International buyers and trade partners will find the perfect brands to drive growth for 2021 and beyond. There's no end to the Thai creative spirit." With close to 200 curated Thai brans waiting, go on an exciting creative discovery under the theme "Let's GROOVE and Live Fully!" with new partnership opportunities at every encounter:



Selected certified quality brands from food to well-being, furniture and fashion to cool lifestyle creators.

Packed with beautiful rich content.

Inspiring yet easy navigation by brands, by categories, or by collections.

Connect directly with the brand makers. Don't miss a 5-day meet-the-makers event on THAITRADE.COM from 29th November to 3rd December 2021. Meet close to 200 Thai makers and brands showcasing their latest creations. Visit http://www.thaitrade.com to register. The THAIGROOVE.COM virtual showroom will unveil exciting new brands with six new LIVE FULLY collections on September 15th, 2021. Explore the six concept collections that highlight the spirit of living fully:

MINDFULLY: Caring for the mind matters for well-being. The Mindfully collection features wellness solutions that will put mindfulness back into peoples' lives. TASTEFULLY: Tasty Thai food products from flavorful spices to wholesome snacks, natural honey and coconuts, and ready meals. JOYFULLY: Add a spark of joy to daily life with quirky decorative items, games and toys, fun fashion, and colorful crafts. BEAUTIFULLY: Beautiful jewelry meets beautiful wellness creations, innerwear, and crafted accessories to bring pleasure and beauty into everyday living. ARTFULLY: This collection features unique home decor designs, artful accessories, stationery, and pottery where traditional crafts are designed for cutting-edge living. PURPOSEFULLY: Creations that speak volumes but take the planet and communities seriously. From fashion to wellness and home decor, all with a purpose. Visit THAIGROOVE.COM - a virtual platform that is always ready for business and open for exciting new trade partnerships. Watch for additions of selected brands and exciting content. Join the groove with a truly global reach from Thailand to the world. #THAIGROOVE #LETSGROOVE #GLOBALSHOWROOM #GLOBALMATCHING #DITP Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1609503/THAIGROOVE_collage_01.jpg

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1609504/Tastefully.jpg

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[September 14, 2021] Introducing GGaide: The Quebec Video Game Industry's New Fundraising Conference Benefiting Centraide of Greater Montreal

GGaide is an initiative of Techaide supported by Behaviour Interactive, Eidos Montreal, Frima, Gameloft Montreal, La Guilde du jeu video du Quebec, Legion Labs, Ludia Games , and Square Enix Montreal

Program includes expert panels and keynotes on the future of gaming and creating games for a female audience, a silent auction, and more. Tickets on sale now MONTREAL, Sept. 14, 2021 /CNW Telbec/ - The studios of Quebec's thriving video game ecosystem share a desire to give back to the community. On September 30, 2021, studios from across the province will team up for the first edition of GGaide, a one-day virtual conference featuring expert panels and keynote talks on the future of gaming. All proceeds from the event will be donated to Centraide of Greater Montreal, an organization that collects and invests funds locally to fight poverty and social exclusion.



Where: Virtual event

When: September 30, 2021 9 am to 5 pm ET How: Tickets are $50 and can be purchased here . A donation receipt will be issued. Please note that our partner Red Barrels will match your donation, up to $7,000. All conferences will be offered with simultaneous French and/or English interpretation. PROGRAM Inspiring Conversations with Women from the Video Game Industry For its second edition, Next Lev'Elles, an event created by Gameloft Montreal, Ludia Games, and Square Enix Montreal to amplify the voices of women in the video game industry, is proud to join forces with GGaide. The Next Lev'Elles 2 conference, moderated by Journalist, Analyst, and Podcaster Amanda Farough, brings together a keynote talk by Jenny McBean, Research Director of Bryter's annual Female Gamers study, and a panel of inspiring women leaders from Montreal's mobile game sector who will share insights on creating games for a female audience. Expert Panels on the Future of Game Technology GGaide panelists will explore what's in store for the video game industry by discussing hot technology topics such as Cloud Gaming, User-Generated Content, and Live Operations. Experts from Behaviour Interactive, Bethesda, EA, Eidos Sherbrooke, Frima Studio, Haven Studios, Legion Labs, Square Enix Montreal, Turbulent, Ubisoft Montreal, and Unity Montreal, and will share their expertise for a great cause. Keynote speakers GGaide will kick off with a keynote talk by Marc Petit, Unreal Engine VP and General Manager at Epic Games. Andre Gauthier, Studio Head at Unity Montreal, will provide the afternoon keynote. Silent Auction GGaide also includes a silent auction that opens September 21 to raise additional funds for Centraide of Greater Montreal. ABOUT TECHAIDE

Techaide is a grassroots collective created to inspire the Montreal tech ecosystem to get together to give back to our local community. Techaide unites people from diverse backgrounds and life stories, while having a common goal to raise funds, mobilize resources and encourage innovative approaches to help eradicate social inequalities. They believe everyone living in Greater Montreal should have the opportunity to thrive. For more information, please contact ggaide@techaidemontreal.org . SOURCE Techaide

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[September 15, 2021] DISCO Announces Pricing of Secondary Public Offering of Common Stock

CS Disco, Inc. ("DISCO") (NYSE:LAW), today announced the pricing of an underwritten public offering of 5,500,000 shares of common stock by certain stockholders of DISCO (the "Selling Stockholders") at a price of $53.00 per share. The Selling Stockholders have also granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 550,000 shares of common stock at the public offering price, less underwriting discounts and commissions. DISCO will not receive any proceeds from the sale of shares by the Selling Stockholders. The offering is expected to close on September 17, 2021, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions. J.P. Morgan Securities LLC and BofA Securities Inc. are acting as lead book-running managers and representatives for the underwriters for the offering. Citigroup Global Markets, Inc., Jefferies LLC and Piper Sandler & Co. are also acting as book-running managers for the offering, and Canaccord Genuity LLC, Cowen and Company, LLC, Needham & Company LLC, Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated and Loop Capital Markets LLC are acting as co-managers for the offering. A registration statement on Form S-1 relating to these securities has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and was declared effective on September 14, 2021. The offering is being made only by means of a prospectus forming part of the effective registration statement relating to the offering. Copies of the final prospectus, when available, may be obtained from: J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, c/o: Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, NY 11717, by telephone at (866) 803-9204 or by email at prospectus-eq_fi@jpmorganchase.com and BofA Securities, NC1-004-03-43, 200 North College Street, 3rd Floor, Charlotte, NC 28255-0001, attention: Prospectus Department, or by email at dg.prospectus_requests@bofa.com. This press release shall not constitute an ofer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy these securities, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation, or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.



About DISCO DISCO (NYSE:LAW) provides a cloud-native, artificial intelligence-powered legal solution that simplifies ediscovery, legal document review and case management for enterprises, law firms, legal services providers and governments. Our scalable, integrated solution enables legal departments to easily collect, process and review enterprise data that is relevant or potentially relevant to legal matters.

References to "DISCO", the "Company," "our," or "we" in this press release refer to CS Disco, Inc. and its subsidiaries on a consolidated basis. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements, including, among other things, statements regarding the completion, timing and size of the proposed offering. Words such as "may," "should," "will," "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "target," "project," and similar phrases that denote future expectation or intent regarding DISCO's financial results, operations, and other matters are intended to identify forward-looking statements. You should not rely upon forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. The outcome of the events described in these forward-looking statements is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause DISCO's actual results, performance, or achievements to differ materially, including (i) our history of operating losses, (ii) our limited operating history, (iii) our ability to maintain and advance our innovation and brand; (iv) our ability to effectively add new customers; (v) our ability to effectively increase usage and penetration with our existing customer base; (vi) our ability to expand our sales coverage and establish a digital sales channel; (vii) DISCO's ability to expand internationally; (viii) our ability to extend and strengthen our channel partnerships and integrations; (ix) our ability to expand our offering portfolio to a wider range of legal processes outside of our current core offerings; (x) our ability to pursue strategic acquisitions and strategic investments to expand the functionality and value of our solution; (xi) our ability to comply or remain in compliance with laws and regulations that currently apply or become applicable to our business in the jurisdictions in which it operates; (xii) the potential that our computer or electronic systems, applications or services, or those of any third parties on whom we depend, fail or suffer security or data privacy breaches or other unauthorized or improper access to, use of, or destruction of our proprietary or confidential data, employee data, or personal data; (xiii) our ability to compete effectively with existing competitors and new market entrants; (xiv) general market, political, economic, and business conditions; and (xv) the impact that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and any related economic downturn could have on our or our customers' businesses, financial condition and results of operations. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are also subject to additional risks, uncertainties, and factors, including those more fully described in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our registration statement on Form S-1 relating to this offering and our quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended June 30, 2021, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on September 3, 2021. Further information on potential risks that could affect actual results will be included in the subsequent periodic and current reports and other filings that we make with the SEC (News - Alert) from time to time. Forward-looking statements represent DISCO's management's beliefs and assumptions only as of the date such statements are made. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made in this press release to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this press release or to reflect new information or the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210914006257/en/

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[September 15, 2021] Aker Solutions Wins Subsea FEED Contract for NOA Fulla

OSLO, Norway, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Aker Solutions has been awarded a front-end engineering and design (FEED) contract from Aker BP for the NOA Fulla field development on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. The subsea FEED contract makes the company well positioned for further contracts if the field development moves into the execution phase in 2022. It could potentially represent work in the range of a very large1 contract for Aker Solutions, subject to final investment decision. The scope of the subsea production systems (SPS) FEED is planned to include 14 standardized vertical subsea trees, Vectus 6.0 based Control system modules, four six-slot manifolds, wellheads and a large number of tie-in and connection systems. It will also include close to 60 kilometers of umbilicals. The SPS project will be executed through the Subsea Alliance between Aker BP, Aker Solutions and Subsea 7, building on shared goals and incentives as well as a strategy to leverage technology and digital solutions in new ways to reduce carbon footprint. The award follows the successful completion of the front-end concept and study phase, and work starts immediately with planned completion at the end of the third quarter of 2022. The FEED work will be led by Aker Solutions' ffice in Tranby, Norway.



"This award continues our long-standing collaboration with Aker BP. Through the Subsea Alliance, we are early involved in the field development, optimizing design solutions and contributing to a positive final investment decision for the operators. We look forward to continuing our alliance with Aker BP and Subsea 7, with a continued strong focus on safe and efficient operations while helping to reduce the carbon footprint," said Maria Peralta, executive vice president and head of Aker Solutions' subsea business. About the Field The NOAKA area is located between Oseberg and Alvheim in the Norwegian North Sea. The area holds several oil and gas discoveries with gross recoverable resources estimated at more than 500 million barrels of oil equivalents, with further exploration and appraisal potential. Aker BP and Equinor will jointly develop and operate NOAKA, with LOTOS Exploration and Production Norge AS as license partner. Aker BP is operator of NOA Fulla. Equinor of Krafla.

The ambition is to develop the NOAKA area with a minimal carbon footprint and the facilities will be powered from shore. Digital solutions will be used extensively to ensure high efficiency and low emissions. 1Aker Solutions defines a very large contract as being between NOK 2.0 billion and NOK 3.0 billion. Investor Contact: Fredrik Berge, mob: +47 450 32 090, email: fredrik.berge@akersolutions.com This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com https://news.cision.com/aker-solutions-asa/r/aker-solutions-wins-subsea-feed-contract-for-noa-fulla,c3415169

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[September 15, 2021] Reed Tradex Vietnam Organized SIE and VME 2021

HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam, Sept. 16, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Reed Tradex Vietnam in co-operation with the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) Hanoi and Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency (VIETRADE), Ministry of Trade and Industry (MOIT) to organize the digital opening ceremony of the 02 annual international exhibitions: The 9th Vietnam-Japan Supporting Industries (SIE) and Vietnam Manufacturing Expo (VME) 2021, will be held ONLINE from 15 to 17 September 2021 as 1st digital edition. Mr. Do Thang Hai, Deputy Minister - Ministry of Trade and Industry (MOIT), delivered speech: "The Ministry of Industry and Trade believes that this series of exhibitions will continue to bring practical opportunities for businesses in the supporting industries in Vietnam to approach and update with new market trends, innovative achievements and technologies." From the Embassy of Japan in Vitnam, Mr. Daisuke Okabe, Minister, shared welcome speech: "This is the first time the 02 international exhibitions are organized in the form of an online format and in the 2nd session of the Opening Ceremony, there will be the Panel discussion for business consulting, support for manufacturers and supporting industries firms."



The Chief Representative of Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) in Hanoi, Mr. Takeo Nakajima, emphasized: "During SIE 2017 and 2019 in Hanoi, 136 Japanese and Vietnamese enterprises participated and achieved more than 8,500 trading agreements, the total value of contracts was 3.8 million USD. In 2021, from the Japanese business side, there will be 12 big enterprises and 8 small and medium enterprises in transport equipment, electric-electronics and other enterprises in manufacturing." Mr. Vu Trong Tai, General Manager, Reed Tradex Vietnam, representative of the Organizing Committee - VME 2021 shared: "VME 2021 will play the role as 'connection gate' for exhibitors and visitors, importers and exporters, distributors, buyers and sellers from all over the world under the theme Factory of the Future. At the exhibitor's online booths, many products, advanced industrial machinery, and equipment will be showcased." To support the local and SMEs, the USAID LinkSME Project will join hands in supporting Vietnamese SME manufacturers to participate in the global supply chain. With the participation of exhibitors from more than 10 countries/regions and over 100 famous brands from Japan, USA, Korea, Mainland China, Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand, Germany, Russia, India during three days from 15-17 September 2021, there will be series of seminars, advanced technology updates and the complimentary Panel discussion for business consulting, under the Business Innovation Zone Project, initiated by Reed Tradex since 2020 to support businesses to recover during and after Covid-19. For more details, please visit: www.vme-expo.com

Sophie Kim Tho

Phone Number: +84-93-777-2297

Email: tho.le@reedtradex.vn SOURCE Reed Tradex

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[September 15, 2021] Royal Stoke University Hospital Deploys Vocera Solution to Improve Care Team Collaboration and Patient Safety During COVID-19

Vocera Communications, Inc. (NYSE:VCRA), a recognized leader in clinical communication and workflow solutions, today announced that Royal Stoke University Hospital (part of University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust in the UK) deployed the Vocera (News - Alert) Badge across its emergency department to streamline communication and collaboration among team members, enabling better patient flow, care and safety. The hands-free communication devices were funded by a grant to support the hospital's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The voice-controlled Badge can be worn under personal protective equipment (PPE), helping protect staff from the need to don and doff PPE for important care team connection and potentially reduce the risk of contamination. By simply saying a name, role or team, healthcare workers can connect and collaborate completely hands-free, even in isolation, while scrubbed in, or in PPE. "Vocera has allowed us to improve patient care by making it easier for clinicians to communicate quickly and safely," said Dr. Brijesh Patel, Emergency Medicine Consultant at Royal Stoke (News - Alert) University Hospital. "We are a big hospital with many compartmentalized divisions and reaching the right clinician is the key to providing better patient care. The Vocera Badge allows us to quickly communicate, reduce delays, and increase responsiveness." Purpose built for healthcare, a nurse, doctor, or other care team member wearing a Badge can use simple voice commands to reach a specific person, request supplies, or get help. Based on the impact at Royal Stoke University Hospital, University Hspitals of North Midlands NHS Trust plans to implement the solution in the emergency department at County Hospital in Stafford.



"We are proud to support University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust and the frontline workers at Royal Stoke University Hospital as they care for patients, families and the community throughout the pandemic and beyond," said Brent Lang, Chairman and CEO for Vocera. About Royal Stoke University Hospital

Royal Stoke University Hospital is a teaching and research hospital located in Stoke-on-Trent. It is one of the largest hospitals in the country and a major local employer, with more than 6,000 staff. It is part of University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust (UHNM), which cares for over two million people. UHNM provides specialized services in trauma, cancer diagnosis and treatment, management of liver disease, neonatal and pediatric intensive care, and respiratory conditions. It also boasts expertise in spinal surgery, upper gastro-intestinal surgery, complex orthopedic surgery, laparoscopic surgery, cardiothoracic surgery, and neurosurgery with some of the most modern operating theatres in Europe. For more information, visit www.uhnm.nhs.uk. About Vocera The mission of Vocera Communications, Inc. is to improve the lives of healthcare professionals, patients, and families. Founded in 2000, Vocera provides solutions that help protect and connect team members, simplify workflows, increase efficiency, enhance quality of care and safety, and humanize the healthcare experience. More than 2,300 facilities worldwide, including nearly 1,900 hospitals and healthcare facilities, have selected Vocera solutions to enable their workforce to communicate and collaborate with co-workers and engage with patients and families. Mobile workers can choose the right device for their role or task, including smartphones or one of the company's wearable communication devices, and use voice commands to easily reach people by name, role, or group. The hands-free Vocera Smartbadge was named to TIME's list of the 100 Best Inventions of 2020. Vocera solutions can integrate with more than 150 clinical and operational systems, including electronic health records, nurse call systems, ventilators, physiological monitors, and more. In addition to healthcare, Vocera solutions are found in aged care facilities, veterinary hospitals, schools, luxury hotels, retail stores, power facilities, and more. Visit www.vocera.com to learn more and follow @VoceraComm on Twitter (News - Alert) . Vocera and the Vocera logo are trademarks of Vocera Communications, Inc. registered in the United States and other jurisdictions. All other trademarks appearing in this release are the property of their respective owners. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005321/en/

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[September 15, 2021] Fit For Work With Verified Health Credentials

CALGARY, Alberta, Sept. 15, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Credivera announced today that it has expanded its service offerings to their customers through a collaboration with BTNX Inc. (BTNX), a biotechnology company and world leader in rapid, diagnostic testing solutions. BTNX will integrate with Crediveras digital Wallet and display verified results of rapid drug and alcohol screens, and COVID-19 antigen rapid testing.

Dan Giurescu, Chief Executive Officer of Credivera commented, The ability for our customers in high-compliance, regulated industries to add these verified health credentials to their digital Wallets, adds additional confidence and convenience when demonstrating fit for work capability. Together with BTNX, we are helping make work sites safer and more efficient when deploying talent. BTNXs productsdistributed by Lochness Medical Supplies Inc. (Lochness Medical) in the USAhave an international reach serving clinics, staffing agencies, and laboratories across the globe. As companies seek to provide proof of a drug-free work environment, BTNX offers a variety of testing products with a shelf life of two years, a much-needed solution for remote and rural work environments. In the digital age the merger of technology and diagnostics is fast becoming a necessity in the staffing and employment industry and the ability to rapidly connect test results with verified employee credentials will set industry leaders apart, shared Iqbal Sunderani, BTNX founder and CEO. When an individual conducts a rapid drug and alcohol screen, or COVID-19 test, the results are visible in 15 minutes or less (depending on the product). Using BTNXs app the results arethen sent to the individual and the site manager, from there the individual can add their results to their Credivera Wallet and meet the testing requirements of their employer. The company can immediately see who complies or needs to be replaced by another worker.



To learn more about using digital verified credentials to achieve workforce compliance, contact Credivera to request a demonstration of the Credivera Wallet and BTNXs RapidReader application. About Credivera:

Credivera is a technology platform that provides proof of certifications and work experience. The cloud technology collects and verifies digital credentials while using blockchain to maintain a real-time, auditable record. Started in 2017 and headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Crediveras solutions use globally accepted standards to help business leaders in over 30 countries achieve their goals associated with the verification of credentials and compliance. Visit Credivera.com to learn more about the Network, The Wallet, and their Compliance tools. About BTNX: Based in Ontario, Canada, BTNX Inc. is a biotechnology company with an international reputation for excellence earned through consistently delivering value and quality over its 21 years in business as a Canadian Manufacturer of diagnostic products. Under the Rapid Response brand, BTNX offers a comprehensive range of rapid point-of-care diagnostic tests. BTNXs Rapid Response products are distributed by Lochness Medical Supplies Inc. in the USA. Together BTNX and Lochness Medical provide their customers with the highest quality products at competitive pricing. This is accomplished through partnering with innovative manufacturing facilities staffed with teams of experts, allowing BTNX and Lochness Medical to deliver real value to their customers. Learn more at www.btnx.com and www.lochnessmedical.com. Contacts: Credivera:

sales@credivera.com T+1 (800) 805-5710 BTNX

American Inquiries: Lochness Medical Supplies: sales@lochnessmedical.com T+1 (888) 506 - 2658

Canadian Inquiries: BTNX: sales@btnx.com T+ 1 (888) 339 - 9964



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[September 15, 2021] Abingworth strengthens investment team with new appointments in the US and UK

LONDON, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Abingworth, a leading international life sciences investment group, announces three new appointments to its investment team in the UK and US. Jay Cui PhD, MBA and Lucille Conroy MD have joined as Principals and Diya Malhotra PhD has joined as an Investment Manager. Jay will be based at the firm's Menlo Park, CA office and Lucille and Diya will be based in London, UK. They will work with the Partners across all locations, sourcing and evaluating new opportunities, and supporting existing venture investments. Jay was previously a Director at AbbVie Ventures, where he helped make equity investments in emerging biotech companies and served as a board observer for a number of companies within Abbvie Ventures' portfolio. Prior to this, Jay worked as a business strategy consultant focused on the life sciences sector at ZS Associates and Campbell Alliance. Jay gained his MBA and PhD from the University of Chicago and a BSc in Chemistry from Peking University. Lucille joins Abingworth from F-Prime Capital where she worked as a Senior Associate primarily focusing on investment opportunities in early-stage, novel therapeutic biotech companies. Before that, she was at McKinsey & Co, where she worked in the Private Equity, European Pharmaceuticals and Medical Products pactices. Lucille completed her clinical foundation and core medical training in the UK at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, UCLH, Imperial College, and Barts Foundation NHS Trusts. Lucille holds a BSc in Clinical Neuroscience and an MBChB from the University of Glasgow.



Diya joins from L.E.K. Consulting where she worked as a Consultant in its Life Sciences practice advising pharmaceutical and early to late-stage biotech clients on a range of projects, including corporate strategy, and clinical and commercial opportunity assessments. Diya holds a PhD in Clinical Neuropharmacology from Imperial College London, and a BSc in Pharmacology from University College London. "We are very pleased to welcome Lucille, Jay and Diya to the team," said Bali Muralidhar, Managing Partner. "Together they bring a wide range of experience in life sciences investing and strategic consulting, plus strong scientific and clinical backgrounds. They will be great additions to Abingworth's transatlantic investment team, expanding our capabilities to evaluate and invest in exciting early- and development-stage biotech companies, and clinical co-development opportunities following the recent closing of our new funds  ABV 8 and ACCD2  which target these areas."

ABV 8  Abingworth Bioventures 8; ACCD2  Abingworth Clinical Co-Development Fund 2 About Abingworth Abingworth is a leading transatlantic life sciences investment firm. Abingworth helps transform cutting-edge science into novel medicines by providing capital and expertise to top calibre management teams building world-class companies. Since 1973, Abingworth has invested in over 175 life science companies, leading to 45 M&As and 71 IPOs. Our therapeutic focused investments fall into three categories: seed and early-stage, development stage, and clinical co-development. Abingworth supports its portfolio companies with a team of experienced professionals at offices in London, Menlo Park (California), and Boston Contacts Bali Muralidhar

Managing Partner

Tel: +44 (0)20 7534 1500 www.abingworth.com For media enquiries:

Mark Swallow or David Dible, MEDiSTRAVA Consulting

Tel: +44 (0)20 7638 9571

Email: abingworth@medistrava.com

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[September 15, 2021] BetVictor Partners with Quantum Metric for the next step towards player-centricity

Partnership puts player behaviour at the heart of development LONDON, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Quantum Metric, the pioneer in Continuous Product Design (CPD), a methodology that helps organizations build better digital products faster, and global iGaming operator BetVictor today announce a new partnership to help drive customer-focused product development. Quantum Metric will capture data on every single customer experience and their behaviour across BetVictor sites, empowering the team to evolve its product directly in line with player needs. According to Eoin Ryan, Director of Product at BetVictor, the partnership has come at the perfect time, "I want to be able to drive more of our product and UX evolution from the point of view of how customers actively want to use our services. Quantum Metric allows us to do exactly this, but also allows us to prioritise development based on quantified value to the business," Ryan continued, "This isn't just about product development. Our UX, customer service and marketing teams also need this level of understanding. The agreement coincides with strong growth at BetVictor as it expands into further international markets. Such expansion demands both scalability and flexibility, and this was another reason BetVictor chose to work with Quantum Metric. The additional regulatory and fiduciary requirements of international expansion add complexity into the player's digital experience, something that iGaming companies are keen to avoid. Ryan says, "Minimising friction in customer journeys is key to success and is even more important when it comes to entering new markets. You only get one chance to make a good first impression. It's vital we make these processes as simple as possible, minimising the impact of each of the new micro-transactions necessary from other markets. In its simplest terms, the more reasons new players are givn to drop off, the more likely they will do so. We're looking forward to Quantum Metric's Journey's view helping us to do exactly this."



Quantum Metric will also be incorporated into BetVictor's marketing and customer services teams, with instantaneous, real-time replay sessions available for representatives at the touch of a button, as well as automatic tagging to technical teams when needed for fixing problems. Alex Thomson, Vice President of EMEA operations at Quantum Metric explains why this is important; "Creating the most customer centric product possible also means making the most customer centric company. For this to happen, all parts of the business must be aligned, using the same set of customer data. For BetVictor, this is exactly what's happening." Ryan also expects the Quantum Metric partnership to be able to help with other core operational aspects in the near future, including player-protection, fraud prevention and experimentation and A/B testing.

For more ways to examine how improving digital products can help iGaming companies stand out in the market, check-out the LEAP into Gaming virtual event, 19th October. About Quantum Metric

Quantum Metric helps organizations build better digital products faster. Our Continuous Product Design platform gives business and technical teams a single version of truth that's automatically quantified and based on what matters most  your customer's perspective. The result: Teams are aligned, learn faster, and release with confidence. In January of 2021, Quantum Metric secured its place as the first tech unicorn of the year with an above $1 billion valuation and a $200 million Series B funding round. In 2021, Quantum Metric was ranked 555 in the Inc 5000, a list of America's fastest-growing private companies. For more information about Quantum Metric, visit www.quantummetric.com About BetVictor

BetVictor is an online gambling company and B2B solutions provider licensed in Germany, UK, Ireland, Gibraltar and the Isle of Man. Founded in 1946, the privately owned gambling operator employs 600 worldwide with its global headquarters based in Gibraltar. Offering sportsbook, casino and bingo, BetVictor is committed to protecting customers from gambling related harm and is dedicated to improving the gambling experience by leveraging in-house developed technology and award-winning products. For more information, follow BetVictor on Facebook , Twitter , Instagram and LinkedIn . Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1559642/Quantum_Metric_Logo.jpg

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[September 15, 2021] $56.6 million valuation for WebDoctor as VentureWave Capital invests $3.54 million

DUBLIN, Ireland, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- WebDoctor, the Irish health technology platform, has received a $3.54 million investment from VentureWave Capital, the venture private equity investor that focuses on entrepreneurial companies with high impact potential. The investment gives a valuation of $56.6 million to the business and will be used to accelerate WebDoctor's international growth and expansion and the scaling of the sales, marketing, product and technology teams. WebDoctor is a leading health technology business and telehealth platform which enables engagement and collaboration between healthcare practitioners and their patients. Since its establishment in 2013, the company has processed over three million bookings to GP's, pharmacies and other health-related clinics and has registered almost ten per cent of the Irish population as patients on its platform. In response to Covid-19, the year on year increase in GP appointments has risen from 68,000 in 2020 to 125,000 in the current year. WebDoctor was originally founded when brothers Oisin and Howard Kim and co-founder Martin Commins helped a family friend, Dr Sylvester Mooney, transform his medical clinic's businss. Today WebDoctor enables doctors to conduct their day-to-day operations virtually and to automate their booking and payment processes; and patients can attend virtual consultations at a lower cost than in-person appointments.



The demand for telehealth during Covid has skyrocketed with WebDoctor itself experiencing a 75% increase in revenue from 2019 to 2020. VentureWave Capital's team will work alongside WebDoctor executives, including newly appointed CEO David Crimmins, to drive the company's post-pandemic growth and its expansion into new markets. CEO David Crimmins, formerly of ResMed, the global leader in connected medical devices, has previously launched and marketed products internationally, with P&L responsibility for multimillion euro budgets. VentureWave Capital Chairman and Managing Partner, Alan Foy, will join WebDoctor's board of directors. WebDoctor is consistent with the objectives of VentureWave Capital to deliver social outcomes in its investment mandate. These include reduced cost and easier accessibility for patients, support for healthcare professionals seeking flexible work arrangements and reduced carbon emissions through fewer journeys to and energy costs at GPs' clinics.

Alan Foy, Chairman and Managing Partner VentureWave Capital, said: "We are excited to invest in WebDoctor - a successful, scaling Irish health technology business with a really strong team of promoters and entrepreneurs. WebDoctor is a great example of an Irish company with an excellent market opportunity, proven team and exemplary technology / product platform. We look forward to supporting the team in their future scaling. We are confident the team will drive new opportunities to make an impact on the next phase of their successful journey". Kieran McLoughlin, VentureWave Capital Managing Partner said: "Our Global and Irish investors are committed to backing great companies that generate both financial and social returns. Together with David and the WebDoctor team, we have set significant Impact goals for the next 10 years including serving 15 million patients and supporting 500 healthcare professionals seeking flexible work. WebDoctor's business is aligned with our fundamental objective of generating profit with a purpose." David Crimmins, CEO, WebDoctor stated: "VentureWave Capital's investment comes at a pivotal time for WebDoctor, enabling us to meet the exponential growth of the telehealth market and operate on an international scale. This is an exciting time for the company as we look to build upon our success working with partners in Ireland, the UK, Germany, Australia by driving the business internationally." Noel McSweeney, Chairman, WebDoctor said: "Against the backdrop of Covid-19 the team has been working on the strategic development of the business and the investment by VentureWave Capital is a clear recognition of our potential as we look towards a positive future." Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1626097/1093576_image.jpg

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[September 15, 2021] Europe to Remain as the Leading Destination for Travellers: Top Travel Plans for 2022 & Beyond Revealed in New Leisure & Business Travel Survey

Despite the travel restrictions and lockdowns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, consumers across the leading global outbound countries are preparing to book long-haul and short-haul leisure and business travel trips. The new Consumer Attitudes Towards International Travel & Roaming - 2022 & Beyond survey, conducted by roaming and connectivity research experts Kaleido Intelligence, found that 79% of consumers across leading outbound markets will book a leisure trip in the next 24 months, with just 45% booking a business trip. Vaccine passports and a reduction on COVID cases across travel destinations are key to reviving travel. 54% and 60% of respondents respectively named these factors as very or extremely important factors behind boosting their travel intentions. Planned trips* in the next 24 months by source country.







Country Leisure Trips Business Trips China 93% 77% UAE 89% 62% UK 85% 24% Brazil 83% 58% India 79% 63% Italy 79% 41% Australia 78% 19% Germany 76% 41% USA 69% 31% France 62% 35%

* Proportion of respondents expected to book any leisure or business travel in the next 24 months. The survey was completed by 1,500+ respondents across 10 leading outbound travel markets: Australia | Brazil | China | France | Germany | India | Italy | United Arab Emirates | United Kingdom| United States. ACCESS THE SURVEY REPORTS HERE Key survey findings: Long haul travel to restart over the next 24 months, as 40% expected to book long haul travel destinations; meanwhile 26% will book a mix of both long- and short-haul destinations.

69% of respondents prefer European destinations for their next leisure trip when travel restrictions are lifted.

The introduction of vaccine passports was considered a very or extremely important factor by 54% of the respondents to increase the number of overseas trips.

The strongest demand for business travel was amongst Chinese consumers, with 77% expected to book a trip in the next 24 months, with a strong demand for attending conferences and events, followed by increased international business activities.

Travelling for vacation or visiting family was found to be the biggest reason for nearly 52% of the American respondents to travel more in the near future. However, safety concerns and hesitance to travel to countries with a high level of infection are the biggest barriers for travel amongst US consumers.

27% of UK outbound travellers prefer European destinations, with 23% opting for North & Latin American destinations once travel restrictions are lifted.

Reduction of COVID-19 in destinations and the introduction of vaccine passports were found to be the top 2 high importance factors required to increase international travel trips. Nitin Bhas, Strategy & Insights Lead at Kaleido explained: "Our travel survey has revealed some exciting insights for the roaming and travel industries. Safety matters to consumers and they want reduced and clearer rules surrounding testing, quarantining, and flying. Indeed, travel and holidays are meant to be a pleasant experience for consumers and unless customer confidence on the same improves, travel recovery will prove to be a long and uneven process." About Kaleido Intelligence Kaleido Intelligence is a specialist consulting and market research firm with a proven track record delivering telecom research at the highest level. Kaleido Intelligence is the only research company addressing mobile roaming in its entirety, covering: Data Forecasts by Market

Historical & Forecast Viewpoints

Competitive Intelligence

Strategic Insight

Trend Analysis Research is led by expert analysts, each with significant experience delivering telco research and insights that matter. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005050/en/

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[September 15, 2021] GWM Debuts Its New Coupe SUV - HAVAL H6S with Many Highlights

BAODING, China, Sept. 15, 2021 /CNW/ -- On August 27, 2021, GWM first announced HAVAL H6S, the incredible new model, at the global celebration ceremony for the 10th anniversary of HAVAL H6. Then, HAVAL H6S debuted at Chengdu Motor Show two days later. As the advanced version of HAVAL H6, which has long been China's No.1 best-selling SUV, the performance of HAVAL H6S has attracted much attention. Focusing on customers' new needs, GWM developed the first coupe SUV for the HAVAL H6 series on the basis of the L.E.M.O.N. platform and Coffee Intelligence platform. Based on HAVAL H6's technical accumulation over the past ten years and GWM's "customer-centered" philosophy, HAVAL H6S not only inherits GWM's innovation in interior and exterior design, but also has been upgraded in the smart cockpit, power performance and control system. HAVAL H6S is equipped with Coffee Intelligent's cockpit system GC-OS.With the help of the super-computing power of high-end vehicle-mounted chips, it realizes multi-dimensional breakthroughs in AI, interaction and ecosystem, and brings users a new experience of all-scenario intelligent driving. At the same time, in terms of power performance, it offers a 2.0T gasoline engine and a L.E.M.O.N. DHT system for selection. With the L.E.M.O.N. DHT system, HAVAL H6S can achieve excellent performance of maximum power of 179kW, maximum torque of 530Nm, 100 km acceleration in 7.5 seconds and comprehensive fuel consumption of 4.9L. This marks the brand of HAVAL entering a new era of hybrid power.



In terms of the control system, HAVAL H6S provides seven driving modes, including race track, sport, economical, snow, sand, off-road and standard. This empowers it with the control and driving pleasure of luxury vehicles, and can meet users' needs under different driving habits and conditions. Additionally, the HAVAL H6S has many highlights in both interior and exterior design. Its interior is mainly black, including carbon fiber decorative panels and bright yellow stitching, a large suspended screen, multifunctional steering wheel with paddle shifters, shift knobs and other configurations, creating a sufficient sense of technology and movement. These designs can meet the diversified demand of users. For exterior design, HAVAL H6S adopts the design concept of black shark aesthetics. With a shark pectoral fin-shaped front face and shark eye-like LED automatic headlights, these designs create a visual effect as mighty as a shark. The fastback style body and the rear end of a suspended rear wing design also make the SUV look youthful and sporty.

In the future, HAVAL H6S is expected to be sold in various markets worldwide, enriching product lineup of HAVAL in the international market, and providing high-quality and diversified technological travel experience for global users with extreme product strength, intelligence and new energy. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/gwm-debuts-its-new-coupe-suv---haval-h6s-with-many-highlights-301377296.html SOURCE GWM

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[September 15, 2021] Easiloan, an AI-enabled fintech platform for home loans, raises INR 80 million from Tomorrow Capital

Easiloan is India's 1 st digital home loan marketplace for end-to-end processing of loans using its proprietary AI engine

1 digital home loan marketplace for end-to-end processing of loans using its proprietary AI engine Under stealth mode before July 21 , the start-up has showcased a strong product-market fit with 750 successful sanctions in just 5 months

, the start-up has showcased a strong product-market fit with 750 successful sanctions in just 5 months Easiloan is working with all major banks and housing finance companies MUMBAI, India, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Easiloan.com, India's first AI-enabled fintech solution for home loans has raised its maiden round of INR 80 million from Tomorrow Capital. This comes on the back of Easiloan demonstrating strong traction in what are still early days for the business. The start-up aims to utilize these funds for building further on their digital-only product, customer acquisition channels and activating new markets. Operating in stealth mode for almost 3 months before its launch in July 2021, Easiloan offers an all-digital front-end to banks from sourcing to onboarding to completing credit appraisals for the home loan application. The Easiloan platform makes selection and application for loans extremely easy and fast for customers, reduces the time taken to process the home loan application and increases conversion for developers and banks. The start-up has serviced over 750 successful loan sanctions and is working with the top 15 banks and housing finance companies in the market, like HDFC Ltd, ICICI Bank, LIC, Axis Bank, SBI, PNB HF, to name a few. Pramod Kathuria, Co-founder and CEO, Easiloan said, "Innovation in lending technology has sparkd a wave of disruption. With the pandemic accelerating this trend, several start-ups emerging in digital lending are gaining ground around the globe. While Fintech in India has disrupted every other loan product, home loan continues to remain unchanged. For the borrower, large parts of the process are a black box and for the developers any delay in disbursement is a direct hit on their balance sheet. Easiloan is solving this through its proprietary tech IP and a digital-only process. Not only are we managing the home loan process end to end, our tech is ensuring that key stakeholders such as the lender, developer and borrower interact through our platform thus ensuring an efficient process. With support from Tomorrow Capital, our focus will be to scale up into new markets and customer acquisition channels, and further improve our product experience."



Pramod has rich experience in the housing finance and real estate sector in leadership roles with players like ICICI Bank, Lodha, L&T and GMR. He has been instrumental in setting up teams, building momentum and scaling up businesses in his earlier roles. Vishal Dawda, the Co-founder and CBO at Easiloan, comes from a corporate finance and fundraising background with stints at Lodha Group and Trustcap, and has been part of the setting up of a housing finance company in the past. "The untapped opportunity in digital lending was never in doubt, but the Easiloan founders have picked the tougher problem of home loans to address. We are excited to see how quickly they have moved from an idea stage to product and execution in a matter of just months. Their current traction validates our thesis around the gaps that exist in the home loan process. While the founders are focused on going deeper into home loans and solving this through tech, they are also aware of the potential value that lies in acquiring and servicing the customers for a home loan and then nurturing them for all their lending needs for a lifetime. This unique vision coupled with the founders' understanding of home finance and the real estate industry convinced us to partner with Easiloan," said Rohini Prakash, CEO, Tomorrow Capital adding that the fund has set aside a corpus of INR 100 crore as a fresh round of investments in new age start-ups, over the next 12 months.

About Tomorrow Capital Tomorrow Capital is a $100 million operating investment fund investing in multiple sectors in the consumer space. Tomorrow Capital focuses on empowering stellar early-stage entrepreneurs with strong and differentiated models to build transformative and sustainable businesses around consumption themes of the future. With a deep understanding of business fundamentals and backed by `patient capital', Tomorrow Capital aims to create iconic consumer brands out of its investee companies in India. About Easiloan Easiloan is India's 1st digital home loan marketplace. This is an end-to-end digital platform for real estate developers, brokers, home buyers and lenders, bringing the demand and supply together. Easiloan works as the front-end to Banks with a re-imagined approach for sourcing and processing of home loans.

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[September 15, 2021] Code Names Expert Channel Marketing Manager to Expand EMEA Partner Growth

Code Corporation, a global leader in barcode scanning and data capture technologies, today announced Hilde De Bisschop has joined the company as a Senior Channel Marketing Manager. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005014/en/ Hilde De Bisschop has joined Code Corporation as a Senior Channel Marketing Manager to expand EMEA channel partner growth. (Photo: Business Wire) "Hilde is a highly talented industry veteran with an extensive track record in building and growing successful channel prorams," said Kent Hansen, CEO of Code Corporation. "We look forward to working with her to leverage the foundation of our successful North American channel program and expand with a new EMEA program that specifically meets and respects the regional market behaviors to support the business needs of regional partners."



De Bisschop has spent the majority of her career working with barcode scanning technology companies. This has primed her for a new leadership role at Code, where she is heading up the channel marketing department and preparing for the launch of the company's first EMEA Partner Program in Q4 of 2021. Prior to Code, De Bisschop was at Honeywell (News - Alert) where she was responsible for the EMEA channel program and integrations of programs following multiple acquisitions. She also served as Group Senior Channel Marketing Manager at Datalogic where she was responsible to create and implement all aspects of the Datalogic's worldwide channel program.

She is based in Luxembourg. Outside the office, she is a mother of three, a passionate reader and has two dogs, an Australian Shepherd & Australian Jack Russell Terrier. About Code Corporation Code Corporation is part of the Brady Corporation (NYSE: BRC) owned companies. For more than 20 years, Code Corporation has been an industry pioneer, leader, and champion for data capture innovation and has garnered more than 100 patents. By crafting and continuing to perfect its unique decoding algorithms, Code and its line of image-based scanning and decoding technology consistently deliver unparalleled performance companies around the world depend on every day. Code designs and manufactures a complete line of market-leading hardware and software data capture solutions. Code products are not only valued for providing a consistent level of workflow efficiency year after year, but also for their ergonomic design, durability, ease of customization, and seamless integration. Code is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah with offices in Boston and Amsterdam. For more, please visit www.codecorp.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005014/en/

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[September 15, 2021] DeepHow Raises $9M Pre-Series A Funding to Bridge the Skills Gap in the Manufacturing, Service, and Construction Industries

DETROIT, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- DeepHow, the AI company that turns technical know-how into smart, how-to training videos, has closed $9M in pre-Series A funding. Sierra Ventures, a specialist in early-stage VC funding, led the round with participation by Osage Venture Partners, Qualcomm Ventures LLC, and pre-seed investor Foothill Ventures. DeepHow's total funding now stands at $13M million. The company will use this additional funding to solidify its technical lead, accelerate its market expansion in Asia, and fuel its enterprise sales and marketing initiatives. "This oversubscribed pre-Series A round underscores the vision we share with our investors and demonstrates their confidence in our ability to build on our technical leadership and accelerate our go-to-market operations," said Dr. Sam Zheng, CEO and co-founder of DeepHow. DeepHow combines the latest advances in AI, natural-language processing, computer vision, and knowledge mapping to revolutionize how knowledge is captured, digitized, and organized. The company has developed and markets an AI-powered workforce readiness platform for the skilled trades. Designed for the manufacturing, field service, construction, and equipment maintenance sectors, DeepHow streamlines the capture and transfer of technical skills and know-how  compressing project time ten-fold, boosting worker performance by 25 percent, and dramatically reducing overall training and development costs.



Commenting on the market potential for DeepHow, Zheng said: "Manufacturing is the economic backbone of many countries and the largest driver of employment. The top-ten largest manufacturing countries in terms of economic output employ an average of 15% of their workforce12 million in the US, 8 million in Germany, 10 million in Japan, and over 110 million in China. We see an enormous opportunity to equip manufacturers globally with advanced and proven technology to help them up-skill and re-skill these workers." "Sam and his experienced team at DeepHow have developed breakthrough technology that is already delivering a clear ROI in enterprise manufacturing settings," said Ben Yu, managing partner at Sierra Ventures. "DeepHow is seeing strong market tailwinds due to the rapid changes in technology, an aging workforce, and the shortage of skilled workers in the global manufacturing and service industries. There's a clear opportunity for the team to establish DeepHow as the leading knowledge capture and training platform for the manufacturing and service industries."

"The DeepHow platform delivers a highly differentiated solution for building scalable and effective training for the industrial workforce," said Nate Lentz, managing partner of Osage Venture Partners. "Leveraging advanced AI technology and the team's deep domain expertise, DeepHow is uniquely positioned to solve the growing skills gap and labor shortage in skilled trades. DeepHow has already delivered real value and ROI to leading manufacturer customers, and we are excited to partner with the team to help further their leadership position in the market." "The high costs of training and developing a new, skilled manufacturing workforce calls for more efficient employee onboarding and task performance," said Carlos Kokron, vice president of Qualcomm Technologies Inc. and managing director at Qualcomm Ventures Americas. "DeepHow's AI-powered, cost-effective video-based knowledge capturing and learning platform significantly improves the speed of know-how transfer, helping bridge the skills gap. We're excited to invest and support DeepHow in leveraging AI to further advance the Industry 4.0 digital transformation of enterprises." About DeepHow

DeepHow was founded in 2018 by a team of ex-Siemens researchers and engineers who saw an unmet need to transfer knowledge in the skilled trades labor market. They developed an AI-powered, video-centric knowledge capturing and learning platform that bridges the skills gap in the manufacturing, service, and construction industries. DeepHow streamlines know-how capture using AI workflow indexing and segmentation at one-tenth the time of traditional video-editing approaches, and powers knowledge transfer with smart, how-to training videos that boost employee performance by 25 percent. For more information, visit deephow.com. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/deephow-raises-9m-pre-series-a-funding-to-bridge-the-skills-gap-in-the-manufacturing-service-and-construction-industries-301377006.html SOURCE DeepHow Corporation

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[September 15, 2021] RIGGED is Awarded Best Documentary Feature at the Mindfield Film Festival, Albuquerque

RIGGED, a new full-length documentary, has been awarded Best Documentary Feature by the Mindfield Film Festival, Albuquerque. Watch the RIGGED trailer, full-length film, and reviews here. Since its online premiere in April, RIGGED has been earning official selections at major film festivals around the world, including Best Documentary awards at The Toronto Film Magazine Festival and the Mindfield Film Festival, Albuquerque. Other festival selections for RIGGED include The Montreal Independent Film Festival; The New Vision International Film Festival; The Direct Monthly Online Film Festival; The Monthly FilmFestival; The Toronto Documentary Feature and Short Film Festival; and the Bronx Social Justice Matters Film Festival.



RIGGED explains how the long prevailing Wealthist value system in U.S. higher education limits opportunity and upward mobility and thus undermines U.S. democracy. RIGGED builds on the historical premise that growing economic imbalance ultimately leads to social unrest, political upheaval, and war. Through interviews with authors, historians, educators, and students, RIGGED shows how the value system underlying U.S. higher education constitutes a major risk factor for triggering these historic consequences and how this value system can be changed. RIGGED includes compelling footage of innovative and courageous educators who are leading the movement to replace a value system that selects for wealth with one that meets genuinely motivated students where they are and advances them regardless of their economic background - a movement that could transform colleges and universities into new engines for education and social mobility. RIGGED recalls the origins of the American Dream, when the linchpin of economic opportunity was access to land. Following passage of the Homestead Act in 1862, the federal government doled out over 10 percent of the land mass of this country to individual citizens. While the outcome for settlers was far from guaranteed, the chance for individual economic advancement was undeniably real. Although the dark side of the settling of the U.S. West was the federal government's forcible seizure of native lands, there is no question the Homestead Act provided economic opportunity for the enfranchised citizens of the time. This vast federal giveaway of land - what was then the fundamental element of economic opportunity - established the U.S. as the "land of opportunity" and built deep national loyalty and unity among the citizenry.

RIGGED points out that while land ownership remains a symbol of economic power today, we are long past the era in which the fundamental currency for economic opportunity is access to land. As the film explains, not only are we long past the Agrarian Age, we have also raced past the Industrial Age and the Knowledge Age into a new Learning Age. In this new Learning Age, where the pace of change is not only fast but accelerating, the fundamental basis for economic opportunity is no longer access to land, access to factories, or even access to knowledge. It is access to the full and formal development of learning skills, critical thought, and innovation - i.e., the elements for economic opportunity that hard-working students acquire today through any great modern university. RIGGED argues that if these modern elements of opportunity can be made broadly and freely available to all ambitious citizens regardless of their economic background, we can write the new and most important chapter in the story of the American Dream. As to the difficulty in achieving this, Jim Wolfston, Executive Producer and narrator of RIGGED, offers a thought experiment: "Imagine that following the nation's founding during the Agrarian Age, our nation's land mass comprised 3,000 feudal estates, each run by a board of trustees comprising wealthy notables. Each citizen who desired to develop a parcel of land within one of those estates would fill out an application, provide credentials and letters of recommendation, and take tests whose scores correlated most closely with whether that citizen already came from a wealthy family. Further, for the vast majority of the citizens lucky enough to be admitted to work the land on an estate, each would pay the estate's tuition by taking on huge, oppressive debt obligations that would follow them for years into their productive careers." Given that 3,000 four-year higher education institutions largely control the modern currency for economic opportunity in this country today, you can see by parallel the crippling effect this system is imposing on U.S. social mobility. The paradox is that the people with the most power to break this system and overhaul it are the ones who have successfully risen through it and are thus the most naturally inclined to defend and preserve it. Yet because our higher education system inspires the greatest form of critical thought - the power to question one's own ideas - RIGGED suggests there's a good chance that more and more of today's leaders in U.S. higher education will step up to challenge the Wealthist value system, despite the fact that that system provided the context for their own journey to personal success. The release of RIGGED comes at a time when 70 percent of the students who are admitted to U.S. colleges and universities and 90 percent of their graduates are from above the median income. "Higher Education is the most important asset in the Learning Age," says Wolfston. "If we can distribute this vital asset across the economic spectrum, we can optimize our nation's human capital development, prepare the next generation for citizenship, and ensure social and economic opportunity. Most importantly, by rejecting the current trend toward on-campus economic homogeneity, higher education institutions can offer their students the chance to encounter a more challenging mix of people with diverse ideas, perspectives and backgrounds. Collisions with the unexpected and unfamiliar are what best sharpen and prepare innovative minds. Thus, economic inclusion not only promotes social justice and equality of opportunity, it's also an optimizing strategy for educating tomorrow's innovators." Read more about RIGGED and watch the trailer and full documentary here. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005211/en/

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[September 15, 2021] Document Management and Storage Services Sourcing and Procurement Market during 2021-2025| COVID-19 Impact & Recovery Analysis | SpendEdge

NEW YORK, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Document Management and Storage Services market is poised to grow by USD 4 Billion, progressing at a CAGR of almost 12.47% during the forecast period. Receive FREE Sample Report in Minutes! Key Highlights Offered in the Report: Information on how to identify strategic and tactical negotiation levels that will help achieve the best prices.

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Appendix About SpendEdge: SpendEdge shares your passion for driving sourcing and procurement excellence. We are the preferred procurement market intelligence partner for 120+ Fortune 500 firms and other leading companies across numerous industries. Our strength lies in delivering robust, real-time procurement market intelligence reports and solutions. Contacts: SpendEdge

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https://www.spendedge.com/contact-us View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/document-management-and-storage-services-sourcing-and-procurement-market-during-2021-2025-covid-19-impact--recovery-analysis--spendedge-301376572.html SOURCE SpendEdge

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[September 15, 2021] KKR and Cornerstone Companies, Inc. Establish Joint Venture to Invest in Healthcare Real Estate

KKR, a leading global investment firm, and Cornerstone Companies, Inc. ("Cornerstone"), a full-service healthcare real estate investment, development and management firm, today announced that Cornerstone and KKR have entered into a joint venture (the "Joint Venture") to acquire and develop a portfolio of diversified healthcare properties across the United States. KKR and Cornerstone have seeded the portfolio with the recapitalization of 25 healthcare properties owned by Cornerstone. With funding commitments provided by KKR's real estate and credit funds and Cornerstone, the Joint Venture is positioned to acquire more than $1 billion in real estate assets over the next few years. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005241/en/ The portfolio recapitalized by KKR and Cornerstone includes 713,705 square feet of medical office buildings and ambulatory surgery centers located across 12 states, with in place long-term leases to a high quality group of healthcare systems, physician group practices and surgery center operators. Cornerstone and KKR will work together to grow the portfolio through acquisitions and net lease development opportunities, with a focus primarily on long-term leased single-tenant medical office buildings, ambulatory surgery centers and facility-based outpatient healthcare assets. "KKR is one of the world's largest investment firms with incredible connectivity across industries, including deep experience investing in the healthcare and real estate sectors," said Tag Birge, President and CEO of Cornerstone. "This strategic partnership significantlyincreases our reach and capacity to deliver investment and development solutions for leading physician groups and health systems. We are very excited to work with a partner in KKR who shares our commitment to lasting client relationships and strong focus on portfolio construction and underwriting."



"We are pleased to collaborate with the highly-regarded team of industry specialists at Cornerstone to invest in a scaled portfolio of healthcare properties," said Peter Sundheim, Director at KKR. "The recapitalization of 25 well-situated seed assets creates a strong foundation for our Joint Venture." "We will contribute capabilities from across KKR's real estate, credit and healthcare industry teams to support sourcing and underwriting of assets for the Joint Venture," said Michelle Hour, Director at KKR. "As investors in the healthcare sector for more than two decades, our relationships and understanding of the needs of tenants will help us to provide attractive ownership for their mission-critical real estate."

Additional financial terms of the Joint Venture and recapitalization transaction were not disclosed. Newmark's Healthcare Capital Markets Group advised Cornerstone and KKR on establishing the Joint Venture, represented Cornerstone on the portfolio recapitalization transaction, and provided advice to KKR on debt financing. CBRE's Healthcare and Life Sciences Capital Markets Group provided buyside advisory services to KKR on the portfolio recapitalization transaction. Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP acted as legal counsel to KKR. About KKR KKR is a leading global investment firm that offers alternative asset management and capital markets and insurance solutions. KKR aims to generate attractive investment returns by following a patient and disciplined investment approach, employing world-class people, and supporting growth in its portfolio companies and communities. KKR sponsors investment funds that invest in private equity, credit and real assets and has strategic partners that manage hedge funds. KKR's insurance subsidiaries offer retirement, life and reinsurance products under the management of The Global Atlantic Financial Group. References to KKR's investments may include the activities of its sponsored funds and insurance subsidiaries. For additional information about KKR & Co. Inc. (NYSE: KKR), please visit KKR's website at www.kkr.com and on Twitter (News - Alert) @KKR_Co. About Cornerstone Companies, Inc. Cornerstone Companies, Inc. is a leading healthcare real estate firm, drawing on more than 35 years of experience. With an exclusive focus on the healthcare real estate industry, Cornerstone helps physicians, hospitals, and third-party owners across the nation develop, build, lease, manage and optimize their healthcare real estate while enhancing the patient and provider experience. To date, Cornerstone has successfully completed more than $1 billion of medical office developments and currently manages more than 100 medical facilities encompassing 7.7M SF. To learn more, visit cornerstonecompaniesinc.com View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005241/en/

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[September 15, 2021] Visa Digitally Enables 16 Million SMBs on Path to Reaching 50 Million Goal Worldwide

Visa (NYSE: V) today announced it has helped to digitally-enable an estimated 16 million small and micro businesses (SMBs) worldwide, or just over 30% of the multi-year goal it set in 2020 to digitize 50 million SMBs. Since the start of the pandemic, Visa has launched community-based programs from Dubai to D.C., to help more small businesses accept digital payments and gain greater access to the digital economy. The necessity for SMBs to continue to digitally accelerate is underscored by the 5th edition of the Visa Back to Business global study released today, which found that 68% of consumers say COVID-19 has permanently changed how they will pay. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005414/en/ "With a 19-month view into the pandemic, we've seen that small businesses who embraced digital commerce and cross-border sales have weathered the pandemic better," said Mary Kay Bowman, global head of buyer, seller, core and platform products, Visa. "But it's no longer just about pivoting and surviving. We're now seeing a hopeful surge in entrepreneurship, and as we march toward our goal of 50 million, we're helping a new breed of business owner come online as digitally-native for the first time." Visa Back to Business Study: A Global Pulse (News - Alert) on Payment Preferences The Visa Back to Business global research study has surveyed SMB owners and their customers since the onset of the global pandemic. With an extensive body of sentiment data accumulated through five editions, findings from the newest study highlight the economic opportunity that lies in connecting SMBs, communities and technology: SMBs Still Working to Meet Consumer Expectations: The pandemic has dramatically increased consumers' concern with touching cash and payment readers and correspondingly, increased the desire to tap to pay 1 . Seventy-four (74%) percent of SMBs around the world expect customers will continue to prefer contactless payments as much as, or more than they do now, with two in five (40%) SMBs citing contactless among the top investments needed to meet customer expectations.

The pandemic has dramatically increased consumers' concern with touching cash and payment readers and correspondingly, increased the desire to tap to pay . Seventy-four (74%) percent of SMBs around the world expect customers will continue to prefer contactless payments as much as, or more than they do now, with two in five (40%) SMBs citing contactless among the top investments needed to meet customer expectations. Contactless as a Competitive Edge: Stores that don't accept contactless payments could run an increased risk of losing customers as a result. More than two in five (44%) consumers say they wouldn't shop at a store that only offers payment methods that require contact with a cashier or shared device.

Stores that don't accept contactless payments could run an increased risk of losing customers as a result. More than two in five (44%) consumers say they wouldn't shop at a store that only offers payment methods that require contact with a cashier or shared device. Prioritizing Online Security: One year ago, just 17% of U.S. SMBs started selling products or services online for the first time during COVID-19 and now, 57% expect to continue to do so in the next three months. Yet, many SMBs surveyed said the shift presented new challenges with the top concerns cited as data privacy and security (33%), cost to invest in digital infrastructure (31%) and having less of a personal connection with customers (30%).

One year ago, just 17% of U.S. SMBs started selling products or services online for the first time during COVID-19 and now, 57% expect to continue to do so in the next three months. Yet, many SMBs surveyed said the shift presented new challenges with the top concerns cited as data privacy and security (33%), cost to invest in digital infrastructure (31%) and having less of a personal connection with customers (30%). Opportunity Knocks for New, Digitally-Savvy SMBs: While 54% of SMBs say the past year has been a callenge for their business, 46% have viewed it as an opportunity, up from 38% in November 2020. Among those who saw 2020 as an opportunity, their focus has been on new products (37%) and expanding their sales channels (34%), with 23% having started a completely new business.



Unlocking Access to the Digital Economy Recognizing that greater digitization of commerce can bring enormous benefits to small businesses, Visa seeks to bring increased digital equity and inclusivity to the world through its multi-year commitment to digitally enable 50 million SMBs. With 3.4 million new U.S. business applications filed in the first seven months of 2021 alone2, Visa's efforts are focused on ensuring both existing and newly minted small businesses are well-equipped to meet changing consumer demands and embrace the digital future.

From London to North Dakota, Visa has directed resources to SMBs through dozens of programs tailored to fit the needs of local communities. Among them, Visa has committed more than $1 million in hyperlocal grants to U.S. SMB owners who have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, deployed Small Business Street Teams to 900,000 businesses in 18 markets, and transformed payment acceptance in 49 markets with Visa Tap to Phone (News - Alert) , which enables sellers to accept contactless payments through a simple mobile app. Visa also expanded its global digital education platform for entrepreneurs, Practical Business Skills, which delivers free education resources to SMB owners and to support the digital transformation of their businesses. This builds on a $200 million, 5-year commitment from the Visa Foundation made in 2020 to support SMBs around the world, with a focus on fostering women's economic advancement. Visa will continue to celebrate the expansive role SMBs play within local communities and the global economy, starting with the launch of a new digital series today, "Voices of Access," featuring SMB customers from around the world sharing their unique stories and empowering others to see the possibilities of the digital economy. More information on the programs Visa has made available to small and micro businesses is available on the Visa Small Business Hub and the Visa Small Business COVID-19 support site. Methodology: Visa Back to Business Study The Visa Back to Business Study: 5th Edition, was conducted by Wakefield Research between June 15-28, 2021, among 2,250 small business owners at companies with 100 employees or fewer in Brazil, Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Russia, Singapore, United Arab Emirates and United States. The consumer portion surveyed 1,000 adults ages 18+ in the U.S., and 500 adults ages 18+ in Brazil, Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Russia, Singapore and United Arab Emirates. About Visa Inc. Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) is the world's leader in digital payments. Our mission is to connect the world through the most innovative, reliable and secure payment network - enabling individuals, businesses and economies to thrive. Our advanced global processing network, VisaNet, provides secure and reliable payments around the world, and is capable of handling more than 65,000 transaction messages a second. The company's relentless focus on innovation is a catalyst for the rapid growth of digital commerce on any device, for everyone, everywhere. As the world moves from analog to digital, Visa is applying our brand, products, people, network and scale to reshape the future of commerce. For more information, visit About Visa, visa.com/blog and @VisaNews. 1 Source: US Contactless Online Research Study April 2020 2 Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Business Formation (News - Alert) Statistics View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005414/en/

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[September 15, 2021] ExtendaTouch Adds Partnership Expansion with the Organization for Autism Research

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- ExtendaTouch, the innovative digital platform for caregivers to connect with each other, today announced a partnership with the Organization for Autism Research (OAR). Under the terms of the agreement, OAR will provide outreach for their stakeholders to access a free caregiver account at ExtendaTouch. The agreement will provide additional opportunities for families impacted by autism to support one another and widely disseminate information. "ExtendaTouch provides a pathway for more families with autistic children and adults to collaborate who have similar experiences across multiple non-profit and for-profit organizations. By opening opportunities for more collaboration and support, ExtendaTouch is expanding our combined resources. We want to encourage our stakeholders to have access to this service and benefit from working together," said Mike Maloney, Executive Director of OAR. ExtendaTouch solves the problem of inefficiencies in an ad-hoc support system in the marketplace for caregivers. The Company specializes in matching the needs of caregivers with peer-to-peer support. Family and professional caregivers have enormous amounts of knowledge and experience. ExtendaTouch is the go-to organization for caregivers who are often overwhelmed, isolated, and lonely. "We are providing a centralized platform for caregivers across the autism spectrum to work togeter to find individual solutions to shared issues, promote opportunities for those on the spectrum, call for an end to the stigmatization, and support legislation to promote equality. The broad coalition will provide caregivers combined strength and a path to achieve common missions by working together. It's the reason we created ExtendaTouch. Our goal is to help caregivers connect with each other to safely share information and enhance their efforts to protect and provide what is needed for the individuals they love and support," said Andy Cramer, Founder of ExtendaTouch.



ExtendaTouch is a caregiver support network with a platform that enables fast, private, personal connections between caregivers. Contact is opt-in, and profiles are anonymous, allowing the caregivers to discuss sensitive topics, including self-care, without fear of stigma. About ExtendaTouch

ExtendaTouch is a tech company that has developed a unique platform for relevantly matching caregivers. Their vision is to relieve overwhelmed family and paid caregivers worldwide and produce better outcomes for those needing chronic or occasional care. Headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, ExtendaTouch is free and can be accessed at www.extendatouch.com. For press inquiries contact: press@extendatouch.com

About OAR

OAR is a national non-profit located in Arlington, Virginia, whose singular focus is on applied research and its resource materials' quality and practical value. The studies they fund and the information resources they provide have meaning in the day-to-day lives of persons with autism and their families. They fund pilot studies on education, parent and teacher training, communication, self-care, social skills, employment, behavior, and adult and community issues. In pursuing its efforts to change lives, its ultimate focus is quality of life. For press inquiries, contact: kessex@researchautism.org Contact:

Andy Cramer,

ExtendaTouch

Phone: 415 847-4988

Email: andy@extendatouch.com View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/extendatouch-adds-partnership-expansion-with-the-organization-for-autism-research-301377149.html SOURCE ExtendaTouch

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[September 15, 2021] Brookstone Capital Management Partners With SmartAsset To Boost Investor Prospecting For Its N?etwork Of Independent Registered Investment Advisors

SmartAsset, the largest independent marketplace connecting consumers to financial advisors, and Brookstone Capital Management (BCM), a leading SEC (News - Alert) -Registered Investment Advisory (RIA) firm providing fee-based asset management services, today announced a strategic partnership to bolster the marketing solutions that BCM Independent Advisor Representatives have access to. BCM's network of 1,000+ independent financial advisors doing business in all 50 states can now utilize SmartAsset's SmartAdvisor platform to augment customer acquisition operations. "It's really great to have Brookstone Capital Management as a national partner and our team is looking forward to facilitating their client acquisition growth through SmartAdvisor," says Dave Frisone, Chief Revenue Officer, SmartAsset. "By leveraging our industry-proven SmartAdvisor platform, BCM-affiliated advisors now have access to the leading consumer prospecting and AUM-driving growth machine in America." "Our singular goal at Brookstone has always been to help our network of Advisors grow their businesses," says Darryl Ronconi, President at Brookstone Capital Management. "One of the ways to do that is with consistent lead generation. Partnering with SmartAdvisor is another way we can provide best-in-class service to our Advisors across the country." BCM Independent Advisor Representatives will also have the opportunity to utilize SmartAsset's 'Live Connections' service. Exclusively available to advisors on martAsset's SmartAdvisor platform, Live Connections delivers high-intent, validated consumer prospects via a warm phone transfer to RIAs and firms that meets today's on-demand economy. Live Connections reduces advisors' marketing burden by eliminating the time they spend prospecting, contacting and following up with consumers. In solving a key pain point for advisors - growing AUM while maximizing time spent with clients - SmartAdvisor and Live Connections have positively disrupted the wealth management industry for client acquisition and AUM growth.



SmartAsset matches investors who are searching for financial advice with fiduciary financial advisors, who can select the geography and asset tier of prospects that they choose to work with. Propelled by the launch of Live Connections, SmartAdvisor has seen 100% growth in referred assets. In April 2021, referred assets that flowed through SmartAdvisor were more than $35 billion. In addition, the amount of closed investable assets for advisors on SmartAdvisor increased from $5 billion in 2019 to $10 billion in 2020 and is tracking for $20 billion in 2021. SmartAsset's goal is to refer $100 billion in new, closed AUM to SmartAdvisor advisors by 2024. Reaching more than 100 million people each month, SmartAsset is the leading resource for financial advice. The average SmartAdvisor investor is about 57 years old, has investable assets of $890,000 and 76% reported that they do not currently have an advisor. Approximately 70% are retired or less than 10 years away from retirement. Given the vast size of SmartAsset's audience, the SmartAdvisor platform and Live Connections service are meaningfully changing how financial advisors approach marketing, business development and lead generation in the digital age.

To learn more about SmartAdvisor and Live Connections, please visit: https://smartasset.com/financial-advisor/about About SmartAsset

SmartAsset is a leading online destination for financial advice that powers SmartAdvisor, the largest marketplace connecting consumers to financial advisors and financial products. Reaching more than 100 million people each month through its educational content and personalized calculators and tools, SmartAsset's mission is to help people make smart financial decisions. Ranked on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private companies in 2021, SmartAsset recently closed a $110 million Series D round, valuing the company at over $1 billion. SmartAsset was also named to Y Combinator's list of Top 100 Companies of all time, 2021 Best Financial Planning Technology Company in New York by Wealth & Finance International, and Forbes' list of America's Best Startup Employers in 2020. For more information, please visit SmartAsset.com. About Brookstone Capital Management

Founded in 2006, Brookstone Capital Management (BCM) is an SEC Registered Investment Advisor firm providing fee-based asset management services. BCM offers investment management through a select network of independent advisor representatives, offering portfolios that span conservative, moderate, and growth-oriented risk tolerances. Founder and CEO Dean Zayed established Brookstone with the singular goal of forging strategic relationships with independent advisors to support all aspects of their fee-based advisory business. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005158/en/

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[September 15, 2021] Cover Technologies Inc. Closes Acquisition of Flurbo Technology

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Sept. 15, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- COVER TECHNOLOGIES INC. (CSE: COVE) (OTC: MGPRF) (Frankfurt: 304A) (the Company or Cover) is pleased to announce that it has closed the acquisition of Flurbo, a decentralized finance ("DeFi") blockchain technology software application designed to facilitate tracking, trading, transacting, and borrowing against digital assets, in a secured and transparent manner (Flurbo). The acquisition of Flurbo was previously announced on May 19, 2021 and August 19, 2021.

Cover views the asset acquisition of this blockchain technology as a complement to its current business of developing a technology to process magnesium from tailings in an environmentally and sustainable manner. The acquisition of Flurbo will provide the Company with the technology to vertically integrate the various levels of the resource sector from initial production to processing, and then up the supply chain, logistics, and finance. Cover's acquisition of Flurbo is an opportunity to aggregate all participants and transactions at all levels in the resources industry by providing one trusted and transparent digital solution. Flurbo will provide resource producers the ability to capture mineral production statistics to help streamline logistics and financing, and facilitate provenance tracking. The Flurbo solution may be used by a wide variety of participants including producers, purchasers, financial institutions, financiers, streamers, logistics companies, and assayers. Terms of the Acquisition Pursuant to the asset purchase agreement dated August 16, 2021 (the "APA"), Cover issued a total of 5,500,000 common shares in the capital of the Company (the "Consideration Shares") to the vendor, Nifty Technologies Inc. (Nifty). The parties agreed to a deemed price of $0.265 per Consideration Share at the time the parties entered into the Letter of Intent on May 19, 2021, which deemed price was equal to the Company's last private placement on February 12, 2021. Cover believes that the deemed price of $0.265 per common share on the date of the LOI accurately reflected the fair market value of Cover's common shares at the time the parties agreed to the acquisition. In the event that after twelve (12) months from closing, Flurbo achieves a positive EBITDA within twenty-four (24) months from closing of the transaction, Cover will issue an additional number of shares equal to $3,500,000 at the time of such achievement (the "Performance Shares"). Each Performance Share will have a deemed value equal to the closing price of the Company's common shares listed on the exchange the trading day prior to the issuance date thereof. The Consideration Shares and Performance Shares (if issued) are subjec to a four (4) month and one (1) day hold period from the date of issuance. The Company is relying on the Asset Acquisition Prospectus Exemption, pursuant to Section 2.12 of National Instrument 45-106. Upon closing, Nifty will become an insider of the Company, owning approximately 19.4% of the issued and outstanding shares, on a non-diluted basis.



Finders fees were paid in connection with the acquisition of Flurbo to arms length finder that consisted of an aggregate of 112,875 common shares in the capital of the Company (the "Finder Shares"). The Finder Shares are subject to a four (4) month and one (1) day hold period from the date of issuance. Bello Capital Partners

The Company also announces that it has engaged Bello Holdings Inc. d.b.a Bello Capital Partners ("Bello"), an arm's length party to the Company, to provide a digital marketing campaign comprised of the following (collectively, the "Services") for a period of three (3) months: facilitation, organization and engagement with industry professionals, vendors, digital marketing experts, public relations, media professionals, lead generation services, investor relations firms and professionals, and newsletter writers on behalf of the Client; digital advertising and creative content development; web development; digital media buying and distribution; periodic campaign results reporting; general consulting and strategic direction to the Company on capital markets and business development activities; and such other services as may be agreed to in writing, from time to time. The Company has agreed to pay to Bello US $350,000 (plus GST) for the Services, which shall commence on the date of payment and end on December 31, 2021. The compensation for Services does not include options to purchase securities of the Company. Bello's business address is located at Suite 100-736 Granville Street, Vancouver, BC V6Z 1G3, email is ali@bellocapitalpartners.com and telephone number is 604-417-4440. On behalf of the Board of Directors of the Company, COVER TECHNOLOGIES INC. "Dorian Banks" Dorian Banks, CEO For further information, please contact: Cover Technologies Inc. Investor Relations

+1 604-687-2038

info@covertechnologies.com Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. About Cover Technologies Inc. Cover Technologies Inc. is a technology research & development company with a focus on emerging technologies and solutions. In addition to the current research and development on its magnesium processing technology, Cover Technologies is in pursuit of identifying opportunities in emerging technologies. For further information or questions regarding the Company kindly contact the Company via email at info@covertechnologies.com. Additional information can be found by viewing the Companys filings at www.sedar.com. Forward-Looking Information Information set forth in this press release may involve forward-looking statements, including statements relating to the securities of the Company trading on the CSE. Forward-looking statements are statements that relate to future, not past, events. In this context, forward-looking statements often address a companys expected future business and financial performance, and often contain words such as anticipate, believe, plan, estimate, expect, and intend, statements that an action or event may, might, could, should, or will be taken or occur, or other similar expressions. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or other future events, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, the following risks: risks associated with marketing and sale of securities; the need for additional financing; reliance on key personnel; the potential for conflicts of interest among certain officers or directors with certain other projects; and the volatility of common share price and volume. In this case, disclosure about the proposed acquisition of Flurbo is a forward-looking statement, and there is a risk that the acquisition may not occur or occur as planned, and there is a risk that such event(s) occurring or not occurring (whether at all or as planned) may have adverse unforeseen impact on the Company, its market for securities, and/or its future business prospects (which include fundraising and operational matters). Forward-looking statements are made based on managements beliefs, estimates and opinions on the date that statements are made and except as required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if these beliefs, estimates and opinions or other circumstances should change. Investors are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forward-looking statements. For further information on risk, investors are advised to see the Companys MD&A and other disclosure filings with the regulators which are found at www.sedar.com .



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[September 15, 2021] CI Financial Establishes U.S. Headquarters in Miami

CI Financial Corp. ("CI") (TSX: CIX; NYSE: CIXX), a diversified global asset and wealth management company, announces the establishment of its U.S. headquarters in Miami. The addition of a headquarters in Florida follows CI's rapid wealth management expansion in the U.S., with the company acquiring or agreeing to acquire 21 registered investment advisor firms (including affiliate acquisitions) in 19 months since rolling out a new corporate strategy. During this period, CI's U.S. assets have reached C$92 billion (US$73 billion). CI's total assets globally have grown to C$320 billion (US$254 billion), up from C$176 billion (US$131 billion) only 18 months ago - making CI one of the fastest-growing asset and wealth management companies globally. (Asset levels as at August 31, 2021.) Establishing the Miami headquarters serves as a natural evolution of CI's expansion in the U.S. This office will oversee the continued development of CI Private Wealth, the brand name for CI's U.S. platform. "Miami is an incredible place to establish our U.S. headquarters and support our fast-growing U.S. business," said Kurt MacAlpine, Chief Executive Officer of CI Financial. "It serves as the next logical step for our expansion plans as we work to build the leading high-net-worth wealth management platform in the country. In addition, Miami is a vibrant, multicultural city that offers a deep talent pool, an attractive location for recruiting and a very business-friendly environment." The office, located in the city's Brickell district, will be home to CI's U.S. operations and the primary location for its U.S. leadership team. CI's executive officers will divide their time between the Miami and Toronto offices. CI expects to expand its presence in Miami over time as the firm continues to execute against its U.S. corporate strategy. "We are thrilled to welcome CI Financial to Florida," said Governor Ron DeSantis. "Their move is the latest example of our welcoming busness climate at work - something we continue to see from Miami to Pensacola. We appreciate CI Financial's commitment to our state and wish them all the success."



"CI Financial is the largest financial institution to ever place a headquarters in South Florida," said Miami Mayor Francis Suarez. "The significance of this cannot be overstated and moves us further towards our goal to become the 'capital of capital.' We thank Kurt MacAlpine, the board of directors, their executive team, and our own Venture Miami team for supporting their move to the City of Miami."

"We are thrilled to welcome one of Canada's largest asset and wealth management firms to Miami-Dade County. This move is a testament to the ongoing efforts of The Miami-Dade Beacon Council and our thriving community that continues to attract a growing number of global firms in finance, tech and more," said Miami-Dade Mayor Levine Cava. About CI Financial CI Financial Corp. is an independent company offering global asset management and wealth management advisory services. CI managed and advised on approximately C$320.4 billion (US$253.9 billion) in client assets as at August 31, 2021. CI's primary asset management businesses are CI Global Asset Management (CI Investments Inc.) and GSFM Pty Ltd., and it operates in Canadian wealth management through CI Assante Wealth Management (Assante Wealth Management (Canada) Ltd.), CI Private Counsel LP, Aligned Capital Partners Inc., CI Direct Investing (WealthBar Financial Services Inc.), and CI Investment Services Inc. CI's U.S. wealth management businesses consist of Barrett Asset Management, LLC, BDF LLC, Bowling Portfolio Management LLC, Brightworth, LLC, The Cabana Group, LLC, Congress Wealth Management, LLC, Dowling & Yahnke, LLC, Doyle Wealth Management, LLC, One Capital Management, LLC, Radnor Financial Advisors, LLC, The Roosevelt Investment Group, LLC, RGT Wealth Advisors, LLC, Segall, Bryant & Hamill, LLC, Stavis & Cohen Private Wealth, LLC and Surevest LLC. CI is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under CIX and on the New York Stock Exchange under CIXX. Further information is available at www.cifinancial.com. This press release contains forward-looking statements concerning anticipated future events, results, circumstances, performance or expectations with respect to CI Financial Corp. ("CI") and its products and services, including its business operations, strategy and financial performance and condition. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as "believe", "expect", "foresee", "forecast", "anticipate", "intend", "estimate", "goal", "plan" and "project" and similar references to future periods, or conditional verbs such as "will", "may", "should", "could" or "would". These statements are not historical facts but instead represent management beliefs regarding future events, many of which by their nature are inherently uncertain and beyond management's control. Although management believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements involve risks and uncertainties. The material factors and assumptions applied in reaching the conclusions contained in these forward-looking statements include that the acquisitions of Portola Partners Group LLC and Budros, Ruhlin & Roe, Inc. will be completed and their asset levels will remain stable, that the investment fund industry will remain stable and that interest rates will remain relatively stable. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations include, among other things, general economic and market conditions, including interest and foreign exchange rates, global financial markets, changes in government regulations or in tax laws, industry competition, technological developments and other factors described or discussed in CI's disclosure materials filed with applicable securities regulatory authorities from time to time. The foregoing list is not exhaustive and the reader is cautioned to consider these and other factors carefully and not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Other than as specifically required by applicable law, CI undertakes no obligation to update or alter any forward-looking statement after the date on which it is made, whether to reflect new information, future events or otherwise. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005351/en/

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[September 15, 2021] CapitalXtend Awarded Most Innovative ECN Broker Asia 2021

ALMATY, Kazakhstan, Sept. 15, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Global Business Review Magazine Inc, a renowned business publication with web and print editions, proclaimed CapitalXtend as the Most Innovative ECN Broker Asia 2021, in the annual Global Business Review Magazine Awards.

Global business review magazine Inc ceremony honors and reward excellence in organizations across different sectors. The awards are given out for the efficacy of global leaders for their extraordinary performance. Winners are chosen based on various factors such as reliability, innovation, etc. from the sectors of Banking, Finance, Insurance, Real Estate etc. The winners of The Global Business Review Magazine Award's much-awaited verdicts were released this week. The title for 'Most Innovative ECN Broker Asia 2021' went to CapitalXtend, an international Forex broker. CapitalXtend is known for its reliability, transparency, and intuitive trading experience. And this year has been special for CapitalXtend. Not only did the broker win Most Innovative ECN Broker Asia 2021 and the Most Trusted Broker awards, but it also celebrates its 1st anniversary. The broker is one of the leading financial service providers in the industry, with many years of loyal patronage and a team committed to providing exceptional services, competitive prices, and a wide range of trading tools. The company is regulated and globally rusted for the quality of its services.



Another milestone was achieved! CapitalXtend was crowned Most Innovative ECN Broker Asia 2021, mainly because their product offers simplicity and feasibility to everyone. This award affirms their trading services and terms are incredible in the market.

The broker provides multiple trading accounts and opens the door for trading for all kinds of traders as well as beginners. The firm provides its clients with account features that suit all their trading needs. Each account type is designed to gel with various trader types and the broker constantly strives to improve the quality and standards of their services. About CapitalXtend CapitalXtend is a regulated and globally trusted financial services provider that offers traders 300+ instruments, including Forex , CFD Shares , Spot Metals , Spot Energies , CFD Indices , and Cryptocurrencies . The broker offers low spreads, lightning-fast execution, and exceptional client support which is available 24*7. With CapitalXtend, traders get to access innovative trading tools, benefit from an exceptional trading environment, and reach their full trading potential. Media Contact

Company Name :- Capitalxtend LLC

Email Id :- hemant.kumar@capitalxtend.com

Company Website :- https://capitalxtend.com Source Link



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[September 15, 2021] Fertility House Calls Now Available Nationwide to Help Women and Couples Take the First Steps to Parenthood Virtually

PARSIPPANY, N.J., Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Ferring Pharmaceuticals announced today the expansion of Fertility House Callsa platform that connects women and couples with fertility specialists for an initial virtual consultation. The service aims to reduce the emotional burden associated with the fertility journey by making it easier for individuals to take that first step. Prospective patients ready to take the next step on their path to parenthood can search, select and request an appointment with established fertility clinics in their area in a few steps. Now available nationwide, those interested can easily search for a nearby location by visiting www.fertilityhousecalls.com. Statistics reveal that 1.4 million women may benefit from advanced fertility treatment, yet only 23 percent make it to a fertility clinic, and only 10 percent start a fertility treatment cycle.* For individuals who are hesitant to make the first visit to a fertility clinic, there is now a simple, convenient way to access personalized fertility care from the comfort of their own home with Fertility House Calls. "Ferring's commitment to reproductive medicine and maternal health goes far beyond treatment development. Through programs like Fertility House Calls, we continue to support individuals on their unique fertility journey," says David Powley, Vice President of Reproductive Medicine and Maternal Health at Ferring Pharmaceuticals. "We are proud to now offer Fertility House Calls at a national level to make the initial conversation with a fertility specialist as comfortable as possible." The website allows users to type in their zip code and search for trusted clinics in their area. After requesting an initial virtual consultation, the first appointment with a fertility specialist can be hosted directly from an individual's home to assess their fertility journey to-date, as well as provide detailed information on potential next steps. With a growing list of clinic partners, Fertility House Calls is increasing accessibility to fertility care for potential patients across the United States. "Fertility is personal and can be overwhelming  ertility House Calls is a great place to start," says April Batcheller, MD, CCRM Minneapolis, Co-Founder, alongside William Schoolcraft, MD. "At CCRM, we believe in the program's mission to connect patients directly with the expertise they need to help make informed decisions about their future as well as advocate for their own path to parenthood. After launching the pilot program at our flagship clinic in Denver, we look forward to offering the service at all of our clinics across the country to give patients the personalized fertility care they deserve."



More information about Fertility House Calls can be found at www.fertilityhousecalls.com. About Fertility House Calls

Fertility House Calls is a platform sponsored by Ferring Pharmaceuticals that aims to virtually connect women and couples who are ready to take the next step on their path to parenthood with fertility specialists for an initial virtual consult. This program initially launched in 25+ markets around the country in November 2020 and is now available nationwide. Find out if its available in a location near you: https://www.fertilityhousecalls.com/

About Ferring Pharmaceuticals

Ferring Pharmaceuticals is a research-driven, specialty biopharmaceutical group committed to helping people around the world build families and live better lives. In the United States, Ferring is a leader in reproductive medicine and maternal health, and in specialty areas within gastroenterology and orthopaedics. For more information, call 1-888-FERRING + (1-888-337-7464); visit http://www.ferringusa.com/ About CCRM

Founded by Dr. William Schoolcraft in 1987, CCRM (Colorado Center for Reproductive Medicine) is the nation's leader in fertility care and research. CCRM specializes in the most advanced fertility treatments, with deep expertise in in vitro fertilization (IVF), fertility assessment, fertility preservation, genetic testing, and third party reproduction. CCRM operates 11 fertility centers (including 26 offices) throughout North America, serving prospective parents in major metropolitan areas, including Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Denver, Houston, New York, Northern Virginia, Minneapolis, Orange County, San Francisco Bay Area and Toronto. For more information, visit www.ccrmivf.com , or social media channels, Facebook , Instagram and Twitter. For more information, please contact Heather Guzzi

Director, Brand Communications

Communications & Digital Innovation

+1-862-286-5254

Heather.Guzzi@ferring.com * Fertility Dynamics. Mini Magazine: Fertility House Calls. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/fertility-house-calls-now-available-nationwide-to-help-women-and-couples-take-the-first-steps-to-parenthood-virtually-301376928.html SOURCE Ferring Pharmaceuticals

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[September 15, 2021] Glassdoor To Power Fishbowl, A Fast-Growing Professional Social Network

Fishbowl by Glassdoor to Enable Professionals to Connect & Gain Critical Insights to Advance Their Careers in the New World of Work SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Glassdoor , the worldwide leader on insights about jobs and companies, today announced that through its parent company it has completed the acquisition of Fishbowl . Fishbowl is a fast-growing social network used by more than one million professionals1 engaging in candid conversations about anything career, industry and workplace-related. Financial terms are not being disclosed. With more than 55 million unique users each month2, Glassdoor is on a mission to help people everywhere find a job and company they love by increasing workplace transparency. Glassdoor, founded in 2008, offers millions of ratings, reviews, salary reports and other workplace insights, shared by employees, to help job seekers better understand what it's really like to work at a company. With Fishbowl's focus on building meaningful connections and more personal conversations for working professionals, the two platforms are highly complementary and help people get the information they need to make more informed career decisions. As the world of work continues to evolve, the acquisition of Fishbowl comes at an especially challenging time for workers. A new Glassdoor survey 3 of U.S. employees conducted by The Harris Poll reveals that 48% of employees have felt isolated from coworkers during the COVID-19 pandemic, and 42% of employees have felt their career stall due to the lack of in-person connection. In addition, nearly half (45%) of employees expect to work hybrid or full-time remotely going forward. To help meet the changing needs of today's working professionals, Fishbowl by Glassdoor will deliver even more workplace transparency, empowering professionals to have candid conversations, connect with one another, build communities and gain helpful insights to advance their careers. "The world of work is dramatically changing and so are workers' needs. Glassdoor and Fishbowl provide a look inside the ongoing transformation and what's crystal clear is that workers need more information, mre connection and more community, no matter where they're located. With this acquisition, we're giving job seekers and employees an unmatched real-time look into the employee experience across companies and industries," said Christian Sutherland-Wong, Glassdoor Chief Executive Officer. "We've been impressed by Fishbowl's incredible product, team and growth and are excited to help expand the community even faster. We proudly welcome Fishbowl employees to the Glassdoor family and look forward to the future together."



"More than ever, professionals are seeking communities to have valuable career conversations and get more information from people beyond those they already know. No one brings transparency to the workplace better than Glassdoor, and with Fishbowl's platform for real-time professional conversations the opportunity together is incredibly powerful," said Matt Sunbulli, Fishbowl Chief Executive Officer. "We're excited to have Glassdoor's support to power Fishbowl's growth." Launched in 2016 by co-founders Matt Sunbulli and Loren Appin, Fishbowl has more than 18 million conversations, comments and direct messages in thousands of bowls4 where professionals can discuss career, industry and workplace-related topics. Before posting or commenting on Fishbowl, people have the option to choose how to represent themselves  by job title only, by the company they work for, or with their full name, title and company.

Starting today, employees and job seekers on Glassdoor will see relevant Fishbowl conversations from people working in related companies and industries. This integration comes as more than two-thirds (69%) of employees wish they were able to learn more about the team they would be working with when deciding to accept a job, and 64% of employees wish they had a way to ask questions of industry peers around the country, according to the Glassdoor survey. Job seekers and employees can experience more by clicking on these Fishbowl conversations and visiting Fishbowl to see full conversations and explore company feeds, industry and special interest bowls. Viewing these conversations will require a Fishbowl account . FULL SURVEY RESULTS, VIDEO, IMAGES + INTERVIEWS: Images of Fishbowl by Glassdoor and the new product integrations are available upon request. Check out a video on how to dive into the Fishbowl by Glassdoor product. Plus, see full Glassdoor survey data on employee sentiment related to the new world of work and evolving workforce needs. For more information email pr@glassdoor.com . About Glassdoor Glassdoor combines millions of workplace reviews and insights, paired with the latest jobs, to help people everywhere find a job and company they love. As a result, Glassdoor helps employers hire truly informed candidates at scale through effective recruiting solutions like employer branding and employee insights products. Launched in 2008, Glassdoor now has more than 95 million reviews and insights, shared by employees, for more than 1.7 million companies around the world. Glassdoor is a subsidiary of Recruit Holdings, a leading global technology company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. For more information, visit www.glassdoor.com . About Fishbowl Fishbowl is on a mission to help professionals and companies get ahead by enabling helpful and constructive conversations. Launched in 2016, Fishbowl is currently accessible through its mobile app available on iOS and Android devices and is free for all users. For more information or to download the app, visit www.fishbowlapp.com . 1 Fishbowl Internal Data, CQ2'21

2 Google Analytics, Unique users represents peak monthly unique users in CQ2'21

3 Survey Methodology: This survey was conducted online within the United States by The Harris Poll on behalf of Glassdoor between August 12-16, 2021 among 1,058 adults ages 18+ who are employed full-time, part-time or self-employed. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. For complete survey methodology, including weighting variables and subgroup sample sizes, please contact pr@glassdoor.com.

4 Fishbowl Internal Data, August 2021 Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/449764/Glassdoor_Logo.jpg

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[September 15, 2021] Cost is the Biggest Barrier to Post-Secondary Education; "Free College" Would Have the Biggest Impact On Students Completing/Returning to School, According to Cengage Group Report

BOSTON, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Costs, including the cost of living and the cost of tuition and course materials, are the biggest barriers to post-secondary education for students. Not surprisingly, current, future and students who dropped out say "free college" would have the single biggest impact on them finishing or returning to post-secondary education, according to the Barriers to Post-Secondary Education Report from Cengage Group, a global education technology company. The company surveyed more than 1,600 current college students, recent high school graduates and students who have dropped out of post-secondary education to better understand their education barriers and what would have the biggest impact on them completing their education. "Access to quality post-secondary education, be it in the form of a traditional degree or a skills-based certification, provides a clear path to job opportunities and economic mobility, however students need more affordable and flexible options," said Michael Hansen, CEO of Cengage. "While 'free college' ranked high as having the biggest impact on students accessing and continuing their education, flexibility to take courses online was the second biggest factor. All of us serving higher education need to do more to lower the cost of education and increase awareness of flexible programs that meet learners where they are." Other findings include: Students go to college to get a job. The number one reason current and potential students enroll/would enroll in college is because they say it is necessary for their career path and job opportunities after school (48 percent). Four-year college students are more likely to say they enrolled to expand their social and/or professional networks than students at two-year or technical colleges.

The number one reason current and potential students enroll/would enroll in college is because they say it is necessary for their career path and job opportunities after school (48 percent). Four-year college students are more likely to say they enrolled to expand their social and/or professional networks than students at two-year or technical colleges. Cost is the biggest education barrier for current, future and former students. High school graduates are ore concerned with cost of tuition and course materials while current students and former students (those who have dropped out) are more concerned with the cost of living. Twenty percent of all current college students  and 25 percent of two-year students  do not know how they will pay for their next semester. After costs, however, additional barriers to education included the status of the COVID-19 pandemic, flexibility to take courses online and the time to a degree.

High school graduates are ore concerned with cost of tuition and course materials while current students and former students (those who have dropped out) are more concerned with the cost of living. Twenty percent of all current college students  and 25 percent of two-year students  do not know how they will pay for their next semester. After costs, however, additional barriers to education included the status of the COVID-19 pandemic, flexibility to take courses online and the time to a degree. " Free college" would have the biggest impact on students finishing or returning to post-secondary education. Nearly half (46 percent) of students and adults said "free college" (President Biden's American Families Plan or other proposed federal legislation) would have the greatest impact on them finishing or returning to school. Respondents who had dropped out were more likely to state past student debt forgiveness as an impact in returning to school. A close second factor impacting whether students finish their education is the "flexibility to take courses online" (37 percent).

Nearly half (46 percent) of students and adults said "free college" (President Biden's American Families Plan or other proposed federal legislation) would have the greatest impact on them finishing or returning to school. Respondents who had dropped out were more likely to state past student debt forgiveness as an impact in returning to school. A close second factor impacting whether students finish their education is the "flexibility to take courses online" (37 percent). Current college students are more likely consider alternative education paths. The majority of current post-secondary students (68 percent) have considered alternative education programs (skills courses or micro-credentials), while only 42 percent of recent high school grads have considered it, meaning more education is likely needed for high school students to fully assess all of the post-secondary education options available to them.



Graduate Employability report, students are questioning the value of education. We need to break down the cost barriers students face and ensure that post-secondary education is preparing them with needed job skills, a concept we call Education for Employment." To learn more about how Cengage supports Education for Employment and the stigma impacting different types of post-secondary education, join the LinkedIn Live discussion: EducationLIVE: Battling the Trade Stigma on Tuesday, Sept. 21 at 12:30pm EDT with Michael Hansen; Jane Oates, President of Working Nation and former U.S. Department of Labor official; and Eric Rubio, a heavy-duty truck instructor and master technician.

To download the Cengage Group Barriers to Post-Secondary Education Report, click here. Survey Methodology: Cengage Group's Barriers to Post-Secondary Education Survey was conducted July 13- August 3, 2021 and polled 1,622 U.S. based respondents currently enrolled in post-secondary education, high school graduates (or equivalent, of all ages) not enrolled in post-secondary education, and/or formerly enrolled in post-secondary education but dropped out. This survey was conducted online direct-to-consumer via mobile devices. About Cengage Group Cengage Group, a global education technology company serving millions of learners, provides affordable, quality digital products and services that equip students with the skills and competencies needed to be job ready. For more than 100 years, we have enabled the power and joy of learning with trusted, engaging content, and now, integrated digital platforms. We serve the higher education, workforce skills, secondary education, English language teaching and research markets worldwide. Through our scalable technology, including MindTap and Cengage Unlimited, we support all learners who seek to improve their lives and achieve their dreams through education. Visit us at cengagegroup.com. CONTACT: Kristina Massari, kristina.massari@cengage.com View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cost-is-the-biggest-barrier-to-post-secondary-education-free-college-would-have-the-biggest-impact-on-students-completingreturning-to-school-according-to-cengage-group-report-301377314.html SOURCE Cengage Group

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[September 15, 2021] Trilio Introduces Comprehensive Ransomware Protection and Recoverability for Cloud-Native Applications

Trilio, a leading provider of cloud-native data protection, today announced the release of TrilioVault for Kubernetes (TVK) v2.5, which offers a comprehensive approach to ransomware protection and recoverability in alignment with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework and in support of Zero-Trust architectures. Enterprises and organizations alike understand the damage caused by ransomware and have come up with various strategies to mitigate risk and facilitate recovery. Keeping backup copies of data and "point-in-time captures" are the most effective means of thwarting ransomware attacks, since there's no need to pay to recover data if there's another copy of the data safe and sound. However, attackers can also target the backups. Attackers frequently try to penetrate the backup system either through the administrative console or the storage media itself in order to modify and delete point-in-time data. As a result, organizations can lose data and not even know about it until later. This greatly inhibits an enterprise's ability to restore business operations after their data is held ransom. Trilio is leveraging the NIST Cybersecurity Framework to align its capabilities and approach, specifically the best practices detailed in the Data Integrity projects of the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) at NIST. The three main components of the framework include Identify and Protect, Detect and Mitigate, and Recover. All TVK ransomware protection features today and beyond will align to this framework. Today, Trilio announced the following capabilities with TVK v2.5 to provide comprehensive ransomware protection: Backup Immutability: Ability to create immutable backups to protect against any malicious attempts to modify or delete the backups. The immutability capability works with S3-based object-locking features so that backups cannot be deleted from the target during the retention period. When the retention period is up, the backups are automatically cleared by the S3 object-locking mechanism which is controlled by TVK. Trilio enables users to set policies at the application level to give flexibility and control which is beneficial in a multi-cloud deployment. This granular level of control is in contrast to other solutions which only allow target-level retention which creates administrative overhead.

Ability to create immutable backups to protect against any malicious attempts to modify or delete the backups. The immutability capability works with S3-based object-locking features so that backups cannot be deleted from the target during the retention period. When the retention period is up, the backups are automatically cleared by the S3 object-locking mechanism which is controlled by TVK. Trilio enables users to set policies at the application level to give flexibility and control which is beneficial in a multi-cloud deployment. This granular level of control is in contrast to other solutions which only allow target-level retention which creates administrative overhead. Encryption: Ability to encrypt TVK backups with a Linux Unified Key Setup (LUKS) encryption format that uses an AES-256 cipher algorithm so encrypted backups cannot be read or stolen. The TVK implementation includes at-rest and in-flight encryption. TVK leverages Key Management Systems (KMS) so Kubernetes users are in ontrol of the encryption and the associated keys for the applications which is advantageous in multi-cloud deployments. This approach is aligned with Zero-Trust architectures and is in contrast to other solutions that only allow target-level encryption which may pose security risks.



***Download the IDC (News - Alert) Report, 'Trilio: Cloud-Native Data Services for Kubernetes with a Focus on Application Resiliency'*** "Trilio is committed to the challenge of solving the exponentially growing problem of ransomware attacks - and intends to do so in the most complete manner possible through alignment to cybersecurity best practices," said David Safaii, CEO of Trilio. "TrilioVault for Kubernetes offers features that enable protection and recovery from ransomware, giving our customers the peace of mind that comes from knowing that Trilio's enterprise-class technology is running continuously to keep their environments safe and protected across potential attack vectors and levels."

Additionally, Trilio also announced the following features in TVK v2.5: Multi-Namespace Backup Support: Ability to capture multiple namespaces in a single backup instead of doing multiple backups of multiple namespaces. This reduces the amount of management overhead and helps customers who want to efficiently protect clusters. In contrast to other solutions, TVK enables users to manage multiple namespaces as a consolidated object and each namespace capture as an individual object providing simplified management.

Ability to capture multiple namespaces in a single backup instead of doing multiple backups of multiple namespaces. This reduces the amount of management overhead and helps customers who want to efficiently protect clusters. In contrast to other solutions, TVK enables users to manage multiple namespaces as a consolidated object and each namespace capture as an individual object providing simplified management. Backup Target Support: TVK now offers the ability to natively store data in Azure Blob and GCP Object Storage giving Microsoft (News - Alert) or Google customers full support of their ecosystem of infrastructure products.

TVK now offers the ability to natively store data in Azure Blob and GCP Object Storage giving Microsoft (News - Alert) or Google customers full support of their ecosystem of infrastructure products. Authentication Support: TVK now supports OIDC, LDAP and cloud authentication providers. Customers with existing Identity Access Management (IAM) tools typically like to continue using their existing authentication products to avoid complicated security reviews. "As container production deployments grow, there's a need for data protection that includes detection and defense against ransomware, as traditional data protection methods may not scale well in containerized environments," said Lucas Mearian, research manager, IDC. "Trilio's product is a solution designed to protect and recover against ransomware attacks based on its point-in-time backups and restores to combat data corruption issues or other malicious activity on production data. TrilioVault for Kubernetes v2.5 includes data encryption and immutable backups via an object-locking mechanism on storage media intended to prevent backups from being overwritten or deleted." ***Visit us at KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America 2021 at booth #P17 to see a demo of TrilioVault for Kubernetes in action.*** User Explains TVK Value V3Main Technologies has been using TrilioVault for Kubernetes for backup, restore and migration operations across multiple Kubernetes distributions and multiple clouds, including AWS EKS, Google GKE and Azure AKS with plans to deploy Red Hat (News - Alert) OpenShift as well. "Overall, the concept is to take a backup from one cluster, restore it to the target, and then place it on a different cluster-no matter what platform, cloud or infrastructure you're using," said Venkat Maddikayala, president of V3Main Technologies. "That's the thing that saves me a lot of effort because it takes a lot of time to configure a new cluster with on-demand workloads. There's tremendous value in the efficiency of operations, time and cost savings for our team. We're looking forward to taking advantage of the new capabilities to protect against Ransomware attacks as well." About TrilioVault for Kubernetes TrilioVault for Kubernetes is a cloud-native, application-centric data protection platform that was designed from the ground-up to support the scale, performance and mobility requirements of Kubernetes container environments across any public or hybrid cloud environment. TrilioVault for Kubernetes offers backup and recovery of the entire application, including data, metadata and any other Kubernetes objects associated with the application so it is protected and able to be restored from any point-in-time. About Trilio Trilio is a leader in cloud-native data protection for Kubernetes, OpenStack and Red Hat Virtualization environments. Our TrilioVault technology is trusted by cloud infrastructure operators and developers for backup and recovery, migration and application mobility. Customers in telecom, defense, automotive and financial services leverage TrilioVault to recover from disasters, migrate workloads, move workloads to new infrastructure and migrate to new software distributions. Trilio.io, Twitter and LinkedIn. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005049/en/

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[September 15, 2021] TomoCredit Raises $10 Million in Series A Funding to Help Build Credit for First Time Borrowers

TomoCredit, a fintech company offering a credit card focused on building a credit history for first-time borrowers, today announced a $10 million Series A funding round led by Kapor Capital and KB Investment Inc. (KBIC), a subsidiary of South Korea's leading consumer bank. This comes on the heels of TomoCredit raising $7 million in seed funding, which brings the total funding to $17 million this year. The company also appointed Ash Gupta, former CRO at American Express (News - Alert) , to the board. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005141/en/ (Photo: Business Wire) According to the company's analysis of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau statistics, 76% of GenZ and Millennials have not previously built up a credit history. Ultimately this means they cannot obtain loans from traditional financial institutions, which require at least a credit score with some history to get started. Such lending policies prevent 40 million people from accessing credit, including cars and homes. TomoCredit aims to bring millions of individuals that lack a credit score into the financial system, allowing a diverse group of consumers the opportunity to better position themselves as qualified candidates for mortgages auto loans, or other major life purchases. Powered by Finicity - a Mastercard company -and leveraging their secure data network and open banking technology, applicants permit TomoCredit to securely access their bank accounts to access financial data for underwriting purposes. Once approved, applicants receive the TomoCredit Mastercard, a no-fee credit card with 0% APR. The company has already pre-approved more than 300,000 customers and expects to issue a total of 500,000 cards by year's end.



"TomoCredit is a glowing example of financial services innovation that meaningfully benefits individuals and families," said Steve Smith, chairman, CEO and co-founder of Finicity. "The team at TomoCredit understands the value of open banking, the wide range of data and how it can deliver richer insights and better decisioning to drive inclusion for those who are underserved by traditional borrowing processes. We expect big things from the team." "As a South Korean immigrant, I understood the true pain point when I came to the US and couldn't get qualified for an auto loan. I knew there must be a solution so with my co-founder Dmitry, we built TomoCredit centered around helping consumers build credit faster," said Kristy Kim, co-founder of TomoCredit. "We believe we have the opportunity to not only foster a diverse and inclusive team but to break socioeconomic barriers and provide credit solutions to a much wider audience impacted by this issue. Currently we have a 50% female representation in our executive leadership team and we are proud of our inclusive culture here at Tomo," said Kristy.

With this latest funding round, TomoCredit will hire additional staff and enhance key features like weekly AutoPay and High Credit Limits to boost credit scores faster. Through a no credit-pull method with no fees, the company can provide credit to everyone, especially to the ones neglected by major lenders due to their lack of FICO scores. TomoCredit's Advisory Board includes current and past executives from LendingClub, Mastercard, Chime, SoFi and Venmo. "At Kapor Capital, we believe in the power of transformative ideas and diverse teams. TomoCredit is just that," said Brian Dixon, Partner at Kapor Capital, ''TomoCredit gives fair opportunity to everyone that is looking to start building credit and it is much needed for underrepresented communities. TomoCredit founders understand the pain points in the credit system from their own struggles as immigrants." Also joining this round is Lewis & Clark Ventures. "We are enthusiastic about the potential for TomoCredit to make a real impact in our nation by offering opportunities for inclusion for immigrants, foreign students, and those just beginning their careers with something as basic as their access to credit," said Tom Hillman, Founding General Partner, Lewis & Clark Ventures. ABOUT TOMOCREDIT TomoCredit is a next-generation credit card, catering to students, working professionals, and immigrants looking to build a better financial future in the U.S. TomoCredit is backed by KB Investment, Kapor Capital, Barclays Ventures, Lewis & Clark Ventures, Ame Cloud, Knollwood Investment Advisory, Bronze, Bam Ventures, Strong Ventures and more. The founding team members are based in San Francisco. More information is available at: www.tomocredit.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005141/en/

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[September 15, 2021] Smart Sewer Technology Satisfies EPA Consent Decree, Saves City $400 Million

Global water technology company, Xylem (NYSE:XYL), is delivering the advanced "smart sewer" system enabling the City of South Bend, Indiana, to exceed the requirements of a wastewater consent decree for 60% less capital investment (CapEx) than originally planned. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005648/en/ Smart Sewer Technology Satisfies EPA Consent Decree, Saves City $400 Million (Photo: Business Wire) The US Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) and the US Department of Justice (DoJ) have now formally endorsed the City's long-term sewer plan, based on the advanced technology. The EPA, the DoJ and the City of South Bend originally entered into a consent decree in 2012 in response to the City's aging sewer infrastructure that frequently overflowed, discharging millions of gallons of sewage and stormwater into the landmark St. Joseph River each year. The plan to address the problem was set to cost South Bend ratepayers $713 million in capital improvements. But the parties have now announced they are amending the original agreement with a revised plan based on "smart sewer" technology. The City's new approach, using Xylem's wastewater network optimization solution, provides "better protection at lower cost," according to the EPA.



"We are so pleased to be partnering with the visionary team at the City of South Bend, providing the digital innovation and insights to make this transformation possible," said Patrick Decker, Xylem's CEO. "Their hard work has now resulted in a ground-breaking outcome which will save every family in the city thousands of dollars while enabling them to enjoy a more beautiful St. Joseph River, and have access to cleaner water more affordably." "We will spend 400 million dollars less than originally estimated, achieving greater environmental benefit and level of service, just by optimizing the existing system in the ground," said Eric Horvath, Director of Public Works for the City of South Bend.

"Capturing and using data from sewers used to sound strange," Decker continued. "But our water infrastructure increasingly has to deal with sudden and extreme weather events, while meeting regulatory requirements and protecting our communities. South Bend is among a growing number of cities modernizing their water systems with advanced digital solutions to make their communities more resilient. We are proud to serve them in this journey." The City of South Bend's revised plan consists of a monitoring system of more than 165 sensors and software agents located throughout the City's urban watershed, managing 13 automated gates and valves. Real-time decision support technology enables the network to react to sudden wet weather events and avoid flooding by quickly moving flows to under-utilized parts of the network. Operators receive overflow information via control room screens, smartphones and tablets - giving them the ability to override the system at any time, if needed. The result has been a dramatic reduction in combined sewer overflow volumes (roughly 1 billion gallons per year), and a more-than 50% drop in E. coli concentration in the St. Joseph River. In addition to the capital works savings, the City is also benefiting from $1.5 million per year in reduced operations and maintenance costs. The City has implemented its new control plan based on the Xylem solution working alongside deployment partners American Structurepoint, LimnoTech, and Stantec. About Xylem Xylem (XYL) is a leading global water technology company committed to solving critical water and infrastructure challenges with innovation. Our more than 16,000 diverse employees delivered revenue of $4.88 billion in 2020. We are creating a more sustainable world by enabling our customers to optimize water and resource management and helping communities in more than 150 countries become water-secure. Join us at www.xylem.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005648/en/

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[September 15, 2021] Cordial Appoints Carrie Parker as Senior Vice President of Marketing

SAN DIEGO, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Cordial, the leading cross-channel marketing platform, today announced that Carrie Parker has joined the company as senior vice president of marketing. A seasoned executive with more than 20 years of experience driving growth, Parker will oversee the company's marketing and communications programs including digital strategy, branding, and demand generation, with a focus on business growth and market expansion. Cordial's platform and mission are grounded in a commitment to creating authentic connections, which is really special. Parker brings a rich B2B marketing background to Cordial, spanning brand building, demand generation, and strategy as well as a track record of scaling marketing operations. Prior to joining the company, Parker held marketing leadership roles at Vericast, leading Valassis' marketing, engaging brands in industries ranging from retail to CPG. Before that, Parker held leadership roles at Kantar and at American Express where she led digital marketing and brand experiences for the company's business-focused division and guided the strategy and execution for the award-winning OPEN Forum content platform. "We are thrilled to welcome Carrie to our executive team, as we continue to execute on our vision of transforming cross-channel marketing and focu on driving exceptional experiences and outcomes for our clients," said Jeremy Swift, co-founder and CEO of Cordial. "Carrie is a proven leader and rare marketing talent. Combined with our strong platform and product roadmap, we are poised to further bolster Cordial's reputation and recognition as the most innovative platform in the marketplace."



Today's announcement comes on the heels of significant momentum for Cordial, including becoming the first cross-channel marketing platform in the Digital Customer Experience category available in the Amazon Web Services Marketplace . It also reflects the continued build out of the company's leadership team and its ability to attract top talent with prior experience scaling growth in the marketing technology space, with the recent appointment of Rachel Bergman as the company's first chief revenue officer . "At its core, Cordial helps brands create more meaningful, personalized experiences with their customers. Cordial's platform and mission are both grounded in a commitment to creating authentic connections, which is really special," said Parker. "Cordial is also at a critical inflection point in its growth, and I am thrilled to be joining this stellar team to accelerate our momentum and introduce many more businesses to Cordial and our next generation approach to cross-channel engagement."

ABOUT CORDIAL

Cordial is the intelligent cross-channel marketing platform for customer-obsessed retail brands like Revolve, 1-800 Contacts, Backcountry, and Eddie Bauer. Cordial enables these organizations to achieve a new level of customer intimacy and loyalty and revenue by optimizing the key touchpoints of their cross-channel experiences with their consumers. For more information on Cordial, visit cordial.com. Contact:

Jordan Cohen

The Fox Hill Group for Cordial

jordan@foxhillgrp.com View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cordial-appoints-carrie-parker-as-senior-vice-president-of-marketing-301377600.html SOURCE Cordial

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[September 15, 2021] Less Than Half Of UK Financial Services IT Leaders Would Trust Predictive Analytics To Manage Their Kids' Pocket Money

LONDON, Sept. 15, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- New research from data leader Qlik reveals how concerns around trust and regulatory compliance, as well as weaknesses in the data pipeline, are slowing the adoption of predictive analytics in Financial Services (FS), preventing UK organizations from reaping the full value from their data and maximizing the potential with business intelligence platforms.

The report, Unleashing the Potential of Predictive Analytics in Financial Services, which surveyed more than 500 UK IT leaders in FS, exposes the slow uptake of predictive analytics. More than a third (38%) of British financial institutions have five or fewer predictive analytics use cases currently in operation  in stark contrast with the leading 7% of institutions, which have each introduced 50 or more. Key issues IT leaders in FS face when implementing predictive analytics include: A question of trust  Every decision a financial services organization makes can have a major impact on a customers life, from agreeing to an overdraft to making payday or approving a mortgage application. Yet one-third (30%) of IT leaders admit fearing algorithms could unfairly impact their customers. This is perhaps unsurprising given only half of respondents (50%) trust decisions made by predictive analytics solutions are without bias and are always accurate (45%). Over two-fifths (43%) of respondents go far enough to say they wouldnt even trust predictive analytics to manage their kids pocket money.





 Every decision a financial services organization makes can have a major impact on a customers life, from agreeing to an overdraft to making payday or approving a mortgage application. Yet one-third (30%) of IT leaders admit fearing algorithms could unfairly impact their customers. This is perhaps unsurprising given only half of respondents (50%) trust decisions made by predictive analytics solutions are without bias and are always accurate (45%). Over two-fifths (43%) of respondents go far enough to say they wouldnt even trust predictive analytics to manage their kids pocket money. Regulatory risk  In such a highly regulated industry, 44% of IT leaders fear they could be held personally responsible for decisions automatically triggered by predictive analytics solutions  rising to 81% amongst those working in funds and investments. The regulatory burden also weighs heavily on them, with 46% reporting it outweighs the benefit the solution could offer.





 In such a highly regulated industry, 44% of IT leaders fear they could be held personally responsible for decisions automatically triggered by predictive analytics solutions  rising to 81% amongst those working in funds and investments. The regulatory burden also weighs heavily on them, with 46% reporting it outweighs the benefit the solution could offer. Flaws in the data pipeline  IT leaders also cite a number of technical barriers to implementation. Two-fifths face issues with data quality (40%), data silos (40%) and the speed of data integration (36%). Data privacy (30%) and the use of inaccurate or outdated data sets (30%) were also common concerns. Just over two-fifths (43%) also fear they dont hav the skills to implement predictive analytics.





Improve trust by marrying human & machine intelligence Many of the concerns relating to predictive analytics are underpinned by a lack of human oversight of its decisions  both in terms of outcomes and explainability. To overcome these issues, more than two-thirds (69%) of IT leaders in FS advocate incorporating predictive analytics into business intelligence (BI) platforms.

Most believe integrating the powerful forecasting of predictive analytics into the BI platforms that already inform employee decision-making has the potential to: help organizations comply with regulatory frameworks (72%)

significantly improve employee decision-making (70%)

deliver a better customer experience (68%)

identify areas of cost saving (68%)

democratize forecasting (67%)

However, ensuring employees have the requisite data literacy to understand, question and apply the predictive forecasts to their decision-making process is key to maintaining trust and compliance. Three-quarters (76%) of IT leaders in FS highlighted the importance of data literacy training in enabling employees to recognize the limitations of the technology. And in helping them explain to customers and other stakeholders how decisions using predictive analytics are made (77%). We are very clear about what our customers, our members, mean to us, and that extends to how transparent we are in decision-making processes. We would never want to make a customer feel like decisions were being made about them that couldnt be explained. A human has to be able to explain those decisions, said Richard Speigal, BI Centre of Excellence Leader at Nationwide. Integrating predictive analytics into BI empowers our organization to harness its benefits for improved employee decision-making, while retaining upmost trust that it will only result in fair outcomes for our customers and stakeholders. The financial services industry is undergoing rapid data transformation. Predictive analytics will play a key role in empowering employees to take more informed actions, with forecasts helping them consider what might happen, as well as what has happened before, when making decisions, said Adam Mayer, Senior Manager at Qlik. However, our research has shown that many IT leaders are yet to fully trust the insights from predictive analytics and the impact these decisions could have on their customers, continued Mayer. This trust needs to be built from the ground up. Real-time, hyper-contextual information, with clear data lineage and robust governance, must feed the analytics data pipeline, revealing insights that data-literate employees can discerningly use to inform decisions. This will empower financial services organizations to look forward and take action, rather than react to business moments as they arise. Helping them truly achieve Active Intelligence from their data. Find out more in the full report here: Unleashing the Potential of Predictive Analytics in Financial Services About the research

Censuswide surveyed 503 UK IT Leaders (CIOs, IT directors, etc.) between June 22nd and July 1st 2021. This included 200 respondents in banking and 201 in insurance. All respondents worked in organizations with a minimum company size of 50 and with a minimum average annual turnover of 1 Million. About Qlik

Qlik's vision is a data-literate world, where everyone can use data and analytics to improve decision-making and solve their most challenging problems. A private SaaS company, Qlik provides an end-to-end, real-time data integration and analytics cloud platform to close the gaps between data, insights and action.?By transforming data into Active Intelligence, businesses can drive better decisions, improve revenue and profitability, and optimize customer relationships.?Qlik does business in more than 100 countries and serves over 50,000 customers around the world.?? Media Contact: Craig Brophy

craig.brophy@qlik.com

+44(0)779 566 2888



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[September 15, 2021] Prudential Financial to sell $31B PALAC block of legacy variable annuities to Fortitude Re

Prudential Financial, Inc. ("Prudential") (NYSE: PRU) and Fortitude Group Holdings, LLC, the parent company of Bermuda's largest multi-line reinsurer ("Fortitude Re"), today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Prudential will sell a portion of its in-force legacy variable annuity block to Fortitude Re for a total transaction value of $2.2 billion.1 This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005661/en/ Under the terms of the agreement, Prudential will sell one of its stand-alone legal entity subsidiaries, Prudential Annuities Life Assurance Corporation (PALAC), including PALAC's in-force annuity contracts, to Fortitude Re, for an all-cash purchase price of $1.5 billion, subject to certain adjustments at closing, plus a capital release to Prudential and an expected tax benefit. The PALAC block primarily consists of non-New York traditional variable annuities with guaranteed living benefits that were issued prior to 2011, which constitute approximately $31 billion or 17% of Prudential's total in-force individual annuity account values as of June 30, 2021. PALAC complements Fortitude Re's market-leading capabilities in designing tailored solutions for leading insurers that enhance capital efficiency and address strategic priorities. Prudential will continue to service and administer all contracts in the PALAC block following the transaction to ensure a consistent experience for customers. Prudential does not expect there to be any direct impact to employee head count as a result of the transaction. "We are pleased to have reached an agreement with Fortitude Re, which represents another significant milestone in Prudential's journey to becoming a higher growth, less market sensitive, more nimble company," said Prudential Chairman and CEO Charles Lowrey. "This transaction underscores how a partnership with the right expertise and financial strength can benefit our customers and investors, while also unlocking new opportunities for our businesses." "This transaction is an important step forward for Fortitude Re and demonstrates our expertise in delivering comprehensive and value enhancing solutions for our clients," said Fortitude Re Chief Executive Officer James Bracken. "Our strong, diversified balance sheet, proven risk management capabilities, and access to Carlyle's asset origination franchise are key differentiators that enable us to responsibly manage complex, long-dated insurance liabilities. I am excited about the partnership with Prudential and the strategic opportunities this acquisition creates." Prudential will retain its interest in all FlexGuard buffered annuity contracts and PALAC recently issued fixed and fixed indexed annuities through a reinsurance agreement with Fortitude Re and, subject to regulatory approvals, intends to offer those FlexGuard and other recent PALAC customers the option to replace the issuer of their contract with another Prudential subsidiary, with further details to be provided to applicable customers. Prudential will continue to sell new FlexGuard and other protected outcome solutions through additional existing subsidiaries. "Prudential's individual Annuities business in the U.S. remains an important component of our business mix and organic growth strategy," said Prudential Executive Vice President and Head of U.S. Businesses Andy Sullivan. "Going forward, we will be better positioned to deliver new investment strategies like FlexGuard, which continues to achieve record succes, and focus on creating the next generation of protected income solutions to help more Americans secure their financial future."



The transaction, which is subject to regulatory approval and other customary closing conditions, is expected to close during the first half of 2022. Upon closing, Prudential anticipates a reduction to pre-tax annual adjusted operating income of approximately $290 million. Proceeds from the transaction are expected to be used for general corporate purposes.

Debevoise & Plimpton LLP served as legal counsel to Fortitude Re. Sidley Austin LLP served as legal counsel to Prudential, and Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC served as exclusive financial advisor. [1] Total transaction value includes the purchase price for PALAC plus a capital release to Prudential and an expected tax benefit. About Prudential Financial, Inc. Prudential Financial, Inc. (NYSE: PRU), a global financial services leader and premier active global investment manager with more than $1.5 trillion in assets under management as of June 30, 2021, has operations in the United States, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. Prudential's diverse and talented employees help to make lives better by creating financial opportunity for more people. Prudential's iconic Rock symbol has stood for strength, stability, expertise and innovation for more than a century. For more information, please visit news.prudential.com. About Fortitude Re Fortitude Re is Bermuda's largest multi-line composite reinsurer with unique competitive advantages and expertise to design bespoke transactional solutions for legacy Life & Annuity and P&C lines. Fortitude Re is an independent company backed by a consortium of sophisticated investor groups led by The Carlyle Group and T&D Insurance Group. Fortitude Re holds approximately $45 billion in invested assets as of June 30, 2021. For more information, visit www.fortitude-re.com. Follow Fortitude Re on LinkedIn. Prudential Forward-Looking Statements and Non-GAAP Measures Certain of the statements included in this release, such as those regarding the expected closing of the transaction and the receipt and use of the proceeds thereof, the company's strategy with respect to the products it offers, the growth prospects and market sensitivity of its business, the expected impact of the transaction on the company's head count, the expected tax benefit to Prudential resulting from the transaction and the expected reduction in pre-tax adjusted operating income as a result of the transaction constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "expects," "believes," "anticipates," "includes," "plans," "assumes," "estimates," "projects," "intends," "should," "will," "shall" or variations of such words are generally part of forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are made based on management's current expectations and beliefs concerning future developments and their potential effects upon Prudential Financial, Inc. and its subsidiaries. There can be no assurance that future developments affecting Prudential Financial, Inc. and its subsidiaries will be those anticipated by management. These forward-looking statements are not a guarantee of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties, and there are certain important factors that could cause actual results to differ, possibly materially, from expectations or estimates reflected in such forward-looking statements. Certain important factors that could cause actual results to differ, possibly materially, from expectations or estimates reflected in such forward-looking statements can be found in the "Risk Factors" and "Forward-Looking Statements" sections included in Prudential's Annual Report on Form 10-K. Prudential does not undertake to update any particular forward-looking statement included in this document. This press release includes a reference to adjusted operating income. Adjusted operating income is the measure used by Prudential to evaluate segment performance and to allocate resources. Due to the inherent difficulty in reliably quantifying future realized investment gains/losses and changes in asset and liability values given their unknown timing and potential significance, we cannot, without unreasonable effort, provide an estimate of expected lost income from continuing operations, which is the GAAP measure most comparable to adjusted operating income. More information about adjusted operating income can be found in the "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" section included in Prudential's Annual Report on Form 10-K. This press release does not constitute an offer of novation or exchange with respect to any insurance policies or contracts. Annuities are issued by Pruco Life Insurance Company, located in Newark, NJ (main office), or by Prudential Annuities Life Assurance Corporation (except in NY) located in Shelton, CT (main office). Variable annuities are distributed by Prudential Annuities Distributors, Inc., Shelton, CT. All are Prudential Financial companies and each is solely responsible for its own financial condition and contractual obligations. Prudential Annuities is a business of Prudential Financial, Inc. For more information on FlexGuard, click here. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005661/en/

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[September 15, 2021] Global Study Reveals Over 90% of Organizations are Missing Key CXM Capabilities to Drive Business Results

Sprinklr (NYSE: CXM), the unified customer experience management (Unified-CXM) platform for modern enterprises, today released the results of its commissioned study conducted by Forrester (News - Alert) Consulting to explore how decision makers are using data insights to deliver better customer experiences. The study, Boost Customer Experience Success With A Unified Approach, reveals that customer experience (CX) is a priority for 82% of decision makers, yet over 90% sai they are missing key capabilities in their current technology stack to support a CX strategy that drives business results. These key capabilities include advanced AI to manage risk and efficiency, better data privacy, and ability to share insights with different customer-facing departments.



Additional key findings after surveying more than 300 global decision makers: Companies don't have effective customer experience management technology. As a result of missing key capabilities in their tech stack, nearly 50% of respondents said that current tools don't provide a comprehensive, single view of the customer and nearly 50% said they don't have a great way of understanding unstructured data (blogs, forums, ratings, reviews, social media mentions).

As a result of missing key capabilities in their tech stack, nearly 50% of respondents said that current tools don't provide a comprehensive, single view of the customer and nearly 50% said they don't have a great way of understanding unstructured data (blogs, forums, ratings, reviews, social media mentions). Companies are struggling to deliver great customer experiences. Over 70% of customer experience decision makers said that quickly resolving customer issues across digital channels and acting on competitive insights was very important. Yet less than 30% said that their organizations execute these capabilities well.

Over 70% of customer experience decision makers said that quickly resolving customer issues across digital channels and acting on competitive insights was very important. Yet less than 30% said that their organizations execute these capabilities well. 86% of respondents would implement a unified customer experience management platform if it was made available to them. Respondents said that a unified CX management platform would yield a competitive advantage and untapped business benefits. "Organizations understand that insight-driven strategies are the key to successful customer experience management, yet it's surprising to see how many are challenged with siloed data, inefficient processes, and a disconnected stack of customer experience tools," said Ragy Thomas, Sprinklr Founder & CEO. "As the Forrester study showcases, organizations have a tremendous opportunity to invest in unifying their CXM strategy in order to make their customers happier and ultimately grow their business."

Download the full study here. About Sprinklr Sprinklr is a leading enterprise software company for all customer-facing functions. With advanced AI, Sprinklr's unified customer experience management (Unified-CXM) platform helps companies deliver human experiences to every customer, every time, across any modern channel. Headquartered in New York City with employees around the world, Sprinklr works with more than 1,000 of the world's most valuable enterprises - global brands like Microsoft (News - Alert) , P&G, Samsung and more than 50% of the Fortune 100. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005382/en/

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[September 15, 2021] SecureLink Enhances Partner Program to Advance Critical Access Management

AUSTIN, Texas, Sept. 15, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, SecureLink , a leader in critical access management, has established PartnerLink, its enhanced partner program designed to build and grow valuable cybersecurity solutions for customers. SecureLinks existing partner program has seen continued success since its founding. This year SecureLink signed 11 new partners, including Cavalry Solutions, Cyber Distribution, and SkyHelm, strengthening an ecosystem of 38 partners globally.

SecureLink has been working directly with partners for a long time and has seen continued success with solutions deployed through partnerships within more than 30,000 organizations worldwide. As our footprint expands, and as critical access management becomes an even greater priority for businesses, now is the perfect time to expand our partner offering, said Cory Shirk, VP of Sales at SecureLink. In addition to providing customers with the best solutions, PartnerLink presents partners with the opportunity to grow their own businesses by leveraging our expertise, sales approaches and solutions. While each partner has different goals, targeted verticals, markets and customer sizes, through a collection of exclusive benefits within the program they can increase profitability and grow a personable and sustained partnership with SecureLink. To support the growing number of partners in the program, PartnerLink offers four levels of go-to-market (GTM) partner tiers. Each tier of the SecureLink partner ecosystem is determined by partnership performance and includes financial and GTM benefits, with the goal of jointly creating customer value while achieving business goals. These include: Platinum  The highest level of partnership consists of top-performing partners that reach top revenue levels and demonstrate a high level of customer satisfaction. These partners can certify personnel at the highest level and increase value to shared customers via thought leadership to the respective market.

The highest level of partnership consists of top-performing partners that reach top revenue levels and demonstrate a high level of customer satisfaction. These partners can certify personnel at the highest level and increase value to shared customers via thought leadership to the respective market. Gold  Consists of top-performing partners who successfully target key vertical markets. They meet or commit to specific sales goals or leads delivered and recorded with SecureLink. Sales and technical personnel can go through certification courses and develop GTM solutions to continue sales success.

Consists of top-performing partners who successfully target key vertical markets. They meet or commit to specific sales goals or leads delivered and recorded with SecureLink. Sales and technical personnel can go through certification courses and develop GTM solutions to continue sales success. Silver  Entry level of membership for proven and established partners who are still advancing in SecureLink sales and technical expertise and want to reach a gold partnership level in the future.

Entry level of membership for proven and established partners who are still advancing in SecureLink sales and technical expertise and want to reach a gold partnership level in the future. Referral  A referral partnership is for partners who want to register a deal and choose to not resell the SecureLink product. A partner tier is earned throughSourced Annual Contract Values (ACV), partner profile completion, business plan completion, and certification completion/maintenance done. A SecureLink Partner Committee also meets periodically to evaluate new partner applications and review the progress, success, and needs of partners.



The latest member of PartnerLink is Cynexlink , an all-in-one provider for business IT needs. Cynexlink provides efficient solutions to IT challenges, ranging from broadband and server hosting to cybersecurity threat monitoring and consultations, through assessments, diagnosis, planning and management, at all business levels. Cynexlink prides itself on being a one-stop-shop for all business IT needs and through PartnerLink we are able to boost our 24-hour cybersecurity threat monitoring, providing our clients with the solutions to assess, diagnose and prevent their security threats at every business level, commented Ayman Totounji, CEO at Cynexlink. Were looking forward to driving new sales opportunities while building strong relationships within the partner community.

The benefits of participating in PartnerLink include enablement, marketing and sales support to accelerate growth and help expand security portfoliosfurther positioning businesses as trusted advisors to customers. Enablement benefits help partners through a partner community, product demo environment and training, and support privileges. Channel marketing, joint planning, and customer leads and success stories, aimed at increasing awareness and demand, are offered marketing benefits. On the sales side, tactics to increase sales and success, such as joint business planning, sales accreditation training, and sales briefings are available to partners. To join the SecureLink Partner Program, visit the SecureLink Partner page or contact partners@securelink.com to find out more information. About SecureLink

SecureLink is the industry leader in critical access management, empowering organizations to secure access to their most valuable assets, including networks, systems, and data. By leveraging Zero Trust principles , machine learning, and artificial intelligence, SecureLink provides comprehensive security solutions to govern, control, monitor, and audit the most critical and highest risk access points. Organizations across multiple industries -- including healthcare , manufacturing , government , legal , and gaming -- trust SecureLink to secure all forms of critical access, from remote access for third parties to access to critical infrastructure, regulated information, IT, and OT. For more information visit: www.securelink.com Contact

Codeword for SecureLink

securelink@codewordagency.com

415-370-0716



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[September 15, 2021] Wildfire Systems Launches the First White Label Loyalty and Cashback Platform for Mobile Safari Browser Extensions on Apple's iOS 15

SOLANA BEACH, Calif., Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Wildfire Systems Inc., an innovative financial technology platform which powers reward and loyalty programs, today announced the availability of its white-label offering for Apple's mobile Safari browser. Wildfire will power Acorns' Safari browser extension for Acorns Earn, enabling customers to earn more money from thousands of brands while they shop online. Wildfire already powers Acorns' desktop Chrome extension for Acorns Earn. In June 2021, Apple announced a major update to the Safari browser in iOS 15 that will allow iPhone owners to use extensions. Safari is the first mobile browser for iOS to offer extensions, removing the need for users to download separate apps that act as extensions. Wildfire is the first company to offer white-label mobile Safari extensions for earning rewards and cashback at thousands of online merchants. "We're excited to work with Acorns to be among the first to launch a mobile Safari browser extension for cahback rewards and expand the opportunity for their users to earn and invest when they shop on their iOS devices," said Jordan Glazier, CEO of Wildfire. "Our white-label platform enables our partners to drive loyalty and retention, by providing their users with cashback rewards and savings at over 35,000 global e-commerce merchants."



"Wildfire has been a valuable partner in supporting the growth of Acorns Earn,'' said David Keegan, VP of Experience & Earn at Acorns. "We are thrilled to be able to expand the ways our customers can earn money for their future when they shop with this new mobile Safari browser extension." In August 2021, Wildfire Systems announced $15 million in Series A funding for its white-label monetization platform, led by TTV and QED Investors. Wildfire's versatile platform helps partners across a full spectrum of verticals, such as financial institutions, search engines, browsers, rewards services, telecom providers and device OEMs. Their new white-label mobile Safari browser extension will allow Wildfire's enterprise partners to embed social commerce, rewards, and cashback offers into existing customer journeys on iPhones. Not only does Wildfire drive incremental revenue for merchants, it also enables enterprise partners to earn revenue from organic, everyday purchases and social sharing, while boosting customer retention and loyalty.

For more information on Wildfire Systems' new mobile Safari browser extension and to schedule a demo, please visit: https://wildfire-corp.com/ About Wildfire Systems, Inc.

Wildfire Systems provides an enterprise platform which enables partners to embed social commerce, rewards, and cashback offerings within their existing services. Wildfire's patented suite of technologies rewards online shopping and harnesses digital word-of-mouth, delivering enhanced user experiences, consumer loyalty, and new revenue streams for partners. By harnessing word-of-mouth recommendations, Wildfire drives incremental revenue for over 30,000 online merchants including 1800-flowers, Dell, Macy's, and Sephora. The company is based in San Diego and was founded in 2017. For more information, visit www.wildfire-corp.com. About Acorns

Acorns is how everyday consumers can save & invest for the long term. By putting tools of wealth-making in everyone's hands, Acorns has become the largest subscription service in U.S. consumer finance, serving more than 4 million everyday Americans. Customers get automated investing in diversified portfolios, built with help from experts like Nobel Laureate economist, Dr. Harry Markowitz. Acorns' easy retirement account allows customers to invest for a better life later in minutes, no expertise required. To help everyone spend smarter, Acorns introduced banking that invests with every swipe, and cash-forward rewards. And, everyday Americans may invest in their kids and get money news they can use, all from the same app. To date, customers have invested more than $9.6 billion with Acorns, much of it in spare change. From acorns, mighty oaks do grow! Important Risk Disclosures

Investing involves risk including the loss of principal. Investment advisory services provided by Acorns Advisers, LLC ("Acorns"), an SEC-registered investment advisor. Brokerage services are provided to clients of Acorns by Acorns Securities, LLC, an SEC-registered broker-dealer and member FINRA / SIPC . Securities in your account protected up to $500,000. For details, please see www.sipc.org . Investments are not FDIC insured and may lose value. Please consider your objectives, risk tolerance, and Acorns' fees before investing. Acorns reserves the right to restrict or revoke any and all offers at any time. View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/wildfire-systems-launches-the-first-white-label-loyalty-and-cashback-platform-for-mobile-safari-browser-extensions-on-apples-ios-15-301377436.html SOURCE Wildfire Systems

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[September 15, 2021] Fitch Group Announces Creation of Sustainable Fitch and Launches ESG Ratings Products

Fitch Group today announced the launch of Sustainable Fitch, which will offer a comprehensive range of ESG Ratings products at both an entity and instrument level for all asset classes globally. The ESG Ratings coverage will initially be focused on the ESG-labelled market, but in time will comprise the entire fixed-income investable universe. Sustainable Fitch believes it will be able to offer the broadest coverage from a single provider in the ESG information market. The new ESG Ratings from Sustainable Fitch assess the ESG performance and profile of entities and instruments. They are backed by clear methodologies, with source data derived using the same trusted principles and platforms that underpin Fitch credit ratings. They provide an objective, full assessment of ESG performance at Entity, Instrument and Framework level, allowing for detailed comparability. The ESG Ratings are both modular and granular, show clearly how they are derived, and are backed by Sustainable Fitch's dedicated team of ESG analysts. Coverage will not be limited to the Fitch credit ratings universe or the existing universe of green or sustainable-linked bonds. The creation of Sustainable Fitch builds on the successful 2019 launch of Fitch Ratings ESG Relevance Scores, which show the impact of ESG factors on credit rating decisions and are now maintained on over 10,500 issuers and transactions. Sustainable Fitch's capabilities will include: ESG-integrated credit research and analysis via existing ESG Relevance Scores;

Climate risk assessment through its existing Climate Vulnerability Scores;

Pure ESG analysis and reports via the new ESG Ratings; and

Ongoing sector and thematic ESG research. Sustainable Fitch will be headed by Andrew Steel, Managing Director, Global Group Head of Sustainable Finance. "Investors want transparent, cross comparable ESG ratings that look beyond labelling or targets to assess ESG fundamentals," said Mr. Steel. "Sustainable Fitch will provide investors with best-in-class ESG Ratings, supported by data and analysis backed by the key tenets of consistency, comparability, coverage and granularity." Paul Taylor, CEO, Fitch Group, said: "We hae spent a lot of time assessing what is currently available in the market, listening to and gathering feedback from investors and other market participants. Our new ESG Ratings product is in direct response to what the market is asking for, as was the case in 2019 when we created our ESG Relevance Scores with investors in mind."



About Sustainable Fitch ESG Ratings: Sustainable Fitch ESG Ratings are not credit ratings. They are designed to help market participants to evaluate the relative ESG quality of financial instruments and entities. They provide consistency, granularity and transparency via:

Full coverage of labelled bonds (green, social, sustainable, KPI linked, transition);

Instrument and entity level reports and ratings (including framework analysis);

Ability to cover any debt instrument (bonds and loans, labelled and conventional);

Fully modular grading system (access to sub-grades for all main indicators); and

Consistent disclosure of alignment indicators (ICMA, UN Sustainable Development Goals, EU Green Bond Standard, etc.) Fundamentally, the focus of the ESG Rating analysis is on action, outcome, impact and activity rather than purely on policies and broader commitments. The ESG Ratings suite assesses all types of debt instruments (bonds and loans), whether they are labelled, plain vanilla, or structured instruments. The suite also covers any type of entity: corporate; leveraged finance; financial institution; sovereign, supranational and agency (SSA); project finance; public finance; and structured finance. The ESG Ratings suite is composed of three major pillars: an ESG Entity Rating (ER1-5); an ESG Instrument Rating (IR1-5); and for labelled or KPI-linked debt instruments, an additional ESG Framework Rating (FR1-5). For further details about Sustainable Fitch, including in-depth introductions to the new ESG Ratings and ESG-related Insights, please visit the Sustainable Fitch website. Sustainable Fitch ESG Ratings data and information will be sold through Fitch Solutions and made available via Fitch Connect, a modern, flexible multi-channel delivery platform, designed to complement and enhance users' workflows. Notes to editors: In September 2018, Fitch Group announced it had signed the United Nations-supported Principles for Responsible Investment (UN PRI), underlining its commitment to incorporating environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) issues into investment practice and developing a more sustainable global financial system. This announcement followed the establishment of a Global Sustainable Finance group at Fitch earlier that year. In 2019, Fitch Ratings launched the first of two credit-specific ESG products: ESG Relevance Scores; followed by sector-focused Climate Vulnerability Scores in 2020. As they are credit ratings-related, these product offerings shall remain with Fitch Ratings. For more information on these and other ESG initiatives visit www.fitchratings.com/esg. Fitch Group is a global leader in financial information services with operations in more than 30 countries. Fitch Group is comprised of: Fitch Ratings, a global leader in credit ratings and research; Fitch Solutions, a leading provider of data, research and analytics; and Fitch Learning, a preeminent training and professional development firm. With dual headquarters in London and New York, Fitch Group is owned by Hearst. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005663/en/

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[September 15, 2021] Ategrity Specialty Insurance Company Completes $75 Million Capital Raise from Sequentis Financial

Ategrity Specialty Insurance Company, ("Ategrity" or "The Company"), a specialty property & casualty insurance company focused on the excess and surplus ("E&S") lines market, today announced the completion of a $75 million capital raise led by Sequentis Financial LLC to support its continued growth. "Since launching in 2018, Ategrity has done an extraordinary job at building its presence in the marketplace. It is now time to marry our existing strengths with new investments in data and analytics that will position our company for its next phase of growth," said Mike Miller, Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Ategrity. "We are excited to have raised significant capital to support this plan as we work to deliver the highest level of service to our agents and brokers." Stuart Zimmer, Chairman of Sequentis Financial, said: "Ategrity has quickly established itself as a leader in the E&S marketplace, and w are very pleased to continue to support its growth. Its innovative approach to technology and service positions Ategrity well for the future, with a strong and seasoned executive team."



Ategrity launched in September 2018 with funding from Mr. Zimmer, the Founder and CEO of Zimmer Partners, a research-driven multibillion dollar investment adviser and operating company of Sequentis Financial. Ategrity's offerings include commercial E&S property and casualty business on a primary and excess basis. The Company has a Financial Strength Rating of A- (Excellent) from A.M. Best.

About Ategrity Ategrity is a specialty property & casualty insurance company focused on the excess and surplus ("E&S") lines market. The Company is headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, and is domiciled in Delaware in the United States. It serves wholesale agents and brokers throughout the U.S. on a contract binding and individual brokerage account basis. Ategrity has a captive reinsurance company located in Bermuda that will share in the risks of the insurance business. For more information, visit www.ategrity.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005647/en/

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Q2 Helps Stanford Federal Credit Union Transform Its Digital Banking Experience

Q2 Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:QTWO), a leading provider of digital transformation solutions for banking and lending, today announced Silicon Valley-based Stanford Federal Credit Union (Stanford FCU) has partnered with Q2 to streamline, simplify and gamify its digital banking experience. Harnessing the Q2 Innovation Studio and Q2's digital banking platform, Stanford FCU launched a new membership rewards dashboard and deployed new revenue-generating services, including faster, less expensive international wire transfers.

Stanford FCU, comprised of members from the Stanford University community and nearby tech companies, including Google (News - Alert) , Facebook and Tesla, is the world's first-ever financial institution to offer online banking. They serve a tech-savvy member base that expects seamless, fast-paced innovation to support their financial needs.

"We're constantly looking for ways to make the user experience much more intuitive. Our goal is to let the members do what they want to do as effectively and efficiently as possible, but also make it fun and engaging," said Stanford FCU Chief Product Officer Brian Kissel.

In utilizing Q2 Innovation Studio, Stanford FCU became one of the first U.S. financial institutions to partner with Wise (formerly TransferWise) to offer quicker international funds transfers with lower fees. The online and mobile transfer service is available 24/7, supports 21 currencies, and transacts quickly, often the same day.

"We've certainly seen an uptick of international transfers," said Kissel, pointing to a measurable improvement of member satisfaction and engagement with its digital banking transformation. "We see reviews on Yelp (News - Alert) and Facebook and other social media platforms where members are expressing appreciation for the redesign of the user experience," he said. "We also see that some of the features and capabilities that were less utilized are being more utilized."

The Q2 Innovation Studio allows Stanford FCU's small development team to reflect the credit union's reputation for innovation. The Q2 Innovation Studio enables financial institutions to seamlessly assimilate Q2's fintech partners onto their platforms to design, develop and distribute the latest, cutting-edge digital banking products, applications, and features. It is built with Q2's award-winning SDK, whih more than 450 financial institutions currently leverage to deliver thousands of differentiated experiences with unprecedented speed, ease, and flexibility.







"We're a lean organization with a modest development team," said Kissel. "Q2 allows us to punch above our fighting weight, and that's good for Stanford FCU and our members."

"Q2 is proud to collaborate with, and innovate alongside, Stanford FCU," said Will Furrer, chief strategy officer, Q2. "Stanford FCU serves a talented, highly educated membership who expect best-in-class technologies in digital banking services. Q2's modern, flexible interface will enable Stanford FCU to remain ahead of the evolving expectations of its tech-savvy membership. We remain committed to delivering seamless, highly differentiated solutions to power end-to-end digital transformation for financial institutions."

With the marketplace demanding constant improvement of the member experience, Stanford FCU is exploring dozens of ideas for further leveraging Q2, such as using clickstream analytics to measure the customer journey.

"Much more functionality has become a need to have, not nice to have," said Kissel. "The table stakes for all financial institutions are going up all the time, which makes innovation and execution that much more important."

To learn more about Stanford FCU's digital transformation story:

To learn more about the Q2 Innovation Studio:

About Stanford Federal Credit Union

Stanford Federal Credit Union is a $3.6 billion non-profit financial institution with 77,000 members located in Palo Alto (News - Alert) , CA. Founded in 1959 by Stanford University employees, Stanford FCU currently serves Stanford University employees, faculty, alumni and students; as well as worldwide employees of over a hundred other companies headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area. Stanford FCU's mission is to improve the financial lives of those in the Stanford community.

About Q2 Holdings, Inc.

Q2 is a financial experience company dedicated to providing digital banking and lending solutions to banks, credit unions, alternative finance and fintech companies in the U.S. and internationally. With comprehensive end-to-end solution sets, Q2 enables its partners to provide cohesive, secure, data-driven experiences to every account holder - from consumer to small business and corporate. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Q2 has offices worldwide and is publicly traded on the NYSE under the stock symbol QTWO. To learn more, please visit Q2.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005553/en/
[September 15, 2021] Nexa and Henkel Announce Expanded Collaboration to Jointly Develop Turnkey AM Production Systems to Accelerate Adoption in Targeted End Use Markets

Nexa3D, the maker of ultrafast polymer 3D printers, today announced the opening of its first full scale additive manufacturing customer center: NEXTFACTORY in Ventura CA (News - Alert) , in partnership with Henkel. Co-located within the Nexa3D global headquarters, NEXTFACTORY provides current and potential customers with direct access to every aspect of the additive polymer manufacturing (AM) process, from design decision support and optimization to full scale additive manufacturing operations including integrated post processing technologies, material formulation customization, colour matching and a variety of finishing options. Both companies plan to invite additional automation, process and software innovation partners to join NEXTFACTORY and be part of delivering complete end-to-end additive manufacturing solutions for volume production applications. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005638/en/ NEXTFACTORY (Photo: Business Wire) NEXTFACTORY will provide production professionals from around the world with access to the collective domain expertise, resources, tools, optimized functional materials and modular production and post processing equipment of Nexa3D and Henkel to develop their unique end-to-end production workflows. The center will serve as a full capability production scaling facility for customers looking to fasttrack their production scale up process development, material selection and optimization and production line design and procurement. Nexa3D and Henkel teamed up to meet the accelerated demand for additively manufactured parts and assemblies in several key industries, including mobility, footwear, industrial and health products. Working together, Henkel and Nexa3D plan to deliver the full customer value of additive manufacturing by opening the aperture on functional materials, tailoring material properties, and providing colour matching and finishing options that suit customer specific requirements. At the center, production professionals who are ready t move into large scale digital manufacturing, can access and learn about latest design optimization tools including part consolidation, light weighting, and access proven methods to scale up to mass production. Customers can also experience a range of manufacturing state-of-the-art software tools including manufacturing execution systems, as well as post processing and finishing automation solutions.



"The Center is designed to help customers across the entire additive process and accelerate the adoption of additive manufacturing in their business, regardless of where they are on their journey," explained Simon Mawson, Senior Vice President and Global Head of 3D Printing at Henkel. "Customers will benefit from hands-on training and the ability to pilot their own production requirements, enabling them to realize the full potential of additive manufacturing and leverage the combined functional materials, validated workflows and 3D printing expertise that Henkel and Nexa3D have to offer." "For example, customers can come to the center with a prototype product, and we will collaborate with them to design and build a pilot production proof of concept," said Avi Reichental, co-founder, Chairman and CEO of Nexa3D. "We will then work with them to develop a turnkey solution with the best system, tailored materials and post processing equipment for their application. By working with us, customers will better understand how to industrialize their processes while improving product quality and supply chain sustainability," concluded Reichental.

As well as supporting customers, Nexa3D and Henkel plan to use the center to accelerate the adoption of additive production at scale for footwear, mobility, industrial and healthcare applications, by demonstrating to businesses how they can create an end-to-end solution using AM technologies. To further support customers, Nexa3D and Henkel plan to open two more centers, one in North America and one in Europe, by the end of 2022. To find out how the industry can benefit from the customer experience center, visit https://bit.ly/3EmUDDi. To learn more, check out this media kit. About Henkel Henkel operates globally with a well-balanced and diversified portfolio. The company holds leading positions with its three business units in both industrial and consumer businesses thanks to strong brands, innovations, and technologies. Henkel Adhesive Technologies is the global leader in the adhesives market - across all industry segments worldwide. In its Laundry & Home Care and Beauty Care businesses, Henkel holds leading positions in many markets and categories around the world. Founded in 1876, Henkel looks back on more than 140 years of success. In 2019, Henkel reported sales of more than 20 billion euros and adjusted operating profit of more than 3.2 billion euros. Henkel employs more than 52,000 people globally - a passionate and highly diverse team, united by a strong company culture, a common purpose to create sustainable value and shared values. As a recognized leader in sustainability, Henkel holds top positions in many international indices and rankings. Henkel's preferred shares are listed in the German stock index DAX. For more information, please visit www.henkel.com. About Nexa3D Nexa3D is passionate about digitizing supply chain sustainably. The company makes ultrafast polymer 3D printers, that deliver 20X productivity advantage, affordable for professionals and businesses of all sizes. The company partners with world-class material suppliers to unlock the full potential of additively manufactured polymers for volume production. The company makes automated software tools that optimize the entire production cycle using process interplay algorithms that ensure part performance and production consistency, while reducing waste, energy, and carbon footprints. For more information, please visit www.nexa3d.com. Ref: NED022/08/21 View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005638/en/

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[September 15, 2021] Celent & Equisoft exclusive insurance research reveals: 91% of carriers are prioritizing the use of data and analytic technologies to inform decisions on pricing

Commissioned by Equisoft as part of a new global study, this North American research will help carriers to plan, prioritize and make investment decisions on how to unlock the strategic value of their data to create new opportunities for growth, process optimization and customer experience improvement. PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 15, 2021 /CNW/ - In a new report commissioned by Equisoft, global research firm Celent presents the findings of an executive study aiming to understand how North American insurers are actually creating value from their data, and how they are improving their abilities to expose and use their data for more than administrative purposes, while overcoming the key risks to realizing that value. The research revealed that: While giving customers more of what they want matters, knowing how to price for it optimizes business when things scale up;

91% of carriers surveyed are prioritizing the use of data and analytic technologies to inform decisions on pricing;

The building of actuarial pricing models is where they are finding that data is creating the most value for their organizations. This research was conducted with CIOs and other executives at large- and mid-sized North American carriers offering individual life, annuities, as well as group and voluntary insurance products. "The volume of data collected by insurers is increasing every second and deriving value from that data has become a hot topic and one that many carriers are grappling with," said Mark DePhillips, Senior Vice President, USA at Equisoft. "Our goal with this study is to provide insurers with practical insights on what their peers are doing with their data today, and help uncover what are the quick wins, how they can actually get value from their data ight now."



As reported by Celent, higher customer expectations for modern digital experiences are segmenting the marketplace between savvy companies and lagging companies, creating a strategic imperative for insurers to become more data-driven and to generate more value from their data through digitalization, connectivity, analytics and automation. "Companies of all sizes are placing their greatest priority on data management, business intelligence, and Analytics/AI," said Marty Ellingsworth, Senior Analyst, Data and Advanced Analytics, Americas at Celent. "They have more data than ever, from extensive digital transformations and integrations with various data sources, and they understand that turning this data into more valuable assets is key to sustainable competitiveness where price, ease of doing business and peace of mind matter."

As one insurance executive revealed in the report, "No one is in charge of data quality. We have pockets of greatness surrounded by swampy moats. We put it in the cloud and are sorting it all out there." Click here to access the full report. In addition to the North American life and annuity market, this research will also be conducted in LATAM and APAC, and a global report comparing results among regions will be released by Celent in early 2022. About Equisoft

Founded in 1994, Equisoft is a global provider of advanced insurance and investment digital solutions. Recognized as a valued partner by over 250 of the world's leading financial institutions in 16 countries, Equisoft offers innovative front-end applications, extensive back-office services and unique data migration expertise. The firm's flagship products include a SaaS policy administration solution, CRM, financial needs analysis, financial planning, asset allocation, fund and portfolio analysis, quotes and illustrations, electronic application, agency management systems, as well as customer, agent and broker portals. Equisoft is also Oracle's largest and most experienced partner for the OIPA platform. With its business-driven approach, deep industry knowledge, innovative technology, and more than 800 experts based in Canada, USA, UK, Chile, Colombia, South Africa, India and Australia, Equisoft helps its clients tackle any challenge in this era of digital disruption. For more information about our products and services, please visit www.equisoft.com . View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/celent--equisoft-exclusive-insurance-research-reveals-91-of-carriers-are-prioritizing-the-use-of-data-and-analytic-technologies-to-inform-decisions-on-pricing-301376908.html SOURCE Equisoft

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[September 15, 2021] NYC Administrators Seeking Supplemental Reading Support Can Now Order the Learning Ally Audiobook Solution in FAMIS

PRINCETON, N.J., Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Learning Ally, a national education technology nonprofit with a mission to champion literacy for all, and the developer of the Learning Ally Audiobook Solution, is now an approved vendor in the New York City Department of Education's SHOPDOE/FAMIS system. Over 200,000 U.S. schools use the Learning Ally Audiobook Solution to provide equitable access to textbooks and culturally-relevant fiction and non-fiction titles that help improve the reading skills of struggling learners with reading deficits who are reading below grade level, English Language Learners with multiple reading challenges, and students with learning disabilities such as dyslexia. Lee Peters, Chief Operating Officer for Learning Ally said, "New York City educators are working hard to accelerate student achievement and create literacy-rich learning environments. With easier access to the Audiobook Solution through FAMIS, we invite them to take a closer look at our organization and the outcomes we have helped students, teachers, and schools accomplish across the country. Together, we can serve the growing population of students in need of reading support and be closer to solving the literacy divide." In a 2020 case study, students receiving access to The Learning Ally Audiobook Solution doubled their rate of reading growth in 50 days. The versatile and six-time nationally-recognized award-winning reading resource complements K-12 teachers' reading instruction for in-person, hybrid, or remote learning settings. NYC schools seeking to accelerate reading growth, revent learning loss, and improve reading habits, while sparking the joy of independent reading and strengthening skills in comprehension, decoding, fluency, and vocabulary can SHOPDOE/FAMIS system for The Learning Ally Audiobook Solution, which includes these components:



multisensory reading app built for learning applications

80,000 human-narrated textbooks, literature, and popular titles

progress monitoring tools and data to individualize students' goals and report accountability

professional development courseware to enhance teachers' knowledge on the science of reading and to improve their daily practice In 2021, The Learning Ally Audiobook Solution received T&L's Award of Excellence for Best Back to School Solution for Secondary Education, and Best Remote and Blended Learning Tool, SIIA Codie Finalist for Best Virtual Learning Solution, Fast Company's Innovative World Changing Ideas Award, and was an EdTech Digest Cool Tool Award Finalist. NYC administrators can request and/or purchase The Learning Ally Audiobook Solution using NYSTL and software-allocated funds.

Shop shopdoe.com. Learning Ally Vendor No. 31659345 About NYC DOE FAMIS The FAMIS (Financial Accounting Management Information System) Portal is New York City's Department of Education's web-based purchasing application that allows users to make purchases from DOE-contracted qualified vendors and suppliers to ensure that all students receive the quality education they deserve. About Learning Ally Learning Ally is a leading nonprofit education organization dedicated to equipping educators with proven solutions that help new and struggling learners reach their potential. Our range of literacy-focused offerings for students in Pre-K to 12th grade and catalog of professional learning allows us to support more than 1.5 million students and 200,000 educators through our solutions and community, across the United States. For more information visit www.learningally.org Contact gemdin@learningally.org for Learning Ally offerings in FAMIS. Media Contact:

Valerie Chernek

410-960-4060

318762@email4pr.com View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nyc-administrators-seeking-supplemental-reading-support-can-now-order-the-learning-ally-audiobook-solution-in-famis-301377663.html SOURCE Learning Ally

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[September 15, 2021] Voya Financial strongly supports the ABLE Employment Flexibility Act

Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE: VOYA), announced today that it supports - and encourages Congress to pass - the federal ABLE Employment Flexibility Act (H.R. 4672) to further enable financial wellbeing for workers with disabilities. The bill would make ABLE accounts more accessible to employees with disabilities and remove a barrier to competitive, integrative employment. As it is currently written, the proposed legislation would assign similar treatment to contributions that employers make to ABLE accounts (529A accounts) as is assigned to employer contributions to retirement plans. In addition, it would provide more options for employees with disabilities to save for their futures without jeopardizing their eligibility for crucial government benefits. Today, employer contributions to ABLE accounts are not counted as a tax deduction for the business, but employer contributions made to tax-qualified retirement plans are tax-deductible. This proposed legislation seeks to change that, adding incentives for employers to contribute to ABLE accounts for eligible employees. Additionally, many people with disabilities depend on means-tested government benefit programs to sustain their independence. These programs - such as Medicaid, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Federally Assisted Housing and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) - determine eligibility by asset levels. Employee contributions to retirement plans that, in turn, are matched by employers can be considered accumulating assets for the individuals with disabilities, affecting their eligibility for these means-tested benefits. Contributions by both the employer and the employee to ABLE accounts would be excluded from asset tests, preserving eligibility for government benefits while enabling savings. "This would be another positive step toward financial security and compensation equity for people with disabilities," said Jessica Tuman, head of the Voya Cares Center of Excellence. "They would be able to contribute to the employer match, just as their colleagues would, while remaining within the asset limit of the means-tested government programs that they depend on for their independence." The Voya Cares program is an extension of Voya's vision and mission to help all Americans achieve the quality of life that they seek to and through retirement. The program is committed to making a positive difference in the lives of people with disabilities and special needs from birth through aging, by providing advocacy, resources and solutions.



"For employers, in addition to 'doing the right thing,' the proposed legislation would create additional flexibility to offer responsive employee benefit programs to help recruit, hire, train and retain people with disabilities, a largely untapped pool of talent," said Tuman. The ABLE Employment Flexibility Act bill, introduced into Congress on July 22, 2021, expands the 2014 Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) Act that allows qualified beneficiaries with disabilities to save up to $15,000 a year in a 529A savings account for the purpose of supporting and maintaining their health, independence and quality of life, and those funds are excluded from the asset limitations of federal benefit programs. In 2017, the ABLE Act was further amended by the ABLE to Work Act that allows employed ABLE account owners who do not opt in to their retirement plans to save an additional $12,760* above the $15,000 limit.

*Federal poverty line for a one-person household in 2021 is $12,760. About Voya Financial Voya Financial, Inc. (NYSE: VOYA), provides health, wealth and investment solutions that enable its approximately 14.8 million individual, workplace and institutional clients to achieve their financial wellness goals with confidence. With a vision to be America's Retirement Company, Voya's products, solutions and digital capabilities help create a better financial future for all. Voya is a Fortune 500 company that had $7.6 billion in revenue in 2020 and $721 billion in total assets under management and administration as of June 30, 2021. Certified as a "Great Place to Work" by the Great Place to Work Institute, Voya is equally committed to conducting business in a way that is socially, environmentally, economically and ethically responsible. Voya has earned recognition as one of the World's Most Ethical Companies by the Ethisphere Institute; as the No. 1-ranked financial services firm among Barron's 100 Most Sustainable Companies for three consecutive years; as a member of the Bloomberg (News - Alert) Gender Equality Index; and as a "Best Place to Work for Disability Inclusion" on the Disability Equality Index. For more information, visit voya.com. Follow Voya Financial on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter (News - Alert) @Voya. About Voya Cares An extension of Voya's vision and mission to help all Americans have the quality of life they seek in retirement, the Voya Cares program is committed to being a leader in making a positive difference in the lives of individuals with special needs and disabilities - as well as their families, caregivers and other providers - by offering a depth of resources focused on education, planning and solutions. Go to voyacares.com to learn more. VOYA-IR VOYA-CR View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005690/en/

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[September 15, 2021] Intracom Telecom Announces Distributor Partnership with Winncom Technologies for North America

ATHENS, Greece, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Intracom Telecom, a global telecommunication systems and solutions vendor, has announced a partnership with Winncom Technologies, a worldwide networking solutions distributor, to promote Intracom Telecom's advanced 5th generation Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) platform, the WiBAS G5, to address demand for cutting-edge business and residential solutions across North America. More specifically, Winncom Technologies, will be focusing on promoting the WIBAS G5, in 24 GHz and 28 GHz (24.25-29.50 GHz) frequency bands to enable its customers to provide Gigabit Tier throughput to subscribers. Based on the most advanced technology in the market, the WiBAS G5 evo-BS, has an exceptional deployment flexibility serving anyone within a large area footprint, and it supports a variety of sectoral antennas ranging from 90 to 180, and up to full 360 coverage. Due to its compact size this FWA base station is not demanding heavy telecom infrastructures. At the same time, the new WiBAS G5 Connect+ is an advanced terminal station aimed for operators that want to focus on worry-free quick installations at homes and businesses. It is noted that both companies will be present at the CCA's Annual Convenion 2021, taking place in Phoenix, Arizona in North America (September 20-22) at Intracom Telecom's stand #2802.



Igor Kurochkin, Vice President, Global Vendor Management & Marketing at Winncom, said: "The addition of Intracom Telecom's FWA products will allow us to expand our broadband offerings as well as keep up with current demands of Gigabit speeds to our customers. We believe this new relationship and Intracom Telecom's WiBAS G5 Product Family operating at the unique frequency bands 24.25-29.50 GHz, will bring great value to our core customers in North America, and we look forward to expansion globally with Intracom Telecom in the future." Dharminder Chanana, CEO of Intracom Telecom's subsidiary in USA, Conklin-Intracom, stated: "We are looking forward to partnering with Winncom Technologies for our expansion in North America. Our FWA systems fit ideally into Winncom's product portfolio, allowing the distributor to perfectly meet the demands for the Gigabit business society, bridging the digital divide in rural and sub-urban areas in USA."

About Winncom Technologies Winncom Technologies is a worldwide distributor and provider of complete networking solutions, wireless and wired. Our unmatched expertise in broadband wireless networking products and full range of network infrastructure and access products by the leading industry manufacturers allows us to sell the products and provide complete solutions for various markets and applications. For more information, visit: www.winncom.com About Intracom Telecom Intracom Telecom is a global telecommunication systems and solutions vendor operating for over 40 years in the market. The company has become the benchmark in fixed wireless access and it successfully innovates in the 5G/4G wireless RAN transport and small-cell SON backhaul international arena. Intracom Telecom offers a comprehensive revenue-generating software solutions portfolio and a complete range of ICT services, focusing on IoT, SDN/NFV, Big Data analytics & data-driven intelligence, and Smart City solutions. Moreover, it addresses the Energy & Utilities industry, emphasizing on smart metering and end-to-end IT solutions. Intracom Telecom is also active in the public and private sectors providing security integrated systems for critical infrastructure protection and border surveillance. The company has extensive know-how and a proven track record in the market, serving fixed and mobile telecom operators, public authorities and large public and private enterprises. Intracom Telecom maintains its own R&D and production facilities, and operates subsidiaries worldwide. For more information please visit: www.intracom-telecom.com

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[September 15, 2021] Ohio Landowners Accuse Ascent Resources of Substantially Underpaying Royalties for Oil and Gas Leases

Ohio landowners filed a class action lawsuit alleging that Ascent Resources - Utica, LLC substantially underpaid royalties for oil and gas drilling for years. On August 4, 2021, a federal judge granted "class certification" to the landowners' case, opening the opportunity for all affected Ohio Ascent lessors to participate and potentially benefit from the lawsuit. This landmark ruling marks one of the first cases in which an Ohio court has certified a class action regarding the underpayment of oil and gas royalties. Attorneys from Fields, Dehmlow & Vessels and Gibbs Law Group are actively reviewing potential claims on behalf of additional landowners throughout Ohio who may have been underpaid for oil & gas royalties. To speak with an attorney about this class action lawsuit investigation, click here or call 866-728-7421. Lawsuit Background The lawsuit alleges that Ascent systematically over-charges landowners for "post-production" expenses such as gathering, compression, processing of liquids, and pipeline transportation charges. Plaintiffs assert that Ascent pays these expenses to "affiliated" companies in violation of the law and that Ascent then takes inflated deductions from the landowners for these expenses. The end result, according to the lawsuit, is that the mineral owners are unfairly burdened and their net royalties are significantly reduced. Ethan Vessels of the Marietta-based law firm Fields, Dehmlow & Vessels, one of the attorneys for the plaintiffs, commented, "We believe that the mineral owners have suffered at least $125 million in damages because of Ascent's improper royalty payment practices over the past seven years." "We believe the evidence shows tha for years, many Ohio landowners have been underpaid the full royalties they are owed under their lease agreements. This is wrong, and we're fighting for affected lessors to get back the money they're owed," said Mark Troutman of Gibbs Law Group, one of the Columbus-based attorneys for the plaintiffs.



Plaintiff's attorney Shawn Judge, also of Gibbs Law Group in Columbus, added, "This is a case about holding Ascent to its word. Obtaining class certification is a positive step in holding Ascent accountable to its lessors." The lawsuit will continue on behalf of additional Ohio landowners, representing over 3,600 affected leases.

What Should Ohio Landowners Do? Ohio landowners who believe they were underpaid for oil and gas royalties and would like to learn more about their legal rights may contact Gibbs Law Group and Fields, Dehmlow & Vessels at https://www.classlawgroup.com/ohio-oil-gas-royalty-class-action-lawsuit/ or 866-728-7421. About Fields, Dehmlow & Vessels Fields, Dehmlow & Vessels, LLC handles high-stakes disputes ranging from serious injuries, wrongful deaths, mass torts, oil-and-gas disputes, insurance denials, elder abuse, and business break-ups. Partner Ethan Fields has been recognized every year from 2016 through 2021 for inclusion in the Thomson Reuters (News - Alert) Super Lawyers list, which annually recognizes no more than the top 5% of practicing attorneys in Ohio. In most cases, he prefers to work on a contingent fee, sharing the financial risks of litigation with his clients. Recent Firm Results Settlement exceeding $1.2 million on behalf of a worker injured in an industrial accident

Settlement exceeding $1,000,000 on behalf of a widow, and her daughters, whose husband died in an industrial accident

Settlement of $685,000 on behalf of a patient who suffered a severe reaction to a negligently-prescribed prescription drug About Gibbs Law Group Gibbs Law Group is committed to protecting the rights of clients nationwide who have been harmed by corporate misconduct. We represent individuals, whistleblowers, employees, and small businesses across the U.S. against the world's largest corporations. Our award-winning lawyers have achieved landmark recoveries and over a billion dollars for our clients in high-stakes class action and individual cases involving consumer protection, data breach, digital privacy, and federal and California employment lawsuits. Our attorneys have received numerous honors for their work, including "Class Action Practice Group of the Year," "Top Plaintiff Lawyers in California," "Top Class Action Attorneys Under 40," "Consumer Protection MVP," "Best Lawyers in America," and "Top Cybersecurity/ Privacy Attorneys Under 40." This press release may constitute Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005232/en/

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[September 15, 2021] Mastercard Invests $5 Million in Historically Black Colleges and Universities to Drive Innovation and Economic Inclusion

Today, Mastercard is pleased to announce grants totaling $5 million to two Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Morehouse College and Spelman College, to develop the Center for Black Entrepreneurship (CBE). The CBE will further the development of cutting-edge entrepreneurial programming, thought leadership, networking and academic and mentorship opportunities for aspiring Black entrepreneurs. The philanthropic funding, delivered by the Mastercard Impact Fund, is part of Mastercard's $500 million, five-year In Solidarity commitment to advance racial equity and economic opportunity through city programs to support Black communities, affordable financial tools and services, and expanding access to capital and resources for Black-owned businesses. HBCUs Poised to Drive Black Innovation and Entrepreneurship For more than 100 years, HBCUs have served as pathways to mentorship and economic mobility for Black students in pursuit of higher education. While HBCUs make up 3% of American colleges and universities, they produce 25% of Black STEM graduates. The power of their alumni networks and scholarship combined with the cultural and historical significance they possess uniquely position them to drive inclusive growth within the Black community. With increased funding, HBCUs will be able to scale the already critical role they play in helping to train and develop the next generation of Black entrepreneurs and innovators. "For over a century, HBCUs have played a critical role in nurturing professional talent and creating economic mobility in Black communities," said Salah Goss, senior vice president for social impact at the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth. "By investing in HBCUs, Mastercard is intentionally choosing key institutions who we believe can be catalytic in furthering our commitment to ensuring that the digital economy works for the Black community, and for everyone, everywhere." Morehouse College and Spelman College to Establish the Center for Black Entrepreneurship (CBE) In partnership with the Black Economic Alliance Foundation ( BEA (News - Alert) ), Morehouse College and Spelman College are in the process of establishing the Center for Black Entrepreneurship (CBE) with financial support from Mastercard, among others. The CBE will help assemble, educate and empower a new generation of Black entrepreneurial talent. Specifically, the CBE will focus on eliminating opportunity gaps between Black entrepreneurs, professional investors and business builders by leveraging education, mentorship and access to capital and opportunity. The CBE will be located on the campuses of Spelman College and Morehouse College in southwest Atlanta. Spelman plans to house it in its new academic facility, the Center for Innovation & the Arts, and Morehouse will house it within a new facility on campus. The Atlanta metro area is home to 57 colleges and universities and over 100,000 Black-owned businesses, making it a hub for Black students and entrepreneurs. Despite Atlanta being the ninth-largest metro area in the country and housing the second-largest population of Black people in America, there is a significant disconnect between venture capital firms that are traditionally West Coast-based and emerging Black student entrepreneurs, who are disproportionately located on the East Coast and in the South. Mastercard's grant will support the hiring of adjunct faculty, the creation of an online entrepreneurship program, experiential courses and pitch competitions that will enable students to put their classroom instruction in practice. In addition to the grant, Mastercard will provide in-kind support, such as digital technology training and access to Start Path, the company's global startup engagement program created to help the best and brightest later-stage startups maximize their opportunity for success. This investment is designed to have a transformational impact on economic growth for Black communities and builds on Mastercard's commitment to bolster employee recruitment and HBCU programming in collaboration with the Congressional HBCU Caucus its brand's 2020 Partnership Pledge.



Quote Sheet: Here's a look at what our HBCU partners had to say about the grants and our partnerships:

David Clunie, Executive Director of the Black Economic Alliance "Long-term investment in Black entrepreneurs is critical to drive equitable and sustainable economic growth for local economies and the U.S. economy alike. The Center for Black Entrepreneurship will create an ecosystem of opportunity and investment that will catalyze the multiplier effect of generating more Black founders who hire more Black employees and re-invest in more Black businesses and Black communities. We appreciate Mastercard's thoughtful partnership in this endeavor and their commitment to supporting inclusive economic growth." Samantha Tweedy, President of the Black Economic Alliance Foundation "That Black founders historically have received only 1% of venture capital financing is not an issue of Black talent, but of systemic barriers. The Center for Black Entrepreneurship is a model for how we break down those barriers and build the Black generational wealth that is essential to the health of our nation's economy. The BEA Foundation is grateful to Mastercard for investing in Morehouse and Spelman's strong culture of entrepreneurship to support the next generation of Black talent." Dr. David A. Thomas, President of Morehouse College "The Morehouse mission is to help students develop the type of leadership and service qualities embodied in entrepreneurs and other visionaries," said David A. Thomas, Ph.D., Morehouse College president. "The support form Mastercard will empower innovators to disrupt the status quo and move their ideas from concept to market, even as they create economic opportunities in the communities they serve." Dr. Mary Schmidt Campbell, President of Spelman College "We are excited by the possibility of building an entrepreneurship curriculum within our outstanding department of economics. Through the support of Mastercard, the College will be able to build curricular and co-curricular strength that encourages and supports AUC students intent on the creation and sustainability of new businesses that will ultimately create wealth within our communities." About the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth The Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth advances equitable and sustainable economic growth and financial inclusion around the world. The Center leverages the company's core assets and competencies, including data insights, expertise and technology, while administering the philanthropic Mastercard Impact Fund, to produce independent research, scale global programs and empower a community of thinkers, leaders and doers on the front lines of inclusive growth. For more information and to receive its latest insights, follow the Center on Twitter and LinkedIn, and subscribe to its newsletter. About the Black Economic Alliance Foundation The Black Economic Alliance is a coalition of Black business leaders and allies committed to driving economic progress for the Black community with a focus on work, wages, and wealth. The BEA Foundation is the 501c3 charitable nonprofit affiliate of the Black Economic Alliance. The BEA Foundation works with leaders in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors to produce, research, and analyze data to diagnose the obstacles to Black economic mobility and prescribe practical solutions to create better access to good-paying jobs, a living wage, and wealth creation for Black people. The BEA Foundation also crafts programs that convene leaders across industries around initiatives that will produce better economic outcomes for Black people. For more information, visit: foundation.blackeconomicalliance.org About Morehouse College Morehouse College is the only historically Black college dedicated to educating men. Founded in 1867, Morehouse is a private, liberal arts institution and the nation's top producer of Black men who go on to receive doctorates. The College is the top producer of Rhodes Scholars among HBCUs and was named to the list of U.S. institutions that produced the most Fulbright Scholars in 2019-2020. As the epicenter for thought leadership on civil rights, Morehouse is committed to helping the nation address the inequities caused by institutional racism, which has created social and economic disparities for people of African descent. Prominent Morehouse alumni include: Martin Luther King Jr., Nobel (News - Alert) Peace Prize Laureate; Dr. David Satcher, former U.S. Surgeon General; Shelton "Spike" Lee, Academy Award-winning American filmmaker; Maynard H. Jackson, the first African American mayor of Atlanta; Jeh Johnson, former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security; Louis W. Sullivan, former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services; Bakari Sellers, attorney and CNN political analyst; Randall Woodfin, elected as the youngest mayor of Birmingham in 120 years; and U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock, Georgia's first Black U.S. senator from Georgia. For more information, visit: https://morehouse.edu. About Spelman College Founded in 1881, Spelman College is a leading liberal arts college widely recognized as the global leader in the education of women of African descent. Located in Atlanta, the College's picturesque campus is home to 2,100 students. Spelman is the country's leading producer of Black women who complete Ph.D.s in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). The College's status is confirmed by U.S. News & World Report, which ranked Spelman No. 54 among all liberal arts colleges, No. 19 for undergraduate teaching, No. 4 for social mobility among liberal arts colleges, and No. 1 for the 14th year among historically Black colleges and universities. The Wall Street Journal ranked the College No. 3, nationally, in terms of student satisfaction. Recent initiatives include a designation by the Department of Defense as a Center of Excellence for Minority Women in STEM, a Gender and Sexuality Studies Institute, the first endowed queer studies chair at an HBCU, and a program to increase the number of Black women Ph.D.s in economics. New majors have been added, including documentary filmmaking and photography, and partnerships have been established with MIT's (News - Alert) Media Lab, the Broad Institute and the Army Research Lab for artificial intelligence and machine learning. Outstanding alumnae include Children's Defense Fund founder Marian Wright Edelman (News - Alert) , Starbucks Group President and COO Rosalind Brewer, political leader Stacey Abrams, former Acting Surgeon General and Spelman's first alumna president Audrey Forbes Manley, actress and producer Latanya Richardson (News - Alert) Jackson, global bioinformatics geneticist Janina Jeff and authors Pearl Cleage and Tayari Jones. For more information, visit www.spelman.edu. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005698/en/

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[September 15, 2021] The Lead Announces The Direct 60 List: Fashion & Consumer Brand Executives Leading the D2C Pivot

Today, The Lead, a research-driven media company announces The Direct 60 List, a recognition of 60 leading executives at heritage and analog D2C brands. The honorees are being recognized for developing and improving direct-to-consumer business models in organizations that have traditionally operated wholesale business models or brands that were already D2C but were not born online. These fearless executives, many of whom had begun to pivot to direct before the pandemic, have been able to rapidly restructure their business models and internal organizations to meet customer expectations, use data effectively, communicate new values, promote rapid design, enhance supply chains and adopt market-leading technology. Having tracked the direct-to-consumer business model since 2018, through The Foremost 50 List and associated Insights Reports, The Lead has solidified itself as the leading voice on direct-to-consumer business models and is uniquely qualified to identify the executives who are adopting these models and organizational structures on behalf of non-digital native brands. By understanding who the executives are that are leading the adoption of direct-to-consumer, The Lead has been able to identify patterns and trends to forecast where the industry is headed. "The digital native D2C brands have optimized a business model that is built on customer experience, data, modern brand values, efficient tech adoption, and a vertically-integrated supply chain. The customer has come to expect this type of brand interaction. With consumers shopping online at a higher rate than ever before, traditional and legacy brands are having to adapt to this model pioneered by the Bonobos nd Caspers of the world," said The Lead Co-Founder, Noah Gellman.



To view the complete list of The Direct 60 honorees click THIS link. The Direct 60 will be honored both virtually and in person at The Lead Summit-Direct event on October 14th in New York. This invite-only event features The Direct 60 award ceremony, presentation of The Direct 60 Insights Report, vision talks, panel discussions, and more. Over 35 speakers including Liz Hershfield SVP, Head of Sustainability J Crew Group & SVP Sourcing Madewell; Brian Seewald, SVP eCommerce, EXPRESS; Ekta Chopra, Chief Digital Officer, e.l.f. Beauty; Matthew Schiff, VP eCommerce, Marc Jacobs, and Parinda Muley, SVP eCommerce & Innovation, Richemont Holly Briedis, EVP, Chief Digital Officer, Fossil Group; and many more.

The Direct 60 Insights Report peers into emerging trends and identifies winning strategies from these leading executives who are building their companies for today's direct world. Today's brands must shift their priorities, reorient internally, and redefine success metrics. This evolution requires adopting new technologies, redesigning processes, and re-energizing the talent pool and The Direct 60 are taking the first steps. The Lead's research provides clear insight into how leading brands are successfully navigating the challenges of the business model transformation and is at the helm of the shift. The Direct 60 list is presented in partnership with Fabric, Forter, SAP, and Wunderkind. ABOUT THE LEAD

The Lead's mission is to bridge the fashion, retail, and consumer industries with the global Silicon Valley, empowering the industry's transition. We are a multi-platform media company with research, content, and executive events ranging from 65 people to 2,000. Our community blends iconic brands & retailers, rising digital-first brands, & technology innovators. We focus on the sweet spot in the fashion, retail, and technology markets where innovation is shifting behavior, creating new business opportunities, and opening market share. Digital transformation in the fashion-retail-commerce space is a macro trend gaining in velocity. Our work is to reveal what is coming next and to help our community get ahead of it. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005706/en/

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[September 15, 2021] Current Dealers' CEO Tests U.S. Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure from Detroit to D.C.

DETROIT, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Current Dealers' CEO William McCoy released a video on the company's YouTube channel highlighting his test drive this month of the U.S. electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure. Piloting the company's newest fleet vehicle, a 2022 Chevrolet Bolt EUV, McCoy made the 560+ mile trip from Detroit, Michigan to Washington, D.C. to learn firsthand how EV range, charging station locations, and vehicle charging times affect consumers. Current Dealers is a Detroit-based business delivering turnkey electric-vehicle charging solutions on behalf of businesses, governments, and consumers. The company is currently contracted with municipalities across the country to bring current the EV infrastructure needed for an all-electric mobility future. "We learned a lot from this experience  driving our newest EV fleet vehicle from Detroit to Washington, D.C.," said William McCoy, CEO, Current Dealers. "It was important for me to make the trip because when we're explaining to our customers the important new applications of different EV charging solutions serving the U.S. market, that we have real world knowledge to help them choose the best one to meet their needs." On thecompany's 12-hour test drive, McCoy's team monitored EV charging opportunities in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. For example, at an Electrify America charger located in an Ohio highway rest stop, 150kW-350kW EV charging was available for the company's 2022 Chevrolet Bolt EUV.



Lessons learned on the Current Dealers EV charging Infrastructure test drive include: EV range matters. Drivers can expect to see a 15% reduction in their vehicle's range with interstate highway driving at an average 70 MPH.

Planning EV charging routes is important. There are still infrastructure holes along America's roads and highways, so using a free app from providers like EVgo, Electrify America, ChargePoint, or Tesla can help plan the best route.

EV charging times can impact long-distance travel times. EV vehicles have common charging ranges from 50kW to 150kW. With an average 250-mile driving range, drivers can expect to charge 80% in about an hour  something that can reduced in vehicles with faster charging rates. The availability of public charging outlets in the U.S. has more than doubled since 2018, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Current Dealers works with cities, auto retailers, and green conscious companies to supply, install, and service EV charging stations. In the company's first two years of business, Current Dealers has helped 100s clients prepare for the upcoming all-electric future in the U.S.

Current Dealers offers companies a simple three step process, including a site assessment, EV charger installation, and ongoing service. The assessment includes a comprehensive site plan, identification of permits needed, visual mockups of installed chargers, and a total cost breakdown. Installations are completed by licensed electricians who are certified in EV chargers and knowledgeable about EV charging capabilities. The company also provides all of the warranties, maintenance, and upgrades needed to support EV products in the long-term. YouTube: https://youtu.be/GfKYfdyEkNY www.currentdealers.com Contact:

William McCoy

3139983033

319001@email4pr.com View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/current-dealers-ceo-tests-us-electric-vehicle-charging-infrastructure-from-detroit-to-dc-301377616.html SOURCE Current Dealers

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[September 15, 2021] Anova Culinary and (RED) Team Up to Fight Global Health Emergencies, like HIV/AIDS and COVID

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Anova Culinary, a subsidiary of Electrolux (ELUX-B) and a leading provider of sous vide devices, today announced a partnership with (RED), an organization fighting global health emergencies, like HIV/AIDS and COVID. Anova and (RED) have teamed up to launch a collection of (ANOVA)RED Precision Cookers, a line of Anova's industry leading sous vide cookers designed to help home chefs achieve pro-level results. Five percent of each purchase from the (ANOVA)RED collection will go to the Global Fund to strengthen health systems and support life-saving programs in the communities where pandemics hit hardest, with a minimum commitment of $200,000. The new line of (ANOVA)RED Precision Cookers now allows consumers to cook amazing meals at home while also supporting the fight against global health emergencies with every purchase. "We started Anova Culinary on the principle of accessibility. Prior to Anova, sous vide devices were almost exclusively used by professionals and were not available to the everyday home cook," said CEO and Co-Founder, Stephen Svajian. "We knew that we could change that and it ended up disrupting the smart kitchen space. (RED) disrupted the traditional model of philanthropy. When the opportunity came to partner with (RED), we jumped at the chance to be part of the mission to make a more just and accessible global health system for communities around the world." "We are thrilled to be partnering with Anova Culinary for the collection of (ANOVA)RED Precision Cookers. In this, (RED)'s 15th anniversary year, we've never been more focused on raising money t fight pandemics and dialing up the heat to keep attention on these issues. This partnership does both  literally and figuratively  and we couldn't be happier to join forces in this critical year," said (RED) President and Chief Operating Officer, Jennifer Lotito.



The (ANOVA)RED Precision Cookers line is available now on anovaculinary.com, and will be available on Amazon starting at the beginning of October. The collection includes: (ANOVA) RED Precision  Cooker Nano, $129 : Who ever said small isn't mighty? For the home cook with limited space, the (ANOVA) RED Precision  Cooker Nano packs a punch of flavor and still fits in the utensil drawer. This immersion sous vide cooker gets water temperature within 0.1 degree for complete accuracy. Bluetooth connection allows multi-stage cooking from the Anova Culinary app, so users can step away at any point.

: Who ever said small isn't mighty? For the home cook with limited space, the (ANOVA) Precision Cooker Nano packs a punch of flavor and still fits in the utensil drawer. This immersion sous vide cooker gets water temperature within 0.1 degree for complete accuracy. Bluetooth connection allows multi-stage cooking from the Anova Culinary app, so users can step away at any point. (ANOVA) RED Precision  Cooker, $199 : With the (ANOVA) RED Precision  Cooker, home cooks don't have to be a chef to cook like one. Users can follow the step-by-step recipes in the Anova Culinary app and make perfectly cooked meals with the touch of a button. This cooker heats water faster and holds it precisely at the desired temperature so the cooking process can get started quicker than ever.

With the (ANOVA) Precision Cooker, home cooks don't have to be a chef to cook like one. Users can follow the step-by-step recipes in the Anova Culinary app and make perfectly cooked meals with the touch of a button. This cooker heats water faster and holds it precisely at the desired temperature so the cooking process can get started quicker than ever. (ANOVA)RED Precision  Cooker Pro, $399 : 1200 watts of power, a flow rate of 12 Liters per minute, and a motor guaranteed to run constantly for continuous weeks on end  the (ANOVA)RED Precision  Cooker Pro is an absolute workhorse with the ability to heat and circulate up to 26 gallons of water at a time. Whether cooking a weeknight meal for the family or an all-out holiday feast for the neighborhood, this is the tool for the job. The current COVID-19 pandemic is affecting communities worldwide, but the impact is most severe among the most vulnerable, including people living with HIV and other medical conditions. As the virus spreads in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in countries with high HIV prevalence, there is increasing evidence that people living with HIV are at high risk of COVID-related morbidity and mortality.*

Visit anovaculinary.com/red to learn how to fight both AIDS and COVID with (RED) this holiday season. ABOUT ANOVA

Founded in 2013, Anova helped transform the smart kitchen appliance market with the launch of the first commercially available and affordable sous vide immersion circulator. Today with its family of Anova Precision products, Anova is a leading provider of sous vide cookers. Headquartered in San Francisco, Anova is changing the way people cook through its hardware devices and software platform, enabling home cooks to easily create perfectly cooked meals every day. For more news and information on Anova and its products, please visit anovaculinary.com. ABOUT (RED)

(RED), named for the color of emergency, was founded by Bono and Bobby Shriver in 2006 to turn companies into a cavalry to fight the AIDS pandemic. Today, that cavalry is also fighting the urgent threat of COVID and its devastating impact on the world's most vulnerable communities, answering the need for a truly global response. (RED) partners with the most iconic brands and people to create (RED) products and experiences  all of which raise money for the Global Fund, one of the world's largest funders of global health. (RED) partners include: Amazon, Anova Culinary, Apple, Balmain, Bank of America, Beats by Dr. Dre, Buffalo Games, Claro, eos, Girl Skateboards, The Honey Pot Co., Louis Vuitton, Mavin Records, Montblanc, Primark, Salesforce, Starbucks, Telcel, Therabody, TRUFF, U-Mask and Vespa. (RED) Supporters include: Merck and Roche. To date, (RED) has generated more than $650 million for the Global Fund, helping more than 220 million people. The money raised by (RED)'s partners and campaigns goes directly to strengthen health systems and support life-saving programs in the communities where pandemics hit hardest. *Source: UNAIDS Contact: Sami Newman, snewman.pr@gmail.com View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/anova-culinary-and-red-team-up-to-fight-global-health-emergencies-like-hivaids-and-covid-301377010.html SOURCE Anova

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[September 15, 2021] Cross River Bank Recognized as ICBA 2021 National Community Bank Service Award Recipient for Heroic Efforts in PPP

Cross River Bank ("Cross River"), a technology-driven financial services organization that provides core infrastructure and embedded financial solutions, received the Emerging Community Bank Service Award from the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) for its leading Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and community outreach in the wake of the COVID pandemic. ICBA selected Cross River for its outsized efforts to support the nation's small businesses as one of the country's most prolific providers of the Small Business Administration's Paycheck Protection Program. The $13-billion asset bank provided crucial funding to small businesses in need, providing 480,000 PPP loans totaling more than $13 billion with an average loan size of $27,000, reaching the nation's most vulnerable businesses. Cross River became known for opening its doors at the onset of the Program to underserved communities who had nowhere else to turn. "We set out to help as many small businesses as possible-regardless of size or whether they were our customers-especially those who were being shut out of PPP by the largest banks in the country," said Phil Goldfeder, SVP Global Public Affairs at Cross River. "Virtually every Cross River employee stepped up and shifted roles, or took on additional ones, to ensure we had an application and platform that was safe, secure, and was able to help everyone in our community and beyond." In addition to its PPP initiative, Cross River also partnered with local organizations, policymakers, and municipalities to provide virtual financial literacy programming around COVID relief and recovery, hosting more than a dozen webinars and virtual town halls on available resources and relief efforts in cities across the country. "ICBA commends Cross River and its employees for their tireless dedication and quick action, which helped save countless jobsand keep the lights on for struggling business," ICBA President and CEO Rebeca Romero Rainey said. "Cross River's ingenuity and perseverance is a sterling example of the vital work being done by community banks to strengthen local economies."



ICBA has also recognized Cross River as one of its Most Innovative Banks of 2018 and 2019. Learn more about Cross River and other exceptional award recipients in the September issue of Independent Banker. About Cross River

Cross River is a fast-growing financial services organization that merges the forward-thinking offerings of a technology company with the established expertise and traditional services of a bank. Since its founding in 2008, Cross River has developed strategic partnerships with leading technology companies, marketplace lenders and payment providers, while maintaining a strong focus on regulatory compliance and consumer protection. Cross River provides a highly secure, API-based banking platform and comprehensive suite of products encompassing lending, payments, risk management and Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) offerings to deliver responsible financial solutions that empower businesses and consumers anytime, anywhere. Cross River Bank is a New Jersey state-chartered FDIC insured bank. For more information, please visit Cross River's website at www.crossriver.com or Twitter (News - Alert) @crossriverbank. About ICBA The Independent Community Bankers of America creates and promotes an environment where community banks flourish. ICBA is dedicated exclusively to representing the interests of the community banking industry and its membership through effective advocacy, best-in-class education, and high-quality products and services. With nearly 50,000 locations nationwide, community banks constitute 99 percent of all banks, employ more than 700,000 Americans and are the only physical banking presence in one in three U.S. counties. Holding more than $5.7 trillion in assets, over $4.7 trillion in deposits, and more than $3.6 trillion in loans to consumers, small businesses and the agricultural community, community banks channel local deposits into the Main Streets and neighborhoods they serve, spurring job creation, fostering innovation and fueling their customers' dreams in communities throughout America. For more information, visit ICBA's website at www.icba.org View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005740/en/

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[September 15, 2021] Cloudpermit Proudly Names Reston in Fairfax County, Virginia, as North American Headquarters

RESTON, Va., Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The world's leading e-permitting software for local government building departments, Cloudpermit, has chosen Reston in Fairfax County, Virginia, as its North American Headquarters. "We're proud to have our North American Headquarters in Fairfax County, Virginia ," said Jan Pawli , Cloudpermit's CEO. "Virginia has the highest concentration of tech talent in the U.S. and thousands of tech companies have made Fairfax County home, so we are delighted to join this incredible and growing business hub," shared Jan Pawli, Cloudpermit's CEO. "We are proud to have our North American Headquarters in Reston as it is a fantastic opportunity for Cloudpermit to expand and help even more local governments digitalize development processes." The Virginia Economic Development Partnership and th Fairfax County Economic Development Authority were involved in Cloudpermit's decision to establish its North American Headquarters in Fairfax County, Virginia.



"We are proud to welcome Cloudpermit to Fairfax County and Northern Virginia for its continental headquarters," said Victor Hoskins, President and CEO of the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority. "A company like Cloudpermit has many options for a North American base. Choosing Fairfax County is an important vote of confidence in our business climate, our assets for company success and the kind of talent it can find here  whether the company is from the U.S. or another country." Close to 500 local governments across Europe and North America prioritize efficiency and simplicity by adopting digital and cloud-based development and permitting processes with Cloudpermit.

"Virginia is a leader in tech jobs, and we're happy to announce it has brought another company to the Commonwealth as Cloudpermit, a global leader in e-permitting software, has chosen to establish its U.S. headquarters here," said Governor Northam. "Virginia's continued growth in the software sector creates jobs, spurs innovation, and supports our booming economy. Virginia and Fairfax County have a diverse roster of international companies, and we are pleased to welcome Cloudpermit to their new home in Virginia." Cloudpermit has just under 10 employees working out of its Reston office and is planning to double its team by the end of this year. "Our decision to select Virginia for our North American Headquarters was easy after meeting with Governor Northam and delegation this spring in Germany," Pawli explained. "The personal involvement from key leaders in Virginia and learning how other businesses are thriving in Fairfax County from the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority gave us the confidence we needed to choose Reston as the base for our growing team." Cloudpermit will join other successful businesses in Fairfax County and help establish more communities as easy places to build for builders, citizens, and businesses alike. "We welcome Cloudpermit to Fairfax County and are excited to see the company join Virginia's rapidly expanding software sector," said Secretary of Commerce and Trade Brian Ball. "This is an ideal location for the company to expand into U.S. markets, and the company's decision demonstrates our strength as a software industry leader. We look forward to building a strong partnership with Cloudpermit." About Cloudpermit: Cloudpermit empowers local governments with simple and online development processes. It takes users from application to approval and encourages collaboration among government staff, applicants, homeowners, builders, designers, third-party agencies, and all those involved in each permit. The cloud-based software was created for, and with, North American local governments to help communities thrive. Cloudpermit Contacts:

Anna Rolnicki

Head of Marketing, North America

289-208-0930

anna.rolnicki@cloudpermit.com Carly Thackray

Marketing and Communications Manager, North America

437-882-0292

carly.thackray@cloudpermit.com View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cloudpermit-proudly-names-reston-in-fairfax-county-virginia-as-north-american-headquarters-301377036.html SOURCE Cloudpermit Inc

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[September 15, 2021] U.S. Bank Receives $65 Million in New Markets Tax Credit Allocations

USBCDE, LLC - U.S. Bank's community development entity (CDE) - received $65 million in tax credit allocations from the U.S. Department of Treasury. The allocation is part of the federal government's $5 billion New Market Tax Credit (NMTC) program and is intended to help address persistent gaps in economic outcomes in lower-income communities. USBCDE was one of 100 CDEs to receive a share of the NMTC allocation authority package announced by the Treasury's Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund). This is USBCDE's 11th allocation under the NMTC program, and the fourth year in a row it has received the highest funding level granted. Since its inception, USBCDE has invested more than $820 million in communities across the country, resulting in the creation of more than 47,000 jobs and 466 affordable housing units and increased the capacity of people served at community facilities like schools and health care centers by more than 1.1 million annually. The NMTC program is an economic development tool that infuses up-front capital in areas that need it most. CDEs allocate tax credits to projects, attracting private investment capital that helps grow businesses and create jobs in economically distressed communities. According to the Department of the Treasury, NMTC program awards generate more than $8 of private investment for every $1 invested by the federal government. "U.S. Bank is the most active NMTC investor in the country, investing more than $6 billion nationwide in a wide variety of economic development projects across the country," said Zack Boyers, president and CEO of U.S. Bancorp Community Development Corporation, the tax credit and community investment subsidiary of U.S. Bank. "Our USBCDE has gone a step further, making a strategic commitment to use our own allocation on projects that support racial equity. We believe by drivig investment to communities of color, where racial barriers have perpetuated inequitable outcomes, we can help reduce the racial wealth gap."



U.S. Bank's focus on equity extends beyond just the projects it supports through its NMTC allocation. Fee income collected through these projects is also reinvested, with USBCDE distributing it as grants to organizations with a racial equity focus. Since 2013 it has given $5.4 million to communities, including $1.1 million in grants to Black-led CDFIs and the African American Alliance of CDFI CEOs in 2020 in the wake of COVID-19 and civil unrest.

It also deploys some of its own allocation to emerging and person of color-led CDEs through the intermediary CDE model - a partnership that helps the CDE build a NMTC track record, offers an opportunity to deploy this resource within their selected community, and is a potential factor for success in gaining future allocation. "We'll continue our work to support CDEs and we're looking at it in a more holistic way - including mentoring and financial and technical assistance with the application process," said Laura Vowell, who directs business development for the bank's NMTC business and USBCDE, LLC. Some of the projects USBCDE has financed with its allocation in the past year include the renovation of the long-term home for Byrd Barr Place, a Black-led nonprofit organization with a 56-year history of providing safety-net services and combating racial inequity in Seattle; working capital financing for a Black-owned home healthcare service business in Memphis, Tennessee; working capital financing for a non-profit Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital in South Los Angeles, helping to meet the hospital's needs in response to the COVID-19 pandemic; and working capital for Hmong American Partnership, an organization that expands educational and job training programs for Hmong immigrants and refugees in St. Paul, Minnesota. USBCDE's intentional focus on racial equity supports U.S. Bank Access Commitment, announced earlier this year. U.S. Bank Access Commitment is our long-term approach to help build wealth while redefining how the bank serves racially diverse communities and providing more opportunities for diverse employees. About U.S. Bancorp Community Development Corporation: With $35.75 billion in tax credit equity committed as of July 31, 2021, U.S. Bancorp Community Development Corporation, a subsidiary of U.S. Bank, provides innovative financing solutions for community development projects across the country using state and federally sponsored tax credit programs. USBCDC's commitments provide capital investment to areas that need it the most and contribute to the creation of new jobs, the rehabilitation of historic buildings, the construction of needed affordable housing, the development of renewable energy facilities, and the generation of commercial economic activity in underserved communities. Visit USBCDC on the web at www.usbank.com/cdc. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005773/en/

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[September 15, 2021] BAPCo Simplifies Battery Life Measurement with MobileMark 25

BAPCo, a non-profit consortium of leading PC hardware manufacturers, unveils MobileMark 25, the latest release of the performance indexed battery life benchmark for notebook PCs that run the most popular real-world applications. Key features of MobileMark 25: New MobileMark 25 Index accounting for the balance of performance and battery life

Brightness Profiler, an exclusive innovation in screen calibration utilities

Updated and embedded versions of the world's most used third-party applications without requiring additional installs or acquisition cost

Seven new sub scenarios for better result balance and reach

Part of BAPCo's curated online result database suite

Compatible with live internet connections

Extended test window duration Since the inception of MobileMark, accurately and objectively measuring battery life performance and responsiveness has been the benchmarks' core value. The new Performance Index seeks to take the former performance index to the next level by reporting results in easy-to-understand Watt/Hours under application workload. The Brightness Profiler, an innovation in screen calibration utilities and unique to MobileMark, makes screen calibration a breeze to assist in uniform and consistent image calibration across a variety of screen types and technologies. Using only unmodified retail versions of real-world applications for measurement, MobileMark 25 features new and updated versions of, among others, Microsoft Office, Google (News - Alert) Chrome & the Adobe Creative Cloud without the need of separate purchase or installation This ensures fair and accurate comparisons across multiple systems.



The new productivity scenario has been designed to best capture the modern mobile office user who seeks remain productive while on the go. These activities include: spreadsheets, word processing, OCR, email, file compression and encryption, file launches, web browsing with multiple tabs, video playback, multi-tasking, and background application installation. The new Creativity scenario seeks to model a multimedia expert looking to maximize their time capturing the visual creations all around us while remaining unplugged from the world. These activities include: photo editing, photo organization and video editing.

MobileMark 25 results can be submitted and are part of BAPCo's curated online result database, where only peer member-reviewed benchmark results are designated as published. This designation provides accuracy assurance publication claims, tender submissions by open public access to official FDRs (Full Disclosure Report). " Dell (News - Alert) uses many tools to evaluate system and subsystem performance. We are dedicated to working with BAPCo and its member companies to develop real-world usage models and scenarios within industry-leading applications to evaluate the performance of both desktop and mobile solutions."

- Dell "HP Inc. is committed to giving its customers the best computer performance possible. HP Inc. participates in the development of the SYSmark and MobileMark families of benchmarks from BAPCo to allow us to test computers with real-world software applications and scenarios, producing results that are meaningful to our customers."

- HP Inc. "The Lenovo (News - Alert) PC development teams trust BAPCo benchmarking tools to help evaluate performance and optimize devices to provide smarter technology for all. Leveraging MobileMark 25 and SYSmark 25 performance metrics validates our focus on real-world application performance in our efforts to deliver unique customer experiences."

- Lenovo About BAPCo The Business Applications Performance Corporation (BAPCo) is a non-profit consortium of leading independent testing labs, PC hardware manufacturers, semiconductor manufacturers, and software publishers. Current BAPCo members include: Acer, ARCintuition, ASUS, Compal, Dell, Dynabook, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Inventec, LC Future Center, Lenovo, Pegatron, Quanta Computer (News - Alert) , Samsung, Western Digital, Wistron, and others. Any organization interested in contributing to the consortium's goals and purposes are welcome to join BAPCo. For more information, visit https://bapco.com/ and store.bapco.com. BAPCo, CrossMark, SYSmark and MobileMark are registered trademarks of the Business Applications Performance Corporation. CrossMark is a trademark of the Business Applications Performance Corporation. All other names mentioned are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005122/en/

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[September 15, 2021] Amentum Named Awardee in Multiple Pools on ASTRO IDIQ

The General Services Administration ( GSA (News - Alert) ) has selected Amentum and its legacy companies for nine pools on the ASTRO multiagency, multiple-award, indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract. The ASTRO IDIQ consists of a family of separate, individual, multiple-award IDIQ contracts, or pools, under the master contract umbrella. Amentum has won a seat on nine of the ASTRO pools, including Data Operations, Mission Operations, Aviation, Ground, Space, Maritime, Development and Systems Integration, Support, and Training. "We are very excited for the multiple opportunities to support our Department of Defense and other federal agency customers under the ASTRO IDIQ," said John Vollmer, Amentum's CEO. "We look forward to offering our technological services to help maintain and sustain our nation's manned, unmanned, and optionally manned systems. Our proven expertise and scope of operations across all domains; air, land, sea, and space make Amentum a key member of the ASTRO family." The ASTRO contract vehicle's scope covers a comprehensive assortment of products ad services focused on the development, integration, operation, maintenance and support of unmanned, manned, and optionally manned systems, robotics, and various platforms. The ASTRO period of performance is a five-year base with a five-year option, with no defined ceiling value.



"The ASTRO IDIQ represents a tremendous opportunity to enhance Amentum's growth," said Ron Hahn, Executive Vice President of Strategic Growth. "Amentum's extensive experience in robotics and unmanned vehicles combined with our expertise in data operations, systems integration, training, and systems modernization/sustainment make ASTRO a perfect fit for us to continue to support the warfighter." The ASTRO program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense and seeks support for platforms that may be based on land, sea, air, or space.

ABOUT AMENTUM Amentum is a premier global technical and engineering services partner supporting critical programs of national significance across defense, security, intelligence, energy and environment. We draw from a century-old heritage of operational excellence, mission focus, and successful execution underpinned by a strong culture of safety and ethics. Headquartered in Germantown, Md., we employ more than 34,000 people in all 50 states and perform work in 105 foreign countries and territories. Visit us at amentum.com to explore how we deliver excellence for our customers' most vital missions. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005828/en/

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[September 15, 2021] Liqid Helps Customers Create and Scale VMware Host Servers in Seconds, with Composable Infrastructure

Liqid, provider of the world's most comprehensive composable disaggregated infrastructure (CDI) platform, today announced integration and support for composable hosts in VMware virtualized environments. With this new capability, Liqid customers can now deploy and scale host servers via software in seconds and centralize both physical and virtual infrastructure management within VMware with Liqid's new vCenter Plug-in. By bringing Composable Disaggregated Infrastructure (CDI) to virtualized workloads, Liqid helps customers manage costs by improving resource utilization and reducing physical management of host servers - further driving the flexibility and agility of the cloud to datacenters and the edge. These ecosystem integration-focused features expand the catalog of integrations begun with the recent launch of Liqid's Dynamic SLURM Integration that automates the creation of bare metal servers to meet a SLURM job's precise requirements from a multiverse of possible options. With VMware vCenter integration, Liqid is continuing to extend the tangible benefits of CDI into a growing number of significant areas within IT, further allowing more customers to realize revolutionary datacenter efficiencies with their existing physical servers composed with GPU, FPGA, and NVMe storage resources. VMware has successfully redefined infrastructure efficiency and flexibility for decades now," said Matt Halcomb, Principal Solutions Architect, World Wide Technology (News - Alert) (WWT). "We believe Liqid's composable software will enable our customers to extract increased value from VMware virtualization by drastically accelerating virtual host deployment and scaling straight from vCenter. As modern workloads increase in complexity, Liqid's software defined hardware allows customer to deploy a fully adaptive bare-metal host environment that compliments VMware's capabilities." While enterprise organizations have been utilizing VMware's virtualization solutions to address high-value applications such as AI and machine learning, the conventional servers used to host these applications delay time deploy and scale, lack flexibility, and are inefficient, ultimately limiting the value of virtualization by restricting configuration possibilities and increasing datacenter costs. Further, these server configurations prevent critical accelerator resources such as GPU, FPGA, NVMe, and memory from being shared across the network, leading to poor utilization. The manual tasks of moving resources and deploying and scaling hosts increase operational costs. For organizations utilizing VMware's virtualization solutions to derive maximum value from their data center, Liqid introduces composable hosts for virtualized environments. With Liqid Matrix CDI, bare-metal host servers can be reated via software and matched perfectly to the resource requirements of any given virtual machine to accelerate time-to-value, and increase the agility and efficiency of their new and existing VMware virtual server, desktop and hyperconverged infrastructure environments.



The Liqid vCenter Plug-in for VMware vCenter Server provides a web-based tool integrated with the VMware vSphere Web Client user interface that allows customers to compose bare-metal hosts, add and remove resources, and view key configuration information in their VMware vCenter. The new features offer customers the following:

Be More Cloud-like: Realize cloud-like, dynamic resource orchestration for bare-metal resources for data centers on-prem, at the edge, or within traditional cloud environments.

Realize cloud-like, dynamic resource orchestration for bare-metal resources for data centers on-prem, at the edge, or within traditional cloud environments. Accelerate Host Deployment: Reduce host server deployment times from days or weeks to minutes via software composability for accelerated ROI.

Reduce host server deployment times from days or weeks to minutes via software composability for accelerated ROI. Scale Physical Resources on Demand: When host severs need more storage or accelerator resources, add them hands-free, in seconds without regard for what will physically fit in a server.

When host severs need more storage or accelerator resources, add them hands-free, in seconds without regard for what will physically fit in a server. Meet Impossible Workload Needs: Liqid composability removes the server chassis as the limiting factor when designing a host server. Since GPU and storage resources can reside outside the server, anything is possible, including 1U servers with 16GPUs.

Liqid composability removes the server chassis as the limiting factor when designing a host server. Since GPU and storage resources can reside outside the server, anything is possible, including 1U servers with 16GPUs. Be Change Ready: With Physical hosts that are as nimble as your virtual environment, you can adapt to new reality quicker and realize the benefits sooner.

With Physical hosts that are as nimble as your virtual environment, you can adapt to new reality quicker and realize the benefits sooner. Increased Resource Utilization: Overprovisioning often leads to trapped, unused resources. With Liqid, only deploy the resources a host needs today. If GPU resources aren't utilized at night, redeploy them during off hours to maximize results.

Overprovisioning often leads to trapped, unused resources. With Liqid, only deploy the resources a host needs today. If GPU resources aren't utilized at night, redeploy them during off hours to maximize results. Reduce Manual Tasks: Instead of spending time manually doing physical adds and changes, leverage vCenter to complete tasks, hands-free.

Instead of spending time manually doing physical adds and changes, leverage vCenter to complete tasks, hands-free. Leverage Existing Investments: Most importantly, Liqid plugs into the existing infrastructure, making VMware virtual environments more flexible, agile and efficient. "The static nature of traditional server architecture is the primary driver for countless companies moving to the cloud. Liqid is the first company to deliver the efficiency and flexibility that cloud offers to existing, on-prem environments. We compliment VMware nicely in that we accelerate host deployments and scaling so customers can deliver their virtualized systems faster and more efficiently. We're excited to extend the value of Liqid Matrix composability to VMware users with this groundbreaking integration," said Sumit Puri, CEO & Cofounder, Liqid. "Liqid's composable software features can be managed in vCenter via a single pane of glass, enabling IT to dynamically create and manage both virtual machines and the bare metal hosts they reside on, maximizing efficiency as enterprise organizations undergo ongoing digital transformation." Download this technical validation report from Enterprise Strategy Group to learn more about how the Liqid Matrix CDI software platform delivers cloud-like agility to data center environments, regardless of where physical hardware resides. To learn more about Liqid, go to www.liqid.com. Follow Liqid on Twitter and LinkedIn to stay up to date with the latest Liqid news and industry insights. About Liqid Liqid provides the world's most comprehensive software-defined composable disaggregated infrastructure (CDI) platform. Liqid Matrix software enables users to dynamically right size their IT resources on the fly. Liqid empowers users to manage, scale, and configure physical, bare-metal server systems in seconds and then reallocate core data center devices on-demand, via Liqid Matrix software, as workflows and business needs evolve. For more information, contact info@liqid.com or visit www.liqid.com. Follow Liqid on Twitter and LinkedIn. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005146/en/

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[September 15, 2021] New Study from StrategyR Highlights a $646.6 Million Global Market for Ultra-Low Temperature Freezers by 2026

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- A new market study published by Global Industry Analysts Inc., (GIA) the premier market research company, today released its report titled "Ultra-Low Temperature Freezers - Global Market Trajectory & Analytics". The report presents fresh perspectives on opportunities and challenges in a significantly transformed post COVID-19 marketplace. FACTS AT A GLANCE

Edition: 8; Released: April 2021

Executive Pool: 758

Companies: 41 - Players covered include Azbil Telstar SL; Eppendorf AG; Glen Dimplex Group; Haier Biomedical; Helmer Scientific; Labcold Ltd.; Macro Scientific Works Pvt. Ltd.; Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc.; VWR International LLC and Others.

Coverage: All major geographies and key segments

Segments: Segment (Upright ULT Freezers, Chest ULT Freezers)

Geographies: World; United States; Canada; Japan; China; Europe (France; Germany; Italy; United Kingdom; Spain; Russia; and Rest of Europe); Asia-Pacific (Australia; India; South Korea; and Rest of Asia-Pacific); Latin America (Argentina; Brazil; Mexico; and Rest of Latin America); Middle East (Iran; Israel; Saudi Arabia; United Arab Emirates; and Rest of Middle East); and Africa. 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 withot an obligation to purchase our report. Preview Registry



ABSTRACT- Global Ultra-Low Temperature Freezers Market to Reach $646.6 Million by 2026

Amid the COVID-19 crisis, the global market for Ultra-Low Temperature Freezers estimated at US$525.2 Million in the year 2020, is projected to reach a revised size of US$646.6 Million by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 3.4% over the analysis period. Upright ULT Freezers, one of the segments analyzed in the report, is projected to record a 3.2% CAGR and reach US$498.8 Million 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 Chest ULT Freezers segment is readjusted to a revised 4.1% CAGR for the next 7-year period.

The U.S. Market is Estimated at $146.1 Million in 2021, While China is Forecast to Reach $131.1 Million by 2026

The Ultra-Low Temperature Freezers market in the U.S. is estimated at US$146.1 Million in the year 2021. China, the world`s second largest economy, is forecast to reach a projected market size of US$131.1 Million by the year 2026 trailing a CAGR of 6.2% over the analysis period. Among the other noteworthy geographic markets are Japan and Canada, each forecast to grow at 1% and 2.6% respectively over the analysis period. Within Europe, Germany is forecast to grow at approximately 1.7% CAGR. 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: ZA@StrategyR.com 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

Info411@strategyr.com View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-study-from-strategyr-highlights-a-646-6-million-global-market-for-ultra-low-temperature-freezers-by-2026--301377551.html SOURCE Global Industry Analysts, Inc.

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[September 15, 2021] Liqid Expands Leadership in Finance, Federal & Public Sector, and Product as the Company Continues to Grow Its Sales Footprint

Liqid, provider of the world's most comprehensive composable disaggregated infrastructure (CDI) platform, announced today that the company has significantly expanded its leadership in finance, federal channel sales, product management, and more. The expansion of the company's leadership team includes finance veteran Steve Tucker, who brings more than 30 years experience to his role as Liqid Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Tucker joins Liqid as the company doubled its staff year-over-year and continues to expand its sales footprint across industry verticals in the public and private sectors. The company continues to grow its federal & public sector channel sales team with new appointments, as well as its product development leadership team to meet the unprecedented demand for industry-leading Liqid Matrix CDI software-based solutions. "We're excited about the phenomenal growth we've experienced over the last year, and we welcome Steve and the new addition to our sales and product leadership development teams at a critical moment in our company's history, in which disaggregated composability is becoming the infrastructure of choice for AI and other high-value applications," said Sumit Puri, CEO & Cofounder, Liqid. "With decades of experience and expertise, across industry verticals and geographies, from startups to blue chips, these seasoned pros are the perfect candidates to help expand the footprint of the award-winning Liqid Matrix to data centers around the world." New CFO Guides Liqid's Global Expansion As Liqid has doubled the size of its workforce year-over-year to address the greater need for composable software for the evolving, AI-driven IT landscape, Tucker joins Liqid from insurance software provider Vertafore. He has held multiple senior leadership roles in finance and consulting, responsible for capital markets, merger & acquisition, process improvement, accounting, and contract negotiations in complex high-growth markets, including Software-as-a-Service ( SaaS (News - Alert) ) and other recurring revenue industries. At Liqid, Tucker will grow the team overseeing the company's finance activities, including business planning and development, forecasting, budgeting, capital markets, and key contract negotiations as the company continues to significantly grow the global footprint of Liqid Matrix CDI software, as the company doubled its total workforce since September 2020. "I look forward to working with the energized, hungry Liqid team to continue to increase our overall share-of-voice in the evolving data center, develop new go-to-market strategies, and further advance our status as the leader in all things composable," Tucker said. Federal & Public Sector and Product Management: Liqid Leadership Delivers Liqid Matrix Composable Disaggregated Infrastructure (CDI) Software to Data Centers Worldwide As new applicatons transform the digital landscape, AI draws edge facilities and core systems ever-closer via innovation in the cloud and on-premises networking, Liqid remains committed to the ongoing optimization of the Liqid Matrix CDI software platform. Liqid Matrix delivers unprecedented agility, efficiency, and performance for increasingly diverse compute environments, use cases, and customer profiles.



Furthering these efforts, Liqid welcomes the following team members to head up Liqid's federal & public sector teams, as well as product management: Beth Turman, Executive Director, Public Sector Sales: Turman delivers more than 35 years experience in public and commercial sector leadership. With a data center sales focus, she has engaged at senior levels with visionaries in energy, defense, education, enterprise R&D, while working with large teams of regional and national sales leaders to deliver innovative solutions. Turman is responsible for a team of experienced sales leaders to offer Liqid Matrix software solutions to the marketplace. She will focus on expanding Liqid's already impressive successes in the federal government and greater public sector. Turman is also active in mentoring women in technology and serves as a volunteer in her local food distribution community.

Turman delivers more than 35 years experience in public and commercial sector leadership. With a data center sales focus, she has engaged at senior levels with visionaries in energy, defense, education, enterprise R&D, while working with large teams of regional and national sales leaders to deliver innovative solutions. Turman is responsible for a team of experienced sales leaders to offer Liqid Matrix software solutions to the marketplace. She will focus on expanding Liqid's already impressive successes in the federal government and greater public sector. Turman is also active in mentoring women in technology and serves as a volunteer in her local food distribution community. Gary Billingsley, Director, Federal Sales: Billingsley has more than 15 years experience working with channel, OEM, and federal system integrator partners to develop profitable revenue streams within and across many public sector accounts, including FBI, NSA, and DIA Navy/Army. Billingsley will work with the federal sales team to grow Liqid's public sector business, collaborating with relevant partners at all levels of government to bring Liqid Matrix CDI software to their customers.

Billingsley has more than 15 years experience working with channel, OEM, and federal system integrator partners to develop profitable revenue streams within and across many public sector accounts, including FBI, NSA, and DIA Navy/Army. Billingsley will work with the federal sales team to grow Liqid's public sector business, collaborating with relevant partners at all levels of government to bring Liqid Matrix CDI software to their customers. Ben Bolles, Executive Director, Product Management: Bolles brings more than 25 years delivering award-winning customer experience and product development across industries from manufacturing to telecom to enterprise computing. He will be responsible for roadmap, product strategy, product management, and technical marketing for the Liqid Matrix platform. "With Beth, Gary, and Ben, Liqid brings even greater depth of knowledge and experience to its already extraordinary team, with unmatched insight into customer needs across vertical markets, horizontal applications, and global geographies," said John Spiers, Chief Revenue Officer, Liqid. "As unprecedented demand for performance efficiency and resource agility sweeps across the planet, driven by warp-speed advancements AI, HPC, edge and cloud computing, Liqid Matrix software delivers unprecedented data agility and performance efficiency for high-value applications."

Liqid Matrix: A Transformative Platform Adapts for AI, HPC, Edge & Cloud With horizontal use cases in AI+ML, HPC, cloud and edge computing, Liqid's software disaggregates the server components in the data center-CPU, GPU, FPGA, NVMe, storage memory technology, and NICs-and places them into resource pools. Liqid's intuitive GUI, REST API, or CLI enables an end user to create servers in seconds from those resource pools to deploy applications on-demand. There's no need to physically reconfigure servers, manually add additional devices, or overprovision expensive hardware to support heavy workloads. Just connect, click, and compose a bare-metal server on-the-fly. To continue to deliver the company's vision for adaptive, disaggregated, efficient computing for accelerated time-to-value, Liqid is hiring for positions at all levels in engineering, operations, sales, finance, marketing, and more. Interested candidates should visit the Liqid website, and submit resumes here. Follow Liqid on Twitter and LinkedIn to stay up to date with the latest Liqid news and industry insights. About Liqid Liqid's composable infrastructure software platform, Liqid Matrix, unlocks cloud-like speed and flexibility plus higher efficiency from on-prem infrastructure. Now IT can configure, deploy, and scale physical, bare-metal servers in seconds, then reallocate valuable accelerator and storage resources via software as needs evolve. Dynamically provision previously impossible systems or scale existing investments, and then redeploy resources where needed in real-time. Unlock cloud-like datacenter agility at any scale and experience new levels of resource and operational efficiency with Liqid. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005246/en/

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[September 15, 2021] New Vehicles More Appealing Than Ever, J.D. Power Finds

On the strength of some very successful new-vehicle launches for 2021, the auto industry continues its trend of producing ever-more appealing vehicles. The BMW 4 Series, Chevrolet Tahoe, Ford (News - Alert) Bronco Sport, Ford Mustang Mach-E, Genesis G80, Kia K5 and Toyota Sienna are all-new or completely redesigned models that achieved segment-topping performances in appeal to owners. These models and others have helped boost the industry's overall vehicle emotional appeal this year, according to the J.D. Power 2021 U.S. Automotive Performance, Execution and Layout (APEAL) Study,SM released today. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005367/en/ J.D. Power 2021 U.S. Automotive Performance, Execution and Layout (APEAL) Study (Graphic: Business Wire) "One of the biggest factors driving the industry's improvement this year is the introduction of several highly appealing new models," said David Amodeo, director of global automotive at J.D. Power. "The APEAL Study measures owners' emotional attachment to their new vehicle, and the product launches that took place this model year have done a really good job. Some are all-new and some are redesigns, but the new launches demonstrate that automakers are getting even better at hitting buyers' emotional triggers." Now in its 26th year, the study complements the J.D. Power Initial Quality Study (IQS)SM and the J.D. Power Tech Experience Index (TXI) StudySM by measuring owners' emotional attachment and level of excitement with their new vehicle. The APEAL Study asks owners to consider 37 attributes, ranging from the sense of comfort they feel when climbing into the driver's seat to the exhilaration they get when they step on the accelerator. Vehicle owners' responses to queries about these attributes are aggregated to compute an overall APEAL index score measured on a 1,000-point scale. Following are key findings of the 2021 study: Mass market brands increase in emotional appeal: Though premium brands continue to outscore mass market brands, the gap continues to narrow. The average APEAL score for premium brands is 864, compared with 845 for mass market brands. The 19-point gap in score this year is down from a 23-point gap a year ago. Dodge brand continues to impress: Stellantis's Dodge brand repeats its top-ranking performance in APEAL among mass market brands this year with a score of 882. At the same time, Dodge's index score equals the score for Porsche, a perennial premium-brand APEAL leader. Proving that a brand can succeed in both APEAL and IQS, Dodge not only leads mass market brands in APEAL this year, but also was a close second to sibling brand Ram in IQS earlier this year. High quality and high appeal: Seven models provide both the hihest level of emotional appeal and initial product quality, according to analysis of the 2021 APEAL and IQS studies. The models that receive both APEAL segment awards and awards in the 2021 IQS are: BMW X4, BMW X6, BMW X7, Cadillac CT5, Chevrolet Corvette, Genesis G80, Kia Telluride and Nissan Maxima. The Maxima also is the highest-scoring model in both studies, a remarkable achievement and the first time ever for a mass market model. Tesla's unofficial score is highest in the study: Tesla receives an APEAL index score of 893, which is three points lower than last year. The automaker is not officially ranked among other brands in the study as it doesn't meet ranking criteria. Unlike other manufacturers, Tesla doesn't grant J.D. Power permission to survey its owners in 15 states where it is required. However, Tesla's score was calculated based on a sample of surveys from owners in the other 35 states.



Highest-Ranking Brands Porsche ranks highest among premium brands and ties Dodge overall with a score of 882. Genesis (879) and Land Rover (879) rank second in a tie among premium brands.

Dodge ranks highest among mass market brands and ties Porsche overall with a score of 882. Ram (881) ranks second and Nissan (866) ranks third among mass market brands. Toyota is the biggest gainer in the mass market rankings, placing five rank positions higher than in 2020. Genesis gains the most in the premium brand rankings, up four places year over year. Nissan is the biggest gainer in terms of index points, improving 22 from a year ago. Model-Level APEAL Awards The parent company receiving the most model-level awards (given to models ranking highest in their respective segment) is General Motors (News - Alert) Co. (five awards), followed by BMW AG with four awards. Hyundai Motor Group and Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. each receive three awards. The complete list of award recipients is: General Motors Company: Cadillac CT5 , Chevrolet Blazer, Chevrolet Corvette, Chevrolet Tahoe, and GMC Sierra HD

, and BMW AG: BMW 4 Series , BMW X4 , BMW X6 , and BMW X7

, , , and Hyundai Motor Group: Genesis G80 , Kia K5 , and Kia Telluride

, , and Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.: Nissan Maxima , Nissan Sentra , and Nissan Versa

, , and Ford Motor Company (News - Alert) : Ford Bronco Sport and Ford Mustang Mach-E

and Daimler AG: Mercedes-Benz CLA

Honda Motor Company: Honda Ridgeline

Jaguar Land Rover Limited: Land Rover Defender

Stellantis NV: Ram 1500

Toyota Motor Corporation: Toyota Sienna

Volvo Motor Corporation: Volvo XC40 The Nissan Maxima receives a model-level award for a fourth consecutive year. The BMW X4 and Chevrolet Blazer receive model-level awards for a third consecutive year. The BMW X6, GMC Sierra HD, Honda (News - Alert) Ridgeline, Kia Telluride, Nissan Sentra, Nissan Versa and Ram 1500 each receive model-level awards for a second consecutive year. The 2021 U.S. APEAL Study is based on responses from 110,827 owners of new 2021 model-year vehicles who were surveyed after 90 days of ownership. The study was fielded from February through July 2021. For more information about the U.S. APEAL Study, visit https://www.jdpower.com/business/automotive/us-automotive-performance-execution-and-layout-apeal-study. See the online press release at http://www.jdpower.com/pr-id/2021078. About J.D. Power J.D. Power is a global leader in consumer insights, advisory services and data and analytics. A pioneer in the use of big data, artificial intelligence (AI) and algorithmic modeling capabilities to understand consumer behavior, J.D. Power has been delivering incisive industry intelligence on customer interactions with brands and products for more than 50 years. The world's leading businesses across major industries rely on J.D. Power to guide their customer-facing strategies. J.D. Power has offices in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. To learn more about the company's business offerings, visit JDPower.com/business. The J.D. Power auto shopping tool can be found at JDPower.com. About J.D. Power and Advertising/Promotional Rules www.jdpower.com/business/about-us/press-release-info View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005367/en/

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[September 15, 2021] Deepcell Partners with Stanford University on Chan Zuckerberg Biohub's Cell Atlas Project

Deepcell, a life science company pioneering AI-powered cell classification and isolation for cell biology and translational research, today announced that it has entered into an agreement with Stanford University to provide data to Tabula Sapiens, part of a breakthrough scientific program supported by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative's single-cell biology program and the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub. The Tabula Sapiens program is aimed at creating a benchmark human cell atlas of 2 million cells collected from 25 organs of eight people. Taking the organs from the same individual controls for genetic background, age, environment, and epigenetic effects and allows detailed analysis and comparison of cell types that are shared between tissues. This work is aimed at creating a detailed portrait of cell types as well as a view of their distribution and variation across tissues and within the endothelial, epithelial, stromal and immune compartments. The collaboration complements Deepcell's initiative to expand the Deep Cell Atlas, an atlas of single human cells, which so far includes more than 1 billion cell images. Deepcell's AI-powered platform, trained on millions of images, identifies cells based on rich morphological patterns that may not be visible to the human eye. This collaboration is the latest partnership in Deepcell's collaboration program with scientific researchers and medical experts. Through this initiative, scientists will use Deepcell's platform to generate single-cell morphology data that will be shaed publicly with the research community via Tabula Sapiens. As a result of this collaboration, the Deepcell platform will expand the company's Deep Cell Atlas, setting the basis for new discoveries in cell biology through AI-powered cell morphology.



Unlike other cell analysis approaches, Deepcell's technology was developed to isolate and collect label-free cells, keeping the cell intact for downstream biological characterization. By analyzing whole, unperturbed cells instead of molecular targets on or within cells, the Deepcell technology gives researchers access to a new dimension in cell biology and the ability to understand cellular heterogeneity in rich detail. The technology combines advances in AI, cell capture, and single-cell analysis to sort cells based on detailed visual features. "We are excited to partner with Dr. Stephen Quake, one of the pioneers in the single-cell revolution at Stanford, to advance the understanding of cell biology," said Maddison Masaeli, CEO of Deepcell. "The novel insights from our technology will be of particularly high value for multi-omic studies such as the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub's Tabula Sapiens program. We believe that adding an entirely new dimension to understand cells through AI-powered cell morphology and linking it to whole transcriptome analysis will usher in a new era of discoveries in cell biology."

For more information about Deepcell, go to www.deepcell.com. About Deepcell Deepcell is helping to advance precision medicine by combining advances in AI, cell classification and capture, and single-cell analysis to deliver novel insights through an unprecedented view of cell biology. Founded in 2017, the company has created unique, microfluidics-based technology that uses continuously learning AI to classify cells based on detailed visual features and sort them without inherent bias. The Deepcell platform maintains cell viability for downstream single-cell analysis and can be used to isolate virtually any type of cell, even those occurring at frequencies as low as one in a billion. The technology will initially be available as a service for use in translational research as well as diagnostics and therapeutic development. Deepcell is privately held and based in Menlo Park, CA (News - Alert) . For more information, please visit deepcellbio.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005838/en/

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[September 15, 2021] Travelocity helps Latino parents create unforgettable cultural experiences with their kids for Hispanic Heritage Month

DALLAS, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- To celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, Travelocity is launching eight easy-to-book experiences expertly curated to help families explore and share their Latino heritage. From Sept. 15 through Oct. 15, families can visit Travelocity.com/HispanicHeritage to book trips that highlight rich Latino culture through food, landmarks and events in select cities in the United States and abroad. In a recent survey1, Travelocity found that 90% of Latino parents believe it is important to pass on their culture to their children, and half (49%) said that they teach future generations about their heritage through cultural trips, in addition to speaking their native tongue at home or passing down family recipes. Whether they're searching for the best ropa vieja to share in Miami or learning about history at the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago, Travelocity has the tools families need to confidently find and book the right trip all year long. For Hispanic Heritage Month, Travelocity curated eight trips focused on exploring some of the largest hubs for Latino culture in the United States, such as Los Angeles, New York City, Houston, Chicago andMiami, along with destinations abroad like Mexico, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.



"Through our conversations with our U.S. Latino customers, we knew that connecting to one's culture is immensely important for these parents, and travel is a major way of achieving that with family. In fact, over 80% of Latino parents have already brought their children on culture-focused travels," said Jorge Avalos, senior brand manager at Travelocity. "Latino parents are seeking ways to share family stories, traditions, language and more with their children, and we are honored to help cultivate rich experiences that may then be passed down to future generations." The brand enlisted several Latino parents to share their approach to fostering heritage with their children through local cuisine, attractions, sights and more in some of the highlighted destinations.

For more tips and inspiration on how to explore Latino culture in the U.S. and abroad from Travelocity's Latino experts, visit the Travelocity website here to learn more in English and here for Spanish. Download the Travelocity app and sign up for the newsletter to get exclusive deals and expert tips on how, when and where to book your next trip. About Travelocity Travelocity encourages travelers to Wander Wisely and is dedicated to championing the customer by making the travel experience both simple and memorable through exceptional customer service, expert advice, and guaranteed value. Based in Dallas, Texas, Travelocity is owned by Expedia Group, one of the world's leading travel companies, with an extensive brand portfolio that includes many of the world's leading online travel brands.  2021 Travelscape, LLC, an Expedia Group company. All rights reserved. Travelocity and the Travelocity logo are trademarks of Travelscape, LLC. CST# 2056372-50 1 In partnership with OnePoll. Surveyed 1,000 respondents from Aug. 27 to Sept. 1, 2021. The survey was conducted online using panel members who are credited to participate in surveys. Focused on U.S. Hispanic parents aged 1864 who have children under 18 living at home, using screening questions and profile data to ensure the correct demographic was achieved. Contact: Rachel Shin, jashin@expediagroup.com; Meaghan Daly, meaghan.daly@icfnext.com View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/travelocity-helps-latino-parents-create-unforgettable-cultural-experiences-with-their-kids-for-hispanic-heritage-month-301377861.html SOURCE Travelocity

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[September 15, 2021] Loomis Sayles Announces Changes to Municipal Bond Investment and Research Platform

Loomis, Sayles & Company, an affiliate of Natixis Investment Managers, today announced changes aimed at enhancing its municipal bond investment and research platform. These changes are designed to support the development and delivery of competitive municipal bond investment strategies that can meet client needs and market demand. Loomis Sayles currently manages approximately $8.6 billion in municipal bond assets firmwide. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005903/en/ Effective 30 September 2021, the following changes will be implemented: Pramila Agrawal and Jim LeBuhn will join Dawn Mangerson as portfolio managers on all municipal bond institutional and retail strategies including the team's flagship Intermediate Municipal Bond Fund and managed accounts. The municipal bond investment team will report to Pramila, who currently focuses on managing portfolios for income-oriented, tax-aware investors utilizing the broad opportunity set offered in the credit markets.

Jim Grabovac and Larry Jones will come off the municipal bond portfolio management team but will continue to play significant roles in contributing to alpha generation within municipal bond portfolios. Jim will retain his role as a municipal bond strategist and Larry will join Brian Fahrman on the municipal bond trading desk.

Agnes Choi and John Ward will become portfolio specialists.

Kelly Cruse, a member of the municipal research team for more than 10 years, has been promoted to head of municipal bond research, reporting to Chris Gootkind, director of credit research. In this new role, she will oversee all municipal bond analysts, including senior fixed income analysts Derek Endsley and Bedford Lydon, fixed income analyst Ryan Friend and research associate Joe Prestamer.

Finally, Brad Mincke, who has been a member of the municipal bond research team for over a decade, will retire at year-end. We wish Brad the best and thank him for his service to Loomis Sayles. ABOUT LOOMIS SAYLES

Since 1926, Loomis, Sayles & Company has helped fulfill the investment needs of institutional and mutual fund clients worldwide. The firm's performance-driven investors integrate deep proprietary research and integrated risk analysis to make informed, judicious deisions. Teams of portfolio managers, strategists, research analysts and traders collaborate to assess market sectors and identify investment opportunities wherever they may lie, within traditional asset classes or among a range of alternative investments. Loomis Sayles has the resources, foresight and the flexibility to look far and wide for value in broad and narrow markets in its commitment to deliver attractive sustainable returns for clients. This rich tradition has earned Loomis Sayles the trust and respect of clients worldwide, for whom it manages $357.7 billion ** in assets (as of 30 June 2021).



**Includes the assets of Loomis, Sayles & Co., LP, and Loomis Sayles Trust Company, LLC. Loomis Sayles Trust Company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Loomis, Sayles & Company, LP. ABOUT NATIXIS INVESTMENT MANAGERS

Natixis Investment Managers' multi-affiliate approach connects clients to the independent thinking and focused expertise of more than 20 active managers. Ranked among the world's largest asset managers1 with more than $1.4 trillion assets under management2 (1,182.5 billion), Natixis Investment Managers delivers a diverse range of solutions across asset classes, styles, and vehicles. The firm is dedicated to advancing sustainable finance and developing innovative Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) products. Natixis Investment Managers consults and partners with its clients and offers insight on markets and assumptions to better align strategies with long-term goals.

Headquartered in Paris and Boston, Natixis Investment Managers is wholly-owned by Natixis. Natixis is a subsidiary of BPCE, the second-largest banking group in France. Natixis Investment Managers' affiliated investment management firms include AEW; Alliance Entreprendre; AlphaSimplex Group; DNCA Investments;3 Dorval Asset Management; Flexstone Partners; Gateway (News - Alert) Investment Advisers; Harris Associates; Investors Mutual Limited; Loomis, Sayles & Company; Mirova; MV Credit; Naxicap Partners; Ossiam; Ostrum Asset Management; Seeyond; Seventure Partners; Thematics Asset Management; Vauban Infrastructure Partners; Vaughan Nelson Investment Management; and WCM Investment Management. Additionally, investment solutions are offered through Natixis Investment Managers Solutions and Natixis Advisors, LLC. Not all offerings available in all jurisdictions. For additional information, please visit Natixis Investment Managers' website at im.natixis.com | LinkedIn (News - Alert) : linkedin.com/company/natixis-investment-managers. Natixis Investment Managers' distribution and service groups include Natixis Distribution, LLC, a limited purpose broker-dealer and the distributor of various U.S. registered investment companies for which advisory services are provided by affiliated firms of Natixis Investment Managers, Natixis Investment Managers S.A. (Luxembourg), Natixis Investment Managers International (France), and their affiliated distribution and service entities in Europe and Asia. 1Cerulli Quantitative Update: Global Markets 2021 ranked Natixis Investment Managers as the 15th largest asset manager in the world based on assets under management as of 31 December 2020.

2Assets under management ("AUM") as of 30 June 2021 is $1,402.5 billion. AUM, as reported, may include notional assets, assets serviced, gross assets, assets of minority-owned affiliated entities and other types of non-regulatory AUM managed or serviced by firms affiliated with Natixis Investment Manager. Excluding H2O Asset Management.

3A brand of DNCA Finance. MALR027783

3757797.1.1 View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005903/en/

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[September 15, 2021] Internet made easier with the introduction of B.C.'s newest internet service provider

Introducing contract-free home internet services that offers B.C residents a fresh new way to get home internet with self-serve features, zero contracts, and more RICHMOND, BC, Sept. 15, 2021 /CNW/ - Babbl Communications launched an early release of its fresh, hassle-free approach to premium home internet to Western Canada. As part of this early release, Babbl is now available to the residents of Richmond, Parksville, and Nanaimo, British Columbia. Born digital, Babbl Communications is on a mission to give our customers a high-quality and reliable experience that's completely free of the strict contracts required by traditional providers. "As a digital-first company, Babbl can nimbly scaleand flexibly adjust to our customers' changing needs. This ability means that, unlike the big providers, we're able to remain cost-efficient and ensure our prices are kept to a minimum for our customers," says Jason Speers, President and Founder of Babbl. "We're incredibly excited to bring Babbl's service to residents in Western Canada and we look forward to redefining the home internet experience."



Why choose Babbl? Babbl has packages to meet every need, whether a customer is working online full-time, streaming videos, connecting a smart home, or just casually browsing.





All Babbl plans include everything needed to get online: an all-in-one router and Wi-Fi modem.



Easy self-install (the modem gets delivered on the date you choose and comes activated).



Best of all, Babbl's premium services are contract-free! This helps our customers avoid long-term and costly commitments or the higher prices of month-to-month services. Residents of Richmond, Parksville, and Nanaimo, British Columbia are encouraged to try Babbl out, risk-free, today. To sign-up for Babbl's early release, please visit: https://www.heybabbl.ca/validation/ About Babbl Communications Babbl Communications is a third-party internet service provider launched in 2021. Founded in Richmond by Jason Speers and backed by a team of Telecom professionals, Babbl Communications acts as a fresh way to connect to the internet in a digitally demanding world. Babbl Communications provides customers with reliable, high-performance internet at fair prices. For more information, please visit: https://www.heybabbl.ca/ SOURCE Babbl Communications Ltd

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[September 15, 2021] ShapeShift Adds New Fiat Off-Ramp as Well as Expanded On-Ramp Capabilities Through Integration with Gem

DENVER, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- ShapeShift , a decentralized, non-custodial cryptocurrency platform, announced today that it has integrated the Gem on-ramp/off-ramp embedded user interface to their web platform, enabling easy crypto/fiat conversions. Integration with the ShapeShift mobile platform is expected in the coming months. The company already offered on-ramp services (or, the ability to purchase crypto with fiat money, such as the U.S. dollar and many other global currencies) via Banxa; this integration with Gem will give users the added ability to off-ramp BTC, ETH and USDC (convert it to fiat) and to on-ramp with additional payment methods and global locality options. Unlike other services, users can off-ramp using their non-custodial wallet of choice as supported by the ShapeShift platform. For more information on payment methods and fiat/virtual currencies supported by Gem, visit their information page . Gem is an on/off-ramp aggregator: the company brings together host of other similar services so that the user can select the most competitive offering. As is required with all fiat transactions, users will need to provide Gem with identification ("Know Your Customer" requirements, or, "KYC"), but they will only need to provide it once to use all of the included on/off-ramp gateway services. The ShapeShift platform does not require KYC for any of their own platform offerings.



"Our users have been asking for a crypto-to-fiat off-ramp, and we are very pleased to deliver it," said Matt DiRienzo, ShapeShift's current director of product management, UX and design. "Just as we integrated with 0x (a DEX aggregator) to enable our users to find the best rates and trading pairs, Gem is an on/off-ramp aggregator, allowing users to find the best rates and expansive options. It's another move to empower users and offer user choice." "We're huge fans of ShapeShift and its mission to make the self-custody user experience even better than centralized financial services," said Micah Winkelspecht, CEO and founder of Gem. "It's crucial that users have that same great experience when they enter and exit the cryptocurrency ecosystem, and we're proud to bring that same level of ease to the fiat on-ramp and off-ramp flow."

About ShapeShift

Since 2014, ShapeShift has been pioneering self-custody for digital asset trading. The company's web and mobile platforms allow users around the world to safely buy, hold, trade and interact with digital assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. Learn more at ShapeShift.com . About Gem

Since 2013, Gem has powered trusted developer infrastructure and APIs for the cryptocurrency industry. Gem's latest product on-ramp aggregates fiat-to-crypto on-ramps and off-ramps spanning over 65 countries into a single, easy-to-use checkout experience that plugs into any application or service.

Learn more at Gem.co . ShapeShift Media Contact:

Lindsay Smith

Lindsay.smi@ShapeShift.io Gem Media Contact:

Jennifer Pelletier

jennifer@gem.co View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/shapeshift-adds-new-fiat-off-ramp-as-well-as-expanded-on-ramp-capabilities-through-integration-with-gem-301377730.html SOURCE ShapeShift

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[September 15, 2021] PG&E Sued by Dixie Fire Victims

Leading fire litigation firm Singleton Schreiber McKenzie & Scott has filed two lawsuits on behalf of nearly 200 plaintiffs alleging PG&E (News - Alert) caused the Dixie Fire, a massive disaster that has quickly become the second-largest wildfire in California history. The complaints allege that the Dixie Fire was sparked on July 13, 2021 following several blown fuses and PG&E equipment malfunctions off Highway 70 in Northern California, in Feather River Canyon. A power outage in the area was reported by PG&E's outage system at 7 a.m. that day, but a PG&E troubleman did not arrive to the scene until after 4 p.m. In the complaint, SSMS attorney Gerald Singleton says PG&E has admitted its equipment malfunctions may have started the Dixie Fire, and subsequently the company announced a $15 billion plan to underground 10,000 miles of power lines to reduce wildfire risk in California. The plaintiffs in the case filed today say they believe the Dixie Fire was caused by a Douglas Fir tree leaning into PG&E's high voltage distribution line, which the blown fuses were designed to protect. They allege that the fire happened because PG&E's infrastructure was constructed to pass electricity through exposed power lines in vegetated areas, and because the company negligently failed to maintain and operate its electrical equipment and keep appropriate clearance between that equipment and the surrounding vegetation. The filing follows a federal court hearing on September 13 in San Francisco in which U.S. District Juge William Alsup, who is overseeing PG&E's criminal probation, questioned the PG&E troubleman who responded to the initial outage call. In the hearing, Judge Alsup asked the technician why he didn't shut off power to the line while investigating the outage. Judge Alsup also told PG&E attorneys that the company "is a convicted felon that poses a safety hazard to the state of California."



"It's clear that PG&E started this fire. The best thing they can do is to acknowledge that fact and make the survivors whole," SSMS attorney Gerald Singleton, who is spearheading the litigation, said. "We're committed to helping our clients get the resources they need to rebuild their homes and their lives, and we look forward to advancing these cases and serving as their advocate in court." The complaint includes causes of action for inverse condemnation, trespass, nuisance, negligence, and violations of Health and Safety Code section 13007 and Public Utilities Code section 2106. The plaintiffs in the case are homeowners, renters, and business owners. The case is not a class action; instead, the plaintiffs have elected to join their individual lawsuits in a single action.

The relief sought includes damages for repair, depreciation and replacement costs for real and property, loss of use, lost wages, medical expenses, evacuation expenses, among other general damages, as well as punitive damages and attorneys' fees. The plaintiffs are represented by Gerald Singleton, J. Ross Peabody, and Tommy Vu of Singleton Schreiber McKenzie & Scott. With more than 100 employees and offices throughout California, Singleton and his team have represented more than 10,000 victims of utility fires and has recovered approximately $1 billion in settlements and verdicts for its clients. The firm currently represents thousands of victims of the 2020 Mountain View and Zogg Fires, the 2019 Kincade Fire, the 2018 Woolsey and Camp Fires, the 2017 Thomas and North Bay Fires, and the 2015 Butte Fire. The SSMS team hosts weekly virtual town halls for individuals affected by wildfires and will hold a virtual event for those affected by the Dixie Fire on September 14 at 5:30 p.m. Pacific. For more information and to register, please visit SSMSJustice.com. Fassbinder, et al. v. PG&E - Shasta Sup Court No. 198186 View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005965/en/

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[September 15, 2021] Peer Matching, Benevity's Newest Innovation, Drives Greater Collective Impact Through People-Powered Movements

CALGARY, Alberta, Sept. 15, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Benevity, Inc. , the leading provider of global corporate purpose software, announced that Peer Matching , its newest innovation, is driving significantly greater social and business impact for purpose-driven companies and their people, especially as the future of work becomes more hybrid.

Peer Matching, a first-of-its-kind feature, puts the power to make social impact in the hands of people, enabling employees to create and share grassroots giving opportunities for causes that matter to them personally and amplify the impact by adding a match from their own funds, in addition to any company matching funds that may be available. Their colleagues can then choose to give and have their donation matched or further the overall impact by adding their own funds to the match pool to keep it growing. And if the company already offers a corporate match, the impact triples. Benevity data shows that the average donation amount to peer-matched giving opportunities is nearly double the amount donated to giving opportunities without Peer Matching (from $280 per donor to $540 per donor). Peer-matched giving opportunities also raise 2.5 times more total donations than those without Peer Matching (from $6,200 per giving opportunity to $15,700 per giving opportunity). As companies head into fall giving season, when 40% of all charitable giving happens, this technology helps them and their people further amplify their collective impact and connect employees in new ways to do good along with their employer (often with associated volunteering or other opportunities). Building connections through purpose at work is becoming increasingly valuable in sustaining a positive workplace culture as companies grapple with delays to return to office, and pushback from employees who wish to continue working from home. Since launching last fall, more than 80,000 employees from 130 Benevity client companies have either created or participated in peer matches. In less than a year, a total of $55 million has been donated through Peer Matching with 85% of the funds coming from employees and 15% from company matching. The acceleration in people-powered movements over the past few years, coupled with the fact that people are 50% more likely to give to causes if they are asked by peers and 80% are more likely to give when there is a match ofered, is clearly fueling the rapid adoption and impact of Peer Matching in the workplace.



Earlier this year when COVID-19 surged in India, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), a Benevity client with more than 13,000 employees based in India, published its first giving opportunity with Peer Matching enabled. Through its HPE Gives program, the company was able to support UNICEFs efforts to boost access to oxygen and COVID-19 testing in India. Overall, HPE has been able to donate more than $35 million to causes since the programs inception. As a leader of more than 2,000 employees, with nearly half of those team members in India as COVID ravaged the country, I was deeply and emotionally affected by the dire circumstances they were in, said Ash Chowdappa, Senior Vice President at Aruba, an HPE company. Many became sick, some lost loved ones. The stories hit hard. I had already made a personal donation using HPE Gives. However, I logged back on and saw HPEs support of UNICEFs efforts in India. This was the first time Id seen a company initiative that offered Peer Matching. I understood the urgency, so I felt compelled to donate there as well.

Ashs donation into the Peer Matching pool helped to encourage more than 1,300 of his colleagues to band together and raise nearly $350,000 to support COVID relief in India. HPEs collaborative contribution for COVID-19 relief in India helped supply healthcare workers and patients with things like surgical masks, oxygen tanks, and tests, which are crucial for recovery, both then and now, said Justine Feighery, Director of Corporate Partnerships at UNICEF USA, describing the impact of the Peer Matching employee campaign at HPE. Businesses are now thinking more democratically, more creatively and more inclusively, said Steven Woods, Chief Technology Officer at Benevity. In a time when traditional power structures and systems are being challenged and people are igniting grassroots movements, they dont just want to support a cause; they also want to support each other. With Benevitys latest innovation, Peer Matching, employees can have a much greater impact on the world, and at the same time build a sense of collective action and connection with their co-workers, supported by their company. Peer Matching can be added to any giving initiative through Benevitys employee engagement solution, Spark . To learn more about Peer Matching, visit benevity.com . About Benevity

Benevity, a certified B Corporation, is a leading provider of global corporate purpose software, providing the only integrated suite of community investment and employee, customer and nonprofit engagement solutions. A finalist in Fast Companys 2020 World Changing Ideas Awards, many iconic brands rely on Benevitys cloud solutions to power their purpose in ways that better attract, retain and engage todays diverse workforce, embed social action into their customer experiences and positively impact their communities. With software that is available in 20 languages, Benevity has processed more than 7 billion dollars in donations and 38 million hours of volunteering time, 340,000 positive actions and awarded one million grants to 303,000 nonprofits worldwide. About Spark

Spark by Benevity empowers companies and their people to become a force for good and gain a sense of impact through user-centric technology, available on desktop and mobile app, that connects them to the causes that they care about most. With flexible volunteering, impactful giving and gamified positive actions, Spark engages employees, customers and communities in activities that deliver both business and social outcomes. Contact:

Robyn Douglass - Archetype

212-871-4082

robyn.douglass@archetype.co Andrea Davis - Benevity

403-966-5622

press@benevity.com A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/af45c001-546e-4af5-92e0-4eecfb3eb49d



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[September 15, 2021] WaterWalk Positions for Growth, Partners with Leading Global Institutional Firm, Expands Leadership Team

WaterWalk, an innovative hospitality brand headquartered in Wichita, Kan., has partnered with a global investment management firm with more than $37 billion in assets under management to advance its franchise growth initiative. WaterWalk is a flexible accommodations hotel brand purposefully designed to offer customized guest experiences with apartment-style suites. The product caters to emerging consumer behaviors such as nomadic lifestyles, the preference for optionality and evolving market trends. Currently there are nine properties across eight different markets including Wichita, Denver, Dallas (2), San Antonio, Overland Park, Raleigh, Charlotte and Minneapolis. Through the partnership with the global investment management firm, WaterWalk will continue executing on its strategic growth initiatives while accessing the firm's global services and trusted resources. One key initiative will be the debut of a new prototype in 2022 - a timeless product designed with progressive travel trends in mind. "This partnership is the best choice for WaterWalk as we enter a revolutionary growth phase for the brand," said Mimi Oliver, chief executive officer of WaterWalk. "Our vision and values matched nicely with the firm's team, and it's a great reassurance knowing that WaterWalk's executive team is trusted to do what we do best-develop and drive a brand that is positioned as an industry game-changer." Additionally, WaterWalk expanded its executive leadership team by naming Michael Fruin as senior vice president of franchise development. Fruin brings more than 35 years of experience in the hospitality industry and has previously served in numerous leadership positions with Marriott International over a 24-year carer focused on operations, feasibility, development and franchising extended stay brands. Fruin has also held senior leadership roles with ESA, Choice and Sonesta.



WaterWalk has created a new segment within the hospitality industry, and one that's proven to be a strong performer during a global pandemic. With more than 250 years of collective experience, the team has developed, owned and managed a total of 464 hotel properties across four brands, which have all been successfully launched, sold and ultimately expanded to 1,375 total properties. The WaterWalk team has a rich history developing hotel brands including Residence Inn, Summerfield Suites, Candlewood Suites and WoodSpring Suites. Waterwalk was founded by the late Jack DeBoer, a hospitality visionary who is known as the pioneer of the extended stay and all-suite hotel concept. DeBoer's knowledge and legacy will remain a part of the WaterWalk brand as his granddaughter, Oliver, leads the company alongside Jim Korroch, president of WaterWalk. Korroch co-founded Candlewood Suites with DeBoer in 1995 and has more than 25 years of experience in development, operations and ownership of hotel properties including extensive experience with Marriott brands.

Baird served as the exclusive financial advisor to WaterWalk on this transaction. For more information, visit waterwalk.com/franchise and follow them on LinkedIn. About WaterWalk:

WaterWalk offers a liberated hospitality experience with the nation's most innovative flexible lodging brand. The company was envisioned by industry leader Jack DeBoer and built on the executive team's extensive experience in the development of hundreds of hotels over multiple decades. WaterWalk is unique in that it offers customized guest experiences with apartment-style suites. This diversified product offering creates the utmost in flexibility and value to consumers and investors alike. About Baird:

Baird is a leading global investment bank focused on the middle market with approximately 400 banking professionals in the U.S., Europe and Asia. Baird provides corporations, entrepreneurs, private equity and venture capital firms with in-depth market knowledge and extensive experience in merger and acquisition, debt advisory and equity financing transactions. Since 2016, Baird has completed more than 580 advisory transactions, representing nearly $175 billion in transaction value, and 370 financings, raising $132 billion. Committed to being a great place to work, Baird ranks No. 32 on the Fortune 2021 100 Best Companies to Work For list - its 18th consecutive year on the list. For more information, visit www.rwbaird.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915006000/en/

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[September 15, 2021] Lancium Breaks Ground On First Clean Campus In Fort Stockton, Texas

HOUSTON, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Lancium, a technology company focused on the energy transition, today announced it is breaking ground on its first Clean Campus located in Fort Stockton, Texas. Lancium Clean Campuses are built at critical points on the transmission system that are often overwhelmed with renewable energy. Lancium breaks ground on new Clean Campus in Texas . Initial use will be data center for Bitcoin mining, opening Q1 2022. All Clean Campuses are enabled by Lancium's Smart Response system to act as "Controllable Load Resources" (CLRs). Clean Campuses speed the growth of renewable energy and provide critical grid reliability products usually provided by fossil fuel plants. Collectively, Lancium believes that CLRs allow grids to absorb more renewable energy and retire fossil fuel plants faster. According to a Company sponsored report "Impact of Large, Flexible Data Center Operations on the Future of ERCOT," (Joshua D. Rhodes, PhD), " operating data centers in a flexible manor during times of highgrid prices could lead to the deployment of even more wind and solar andif they are operated with enough flexibilitycould result in lower overall carbon emissions."



"Green energy is the future, but we need to rethink the grid in order to accommodate its growth," said Lancium Chief Executive Officer Michael McNamara. "Lancium Controllable Loads act like large power stations in reverse by absorbing abundant renewable energy while simultaneously providing grid ancillary services. Climate change is a big problem, and Lancium is doing our part by working on large-scale solutions." The initial application at the Fort Stockton Clean Campus will be a 100,000+ square-foot facility for Bitcoin mining and other high throughput computing workloads. The expected completion date for the first 25MW stage is Q1 2022 with the facility reaching full capacity of 325MW by year end 2022.

Lancium and its partners will invest hundreds of millions of dollars at the facility and generate dozens of local, high-paying jobs. Lancium expresses their appreciation to the people and officials of Fort Stockton and Pecos County who have accommodated our growth plans. Lancium is looking forward to a productive partnership with the community for many years to come. About Lancium

Lancium is a technology company creating software and intellectual property solutions that enable more renewable energy on the grid. Lancium's products include Lancium Smart Response for rapid server power management, and Lancium Compute, a platform for high throughput computing applications. Lancium's solutions help ensure that renewable energy can power our future. Lancium has numerous issued and pending patents. For more information visit www.lancium.com, and follow Lancium on Twitter and LinkedIn. LANCIUM, LANCIUM SMART RESPONSE, and LANCIUM COMPUTE are trademarks of Lancium, LLC. Media Contact:

pr@lancium.com

(339) 206-1722 View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/lancium-breaks-ground-on-first-clean-campus-in-fort-stockton-texas-301377974.html SOURCE Lancium LLC

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[September 15, 2021] Metacask to Auction The Angel's Share NFT: A Physical, Ultra-Rare Cask of 1991 Macallan Whisky - Valued at Over $2 Million - and a Trevor Jones Original Work

Metacask (registered as CaskStore AG in Switzerland), a premier marketplace for the sale of whisky cask NFTs, has announced a partnership with renowned artist Trevor Jones to release its first NFT for auction, set for October 18-22: 'The Angel's Share'. 'The Angel's Share' brings together two ultra-rare, highly-valuable works: a cask of 1991 Macallan whisky, with an estimated value of over $2 million, and an accompanying 1/1 digital painting from Jones, inspired by the cask, distillery and Scotland's robust whisky heritage. The winning bidder will own the cask and the digital work, with the NFT serving as a digital title of deed for the cas, currently stored at the Macallan distillery in Scotland.



The $2+ million valuation far exceeds the current $573,000 (HK$4,464,000) record for a whisky cask sold at auction, set last month by another 1991 Macallan at Bonhams in Hong Kong. Jones is one of the foremost NFT artists in the world. His total sales, by value, rank him among the top-five all time for any NFT artist.

Jones said: "As an artist, the opportunity to create an original piece for such a unique concept, linked to a name as prestigious as Macallan, was very exciting. NFTs are the future of digital ownership, but Metacask is taking this technological innovation to the next stage with regards to physical assets and investment. I'm thrilled to be a part of this pioneering venture." Metacask co-founder Nim Siriwardana said: "In bringing together Trevor and Macallan, two titans of their respective craft, we've curated a unique NFT that will appeal to two increasingly overlapping sets of investors. We're making it easier than ever for digital asset investors to tap into their growing taste for fine whisky, while giving traditional buyers and brokers a modern mechanism for investment that solves long standing challenges around quality and provenance." Following the sale of 'The Angel's Share', Metacask will begin its first series of whisky cask NFT auctions on its marketplace in early November. Pre-registration for these auctions will open October 25. About Metacask Metacask is the premier NFT marketplace for the sale of whisky casks. Developed by a team of highly-respected whisky brokers and digital asset technologists, the Metacask platform sets out to modernize the sale and ownership of whisky casks through the use of NFTs attached to the physical product. These NFTs serve as a form of digital title of deed, with complete transparency - not just in possession and provenance, but also for the purposes of price discovery. Learn more about Metacask: metacask.com View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915006045/en/

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[September 15, 2021] Wells Fargo and FHLB Dallas Award $17K to New Mexico Charity

Wells Fargo and the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas (FHLB Dallas) have awarded $17,000 in Partnership Grant Program ( PGP (News - Alert) ) funds to People Assisting the Homeless (PATH) of Farmington, New Mexico. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915006046/en/ PATH's services include a homeless shelter, seen here, as well as a transitional housing complex. (Photo: Business Wire) PATH offers an emergency shelter for homeless people, a transitional housing program and a wide variety of support services to people living in San Juan County and Farmington, New Mexico. "The funding from the PGP grant will help us with the operational expenses we incur providing services to homeless individuals and families in Farmington and surrounding areas," said Amanda Lobato, executive director of PATH. "We are grateful for this funding infusion." For 2021, FHLB Dallas awarded $400,000 in PGP grants, and its members provided an additional $200,250 for an impact of more than $600,000 in its five-state District of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico and Texas. The grants help qualified nonprofit organizations fund a variety of operational and administrative activities that are critical to serving their communities. " Wells Fargo (News - Alert) is honored to partner with FHLB Dallas to provide this monetary boost to PATH, which has a long history of service to vulnerable populations acoss New Mexico," said Wells Fargo Vice President and Relationship Manager Patricia Parina.



Through this unique program, FHLB Dallas member institutions contribute $500 to $4,000 to a community-based organization (CBO), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, which FHLB Dallas matches at a 3:1 ratio to provide the CBO up to $24,000 per member and $60,000 per year in grant money. PGP grants are awarded annually through FHLB Dallas' member institutions and help promote and strengthen relationships between CBOs and members. "Wells Fargo has been an active participant in the PGP for more than a decade, a testament to its strong commitment to supporting nonprofits and the work they do across the many communities in its banking footprint," said Greg Hettrick, first vice president and director of Community Investment at FHLB Dallas.

See the complete list of the 2021 PGP grant recipients. For more information about the 2021 PGP grants and other FHLB Dallas community investment products and programs, please visit fhlb.com/pgp. About Wells Fargo Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) is a leading financial services company that has approximately $1.9 trillion in assets, proudly serves one in three U.S. households and more than 10% of small businesses in the U.S., and is the leading middle market banking provider in the U.S. We provide a diversified set of banking, investment and mortgage products and services, as well as consumer and commercial finance, through our four reportable operating segments: Consumer Banking and Lending, Commercial Banking, Corporate and Investment Banking, and Wealth and Investment Management. Wells Fargo ranked No. 37 on Fortune's 2021 rankings of America's largest corporations. In the communities we serve, the company focuses its social impact on building a sustainable, inclusive future for all by supporting housing affordability, small business growth, financial health and a low-carbon economy. About the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas The Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas is one of 11 district banks in the FHLBank System created by Congress in 1932. FHLB Dallas, with total assets of $58.6 billion as of June 30, 2021, is a member-owned cooperative that supports housing and community development by providing competitively priced loans and other credit products to approximately 800 members and associated institutions in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico and Texas. For more information, visit our website at fhlb.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915006046/en/

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[September 15, 2021] Ault Global Holdings Announces Entry into Purchase Agreement to Acquire an Additional 3,000 S19j Pro Antminers With a Deployment Timeline Beginning in October 2021

Ault Global Holdings, Inc. (NYSE American: DPW) a diversified holding company (the "Company"), announced today that its wholly owned subsidiary, Ault Alliance, Inc. ("Ault Alliance"), has entered into a purchase agreement with Bitmain Technologies Limited ("Bitmain") for the purchase of 3,000 S19j Pro model Antminers (the "Antminers") for a total purchase price of $21 million and additional transaction costs of approximately $2 million in addition to the 1,000 Antminers the Company took delivery of earlier this week. The new Antminers will be deployed at the Company's Michigan data center (the "Data Center"). The deployment of the 3,000 Antminers is scheduled to occur monthly, generally coinciding with the delivery schedule of 300 units per month, between October 2021 and July 2022. Alliance Cloud Services, LLC, a majority owned subsidiary of Ault Alliance, acquired the Data Center, a 617,000 square foot energy-efficient facility located on a 34.5-acre site, in January 2021. During June 2021, the Company announced its intent to expand the infrastructure of its Data Center and increase the power capacity to 28MWs. With the execution of this purchase agreement with Bitmain and the delivery of the 1,000 Antminers, the Company is well-positioned to increase the scale and scope of its cryptocurrency and data center operations and is now moving forward with the necessary upgrades to achieve maximum capacity at the Data Center. The upgrades are projected to take approximately 18 months and are expected to result in 300MWs of critical power under an energy abatement agreement with fixed pricing at relatively low energy rates for the next five years. Based on the current market conditions related to bitcoin mining and assuming the installation of all 4,000 Antminers which is expected to be completed in July 2022, the Company anticipates the gross revenue from its cryptocurrency mining operations to reach an annual run rate of between $45 and $50 million. In August 2021, the Company formed a new wholly owned subsidiary, BitNile, Inc. ("BitNile"), which will hold the Company's investment in the Data Center and Antminers. While the Company believes that the future operations of the Data Ceter and its cryptocurrency mining operations will be successful, the Company cannot assure you that its expectations will materialize in a timely manner, if at all.



Milton "Todd" Ault, III, the Company's Executive Chairman, stated, "I'm thrilled with the progress achieved so far and am confident, particularly having purchased an additional 3,000 Antminers, that BitNile's operations will contribute meaningfully to the Company's growth in both revenues and profitability." Ault continued, "We believe BitNile's long-term success and ability to scale will be partially dependent on access to the private or public equity markets to fund additional investments in Antminers and the Data Center expansion." For more information on Ault Global Holdings and its subsidiaries, the Company recommends that stockholders, investors and any other interested parties read the Company's public filings and press releases available under the Investor Relations section at www.AultGlobal.com or available at www.sec.gov.

About Ault Global Holdings, Inc. Ault Global Holdings, Inc. is a diversified holding company pursuing growth by acquiring undervalued businesses and disruptive technologies with a global impact. Through its wholly and majority-owned subsidiaries and strategic investments, the Company provides mission-critical products that support a diverse range of industries, including defense/aerospace, industrial, automotive, telecommunications, medical/biopharma, and textiles. In addition, the Company extends credit to select entrepreneurial businesses through a licensed lending subsidiary. Ault Global Holding's headquarters are located at 11411 Southern Highlands Parkway, Suite 240, Las Vegas, NV 89141; www.AultGlobal.com. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains "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. These forward-looking statements generally include statements that are predictive in nature and depend upon or refer to future events or conditions, and include words such as "believes," "plans," "anticipates," "projects," "estimates," "expects," "intends," "strategy," "future," "opportunity," "may," "will," "should," "could," "potential," or similar expressions. Statements that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on current beliefs and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and the Company undertakes no obligation to update any of them publicly in light of new information or future events. Actual results could differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement as a result of various factors. More information, including potential risk factors, that could affect the Company's business and financial results are included in the Company's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including, but not limited to, the Company's Forms 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K. All filings are available at www.sec.gov and on the Company's website at www.AultGlobal.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915006067/en/

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[September 15, 2021] Chegg Appoints Marcela Martin to Board of Directors

Chegg, Inc. (NYSE: CHGG), the leading student-first connected learning platform, today announced that Marcela Martin, Chief Financial Officer of Squarespace, has joined Chegg's Board of Directors, effective today, September 15, 2021. Ms. Martin will serve as a member of the Audit Committee. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005159/en/ Marcela Martin, Chief Financial Officer of Squarespace "With passion for the future of education and experience in growing global companies, Marcela has everything we were looking for and more," said Dan Rosensweig, CEO & President of Chegg, Inc. "Her knowledge in successfully adapting to growing trends will be incredibly helpful as we continue addressing students' ever-changing needs worldwide. We are all very excited to have a CFO of a multibillion-dollar company in the creator economy on our board." Martin joined Squarespace as Chief Financial Officer in 2020, leading the company through its direct listing on the Ne York Stock Exchange in May 2021, after previously serving as the CFO of Booking.com. At Booking.com, she led the finance function, overseeing finance operations, financial systems and services, risk management, corporate development, and M&A. Martin's extensive experience in the finance, tech and media industries has provided her the skills to integrate emerging technologies and automation in order to improve Squarespace's reporting processes as the company continues to scale globally.



"I am enthusiastic to be joining Chegg's Board of Directors because of how incredibly customer-focused the company is," said Martin. "Now, more than ever, students need the kind of educational support that is always available, regardless of whether they're fully in-person, remote, or hybrid. I believe that education can become the great equalizer again, and I'm thrilled to utilize my skills to promote students' academic success no matter how they learn or where they are learning from." Biography of Marcela Martin:

Marcela Martin is Squarespace's Chief Financial Officer, leading the company's financial and corporate development functions. Marcela has more than 25 years of financial and operations experience at global tech and media companies, most recently as SVP and CFO of Booking.com. Previously, she spent three years at National Geographic Partners as Executive Vice President, CFO & Chief Administrative Officer and 18 years in numerous leadership positions, including EVP and CFO, at Fox International Channels. Originally from Argentina, Marcela graduated from the University of Moron with expertise in accounting and received a MBA from the University of Liverpool. About Chegg: Millions of people Learn with Chegg. We strive to improve educational outcomes by putting the student first. We support students on their journey from high school to college and into their career with tools designed to help them learn their course materials, succeed in their classes, save money on required materials, and learn the most in-demand skills. Our services are available online, anytime, and anywhere. Chegg is a publicly held company based in Santa Clara, California, and trades on the NYSE under the symbol CHGG. For more information, visit www.chegg.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915005159/en/

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[September 15, 2021] AM Best Revises Outlooks to Stable for Heartland Fidelity Insurance Company; Affirms Credit Ratings

AM Best has revised the outlooks to stable from positive and affirmed the Financial Strength Rating of A- (Excellent) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of "a-" (Excellent) of Heartland Fidelity Insurance Company (Heartland) (Washington, DC). The ratings reflect Heartland's balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as strongest, as well as its adequate operating performance, limited business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management. The revision of the outlooks to stable reflects less favorable operating performance over the past year following a few years of significant growth. While operating performance remains adequate, Heartland's margins narrowed during 2020 as the company experienced higher claims in its pharmacy business, resulting in higher loss ratios after record low levels for the past few years. The company expects loss ratios to revert to historical levels for 2021 and in the near to medium term. While earnings moderated in 2020, they remained positive underpinned by underwriting gains, supported by disciplined pricing and consistent investment gains. AM Best expects that Heartland's earnings for 2021 will remain favorable, albeit slightly lower than prior years. The retention of net gains has contributed to absolute capital and surplus growth over the years, which has remained at the strongest level, as measured by Best's Capital Adequacy Ratio (BCAR), allowing Heartland to maintain its balance sheet strength. However, the investment portfolio for excess reserves above statutory requirements and above adequate working capital are exposed to an elevated level of equity holdings, which cn subject it to market volatility.



Heartland's business profile is limited primarily due to the concentration of premium development in New Jersey, as well as in the pharmacy and vision lines of business. However, the company relies on its pharmacy and vision program managers, which provides the support and opportunities for business prospects and gives Heartland a competitive advantage. This press release relates to Credit Ratings that have been published on AM Best's website. For all rating information relating to the release and pertinent disclosures, including details of the office responsible for issuing each of the individual ratings referenced in this release, please see AM Best's Recent Rating Activity web page. For additional information regarding the use and limitations of Credit Rating opinions, please view Guide to Best's Credit Ratings. For information on the proper use of Best's Credit Ratings, Best's Preliminary Credit Assessments and AM Best press releases, please view Guide to Proper Use of Best's Ratings & Assessments.

AM Best is a global credit rating agency, news publisher and data analytics provider specializing in the insurance industry. Headquartered in the United States, the company does business in over 100 countries with regional offices in London, Amsterdam, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Mexico City. For more information, visit www.ambest.com. Copyright  2021 by A.M. Best Rating Services, Inc. and/or its affiliates. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915006117/en/

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[September 15, 2021] BOSTON BEER SHAREHOLDER ALERT by Former Louisiana Attorney General: Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC Reminds Investors With Losses in Excess of $100,000 of Lead Plaintiff Deadline in Class Action Lawsuit Against The Boston Beer Company, Inc. - SAM

Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC ("KSF") and KSF partner, former Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr., remind investors that they have until November 15, 2021 to file lead plaintiff applications in a securities class action lawsuit against The Boston Beer Company, Inc. (NYSE: SAM), if they purchased the Company's securities between April 22, 2021 and September 8, 2021, inclusive (the "Class Period"). This action is pending in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. What You May Do If you purchased securities of Boston Beer and would like to discuss your legal rights and how this case might affect you and your right to recover for your economic loss, you may, without obligation or cost to you, contact KSF Managing Partner Lewis Kahn toll-free at 1-877-515-1850 or via email (lewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com), or visit https://www.ksfcounsel.com/cases/nyse-sam/ o learn more. If you wish to serve as a lead plaintiff in the class action, you must petition the Court by November 15, 2021.



About the Lawsuits Boston Beer and certain of its executives are charged with failing to disclose material information during the Class Period, violating federal securities laws.

On July 22, 2021, post-market, the Company disclosed a reduced full year 2021 guidance, from a prior range of earnings per share of between $22 and $26 to between $18 and $22 due to softer-than-expected sales in the hard seltzer category and overall beer industry and also that it had "overestimated the growth of the hard seltzer category in the second quarter." On this news, the Company's share price fell $246.54, or 26%, to close at $701.00 per share on July 23, 2021, on unusually heavy trading volume. On September 8, 2021, post-market, the Company withdrew its 2021 financial guidance due decelerating sales of hard seltzer products, and also stated that it "expects to incur hard seltzer-related inventory write-offs, shortfall fees payable to 3rd party brewers, and other costs" for the remainder of fiscal 2021. On this news, the Company's share price fell $21.09, or 3.7%, to close at $538.31 per share on September 9, 2021, on unusually heavy trading volume. The case is Siegel v. The Boston Beer Company, Inc., et al., 21-cv-7693. About Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC KSF, whose partners include former Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr., is one of the nation's premier boutique securities litigation law firms. KSF serves a variety of clients - including public institutional investors, hedge funds, money managers and retail investors - in seeking to recover investment losses due to corporate fraud and malfeasance by publicly traded companies. KSF has offices in New York, California, Louisiana and New Jersey. To learn more about KSF, you may visit www.ksfcounsel.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210915006142/en/

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NASHVILLE  With the launch of the Tennessee Opportunity Pilot Initiative the Tennessee Department of Human Services (TDHS) is taking a groundbreaking step to transform the way Tennessee serves its most vulnerable families. Over the next four years, this initiative will provide up to $5 million in Planning Grants and $175 million in Implementation Grants to further the Departments vision of fundamentally changing the way government assistance is delivered to families in Tennessee.

This first phase will award Planning Grants of up to $500,000 each to public-private partnerships dedicated to developing innovative strategies that will move Tennesseans with economic, social, and developmental vulnerabilities beyond their current circumstances and on to self-sufficiency. With the Tennessee Opportunity Pilot Initiative, we have an unprecedented opportunity to create a new vision of government support. This new vision will shift the focus from the quantity of benefits, goods, and services provided to the quality of life for those served. TDHS invites Tennessee-based collaborative groups  large and small  that fall into one of the following categories to apply:

Tennessee Nonprofit organizations

Development Districts (city/county economic planning organizations)

Local government agencies (political subdivisions)

Human Resource agencies created pursuant to the Human Resource Agency Act of 1973

Planning Grants will provide the resources needed for grantees to develop their vision, overall design, budget, and other important aspects required for their Tennessee Opportunity Pilot Implementation Grant proposals. Planning Grant applications must be submitted online no later than Friday, October 15, 2021 at 5PM CST. Next spring the Families First Community Advisory Board will select the 6 Pilot Program grantees (2 in each grand division) to receive up to $25 million in Implementation Grants over a three-year period. TDHS will also operate a pilot. Collaborative groups must be selected for a Planning Grant to be eligible for the larger Implementation Grants.

The Tennessee Opportunity Pilot Initiative Planning Grants offer an entry point for public-private groups to work together to form new ways of helping our citizens grow beyond lifes current challenges, said TDHS Commissioner Clarence H. Carter. We are putting an important stake in the ground for how Tennessee addresses our vulnerable citizens. To make this vision a reality, we need partnerships from across all regions and sectors of Tennessee - partners committed to transforming the lives of those in need so that dependence on government support is a mile marker in their lifes journey, not a destination unto itself.

More information on application requirements, including applicant eligibility, can be found in the 2021 Tennessee Opportunity Pilot Program Planning Grant Application Guide.

Funding for the Tennessee Opportunity Pilot Initiative is provided through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. TANF is a federally funded program that emphasizes work, family strengthening, and personal responsibility to empower families for long-term success.

The Tennessee Department of Human Services is dedicated to making our state a place where all Tennesseans can move beyond the barriers they may face, to self-sufficiency, and on to new heights.

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CHEATHAM COUNTY

SR 455 from MM 0.87 - 1.16. Grade, Drain, Pave of SR 455 & Levee Construction (by others) Through Mid-End 2022 there will be 24/7 continuous lane closures for the construction of levee, box culvert, stream relocation, and roadway construction from SR 49 to AO Smith entrance. Riverbluff Park entrance will remain open to the public. Access to AO Smith from SR 12 will remain open.

DAVIDSON COUNTY

I-24 from MM 71-86. ITS Maintenance Thurs 9/16 8PM  2AM. There will be a shoulder and lane closure on I-24 West at Baker Road (MM 71.2) and Elam Road (MM 85.4) for CCTV replacement.

DAVIDSON COUNTY

I-24 from MM 60.00 - 62.00. Miscellaneous safety improvements on I-24 at SR 171 (Old Hickory Blvd) EB ramp (exit 62), including grading, drainage, and paving. The interchange modification on I-24 at Hickory Hollow Pkwy (exit 60), including grading, drainage, construction of bridges, retaining walls, and paving. Thurs 9/16 thru Wed 9/22, excluding weekends 9PM to 5AM. There will be temporary, intermittent closures of the I-24 EB lanes from Bell Road to OHB and temporary, intermittent closures of the I-24 WB lanes from OHB to Bell Road for placing containment system on bridge 1 and repaving. Two lanes will always remain open.

DAVIDSON COUNTY

I-24 from MM 51.00 - 53.00. The resurfacing on I-24 including bridge repair from the I-40 split to the I-440 split. Thurs 9/16 thru Weds 9/22 from 8PM-5AM. There will be temporary, intermittent lane closures on I-440 between the I-40 split and the I-440 split for degrassing and milling.

DAVIDSON/RUTHERFORD COUNTIES

I-24 MM 53.0-80 The construction of ITS and upgrades from Nashville to Murfreesboro. Thurs 9/16 thru Weds 9/22

From 8PM-5AM. There will be right lane and shoulder closures EB and WB for installation of gantry foundations and conduit. Two lanes will remain open at all times. There will be left lane closures EB and WB for overhead sign foundation work in the median from MM 53-60. Two lanes will remain open at all times.

DAVIDSON COUNTY

I-40 from MM 216.00 - 217.00. The resurfacing on I-40 from Old Hickory Blvd. to Arlington Ave. Thurs 9/16 thru Weds 9/22 8PM-5AM. There will be temporary, intermittent lane closures on I-40 between Old Hickory Blvd and Arlington Ave for milling, paving and striping.

DAVIDSON COUNTY

I-40 from MM 219.5-219.7. The repair of bridges on I-40 over Stones River and on SR 171 over Stones River. Thurs 9/16 thru Wed 9/22 (excluding weekends) 8PM-5AM. There will be temporary, intermittent lane closures on the Stones River bridge on I-40 for thin-lift epoxy overlay. At least two lanes will remain open at all times.

DAVIDSON COUNTY

I-65 from MM 81.60. Misc. Safety improvements at the I-65 NB and SB off-ramps to Wedgewood Ave (LM 7.29). Thurs 9/16 thru Wed 9/22 8PM-5AM. There will be lane closures on Wedgewood Ave for installing mast arm signals. No lane closures on I-65 will be needed.

DAVIDSON COUNTY

SR 1 LM 20.0-20.32 Full and partial depth repair of Portland Cement Concrete pavement and sidewalk on US 41 (US 70S, SR 1 Murfreesboro Road) from near Fesslers Lane (LM 20) to near Foster Ave. Thurs 9/16 thru Weds 9/22 8PM-5AM. There will be single lane closures westbound on Murfreesboro Road from Fesslers Lane to Foster Avenue for saw cutting concrete.

DAVIDSON COUNTY

SR 1 LM 20.0-20.32 Full and partial depth repair of Portland Cement Concrete pavement and sidewalk on US 41 (US 70S, SR 1 Murfreesboro Road) from near Fesslers Lane (LM 20) to near Foster Ave. Friday 9/16 @ 8PM CONTINUOUSLY until Monday 9/19 @ 5AM. There will be a single lane closures westbound on Murfreesboro Rd from Fesslers Lane to Foster Ave for concrete repairs.

DAVIDSON COUNTY

SR 11 from LM 0.00 - 4.24. The resurfacing on US 31A (US 41A, SR 11), including bridge repair. Thurs 9/16 thru Wed 9/22 (excluding weekends) 9AM-3PM. There will be temporary, alternating lane closures on Nolensville Rd between Swiss Ave and the Williamson County line for pavement markings.

DAVIDSON COUNTY

SR 112 from LM 0.00 - 0.20. SR-112 (US 41A/Clarksville Pike) from SR-12 (Ashland City Highway) to SR-155 (Briley Parkway) - Piedmont Move Prior. Thurs 9/16 through Wed 9/22 9AM-3PM. There will be a temporary, alternating lane closure on SR-112 Clarksville Pike in both directions for grade work, storm drainage, sanitary sewer, and overhead power. Flaggers will be utilized. There will also be a full closure of Cedar Circle and Courtney Avenue for road grading; detour will be in place.

DAVIDSON COUNTY

SR 155 from LM 24-MM 26. Repair of bridge located on SR 155 over Cumberland River (Cockrill Bend).

Thurs 9/16 thru Wed 9/22 There will be a lane closure on SR 155 North and South for saw cutting phase joints.

LOOK AHEAD:

Fri 9/17 thru Mon 9/20 - 5AM, there will be a lane closure for bridge repair work. There will also be a NB exit ramp closure at County Hospital Road (MM 25)

DAVIDSON COUNTY

SR 155 from LM 27.25-27.38. The repair of bridges on SR 155 from near Briley Parkway/Robertson Road, over ramp C (L.M.27.25) and I-40 (L.M. 27.38) Thurs 9/16 through Wed 9/22 from 9AM to 3PM. There will be shoulder closures on SR 155 south to I-40 East/West for saw cutting. Detours will be in place.

DAVIDSON COUNTY

SR 155 from LM 27.25-27.38. The repair of bridges on SR 155 from near Briley Parkway/Robertson Road, over ramp C (L.M.27.25) and I-40 (L.M. 27.38). Friday 9/17 at 7PM continuously until Monday 9/20 at 5AM. There will be a full closure of the ramp from SR 155 south to I-40E/I-40W for saw cutting. Detours will be in place.

DICKSON COUNTY

I-40 MM 176.0-177.0 The resurfacing and bridge repair of I-40 from east of Piney Rd (LM 5.33) to the bridge over I-840 (LM 13.15) in Dickson. Thurs 9/16 thru Wed 9/22 8PM-5AM (excluding Saturday). There will be nighttime lane closures for milling and paving operations in both directions.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY

SR 112 from LM 9.19-14.10

SR 76 from LM 9.41-14.20. Intersection Improvements. Grading, Drainage and Construction of Retaining walls. Thurs 9/16 thru Weds 9/22 9AM-3PM. Median grading operations and overlay/restripe operations.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY

SR 13 from LM 17.00 - 19.00. Consisting of the grading, drainage, construction of welded steel plate girder bridge, retaining wall, and paving on SR 149 and SR 13 from River Road to Zinc Plant Road. Thurs 9/16 thru Weds 9/22 7AM-5PM. There will be periodic flagging operations along SR13 and SR149 for clearing, grade work, bridge work, and/or paving operations. Mayhew Road will remain closed. Traffic on SR 13 will remain in the phase four alignment as switched on 11/7/2020. Width reduced to 22' for entire project.

ROBERTSON COUNTY

I-65 from MM 7.46 to MM 17.12 Grading, drainage, construction of bridges and retaining walls, ITS and paving. Wed 9/22 8PM to 5AM. Milling and paving operations. NB and SB directions. Troopers to be utilized.

RUTHERFORD COUNTY

I-840 from MM 59-61. The repair of bridges on I-840 over East Forks of the Stones River including approach slab replacement. Fri 9/17 thru Mon 9/20 7PM to 5AM continuous. There will be alternating lane closures for milling and paving operations.

WILLIAMSON COUNTY

I-840 from MM 17.00 - 25.00. The resurfacing of I-840 from Leipers Creek Road, LM 24.48 to Thompson Stations Road, LM 18.20 in Williamson County with bridge deck and expansion joint repair. Thurs 9/16 thru Weds 9/22 6AM-6PM. Alternating EB and WB lane closures to perform milling and paving operations. One lane will remain open at all times.

WILLIAMSON COUNTY

I-840 at MM 40. On call concrete repairs. Fri 9/17 thru Mon (9/20) 8PM to 5AM continuous. There will be a full lane closure of the I-840 EB (Exit 42) for concrete replacement.

WILSON COUNTY

I-40 from MM 225.5-MM 226.5. Bridge widening on SR 171 over I-40. Thurs 9/16 thru Wed 9/22 8PM to 5AM. I-40 EB and WB will have intermittent lane closures for bridge widening activities.

WILSON COUNTY

I-40 from MM 232-MM 236. The grading, drainage and construction of an i-beam bridge, retaining walls and paving on I-40 from east of SR 109 to east of I-840. Thurs 9/16 thru Wed 9/22 8PM to 5AM. There will be alternating lane closures for installation of final pavement markings.

RUTHERFORD COUNTY

SR 266 from LM 5.00 - 9.00. The grading, drainage, construction of two concrete Bulb-Tee beam bridges, signals and paving on SR 266 (Jefferson Pike) from SR 102 to east of I-840. Thurs 9/16 thru Weds 9/22 9AM-3PM. There will be periodic flagging operations along SR 266 for construction activities.

SMITH COUNTY

SR 24 from LM 15.77-LM 21.56 Resurfacing on US 70. Thurs 9/16 thru Weds 9/22. 8AM-2:45PM. SR 24 near SR 264 to Putnam County line will have intermittent lane closures for resurfacing activities.

SMITH COUNTY

SR 25 from LM 6.00 - 7.00. Rock Fall Mitigation. Thurs 9/16 thru Weds 9/22 9AM-2:45PM. SR 25 near SR 80 will have intermittent lane closures for resurfacing activities.

SUMNER COUNTY

SR 25 from LM 18.60 - 18.80. Gateway Drive extension Thurs 9/16 thru Weds 9/22 9AM-3:30PM. There will be intermittent lane closures on SR 25 near Barry Lane for road widening activities.

SUMNER COUNTY

SR 41 from LM 5.00 - 14.50. Resurfacing on US-31. Thurs 9/16 thru Weds 9/22 8AM-4:30PM. SR 41 from Jarret Lane to SR 25 will have intermittent lane closures for resurfacing activities.

SUMNER COUNTY

SR 109 from LM 5.8-6.5. LPLM: Albert Gallatin Ave./Hattan Track Road Extension. Thurs 9/16 thru Weds 9/22 9AM-3PM M-F, 6PM-6AM Saturday and Sunday. There will be intermittent lane closures on SR 109 between the intersections of SR 25 (River Road) and old state highway 109 in both directions for roadway widening activities.

WILLIAMSON COUNTY

SR 6 from LM 15.93 - 18.53. Grading, Drainage, and Paving Work on SR 6 (Franklin Road) from south of Moore's Lane (LM 15.93) to Concord Road (18.53). Thurs 9/16 thru Weds 9/22 9AM-3PM, 6PM-6AM. We anticipate needing intermittent stoppages of traffic and/or temporary lane closures (one direction at a time) for various construction activities and utility work throughout the project. There will be extended delays and possible lane closures for utility operations for the following roads: Ashby, Holly Tree Gap Rd, Long St, West Concord, Wikle Road, and Mt View Rd. There will be intermittent stoppages of traffic, one direction at a time, for flagging, milling, and paving operations.

WILLIAMSON COUNTY

SR 96 from LM 14.72 - 20.62. Grading, drainage, construction of bridges and signals on SR 96 from east of Arno Road (LM 14.72) to SR 252 (Wilson Pike) (LM 20.62). Thurs 9/16 thru Weds 9/22 9AM-3PM. There will be lane closures and brief stoppages of traffic for utility relocations and grading work.

WILLIAMSON COUNTY

SR 246 LM 12.97-13.76 Resurfacing on SR 246 from near Forrest St. to US 431. Thurs 9/16 thru Weds 9/22. 9AM-3PM. There will be a lane closure for concrete ramp retrofit.

WILLIAMSON COUNTY

SR 397. The grading, drainage, construction of bridges, retaining walls, and paving on SR 397 (Mack Hatcher Pkwy) from south of SR 96 to east of US 431 (SR 106) Continuous until end of project. Old Charlotte Pike is closed for the duration of the project for the alignment of the new Mack Hatcher Parkway.

WILLIAMSON COUNTY

SR 397. The grading, drainage, construction of bridges, retaining walls, and paving on SR 397 (Mack Hatcher Pkwy) from south of SR 96 to east of US 431 (SR 106). Thurs 9/16 thru Weds 9/22 9AM-3PM. There will be temporary lane closures in both directions on Mack Hatcher at Hillsboro Road for widening work and also on Hillsboro Road northbound for widening work.

WILLIAMSON COUNTY

SR 397. The grading, drainage, construction of bridges, retaining walls, and paving on SR 397 (Mack Hatcher Pkwy) from south of SR 96 to east of US 431 (SR 106). Thurs 9/16 thru Weds 9/22 9AM-3PM. There will be a lane closure of the northbound lane of Highway 96W between Front Street and Boyd Mill Avenue for road widening activities. Flaggers will be utilized.

WILSON COUNTY

SR 109 from LM 7.56 - 15.04. The reconstruction on SR 109 from North of US 70 (SR24) to South of the Cumberland River. Thurs 9/16 thru Weds 9/22 9AM-3:30PM. There will be periodic flagging operations along SR 109 for construction activities.

WILSON COUNTY

SR 171 from LM 4.57  LM 5.29 Bridge widening on SR 171 over I-40. Thurs 9/16 thru Weds 9/22 8PM to 5AM. SR 171 will have intermittent lane closures for bridge widening activities.

WILSON COUNTY

US 70 from LM 14.50. Construction of a pedestrian facility. Thurs 9/16 thru Weds 9/22 8AM-3:30PM. US-70 near W Baddour Pkwy will have intermittent lane closures for utility relocation and sidewalk construction.

MAINTENANCE

DAVIDSON COUNTY

I-65 MM 90 Milling and paving, Thurs 9/16 7PM to 5AM. Both NB lanes and shoulder of exit ramp 90B to Briley Parkway East from I-65 North will be closed for milling and paving.

SUMNER COUNTY

I-65 MM 98.7 Concrete repair on bridge. Thurs 9/16 8PM to 3AM. SB fast lane will be closed for concrete repair to Millersville Bridge.

DAVIDSON COUNTY

SR 1 from LM 24.60-24.90. Roadway patching on Wed 9/15 from 9AM-3PM. Alternating lane closures in both directions of Murfreesboro Pike (SR 1) at Donelson Pike intersection for roadway patching. *Please also allow weekend work*.

DAVIDSON COUNTY

SR 1 from LM 13.4-13.7. Roadway repair/patching. Wed 9/15 9PM to 3AM. Alternating lane and shoulder closures in both directions of Harding Pike from Vine Ct. to Woodlawn Dr. for roadway repair and patching.

DAVIDSON COUNTY

SR 6 from LM 4.12-4.39. Roadway repair/patching. Wed 9/15 from 9AM-3PM. Alternating lane and shoulder closures in both directions on Franklin Pike from Morriswood Dr. to S. Meade Pkwy for roadway patching and repair.

DAVIDSON COUNTY

SR 11 from LM 7.2-12.5. Installation of curbs, ramps, and other pedestrian-related construction outlined in permit-We Go Public Transport. Thurs 9/16 9AM to 3PM and 8PM to 5AM. Single right lane plus shoulder closure in both directions from Welch Rd to LaFayette St for the installation of curbs, ramps and other pedestrian-related construction as outlined in the permit.

DAVIDSON COUNTY

SR 24 from LM 4.90-5.10. Installation of storm water pipe and structures. Thurs 9/16 from 9AM-2PM. Single alternating lane and shoulder closures on SR 24 EB from west to east from River Rd to Davidson Dr for installation of storm water pipe and structures.

DAVIDSON COUNTY

SR 24 from LM 8.60-10.30. Roadway patching. Thurs 9/16 from 9AM-3PM. Alternating lane closures in both directions of Charlotte Pike from 51st Ave. to 28th Ave. for roadway patching.

DAVIDSON COUNTY

SR 24 from LM 16.50-17.50. Right of Way Maintenance for NES Power Thurs 9/9 from 8AM-4:30PM. Single far-right SB lane and shoulder closure on Lebanon Pike from Mill Creek Meadows Dr. to Clovernook Dr. for ROW maintenance for NES Power.

DAVIDSON COUNTY

SR 100 from LM 11.10 - 11.70. Excavation of ROW for sidewalk and curb installation. Thurs 9/16 9AM-3PM. Single, right WB lane and shoulder closure from Hwy 70S to Taggart Ave for excavation of ROW for sidewalk and curb installation.

DAVIDSON COUNTY

SR 106 from LM 2.94-3.61. Setting and installing NES utility poles and anchors. Thurs 9/16 9AM-3PM. Single, EB lane and shoulder closure on Hillsboro Pike from Standford Dr to Hemingway Dr for the installation and setting of utility poles and anchors. (Permit #GA-2007060791-2021)

DAVIDSON COUNTY

SR 106 from LM 5.11 - 5.34. Storm installation and construction of bus lane. Thurs 9/16 9AM-3PM. Alternating north and south bound lane closures on SR 106 from Abbot Martin to Glen Echo Rd for the purpose of storm installation and construction of bus lane.

DAVIDSON COUNTY

SR 155 from LM 15.80  16.20. Milling and paving Weds 9/15 9AM-3PM. Single EB lane #2, shoulder and the 16A ramp to I-65 North will be closed on Briley Parkway from Dickerson Pike to Ellington Parkway for milling and paving. From I-65 South to Briley Pkwy exit 90B will have to yield onto Briley Pkwy to lane #1.

DAVIDSON COUNTY

SR 155 from LM 18.00-19.00. Milling and paving. Thurs 9/16 from 9AM-3PM. Various lane and shoulder closures for milling and paving on SR 155 westbound.

DAVIDSON COUNTY

SR 171 LM 3.47-3.62 Road widening. Thurs 9/16. 9AM-3PM. Single SB lane and shoulder closure on SR 171 for road widening.

DAVIDSON COUNTY

SR 251 from LM 10.32 - 10.34. ROW excavation, utility extension, and asphalt paving for turning lane installation. Thurs 9/16 6:30AM-5:30PM. Outside NB lane and shoulder closure of SR 251 at Summit Oaks Dr for ROW excavation, utility extension and asphalt paving for turning lane installation.

DAVIDSON COUNTY

SR 431 from LM 8.45-8.55. Make a top on a water main. Thurs 9/16 from 9PM-5AM. Single SB lane and shoulder closure on Broadway between 18th Ave. South and 19th Ave. South for work on water main.

DAVIDSON COUNTY

SR 431 from LM 8.47-8.56. Install sanitary sewer on Broadway. Thurs 9/16 from 9PM-5AM. Northbound lane closure on Broadway from 18th Ave S to 19th Ave S to install a sanitary sewer.

MARSHALL COUNTY

SR 11 from LM 4.1 to 5.3. Event closure for Cornersville. Fri 9/17 1-3PM. The City of Cornersville is requesting to close the road (State Route 11) from Coleman Road (L.M. 4.1) to Fairview Ave/New Town Road (L.M. 5.3) this Friday, Sept 17, from 1PM till 3PM for the homecoming parade.

SUMNER COUNTY

SR 25 LM 14.75-15.25. Install in road flashing lights. Mon 9/20 thru Mon 9/27. 7:30AM-3:30PM. Install in-road flashing lights at pedestrian crosswalks. Two crosswalks on East Main St., located in front of the library at 123 E. Main St. that will be worked on. One crosswalk in front of City Hall at 132 W. Main St. that will be worked on. The two in front of the library will require detours at N. Water and Boyers. The one in front of city hall will require detours at Locust and N. Water. Road closures only required while actively working on the crosswalks, which will take place between 7:30AM and 3:30PM.

SUMNER COUNTY

SR 109 at LM 2.5 Installing turn lane. Thurs 9/9 thru Thurs 10/7. 9AM-3PM. The left lane will be closed for the work and this will not be a continuous closure.

WILLIAMSON COUNTY

SR 441 at LM 3.09. Sanitary sewer bore under ROW. Thurs 9/16 from 9AM-3PM. WB shoulder closure of SR 441 from Montclair Blvd. to Primm Dr. for sanitary sewer boring.

WILSON COUNTY

SR 70 Installing turn lane. Thurs 9/16 thru Thurs 9/30. 9AM-3PM. Charles Deweese is requesting the WB lane be closed for the installation. The work will take place from Geers Ct to west of Waters Hill Circle. Permit # 4-2008.

DAVIDSON COUNTY

SR 155 from LM 24-26. Repair of bridge located on S.R. 155 from near over Cumberland River (Cockrill Bend). Fri 9/10 through Mon 11/29 (Friday 7PM -Monday 5AM). SR-155 lane width will be one 11' lane with 2' shoulders on both sides.

UTILITIES

DAVIDSON COUNTY

From now through Tuesday, October 5th, 9AM-sunset, PIEDMONT (Via Triton Construction) will have lane closures on SR 6 Franklin Pk for gas main installation via horizontal directional drill (HDD) from between Curtiswood Ln S and Curtiswood Ln N to just past Robertson Academy Rd. LM 3.91-3.38

DAVIDSON COUNTY

From now through Wednesday, September 22nd, 9AM-sunset, PIEDMONT (Via Triton Construction) will have lane closures on SR 6 Franklin Pk for gas main installation via open cut in between SR 155 Thompson Ln and Glen Leven Dr. LM 5.35-4.99

DAVIDSON COUNTY

From now through Saturday, September 18th, 9AM-3PM GOOGLE FIBER (Ervin Cable) will have lane closures on SR 106 (Hillsboro Pike) at Woodmont Blvd for boring installation of conduit and fiber along SR 106 (Hillsboro Pike) from LM 5.83 to LM 5.71.

DAVIDSON COUNTY

From now through Saturday, September 18th, 9AM-3PM, GOOGLE FIBER (Ervin Cable) will have lane closures on SR 106 (Hillsboro Pike) at Harding Pl for boring installation of conduit and fiber along SR 106 at LM 4.22 to LM 3.80.

DAVIDSON COUNTY

From now through Saturday, September 18th, 9AM-3PM, GOOGLE FIBER (Ervin Cable) will have lane closures on SR 106 (Hillsboro Pike) for boring installation of conduit and fiber crossing under SR 106 (Hillsboro Pike). LM 6.20

WILLIAMSON COUNTY

From now through Friday, October 1st, 9AM-3PM NES will have lane closures on SR 6 Franklin Pike for the installation of a utility pole and anchor at LM 18.18 in WILLIAMSON COUNTY.

DAVIDSON COUNTY

From now through Friday, September 24th, Metro Water and Sewer will have 24-7 lane closures on SR 106 Broadway in between Lyle Ave and 20th Ave for storm water drain replacement. One lane will remain open in each direction at all times. LM 8.41-8.33

DAVIDSON COUNTY

From now through Friday September 24th 9AM to 3 PM METRO WATER (VIA Southerland Construction) will have lane closures on SR 1 BROADWAY from 1406 through 1527 for water line removal and replacement LM 8.71-8.55

DAVIDSON COUNTY

From now through Friday, September 24th, 9AM-3PM, METRO WATER (VIA Southerland Construction) will have lane closures along SR 1 on BROADWAY from 1616 through 2015 West End for water line removal and replacement. LM 16.44-16.85

WILLIAMSON COUNTY

From Tuesday, September 7th, through Friday, September 17th, 9AM-3PM, NES will have lane closures on SR 6 Franklin Pike near Wilson Pike Circle for the installation of 2 utility poles and 1 anchor at LM 20.14.

DAVIDSON COUNTY

From Thursday, September 9th, through Friday, October 1st, 9AM-3PM, NES will have lane closures on SR 255 Donelson Pike near Emery Dr for the installation of 2 utility poles at LM 10.34.

RUTHERFORD COUNTY

From Thursday, September 9th, through Wednesday, September 15th, 9AM-3PM, AT&T (VIA STAR CONSTRUCTION) will have lane closures along SR 10 Memorial Blvd from W. McKnight St to DeJarnette to perform maintenance on existing conduit/fiber op lines. LM 14.32 - 16.41.

DAVIDSON COUNTY

From Tuesday, September 21st, through Saturday, September 25th, 9AM-3PM, NES (VIA MASTEC) will have lane closures on Franklin Pike (SR 6) just north of Lambert Dr at John Overton High School to install new pole and anchor.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY

On Sunday, September 19th, 6AM-11AM, TVA will have rolling roadblocks along I-24 for aerial crossing of high voltage lines, just northwest of Durham Rd overpass. MM 13.4

WILLIAMSON COUNTY

On Sunday, September 19th, 6AM-8AM, United Communications will have rolling roadblocks on I-65 for installation of aerial F/O on the south side of the McEwen Dr overpass/Exit 67. MM66

DAVIDSON COUNTY

From Sunday, September 19th, through Thursday, September 23rd, 8PM-5AM, CENTURYLINK will have lane closures on SR 24 Broadway from 8th Ave to 7th Ave for conduit and F/O installation via open cut. LM 12.31

DAVIDSON COUNTY

From Friday, September 24th, through Sunday, September 26th, NES (VIA MASTEC) will have lane closures on 8th Ave. S. (SR 6) near intersection with Wedgewood Ave. for pole replacement.
The midweek proves just as violent as the rest of the week.



Here are the deets that we know right now after a terrifying bit of local gunplay . . .



"Highway Patrol Sgt. Andy Bell said that officers were called to a home at 11:30 a.m. and were met by a man who fired on the officers, hitting one officer. The second officer returned fire and hit the suspect, who was pronounced dead at the scene.

"The injured officer was taken to a hospital with serious injuries. The other Independence officer was not hurt."

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com news link . . .

Update: Independence police officer seriously injured, suspect fatally shot INDEPENDENCE, MO (KCTV) -- Missouri State Highway Patrol is investigating an officer-involved that happened in Independence on Wednesday. Around 11:30 a.m., police were called to a residential address at S. Northern Boulevard and E. 24th Street South. There, they came across a male suspect who fired at officers. One officer returned fire.

MSHP: Independence police officer seriously wounded, suspect killed in shooting Wednesday The Missouri State Highway Patrol said an Independence police officer was shot and seriously wounded and a man was fatally shot Wednesday.Authorities said the shooting happened in the 2400 block of Northern Boulevard.Highway Patrol Sgt. Andy Bell said that officers were called to a home at 11:30 a.m.

Independence officer seriously injured, suspect killed in shooting KANSAS CITY, Mo. - An Independence police officer was seriously injured in a shooting Wednesday that left a suspect dead, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol. The shooting happened after two Independence officers responded to a call around 11:30 a.m.

Developing . . .
Hundreds of students demand justice and further investigation in the aftermath of rape allegations against an embattled frat.

Local news dutifully offers coverage because middle-class controversy is more exciting than reporting on po'folk smacking one another.

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com news links . . .

Protesters return outside Phi Kappa Psi at KU following reported sexual assault LAWRENCE, KS (KCTV) -- For the second night in a row, protesters gathered in Lawrence at the University of Kansas fraternity Phi Kappa Psi following a report of a sexual assault. Protesters say they want to make sure reports of sexual assault are thoroughly investigated and perpetrators are held accountable if they committed a crime.

A second night of protests break out following an alleged sexual assault near KU campus For a second night in a row, protestors are gathering near The University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas. Police are investigating allegations of a sexual assault that occurred this past weekend near campus.Protesters say KU's campus culture needs to change.

Hundreds of students gather outside KU fraternity house for 2nd night of protests LAWRENCE, Kan. - Hundreds of students gathered outside of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house on the University of Kansas for a second night of protests. According to campus police, on Sunday at around 1 a.m., their officers went to a medical call where the victim told them she was sexually assaulted at the fraternity house.

Chancellor puts out statement following protests over an alleged sexual assault near KU Today the chancellor at KU, Douglas A. Girod, put out a statement expressing support for combatting sexual assault, and supporting assault survivors. The statement comes following a night of protest at the university in Lawrence, Kansas, over an alleged sexual assault that took place near the college's campus.

'Consent is not an option:' Protests continue at Phi Kappa Psi fraternity following sexual assault allegations Protests continued into their second day Tuesday night at the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house at the University of Kansas following a sexual assault reported Saturday night. A few hundred students gathered outside the house before the scheduled start time of 8:30 p.m. chanting, "Whatever I wear, wherever I go, yes means yes, and no means no."

Developing . . .
The post (Media letter) that I read and has been updated at least once was in concern of Canadians entering Cuba.

To the best of my knowledge, the WHO has little if any influences in or on Cuba. Cuba sets the standard to those entering Cuba. Like Canada setting it's own standards on those that enter. Would a Russian vaccinated twice in a non recognized (by the WHO) vaccine be allowed to enter and visit Cuba, almost certainly so yes. Under the same circumstances, I have no idea, that would be between Russia and Cuba, but again, almost certainly so would be my guess.

Russia has once again a very huge influence in Cuba. The confusing part, for certain, they change our minds at least weekly. I was 'looking' at March/April 2022, now very highly unlikely. When things do open up some, it will take Months to resume properly for a vacation, my location at least.

Cheers.
After postponing our Fall 2021 trip due to covid, we've rescheduled for April 2022, with hopes that life will be a bit more normal by then and our 21 hours of travel time will feel safer. We'll have 3 weeks in Spain before heading to Portugal.

We are planning to spend 3 days in Granada at the beginning of Semana Santa, and will spend 5 days in Seville, including Good Friday and Easter Sunday. We want to observe the week's unique religious activities, as well as enjoy museums, sites and great restaurants.

I know Seville especially will be crowded. (Fortunately hotel is already booked.) I'm wondering if most tourist sites and restaurants will be open during this time? Does public transport operate as usual? If anyone has advice or personal experiences of either Seville or Granada during Semana Santa, it will be greatly appreciated!
In the last days I had the impression that they may not recognize the CDC card, but they will trust an obvious US tourist whose CDC card must have been already checked at the airport before letting him Board.

"This guy is an american, either he came here swimming or somebody has already checked he got his 2 shots"
We just returned. Did the CVS test with no problems. The test will be reviewed and entered by your first flight at check in. It was never asked for after that. Same thing on the outbound. We had the very quick rapid antigen test at the Johannesburg airport. Was entered at check in and never asked for again. I spent so much time worrying about the testing and it turned out just fine. There are alot of other papers that need to be filled out at various times, but the airlines will provide and they are just handed in. Go and enjoy!!!
Dining options: After-hours, Reservations

Description: In the first quarter of 2010, Rui Paula returned to his homeland, OPorto, with the opening of the DOP restaurant. The new space is situated in the Palace of the Arts - Talent Factory, in Largo de S. Domingos in the historic city center, classified as World Heritage. This building is full of history. It began as the S. Domingos Convent and remained active since the fourteenth century, as a venue for auctions and council meetings. In 1834, served as the headquarters of the Lisbon (later Portugal Bank), and between 1934 and 1989 hosted the Douro Insurance Company. The Palace of Arts, now under the jurisdiction of the Youth Foundation, aims to "establish itself as a center of creativity and innovation of national and international excellence, professionally promoting young designers / artists, and be the dynamic center of the historic center as a cluster of arts and creative industries, enhancing its ability to attract creative professionals and tourism." The concept of the Palace of Arts fits perfectly in the Rui Paula project, who understands the gastronomy field as a creation with a strong cultural component. DOP has been designed to operate as a good taste, space cosmopolitan and yet familiar, and the generator of exciting dining experiences. The restaurant, with capacity for 65 people is provided with the latest equipment and has two distinct and complementary spaces: one show cooking, where the service is faster and more economical, and a traditional but innovative cuisine and dinning room.
If I remember correctly, yes there were toilet facilities. One thing to remember in Bhutan: quite often you have to pay for the use of the rest room - no exceptions. This was apparent in Tiger's Nest Monastery. You are asked to hand in your bags before you start your visit (which usually includes your purse), at the end of the visit you walk past the rest rooms and they will not let you in unless you pay. So, keep small change with you.
Conducting military exercises is one of the ways to show Russia that countries are ready to repel Russian aggression if it expands.

Oleksandr Musiyenko, an expert at the Center for Military and Legal Studies, said this on the air of Dom TV channel, Ukrinform reports.

He reminded that the Joint Efforts 2021 military exercises would start on September 22 in the air, at sea, and on land. The units of Ukraine and NATO member states will be involved.

At the same time, Joint Efforts 2021 will be launched after the completion of the Zapad 2021 joint Russian-Belarusian military exercises which last from September 10 to 16.

"NATO member states are aware of threats [posed by Russia] and they use all the mechanisms provided to us by the NATO EOP status. The whole algorithm is involved. And we do not sit idly by. We strengthen defense, we understand our drawbacks that need to be eliminated, and we are doing our best to conduct joint exercises with NATO," the expert said.

Ukraine conducts training and consultations. There are NATO ships in the Black Sea  and Russia is restrained in its actions. These mechanisms work, Musiyenko added.

"We are also moving forward, we are not standing still. There are two areas. The first is to boost military aid and joint exercises. The second is political, diplomatic efforts. We need to make good use of the UN General Assembly site to draw attention to all these issues which concern not only Ukraine," the expert summed up.

As a reminder, Joint efforts 2021 strategic command and staff exercises will be carried out according to NATO standards in Ukraine from September 22 to 30. Troops from 15 countries, including 11 NATO member states and 4 partner countries, will share their experience with the Ukrainian army. The exercises will be held at almost all training areas of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.

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The Investment Promotion Office (UkraineInvest) has received 23 project applications from potential investors totaling more than $ 2 billion.

"There are investment nannies in Ukraine. UkraineInvest has been identified as a key institution. Already nine employees have been identified as persons guiding large investment projects. To date, 23 investors have applied to take advantage of this law. The total amount they plan to invest in Ukraine is over $2 billion," Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said at a press conference.

According to him, the investments will be made this year and next.

"Accordingly, UkraineInvest employees are assigned to such investors and guide them," Shmyhal added.

The Head of Government also commented on his order to the ministers, heads of regional state administrations to create or resume at least one production facility with the number of employees from 500 to 3,000 people.

"This is probably not exactly a market mechanism, but it is not illegal. In principle, it is the direct duty of every minister and head of the regional state administration, to create in their territory or in their industry conditions and guide the entry of investment companies with Ukrainian or foreign capital," Shmyhal said.

The Investment Promotion Office (UkraineInvest) is a permanent advisory body to the Cabinet of Ministers, established by a government decree in October 2016 to attract foreign direct investment to Ukraine and improve the country's image as a country attractive for investment.

The Investment Promotion Office is a project under the agreement between the Western NIS Enterprise Fund and NGO " Foundation for Support of Reforms in Ukraine". WNISEF assists the Government of Ukraine in developing effective economic and leadership policies and strengthens strategic cooperation between countries and between the private and public sectors as provided for in the Memorandum of Understanding between WNISEF and the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine.

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In January-July 2021, compared to the same period in 2020, Ukraines imports of goods increased by 28.6% to $37.24 billion, exports - by 33.4% to $35.51 billion, according to the State Statistics Service.

In January-July 2021, exports of goods from Ukraine amounted to $35.51 billion, which is 33.4% more than in the same period of 2020. Imports of goods to Ukraine over the reporting period amounted to $37.24 billion, 28.6% more than in January-July 2020. Accordingly, Ukraine's foreign trade balance was negative and came to $1.73 billion (for January-July 2020, foreign trade balance was also negative and amounted to $2.34 billion). In January-July 2021, foreign trade operations were conducted with foreign partners from 228 countries.

The largest export deliveries of goods over the reporting period were made to China (for $4.99 billion; up 36.5% from January-July 2020), Poland ($2.89 billion; up 67.6%) and Turkey ($2.08 billion; up 58.5%).

The largest volumes of goods exported to other countries in money terms over the reporting period were ferrous metals ($7.54 billion; up 66.9%), grain crops ($5.16 billion; up 4.4%), fats and oils of animal or vegetable origin ($3.77 billion; up 10.4%).

As to the imports, in January-July 2021, Ukraine imported the largest volumes of goods from China (for $5.53 billion, up 27.3% from the same period last year), Germany ($3.34 billion; up 13.3%), and the Russian Federation ($2.90 billion; up 12.3%).

In terms of commodity items, the largest volumes of goods imported to Ukraine in January-July 2021 were machinery and equipment ($7.54 billion; up 26.3%), mineral fuels, oil and products of their distillation ($6.18 billion; up 34.2%), products of chemical and related industries ($5.0 billion; up 22.2%).

As Ukrinform reported, according to the State Statistics Service, in 2020 compared to 2019, Ukraines imports of goods decreased by 11.0% to $54.10 billion, exports - by 1.7% to $49.21 billion.

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Last year, direct investment of Lithuanian business in Ukraine amounted to EUR 180 million, mostly in the financial sector and trade.

"Last year, Lithuanian business invested EUR 180 million in Ukraine, in particular, in financial sector, insurance, wholesale and retail trade. In addition, the trade turnover between our countries reached 1 billion 200 thousand euros," Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Lithuania to Ukraine Valdemaras Sarapinas said at the first LithuaniaMykolayiv Business Forum in Mykolayiv city, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

According to him, many companies work in Ukraine dealing with construction, agriculture, import of Ukrainian grain, oil, metal, coal, etc.

In addition, Lithuanian business is interested in developing relations with Ukraine in such areas as renewable energy, energy efficiency, ecology, water purification, reducing climate change, infrastructure restoration.

The Ambassador also stressed that it was no secret that foreign business faced certain problems in Ukraine. "More transparent courts, aversion to corruption, and the reduction of administrative barriers could help Ukraine attract even more foreign investment," Sarapinas noted.

As reported, the Honorary Consulate of the Republic of Lithuania opened in Mykolayiv.

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In a telephone conversation with President of the 76th session of the UN General Assembly, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Maldives Abdulla Shahid, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba outlined Ukraine's three priorities for this session.

The key priority of our foreign policy, enshrined in the Foreign Policy Strategy, remains the fight against Russian aggression and the restoration of the territorial integrity of Ukraine. The inaugural summit of the Crimea Platform, which consolidates the international efforts to de-occupy Crimea, took place in Kyiv on August 23. We expect the UN to provide full support for its activity as achieving the ultimate goal of the Crimea Platform  the return of Crimea  will restore respect for the UN Charter and stop gross violations of international law, Kuleba said, the Ministrys press service informs.

Kuleba highlighted Ukraines intention to convene a debate on the situation in the temporarily occupied territories during this session of the UN General Assembly.

According to him, the second priority of Ukraine at the 76th session of the UN General Assembly will be to improve the living conditions of Ukrainians in the territories affected by Russian aggression in Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

The UN has the knowledge, experience, and technology to implement projects to restore areas affected by armed conflict. We are interested in more active UN efforts in the region, in particular in the areas of humanitarian demining, development of medical, educational, housing and utilities infrastructure, Kuleba said.

He noted that overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic and its socio-economic consequences would be the third priority.

All countries must get equal access to vaccines, have sufficient resources to effectively counter the pandemic and restore economy. Ukraine is ready for effective cooperation with the UN in order to strengthen the Ukrainian health care system and socio-economic protection of the most vulnerable categories of citizens, the Ukrainian minister stressed.

Kuleba wished Shahid success in achieving the goals of the 76th session of the UN General Assembly and stressed his readiness to cooperate. He noted that Ukraine as one of the founding member states of the United Nations, advocated strengthening the role of the Organization in solving urgent problems of international relations.

We are ready, together with the current presidency of the General Assembly, to make joint efforts to resolve armed conflicts, restore the global economy after the COVID-19 pandemic, and combat climate change, he said.

As reported, the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) opened in New York on September 14.

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The European Commission has approved the disbursement of EUR 600 million as the second tranche of macro-financial assistance to Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.

"I welcome the European Commission's decision to provide Ukraine with 600 mln 2nd MFA tranche. I am grateful to the EU, [European Commission President Ursula] von der Leyen, and [European Commission Vice-President] Valdis Dombrovskis for their upbeat assessment of reforms implemented by Ukraine. This is a testament to Ukraine and EU solidarity in overcoming challenges, fighting COVID-19," Zelensky wrote on his Twitter account.

Read also: Ukrainian PM reveals main parameters of draft state budget for 2022

In April 2020, the European Commission decided to disburse EUR 1.2 billion in macro-financial assistance to Ukraine to reduce the burden on the country's budget due to the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In December 2020, Ukraine received EUR 600 million as the first tranche of such assistance. The Government of Ukraine described this as an important signal in support of its European integration course.

The disbursement of the second tranche of this macro-financial assistance was the result of successful cooperation between Ukraine and the IMF, as well as key reforms in the rule of law and the fight against corruption, administrative and public finance management, business environment improvement, and sectoral reforms.

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Lithuania opened its honorary consulate in Mykolaiv on Wednesday, September 15, according to an Ukrinform correspondent.

"Ukraine is not only one of our important partners, but also our favorite friend. Lithuania will always support you in our fight against Russian aggression. We must make every effort to develop bilateral cooperation between our countries in various areas - cultural, educational, military and other areas," said Valdemaras Sarapinas Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Lithuania to Ukraine.

He also noted that the main task of the consulate is to promote the development of trade and economic ties between the two countries.

Serhiy Sypko, Lithuania's honorary consul in Mykolaiv and the president of the Agrofusion agricultural holding, said he would make every effort to make his work in this position useful and the office headed by him to become a place where Lithuanian businesspeople, politicians and the military can work.

Chairman of Mykolaiv Regional State Administration Vitaliy Kim, in turn, emphasized that it was the first official consulate in the region since Ukraine gained its independence in 1991.

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A U.S. House of Representatives bill envisages increased military assistance to Ukraine through the transfer of new missile defense systems, including potentially sending an Iron Dome battery currently being operated by the U.S. Army.

That's according to a Politico article titled "The U.S. Army's Iron Dome could be headed to Ukraine."

"Included in the House Armed Services Committee's version of the fiscal 2022 defense policy bill is an amendment requiring the Pentagon to submit a report to Congress outlining options for potentially selling or transferring 'existing systems' to Ukraine that are likely not going to be deployed in the near-term," the article reads.

According to Politico, the Ukraine air defense amendment, in fact, "would pressure the Biden administration to sell or transfer new air and missile defense systems to Ukraine, including potentially sending an Iron Dome battery currently being operated by the U.S. Army." The amendment was introduced by Rep. Scott Franklin (R-Fla.) and passed by a bipartisan vote.

The HASC's version of the fiscal 2022 defense bill that was approved on September 2 by a 57-2 margin doesn't specify any particular weapons system to hand over to the Ukrainians. But one congressional staffer said the language about transferring current systems is telling, and that the Army's two Iron Dome batteries are prime candidates because there are few relevant systems the Army possesses that could defeat the threat Ukraine faces from Russia.

"Given the desire and bipartisan recognition that more needs to be done on the integrated air defense front for the Ukrainians, and given some of the administration's policy decisions towards Ukraine recently, there's a desire to try and do more to help them than what the Biden team is doing," said the staffer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the bill is still pending on the House floor.

However, there are questions about the efficacy of a limited Iron Dome system in Ukraine.

Tactically it would not be effective at short range, or on the line of contact, because this system would be shot out very quickly by Russian multiple-launch rocket systems," said Michael Kofman, director of the Russia Studies program at the CNA think tank. "But it may be able to intercept longer range rockets, which could allow the battery to defend a critical site or command center" in eastern Ukraine.

According to the article, the U.S. doesn't have much in the way of excess air and missile defense batteries ready to be transferred. But the Army has been trying to figure out how to operate two Iron Dome systems Congress ordered it to purchase in 2019 as a stopgap for delayed efforts by the service to get its own new air and missile defense systems up and running.

According to Politico, since being deployed in Israel in 2011, the system, built by the Israeli defense company Rafael in partnership with Raytheon, has proven itself one of the worlds most effective killers of short-range missiles. The Israeli military has said Iron Dome has knocked down about 90 percent of missiles fired into Israel over the past several years.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Andrii Taran said in May that the Ukrainian Defense Ministry was considering purchasing a missile defense system similar to Israel's Iron Dome.

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Ukrainian Central European Forum, a brand-new discussion platform, has opened its work on Wednesday, September 15, set to last for two days.

The platform brings together prominent thinkers and pundits from all over the region to spot common challenges and craft common visions for a prosperous Central European future, according to its website, Ukrinform reports.

The Forum is organized by the International Renaissance Foundation, in partnership with the Foreign Policy Council "Ukrainian Prism" within the EU-funded EU4USociety Project.

Among todays speakers are Foreign Minister of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba, Head of the EU Delegation to Ukraine Matti Maasikas, Executive Director of the International Renaissance Foundation, Oleksandr Sushko, and Executive Director of the Foreign Policy Council "Ukrainian Prism," Hennadiy Maksak.
The Cabinet of Ministers has already taken some steps to get the Verkhovna Rada to make a conscious decision to ratify the Istanbul Convention.

"My dream and priority for next year is the ratification of the Istanbul Convention. I dream that this bill is not only introduced in the parliament and voted for, but that a very conscious decision, free from stereotypes is made," Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine Olha Stefanishyna said at the 5th Ukrainian Womens Congress, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

She stressed that the Government had already taken a step towards this decision by forming a statement that will be an integral part of the ratification document, in which tried to dispel all the myths and horror stories, strongly rooted in society by certain religious organizations.

In this context, the Deputy Prime Minister also noted that it may be worth noting that the Church is still separated from the state in Ukraine, and the Istanbul Convention is just one of many documents that need to be adopted.

"We have already made important decisions: discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation, on grounds of skin color is banned by the law, we have court decisions, and these are the changes that already exist in our country. So it's really a dream, I believe in it. We are working hard on this, and I want the ratification of the Istanbul Convention and further steps in its implementation to be a success story in our country," she concluded.

As reported, Maria Mezentseva, Chair of the Permanent Delegation of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, told Ukrinform in June that Ukraine could ratify the Istanbul Convention in the new political season.

The Istanbul Convention is a legally binding international act under the auspices of the Council of Europe, which covers issues related to violence against women (punishment and prosecution of criminals, protection and assistance to victims, prevention and counteraction to violence as a social phenomenon).

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Ukraine has successfully delivered the last batch of humanitarian aid to the Republic of Lithuania.

The Ukrainian Ministry for Foreign Affairs reported this on Twitter, Ukrinform reports.

Ukraine has successfully delivered to  the last portion of the humanitarian assistance provided according to the President @ZelenskyyUas Decree. We are always ready to help our strategic partners.  &  - always together! pic.twitter.com/BSKijoGDeK  MFA of Ukraine  (@MFA_Ukraine) September 15, 2021

Ukraine has successfully delivered to Lithuania the last portion of the humanitarian assistance provided according to the President Zelenskys Decree. We are always ready to help our strategic partners. Ukraine and Lithuania are always together! reads the report.

As reported, on August 12, Ukraine sent the humanitarian cargo for the security needs of the Republic of Lithuania.

In late May, Alexander Lukashenko stated that Minsk would no longer detain illegal immigrants trying to enter the European Union through Belarus. In early July, Vilnius declared a nationwide state of emergency in the country. Lithuania was the first to accuse Minsk of "hybrid aggression."

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| By Wanda Haskel

Donald B. Tobin, JD, who has served as dean of the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law since 2014, announced his decision to step down at the end of the 2021-2022 academic year and return to full-time teaching as a member of the Maryland Carey Law faculty.

Dean Donald B. Tobin calls on a student while teaching class at Maryland Carey Law.

Serving as dean of Maryland Carey Law has been the greatest honor of my life, says Tobin. I will be forever grateful to this wonderful community of students, faculty, staff, and alumni who entrusted me with leading this fantastic law school over the past seven years.

Beginning his tenure as dean in the wake of the Great Recession, Tobin is credited with uniting the law school community to achieve a full financial recovery while simultaneously expanding student opportunities and community engagement.

Early in Tobins deanship, the nation was rocked by the death of Freddie Gray while in the custody of Baltimore police. The tragedy solidified Tobins commitment to the law schools mission of training great civic-minded lawyers and providing access to justice for those in need.

Following the unrest in Baltimore, Tobin bolstered the law schools community outreach efforts and provided forums for exploring solutions to systemic racism. In the following years, he supported initiatives that have significantly increased the law schools community impact. A notable example is the Chacon Center for Immigrant Justice, which opened in spring 2021. The center provides free legal services to clients facing issues of asylum and at the intersection of criminal and immigration law. It also expands the capacity of Maryland Carey Laws existing Immigration Clinic, adds a new Appellate Clinic, and provides scholarships for students interested in studying immigration law.

Also emerging during Tobins deanship were the Levitas Initiative for Sexual Assault Prevention, through which Maryland Carey Law clinic students deliver a sexual violence prevention curriculum to Baltimore City middle school students, and the Rebuild Overcome and Rise Center run out of the law school, which helps Maryland crime survivors access wraparound recovery services.

Moreover, under Tobins leadership, Maryland Carey Law expanded its top-ranked Clinical Law Program in which student attorneys provide free legal services for low-income Marylanders. Since 2014, the law school launched the highly popular Criminal Defense Clinic, the Justice for Victims of Crime Clinic, and a reimagined Intellectual Property and Entrepreneurship Clinic. Others, including the Gender Violence Clinic and the Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic, increased capacity.

Academic programs also multiplied during Tobins tenure. The law school introduced the Master of Science in Law program, offering degrees in Environmental Law, Health Care Law, Cybersecurity Law, and Homeland Security and Crisis Management Law. In the JD program, students began specializing in new tracks in Alternative Dispute Resolution and Intellectual Property, and the law school added a new certificate in Cybersecurity. Additionally, first-year students are benefiting from a revamped legal writing curriculum, which is now the six-credit Lawyering Program, emphasizing practical application and professional skills.

In his time as dean, Tobin has nurtured an atmosphere in which diversity of thought thrives, supporting scholarship that grapples with current and emerging issues of the day, such as the intersection of technology and race, women's rights, genetic privacy, democracy, and cybersecurity. He also instituted investitures of endowed professorships, allowing faculty to showcase their work to the broader community.

Tobin recognizes that the future success of the law school depends on recruiting and retaining excellent faculty. One of the things I am most proud of is the highly talented and thoughtful faculty who have joined Maryland Carey Law during my tenure, says Tobin. Through these hires, the law school has achieved a valuable mix of innovative new faculty and highly accomplished academic veterans, all of whom are enriching the student experience with their scholarly output, dynamic teaching, and community engagement. Currently, the hiring committee is searching for a candidate to fill a newly established professorship in consumer law.

With a passion for empowering students to succeed, Tobin oversaw the doubling of scholarship spending, enabling the law school to attract the highest-caliber students. The 2021 incoming class, with a median undergraduate GPA of 3.7, is one of the most highly credentialed in the law schools history.

Todays students are taking part in forward-leaning programs introduced during Tobins deanship, including the Diversity Scholars Initiative and the Business Fellows Program, which offer participants special professional development opportunities and financial support.

Making student success after graduation a high priority, Tobin invested resources in bar exam preparation and expanded career development programs, yielding a dramatic increase in bar passage and employment. Under his leadership, the percentage of graduates entering judicial clerkships significantly increased, which has garnered national attention for the law school. Maryland Carey Law was fifth among 203 ABA-accredited law schools for the percentage of 2019 graduates obtaining judicial clerkships.

With his steady leadership, Dean Tobin exceeded our expectations, says Senior Associate Dean Barbara Gontrum, JD, MS, who was co-chair on the hiring committee that selected Tobin in 2014. He has worked tirelessly for the betterment of our law school, and his legacy will be felt by our community for years to come.

In his position as dean of Marylands top law school, Tobin has been called upon to contribute expertise on a statewide level. He participates on the Maryland Access to Justice Commission, which unites state leaders to drive systemic reforms and innovations to make the civil justice system accessible, equitable, and fair for all Marylanders. He was also appointed to the Maryland Court of Appeals committee to advise on the Uniform Bar Exam, which Maryland adopted in 2019. Every session during his deanship, Tobin has advocated before the Maryland legislature for bills addressing issues such as access to justice and education equity.

Tobin says that while he is proud of these accomplishments, the law school is fortunate to be made up of a stellar group of staff and faculty who support the schools mission and ensure the school continues to provide excellent opportunities for students. He goes on to explain that great law schools are made up of great dedicated people, and we have that in abundance here at Maryland Carey Law.

Since the beginning of 2020, Tobin has deftly led Maryland Carey Law through one of the most challenging times in its history  the COVID-19 pandemic. On his watch, the law school successfully shifted to an online learning environment for the 2020-2021 academic year and returned to the building for the fall 2021 semester. Throughout the public health crisis, the law school not only continued providing an excellent legal education for students but also continued promoting access to justice through its clinics and centers, whose operations never ceased. In spite of the uncertainty the pandemic has brought, applications to Maryland Carey Law for the last admissions cycle were up 37 percent.

"Dean Tobin has made great contributions to UMB during his tenure, and I thank him for his dedication and leadership, says University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) President Bruce E. Jarrell, MD, FACS. He leaves the law school in an excellent position to build on its current momentum.

In the coming weeks, UMB will commence a national search to identify the next dean.
| By Lou Cortina

The University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) officially unveiled a renovated and reimagined space at the SMC Campus Center on Sept. 9 thats dedicated to student success, well-being, and inclusivity. The suites on the third floor include the Division of Student Affairs, Student Counseling Center, Intercultural Center, Student Food Pantry, and University Student Government Association (USGA).

The vision statement for UMB Student Affairs is to advance the success of all students to be engaged and inclusive leaders, said Patty Alvarez, PhD, MS, assistant vice president, Student Affairs. This renovation project has better positioned us to do just that.

Inside the newly expanded Student Counseling Center

UMB leaders, faculty, students, and staff gathered in the SMC Campus Centers second floor for the event, sitting in physically distanced chairs and wearing face coverings per University policy, before heading to the third floor for ceremonial ribbon cuttings and a tour of the redesigned suites.

President Bruce E. Jarrell, MD, FACS, noted that it was good to be gathering in person as more of the UMB community returns to campus, though weve still got to be cautious because of the persistent COVID-19 pandemic. He praised the new space and noted that it included an expanded Student Counseling Center, which had been located in the Health Sciences and Human Services Library next door. He said the centers expansion was well-timed because the pandemic has magnified the need for mental health services.

The mental health part of this pandemic has been quite remarkable, Jarrell said. Its pointed out disparities, and its pointed out vulnerabilities in all of us. I salute all of the services available in this beautiful new space. Its going to continue to play a critical role in maintaining and improving the health and well-being of our students. UMB needs to be a community where we are all welcome, and this is another step in that direction.

Planning for the renovations began in May 2017, under Jarrells predecessor as UMB president, Jay A. Perman, MD. Now the chancellor of the University System of Maryland, Perman sent congratulations via videotaped remarks, noting that the project proved prescient, considering the pandemics health and economic challenges and the racial reckoning sparked by the murder of George Floyd in 2020.

When I think of what these spaces contain  the Student Counseling Center, the Intercultural Center, the Student Food Pantry  its like you had a lens on the last year and a half and knew what was coming, Perman said. We knew we needed more counseling capacity, more food resources, more spaces for our underrepresented students, our vulnerable students.

The fact that youve come through for these students, that you have their backs, is something to be incredibly proud of.

A ribbon also was cut for the Intercultural Center, which launched in 2020 and is the byproduct of a task force created in 2018 based on feedback from University of Maryland School of Social Work students who advocated for support and resources for underrepresented students; undocumented students, faculty, and staff; and an increased focus on creating a more inclusive UMB community. The task force recommended UMB create a center to provide programming and resources that would enhance the campus climate for diversity.

The Intercultural Center will serve as a field placement site for social work students focused on social identity dialogues, and it will drive education initiatives that address student food insecurity, Alvarez said. The physical space will allow for the hosting of social identity and community-building initiatives as well as facilitate dialogue, share resources, and provide a safe space for historically underrepresented students.

The Intercultural Center has worked with the UMB Police Department this year on pop-up food pantries that provide 30-pound boxes of shelf-stable food; a Student Food Insecurity Fund was set up with the help of the Office of Philanthropy; and collaborations have been formed with Pompeian, Inc., and McCormick & Co. to supplement supplies received from the Maryland Food Bank, Alvarez said.

Weve steadily increased our understanding of food insecurity at UMB through committees and surveys, she said. And weve been responsive to those needs, providing additional resources and creating partnerships inside and outside of the institution.

Aishwarya Iyer, a University of Maryland School of Medicine MD/PhD student and president of USGA, introduced Jarrell during the event and later thanked UMB and Student Affairs leaders for their commitment to student achievement and well-being, singling out Cyndi Rice, director of student development and leadership.

Im standing here today because of the dedication of individuals like Ms. Rice, she said. In their work, they continually prioritize the needs of students, which extended to ensuring that USGA maintained our dedicated space in the Student Affairs suite.

Within this space, USGA holds small meetings between our officers, meets with students to discuss their ideas or concerns, and consistently thinks of ways to better advocate for students. And, more importantly, the dedicated space showcases the Universitys commitment to fostering student leaders and listening to amplify their voices.

Another speaker, Flavius R.W. Lilly, PhD, MA, MPH, vice provost, Academic and Student Affairs, and vice dean, University of Maryland Graduate School, said his primary purpose in coming to UMB was to focus on student well-being. Offering expanded mental health services at the Student Counseling Center is critical to that mission, he added.

In 2010 when I arrived, nationally around 7 percent of college students reported having a depressive episode in the past year, Lilly said. Now that number is around 20 percent. Thats a dramatic increase, and it was occurring before the pandemic. So, this is an important step toward addressing not just depression, but anxiety issues as well.

We have a lot of people to thank for creating this amazing new space. Its going to mean a lot to our students. Im certain of it.

The final speaker, Bill Crockett, MS, RCRSP, executive director, Student Affairs, was a key player in the four-year project, helping to manage logistics and working with Quinn Evans Architects and Jeffrey Brown Contracting, among many other tasks.

Just to create this space, the movement of people was phenomenal. We had something like 67 relocations  thats moving people from one spot to another spot and then back into their current spot throughout the process, said Crockett, who praised Jimmy Heiner, MS, associate director of operations, URecFit, and Anna Borgerding, PMP, director of operational excellence and sustainability, Facilities and Operations, for their support and work as part of the projects leadership team.

Crockett thanked several UMB offices that aided the project  including Administration and Finance, Communications and Public Affairs, Design and Construction, Environmental Health and Safety, Facilities and Operations, the Center for Information Technology, and the Health and Human Services Library  as well as his Student Affairs colleagues.

Every single member of our Student Affairs staff leaned into the project, he said. Their voice was heard, and their input was incorporated into this process.
UNHCR-Amman office is soliciting bids from authorized companies that are duly registered / licensed to offer for the establishment of a frame agreement for provision of disinfection services in the UNHCR Jordan Operation, namely offices and vehicles.

Complete tender documents can be obtained by e-mail or through UNHCR.jo and UNGM.org websites, free of charge from 14 September 2021 to the closing date on 05 October 2021  23:59hrs, Jordan local time. ITB documents may also be requested by e-mailing: [email protected] (no offers to be sent to this e-mail).

SUBMISSION OF BIDS:

Bids should be submitted by file upload to eTenderBox, the online bid registration tool of UNHCR. The eTenderBox can be accessed via the following URL: http://etenderbox.unhcr.org

Attached Annexes:

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UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi inspects emergency relief items at a warehouse in Kabul, Afghanistan.  UNHCR/Ghulam Abbas Farzami

Concluding a three-day visit to Afghanistan today, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, appealed for urgent and sustained support for Afghans inside the country and for refugees who have fled abroad.

The humanitarian situation in Afghanistan remains desperate, said Grandi.

Even prior to the events that unfolded over the past few weeks, more than 18 million Afghans required urgent humanitarian assistance. Over 3.5 million have been displaced from their homes by conflict and remain inside the country, including some 630,000 uprooted during 2021.

And if public services and the economy collapse, we will see even greater suffering, instability, and displacement both within and outside the country, Grandi warned.

The international community must therefore engage with Afghanistan  and quickly  in order to prevent a much bigger humanitarian crisis that will have not only regional, but global implications.

During his visit to Kabul, Grandi met with the interim Afghan government, as well as some of the hundreds of UN and NGO staff that have stayed on the ground and maintained operations, despite the challenging circumstances.

Following his meetings with interim Afghan Ministers, Grandi said: I welcomed their commitments to provide security and enable humanitarian access throughout the country. They recognized the needs and thanked the UN for providing help to Afghans."

We also discussed other critical issues like ensuring that women staff can return safely to work, the importance of education for all Afghan children, and the safety and security of all Afghans, including minorities.

I encouraged the interim government to reiterate these important commitments publicly, and to ensure that they are upheld in practice, he added.

During his visit, Grandi oversaw the arrival of a convoy of trucks at a UNHCR warehouse in Kabul that had arrived from Pakistan via the Torkham border crossing. The trucks were loaded with thousands of tents and other relief items for displaced Afghan families.

UNHCR has already supported more than 300,000 displaced people inside Afghanistan with relief items and cash assistance this year, and is rapidly scaling up its operations to help more people ahead of the fast-approaching winter.

In Mazar-e-Sharif, in northern Afghanistan, Grandi also inaugurated a carpet workshop that employs 45 workers who are supporting hundreds of family members.

While the current situation in Afghanistan has so far not prompted a large refugee exodus, UNHCR is continuing its appeal to donors to scale up support for millions of Afghan refugees already being hosted in Pakistan and Iran, and for those who may need to seek international protection in future.

Pakistan and Iran have generously hosted Afghan refugees for more than 40 years. Now, perhaps more than ever, the international community needs to do more to provide humanitarian and development support to these refugees and their host communities, and to scale up the resettlement of Afghans already in those countries, said Grandi.

The High Commissioner will now travel to Pakistan where he will hold talks with Government officials and review the refugee response in the country.
The current exhibitions at the Texas State Galleries, on display until Nov. 12, feature work Read more
(@FahadShabbir)

CHISINAU (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 15th September, 2021) Bratislava intends to expand economic ties with Moldova, including by helping with the creation of jobs in the republic, Slovak Foreign Minister Ivan Korcok said at a briefing in Chisinau on Wednesday, after talks with his Moldovan couterpart.

"Relations between Moldova and Slovakia are excellent, but we need to do more in the area of economic relations, we can help create jobs and offer (the people) prosperity. Moldova is one of the priority countries to which Slovakia provides assistance for the development. Together, we can create a favorable business space," Korcok said during a working visit to Moldova.

Further, Moldovan Foreign Minister Nicolae Popescu said that he had discussed with his colleague the opportunity to increase trade volume and attract investment from Slovakia.

Popescu also added that the presidents of the two countries would meet soon, thereby strengthening the bilateral dialogue.

The ministers stressed that they have undertaken many joint projects in various areas in the past, but now plans are in development for even more ambitious economic activities, the details of which are currently confidential.

Popescu noted that Slovakia financed Moldovan programs for regional development of municipalities, water supply, sewage construction, health care, and help in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
(@ChaudhryMAli88)

PARIS, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 15th Sep, 2021) His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, discussed, with Emmanuel Macron, President of France, the friendship and strategic partnership between the UAE and France, as well as promising opportunities for developing them, in addition to several issues of mutual concern.

The discussion took place during a meeting between President Macron and His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed and his delegation at the Palace of Fontainebleau in the French capital, Paris.

Macron welcomed the visit and highlighted his happiness at receiving His Highness Sheikh Mohamed, under the framework of their mutual coordination and consultation regarding bilateral ties and regional issues of mutual interest.

Sheikh Mohamed conveyed the greetings and best wishes of President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan to President Macron.

Sheikh Mohamed highlighted his happiness at visiting France, stressing that his consultations and exchanges of views with Macron are ongoing, and that their direct meetings have reinforced their bilateral ties.

During the meeting, Sheikh Mohamed and President Macron discussed the cooperation between the UAE and France in the areas of investment, the economy and culture, as well as other vital sectors, to drive sustainable development in both countries.

The meeting addressed the COVID-19 pandemic and the international efforts to mitigate its humanitarian and economic fallout and return to normalcy, as well as several regional and global issues of mutual concern, most notably the current situation in Afghanistan.

Macron expressed France's appreciation to His Highness Sheikh Mohamed for the UAEs support in evacuating foreign citizens from Afghanistan.

Both sides then affirmed the importance of achieving security, peace and stability in the region through diplomatic means and constructive dialogue.

The members of the Emirati delegation that accompanied Sheikh Mohamed included H.H. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan; Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan, Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Airports Company (ADAC); Ali bin Hammad Al Shamsi, Deputy Secretary-General of the Supreme Council for National Security; Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak, Chairman of the Executive Affairs Authority of Abu Dhabi and Member of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council; Mohamed Mubarak Al Mazrouei, Under-Secretary of the Abu Dhabi Crown Prince's Court, and Hind Manea Al Otaiba, UAE Ambassador to France.

His Highness Sheikh Mohamed, accompanied by President Macron, toured the palace and its various section and visited the "Imperial Theatre", which was renamed the "Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan Theatre" as its maintenance cost was covered by President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa.
Managua, Sept 15 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Sep, 2021 ) :Isolation, daily interrogations, threats and hunger: relatives fear for the welfare of dozens of opposition figures held in Nicaragua under conditions denounced by human rights observers.

Nearly three months since the first arrests of opponents of President Daniel Ortega in a clampdown ahead of November 7 elections, authorities last week allowed the first visits at El Chipote prison.

What family members learnt in their 20-30 minute meetings provided little comfort.

Ana Maria Chamorro, sister of would-be presidential candidate Juan Sebastian Chamorro -- arrested on June 8 -- told AFP that her brother had lost more than 10 kilograms (22 Pounds) and appeared pale and gaunt.

"The lack of information about what is going on outside is the most difficult (for him)," she said after her brief prison visit.

"They interrogate him daily -- 87 days of interrogation and psychological torture," she continued. "They tell him things that are untrue: that his wife will be taken prisoner, that his property has been confiscated." Prison officials keep a light burning in her brother's cell 24/7 to disorient him, she added.

Cristian Tinoco, daughter of Victor Tinoco, said her father was kept in isolation in a tiny cell for two-and-a-half months, sleeping on a concrete bed with a thin mat as a mattress and no blanket to guard against the cold.

- Skinny, pale - "For his ablutions, there is a hole in the floor," said Cristian, the eldest of four children and battling cancer.

Seeing her 69-year-old father "skinny, pale, with white hair, a long beard and slow movements," was very difficult, she told AFP.

Ortega's government has been accused of political persecution for its rounding up of opposition figures, including seven aspiring presidential candidates.

Ortega, 75, will be seeking a fourth successive term in November.

The president, in power since 2007, accuses the 36 people arrested in a series of house and night-time raids since June 2 of seeking to overthrow him with US backing.

The majority are in jail awaiting trial, and four are under house arrest.

The detainees face charges of threatening Nicaragua's sovereignty by, among other things, "applauding" sanctions and "inciting foreign interference." Family members say the prisoners are being held without adequate food and no access to medical care.

Among them, feminist activist Tamara Davila is being held "in a cell without bars.

It is an enclosed cell, she cannot see anyone," said a family member, who asked not to be named.

From her arrest on June 12 to last week's visit, Davila "did not speak to anyone. She has had no human interaction, so she talks to a little bird on the roof outside, she speaks to the spiders to combat the loneliness and the silence," the relative said.

Lesbia Alfaro reported that her son, anti-government protester Lesther Aleman, "can barely stand or walk" and has lost nine kilograms (20 pounds) since his arrest on August 5.

"I ask that the Red Cross helps us, to intervene so that a doctor can see him and not let him die of hunger," she said.

On Monday, UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet urged the Nicaraguan government to "immediately and unconditionally" release detainees and stop its "persecution of the opposition, the press and civil society."The Washington-based Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has also called on the Nicaraguan government "to end the harassment of opposition figures, including (human rights) defenders, as well as to immediately free those detained arbitrarily."
North Pole, Sept 15 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Sep, 2021 ) :A massive icebreaker cuts its way through the frozen waters of the Arctic Ocean, clearing a path to the North Pole, all white as far as the eye can see. But even here, the impact of climate change can be felt.

Dmitry Lobusov has seen it. For 13 years he has captained the "50 Let Pobedy" ("50 Years of Victory"), part of a growing fleet of icebreakers that Russia is using to assert its power in Arctic waters.

The vast, nuclear-powered ships clear paths through the ice for commercial vessels, helping Russia to deliver its oil, gas and minerals to the rest of world, and eventually to set up an Arctic shipping route between Asia and Europe that Moscow has touted as a rival to the Suez Canal.

Lobusov, a 57-year-old with a grey beard who often has a pipe in hand, stares out from the bridge as the red-and-black ship ploughs forward, so silent you can hear the ice cracking under its hull.

After nearly 30 years at sea, much of it in the Arctic, Lobusov has seen first hand the changes wrought by global warming.

"In the 1990s and early 2000s the ice was more difficult and thicker," says the sailor, his blue uniform immaculate.

"There used to be a lot of perennial ice," he says, referring to ice that forms on the surface of polar oceans and survives for multiple melting seasons.

"We hardly see that kind of ice anymore." Perennial ice is thicker and stronger because it forms over several years and loses salt, Lobusov explains, making it harder for the icebreaker to cut a path. But today, most of the ice cover is formed during the year and quickly melts in the summer.

- Melting ice cover - Scientists say there is no doubt that this is climate change at work.

Russia's Rosgidromet meteorological service said in a report in March that the Arctic ice cover is now five to seven times thinner than in the 1980s, and in the summer months the waters are becoming increasingly free of ice.

In September 2020, the ice cover in the Russian Arctic hit a low of 26,000 square kilometres (10,000 square miles) -- a record for that time of year -- the report said.

Russia, a third of which is within the Arctic circle, is warming faster than the global average, it said, with temperatures having risen by half a degree per decade since 1976.

Long a sceptic of climate change, President Vladimir Putin has changed course in recent years, ordering his government to develop a plan to cut carbon emissions to below the level of the European Union by 2050.

As wildfires raged in Siberia this summer, Putin said he was alarmed by a series of "absolutely unprecedented" natural disasters in Russia.

Viktor Boyarsky, a 70-year-old seasoned Polar explorer who was travelling aboard the icebreaker, admits that global warming exists. But he says human activity "does not play a key role" and that its effects are not irreversible, despite the abundance of evidence to the contrary.

The former director of Russia's Arctic and Antarctic Museum, Boyarsky says the region is stuck in a vicious circle as retreating ice cover allows the warmer waters of the Atlantic to enter the Arctic basin.

"It's a chain reaction process. Less ice means more water and more heat," he says, standing in the mist that envelopes the ice shelves of the North Pole.

- 'We are just guests' - After his many years at sea, icebreaker captain Lobusov says the changes in the Arctic are undeniable.

Along with the thinner Arctic ice, he says the North Pole is now covered in fog in the summer.

"I think it's also the effect of warming, there is more humidity in the air," he says.

He has also seen glaciers shrinking in the Arctic, like on the Franz Josef Land archipelago of more than 190 islands.

"Many glaciers are receding towards the centre of the islands from where they are on the map," he says.

"There are no questions here, without a doubt this is the effect of the heat." Lobusov's "50 Years of Victory" -- part of a fleet of icebreakers operated by state atomic energy corporation Rosatom -- has reached the North Pole 59 times and on this trip is carrying a group of teenagers who won a contest to travel aboard.

As the 160-metre (525-foot) ship passes off the coast of Prince George Land -- an island in the Franz Josef Land archipelago -- a polar bear wanders across the ice, watching the vessel.

"The bears are the bosses here, this is their home," Lobusov says. "We are just guests."
(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Montreal, Sept 15 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th Sep, 2021 ) :As soon as his news conference ends, Jagmeet Singh pulls out his phone, gathers the crowd for an Instagram video and leads them in song, jumping and spinning in place while filming.

As he campaigns ahead of next week's snap elections, Singh, the 42-year-old leader of Canada's leftist New Democratic Party (NDP), is looking to embody a new way of doing politics. And by relying heavily on social media he hopes to woo young voters who once helped propel Prime Minister Justin Trudeau into office.

A few hours later, he appears dancing to rap music on TikTok, where his videos typically get in excess of one million views.

"People, where are they? They are on social media. I try to use all possible tools to connect with them," says Singh.

Further to the left on the political spectrum than Trudeau's Liberals, his party could find itself holding significant sway in the House of Commons if voters return another minority Liberal government to Ottawa.

Currently, the New Democrats are credited with 20 percent of voting intentions, while Trudeau's Liberals and the Conservatives, led by rookie leader Erin O'Toole, are neck and neck with less than 35 percent support each -- below the threshold for a majority of seats in parliament.

- 'Winds of change' - "Singh embodies, with his presence on social media, the youthfulness and winds of change that helped Trudeau a few years ago, and what sets him apart from the others is his use of TikTok," Felix Mathieu, a politics professor at the University of Winnipeg, told AFP.

On the policy front, his party's plank also echoes that of the Liberals in many respects, but whereas Trudeau, according to Singh, is "a big talker and a little doer," especially in respect to climate change, he promises to deliver.

He has pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030, increase taxes on the rich, cancel student debts and check soaring housing prices.

"I am not Justin Trudeau. I'm not like him. I've lived a different life," Singh said during a visit to an indigenous community in Saskatchewan reeling from past Federal policies that stripped them of their language and culture.

"And I've felt some of the pain, what it's like to be considered less than (because of the way you look). I understand the pain of not being valued." Born in Ontario to parents who fled persecution in their native India, Singh became the first non-white leader of a Canadian federal political party and is easily recognizable by his brightly coloured turbans.

"This helps him to stand out while waging an election with a smaller war chest than the Liberals, for example," Mathieu said. "But will this result in more votes, it's not clear," On TikTok, "a large part of his followers are not yet old enough to vote," Mathieu added.

And on September 20, unlike in past ballots, "there will be no voting on college campuses due to the pandemic and this is bad for the NDP," said Genevieve Tellier, a politics professor at the University of Ottawa.

His campaign on social media "has led millions of people to watch our content and get involved," says the NDP campaign's Emily Coutts.

That has boosted his support among eligible voters, but also attracted an army of volunteers who've gone out to campaign for him, she said.

tib/amc/md
(@fidahassanain)

Advocate Ali Azeem Afridi had assailed the constitutional amendment that allowed the appointment of a retired senior civil servant or a technocrat as the chief election commissioner (CEC) of Pakistan.

ISLAMABAD: (UrduPoint/UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News-Sept 15th, 2021) The Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday rejected a petition challenging appointment of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja on Wednesday.

A SC two -member bench led by Justice Umar Atta Bandial heard the petition filed by advocate Ali Azeem Afridi.

The top court turned down the plea, holding that it was not maintainable.

In his remarks, Justice Bandial had said that a constitutional amendment could not be challenged and asked the applicant to prove which serving judges were working in the ECP.

Earlier, Advocate Ali Azeem Afridi moved the petition against the appointment of the current CEC, Sikander Sultan Raja.

He had approached the Supreme Court (SC) after the Peshawar High Court (PHC) dismissed his similar petition last year in September.

He challenged a constitutional amendment that allowed the appointment of a retired senior civil servant or a technocrat as the chief election commissioner (CEC) of Pakistan. He asked the court to declare the incumbent CECs appointment unconstitutional.

On January 27, 2020, Sikandar Sultan Raja was sworn in as the chief election commissioner (CEC).
(@FahadShabbir)

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 15th September, 2021) A majority of Americans disapprove of how President Joe Biden is handling his job as president after the United States withdrew from Afghanistan, a new poll revealed.

"Americans' views have dimmed on the way President Joe Biden is handling his job as president, with 42 percent approving and 50 percent disapproving, according to a Quinnipiac University national poll of adults," a news release explaining the poll on Tuesday.

Quinnipiac University said this was the first time Biden's job approval has dropped into negative territory since he took office in January. In early August, 46 percent of Americans approved and 43 percent disapproved of the way the president was handling his job.

"In today's poll, Democrats approve 88-7 percent, while Republicans disapprove 91-7 percent and independents disapprove 52-34 percent," Quinnipaic University said.

More than half of Americans, 54-41 percent, said they supported Biden's decision to withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan and nearly seven in ten, 69 to 24 percent, agreed with ending the war there. However, they gave the president a negative 31 to 65 percent for the way he handled withdrawing all US troops from the country, the poll said.
The United States considers the recent North Korean missile launch to be a threat to the country's neighbors and the international community, and urges Pyongyang to return to dialogue on denuclearization, a US State Department spokesperson said on Wednesday

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 15th September, 2021) The United States considers the recent North Korean missile launch to be a threat to the country's neighbors and the international community, and urges Pyongyang to return to dialogue on denuclearization, a US State Department spokesperson said on Wednesday.

"The United States condemns the DPRK's (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) missile launch. This launch is in violation of multiple UN Security Council Resolutions and poses a threat to the DPRK's neighbors and other members of the international community. We remain committed to a diplomatic approach to the DPRK and call on them to engage in dialogue," the spokesperson said in a statement.

The statement reiterated that the United States remains committed to the defense of South Korea and Japan.

In the early hours of Monday, the Korean Central news Agency reported that North Korea had successfully tested a new type of long-range cruise missile over the weekend. The launched long-range cruise missiles flew 1,500 kilometers (932 miles) before hitting their targets.

On Tuesday, high-ranking diplomats from Japan, South Korea and the United States held a trilateral meeting on North Korea in Tokyo. One of the key topics of discussion was a possible response to the North Korean missile tests. The parties agreed to continue cooperation on the denuclearization of North Korea by combining dialogue with Pyongyang and sanctions pressure.
(@ChaudhryMAli88)

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 15th September, 2021) A former US prison inmate was sentenced to return to jail for 43 months for using drones to smuggle contraband into a Federal prison in the state of New Jersey, the Justice Department said on Tuesday.

"Jason Arteaga-Loayza, aka 'Juice,' 30, of Jersey City, New Jersey, a former inmate at Fort Dix, previously pleaded guilty by videoconference before US District Judge Susan D. Wigenton," the Justice Department said in a press release.

Wigenton imposed the 43-month sentence on Tuesday by video conference, the release said.

From inside the prison, Adrian Goolcharran, Nicolo Denichilo and Johansel Moronta also face charges in the scheme. The three inmates took orders from fellow prisoners and coordinated deliveries with contraband cellphones, the release added.

Arteaga-Loayza, an inmate at Fort Dix from June 2017 to September 2018, participated in multiple drone deliveries of items that included cellphones, cell-phone accessories, tobacco, weight-loss supplements, eyeglasses and other items, according to the release.
Six people died and more than 150 have been hospitalized in Papua New Guinea after drinking a mixture of ethanol and methanol over the weekend, the National newspaper reported on Wednesday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 15th September, 2021) Six people died and more than 150 have been hospitalized in Papua New Guinea after drinking a mixture of ethanol and methanol over the weekend, the National newspaper reported on Wednesday.

"The dead are five men and a woman. One was an Aiyura Aircraft Maintenance Engineering school student and the rest were villagers from around Obura-Wonenara's Aiyura," the local authorities were cited as saying by the newspaper.

Ethanol was illegally siphoned from the supplies delivered to the Coffee Institute Corporation on Friday, according to the report. The stolen alcohol was then sold in the neighboring villages over the weekend.

First patients began arriving in the hospital as early as Monday morning, the news said.

The local police reportedly found five of the 80 containers of ethanol either emptied or partially emptied. The authorities seized the containers as evidence and launched an investigation, the National said.

The source of the methanol in the alcohol mix was not mentioned. The identity of the ethanol suppliers, who went into hiding immediately as the news of the mass alcohol poisoning had spread, is yet to be established.

Papua New Guinea enforces a ban on the sale of alcohol on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.
The Spanish National Court temporarily suspended the extradition of the former head of Venezuela's military intelligence Hugo Carvajal, who went into hiding in Spain in 2019 after US request for his extradition was approved before being arrested in Madrid last week, local newspaper El Mundo reported

MADRID (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 15th September, 2021) The Spanish National Court temporarily suspended the extradition of the former head of Venezuela's military intelligence Hugo Carvajal, who went into hiding in Spain in 2019 after US request for his extradition was approved before being arrested in Madrid last week, local newspaper El Mundo reported.

On September 10, a spokesman for the National Court told Sputnik that there will be no more hearings on the Carvajal case in Spain, and he will be under arrest while waiting for his extradition to the US.

The court "suspended the extradition" of Carvajal until the Spanish Ministry of Internal Affairs presents a report on Carvajal's request for asylum in 2019, the newspaper reported.

He was initially detained in Madrid in April 2019 at the request of the US. On November 8 of the same year, the National Court ordered for his extradition.

Several days later, the police failed to ascertain his whereabouts. In spite of that, in March 2020, the Spanish Council of Ministers approved his extradition.

On September 9, 2021, Carvajal was arrested by the Spanish National Police who were informed of his whereabouts by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which suggested that he could have changed his appearance. According to police sources, Carvajal was living in " total isolation, without going outside or looking out of the window, and was always protected by trusted people."

The US expects Carvajal to provide valuable information on the alleged drug activities of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. Carvajal was a trusted adviser to late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez and served as military intelligence chief from 2004-2011 and 2013-2014.
WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 16th September, 2021) Syrian Democratic Council (SDC) head Ilham Ehmed raised the issue of Turkish attacks in northern Syria during a visit to Russia, as well as asked Moscow to facilitate a meeting with the Syrian leadership, SDC representative in the US, Bassam Saker, told Sputnik.

"Ehmed has visited Moscow and held meetings with Mikhail Bogdanov, the Russian special presidential representative for the middle East and Africa, as well as other senior Russian officials. The meetings were good," Saker said. "She complained about Ankara's violation of an agreement with Russia by launching attacks in northern Syria. Russia has promised to address the issue."

Saker, who is also a member of the Presidential Committee at the SDC, said that Ehmed brought up the issue of Kurdish participation in the Syrian political process.

"Ehmed raised the issue of including the Syrian Kurds to be part of the political process," Saker said.

Moreover, Ehmed discussed Russia's role in arranging a meeting between the Syrian Kurds and Damascus.

"Russia has promised to help facilitate a meeting between the Syrian Kurds and Damascus," he added.

The two sides also agreed to have meetings and talks in the near future, Saker said.

Earlier in September, Saker told Sputnik that Ehmed would visit Washington in the near future for meetings with US officials to discuss continued support for the region.
LONDON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 16th September, 2021) Elizabeth Truss was appointed as the head of the United Kingdom's Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office as Prime Minister Boris Johnson made a cabinet reshuffle on Wednesday, the Downing Street said.

"The Rt Hon Elizabeth Truss MP @trussliz has been appointed Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs @FCDOGovUK She remains as Minister for Women and Equalities @GEOgovuk," the Downing Street tweeted.

Truss replaced Dominic Raab who was criticized for going on holidays during the fall of Kabul and will now will become the deputy prime minister and the head of the Justice Ministry.

Anne-Marie Trevelyan, who previously served as Minister of State for Energy, Clean Growth and Climate Change, succeeded Truss as Secretary of State for International Trade.

The head of the UK Prime Minister's Office, Michael Gove, was appointed Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government. Gove will also retain his "ministerial responsibility for the Union and elections," the Downing Street said.

Vaccine Minister Nadhim Zahawi was appointed Secretary of State for education.

In turn, the country's Defense Secretary Ben Wallace has retained his post. The reshuffle also did not affect UK Home Secretary Priti Patel and Chancellor Rishi Sunak.
(@ChaudhryMAli88)

UNITED NATIONS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 14th September, 2021) The UN World Food Program (WFP) said on Tursday that it is establishing a humanitarian logistics hub in Termez, Uzbekistan, to position food for Afghanistan.

"In anticipation of the high food needs and further disruptions to supply chains, WFP is positioning food and other stocks at strategic border points in Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. In addition, a logistics hub of 5,000 square meters space is being established in Termez, Uzbekistan," the WFP said in a press release of Tuesday.

Earlier in September, Kazakhstan also proposed establishing a UN logistics hub in Almaty to safely deliver humanitarian aid to Afghanistan.

Afghanistan is facing a major economic crisis exacerbated by the takeover of the Taliban (banned in Russia) on August 15 that caused many countries to halt aid to Afghanistan.

At the United Nations donor conference held in Geneva on Monday, international donors raised $1.2 billion to help avert the looming humanitarian catastrophe in Afghanistan.
MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 15th September, 2021) A delegation from the United States will visit Libya on Wednesday for talks with the prime minister of Libya's interim Government of National Unity, Abelhamid Dbeiba, and other local officials, the Al-Arabiya tv station reported.

The report made no mention of what could be on the agenda of the talks.

Libya's new unity government, headed by Dbeibeh, and the new Presidential Council, led by al-Menfi, selected on March 16 to prepare the general elections in Libya before the end of 2021, as prescribed by the United Nations.

The formation of the interim government ended a protracted civil war between rival Libyan political factions  mainly, the UN-recognized Government of National Accord (GNA), based in Tripoli, and a parallel cabinet in the east under the control of Haftar's forces.

On July 26, 2014, the US government evacuated its embassy's personnel from Libya amid heavy militia violence raging in Tripoli.
The latest version of the USF-invented NEWgenerator is on its way to South Africa to begin the process of entering mass production. The solar-powered machine generates nutrients, energy and water by safely recovering them from human wastewater  a technology built to address global sanitation concerns.

The USF Technology Transfer Office signed a licensing agreement with WEC Projects of South Africa in September 2020. Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor Daniel Yeh and his team just shipped an updated version of the NEWgenerator to Soweto, a South African township that receives its water and sanitation services from the city of Johannesburg. The off-grid sanitation technology allows the community to become more self-sufficient without having to rely on a power grid or install a costly sewer system.

This latest milestone is a testament to the dedication, tenacity and creativity of the USF team and our partners abroad, Yeh said. It hasnt been easy for anyone the past year with COVID and the resulting global supply chain disruptions. Yet, the need for clean water and safe sanitation has never been more urgent given the global pandemic. We are driven by the mission to make our technology available worldwide to all those in need.

The latest NEWgenerator model is the most advanced and robust version yet, Yeh said, with a more intuitive control system that has full remote capabilities. It works by using a novel bioreactor to break down waste organic matter using microorganisms, followed by a fine-pore microscopic membrane filter that traps bacteria and viruses. Clean water that passes through is then disinfected with chlorine, similar to municipal drinking water. The recycled water can also be used for toilet flushing in the sanitation facilities and for irrigation, allowing plants to grow, even in a drought. By functioning remotely, operators can identify potential problems and create remedies, such as adjusting flow rates and chemical levels.

WEC Projects and stakeholders with the South African Sanitation Technology Enterprise Programme will spend the next few months evaluating the NEWgenerator unit to use as a replica of what will be manufactured using local parts and labor. This follows the South African governments pledge to upgrade its sanitation system in schools, many of which dont have running water or electricity.

(L-R) Lindelani Xaba (University of KwaZulu-Natal), Adefunke Adeosun and Robert Bair (USF Environmental Engineering) in Durban, South Africa. A replica of the NEWgenerator will be used for commercialization in South Africa. The NEWgenerator began operating in Durban, South Africa in 2018.

While NEWgenerator addresses a number of urgent social needs, particularly in rural and informal settlements, it can also be used in other areas, said Gunter Rencken, technical director for WEC Projects. These can include eco-tourism, for schools, housing projects and in emergency situations. We are proud to be associated with a project such as NEWgenerator and look forward to its future development and deployment in Africa.

In addition to WEC Projects, Eram Scientific Solutions and Elefo Biotech, both of India, also signed agreements to commercialize the NEWgenerator. It was first tested in India in 2016 and has been operating in Durban, South Africa, since 2018. Yehs success follows a $2 million grant awarded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation through its Reinvented Toilet program to address infrastructure problems caused by worldwide, rapid, unplanned urbanization.
Charleston, WV  The U.S. Marshals of the Southern District of West Virginia, the Cops United Felony Fugitive Enforcement Division (CUFFED) Task Force and the Florida/Caribbean Regional Fugitive Task Force are seeking the publics help in locating alleged child molester Alain L. Forget.



Forget, a 60-year-old white male, is wanted for the attempted lewd and lascivious molestation of a minor and the delivery of a controlled substance to a minor. He has ties to West Virginia and was last seen in the Fayette County area.



Forget was last known to be driving a 2015 black Chevy Silverado pick-up truck with Florida license plate number HPX138.



If you have information of Forgets location or direction of travel, please call 1-877-Wanted-2 (1-877-926-8332), email our tip line at USMS88TIPS@usdoj.gov. All tips are kept strictly confidential. Additional information about the U.S. Marshals Service can be found at http://www.usmarshals.gov. ####



Americas First Federal Law Enforcement Agency


During a whirlwind three days in Slovakia, Pope Francis tells the people to persevere in the faith, while seeing for himself a Church of charity, and one which breaths with two lungs

By Lydia OKane - Bratislava

When the Pope arrived for this Apostolic Visit to Slovakia on Sunday, the banners to greet him read Viva Papa Francesco" or Long Live Pope Francis.

As he departed on Wednesday, following the celebration of Holy Mass at the National Shrine at Sastin, the banners were replaced to read, Thank you, Holy Father.

This visit was a tapestry of many significant events: The celebration of the Byzantine Divine Liturgy and the Mass at Sastin demonstrated the Christian values that have been deeply rooted in society here down through the centuries and continue to be today.

The visit also provided an occasion for Pope Francis to highlight the importance of unity and fraternity during an ecumenical meeting and an encounter with the Jewish community.

Christianity in action

But perhaps the two events that captured the heart of Christianity, and the spirit of charity in action, were the visits to the Bethlehem Centre in Petrzalka and to the Roma Community at Lunik IX.

Most of the people who were at Lunik IX on Tuesday witnessed a community that gave their all to welcome the Pope in a joyous atmosphere, guided in prayer by the Salesians of Don Bosco.

As Pope Francis departed from this district of Kosice, people were already expressing the hope that this visit would bear real fruit for the community here.

Persevering in the faith

Slovakia is a country still imbued by the faith, but like any plant, if it is not nurtured, it dies. The Church in this country is well aware that the secularism that has arrived at the doorstep of many European countries is also knocking here. Therefore, for the bishops of Slovakia, taking ones eye off the ball is not an option.

By coming here to Slovakia, the Pope has given a jolt of energy to the faithful; nowhere was that seen more than at the meeting with young people at Lokomotiva Stadium in Kosice where Pope Francis told them, For love to be fruitful, dont forget your roots. Those roots, he said, are to be found in the love and heroism of the Lord Jesus.

Before the Pope departed on route to Rome on Wednesday, he left the country with a message: He told them that faith is a journey inspired by a simple and sincere devotion; and called on them to persevere in it with compassion and gratitude.
A new report examining a long-running series of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) sponsored social media botnets that pose as organic users found the network has begun to utilize smaller social media sites, including in multiple languages other than English and Chinese, and attempted to spur real users to participate in anti-Asian hate protests.

The information comes in a Sept. 8 update to cybersecurity analysts FireEyes Threat Research Blog that focused on a pro-Peoples Republic of China (PRC) network of hundreds of inauthentic accounts on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube that first emerged during the 2019 anti-CCP protests in Hong Kong.

FireEye says over the last two years they have observed the network employ the use of artificially generated photos for account profile pictures and the promotion of a wide variety of narrative themes related to current events, including multiple narratives related to the COVID-19 pandemic, narratives critical of exiled Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui and his associates, and narratives related to domestic U.S. political issues.

The group says these activities have been widely reported on by other threat analysts. However, they found two recent evolutions in the networks strategy that appear to have not yet been widely discussed.

The first was that the campaign, which originally focused only on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, had spread to 30 different social media platforms and 40 of what it described as additional websites and niche forums. The influence campaign has also evolved from using English and Chinese, to including the Russian, Korean, Japanese, German, and Spanish languages.

The second was they found the botnet had begun to attempt to mobilize real social media users to participate in on the ground protests, specifically an attempt to mobilize Asian Americans to participate in an April 24 event in New York City against racial discrimination.

This direct call for physical mobilization is a significant development compared to prior activity, potentially indicative of an emerging intent to motivate real-world activity outside of Chinas territories, warned the report.

Viral

FireEyes analysis found thousands of identical text posts, images, and videos shared by botnet accounts on TikTok, Vimeo, and Russias Vkontakte (VK), among others, that target Steve Bannon, Guo Wengui, and Chinese virologist Li Mengyan, all who have declared the Wuhan Institute of Virology the source of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Videos featured characteristics typical of those promoted by the network historically, including Chinese and automated English-language voiceovers, reads the report, which adds, In some instances, accounts on one platform have directly provided their corresponding social media handles on other platforms in their bios.

In some cases, FireEye found red flags such as Twitter accounts that only post in English, but are associated with bot accounts posting on LiveJournal in Russian and German.

Different accounts across different platforms have also appropriated the same profile photos, including photos of models and stock photography. We also observed instances of forum posts linking to other accounts in the network.

The organization also found the botnet had focused on disseminating a narrative in several other languages, which claimed the coronavirus emerged from the U.S. Biosecurity Level 4 lab at Fort Detrick in Maryland and that the virus had been found in America as early as December of 2019, predating most official Wuhan City timelines.

Some of the networks influence attempts utilized VK to propagate Russian translations of what appeared to be authentic English tweets from individuals who claimed to have contracted symptomatic COVID in 2019.

Some of the accounts in the same network also claimed Hong Kong and Taiwan were territories of the Communist Party-controlled PRC.

A similar tactic was noticed in German and Spanish on LiveJournal and Argentinas Taringa social media network.

Notably, some of the Russian and German-language posts we observed contained recurring grammatical errors, a limited indication that they may have been authored by non-native speakers of those languages.

For example, we observed Russian-language LiveJournal posts by accounts purportedly operated by female bloggers use a masculine-tense verb for the phrase   (Translation: I saw), which should read  if written by a female Russian speaker.

Automated organization

FireEye found in April of 2021 that, Thousands of posts in languages including English, Japanese, and Korean, images, and videos were posted across multiple platforms by accounts we assess to be part of this broader activity set that called on Asian Americans to protest racial injustices in the U.S.

The posts attempted to organize attendees to an April 24 protest in New York City after the media stirred the divisive narrative that anti-Asian hate was rife in America after a man battling with a sex addiction and mental illness killed several Asian prostitutes in Atlanta in March.

We observed posts by accounts in the network portray the advocated April 24 New York City protest as a success, claiming that Asian Americans, other minority groups, and Caucasian protestors attended, said the authors.

The botnet also made claims its attendees were physically assaulted by supporters of Guo Wenggui.

In one specific case, FireEye documented the botnet had taken a photo of four women who were standing and holding a small coroplast sign that said YWCA is on a Mission: Stand Against Racism and photoshopped it so the sign instead had a caricature of Dr. Lis face crossed out against the backdrop of an American flag with multiple communist propaganda-style raised fists in the foreground.

While the threat analysts noted they found no evidence the botnet was successful in organizing attendees, they cautioned the emergence of the phenomenon, Does provide early warning that the actors behind the activity may be starting to explore, in however limited a fashion, more direct means of influencing the domestic affairs of the U.S.

We believe it is important to call attention to such attempts and for observers to continue to monitor for such attempts in future.

An August report by the Center for Information Resilience (CIR) found the CCPs botnet on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube had aggressively utilized StyleGAN, a form of adversarial artificial intelligence network, to generate convincing profile photos of faces that do not exist for their social media accounts in order to influence naive and unaware organic users.

One of the biggest tells the researchers found in the StyleGAN approach is that the eyes of the manufactured profile photos were all on the same horizontal axis, a fact which was painfully obvious in evidence demonstrated in the groups 80-page report.

Additionally, CIR found China was employing dueling botnets that promulgated both a pro-CCP and an anti-CCP narrative.
Gerald Cayer, the CEO of Lewis County Health System, recently announced that Lewis County General Hospital will be unable to safely staff its maternity department beginning Sept. 25. Many employees have resigned from the hospital after it implemented a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy. Even religious exemptions were not granted.

The hospital had insisted on vaccination after New York Governor Democrat Andrew Cuomo ordered all healthcare workers in the state to be at least partially vaccinated by Sept. 27.

In total, 30 staffers left; 21 were working in the clinical area. Seventy-three percent in the health system, or 464 employees, have been vaccinated. Three employees have been granted medical exemption; 12 have applied for it; 165 employees remain unvaccinated. It is not clear whether they will take a COVID-19 vaccine by Sept. 27.

The CEO stated that the number of resignations leaves us no choice but to pause deliveries. If we can pause the service and now focus on recruiting nurses who are vaccinated, we will be able to re engage in delivering babies here in Lewis County, Cayer said.

He insisted that hospital employees have an obligation to not put coworkers and those they care for at risk. Since the vaccine mandate was implemented, 30 employees have taken a jab. Five employees are in quarantine and five more in isolation.

It was on Aug. 16 that Cuomo announced vaccine mandates for healthcare workers and that the first dose needs to be taken by Sept. 27. When he announced the mandate, 75 percent of the states 400,000 hospital workers, 74 percent of the states 30,000 adult care facility workers, and 68 percent of the states 145,500 nursing home workers had been vaccinated.

The State Department of Health will issue Section 16 Orders requiring all hospital, LTCF, and nursing homes to develop and implement a policy mandating employee vaccinations, with limited exceptions for those with religious or medical reasons, a press release stated.

Staffing issues

COVID-19 vaccine mandates among healthcare workers pose serious staffing issues. Many employees have already been pushed to the limit due to the pandemic. Forcing them to take a vaccine against their will might force many to quit, which then may have disastrous consequences for healthcare services.

A survey by the American Nurses Association showed that 12 percent of its members do not plan on getting vaccinated. A survey by The Washington Post reported that the Kaiser Family Foundation revealed earlier this year that 20 percent of healthcare workers were hesitant about vaccination and would quit if forced to take the jab.

The same concerns youll find in the general population about lack of data showing the efficacy of the vaccine and concerns about long-term side effects can still be pervasive within parts of the medical community, Amber Reinhart, an expert on health communication at the University of Missouri-St. Louis told NBC Montana.

According to Alan Levine, chief executive officer of Ballad Health, he opted not to implement a vaccine mandate. He did so after analysis suggested that 15 percent of the workforce, or 900 employees, could potentially leave. Ballad has 21 hospitals and centers in Tennessee, Virginia, Kentucky, and North Carolina. Ninety-seven percent of doctors have been vaccinated. Among front-line nurses, only 50 percent have taken a COVID-19 vaccine shot.

The overwhelming number of our nurses are female and young and in childbearing years, Levine told Bloomberg. There have been reports suggesting that women are wary of getting vaccinated due to the potential risk to fertility posed by mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna.

Some hospital authorities are confused about contradictory laws on vaccine mandates. Joe Biden recently issued a vaccine mandate for private-sector employees. According to Washingtons six-point plan to pull America out of the pandemic, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is ensuring that 17 million healthcare workers at Medicare and Medicaid participating hospitals get vaccinated.

At the same time, several states have passed rules that ban businesses from enforcing vaccine mandates. In Texas, Governor Greg Abbott has banned mandates in the states 120 public hospitals.

Ive got President Biden telling me hes going to mandate it, but I have Gov. Abbott who says I cannot mandate it Do I or dont I? So Im just kind of waiting for the dust to settle from yesterday to really sit down with my administrative team and see where we go from here, Adam Willman told The Texas Tribune. Willman is the chief executive officer of Goodall Witcher Healthcare public hospital in Clifton.
On Wednesday Sept. 15 North Korea launched two ballistic missiles into the waters off its eastern coast. A few hours later, South Korea announced that it had successfully test-fired a submarine-launched ballistic missile. The two test-fires are being interpreted as an arms race that is quickly escalating between the two Koreas.

North Koreas tests of the ballistic missiles were in violation of multiple UN Security Council Resolutions unlike its successful tests of its new long-range cruise missiles that were conducted on the weekend of Sept. 11th and 12th.

North Korean state-run news outlets said on Monday that the cruise missile launches would provide the country with another effective means of deterrence in the face of  the military maneuvers of the hostile forces.

Ballistic missiles are considered to pose a deeper threat as they are significantly larger and have the ability to deliver bigger payloads, including nuclear warheads, and have much longer ranges than other types of missiles. The North Korean ballistic missiles are suspected of being able to travel upwards of 13,000 kilometers (8077 miles) placing much of Europe and the United States mainland within reach.

North Koreas test on Wednesday was the first ballistic missile test Pyongyang has conducted since last March.

South Korea announced that its test of an indigenous submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) flew a planned distance and precisely hit its target. The successful test makes South Korea only the seventh country, and only non-nuclear power, in the world to possess such a capability.

The North Korean tests occurred just weeks after a nine-day joint military exercise was conducted by South Korea with its ally the United States.

Nuclear disarmament negotiations between the United States and North Korea have stalled since a summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un and former U.S. President Donald Trump collapsed in 2019.

Trump rejected a deal by the North Korean dictator stating that Kim Jong-Un was not offering enough of a concession in return for removing sanctions.

Pyongyang has to date refused the Biden administrations appeals to return to the negotiating table.
At a meeting on Saturday Sept. 11 between Vietnam and Japan, Japan agreed that it will now provide defense equipment and technology to Vietnam to counter what the two nations see as a mutual aggressive foe, China.

Japans defense minister, Nobuo Kishi said the deal elevates their defense partnership to a new level adding that Japan and Vietnam plan to deepen defense ties through multinational joint exercises and other means,

The details concerning the transfer of equipment, which includes naval vessels, are to be determined in subsequent talks, the ministry said.

The meeting between Kishi and his Vietnamese counterpart, Phan Van Giang, in Hanoi occurred alongside a two-day visit to the Vietnamese capital by Chinese Foreign Minister, Wang Yi.

Wang ended his visit stating that China plans to donate upwards of 3-million doses of its domestically produced coronavirus vaccine to Vietnam.

The agreement between the two nations also comes just two weeks after the U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to Vietnam in an attempt to strengthen ties between the two nations.

During the visit, Harris urged countries not to tolerate bullying by China in the South China sea.

In a statement by Japans Defense Ministry the Ministry stated that Kishi and Giang agreed on the importance of maintaining freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region as well as cooperation in various areas of defense including cybersecurity.

Without identifying any country by name, Kishi asserted Japans strong opposition to any unilateral attempts to change the status quo by coercion or any activities that escalate tensions, in the South China Sea, referring to Chinas increasingly aggressive posturing in the area.

The deal with Vietnam is the 11th partner to date that Japan has signed a defense equipment and technology deal with. Japan is looking to expand its military cooperation with nations beyond the United States and has signed similar deals with Britain and Australia as well as the Philippines and Indonesia.
Governor of Massachusetts Charlie Baker, a Republican, activated the National Guard on Sept. 13 to help fill a shortage of school bus drivers in his state that has left some school divisions resorting to offering families substantial cash benefits to drive their kids to class.

In a Press Release by Bakers office, the Governor authorized the deployment of as many as 250 members for the task, noting 90 will begin immediate training on Sept. 14 for the role.

The Guardsmen will complete vehicle training and meet the statutory requirements of a class of vehicles known as School Pupil Transport Vehicles (7D) under Massachusetts law.

In the states manual for 7D, it defines the class as a passenger vehicle with a Gross Vehicle Weight under 10,000 pounds that can seat 10 passengers or less, meaning Guardsmen will likely be transporting students via small cargo vans rather than the archetypal yellow machines.

Examples of Student Pupil Transport Vehicles (7D). (Image: Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles)

An article by the Wall Street Journal says districts across the country are facing a driver shortage, noting a decline in personnel after, Some drivers resigned over pandemic-related safety concerns or new Covid-19 vaccination requirements.

The article also says Massachusetts school districts have been trying to recruit drivers in advance of the new school year, citing the Boston Public Schools district as saying only 57 percent of busses arrived on time during the first day of classes.

However, that statistic was up from 43 percent a year earlier.

A blog post by Hop Skip Drive, a service that provides alternative transport to school children, attributes the driver shortage to low pay, part time hours, a barrier to entry created by the Commercial Drivers License (CDL) requirement, and a training period that can last as long as 12 weeks.

The service also notes that many drivers have simply retired in response to the pandemic, while others left for positions in other industries after being affected by the impact of extended school closures combined with driver shortages in other markets.

In a press briefing the same day, Gov. Baker said the shortage wasnt caused by a lack of vehicle hardware, but by a lack of professionals who have a CDL, an accreditation National Guard members have.

Baker also said the federal government will pay for the Guardsmen because the expenditure is classified as a COVID-related issue.

The trend is neither new nor isolated to Massachusetts. In August, Pittsburgh Public Schools District sought to postpone the opening day of classes by two weeks because of a 6,000 seat shortage.

In Chicago, 73 drivers quit the night before the first day of classes after Chicago Public Schools (CPS) imposed an Oct. 15 vaccination requirement on drivers. In response, the district distributed $1,000 up front followed by an additional $500 per month to parents to cover Lyfts or Ubers, according to Business Insider.

While that sum may seem sizable, one parent told a CBS affiliate in Chicago she paid Lyft $36 to drive her son, a special needs student, nine miles when no bus was available to return him home after she dropped him off the same morning.

CPS confirmed in a statement that the rush of resignations was likely driven by the vaccination requirements.

In Delaware, one charter district is paying parents $700 per child, per year, to take transportation into their own hands.

According to CBS News, the shortage is turning into a bonanza for potential drivers, citing $1,000 signing bonuses for drivers in Vermont, $3,000 signing bonuses in Connecticut, and a $27 per hour wage in addition to a $2,000 signing bonus in New York.

The outlet says the average national wage for drivers is only $16 per hour.

In a Sept. 2 statement issued by the Boston School Bus Drivers Union, they said the bus company had dumped 100 additional routes that werent present the year prior on the drivers at the last moment

Weve heard of no additional schools nor an increase in the student population, said the Union.

It would appear that it was the result of mismanagement and incompetent routing. By their own admission at the table today, they routed children who did not require transportation, some who have graduated, some who have moved.

The Union also alleged that the City of Boston has contracted with additional bus companies for some number of public charter schools in violation of their agreement with our Union.

In August, research published by the New York Times in conjunction with Stanford University found kindergarten enrollment was down by more than 340,000 students in the 33 states examined. The data found schools in lower income communities or that imposed heavy pandemic measures on students had a greater decrease in enrollments.

For Massachusetts, a March article by the Foundation for Economic Education found, using U.S. Census data, that homeschooling stats skyrocketed in the state, going from 1.5 percent in the spring of 2020 to 12.1 percent by the fall.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yis Asia tour this month following visits to the same region by two U.S. officials will intensify a superpower tug-of-war. Analysts say smaller countries can get a bounty of assistance from both China and the United States as long as they avoid offending Beijing.

Countries in Asia stand to get military equipment and training from Washington along with economic aid from Beijing, which is already building core infrastructure in much of Eurasia. Both nations are passing out COVID-19 vaccinations. Smaller, sometimes impoverished nations stand to be rewarded by both sides unless they get too cozy with Washington, scholars believe.

This soft power competition between the U.S. and China has some benefits to the smaller countries where they can be an object of courting in the soft power competition, but at the same time the room for maneuver for them is also increasingly narrowed, said Alexander Vuving, professor at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Hawaii, a U.S. Department of Defense institute.

Wang on Friday reached Vietnam, his first of four stops, to discuss trade, economic ties and political trust. Vietnam said it is taking its relations with China as a top priority in its foreign policy. This may cause tension with the U.S. which, since 2017, has pushed for a stronger partnership with Hanoi.

The Chinese foreign ministers visit coincided with a deal Vietnam signed with Japan to allow for exports of Japanese defense equipment and technology. Vietnams acquisition of these goods appears to be in response to Chinas growing aggressiveness and influence in the region.

The United States looks to Asia for allies in checking the expansion of China, though analysts say it is not known for punishing smaller countries that hew toward Beijing.

Vaccine diplomacy

Wang pledged 3 million COVID-19 vaccine doses after the U.S. government offered 1 million new doses in August. The U.S. also agreed to set up a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention regional office in Hanoi. Vietnams case shows a competitive flavor between superpowers, said Yun Sun, co-director of the East Asia program at the Stimson Center in Washington.

Over the weekend Wang took another 3 million doses to Cambodia, which also accepted a $270 million grant from China, the VOA Khmer service reported. Cambodia already leans strongly toward China over the United States, Vuving said, and Wang hopes to lock in that preference.

The Balancing act

In Singapore on Monday, Wang said on his ministrys website that China hopes to deepen practical cooperation. Both China and the United States see Singapore as a neutral, sometimes analytical force in Asia, with China particularly happy when the city-state calls for calm, Sun said.

Vietnam and Singapore have achieved a balancing act between superpowers, Vuving said. Earlier this month, China deepened bonds with the Philippines through an aid pledge after the Southeast Asian state agreed to restore a Visiting Forces Agreement with the U.S. government, an analyst told VOA.

U.S. forces have helped train Filipino counterparts for any potential operations in the South China Sea, parts of which Manila and Beijing dispute.

Consequences of US ties

South Korea, which Wang visited Tuesday and Wednesday, shows what China can do when a country veers too close to the United States, said Stephen Nagy, senior associate professor of politics and international studies at International Christian University in Tokyo.

After Seoul agreed with Washington to install a missile detection system that might see into China as well as its archrival North Korea, in March 2017, Beijing banned package tours to South Korea and caused a double-digit percentage decline in Chinese visits.

China also has engaged in economic coercion against Australia and Taiwan when once friendly ties became strained, Nagy added.

This month South Korea became one of the worlds few countries with the capability to fire ballistic missiles from extremely quiet submarines. This is part of a strategic arsenal that will cause concern in China given Seouls longstanding alliance with Washington, said Steven Kim, a visiting research fellow with the Jeju Peace Institute in South Korea.

Wang will probably talk to Korean counterparts about health and economic cooperation with stern implicit comment that it should value its economic ties with China, Nagy forecast.

I think that the overall diplomacy is one that would be characterized by trying to produce constructive engagement, but of course, telling states that Wang Yi will be visiting that they need to proceed carefully in terms of the kind of relationships theyre building with the United States, he said.

Back-to-back diplomacy

Wangs visit follows trips by U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in July to Singapore, Vietnam and the Philippines as well as U.S. Vice President Kamala Harriss trip to Vietnam and Singapore last month.

U.S. and Chinese officials have done back-to-back diplomacy in the past, including the Chinese defense ministers whirlwind Asia tour a year ago this month following anti-China statements by then-U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo.

The recent flurry of visits shows a growing Sino-U.S. rivalry, Sun said. For smaller countries to maximize the benefits and minimize the risks, thats going to be hard because with great power competition in mind, neither Beijing nor Washington is leaving stones unturned to push for their own agenda, she said.
As the delta variant of COVID-19 has surged through Vietnam over the past two months, the countrys central provinces have endured the strictest lockdown measures to date.

As of Tuesday, the country had recorded 624,547 confirmed cases and 15,660 deaths, according to the John Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.

Both foreigners and locals have been complaining that food and water supplies have been mishandled because of restrictions on motorbike delivery people known locally as shippers. When the full lockdown was announced three days in advance it caused people to rush to stock up at local markets.

'Directive 16'

On July 22, the government issued Directive 16, an official notice to follow stay-at-home orders, for the coastal city of Da Nang. Under the new directive, residents couldn't leave their homes. Non-essential businesses were shut, food shipping stopped and residents were banned from exiting Da Nang without official written permission.

Ward leaders were mobilized to the various neighborhoods, enforcing curfews and issuing order forms to residents for food and water deliveries. If residents were in green zones, they were allowed out during a two-hour period but only in close proximity to their homes. Some ward bosses provided free groceries consisting of a few different vegetables and instant noodles.

Supermarket aisles emptied, and anxiety about a Wuhan-style lockdown was starting to collectively set in. Expatriates and locals have been panicking and venting their frustrations in online forums.

Why wasnt there a concrete plan for food supply chains if outbreaks were to get this bad, thats what I am most angry about, said Brian Edwards, a British national whose name has been changed for privacy. Because of an existing respiratory problem, Edwards was afraid to go out into crowded spaces such as supermarkets and is relying on local contacts to help him receive food.

In August, Da Nang color-coded its neighborhoods based on infection rate data and provided an online map. All wards underwent mass COVID-19 testing every three days in spaces where social distancing was not possible and people became concerned these might become superspreader events.

Vaccine availability an issue

Until recently, Vietnam had received widespread acclaim for its handling of COVID-19, but a slow vaccine rollout has become its Achilles heel. There is a consensus that Vietnamese authorities relied too heavily on donated vaccines as opposed to buying them.

Most local people want the vaccine in Vietnam  maybe not the Chinese-made Sinopharm  but the rollout of any vaccines has been too slow, and you know, people just follow orders and rarely say anything critical about the top, said Nguyen Tung, a Da Nang local, whose name has been changed to protect his privacy.

Tung thinks the government is showing signs of strain in communicating information to the public and the strict lockdowns could continue into next year, especially in Ho Chi Minh. He says the authorities will eventually need to stop the strict lockdowns and let the country move toward natural immunity while allowing the economy to open back up.

Some people are worried the authorities might be stockpiling vaccines and money might go into the wrong hands. Vaccine scams save already emerged, with some people being overcharged for the shots or receiving fake vaccines. As of September, less than 4% of Vietnams adult population has received two shots, and 16.5% have received a single shot. Much of the vaccine rollout has been concentrated in Ho Chi Minh, which has the highest case rate nationwide. Military personnel have been dispatched to the city to manage the lockdown there.

Many foreigners marooned in Da Nang have encountered problems renewing their tourist visas. At the same time, they are also finding it difficult to leave the country because of the strict lockdown and lack of domestic and international flights.

As of Tuesday, leaving the central provinces of Vietnam requires flight tickets, a COVID-19 test, and a written letter of permission to leave from an embassy or city police authorization. Those leaving need to hire a private car to drive them to Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh, depending on the departing city. The cost is roughly 7.5 million dong ($330) per person if ride-shared, and the journey itself can take up to 24 hours depending on traffic and the time required to pass through provincial checkpoints.

In Facebook groups, people have been lamenting that visa agents are overcharging them for extending their visas or local immigration officials making them pay excessive overstay fines at the airport. Expatriates main gripes include lack of communication or miscommunication between the government and foreigners residing in Vietnam and the ever-changing rules.

They (immigration officials) are so corrupt, they will try to make money from you in any way possible, wrote one foreigner on Facebook about his recent exit experience.

There is no reliable information, nobody knows whats going on and they are making it impossible to leave, said Mark Warth, an Australian national who is desperate to leave Vietnam with his wife. His name has been changed to protect his privacy.

The dearth of reliable information has likely prompted Vietnamese authorities to implement a new hotline for foreigners in Da Nang; however, responses have been either slow or nonexistent.

Most expatriates in Da Nang are English teachers. Due to the closure of many local schools and the recent worldwide termination of most foreign teaching contracts with online Chinese schools, many foreign teachers are struggling financially. And the situation for the poorest locals has worsened as the Vietnamese economy slows.

Many local people are starving and havent had paid work for a long time, said Nga Hanh, a local woman working as a consultant in Da Nang whose name has been changed to protect her privacy.

Hanh has a brother who works for the government. His salary has been slashed in half since last year, but he says he is one of the lucky ones to still have a job.

Some of my friends in the tourism industry havent worked for over a year, Hanh said.

Her sister, a nurse, has been forced to stay in the hospital and work 24-hour shifts since the latest lockdown began, and she isnt being paid for overtime.

It must be so terrible for the really poor people here in my country right now. Nobody takes care of the poor people adequately, said Hanh.
The top U.S. military leader, fearful that former President Donald Trump could "go rogue" in the final weeks of his White House tenure, acted unilaterally to assure China that the U.S. would not launch an attack during Trump's last days in office, according to a new book.

In two secret phone calls, General Mark Milley, chairman of the Pentagon's Joint Chiefs of Staff, assured his counterpart, Chinese General Li Zuocheng of the People's Liberation Army, that the United States would not attack, according to the account in "Peril," a book about the last days of Trump's presidency, by longtime Washington Post investigative reporter Bob Woodward and one of the newspaper's veteran political reporters, Robert Costa.

The book is scheduled for release next week, but the Post, CNN and other news outlets excerpted details on Tuesday.

The book says Milley made one of the calls on October 30, 2020, four days before Trump lost his reelection bid to Democrat Joe Biden. The other came on January 8, 2021, two days after hundreds of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in a failed effort to thwart lawmakers from certifying Biden's election victory.

With Trump making belligerent comments about China, Milley told the authors he was prompted to assure Li that the U.S. was not preparing to attack.

"General Li, I want to assure you that the American government is stable, and everything is going to be okay," Milley told him, according to the book. "We are not going to attack or conduct any kinetic operations against you."

In the second call, Milley told Li, "We are 100 percent steady. Everything's fine. But democracy can be sloppy sometimes."

According to the book, Milley made the second call because he believed Trump, enraged at his loss, had suffered a mental decline after the November 3 outcome  a view Milley shared with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, an opposition Democratic leader and longtime Trump critic.

The authors obtained a transcript of a call between Pelosi and Milley in which Pelosi told the general, "He's crazy. You know he's crazy," referring to Trump.

After the rioting at the Capitol, in which more than 600 people have been charged so far, Milley worried that Trump could "go rogue," the authors recounted.

"You never know what a president's trigger point is," Milley told his senior staff, according to the book.

Milley summoned senior military officers to review the procedures for launching nuclear weapons. Milley said that only the president, as commander in chief, could give the order for a nuclear attack, but that he, Milley, also had to be involved.

According to the book, Milley asked each of the high-ranking officials to affirm that they understood his role, in what he considered an "oath."

Woodward and Costa wrote that others in the U.S. government also shared Milley's concern about Trump's demeanor upon losing the election.

Central Intelligence Agency Director Gina Haspel reportedly told Milley, "We are on the way to a right-wing coup."

In the end, Trump left Washington without attending Biden's inauguration and did not launch any last-minute overseas attacks. But to this day, he regularly asserts falsely that he was cheated out of reelection by voter fraud in numerous states.

Trump said he is considering campaigning for another White House term in the 2024 election.

The book also recounts how former Vice President Mike Pence struggled with Trump's demand that Pence refuse to affirm the election outcome during the January 6 certification at the Capitol.

The authors wrote that Pence talked with former Vice President Dan Quayle, who oversaw the certification of the 1992 election when he was on the losing ticket. But Quayle assured Pence he had no choice but to certify Biden's victory, since the outcome had been confirmed in key political battleground states after numerous recounts and unsuccessful court challenges.

Trump and Biden declined to be interviewed for the book. There was no immediate reaction from Trump about the accounts of his actions in the final weeks of his presidency as related in the book.


Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama have launched Welcome.US, an organization aimed to help bring Afghan refugees to the United States of America.

"We are a nation of welcomers called to meet this extraordinary moment.

The United States has long been a beacon of hope for newcomers from around the world. For generations, millions of Americans who started out as refugees have made incredible contributions to our country. The same will be true for this generation. But first, they need our help," says this organization.

Its managers, supporters and sponsors constitute a real directory of whos who in Washington.

The former Democratic and Republican presidents of the USA are replicating the rhetoric used by Chancellor Angela Merkel; one that won her strong popular support before backfiring on her.
In an interview with Foreign Policy [1], Israels Defense Minister General Benny Gantz acknowledged the merits of US foreign policy on Iran. According to him, the US approach aims to put the Iran nuclear deal back in a box.

Also according to Gantz, Iran would be capable of manufacturing its first atomic bomb in three months. On which, the New York Times [2] upped the ante by suggesting a much shorter timeframe of one week. It would therefore be logical, Ganz continued, to have preventive plans in place, including an Israeli military option, in the event US-Iran negotiations were to fail.

Iran discontinued all nuclear weapons research for 32 years, from Imam Khomeinis fatwa banning weapons of mass destruction (1988) to the assassination of General Qasem Soleimani (2020). Yet US-Israeli propaganda has never stopped accusing Iran of seeking to acquire a nuclear bomb. Even assuming that the Revolutionary Guards revived this program, it seems unlikely they could have brought it to completion in just about 20 months.

Russias permanent representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Ambassador Mikhail Ulyanov, deplored the New York Times allegations, emphasizing that there is zero indication of Iran having embarked on the nuclear military race.
Rick Astley singing This Charming Man with Blossoms tonight at the London Forum. 



pic.twitter.com/Haj8lwwliv  Far Out Magazine (@FarOutMag) September 13, 2021

You know whats just as good, if not better, than the leather running smooth on the passengers seat? The Rickroll King himself, Rick Astley, covering This Charming Man earlier this week in London. Well stop you right there: No snark, this is a terrific cover, with Astley trading in the Smiths kitchen-sink realism for a more jubilant bop about how he, in fact, might be the charming man were looking for. Look at him wave the microphone around! Hes so happy and cute in his Hawaiian shirt! Supporting Astley on instruments is the indie-pop band Blossoms, who also do an astoundingly good job at capturing the complex guitar work of Johnny Marr. (Which, as Smiths fans can tell you, is no easy feat.) Its settled. Hes Morrissey now.
Both North and South Korea tested ballistic missiles on Wednesday, ratcheting up tensions exponentially in what was already one of the most volatile regions on the planet.

Pyongyang fired the first missiles on Wednesday, sending two into waters off the east coast of the Korean Peninsula five minutes apart, at 12:38 p.m. and 12:43 p.m. local time (11:38 p.m. and 11:43 p.m. ET), according to Japan's Coast Guard.

Seoul followed that test less than three hours later, firing a new submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) from the submerged 3,700-ton submarine ROKS Dosan Ahn Changho, South Korea's Defense Ministry said. The missile hit its target accurately, the ministry said without giving more details.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in was present for the test, the ministry said.

South Korea's weapons development, including its missile capabilities, has been picking up speed as the country tries to become less dependent on the United States and more wary of the growing missile program in North Korea.

In May, Moon and US President Joe Biden agreed to end a 40-year-old bilateral agreement that limited the range and payload of South Korean missiles.

North Korea, in a posting from its state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), called the ending of those restrictions on the South a "deliberate and hostile act" by Washington and vowed to "counter the US on the principle of strength for strength."

With the launch, South Korea becomes the seventh military in the world to successfully test and SLBM, the ministry said.

The other SLBM nations are also nuclear powers, but South Korea does not have nuclear weapons.

Earlier, North Korea fired two unidentified ballistic missiles into waters off the east coast of the Korean Peninsula on Wednesday, according to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The missiles were a guided test firing drill of a "railway-borne missile regiment," according to the country's state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). Photos released by state-run newspaper Rodong Sinmun show the missiles launching from the back of a train in a forested area, in an undisclosed location.

South Korea said the missiles covered a distance of about 800 kilometers (500 miles) while going as high as 60 kilometers (37 miles).

Japan's Defense Ministry said the North Korean projectiles are believed to have fallen into waters outside its exclusive economic zone.

Still, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga called the North Korean launches "outrageous," adding they "threaten the peace and security of our country and region."

While the US military's Indo-Pacific Command in Hawaii said the North Korean test did not pose any "immediate threat" to the US or its allies, it said in a statement that the launch "highlights the destabilizing impact of the DPRK's illicit weapons program."

Wednesday's missile tests from both North and South Korea came just a few hours after Moon met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Seoul.

China exerts substantial influence over North Korea, and during the meeting, Moon said Pyongyang has not been responding to efforts by Seoul and Washington to engage in dialogue concerning the situation on the peninsula.

North Korea's ballistic missile tests Wednesday are Pyongyang's first since Biden took office in January and come just days after Pyongyang said it tested long-range cruises missiles on Saturday and Sunday.

Pyongyang is barred from testing ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons under international law. Previous such tests have been met with international opprobrium and sanctions from the United Nations Security Council.

Cruise missiles are propelled by jet engines. Much like an airplane, they stay closer to the ground, making them harder to detect. Most cruise missiles are not designed to carry nuclear warheads.

Ballistic missiles by comparison are powered only for a short portion of their flight. They are fired on an arcing path that for longer range versions takes them outside of Earth's atmosphere, and they can handle heavier payloads such as nuclear warheads.

The North Korean military unveiled two new missiles at parades last October and in January. One, which analysts said might be one of the largest in the world, was so big it needed to be put on an 11-axle truck.

But at the North's most recent military parade last week, there were no missiles to be seen, the parade ranks filled instead by armaments of the smaller battlefield variety.

"Some analysts suggested the parade was restrained to allow room for negotiations since it did not feature nuclear-capable weapons or policy pronouncements by Kim Jong Un," said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul. "But North Korea's subsequent missile tests contradict international hopes for dialogue."

On the South Korean side, the SLBM launch was one of a series of military tests performed by the country's military on Wednesday.

It also fired a long-range air-to-surface missile, releasing it from an aircraft, deploying its wings and flying it successfully on target, the ministry said.

That weapon, still in development, is designed to be used by South Korea's FK-21 fighters, stealthy jets that are in the prototype stage.

A statement from South Korea's Agency for Defense Development also said the country had succeeded in developing a new ballistic missile capable of carrying a heavier and stronger warhead. The missile is designed to take out concrete structures and tunnels, the agency said.

"This high-strength ballistic missile will augment our military's peacetime deterrence and in crisis will be used as core arsenal in projecting overwhelming response," the Defense Ministry said.

The ministry said a supersonic cruise missile designed to strike enemy ships was developed as well. The statement called the new supersonic much faster than missiles now in South Korea's inventory and said it will soon be deployed with South Korean military units.

Correction: A previous version of this story misidentified the type of cruise missile developed by South Korea's Agency for Defense Development. It is a supersonic cruise missile.

The-CNN-Wire

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There were three homicides in North Alabama this past weekend.

One of the most recent homicides in our region was in Huntsville. One Huntsville mother knows the feeling of losing someone to a homicide all too well.

Donna Howell lost her soon at the hands of gun violence seven years ago, but the emotions are still raw. She calls losing her son to a homicide her worst nightmare.

Now, she wants to see changes in the judicial system.

"Losing your child is the hardest thing you will ever have to do, but I think even harder is losing your child and no one stepping up for justice," said Howell.

Larry Flaccamio was shot and killed in his neighborhood. It's something Howell struggles with each and every day.

"It was just natural for me to say, get up, and then I looked into his eyes and his eyes always danced with mischief, and there was just a blank stare and you see that every night," said Howell.

A number of families in North Alabama are grappling with a similar loss.

"They call us survivors but we're victims," said Howell.

Howell said oftentimes, homicides are being overlooked.

"What I want to see are some laws being changed, the victims being treated more like a victim, rather than just being pushed aside," said Howell.

Howell recommends talking to someone if you're struggling after losing a loved one to homicide. The Homicide Survivors Program is a resource for individuals as they start their grieving process.

Director Kim Crawford said she has seen an increase in homicide cases this year.

"They've certainly gone up this year," said Crawford. "Madison County, Morgan County, they've certainly been in the spotlight in the past few months."

Howell said you never fully heal when you lose a child, but there are ways to remember your loved ones.

Howell created the "Larry Flaccamio Foundation," in her son's honor. The foundation is designed to help kids and murder victims' families. The night Flaccamio passed, Howell said her son shared his goals of creating a similar foundation. Now, Howell is making sure his dreams live on.

Sept. 25 is National Remembrance Day of murder victims. Howell said she will line her fence with flags for Huntsville homicide victims.
Big changes are coming for a treatment aimed at helping COVID-19 patients avoid a stay in the hospital.

The change involves just how much monoclonal antibody treatment Alabama will be getting.

monoclonal antibody monoclonal antibody

We were told the state will get enough to treat everyone who needs it, but the way it's distributed is different.

The infusion treatment is already meant for a very specific group of people who are sick with COVID, and you can only get it within 10 days of being infected.

The state had a set number for allocation but, we were told last week, that number is changing some.

Dr. Aruna Arora is the Madison County Medical Society President and she told us now the state department of health will distribute based on the need.

It was initially going straight to the provider.

"There are about six to seven states that will continue to be ahead in the need of demand for this treatment, but it should just make us realize the monoclonal antibodies are here for us if we need the treatment. But, really, the only way through this is for us to get the vaccination," said Dr. Arora.

Dr. Arora says the hospitals are being overrun by people who aren't vaccinated and that is the whole reason we are seeing the snowball effect with everything else.

The treatment is available now at select locations like Huntsville Hospital, but they said the biggest thing to change is doctors will filter who is at most high risk first and move down a tiered system.
An investigation is underway after a man in the Arab Police Departments custody died after being taken to the hospital Wednesday morning.

Zendell Ellis King Jr. Was arrested by Arab Police Tuesday night after citizens called in about a man yelling belligerently and crawling in a drainage ditch in the 500 block of North Brindlee Mountain Parkway.

When officers arrived at the scene, contact was made with the 37-year-old King as he was attempting to swim in the ditch.

Medical personnel determined he was under the influence, police said.

Once he was released by medical personnel, King was arrested for public intoxication.

He was transported to the Arab Police Department where he later appeared to have shallow breathing.

King was immediately provided medical assistance, police said, and transported by ambulance to Marshall Medical Center North where he was later pronounced dead.

The cause of death is still under investigation.

As is normal procedure with in-custody deaths, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency is conducting the investigation.
On Tuesday, Athens City Schools held a groundbreaking for the iAcademy at Athens Elementary School.

The new computer science academy will be located on North Madison Street.

The 66,000-square-foot facility will accommodate up to 600 students. Some of the buildings features include 24 regular classrooms, a media center and a renovated gymnasium.

Plans for the new academy date back to 2019. The current iAcademy is located where Athens Middle School used to be.

This is such an exciting day for our district and community. We cant wait for our iAcademy family to move into their beautiful new home" said Athens City School Superintendent Beth Patton.
The Decatur Police Department has arrested a man registered with the New York City Police Department as a sexually violent offender after discovering he was living near a school.

Stephen Deshawn Skipwith, 50, was arrested Monday and charged with adult sex offender - failure to register upon entering the state and adult sex offender - prohibited residence location.

On Aug. 20, 2021, police received a tip that Skipwith, a registered sex offender from New York City, was living in Decatur.

Decatur police said they learned Skipwith was registered with the New York City Police Department as a sexually violent offender in which his victim was a 14-year-old female.

Detectives checked the address where Skipwith was staying and discovered it was within 2,000 feet of an elementary school as well as multiple child care facilities, police said.

As part of adult sex offender registration requirements, a sex offender who declares they will be establishing a residence in Alabama is required by law to register with local law enforcement immediately upon entering the state. Skipwith failed to register with law enforcement upon his arrival, police said.

Skipwith was booked in the Morgan County Correctional Facility.

Bond was set at $5,000.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey says Facebook temporarily banned her campaign page on Tuesday.

But, it appears the page actually was incorrectly flagged as an imposter account.

In a statement sent shortly after noon Tuesday, Ivey said the temporary disappearance of her page had to do with her comments about President Joe Bidens push to mandate Covid-19 vaccinations for employees at private businesses.

Facebook banned my campaign page this morning. We fought back and won. Evidently, theyre upset that I said Im standing in the way of President Biden to protect Alabamians from this outrageous overreach by the federal government, Iveys statement said.

If big tech thinks they can silence us and that I wont fight back, then honey, they havent met me. They have another thing coming. Im not backing down. I never will. Were fighting Washington. Well fight big tech, too."

A Facebook spokesperson said that's just not the case.

Earlier today, the governors campaign page was mistakenly restricted for less than an hour for reasons unrelated to any posted content," a Facebook compan spokesperson told WAAY 31.

"When we learned of our mistake, the page was quickly restored.

Ivey has been vocal in her disagreement with Bidens plan.

When the president said last week that governors opposed to the vaccination plan should get out of his way, Ivey replied: You bet Im standing in the way. And if he thinks hes going to move me out of the way, hes got another thing coming. Im standing as strong as a bull for Alabama against this outrageous Washington overreach. Bring it on.

That, too, was posted to her campaign page.
Get ready for sticker shock in the grocery store!

Food prices are going up despite US consumer prices falling to the lowest they've been in seven months.

"Cook from anywhere from two people to nine to 10," Becky Meeks, a shopper, said.

With a big family like hers she says she's noticed the price increase. There's not much she can do but deal with it for now. She'll likely have to for the next several months as economists anticipate the increases continuing through the end of the year.

"You know, everybody's nervous. You're always nervous about the unknown, but I just have to tell you I'm just trusting the Lord," Meeks said.

For people with only themselves to feed, the increase in pricing is something they're seeing and having to manage.

"Definitely meat. Definitely meat. It's gone up about one or two bucks so that's definitely my biggest surprise," Miles Whitmore, a shopper, said.

But, like Meeks, Whitmore is also having to just dish out the extra cash.

"It just comes as a shock, but I think really in today's economy you're just kind of used to having things going up. It's just like gas. It comes and it goes so it's just something you kind of get used to," he said.

While both Meeks and Whitmore told me they haven't had to adjust their grocery lists yet because of the higher pricing, that may be something they'll have to do in the future.

"What can a month bring? October's going to be an interesting month I think for all of us," Meeks said.

Major supermarkets like Kroger are also noting a price increase, and as we approach the holiday season the rise in grocery prices is something economists being monitored closely.
Madison County is starting to see a slight decline in Covid-19 patients.

Right now, the county is dealing with 200 inpatients sick with the virus.

WAAY-31 spoke to Huntsville Hospital's CEO about what this means as far as wait times and access to the ER.

The CEO says in the last two weeks we've seen a decline of nearly 10% as far as the amount of Covid inpatients.

Despite that decline, Madison County hospitals are still inundated with unvaccinated people and the number of people in the ICU is still not going down.

The hospital says it has taken the necessary steps to help Covid patients as well as people dealing with medical emergencies.

"For example we've canceled our inpatient elective surgery to reallocate those resources so we can respond to an emergency when it comes in. Emergency response teams and hospitals are very good at triaging things. So when you have the most emergent condition: a trauma, a stroke or a heart attack, you're going to go to the front of the line and everybody is going to make it work," said Jeff Samz, Huntsville Hospital CEO.

Samz says getting to the end of the pandemic requires getting more people vaccinated.

The hospital continues to offer vaccinations Monday through Thursday at Huntsvilles John Hunt Park.

With the shot being offered at several various places, it being free and it saving lives, health leaders say it's not about just a singular person.

It's about our city, county and state as a whole, coming together to help save the country.

Vaccinations are being held at hospitals, some schools, urgent cares and more.

Even though we were starting to see an increase of people rolling their sleeves up, for the last 6 weeks our hospital system is still stressed with Covid-19 patients.

With virtually no space in the emergency room and the waiting rooms being full, doctors are saying now is the time we come together as a nation.

"We appreciate that people are wearing their masks in the community, by taking this seriously and coming together knowing that citizenship is not just your rights but also part of us being responsible is really what's going to help us through this as a state," said Dr. Arora.

Dr. Arora is the president of the Alabama Medical Association and she says she understands everyone is tired, but until we get more people vaccinated, we will continue to see negative impacts all around.

In the press conference, city health leaders also stated how they want to give a huge shout out to the medical staff because they know it's been a trying year.

They beg you, if you care about them, to do your part and get vaccinated.
The Madison County Sheriff's Office said it will have an increased presence at Sparkman High School on Wednesday due to a possible threat.

The Madison County School System contacted the sheriff's office on Tuesday about a possible threat found in a bathroom at the school.

"The result of the investigation is the written message does not appear to be credible," according to a tweet from the sheriff's office.

The office has not said what the threat included.

Stay with WAAY 31 for updates
A Moulton teenager has died from injuries received after being hit by a vehicle.

Lawrence County Coroner Scott Norwood identified the victim as Austin Todd Kerby. He was a senior at Lawrence County High School.

The 17-year-old was crossing Alabama 157 about 4:30 p.m. Monday and hit by a 1985 Peterbilt, according to the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency.

He was flown to Huntsville Hospital with life-threatening injuries. He died Tuesday.

The crash, which took place about five miles north of Moulton, is under investigation.
Stacey Cagle was 4-years-old when her dad, Crossville Police Officer Stacie Thompson, was murdered by Danny Roland Tucker on September 13, 1986.

Tucker was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole.

Stevie Thompson (Courtesy Thompson Family) Stevie Thompson (Courtesy Thompson Family)

Thompsons daughter talking only with WAAY 31 about what her family and their supporters around the country are doing to try to keep her dads killer in a jail cell.

Tucker has already been up for parole consideration three times, all denied so far. He has another hearing coming next year. And the murdered officer's family and their supporters are already mobilizing to keep his killer locked up.

Even though it has been 35 years, it is still very hard, something we think about every day, Cagle said Tuesday. It tore our family apart, I was very much a daddys girl, so for him to be stripped away from us like that was very hard.

Over the years, the family left behind focused on one thing: Keeping Tucker in jail for life.

They have an army of supporters behind them, complete strangers connected by the thin blue line.

They send letters to every parole hearing board requesting that he never is given parole and they dont know what that does for our family, how great that feels, Cagle says.

The Officer Down Memorial page is a nonprofit helping the family keep Thompson's case from being forgotten. For Cagle, it is welcomed help, but something she still doesnt understand why they even need.

With this kind of crime, he committed that he even has the possibility of parole, I cant understand why hes in a minimum security with the crime he committed it just I cant make sense of that.

With another parole hearing set for next year, the familys mission for justice continues. 35 years later.

We will be there and plan to go and protest every time we have to.
Pfizer shared a timeline of when a COVID vaccine may be available for kids under 12.

On Tuesday, Pfizer's chief financial officer said safety and efficacy data for kids 5 to 11 should be ready by the end of the month.

The company plans to file that data with the FDA in early October.

Pfizer is still conducting its Phase 3 study for kids under 5, but they hope to also submit that data next month depending on that study.

However, the FDA is warning that some parents are getting inpatient and giving their younger kids the COVID vaccine before it's even authorized.

Dr. Karen Landers with the state health department explained that when the Pfizer vaccine got full FDA approval some doctors started administering the vaccine off label. She warns against that because the dosage amount is different for younger kids.

A UAB expert explained the current dosage being studied for kids 5 through 11 is only a third of a normal adult dose; while for kids under 5, the dosage is only a tenth of a normal dose.

Dr. Landers urges parents to follow the guidance and to not get ahead of themselves.

"It has not been approved. It has not been studied. It has not been authorized. We might expect same, similar or even more of the symptoms due to the dosage of the vaccine," Dr. Landers said.

She adds that since no vaccine is available for younger kids, the best thing they can do is continue taking the necessary precautions like wearing a mask, social distancing and keeping good hygiene to avoid getting COVID-19.
Calls grow for urgent action to save Rome's pines from killer parasite.

Rome's umbrella pine trees are at risk of dying - or being cut down before they die - due to a sap-eating parasite called the pine tortoise scale or toumeyella parvicornis.

The deadly effects of the insect are already plain to see on whole swathes of the city's estimated 50,000 pines, whose foliage has a burnt appearance.

This is due to the highly-invasive bug which feeds off the sap of trees and causes the spread of a sooty black mould, leading to extreme needle loss.

The pine fights back by generating new needles which weakens the tree and exposes it to new attacks by the parasite. It is a vicious cycle that  if untreated  can kill the exhausted tree within two years.

News of the serious threat to Rome's stone pines is starting to make international headlines as calls grow for urgent action to save the trees before it is too late.

The city administration has allocated 1.2 million in funds, on top of an additional half a million euro pledged from the Lazio region, to tackle the parasite which arrived in Italy from North America in 2015.

To date the city has treated around 5,000 trees, according to Rome's councillor for green policies Laura Fiorini, with a recent focus on pines around the Baths of Caracalla, Castel S. Angelo and the Janiculum.

In the meantime Romans continue to take matters into their own hands, organising fundraisers to tackle the non-indigenous parasite, using both organic and chemical treatments.

There are also numerous private and public operations underway to tackle the insect which first arrived in Rome in 2018.

Alongside the endotherapy technique - which involves the tree being injected with a phyto-drug (a pharmaceutical product of plant origin) to eliminate disease - local residents groups are organising biological projects to release thousands of ladybirds into parks in north Rome.

Environmentalists say it is now a race against time to save Rome's iconic skyline.
Tramjazz offers a unique combination of music, food and sightseeing in Rome.

If youre looking for a really original way to get to know Rome, if you want to discover the secret of the dreamy atmosphere that makes it so truly unique and inimitable, try a trip on Tramjazz.

The Stanga 1947 model isnt just any old tram; its a legendary vehicle, the first bendy-tram in the capital, the jewel of the historical collection of ATAC, the citys urban transport company.

Stanga 1947

But it still works perfectly, just like it did on an October morning seven decades ago when it started its run through the Rome streets along route 37 from Piazza Bainsizza to Piazza Cavour. And now, completely restored and restructured, this tram has been turned into an elegant mobile restaurant and concert hall.

Our date is at 21.00 on the platform at Piazza di Porta Maggiore. Even the traffic in this busy square cant veil the charm of this somewhat mysterious place, the ideal starting point for our Roman adventure.

Todays Porta Maggiore marks the spot where eight of the 11 aqueducts converged to supply water to ancient Rome. The gate was originally a monumental element of the Claudia aqueduct and then around 272 AD it was included in the city walls by Emperor Aurelian.

Magic rituals

Beneath the square an underground place of worship from the first century BC is hidden, probably a neopythagorean temple and the site of magic rituals. Up against the city walls, just a few metres from our meeting point, there is the famous and unusual tomb of Eurysaces the Baker, dated somewhere around 30 BC, with its impressive shape of an ancient oven.

Right on time the Tramjazz pulls up. Through the windows we can see the candle-lit tables. Its hard to hide our surprise at the contrast between the other trams and city buses crossing the square and this one which seems like the carriage of some epic Orient Express of bygone days. We clamber on board this almost imaginary vehicle where we are welcomed with an aperitif, and set off at once on our trip.

Our route takes us through the S. Lorenzo quarter, cradle of Romes bohemian lifestyle, along the edge of the university village, down Viale Regina Margherita and Viale Liegi, crossing the Trieste and Salario quarters. The tram glides through the city at just the right, gentle pace.

Through the windows we cant hear the citys noise; we only see the shimmering scenes of a dreamlike metropolis, constantly confusing and transforming reality and fiction, memory and present, in a seductive and changing tale.

Wine

Our first course is served during this initial stage of our nocturnal exploration. The dinner, provided by Il S. Michele restaurant, is made up of typical dishes and produce from Rome and Lazio. The wine list boasts the best regional labels, as well as a selection of selected wines from other areas of Italy. At the time of writing, the La Querciola winery is offering products from the Langhe , one of the Bel Paeses best-known wine producing regions.

After Piazza Ungheria and on the edge of Parioli, we begin the gentle drop of Via Aldrovandi towards Piazza Thorwaldsen in Valle Giulia, deep in the green oasis of the historical park of Villa Borghese.

There is a pause in front of the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna: the Tramjazz stage-lights come on and we enjoy the first part of the concert. The live music takes on a truly captivating character, everything snug and like chamber music. Some of the best-known jazz musicians from the Italian and international scene play on board the Tramjazz.

Among those who often take part are Lutte Berg, Gabriele Coen, Valbilene Coutinho, Maurizio Giammarco, Alessandro Gwiss, Max Ionata, Jed Levy, Gabriele Mirabassi, Tony Monaco, Jim Mullen, Gege Munari, Jim Porto, Michael Rosen, Alex Sipiagin, Bill Smith, Joyce Yuille, and many others.

Second course

At the end of this first scene, the tram sets off again in the opposite direction, slowly threading its way through the city, while we enjoy the second course of the dinner. The waiters are discreet and polite as they pass between the tables, refilling our glasses and serving the courses with the grace of dancers or circus artists.

We cross Piazza di Porta Maggiore once more and carry on to the Basilica of S. Croce in Gerusalemme, with its well-known, late baroque facade, glowing in the moonlight. It takes its name from one of the Catholic Churchs most famous relics: fragments of Christs cross, which as tradition holds were found by St Helen on Mount Calvary in Jerusalem.

Now we reach Piazza di S. Giovanni in Laterano and roll past the basilica, believed to be the oldest in the west as its foundation was laid 14 years before that of St Peters. The imposing travertine facade, however, was added in 1735 by the architect Alessandro Galilei. We follow Via Labicana towards the Roman Forum as far as the Colosseum, and halt at the platform right in front of the Flavian amphitheatre.

Colosseum

Here we can get off the tram and admire the Colosseum and the Forum, take our photos, compare notes, and share all the romantic sentiment inspired by the setting.

Soon its time to return to our tables: the concert is about to start again and we can concentrate on our new musical adventure. Many different musical themes meet on board Tramjazz: bossa nova, tango, gypsy, klezmer and popular traditions from Italy and Europe, all flowing into the luxuriant field of jazz.

Circus Maximus

Once the concert is over, our trip continues as dessert is served. We pass the edge of Circus Maximus in the valley between the Palatine and Aventine hills. This was planned for sport events, especially for the Roman chariot races, sometimes as many as 100 in a day, lasting from early morning until dusk. Julius Caesar often watched the competitions, but only in order to be seen in public; in fact he was totally uninterested in the sport, to the point that he usually brought something to read. Nero, on the other hand, apparently hardly did anything else, and was himself a charioteer.

Our route takes us to the Cestia Pyramid. Over 36 metres high, it was built between 18 and 12 BC as a tomb for Caius Cestius of the Epulones, and is a sign of the fashionable Egyptian style which swept Rome in those times, after Egypt had become a province of the empire in 30 BC.

Return journey

Here the Tramjazz circles the square and sets off on its return journey.

Once again we plunge into the Caelian park, easing past the Colosseum, and then drift gently down Via Labicana to return to the platform in Piazza di Porta Maggiore, the end of our itinerary.

Its midnight. Our voyage is over, and we make our farewells. But perhaps we dont yet want to loosen the knot and put an end to this story  perhaps we want to carry on dreaming...

By Antonio Capaccio

This article first appeared in the January 2015 edition of Wanted in Rome. For more details about TramJazz see website. Cover photo Zingarate.

Update: Note that the covid-19 Green Pass is required.
Three former US intelligence operatives have pleaded guilty to assisting the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in its cyber-hacking offensives. Under the plea agreement, the trio will pay a fine and assist the US Department of Justice and the FBI in their continuing investigation.

US citizens Marc Baier, 49, and Ryan Adams, 34, as well as former US citizen Daniel Gericke, 40, are former employees of the US Intelligence Community and the US military. In January 2016, they joined an unnamed UAE-based company after receiving an offer for higher compensation and an expanded budget, according to officials with the Department of Justice.

They were hired as the senior managers of a team known as Cyber Intelligence-Operations, for which they carried out computer network exploitation. Despite being informed numerous times that, under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, their work constituted a defense service requiring a license from the State Departments Directorate of Defense Trade Controls, the trio conducted their work from 2016 to 2019.

A primary aspect of their work was in regard to the development of two zero-click computer hacking and intelligence-gathering systems. The zero-click exploit doesnt require its target to click on or open a malicious file for it to infect their device.

After its development, UAE employees known to the defendants leveraged these exploits to illegally obtain and use credentials for online accounts issued by US companies, and to obtain access to computers, like mobile phones, around the world, including the US.

While not specified in the court documents, Reuters reported the hacking relied on an undisclosed vulnerability in Apples iMessage text messaging software. Its reported the trios efforts allowed them to obtain remote, unauthorized access to any of the tens of millions of smartphones and mobile devices utilizing the operating system.

According to another Reuters report, the technology was developed on behalf of the UAE to spy on political rivals, human rights activists, and journalists. Those whose personal devices were targeted include Turkeys former deputy prime minister, Mehmet Simsek; Qatars Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani; and Omans head of foreign affairs, Yusuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah.

Under the deferred prosecution agreement (DPA), the defendants agreed to cooperate with the continuing investigation and pay a combined fine of more than $1.68 million  Baier, $750,000; Adams, $600,000; and Gericke, $335,000. They will also face restrictions on any future jobs they can hold, and will receive a lifetime ban on US security clearances.

They previously faced charges of conspiracy and violating the Arms Export Control Act and International Traffic in Arms Regulations, as well as two computer fraud charges, according to court documents.

Todays announcement shines a light on the unlawful activity of three former members of the US Intelligence Community and military, said Steven M. DAntuono, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBIs Washington Field Office. These individuals chose to ignore warnings and to leverage their years of experience to support and enhance a foreign governments offensive cyber operations.

These charges and the associated penalties make clear that the FBI will continue to investigate such violations, he continued.

More from us: Hacked!  Browser Password Leads to Military Data Breach

The joint investigation was conducted by the US Attorneys Office for the District of Columbia, the FBIs Washington Field Office, and the Justice Departments National Security Division.
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Charlie Scharf, chief executive officer since late 2019, has said in recent earnings calls that the cap has hurt revenues because the bank has had to prioritize assets in the consumer and commercial bank over the investment bank. Trading assets in the latter shrank almost 17% between the end of 2019 and the middle of this year. Executives had privately hoped that the Fed might remove the restraint later this year; Fed officials saw it remaining until next year or beyond. The bank has declined comment.
The ruling African National Congress decided in December 2017 that expropriation without compensation was among the mechanisms needed to accelerate land reform, as long as it didnt undermine the economy, agricultural production and food security. While it wants to amend Section 25 of the constitution, which deals with property rights, it only controls 58% of the seats in parliament and needs two-thirds of lawmakers to assent to changes. The Economic Freedom Fighters, the third-biggest political party, which has 11% of the seats and also supports expropriation, wanted the state to take custodianship of all land -- a proposition the ANC says would go too far. Parliament has yet to vote on the changes. Lawmakers are processing a separate Expropriation Bill that sets out when land can be seized. Passing it only requires a parliamentary majority, but its application could be challenged on constitutional grounds.
She sat down at the dinner table, and I poured her a glass of wine. She reached over and took a piece of candy that was sitting on top of the cake  and I was okay with that, as her fingers touched only what she was eating. Then she took some frosting off the cake with her finger. I think she saw my eyebrow raise, as she then went and got a spoon.
The celebrities have come too, in droves, mostly to Austin: Westworld star James Marsden, Girl, Wash Your Face author and motivational speaker Rachel Hollis, controversy-courting podcaster Joe Rogan, who recently fell ill with covid-19. Dawsons Creek star James Van Der Beek, his wife, and five children posed for a spread in Austin Life magazine on their new ranch (I felt an energy to Austin, the star said). Actresses Haylie Duff, Becca Tobin and Jamie-Lynn Sigler, who had formed a pandemic pod together, moved their families to Austin as a unit. (You dont pay for parking anywhere, Tobin marveled to the New York Times.) Queer Eye star Jonathan Van Ness was filming a season of his show in Austin, and liked it so much that he and his husband decided to stay. (I had my four cats and was on this lake at an Airbnb, and I was like, Do I love Austin? Is this a liberal bastion in Texas? And it kind of is, he told Self Magazine.)
You dont see them as you kick through the leaves on your hike. You wont see them as you squeeze through an inviting crevice between two boulders to discover whats beyond. Dont look for them as you pedal toward a perfectly placed berm or you may tumble off your bike. Just know that the people responsible for the thrilling ride and the beckoning passageway, the people who plan where you will step and what you will view  they see you. These trail workers are the unseen architects guiding your interaction with the great outdoors.
We do hope that they will consider those who have done the work for years, said Wala Blegay, a staff attorney for the D.C. Nurses Association. She noted that one of the women who was laid off, for example, lived in Southeast and had worked in the community for over 30 years. Somebody like that should be brought back immediately, without question, she said.
I want to begin by saying to the brave women testifying this morning . . . I am deeply and profoundly sorry to each and every one of you, he said. Im especially sorry that there were people at the FBI who had their own chance to stop this monster back in 2015 and failed, and that is inexcusable. It never should have happened, and were doing everything in our power to make sure it never happens again.
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In his Sept 10 op-ed, Lees statue is gone. Its time to dismantle the myth, too. Eugene Robinson, not content with removal of the Robert E. Lee monument, wished to demolish Lees reputation as a good person. The charges he made are distortions, but one charge, that Lee was dishonorable because he was a traitor, was particularly obtuse. Lees defense was that his first loyalty was to his home state, Virginia, and when Virginia seceded, his duty was to follow her. This defense, never tested in court, was plausible. Lee was not tried for treason, probably in part because the federal authorities doubted he could be convicted. Subsequent generations did not regard Lee as a traitor, because he acted on the basis of principle and against his personal interests. If Lee was a traitor, what of George Washington, an officer in the kings army? Was Toussaint LOuverture also a traitor? What of William (Braveheart) Wallace, the leaders of the Easter Rising in Ireland, and the German officers who attempted to assassinate Hitler, all of whom were executed as traitors?
Former interpreters for the British forces in Afghanistan demonstrate last month outside the Home Office in London. (Facundo Arrizabalaga/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)

Many are still in hiding in Afghanistan and hoping to get to Britain.
While Democrats privately express exasperation at both of the holdout senators, several colleagues said that they have become accustomed to Manchins penchant for putting himself into the center of virtually any hot-button negotiation. Sinemas motivations, they said, have been harder to read  and her concerns tougher to predict  but party leaders have had no choice but to take them seriously in the 50-50 Senate.
Some critics have accused Biden of being too slow to use the levers available to him to require that all Americans get vaccines, given how quickly the pandemic would end if more people took them. But others say the president was right to calibrate his actions to the publics sentiment, which has grown more supportive of mandates.
Dont believe this delta variant nonsense, he told worshipers at a July service. If they go through round two and you start showing up all these masks and all this nonsense, Ill ask you to leave. I will ask you to leave. I am not playing these Democrat games up in this church. If you want to social distance, go to First Baptist Church, but dont come to this one.
Amid a broadening crackdown on public debate, Chinas womens rights movement has come under fire as an alleged tool of the West to destabilize the country. In response to Tuesdays court decision, Internet users called Zhou a wolf in sheeps clothing aligned with separatists in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Others said she was under foreign influence. A prominent blogger celebrated the closing of feminist social media accounts and called on the public to sue such bloggers for their unrestrained attacks.
Evergrande Group, once the worlds largest real estate empire and now its most indebted company, is teetering. Chinas authorities will be acutely aware that if it falls, it could bring down its increasingly vulnerable property market and ignite a financial crisis.

At the weekend, hundreds of investors - mainly its own employees - protested at Evergrandes Shenzhen headquarters and other offices in China, demanding redemption of their investments in the companys wealth management products after the group failed to make interest payments and meet withdrawals.

Unstable situation: Property giant China Evergrande is on the brink of collapse, with potential widespread economic consequences. Credit:Bloomberg

As an indication of how parlous the groups situation is, it is offering to either repay 10 per cent of their interest and principal quarterly, or to exchange the debt for property assets.

On Tuesday, in a statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Evergrande detailed the extraordinary pressures mounting on the group, which has about $US89 billion ($122 billion) of debt and more than $US300 billion of total liabilities.
FICTION

Once There Were Wolves

Charlotte McConaghy

The late Barry Lopez once observed that the wolf exerts a powerful influence on the human imagination. It takes your stare and turns it back on you. For Lopez, part of what this reflected gaze revealed was our failure to comprehend that we are not separate from the world, or other species. But it also served as a reminder of the existence of other ways of being, as meaningful in themselves as our own. These failures endure. But in a world now shaped by human activity and defined by hastening ecosystem collapse and extinction, they have acquired a new urgency.

Charlotte McConaghys novel is vivid and raw with feeling. Credit:Emma Daniels

Charlotte McConaghys new novel, Once There Were Wolves, is animated by this reality. Its narrator, scientist Inti Flynn, is head of a project that aims to reintroduce wolves to Scotland. Like the famous Yellowstone rewilding project, Intis project is at one level about environmental repair: wolves control deer numbers, reducing the pressure on seedling trees and allowing the forests to regenerate. But it is also about something deeper: an attempt to regenerate the world, to recover some of its complexity and wonder.

Even before the wolves have been released, Intis project meets with opposition from many of the locals, in particular the farmers. For some, this is simply concern about the safety of their flocks, or fear the wolves might prey upon humans. Others, though, see the wolves and the return of the forest as an affront to their way of life. I want to see glens dotted with sheep and people. People are the lifeblood of a place, declares one farmer early in the book. This mood darkens even further once the wolves are released, and, almost immediately, one of the wolves is killed by a farmer.
Channel Nine is hoping its new show Snackmasters will do for fast food what Lego Masters has done for the humble building block: tap into nostalgia and a staple of everyday life to create a show the whole family can connect with.

Based on a British format, the show was unveiled at the networks upfront presentation on Wednesday and will screen later this year. Nine is the owner of this masthead.

Shot during lockdown, each episode pits two top professional chefs against each other in a competition to recreate popular brand-name snacks, with only their tastebuds and instincts to guide them, before their efforts are judged by a panel of workers from the companies that make the foods.

Fast, food: Snackmasters co-hosts Scott Pickett and Poh Ling Yeow. Credit:Jessica Hromas/Nine

Prior to working on this Id never thought about how a Twistie is made, says high-profile restaurateur Scott Pickett, who co-hosts the show with MasterChef fave Poh Ling Yeow. Its not chefs deconstructing it and doing a restaurant version; theyve got to replicate it as closely as possible, and they cant Google it. Its hard.
A 64-year-old man who has been on the run for almost 30 years after breaking out of jail has handed himself in to police.

Police say Darko Desic, then 35, escaped from Grafton Correctional Centre between 7pm on July 31 and 7am on August 1, 1992.

He allegedly used a hacksaw blade and bolt cutters to free himself.

At the time, efforts to locate him were unsuccessful, and he reportedly lived undetected in Sydneys northern beaches

But on Sunday, Desic arrived at Dee Why police station and gave himself up.
Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size My first trip to Afghanistan was in the winter of 1993. I hid my camera gear in the car as we drove towards the capital, Kabul, avoiding militia roadblocks by driving fast and tossing thousands of Afghani banknotes out the windows, so the soldiers would chase the money and not shoot us. The country was in chaos, a legacy of its communist days and nine-year war with the Soviet Union. Different warring factions had divided the city into a serrated maze of frontlines and trenches. I was bunkered down inside the main hospital. The wounded were arriving in droves, casualties of the shelling. Theres one photo I recall most, the one I chose not to take. I saw a gurney and a child underneath a sheet. I lifted the sheet and to my horror, saw no face except one eye. Momentarily turning around, I saw the childs parents looking at me. I gently lay the sheet back over the body. Over 20 years of travelling to Afghanistan, I always sought to tell the human stories of Afghans and the attempts by many brave Allied soldiers to build a better life for them after the Taliban tyranny. In 2005, I was embedded with a US Army Psychological Operations Unit in Kandahar. After six weeks of missions with American soldiers, my flak jacket and helmet felt like part of my body as we rumbled out of Kandahar Airfield inside a packed Humvee. Above my head, AC/DCs Hells Bells was blaring out of a loudspeaker; later it was Rage Against the Machine and even the Star Wars theme. They played the music to annoy their enemy: Its the only way we can find the Taliban, my psych-ops guide explained. Otherwise you just dont see them. One marine described it to me: Its like chasing ghosts. These shadows pop out of caves and attack you, and then they drop their guns and run away. Two decades after the September 11 attacks, the ensuing US invasion, and the images of desperation and turmoil at Kabul airport as the heart-wrenching evacuations unfolded, I cant offer any solution to the many problems facing Afghanistan. What I can offer is respect for the beauty and tragedy of the place Afghans call home.

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Tajik refugees, Saki Camp, Northern Afghanistan, 1993 During this, my first trip to Afghanistan, I went to cover a refugee crisis in the north of the country. A civil war in neighbouring Tajikistan had forced tens of thousands to flee to safety, with the irony that safety meant living in arctic conditions in a desert of death. It was so cold that I could only take a few frames at a time before I had to stuff my hands deep inside my thermals again. Men were busy digging great big holes in the earth to cover with tents or small ones for the many dead. People huddled around fires cooking and offered me the little food they had. To say theyre hospitable to guests is an understatement. I wandered across the dusty plains like a lost explorer, searching for images. The photograph I always go back to is of a wedding ceremony inside the camp. It was the only normal thing I saw that day, the only time I saw a smile and heard a laugh. Northern Alliance soldier, Bagram, 1998. Credit:Stephen Dupont Northern Alliance soldier, Bagram, 1998 Covering the civil war between the Northern Alliance and the Taliban in late 1998, I met a soldier inside a bombed-out ruin along a frontline near Bagram Airfield, just north of the capital. It was his shell-shocked gaze that struck me first, but then I saw his prosthetic arms. He told me his story, which encapsulates the absurdity of war: I was not a soldier before. I used to work for an international non-government organisation trying to rid the country of landmines. One day I was de-mining when one blew off my arms  a mine planted by the Taliban. It was then that I decided to join the Northern Alliance and learnt to shoot an AK-47 with my new arms, so I could take my revenge.

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Anonymous portrait, Kabul, 2006. Credit:Stephen Dupont Anonymous portrait, Kabul, 2006 Of all the photographs I took in Afghanistan, one of my favourites is of this man in a dusty and busy Kabul bus station. Somehow the mans solemn look and the various emotions from the crowd make the shot simultaneously timeless and present. Maybe he is the face of all Afghans: proud, strong and confident  but worried. Taxi delivering coffins, Jamhuriat Hospital, Kabul, 1993. Credit:Stephen Dupont Taxi delivering coffins, Jamhuriat Hospital, Kabul, 1993 With chaos all around the hospital, coffins arrived in the boot of a taxi as the morgue filled up. The dead were mostly civilians caught up in the fighting across Kabul. An another occasion, a cab rolled on up through the hospital gates with a shredded and bloody leg dangling out of the boot. Orphanage, Kabul, 1995. Credit:Stephen Dupont

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Orphanage, Kabul, 1995 I was invited inside an orphanage for a photographic project about the children of Kabul and how they were affected by the war. Housed inside a Soviet-era apartment block on the outskirts of the city were hundreds of young war orphans. Walking inside one of the rooms, I came across this scene, which looked like a miniature Last Supper. Taliban POWs, Yangi Qala district, Northern Afghanistan, 1998. Credit:Stephen Dupont Taliban POWs, Yangi Qala district, Northern Afghanistan, 1998 Rather than condemn the Taliban prisoners to cells, the legendary Afghan warlord Ahmad Shah Massoud  whose Northern Alliance troops were at the time fighting the Taliban  had them work the fields and live in open compounds. He treated them more like compatriots than an enemy. Said Massoud: We will not be a pawn in someone elses game; we will always be Afghanistan! Wounded child, Gonbad village, Kandahar Province, 2005. Credit:Stephen Dupont Wounded child, Gonbad village, Kandahar Province, 2005

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A young boy is caressed by an elderly man whom I assume is his father. Im drawn to the sad tragedy of the scene; the shaft of light that crosses the childs face seems almost biblical to me. The man says the Americans shot the boy; its impossible to know. It was the same day that I took photographs of US soldiers burning the bodies of two dead Taliban soldiers, which became international news and eventually led to changed US military policy. But its the picture of this child that I think about more  maybe because Im a father, too. Its a sad reality that innocent children too often become the victims of these adult war games. Helmand, 2009. Credit:Stephen Dupont Helmand, 2009 The only way to get a real sense of Afghanistans landscape is from the air. This was the common terrain US, Australian and British forces were fighting in Helmand Province, in the south. One US marine compared the landscape of fighting in Afghanistan to what he imagined it would be like fighting on the moon. Afghans call this stretch of desert Dasht-e Margo, the Desert of Death Faizabad, 1998. Credit:Stephen Dupont Faizabad, 1998

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Some roles are being removed, while other roles will have a change in portfolio, responsibilities, title, or reporting line. Some level of disruption will likely occur during the transition period. There may be short-term disruption to student service support. For one law student, who recently spoke to WAtoday on the provision of anonymity, signs of the shakeup had already taken effect as he was shocked at how badly Murdoch handled student welfare after he transferred from another WA university. What the degree will be worth at the end of the day is really concerning me. Murdoch law student He said he spent hours trying to chase up which units had transferred over from his previous uni and would form part of his degree.

He also saw clerkships to the Federal Court offered to the first applicants to email back, which he said was wholly unfair for those with jobs who did not necessarily monitor their student emails around the clock. The student said complaints got bounced back by Murdochs student services with no clear direction or details about whom to specifically raise his issues with, beyond the mention of the universitys lacklustre and hard to navigate website. All this money Im paying now and what the degree will be worth at the end of the day is really concerning me, and what it also means for school-leavers, he said. A Murdoch University spokesperson said the impacts to staff in the four service directorates were still only proposals, with impacted employees being asked to provide feedback and express interest in prospective roles.

Some existing roles have been identified at risk of redundancy, however it is our number one priority to redeploy as many staff as possible, they said. As yet, no employees have been made redundant as part of this process. We are genuinely consulting about the changes with all impacted employees and have allowed additional time to ensure we capture all employee feedback through this period. They said staff who did not find a suitable role through redeployment would be offered a redundancy package commensurate with their role and time at Murdoch. They would have access to a range of free and confidential support through the universitys employee assistance program. Those re-deployed at a lower classification will maintain their previous salary for 12 months in accordance with the Enterprise Agreement, while a number of fixed term roles have also been proposed to become continuous as part of this process.

Murdochs rankings The latest restructure comes in the wake of Murdoch cementing its position as Western Australias worst-performing public higher education institute for research, teaching and impact, according to Times Higher Educations latest rankings. Not only did it remain behind Edith Cowan University for a second year running, it fell behind ECU in the sub-category of young universities (under 50 years), coming last in WA for the first time this year. Times Higher Educations WA young university rankings (under 50 years). Until 2017, Murdoch was considered the top young WA university but that honour now goes to Curtin University.

ECU Vice-Chancellor Professor Steve Chapman welcomed ECUs climb in research rankings during such a difficult time in higher education, brought on by the pandemic. Were a dynamic young university with a growing international reputation for world-class research and its pleasing to see this continues to be recognised in the THE rankings, he said. Now more than ever, the impact of ECUs translational research matters. Overall, Murdoch remained in the 501-600th percentile in the THE rankings, behind ECU in the 401-500th percentile globally, with Curtin weathering a slight drop on last years performance to drop to 251-300th place. The rankings come after a year of hundreds of jobs cuts and reductions to academics research capabilities in WA.

Loading Curtin was estimated to have axed 656 total jobs, according to headcounts supplied to the Australian Charities and Not-For-Profit Commission, which was about 10 per cent of its workforce during 2020. ECU conversely invested $16 million into research and staff in 2020. The University of Western Australia delayed major cuts until June this year, when it announced it would be pursuing $40 million in jobs and school restructures. It is seeking to axe significant fields of study and research in social and molecular sciences despite the university acknowledging there were areas of high research performance in the school of social sciences.

UWAs education and research restructures were not reflected in this years rankings, with it improving its poll WA position by moving up seven places to 132nd spot on last years 139th position in THEs global rankings. Unlike Murdoch, which ruthlessly reduced its sciences  made up of chemistry, physics, maths and statistics  from fully fledged degrees to first-year or teaching units for other degrees late last year, with up to 200 academic jobs estimated to have been slashed across the campus. Engineering also suffered under in its STEM everywhere strategy, as well as significant cuts to the arts and humanities. A Murdoch University spokesperson said the university was engaging in world-leading translational research and making important discoveries, such as discovering new ways to identify and monitor long COVID and developing new treatments for Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Times Higher Educations overall rankings for WA public universities.

And it looked to a number of rankings used to measure the performance, reputation and achievements of universities around the world, with the most recent rankings yet to factor in recent appointments and research outputs, they said. We acknowledge that the latest THE results are not where we want to be, the spokesperson said. However, we have a clear plan to improve our rankings results through a range of initiatives including the recruitment of high calibre academics and researchers, changing our curriculum and how we teach, stronger industry connections to ensure our students our job ready, and investing in infrastructure in learning and teaching and research. We are confident these will drive improvements in the coming years. It argued that it had already seen some improvement in the latest Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) rankings, which placed Murdoch in the 500-600 band  up from 700-800 in 2019.

Loading Fairer measure of research success Rankings, which rely heavily on research, have always been considered the drawcard for international students to Australia, with a lot of prominence being put on Shanghais Jiao Tong rankings, also known as ARWU. But with Australias borders remaining closed the focus has been shifting to retaining and increasing domestic student intake. The rankings are also widely used by faculty to inform career decisions by university leaders to help set strategic priorities and by governments to help monitor policy, according to the THE website.

Why? Because the THE rankings are based on one of the richest databases of university performance in the world. But Flinders University ecologist Professor Corey Bradshaw and his colleagues have developed a ready-made app, called the Epsilon Index, to assess individuals research performance, which they say is fairer. Theres no straightforward process to compare the relative strengths of researchers in disparate disciplines  some just tend to have fewer citations than others, he said. Then theres gender. Research publications for women might dip during maternity leave for instance, affecting perceived performance, even though their ability  and their research  is no less brilliant. Women also tend not to be offered the same opportunities as men even today, so they are unfairly ranked against men for most existing metrics.

The Epsilon Index is a new way to reduce systemic biases in assessing researcher quality via citations by providing career-stage, gender, and opportunity corrections to citation-based performance metrics. The app was tested using a sample of 480 global researchers with Google Scholar profiles, stratified evenly into eight disciplines (archaeology, chemistry, ecology, evolution and development, geology, microbiology, ophthalmology, palaeontology), three career stages (early-, mid-, late-career), and two genders. Flinders Universitys simple method to scale its index across disciplines with variable citation trends to enable fairer comparison of researchers in different areas. It then provided an -index using a ranking algorithm that could be standardised across disciplines, corrected for career breaks, and provided a sample-specific threshold that could determine whether individual performance was greater or less than expected relative to the other researchers in a sample. Flinders professor Justine Smith, who has been deemed a superstar of STEM, hopes the -index will make a difference to how women in science are perceived.
West Australian Police hunting for a wheelchair using amputee who stole hair dye from a pharmacy arrested a 51-year-old woman with both her legs and severe arthritis in a case of mistaken identity.

The annual report from the Parliamentary Inspector of the Corruption and Crime Commission revealed the mistake was not realised until after the woman, who suffered a shoulder injury in the incident, had been taken to a police station in the back cage of a cop car.

WA police officers arrested a 51-year-old woman on a disability pension in a case of mistaken identity. Credit:Getty Images

The case prompted inspector Matthew Zilko SC, who acts as a watchdog for the actions taken by the CCC, to call on the WA government to consider a change to a criminal law after the commission initially determined the arrest had been lawful.

Mr Zilko wrote in the annual report the case came to his office from a parliamentary committee as a complaint about the CCCs oversight of police investigations into allegations of excessive force.
A Colorado high school was recently given an unexpected lesson in international affairs. The Wall Street Journal reports it had applied to attend the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women but hit a hurdle with the accreditation committee.

A letter from the committee pointed to a year-old article on the schools website about a student joining the international Girl Up teen advisory board. The concern? The article described Taiwan as a country. The committee suggested modifying the reference to Taiwan, Province of China. The change was made and permission to attend the UN conference was granted.

Former prime minister Paul Keating.

As the schools Spanish teacher Christina Vela noted: No one was ever going to randomly stumble upon that webpage.

China sits on the gatekeeper committee that oversees participation at UN events and has taken to holding up requests by organisations that dont scrupulously adhere to Beijings preferred language. Communist Party bureaucrats scour the websites of every applicant for references to Taiwan to ensure compliance, even from organisations as obscure as the Association of 3 Hedgehogs.
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP)  Food banks in New Mexico with high rates of childhood poverty and hunger are watching with apprehension as the federal government boosts standard food stamp benefits in October and extends generous emergency allotments temporarily.

President Joe Bidens administration has approved a permanent 25% increase in food aid over pre-pandemic levels, available to all 42 million SNAP beneficiaries across the country. The increase on Oct. 1 coincides with the expiration of a smaller, 15% boost in food-aid benefits that was ordered as a pandemic protection measure.

At the same time, emergency allotments in food aid are continuing in most states, including New Mexico, but will phase out as public health emergency designations eventually come to an end.

The allotment often doubles standard monthly benefit payments and the eventual expiration threatens to send shock waves through personal and family finances in New Mexico, where more than one-in-four residents depends on the federal government's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to help put food on the table.

We enjoy seeing families  low-income families  being able to access their own food. Its certainly a more dignified and respectful way to get the food that their families need, said Sherry Hooper, executive director of The Food Depot that acts as a food bank of last resort for 40,000 people across a sparsely populated area the size of West Virginia.

The Food Depot is here to help if any of those benefits end or if they need additional help, she said.

She said the pandemic has increased the number of people seeking help with food essentials by about 30% in her territory in northern and eastern New Mexico.

The federal government fully funds the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, without state matching funds.

New Mexico lawmakers nonetheless funneled $10 million toward emergency food aid during legislative sessions in early 2021 and November 2020, and the administration of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is lobbying for a more robust emergency nutrition package for the coming fiscal year that starts on July 1, 2022.

The pandemic has been accompanied by an unprecedented outpouring of federal assistance designed to limit disruptions in housing, food security and the broader economy. But some direct emergency aid to low-income households is already winding down.

The federal government in early September ended its supplemental unemployment benefit of $300 a week that went out to roughly 50,000 residents. State finance authorities are sprinting to provide rental assistance to people who have fallen behind on payments to landlords, while a statewide eviction moratorium remains in effect for people who can't afford to pay rent.

On the food-aid front, about 540,000 people were enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program as of August, across a state with 2.1 million residents, according to the Human Services Department that administers federal nutritional benefits.

Agency spokeswoman Jodi McGinnis-Port says the average household SNAP benefit of $237 in July 2019 increased to $477 in July 2021  and will nudge higher in October.
NEW YORK (AP)  Theater royalty  in the form of Kristin Chenoweth, Julie Taymor and Lin-Manuel Miranda  welcomed back boisterous audiences to Wicked, The Lion King and Hamilton for the first time since the start of the pandemic, marking Tuesday as the unofficial return of Broadway.

Chenoweth surprised the crowd at Wicked by appearing onstage for a speech on the same stage where she became a star years ago. There's no place like home, she said, lifting a line from the musical. The crowd hooted, hollered and gave her a standing ovation.

Taymor, the director and costume-designer of The Lion King, congratulated her audience for the courage and enthusiasm to lead the way. "Theater, as we know, is the lifeblood and soul of the city," she said. "It's time for us to live again." And Miranda at Hamilton summed up the feeling of a lot of people when he said: I don't ever want to take live theater for granted.

The Lion King, Hamilton and Wicked all staked out Tuesday to reopen together in early May after then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo picked Sept. 14 for when Broadway could begin welcoming back audiences at full capacity.

The trio of shows were beaten by Bruce Springsteens concert show in June and the opening of the new play Pass Over on Aug. 22, as well as the reopening of two big musicals  Hadestown and Waitress.

But the return of the three musicals  the spiritual anchors of modern Broadways success  as well as the return of the long-running Chicago and the reopening of the iconic TKTS booth, both also on Tuesday, are important signals that Broadway is back, despite pressure and uncertainty from the spread of the delta variant.

The crowds virtually blew the roof off the three theaters. At Wicked, they stood and applauded the dimming of the lights, the welcome announcement, the arrival and departure of Chenoweth, the opening notes of the first song and several moments during that song, especially when Glinda says: Its good to see me, isnt it?

At The Lion King, the opening song The Circle of Life was virtually drowned out by cheers and clapping, while every star in Hamilton had to pause to let the entrance applause die down enough to be heard again.

Linda Diane Polichetti, an usher at Hamilton, said she was proud to back at work. I'm just glad to be back because the world I was in, I wasn't recognizing, she said. I love my show. I love my cast.

Ticketholders to all three mega-hits had to prove they were fully vaccinated with an FDA- or WHO-authorized vaccine and masks must be worn at all times, except when eating or drinking in designated areas.

Vaccine checkers in bright T-shirts inspected phones and cards as the crowds made their way into the theaters. Thank you for getting vaccinated and wearing a mask, Miranda said, to roars of approval. The crowds were very compliant with the new rules, only lowering their masks for the obligatory selfie. Taymor joked in her speech that the performers often wear masks. Guess what? You get to wear masks tonight.

Before the shows, Miranda, Taymor and "Wicked composer Stephen Schwartz stressed that Broadway has implemented safety protocols that make cramming strangers into theaters as safe as it can be.

We go to a theater for catharsis. Literally thats what we go for: to be in communion with each other, hear a story told in the dark and experience catharsis, said Miranda. For a while, it wasnt safe to do that. And its safe to come back now with the protocols we have in place.

Actors across Broadway say they're itching to get back on stage after more than a year of waiting, trusting the health experts to make the process safe. The bulk of Broadway's theaters will be reopened by Thanksgiving.

Its a little bit like when youre on an airplane and theres turbulence, said Sharon Wheatley, a veteran actor in the show Come From Away, which resumes its Broadway run Sept. 21. I have to trust the pilot, I have to trust the air traffic controllers. I feel nervous, but I have to understand that I dont know as much as these people do.

"Hamilton," which opened six years ago, Wicked, which opened 17 years ago and The Lion King, which opened 23 years ago, form the bedrock of modern Broadway, virtually immune to downturns, shifts in tourism and rivals.

Another sign that Broadway is inching back to normalcy is the re-opening of the famed TKTS booth in the heart of Times Square, where visitors can get same-day and some next-day discount Broadway and off-Broadway tickets.

Its such a big step forward, said Victoria Bailey, executive director of the nonprofit Theatre Development Fund, which runs the booth. To get it open and such a symbol to people that theater is coming back.

Bailey says Broadways return will be less like a flick of a light switch and more like a dimmer, with a slow build to regular attendance. Well know so much more in two or three weeks, but you cant swim unless you can start by dog-paddling.

During the pandemic, Miranda saw his visionary show turned into a critically hailed filmed version for Disney+, but said there no substitute for seeing it live.

Its one thing to see something on the screen. And Im thrilled Hamilton was was available on a screen in a time when we couldnt go to a theater. But Im even more thrilled that now it can be experienced the way it was meant to, live in front of an audience, the final collaborator every night.

___

Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits
DENVER (AP)  A civil rights investigation that was launched amid outrage over the death of Elijah McClain  a Black man put into a chokehold during an encounter with suburban Denver police two years ago  found a deeply engrained culture of racially biased policing within the department, Colorado's attorney general said Wednesday.

Attorney General Phil Weiser said the investigation found the Aurora Police Department has long had a culture in which officers treat people of color  especially Black people  differently than white people. He said the agency also has a pattern of using unlawful excessive force; frequently escalates encounters with civilians; and fails to properly document police interactions with residents.

It's the latest mark against the Aurora department since Weiser's office indicted three officers and two paramedics on manslaughter and other charges this month in connection with McClain's death.

These actions are unacceptable. They hurt the people that law enforcement is entrusted to serve, Weiser said.

The investigation cites numerous examples of biased policing in addition to McClain's death. Among them:

 Police responded to two mental health calls on the same day. In one, police drew their weapons and aimed at a Black man who claimed he had a knife and planned to kill himself in what the report called a tense standoff. The other incident with a white man who was very drunk and exhibiting mental health issues ended after an officer walked up to him, extended his hand, and said, Im (Joe), you look to be hurting. How can we help you?'

 A city panel that oversees officer hiring and discipline overturned a decision by a former police chief to fire a lieutenant who used a racial epithet to refer to a group of Black residents.

Weiser urged the police department to commit to recommended reforms in officer training, its policies on use of force and especially stricter standards for police stops and arrests. If it fails to do so, he said his office will seek a court order compelling the department to do so  but he noted that the department fully cooperated in the investigation.

Police stopped McClain, a 23-year-old massage therapist, as he walked home from a store on Aug. 24, 2019, after a 911 caller reported a man wearing a ski mask and waving his hands who seemed sketchy.

Officers put McClain in a chokehold and pinned him down. Paramedics injected him with 500 milligrams of ketamine, an amount appropriate for someone 77 pounds (35 kilograms) heavier than McClains 143-pound (64-kilogram) frame, according to an indictment. He fell unconscious, was pronounced brain-dead at a hospital, and was taken off life support.

The state civil rights probe, announced in August 2020, was the first of its kind under a sweeping police accountability law passed in Colorado amid protests over the killings of McClain and George Floyd.

Weiser said his office wants a state agreement with Aurora, called a consent decree, to be submitted to a court. The agreement would have ongoing independent oversight and would specify what the city and department must do to fulfill his investigations recommendations.

Aurora police Chief Vanessa Wilson and City Manager Jim Twombly said in statements that they will cooperate with Weiser's office and already have been working to implement reforms in the department.

We acknowledge there are changes to be made, Wilson said, adding: We will not broad brush this agency or discount the professionalism and integrity that individual officers bring to our community every day.

Sheneen McClain, the single mother who raised Elijah, said she participated in the state investigation, welcomed its findings and urged the police department to work with Weiser's office.

It's just terrible that it takes my son's death for Aurora police to change what they've been doing for a long time in this community, she said. Front and center: Elijah would still be here if the system was operating like it should. My son's death was preventable and it's really sad that it took all this to get justice done and make sure it won't happen to someone else.

The Colorado police accountability law made it unlawful for police officers or other employees of government agencies to deprive people of their constitutional rights and gave the attorney general the power to enforce it.

Under the law, if the attorney general finds an agency has a pattern or practice of violating peoples rights, the attorney general must notify the agency of the reasons for that belief and give it 60 days to make changes. If the agency does not make changes, the attorney general can file a lawsuit to force them.

State Rep. Leslie Herod, a Democrat from Denver who helped craft the police accountability legislation, said Weiser's recommendations proved the law is working.

We have affirmed what the citizens of Aurora and so many folks already knew: That the Aurora Police Department has operated in a way that is racist and that is particularly racist against Black people and presents harm to our community, said Herod, who is Black.

Weisers office is also prosecuting three police officers and two paramedics on manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and assault charges in McClains death. He convened a grand jury to decide whether to file criminal charges after being ordered to take another look at the case by Democratic Gov. Jared Polis amid last years protests.

The grand jury indicted all five.

The Aurora Police Department faced criticism when officers put four Black girls on the ground last year and handcuffed two of them next to a car that police suspected was stolen but turned out not to be.

And an officer was charged with assault in July after being captured on body camera video pistol-whipping and choking a Black man during an arrest. Another officer was charged with not intervening as required under the new police accountability law.

Lorenzo M. Boyd, stewart professor in criminal justice and community policing at the University of New Haven in Connecticut, said Weiser's action is unusual because the federal, not state government generally reaches court-approved agreements with local police departments to ensure changes are made.

A lot of times the state tries to not ruffle feathers at home. Theyll farm things out to the feds to kind of keep their hands clean," Boyd said. "But it seems like in this situation, the states attorney general in Colorado decides, you know, we need to fix our own house before outsiders need to come in and do it.

___

Associated Press writers James Anderson and Thomas Peipert contributed to this report.

___

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.
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Laboratory Technician (Environmental Geochemistry) (G4), Monaco

Organization: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)

Country: Monaco

Closing date: Monday, 20 September 2021

Laboratory Technician (Environmental Geochemistry)(G4)

( 2021/0439 (222771) )

Organization: NAEL-Radioecology Laboratory

Primary Location: Monaco-Monaco-Monaco-IAEA Environment Laboratories in Monaco

Job Posting: 2021-08-23, 1:17:54 PM

Contract Type : Fixed Term

Extrabudgetary

Probation Period : 1 Year

Organizational Setting

The Department of Nuclear Sciences and Applications implements the IAEAs Major Programme 2, "Nuclear Techniques for Development and Environmental Protection". This Major Programme comprises individual programmes on food and agriculture, human health, water resources, environment and radiation technologies. These programmes are supported by laboratories in Seibersdorf, Monaco and Vienna. The Major Programmes objective is to enhance the capacity of Member States to meet basic human needs and to assess and manage the marine and terrestrial environments through the use of nuclear and isotopic techniques in sustainable development programmes.

The IAEA Environment Laboratories Division consists of four laboratories, three of which are located in Monaco and one in Seibersdorf. The Division supports Member States in enhancing their capacity to use nuclear and isotopic techniques to understand marine, terrestrial and atmospheric environmental processes and dynamics, and to identify and address environmental problems caused by radioactive and non-radioactive pollutants and climate change.The Radioecology Laboratory applies nuclear and nuclear-derived techniques to improve knowledge about the behavior and fate of radionuclides and other contaminants in the marine environment, and the impacts of climate related changes on oceans and ecosystems. It aims to assist and enhance Member States capability in the field of radioecology and its applications to ecotoxicology and biogeochemistry.

Main Purpose

Reporting to the Laboratory Head and with direction from Professional staff, the Laboratory Technician works in the IAEA Environment Laboratories to prepare and assist in the analysis of sediment samples for geochronological models. He/she adheres to standard operating procedures and best laboratory practices and helps maintain associated laboratory equipment. He/she will also assist with data reduction and data management, assuring that a detailed inventory is kept up to date from sample logs to eventual data processing and sample storage.

Functions / Key Results Expected

Assist in sample preparation for geochronological reconstructions by conducting laboratory digestions and chemical separations, by preparing and maintaining associated laboratory infrastructure, analyzing sediment for a suite of U/Th series radionuclides using alpha and gamma spectrometers, and archiving data.

Perform routine analysis of sediment samples, within the scope of the extra budgetary project on Blue Carbon within established standards and procedures.

Provide assistance to other Radioecology staff in the application of marine radiotracer techniques.

Participate in sampling missions to collect coastal and marine samples for associated projects.

Maintain laboratory equipment and infrastructure according to existing protocols and standards (inventories of radioactive sources and waste disposal, experimental records, safety records).

The incumbent may perform his/her work in areas involving exposure to radioactive materials. Therefore, as an Occupationally Exposed Worker, he/she must be medically cleared by VIC Medical Service and is subject to an appropriate radiation and health monitoring programme, in accordance with the IAEAs Radiation Safety Regulations.

Competencies and Expertise

Core Competencies

Name Definition

Communication

Communicates orally and in writing in a clear, concise and impartial manner. Takes time to listen to and understand the perspectives of others and proposes solutions.

Achieving Results

Takes initiative in defining realistic outputs and clarifying roles, responsibilities and expected results in the context of the Department/Divisions programme. Evaluates his/her results realistically, drawing conclusions from lessons learned.

Teamwork

Actively contributes to achieving team results. Supports team decisions.

Planning and Organizing

Plans and organizes his/her own work in support of achieving the team or Sections priorities. Takes into account potential changes and proposes contingency plans.

Functional Competencies

Name Definition

Judgement/decision making

Consults with supervisor/manager and makes decisions in full compliance with the Agencys regulations and rules.

Partnership building

Develops and maintains partnerships needed for his/her work. Establishes and nurtures positive relations with partners and stakeholders.

Technical/scientific credibility

Acquires and applies new skills to remain up to date in his/her area of expertise. Reliably applies knowledge of basic technical/scientific methods and concepts.

Asset Expertise

Function Name Expertise Description

Bioscience

Isotopic Techniques to Study Pollution and Climate Change Processes

Working knowledge in isotopic techniques to study marine pollution and climate change.

Qualifications, Experience and Language skills

Completed secondary education.

Minimum of four years of relevant working experience.

Specialized training in an environment-related discipline (geochemistry, geology, radiochemistry, oceanography, etc.) would be an asset.

Background in sampling techniques and lab experience in environmental geochemistry.

Basic knowledge of data manipulation using spreadsheets.

Excellent oral and written command of English. Knowledge of other official IAEA languages (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish) is an asset.

English language test (level 2) to IAEA standard.

Remuneration

The IAEA offers an attractive remuneration package including a tax-free annual net base salary starting at EUR 36106 (subject to mandatory deductions for pension contributions and health insurance), 6 weeks annual vacation, pension plan and health insurance

Appointment is subject to a satisfactory medical report. Recruitment will be on a LOCAL BASIS.

Non-local candidates will be considered only when no suitable candidate from the duty station is identified and will be subject to local recruitment. A staff member subject to local recruitment shall not be eligible for the allowances or benefits exclusively applicable to international recruitment. Outside applicants are required to supply to the IAEA or to authorize it to seek all information relevant to their suitability for employment by the IAEA. Testing may be part of the recruitment process.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Applicants should be aware that IAEA staff members are international civil servants and may not accept instructions from any other authority. The IAEA is committed to applying the highest ethical standards in carrying out its mandate. As part of the United Nations common system, the IAEA subscribes to the following core ethical standards (or values): Integrity, Professionalism and Respect for diversity. Staff members may be assigned to any location. The IAEA retains the discretion not to make any appointment to this vacancy, to make an appointment at a lower grade or with a different contract type, or to make an appointment with a modified job description or for shorter duration than indicated above.

Link to the organizations job offer: https://unjobs.org/vacancies/1629740929783
Williamson, WV (25661)

Today

Partly cloudy this evening followed by mostly cloudy skies and a few showers after midnight. Low 68F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%..

Tonight

Partly cloudy this evening followed by mostly cloudy skies and a few showers after midnight. Low 68F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%.
NEW YORK (AP)  Just hours before the HBO documentary Jagged was to premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on Tuesday, Alanis Morissette criticized the film about her life as reductive and salacious.

FILE - Alanis Morissette attends the "Jagged Little Pill" Broadway opening night in New York on Dec. 5, 2019. Just hours before the HBO documentary Jagged was to premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on Tuesday, Alanis Morissette criticized the film about her life as reductive and salacious. Morissette participated in the film, directed by Alison Klayman, sitting for lengthy interviews. But in a statement issued by her publicist, Morissette said she would not be supporting the film. (Photo by Greg Allen/Invision/AP, File)

NEW YORK (AP)  Just hours before the HBO documentary "Jagged" was to premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on Tuesday, Alanis Morissette criticized the film about her life as "reductive" and "salacious."

Morissette participated in the film, directed by Alison Klayman, sitting for lengthy interviews. But in a statement issued by her publicist, the Canadian musician said she would not be supporting the film, named after her breakthrough 1995 album, "Jagged Little Pill."

"I agreed to participate in a piece about the celebration of Jagged Little Pills 25th anniversary, and was interviewed during a very vulnerable time (while in the midst of my third postpartum depression during lockdown)," wrote Morissette. "I was lulled into a false sense of security and their salacious agenda became apparent immediately upon my seeing the first cut of the film. This is when I knew our visions were in fact painfully diverged. This was not the story I agreed to tell."

Morissette didn't specify her issues with "Jagged," which is to premiere Nov. 19 on HBO. But its most sensitive material includes Morissette discussing sexual encounters when she was 15 that she calls statutory rape. The Washington Post earlier reported on that section of the film.

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"It took me years in therapy to even admit there had been any kind of victimization on my part," Morissette says in the film. "I would always say I was consenting, and then Id be reminded like Hey, you were 15, youre not consenting at 15. Now Im like, Oh yeah, theyre all pedophiles. Its all statutory rape."

Canadas age of consent has been 16 years old since 2008. A person under the age of 18 cannot consent if the sexual activity is with a person with authority over them. Youths 14 or 15 years old can consent to nonexploitive sexual activity when the age difference is no more than five years. Before 2008, the age of consent was 14. Morissette doesn't go into any detail on who the encounters were with.

Representatives for Klayman didn't immediately return requests for comment Tuesday. In an interview with Deadline Hollywood published Tuesday, Klayman, whose films include "Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry" and the Steve Bannon documentary "Brink," lamented that Morissette wouldn't be there for the premiere.

"Its a really hard thing, I think, to see a movie made about yourself," Klayman said. "I think shes incredibly brave and the reaction when she saw it was that it was a really  she could feel all the work, all the nuance that went into it. And again, she gave so much of her time and so much of her effort into making this and I think that the movie really speaks for itself."

Morissette is currently on tour and is to perform in Cincinnati, Ohio, on Wednesday.

"I have chosen not to attend any event around this movie for two reasons: one is that i am on tour right now. The other is that, not unlike many stories and unauthorized biographies out there over the years, this one includes implications and facts that are simply not true," said Morissette. "While there is beauty and some elements of accuracy in this/my story to be sure  I ultimately wont be supporting someone elses reductive take on a story much too nuanced for them to ever grasp or tell."
At The Forks, you will find a 3.5-metre bison made out of books.

The sculpture, created by Indigenous artist Val Vint, is called Education is the new Bison, inspired by a phrase used by elders to underline the importance of education as a sustaining, nourishing resource. To quote Elder Miiksikaam, the spiritual advisor at Mount Royal University in Calgary: "Education is the new buffalo from which a good life will be attained."

Education is an integral part of the work of reconciliation. In 2017, the Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta launched Indigenous Canada, a free, online, open-to-anyone course that educates on Indigenous histories and contemporary issues in Canada from an Indigenous perspective.

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Local artist Val Vint with her new piece, Education is the New Bison, a 12-foot bison made up of 200 steel replicas of books and other articles. Each book is written by an Indigenous or allied author, most of whom are local.

Led by Paul Gareau and presented by Tracy Bear, Alannah Mandamin-Shawanda and Isaac Twinn, Indigenous Canada educates on everything from the fur trade and treaties to the residential school system and contemporary Indigenous activism and art. Per the course description: "Indigenous Canada is for students from faculties outside the Faculty of Native Studies with an interest in acquiring a basic familiarity with Indigenous/non-Indigenous relationships."

Indigenous Canada became a popular course the year it launched, and its profile was further raised in August 2020 by Schitts Creek creator-star Dan Levy, who posted about his participation in the course on social media and encouraged others to join him. "If 2020 has taught us anything, its that we need to actively relearn history  history that wasnt taught to us in school  to better understand and contextualize our lives and how we can better support and be of service to each other."

More than 50,000 new students enrolled the week Levy first posted about it.

Schitts Creek creator-star Dan Levy posted about his participation in the Indigenous Canada course on social media, encouraging others to join him. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO via AP

The weeks following the discovery of unmarked graves at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in May saw another huge spike in enrollment, with 75,000 people signing up.

I was one of those people. I began my studies on Canada Day. Although you can do the 12 modules over 12 weeks, I completed it in eight or nine because it was that fascinating. It also made me realize how little I learned in school  and whose historical perspective I was taught.

My school-age studies on "Canadian history" in the 1990s had significant gaps. I remember cursory fur-trade lessons, told from a settler-colonial perspective. Laura Ingalls Wilders Little House books were read to us with zero analysis of what it meant to be a settler (even the term "pioneers" is a subtle rebrand), nor was there any sort of contextualization or even acknowledgement of Mas racism.

Indigenous portrayals in pop culture were also lacking  basically it was Disneys Pocahontas, which came out when I was in Grade 5, and North of 60.

CP A monument outside the former Kamloops Indian Residential School is surrounded by makeshift memorial to honour the 215 children whose remains were been discovered buried near the facility, in Kamloops, B.C., in May. THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES/Darryl Dyck

Im struck, now, not just by the fact we learned absolutely nothing about the residential school system  which existed until as recently as 1996  but by the fact Indigenous people and cultures were presented to us as though they exist only in the past, ensconced in time like the bison diorama at the Manitoba Museum. Thats colonialism in action, of course, history through an Eurocentric lens that saw Indigenous people as "primitive" and settlers as "civilized." And whether they are conscious of that or not, that kind of education creates biases in non-Indigenous learners.

Indigenous Canada challenges those biases and, vitally, gets people thinking about history through a different lens.

New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger once described reporting as the "beautiful combination of spending half your day learning and half your day teaching." To that end, I have been fortunate: as a reporter in the Arts & Life department, Ive been able to interview many Indigenous artists, musicians, authors, curators, creators, filmmakers. Im grateful to have learned from them about so much: the importance of language; the significance of taking up space; the lasting impacts of intergenerational trauma; how crucial it is that we, the media, tell stories of Indigenous creativity and resilience and humour, not only of tragedy and suffering. (Speaking of the power of art in education, Metis artist Leah Dorion created six original artworks for Indigenous Canada that learners can explore as interactive paintings.)

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And still, there was so much I didnt know. I wanted to know the origin story of Turtle Island, on which I am a settler. I wanted to understand what treaties are and how theyve been broken. I wanted, as Levy did, to relearn.

So, this is my call to action for readers. Indigenous Canada is an incredible resource that, again, is free. Sept. 30, the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation and Orange Shirt Day, is right around the corner. I cant think of a better day to start your studies.

jen.zoratti@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @JenZoratti
As Liberal candidate Jim Carr and Conservative counterpart Joyce Bateman traded jabs at the Winnipeg South Centre virtual election debate Monday night, Julia Riddell of the NDP wondered if everyone could find ways to "work together."

As Liberal candidate Jim Carr and Conservative counterpart Joyce Bateman traded jabs at the Winnipeg South Centre virtual election debate Monday night, Julia Riddell of the NDP wondered if everyone could find ways to "work together."

The debate focused on issues of concern to the Jewish community.

In his opening statement, Carr (who has held the riding since 2015) cited the importance of helping refugees, noting his ancestors came to Canada to escape persecution in Russia and he was beaten as a youth for being Jewish.

Bateman (riding MP 2011-15) followed by accusing the Liberals of being "irresponsible" for holding a federal election during a pandemic.

Riddell, a clinical psychologist, noted the rise in mental health issues during the COVID-19 pandemic and said if it taught her anything, its: "We can take on challenges only if we work together."

Bateman said the Conservative party "stands with the Jewish community" and anti-Semitism is often "dressed up" as anti-Zionism on university campuses, where students call for boycotts of Israel. She said the Conservatives would strengthen laws requiring social media platforms to remove hate of all kinds and double funding for security at synagogues.

She accused Carr and the Liberals of "being silent" about anti-Semitism that arose during the recent fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

Carr replied if Bateman was "hearing silence" it was because she was "not listening. I have spoken out against all forms of racism and anti-Semitism using all platforms."

He went on to accuse Bateman of trying to divide the Jewish community based on how people speak out against anti-Semitism.

Riddell said the rise in anti-Semitism was "deeply disturbing" and, "We all should be united in addressing it." An NDP government would develop a national plan to combat anti-Semitism and "ensure the safety" of all marginalized groups, she said.

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When asked to address what the moderator called "strong anti-Israel bias in the United Nations," Bateman said no Canadian taxpayer dollars should go to anything at the United Nations that condones anti-Semitism or "demonizes" Israel or Jews.

Bateman accused the Liberals of "shamefully" failing to curtail efforts to stop anti-Semitism at the agency. Carr said he was "deeply concerned" by her remarks.

That issue is "taken very seriously" by the Liberal government, he said, noting how it had stopped funding when the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East was accused of promoting anti-Israel messages.

"Canada doesnt want to be associated with any relief agency that promotes hatred or anti-Semitism," he said.

Reflecting on the barbed exchanges between Carr and Bateman, Riddell said her hope is members of Parliament can "work across parties" on these issues.

faith@freepress.mb.ca
QUEBEC - Erin O'Toole began Wednesday telling voters he's not leading "your dad's Conservative Party," but ended the day sharing a stage with former prime minister Brian Mulroney, who compared the Tory leader's preceding months to the lead-up to his 1984 election win.

Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole listens to a question during a campaign stop, Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021, in Jonquiere, Que. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

QUEBEC - Erin O'Toole began Wednesday telling voters he's not leading "your dad's Conservative Party," but ended the day sharing a stage with former prime minister Brian Mulroney, who compared the Tory leader's preceding months to the lead-up to his 1984 election win.

The 82-year-old who governed Canada under the former Progressive Conservative banner from that year until 1993 walked onto a stage that evening before an audience of supporters in Orford, Que., as they chanted his name.

He told the crowd of about 170 a story of getting a call from O'Toole about five months earlier where the Conservative leader explained pollsters were predicting he would lose, there was negative media coverage and there was restlessness within the party.

I said, Erin, I think you should be thrilled  because thats exactly what they said about me three months before the election in 84 when we won the largest majority in the history of Canada,'" Mulroney said.

Mulroney drew similarities between himself and O'Toole, saying they both married up and were lawyers.

The former prime minister said O'Toole offers strong, steady and visionary leadership, and will have to tackle ending the COVID-19 pandemic and reviving an "anemic" economy.

Mulroney also foreshadowed that there "will be tough and deep structural changes to be made for our country if we are to enhance prosperity and influence of Canada."

"Some of these decisions may make Erin unpopular, of course, I never was," he told the crowd.

Mulroney said he wasn't interested in attacking anyone in the campaign and was there because he believes in electing O'Toole.

His appearance at the event came one day after former prime minister Jean Chretien, who was in power from 1993 to 2003, campaigned for Liberal leader Justin Trudeau in Ontario.

Both former leaders hit the campaign trail with only days left before Canadians head to the polls on Monday in hopes of giving their respective parties a boost. Polls show the Conservatives and Liberals locked in a tight race.

Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole is introduced by former prime minister Brian Mulroney during a campaign rally Wednesday, September 15, 2021 in Orford, Que. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

One of the accomplishments Mulroney is remembered for is his environmental policies, including the 1991 signing of a historic air quality agreement with the United States.

O'Toole now touts his climate change plan as proof he has renewed the party, acknowledging that it didn't live up to the expectations of Canadians in the past two elections when it comes to the environment.

."We're not your dad's Conservative Party anymore," he said earlier Wednesday.

O'Toole was asked to clarify his recent comments to the Toronto Star, in which he said his plan was an "alternative" to the federal carbon price and it would be up to provinces such as Ontario that currently pay that price to decide whether to make the switch.

The Tory leader has faced criticism from within his own tent for promising a Conservative carbon price on fuel after campaigning during his leadership race to scrap the plan introduced by the Liberals in 2019, which set a minimum price on carbon emissions in provinces that don't have equivalent provincial prices - a law that was challenged by Saskatchewan, Ontario and Alberta.

The Supreme Court of Canada in March ruled that the federal carbon price is entirely constitutional.

O'Toole has said that under his system, the money consumers have to pay through the Conservative carbon price on gas would be sent to personal savings accounts they could then use to make green purchases.

He rejected the suggestion that he has changed his party's policy by allowing provinces to choose among carbon pricing plans.

"That is exactly what I said in April when I launched this plan," O'Toole told reporters in Quebec's Saguenay region.

"Its a very detailed plan to meet our Paris targets and to promote collaboration on a range of issues to pricing carbon to electric vehicles to technology," he said.

"We have to work together as a country  provinces and the federal government  to meet our targets and have a strong economic recovery."

The Conservatives haven't detailed the cost of their proposed loyalty rewards-style program in their election platform, or how it would track people's carbon consumption and their points-based shopping.

O'Toole called his plan innovative and pledged to work with provinces on ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions without fighting with premiers.

Allowing provinces to decide their own fate on issues from health care to climate change has been a central part of the Conservative leader's pitch to prospective voters, as well as to Quebec Premier Francois Legault, who he promised to give more power over areas such as immigration.

Liberal candidate Steven Guilbeault has criticized O'Toole's approach, recently posting to Twitter a July 2020 video in which O'Toole, then running for the Conservative leadership, said that if a province chose to do nothing on climate change, he would allow that.

In the video, O'Toole also said that the Tories needed to have a "real" climate change policy in the next election or they would lose.

Since hitting the campaign trail, O'Toole has faced questions over only committing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030, not the higher target of between 40 to 45 per cent that the Trudeau government submitted to the United Nations ahead of an international conference this fall.

Stewart Elgie, a law and economics professor at the University of Ottawa who chairs the Smart Prosperity Institute, said O'Toole deserves credit for adopting a carbon price, something former leaders Andrew Scheer and Stephen Harper did not.

Unlike the Liberals' carbon price, which is set to rise to $170 per tonne by 2030, the Conservatives' charge would start at $20 per tonne and not rise higher than $50.

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Elgie said the lower price means it won't be as effective as the Liberals' at reducing levels of greenhouse gas emissions.

And while the proposed savings accounts is an interesting idea, he said implementing it would be a "nightmare."

How are you going to track the individual carbon footprints of every Canadian and look at every purchase they make?" asked Elgie.

Michael Bernstein, executive director of Clean Prosperity, said it's encouraging that O'Toole appears flexible on his carbon pricing plan, saying the simplest solution would be to keep the existing one in place.

"It works and returns all the money back to Canadians. But if O'Toole wanted to improve the carbon tax policy while giving it a Conservative spin, he could convert the rebates into tax cuts."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 15, 2021.
FREDERICTON - New Brunswick needs a minister for children and youth, according to a report by the province's youth advocate, which was prompted by the death of a teenager who killed herself after failing to receive mental health care.

New Brunswick's provincial flag flies on a flag pole in Ottawa, Monday July 6, 2020. A new report on youth suicide prevention and mental health services in New Brunswick calls for the appointment of a minister for children and youth. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

FREDERICTON - New Brunswick needs a minister for children and youth, according to a report by the province's youth advocate, which was prompted by the death of a teenager who killed herself after failing to receive mental health care.

Norm Bosse, the province's child and youth advocate, said the memory of 16-year-old Lexi Daken, who took her life in February less than a week after seeking help at a Fredericton hospital, gave power to his report. He said the document, which was released Wednesday, must motivate the people who need to make the necessary changes.

Daken's father, Chris Daken, said he's happy the 108-page report has been dedicated in her memory.

"I've always questioned why Lexi's story has touched so many people and has garnered so much attention," he said in an interview Wednesday. "I've asked why has her story started this chain of events."

Suicide is the second leading cause of death among youth in Canada, deputy advocate Christian Whalen told reporters in Fredericton after the report was released.

"We know that young people are not connecting with care when they urgently need it," he said. "So how do we actually make our health services work for more young people when they are actively seeking help? How do we help more young people recognize the signs that they may need help?

"We are recommending more specialized mental health services in emergency wards, but within hospital wards as well," he said. "We are calling for better triage assessment tools that recognize the urgency psychiatry patients feel when they present at emerge."

The review found a chronic shortage of psychologists and psychiatrists in the province and a lack of standardized suicide risk assessment in emergency rooms. Whalen said the report also suggested it may be time for the creation of a children's hospital in New Brunswick. The Maritime provinces are served by the IWK Hospital in Halifax.

Other recommendations include the creation of a provincial strategy for child and youth rights and for the development of an action plan for child and youth mental health and suicide prevention. The report does not put a cost on the recommendations, but Whalen said the price of underfunding is lives lost.

Daken said he hopes the creation of a new government minister would result in better integration of services in various departments.

But Patty Borthwick of Utopia, N.B., whose daughter died by suicide last December at the age of 27, said she isn't impressed with the call for a new minister.

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"I don't see how having another government-paid civil servant is going to help because we have all kinds now and we're still falling through the cracks and we are still losing young people," she said Wednesday.

Borthwick said hospitals need more staff to deal with patients who have mental health issues.

"The fact that people are talking about it has got to help," Borthwick said. "It's got to help that we're talking about mistakes made or young lives lost. They can't die in vain. I hope this report starts something."

Daken said he hopes the health minister will act on the recommendations and move quickly on improvements to mental health care in New Brunswick.

"Why can't we be the province that makes the changes to mental health care for the betterment of everyone?" he asked. "Why can't we be the province that the rest of the country looks to as a leader in mental health care?"

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 15, 2021.
FREDERICTON - Starting next week, New Brunswick will require people to produce proof of COVID-19 vaccination to access services such as indoor festivals, bars, restaurants and gyms in an effort to combat rising infections in the province.

Ravi Kahlon, British Columbia Minister of Jobs, Economic Recovery and Innovation, has his provincial COVID-19 vaccine card scanned by White Spot restaurant general manager Bill Warwick before having breakfast in Delta, B.C., on Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021. Starting next week, New Brunswick will require people to produce proof of vaccination for COVID-19 in order to access services such as indoor festivals, bars, restaurants and gyms. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

FREDERICTON - Starting next week, New Brunswick will require people to produce proof of COVID-19 vaccination to access services such as indoor festivals, bars, restaurants and gyms in an effort to combat rising infections in the province.

The new health order will enter into effect at 11:59 p.m. on Sept. 21, Premier Blaine Higgs said Wednesday.

Also next week, travellers to New Brunswick or residents returning to the province will have to pre-register and show proof of vaccination. Starting Wednesday, travellers with only one dose will be required to self-isolate for 14 days. They can stop isolating if they receive a negative COVID-19 test after Day 10.

The rules were imposed as health officials reported 63 new cases of COVID-19 Wednesday, the largest single-day total since the start of the pandemic, Higgs said.

Chief medical officer of health Dr. Jennifer Russell said the province was on a trajectory for 100 new cases a day. She also reported another death attributed to the novel coronavirus. Russell offered her condolences and said there have been 48 COVID-19-related deaths in the province since the onset of the pandemic.

There are 293 active reported cases of COVID-19 in the province and 12 patients are in hospital with the disease, including seven in intensive care.

"COVID-19 is spreading broadly across our province and it is spread among the unvaccinated," Russell said. "We can reverse this trend if everyone who can be vaccinated rolls up their sleeve immediately."

Russell said she is no longer just asking people to get vaccinated, she's pleading.

About 77.2 per cent of eligible New Brunswickers are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and 85.7 per cent have received at least one dose.

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Higgs said while vaccination levels continue to rise, they are not rising fast enough.

He said people will need to provide proof of vaccination and a government-issued ID to access certain services. "In approximately a month, we expect to have a QR code people can show on their phone to make it easier for New Brunswickers to provide proof of vaccination," he said.

Any individual or business that fails to follow the new regulations may be subject to fines ranging between $172.50 and $772.50.

Higgs said that while the new rules will be inconvenient, that's the objective.

"If life is a little more difficult for those that choose not to be vaccinated at a time when other lives are threatened because of it, just maybe the decision will be made: 'OK it's time,'" he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 15, 2021.
CHARLOTTETOWN - Prince Edward Island announced Wednesday it is bringing back its mask mandate and introducing new testing rules for children as the province reported five new COVID-19 infections.

Prince Edward Island's provincial flag flies on a flagpole in Ottawa, Tuesday, June 30, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

CHARLOTTETOWN - Prince Edward Island announced Wednesday it is bringing back its mask mandate and introducing new testing rules for children as the province reported five new COVID-19 infections.

Premier Dennis King told reporters masks will be required once again in indoor public spaces beginning Friday at 8 a.m.

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All children between 8 and 12 years old will have to take a COVID-19 test upon entering the province, and any child in that age group who has left the Island will have to be tested before returning to school, King said. Followup tests are required four and eight days later.

"All of these measures are designed to keep Prince Edward Island open, while keeping our province safe," King said, adding that the measures will be in place for the "foreseeable future."

Dr. Heather Morrison, the Island's chief public health officer, said four of the new cases are connected to an outbreak at West Royalty Elementary School in Charlottetown. Schools in the capital were closed this week so crews could trace contacts and clean the facilities, and King said in-person learning would resume Thursday at all schools except West Royalty Elementary. It will reopen next week.

The premier said officials are working hard on a vaccine passport system similar to the one introduced in Nova Scotia, and he expects it to be ready in early October.

Government data shows nearly 84 per cent of eligible Islanders were fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as of Saturday, and over 92 per cent had received at least one dose.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 15, 2021.
An estimated 2,600 Los Angeles Police Department employees are citing religious objections to try to get out of the required COVID-19 vaccination. In Washington state, thousands of state workers are seeking similar exemptions.

FILE - In this March 26, 2021, file photo a member of the Philadelphia Fire Department prepares a dose of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination site setup in Philadelphia. Religious objections, once used only sparingly around the country to get exempted from various required vaccines, are becoming a much more widely used loophole against the COVID-19 shot. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

An estimated 2,600 Los Angeles Police Department employees are citing religious objections to try to get out of the required COVID-19 vaccination. In Washington state, thousands of state workers are seeking similar exemptions.

And in Arkansas, a hospital has been swamped with so many such requests from employees that it is apparently calling their bluff.

Religious objections, once used sparingly around the country to get exempted from various required vaccines, are becoming a much more widely used loophole against the COVID-19 shot.

And it is only likely to grow following President Joe Biden's sweeping new vaccine mandates covering more than 100 million Americans, including executive branch employees and workers at businesses with more than 100 people on the payroll.

The administration acknowledges that a small minority of Americans will use  and some may seek to exploit  religious exemptions. But it said it believes even marginal improvements in vaccination rates will save lives.

It is not clear how many federal employees have asked for a religious exemption, though union officials say there will be many requests. The Labor Department has said an accommodation can be denied if it causes an undue burden on the employer.

In the states, mask and vaccine requirements vary, but most offer exemptions for certain medical conditions or religious or philosophical objections. The use of such exemptions, particularly by parents on behalf of their schoolchildren, has been growing over the past decade.

FILE  In this April 27, 2021 file photo, opponents of a bill to repeal Connecticut's religious exemption for required school vaccinations march down Capitol Avenue before the State Senate voted on legislation, in Hartford, Conn. Religious objections, once used only sparingly around the country to get exempted from various required vaccines, are becoming a much more widely used loophole against the COVID-19 shot. (Mark Mirko/Hartford Courant via AP, File)

The allowance was enshrined in the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964, which says employers must make reasonable accommodations for employees who object to work requirements because of sincerely held religious beliefs.

A religious belief does not have to be recognized by an organized religion, and it can be new, unusual or seem illogical or unreasonable to others, according to rules laid out by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. But it can't be founded solely on political or social ideas.

That puts employers in the position of determining what is a legitimate religious belief and what is a dodge.

Many major religious denominations have no objections to the COVID-19 vaccines. But the rollout has prompted heated debates because of the longtime role that cell lines derived from fetal tissue have played, directly or indirectly, in the research and development of various vaccines and medicines.

Roman Catholic leaders in New Orleans and St. Louis went so far as to call Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 shot morally compromised." J&J has stressed that there is no fetal tissue in its vaccine.

Moreover, the Vaticans doctrine office has said it is morally acceptable for Catholics to receive COVID-19 vaccines that are based on research that used cells derived from aborted fetuses. Pope Francis himself has said it would be suicide not to get the shot, and he has been fully vaccinated with the Pfizer formula.

In New York, state lawmakers have attempted to make the vaccine mandatory for medical workers, with no religious exemptions. On Tuesday, a federal judge blocked the state from enforcing the rule to give a group of workers time to argue that it is illegal because it lacks the opt-out.

Andrew Kurtyko, a registered nurse, is among those who want a religious exemption to not take the vaccine, and he is preparing to leave New York for Florida with his 18-year-old daughter if necessary.

FILE - In this Jan. 13, 2020, file photo, a woman holds a sign during a protest at the state house in Trenton, N.J. Religious objections, once used only sparingly around the country to get exempted from various required vaccines, are becoming a much more widely used loophole against the COVID-19 shot. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

Kurtyko said the draconian vaccine requirements in the U.S. remind him of communist Poland where he grew up before he and his family immigrated to the United States in 1991. He is a Catholic who believes fetal stem cells were experimented with in making the vaccine. He called Pope Francis guidance to get vaccinated his own opinion."

My parents came to this country for better living and crossed the ocean, said Kurtyko. The least I can do is fight for myself and my family is to go to a different state where religious exemptions are still being honored.. . . Our rights are being trampled."

Across the U.S., public officials, doctors and community leaders have been trying to help people circumvent COVID-19 mask and vaccine requirements.

In Tulsa, Oklahoma, pastor Jackson Lahmeyer is offering a "religious exemption form on his churchs website for download, along with links for suggested donations to the church. The 29-year-old is running for the U.S. Senate as a Republican.

Anyone interested can get the form signed by a religious leader, or Lahmeyer can sign it himself if the person joins the church and donates. He said more than 35,000 people downloaded the form in just three days.

Were not anti-vaxxers. Were just pro-freedom, Lahmeyer said. A lot of these people who have signed ... have already taken the vaccine. They just dont think its right that somebody else should be forced or lose their job.

But obtaining a religious exemption is not as simple as producing a signed form. Measles outbreaks in schools over the past decade prompted some states to change their policies. Some now require an actual signed affidavit from a religious leader, instead of an online form. California got rid of nonmedical exemptions in 2015.

Some employers are taking a hard line. United Airlines told employees last week that those who obtain religious exemptions will be put on unpaid leave until new coronavirus testing procedures are in place.

In Los Angeles, Police Chief Michel Moore said he is waiting for guidance from the city personnel department on how to handle exemption requests. The city has mandated that municipal employees get vaccinated by Oct. 5 unless they are granted a medical or religious exemption. A group of LAPD employees is suing over the policy.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti had a warning for those seeking exemptions: We will not tolerate the abuse of these exemptions by those who simply dont want to get vaccinated. To anyone thinking about filing a disingenuous exemption request, I strongly urge that you reconsider.

In Washington state, approximately 60,000 state employees are subject to a mandate issued by Gov. Jay Inslee that they be fully vaccinated by Oct. 18 or lose their job, unless they obtain a medical or religious exemption and receive an accommodation that allows them to remain employees.

As of Tuesday, more than 3,800 workers had requested religious exemptions. So far, 737 have been approved, but officials stressed that an exemption does not guarantee continued employment.

Once the exemption is approved, each agency has to evaluate whether the employee can still do the job with an accommodation while ensuring a safe workplace. Seven accommodations so far have been granted.

Inslee spokeswoman Tara Lee said the process "may help distinguish between a sincerely held personal belief and a sincerely held religious belief.

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In Arkansas, about 5% of the staff at the privately run Conway Regional Health System has requested religious or medical exemptions.

The hospital responded by sending employees a form that lists a multitude of common medicines  including Tylenol, Pepto-Bismol, Preparation H and Tums  that it said were developed or tested using fetal cell lines.

The form asks people to sign it and attest that my sincerely held religious belief is consistent and true and I do not use or will not use any of the listed medications.

In a statement, Conway Regional Health President and CEO Matt Troup said: "Staff who are sincere ... should have no hesitancy with agreeing to the list of medicines listed.

___

Associated Press writers Zeke Miller, Carla K. Johnson, Ricardo Alonzo-Zaldivar Sean Murphy, Stefanie Dazio, Brady McCombs and Rachel La Corte contributed to this report.
HALIFAX - Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau on Wednesday defended a large indoor rally he held in Brampton, Ont., saying his party followed public health guidelines.

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau makes a campaign stop in Halifax, N.S., on Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

HALIFAX - Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau on Wednesday defended a large indoor rally he held in Brampton, Ont., saying his party followed public health guidelines.

Hundreds of people surrounded the stage at Tuesday evening's event, where he was introduced by 87-year-old former prime minister Jean Chretien.

Supporters mobbed Trudeau at the end of the event, despite organizers asking people to stand in squares taped on the ground.

Liberal staffers said there were about 400 people in attendance and the gathering met local COVID-19 rules limiting indoor venues to half capacity.

On Wednesday, Trudeau was asked about the wisdom of holding such a large indoor event, which was also attended by 100-year-old former Mississauga, Ont., mayor Hazel McCallion.

"First of all, nobody tells Hazel McCallion or Jean Chretien what to do or what not to do," he told reporters in Halifax.

"I was so glad they chose to come join us in that event, which followed all public health guidelines."

Trudeau says it's important to recognize that nearly 80 per cent of eligible Canadians are vaccinated.

"And that means that for those people, being able to go back to doing the things we love is more and more a possibility."

Speaking in Quebec on Wednesday morning, Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole criticized Trudeau for holding the event "in defiance of common sense and social distancing guidelines," noting that Brampton has been a COVID-19 hot spot.

Trudeau, meanwhile, continued to hammer back at O'Toole for failing to require his candidates be vaccinated against COVID-19.

Both Chretien and Trudeau delivered separate speeches on a stage in the middle of a Brampton convention centre ballroom, surrounded on all sides by an enthusiastic crowd that cheered as they criticized the other party leaders and promoted the Liberal platform on vaccines, the environment and child care.

In his speech, Chretien defended Trudeau's decision to send Canadians to the voting booths, saying that election calls are "a tradition" for minority governments after two years.

He delivered spirited criticism of O'Toole and Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet, and said Canadians need a centrist government to face issues such as climate change and the challenges posed by China.

"It's not the time to move to the far right or the far left, it's the time to be in the middle," he said.

When asked later if he had felt comfortable in the middle of a large crowd, Chretien admitted he hadn't known about the format ahead of time.

"I had no podium and so no, it wasnt the surrounding Im used to," said Chretien, who added that he'd been vaccinated.

"But Im happy that I came. Ive been around the track for a while, and to be back on the track wasnt too bad."

McCallion said after the event that the crowds were just one of the reasons why an election shouldn't have been called during a pandemic.

"The governments have been saying, stay at home, stay away from getting in groups, and then an election is called that brings people together in groups," McCallion said.

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Despite her criticism of the election call, McCallion also recognized that minority governments "don't work," and said she hoped Trudeau's Liberals would win a majority on Sept. 20.

Later, at a stop at a brewery in Fredericton, N.B., Trudeau told supporters that ensuring as many people as possible get vaccinated remains the only way to end the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I know as good Liberals, you guys are probably all vaccinated but you all know people who havent yet been vaccinated or are still hesitating," he said. "Its time for them to get vaccinated as well."

Trudeau said that O'Toole, by defending the choice of people who choose not to get vaccinated, is impacting Canadians' "freedoms and abilities" including putting the country at risk of further lockdowns.

Campaigning alongside Jenica Atwin, a former Green MP who crossed the floor to join the Liberals, Trudeau also touted the Liberal climate plan and said neither the NDP or Green Party have stepped up with a "real and ambitious plan" to fight climate change.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 15, 2021.
Providence Therapeutics, the Calgary biotech company that has developed its own mRNA COVID vaccine which is in Phase 2 clinical trials, has signed a partnership with a Chinese pharmaceutical company to distribute the vaccine in China and elsewhere in Asia, that could end up being worth about $500 million.

Providence Therapeutics, the Calgary biotech company that has developed its own mRNA COVID vaccine which is in Phase 2 clinical trials, has signed a partnership with a Chinese pharmaceutical company to distribute the vaccine in China and elsewhere in Asia, that could end up being worth about $500 million.

It also finalized a $114-million five-year arrangement with Emergent BioSolutions Inc. to produce the vaccine in Emergents Winnipeg facility.

Sean Phillips photo Brad Sorenson, CEO of Providence Therapeutics.

Although the vaccine is still in Phase 2 trials in Canada, company CEO Brad Sorenson said all indications show it is as effective as other vaccines now in use.

The goal is to sign up 600 participants for the trial but because of the high rate of vaccinations in Canada the company is in the process of taking the trial overseas.

Even though it has not been approved for use by regulatory authorities in any country, production of the vaccine has already begun.

Sorenson said hes confident that the vaccine is "best in class." A company release says the trials to date have demonstrated that it is generally safe and all subjects produced neutralizing antibodies after the first dose and the levels increased more than tenfold after the second dose with high resistance against current variants of concern including the delta variant that compare favourably to currently approved mRNA vaccines.

In February, former premier Brian Pallister made a surprising $7.2-million commitment to secure two million doses of the Providence vaccine. That commitment has still not been finalized, nor has any payment been made.

Sorenson said that even though a term sheet was agreed to several months ago, an agreement has never been formalized.

But he said, "It is not that we are not interested in Manitoba. Things kind of stalled during the fourth wave. Then coming out of that things seems a bit stalled. Then Mr. Pallister resigned. I suspect we got caught up in a bigger storm."

Premier Kelvin Goertzen said in a prepared statement, "The Manitoba government continues to work with Providence Therapeutics to determine the best way forward to support their efforts to conclude clinical trials and seek approval from Health Canada. We are also working with Providence to establish production in Manitoba and secure supply to support Manitobas future vaccine needs."

Regardless whether the province ends up buying the vaccine, the official deal with Emergent will have an economic impact for the province. The company already employs about 350 people in Winnipeg and a company official said they anticipate needing to hire additional employees as production ramps up. The company said the arrangement with Providence calls for Emergent to "manufacture tens of millions of doses" in 2022.

Emergents production facility in Bayview, Md., where the company is headquartered, has already produced around 75 million doses of both the Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca vaccines.

But earlier this year it ran into a contamination issue and was forced to dispose of millions of doses of Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

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A company spokesman said, "Since production was paused at Bayview, Emergent has worked closely with FDA and J&J to address quality concerns including developing and executing an action plan and committing extensive resources to areas of concern that were identified. Emergent expects to continue to work with FDA throughout the manufacturing process to help ensure the strength of the J&J COVID-19 vaccine supply chain."

Sorenson, who has been at odds with the Canadian government over its reluctance to support his vaccine development, said the arrangement with the Shanghai-based company, Everest Medicines Ltd., is a fantastic development for Providence.

Among other things, Sorenson said his company has been committed to getting vaccines distributed throughout the world where it is most needed. The Everest arrangement allows it to license the rights to Providences mRNA COVID-19 vaccine in China, Southeast Asia and Pakistan.

Asked if there was any trepidation on entering into such a partnership with a Chinese company at a time when trading relations with that country are fraught, Sorenson said, "We got a half million dollars. We werent getting anything from the government of Canada. This is an example of things working properly  a company in China is paying fair price for access to technology This is a success story."

The agreement also gives Everest access to further pharmaceutical developments at Providence in exchange for up to 12 per cent of the shares of Everest.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca
WASHINGTON (AP)  Federal officials have cleared the way for construction of a dump in West Texas that could hold spent nuclear fuel for up to 40 years.

WASHINGTON (AP)  Federal officials have cleared the way for construction of a dump in West Texas that could hold spent nuclear fuel for up to 40 years.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission granted a license to Interim Storage Partners LLC to build and run a facility that could take up to 5,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel rods from power plants and 231 million tons of other radioactive waste.

The decision puts the federal agency on a collision course with state officials in Texas, where opposition to nuclear waste storage has been building for years.

Last week, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill that purports to prohibit the storage or transportation of high-level nuclear waste such as spent fuel rods through the state.

Texas will not become America's nuclear waste dumping ground, Abbott tweeted on Tuesday.

Environmental groups including the Sierra Club have filed federal lawsuits to block the project, arguing that the discovery of groundwater under the site makes it unsafe to store radioactive waste there.

Interim Storage Partners plan to build the facility next to an existing dump site in Andrews County for low-level waste such as protective clothing and other material that has been exposed to radioactivity. The company plans to expand the interim facility in seven phases to take up to 40,000 tons of high-level waste, which would be stored in sealed containers. Each expansion would require NRC review and approval.

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The company is a joint venture of Waste Control Specialists LLC, which was started by the late Dallas billionaire investor Harold Simmons and later bought by private equity firm J.F. Lehman & Co., and Orano USA. Waste Control Specialists applied for the license in 2015.

The Andrews County site is about 350 miles (563.27 kilometers) west of Dallas, near the Texas-New Mexico state line.

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and the states congressional delegation are fighting a proposal by Holtec International to build a similar temporary nuclear waste facility in Lea County. They say technical analysis of the site has been inadequate.

New Mexico officials fear that the waste will be stranded in their state because the federal government has failed over a period of decades to find a permanent disposal site. Instead, highly radioactive waste is piling up at dozens of reactors around the country.

In 2006, the NRC approved a proposal for a temporary dump for spent fuel in Utah, but the facility was never built.

Going back to the 1980s, the Energy Department and Congress approved building a permanent, deep underground burial site in southern Nevada. State officials fought the project for years, however, and Congress eliminated funding for it in 2011 while Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, was Senate majority leader.
A woman is suing a New York fertility doctor, claiming he used his own sperm to secretly impregnate multiple patients  something she said she discovered when DNA genealogy tests revealed she had at least nine half-siblings.

A woman is suing a New York fertility doctor, claiming he used his own sperm to secretly impregnate multiple patients  something she said she discovered when DNA genealogy tests revealed she had at least nine half-siblings.

The lawsuit was filed Saturday by the 35-year-old daughter of a woman who got fertility treatments from Dr. Morris Wortman in Rochester in the 1980s. It said he falsely told the family the sperm donor had been a local medical student. He kept the truth a secret, the lawsuit said, even after the woman, his biological daughter, became his gynecology patient.

Wortman was with patients and unavailable for comment Tuesday, his Rochester office said. The office did not immediately respond when asked for the name of an attorney who could speak on his behalf.

The case is one of more than 20 instances in recent years where fertility doctors have been accused of using their own sperm, rather than samples from anonymous donors, to treat patients. The discovery of such scenarios has been made possible with the rise of genealogy sites like Ancestry.com and 23andMe.

In Indiana, Dr. Donald Cline was accused of using his own sperm to impregnate as many as dozens of women after telling them the donors were anonymous. He ultimately pleaded guilty to lying to investigators during an investigation and was given a one-year suspended sentence.

HBO released a documentary last year, Baby God, about a Nevada doctor accused of inseminating multiple patients with his sperm. In another example, a Colorado doctor was sued by at least six families alleging negligence and fraud for allegedly using his own sperm in several successful artificial insemination procedures from 1975 to 1989. A New Jersey woman sued a former New York doctor with similar allegations earlier this year.

The woman who sued Wortman asked, through her attorney, that her name be withheld because of the personal nature of the allegations and because they involved her medical history. She declined to be interviewed.

The lawsuit differs from some others involving fertility doctors in that Wortman, a gynecologist, had also treated the woman as a patient for nearly 10 years, performing numerous breast and pelvic exams and discussing her sex drive and other personal issues.

The doctors conduct shocks the conscience, the legal filing said.

The lawsuit said the woman had known that she was born in 1985 through artificial insemination and that Wortman had, in fact, been revered in her family for helping her mother conceive through what they thought was an anonymous sperm donation from a University of Rochester medical student.

But the woman began to question the story after taking a genetic test in 2016 that began to link her with one half-sibling after another  all people who were, themselves, the children of sperm donors.

One such sibling, David Berry, had been in touch with the woman for about four years before their growing suspicions were confirmed. He and other half-siblings were at first delighted to meet over their shared bond. His feelings are more complicated now.

An interesting dichotomy is feeling gratitude for your existence and knowing at the same time that you are the product of something that should have never happened, Berry, 36, said by phone from Miami, Florida.

It became a tougher pill to swallow, he said. On one hand youre grateful for your existence and the people youre sharing the experience with. On the other, I dont know how you forgive the violation of confidence and trust that a woman puts into her physician in the most intimate of settings.

In the meantime, Wortman continued to give the woman medical care, sometimes peppering her visits with personal questions about her husband and children and telling her about his own background as a child of Holocaust survivors. At one appointment, Wortman introduced her to his wife.

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During an April visit, the lawsuit said, Wortman chuckled to himself and said aloud, Youre a really good kid, such a good kid."

Follow-up DNA testing with Berry and Wortmans daughter from his first marriage confirmed the genetic link in May, the lawsuit said.

The suit accuses Wortman and his Rochester clinic, the Center for Menstrual Disorders, of medical malpractice, battery, infliction of emotional distress, negligence, fraud and lack of informed consent.

Wortman is unlikely to face criminal charges because too much time has passed, according to the Monroe County District Attorneys Office.

While no victim has reached out yet, our appeals bureau did do some quick research and it appears that in reference to what has been made publicly available, any criminal action is barred by the statute of limitations, spokesperson Calli Marianetti said in an email Tuesday.

A handful of states, including Indiana, where Cline practiced, have enacted laws in recent years expressly making it illegal for a doctor to secretly donate sperm for a fertility patient, but few if any legal restrictions existed in the 1970s and 1980s, the period involved in many of the allegations.
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP)  Banana bread was served at a recent birthday party at Melfort Old Peoples home, where a group of residents mustered a raspy happy birthday tune.

Elderly men gather around a fire at Melfort Old People's home on the outskirts of Harare, Zimbabwe, Sunday, July 25, 2021. The economic ravages of COVID-19 are forcing some families in Zimbabwe to abandon the age old tradition of taking care of the elderly. Zimbabwe's care homes have experienced a 60% increase in admissions since the outbreak of the pandemic in March last year. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP)  Banana bread was served at a recent birthday party at Melfort Old Peoples home, where a group of residents mustered a raspy happy birthday tune.

Just a week after arriving at the facility, Rodrick Bhatare, in his 90s, said he felt a bittersweet moment at the celebration for a 103-year-old fellow resident.

I havent been this happy in a very long time, he said. I just wished I was doing it with my family. Hard-hit by the pandemic, his family could no longer provide for him, he said.

The economic ravages of COVID-19 are forcing some families in Zimbabwe to abandon the age-old tradition of taking care of older people.

Some roam the streets. The lucky ones end up at facilities for older people once widely viewed by many Zimbabweans as un-African and against the social bonds that have held extended families together for generations.

Rarely talked about, older people are silent victims of the pandemic, said Priscilla Gavi, executive director of HelpAge Zimbabwe.

Parents or elderly relatives have become an extra strain in this pandemic so although it goes against our culture, many people are finding old peoples homes as the only option, Gavi said.

Zimbabwe's care homes have experienced a 60% increase in admissions since the COVID-19 pandemic erupted in March 2020, and most of the country's more than 170 facilities for older people are full, she said.

COVID-19 has increased the risk of abuse and neglect of older people across Africa and around the world, according to a report by HelpAge International.

In addition to being one of the groups most at risk of severe illness and death from COVID-19, older people are chronically neglected in response and recovery efforts, especially in lower-income countries, according to the report, Bearing the Brunt.

For the older people in care institutions, the experience is both a saving grace and a source of anguish.

Bhatare said that after he retired from work as a quarry miner about two decades ago all was well as he alternately stayed with his two daughters and other relatives.

He was living with a married niece and four of her children when COVID-19 hit and their income from selling goods on the street dropped. Food in the home became scarce, tensions rose, and to survive Bhatare began foraging for meals on the streets until concerned neighbors alerted HelpAge, which found him a place in the Melfort home, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) east of Harare, the capital.

My daughters are married but they are also struggling. I had become a strain to everybody, he said.

Zimbabwes economy was already battered before the pandemic and now more than 80% of urban households are struggling to buy basic food supplies, while large numbers of rural families are also sinking into hunger, according to the World Food Program.

People age 70 and above make up less than 3% of Zimbabwes population of about 15 million and often became casualties of belt-tightening.

They are not bringing in any income in an environment where even young children are working to contribute towards household incomes. The elderly are becoming the sacrificial lambs. COVID-19 has really knocked them down, said Phillip Pasirayi, a sociologist and director of the Center for Community Development in Zimbabwe.

Feeling abandoned by their families can be a shock for many older people at care facilities, he said.

It doesnt really resonate with what we are accustomed to as Africans. You want to spend your last days surrounded by family. That is the tradition, Pasirayi said.

When they are forced into old peoples homes, many go into depression, into dementia  they are confused that their children or relatives have abandoned them, said Daniel Francis, the administrator at Melfort Old Peoples home.

Some families resort to tricks to remove their older relatives, he said.

With the pandemic, some people take an elderly relative to a faraway place. They buy them a drink at the shops, tell them We are coming back, and they go for good. Elderly persons are being dumped and they are forgotten, Francis said. Police take such people to the social welfare department.

The social welfare department doesnt have a home so they come to us, said Francis, whose facility has a capacity for 40 resident. But in the pandemic it limits numbers to 22 to allow more physical distance between residents.

The care homes that don't charge their residents, and are funded by charities and churches, are under strain.

The Melfort home would find it difficult to return to full capacity, he said, as its donations have dropped by more than 60% in the pandemic, he said.

Times are even tougher at the Society for the Destitute Aged's care home in Harares Highfield township. Princess Diana opened an accommodation wing amid much fanfare in 1993. But today paint is peeling off the walls, ceilings are falling in and bees have taken over the out-of-service 200-liter (53-gallon) water heater.

The home has no vehicle so when a resident needs medical care, manager Emilia Mukaratirwa must risk crowded public taxis or, when money permits, hire a small car to rush a retiree to a hospital.

The whole place needs a makeover, but for now just getting bread is like Christmas. Thats how desperately we need help, Mukaratirwa said.

Despite the disappointment of not being with family, Bhatare at the Melfort Old Peoples home is adjusting to his new reality.

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These strangers have become my family, they treat me well," he said. "I still love my real family but I dont want to be a burden to them.

___

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https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic

https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine

https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak
BOWDEN, ALBERTA - A man convicted of the mass murder of a family nearly 40 years ago revealed chilling details of his crime Wednesday as the Parole Board of Canada once again rejected his request to get out of prison.

BOWDEN, ALBERTA - A man convicted of the mass murder of a family nearly 40 years ago revealed chilling details of his crime Wednesday as the Parole Board of Canada once again rejected his request to get out of prison.

David Shearing, who now goes by the name David Ennis, shot and killed George and Edith Bentley; their daughter, Jackie; and her husband Bob Johnson, while the family was on a camping trip in 1982 near Wells Gray Provincial Park, about 120 kilometres north of Kamloops, B.C.

David Shearing is shown in 1983. The convicted mass murderer, who killed a family of six nearly 40 years ago, is to once again seek his release when he appears before the Parole Board of Canada at Bowden Institution in central Alberta today. David Shearing, who now goes by the name David Ennis, shot and killed George and Edith Bentley; their daughter, Jackie; and her husband, Bob Johnson, and the Johnson's two daughters, while the family was on a camping trip in 1982 near Wells Gray Provincial Park, about 120 km north of Kamloops, B.C. THE CANADIAN PRESS/ files

He kept the Johnsons' daughters  Janet, 13, and Karen, 11  alive for almost a week and sexually assaulted them before taking them into the woods, one at a time, and killing them. He then loaded the bodies into a car and set it on fire.

Ennis, now 62, pleaded guilty in 1984 to six counts of second-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.

He told the two-member parole panel Wednesday that he had sexual fantasies, including rape and murder, from when he was in his mid-teens. When he saw the family's vehicles parked near the campground he began stalking them.

Ennis said the only one he was interested in was Janet. He killed the adults because they were in the way.

"I saw them as just a means to an end. I saw the four adults basically as being in the way of what I wanted at the time," said Ennis at the federal Bowden Institution in central Alberta.

"It was just Janet as far as what I was thinking and Karen just happened to be there."

Ennis also admitted to hitting and killing a teenager before the murders. He said getting away with it made it easier to escalate his behaviour.

A parole board member asked Ennis what he did to the girls when he had them captive, noting that all forensic evidence had been destroyed in the fire and there were no other witnesses.

"When I saw the effects of that violence in real life ... Janet was crying, as was Karen. Those things stopped me from escalating to more violence," Ennis said.

"It did stop me from using the violence for sexual gratification," he claimed.

The parole board heard nine emotional victim impact statements demanding the board reject his application. They said he is the same monster that he was in 1982.

Jessica Lehman, who said she was related to the victims, said the storyline is like the plot of a horror movie.

"It's more than a horror movie now," she said, calling Ennis a "monster in the woods."

"We fear for our lives. We fear he will kill again. He used it to destroy my family. He doesn't deserve a second chance."

Another cousin, who didn't give his name, said the family is still suffering after Ennis went on his "murderous rampage".

"His death is the only means to us moving on."

Tammy Arishenkoff, who launched a change.org petition that has more than 100,000 signatures urging the board to refuse parole, was a friend of Janet's.

"Six people died because he wanted them dead. He is still the same, sick, brutal, callous, remorseless monster that he was in 1982," she said. "He showed no mercy for my friend."

Ennis apologized to the families. He said he better understands their pain and has powerful feelings of shame and regret.

"I do apologize to all, especially to the victims, for the impact that it has had on them," said Ennis. He added that he has lived with "powerful feelings of shame and regret".

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The board was told that Ennis has been attending sex offender programs and works in the prison chapel. He is taking a one-year course at the Prairie Bible College.

But the board rejected his parole application, saying Ennis still has deviant sexual fantasies.

"There are overwhelming negative aspects in your case. The gravity and severity of your offending, it's of the utmost level. It was very violent and it devastated so many people," the board said.

"When we look at your assessed risks, together with your diagnosis of sexual sadism which largely remains unchanged ... the most appropriate place for you to make gains is in the safety and security of the institution."

Ennis previously applied for parole in 2008 and 2012. He applied again in 2014 but withdrew his request a month before the hearing was to take place.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Sept. 15, 2021.
PORT HAWKESBURY, N.S. - Less than a month before Lionel Desmond killed his wife, mother, daughter and himself in 2017, the Afghanistan war veteran called a community group near his home in Nova Scotia to set up an appointment for couples counselling.

A sheriff stands at the door at the Desmond Fatality Inquiry in Guysborough, N.S. on November 18, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan

PORT HAWKESBURY, N.S. - Less than a month before Lionel Desmond killed his wife, mother, daughter and himself in 2017, the Afghanistan war veteran called a community group near his home in Nova Scotia to set up an appointment for couples counselling.

Desmond's decision to seek help on Dec. 9, 2016, was discussed Wednesday as part of an ongoing provincial fatality inquiry in Port Hawkesbury, N.S., which started hearings in January 2020.

One of the key mandates of the inquiry is to determine if Desmond and his family had access to mental health services and domestic violence prevention services.

Nancy MacDonald, executive director of the non-profit Family Service of Eastern Nova Scotia, told the inquiry that Desmond and his wife, Shanna, were scheduled for an initial counselling session by phone on Jan. 16, 2017. Desmond, however, called back on Jan. 3, 2017, to say he instead wanted individual counselling.

MacDonald, a registered therapist with 20 years' experience, said the administrative assistant who spoke to Desmond that day did not detect any distress in his voice or any warning signs to suggest he or his family was at risk.

"During that call, Mr. Desmond was not, in any way, shape or form, escalated," MacDonald testified, recalling what the assistant told her after the seven-minute call. "It was a calm tone of voice .... It was just matter-of-fact."

MacDonald, whose group provides families, couples and individuals with a wide range of mental health services, said staff members are trained to detect subtle verbal cues that hint at deeper problems.

"If he had been under real duress ... it's very common for our admins to pull in whatever social worker happens to be in the office at that time," she said. "It would have been me, because I was sitting right there."

About six hours later, Desmond was dressed in camouflaged clothing when he used a legally purchased semi-automatic rifle to fatally shoot his family and himself in their rural home in Upper Big Tracadie, N.S.

MacDonald was asked if Desmond's decision to seek individual counselling could be interpreted as a red flag. She said that wasn't the case, because it's not unusual for those seeking couples counselling to realize their relationship is beyond repair.

"Couples counselling often isn't about keeping couples together," she said. "It's also about helping them transition into their new states as co-parents or separated individuals."

The inquiry has heard Desmond, who was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder in 2011 after serving in Afghanistan in 2007, had spent years trying to rescue his troubled marriage. Before he left the military in 2015, he participated in four years of therapy, during which he repeatedly said he wanted to be a better father and husband.

Soon after the killings, family and friends came forward to say the Desmonds were planning to take part in couples therapy. But the inquiry also heard that on the day of the shootings, Lionel Desmond called a community therapist to let her know that his wife had asked for a divorce.

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Reflecting on the tragedy, MacDonald said she and her staff were shocked by what had happened, and they spent a long time discussing if there was anything they could have done differently.

She said her organization has pioneered initiatives that are specifically aimed at helping men, including the founding of a men's health centre in 2008 and a round-the-clock men's help line one year ago. The help line offers 30-minute counselling sessions with the option of ongoing help from a therapist or counsellor. It has received 1,600 calls since it opened in September 2020.

"We had no idea how busy it was going to be," MacDonald said. "We've had resounding success."

As of Wednesday, the inquiry had heard 46 days of testimony, spread over the past 18 months.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 15, 2021.

 By Michael MacDonald in Halifax
OTTAWA - Federal leaders were united in their commitment to fight sexual misconduct in Canadas military  but divided on the right approach  as the issue made a rare appearance on the campaign trail Wednesday after months of allegations, parliamentary hearings and promises of action.

Liberal leader Justin Trudeau makes a campaign stop in Halifax, N.S., on Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

OTTAWA - Federal leaders were united in their commitment to fight sexual misconduct in Canadas military  but divided on the right approach  as the issue made a rare appearance on the campaign trail Wednesday after months of allegations, parliamentary hearings and promises of action.

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, Conservative Leader Erin OToole and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh were asked during separate campaign events if they would commit to creating an independent watchdog to fight inappropriate and criminal sexual behaviour in the ranks.

Many victims advocates and experts have argued since the first allegations in February of misconduct against some of the Canadian Armed Forces top officers that independent oversight and accountability are critical to addressing the problem.

Trudeau at an event in Halifax would not commit to creating an independent body to monitor the military and hold it to account, and he instead promised that a re-elected Liberal government would act on the recommendations of retired Supreme Court justice Louise Arbour.

The Liberal leader as prime minister tapped Arbour in April to conduct a year-long review of the militarys approach to preventing and punishing sexual crimes and behaviour following months of outrage over the conduct of its top commanders.

The Liberals also appointed Lt.-Gen. Jennie Carignan, one of the militarys highest-ranking female officers, to lead the Canadian Armed Forces culture-change efforts, which included tackling hate and discrimination in the ranks.

It has gone on for too long and all the different efforts over the years have improved, but not nearly enough, which is why we needed the top experts to say: This is what we'll do, Trudeau said.

And we commit, absolutely, to following full-heartedly on the recommendations that Gen. Carignan, but especially justice Arbour, have put forward to end discrimination within the military once and for all.

Some have criticized the Liberals for launching another review after Arbours former Supreme Court benchmate Marie Deschamps in 2015 called for an independent centre to monitor the militarys handling of cases and hold it accountable.

Neither Stephen Harpers Conservative government, who were in power when Deschamps released the results of her review, which found a heavily sexualized culture in the military, nor the Trudeau government acted upon the recommendation.

While he did not mention the Deschamps report, OToole on Wednesday did commit to creating an independent watchdog for the military, which his partys platform says would see Canadas military ombudsmans office report to Parliament rather than the defence minister, as is currently the case.

We will have an independent process, OToole said. We will put a freeze in place in terms of promotions and other things to send a real signal that we will clean up the mess and we will restore that trust and faith that is important for an institution as important as our military.

OToole went on to attack the Liberals, who found themselves under fire earlier this year following revelations then-military ombudsman Gary Walbourne raised an allegation of sexual misconduct involving chief of the defence staff Jonathan Vance with Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan in March 2018.

While the government said it acted appropriately by sending the allegation to senior civil servants to investigate, and that the investigation was stymied by the ombudsmans refusal to provide further information, others such as OToole have accused the Liberals of a cover-up.

Vance has denied any wrongdoing. He was charged in July with one count of obstruction of justice and his case is back in court on Friday.

Singh promised to implement Deschampss recommendation even as he accused the Liberals of having let down women in uniform by launching another  in his view, unnecessary  review.

We need to have an independent process, he said. That was a major concern raised by Justice Deschamps.  And despite knowing that, to this day, after six years of having this report, six years of being in power, Mr. Trudeau has not done that.

The Green Party has also said it would implement Deschampss recommendation.

The issue of sexual misconduct in the military had made only a few brief appearances on the campaign trail prior to Wednesday, and received only a short mention during the English-language debate. That was despite having dominated headlines and causing upheaval in the military since February.

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That lack of attention had Charlotte Duval-Lantoine of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute worried about a repeat of past cycles, where allegations of military sexual misconduct have caused upheaval and promises of action, before the focus shifts and the issue isnt addressed.

I have seen these patterns, said Duval-Lantoine, who studies gender in the military. So obviously I'm worried about these patterns repeating. I know that right now, there's still quite a bit of momentum within the institution. But that will wane down at some point because culture changes is difficult.

Experts are divided over each of the parties' promises. Some believe implementation of Deschampss recommendation is long overdue. Others feel Arbours review will offer a better roadmap to addressing the problem. And some say the best approach is making the ombudsmans office independent.

Yet most share Duval-Lantoines concern over whether the next government  no matter the stripe  will have the political will or interest in truly addressing sexual misconduct in the military.

I'm totally frustrated, totally frustrated, Walbourne said in an interview. We know what needs to be done. People have talked about it ad nauseum. But that's all we do. We talk and there's a big uproar in the media, it gets on the national level: Oh my, its shocking. And then it goes away.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 15, 2021.
SHOAL LAKE, ONTARIO, CANADA - Angelina McLeod spent most of her life in Shoal Lake 40 First Nation watching her uncles and her father, Alfred Redsky, a former chief, fight for clean drinking water and a better way of life.

Stewart Redsky, former chief of Shoal Lake 40 First Nation, walks past one week's worth of 20 litre water bottles in the community's water storage room on Feb. 25, 2015. The First Nation is now welcoming clean, running water for the first time in nearly 25 years. THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods

SHOAL LAKE, ONTARIO, CANADA - Angelina McLeod spent most of her life in Shoal Lake 40 First Nation watching her uncles and her father, Alfred Redsky, a former chief, fight for clean drinking water and a better way of life.

The moment came Wednesday when, for the first time in nearly 25 years, the water flowing through the community's taps was deemed safe to drink.

"It was like I was there seeing it for them," McLeod said in a phone interview.

McLeod's father died in 2013. She kept up his fight as a documentarian and eventual councillor for the Anishinaabe community on the Manitoba-Ontario boundary.

On Wednesday, the First Nation celebrated the opening of its long-anticipated water treatment plant with a special event, which included a tour of the facility.

A long-term boil-water advisory for the community, which was issued in 1998 and was one of the longest in Canada, was also lifted.

"It's the end of years of struggles trying to get the basic necessities of life, clean drinking water," said McLeod.

Shoal Lake 40 was cut off from the outside world more than a century ago during the construction of an aqueduct that supplies Winnipeg with its drinking water. The community's land became a man-made island, only accessible by a ferry in the summer and a dangerous ice road in the winter.

McLeod's mother died when a canoe she was in capsized as she was trying to get back home on the island.

McLeod, 43, said her family's home didn't have running water and many households had to rely on bottled water. It wasn't until she left the community that she realized it wasn't normal.

She said being isolated on the island without clean drinking water took a toll on her mental health.

"When I started learning about the outside world, when I was growing up, I started feeling less than who I was," McLeod recalled.

She said some members also began to experience health problems due to what they believe was the water.

The community advocated for years for an all-season transportation link and, in 2019, what became known as "Freedom Road" was completed. Construction on the water treatment plant began soon after.

Federal Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller was in the community Wednesday for the celebration.

"The people of Shoal Lake 40 have fought hard for this day," Miller said on Twitter.

Miller and Chief Vernon Redsky were the first to test the water when they toasted at the opening, McLeod added.

"They said it tasted good," she said with a laugh.

Federal Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau spoke on the election campaign trail Tuesday about the advisory being lifted. He said his government is still committed to ending long-term boil water advisories, a promise the Liberals first made during the 2015 election campaign.

"Indigenous people who have lived on that land for generations and millennia can't drink the water. We're fixing that," Trudeau said.

Numbers from Indigenous Services Canada from Aug. 28 show there were 51 long-term drinking water advisories in 32 communities. Some 109 advisories had been lifted since November 2015.

The community also celebrated the opening of the brand new Harvey Redsky Memorial School, a kindergarten to Grade 8 school, named after a beloved band member and former custodian in the community.

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McLeod spearheaded the project. She said she also has her sights set on building its first high school, and with the new water treatment plant finally in place, she believes it's just the beginning.

"Everybody has hope for the future."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 15, 2021.

 By Brittany Hobson in Winnipeg

___

This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Facebook and Canadian Press News Fellowship.
FREDERICTON - Jenica Atwin says she takes a deep breath before knocking on doors in Fredericton.

Jenica Atwin, Member of Parliament for Fredericton, speaks to the media during a funding announcement in Fredericton, New Brunswick on Friday July 23, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Stephen MacGillivray

FREDERICTON - Jenica Atwin says she takes a deep breath before knocking on doors in Fredericton.

Atwin won the riding for the Greens in 2019, becoming one of three MPs for the party  and the only representative east of British Columbia. But she defected to the Liberals in June, leaving both parties anxious to claim the seat this time.

"I feel I will have the voice for Fredericton," Atwin said in a recent interview, adding that she's faced a few tough questions from voters about her decision to leave the Greens.

"For me it's a vote of confidence that my constituents are happy with the work I've been doing and that even with the switch my heart is still for the constituents themselves and bringing Fredericton's voice to Ottawa."

Donald Wright, a political scientist at the University of New Brunswick, said Atwin made "a lot of people angry in Fredericton when she jumped ship."

"A lot of the Greens were furious, saying 'I didn't put up signs, I didn't knock on doors, I didn't make telephone calls for the Liberal Party of Canada," he said.

Atwin, who is still relatively new to politics, said she has been receiving positive responses from voters during the campaign.

She crossed the floor after criticizing Green Leader Annamie Paul's moderate stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Atwin had described Israel's actions toward Palestinians as "apartheid" on social media, though she walked back those remarks after joining the Liberals.

Wright said Atwin is a progressive candidate who supports the left-leaning policies of the Liberals on issues such as abortion rights and climate change. But he said it could be a close race because the Greens have been able to attract UNB law professor Nicole O'Byrne as their candidate to run against her.

"She is tough, she is smart, and she knows the issues," Wright said about O'Byrne.

O'Byrne said she's receiving a warm response from voters when she campaigns and is getting support from across the country, as the party is eager to hang onto the seat.

"I'm receiving donations from all across the country," she said. "I'm receiving support, advice and well wishes from British Columbia to Newfoundland."

"Greens all across the country want us to win this seat in Fredericton to show that the Green party matters and that we have a different perspective to bring to politics."

She said members of her campaign team know how to win after running the 2019 campaign and three provincial wins for New Brunswick Green Leader David Coon.

O'Byrne said that unlike Atwin, if she wins as a Green she'll stay a green.

"A lot of people have expressed disappointment that when they voted Green in 2019 they feel that their vote got changed to a Liberal vote without their consent," she said.

Conservative candidate Andrea Johnson said she's hearing from a lot of people who don't know where to park their vote. Johnson finished second in 2019, 1,600 votes behind Atwin  but 1,500 votes ahead of Matt DeCourcey, who was the Liberal incumbent.

Johnson said she's not hearing about the other parties as she goes door to door, just the issues.

"People are concerned about spending," she said in a recent interview. "They are concerned about the debt. They are concerned about affordable housing and mental health. It's been about spending and the affordability of being a New Brunswicker right now."

Wright said Johnson did well last election and has name recognition, but he said her campaign will depend on the success of her national party. "Does Erin O'Toole take off or does he sink?" Wright asked.

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All three candidates list health care, the economy, the environment and Indigenous reconciliation as the main issues for the campaign.

The New Democrats, Communist and Libertarian parties and one independent are also in the running for the Fredericton seat.

In 2019 the NDP. and four other parties combined managed to get over 4,200 votes.

Wright said those votes could decide the outcome in the Fredericton riding.

"The real question is the NDP," Wright said. "Those votes will be up for grabs. They are the progressive left-of-centre voter looking for a place to put their votes."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 15, 2021.
CAMBRIDGE BAY, Nunavut - One man is dead after a helicopter rolled on landing Tuesday near a mine in western Nunavut.

The Hope Bay gold mine is shown in Nunavut in this undated handout photo. One man is dead after a helicopter rolled on landing Tuesday outside the mine, about 125 kilometres southwest of Cambridge Bay. Mine owner Agnico Eagle Mines says the man was a contract employee. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO Agnico Eagle, Mathieu Dupuis

CAMBRIDGE BAY, Nunavut - One man is dead after a helicopter rolled on landing Tuesday near a mine in western Nunavut.

Agnico Eagle Mines, which operates the Hope Bay gold mine, says the man was a contract employee working 13 kilometres from the site.

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The mine, which is about 125 kilometres southwest of Cambridge Bay, suspended operations for 24 hours following the death.

Agnico Eagle says it will provide counselling and support to employees.

RCMP say they received a call around suppertime Tuesday that a helicopter had rolled and killed a worker.

They say they are investigating along with the Transportation Safety Board of Canada and the Office of the Chief Coroner.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 15, 2021.

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. An earlier version had the first two words flipped in the Transportation Safety Board of Canada.
OTTAWA - Refugee claimants and their advocates are asking the Supreme Court of Canada to review a decision that affirmed the constitutionality of a key pact between Ottawa and Washington on asylum seekers.

An asylum seeker is questioned by an RCMP officer as he crosses the border into Canada from the United States Monday, August 21, 2017 near Champlain, N.Y. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson

OTTAWA - Refugee claimants and their advocates are asking the Supreme Court of Canada to review a decision that affirmed the constitutionality of a key pact between Ottawa and Washington on asylum seekers.

In a submission to the high court, they say the case raises "foundational questions of constitutional law" concerning access to remedies for violations of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Under the Safe Third Country Agreement, which took effect in 2004, Canada and the United States recognize each other as safe places to seek protection.

It means Canada can turn back potential refugees who arrive at land ports of entry along the Canada-U.S. border on the basis they must pursue their claims in the U.S., the country where they first arrived.

Canadian refugee advocates have vigorously fought the asylum agreement, arguing the U.S. is not always a safe country for people fleeing persecution.

Several refugee claimants took the case to court along with the Canadian Council for Refugees, the Canadian Council of Churches and Amnesty International, who participated in the proceedings as public interest parties.

In each case, the applicants, who are citizens of El Salvador, Ethiopia and Syria, arrived at a Canadian land entry port from the U.S. and sought refugee protection.

They argued in court that by returning ineligible refugee claimants to the U.S., Canada exposes them to risks in the form of detention and other rights violations.

In her decision last year, Federal Court Justice Ann Marie McDonald concluded the Safe Third Country Agreement results in ineligible claimants being imprisoned by U.S. authorities.

Detention and the consequences flowing from it are "inconsistent with the spirit and objective" of the refugee agreement and amount to a violation of the rights guaranteed by Section 7 of the charter, she wrote.

"The evidence clearly demonstrates that those returned to the U.S. by Canadian officials are detained as a penalty."

However, the Federal Court of Appeal overturned the decision earlier this year.

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"The alleged constitutional defect in this case stems from how administrators and officials are operating the legislative scheme, not the legislative scheme itself," the appeal court said.

"But because the claimants chose not to attack any administrative conduct, we have neither the ability nor the evidence before us to assess it."

The appeal court also found the legislative regime consistent with the charter unless the treatment experienced by those sent back to the U.S. could be shown to shock the conscience."

In their application to the Supreme Court, the claimants and their advocates say the effect of the decision is to insulate the Safe Third Country regime from constitutional review "and to erect major obstacles to constitutional scrutiny of federal legislation generally."

Federal lawyers have yet to respond to the application for a Supreme Court hearing. The high court is expected to decide in coming weeks whether to hear the case.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 15, 2021.
A social-media post about a firearm triggered a police probe and a day later the seizure of more than $1.5 million in illicit drugs, numerous guns and $150,000 in cash.

A social-media post about a firearm triggered a police probe and a day later the seizure of more than $1.5 million in illicit drugs, numerous guns and $150,000 in cash.

On Aug. 19, Winnipeg police executed three search warrants: one on the first 100 block of Dalhousie Drive, another on the 200 block of Provencher Boulevard, and the third at a hotel on the 1800 block of Pembina Highway. Police have charged two men and two women with more more than 100 drug and gun offences in total.

Organized crime unit commander Insp. Elton Hall and guns and gangs Sgt. Mark Vieira showed off the seizure, including nearly 18 kilograms of methamphetamine with a street value of nearly $900,000, to reporters Wednesday. Hall would not elaborate on the content of the social-media post that led to the bust, including how police came across it.

"This is a highly addictive and dangerous drug which has plunged individuals and the health-care system into crisis," Hall said.

Police also seized 2.7 kg of cocaine worth $214,000; 8 1/2 kg of counterfeit Xanax pills worth $250,000; 500 grams of the opioid fentanyl worth $139,000; and 1.5 kg of psilocybin, or magic mushrooms, worth $15,000.

Officers also seized ammunition, smoke grenades, a money counter and drug-packaging material.

"These drugs are being trafficked," Hall said. "One of the individuals involved brought these drugs into the city and is solely responsible for the drugs... and the weapons."

Hall was asked whether any of the individuals is connected to a gang or organized crime.

A social-media post about a firearm led to a seizure of more than $1.5 million in drugs, numerous guns and $150,000 in cash. (Erik Pindera / Winnipeg Free Press)

"I can tell you that just about everybody in Canada, and everybody in Winnipeg, do not have access to this type of weaponry or the amount of drugs you see on the table today. This is generally reserved for people in a drug trade gangs or organized crime groups or drug networks," he said.

Hall noted the firearms analysis unit and the firearms investigation unit will try to determine where the seized weapons, which include pistols, long guns and pellet guns, came from.

"Both units will start looking into the history of the firearms to see where theyre from, if theyve been trafficked, if theyre stolen, if theyre from the United States," the inspector said.

As the organized crime divisions new commander, Hall has asked the guns and gangs unit to focus on firearms offences.

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"What were trying to avoid seeing is whats going on in Vancouver and Toronto right now  I say that respectfully to the police services  but youre seeing a lot of daylight shootings, and random shootings in the streets," he said.

"We dont want that here, were trying to be proactive. I think firearms are probably one of the biggest challenges for urban policing in Canada right now."

Jonathon Alexander Herntier, 37, faces 46 charges; Joseph Liew, 36, faces 35 charges; Laura Jeanne Powell, 26, faces 16 charges, and Sherry Ann Kelly Lagimodiere, 31, faces 12 drug and firearm-related offences.

The four accused are from Winnipeg; all were detained in custody.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @erik_pindera
A southern Manitoba Conservative MP who is seeking re-election has apologized for spreading misinformation that suggested COVID-19 vaccines do more harm than good.

A southern Manitoba Conservative MP who is seeking re-election has apologized for spreading misinformation that suggested COVID-19 vaccines do more harm than good.

Ted Falk, who has represented the Provencher riding since 2013, told The Carillon newspaper Tuesday that vaccines make people more likely to die from the delta variant.

"You were 13 times more likely to die from the delta variant if you were double vaccinated, than if you were unvaccinated," Falk said in an interview, a point that does not bear out in any scientific literature.

He had cited a Public Health England study, which his office would not provide. Falk backed down within hours, after the Liberals called him out on his erroneous claim.

"This statement is not only categorically false, but also fuels vaccine hesitancy and seriously endangers our communities," wrote Doug Eyolfson, the Liberal candidate for the riding of Charleswood-St. James-Assiniboia-Headingley, who is a physician.

"It is outrageous that any elected official would spread misinformation about COVID-19 when Canadians are looking to them during these trying times," wrote Eyolfson, arguing it is "reckless" for Conservative Leader Erin OToole to run such a candidate.

"It is outrageous that any elected official would spread misinformation about COVID19 when Canadians are looking to them during these trying times." Doug Eyolfson

On Tuesday, the Conservatives issued a statement attributed to Falk, in which he apologized.

"I would like to correct erroneous comments I made when referencing a study on COVID vaccines. The statistics I quoted were not correct," the statement reads.

"Vaccines are safe and effective. I have and will continue to be an advocate for getting vaccines to every Canadian who wants one. I apologize for any confusion caused by my comments."

Falk is the only Manitoba incumbent who wont say whether hes been vaccinated.

"I am showing leadership by not making an issue out of individual vaccination statuses," Falk said Tuesday, arguing Manitobas immunization card discriminates against the unvaccinated.

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"I am showing leadership by not making an issue out of individual vaccination statuses." Ted Falk

Falk told a podcast in April that he was "not completely sold on this vaccination," saying the shots were created quickly and "may be fine," but he downplayed the consequences of COVID-19 on peoples health.

OToole has refused to disclose how many of his candidates are vaccinated, unlike the other two major parties. When the Free Press asked him why, OToole argued the question plays into a Liberal "attempt to divide people, when we should be working together."

The Liberals have used the Conservatives reluctance to implement vaccine requirements on trains and planes as a wedge issue, after persistent criticism for calling an election during the pandemic.

The Conservatives noted a Liberal candidate in Calgary tweeted last November that those who "demanded to be the guinea pigs" should get vaccines first so "those with brains" were less likely to suffer side-effects; Jessica Dale-Walker apologized last month for those comments.

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca
The robber entered a Winnipeg pharmacy Monday afternoon, his face covered while posturing like he held a weapon, to demand one thing: methadone.

The robber entered a Winnipeg pharmacy Monday afternoon, his face covered while posturing like he held a weapon, to demand one thing: methadone.

The theft at Northway Pharmacy Brothers, in which a one-litre bottle of the synthetic opioid typically used to treat opioid dependence was taken, has left city police and the pharmacist worried about the potential for increased drug overdoses in the community.

"Our staff is very much rattled by the whole thing," Mike Watts, pharmacist and manager, said Tuesday.

"But the reality is theres a lot of pure methadone on the street right now, which, in the wrong hands even someone whos used methadone before, this is concentrated, its not diluted... If they take 60 millilitres of this, theyre going to die."

The concentrated methadone is enough to kill someone, says pharmacist Mike Watts. (John Woods / Winnipeg Free Press)

The building at 542 Selkirk Ave. is also home to Phoenix Recovery, which assists people dependent on opiates through opioid-replacement therapy. Patients are given small, regular doses of methadone or suboxone to either gradually wean them off or reduce the harm posed by using street drugs.

The pharmacy itself has prescribed methadone since 2012; Watts noted this was the first robbery of its kind in the 11 years he's worked there.

"Its probably known theres a good chance we have methadone here. He did take off his hood when he left the building and I did not recognize his face," the pharmacist told the Free Press.

"Its unfortunate and, to be honest, I dont know if the governments doing enough to help with the (national) opiate crisis. If the government would do a bit more, there wouldnt be a street value of methadone."

In the morning, there's often a lineup at Phoenix Recovery. Just down the block, a half-dozen people milled outside of the Elizabeth Fry Society social services building mid-day Tuesday. A woman stood on the corner near the pharmacy and shouted to someone from across the street, telling him to get home safe.

"Drug use is definitely getting worse. Theres absolutely no doubt about that and its not just opiates  its everything," Watts said.

"Weve been trying to be part of the solution and theres been a lot of roadblocks along the way... Were losing the battle. Its very frustrating. If you could basically decide to get help, or you need something and there was resources readily available, the street value of methadone would go way down. Someone wouldnt take this type of risk to get some."

From January to September, 2020, 259 people died of overdoses in Manitoba, data from the provincial chief medical examiner's office show. It marked a 35 per cent increase in the number of drug-related deaths compared to all of 2019.

The building at 542 Selkirk Ave. is also home to Phoenix Recovery, which assists people dependent on opiates through opioid-replacement therapy. (John Woods / Winnipeg Free Press)

Watts criticized government approaches to problem drug use and addictions.

"Its funny, whenever I hear that an opiate task force is created and all the major stakeholders are being invited to help. I havent been invited to anything, Im right in the heart of downtown and really, ground zero for drug use in Winnipeg, and no ones come and asked me what my opinion is, what I think can be done," he said.

"That would be a really good start, to talk to the people on the front line who know what theyre talking about and arent just sitting there looking at what theyre doing in (British Columbia) and making decisions based on that."

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Although Manitoba has been "pumping tons of money" into rapid access to addictions medicine (RAAM) clinics in recent years, in Watts' view, access to treatment has worsened. The clinics are drop-ins, meant for people seeking help with substance use, including medical assistance.

"We are constantly getting people coming in, asking for help. Unfortunately, were at capacity here and theres not much we can do," he said, noting the recovery program has about 400 methadone patients.

The Manitoba government operates two RAAM clinics in Winnipeg and one each in Selkirk, Brandon and Thompson, with $650,000 per year slated to open a sixth as well as a central hub, the province said in a June background document on addictions and mental health treatment.

On Tuesday, no arrests had been made in the North End robbery, the Winnipeg Police Service confirmed to the Free Press.

Twitter: @erik_pindera

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca
The man responsible for one of the most horrific crimes in Canadian history has a parole hearing today. He killed six members of a family who were on a camping trip in British Columbia in 1982. He fatally shot four adults and kept two young sisters alive for nearly a week before killing them, too.

Ken Lee, a former chief financial officer for Manitobas Progressive Conservatives, is urging his supporters to buy a party membership by todays 5 p.m. deadline so he can qualify for the leadership ballot next month. His campaign platform includes no vaccine passports, vaccination not a job requirement.

Tributes are pouring in for Canadian comedian Norm Macdonald, who died Tuesday . Like many fans, I spent much of yesterday watching videos and laughing a lot.
CANADIAN voters have been polled since the early 1940s. The first published polls on Canadian voting intentions appeared in newspapers across the country in 1942 during the national referendum on wartime conscription.

Opinion

CANADIAN voters have been polled since the early 1940s. The first published polls on Canadian voting intentions appeared in newspapers across the country in 1942 during the national referendum on wartime conscription.

Having opened its doors in Toronto in 1941 with 27 newspapers signed up as clients, the Canadian Institute for Public Opinion (CIPO) was a northern branch for George Gallups American Institute for Public Opinion (AIPO). Gallups final poll on that referendum was released two days ahead of the April 27 vote, with a four-point overestimation of the 64 per cent who voted for conscription.

Considering this was the very early days for Canadian polling, it was a good measure of Canadian voting intentions.

Up until the 1970s, the Gallup organization was the only firm to provide federal election polls to the media, with regular releases during each campaign. This soon changed. In the 1984 federal election, which brought Brian Mulroney and his Progressive Conservatives to power in a massive landslide, six firms conducted a total of 10 national polls for the media. This was a tiny amount compared to the 113 national polls that were released in the "Free Trade election" of 1988, in which Mulroney was re-elected.

The number of national polls in each election has since remained high, with the 2019 federal election being no exception. According to Eric Grenier, who provides polling analysis for the CBC, just under 120 national polls were released to the public during the last campaign. But do polls accurately measure voter intentions? By my own analysis of the 12 national polls released in the final five days of the 2019 federal election, on average they were a mere 1.58 points off in predicting the Liberal vote.

What about other Canadian elections? Is polling accuracy the norm? Generally, the answer is yes. In my own analysis of a total of 19 elections, both provincial and federal, from 2015 to the end of 2020, there were 81 province- or nation-wide polls released to the public in the final five days of the vote. On average, the polls were only 3.1 points off in predicting the winning partys vote.

However, while the polls were right for most of these 19 elections, they did poorly in a few. Among the worst cases were the most recent provincial elections of Quebec (2018) and Alberta (2019). Six polls were released in the final days of the Quebec campaign; on average, they were off by 5.2 points in predicting the vote for Francois Legaults victorious CAQ.

In the Alberta election, there were seven polls released in the final few days leading up to Jason Kenneys United Conservative Party victory; on average, these were off by a whopping 6.8 points.

Most recently, the 2021 Nova Scotia provincial election raised concerns among poll watchers. Only two firms, Forum Research and Mainstreet Research, released polls in the final days of the campaign, with both pegging the Liberals two to three points ahead of the PCs. Forum Research reported in its media release that the "Liberals are expected to form a minority government," while Mainstreet simply reported its polling numbers rather than making predictions.

To the surprise of many, when the votes were tallied, Tim Houstons PCs scored an upset victory with a two-point lead over the defeated Liberals.

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In 1963, Lester Pearsons Liberal Party won a minority victory over John Diefenbakers PCs. Hankering for a majority, the Liberals wanted more. Their pollster, Oliver Quayle, an American based in New York, advised Pearson in 1965 to call an election. Both the Gallup polls and Quayles internal party polling showed the Liberals in the lead.

But polls are only a snapshot in time. To the partys frustration, the Liberals won only two additional seats in the House of Commons, thereby producing another minority government.

Now that we are in the home stretch of the 2021 campaign, one must wonder at Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus folly in calling this election. No doubt, Liberal strategists were looking at their own internal polling numbers and those in the media, thinking now was the time to get their majority victory. Indeed, at the campaigns outset in mid-August, the national polling firm Leger reported the Liberals were holding a five-point lead over the Conservatives.

Like a mirage, the Liberal lead has disappeared. Just over a week ago, Nick Nanos released his four-day rolling poll figures, showing the Conservatives with a small lead over the Liberals. So far in this campaign, we have seen more than 80 national polls released to the media. Many more will come, and the horse race is on.

The tally on Sept. 20 will determine whether the Liberals miscalculated in calling this election. Based on the most recent polls, they will be lucky to remain in power.

Christopher Adams is a past pollster and adjunct professor in political studies at the University of Manitoba.
Manitoba is home to bison, not elephants.

But this not so little pandemic on the prairies has produced a pachyderm now making its home in the Southern Health region.

Of course, no one in Winkler or Altona or Stanley wants to talk about the elephant in the room or on the roam as COVID cases surge among the unvaccinated swath of our province that hugs the U.S. border. Even worse, we cant get confirmation of the beasts presence by those overseeing the provincial response to this latest twist in the deadly story that is always going viral.

But rest assured, there is a problem in Southern Health thats likely to get even worse because of the refusal to acknowledge it publicly and to deal with it directly.

Today, the region was home to 23 new cases, nearly half of the 56 positive test results announced in the province. Moreover, it has a per capita infection rate about four times higher than the much more populous Winnipeg region. And dont get me started on how the regions low vaccination rate has now become a badge of honour.

Yet, nothing seems to happen beyond more of the regions patients being transferred to ICUs in Winnipeg.

I say that nothing seems to be happening beyond more ICU transfers because a year ago, it was a far different story in a different health region.

In late August 2020, case counts in the Prairie Mountain Health region were on the rise, but the province moved quickly to respond to the public health threat before it became a problem of elephantine proportions. When the active case count hit 116, the province announced code-orange level restrictions for the entire health region, including the provinces second largest city, Brandon.

By contrast, there are now 158 active cases in Southern Health and no sign that anything comparable to the action taken in Prairie Mountain is in the works.

Im sure there are good reasons why the province isnt administering the same bitter medicine in the region home to the new premier and several of his cabinet and caucus colleagues.

I just wish someone would explain to the public what those reasons were because Southern Health doesnt have near enough room in its ICUs for COVID patients and an elephant, too.

One programming note: Tomorrow is the second of four virtual town halls in our Reopening MB series. This week, arts reporters Eva Wasney and Ben Sigurdson host a discussion on the recovery of the food and drink industry and will be joined by Shaun Jeffrey, executive director of Manitoba Restaurant and Foodservices Association; Melanie Foucault, co-owner of Preservation Hall Eatery and Wine Bar; and John Heim, president of Torque Brewing.

This virtual town hall takes place at 12 p.m., Wednesday Sept. 15; register for your free ticket and submit questions for our panellists here.

 Paul Samyn, Winnipeg Free Press editor

THE LATEST NUMBERS

To see a larger selection of charts showing the state of COVID-19 provincially and nationally, visit COVID-19 by the numbers.

THE LATEST IN MANITOBA

 Provincial health officials announced 56 new cases of COVID-19 and no new deaths in Manitoba on Tuesday. New cases were identified in all health regions, including 12 cases in Winnipeg, 23 cases in Southern Health, nine cases in the Northern Health region, eight in Prairie Mountain, and four in Interlake-Eastern. There are 576 active cases in Manitoba, with 68 people in hospital, 14 of them in intensive care. The five-day test positivity rate is 3.2 per cent in Manitoba. Officials removed one previously-reported COVID-19 death, bringing the total to 1,201.

 The City of Winnipeg will require all front-line employees working with vulnerable residents in high-risk settings or in direct contact with the public to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19. Employees must have their first dose by Sept. 30 and their follow up by Oct. 28. People working in public safety and protection, recreational services, public transportation and customer service roles are affected.

For the latest information on current public health orders, restrictions and other guidance, visit the provincial government's website.

All Manitobans born on or before Dec. 31, 2009 are eligible to schedule a first-dose vaccine appointment. Anyone who has received a first dose of any vaccine can now book their second-dose appointment. There must be a minimum of 28 days between receiving the first and second shots. For the latest information on vaccination, visit the provincial government's website.

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Manitobans who have received all required doses of a vaccine at least 14 days ago can request an immunization card to prove complete vaccination. To request a digital or physical card, visit the provincial government's website.

THE LATEST ELSEWHERE

 An executive at the largest health care system in North Dakota says its hospitals in Fargo could use up to 300 additional nurses to handle COVID-19 cases and is bumping up incentives to fill the void. "We really are in crisis," said Dr. Doug Griffin, Sanford Health vice president and medical officer in Fargo, which serves a metropolitan area of about 250,000 people in North Dakota and Minnesota. Hospitals across the region are filling up with both COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 patients, Griffin said.

 The World Health Organization and partners say they hope to provide Africa with about 30 per cent of the COVID-19 vaccines they need by February, half of the 60 per cent goal African leaders had aimed for by the end of this year. WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called the vast disparity in vaccination rates between rich and poor countries a "solvable problem." Currently, fewer than four per cent of people in Africa have been fully immunized.

 The Kremlin says Russian President Vladimir Putin is in self-isolation after people in his inner circle became infected with the coronavirus. The Kremlin said Tuesday that Putin tested negative for the coronavirus. Putin, who is fully vaccinated with Russias Sputnik V, held several public engagements indoors Monday. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov say Putin is "absolutely healthy" but came in contact with someone who contracted the coronavirus.

QUOTE, UNQUOTE

"The result of this vaccination campaign is we have one of the most free societies and one of the most open economies in Europe."

 British Prime Minister Boris Johnson discusses the country's COVID-19 vaccine strategy, which is expanding to offering a third doses to everyone over 50 and other vulnerable populations

LOCAL NEWS

NATIONAL NEWS

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

COVID-19 BASICS
The City of Winnipeg will require front-line staff who work with vulnerable populations or have close contact with the public to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Nov. 15.

The City of Winnipeg will require front-line staff who work with vulnerable populations or have close contact with the public to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Nov. 15.

Mayor Brian Bowman and chief administrative officer Michael Jack made the announcement Tuesday.

"I want to communicate to everyone, including our staff, that implementing this vaccine requirement was not a decision we took lightly. It is something we have been looking at closely since vaccines were rolled out in this province," Jack said.

"The decision was made, ultimately, to limit the vaccine requirement to those working in front-line roles."

Staff must receive their first dose by Sept. 28 and their second dose by Oct. 28 to meet the deadline.

The decision was made three weeks after the provincial government mandated full immunization, or frequent testing, for front-line employees who have regular contact with the public or vulnerable populations.

Bowman said Tuesday the city had initially hoped municipal employees would be included in the provincial governments mandate. When that didnt happen, he said, the city developed its own policy.

All Winnipeg firefighters will have to be vaccinated. (Mikaela MacKenzie / Winnipeg Free Press files)

The mayor repeatedly praised the provincial government, as well as interim Premier Kelvin Goertzen, for collaborating with the city.

"In the event we still have unvaccinated staff in the coming weeks, were looking at options and consultation with the provincial government for a testing program that will include an option for redeployment of affected staff who are unwilling or unable to be vaccinated," Bowman said.

City workers were notified about the policy Tuesday. The city does not know what percentage of its workforce is fully immunized.

"This will be an information-gathering phase... We need to determine how many of our employees are not vaccinated at this time. That isnt data we have been collecting and therefore we dont have it yet," Jack said.

Once the information is collected, Jack said the city would make vaccination rates among front-line workers public "to the extent we are able to, within existing privacy rules, within existing collective agreement rules."

All staff affected by the vaccine requirement will be contacted, Jack said, adding the city will set up mobile vaccination sites for those workers.

Manitoba Government and General Employees' Union president Michelle Gawronsky told the Free Press the union encourages "all eligible members to be immunized."

"We have just been informed of the citys intention to implement a new COVID-19 immunization and testing policy. We hope to see the actual policy as soon as possible and will be seeking details from the city about how they plan to administer the testing requirement and protect the personal health information of impacted employees," Gawronsky said in a written statement.

All Winnipeg police officers and paramedics will be required to be vaccinated. (Daniel Crump / Winnipeg Free Press files)

A spokeswoman for the Amalgamated Transit Union 1505, which represents city bus drivers, said the best way "members can keep one another safe from COVID-19 is to wear masks, social distance, and get vaccinated."

"For members who are choosing to not be vaccinated for religious or health reasons, the union will continue to protect their right to work. We will be looking into options like on-site screening and testing, as well as redeployment," the spokeswoman wrote.

"We encourage our members who are worried about how this mandate might affect them to call the union."

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A spokeswoman for the United Fire Fighters of Winnipeg said president Alex Forrest was unable to comment.

The Winnipeg Police Association and the Canadian Union of Public Employees did not respond to the Free Press.

Jack said the city will handle requests for an exemption to the vaccine requirement, on medical or religious grounds, by individual workers.

 With files from Gabrielle Piche

ryan.thorpe@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @rk_thorpe
Manitobans who are immunocompromised or need a matching immunization record for travel can now get a third COVID-19 vaccine shot with the help of a physician.

Manitobans who are immunocompromised or need a matching immunization record for travel can now get a third COVID-19 vaccine shot with the help of a physician.

Third doses Click to Expand For clinical reasons, Manitoba will make a third shot available to people who:  are receiving active chemotherapy (or immunotherapy) for cancer;

 have received an organ transplant and are currently receiving chemotherapy or other immunosuppressive therapy;

 were born with moderate or severe dysfunction of their immune system;

 are living with untreated or advanced HIV-AIDS; or

 are taking certain medications that severely affect the immune system. The list is not exhaustive and more details are available on the province's website. Travel, recognized immunization status Manitoba will offer third doses of an mRNA vaccine (Pfizer or Moderna) to people who mixed vaccine types and now need a matching vaccination record for travel purposes. Travellers must consult with their doctor on getting the third shot. People living in Manitoba who were vaccinated with a product not approved by Health Canada can get a third shot of an mRNA vaccine to be considered fully vaccinated by the Manitoba government. Source: Province of Manitoba

Dr. Joss Reimer, medical lead for Manitoba's vaccine task force, said Wednesday the province will make a third shot available to people who have certain medical conditions that may impact their ability to mount a strong immune response following immunization.

"For those who are immunocompromised, two doses of the vaccine may not provide adequate defence against COVID-19, particularly given concerns with the highly contagious delta variant," Reimer said.

Reimer said the list of conditions compiled by the province was not exhaustive and a more fulsome list would be made available to physicians.

Shortly after hearing the news Wednesday, Kenneth Miller rang up his family doctor to talk about getting a third dose for his wife Cheryl, who has multiple sclerosis.

"If we do get the booster shot, once again we will have a sigh of relief that theyve actually targeted people with compromised immune systems to get protected against the virus," Miller said.

However, he was disappointed to learn appointments for third doses werent yet available at his doctor's clinic, as guidance had not yet been provided to physicians.

"The doctors should be completely aware of whats happening and be given a heads up," Miller said. "Dont just fire it out there. That confuses the public."

Kenneth Miller is thrilled his wife, Cheryl, who has multiple sclerosis, can get a third dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. (John Woods / Winnipeg Free Press)

Reimer asked Manitobans to be patient Wednesday as the task force updates doctors on the changes to the vaccine program.

"As with any changes in policy around rollout of the vaccine, while we are aiming for a seamless process, we also recognize that it will take a bit of time to get there," she said.

Reimer said tens of thousands of Manitobans may be eligible for a third dose under the new criteria and said people who fit the bill must consult their physician.

Consult doctor about third shot

Keir Johnson, a spokesman for Doctors Manitoba, said physicians are ready to help. Johnson advised patients to contact their doctor or find one at ManitobaVaccine.ca.

Manitobans who mixed vaccines can now also ask their physician for a third shot if a matching record is required for travel purposes.

Travellers must talk to a health-care provider and go through an informed consent process to weigh the risk and benefit of a third shot, Reimer said.

"The risks are very low  were talking one in 100,000 type of numbers for some of the riskier outcomes  but theyre not zero," Reimer said.

"So we want people to have that conversation to make sure that they feel comfortable with the low, but not zero risk, of something like an allergic reaction, comparing that to the benefit that they get related to travel."

Third doses for travel will not be offered at provincial vaccine supersites or pop-up clinics, as they are not recommended by public health, Reimer said. Pharmacists can provide third doses with a prescription.

People living in Manitoba who were vaccinated with a product not approved by Health Canada can also get a third dose of an mRNA vaccine.

Vaccine exemption: not just a doctor's note

Meanwhile, Reimer said the province is finalizing the process for people with certain medical concerns to be exempt from COVID-19 vaccination requirements.

"This is intentionally going to be a very small group of people," Reimer said. "We did recognize that we needed a process for this small group of people who have a significant and legitimate medical reason for being exempt from getting the vaccine.

"I do want to be very clear that the process is not a note from your doctor."

Vaccine exemptions Click to Expand Manitobans in the following situations may be exempt from COVID-19 vaccination requirements:  had a severe reaction after the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine (myocarditis, Guillain-Barre syndrome);

 receiving treatment that affects their ability to mount an immune response, meaning vaccination must be timed carefully with their treatment schedule (receiving immunocompromising treatment after a transplant, certain types of cancer treatments); or

 had a severe allergy or anaphylactic reaction to a previous dose of a COVID-19 vaccine or its components that cannot be managed by the Health Sciences Centre Allergy Clinic. The exemption must be confirmed by a specialist physician and forwarded to the provinces vaccine task force. Source: Province of Manitoba

She said people who had a severe reaction after the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, are receiving immunocompromising treatment, or had a severe allergic reaction to a previous dose may be exempt.

The exemption must be confirmed by a specialist physician and forwarded to the provinces vaccine task force, Reimer said.

The process for issuing a medical exemption is still being finalized and physicians are not yet able to refer patients seeking exemption to a specialist, Johnson said.

"If a patient is sure they meet this criteria, they should wait to call their doctor until the referral process is established," Johnson said.

People who are determined to be exempt from COVID-19 vaccine requirements will be able to receive a pass comparable to the provinces COVID-19 immunization certificate, Reimer said.

Meanwhile, the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs said Wednesday First Nations elders and residents in nursing homes on and off reserve will be eligible for a third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca

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If the anti-science, pro-virus mobs that have been protesting outside hospitals plan to shift focus to schools or any other place where children gather  as one Winnipeg organizer suggested they may do  theyre in for a rude awakening.

If the anti-science, pro-virus mobs that have been protesting outside hospitals plan to shift focus to schools or any other place where children gather  as one Winnipeg organizer suggested they may do  theyre in for a rude awakening.

The tiny minority of indoctrinated, hopelessly misinformed Canadians who have been recently harassing health-care workers and patients are discovering their threatening, coercive actions will not be tolerated.

They are free to protest all they want against COVID-19 vaccines, mandatory mask rules or any other public health measure. There are no laws against willful ignorance.

However, their constitutionally protected right to free speech ends when their actions threaten the health and safety of others. Its called "reasonable limits" under Canadas Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

JESSICA LEE/WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Hundreds of people gathered outside the Health Sciences Centre on Sept. 1 to protest vaccinate passports and COVID restrictions. (Jessica Lee / Winnipeg Free Press files) Reporter: Cody Sellar

Protests against pandemic response measures continued outside hospitals across the country Monday. Police were present to ensure vulnerable patients and exhausted health-care workers were protected from the small but persistent cadre of anti-vaccination protesters who appear hell-bent on prolonging the pandemic.

In Winnipeg, a planned protest outside Health Sciences Centre was shifted to city hall. After a severe public backlash against a similar protest at HSC last week and warnings from police, organizers said they changed venues because of the negative impact it had on the hospital. (Wasnt that the point of the first protest, to interfere with the operation of a hospital?)

The same organizers say their next target will be the provinces vaccination policies in public schools.

If that means bringing their placards and brainwashed minds to school grounds where parents and buses drop off children to attend class, they will find the public response even more fierce.

Governments around the world are requiring staff in health-care settings, public schools, child care centres and other areas where employees work directly with vulnerable people to be fully vaccinated.

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Protest organizers say their next target will be the provinces vaccination policies in public schools. (John Woods / Winnipeg Free Press)

Most, including the Manitoba government, are allowing those who refuse (or cannot for a legitimate reason) get vaccinated to undergo regular testing as an alternative.

The measure, along with other mandates (such as requiring proof-of-immunization to enter certain public places) are reasonable, safe and highly effective strategies to reduce the spread of a deadly virus, save lives and protect hospital capacity.

They do not infringe on anyones rights. Those who choose not to get vaccinated  no matter how reckless and flawed their rationale  are free to do so. It is indeed their body and their choice. But their rights end when they infringe on the rights of others.

Willfully spreading a deadly virus that can be controlled through immunization and other measures violates the rights of others. Vaccine mandates protect the rights of the vast majority of society.

People have the freedom to protest. Its a cornerstone of our democracy; it is constitutionally protected. But the charter doesnt allow people to protest however or wherever they want.

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS A planned protest outside Health Sciences Centre on Monday was shifted to city hall after a public backlash against a similar protest at HSC last week. (John Woods / Winnipeg Free Press)

It guarantees the freedom of "peaceful assembly." It doesnt mean harassing health-care workers and patients as they enter hospitals. It doesnt mean protesting outside of schools and badgering children and teachers.

It means people have the right to assemble and speak their minds without threatening others. Those rights and freedoms are subject to reasonable limits prescribed by law "as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society."

If that means enacting new laws to prevent protesters from harassing and intimidating others, thats what governments will have to do.

There will be no tolerance for the small, rogue group of people who plan to terrorize hospitals, schools or any place where patients, children, teachers and vulnerable people require access. Canadians won't stand for it.

tom.brodbeck@freepress.mb.ca

The Writ The federal election occurs Sept. 20 and we have you covered. Get the latest campaign news, insights, analysis and commentary delivered weekly to your inbox with our free newsletter. Sign Up I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.
Another COVID-19 surge in Manitobas Southern Health region could be on the horizon as case counts and hospitalizations rise.

Another COVID-19 surge in Manitobas Southern Health region could be on the horizon as case counts and hospitalizations rise.

With a per-capita infection rate about four times higher than Winnipegs and the lowest vaccination rates in the province, Southern Health is experiencing increases in the number of patients  most of whom are unvaccinated  who need intensive care.

Over the past 10 days, three patients had to be transferred from Winkler-Mordens Boundary Trails Health Centre to receive ICU treatment in Winnipeg. The health centre takes in all COVID-19 patients from the region who need higher levels of medical attention.

The numbers are small  so far nowhere near the third-wave spike in patient transfers that overwhelmed Manitoba ICUs  but another surge could hit in three or four weeks, said Winkler Dr. Ganesan Abbu.

"What Im fearful of (is) that were going to see younger patients, were going to see more children that are going to need hospitalization," he said Tuesday.

"I keep my sanity by believing that Im doing the best I can and Ill continue to do the best I can for all my patients."

Nearly half of the new cases detected in Manitoba as of Tuesday morning (23 of 56) were among Southern Health residents. Its health districts of Stanley, Hanover and Winkler have the lowest vaccination rates in the province.

However, it is not the lone trouble spot. Northern Health holds the highest rate of current active cases per 100,000 people and is a close second for the most new cases per capita.

When asked about the rise in cases Tuesday, Winkler Mayor Martin Harder said its fatiguing. He predicted the discord between pro- and anti-vaccine residents will outlast the pandemic.

"We have exhausted all our energy trying to do things right," he said, but now the community is being "ridiculed" on all sides.

"It has created a division for those that are strongly opposed to the vaccine. Their minds arent changing. And for those that have been vaccinated, their minds arent changing."

Harder described being briefed on a police report in the past week about a charged confrontation between local shoppers, one masked and one unmasked.

"Its almost like road rage, with a shopping cart," he said. "The most evil part of people is showing up."

When asked what hes doing to address the low rate of COVID-19 vaccination in Southern Health, Steinbach MLA and newly appointed Premier Kelvin Goertzen said Tuesday he and his wife and 14-year-old son have been very open about getting vaccinated.

"Its not just about being an elected official  you really are talking about friends and neighbours," the premier said.

Goertzen said he and others, including pharmacists, are using those connections to address vaccine hesitancy and reminding people vaccination is the best protection against a virus that can be deadly.

"I think its had some effect," Goertzen said.

In the city of Steinbach, the vaccination rate Monday was at 63 per cent, he said; it was 60.5 per cent Aug. 25.

Health Minister Audrey Gordon said the Southern Health region is assisting people to get vaccinated by setting up pop-up clinics.

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"Were encouraging individuals through the school program that will start next week to get vaccinated, so we increase the number of individuals who are protected against this horrible disease," Gordon said.

On Monday, chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin said public health is seeing higher test positivity rates, case counts and intensive-care admissions in Southern Health. Most COVID-19 patients in Manitoba ICUs are unvaccinated.

"Were following those case numbers quite closely and if transmission continues on this way, then we could be at risk (similar to) our neighbours to the west (Saskatchewan and Alberta) who are seeing much higher cases," he said.

 with files from Carol Sanders and Michael Pereira

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @thatkatiemay
Winnipeg South Centre may be considered a Liberal stronghold, but a Tory who once held the seat has invested months of work to win it back.

Winnipeg South Centre may be considered a Liberal stronghold, but a Tory who once held the seat has invested months of work to win it back.

The riding has been represented by Liberal cabinet minister Jim Carr, one of Manitobas most prominent federal politicians.

Conservative Joyce Bateman said many voters are now "looking for change," but declined to speculate upon her chances of defeating the incumbent.

"Well hear from voters on Sept. 20 (election day)... Im anxiously awaiting that but were working every minute until (then)," she said.

Theres two things that I continually hear at the door. No. 1, why are we having this election at all? And the second one is the cost of living. People are incredulous, people are really worried about how much their groceries are costing them now.  Winnipeg South Centre Conservative candidate Joyce Bateman

Bateman was nominated by her party in January and says she began reaching out to voters right after that. She previously held the seat from 2011 to 2015.

During this election campaign, the Tory candidate said shes heard repeated complaints from voters about the Liberal government decision to call an early pandemic election, as well as the rising cost of living.

"Theres two things that I continually hear at the door. No. 1, why are we having this election at all? And the second one is the cost of living. People are incredulous, people are really worried about how much their groceries are costing them now," said Bateman.

The candidate said many seniors also fear their grown children will never be able to afford a home, due to skyrocketing prices. She said Tory platform proposals would help address the issue, including efforts to increase the supply of new housing units.

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES MP Jim Carr (Winnipeg South Centre).

Its report card time and the power is with the people.  Liberal cabinet minister Jim Carr

Carr agreed the pandemic has been top of mind for voters as he seeks re-election in the riding. But he said people in Winnipeg South Centre appear generally satisfied that his Liberal government has done a good job handling COVID-19 so far.

"I think were in pretty good shape with the number of vaccines that has been rolled out... but were not out of it yet," he said.

Carr said hes found plenty of support for the Liberal push for mandatory vaccination against COVID-19, as well as the partys plans to combat climate change and pursue $10-per-day daycare agreements with provinces.

He stressed he wont take any election outcome for granted but is proud to be judged on his track record.

"Its report card time and the power is with the people," said Carr.

NDP candidate, Dr. Julia Riddell.

Psychologist Dr. Julia Riddell would also like to claim the seat. The NDP candidate said she was inspired to run for office partly due to gaps in the mental health-care system.

"We had really long wait times and really not enough services The pandemic (just) really worsened the need," said Riddell.

She believes an NDP call to expand mental health care would help address that issue, while the partys climate change and reconciliation proposals also appear to resonate with voters.

"I think the NDP platform is really the strongest in those areas. And people really love Jagmeet Singh," said Riddell. "Ive talked to quite a few people who said, Ive never voted NDP in my life and I voted for you (in the advance polls)."

While recent national polls have found the Liberals and Conservatives are tied with the most support among voters, Winnipeg South Centre tends not to be swayed by how the rest of the country votes.

A Manitoba political expert deemed the riding a Liberal stronghold.

"Its a riding which doesnt really follow the pattern of Western Canada," said Christopher Adams, an adjunct professor of political studies at the University of Manitoba.

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Adams noted Carr was a "very high-profile candidate" when he was first elected to the seat in 2015 and re-elected in 2019.

"I dont think the drop in Liberal support will affect Jim Carrs circumstances but my prediction is that the margin (of victory) will be less than it was in the last two elections," said Adams. "(Bateman) held that riding in the Harper era and is a well-known person... so there is a little bit of a battle of the incumbents going on here."

Adams noted the area contains River Heights, which has a long-standing tradition of supporting Liberal candidates at the provincial government level.

It would be a huge upset if Bateman managed to steal the seat for the Conservatives, he said.

Prior to Batemans win in 2011, the Liberals held the riding for more than two decades.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @joyanne_pursaga
The federal Liberals are promising to spend $60 million on a new home for the Winnipeg-based National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, if re-elected to form government.

The federal Liberals are promising to spend $60 million on a new home for the Winnipeg-based National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, if re-elected to form government.

It would include capital funding and some operating support in 2022 for a new facility planned on the Southwood lands within the University of Manitoba's Fort Garry campus. (The centre is currently on campus, in a historic building at 177 Dysart Rd.)

The Liberal campaign pledge includes an additional $5 million in annual operating support in each of the following five years.

"(These are) real measures designed to make sure that an adequate building is put in a culturally respectful place for people to dig further into the truth, because there is still a lot of truth to be uncovered," Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller said Tuesday.

Stephanie Scott, centre executive director, said the recent discoveries of potentially thousands of unmarked graves on the grounds of former residential schools has proven traumatic for many Canadians. Those experiences highlight the need for a larger and more versatile facility, she said.

"The last few months have been very difficult. Weve sat with many, many survivors and elders and they supported us in ceremony as we continued to do our work... With this comes even more work. The centre needs to grow to meet the needs of survivors and their families," said Scott.

Children were taken from their families into the residential school system, which was designed to eliminate Indigenous culture. The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation aims to provide education and dialogue about that system and the injustices suffered by children who attended the schools.

Following the campaign pledge, Scott told media the new centre is expected to cost well-above $60 million, though the exact price has not yet been determined. While plans are still in the early stages, its expected to include an international learning lodge for reconciliation, with a reflection space, among several other features.

"Youre going to see a world-class archive Youre going to see a kitchen where our grannies and grandpas and kookums can come cook and teach the language and share food. Youre going to see ceremonial spaces where we can come together and learn from each other," she said.

Shirley Robinson, Liberal candidate for ChurchillKeewatinook Aski, said funding to support a new centre and ensure its operations are sustainable would mark an important step toward reconciliation.

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"The legacy of residential schools is painful, distressing and uncomfortable, but we must address the harmful legacy of colonization as we go forward as a nation," said Robinson, a Cree woman from Pimicikamak Cree Nation.

Robinson said she, herself, is the daughter of two residential school survivors and witnessed intergenerational trauma from the system in her community.

"While we cannot bring back those we continually mourn in our nations... we can and we will tell the truth of these injustices and we will support survivors and their communities," she said.

Scott said she hopes to break ground on the building within about five years, as considerable planning, consultation and fundraising is still needed.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @joyanne_pursaga
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP)  California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday emphatically defeated a recall aimed at kicking him out of office early, a contest the Democrat framed as part of a national battle for his partys values in the face of the coronavirus pandemic and continued threats from Trumpism.

President Joe Biden talks with California Gov. Gavin Newsom as he arrives at Mather Airport on Air Force One Monday, Sept. 13, 2021, in Mather, Calif., for a briefing on wildfires at the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP)  California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday emphatically defeated a recall aimed at kicking him out of office early, a contest the Democrat framed as part of a national battle for his partys values in the face of the coronavirus pandemic and continued threats from Trumpism.

Newsom bolted to a quick victory boosted by healthy turnout in the overwhelmingly Democratic state. He cast it as a win for his handling of the pandemic and liberal issues, and it ensures the nations most populous state will remain in Democratic control as a laboratory for progressive policies.

No is not the only thing that was expressed tonight, Newsom said. I want to focus on what we said yes to as a state: We said yes to science, we said yes to vaccines, we said yes to ending this pandemic.

With an estimated two-thirds of ballots counted, no on the question of whether to recall Newsom was ahead by a 30-point margin. That lead was built on votes cast by mail and in advance of Tuesdays in-person balloting, with a strong showing by Democrats. While likely to shrink somewhat in the days ahead as votes cast at polling places are counted, Newsoms lead couldnt be overcome.

Republican talk radio host Larry Elder almost certainly would have replaced Newsom had the recall succeeded, an outcome that would have brought a polar opposite political worldview to Sacramento.

Republican conservative radio show host Larry Elder argues with a TV reporter during an interview after visiting Philippe The Original Deli during a campaign for the California gubernatorial recall election on Monday, Sept. 13, 2021, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)

The recall turned on Newsoms approach to the pandemic, including mask and vaccine mandates, and Democrats cheered the outcome as evidence voters approve of their approach. The race also was a test of whether opposition to former President Donald Trump and his right-wing politics remains a motivating force for Democrats and independents, as the party looks ahead to midterm elections next year.

Republicans had hoped for proof that frustrations over months of pandemic precautions would drive voters away from Democrats. The GOP won back four U.S. House seats last year, success that Republican leaders had hoped indicated revived signs of life in a state controlled by Democrats for more than a decade.

But a recall election is an imperfect barometer  particularly of national trends. Democrats outnumber Republicans nearly 2-to-1 in California, so the results may not translate to governors in toss-up states or reflect how voters will judge members of Congress next year.

Republican conservative radio show host Larry Elder, is surrounded by media while he visiting Philippe The Original Deli during a campaign for the California gubernatorial recall election on Monday, Sept. 13, 2021, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)

Trump, who had largely stayed out of the contest, made unsubstantiated claims that the election was rigged in the closing days, claims echoed by Elder's campaign. Elder did not mention fraud as he addressed his supporters after the results were in.

Lets be gracious in defeat. We may have lost the battle, but we are going to win the war, he said, later adding that the recall has forced Democrats to focus on issues such as homelessness and Californias high cost of living.

Newsom for months had likened the recall to efforts by Trump and his supporters to overturn the presidential election and a push in Republican-led states to restrict voting access.

Caitlyn Jenner, gubernatorial candidate, leaves after casting her ballot for the California recall election at a vote center at City Hall in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2021. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)

Democracy is not a football, you dont throw it around. Its more like  I dont know  an antique vase, Newsom said after his win. You can drop it, smash it into a million different pieces  and thats what were capable of doing if we dont stand up to meet the moment and push back.

He became the second governor in U.S. history to defeat a recall, cementing him as a prominent figure in national Democratic politics and preserving his prospects for a future run. Republican Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker survived a recall in 2012.

California voters were asked two questions: Should Newsom be recalled, and, if so, who should replace him? Only a handful of the 46 names on the replacement ballot had public recognition, but most failed to gain traction with voters.

People wait in line to vote outside a vote center Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2021, in La Habra, Calif. With Gov. Gavin Newsom's fate at stake, Californians on Tuesday cast the last of the ballots that will decide whether he continues to lead them or if the nation's most populous state veers in a more conservative direction amid anger over his actions during the COVID-19 pandemic. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Elder entered the race just two months ago and quickly rose to the top of the pack. But that allowed Newsom to turn the campaign into a choice between the two men, rather than a referendum on his performance.

Newsom seized on Elders opposition to the minimum wage and abortion rights as evidence he was outside the mainstream in California. The governor branded him more extreme than Trump, while President Joe Biden, who campaigned for Newsom, called him the closest thing to a Trump clone Ive ever seen.

Though the contest didnt quite bring the circus-like element of Californias 2003 recall  when voters replaced Democratic Gov. Gray Davis with Republican movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger  it featured quirky moments of its own.

Voters arrive at a vote center to cast their ballots Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2021, in La Habra, Calif. With Gov. Gavin Newsom's fate at stake, Californians on Tuesday cast the last of the ballots that will decide whether he continues to lead them or if the nation's most populous state veers in a more conservative direction amid anger over his actions during the COVID-19 pandemic. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Reality TV star and former Olympian Caitlyn Jenner entered the race but gained little momentum and left the state for part of the campaign to film a reality show in Australia. Businessman John Cox, who lost badly to Newsom in 2018, tried to spice up his campaign by hiring a live bear to join him, branding himself as the beast to Newsoms beauty.

Newsom will soon be campaigning again; he's up for reelection next year.

Orrin Heatlie, the Republican who launched the recall effort last year, cast it as a David and Goliath battle and said it was telling that Newsom had called on national Democrats like Biden to salvage his damaged political career.

Republican conservative radio show host Larry Elder speaks at a rally for the California gubernatorial recall election on Monday, Sept. 13, 2021, in Monterey Park, Calif. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)

The president and other prominent Democrats offered Newsom support in the races closing days, while national Republican leaders largely kept the contest at arms length.

The recall needed 1.5 million signatures to make the ballot out of California's 22 million registered voters. It never would have come before voters if a judge hadnt given organizers four extra months to gather signatures due to the pandemic. That decision came the same day Newsom attended a maskless dinner at the lavish French Laundry restaurant with lobbyists and friends, stirring outcry.

Supporters of the recall expressed frustration over monthslong business closures and restrictions that kept most children out of classrooms. Rising homicides, a homelessness crisis and an unemployment fraud scandal further angered Newsoms critics.

People wait in line to vote outside a vote center Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2021, in Huntington Beach, Calif. With Gov. Gavin Newsom's fate at stake, Californians on Tuesday cast the last of the ballots that will decide whether he continues to lead them or if the nation's most populous state veers in a more conservative direction amid anger over his actions during the COVID-19 pandemic. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

But the broader public stayed on his side. Polling from the Public Policy Institute of California showed his approval rating remaining above 50% throughout the pandemic. With weeks to go, the institutes poll showed 60% of Californians approved of Newsoms handling of the pandemic.

The rise of the highly contagious delta variant led Newsom to frame the race as one of life or death consequences. He pointed to Texas and Florida, which were seeing worsening surges as their Republican governors rejected mask and vaccine mandates, as cautionary tales for what California could become.

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Newsom has been viewed as a potential White House contender since at least 2004, when he defied federal law to issue marriage licenses to LGBT couples as mayor of San Francisco. His victory maintained those prospects, though he will still have to navigate around the ambitions of Harris, who came up through San Francisco politics alongside Newsom.

Johnny Fulce casts his ballot at a vote center, Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2021, in Huntington Beach, Calif. With Gov. Gavin Newsom's fate at stake, Californians cast the last of the ballots that will decide whether he continues to lead them or if the nation's most populous state veers in a more conservative direction amid anger over his actions during the COVID-19 pandemic. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

He came to the contest with advantages. Californias electorate is less Republican, less white and younger than it was in 2003, when voters booted the Democratic Davis. Newsom was allowed to raise unlimited funds, dwarfing his competitors while flooding TV screens with advertising. Public worker unions and business and tech executives poured millions into his campaign.

___

Associated Press writers Julie Watson in San Diego, Jocelyn Gecker in Lafayette, Don Thompson in Lincoln, Christopher Weber in Los Angeles and Adam Beam in Sacramento contributed.

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See AP's recall coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/california-recall
SEOUL, South Korea (AP)  The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Wednesday criticized South Korea's president and threatened a complete destruction of bilateral relations after both countries tested ballistic missiles hours apart.

FILE - In this Sept. 9, 2021, file photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un waves from a balcony toward the assembled troops and spectators during a celebration of the nation's 73rd anniversary at Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang, North Korea. South Korea says Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021, North Korea has fired an unidentified projectile off its east coast. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP, File)

SEOUL, South Korea (AP)  The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Wednesday criticized South Korea's president and threatened a "complete destruction" of bilateral relations after both countries tested ballistic missiles hours apart.

The launches of missiles underscored a return of tensions between the rivals at a time when talks aimed at stripping North Korea of its nuclear program are stalled.

Kim's sister, Kim Yo Jong, criticized South Korean President Moon Jae-in for comments he made while observing his country's missile tests, including its first of a submarine-launched ballistic missile. Moon said South Koreas growing missile capabilities will serve as a "sure deterrence" against North Korean provocations.

The tests came hours after the South Korean and Japanese militaries said North Korea had fired two ballistic missiles into the sea.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, left, poses with his South Korean counterpart Chung Eui-yong for a photograph before their meeting at the Foreign Ministry in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021. The foreign ministers met Wednesday for talks expected to focus on North Korea and other regional security issues, two days after North Korea claimed to have tested a newly developed cruise missile. (Kim Seung-doo/Yonhap via AP)

In a statement carried by state media, Kim berated Moon for describing North Korean weapons demonstrations as a provocation, and warned of a "complete destruction" of bilateral relations if he continues with what she described as slander of North Korea.

She said North Korea is developing its military capabilities for self-defense without targeting a specific country, and that South Korea is also increasing its military capabilities. North Korea has often accused the South of hypocrisy for introducing modern weapons while calling for talks on easing tensions between the divided countries.

"If the president joins in the slander and detraction (against us), this will be followed by counter actions, and the North-South relations will be pushed toward a complete destruction," she said. "We do not want that."

The South Korean and Japanese militaries said the two short-range ballistic missiles fired by North Korea flew 800 kilometers (500 miles) before landing in the sea inside Japans exclusive economic zone  a worrying development even though they did not reach Japanese territorial waters. The last time a North Korean missile landed inside that zone was in October 2019.

The launches came two days after North Korea said it fired a newly developed cruise missile, its first known missile test in six months.

A man walks past a TV screen showing North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, in Tokyo, Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021. North Korea fired two ballistic missiles into waters off its eastern coast Wednesday afternoon, two days after claiming to have tested a newly developed missile in a resumption of its weapons displays after a six-month lull. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

Hours after the latest North Korean launches, South Korea reported its first test of a submarine-launched ballistic missile. As Moon and other top officials looked on, the missile flew from a submarine and hit a designated target, Moon's office said. It did not say how far the weapon flew.

The U.N. Security Council scheduled emergency consultations on the North Korean missile launches late Wednesday afternoon at the request of France and Estonia, diplomats said.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric expressed concern at the missile launches, reiterating that "diplomatic engagement remains the only pathway to sustainable peace and complete, verifiable denuclearization of the Korean peninsula."

Experts say North Korea is building up its weapons systems to apply pressure on the United States in the hopes of winning relief from economic sanctions aimed at forcing the North to abandon its nuclear arsenal. U.S.-led talks on the issue have been stalled for more than two years.

"North Korea is trying to communicate a message that things will not go as Washington wishes, if it doesnt accept the Norths demands," said Moon Seong Mook, an analyst with the Seoul-based Korea Research Institute for National Strategy. He said North Korea may think it has an opportunity now to win concessions from U.S. President Joe Biden's administration while it is embroiled in a domestic debate following the chaotic pullout from Afghanistan.

People watch a TV screen showing a news program reporting about North Korea's missiles with file footage in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021. North Korea fired two ballistic missiles into waters off its eastern coast Wednesday afternoon, two days after claiming to have tested a newly developed missile in a resumption of its weapons displays after a six-month lull. The letters read "North Korea fired two ballistic missiles." (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

Observers say Moon's government, which has been actively pursuing reconciliation with North Korea, may have taken action to appear tougher in response to criticism that its too soft on the North.

The rival nations are still technically in a state of war since the 1950-53 Korean War, which pitted the North and ally China against the South and U.S.-led U.N. forces, ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said the launches "threaten the peace and safety of Japan and the region and are absolutely outrageous."

The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said the North Korean test "highlights the destabilizing impact of (North Koreas) illicit weapons program" though it said it didnt pose an immediate threat to the U.S.

The North Korean launches represent a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions that bar North Korea from engaging in any ballistic missile activity. But the council typically doesnt impose new sanctions when the North launches short-range missiles, like Wednesdays.

In this image taken from video provided by the South Korea Defense Ministry, South Korea's first underwater-launched ballistic missile is test-fired from a 3,000-ton-class submarine at an undisclosed location in the waters of South Korea, Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021. The rival Koreas test-launched ballistic missiles hours apart from each other on Wednesday in a display of military assets that came amid a faltering diplomatic push to strip North Korea of its nuclear program. South Korea's presidential office said it conducted its first underwater-launched ballistic missile test on Wednesday afternoon. It said a domestically built missile fired from a 3,000-ton-class submarine flew a previously set distance before hitting a designated target. (South Korea Defense Ministry via AP)

Wednesdays tests came as Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was in Seoul for meetings with Moon and other senior officials to discuss North Korea and other issues.

Its unusual for North Korea to make provocative launches when China, its last major ally and biggest aid provider, is engaged in a major diplomatic event. But some experts say North Korea may have used the timing to draw extra attention.

Kim Dong-yub, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, said Wednesdays tests appeared to be of an improved version of a short-range missile it tested in March. He said the weapon is likely modeled on Russias Iskander missiles, which are designed to fly at relatively low altitudes, making them harder to be intercepted by missile defense systems.

The international community wants North Korea to abandon its nuclear program and has long used a combination of the threat of sanctions and the promise of economic help to try to influence the North. But negotiations have stalled since 2019, when then-U.S. President Donald Trumps administration rejected the Norths demand for major sanctions relief in exchange for dismantling an aging nuclear facility.

Kim Jong Uns government has so far rejected the Biden administrations overtures for dialogue, demanding that Washington abandon what it calls "hostile" policies first. But North Korea has maintained its self-imposed moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests, a sign that it may not want to completely scuttle the possibility of reopening the talks.

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In 2017, North Korea claimed to have acquired the ability to strike the American mainland with nuclear weapons after conducting three intercontinental ballistic missile tests and its most powerful nuclear test. In recent years, it has also performed a series of underwater-launched missile tests in what experts say is a worrying development because such weapons are difficult to detect and would provide North Korea with retaliatory strike capability.

South Korea, which doesnt have nuclear weapons, is under the protection of the U.S. "nuclear umbrella," which guarantees a devastating American response in the event of an attack on its ally. But South Korea has been accelerating efforts to build up its conventional arms, including developing more powerful missiles.

Experts say South Koreas military advancements are aimed at improving its capacity for preemptive strikes and destroying key North Korean facilities and bunkers.

Separate from the submarine-launched missile, South Korea also tested a missile from an aircraft.

___

Associated Press writer Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.
Wits humanities scholar a Falling Walls winner

Professor Dilip Menons transnationalism research earns him prestigious Falling Walls Award.

Professor Dilip Menon, Director of the Centre for Indian Studies in Africa at Wits University, has won the prestigious international Falling Walls Award for his transnationalism research.

Menon has been selected in the Social Sciences and Humanities category in the 2021 Falling Walls Science Breakthrough of the Year hosted by the Falling Walls Foundation, Berlin.

He was among 10 internationally renowned scholars who were shortlisted in this category. The Falling Walls Foundation announced the first science breakthroughs today, 15 September 2021.

Menon, who is also the Mellon Chair in Indian Studies, was honoured for his work on transnational and oceanic histories in the Global South, which he has conducted over the last decade. His research has produced two published books, Capitalisms: Towards a Global History (Oxford 2020) and the forthcoming edited volume Changing Theory: Concepts from the Global South (Routledge 2022), which will be translated into Mandarin next year.

The first theme focuses on the connections in the world moving beyond colonialism and nation states, the second argues that we need to think beyond Euro-American paradigms of social theory. We cannot write our stories with histories that come from elsewhere, he says.

Menons work into languages and intellectual traditions seeks to create and restore a sense of wholeness. Thinking about the world entails that we enhance the scope of our languages to include the world at large and not only ourselves and our nations, says Menon.

The book volume, Changing Theory: Concepts from the Global South includes essays on words from 16 languages ranging from Arabic to isiZulu that argue for a theoretical vocabulary from the Global South.

Regarding his contribution, the adjudicating panel remarked that Menon deserves recognition for Breaking the Wall to a Paracolonial Paradigm through his research.

Menon, through his research, has created breakthroughs by producing concepts and conceptual vocabulary from the Global South and engaging with languages across Africa, Asia and Latin America.

The Falling Walls Science Breakthroughs is an initiative of the Falling Walls Foundation, Berlin. This is a science-driven creative organisation with an international and interdisciplinary focus, which seeks to connect science, business and society. It honours researchers who have impacted humanity and created breakthroughs across borders and disciplines.

Menons anonymous nomination for the Falling Walls Prize cited his paper, Walking on Water: Globalization and History (2020) which addresses questions of globalisation, global warming, the displacement of people, and art in the era of climate change.

Menon says he is humbled to be recognised alongside leading humanities scholars.

I am deeply honoured to be nominated and to be awarded the Falling Walls Prize. The distinguished cohort of nine other scholars are all located in universities in Europe and America. Coming from India, and located now in South Africa, and the fact that my work has achieved recognition underscores the fact that I do not need to be located in the global North is of crucial importance for me. I think the Falling Walls recognition of this fact is something that matters and touches my heart.

He will present his work to a global audience at the Falling Walls Science Summit in November alongside the nine nominees in the Social Sciences and Humanities category. These include distinguished historians Sven Beckert and Naomi Oreskes and the sociologist Michelle Lamont, all at Harvard University. The Summit is a leading forum that convenes global science leaders from academia, business, politics, the media, and civil society to debate the potential of scientific breakthroughs to solve grand challenges and shape a sustainable future.
The New York State Independent Redistricting Commission has released two draft maps of what the states new Congressional districts could look like after the most recent U.S. Census.

The states legislative districts are evaluated every 10 years when the Census is completed, to make sure they accurately reflect New Yorks population.

Based on the 2020 Census, the state is losing a Congressional seat, so district lines must be redrawn.

Currently, all of Oneida County and part of Herkimer County are in the 22nd District. The rest of Herkimer County is in the 21st District, and all of Otsego County is in the 19th District.

The commission came up with two drafts, labeled letters and names, to define the new districts.

Letters Draft

In the first draft, which separates districts by letters, Utica and Rome will be in District T, along with Syracuse, Auburn, Ithaca and Cortland.

Other parts of northeastern Oneida County would be in District V, along with northern cities like Oswego and Fulton, as well as other cities like Canandaigua, Geneva and Elmira.

The southern part of Oneida County would be in District W, which would encompass part of Schenectady, Binghamton and most of Otsego County. District W would also extend as far south as Wawarsing outside of Newburgh.

Almost all of Herkimer County would be in District Y, which goes as far north as Massena and as far east as Plattsburgh.

Names Draft

The Mohawk Valley would have less intricacies in the second proposed draft, which would put most of the local population in one district.

The proposed district of JEFFRSNULSTR goes from Jefferson County to Ulster County, and includes most of Oneida, Herkimer and Otsego counties.

Parts of western Oneida County would be included in the SYRACUSE district, which would extend west all the way to Lake Ontario.

The maps do not have the level of detail to show which cities, towns and villages are in each proposed districting, but give a general idea of where each county would fall.

Congresswoman Claudia Tenney, R-22, would likely have to run against an existing representative in either scenario.

"We have to wait and see what the maps look like before we know who the challengers are. I feel pretty confident about primaries. Obviously, I've always run one so i think that gives me a little bit of an edge but i think we have to wait and see what the actual lines look like," said Tenney.

The new districts must be decided by Jan. 1, 2022.

The draft maps for the Senate and Assembly plans are also available on the commissions website. To download all of the available map drafts, click here.
What a federal judge did in Utica, Tuesday, is getting national headlines. The Hon. David N. Hurd temporarily blocked New York State's vaccine mandate requiring all health care workers to be partially inoculated by the end of September. Judge Hurd issued the order after a group of 17 health care professionals sued, saying their constitutional rights were infringed upon because the mandate didn't allow for religious exemptions. But what the judge did, is temporary.

"There's going to be a hearing in court that's been scheduled and the judge ordered the parties to appear in person and at that time, he'll hear both sides and then he'll make a determination as to whether this should be a permanent injunction or stop the temporary injunction," says Utica attorney, Mark Wolber.

Gov. Kathy Hochul addressed Hurd's decision during a televised COVID briefing Wednesday, saying she's not aware of any religious exemptions that would apply.

"To the extent that theres leadership of different religious organizations that have spoken, and they have, Im not aware of a sanctioned religious exemption from any organized religion," she said. "In fact, theyre encouraging the opposite. Theyre encouraging their members, everybody from the Pope on down, is encouraging people to get vaccinated."

Hochul added that the mandate is to protect staff and patients.

"We are going to make sure that we defend the right of the State of New York to ensure that anyone in a health care facility can meet a patient, and that patient does not have to worry when they go in there for health care, that theyre going to contract a virus from one of the people thats supposed to protect their health. That doesnt make sense," said Hochul.

For now, local hospital leadership we spoke with tell us they're not really doing anything differently after Tuesday's ruling.

"Providing a religious accommodation is nothing new. Employers have had to do that under title VII, so we've done that in the past and we'll continue to do that so it really has not affected how we're approaching this mandate," says Paul Uhrig, Chief Legal Officer for Bassett Healthcare.

"It honestly isn't keeping us from doing the planning that we need to do because we don't know where it's gonna land you know when it might change, what it might change to so we have to be prepared for different contingencies," says Kent Hall, MD, Senior Vice President CMO/CPE, for MVHS.

Currently, less than 15% of Bassett's workforce is unvaccinated. MVHS estimates their unvaccinated population has now gone below 20%. Both say they're vaccinating staff daily. They say even if they do lose multiple employees to the mandate, they don't expect to have to cut services.

"We are not looking to cut any services at all. That will not be necessary for us. We may need to redistribute some staff defending on where this goes," says Hall.

"We have no plans to close any services at this time, but we meet on a daily basis to monitor the situation and we'll put in place contingency plans to keep open our services," says Uhrig.

The state has until Sept. 22 to officially respond to the health care workers' lawsuit. A hearing is scheduled for Sept. 28.
TIPPECANOE COUNTY (WLFI)  Fall Armyworms have made their way to the Midwest and have been causing damage.

Professor of Entomology at Purdue University, Christian Krupke, says were dealing with an infestation of fall armyworms.

This is the first year of a big infestation, said Krupke. "I've never seen this in the 16 years while I've been at Purdue.

Krupke says fall armyworms are native to Central and South America.

"It's a very uncommon occurrence, said Krupke. The damage they do is they have wiped out some of the fields in Indiana, and in Kentucky, and so on."

He says its not uncommon to find a few armyworms every year, especially in late planted corn. However hes never seen an infestation like this one.

"This year they're making a big stir because they're feeding on a lot of crops throughout the state, particularly hay and alfalfa crops, said Krupke. It's worldwide and it's probably one of the biggest insect pest in the word."

There are two types of armyworms; the regular armyworms and fall armyworms.

"Both armyworms get their name because once they wipe out a field they march in a large group just like soldiers in an army, said Krupke. You see them crossing roads and looking for the next field."

The regular armyworms usually can be found in May and June. Krupke says they only feed on grasses, including wheat and corn, but the fall armyworms are a different story.

"Fall armyworms occur in the fall, or close to fall as we're seeing, and it feeds on a much wider range of plants like broadleaf plants and young soybeans, said Krupke. In addition to the alfalfa hay, it can feed on corn as well. So it has a much wider strain and its worldwide a much more serious pest than the true armyworm.

Krupke says the large amount of fall armyworms were seeing in the Midwest is due to weather patterns.

"They fly high up in the atmosphere, in the jet stream actually, believe it or not, said Krupke. They get carried along those winds way up there. So the weather was favorable to bring them up from the south, carry them north, and dump them in parts of the north and in parts of the Midwest like where we are."

Krupke says they have mostly found fall armyworms in alfalfa fields, but that doesnt mean the insects dont cause damage to corn and soybeans.

It can impact corn and soybeans, said Krupke. But at the time of year they come in Indiana most of our soybeans that are planted at a conventional time, and our corn, are past the stage where they are vulnerable.

As the fall season gets underway, Krupke says were towards the end of the infestation.

However, farmers are still encouraged to check their fields.

They need to check their fields, especially alfalfa and if they still have larvae especially small ones, theyll need to treat them, said Krupke. Theyll need to apply a registered recommended insecticide.

Krupke says there are a few things farmers need to keep in mind if they're trying to get rid of fall armyworms.

Theyre most easy to find in the hours approaching darkness, said Krupke. If you really want to find them and spray them, dusk is a good time because the spray will directly encounter them.

Krupke says its hard to find the fall armyworms in the day.

You want to go out there in the fields when the insects are feeding in the evening, said Krupke. They hide during the day, mostly because birds will find them and eat them.

Fall armyworms cannot tolerate the cold, which is why Krupke says the upcoming winter will determine a lot.

"You don't need to think this is an annual event," said Krupke. "But it's also more likely to happen if we have warmer weather through the winter, because the winter is our big reset button."
Maybe this is a source of pride for former President Donald Trump. But for the rest of the world, seeing America's recent political turmoil emulated in nations from east to west is something else entirely. The example set by Trump -- disparaging, assaulting and undercutting a country's democracy -- has now become the template for political players with authoritarian leanings around the globe.

In the same way that Trump's cry of "fake news!" -- which he used with some success to discredit professional journalists -- has been wielded by dictators to crush a free press in their countries, the claim of "rigged" elections is also being deployed by those who cannot win the support of voters as they try to acquire power.

With security officials in Washington bracing for the possibility of more violence ahead of the September 18 rally in support of insurrectionists charged in the Capitol riots, and as Trump strongly hints that he will run for reelection in 2024, his brand of politics continues to spread like a hard-to-contain infection that ignores national boundaries.

In Myanmar, also known as Burma, the military-backed party lost in a landslide last November, around the same time Trump lost his reelection by millions of votes. Perhaps the generals were watching Trump's reaction. They immediately protested, claiming widespread fraud, adamantly refusing to accept the results despite confirmation that the election was generally clean and the outcome valid.

On February 1, the military arrested Aung San Suu Kyi and other leaders of the winning National League for Democracy party and then seized power. Since then, resistance to the coup has only intensified, as has the number of lives taken by the ruthless regime. The Tatmadaw, as the army is known, has killed more than a thousand civilians. The government in exile is calling for a nationwide uprising against the tyrannical junta. Civil war is a distinct possibility. Again, the election results were correct. The losers rejected the outcome. Many of the winning candidates remain detained.

In Brazil, President Jair Bolsonaro, an admirer and imitator of Trump, is following Trump's preelection moves step by step. His handling of the pandemic was so catastrophic -- and the alleged corruption in his government and among his politically active sons so egregious -- that Bolsonaro is lagging badly in the polls ahead of next year's presidential election. (His sons deny any wrongdoing.)

Bolsonaro is claiming that electronic voting, which has a long, strong, and very credible track record in Brazil, will rig the elections against him. He has threatened to cancel the election and is stoking the anger of his supporters, calling them out to the streets.

His assaults on the credibility of the election have already triggered formal investigations as potentially criminal behavior, and Brazil's Congress has already rejected his push to cancel electronic voting. No matter. Bolsonaro is already crafting his Big Lie: By undercutting faith in the electoral system, he's laying the groundwork for rejecting the outcome of the election (assuming it happens) and hoping his supporters will bolster his standing when he claims he did not lose. Sound familiar?

In Peru, the country just endured an excruciatingly close presidential election, pitting a far-left candidate against one from the far-right. As the razor-thin vote count trended toward leftist rival Pedro Castillo, the rightist candidate, Keiko Fujimori, pulled the phony fraud card, claiming Castillo's party was carrying out a "strategy" of "distortion."

She could produce no credible evidence, and Castillo ultimately assumed the presidency by 44,263 votes. With tensions high, accusations that an election has been stolen have the potential to unleash violence, not to mention the possibility that they will ultimately succeed in actually stealing the election. With neither of those events taking place, the country has dodged a bullet.

Not surprisingly, the bogus claims of fraud are taking root in the United States, where it looks possible that some version of Trump's mantra, if I don't win, then there was fraud -- a demagogue's riddle if there ever was one -- will become ever more common in some GOP circles.

In this week's California recall election, Republican front-runner Larry Elder, a far-right radio personality, has already proclaimed that "there might well be shenanigans" if Gov. Gavin Newsom emerges victorious. The polls show Newsom in a strong position, which appears to be the reason Elder is now raising the fraud weapon from his holster. In case anyone has doubts, he explains that by "shenanigans" he means what happened to Trump in 2020.

What happened to Trump in 2020 is that he lost to Biden. What happened to the country is that Trump falsely claimed he won and his followers, now including the majority of the Republican Party, seem determined to embrace that lie. The technique is a deadly bacteria bacillus, one that first emerges in one corner of the world and is spreading far and wide, with consequences that could prove disastrous for hundreds of millions of people.

Maybe seeing himself imitated around the world makes the former guy proud. For the rest of us, it revives that old familiar mixture of frustration, sadness, anger, and profound worry.

The-CNN-Wire

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TIPPECANOE COUNTY, Ind. (WLFI)A local man is being honored as number one entrepreneur in the State of Indiana for the year 2021.

Donte Wilburn is this year's nominee. Wilburn owns Premier Detailing and Wash as well as Legacy Courts in Lafayette.

Governor Eric Holcomb is declaring the week of September 13th -17th, 2021, as Small Business Week in Indiana. The award is being given to many small business owners in the State of Indiana.

It's presented by Indiana Small Business Development Center. Wilburn said he hopes to spread a positive message.

"The euphoria of having so many loved ones that deposited wisdom into me all in one spot at one time plus the elected officials that helped me grow the business that supported us through financial support all in one place phenomenal," said Wilburn.

According to Indiana Small Development Center, there are 529,000 small business in Indiana. State Director for Indiana Small Development Center David Watkins said every week should be small business week.

"We want to celebrate and share the stories of small businesses and entrepreneurs like Donte because it's important to tell their stories. 9 out of 10 business in Indiana are going to be small businesses and we want to celebrate them," said Watkins.

For more information on Indiana Small Business Development Center click here.
VIMS launches new Professional Master of Arts program in marine science

Program seeks to help students translate between science and society

William & Mary's Virginia Institute of Marine Science has launched its new Professional Master of Arts program, welcoming seven Master of Arts (M.A.) students along with 24 others seeking Master of Science (M.S.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees in W&Ms School of Marine Science at VIMS.

Were thrilled to welcome our inaugural class of M.A. students," says Professor Linda Schaffner, VIMS associate dean of academic studies. "Our program will offer them coursework and training for careers in policy, business, outreach, and other areas that require working collaboratively with diverse stakeholders.

Molly Mitchell, a VIMS faculty member and M.A. program director, says the program is designed to help students translate between what scientists can do and what society needs. It's really important to have students learn the science as well as any M.S. student, but also gain other skills and experiences that allow them to chart an interdisciplinary path.

Derek Aday, VIMS dean & director, says the new program is perfectly suited to help students meet the challenges we face in the days and years ahead, ones that require new kinds of partnerships among scientists, economists, lawyers, policymakers, industry, educators, and community stakeholders. The M.A. program is designed to prepare students to thrive in these partnerships and to help find answers the world needs now and in the future.

Students enroll in the Professional M.A. program for up to two years, first pursuing a curriculum of graduate-level coursework that seeks to ground them in the science of marine and coastal ecosystems, as well as the statistical and numerical skills needed for research and analysis. The students then gain professional experience through internships and a capstone project, while developing skills in areas such as collaboration, communication and leadership.

The internship offers an opportunity to gain job-related skills and network, while during the capstone project, each student will work with a VIMS faculty member and an external advisor to design and conduct a project that addresses an issue at the boundary between marine science and society, says Mitchell, who will serve as a general advisor to all seven M.A. students. Faculty at VIMS have a broad range of expertise and can advise in areas such as aquaculture, habitat conservation and restoration, fisheries management, water quality and coastal flooding resiliency.

John Griffin, VIMS assistant director for admissions & student affairs, notes that more than 20 students applied to enter this years inaugural class.

The insight and expertise that thrives here in our faculty, centers and programs was a great draw, as it promises our students professional development and networking opportunities for careers that bridge marine science with areas like outreach, policy, law, business, management and nonprofits, he says.

Enthusiasm from students and alumni

Enthusiasm for the Professional M.A. program is clearly evident in remarks from members of the inaugural class as well as VIMS alumni.

Alumna Jill Bieri M.S. 92., director of The Nature Conservancys Volgenau Virginia Coast Reserve Program, says, I'm excited about the MA program at VIMS and the new opportunities it providesto do a project not so focused on research and to have an external mentor working in another aspect of the field. This degree will really allow people to translate, integrate and apply marine science.

M.A. student Claudia Moncada, who will work on a capstone outreach project with VIMS Professor Deborah Steinberg, says, Im particularly excited about the internship opportunity and the chance to have a mentor outside the academic world. Itll be an incredibly valuable experience, as Ill have access to points of view that are both integral to science communication. Im also excited to take my work at VIMS in a multilingual direction and reach a wider audience.

Moncada says the programs main draw was the amount of effort and love I could see being poured into it before it even began. John and Molly really made me feel welcome during the application process and after, and VIMS seemed like the perfect place to pursue a career in marine science communication while still getting a solid scientific background.

Moncada would ultimately like to work with a nonprofit or in an informal education setting such as a museum or aquarium.

I really want to work directly with people to help expand their knowledge of our oceans, she says, no matter their age or background.

M.A. student Will Shoup adds, There's a sense of wonder amongst the faculty and staff that makes me feel like the next few years will be very special. This was most apparent during the MA kickoff event, where the faculty, staff and alumni who helped make the program possible said a few words reflecting on their time at VIMS and wished us all luck in the future.

The two alumni speakers were Matthew Strickler M.S. '07, secretary of natural and historic resources and chief resilience officer for the Commonwealth of Virginia; and Jacques Oliver M.S. '99, Ph.D. '05, a senior regulatory scientist with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Coming out of my undergraduate institution, I knew I wanted to find a way to weave my marine science knowledge into more applied, day-to-day issues," adds Shoup. "The M.A. program will allow me to do just thatespecially through the internship and capstone project.

Shoup will work on his capstone project with David Rudders, research assistant professor and associate director of the Marine Advisory Program at VIMS.

A third M.A. student, Rachael King, says, Its very exciting how moldable the program is to personal interests. The capstone project is more flexible than a traditional thesis, and most course requirements are within a general category rather than a specific class. For me in particular, this allows a heavy focus on science policy, since thats the career I want to pursue. I also really appreciate the internship, which will allow me to get my foot in the door with a company and gain professional experience in my field of choice.

I like that the program is both shorter than a traditional masters program and focused heavily on professional development, she adds. More and more jobs in environmental science want you to have a masters degree, but many masters programs prepare students to continue in academia. I want to pursue a career in science policy after grad school, so I really appreciate the focus on that in the M.A. program at VIMS. Advising Kings capstone project are VIMS professors BK Song and Rob Hale.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, conducts field research on local efforts in advancing rural vitalization on all fronts while visiting a village in Suide, a county under the city of Yulin in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Sept. 14, 2021. Xi on Tuesday inspected Suide County. [Xinhua/Xie Huanchi]

XI'AN, Sept. 14 (Xinhua)  Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, on Tuesday inspected Suide, a county under the city of Yulin in northwest China's Shaanxi Province.

Xi visited a revolutionary site  the premises of the former prefectural Party committee of Suide, a middle school, an exhibition hall for local intangible cultural heritage and a village.

He conducted field research on local efforts in carrying forward the Party's glorious traditions and fine style of work, promoting all-round development and healthy growth of students, enhancing the protection and inheritance of traditional culture, and advancing rural vitalization on all fronts.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, conducts field research on local efforts in advancing rural vitalization on all fronts while visiting a village in Suide, a county under the city of Yulin in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Sept. 14, 2021. Xi on Tuesday inspected Suide County. [Xinhua/Li Xueren] Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, waves to villagers while visiting a village in Suide, a county under the city of Yulin in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Sept. 14, 2021. Xi on Tuesday inspected Suide County. [Xinhua/Xie Huanchi] Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, conducts field research on local efforts in advancing rural vitalization on all fronts while visiting a village in Suide, a county under the city of Yulin in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Sept. 14, 2021. Xi on Tuesday inspected Suide County. [Xinhua/Xie Huanchi] Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, talks to villagers while visiting a village in Suide, a county under the city of Yulin in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Sept. 14, 2021. Xi on Tuesday inspected Suide County. [Xinhua/Xie Huanchi] Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, conducts field research on local efforts in advancing rural vitalization on all fronts while visiting a village in Suide, a county under the city of Yulin in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Sept. 14, 2021. Xi on Tuesday inspected Suide County. [Xinhua/Li Xueren] Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, conducts field research on local efforts in advancing rural vitalization on all fronts while visiting a village in Suide, a county under the city of Yulin in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Sept. 14, 2021. Xi on Tuesday inspected Suide County. [Xinhua/Li Xueren] Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, conducts field research on local efforts in advancing rural vitalization on all fronts while visiting a village in Suide, a county under the city of Yulin in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Sept. 14, 2021. Xi on Tuesday inspected Suide County. [Xinhua/Xie Huanchi] Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, conducts field research on local efforts in enhancing the protection and inheritance of traditional culture while visiting an exhibition hall for local intangible cultural heritage in Suide, a county under the city of Yulin in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Sept. 14, 2021. Xi on Tuesday inspected Suide County. [Xinhua/Xie Huanchi] Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, talks to teachers and students while visiting a middle school in Suide, a county under the city of Yulin in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Sept. 14, 2021. Xi on Tuesday inspected Suide County. [Xinhua/Xie Huanchi] Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, conducts field research on local efforts in promoting all-round development and healthy growth of students while visiting a middle school in Suide, a county under the city of Yulin in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Sept. 14, 2021. Xi on Tuesday inspected Suide County. [Xinhua/Li Xueren] Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, conducts field research on local efforts in carrying forward the Party's glorious traditions and fine style of work while visiting a revolutionary site  the premises of the former prefectural Party committee of Suide, in the city of Yulin in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Sept. 14, 2021. Xi on Tuesday inspected Suide County. [Xinhua/Li Xueren]

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, conducts field research on local efforts in carrying forward the Party's glorious traditions and fine style of work while visiting a revolutionary site  the premises of the former prefectural Party committee of Suide, in the city of Yulin in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Sept. 14, 2021. Xi on Tuesday inspected Suide County. [Xinhua/Xie Huanchi]

(Source: Xinhua)
Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, learns about the progress in making comprehensive use of coal amid circular economy at a chemical company during his inspection tour of Yulin City, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Sept. 13, 2021. [Xinhua/Li Xueren]

XI'AN, Sept. 14 (Xinhua)  Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, has stressed efforts to develop the country's energy industry, noting that such development should follow a green and low-carbon path.

Xi made the remarks on Monday while visiting a chemical enterprise under the China Energy Investment Corporation in Yulin City, northwest China's Shaanxi Province.

Xi inspected the company's central control room, visited its project site, and learned about the comprehensive use of coal.

Continued efforts should be made to boost the energy industry so as to underpin the modernization of the country. Meanwhile, the development of the coal industry should be transformed and upgraded, following a green and low-carbon path, he noted.

Such efforts would be conducive to peaking carbon dioxide emissions and achieving carbon neutrality without straining resources, energy and environmental capacity, Xi said.

"This will help us meet the requirements of building a community with a shared future for humanity and protect our planet Earth well," he added.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, waves to the employees while visiting a chemical company during his inspection tour of Yulin City, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Sept. 13, 2021. [Xinhua/Yan Yan] Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, talks to the employees while visiting a chemical company during his inspection tour of Yulin City, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Sept. 13, 2021. [Xinhua/Yan Yan] Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, visits a chemical company in Yulin City, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Sept. 13, 2021, learning about the progress in making comprehensive use of coal amid circular economy. [Xinhua/Li Xueren]

(Source: Xinhua)
Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, talks to teachers and students while visiting a middle school in Suide, a county under the city of Yulin in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Sept. 14, 2021. Xi on Tuesday inspected Suide County. [Xinhua/Xie Huanchi]

XI'AN, Sept. 15 (Xinhua)  Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, emphasized better education to ensure all-round development of Chinese youths, calling on the young people to become the backbone of the nation.

Xi made the remarks on Tuesday while visiting a middle school in Suide, a county in Yulin City, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, during his inspection tour in the province.

At the school, Xi watched the students practicing calligraphy and doing physical exercises, and chatted with them.

He called for efforts to better develop education and improve its structure to meet the needs of realizing the second centenary goal.

He also called for promoting the students' moral, intellectual, physical and aesthetic grounding in addition to good work skills in an all-round way, highlighting the importance of each aspect. "It is the experience we have drawn from years of exploration," Xi said.

The young people should be well-prepared to join the socialist cause and grow into individuals of value to the society, he added.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, conducts field research on local efforts in promoting all-round development and healthy growth of students while visiting a middle school in Suide, a county under the city of Yulin in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Sept. 14, 2021. Xi on Tuesday inspected Suide County. [Xinhua/Li Xueren]

(Source: Xinhua)
Appeal launched over refusal of gym plans for Wrexham tyre depot

An appeal has been launched after plans to turn a tyre depot in Wrexham into a gym were thrown out.

An application was submitted in November last year to convert a unit on Wrexham Industrial Estate into a specialist fitness studio for personal training.

Permission was later refused by Wrexham Council amid concerns over a lack of parking spaces outside the property on Ash Road North and potential road safety issues.

Simon Morait, who is behind the proposals, has now appealed to the Planning Inspectorate in a bid to have the decision overturned.

It follows an agent acting on his behalf stating that only 12 customers would be able to access the gym at any one time, along with two staff members.

In an appeal statement, Mark Bowyer Jones said: It has been demonstrated that in the unlikely event that all 14 clients/staff turn up in separate vehicles there is at all times ample parking provided within the site between dedicated and communal parking areas.

The highway officer stated that the proposed fitness studio could potentially operate a limited service which may well be catered for by the allocated spaces plus communal spaces

Despite accepting that there would be enough parking within the site for the proposed use, the highway officer reverted to using local planning guidance note 16 as a basis for his negative comments.

It is suggested that the current application at Ash Road North could be fully controlled by appropriate conditions limiting the number of people on site at any one time to 14 and making it a personal permission.

He added: Each of the concerns raised by the planning officer have been addressed.

It has been demonstrated that the proposed change of use of the building would not result in a shortfall in parking leading to congestion or highway safety problems.

A decision will be made on the appeal at a later date by an inspector appointed by the Welsh Government.

By Liam Randall  BBC Local Democracy Reporter
On September 11, the WSWS International Amazon Workers Voice reported that Jeff Linnell, a 51-year-old safety ambassador who had worked at Amazons BFI4 fulfillment center in Kent, Washington, in the Seattle metropolitan region, had lost his life to COVID-19.

Linnell was working at the facility in August during the time when he caught the virus. After spending weeks on a ventilator, he succumbed to the deadly disease, which has taken the lives of at least 670,000 others across the United States and 4 million people internationally.

Amazon workers protest unsafe working conditions in Staten Island, New York, on March 30, 2020 (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)

Following the publication of the article, several of Linnells co-workers and friends contacted the IAWV to talk about what happened. Several of them have taken up a GoFundMe collection to support Linnells wife, who has been forced to shoulder the cost of her husbands burial. His co-workers asked that their names be changed in this article to avoid management retaliation.

Jordan stressed Linnells dedication to his work but insisted that he didnt catch [COVID-19] anywhere else but Amazon. He based this conclusion on his knowledge of Linnells position on the safety team and the nature of his work.

According to an Indeed.com description, safety ambassador jobs require lots of hours on your feet. According to Jordan, this required Linnell to be around lots of people and make sure they were masking and keeping six feet of distance from each other. The Indeed.com description adds that safety ambassadors have to deal with management not really communicating with employees.

Masking guidelines at Amazon were eliminated in May of this year and only re-imposed on Monday, August 9. This coincided with the time frame that Linnell first became ill with COVID-19.

He was a firefighter before working at Amazon. He was always very concerned with safety, said Jordan. Linnells concern for safety was heightened by the fact that he and his wife of 24 years both worked at BFI4, and Linnell personally had a weakened immune system.

Amelia stated that she had first heard about what happened from Linnells wife. She messaged me, asking if I could talk. I was at work. When I found out, I immediately had to stop working and take a minute. Amelia said that she could tell by her friends voice that the full weight of her loss had not yet sunk in. She wasnt crying or anything, I remember.

Co-workers were taken aback by how quickly the disease had taken him. I remember having heard that he was in an intensive care unit but that things were starting to improve. Then, all of a sudden, things took a wrong turn, one worker said.

Linnell was very popular at the BFI4 warehouse. Everyone knew him. He was like the face of the building. He was always smiling, said James, who said that he had first met Linnell two years earlier, when the latter first came to work at BFI4.

Others shared similar memories of him: He was always so sweet. He made you want to come to work. He had these gag jokes. I mean, the guy would always make steak for lunch. It was like he had a poor sense of humor, except it was still funny. According to his co-worker, Linnell would give you the shirt off of his back if he felt that it would help.

Linnell had spent at least three weeks in the ICU before his death on September 1. This would mean that the period in which he caught COVID-19 coincided with an explosion of cases across the country.

On August 11, exactly three weeks before he passed away, the World Socialist Web Site noted that there are almost 69,000 COVID-19 patients hospitalized in the US, an increase of 2,591 from the week before. The article continued, 16,828 are in ICUs. Every state except Utah has seen a rise in new cases.

At the same time, several workers expressed concern about the danger of retaliation at Amazon for workers who raised safety concerns. Referring to management, one worker told the IAWV, If anyone says anything [about Amazon], they will go after them.

On August 16, the Baltimore Amazon Workers Rank-and-File Committee issued detailed safety-related demands, such as genuine contact tracing, accessible and frequent testing, the closure of facilities for necessary cleaning and paid time off without the threat of termination for workers who are unwilling to risk their health during the pandemic.

The committee called the belated return of mask requirements too little, too late. The committee warned: While Amazon is now focusing once again on wearing masks, it has still abandoned all other measures which were originally implemented at the beginning of the pandemic in its own warehouses.

As in the case of the death of Poushawn Brown, who worked in the COVID-19 testing department of an Amazon facility in Virginia, the loss of Jeff Linnell contrasts with the companys unwillingness to implement the scientifically necessary safety measures to eradicate the deadly virus in the workplace.

There is more than enough money for the safety measures necessary to protect the health and lives of all Amazon workers. According to a study carried out last year by the Brookings Institute based on reported earnings, Amazon and other major retailers could have quadrupled the hazard pay they gave their frontline workers and still earned more profit than the previous year.
PS 245 elementary school in New York City, September 13, 2021. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

The WSWS conducted the following interview with a teacher from Montgomery, Alabama, where the school reopening drive has led to mass infections of students and teachers. As this semester began last month, over 4,300 cases were reported in schools throughout Alabamaa higher number than at any time during the 2020-21 school year. Last week, there were 9,200 infections reported. Even this is an undercount, with only 58 percent of districts even reporting figures.

The teachers name has been changed to Clare to protect her identity.

WSWS: We have described three strategies guiding world governments response to the pandemic: herd immunity, which says let it rip and allow the entire population to become infected; mitigation, which tries to negotiate with the virus by implementing half-measures that do not stop the spread of infection; and elimination/eradication, which asserts that the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 can and must be stopped. Scientists estimate that the virus could be eradicated in the space of a couple of months if this strategy were correctly pursued. What are your thoughts?

Clare: Eradication is what makes COVID go away. Weve dealt with this for over a year, we can deal with 23 months of shutdown. Vaccines alone wont eradicate it. You have to isolate the disease itself or it will continue to mutate. We need to make sure support is there for people who need it and not bail out the rich people. If we shut down, we would have less nurses and doctors walking out, less teachers walking out.

Multiple countries have been successful with elimination. We know what works.

The mitigation strategy is very wishy-washy. Its profitable for them. Its not whats in the best interest of the whole people and its driven by greed.

WSWS: What do you think about the role of the Biden administration in forcing the schools to reopen and the current surge of the pandemic?

Clare: The reopening of schools is the biggest source of transmission for this second wave. This is the [Biden] administrations fault, the governments. Government wants the big money. They want to appease the lobbyists and the businesses. The politicians do the dance and screw your children. Biden lied to that little girl [during a televised town hall earlier this year] and said everythings going to be okay.

They already lied by saying get this many people vaccinated and itll go away. They did the exact opposite of what science said when they reopened everything and told everybody you are vaccinated, so take your mask off because its safe.

They were supposed to get the infrastructure together, get the schools fixed, etc. Instead, they said, No, we need everyone in schools and we wont give parents an option. You cant point the finger at the unvaccinated when its the lack of following CDC guidelines. Theres not just one rule but a set of rules, and you have to follow all of them. They said, Vaccinate and send them back to school but most kids cant be vaccinated!

I told [Alabama Governor] Kay Iveyits not the unvaccinated peoples fault, its your fault. You said take your masks off, go to school with no virtual option. I know people who work virtually but their kids had to go to school. Thats how they got the virus. This wave is from reopening schools.

The unions didnt just not help us, they stuck their foot out to trip us and knocked us to the ground. Once the union told us they couldnt really help us because they had people on both sides, it was clear. The union isnt going to help us. They arent going to go against the school board, because the board allows them to collect our dues. They want our money. Theyre not making sure we are safe. Eight teachers died last year in Montgomery, at least, and the AEA [Alabama Education Association] didnt say squat.

They are a big business under the guise of a union. They told us, dont come to us in a group, but individually. Divide and conquer. The whole point of a union is to work together. They did nothing with our grievances, anyway. Instead, they put us in a Petri dish, in the schools.

WSWS: What can you say about the role of AFT President Randi Weingarten and her $5 million Back to School for All tour across the United States? As part of the campaign, the union is directing locals to go door-to-door to round up students.

Clare: It is not her job to round students up and tell them they have to go in person. A union is supposed to be about uniting teachers, not rounding up students. Her job is to protect teachers and shes not doing that. Teachers are dying and shes not even mentioning it.

Last year there was no union-led fight on behalf of teachers anywhere in the US.

WSWS: Why do you support the building of independent rank-and-file committees of all workers to oppose these policies?

Clare: The rank-and-file committees need to come together because the unions arent doing it. The only real representation you have as a worker is your rank-and-file committee.

The working class needs to not be threatened and intimidated by what looks like an impossible task of fighting against big business. When fighting for life, no fight is too big.

We need to band together. If we stop working, they cant do anything. We have to understand our power. Parents, teachers and workers in all areas are running the foundation of this country. We must work together to fight against corporate structure that puts our life at risk.

I spoke to a waiter the other day. He was making $2.45 an hour, the same wage I did 30 years ago! How does a wage not go up over that period? We used to be able to keep our tips, now they are even sharing those. Who can live off that? And theyre getting exposed to COVID at work.

We read about this in school, like The Jungle [Upton Sinclairs muckraking 1906 novel on the Chicago meat-packing industry]. We read about it like its in the past, but these past couple of years have shown that its very much alive and well. Its not just corruption but a system of greed that is so pervasive in our government that childrens lives are expendable.

It was shown in the beginning of the pandemic that they considered the elderly expendable. People with preexisting conditions, they let them die. They keep saying, Kids need to be in schools but its been proven through wars and past crises that children can overcome learning loss. They cannot overcome life loss.

I felt so bad last year to see how insignificant we teachers were. No matter how much education you have, how many degrees you have, you were treated like trash just for voicing that you wanted to be safe. Teachers resigned or retired, or kept quiet. Now that they shut the teachers up, they are trying to shut the parents up by saying, You have to pay bills.

WSWS: Which is precisely why the ruling class allowed the eviction moratorium and the federal unemployment assistance to expire as schools were reopening.

Clare: Yes. They need to reinstate the eviction pause. Allow people to live. Its not that hard to do. Eradication makes COVID go away. Shut down for 23 months. We shouldnt still be losing family members. I know three people who died last month. The working class has to stop accepting little crumbs and come together to fight. Thats the only way we are all protected.
Workers at the Lennox Industry plant in Stuttgart, Arkansas, are reporting that COVID-19 infections are spreading throughout the factory, which is located about 55 miles from Little Rock. Many of the workers have been infected with COVID-19 and at least five have died, workers told the World Socialist Web Site.

Approximately 1,400 workers are at the 750,000 square-foot facility. Workers are reportedly laboring 12 hours a day, seven days a week, in sweltering heat because the factory, which manufactures air conditioners, does not have adequate air conditioning. The company also builds expensive home air purification systems, which it boasts removes more than 99% of virus particles, including the common cold, influenza and viruses 4x smaller than SARS-CoV-2.

A worker at the Stuttgart factory (Source: Work for Lennox Facebook page)

Gina, a worker from Little Rock with family members at the plant, said a relative died from COVID-19 in August. She did not get a chance to be vaccinated and was sent home sick on a Thursday and was dead by Saturday, she said.

Another family member who was vaccinated, Gina said, was currently in the Intensive Care Unit with COVID-19 because local hospitals had no beds, and they had to transfer him to a hospital in North Little Rock. My baby sister has two kids with the virus, and they dont have beds to put them in. I called the CDC and told them that place needs to be shut down. What my family is telling me is unreal. The company pays judges to get inmates out of jail to work at the Lennox plant. Theyre coming from the jailhouse with Covid and spreading it in the plant.

She continued, My family members are afraid to open their mouths, and one is about to die. People are afraid to speak up because they are worried about being fired. Lennox is paying judges to keep it open. These people should be exposed.

This reporter called management at the factory to get a response to the report of multiple Covid deaths at the factory and the use of prison inmates. After being transferred by an operator, an unnamed company official hung up the phone as soon as the questions were posed to him. The WSWS also called the companys media relations spokesman in Richardson, Texas, for a response but got no reply as of the time of this writing. Several inquiries to the Little Rock office of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) also elicited no response.

Aerial photo of factory from Stulennox.com

The state of Arkansas, with a population of just over 3 million, has more than 475,001 individual cases or approximately 16 percent of the states populace. The disease has already claimed more than 7,142 lives. Arkansas County, where Stuttgart is located, has five coronavirus deaths and 3,250 positive cases of a population of less than 18,000, according to the Arkansas Department of Health.

The state is the home to multi-billion-dollar conglomerates Tyson Foods and Walmart, which have long controlled the states politicians, including former governor Bill Clinton. At least 12,000 Tyson workers have been infected across the country and 38 have died, according to a class-action lawsuit filed last February.

Dallas-based Lennox Industries employs approximately 11,350 people at its headquarters and R&D facilities in Texas and factories in Marshalltown, Iowa; Stuttgart, Arkansas, and Saltillo, Mexico. According to Owler.com, Lennox has an annual revenue of $4.1 billion. Over the last four quarters, the companys revenue grew by 17.4 percent, particularly in Q2 of 2021, when it reached $1.2 billion, up $269.5 million from the previous quarter.

According to Indeed.com, an assembler at the Lennox plant makes $13.50 an hour with a $100 per quarter bonus for perfect attendance during the deadly pandemic. Many workers, however, are temps earning $10 an hour. By contrast, CEO Todd M. Bluedorn pocketed $13.2 million last year and has a net worth of at least $132 million. Bluedorn owns more than 10,000 units of Lennox stock worth over $17,821,373, according to WallMine.com and has stock totaling more than $100,275,641 over the past fourteen years.

Comments by workers, listed on the job review website Indeed.com highlight the sweatshop conditions at the Stuttgart plant. One from August said, Management thinks they can talk to you any type of way. The air conditioning in the building does not work properly. The company is so short staffed that most employees are working 5 or more jobs and being moved to different lines every day. The[y] lie about all raises and there are too many relationships going on between employees and supervisors.

Another said, The leadership at Lennox International is very poor  For example, they do not communicate with the employees, they change policies without telling employees, and they are trying to keep covid infections in the dark from employees.

Still another said, Lennox only cares about management. They work us 6-7 days and treat employees horrible.

Breaks and lunches are too short, get warning and written warning if a few seconds late, another review said. Too much favoritism, management singles out certain employees... not me but have seen it done to others. Fear of getting injured, you will get fired almost regardless how long you been there regardless of the situation. You work seven days a week during peak season with no days off. Not family friendly.

And just this Wednesday, another reviewer posted, This company make central heat and air units, but the plant stays around 94 degrees and then you wear PPE. The work isn't hard, but the environment and policy are terrible. They change rules to fit whatever they want to hold some people accountable and let others get away with everything. They put too much pressure on some making work terrible.

Pros: I can't think of a single thing.

Cons: Everything!! Overworked under paid for the environment and not ever having a life

In 2019, OSHA, according to its website, issued Lennox a slap-on-the-wrist Initial Penalty of $26,520 following an amputation at the Stuttgart plant. The company appealed the fine and OSHA reduced it to $7,956.

Lennox is one of the many large corporations that have made lucrative profits during the pandemic even as more than 670,000 people have died in the US. Introducing its air filtration system last March, John Whinery, the Vice President of Product for Lennox Industries, released a statement, saying, 'We understand that indoor air quality is a higher priority now more than ever before. While COVID-19 has changed the world around us, it hasn't changed our unwavering commitment to delivering consistently clean, comfortable air to homeowners through our Lennox Healthy Climate and Ultimate Comfort System indoor air quality products.'

The cost of a PureAir and PureAir S air purification system runs a minimum of $850.00 and $1,250.00 respectively, money the primary victims of COVID-19 do not have, let alone workers at Lennoxs manufacturing plants in Arkansas.

This place needs to be shut down, Gina told the WSWS. Peoples lives are at stake. This is unreal, people have never lived through something like this. The politicians are going to do nothing, it is going to take the people to stop this pandemic.

If this dont make you angry, nothing will. Referring to the impact of Hurricane Ida in Louisiana and on the East Coast, she said, Old people dont have lights. Biden went down there, but did he take electricians or airplanes to evacuate people?

Arkansas and these other states are seeing a record number of infections and hospitalizations. My sister works in the school district and on weekends in a children hospital. They have children laying in the hallway on oxygen machines, kids. They wont close the schools down. The kids are coming back and giving it to their parents. They send the kids home with a Zpac of antibiotics, but this virus is no joke. Its trying to kill us.

She concluded, The politicians and the unions wont do what is necessary. It has to [be] done by the working class. We need to get our masks on and get into the streets and shut this down. We need to get nurses and doctors on board to eradicate this.
During the campaign for Canadas Sept. 20 federal election, the pro-Quebec independence Bloc Quebecois (BQ) has once again demonstrated that it is a right-wing party that speaks for a section of the Quebec bourgeoisie. The Blocs anti-worker character has been underscored by its trumpeting of its affinity with Quebecs Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQCoalition for Quebecs Future) government, which promotes an explicitly chauvinist, pro-big business Quebec nationalism.

BQ leader Yves-Francois Blanchet has repeatedly boasted that his party is in convergence with Quebec Premier Francois Legault and his CAQ. Since taking office three years ago, the Legault government has implemented a series of discriminatory measures, including adopting Bills 9 and 21, which in the name of defending Quebec values target religious minorities, particularly Muslims.

BQ leader Yves-Francois Blanchet (Facebook)

The Bloc has placed at the very centre of its election campaign its demand that the other federal parties pledge to give no support of any kind to a court challenge to the constitutionality of Bill 21. This discriminatory law prohibits public sector workers deemed in positions of authority, including tens of thousands of public school teachers, from wearing religious symbols. It prevents anyone from giving or receiving public services with their face covered, a measure explicitly directed against Muslim women. Showing the hypocrisy of Bill 21s supposed promotion of secularism, it includes in the name of defending Quebec's heritage exceptions for Catholic religious symbols and place names.

Blanchet also defends the Quebec government's disastrous response to the pandemic, which has systematically prioritized profits over human lives. The Legault government, with the blessing of Justin Trudeau's federal Liberal government, rushed to reopen nonessential businesses and schools in the spring of 2020, even while the province was reeling from one of the worst COVID-19 death rates per head of population on the planet.

One of the CAQ's key demands is that Quebec be given more control over immigration matters, including full control over family reunification. This has long been a demand of the Quebec sovereignists, such as the Bloc and its provincial sister party, the Parti Quebecois (PQ). The latter imposed brutal austerity measures when in office and turned to unbridled Quebec chauvinism in the 2000s after suffering a hemorrhage in its electoral support, especially in predominantly working class constituencies. Echoing another of the CAQ's chauvinist, anti-immigrant goals, the Bloc has included in its election platform a pledge to introduce legislation to make sufficient knowledge of French a condition for obtaining citizenship from Quebec.

Both the federalist and pro-independence wings of Quebec's ruling class have been active in stoking Quebec chauvinism for more than a decade. This includes the Bloc, the CAQ, the Quebec Liberal Party, the PQ, the big business media (such as the right-wing Journal de Montreal ) and the pseudo-left Quebec Solidaire.

The promotion of national chauvinism is a global phenomenon. Facing growing opposition to deepening social inequality and economic insecurity, the ruling class is turning to the most right-wing elements, including fascistic forces, with the aim of using them to intimidate and repress the working class and divert social anger and frustration along reactionary lines. This is the case in Germany, with the pro-Nazi AfD (Alternative for Germany), in France with Marine Le Pen's National Rally, and in the US, where former President Donald Trump used far-right militias to storm the Capitol and spearhead his January 6 coup attempt.

The fanning of national chauvinism has already had deadly consequences with the Quebec City mosque massacre in January 2017, which left six dead and many injured, as well as last Junes London, Ontario, attack, where four members of the same Muslim family were brutally killed in a hit-and-run.

That said, criticism of Bill 21 by the corporate media and ruling class outside Quebec reeks of hypocrisy and self-interest. Justin Trudeau's Liberal Party, Erin O'Toole's Conservatives, Jagmeet Singh's social democratic NDP, right-wing populist politicians like Doug Ford in Ontario or Jason Kenney in Alberta, and corporate mouthpieces like the Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star all bear enormous responsibility for the rise of chauvinism and Islamophobia.

In the last two decades, all parties in the House of Commons have supported Ottawa's participation in wars of conquest alongside Washington under the guise of the war on terror and human rights. These wars targeted energy and mineral-rich countries in the Middle East and Central Asia such as Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq and Syria. They have caused social devastation and forced millions of people to flee their homelands.

The Bloc and the Quebec nationalists have fully support Ottawa's imperialist crimes. The Bloc has lauded the participation of the Canadian Armed Forces in the neo-colonial Afghan war as a noble cause. It supports the massive hike in military spending being implemented by the federal Liberal government, which will increase the armed forces budget to nearly $33 billion a year by 2026, demanding only that Quebec get its fair share of lucrative military contracts.

The Bloc has repeatedly joined the Conservatives in denouncing Trudeau's supposedly too soft and conciliatory stance on China, even though the Liberal government has fully integrated Canada into Washington's campaign against its strategic rival Beijing. In this spirit, the Bloc recently sponsored an anti-China motion in the House of Commons, based on lurid and patently false claims Beijing is carrying out a genocide against Chinas Uyghur minority. All of this is designed to mobilize the Canadian public behind a confrontational policy whose logic is a catastrophic military confrontation between the world's two leading economic powers, both of them armed with thermonuclear weapons.

The Bloc seeks to disguise its right-wing, anti-worker agenda with a few vague promises of social reforms (increased old age pensions, a special tax on the wealthy) which it has no chance, nor intention, of implementing. Even if these proposals were adopted, they would not begin to solve the immense social crisis caused by bankrupt capitalism.

The fraudulent character of these progressive promises is highlighted by everything that is missing from the Bloc's platform. There is no criticism of the Trudeau government's anti-democratic laws, such as Bill C-59 which gives draconian powers to the intelligence services. Nor is there any mention of the back-to-work laws the Trudeau government, like Harpers before it, has adopted to criminalize and suppress workers' struggles. This is not surprising given that the Bloc's traditional provincial ally, the PQ, passed numerous anti-strike laws when it was in power, and that its new ally, the CAQ, has threatened to implement similar emergency laws against Quebec public sector and construction workers.

The right-wing, anti-worker character of the Bloc Quebecois did not prevent the Quebec union bureaucracy from regularly supporting it in the past. Although none of the union federations has officially endorsed it this time, the Bloc has six candidates from the top echelons of the union apparatus, including Louise Chabot, the former president of the 175,000-member CSQ (Quebec Union Federation). Having long ago repudiated any association with working class struggle and served as a vital instrument for imposing the attacks of big business, the union bureaucracy has supported the government of the right-winger and former airline CEO Legault, including its disastrous response to the pandemic.

As for the Bloc's pro-environment posture, it is centered on hypocritical denunciations of oil exploitation in Western Canada, from which Quebec big business has little to gain. Instead, it seeks to position Quebecs ruling elite to take advantage of lucrative new markets linked to green capitalism with increased hydroelectric production and an industrial cluster project in Quebec for the manufacture of batteries for electric vehicles.

The Bloc's stated goal in this election, as in previous ones, is to hold the balance of power in a minority parliament, which it will use to advance the interests of Quebec, i.e., the Quebec ruling elite.

Depending on the parliamentary arithmetic in the aftermath of next Mondays election, the Bloc could well help bring to power and prop up a minority Conservative government, as Quebec nationalists have done several times in the past and as Legault himself advocated last week. Under the guise of blocking the too centralist Liberals, Quebecs ultra-nationalist wing has no qualms about allying itself with the Conservatives, who are not only Canadas traditional party of the right but also of Anglo-chauvinism.

The Bloc's toxic Quebec identity rhetoric is designed to obscure the fundamental class divisions that run through society and to subordinate Quebec workers to the right-wing agenda of the ruling classtax cuts for the rich, attacks on working conditions, the dismantling of social programs, militarism and the defense of sky-high profits. It is based on the reactionary notion that French-speaking workers have more in common with French-speaking multi-millionaires and billionairessuch as former CEO and current Quebec Premier Francois Legault or media mogul and former PQ leader Pierre Karl Peladeauthan they do with English-speaking or immigrant workers in North America who are facing the same crisis of world capitalism and with whom they are closely united in a global production process.

Quebec workers entering into struggle against the austerity program of the Quebec and Canadian ruling elite must reject all forms of chauvinism and nationalism and join with their powerful allies, in the Canadian and international working class, in a counter-offensive to defend workers jobs and social rights and to fight for socialism. This means firmly rejecting and repudiating the Bloc Quebecois, which is a right-wing party of the ruling class.
The right-wing recall campaign targeting California Governor Gavin Newsom was decisively defeated Tuesday, with about 64 percent of those participating in the election voting no on the recall. The leading Republican candidate in the replacement election, the fascistic talk radio host Larry Elder, conceded just a few hours after the polls closed.

With about two-thirds of all ballots tabulated, just over 9.1 million votes, the no vote was ahead of the yes vote by a margin of 5.8 million to 3.3 million. There was overwhelming opposition to the recall in the populous coastal counties, including Los Angeles and the Bay Area, with the no vote topping 80 percent in Alameda County (Oakland-Berkeley) and San Francisco.

California Governor Gavin Newsom (AP Photo Rich Pedroncelli, File)

The yes vote was ahead only in traditionally Republican counties in the agricultural San Joaquin Valley and the lightly populated rural northeast portion of the state.

The Socialist Equality Partys candidate, David Moore, running in the replacement election on a campaign of mobilizing the working-class to fight for socialism and eliminate COVID-19 transmission, has received so far 20,831 votes, a significant showing for a campaign in which Moore was listed only as an independent and not as a socialist. He won the largest vote among independent candidates except for the Hollywood celebrity Angelyne.

David Moore

The vast majority of those who voted no followed the recommendation of the Democratic Party not to cast a vote for any of the replacement candidates. The effect was that while 9 million voted on the recall, only 5 million voted on the replacements, a vote whose results are moot because the recall was defeated.

Of the 5 million votes cast in the replacement election, 3.4 million votes went to 24 Republicans, with the ultra-right talk-show host Larry Elder winning the lions share, about 2.4 million. About 1.4 million votes were cast for the nine replacement candidates running as Democrats, with real estate investor Kevin Paffrath, who financed his own campaign, winning the largest number, about 500,000.

The margin of defeat for the recall was slightly larger than Newsoms margin of victory in the 2018 gubernatorial election, when he defeated Republican John Cox by 62 percent to 38 percent. However, the no margin may decline somewhat after late returns come in from rural areas and more ballots are counted that were deposited at polling stations on election day, where Republicans were expected to predominate.

While the defeat of the recall is being hailed by the Democratic Party and its media allies, the very fact that the Democratic governor of the largest Democratic-dominated state was under threat is an indication of mass alienation from this capitalist party.

Throughout the summer, opinion polls showed Newsom in some danger, because the vast majority of Democratic voters were indifferent or hostile to his right-wing administration, which has boosted corporate interests and the wealthy against the working class. On the central issue of the coronavirus pandemic, Newsom allowed wealthy businessmen like Elon Musk to do as they pleased in keeping their factories open, while pushing through the reopening of schools under conditions where school children, as well as their teachers and parents, are in deadly danger.

Newsom was only able to regain his position politically by essentially nationalizing the race, taking advantage of the rise of Larry Elder as the likely Republican replacement. Elder embraced Trumps claims of a stolen election in 2020, as well as an entire range of fascistic views, from scrapping all pandemic-related safety measures to outlawing abortion. This allowed Newsom to frame the recall, not as for or against himself, but as for or against Trump, who is widely hated among working people in California.

This argument was backed up by the full mobilization of the national Democratic Party, with visits by Vice President Kamala Harris, senators Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren, and effusive endorsements by Senator Bernie Sanders and former president Barack Obama, culminating in an election-eve appearance by President Biden at a campaign rally in Long Beach.

The impact of this support was reinforced by a tidal wave of campaign cash, perhaps more than $100 million, 10 times what was spent by Elder and the Republicans. Silicon Valley billionaires were the single largest source of campaign funds, including big shareholders of Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Google and Yahoo.

In his victory speech, Newsom said, We said yes to science, yes to vaccines, yes to ending this pandemic. The grim reality is that the Democrats have already decided on a policy of allowing COVID-19 to become endemic through mass infections. Following the Biden administrations lead, Newsom insisted on the resumption of in-person instruction at the end of last school year and the end of lockdown and mask mandates on June 15, leading to the current surge of Delta variant infections.

Now after the end of summer vacation, as children have been returning to the classroom, pediatric hospitalizations have soared and daily deaths from COVID are at the same level as last year before the vaccine was available. By refusing to eliminate COVID transmission the Democrats are preparing the same conditions in California as exist in Texas and Florida.

In order to stifle any left-wing opposition to their homicidal policies, the Democrats demanded as a matter of party discipline that no prominent Democrat run in the replacement election against Newsom. This mandate was obeyed by the Democratic Socialists of America, which operates as a faction of the Democratic Party, as well as other pseudo-left groups like Socialist Alternative, the Party for Socialism and Liberation and Socialist Action.

In opposition to both the right-wing recall and the Democratic Partys refusal to carry out basic public health measures, the Socialist Equality Party ran David Moore, an Oakland public school teacher, as our candidate. Moore actively intervened in the struggles of teachers from Arizona to California in 2018 and 2019, including a strike in his own district, and has a history of defending struggles of workers in mass transit, the oil refineries, and other industries.

The SEP campaign was the only one that presented a socialist program in a fight to eradicate the pandemic and build an independent political movement of the working class. Over the last several months, Moore has issued statements on the medical crisis confronting California, the wildfire disaster, homelessness and other issues, culminating in two online town hall meetings.

As of this writing, Moore is nearing 21,000 votes, 0.4 percent of the total, with 68 percent of precincts reporting. The bulk of Moores votes came in Los Angeles, where he received 0.5 percent of the vote, and in the six counties of the San Francisco Bay Area, where his vote was as high as 0.8 percent in his home county, Alameda (Oakland-Berkeley).

The election results reflect the continued domination of the two main capitalist parties, whose candidates had a near-monopoly of the media attention and captured the bulk of the votealthough as many as 40 percent of registered voters declined to participate in the massively publicized event.

A total of 175,000 votes were cast for third-party and independent candidates in the replacement election. Of these, David Moore received about 12 percent, far more than any other candidate claiming to be socialist, and trailing only the Greens and Libertarians among third-party candidates. The SEP candidate, however, was denied a ballot label identifying him as a socialist, while the Green and Libertarian candidates had party labels on the ballot.

Although the election is over, the class-conscious vote secured by the SEPs campaign is just the start of an intensifying fight to secure safe schools and workplaces by eliminating COVID-19.
The International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) at New York University (NYU) is holding an online public meeting this Saturday, September 18. The meeting will inform students and educators about the science of the pandemic and discuss a political strategy to fight against the reopening of NYU and public schools and colleges across the city. Register here to attend.

New York University, with 27,000 undergraduate students and 25,000 graduate students, opened for classes last week. On Monday, they were joined for in-person classes by million K-12 students who attend school in New York City. Public transit and streets are again bustling with millions of people, despite the pandemic continuing to rage.

As the Delta variant rips across the US, almost every county in the country (93 percent) is designated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as high-risk for community transmission of COVID-19. Increasing numbers of universities and school districts are being severely affected, with tens of thousands of students exposed, thousands in hospitals, and dozens succumbing to the virus, including one student at Texas A&M University confirmed in the last two days.

Christopher St-Sheridan Sq Subway Station in New York City. (Photo by wallyg)

The Socialist Equality Party and the International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) are waging an international campaign to provide the scientific information and organizational means to the working class to put an end to the pandemic, using a full eradication strategy. Students, parents and educators must rally around the demand for fully remote learning, adequate technology and compensation as part of the demand for a halt to non-essential activity in order to stop the pandemic and eradicate COVID-19.

The IYSSE at NYU recently spoke with an NYU senior undergraduate student who was looking to speak out on and oppose the unsafe conditions students are facing in classrooms. We changed the students name to Alex to maintain their anonymity.

Alex had to move from Texas to New York to attend in-person classes, since NYU does not provide a remote option. He said that he had contracted COVID-19 last month. Even though I have been fully vaccinated for months, I contracted COVID, a breakthrough case unfortunately. Ive been grateful that I survived with my life, but at the same time Im still having Long COVID symptoms. I cannot smell anything and my memory has gotten worse. Im very wary of putting myself in another situation where I could contract COVID again.

Alex described the recent conditions he faced in NYU classrooms.

I had my first classes last week and they were just terrible. Entering NYU buildings is a health hazard. Theres no staggered entry or exit.

The first class that I had was in a small lecture room, really like a classroom size, and there was no space in between students. I had to ask the professor if she would create space between each chair. I had to help her bring another table to the table that we already had and move the chairs out of the way so that there was some sort of space in between students. It still was not even three feet between the students, but it was better than shoulder to shoulder.

In my math class, in an auditorium that fits 50-60 people, there were 50-60 people in there. There were only four empty spaces in the entire auditorium. Everywhere else it was packed with students, shoulder to shoulder. I sat down and felt someone cough on my neck.

I personally could not handle it. I started to have a panic attack and had to leave because it reminded me of my experience contracting COVID. All I could think of was the loved ones I had lost to COVID and how the NYU administration is just so unconcerned about student health and more concerned about profit. Alex said he has lost multiple family members from COVID-19, including his grandfather.

The safety measures implemented by the university were woefully inadequate, Alex said.

They claim that there is masking and tell everyone that they have to have their mask on, but they completely disregard social distancing. On top of that, the universitys online COVID Daily Screener test is little more than a joke. You dont even have to answer questions, all you have to do is put in your student login information and it automatically approves you to enter NYU buildings for the day it might as well not even exist.

In terms of the general sentiments of the student body towards reopening, Alex said, I dont think theres been one student that Ive spoken to who has been in favor of in-person classes.

At the start of the semester last week, NYU President Alexander Hamilton sent an email to the NYU community centered around the motto, Keep each other safe. Asked how it is possible to keep each other safe under conditions of a full reopening at NYU, Alex responded, You know, to me, it's like the owner of a slaughterhouse telling the cows, Oh, stick together, as they are pushed through the slaughterhouse.

It is just completely asinine and completely disrespectful and disingenuous for upper management to act as if NYU is not actively putting students in harms way. They are giving us no option, and are not even flexible on allowing students to go virtual. Every professor Ive spoken to has said, In-person is mandatory. In some classes, quizzes and tests have been switched to paper only. So, if you are not in class, you are out of luck. If you are not in person, you are not able to take the quizzes and tests that are a huge part of your grade.

Alex feels that NYU is preparing to blame students for outbreaks, rather than preventing outbreaks.

They are completely disregarding asymptomatic COVID transmission. People could, unknowingly, be spreading the virus, but there is no mandatory testing to expose this. Even the little testing that they do is only a small percentage of the total student population. This failure rests on the universitys shoulders, but also the government. The fact that universities are even allowed to open up fully in-person is a policy failure.

Alex is strongly in favor of taking action against the unsafe reopening at NYU: If we do not take action ourselves as the collective [of] students, no one will. The university does not have our interests at heart, other than how much money we are bringing in, how much we are filling their coffers.

He continued, stating that NYU benefit[s] tremendously with the introduction of students into the dorms The main motivation [for in-person reopening] is clearly financial. It is clear that they are making hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars off of students this semester.

Alex also commented on the broader drive to fully reopen colleges and schools across the US. At the University of Michigan, where a friend of his is enrolled, Alex said that on the Ann Arbor campus, cases doubled from 73 to over 174 in just a week from August 22 to the 29th. These schools all do not have students health in mind when it comes to COVID.

Its terrible. In Washington D.C. alone, nearly 1,000 public school students and teachers are quarantined currently. The schools have only been open for a week of in-person classes. So, things are going to get worse if this continues. Teachers are going to die, students are going to die because of public policy, a lack of leadership, and just our government in general.

I hope that students, parents, and teachers can join together and really put a stop to it. The numbers are bad and they are not going to improve without immediate action being taken.

It is clear that the reason for the push for opening up all in-person is for purely economic interests. The ruling class is really trying to push people back into an in-person world. They are looking at it from a purely financial standpoint, which is regardless of how many people die, we need to make sure that our investments are being put to good use. We have to stand together to push back.
The Pentagon has announced that a program that was started last January that placed the management of millions of dormant Internet addresses under the direction of a small private cybersecurity company has been ended.

The September 7 announcement said the Pentagon was resuming control of the 175 million Internet Protocol (IP) addresses that it had handed over to a little-known company just minutes before Joe Biden was sworn in as president on January 20.

The Pentagon (Photo by Touch Of Light)

First noticed primarily by network administrators and IT professionals, the announcement said the 6 percent of the Internet, known as IPv4, was no longer being managed by Global Resource Systems (GRS).

IPv4 is the fourth version of the Internet Protocol that was established in the early 1980s and, while the bulk of the IPv4 addresses have been unused for decades, it is still used to route most traffic on the Internet today.

On Friday, Russell Goemaere, a spokesperson for the US Department of Defense (DoD), told the Washington Post that the temporary transfer of the IPv4 addresses was part of a pilot cybersecurity program designed to detect vulnerabilities and prevent unauthorized use of DoD IP address space.

While he did not share details of the claimed cybersecurity threats, Goemaere told the Post that an elite Pentagon unit known as the Defense Digital Service (DDS), which reports directly to Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin, had launched and run the pilot program.

Regarding the timing of the program on the eve of Bidens inauguration, Goemaere said, The decision to launch and the scheduling of the DDS pilot effort was agnostic of administration change. The effort was planned and initiated in the Fall of 2020. It was launched in mid-January 2021 when the required infrastructure was in place. Given the opportunity, maintaining low visibility was also desirable in order to observe traffic in its current state, allowing us to identify potential vulnerabilities and assess and mitigate potential cyber threats.

The DoD published a profile of the special DDS unit last October that described the group as a SWAT team of nerds made up of 82 engineers, data scientists and computer scientists who are working on some of the hardest problems in the Defense Department.

In January when the IPv4 addresses were turned over to GRS, the director of DDS Brett Goldstein issued a statement saying that the pilot will assess, evaluate and prevent unauthorized use of DoD IP address space. However, Pentagon representatives refused to answer any questions about the involvement of GRS with their own internal resources.

According to Doug Madory, Director of Internet Analysis at Kentik, a network monitoring firm, the decision to turn over the massive number of IP addresses to GRS was unprecedented. They are now announcing more address space than anything ever in the history of the Internet, he told the Post. Madory added that once GRS had been awarded the program, a fire hose of Internet traffic was directed toward the Defense Department addresses.

Madory said that this would make it possible for the Pentagon to reroute information flowing across the Internet into military networks for examination and analysis. On Friday, Madory told the Post, There are a lot of networks that inadvertently leak out vulnerabilities. Im sure theyve been scooping that noise up for the past few months.

Finally, Madory said that his analysis of the traffic flowing through the IPv4 addresses that were under the control of GRS for the past seven months are still leading to the same location, a computer router in Ashburn, Virginia, a major hub of Internet connections for government agencies and private companies.

A Google search of Global Resource Systems and GRS yields a business directory listing for the company that says the firm was founded on March 22, 2006 with a head office located in Chicago and a mailing address in Plantation, Florida. A branch of the company was then founded on October 13, 2020 with an office at the same address in Plantation.

The GRS website says the company is located in Fairfax, Virginia and is, at the forefront of providing operational, strategic, and technical security and intelligence support and solutions throughout the Federal government. GRS maintains deep domain knowledge and strong past performance in the areas of Intelligence Analysis and Operations, Cybersecurity, Security Solutions, Information Technology, Technical and Management Training and Strategic Consulting.
New revelations emerged Tuesday of the extraordinary steps taken by Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to counter efforts by then-President Donald Trump to instigate a war with Chinaand possibly launch a nuclear strikeas part of his efforts to overturn his election defeat and remain in power.

The New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN and other news sources published accounts of the conflict within the state apparatus based on a new book by Post reporters Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, Peril, which is slated to be released to the public next Tuesday.

Donald Trump at NYPD's 17th police precinct in New York, September 11, 2021. (AP Photo/Jill Colvin)

According to the accounts, US intelligence concluded in the final months of Trumps term that the Chinese military considered an American military strike to be likely under conditions where Trump was refusing to commit to a peaceful transfer of power. Milley, the authors of Peril write, felt no absolute certainty that the military could control or trust Trump and believed it was his job as the senior military officer to think the unthinkable and take any and all necessary precautions.

On October 30, just days before Election Day, Milley told his Chinese counterpart, Gen. Li Zuocheng, commander of the Peoples Liberation Army, that the US would not carry out a military strike against China. General Li, I want to assure you that the American government is stable and everything is going to be okay, Milley told him. We are not going to attack or conduct any kinetic operations against you.

But Trumps refusal to concede defeat after the election intensified both fears in China and the internal crisis and conflict within the American state. CIA Director Gina Haspel warned Milley, according to the new book, We are on our way to a right-wing coup.

On January 8, two days after the fascist storming of the US Capitol aimed at blocking congressional certification of the electoral vote, Milley spoke again in secret with his Chinese counterpart to reassure him that the United States was stable and would not attack China. He even told Gen. Li Zuocheng that should he prove unable to prevent Trump from launching a military strike, he would give the PLA commander advance notice of the impending attack.

That same day, Milley, who, as the presidents chief military adviser, is not formally in the military chain of command, called an extraordinary and secret meeting in his Pentagon office of the senior officials in charge of the National Military Command Center and instructed them to take no orders from anyoneincluding the presidentunless he was involved. The meeting, according to the Times, was intended to remind the commanders that the procedures for launching a nuclear weapon called for his involvement in such a decision.

CNN cites the following account of the meeting:

No matter what you are told, you do the procedure. You do the process. And Im part of that procedure, Milley told the officers, according to the book. He then went around the room, looked each officer in the eye, and asked them to verbally confirm they understood. Got it? Milley asked, according to the book. Yes, sir. Milley considered it an oath, the authors write.

Books released earlier this year have documented Milleys references to the run-up to the January 6 coup as Trumps Reichstag moment. The new book provides further information, including on the central role of Trumps former adviser, Steve Bannon.

According to Woodward and Costa, it was Bannon who urged Trump to return to the White House to prepare for the events of January 6. Youve got to return to Washington and make a dramatic return today, Bannon argued in a quote cited by CNN, calling January 6 the moment of reckoning. He added, Were going to bury Biden on January 6th, fucking bury him.

These new revelations shatter all attempts to downplay the significance of the events of January 6. That Trump and his fellow coup plotters inside and outside the Republican Party have never been charged with a crime, let alone arrested, is a testament to the cowardice and duplicity of the Democratic Party. Virtually none of the revelations in the new book had been revealed in the nine months since January 6 and the numerous hearings held by Democratic-controlled committees.

The House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the US Capitol, whose members were chosen by Pelosi, has held only one public hearing, at which no government officials were called to testify. Its lethargy is palpable. If one goes onto its website and clicks on committee activity, one sees There are no upcoming hearings.

Rather than alert the public as the coup was unfolding, the Democrats did everything they could to keep the crisis contained to the state and military apparatus. That opposition to Trumps coup plotting was to be left entirely in the hands of the military, the guys with the guns, as Milley put it, testifies to the extreme crisis of American democracy.

Since Bidens inauguration, the theme of the Democratic Party has been unity and bipartisanship. This has created the conditions for Trump to strengthen his position as the de facto head of the Republican Party as he prepares to run for president again in 2024.

Over the weekend, Trump used the 9/11 anniversary to deliver fascist rants to police and firefighters in Manhattan. Trump copied Hitlers stab-in-the-back narrative and applied it to the Biden administrations withdrawal from Afghanistan. He combined it with the lie of the stolen election, which has been embraced by virtually the entire Republican Party, and called for the removal of all restraints on police violence and for stepped-up attacks on opposition to austerity, war, inequality and the homicidal back-to-school and back-to-work policies of the entire ruling class.

Railing about Antifa running down the streets and burning down your buildings, Trump in effect called for a police state.

Trump supporters, militia groups and former Trump aides have called a rally in Washington D.C. for September 18 titled Justice for J6, calling for the release of the political prisoners imprisoned for their roles in the storming of the Capitol. The US Capitol Police announced Monday it is planning for possible armed violence and will re-erect a seven-foot security fence around the Capitol grounds.

Meanwhile, the Democrats continue to plead for unity with Trumps Republican co-conspirators. This was on full display at the official ceremonies to mark the 20th anniversary of 9/11 held on Saturday.

George W. Bush, who presided over the launching of the war on terror and the complete break with both US and international law it entailed, was given pride of place to deliver the main address at the commemoration in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. He was flanked by his vice president, Dick Cheney, and the current vice president, Kamala Harris, who hailed the response to 9/11 as proof that unity is possible in America. The same theme was invoked by Biden, who declared in a taped video statement, Unity is our greatest strength.

By unity, the Democrats and sections of the Republican Party mean the unity of the ruling class as it confronts the massive growth of social opposition produced by the pandemic, which has claimed the lives of more than 670,000 people in the US alone. It means the perpetuation and acceleration of the underlying tendencies that produced Trump and raise before workers in the US and internationally the threat of fascism and dictatorship.
On Saturday, between 30,000 and 40,000 doctors, nurses, caregivers, pharmacists, physiotherapists, hospital technicians, paramedics and many other professional groups from all over Poland protested in front of the Ministry of Health and the Polish Sejm, the parliament, in Warsaw for higher wages and better working conditions. The protests, which were held under the slogan Biae miasteczko 2.0 (White City 2.0), continued on Sunday.

Demonstrators carried banners with slogans such as Take it [the money] from the politicians and give it to the health workers!, The pandemic of the shortage of nurses and midwives has been going on for many years, Welcome to the hospital, we are closing soon, The patients are victims of the system, The system is finished, We want to [be able to] provide care in Poland, We die 20 years earlier than other Poles and We demand decent wages.

Caption: Protesting care workers in Poland

The demonstrators also held a minutes silence for the over 500 health care workers who have died in the pandemic from the coronavirus. Quite rightly, they blamed the miserable working conditions and the lack of personal protective equipment for the many who have died.

The Polish health care workers are demanding an increase in pay to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) standard. In many cases this is tantamount to multiplying their salaries, because a large proportion of health care workers often earn only a few thousand zoty a month. For example, nurses earn on average of 3,000 zoty net per month, which is about US$780; paramedics and laboratory diagnosticians earn even less on average.

Their demands also include an increase in health care spending from the current 6 to 8 percent of the gross domestic product; an alignment of the number of employees in the health care system with the average OECD level, especially taking into account the fact that many employees of the Polish health care system are elderly; more and better medical services from state funds; and a qualitative increase in medical, nursing and therapeutic care, as well as access to modern forms of laboratory and imaging diagnostics.

The protest has met with widespread support on social media. A dentist posted on Twitter: Too many medical professions are undervalued. Its time to change that! As for dentists, we must stop being pushed into the private sector. Adequate dental care is needed by ALL, not just those with fat wallets. A patient also said on Twitter that she supported the protest because everyone in health care deserves decent pay and good working conditions.

While the mass protests in Poland have been largely hushed up in the international and especially the German press, just 250 kilometres away in Berlin, over 2,000 Charite and Vivantes hospital workers have been on strike since Thursday. They are facing problems similar to those of their Polish colleagues.

The protests come amid the developing new wave of the pandemic, driven by the highly contagious Delta variant and the full reopening of schools and workplaces across Europe and the US. Case numbers are also rising dramatically again in Poland. There were 530 new cases on Saturday and 476 on Sunday; case numbers have been rising by 40 percent each week. So far, only a little over 50 percent of the population has been fully vaccinated.

Poland, like all of Eastern Europe, has been hit particularly hard by the pandemic, mainly because of the disastrous consequences of the restoration of capitalism. Although its population of just under 40 million is half that of Germany, Poland has confirmed almost 3 million cases of the coronavirus, compared to around 4 million in Germany. Given the massive lack of testing, even this is a clear underestimate of the true case numbers. The death rate is 198.6 per 100,000 population, almost as high as in the UK and the US (around 201 per 100,000).

The miserable conditions in the health care system are a major reason for the high death rate. The already massively understaffed and underpaid medical staff are confronted with mass infections, especially in working-class regions like Silesia. At the same time, entire towns did not have a single respirator. While the EU average is 10 nurses per 100,000 residents, Poland has only 5. Only in Romania and Bulgaria are the averages worse. According to trade union representatives who spoke at the demonstration on Saturday, 270 hospitals should actually be closed due to acute staff shortages.

The scale of the protests speaks volumes about the explosive mood among workers. The paramedics had been protesting since June against the miserable minimum wage of around 900 euros, among other things, with sickouts. About half of all paramedics in the country took part in the protests, so that the number of available ambulances dropped by 25 percent at times.

The government reform passed on July 1 was the famous last straw that broke the camels back. The reform provides for massive salary cuts and a postponement of the previously announced increase in total health care expenditure to 7 percent of the gross domestic product. In Poland, health expenditure is centrally controlled and allocated by the state through the National Health Fund. Originally, the government claimed to reach this level in 2024 but has now postponed the deadline to 2027. With its current 5.4 percent, Poland is one of the worst performers in comparison with other OECD industrialised countries (9 percent), as well as within the EU (10 percent).

The PiS (right-wing Law and Justice Party) government has taken a highly provocative stance towards the workers. Negotiations between the unions and Health Minister Adam Niedzielski broke down after the ministry rejected the demands as theatrical and refused to allow Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki to participate.

According to PiS calculations, the demands required additional spending of over 100 billion zoty (about 22 billion euros), almost double the previous budget of about 120 billion. Instead of brusquely rejecting the old lie that there is not enough money, the committees spokespersons demanded more precise information about the basis of the calculations, because only then, they explained, would there be a basis for talks.

The umbrella organisation of the medical unions, the Trade Union Forum (FZZ), warned after the failure of the negotiations on Friday of an escalation of the social conflict, a deepening of serious personnel problems and ultimately to a total breakdown of the entire system. In line with the national protest committee, FZZ is now calling for direct talks with the prime minister and the handing over of negotiations to the Rada Dialogu Spoecznego (Social Dialogue Council), a permanent corporatist body made up of representatives of the government, employers associations and trade unions.

In order to control the growing anger among workers, at the beginning of August six trade unions, together with the supreme medical association, the family doctors association Porozumienie Zielonogorskie and four other medical professional associations, formed a national protest and strike committee.

In the face of growing militancy and anger among workers, the right-wing PiS government, which is deeply hated by large sections of the population and has recently plummeted to 26 percent in opinion polls, finds its main support in the trade unions. The National Protest and Strike Committee has already made it clear that it wants to end the protests as soon as possible and return to the negotiating table despite PiSs continued provocative stance. On Tuesday, the specially appointed deputy health minister wanted to meet with the protest committee. However, the meeting did not materialize in the end. The prime minister explicitly refused to meet with the committee.

Most of the trade unions are closely allied with the liberal opposition party (PO), whose representatives feigned support for the protests on social media. In reality, all capitalist parties in Poland are responsible for the current health care disaster, which is a direct result of the restoration of capitalism 30 years ago and decades of cutbacks. Whatever the tactical differences between the PO and the PiS, both speak for the interests of the Polish bourgeoisie and upper middle classes, who fear nothing more than a working-class movement in Poland and across Europe.

The struggle for better conditions in the health care sector cannot be waged within the framework of the trade unions and the established bourgeois parties. Workers need new independent organizations to link their struggles internationally and assert their interests against the bourgeoisie. The International Committee of the Fourth International supports the building of an international alliance of action committees that are independent of the trade unions and under the direct control of workers. Workers in Poland who want to take the initiative themselves in building such committees should contact us today.
Food manufacturers are calling on the UK government to allow them to exploit prison labour.

The British Meat Processors Association and the Association of Independent Meat Suppliers (AIMS) are reported to have approached prisons directly and to have spoken to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to discuss the recruitment of current prisoners and ex-offenders. But other sectors, from hospitality to care homes, are said to be considering the move.

Tony Goodger for AIMS said, Much of the food industry is facing a recruitment crisis, with 14,000 job vacancies in the meat business. The British Poultry Council reports a vacancy rate of more than 16 percent, approximately 7,000 jobs.

Leyhill prison in Gloucestershire, England (Credit: Creative Commons)

Goodger said he had contacted HMP (Her Majesty's Prison) Hollesley Bay in Suffolk in August but was told the demand for inmates was so great that it had reached its quota. Usually, those available for work are in open prisons and coming to the end of their sentence who are released on temporary licence (ROTL), of which there are just 3,000 in England and Wales.

Moves to employ inmates are being presented as part of a new rehabilitative approach, with the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) stating, Helping prisoners find jobs during their sentence and after release makes it much less likely they will reoffend. We will support all industries with skills shortages where possible.

Penal servitude was abolished in 1948 in England and Wales (1950 in Scotland and 1953 in Northern Ireland). For almost 200 years up until then, the transportation of convicts to the colonies was a feature of the consolidation of Britains Empire. Imprisonment with hard labour included the treadmill, the most famous victim of which was Irish novelist and playwright Oscar Wilde.

Any gains from its abolition were rapidly lost. Prisoners are meant to engage in purposeful activity, although not necessarily paid labour. Those on work programmes earn a minimum weekly wage of 4. But years of law and order policies, combined with massive cuts to public services, means England and Wales have the largest prison population in Western Europe, at almost 79,000 in November 2020173 prisoners per 100,000 of the population. Rehabilitative measures have largely been jettisoned, with most prisoners confined to their cells for much of the day.

Until now, the UK has not emulated the United States, where convict labour is a multi-billion-dollar industry. Direct employment of inmates is relatively small scale, from the Turkey producer Bernard Matthews to the Timpson Group. But more recently inmates at HMP Leyhill, Gloucestershire have been employed on minimum wage to build eco-homes for Torbay Council, with their wages placed into a fund overseen by the prison governor, and which can only be accessed for housing.

Frances Crook, Chief Executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, wrote in the Guardian that many prisoners would jump at the chance to get out of their cells and do something useful, and urged, Let firms set up shop inside prisons, as I have done, but inmates get the same wages and employment rights as anyone else.

There is no chance of that. Crook notes that a commercial graphic design studio set up by the Howard League at Coldingley prison, Surrey ran successfully for years until the prison authorities realised that, because they paid income tax, the prisoners had employment rights.

The MoJ said prisoners hired by meat companies would get paid, unless unpaid work was part of their sentence and that wages would vary according to which businesses inmates work for but would probably be less than what an ordinary member of the public would earn.

This is the real impulse for a return to penal servitude, especially under conditions of a significant labour shortage. Virtually all sectors are impacted. Most attention has focussed on the lack of HGV drivers, a shortage upwards of 90,000, which is blamed for emptying supermarket shelves. But from hospitality to health and social care, it is a growing complaint.

The source of the shortages is manifold. Britains exit from the European Union, on December 31, 2020, has seen an estimated one million non-UK born residents leave the country, 700,000 in London alone.

The pro-Brexit campaign centred on claims that the UK would be able to take back control of its borders and clampdown on EU migration. EU citizens already employed on that date were able to continue living and working in the UK, provided they registered, but anyone coming to work afterwards requires a visa.

The Brexit deadline came only weeks before the world was notified of the deadly COVID-19 global pandemic. Boris Johnsons Conservative government, like many the world over, first tried to ignore and then play down the dangers. It openly proclaimed a policy of herd immunity, allowing the virus to spread through the population.

In the face of wildcat strikes and protests, it was forced into a lock down at the end of March 2020, but only after it had organised a 330 billion bailout of the corporations and super-rich and 895 billion in quantitative easingmoney printingalmost equal to that over the 11 years following the financial crash in 2008.

In October Prime Minister Boris Johnson declared let the bodies pile up in their thousands. No more f**cking lockdowns and has been true to his word. With the support of the Labour Party and the Trades Union Congress, all mitigation measures have been abandoned. This centres on keeping schools open despite the known dangers in order to force parents into unsafe workplaces and recoup profits.

The result is a health and social catastrophe. More than 7.2 million people in the UK have been infected, and more than 159,000 people have died. Between November 2020 and February 2021 COVID-19 was the leading cause of death in both England and Wales.

Details of the ages and occupations of those who have died are barely counted, According to government figures, almost 8,000 working age adults died from COVID between March 9 and December 28. Those most at risk were men in elementary and service jobs, and women in factories and caring occupations. Cases among young and working adults are now rising exponentially.

The numbers stricken with ongoing health complications are unknown. This includes not only Long COVID but thousands unable to access treatment for cancer, cardiology and other critical care due to the severe strains on the National Health Service, which has a 5.45 million people on its waiting list. The number of deaths from all causes was 12.1 percent above the five-year average in the week ending August 27, 2021.

The virus has impacted most on the most exploited and socially vulnerable. Not for nothing has COVID-19 been deemed a disease of the poor.

For almost four decades, the ruling elite, whether represented by the Tories or Labour, have carried out a social counter-revolution against the gains and conditions of the working class. Years of deindustrialisation and cheap labour jobs, reinforced by austerity, meant that even before the pandemic wages over the preceding 17 years had been fallingthe longest period since the beginning of the 19th century. More than half of those below the official poverty line come from working families, as wage cuts and freezes have been policed by the trade unions.

Those celebrated as essential workers during the pandemic are especially exploited. HGV drivers worked long hours for a median hourly pay of 11.80, with the result that average age of drivers is 55. Wages in the food processing plants average 8.91.

Individual firms in certain sectors have sought to resolve their immediate problem by offering golden handshakes and a slight increases in wages. Even so, starting salaries are estimated to have increased by just 3.5 percent on average, following a 1.5 percent fall in the year to June 2020.

Solving the shortage through real improvements in overall wages and conditions is off the agenda as far as the financial oligarchy is concerned. The government has already imposed a freeze on public sector wages. At the end of this month, it will withdraw furlough support to almost 1.8 million workers and six million people on Universal Credit are to lose the 20 per week pandemic top-up. Together with limiting increases to pensions to just 2.5 percent and a 10 percent hike in National Insurance Contributions, these measures are aimed at making the working class pay the costs of the pandemic crisis.

The primary instrument enabling the imposition of these attacks is the trade unions. Speaking to the annual Trades Union Congress conference this week, General Secretary Frances OGrady called on the government to Invite unions in with employers. Get us around the table, and lets make that industry deliver decent conditions, direct employment and a proper pay rise.

Her example of a proper pay rise? 10 per hour for social care workers, approximately 50 pence per hour above the current average rate, and below the Living Wage.
Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker has deployed 250 National Guard troops to transport students in the state as school districts across the country scramble to deal with a nationwide shortage of school bus drivers brought on by the pandemic. The action by the Republican governor takes place as the Biden administration and politicians from both parties risk the lives of millions of students and school employees by opening schools across the US amid the surge of COVID-19 infections and deaths.

Baker said 90 soldiers would begin training Tuesday to transport students in the Chelsea, Lawrence, Lowell and Lynn school systems. Military transport vans known as 7D vehicles, which have a maximum of 11 seats including the driver, will be used to drive a token number of special needs students back and forth from school. A bus monitor will be aboard each vehicle.

Louisiana Air National Guard conducts bus driving training in New Orleans, June 6, 2020. (Photo Credit: Senior Airman Dane St.Pe)

Baker told reporters that if more qualified drivers could not be found, well try to serve as many communities as we can. He said the state would be reimbursed by the federal government and added, Obviously the goal here is to try to make sure if we have vehicles, we put people on them who are qualified to drive them and do what we can to make sure kids can get to school.

Boston Public Schools uses the private operator Transdev to transport 25,000 students each day, about half the districts students. The driver shortage and last-minute routing changes have resulted in many delays since the district opened last Sunday. So far, officials in the Democratic Party-run city have not taken up Bakers offer for military assistance.

Last week, the National Association for Pupil Transportation released the results of a national survey, which found that over half of the school transportation officials who responded were experiencing severe or desperate bus driver shortages, and nearly two-thirds stated that the driver shortage is currently their number one challenge. Even the few districts that said they were not short of regular drivers said they did not have enough drivers to address COVID-19 quarantines and the wave of retirements.

Minnesota is facing a devastating school bus crisis, school officials said, while Ryan Dellinger, executive director of the Pennsylvania School Bus Association, estimates there are about 1,000 unfilled bus driver jobs across the state.

An estimated 200 school bus drivers have died during the pandemic, including dozens since the reopenings started in August. In Chicago, officials have given money to parents to hire Uber drivers, and in Iowa, teachers and staff are being asked to get licenses to drive school buses.

School bus drivers, many of whom are older and have underlying health conditions, are retiring in droves. But the shortage predates the pandemic and was driven by decades of bipartisan budget cutting, school bus privatization and mass layoffs, which gutted the jobs, pay and medical and retirement benefits of bus drivers. Now districts are offering a meager pay bump and signing bonuses to lure retired drivers back. However, older workers with underlying conditions and prospective new hires do not want to risk their lives or bring home the disease to their loved ones.

Were afraid, Mary, a retired school bus driver in Detroit who has received several job offers, told the World Socialist Web Site. Kids have a better immune system than older drivers but if they get sick, were going to get COVID immediately. Youre asking a bus driver and an aide to risk their lives. Thats why most of the drivers are quitting. New drivers are quitting after working a week or two because they are getting sick or being quarantined.

Its unreal that they are bringing in the army. Its criminal to open the schools. People are losing their lives so the rich can get richer. How many bus drivers and teachers have to die? So many have already died in Florida, Tennessee, Indiana and other states. They get the virus and in a couple of days, theyre dead. This is very scary. I feel sorry for the parents, but if I had a young kid, I would not be sending them to school.

Mary said Detroit was offering $18 an hour and the suburbs about $20, plus a $1,000 to $3,000 bonus after 90 days. But drivers only get paid for five or six hours of work a day. Thats about $100 before taxes, Mary said, and most people are saying thats not enough to get COVID and take a chance on your life.

Mary said school bus drivers have always been essential. When I drove, I went into homes to help kids get out of bed, I gave them food when they didnt have breakfast and gave them money for lunch. But we were treated like garbage by the school officials. We had to have a wildcat strike just to get the money we were owed. We had to fight them to get the asbestos out of the bus yard. After all the diesel fumes we breathed, almost every one of my friends died from cancer. Then the district privatized the buses and robbed new workers of their pensions. Now theyre begging for drivers, along with janitors and cafeteria workers, and bringing in the army because we are just as essential as nurses, doctors and other frontline workers.

The opening of schools, which culminated in the return of more than a million students in New York City on Monday, has led to a disaster. Although many state and district officials are deliberately concealing details about outbreaks, more children have been infected in the opening weeks for some schools than all of last year, and nearly 1,700 schools have been temporarily closed, according to data from Burbio.

In South Carolina, more than 4,000 students and 400 staff have contracted the coronavirus since the start of the academic year, with one school in Beaufort County shifting to remote learning until September 2 because half of its students are in quarantine. At least two children in the state have died from COVID-19 this month.

In Kentucky, custodian Bill Bailey died Sunday and instructional assistant Heather Antle died in August. The state, where 20 percent of the schools have been forced to close temporarily due to outbreaks, reported 5,252 new cases last week, including 1,602 new cases among people 18 years and younger.

In Tennessee, at least eight public school employees, including five teachers, one pre-K assistant, a cafeteria worker and a school bus driver, have died from COVID-19 since the beginning of the year.

In West Virginia, there have been 86 outbreaks and two county closures since the reopening of schools.

In Florida, ten children under the age of 16 have died since July 30. Meanwhile, Governor Ron DeSantis continues to oppose mask mandates in individual districts by withholding school board members salaries in districts that require students to wear masks.

The reopening of schools for 50 million students, including some 30 million below the age of 12 who are not eligible for vaccinations, is leading to a spike in infections among children, who now make up 28.9 percent of all COVID-19 cases.

On Monday, the American Academy of Pediatrics reported that there were over 243,000 new child cases last week, the second highest number since the pandemic began. After declining in early summer, child cases have increased exponentially, with nearly 500,000 cases in the past two weeks and nearly a million since the beginning of August, although this does not count several states that do not break down cases by age.

Opposition to this murderous policy is growing, including among parents who are not directly under the thumb of the American Federation of Teachers and National Education Association, which have fully backed Bidens back-to-school policy. In recent days, there have been protests in Chicago, New York City, Knox County, Tennessee and Hawaii, including against deliberate efforts by school officials to conceal outbreaks. In Georgia, dozens of school bus drivers in the Savannah-Chatham County Public School System have engaged in rolling sickouts and protests over wages and the lack of adequate COVID-19 protections. In Allentown, Pennsylvania, teachers rejected by a five-to-one margin a contract proposed by a mediator that would have sharply increased out-of-pocket health care costs.

In their rush to get children into schools so their parents can be sent back into workplaces to produce corporate profit, the Biden administration and politicians from both parties have ignored the warnings of epidemiologists and public health officials. Pointing to the predominance of the more infectious Delta variant, Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota and a member of Bidens COVID-19 transition team, said, The current guidance is not based on scientific reality. Weve seen such a dramatic change in transmission Theres no such thing as a safe school today with COVID.

The shutdown of public schools, along with nonessential workplaces, is critical to a public health strategy to finally eradicate COVID-19. But this is completely opposed by both big-business parties and the corporatist trade unions, which want to continue the horrific sacrifice of human life to corporate profit. That is why educators, parents and all workers must expand the national and international network of rank-and-file committees in every school district to mobilize the working class to shut schools and reallocate societys resources from the super-rich for high-quality remote learning, student and parent support and other critical needs until the pandemic is eliminated.
The International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) at New York University (NYU) is holding an online public meeting this Saturday, September 18. The meeting will inform students and educators about the science of the pandemic and discuss a political strategy to fight against the reopening of NYU and public schools and colleges across the city. Register here to attend.

New York University (Credit: Flickr.com, Lars Kiesow)

A little over a week after the full reopening of NYU and other colleges in New York City, a growing number of students and faculty are disturbed by the conditions they are facing with in-person instruction at the largest private university in the country amid the latest surge of the COVID-19 pandemic.

One NYU senior described his experience to the IYSSE, In my math class, in an auditorium that fits 50-60 people, there were 50-60 people in there. There were only four empty spaces in the entire auditorium. Everywhere else it was packed with students, shoulder to shoulder. I sat down and felt someone cough on my neck.

I started to have a panic attack and had to leave because it reminded me of my experience contracting COVID. All I could think of was the loved ones I had lost to COVID and how the NYU administration is just so unconcerned about student health and more concerned about profit. He added, I dont think theres been one student that Ive spoken to who has been in favor of in-person classes.

NYUs decision to herd more than 60,000 students, faculty, staff and workers back into classrooms and onto campus is nothing less than criminal! Amidst an ever-intensifying surge of the highly infectious and deadly Delta variant of COVID-19 and Mondays reopening of K-12 schools throughout New York City, the largest school district in the country, NYUs reopening will contribute to a dramatic rise in infections and deaths in the city and more broadly.

The university administrations safe reopening plan has no grounding in science. It relies entirely on vaccinations and an indoor mask mandate, measures that leading epidemiologists and scientists have stressed are insufficient to stop the spread of the virus. Enforcement of social distancing measures inside and outside of NYU buildings has been abandoned and the mandatory testing program for the vast majority of students and staff has been eliminated. NYU has not established a program for the public to easily track new COVID cases, and the administration has announced to faculty that it will not inform them if students in their class have tested positive.

Conditions in classrooms are optimal for the spread of the virus. Classes are being held at full capacity, with dozens of students sitting close together for lectures, seminars, recitations, and labs that run at least 75 minutes in duration. Conditions outside of the classrooms are not much better. Students who commute to NYUs campus, the majority of the student population, are faced with packed subways, buses, and city streets, which are Petri dishes for the virus. This also means that anyone who contracts the virus at or outside of NYUs buildings can spread it to dozens of other students and workers in the community and across the city.

Even before students returned to campus, transmission rates in the neighborhoods in downtown Manhattan, where NYUs main Washington Square campus is located, were higher than the city-wide and Manhattan 7-day average of new COVID-19 cases. The highly overcrowded neighborhoods are the refuge of countless homeless people, many of whom have just been recently kicked out of hotels by NYCs Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio. They are at particular risk of suffering the deadly repercussions of outbreaks among the NYU student and faculty body.

Opposition to the reopening among students and faculty is growing. But this opposition needs to be based on a scientific understanding of the pandemic and a political orientation to the international working class. At stake are not just the lives of students, staff and faculty at NYU. Students and faculty at NYU must take a stand for the life and rights of the working class as a whole!

The virus does not negotiate. The fight to save lives and end the pandemic requires the implementation of the scientifically-guided strategy of eradication. Experiences in countries such as China and New Zealand and studies by epidemiologists have shown that the virus can be eradicated in a matter of weeks. But this requires far-reaching social and political measures that must be coordinated on a global scale. Mass vaccination and mask mandates must be combined with social distancing, mass testing and contact tracing, and the shutdown of all schools and non-essential businesses. A major campaign of public education on the science of the pandemic must be conducted and enormous financial resources have to be provided to guarantee full income for all workers affected by lockdowns.

Over the past year and a half, the capitalist ruling class and both of its parties  the Democrats and the Republicans  have made it abundantly clear that they will do nothing to end the pandemic.

Following in the tracks of the Trump administration, the Biden administration is now spearheading the reopening of schools and businesses. In New York, the Democratic Party has overseen from the beginning the criminal response of the ruling class to the pandemic, which has resulted in over 54,000 deaths, one of the highest death rates in the country.

The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), a faction in the Democratic Party, is providing a left cover for this homicidal policy. The true class orientation of the DSA was on full display recently when Democratic Representative and DSA member Alexandria Occasio-Cortez, in a revolting publicity stunt, lured students back into school by handing out backpacks to the children of impoverished working class families in the Bronx.

These same social and political forces dominate the NYU administration and determine all of its decisions. Its Board of Trustees is packed with multi-millionaires and billionaires, Wall Street figures, and functionaries of the Democratic Party. The university also maintains close ties to the US military-intelligence apparatus.

In order to carry forward their struggle, students and staff must turn out to teachers, parents, and workers in NYC. We propose the following demands to save lives across the city and put an end to the deadly pandemic:

1. Full transition to remote learning! It will not be safe to reopen schools and colleges until transmission in the community is zero.

2. All students and faculty must be provided with the necessary technical equipment for remote learning. NYU must cover all expenses.

3. Link up the fight at NYU with teachers and parents across the city and the country! Fight for the shutdown of all NYC public schools and colleges!

4. Lives before profit! Fight for the full eradication of COVID-19!

The fight for these demands requires new organizations. The corporatist trade unions have done nothing but betray workers struggles over the last four decades. The United Federation of Teachers (UFT) union is fully complicit in the deadly reopening of schools in the city. At NYU, the graduate student union GSOC-UAW, which sold out the graduate student worker struggle last semester, and other unions are offering no opposition to the reopening of campus.

Teachers and autoworkers have already begun establishing independent rank-and-file committees to organize their fight, including the New York Educators Rank-and-File Safety Committee. Faculty and students at NYU must join this struggle and establish an independent committee to lead the fight against the reopening.

There is no time to lose! The situation is deadly serious. On Saturday, the IYSSE at NYU is hosting a public online meeting to discuss the science of the pandemic and a political strategy to fight for the safety and lives of students and educators. Register and attend the meeting! Discuss it and share it widely among your friends, students, educators and parents across NYC.
High-level talks were held in Honolulu during July involving Micronesian President David Panuelo and US Navy Admiral John C. Aquilino, commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM), about the United States broader defense and force posture in the Pacific, as well as associated security issues around climate change, law enforcement training and search and rescue operations.

A statement by the Micronesian government read: The Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) and the United States collaborated on plans for more frequent and permanent US Armed Forces presence, and have agreed to cooperate on how that presence will be built up both temporarily and permanently within the FSM, with the purpose of serving the mutual security interests of both nations. Few details were provided, but a military base and other military facilities are involved.

US aircraft Carrier USS NIMITZ in Guam [Credit: US Navy]

The FSM is a strategically situated archipelago of 600 islands, with a population of 58,000, in the north-west Pacific near the Philippine Sea. The expansion of the US military presence comes in the wake of Washingtons Afghanistan debacle and as the Biden administration heightens its military build-up against China, which it views as the main obstacle to its global hegemony.

While China is not explicitly named in the communique it is clearly the main target. The bolstering of the US presence in Micronesia is part of the wider militarisation of the Pacific, which is drawing the entire region into the intensifying confrontation between nuclear-armed powers that potentially has devastating consequences.

The FSM, along with neighbouring Palau and the Marshall Islands, are in so-called Compacts of Free Association (COFA) with Washington, a semi-colonial arrangement that enables the islands to receive federal funding in exchange for the US military having exclusive access to airspace and territorial waters across Micronesias vast maritime region.

The 20-year treaties are set to expire in 2023 for FSM and the Marshall Islands, with Palaus expiring in 2024. Under COFA the US supplies more than 60 percent of FSMs national budget. The funding was meant to progressively reduce across the term of the agreement, but the regions economic stagnation and Chinas growing influence put this on hold.

Legislation currently before the US Congress proposes spending $US1bn annually in 14 sovereign Pacific nations. In a Guardian article on September 7, American academics Gerard Finin and Terence Wesley-Smith described Washingtons planned funding initiatives as motivated by security concerns not necessarily shared by island leaders, who see climate change, not China, as the major threat to Pacific futures.

Amid deepening geo-strategic tensions and concerns over its sovereignty, in 2018 the FSM congress called for the termination of COFA and for China to be the only country allowed to fish FSMs exclusive economic zone. A 2019 RAND Corporation report alleged that Beijing paid for homes for government officials, inter-island ships and student scholarships. China also proposed building two casinos in Micronesia and had hosted the then-presidents 2017 state visit to Beijing.

In August 2019 Mike Pompeo became the first US secretary of state to visit Micronesia to begin negotiations to renew the COFA pacts, including an extension to funding guarantees. I am here to confirm the United States will help you protect your sovereignty, your security, your right to live in freedom and peace, he announced. Extending the compacts, he declared, will sustain democracy in the face of Chinese efforts to redraw the Pacific.

Another unprecedented visit to the Marshall Islands by Japans Foreign Minister Taro Kono quickly followed. Promising millions of dollars for a string of aid and infrastructure projects, Kono declared that Japan had decided to increase support to countries in the region for a free and open Indo-Pacific.

Palau, Nauru, the Marshall Islands and Tuvalu are the only Pacific states retaining diplomatic relations with Taiwan. While the FSM maintains diplomatic ties with Beijing, Panuelo told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation he did not believe that a new US base would harm the relationship. We have that right to delegate some of the defence responsibility to a close ally and in this case with the United States, he said.

Palau has meanwhile formally requested that the US military build new ports, airstrips and bases on its islands. President Surangel Whipps Jr. took office in January with an aggressive anti-Beijing agenda, declaring Palau would oppose Chinese bullying in the region and stand by its true friends, the US and Taiwan.

The critical strategic importance to the US of the island nations in the north-west Pacific was highlighted in a 2019 Rand report, prepared at the request of Congress for the Department of Defense.

The report bluntly described the Freely Associated States (FAS) as tantamount to a power-projection superhighway running through the heart of the North Pacific into Asia. It effectively connects US military forces in Hawaii to those in theatre, particularly to forward operating positions on the US territory of Guam.

The report recommended that Washington open a productive new chapter with the FAS to better confront China. History underscores that the FAS play a vital role in US defense strategy,' the report said. If ignored or subverted, they could become, as in the past, a critical vulnerability.

An op-ed in Defense One in April this year by Abraham Denmark, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for East Asia in the Obama administration and Eric Sayers, a former special assistant to INDOPACOM, further argued that to deter China the US must build military facilities on key Pacific islands. These included Tinian, in the Northern Marianas, Palau and Yap, the westernmost large island in Micronesia.

Guam and the Northern Marianas, both US colonial possessions since 1898, have strategic and historic significance in US imperialisms drive into the western Pacific. During World War II American forces retook Guam from the Japanese and converted it into a massive supply depot to support the invasions of the Philippines, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Thousands of B-29 bombing raids flew from Guams Andersen Air Force Base in operations over Japan.

In August 1945, the airfield on Tinian became the staging post for the devastating nuclear attacks on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. During the Vietnam War, 150 B-52s were amassed at Andersen Base for the intensive bombing of North Vietnam. Andersen remained a strategic B-52 base until the dissolution of the USSR in 1991 when it was downgraded.

Guam has since 2015 received expensive upgrades to its Navy and Air Force facilities to accommodate advanced warships and aircraft, as well as the relocation of thousands of US Marines from the Japanese island of Okinawa.

Driven by the deepening US diplomatic, economic and strategic offensive against China, Pacific states are being drawn into fierce geo-strategic rivalries. The Pacific Islands Forum, the region major leadership body, remains in crisis after the more overtly pro-Washington Micronesia sub-groupingPalau, the Marshall Islands, FSM, Kiribati, and Nauruquit earlier this year, purportedly over the organisations refusal to assign the post of Secretary-General to their nominee. Behind the fracturing, however, are deepening tensions over the escalating confrontation with China and its consequences.
Workers at Bardstown, Kentuckys Heaven Hill Distilleries launched a strike Saturday after voting against a concessions contract almost unanimously the previous day.

Heaven Hill is one of the largest bourbon manufacturers in the world, with annual revenues believed to be around $500 million. It produces at least ten brands of spirits including Blackheart Rum, Black Velvet Canadian whiskey, Christian Brothers VS Brandy, Deep Eddy Vodka, Elijah Craig 12 Year Old, and Two Fingers Tequila. Evan Williams bourbon is considered the companys flagship brand.

Heaven Hill distillery (Pinterest/Luise Thomas)

The 460 workers, who are in the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 23D, voted 96.1 percent to reject the companys offer for a five-year contract that included proposals for non-traditional work schedules, which would include having to work weekends. It was also reported that the deal eliminated a cap on health insurance premium increases, slicing deeply into take-home pay, and also included cuts to overtime pay. The company also reportedly rejected wage increases for workers, even after a recent $19 million renovation of the facility's Bourbon Experience tourist attraction.

The vote came after the company abandoned negotiations two weeks earlier and after the union had sought the assistance of a federal negotiator in July.

In order to keep production going during the early days of the pandemic when popular anger forced the temporary closure of many industries, Heaven Hill shifted production towards hand sanitizer in order to classify its workforce as essential workers. Since then, distillery workers have continued to risk infection and death on the job.

The schedule is going to take time away from us, and our kids and our families, one worker told local news. We are going to miss everything. We are going to miss graduation, birthdays; were going to miss all that stuff (because) well be working weekends.

The bourbon industry has been on a long-running upward trajectory,' the Associated Press reported recently. Combined U.S. sales for bourbon, Tennessee whiskey and rye whiskey rose 8.2%, or $327 million, to $4.3 billion in 2020, despite plunging sales from bars and restaurants due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States reported early this year. And according to the Kentucky Distillers Association, Kentucky distilleries produce 95 percent of the worlds bourbon supply.

Its no secret that liquor sales have thrived during the coronavirus pandemic, and bourbon is no different, vinepair.com reported. Heaven Hills Susan Wahl, vice president of American Whiskeys, told the website, Thirty-three weeks into 2020, and off premise sales of bourbon have already reached $1.34 billion, according to Nielsen data. The main beneficiaries of this trend have been larger distillers like Heaven Hill. While the company has seen 'huge' sales growth across its portfolio, its core brands including Elijah Craig, Small Batch, Evan Williams, and Larceny have seen the most notable increases in recent years and during the pandemic. Even brands that were flat before are seeing growth in this environment.

The strike at Heaven Hill comes as workers at auto parts manufacturer Dana, which operates four plants in Kentucky including two less than an hour away from Bardstown, are locked a struggle over a new contract in which working hours is also a major issue. Dana workers are subjected to a brutal mandatory overtime levels which often forces them to work for weeks at a time before a single day off.

This shows the potential for a broader struggle uniting workers across industries around the country, who are looking for a way to fight back against wage stagnation, overwork and exploitative working conditions. Dana workers and Heaven Hill workers should make direct appeals for the broadest possible support and solidarity with each other.

But the conditions at Dana, which recall those workers faced in the 1800s, are taking place in a union shop overseen by the United Auto Workers and United Steelworkers. In spite of the fact that Dana workers recently rejected a sellout contract by more than 90 percent, the UAW and USW are forcing them to remain on the job on a day-to-day contract extension. Meanwhile, coronavirus is spreading in Dana facilities around the country, including a reportedly large outbreak involving dozens of workers in the Dry Ridge, Kentucky plant.

The UFCW plays essentially the same role at meatpacking and food processing plants. Throughout the pandemic, it has forced workers to remain on the job at these facilities even in spite of massive outbreaks, which have already claimed the lives of 298 meatpacking workers. In one infamous case, the UFCW local at Tyson's pork plant in Waterloo, Iowa collaborated with management to cook up a perfect attendence bonus even as hundreds of workers were falling ill and managers were secretly running a betting pool on how many would ultimately become infected.

While the UFCW was compelled to call a strike by the Heaven Hill's hardline tactics, there is no doubt that it will seek to shut down picket lines as soon as possible on terms favorable to the company. The way forward for distillery workers is to form a rank-and-file committee, as workers at Dana have done, to establish their own initiative independent of the union and to build up support for their struggle among workers throughout the area and across the country.

The World Socialist Web Site stands ready to assist. For more information, visit wsws.org/workers.
A majority of Americans -- 56% -- think American democracy is under attack.

That revelation from a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS reflects the views of three-quarters of Republicans, half of independents and a little fewer than half of Democrats.

Perhaps even more troubling than those numbers is how much confidence in the US system has fallen since earlier this year.

RELATED: CNN Poll: Most Americans feel democracy is under attack in the US

A narrow majority -- 52% -- say they lack confidence that American elections reflect the will of the people, up from 40% who felt that way in January. That's true even among Democrats, 90% of whom were confident in January that elections reflected the will of the people. Now it's a little more than two-thirds.

And large portions of Americans across the political spectrum think it's very or somewhat likely that elected officials in the next few years will overturn the results of a US election their party did not not win -- 49% of Democrats, 48% of independents and 57% of Republicans.

Why is this happening?

Concern about the state of US democracy is, in fact, coming from a number of different places tied to the aftermath of 2020, with many of former President Donald Trump's supporters falsely believing the election was stolen, and many of his opponents alarmed by the attempts to overturn legitimate results.

The most obvious reason for concern that a politician will overturn election results is that Trump tried very hard to do it himself.

RELATED: In the wake of Trump's attack on democracy, election officials fear for the future of American elections

The constant metronomic beat from Republican lawmakers, particularly at the state level, is that elections need to be secured, despite a lack of evidence of fraud, and that Democratic efforts to make it easier to vote are a power grab.

One lasting consequence of those messages: They're putting up a new fence around the US Capitol before a rally expected this Saturday by supporters of the insurrectionists.

Just 21% of Republicans in CNN's new poll said Joe Biden legitimately won enough votes to become President.

But there appear to also be consequences to Democrats' five-alarm warning that Republicans are trying to make it harder to vote.

When Democrats equate new voting laws that make it more difficult to cast a ballot with Jim Crow-era disenfranchisement, it should certainly follow that fewer Democrats will have faith in the system.

Where is the middle?

Events like Tuesday's failed recall in deep-blue California, which required a resounding majority of voters to affirm that they wanted to let a Democratic governor who had won his office by a large margin in 2018 complete his term after a very small minority of people were able to force a vote, don't help either.

It's also the case that, having done the hard work of getting a recall petition into a special election, California Republicans opted for a flamethrower radio host in the Trump mold rather than coalescing behind a moderate or centrist candidate who could appeal to Democrats.

RELATED: 5 takeaways after Gov. Gavin Newsom prevails in California recall

They didn't find a 2021 version of Arnold Schwarzenegger, in other words, and the recall ended up being a big, expensive distraction that only made Newsom more powerful.

The enthusiasm of Republicans for Larry Elder suggests GOP voters are nowhere near breaking from the Trumpism that seems to control them, even when there is the reward of a massive upset in their sights.

While Trump won't be on the ballot in 2022, his election-denying will be, along with angry opposition to Covid-19 restrictions. Newsom might win again in California, but next year voters in Florida and Texas will be selecting governors. And the lesson from California is that the type of Republican who can win a primary is not the type of Republican who will be reaching across party lines.

And then there's 2024 to think about

The new reporting on what US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley did after Trump encouraged January 6 protesters to ransack the Capitol during the counting of electoral votes is both fantastical and reassuring.

In their forthcoming book, "Peril," the Washington Post's Bob Woodward and Robert Costa report that Milley sought to limit Trump's ability to order military attacks.

The opposing view of Milley is not entirely partisan

Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, who said back in 2016 that he didn't trust Trump with nuclear codes, has evolved and is now demanding Milley's resignation for potentially undermining Trump's authority as commander in chief.

That's not a purely partisan position. Retired Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman -- who sparked the first impeachment effort against Trump in 2019 when he blew the whistle about Trump's attempts to pressure Ukraine to investigate Biden -- said that if Milley had operated on his own, he should leave his post immediately, since the US military is intentionally subservient to elected leaders.

"Even if he did this for the right reasons, he did the wrong thing. And now he is toxic," Vindman said on CNN, arguing that voters had held the president accountable and removed him from office.

RELATED: The peril of Trump keeps growing nearly 8 months after he left the White House

But what about the heat of January 6, when the Capitol was quite literally overrun and there were serious questions about Trump's willingness to accept the election results?

An impossible situation.

You can do both the wrong thing and the right thing at the same time.

Vindman's former boss at the National Security Council, former national security adviser John Bolton, defended Milley in a statement Tuesday.

"In the days after Donald Trump's November 3, 2020, election defeat, I can only imagine the pressures he and others were under in fulfilling their Constitutional obligations," Bolton said.

The current White House, under Biden, has transmitted it has "great confidence" in Milley.

The response of Republicans to the questions about Trump's fitness as he raged after losing has, as a general strategy, been to portray Biden as a doddering puppet.

CNN's Chris Cuomo put together a number of instances of these questions, pushed on Fox News and elsewhere, after Sen. Jim Risch insistently and repeatedly asked Secretary of State Antony Blinken if there's a Wizard of Oz somewhere at the White House who can hit mute on the President (this is a real conspiracy theory). Watch it here.

The-CNN-Wire

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OLNEY, Ill. (WTHI) - Ed Hataway went missing on September 16th of 2012. When police went to his apartment Hataway was nowhere to be found. But his apartment was unlocked.

In November Hataway's body was found. But that's where the case goes cold.

Ed Hataway's brother John Hataway says, "I still think that there's the possibility that somebody around here knows something that occurred during this whole deal that hasn't come forward yet."

For almost a decade, John Hataway and his wife Anita Scott-Hataway have been searching for answers. Three months ago came the first sign of light in the case in a long time.

Anita-Scott Hataway says, "He wants this case solved. Because I do believe he feels he knows who did it. And he's the one who wrote the report up but it was missing."

A person familiar with the case reached out to the Hataway's. That person told them an interview that was crucial in the case had been performed. They say that interview has gone missing.

According to the family, they reached out to the state police and the Illinois attorney general. They have also reached out to the governor's office.

But they say no further action has been taken.

Anita-Scott Hataway says, "All we ask is someone to do something. Yup."

John Hataway says, "i'm hopeful that maybe something will happen. It's just a chance, and I hope it works."
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind (WTHI) -- Thousands of dollars will be coming to the Wabash Valley. It's all to help art programs have what they need to run.

The Indiana Arts Commission is giving funds to 278 nonprofits across the state.

This will give help to nine different organizations in the Valley. Those include Community Theatre of Clay County, Terre Haute Symphony Association Inc., Sheldon Swope Art Museum, Inc., Community Theatre of Terre Haute, Inc., Arts Illiana, Inc., Art Spaces - Wabash Valley Outdoor Sculpture Collection, Inc., Shawnee Theatre of Greene County, and Sculpture Trails Outdoor Museum.

The funds will go towards supporting different areas of operation.

These include Salary support, fees for artists, rent for their spaces, health and safety supplies for staff and visitors, and marketing costs.
China has been clamping down on bitcoin mining. Artyom Geodakyan/Getty Images

China's crackdown on cryptocurrency mining has expanded into the northern province of Hebei, Reuters reported Tuesday.

The area's cyberspace commission said crypto mining consumes an enormous amount of energy.

China is targeting bitcoin mining operations as it works to reduce carbon emissions.

See more stories on Insider's business page.

China's efforts to restrict cryptocurrency mining and trading have stretched to the northern province of Hebei, where a regulator said it will be a part of broader clampdown, Reuters reported Tuesday.

"Cryptocurrency mining consumes an enormous amount of energy, which is against China's 'carbon neutral' goal," and it carries huge financial risks, Heibei's cyberspace commission said in a statement, according to the report.

The commission said the local financial regulatory bureau and public security departments will be among the government offices that work on cryptocurrency restrictions.

China has pledged to cut down on bitcoin mining operations in the country to reduce carbon emissions. The world's largest economy is aiming to reach carbon neutrality before 2060 and reach peak carbon emissions before 2030.

The Sichuan, Anhui, and Gansu provinces are among those that have said they would order the shutdown of crypto mining operations. Earlier this year, China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region said it had set up a hotline for the general public to report outlying crypto-mining operations that were still active in the region.

Read the original article on Business Insider
A Chinese think tank with ties to the country's government accused the U.S. Air Force of name-calling.

An RC-135S spy plane flew near China earlier this week with the call sign JUNKY81.

The think tank claimed that the call sign was a diss at the quality of the People's Liberation Army.

A think tank with ties to the People's Republic of China claims that the U.S. Air Force is trolling the People's Liberation Army (PLA).

On September 6, the South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative (SCSPI)a research policy organization affiliated with Peking University, that generally supports China's claims in the South China Seaexpressed that concern in a tweet. In it, the think tank identifies a U.S. military aircraft, its route, and a particular call sign, which it says "is probably calling PLA names."

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Specifically, SCSPI complained that an RC-135S Cobra Ball intelligence-gathering plane (pictured at the top of this story) flew with the call sign JUNKY81, a seemingly innocuous call sign. The organization says that the U.S. Air Force crew aboard the spy plane used the call sign to deliberately insult the Chinese military as it flew near the country's airspace.

The RC-135S Cobra Ball is based on the Boeing 707 jetliner. There are several intel planes based on the 707, but the Cobra Ball's mission is to monitor and gather information on foreign ballistic missile tests. The Air Force describes the planes as full of a "sophisticated array of optical and electronic sensors, recording media, and communications equipment." There are only three Cobra Ball planes in the world.

The RC-135S reportedly flew several days in a row over the Yellow Sea. The flights were almost certainly connected to an impending ballistic missile test from the South Korean submarine Dosan Ahn Chang-ho. The test, a first for South Korea, was conducted on September 7. Any long-range missile launched from South Korea would fly south by southwest across the Yellow Sea, to avoid overflying neighboring Japan, Russia, or China. A RC-135S flying over the sea would be in an ideal position to observe the test.

Story continues

JUNKY81 includes two references, according to Newsweek . The first, JUNKY, is a reference to the aircrew's opinion of the People's Liberation Army. The rest, according to the news magazine:

The Chinese characters for "8" and "1" appear on official PLA flags and refer to August 1, 1927the day of the Nanchang Uprising and now regarded as the anniversary of China's armed forces.



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On September 1, the same plane, No. 62-4128, flew a similar profile with the call sign GAZEL74. On September 3, the plane flew again with the call sign REFER83.

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Interestingly enough, No. 62-4128 flew with the call sign JUNKY81 only after the SCSPI repeatedly called out its previous flights that week on the group's Twitter feed.

A coincidence?

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If the allegation is true this is the second salty Air Force call sign in a week. On September 1, a U-2S spy plane flying over California used the call sign GETALIFE. The call sign was seemingly directed at plane spotters who track aircraft like the U-2Sand the Cobra Ballas a hobby, posting their findings on social media.

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This photograph taken on July 14, 2021 shows Salima Mazari (C), a female district governor in male-dominated Afghanistan, looking on from a hill while accompanied by security personnel near the frontlines against the Taliban at Charkint district in Balkh province. - Mazari, a female district governor in male-dominated Afghanistan, is on a mission -- recruiting menfolk to fight the Taliban.

Farshad Usyan/AFP via Getty

One of the three female district governors in Afghanistan, Salima Mazari, is telling her story after revealing that she has escaped the Taliban.

TIME reported in a piece published Tuesday that Mazari, who had been feared captured, is not only alive but was never taken into custody by the militant group. In fact, the reporters of the TIME piece say they assisted with her escape.

"Zakarya was based in Afghanistan but able to leave for Paris during the evacuation," Zakarya Hassani and Robyn Huang write. "He kept in touch with Mazari after the Taliban seized power and she went into hiding. Together in a joint rescue effort by Afghans, Americans and Canadians, he helped to play a part in getting her to safety."

RELATED: Meet the Female Afghan Governor Who Led a Taliban Resistance and Is Now Feared Captured

Following the fall of Afghanistan in mid-August, as the U.S. military prepared to withdraw, stories circulated online suggesting that Mazari, who had been leading the fight against the Taliban in her area, had been captured after the group overtook her district of Charkint.

"If we don't fight now against the extremist ideologies and the groups that force them on us, we will lose our chance to defeat them. They will succeed. They will brainwash society into accepting their agenda," Mazari said earlier this year, adding, "I am not afraid. I believe in the rule of law in Afghanistan."

As the the Taliban swept into Kabul in August, Mazari went quiet and fears for her spread.

According to TIME, this is what happened:

Everything changed when Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan's fourth-largest city, fell on Aug. 14. After ordering her men to stand down, Mazari told TIME, she fled to the Uzbekistan border but was turned away.

So she headed back to Mazar-i-Sharif, staying at numerous safe houses along the way.

Mazari first informed Hassani, one of the story's reporters, that she was safe on Aug. 20. Hassani then relayed the message to Huang. Her partner, Canadian photojournalist Matt Reichel, was assisting others in escaping Afghanistan and agreed to help.

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RELATED: What Happens to the Military Equipment Left Behind in Afghanistan to the Taliban?

Reichel reportedly pressed contacts within the State Department and Department of Defense for assistance in bringing Mazari to safety.

"Eventually, one of my friends at the State Department, who wishes to remain unnamed, but has been instrumental in helping countless vulnerable Afghans escape, was able to forward her information to the Joint Interagency Task Force (JIATF) and a high-level figure in the Secretary of State's office," Reichel told the TIME authors. "This individual replied within hours offering help."

Later that evening, according to the magazine, Mazari and 13 of her family members made their way to the rescue point, where they were to be helicoptered over to Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul and evacuated the following day.

RELATED: Scenes from the Startling Fall of Afghanistan

The plan was a success: Mazari and her family were transported to Qatar on a U.S. military flight and are currently waiting for resettlement.

Though safe, Mazari told TIME that she remains concerned for her fellow Afghans. "I saw families fleeing and leaving everything behind  It was difficult to see my people in that situation. Everyone I spoke to is dealing with the weight of sadness on their shoulders."

"I have cried a lot," she added. "I have thought about all those youth who were sacrificed in the past 20 years for the evils of politics. I thought about the aspirations of a generation that are heading towards destruction. I feel a lump in my throat when thinking of my people and fellow soldiers' struggles, sacrifices and deaths. Every time I think of these things, I feel like I am dying."
Nina Simone Live At 1970 Newport Jazz Festival - Credit: David Redfern/Redferns/Getty

DJ and producer Joel Corry has released a new remix of Nina Simones rendition of Feeling Good, set to appear on the upcoming Simone collection, Feeling Good: Her Greatest Hits and Remixes, out October 29th via Verve Records.

Corry puts a decisively contemporary spin on the track, draping all the trappings of a slick pop-house groove  hand claps, rubber band bass hits, airy synths  beneath Simones classic vocal performance.

More from Rolling Stone

Corys take on Feeling Good is one of seven remixes that will appear on Feeling Good. Other contributions include Hot Chips take on Be My Husband, Floorplans version of I Put a Spell on You, and Sofi Tukkers remix of Sinnerman. Riton, Honne, and Rudimental also contributed remixes.

Along with the remixes, Feeling Good will boast the original versions of some of Simones most classic tracks, including Mississippi Goddam, Strange Fruit, I Loves You Porgy, and Black Is the Color of My True Loves Hair.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0E9zLvxtz7c?version=3&rel=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&fs=1&hl=en-US&autohide=2&wmode=transparent&w=640&h=360]

Best of Rolling Stone
Hollywood icons Sigourney Weaver and Kevin Kline are back together for The Good House, the film adaption of Ann Learys novel of the same name, with iconic writing-directing couple Maya Forbes (Infinitely Polar Bear, The Polka King) and Wallace Wolodarsky (The Simpson) at the helm, part of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).

"As writers ourselves, we're always in a conversation about point of view, the book had a very strong point of view," Wolodarsky told Yahoo Canada. "We were excited by the challenge of kind of translating that to the screen, especially when Sigourney got involved because she adds her own very strong voice."

"The character, along with Sigourney, made it a very enticing project."

The Good House follows Hildy Good, a realtor in an affluent New England town, who isn't necessarily at the "top of her game" anymore. Hildy has a personality that you instantly connect to, shes endearing, witty, sarcastic and happy to quip about her clients and neighbours. But throughout the story Hildys alcoholism is connected to her life starting to unravel, all while she begins to rekindle a romance with Frank Getchell (Kline), seemingly "the one who got away."

"As many times [as] I've seen Kevin...I really feel Frank the garbage man is one of his most delicious creations and the relationship we get to have in this, it seemed very real and something that I think a lot of people can identify with," Weaver said at a TIFF Q&A. "I just felt it was just so much fun this time."

Forbes echoed Wolodarsky's comments that the characters, Hildy and Frank, and the town, compelled them to tackle this story.

"[Hildy] was such a sort of tough, sort of flinty, but then funny and vulnerable, interesting, complex character," Forbes said.

"I'm also from New England, I grew up in Massachusetts. We really know those towns, those small towns, and what's so amazing and idyllic about them, and then what's really hard about them, because everyone knows everybody, and everyone knows what's going on with everybody, and that can be a challenge."

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Forbes added that the character of Frank is a really "familiar" person in her personal life, someone who thinks, "who am I to get into your life and start telling you what to do?"

Wolodarsky identified that one of the lessons learned from the couple working on Infinitely Polar Bear together, a largely autobiographical story for Forbes about her childhood, was that "intimate is universal," something that still rings true in The Good House.

"I think one of the problems that as writers, and maybe even in Hollywood in general, is that people don't want to be specific, you think by making it the most recognizable, it's the most universal and in many ways, I think more idiosyncratic expression turns out to be the more universal expression," he explained.

PARIS, FRANCE - FEBRUARY 25: Sigourney Weaver wears earrings, a blazer jacket, outside Dior, during Paris Fashion Week - Womenswear Fall/Winter 2020/2021, on February 25, 2020 in Paris, France. (Photo by Edward Berthelot/Getty Images)

'Feeling that the world was moving on without them'

With Forbes and Wolodarsky together, its not surprising that the balance of Hildys more emotional moments are expertly weaved with smart, comedic moments, making this whole world, and how our feelings about Hildy develop as an audience member, so connected to reality.

"I think the humour is important in all that,...it's not dreary because [its] a person who's alive, who's trying to have a life that they enjoy," Forbes said.

"We wanted it to be real and entertaining and romantic. We saw in this movie an opportunity to kind of do everything, because that's her life."

While much of that comes from the writer-directors, another aspect of this great storytelling comes from Weavers captivating performance that truly draws you into Hildys mind.

"Like, I think most people in the film industry, and in the greater world, we were in total awe of [Sigourney]," Wolodarsky said.

"She was an incredible collaborator, she comes so prepared, she's so thoughtful, we [had] really interesting and engaging conversations about the character with her We learned a lot from her."

Forbes added that they shot a scene (with the movie largely filmed in Chester, Nova Scotia), where Weaver had to go into the water at a chilly 4:00 a.m. and while the crew were all in parkas, the now 71-year-old actor wouldnt come out of the water until everyone was certain they had what they needed from her scene.

"[Hildy] reminds me of so many people today, sort of fighting to keep their position as they get older and to not lose all they've accomplished to newer rivals," Weaver explained at the TIFF Q&A. "I just felt that what she was after was something that a lot of people were kind of dealing with now, feeling that the world was moving on without them and feeling that rage and frustration."

In Nova Scotia, they found a town that was regularly used as a retreat for people from New England, which allowed this international location to have that accurate "flavour" for the setting of the story.

"It was very much like the town in the movie," Forbes said. "Everyone knew everything."

In fact, we were driving to one location and on some storefront there was a sign that said Happy Birthday Sigourney, they knew it was her birthday. It was sweet.Wallace Wolodarksy

The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) runs until Sept. 18 with both in-person and digital screenings of films.
Gymnasts blasted the FBI's failure to properly investigate sex abuse allegations against Larry Nassar. A crew of civilians launched into space  a first in the history of spaceflight. And there's a new development in the saga of Alex Murdaugh, a prominent South Carolina attorney who was shot on the side of the road.

 Hey! It's Laura. Read Wednesday's news  knowledge is good for you!

But first, why would a wolf bite a bear's booty?  My sister, who is a smarty-pants about weird wildlife matters, says the wolf is probably doing something called "resource guarding," but I'm not sure if I'd dare to bite a bear in the butt cheek  even if my life depended on it. Check out the video.

The Short List is a snappy USA TODAY news roundup. Subscribe to the newsletter here or text messages here.

Elite gymnasts blast FBI over failing to stop Nassar abuse

Gymnastics superstar Simone Biles through tears blamed the FBI, USA Gymnastics and the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee at a Senate panel Wednesday for allowing disgraced former USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar to abuse dozens of women and children. "We suffered and continue to suffer, because no one at the FBI, USAG or the USOPC did what was necessary to protect us," Biles said. Fellow elite gymnasts Aly Raisman, McKayla Maroney and Maggie Nichols also testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee. "It was like serving innocent children up to a pedophile on a silver platter," Raisman said. Nassar's sexual abuse was publicly exposed in 2016, and a year later, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to more than 100 years in prison. In August, USA Gymnastics reached an agreement on a $425 million settlement with more than 500 women who said they were sexually abused by Nassar, their coach or someone else affiliated with the sport.

Another FBI failure: Nassar debacle is one many high-profile breakdowns.

Massive systematic failures uncovered in DOJ's Larry Nassar report.

United States gymnasts from left, Aly Raisman, Simone Biles, McKayla Maroney and Maggie Nichols, leave after testifying at a Senate Judiciary hearing about the Inspector General's report on the FBI's handling of the Larry Nassar investigation on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021, in Washington. Nassar was charged in 2016 with federal child pornography offenses and sexual abuse charges in Michigan. He is now serving decades in prison after hundreds of girls and women said he sexually abused them under the guise of medical treatment when he worked for Michigan State and Indiana-based USA Gymnastics, which trains Olympians. (Saul Loeb/Pool via AP) ORG XMIT: WX427

 Look ma! No astronauts!

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SpaceX launched four ordinary citizens into orbit Wednesday night without any professional astronauts along for the ride, an unprecedented feat in the history of spaceflight. Sitting atop the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket were four private citizens in a specially modified Crew Dragon capsule waiting to start three days of orbiting the Earth, the first time an all-civilian crew will have orbited the planet. The Inspiration4 crew is made up of entrepreneur and mission commander Jared Isaacman, Dr. Sian "Leo" Proctor, Chris Sembroski and Hayley Arceneaux, a cancer survivor who, at 29, became the youngest American in space. During its journey among the stars, Inspiration4 will circle the Earth in a higher orbit than the International Space Station. The five-hour launch window for Inspiration4 opened at 8:02 ET for launch from Launch Complex 39-A at the Kennedy Space Center.

How Inspiration4, the first all-civilian flight to space, came together.

Cancer survivor Hayley Arceneaux is the youngest American in space.

Inspiration4 mission to space (L to R): Chris Sembroski, Hayley Arceneaux, Jared Isaacman and Dr. Sian Proctor.

What everyone's talking about

Nicholas drenches storm-weary Louisiana; 100K without power in Texas

More than 100,000 Texas homes and businesses remained without power for a second day Wednesday as the remnants of Hurricane Nicholas slid across the Gulf Coast from the Lone Star State into Louisiana, drenching a region still staggering from Hurricane Ida's wrath less than three weeks ago. Nicholas, downgraded to a tropical depression with sustained winds of 30 mph, was centered about 30 miles northeast of Lake Charles, Louisiana, on Wednesday. Almost 80,000 utility customers remained without power in Louisiana, where the lights went out for more than 1 million homes and businesses during Ida's peak fury. The National Weather Center said Nicholas, which already dumped more than a foot of rain on parts of Texas and several inches on areas of Louisiana, could drop up to 6 inches more across the central Gulf Coast in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle through Friday, with 10 more inches possible in some areas.

Photos: Nicholas makes landfall in Texas as Category 1 hurricane.

Rescue & recovery: Swift-water boats, helicopters mobilized to assist.

Debris and damaged road construction are left after Tropical Storm Nicholas moved through the area on Sept. 14, 2021 in Houston, Texas.

After fall of Kabul, Taliban harden their rule

It's been one month since the Taliban, on Aug. 15, re-took Kabul without firing a shot. Now, the regime is back in power following the United States' exit from the Afghan capital on Aug. 31. After making early promises about a more inclusive government, the Taliban have returned in some ways to the brutal regime that ruled the country before the American invasion in 2001. The Taliban have also reimposed gender divisions in public life, especially in education, where many women fear they will be barred from attending any form of schooling. As the international community rallies aid for Afghanistan, Afghans find themselves living in a country that has already radically changed and likely will change even further. "What we are seeing is totally different from what they are saying," a woman who remains in Afghanistan told USA TODAY.

Taliban say women can study in gender-segregated universities.

Afghan journalists are being held, beat in Kabul. Here's their story.

Afghan women walk past a closed beauty salon in Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, Sept. 11, 2021. Since the Taliban gained control of Kabul, several images depicting women outside beauty salons have been removed or covered up.

Real quick

Police say S.C. lawyer shot on purpose in $10M life insurance scam

In the latest twist in the saga of Alex Murdaugh, the prominent South Carolina attorney who was shot months after his wife and son were killed at their family hunting estate, state police say he conspired to have another man kill him in order for his other son to be paid out his $10 million life insurance policy. The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division announced charges against Curtis Edward Smith, 61, who faces counts of assisted suicide, assault and battery of a high aggravated nature, pointing and presenting a firearm, insurance fraud, and conspiracy to commit insurance fraud. Murdaugh was listed as a co-defendant. Dick Harpootlian, an attorney for Murdaugh, said Murdaugh "arranged to have this guy shoot him" in efforts to have the insurance pay his son. Murdaugh was shot in the head Sept. 4 on the side of a rural road and hospitalized with superficial injuries. Days later, he checked himself into rehab; his law firm accused him of misappropriating funds. Alex Murdaugh's wife, Maggie, 52; and their 22-year-old son, Paul; were shot multiple times and found dead June 7 at the family's Colleton County hunting estate. Those deaths remain under investigation.

Murders, money and mystery swirl around the Murdaugh family.

Police investigating allegations Alex Murdaugh stole from law firm.

Richard Alexander Murdaugh

A break from the news

This is a compilation of stories from across the USA TODAY Network. Want this news roundup in your inbox every night? Sign up for The Short List newsletter here.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Larry Nassar Senate hearing, SpaceX Inspiration4 launch, Tropical Depression Nicholas, Alex Murdaugh. It's Wednesday's news.
Catherine McCord of Weelicious shares her lunchbox hacks and tips for picky eaters. (Photo: Weelicious; designed by Quinn Lemmers)

Welcome to So Mini Ways, Yahoo Life's parenting series on the joys and challenges of child rearing.

Once upon a time, Catherine McCord was a model and TV host gracing the cover of fashion magazines and strutting down catwalks. But since trading high fashion and Hollywood for the food industry  a decision sparked, she tells Yahoo Life, by Sept. 11  the covers the mom of three now appears on belong to her very own cookbooks; she's currently working on her fourth.

As a Food Network personality and founder of the family-friendly Weelicious food resource, which counts celebrity moms like Mindy Kaling, Jennifer Garner and Candace Cameron Bure among its 309,000 Instagram followers, McCord has carved out a space as a foodie families can count on for healthy eating tips and culinary inspiration.

The challenges of getting little ones fed are all too familiar to McCord, mom to 14-year-old son Kenya and daughters Chloe, 12, and Gemma, 6. Here, the kitchen queen and co-founder of the One Potato meal delivery service shares her secrets for handling picky eaters, supporting vegetarian kids and not overthinking your lunchbox game.

What made you want to transition from modeling to food?

The funny part is that I was interested in food way before modeling. I grew up in Kentucky, where my grandparents went to U-pick farms and grew a lot of their own food. I loved watching my grandmother cook and often helped preserve and freeze produce with my grandfather. I even started collecting cookbooks at a young age. From modeling I had the opportunity to travel around the world and became fascinated with the way people eat in different countries. I lived blocks from the World Trade Center on 9/11, which was also the day I was supposed to visit the Institute of Culinary Education. That was the day that I decided it was time to step away from modeling and focus on what I really wanted to do with my life: cook!

How would you describe your parenting style?

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Connected and supportive. My greatest goal is to raise kind, self-aware and resilient humans. I try to spend as much time as possible with my kids to listen to what theyre responding to in their day. I dont like to hover over them, but want them to know they have my ear whenever they need it.

What advice would you give to a parent dealing with a picky eater?

If youre really committed to helping your child grow to love an array of foods, there are endless techniques you can try at different ages. Start by visiting your local farmers market or grocery and let your child pick any fruit or vegetable to try. Educate your child on how its grown, cooked and eaten. Visit a local nursery and pick something to grow together. Nurture the plant and decide what youll make with it. Watching herbs or produce grow can create a great sense of achievement for a child. Model how much you love an array of foods and eat them together. If your child dislikes carrots, for instance, try preparing them in different ways: raw with hummus to dip in, sauteed with a spice, steamed, roasted with a touch of maple syrup and more. No matter what you do, dont label your child as picky or thats how they will perceive themself.

Whats your best hack for feeding kids?

DIY meals! I put out a bunch of bowls to let them create their own meals. We have a lot of theme nights around this theory: making burrito bowls with beans rice, salsa, guacamole and more, or pasta with one or two sauces, cheese to sprinkle on and grilled chicken or a vegetable. When kids have a hand in creating their own meal, theyre more excited to try new foods.

Is there anything your own kids just wont eat?

My son has been a vegetarian since he was 5 years old, so no meat. My middle daughter will only eat mozzarella and ricotta cheese; every other cheese is off-limits. My 6-year-old will eat just about anything. She started drinking a smoothie every morning when she was 10 months old with every fruit and vegetable under the sun in it, so I think her palate is used to a wide array of flavors. She still sucks down a 10 oz. smoothie in four sips.

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How did your son broach the issue of becoming a vegetarian, and what advice do you have for parents having the same discussions with their own kids?

As a baby he didnt enjoy meat, chicken or fish. When he was 5 years old he declared that he was a vegetarian and never looked back. Hes been really good about educating himself to be a balanced vegetarian, getting plenty of fruits, vegetables and especially protein-rich foods like tofu, cheese, nuts, seeds and more. I see how empowered Kenya has become by choosing to be a vegetarian and how good it makes him feel. Were five people in our house [with] two vegetarians and three meat-eaters, even though we all eat a lot of plant-based meals. The rule is that you cant shame another person for their food preferences and you must respect each others choices. If you have a child who doesnt enjoy the taste of meats or has ethical reasons for avoiding animal proteins, you can help them to learn what food options will nourish their bodies while respecting their choice for what goes in their body.

With school returning, a lot of parents have a fear of lunchbox shaming. Whats your take? Is there too much pressure on parents to create gourmet meals on the go?

Theres too much pressure on parents to do everything. Social media has magnified many parents' feelings of insecurity in feeding their children, which makes sense given that were expected to make 21 meals plus snacks each week. When youre building a lunch box it should be simple, yet satisfying. Offering lunch in a bento box-style container helps a lot, so your child can see all of their choices as soon as its opened up. Start by making sure theres a fruit, vegetable, protein and carbohydrate at lunch with bright colored fruits and vegetables. Even cutting foods in smaller bite-sized pieces can encourage them to eat it, so the lunchbox comes home empty, which is the ultimate goal.

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A lot of parents look to you as a parenting lifeline. What experts inspire you as a mom?

There are so many parenting experts I use and adore: Tina Payne Bryson (co-author of The Whole-Brain Child), Dr. Organic Mommy, Non Toxic Munchkin, Feeding Littles, Dr. Tanya Altmann, GN Sleepsite, Busy Toddler and Kids Eat In Color, to name a few.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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Education Secretary Miguel Cardona is taking a bus tour across the Midwest seeking to reassure parents and teachers as safety measures surrounding the pandemic in schools continue to be a political flashpoint.

Why it matters: The Biden administration is grappling with how to maintain in-classroom learning while controlling the spread of COVID-19 in schools. Cases largely involving the Delta variant are surging, and some governors have blocked local districts from mandating masks.

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Most students across the country are returning to school in person after the pandemic, but those under 12 remain ineligible to be vaccinated.

The details: The secretary will visit five states in the Midwest beginning Sept. 20, stopping at 10 schools and universities over four days.

The destinations include Eau Claire, Madison and Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Palatine and Chicago, Illinois; Kendallville, Indiana; Toledo, Ohio; and Mt. Pleasant, Lansing, Detroit and Canton, Michigan, according to a release shared with Axios.

The secretary will visit students from preschool through college age.

What they're saying: The return to school this year is more special than ever, after many of our nations students have been disconnected from their peers, educators, classrooms, school communities and learning routines for over a year," Cardona said in a statement.

The backdrop: Cardona has waded into the debate over mask-wearing in schools, and the Department of Education has launched investigations into the mask-mandate bans in several states, including Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Utah.

The department will use a component of the law that protects students with disabilities from discrimination and entitles all to a free public education.

"The president is appalled, as I am, 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," Cardona told the Times.

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This is the first time Russian President Vladimir Putin received Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad in Moscow since 2015.

And at their meeting on Monday (September 13), Putin criticized foreign forces that are in Syria without a U.N. mandate -- a reference to American and Turkish troops.

"The main problem in my view is that foreign military forces without the permission of the U.N. and without your sanctioning are present on some territories of the country. Which contradicts international law. And does not give you an opportunity to use maximum efforts for the consolidation of the country, and to move on the path of its restoration as fast as you could if the whole territory of the country was controlled by the legal government."

Assad thanked the Russian leader for humanitarian aid to Syria and for his efforts to halt, quote, "spread of terrorism."

Russia is Assad's most powerful ally in the decade-long Syrian conflict.

Russia's air force played a critical role in turning the tide in Assad's favour after it deployed there in 2015, helping him recover most territory lost to insurgents.

However, significant parts of Syria remain out of state control, with Turkish forces deployed in much of the north and northwest - the last major bastion of anti-Assad rebels.

U.S. forces are also still in the Kurdish-controlled east and northeast.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, a day after the meeting with Assad, Putin started self-isolating after members of his entourage fell ill with COVID-19.

The leader has been forced to cancel some foreign travel as a result.
In the week before America officially exited Afghanistan, a private effort organized from inside the United States cobbled together a first-of-its-kind virtual underground railroad that got more than 800 Americans, Afghan veterans, interpreters and VIPs out of the country.

I was honored to play a part an effort that became known as Task Force Pineapple, taken from the code word the first high-risk interpreter used to make it into the airport in Kabul on his way to freedom.

We built a citizen-liaison network to protect Americans and other dedicated allies being left behind during the chaotic and expedited withdrawal of the U.S. military, intelligence and diplomatic presence from the country.

Americans need to help protect fellow citizens, especially those abroad

Everything we accomplished arose from the ability of those involved to leverage our collective knowledge of Afghanistan and good relationships built over many years with allies and friends around the world.

Why did we do it? Because, to a man and woman involved, we believed it was the right thing to do.

For generations, it meant something to be an American. It meant caring about virtues like honor and integrity and acting with a distinctive sense of pride and a standard of respect for who we are. Other countries knew not to mess with Americans overseas because we would expend everything in our power to protect them.

Taliban Takeover: Taliban fighters tortured my journalist colleagues. They risk their lives to tell the truth.

A story I heard years ago illustrates the essence of this very American mindset: In 2003, a rifle company of a U.S. Marine Corps unit just outside Baghdad was ambushed. With a journalist for an international news agency filming things, a Navy corpsman serving alongside them as a medic turned and rushed through the fire, into the fight, and returned from the battlefield carrying an injured Marine to safety. He did this not once but three times. On his third run, carrying another injured man over his shoulder, the journalist called to him, saying in effect, Hey, mate, whatd you do that for? Didnt you notice that wasnt a Marine?

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That newsman was right. That third wounded warrior wasnt a U.S. Marine, he was an Iraqi soldier. As the story was told to me, the Navy corpsmans response was simple but spoke volumes. He was wounded," he said. Were Americans. Thats what we do.

What we accomplished through Task Force Pineapple is very much an expression of that same mindset.

Calling myself an American means something. And it carries with it a responsibility  this especially applies for those in American government  to honor our promise to take care of the people who have taken care of us.

Jason Redman in Afghanistan, 2005.

These amazing warriors and Afghan allies fought directly alongside us. They all knew they might die for the cause. Many of them did. Some had family members murdered in retribution. Today, as Afghanistan has fallen and is once again under the control of the Taliban, we are obliged to save them.

Our values as Americans help us serve abroad

We cannot do this alone. Task Force Pineapple is standing by to assist whatever efforts the U.S. government may be contemplating. We have the skills and the contacts to help honor Americas promise to bring these people back by facilitating safe passage and resettlement with plans and funding for their successful futures, reintegration and repurposing of their unique abilities the U.S. military and government organizations once relied upon.

Taliban Takeover: Afghan allies in hiding, executed in the street  Jewish people know this haunting story

This is a matter of national honor. Our credibility is at stake. Leaving our friends in a state of extreme danger, failing to honor our commitments to their well-being as they made commitments to ours, will produce long-term damage not easily repaired.

Jason Redman in Afghanistan, 2005.

The rest of the world is watching. Our allies, our competitors and especially our enemies. All are questioning our continuing commitment to those who help us in times of trouble.

I worry that U.S. intelligence gathering capabilities may be damaged for years to come. Why take the risk of helping America if America isnt going to help you when the time comes. Our strategic influence is predicated upon the relationships we establish and maintain with people around the world who are willing to help us.

Why did I do any of the things Ive recently done for the people trapped in Afghanistan? Because it was the right thing to do. We take care of the people who take care of us.

Were Americans. Its what we do. And thats got to mean something.

Jason "Jay" Redman, who participated in Task Force Pineapple, is a retired U.S. Navy SEAL, the author of The Trident, and founder and CEO of SOF Spoken Speaking, Courses and Coaching.

You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page, on Twitter @usatodayopinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter. To respond to a column, submit a comment to letters@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: How Task Force Pineapple saved Americans trapped in Afghanistan
ANN ARBOR, Mich.  In Week 1, Caden Kolesar was thrust into the unenviable position of filling in for Ronnie Bell on punt returns after Bell went down with injury. The receiver was putting on a show and thus the safety, Kolesar, had to suddenly come in and replicate his success.

The problem is, Jim Harbaugh wants Kolesar to play another role on the punt return unit, because he feels that hes the teams best rusher and gunner on special teams.

At the moment, Michigan is searching for other options so that Kolesar is freed up to play other positions on punt return.

Yeah, like I said last week, hes so valuable at the other positions at punt return, we really need somebody else to step up and I think A.J. is really close, Harbaugh said. Had a good week of practice last week and (will) have another one this week. But A.J., Andrel Anthony, DJ Turner and Donovan Edwards will be the guys in the mix there. Were gonna be a better punt return unit if Cadens rushing or holding up because hes just so good at those things. Happened to be he was the best guy at catching the ball. Thats a factor this past week, but going forward, were gonna be much better if we have him playing the other positions and we get someone else stepping up returning punts.

Related

Daylen Baldwin shares differences of playing under Jim Harbaugh and Deion Sanders The throw: Daylen Baldwin recaps J.J. McCarthy's gutsy cross-field TD pass Michigan heard Washington say it'd stop the run, made it pay

Considering that praise, how does Kolesar approach his non-punt return roles? What makes him so good?

Its all about preparation and being versatile.

Its different every week depending on what the other teams punt is  if theyre spread, if theyre pro, whatever they do, Kolesar said. My role changes every single week. But whatever role they want me on, Im gonna attack that and do the best I can.

At the moment, Kolesar is still working as a return man, he says, but there are others who are getting into the act, with A.J. Henning seeming to be the readiest to take on the position.

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Returning the ball, weve got four or five different returners that will cycle through catching the ball, Kolesar said. We go before practice, during practice, after practice. Just always trying to work on our craft, get each other better.

Im still back there getting reps in practice, so well see. The other guys are, you got A.J. Henning, DJ Turner, Donovan Edwards, Andrel Anthony. Thats pretty much (it).

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Kolesar has done a good job as the teams return man, but hasnt quite had the electricity that Bell brought to the position. But against Washington, he did have one scary moment when he muffed the punt.

Still, he didnt panic, he located the ball and moved it forward without the Huskies getting an opportunity to cause a turnover and a short field.

So, how did it play out in his memory?

I didnt get into position quick enough, I should have squared it up, Kolesar said. But then, when I realized I muffed it, I just knew I had to get on the ball as quick as possible and just try to get as many yards as I could.

Well see if Michigan continues with Kolesar as the punt returner or if someone else gets an opportunity on Saturday, when the Wolverines host NIU at noon EDT at The Big House.
WASHINGTON  Then-Afghan President Ashraf Ghani's decision to flee his country on Aug. 15 torpedoed an 11th-hour deal the U.S. had brokered to keep the Taliban out of Kabul for at least two weeks, according to the State Department's special envoy to Afghanistan.

The envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad, told the Financial Times that the U.S. had secured an agreement under which Ghani would remain in Kabul and Taliban fighters would not enter Afghanistan's capital while diplomats negotiated a political transition of power in Qatar.

After Ghani fled, he said, the Taliban asked American officials if they planned to take over the security of Kabul, a proposition the U.S. rejected.

"Even at the end, we had an agreement with the Talibs for [them] not to enter Kabul, Khalilzad told the Financial Times in his first interview since the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Khalilzad said he had no inkling at all that Ghani was intending to flee. He said the Afghan leader's decision prompted the city's security forces to disband  creating a security vacuum and unleashing the chaotic bid to evacuate.

There were questions of law and order in Kabul after Ghani fled . . . The Talibs [then] . . . say: Are you going to take responsibility for security of Kabul now? . . . And then you know what happened, we werent going to take responsibility, he said.

In this Feb. 29, 2020, U.S. peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, left, and Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban group's top political leader shack hands after signing a peace agreement between Taliban and U.S. officials in Doha, Qatar.

When the Taliban entered the city, many Afghans became panicked at the prospect of a return to the Taliban's ruthless rule and rushed to the airport, creating chaos as the U.S. tried to evacuate Americans and at-risk Afghans.

Ghani has said he left the country to avoid "bloodshed" of civilians in Kabul. After Ghani left the country, Nikita Ishchenko, a spokesman for the Russian embassy in Kabul, told reporters that Ghani left his country with "cars full of money." Afghanistan's ambassador to Tajikistan also accused Ghani of stealing millions of dollars as he left the country. Ghani, now in the United Arab Emirates, has denied those accusations and said he left with just his clothes.

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The State Department's chief spokesman, Ned Price, said before Ghani fled, Khalilzad "was engaged in discussions with the Taliban on what we hoped would be a political transfer, a negotiated agreement from one Afghan government to the next."

He said Khalilzad's statement that the Taliban asked if the U.S. planned to secure Kabul did not mean its leaders would have countenanced an extension of America's military presence in the country, and the Biden administration never considered sending American forces to secure the streets of Kabul.

"Policing the city of Kabul, that is not something that was ever contemplated," Price said. "The Taliban felt they had no option but to enter the city."

Khalilzad, a holdover from the Trump administration, negotiated the 2020 deal with the Taliban, under which the U.S. agreed to withdrawal all its forces this year. Lawmakers in both parties have blasted that agreement, saying the U.S. gave up its leverage for meager concessions from the Taliban.

In the wake of the chaotic U.S. exit from Afghanistan, at least one lawmaker, Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Fla., has called for Khalilzad's resignation.

Khalilzad told the Financial Times that he always had a resignation letter at-the-ready because "somebody might take it.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Afghanistan: Ashraf Ghani's exit torpedoed US deal with Taliban
Kittitas School District Parapro Leslie Bray gives out masks to students as they arrive for the first day of school on Sept. 9, 2021, and lets them know they dont have to wear them outside.
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VILLANOVA, Pa.  Catherine Warrick, PhD, associate professor of Political Science and director of Villanova Universitys Center for Arab and Islamic Studies, has been named editor of the Digest of Middle East Studies, a peer-reviewed, international social science journal dedicated to publishing original research on domestic and international policy issues in the contemporary Middle East and North Africa.

Today, international politics and economics are deeply affected by the dynamics in the Arab and Islamic world. Issues and trends that will gradually shape its future include demographic changes, more vocal calls for accountability in governance, access to the Internet and democratization of information, transformation of the energy sector, and the growing role of religion in public discourse. Established in 1992, Digest of Middle East Studies is published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the Policy Studies Organization.

An expert on Middle East politics and law, Islamic law, gender, and British politics, Dr. Warrick is the author of Law in the Service of Legitimacy: Gender and Politics in Jordan (Ashgate, 2009). She is currently researching the uses of Islamic law in Western democracies, for which she held a grant from the National Science Foundation's Law and Social Science program and a Fulbright faculty fellowship to the University of Exeter (UK). In addition to her academic work, Dr. Warrick occasionally serves as an expert witness in asylum cases involving Arab refugees and has testified before the Congressional Human Rights Caucus about honor crimes.

I am delighted to bring Digest of Middle East Studies to Villanova and honored to be selected as editor, Dr. Warrick said. It brings significant international attention to our Center for Arab and Islamic Studies.



Villanova University established the Center for Arab and Islamic Studies in 1983 in recognition of the critical importance of Arab and Islamic cultures, which for centuries have had a profound impact on the arts and sciences in the Middle East and elsewhere. Arab and Islamic Studies at Villanova offers an interdisciplinary approach that reflects the complexity of the Arab and Islamic world, offers a basic grounding in Arabic language, and provides a background for advanced professional studies, as well as careers in government or business in the field
VILLANOVA, Pa.As national interest in the intersection of religious and political ideas is on the rise, Villanova University is launching the Center for Political Theology. The Center will advance discussions of religion and politics that engage deeply with the Christian tradition and speak broadly to pressing issues of the day. The new Center, housed in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, brings Christian theologians into dialogue with humanities scholars and social scientists to explore the issues where religion and politics entangle, while also helping students understand and participate in those conversations.

The Center for Political Theology will connect scholars across campus and across the country, driving an intellectual conversation, building a scholarly community and shaping current and future scholars, says Vincent Lloyd, PhD, associate professor of Theology and Religious Studies, who has been named the Centers inaugural director.

Dr. Lloyd is an editor of Journal of Political Theology and a member of the Political Theology Networks Executive Committee. In 2017 and 2019 Villanova University received a pair of grants totaling $550,000 from the Henry Luce Foundation to create and support The Political Theology Network, an interdisciplinary association of scholars exploring the intersection of religion and politics. Dr. Lloyd was a key leader in building the network, which connects scholars, activists and community leaders who are interested in promoting the publicly engaged, interdisciplinary study of religion and politics.

With his research on connections between religion, politics, race, and philosophy, Dr. Lloyds books include The Problem with Grace: Reconfiguring Political Theology (Stanford University Press, 2013); Black Natural Law (Oxford University Press, 2016) and the forthcoming Black Dignity: A Philosophy (Yale University Press). He received his doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley.

The Center for Political Theologys inaugural event will take place Thursday, Oct. 21 at 7 p.m. in the Smith Performance Lab of the John and Joan Mullen Center for the Performing Arts. Moderated by Dr. Lloyd, the panelists include:

Luke Bretherton, PhD, Robert E. Cushman Distinguished Professor of Moral and Political Theology, Duke University

Valentina Napolitano, PhD, professor of Anthropology, University of Toronto

Kevin M. DePrinzio, OSA, PhD, vice president, Villanova University Office for Mission and Ministry, will serve as a respondent to the panelists opening remarks.

The event is free and open to the public. All visitors to campus, regardless of vaccination status, are required to wear masks inside campus buildings. It will also be accessible via livestream.
NEW DELHI: The YS Jagan Mohan Reddy government in Andhra Pradesh has extended the existing night curfew in the state till September 30 with effect from September 16.

The order in this regard came from the Chief Ministers Office, according to news agency ANI.

The night curfew across the state has been extended from the 16 September to 30 September: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister's Office (CMO)  ANI (@ANI) September 14, 2021

A decision to this effect was taken by CM Jagan Mohan Reddy following a meeting to review the COVID-19 situation across the state. The state government had earlier decided to continue with the night curfews in the state between 11 pm to 6 am in view of the increasing daily Covid-19 infections in the state and also the upcoming festival season.

Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday reported 1,125 new Covid-19 infections and nine fatalities, taking the states total caseload so far to 2,031,974 and the death toll to 14,019.

The active caseload in the state stood at 14,412, according to a bulletin from the health department. Chittoor district continued to report a higher number of cases, adding 210 it to its tally. SPS Nellore registered 184, Krishna 164, West Godavari 161 and Prakasam 110 in 24 hours. The remaining eight districts added less than 90 new cases each, with Kurnool and Vizianagaram logging one and seven respectively.

Krishna district saw three more COVID-19 deaths, West Godavari two, East Godavari, Guntur, SPS Nellore and Prakasam one each in a day.

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New Delhi: 'Thalaivii' reviews are in and as expected Bollywood's Queen Kangana Ranaut is being praised sky high for her solid-pack performance in the role of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayaliathaa in the film. Kangana, who has proven her acting chopps in several films, this time too shines the brightest in the film. Riding high on the success, the actress on Tuesday announced her next venture, 'The Incarnation - Sita', leaving her fans shocked.

It looks like Kangana has bagged this much-talked about project from her contemporary Kareena Kapoor Khan.

This epic drama is written by KV Vijayendra Prasad of 'Baahubali' fame. The film will be directed by Alaukik Desai and backed by producer Saloni Sharma from SS Studio. Sharma said Ranaut is the apt choice to play the titular character.

"As a woman, I couldn't be happier in welcoming Ms Kangana Ranaut onboard our VFX magnum opus, 'The Incarnation Sita'. Kangana symbolizes the spirit and essence of the Indian woman - fearless, daunting and daring... It's time we stepped in to celebrate equality in every respect," the producer said in a statement.

This is reportedly the same project for which Kareena had reportedly sought a massive fee of Rs 12 crore. However, it looks like Kareena has lost the project and Kangana will be seen playing the lead role in the film.

The four-time national award winner took to social media to announced the film, while also sharing a pic from her childhood, where she is seen dressed up as Sita. The actor also shared a throwback picture from her school days to reveal that it was not the first time she will be essaying the mythological character. "I also played Sita as a child when I was 12 years old in school play ha ha... SiyaRamchandra ki jai," she shared on her Instagram Stories.

Here's Kangana Ranaut's childhood pic from her school days:

Apart from 'Sita', Kangana also has Sarvesh Mewara's 'Tejas' and Razneesh Razy Ghai's 'Dhaakad'.
NEW DELHI: Delhi University (DU) and its affiliated colleges will resume physical classes from Wednesday (September 15) in a phased manner in view of the improvement in the COVID-19 situation in the country.

The Delhi University authorities have decided to resume online classes after a nod by the Delhi Disaster Management Authority on August 30, 2021, to reopen educational institutions.

Offline classes on campus will be resumed for several students, after being shut down for over 1.5 years, keeping in mind the COVID situation across the country. It should be noted that while there will be a resumption of physical classes, online classes will continue for students.

As per the official notification released by University Grant Commission, Universities have to follow certain SOPs while reopening campus.

A list of detailed COVID guidelines has been issued by the Delhi University administration in order to maintain a safe environment during offline classes.

-Both doses of COVID-19 vaccination should be received by Teaching and Non-Teaching staff at the earliest.]

-Students who are visiting the college, departments, the university should have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccines. However, it is essential for hostel residents to receive both the COVID-19 doses.

-It should be noted that theory classes for both Undergraduate and Postgraduate courses will be held online until further notification.

-With regards to visiting libraries, departments might give respective slots to students to visit libraries.

-Final year UG and PG students will be allowed to attend practical and library classes from tomorrow. however, classes will resume with 50% capacity. Only those experiments, practicals that are essential for the upcoming semester would be conducted by DU.

-Students should note that attending physical classes is optional. Thus, attendance for these classes is not mandatory.

-Further, if the same premise is shared for conducting classes by an Evening College and Morning College, a conductive timetable for taking physical classes should be followed by the colleges.

-All stakeholders are advised to go through the detailed official notification released by DU for the resumption of physical classes.

Schools in Delhi already decided to reopen classes 9 to 12 with proper COVID-19 protocols. Several other educational institutions such as JNU have also reopened in the national capital for physical classes.

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NEW DELHI: A large number associated with various farmer bodies are headed towards the Delhi borders to intensify their ongoing protest against the Centre's farm laws, reports said on Wednesday.

It may be noted that farmers have been protesting the central government`s three controversial farm laws since had passed the Farmer`s Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020, and the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020.

Top farmer leaders have said that they will continue their agitation till the Centre meets their demand to repeal the three controversial farm laws.

After several rounds of inconclusive talks with the Centre, the farmer leaders have said that they will intensify their agitation in the days to come to put more pressure on the government and mobilse support from the general public.

BKU leader Rakesh Tikait has threatened that the protests will continue till the government does not agree to farmers demands and repeals the laws.

"The protests will continue till the government does not agree to our demands and repeals the laws. Till then, we would not leave the Delhi border no matter how long it takes. We will fight till our last breath. They will have to tell us that who is more dear to them, the farmers or the corporates," he added. "Farmers would not get the benefit until laws guaranteeing Minimum Support Price (MSP) are introduced," Tikait said and alleged that the Centre was being run by corporates.

He also raised concerns over the Centre`s new labour laws. "Factory workers can not agitate and form associations anymore. They are selling everything. They are trying to close mandis," the BKU leader has said.

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New Delhi: The price of organic eggs in the United States could swell up in the coming days. The spike in prices of eggs is a likely result of the recent US trade dispute with India.

Yes, you read that right. The reason behind this is that South Asian countries such as India supply 40% of organic Soya meal requirements of the United States. The Soya meal is used to feed chickens which lays organic eggs for supply in the US.

According to several reports, the US is investigating claims of India and fairly dumping and subsidizing Soya products, which in turn could harm American companies. There are also chances of an increase in tariffs for India.

All of this is caring merchandisers, which in turn have started hooding Soya meals as a response. This is also contributing to increasing in prices and tight supplies. (Also Read: Big boost for telecom players! Cabinet approves 4-year moratorium on AGR dues, 100% FDI)

Estimates suggest that the average industry cost of producing a dozen organic eggs went up from 15 cents to 20 cents because of the rise in the price of feed alone, Bloomberg reported.

Cost of Organic soybeans in the US reached $29.92 a bushel on Friday, which is 40% off from a year ago. Trade tensions, pandemic related shipping disruptions are also contributing to this price spike. (Also Read: Telecom, IT shares lift Sensex, Nifty to all-time highs)

According to many estimates, the average industry cost of producing a dozen organic eggs went up from 15 cents to 20 cents because of the rise in the price of feed alone.

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New Delhi: The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council is all set to meet in Lucknow on Friday, September 15. Besides all other important issues, the council is likely to discuss bringing fuel prices under the ambit of GST taxation. If that happens, then the prices of petrol and diesel could plummet, in what could be a major respite for the common man who has been faced with high fuel prices in the past few years.

According to economists at the State Bank of India (SBI), petrol price could touch Rs 75 per litre if the brought under the ambit of the GST. At the same time, diesel could be priced as low as Rs 68 per litre if GST becomes applicable on the fuel.

The total loss of bringing petrol and diesel prices under GST will stand at about Rs 1 lakh crore or 0.4 % of GDP, according to the calculation by the economists made under the assumption of global crude prices at $ 60 a barrel and exchange rate at  73 per dollar.

"Centre and states are loathe to bring crude oil products under the GST regime as sales tax/VAT (value added tax) on petroleum products is a major source of own tax revenue for them. Thus, there is lack of political will to bring crude under the ambit of GST, economists said.

However, economists arent confident of any such move by the GST Council. According to them, there is a lack of political will, which is keeping Indian oil product prices at one of the highest in the world.

In the national capital, Delhi, petrol and diesel are currently retailing at Rs 101.19 and Rs 88.62 per litre, respectively. The Central government currently charges taxes equal to 32% of the prices of petrol while the state taxes vary from state to state. Also Read: Twitter reopens account verification process after one month hiatus

In comparison, the estimated GST-led prices of petrol and diesel are much lower. GST Council will now discuss the matter on September 17, in accordance with the directions of the Kerala high courts June order. Also Read: 2021 Force Gurkha SUV unveiled: Check launch, delivery date, price and features of Thar rival

- With PTI inputs.
New Delhi: India recorded an average of 80 murder and 77 rape cases everyday in 2020, National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report revealed on Wednesday (September 15).

The country witnessed a total of 29,193 fatalities with Uttar Pradesh accounting for maximum murders with 3779 such cases. UP was followed by Bihar with 3,150 murders, Maharashtra (2,163), Madhya Pradesh (2,101) and West Bengal (1,948). Delhi logged 472 murder cases in 2020.

Compared to 2019 that saw 28,915 murders with a daily average of 79 killings, 2020 marked a marginal decrease of 1 per cent.

The country registered nearly 77 rape cases daily on an average in 2020 with a total of 28,046 such incidents.

The overall number of cases of crimes against women saw a decreasing trend with 3,71,503 such cases being recorded in 2020, down from 4,05,326 in 2019 and 3,78,236 in 2018.

The cases of kidnapping and abduction also went down by over 19 per cent in 2020 as compared to 2019.

There were a total of 84,805 lodged cases of kidnapping and abduction in 2020 as against 1,05,036 in 2019, according to the NCRB report.

Among states, the maximum 12,913 kidnapping and abductions cases in 2020 were lodged in Uttar Pradesh followed by West Bengal (9,309), Maharashtra (8,103), Bihar (7,889) and Madhya Pradesh (7,320), the data showed.

Delhi registered 4,062 kidnapping and abduction cases during 2020, it showed. The NCRB stated that there were 88,590 total victims in 84,805 cases of kidnapping and abduction in the country last year. Of these, the majority 56,591 victims were children while the remaining were adults, it added.

Also Read: Rajasthan records maximum rape cases in 2020, crime up by 15% in Jammu and Kashmir

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New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday (September 15) unveiled the new logo All India Mahila Congress on their foundation day in New Delhi.

At the foundation day ceremony, Gandhi said that the ideology of the Congress was completely opposite of the BJP-RSS and stressed that only one of the two ideologies can rule the country.

Slamming the saffron party and RSS, the Congress leader said they are "fake Hindus" who use religion for their benefit, PTI reported.

"Ye kis prakar ke Hindu hain. Ye jhoote Hindu hain. Ye Hindu dharm ka prayog karte hain, ye dharm ki dalali karte hain, magar ye Hindu nahin hain (What kind of Hindus are they? They are fake Hindus. They use Hindu religion, they are brokers of religion, but they are not Hindus," the Congress MP said.

Gandhi said that Goddess Lakshmi's power is providing employment, Goddess Durgas power is to protect, while Saraswati imparts knowledge, adding that Congress had strengthened these powers when in government, while the ruling BJP is busy snatching these powers from the public.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi unveils the new logo of All India Mahila Congress, at their foundation day programme in Delhi. pic.twitter.com/Fns0IlrRNI  ANI (@ANI) September 15, 2021

Earlier, the former Congress chief attacked Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on his controversial Abba Jaan remark. Taking to Twitter, Gandhi wrote, What kind of a Yogi propagates hate.

  ,

  !  Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) September 14, 2021

The UP CM had created a massive stir online after he said that before his government came to power in 2017, only those who said Abba Jaan digested ration. Under PM Modi leadership, there is no place for appeasement politics....Before 2017 was everyone able to get ration?....Earlier only those who used to say 'Abba Jaan' were digesting the ration, Adityanath said in Kushinagar. The statement irked many netizens with most of them taking to Twitter to share the stories of their fathers using the hashtag HamareAbbaJaan.

The UP CM had also accused the previous governments of making the state a synonym of dynastic politics, nepotism, appeasement, dacoity, hooliganism and riots.

(With agency inputs)

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Days after a court here questioned Delhi Police over sustainability of a charge sheet filed in a 2020 riots case, the prosecutor who was handling the matter was 'replaced'.

Additional Sessions Judge Vinod Yadav had asked the police how a charge sheet in the case was sustainable in law as the FIR was registered on a complaint in which three of the co-accused had been discharged earlier.

The question of law, essentially, becomes of how the proceedings against the accused in the second case can continue when they have been discharged in the first one for the same Sections of the crime in the same jurisdiction, Yadav had said on September 3.

The court had asked Special Public Prosecutor D K Bhatia whether this would amount to 'double jeopardy', a legal principle that a person cannot be tried for the same crime twice in the same jurisdiction.

On September 9, the court was informed that Bhatia has been replaced by prosecutor Madhukar Pandey. "It is stated by the IO that D K Bhatia, Special PP who was earlier handling this case has been replaced by Madhukar Pandey who is to be briefed in this matter," the court noted.

The prosecution then sought two months to argue the matter but the judge dismissed the request. "In the interest of justice and to give effective representation to the State, re-notify for consideration on charge on October 5. It is made clear that both sides should remain prepared for advancing arguments," the judge said.

The court was conducting proceedings in the FIR 117/2020 filed on a complaint of one Zeeshan against Mohd Shadab, Rashid Saifi, and Shah Alam, and others co-accused.

Zeeshan's same complaint was also included in FIR 109/2020 in which Shadab, Saifi, and Alam were discharged on September 2.

The court said, "On September 2, this court had discharged the accused persons in FIR No.109/2020. In the said case, one of the complaints tagged along with the main complaint was of Zeeshan's. The matter was investigated...As well and charge sheet in the matter was filed."

ASJ Yadav added, "In this case (117/2020), FIR was registered on the very same complaint by Zeeshan. The matter was again investigated and a charge sheet filed. The learned special public prosecutor was asked a specific question as to how the present charge sheet is sustainable."

The complainant had alleged that his furniture shop was looted by a mob on February 25, 2020. Both the FIRs were registered on March 4, 2020. Suspended Aam Aadmi Party municipal councillor Tahir Hussain is one of the accused in FIR 117/2020.

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Mumbai, Sep 15 (PTI) The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad on Wednesday claimed that terror suspect Jaan Mohammad Sheikh, arrested along with five others by the Delhi Police, had links with the 'D-Company' about 20 years back.

'D-Company' is a term used to refer to the underworld criminal syndicate controlled by fugitive don Dawood Ibrahim.

The Delhi Police's Special Cell on Tuesday busted a Pakistan-organised terror module with the arrest of six men, including two Pak-ISI trained terrorists, officials said.

The terrorists were allegedly planning several blasts across the country, including Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, during the festivals of Ganesh Chaturthi, Navratri and Ramleela, they said.

Out of the six arrested men, Sheikh (47) hails from Mumbai and his family here was questioned and his home was searched by the Mumbai Police and the Maharashtra ATS on Tuesday after his arrest became public.

Police had also said that Pakistan-based Anees Ibrahim, who is the brother of Dawood Ibrahim, was connected with the underworld operatives to execute the terror plan.

On Wednesday, Maharashtra ATS chief Vineet Agarwal told reporters here that Sheikh was a "henchman of the D-Company" and followed directions "from the other side of the border" when he was connected with it.

The official said they have come across a "link of Sheikh with the D-Company almost 20 years back".

A case had been registered against Sheikh by Pydhonie police here (at that time) in connection with firing and vandalism in the city, the official said, adding that like other accused, Sheikh was also on the radar of police.

On September 13, he boarded the Golden Temple train (from Mumbai) to go to Hazrat Nizamuddin (in Delhi), but he was caught by the Delhi Police when he reached Kota in Rajasthan, the state ATS official said.

During a search of his belongings, no weapon, explosive or gelatin was found, he said.

"Our team will be going to Delhi to question Sheikh and also share (related) information with the Delhi police. We do not have a copy of the FIR (registered against him by Delhi Police), so we cannot reveal more. We will only come to know from the Delhi Police what information they exactly have and what was the conspiracy (of the terror suspects)," he said.

The official further said the Maharashtra ATS has been given a free hand by state authorities to deal strictly with those involved in terror activities and in this case.

To a question, the official claimed the underworld has "zero presence" now.

Besides Sheikh, the others arrested by the Delhi Police have been identified as Osama (22), Moolchand (47), Zeeshan Qamar (28), Mohd Abu Bakar (23) and Mohd Amir Javed (31).

According to police, Osama and Qamar were Pakistan-trained terror operatives working under the instructions of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). They were tasked to conduct the reconnaissance of different suitable locations in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh for placing IEDs (improvised explosive devices), the police earlier said.

The Delhi Police had also said that Sheikh, an underworld operative and a close contact of Anees Ibrahim, was tasked by a Pakistan-based person connected with the underworld operatives hiding in Pakistan to ensure smooth delivery of IEDs, sophisticated weapons and grenades to different entities in India.

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Chennai: Indian Naval Air Squadron (INAS) 561 also known as Helicopter Training School (HTS), celebrated its Golden Jubilee at INS Rajali, Arakkonam, Tamil Nadu on Tuesday. Rear Admiral Philipose G Pynumootil, Flag Officer Naval Aviation was the Chief Guest for the event which also witnessed participation from many serving and retired alumni of the HTS. INAS 561 is the first and only helicopter training squadron of the Navy and hence the alma mater of all Navy chopper pilots.

Until 1971, the Indian Navys air arm was restricted mainly to Carrier borne aviation - basically catapult launched aircraft and the Search and rescue (SAR) flight. A need was felt for a completely Naval oriented approach to helicopter flying, which involved carrier borne operations, survey operations and SAR operations at Sea. This, finally, took shape with the commissioning of the Naval Helicopter Training School as INAS 561 on September 15, 1971 at INS Garuda, Cochin.

The squadron was later rebased to its present location at INS Rajali, Arakkonam in June 1992. The year 2021 marks the Golden Jubilee of the squadron, and also 60 years of induction of Chetak helicopters into the Naval Air wing.

A motorcycle expedition from INS Garuda, Kochi to INS Rajali, Arakkonam, commemorative Postal Stamp release, the inauguration of Chetak helicopter Static Display, flypast by various helicopters of the Indian Navy were undertaken at INS Rajali, to mark the celebrations.

A digital publication and a motivational video depicting the activities and operations conducted by the squadron were released by the Admiral, during the ceremony here. These are meant to serve as a memoir depicting the evolution of the squadron and as an ode to the efforts of all men who have been part of this illustrious journey. Apart from imparting valuable training to budding helicopter pilots, the HTS has also performed numerous life-saving missions.

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New Delhi: The Indian Coast Guard on Tuesday (September 14) apprehended a Pakistani shipping boat off Gujarat coast.

The Pakistani boat named Allah Pawawakal was navigating in Indian waters with 12 crew members onboard.

The ICG Ship under the command of Commandant (JG) Gaurav Sharma, challenged and the boarding party of the Ship, despite rough and adverse weather conditions, was tasked to board the boat, said ICG in a statement.

The ICG said that the boat was brought to Gujarat's Okha for further joint probe by the investigative agencies.

It may be noted that the Indian Coast Guard, during the last four days has saved seven fishermen from a sinking boat in a night operation undertaken by helicopter. It also provided six inflatable boats along with relief teams to augment HADR efforts of the state government in areas of incessant rains.

Also Read: ICG, DST rescue and relief teams at work in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Goa flood-hit areas

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Chennai: Indian Space entrepreneurs and experts pointed out the need for Indias Space industry to tap into the global market, as well as form a common platform to exhibit their capabilities. Supplying aerospace products, services or components to the Global market is a crucial focus area for India, given the countrys existing capabilities and the growing global private space industry.

Experts also urged the Government of India to act as a catalyst and ensure that Government contracts and financial grants were offered to Indias private sector, to enable further private investment and growth. This discussion was helmed by Dr. S. Somanath, Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Center (ISRO), which is Indias lead center for development of rockets and related technologies. This exchange of ideas under the theme of Increasing Global partnership in Space sector was held as a part of an ISRO-CII conference.

Setting the tone for the session, Dr. Somanath mentioned that ISRO had signed about 260 agreements and MoUs with 60 nations and 5 multi-national entities, he added that Indias historical long-term cooperation in Space domain had been with France, Japan, Russia, USA and Germany. The senior ISRO scientist also touched upon how global partnerships were mutually beneficial, and how India had the potential to be a manufacturing hub for space technology, with Indian firms expanding to foreign markets and vice versa.

Speaking of some of Indias initiatives to help friendly-foreign countries, M. Sanakaran, Director, UR Rao Satellite Centre, listed out Indias SAARC satellite for South Asian nations, UNNATI programme to train foreign scientists in building small satellites, among others. On the way ahead, he said it was important to take space technology to friendly countries that didnt have the means. He envisaged projects where the global space powers came together for the common good of humanity. A global constellation of satellites for data transfer or imaging on-demand etc are viable projects and it can be done via a partnership of various companies with joint investment and each one reaping rewards in their respective sectors, Sankaran said.

Based on a study conducted by his organization, Satsearch, Narayan Prasad, the COO highlighted that Indian industry (over 300 suppliers of ISRO) had developed tremendous manufacturing and infrastructure capabilities over the last four decades. Pointing out the current global commercial space market, he said that supply chains were getting globalized and companies looked at best cost to performance ratio. He saw immense potential for Indian companies in this domain, provided, they are given the right amount of global exposure. He also spelt out the need for a common platform (similar to Europes ESA Star), where Indian suppliers could publicize their capabilities and offerings.

Shaju Stephen, the CMD of Aadyah aerospace pointed out that satellites (GPS data) was driving economic activity (Uber, E-com delivery services, mapping, other services) worth $5.7 trillion in the US, every year. On Indias unique advantage, he said that less than 20 per cent of the 195 countries in the world had access to rocket and satellite technology and launch capability. India is sitting on a gold mine of expertise and talent, the global space economy is projected to be worth $ 3trillion by 2040. We must adopt a Public-Private-Partnership model for building space infrastructure and also have space developers who will fund such projects he said. Drawing from how NASA funded and awarded crucial contracts to SpaceX, he said that ISRO had to be a catalyst for India Government contracts and grants to go to the home-grown private sector.

Nitish Singh, the co-founder of Astrogate labs, spoke on the need to examine the possibility of International cooperation for critical technologies that are required to fulfill exploratory missions. He also specified the need for a platform, in order to unite space agencies that have a certain requirement and also the service provider or company who can provide that technology/component/service.
New Delhi: In a massive scam case, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has booked a Delhi-based private firm Indian Technomach for allegedly defrauding 16 banks of funds to the tune of Rs 1528 crore.

The agency said that the company, its CMD, other private individuals and public servants conspired to defraud a consortium of 16 banks led by Bank of India.

The Central Bureau of Investigation has registered a case against a private company M/s Indian Technomach Co. Ltd based at Delhi & having its industrial unit in Himachal Pradesh and others including Rakesh Kr Sharma, Promoter & CMD; Vinay Kr Sharma, Director/Guarantor & two Corporate Guarantors, M/s Gurupath Merchandise Ltd.,(Corporate Guarantor), Kolkata & M/s Thunder Traders Ltd. (Corporate Guarantor), Kolkata; Unknown public servant(s)/unknown others on the allegations that the accused conspired with each other to defraud the banks and caused loss of Rs.1528.05 crore (approx) to the consortium of 16 banks led by Bank of India, the CBI said in a statement.

The consortium banks included Bank of India, Union Bank of India, Andhra Bank, Punjab & Sind Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, State Bank of Hyderabad, Central Bank of India, Corporation Bank, HDFC Bank Limited, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Saraswat Co-operative Bank, State Bank of Patiala, UCO Bank, Allahabad Bank, Standard Chartered Bank and DBS.

The CBI alleged that the accused, who were engaged in manufacturing ferrous and non-ferrous metal, obtained loans from the consortium of banks from 2008 to 2013 but later diverted the funds causing a loss of Rs 1528.05 crore.

The account was classified as NPA in the books of accounts of Bank of India in March 2014. It was red-flagged by the bank as advised by RBI in May 2015 and then declared fraud in February 2016.

The investigative agency conducted searches at various premises of the accused including Kangra, Ponta Sahib and Sirmaur in Himachal Pradesh.

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The chief of Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), Vineet Agrawal, said categorically on Wednesday that no recce has been done in Mumbai, nor any weapons or explosives were found in the wake of the busting of a terror module by the Special Cell of Delhi Police on Tuesday.

"We keep getting terror alerts. But as far as this case is concerned, Mumbai and Maharashtra are safe," the ATS chief told mediapersons.

Agrawal's comments came a day after the Delhi Police nabbed six persons, including one Jaan Mohammed Shaikh (47) of Mumbai, in an anti-terror operation, sparking concerns in the country's commercial capital.

"Shaikh took a train from Mumbai Central for Hazrat Nizamuddin in Delhi on September 13. He was arrested by a Delhi Police team from Kota in Rajasthan on Tuesday," Agrawal told mediapersons.

He added that the Maharashtra ATS is coordinating with the Delhi Police in this regard and a team will leave for the national capital later on Wednesday to take the custody of Shaikh for his interrogation by the police.

"We have asked for a copy of the FIR from the Delhi Police to know more about the case. We want to know the exact conspiracy. We will also share whatever information we have with the Delhi Police," Agrawal said.

The Mumbai Police have also questioned Shaikh's family members who live in the Sion area of Dharavi, and the police are already aware of his old crime records in Mumbai, he said.

The accused has 20-year-old connections with absconding mafia don Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar and worked as his henchman here. He was also involved in crimes like assault and firing, which are registered with the Pydhonie police station.

Shaikh was jobless before he bought a taxi and was paying the EMI for it. He was said to be under financial stress.

To a query, Agrawal said that the Central intelligence agencies did not issue any alert to Maharashtra Police or the ATS in this matter.

"Then how is it an 'intelligence failure' on our part? The case is of Delhi Police and they have all the rights to make arrests," the ATS chief said.

Earlier, Home Minister Dilip Walse-Patil had said that there is "no intel failure" and the state government will cooperate fully with the Delhi Police in this "extremely sensitive case".

His comments came after a high-level review meeting with DGP Sanjay Pandey, Mumbai Police Commissioner Hemant Nagrale, the ATS chief and others, following which he gave a detailed briefing to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.

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New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday (September 15) granted the Centre two more weeks' time to make appointments to various Tribunals. The top court also criticised the government for "cherry-picking" in choosing persons for appointment as tribunal members from the names recommended by selection panels headed by sitting Supreme Court Judges.

Hearing petitions challenging the constitutional validity of Tribunal Reforms Act 2021 and the case relating to vacancies across tribunals, a special bench of Chief Justice of India NV Ramana, Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice L Nageswara Rao expressed unhappiness with the government for the manner in which the recent appointments were made in the Tribunals.

The apex court bench said, "not happy about how Centre has acted on recommendations of search cum selection committees for appointments in various Tribunals," adding "We are very unhappy with the way in which things are going on and decisions are being taken."

The court gave the last opportunity to the government to make good appointments within two weeks and give reasons for rejecting recommended names.

The Centre has "cherry-picked" few names from the selection list prepared by the Search cum Selection Committee and picked up some names from the waiting list while ignoring the names in the selection list, the Bench told Attorney General KK Venugopal appearing for the Centre.

When Venugopal said the Centre has a right to reject recommended names, the SC bench replied, "What is the sanctity of process if the government has the last word? Selection committee undertakes an elaborate process to short-list the names."

Venugopal then asked the bench to give the Centre two weeks and "we will reconsider the non-acceptance list apart from candidates who have corruption charges."

The bench also observed that it is distressing that names recommended by a selection panel, comprising two Supreme Court judges and two secretaries are being treated with disdain.

CJI Ramana told Venugopal, "I have seen the selection list of National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT). The selection committee recommended 9 judicial members and 10 technical members. The appointment letters indicate cherry-picking of 3 names from the select list and others from the wait list, ignoring others in a select list. In service law, you can`t go to the waitlist ignoring the select list. What kind of appointment is this?"

The CJI further said that "the same problem was there with the names cleared by the Centre for Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT)," adding "We select people after conducting interviews and government says we can`t elect them... We travelled across the country. We spent a lot of time. During Covid, your government requested us to conduct interviews as early as possible. We wasted so much time."

The apex court said it is holding hands on initiating contempt proceedings against the government and various officers responsible and gave the last opportunity to the government to come out with appointments and give reasons for rejecting recommended names.

The top court also issued notice to the Centre on the plea moved by Congress leader and Member of Parliament Jairam Ramesh in the Supreme Court challenging the constitutional validity of various provisions of the Tribunal Reforms Act, 2021, which was recently passed during the Monsoon session of Parliament.

On Tuesday, the Centre through an affidavit informed the Supreme Court that it has appointed 84 members to various tribunals since 2020 and there are no recommendations pending with it anymore, adding that it has acted upon all the names forwarded to it by the search cum selection committees.

According to the affidavit, out of 84 appointments, 39 have been in the current month. Currently, around 250 posts are lying vacant in various key tribunals and appellate tribunals.

Recently, the top court had lashed out at the government for sitting over recommendations made more than a year ago, and also censured the new enacted Tribunal law for re-enacting the very same provisions for the administration of tribunals that were struck down by the court in July.

The top had also observed that it will have to consider staying the new law since it is a "replica" of the old law, which was held to be unconstitutional.

(With Agency Inputs)

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New Delhi: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday (September 15) reiterated her support to the farmers' protest and urged the Centre to repeal the three controversial agriculture laws.

In an effort to reach out to the sizeable Sikh community in Bhabanipur constituency, where the TMC supremo will contest a bypoll on September 30, she visited a Gurudwara in the area and interacted with the locals.

"I share an excellent bonding with the brothers and sisters of the Sikh community. Even members of my family are regular visitors here, she said.

Speaking on the farm laws, Banerjee added, "I have already extended my support to the farmer's movement. We (TMC) have already demanded that these three farm laws be withdrawn. We won't tolerate any injustice on farmers.

We fully support the farmers' movement. The Centre should withdraw the three farm laws: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at Gurudwara Sant Kutiya in Bhabanipur ahead of bypolls pic.twitter.com/NUlCpFHFIY  ANI (@ANI) September 15, 2021

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded advocate and leader Priyanka Tibrewal from the Bhabanipur constituency against the West Bengal CM. Banerjee, who is herself a resident of Bhabanipur, had won the seat in 2011 and 2016, and later shifted to the Nandigram seat. She lost Nandigram seat to BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari, her earlier aide in TMC, by a slight margin in the Assembly polls this year. The TMC chief has to win the Bhabanipur seat in the bypoll to continue as the CM of West Bengal. The counting of votes will take place on October 3.

During the West Bengal Assembly polls held in April-May this year, leaders of Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), which is spearheading the farmer's movement against the farm bills, had campaigned against the saffron party. Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait in Nandigram had urged people not to vote for the BJP and instead cast votes for a candidate who can defeat BJP.

(With agency inputs)

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New Delhi: An Afghan origin national named Bansari Lal Arendeh was reportedly abducted at gunpoint in Kabul on Tuesday (September 14) morning from the vicinity of his shop. A Sikh activist Puneet Singh Chandhok, President Indian World Forum confirms the report.

According to available information, Bansari Lal is in the business of pharmaceutical products and was on his usual routine, going to his shop along with his staff. Sources in Kabul informed that his car was hit from the backside and after that he was taken at gunpoint and he was seen taking a green colour Toyota Corolla along with his abductors.

Sources also informed that he along with his staff was abducted but his staff managed to escaped but not before being mercilessly beaten by the abductors.

When asked about the incident Suhail Shaheen the Talibans spokesperson for International Media replied that he doesnt know about this but will check this with the relevant authority and inform.

This incident happened in the 11th Police district of Kabul. His family lives in Delhi NCR. The local community is following up with the concerned officials and a case has also been registered with local investigation agencies and various searches during the day were done to locate him as per his friends.

While talking to the ZEE media network, Puneet Singh said that he had informed the same to the Ministry of External Affairs Government of India and requested their immediate intervention and assistance in this regard.

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New Delhi/Ayodhya: Aam Aadmi Party organised a massive Tiranga Sankalp Yatra in Ayodhya under the leadership of senior party leader and Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi Manish Sisodia and Aam Aadmi Party Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh on Tuesday. Thousands of people took part in this journey.

Aam Aadmi Party will organise Tiranga Sankalp Yatra all across Uttar Pradesh. On this occasion, Sisodia said, After seeing Ram Lalla in Ayodhya yesterday, we have prayed to the gods that the Aam Aadmi Party should get an opportunity to form the government in Uttar Pradesh. AAP will form a government in the state which will take inspiration from the ideals of Lord Ram. By the grace of Lord Shri Ram, Delhi Government is functioning in accordance with the ideals of Lord Ram and Arvind Kejriwal is the only Chief Minister in all of India who is running the government by following the ideals of Ram Lalla. Today Lord Ram is discussed in other parties, but we all know what is happening in the name of Lord Ram."

"The Yogi government of BJP in Uttar Pradesh is neither of the common people nor of Shri Ram. Instead of ending Goonda Raj, the Yogi government is promoting Goonda Raj in the state. Even after 75 years of independence, instead of giving their due to those who give us food, it is very shameful that they are calling farmers goondas, goons and terrorists, he said.

Manish Sisodia said, In the 75th year of independence, we will take inspiration from the Tiranga in Ayodhya, the city of Shri Ram, and take a pledge to form a government that provides good education, health, employment, security to women to every person standing under this Tiranga. Yogi made big promises to the people of Uttar Pradesh 4.5 years ago that if his government is formed in Uttar Pradesh, then UP will get freedom from goonda raj, corruption will be free, youth will get jobs. Yogi promised to show farmers the dream that the price of their crops would be doubled, that he would establish such a law and order system where mothers and sisters would be safe. But the Yogi Government has only and only cheated the public.

Yogi govt promoting Goonda Raj, neglecting safety of women

Sisodia said, In the last 4.5 years, the Yogi government instead of freeing Uttar Pradesh from Goonda Raj has promoted Goonda Raj. Jaiprakash Pal was publicly murdered in front of the officers and the police. A girl was raped in Hathras, but instead of supporting the girl's family, the Yogi government failed to stand with the poor. The Yogi government of BJP, which dreamed of ending the Goonda Raj, stood with the goons and rapists. And to hide his misdeeds, he cremated the body of the victim at 2 o'clock in the night. The Yogi Government not only encouraged Goonda Raj but also stood with the goons. Today, all the newspapers of UP are full of incidents of rape of young girls, but the Yogi Government has become so ruthless that instead of improving the law and order, it is maligning the poor.

Yogi govt reinforcing corruption in UP

The Yogi government has shown its true colours of corruption. In this regard, Sisodia stated that the Yogi government promised to make Uttar Pradesh corruption-free, but during the COVID period, when schools across the country were closed, the Yogi government committed a scam of Rs 9 crore in the name of distribution of bags and stationery.

During COVID, he bought a ventilator of 8 lakhs and showed 22 lakhs instead. The Yogi Government crossed all the limits of corruption and committed a scam in the name of Shri Ram. In the name of building Ram Mandir, mothers and sisters sold their jewellery, farmers and common man donated from their savings, but the BJP and the Yogi Government were dishonest even in that donation money. Today there is no such Tehsil, Police Station or government office in UP where work is done without taking money. This shows that the Yogi government is neither for the common man nor for Lord Ram.

Fake promises of jobs, quality education under Yogi govt

In the last 4.5 years, there were recruitment examinations, interviews in UP, but even after so many years, people still did not get appointment letters. During the tenure of Yogi, for the first time in history, married women shaved their heads for their rights, because the Yogi Government is engaged in taking away the jobs of these Shiksha Mitras. Today there is no such market in UP where the farmers get the price of their crops according to the MSP. The Yogi government had promised to give double the price of the crops to the farmers, but the farmers are not getting even half the price of their crop with great difficulty. And when farmers are demanding their rights, the BJP and Yogi government are calling them goondas, Mawali and terrorists. Even after 75 years of independence, this behaviour with our Annadaata is extremely shameful.

Sisodia said, The condition of education in Uttar Pradesh is so bad that when I went to see the schools in the capital of Uttar Pradesh, I was stopped by the police. Because the Yogi Government does not have a single school that it can call a model school. The plight of health facilities in Uttar Pradesh can be seen in the times of COVID when thousands of people died due to lack of treatment and bodies were seen floating in the Ganges. Today people from villages of Uttar Pradesh are taking their children to cities for dengue treatment by sitting on cycles but they are neither getting beds nor treatment in the hospital. Parents are forced to take their children back home in the same condition. These pictures are heartbreaking. This is fake nationalism of BJP.

AAPs Tiranga Yatra with the resolve to end corruption in UP

Sisodia challenged this fake nationalism of BJP and said that we will take out Tiranga Yatra with the resolve that we will free Uttar Pradesh from corruption, loot, rioters and goons. We have Shri Ram in our hearts and Constitution in our hands. And we will fulfil that dream by taking the Tiranga which Babasaheb had dreamt for India while making this constitution.

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New Delhi: The Delhi government on Wednesday (September 15) decided not to reopen schools for Classes 1 to 8 till September 30 amid third coronavirus wave scare.

Earlier, the Delhi government had allowed the resumption of physical classes for standard 9 to 12 students with 50% capacity from September 1 following strict coronavirus protocols.

Delhi shut schools in March 2020 after the first coronavirus wave hit India. The schools were briefly reopened for classes 9 to 11 in Delhi on February 5, 2021, however were again closed on April 9 in view of the deadly second COVID-19 wave.

The Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) also issued a list of activities allowed from the intervening night of 15-16 September till the intervening night of 30 September-1 October.

The DDMA has allowed exhibitions such as trade fairs from Thursday. The social, religious, political and cultural gatherings will remain banned. The places of worship are open, however, devotees and visitors cannot enter.

Delhi Govt issues list of activities permitted from intervening night of 15-16 Sept till intervening night of 30th Sept-1st Oct. Schools/institutes for students up to class 8th to remain closed. Schools/colleges for students from class 9th allowed with 50% capacity of classroom. pic.twitter.com/KcNAgNZm2z  ANI (@ANI) September 15, 2021

Meanwhile, the Delhi government banned the storage, sale and use of firecrackers during Diwali again this year citing pollution levels in the national capital. "Just like last year, there will be a complete ban on storage, sale, and bursting of all kinds of firecrackers this year too, in wake of the situation of pollution in Delhi during Diwali in the last three years, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted.

He added, Last year, the ban was imposed after traders had already stored firecrackers for sale which had resulted in losses for them. I appeal to the traders to not stock up on firecrackers in view of the complete ban.

(With agency inputs)

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New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday (September 15) greeted engineers on Engineers' Day, saying no words are enough to thank them for their pivotal role in making our planet better and technologically advanced. Engineers' Day is observed on September 15 to mark the birth anniversary of M Visvesvaraya, a civil engineer and Diwan of Mysore known for his pioneering works. Today (September 15, 2021) marks his 160th birth anniversary.

Modi tweeted, "Greetings on #EngineersDay to all hardworking engineers. No words are enough to thank them for their pivotal role in making our planet better and technologically advanced. I pay homage to the remarkable Shri M. Visvesvaraya on his birth anniversary and recall his accomplishments."

Greetings on #EngineersDay to all hardworking engineers. No words are enough to thank them for their pivotal role in making our planet better and technologically advanced. I pay homage to the remarkable Shri M. Visvesvaraya on his birth anniversary and recall his accomplishments.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) September 15, 2021

The first Engineers Day was celebrated in 1968. It was in this year that the then government of India declared the birth anniversary of Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya as Engineers Day, to recognise his efforts and contributions towards the development of the country. While World Engineers Day is celebrated globally by UNESCO on March 4, Engineers Day is celebrated exclusively in India as amark of respect to Visvesvaraya as well as other engineers of the country.

Born in Karanataka on September 15, 1861, Visvesvaraya was a part of several notable constructions in Mysore, Hyderabad, Odisha and Maharashtra. One of his key achievement is regarded as the designing of drainage system in Hyderabad after the massive 1908 floods that led to a lot of destruction. When the Nizam requested him to tackle the situation, he proposed the construction of storage reservoirs and went ahead to build a sewage farm outside the city to prevent Hyderabad's Musi river's pollution.

He received the Bharat Ratna in 1955 and was also conferred the British knighthood.

(With Agency inputs)

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New Delhi: Do the politicians in Indian work for the people or are just hungry for power? Union Minister Nitin Gadkari weighed in on this subject, a clip of which has gone viral on social media.

Highlighting the greed of the politicians in this era in a humourous take, Gadkari said that everyone is unhappy with the position they get.

MLAs weren't happy as they couldn't become ministers, ministers were unhappy as they couldn't get good departments, those with good departments were unhappy as they couldn't become the Chief Minister and the CM is worried about how long will they be able to continue, said Gadkari while addressing a seminar on Parliamentary System and People's Expectations in Rajasthan Legislative Assembly in Jaipur on Monday (September 14).

What makes the statement more interesting and rather ironic is that it came soon after former Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani was replaced by Bhupendra Patel in a surprise move by the BJP. Of course, Rupani didnt let out even the slightest hint of being unhappy.

This did not just happen in Gujarat. Recently, Karnataka also saw a change of CM as Basavaraj Bommai replaced BS Yediyurappa.

However, Uttarakhand became the state that really stood out in this regard. The state saw three Chief Ministers in four months.

This is what has made Gadkaris otherwise casual remark go viral as the netizens wondered if everything is alright within the party.

Watch the viral video here:

#WATCH | MLAs weren't happy as they couldn't become ministers, ministers were unhappy as they couldn't get good depts, those with good depts were unhappy as they couldn't become CM&CM is worried as he/she doesn't know for how long they'll continue: Union Min Nitin Gadkari (13.09) pic.twitter.com/83IfiqGDK4  ANI (@ANI) September 14, 2021

Gadkari further pointed out that the real objective of politics is to bring about a change in the life of the common man standing last in the queue but unfortunately, it is considered nowadays a means to grab power.

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Palwal: Health Department teams rushed to Chilli village of Palwal district in Haryana after several children fell ill and deaths were reported due to high fever.

As per media reports, in the last three weeks, 7 children under the age of 14 years have died due to an unidentified reason which has created fear in the area. While the locals claim that the deaths are the result of dengue outbreak authorities are yet to find a link.

Dr Vijay Kumar, Senior Medical Officer, Hathin told IANS that the efforts to contain the spread of fever are in full swing. "We got news of some cases of fever and 1-2 deaths. Taking notice of that, our health teams have come here."

"We are doing surveys. Medicines are being provided and an Out Patient Department (OPD) is being run. Spraying is being done. Testing for COVID-19, Dengue, Malaria has been started. We are also testing for other causes of fever. We have taken samples of 80 people who are having fevers. No malaria cases have been reported. 4-5 children have died due to dengue and several children are ill," Kumar said.

Kumar added that people were being made aware of Dengue and Malaria and ways to control them. He requested people to ensure that water does not stagnate anywhere, their surroundings are clean and they wear full-sleeved clothing.

Though the actual cause of fever has not been confirmed by the health department yet, the prevalence of fever over the last few days in the village has caused fear within the residents of the village and some parents have lost their children.

ALSO READ: India records 27,176 new COVID-19 infections, less than 50,000 daily cases for 80 consecutive days

"Doctors are telling that deaths are happening due to Dengue. Even my child passed away at 6 am in the morning. He was seven years old. He had a fever from August 27. There are some children here who are ill, some are admitted to the hospital while some have died. There must be 30 cases of Dengue at least. No health workers, teams from the health department have visited here," told Salamuddin, a local resident on to IANS.

Another local resident named Khurshid said, "At least 12 have died from dengue. Deaths are being reported since August 25. Most of the deceased are children aged 3-12 years. There are children and some adults in every house of this village who are suffering from illness. No one from the health department visited this village earlier except for a few very recent visits. Everyone in the village is terrified."

While talking to IANS Naresh, the sarpanch of the village said, "It is due to contaminated water. Fever cases are being reported for the last 15 days or so. There are no malaria cases though. During testing in government hospitals, some dengue cases have been revealed. There are no healthcare centres in this village. Health teams have come here."

While the cause of deaths is unclear health officials are camping in a panchayat house to investigate it. The team, comprising an epidemiologist, a science officer and health inspectors, is studying the pattern causing the deaths.

ALSO READ: Sputnik Light, the single-dose COVID vaccine, gets DCGI nod for phase 3 trials in India

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Varanasi: In another instance of National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) scam, a medical student from the King George's Medical University (KGMU) and another person have been arrested by the Varanasi Police. They have been arrested for their alleged involvement in the NEET solvers' scam. The medico has reportedly been identified as Dr Osama Shahid and the other person is Abhay Kumar Mehta, said the police on Wednesday (September 15).

This comes after an inter-state gang of solvers was busted during NEET exam-2021 in the Sarnath area on Monday (September 13). The medico and his accomplice were arrested from the Pandeypur crossing on Tuesday.

Earlier, the police had arrested a BDS student Juli Kumari, who was allegedly impersonating the actual candidate, and her mother in this connection.

Varanasi Commissioner of police A. Satish Ganesh, said Dr Osama, a native of Mau district, who had appeared in MBBS final year exam at KGMU Lucknow this year, used to find aspirants on behalf of a Patna-based solvers' gang.

"This gang used to take contracts to send impersonators to appear in the entrance exam. In case a candidate qualified in the exam, the gang charged anything from Rs 30 lakh to Rs 40 lakh from the candidate," he said.

Mehta is the brother of arrested BDS-II student Juli Kumari. He had convinced Juli to appear in NEET exam in place of an aspirant from Tripura - Hena Biswas - after getting a proposal of Rs 5 lakh from the solvers' gang.

"Police have recovered copies of 15 admit cards, four photos of aspirants, four receipts of couriers, two mobile phones containing chatting of gang members, details of money transaction and other items," he added.

"Both the persons arrested on Tuesday have divulged the names of the members of their gang belonging to Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and other states. Several teams of police have been formed to nab the other members as well as the kingpin of the gang," he said.

An FIR has been lodged under section 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 467 (forgery), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (fraudulently or dishonestly uses as genuine any document which he knows or has reason to believe to be a forged document) and 34 (criminal act is done by several persons in furtherance of the common intention) of IPC against them with Sarnath police.

(With IANS inputs)
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lead the Indian delegation virtually at the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) to be held in Tajik capital city of Dushanbe on September 17, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Wednesday. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will travel to Dushanbe for the SCO meetings that are expected to extensively deliberate on the Afghan crisis and its internal as well as external implications, people familiar with the matter said.

"The 21st meeting of the SCO Council of Heads of State will be held on September 17 in Dushanbe in a hybrid format. The meeting will be chaired by the President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lead the Indian delegation and address the plenary session of the summit via video-link," the MEA said. "At Dushanbe, India will be represented by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar," it said in a statement.

The MEA said the summit will be attended by the leaders of the SCO member states, observer states, secretary general of the SCO, executive director of the SCO regional anti-terrorist structure, the president of Turkmenistan and other invited guests.

In Dushanbe, Jaishankar will attend a meeting on Afghanistan of the heads of state of the SCO and the Collective Security Treaty Organisation, the people cited above said. It will be the first SCO summit being held in a hybrid format and the fourth summit that India will participate in as a full-fledged member of the bloc.

"This summit assumes significance as the organisation is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. At the summit, the leaders are expected to review the organisation's activities over the past two decades and discuss the state and prospects of future cooperation," the MEA said.

It said topical issues of regional and international importance are also expected to be discussed.

Also read: PM Narendra Modi is all praise for Adityanath's 'double engine' sarkar

Jaishankar is also likely to hold a series of bilateral meetings at the Tajik capital city with his counterparts from Iran and Tajikistan among others.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian and Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi are expected to be in Dushanbe for the SCO meetings.

Earlier this month, Jaishankar spoke to his newly appointed Iranian counterpart and discussed the situation in Afghanistan as well as bilateral issues.

The SCO, seen as a counterweight to NATO, is an eight-member economic and security bloc and has emerged as one of the largest transregional international organisations. India and Pakistan became its permanent members in 2017.

The SCO was founded at a summit in Shanghai in 2001 by the presidents of Russia, China, the Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. India has shown keen interest in deepening its security-related cooperation with the SCO and its regional anti-terrorism structure (RATS), which specifically deals with issues relating to security and defence.

India was made an observer at the SCO in 2005 and has generally participated in the ministerial-level meetings of the grouping, which focus mainly on security and economic cooperation in the Eurasian region.

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New Delhi: Rajasthan recorded the highest number of rape cases in 2020 with 5310 such cases, according to data compiled by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).

It was followed by Uttar Pradesh with a total of 2769 rape cases having been registered in the same period. Madhya Pradesh with 2,339 and Maharashtra with 2,061 rape cases accounted for the third and fourth highest number of such cases.

Although Rajasthan had the poorest track record among the states in terms of rape cases, the state saw a decline of about 16 per cent in overall crime against women. The state witnessed 34,535 such cases.

Uttar Pradesh had the worst figures in terms of overall crimes against women with 49,835 such cases being recorded.

Meanwhile, crime was up by 15 per cent in the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir in 2020 as compared to the previous year.

J&K and Ladakh combined saw 29,314 crime cases in 2020, as against 25,408 cases in 2019. Ladakh alone recorded 403 crime cases in 2020.

According to the NCRB report, crimes against women rose by about 11 per cent from 3,069 cases in 2019 to 3,414 in 2020.

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New Delhi: In a bizarre incident, a woman who has been dead for nearly four months was vaccinated against COVID-19 on September 8. This miracle happened in the Sardhana area of Meerut district where the CHC vaccinated a woman named Farah who died four months ago in the same health centre.

The incident came into light when Wasim, the brother of the deceased received the message of successful vaccination of her late sister after four months of her death.

Although the municipality has issued Farahs death certificate the CHC vaccinated her on September 8, 2021, with a registration slip with her Aadhaar card number on it. The certificate of her successful vaccination was also generated immediately.

When the brother of the deceased received the message of successful vaccination of her late sister, he confronted the CHC officials where he was informed that his sister has been vaccinated.

When he tried to question the health officials, they dismissed him citing the workload and unavailability of time.

The incident has created a buzz in the health department and no official statement has been given by the department regarding the vaccination blunder yet.

ALSO READ: India to hold Global Buddhist Conference in November, PM Modi to give award on Buddhist studies

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New Delhi: In a horrible incident at Sonipats Jind, a lady Sub-Inspector was sexually harassed by ASI at the Police station. The accused ASI grabbed the lady SI and sexually abused her after finding her alone in the ladies room. He also threatened her with her job. The police have registered the case and submitted a report to the DSP.

As per media reports, the accused has committed these heinous crimes on several occasions. The lady SI reportedly told SP that she is posted in one of the police stations of Sonipat where the accused is deployed to train them for IO and case studies. But around 14 to 15 days ago, the accused ASI grabbed the SI from behind while she opposed.

On August 29, when the lady SI was sitting in the lady police room, the accused grabbed her and molested her. When she opposed, he threatened her of kicking her out of the job.

Suspension of the accused

While the talks of the suspension of the accused were all over the Police Department, no official gave any statement on the case.

On the orders of SP, the cases have been registered against the accused for molestation, threats to kill, and casteist comments.

Reportedly the lady SI has been transferred to another police station but she is being pressurised to withdraw the case.

ALSO READ: In-person classes for primary students to resume in Madhya Pradesh from September 20
New Delhi: National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) has invited applications for Artisan Trainee posts. Interested candidates are encouraged to apply after reading the official notification.

The last date to submit the application form is September 21, 2021. The recruitment drive will fill up to 53 posts in the organization.

Vacancy details:

Artisan Trainee (Fitter) 26 Posts

Artisan Trainee (Electrician) 6 Posts

Artisan Trainee Instrument Mechanics 21 Posts

Selection process:

Candidates will be required to undertake two hours objective-type multiple-choice written examination. The test will consist of subject knowledge and aptitude test. On the basis of performance in the written test, merit list of candidates for appearing in the subsequent skill test will be released. All these shortlisted candidates will have to appear for skill test.

How to apply:

Candidates have to send the application form to Head of Department, Human Resource Department, Mouda Super Thermal Poser Project, Mouda- Ramtek Road, Post: Mouda, District: Nagpur, Maharashtra, Pin- 441104.

To check the eligibility and other details, candidates are advised to read the notification on employment news.

Meanwhile, the NTPC is also hiring for Specialist (Solar) post. The last date to apply is September 17, 2021. Read more about the post, eligibility and other details HERE.

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New Delhi: In a tragic accident, two people were killed on Tuesday (September 14) night after a speeding car hit the bike they were travelling in on the Electronic City flyover in Bengaluru.

The Karnataka police informed that the duo, a woman and a man, on the bike were hit by a speeding car and thrown off the Electronics City flyover. "Both man and the woman died on the spot due to the severe injuries. Meanwhile, the driver of the car who has been identified as Nitesh, is also injured and admitted to a private hospital," ANI quoted the police as saying.

The police further said that a case has been registered in Electronic city police station under section 279 and 304 (A).

Preetam Kumar (30), a quality control manager, from Bengaluru and 28-year-old Kritika Raman who hailed from Tamil Nadu, a team leader, died on the spot after the speeding car hit their bike.

The incident which was caught on CCTV, showed the victims pushing their two-wheeler towards the parking bay a few moments before the accident. As per the police, they had to push the vehicle as the petrol tank had become empty, IANS reported.

The police also suspect that the car driver may have consumed drugs. The driver of the car is currently admitted to a hospital.

The car after it hit the bike on an elevated flyover in Bengaluru on Wednesday (Pic Courtesy: ANI)

Additional Traffic Commissioner Dr Ravikanthe Gowda on Wednesday stated that the blood samples of the driver Nitesh P (22), an engineering student, have been sent for medical tests to find out whether he was under the influence of drugs or alcohol while driving. "Presently he is being treated at a private hospital as he suffered serious injuries on his ribs. The preliminary investigation suggests that rash and negligent driving of the car driver is the reason for the accident. The car was going at 100 kmph when it hit the victims," he was quoted as saying by IANS.

(With agency inputs)

ALSO READ: Himachal Pradesh MLA Surender Shourie, 6 others including children wounded in road accident

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Patna: The Bhartiya Janata Party is not sure as to which faction of the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) it needs to support as conflicting signals are emanating from various sections from its Bihar unit.

After months of ignoring Chirag Paswan, the son of late Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, in favour of his uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras, a section of the BJP in Bihar seems to be reaching out to him in order to keep him in good humor.

Bihar Minister Neeraj Kumar Bablu calls Chirag Paswan "his own", while state party President Sanjay Jaiswal has described the Paras faction as the real LJP, after it got a berth in the Union government.

"Chirag Paswan ji is a part of the NDA and I think he will continue to be so," says Bablu, while Jaiswal, on the other hand, says Paras is a Union Minister and a part of the NDA.

He, however, does not directly attack Chirag Paswan but says that the party is not about one individual.

Political experts say that the BJP does not want to totally alienate Chirag Paswan as his faction can take control of the party any time.

Senior journalist Manikant Thakur says that "the way Chirag was targeting Chief Minister Nitish Kumar before the Bihar Assembly elections, there was enough indication that the BJP was behind it. Nitish Kumar was dead against Chirag Paswan, due to which the BJP had to also toe that line under pressure, but the party always had a soft corner for him".

He said that under Nitish Kumar`s pressure, the BJP may try to maintain distance from Chirag Paswan, but it knows that Ram Vilas Paswan`s vote bank will remain with him only.

Thakur believes that in the event of JD-U breaking away from the NDA in the future, the BJP can make a new plan with Chirag Paswan. It also believes that if Paras gets angry, the lure for a ministerial post can bring him along. In the event of uncle (Paras) and nephew (Chirag) getting united in the future, the BJP may still like to go with them.

Even Jaiswal, in his statement, calls the LJP a part of the NDA and Chirag is an MP of the LJP.

Meanwhile, there is a tussle in the NDA over Chirag and Paras. JD-U spokesperson Abhishek Jha said that the BJP leadership has also said that those who do not like Nitish Kumar cannot be a part of the NDA. Nitish Kumar is the face of NDA in Bihar, he said.

The BJP is said to have played a major role in the split of the LJP in June when five party MPs kicked out Chirag Paswan and replaced him with his uncle Paras as the president.

Next month, the Modi government recognized Paras faction as the real LJP and he was made Union Minister on the party quota. However, the Rajya Sabha seat that fell vacant due to the demise of Ram Vilas Paswan was denied to Chirag Paswan.

--IANS

mnp/skp/

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New Delhi: Moose Jattana, one of the most loved contestants on Bigg Boss OTT, was eliminated from Karan Johar's hosted show last Sunday. Her elimination broke many hearts as she was a popular contestant on the reality show and people loved seeing her chemistry with Nishant Bhat.

Post her eviction, in an exclusive interview with BollywoodLife, Moose Jattana aka Muskaan Jattana expressed her views on Shamita Shetty and Raqesh Bapat's closeness on the show. Raqesh and Shamita have admitted to liking each other on the show and have expressed on several occasions that they are just friends. In fact, their chemistry has been liked by many.

However, Moose Jattana has a completely different view on it. She said, "I found Raqesh and Shamita's relationship quite boring. I feel ye baat karne layak hi nahi hai because ye interesting hi nahi tha. Aur mera koi lena dena nahi hai unse."

The viral sensation and social activist also expressed that the she feel show host Karan Johar was biased towards Shamita. She also questioned viewers' liking towards Shamita and said 'she wasn't a good player afterall'. "I don't know why he has been but I do think he has been biased. I feel that is unnecessary. Shamita is not a good player and I don't know why people like her so much. I don't know why he has been doing it but I feel reality shows should be a reality show. This is a fake reality. It is for people to show how they are but if these people keep putting their own views then what is use of reality shows," Moose Jattana said.

She also said that Nishant has all the winning qualities and feels Pratik is the 'sacche dil wala' player in the Bigg Boss OTT house. "I feel Pratik is a man of pure heart. Whatever he does, even when he is angry, is real. He supports those who stand by him. He is actually attached to his people and he gets emotional and that is because his heart is pure."
MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Wednesday (September 15) quashed two FIRs registered in Mumbai against actor Sahil Khan in 2015 on a complaint filed by Ayesha Shroff, the wife of veteran Bollywood actor Jackie Shroff, over allegations of cheating and criminal intimidation.

A bench of Justices SS Shinde and N J Jamadar quashed the two FIRs which were registered by the Bandra police, after Khan's lawyer and Ayesha Shroff told the court on Wednesday that they had settled the dispute between them amicably.

Ayesha Shroff told the HC that while she had also raised an issue of non-payment of dues by Khan worth over Rs 4 crore in her complaint, she had decided not to pursue the claim or any other allegations made in the two FIRs.

The bench accepted statements of both the parties and quashed the two FIRs, noting that the case seemed to have arisen out of a 'business dispute'.

It, however, imposed a cost of Rs 1 lakh on Khan and said the money will go to the Maharashtra child welfare committee for the "welfare of children under the state's care".

Khan is best known for his work in the Bollywood film 'Style'.
Mumbai: A Mumbai court on Tuesday allowed actor Kangana Ranaut's plea seeking exemption from personal appearance for the day in a criminal defamation complaint filed by lyricist Javed Akhtar, and said it will issue an arrest warrant against her if she fails to appear on the next date of hearing on September 20.

As the matter came up for hearing, Ranaut's lawyer sought that she be exempted from appearance for the day as she was not keeping well.

The lawyer submitted a medical certificate before the court and said the actor has been traveling for the promotion of her film and has "developed COVID-19 symptoms".

However, Akhtar's lawyer said this is an orchestrated tactic to delay the case proceedings.

The lyricist's lawyer further said Ranaut has refused to appear before the court for one reason or the other since summons were issued to her in February this year.

After hearing the submissions, metropolitan magistrate R R Khan allowed Ranaut to be exempted from appearance for the day. He then posted the matter for hearing on September 20.

The magistrate said if the actor fails to appear at the next hearing, a warrant will be issued against her.

Last Thursday, the Bombay High Court dismissed a plea filed by Ranaut seeking the quashing of proceedings initiated against her by the local court on the criminal defamation complaint filed by Akhtar.

Justice Revati Mohite-Dere had said in the order that there was no procedural illegality or irregularity in the Andheri metropolitan magistrate's order initiating the proceedings.

Akhtar (76) filed a complaint in the magistrate's court in November last year, claiming that Ranaut had made defamatory statements against him in a television interview, which allegedly damaged his reputation.

In his complaint, Akhtar claimed that Ranaut dragged his name during an interview while referring to a 'coterie' existing in Bollywood, following the alleged suicide committed by actor Sushant Singh Rajput in June last year.
New Delhi: Veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah is known to speak his mind without mincing words. The actor, however, shared why he thinks the three biggest Khans of the film industry - namely Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan and Aamir Khan choose to stay quiet rather than speaking up on socio-political issues. Though he says he cannot speak for them but shares his analysis.

They (the Khans) are worried because of the harassment they will be subjected to. They have so much to lose. It will not be just financial harassment, it is not about losing an endorsement or two. Its a question of their entire establishments getting harassed, the 71 years old told the NDTV.

Naseeruddin had recently hit headlines when he spoke against a section of Muslims in India who are celebrating the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban. Naseeruddin in his interview to NDTV also said how the right-wing mentality is rising on both sides and anyone who dares to speak against it is subjected to harassment. It is not just Javed saab or me, it is anyone who speaks out against this right wing mentality and it is growing on both sides, he said.

The veteran actor also spoke about a trend in the Hindi film industry where filmmakers are encouraged to make pro-government and jingoistic movies. Naseeruddin bluntly calls it propaganda and compares it to Nazi Germany.

They are being encouraged by the government to make pro-government films, to make films lauding the efforts of our beloved leader. They also being financed, also promised a clean chit if they make movies which are propaganda, to put it bluntly," he said.

The actor continued, You will find the biggest guys giving in to this. In Nazi Germany also this was attempted. Filmmakers who were outstanding, world-class, were rounded up and asked to make films propagating the Nazi philosophy.
New Delhi: The much-in hype Met Gala 2021 - the annual fundraising gala for the benefit of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute in New York City took place on September 14 this year. Needless to say, it kept onlookers and fans hooked, booked and cooked by global celebrities and their looks!

The only Indian to have been invited this year to the prestigious Met Gala 2021 event was Sudha Reddy - the philanthropist and wife of billionaire businessman Megha Krishna Reddy. She looked breathtaking in her jaw-dropping colourful costume and statement clutch in hand.

WHO IS SUDHA REDDY?

Like we just stated above, Sudha is a philanthropist who made her Met Gala 2021 debut. She opted for an opulent military-inspired haute couture by Indian fashion designer duo Falguni Shane Peacock.

Inspired by the American revolution, Sudha's outfit was a bright gold sculptured gown with a dramatic 4-meter metallic train with a medley of hues borrowed from the American flag, reports ANI.

It was adorned with 3D embellishments of Swarovski crystals, sequins and bugle beads along the gown`s train. Farah Khan Ali's ornate diamond ear cuffs, Chanel sequined gold stilettos and the bedazzled Judith Leiber's Lord Ganesha clutch served as an exquisite combination to Sudha`s regal look.

WHY WAS SUDHA REDDY AT MET GALA 2021?

"The Met Gala has been one of the most aspirational landmark events in the world of style, one that is keenly admired by fashion greats. Monday evening's intimate gathering was special and memorable," Sudha Reddy told ANI.

"It was an extremely rewarding outing for me as I was able to exchange notes with many notable personalities, some of who are extremely keen to explore socio-economic welfare campaigns in association with the Sudha Reddy Foundation in the future. I am extremely humbled and honoured to have received this opportunity to represent my country at this eclectic fashion parade."

The Met Gala 2021 red carpet event was a star-studded affair with celebs such as Jennifer Lopez, Justin Bieber, Billie Eilish, and Lil Nas X among several others attended event. Reality TV star Kim Kardashian's Balenciaga Haute Couture black outfit with her entire face covered with a full mask and a train to add to the edginess caught global attention.

This year the theme of Met Gala 2021 was 'In America: A Lexicon of Fashion'.
New Delhi: Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) sells various policies offering safe, impressive returns along with tons of other benefits. The state-owned insurer allows investors to invest their money for the long term so, at the time of maturity, they get a decent amount of money to secure their future. One such scheme known as the LIC Jeevan Labh policy is now gaining more traction.

Under the LIC Jeevan Labh policy, the insurer lets investors invest Rs Rs 233 daily to receive a corpus of about Rs 17 lakh on maturity. The policy is actually called LIC Jeevan Labh, 936.

The scheme is also non-linked, which means that market trends wont impact the returns of the investors. Investments are invested in very safe instruments so that the money of the investors remains completely safe.

The Limited Premium Plan is being offered by the LIC keeping in mind the marriage of children, education and future purchase of the property. Besides monetary gains, the scheme also offers life insurance cover.

The minimum sum insured in the scheme is Rs 2 lakh. Anyone in the age between 8 to 59 years can start investing in the policy. The policy term can be taken from 16 to 25 years.

Moreover, one of the best parts about the scheme is that investors dont need to limit their investments in the scheme, as there is no upper limit on the amount one can invest in the LIC Jeevan Labh policy. Also Read: Aadhaar Card Update: Aadhaar not a valid proof of age - High Court

Investors can also apply for loans against their investment after paying premiums for three years straight. Policyholders can also avail tax benefits under the scheme while the nominee gets to benefit from the sum assured and bonus in case of the death of the investor. Also Read: Ford, Walmart and Argo AI team up to launch autonomous vehicle delivery service

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Entrepreneur Wahid Badami started working at a very young age. Over time, what started as a small electronics retail store, has transformed into one of the biggest iPhone stores in the city, which serves customers all across the country.

Visit the store on a weekend and you wouldn't be surprised to meet people coming from Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka, waiting in line to buy their favorite iPhone. The main reason being the trust and personal brand Mr Wahid has built over the past few years, leveraging the social media, and the Price and offers that they sell phones at.

When you ask him about the success of his store, he keeps his answers short, modest and humble.

He says "It's the love and trust of the people that have gotten us here. Of course, we have worked hard, but people reciprocated our hard work and love with their trust. Once someone buys their phone from us, you can be sure that their next phone will be bought at Marvans only, and the phone after that, and the next one too."

A new chapter in his entrepreneurial journey is about to start and he is very excited about it. One of the fastest-growing D2C brands online, DailyObjects, is working to launch its first physical store in the country and Mr Wahid is the man responsible for it.

Pankaj Garg, the founder of Dailyobjects observed that the main electronic products are easily available in the market but not its accessories in terms of the right quality and price, so he built a carefully crafted merchandise line, delightful & practical at once.

Mr Wahid resonated with the thoughts of Mr. Pankaj and reached out to him over social media.

A chance meeting, and aligned vision led to Mr. Wahid collaborating to open the first physical store of DailyObjects.

"DailyObjects has been a customer-centric brand offering daily use accessories which potentially has become an approach to self-expression and so, I believe that a human touch point can add value to business as well as accentuate customer experience."

With the amalgam of high-quality standards of Daily Objects and the developed expertise and capabilities of Mr Wahid, this store is going to be a sure-shot hit.

You can follow the journey of Mr. Wahid on his social media handle @wahidmarva.

(Disclaimer - Brand Desk Content)

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New Delhi: Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC), South Koreas antitrust regulator, announced on Tuesday that it has decided to fine Google a whopping $176.8 million (approximately Rs 1338 crore). The regulator has fined the tech giant for its alleged abuse of its dominance in the mobile operating system and app markets.

KFTC has been investigating the allegations against Google since 2016. These allegations pointed out that the US-based firm obstructed local smartphone makers, such as Samsung Electronics Co and LG, from using operating systems developed by rivals.

The regulator noted that Google has manipulated competition by requiring smartphone makers to clinch an "anti-fragmentation agreement (AFA)". Smartphone makers have to sign an AFA contract with Google over app store licenses and early access to OS, according to the regulator.

The AFA discourages smartphone makers to install modified versions of Android Operating Systems known as "Android forks". The regulator also noted that smartphone makers were also not allowed to develop their own Android forks.

Using such practices, Google strengthened its market dominance in the smartphone ecosystem, undermining innovation in the development of the new OS for smart devices, the regulator highlighted in its investigation.

According to a report by Yonhap news agency, KFTC ordered Google LLC, Google Asia Pacific and Google Korea to take necessary steps for healthy competition, besides the huge fine.

These steps include banning the practice of mandatory signing of AFA agreements with Android manufacturers. "We expect the latest measures will help set the stage for competition to revive in the mobile OS and app markets. This is also expected to help the launch of innovative goods and services in smart device markets," the KFTC said. Also Read: iOS 15 release date: Here's when your iPhone will get its next big software update - check if your model is in the list

In what could be a nightmare for Google, KFTC is also investigating three more cases alleging Googles anti-competition activities. Also Read: Apple iPhone 13 Pro, iPhone 13 Pro Max unveiled at Rs 1,19,900 and Rs 1,29,900: Check features and more

With inputs from IANS.
Hyderabad: Telangana Minister Malla Reddy has said that the culprit who raped and murdered a six-year-old girl in Hyderabad "will be nabbed and killed in an encounter". "We will definitely arrest him and will do the encounter," Malla Reddy told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Hyderabad.

Labour Minister Malla Reddy made these sensational comments a day after state Congress chief Revanth Reddy made a similar demand. The minister further said that he would definitely meet the family members of the minor rape victim and ensure adequate compensation for them.

He said this while responding to criticism by opposition leaders for not calling on the family of the victim. The talk of encounter gave a new twist to the case amid the ambiguity over the whereabouts of the accused.

Initially, the police sources had claimed that the accused was arrested from his native village in Yadadri Bhuvanagiri district. However, a senior official clarified that the accused is still at large.

Fifteen special police teams of the Commissioners task force are on the lookout for the fugitive. Police have succeeded in securing CCTV footage from Falaknuma that shows the accused wearing a cap and face mask, while moving along with another person.

The child was sexually assaulted and murdered on September 9 by the 27-year-old accused who happens to be her neighbour in Saidabad. The body of the girl, who was missing since 5 PM on Thursday, was found in the house of her neighbour after midnight.

Autopsy done at the government-run Osmania Hospital revealed that the child was sexually assaulted and strangulated to death.

The horrific incident had triggered angry protest from residents on Friday. They staged sit-in for seven hours on Champapet-Sagar Road, demanding immediate and harshest punishment to the guilty. Some of the protestors also demanded that the guilty be killed in an encounter.
New Delhi: The much-loved quiz show on television, Kaun Banega Crorepati season 13 is in news lately and for a reason which might raise a few eyebrows. A man on Twitter recently claimed that a wrong question was asked on the show. And, guess what? KBC maker Siddhartha Basu reacted too.

On Monday's episode, a contestant named Deepti Tupe was asked a question, Normally, with which of these does every sitting of the Indian Parliament start? The correct answer was shown to be Question Hour.

A Twitterati named Ashish Chaturvedi wrote on the micro-blogging site: Wrong question and answer in todays episode of @KBCsony. Have followed several sessions on TV. Normally sitting in #LokSabha begins with Zero hour and sitting in #RajyaSabha begins with Question hour. Please get it checked. @SrBachchan @LokSabhaSectt @babubasu.

Wrong question and answer in todays episode of @KBCsony Have followed several sessions on TV. Normally sitting in #LokSabha begins with Zero hour and sitting in #RajyaSabha begins with Question hour. Please get it checked. @SrBachchan @LokSabhaSectt @babubasu pic.twitter.com/KYu1EJkZid  Ashish Chaturvedi (@ashishbnc) September 13, 2021

To this Siddhartha Basu replied: No error whatsoever. Kindly check the handbooks for members of the Lok Sabha & Rajya Sabha for yourself. In both houses, unless otherwise directed by the speaker/chairperson, sittings conventionally begin with Question Hour, followed by Zero Hour.

No error whatsoever. Kindly check the handbooks for members of the Lok Sabha & Rajya Sabha for yourself. In both houses, unless otherwise directed by the speaker/chairperson, sittings conventionally begin with Question Hour, followed by Zero Hour  Siddhartha Basu (@babubasu) September 14, 2021

This didn't stop there. The viewer got back saying, "Mr. Basu, thank you for your response. I cross checked the information on Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha websites. The two screenshots testify that both the question, as well as the answer were wrong. Must mention that sitting in Rajya Sabha begins at 11.00 am.

Mr. Basu, thank you for your response. I cross checked the information on Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha websites. The two screenshots testify that both the question, as well as the answer were wrong. Must mention that sitting in Rajya Sabha begins at 11.00 am. pic.twitter.com/d23IapOm7C  Ashish Chaturvedi (@ashishbnc) September 14, 2021

Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC 13) is a game show based on the British TV programme titled 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?'. Big B has been associated with it for 12 seasons, and Shah Rukh Khan hosted season 3 of KBC.

KBC was first telecast in India back in 2000, therefore this year it completes two decades of its successful innings on television.
Islamabad: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Wednesday that Afghanistan was on a historic crossroads as either it would gain lasting peace after 40 years of war through an inclusive government or end up in chaos.

He asserted that the best way forward for peace and stability in the war-torn country is to engage with the Taliban, which seized Kabul last month.

"Where Afghanistan goes from here, I am afraid none of us can predict. We can hope and pray that there is peace after 40 years," Khan said in interview to CNN's Becky Anderson.

He was asked about apprehensions that the Taliban will not protect human rights and the future of Afghanistan.

Khan said the Taliban have said that they want an inclusive government and promised to give rights to their women and also announced amnesty as part of efforts to gain international acceptability.

"But if it goes wrong (in Afghanistan), and which is what we are really worried about, it could go to chaos, the biggest humanitarian crisis, a huge refugee problem, unstable Afghanistan and [...] the possibility of again terrorism from Afghanistan's soil," he said.

The Taliban seized control of Afghanistan in mid-August, ousting the previous elected leadership which was backed by the West. The interim Cabinet is consists of high-profile members of the insurgent group.

At least 14 members of the Taliban's interim government are on the UN Security Council's terrorism blacklist, including acting Prime Minister Mullah Hasan and his both deputies.

The Taliban had promised an "inclusive" government that represents Afghanistan's complex ethnic makeup, but there is no Hazara member in the Cabinet. No woman has been named in the interim Cabinet.

Talking about the issue of women's rights in Afghanistan, Khan said it was a mistake to think that rights of Afghan women can be imposed from outside. "Afghan women are strong. Give them time, they will get their rights," he said.

Khan suggested that the Taliban should be given incentives to handle the current situation instead of being forced to do something, calling it a "fallacy" that Afghanistan could be controlled from outside.

"So rather than sitting here and thinking that we can control them, we should incentivise them because this current government in Afghanistan clearly feels that without international aid and help they will not be able to stop this crisis. We should push them in the right direction," he said.

He recalled that history showed "no puppet government in Afghanistan is supported by the people".

Khan reiterated that Pakistan suffered a lot after joining the US war on terror and there was time about 50 militant groups were attacking Pakistan. To a question, the premier said that he had not spoken to US President Joe Biden since the collapse of the Afghan government.

When asked why Biden hadn't called him since coming into office, the premier curtly said: "He is a busy man" and later said Biden should be asked "why he is too busy to call".
New Delhi: The Taliban saw two of its ministers getting involved in a major row soon after the new government was formed in Afghanistan, BBC cited senior Taliban officials as saying.

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the deputy prime minister in the Taliban government, and Khalil-ur-Rahman Haqqani, the minister for refugees and senior leader of the Haqqani Network, exchanged strong words while their supporters brawled at the presidential palace in Kabul.

As per the BBC report, the differences arose on the matter of who secured victory over the US as well as the make-up of the cabinet. Although, the Taliban have denied these reports.

Baradar says the Talibans takeover of Afghanistan should be seen as the victory of the diplomacy carried out by people like him. However, members of the Haqqani group, designated as a terrorist organization by the US, place the emphasis on fighting.

The speculations of a dispute have been rife since last week after Baradar disappeared from public view. The Taliban sources told BBC he left Kabul and went to Kandahar following the argument.

To dismiss rumours about his death, Baradar on Monday had released an audio message and claimed that he is alive and not injured.

"There had been news in the media about my death. Over the past few nights, I have been away on trips. Wherever I am at the moment, we are all fine, all my brothers and friends," he purportedly said in the audio clip.

Baradar is likely to return to Kabul and might appear on camera to deny fallout with Khalil ur-Rahman Haqqani, BBC reported.

Meanwhile, Afghanistan's new acting Foreign Minister Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi has called for sanctions to be lifted against the 'Islamic Emirate'. In a press conference, he said that the Islamic Emirate is willing to work with all countries including the US but made it clear they "will not be dictated to", as per Ariana News.

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WASHINGTON: The Defence Department has rubbished media reports about the US military abandoning hundreds of contracted service dogs while exiting the war-ravaged Afghanistan after a 20-year-long war. The Pentagon has said that it is not true the US forces did not evacuate all dogs that worked with the American agencies during operations in Afghanistan.

The Pentagon, while categorically denying that any service dog that had worked with the US military was left behind in the country, also acknowledged that a series of social media posts about the non-military evacuation of Kabul pets caused widespread confusion.

"To correct erroneous reports, the US military did not leave any dogs in cages at Hamid Karzai International Airport, to include the reported 'military working dogs, Defense Department spokesperson Eric Pahon said.

Department of Defense press secretary John Kirby later tweeted a statement from his official account @PentagonPresSec regarding the dogs: "the animals in the photograph were the responsibility of private companies.'' He said the Kabul Small Animal Rescue was working on saving the dogs.

To correct erroneous reports, the U.S. Military did not leave any dogs in cages at Hamid Karzai International Airport, including the reported military working dogs. Photos circulating online were animals under the care of the Kabul Small Animal Rescue, not dogs under our care.  John Kirby (@PentagonPresSec) August 31, 2021

The reactions from the Pentagon came in the backdrop of media reports that claimed hundreds of contracted service dogs were left behind by the US military as it raced to meet the August 31 deadline.

Major animal welfare groups have strongly condemned the US military for abandoning these contracted service dogs as they exited from the war-ravaged nation. Veteran Sheepdogs of America, a non-profit organisation, is now working to evacuate these poor animals from Afghanistan along with other groups.

The United States completed the withdrawal of its forces from Afghanistan on Monday, ending 20 years of war that culminated in the Taliban`s return to power.

Forced into a hasty and humiliating exit, Washington and its NATO allies carried out a massive but chaotic airlift over the past two weeks, but still left behind tens of thousands of Afghans who helped Western countries and might have qualified for evacuation. Celebratory gunfire rang out in Kabul after the completion of the US pullout that ended America`s longest war.

A contingent of Americans, estimated by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken as under 200 and possibly closer to 100, wanted to leave but were unable to get on the last flights.

President Joe Biden, later in a statement, defended his decision to stick to a Tuesday deadline for withdrawing US forces even though it meant not everyone who wanted out could get out.

Biden has drawn heavy criticism from Republicans and some of his fellow Democrats for his handling of Afghanistan since the Taliban took over Kabul earlier this month after a lightning advance.

The 20-year conflict took the lives of nearly 2,500 US troops and an estimated 240,000 Afghans and cost some USD 2 trillion.

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KABUL: The United States military has categorically denied reports that it left behind dozens of service dogs in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan as it raced against time to meet the August 31 deadline for a complete withdrawal from the South Asian Islamic nation.

''Joint Task Force - Crisis Response, which helped facilitate evacuations out of Kabul, "did not leave any dogs at the Hamid Karzai International Airport. Photos circulating are not of military working dogs," Marine Corps Forces Central Command said in a tweet.

The US Defence Department too rubbished media reports about the US military abandoning hundreds of contracted service dogs while exiting the war-ravaged Afghanistan after a 20-year-long war. Clearing the air, the Pentagon said that ''it is not true the US forces did not evacuate all dogs that worked with the American agencies during operations in Afghanistan.''

The Pentagon, while categorically denying that any service dog that had worked with the US military was left behind in the country, also acknowledged that a series of social media posts about the non-military evacuation of Kabul pets caused widespread confusion.

The clarification came after major animal welfare groups condemned the US military for reportedly abandoning these contracted service dogs as they exited from the war-ravaged nation.

Veteran Sheepdogs of America, a non-profit organisation, said it is working to evacuate these poor animals from Afghanistan along with other groups.

US military left behind dozens of service dogs in Afghanistan. The nonprofit org Veteran Sheepdogs of America are working to evacuate the animals. pic.twitter.com/58EbrLUiz3  ASB News / MILITARY (@ASBMilitary) August 31, 2021

These brave dogs do the same dangerous, lifesaving work as our military working dogs, and deserved a far better fate than the one to which they have been condemned, Robin R Ganzert, animal welfare group American Humanes president and CEO, said.

The United States completed the withdrawal of its forces from Afghanistan on Monday, ending 20 years of war that culminated in the Taliban`s return to power.

Forced into a hasty and humiliating exit, Washington and its NATO allies carried out a massive but chaotic airlift over the past two weeks, but still left behind tens of thousands of Afghans who helped Western countries and might have qualified for evacuation. Celebratory gunfire rang out in Kabul after the completion of the US pullout that ended America`s longest war.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yusuf said, "The last US soldier has left Kabul airport and our country gained complete independence," Al Jazeera TV reported on Monday.

A contingent of Americans, estimated by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken as under 200 and possibly closer to 100, wanted to leave but were unable to get on the last flights.

President Joe Biden, in a statement, defended his decision to stick to a Tuesday deadline for withdrawing U.S. forces even though it meant not everyone who wanted out could get out.

Biden has drawn heavy criticism from Republicans and some of his fellow Democrats for his handling of Afghanistan since the Taliban took over Kabul earlier this month after a lightning advance.

The 20-year conflict took the lives of nearly 2,500 US troops and an estimated 240,000 Afghans and cost some USD 2 trillion.

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Doha: Qatar has said it will not take responsibility for Kabul Airport without "clear" agreements with all parties involved, including the Taliban, about its operations.

Speaking at a press briefing on Tuesday (September 14), Qatar`s Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said his country cannot take responsibility for the airport`s operations if all issues are not clearly addressed, Al Jazeera reported.

"Right now the status is still [under] negotiation," he said the Qatari Foreign Minister recently visited Afghanistan and held talks with Taliban leadership. Doha has become a key broker in Afghanistan following last month`s withdrawal of US-led NATO forces.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid has told Al Jazeera the group is now securing and operating the site, indicating it was in talks with Qatar and Turkey about the facility`s future.

The group has repeatedly said it would not accept any foreign military presence in the country after August 31. However, Sheikh Mohammed has been quoted as saying Qatar is urging the Taliban to accept foreign help.

The Taliban had asked Turkey to handle logistics while it maintains control of security and Ankara said it is still assessing the offer. However, with the Taliban insisting on full control of security, Turkey appears less enthusiastic.

Qatar Airways planes have made several trips to Kabul since the US pullout. The flights have brought in aid and Doha`s representatives and ferrying out foreign passport holders.

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